Issue 3 2015-2016

The Eagle George Washington High School 600 32nd Ave, San Francisco, CA 94121 Issue ii. MARCH 18th, 2016 Website: gwhs.co Instagram: gwhsofficial Twitter: gwhs_official

Wash Volunteers, But Why? So many students volunteer, but is it truly because they find meaning behind it and genuinely want to do it? Or do they have other motives? In this issue, we delve into the incentives and motivations behind Washington’s desire to perform community service. for more, see pages 7-9

What’s Inside:

*photo courtesy of Heart In Motion*

Friend Groups at Washington

Throughout the years in high school, we meet new people and develop bonds with one another. In this issue, we feature a few of the many connections that have been made at Washington High School. for more, see page 5

Stop Misusing the Term Disability

Anna Bernick shares her personal experience dealing with a disability and her thoughts on what defines a disability.

for more, see page 11

Race Should Be Accounted for in College Admissions

The number of minority students at American universities still remains very low compared to Caucasian and Asian students. It is time to say “Enough is enough,” and give the disadvantaged a well deserved chance for a better future. for more, see page12

2 Features

The Eagle

Youth Comission: Anna Bernick Tells All

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BY ANNA BERNICK

ince I was a sophomore, my first and third Mondays of the month have gone a little differently than other Wash students. While many are relieved that the day is over, stressed over assignments, or just engrossed in their phones, the next big part of my day is just beginning. I’m on my way to City Hall as a part of the Youth Commission (YC).

YC is a government body consisting of 17 youth ages 12-23. Eleven are appointed by the Board of Supervisors while the remaining six (like myself) are appointed by Mayor Ed Lee himself. We advise the Board of Supervisors and make sure that the needs of SF youth are met no matter what.

When I first joined Youth Commission, it was a whole new experience for me: going to City Hall, having a role in local government, and having the chance to make a difference made me feel rather important.

The Civic Engagement Committee works on ensuring youth are given opportunities to be heard in local government and affairs. In our committees, there is normally one person who is the chair of the committee. I am the chair of the CEC, and, at the moment, we are mainly focusing on Vote 16, a charter amendment that would extend voting rights to 16 and 17 year olds in citywide elections. Vote 16 was originally a resolution drafted by former Commissioner Joshua Cardenas. All of us passed it unanimously and, since then, I’ve been in full support. In March, we held a rally which was covered by the media. We’ve also been meeting with city officials to get their support, which has mostly worked in

March 18, 2016

our favor. We already have four Supervisors backing us, as well as California State Assemblymember David Chiu and the entire Board of Education. I believe in Vote 16 because 16 and 17 year olds should be allowed to have a voice in their community. Starting to vote at age 16 would be easier because 18 is an age for transitions: graduating, heading off to college, leaving home and being on your own, etc. Adding voting to the mix is stressful for youth so they often just don’t register until they reach their mid 20s. This of course makes the already low voter turnout worse, especially if it happens to be a presidential election like this year. This is where Vote 16 comes in. If Vote 16 does end up on the ballot, I will personally drive all the way back to SF to vote for Vote 16.

That’s how important it is to me.

One of the many accomplishments of the YC is Free Muni For Youth. This happened before I was appointed, but I am aware of the tremendous impact it has had on the youth of SF. After all, they don’t have to worry about going on the bus without paying. To have that influence, that power, at first seems so thrilling. But, now I’ve gotten used to it. The Board of Supervisors are people too; they just have a power of authority.

What I love about being a part of YC is that I’m around other young people who are also interested in government and want to make a difference in our city. The experience has also allowed me to meet with people from the Board of Supervisors, the Board of Education, and even Mayor Lee himself. I’ve learned more about how San Francisco’s government really works as well as how to be more professional in a working environment. And, even after my final term ends in July, I plan to continue to work with the YC as an ally and advocate like the YCers of the past.

March 18, 2016

Teacher of the Issue:

Features 3

The Eagle

Alan Layug

“

went through a divorce. Michael had no safe place to stay, so he mentioned to Layug that he wanted to be adopted. Although adopting was not something he had originally planned to do, an empathetic Layug offered to adopt Michael, because he said that “all teachers call their students their ‘kids’ and they are like my kids.” Now all grown up, 32 year-old Michael graduated with a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Sacramento State, is married, and is living in Southern California.

Similarly, Leo, Layug’s middle child, was also a former student of his. At the time of the adoption, Leo was also going through family issues. Leo’s parents were having problems and wanted to move back to Korea; however, Leo wanted to stay in America. Layug offered to adopt Leo. “It’s not so much that I felt bad,” Layug explains, “but as a teacher you end up caring for the students and you bond with the students. Once you get to know the students and bond with them, it is sort of hard to separate.”

Because he was adopted, Leo was able to stay as a resident in America. Leo’s parents soon decided to move back to Korea and got a divorce. Leo, now 28, graduated from UC Davis as an English major and is currently working as a librarian at Berkeley.

During and after the adoption processes, Layug had family problems of his own. At the time, his now ex-wife and him would quarrel about whether Layug cared for his, 14 year old, biological daughter or his two adopted sons more. His ex-wife would often say, “blood is thicker than water”.

“Of course I loved all my kids equally,” said Layug. “I was never able to answer her... Family is not based on blood; you love people the way they are.”

Layug is now not only a single father of three and a teacher, but he’s also the leader of Eagle Service Society, and the dragon boat coach for our school. Layug often feels overwhelmed by these responsibilities. “I barely have any free time for myself. That is why, in the summer, I like traveling and getting away from things. Of course, it is overwhelming, especially when we were all living together. The [experience with adoptions and getting divorced] was crazy and then of course I try to make time for everybody,” he adds.

BY WINNIE ZHANG

My family’s a little different,” says history teacher Alan Layug, father of three, with a daughter of his own and two adopted children.

It all started about 14 years ago. Michael, a former student of Layug’s, was going through a hard time with family problems. Because Layug seemed to be an affable teacher, one day, Michael decided to approach Layug with his problems. After a month of talking to Michael, Layug offered him support. Long story short, Michael was being neglected and abused by his parents.

After hearing about Michael’s problems, Layug offered to let him stay over at his house for a weekend.

“It was weird [to offer him to stay over] but, based on his circumstances, what else could he do? In the beginning, I thought it was only temporary,” said Layug.

Soon, Michael began to stay over every weekend. As time went on, Layug and Michael eventually got closer by having long talks and then at some point, Michael mentioned, “I am actually closer to you than I am with my actual father.” By the end of Michael’s senior year, his parents

Venturing somewhere outside of school all equipped with your Lunchables or packed lunch was the epitome of excitement in elementary and middle school. However, for many, as high school began, these field trips have only slowly disappeared. Here are some of our students’ thoughts on field trips.

The Eagle Editors-in-Chief: Nicole Bergelson, Joyce Ma

Magazine Editors-in-Chief: Jhoselene Alvarado, Marie Baker, Katie Whitmire Website Editors-in-Chief: Annie Lei, Jennifer Yip Photographer: Mandy Yu Graphic Designer: Allison Wu Staff Writers: Anna Bernick, Maximillian Bormann, Dulce Fuentesleyva, Carolyn Hanson-Lee, Joel Ho, Kevin Li, Andrew Liu, Bitota Mpolo, Christopher Ramos, Jesse Matthews, Samantha Sacks, Hanaki Sato, David Scolari, Deavon Smith, Tobias Sunshine, Benjamin Toledo, Kevin Truong, Melody Yan, Winnie Zhang, Carmen Zhen, Jerrick Zhu Advisor: David Cary

Are High School Field Trips Worth it?

Field trips in high school are alright if they are educational and helpful to the class, but if it’s not educational then it’s somewhat pointless.

It’s another good way to make memories with our peers and expand our knowledge in learning.

- Erika Dalisay

I like field trips but it gets people behind in other classes because they take up too much time from the school day.

Field trips in high school are a good way to not sit in a classroom all day long, explore more amazing things, and learn at the same time.

4 Features

The Eagle

March 18, 2016

Maria Hernandez: SF Student, Marysville Cowgirl

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BY MARIE BAKER

t first glance, Maria Hernandez may seem like your everyday city girl. But do not be fooled--she is really a country girl at heart. Although born and raised in San Francisco, Hernandez considers her home to be in Marysville, California, where her family owns a six acre ranch with chickens, snakes, pigs, a cow and most importantly, 30-40 horses.

Hernandez explains, “I live a double life you could say. [In SF] I feel like I have to dress a certain way to fit in. When I’m at the ranch, I feel like myself. I love wearing my boots, wearing lots of flannels, like a complete cowgirl..I have more liberty.”

Hernandez grew up around horses her entire life. Although she started taking horseback riding lessons at age five, there is a photo of her riding a horse with her father when she was only one year old.

Hernandez explains, “My favorite aspect of horseback riding would be forgetting about everything and entering a world where it’s just the horse and me. I would say when I enter that world I feel an extreme relief and peacefulness. Its really just unexplainable; I feel as if there are no words to describe this feeling to its full extent.”

Not only does Hernandez love horseback riding, she also has a gift for it that was recognized early on by a close family friend.

She explains, “My father’s friend, a man [named] Mere, who I really respect and admire, told me, ‘I take my hat off for you, you are the best I have seen, better than us men.’”

Hernandez explains that her favorite trail is an abandoned road that crosses rice fields near her ranch, and, in the summertime, she likes to ride her horses near a river “with clear water and white rocks.”

Hernandez visits the ranch every other weekend to take care of her beloved horses. When she is at the ranch, she does not waste a moment inside.

“I spend the whole day outside. I wake up around 8 and me and my dad don’t go inside until around 10 or 11 at night,” Hernandez says.

She spends time with her horses not only by riding them, but also by feeding them, braiding

their hair and teaching them how to dance.

Hernandez and her father train the horses in a dance style called “El Pasash,” and often enter them into dance competitions. In competitions, the horses get judged on how high they lift their front and hind legs. Hernandez explains, “If they pick up their front and hind legs equally, they are considered to be a good horse. High front legs and low hind legs is elegant, but not as impressive as all four being the same height.”

Although Hernandez’s horses have not won any major titles, she is proud of her horses and loves attending competitions with them.

The ranch was bought in 2005 by Hernandez’s father, an entrepreneur born in Ixtlan del Rio, Nayarit, Mexico as a way to reconnect with his roots back home. Her father is the owner of El Chico Produce, which has two store locations in San Francisco. Hernandez often helps her father out by working as a cashier but does not have an interest in taking over the store.

“I’ve seen how he works. He works from 3 a.m. to 8 p.m., and I never see him; he’s always working. It’s like, ‘I’m proud of you but I want to see you more.’ It’s something that does get to me.”

Spending time with the horses in Marysville is how Hernandez bonds with her father despite his busy schedule. She also loves going on family horse rides with her father, mother, her 19 year old twin brothers, and 23 year old sister.

Instead of taking over her father’s store, Hernandez’s love of animals has steered her career interest in another direction: veterinary medicine. Hernandez explains that, over the years, she has learned how to take care of her horses when they got injured. When her father makes his annual four month trip to Mexico, it is up to her to report to him the conditions of the horses and to take care of them while he’s gone.

When Udo, a purebred Friesian horse born at the ranch, got a deadly infection from a mosquito bite when he was two years old, it was Hernandez who nursed him back to life. When she was just 10 years old, Hernandez took care of Udo by washing and applying cream to his infection everyday. She was also the one who gave him an injection the day he got the infection to prevent it from spreading.

“He was on the edge of death. I remember I was 10 and being with him while he was laying down and sweating. He wouldn’t get up on his own. And, when he would stand up, he would get dizzy and fall back down. I remember just feeding him and throwing water at him when he would sweat,” explained Hernandez.

He miraculously recovered from the near fatal infection. And, when Hernandez developed an interest in teaching horses how to dance, Udo was her first pupil. To this day, he is also her favorite.

“Out of all of the horses, he’s the sweetest,” Hernandez says of Udo. “When I’m feeling off during the day and I’m with him, it’s as if he feels what I feel and he’s extra sweet.”

Hernandez was able to gain even more hands-on veterinary experience this year on her ranch in Mexico, where she learned how to give vaccine shots to cows under the supervision of the ranch veterinarian. Hernandez explains, “The shot usually goes on the back, on their behind, but if you can’t because they keep on moving, you can do it on their neck. At the center of their neck, you imagine a triangle and give them a shot in the middle. But you have to be careful because some cows try to kick.”

After graduating from Washington, Hernandez plans to move to Mexico, where she will attend university and veterinary school.

Although Hernandez’s double life is unbeknownst to GWHS students, it does not go unnoticed in the social media sphere. Hernandez often posts photos and videos of her horses online and has even accumulated a small fan base over time. She has found her photos on popular Instagram profiles edited with quotes and often receives messages from people telling her that they look up to her and her knowledge of horses. A video of her Quinceañera grand entrance, in which she rode in on horseback alongside her father, has gained 820,000+ views on Facebook so far and continues to accumulate views daily.

The love Hernandez has for her horses is apparent in the way she lights up when talking about them. Hernandez smile and says, “If [my horses] were humans, I guess I would call them my best friends. I trust my horses more than I would trust an actual person.”

March 18, 2016

Features 5

The Eagle

Friend Groups at Washington

BY WINNIE ZHANG

George Washington high school is filled with all different types of students. Whether we are a different ethnicity or a different gender, throughout our high school career, we all somehow bond and become friends with one another and then form a group. Here are some of the many friendship groups at our school.

Lucinda Zhu, Michelle Huang,Vanessa Puk, and Julianna Zhang Q: What keeps you guys together?

Michelle: I’m not really sure “what” exactly keeps us together. I just feel really comfortable and at home with them. I don’t always need to be on my toes, and I can say whatever I feel and they will always back me up, no questions asked.

It’s like one of the things that we don’t think about. I feel that we are also together since we all understand each other and there is a level of trust between us.

Q: What do you guys love/hate about each other?

Vanessa: I love that they give me the extra push I need to become who I am.

I don’t hate anything about them, they are all so different and our personalities compliment each other.

Q: What do you guys do for fun?

Michelle: We go to boba places and just sit and talk and occasionally grab some snacks or pho. Also, Julianna and I like to prank people by saying that we are half sisters.

Patrick Lam, Bryan Duong, Eric Chan, Joel Ho, Edward Ying, Andrew Im, Jack Nakamura, Wilson Chang Q: How did you guys all meet and form into a group of friends?

A: To sum it all up, we became a group through mutual friends and by just attending the same school. It all started with Joel and Bryan and then added on from there.

Jack: Prior to high school I never heard of half the people in my group of friends, and I guarantee everyone else in it could say the same. We all kind of drifted together somehow and created a group of friends our freshman year.

Now, in our fourth year at Wash, our group is for the most part identical.

Q: What keeps you guys together as a group?

Andrew: We like to eat at Wingstop and have “GOD” talks, where we bond together and have guy talks. It basically shows that we can be honest with each other and that we are willing to talk about stuff that we would not tell just anybody.

Q: What do you guys love/hate about each other and/or the group?

Joel: What I love the most is also what I hate the most, we all joke around a lot.

Wilson: I love how we are all chill with each other, we do not get into drama.

Eric: I love how we have each other’s back.

Q: What do you guys like to do for fun?

Joel: We just like to grab dinner and chill. Also, Wilson, Bryan and I like to go to Sunset Rec to play basketball.

Q: What are some of your guys’ favorite moments as a group?

Jack: Our fondest memories of high school will forever be Halloween 2014.

We had an adventure walking around the city and had bonded together through that. Homecoming 2015 [was also a favorite moment] because it was the first time we all went to a dance together; we all messed around and didn’t care. [Also], power ranking because that was when we met on the first Thursday of every month in Mr. Cary’s room to run sports teams. [Another would be during]our camping trip this past winter break because it was miserable. We had Korean BBQ that we cooked in the rain with our hands.

Q: Fun facts Joel: Wilson and I have the same birthdays, December 4th, 1997.

Andrew: I hate how Pat always talks about cars.

Patrick: We went camping at Angel Island for one day. We went there expecting to have fun, but it ended up raining the whole time. We all had to suffer together by sleeping inside of a wet tent and eating with our hands. The campsite was also two miles from the dock.

Jack: Andrew Im likes cold sidewalks; Joel has secretly had a girlfriend all throughout high school; and our favorite type of fish are sword fishes.

Gerson Lujan, Oxford Lee, and Jake Flavio Q: What keeps you guys together?

Oxford: Jake and I are going to the military together, so we have the rest of our lives together. What’s keeping us with Gerson is [that] he’s our friend and he’s been with us since freshmen year. It’s just a bond; we’ve been hanging out ever since.

Q: Who wanted to join the Marines first? (Jake or Oxford) and why?

Jake: Ever since freshmen year, we both knew that we were going to join the military. The only difference was that[Oxford] knew which branch to join and I didn’t. As years went by, we talked about our future and he got me into the Marines. I [also]want to do something that I’ll be proud of for the rest of my life.

My mother is a single mom, and I don’t want to be a problem for her after high school. I want to be different and not take the same path as most people do.

Q: What do you guys love/hate about each other?

Oxford: Jake plays too much; sometimes we all play too much. [But]we like that we are there for eachother and that we got each other’s back.

Jake: Exactly, all the time.

Q: What do you guys do for fun?

Oxford: Play video games and play football.

Q: What are your guys’ most memorable moments and what are some fun facts about you guys?

Jake: Every moment is our most memorable moment.

Oxford: We sometimes randomly dress the same and we all like boxing.

March 18, 2016

Community Service Special 7

The Eagle

Eagle Service Society

What Admission Officers Really Look For From Volunteers

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BY SAMANTHA SACKS

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eople volunteer for many different reasons, whether it’s for college, to help the community, or simply because they feel the need to give back. Students in Eagle Service Society (ESS) mainly volunteer, because they enjoy getting out into the community to help.

“My favorite thing about volunteering is working and getting paid not by green bills, but by human connection, which is priceless,” Lili Huynh, one of the presidents, said.

While most people believe that these students volunteer primarily for college, that isn’t necessarily true. Huynh said, “I didn’t volunteer to write it on my college applications or resumes, even though that was my original intent of joining the club.”

As time passed, that reason slowly faded away. Now, most of them volunteer purely because they want to help. “It’s a win-win,” ESS officer Kelly Tuyub added. They get to put their volunteer work on their applications while helping and making a difference in the community.

With a little over a hundred people in the club, it’s a given that things can get a little chaotic, but that doesn’t stop ESS from reaching their goal. “[We want] to provide for the school and help the community, and offer students opportunities to take part and volunteer,” Dylan Lew said.

And, with dozens of events on their calendar every year, they’re doing just that. With options to volunteer at marathons like the Bay to Breakers, the Nike Women’s Marathon, and the Kaiser Marathon, or to help out with community cleanups or at the food bank, there really is a place for everyone to volunteer.

Volunteering can change a person’s perspective, and, in the case of Lili Huynh, it has. “At first, I didn’t really care about volunteering at all,” she admitted. Huynh thought it was a waste of time at first. She couldn’t understand why people would want to give away their time for free when they could just as easily be hanging out with friends. As she continued to volunteer, her views began to change. She started to enjoy going out to help people because it made her feel like she was doing something right. “Helping others made me feel happier about myself; their smiles and thank you’s made me think that I did the right thing.”

BY CARMEN ZHEN

pplying to college is a terrifying and tedious process. It’s months of nightmarish days for seniors around the world because as they complete each step of their applications, they don’t really know what college admission officers are actually looking for. As a result, the completed application may look like a complete mess to an admission officer; and a rejection letter would be stamped and signed, ready to be mailed to an applicant’s mailbox. A student getting into every school that he/she applied to would be like winning the lottery. However, if students had an idea of what college admission officers want, their chances of being accepted would increase. According to U.S. News, college admission officers are on a lookout for special extracurricular activities and summer jobs that have made students the people they are today and students who give back to the community.

Often times, people assume that colleges want students who do an immense amount of extracurricular activities. Admission officers read over thousands of applications, so they can easily tell when students join clubs that they don’t really care about. It may be impressive to join three sports teams and countless clubs, but that could make a student’s high school experience dull if he or she isn’t chasing after what they really want. College admission officers want to know what the student has learned and how one has grown from the experience, not how well a teenager can multitask. “Heartfelt cello playing trumps obligatory service work,” says J. Leon Washington, dean of admissions of LeHigh University. It’s better to be phenomenal at one thing than to be well rounded and just “okay” at everything.

When it comes to filling out the community service section on an application, it’s recommended to stand out. Being compassionate and genuinely giving back to the community for a long period of time is as important as maintaining steady grades. A volunteering organization called Do Something surveyed admissions officers from 100 of the most competitive colleges in the world. Seventy percent of admission officers agreed that it’s more appealing to see a student that volunteers for a cause and sticks with it for a lengthy amount of time. This shows commitment, dedication, and passion–which is exactly what they want to see in a student. Officers warn that “...simply rattling off the places a candidate has volunteered...can sound insincere.” Volunteering at more places than the girl who sits next to you in math class doesn’t increase your chances of getting into the college of your dreams.

It’s about voluntarily waking up at 5 AM to hand out water at a marathon because you want to, not because it looks good on a college application.

Volunteering for hundreds of hours at different marathons and food banks is meaningless if you don’t talk about how the experience has changed you for better in your personal statement. “[The essay] doesn’t have to be a week in Africa. It can be you were a clerk at Safeway for the summer and that changed the way you view race relations or the environment,” says Ted O’Neill, the dean of admissions at the University of Chicago. Students don’t have to experience something dramatic like being in a car accident. It can be something as simple as volunteering as long as one is sincere and passionate about. In the eyes of a college admission officer, it is not about the number of places one has volunteered; it is about doing volunteer work that one is genuinely interested in.

Volunteer Clubs Aren’t Doing Enough to Make Their Mark

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BY BITOTA MPOLO

here are a handful of clubs at George Washington High School whose main purpose is to help the community by volunteering their time, resources, or money. The question at hand is if these clubs really do meaningful and worthwhile work within the community. We always see these clubs volunteering at big marathons, festivals, and events, but helping at these occasions does not do much for the community. These clubs volunteer at races such as the Nike Women’s Marathon and the Hot Chocolate Run, which they conveniently get free items and money from if they have a large enough group of volunteers. Events like these are causing service clubs to go about their volunteering practices all wrong. As fun as these events are to volunteer at, these clubs could easily be put to a much better use by using their numbers to make a positive impact on people’s lives. Giving back to the community and volunteering at events, such as community clean ups, would be a superb way for the clubs to get back to the true ideals and main purpose they were created for.

There are numerous opportunities in San Francisco to get out in the community and to actually make a difference, such as Food Banks, Beach Clean-ups, helping the homeless with organizations such as Glide, and so many more. Yet, I do not see these clubs taking up the opportunities to partake in such events.

I looked up “what is the purpose of volunteering?” online to see what other people had to say, and found a variety of different answers. Some of the answers were, “to make life easier for the next generation.” and “ ... helping people who are in need of help. Or just helping out your community.” To me,

these answers were saying that the true purpose of volunteering is to put more good into the world than you take out. This is not just volunteering at events, but it is doing services such as small community clean-ups, food drives for the homeless, and volunteering at shelters.

Based on the perceived concept of volunteering I found on the internet, I believe that these volunteering clubs are going about it all wrong. They should be volunteering to help the greater good of the community and not for these events put on by big corporations. Although it may be very fun and exciting to volunteer at these festivals and marathons, these corporations already have the money to hire their own workers for their big events.

I have had the opportunity to volunteer in many places.

At St. Anthony’s Soup Kitchen I was able to serve food to the homeless and people who simply could not afford a meal.

While volunteering, I was able to interact with many of these people and even hear some of their stories. Being face to face with the people that I was serving made everything worth it. I was able to see the gratitude and joy on every single person’s face in seeing that there were actually youth in their community that cared enough to make a difference.

In addition, I was able to participate in a few clean-ups around different neighborhoods in San Francisco. To me, nothing is more gratifying than the feeling of making an impact on people’s lives around me. Not only am I able to make the neighborhood a more orderly place, but I also am able to form new relationships with people in that community and feel a sense of pride whenever I go to that neighborhood knowing that I made an impact, a feeling one can only achieve by helping others.

I am not saying these clubs should all together stop volun-

teering at these festivals and races; however, I think these clubs should consider incorporating more community oriented volunteer opportunities into their calendar. This would really help students become more involved, make positive changes, and help the next generation to live in a better community and a better world.

8 Community Service Special

The E

Why Are They Teachers?

It should be obvious to anyone who takes even just a brief glance at the education system in this country that we are a society that severely undervalues the work that teachers do for our youth. When I think about the influences that have made me who I am today, I think about the impact my parents, family, and friends have had on me, but even more so than those people, it’s probably my teachers who have influenced me the most over the course of my life so far. When you multiply that influence by hundreds, even thousands of students over the course of an entire teaching career, it can equate to a huge positive impact on the world through the development of the men and women of tomorrow. In speaking with the teachers featured below and even some who are not featured, the opportunity to impact the thinkers and problem solvers of tomorrow is what steers them into this line of work.

Why Do W

Karl Seyer-Ochi

With a Baccalaureate in Economics from Columbia University, Karl Seyer-Ochi would have had no trouble using his Ivy League degree to make big bucks working in finance. However, while in college, he realized that he did not want his career to revolve around “making money,” so shortly after he graduated, he earned his teaching credential and began working as an educator. “We don’t just measure everything in dollars,” Ochi says when asked why he would give up such a potentially high paying salary to teach high school students. Ochi has been teaching AP Economics at Washington for over 20 years and is an expert on the costs and benefits of the decisions he makes. “There are a lot of costs and a lot of benefits that you can’t put a price tag on,” he says. It may be true that Ochi could be making a lot more money than a teacher’s salary offers, but there are certain benefits to being a teacher that he is not willing to give up. “It’s very invigorating and fun to work with young people,” he says. He also enjoys having such a direct impact on so many student’s lives. “I calculated [how many students have had Econ with me] one time, and it’s thousands and thousands of kids,” He explains. Ochi enjoys being able to influence the development of young thinkers and the choices they make as they enter their adult lives. “I really care about people caring about and understanding the society they live in,” says Ochi.

Joshua DeWolf Coming out of college at UC Davis, Joshua DeWolf ’s mission was to promote environmental sustainability. With a degree in Environmental Policy, DeWolf would have been able to consult politicians in hopes of influencing legislation that would protect the environment. However, working as an environmental consultant did not seem like an exciting enough job for DeWolf.

He also realized that policy advancement was not the most efficient way to promote sustainability. “One day, it occurred to me that the people who would be voting next are the generation of tomorrow,” says DeWolf. If he could instill in young people the importance of protecting the world around them, they could then take those environmental principles into the voting booth with them and make decisions to sustain the planet.

Teaching was a way for him to more directly influence environmental awareness than he would be able to in environmental policy. At Washington, DeWolf teaches Physics and Environmental Science. He also works with the school’s composting and gardening clubs. Over the course of his teaching career, DeWolf has taught hundreds of students about science and environmental principles. That’s hundreds of young people who are well equipped with the knowledge needed to help tackle environmental issues of the future.

“[Volunteering] allows me to view my life differen learned [that] I should never take a single momen for granted, because your life changes every day. about it, life doesn’t seem like it’s changing but, i months, things will be different. One time I volu marathon and I realized how lucky I am to live in in that event, many of the runners were not from told me how they would like to live here one da am lucky to live here especially because of the Angely Zheng (Eagle Service Society

“The time I went to the neutralization clinic really opened my eyes to how there are language barriers. It was an organization where immigrants get their citizenship. It helped me realize that I should be taking my language class more seriously because I could converse and help a lot more people by being more familiar with the Chinese language.”

- Derrick Hunyh (American Service Club)

“Volunteering was an eye opening experience. It made me realize that a lot of people in the city need our help and it only takes one person to change someone’s life. I’ve gotten to volunteer at Glide(Richmond Food Pantry), my local church, and Marina Middle School.”

- Alyssa Ng

Why do you volunteer?

Students were surveyed on the reason why they volunteer--is it from the goodness of their hearts, or to have something to put on their college applications? Here are the results.

“I volunteer because I like to help people and make them happy and many people do not [have] the opportunities I have. I have volunteered at Nihonmachi Little Friends(Day Care Center) and a Breast Cancer research place.”

- Alisa Oto

Where do you volunteer?

Community Service Special 9

Eagle

We Volunteer?

Places to Volunteer

-Food banks -YMCA -Zoo & local libraries -adopt-a-street program: get together in groups to clean an area in the community -Graffiti watch: prevent graffiti walls by removing it from public property -street parks program: manage public gardens -community clean team: recycle unwanted household appliances -Dig IN san francisco: a gardening program that teaches composting, planting, and maintenance techniques -children’s creativity museum

ntly because I nt [of] my life y. If you think in a couple of unteered for a n SF because m SF and they ay and how I economy.” y)

You Aren’t Doing Any Good

Handing water out at the Nike Women’s Marathon does not actually do anything to make a change or impact your community in any way, and if you put it on ractically every single college bound high your college application, I’m embarrassed for you. There is no way a college admisschool student has volunteered, but why? sions officer saw that and thought “wow, what meaningful work this student has Because we are told from day one that done.” Let’s be real, admission officers aren’t clueless; they know that most students volunteer hours matter when it comes to college volunteer at events like that just to have something to put on their application. Baapplications, as if having 100 volunteer hours sically everyone I know volunteers at marathons just to get that free t-shirt. People will outweigh a low GPA. Trust me, I know; I have the decency to show up, get a shirt, hand out water for a couple of hours, and spent practically every single day of the summer then consider themselves someone who made a difference in the community. This before my senior year volunteering, and though it is not volunteering, no matter what anyone says. was nice to “give back to my community,” I don’t Every single day during the summer that I spent volunteering, I couldn’t wait think I actually made a difference in anyone’s to leave. It was so depressing being there, and I definitely never felt like I was doing life, no matter what I may have said in my college any good. I would walk around and practically beg my volunteer supervisor to give “I volunteer because I just want to supplements. And no, I’m not a cold, heartless me something to do; that’s how bored I was. I would follow her around the office help people that are in need. Help and even she was annoyed by my presence because she had nothing to assign me person; I just don’t think that the majority of them have a good life and make that the paid staff hadn’t already done. I was just there logging hours. I mean, it’s the volunteering done by high school students them feel like they have happiness. not like I minded that I was getting hours to put on my college application, but is genuine. If we could choose between sitting I’ve been able to help with giving I just wish I could’ve done something more meaningful with my time. I know it at home and watching Netflix or volunteering, free food for the elderly and helpmost would choose sitting at home; in fact, sitting sounds cliché, but how amazing would it be to build houses in Africa? Or voluning them out at home. There was teer at an orphanage in another country? These are the kind of volunteer experione time I also got to help make at home would probably have the exact same ences that matter. You are changing someone’s life, making an impact on their healthy sandwiches and parfaits impact that the type of volunteering most of us community, doing actual good, not handing out water to rich runners who had to for children” are doing would - no impact. pay $200 just to participate in the run.

- Kaycee Li Our school needs to stop fooling itself; none of the marathon volunteers have done anything to benefit anyone. The marathon runners are not struggling, they are not poor, homeless, or starving, they’re thirsty rich people that want to post on their Instagram and show their followers how #fit they are. Instead of lying to “I decided to start volunteering because a friend ourselves, we should start doing actual good. It’s not realistic to say that all clubs brought me into this club and, since I was a freshman, I should go to foreign countries and help feed the poor, but they do have opportunidecided to stay since I wanted to do something new. I ties to start right here in San Francisco. There are food banks, homeless shelters also wanted to do volunteering for the college applicaand plenty of other volunteer opportunities that are much more meaningful than tions and for the experience, since I haven’t volunteered marathons. I know, I’m being a hypocrite, the volunteering I did this summer a lot in the past years of my life. wasn’t meaningful at all; but at least I’m being honest about it. It irritates me when My favorite things about volunteering are working with people act like they’re so noble and amazing because they volunteer at pointless your friends, learning new skills (whether it be physical events. Be real with yourself, you did nothing. If you want to be able to say that you skills or mental skills such as leadership and all that), changed someone’s life or made some sort of impact, go out and actually do that and helping people in general. I actually do enjoy volby volunteering at a homeless shelter, or if you can afford it, volunteer in another unteering because I do like to help the people (people country building homes for the poor. Those things can make a difference, because who set up the volunteer events) and make their jobs a you are helping those that are less fortunate than you. Helping marathon runners bit more easier. It’s nice knowing that the work you do who might even be more fortunate than you, I know I said it before, and I’ll say it for people can come a long way for others, which is a again, that is not volunteering. It’s you fooling yourself, and (unsuccessfully) trying nice thought! In my opinion, I think volunteering is fun to fool colleges into thinking that you have done some good. because not only do you help others, but you also get to bond with your peers and communicate better as a club!”

- Iris Zhu (American Service Club)

P

BY ANONYMOUS

10 Arts & Entertainment

March 18, 2016

The Eagle

Ask Abby Q: Why is PE required in high school?

A: Why not? Think about it--would you rather sit in class for another fifty-five minutes and probably end up falling asleep, or would you rather hang out with your friends and play badminton or basketball?

The occasional mile might suck, but at least you don’t have to worry about a pop quiz.

Q: HOW DO I MAINTAIN MY GRADES AND STOP STRESSING OUT SO FRICKING MUCH? A: First, calm down. You’re screaming. Secondly, stress is good. Itmight not seem like it, but stress helps you work harder. But, too much can be bad. There are a couple of ways to help calm down when you’re stressed. You can think of something else; getting your mind off the task at hand can help you relax. Another way is to meditate; I find that meditating for 5 minutes a day can help release stress.

Q: When I’m with my group of friends I feel so left out, it feels like they don’t want me there. They always hang out with each other and never invite me anywhere either. What should I do?

A: I know how you feel; and this kind of feeling never really goes away. But, if you want to stop feeling left out, start making plans with them. You can’t just sit around and wait for them to invite you every time they hang out.

Q: Best ways to choose a college?

A: First, you should check whether or not they have the major you want to pursue. If you’re undecided, pick a college with options that interest you. Ask yourself what you want out of the school. Do you want a big campus, cute guys/girls, or decent dining hall food? Also decide what you want out of the school, like diversity or good financial aid.

Lastly, make sure you are going to love the campus and atmosphere of the school and definitely take some time to tour these colleges!

T H E S A S B E S U G CELEB EDITION

JENNIFER LOPEZ

DRAKE

NICK JONAS

JADA PINKETT SMITH

GIGI HADID

A

C

B

D

E

ANSWER KEY: A. JENNIFER LOPEZ B. JADA PINKETT SMITH C. NICK JONAS D. GIGI HADID E. DRAKE

March 18, 2016

The Eagle

UCs, CSUs & CCs Aren’t Your Only Options

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BY CARMEN ZHEN

n this world composed of over 190 countries, there are hundreds of different kinds of colleges. The United States itself has about 4,100 colleges ranging from four year to two year schools. The College and Career Center needs to stop influencing students to only attend Universities of California (UC), State Universities, and City Colleges because there are so many more options out there one can explore. Instead of following the traditional route of heading to a UC or State, one can attend a liberal arts college, study abroad, or even take a gap year.

As a junior, I hear upperclassmen complaining at every corner about feeling pressured by the College and Career Center to attend a UC. My friend shared a story about an incident that occurred recently. Along with a couple of friends, she went to the College Center to ask for advice. While she was at the College Center, she overheard a counselor telling a senior with a 3.9 GPA that she should just go to City College first, because her chances of being accepted into a “good” college like UCLA or UC Berkeley aren’t very high. Going to city college for two years and then transferring to a UC may seem like worthwhile advice; but it makes students feel like attending a UC is their only option. It’s as if the College Center believes that getting to a “good” UC is ultimately everyone’s goal, but it’s definitely not true.

Going to a liberal arts school is an option for the creative think-out-of-the-box students. Many people often rule out liberal arts schools, because they’re not known for specializing in and providing a career-relevant education. But, a liberal arts school can benefit students because the class sizes are usually smaller. As a result, the low faculty to students ratio allows professors to work closer with students and get to know them more. “Most students at liberal arts colleges report that their professors know them by name and are interested in their success,” says Megan Dorsey, founder of College Prep LLC. Going into a liberal arts school can still get one a job and a comfortable life. According to My College Guide, alumni of liberal arts school are more sought out by employers because they would fit in better with today’s job market. As time goes by, employers are slowly realizing

that it would be better to employ graduates from a liberal arts school, because anyone in this world can be taught the technical skills of a job whilst the communications skills that liberal arts majors have are more difficult to teach.

Another option is studying abroad in another country. Students shouldn’t feel restricted to stay in their home country when the world is in their hands. Studying in an unfamiliar country enables one to experience new customs and activities. Experiencing is different than reading through a textbook. A second benefit of studying abroad is being able to adapt a new language. One will be surrounded by people bickering and laughing in a foreign language on a daily basis. It’s hard not to learn a new language if one hears it everyday. It’s also a plus because the more languages one knows, the more appealing one will be to employers.

Students also have the choice of not following the usual, ordinary path of attending high school and then college without a break.

In order to get away from the school environment for a while, they can take a gap year. A gap year means to take a year off to work or travel around the world after finishing high school and before attending college. Some adults may not recommend doing this, because it puts one at a disadvantage and one will be behind everyone else academically by a year or so.

However, on the bright side, taking a gap year allows one to learn in the real world independently instead of in a classroom setting; and one will guaranteedly be more mature. According to Go Overseas, “people who take gap years often report that their family and friends say ‘you’ve changed’ when they return home, but it’s never in a bad way.”

The world is full of opportunities and choices and one shouldn’t feel pressured to apply to a specific, high ranked college during the application process in the fall semester of senior year. Going to a fancy college looks great on resumes, but what matters more? Your happiness. Your complete satisfaction with your choices. College is a major stepping stone in one’s life, so choosing the right one is essential.

As a result, listen to yourself and go to wherever calls out to you. Interested in the arts?

Ditch the old, traditional path to go to a career-relevant college that specializes in fields like business, medicine, or agriculture. Completely and utterly tired of school? Take a break for a year (or less) and come back to the classroom with desks lined up perfectly and tired students slumped in them after. There’s nothing wrong with considering other choices after graduating and receiving a high school diploma. ith considering other choices after graduating and receiving a high school diploma.

Stop Misusing the Term Disability

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BY ANNA BERNICK

s a person on the autistic spectrum (Pervasive Developmental Disorder Not Other Specified or PDD-NOS to be exact) and having interned at the Mayor’s Office on Disability for two summers, I should know disability like the back of my hand. It’s around me all the time; and I have developed quite a strong opinion on what a disability really is. My own definition of disability is a limitation mentally or physically that makes certain tasks require more assistance or time. It’s not a choice; you either are born disabled or you become disabled by accident. To me, there are three guidelines to what makes a true disability: 1) You need accommodations 2) It’s permanent 3) No matter how you got it, whether it be from birth or by accident, it’s not your fault.

I’ll tackle the first guideline: accommodations. In order for any disabled person to be independent, they need accommodations to work with their disability; and that’s what society offers. If you’re blind, there’s braille for you to read both in books and signs. If you’re deaf, there’s American Sign Language. So what about diabetes? According to the American Diabetes Association, diabetes is categorized as a disability and diabetics are protected under the Americans with Disabilities Act. While I am glad there is a law to protect them from discrimination, I just see it as more of a disease. With exercise, medicine, and a proper diet, you can probably live a long and healthy life with diabetes. Unlike other disabilities, you don’t need an aide in class or extra time for a test. I know diabetics can end up disabled with an amputated leg or even blindness, but diabetes in general is more of an illness.

Next is the second guideline: permanence. When a woman is pregnant and takes time off to give birth and spend time with the baby, she is considered temporarily disabled.

However, I don’t consider pregnancy a disability. Pregnancy can make the woman limited in movement and food consumption but it’s only for 9 months, sometimes shorter. Once the child is born, the limitations will slowly but surely fade away. Also, they can get an abortion if they want. The whole idea of pregnancy being a disability also irks me because it makes it seem like pregnancy is a bad thing. It’s not. Of course

Opinion 11

it’s not. You’re bringing another human being into world; what’s wrong with that?

Finally there’s the 3rd guideline: not your fault. This is very simple. Whether you got it by birth or by accident, it’s not your fault you have it. This is why I don’t consider drug addiction a disability. That is definitely a choice because that person chose to try drugs; they chose to fit in with the “cool” kids.

The addiction might take over their life, but the whole ordeal was their own fault to begin with. You can go through counseling that can help with your recovery, and, like I mentioned before, a true disability is permanent.

Now, with these ideas, I have about what I see as a disability and what I don’t see as a disability, I guess it’s fair to give you, the reader, an idea of what having a disability has been like for me. I didn’t really know I was disabled until I was 14 even though I showed signs. I had the usual accommodations (an aide in my classes, extra time on a test, etc).

I often talked to myself regardless of whether I was alone or not; and I didn’t really have the social skills of my sisters.

Even when I was in middle school, I started to question my mentality. My parents didn’t tell me about my disability. From

my understanding, they didn’t tell me because my type isn’t severe. Though I’m better than when I was younger, there are times when I just snap. If something happens or will happen that I don’t want to, it can trigger a part of me that gets so upset I clutch my hands into fists and mutter stuff I probably shouldn’t say out loud unless I want to get in trouble (and I do not; I’m far too pretty for prison). Then, there are the memory aches that happen when I think of something that I don’t want to think about or I think of something too much and it overloads. However, I have also used this disability to my advantage. Thanks to my tendency to do almost everything according to a routine, I exercise almost everyday. Because of the observation skills I have acquired, I can observe almost any detail both in things and people. But, a huge advantage I have as an autistic person is my memory. I can still remember the architecture of my elementary and middle school even as a senior. I can even remember significant and non significant days in my life including details such as what I was wearing, what I watched, and most of what happened that day.

These obstacles often make me wonder what if I wasn’t born autistic. Would my life still be the same? Would I still be on Youth Commission? Would I still need as much help as I do now?

The worst thing a neurotypical (a person not on the autistic spectrum) person can do to a disabled person (besides treating them like dirt) is pity them. Don’t feel sorry for them just because they have certain limitations or they need help in certain areas. I know I’m lucky to be mild on the spectrum.

While I can act like any other teenager, there are other people out there who have it worse and need constant help for everything. But, you shouldn’t pity them or anyone for that matter.

What you should do is help them when they need it. Even the little things like offering to tutor them, or just holding the door for a person in a wheelchair is enough and way better than pitying them.

I’ll admit, being disabled is a challenge that can make my life difficult, especially when I remember that my disability will follow me for the rest of my life, but it’s a challenge I’ve accepted. However, I still don’t like it when people misuse the term disabled, so please don’t use the term when it doesn’t apply.

12 Opinion

March 18, 2016

The Eagle

Race Should be Accounted for in College Admissions

R

BY JHOSELENE ALVARADO

ather than trying to trick ourselves into believing that race does not play a huge role in our lives, we should be accepting of the fact that it does, and try to make changes so that, one day, the color of our skin won’t “matter.”

Now, many schools and people want to implement a “color blind” policy, which pushes the idea that race should not play a role in deciding whether a student should be admitted to a university or offered a job. Given the amount of racist acts that have been happening lately, we clearly are not ready to be a “color blind” society. I think implementing the color blind policy is another way of sweeping the race issue under the rug and hoping that, in time, it will go away. But, as we know, issues like this don’t just go away. It has been 50 years since the Civil Rights movement and, even though we have a Black president, racial tensions are higher than they were before.

Affirmative action is a policy with one goal in mind: to get everyone a high quality education; and, if it means selecting students by their race or gender, then that’s fine. Affirmative Action isn’t here to give minorities a free one way ticket to success, but, instead, a chance, something that is hard to get if you aren’t White.

In school, we are taught that we are all equal, and that because our classrooms happen to have a handful of Black or Hispanic people, everyone has the same opportunities to become successful, when, in reality, this is not the case. According to a Forbes article written by Laura Shin, a typical White household has 16 times the wealth of a Black family. So no, we do not all have the same opportunities. The truth is that if you are born White, you automatically get a head start in life. I think Affirmative Action closes that gap and gives minorities a chance to essentially catch up.

There’s no denying that the number of Blacks and Hispanics at universities has increased greatly since segregation ended. It’s true, more Black and Hispanic people are attending college; however, “the problem is that, as we’ve seen, they’re not ending up at schools

with high standards,” says Jordan Weissmann in an article published in the Atlantic. While it is great that they are going to college, they are not reaching their full potential by going to a school with comeone, come-all admission policies. Getting admitted into a university is a huge achievement, but it is common knowledge that now, where you go to school does matter when you are applying for a job. The number of Whites at top universities continues to be the highest race admitted. At highly selective universities, only five to ten percent of those admitted will be Black, says Jessica Dickerson.

Many people oppose Affirmative Action because they think underqualified students are being favored. For example, when it comes to admission policies at universities, White students feel that someone who isn’t as “smart” or “talented” as them is being chosen only because they have a black or brown skin color. I don’t think admissions officers will choose a Black student who has a 3.0 GPA just because they want to diversify the campus. At an elite school like Stanford University, where race is taken into consideration, 94.51% of enrolled students had a GPA of 3.75 or higher; and 7.8% of them students were African American. Race is not the only factor in admission, one’s grades must also be somewhere within the average range.

In the Supreme Court case Fisher vs. Texas, Affirmative Action was brought to question. The University of Texas, Austin (UT) has a policy that requires them to automatically admit all in-state students who are in the top 10 percent of their class. The remainder of instate students admissions could factor race. When Abigail Fisher, a high school student who was not in the top percentage of her class, did not get admitted, she filed a lawsuit against UT for violating the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and for admitting students who were less qualified than her. Data from the 2014 Cooperative Congressional Election Study showed that 66 percent of young White people between 17 and 34 describe themselves as “somewhat opposed” or “strongly opposed” to Affirmative Action policies in

employment and admissions. Why is it that people preach equality yet, when it does not benefit them, argue against them? It’s time for Americans to get over this selfish way of thinking and actually practice what they preach.

In order to shorten the economic gap between Whites and Blacks, or Whites and Hispanics, the change needs to start in academic institutions. Affirmative Action gives people the chance to pave their way towards a more successful future. Affirmative Action is “about creating opportunities for the minority that the majority might be tempted to keep for itself,” says Raina Kelly in a Newsweek article. Affirmative Action isn’t here to take away from people, but to give to those who have been discriminated for so long a chance.

Sophomores Are Up for the Challenge

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BY JENNIFER YIP

f you haven’t heard, colleges love the idea of students taking Advanced Placement (AP) classes. How well students do in AP can be a huge indicator of how well they will do in introductory-level college courses. But, taking AP isn’t all about the college application perks-a lot of the benefits that come with taking AP are skill-related. After experiencing AP in my junior and current senior year, my only wish was that I could’ve taken more AP classes sooner. If I was allowed to at the time, I would’ve definitely taken an AP in my sophomore year. Of course, I can’t speak on behalf of all 10th graders.

Readiness for advanced courses varies for each individual, but the sophomores who feel confident enough to take that next step past regular or Honors classes should be allowed to.

At Washington, sophomores aren’t allowed to take an AP unless they’ve completed the prerequisites for it through classes they’ve taken before entering high school. Usually this only happens for students who are fluent in a language, but on occasion, there are students who have taken accelerated classes that allow them to be ahead of their grade.

The average 10th grader who has not had this advantage is left without the option to take AP. Washington’s restriction on APs for 10th graders has a lot to do with keeping students sane and not overly stressed, but administrators and counselors shouldn’t underestimate the drive and work ethic of sophomores who have shown they can handle challenging courses.

The Washington administration could allow sophomores to take AP classes if they really wanted to. The amount of money the school has is not the issue, but rather, how the school distributes the money. If enough students pushed for it, funds could be reallocated to have more teachers who can teach APs for sophomores.

Other San Francisco Unified School District high schools, like Galileo and Lowell, offer AP classes for 10th graders in subjects such as World History, Human Geography, Physics,

Psychology, and much more.

Let it be known that one of the biggest reasons students take AP is to look good for college applications. Colleges only count four classes of AP for GPA bump, and the administration has decided that this is best to have during junior and senior year. While this may be good for students who don’t feel ready to take AP until their junior or senior year, the reality is that colleges focus on students’ sophomore and junior year grades.

In 10th grade, my schedule consisted of classes

that I took because I had to complete the A-G requirements, not because I was specifically interested in them. Sure, I enjoyed expanding my knowledge on various subjects, but I, like many other students, often asked, “When will I use this in the real world? How does this apply to life outside of the classroom?” The key to success was just remembering facts and formulas.

There was no true excitement in the learning for me until I experienced the depth of AP classes in my junior year.

Taking AP United States History in 11th grade was a game changer for me. It was one of the hardest classes I’ve ever taken, but also one

that I was genuinely interested in. Being able to make connections between events a hundred years apart and to understand the underlying themes of eras were crucial skills needed to do well in the class and on the AP exam. There were many sleepless nights and stressful days, but, in the end, I was glad to have gone through it. Taking the course changed not only my attitude about learning, but also my perspective of the world outside of school.

Many counselors understandably worry about some students’ readiness for certain APs, but one of the best ways to motivate students to to better themselves academically is to let them struggle through tough concepts.

Senior Teresia Chen, who took AP Chinese as a 10th grader, says, “When I was a sophomore, I felt ready to take that AP Chinese course.

Although some may say it was ‘an easy-A class,’ it was not, in my opinion. Mandarin is not my native language, and it sure was not easy to get an A in that class.” Instead of viewing challenging courses in a negative way, the Washington community should value the way challenge pushes students to be more active in the classroom and with their teachers. Teresia continues, “For AP, the biggest goal you need to conquer is the AP exam. In an AP class, you don’t really get more work than in a regular class. The teacher does expect more, but does not necessarily expect a lot right when you enter his or her classroom, so it’s essential to always ask for help and not hide questions. It’s better to struggle than to lie your way through any course, whether it’s AP or regular.”

When choosing which classes to take for my senior year, I was torn. I had 5 different APs in mind, but had to limit myself to 3. I ended up not signing up for AP Computer Science and AP Psychology, but I wish I could’ve taken them sometime during high school. If sophomores

were allowed to take AP, I would’ve loved to take either or both of those courses in 10th grade. Considering how difficult and time consuming my sophomore year classes were, taking an AP or two definitely would have not been much different than my normal workload.

The AP restriction for sophomores doesn’t have to completely change; the administration doesn’t have to let all sophomores take 3 or more APs. Washington doesn’t have to become a second Lowell where the environment is extremely competitive. But, allowing hardworking 10th graders to take one or two APs if they are ready to commit to the challenge could create positive change in the Washington community. More students would be learning about subjects that truly interest them, making them excited to learn, and encouraging them to be more engaged in class. This would not only help them become better students overall, but also possibly help them discover a profession they’d want to pursue in the future.

Many sophomores already know themselves well enough to know what specific subjects they’re passionate about and where their strengths lie; and APs would help them explore their interests deeper. Junior Legina Chen, who was able to take two APs while she was a sophomore, says, “I’ve been placed in advanced math classes at school since 7th grade and have followed up with their post-requisites year after year, which is how I ended up with AP classes in my sophomore year. I personally felt ready to take AP Calculus and AP Computer Science in my sophomore year because I had a strong background in mathematics.” Now that the pathway of math courses for underclassmen has changed and become uniform, all sophomores must take Geometry together. For 10th graders similar to Chen who know they can handle advanced classes, the sophomore AP restriction and new Common Core curriculum puts them at a disadvantage.

“The students should be able to decide for themselves whether they’re passionate about the subject and willing to devote hours of their time studying the material. AP classes aren’t all about the GPA bump or making your transcript look impressive to college admissions officers but rather helping you develop a good work ethic to prepare you for tougher classes in the future,” Chen concludes.

March 18, 2016

Drinking Laws Need More Nuance

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Opinion 13

The Eagle

BY KEVIN LI

t age 18, the government decides that you are old enough to drive a car, vote, hold public office, or fight in the military and risk dying in combat.

However, you aren’t allowed to go into a bar and order a drink until you’re

21.

The national drinking age of 21 was established in 1984 with the National Minimum Drinking Age Act, by which the federal government threatened to withhold highway funds from states that did not abide.

Mandating abstinence as the only legal option does not stop people under 21 from drinking alcohol. By outlawing even moderate, responsible use, it pushes adolescents into drinking without any type of adult supervision. This fosters a culture of binge drinking and other unsafe habits, making alcohol even more dangerous. Because abstinence is the only legal option, parents do not have the chance to teach responsible drinking habits to teens. Teenagers are not allowed to drive without being taught how to drive safely. Why should they suddenly be allowed to drink at 21 without learning how to drink responsibly, whether that be at home or by alcohol education programs on college campuses?

Across the country, there are already efforts to lower the drinking age to 18.

This makes sense, as it fixes the illogic of it being legal for an 18-year-old to drive, fight in the military, and risk dying in combat, but not to make their own decisions regarding alcohol. However, what makes 18 a magic number? Ideally, a more nuanced approach should be taken into account when deciding our drinking age laws.

An important distinction to make is that drinking age is different from purchase age; and it is possible to separate the two, as is the case in certain countries. It is perfectly reasonable that teenagers should not be allowed to purchase six-packs of beer from a corner store for their friends. However, by setting the purchase age high enough, the assumption would be that an adult would be providing alcohol to teens, and that teenage drinking would take place in the presence or knowledge of an adult. Therefore, it should be safe to lower the drinking age to the age when it is not immediately lifethreatening to a child.

This is similar to drinking laws in many parts of Britain. In England and Wales, the minimum age to purchase alcohol is 18, but a child is allowed to drink at home at 5. Interestingly, it’s also legal for 16-year-olds to drink in a bar or restaurant if it’s with a meal and accompanied by an adult.

Yes, this could lead to some shady situations, for instance, where a stranger merely buys a drink for a teen and leaves him/her to drink alone. However, this can be dealt with by other regulations. For example, the teachers code of ethics could be amended so that they could not provide alcohol to students. Bars could be made not to serve to intoxication. Drunk driving is already against the law. Thus, even if the drinking age is lowered, there are already laws to limit the negative effects.

So, our drinking laws need to be revised, considering that the US has among the highest legal drinking ages in the world. At a minimum, the National Minimum Drinking Age Act should be repealed so that states could decide what route to take with the drinking age. Some might argue that it is hard to compare the US with countries in Europe that have a lower drinking age, because there is a much more lenient drinking culture in Europe that allows for more lenient drinking laws, which may not necessarily work for the US. However, the current system which legally mandates abstinence for those under 21 makes alcohol seen as a taboo thing which people desire more because it’s banned. According to the New York Times, the law that bars most college students from drinking “inadvertently made it more likely that students would engage in clandestine — and difficult to supervise — binge drinking.” Only by reducing the drinking age can we open the door to begin changing cultural conceptions about drinking from a culture where excessive drinking is socially acceptable to one where alcohol is seen as something to be enjoyed in moderation. This is what would reduce drinking-related incidents in the long run.

The Drinking Law Should Not be Lowered

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BY BITOTA MPOLO

lcohol consumption in America has been a topic so stimulated by American culture in media and in day to day life. Movies such as Last Vegas, Neighbors, and 21 and Over portray a drinking culture in which people binge drink and party. These types of movies add to the perception of what drinking is supposed to be like in American culture. American culture around drinking is unique to any other country’s. That is, American people tend to drink to celebrate and to have a good time, often in excess, compared to other countries, where drinking is a regular occurrence in their accustomed culture. People believe that lowering the drinking age will help to destigmatize alcohol consumption and help to refine the concept of drinking in the American culture. However, there are many downsides to the lowering of the drinking age that definitely outweigh the positive effects.

The reason why there is a set age limit for the consumption of alcohol is that, at one point in American history, we had a prohibition because the drinking problem had become such a prominent issue. The prohibition ended simply because of loss of revenue. However, alcohol consumption actually fell by as much as 70 percent during the early years of the prohibition; so it shows that this was an efficient route to take. After the prohibition ended, the legal age was set at 21 for safety reasons. In addition, legislators found that 21 is the time when a person becomes a full adult, a concept that was established centuries ago in the English common law.

Many people believe that lowering the legal age to consume alcohol will help to cultivate a new perspective on drinking. They believe that if the age is lowered, America will magically become like Europe and teens will be sipping wine with their parents at the dinner table. That simply will not happen. One cannot change almost a century’s worth of culture with a mere law amendment.

The whole American culture sees alcohol as a stress reliever, to escape from the chaos of reality and to let loose. In contrast, many countries in the European culture see alcohol as a drink to enjoy with meals or on special occasions and drink rational proportions. This stigma around alcohol also sways youth to want to experience alcohol. According to the 2013 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), approximately 5.4 million people (about 14.2 percent) ages 12–20 engaged in binge drinking.

Even with the legal age of alcohol being at 21, millions of our youth are partaking in the dangerous tradition. The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) states that 696,000 students between the ages of 18 and 24 are assaulted by another student who has been drinking; and more than 190,000 people under age 21 visited an emergency room for alcoholrelated injuries in 2008 alone. We can’t let any more of our youth become part of this statistic.

As stated in Institute of Medicine National Research Council of the National Academies, teen alcohol use kills 4,700 people each year. Lowering the drinking age would only increase the range of people that participate in alcohol consumption at a young age. Many high school students are able to get access to alcohol because they know someone in college or their friends are 21. Think about how much access young people would have if the legal drinking age was lowered to 18. People in high school would be legally able to drink. This would also open the doors to middle school students to get a hold of alcohol. If they know someone who is in high school, they can easily find an 18 year old senior to assist them in getting alcohol.

According to the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, approximately 7,000 children in the U.S. under the age of 16 take their first drink every day. Those who begin drinking before age 15 are four times more likely to develop alcoholism than those who begin at the legal age of 21. The law in place right now is saving many of our youth from making a life decision that can have a negative effect on them for the rest of their life.

14 Opinion

March 18, 2016

The Eagle

Social Media Has Consumed Our Reality

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BY SAMANTHA SACKS

witter. Instagram. Snapchat. Facebook. These are some of the many social media websites we use as teenagers. Most – if not all – of us have at least one social media account. We use it to talk to our friends, see what everyone’s doing, and so much more. We spend so much time on it, that it’s become a part of us.

It’s part of our daily routine. Wake up, check social media. Go to school, eat lunch, check social media. Walk to the bus stop (or get picked up), get home, check social media. Do homework, eat dinner, check social media. We’re checkers, constantly seeing what all of our friends are doing.

So here’s a question; how many people on your phone can you actually call your friend?

Now before you answer, let’s define what a friend is. A friend is someone who will stand by you, even when you’re at your worst, someone who you will show your true self to, someone who pushes you to be yourself and not what other people want you to be. Most importantly, a friend is someone who cares about you as much as you care for them.

How many of the “friends” on your phone fit this definition?

We have become so caught up in these apps on our phone that we never quite know who our true friends are anymore. We spend all our time on social media, when our best friend is sitting right next to us. They’re the ones who care about us, who will stand by us no matter what. Yet, we spend our time staring at a phone screen instead of spending time with them.

Here is the problem. Social media has become such a big aspect of our lives that we can’t seem to spend too much time away from it. It’s an addiction, just like tobacco or alcohol. But, instead of hurting us physically, social media pulls us away from the real world. We

pay so much attention to our phones that we miss the beauty of the world around us. Our eyes are glued to screens, learning about the world through pictures and videos.

It isn’t just a site anymore, it is who we are.

It’s quite sad, really. But, there’s also nothing I can do about it.

I can tell everyone how wrong it is; I can scream in their face, but they’re not going to listen to me. It’s an addiction; and we all can’t get enough of it.

So here’s my challenge to you: spend a whole weekend, forty eight hours, without checking social media.

Go outside, look at the world around you. Do something with your best friend. Play a game with your brother or sister. Drag your family to the beach for a day.

Do something other than go on social media. You’ll see how much you’re missing out on; and if you don’t, it’s your loss.

According to a new study performed by the Pew Research Center, 92% of teens report that they go online daily.

In a study by Common Sense Media, they found that, on any given day, teens in the United States spend about nine hours using media for their enjoyment.

In a study by Common Sense Media, they found that tweens, identified as children 8 to 12, spend about six hours, on average, consuming media.

Terror Should be Proven Before it is Assumed

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BY BITOTA MPOLO

n December 2, 2015, Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik, a married couple, opened fire at a holiday party at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino. Farook was a worker at the Inland Regional Center. Both Farook and Malik were killed in a gun battle with the police shortly after. Even though they were later found to be terrorists, the initial assumptions made were unjust.

President Barack Obama soon took the stand to address this event. He labeled this attack as an act of terror, claiming that the two attackers were terrorists. People soon began raising questions about the attackers’ visa, their family, and their connection to the Arab world.

There was even a detailed article in the Los Angeles Times about how the two “plotted their attack”. However, no one took into account that the motive behind the attack could have been Farook’s work relationships in the Inland Regional Center. After hearing about all of this, I started to think, What makes this attack different than any other? Does Farook not deserve the right to innocence before proven guilty just as any other person?

The President defined an act of terror as one that is designed to kill innocent people.

Based on this definition, almost all mass shootings in the country should be labeled as an act of terror, such as the shooting at the Planned Parenthood center and the one at the African-American church in Charleston. However, they are legally not, and that’s just “politics”. That is how our gov-

ernment works: the color of your skin will determine the severity of your crime. Those who are light will be waved off and counted as mentally ill and maybe serve a few years.

The darker the skin color on the spectrum, the more weight the government will put on their crime. Likewise, if one has an Arabic name, they will be labeled as a terrorist.

All crimes deserve a penalty; however, it should be at the same extent for each person that commits that same crime.

Even the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) was not calling the San Bernardino shooting by Farook and Malik terrorism in that immediate moment.

They stated, “It would be irresponsible and premature for [them] to call [the San Bernardino attack] terrorism.” They said this because there was simply not enough evidence to declare anything about this incident. This is the same step our government should have taken before declaring this attack anything.

There are so many unethical actions that take place within our government. I believe fair accountability should be something we hold dearly. Every person should be guaranteed the right to fair treatment and punishment. It is a right that should never get taken away. However, that is exactly what is happening, and there is not much we can do about it right now unless we put our foot down and demand a change for the better. No attack should be treated any different from another similar attack and all cases deserve a fair trial.

The first step to solve an issue such as this from ever happening again is reconstructing our justice system as a whole. We need to eliminate any bias or prejudice within our justice system and then carry out those same standards for all of our elected officials. The motto of our department of justice is “Qui Pro Domina Justitia Sequitur” or “Who prosecutes on behalf of justice.” We need to take measures to ensure that this motto is always upheld.

March 18, 2016

Athletes of the Issue:

The Eagle

Sports 15

Stirling & Mika Wong

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BY JENNIFER YIP

he typical Washington student doesn’t enthusiastically greet his or her sibling in the hallways, but junior Mika Wong and senior Stirling Wong can often be seen cracking jokes and laughing whenever they see each other. As competitive gymnasts who spend the majority of their time training together, the Wong sisters share a strong bond and are each other’s best friend.

Gymnastics has been a part of their lives since they were very young. Their oldest sister, Niki, was the first of the three siblings to take classes at the gymnasium near their house, and once Stirling and Mika were old enough, they started taking classes too. “When I was less than a week old, I was brought to the gym for Niki’s toddlers performance, so gymnastics has literally been in my life since I was born,” Mika adds humorously.

After the recreational stage, they decided to continue with the sport competitively, and the intensity picked up quickly. Soon, their schedules revolved around gymnastics. Practicing for three and a half hours a day for five days a week with an hour of commute each day, the Wongs are left with little time to do any other activities. They only have about an hour and a half of free time after school before they leave for practice and usually get home around 9. “After practice, we eat dinner, shower, and finish homework. Our schedule is so cramped; sometimes I feel like I’m missing out on a lot of things because while everyone else gets to hang out with friends, I have practice,” Stirling expresses.

Gymnastics is both a source of stress and a stress reliever for the sisters. Because it’s a yearround sport, Mika and Stirling don’t get a lot of time to relax; during winter break, spring break, summer break, and 3-day weekends, they still have practice and competitions. While most people get to go on vacations or spend time with family, they’re at the gym. However, the happiness they get from gymnastics makes the chaotic schedules, stress, and lack of free time worth it. “This sport has brought me so many emotions like joy, anger, frustration, and fear, but it’s comforting to know that I do feel all these emotions when I’m at practice because it means I’m passionate about what I’m doing,“ Mika explains. “The best part is feeling the satisfaction of doing a new skill. When I finally get the skill I’ve been working on every practice, I feel good about myself and that all the hard work has paid off,” Stirling adds.

From eating breakfast, to going to the same school, to going to practice, to eating late dinners together, Mika and Stirling spend very little time apart from each other. For most siblings, too much time around each other ends up in a lot of tension and fighting, but the Wong sisters have gotten past that point. “We used to argue a lot, but now I feel like we joke more than we’ve ever argued. The good part about it is that I always have someone to talk to on the way to practice and I have someone who knows what I’m talking about when I talk about gymnastics. There really are no bad parts about it except that sometimes we’ll be together for so long that one of us can get bored of the other,” says Mika.

Because gymnastics isn’t as common of a sport like basketball or football, most people don’t know much about it. Growing up as the only gymnasts their peers knew, Mika and Stirling have gotten many frequently asked questions. “The most common questions we get are, ‘Can you do the splits?’ ‘Can you do a backflip?’ and ‘Are you going to the Olympics?’ The answers are yes, I can do the splits, yes, I can do a backflip, and no, I’m not going to the Olympics,” Stirling answers with a laugh.

Besides being time consuming, the sport itself is exhausting, both physically and mentally.

With pull ups, rope climbs, crunches, push ups, and many more exercises before, between, and after their actual event training, they get little to no breaks. Although most people would find their conditioning torturous, Mika and Stirling have gotten used to the intense work outs.

The sisters travel all over California, from Sacramento to San Diego, to compete for four events: vault, uneven bars, balance beam, and floor. No matter how much they’ve trained, it’s hard for them to feel confident before competing. “I’m usually really pumped and excited for competitions, until it actually begins. When I compete in an event, I get super nervous. All I’m thinking about is just getting through the routine without falling. Once I finish the routine, it feels like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders. I’m also really superstitious. I listen to ‘Pompeii’ by Bastille before every single competition because a few years ago I listened to it before a meet, and that was my best meet of the season,” Stirling explains.

When the Wong parents signed their daughters up for basic classes, they never thought Mika and Stirling would stick with gymnastics for this long. Their parents are their biggest fans. From driving them to and from every practice, to watching and recording all of their competitions, to keeping track of their schedule, they’re always involved with everything going on. “They’re the ones who remind us that it’s not all about winning and to just do our best. After every competition, they tell us that we did really well, even if we know we did terribly,” the sisters chuckle.

Gymnastics is usually portrayed as and believed to be a strict sport where the coaches are tough and unforgiving, but in reality, gymnasts tend to be harder on themselves than their coaches are. Mika shares, “Because gymnastics can be such a mind game, I’ve cried from frustration. When I couldn’t do a specific skill, I’ve started crying because I knew that competition season was really near. I also cried when I got injured right before a competition; it wasn’t because of the pain, but because I was really devastated and kept blaming myself for it.”

Even with the support of their teammates, coaches, and family, gymnastics is so draining that it’s often tempting to quit. “Staying motivated is really hard. A lot of gymnasts who start competitive gymnastics at a really young age ‘burn out’ or get tired of it because they’ve worked their body so much that they can’t handle it anymore. When I don’t feel motivated to go to practice, I take a step back and think about why I love doing gymnastics and realize that I’m lucky to be able to do it. I also think about my team and coaches. I don’t want to let anyone down,” Stirling states.

When they’re frustrated and can’t seem to master a skill, the sisters turn to each other for help.

“My sister’s strong point is probably beam. She’s always been very consistent and solid and does it without fault very often. I’m actually the opposite of her on beam, and I’m a total scaredy cat when it comes to this event. But, because she’s so mentally tough, she has helped me in the past going for skills. For example, in one of my ‘series,’ which is two skills connected together without stopping in the middle, I would always stop midway because I was scared to connect the two skills, but she would always yell ‘GO!’ in the middle to help me get through the skill. I’m really grateful she does that for me,” Mika expresses.

With Stirling graduating in May, the sisters’ time as gymnasts together is coming to an end.

For Mika, training without her sister after this school year will be a new experience. “At practice, my sister and I are total goofballs. We sing together when the music is on, we joke all the time, and she’ll carry me on her back a lot. Honestly, at gymnastics, she’s my best friend there, and I love having her around. Whenever she isn’t there, I feel like I don’t joke as much with the other girls as I do when she is there,” she confesses.

For Stirling, college gymnastics isn’t something she sees for her future, but there will definitely be things she’ll miss about gymnastics. “I love the adrenaline rush I get from doing a new skill. It’s also cool being able to do tricks that a lot of people can’t do; I mean, how many people can say that they can do a backflip on a four-inch wide and four-foot tall platform?” As much as she loves the sport, she’s ready to move onto different activities in her life. “This is my last year competing in gymnastics. It’s really bittersweet, and I can’t imagine what I’m going to do with all this free time,” she jokes.

Jeremiah Batiste

Athlete of the Issue:

W hen I was three years old, my dad used to toss a foam baseball to me in our living room and I used to try hit it with a plastic bat into the kitchen. Fifteen years later, my dad picks me up after school and drives me to my high school baseball games. Sports has been something my dad and I have shared for as long as I can remember and the importance of this bond between us is something impossible for me to quantify.

The only thing I have ever seen or experienced that does justice to how special the bond is between a parent and his or her young athlete was a moment between senior Jeremiah Batiste and his mom right after Washington’s Varsity Boys Basketball team was defeated by Lowell in a heartbreaking playoff loss.

The loss marked the end of the Eagle’s season, but for Batiste and the rest of the seniors on the team, it marked the end of their high school basketball careers. After the game, a somber crowd of friends and family waited for the team to emerge from the locker room, amongst whom was Batiste’s mom. When Batiste emerged from the locker room, his mom greeted him with a hug that wasn’t just an embrace between mother and son, but it was a moment that displayed how special the relationship between an athlete and his or her parent can be.

For Batiste, this marked the end of something that had started when he was very young, “I started playing basketball at age 5,” Batiste says, “I tried a little of everything when it came to sports, my first sport being football, then baseball, then basketball and I just fell in love with it and have been playing ever since.” Batiste’s love for the game of basketball was fostered by support from his family members who always pushed him to get better and better. When he was younger, Batiste recalls playing one-on-one basketball with one of his uncles on weekends. “I would lose every time and I can remember crying and I just being so mad to where I wanted to quit.,” he said. That’s where his mom would come in. She would tell him not to give up and to channel his frustrations with losing into motivation to get better. “I can just remember getting better and better to where [my uncle] couldn’t beat me no more,” recalls Batiste.

Batiste took this love for the game of basketball to high school with him. He has been playing for Washington since he was a freshman, beginning on the Frosh/soph team and working his way up to Varsity. During his first year playing on Varsity, Batiste got to play with a lot of talented players who taught him a lot about the game. He also got to play in a lot of big games as the team made it all the way to the city championship that season. Washington lost the championship to Mission in a hard fought, emotional season finale. Batiste, like the rest of the team, was disappointed with the loss, but just as his mom had taught him to do when he was younger, Batiste turned the loss into something positive. “It gave me motivation to try and come back the next year,” says Batiste. During the offseason

BY DAVID SCOLARI

that followed, Batiste worked on his game in preparation for the important role he’d have to play on the team the next year.

As a senior, Batiste was made a captain of the basketball team, which made this season much different for him than the last. “I went from following the lead of the best players in our league to being a leader myself,” says Batiste. This wasn’t an easy transition. Being a captain meant being responsible for his teammates as well as himself, but, luckily, Batiste had great teammates who made his job a lot easier. “They are the most kind-hearted, hard-working, goofiest dudes anyone could ask for,” says Batiste.

Batiste and the rest of his team endured a season that was filled with ups and downs; however, the team came together to pull off some hard fought victories, namely, a buzzer beating win against first place Mission on senior night. “Going into the Mission game, there were a lot of emotions and a feeling of revenge from the way they beat us last time,” explained Batiste, referring to their first meeting with Mission earlier in the season where they lost to the defending champs by double digits. “Just Mission’s body language when they walked into our gym like they were going to ruin our senior night made me want to beat them even more, and I could feel that same feeling in the team,” Batiste recalls. That night, Washington played great, leading the first place Bears for most of the game. However, with just a few seconds left in the game, the Eagles found themselves trailing by one point with one last chance to win the game. Coach Lassiter drew up a play and the team got ready to inbound the ball. “Honestly the play was designed for John (one of Batiste’s teammates) to get the easy bucket, but I knew if John didn’t get the ball, that I had to get to a spot where Jesse (another teammate) could get me the ball,” Batiste explains. The ball was inbounded, and Batiste was ready. His teammate, Jesse Matthews, passed him the ball and he put up a three point shot.

“When I shot the ball, it was in rhythm and I knew it was going in the whole way through,” recalls Batiste. When the ball went in the basket, the crowd exploded. Everyone in attendance was ecstatic, including Batiste’s mom, who was at the game with his little sister. Batiste’s teammates celebrated with him, jumping and hugging each other. He had just sent them into the playoffs on a high note.

The team’s high was short lived, however, as their next game would be the heartbreaking playoff loss to Lowell, which brings us back to the hug between Batiste and his mom, a moment that has stuck out in my head ever since I saw it that night. It is impossible to put into the words how special the relationship is between a young athlete and the person that has seen almost every game, every triumph, and every failure since the time he or she was five years old, but that moment between Batiste and his mom told the whole story. Just as she had done since he was little, she picked up her son in a time of defeat, urging him to turn his pain into the strength to become a better man. “There’s no better feeling than being in your mom’s arms after a game like that,” says Batiste.

16 Sports The Eagle March 18, 2016