Winged Post Volume 18, Issue 6 by Harker Aquila

WINGED POST TUESDAY, MARCH 28, 2017 | THE HARKER UPPER SCHOOL STUDENT NEWSPAPER, VOL. 18, NO. 6

BAY AREA INFRASTRUCTURE FLOODED

Community experiences extreme rainfall in early March

MEILAN STEIMLE

WHAT’S INSIDE? Spring Break College Tours A3 LGBT+ Rights A4-A5 NASA Exoplanets A8 Prom Night in Paris B8

| www.harkeraquila.com

BOBA FOR EVERYONE Katrina Liou (10) and Kevin Huang (12) sell boba as members of the GSA during lunch. GSA had their club week last week.

GSA hosts club week kshithija mulam editor-in-chief

Newly elected ASB officers announced at meeting last week kshithija mulam

KSHITHIJA MULAM

Seniors hold Hoscars during class meeting

SING ALONG Chris Hailey (12) takes song requests to play on the piano from the audience. The senior class will hold their own version of Hoscars in class meetings for the rest of the year.

kshithija mulam editor-in-chief

The senior class held their own version of Hoscars, Harker’s annual talent show, during class meetings in the past month and will continue to do so for the rest of the year. The previously campuswide event did not take place this year because no building on campus had the capability to hold the entire upper school community. At the time of publication, Chris Hailey (12) and Parth Pendurkar (12) had performed.

Pertussis warning sent out across campus kshithija mulam editor-in-chief

Upper school nurse Debra Nott emailed a warning to the community last week about two confirmed diagnoses of pertussis, commonly known as whooping cough, on campus. The Tdap shot is a preventative vaccine that can be taken to protect from pertussis.

RAGING WATERS Water cascades from an overflowing creek in Santa Clara, washing up on the surrounding banks. The Bay Area experienced a high amount of rainfall and flooding in early March with water levels growing up to 14.4 feet in San Jose at one point.

derek yen & katherine zhang STEM editor & asst. STEM editor

When rainwater from the Anderson Reservoir first began spilling over into the nearby Coyote Creek, it seemed like a promising sign for the Bay Area, which had been plagued by drought for years. Yet days later, the swelling creek would overflow and rise to 14.4 feet, a record high in the past 95 years. The flood lasted multiple days and resulted in an estimated $73 million in damages and thousands of ruined homes, prompting the Santa Clara Valley Water District and other government agencies to set up relief efforts and attempt to accommodate those displaced by

the flood. Now, a month later, only 50 people remain in shelters, while others have either returned to their homes or have found other places to stay. “The flooding that I experienced was just outside of my house, in Los Gatos. It was around Vasona Creek. We lost all of our power for three or four days and we had a lot of water outside, but no running water. We didn’t receive any advance notice,” Oliver Doig (10), a Santa Clara resident, said. While the city slowly recovers from the flooding, questions have arisen about how the flooding occurred—and more importantly, why people were not warned ahead of time. In general, floods and natural disasters are not uncommon

in areas like Coyote Creek. The creek lies near Anderson Dam, which had been overflowing for several days prior to the flood. The area also experienced a similar torrential flood 20 years ago, which destroyed 25 apartment buildings and ravaged nearby neighborhoods. Additionally, with abnormally high amounts of rainfall in numerous counties during January and February, several other counties experienced similar floods. Governor Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency in 50 of California’s 58 counties on Jan. 23, including nine in the Bay Area. The “how” of the flood seems simple enough: spillage from the Anderson Reservoir combined with heavy rainfall for

Alleged student misbehavior investigated after trip

several days caused the banks of Coyote Creek to overflow. City officials had allowed the reservoir to spill over for fear that the increased pressure on the dam due to the large amounts of water in the reservoir would make the structure seismically unsafe. However, for many citizens who did not understand the magnitude of the problem until rescue crews appeared at their doors, the question is not how the flood happened, but rather how the city could allow such a disaster to slip by without widespread warning. So what set this flood apart was not necessarily the flooding itself, but rather the lack of preparation. At a town hall meeting on March 9, angry citizens gathered to speak to city

Winged Post brings home recognition from CSPA PROVIDED BY ELLEN AUSTIN

The new assistant student body (ASB) officers were announced at a school meeting last week on Wednesday. Jimmy Lin (11) was named president, Neil Ramaswamy (10) was named vice president and Megan Hyunh (11) was named treasurer. There is currently no one holding the position of secretary.

KSHITHIJA MULAM

editor-in-chief

SPECIAL TO THE WINGED POST

GSA hosted their club week last week. The organization sold boba during lunch and handed out stickers as part of their efforts throughout the week. In addition to their sales, teacher Diane Main spoke during school meetings to the student body about the importance of being an ally and her experience.

FACE THE CONSEQUENCES Dean of Students Kevin Williamson, whose office is pictured, handles disciplinary matters for students at the Upper School. Alleged student misbehavior led to investigations after an academic field trip early in March.

kaitlin hsu

Wingspan editor-in-chief

A number of students who attended a school trip earlier this month are facing administrative consequences after allegations of misbehavior while on the trip. Anonymous flyers distributed around campus on March 16 also alleged specific actions by the students that could not be confirmed independently at press time. Administrators, who had al-

ready begun investigating the allegations, noted that anonymous allegations did not align with community values. “I’m disappointed that that is the way someone wants to communicate. If you’ve got a problem, come see me or another adult,” Upper School Head Samuel “Butch” Keller said. “It’s just disappointing that someone feels like they have to do something like that. That’s not the kind of community I want to be a part of. Now it’s my job to make the community something

you want to be a part of. We’re working on it.” Most posters were removed the same day they were posted. Head of School Christopher Nikoloff responded to the original allegations and investigations in an email interview. “While we have to respect the privacy of all involved, we are looking forward to additional educational opportunities for our community on these and related topics in the future,” Nikoloff said.

LEGENDS OF THE PAST Winged Post editors-in-chief Kshithija Mulam (12) and Meilan Steimle (12) look on as prior editors-in-chief Elisabeth Siegel (‘16) and Vivek Bharadwaj (‘16) design. The CSPA Silver Crown awarded at Columbia University was attributed to last year’s staff.

kshithija mulam editor-in-chief

The Winged Post was one of 14 high school print newspapers honored with a Silver Crown at the 93rd national Columbia Scholastic Press Association (CSPA) convention at Columbia University in the City of New York on March 17. The award commend excellence in writing, design, photography and news coverage in print journalism.

NEWS

VOLUME 18 • ISSUE 6 MARCH 28, 2017

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FEB. 2

What’s new in perfoming arts

Spring music performances kick off

Parent teacher conferences to take place before break

nerine uyanik & anya weaver reporters

Chamrada, Downbeat, and Cantillana will all be performing 2-3 songs per choir. “I’m really excited to show what we’ve been working on and to sing with everyone else from SING Bel Canto performs at all the choirs,” Tasha Moorjani the United Voices Concert. The (9) said. concert featured singing groups

ANYA WEAVER

The United Voices Concert was held at 7 p.m. on March 16 at the Mexican Heritage Center, where all the singing groups from across the three campuses performed a variety of music. Bucknall Choir, Dynamics, Concert Choir, Harmonics, Vivace, Bel Canto,

eric fang reporter

from across all three campuses.

NERINE UYANIK

JAZZ MUSICIANS PERFORM AT SHOWCASE

JAZZY Trumpet players perform at the front of the stage at “An Evening of Jazz.” The performance took place on March 17 at the Blackford Campus.

Jazz musicians from the Middle and Upper Schools performed at “An Evening of Jazz” on March 17 at the Blackford campus. that they had practiced during the past few months. “It’s not as stressful as an orchestra performance where you know you’ve got to get it a certain way,” Upper school orchestra director Chris Florio said. “You

just try to fine tune things to get them where to need to be.” The jazz bands showcased a diverse set of pieces arranged by various musicians including Bob Mintzer, Mike Tomaro, and Lab Band director Dr. Hart. “It’s a whole different spectrum of songs,” Florio said. “Both Lab Band and Jazz Band are doing arrangements of pop tunes and ballads.”

Evening performances on April 20, 21 and 22 at the Blackford Theater will begin at 7 p.m. and. The matinee performance on April 22 will be at 2 p.m. Tickets can be purchased online and in school during lunch starting April 10.

TIFFANY WONG

MUSICAL REHEARSALS CONTINUE FOR CAST The 47-member cast continues rehearsals for this year’s spring musical, an adaptation of the Disney movie “High School Musical.” Mandatory technical rehearsals will take place from April 10 to 18. There will be a preview performance for an invited audience on April 19.

BOW Last years musical cast lines up after their performance. This years musical will be “High School Musical.”

CONFERENCE The image depicts elements which teachers discuss during the parent teacher conference. They will be taking place on the days preceding break.

Parents and students from the lower, middle and upper school campuses will have the opportunity to meet with their respective teachers from March 30 to 31, the first two days of Spring break, in the second parent teacher conference of this school year. Students will not have school the two days of the conferences, but are invited to accompany their parents to the conferences in order to receive valuable feedback of their performance during the school year. Dr. Elizabeth Wahl, an upper school english teacher, wants her students to fill out reflection forms and take full control of the conference with their parents as to essentially make herself a bystander of the conversation. “I think having the student take charge of the conference is really helpful in addressing what the students’ needs are or else it would be a conversation about the student and not with the student,” Wahl said. “I think especially high school students

ERIC FANG

MUSIC GROUPS PERFORM AT UNITED VOICES

need to be coequals in their education and take ownership of what they’re doing.” Many students are nervous about the upcoming conferences fearing negative feedback from their teachers in front of parents especially during break when one is meant to recuperate from stressful school days. “Last time I went to the conferences, but I probably won’t go this time because receiving teacher feedback could often be stressful especially during a time when you want to relax,” Joshua Valluru (9) said. Other students, such as Dolan Dworak (11), feel that parent teacher conferences are a great opportunity to learn and reflect off of the progressing school year through teachers’ advice. “I really enjoy the ability to gain an objective sense of my performance in any class,” Dolan said. “It’s always interesting to gain perspective about a teacher that is invisible in the classroom”. School will resume after Spring break on April 10.

NEWS

VOLUME 18 • ISSUE 6 MARCH 28, 2017

3.6%

of students viewed the usefulness of college visits as a 1 on a scale of 5

41.1%

of students viewed the usefulness of college visits as a 4 on a scale of 5

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of juniors will attend college visits over break

Juniors to attend college tours over spring break reporter

With college applications on the horizon, 76.5 percent of juniors will go on college visits over spring break, according to a Winged Post survey of seventeen juniors. Most visits include a guided tour of the campus led by a current students and an admission and academic information session with an admission counselor. College visits allow many juniors to narrow down the selection of schools they will apply for. “Right now, I don’t really know anything about the specific schools,” Anika Banga (11), who plans to visit colleges during spring break, said. “I think that visiting the colleges would really help me get an idea of what kind of school I want to go to, whether I want to go to a big school or a small school and things like that, and it’ll help me figure out what the vibe of each school is and figure out where I belong.” Alexander Lam (12) visited

colleges last year and thought that his visits helped him understand the culture and atmosphere of unfamiliar colleges. “I think that college visits definitely change your opinion because prior to those trips, the only conception I had of a university was the name attached to it,” he said. “Seeing the students firsthand and the student life there actually really changes your perception of the school.” Martin Walsh, one of the upper school’s four college counselors, has found that college visits are particularly beneficial for juniors planning to apply early decision to colleges because early decision plans are binding. “I feel it’s particularly important to visit colleges if you’re applying early decision to a university because if admitted to an ED school, you have to go, and quite frankly, most early decision schools are not in California,” Walsh said. “I think it’s important for students who are going to study that far from home to have set foot on the campus be-

fore they actually commit to the school.” According to Walsh, some colleges also pay attention to whether a student visits the school to see if the student has interest. The most popular times for Juniors at Harker to visit colleges are President’s Week break, spring break and summer vacation. “Visiting in the summer is when a lot of kids do visit, and that’s great by and large for schools here in California,” Walsh said. “The problem with the summer visit to a school on the East Coast—MIT or Boston or Dartmouth [College] in New Hampshire—is that you’re getting the ideal weather, and you’ll almost be caught by surprise at how cold and dark it gets when winter comes.” Juniors started college counseling to discuss their plans on Jan. 24 and will begin applying to colleges over the summer and this fall.

Orchestra performs at Carnegie Hall

Stanford UCLA USC Harvard M.I.T

NY Cornell

Columbia NYU

Upper school speakers finish strong at NSDA Qualifiers

gloria zhang reporter

tiffany wong

aquila news editor

NICOLE CHEN

The Harker Upper School Orchestra traveled to New York for their first performance at Carnegie Hall from Mar. 24 to Mar. 29. They premiered two performances; a public informal performance at the Liberty Science Center and a formal concert at Carnegie Hall. Christopher Florio, the upper school orchestra and instrumental music teacher, had been preparing for this trip for two years, while the orchestra group began their preparation at the beginning of this semester. “Pressurized is probably the most suitable word for us because we have to practice more for these more challenging pieces. I have say these pieces are much harder than the first semester pieces for every instrument,” Emma Li (9), clarinet player, said. The orchestra played Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition”, which featured a trumpet solo; Kabalevsky’s “Colas Breugnon” and John Williams’s “Cowboys Overture”. They were also debuting a piece by John Carnahan, a composer-in-residence, called “Les Bourgeon Du Printemps”. Other than Carnegie Hall, they toured around New York City, visiting the Statue of Liberty and viewing the broadway show “Anastasia”. Additionally, seniors told stories about their best memories in orchestra at their banquet at the Redeye Grill. “We will be doing some clinics the next day with some guests conductors, including a composer who has composed a piece that we’re premiering.

UC Berkeley

CONDUCTIVE Orchestra teacher Chris Florio conducts the orchestra during the winter concert. The orchestra is currently in New York to perform at Carnegie Hall.

Then we’re doing a group banquet dinner. We’ve rented out a room in a restaurant down the street from the hotel. . .” Florio said, “Then we’re going on a dinner cruise with all the other groups that are performing. The last day is all carnegie hall.”

“I have to say these pieces are much harder than the first semester pieces for every instrument.” EMMA LI (9) CLARINET PLAYER Some musicians, who attained a place for Harker orchestra at Carnegie Hall, were unable to perform due to their graduating. “I was lucky to happen to be in the orchestra group that got to go to Carnegie Hall. I know

that there are audition processes and people auditioned,” Clarinet player Alicia Xu (9) said. “There are people in the orchestra who earned our spot [at Carnegie Hall], but can not play there because they graduated. I feel really lucky that I get to do this.” May Gao (12), co-concertmaster, reflected on her thoughts following their concert. She credited the entire orchestra for their hard work, including Mr. Florio and the orchestra alumni. “Mostly relief because you have so much tension built up over this performance. Once you’re done you realize you’ve done an amazing job or the best you could’ve done. It’s just a very relieving feeling,” May said. “I feel like after performances, everyone just feels really proud, especially because it is not only just the work we’ve put in, but also the work Mr. Florio has put in the program in the last 12 years. So it is not only a performance of us but a performance for the musicians who came be-

Nikhil Dharmaraj (10) and Avi Gulati (9) will represent the Harker speech and debate team at the upcoming National Speech and Debate Association’s National Tournament following their performances at the recent California Coast District Tournament, which was held at Bellarmine College Preparatory from March 17 to 19. Both competing in Original Oratory, a speech event in which participants deliver a 10-minute self-written piece about a topic of their choice, Nikhil placed first with his speech “The Power of Small” and Avi second with his speech “Negating the Negativity.” “I felt pretty prepared because I had just rewritten my speech, so it was exciting for me to have this new speech out in the world and to see where it would take me, especially at this important, high-stake tournament,” Nikhil said. Nikki Solanki (9) placed as a semifinalist in Dramatic Interpretation and finished fifth in Programmed Oral Interpretation. “Coming into the tournament, I felt extremely prepared because I [had] compiled this piece over the summer last year, and it’s been under constant work and refinery since. However, the competition was really intense, and I was surprised as to how much other people had also improved their pieces from the beginning of the year,” she said. The California Coast District Tournament is one of the

many regional competitions hopefuls for nationals participate in to fight for a spot on their state’s delegation to the National Speech and Debate Association’s tournament. In the case of the California Coast District, the top three participants qualify to the National Speech and Debate Association’s event. “I honestly did not think that we were going to live the dream of having two kids in the top for Oratory. I was really hoping for one of them to break, but to have both of them break and in the top two as well was really awesome and really affirming,” speech coach Marjorie Hazeltine said. Nikhil and Avi are now preparing for the upcoming national tournament by revising their speeches and practicing their pieces in front of audiences. “More than anything, my goal for the tournament is to enjoy my first national competition,” Avi said. The National Speech and Debate Association’s National Tournament will be hosted this year from June 18 to 23 in Birmingham, Alabama. COURTESEY OF NIKHIL DHARMARAJ

rashmi iyer

CHAMPIONS Avi Gulati (9) and Nikhil Dharmaraj (10) pose with their trophies after the California Coast District Tournament. They will represent Harker at the upcoming National Tournament.

OPINION

A4 Editors-in-Chief Kshithija Mulam Meilan Steimle Managing Editor Sahana Srinivasan

VOLUME 18 • ISSUE 6 MARCH 28, 2016

Unite or perish The arts and sciences need to put aside their differences to fight defunding

News Editor Meena Gudapati Features Editor Maya Kumar Asst. Features Editor Prameela Kottapalli Opinion Editor Vijay Bharadwaj STEM Editor Derek Yen Asst. STEM Editor Katherine Zhang Sports Editors Anjay Saklecha Alex Wang Photo Editor Ashley Jiang Copy Editors Rose Guan Ruhi Sayana Adviser Ellen Austin, MJE Wingspan Editor-in-Chief Kaitlin Hsu Aquila Editors-in-Chief Raveena Kapatkar Tara Parimi Aquila Managing Editor Trisha Dwivedi Aquila Staff Neil Bai Vijay Bharadwaj Nicole Chen Adrian Chu Justin Su Zachary Hoffman

Michael Sikand Maya Valluru Alex Wang Tiffany Wong Derek Yen Katherine Zhang

Reporters Anvi Banga Jenna Sadhu Eric Fang Nisha Shankar Kathy Fang Neal Sidhu Nina Gee Jin Tuan Ria Gupta Anya Weaver Rashmi Iyer Angele Yang Sofie Kassaras Helen Yang Krishna Bheda Gloria Zhang Anika Rajamani Nerine Uyanik Visit The Winged Post Online at www.harkeraquila.com Follow us on social media with the handle /harkeraquila

TheWingedPostispublishedeveryfourtosixweeksexcept during vacations by the Journalism: Newspaper Concentration and Advanced Journalism: Newspaper Concentration courses at The Harker Upper School, 500 Saratoga Ave., San Jose, CA 95129. TheWingedPost staffwillpublishfeatures,editorials,news and sports in an unbiased and professional manner and serve as a public forum for the students of The Harker School. Editorials represent the official opinions of The Winged Post. Opinions and letters represent the personal viewpoints of the writers and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of The Winged Post. All content decisions are made by student editors, and the content of The Winged Post in no way reflects the official policy of The Harker School. The opinions expressed in this publication reflect those of the student writers and not the Harker board, administration, faculty or adviser. Letters to the Editor may be submitted to Manzanita 70 or emailed to wingedpost2017@harker.org and must be signed, legible and concise. The staff reserves the right to edit letters to conform to Post style. Baseless accusations, insults, libelous statements, obscenities and letters that call for a disruption of the school day will not be considered for publication. Letters sent toTheWinged Post will be published at the discretion of the editorial staff. The Winged Post is the official student newspaper of The Harker School and is distributed free of cost to students. 2016-2017 Silver Crown-winning publication 2015-2016 Gold Crown-winning publication 2014-2015 Silver Crown-winning publication 2013-2014 Silver Crown-winning publication 2012-2013 Silver Crown-winning publication 2010-2011 Gold Crown-winning publication 2009-2010 Silver Crown-winning publication

STAUNCH SUPPORT The arts and sciences are represented above, juxtaposed on a backdrop of all the money we’re not going to get unless we put aside our perceived differences and work together to expand the scope of human knowlege.

EDITORIAL THE OFFICIAL OPINION OF THE WINGED POST Fuzzy vs. techie. Heart vs. brain. Arts vs. sciences. At Harker, we tend to see the arts and sciences as at odds, or at least as incompatible. How many times have you heard a group of coders chuckling over the perceived uselessness of an art degree, or a gaggle at the Artstravaganza grumbling at perceived discrepancies in finding allocations? This isn’t to say the arts and sciences are at war. At worst, it’s a rivalry, but more often

just a comfortable separation. We wall ourselves away at our separate symposiums, and while there are the unusual individuals who bridge the gap (the coder who reads Voltaire or the artist researching biology), they are just that - unusual. This also isn’t to say that the dichotomy of arts and sciences is a uniquely Harker problem. Schools reflect the society that surround them, and this attitude continues into collegiate studies and the working world. We’re not talking about how scientists need to value art to live a fulfilling life, or how we’re switching our “STEM” section to “STEAM” (we’re not, but check out A&E), or

how we need to actively bridge the gap between art and science. Our point is that the gap is an illusion. Art and science are ultimately the same; they are both ways of expanding the horizons of human knowledge. A painter and a researcher are both searching for truth, with different methods. Inquiry, exploration, insight: these are concepts that drive all of us, whether we’re rehearsing for the musical in Patil or studying machine learning in Nichols. Infighting isn’t just pointless, it’s dangerous. Want more evidence that the arts and sciences are essentially equivalent? When funding gets cut, the guillotine falls on the

sciences and the arts with equal (violence). Trump’s budget proposals have included eliminating funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Also lined into the budget were significant slashes to the Environment Protection Agency and NASA’s earth science division. We’re all in this together, which is to say we’re getting defunded together. To intellectual explorers, regardless of discipline, this is a call to arms. We can either go down separately, still squabbling, or band together and fight. Your move.

The case against College Confidential: it’s bad news

kshithija mulam editor-in-chief

In the late months of autumn, you can expect to see certain windows open on the majority of the senior class’ browsers. The Common Application. The UC Application. A personal statement. A why statement. A resume. And, to my dismay, College Confidential. For those who are unfamiliar with the website, College Confidential is a website that allows users to create threads to discuss college-related issues such as deadlines, decisions and other logistics. Unfortunately, a large number of threads also serve as a method to post your GPA, SAT scores and an overview of any extracurriculars, left to be judged by a questionably qualified virtual “college counselor” on whether you will be accepted to College X or not. I won’t lie and pretend that I wasn’t caught up in the frenzy as well. In the days leading up to my first college decision, my face was permanently glued to

my screen in my free time, hitting the refresh button on the website as I anxiously waited for any updates on the thread. I vicariously read anything related to that college, including any statistics and “rank my college chances” posts that were available in abundance. By the time I reached the date of my first decision, I had worked myself into such a panicked frenzy that I was already expecting the worst before I even saw my decision, bombarded by worries about what I had read on different threads. When the time came to receive my second decision, I had to stop myself from looking at the related threads, not because of a conscious effort on my part but because I knew I wouldn’t be able to handle that level of panic a second time. In hindsight, avoiding the decision threads on College Confidential was the best decision I could have made. On this topic, the upper school community seems to be divided. In a recent Winged Post survey, 54.5 percent of respondents, when asked how useful they thought College Confidential was, responded with a 3, indicating a neutral opinion. The rest of the answers were equally divided between the extremes of 1 and 5. Of course, I would be blind to not recognize and

SPEAK OF THE DEVIL Although College Confidential has some benefit, it engenders a toxic and panicked environment.

acknowledge the productive, helpful aspects of College Confidential. It can serve as a good forum to mark deadlines and to know when college decisions are being released. You can also find helpful commenters who offer authentic, real advice on how to handle college-related topics. But all too often, the helpful comments are buried under posts from internet trolls or other stressed out, numerically fixated users who feel the need to try and simplify the college application process to a bunch of statistics. The attraction of a website like College Confidential is simple and understandable. College decisions are a scary time for every senior, and there is something innately comforting to us in being able to find like-minded people who are going through the same problems we are. Something in human nature compels us to compare ourselves to others and try to

guess how we “rank” on the invisible college hierarchy. But this virtual mob mentality of trying to simulate the college decision process with no real guidelines or evidence to support any of the conclusions is not only ridiculous; it also stirs up an unnecessary sense of added fear and panic that can easily propagate through large forums of people. So don’t subject yourself to the mercy of “internet counselors,” trolls, and, worst of all, a mob mentality of fear and panic. At the end of the day, the person sitting on the other side of the screen, making that College Confidential post, is not the one making your college decision. So juniors, if you have to check College Confidential for deadlines in the next few months and find yourself tempted to wander its depths, I’d say you should treat it like a bathroom: get in, do your business and get out.

OPINION

VOLUME 18 • ISSUE 6 MARCH 28, 2017

Talk

Where macroeconomics falls short

ROSE GUAN

Macroeconomics requires more data to found claims

ECON CLOCK As time goes on and we observe the continuing dynamism of the economy, we will gather more data that will enable macroeconomists to find stronger correlations.

Aquila social media editor

Given that economies form the framework of modern society, it is inevitable that the most contentious political debates concern competing methods of managing American wealth for the most optimal long- and short-term outcomes. Whether or not one understands the subject of economics, almost every-

NIGHTMARE:

krishna bheda reporter

I remember being so excited to see my family and my little cousins. This Christmas was going to be one for the books. I was in Houston!I was ready for Torchees’s famous mexican food, and I was ready to be surrounded by light and positivity. However, as soon as I got there, my excitement turned to fear. Although it was four years ago, I vividly remember a conversation that my parents had with my aunt on the way home from the airport. She was explaining that he crime rate was really high in Houston. And, although her family was against it, many families owned guns and kept them in their homes; this was the norm. This conversation stayed with me. I couldn’t understand how people and criminals could be so dangerous that someone would need a gun to protect themselves. A GUN. I simply thought “If no one has a gun, then no one will ever need one.” Boy, was I naive back then. No one can really protect themselves

from the brutality of weapons. And even if someone doesn’t have a gun, there are other weapons that can hurt men, women, and children. Guns are powerful objects. They are triggered with a choice and can kill with an action. They have always been used for hunting or protection, but now I feel that firearms aren’t being used for either of those reasons. In the past few years, a sole man with a single gun, has taken to lives of innocent teachers and children at schools. Another sole man with single gun took the life of a beloved and aspiring musician who had a great talent. Black men were killed for the color of their skin and

I wish we could live in a world with more trust and protection rather than caution and fear. Men and women were killed and compromised because of their sexuality; they were punished for being themselves. These are stories that I have been hearing on the new and reading about for years. It’s not right and these stories have manifested themselves into my

sports editor

The blood-drenched, claw-ripping final chapter in the Wolverine saga, “Logan,” was released on March 3 to the public with a rare R-rating by Twentieth Century Fox, in addition with Marvel Studios, and mandated by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). However, movie studios have not made any R-rated

movies in the past, because of money, essentially. In the past, the majority of viewers at movie theaters are children under the age of 17 years. By slapping the R-rating onto a superhero movie, it restricts a major source of box office revenue – young teenagers. Yet, movie studios are willing to limit creative freedom and sacrifice thematic potential in order to reach the highest box office numbers. It’s not the draw of a certain rating that makes a film a success, but rather a desire of the masses to see something unique and more “real” that fits the characters of the film, which is why “Logan,” is deliberately not made in

Campus

anvi banga reporter

What are your thoughts on the art wall?

Phil Han (9)

“I feel like you can write things to a certain extent, like there are some things in our society that are seen as unacceptable, like writing racial slurs, but I feel like just writing what you feel will fall within these guidelines of what actually is correct would be okay.”

Noor Singh (12)

“I think people should be respectful, but it’s kind of subjective and hard to decide who’s actually being respectful and who isn’t, as long as they have the right intentions in mind with what they write, then it should be fine.”

On living afraid of gun violence

life. I have dreams that a gunman comes onto campus and the lives of my friends are jeapordized. I also have dreams where my parents are in danger at work and there is nothing I can do about it. I also had a dream where a gun was pointed to my head at a train station. I don’t know why this happens to me, and I wish it didn’t. I am a sixteen year old girl who has grown up in a safe neighborhood, and being safe hasn’t always had to be my first prioity but, now that I am fearful, it is always on my mind. At train stations, I am always aware of my surroundings and keeping my distance from people and when I see people on campus that I don’t know, wierd scenarios flood my mind . I am a junior in highschool and I am now looking into colleges and I will start applying in a few months. When choosing my college, I know I will continuously not

Why R-rated superhero movies work

anjay salecha

ness investment during the 2001 recession. At the same time, then-Federal Reserve Chair Alan Greenspan implemented expansionary monetary policies of lowering the interest rate. Between the years 2002 to 2005, the economy grew healthily. From these two examples, it is easy for people to say that this set of policy actions always triggers prosperity. Supply-side economic policies were complemented with another goliath factor, amongst hundreds of smaller ones. While these examples are specific to supply-side policies, crediting a general policies for ushering in growth is an obtuse, myopic judgement in general. As time goes on and we observe the continuing dynamism of the economy, we will gather more data that will enable macroeconomists to find stronger correlations and consequently more accurate models. We should understand that claims about economic policies cannot be readily proven, at least not yet, and that in many cases, economic debates lack fact. Perhaps in the future, when there is enough historical data for economists to sift through, we can all agree on a proven way to approach our economy.

KRISHNA BHEDA

michael sikand

one holds an opinion on the “correct” policies for prosperity. In a science like microeconomics, a researcher can strongly correlate a corporate action with a result in a controlled environment. But since a plethora of social factors, economic circumstances, technological changes, incentives and policies operate independently to produce changes in the economy, macroeconomic models cannot accommodate all these elements. As AP Economics focuses on macroeconomics this semester, I learn more about a broad science based off massive, complex systems

that cannot currently provide us with highly accurate conclusions. It is somewhat of a running joke in the economics community that macroeconomists take on too large of a task. When the Oeconomia club hosted Berkeley economics professor Dr. Steve Tadelis for a keynote on Feb. 24, I laughed when he joked that he “had no idea” what macroeconomists really do. During a debate among my friends about the efficacy of supply-side economic policy—where business and income taxes are cut to boost production and the profits “trickle down”—I sought to use evidence with my basic principles from coursework. In 1981, former President Ronald Reagan slashed taxes on top earners by 42 percent, instituting a uniform tax rate of 28 percent across all income levels, and cut business taxes by six percent. On top of these policies, Reagan tripled the national deficit through increasing government spending to about $2.75 billion from $980 billion. Just two years later, the recession ended and immense growth followed. George W. Bush similarly implemented a series of tax cuts on income and busi-

Around

the same vein as the other movies in the PG-13 X-men saga. In fact, Jackman, the star of the iconic character of Wolverine voluntarily took a salary cut in order to ensure the R-rating for “Logan,” as he felt that a PG-13 rating could not show the darkest implications of Wolverine’s power. The R-rating allowed the most opportunity to accurately convey Jackman’s interpretation of Wolverine as the most dark, most violent, and most true to the character, as shown in the comics. Essentially, it comes down to the notion of artistic freedom. With an R-rating, the MPAA places guidelines that the government enforc-

attend a college that allows students to carry weapons. UT Austin is a college that allows licensed carriers to carry concealed weapons. While some may be okay with this, I am not. I would would live in constant fear. What if I said the wrong thing to someone who was on edge. Or, what if someone was aggravated at me or anyone else and decided violence was the answer. Regardless of its rules, UT Austin is considered a safe school; however, my fear has grown to strong and my nightmares are too regular. I am too afraid to put myself in a position like that. It is sad that our society has dealt with this over last years, and it is sad that I have heard stories where there was a gunman at a school and students hid under dead bodies to protect themselves. I wish we could live in world with more trust and protection rather than caution and fear. es that few, if any, children will be present in the theater, and the studios directing, producing and writing the movie get to be a little more creative with the character. Although the superhero movie genre targets more of the younger audience, the idea of having full freedom to include unprecedented violence and gore, coercive language, crude humor and dark thematic elements of mortality and depression makes the superhero story, more faithful to the director’s and actor’s vision. Ultimately, the goal is to make a thought-provoking movie that does justice to its characters and storyline, and not just trying to fit it into the desired rating category.

Ben Yuan (10)

“I guess they would have expected some level of interaction, because we’re all just high schoolers, we’re teenagers, we say some things we’re not really supposed to say and we don’t mean it. I think it’s okay sometimes to do that. I think that most people wouldn’t really care, like I wouldn’t care if someone writes over my stuff. So I think the reaction is more exaggerated.”

Tiffany Zhou (10)

“I think that you could make an argument both ways because the art wall is intended to express what they want to express but someone else could also say what is on the art wall right now is what people want to express. You can’t tell people what to express, so it’s kind of controversial inherently.”

Elizabeth Wahl English teacher “I think that given that they set it up for a specific purpose, it’s not a completely open for free speech forum, which I generally do support. I think it has been set up for the purpose of allowing students to respond to a specific prompt so I think that if they are writing things that are extraneous, that doesn’t enter in the spirit of it, I think particularly people are writing over other people’s expressions and that’s also a mark of disrespect.”

DOUBLETRUCK

VOLUME 18 • ISSUE 6 MARCH 28, 2017

“You’re not the only one out there. You are not alone.” —Kristian Garcia

UNDER A NEW PRESIDENT, EXP

TRANS TOD Trump withdraws rights for trans students asst. features editor

President Donald Trump withdrew protections for transgender students in public schools to use bathrooms and facilities corresponding with their gender identity on Feb. 22, rescinding a nondiscriminatory directive previously implemented by the Obama administration. The guidance was issued despite opposition from Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, who reportedly told Trump that she was unwilling to cooperate with the his decision because of the potential harm that undoing the protections could cause transgender students. In 2014, under direction from President Obama, the U.S. Department of Education issued guidelines under Title IX asserting that state public schools could not discriminate based upon a student’s gender identity, ensuring the civil rights of transgender students. The law was later reinforced through joint guidance by the Departments of Justice and Education in 2016. While Trump’s revocation of this directive is not an executive order and only revokes government interference in state laws regarding bathroom access, it could potentially lead to changes in legislation. According to the National Conference of States Legislatures, one dozen states are currently considering bills that would require those who identify as transgender to use the facilities of their birth

gender, invoking uncertainty in many transgender students living in these areas. “I live in South Georgia, that’s where it’s [already] less accepting of that kind of thing,” Phoenix, the administrator of social media journal and activism account “TransBoy’s Diary,” said. Pheonix is the name he goes by online, and he did not provide his full name due to possibility of retribution. “I don’t like how they’re taking the rights away, and I’m scared to go into the boys’ bathroom–I feel physically sick whenever I go into the restroom. I don’t like Trumps

problem because us trans kiddos just need to pee and feel accepted,” Koda, the owner of Instagram activism page “Trans Boys Together,” said. Koda is his first name, and he did not provide his last name out of privacy concerns. “I get weird looks in the ladies room, so I just try to be quick and not have any hassle with anybody.” While California is not directly affected by Trump’s rescindment–particularly because the vast majority of its legislators are in favor of Title IX–many Bay Area transgender students, including Sasha Berkeley (11),

“The problem with bathroom bills is that they focus on one part of the issue. Healthcare is diccult. Gender change is difficult.” PROVIDED BY MARIE HAWKE

prameela kottapalli

repeal because all I want to do is pee yet people like Trump are thinking I’m a rapist. I’m more likely to get harmed than anyone else.” Like Pheonix, many students are speaking out against Trump’s rescindment and the possibility of state legislatures adopting discriminatory laws against the transgender community. “It’s stressful that I can’t use the bathroom that I identify with. I honestly wish that the bathroom deal never became a

MARIE HAWKE CLASS OF 2009 a Saratoga high school student, are strongly opposed to the discriminatory directive. “I’m fortunate to live in California, but I’m concerned for trans people in states that don’t have any protections already on the books,” Sasha said. “Knowing that the government, which is obligated to protect its citizens, is now turning its back to the communities that need the most help, I don’t think this administration cares at all about the rights of trans people.”

Community continues fight for equality copy editor

Many members of the LGBT+ community at large foresee changes in the rights available to them due to current political trends. In addition to Trump’s withdrawal of some protections for transgender students last month, Vice President Mike Pence consistently opposed LGBT+ rights prior to running and has advocated for conversion therapy. For the upper school’s more than 50 Gender and Sexuality Alliance (GSA) members and other LGBT+ students, the changes in civil rights that accompany Trump’s and Pence’s views hit close to home. Many members of the LGBT+ community believe that they will face increasing homophobia and transphobia

in the coming years, especially those whose families are not as supportive—like Justine’s, an upper school student whose name has been changed here to protect her because her parents do not approve of her sexuality. “Since the people in power generally view the LGBTQ+ community in a more negative light, I’m afraid that that will make other people who feel the same way feel justified,” Justine said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a decrease in LGBTQ+ rights during the next few years, but it seems like with the way society is changing, there will be a more general trend upwards.” Even some students with more supportive families, such as GSA member Emilie Sanche (10), found the transition to the new administration difficult. “They’ve already begun re-

moving some safety for transgender students that can affect people that I know,” Emilie said. “The fact that Mike Pence supports electroshock therapy, even

tices whose views align with his. “We don’t have any way of being able to control if liberal justices will retire or die within the period of this administration,” Spanish teacher and GSA adviser Abel Olivas said. “We could get a very conservative

“Fight for your rights, and fight for what you believe is right, because that’s really all we can do.” PROVIDED BY ELLEN AUSTIN

rose guan

The rescindment could also affect the case of Gavin Grimm, a 17-year-old transgender student from Virginia who sued his public high school for the right to use the boy’s bathroom. Grimm’s suit, which is based upon the law that protects transgender students from discrimination at school, was set to be presented to the Supreme Court on March 28. On March 6, the Supreme Court stated that it would overturn the ruling to the lower courts due to the rescindment. Activists and allies all the way from students to celebrities voiced and are voicing their support for Grimm and members of the transgender community, popularizing social media hashtags such as “#IStandWithGavin” and “#ProtectTransKids” and slogans such as “Trans lives matter” and “love over fear.” Grimm’s case and the rescindment of the bathroom bill have drawn activist and media attention over the past few months, but gaining access to other rights–particularly those related to health such as transition-related care–is a challenge for many people who identify as transgender. “The problem with bathroom bills is that they focus on one part of the issue. Healthcare is difficult. Gender change is difficult,” Marie Hawke (‘09) said. “[Legalizing] my gender makes me have to go to the doctor and change my paperwork there. There’s so much misinformation about gatekeepers like doctors and lawyers who don’t have any

KARL KUEHN GSA FACULTY MEMBER

though I know my mother would never do it because she’s super accepting, it’s just really scary because so many other kids will be subjected to that.” Another area that Trump could have an impact on LGBT+ rights beyond the withdrawal of rights is the nomination or appointment of Supreme Court jus-

court, and that would have an impact on LGBT rights.” Trump nominated Judge Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court on Jan. 27 to fill the vacant seat left by Antonin Scalia’s death last year. Gorsuch has stated that he does not believe the 14th Amendment protects samesex marriage and in 2009 ruled

idea of what actually goes on in the trans community.” Moreover, some members of the transgender community are subject to discrimination based upon their gender identities. “From personal experience being a transgender adolescent in the closet, fear of rejection and not being accepted and bullying can cause some serious depression, anxiety and even suicidal thoughts,” Kristian Garcia, a transgender high-school junior from Orlando, FL, said. “[Under the] Trump administration, transgender rights will be more limited, and my concern is people trying to take things into their own hands, causing physical and emotional harm to the transgender community. The last thing I want to hear is an increase of suicides from transgender youth.” Human rights organizations, including the Trevor Project, a crisis intervention service and networking group for LGBT youth, have advocated for transgender rights through a coalition of allies and members of the transgender community. Many activists believe that this type of unity is one of the best ways to bring about lasting change. “Allies, if you know someone who is transgender, show them a positive outlook. Show them that they are safe. Raise awareness as a whole and inform people about the problems we are facing,” Kristian said. “For any transgender youth that are facing difficulties and discrimination, know that you’re not the only one out there. You are not alone.”

against a transgender woman suing her employer for not allowing her to use women’s restrooms. Despite these challenges, many also feel that activism and increasing visibility can be a solution. “What people were doing in their local communities, within their own families, within their friend networks, within their places of work, students within their schools—those sorts of things are what make the biggest impact,” Olivas said. “Real lives, real concrete people amid you, is what helps change the world.” Some believe that staying optimistic and open will improve the path forward. “Get involved. Make your voice heard,” Karl Kuehn, upper school dance director and GSA faculty member, said. “Fight for your rights, and fight for what you believe is right, because that’s really all we can do.”

DOUBLETRUCK • VOLUME 18 ISSUE 6 • MARCH 28, 2017

“I’m scared to go into the boys’ bathroom.” —TransboysDiary on Instagram

PLORING WHAT IT MEANS TO BE “We are not girls because we have certain body parts. There’s a lot more to womanhood.” —Marie Hawke (‘09)

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

DAY

“Persevere. We will all get through this.” —Sasha Berkeley

“[GSA] has really become a place where I feel super accepted.”

90% think transphobia is a prominent social problem

Emilie Sanche (10)

LGBT+ AT HARKER BY THE NUMBERS

Alliance) members

PO ST

RV EY

during his term

85% think homophobia is a prominent social problem

AT A

(Gender and Sexuality

think Trump will

restrict LGBT+ rights

Upper School GSA

89%

UAN

ROS

prameela kottapalli asst. features editor

Winged Post interviewed student activist Sasha Berkeley, a (16-year-old) transgender girl and a junior at Saratoga High School. The text of our interview with her, which has been edited for style and length, follows. Winged Post: What is your opinion on President Donald Trump’s rescindment of Title IX? Sasha Berkeley: Personally, I’m disappointed, but not surprised. Obama’s efforts to implement protections were a start, but not good enough, and now all that is getting repealed. I think it’s somewhat compara-

ble to the whole segregation debate back in the 60’s. It wasn’t just about water fountains then, and it’s not just about bathrooms now. I’m fortunate to live in California, but I’m concerned for Trans people in states that don’t have any protections already on the books. It’s upsetting, to say the least– knowing that the government, which is obligated to protect its citizens, is now turning its back to the communities that need the most help. WP: Where do you see the future of transgender rights going under the Trump administration? SB: I don’t think this admin-

istration cares at all about the rights of trans people, and I won’t be surprised if the more conservative states are “inspired” by the President’s, Vice President’s and Attorney General’s bigotry. We’re already seeing this with increased anti-semitism and islamophobia. Only direct, serious action on the behalf of not just the trans community, but everyone who claims to be an ally, will stop this downward spiral. WP: What are some rights that you hope the transgender community will gain? SB: I hope the trans community will gain acceptance and validation of their identities.

Currently, in over 30 states, it is perfectly legal to fire someone because they are transgender. WP: What can cisgender allies do to support members of the transgender community, (especially at a time like this)? SB: Offering support to a trans person in need is always welcome. General acceptance and validation of pronouns all are good things. If they have the time or money, donating or volunteering for LGBTQ help services like planned parenthood or the Trevor Project are more than welcome. WP: What advice would you give to a transgender (or

PROVIDED BY ELIZA FARRELL

Q&A: Trans student discusses transphobia, allyship and courage

LGBT+) student currently facing difficulties? SB: Persevere. No matter how hard it gets, we will all get through this. There’s all sorts of communities both online and in real life for queer people to communicate and support each other.

STEM

Overpopulation pressures threaten the environment rose guan & tiffany wong copy editors

The impacts of overpopulation on the environment amount to some of the most contested of the many issues relating to climate change, not least due to the various and sometimes coercive ways that governments worldwide have attempted to alter their countries’ population growth. Although studies have shown that human activity directly contributes to global warming, many methods of population control have raised debate and questions about their effectiveness. Scientists do agree on one thing: without drastic intervention or a sudden drop in fertility rates, the global population will most likely continue the trend of overall growth that the planet has seen since the beginning of human life. According to a 2015 report

by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, humanity will number at least 8.5 billion by 2030, 9.7 billion by 2050 and 11.2 billion by 2100. The study also predicted that the number of people aged 60 or above is expected to more than double by 2050 and to more than triple by 2100 if life expectancy continues its trend of rising in the future. Those in favor of strict population restriction argue that a reduction in the number of residents in densely populated areas, especially crowded cities, is necessary to prevent the detriments to climate and health caused by overcrowding. “Each individual person has a carbon footprint,” said Green Team advisor and biology teacher Dr. Katherine Schafer. “Even in the developing world, whether it’s burning charcoal or burning wood or burning coal, in most cases, if you’re trying to get fuel for cooking or for heating or whatever it might be,

most of those sources of fuel are not carbon-neutral.”

“With more persons, you face a greater challenge in terms of impact on climate and other environmental concerns.”

DR. JOHN CASTERLINE DIRECTOR OF OSU INSTITUTE FOR POPULATION RESEARCH These scientists argue that because an increase in human numbers would contribute to a hastenedfaster depletion of natural resources due to the greater number of people to supply, nations worldwide should implement population control measures immediately. They also assert that per-capita statis-

LIFE IS A BOX OF CHOCOLATES... Population of World: the entire page Population of China: 3 Hershey’s Bars

tics that seem to show progress in mitigating climate change misleadingly ignore this growth in population. “I think it’s fairly straightforward logic that with more persons, you face a greater challenge in terms of impact on climate and other environmental concerns, whether it’s water or land or food challenges,” said Dr. John Casterline, director of the Ohio State University Institute for Population Research. Others contend that although population control may be necessary, coercive measures are inhumane and disrespectful of personal privacy. These scientists cite studies showing that a potential global one-child policy would have an equally minimal impact on climate models to more indirect and humane methods of population control, such as increasing access to contraceptives and gynecologic healthcare. “We know that in the developing world, as conditions improve, reproductive rates tend to go down, and we’ve seen this throughout the world as countries develop,” Dr. Schafer said. ”A strategy for speeding that along is to invest in organiza-

tions that are helping to develop those countries by providing medical care, by providing access to education, especially to women, and so forth. All of those things have been shown to slow population growth.” An example of a governmentally enforced population control measure is China’s onechild policy was introduced in 1979 and was not relaxed until 2015. Scientists skeptical of coercive reproductive control argue that the policy did little on its own to curb fertility rates, which were already decreasing, and that government-enforced population control measures have better alternatives. “A high fraction of women or couples want to have fewer than five or four children,” Dr. Casterline said. “Enabling people to have what they want, fertility-wise, would lead to a lot of fertility reduction but might not bring it down to as far as we need in terms of climate change and stabilizing world population. You could encourage people to make certain choices and show them it’s to their benefit and to the society’s benefit without making it coercive.”

POPULATIONS BY THE NUMBERS: World- 7.35 billion China-1.35 billion USA-319 million California-38.8 million San Jose- 998.5 thousand

Population of USA:

2 Ghiradelli Squares

Population of California:

1 Hershey’s Kiss

Population of San Jose: this dot

VOLUME 18 • ISSUE 6 MARCH 28, 2017

STEM

VOLUME 18 • ISSUE 6 MARCH 28, 2017

FOURTEEN FEET UNDER San Jose experiences rising water levels Continued from Front Page...

officials, and many expressed their disbelief at the city’s lack of action. Some were completely unaware of the danger of the situation until district authorities went from door to door ordering people to evacuate. Others fled only when they saw floodwater rushing towards their homes. “I wasn’t really affectedit didn’t really affect my daily life, but it was more that I was amazed at how much flooding there was. It must have flooded at least three feet on the sidewalk where people actually walk, which was crazy. I don’t think we received a notification beforehand. I think that alerts on your phone—I think they do that sometimes—would be useful for situations like these,” Noa Sasson (12), a Santa Clara resident, said. City officials explained this failure to take action against an increasingly dangerous situation by saying that their flood models indicated that the creek had not reached its capacity of 7,400 cubic feet per second of water. The city has acknowledged that it was taken by surprise because this model, which had last been updated in 2013, underestimated the flood threat. While the city has made it clear why the flood was unexpected, newly released information showing correspondence about the possibility of a flood at Coyote Creek complicates the investigation into the reasons behind the flooding. Released emails from the Santa Clara Valley Water District and the City of San Jose showed that city officials had been aware that flooding was a possibility. This flooding is emblatic of a larger climate pattern leading to rising water levels everywhere. When you look at private change for protection from sea level rise, we just keep building and constructing higher and higher and higher floodwalls, so you then have to take into account,” Rechelle Bravo, an engineer for the Santa Clara Valley Water District, said. A water district employee attempted to warn fellow employees as well as the San Jose city government about the threat the day before the flood. However, the city did not issue a flood warning. Instead, San Jose’s mayor, Sam Liccardo, and the Santa Clara Valley Water District posted warnings on social media—which did not reach the majority of residents living near

% of average rainfall levels

154% 146% 143% 130% 107%

2017

2016

2015

Anderson Reservoir reached 104% capacity

the creek. As investigations into the causes of the flood and the city’s inaction continue, Mayor Liccardo addressed the chair of the water district, John Varela, in a publicly released letter, expressing his disappointment that district employees have not yet publicly addressed citizens and city council members. Liccardo stated his desire to fix any shortcomings in the city’s flood protection system and asked questions that had been raised at the March 9 town hall meeting. “I was disappointed that, despite repeated requests from our City Manager and myself more than a week prior to the hearing, the Santa Clara Valley Water District declined to send any engineers, hydrologists or managers with relevant expertise to our March 9 City Council hearing on the recent Coyote Creek flooding,” Liccardo wrote in his letter. “We need answers to many important questions to prevent this kind of damage from happening again.” Among Liccardo’s concerns include the district’s Coyote Creek Flood Protection Project, which was created as part of an initiative that was approved in 2000. Though the project was approved and has been allocated $32 million, the district has repeatedly delayed work and is currently still in the planning phase of project implementation. Many have pointed out that the project, which is currently slated to begin in 2019, would have prevented some of the flood-related damage that occurred last month. “We have already begun discussion with members of Congress and their staff on how to seek expedited paths for funding and construction, and there also may be other expedited paths to achieve Federal support for flood protection projects,” Varela wrote in a response to Liccardo’s letter. Meanwhile, the district is taking on several flood-related initiatives. The Santa Clara County Public Health and Environmental Health Departments advised those affected by the flooding to beware the possibility of being contaminated by the floodwaters, outlining using soap and water while washing one’s hands, protecting one’s open cuts or sores and avoiding eating any food that may have come into contact with the floodwater as some steps residents could take to keep themselves safe.

2014

2013

98%

2012

Coyote Creek length: 63.6 miles

flooding is roughly 8,000 cubic ft/s

Flooding started 2/21

$18 million in property damage 82% 78% 76% 76% 75% 70% 54%

2011

2010

2009

2008

2007

2006

2005

A10

STEM

VOLUME 18 • ISSUE 6 MARCH 28, 2017

Upper school hosts 2017 Harker Programming Invitational jin tuan

TWIN STUDIES Research club officer Nastya Grebin (11) explains a data analysis technique to Alex Shing (9) and Anthony Shing (9) at the mock science fair the research club hosted in preparation for Synopsys.

katherine zhang & vijay bharadwaj asst. STEM editor & opinion editor

DEREK YEN

The Harker Programming club hosted its annual invitational last weekend. This year’s theme of the invitational was pirates. Modeled after the Stanford ProCo, a larger programming competition, the Harker Programming Invitational challenges high school students, both novice and advanced, to compete in teams of two or three. Each year, around 50 teams participate in Harker’s invitational. With one computer per team, each group collaborates to code a solution to problems created by club officers. “We award prizes based on how well the teams do. These problems are algorithmic-based, so it doesn’t really matter what programming language you use, so we’re open to all sorts of teams like that,” Programming club co-president David Zhu (12) said. “I help write problems, and we also have several officers writing problems as well.” Club officers also have fun while the competing students enjoy the event that they planned. “It’s always really fun to see all the other students solving the problems that you wrote,” David said. “It’s always quite hectic, but when the competition runs smoothly, it’s always very rewarding.” In addition to the timed competition, the Harker Programming Invitational also hosts a college fair and keynote speakers. Unlike previous years in which only one keynote speaker presented, this year’s invitational will have two speakers focusing on artificial intelligence.

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (TOP) Even Hynes, Make School Head of Community, mans the booth of Make School, which teaches students how to create and publish programming projects. (LEFT) IBM employee Angie Krackeler presents on the capabilities of Watson, IBM’s flagship cognitive system. (RIGHT) Stanford University Professor Christopher Manning presents on the theory of Neural Networks.

Upper school computer science teacher Susan King said that the speakers were Chris

Manning, a professor of Computer Science and Linguistics at Stanford University and Angie

Krackeler from the IBM Watson team.

A “Switch” in gaming

New nintendo console released amid popularity of phone games kathy fang reporter

With its release on March 3, Nintendo’s newest video game console, the Nintendo Switch, seems to push the future of video game consoles closer to mobile phone technology because the Switch can be detached and reassembled into a tablet-like structure, allowing for on-the-go play. The Switch consists of a dock that can connect to a TV, a portable touch-screen console that can be slipped inside the dock for playing on a bigger screen and a controller that can be separated into two Joy-Con controllers. These Joy-Cons can either be used like a Wii Remote, which is a motion sensing controller, or attached to the sides of the touch-screen to form a mobile console. “It’s a portable home console, so you can take it anywhere, wherever you go. I bring mine to work—at lunch I play, and any chance I get to play I play—and when I go home I just put it on the dock. I can sit down and relax and just keep playing, so it doesn’t hinder my gaming experience,” Enrique Lopez, a senior game advisor at GameStop, said. “As far as some of the flaws it has, I guess it would just be the Joy-Cons. I just don’t like how the triggers feel. They kind of make it seem super fragile.” At the upper school, 50.5% of students play games on their laptop, 78.2% play games on their phone and 17.8% play games on a console, according to a Winged Post survey of 101 students. Due to the surge

in the popularity of phone and laptop games, companies that specialize in designing video game consoles have been trying to integrate mobile technology with traditional consoles. For example, in 2012, Nintendo released the Wii U, a console that also included a touchscreen GamePad. However, the Wii U was discontinued early this year. According to Nintendo, the Wii U has only sold 13.56 million hardware units and 96.52 million software units as of December 31, 2016. In comparison, the Nintendo 3DS, which is another portable video game console released in 2011, has sold 65.3 million hardware units and 320.96 million software units as of December 31, 2016. Despite these attempts to blend mobile and at-home console technology, many are faithful to their at-home systems. “I like consoles because they’re just more powerful,” physics teacher Scott Pflaumer, who plays video games on both a console a computer, said. “You can have so much better graphics, and the screen is bigger.” Because video game consoles have been around for longer than phone or laptop games, there is a greater variety. “People play console games because they like the games,” Mihir Sharma (9), whose favorite game is [WILL ASK] said. “There’s a lot more power you can get with a console because they’re designed for video games, and there are more fun games.” Moreover, a console is

made to be a lot more specific to gaming. “Whenever you get on the computer, I feel like I’m supposed to be doing work,” dance teacher Rachelle Haun, who enjoys playing said. “When I move away onto my TV, obviously it’s just for relaxation.” As the future of video games moves away from TV systems and more towards mobile consoles, the truth behind the traditional teenage male gamer stereotype is being called into question, especially with the additional preconception that girls only play phone games such as Candy Crush “I don’t think [the male nerd gaming stereotype] really has [changed], and I also don’t think I necessarily fit into that stereotype because I would not say I’m a very serious gamer in that respect, and I think most people associate gamers

with just those ‘dude-bros’ who do nothing but play video games all day, all eating junk food,” gamer Serena Lu (11), said. “That’s the vision I get. I don’t think the stereotype has changed much, although there is some more progress, and I guess it also depends on what kind of video games you play.” Even with the confines of this stereotype, women have been playing on consoles more recently in the past decade as well, which is yet another sign of advancement toward gender equality in the entertainment industry. However, the fact that the stereotype still exists is a clear sign of the existing gender gap, although the Switch design seems to be trying to appeal to everyone, breaking past the stereotype’s boundaries.

SCHOOL On February 11, the Harker Science Bowl A team won the Science Bowl Regional Competition. The team will travel to Washington D.C. at the end of April to participate in the national tournament. The Synopsys competition took place on March 23. Participants complete projects and poster boards before they attend. “Students in my classes some are running into delays,” research sponsor Chris Spenner said. “I suspect in the next two weeks my students are going to discover how much more time they are going to need to do analysis and make a good poster.” Students recently took the AMC exams A and B. Those who qualified will move on to take the AIME exam, qualifying them for the USAMO. The Bay Area Math Olympiad (BAMO) took place on February 28. The test is 4 hours in length and requires competitors to solve and write proofs for five problems.. Twelve students participated in the Berkeley Math Competition on March 12. They took second place in overall team standings and first place in the power round of the competition. F=ma is a 25 question multiple-choice exam on mechanics. It is a preliminary screening exam to for qualification to the USA physics olympiad. This year, 45 students took the exam and 11 qualified for the next level. RESEARCH A team from the University of Glasgow in the UK has created a “smart” skin prosthetic that can mimic the tactile feedback of human skin and that is powered by energy from the sun’s rays. According to the project’s engineers, using solar power allows the electronic skin to operate longer than similar materials powered by batteries or tethered to a power source. The skin has already performed several simple exercises such as grasping soft objects. GLOBAL The Great Barrier Reef continues to experience bleaching events due to rising temperature. In the last 20 years, rising temperatures have triggered three severe bleaching events. The most recent occurred in 2016, when more than 90% of the reef’s corals were killed. Scientists now fear that another bleaching event will soon sweep through the reef. Scientists announced last Wednesday that sea ice in both the Arctic and Antarctic poles has reached a record low due to climate change. April, a giraffe residing in the Animal Adventure Park, is currently pregnant with the park’s first giraffe calf. She has gained considerable media attention, with a “giraffe cam” having been set up in the park

DEREK YEN

reporter

LIFESTYLE

VOLUME 18 • ISSUE 6 MARCH 28, 2017

A11

So you want to be a...

VIOLINIST?

ALL PHOTOS PROVIDED BY ALEXI KENNEY

As a repeating feature, the Winged Post will talk to a different person under 30 in a creative field. This issue, violinist Alexi Kenney, a 2016 Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient discusses his experience as a musician.

“I always found that music would re-center me. After whatever

disappointment, I would have a period of sulking, or moping, and then I would reconnect to why I do this in the first place.” ALEXI KENNEY

ruhi sayana copy editor

The sweet, melodic strains of a Stradivarius fill the concert hall as Alexi Kenney, 24, plays his violin along with the rest of the orchestra. His eyes close as he intently focuses on the melody. Kenney, a Palo Alto native, is a critically acclaimed violinist studying in the Artist Diploma program at the New England Conservatory of Music in Bos-

ton. He received a bachelor’s degree in music from the same university. He started to play the violin at the age of four. Currently, Kenney is performing on tour with the Musicians from Marlboro and Musicians from Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute programs. “We have five hours of rehearsal,” Kenney said. “Other weeks, I’ll be playing concertos with orchestras, which requires a lot more practice by myself.” Kenney plays a Stradivarius, a rare violin built in 1714 by the Stradivari family. His violin was owned by the famous Hungarian virtuoso Joseph Joachim and was the violin with which with Joachim premiered Brahms Violin Concerto in 1879. Kenney currently plays this repertoire with the same violin on loan. “It’s crazy to think about what this violin has played in its

lifetime and also what it’s been around, the kind of creative testers that it’s been,” Kenney said. “It’s inspiring to play something with such a history behind it, and not to mention the sound of it—it’s gorgeous. The sound is hard to describe what makes it different; it’s almost richer, it sounds with more of [a] warmth and a glow to the sound. It’s very special.” Due to the competitive nature of the field of music, Kenney experienced obstacles on his journey to becoming a professional violinist due to disappointment he experienced when he failed to qualify past the first round of competitions or did not receive a prize. “I always found that music would re-center me,” Kenney said. “After whatever disappointment, I would have a period of sulking, or moping, and then I

would reconnect to why I do this in the first place.” Kenney has performed at a number of other events, including recitals at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and Napa’s Festival del Sole. He performs both individually as a soloist with orchestras and as a member of a string quintet. “Only occasionally I totally lose myself in the music, which is a crazy experience. It’s only happened to me like twice in my life, and once was with this Schubert piece, the most transcending piece there is,” Kenney said. “For some reason, the stars were aligned that day. All five of us felt like we were on the same wavelength, and we completely lost ourselves and didn’t even realize that we were performing, and as soon as we started, it felt like it ended already. It was just one of the incredible experi-

History of the Stradivarius Currently, only 650 Stradivari instruments remain in the world. The Stradivari family’s golden age of production was between 1700 and 1725; instruments produced during this time can be sold for millions of dollars. Kenney’s Stradivarius was built in 1714; it is over 300 years old. Known as the “Joachim-Ma” Stradivarius, Hungarian virtuoso Joseph Joachim used this stradivarius to premiere Brahms Violin Concerto, composed by the famous Johannes Brahms. This violin was one of the first five violins that Joachim owned.

Top binge-worthy shows to watch during spring break sahana srinivasan managing editor

FRIENDS

GILMORE GIRLS Filled to the brim with early 00s pop culture references, lightning-fased happy banter and realistically complex but heartwarming family dynamics, Gilmore Girls follows the mother-daughter duo of Lorelai and Rory Gilmore in Stars Hollow, an almost unbelievably idyllic microcosm of small-town

SAHANA SRINIVASAN

Classic, lighthearted and available for instant streaming on Netflix. What more can you want? ‘90s sitcom Friends has 10 seasons’ worth of addictive, witty banter; ridiculous scenarios and just enough silly drama to keep you constantly hooked. Arguably the formative part of the show -as suggested by the title -- is the six main characters’ group dynamic and intra-group relationships. Everything from Joey and Chandler’s indefatigable friendship to Phoebe’s love affair with “Smelly Cat” creates an incredibly hilarious, binge-worthy and surprisingly heartfelt series that should definitely make its way onto your watch list. east coast life where everyone knows everyone else’s business. It’s a masterpiece of dynamic, multifaceted female characters and it’s funny, light and still full of enough drama and heart to keep you watching all seven seasons. Be warned, however, Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life, the Netflix sequel from last fall, falls fairly short of the original in terms of both characterization

and plot, despite all its warm and fuzzy nostalgia.

THE OFFICE Also a decade-long sitcom, The Office bears an ironically boring premise: a documentary crew follows around the employees of paper company Dunder Mifflin’s small branch in Scranton, Pennsylvania. The

show itself, however, is everything but boring; each 20-minute episode kicks off with an ordinary yet bizarrely hilarious prank or accident. The cast of characters is lead and anchored by Steve Carell’s Michael Scott, regional branch manager and host to a personality so unbelievably oblivious and silly that’s it’s hilarious. He and Dwight Schrute, the core cast’s other

resident funny man character, are oft contrasted to Jim and Pam, co-stars of the show’s main romance plot and the “straight men” characters famous for spawning the reference “staring into the camera like you’re on The Office.” Tied together by a similarly hilarious recurring cast, The Office is a refreshing sitcom that makes the everyday things binge-worthy.

A12

STEM

VOLUME 18 • ISSUE 6 MARCH 28, 2017

OUT OF THIS WORLD Artist’s impression of the surface of one of the seven planets in the TRAPPIST-1 star system. Several of the planets are within the “Goldilocks Zone” distance from their sun and can therefore support liquid water on their surfaces, suggesting habitability.

Aquila features editor & Aquila news editor

Scientists at NASA announced the discovery of seven Earth-like planets orbiting a single star, TRAPPIST-1, on Feb. 22. Located outside of our solar system, the planets surrounding TRAPPIST-1 are known as exoplanets. The discovery of the star and its planets marks the first time scientists have found and been able to observe a seven-planet system of Earth-sized bodies around a single star. “At least three of the planets are in the so-called ‘Goldilocks zone,’ which means that they are in the region that could possible be at a temperature that would allow for liquid water to exist on the surfaces,” astronomy and physics teacher Mark Brada said. Only three of the planets in the TRAPPIST-1 system are situated in the “Goldilocks zone,” also known as the “habitable zone,” the area around a parent star where a rocky planet is most likely to have liquid water. “While three of the planets of TRAPPIST-1 are in the Goldilocks zone [. . . all the planets] could potentially support life,” Director of the Griffith Observatory Dr. Edwin Krupp said. “Of course, at the moment, we really don’t know what supports life. That’s why we follow the water, because in all of the examinations of the circumstances that permit life to exist, water is the key aspect of that. We look for liquid water because we know it works.” These exoplanets in the

Milky Way Galaxy are approximately 40 light years, or 235 trillion miles, away from Earth. “[Something] that makes that system pretty cool is that this star is pretty close to our sun, and so that makes it a lot easier to keep observing these planets to try and see what they’re made out of,” Stanford professor of physics Dr. Bruce Macintosh said. “Right now, we don’t know, we just know they are about the radius of the earth; they could be rocky planets with an atmosphere, they could be made out of hydrogen gas. There’s no way we can tell the difference yet, but because the star is so close, we might be able to measure what their really made out of

DEFINITION Goldilocks’ Zone (n): The range of distances from a star where a rocky planet is capable of having surface liquid water. and if they’re earth-like or not.” The small distance between our solar system and that of TRAPPIST-1 gives scientists hope for the discovery of other nearby solar systems beyond TRAPPIST-1. “The fact that it’s relatively close by is significant in that it most likely means planetary systems like this, like our own or like the one in TRAPPIST-1, are even more common than we had considered before, and I think that’s the main reason why that’s so interesting,” Brada said. The distance between these

planets and TRAPPIST-1 also lets scientists predict whether the temperatures of these planets are suitable for life. “Often when we see planets, they are giant ones, like our solar system; there’s giant planets like Neptune and small rocky planets like Venus or Mars. In this solar system, all the planets they found were Earth-sized. The small rocky planets are the ones that could potentially harbor life someday,” Dr. Macintosh said. “[In] this system especially, several of those planets orbit the right distance from the sun, not too much sunlight, not too little sunlight, just the right amount of sunlight, so that it could have Earth-like temperatures.” According to NASA, the system of planets is named after the Transiting Planets and Planetesimals Small Telescope (TRAPPIST) in Chile, which discovered three of the planets in May of 2016. With NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, the existence of two of the three planets was confirmed, and five additional planets were discovered this year. An infrared telescope was able to detect TRAPPIST-1 because the parent star of the system glows brightest in infrared light, which is undetectable with the human eye. Following the discovery of these exoplanets, scientists used data from the Spitzer Space Telescope to calculate these planets’ sizes and masses. “There are two significant projects underway that will be looking with much greater precision and detail than we’ve been able to do with the instruments so far. The WEBB space tele-

scope, at the moment, is scheduled for launch at the end of 2018,” Dr. Krupp said. “Now, it’s not a case of detecting them, it’s a case of understanding them physically. The TRAPPIST-1 discovery is in fact important because it’s the first time that we’re seeing a whole system of smaller

“The discovery of seven Earth-like planets orbiting a nearby star is exciting, but not unexpected.”

Fast facts: All seven exoplanets orbit closer to their star (TRAPPIST-1a) than Mercury orbits ours TRAPPIST-1 hosts more temperate terrestrial planets than any other known star system

DR. JEAN LUC-MARGOT UCLA PROFESSOR OF PHYSICS AND ASTRONOMY worlds.” NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has begun a screening of four of the planets in the TRAPPIST-1 system, including the three in the habitable zone, to search for evidence of atmospheric conditions suitable for supporting life. “The discovery of seven Earth-like planets orbiting a nearby star is exciting, but not unexpected,” UCLA professor of physics and astronomy Dr. Jean Luc-Margot said. “We have known for a few years now that there are tens of billions of Earth-like planets in the Milky Way Galaxy. The number of habitable planets suggests that life elsewhere may be common. We have no evidence of other forms of life at this time, but we are searching for it.”

The star is designated TRAPPIST-1a; the planets are designated TRAPPIST-1b, 1c, etc. up to 1h. Three of the exoplanets were discovered by the Transiting Planets and Planetesimals Small Telescope (TRAPPIST) in Chile The other four were discovered by NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope and the Very Large Telescope

STATS Mass

0.85x Earth’s

1.38x

0.41x

0.62x

0.68x

1.34x

1.09x Earth’s

1.06x

0.77x

0.92x

1.04x

1.13x

2.42 days

4.05 days

6.10 days

9.21 days

12.35 days

0.015 AU

0.021 AU

0.028 AU

0.037 AU

0.045 AU

(relative to Earth)

Radius

(relative to Earth)

Orbital period 1.51 Earth days (in Earth days)

Orbital radius

0.011 AU

(in AU) Note: 1 AU = mean distance from Earth to sun

GOLDILOCKS ZONE

TRAPPIST-1'S PLANETS- A LOOK ACROSS THE SYSTEM

(unknown) 0.76x ~20 days ~0.06 AU

ARTISTS’ IMPRESSIONS BY JIN TUAN AND KATHY FANG

nicole chen & tiffany wong

PROVIDED BY ESO/M. Kornmesser of Hubble Space Telescope

NASA DISCOVERS SEVEN EXOPLANETS

FEATURES TUESDAY, MARCH 28, 2017 | THE HARKER UPPER SCHOOL STUDENT NEWSPAPER, VOL. 18, NO. 6

w o N e s s e u p s s i y l n

1984 A spying government head-

a er c d o o m p to k k a o e o p B ks s

ed by an unnamed ruler is in complete control. George Orwell’s novel, written in 1949, is a quintessential dystopian novel of the twentieth century. The book follows the happenings of Winston Smith, a man living in a political regime dictated by Big Brother, the leader of the elite Inner Party that oversees the society to ensure the lack of individualism or independent thinking.

o b s ’ y terda

Yes

| www.harkeraquila.com

The Handmaid’s Tale

Fahrenheit 451

Burning books. Wall sized televisions. Firemen who don’t put out fires, but start them instead. Published in 1953, Ray Bradbury’s story takes place in a society where; firemen burn all books in existence. Main character Guy Montag, a fireman, realizes later the emptiness in his life without books that contain opinions and knowledge. This novel is considered one of the classics in the genre of Dystopian literature.

A society where rape isn’t considered rape and women are forced to bear children. In the Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, because of low reproduction rates, handmaids are forced to bear children for wealthy couples who are unable to conceive. The handmaids have to go to the “Rachel and Leah Re-education Center,” where they are prepared for becoming handmaids, and brainwashed into thinking that the sole concern of women is to bear children. This novel follows the story of Offred, the narrator, who is forced to have sex with the wealthy Commander, while his wife sits behind them, watching and holding Offred’s hands.

The Lottery This short story begins with an innocent town lottery but ends in murder. In Shirley Jackson’s short story, every year, each town gathers for a lottery in their town square. A black box is placed at the front of the square, in front of the line of people consisting of the family heads. Children run around gathering stones, stuffing them in their pockets and heaping them in the center of the square. Everyone in the line picks a piece of paper from the box and each member the family which picks a paper with a dot on it, has to choose another slip of paper. The person who picks the paper with the dot is then stoned to death by the other town members.

maya valluru & anvi banga aquila news editor & reporter

A society in which firemen burn books. Individuals living with their eyes incessantly locked on television screens. The power of knowledge quelled at all costs by a government supposedly established to protect humankind. Ray Bradbury’s 1953 story Fahrenheit 451 takes place in this society, a direct criticism of the society Bradbury observed in his adulthood: blue light from television screens flooding through windows as he walked down the street, stealing people’s time to read and communicate with one another. He wrote this story to criticize a seemingly narcotized society, but the classic work came to be known as a tale of censorship and the value of literature. Adults we know grew up

with classics of dystopian tales like these, which provided a commentary for their lives decades ago. From the birth of communist societies to mass destruction and global disasters, these novels rung true in the ears of the youth in the mid-twentieth century with dreams for freedom. Today, these classics continue to inspire the younger generation with values that the protagonists held as weapons in the face of censorship, oppression and cruelty. Dystopian literature revolves around bleak societies in the future controlled by an oppressive governing body. The constituents live in miserable conditions while those in power call the shots. Often, the citizens of the society are fed propaganda by the government so the people grow to believe in the normality of their situation. While promoting a fear of the outside world, the citizens of a dystopian so-

ciety are often not allowed to express their thoughts and are forced to conform to uniform expectations, their potential suppressed and their destinies predetermined. Novels like Anthem (1938), 1984 (written in 1949) and Fahrenheit 451 (written in 1953) are some of the classics in dystopian literature, all including a protagonist who has difficulty in completely agreeing with social establishment. After initial contemplation and due action, these individuals often rise against regimes that has oppressed them since their births or escape the failed utopias to create their own lives. For example, in Anthem, the main character named Equality 7-2521, lives in a collectivist society in which his scientific prowess is quelled by the the overbearing regime that maintains “order” in the collectivist society. When he discovers electricity, he is shunned

by the government and decides to run away to the Uncharted Forest, where he finds literature that contains the word “I.” That moment serves as his first realization of the individual self and the joy that results from freedom, and the tale ends with his starting his life again. Considering how relevant the first amendment is today, it’s difficult to imagine a society with as much censorship as there is in many dystopian novels. The freedom of speech and of the press seems like a given to most people, as it has been around for such a long time, but its implementation is more relevant now than ever before. With the current political climate, the validity of the first amendment, particularly the freedom of the press, is constantly being questioned by both harassed celebrities and concerned politicians. The pervasive problem of fake news spreading through social

media brings forward the concern of whether the people are reading the truth, and whether news writers should be allowed to publish the works of their choice. English teacher Mr. Manjoine believes that this genre of literature pertains to the current social climate, including internal struggle with identity and one’s place in society. “If you look at any struggle about race or about class or about gender bias, and those are all dystopian realities,” Mr. Manjoine said, “All adolescents live in a dystopian reality because you are on one hand, biologically your minds are set up to see the world in categorical terms … You are also trying to seek your identity out … and make things clear for yourself, and so these dystopian realities snap that into really clear focus.”

[ ][ ][ ] [ ] [ ] [ ][ ] LOUVRE OPENS TO PUBLIC

Today in History

HITLER GAINS DICTATORIAL POWERS IN GERMANY

8.7 EARTHQUAKE IN INDONESIA

Britain & France declare war on russia

WORLD’S FIRST AMBULANCE

PHILLIP II CROWNED KING OF SPAIN

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tur u f e

st a p e h

1794

1854

1866

1933

2005

FEATURES • VOLUME 18 ISSUE 6 • MARCH 28, 2017

PRAMEELA KOTTAPALLI

2. Place the bucket on a door frame, and leave it ajar while standing on the opposite side. Be careful! You don’t want your prank to backfire.

Lower school math teacher and well known jokester Pat Walsh, who is retiring in June, has experienced his fair share of April Fools’ Day pranks. His favorite memory at Harker was with one of his students two years ago. In the lower school community, there is a fun “rivalry” between Walsh and next-door English teacher Kate Shanahan, and their students tend to choose a “side.” Michelle Lou (7), a student at the time, was a “Shaney” and wrote a note to Walsh. “It was very well written,” Walsh noted. “It was a tremendous Mr. Walsh putdown. I kind of laughed with it and rolled with it; she was a very smart kid.” Walsh figured he had to have the last word, so he asked elementary school division head Kristin Giammona for help. “Rather than having egg on my face when she did it, I waited a couple of days,” Walsh said. “I don’t remember whether we

had April Fools’ two years ago or not; it was either April Fools’ Day or the closest day to April Fools’ Day. I talked with Mrs. Giammona. I said, ‘Would you mind pulling a prank for me?’” Michelle was called into Giammona’s office and reprimanded for what she had written.

na later regretted her involvement. Walsh’s favorite prank, however, was executed by his daughter-in-law. Last year, she was pregnant with his second grandson, and the birth was due April 8. Walsh and his wife, Terry, were on vacation in early April in Portland,

“I waited a couple days...I talked with Mrs. Giammona. I said, ‘Would you mind pulling a prank for me?”

HARKER DIRECTORY

multimedia editor

Harker’s patron jokester makes tradition out of April Fools’ Day

PAT WALSH MATH TEACHER AND PATRON JOKESTER

“Mrs. Giammona laid into her about how disrespectful [she was], ‘How could you ever write something like that about a teacher!’” Walsh said. “The girl looked like she was going to swallow her tongue, scared to death at everything, and [Mrs. Giammona] of course said, ‘April fools!’” Walsh added that Giammo-

but as they are “over the top grandparents,” both were afraid they would not be able to return home in time for the birth. “We were coming home on the third of April,” Walsh remembers. “When we told my son and daughter in law, she gave us a look like ‘hmm, I’m surprised that you guys would go on a trip with that being so close.’”

Humans of Harker trisha dwivedi

aquila managing editor

As a second grader, May Gao (12) indulged in researching the heart in her elementary school science fair, playing knee surgery games and watching slideshows of live surgeries. Now, 10 years later, as a graduating senior, she pursues her passions with the same dedication, whether it be music, women’s rights or biology. For May, all these interests culminate into one overarching goal: serving others. “I’m really interested in ethics and morality in medicine. I think ethics and morality play a huge part in science because they are the underlying backbone of everything that we do.” The amalgamation of ethics and morality and medicine is “like seeing the world in color”

for May, an aspiring cardiovascular surgeon, and she hopes to share that color with other young girls interested in STEM. “I joined [WiSTEM] because it united my interests in the sciences as well as social justice and women’s rights,” she said. While May is largely involved in STEM-centric activities, she also stresses the importance of STEAM (Science Technology Engineering Arts Mathematics) in her life as a violinist in two orchestras, the Upper School orchestra and Bay Area Youth Music Society. “Music is one of those things where it’s a universal language that crosses boundaries of age and race and gender, and there aren’t many things in the world like that,” May said. “I think communicating ideas and feel-

Will Park

“The way that we solve issues surrounding women in the workforce is by teaching young women, at a young age, that gender is never an obstacle in pursuing your dreams.”

“For my aunt’s engagement party, it was scheduled for april first...but they thought it was a joke, so no one came..” Noor Singh (12)

“In preschool, one of the teachers put a pillow under her dress and told us all she was pregnant for April Fools’.” - Viveka Saraiya (10)

May Gao

MAY GAO (12) ings through artistic forms is so important.” May aspires to make a difference in her fields of interest. “The most inspirational [people]are always the ones who have unabashedly followed their passions without meeting other people’s expectations,” she said.

reporter

Through his life experiences, Will Park (12) has come to certain realizations and developed his own ideology on how to approach life.

JUSTIN SU JUSTIN SU

“I was playing bridge and the other three people rigged the deck when I wasn’t looking and they got all the right cards and I got really mad.” -Swaplil Garg (11)

The goal of this project is to profile all members of the graduating senior class of 2017. Two seniors are featured in each issue of the Winged Post. To view all the senior features, visit Harker Aquila, the student news site.

justin su

athlete * dreamer * free spirit

She and Walsh’s son schemed up a joke on the unsuspecting grandparents. On April 1, they texted the Walshes, saying that she was going into labor. “We get a series of text messages, and after about an hour or so, we get a picture of her and the baby. Terry and I are devastated that we’re not there.” Terry Walsh, who is well-seasoned in pranks from putting up with Pat Walsh’s many over the years, was not so convinced. “Then, my wife puts on her Sherlock Holmes hat and she starts expanding the photo, and she’s able to read, there’s a little white board in [the maternity ward] where they keep all the vital statistics and everything,” Walsh said. “There was evidence on that whiteboard that it was not the new baby; it was a birth from almost two years previous, from our first grandson.” Although they were fooled, their second grandson was born on April 2.

“I have this dream of becoming something...I want to be successful in life and have my own goals, but you can only get to those points through family, friends and mentors.” WILL PARK (12)

TRISHA DWIVEDI

SCHOOLIGANS:

3. Wait. As your friend walks through the doorway, ease open door. Watch as said friend is drenched in bucket-water. Run.

PRAMEELA KOTTAPALLI

1. Fill a bucket with tap water. Make sure it’s neither burning hot, nor ice coldit’s just (meant to be) a prank.

zachary hoffman

COMMONS

In 2016, McDonalds released a mock subscription service of “hipster” meals, called “MMMBoxes.” Among them, “The Minimalist” meal: just ketchup and And a single fry.

PRAMEELA KOTTAPALLI

COMMONS

In 2013, Google announced “Google Nose,” an extension that would (not really) allow users to search for smells through a shady third dimension.

ZACHARY HOFFMAN

COMMONS

3. MMM Lovin’ It

2. “Smelling is believing”

1. RickTrolling

In April of 2008, Youtube linked all videos on its homepage to Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up,” popularizing “Rickrolling..”

PRAMEELA KOTTAPALLI

Top 3 viral corporate pranks of the past decade:

F O O L I S H I N S P I R A T I O N?

PRAMEELA KOTTAPALLI

Looking for

FEATURES

scientist * activist * artist “Leave no regrets,” Will said. “For me, in life for the past couple years I’ve always done things every year, but it doesn’t seem to hold the expectation that I hold it up to, so I always regret not being able to go out enough, spend enough time with family.” Will places a strong emphasis on family, something that he views a fundamental to success. A lot of his perspectives have been shaped through his academic career. One teacher specifically had a significant impact on him. “In 7th and 8th grade, I wasn’t the best student, and that’s when my life started to take a turn in the road and started to become very bumpy,” Will said. “But every time I went into her class, she was the one

that really motivated me to be the best student I could be, the change I want to be.” Everyone has down days, and Will’s preferred method of coping would be gym work. “It just makes me happy every time I walk in, because its just you and the weights, which are the only things in front of you,” Will said. “The main goal is just to lift those weights, and I get a sense of motivation.” Will said. Despite all the rush that occurs in his life, Will has one goal in how to lead his life: living as freely as possible. “Living as a free spirit. That’s a big one,” Will said. “I don’t want to be worried about everything all the time. I don’t want to get caught up in all the drama. I just want to live life.”

FEATURES • VOLUME 18 ISSUE 6 • MARCH 28, 2017

O O H ! C

Over

24 million Americans suffer from allergies

When the pollen count is high, don’t go outside!

As spring goes into full swing, many students begin to expereince seasonal allergies, commonly known as hay fever

maya kumar & nisha shankar features editor & reporter

Wash your clothes after exposure to pollen.

Keep your windows closed an use the air conditioner

March 20th marked the first day of Spring, a season filled with blooming flowers, comfortable temperatures, and lush green grass, but, for many, this seemingly pleasant time of year is overshadowed by the onset of sniffling, sneezing, and itchy eyes. Most commonly referred to as hay fever, this reaction is induced by increased pollen count in the air, which causes the immune system to react negatively.

For students suffering from allergies, upper school nurse Claire Elchert keeps a high-efficiency particulate arrestance (HEPA) filter in her office. “With the weather pattern and with the springtime, this week in particular, everybody’s allergies have kicked up, students and adults alike,” she said. “ The HEPA filter is a machine that takes particulate out of the air, so I keep that running Monday through Friday just to keep the allergens in the air in the room down, and it really is helpful sometimes for a student to just kind of rest here for a while.” Many students, such as Andy oonmen (1 ), are heavily affected by seasonal allergies during spring. Andy mainly experiences a runny nose. “I think Harker does a very good job with it because they have a good maintenance staff that make sure that everything is clean in the classrooms, which

helps a lot,” he said. “I have not had many as bad allergies as at my old school than Harker.” Over the counter medicines such as Claritin, yrtec and Allegra, known as oral antihistamines, can alleviate symptoms such as sneezing and itching, while other medicines reduce nasal congestion. “ These medicines all have their place in treating allergies, and sometimes you have to use multiple medications to control your symptoms,” fellow of the American Academy of Allergy Asthma and Immunology Dr. Jennifer Namazy said. Dr. Namazy also recommends that seasonal allergy sufferers keep track of pollen counts. “There’s not so much you can do to avoid pollen,” she said. “Try to avoid spending a lot of time outdoors on those high pollen count days.”

Presidents’ legacies after leaving office

K-POP CRAZE Students at last year’s HOSCARS dance to a medley of K-pop songs, including one by BTS. BTS held a concert on Newark on March 23 and 24.

on a world tour, KCon KPOP UPDATE: BTS hosted in Mexico City, and more helen yang reporter

Brightly colored hair, intense choreographies, upbeat music -pop, also known as South orean pop music, combines elements from various musical genres including hip hop, rock, and pop to create a worldwide phenomenon, attracting fans from all over the world despite the language barrier. “It’s really nice to just hear the actual melody of what’s happening instead of the lyrics sometimes,” Big Bang and BTS fan Christie Chen said (1 ). “Give it a chance A lot of people don’t because they don’t know orean, but it’s really worth it, and after a while with subtitles it doesn’t make a big difference anymore, and it’s really fun. It’s a really big fandom, a very big family kind of feel.” Another reason for -pop’s growing popularity known as the “hallyu wave” is the unique fashion style. “ -pop groups have separate concepts and great visuals. In addition to the music, orea really emphasizes on visuals and how good the people look, like their fashion sense,” Got7 and I.O.I fan evin Tzeng (11) said. “It’s a good idea for -pop to expand into the U.S. Hallyu wave, man ” Recently, in the world of -pop, many popular artists have released new content, as well as concert tour dates to various cities in America. Boy group Got7 released “Flight Log: Arrival,” as well as a music video for the title track

“Never Ever” on March 13. The album topped the iTunes charts in six Asian countries and reached the top five in six other countries, including fifth in the United States. More than 22 , copies of “Flight Log: Arrival” were sold in pre-orders alone and 3 , copies were sold within two hours of release, while the “Never Ever” music video garnered a million views

“In addition to the music, Korea really emphasizes on visuals and how good the people look.” KEVIN TZENG (11) in five hours. Con, an annual -pop convention held around the world, took place in Mexico City on March 17 and 18. Many artists, including BTS, Eric Nam, E ID, NCT 127, Astro, Infinite H, Monsta , and Red elvet performed over the course of the two days. Girl group Pristin officially debuted on March 21 with their first mini album, “HI PRISTIN,” which features six songs that include lyrics and melodies composed by the members of Pristin. They also released a music video for the title track “Wee Woo.” Also on March 21, boy group Monsta released their first full studio album, “the Clan Part 2.5: The Final Chapter

Beautiful ,” which consists of ten tracks, and the music video for the title track, “Beautiful.” Boy group SHINee performed their hit songs in concerts during their “World Concert ” tour in Dallas on March 23 and Los Angeles on March 2 , marking their first time to perform in the U.S. “I’d love to go to one of the tour concerts. They’re a great way for idols to connect with international fans from around the world,” Enya Lu (1 ) said. “I personally would love to go to one of those tours, but I can’t because I don’t have time.” Boy group BTS is holding “The WINGS Tour,” a world tour in ten countries across Asia, North America, South America, and Australia. BTS is performing in Newark on March 23 and 24, in Chicago on March 29, and in Anaheim on April 1 and 2. They sold out more than 95, tickets in the U.S. within minutes of opening the most for any -pop tour in the U.S. The concerts include performances of their most popular past songs and newer ones from “Wings,” the best-selling -pop album of 2 1 with over 75 , copies sold, and “You Never Walk Alone,” which features four new tracks as an extension “Wings.” “I am going to a concert ; it’s the BTS one in LA. I’m super excited to see them live,” Gina Partridge (9) said. “These tours show -pop’s popularity internationally instead of nationally, on other nations besides orea.”

January 20, 2017 marked the final day of former president Barack Obama’s term in office when he passed the presidency to current president Donald Trump. Since his departure, Obama has taken time to relax. His first two weeks involved vacations at Palm Springs, California with the Spanish ambassador and at

Moskito Island with billionaire Richard Branson. Obama has also maintained his a voice in politics, supporting protests against Trump’s order for a travel ban of Muslims from seven countries from immigrating to the United States. Obama and his wife Michelle have also signed a book deal worth up to 5 million for a book from each of them with publisher Penguin.

BILL CLINTON Bill Clinton became a public In office: speaker on solutions to world1993-2001 wide problems. He penned a memoir titled “My Life.” He has remained active in politics, cam- Major projects: paigning for both his wife Hillary The Clinton and former President Obama’s Foundation Democratic campaigns.

GEORGE H.W. BUSH George H.W. Bush published In office: a book titled “All the Best, George 1989-1993 Bush,” which consisted of letters he had collected during throughout his life. He was awarded the Major projects: “All the Best, Presidential Medal of Freedom George Bush” in 2 11 by President Obama.

JIMMY CARTER Jimmy Carter worked with In office: international relief organizations 1977-1981 and negotiated multiple treaties with other countries. He opened his own relief organization, the Major projects: Carter Center, in 1982 and was The Carter awarded the Nobel Peace Prize Center in 2 2.

RICHARD NIXON

Richard Nixon traveled In office: throughout the world, meeting 1969-1974 with different world leaders. He wrote ten different books about his time after leaving office. He Major projects: Discussions supported Reagan’s presidential with world campaign in 198 .

leaders

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

KSHITIJA MULAM

alex wang sports editor

SCIENCE OF SLEEP

Brain and body activity during four stages of the sleep cycle

ONE E G A

VOLUME 18 • ISSUE 6 MARCH 28, 2017

7 minutes long

LIGHT Sleep EYE MOVEMENT SLOWS

alpha waves THETA WAVES

SCIENCE OF SLEEP

8-10

Hours of sleep recommended for teens each night

Brain activity levels during sleep and the importance of rest

“In REM, the body is more or less paralyzed. This is protective so that you do not act out dreamswhile many have had the experience of feeling paralyzed during a dream, this is probably due to partial awareness of paralysis,” Dr. Carl Bazil, professor of neurology at the Columbia University Medical Center, said. “We know that rats replay some things they have learned during REM sleep, leading to the theory that REM may be important for some aspects of memory as well.”

DR. CARL BAZIL PROFESSOR OF NEUROLOGY AT COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER

some sleep disorder and 25 million adults diagnosed specifically with obstructive sleep apnea. The National Sleep Foundation states that teens need eight to ten hours of sleep every night. “On average, I get around four to six hours of sleep on a school night. I literally just sleep so much on the weekends; I wake up at 12 p.m. or 1 p.m. sometimes,” Nikhil Dharmaraj (10) said. “My lack of sleep is probably attributed to the amount of homework I have. I do feel drowsy in the morning, but after that, the day goes on

Sleep aids featured at Consumer Electronics Show 2breathe

Price: $180

Kryo Sleep Performance System Price: $199

Zeeq

Price: $99 early, $299 retail

2breathe is a sleep belt users can wear while resting. The belt tracks breathing patterns and plays music to help users fall asleep more easily. It facilitates easy breathing exercises that are conducive to a better sleep, as compared to periods of falling alseep characterized by

intense thinking or stress. Once the belt measures near-full sleep breathing levels and senses that the user is close to sleep, it shuts off automatically. The belt also records users’ periods of REM sleep and light sleep as well as a detailed breathing report and a sleep diary.

The Kryo Sleep Performance system is a water-based cooling mattress pad. It can be synced to an app, which helps the mattress measure its user’s body temperature throughout the night. The ideal temperature for deep, relaxing sleep is around 60 to 68 degrees Fahrenheit, and the Kryo Sleep Performance System helps users stay in that range by ad-

justing their body temperature in response to overheating to facilitate a better sleep. The product is currently in the prototype phase and was listed and backed on Indiegogo. It claims to imrove REM (rapid eye movement sleep) and deep sleep up to 20 percent. Kyro can work in conjunction with health trackers like Fitbit to improve sleep.

The Zeeq is a smart pillow that plays music and tracks sleep movement and breathing. Users can set a sleep timer to set Zeeq’s music to play only for a set period of time before shutting off. Should users start snoring, Zeeq will also wake them up with an alarm.

It contains a smart alarm and can also record sleep motion and is made of tencel Zeeq also analyzes and provides data on your sleep. Zeeq was listed and backed on Kickstarter and the company is based in Chicago, Illinois.

START OF REM sleep

Increase in brain activity

Breathing rate IRREGULAR, FAS HEART RATE AT WAKING LEVELS

90 minute cycles

What helps you fall asleep at night?

Students share tips and tricks for falling asleep faster

“A really warm room and thinking about my tests the next day because it bores me so much that I fall asleep.” RUHI SAYANA

“In REM [sleep], the body is more or less paralyzed. This is protective so that you do not act out dreamswhile many have had the experience of feeling paralyzed during a dream, this is probably due to partial awareness of paralysis.”

[as normal].” rapid eye movement An individual’s sleep cycle is greatly affected by the circadian rhythm, the biological clock which dictates the 24-hour cycle of biological processes for living organisms. It regulates acin highligh tivity including hormone Extrastriate visual areas, anterior cingulate gyrus, hipp production, cell regeneration and brain wave activity. Exposure to and the presence of light significantly impacts one’s sleep process by triggering a nerve signal between the eye and the hypothalamus in the brain. This signal stimulates the release of plachormones and other brain be- es. Howhavior that regulates feelings of ever, the system was removed sleepiness or waking. shortly after its launch due to a “There’s nothing wrong with lack of student response and use. going to sleep late; the problem Reducing exposure to aris encountered when you have tificial light can also lessen its to get up early. The most obvi- negative effects on the human ous side effect that people expe- body. rience is sleepiness,” Dr. Zeitzer “Studies have shown that said. “However, there are many even if teenagers have an elecother things that are going on as tronic device in their bedroom well; for example, athletic per- but are not using it, just the formance decreases, academic presence of the device can affect performance decreases and your sleep,” Kaiser Permanente pediasocial ability decreases, in the trician Dr. Karen Chiu said. sense that you become more easFor teenagers, some more ily irritable.” specific methods towards betIn an effort to improve stu- tering one’s sleep health include dents’ sleep health and relieve stopping the use of electronic stress, student council and ASB devices one hour before bedinstituted a sleep room policy time to minimize the impact of last year, which asked teachers to artificial light on their circadian offer up their classrooms during rhythm and taking short power scheduled times as quiet resting naps during the early afternoon.

IHITA MANDAL SOPHOMORE

“If I don’t go on any technology, like my phone or watch television 30 minutes before I go to bed [because] then I can usually fall asleep faster.” RUHI SAYANA

It’s 12:00 a.m. and you’re staring down at your math homework through the usual haze of fatigue. You need to get started on your history project, but the wonderful world of YouTube holds so much promise of entertainment and happiness. You sigh in resignation and click on a thumbnail, telling yourself that you’ll begin writing your English essay soon—and now it’s 3:3 a.m., and you’re finally crawling into bed exhausted. A critical component of human life, sleep takes up one-third of the average human’s lifespan. Sleep is a state of altered unconsciousness that mammalian life goes into and out of on a regular basis, on the rhythm of the circadian cycle. Heavily regulated by the amount of light that can come in or out of your eyes, the process of sleep homeostasis ensures that humans receive signals of sleepiness when sleep is needed. “Circadian rhythms are incredibly important for helping people fall asleep at the right time and get up at the right time,” Dr. Jamie Zeitzer, assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford, said. “Light is the most important thing that you can control

According to the American Sleep Association, 37 percent of young adults report suffering from sleep deprivation. 37.9 percent of adults have reported unintentionally falling asleep during the day in the past month. Sleep disorders are prevalent in the United States, with over 50 million adults diagnosed with

AARZU GUPTA FRESHMAN

“Quiet, darkness and warmth.” RUHI SAYANA

Aquila asst. news editor & copy editor

out of the factors that influence your circadian rhythm.” Sleep consists of four stages, three of which are in the non-rapid eye movement (NREM) stage and one of which is in the rapid eye movement (REM) stage. This pattern repeats itself approximately every 90 minutes throughout one’s period of sleep.

PROVIDED BY CARL BAZIL

tiffany wong & ruhi sayana

KAI-SIANG ANG SENIOR

SCIENCE OF SLEEP • VOLUME 18 ISSUE 6 • MARCH 28, 2017

73.3% O W T E Eye movement stops ALPHA, THETA WAVES SLOW

biological id an c 12 a

rhythm intensify SLEEP DRIVE black indicates average dip periods by age group

p.m.

nag

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ult

Delta waves

Q&A on dreams with psychiatrist

hted regions pocampus

kaitlin hsu

SOURCES: SlEEP FOUNDATION, SLEEP RESEARCH SOCIETY

Wingspan editor-in-chief

Dr. Mark S. Perlsweig, MD is a practicing psychiatrist, specializing in child and adolescent psychiatry. He has been in practice for 30 years. Wingspan interviewed Dr. Perlsweig by phone to clarify the scientific underpinnings of dreams.

ILA

NS TE

SAHANA SRINIVASAN

ST S

9 A. m

p.m.

A. m

Body temperature drops Heart rate stabilizes Breathing rate slows

DIPS in circadian

k loc

CIrc

STAG

STUDENTS CITE HOMEWORK AS THE MAIN FACTOR THAT INFLUENCES THEIR SLEEP SCHEDULES

Wingspan: Why do we dream, and do dreams have a function or purpose? Dr. Mark Perlsweig: From a scientific point of view, there is no why. Science has some limits in terms of what it can figure out. And there has been a very long tradition of doing things like saying, ‘Hey, the brain has different parts. Well, let’s figure out what parts do what. We ought to be able to do that like with a car. We still haven’t been able to do that. It’s been worked on by experts for over 100 years, and we still haven’t figured anything out. W: What are the other schools of thought that have influenced dreams MP: The next way to look at it would be from a psychological point of view. If we go back to the earliest psychological theory the first person you would go to is Sigmund Freud. He considered the fact that your dreams contained memories and events that occurred that day. He called dreams the royal road to the unconscious. What he meant by that was that you could understand a person’s emotional experience that was not conscience. W: Is it normal to have a recurring dream, and what does that mean? MP: I would say yes. I would say most people have had recurring dreams in their life. I think if you ask more religious, spiritual people they would say that the recurring dream is symbolically important because it’s a life message to you from god that’s helping you figure out your unique role on this planet. Freud would never go that far. He would say it is a continuous psychological conflict that you are trying to resolve. And you are going to keep having the recurring dream until you have resolved it. I think the reason for having a particular kind of dream is more individual and it kind of depends on what the individual’s life is about and what the dream is.

SPORTS

g n i d i l s

G N I R P into S

VOLUME 18 • ISSUE 6 MARCH 28, 2017

S T R O SP

CA TC Ca H me S ING acr ron Z opho FIRE o m e fie ss th ll lun ore ld e s ba to c oft ges ll. b a tea The tch t all h s m o e ho f lds curr tball e rec a le ntl ord ag y of ue - .

SOFTBALL

5-1

The varsity girls softball team started off their season with an amazing start, with an overall record of 5-1, and league record of 1-0. They play their next away game today against Notre Dame-Belmont. “We started out with a lot of new players, but after working hard at practice every day, we have definitely improved a lot, which has led us to mercy rule four teams and win our first league game,” third base and center field player Taylor Lam (10) said. “Even though we suffered our first loss last week, the team has been working even harder to improve on the mistakes we made and hopefully continue winning this season.” Senior captain Marti Sutton echoed Taylor’s thoughts. “Our newbies are growing quickly and we’re really bonding, which helps us read each other during games,” Marti said. “Although it’s just the beginning of the season, I can’t wait to see how we match up against some of the tougher teams.”

overall record

1-0

league record

ASHLEY JIANG

BOYS TENNIS

TRACK

ASHLEY JIANG

The varsity girls lacrosse team holds an overall record of 3-3 as of March 15. They play their next game tomorrow against Aragon High School. “This season is the best we’ve ever had because not only we are doing better in terms

SWIMMING

BOYS VOLLEYBALL

ASHLEY JIANG

JUSTIN SU

Track and field runners competed in their first WBAL meet for this season on March 15. Anthony Contreras (12) led the team with wins in the 100m, 200m, and 400m in the team relay. Sophomores Lilly Anderson, Alex Rule, and Henry Wong each respectively had their own wins in their own events.

The swim team recently competed in the Palo Alto Invitational at St. Francis and the Small-School Invitational at Sacred Heart. They have started their dual-school meets for this season. “I’m looking forward to improving my times this season and just having a good time with the team,” evin Tzeng (11) said.

of statistics and winning in our league, but also I think our focus is not solely on team spirit but we focus on trying to improve ourselves,” Aditi Maheshwari (12) said. “That level is something we’ve never had before.”

MEGAN CARDOSI

The varsity boys baseball team has an overall record of 5-1, with a league record of 2-0. They play their next game against Westmoor High School at Blackford tomorrow. “It’s insane how well this season’s going for us,” aran Gupta (1 ) said.

DELANEY LOGUE

The boys golf currently hold first place in their league. The boys played at the Pahrump Invitational Tournament in Las Vegas on March 10, winning third place out of 18 teams. They play at the 2017 Champions Invitational Tournament this Fri. and Sat.

The varsity boys tennis team currently holds a 11-2 overall record. During the weekend of March 3-4, the Eagles travelled to Fresno, to play as part of the California Tennis Classic tournament, where they got third in their division. They play Nueva school tomorrow at Backesto Park.

LACROSSE

CAMERON ZELL

BASEBALL

ALEX WANG

BOYS GOLF

The varsity boys volleyball team has an overall record of 7-2, with a league record of 2-1. “Since we moved up a league, we are competing against stronger teams like Monta Vista and Saratoga, but our team has a lot of great potential this year,” Woody Ye (12) said. “Though tough, I hope we can make CCS this year.”

SPORTS

VOLUME 18 • ISSUE 6 MARCH 28, 2017

IN THE MOMENT

MEENA GUDAPATI

RUSH! Sophomore Elise Mayer runs across Davis field in the first home game of the season against Newark High School. With the addition of a new coach, the lacrosse team is having the best season start in years.

Seniors work towards their “abs for Laguna”

Peak Performance: justin su

sports columnist

For water polo, it’s Tabatas. Tennis? Liners. Basketball? Suicides. Wrestling? The Hallway. The last half hour of practice that athletes dread the most approaches quickly: conditioning time. It seems so pointless—the sprints and the miles all leave you exhausted. “Can’t we just work on technique?” your body begs as you follow your coach’s orders and doggedly run laps. Each breath comes out harder than the previous as you think to yourself, “I never have to run this much in actual games. What’s the point of all this running?” According to the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA), the purpose of conditioning is not to mimic game conditions, but rather to work out the muscles so that they do not tear under strain and to reduce the chance of sports injuries. As athletes, we can familiarize our bodies with the athletic motions we have to perform during games and loosen our muscles at the same time, significantly decreasing the chances of injury. We usually find that our performance deteriorates as the game clock ticks down, so being well-conditioned will give us an edge to win by outlasting and outperforming our opponents.

I certainly find this to be true, as seeing my opponent more tired gives me the motivation necessary to strike when he is weak. By being in better shape than our opponents, we can demoralize the opposing team. After all, how can they not be disheartened watching us hop, skip and jump when they’re barely able to move themselves. “Personally I don’t like it, but I believe it is necessary to get better; For football, it is the strongest guy that wins, because a 200 pound guy can destroy a 170 pounder easily, so it’s all about getting bigger, faster, and stronger,” said senior football player Saketh Gurram. “It’s like studying for a test. You want to get a good grade, but you won’t get the good grade unless you study for it. Conditioning is like the studying part of testing.” Lastly, doing conditioning exercises can help you keep fat off your body as well as help keep your body looking good, as many conditioning exercises are geared toward repetition and burn calories and fat quickly. Conditioning exercises are undoubtedly boring and extremely tiring, but the benefits to you as an athlete and to your body is immense. So, next time your coach starts the conditioning drills, turn that frown upside down.

been doing the “5 day split” workout at YMCA in Cupertino. “Each day we do two sets of an ab workout and then we workout a specific body part, whether it be legs, arms, back, shoulders or chest, on a rotation,” Rahul said. The students have been following this regimen since early January. “One day I just saw Rahul, and I saw the dedication he had, and it just motivated me to just push myself and push my limits in a way that I didn’t think was possible,” Srivatsav said. Many seniors are working out in order to achieve “abs for Laguna.” Rahul discussed methods for overcoming unhealthy habits while eating. “You’ve got to think of the superior goal,” he said. “You think about that, and you can overcome any obstacle.” Srivatsav drew inspiration from Rahul to overcome unhealthy eating habits and to be motivated when working out. “Everytime that we eat, Rahul always makes me stick to my diet,” he said. “We try to cut down on carbs; a couple days ago we went to Mongolian Barbeque and I really wanted to get the noodles, but Rahul was like ‘no, noodles are carbs; you should be eating meat.’” May Gao (12) has also begun working out in the past

ALEX YOUN

Benefits of conditioning

GETTING GAINS Andrew Gu (12) does a pullup in a basketball court. Many seniors try to get fit, seriously or ironically using the hashtag “#absforlaguna.”

meena gudapati news editor

With college apps completed, seniors have begun preparing for the upcoming class trip to Laguna Beach. Some students are making concerted efforts in their exercise and diet regimens prior to the trip. Seniors Kedar Gupta, Peter Wu, Srivatsav Pyda, Aashish Jain, Rahul Shukla, Rishabh Nijhawan, Arnav Tandon and Shasvat Jawahar have

few weeks at ClubSport San Jose Health and Fitness Gym. “I mainly just warm up with like cardio stairmaster and after that, I just do free weights and the weight machines,” she said. May goes to the gym three to four times a week and spends one hour when she is alone and two hours when she is with her family. In order to stay within a caloric range, she sometimes uses the MyFitnessPal app to track intake. “If you put in a lot of work to go to the gym, you don’t

“You’ve got to think of the superior goal. You think of that and you can overcome any obstacle.” RAHUL SHUKLA PHYSICALLY FIT SENIOR want to just counter that by eating unhealthily,” May said. Rather than aiming to lose weight, May is aiming to be healthier and stronger and to “be able to do pushups properly.” “I think the whole “flabs for laguna” thing is probably an influencing factor in what got me to look into working out, but now that I am, I just feel better doing it, and it’s not really about my appearance,” she said.

angele yang & neal sidhu reporters

March Madness dates back to 1908 in Illinois. What started as a yearly high school boys basketball invitational transformed into a statewide tournament with more than 900 schools in less than 20 years. Although most of the hype in Illinois was originally focused around high school competitions, over time college basketball became more popular. The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) Men’s Basketball National Championship, held in 1937, was the first college basketball tournament in the U.S. The NCAA first organized a college basketball tournament in 1939 and has been regulating the competition, which was later named March Madness, ever since. Today, March Madness is an annual single-elimination

tournament between 68 college men’s basketball teams from around the country. There are eight tournaments, each with four divisions. Games started on

“We are celebrating basketball, which was an American sport. It’s a good way to expose the Harker community to a wide variety of schools, colleges and universities that they might not know about.” JULIE WHEELER AP U.S. HISTORY TEACHER March 14 and end next Monday. Many basketball fans today make tournament bracket predictions. In the past, Facebook has given $25,000 prizes to anyone who predicted the brackets

correctly. Varsity girls basketball team captain Jordan Thompson (12) predicts team brackets with her sister, Courtney Thompson (8), every year. “We always pick underdogs to win the championship. Even though they never actually advance that far in the tournament, it’s fun to root for a team that nobody else expects to win,” Jordan said. “March Madness is unique because there are so many upsets, so it’s nearly impossible to make a perfect bracket.” Some teachers in schools across the country encourage students to create prediction brackets and sometimes award extra credit to students who make the most accurate prediction bracket. “We have an APUSH March Madness NCAA tournament bracket,” AP U.S. History teacher Julie Wheeler said. “We are celebrating basketball, which was an American sport. It’s a good way to expose the Harker community

ANGELE YANG

March Madness captivates school

BRACKET RACKET Head of Upper School Butch Keller’s bracket is displayed at the entrance of Manzanita. Many students and faculty members made brackets to try to predict the outcome of the NCAA March Madness Tournament.

to a wide variety of schools, colleges and universities that they might not know about. It’s good for geography, and it’s good for a little classroom competition.” Many upper school students are interested in March Madness because they enjoy supporting specific teams. “Personally, I like the Vil-

lanova Wildcats. They won last year,” Mihir Dixit (9) said. “Usually, I watch the Final Four [and finals with a few of my friends.” The Illinois High School Association sponsors March Madness and donates a portion of its proceeds to scholarships for Illinois high school students.

BACK PAGE

VOLUME 18 • ISSUE 6 MARCH 28, 2017

T H G I N S A I R P IN

ALL PHOTOS NICOLE CHEN

CAPTIONS

Joie de vivre: Prom takes on Parisian night theme

BEAUTY IN BLACK Liana Wang (11) smiles as she talks to other students at prom. Other than participating in the prom activities, students interacted and mingled with friends.

DAINTY DECORATIONS The Prom Committee decorated the venue with Parisian designs. This year’s prom event’s theme was “A Midnight in Paris.”

DRINK UP Arjun Subramanian (12) enjoys the drinks served at prom. A variety of foods, desserts and drinks were available to students at prom.

DEAL ME OUT Tiffany Zhu (12) plays cards with her friends at prom. Other activities that students participated in included dancing, using the photo booth and playing black jack.

TASTY A student picks from the food available at prom. Students were able to enjoy a plethora of foods, desserts and a candy bar as well.

kshithija mulam & nicole chen & anika rajamani editor-in-chief & Aquila features editor & reporter

Juniors and seniors attended prom at the Silicon Valley Capital Club on March 18 from 8:30 p.m. to 12 a.m. This year’s prom event was designed around the theme “A Midnight in Paris,” completed with a Parisian and French overtone to many of the activities available to students at the event. “We [had] some exciting things this year,” Assistant to Directors and Prom Co-Coordinator Eric Kallbrier said. “We [had] a live musician performing away from the dance floor on the outside balcony, which add[ed] to the whole Parisian feel.” This year’s prom took place

24.3% $300 - 400

DANCE THE NIGHT AWAY Jessica Skinner (11) dances with her friends on the dance Under $100 floor. The Prom Committee set up a dance floor at the venue with a DJ playing music throughout the night.

27% $200 - 300

Some students felt as if the most enjoyable aspect of prom was being able to interact with their friends. “I decided to go to prom because I feel like it would be a good experience to hangout with my friends and have a good time,” Vivian Wang (11) said. While there was no full meal served at the event, an array of appetizers and desserts were available to students. Others decided to prove that one does not need to partake in conventional prom activities to have fun. “I managed to find a group of friends who were just as uncomfortable there as I was, which made me not feel uncomfortable anymore. I didn’t feel any pressure to dance,” Andrew Rule (12) said. “We ended up playing card games the whole time. We had a lot of good food,

16.3% $400 - 500

25% $200- 300

5.4% $600 - 700

74%

of juniors and seniors attended prom 24.3% $100 - 200

46% $100-200

Cost of Prom Dresses

so it proved to me, which I didn’t expect, you don’t have to dance to have a good time at prom.” Prior to prom, numerous students held pre-prom parties at friends’ houses where students mingled and got their photos taken by professional photographers. Kallbrier and student activities coordinator Kerry Enzensperger took numerous steps within planning the logistics of the event. “We met with students, seniors and juniors, who [were] interested in becoming a part of the planning. We then gathered a lot of ideas from the student for prom theme suggestions,” Kallbrier said. Once we had a prom theme, it [moved] really fast. We [found] all the best decorations to really sell the event and to make it something special.”

75% $100-200

2.7% $500 - 600

Overall Cost of Prom Experience

6.3% $200 - 300

earlier than usual with the event typically taking place closer towards the end of the school year in late April or early May. “It sucks because we still have a ton of homework and other things to do at school, but it’s also kinda great because no other school has prom at this time, and it was super easy and cheap to find places to do nails and hair, ” Vienna Wang (12) said. Like previous prom events, students were able to dance with their friends on the dance floor. Attendees also partook in numerous activities such playing blackjack and using the photo booth. Additionally, attendees participated in a raffle, enabling them to win certain prizes. The prom committee opened the balcony to students, enabling them to enjoy the views from the 17th floor of the Capital Club.

4.2% $400 - 500

25% Under $100

6.3% $400 - 500

Cost of Prom Tuxedos

6.3% $200 - 300

12.5% Under $100