Winged Post Vol. 17 Issue 2

WINGED POST FRIDAY. OCTOBER 16, 2015 | THE HARKER UPPER SCHOOL STUDENT NEWSPAPER, VOL. 17, NO. 2

Siemens semifinalists announced today maya valluru Aquila copy editor

The Siemens Foundation will announce the semifinalists of the Siemens Competition in Math, Science and Technology today and will announce the finalists next Monday.

300 semifinalists are selected each year from approximately 1400 submissions.

Established by the Siemens foundation in 1999, the award recognizes excellence in research and technical writing by high school students. Last year, 13 Upper school students became semifinalists, and four became finalists.

Both semifinalists and finalists will receive national recognition, but only finalists will move on to the next round of competition.

COMMUNITY DEBATES DRESS CODE vivek bharadwaj & sharanya balaji & kavya ramakrishnan

KAVYA RAMAKRISHNAN

meena gudapati copy editor Students gathered to watch the democratic debate for the first Pizza and Politics Night in the bistro at 6 p.m. on Tuesday for.

“We’re created a night where people can watch the democratic debates and become informed about the candidates,” president of the Econ Society Shannon Hong said.

“It’s going to be a series, so we’ll be covering every single debate from here on, hopefully bringing the community together with pizza and informed voters.”

Short skirts? Spaghetti straps? Large logos or text? Confederate flags on clothing?

These are the issues schools across the country, including Harker, face while creating and implementing dress code policies.

Changes in the dress code, which became effective at the beginning of this school year, generated heated debates and lunchtime conversation throughout the student body and faculty.

Modifications included: the fingertip rule being applied to all skirts, dresses, and shirts; white T-shirts not being allowed; all Harker-affiliated apparel needing to be approved by administration prior to creation; and logos or designs larger than the size of a palm being restricted outside of Harker-affiliated or collegiate wear on T-shirts and sweatshirts.

“I think [the new policy has] really helped improve the look here,” Dean of Students Kevin Williamson said. “I think that conservative, modest attire is something I really want [everyone] to consider when coming into work, not just girls. I’m concerned about the logos, branding, messaging.”

The 2015-2016 dress code was the result of work by a dress code committee that included input from students, parents, and faculty. Revisions included the fingertip rule and the ability for all students to wear t-shirts to class. The revised policy was tested during the second semester of last school year.

The discussion over the dress code, or more specifically about the perception of enforcement of the dress code, ignited debate on both sides of the aisle.

VARUN BALDWA

Continued page 4

aditya varshney

UP TO HERE Chandler Nelson (12) demonstrates the fingertip rule for skirts, kilts, shorts and dresses. The rule is part of the new dress code.

Sophomores and juniors take redesigned PSAT Test features new format and new scoring system

opinion editor Upper School Nurse Claire Elchert returned to campus to resume her duties on Sept. 25 after successfully battling cancer.

Elchert, who suffered from non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, had been on medical leave since April. Assistant Nurse Debra Nott took over for Elchert in her absence.

“Everyone has welcomed me and it’s been wonderful to be back,” Elchert said. “I feel like I was missed by both the students and my co-workers. It made me realize, now that I’m feeling better, through my treatment course, [how much] I miss the place.”

Elchert will work on campus part-time. She will be available in the nurse’s office between 8 a.m and 12 p.m. every day except Thursday, when she is on campus from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.

News: Fall Picnic, A2

MEILAN STEIMLE

editor-in-chief & aquila editor-in-chief & managing editor

IDC club hosts pizza and politics night

Clare Elchert returns to Upper School

| www.harkeraquila.com

justin su asst. sports editor 59 55

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51

PSAT Taken In: 2011 2012 2013 2014

2015-2016 National Merit Semifinalists by School

Monta Vista (53) Harker School (51) Saratoga High (39) Palo Alto High (33) Cupertino High (25)

Sophomores and juniors took a redesigned version of the Preliminary SAT (PSAT) last Wednesday.

Changes for the test included an increase in length, the combination of the reading and writing sections, more questions, a new scoring system and subscore reporting. The new test has an increased time of two hours and 45 minutes, with more questions in every section except for reading comprehension. The new scoring system is on a 320-1520 scale rather than the old 60240 scale.

Some juniors did not appreciate the change, as they did not receive the chance to practice taking the new test last year.

“Why didn’t they just correspond the new PSAT with the new SAT at the same time?” Chris Hailey (11) said.

Doubletruck: Dress Code,A4 STEM: Honeybees, B4

“If they could have done that, then I wouldn’t have to study for both of them, as it puts so much more burden on me.”

The seniors were the last class to take the old version of the PSAT. Senior Joshua Hung voiced his opinion on the new elements.

“Last year, the PSAT was sort of like a precursor for the SAT so I could do well on it; the PSAT was similar to that, and that made it a little bit easier,” Joshua said. “I feel like this year, the PSAT will be a little bit more difficult with the longer test and more questions, but at the same time I think that people will get used to it and it might also be easier for some people given that there is no guessing penalty.”

The College Board will release scores for the PSAT in mid-December.

Semifinalists for the National Merit Scholarship will be released next September.

Sports: Homecoming, B6

Back page: Spirit Week

A2

NEWS

VOLUME 17 • ISSUE 2 OCTOBER 16, 2015

ria gandhi Aquila features editor

The 65th annual Family and Alumni Picnic: Harvest Festival, themed Fall-o-ween, brought together Harker families, students and alumni for a day filled with carnival games and performances last Sunday at Blackford.

Attractions this year included the Witch’s Flight, a 220-foot zipline, and Hamster Dash, an activity involving human-sized hamster balls. The festival began with the Student Show, consisting of performances by the Upper School junior varsity dance troupe, Downbeat, Kinetic Krew, Bel Canto and Jazz Band, along with Middle School dance and singing groups.

Students expressed excitement over their performances, as the student performances remain a memorable experience for those who have participated in it for numerous years.

“We’re going to be witches because the [picnic’s] theme is Halloween,” junior varsity dance

troupe member Surabhi Rao (11) said. “The song is “I Put a Spell on You” by Hocus Pocus.

I’m excited; I’ve been doing it every year since I came to Harker, and it’s been really fun.”

“Performing is always fun because we get to show the community how hard we’ve all worked on the routine.”

RANDY ZHAO (10) KINETIC KREW MEMBER Kinetic Krew, the all-male dance troupe formed at the upper school this year, made its debut while dancing to a remix of “Spooky Scary Skeletons.”

Members of the troupe looked forward to seeing the results of their hard work at the picnic.

“It’s been a while since I was on a team,” Kinetic Krew mem-

ber Randy Zhao (10) said. “Performing is always fun because we get to show the community how hard we’ve all worked on the routine.”

Downbeat performed the song “Time Warp” from “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.” For seniors who have participated in the picnic show for almost eight years, the performance came with mixed feelings.

“I’ve done this for seven years, give or take a year or so,” Downbeat member Rishabh Chandra (12) said. “In some ways, it feels like we’re doing it again; it doesn’t have the same grandeur to it as it does in fourth grade. At the same time, it’s the last time I’m doing it, and it’s something special to the school.”

Along with entertainment provided by performing arts groups, the picnic featured many upper school clubs who ran booths and activities for attendees throughout the day. A silent auction and raffle also took place throughout the course of the day.

The Upper School DECA organization ran the pumpkin

KSHITHIJA MULAM

KSHITHIJA MULAM

KSHITHIJA MULAM

KSHITHIJA MULAM

Harker celebrates “Fall-o-ween” at 65th annual Family and Alumni Picnic

FALLING IN TO FESTIVITIES (LEFT) The new upper school boys’ dance group, Kinetic Krew, gave their debut performance at the picnic. (TOP RIGHT) Green Team advisor Dr. Katherine Schafer mans the Green Team booth, which handed out recyclable pencils, plant seeds and water bottles to picnic attendees. (BOTTOM LEFT) Surabhi Rao (11) dances to “I Put a Spell on You” as part of the junior varsity dance routine. (BOTTOM RIGHT) Maile Chung (11), dressed as Pikachu, packs a snow cone at one of the booths.

patch, with officers working rotating shifts throughout the day. “[We] sit there and interact with anyone who comes by and try and make it a good time so everyone can enjoy the pumpkin patch at the Harvest Festival,” Vice President of Competitions Alexis Gauba (11) said.

Upper school clubs ran booths to promote their mission to the entire Harker community.

Green Team allowed attendees to spin a wheel and answer questions about the environment.

The wheel spins and lands on a question that has something to do with sustainable energy such as “‘What are three things you can recycle?’ or ‘How can you save water?,” Green Team advisor Diana Moss said. “We have some little prizes which are either water bottles or environmentally-friendly pencils made

out of recycled materials. We are also giving out packets of seeds that are beet seeds, carrot seeds and winter pea seeds so that you can plant some vegetables.”

The annual Fall Festival brought together people of all ages from the Harker community, providing an opportunity for students to mingle and enjoy themselves.

“Well, [the picnic] is people from all the campuses, so some of these people, I’ve never seen before, but I’ve ended up talking to them because they say my costume looks cool or something like that, so you meet new people,” Bel Canto member Marina Logue (9) said.

The next major fundraiser for the school, the Harker Gala, will occur in the spring.

neil bai & anjay saklecha reporters

The Class of 2019 participated in the annual freshman community service day at the Guadalupe River Park Conservancy on Wednesday.

“Community service is a big part of the school’s mission in developing character and utilizing all of their talents and intelligence.”

ERIC KALLBRIER ASSISTANT TO DIRECTOR OF STUDENT ACTIVITIES

While in previous years, advisories had attended various service sites, this year, there will be only one location for the event.

Freshman advisory groups rotated to different stations within the site to do a number of different service activities throughout the afternoon.

“The whole freshman class is heading to one location and volunteering together,” said Director of Community Service Kerry Enzensperger. “Normally, we go to eight or nine different sites, at various different times, whereas now, everyone will be going to the same time and place. It is a really big change.”

The service trip has been an annual tradition since the school’s inception. It has given freshmen the opportunity to gain firsthand experience with volunteering while bonding with their advisories.

CLEAN-UP Viveka Saraiya (9) uses a trash grabber to pick up litter from the ground. The entire class went on a community service trip to Guadalupe River Conservancy while sophomores and juniors took the PSAT.

ALL PHOTOS - ANJAY SAKLECHA

Freshmen attend community service trip on Wednesday

STEWARDS OF THE EARTH Freshmen walk up the side of a hill searching for trash at the Guadalupe River Park Conservancy. The entire class went on a community service trip to Guadalupe River Conservancy while the sophomores and juniors took the PSAT on Wednesday.

“Community service is a big part of the school’s mission in developing character and utilizing all of their talents and intelligence,” said Assistant to Director of Student Activities Eric Kallbrier. “This is, for many people, the first introduction to service.

That’s a really great opportunity that Harker provides, where people can feel how good it feels to give back.

Abigail Wisdom (9), who went on the trip, believes the experience was valuable.

“It was really fun, we cleaned up a lot of trash and found a lot of interesting stuff,” Abigail said. “We learned a lot about the different type of trees in the area, and we helped the environment.”

Freshman are required to

have a total of ten hours of community service by April of this year. By the end of high school, all students must complete 30 hours of community service as part of their graduation requirements with students having to complete at least ten hours in

their freshmen, junior and sophomore years respectively.

While the freshmen went to the Guadalupe River Park Conservancy, the sophomores and juniors took the PSAT till 11:30 a.m, and the seniors took the day off.

NEWS

A3

VOLUME 17 • ISSUE 2 OCTOBER 16, 2015

meilan steimle & tiffany wong features editor & reporter

The spirit program and senior student council hosted the Homecoming dance on Oct. 2, the night before the morning of the October SAT, leading many juniors to skip the event.

“We looked to see if there was another week we could do the Homecoming dance, but there are conflicts every single weekend, so that’s why we just stuck with this.“ KERRY ENZENSPERGER STUDENT ACTIVITIES COORDINATOR AND STUDENT ACTIVITIES COORDINATOR Attendance at the dance dropped significantly for juniors, with only 45 total attending, 14 percent of the student body at the dance. Comparatively, seniors, sophomores and freshmen comprised 25 percent, 24 percent and 37 percent of attendees respectively.

Because the Central Coast Section (CCS) schedules the Homecoming game, Harker Spirit did not have control over the date of the Homecoming dance,

although they were aware of the conflict.

“We looked to see if there was another week we could do the Homecoming dance, but there are conflicts every single weekend, so that’s why we just stuck with this,” said Kerry Enzensperger, Director of Upper School Community Service and Student Activities Coordinator.

“I kind of want to cram, get the best score I can,” Jordan Goheen (11) said. “I had fun last year and the year before when I went to Homecoming; I was really disappointed, you know, to hear that it was on such a bad timing.”

Students who wanted to leave the dance early had the option of calling their parents into the dance to speak with a faculty member before going home. As both one of the planners of the dance and a senior taking the SAT, Layla Walker, Spirit President, used this as a compromise to avoid skipping the dance altogether.

“I’m taking the the SAT the next morning. We tried to think of ways we could fix it, and this was the only way we could do it,” she said. “Hopefully people are still willing to come out for an hour, as long as they can.

That’s what I’m planning on doing.”

The October SAT date holds significance partially because it remains one of the last chances to take the SAT before it changes format in 2016. Many juniors and some sophomores chose to take the SAT early rather than prepare for a new test.

ASHLEY JIANG

SAT conflict reduces Homecoming dance attendance

GETTING IN THE GROOVE Homecoming King Edward Sheu (12) and Ray Song (11) dance together at the Homecoming dance. Ray was one of 45 juniors attending the dance.

Do you plan on attending the homecoming dance, game, both or none?

“I want to have leeway.

That way I can take the October test and then the November test and not have to take the SAT in March,” Neymika Jain (11), who did not attend the dance, said.

“The new one is in March.”

The Homecoming game, which took place after the SAT, on Oct. 3 saw normal attendance from juniors. The new SAT format will debut in March of 2016, while the last testing date for the current SAT will be in February of 2016.

ria gandhi & shania wang

Aquila features editor & reporter

The annual Harker TEDx conference will take place tomorrow on the Saratoga campus, incorporating many new developments in an attempt to attract students from a variety of schools as well as display a multitude of corporate booths and professional speakers.

This year’s event features a number of changes, with students hoping to grow attendance and diversify the scope of the event.

In previous years, the Harker TEDx took place in the spring of each school year but this year, it switched its date to the fall to allow the annual BEcon (Business and Economics conference)

to take place in the spring.

“This year, we’re really trying to expand just from being a business conference; that’s not really what TEDx is about,” curator Aashika Balaji (12) said.

“We’re trying to bring in people from all different aspects. We have an astronomer; we have a geneticist.”

The team chose to veer away from the longstanding tradition of hosting speakers relating to the field of business, instead including speakers such Harker students, teachers and alumni as well as professionals involved in the fields of philanthropy and technology.

The conference’s schedule now allows for more breaks between speakers in an attempt to shorten talks and encourage a wide variety of discussion topics.

“I’m excited for the TEDx event,” previous attendee Lucas Wang (11) said. “They’re doing a new format this year where they have 10 speakers instead of their usual four, and each of the 10 speakers will be speaking for 30 minutes instead of the usual hour that they usually do. So I think it’s gonna be fun.”

Speakers include Dr. Michael Snyder, a Stanford professor in the field of genetics, Kaity Gee (12), who is currently in the process of writing and publishing novels and poetry, Skye Delano, a leader in philanthropy, Andy Fang (‘10), cofounder of DoorDash, Kelly Sawyer, a campaigning specialist, Neel Chatterjee, nationally-renowned Facebook intellectual property lawyer, Helen Kassa, the NAACP SJ Youth President, Dr. Puragra

EDUCATIONAL EXHIBITION The TEDx banner hangs in the atrium of Nichols Hall. The event will host its annual conference tomorrow, featuring Harker parents, students, alumni and professionals as speakers.

Thakurta, a UCSC professor of astronomy and astrophysics and Dr. Koodanjeri, the AP Chemistry teacher at Harker.

Green ceiling:

KSHITHIJA MULAM

Annual TEDx conference to be hosted tomorrow

The Harker TEDx team looks forward to welcoming students to its fifth annual conference.

World’s largest green roof soon to cover newly renovated Vallco Shopping Center in Cupertino

kaitlin hsu & jackie gao

STRIKING GOLD Members of the journalism program won several commendations from CSPA for their work in Wingspan and Winged Post.

Winners Kacey Fang (‘15), Shay Lari-Hosain (12) and Ria Gandhi (11) are not pictured.

Journalism receives awards from CSPA nicole chen & kat zhang reporters

Members of journalism received Gold Circle Awards from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association (CSPA) in recognition of their work in the Winged Post and Wingspan from the last school year.

The students submitted articles, photos and designs to CSPA, which chose 1,471 winners from a pool of 11,110 entries produced by high school, college and university students from across the United States.

Elisabeth Siegel (12), Shay Lari-Hosain (12), Kshithija Mulam (11), Meilan Steimle (11), Ria Gandhi (11), Alex Youn (11) and Kacey Fang (‘15) received awards from the CSPA for their

work.

Harker Aquila features editor Ria Gandhi contributed to the longform feature “Cheating the Win,” which won an honorable mention in the sports feature category.

“It came as a big surprise, since this was our first time ever doing anything like this,” Ria said.

Ellen Austin, Harker journalism’s adviser, was pleased that the journalists were successful in their endeavors.

“To have this many honors coming out of our program is a really great achievement. I’m very proud of the kids,” Austin said.

The journalism program plans to submit work from Harker Aquila to CSPA this week.

With a $3 billion plan, Vallco Shopping Center’s new owners will renovate the old mall and build the “largest green roof in the world” on top of it.

Called “The Hills at Vallco,” the project, initiated by Sandy Hill Property Company, incorporates the community’s opinions and matches with Cupertino’s General Plan. The new center will also act as a town center for the community and downtown Cupertino.

“I definitely feel like we are certainly on the cutting edge of sustainability and technology.”

DIANA MOSS GREEN TEAM ADVISER “I definitely feel like we are certainly on the cutting edge of sustainability and technology,” Green Team adviser Diana Moss said. “Companies all around the area and our school, as an example of that, are trying to be more conscientious of what we

PROVIDED BY HOLLY LANGBEIN

KAVYA RAMAKRISHNAN

Wingspan staff writer & reporter

ROOFTOP RENOVATIONS Sandy Hill Property Company will add the world’s largest green roof above the future town center for Cupertino, part of the plans for which is designed in the above image.

are doing to create a livable society. I think I’m very energized and excited about seeing that kind of thing happen.”

The 30 acre green roof will include 3.8 miles of walking and jogging trails with gardens and orchards for visitors’ pleasure.

California’s drought proves as another factor to consider while building the green roof.

“The Hills at Vallco, which is designed with a goal of Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Platinum Certification, will use recycled water for irrigation, heating, cooling systems and recapture of rainwater to reduce water

consumption,” said Sandy Hill Property Company’s managing director Reed Moulds. “Additionally, the sustainable park will feature native, drought tolerant and climate responsive landscaping that thrives on little to no water.”

The project also includes a contribution of $400 million to local schools.

Corrections: In Issue 1, we ran an article titled “New teachers, new perspectives,” and neglected to include new faculty member Christopher Hurshman. His profile was uploaded online.

DRESS CODE AND YOU? JANET LEE (12) “I felt like when we went into the conversation, that conversation was overwhelmingly dominated by men.”

DIVYA RAJASEKHARAN (10)

SEPT. 4

AUG. 24

Upper school administration and faculty begins enforcing the new dress code. Skirts and dresses must be fingertip-length, all logos must be palm-sized, and club shirts must be approved by administration.

SEPT. 10

Cheerleaders at the upper school are told by Kevin Williamson that they can no longer wear their uniforms to school on game days.

Gurutam Thockchom (12) posts a Facebook status indicating dissatisfaction with the enforcement of the new dress code. The post garners 225 likes and over 141 comments and replies.

78%

“I have a lot of ideological issues with the dress code, so, while enforcement is definitely a part of it, like, I’d like to see the dress code itself change.”

ON FACEBOOK Two s shared their op opinions on the dres and the related socia debate on September

22%

VIVEKA SARAIYA (9) “A lot of my shirts have images on them, but other than that I think the dress code is pretty OK.”

ALIX ROBINSON-GUY (10) “The first couple of times they changed [the dress code] no one liked it. I think people are sick of it.”

YES

NO

Do you feel the dress code needs to be improved?

55%

45%

ALAYNA RICHMOND (11) “We should be able to take greater responsibility for choosing how we dress and present ourselves.”

CHRISTOPHER LEAFSTRAND (10) “[The dress code is] fine, because I don’t really have any other clothes I could wear.”

SARAH DE VEGVAR (11) “If you need to scrutinize a skirt to tell if it is within the dress code, then it is probably close enough where it doesn’t matter.”

SANIL RAJPUT (12) “There are a lot of issues being talked about it, but no solutions being proposed.”

JUSTIN XIE (10) “I don’t really have an opinion on it, because I get to wear t-shirts. Life is alright. It doesn’t really change anything.”

ARTHI IYER (11) “I believe that they should say, ‘Don’t have obscenities on your shirt’ and just leave it at that.”

YES

NO

Do you feel that students and faculty have a voice in changing the dress code?

OUT OF 218 RESPONDeNTS

MEILAN STEIMLE

Dress code debate leads to school-w Continued from front page Jessica Skinner (10) voiced her opinion about limits in the dress code changes.

“I believe that we should have a little bit more freedom in the t-shirts that we wear,” she said. “Certain things should be approved like sayings or even pictures instead of having to wear a plain t-shirt.”

Several students were less concerned with the policy itself, but rather focused on the tactics that the administration used to enforce the dress code.

“I believed the old dress code wasn’t too difficult to follow,” Prithvi Gudapati (12) said. “You could express yourself within it. The only issue I see here is enforcement.”

Both students and faculty have repeatedly highlighted the distinction between debate about the dress code policy and the controversy over how it is enforced. A growing concern from students focused on the fact that females were being checked for dress-code violations far more than males were.

Pilar Aguero-Esparza, faculty member of the dress

code committee, acknowledged during the meeting that the school’s dress code fell into a conservative vein, stating that the rules were selected to reflect the mission of the school.

“When we put together the dress code, we explicitly told faculty that this is a very sensitive issue,” Aguero-Esparza said. “We really don’t feel comfortable that males could tell females about issues of the dress code.”

The campus’ controversy echoes similar issues at other schools. Articles published earlier this month in The Guardian, NPR, and the Washington Post mention the increasing attention to dress code debates around the country, ranging from prohibition of gang-colors to hate-related symbols at school.

By early September, students and faculty became increasingly polarized over the issue alongside a broadening sense that females were being unfairly “dress-coded.”

On Sept. 10, student Gurutam Thockchom (12) created a public Facebook post criticizing the administration’s enforcement strategy of dress code policies, sparking

heated debate in the comments section about the roles and rights of administration.

The Thursday-afternoon post garnered over 200 likes.

A day later, the Associated Student Body (ASB) council announced that it would hold a dress code forum to promote open dialogue.

“The reason I made it was not to complain,” Gurutam said of his post. “The reason I made it was that there’s something going on that’s invisible to a lot of male members of the community. What my post ended up being was a place where lots of women in the community could talk about their specific experiences of sexualization and sexism in the dress code.”

Williamson and ASB president Michael Zhao (12) moderated the first forum on Sept. 14. About 65 members of the community attended the Monday afternoon discussion in Nichols auditorium.

Molly Wancewicz (11), a student who spoke at the forum, expressed her belief that the administration’s policing was a bigger issue than the dress code itself, referring to administrators handing out detention slips for

dress code violations during lunchtime in Manzanita.

“I think that the enforcement is the problem, mainly because the enforcement is what’s really reinforcing the idea that what’s on the outside is more important than what’s on the inside,” Molly said.

“The enforcement is what’s really reinforcing the idea that what’s on the outside is more important than what’s on the inside.”

MOLLY WANCEWICZ (11) The perception voiced by female students that detentions were handed out disproportionately to females differs from the school’s detention records.

The Winged Post requested statistics on the number of detentions served since the beginning of the school year and the violations associated with them.

According to school records up to Oct. 7, 84 stu-

dents have served detention since the beginning of the school year. Twenty six of these detentions were served for dress code infractions. Of these 26, 20 students violated the dress code’s oversized logo policy.

After the conclusion of the forum, many questions remained unresolved. Some students voiced their opinion that the direction of the forum had been predominantly controlled by male voices.

“To be honest, I expected a different type of discussion from the [first] dress code forum,” said Shannon Hong, Issues Discussion Club president and participant at the forum. “The reason why the post actually went viral was because we wanted to talk about enforcement of dress code, women’s issues.

That conversation was overwhelmingly dominated by men.”

As a result, a week later Aguero-Esparza and Dr. Lola Muldrew led a females-only lunchtime discussion on Sept. 23. The forum provided a venue for students and faculty to discuss personal experiences with the enforcement of the dress code and possible ways for teach-

SEPT. 14

ASB council and Dean of Students Kevin Williamson host a dress code open forum, where students were invited to share their thoughts and concerns about the current dress code.

students pposing ss code al media r 10.

SEPT. 23

SEPT. 21

Williamson makes an announcement at school meeting, broadcasting the decision to allow previous years’ Harker t-shirts to be worn without further approval needed from the admnistration.

Dress code committee faculty members Dr. Lola Muldrew and Pilar Aguerro-Esparza host a meeting during long lunch about the dress code, inviting only female participation due to concerns of overwhelming male participation in other venues.

DRESSED TO

EXPRESS vivek bharadwaj & sharanya balaji & kavya ramakrishnan editor-in-chief & aquila editor-in-chief & managing editor

The Harker community is in the midst of discussions on the dress code, with topics ranging from what the dress code should be to how it should be enforced to the relevancy of the debate itself. Simultaneously, similar debates continue nationwide as a generation grapples with dress code as it relates to feminism, saftey and self-expression.

MEILAN STEIMLE

Q&A:

wide dialogue ers to comfortably approach students not in dress code.

At a Sept. 26 NorCal Media Conference at Palo Alto High School, members of Harker Journalism hosted a Dress Code Forum for journalists interested in discussing dress codes at their schools and providing coverage on the topic. About 40 high school journalists filled the room, and each shared stories of their school’s policies and stumbling blocks with regards to dress code implementation.

“It was a very heated discussion. Everyone in the room had something to say,” Kavya Ramakrishnan (12), who moderated the open forum, said. “I was surprised that so many students who felt passionate about the dress code chose to be there.

It’s a huge topic at every school right now.”

Estephania Melendez, an attendee of the forum and a student journalist at Salinas High School, commented on her understanding of dress code policies aimed at protecting student safety by reducing gang violence.

“I have a solid red shirt that I wear, which is a fandom shirt for ‘Doctor Who,’

and I don’t wear it often,” she said. “There’s maybe one or two teachers who’ve said, ‘Stephanie, that’s a red shirt, please put on a jacket, we know that you don’t mean anything by it but it’s for your safety,’ which I get.”

In response to feedback, the administration will continue to hold meetings with faculty and students, part of an effort to revise the standing dress code.

“We are taking feedback from the students,” Assistant Head of School Jennifer Gargano said. “It’s obvious that [the dress code] is not 100 percent working. We are not naive enough to think that we are going to come up with a dress code that is 100 percent perfect for everyone.

It definitely looks like there is some room for improvement.”

Issues related to student dress and free expression have a long and sometimes contentious history in American high schools. One of the most significant court cases involving students’ rights to free expression involved wearing clothing deemed offensive.

Mary Beth Tinker, a D.C.-based youth rights ac-

tivist and also one of the plaintiffs in the 1969 Supreme Court case Tinker v.

Des Moines Independent School District, wore a black armband to school as a protest against the Vietnam War. After being suspended, she sued the school district and won, with the Supreme Court decision stating in the majority opinion that “It can hardly be argued that either students or teachers shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.”

Tinker, who was an assembly speaker at Harker in 2014, commented in a phone interview about the association between freedom of expression and an individual’s presentation of themselves in their dress.

“They are completely intertwined, because what you wear is an expression. It goes all the way from what colors you pick out and what type of clothes you have, to whether or not you want to have messages explicitly on your clothing or on yourself, like buttons or t-shirts for sake of example,” she said. “It’s a huge part of free speech.” additional reporting by Meena Gudapati

Upper School Dean of Students Kevin Williamson

Winged Post: What have you heard about the dress code debate recently?

Kevin Williamson: I think there is some confusion about the designs and what you can wear. If students are going to project an image at school, it should be Harker-related.

Since we are a college-prep school, we thought college logos would be okay.

I think if a student doesn’t understand something, that’s one thing - that is a conversation. But having moved away from more rules to less rules, when it’s very evident that what is being worn is breaking a rule, to me, that warrants a detention.

If you are questioning why the dress code is written the way it is, that’s a conversation you have with student council, the dress code committee members — something you bring to my attention ahead of time.

We have worked really hard to make it as gender neutral as possible, but women do tend to wear different styles of clothing.

I focus mostly on T-shirts.

I think that conservative, modest attire is something I really want [everyone] to consider when coming in to work, not just girls. I’m concerned about the logos, branding, messaging. I think [the new policy has] really helped improve the look here.

WP: How do you feel the rollout of the new dress code has been received this year?

KW: I think it’s doing really well. I have been thrilled. I think people think it’s more relaxed than last year, and it’s liveable. We are not trying to limit styles so much as advertising. If you are going to make a statement on your shirt, then it needs to be Harker-related or college preparatory related. I am using “palm-sized” as a rule of thumb. I like how things are going. I think teachers are having conversations about it with students and I think that the majority of the people accepted it.

I heard the social network talk about how unfair the dress code was. This is an open conversation. It’s always going to be a work in progress throughout the year, so I’d like to have these as often as we need to.

WP: How did you feel about the level of civility and discourse in the forum?

KW: I was a little bit surprised by the amount of anger from some. I didn’t realize that some of the things they said were happening so I’m looking forward to pursuing it a little bit further as far as enforcement goes.

A6

OPINION Editors-in-Chief Elisabeth Siegel & Vivek Bharadwaj Managing Editor Kavya Ramakrishnan

VOLUME 17 • ISSUE 2 OCTOBER 16, 2015

Breaking the ice

Opening conversations on the dress code benefits the school

Copy Editor Meena Gudapati News Editor Kshithija Mulam Features Editor Meilan Steimle Asst. Features Editor Maya Kumar

Asst. STEM Editor Sahana Srinivasan Sports Editor Trisha Dwivedi Asst. Sports Editor Justin Su Photo Editors Ashley Jiang & Emma Yu Business Editor Stanley Zhao Adviser Ellen Austin, MJE Wingspan Editor-in-Chief Shay Lari-Hosain Wingspan Staff Kaity Gee Kaitlin Hsu Vijay Bharadwaj Aquila Editor-in-Chief Sharanya Balaji Aquila Staff Trisha Dwivedi Ria Gandhi Ayushi Gautam Raveena Kapatkar Maya Valluru Vineet Kosaraju

Jenna Sadhu Sahana Srinivasan Justin Su Aditya Varshney Alex Wang

Reporters Adrian Chu Jackie Gao Melina Nakos Lauren Russell Derek Yen Neil Bai Katherine Zhang Nicole Chen Shania Wang

Michael Sikand Anjay Saklecha Nisha Shankar Vignesh Panchanatham Tiffany Wong Zachary Hoffman Anika Rajamani Rithika Devarakaonda Brian Park

SCHOOL IMAGE (LEFT) The updated dress code policy permits logos larger than palm-size to be worn if the logo is related to Harker or a university. (RIGHT) Other logos must be palm-sized or smaller in order to be worn when school is in session.

EDITORIAL THE OFFICIAL OPINION OF THE WINGED POST Pocket-sized logos, no plain white shirts, fingertip length skirts. Concern over these and other additions to the dress code took center stage in the student-run Harker Summit on Sept. 25, in which students from all grades described their issues with the current standards set by the administration.

From the Summit, and the advisory discussions that followed a week later, it has become clear that the issue with the dress code was not

its existence but its enforcement.

As students, we understand that having a set of rules outlining the way we should dress is important to conserving the off-campus image of the school. That’s not to say that Harker students are self-conscious to a fault, but most of us would concur that our school’s reputation matters.

Still, too often do we hear of students being stopped in the halls and given detentions for shirt designs that are too big or skirts that don’t follow the fingertip length rule. School records showed that 26 detentions related to the dress code have been assigned so far this year.

Especially important is the logo rule, which has resulted in 20 of these detentions.

vivek bharadwaj editor in chief

Nearly every day for four months last year, I carried a liter-sized plastic tub filled with electronics around campus.

Like my friends, I toted my crammed, bulky circuit board container from class to class, usually whipping

out wire cutters and pliers in the library to complete assignments.

My “nerd kit” allowed me to apply my ideas in the real world. And every time my project powered on and behaved exactly as I had planned, I always experienced immense satisfaction.

Forward to last month: Ahmed Mohamed, a Muslim-American high school student, was arrested and interrogated by the police on the charge of building a “hoax bomb,” which turned out to simply be a pencil case fitted with electronic

ALEX WANG

Follow us on social media with the handle /harkeraquila

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

NEED TO CHANGE Following the Harker Summit, nearly 80 percent of students believed that the dress code still needs some changes.

a discussion with students who are violating the dress code. This way a student knows when his or her attire is against the dress code but does not feel embarrassed.

And to their credit, many teachers have chosen to pull students aside to talk about the issue.

Through conversation, the teacher has a chance to teach the values behind the dress code and to understand the student’s perspective on the rules. As some concerns recur, it’s up to the teachers to reveal the issues to the administration.

Ultimately, as students, we are the ones dressing up for school every day. If we don’t like the rules, there needs to be a reliable way to voice our concerns. Teachers might just be the best outlet for discussing the dress code.

But policing the halls does not fix the problem.

#IStandWithAhmed, and so should Harker

Visit The Winged Post Online at www.harkeraquila.com

The Winged Post is published every four to six weeks except during vacations by the Journalism and Advanced Journalism Newspaper Concentration courses of Harker Upper School, 500 Saratoga Ave., San Jose, CA 95129.

The Winged Post staff will publish features, editorials, news, and sports in an unbiased and professional manner and serve as a public forum for the students of The Harker School. Editorials are the official opinions of The Winged Post. Opinions and letters are the personal viewpoints of the writers and do not necessarily reflect the opinion 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 advisor.

Advertisements are accepted in the Post. However, The Winged Post reserves the right to deny any ad. Letters to the Editor may be submitted to Manzanita 70 or emailed to wingedpost@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 which call for a disruption of the school day will not be considered for publication. Letters sent to the Post will be published at the discretion of the editorial staff.

Mast eagle courtesy of photographer Thomas D. Mangelsen.

The Winged Post is the official student newspaper, and it is distributed free of cost to students.

Often these punishments are meted out in public, leaving students feeling embarrassed and stressed after being assigned to a detention.

For this reason, teachers and faculty need to open

SOCIAL CIRCUITRY Alex Wang (10) wires up a breadboard in his computer architecture class. Ahmed’s plight has resonated with many similar “makers” around the world.

components for a clock.

Eerie, I thought. Hadn’t I carried a box filled with circuits to school every day?

I believed that handcuffs were reserved for people who broke the law, not for students who brought in gadgets to impress their teachers. Reading through the details of his arrest, I didn’t see a criminal or a prankster. I saw a fellow tinker and creator taken into custody because of a misunderstood engineering project – then came the outrage.

The circumstances behind Ahmed’s arrest reveal bias. His father claimed in a CNN interview that his son was labeled as a “bombmaker” by his friends after the incident. Ahmed alleges that officers repeatedly asked him whether he had tried to make a bomb during the interrogation, referencing his last name more than once.

Yet the police found no evidence that Ahmed intended to cause alarm with his device, nor did the administra-

tion proceed with the standard school evacuation in the presence of the “threat.”

These reactions from the police and Ahmed’s detractors suggest that Ahmed’s religion was grounds for suspicion about his motives. The only victim of the device was Ahmed himself, who was punished and discriminated against.

According to the National Math and Science Initiative (NMSI), only 36 percent of high school graduates in the United States are prepared for college-level science courses. When our country lags far behind others in STEM subjects, school administrators need to encourage curious minds, not haul them to prison.

A young tinkerer should not have to carry the burden of rigorously proving that his pet project, crafted through hours of hard work, is not a terrorist gadget or an explosive device.

I stand with Ahmed.

My fifth grade bucketlist

National Coffee Day brings back memories of high school goals

elisabeth siegel editor in chief

Although I have never had a cup of coffee in my life, I found myself feeling contemplative on National Coffee Day, which fell on Sept. 29 this year.

My life is devoid of coffee, but I have at least tried it.

Maybe it was the taste; maybe it was the lukewarm consistency of the coffee my mother shoved into my hands the day of my first final of high school, but I took a sip and spat it back out into the sink. That experience turned me off coffee, probably for good.

Seeing an entire day dedicated to such a pungent first experience, I remembered that I had made a list of “first”s, — a bucket-list, of sorts that I wanted to get done by the time I was out of high school.

I dug through an old pile of junk in my bedroom, and lo and behold, I found the dusty notebook containing the list. I thought of checking off some of the goals and seeing what kind of progress I’ve made since then.

Drive a car.

Looking back, I like how low I set the bar from the start. My goal wasn’t to get a permit or license, but just to drive a car. I guess I knew myself pretty well back then, future failed driving tests and all. (I do have my license now, though.)

Learn to cook.

The only things I know how to make are eggs and the Chinese equivalent of

GRAPHIC COURTESY OF CREATIVE COMMONS

STEM Editor Vineet Kosaraju

MEILAN STEIMLE

Opinion Editor Aditya Varshney

BREWING NOSTALGIA National Coffee Day reminded me of my first experience with coffee.

parathas. Two weeks ago, I burned the parathas. Yikes.

Make new friends.

Interesting, since 75 percent of my core friend group is made up of the same people I have known since kindergarten. Still, the staggering amount of people that I have met and befriended in all would make the fifth grade me faint.

I have no regrets on this

one, but I won’t cross it off, because the more the merrier, right?

I’ve managed to cross off a considerable part of the list, but that also leaves a whole host of childhood goals to consider. I have my work cut out for me this senior year.

But I still won’t do coffee. That stuff’s gross.

OPINION

A7

VOLUME 17 • ISSUE 2 OCTOBER 16, 2015

TALK AROUND CAMPUS What is your favorite part of advisory? lauren russell

“[My favorite part] is that I have some friends in advisory, and I socialize with them.”

- Megan Tjandrasuwita (10)

“The food. When we have a lot of junk food I always look forward to it in the morning.”

- Zeyad El-Arabaty (12)

“Walking across the street to Starbucks.”

- Emre Ezer (11)

reporter

“I love it when people bring in snacks and we all talk about what’s going on in senior year.“ - Dr. Ruth Meyer

Jokes aside,

meilan steimle features editor

When Donald Trump first announced his presidential intention in June, most people Itreated it like a joke. A famously unfiltered real-estate tycoon running for president? People exchanged chuckles and quips about moving to Canada. After all, nothing came from the three previous times he considered candidacy.

Three months later, Trump leads Republican polls, but his campaign still feels like a surreal prank. He appears everywhere, from jokes about his hair on the Facebook group “Punstoppables” to a sexy Trump Halloween costume retailing for $69.95 to his face plastered on prospective t-shirt designs for the classes of 2016 and 2017. Trump transcends mere manhood to become a meme, a fiery rallying point for some, an easy-to-hate villain for others and a laughable diversion for cynical millennials.

Trump never fails to liven the political landscape with a dash of controversy. He reveals another candidate’s private phone number on live television.

He implies a female pundit is on her period. And recently, he unveils his immigration plan, which includes deporting hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants, repealing birthright citizenship and demanding that Mexico build a wall along the U.S. border.

“His xenophobic demagoguery resonate with a real and vocal portion of America.”

It is unlikely that Trump actually subscribes to his vocalized ultra-conservative beliefs; when he considered running in 2000, he stated that “I really believe the Republicans are just too crazy right,” and advocated for

health care reform and gun law restrictions (albeit limited ones).

But as shaky as Trump’s resolve to his campaign platform is, his words immensely impact the groups he vilifies to incite popular fervor.

His xenophobic demagoguery resonates with a real and vocal portion of America. In August, the Boston police charged two men with assaulting a homeless Hispanic man. “Donald Trump was right, all these illegals need to be deported,” one of the men said to police afterwards.

Trump responded to the incident by saying that the people following him “love this country and want this country to be great again” before tweeting over a day later amidst backlash that he “would never condone violence.”

And yet we still treat Trump’s campaign like a joke.

Beneath our country’s saccharine all-American “melting pot” rhetoric lurks a silent but

pervasive racism and fear of foreigners, one brought into stark definition by Trump’s success.

In Harker and the wider bay area, immigration is inextricably imbedded in our culture.

The citizenship of our families, teachers, classmates and selves is contingent on an America that welcomes newcomers. By failing to take Trump seriously, we fail to acknowledge the threat to the open policies to which we owe our community.

Plans to build a “Great Wall of Trump” seem almost comical, but the reality remains that Trump polls as the leading GOP candidate. His uncensored comments and bombastic policies are not nearly as disturbing as the growing proportion of Americans who violently support them, perhaps more fervently than Trump himself.

Like it or not, Donald Trump is a serious candidate in the 2016 Presidential race. It is time to stop joking around.

GRAPHIC BY MEILAN STEIMLE

It’s time to take the Trump campaign seriously

TRUMP CARD Donald Trump’s campaign may have seemed trifling at first, but his antiimmigration rhetoric has started having serious consequences that need to be recognized.

adrian chu

reporter The first time I heard the word “college” was when my father had told me about his college experience as an immigrant. Without any resources apart from the word of friends and family, my father decided to attend whichever college accepted him. Admitted into the University of Massachusetts, he only learned the location of the campus on his train ride there.

Thirty-three years later, college has become a necessity for most of America’s youth, but as debt from student loans accumulates nationwide, choosing the right college is more important than ever.

In 2010, 59 percent of all

jobs in America required a high school diploma. Based on projections by the Georgetown Center for Education, that number will be 65 percent in 2020. In response, Congress created the College Scorecard, a website that attempts to collect the average annual cost and post-college salary for colleges in the U.S. with an emphasis on financial aid. Though a step in the right direction, there are gaping holes in the government’s solution to the college selection conundrum.

The website’s incompleteness of data prevents it from reaching its potential.

In specific, many colleges lack listed statistics on average annual cost, post-college salary and graduation rate, so students

JONATHAN DAI

Congress’s College Scorecard falls short of students’ expectations

HATS OFF Matthew Ho (‘15) celebrates graduation as he throws his cap into the air. Preparing for college is a major step for most seniors, but the College Scorecard system fails to address the accuracy of the application process.

cannot rely on the Scorecard for information on many colleges to which they may want to apply.

The Scorecard’s incompleteness impacts colleges, too.

To become more attractive to candidates, colleges must lower their costs, increase their gradu-

ation rates and fund majors that lead to high-income professions.

Clubs, student activism, and other aspects of the college experience will fade.

For this reason, the Scorecard may actually be harmful; it incentivizes colleges to funnel all

students into low-risk, high-income professions such as business and engineering. In a report from the National Association of Colleges and Employers, the median starting annual salary for graduates with engineering degrees was $64,367, $49,035 for graduates with business degrees and $36,237 for graduates with liberal arts degrees. As low-risk, high-income professions become oversaturated, overqualified graduates may find themselves out of work in hyper-competitive fields while other industries experience an occupational deficit.

Without more comprehensive, relevant statistics, the College Scorecard remains an ineffective college search tool.

eart of Harker: Unity between classes Inter-class harmony makes transition to high school smoother, less intimidating

lauren russell

reporter High school is a big transition. Generally, teachers and parents try to make the change as painless as possible. Social events at the beginning of the school year, orientation and the tour of the campus all are tools to help gently drop freshmen

into the roller coaster ride of high school. But what made my transition the easiest the easy camaraderie between people of different grades and the friendships between upperclassmen and lowerclassmen that I had not had in previous years.

It was the second week of school in my journalism class, and the first issue of the newspaper had just come out. Returning members that had been furiously typing and rushing around frenetically during the first week were were able to join us on the couches in the middle of the room, and were conversing quietly as we waited for the second

bell.

I remember inserting a comment about my perspective of the program thus far, not expecting to be heard or recognized for it. Contrary to my assumption, the co-editor in chief of the Winged Post, Apoorva Rangan (‘14), turned to me and asked a question regarding my comment. I was taken aback by the fact that this extremely talented, smart, eloquent senior had been listening closely to my words and had thought about them.

Coming over that bit of shock, I responded, albeit hesitantly. The conversation then carried on between Apoorva and I. Other re-

turning members joined in the discussion as well. The welcoming attitude that I had been received with helped give me confidence in my first weeks when I was reluctant to participate.

Though the conversation was soon cut short by the ringing of the bell, that event stuck as one of the most significant moments in my first weeks of high school. What had in previous years been solid barriers between grades had blurred and faded. The open atmosphere helped make my initial transition into high school easier, and provided me with friends who could offer advice about class-

es that they had already taken.

I still have several friends in the upper grades, and attempt to converse with the new freshmen as well.

Though I have more yet to learn, I hope to pass on what I’ve learned from my experiences to newer students and continue doing so as I progress through high school.

In this repeating guest column, we encourage all student writers from around the community to share their memorable experiences while at the Upper School.

Please email all column ideas to wingedpost2016@gmail.com.

BACK PAGE

A8

VOLUME 17 • ISSUE 2 OCTOBER 16, 2015

PROVIDED BY JULIA ELIOVICH

Q&A: Former upper school student talks of life in Lebanon

LIVING ABROAD Julia Eliovich (‘15) stands in Lebanon, where she moved two years ago.

Winged Post: Can you update us on changes in your life since the previous interview?

Julia Eliovich: [My relatives] are still in Syria. They know that there’s nowhere better they can stay if they go somewhere else. They can’t really afford to make expensive moves, so they need to stay with whatever they have.

WP: Can you tell me a little bit more about their sit-

The Winged Post interviewed Julia Eliovich (‘15) two years ago, following her move from Harker to Lebanon. We recently followed up to ask her about the refugee crisis’ effect on Lebanon, a country with one of the largest Syrian refugee populations in the world. She recently returned to California to attend university.

uation and their daily lives — how they’ve been impacted?

JE: Nothing has really changed. My friends’ windowsbreak from the bombing noises and stuff like that, so some of them move, the others that can’t just have to deal with it, and my aunt is one of them.

WP: There’s been a huge emotional response from people across the world to this crisis. Why do you think

that is?

JE: A lot of people are being treated unjustly, and a lot of innocent people are dying.

So many different religions in the country are killing each other. I just want my parents and my aunts and everyone to be safe. The neighboring countries around are feeling endangered. I just want everyone to stop so my family can be safe and other families can be safe as well.

“THERE ARE NO EASY ANSWERS.” PRESIDENT OBAMA TO THE U.N. GENERAL ASSEMBLY ON SEPT. 28

11 6

JORDAN: 629,666 Refugees

8

S. ARABIA: 500,000 Refugees*

7

TURKEY: 1,938,999 Refugees

9

13 10. ALGERIA: 25,000 Refugees

7. KUWAIT: 120,000 Refugees

11. AUSTRIA: >18,000 Refuges

*According to the Washington Post, Saudi Arabia has “roughly” 500,000 Syrian residents technically not classified as refugees.

8. GERMANY: 105,000 Refugees

12. ARMENIA: 17,000 Refugees

SOURCES: UNHCR, CNN, DER TAGESSPIEGEL, STATISTICS SWEDEN, BAHRAIN OBSERVER, LIBYA HERALD, BLOOMBERG, WALL STREET JOURNAL, ESTADAO, FOX, RT, BBC, LEBANON STAR

9. SWEDEN: >40,000 Refugees

13. U.K.: 17,000 Refugees

U.A.E.: 250,000 Refugees

12

LEBANON: 1,113,941 Refugees

6. EGYPT: 132,375 Refugees

10

4,185,302

SYRIAN REFUGEES kavya ramakrishnan & meena gudapati & maya kumar managing editor & copy editor & asst. features editor

Now in its fourth year, the Syrian Refugee Crisis has become the largest refugee crisis since World War II as the number of refugees fleeing the country continues to increase exponentially.

An estimated 12 million Syrians have fled their homes since the outbreak of civil war in March 2011, fleeing from Syria to take refuge in neighboring countries or within Syria itself.

Some have fled to European countries, with Germany and Sweden receiving almost half of the applications.

The severity of the crisis has inspired a global response to help aid refugees.

Kickstarter, for example, has created a page where donations to the UNHCR can be made and Airbnb is providing shelter for those in impacted areas.

Though the U.S. has only accepted about 1,500 refugees since the start of the war in 2011, Secretary of State John Kerry announced last month that the U.S. would accept 75,000 refugees in the next fiscal year and 100,000 refugees in 2017.

The U.S. has also provided $4.5 billion in aid to those affected by the conflict.

ELISABETH SIEGEL

SYRIAN REFUGEE CRISIS WORSENS, LEAVING MILLIONS DISPLACED

FEATURES

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2015 | THE HARKER UPPER SCHOOL STUDENT NEWSPAPER, VOL. 17, NO. 2

| www.harkeraquila.com

ASHLEY JIANG

MEILAN STEIMLE

DRESS CODE FREE DISCOURSE (LEFT) Representatives from student organizations and advisories discuss the issues they found important in small groups. (RIGHT) Arben Gutierrez-Bujari (11) speaks individually to the entire Summit.

HARKER IMAGE

Surmounting issues

Student representatives meet for first-ever Harker Summit THE

“I think there is a majority of kids [who] don’t trust that the adminstration will let us change.”

JONATHAN YIU HARKER SUMMIT PARTICIPANT of Harker.

The third session distilled the previous two sessions: students thought of solutions to the impediments and drafted action plans to implement in the school. Towards the end of the conference, several students also gave individual speeches regarding their experience at the

42% 32%

30%

KER

SCH

OOL

SCHEDULE ISSUES

BARRIERS TO CHANGE

ADMINISTRATIVE TRANSPARENCY

30%

23%

17%

HAR

THE HARKER SCHOOL

Representatives from each advisory and club met to discuss the issues in the Harker community and to think of ideas to improve the school on Sept. 25 in the Nichols Atrium.

Previously called the Honor and Ethics Conference, the administration changed the title to foster a broader discussion of the school community.

“What we realized over the last six months is that the goal here at this conference is that the students get a chance to speak about this place,” National Honor Society advisor Dr. Smriti Koodanjeri said. “These are big fundamental [ideas] that we adults assume sometimes and don’t really ask you guys.”

The conference was divided into three sessions. During the first session, students described their ideal Harker and what their dream community would look like.

“I have a lot of faith in Harker students to not have the ideals as ‘walls made of candy’ or ‘a petting zoo between peri-

Harker Summit.

Students felt that administration would have a better grasp of student issues through the Harker Summit.

“I hope that because the administration is now aware of what the students want, [and] that [they] will try to create a community where everyone is comfortable around each other,” Andrea Simonian (9) said.

While some students hold more cynical views towards theHarker Summit, Harker Summit moderator Jonathan Yiu (12) feels that administration and students must respect each other to begin change in the Harker community.

“I think there is a majority of kids [who] don’t trust that administration will let us change, but I think there needs to be mutual trust in order for change to happen,” he said.

Representatives who attended the Harker Summit sent written summaries of their experience at the Harker Summit to their advisors and recreated the discussion with their advisories on Oct. 7.

16%

11%

ASHLEY JIANG

wingspan staff writer & reporter

ods’, which is ridiculous,” Honor Council advisor Evan Barth said. “I think they are going to be really constructive [and] well thought out, and we are to get some cool stuff.”

In the second session, students discussed in table groups what impediments stopped them from creating their ideal version

SHANIA WANG

kaitlyn hsu & aneesha kumar

0% strongly disagree disagree

unsure

agree

strongly agree

“The Harker Summit will bring about change in the Harker community.”

not useful

somewhat useful

useful

very useful

From the representatives: How useful was the Harker Summit?

Classes paint float, eagle during Spirit Night ashley jiang & maya valluru

ALL PHOTOS - ASHLEY JIANG

photo editor & aquila copy editor

PALETTE OF FUN (TOP) Mishu Nitelescu (10) paints the sophomores’ beehive-themed eagle. (LEFT) Joseph Krackeler (11) paints a Happy Meal box for the juniors’ farm-themed float. (RIGHT) Satchi Thockchom (10) and Kristin LeBlanc (10) create a paper mache globe for the Class of 2018’s float.

In preparation for Homecoming week, students from each class met to work on their eagles and floats during Spirit Night on Sept. 25 from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m.

This year, the general theme was animal habitats. The freshmen chose jungle, the sophomores picked beehive, the juniors selected barn and the seniors chose ocean.

Each grade painted its own statue of an eagle and assembled its parade float in the style of their Homecoming week theme selection.

“I think it’s important because it really brings us together and we actually have a lot of people here,” Lyndsey Mitchell (11) said. “It’s really cool to see all of us working together really hard.”

Many students pitched in with the setup of this annual event.

“We had to organize, reserve, pop up tents, and then everybody brought their stuff,” student activities coordinator Kerry

Enzensperger said. “We had a lot of people helping, so it was pretty quick.”

Most of the freshmen, who were new to this high school tradition, came together as a group and enjoyed their time cheering with other students. Several freshmen attended the event and were eager to work with their

“At this time, the small committees are working, but when we are all out on the field cheering, that is when it feels, on that day, really unified.”

JEFFREY DRAPER CLASS OF 2017 DEAN classmates.

“I think spirit night is really important, especially as a freshman, because you get to get together with your class and work toward a common goal and showing spirit for your school,” Elise Mayer (9) said.

Members of the Class of 2016 were filled with mixed emotions, knowing that this would be their last spirit night. This class had the greatest number of students in attendance.

“I think it’s our senior year so everyone is more spirited and wants to get involved,” Sri Gulukota (12) said. “You know it’s the last time. You get the artists to come out that you don’t see that often, you get the robotics kids doing the float, so it’s everybody coming together.”

Despite all the hard work and planning at the time, students and faculty mostly looked forward to the actual spirit rally on the field.

“At this time, the small committees are working, but when we are all out on the field cheering, that is when it feels, on that day, really unified,” Jeffrey Draper, class dean of thejuniors, said.

“The flag is waving, people are cheering, and that’s always exciting.”

The rally took place on the day of the Homecoming dance, Friday Oct. 2.

FEATURES

2

VOLUME 17 • ISSUE 2 OCTOBER 16, 2015

Life of an actor: Weeden shares life experience TRIVIA

BREAKING DOWN Weeden “breaks down the chair,” displaying the many ways that a prop, even one as simple as a chair, can be used. Twenty-seven upper school students met Weeden, who played Marc Antony in “Antony and Cleopatra,” at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival on Sept. 26.

zachary hoffman reporter

Derrick Lee Weeden, who played Marc Antony in “Antony and Cleopatra” in the Oregon Shakespeare Festival met with 27 Harker students in Ashland, Oregon on Sept. 26.

Growing up in a military family, Weeden often moved.

From Panama to New York to New Mexico, Weeden found culture and the arts, not within his family but in the places he lived.

“A lot of moving, a lot of different people, a lot of different cultures,” he said. “Living outside the country, for example living in Taiwan, it was completely in the culture, out on a base, forget nobody looked like you, nobody even spoke the same language.”

After graduating high school in Kansas, Weeden attended college with the intention of becoming a photojournalist.

College is where he was introduced to acting which he eventually pursued as a career.

Weeden then was granted a scholarship to Southern Methodist University in Dallas, where

he worked towards his master’s degree.

“That’s eight years of school at a time when people were really training people to do stage work as opposed to a lot of television and film,” he said. “In school there was a lot of vocal training, acting training, acting technique, combat training, sword fighting, stage combat.”

ing professionally as an actor.”

Weeden said. “It’s almost 30 years of just working as an actor, and I’m one of few people that are really, really blessed that it’s been that way. I just work steadily, and when i’m not working it’s because I choose not to. I don’t know if it will always be that way.”

Weeden believes that the

“A creative moment only happens once. You need to get all the information out of that moment you can because the rest of the time just will just be spent trying to reinvent it again.”

DERRICK LEE WEEDEN ACTOR After completing graduate college, Weeden worked for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland. He first performed as Oberon in “Midsummer Night’s Dream” in the Allen Elizabethan Theatre.

“I’ve never worked any other job once I started work-

best practice for rehearsing is to not stop, for a “great moment” may be disrupted.

“In the creative moment, a creative moment only happens once,” he said “The first time it happens, you need to get all the information out of that moment you can because the rest of the

time just will just be spent trying to reinvent it again.”

Even though he his a well-experienced actor, Weeden finds that everyone of his characters affects him.

“All these characters that you do make you much more aware of who you are inside and how like these other people you can be,” he said.

The offseason also requires studying in order to portray character’s accurately.

“Then we’ll take off, start doing a lot of homework again,” he said. “I’m going to be playing Magwitch in ‘Great Expectations,’ next year and Polonius in ‘Hamlet,’ so I have all this research and work to do which I’ll be doing in that off time.”

Weeden concluded with words of advice.

This is kind of a blessing,” he said. “As you can hear, its like a long road and it doesn’t stop.

What I’ve told you: train, training, school, mentors, a lot of encouragement and just learning, learning, learning, and that doesn’t stop, you keep learning, and I keep learning.”

ZACHARY HOFFMAN

• Weeden is very interested in history.

For each of his roles, he studies the people and culture during the time period of the play.

• Weeden has a set of rituals for before each show. He drinks a cup of coffee, takes a nap, drinks more coffee, has a bowl of cereal and eats a sandwitch and half a burrito.

•This season, Weeden also playes Abbe Faria in “The Count of Monte Christo.” Many of his roles surround death, and he is often cast in tragedies.

• Weeden’s family was very sports oriented while growing up. He played both baseball and football, and his father was a wrestler, college football player and a sergeant in the U.S. Army.

Reusable bottles keep students hydrated sahana srinivasan & rose guan

MEILAN STEIMLE

asst. STEM editor & reporter

HYDRATION Water bottles have become necessary for upper school students’ day-to-day lives, due to the lack of plastic cups on campus.

With warmer weather comes an increasing number of water bottles and Starbucks drinks around campus. Among the students not holed up in cooler buildings, more than half cradle icy drinks or half-empty water bottles.

Because the high school campus no longer has paper cups, students take advantage of reusable water bottles and school water dispensers to stay properly hydrated during the day.

The Mayo Clinic recommends around 74 ounces of fluid per day for the average adult female and about 101 ounces for males, although more specific estimates vary based upon health, exercise and climate.

“I usually like to use my durable plastic water bottle, which is specifically a CamelBak brand,” Alexandra Michael (10) said. “I use it because it’s both reusable and it’s plastic, so the metal taste won’t leak into my water the way it does with metal water bottles.”

Typical plastic reusable water bottles cost $10 to $15 and hold about 20 ounces, while ones made out of aluminum or stainless steel cost around $20.

Some bottle companies are also developing innovative water bottle technology, including bottles that are easier to grip and drink from and systems that remind bottle users to drink frequently.

Now enrolling for 2015-2016

officeteam@danceacademyusa.com

www.danceacademyusa.com 21269 Stevens Creek Blvd., Suite 618 • Cupertino

408-257-3211

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VOLUME 17 • ISSUE 2 OCTOBER 16, 2015

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STEM

H NEYBEE CATASTROPHE Colony collapse disorder threatens hives, crops and the food 1 we consume

VOLUME 17 • ISSUE 2 OCTOBER 16, 2015

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derek yen & adrian chu reporters

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In our ecosystem, the worker bees play the critical role of the pollinator.

“There’s a number of major crops quite dependent on honeybees as the pollinators,” biology teacher Dr. Gary Blickenstaff said. “If we don’t have them, you won’t have those crops.”

These crops include many cultivated plants: apples, coffee, tomatoes, rapeseeds, carrots, strawberries, alfalfa and most tree nuts are just a few of the plants that are exclusively polli-

FAST FACT California experienced 40.1 percent bee loss in the last year. Honeybees increase crop value by more than $15 billion annually. nated by bees.

“Go around to the Central Valley, where they have all these orchards, and what you’re going to see in the springtime is hundreds of boxes of beehives placed out in the orchards simply because [farmers] need them to pollinate those trees,” Dr. Blickenstaff said.

1 Some states such as Illinois and Wisconsin, suffered as high as a

60 PERCENT

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COMBED AND READY Honeycomb is often sold for its sugary taste. When aged, honeycomb darkens and hosts bee larvae.

BEE COOL Honey, among other products produced by bees, is in danger due to colony collapse disorder.

HIVE MIND A swarm of bees cluster about their hive. Scientists hypothesize that parasites are responsible for the recent drop in population.

colony loss rate.

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According to the USDA Agricultural Research Service, honeybees increase crop value by more than $15 billion every year. According to the California Department of Food and Agriculture, almond trees produced $5.8 billion worth of nuts in 2013.

Honeybees are also nearly exclusive pollinators for the flowers of many wild plant species. Loss of biodiversity resulting from a decline in honeybees reduces the gene pool for potential new strains of crops.

While other pollinators do exist, they are either not suited to the terrain of agricultural areas or too few in number to be effective.

“Are you going to train moths to [pollinate crops]?” Dr. Blickenstaff jokingly said. “It’s not going to happen.”strawberries, alfalfa and most tree nuts are just a few of the plants that are exclusively pollinated by bees.

“Go around to the Central Valley, where they have all these

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orchards, and what you’re going to see in the springtime is hundreds of boxes of beehives placed out in the orchards simply because [farmers] need them to pollinate those trees,” Dr. Blickenstaff said.

According to the USDA, honeybees increase crop value by more than $15 billion every year. According to the California Department of Food and Agriculture, almond trees produced $5.8 billion worth of nuts in 2013.

ALL PHOTOS - VIVEK BHARDWAJ

oneybee populations worldwide have been dying out in significant numbers for the past two years, leading to concern in agricultural and scientific communities.

According to the Bee Informed Partnership, an organization funded by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, California experienced 40.1 percent annual bee colony loss between 2014 and 2015. Some states, such as Illinois and Wisconsin, suffered as high as a 60 percent loss rate.

Due to stress, winter exposure or disease, entire colonies of honeybees will die out en masse due to Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). Coined recently in a 2006 paper, CCD mandates meticulous attention from beekeepers to stabilize their bee populations.

“Nationwide we have usually about 30 percent winter kill of bee colonies,” Purdue Professor of Entomology Dr. Greg Hunt said in a phone interview. “The beekeepers have to scramble to make up these losses, raise new queens, split their hives, make new hives and that’s why we still have bees.”

THE BEES’ NEEDS (LEFT) Judy Casale, a local beekeeper, sells her honey at the Miplitas Farmer’s Market. (RIGHT) A booth at the Farmer’s Market is stocked with Fremont Wildflower Honey. Recent losses in honeybee populations have concerned agricultural communities.

Bees’ deaths linked to parasites, pesticides Honeybees are beleaguered by a number of lethal diseases, many of which do not have cures.

The most common of apian diseases is infestation by varroa mites, which are an obligate parasite to the bees.

Two species of mites, Varroa destructor and Varroa jacobsoni, act like mosquitoes – they penetrate the bees’ exoskeletons to suck their hemolymph, the “blood” of invertebrates, leaving open wounds that make bees vulnerable to infection. In addition, varroa mites themselves are carriers of a virus that causes developmental wing deformities in honeybee larvae, crippling bee populations.

“Our only way to combat this is to lower the number of mites in a colony,” local beekeeper at Dominique Honeybees, Judy Casale, said. “We try to use organic approaches that will kill the mites without hurting the

bees. And that’s the hard part – killing a bug on a bug without killing both bugs.”

There is no ready cure for varroa mites. While treatments do exist, they are not completely effective, and the remaining mites become selectively resistant to cures.

“Our only way to combat this is to lower the number of mites in a colony.

We try to use organic approaches that will kill the mites without hurting the bees.”

JUDY CASSALE LOCAL BEEKEEPER

“The problem with mites is, we never completely get rid of them,” Dr. Hunt said. “In addition, when colonies collapse from [varroa mites], other bees rob the honey from the colony and pick up mites.”

FAST FACT In a national survey, 59 percent of beekeepers who found varroa mites in their hives still did not treat them.

While this problem is prolific, surprisingly few beekeepers take action against it. According to a 2015 “Varroa Summit” report by the United States Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service, 59 percent of beekeepers who responded to a national survey reported the presence of varroa mites, yet did

not treat them.

Another common apian disease is a bacterial infection called foulbrood, which occurs in American and European strains.

Foulbrood infects bee larvae, killing them while they are still in development.

One potential factor in CCD that has only recently begun to be investigated is the use of artificial pesticides containing neonicotinoids, which have been linked to bee deaths.

Neonicotinoids are water-soluble insecticides similar to nicotine, the active ingredient in tobacco. Hampering honeybees’ ability to detect nectar, navigate and remember feeding locations, neonicotinoids can severely reduce a colony’s ability to feed its workers and larvae.

Responses to these studies have been mixed. In 2013, the European Union motioned to restrict the usage of these pesticides for three years. America

has not written any legislature against pesticides, although some activists have called for action.

While honeybee populations continue to decline, governmental authorities and scientists are working to combat CCD. “It’s a struggle this year,” Casale said. “But the one good thing is that it’s getting interest from the public and government groups to research.”

In 2013 the US lost

23.7 PERCENT of hives or about

15.7 MILLION

pounds of honey.

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sophmore• doesn’t drive • low carbon footprint

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ALL DRAWINGS KAITLIN HSU

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it and promising solutions.

This issue, we introduce the history of climate change and provide a context of how the environment has changed, is changing and will change.

We step into the life of a typical sophomore at Harker, born in 2000, and see how the environment changes over the course of that student’s life, using the ages of zero, 15, 25, 40 and 65.

Carbon footprint

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tic ice is decreasing.

The intersection beSTEM editor & tween science, technology, asst. STEM editor math and engineering is at In a survey for the first the forefront of and crucial issue of the Winged Post, to solving these environwe asked freshmen which mental issues for future global phenomenon would generations. most affect their adultIn each issue of the hood. One response was paper, we will address the climate change. issue of climate change Global carbon dioxide and how it pertains to the emissions are increasing Harker community, talking exponentially, global tem- about its impacts on the enperatures are steadily ris- vironment, the challenges ing and the expanse of arc- researchers face in solving

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FACING OUR FUTURE

vineet kosaraju & sahana srinivasan

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Robotics makes quarterfinals derek yen & brian park reporters

DEREK YEN

The upper school robotics team made it to the quarterfinals of CalGames on Oct. 3 at Lynbrook High School, missing the cut-off for the semifinals by one place.

“It was my first time ever going to a [robotics] competition,” Sukrit Ganesh (9) said.

“I was shocked to see that high schoolers, people just like me, were able to create a machine [able] to stack bins up to six feet high.”

The CalGames, an off-season robotics competition, replays last year’s FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC). This year’s CalGames is themed “Recycle Rush,” where two competing teams of three robots stack recycling bins and dispose of trash, symbolized by pool noodles.

The team looked forward to success at this year’s CalGames as they had placed well in last year’s FRC. “We haven’t made it to CalGames in four years,” the robotics team’s faculty advisor Dr. Eric Nelson said. “This is the first year that we had a robot that was still working [since] April.”

The team took fifth place out of 30 to 40 teams, making quarterfinals but barely missing the cut-off to the semifinals.

Some students program the robot’s software; others work on the physical robot itself; some are trained in piloting the robot.

“Our leadership is very close this year and our communication within the team is up,” Technical President Elina Sendonaris (12) said.

The team looks forward to continued success at the FRC, which will be held on Jan. 6 next year.

ROBOT FIX Nemo Yang (9) watches as Rithvik Panchapakesan (9) learns to use the band saw in the Robotics Lab in Nichols. Harker’s robotics team, also known as Team 1072, made it to quarterfinals in this year’s CalGames, an off-season robotics competition with the same theme and events as the annual FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC).

Nobel prizes awarded STEM UPDATES Three researchers, Dr. Wilvineet kosaraju liam C. Campbell, Dr. Satoshi Intel ends sponsorship of STS & zachary hoffman Ōmura, and Dr. Youyou Tu resahana srinivasan asst. STEM editor

Intel will end its sponsorship of the Science Talent Search (STS) competition after the 2016-2017 school year, although the Society for Science and the Public will continue to host the

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

INTELLECTUAL PURSUITS Harker students have been participating in STS since 2006. There have been 66 Harker semifinalists and nine finalists since then.

competition.

Intel STS is a national, annual science research competition for high school seniors conducting individual research projects.

Harker students have been participating since the 2006, when Yi Sun (‘06) became a finalist and placed second overall. “[The program is] so beneficial to high school students that probably someone else will step in--maybe one of the larger tech companies--and pick up the sponsorship,” Sun said.

Applications for Intel STS 2016 are due Nov. 15 at 5 p.m.

STEM editor & reporter

NOBLE PRIZES Nobel prizes are given to those chosen as the most influential in their field for that year. Nobel prizes were awarded over the past two weeks.

The Nobel Foundation awarded the Nobel prizes for Medicine, Chemistry, Peace, Economic Sciences, Literature and Physics last week.

ceived the prizes for Medicine, while Dr. Tomas Lindahl, Dr. Paul Modrich and Dr. Aziz Sancar received the prize in Chemistry.

The Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet was awarded the Peace prize, and Angus Deaton was awarded the prize for Economic Science this year.

Investigative journalist Svetlana Alexievich received the prize in Literature. Dr. Takaaki Kajita and Dr. Arthur B. McDonald received the prize in Physics.

The Nobel Foundation awards winners with a gold medal and monetary prizes. This year the accolade is set at about $950,000.

Facebook adds reaction emoticons lauren russell reporter

YAY OR NAY Facebook added six new reaction button options instead of the previously announced “dislike” button.

Facebook will release a series of new buttons to replace the controversial “dislike” button.

The reactions have the traditional like and love buttons, but also several new emotions: haha, yay, wow, sad and angry.

Facebook hopes that this will allow users to better express their reaction to posts.

SPORTS

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WIN HOMECOMING MATCHUP trisha dwivedi & justin su sports editor & asst. sports editor

Varsity football defeated Santa Cruz High school on Oct. 3rd 23-13 on Davis field for their homecoming game.

The Eagles started the game losing the first half 6-0.

“At the beginning of the game we started out slow because of all the victories we’ve been having playing against other teams that we’ve shut out,” wide receiver Anthony Contreras (10) said. “We were surprised by their willing to fight.”

The Eagles struck back during the second quarter, with defensive lineman Jadan McDermott (10) scor-

pletely shut out in the final quarter of the game with running back Demonte Aleem (9) scoring two touchdowns.

“We started out a little bit lethargic, not really enthusiastic, but as the crowd got more into it, our whole football team as a whole just responded,” linebacker Rishabh Nijhawan (11) said. “we didn’t let anyone stop us our defense just stopped everything, our offense slacked a little bit, but we’re just a better team.”

The game ended with a 23-13 victory for the Eagles, putting them at a 4-1 standing now.

The Eagles will play Turlock Christian at Delhi High School today.

ing a safety, and Anthony scoring a touchdown, putting the Eagles up 9-6.

“They came out hitting us a lot harder than we expected,” Jadan said. “As the game went on we picked it up. Everyone was doing what they were suppose to do, and eventually we scored.”

During halftime, the varsity dance troupe performed, along with the tug of war between the freshman and seniors. These festivities ended with the parade of the homecoming court and the crowning of the homecoming king and queen, Edward Sheu (12) and Stephanie Huang (12).

Santa Cruz scored another touchdown during the third quarter, but was com-

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JUSTIN SU

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runs with the ball during the homecoming game.

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(9) runs past Santa Cruz defenders during an offensive drive. in the tug of war against the freshman during halftime of the homecoming game. The seniors beat the freshman.

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and Stephanie Huang (12) were crowned homecoming king and queen.

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formed before the game.

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Coach Karriem stand on the sidelines during “Star Spangled Banner”.

Anthony Contreras

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“I was really proud of how we responded to adversity. I want to thank the Harker community for coming together and making this a special night.”

COACH KAPP ASSISTANT COACH

Oisin Coveney

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KSHITHIJA MULAM

3 The seniors pull

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PROVIDED BY TERESA CHENG

PROVIDED BY TERESA CHENG

VOLUME 17 • ISSUE 2 OCTOBER 16, 2015

Girls’ volleyball wins fourth consecutive match in league vijay bharadwaj & maya kumar

KSHITHIJA MULAM

Wingspan staff writer & asst. sports editor

VARSITY SOMEHTING (TOP LEFT) Lindsey Trinh (11) prepares to spike the ball at a game. (TOP RIGHT) Doreene Kang (12) spikes the ball at a league game. (BOTTOM) A young spectator carries a poster along the sidelines at varsity’s first home game against St. Francis on Sept. 14.

Fall Sports Update League records

The varsity girls’ volleyball team placed second at the Tiger Varsity Cup Volleyball Tournament last Saturday.

They defeated last year’s state runner-up Pitman in the game leading up to the tournament. The team lost to the host school in the final match. The offensive players Jackie Chen, Shannon Richardson and Doreene Kang led the team to victory.

“We just practiced hard every day,” Jackie Chen (12) said. “I thought we did really well actually. We got the same place that we did last year. The teams that we beat leading

game. The junior varsity volleyball team currently is currently on a losing streak with a record of 2-8. They too will face Mercy Burlingame this Thursday for a possible recovery.

“We were able to beat teams that were much taller than us and looked a lot more intimidating than us,” Melissa Kwan (10). “I think we’ve gotten a lot better this year at being mentally tough and winning close games because that’s one thing we struggled with at the beginning.”

The team had the same rank, in the Notre Dame Belmont 2014 Tiger Cup Varsity Volleyball Tournament as they had this year. The next game for the varsity volleyball will be on Oct. 20 against Sacred Heart Preparatory School.

up to second place were a lot harder; one of them was a CCS Semifinalist. Each team that we played was different, and we adapted well.”

Upper school athletics director Dan Molin commented on the varsity volleyball team regarding their success.

“Being a volleyball coach myself, I see a strong sense of team chemistry,” Dan Molin said. “I see that the girls get along really really well. I don’t see any egos getting in the way of their success, and they are all about team and nothing about individual. That is probably the major reason why I think they are doing so well this season.”

The varsity volleyball team currently holds a record of 4-0 prior to the home game with Mercy High School - Burlin-

Boys Water Polo

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Flight Zone rallies crowds at student sports games The Spirit and Athletic Affairs Committee revamped the the Student Supporters’ Section at athletic events with a new name, “Flight Zone” on Sept. 23.

The Athletic Affairs Committee chose “Flight Zone” over two other suggested names: “The Landing” and “The Aviary”.

“My favorite is whatever the students like best,” Assistant to Activities Coordinator Eric Kallbrier said. “Whatever the students choose, I support it 100 percent.”

Flight Zone’s recent name change signals other changes that have been brewing as well.

While it was established several years ago, the organization is showing a new enthusiasm this year. The number of activities has ramped up, and there is increased organized support during games.

To create buzz in the sports world, Flight Zone has used several strategies to entice students to come to games, including social media and food.

“As a part of Harker spirit, we really wanted to vamp up school pride,” Director of Athletic Affairs Committee Shannon Richardson (12) said. “Ever since Eagle Nation was [established] a couple years ago, it was more of an exclusive group, and what we wanted to do was to make it so

that everyone could be a part of a group to cheer for sports.”

Varsity girls’ tennis player Karina Butani (10) also shared Shannon’s positive sentiments about Flight Zone.

“We don’t really get that many supporters because our games are off site at Santa Clara,” she said. “But when people cheer it really encourages me and the whole team to play a

“What we wanted to do was to make it so that everyone could be a part of a group to cheer for sports.”

KAITLIN HSU

Wingspan staff writer & reporter

SHANNON RICHARDSON Director of Athletic Affairs Committee better game.”

Kallbrier thinks that Flight Zone provides an opportunity for bonding and will become widespread among students.

“Hopefully, there is intrinsic value to being a part of this that people will want to go out and support their friends, that people will want to show pride in their school,” he said.

By the end of this year, Flight Zone aims to have cheered at least once for each varsity sports team.

KSHITHIJA MULAM

kaitlin hsu & zachary hoffman

FLIGHT ZONE (TOP) Flight Zone members cheer on the football team as the homecoming game goes on. Flight Zone organized this event as a “Blackout” where students were expected to wear black to show their support. This crowd is believed to be the largest ever at a Harker homecoming game. (RIGHT) The cheer squad performs during the halftime performances. Other events during halftime include the crowning of the homecoming king and queen, varsity dance troupe performing, and the tug of war finals.

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VOLUME 17 • ISSUE 2 OCTOBER 16, 2015

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A MATTER maya kumar & zachary hoffman asst. features editor & reporter

After weeks of preparing skits, constructing floats, painting a class eagles and extensive planning from the spirit counsel, spirit week commenced on Oct. 29 and ended on Saturday night with a Harker win.

This year’s theme was “animal habitats.” Freshmen chose the jungle, sophomores selected beehives, juniors picked the farm and seniors the ocean.

“I like the idea of last minute cramming. We all do it. That’s why it’s there, spirit night. Just having everyone there in semi-panic mode because homecoming is next week,” Student Body President Michael Zhao (12) said.

Leading up to Homecoming, each class had designated days to dress up to represent their class themes.

“It’s a relaxing way of getting yourself out of the academic mindset for some time,” Linus Li (10) said. “Its really beneficial to see everybody doing the same thing you are and it promotes class unity.”

On Friday, Oct. 2, all classes participated in the homecoming rally, which consisted of various class competitions.

“I really enjoyed the homecoming rally where everyone was screaming and then there was the tug of war and there were all the skits like it was really fun,” Tiffany Zhao (9) said.

At the rally, each class per-

formed a skit relating to their selected theme. The sophomore class’ skit was a parody of the singing competition, “The X Factor.”

“I liked when in the sophomore skit they started playing the John Cena theme on kazoos; that was the highlight of homecoming week.” Deb Chatterjee (10) said.

During the rally, it appeared that the sophomores had won the tug of war against the seniors, but they were disqualified for having three extra people on the rope.

“I was elated that people were so happy after we found out we won the tug-of-war, after we lost,” Samali Sahoo (12) said.

Before the varsity team played in the homecoming game, sophomores faced juniors in tugof-war to compete for third place, and freshman went to the finals to play the seniors during halftime.

“My favorite part of spirit week was the actual homecoming game,” Lucas Wang (11) said. “It was amazing going out and tugof-warring with my fellow junior classmates. Although there was only fifteen of us compared to the thirty sophomores we tugged against, it was still an exhilarating experience.”

Harker won the game against Santa Cruz High School with a score of 23-13. In the class competitions, the senior class won first place, the freshman, second, the sophomores, third, and the juniors placed last.

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1 ROAR Kelsey Wu (9), Joanna Lin

(10), Kayvon Soliampour, and Prithvi Gudapati (12) participate in the annual scream-off.

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Sophomores Derek Kuo, Amitej Mehta, and Rahul Mehta yell to support their class during the rally.

3 CLUCK-CLUCK Avi Khemani (11) 5

plays a chicken in the junior class skit, themed “farm animals”.

4 JUMP FOR JOY Haley Tran (10)

celebrates with her class in the quad after the panopoly of chaos.

5 MARCHING CHAOS Sadhika

FINAL SPIRIT WEEK SCORES FRESHMEN 3

OF SPIRIT

Malladi (12), Melinda Wisdom (11) and Alex Henshall (12) play brass instruments as they march with the panopoly of chaos.

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6 TUG! Alex Mo and Alex Youn (11)

prepare to face off against the freshman class in the tug-of-war.

7 BEE-ING HAPPY Andrew Irvine

leads the panopoly of chaos as they march through campus.

8 THE VOICE Praveen Batra (10)

plays Ronald McDonald on “The Voice” for the sophomore class skit.

9 HAIL TO THE CHIEF Andrew Irvine leads the panopoly of chaos as they parade through campus.

10 RISING TO THE OCCASION The seniors cheer on the class of 2016 as they arrive on Davis field.

ALL PHOTOS - KSHITHIJA MULAM

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