The Eagle Eye 2 2015-16 by David Cary

THE EAGLE EYE George Washington High School

May 6, 2016

TABLE OF CONTENTS 2. Introduction 4. “If you really knew me you’d know that...” 8. Lanlan Ye 10. Ismael Morales 12. Oasis Mpolo 14. Marcos Cruz Carpio 16. Jeromy Lee 20. Xenia Porshe 22. Karen Chen 24. Hope Hurst 28. Tattoos at Washington 30. Wash Students on a Mission 32. Teresa Camajani 1

he quote “If you really knew me…” was our inspiration for creating this magazine. Our involvement in Journalism has opened our eyes to the fact that there is so much more to people than what initially meets the eye. We believe that it is so important for us to recognize and acknowledge the unique struggles, accomplishments, talents, backgrounds and beliefs that each individual has. We hope that those who read this magazine will be inspired to reach out to and get to know the amazing students and faculty members here at George Washington High School. Thank you! -Jhoselene Alvarado, Marie Baker

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

Why Don’t You Share Certain Information with Your Friends?

“They might laugh at me.” “I want to retain my pride.”

“Because if I share too much and they know all about me, one day if they betray me I’ll feel sad.”

“Becaue they can’t stop gossiping.”

“I don’t want them to worry about me.”

“Because they’re fake and have big mouths.”

“Fear of being judged and dissapointed by my friends.”

“I don’t feel like I trust them.”

“Some things are better kept to yourself.”

“Because it gets passed around negatively.”

“If you really knew me you’d know that....” We asked Wash students to share information that few people know about them. Here are some of their responses:

I have a kidney disease

I have a really messed up family

I fake a lot of my emotions

I ate 7 pizzas at 3 A.M

I love AP Psychology

I love art

I don’t do drugs

Is Your Social Media Account An Accurate Portrayal of Who You Are? “No, because people may be awesome but they don’t represent that on media, like Facebook.” “Yes, most of my life is online.” “In a way. I like to put myself out there a lot but then again, it’s nobody’s business and shouldn’t be their interest to know about my life.”

“½ accurate because the stuff I post only shows part of who I am. It is just a physical look.” “No, because I try to fit in.” “Definitely not because we have people that fake it and pretend to be who they aren’t.” “Yes, because I don’t feel like changing myself on social media is necessary.” “No, there’s all kinds of stuff on Twitter I wouldn’t say in real life.” “Not really because it’s just a small part of me I’m willing to share.” “I never portray myself the same on the Internet. I could be another me on social media.” “No, you only show a certain part of your life on social media (mostly the good stuff).”

PROFILES

LANLAN YE BY CARMEN ZHEN

aying goodbye to all that you’ve ever known is an act of bravery. Knowing that you’ll never walk along the familiar streets to school or hop on the same bus home again is tough, but sophomore Lanlan Ye mustered all her strength and recently moved over 6,000 miles away from home. Ye and her family moved from China to San Francisco on February 5th, 2015. They packed up all of their belongings and moved across the world because her step-dad didn’t feel like China was the right place to call home. Her step-dad was originally in China because he was working on a photo documentary project about China in order to learn more about the country that his family came from. It was in the midst of this project that Ye’s mom entered his life. They met while he was teaching English in 2009 and got married in her mom’s hometown, Harbin, in the beginning of 2011. Before her step-dad stepped into the picture, Ye’s life was hectic. “My parents separated when I was really young and I had a really complicated relationship with my mom while I was living with her, and her only.” After a few years of joining their family, Ye’s stepdad expressed that he wanted to move back to the United States, so Ye could gain a better education and surround herself in a more encouraging environment. “He’s a fourth or third generation San Franciscan and he didn’t want to stay in China at all. [Back] in China, most people think about themselves over others,” Ye reveals. “He’s like, ‘Either I get you to America or...I get you to America.’” She was left with no choice but to leave her home country. When Ye lived in China, she was homeschooled for three years before she made the move to the United States in an English-only environment that was created by her step-dad. She described homeschool as a mentally confining place. “I’m a really outgoing person, so homeschool for me was a struggle because I was the only one in the whole place,” she elaborates. “I started shutting down because I had no one to talk to.” She tried to talk with her step-dad at times, but it was hard. “My English wasn’t good and my step-dad only spoke English. He didn’t speak any Chinese. [English] was the only language we could use and he didn’t [understand] me even though I tried to explain what was going on; it was just kind of frustrating,” she expresses. Although Ye hated being home-schooled, she admits that it helped

soften the culture shock she experienced upon moving to America. “There was hardly any transition for me when I came over to the U.S. [My step-dad] prepared me for this in the past three years because he felt that cultural integration was very important for me,” Ye explains. Moving to the United States is a decision that Ye doesn’t regret making. “School is a lot different,” she muses. “I like the U.S. more because it fits my personality more than Chinese schools or the Chinese community in general because I have a really out-going personality and in China, people think girls should be quiet instead of acting like a tomboy.” The culture and thoughts on gender roles couldn’t be any more different between the United States and China. However, the Chinese restaurants [here] can barely compete with the food in China. “I miss my family that’s still back in China and the food that I grew up eating.” Ye started surfing last June with her step-dad. He surfs whenever he can and he thought that since she likes swimming, surfing would come naturally to her as well. They have four boards at home and one day, he thought that it would be a great idea to teach her how to surf. “When I first started surfing, I didn’t really get it. I didn’t know how to function myself on the board,” she confesses. “I was in the water and I didn’t know if I was going to drown. Everything was really salty; it was scary and exciting at the same time.” Most people would say they like surfing simply because it’s fun, but for Ye it’s more than just an exciting activity to do on the beach. “It really calms me down. I really like being in the water and it’s not just that I feel happy...it calms my soul,” she explains while laughing. When she’s perched upon her board and paddling through the rippling water, there’s no place that she’d rather be. After her step-dad introduced her to surfing, their father-daughter relationship grew stronger. Whenever Ye gets a break from school, the two of them take road trips to beaches in Santa Cruz and Marin County, or surf at Ocean Beach. “In the summer, I [surf] almost every weekend and about three times a week during the school year. Bolinas, in Marin County, is a really good [place] to surf,” she says. If given the opportunity, she would love to challenge the waves outside of the Bay Area. “I want to go to Hawaii,” Ye says excitedly.

ISMAEL MORALES BY MELODY YAN

t one point or another, we all feel like escaping from reality. Maybe it’s by staying in bed for hours on end as you scroll through Instagram. Maybe it’s exercise or just simply being alone. For Ismael Morales, he finds his escape through the world of film. For the past 12 years Morales has spent his Monday nights going to the movies with his dad and sister. They don’t have any preferences and watch just about anything--from dramas to science fiction and everything in between. Morales’s parents separated when he was eight, and taking him and his sister to the movies was his dad’s way of staying close to them. “That’s why my glasses are so thick. My eyesight is kinda terrible right now,” he jokes. While Morales considers himself to be extremely close with his mom, his relationship with his dad is more along the lines of, “I’ll catch him up with what happened over a week.” Morales is similar to his mom in that they both have positive personas. “She’s shown me that I have to be kind and caring towards other people and help them. [But] I [feel like I] fall between the sweetness of my mom and kind of the hard, strict figure that is my dad,” he says. Today, many see Morales as an optimistic person who always has a smile on his face, but life was different for him when he entered high school. As a freshman, Morales spent his lunches playing soccer on the football field, keeping to himself and not being the social butterfly that he is today. Soccer was his solace, his safe haven, but that was soon taken away from him when he found out he had a vein in his heart that was too big. He was recommended by his doctor to take it slow with sports, which drove him to find solace in movies instead while also pushing him to make friends. As soccer slowly faded away from his life, his love for movies grew stronger. People often get emotionally lost in movies because what they see on the screen mirrors their own life. We are attracted to characters that reflect our own situations because it makes us feel less alone. “Whenever I’m mad, sad, or in a good mood, I go to the movies. It’s

definitely an escape. You lose yourself in the two hours you’re there. You don’t have to face your problems. It’s kind of bad in that situation because I’m avoiding my problems, but it’s also amazing.” When Morales was younger, he often watched Blood In Blood Out, a movie about three Hispanic teens in LA who slowly grow up to live different lives. “One goes to jail, one becomes a cop, and one becomes a junkie. It’s like my childhood movie, and I think that’s kind of interesting because it’s a graphic movie. I used to watch that when I was like six, seven. It makes me feel empowered of my culture because it’s really based on Hispanics standing out from what’s expected of them. I remember it as a movie that always showed that my heart was in film. [Even though] I was young watching rated R movies, I didn’t think twice of it. It didn’t change my opinion of the world. It just made me more conscious of how it was.” Another movie that resonates with him is DOPE, where the main character is a geeky 90’s hip-hop lover that doesn’t fit in. “The main character Malcolm [and I] both come from low income neighborhoods and [have] very negative social circles where the people around us don’t normally succeed. We, on the other hand, stand out in the sense that although we come from that type of background, our personalities are different from those around us because our interests set us apart. Mine are movies, [while] Malcolm’s is 90’s music.” With the end of high school nearing, Morales hopes that he has made a positive mark on the people around him. “I’m realizing that although I want to be remembered by as many people as possible, the only way I’ll leave my mark is if I really get to know the people around me.” As he makes his transitions into college, he wants to reach out to more people through making films. He hopes to give people the kind of escape that he has been able to have while watching movies. “Maybe they won’t remember the director, the writer, the producer--but I’ll be affecting them some way or somehow. Even if it’s only for two hours.”

OASIS MPOLO BY BITOTA MPOLO

hroughout elementary school my sister Oasis Mpolo suffered from a speech impediment. This communication difficulty caused her to struggle with stuttering and pronouncing words with the letters R and T. Because of this disability, Oasis was pulled out of class to see a speaking coach several times a week. Although I knew about my sister’s speech issues, I never really knew how anxious she became because of it. In class, Oasis became too shy to talk, fearing someone would laugh at the way she spoke. Even as her sister, I never knew how embarrassed and insecure she became because of her speaking obstacles. None of Oasis’ elementary school classmates ever bullied or ridiculed her for it, or even knew she took speech lessons. However, her own thoughts restricted her from speaking up. “Somehow, at nine years old, I became my own bully,” says Oasis. After about two years of speech lessons, Oasis’s speech impediment was gone. Then in 2009, our family moved from Fresno to San Francisco. Although her speaking issues disappeared, her shyness and selfesteem issues remained. She still felt like everyone was judging every word and letter that came out of her mouth. Up until middle school Oasis had been victim of self-loathing. However, in the 6th grade she started to experience bullying from her peers. Because Oasis rarely spoke, she never stood up for herself and became an easy target for the school bullies. I was never aware that she was bullied so severely until it got to the point where she would come home and bawl her eyes out almost everyday throughout the 6th grade and most of the 7th grade. She would often let her classmate’s step all over her. “It even got so bad that I had to switch classes, just to get away from the bullies,” Oasis says. In the 6th grade, Oasis started taking Cuban salsa dance classes with our mom and me. After about a year she started really loving and getting good at dancing. The dance instructor started using Oasis for demonstrations and asking her to step in front of the class. Although

Oasis was terrified of doing so at first, she started to love being in front and helping people with the dance moves. In class, I would watch her and be amazed at how confident she was dancing in front of all those people. Dance saved Oasis. “Although this might seem extremely cheesy, dance slowly started giving me my confidence back,” states Oasis. The more she danced, the more I saw her becoming her true self. Being around Oasis all the time, I have seen firsthand how much passion she has for dance and how much more confidence she has when dancing. Toward the end of middle school, in the 8th grade, Oasis started to speak up more in class and I noticed that she started coming back from school happier. She also started to stand up for herself and her friends, which made people start to treat her with respect. Being a part of Washington’s Dance Company really helped to boost Oasis’s confidence. “I find it really cool that I am able to be part of Dance Company,” Oasis says. “In order to be in Dance Company you really have to show leadership; dancing only gets you halfway there.” There were several times throughout the year where she had to get up by herself and dance, talk, or teach in front of the whole class. Through dance Oasis has been able to overcome her shyness and has gotten to choreograph and direct seven dance pieces with her own choreography and has performed in 26 dance pieces throughout her high school career. Although Oasis hated presenting her choreography in front of the class, she loved dance so much that she told herself that it was worth it. Each time she would present by herself it got easier. As a result, presenting projects and talking in other classes started to become easier as well. Through presenting and exploring dance, Oasis discovered a new drive for exceeding expectations and bettering herself. Oasis has come a long way since the 4th grade and although she still gets nervous while in front of an audience, dance has helped her become the confident person she is today.

MARCOS CRUZ CARPIO BY MARIE BAKER

arcos Cruz Carpio left his home in Guatemala and moved to the United States on November 17th, 2013. Some may wonder why a person would choose to start a completely new life in a new country at the age of 16. Cruz Carpio explains, “My dad and my mom had separated a while ago and my dad started living [in the U.S.] when I was 11. I didn’t want to finish high school in Guatemala so I just moved here. That was it.” To many, Cruz Carpio’s background may come as a surprise, given his near-perfect English. Despite Spanish being his first language and starting school in America during the spring semester of his sophomore year, Cruz Carpio’s accent is barely detectable. When asked how he became so good at speaking English, he laughs and says, “Yeah, I get asked that that a lot. I used to have [English] classes in Guatemala...all throughout elementary school and I’d listened to a lot of music in English since I was a kid. I was on the Internet a lot in English and my mom spoke English because she worked as a news reporter for Telemundo so she talked to people in the U.S. a lot and I’m a nosy kid so I liked knowing what was happening. So that’s how I know English. [I] mostly taught myself to speak well but I got the basics from my English classes.” Cruz Carpio did not have the best relationship with his father before coming to the United States, which at first made him hesitant to make the move. “I didn’t want to come here because it wasn’t a healthy relationship, but then my sister came once without me and she was like ‘No, it’s a cool place.’ I thought more about it and I realized I only had two more years of high school and then I had to go to college in Guatemala. I really didn’t wanna go to college in Guatemala and so I was like, might as well, you know, two birds one stone -- I’ll get to see my dad again and I’ll get to graduate high school in a place that actually has a decent education system.” Although leaving his home country behind was difficult, Cruz Carpio is happy with his decision to move. Since he was young, he felt that his personality did not quite fit in with Guatemala’s culture, which he describes as being “pretty conservative.” “[In Guatemala] I felt like I was hitting a wall when I was just trying to be myself and definitely you don’t get that here. You can do whatever you want; no one is going to say anything.” In Cruz Carpio’s eyes, Guatemala and San Francisco could not be any more different. “I guess people don’t come out as gay over there because people are super intolerant about that stuff. I couldn’t have long hair at my school; they made me cut it. No earrings. I want tattoos --I don’t have any yet -- but I couldn’t have a tattoo on my arm over there because they would be like, ‘Ooh you got a tattoo.’” Although Cruz Carpio loves living in the United States, the transition was not an easy one. In fact, when Cruz Carpio initially came to the U.S. he thought that he was only coming for a short visit. Little did he know that he would never return home after that trip. “The move here was kind of sudden. I was supposed to come here, check it out, see how I felt and go back for a few months, but that didn’t end up happening. It was a little tense because all of my friends just thought that I was going to come back and I also thought that I was gonna come back so

I left a bunch of stuff, you know; I never packed my room or anything like that.” What Cruz Carpio misses most about Guatemala are the friends and family that he’s left there. Because he has not been able to return to Guatemala since his sudden move, he only gets to see his mother every six months when she comes to the U.S. to visit him and his sister. Though Cruz Carpio does not get to see his mother as often as he would like to, they keep in close contact through daily texts and phone calls. “You know, [Guatemala] is a small country, so I knew a lot of people there that I just grew up with. I miss a few really really close friends that I knew since I was six,” Cruz Carpio reflects. But despite these hardships, Cruz Carpio remains optimistic. “I’m just kind of like looking forward, because if not, it does get a little sad to be like, ‘Oh I miss my friends, I miss my mom.’ But you know, I’ll see them eventually so it’s not such a big deal. I mean it has been hard but [my mom] knows that it’s better [in the U.S.] so she’s okay with it, I’m ok with it; it’s better for us I think.” While Cruz Carpio misses his family in Guatemala, the move allowed him to rekindle his relationship with his father. In fact, Cruz Carpio and his father spend many weekends working together. “We do events like weddings, quinceaneras, stuff like that. He takes pictures and I take video and then we edit it and we print out albums. It’s more so I can make some money and he can make some extra money but he’s slowly making me do most of it. This month we have events every weekend.” On his relationship with his father, he explains, “I see more eye to eye with him on a lot of stuff than I did before. When I moved here it really just hit me like a train and I stopped being an angsty teenager and started being more mature about stuff, and I feel like my dad notices that and doesn’t treat me like a kid anymore. We have a pretty good relationship with each other now.” When Cruz Carpio is not filming events, he spends his time volunteering, playing his guitar and attending local band performances. He volunteers at Food Not Bombs, “a volunteer-run soup kitchen type of thing” every week ever since he stumbled upon the group’s Facebook page. “I was looking for something like [Food Not Bombs] to get involved with and help people...and I’ve been [volunteering] there for more than a year now.” As for his future, Cruz Carpio plans to attend City College of San Francisco to earn an associate’s certificate in electrical engineering. Cruz Carpio explains, “I want to learn circuits so I can work with amps and guitar pedals, because I’ve been getting into guitar pedals which are little boxes where you can run your guitar signals and it gives out weird effects.” While many seniors are anxious to leave San Francisco and start their college lives away from home, Cruz Carpio is in no hurry to leave the city. “I don’t feel like I need to get out of S.F. or anything like that--it’s pretty new still. I like the city a lot; the Bay Area, it’s like a 180 turn from 15 what I used to live in and it’s pretty great.”

JEROMY LEE

BY JOYCE MA

hirty miles per hour and above--that is how fast road and track cyclist Jeromy Lee bikes in competitions. For some, biking may mean a calm venture to a friend’s house or a relaxing ride along the beach. But for Lee, a junior, biking means a pre-race tradition of ice baths and waking up at the crack of dawn to drive to a race. Lee first started biking when he was twelve years old, when he was introduced to the sport by his brother. “My brother got into fixed gear bikes and was just like, ‘You should come ride with me too.’ I first got a BMX bike and started from there. I would start riding in the parks or around the neighborhood and eventually I got into cycling,” said Lee. Through the intense training and the relaxed rides, the newfound, shared hobby of biking has fostered a bond between Lee and his brother. “I remember we’d go on super long rides together when we would try to get fit for races so we would go like 40 miles or 60 miles together and we were just talking like half the time while training,” Lee reminisced. Lee and his brother started cycling competitively after meeting a friend at a bike shop. “We were talking about what racing is like and it inspired me and my brother to enter a bike race. I did so bad at my first bike race but I had a lot of fun,” he said. In order to cycle competitively, one must first obtain a United States of America cycling license and then sign up for races through the Northern California Nevada Cycling Association. Although it has been three years since Lee first starting competing, balancing cycling and school can still be an obstacle at times, especially with all the traveling for competitions. “It is hard to balance school and do all my schoolwork while being out in a hotel,” Lee says. “But I just try to work cycling around school by asking my teachers to give me homework early or by just communicating with my teachers and trying to get a more flexible deadline.” In addition to the competitions, Lee’s training schedule can get hectic as well. He trains every day, including weekdays right after school, at the Marin Headlands. “Usually, on the weekdays, I have more intensity work, which generally is about 1-2 hours. And, on weekends, if I’m not racing, it’s endurance rides that usually last about 3-5 hours,” Lee explains. USA Cycling has five different categories; category 5 being the lowest and category 1 being the most advanced, including paid professionals. The highest category Lee has competed in is category 3. “I raced at a category 3 level last year, and it’s pretty challenging. Category 3 is really when it starts changing up because you’ll start racing against the category 1’s and 2’s. You’re mixed in with the pros sometimes, so it gets really difficult,” comments Lee. The length of races varies depending on the type of race. Road races are about 60-100 miles. And criteriums, a race on a circuit race course, are in closed off areas on the streets that are generally 45 minutes to an hour and thirty minutes. “My most memorable moment was probably winning my first race when I was 14. It was super fun, and I remember being the only junior

in the field while others were like 20+. I remember even lapping the field by myself and I was just so stoked and it’s driven me to just keep racing,” exclaimed Lee. Lee’s greatest achievement cycling competitively to date is winning a stage in a stage race. A stage race is a competition comprised of different stages from the same promoter. On the first day, there might be a circuit race while the second day may be a time trial, and so forth. Then, you are ranked depending on how you did overall over the course of the days. “Stage races are hard because when you win a stage, you don’t have a team to back you up to win the next stage. But, I think it’s the best thing I’ve done because it was one of my goals this year, to compete in it and to win one stage. I had an accident in December; and I had to be off my bike for a month. It was just so nervous racing again, especially when it’s so early in the season too. And, I remember just doing it and winning. I was just so stoked,” Lee explains. Unlike other sports such as lacrosse, Lee doesn’t really carry anything around that screams, “I’m a competitive cyclist!” As a result, cycling is usually a passion of his that remains hidden from his peers, making it the perfect conversation starter. “People do get surprised that I’m a bike racer and that I race competitively. Usually, people are like, ‘Bike racing? Isn’t that like super easy or something?’ But, it isn’t easy. Almost every sport is hard,” Lee says. Contrary to the what some may believe, cycling can be extremely challenging. “The most challenging thing about cycling is that it never gets easier. As you move up in categories, you need to train harder to be faster in order to be able to race with the category,” Lee said. “It can also be pretty dangerous. You’re competing with around 50-100 people in a race, and you’re just wearing spandex so crashing 30+ mph isn’t the most fun thing about cycling.” In addition to cycling being unfamiliar to his peers at Washington, the sport itself is not that common in San Francisco. “I wish there were a lot more kids who raced. In San Francisco, I think I’m just kind of the only [high school] junior out there racing, but, definitely outside of S.F. there are a lot of mountain bike schools where they have mountain biking to race but there isn’t a lot of road racing or track racing. I would like to encourage more kids to get into racing,” explained Lee. Cycling can be challenging, but the joy Lee gets from the sport makes it all worth it and only fuels his drive to continue racing. “It’s just fun and I feel really free when I’m outdoors because I can really go anywhere on my bike,” says Lee. Although Lee is still unsure whether he will cycle professionally in his future, cycling will always be a part of his life. He plans to continue competing in local and out-of-state competitions for fun. Lee exclaims, “Cycling has changed me from just being that normal kid. And, learning from people I meet at a bike shop or people I meet on the road has changed my perspective on everything. It’s taught me to be humble when you succeed and to respect everyone. I just feel like I’ve learned so much that I can’t thank cycling enough.”

XENIA PORSHE BY CAROLYN HANSON-LEE

hen Xenia Porshe walks down the corridors of George Washington High School, she illuminates the bustling halls with her electric smile and bubbly personality as she greets her many friends passing by. Porshe is known around school for being one of the nicest and most spirited girls, who loves to dance and take awesome videos for her Snapchat story. But what truly makes Porshe stand out from the rest is her passion for auto engineering. At the end of every school day, Porshe trades her stylish OOTD and earrings for coveralls, gloves, and goggles. Porshe actually has two consecutive periods a day in the GWHS auto shop with teacher Andre Higginbotham, where she tries to spend as much time as she can getting her hands dirty with cars, motorcycles, and engines. Porshe spends fifth period as an AVID TA for Higginbotham, sixth period as an auto shop TA, and seventh period in the Advanced Auto Shop class. In her eyes, this is exactly the type of atmosphere she thrives in. “Every day is different, and that’s what I like about it; you always learn something new,” Porshe elaborates with a smile. “For example, [Higginbotham] will put us on one car and we’ll work on it for a couple days. A few weeks ago, I worked on his fastback’s electrical system. That took a couple days, and then the next week he would tell us to help out the beginners. Every day or every other day, one of the teachers brings in their car to get their oil changed or rotate their tires. Right now I’m working with Mr. Yee. He brought in his car and wants his tires changed. He brought new tires in, so we have to take them all off, put them back on, and it takes a while, because there’s a whole machine for it, to take off the whole tire.” Unfortunately, it wasn’t until Porshe’s sophomore year that she discovered that Washington actually offered auto shop classes. Since her schedule had already been filled, she was unable to sign up. In her junior year, she managed to participate in Higginbotham’s after-school auto shop sessions, and in her senior year, she finally landed two periods of the class. Porshe was lucky enough to discover her unconditional love for auto engineering very early on in life with guidance and influence from her father. “[My dad and I] would always do things together,” Porshe explains. “My dad is an auto engineer. Ever since I was little I would help him out; I’ve always been exposed to it. I’ve always had some kind of sense of it. [Auto shop] is a good experience because I want to do what my dad does. I want to be an auto engineer, so I want to start early.” With a great amount of experience already under her belt, Porshe has found a home in the advanced auto shop class. There are only eight other advanced students in the class, which Porshe believes has helped her become very close with the others. “We even hang out sometimes,” Porshe says. “We get that close because we’re there for so long and sometimes we stay after school so we know each other pretty well. We’re all into the same things.”

However, the advanced class has also weeded out all traces of other female companionship. Porshe is the only girl in her advanced group, but according to her, she’s perfectly happy. Because she is so comfortable with engineering, her gender has no effect on her auto shop experience. But she does admit that she occasionally struggles to carry or pick up heavy engines and other car parts. “The class is a more manly thing,” she admits. “But I’ve been doing it since I was little, and I’ve always been with my dad, so I’ve always been involved in these things that aren’t really ‘girly’. I’m used to it; I have that mindset. For me, it’s like nothing. Most girls don’t do it, but I feel like it’s just because ever since I was little I was part of it, and it stuck with me.” Another significant feature of auto shop that Porshe has come to appreciate is not any certain physical entity of the class, but the teacher himself. Porshe believes that had any other teacher run auto shop, she may have not liked the class as much as she does. Porshe deeply respects Andre Higginbotham. “Mr. H., he’s like a great teacher, so it’s even more fun with him. He explains everything so well and he’s perfect,” she says. “I wish all my teachers were like Mr. H.. The way he explains things... it makes sense. You want to learn from him. I like auto in general, it’s my passion, but he makes it more interesting. He’s so awesome in my opinion; he’s goals.” Recalling her most challenging task she has fulfilled in auto shop, Porshe describes a time she worked with a car’s electrical components from underneath the vehicle. As she explains, the hardest part about working with over fifty different electrical wires at once was not making a mistake. “If you cut something wrong, you’ll mess up,” says Porshe. “And you’re in an uncomfortable position because you’re under the wheel. It’s a difficult position first of all, and then there’s so many things going on that you can’t mess up. You have to know exactly what you’re doing.” Despite the challenges and pressures faced on a day-to-day basis, Porshe’s adoration for engineering remains intact. “I love auto shop,” affirms Porshe. “I mean, that’s what I want to do with my life; I want to be involved in that. I want to go even further engineering wise; [the Auto Shop class] is more like mechanical stuff. I’m the type of person, in a regular class, I can’t sit for that long, because I like to do stuff with my hands. I have a lot of energy and I can’t just sit and write, so I have to get up at some point. That’s why I like auto shop, because you’re running around and you’re always doing something. It relaxes me after a long day and it’s chill. I enjoy it; there’s always something to do.” On the question of where she wants to go in the future, Porshe has plans to move to Los Angeles, New York City, or possibly Berkeley. But whatever city she decides to go to, if you put tools in her hand, she’s bound to create something amazing.

KAREN CHEN BY JHOSELENE ALVARADO

esigning clothes has been Karen Chen’s passion ever since she was a little girl. Rather than buying clothes for her Barbie’s, Chen and her sisters would use scraps of fabric to make new outfits for their dolls. Now, Chen has transitioned from making doll sized clothing to clothes for herself. Chen’s parents have been designing and making clothes for over 23 years, and have now passed on their skills to their children. “I would say that about half of my clothes are made by me or my parents,” she says. Before beginning to sew, Chen has a process she must complete. She begins by brainstorming the type of clothing item she wants to make. Chen then chooses the fabric and print she wants, measures how much fabric she needs, and cuts out templates for her designs. For an average person this process can take days; however, Chen has mastered the art of sewing and can make a pair of pants in about four hours, if she is using a sewing machine. “I like making my own clothes because it’s something unique that only I have and I can make it however I want,” Chen expresses. When people ask Chen “Did you get that from this store?” she can’t help but feel proud and happy that people like the clothes she makes and think that it is from a brand name. “People are always shocked when I tell them that either myself or my parents made my outfit,” she says. Making clothes is not always easy for Chen. She finds that the hardest aspect about the entire process is mea-

suring the amount of fabric she needs. If one measurement is wrong, it can compromise the entire clothing piece. “It’s very tedious sometimes,” she says. The night before homecoming Chen was struggling to finish off her outfit because her measurements were not right. After many attempts she managed to complete the outfit, “The pants ended up better than I could’ve ever imagined,” she says. Certain fabrics are also very hard to work with. “Definitely stretchy or elastic fabric because if you don’t measure it carefully it can get weird when you sew it,” she explains. Chen defines fashion as a “way to express [her] moods or feelings.” For example, if she “wants to feel empowered, [she’ll] wear a leather jacket.” Using clothes as a way to express herself is Chen’s favorite part of fashion and design. Chen also loves to dress up on a daily basis. “I don’t dress up for others; I dress up for myself and to feel good about myself.” Making her own clothes has not only taught Chen skills that not many people have, but it has also taught her valuable life lessons. “Making clothes has taught me to be more confident and creative,” she shares. By wearing the items she makes she is putting her skills on full display, which can be nerve wracking. Chen has also come to appreciate people who make clothes on a larger scale. “I feel like people take their clothes for granted because they don’t know how hard it is to make them.” Chen has experienced first hand the challenges of being a designer, and although she loves making clothes, she does not see herself pursuing a career in fashion. She does however see herself continuing to design her own clothing in the future.

HOPE HURST BY JENNIFER YIP

omelessness isn’t always apparent; it’s not always seen through ragged clothing or cardboard signs. Often times, it’s hidden in the lives of our friends and classmates. Senior Hope Hurst may seem like an average high schooler who works at Starbucks, is a dedicated Christian, and is constantly with her best friend Frida Pereira, but what most people don’t know about her is that she’s been homeless for the majority of her life. Without her father in the picture, it has always been just Hurst and her mother. Her mother, who had issues within herself, struggled to raise Hurst in a positive environment. “I never really had a steady home. Until I was five, my mom and I lived on mattresses in the streets,” she says. Eventually, her mom started getting help for herself, and things seemed to be looking up for the two. Hurst was seven when her mom got engaged, and they moved from San Francisco to Maryland to be a family. Living in Maryland wasn’t what they expected it to be. There was no beautiful new house with a white-picket fence, welcoming neighbors, and happy family dinners every night. Instead, there was tense judgement of her mother’s bi-racial marriage, causing the family to move several more times in order to find a comforting place to call home. The marriage quickly became abusive. After four years, her mother found the will to leave, and the mother-daughter duo moved back to San Francisco the summer before Hurst started middle school. Hurst was homeless once again, for all three years of middle school. Every new month came with a different motel to stay in. It was tough for her to come to terms with it. She explains, “When I was younger, I felt a lot of shame about my situation and I was often embarrassed so I didn’t share my situation with very many people. I also didn’t know anyone else who shared the same story either, so I didn’t relate with anyone in my position.” The summer before Hurst’s freshman year at Washington, she and her mom qualified for government housing in Potrero Hill. While that was a step forward, things only got worse again when her mother got into another abusive relationship. “I had started to become the subject of their arguments. I often wound up running away from home and

didn’t do very well in school for this reason. I was really good at balancing school and my living situation in middle school, but I couldn’t continue doing that in high school and I don’t really know why,” Hurst tells. As a result, she struggled to find optimism in her life and battled depression. She recalls, “The saddest memory that I remember often is being in my room when I lived with my mom and bawling my eyes out in the dark at 2 AM, and I just remember saying, ‘God, if you’re real, show yourself! If you’re up there, say something or I’m going to give up!’ I cried myself to sleep that night repeating the same thing over and over in various versions. I was at such a desperate point in my life.” When she was at the lowest of lows, Hurst found faith through Christianity at the end of her freshman year. After another Washington senior, Yokabet Paulos, invited her to church one Sunday, she felt a new sense of ambition and empowerment. “Yoki and I became co-presidents of Wash’s Christian Club. Her walk with God speaks volumes not only for me, but also for everyone around her, and I’m so grateful for all she’s done for me and this school. I became heavily involved in the church, where I gained a family and best friend that I’d never before thought I had deserved. Things were becoming worse at home still, but I was in a much better place despite it,” she adds. In November of her sophomore year, Hurst decided to contact Child Protective Services and admit herself into the foster care system. Even so, it was hard to find a stable place to stay. First she lived with a mentor, but when conflicts came up between them, she had to look for another home. She then planned to be adopted into her youth pastor’s family by the end of her junior year, but when their marriage began to fail, she found herself homeless again. Luckily, Frida’s family brought her into their home as if she was a second daughter. With everything that had happened recently, Hurst was anxious to see how this new living situation would work out. “I was nervous at first but only because of the place that I was in my life. I had just given my all to a family that wound up not working, and I didn’t want to give my heart away like that again,” she admits. But, finally, Hurst has found a place she can happily call home.

“I CAN HONESTLY SAY THAT I’M LIVING MY HAPPIEST MOMENTS RIGHT NOW.” “I am so blessed that her mom loves me as one of her own and has such a big, loving heart. Frida and I are both very low-maintenance so it works out well. Even though we are very different people, our personalities mesh so well. The only thing I get upset about is wishing I had moved in sooner. People often warn us that we should be careful because we’re together 24/7. There’s a lot of room for friction, but I don’t think we’ve ever gotten into an argument, although we definitely have bumped heads before. We’re mostly full of giggles.” Through it all, Hurst has stayed true to herself and holds her head up high. The future looks bright for her, and she will be majoring in Pastoral Ministries at Vanguard University in Southern California. “Although my life has never been as consistent as I would have liked it to have been, I have known the pain of being at the bottom without grace, but I also know the pain of being at the bottom with it, and that’s why

I’m choosing to spend my life being a helping hand to others search for a God like the one I know,” she explains. As for her relationship with her mother, she has recently reached out to her after a year without contact. “It has been a long time from her, but I think we both needed some time to grow and heal from our unhealthy relationship and so far, it’s going great!” she says with confidence. For now, Hurst is enjoying all the little things things in life. “I can honestly say that I’m living my happiest moments right now. Yeah, blowing out candles on my seventh birthday was cool because I had this massive cake to myself, but little things like walking to school with Frida and laughing over a sign in a window has got to top it.”

“It took me a while to decide on something I really wanted, but I have a pair of swallows. The reason why I chose that is because swallows, you can find all over California which is really cool. I love to watch them fly, the way they fly, they dart around, it’s really interesting to watch. And just from like a science point of view they’re a really interesting animal the way they build their nest..

RACHEL SPILLARD

WILLIAM SUSSMAN

“This is the most important one: my dog Maddy. She was the love of my life, my German Shepherd. I had her 15 years to the day. They actually mixed her ashes in with the ink when they tattooed me. She’ll always be a part of me.” 28

The thing about swallows, and the reason why they’re really traditional for sailors like “old school” tattoos, is because when the sailors would see swallows they knew they were close to land because sallows travel really far from home but always come back to the same place. Especially during college and after college I traveled a lot and I wasn’t totally sure where I was going to end up. But I came home; I always came back even though I traveled to a lot of places. They have a big festival down at the Mission of San Juan Capistrano to welcome the swallows back and they have it on the feast of St. Joseph which happens to be my birthday so [the swallows were] something I thought really embodied [my] spirit.” “My wife and I both got these, these are our wedding tattoos. We got spades tattooed on our middle fingers. I don’t know if you know the band Motorhead. It’s not really for Motorhead, but Motorhead is kind of like just bad ass. She’s a punk rocker, I’m more metal. But we just also thought the middle finger was much more our style. [We are] the two people that would be least likely to get married.”

“This is actually a cover up of my first tattoo, which I will not tell you what it was. Don’t get tattooed until you’re 25... that’s my message to everybody out there. Otherwise, the same guy did it. I’ve always loved metal and horror movies and evil stuff ever since I was a little kid and it was kinda disturbing to my parents but they got used to it when I was like 7.”

Tattoos At Washington BY NICOLE BERGELSON

There are a variety of reasons why people get tattoos. Some get them for sentimental reasons, while others get them simply because they like the design. We asked students and teachers at Wash why they decided to get inked and what the meaning behind their tattoos is.

“And my second tattoo is the year my younger sister and I came to America from Russia [written] in Roman numerals. [The date was] March 5th 2005 [when] we were both adopted.” “[This tattoo] means turn the wounds you have into wisdom and learn from them so that later you’ll know what to do in a bad situation. I mean the wounds that you [have], either physical or mental wounds, turn them into wisdom. Be wise about your wounds so that later you’re able to stand up for yourself because the wounds you [have], you [have] learned from them and [should use] them in a wise way.”

JOANNA WU

MARINA FERGUSON

“[The tattoo is] my family name. It reminds me of who I am. It reminds me of where I came from and helps me stay true to myself. I got it in mid-late September 2015. My parents are immigrants and they came here with almost nothing, and struggled through discrimination and going through life in America with what they had. [The tattoo] reminds me to not take things for granted and to keep my head up, which is what my parents have always taught me to do.”

Wash Students Are On A Mission BY DAVID SCOLARI

Seniors Andrew Chew and Yoki Paulos have both been extremely involved with their churches during their time in high school. But in addition to being active in their local church communities, they have each traveled to several different countries to spread the love and care that their faith has to offer.

Q. Where did you go on your mission trip? A. Last year I went to El Salvador. We worked with gang related families. We were doing minQ. How well were you able to communicate with the people you were working with istries in MS-13 territories, one of the craziest in El Salvador? gangs in El Salvador. So we went around these A. I knew enough Spanish to talk to them, but they still laughed at me because I don’t speak areas around El Salvador offering help anythe best Spanish, but it felt good to know enough to communicate and really have fun with where we could. the people that I worked with. Q. What kind of work did you do for these families? Q. Who did you go with on this trip and what was the experience like for you? A. Most of the families we worked with were A. I went with my church. We went with 87 people from my church. It was my first trip, so broken families because El Salvador recently it was rough. It’s not luxurious. We didn’t have 5 star hotels, so we really had to be pushed came out of a 20 year civil war. Many families out of our comfort zone. But when you’re doing ministry and you see the effect that you have on other people, the discomfort is really taken out of your perspective because you’re didn’t have fathers because they were lost in the war or they joined gangs. We just shared our trying to do something greater than yourself. faith and offered help in any way. We passed out food to these people. We did activities with the Q. What is something you learned from going to El Salvador and working with kids over there, because in El Salvador, I think these people? it’s like 1 in 5 kids are educated, so we just did A. I discovered how materialistic we are in America. When I was in El Salvador, I saw kids different things to work with them. These gangs playing with a stick all day! That’s all they had--a stick--and they’re just so grateful for the recruit these kids starting at the age of 3, so our little things. I think I’ve always known how materialistic we are here, but to actually see it ministries are trying to pull these kids out of and experience it and to actually live it out with these people, it really changed my perspecthat influence by educating them to put them tive on things and the value I place on things. 30 on the right track.

ANDREW CHEW

YOKI PAULOS

Q. How would you define a mission trip? A. A mission trip is any journey undertaken for the purpose of engaging in Christian ministry and evangelism, or supporting an established ministry in another country that is working to spread the Gospel of Jesus. Q. Where did you go on your mission trips? A. I have personally gone to Ecuador and the Philippines. But my church has taken groups to Malawi, Thailand, India, and Nicaragua in the past also. Q. What kinds of things did you do in those places? A. We did things like construction, giving bags of food to families, praying over people, doing performances like dance, dramas, and choir singing in schools and streets, and honestly just making real relationships with the people in those countries. Q. What lead you to go on these trips? A. My church has always been really big on being an “outward facing church” (a church that serves everyone, even those not involved with the church). So doing trips like this has become a yearly thing for our church. Growing up in an environment that values reaching out and caring for everyone, not just those involved with the church, I wanted to be a part of something greater than myself--something that would not only be beneficial for me, but for other people.

Q. Is there anything that you learned on these trips that has had a big impact on your life? A. I will never forget how happy the people were. Ever. They had so much less than Americans do--than I do--yet they had a happiness that was so contagious. They would smile a lot, always want to serve, and would constantly live with that happiness. That’s something I haven’t seen in the states to the extent that I saw it in these countries.

Q. What was your favorite part of these trips? A. I usually tell this story when I speak of my mission trips. In Ecuador, we went to a province called Mount Sinai. It was a very underdeveloped area. We were going around the area to meet and pray for families in their homes. As we would walk around, tons of kids would follow us around and cling onto us. In particular, a small girl named Stephanie started following me around. She was shy at first, but then eventually clung to me as we walked everywhere in the area. We played patty cake a lot and it always made her so happy. She found so much joy in that game. I was nervous at first because I thought she wasn’t gonna like me. But that faded quickly as we began to connect through a simple game. People always say they learned that “less is more” in other countries, which is a very extremely true statement that America needs to embrace, but I really learned from Stephanie that simplicity can be joyful. We can find something so joyous in the most simplest of ways.

TERESA CAMAJANI “I am a survivor.” BY WINNIE ZHANG

ast semester I walked into Teresa Camajani’s class during lunch to interview her for the previous magazine’s issue on identity. She opened up to me about who her parents were and the way she was raised. She then said, “I am a survivor.” She most definitely is. Camajani spoke of the two brilliant women in her life: her mother and grandmother. As she went on about her mother’s family, she started to talk about her father. Because Camajani’s father was a violent and abusive man, her parents got divorced when she was young, and she did not grow up around her father. She explained that this “was a good thing, because he was not a good person.” Camajani then added, “When I was a very young child, five or six, [my father] sexually assaulted me.” It was very hard for her to be willing to talk about it for a while, and it continues to haunt her today. “Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night and I’m just terrified because of that,” said Camajani. Camajani continues, “Then, when I was 18, I was snatched off the street by five guys in a car and they raped me and did horrible things to me.” Although Camajani has had two experiences of being assaulted at the hands of men, she has also had “other experiences with men that were wonderful…who, when bad things happened to me, were there to catch me and to not take care of me but to nurture me so that I could take care of myself. I’ve had women around me who did the same thing”. These negative experiences “opened [Camajani] up to paying attention to other people’s pain and anguishes.” She became a foster parent to five kids, who were going through horrible times or were being treated wrong by bad parents, in addition to raising her own biological child. “I had suffered at the hands of my father and at the hands of strangers,” Camajani said, and this influenced her to take in so many children. She wanted to be there for children who were going through the same experiences that she had. Her mother’s family had been in America since before the American

Revolution and lived on a wheat farm in Kansas. “My grandmother was born two years after the end of the Civil War, in 1867,” Camajani explained, “And she was a brilliant woman.” What made her grandmother so brilliant was that she wanted an education, and in order to do so, “she walked away from the farm... when she was 15 years old and she changed her identity along the way, cut her hair and wore wraps around her breast to flatten her chest. She went to a school in Ohio, dressing as a man and behaving as a man.” Camajani’s grandmother eventually became a brain surgeon. As for Camajani’s mother, she graduated from high school when she was 14. Camajani explains, “She moved from a farm in Kansas to New York City to go to college… But [she] also felt it was her job as a human being on Earth to change the world for the better. So, she raised my brother and me to believe that this is what you have to do as a human being.” Camajani explains that when she was growing up, women were only expected to be good wives and mothers. But Camajani’s mother believed otherwise. She set the standard that “education was seen as a thing you do, so that you could change the world.” Having two strong and independent role models inspired Camajani to overcome her past and continue living her life. “So now I am not a victim. I am not a victim of sexual abuse by my father. I am not a victim of sexual abuse of strangers. I am a survivor. There is power and strength in that. There is also a wide net that you can throw out to the rest of the world to say that ‘I got you.’ There is survival; not just living through it, but coming out even bigger. I don’t mean bigger as in ‘Screw you, you can’t touch me,’ but bigger as in ‘I will be proof ’ [that you can get through hardships] and that I can talk about it and that I can say it out loud. I AM A SURVIVOR OF CHILD ABUSE AND THE SURVIVOR OF SEXUAL ASSAULT! I lived to tell a tale; I’m not a mess, and I have normal relationships with men. I am not the poor pitiful thing, quivering in the corner. I am a person who, like most of us, underwent tough stuff, and we live [on].”