High Tide May 16, 2014

HIGH

TIDE

Creating a new world Since fifth grade, sophomore Andrew Morales has created new worlds through writing story on pg. 14

Redondo Beach, CA // Redondo Union High School April 25, 2014 // Vol. XCIV // Edition 15

“Bella’s chest heaved as she sprinted through the foliage, branches scratching at her cheeks and nose, leaving behind a stinging feeling. But she couldn’t stop; Vortex was close behind, hunting her down on Victor’s behalf. She needed to reach the minature cascade that fell over her reflection’s cave, to go back into her world through the mirror that stood in the back.”

– EXCERPT FROM MORALES’S STORY “MIRRORS”

should students take AP’s?

Does our school have enough p. 8 // Why What motivation do they have for them? p.10-11 // spirit?

ILLUSTRATION BY JOSEPH BIESCHKE

Lacrosse was undefeated in Bay p. 18 // Girls League season.

Brim retires from teaching staff

by Nina Gomez

Special education teacher Ellen Brim is retiring this school year after 10 years of being involved with different facets of the school’s diverse programs.

Brim’s involvement at RUHS included mentoring the robotics team and teaching Independent Living Skills.

“Independent Living Skills is for the most disabled kids that Redondo has in their district,” Brim said. “I teach them the

skills they need to be as independent as possible when they leave school.”

Her interest in teaching disabled children and teenagers sparked when she was hired as an instructional aid at Washington Elementary in 2000.

“I was working in aerospace as a mechanical engineer, but when my kids were little, I was working too many hours, so I took some time off. When my kids were in

PHOTO BY CHANDLER ROSS

A special educator. Brim plays card games with Daniel Baldwin in the Special Ed room.

Dedicated mother and instructor leaves improved Robotics and Special Ed programs in her wake

school I applied for a job as a teacher’s aid there and was working in a class with the same kinds of kids that I work with now,” Brim said. “Luckily, before I got my degree in engineering, I got a degree in elementary education. So after I worked as an instructional aid for four years, I went back and got my credentials so I could teach full time.”

Brim has found fulfillment in teaching special education at RUHS and believes she had the chance to make an impact on many children’s lives.

“It’s fulfilling when I can tell that I really connected with a student that’s having a hard time. There have been several kids that I’ve worked with that really seemed to make significant progress or made some breakthroughs in behavior,” Brim said. “Successfully connecting with kids that have the most trouble connecting with anybody at all is probably what fulfills me the most.”

As for mentoring the robotics team, she first got involved when her son was on the team and she was able to use her engineering degree to the team’s advantage.

“I was just a mom helping the team at first, but stayed involved with it a little bit after he graduated and started helping the person in charge of the team at the time.

When she retired, I kind of inherited the team from her,” Brim said.

Brim enjoys being in charge of the team because of her interest in the robots and in teaching and helping the kids.

“I like doing it because of my engineer-

ing background, and I just enjoy connecting with the kids. They’re a lot of fun, and I enjoy being there and watching them learn and create,” Brim said. “I just feel really good about what the team has been able to do, and I’ve successfully organized the team as a more official school activity with the help of Dr. Wesley.”

The robotics team’s accomplishments include making it to Champs this year, which made Brim very proud.

“This year was really exciting considering I got to go to Champs in my last year.

The only thing I was disappointed about was that my son’s robotics team on the East Coast made it to Champs too, but he wasn’t able to make it, and it would have been great to see him there,” Brim said. “But we finished off a really great year, and we made a really great robot, so I was very proud.”

Her contentment with working at RUHS comes down to the respect she has for the district, staff and children she’s worked with both through special education and robotics up until her retirement.

“I feel like I’ve really been able to have an impact on these kids’ lives. I’ve always felt like the RUHS district has one of the best special education programs, especially for this level of kids in the South Bay. It’s a great program that I’ve been able to do great things with,” Brim said. “Redondo has been really supportive of these kids. They go out of their way to embrace them, and I’m glad I’ve been able to be a part of that.”

New courses to be offered for students next school year

by Roxanne Labat

Three new courses were approved by the Board of Education and will be offered to students for the 2014-2015 school year.

“Medical Interventions is the third year of the Biomedical Science program,” Assistant Principal Lindsey Corcoran said. “We are offering C.P. Statistics for the purpose of twelfth graders taking a fourth year of math. The Other Side of History fulfills the requirement of world history and is meant to create a version of history not from the western perspective. The classes were proposed and approved by UC so we presented them to the school board.”

Medical Interventions will allow students to further pursue their interests in the biomedical field of study.

“Students who have taken Principles of Biomedical Science one year and Human Body Systems afterwards would now be able to take the Medical Interventions class,” Principal Nicole Wesley said.

Likewise, The Other Side of History is meant to offer a new, custom experience to those who are interested.

“The idea behind The Other Side of History and some of the English classes we have

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started these past few years is to create a Humanities program,” Wesley said. “With the STEM program, we are meeting the needs of our students who are interested in the sciences. But because we have a large population of students who are more ‘liberal arts’ minded, we wanted to offer courses in English and Social Studies.”

According to Corcoran, the demand of these new courses has “increased tremendously.”

“Next year’s seniors requested to take the elective English classes over regular English 12. By that trend, I think that more and more students will take classes that they are interested in,” Corcoran said.

Some courses do not make it to the course catalog due to a pattern in senior scheduling.

“The biggest challenge we face is that a lot of students decide not to take an elective their senior year and instead choose to leave early,” Corcoran said. “Fewer students are signing up for classes, therefore we are trying to push for new ideas so that students take advantage of the opportunities we have here.”

Corcoran views the variety of courses on campus as something to take advantage of.

“We encourage students to try new things so that when they leave high school they have a better idea as to what they want to do,” Corcoran said. “We are really lucky at RUHS because we offer a lot of classes compared to schools in our area and in Los

When you’re done reading the issue, if you are not going to hang onto it, please either leave it in your classroom or recycle the paper.

Angeles.”

Wesley agrees that the addition of new courses is beneficial to students.

“We want students to be excited about learning and pursuing future careers. We want teachers to be able to explore the same topics they had begun to teach, but through a different lens or genre,” Wesley said.

ILLUSTRATION BY JOSEPH BIESCHKE

Grutzik wins first place at science fair AROUND

by Amanda Ramos

After spending countless hours wiring, hooking up laser sensors and watching how many times a bird would land on a perch, senior Petra Grutzik won first place in the zoology division and is qualified for Intel International Science and Engineering Fair.

“I didn’t think I would win at all,” Grutzik said. “I’ve just been doing research for a while and had a project, so I thought I might as well commit to it.”

Grutzik’s winning project had her test how a transcription factor FOXP2, a protein in the brain that regulates how cells would translate the DNA into proteins, can affect communication in songbirds.

“I kind of figured out that no one had really studied how the FOXP2 affects communication before,” Grutzik said.

According to Grutzik, not only is FOXP2 in songbirds, but it is also in humans.

“Studying the protein in songbirds is important because mutations in FOXP2 cause severe language disorders,” Grutzik said. “I studied FOXP2 in songbirds to learn more about how later scientists can change the levels of FOXP2 in humans to correct language disorders and speech impediment.”

Her project had started when she was working in a science lab.

“I’ve always been interested in the brain.

Two years ago I started working in a biology lab in UCLA as a researcher’s assistant,” Grutzik said. “I went to the lab every day over the summer and as often as I could during the school year.”

Grutzik’s project required her to direct the songbirds by hooking up laser sensors

REDONDO How did your AP tests go this year?

Compiled by Lauren Diethelm PHOTOS BY LAUREN DIETHELM

PHOTOS BY ---

PHOTO PROVIDED BY PETRA GRUTZIK

Blinded by science. Grutzik shows off her winning FOXP2 experiment results at the fair.

to the perches which allows her to see how many times a bird would land on a perch.

“It’s very hard to tell the songbirds what to do, such as where to go and how to behave. It’s a struggle because you have to be really patient,” Grutzik said. “ I pretty much spent the whole summer figuring out how to wire and code my apparatus, so I spent a lot of time figuring out how to hook up laser sensors across perches to count how many times a bird landed there.”

Although she won, she was more happy about the people she met while competing.

“The best thing is meeting all of the dif-

ferent people who were doing science projects, so the competition is more like a little side part for me.”

The time Grutzik has spent over the past two years has helped her define her career choice.

“I love research, and I love working in a lab so it has made me want to continue to pursue science,” Grutzik said. “I’ve met so many people at UCLA, and I’ve met researchers at many different colleges across the nation. All of these people had been inspiring to me, so I want to continue research all through college and the rest of my life.”

Robotics club competed in robotics world championship

by Phoebe Reneau

Clusters of teens in uniform T-shirts crowd around makeshift pieces of metal, each individual taking the pieces to assemble and adding to specific parts to their creations, soon hoping to see the parts become a moving, elaborate and functioning finished product.

On April 23, Robotics club took a trip to St. Louis, Missouri, to compete in the first robotics world championship, where 400 robotics teams from all over the world competed in games played by the robots that they had created.

“I felt excited for the opportunity to associate and compete with other teams and learn about all the different robots and their unique designs,” junior Garrett Stribling says.

Stribling decided to partake in this activity because of his interest in learning different aspects of robotics.

“The competition’s theme-based game this year was called Aerial assist,” Stribling said. “In the game, robots would pick up, pass and score exercise balls.”

There were many ways for each individ-

ual competing to get involved, according to Stribling.

“Each person had a role on the team, where some people would fix and repair the robot in between matches, others would scout out other robots and a few actually got to drive the robot,” Stribling said.

PHOTO PROVIDED BY GARRETT STRIBLING

Grinding gears. The Robotics club poses all together at St. Lewis. Despite their loss, Stribling is “proud” of the team’s efforts.

Stribling took an important role in his team’s robot creation.

“I was on the electrical and programming sub-team, so I helped wire as well as program the robot using a programming language called python,” Stribling said. “I was also on the drive team, which consisted of me and two other students using joysticks.”

Within the competition, alliances are made between three teams and their robots, allowing the alliances to compete for rankings.

“We were expected to be selected on either the first, second, third or fourth alliance, which would have put us in a good position to make it far in the playoffs,” Stribling said. “Unfortunately, we were selected by the seventh seed, which was an overrated team, and we lost.”

Despite the team’s loss, Stribling appreciates the effort that his team made throughout the entirety of the competition.

“I felt extremely proud of our team for putting in so much hard work and doing a great job as a team, despite the outcome,” Stribling said.

“I thought the multi was pretty difficult, but the essays were really easy. I wanted to scream with joy when I saw the DBQ!”

– LAUREN CORDERO, 10 “The essays were a bit easier then I was expecting. I was freaking out for the multiple choice, but I think I did alright.”

– DEVON VAN EPS, 11 “The APUSH classes this year were really well prepared. The material was all stuff we covered in class, so if you paid attention you were good.”

– BRITTANY STACKPOLE, 11 “I had Gov, Calc AB and Lit, but they were all easier then past APs that I’ve been in. I felt like I was more prepared for the material.”

– MICHEAL HESSELTINE, 12

NEWS . 3

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PHOTOS COURTESY OF ANTHONY BRIDI

Working hard. 1.The “before” shot. Volunteers work on uprooting the old plants and planting fresh new ones. “I think [Sharefest] is great. I think it brings community members together; it brings students together on our campus really for one purpose: to make our campus better with their efforts,” Bridi said. 2. This is the after shot. Volunteers have completed one of the projects for the day which was planting new plants that will provide and add beauty to the environment. “It’s really fun planting, and it’s a really good feeling to walk around school and see the things that you planted grow and make the school pretty,” Sisto said. 3. Mr. Bridi is taking care of one of the uprooted trees in order to help out with the sharefest effort. The day and th projects of the day were a success.

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RUHS annual Sharefest beautifies campus

by Lauryn Alejo

On May 3, RUHS students and staff took part in the sixth annual Sharefest to help beautify the RUHS campus.

Sharefest is an organization that started a few years ago in which different organizations help beautify, fix and gentrify different areas in the community, whether it’s a public campus, a church, or an area in the city that needs to be revamped. Then, volunteers help make that happen and companies donate resources.

Thirty volunteers helped make the courtyard by the library a better learning environment.

“This year, we made a bench. Now we can have a full class come out here and read and hang out. This took about all day to build. All the materials were donated, we had a corporation company come and build the bench for us and a few volunteers screwed it together,” Assistant principal Anthony Bridi said.

RUHS needed a sponsor in order to make Sharefest possible, so they chose the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.

“We had a Christian organization come.

They have a club here at Redondo and the leader of that club came in and he was the lead in volunteering. He got this company to build the bench for us,” Bridi said.

There were 18 student volunteers, but about 30 volunteers in total showed up.

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“We had a lot of student as well as teacher volunteers. Also, all the administrators a couple of community members came to assist. Signing up for Sharefest was online so people cold pick and choose their Sharefest projects and the area that they wanted to assist with, so we had a project at the district office, we had a project [at RUHS], and there were multiple other projects by Sharefest throughout the community,” Bridi said.

Although there were only 30 volunteers, it was enough to finish the gardening project in two hours.

“We divided [the volunteers], so on the website I put how many people I needed per area. For the size of the project that we had, the number of volunteers was a perfect amount, maybe even too many,” Bridi said.

Although there were enough volunteers for the project, students still were not notified about Sharefest, which Bridi found odd.

“I don’t know why not enough students knew about Sharefest. It was on our marquee in the front, we put out a morning message every other day for three weeks straight. Maybe, the only thing we didn’t do was put banners around campus or extra posters, but I didn’t want too many volunteers because there wasn’t enough for them to do,” Bridi said.

One of the student volunteers, Natalie

Sisto, found Sharefest to be a “great experience.”

“This was my first time participating in Sharefest. I’m the historian of a club on school called Semper Committees and we participate in a lot of volunteer opportunities, so when we heard about Sharefest, we thought it would be a great opportunity, especially since it would help out our own school,” Sisto said.

According to Bridi, he believes Sharefest can help RUHS students and staff learn the meaning of improvement.

“I think Sharefest is helpful for me to always analyze what’s around our campus. If we take Sharefest in a smaller scheme, and just to analyze what we have on campus, what things can be fixed, what things can be done to make a better experience for our students,” Bridi said.

Bridi believes helping out the community is something everybody should try.

“I think everybody should get involved.

I don’t think it’s about an age group, it’s not about just students, it’s about the whole community, so anybody that wants to help out and take pride in their community and where they live,” Bridi said.

Sisto believes other students should get involved even if they are not part of a club.

“I think Sharefest is a really good way for students to give back to their school and

their community. By having volunteers help out, the school saves a lot of money. It’s also really fun planting, and it’s a really good feeling to walk around school and see the things that you planted grow and make the school pretty,” Sisto said.

Bridi hopes to continue “revamping” the RUHS campus through Sharefest in future years.

“In and around our campus we have little areas that need to be fixed. By room 206 there is a nice little brick area for sitting and by room 212 there’s another little area for sitting. Those kind of little areas could be revamped, maybe replanted, and maybe certain seating arrangements could be changed.

Those are the types of small projects I would like to do for Sharefest in the future,” Bridi said.

Bridi believes Sharefest is a great way to help out the community and it is a good way to get involved.

“I think Sharefest is great. I think it brings community members together; it brings students together on our campus for one purpose and that is to make our campus better with their effort. It’s not about acknowledgement, it’s not about ‘look at me I volunteered,’ it’s more about I’m taking pride in something I want to do because I want to do that for our school and I want to do that for our community,” Bridi said.

Jazz band continues to improve First ever

RUHS 5K run

by Reema Saad

After receiving a superior rating at the last festival at Workman high school, the improvements in the jazz band are apparent. Along with the superior rating, the jazz band B received an excellent rating, and the jazz band C received a good rating.

Band teacher Raymundo Vizcarra believes that the jazz band’s success is due to the performers’ increase in confidence and performance ability.

According to Vizcarra, jazz music is supposed to be more exciting and the students have been working on using more of that excitement in their music.

“We’ve been doing a lot of technique exercises. With some students, it was increasing their sound volume because they were playing too timidly and jazz band is supposed to be more aggressive,” Vizcarra said.

According to Vizcarra, he tries to teach the jazz band that they need to be comfortable with whatever they might be playing, especially solos.

“We empower students to make them feel like a wrong note is a not bad note.

They should be comfortable playing anything that comes out and the ideas start to become better as they lose their inhibitions and stop criticizing themselves so much,” Vizcarra said.

According to Vizcarra, some of the insecurities that musicians have, come from the lack of experience.

“Some of these students have been playing since middle school. The earlier in age you start playing, the more comfortable you are creating your own ideas,” Vizcarra said.

by Sophie Maguy

PHOTO BY LAURA SMITH

Working hard . Jazz band C works on improving their skills during practice in preparation for future competitions. “We’ve been doing a lot of technique exercises,” Vizcarra said.

Vizcarra believes that improvisation and solos are a major part of jazz that he looks forward to seeing improvements in.

“That’s [improvisation] the biggest thing to do in jazz and there are some minor issues with kids being afraid to play solos,” Vizcarra said.

According to Vizcarra, the trumpet section has been working to overcome challenges. The music has been more difficult for the trumpet players this year.

“The skill levels are not all the same so it’s difficult to work with other people in the way that they should play their parts out,” senior Max Sarafin, a trumpet player, said.

Vizcarra considers the band’s greatest achievement to be a compliment received from one of the judges at a competition.

“The judge talked to the students like they were professional musicians. The judge said that’s what he does with his band. He was amazed and it kind of took him a while to get started on something, as opposed to our first festival, they had something for the band to work on right away,” Vizcarra said Jazz band hopes to see even more improvement.

“We look forward to have the program continue to grow both in numbers and quality,” Vizcarra said.

RED talk captures students’ attention

by Chris Paludi

District 66 Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi spoke in a RED Talk to student about his life, what he has learned from his journey into politics, and gave life advice to the students in attendance.

“One of the most important things I learned in college, and the point of all of your studies, is that you can change the world,” Muratsuchi said. “I know that might sound kind of hokey, but I always took that to heart and I have seen a lot of people that have dedicated their lives to basically following this principle: the point of understanding the world is to change it.”

Muratsuchi began his speech idealistically, impressing upon the students their ability to change their world.

“You can change the world and make a difference in a lot of different ways,” Muratsuchi said. “For me, I chose to put myself in a position where I can make a big impact working on laws and policies that affect all of our lives. That for me was the biggest attraction to working in government.”

Senior Nick McCarthy enjoys working as an intern for Muratsuchi because of Muratsuchi’s direct effect on this district.

“I like working with him because I feel like I have some sort of impact with his work, which benefits the community, all of his constituents in our area,” McCarthy said. “He is pushing for legislation which directly affects students, such as funding for SoCal ROC, which he and many other people feel is important because its finances will be terminated quite soon. As a resident of Torrance who has served on its school board, he cares about and knows our district and how the education system works.”

McCarthy was able to connect Muratsuchi to the students through his RED Talks club, which for the second year has attracted speakers from various fields and professions to talk to students about their lives.

“RED Talks wants to connect students to professionals and show them what the real world is like,” McCarthy said. “In RED Talks we want to show what professions

these people have, how many different jobs there are, and how interesting their fields are. I think that students walk out of a RED Talk with a new aspect on the world, having been given new insight into a specific profession and a pathway to pursue that profession.”

New insights into politics were given by Muratsuchi, but he also gave general life advice to his student audience.

“He reminded us that we don’t have to have a plan set in stone for our future,” junior Ilana Golub said. “We have plenty of time to express ourselves and we still have our entire lives ahead of us to settle down and find what truly interests us.”

Muratsuchi said that he did not decide on his current career path until after he graduated from UCLA Law School, and even said that he was “apolitical” in high school to demonstrate openness.

“I would encourage you all to be open to new paths and see which your life leads you down,” Muratsuchi said.

This Saturday, Redondo will host its first fundraising 5k. Fundraising directors of the 5k are seniors Jordan Dobler and Christina Wilson.

“We are trying to create an annual event to bring the community and students together while promoting health. Also, we are trying to raise money for the classes since profits will be equally divided among all of them,” Wilson said.

The run is going to take place down at the field and the course will run through the campus on the half of campus close to the administration office and the athletic facilities.

“It is basically a fundraiser for all of the classes. You end up needing to fundraise a lot of money for your senior events- senior picnics, senior barbeques, and the homecoming floats,” Dobler said. “That is what the money will be going towards and it will be split evenly amongst the freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors.”

Along with supporting all of Redondo’s students, Wilson believes that another reason to join in the run is to attain brand new “cool” sports gear.

“Participation in the race comes with a tshirt, cool bag, water bottle, and all the winners get medals. They are pretty nice medals and there is a top three for each gender,” she said.

Although medals are offered to the top three finishers, walking is also completely acceptable.

“It’s also a walk so you don’t have to run and you can still get all of the cool shirts and everything, but you would not compete for the medal. The medals are just for the people that want to make it competitive,” Dobler said.

Whether the participants run or walk, free water and healthy food will be supplied at the end of the race.

“For the runners, we have fruit and water.

We are just trying to promote being healthy so we are not going to have anything super unhealthy like 1. donuts or In-N-Out but we are looking to have a few things,” Dobler said.

Wilson also added that Jamba Juice or another fun, healthy treat might be provided at the end of the race for the runners.

The girls encourage everyone to come and join in the fun this Saturday. According to the girls, it is never too late to sign up.

“Sign ups are still available the day of the race: May 17th. People can join anytime up through that day of the race,” Dobler said.

NEWS . 5

How many AP’s should I take? Is four too many? Two too few? The answer to all of these questions and any others regarding AP classes is a simple one: It depends. It depends on the person, the class, the year and ultimately, the purpose.

No amount of AP’s is too many or too few. Some people can handle five AP’s without any issues, and others find trouble with just one, depending on the person. If your reason for taking an AP class is to get college credit, then it is advisable to take the maximum amount you can handle, but a high AP course load can cause a high amount of stress, a complete lack of free time and the pressure of balancing classes that expect the full attention and effort of their students.

These factors often compound to result in students who normally get all A’s receiving a few B’s or even C’s. These grades can make or break a student’s application, so taking a massive set of AP’s can hurt one’s chances at a top school.

Yes, you read that correctly, taking every AP class under the sun is not the best strategy to get into top colleges. It is rare that students can take 4-5 AP classes in a single year while maintaining straight A’s, and if you get a couple of B’s or a single C in an AP class, you might eliminate yourself from contention for the top few UC schools, not to mention competitive privates. Take AP classes that you know you can do well in and stay within the subjects you are best at. Keep your AP load lighter and focus on maintaining a high GPA, preparing for the SAT and ACT, and gaining leadership experience in your extracurricular activities.

The third reason, and really, the best reason to take an AP class is an interest in learning the material. AP’s are rigorous courses that are designed to challenge the intellectually curious. For those who aren’t planning on taking a single AP class but find they are fascinated by a particular subject, I encourage you to reconsider. One or two AP’s can be completely manageable if you have a legitimate interest in what you’re learning. AP classes completely dwarf their CP counterparts in terms of depth and pacing.

For the student hoping to save money and skip some general education classes in college, take as many as you can handle. For the college-ranking obsessed, take the AP courses that will help maximize your GPA and beware the C’s and B’s. And for those with a passion and interest in a particular subject, take any class that satisfies your curiosity and desire to learn. The AP question is not hard, as long as you know why you’re asking it.

6 . OPINION

College Board is an entity driven by profit and not by student interest, which is bad news for students and educators across the US

The AP course, the AP test and the SAT all have one thing in common: College Board. The company is solely responsible for the most important facets of a high school student’s entry into college, and this is bad news for the future of education.

College Board is, above all else, a business, not a student resource. With almost no competitors, an increasing value being placed on test scores and an increasing volume of college applicants, College Board is becoming too big for students and too big for education.

The general goal of College Board is to offer high school students opportunities to experience classes that require college-level thinking and college-level work ethic, and to prove their test-taking abilities to prospective colleges. Competition in college admissions is such, however, that AP classes and the SAT are required to even be considered a candidate. Classes meant to be optional, meant to be an opportunity for students to challenge themselves, have become mandatory.

This means more students studying long hours, working more than their parents and stressing over test scores and GPA’s in order to attend the college they want to. This means more students focusing on an arbitrary letter on a piece of paper rather than their education. It also means, of course, more money for College Board.

It can cost upwards of $1,000 over four years for all of the AP classes, study materials and SAT’s students need to be a competitive student. Then, once all the classes are taken and it comes time to apply for college, even more money must be spent to send

ILLUSTRATION BY JOSEPH BIESCHKE

those SAT and AP scores to be evaluated by admissions officers. Every year, as more and more students prepare to apply for college and take AP classes, College Board is making a ludicrous amount of money.

It has reached a point where a student’s value to colleges is determined as much by the amount of money he/she spends as the grades he/she earns.

College Board’s power is proportional to the amount of value colleges place on the tests and classes that it administers, and, unfortunately, they are valued very high.

Universities are equally responsible for the ridiculous amount of influence College Board has over students, and until a method for determining students’ aptitude without these tests is created, it will only get worse.

College Board, at the moment, has only one competitor: the ACT test. Even this test, however, does nothing to curb College Board’s power because most universities require students to take the ACT, SAT and

AROUND REDONDO

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SAT II tests. A system that was originally meant to ensure the most hardworking and motivated students be rewarded in college admissions is now gouging families and making students miserable, and,currently, there is nothing to stop it.

Educators at both the higher and secondary level need to realize that College Board is not interested in the lives of students or the quality of education in America; College Board is interested in profit, power, influence and growth.

No entity, private or not, should have that much influence on a student’s path.

Education is not a business, but we have allowed College Board to turn it into one.

FINAL TALLY:

AGREE

EDITORIAL STAFF VOTE

DISAGREE

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Why are you taking or why will you take AP classes? compiled by Cody Williams

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To get college credit and because I was interested in them.

It was fun for me, and I wanted to give myself a challenge.

I wanted to experience what a college-level class was actually like.

– CZARINA GOINGCO, 12

– YODHA DASZ, 11

– ERIKA VELOZ, 10

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ELI JARMEL

A veteran student’s declassified guide to everything AP

EDITORIAL:

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CORNER

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ELI’S

PHOTOS BY CEDRIC HYON

TAG-TEAM

Letters to the Editor If you have an opinion about one of the articles, letters can be sent to the editor at hightideonline@gmail.com.

We reserve the right to edit them for content, grammar, and space constraints. Letters must be signed and are not guaranteed to be printed.

HIGH TIDE

STAFF

Editors in Chief: Cedric Hyon; Allegra

Peelor Managing Editor: Alejandro Quevedo News Editor: Jason Rochlin Opinion Editor: Chance King Health Editor: Kayla Nicholls Features Editors: Kira Bowen; Yas-

meen El-Hasan; Stella Gianoukakis; Shawn Mallen; Grace Zoerner Sports Editors: Ted Cavus; Micah Ezzes Photo Editors: Tyler Eisenhart; Justin Lee Copy Editors Deborah Chang; Lauren Diethelm; Angela Kim; Romy Moreno; Illustrators: Joseph Bieschke; Angela Kim Online Editors: Vivian Lam; Kayla Maanum Staff Writers: Lauryn Alejo; Joseph Blakely; Jennie Bao; Caitlyn Catubig; Jason Clebowicz; Caitlin Cochran; Shaw Coneybeare; Lauren Diethelm; Jason Fong; Vaidehi Gandhi; Nina Gomez; Kelly Harraka; Caterina Hyneman; Eli Jarmel; Roxanne Labat; Stephanie Lai; Sophie Maguy; Shaniya Markalanda; Marie Ona; Chris Paludi; Phoebe Reneau; Jené Price; Amanda Ross; Chandler Ross; Sophia Ruffo; Reema Saad; Amanda Shaw; Laura Smith; John Webb; Luma Wegman; Cody Williams The High Tide dedicates itself to producing a high-quality publication that both informs and entertains the entire student body.

This is a wholly student managed, designed, and written newspaper that focuses on school and community events.

The High Tide is published by the journalism class at Redondo Union High School, One Sea Hawk Way, Redondo Beach, CA 90277.

Signed commentaries and editorial cartoons represent the opinions of the staff writer or cartoonist and in no way reflect the opinions of the other members of the High Tide staff.

CODY WILLIAMS

ONE PROBLEM, TWO WRITERS EXAMINING EVERY ANGLE TO FIND THE RIGHT SOLUTION

CHRIS PALUDI PHOTOS BY TED CAVUS AND TYLER EISENHART

THE ISSUE: Why should students take so many AP classes?

Advanced Placement or AP courses are growing ever more popular with the increase in academic competition among college applicants. Their rigor combined with the additional GPA value may give an applicant that necessary edge in gaining admission to their dream school and potentially place said applicant on the lustrous golden pathway known as a financially successful life.

Signing up for an AP course may seem like a daunting undertaking, however the advanced level of thinking required and experience in a particular subject gained makes the extra work worth the time. The purpose of an AP course is to give students a taste of what a certain class would be like at the college level with college-like grading and instruction, and give students the opportunity to receive college credit that would otherwise cost money down the line.

Also, AP courses are a great tool in helping one decide what major or field of study they would pursue in college and help deal with the “I don’t know” attitude that is all too common when determining a focus in college, saving students both time and money.

Although AP courses are a great way to challenge oneself academically and provide students with a college like environment, they are definitely not for everyone. AP classes have a work load greater than that of a college preparatory class and demand more than simply completing assignments.

The goal of an AP class is to help students master material in a certain area such as American history or physics in preparation for the AP test on the subject at the end of the year, which must be passed with a score of 3 or higher in order to receive college credit.

If a student cannot handle these things demanded by an AP class, it is best to avoid the AP level classes in order to avoid stress and maintain academic proficiency.

In all, AP tests are a beneficial tool for students looking to prepare themselves for college. The classes are challenging but also rewarding upon completion of the AP test and offer an environment full of students that are willing to think and engage in class.

AP tests aren’t for everyone, however students should take AP classes if they are interested in them and like to challenge themselves with a higher level of learning.

You hear it all the time: students casually discussing taking three, four, or even five AP’s, laughing with dread at their futures. They are all fully aware of the amount of homework, stress, and sleepless nights they are signing up for, but if you asked them why they are taking said number of AP’s, you will most likely get two different answers.

We all know the debate. One side says that advanced placement classes are forced on students who want to go to a good college, and the other stresses the value of gifting students the opportunity to take college-level courses in high school.

While the other side makes some fair points about the pressure on students to take AP classes, the reality is that it is still the student’s choice of what classes to take, and blaming a system only carries so much weight when one continues to buy into it. After all, these classes are completely optional.

Oftentimes, those who enroll in AP classes for the obvious reasons--college credit, a higher GPA, or a better transcript for colleges are most often those who complain about the workload, the loss of sleep, and the mental drain. Conversely, those who

take on those same challenges for their own personal reasons have an interest in the subject, a wish to challenge themselves to learn, a thirst for knowledge and will thrive, as AP classes provide information and skills essential to building a student into a learned, diversely interested human being.

Students who take AP courses for their merits will be the full beneficiaries of these classes. For those students who do not subscribe to the notion that they “need five AP’s to get into college,” their stress level will be lower not only because they will most likely be taking less AP’s, but also because they truly want to take the classes they sign up for.

These students are the ideal AP student, and the merits of the AP classes--learned study skills, knowledge, critical thinking, encouragement of interests--will be felt in full.

For fear of being interminable, I’ll leave this here: students should be taking the AP classes they are interested in, not signing up for however many they need for the best possible GPA. And if a student decides to take as many AP’s as possible because “colleges want me to,” then I frankly don’t have much sympathy for your sleepless complaints.

THE VERDICT: The attitude towards AP courses needs to change AP classes offer students an opportunity to challenge themselves academically and expand their knowledge in a subject of their choice. Although in recent years they have become more than just a class, the AP program’s value is and always has been its ability to improve students’ thinking.

Students should not be forced to take these classes if they want to go to college, however. Making AP’s almost a requirement for college admissions defeats

the purpose of the AP program as a whole and causes unnecessary stress and anxiety.

Students who take AP classes should be rewarded but not favored in college admissions, and the primary benefit of taking AP classes should be for college credit.

High-achieving students should be encouraged, not forced to challenge themselves with harder classes, but there should be more options besides the AP program.

Students need more variety in the classes they take, and, as in

college, there should be classes that tailor to a specific interest or more specific field of study rather than a 101 course, which is what most AP classes essentially are.

The system as a whole does not need to be changed, there simply needs to be a different attitude towards the AP program and what it is good for. Educators need to stress to universities that the main goal of any class taken in school should be to enlighten and inspire its students, not to help them get into college.

More than anything, educators need to stress to students that the AP class is something more than just a chance at college credit.

These classes should be a chance for students to broaden their understanding of the world, how it works and the history behind it.

If schools continue to focus on the prestige and privilege of an education and not the essence of an education, students will continue to treat school, and AP courses, as merely a way to get somewhere better than where they are.

OPINION . 7

Democracy in action compiled by Lauryn Alejo photos by Justin Lee and Ted Cavus

ASB Cabinet

President:

Vice-President:

Tori Lee

Savanna Navarro

“I’m looking to improve school spirit. I want to make sure that every student at Redondo feels at home and feels that they have their own little niche. I want Redondo to be the bombest place on earth.”

“As ASB VP I overlook the different positions in ASB along with my cabinet members. I am looking forward to helping each individual position in order to make the school better. I will guide them in the right direction and help them plan events that will captivate RUHS’s school spirit.”

“My goal is to improve the quality of school functions and help make the school more comfortable for everyone. I want to increase school spirit and involvement to make the school a greater environment than it already is.”

Isaac Portillo

Secretary/Treasurer:

Junior Class

President:

Jacob Reno “I’m really excited to be next year’s junior class president, and I look forward to raising a lot of money for our class’s senior events. My favorite part of getting involved is that I feel I am a very diverse person. I am in many other extracurriculars besides ASB, and I feel I have met so many people because of it.”

8

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FEATURES

Vice-President:

Ghattas Malki “I look forward to making our homecoming float amazing, and I want the junior class to make $3,000. I like making a difference and knowing that I am putting my time toward something that helps benefit our whole class.”

Secretary/Treasurer:

Marley Capper

“I look forward to being able to fundraise and help make more money for my class’s senior festivities. I chose to run because the junior class secretary/treasurer gets to run fundraisers and I’m the queen of fundraising. I like to be involved because it makes my high school experience more memorable and fun.”

Start getting to know your elected officers for the 2014-2015 school year by reading about their plans for next year and how they plan to improve RUHS.

Senior Class

President:

Justin Cho “I really want to see my class get more involved with school and be spirited next year. My favorite part of getting involved is seeing people getting into events, chanting together and having fun. It feels really great to just see so many people enthusiastic for one common thing.”

Vice-President:

Secretary/Treasurer:

“I definitely want to improve our school spirit. I feel like our class is divided and cliquey. Because of this we need something to unite our class into one, and I think that school spirit would help us create a better bond. Especially for senior year, I think it’s so important to create memories in our last year of high school with our fellow classmates.”

“My goal as senior secretary/treasurer is to raise more money so that our class will have more options for our senior events. I chose to run because I wanted to help ensure that our senior year is very memorable.”

Natassia Domael

Amber Lim

Sophomore Class

President:

Vice-President:

Secretary/Treasurer:

Hannah Cho

Lauren Hahn

Kimberly Funabashi

“I want to get our sophomore class to be more involved because right now not a lot of people in our class is involved with fundraising and such, so I want to bring more people to be involved with our sophomore class and to also fundraise more money for our senior year.”

“I consider myself a leader, so I thought being sophomore VP would be a good choice. I also wanted to make a difference in the school, and I think this position will help me do that. I love the feeling of knowing you are helping your school and making a difference. I also think it is a great experience to be involved in activities.”

“I chose this position because I felt it would suit me better than a really high leadership position. I really enjoy helping make Redondo better, and I enjoy meeting new people along the way. I look forward to getting my class more spirited and more involved so we can raise money for our senior year.”

FEATURES

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9

Senior Tate Crisfield capitalized on her school spirit by joining the cheer team

by Jennie Bao

Pep: the perfect word to describe senior Tate Crisfield. Full of energy and high spirit, Crisfield has always enjoyed pumping up the crowd at games and rallies throughout her four years in being a cheerleader.

“I have a ton of energy and cheer is just something that I love. For cheer, helping people get into the school spirit is just something you are supposed to do. You need to keep everyone upbeat,” Crisfield said.

Due to being in cheer, it is mandatory for Crisfield to participate in school activities like spirit week, games and rallies.

“During school I don’t really have a lot of energy, but then when it’s time for games or other school activities after school I kind of just let it all out and use it as a way to release all of my energy. It’s just that I love to make people happy,” Crisfield said.

Crisfield has performed in all of the rallies throughout her four years of high school.

“I love them and I think they are so fun,” Crisfield said. “They really have improved from when I was a freshman. People have become more spirited in the rallies throughout the

years, which I think is awesome.”

In Crisfield’s opinion, the school’s level of spirit could always use improvement.

“I think in general our school’s spirit could be better because a lot of kids kind of have the whole ‘I am too cool for school’ attitude,” Crisfield said. I’ve noticed that a lot of the seniors have more spirit because as you get older you start to care less about what other people think and you aren’t as uncomfortable.”

According to Crisfield, however, there are some days when her usual spirit is not up to par.

“Every time there is an event on a school night or a Friday night I am usually really tired. But when all the cheerleaders get together and our coach gives us a pep talk it really helps me get in the mood,” Crisfield said.

Although it can be tiring, Crisfield is glad that she is a part of the cheer team.

“I am really happy that I joined cheer. It gave me a lot of opportunities to participate

How spirited is RUHS? spirited

10 . FEATURES

does

RUHS have

35% no

about yourself, too. It’s just caring; it’s showing that you care about everybody else.

SPIRIT?

– ASSISTANT PRINCIPLE JENS BRANT ON HOW TO SOLVE THE LITTER PROBLEM AT RUHS

“It seems like there is just a small group of students in different locations on campus that seem to think it’s okay to require other people to clean up after.”

“When visitors come on campus they always compliment how great this place is, the facilities are amazing, and how lucky our students are to go to school here and I want to keep it that way.”

1.

Is litter a problem at RUHS?

30% 60% 10% very spirited somewhat not spirited

in school activities. If I wasn’t a cheerleader I honestly don’t think I would have as much spirit. I don’t really think I would care as much about other sports, spirit week, and rallies,” Crisfield said.

Throughout her four years of cheering, Crisfield has become more “connected with the school.”

“I have become more involved and am doing a lot more with the school, which makes going to high school so much better. You are a part of something, which to me is better than just going to school and then going home without getting involved,” Crisfield said.

According to Crisfield, cheer has helped her learn many lessons in life.

“Cheer has taught me a lot about teamwork and leadership skills. When I was a freshman I felt kind of lost because everyone was older,” Crisfield said. “When I joined cheer I grew with the team and it has taught me to handle bad situations and to work together to achieve something great.”

It’s changing the way you “ feel about your school and

“

Spirited away

Trashed. Various popular eating areas after lunch: 1. The benches behind Noble Plaza. 2. The snack area behind Student Union. 3. English Hall.

4. The picnic tables on the side of the Student Union. 5. The front of the benches by Noble Plaza. All quotes by Mr. Brandt compiled by Marie Ona.

“There are plenty of trash cans in the hallways and I just wish that students will take the time to pick up after themselves and have the hallways looking great.”

2.

3.

“I wish students could see what it looks like after snack and lunch. Maybe they’re just not aware of it when there’s so many students standing around.”

65% yes

“When I see trash laying around on tables, on the ground and also when the birds are picking up trash that’s being left behind and spreading the trash around campus, the word is ‘frustrating.’”

66%

participate in spirit weeks

*100 students were surveyed

5.

PHOTOS BY CHANDLER ROSS

4.

FEATURES . 11

Nicks hit by car

by Sophia Ruffo

Late to school, he skated across the street, unaware of the car headed towards him. The car kept going, leaving senior Sam Nicks behind with a gash in his arm.

“I was on my way to school coming in late that morning, and I was just skating on the sidewalk,” Nicks said.

He only had seconds to react to the oncoming car.

“I thought the car was going to make a u-turn, but it ended up coming onto the sidewalk and hit me. I ended up hitting the pavement and sliding, and I bruised the muscles and scraped all the skin off my arm,” Nicks said.

Nicks believes that the driver was coming off a high.

“It was weird because people don’t usually shake while they’re driving, and his face was shaking back and forth for a moment before he hit me. I’ve seen things like that when people are coming off drugs like heroin. So I’m sure that’s why he freaked out.”

Nicks said.

Nicks recalls his state of complete shockup on being hit.

“I was just on the ground for a while, trying to see if I was okay, and I thought ‘I guess I can move my body, so I’m okay’ and I was just thinking what should I do now?’”

Nicks said.

Nicks knew he had to go home after the accident.

“I tried calling my dad, but he was in the shower, so he didn’t pick up. Even though I was in a lot of pain I had to get out of there because I was losing a lot of blood and at that point I was just getting really dizzy.

I made the decision to walk home from there,” Nicks said.

Nicks went to school after going home and got help there.

“I didn’t want to go to the emergency room just because I knew my arm wasn’t broken, and I didn’t want to make a big deal. I went to school and the nurse helped me wrap it up,” Nicks said.

After the shock had worn off, Nicks fully realized what happened to him and broke down.

“After I cooled down and realized what happened, I started to feel the pain. All the shock was gone and I just started to cry; I couldn’t help it . My arm was just hurting so much. I ended up going to the doctor and she told me I bruised my arm and had a serious abrasion,” Nicks said.

Nicks friends were supportive and helped him while he was injured.

“They were super helpful. They were the ones that took me to the doctor and took me home and helped me with my meds that day,” Nicks said.

12 . FEATURES

Seeing stars

Freshman Victoria Petz volunteers to escort celebrities at celebrity shopping events.

by Kelly Harraka

PHOTO COURTESY OF VICTORIA PETZ

Celebrity Candie. Victoria Petz poses for a photo with a celebrity.

She stands in the lounge and awaits her company. It is not a party that freshman Victoria Petz is at, but an event called Celebrity Candie where she escorts a celebrity to vendors. Celebrity Candie is used to build kids’ confidence and develop leadership techniques.

“I get really nervous because I think I’m going to mess up, but I also get excited. At first I was really scared, but it passed fast.

Overall it’s an amazing experience. You get to meet people that you would normally see on screen,” Petz said.

The escorts not only meet celebrities, but also other teenagers trying to learn the life skills that the event teaches.

“I typically do the event with friends and I get to meet other kids from different schools. I have kept in touch with them, so I’ve made a lot of new friends,” she said.

Celebrity Candie generally takes place every two months, but occurs more often during awards season. The celebrities go to a hotel to buy items from vendors while volunteers, such as Petz, carry bags that hold their purchases and make conversation.

“The celebrities are really nice and courteous. Sometimes it’s really hard to talk to them because the room is really hot and loud,” Petz said. “What happens is our parents drop us off, then we walk to a lounge area. When we all meet up and are given specific instructions, we’re given some bags from the corporation. After our celebrity arrives, we walk with them while they shop.”

Petz was introduced to the organization by a friend. She is glad that she was informed about the organization.

“My friend always told me that I would love it, so when my soccer season ended, I checked it out. I was happy that they were still having gatherings and have done them ever since,” she said.

She especially enjoys Celebrity Candie because of her interest in acting. She believes that meeting the celebrities has given her more experience in the acting industry.

“It helps with my confidence and helps me get more familiar with an acting environment. It also counts as volunteer hours, and I get to meet people that I wouldn’t meet any other way,” she said.

Taylor-Posey faces self-harm

by Chris Paludi

She tried to feel whole on the inside the only way she knew how: by cutting herself on the outside. Sophomore Gwen TaylorPosey deals continuously with her addiction to self-harm with the help of her friend Lili Kleinberg.

“This year after my grandma passed away, I got really bad. I didn’t have anyone in my family to talk to; I only had my friend Lili,” Taylor-Posey said. “Before my grandma got sick, I had a plan to kill myself. No one in my family really supports me the way Lili does, so I fall back on her. Knowing that I can talk to someone, that I’m not alone and that someone understands and cares about me is amazing.”

Kleinberg remembers how much worse it was when they first became friends.

“When we first became friends, I wanted to help her and she wanted to help me, but neither of us could help ourselves. We were in really really bad situations,” Kleinberg said. “It used to be daily, where we would get each other razors because we knew that if either one of us didn’t get the other one, they would either find one anyway or turn to something even worse. This year Gwen started getting better and she seemed a lot happier. Her grandma’s death was really

hard on her. I tried to get it across that this isn’t going to be forever, it’s just how she’s feeling right now at this moment, and it’s going to get easier.”

Although she had a difficult time, TaylorPosey had inspiration to persevere.

“When Lili started getting better, that became a motivation for me to get better too,” Taylor-Posey said. “I didn’t want to disappoint her or let her down by coming to school with a bunch of cuts and becoming a trigger for her to relapse. She’s been with me for a year and a half, and I’ve never had someone I can fall back on like her. It’s really nice to have that because she understands.

She doesn’t tell me it’ll be okay. She won’t lie to me about what’s going to happen.”

Taylor-Posey values how much Kleinberg has helped her in her journey.

“Many people that I’ve talked to will say that it gets better, but in your head you’re thinking it gets worse,” Taylor-Posey said.

“Being able to realize that it does get better and to start seeing yourself that it is getting better-it’s huge. When you have that realization, it’s a big moment.”

Taylor-Posey continues to try to recover.

“Everyone with an addiction, whether they drink or do drugs, will have relapses,”

PHOTO BY LAUREN DIETHELM

Taylor-Posey said. “You have to admit that you have a problem and have to have the motivation to stop. Eventually there’s going to be that point where you’ll be a year sober.

Once I was a month clean, it wasn’t as hard.

I didn’t think about it every single night; I got the feeling that it wasn’t impossible.”

FEATURES

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13

Animation Domination

by Mandy Ramos

PHOTO BY CEDRIC HYON ILLUSTRATION BY ANGELA KIM

from pg. 1

by Vaidehi Ghandi

As he types out the letters, words form.

As the words accumulate, paragraphs form.

Slowly these letters and paragraphs turn into chapters that complete an entire story.

Sophomore Andrew Morales has been writing stories since the age of ten, and has continued to since.

After reading numerous books, Morales realized that he himself could also create the alternate universe he found himself immersed in while reading.

“The way words can mold people’s emotions and create an entirely different world that may not even be real just fascinates me,” he said. “When I figured out that people could actually get into my writing, I was really encouraged and enjoyed myself.”

Morales finds that his writing style has been influenced by some of his favorite books: the Uglies series by Scott Westerfeld and the Percy Jackson series.

“Most of the time, people write what they absorb,” Morales said. “People are like sponges: they absorb everything and when they are pressured they release what they absorbed, and you can see what they are really capable of.”

Finding inspiration in those novels and other movies, Morales has written stories with futuristic scenarios and situations involving social collapse.

14 . FEATURES

“There’s even more that you can just come up with like plot twists and what not.

You look at the world and realize there’s a lot of things happening and you can make many stories from it and from what’s wrong with it,” he said. “There’s always something to write about.”

After watching The Walking Dead, Morales decided to add his own twist to the zombie story.

“I started writing about that and decided to show my friends what I had come up with. They really liked it and wanted be to continue, which was really encouraging,” Morales said.

Morales generally writes stories involving romance, gore, science fiction, internal conflict and other things based on his own personal experiences.

“I take some ideas from everywhere: the internet, movies and books. My stories also depend on whatever I am reading at that time or my interests,” he said. “These ideas are everywhere.”

Morales’s girlfriend, sophomore Christina Johnson, encourages him to continue writing as well.

“I think it’s great that he has an outlet such as writing, and some of his stories are really creative and interesting,” Johnson said.

Morales also discusses story ideas with her for his stories to come.

“Normally I try to help him guide his stories along,” Johnson said. “I believe that he’s a great writer, and if he keeps pursuing this, he could even become an author.”

Morales enjoys including themes in his stories that involve character development and improvement, such as in one futuristic story he wrote about cyborgs and technology.

“I write about my emotion and the people around me, even. At one point, you feel great about your story and then when your emotions are drained, you can’t finish the story,” Morales said.

Writing in times of sadness and stress is therapeutic to him as well.

“When I’m sad, words help me channel my emotions and I just write it out. I feels like I am sharing my suffering with others while creating an entirely different world,” Morales said.

Morales believes that writing is something that anyone can do and at which anyone can succeed.

“I would recommend writing for anyone. Even if you don’t think you’re good at it, just write for your own pleasure,” he said. “There’s not wrong way of expressing yourself.”

From her friends at school to people outside of the country, she collaborates with them as a writer to create an animation called De ja vue. Senior Jenna Barrett has been doing animation as a hobby for a year and a half.

Barrett found the when she was looking around on the internet. “ I actually found this group online because I was just looking around and then they had some art. They were just starting out and they had a lot of good ideas but they weren’t really sure how their story was going to work.” she said.

Barrett later became the head writer of the group after sharing some ideas with them “ I just came up some ideas, and eventually I ended up being the head writer.” she said, “They had an idea that they wanted it to be related to robots, but they were not really sure how things were going to work, such as how their daily lives would be like, and they barely even knew what their characters were going to be, so I actually got together with some other writers and we made a character sheet describing the likes and dislikes to show what kind of robots they are.”

Barrett feels that it’s interesting how people in the group are willing to work on the this on their own free time.

“It’s just really interesting and really cool that this was just a total volunteer project that people were coming together to work on in their own free time.” she said, “It is an amatur project, so it’s not as cool as something you would see on TV, but you can tell that people are really into it and are really having a good time.”

According to Barrett it’s a “rewarding” and “weird” feeling to see her writings said in the voices.

“It’s really rewarding to see it being put into the voices and all of the animation and it’s a really weird feeling to see that you wrote that line.” she said.

Barrett and her animation team are aiming to create a season for the show.

“We’ve came out with our first one which is a short one because it’s suppose to be like the prologue, but we’re thinking about maybe ten to fifteen episodes in total if we can get there. It’s all volunteer based, so it’s basically however long people are interested in it.” she said.

She has been involved with the group for a year and a half now, but the animation has progressed slowly since it’s volunteer-based.

“I’ve been working on it on and off for about a year and a half now. Once again it’s volunteer; people have their lives so it kind of goes fairly slowly, but we’re going there steadily.” she said.

Michael Ayala pursues cosmetology

by Roxanne Labat

One flick of the wrist, one stroke of a brush, and the end result is transferred from his mind to his friend’s face. Powdered makeup comes in specks to the ground and his gloves are stained with dye. Doing people’s hair and makeup is senior Michael Ayala’s specialty.

“I don’t really like regular school, where you have to sit in a classroom and do book work,” Ayala said. “I have to be hands-on.

I’m an artsy type of person. Beauty school intrigues me most.”

Although Ayala knows what he feels most comfortable doing, his preconceived ideas of an ideal career have prevented him from pursuing his passion.

“I first thought about beauty school in middle school,” Ayala said. “I would cut and color my own hair. I didn’t realize that I really wanted to get into beauty school until last year because I always thought I had to go to college. I thought I had to go to a regular four-year and be a doctor or something. I just started to stick to what I like.”

Ayala has decided that he would like to focus on makeup, hair cutting, and hair col-

oring.

“I usually get inspired by fashion magazines, like InStyle and Vogue,” Ayala said.

“I either practice a look on myself or draw it out.”

Ayala is currently taking classes through SCROC and planning on finishing in a year or two, where he will acquire his cosmetology license.

“After getting my cosmetology license I’ll go on to Paul Mitchell, where they specialize in hair cutting and coloring,” Ayala said.

“There’s one in Costa Mesa that I’m looking at. There’s also a makeup academy I want to go to during the summer.”

Hoping to accompany Ayala at the makeup academy is Ayala’s friend, junior Shelby Martin, who shares his passion.

“I never planned to go to beauty school, but now I want to get my [cosmetology] license,” Martin said. “Michael and I met each other at school before SCROC. I went to SCROC not knowing anyone, but I still wanted to go. Michael came to class the second day and we became even closer.”

Martin, being one of Ayala’s close friends,

has had her makeup done by Ayala.

Ayala has future plans to further his interest in the beauty profession.

“I would really like to get into a business class and attempt to open my own salon,” Ayala said. “Shelby might want to open the salon with me. I’d really like to become someone famous. I also love the idea of working with celebrities. I would do runway makeup and special effects makeup. It’s fun and I get to be creative.”

Ayala’s mother approves of Ayala’s interest in beauty.

“My mom supports me. She likes the fact that I’m actually getting into something,” Ayala said.

In addition to his mom, Ayala has gotten the support of several of his peers.

“Some people tell me that they actually see me in the beauty profession, so that makes me feel a lot better about what I do,” Ayala said.

Martin admires Ayala’s unique interest.

“I’ve never met anyone like Michael before,” Martin said. “He’s my best friend forever; he’s one of a kind.”

PHOTO BY TED CAVUS

Super Cut. Michael Ayala practices his hairstyling techniques on a mannequin in order to sharpen his skills.

Lee is going Aiding Jocelyn on a mission trip Uganda with her church

by Caitlyn Catubig

Lack of food and medical resources. Political instability. Rebels. With about 37 million lives facing hardships like these in Uganda, all Jocelyn Lee wanted to do is help.

From June 17th to July 3rd Lee, along with fellow members of the South Bay Community Church, will be volunteering on a mission trip to provide support to the children, men, and women all over Uganda.

“Our plan and goal is to go there and make a change. We’ve already established some homes, schools, and medical clinics there, so we’re basically going to help out the people there,” she said.

Lee believes her assistance towards the people in Uganda is one way she can improve their “overall well-being”.

“They can’t really do anything to help themselves at the moment. The people there don’t have the same resources we have. They live their lives in different areas and different situations. There are a lot of problems they have to face there, so there’s not just one thing that we’re going to do to help, it’s as many as we can.” Lee said.

Some of Lee’s activities in Uganda will include volunteering in a babies’ home where babies have been abandoned, ministering to children in a hospital, working in a medical

clinic, distributing de-worming tablets to children, and as well as other things.

“I want to help, I want to serve, I want to make a difference. For my age, I felt this is just an amazing opportunity to even go because I feel like I can actually do something for others.” Lee said. “This is going to be one of the biggest things I’ll ever do in my life.”

Her father, Joseph Lee, is also attending the mission trip and believes that the trip will be a good experience for his daughter.

“It’ll be a chance for her to help others and get out of her comfort zone,” he said.

“The fact that she’s going out there to a different country, seeing how people live in that part of that world, being exposed to a different culture, and helping out others the best that she can, I think that will open her eyes to the hardships in that part of the world and to more of who she is.”

From the trip, Lee hopes that she’ll be able to become “more open to different things” and finds the trip itself a great opportunity.

“It’s going to be difficult; I’ll be working for the entire time I’m there,” Lee said. “It’s not going to be easy. There’s a lot of work to be done. I’ll probably be tired out a lot , but it’ll be worth it.”

FEATURES

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15

Champs Again

by Romy Moreno

A close call. Junior Camryn Fisher attempts to cross home plate, while the West catcher attempts to tag her out. Photo by Ted Cavus.

In the last game of the Bay League season yesterday, RUHS came out victorious and beat Peninsula high school 7-1 yesterday securing their first place title in Bay League for the second year in a row.

“Going into the game I felt really pressured because we wanted the win.

We wanted to be Bay League champs on our own, not have to share the title with anyone else,” sophomore Kathryn Ung said.

Ung was not the only player who felt the pressure of yesterday’s game.

“Going into the game I definitely had a few nerves, I knew that either way we would be first in Bay League, either sharing the title or having it as our own, but the pressure still got to me a little,” junior Kamryn Fisher said.

Even though some players felt the pressure, others were not affected by it.

“I really wanted to win but I didn’t feel pressure,” junior Haley Reed said. “I knew we’re a great team and didn’t think that we had anything to worry about.”

Junior Brigid Antonelli also did not feel affected by the pressure.

“I didn’t feel the need to feel pressure in the game because I knew that it would only get to me,” Antonelli said. “I knew that we would be able to win since we have done it before.”

According to the girls they just needed to go into the game level-headed as if it were any other game.

“Right before the game we made sure to calm all of our emotions so that we wouldn’t be distracted by anything

throughout the game,” Fisher said.

The girls unanimously agreed that going in the game level headed really helped with the outcome.

However after the game the girls were overjoyed.

“Knowing that all of our hard work paid off in the end left me with no words,” junior Breanna Miskimen said.

“We went out with all we had and we were able to end up with the result we hoped for.”

The team was overflowing with positive emotions after accomplishing their back-to-back Bay League championship title.

“It was a long journey that consisted of a lot of hours and hard work,” Fisher said. “But even with all the extra hours put aside to strengthen and perfect our weak points, it was worth it because it helped us achieve what we have.”

The team believed that their hard work and team chemistry were the main factors into what led them into their first place title once again.

“A lot of the victories were a direct result of us having each others backs and knowing that everyone else had our own,” Miskimen said.

Now with CIF in their near future, the girls are focusing their energy in getting past the first round unlike last year.

“We were knocked out in our first round of CIF last year, so our goal is to get past it this year, which, with how we have been performing recently, is a definite possibility,” Antonelli said.

Golf wraps up season

by Jason Fong

PHOTO BY JUSTIN LEE

Chipping away. Sophomore Aiden Curtin fires a chip shot out of the pit earlier this season.

16 . SPORTS

Boys golf ended their season with a 4-8 losing record, but sent three of their players to CIF, including juniors Matthew Chu and Garrett Stribling, “The highlight of our season was definitely CIF. Myself and Matthew Chu made it to the second round where he missed the cut,” Stribling said.

According to Stribling, the teams’ strong point is in their social bond.

“Athletically, all of our team members have the ability to shoot well. Socially, we’re also really good friends with each other. We always support each other.” Stribling said.

According to Stribling, the team’s main problem was their lack of mental toughness.

“Our mental toughness was our biggest weakness. All of our players need to focus

on shooting well and not getting discouraged by doing poorly on one hole. That’s really the key to performing better as a team,” Stribling said.

According to Stribling, next year will be a rebuilding year for the team.

“Next year is going to be difficult. We’re losing four of our key seniors. We’ll just do the best we can as a really young team.

Our freshmen and sophomores are going to have to step up, but they’re capable of doing well,” he said.

Stribling hopes that the team will gain much needed experience over the summer.

“This summer our coach is hosting lessons at our home coach. We’ll be getting a lot of practice, which will be really helpful for our younger players,” Stribling said.

Strength in numbers The track team heads into CIF preliminaries with great expectations, especially considering that they are sending the most players in school history.

by Romy Moreno

The track team is “confident” going into CIF prelims, especially because it is sending 29 runners, jumpers, and throwers this year, the most it has ever sent to the Southern California meet.

The CIF tournament begins this weekend in Moorpark.

“We’ve got a lot of good training in.

We’ve had really good workouts lately and we feel confident, which is really important in CIF,” senior Nick Wells said.

He also believes that having a good mentality while going into the race is vital.

“You see lot of people exerting themselves and competing in something they’re really into, giving it their all,” Wells said.

“It’s really inspiring and a great atmosphere.”

Junior Carlos Suarez believes that track has been having a “solid” season so far especially with sending fifteen more people into prelims compared to last year.

“Sending twenty-nine people to prelims is the most we’ve ever sent,” Suarez said.

Another runner, junior Kennedy Har-

demion expresses how being good friends with her relay members in the 4x100 helped them come first in Bay League finals and lead them to prelims.

“We did as well as we did because we finally have a set team and have learned to work with one another,” Hardemion said.

“And since I’m first leg I have been working on getting out on the blocks to put our relay team in a good position.”

Junior Amber Gore is also looking forward to the prelims, and believes that it will go well.

“We have so much more depth this year, and we have great sprints in addition to being known for our distance program,” Gore said.

They will be sending more sprinters than distance runners this time around.

“We work hard and the fact that we are such good friends makes it much easier to work hard,” Gore said. “Relays especially make you want to work harder for your teammates and not just yourself.”

PHOTO BY KAMILLA AUROUGH

Lacrosse loses playoff opener, finishes season

by Reema Saad

PHOTO BY AHMAD KABBANI

Body check. 1. Two players collide in a game against Santa Monica earlier this season.

2. An Redondo player carries the ball and shields it from a defender in the same game.

After losing 11-10 to Westlake, the boys lacrosse team is out of CIF. Although the players believe they played well, it wasn’t enough to get the win.

“I thought as a team we did pretty well.

We still had some slip ups that potentially cost us the game, but no one can play perfectly. We could have played a little smarter but at the end of the day it was a pretty good outing,” senior Harrison Faecher said.

Junior John Langford adds that he thought his performance was “solid,” but he still could have played even better.

“I could have done a lot better. A lot of the shots I took hit the pipes on the goal,” Langford said.

The team believes they did not meet all of their expectations for this season.

“Our expectations were the highest this program had in its history. We had a lot of returning players and a lot of talent,” Faecher said.

Junior Josh Williamson agrees that he thought the team was going to perform much better than it actually did.

“This season I thought was going to be the best season for Redondo lacrosse but it didn’t turn out the way I expected,” Wil-

liamson said.

With a few changes, Faecher believes that the team could have gone undefeated.

“I’m a little disappointed with my personal game and the team’s game. We easily could have went undefeated if we adjusted a few things, and personally I could have been more of a factor in the tight games and pushing through the fatigue,” Faecher said.

Looking towards improvement for next season, the team will have lowerclassmen step up and play to the best of their ability.

“We have a lot of guys coming back and some good talent on the JV team, so hopefully they can play some big roles these next few years,” Faecher said.

Langford also believes that there will be many expectations to come for the younger players.

“We have a good amount of skilled players both offensively and defensively graduating this year which forces younger guys to step up and fill some big shoes. The great coach who built this program resigned and it’s going take some time for our guys to adjust to a new system under a new staff, but in the end we can still compete because we have good talent staying,” Langford said.

SPORTS . 17

On to the playoffs after a big win The baseball team beat Peninsula 3-1 thanks to “stellar” pitching and “strong” teamwork

by Jason Fong

This Tuesday, boys baseball played Penninsula High School and won the game 3-1 while also clinching a playoff spot.

According to senior Cassius Hamm, Penninsula was one of the stronger teams in the Bay League.

“Penninsula’s a good team. They were 20-5 going into the game, ” Hamm said.

According to Senior Tyler Comer, Hamm played a large role in the team’s success.

“Hamm pitched seven almost scoreless innings for us against a solid team. He looked really good in the game,” Comer said.

“If he continues to pitch like this, we could go really far.”

By winning yesterday’s game, the team has clinched a spot in the upcoming playoffs. But, the upcoming game determines the team’s place in league and seeding in the playoffs.

“If we lose our next game, we’ll place third in league but still qualify for the playoffs,” Hamm said.

“If we win, we’ll have a higher seeding and be much better off going into the playoffs.”

Hamm believes the team is feeling excited about its finish but still intent on beating Penninsula.

“We’re pretty happy with taking 3rd, but we are still hungry to beat Penn because we’ve lost to them in the past few years,” Hamm said.

According to Hamm, the team has developed a strong rivalry with Penn.

“There’s definitely a rivalry there. We’ve gotten into a couple of bench clearers with

1.

2.

Can’t stop the home runs. 1. Senior Cain Castor catches the ball at first base. 2. Junior Brady Dorn takes a swing. 3.

Senior Cassius Hamm salutes his fellow teammates

them over the past couple of years,” Hamm said.

Hamm attributes the team’s success to their ability as a team to work together.

“Our greatest strength is definitely our teamwork. We did really well as a team.

This season has definitely been one of our

best team efforts,” Hamm said.

“Compared to the last few years, we’ve really bonded as a team.”

According to Cassius Hamm, the team’s mindset is to remain confident in its chances of playing well.

“We have to think that we’re better than

3.

PHOTOS BY TED CAVUS

the other teams, and hopefully our play will show it,” Hamm said.

According to Hamm, the team’s goal is to win a CIF championship.

As stated by Hamm, the team feels “confident” about the team’s chances of “getting pretty far” in the playoffs.

Girls Lacrosse goes undefeated in league this season

The team had an overall “great” season; girls were Bay League champions for the seventh consecutive year

by Christopher Paludi

Ending their season in the semi-finals of CIF, the girls lacrosse team had a “pretty strong” year.

According to junior Kayla Manuum, the girls went undefeated in their league this season and proved that as a team they are a force to be reckoned with.

“This season we played very well. In terms of game record, we went undefeated in league and 14-4 overall. As a whole this season has proven that our team has stepped up our skill level and is ready to start playing some tougher competition, like Mater Dei and Trabuco Hill. Coach Borgia scheduled more games against tougher opponents because he knew this year we would be a very

18 . SPORTS

good team. And I think we’ve proven in the South Bay our dominance in league,” Maanum said.

After losing to Agoura by one goal in the “intense” semi-final game, the players hope improve and come back stronger next season.

“Next season we hope to go undefeated in league again and become Bay League Champs for the 7th year in a row. We only have four seniors leaving, and our bench is really deep, so we expect to be as successful, if not more, next year. So next year I’m hoping for a rematch against Agora and hopefully winning CIF North Division. Also, I hope we continue playing competitive nonleague teams in order to learn and heighten our game,” Manuum said.

Individually, the team’s defensive and offensive players have both individually improved from last year.

“In comparison to last year, our defense got a lot stronger and learned how to be more aggressive for the ball. For offense, we really improved on our stick skills, so that helped us too,” senior Caitie Lowkeen said.

While the team has been improving technically, they’ve also been building stronger friendships with each other.

“We had a team bonding before season, and we’ve also had off-season lacrosse, so we would have team bonding days at practice.

We’re all really close this year because there’s not really a lot of cliques on the team,” Lowkeen said.

The team members hope to win against

more difficult teams next year now that they are aware of what they need to work on.

“We definitely could’ve improved on consistency, that is playing our A-game for the entire 50 minutes. We tended to start off slow and pick up our momentum by the end of the first half, which is something we want to improve on for next season,” Manuum said.

Overall, the team had a “successful” season and is ready to come back next year with even more momentum.

“We had a really strong defense this year and a deep bench,” Manuum said. “But the strength is that all of us, attack, mid or defense-bench included, have improved defensive play and ball transitions, which has been the key to success.”

High expectations for next season Swim did exceptionally well in Bay League Finals; girls placed second and boys fourth

by Caterina Hyneman

PHOTOS BY TED CAVUS

“Viva Jaws.” 1. Sophomore Rodrigo Gutierrez competes in the 100 m breatstroke at the Bay League finals last Friday.

by Christopher Paludi

Last week’s Bay League Finals saw RUHS’s varsity swim team exceed expectations and end their season on a high note.

“The girls team placed second; the guys team placed fourth,” junior Nina Gomez said. “Last year, girls varsity placed last, so we did a lot better than last year.”

The team’s improvement from last year was due to their work ethic and talent in the pool.

“We didn’t expect to place higher than last year, but we also aren’t exactly surprised because we put in a lot of hard work this season,” sophomore Rodrigo Gutierrez said.

“We have some amazing swimmers and an amazing girls’ varsity team with some exceptional freshmen. So while we didn’t expect to do this well, we definitely deserve it because of the sheer effort and time we put into this season.”

Despite their recent successful finale, the team only strokes forward.

“Placing second and fourth raises our expectations for next year,” Gutierrez said.

“We know we can do well and hope we can do even better, and we are going to use that as a motivation to push ourselves even harder next year.”

Senior Tanner Childs believes that motivation and the youth of the team will allow them to elevate their performance even further in the future.

“We had a good season, good times and a great team,” said Childs. “We placed well last week. Coming off of this success, our young team is just going to get better for the next few years.”

Pausing for reflection allows the swimmers to realize how far they’ve come this season not only as swimmers but as teammates.

“Looking back on the season we’ve realized how all of these arduous drills and

Setting up a win

Boys tennis misses CIF

exercises that we did in the pool paid off,” Gutierrez said. “We’re thankful for the support of our coaching staff and our team to get through the season to reap the rewards.”

The inherent individual nature of swim is put aside for RUHS’s team.

Cade Bruno said, “Swim’s brought us all closer together-freshmen and sophomores and juniors and seniors-into one swim team made up of individual swimmers who aren’t just teammates but friends.”

While RUHS’s swimmers did well for themselves, Gutierrez also puts the emphasis on the success of the team this year.

“Swimming is a sport we’ve put a lot of work into, and we love it,” Gutierrez said.

“It’s a team effort where we bond through going through the incredibly difficult season together, and we support and push each other. It was a successful season individually for many of us, but the Redondo Union High School swim team was amazing.”

After a “pretty decent season,” full of successful changes in the lineup, the boys’ tennis team fell short of qualifying for CIF. “I feel that we did the best we could do in the bay league. Although we didn’t make CIF, I still think we tried our best,” said senior Jack Jarvis. “I was really happy with the season, and our coach was really supportive whether we won or lost.”

With only one returning player, the team came together and vastly “improved” as the year went on. However, more improvements could have been made.

“We could have practiced more strategy,” said Jarvis. “The Bay League was way too strong for both our doubles and singles lineup.”

The team displayed great strengths this year as well.

“We really improved, and our strategies got much better,” said junior Jared Hiram.

Although the season is over, it has created great memories for the team.

“I had a spiritual journey during a tennis game,” said Hiram. “My partner and I were playing Peninsula, and I was praying that we would win. We won 7-6 in a tiebreak and we were the only win on the team.”

“A highlight of the season was getting two games off PV,” said Jarvis. “We played doubles and beat the number 2 and number 3 doubles players.”

After playing his final season with RUHS, Jarvis’ advises next year’s team to “just keep practicing, and try to keep positive.”

Hiram will be returning next year and is optimistic about the outcome.

“I am not looking forward to people working harder and maybe finding more concrete doubles teams. I’m proud of how we played and we can only get better.”

Boys volleyball’s CIF win against Alemany helped prepare them for yesterday’s match against Thousand Oaks

2.

by Joseph Blakely

1.

PHOTOS BY MATT YONEMURA

Bringing the heat. 1. Senior Vincent Pizzuti goes for a kill at the home game vs. Alemany. 2. The boys come together in a team huddle before the game.

The RUHS boys volleyball team won their CIF game on Tuesday.

One of the contributing factors to the win was the team’s determination.

“We really pulled together as a team to get the victory,” senior Tyler Bird said.

There were several notable moves that gave the team an extra boost to victory.

“Vinny’s block along with some others provided us with a big momentum boost, allowing for some separation in certain matches,”senior Logan Gehman said.

Even though the team won, there are still areas which can be cleaned up.

“For next time I think we can always work on communication and being great teammates to everyone,” Logan said. “ We dropped a third set, but it made us want to come back and finish the match as quickly as possible.”

The win provided needed energy for the next CIF game on Thursday.

“We will learn to not let up on teams until it is over,” Bird said. “We need to stay focused for the entire match and not drop a set. We need to work even harder in the next games.”

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19

Faster than lightning

Senior Ryan Patrick finishes off his last track season undefeated

by Jason Clebowicz PHOTO BY CHANDLER ROISS

20 . SPORTS

“Track has become my passion throughout high school ever since I started freshman year. I feel this way because its very fun and rewarding to succeed in track, and it takes up a huge majority of my life. But its worth it,” Patrick said.

Patrick competes in the 100 meter dash, 200 meter dash and 4x100 relay.

According to Patrick, people often don’t see him as your typical sprinter, but their views change once he starts running and shows off his speed.

“I’m always driven to show people my talent. A lot of people look at me and don’t suspect me to be a sprinter and are surprised to see me run that fast,” Patrick said.

Despite great success, track hasn’t always been easy for Patrick. Every day is a challenge and he still remembers the difficulty from first day he joined.

“On the first day of track, I remember having to do so many lunges and frog jumps I almost had to stop. It really tested me if I wanted to stay, and I did. I think I made the right choice,” Patrick said.

He continued.

“In track there hasn’t been many easy days. Some days can be extremely challenging and even exhausting, but I make sure to

always come out prepared for whatever the day might bring,” Patrick said.

Patrick once pulled his hamstring, whichhe recalls as one of his biggest struggles.

“I pulled my hamstring last year, and it was pretty rough because I couldn’t run for the rest of the season. I just had to learn to deal with pain and just run on it. And eventually it got better. But I couldn’t do things as best as I could before,” Patrick said.

“

I’m always driven to show people my talent. A lot of people look at me and don’t suspect me as a sprinter and are surprised to see me run that fast.

– RYAN PATRICK

“

As he settles into a crouched, tight position the gun sounds; he runs, feeling the soft grazes of wind become more violent as he gains speed. He looks to either side of him and sees other runners drift off out of sight behind him. He crosses the line, and is crowned victor. For senior Ryan Patrick, this was the story of his last season on the RUHS varsity track team.

Patrick is undefeated in Bay League, a milestone he says will be remembered for years to come.

“Going undefeated this year is something I’m really proud of, and I think when I go to college and beyond it will be something I will never forget,” Patrick said.

According to Patrick, the key to his success this year was not being extremely physical, but his natural ability to “run like hell.”

“My biggest strength when I step on to the track is my speed. Other runners might have more muscle mass but I’m just faster.

When I used to play soccer, it helped me develop my ability to run fast, which has helped me in track,” Patrick said.

Since Patrick’s freshman year, track has become more than just a sport; it has become a growing passion and an outlet to pour hours of his time into.

For the 4x100 relay, Patrick enjoys the company and competition of his teammates. He believes that they run together in harmony which gives them an edge over other schools.

“It feels good knowing your teammates are running the best they can, and when

they hand me the baton I always have a good lead. They always make sure to be there for me at practice to make sure I keep my focus and maintain harmony,” Patrick said.

Patrick had a close win at bay league finals, but he won by a fraction of a second.

“My last 100 race at Bay League finals, I thought I was going to get second because there was a guy from PV that was a little bit ahead of me, but I pushed through to the end and barely beat him by .03 of a second,” Patrick said.

Before every meet, Patrick maintains a ritual of getting a greater amount of sleep.

“I make sure the night before any big meet to got to bed early to get a good night sleep. I just try and get as much sleep as possible so that I can be well rested and prepared for the next day,” Patrick said.

Track has been a portal for Patrick in which he can escape his daily life, and it has become something difficult but influential in his life. “tTrack has been difficult over the years but rewarding. It was happy at the end but it’s a struggle to get there. But I think it was completely worth it,” Patrick said. “I try to stay focused and try to stay focused to try to succeed.”