The Oracle- Late March 2017

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

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THEORACLE Henry M. Gunn High School

http://gunnoracle.com/

Friday, March 31, 2017 Volume 54, Issue 7

780 Arastradero Road, Palo Alto, CA 94306

Administration releases new bell schedule for next year Shagun Khare and Grace Tramack Editor-in-Chief and Reporter

On Tuesday, March 28, Principal Dr. Denise Herrmann officially released the new schedule for the 2017-18 school year via Schoology. The new bell schedule will maintain the same schedule as this year with the exception of the optional Thursday Tutorial, which will be replaced with a mandatory mid-day Flex Time on Thursday to accommodate for Gunn’s instructional minute deficiency and

Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) curriculum.

Student voice When Herrmann first announced that the bell schedule would be changing, many students expressed concern that administration wouldn’t include enough student voice.

On Sunday, March 12, junior Advait Arun and 21 other students authored a petition calling for administration to recognize student voice, proposing an alternative bell schedule to the one planned for next year and claiming

that administration once again failed on its promise to incorporate student input into the decision. The petition currently has over 550 supporters.

This petition is not the first to claim that administration has neglected student voice: there has been a consistent lack of trust among students in administration, especially after last year’s AP testing, the weighted GPA issue and the constant schedule changes, which were all mentioned in the petition.

SCHEDULE—p.2

Board cuts eugenecist ties with vote to rename schools

Sherry Chen

and Stanford University’s first president. When it opened in 1958, Terman Middle School was named to honor educational psychologist and eugenicist Lewis Terman. In 2003, the school adopted the name Terman Middle School to honor both Lewis and his son, Frederick Terman, who was influential in the development of Silicon Valley as a Stanford provost.

Jordan helped found the Human Betterment Foundation, which promoted forced sterilization, while Lewis Terman was active in the American Eugenics Society, which promoted “racial betterment.” twenty thousand of the 60,000 people forcefully sterilized in the U.S. were sterilized in California under a 1909 eugenics law.

Sohini Ashoke and Amanda Lee Reporter and Tech Editor After 17 months of community debate, the Palo Alto Unified School District (PAUSD) Board of Education decided to rename David Starr Jordan Middle School and Terman Middle School in a unanimous vote on March 17. The schools’ names will officially be changed before the 2018-19 school year.

The controversial backgrounds of David Starr Jordan and Lewis Terman, the namesakes of the two middle schools, caused the debate over changing the names. Jordan and Terman were both prominent figures in the eugenics movement, which supported selective breeding and forced sterilization in order to protect the NordicAmerican ethnicity. An advisory committee will select alternate names for the schools before Jan. 1, 2018.

Part of the board resolution includes creating a secondary school curriculum about California and Palo Alto’s roles in eugenics.

Eugenics’ connection David Starr Jordan Middle School was opened in 1937 and named after Jordan, who was a prominent eugenecist scientist

District decision Lars Johnsson, a Jordan Middle School parent, began the petition to rename Jordan Middle School in Nov. 2015. Johnsson said that he first learned about Jordan’s eugenics activities when he read his son’s report on Jordan. “[My son] was wondering how somebody like David Starr Jordan, who has a lot of accomplishments, but who also had a very dark side with his eugenist tendencies, [could have a school named after him], especially in this day and age,” he said.

The Board of Education created the Renaming Schools Advisory Committee (RSAC), comprised of students, teachers, parents and community members to review all of Palo Alto’s school names, investigate Jordan and Terman’s involvement in eugenics and recommend whether Jordan and Terman should be renamed. Thirteen people volunteered to join RSAC and they met from Apr. to Dec. 2016, when they submitted their report to the Board. RSAC presented their findings to the Board at a board meeting on March 7, where many community members argued in favor or against renaming during the open discussion session. The Board made their final decision on March 17.

Superintendent Dr. Max McGee says he supports the School Board’s decision, even though he previously only supported completely renaming Jordan. “My original recommendation was not to rename Terman, only to make it clear that it’s Frederick Terman Middle School,” McGee said. “So, I would not be opposed to renaming Terman ‘Frederick Terman Middle School’ to distinguish between Louis, who I think had a prominent role in eugenics, and Frederick, who did not.”

McGee believes that Jordan’s avid support of eugenics is not something the district can overlook. “It’s not just that he believed in eugenics, but he really actively promoted it; he funded it, he used the power of his office to further the idea of racial cleansing [and] forced sterilization,” he said. “I don’t think that’s a good example for students. I don’t think that’s something to which we aspire.”

Board President Terry Godfrey supported renaming both middle schools because she believes the district has to uphold students’ principles. “We want the names of our schools to RENAMING—p.5

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News

Snapshots: Not In Bell schedule changes finalized Our Schools Week SCHEDULE

“I think NIOS week is important because it helps remind people to do what they can to help make Gunn the safest and most accepting place it can be for everyone. NIOS week reminds me to evaluate my actions to help make Gunn the best place it can be.”

—Elise Epstein, 12

“I think my favorite part about this week is collaborating with many groups, students and adults to be able to share out these experiences schoolwide and in collaboration with everybody. [It’s important] because it’s really helping [to] mold our culture and create an inclusive school environment so that everybody feels welcomed and accepted for who they are.”

—Myrna Zendejas, Wellness Outreach Worker

—Compiled by Joy Huang Photos by Shagun Khare

Arun, a member of the Creative Scheduling Committee, says the group of students came together over their dissatisfaction with the overall process of the schedule change. “Our general logic for the petition is not to say no to the change but it’s simply to say, ‘We have a voice, [and] we have an opinion; let it be heard and let it be expressed,’” Arun said.

The petition’s proposed solution is to move the required Flex Time—which will be used for the new SEL program—from the middle of the day on Thursday to the end of the day on Thursday. However, according to Herrmann, research has shown that having SEL in the middle of the day is the best option due to the break it provides between academic courses. “Is [the proposed solution] an option? It could be, but we would be going against what research says is best practice and so I just don’t feel very good about that,” Herrmann said. “We can’t find anyone [or any research] that says that putting it at the beginning or the end of the day is really a useful time for students to either do academic or social-emotional work.”

However, while many students are upset by the bell schedule change, Wellness Commissioner junior Vidhu Navjeevan feels that the current call for student voice may be an issue of miseducation on the part of the administration rather than a lack of student voice. For example, as a member of the SEL Committee and Student Executive Council, Navjeevan felt that she was well-informed on the process and reasoning for the bell schedule change, but that her peers were not provided with the same information as her. “There are specific reasons why we can’t have tutorial anymore, such as instructional minutes,” Navjeevan said. “If the majority of the student population doesn’t know that though, it becomes this big issue. I think the real issue is that there is a lack of communication between admin and students, and I think that’s a bigger issue than student input because it’s being incorporated—students just don’t know how.”

With current juniors now having to undergo four schedule changes in their four years, Herrmann understands students’ frustration. However, Herrmann believes that this will probably be the last bell schedule change in a long while. “There are a lot of students [who] are saying, ‘We already had three schedule changes; we don’t want another one,’ and I completely agree,” Herrmann said.

“That’s why I’m making sure that the one we’re picking right now is something that we can grow into and not something we have to change in three, five or who-knowshow-many years.”

Ultimately, though Arun is an advocate of moving mandatory Flex Time to the end of the day, his goal for the petition is to make an impact on more than just next year’s bell schedule. “The win for everyone would be the administration saying, ‘They’ve got a fair point, we like their argument and we think they have a legitimate reason for going for this kind of change,’ and also accepting what we think is a fair schedule change,” Arun said.

SEL incorporation According to Herrmann, the bell schedule change is occurring next fall particularly because the implementation of a four-year SEL program was an action plan item recommended by both the school board and Western Association of Schools (WASC).

Next year, WASC will make another visit to Gunn;

however, Herrmann insists that the process of changing the schedule was not rushed because of this. “I think people aren’t realizing this had been an ongoing dialogue since November,” Herrmann said “Four months to make a decision like this collaboratively is a long time. We did this in eight weeks when we made the original bell schedule change.”

Because the schedule is changing in part due to SEL, many students have chastised the need for SEL on campus, as well. “Since there’s a lack of communication, students feel like they aren’t being heard, so it kind of blocks all of the positive stuff,” Navjeevan said. “And because of all this controversy, SEL has been directly linked to it, so people are saying, ‘This is happening because of SEL, so I don’t want it.’”

However, Navjeevan believes that having SEL is critical to further prioritize mental wellbeing at Gunn. “I think [the new bell schedule] will be beneficial. It’s just the loss of tutorial that will not be beneficial to students, but that’s necessary to take away,” Navjeevan said. “The fact that [SEL] is being incorporated into our schedule means it is just as important as academics, and I think that’s really powerful.”

Addressing student, district concerns According to Herrmann, only about 10 percent of students currently attend tutorial. While she recognizes that some students enjoy the small-group feel of tutorial and that it will be a loss, she feels that having a Flex Time instead of tutorial can benefit the larger student population. “Because [10 percent] is such a low percentage, most students aren’t having that much access to their teachers,” Herrmann said. “I want to make sure that, as students needs grow, we’re also building in more academic Flex [Time] along with more social-emotional learning.”

Herrmann also noted that the school board was not aware that teachers were teaching such a small number of students. “In terms of investment of taxpayer dollars, that was a big ‘Aha!’ for them, because we are paying all these teachers to be on campus, yet they are only really working with maybe three to five students in an hour,” Herrmann said. “Because we are a public school, we have to make sure we are using our resources to serve as many students as possible.”

Because more days will be longer with the new bell schedule, which can be an inconvenience for student athletes, administration will be accommodating more students who need G period prep or G period P.E. There will also be more sections of G period P.E. next year, according to Herrmann.

Ultimately, however, Herrmann’s goal with the new bell schedule is to increase student wellness. “From the experience I’ve had being principal at this school where we’ve lost so many students and where we continue to have students who are hospitalized due to suicide ideation and depression, [it’s clear] that significant problems still exist on our campus,” Herrmann said.

“I’m going to continue to advocate that we value student wellbeing and student social-emotional learning just as much as we value academic learning. And I know that sometimes that’s not popular, but I do think that’s part of being a good leader—[it’s] looking to the research, looking to the data, listening to all voices and then, even when it might not be popular among a group of your constituency, still moving forward.”

The finalized bell schedule for the 2017-2018 school year, which was released on Tuesday, March 28.

News THEORACLE 780 Arastradero Rd. Palo Alto, CA 94306 (650) 354-8238 www.gunnoracle.com

Editorial Board Editor-in-Chief Shagun Khare Managing Editors Matthew Hamilton Lena Ye News Jenna Marvet Helen Nguyen Samuel Tse Forum Anyi Cheng Deiana Hristov Janet Wang Features Stina Chang Prachi Kale Ariel Pan Centerfold Emma Chiao Mikaela Wayne Sports Grace Ding Paulo Frank Tim Sun Lifestyle Sabrina Chen Tone Lee Kaya van der Horst Changing the Narrative Cassie Bond Photo Editor Richard Yu Graphics Editor Elizabeth Zu

Staff Business/Circulation Matthew Oh Assistant Business/Circulation Jack Mallery Copy Editors Clara Kieschnick-Llamas Carolyn Kuimelis Oracle/TBN Liaison Elizabeth Chung Oracle/SEC Liaison Shannon Yang Graphics Artists Sherry Chen Tiffany Chen Cheryl Kao Jackie Lou Jeffrey Yao

Friday, March 31, 2017

'Lesson Plan' shown for first time in Palo Alto

At the end of the week-long experiment, Jones told his students that the Third Wave was a real political movement spreading across the nation.

On March 22, the documentary “Lesson Students who believed him attended a rally that Plan: The Story of the Third Wave” premiered showed a compilation of videos of Nazi Germany in Palo Alto for the first time at the Cubberley and revealed that Jones had been conducting an Theater. The film was created in 2011 by former experiment the entire time, exemplifying how Cubberley High School students who took part easy it was to become entranced in a dictatorin a 1967 experiment that mimicked the rise of ship. authoritarian leaders. The premiere was hosted The premiere event in Palo Alto began with by the Palo Alto History Museum and sponthe viewing of the documentary, followed by sored by the Palo Alto Unified School District, a question and answer session with the origithe League of Women Voters of Palo Alto, the nal students and Jones and a reception in the Human Relations Commission of classroom where the finale of the the City of Palo Alto and the Palo experiment took place.

Alto Library.

English department secretary The Third Wave experiment Lynn Glover attended the event was led by former Cubberley High after reading a staff-wide email School social studies teacher Ron promoting the film screening, Jones in his Contemporary World and became intrigued because History class, according to original of her Palo Alto roots. “I’m so Wave student and associate proingrained in Palo Alto and went ducer Mark Hancock. The Third to school here—I was at Terman Wave experiment has been adapted in 1967,” she said. “The opporinto many movies, books and plays, tunity to be able to see and hear but in 2011, Hancock and fellow from the teacher and some of Wave classmate Philip Neel released the students was such a unique "Lesson Plan," which documented opportunity. It was also valuable student stories from the Wave class. experiencing the event along with Richard Yu and Elizabeth Zu other long-term fellow residents Hancock says that the biggest challenge was finding students to share Graphical representations of students doing the Wave salute in the and friends.” their experiences. “There’s no class outer auditorium area of modern-day Cubberly Community Center.

Chemistry teacher Dr. Heather list. We hoped that Jones would have Mellows also attended the event one, but he didn’t and we don’t , but and said that whether she agrees we all remembered a few people and [tried] to and someone was in your Wave class and you with Jones’ experiment or not, she wishes pull together the experiences that [we] had,” didn’t salute them, and they turned out to be Gunn could have as much freedom as he did he said. a secret police, they could turn you in the next with teaching. “At Gunn right now, we are not Since the documentary had not been shown day,” Hancock said. “It went from fun to confu- allowed nearly as much freedom as he was and in Palo Alto yet, Hancock reached out to Palo sion to fear as the days went by.” our teaching suffers from that," Mellows said.

Alto historian Steve Staiger to organize a preThe movement was built upon three pillars: "If a teacher does something that’s out of step miere showing. Staiger believes that the Third strength through discipline, strength through with the other teachers who are teaching the Wave is an important part of Palo Alto history action and strength through community. class or however it was done last year, there that needs to be recognized more. “I know people Students were encouraged to spread the word is often immediate parent reaction." who’ve lived in Palo Alto their whole lives who about the movement and support it by making Through his experiences as a Wave student, have no knowledge of The Wave,” he said. “I hope posters and chanting. Jones told students that Hancock ultimately believes that it is important that people realize that this is a part of Palo Alto he had established a grading system in which for people to remain wary about who they folhistory that people don’t know anything about.” a student would get an A if they were an active low and know when to be an upstander when The experiment commenced after students party member, a C if they were a passive mem- it is needed. “One of my favorite phrases is questioned how totalitarian dictators like Adolf ber, an F if they tried to create a revolution and ‘Democracy is not a spectator sport,’” HanHitler were able to gain so many supporters. failed and an A if they tried to start a revolution cock said. “You have to be active and a parJones created a week-long experiment with and succeeded. ticipant and you can’t sit idly by and watch.”

Janet Wang Forum Editor

Tech Editors Akansha Gupta Amanda Lee Adviser Kristy Blackburn

the goal of recreating the atmosphere in Nazi Germany and teaching students about the rise of fascism.

During the experiment, the charismatic, popular teacher implemented strict rules that applied to students both in and out of school.

Students were instructed to salute Jones and other Third Wave students with a cupped hand, wear distinctive arm bands and turn in students who did not comply with or spoke against any rules. Jones also assigned students different roles to reinforce a dictator-like environment. “If you went to somewhere like a coffee shop after school

INBOX

The Oracle strongly encourages and prints signed Letters to the Editor and Comments. Comments are generally shorter responses, while Letters are longer pieces of writing.

Please include your name, grade and contact information should you choose to write one.

Letters and Comments may be edited to meet space requirements and the writer is solely responsible for the accuracy of the content.

Letters to the Editor, Comments and ideas for coverage may be sent to oraclegunn@gmail.com or posted on our Facebook page. These letters need not be from current students.

I'd like to see more Artists of the Month articles—as I don't believe the last issue had one—since I am an artist myself and I like to draw inspiration from other artists.

Photographers Vibha Arun Max Wang Reporters Sohini Ashoke, Julia Cheunkarndee, Laurel Comiter, Eric Epstein, Jennifer Gao, Danielle Gee, Bridgette Gong, Joanna Huang, Joy Huang, Stephy Jackson, Liza Kolbasov, Evalyn Li, Megan Li, Yael Livneh, Ryan Manesh, Chelsie Park, Maya Rapoport, Caroline Ro, Janet Shea, Seungik Shin, Grace Tramack, Aleks Tycz, Ayala Tzadikario, Kristen Yee, Katie Zhang, Andrew Zhao

3

—Isabella Yu, 9

March 3, 2017

I liked the articles about political issues and how they affect our community on a local and national level. My favorite was the one on environment issues. I was happy to see the article included an aspect of ways to improve environmental impact in our daily lives.

I like the personal stories because I can relate to them. They're really personal and human and they warm my heart.

—Alvin Hom, 11 I would like to see more relatable topics as well as finding out more about what the school board does and bring more awareness.

—Sydney Wong, 12

—Natalie Rozak, 12

I enjoyed reading the story about second generation immigrants. I feel as though second generation immigrants constitute a large part of the Gunn community, and it was an eye-opening read on how our experiences can all differ, despite our common label of "immigrant."

I enjoyed reading the article that was about warrantless searches of students because it is very worrying to most of the Gunn students who own their own personal digital devices. It breaches students' privacy that they should have in a school.

—Daphne Yang, 11

—Philip Ng, 9

The Oracle is the second place Best of Show winner for the 2016 Fall JEA/NSPA Convention.

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News

PAUSD and Gunn take steps to narrow achievement gap "For most underrepresented students, seventh-grade mathematics lane placement, which is determined by sixth-grade teachers on a district nine-point rubric and in-house placement test, restricts On Mar. 14, Equity Coordinator Dr. Martha Castellon presented the opportunity to take higher level classes or even AB Calculus the Equity Plan to the Board of Education. The Equity Plan was one of in high school," the report reads. "In other words, students are the Minority Achievement & Talent Development Advisory (MATD) disproportionately underrepresented in the more challenging high Committee’s recommendations in their short-term strategies to in- school classes because of seventh-grade lane placement." crease equity in access to education.

Open access is the process of removing gatekeepers and allowing The MATD Committee was created “for the purpose of uncovering all students entry to classes. “This is a clean slate,” Herrmann said. underlying causes of the achievement gap in PAUSD and for the pur- “And, if you want to try a harder math class, you should be able to pose of issuing a set of research-based recommendations to guide the try a harder math class, and we'll be there to support you, and if district in advancing educational opportunities and outcomes for his- it's not [right], then you can probably go back down.” torically underrepresented students and students from economically Another part of the problem is the stigma that Compton brought challenged backgrounds,” according to the Palo Alto Unified School up—that students might enroll in an AP class and find that everyDistrict (PAUSD) website. In the 2014-15 school year, the committee body in the class looks different from them, or that they feel that investigated the root causes of the achievement gap and then compiled other students and teachers see them as unable to succeed because a report of the findings and presented evidence of the achievement gap of their race or economic status. “There's a lot of research that to the Board, citing evidence such as gaps in SAT results and anecdotes shows that sometimes students aren't achieving according to our from historically underrepresented (HUR) students. traditional measures, not because they aren't capable, [but] because HUR students are made up of students who are either part Afri- we're not letting them know that they are capable,” Herrmann said. can-American, Hispanic Latino, Pacific Islander/Native Hawaiian “Early on, they got the message that they are not smart, or that they or Native American/Alaskan Native, or students who are from cannot do it, and so now that's just the hat they wear.” socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds. Economically disCompton says these biases are prevalent everywhere, and part advantaged students are identified by whether they qualify for free of her work is talking to students about it. “You're never going to or reduced lunch. wake up and not be a minority, so it's more coming to terms with The MATD Committee made a series of 14 recommendations, the what that means, and being confident enough in your own ability first of which was to hire an equity Administraand your skills to not let that affect you,” she said. “Realiztor—Castellon—who would create an Equity ing that you may not be able to change the way that Plan, establish an Equity Team, monitor others perceive you, nor is it your responsibility compliance, create a process to solicit to try and change every person that you come feedback from HUR students and in contact with.” parents and train staff to address These biases are already being addressed disparities between HUR and by the district; schools are implementing non-HUR students. unconscious bias training for teachers.

In the initial draft of the “[Unconscious bias training] is also a Equity Plan that Castellon part of the equity plan; it was one of the presented to the School Board original 12 recommendations made by on March 14, she put forthe MATD committee. Okay, so that ward a five-step plan to close teachers become aware; that everythe achievement gap: elimbody has bias, that people have biases inate bias and intolerance, is not in question [and that] what is in build positive and trusting question is what are those biases and relationships, actively monitor how do they come out," Castellon said. progress, employ an inclusive "And then also being aware of how those curriculum and empower parents behaviors can affect a student's self concept and students. and academic trajectory if they're constantly At Gunn, the scope of the plan receiving messages that 'I'm not as good as the —May 2015 MATD report for addressing the achievement gap is other kids; I try really hard, but I'm just not that narrower. According to Principal Dr. Denise smart.’ You know? They might think twice about what Herrmann, Gunn has a three-pronged approach to they choose for their career path, whereas if someone is acnarrowing the achievement gap which consists of expanding support tively encouraging their interests and building on their strengths systems for students, removing both academic and social barriers from and praising them, not charitable praise, but actual praise, for what classes and rolling out parent outreach coordinators. they actually accomplish.”

Part of improving support systems for students was first identifying From an outside perspective, it might not seem like historically which students needed support. Herrmann has focused on improving underrepresented students are disadvantaged; all the students go to Gunn’s response to intervention (RTI) system, which looks at data of the same school and receive the same homework and instruction. students’ performance and identifies which students are at risk. “So However, these disadvantages are particularly harmful because you can do screeners, you can look at your D-list and then you have they are so easy to miss. “It can come up in a variety of ways,” to have interventions right away,” Herrmann said. “[That way] you're Compton said, “[Students] are not able to participate sometimes not waiting until the end of the semester to say, ‘Oh, sorry you failed in a lot of the extracurricular and cocurricular activities that their the class; I guess you'll have to retake it in summer school.’ It's much peers are because they have an obligation. That may not seem like a more fast-paced, it is based on formative assessments.” big deal, but it actually does impact their experience in high school.”

The College Pathways program, which is led by College & Career Economically disadvantaged students might not have the resources Counselor Myesha Compton, is intended to be part of this support to go to prom or a football game. Students who live outside of Palo system. Its purpose is to improve the access to resources of students Alto might not be able to stay for an after-school club because they that are the first generation in their family to go to college. “For exam- have to make the bus. ple, there is a parent education component, making sure that they're The third part of Gunn’s plan, the parent outreach coordinafamiliar with the high school education system, but also the steps tors, is intended to help the parents of HUR students acclimate to they need to take to get their student prepared for college,” Compton PAUSD. “We need parent liaisons to devote more time to those said. “In terms of the student education, it's making sure that they tasks,” Castellon said. "Those parent liaisons would coordinate and know what courses they should be enrolled in [at] high school, what facilitate workshops for parents in the languages that the parents the requirements are for getting into college, [and] information and speak so that the parents can be active participants in their chilexposure around the college experience that we do.” dren's education, so teach them how to use Infinite Campus, teach The College Pathways program also offers information about fi- them how to use Schoology if they don't know how to use those, nancial planning and how to prepare for college. However, its scope orient them to the PAUSD website [and] how to use Google translate is broader than just what its name covers; College Pathways offers so that they can read the PAUSD website in their native language.” a community for HUR students. “There are some cultural sort of According to Castellon, the parent liaisons program is only things that we have to deal with [with] a historically underrepresented two years old, and most of the employees are part-time, and thus student in a community like Gunn, and making sure that they feel cannot effectively focus their time towards a school or individuals. supported and have a space to be able to talk about things, like con- She hopes to implement more full-time parent liaisons. versations that won't come up in a classroom but still impact learning The achievement gap is extremely important to Herrmann, who and level of comfort. Like, why are there not more underrepresented qualified for free lunch as a student, which would have made her students in AP classes and things like that, and how do we address an economically disadvantaged student under PAUSD's definition. it,” Compton said.

Thus, Herrmann wishes to make clear that the achievement gap That these students are underrepresented in high-lane and AP is a systemic problem and not reflective of an individual or group. classes is one of the problems that Gunn is trying to solve with the “It's not about really the academic achievement,” she said. “It's not second part of the plan: breaking down academic and social barri- because their brains aren't capable of learning just as much as every ers. Removing gatekeepers, like applications or tests, for higher-lane other kid on here...[It’s important] that you're drilling down and classes, which started last school year, is one part of this plan. This you're finding out what are some of the other things in their life was a problem that was brought up by the May 2015 MATD report. that might be interfering with learning.”

Jennifer Gao and Lena Ye Reporter and Managing Editor

"In other words, students are disproportionately underrepresented in the more challenging high school classes because of seventh-grade lane placement."

85% OF PAUSD students attend 4-year universities .

94% of Asians exceed 11th grade ELA CAASPP standards.

90% of CAUCASIANS exceed 11th grade ELA CAASPP standards.

77% of AFRICAN-AMERICAN students exceed 11th grade ELA CAASPP standards.

200 point SAT difference between >$200K and <$100K family students

Statistics from MATD advisory committee report

Friday, March 31, 2017 5 News University of California system proposes out-of-state student cap Deiana Hristov Forum Editor

This month, the University of California (UC) system proposed a 20 percent cap on enrollment of out-of-state students after lawmakers threatened to hold back $18.5 million in funding if the system did not give priority to in-state students. While this cap would limit enrollment to 20 percent out-of-state students at most of the nine UC campuses, the three largest campuses—UC Berkeley, UC Los Angeles and UC San Diego—would be allowed to keep their higher percentage of out-of-state students at 24.4, 22.8 and 22.9 respectively.

The cap was first suggested in response to declining state funds going to support of the school system. Since out-ofstate students pay $40,000 for tuition per year compared to the in-state tuition of $13,500 per year, the UC system has a greater incentive to accept non-California resident students, according to College and Career Coordinator Linda Kirsch. This, however, has prompted backlash from in-state students trying to get a spot at the UC campuses with larger out-of-state student populations. “It comes down to money,” Kirsch said. “When you're not being covered by the state budget, you are going to impact the resources and a lot of kids have complained.”

According to the UC Director of Media Relations Ricardo Vazquez, the UC system wants to make clear that its priorities lie in-state. “There was a need to limit the number of non-residents as a way of keeping the focus of UC—as it has been—on putting California residents first,” Vazquez

said. The UC mission statement commits the system to educating all eligible California high school graduates and community college transfer students.

According to Kirsch, pressure on a university’s budget means that the university has less money to spend on investments like hiring new faculty or providing student services, leading to problems for students. “You have schools that, when they don't have the money, what they do is raise class sizes,” Kirsch said. “I’ve had complaints like, ‘There's up to 1,700 [students] in a Computer Science class,’ or 'I can hardly even see the class’ or ‘I was in a class of 500 and I needed a letter of recommendation for my graduate program, and the professor just looked at me and said, ‘With 500 in the class there's no way I'll be writing that letter. I do not know who you are.’”

According to Vazquez, there is no denying that out-ofstate students provide much-needed funds by paying higher tuition. “The policy also recognizes that non-residents pay more and these funds [that] have been used as state funding per student has declined quite significantly over the last couple of decades,” Vazquez said. “That funding has been used to expand course selection and provide student services that benefit California students.” In addition, out-of-state students create a more interesting and diverse campus.

“They come with different perspectives, different cultures, different points of view—and that's important because our students are studying and preparing to live in a global society,” Vasquez said.

The main purpose of the cap was to increase the number of in-state students getting accepted into the UC system.

Gunn students, however, will not see a big increase of acceptances. “Some schools like ours, where we average one-hundred-some applicants, we may get one or two extra seats," College and Career Coordinator Leighton Lang Percentage of said. "I don’t think out-of-state you will see a great students at difference." The UC campuses UC system has a GPA requirement • Berkeley: 24.4 of 3.0 to be accepted to one of • San Diego: 22.9 its campuses: for the class of 2016, • Los Angeles: 22.8 463 out of 492 Gunn students • Irvine: 18.9 had a GPA highStatistics courtesy of SF Gate er than 3.0. However, the cap will benefit schools in California that are less highly ranked in academic rigor. “If you look at a school profile from of the other schools in the Bay Area or some schools in the South Bay, they may have 100 plus students in that [3.0] area,” Lang said. “For some schools like that, it’ll show a bigger benefit.” Out-of-state students trying to get into a UC, however, will definitely feel a difference.

“I think it’s not going to be a lot harder, but I think it’s going to be one of these situations where out-of-state high schools are going to feel it more than we will,” Lang said.

School board votes to rename local middle schools RENAMING

represent the values of the students in the schools,” she said.

“It seemed like an obvious idea for us to make our students feel safe and welcome; [these are] places where they’re going to learn every day. And so we voted to rename both schools.”

Hutchings feels the renaming of the schools is hypocritical because other PAUSD schools will retain the names of figures that could also be objectionable, like the namesake of Walter Hayes Elementary School. “They’re asking to rename two schools because they don’t agree with the opinions of Jordan and Terman,” he said. “I think that it’s really painful that they are going to abuse scientists for having their beliefs, but are not going to similarly abuse a

which is the operating budget,” she said. “It doesn’t [affect ongoing programs] because those are part of the operating budget.” According to the district’s website, the Board set the renaming budget to $60,000 in its decision.

McGee suggested that community members could also fundraise to cover the renaming costs. “Frankly, I think we ought to get some private funding for this,” he said.

Opposition to the decision RSAC member Stan Hutchings opposed the committee’s decision, saying it was not carefully analyzed.

Student reaction and impact “I was against renaming the schools because Terman Principal Pier Angeli La Place of the financial impact, and also because the says that the Terman community has genarguments to rename the schools were not erally been supportive of the name change. logical or rational—they were emotional,” he Both the Site council and the Parent Teacher said. “They were also based on a kind of political Association Executive Board wrote letters of correctness.” unanimous support for changing the school Fellow RSAC member Mel Froli also believed name. “There was [also] a lot of discussion the committee was biased toward renaming. among the staff, and the staff took a survey— “The majority of the members on the team were an anonymous survey—and 75 percent of the in favor of the change, so the vote of course staff who responded wanted our school to be went to renaming schools,” he said. “I think the renamed,” she said. La Place added that, after committee was poorly formed—there was no discussions about eugenics, Terman students attempt to bring balance…I felt that from the felt their school should be renamed as well.

Terman Cubberley Jordan very start. It was not a very coordinated effort Froli, however, says that in his interacto really get the facts. I think [the direction we tions with students, he has found that many Cheryl Kao do not support renaming. Froli, who works were going to go in] was almost determined ahead of time.” with athletes at both high schools, said most Froli joined the committee to bring up the history be- Presbyterian minister [Walter Hayes] for promoting beliefs students he asked did not know about the issue. “Most hind Jane Lathrop Stanford Middle School’s (JLS) name: that are contrary to science and to the religious beliefs of had no opinion, but the way it’s presented by the advisory a name change that he says significantly impacted the many other people in our community.” committee, it’s as if every student was in favor of the name school. In 1985, Ray Lyman Wilbur Junior High School was change,” he said. “One Terman graduate said, ‘It’s not Mr. renamed JLS when another Palo Alto high school merged The issue with costs Terman’s school, it’s my school.’ And [a Jordan graduate] with Wilbur. Froli said that he and other students felt the Renaming Jordan and Terman will incur expenses to said, ‘At Jordan, we didn’t call it David Starr Jordan, we name change was made to appease the newcomers from remake signs and alter gym and athletic uniforms, among called it Jordan Middle School. So, why not just drop David the northern part of the city. “They wanted kids to feel like other changes. Hutchings opposed renaming because of the Starr if that’s a problem, and continue to call it Jordan.’ And it was a new school so they said, ‘Let’s change the name,’ financial impact. “I am afraid some of the more valuable I was in favor of that compromise.” and in doing so, the Wilbur kids lost their identity,” Froli programs will be sacrificed in order to rename the schools La Place believes the name change issue is not just about said. “The staff was very divisive, and it was that way for and also I do not believe that renaming the schools will the name, but also about community voice and school culfive years until Jordan reopened.” bring a greater benefit to the students than the programs ture. “I think the larger, less tangible impacts have to do Froli said that changing Wilbur’s name caused the that are going to be sacrificed,” he said. with our community coming together, and being able to Wilbur students to lose their school culture, which is why Hutchings believes that the negative financial impact invest the time and the energy in talking about the values he opposes renaming schools, fearing Jordan and Terman on the school district outweighs the benefits of renaming, of our school, and what makes Terman, Terman, which will face the same problem. “It was not a happy time,” he especially since he believes the cost will be substantially is so much more than a name,” La Place said. “There’s a said. “Students resented some of the things that were going greater than the district estimate. “There is no maximum sense of loss, for some community members, and I want on, and our traditions were somewhat lost.” amount that there is going to be dedicated to this. Some of to acknowledge that.”

Hutchings also believes that the Board’s decision will not the people said, ‘Cost is no object, it doesn’t matter what it properly address the issues PAUSD middle school students costs; we must do it,’ and I find that very financially irre- Establishing a curriculum face. He said that he found it hard to believe that changing sponsible,” he said. “The RSAC did their own calculations Considering California’s significant role in the eugenics the names would have a big effect on the students, or that and said it was only going to be $50,000 for the schools; movement, McGee believes it is imperative for students to the students would feel much more at home in a school however, their calculation only included the cost in the learn about the history of the practice and have the tools to with a different name. “There was no evidence or metrics schools, not to the other entities which will be affected and craft their own opinions about it. He wants PAUSD students given to support the assertion that changing school names have to change the school to something else.” to learn about Palo Alto’s connection with eugenics in a new would improve students’ academic experience significantly However, Godfrey says that the costs for renaming curriculum. “California was a leader in the country [for more than other programs already in effect,” he said. “It’s will not come from the district’s operating budget, but eugenics],” he said. “David Starr Jordan did have a part of my opinion that it’s not the school’s name affecting the instead come from the district’s established bond money, this, and if his actions and philosophy were perverted to the students’ experience—it’s the attitude of the staff and the which can only be used for certain projects. “It’s used for extent that they were used by the Nazis or others to justify fellow students.” building, instead of ongoing spending you have every year, genocides, or sterilizations, we ought to know about it.”

6 FORUM Forum DIStricT NEEDS TO FOLLOW THROUGH ON FIXING MINORITY ACHIEVEMENT g ap as well as support with extra training and guidelines. The District Equity Report outlines plans for the monitoring of HUR students’ proficiency and academic success through standardized test data from elementary school up through high school.

Once this data is collected and analyzed, the district should act upon these results to close the struggling students’ gap.

Cassie Bond and Caroline Ro While academic success rests largely on a student’s performance at school, domestic life affects one’s ability to funcIn a report released in 2015 from the Minority Achieve- tion and reach their full potential. In particular, parental ment and Talent Development Advisory Committee influence plays an enormous role in students’ motivation (MATD) to Palo Alto Unified School District (PAUSD), hisfor and preparedness in school. torically underrepresented (HUR) students were identified However, not all parents as needing support due to a noticeable achievement gap have the resources to between them and their peers. PAUSD has defined educate themselves HUR students as being African-American, Hison PAUSD’s system “While panic/Latino, Pacific Island/Native Hawaiian, when it comes PAUSD has made Native American/Alaskan or from a socioecoto testing, lannomically disadvantaged background. While i n g , c ol le ge efforts in recent PAUSD has made efforts in recent years to preparedness years to implement implement more helpful programs, they have and other facmore helpful progr ams, still failed to support higher achievement for tors affecting HUR students. In the report, the MATD Task t he success they have still failed to Force stated that HUR students are scoring of a student. support higher 300 points lower on the SAT than their peers.

Without The committee has found that PAUSD needs transparency achievement for HUR to intervene earlier on in students’ educations, bet ween pa rstudents.” as well as hire an Equity Administrator to work ents and adminwith students and counselors on supporting HUR istration, it is hard students. Although there has been movement in fixfor the parents as well ing the achievement gap issue, such as hiring an equity as administration to coordinator and continuing to determine and act on goals, it have the correct information is imperative that the district continues to follow up on these on how to improve the students’ goals as reported in the March board report, and are made success. PAUSD plans to implement parent liaisons to imresponsible for the impacts, or lack thereof, of their changes. prove relations with HUR families and provide them with One of the primary purposes of the MATD Task Force more information nights by teachers in a wider variety of was to analyze data, research similar problems in different languages. While it is important for parents to acquire inforschools near Palo Alto and compile a list of recommended mation pertaining to their students’ education, proper ways steps for PAUSD to consider to support their children emotionally and indirectly should when attempting to pro- also be shared. mote t he academic Regardless of what measures the district takes to improve succ e s s of H U R the success of HUR students, it is hard to stand behind these “It is students. While efforts without statistics and concrete evidence to support such recommen- their effectiveness. There has been a call for more advanced imper ative that dat ions were and comprehensive data monitoring and analyzing systems the district included in the by the district, and findings from such programs should be continues to report, visible analyzed and publicized to hold the district accountable for follow up on these c h a n g e h a s the outcomes of their changes and to track their progress. yet to come to Considering the problems identified in the report, PAUSD goals as reported in fruition. could implement changes such as expanding after school prothe March board T h e f a i l - grams, to include reading practice and math assistance. Extra report.” ure to support support like tutoring is especially important in elementary a change in the and middle schools to help younger students without the ach ievement gap funds to work toward being placed in the appropriate lane stems from several is- that matches their peers. While high sues, including assump- school students are able to tions made based on race and seek tutoring fairly easily economic status. Focus groups of students when struggling with and teachers from the MATD Task Force found that there are classes, younger stuassumptions being made about where students live or how dents are not as their aptitude measures in comparison to others. These gen- likely to find tueralizations affect how HUR students see their work against tors who match their peers and their motivation levels. Such problems were t hei r c u r r ic uaddressed in PAUSD’s 2016-2017 District Equity Plan, which lum and prepare outlined the district’s planned changes over the course of the them for success next three years. This plan aims to combat this issue through in the PAUSD systhe planned addition of district-wide staff training against tem. In this way, unconscious bias, but the efficacy of such infrequent sessions the future repercusand vague goals is questionable and should be expanded upon. sions of inaccurate or Although HUR students make up a relatively small percent- skewed laning could be age of our school’s student body, their recognition and need for avoided. support affects the entire school. One big issue is laning, which Given that the issue of student is when there is a separation in the lanes of classes that results inequity is present across the country, it is admirable that in the deepening of the gap between HUR students and their PAUSD is taking steps towards closing this achievement gap. peers early on. In seventh grade, math lanes are chosen that As admirable as this effort is, it is just as important that PAUSD can affect the classes a student has for the rest of their middle follows up with these goals and ensure that these changes are school and high school lives. Teachers have reported that HUR consequential and these intentions don’t lose their promise. students do not have the support needed to be placed in higher Ample support for HUR students at Gunn is integral to the lanes, causing a divide in the student body. Once placed in a overall success our school and is not something that can be lower lane, however, it can be difficult for a student to feel as approached superficially or postponed. motivated and successful when they have not been given the opportunity to advance.

—Bond, a senior, is the Changing the Narrative Editor, Inappropriate laning can be solved by earlier intervention and Ro, a sophomore, is a reporter.

For more on the PAUSD equity plan, please see our news story on Page 4.

FORUM

Friday, March 31, 2017

7

YES

Does ethical consumerism fulfill its promise?

Mikaela Wayne

NO

Whether it is food or any other product, consumption is generally a part of one’s everyday life. With recent political changes, many are putting more thought into this everyday act, using what they purchase as a platform for change. Mindful consumption is defined as being constantly aware that the decisions on what people spend their money on has an impact on your community, the society and the planet, and it is a practice that many are starting to adopt. Mindful consumption, although time-consuming, has a great impact on how corporations are funded, and should be a priority to those who are politically aware.

Mindful consumption is not a new practice; however, after taxi drivers boycotted John F. Kennedy International Airport because of President Donald Trump’s travel ban and Uber took advantage of this to improve business, many people boycotted Uber. These people were passionate about a political cause and were able to support their cause from afar. Following the initial boycott, Uber took the backlash to heart by declaring Trump’s ban unjust and pledging to donate $3 million to Uber drivers affected by the ban.

Our favorite suppliers’ political views and practices may not line up with our personal views, and knowing this and choosing to do something about it is an easy way to get involved.

One might be wholeheartedly opposed to a certain issue, but might also be supporting it unknowingly. People and money are the forces that keep a company alive, and without the money that comes from these people, a company must change their ideals—or lose revenue. By taking the extra time to put in research before buying a product, one is contributing to a cause Akansha Gupta and perhaps changing the trajectory of the outcome of a certain issue.

Many argue that boycotts can put innocent employees of the company out of work. However, boycotts do not make sales drop fast enough so that a company immediately goes out of business. Rather, they raise awareness of a company’s practices and encourage backlash, Ostensibly, conscious consumerism encourages people to only which can lead to reform so a company can protect their image and again increase their purchase items that are produced ethically and in a sustainable mansales. Using one’s ability to have a voice is extremely powerful and can give people the ner.

Catchy phrases like “vote with your dollar” and “put your money confidence to come forward about any kind of corruption. where your heart is” are thrown around, and they make it sound like The practice of mindful consumption supports or opposes causes; however, it can also reducing child labor is as easy as opening up your wallet. However, the be practiced directly by purchasing products that are beneficial to the environment. reality is that buying products that are truly produced ethically and susAcross the United States, there is an excessive use of plastics to package products. By tainably is much more difficult than choosing between a couple of labels. being mindful and using practices like buying recyclable and compostable products, Conscious consumerism does not have a significant impact on one’s carbon the single-use plastics issue can largely decrease. It comes down to simply not pickfootprint.

These two factors combine to make mindful consumerism ineffective. ing up a straw to consume a drink or checking whether or not a certain package Conscious consumerism has been heavily criticized for being elitist. Afis recyclable. By being mindful of the effects that certain products have on the ter all, it takes a good amount of disposable income to buy products that have planet and taking the time to avoid the consumption of harmful products, been sustainably and ethically produced.

The companies tend to be smaller the state of our planet would greatly improve. If consumers simply put in the and lack the advantages that economies of scale provide; these companies have time to research products, the world would not only improve from a social to charge more to earn a profit.

Additionally, a lot of their products are, quite standpoint, but from an environmental one as well. frankly, not as good.

Ecosia, a search engine which promises to donate a portion of Mindful consumption may seem like a tedious task. While research its proceeds to plant trees, has fewer search results than established companies like takes time, the benefits far outweigh the detriments. This practice takes Google. In an interview in 2014, a founding member of Ecosia said that the company the power directly away from big corporations and corrupt companies had no plans of creating an algorithm to become an independent search engine because and gives it back to the people. Understanding where money goes is they did not have the resources to do so (they are donating 80 percent of their profits). an important aspect in supporting a cause, and this practice can A truly conscious consumerist lifestyle is not just limited by one’s disposable income, but also give people a voice they would not otherwise have. It is an essential by one’s time and ability to research different products thoroughly. After all, several people have aspect of self-improvement and can lead the world to be more just shown that they are willing to pay more for ethically and sustainably produced products and some and democratic. unscrupulous sellers have taken advantage of that by advertising their products as greener than —Wayne, a senior, is a Centerfold Editor. they actually are. For example, Clairol’s Herbal Essences, which claims to be a “truly organic experience” contains lauryl sulfate, propylene glycol and D&C Red 33, which are distinctly synthetic. This phenomenon has become so common that the term “greenwashing” has been coined.

Aside from marketers who intentionally mislead consumers, truly conscious consumers need to do an almost impossible amount of research into the intermediate goods required to make an end-product. For example, those who are insistent on buying locally produced T-shirts may have done their research and ensured that the company that produced their T-shirt was an American one which obeyed labor laws. However, if they want to be truly conscientious, they must consider that the actual cloth for the T-shirt may have been produced in a sweatshop halfway across the world and that the cotton used to make the cloth may have been harvested by children. In this fashion, it is almost impossible to say what you’re voting for with your dollar.

This year, global consumers are expected to spend $3.22 billion extra in green cleaning products by themselves. This money would be much better utilized in lobbying governments to ban the most harmful chemicals so that they don’t end up in water runoffs. As for companies like Patagonia which promise to give a small portion (one percent) of their proceeds to charity, it makes sense to donate directly to charity instead of relying on an intermediary to do good on your behalf. If people want to make a real difference in the environment, they would be better served by volunteering their time to non-profits which are actually making a difference in the world. Additionally, they can donate the extra money they would have spent on products which are supposedly ethically and morally superior to organizations which have a proven track-record and a history of utilizing their money well.

—Gupta, a senior, is a Tech Editor.

Photos by Richard Yu

8

FORUM

media literacy: distinguishing real news from fake fake news \fāk\ /n(y)ooz/ (n.): false information or propaganda published under the guise of being authentic news

Definition courtesy of Webopedia

Media should be held in higher regard Jack Mallery and Ayala Tzadikario On Feb. 24, 2017, President Donald Trump forced CNN, The New York Times and Politico to exit the White House press conference. Later, the president decided to host an invitationonly conference, excluding CNN and The New York Times because he felt that they were against him and release “fake news,” or news that is not factually correct. Throughout this past year, media has been under attack by the government and its people when the media attempts to expose truth. The media is not fake, and while it may contradict with other people's opinions or cause controversy, it is necessary that people acknowledge that it reports facts accurately.

While there is unintentional bias in the media, it is still meant to be a source that reports only the truth. Journalists are expected to release only authentic and honest news to the public. Although every person has their own personal opinions, it is a reporter's job to put aside these biases and be objective. Journalistic standards such as fact-and quote-checking must be met in order to insure a media piece is reputable.

This past election, hate toward certain media outlets has been generalized into a distrust of all media sources in general. President Trump and his cabinet have cultivated an anti-media atmosphere, oftentimes encouraging others to

ignore news sources that have articles they do not agree with. Trump has instigated a direct violation of the press’ rights under the First Amendment by kicking reputable news sources out of White House press conference and later creating an invite-only press conference. On Feb. 17, President Trump tweeted that the “fake news” was not only his enemy, but the enemy of the people as well. This type of rhetoric not only degrades news that tries to inform people, but it encourages others to do the same. The president should set an example for the people and cultivate a good relationship with the media, not slander its name.

Sometimes bias against national or worldwide media sources is understandable, but this bias should never be against school newspapers or other student-run outlets. For example, at Townsend Harris High School at Queens College in New York, their newspaper, The Classic, was investigating interim Principal Rosemarie Jahoda. Two student reporters uncovered audiotapes of Jahoda harassing teachers, and when the story was published, it was called “fake news” by a Department of Education official. Student newspapers may not seem like an important resource for the news, but when they can produce potentially incriminating stories, they deserve to be held up as the truth, especially if there is evidence cited. People have resorted to labeling stories or facts as “fake news” when they challenge their authority or expose evidence that they disagree with.

It may seem harmless to ignore student newspapers or think they don't matter, but school newspapers are the backbone of the media. School newspapers train young

reporters to search for the truth, and to base their findings in hard evidence that cannot be disputed. If facts don’t matter, and crucial stories are thrown aside at a moment's notice, then the media will cease to matter at all.

Demonizing the media is making an enemy of the truth. By questioning the true facts that news sources print because they contradict people’s opinions, it is not hard to call all disliked facts false. Facts remain true, no matter the situation, and the news sources that release them should not be hated for releasing the truth to the public. Knowing these facts and situations is essential for our democracy and personal freedom.

Especially in recent times, emotion in the face of opposing opinions and facts have led people to lash out at the media. This behavior undermines the work that the media does.

From exposing the Pentagon Papers that revealed the United States could not win the Vietnam War, to taking down the biotech giant Theranos for doctoring research and ignoring failed safety checks, the media has always done its best to preserve the integrity of this country.

Especially today, political beliefs and media sources have been locked in a constant battle of fact versus fiction. Instead of taking the news’ word for facts or studies, people have called out the news as liars, or created alternative facts to serve their own self-interests. Instead of submitting to these attacks, media sources need to stand up for their values and be even more aggressive in seeking out the truth.

—Mallery, a junior, is the Assistant Business Manager and Tzadikario, a sophomore, is a reporter.

Media literacy education is essential, beneficial Jenna Marvet President Donald Trump shames news media, often blaming news agencies for propagating “fake news.” While his claims have been broad and reached beyond the truth, they have brought a real issue to the attention of many Americans: a lack of media literacy and an overly-trusting view of certain news agencies in the United States. A study conducted at the Stanford Graduate School of Education found that 30 percent of 7,804 high school and middle school students thought a fake news site was more trustworthy than a verified news site, and only a quarter of the students recognized and explained the significance of a verification check mark.

During this turbulent time for news agencies, who are under scrutiny with the rise of actual fake news, and students’ malleable opinions at young ages, adults must educate students on media literacy at a young age to ensure that future generations are able to craft their own educated decisions and perspectives based on trustworthy sources.

W hat comes to m i nd when ma ny Americans think of news is the image of the floating heads of political pundits blaring

their opinions on a certain topic, whether it be on CNN, Fox or MSNBC. For students who are looking for more deeply-researched news articles, investigative journalism is available on sites such as ProPublica, Center for Public Integrity and Real Clear Investigations. In modern history, investigative journalism has revealed corruption on local, state and national levels such as the Boston Globe’s reports on sexual abuse by priests and the Washington Post’s reveal of Nixon’s Watergate scandal. Adults should use these examples to educate youth about impactful and reliable journalism.

Both investigative reporting and the act of fact-checking by news agencies have become more popular with the mainstream audience over the past year, keeping political figures accountable and the general population educated on the truth. During the election, events from stump speeches to national debates were meticulously fact-checked by a growing number of news agencies. In these cases, news media does inform the consumer and keep politicians and other public figures accountable.

While President Trump may argue that certain news agencies have inherent biases, it is important for adults to teach students that, while it is important to be critical of the sources of information, one should not group every news agency that publishes truthful stories that may not cater to their specific view into the category of “fake news.” To ensure

an educated generation, adults must take it upon themselves to expose students to news that keeps them informed and allows them to make educated opinions, as well as teaching students how to find reliable sources of news media. This should start at home with parents: simple exposure to news, such as having a newspaper or printed articles available to children, will ensure that they are growing up with an understanding of print media.

Discussing these articles together and talking about whether the source is credible or not will help the child understand what they are consuming and how to be critical when looking at news articles.

While some media literacy is taught in schools, it should be more intensive. Proper citations for research should always be required, and current events should be shared regularly. English classes, and perhaps Living Skills, can teach students how to choose reliable sources and how to be a mindful consumer of news media.

While President Trump’s statements regarding the news have been jarring, they have set in motion a new generation of media literate consumers. It is important that adults educate the next generation on how to make critical decisions about their news media so that they can craft their own opinions and understandings without falling prey to unreliable and biased sources.

—Marvet, a senior, is a News Editor.

Features

Friday, March 31, 2017

9

teachers recall, share previous careers, experiences project will do,” he ns about what the tio es qu y an m o to to ask projects] and also, fore teach- able rmation about the fo be s [in e ar ar ye s sh ’t hi t dn en ul g on were evil.” . “[I] co ll Dunbar sp ojects I was workin s and Space said pr ile e iss th Physics teacher Bi M at th ed s he ou ck ici go into teaching. as susp e engineer at Lo e the decision to pment and I w ui ad m eq r tle ba ing as an aerospac ut un sh D e e, ac tire year to learn Therefor ping satellites, sp to school for an en ck ba e g Company develo in go up ended a Poly technic Stat t. for building He hing at Californi ty ac ni te t haffi missile equipmen ou ac an te ab d r, ha ba s unbar alway is Obispo. For Dun From his youth, D University, San Lu him to led ch hi e strenuous than w , rk wo to be much mor ed ov , pr g and making things g in in er ne gi I started teaching mechanical en aerospace. “When in g in an rk achieve degrees in ly as al wo in ed ig rk or graduating, he harder than I wo at Stanford. After I was working way r more fo ns sig ay less money,” he de t uc od pr d I was making w an er I ne wanted to go into er gi en um ns co myself, ‘Why did ts like cars and of times, I asked t lo “A . glamorous produc id ro sa ae e th e “at the time g?’” electronics, becaus as do this crazy thin unoming and there w bo as fficult it was for D w y di w str ho du te in pi es D space . id rospace,” he sa to teaching, howa lot of money in ae bar to transition in aerospace e th in s ar ye yment in working During his six ever, he finds enjo governon y nl ai m ed rk wo aching] was way industry, Dunbar with students. “[Te deavors en st pa ally res hi of e m but it was also re , ed ct tpe ment projects. So sa ex e I th an ts, king with harder th tle experimen stages and the left,” he said. “Wor l r ta ve en ne include space shut st pm ju lo I ve so de , warding GPS during its wards.” ellite network for ll in use today. sti is ch hi w students has its re , pe e co th les on Te e ed ac rk Sp wo e r bl Hub Dunba en Yee s have passed since —Written by Krist ed. This aspect ifi Even though year ss cla ns ai m re rmation still as never projects, their info ked the most. “I w sli di r ba un D t ha w of the industry is

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Before Biotechnology an d Advanced Authentic Research five people (AAR) teacher Angela started getting rea lly on Merchant realized her lov my nerves,” she said. e for biolog y and teaching, she explo After six years work ing red a few odd jobs. in a lab , Me rchant had the urge W hen Mercha nt was in high school, she to ch an ge he r profe ssi on , but cont inue origina lly had no intere st in biolog y and with biolog y. “For a br ief time in college, I on ly sta rted tin kering with it in college. thought about becoming a teacher, and then “W hen I was in high sch ool, I wanted to do I just jumped ship into tea ching,” she said. advertising, and then in college I fell in love Merchant is ver y happy tha with my biolog y class, t she changed ” she said. “I loved her job and does not reg ret her decision. She it, and so I became a bio loves being a teacher [logy] major.” because she gets the Following college, Me best of both jobs, wh rchant found ich ma ny people do a job as a resea rch tec not have the opportunit hnologist and y to do. “I get to do research assistant. She both here at Gunn cau initially wanted se I have a research the job because of he class AAR, and I get r love for reto teach at the same search, but later change time,” she said. “Someti d her decision because mes I do wonder if of both- I would have sta ersome coworkers. “Wha yed and continued into t made me change to be do ing pure research, co me a but I then remem teacher was that I rea liz ber the same annoying ed that I did not like wo pe ople, and I don’t rk ing regret it.” with the same four peop le at my job every single day, and only work ing in the lab with the same fou r to —Written by Ryan Ma nesh

of just a groupie for a ,” she said. “I was sort rld wo e th in ce ren diffe nted to do.”

25 years now, math to figure out what I wa for g in ath to try m s g wa in I ch as , tea ile wh use she did not want Although she’s been r life before settling on to the Bay Area beca he d in l ne s ve ur rn tu tra ret a y n at an so g m ea in ok Gl rk n to ile wo 76, teacher Diane Gleaso stayed in La Honda wh e ey High School in 19 Sh erl . t bb rse go Cu ho d r m an he l fro n oo g do tin sch ua in electronics. aban 1983, she went back to education. Upon grad llege and took courses in Palo Alto. Then, in Co cy ll en hi ag ot Fo , State University, San d ds de ar en bo att Gleason lifornia Polytechnic Ca testing computer at d an ee son gr ng de bli ess sem sin as s job s a bu icro-computers, Glea However, after a few ly, the company [I wa her next job selling m ki g uc g rin “L kin Du it. o. loo at t isp for ea Ob ss] gr is t no at [my bo g,” Lu she realized she was ange. “I got annoyed idea what I was doin ch a no s d ed ha lot ed I ne e th e us wi sh ca g ed in be cid wn de ed someth working for] closed do the time, and I want all r g in lde ch ou tea sh r y m he t er id. Thus, she go ugh Europe for ov she said. ose of autonomy,” she sa , she backpacked thro job r he t los n te University and ch so ea Gl After tials at San Jose Sta she , en l. ere ed cr oo Th . sch 81 at 19 ct in bje s th ite su four-and-a-half mon use that was her favor of ca be up e ly ath ad nt m m lt rre cu cu a d , es an ooni in 2000 hung out with the M son came to Gunn by ea led Gl gh ch ur ou th Ch Al n s. tio tic ca ifi BC and AP Statis members from the Un s teaches AP Calculus here in California, k ac “B n. ep her young, she ha oo M ng yu Sun M ns with students ke . id tio sa ac e ter g sh in tin ,” re uc str we in ey ar, o th rt-time next ye ever yone knew wh decided to teach pa were scary—people ey th lt; ss. “I’m too busy and cu a re we “They y riods of only one cla [b pe ed ree sh th wa id. “I ain br g in be grading,” Gleason sa heard stories of kids really far behind on .” In for e tim at I want these people].” in ve outside interests th es ha o ni als oo ng M isi e erc th ex d o re back int Glea son encounte , Gleason hopes to get a r lar he cu d rti d pa sse lve pa vo r in ge e an or str come m Amsterdam when a rseback-riding, and be at a ho m d ra an og pr g in en ev flyer and described an ” uple evenings in a row, I in local politics. rs not knowing what cathedral. “I went a co pace. Then one day, e, Gleason remembe of lif r ge he an ut ch ho od ug go ro a Th d an d ays the wandering or she said. “It was nice o my mom, I was alw was a picture of Reveren “T . ere th do d to an ed ay nt llw wa ha e t sh dits her experiences walked down a differen wever, Gleason also cre Ho id. sa e sh ,” with ups ild ch t ’s like a rollercoaster she was los , ife es “L ni . ns oo Sun Myung Moon.” so M e les th ble th lua wi corner,” iding va that she was happens at the next uld resist with prov at co wh e After the realization g sh in at th est ter ed in cid it’s de ect the wns, and on the coast. She ing decisions that aff attending and do ak s m th ’re on invited to a weekend m we t, xt in ne e po th y t try not “At ever said yes and spen ince her she said. to move forward and nv ed co ne to we ed brainwashing, so she so pt , em res att tu es fu r s where the Mooni gh direction of ou numerous workshop ming of Christ. Althou co d st.” pa on e sec th e in th e s liv wa n to became a lly cia that Sun Myung Moo offi r ve ne d Ding unconvinced an —Written by Grace t with Gleason remained e group. “I hung ou th th wi e tim r he Moonie, she enjoyed lly wanted to make a really caring and rea re we ey th e us ca be them

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Graphics by Elizabeth Zu Photos by Vibha Arun and Max Wang

10

Features

STUDENTS SHOWCASE NATIONALLY, INTERNATIONALLY RECOGNIZED TALENTS Junior Alex Berlaga helps set dominoes world records Seungik Shin Reporter With only a week to work and over 70,000 dominoes used, on July 23, 2016, junior Alex Berlaga and a team of YouTubers set the world records for the largest chain reaction machine, largest domino circle field attempt and the most dominoes built in America.

Berlaga first took an interest in dominoes at the age of 11 after playing with double-six dominoes at his house. As time went on, his curiosity grew. “Eventually, I got more into it and looked at YouTube videos and I started building with [materials beyond dominoes],” Berlaga said.

As Berlaga’s interest in building contraptions with dominoes piqued, he felt inspired to share his interest with the public. “I started [my YouTube channel] because that’s where I found dominoes and that’s where I really started to get interested in dominoes,” Berlaga said. “So I felt that if I start this YouTube channel, then people can look at it and discover my work.”

Berlaga began to experiment more and more with dominoes, building Rube-Goldberg machines— a deliberately complex contraption in which activating one device triggers the next device in the sequence to perform a simple task. Through this experimentation, Berlaga’s skillset expanded, and when YouTuber Steve Price decided to assemble a team of YouTubers to build the largest domino chain, he invited Berlaga

to be part of it. “[Price] watches machines as well as everyone who builds them and he found the top 15 to 16 builders,” Berlaga said. “[So] he sent an email to me, and I replied because I was interested in joining the team.”

Each member of the team was given a specific section of the machine to build, and according to Berlaga, it was no easy task. “I only had seven days and a lot of my designs for my section were not usable because of the materials we had, so I had to redesign a large part of it,” he said. “I had to stay there and work for 14 hours for some days, and 12 hours for others to not just get it working, but make it fit with the theme.”

Over time, Berlaga has learned that building machines and contraptions isn’t just about placing dominoes in a line and hoping for it to work; it involves complex understanding and thought processes.

“Failure with dominoes usually happens when you knock it down, and it stops in the middle, or when you’re building a large project and it stops because you misplaced something,” Berlaga said. “How you learn from that is [to] generally be more careful and [understand that] sometimes you have to take breaks so you’re not too inaccurate after building for a while. You get to know the reliability of other techniques and how things just work.”

Graphic by Cheryl Kao Photos by Vibha Arun and Max Wang

Senior Jane Ahn places in top 50 for math in the U.S. Bridgette Gong Reporter

A combination of both passion and talent can go a long way, and for senior Jane Ahn, this certainly holds true.

Ahn currently holds a spot in the top 50 for math in the nation after scoring high in the United States of America Mathematical Olympiad (USAMO) her junior year.

Ahn’s interest in math began in middle school when Ahn had the opportunity to join the Jane Lathrop Stanford Math Counts team in sixth grade. “I took the test and made it on the team and ever since, I’ve been participating in school-related math competitions.” Middle school provided Ahn with a solid background in math and sparked a passion that follows her to this day. “I was on the Math Counts team for all three years in middle school, and when I came to high school, I just kept doing math and now I’m part of the Gunn Math Circle,” she

said. “I’ve competed in all sorts of math competitions throughout all four years of high school and [still] do up to this day.” Over the years, Ahn’s interest in math has also grown. “I can say that math is my favorite subject because I like the math classes I took at Gunn and also just studying for math on my own outside of school,” she said. She has also taken time over the years to branch off to higher levels of math. “I’ve taken many classes outside of school on my own so I’ve gotten the chance to study concepts such as abstract algebra, group theory, linear algebra, multivariable calculus and other things that follow BC [Calculus],” she said.

Between studying, summer programs and classes, math has a very important role in Ahn’s daily life. “I spend a lot of time doing math during weekdays, and I go to different kinds of math circles,” she said. “During weekends, I meet up with a group of friends and form study groups and over the summer I go to different mathematics camps.” Math has not only been a source of challenge and enjoyment, but also a way for Ahn to meet new friends from around the world. “I’ve met a lot of friends through math,” she said. “It’s really nice to meet other people who are so passionate about math, and it’s cool that when we talk, we both share such a common interest.”

A h n hopes t hat her i nvolvement i n arithmetic will pave the way for a future in the fields of math and science. “Right now my plan is to major in math and computer science in college, which I’m really excited about,” she said. “There, I’ll be able to experiment more with different kinds of mathematics and maybe figure out which type of math I really like.”

The higher Ahn sets her goals, the greater the feeling of success. She was especially excited when she got into the Mathematical Olympiad Summer Program (MOP), a camp that only invites the top 50 scorers of USAMO. “It’s a really prestigious camp and hard to get into,” Ahn said. “I’d prepared for so long, and when I actually made it, I was so happy. It was actually one of my proudest moments.”

Ahn’s mentors have played major roles in Ahn’s life throughout the course of her math development, especially her former math teacher.

“The first person that actually got me doing math was Mr. Herreshoff, a math teacher here at Gu n n,” she s a id .

“He kind of inspired me to pursue it.”

A h n h a s fou nd t h at the skills she picked up in math are beneficial in ot her subjects as well. “Doing a lot of m at he m at ic s h a s helped me a lot in theoretical computer science because the two are closely connected, a nd it ’s a l so made different kinds of sciences, such as physics, easier to pick up,” she said “The creative skills you need to use to solve problems is useful for any situation rea lly; I find math skills usually always help.”

To all those who strugg le w it h mat h, A hn has some tips based off of her experiences. “This might sound like a really generic a n s we r, but I t h i n k t he most important thing is to like what you learn. So, if you don’t enjoy math, just try to at least understand it and keep studying,” she said.

“Keep building up all your skills, and it should work out in the end.”

11

Features

Friday, March 31, 2017

Happy endings: adopted students expand definition of family

Junior

Nikki Verhulp

Kaya van der Horst lifestyle Editor For junior Nikki Verhulp, the definition of family extends beyond blood-relations. Although she may strongly resemble her mom, Verhulp actually has no genetic connection with her—she was adopted from an orphanage in Dianbai, China when she was 11 months old. “I was left in a police station parking lot about two days after I was born,” she said. “They said they found me up against a curb in a box and took me to this nearby orphanage located in Dianbai.” Verhulp stayed in the orphanage for less than a year until she was adopted by her current family and moved to Palo Alto.

According to Verhulp, the adoption process was based on a lottery system in which babies were paired with a suitable family. “My mom said you had to be pretty lucky to be chosen,” she said. However, some babies were not as fortunate as Verhulp in being adopted. When Verhulp went back to visit the orphanage for the first time in seventh grade, she was surprised by the fate of others. “I met a girl who had been there from when I was a baby, but she never got adopted,” she said. “Seeing her there made me think about how different my life could’ve been.”

If Verhulp hadn’t been adopted by her current family, she believes life as she knows it would be very different. “I know I wouldn’t have the opportunity to go to school like I do here in Palo Alto, and I definitely know I would most likely grow up on a farm and do a lot of planting,” she said.

In comparison to Palo Alto’s suburban setting in the techhub of the world, Dianbai is a rural county located in the Guangdong Province.

For the most part, Verhulp doesn’t view herself as different from the rest of her peers. However, there are certain scenarios in which she finds it hard to relate. In biology

class, for example, Verhulp had difficulty connecting in a discussion during the genetics unit. “You can’t really say, ‘Oh, I can tell where you get your genes from’ to me because I don’t really know why I’m my height or why I have brown eyes,” she said. “I don’t know where I got my genes from and for all I know, I may not even be full Chinese.”

While most people take knowledge of their birthdays for granted, Verhulp also isn’t 100 percent sure of when she was born. As far as she knows, she was found May 24, 2000 without a note and was given a birth date of May 22. “The orphanage does a pretty good job of estimating the age, and guessed I was around two days old,” she explained. Verhulp was also given a Chinese name by the orphanage, “Lin Xi.” “All babies were named after the director of the orphanage, Director Lin,” she said.

Unanswered questions about Verhulp’s identity have kept her awake at odd hours in the past and have left lots of room for curiosity. However, having been raised in the United States for as long as she can remember, Verhulp primarily identifies as American. “There will always be a part of me that’s Chinese-American where I’m in between two, but I’m definitely more towards the American side just based on how I’ve grown up and what I’ve learned,” she said. While she never learned Chinese, Verhulp still keeps in touch with her Chinese heritage through celebrations of major holidays such as Chinese New Year. The most unique day her family celebrates, however, is her “Gotcha Day,” the day she was adopted. “We definitely appreciate that day and how 16 years ago, I joined the family,” she said.

And for the past 16 years, Verhulp has defied the common misconception that adopted children are “unwanted.” “I wish people would understand that just because I don’t live with my birth parents, [it doesn’t mean] my birth or adoptive parents love me any less,” she said. “I have two families instead of one.”

Courtesy of Nikki Verhulp

Danielle Gee Reporter Sophomore Melanie Hyde discovered at a young age that she was different from her parents and family, but that did not stop her from immersing herself in the culture she was born in. Hyde was born in the Fuling District, which is in the center of Chongqing Municipality, China. She was brought to the United States and adopted at the young age of just eight months by Carol and Larry Hyde, who are American.

Hyde’s parents told her at the age of 3 that she was adopted, but she did not let her adoption stop her from having a normal life. However, as Hyde has gotten older, she has found that some people form quick judgements of her simply because she looks different than her parents.

“The worst thing is people looking at you weirdly if you are with your parents—people [speculate], ‘Is she [white and Asian]?’ until I tell them I am adopted,” she said.

Hyde has also had trouble going through airport customs when employees see that she is a different ethnicity from her parents. However, internally, Hyde has accepted who she is. “[You should] take pride in being unique,” she

Junior Romi Miller

Courtesy of Romi Miller

said. “Being adopted should be celebrated.”

Hyde’s parents immersed her in American traditions such as trips and watching Stanford football games.

However, Hyde is equally grateful that her parents made sure that she was immersed into Chinese culture as well: they celebrate Chinese New Year and go to Chinese shows as a family. “Externally, just learning about the culture is something that I will always be connected to in my past,” she said. “When talking about getting adopted in the U.S. versus living in a town in China, I’d say where I was from in China—it was a farming town and I would be working the fields. In the U.S., I had the opportunity to a receive a great education with a bright future.”

Hyde was brought to the United States with many other girls who were also getting adopted. To this day, they still keep in contact. “Most of [us] came from the same orphanage, and although we have not seen each other in a while due to busy schedules, we try to stay in touch,” she said. For Hyde, the bonds she made through this journey and the opportunities that were provided to her through adoption will be ones that stay with her for the rest of her life.

Carolyn Kuimelis Copy editor Junior Romi Miller sits with her mom on the edge of her parents’ bed, looking through a box filled with pages of writing, journals and mementos from Romi’s childhood that her mom has saved over the years. They laugh together at the silly diary entries and reminisce on the past. This little ritual is just one of Miller’s favorite things about her family.

Although Miller has lived in Palo Alto for most of her life, she was born in southern China. Her parents adopted her when she was 11 months old; she has lived with her mom Sachi, her dad Kirk and her older sister Miya for the past 16 years of her life. She has a passion for wrestling, softball and making people laugh with her bad jokes.

For Miller, being adopted hasn’t affected her relationship with her parents. Instead, it has let her form a more broad definition of what family is. “Family, to me, is the people who are there to support you and have been there for you through tough times but also happy times, and the people who have helped raise you,” she said. Ever since she can remember, Miller’s parents have been her number one supporters. “I’m really close with both of my parents,”

Courtesy of Melanie Hyde

Sophomore

Melanie Hyde Miller said. “Whenever I have something hard to tell them or if I’m in a bad mood, I don’t go to one or the other.” She partially attributes her closeness to her family to the size of their house. Living in a 900-square-foot condo, the family has gotten used to sharing everything with each other. “I can’t lie to them because I’m just physically too close to them—it’s great,” she said.

Miller has met nine or 10 other girls who have also been adopted and appreciates forming connections with people who have similar backgrounds. “That’s just a cool connection, and we almost instantly became friends because we had that in common,” she said.

According to Miller, one of the most impactful trips of her life was traveling to her birthplace in 2012. She and her family visited the orphanage where she was from, which is now empty—all the children there had been put into foster care. Upon her arrival, the couple who had taken care of her during her time at the orphanage gave her a hug and gifted her with a jade necklace with a dragon on it to symbolize her year of birth. The trip and meeting the couple were emotional and reflective experiences for Miller. “I think I would have been a very different person if I were still there, and I would see the world differently,” Miller said. “I felt thankful that my family adopted me.”

12

CENTE

GUNN v

Gunn Excels in essential Areas

CROSSTOWN RIVALS BAT Andrew Zhao

There are only two public high schools in Palo Alto: Henry M. Gunn High School and Palo Alto High School (Paly). Both schools are known nationwide for their exceptional students and their stunning array of activities. Both schools constantly compete to be the top in all of those activities. However, there are a multitude of areas where Gunn beats Paly.

Gunn and Paly are located in different areas: Paly is close to Stanford, while Gunn is bordered

by Los Altos Hills, a scenic area where Gunn students can run and hike. Gunn students can enjoy the view of the entire Bay Area if they hike far enough up. Since the hills are closer to Gunn, Gunn students can walk after school to the hills, whereas Paly students have to drive to the hills.

Their differing locations come with different surroundings, as Paly is near Town and Country and Gunn has access to El Camino Real. Restaurants located near Gunn are cheaper than those near Paly, while still providing high-quality food for Gunn students.

Moving on to the students of both schools: Gunn’s homecoming events trounce Paly’s homecoming events. For example, Gunn has night rallies with Airbands, which are recorded for future students to watch online. In those videos, the spirit of Gunn clearly exceeds the spirit of Paly. Gunn builds giant floats each year to demonstrate how dedicated Gunn students are to showing their school spirit. Gunn’s homecoming airbands and floats are more impressive and more grand than Paly’s.

Gunn also demonstrates school spirit via drawings and paintings on campus. The Chalk Art club often draws all over Gunn’s campus, brightening the school. The club might draw a picture related to the time of the year, a motivational drawing or anything in between. At the same time, the library displays works made by Gunn students. Since the art in the library changes, Gunn students can enjoy a variety of artistic creations.

Recently, the Gunn Robotics Team (GRT) placed first out of 49 schools in the Arizona Regional, and won the Excellence in Engineering Award. GRT has also placed first in national robotics competitions three times, a feat that no other school has been able to replicate.

Paly has a robust journalism program, with more than six publications run by the school. Gunn also publishes a student newspaper: The Oracle. The Oracle is similar to the Paly Campanile in most aspects, but The Oracle also publishes several online articles that the Campanile lacks. In particular, The Oracle has a Changing the Narrative section, which describes the personal lives of students from all over Gunn. People submit stories to Changing the Narrative in hopes of showing their life story and what they learned from it. Indeed, this section is both a beacon of hope and a unique aspect of The Oracle.

An activity where Gunn proves superior to Paly is in math competitions. In 2011, Gunn placed ninth in the entire nation in the Harvard-MIT Math Tournament. Curiously enough, if one searches the results page of 2011, Paly’s team is nowhere to be found. This trend continues from 2011 through 2017: Gunn sent math teams every year, while Paly sent their math team only once. Last year, Gunn placed fourth in the CalTech math tournament and placed fifth in the Berkeley math tournament, while Paly failed to send a team to the former and failed to place in the latter.

Despite Paly being known as the sports school, Gunn has proved more successful in sports such as badminton, boys’ and girls’ water polo, boys’ swimming and boys’ wrestling. These statistics prove Gunn can compete with Paly as well.

s t a t S y al P . s v Gunn

2013 Gunn girls’ varsity basketball beats Paly to win first CCS title.

—Zhao, a sophomore, is a reporter.

2009 Gunn varsity boys’ soccer breaks five-year losing streak against Paly; 1-0.

2014 Gunn wins 46-34 in wrestling match against Paly.

2010 Paly boys’ and girls’ varsity lacrosse win first lacrosse SCVALs.

2015 Gunn girls’ varsity team plays lacrosse against Paly, losing 5-9.

ERFOLD

Friday, March 31, 2017

Paly Offers a well rounded experience

s. PALY

13

TTLE FOR THE UPPER HAND Kai Oda and Maya Homan

The first and most obvious way that Palo Alto High School (Paly) is better than Gunn is its location. Paly is near Town and Country, which has restaurants, a pharmacy, a bank, clothing shops and grocery stores. Basically everything you could ever need for life. Gunn, on the other hand, is across the street from a cemetery. We have food. They have death. Case closed.

In terms of school mascots, Paly is clearly the winner. Paly’s mascot is the vikings, fierce warriors who struck fear in the hearts of enemies, managed to invade parts of Russia centuries before Napoleon failed and may have been among the first to discover North America. Gunn idolizes the Titans—the mythological creatures whose king, Kronos, was so afraid of his children’s future success that he ate them to keep them from one day taking power from him. Familial dysfunction, murder and cannibalism all in one fun high school mascot.

Which one is the better role model?

The boys’ track and field and cross country teams destroy Gunn in every single meet.

According to Maxpreps, our basketball team is ranked 34th in the state. Gunn High School is ranked 396th. Enough said. Paly’s girls’ basketball team is ranked 41st in the state, compared to Gunn’s 177th. Boys’ soccer ranks 247th versus 632nd. Paly girls’ soccer is 20th versus a whopping 334th place in the state for Gunn. The list goes on, but basically Paly is better at literally every sport that we have data on. Take that, The Oracle.

Journalism. Oh boy. Gunn High School has, like, three publications? The Oracle and then two other low-key magazines plus their yearbook. Paly has 13 (Campanile, Verde, Voice, C-Magazine, Madrono, Viking, Anthro, Agora, Cadmus, Roots, Proof, inFocus, KPLY) and nearly all of them have won either a Gold or Silver Crown from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association. Our newspaper, The Campanile, was established 47 years before The Oracle, and produces multimedia content like videos along with a print newspaper.

Paly journalism is overseen by Esther Wojcicki, the woman who pioneered the journalism program, is the mother of the CEO of YouTube, of the founder of 23 & Me and of a Fulbrightwinning anthropologist and researcher.

Gunn’s bell schedule is also inferior to Paly’s. At Paly, Mondays consist of 50-minute periods with each class in order. Tuesdays and Thursdays are even block days. Wednesdays and Fridays are odd block days. Gunn classes also meet three times per week. Every class meets at a different time throughout the week, with the exception of F period (why letters? What was wrong with numbers?). This leads the school day to end at a different time each day, and the lunch hour varies from day to day as well.

As for programs offered, Paly students can take additional courses such as Intro to Gender Studies, Biomedical Science and Ethnic Studies not offered at Gunn High School. Students can opt to take dance or yoga instead of a second year of P.E., which promotes mindfulness and teaches valuable life skills. We also have glassblowing, which is only offered by three other high schools in the U.S. As for famous Paly grads, we have James and Dave Franco, Joan Baez and Jeremy Lin. Ha. —Oda, a senior, is the Editor-in-Chief of The Campanile and Homan, a junior, is a reporter for The Campanile.

2011 Paly wins first at Bay Area Regional Science Olympiad; Gunn wins third.

2012 Paly boys’ varsity football beats Gunn 48-0; it’s Paly’s 10th straight win against Gunn.

2016 Gunn boys’ varsity basketball beats Paly 72-59, breaking a 10-game losing streak to Paly.

—Compiled by Megan Li

Gunn SEC and Paly ASB hold joint winter dance “Highlight the Night” at Mitchell Park.

Gunn and Paly combine for the homecoming dance hosted by Gunn.

Graphic by Elizabeth Zu Photos courtesy of Palo Alto Online and Gunn yearbooks

14

Features

The Korean Wave: the rise of korean pop Culture

First Wave: 1997-2003 K-Dramas start airing in mainland China. In February 2000, S.M. Entertainment’s boy-band H.O.T. became the first modern K-Pop groupsto give an overseas performance, with a soldout concert in Beijing.

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la v i e w r u s t l t u hro c u d g n h a p pop x e u lar st n cul e d u tur t S e

2002: Winter Sonata, a KDrama aired and gained popularity in Japan. The audience rating was 9.2% at its peak, which was more than double the average rating of 3.9% during that time.

Janet Shea Reporter

For the past d e c a d e , Kore a n culture has been rapidly expanding all over the world, and much of today’s entertainment has been influenced by this popular culture. Now, the Korean Wave is spreading, and many Americans have embraced the Korean values and interests as their own.

Senior Emily Spector was first introduced to the Korean pop culture (K-Pop) and Korean dramas (K-Dramas) through simply surfing on the internet. “It’s really prolific on the internet, so I would see memes about it, and that’s how I first heard about K-Pop or K-Dramas,” she said. “Also, I have a lot of friends who are Chinese and Korean who know a lot about it, so I heard about it from them, too.” She finds that learning about another country’s pop culture allows her to have a new appreciation toward their culture.

Although the language barrier poses difficulties at first, junior Dhir Desai’s interest in K-dramas and K-pop inspired him to learn Korean. “I feel like it’s a really cool language to learn, and it’s really intriguing,” Desai said.

Even if one does not choose to learn Korean, Spector believes the language barrier is part of the experience and enjoyment of the music. “If anything, it’s a bonus to be able to listen to the song on its own without thinking about the words, and then additionally looking at the lyrics,” she said. “It makes you appreciate the music more.”

There are many differences in K-Pop music compared to Western music.

“It’s different because [K-Pop] is more performance-focused,” Spector said.

“They’ll really hit all aspects of singing, dancing and music videos.”

As an aspiring Korean hip-hop singer, senior Daniel Choi writes original songs and performs them to his friends. He also posts his raps on his Facebook page and his SoundCloud. Korean culture has inspired him to further pursue his interest in music. “I wanted to say [what’s on my mind] in a different way such as rap music and art,” he said. “Now I’m working on it every day, and it has become my lifestyle.”

Choi hopes that his individuality will allow him to stand out and make it far in the hip-hop world. “You have to break the rules. I feel like [all] Korean rappers dress the same, rap t he

same and they talk about the same things,” he said. “I’m trying to break the rules and get out of the stereotypes.”

Through Korean pop culture, Spector has embraced the adventure of learning about the customs of another country.

“It’s helped make me more aware of a pop culture that’s really different from America,” she said. “It’s always fun to learn about different cultures, and for me, learning about the surface level of Korean culture has been fun and eye-opening.”

For Desai, t he dif ference between K-Dramas and Americ a n T V shows l ies i n t hei r st r uc t u re. “K-Dra ma s get you hooked in and keep on reeling you in, whereas American dramas only get you hooked in, but don’t pull you in any further,” he said.

This April, Spector will be attending a Bangtan Boys concert, although she noted that it was difficult getting the tickets due to K-Pop’s growing popularity in the United States. “They sell out really fast, so I had to buy them from a second source,” Spector said.

D e s a i a d m i re s how f a r Kore a n c u lt u re h a s s pre a d t h r ou g hout t he world . “I f i nd it i nterest i ng how t he c u lt u re is i nter national even though it comes from such a small country,” Desai said.

Korean food and the Korean barbeque experience have also become a popular trend in many areas of the United States. According to the LA Weekly, in 2007, 2.7 percent of all immigrants were Korean, and the popularity of Korean cuisine began to rise. “[Korean Barbeque] tastes a lot better and has a lot more flavor,” Desai said. “American food is mostly bland.”

Another popular event that helped expand the Korean culture internationally is an event called Korean Convention (KCon). KCon is an annual event that brings Korean culture to fans all over the world. As of now, New York and Los Angeles are the two most popular locations. This convention allows K-Pop groups and idols to gain international attention and expand their fanbase overseas.

Choi recommends that new Hallyu fans follow popular K-dramas and music, just as he did. “The best way to approach the Korean culture is to watch Korean dramas or KPop because those are the most popular things in Korea,” Choi said.

Photo courtesy of TBN Graphics by Jeoffrey Yao, Richard Yu and Elizabeth Zu

15

Features

Second Wave: 2003-2009 “Boys over Flowers,” a K-Drama, is based on a popular Japanese manga.

It aired in 28 nations including the United States, Peru and Israel.

Friday, March 31, 2017

Today The spread of social media hastens the growth of Hallyu throughout the world.

Some songs are now produced in both English and Korean to reach out to the bigger audience. KCon has been held annually since 2012 in Southern California and is spreading to the East Coast and all over the world.

of the Korean wave over t ime Third wave: 2009-present Psy’s Gangnam Style becomes a big hit in 2012, reaching #2 on Billboard.

The music video is the most viewed video on YouTube with 2.2 billion views.

For a story on Centerfold Editor junior Emma Chiao’s personal experience with Hallyu, visit The Oracle’s web site at gunnoracle.com.

Q&A with Joanne Lee, alumna and former YG Entertainment trainee The Oracle: Why did you decide to become a K-Pop trainee?

Joanne Lee: I decided to do it mostly because I have been really into performance ever since I was little. I was doing musicals, choir and solo performances. I enjoy being on stage and when moving to Korea, a lot of those opportunities were more open [for me to try.] There are a lot of programs to audition [for] and there are a lot of recruiters walking around. I just happened to catch someone’s eye and the opportunity just came up. I thought about it for a while and I talked about it with my parents, and I realized this would be a cool opportunity. At the time, I thought it was a cool concept to think about, [like] maybe I could get famous some day. But in the end, that didn’t seem to be a good life goal for me. It wasn’t a value I held highly.

TO: What was your experience like as a K-Pop trainee?

JL: It was pretty fun for the most part; it’s a good experience. At an early age, I got work experience being part of a successful company. They try to maintain a sense of professionalism, and I got to experience that at a young age. It was fun, but it wasn’t something that I was super invested into.

It was more like, ‘Oh I just want to try this,’ and I happened to be given this opportunity, so I just took it.

TO: What were some of the more challenging parts of the experience?

JL: Getting used to the culture was one of the biggest challenge[s] because my ethnicity is Korean but I was born and raised in Chicago, and so I knew nothing about the culture going in. Korea has different manners towards older people, younger people and peers, and the way

Courtesy of Joanne Lee

you’re supposed to treat each other was pretty stressful because I wasn’t used to it. There’s this different way of speaking to people when they’re older than, you, so getting used to things like that [was difficult.]

TO: Did you ever see a future for your career in K-Pop? JL: Since I wasn’t that committed, I wasn’t sure if [it’ll] go anywhere with it. But it’s useful right now because I’m thinking [of] minoring in music.

I still remember the skills that make up a performance and because I had to go through vocal training and music theory, it [helps].

TO: Do you think K-Pop is gaining popularity?

JL: I think it’s spreading. Just the other day, I was at a Walgreens and it said like ‘K-Beauty’ and I was like, ‘What’s K-beauty?’ It was like Korean beauty, and a lot of that derives from the K-Pop culture and people know about it because of the K-Pop culture or K-Dramas. They are very intertwined and connected at this point; I think it’s definitely grown. If you go anywhere, people know what it is and they know like a certain face or a couple faces associated with it at least. So I would definitely say it’s growing.

TO: What were some of the most memorable moments of your experience?

JL: Probably the classes, like working with peers and more experienced people. I guess it would just be learning different values [and] different skills. The classes were really interesting—they were definitely not [what I] expected it to be. Getting to practice with other people who were really passionate and really hard-working about getting this opportunity was really awesome. It was really cool just to see how dedicated they were because it was [so] extreme.

TO: How has K-Pop culture affected your life?

JL: It helps me learn more about my ethnicity and heritage. It was like a big slap to the face with reality.

—Compiled by Stephy Jackson

Sports

16

Spring sports race through Girls’ Lacrosse

Boys’ Lacrosse

With a current record of 8-2 wins to loses, the girls’ lacrosse team seeks greater challenge.

Senior co-captain Janis Iourovitski smiled as she talked about the back-and-forth throughout the game against Los Gatos at their home field. After winning by one point, cocaptain junior Emily Axtell concurred that winning with her team is the most satisfactory feeling. Having started the season strong, they hope to continue in that direction.

Axtell says a specific goal is to win against Paly.

“During practice, we are really working on catching our passes and making sure we’re really clean because that’s something we mess up on often,” she said.

C oach Doug A r a k awa notes that Gunn has lost to Paly the past two seasons and Gunn is continuously working on strengthening its midfield and attack. “The overall skill level of the team is probably the best I’ve seen since I started coaching here,” Arakawa said.

“Our goal is to get back into the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League (SCVAL) finals and hopefully win the league tournament this year,” Iourovitski said.

Iourouvitski sees the team’s diversity as an asset. “A lot of people can play multiple positions, so we can rotate throughout midfield, attack and defenders.”

During the spring season of sports, boys’ lacrosse has been working hard towards their goals. One of the team captains, senior Mckinley Kalar, explains how boys’ lacrosse has been doing so far in their season, as well as their goals. “It’s been doing good; we had a little bit of a tough start, but we are working hard and having fun,” Kalar said. “This season we would like to do well in league, see if we can go into the playoffs and we want to see a lot of guys improve who are on the team.”

Kalar says the position of team captain has a lot of pressure, but also has its perks. “It’s got its upsides and downsides—a lot of responsibility, quite a bit of pressure—but you also get the respect of your teammates,” Kalar said.

“You’re the person people go to if they are having any problems or need tips. You have a big part in running practices and getting organized.”

Senior Martin Lopez has been playing boys’ lacrosse for four years, and his mindset towards lacrosse has drastically changed since he began in his freshman year. “We definitely take it more seriously as a sport,” Lopez said. “My freshman year, no one really cared, whereas now we have a goal of winning and we like to win. We also like to improve, so we aren’t just playing it to get out of class—we are playing it because we love the sport.”

Boys’ Tennis

Despite their position in a highly competitive league, the varsity boys’ tennis team has had about as many wins as losses thus far in the season, going 2-2 in League so far.

The team’s success is due in part to their teamwork built during the hours they’ve spent together during practices and games.

Sophomore Nikolas Olsson notices that as the team continues to practice together, the improvement becomes more and more apparent.

“We’ve started to really get our doubles teams together,” Olsson said. Junior William Park also firmly believes in the importance of building up experience more than anything else. “We’re learning a lot more from practices and losses than from actually winning, so I don’t really mind losing,” Park said.

For the players, fulfilling expectations during matches and challenging other players to maintain your positions can be difficult.

Park, however, has been able to find personal growth through his involvement on the tennis team. “[Tennis has] helped me redefine what trying my best is,” he said.

As for team goals this spring season, Coach Jim Gorman places an emphasis on increasing players’ skill level more than making it to Central Coastal Section (CCS) or beating other teams. “[At the end of the day] these guys are out here to improve every day, play better tennis, and if you do that, you get plenty of wins,” Gorman said. “If we lose to good teams, that’s no disgrace.”

Musaab Farooqui (9)

William Park (11)

Track and Field The season has just begun for the track and field team with an unfortunate loss in their first meet against Homestead. However, the team is still optimistic about the rest of the season. “Our team as a whole is a pretty young team right now,” sprints captain senior Zachary Englhardt said. “But that’s good because the freshman are getting the experience, so that bodes well for next year.”

With the graduation of many senior runners from last year, this season came with the challenges of change and transition. “Probably the biggest issue we’ve had from a competitive standpoint was a lot of our strong runners last year were seniors, so they’re gone,” Englhardt said. “It’s hard to just shift gears from having a team I’ve been running with for three years kind of turned all new.”

Track and field continues to train despite the first losses and the team being young and more inexperienced. “We’re hoping to get two or three wins out of the six for our varsity,” head coach Curtis Liang said. Liang also predicts that some individuals will perform well at CCS. “In terms of CCS prospects, we have a couple individuals we expect to do pretty well,” he said.

For Englhardt, being a part of the track team inspires and supports him to challenge himself. “You’re trying to run the best race that you can and I like it because it’s an environment where everyone is encouraging each other to do the best that they possibly can,” he said.

From left to right: Junior Jordan Tam jumps over a hurdle during a meet against Lynbrook High School on Wednesday; The girls’ lacrosse team piles onto the field in a match against Palo Alto High School on Tuesday; Swimmers dive into the pool at the beginning of a race during a meet against Monta Vista; Senior Aiden Levin slides into first base after a hit in a close game.

Softball The softball team kicked off the season with a record of 2-4 overall, and 1-0 in league. Senior Adele Colwell hopes to continue to improve over the course of the season, and to try and make it to CCS. “We want to do as best as we can in league and see if we can make it to CCS,” she said. “We also just want to have fun and play the sport we love.”

Colwell believes the team will do well this season, even though the team lost a lot of experienced players. “I am optimistic about the season. I think that if we can really put in 100 percent into our games and practices, then we will be able to be really successful,” she said. “We actually lost a lot of starters last year, so a lot of the people on the team now are new, or have not had a lot of experience in the position they are at. So we are all learning how to adjust to our new roles.”

Despite the inexperience, Colwell believes the team is really strong this year. “We have some really good hitters on this team; also our team chemistry is really great,” she said. “We are all close, which makes playing games and communicating a lot easier, and just more fun.”

The softball team’s next game is today against Milpitas High School, and Colwell has high hopes. “We want to do well in League this year, and hopefully just improve all aspects of our game,” she said.

Mary racz (10)

Friday, March 31, 2017

17

the start of their season Baseball

Diving

With a new coach and new members, the dive team is off to a great season. Coach Douglas Ward has been coaching diving for around seven years; he decided to take on the role for Gunn’s team primarily because of his daughter. “For some strange reason, she has become interested in diving,” Ward said.

“The coach at Gunn said he won’t be able to coach this year. He and I have been friends for the last year and a half and he’s been telling me to do it. Finally, my daughter said to do it. When your daughter says you have to do it, you have to do it.”

To sophomore Caroline Liu, the dive team was a chance for her to get back into water sports. “I used to be on the swim team but I became allergic to chlorine so I stopped,” Liu said. “I didn’t do swimming for a long time and I thought if I started swimming again, I would be too slow.” After her allergy went away, Liu decided that diving was a good alternative as she didn’t have enough time to join the swim team.

While most of the divers are beginners, senior Marisa Agarwal has been in the team for all four years and loves the sport. “I have been diving for nine years and I dive because it’s a really unique sport,” Agarwal said. “You get experience you don’t get from other sports like tumbling through the air and doing twists, especially when you get to a higher level where you can start doing flips, which give exhilarating, weightless sensations.”

Ward has two goals for the team. One is to fully assist the varsity divers. “I need to support them in whatever way I can,” Ward said. “That may mean they might need to practice at Stanford or have to study for Chemistry Honors.” For the beginners, his goal is to give them as much practice time as possible to improve their diving and give them a positive and fun team experience.

Although it is a challenging sport, diving can be filled with funny and embarrassing moments which add to the fun. “During one of our dive meets, all the swimmers were watching us,” Agarwal said. “I went up to do a dive that I normally Naya lee (10) do perfectly fine and I smacked super hard flat on my belly. There were waves throughout the pool and everyone all looked at me and it was the most embarrassing thing.”

With the baseball season progressing, the team currently has a record of 3-6-1. The team was off to a rough start this season due to absent players. “We have a really good team, but we’ve lost a lot of kids to injuries—we were missing kids at the beginning of the year for basketball and lots of kids have been out because of illness,” junior Casey Cheng said.

The team, however, has a very tight-knit dynamic and great student leaders. “Our team has three seniors that provide strong leadership,” Coach John Harney wrote in an email. “[Senior] David Clarke is one of the best pitchers in our league and has been outstanding.

[Senior] Josh Radin has been crushing the ball and has provided a lot of our offense. [Senior] Charlie Racz has been playing great offensively and defensively but has been out with an injury recently. “ Despite recent losses, Cheng believes that the team can still turn things towards victory. “We could definitely do well and win our league—we could definitely turn it around and play CCS,” he said. Beating Gunn’s cross-town rival is also something the players are focusing on. “We do play Palo Alto High School over spring break and even though it’s not a league game it would definitely be a big win for us,” Cheng said.

Badminton

The badminton team is enjoying early success, with a record of 4-2. Coach Marc Tsukakoshi believes that the team will do well the rest of the season based on their performance so far. “We played some of the stronger teams,” he said. “We haven’t played enough matches to get the full The swimming team is off to a strong start following the boys’ picture, but overall the team looks quite strong.” team’s Central Coast Section (CCS) championship win last year Varsity captain Ken Zhu hopes to end the season and the girls’ team’s second-place finish. Although the with a high ranking in the Santa Clara Valley Athboys’ team lost many seniors, varsity girls’ team capletic League (SCVAL). “[We beat] Lynbrook, tain Grace Tai is confident they will rebuild. “A lot of [which] historically has been a consistently freshmen came up and that helps the team,” strong team,” he said. “[Lynbrook has] also Tai said. “As for the girls, we’ve been beaten Saratoga and Paly already. So we might rebuilding and our team is still pretty be able to take first or second in SCVAL this year.” small. But we didn’t lose that many Tsukakoshi says that this year’s team boasts expeople last year, so I think we’re on track perienced players from all grades. “We have strong to do better this season than we did in the last.” events across the board; in some years, certain Besides an increase in team bonding events, like events are not as strong, but this year we have a team breakfast after Saturday practice, Tai would like to good base of players from every grade,” he said. see more involvement in competitions. “One of my biggest Sophomore Emily Chang believes that the goals for the team is for no one to miss events since, when you team is very tight-knit. “You get to know a lot of miss events, you’re kind of throwing away points,” Tai said. people,” she said. “You get really close to people.”

Swim coach Mark Hernandez is in his 20th season of coachZhu agreed and added that teammates are ing, and although he enjoys the challenges coaching brings, he good at encouraging fellow teammates. “At the has taken a few steps back since the arrival of head swim coach meets [and] at the competitions, we cheer for Kyle Accornero in 2015. “I think he’s more detail-oriented than each others’ games,” he said. “We bring each I was—he’s got a more specific area of focus and as far as last other food. It’s a very supportive environment.” year to this. I think he has raised expectations,” HerOne of Coach Tsukakoshi’s goals for the seanandez said. “There was a period of , ‘Okay, we have son is for all players, even the experienced ones, to get used to how we’re doing things,’ and now that to learn something new. “I am really hoping that everyone’s sort of used to how we do things, he’s able to the team is able to mesh well,” he said. “I know go different places with the same principles.” badminton is often an individual sport, [but] The end of the season, however, is bittersweet for I’m hoping that people are able to learn from the seniors. “Sometimes, I still feel like a freshman on the each other and also be a little bit humble, team, but it’s definitely nostalgic looking back,” Tai said. “I and of course, get a better understandwas looking at the schedule and realizing that there ing—maybe a little bit more fun—with are only two or three more home meets.” Seeing Oscar Chou (10) badminton in general.” the seniors graduate is bittersweet for Hernandez, as well. “They have been champions many times over, and they’re Photos by Butch Garcia, Max Wang, Richard Yu and Andy Zhou going to take with them a lot of experience and a lot of exuberance —Written by Sohini Ashoke, Sabrina Chen, Elizaand a lot of pride in the program,” Hernandez said. “I’m going to beth Chung, Deiana Hristov, Prachi Kale, Amanda Lee, Evalyn Li, Ariel Pan, Chelsie Park and Caroline Ro really miss that about them.”

Swimming

Boys’ Golf

The boys’ varsity golf team currently has a 2-3 record, securing a win against Homestead and Los Altos but losing to Palo Alto and Los Gatos twice. Junior captain Andy Zhou is confident that despite the two losses so far, the team is getting better. “We have a far deeper team this year with five new players coming onto the team, two of which are freshmen who have really taken up solid spots as starters,” Zhou said.

Led by English teacher Marc Igler, the golf team always has fun together no matter what. “My favorite aspect of the team is that we are all really close,” Zhou said. “We don’t keep any secrets from each other, especially on the van rides.”

Whether they are hitting balls on the driving range, having putting contests or just talking together, the boys never fail to enjoy the experience of being on a team. “It’s always fun practicing with everyone on the team,” sophomore Andy Zhou (11) Jake Humble said.

The team last made CCS in 2014, when Zhou was a freshman. He hopes to make CCS again this year.

18

Sports

Do you lift, bro: Students share weightlifting motivation Tone Lee Lifestyle Editor Walking into junior year, Felix Bammer weighed 140 pounds. By the time senior year started, Bammer weighed 185 pounds. This increase in body mass was a result of his Friday nights spent alone at the gym. “I lifted at least five times a week, roughly two hours every day,” Bammer said. “After working out, my diet shot up, and I began eating more, but also I began fiending to go to the gym. You could say I am a gym rat.”

Struggling early throughout high school, Bammer attempted to find different sources of stress relief for himself. He tried reading, playing video games and spending time with friends, but none of the three helped and he began to plummet to a low point in his life. The steady stress and pressure from school began to affect him, and he knew he needed a lifestyle change. That was when his friend, junior Kabir Gill, introduced him to the gym.

“After a few days at the gym, I was hooked,” Bammer said. “I had no idea how much impact the gym would have on me. I had no clue that something as simple as lifting weights would change the trajectory of my life. I was at such a low point, but through weight lifting, I managed to get out of the hole and ultimately live a happier and more positive life.”

As Bammer continued to put in hours at the gym, his muscle mass began to increase. Along with his strengthened body, he noticed a positive change in his life. “I was a lot happier mentally and physically,” Bammer said.

Currently, Bammer is the co-president and founder of the Lifting Club at Gunn.

“Weight lifting has definitely had a positive impact on my life, and it is something I cherish and recommend greatly,” Bammer said. “I definitely intend to continue lifting for as long as I can.”

While Bammer lifts weights for personal gains, others pursue it in order to perform better at their sport.“I started weightlifting in the spring because of throws,” junior Julia Laws said.

In throws, a field event, participants have to use their strength to throw a given object as far as possible. In order to build more muscle mass and power, Laws had to begin weightlifting. She lifts for an hour or more Monday through Friday.

“I like the fact that you can continuously push yourself and that you can see the results physically,” Laws said. “You have to be ready to push yourself to do a lot of reps and power through.”

After hours and hours spent lifting weights, Laws began to see her work pay off at her track meets. Originally, she started off with a personal best of approximately 25 feet in shotput and 45 feet in discus. Now, after her experience in weight lifting, she can shotput almost 29 feet and throw nearly 80 feet in discus. “You definitely see the improvements when you push yourself to do better and choose to add more weight,” Laws said.

“Weightlifting is just another part of having an active lifestyle, and I just love it.”

Currently, Laws is in her junior track season, and intends to continue weightlifting. “Right now, I plan on lifting until the end of high school,” Laws said.

Photos by Vibha Arun

Staffers critique various protein supplements Taste o’ Meter Clif builder’s protein: chocolate peanut butter This bar was definitely the best of the ones I tried—you get 20g of protein for 280 cal, so it’s not a surprise that it’s better—but it was still disgusting. It genuinely tasted like peanut butter and chocolate, but the aftertaste was of stale peanuts (the chocolate initially managed to cover that up). I wouldn’t eat it willingly.

Lucerne protein plus Milk

2.5/5

2/5

Muscle pharm Combat Crunch: Combat Crunch was named best protein bar by bodybuilding.com, and it gets stellar reviews by almost everyone. It claims to be “Clean. Innovative. Delicious!” It was awful.

It had a nice crunch at first, but was extremely chewy in the middle. It tasted fake—definitely not like cookie dough.

Muscle Milk

2/5

1.5/5

questbar: S’mores This bar is a great option if you hate yourself. I have no idea who thought that this tastes like s’mores, but it definitely doesn’t. The texture and the taste resemble mass-manufactured, compressed baby food.

The taste just gets worse as time passes. However, you do get 20g of protein for only 180 calories, one gram of sugar and a lot of regret.

This drink was definitely the most bearable of the three. The milk had a smooth consistency and tasted close enough to vanilla. Despite passing in the flavor category, there are many nutritional faults in this drink. With the use of artificial sweeteners and extreme processing, your body won’t be benefiting from this product.

The flavor was the worst thing about the Muscle Milk. The drink tasted nothing like the advertised “vanilla creme,” and instead took on the flavor of expired milk. The thick consistency also contributed to the bad-milk vibe. After finishing the bottle, I saw no gain in muscle mass despite the 20g of protein and misleading product name.

orgain organic Nutrition Complete protein Shake

1/5

0.5/5

The Orgain shake was terrible. I’m not sure if the wet sand consistency or chalky taste was worse. You can taste the organicness as you choke down the terrible USDA certified liquid.

If somehow you force yourself to ingest all 11 fluid ounces, you’ll be rewarded with 16 grams of protein.

Graphics by Sherry Chen, Cheryl Kao and Jackie Lou

—Compiled by Clara Kieschnick-Llamas and Aleks Tycz

Sports

Friday, March 31, 2017

19

Senior Terrence Wu ranks first in nation for badminton Julia Cheunkarndee Reporter

Senior Terrence Wu represented the United States at the Pan-American Junior Badminton Championships and Badminton World Federation World Junior Championships last year. Today, he is ranked as the best badminton player within the under-19 age division in the U.S. Wu moved from China to California in 2016. He picked up the sport at an early age, and when Wu was 7, his parents noticed his enjoyment of the sport and signed him up to play in a club. “Every time, even if it

[was] rainy and I had some excuses, my mom would just push me to go to the team and train,” Wu said.

Wu placed second at the 2014 China National High School Tournament. Last year, Wu’s club team also placed third at the Pan-American Championships in Peru, and 14th at World Junior Championships in Spain. Now, Wu is preparing for the upcoming Junior International Trials in April. He will be competing in the trials to try out for the U.S. National Team.

Wu practices badminton every day and every week. This commitment has lasted

Courtesy of Terrence Wu

Terrence Wu smashes the birdie at the 2016 World Junior Championships in Spain.

Club connects sports lovers together through interactions Eric Epstein Reporter

The Sports Basement Club is a new club that meets on Fridays and on days with special sporting events in the Innovation Lab. The club is centered around the current happenings in the world of sports. “We usually talk about current events in sports which may be the NFL Super Bowl or [College Basketball] March Madness or something like that,” club president junior Sean Lin said.

Trivia games are a common activity in the weekly Sports Basement club meetings.

“Sometimes we have a Kahoot, and it’s a classic,” Lee said. Club vice president junior Eli Tannenwald also enjoys the sports trivia. “We’ll do sports Kahoot or sports Jeopardy quite often,” Tannenwald said.

Sports Basement also features spirited debriefs and conversations. “We do a lot of sports discussions and sports debates,” Tannenwald said.

Sometimes these discussions are very passionate, according to Lin. “Sports Basement gets really loud sometimes, because people get really heated while discussing their favorite teams,” Lin said. “As president, I have to mediate discussions to make sure it doesn’t get too intense.” Despite this, Lin sees the passionate way members express themselves as a good addition to the club. “My favorite part of Sports Basement is the enthusiasm that people bring to the club because they love sports so much,” Lin said.

Club member junior Anton Lee enjoys having his friends in the club. “We all come toget her and have fun,” Lee said. “It’s basically meant for our friends. We all come together and talk sports.”

The club is tailored for serious sports fans, but people who loosely follow sports are welcome as well. “It’s pretty casual, good if you like sports at all and good if you like to discuss your opinions with people,” Tannenwald said. “It’s always Max Wang fun, we have food, we have Members of the Sports Basement Club tune in to prizes. It’s just a fun time March Madness to catch the end of a close match. overall.”

since he was in elementary school. Often, he plays an average of 18 hours per week. Wu plays on both the Gunn badminton team and an outside club team, where each training can last for two or three hours. Despite the long hours, however, Wu enjoys training and making friends.

Adjustment to the Gunn team was stressful for Wu at first since he didn’t know anyone on the team.

However, coach Marc Tsukakoshi and the rest of the team helped him settle in. “Ever since I joined, everyone has been very nice to me,” Wu said. “If I don’t know something, they try to introduce it to me.”

Wu’s club team coach Holvy de Pauw also began coaching Wu this year. Under de Pauw’s training, Wu has placed first in both the under-19 Boys’ Singles at the Bintang Regional Tournament and the Open Men’s Singles at a tournament in UC Berkeley. “I’m very proud of him,” de Pauw said. “He’s very committed and passionate [in] everything that he does.”

For Wu, his ranking as the number one player in his age division doesn’t change his mindset. “I just keep going,” he said.

“I don’t care about being number one, because in badminton, you won’t always win.

Sometimes you’ll lose. It’s not the important thing to show your level.” Rather, he believes that winning every tournament he can is of higher importance.

Moving forward, Wu hopes to finish his last year at the Junior International Trials and then compete at the Olympics if given the chance.

20

Lifestyle

Students showcase their unique pets Junior Christina Boo Perez: Pig TO: Where did you get your pig from?

Christina Perez: I got him from Oroville, a town an hour away from Tahoe.

TO: How do you take care of him and how much money does it cost?

CP: We have a pig pen for him in the house for the night and if he is being good, he will sleep with me.

He roams in our backyard in the day.

We basically feed him whatever we are eating because pigs are human dumpsters. It takes [around] $50 a month to pay for his litter and dry food.

The Oracle: Why do you like pigs?

CP: Pigs are incredibly intelligent animals, so I thought it would be really fun to own one. Also, they are

really cute.

TO: What’s your story behind owning a pig?

CP: I had seen a ton of videos on Instagram of teacup pigs and they looked so adorable and made people so happy, so I asked my parents if I could get one.

TO: What was your motive to get a pig?

CP: I thought it would be really fun to own a pig due to the fact that they are so intelligent and you can teach them so many different tricks.

TO: How do people react to your pet?

CP: When they see him, they freak out because he is so cute!

TO: Any funny stories?

CP: Pigs make very weird noises and can replicate almost any sound they hear so sometimes there will be tiny barks or screams from the cage and they are always hilarious.

So p h o mo re Je n n a Kaplan: Gecko The Oracle: What is your gecko, PJ, like to take care of?

JK: She’s pretty low maintenance.

Every night, I take her out for anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour.

Every other night is her feeding night, so I feed her anywhere from five to eight mealworms depending on how hungry she is. I have to clean her terrarium once a week, so every Saturday, I just change the lining, and spray her towels every evening to keep her moist.

TO: Do you consider her a part of your family?

JK: I don’t count her as the fifth member of our household just yet, but whenever people talk about their family, they’re like, "Oh, I have a dog," [and] I’m like "I have a gecko!"

TO: Tell me about your gecko.

Stephy Jackson

Sophomore Jenna Kaplan's gecko, PJ, rests on her shirt.

I have a pretty big family. I live with seven animals: my twin, my two little sisters, my parents and, until he moved to college, my big brother. One of the results of this living situation is that everyone in my family wanted a pet, or multiple pets of their own.

That's how I ended up with 10 pets in my house.

Our family started out with getting cats; the lazy, selfish reflections of ourselves in the body of a fluffy creature. We’ve had Lucky, a big fluffy Maine Coon cat, for five years. Lucky is a free spirit who acts as if he is the king of the household and often knows when you are occupied with homework, so he takes the opportunity to sit directly on whatever worksheet you are trying to complete. Then, my mom randomly decided to adopt a three-legged cat, Jessem, who was hit by a truck and has brain disfunction. Jessem is crazy, and he will not stop wailing until you give him attention. He occasionally flops and wobbles his way into the kitchen until you agree to feed him.

However, my family has too many energetic, loving personalities that can’t be satisfied with the apathetic characters of my cats, so we got our dog, Ginger. Since Ginger is so cute, the seven members of our family can’t resist feeding her snacks or meals.

Evidently, this has caused our beloved Golden Retriever to become quite obese and very sluggish. She will often be lying down and spot a squirrel in the distance; however, after getting up and preparing to charge, she soon realizes that she is in no shape to run, so she lays back down again. However, her sizable belly can’t compare to her big heart.

Cats and dogs are fairly mainstream for the typical family; however, my family has had a collection of reptiles and rodents as well. Currently, we have a snake that lives in my room. Technically, we have many snakes in my family, including myself, but in this situation, I am referring to the long limbless reptile, not a cold-blooded human being. My snake's name is Slithery (I know, the name is very creative), and he is a corn-snake. A question that I get asked is “Since he's a corn-snake, does he eat corn?” No. He eats mice. Dead frozen mice from the freezer every week.

The pet that I actually asked for was my tortoise, whose name is Sir. PoJo Populous. Don’t ask me why I named him this: I just did, okay? Anyway, Sir. Pojo Populous lives in our front yard and the funny thing about this tortoise is that he likes to hibernate for months at a time during the winter. The first year we had him, he suddenly disappeared from the yard.

During that time, I had just assumed that a hawk had carried him away and I regularly forgot that I had a tortoise at all. In March last year, he reappeared, but from that day on, I still forget that I have a tortoise living in my front yard.

I also have a bearded dragon lizard whose name is Spiky. He looks kind of like the dinosaur from the original Jurassic Park movie, with the spiky crown of skin that spreads around its face when it gets angry. That also happens with Spiky, which is why we named him that (another very creative name).

My least favorite pet in my house is the rodent that my two little sisters love for some reason. This rodent is a hamster—the ugliest hamster one can ever lay eyes on, in my opinion. His name is Fuzz-Fuzz.

Why is he so ugly? Well, he’s been getting old lately, and one of the side effects of age for a hamster is the rapid loss of the fur. Right now, we’ve got a hairless hamster who looks like he's been turned inside-out, or like one of those naked mole-rats. So, Fuzz-Fuzz is no longer fuzzy any more.

So yeah, that’s all of ‘em, folks: Lucky, the cat with an ego the size of a diabetic walrus; Jessem, the survivor; Ginger, the fat sweetheart; Slithery, the snake; Spiky, the prehistoric lizard; and Fuzz-Fuzz, the inside-out hamster. And with my seven family members, we are all one big happy family.

—Compiled by Jenny Gao, Ariel Pan and Shannon Yang.

—Jackson, a sophomore, is a reporter.

Sophomore Allen Su: B e a rd e d D ra g o n s

Sophomore Allen Su's bearded dragons Short-tail and Longtail climb over Su's shoulders.

From snakes to cats: living with 10 pets

The Oracle: What are the names of your beaded dragons?

Allen Su: One of them has a shorter tail because the other one bit off her tail. My brother and I were just like, let’s call one of them Short-tail and the other Long-tail, so that’s what they’ve been kind of called ever since. The third one is named Groudon.

TO: Why did you choose to get this pet?

AS: I originally wanted a dog or cat like a lot of other kids, but my mom said that there wasn’t enough space in our house. [So we ended up getting] these bearded dragons because when we got to the pet shop, they said that they were really easy to take care of. I can kind of tell why, because you just leave them in their cage, and they’re still fine and they can pretty much eat almost anything.

Jenna Kaplan: My unusual pet is a leopard gecko named PJ. We adopted her from the humane society in Burlingame in November because I’ve been wanting a leopard gecko ever since the third grade, and finally convinced my mom that they’re a lot easier to take care of than a dog.

TO: Why did you want a leopard gecko so badly? How did your interest develop?

JK: Someone who I knew in elementary school brought his leopard geckos to school and I thought that they were just the coolest things in the world, and ever since then, I’ve been really wanting a leopard gecko. And in seventh grade, I ran the snake club, where I became really interested in reptiles, especially snakes, and I learned a lot about them, but my mom’s deathly afraid of snakes, so we settled on a lizard.

Junior Christina Boo Perez smiles ear-to-ear with her teacup pig, Buddy, for the camera.

TO: How do people usually react to the bearded dragons?

AS: There’s usually like two reactions. One is usually like, “Oh, that’s cool,” and they just want to pet it [or] touch it. Then, the other one is absolute, complete terror, and that usually happens with people’s moms.

They’ll see it and they’re like, “Oh, that’s disgusting! It’s dirty!” and they’ll scream and try to get it away from them.

TO: What are some funny stories?

AS: So these two are female—what they’ll do is, every April or so, they’ll start to lay eggs. When I was really little—I was 8 or 9—and we just got these, they laid eggs, and I was like, “Wow, these look really cool,” so I picked one up and set it on the log to get my brother and my dad. Just looking at it, I thought it was kind of cute—like they’re trying to take care of their eggs—and then they ate it. They were eating it, and I was so traumatized. I was like, “What, why would they eat their own eggs?”

Photos courtesy of Christina Perez, Allen Su and Jenna Kaplan.

LIFESTYLE

Friday, March 31, 2017

21

In search of fun, sneaky prank call backfIres few years ago, it was pril , and I was bored as usual. ore specifically, I was at an “Asian” party––a place where around 100 kids run around wildly while the parents drink wine. Because I was civilized and classy, and therefore didn’t want to run around wildly like the rest of the squad, I—as the polite little girl I was—decided to prank call some unknown people.

I didn t have a phone at the time, so I asked a five-year-old if she could get her mom’s phone. Of course, she succeeded. I felt accomplished already––I had obtained the only piece of material I needed for this wonderful prank. I typed in random numbers and pressed call. I don’t remember what numbers I pressed, but let’s assume it was 589-023-5872. Also, it is important to mention that at the time, I was unaware of the *67 trick, so the caller had the girl’s mom’s number. Here’s how it went: Voice on the phone: “Hello?”

Me, in my most manly voice: “Hi. This is Pizza New York. I just wanted to confirm your order of four large pizzas two cheese and two pepperoni, three large sodas, two sets of breadsticks, a medium mushroom marinara pasta and extra packets of parmesan cheese on the side.”

Voice on the phone: “Sorry, wrong number.”

Me: “But your number is 589-023-5872 right?”

Voice (in a panicked tone): “Well, I did not order that. Goodbye.”

Me: “Would you like the cancel your order? The cancellation fee is $20.”

Voice: “What? I did not order it.”

Me: “Let me get my manager.”

At that point, I was laughing too hard to talk. So, I found a guy at the Asian party and told him to pretend to be a manager.

Random guy: “Hi, I’m the manager.”

Voice: “This is ridiculous. I’m going to call you back later.”

The person hung up, and I was bored again. I texted the number and said that the $20 cancelation fee was going to become $40 if she didn’t cancel now. e then started a huge fight over te t, and things were getting out of control. Suddenly, I had a huge realization. This wasn’t my phone––it was a mom’s phone at the party! What was she going to do if she read the texts or if the lady called back?

I told my parents that I really needed to go home, so we madly dashed out. I even forgot to text the lady to say April Fool’s! To this day, I still don’t know what happened, and I never will. If you want to learn one thing from reading this (and not feel like you wasted three minutes of your life), you should remember to always press *67 before you prank call someone.

—Written by Sabrina Chen

Wacky April Fool’s pranks offer knee-slapping laughs A Wet Surprise

Deceiving Moldreo

The pranks that involve doors are endless. You can heat up the door handle to leave the target with a warm surprise. You can glue the door handle so your target’s hand will be stuck to the door.

However, the greatest door prank is definitely the bucket-of-water prank. With a few materials, careful planning and a little luck, anyone can pull one off. A classic door prank involving a bucket of water is sure to produce many laughs.

Materials: 1. Door 2. Step stool 3. Bucket 4. Water 5. Sense of balance 6. Mop Preparation: Make sure that the target is busy in another room before preparing the prank. Have a friend distract the target, so that the target won’t accidentally walk in while you’re setting up. Next, select a doorway that the target often passes through such as a bedroom or bathroom. After you have observed the target’s favorite doorways to walk under, fill a bucket a little over halfway with water and carefully balance it on top of the door. Slowly close the door until the bucket is touching the top of the door frame, and carefully move away.

Execution: Call the unsuspecting victim to your location.

Be sure not to arouse any suspicion by laughing prematurely. Move away from the crime scene so that the victim won’t suspect you and also so that you won’t be in the splash zone.

Reaction: Watch as the bucket of water comes crashing down onto your shocked and very soaked victim. Proceed to laugh at the victim, and then kindly hand them a mop to clean up.

As tasty, wholesome snacks enjoyed by all ages, Oreos are undeniably one of the most popular cookies in America. With so many people at the mercy of the two-toned, cream-filled confections, a world of Oreo-themed pranks opens up. One of such is the “Moldreo,” a moldy-looking Oreo whose name was endearingly dubbed by a select handful of practical joke connoisseurs.

With April Fool’s right around the corner, it might just be time to join in.

Materials: 1. One box of Oreos that come in a tray 2. Green food coloring 3. Flour 4. Someone who likes Oreos 5. Patience 6. An artist’s eye for mold spores Preparation: To avoid suspicion, bring actual snacks and share them with your target for at least a few days in advance. Choose a good time to sit down, and use food coloring drops to color the fillings of the Oreos. Bring up a picture of mold to get it as realistic as possible. Dust a generous amount of flour on the chocolate cookie portion and add a light touch of food coloring to it. Be sure to keep the packaging in good shape.

Keep some normal Oreos to give out to lull the victim into a false sense of security before you strike like a cobra. Put the “moldy” cookies in the very back of the tray, and seal everything up.

Execution: Offer Oreos to your victim. Keep up an air of gentle camaraderie and innocence.

Gift the box after a bit and leave. Allow them to discover the Moldreos on their own. It’s a spiritual experience.

Reaction: If all goes well, your wonderfully crafted mold spots should fool the target for a solid few seconds and elicit disgust. Of course, pranks don’t always go perfectly, but with this one, you can, at the very least, get some Oreos out of it.

—Written by Aleks Tycz

—Written by Megan Li

Jellofied Object

Anyone who has ever watched “The Office” knows about Jim Halpert’s hilarious tendency to prank his unamused co-worker, Dwight Schrute.

The most famous of the myriad of pranks throughout the show is when Jim puts Dwight’s possessions in a giant bowl of jello. This is a fantastic prank, as the execution is simple, the result is harmless and it is guaranteed to elicit quite a few laughs.

Materials: 1. An obnoxious amount of jello. You will want at least 10 packets. In all likelihood, this will be the most jello that you and your victim have ever seen at one time.

2. One large bowl 3. Object to set in the jello Preparation: Obtain the object you wish to set in the jello.

Bonus points if they didn’t notice that you took it.

To make the jello, follow the recipe on the box and multiply the ingredients by however many boxes of jello you have. Pour the liquid jello into the large bowl and let it cool for one hour in the refrigerator. Place your victim’s object in the jello.

After one hour, the jello will be thick. Let the jello set with the object in it for another two to three hours. Make sure that your victim does not open the refrigerator and uncover the prank prematurely.

Execution: Replace the jello-fied object back where it usually goes. Ideally, your victim has not even noticed that the object is missing yet. Wait for your victim to discover his or her unpleasantly sweet surprise. Be ready with a camera to capture the victim’s reaction and save it for eternity.

Reaction: If everything goes according to plan, your victim will go through many emotions over the course of the prank. Firstly, he or she will be shocked, and then that shock will grow into confusion. Once your victim figures out the prank, his or her confusion will meld into amusement.

—Written by Eric Epstein Graphics by Cheryl Kao and Elizabeth Zu

22

LIFESTYLE

Spring Musical: 'The Music Man' prepares for debut Anyi Cheng Forum Editor The classic tale where the nice young lady falls in love with the handsome criminal is nothing new, but “The Music Man” manages to weave in a bright streak of comedy to complement the sappy romance. This spring, Gunn’s Performing Arts Department will be putting on a performance of the iconic musical, with theatre teacher James Shelby at its head.

The protagonist’s name is Harold Hill and—surprise—he is a con man. Hill makes his living by conning the hapless civilians of rural towns into paying him for giving their children music lessons, then hightailing out of town before following through on his promised lessons. Naturally, Hill knows nothing about music. He ultimately finds himself in a dilemma when he brings his con to River City, Iowa where he falls in love with good-girl librarian Marian Paroo. “Harold Hill is an incredibly sharp, charismatic and surreptitious guy, who is capable of using charm and wit to get himself out of any sticky situation,” senior Andres Goldzmidt, who plays Hill, said.

Paroo is played by senior Victoria Stevens. “She's passionate about progressive ideals, loves reading and music and she refuses to be discounted,” Stevens said. "It's been incredible being Marion! I've loved working with Andres who is freaking incredible at everything he does."

Senior Barry Bai, who plays Hill’s archnemesis Charlie Cowell, has worked on developing his character through intensive character studies. “My character has a huge presence on stage, so my goal is to create the most interesting and memorable character with an enormous ego and determination,” he said. “One thing I certainly do to prepare for a role is finding other interesting people [who] I think share the same traits or personality [as] my character, and watch the way they behave, and hopefully absorb something from it.”

Bai also watches the performances of actors who have played similar roles; in particular, he cited Johnny Depp and Keith Richard as his muses. “I think both men have such mesmerizing presences and I'm working to work towards

transforming myself into someone with as much swagger as them," he said. “I think that'll be perfect for Charlie.”

When “The Music Man” was first announced as the spring musical, Stevens admits to initially feeling disappointed about the choice. “I didn't know anything about ‘The Music Man’ other than that it was a classic and people tended to either love or hate it for some reason,” she said.

However, she quickly grew into her role and changed her opinion on the show. “As time went on I really fell in love with it and my role,” she said. “It's cheesy to say, but some things are classic for a reason. Everything about the process and getting into character has been ethereal, honestly.”

Goldzsmidt had a similar series of reactions to the show and is now confident that putting on “The Music Man” is a good choice. “All I knew about the show was that it was old, and I just wanted to do something fun and contemporary,” he said. “However, after watching the movie and listening to the soundtrack, I kind of fell in love. The music is really addicting, and it's a hilarious, heartwarming story.”

The original script was not perfect. Shelby adjusted certain scenes in order to remove racism and other unacceptable implications from the original show, which first opened in 1957. According to Goldzsmidt, one scene in particular was modified because it stereotyped Native American culture. “That kind of ignorance and disrespect isn't something that Mr. Shelby or Gunn Theatre want to support, especially considering the truly horrifying history of Native American oppression in our country,” he said.

"We took some artistic liberties, and the scene is now much funnier and not racist."

Stevens agrees that the scene has been changed for the better. “We've had a lot of discussion on why certain scenes or numbers are or are not okay and how we can make them better and more palatable to modern audiences,” she said.

Bai believes that ultimately, the show will be an enormous success. “We've invested in a huge cast this year and all the actors are slowly syncing together to create such a vivid show,” he said. “I think this show is a must watch because it is the sweet fruit of Gunn's many great talents clashing together, which is a guaranteed great show!”

Photos by Max Wang

Top: Sophomore Olivia Stanghellini and senior Miranda Liu feign shock as they see senior Andres Goldzmidt. Bottom: Actors in "The Music Man" line up in rehearsal, taking orders from senior Andres Goldzmidt.

Come see 'The Music Man'

When: April 19 at 7 p.m. (opening gala), April 20 at 7:30 p.m., April 21 at 7:30 p.m., April 22 at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., April 23 at 2 p.m.

Where: Palo Alto High School Performing Arts Center, 50 Embarcadero Rd., Palo Alto.

SOURCES OF STRENGTH: Advice Column Question: I don't feel like my family supports me because they constantly focus on my bad grades. What should I do?

It’s a challenging situation to navigate when you feel like your parents are only focused on your grades. It is understandable to feel like they are only focused on your faults and therefore they don’t support you—all of which makes it harder to get your grades back up!

As hard as it is, trying to understand where your parents are coming from can make the discussion easier. Most parents are concerned about getting better grades because they care about you and your future. The challenge is for you to express these feelings to your parents so that they see where you are coming from and you can all work toward a solution. You might begin by acknowledging that your grades are lower and that it concerns you, too. Conversations with parents can be difficult, but if they know you are trying to have a respectful and mature conversation with them about this issue, they may be more likely to be understanding and sympathetic towards your feelings. This conversation is likely to make an impact on the way they treat you in the future.

Here are some tips that might help you have this conversation. Ask your parents to set up a time when everyone is calm and explain how you are feeling about the situation. Try to use I statements, such as “I feel” instead of “you make me feel” in order to keep the conversation from becoming defensive. For example you might say, “When I get bad grades, I already feel guilty. When you tell me it’s bad, I feel even worse, and that makes it harder to concentrate and do better work. In the future, when I get a bad grade, could you try to just be there for me because I am trying my hardest and I need you to be there to give me hope that I can do better." Acknowledging that your grades aren’t where they should be will show them that you are aware and that you already care about doing better. Another helpful tip may be to have the conversation in a neutral time and space.

It’s important to have relationship with your parents that goes both ways. These suggestions may make it easier to talk about hard subjects with your parents in the future, as well.

Brainstorming some solutions before you begin can help show your parents you are already making effort and it may go a long way in their seeing you trying to work this out. If you feel that this conversation may be too difficult, you can also talk to your counselor or other trusted adult to strategize your conversation.

Hopefully this was helpful. Good luck!

The Sources of Strength column is a joint effort between the The Oracle, Gunn Advice Sources, Stanford child psychiatrist Moira Kessler and Gunn school counselor Cora Ross. Kessler and Ross are offering feedback to students based on their professional expertise. However, they are not providing any clinical services.

If a student, you or someone you know is in need of immediate support at school, reach out to a trusted adult, or visit the Counseling Office or Wellness Center. If you are in crisis outside of school, the Crisis Text Line is a free, 24/7 support service. Text "Connect" to 741741 to text with a trained Crisis Counselor.

If you are interested in submitting a non-urgent question for a future column, please fill out a form in the Wellness Center or Counseling Office, or use the following link: http://tinyurl. com/gunnadvice.

Friday, March 31, 2017

23

Students show off edgy spring fashion Sophomore libbey Castleman sports her vintage glasses, Nike jacket, striped shirt and shorts.

Compiled by Stephy Jackson

Junior Paulo Frank flaunts his Topman shirt, grey PacSun jeans and hightop Vans.

Photos by Richard Yu

Junior Zoe McKeown rocks her 70s-inspired outfit by LAYERING HER CORDUROY DRESS WITH A shorter hem.

Forum

24

CLIMATE CHANGE IGNORANCE IS IRRESPONSIBLE Anyi Cheng and Maya Rapoport

Hand-in-hand with a rapid rise in consumerism are elements that perpetuate the deterioration of the planet’s environments at a rate far faster than many voters are aware of. What follows is a dangerously ignorant and passive approach to a global issue—one that will almost certainly result in catastrophic consequences that affect not just a few, but literally ever y person on the planet if citizens do not take action and politica l pa r t ie s c ont i nue to deny the existence of climate change.

Students

and educators alike are obligated to, first and foremost, understand that climate change is a real and pressing issue.

Furthermore, citizens must begin to act responsibly, not only changing their own lifestyles to minimize deleterious environmental impact but to also advocate and vote for municipal, state and federal policies that prioritize slowing climate change. Although such choices and actions will cost people time, effort and, in some cases, money, the results are crucial and already long overdue.

According to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), climate cha nge is defined as an overa ll change in t he E a r t h ’s climate. The greenhouse effect, in which gases such as water vapor, nitrous oxide, carbon dioxide and methane rise to the atmosphere and block heat from escaping, is one of the biggest causes of climate change.

According to NASA, the greenhouse effect is causing an annual increase in global temperature. Activities relatively recent in human history, such as the burning of fossil fuels, have increased the carbon dioxide buildup in atmosphere, aggravating the greenhouse effect. The increase in global temperature has caused oceans to become warmer and ice sheets and glaciers to melt. As a result, the sea level has been rising at a steady rate of 3.4

EAT FEWER COW PRODUCTS: over its lifetime, one cow produces close to 500 lb of methane.

millimeters per year, as reported by NASA. beef cattle. It is understandable if people are In addition to expanding oceans, climate unwilling to go entirely vegan or vegetarchange has caused an increase in drastic ian, but choosing chicken at Chipotle over natural events such as droughts and heat steak is an easy and small, yet significant waves. There has also been an increase in choice. The best way anyone can make an record high temperatures throughout impact is by making mindful, conscious the world and ocean acidificadecisions about their lifestyle and tion, impacting many sea behavior. Understanding the creatures. impact of any choice, from BUY FOOD Thus, it is evident leaving the air condiFROM LOCAL SOURCES: that climate change tioner on to grocery is a real and serious shopping will, in the shipping produce across issue. Politicallyend, make a difference. the country requires based denial of such In that same vein, it transit on some of the most a large-scale issue is crucial for students is absolutely unacto educate themselves fuel-inefficient vehicles ceptable, especially on policies affecting the available. among those who have environment and voice the ability to change their opinions. Although their habits and behaviors young adults tend to complain to alleviate the impending negaoften about social and political tive effects climate change will have on the issues on social media, to make globe. For example, at an individual level, a direct impact on government students have the power to alter even small policies surrounding the enaspects of their lifestyles to reduce the vironment, students should effects of climate change. By turning off vote responsibly once they their lights, unplugging electronics when are able to. fully charged or using cold water to wash —Cheng, a senior, is their clothes, students can limit their use a Forum Editor and of energy and electricity. To reduce their Rapoport, a senior, is individual carbon footprint, students can a reporter. carpool with friends, use public transportation or bike and walk. Students can also Tips compiled by reduce the amount of meat in their diet, Paulo Frank. as the meat industry has a large negative impact on the environment. In 2011, the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization stated in a report that nearly 40 percent of greenhouse gasses sourced from agriculture come directly from livestock, largely due to d a i r y cows a nd

DON’T PUT HOT FOOD IN THE FRIDGE: adding hot food to the fridge means it has to work even harder to keep the same low temperature.

Richard Yu Jackie Lou