April 2011 Issue by The Harvard-Westlake Chronicle

hopping the pond Physics teacher Karen Hutchison will trade places with an Eton College physics teacher for the 2011-2012 school year.

a way with notes

Kevin Schwarzwald ’11, a violinist, pianist and composer, conducted a piece he wrote at last night’s symphony concert.

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Harvard-Westlake School Los Angeles, CA Volume XX Issue VIII chronicle.hw.com

School OKs prom with conditions By Jordan Freisleben and

Lin shows art, advocates environmental awareness By Saj Sri-Kumar Architect Maya Lin spoke about her artwork and environmental activism in a speech to the Upper School on Monday. Lin described her large-scale outdoor sculptures. “I’m drawn to social, political and cultural issues,” Lin told the audience. Many of Lin’s works involved working with the natural environment in a particular area. One of her larger works, the restoration of Lewis and Clark’s trail throughout the Pacific Northwest, involved moving parking lots and buildings to make the landscape resemble what it looked like when Lewis and Clark first explored the area. “As an artist, I’m hopefully getting you to realize what’s missing,” she said. Lin did not discuss her most wellknown work, the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, referring to it only

as a “student project.” A large portion of Lin’s speech was dedicated to her environmental activism project, named “What is Missing?” She referred to the project as her “fifth and final memorial.” The project seeks to reverse the trend of mass extinctions among many species in the wild by reducing human impact on habitats. “It’s an issue of land use and consumption,” she said. Lin was the 11th speaker of the Brown Family Speaker series, which was established in 2000 by Abbott and Linda Brown (Russell ’94, David ’96) to bring a notable speaker to the school each year. A reception was held after the assembly in Feldman-Horn Art Gallery, where copies of Lin’s book were available for purchase. Despite the surplus of seats available, students who were not enrolled in an advanced art class were prohibited from attending or purchasing copies of the book.

saj sri-kumar/chronicle

chloe lister/chronicle

save the planeT: Vietnam Veterans Memorial architect Maya Lin lunched with Katie Speidel ’11 and other visual art students, top, after speaking at an upper school assembly, bottom. Her most recent project, “What is Missing?” aims to raise awareness about humans’ impact on the environment.

Panel urges parents to combat teen drinking By Rebecca Nussbaum Parents are being asked to help combat a binge drinking culture at the Upper School in light of the hospitalization of six intoxicated students at the unauthorized semiformal afterparty in January, a record number of parents at April 20’s Harvard-Westlake Parents Association board meeting were told. The school has a plan to educate parents, provide parental support groups and encourage safe house contracts so parents can converse with their children about drugs and alcohol to prevent students from making poor choices, Dean Rose-Ellen Racanelli said. The school will also give all parents a copy of a Community of Concern drug and alcohol prevention booklet

by the end of the summer, Head of Upper School Harry Salamandra said. “It will give all of us a common platform,” Salamandra said, and ensure that parnathanson ’s/chronicle ents are asking Harry Salamandra the same questions about the safety of their children. Dean Tamar Adegbile told parents that students have been actively brainstorming and discussing how to prevent another dangerous situation like afterparty. “Our Prefect Council has been amaz-

ing and very impressive in galvanizing their peers and really helping to lead the discussion about what can we do to change the culture,” she said. Former English teacher, writer and columnist for The Atlantic and the New Yorker Caitlin Flanagan (Patrick Hudnut ’16) said that the school has made its stance against binge drinking perfectly clear and that it is now up to parents to present an equally strong front to their children. “Schools are off the hook here,” Flanagan said. She noted that Head of School Jeanne Huybrechts sent every parent a letter warning them of the annual unofficial afterparty and the drugs and alcohol that accompany it, and yet parsee HWPA, A7

Daniel Rothberg

Seniors and their parents must sign a pledge of good behavior to buy tickets for the May 14 Prom at the Renaissance Hotel, Prefects announced at the senior class meeting last week. The fate of prom was in jeopardy after students went to the hospital as a result of excessive drinking at the unauthorized semiformal afterparty in January. The pledge warns that students will receive a minimum punishment of a one-day suspension if they arrive at prom intoxicated, plan or attend an afterparty at a non-residential venue, “occupy” a room in the Renaissance Hotel during prom weekend or if alcohol or drugs are found in their limo. The one-day suspension punishment is reportable to colleges, Prefect Council adviser and Upper School Dean Tamar Adegbile said. “It has given us an opportunity to say if somebody does violate it or breaks some of the rules, we’re going to suspend them, and that does mean we’re going to have to notify colleges, and we don’t want to be in that position,” Head of Upper School Harry Salamandra said. Head of School Jeanne Huybrechts said that a similar agreement has been used for senior retreat. “This seems to be a workable model for senior retreat in that students who participate in senior retreat are promising in advance that they will not drink or get in trouble,” Huybrechts said. The pledge ends with students promising to “act responsibly” throughout the night. “I was surprised at how far the students were willing to go. I wasn’t sure they would be, which I guess says that the kids as a whole, this class, is more concerned about the safety of their peers that maybe I would have given see Prom, A8

INSIDE Chopsticks and Matzo: Multiethnic students experience different cultures when they are with different sides of their family.

B4 Q&A: KC Cord ’11 and Hilary King ’11 run in record-setting relays after playing key roles for winter sports teams.

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The Chronicle Wednesday, April 27, 2011 Volume XX Issue VIII

printed with permission of mark geiger

flame fighter: English teacher Malina Mamagonian was one of the faculty members who participated in the Community Emergency Response Team training

news

printed with permission of sam wolk

during spring break. In addition to putting out fires, the participants learned search and rescue tactics and first aid procedures. For more coverage, see page A11.

This year, a Southeast college tour and a Midwest college tour were offered together for the first time. Deans say they may never again organize a northeast college tour.

More than 20 student DJs and a weekly teacher guest DJ broadcast shows on a student-created online radio station, KHWS.

Seniors skipped out on a total of 744 classes last Wednesday for senior ditch day.

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campaign managers: Jake Schapiro ’12 and Vivien Mao ’12 jokingly campaign for Max Lubkeman, who moved to Switzerland last year, for senior prefect. Prefect Rishi Bagrodia ’12 permitted this campaigning to happen.

Three students visiting Washington University in St. Louis experienced the city’s strongest tornado since 1967.

Long distance candidate By Eli Haims

Asian students react to Amy Chua’s philosophy about Asian “tiger mothers.”

Whether they are covering current fashion trends or the college process, students express themselves by writing blogs.

sports

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repRINTED WITH PERMISSION of AP

Daniel Rothberg’s ’11 column recounts his transformation into a Wolverine fan during his senior year.

Varsity baseball, led by star pitcher Lucas Giolito ’12, sits behind only Chaminade in the league standings.

Strength coach Lindsey Valenzuela is also a professional weightlifter who aspires to make the Olympics.

Jake Schapiro ’12 and Vivien Mao ’12 held a Swiss flag over the table where voting for senior prefects took place on April 20. The duo, along with Matt Mantel ’12, urged voters to cast write-in ballots for Max Lubkeman, who served as a class senator at the Middle School and as a sophomore prefect. Lubkeman moved to Switzerland at the end of his sophomore year. Schapiro said that there was a general enthusiasm for Lubkeman’s campaign and that “people were just yelling while I was there for the fun of it.” Campaigning by candidates who were actually running for prefect was forbidden; however, Junior Prefect Rishi Bagrodia, who was running the voting booth at the time of the flag waving, allowed the campaigning for Lubkeman to continue, saying that it was “all in good humor.” In a Facebook comment on a picture of Schapiro and Mao waving the flag, Lubkeman thanked the two for their support. “Honestly this is so awesome. Thank you for the representation,” Lubkeman said. The act had very little planning, Schapiro said. The flag had been waved during class meeting multiple times before the election to represent Lubkeman. “Well, Matt and I had the flag already because we bought it for when we had big class meeting just to wave it as a joke and be like ‘Max, yeah Max,’” Schapiro said, adding that the juniors should expect the flag to reappear. Although Lubkeman didn’t win the election, Schapiro believes that he received a decent number of votes. “I actually didn’t vote for him despite my campaigning, but I actually know people that did, which is pretty funny,” he said.

April 27, 2011

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Congressman to address junior class By Chloe Lister

Eli Haims/chronicle

Disney tunes: Composer Randy Newman (Patrick ’10, Alice ’11) sings his Academy Award-nominated song “You’ve Got a Friend in Me” from the Disney-Pixar movie “Toy Story” in Ted Walch’s Cinema Studies class on Monday.

Newman plays for Cinema Studies classes By Catherine Wang Grammy and Academy Award-winning artist Randy Newman (Erik ’88, John ’96, Patrick ’10 and Alice ’11) taught three Cinema Studies classes Monday April 25. He taught both Cinema Studies I sections’ double period classes, one of which met during first and second period and the other which met during seventh and eighth period. Newman’s classes were open to the entire school community. He met with Directed Studies students during fifth period. Cinema Studies teacher Ted Walch, who is a friend of Newman, began each of the double period classes by showing clips from the films “Chinatown,” “Footlight Parade” and “Wuthering Heights.” After each clip, Newman commented on each film’s music. “Normally when you watch movies, you think about the directors,” Cinema Studies student Jamie Ember ’12 said. “But when watching the clips with him, I started to listen to the music and realize how important the music is for the movie.” Walch then showed the class clips of films Newman wrote music for, and Newman spoke about his song-writing experiences. “While we learn that music is important, we don’t

spend that much time on it,” Cinema Studies student Halle Levitt ‘12 said. “It was interesting to hear the music side from someone who has such a big influence and has done such amazing things in that world.” Walch showed clips from “The Natural,” which Newman called “melodrama at its finest.” “I went to places I wouldn’t normally go,” he said. “In a song I would never use six trumpets and eight horns but there it was and it was successful.” Newman spoke about writing for six Disney-Pixar films (“Monsters, Inc.,” “A Bug’s Life,” “The Princess and the Frog,” “Toy Story,” “Toy Story 2” and “Toy Story 3”) after Walch showed clips from “Toy Story 2.” “Those are the best pictures I’ve done, in my opinion, the best quality,” he said of the Pixar films he wrote for. “It’s adult emotion in all of them.” He finished the class playing the piano and singing “You’ve Got a Friend in Me,” “I Love L.A.” and “Short People.” “It was really amazing to hear the person who wrote the music perform it himself,” Levitt said. “Especially to hear ‘You’ve Got a Friend in Me,’ music I’ve grown up with.” “[Newman] really makes a connection with you,” Ember said, “He’s really funny and really adorable. He’s a really amazing teacher, and he makes you want to keep listening.”

Congressman Brad Sherman will speak in the junior class meeting fifth period today. Sherman, a Democrat, represents the 27th Congressional district, which includes the San Gpoaccess.gov Fernando Valley cities Brad Sherman of Burbank, Calabasas, Hidden Hills and San Fernando as well as the Valley portion of the City of Los Angeles. “We got to know him a year and a half ago when we were building O’Malley Family Field [the school’s baseball field], and he and his staff were helpful with the Army Corps of Engineers,” President Tom Hudnut said. Sherman, in his eighth term in office, has served in the United States House of Representatives since 1997. During his congressional career, Sherman is best known for criticizing the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, commonly referred to as the bailout of the U.S. financial system, and for leading the House revolt against that act. This led the Washington Post to call him “spectacularly unpopular with both the Republican and Democratic leaderships, not to mention K Street [lobbyists].” Sherman serves on the Committee on Financial Services, in the Capital Markets, Insurance, and Government-Sponsored Enterprises subcom,ittee and the subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity. He also serves on the Committee on Foreign Affairs in subcommittees on Terrorism, Nonproliferation and Trade and another on Asia and the Pacific. “[Sherman is] a frequent guest on the talk shows – ‘Meet The Press’, ‘Face The Nation’, etc. – because he’s one of the really smart people in Congress and he understands things like the federal budget and terrorism,” Hudnut said.

Oxelson accepts counseling Leading the class position at Horace Mann School By Alice Phillips Upper School Dean Canh Oxelson will leave at the end of this school year to become Horace Mann School’s Director of College Counseling. “There were only a few opportunities that I would’ve jumped at,” Oxelson said. “One would be a great college admissions job, which I’ve looked at in the past, and the other would be to be a director of college counseling at a school like Horace Mann.” Oxelson will not have advisees in his first year at Horace Mann, which is located in New York City, in order to both assimilate into the Horace Mann advising culture and ensure that he is available to rising seniors at HarvardWestlake during application season. “Obviously, we will be very careful on who we choose to fill that spot,” Head of Upper School Harry Salamandra said. “I do know that Mr. Oxelson has already signed on to write [college recommendations] for his kids… so at least the initial portion of the [recommendation] that goes off to colleges will be from him, supplemented by whoever else they’ll be getting.” “I do understand that kids get a little nervous about having to build a new relationship with the dean,” Oxelson said. “[Success in the college process] doesn’t have as much to do with that relationship as kids think… It’s more about the kid knowing about himself and what schools are good fits for him.” Unlike at Harvard-Westlake, Hor-

ace Mann’s College Counseling office and Academic Advising office are two separate entities. A Horace Mann student would go to the academic adviser for help in choosing courses, then walk nathanson ’s/chronicle across the hall to Canh Oxelson make sure the college counselor approves, Oxelson said. “Part of the reason Horace Mann was interested in me was because I had experience in an environment where those two things were aligned, and they’re looking to align those two things,” he said. “This was a great challenge to try and help them do that.” As a K-12 school, Horace Mann must counsel students and parents through the process from a very young age, presenting challenges for the Director of College Counseling. Parents of elementary age children may not need to know very much about the process even though they will ask, he said. “People have said to me, ‘You think Harvard-Westlake parents are tough, what about those parents in New York City?’” Oxelson came to Harvard-Westlake eight years ago from the University of Pennsylvania’s Undergraduate Admissions office following stints at the University of San Francisco, St. Mary’s College and the University of California Santa Cruz.

The top 20 percent of the senior class qualified for induction into the Harvard-Westlake chapter of the Cum Laude Society. Fifty-seven students will be inducted in a ceremony on May 16.

Chase Basich

Christine Kanoff

Jennifer Plotkin

Gabe Benjamin

Rachel Katz

Danielle Salka

Austin Block

Courtney Kelly

Ben Saunders

Melanie Borinstein

Alex Knight

Alex Scharch

Jordan Bryan

Ben Kogan

Josh Schwartz

Elizabeth Christman

Erin Landau

Kevin Schwarzwald

Ellie Diamant

David Lehoang

Chelsea Shannon

Ben Dreier

Austin Lewis

Brian Shultz

Nick Duckwiler

Nick Lieberman

Jake Sonnenberg

Sarah Fiskin

Jenny Lin

Jeffrey Sperling

Mary Rose Fissinger

Shawn Ma

Ben Sprung-Keyser

Jordan Freisleben

Stephanie Maldonado

Charlie Stigler

Melissa Gertler

Alex Markes

Ben-Han Sung

Jessie Goldman

James Myerson

Jamie Temko

Robby Goldman

Vivek Pandrangi

Catherine Wang

Joe Green

Katie Park

Colette Woo

Chris Holthouse

Jack Petok

Tiana Woolridge

Hanna Huang

Alice Phillips

Jeremy Work

Alexander Jaffe

Ben Platt

Brandon Zeiden Source: Michelle Bracken Graphic By Saj Sri-Kumar

A4 News

April 27, 2011

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Hutchinson to go to Eton in job swap

Art Talk

By Daniel Rothberg Physics teacher Karen Hutchison will swap posts with a physics teacher from Eton College in England next year through the Fulbright Teacher Exchange Program. “It’s the first ever nathanson ’s/chronicle [teacher exchange at HarKaren vard-Westlake],” Head of Hutchison School Jeanne Huybrechts said. “It’s a great opportunity for both teachers, and it’s really a great opportunity for both schools.” Founded in 1440, Eton is an all-boys independent boarding school that has earned a reputation for educating some of the world’s most notable historical figures, including Britain’s princes William and Harry, authors Aldous Huxley and George Orwell and poet Percy Shelley. “Eton is like Harvard-Westlake,” Hutchison said. “It’s very challenging, it’s got a good reputation and the students all go on to university.” Eton teacher Joe Dangerfield said in an email that he hopes to learn more about the college preparatory process in the United States while teaching physics at HarvardWestlake. “The modes of examination and methods of university preparation that exist within the United States, and how they compare with [those in] the United Kingdom, are areas of real professional interest to me,” he said. “U.S. universities are increasingly popular amongst boys leaving Eton College, and I hope to return much better equipped to support our students in this regard.” Dangerfield said he is interested in learning different teaching approaches from HarvardWestlake faculty. Dangerfield also said he expects that Harvard-Westlake students will be similar to those in Eton, but that the format of the school day will be very different. “Not wearing white-tie to work for a year will make a refreshing change,” Dangerfield said. “Ms. Hutchison informs me that Hawaiian shirts are considered more appropriate, so I will need to do some shopping before I start.”

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combining cultures: Bari Kumar shares his experience as an artist with students in Drawing and Painting I on Monday. Kumar, originally from India, explained how he tries to incorporate his native Indian culture with American pop culture, which in itself, Kumar says, is a mesh of the different cultures of the world.

School to work with Feinstein to incorporate music into classes By Vivien Mao

The Michael Feinstein Foundation and Harvard-Westlake faculty are joining together to assemble a potentially nationwide project to make American music more accessible to students. Together with entertainer Michael Feinstein, who performed at an assembly on Feb. 7, the History and Performing Arts departments and President of School Thomas C. Hudnut have met to discuss ideas for future goals of the effort. Feinstein is known for being an avid American music fan and performer. He has performed more than 150 shows per year and serves on the Library of Congress’ National Sound Recording Advisory Board, whose purpose is to protect America’s musical heritage. The Michael Feinstein Foundation has a similar purpose. Its mission statement is “to bring the music of the Great American Songbook, [a uniquely American collection of music, lyrics, culture, and history, of Broadway and other musical theatre, Hollywood musicals

2011-2012 Prefect Council

Evan Brown ’12 and Nicole Hirschhorn ’12 are in a run-off for the last senior prefect position. Results will be posted this afternoon at chronicle.hw.com. Head Prefects

Rishi Bagrodia Brooke Levin Senior Prefects

Hank Doughan David Olodort

Katie Price

Junior Prefects

Michael Wagmeister

Sam Wolk

Evan Brown or Nicole Hirschhorn

Morgan Hallock Katie Lim

Photos by Nathanson’s Graphic by wendy chen, keane muraoka-robertson and michael sugerman

and Tin Pan Alley from the 1920s to 1960], to young people today, and to preserve it for future generations.” The foundation hopes to first form a committee of school teachers who can help to brainstorm ideas about how to integrate more music into students’ lives. History teachers Greg Gonzalez and Francine Werner are on the current committee that meets with officers from the foundation. “I’ve always wanted to incorporate music and the Great American Songbook into our courses,” Gonzalez said. Hudnut is leading the project, but so far only one meeting has been held for brainstorming, and as of now there have been no definitive results. “I mostly incorporate music into the Europe class when I can, but for the juniors I throw in a little Aaron Copeland for the 1920s,” Gonzalez said. Though the project is still in its early stages, the goal going forward is to create a part of an American History curriculum that would focus on American musical culture.

nathanson ’s/chronicle

Greg Gonzalez

nathanson ’s/chronicle

Francine Werner

Illness forces LauGel to retire after 20 years

By Nika Madyoon

fectionist, as well as an artistic visionary always “Just say ‘jello’,” he working to improve the would say. “If you forscope of the department.” get my name, just say She recalled students ‘GelL auGelL auGelL auvisiting LauGel’s office for Gel.’” advice and said he conAndrew LauGel taught nected with his students for 20 years in the Middle “on a sweet and personal School Visual Arts delevel.” nathanson ’s/chronicle partment, which he head- Andrew LauGel LauGel expressed his ed for nine years. gratitude to the school Although trained as community for its “supa sculptor, he was instrumental in port and positive communicacreating the photography program. tions” and said he was thankful Illness forced his retirement this for all of the help he has received. spring. He said the community had helped LauGel told the Chronicle in an him pack his apartment, give away email last weekend that he became some of his possessions and renew ill while driving near school several his vows. months ago and was rushed to the “Your coming together so sweethospital. ly enriches these transitions for me, He underwent emergency neu- and I deeply thank you,” he said. rosurgery after being diagnosed LauGel offered some advice on with brain tumors. life, saying that it didn’t always He lived with a friend in Los An- turn out to be how one expects it geles for two months and was un- to be. able to return to work. “Some of us will struggle more He has moved to Connecticut to than others, but if you expect life live with his sister, Karen LauGel. to be about peace and love, it will “Many people consider the art be,” he said. department and Mr. LauGel to be “Work to benefit others and synonymous,” art teacher Robin you will live a compassionate life,” Miller said. he said. “May these blessings be Department head Brenda An- shared by all of us and may you all derson said LauGel “was a per- celebrate peace, life and wisdom.”

April 27, 2011

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‘Slow down for Julia’ founders win award By Luke Holthouse

printed with permission of emma gerber

the quakers: Jono Wagmeister ’09, center, tours Maddy Baxter ’12, far left, Jordan Gavens ’12, Anabel Pasarow ’12, Cami de Ry ’12, and Sophie Turner ’12, around the University of Pennsylvania. Both the Spider and the Bison college tours began in Philadelphia and continued south and west, respectively, to see about a dozen other schools.

Deans likely to continue spring break tours to Midwestern, Southern schools By Lara Sokoloff The upper school deans were pleased with this year’s spring break college tours, which did not include a Northeast tour for the first time. The school instead offered a Southern and a Midwestern tour, both tours that had been offered in past years but never in the same year, Upper School Jon Wimbish said. “We have a lot of kids that do what we call the ‘I-95’ tour, which is pretty easily replicated because it’s not far from Boston to New York,” Wimbish said. “In the trips that we did, we covered so many miles while still retaining what we like about college tours, in that we covered public, private, large, small, liberal arts, pre-professional, urban and rural schools. They were not easily, if at all, replicable.” Upper School Dean Vanna Cairns agreed that the school tour was essentially impossible for families to do on their own. “Families can do Boston and New York on their own … there’s just so much to see there,” she said. “But the variety and the distances we traveled, families could and would not duplicate.” Cairns also added that the tours included places that students were more likely to be admitted to. The tours did include some highly selective schools such as Duke, Georgetown, Northwestern and the University of Pennsylvania, Cairns said, but she no longer sees the point in including Harvard and Yale on the school tours. “If students are interested, they should look on their own with their families,” she said. “We thought that [our list of colleges] was serving the greater good.” Both Cairns and Wimbish said that the deans are looking to broaden the colleges students apply to. “Our students in general have some preconceived notions about the South, in particular,” Wimbish said.

“

“Seeing three schools in North Carolina, three in Virginia, one in Georgia and one in Tennessee really showed them that although these schools are in the South, they aren’t necessarily regional places where everyone is from the South. The people there are well educated.” Wimbish said that many students were “pleasantly surprised,” and he would not be shocked to see an increase in applications to the schools that were seen on the tour. “People often apply without having seen places like Vanderbilt or Emory,” he said. “They hear about them —Vanna Cairns and read about Upper School Dean them in the Fiske guide, but they never actually go there. Those are schools that might be number one on someone’s list had they seen them, but might be just another one added to the 50-50 list because they haven’t seen it.” “I wouldn’t be surprised to see more applications to the schools that we saw, but I also don’t think the New England schools will suffer,” Wimbish said. Tess Winebaum ’12 and Jamie West ’12 attended the Midwest and the Southern tours, respectively. Both were drawn to the variety that the school tours provided, they said. Both also agreed that meeting Harvard-Westlake alumni at these schools was the biggest benefit of the tour. “My favorite part was meeting with the alumni from each school because they were able to explain their transition from Harvard-Westlake to their current school,” West said. Cairns and Wimbish said that there was talk of extending the tours to include schools in Upstate New York. However, Cairns predicts that the tours will not include the highly selective schools ever again. “I think we’re sold on what we did this year,” she said. “There’s just no reason that we can think of to do Boston and New York ever again.”

we’re sold on what we did this year. There’s just no reason that we can think of to do boston and new york ever again.”

Chan to teach at Kingenstein Program for young educators By Sanjana Kucheria Middle school history teacher Stephen Chan is one of 75 teachers from around the world selected for the Kingenstein Program, where he will help beginning teachers to explore teaching styles, educational philosophies, educational issues and personal development. The Kingenstein Summer Institute is geared toward teachers who are in their second to fifth years of teaching. The teachers are drawn from independent schools across the country with a few from overseas. The program, held in Law-

renceville, N.J., is designed lead teacher, he will have to make teachers more different responsibilieffective leaders in their ties such as working with classrooms and schools. other history teachers at Through seminars, workthe program and leading shops and exercises, pardiscussion groups and curticipants are guided by riculum group sessions. education experts and Chan’s focus will be on master teachers. curriculum development, The Kingenstein Summeans of assessment and nathanson ’s/chronicle mer Institute lasts two Stephen Chan teaching methodology. weeks in late June and “I am looking forward early July. to meeting with teachAt the program, Chan will work ers from a variety of independent with other teachers and a set of schools,” Chan said. “It’s really “lead teachers” in different dis- discussing ideas and sharing techciplines. Chan will be working as niques that I am looking forward a “lead teacher” for history. As a to.”

Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky awarded Jake Feiler ’13, Eli Kogan ’13 and Max Theony ’13 the “Volunteer of the Year” award for their dedication to the “Slow Down for Julia” campaign. nathanson ’s/chronicle Yaroslavsky, also the SuJake Feiler ’13 perintendent of the third district of Los Angeles, presented the award at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion on April 11. The three boys started the community service project last year in memory of Julia Siegler ’14, who died at the age of 13 after she was hit by a car. The accident ocnathanson ’s/chronicle cured on the corner of SunEli Kogan ’13 set Boulevard and Cliffwood Avenue when Siegler was crossing Sunset to reach her school bus stop. Feiler, Kogan and Theony witnessed the accident from the school bus that Siegler was trying to catch. The goal of the “Slow Down For Julia” group is to raise money to promote safe nathanson ’s/chronicle driving standards and to reMax Theony ’13 member the life of Siegler. “We want people not just to slow down and think about what they’re doing while they’re driving, but in everyday actions just to slow down and think about how not everything they do is as important as it seems at the time,” Feiler said. The group has created a memorial at the site of the accident filled with pictures, candles and flowers and built a purple memorial bench by the bus stop. Last year, with the help of former Mayor of Los Angeles Richard Riordan, City Councilman Bill Rosendahl and Yaroslavsky, they used the money raised by the group to print out 20,000 flyers with safe driving tips for Los Angeles Police officers to hand out as well as to cut down a eucalyptus tree on the corner of Cliffwood and Sunset that may have made it difficult for drivers to see oncoming pedestrians crossing Sunset. “I’m humbled,” Theony said. “It furthers our cause and I fully support that. Even though it’s been over a year now [since the accident], we still want to carry on our message.”

Students to donate blood tomorrow By Megan Kawasaki The American Red Cross will run this school year’s second blood drive for faculty and students tomorrow in the Chalmers student lounge from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. With parental permission, students as young as 16 can donate blood while anyone over the age of 17 may do so without parental permission. However, the Red Cross requires individuals under the age of 18 to meet certain heightto-weight ratios before they can donate. These regulations are stricter than the 110 pound minimum for donors aged 18 or older. The drive is coordinated by the student-run Blood Drive Committee and Executive Assistant to the President Ann-Marie Whitman. “The importance of donating blood can’t be exaggerated enough,” Co-Chair of the Student Blood Drive Committee Justin Cohen ’11 said. “Millions of Americans need blood every year, which amounts to about one person every two seconds. By taking no more than an hour out of their day, students can save up to three lives, without even stepping off campus.” At last spring’s Red Cross blood drive, there were a record number of participants: 106 faculty, students and parents donated. This year, the goal is to come close to that number. In-season athletes have been asked not to donate any blood in accordance with the Red Cross’s safety suggestions.

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April 27, 2011

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inbrief Seniors solicit donations for class gift to school Seniors in the Student Alumni Association are collecting donations that will go toward the senior gift. The money will go to the Alumni Scholar Endowment Fund, a fund that provides financial aid for students at school. Later this month, members of the Student Alumni Association will volunteer at the Spring Alumni Phonathon, calling alumni to thank them for their donations, or to ask them to donate if they have not done so yet. —Wendy Chen

JCL competition tests abilities of Latin students Thirty-seven students took home 31 awards from the Junior Classical League convention at Miramonte High School in Orinda on April 8-10. Latin teachers Moss Pike, Paul Chenier, Derek Wilairat and Joyce Wagner chaperoned the trip. Students participated in activities that tested their Latin skills and athletic and creative abilities. Cole Jacobson ’15, Jonathan Sington ’14, and a team made up of David Lim ’13, Robbie Goldman ’11, Josh Lappen ’13 and Hannah Kaufman ’11 each took home various awards. —Elana Zeltser

Sign up forms released for annual Senior Retreat Sign up forms have been released for the senior retreat, which will take place from June 7-9 in Big Bear at Camp Cedar Lake. Currently, the student organizers are Chris Holthouse ’11, Melanie Borinstein ’11, David Olodort ’12 and Katie Lim ’13, but any seniors interested in planning the trip can join as well. —Elana Zeltser

Alumna to cover various physics topics at assembly A physicist will be speaking about nanotechnology at an optional assembly today. Ania Bleszynski Jayich’s ’94 lecture will also cover various quantum physics topics, including Quantum Mechanics and Nanostructures. Jayich won the L’Oréal U.S.A. Fellowship for Women in Science in 2008 while a postdoctoral fellow at Yale University. Following the assembly, Jayich will speak to John Feulner’s Advanced Placement Physics C: Mechanics classes. —Saj Sri-Kumar

Publications win awards at national convention Student publications won awards April 16 at the JEA/NSPA Spring National High School Journalism Convention in Anaheim. Four members of the Vox Populi staff and nine Chronicle staff members attended. Vox was honored as a finalist for the National Pacemaker. The Chronicle website won sixth place for its website in the “Publication Website Large School” category in Best of Show. Big Red won fourth place in the “Newspaper Special Edition” category. Stone Cutters won fourth place in the “Literary magazine” category. The middle school news magazine The Spectrum won second place in the “Junior High Newspaper” category. —Michael Sugerman

Printed with Permission of Victoria Pearson

Printed with Permission of Eliza Kellman

total immersion: Victoria Pearson ’12 paints in a park while studying abroad in Spain, left. Eliza Kellman ’12 swings with friends in a local Spanish park during her study abroad in Spain, right. School year aborad programs end in late May.

Record number of sophomores prepare to study abroad for their junior year By Gabby Franchina

and

Camille Shooshani

More students than ever before will attend the School Year Abroad program for the 2011-2012 school year. Seven current sophomores have committed to going to either Spain, France or China. In the past, only two to six students per year have studied abroad. “I think that kids have been coming back and telling their friends how great the program is and they’ve been getting really excited about it,” Director of Financial Aid Geoff Bird said. Bird, who organizes study abroad trips at Harvard-Westlake, credits the new surge of applicants to the SYA program to a growing confidence among students in leaving the “comfortable” Harvard-Westlake environment. “It takes a lot to drop everything and make new friends and adapt to the culture,” Bird said. The SYA program allows students to live with a European or Asian host family for the school year and completely immerse themselves in the culture of the country. Five students

will be attending the SYA program in Spain, Elana Stroud ’13 will attend the school in China and Ally White ’13 will be in France. “The program looked like an amazing, once-in-a-lifetime experience, and I knew if I didn’t apply, I would regret it,” Eli Kogan ’13 said. “The program would take my Spanish to another level, as well as help me grow as a person living across the world from my family and friends.” “I wanted to go because I love having new adventures, and I wanted to get a new perspective on life,” said Anna Wittenberg ’13, who will study in Spain along with Kogan, Conor Cook ’13, Allana Rivera ’13 and Eli Putnam ’13. Six other sophomores will attend semester schools. Tate Castro ’13, Leslie Dinkin ’13, Maya Landau ’13 and Gil Young ’13 will all be going to High Mountain Institute, where the focus will be on leadership skills and exploring the landscape of the Rocky Mountains. Zelda Wengrod ’13 will be attending The Mountain School, focusing on sustainable living and farming. Nick Edel ’13 will attend the Chewonki School, an outdoor immersion experience in Maine.

4 students launch online KHWS radio station By Allison Hamburger

Technical difficulties on KHWS (KHarvard-Westlake School), a new student-run Internet radio station, began at around 8 p.m. on Tuesday, April 19, three hours into its first night of live broadcasting. Student DJ Noah Weinman ’12 had just started his set with Gomez’s “Detroit Swing 66” when the station stopped responding. Bits of previous DJs’ playlists mixed with static and silence and the website’s preset message saying the station was unavailable took the place of Weinman’s commentaries and music. At 8:30 p.m., co-creator of KHWS Jackson Hudgins ’12 took over with DJ Matt Lee ’11. “Fresh off of 30 minutes of technical difficulties, this is Jackson Hudgins,” Hudgins said. “And Matt Lee,” Lee added. The two new DJs played more music with some success, but the station, hosted online by Live 365 Radio at khws. blogspot.com, still responded unreliably. Hudgins said that the issue was due to unlabeled MP3s that caused the system to think that multiple songs played in one hour were by the same artist or on the same album. Live 365 prevents broadcasters from playing more than one song from the same artist or the same album each hour so that broadcasters can avoid licensing the music. Because of the unknown tracks, the online station tried to shut down. “We averaged about 30 listeners for the first couple [DJ sets] and then once we started having technical difficulties it dropped down to about 15, but I’m pretty happy with that,” Hudgins said. “People continued to listen even as it was broadcasting static.” Finally, by 10:30 p.m., the station functioned fully. KHWS’s broadcasts on the subsequent Wednesday and Thursday evenings occurred without delays. The station received 450 listening hours in 18 hours of broadcasting.

Tune In Student DJs stream live music three days a week from 5 p.m. until midnight. The radio station features weekly guest teacher DJs and 20 student DJs. The weekly schedule is printed below. Tuesday

Thursday

Wednesday

5:00-6:00

Anna Wittenberg ’13 Anna Romanoff ’11 and Daniel Rothberg ’11

Joel Speilberger ’12

6:00-7:00

Evan Brown ’12

Steven Ring ’11

Daniel Sunshine ’13

7:00-8:00

Natalie Margolin ’12

English teacher Ariana Kelly

Gil Young ’13

8:00-9:00

Noah Weinman ’12

Sam Wolk ’13

Hank Doughan ’12

9:00-10:00

Jackson Hudgins ’12 Nick Lieberman ’11

Jamie Feiler ’12

10:00-11:00

Matt Lee ’11

Nora Kroopf ’12

Danny Goliger ’11

11:00-12:00

Henry Oman ’13

Wiley Webb ’12

Lucas Druz ’12 Source: Jackson Hudgins ’12 Graphic by Lara Sokoloff

Creators Hudgins, Jamie Feiler ’12, Nora Kroopf ’12 and Sam Wolk ’13 have worked since October to get the station up. It now broadcasts live Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 5 p.m. until midnight, featuring weekly guest teacher DJs and a total of 20 student DJs. Previously selected music streams continuously at all other times. For their hour-long time slots, the DJs select and introduce music in the genre of their choice. The creators plan to introduce live music performances in the next few weeks and eventually include live broadcasts of sporting events. One challenge getting the station on air was censorship, the founders said. Hudgins said that they must limit profanities in the music, which can be difficult for certain styles of music. However, the rule is somewhat open, Wolk said, in the same way that the Drama department can use expletives in performances. The administration does not

look over playlists, but Feiler, Hudgins, Kroopf and Wolk do supervise the other DJs’ selections. There have been three stations in the past decade, and the current KHWS was named as a tribute to the previous stations, which broadcasted over the radio using the call sign KHWS. KHWS is also available on the Live 365 iPhone app. DJs can broadcast from anywhere as long as they connect to the Internet with a microphone-equipped computer. They can both upload MP3s from iTunes and upload prerecorded commentaries. The four creators are confident that they will avoid any technical difficulties in the future. “It’s just going to get bigger,” Hudgins said. “I think really and truly [the first night] was as bad as it’s going ever to be.” “And it wasn’t even that bad,” Wolk said. “It gives us character.”

April 27, 2011

News A7

The

Chronicle

inbrief

Deans to host admissions directors from 40 colleges

Rebecca Nussbaum/chronicle

Alcohol awareness: Upper School Dean Rose-Ellen Racanelli, far left, Upper School Dean Tamar Adegbile, Head of Upper School Harry Salamandra and former English teacher and college counselor Caitlin Flanagan (Patrick Hudnut ’16) spoke at the Parents’ Association meeting about the student binge drinking in response to the hospitalization of students at semiformal.

Administration calls on parents to help change binge drinking culture at parties from HWPA, A1

damage of all that.” Attorney and Loyola Law School professor Laurie Levenents still willingly put their children in an unsafe environ- son (Solly ’06 and Havi ’08) suggested that parents use the ment. law as a tool to help them say no to their children. The drinking culture has changed dramatically over the “Contrary to the thought that I can parent my kids any past 25 years so that at parties today, students either abstain way I want, it’s not true,” Levenson said. “We live in a society from drinking any alcohol or drink with the goal of reach- and we have laws.” ing oblivion, Flanagan said. She said that these two extreme At the meeting, Levenson reviewed the laws pertaining mindsets reflect today’s extreme culture. to underage drinking. No one under the age of 21 can ei“It’s an extreme time,” she said. “Everything on the inter- ther drink or possess alcohol. No adult may provide drinks net is extreme, what they see, what they experience, and I to anyone under 21. Parents are held liable for any damages think the way they respond is in an extreme way.” caused by alcohol that they provided. Anyone under 21 with By allowing the binge drinking culture to exist, Flanagan any blood alcohol content will automatically lose his driver’s said that parents are failing the solicense for a year, and if someone is ber kids even more than the drinkers found driving with a blood alcohol themselves. content of .05, which is reached with “We’ve given our good kids the fewer than two gulps of beer, he can worst job—to clean up a lot of vomit,” be arrested for driving under the inshe said. “We say well, you’re the sober fluence. No one under 21 may buy or kids, make sure [the intoxicated kids] attempt to buy alcohol. No one may don’t die. That’s your night.” use a false ID. It is illegal to be a pasBoys have not really changed their senger in a car that has liquor in it if drinking habits while girls have quayou are under 21. It is illegal to break drupled their drinking over the past 40 curfew, she said. years, Flanagan said. Possible consequences of associa“Girls, for some reason, and there’s tion with alcohol include arrest, ath—Caitlin Flanagan letic disqualification, civil liability, lea lot of double standard here, but girls Former College Counselor gal fees, license revocation, fines, lost are the check on things,” she said. “They are the people who say ‘we’re college opportunities, lost job oppornot going to go too far in this way.’ And tunities, murder, and vehicular mannow you have girls drinking. It really changes the feeling of slaughter. the night.” “Let me tell you a little something about the police,” LevIt is unclear how the extreme drinking culture is affecting enson said. “When it comes to this area, they are class blind. adolescents emotionally and psychologically, Flanagan said. They really don’t care that your child goes to Harvard-West“We don’t know what it is like to come in on Monday lake. In fact, they might have an extra chart saying we got morning and have a test and a quiz, and everybody saw you another Harvard-Westlake kid.” do something really embarrassing, really shaming,” Flanagan It is biologically crucial to ensure that adolescents refrain said. “You did something sexual in front of people. Your hair from drinking. Twenty percent of all teenagers who begin was full of vomit. You said things, and everybody knows, and consuming alcohol at 15 years old will develop alcoholism at everybody Facebooked it and everybody texted it, and now some point in their lives, Salamandra said. you have to go to school. What’s that like?” “If you keep your kids sober until they go off to college, Flanagan notes the extreme pressure to get into college even if they do drink in college, you’ve still done a good job that students feel from themselves and their parents. because you’ve postponed that date for their first hard intoxi“Nowadays, you could do every single thing asked of you, cation, which is doing them a great biological favor,” former and today versus 25 years ago, that’s exponentially more, but drug and alcohol counselor and probation officer Chaplain J. you can still not get [into the college of your choice,]” she Young said. said. “And I think that’s scary. And I think they want a little “I think what all of us want is for the administration and oblivion.” the parents to really partner in helping to turn the culture, “There’s a very bad thing that’s happening, but we’re go- change the culture here and have events that we could really ing to get it figured out. People are helping us figure it out. be comfortable with and feel students are safe at,” Adegbile But we’ve got to make sure that our kids aren’t the collateral said.

“

We’Ve Given our good kids the worst job–to clean up a lot of vomit.”

School launches new initiative to expand Asian studies funded by donations from Gunter, Gross By Daniel Rothberg The school announced a new initiative focused on Asian studies that will support curriculum development, faculty grants, an exchange program and a speaker series. Applications for faculty grants under the program will open by the end of this school year. A lead gift from the Gunter family (Simon ’14, Sophie ’14) and the Gross family (Bennett ’16) will fund the Gunter-Gross Asia Initiative. “They have donated some money to the school that will allow us to de-

velop any aspect of the program that falls under the umbrella of Asian studies,” Head of School Jeanne Huybrechts said. In addition to providing immediate funding for nathanson ’s/chronicle Asian studies, some Jeanne funds will be placed Huybrechts in an endowment, Chief Advancement Officer Ed Hu said in March.

Huybrechts said she can envision restrictive and target specific gifts like that given by the Gunter and Gross families, becoming more typical in the future. “I can imagine nathanson ’s/chronicle this being more the Ed Hu norm in the future,” Hu said. “As there are fewer and fewer buildings to build and certainly interest in programs to support at the school.”

Representatives from 40 colleges will host sessions for juniors and their parents at the 30th annual Junior College Night tomorrow night beginning at 7 p.m. “This year is going to be really exciting, not only because it has been 30 years since the college night for juniors was created but also because we will be hosting the most representatives from schools that we have ever had,” Upper School Dean Vanna Cairns said. Students from Oakwood and Campbell Hall will also attend the event. — Emily Khaykin

4 students elected as Peer Support Coordinators Rebecca Hutman ’12, Natalie Epstein ’12, Noah Weinman ’12 and Roz Naimi ’12 will serve as Peer Support Coordinators for the 20112012 school year. The current Peer Support trainees voted before Peer Support on Monday after hearing each candidate speak. A total of 16 applications were submitted for the position. The coordinators are responsible for assigning students to groups at the beginning of the year, and for carrying out administrative duties throughout the year. — Lara Sokoloff

OMB tours, attends class at Long Beach aquarium Science teacher Blaise Eitner’s Oceanography and Marine Biology class went on a field trip to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach on April 13. Students attended a classroom program and behind-the-scenes tour to learn about filtration and other systems necessary to keep marine animals alive in aquariums. They also had the opportunity to observe a variety of live marine organisms and learn from educational displays about marine science. — Sanjana Kucheria

Juniors compete in debate tournament in New York Three juniors took part in the International Public Policy Forum debate in New York during the last week of spring break. Aneri Amin ’12, Justin Ho ’12 and Julius Pak ’12 had been taking part in the contest over the past few months by competing in a series of online written debates. The quarterfinal round in New York was the first live debate. The trio lost in their first round, but stayed to watch the remainder of the debates. They were debating that the military action in Afghanistan was justified. — Eli Haims

Celebrity stylist, rocker to speak at senior lunches The Mother-Daughter and Father-Son lunches on May 7 at the Luxe Hotel and Bel Air Country Club will feature a style adviser and a rock star, respectively. Jane Buckingham of the Style Network will speak to the senior girls, luncheon chair Christine Belgrad (Catherine ’11, Danny ’13) said. Paul Stanley (Evan ’12) of the rock band KISS will describe his career path and charity work to the senior boys, luncheon chair Wendy Garfinkel (Jason ’11, Jordan ’14) said. — Lara Sokoloff

A8 News

April 27, 2011

The

Chronicle

Students miss 744 classes on senior ditch day

Checkmate

By Chloe Lister

Saj sri-Kumar/chronicle

three moves ahead: Six juniors play chess during the second annual chess tournament on March 25. Students from North Hollywood High School were supposed to take part but dropped out.

Students missed a total of 744 classes on April 20, this year’s senior ditch day, Head of Attendance Gabriel Preciado said. Additionally, many students missed part of the day, according to Preciado. Of the 744 classes missed, 44 had been excused by green slips or parents’ notes. At press time, the number of students who actually ditched had not yet been determined. “Mostly, ditch day coincides with April 20,” Preciado said. “There were times where they had 4/20 and a few ditch days but that didn’t really work out.” “420, 4:20 or 4/20 (pronounced fourtwenty) refers to consumption of cannabis and, by extension, a way to identify oneself with cannabis subculture. The notable day for these is April 20,” according to Wikipedia. The website also cites the coining of the term by a group of teenagers in San Raphael, Calif., who used 4:20 p.m. as their meeting time to search for an abandoned cannabis crop. The phrase was eventually adopted by teenagers as a code name for cannabis.

Administration ends prom uncertainty with pledge from PROM, A1 them credit for,” Upper School Dean Canh Oxelson said. “After semiformal, a lot of the talk that I had heard from most kids was ‘Oh, it’s not that big of a deal.’ Well, we thought it was a big deal, so I was kind of surprised when students came back and said ‘No, no. We think it has to go this far.’” “Coming out of semiformal and the afterparty that weekend, I think the general psyche of the school and student body was impacted,” Head Prefect Chris Holthouse ’11 said. “What we have been saying all along is that the pledge is nothing more than officially acting upon common sense.” The school is also making a concerted effort to inform parents about the dangers associated with the activities after school-sponsored dances, Huybrechts said. Last week, the Parents’ Association Meeting featured speakers that educated more than 100 parents about the legal ramifications associated with consuming alcohol as a minor. The school will also be sending a letter to parents, and administrators will be speaking in senior class meeting before prom about dangerous alcohol consumption. “The number one thing we are trying to do to address this problem is to empower, encourage and educate the parent body,” Chaplain Father J. Young said. “We really are taking an active stance in that. Semiformal was the last straw.” The prefects began exploring options to reform prom after it was announced that prom was in jeopardy due to misbehavior at the semiformal afterparty. “After semiformal and everything that had occurred, administrators – primarily deans – felt that we really needed to start over from the drawing board, and there was a real push

to cancel prom.” Adegbile said. Adegbile said that though Huybrechts was not in favor of canceling prom, she wanted administrators and deans to work together to devise a solution for a safer prom. In March, the prefects hosted a voluntary town hall-style meeting in Chalmers for seniors to discuss ways to create a safer prom. The prefects then met with dean groups, pitching ideas from the town hall meeting and soliciting other ideas. At that meeting, the prefects promised to send out a copy of their proposal to reform prom to the senior class before submitting to the seniors. “It ended up with the deans and administrators in a way that we had not initially hoped it would,” Holthouse said. “We had planned on completing almost a final draft of the pledge and bouncing that one final time off the senior class.” The proposal wound up with the administration after they heard that members of the senior class purportedly had plans to engage in harmful activities after prom. “According to the information we got, kids were going to drink a lot and roam around Hollywood,” Salamandra said. “We just want people to be safe, and if people are going to engage in the same kind of behavior that ended up getting a few kids into the hospital at semiformal, then we don’t want to do anything that’s going to perpetuate that problem. That’s why I think people became a little more negative, but there’s no way to know if that’s hearsay or not.” In light of the information, the deans discussed whether going forward with prom was a good idea, Huybrechts said. “I think [the new information] sort of built the momentum back up to consider not having prom,” Adegbile said. However, it was decided to move

forward, and the pledge was submitted to Huybrechts and Salamandra. “Both Mr. Salamandra and I thought that perhaps the pledge is all we need,” Huybrechts said. Huybrechts said that the Prefect Council believed it was very important to include explicit guidelines regarding the punishment for reneging on the pledge. “We heard [from students] that it would be better to have very explicit language inside of this pledge so that kids quite frankly knew what they were getting into if they did violate one of these rules,” Holthouse said. “When it enters into the suspension realm, our hands are tied,” Adegbile said. “We must report it to colleges. We feel like, particularly this year, after semiformal, if anyone violates a rule that’s spelled out like that, that is something a college should know and would want to know about.” “At this point, between having parents sign off on this pledge, making sure students heard loud and clear that the consequences will be suspension, whether it’s happening on campus or off campus, it’s been written into the rules that we’ll have the ability to penalize even if the occasion is off campus,” Salamandra said. “These are all things that are all good reminders for people.” Salamandra said that he’s optimistic that the pledge will work. “It may not work, but I hope it does,” he said. “It would be nice to say that we know how to put together and can put together a prom. It’d be nice to leave a legacy that the seniors can walk away from and be proud of.”

For this year’s senior ditch day, there was only a single activity planned, a pool party and barbeque at one senior’s house. “I like throwing parties,” the senior who threw the party said. There were about 30 people at the party during school, a person who attended said, and at least 10 more joined after school ended. “It was literally just people sitting around eating hot dogs,” a senior who attended the ditch day party said. “That was pretty much all we did. We ate Jamaican jerk chicken too. It was bomb.” Only one person attended English teacher Geri Harding’s fifth period AP English Language and Composition class. She said that she and the senior ended up “chatting,” but that she did not teach. “Around this time of year, though, seniors are visiting colleges so I know that some had green slips, which makes it hard to determine how many students actually ditched,” Harding said. On the Class of 2010’s ditch day, April 26, 2010, there were 91 students absent from school. In 2006, there were 67 absences, 73 in 2007, 58 in 2008 and 63 in 2009, Preciado said.

Taking the Pledge In response to the hospitalization of numerous students after semiformal, seniors attending prom must sign a pledge. The following provisions are included in the agreement:

1 2 3 4 5 6

related coverage online

Additional coverage, as well as the full prom contract can be found online at chronicle.hw.com.

Students will not be allowed to enter or remain at prom if they are under the influence of alcohol or drugs. Students may not plan, buy tickets for or attend an afterparty at a non-residential venue. Students are not allowed to occupy a room at the Renaissance Hotel, where prom will be held, at any point during the weekend of prom. Everyone associated with any vehicle in which alcohol or drugs are found will be held responsible. Any violation of the rules explicitly associated with prom will result in a minimum punishment of a one-day school suspension, and additional consequences up to and including expulsion may be implemented. The pledge concluded, “Finally, I will act responsibly on Prom Night. I will act responsibly before, during and after Senior Prom. My behavior will reflect my maturity and intelligence and goodness, and will honor the trust my family and school placed in me.” Source: Senior Prom Pledge Graphic By: Eli Haims

soundbytes “if people have nothing to hide then there’s absolutely no problem with signing it.” nathanson ’s/chronicle

—Noor Fateh ’11

“It’s important symbolically but I don’t think it’ll have an effect [...] kids will still be immature.”

“it will give us parameters and ensures that no one will be seriously hurt.” nathanson ’s/chronicle

—Rae Wright ’11

—Jack Petok ’11

“I think that they had to do something, and this is all the administration could have done.” nathanson ’s/chronicle

nathanson ’s/chronicle

—Matt Goldhaber ’11

April 27, 2011

The

Chronicle

News A9

Robotics club places 53rd of 65 By Austin Block Nursing hopes of making the playoffs, the robotics team drove to Long Beach and entered the three-day Los Angeles Regional of the international For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology Robotics Competition Thursday, March 24. However, nathanson ’s/chronicle those playoff hopes didn’t last long. The team struggled to score Jacob Swanson ’11 points in competition missed the playoffs, finishing 53rd. “I think that it’s a disappointing result,” Co-Captain Chase Basich ’11 said. “We had a really good robot this year. It worked a lot better than, in all honesty, any robot we’ve ever made has, yet our result did not reflect that.” After spending Thursday working on the robot, the team nathanson ’s/chronicle entered its robot in competitions Chase Basich ’11 Friday and Saturday at the Long Beach Arena. To score points, the team’s robot had to either pick up inflatable inner tubes and place them on racks of various heights or, in the last 10 seconds of each contest, release a “minibot,” a small robot encased in the larger robot, which would quickly climb to the top of a pole. Each contest pitted two teams of three robots against each other. The team scored with inflatable tubes a few times over the course of Friday and Saturday. Jacob Swanson ’11, the other co-captain, attributed the poor result to the robot’s last minute assembly. “We didn’t really have it all together until it was kind of too late, and so we either couldn’t pass inspections quick enough or we just weren’t ready to go out on the field,” he said. “As a result, we weren’t that effective in our actual matches, and that’s mainly why we did so poorly,” he said. “But the end result, what we have in our room now, is a really, really great robot … something that we kind of relied on was this four week interim period between shipping the ro-

printed with permission of Gabe Benjamin

Touch-Ups: Josh Lappen ’13 solders the team’s minibot after a first round mishap, making last minute adjustments to the robot to prepare it to climb up a 10 foot pole in the second round. The team placed 53rd overall. bot and the actual competition. We assumed that we could build what we could of the robot, ship it, build the rest, and then within one day put it all together. What I realize now is that that’s pretty unrealistic.” Now all that remains for the team members is to clean up their work station in Munger Science Center and prepare the robot for presentation in the school Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Fest. Swanson said the best moment of the competition came during a match on Saturday. “I would say the best moment was this one match where we scored two rings on the top pole.” Swanson said. “I think that got our team six points, and we were the only scorers on our team. It was just nice

Freshmen debate in Atlanta, 2 share Novice championship By Michael Sugerman Freshmen Tommy Choi and Annie Kors shared first place in the Novice division at the Woodward Novice/Second Year Nationals debate tournament in Atlanta April 1-3. In addition to the cochampions, freshmen Garret Cayton, Julie Engel, William Gingold, Shelby Heitner and Michael O’Krent attended the tournament. All seven Harvard-Westlake novice debaters, Choi and Kors included, advanced past six preliminary rounds into the elimination round of 16. Six of them advanced to the round of 8 and three made the semifinals. The tournament ended with Choi and Kors in the final. Kors “walked over” Engel in the semis; debaters from the same school are not allowed to debate against one another, and as Kors was seeded higher in the tournament, she moved on to the finals. Choi defeated Elisse Johnson of Las Vegas’ Meadows School to advance. Both debated the topic “Juveniles who have committed violent crimes ought to be treated as adults.”

However, as both are Harvard-Westlake students, they could not actually debate each other and were deemed co-champions. In the Second Year division of the tournament, Brendan Gallagher nathanson ’s/chronicle ’13 took second place. Annie Kors ’14 The team had been preparing the tournament’s topics since January. Senior debaters Jake Sonnenberg and Ben Sprung-Keyser write most of the team’s material and find much of the evidence referenced in debate, nathanson ’s/chronicle Choi said. Tommy Choi ’14 Choi said he felt that the team’s months of preparation made his and Kors’ win not necessarily exciting, but simply appropriate.

Senior’s 2009 one-act play to be featured in exhibition By Michael Rothberg The script of Ben Sprung-Keyser’s ’11 one-act play “What All School Children Learn” will be featured in the “Art. Write.Now” Exhibition, a show composed of 100 pieces of art and writing selected from the winning submissions of the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards. Sprung-Keyser’s play was also selected for and performed in the 2009 Playwrights Festival.

During the 2009 Festival, his play won the Scholastic award for the Dramatic Script category. Past winners of the Scholastic Art & Writing Award, founded in 1923, include painter Andy Warhol, authors Truman Capote and Joyce Carol Oates and actor-director Robert Redford. The exhibition, sponsored by The Scholastic Art & Writing Award and the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers, will open May 7 at the Lineage Dance Performing Arts Center in Pasadena.

to, after the difficulties we had, finally see the capabilities of the robot. If we had had about 45 minutes earlier, we would probably be doing really well right now.” Basich said the club should have more success in future years. “I think that this club is just going to keep on getting better and better because, for example, this year we had just a few returning members, [and] next year they’re going to have like 15 returning members,” he said. “That’s a big deal. That means there will be 15 people that are used to working on robotics, have a good idea of how the club works, how to build a robot, how to design stuff and all of that added experience. I think it’s going to be a lot better next year.”

A10 News

The

Chronicle

April 27, 2011

Playwright visits cast of his play By Megan Ward

Printed with permission of Kellie Barnum ’11

Coachillin’: Ryan Gould ’11 dances to Laid Back Luke in the Sahara tent at the Coachella Valley Music and Art Festival in Indio Valley. Sixty students turned in green sheets to excuse themselvess from school on Friday, April 15.

60 skip school for Coachella By Ingrid Chang Beginning Thursday, April 14 students started packing into cars loaded with sunscreen and water bottles and heading off to Indio. Attendance numbers dropped as students left Friday morning and peeled off throughout the day to catch bands playing early sets at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. Sixty students notified the attendance office on Friday that they would be attending the festival April 15 - 17. Some shared rooms in hotels while others chose to stay on the campgrounds. Eli Wininger ’11 went to Coachella for his first time this year and camped out with a few friends. “Camping was a nonstop party,” he said. “You got to become super close with your friends and made friends with your neighbors.” This year was Tori Hill’s ’11 first time at the festival as well. “There were a bunch of different things you could do,” she said. “You could just hang out, look at art, go eat, go into the mosh pit. You never got bored.” The part that Gaby Cohen ’11 enjoyed the most about the festival was running into her friends. Students from schools all over Los Angeles were at the festival, so even with nearly 100,000 attendees it was not difficult to find a familiar face. “There were so many people I knew who were there,” Cohen said. “My favorite part was walking around and seeing everyone you nkow and getting to bond with people you don’t usually hang out with.” Some of the most popular acts that drew the biggest crowds were The Strokes, Kanye West, Nas & Damian Marley, Death From Above 1979, Steve Angello and OFWGKTA (Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All). A few students with artist and guest passes were able to get the backstage experience. Sam Horn ’11 got art-

ist passes from his dad who is best friends with the tour manager for the band Interpol. Horn’s father surprised him with the passes and took him to the festival as a gift for his 18th birthday. “It was awesome,” Horn said. “I got there late because I had a game on Friday night. I got to chill inside the barricade where the mixing board was for Chemical Brothers, and I got to go wherever I wanted.” The best perk of having the artist passes, Horn said, was meeting Daedalus backstage. “After seeing my favorite show of the entire night, I got to walk back and meet his production manager. And when the set was over I started clapping and started the applause backstage,” Horn said. However, for some the festival did not go without a hitch. While Max Olshanksy ’11 was climbing a fence to exit the festival, he sliced his pinky finger open on a piece of metal. “I was helping the girls get over the fence first,” Olshansky said. “I just jumped over the fence and then I heard a rip.” Olshansky and his friends immediately found a security guard who called the paramedics, who temporarily bandaged up his hand. His friends then drove him to the emergency room, where he had to get 16 stitches. Luckily, Olshansky was back at the festival the next day. Some students took the day off on Monday following the festival while others drove home on Sunday at all hours of the night. “I partied until 2 a.m. and woke up at 4 a.m. to drive back to make it to school in time,” Wininger said. “I fell asleep a few times [while driving] and [Ted] Walsh called me out for sleeping in class.” Hill got sick and missed about a week of school after Coachella. “I’m going to fail a few tests, but if you’re a second semester senior, it’s worth it,” she said.

A childhood memory of a mentally challenged boy and a drowning cat inspired playwright Jim Leonard to write “The Diviners,” he told the middle school cast that will soon perform his awardwinning play. “The Diviners” takes place in 1930 in the fictional town of Zion, based upon the small Indiana town where Leonard grew up. “The Diviners” is the story of Buddy Layman, a mentally disturbed boy who is deathly afraid of water who befriends C.C. Showers, a former preacher. The play revolves around their unlikely friendship and ends tragically when Showers attempts to wash Buddy in the river. People in the town mistake his actions for a baptizing, and amidst the confusion, Buddy drowns. Leonard, who visited the cast for a question and answer session on Wednesday April 20, said that his inspiration for the character of Buddy came from a mentally challenged boy who lived on a farm near his hometown. The boy’s father would gather kittens, place them in a bag and drown them to prevent an excess of cats roaming the farm. The town, which like Zion was very religious, was often the location for full-body immersion baptisms, and when it was the boy’s turn to get baptized, he struggled and yelled that he was not a cat, Leonard said. Leonard, who was 23 and just out of college when he wrote “The Diviners,” wanted to be a fiction writer. At first, he was afraid to write dialogue and for him, the character of Buddy was especially challenging. The other challenge was writing a likeable preacher. “I finally decided the only way I’m going to like the play was if [Showers] was an ex-minister, so he didn’t like himself either,” Leonard said. “The Diviners,” even with some controversial themes, has had almost no backlash, said Leonard, who believes because he grew up surrounded in a similar environment, he felt like he knew the characters he had created. The play was the winner of the American College Theater Festival in 1979 and is often performed around the country. “Telling stories to an audience is a great gift to give,” Leonard said. “If you see a good play or participate in a good play, you have it forever.” The cast will perform the play in the Katzenberg Black Box Theater this Friday at 7 p.m., Saturday at 2 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m.

Genocide Awareness Club raises $300 in Walk By Abbie Neufeld The Genocide Awareness Activism Club, a delegation of nine students and one parent, raised $300 by walking in the Jewish World Watch Walk to End Genocide on April 10. Student participation increased this year, and middle school students joined the walk for the first time in the club’s history. “It’s always hard since the first question we always get when we ask people to join us is ‘does this count for community service?’, but I feel like despite this difficulty, the club did a really good job getting students not in the club involved,” club Co-President Jasmine McAlister ’11 said. These students joined about 2,200 other people for the walk, which began at Warren Park. The walk route took them around Woodland Hills and was just under three miles. After the walk, there was an awareness fair where walkers could learn

about the various human rights abuses in Darfur and the Congo and the different campaigns attempting to counteract those abuses. Students participated in a nathanson ’s/chronicle scavenger hunt Jasmine with clues that McAllister ’11 led them from booth to booth while learning about the conflict. Students were also able to advocate for the cause in different ways, including writing postcards and signing petitions. Students also recorded a video message for children in refugee camps in Chad. “I think that we showed our commitment to raising awareness about the genocide and problems in Sudan,” club co-president Federica Brecha ’12 said.

Printed with Permission of Jasmine McAllister

rallying for a cause: Patrick Kang ’12 and Fede Brecha ’12 sign in before starting the Jewish World Watch Walk to End Genocide. The delegation raised $300.

April 27, 2011

News A11

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Students, faculty train for crisis By Eli Haims About 30 people, including several students, prepared for disaster in Community Emergency Response Team training on March 28 and March 29, Head of Security Jim Crawford said. The program, which was run by the Los Angeles Fire Department, was designed to prepare students and faculty for a crisis, which could be a fire, earthquake or on-campus shooter. Crawford said that if a disaster like the March earthquake in Japan strikes Harvard-Westlake, the school may be on its own for up to 72 hours before the fire department, police or paramedics would be able to reach it. The training consisted of learning first aid, search and rescue tactics and how to put out fire, among other things. Additionally, those who took part learned how to tell the difference between victims that they could and could not help. Crawford said that participants were taught to try to resuscitate victims two times before moving on to the next one. “It’s more dealing with the masses,” Crawford said. “[The program] teaches you to think more globally.” The students who completed the training will now take part in disaster drills, aiding the security personnel and other faculty certified by CERT. “[The training] was definitely beneficial because prior to it, I myself knew nothing about emergency preparation,” Theo Davis ’13, who took part in the training, said. “If we can get everyone at school to do

printed with permission of Mark geiger

to protect and to serve: Head of Upper School Harry Salamandra extinguishes a fire during an emergency response drill. About 30 faculty members and students participated in the drills on March 28 and 29. the training, everyone will be better prepared.” Crawford says that next year the disaster drills will attempt to simulate an actual disaster, and the fire and police departments will take part. Triage areas and a command post will be set up in order to make the drills as realistic as possible. Additionally, an emergency messaging system that will send emails and text messages to all students and faculty who are on campus during a lockdown is also being set up. Crawford says that the system will

be tested after computer services finishes importing all of the required information into the program. Crawford says that the system is designed not only to let students and faculty know about any lockdowns, whether due to an on-campus shooter or someone the police are looking for near campus, but also to provide updated information throughout the crisis. It will be tested to ensure that all students and faculty receive the messages as soon as all of the information is inputted.

Plant Manager Mintz drums in rock group By David Lim

Printed with permission of Jeffrey Bu

Miracle Worker: Jeffrey Bu ’12 sits in the lab where he studied synovial sarcoma and leukemia. Bu was motivated to study leukemia after his grandfather died from the disease.

Junior wins $1,000 as semifinalist in national research competition By Alex Gura Jeffrey Bu ’12 placed as a semifinalist in the Young Epidemiology Scholars Competition, a national student research competition, for his paper on cancer. Bu ranked in the top 120 out of 562 applicants and won a $1,000 scholarship from the College Board, which runs the competition. Bu’s paper uncovered new trends in synovial sarcoma, a type of tumor. He plans on submitting his findings to a medical journal. “No one has proposed that there is one mutation for synovial sarcoma,” Bu said. “It could potentially help the future of cancer research.” Bu analyzed data for about a year, working twice a week, to finish his paper and reach his new conlcusions about the disease. He hopes that his research can help the medical world treat the disease. He was driven to research the disease after seeing the medical advancements made with other diseases. “My paternal grandfather died of leukemia before I was born,” Bu said. “But now the disease is treatable… I was motivated by that to choose this topic.” Bu worked with Professor of Preventive Medicine Leslie Bernstein at the University of

“

it could potentially help the future of cancer research.” —Jeffrey Bu ’12

Southern California Davis School of Gerontology, who was his self-described mentor for the project and is helping him search for medical journals in which to publish his work. He plans on continuing his research and collecting data on his own from hospitals instead of using databases for the next paper he writes. He is planning on writing more papers now that he is familiar with the process and applying to next year’s YES competition as well. Of the 562 applicants to the YES competition this year from across the nation, the top 60 were considered finalists and the next best 60 were considered semifinalists. Prizes ranged from $500 to $50,000, with the top paper selected by an expert panel of epidemiologists. Students who qualified for the finals are sent to Washington D.C., where the panel interviews them on the merits of their papers. The panel then selects the best of the finalists to receive the top prizes.

Middle School Plant Manager Dave Mintz performed as the drummer for the Natalie Wattre Band at Rusty’s Surf Ranch on the Santa Monica Pier Saturday April 22. Mintz had been drumming with different bands for years and first began playing regularly with the Natalie Wattre Band in 2003. He was introduced to the lead singer Natalie Wattre, after whom the band is named, by a common friend nearly 20 years ago. “We played in different bands and over the years I would sing with her and occasionally substitute if their drummer was unable to make a gig,” Mintz said. The Natalie Wattre Band has played in venues across Los Angeles ranging from The Mint night club to Xen Sushi in Silverlake as well as at farmers markets.

Natalie Wattre founded the band in 1997. It has released two albums since then. Mintz describes the music the band plays as “straight-up rock and roll.” “Natalie has a very distinct vocal style, I liken the music to a cross between Janis Joplin and Melissa Etheridge with some other influences in there as well,” he said. Ever since Mintz picked up the drums in third grade, music has been an important part of his life. “Music to me has been more than something that you put on in the background,” Mintz said. “It’s spoken to me since I started playing drums 30 years ago. It’s been a terrific release for me to interact with other musicians and I not only enjoy the music I play with Natalie Wattre, but I enjoy the company of everyone else in the band. It’s a good musical experience and it’s a good social experience.”

HWPA event to feature show by dance troupe By Catherine Wang Artists of Dream World Cirque, a Los Angeles-based circus artist troupe, will perform at the HarvardWestlake Parent Association’s Annual Event Saturday night. All of the money raised at the event, called “Cirque Rogue,” will be donated to the school to support financial aid. The evening will begin at 5:30 p.m. with California wine and local micro brewery tastings and dinner from Los Angeles eateries and food trucks. Participating eateries and food trucks include Border Grill Truck, Coffee Bean,

Firefly, The Grill on the Alley, Healthy Choice Catering by Nipa, King Kone, Kogi, Mr. Cecil’s California Ribs, Pinks, Rosti and Sweet Lady Jane. Wine, beer and spirits tasting participants include Luna, Merry Edwards, Clifton-Brewer, Stella Artois, the Bruery, Casa Dragones and VeeV. At 7:30 p.m., there will be a live auction and opportunity drawing in Bing Auditorium with President Thomas C. Hudnut as auctioneer. Information about opportunity drawing prizes, live auction packages, online silent auction items and Party Book events is available at www.hwannualevent.com.

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Chronicle

3700 Coldwater Canyon, Los Angeles, CA 91604

Editors-in-Chief: Alice Phillips, Daniel Rothberg Managing Editors: Austin Block, Jordan Freisleben Executive Editor: Catherine Wang

pinion o Harvard-Westlake School Volume XX Issue VIII April 27, 2011

Presentations Editors: Ingrid Chang, Mary Rose Fissinger Executive Sports Editor: Alex Leichenger Business and Ads Manager: David Burton Copy Editors: Jordan McSpadden, Susan Wang News Managing Editors: Matthew Lee, Emily Khaykin Section Heads: Rebecca Nussbaum, Lara Sokoloff, Sajjan Sri-Kumar Infographics: Maddy Baxter, Eli Haims Assistants: Wendy Chen, Carrie Davidson, David Lim, Keane Muraoka-Robertson, Ana Scuric, Camille Shooshani, Megan Ward Opinion Managing Editors: Noelle Lyons, Jean Park Section Heads: Chanah Haddad, Molly Harrower, Anabel Pasarow, Shana Saleh Assistants: Rachel Schwartz, Michael Sugerman Features Managing Editors: Joyce Kim, Olivia Kwitny, Sade Tavangarian Features Section Heads: Allison Hamburger, Chloe Lister Infographics: Megan Kawasaki Features Assistants: Caitie Benell, Mariel Brunman, Jamie Chang, Leslie Dinkin, Gabrielle Franchina, Michael Rothberg, Elana Zeltser Science & Health Editors: Claire Hong, Nika Madyoon Centerspread Editors: Camille de Ry, Arielle Maxner Arts & Entertainment Editors Jessica Barzilay, Justine Goode Arts & Entertainment Assistants: Maggie Bunzel, Bo Lee, Aaron Lyons Photography Assistant: Cherish Molezion Sports Managing Editors: Alec Caso, Kelly Ohriner Section Heads: David Kolin, Austin Lee, Julius Pak, Chelsey Taylor-Vaughn Assistants: Michael Aronson, Charlton Azuoma, Nicole Gould, Luke Holthouse, Daniel Kim, Robbie Loeb, Shawn Ma, Allana Rivera, Micah Sperling, Ally White Chronicle Online Managing Editor: Vivien Mao News Update Editors: Evan Brown, Hank Gerba, Sanjana Kucheria Opinion Update Editor: Victor Yoon Feature Update Editors: Julius Pak A&E Update Editors: Tiffany Liao, Meagan Wang Sports Update Editors: David Gobel, Judd Liebman Multimedia Editors: Ashley Khakshouri, Chelsea Khakshouri Blogs Editor: Abbie Neufeld Adviser: Kathleen Neumeyer The Chronicle is the student newspaper of Harvard-Westlake School. It is published nine times per year. Unsigned editorials represent the majority opinion of the seniors on the Editorial Board. Letters to the editor may be submitted to chronicle@ hw.com or mailed to 3700 Coldwater Canyon, North Hollywood, CA 91604. Letters must be signed and may be edited for space and to conform to Chronicle style and format. Advertising questions may be directed to Business Manager David Burton at (626) 319-0575. Publication of an advertisement does not imply endorsement of the product or service by the newspaper or the school.

JEAN PARK and noelle lyons/CHRONICLE

Encouraging a foreign outlook

hese days, RSS feeds are dominated by breaking news updates about any of the United States’ three foreign entanglements and updates on the NIKKEI stock exchange. Businesspeople from every continent can be on the same conference call with relative ease.

And yet, a student can graduate from HarvardWestlake having never taken a class that focused on Africa, Asia, the Middle East or South America. Sure, ninth and 10th graders take The World and Europe I and II, but the courses primarily focus on Europe, with a smattering of the greater world’s interaction with Europe thrown in. Even though eighth graders take a world cultures class, a cohort of the graduating class enters in ninth grade (not to mention the fact that most people don’t remember the details of the Ming Dynasty as taught in eighth grade history). And while French, Latin and Spanish are all bona fide foreign languages, let’s not pretend that the ratio of Western to non-Western languages offered by the Harvard-Westlake Foreign Language Department is representative of the ratio of people on Earth who speak Western or non-Western languages. In addition, unlike other courses like science and history, a student does not have to take a foreign language past level III (on average past 10th grade). This is a little disheartening compared to the fact that the majority of students in other countries are required to take extensive amounts of English throughout the entirety of their schooling. Fortunately, the administration has taken a few steps in the right direction. The exchange program between science teacher Karen Hutchison and Eton College teacher Joe Dangerfield is an excellent way to broaden

students’ perspectives on how students around the world are taught the same subjects, as well as to bring a global perspective to Harvard-Westlake when Hutchison returns from England. The Gunter-Gross Asia initiative will encourage the study of Asian cultures through teacher grants and curriculum development. However, these initiatives should only be the beginning of Harvard-Westlake’s commitment to creating a globally diverse academic environment. A comprehensive student exchange program, which has not existed for years, should be reinstated. HarvardWestlake classes should collaborate with classes at renowned high schools around the world to learn about the academic environments in other cultures. A great thing about Harvard-Westlake’s course guide is the semester-long electives targeted more for the sake of enjoyment rather than the for sake of prestige and GPA boost. Instead of being limited to Americancentric courses, a greater breadth of semester classes with more global focuses such as the Modern Middle East or Post-Imperial African Studies is a way to expand global understanding without sacrificing the core academics. Harvard-Westlake boasts great academic resources and those resources should be used to give students a broader, more global perspective. That broad perspective is needed to help students develop analytical minds in a shrinking world.

A prom night with stipulations

hen the Head Prefects announced last week that the school would not be canceling prom, the senior class joined in a round of applause. Prom had been saved! (Though we really doubt that seniors believed, at any point, that it was actually in jeopardy).

And all the seniors would have to do in order to attend prom is sign a pledge. The survival of prom also seems to be a victory for the administration. With several student-generated concessions in the pledge including promises not to bring alcohol in the limo, not to arrive to prom intoxicated, not to attend an afterparty at a nonresidential venue and not to “occupy” a room at the Renaissance Hotel for the entire weekend. Prom-goers and their parents will sign it. Promises will be kept. The night will go smoothly. No 2 a.m. phone calls. No bad press. And here’s the kicker: it was the students that devised the solution. Just like that, the prom problem is solved. Sound too good to be true? That’s because it is. The pledge fails to address the root of the problem: binge drinking. Head of School Jeanne Huybrechts said at the post-semiformal assembly that “our school cannot continue to support an event that seems to serve as the platform for a night of binge drinking or bad behavior associated with intoxication.” Nowhere in the pledge are students explicitly asked not to binge drink. And even if a provision that banned binge drinking was included in the pledge, it most likely still wouldn’t stop students from doing so. Nearly 60 percent of 327 upper school students polled in a Chronicle survey replied that students will still binge drink despite having signed the agreement. Events of previous years make it even clearer that signing a pledge will have little effect on student

behavior. For years now, many limo companies have required all riders to sign a contract agreeing not to bring or consume alcohol in the limo. Yet, time and again, students have signed that document mere minutes or hours before they renege on it. Unlike the legally binding limo contract, the prom pledge is a nonbinding document that will be signed days, if not weeks, before prom night. When May 14 rolls around, thoughts of it will undoubtedly be overshadowed in students’ minds by the excitement that comes with prom night—a night that leads to drinking even by those who do not regularly drink. So why bother with the pledge in the first place? The effects of the pledge will be minimal. But by taking a stance against binge drinking, the administration took a small step toward diminishing the binge drinking culture. Fearing punishment, seniors probably won’t plan an afterparty at a public venue or drink as much alcohol as they have in previous years. The administration has also decided to work with parents to change the student binge drinking culture. A recent Parents’ Association meeting featured former English teacher and college counselor Caitlin Flanagan and law professor Laurie Levenson who warned of the dangers and legal implications of teenage drinking. While the pledge is not a solution to the problem, along with the administration’s concerted effort to educate and work with parents, it is a step in the right direction. Hopefully students will begin to make safer choices. Or sooner or later someone might end up dead.

April 27, 2011

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Opinion A13

Extend the deadline Lara Sokoloff

I think almost every junior can agree that no one ever expected themselves to complete the bulk of their paper before the night it’s due.

pring of junior year. The tension, the pressure, the stress… it’s all palpable. From the moment we return from spring college tours, many of us have a new, stronger understanding of what type of colleges we would like to end up at. Stress climaxes with the 11th grade term paper, an assignment that represents our first ever attempt at selecting a topic, developing it and writing out, insightful paper. By making this papers due before AP, the history department unnecessarily increases the stress caused by these papers. The history department may argue that juniors are aware of this deadline since the beginning of the second semester. Although this is an accurate statement, I think that most juniors would agree that they don’t expect expect to write the bulk of the paper much before the due date. These kinds of projects are inherently associated with procrastination; even those most adept at managing their time have procrastinated this assignment. Of course we all wish we had thought about this back in February when stress levels were relatively low, but it’s too late now. With a later due date, students would be able to dedicate more time to their papers, and thus the papers turned in would be of higher quality. The differences might be seen in small grammatical or spelling errors, or in a more drastic difference, such as clarifying and more clearly articulating the overall argument. Late April and early May is one of the most stressful times for juniors. Swamped with preparation for Advanced Placement tests, the history paper is often thrown together at the last minute. However, if papers were due after APs, students could concentrate 100 percent of their energy on the paper, without trying to finish while managing the stress of AP classes. We all moan and groan, and yes, we will all get it done, but it just seems beneficial for all parties involved to extend the deadline for the paper past APs.

RACHEL SCHWARTZ/CHRONICLE

Vote based on merit, not gender Rachel Schwartz

his year, almost twice as many girls as boys ran for Junior Prefect. This was not a surprise to me, as this gap in numbers has occurred every year since seventh grade. Yet once again, the inequality angered me. I don’t mean to say that more boys or that fewer girls should run. I am just continually frustrated that I must choose two boys and two girls to represent me. I do not care about the gender of my student representative, yet I am forced to vote in segregated elections. I prefer to focus on attributes that will make candidates better liaisons between students and administration, and impartial judges on the honor board. Perhaps the gender separation was originally instituted to help girls enter student government when Harvard and Westlake merged. But now, instead of enforcing equality, the system does the opposite. Male candidates have almost twice the chance of being elected as girls do, independent of who is more qualified or zealous. I wouldn’t feel oppressed if only boys were elected as long as they were truly representing my interests. A prefect who is the same gender as his or her constituents does not necessarily understand them better. Times have changed. The increasing interest among girls in student politics should be taken into account in our school election system. Girls no longer need separate election slots to ensure they have equal chances in a system that is still assumed to be male-

Say hello, people

dominated. Harvard-Westlake prides itself on its unique student government system. However, I would argue that some aspects of the structure are antiquated and even sexist. The current student government structure assumes that girls are needed to represent girls and boys to represent boys. I believe that this is false. Today we need a system that begins based on the belief that the student body is responsible enough to look beyond gender when voting. There is no denying that being a prefect is a prestigious position.. Although we would like to think that students who run are motivated solely by their sincere wish to give back to the community and help their fellow classmates, let’s be realistic. I doubt that the prestige, popularity and leadership skills that the position indicates when added to a college transcript are not considered by each candidate when they consider taking on the extra workload that a prefect position requires. The divided election system gives boys a much greater chance of gaining this advantage when applying for college, since in general boys have less competition in elections. I hope that one of my Junior Prefects, whether male or female, will help make my voice heard and restructure elections in a way that will truly account for the equality between men and women at this school, recognizing that neither gender needs an advantage. We should be allowed to elect prefects based on merit alone.

Every time i look away from someone when we cross paths, it gets harder and harder to break the trend, look him/her in the eye and say “hi.”

Austin Block

here’s a problem with the way we walk to class. To illustrate that problem, I’m going to start my argument with some questions: how many times per day do you avert your eyes as you walk past someone at school and pretend he/she doesn’t exist? How many times per day do you walk from one class to the other without lifting your eyes off the floor? How many times per day do you feel that awkward sensation as you struggle to make a splitsecond decision about whether or not to say hi to the person you sort of know that is heading in your direction? How does all of that feel? For me, it feels pretty uncomfortable. When people ignore me, I start to wonder if they aren’t

interested in talking to me or if they even know who I am. And when I ignore someone else, I feel guilty. I feel that I’ve been rude, that when I look at someone and then don’t say hi, I emanate an aura of unfriendliness. And the worst part of the whole awkward encounter is that every time I look away from someone when we cross paths, it gets harder and harder to break the trend, look him/her in the eye and say “hi,” the next time we meet. This somewhat anti-social style of walking is a significant, though minor, problem on campus. We say we have community at Harvard-Westlake, but what kind of community do we really have when we can’t even summon the courage to say hi to each

other in the hallways? What kind of atmosphere are we creating when we shut ourselves off from the outside world, trudging from Seaver to Rugby with our eyes fixed on some lifeless point in the distance? As simple of an action as it is, I really believe that making the effort to say hi to a friend, acquaintance or even a stranger on campus strengthens the relationship between the two people. It shows that you care and that the person you greeted plays a positive, if small, role in your life. And at least for me, saying hi and receiving a quick smile in return feels good. It makes me feel like I am an involved member of a warm, tightly-knit school community. So why not give it a try? Say hi

to a few people you usually ignore the next time you meet them, and see what happens. You might rekindle or strengthen a friendship, and your day might get a little better. I’m not advocating saying hi to everyone in sight at all times. If you tried to do that, you would be perpetually late to class. But do say hi sometimes. Say hi to me. I’ll say hi back. Or say hi to your 10th grade English teacher that you haven’t spoken to in a year. Maybe even try saying hi to a stranger on campus. But most importantly, say hi to your friends. It will help keep them close. The worst thing that could happen is that someone gives you a frown. And then you get to learn who your real friends are.

A14 Opinion

April 27, 2011

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Not defined by our motto Chloe Lister

P I’m not calling for any kind of change to our school motto or anything like that, but rather that we look at ourselves and all the opportunities we’re given here at 3700 coldwater Canyon...

ossunt quia posse videntur. We see these four ancient Latin words, meant to define our school, every day. After all, they are emblazoned across our school emblem, whether we notice them or not. At the start of our Harvard-Westlake careers, we’re told these four words are translated as “they can because they think they can,” a noble phrase meant to instill confidence that we can do anything if only we put our minds to it. While that may not necessarily be entirely true, it is in fact a solid school motto that serves its purpose. However, middle school Latin teacher John Corsello asked us to translate our school motto just as practice and we came to a startling revelation. It is not in fact translated as “they can because they think they can,” but as “they can because they seem to be able to.” This is a notion that I’ve been turning around in my head ever since. Most of my classmates brushed it off as a funny mistake the administration had made, or something along those lines. But, to me at least, it was more than that, because the real definition of our motto seems to perpetuate about our school: that we can go to any college we want because of our position at such a prestigious school, or that we all drive expensive cars and have anything and everything we want just because, looking at our school and all the opportunities we have here or because of our rather large tuition fees. Has this piece of information profoundly affected how I think about our school? No, of course not. But it is a piece of information I continue to consider, because although it’s just a collection of words in a language no one even uses any more, in my opinion it reflects poorly on our school, no matter if that knowledge is restricted to that one fourth period Latin class. I’m not calling for any kind of change to our school motto or anything like that, but rather that we look at ourselves and all the opportunities we’re given here at 3700 Coldwater Canyon, and do things not because we “seem to be able” to, but because we have activities that we are truly passionate about and want to pursue.

RACHEL SCHWARTZ/CHRONICLE

Improvements come with distractions Eli Haims

onsider the technology that we considered to be cutting edge just five years ago. The iPhone had just begun development, the MacBook was introduced and the Wii was released. In five years, the iPhone has gone through four redesigns and eight models of the MacBook have been on the market. Now imagine what the new technology will be in five years. There is a good chance that we will no longer carry textbooks and that we will be taking notes on iPads. Who knows what our phones will look like or be able to do. Clearly, there are huge advantages to these new technologies. It was not so long ago when people had to wait for our dial-up connections and a website took so long to load that we could not afford to browse the internet. Instead of looking up newspaper articles on ProQuest, people had to scroll through microfilm, hoping to find what he or she was looking for. The advent of high speed internet and periodical databases have allowed for huge increase in productivity, but unseen consequences have also come with it. Our access to any information that we desire is at our fingetips. With only a few clicks of a mouse and the scurrying of fingers over a keyboard, we can buy tickets for a movie or research a history

paper. However, it is all too easy to become distracted or overwhelmed. When researching for my history paper a few weeks ago, looking up something that should have taken a matter of seconds turned into a half hour excursion through the depths of Wikipedia. Unfortunately, this type of distraction is not uncommon. These distractions will undoubtedly become more severe as our technology improves. Once textbooks make their way to electronic form, there is no limit to what can be done with this material. There could be videos embedded, links to more information or quizzes. Of course, all of this is available now, but instead of clicking on a link that is at our fingertips, we have to search for it online. Even with these possible downsides, we should embrace the new technology as soon as possible. We will be able to carry around an iPad or Kindle and do math problems or read our history homework whenever we have a few minutes to spare instead of either lugging around multiple textbooks or leaving them at home and being forced to wait to do work. The downsides will be far outweighed by our productivity and efficiency, even taking into account the time that will be wasted with distractions.

Practicality is not the only goal

nce every few weeks some bold kid in one of my classes begrudgingly mumbles (at a volume loud enough for us to hear though, in the hope that we will all agree and stage a rebellion against the teacher) something to the effect of, “when will we ever use this [expletive] in the real world?” And to this kid I have to say: though it is true that many of us will never again exercise our ability to recite from memory the inverse trig functions, since when is learning for the sake of learning a bad thing? Efficiency is critical, but it is equally important that we learn more than just what has direct util-

Anabel Pasarow ity in the real world. Lack of a future practical application doesn’t make knowledge useless. It is okay that I will not put everything I learn in high school to productive use. But this shouldn’t have any impact on the level of seriousness with which I study for different classes. Isn’t there power in knowledge, regardless of whether or not said knowledge can further me in my career? It’s selfish to treat knowledge as something only in existence for the purpose of benefitting me. Knowledge exists independent of me, and I exist because of it, so I am lucky to take with me whatever it will spare. That which will not help me in my

life is at least interesting to learn. Sometimes I wonder if the fantastical ideas we discuss in English class can stand alone, independent of the confines of my scribbled-in book. Without being grounded in the syllabus, can they serve a more divine purpose? If not, why should I take the time to read about Jay Gatsby’s perils, since he surely can’t help me in the future to establish myself in the professional world? But while this may literally be true, Jay Gatsby’s failure has taught me to secure my aspirations in reality, without delusion or naiveté. The countless, seemingly unapplicable integrals we solve in math may not lead to the fruition of my future

goals, but they do teach me to think differently. They challenge my brain and push me to grasp concepts too difficult to understand upon initial inspection. High school provides us with a rare time where we are allowed, encouraged even, to explore things that have no apparent bearing on the future. They are there to satisfy our intellectual appetite, but not necessarily to function as anything we can use in 30 years. Our society fosters a race to be productive and to be the best and to not waste any time. We shouldn’t just learn to get further in the race. Learn to learn and learn for yourself.

quadtalk Do you think that Harvard-Westlake’s attendance policy is effective?

“The policy is pretty effective, but teachers don’t usually write down when students are tardy.” —Alex Markes ’11

makinggrades The Chronicle evaluates recent campus developments.

A C

Juniors start a radio station that features student DJs.

Congressman Brad Sherman will come to junior class meeting, but seniors and sophomores miss out.

A C-

College tour breaks students’ stereotypes of Southern, Midwestern colleges. School teams achieve mediocre GPA rank despite athletic success.

bynumbers

The Chronicle polled 336 students who weighed in on possible ways the school should work to globalize the community at Harvard-Westlake.

“It’s not a problem for me...Having consequences for cutting class makes kids less likely to cut class.”

Global Community

108 91

—Avalon Nuovo ’13

“I’ve had two detentions this year because of tardies, but i get tardies because of the distance between my classes. getting more detentions won’t make me less tardy.”

— Charlotte Gordon ‘12

47 28

How should Harvard-Westlake adapt to an increasingly connected global community?

By further cultivating relationships with international schools through teacher and student exchanges. By offering more non-Western foreign languages, such as Arabic and Hindi, or reinstating Japanese. With English and history classes focused on non-Western cultures. Our school does not need to globalize. By making it easier to study abroad during high school.

The Chronicle polled 325 students who weighed in on the school’s efforts to stop promoting events that could potentially lead to binge drinking.

Binge Drinking

190

“we don’t have to keep a strict policy because, for the most part, students want to be here and do well. Still, many students purposely miss school on test days and that’s a big issue.” —Gabriel Preciado, Attendance Coordinator

Opinion A15

Chronicle

The

April 27, 2011

113 12

Did the administration succeed in not hosting “events that are platforms for binge drinking” by writing a pledge?

No. Students will still binge drink. Yes. While students will still drink, they will do so in a much safer manner. Yes. Students will not drink because of the pledge. No. The only way to prevent binge drinking on the nights of school-sponsored events is to cancel those events.

Results based on an online poll e-mailed to Harvard-Westlake upper school students through http://www.surveymonkey.com.

jean park/Chronicle

CORRECTION: In our March 23 issue, a quote was misprinted in the C7 article “The Last TeacherCoach.” In the third to last paragraph of the article, history teacher and former varsity basketball assistant coach Larry Klein was misquoted as saying that “it’s not about maximizing wins and minimizing losses because I’m a big believer that there’s a tangibility to success.” The quote should have read: “it’s

not about minimizing wins and losses because I’m a big believer that there’s a tangibility to success.” On page C3 of the issue, a headline mistakenly read “Baseball wins first league game against Alemany,” when in fact the team had not played Alemany yet. The Chronicle regrets the errors.

exposure

April 27, 2011

A16

finding their focus AP Art students had the chance to display entire collections of their work, each with a particular concentration ranging from flesh to family, in the Senior Concentrations show, which was in the Feldman-Horn gallery from April 18-25. By Mary Rose Fissinger

he Senior Concentrations Art Show opened April 18 during break in the FeldmanHorn Gallery. The show featured artwork by students of Visual Arts teacher Marianne Hall’s AP Studio Art: Drawing, AP Studio Art: 2-D Design and Advanced Drawing and Painting III classes. “Each student created his or her own body of work – they chose their topics and created their development plans for the exploration of their ideas,” Hall said. Ben Kogan ’11, an Advanced Drawing and Painting III student, entitled his concentration “Flesh.” He settled upon the idea after looking through his sketchbooks for inspiration. “Most of my sketches over the past few years were vaguely expressionistic figural and abstracted body forms,” Kogan said. “The more I thought

about this, the more I liked it. Hence, Flesh.” His concentration consisted of two paintings of torsos on cardboard boxes, which were then attached to the gallery walls so they projected outward, and one larger painting of a pair of lips. Other concentrations included Emma Peterson’s ’11 “Family,” Melanie Borinstein’s ’11’s “Grid” and Courtney Kelly’s ’11 “Home,” which featured depictions of locations in the Pacific Palisades. “The students worked both in class and at home,” Hall said. “APs have produced 12 unified works since Thanksgiving. D and P III have completed six. The students have met with me, their mentor, one on one, several times to discuss the progress and direction of the development. We also check the color and light of the digital versions of their work.” Each student also wrote an artist’s statement to accompany his or her concentration. These statements addressed the overarching concept of each concentration and how the individual works

helped explore that concept. “The point was to give the unsuspecting public a deeper understanding of each body of work, another reason to take a closer look, and a little more guilt about not spending more time in front of each installation,” Kogan said. In addition, each student was required to create a thesis or concluding piece. As there were no strict requirements for the concentrations, some exceptions to the standard paintings were present in the gallery. In addition to his concentration entitled “Haiku,” Jackson Foster ’11 displayed his ceramic works against the black table cloth of the table in the center of the gallery. The exhibit was taken down Monday. “I am proud of the work my students did,” Hall said. “Each gave his or her whole heart to the project. Each learned about the process of creating a visually and intellectually unified Body of Work.”

photos by daniel rothberg

art from the heart: Visual Arts teacher Marianne Hall speaks to a group of parents at the opening of the exhibit. (clockwise from upper left) A piece from Sunndy Gan’s ’11 “Chinese-European Fusion.” Ink and watercolor on illustration board from Alex Valdez’s ’11 “Art Sea.” An acrylic painting from Sara Best’s ’11 “Endorphins.” Oil on cardboard and oil on canvas from Ben Kogan’s ’11 “Flesh.” Molly Segal’s ’11 “My Life Through Books.” Two ceramic pots by Jackson Foster ’11.

Eatures F the

Chronicle Volume XX Issue VIII April 27, 2011

Playwrightsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Festival B6-7 graphics by daniel rothberg and ingrid chang

B2 Features

April 27, 2011

The

Chronicle

Choosing the passenger seat Instead of getting a license at 16, some students choose not to start driving until months or years after they become eligible. By Saj Sri-Kumar

Licensed to drive:

high cost of automobile insurance. Teenagers, who make up 14 percent of the U.S. Like many students who are seeking to purchase population, were shown in a report by the Centers their own car, Devon Breton-Pakozdi ’12 started for Disease Control and Prevention to have been to save his money. Unlike those students, however, responsible for 30 percent of the nation’s automobile Breton-Pakozdi decided not to buy a car. accidents. Breton-Pakozdi thought about getting his learner’s As a result, the Insurance Information Institute permit but never got around to taking the written estimates that adding a teenager to an insurance test. policy can cause insurance premiums to increase by “I was just really bogged down with work, and 50 to 100 percent. second semester of my sophomore year was really The high insurance cost for a teenage driver was busy,” he said. one of the reasons Julie Ko ’12 decided not to get her In fact, Breton-Pakozdi’s age made him eligible for driver’s license at least until her 18th birthday. a permit as early as his freshman year, but he never Initially, Ko said that her parents pushed her to took the test. get her license when she As it became clear that he was eligible. wouldn’t be getting his license in “I didn’t feel I needed the near future, Breton-Pakozdi one,” she said. “It decided he was going to save up his probably bothers my money for a cello instead. parents a little.” “The cello had always been Instead of driving important to me, and that was herself, Ko said that she something I was thinking about prefers to take public even before [thinking about transportation. driving],” he said. “I would rather “There’s a bus stop —Devon Breton-Pakozdi ’12 have my money and my parents’ nearby, and [a bus pass] money invested in getting a cello, only costs $24 a month,” something that I could use for she said. “The bus can years to come, something that would appreciate in take me almost anywhere I need to go.” value.” Ko said that she has no plans to start driving in Breton-Pakozdi, who recently turned 17, said that the near future. She plans on getting a license when he plans to get his license within the next year. He she turns 18, so that she will not have to go through has passed the test for his learner’s permit and is now the process of getting a learner’s permit, but even eligible to get a license. For the moment, however, he then she said that doesn’t plan on driving. carpools with other students to school and is driven Like Ko, Cheston Gunawan ’12 also has yet to get by his parents on other days. his permit despite being 16. He relies on his parents Jeffrey Bu ’12 has also yet to take his license test. to drive him around thus far. Unlike Breton-Pakozdi, however, Bu did not wait “I think that if [both of my parents] worked, I’d because of too much schoolwork. “I’ve just been very definitely want to get my permit so that I’d have lazy,” he said. more freedom,” he said. Bu said that although he wants to get his license Gunawan also said he mistakenly believed that over the coming summer, he will not be eligible, as California had changed the law to require people he will not have yet held his learner’s permit for the born in 1994 or later to wait until turning 18 to get required six months (he recently received his permit a license. over spring break). Unlike Ko, however, Gunawan said that he doesn’t Bu has recently become more motivated to get his plan on waiting until his 18th birthday to get a license. license because it has been tough for his parents to He plans on taking the permit test in the coming have to pick him up from tennis practice this year. months and getting a license later this year, but even One major obstacle that teenage drivers face is the then doesn’t plan on driving himself all the time.

“

I would rather have my money and my parents’ money invested in getting a cello.”

Minds off the road By Chelsea Khakshouri

t was the last day of finals and Alex Goodwin’s ’12 stress level was higher than usual. Goodwin had only gotten three hours of sleep the night before and was driving to school to take his last two finals. Goodwin recalls “passively driving and going though the motions” as his anxiety distracted him. “The natural flow of traffic came to a halt without me noticing until the last second, when I snapped out of a daze and hit the brakes,” Goodwin said. “It was too late by then though.” Goodwin hit the car in front of him, driven by another Harvard-Westlake student, causing serious damage to both cars. “The immense stress levels I encountered due to countless hours of studying and preparation for finals had me distracted and overly fatigued,” Goodwin said. “My message would be don’t drive when you’re stressed or tired.”

The number of 16-yearolds that hold a license has dropped significantly in the past decade.

43.8%

national rate of licensed 16-year-olds in 1998

29.8%

national rate of licensed 16-year-olds in 2006

30.7%

national rate of licensed 16-year-olds in 2008

950,000 teenagers that drive in California, about 1/3 of the state’s population aged 16-19

sources: the new york times online, sunsentinel.com, U.S. News and world report graphic by: nika madyoon

Schoolwork-induced stress and fatigue can be dangerous distractions for student drivers.

Most people are aware of the consequences of driving under the influence of alcohol or other illegal substances. With a new law banning cell phone use while driving, the public is more aware of the resulting dangers. However, people forget that driving under stress or fatigue can cause equally serious damage. High school students in particular are susceptible to distraction because of the stress of schoolwork and other activities. As a result, students often sleep the least when they are the most stressed. “It’s stressful having to make sure your academic work is done while you are so busy with activities outside of school,” Aneri Amin ’12 said. According to the National Sleep Foundation, teens require about nine and a quarter hours of sleep a night, which seems unrealistic to many students. The Department of Motor Vehicles says that driving on minimal sleep “delays reaction time, decreases awareness and results in auto accidents.”

The DMV suggests pulling over when overly stressed or distracted. “Take a few moments to close your eyes, take a few breaths and relax,” the DMV website says. A driver’s education teacher at Melrose Driving school, Jesse Ranilla, sees stress as a definite distraction that prevents one’s ability to be a smart driver. “Stress definitely affects the way a student drives because when you’re driving you’re supposed to have a clear mind and be alert to be able to prevent an accident,” Ranilla said. “If you’re stressing and thinking of something else, you are unable to make the correct action to be a defensive driver.” Autumn Chiklis ’12 often finds herself having to make a conscious effort to not let her schoolwork distract her while driving. “When I’m driving I’m actually very focused on not getting distracted by my work and such, but it can affect it,” Chiklis said.

Chronicle

The

April 27, 2011

Whirlwind

of destruction By Catherine Wang Before this past weekend, Melissa Gertler ’11 had never traveled alone. Before her trip, she worried about the routine airplane travel procedures: checking in for her flight, getting on her airplane, and arranging transportation to and from the airport. She didn’t worry about protecting herself from a tornado that would rip through her airport terminal and flatten 2,700 buildings on its 22-mile path along the ground. After visiting Washington University in St. Louis during “Spring Preview,” Gertler could not wait to go back to Los Angeles Friday night. She waited at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport’s Concourse C to board her airplane. Shortly before her scheduled boarding time, airline officials announced that her plane would be delayed an hour because it had to stop for fuel. “All of a sudden I heard something,” she said. “I look behind me and there’s this giant cloud of dust and debris barreling toward me.” She didn’t know that the “giant cloud” was a tornado, let alone what has been called the most powerful tornado in the last 44 years. Through the concourse window, Gertler could see the tornado “destroying all this stuff,” she said. According to the National Weather Service, the tornado was moving between 111 and 165 miles per hour when it hit the airport. Gertler hid behind a metal desk at the front of the gate. “I did the whole earthquake thing and covered my head,” she said. “That was not a very smart place to be — it was basically underneath a huge wall of glass and steel.” An airport employee came over and told Gertler to move away from the glass, which was shattering around her. “I didn’t know what was going on,” she said. “Everything was falling down and glass was everywhere. There was not very much direction.” The ceiling collapsed, and rain was falling into the airport, Gertler said. After the tornado stopped, a security guard led those in Concourse C to the baggage claim area, where she called her parents. “Someone had said it was a tornado, so by then I had gotten it,” she said. “We stayed there until the coast was clear.” Gertler had met another girl traveling alone who had also visited Wash. U. from Los Angeles. “She comforted me when I was hysterical,” she said. They both booked early flights for the following morning, and decided to share a room at a nearby hotel after they were kicked out of the airport for safety reasons. The next morning, their flight was cancelled and they were given spots on a noon flight, which was also cancelled. “At that point, we realized the airport would be closed for a very long time,” she said. The nearest airport was in Kansas City, Missouri, a three and a half hour bus drive away. Gertler booked an evening flight from Kansas City to Los Angeles. “Every time I moved from one city to another, I kept thinking of everything that could go wrong,” she said. When she landed at Los Angeles, she was “exhausted and relieved,” she said. “I was in the best mood of my life.” During the tornado, Gertler was terrified, she said. “Afterwards, I got impatient and frustrated but I just focused on getting done what needed to get done. Throughout the process, I was too busy to think about it,” she said. “It was a learning experience. I also gained a greater appreciation for my normal everyday life.” Although Gertler liked Wash. U., she was leaning away from it before the tornado hit the airport. “But the whole experience made it not an option,” she said. “St. Louis never again.” While those waiting in the airport had no warning of the tornado, most of St. Louis had a 30 minute warning. “I feel so incredibly lucky,” she said. “I could have been so hurt because I was not in the safest place.” When the tornado hit the St. Louis airport, Danielle Strom ’11 and Lizzy Pratt ’11 were watching the St. Louis Cardinals play the Cincinnati Reds in Busch Stadium. “We were so excited for the game, since there was supposed to be no rain and it was

Features B3

3 students visiting Washington University in St. Louis this past weekend experienced firsthand the strongest tornado to hit the city since 1967.

supposed to finally clear out,” Pratt said. Rain started pouring on the field after only six pitches, and players ran off the field, she said. Ten minutes later the tornado sirens went off. “I had never heard tornado sirens before,” she said. “I didn’t know what they were.” Strom and Pratt were not as shaken as Gertler. “We weren’t too affected since we were in the city. There was a lot of thunder, lightning, rain and wind,” Strom said. “But it wasn’t scary. People who are from St. Louis are used to it so it’s not a big deal. We just had to go inside the stadium to get sheltered.” After the game had stopped, Strom and Pratt heard on the radio that the game was back on. They drove back to the stadium and watched the game from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. They first learned that a tornado had struck St. LouI didn’t know what was is, that night. going on. Everything The airport was shut down was falling down Saturday, so Strom’s family and glass was decided to rent everywhere.” a car and make the 10-hour —Melissa Gertler ‘11 drive to Ann Arbor. Pratt and her dad stayed in St. Louis for an additional night and made the five and a half hour drive to Chicago Sunday at 5 a.m. and flew to Los Angeles from there. “It was an e x p e r i e n c e ,” Pratt said of her weekend. “It’s probably something I should get used to if I’m going to school in the Midwest.”

“

repRINTED WITH PERMISSION FROM THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

all torn up: The tornado ripped away the main terminal of the LambertSt. Louis International airport, top. The area outside was left in shambles, bottom.

Graphic by victor yoon

B4 Features

April 27, 2011

The

Chronicle

Best of two worlds With two distinct cultures to draw from, these multiracial students find their heritages intriguing and compatible.

By Justine Goode

hen taking a standardized test, bubbling in personal information generally requires little to no thought on a student’s part. Age, grade, gender, race — the answers are usually straightforward. But for multiracial students, deciding which circle to darken for the race category isn’t as clear a choice. Most end up bubbling in the vague and somewhat unsatisfying “other” circle or picking just one side of their heritage to represent. Even so, not falling neatly under one defined ethnicity is not a problem for Hanna Kostamaa ’12, whose mother is Japanese and whose father is Finnish. “I like being mixed,” she said. “It’s like you get to be two things at once and see their similarities and differences. I think it’s given me a more open outlook on life in general.” Rae Wright ’11 is Irish and French on her mother’s side and Native American and African American on her father’s. “Identifying on a sort of middle ground has allowed me to see both sides of stories and opened me up to be more accepting,” Wright said. Having parents of different ethnicities has allowed Kostamaa, Wright and other multiracial students to develop a unique sense of cultural identity. “I identify with both sides of my heritage equally. I do wish I knew a great deal more about them,” Cathy Mayer ’12, who is of Taiwanese and mixed Jewish European descent, said. “I’ve visited the memorials of family members in France who were victims of the Holocaust, and I’ve also gone to very elaborate Buddhist ceremonies for deceased family members on my mom’s side.” “I feel like I identify with both heritages equally,” Blaise Ormond ’12, whose father is AfricanAmerican and whose mother is Filipino, said. “I can connect with more people that way by being able to relate to both cultures.” Cuisine, family gatherings and hearing his mother speak Tagalog around the house all played important roles in his upbringing. “My mother and father are both great cooks,

“

I like being mixed. ... I think it’s given me a more open outlook on life in general.” — Hanna Kostamaa ’12

“

so I’m overwhelmed with a fusion of foods,” he said. Kostamaa likens picking a culture to identify with to choosing between a favorite sibling or parent. “Each culture has something unique to offer,” she said. “I’ve always been able to relate to both cultures because my parents both tried to show me their respective cultures.” Experiencing the customs and traditions of two backgrounds can sometimes reveal humorous contrasts as well as surprising similarities between them. “I’ve always found it interesting to see what both cultures do with the same food in their respective cuisines,” Mayer said. “Jewish people grind gefilte fish up into blobs for Passover while the Chinese tend to serve their fish whole, with the eyeballs in. Both sound pretty unappetizing.” “I have realized that both families’ dynamics are really quite similar — you’d be surprised to see that the stereotypical Jewish grandma is not all that different from a Taiwanese one,” she said. Ormond agrees, noting an unexpected harmony between both sides of his heritage. “[They] seem like polar opposites, but in the end, it is all blended perfectly,” he said. “I can go from family reunions on the East Coast with my dad’s family to a Filipino party in California to watch the best boxer in the world — the Philippines’ own Manny Pacquiao. And I never feel left out.” Physical appearance is perhaps one of the most integral parts of a person’s identity, and multiracial students’ unique genetic cocktails are often the source of many questions and guesses about their heritage. “I’ve gotten tons of questions as to my ethnicity,” Kostamaa said. “Whenever I’m in a new environment it almost always gets asked at some point. When I go anywhere in Europe, people speak to me in their native language. Then again, some people think I’m almost full Asian, even though in Japan I’m almost always spoken to in English. So I guess it really depends on what each person sees.”

I feel like i identify with both heritages equally. I can connect with more people that way.” — Blaise Ormond ’12

“

“Many people do guess that I am half Asian, but I think only a few can guess that I’m Filipino,” Ormond said. “Sometimes when I’m just with my mother, people won’t even believe that she’s my mom. They usually think she’s my nanny or guardian. It bothers her that some people won’t believe that we are related, but the only reason why people are shocked to find that out is because our skin color is different.” People often assume that Wright is just a “very tan white girl,” though she has even been mistaken for being Hispanic or Pacific Islander. “When I’m on the phone people assume I’m just 100 percent white, and when I say I’m black they don’t believe me,” she said. “But usually if I’m face to face with someone, and I tell them I’m half, they say they can see it in my facial features.” Though Wright has not found it difficult to feel comfortable around both black and Caucasian friends, she said her older brother found it harder to establish his place. “He looks more African American, while I look Caucasian,” she said. “It was harder for him to solidify his standings with either race, because though he looked black, his mannerisms were less easily defined.” Despite the occasional intrusive question or confusion on the part of others, the presence of two strong cultural backgrounds is a source of pride and interest for these students. The ability to feel such belonging and strong identification with multiple cultures is a special connection very few get to experience. “I do feel a tremendous amount of pride in my unique heritage, because I know there are very few people around that can say that they’ve had the same experiences I’ve had with both sides of my family,” Ormond said. “When I was little, I didn’t really know what race meant,” Wright said. “I grew up with mainly Caucasian friends, so I didn’t know that I looked different. But as I’ve grown up, I’ve come to appreciate the fact that because I’m biracial, I’m able to see the world in a different view.” “I like that my heritage is a very unique one — it doesn’t really affect me in everyday life, but once in a while it is fun to say I’m the only redheaded Asian Jew I’ve ever met,” Mayer said.

once in a while it’s fun to say I’m the only redheaded Asian Jew I’ve ever met.” — Cathy Mayer ’12

“

as I’ve grown up, I’ve come to appreciate the fact that because I’m biracial, I’m able to see the world in a different view.” — Rae Wright ’11 photos by allison hamburger

April 27, 2011

The

Chronicle

Features B5

Through eyes of tigers Amy Chua’s parenting philosophy, as described in “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother,” raises questions about Asian versus Western parenting. By Arielle Maxner

to do piano and violin.” “C? YOU NO C-SIAN, YOU A-SIAN!” states However, at 11 or the Tumblr.com blog High Expectations Asian 12 her mom “became Father under a picture of an Asian man. Based on a lot less like a tiger stereotypical images of the “Asian” parent, who is mom,” Oh said. “I supposedly focused entirely upon his or her child’s got old enough to success in school, the Internet meme has hundreds argue. I fought back of pictures, all intended to mock the focus on grades and I won. and other stereotyped aspects of Asian culture, such “I think my mom as the fact that so many play musical instruments. still wants to be Look anywhere on the Internet and it is possible a tiger mom, but to find variations of High Expectations Asian Father, she’s too tired to,” from YouTube videos to Facebook groups, all of which Oh said. “[She’s] mock the grade-oriented mentality that is now the focusing on my little cliché trademark of an Asian parent. But how is this brother. He’s doing culture actually reflected in the homes of students? all the workbooks Amy Chua’s book “Battle Hymn of the Tiger and afterschool and Mother” and its excerpt published in the Wall Street piano now.” Journal, “Why Chinese Mothers are Superior,” Oh said she brought an increased awareness and criticism of “like[s] the more lax this method of parenting, which is stricter than the way for parenting. “Western” or “Americanized” parenting style. [Tiger parenting] Chua attributes these parenting differences to could work, but you three mindsets. First, Chua writes that “Western could seriously screw up your kid if it fails, so it’s parents are extremely anxious about their children’s a risk.” self-esteem.” Next, she compares the different Despite his Asian heritage, Justin Sohn ’12 said cultural views on how much children owe their that his parents are “very Americanized, no hint of parents, whether it be unconditional love, obedience the Tiger Mom here.” or nothing at all. “Chinese parents believe that they Sohn is “self-motivated” and said that his parents know what is best for their children and therefore let him enjoy what he does. override all of their children’s own desires and “I thought [Chua] to be too aggressive in her preferences,” Chua said. methodology,” Sohn said. “What kind of mom “The Chinese believe that the best way to protect threatens to burn your child’s toy? Perhaps she has their children is by preparing them for the future,” the general spirit of Asian parenting, but it comes off Chua said. “Letting them see what they’re capable of, in all the wrong ways in her article. Especially in our and arming them with skills, work habits and inner generation, that iron-grip approach is weakening.” confidence that no one can ever take away.” Megan Kawasaki ’12 also denies that her parents Justin Ho ’12 finds his parents to be “tiger-ish.” are tiger parents. He said that they “emphasize academics a lot, but “My parents were never overbearing about what are untiger-ish in that they also encourage me to do I did, because they just wanted me to enjoy my other stuff, like sports and debate.” childhood and pursue my own interests,” Kawasaki His view on tiger parenting is that it has its merits, said. “It was never so much about what they wanted despite its harshness. for me, but what I wanted to do and try.” “It’s all about balancing when to be tiger and when When she hears about students who claim to not to be,” he said. “Amy Chua might have overdone have tiger parents who expect straight A’s all the it, and she admits it herself. time, Kawasaki feels that these expectations are “But she has a point about what she calls ‘Western’ detrimental, saying that “if they’re having trouble, the parenting, parents who added stress is not going just give their kids what to help them succeed.” they want because they “If children are don’t want to hurt their being forced into doing It’s all about feelings,” Ho said. “I something they don’t balancing when want to do, they’ll lose was with Chua on this one. Get real. The real motivation,” Kawasaki to be tiger and world’s not going to said. “There will be more when not to be. coddle you.” motivation to succeed if Ho sees Asian —Justin Ho ’12 the child likes his or her parenting as assuming extracurriculars and the strength, while Western parent is encouraging.” parenting assumes arielle maxner/chronicle Like Sohn, Kawasaki weakness. Ho thinks sees the tactics of the Asian version is tiger parenting as “too “much better and applicable to the real world.” extreme” and “demoralizing.” It is “unnecessary to Danni Xia ’12 agrees that “a balance is crucial insult your children and tell them they’re not trying for education and parenting.” She sees positive hard enough when they may be doing their best,” she and negative aspects in both Western and Asian said. parenting. Still, she understands their motivation, in that “While Asian children are able to achieve high they want to instill a good work ethic so that their academic success, American children are passionate children succeed. and inventive, daring to make a difference,” Xia said. “There needs to be a balance of kind treatment and In Chua, Xia sees an ideology “a little more instilling those values,” Kawasaki said. “It shouldn’t extreme than the norm,” which has only caused such be about being overbearing. Parents should instruct controversy because “it seems to be working, which their children to develop their own work ethic and is shocking to a lot of people.” become strong and independent.” “My parents are trying to combine both [methods], Kawasaki particularly disagrees with Chua’s allowing me to explore my own interests but also method of insulting her children. disciplining me to work hard at the same time,” Xia “No matter how strong you are, verbal criticism is said. going to get to you,” she said. “Even the strongest of “My mom has high expectations, but she has gotten people crack under that pressure. Parents are supposed more understanding, especially this year because she to love you, not verbally criticize and threaten you if knows I’m already under junior [year] stress and have you’re not living up to their expectations.” high expectations myself,” Xia said. “Now, she’s very “There’s a fine line between being a strict parent focused on planning and effort. I think having high and going overboard,” Kawasaki said. and reachable expectations can be motivating, and Allan Sasaki, archivist and visual arts teacher, is a when I reach them, the feeling of accomplishment is third-generation Japanese American. quite satisfying.” “[My parents] passed down to me a sense of ‘do In Cindy Oh’s ’13 childhood, her mother seemed to your best’ and ‘you will go to college, it doesn’t matter be the cliché Asian parent of Chua’s excerpt. Oh said where, but you need to go,’” Sasaki said. “They never she “used to do like a hundred pages of workbooks a had the chance to attend college even though they day, and went to afterschool [classes], and was forced wanted to go very badly.”

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graphic by arielle maxner

illustration by arielle maxner

Sasaki sees tiger parenting as both good and bad. “Wanting the best for your child is always desirable, but not at any cost,” he said. “There has to be a balance between socializing and hitting the books. Too many constant demands could cause a lot of rebellion. I suppose it depends on the relationship that a child has with his or her parents. I’m glad I was raised the way my parents chose.” Japanese-American math teacher Michael Mori thinks that the farther one gets from the immigrant generation, the less strict the parenting becomes. “My grandparents were the immigrant generation,” Mori said. “[They were] very strict. My parents were second generation, sort of strict. We’re third generation. My children are fourth generation and very ‘Americanized.’ They will probably be very much like the general population since they are four generations removed from the immigrant population.” “People tend to immigrate to better themselves, so they will be the go getters and overachievers,” Mori said. “In the Asian population, education is seen as a way to better themselves. They understand that if they want anything, they have to earn it. The immigrants may not have had the chance for an education, so they want for their children what they didn’t have.” Writing in the March edition of the Atlantic Monthly, former Harvard-Westlake English teacher and college counselor Caitlin Flanagan (Patrick Hudnut ’16), said she has seen firsthand the “kind of collateral damage Tiger Motherhood produces.” As a counselor, she wrote that many Asians related to her their experiences of some of the “harsh treatment Chua describes imposing on her daughters.” However, Flanagan said that “Asian mothers … rarely spoke about their methods or their goals,” leading to the misunderstandings of the strict parenting philosophy. “We called them ‘those mothers,’ and we rolled our eyes and fretted endlessly about their kids,” she wrote. “We were always working to subvert their goals by encouraging their children to look at colleges that were off the official list of exclusive schools and to take risks, blow off some steam and not take things so seriously.” In Flanagan’s opinion, “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother” is incredibly beneficial in explaining the tiger mother mindset. “Some of us [counselors] were deeply ignorant of the philosophy that motivated these mothers … the beliefs underpinning their approach,” Flanagan wrote.

center stage B6 Features

Pulling back the curtain By Justine Goode

and

Claire Hong

alking through the bottom floor of Chalmers on April 15, the second day of the annual Playwrights’ Festival, a steady buzz of excitement slowly became audible, as the actors and playwrights of the festival’s Series B began to assemble in their green room. It was 6:10 p.m., and already there was a sizable group of students relaxing in the lounge, sitting amidst purses and Baja Fresh wrappers littered across the tabletops. The official call time was 6 p.m., but as one actor explained, “They tell people to come at six because they know people will actually come later.” One of the actors to arrive first was Nadia Dubovitsky ’12, who quickly initialed a sign-in sheet and looked around the lounge. Groups of actors were crowded around tables, some animated, some clearly bored. Over the hum of conversation one could hear a familiar but indistinguishable melody being played on the piano. “Someone is always playing the piano before theater shows,” Dubovitsky, who played Esther, a 23-year-old Russian immigrant in “Dropped Stitches,” said. The play was about the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in 1911. “She’s older and wiser than the other girls, more cynical about their prospects and future,” Dubovitsky said. “I like that even though she can be cynical and harsh, she can also be caring.” That night on April 15 was the first time the play would be performed in front of an audience and Dani Wieder ’12, the playwright, was optimistic, if a little anxious. “It’s out of my hands now, but I have wonderful actors who I’ve entrusted with my play,” she said The lounge was filled with veterans and newcomers. “I haven’t acted since sixth grade, but I decided to try it, and now I’m in two [plays],” Ryan Lash ’12 said. One of the plays she was cast in was “Oh No!”, which spoofs murder mysteries and also features Alex Velaise ’11. “I play Philip, a 20-year-old posh British man who

The

Chro

Arielle Maxner/chronicle

Playwrights, actors, directors and tech crew worked together to produce the annual Playwrights’ Festival from April 14 to 17.

is a possible heir to a huge fortune, and who dies a dramatic death with his fiancé,” Velaise explained, munching on tortilla chips from one of the ubiquitous Baja Fresh bags. But the chips did nothing to calm his nerves about opening night. “I haven’t even processed it. I’m not worried though, because there are so many plays with so many actors that you can’t really screw it up.” “Yeah, I couldn’t be less nervous,” interjected Noor Fateh ’11 confidently as he made his way to the costume rack. By 6:40 p.m., more actors in costume had begun to trickle into the lounge, and the hangers on the costume rack were bare. Dubovitsky emerged from the makeshift dressing room in a starched white shirt, a long high-waisted skirt and a small blue apron, holding onto a pile of clothes. Haley Lucitt ’11 jingled loudly as she pulled on a pair of elf shoes that matched the rest of her holiday ensemble. Across the room, Beanie Feldstein ’11 asked, “Nick Healy ’13, is there a wig behind you?” and proceeded to braid Hannah Zipperman’s ’12 hair so Zipperman could wear the curly gray wig. The sound of hairspray swished through the air, barely audible over the din, and a thin mist quickly rose and disappeared, securing Zipperman’s hair in place. At a neighboring table, Halle Levitt ’12 also expertly worked Rebecca Hutman’s ’12 hair into two perfect French braids. At 6:50 p.m., performing arts teacher Christopher Moore stopped in to make an announcement. “Ten minutes! Ten minutes to show time,” he boomed, and a group began to congregate around the door of the lounge. The sounds of the audience finding their seats in Rugby poured into the lounge through a speaker system, heightening the anticipation, and the actors mingled while waiting to take their places. Velaise stroked Autumn Chiklis’s ’12 baby bump — “My sixth child,” she joked — while Lucas Foster ’13 stood by a table alone, looking over his script one last time and quickly reciting his lines to himself under his breath. Dubovitsky showed off her new necklace, a tiny silver sewing machine on a chain. It was an opening night gift from Wieder. The

excitement and energy was palpable as the last few minutes ticked by. 7 p.m. “Places,” yelled Moore. Actors scrambled into place, rearranging their costumes one last time, excited yet nervous for the festival to start. The noise in the lounge kept increasing and a frantic voice called out, “Does anyone have a hair brush?” The group of students in the first play made their way to Rugby Theatre’s backstage area. Students performing in later plays leaned back in their chairs and relaxed, knowing they still had time to get into their costumes or put on make-up. Brooke Levin ’12 casually walked into the lounge with tousled hair and dirt smudged all over her face, asked, “How do I look?” and went on to help her costar, Stephen Carr ’12, apply brown smears over his face to produce the same dirty appearance. At 7:15 p.m., the show began. By the end of the evening, the audience had looked at the life and loves of a frustrated Shakespearean actor moonlighting as a department store Santa in “…Or Not to Be,” watched an unlikely and hysterical bond form between grandmother and grandson in “Roommates,” and heard the tragic and moving stories of women who worked and perished in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in “Dropped Stitches.” As people mingled during intermission, praise for the festival could be heard all around the quad. Wieder smiled as both parents and students complimented her on the success of her play. “It was so mature,” people said. “I started crying.” “I’m just in awe of you right now.” “Thank you,” she repeated over and over, glowing. “It means so much to me.” After intermission, the audience was entertained by the Scene Monkeys’ improvisational skills (audience volunteer Austin Lewis ’11 brought down the house with his deadpan responses to the Monkeys), saw a volatile relationship between two grave robbers deteriorate dramatically in “Buried Alive,” and watched a classic “whodunit” murder mystery unfold in the last play, “Oh No!”

2 student plays win national playwrights competition

The Walk to the Vet

By Leslie Dinkin

“I’m excited to see a different version of it than what was put on at school, and I want to see what [professional actors] do with it.”

Two students’ plays will be professionally performed at The Blank Theatre Company’s 19th Annual Nationwide Young Playwrights Festival. It is a nationwide competition with over 250 submissions. An average of 12 are selected each year,

Playwright Festival Producer Chris Moore said. To be eligible for the festival, the playwright must be under 19 years of age and have met the submission deadline of March 15. In the last 11 years, about 30 HarvardWestlake plays have been professionally produced by The Blank Theatre, Moore

said. The two plays, “Platform Nine,” by Rebecca Moretti ’13, and “The Walk to the Vet,” by Cathy Mayer ’12, will be performed June 2-26 at the Stella Adler Theatre in Hollywood. Moore suggests buying tickets early because the shows usually sell out.

onsta ’93, dress Dory Gra Kelsey W Schiavell photogra Moretti ’ from the Sullivan forted by ’12, in “T

— Cathy Mayer ’12

Platform Nine “I was very surprised. It’s such an honor, and it makes me feel like a better writer.” — Rebecca Moretti ’13 Photos by Chloe Lister

magic disappea sion of th

Features B7

onicle

Scene Monkeys are ‘cliff divers’ in skits By Allison Hamburger

Arielle Maxner/chronicle

Chloe Lister/chronicle

The Scene Monkeys listen attentively as Rugby Auditorium audience members call out locations. “IKEA! I heard IKEA,” Megan Ward ’13 announces from the stage. With no lines memorized, no characters rehearsed, no plot established, four players begin to act out a scene set in the supersized furniture store. But there’s one more catch: at all times, one actor must lie down, one must kneel, one must sit and the last must stand. Bouts of laughter escape the audience as the four Scene Monkeys frantically change positions while also creating a witty story. The Scene Monkeys, the upper school improvisation theater troupe, performed April 14-18 at the Harvard-Westlake Playwrights’ Festival in their first official shows of the year. The group works entirely without a script, creating every line and gesture completely on the spot, with often hilarious results. Beanie Feldstein ’11 has been a Monkey for two years. Improv thinking differs greatly from other mindsets, she said. “I came from a theater background where you always have a script, and you always have a character to work on,” Feldstein said. “[For improv,] you have to be able to tap into multiple characters at once because you are going in and out of scenes very quickly, and sometimes you are playing multiple characters within one game.” Improv depends on using both instincts and basic structure, Scene Monkeys Director Michele Spears said. “This year in particular we have a pretty fearless group,” Spears said. “I call them cliff divers because they’ll just launch, and that’s something we really can’t teach.” After November workshops and auditions, the selected actors rehearse every Friday with Spears. “The One Act Festival, which we just did, is sort of our first time out in front of an audience, and we do really short segments. We do like 12 to 15 minutes of work, but it gives the newer

soundbytes

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It was really amazing because the cast was all girls and we really bonded. It was a really great experience.” — Maddie Lear ’13 Actor, “Dropped Stitches”

Arielle Maxner/chronicle

age: English teacher Adam Howard sed as an Elvis impersonator, serenades aham ’13 in “Three Little Words” by Woo ’11, clockwise from top left. Olivia li ’12 and Steven Ring ’12 examine a aph in “Platform Nine” by Rebecca ’13. Morgan St. Jean ’12 presents a gift cast of “Lavatory Unrest” by Monica to her director. Max Sheldon ’11 is comy his grandmother, played by Sarah Seo The Walk to the Vet” by Cathy Mayer ’12.

I really enjoyed my job doing tech for one acts and being able to help create that magic.” — Ian Durra ’12 Tech Crew

Arielle Maxner/chronicle

Improvisation: Ben Platt ’11, Jack Usher ’11, Hank Doughan ’12 and Nicole Hirschorn ’12 dance and sing to an improvised blues song during one of the Scene Monkeys’ skits during their set. people a chance to feel that energy when you are in front of an audience,” Spears said. The Scene Monkeys will also perform a Mothers’ Day show May 8 at LA Improv and on May 20 in Rugby. During rehearsal, the 14 Monkeys begin by warming up with simpler games before progressing to complete scenes, Feldstein said. They also play a variety of improvised singing and dancing games, accompanied by pianist Nick Healy ’13, who works without sheet music. Spears said that the dynamic of the Monkeys’ performances changes “drastically” over the course of the year as the less experienced players become more comfortable and the more seasoned improvisers sharpen their skills. The ultimate goal in doing improv is to make their fellow performers look good, which fosters better scenes, Spears said. “People know their strengths, they know their weaknesses and everyone else knows their strengths and weaknesses and then you play off of those strengths,” Feldstein said.

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I think it’s really cool to see something you’ve worked on for over a month on stage.” — Ruby Boyd ’12 Costume Designer

I was blessed with a beautiful script, eager cast and thoughtful, seasoned co-director... The rest just fell into Place” — Rachel Katz ’11 Co-Director, “A Walk to the Vet”

Sophomore provides a touch of magic By Bo Lee

Arielle Maxner/chronicle

c show: Nick Healy ’13 makes an orange ball ar during one of his magic tricks in the intermishe opening night of the Playwrights’ Festival.

It was a spectacular sight. Nick Healy ’13 was awing the audience with masterful magic tricks and appeared to be fully enjoying himself throughout the process. It was approaching the end of the show, and he was to perform his final act. He took out a floss box and tore out several pieces of floss as the audience patiently waited. He then wound up the pieces into a small ball and attached an additional piece of floss onto the ball. He then unwound the ball slowly, and to the confusion and amazement of the audience, the ball became a single connected line of floss. Loud cheers and claps by audiences followed this magical phenomenon during Healy’s moment to shine. Healy exhibited this magic trick along with a few others during the intermissions of both Series A and B of the Playwrights’ Festival, which took place from April 14 to April 17. “I was auditioning as an actor for One Acts, and Mr. Moore at the audition, just flat out asked me if I wanted to perform at intermission because he had heard that I was a magician, and

that I had been at the [World Famous Hollywood Magic] Castle several times, and I said ‘yes,’” Healy said. For some, it is a life-long dream to be able to perform at the Magic Castle. For Healy, it is reality and a regular aspect of his life. Declared as the “mecca” of magic by many magicians, Healy feels fortunate to be able to perform in the venues set up for the prolific magicians at this exclusive private club. “The best magicians in the world go there. It’s where they can learn from each other, teach each other, and hang out,” Healy said. Healy was just four years old when he got a magic set as a Christmas present. He started playing with everything in the magic set and had his mom read the instructions to him since he was too young to read himself. Once he learned how to read, he was able to get books on magic and teach himself without his mom’s assistance. “You have to get the books,” Healy said. “You can get magicians to teach you some stuff, but you have to have some degree of being self-taught.” Healy is currently a member of the Junior Group at the Magic Castle and

gets to perform on a regular basis after having gone through two auditions. First, he had to go through a rigorous audition to become a member of the club. Then, he had to go through another audition in order to become a part of the week-long Future Stars event during the summer, which guarantees regular performance privileges to the participants of the event. “Since I have gone through all of the auditions, at this point, I can just say, ‘I want that date,’” Healy said. “‘Give me that date, and I want this many guests,’ and they just give it to me.” Healy has had many years of experience doing magic and has performed in paid gigs and commercials. He also designed all of the illusions and tricks that were shown in the school’s fall play, “Pippin.” “I don’t know if it’s a God complex, but it’s fun to be able to make people feel that way about something you do,” Healy said. “The reactions that magic can evoke are completely different than anything else you’ve ever seen. I’ve seen people laugh, cry, and also get really angry that they just saw what happened.”

B8 Features

April 27, 2011

The

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Chapter 8: After battling the college forces for months, two superheroes have fully conquered the enemy while the other heroes’ quests start winding down. illustration by melissa gertler and sade tavangarian

By Catherine Wang Alexis the Athlete: Alexis,* who was accepted early decision to Saint Mary’s College, received her estimate from the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, which is the amount of financial aid she can expect to receive from Saint Mary’s. The amount she will receive is not enough to cover her tuition to Saint Mary’s, so she plans to discuss with the Saint Mary’s admissions and financial aid office how she could pay for the remainder of her tuition. She is also awaiting notifications from scholarships she applied for, most of which will be released in late May or June. “I’m just waiting it out,” she said. Meanwhile, Alexis is enjoying her final months of high school. “This is the easiest life has ever been,” she said. “I’m actually sleeping, I feel rested, I have no work, and I actually have time to go out.” Carter the Brain: Carter* learned March 30 that he was placed on Harvard University’s waiting list. Harvard was the only school Carter applied to other than Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he was accepted through its early action program. Carter was surprised to learn he was offered a spot on Harvard’s waiting list, he said. “For some reason, before I opened my email, I only thought I would be rejected or accepted,”

he said. “I didn’t consider the possibility that I would be waitlisted.” He “immediately” accepted a spot on the waitinh list but spent the next few days thinking about whether he would go to Harvard if accepted. “It’s more frustrating to be on the waitlist than to be rejected,” he said. He visited MIT in early April during its Campus Preview Weekend, a weekend when admitted students live on campus and immerse themselves in MIT life. “By the time CPW came around I was 70 percent MIT and 30 percent Harvard,” he said. “Afterwards it was 100 percent to 0 percent.” His decision to attend MIT was based on his “desire for challenge,” he said. “After I went to CPW I realized MIT is a very intense place,” he said. “I felt that I would be able to push my own potential further there.” Although Carter has committed to MIT, he has yet to remove himself from Harvard’s waitlist. Aiden the All-Around: Adding to his list of college acceptances, Aiden* was accepted to Tufts University and the University of Southern California. He did not apply to any school through an early application program. “I was surprised and really excited,” he said of his acceptances. He visited Tufts last week and is “pretty sure” he will return in the fall.

Since

Wolverines Eat Pizza From Mama’s and Papa’s !!!

“They’re giving me quite a lot of money, so I think I’m going to head over there,” he said. What he likes about Tufts is the freedom it gives students to explore their academic interests. Unlike USC, where students are accepted to certain schools such as engineering or business and typically stay in those schools, Tufts encourages its students to transfer among its various schools, Aiden said. “I think Tufts would give me a better chance to explore,” he said. “I was accepted to the College of Arts and Sciences, but I’ll have the opportunity to move to engineering if I wanted to.” Although Aiden considered attending the University of Miami, Tufts offered him a much better financial aid package, he said. “Miami hardly gave me any money, so I didn’t think it was worth it to go there,” he said. Aiden has also decided not to take a gap year between his high school senior year and his college freshman year, although he was considering taking one earlier in the year. “I decided it wouldn’t be that meaningful,” he said. “I was told that at a high school level, gap years aren’t very focused around a student’s growth but [are] more about the money surrounding the gap year.” Madison* the Performer and Zoe* the Artist have committed to the schools they were accepted to early decision, Wesleyan University and New York University, respectively. * names have been changed

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April 27, 2011

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Features B9

keeping posted Writers share insights and experiences once confined to journal entries with a wide audience via blogs and websites. By Chloe Lister Seated at her computer, Jessica Yorkin ’11 opens a new document and begins to tap away at her keyboard. She’s not working on any English paper or history project; Yorkin is working on a post for the Huffington Post, the online newspaper for which she blogs. “I’ve never targeted journalism in particular as an interest of mine, but I’ve always loved to write,” Yorkin said. “I’ve kept a diary every day of my life since I was 6, and I’m always composing songs, formulating screenplays, and writing poems. I think my love for reading inspires me to write — I manage to read novels outside of school. [Writing is] very fulfilling. So when I look back on my high school experience, I can be proud of at least one good thing I’ve done consistently.” Yorkin approached the Huffington Post about blogging after noticing that there were not very many young writers on the website’s staff; she submitted a blog she had written, and it was approved to be posted online. “I wanted to address some topics that I thought were relevant to a younger audience,” Yorkin said. Yorkin’s first post was about college applications, and the chaos that surrounds the process. “I knew I wanted to write about college because a teen’s perspective on the entire application process could be very different from an adult’s,” Yorkin said. “I’d accumulated some ridiculous stories and humorous anecdotes from friends that could really shed a light on just how overwhelming it can be to apply.” Yorkin has additionally written about “technology’s affect on genuine conversation.” “I plan to write a lot more of these in the next few months as well as during the summer because every day I get new ideas,” Yorkin said. Marissa Lepor ’12 is a fashion blogger for the Huffington Post. Her interest in fashion blogging started last summer, but she was unsure about how she should begin one. Then, earlier this year, her father informed her that he had met someone from the Huffington Post who might be interested in her blogs. Lepor contacted the newspaper’s fashion editor and ran the idea for her first post by her. Her first post, which she wrote during first period at school one day, was submitted to the Huffington Post and promptly published. Her article discussed her philosophy about getting dressed in the morning, entitled “Three Minutes,

Three Steps, One Decision.” In her blog, she says it should never take her more than three minutes to get dressed. Lepor has written one other article for the Huffington Post giving advice to keep in mind when purchasing a pair of jeans. “I just think, and then I write,” Lepor said. “I guess [blogging is] kind of like painting in that you picture how you want it in your head, and then at the end you either have what you pictured or something completely different.” Both writers are largely uncensored in what they write. “Before an article is published, it’s submitted through the Huff Post’s ‘backstage’ area, where it remains pending until approved,” Yorkin said. “Basically writers have full control over their submissions and can choose to cover anything they wish — assuming the topic is appropriate and their piece is well-constructed and has some sort of message.” Anders Villalta ’12 also blogs; however, he has his own personal blog where his only editor is himself. “It’s been a refreshing outlet for my angsty, torturous teen years,” Villalta said. “I post pictures, my own art, some poetry and creative writing, interesting thoughts I have, dreams, things in other languages, song lyrics and random things I am mad or happy about,” Villalta said. “There’s no theme, except the theme of my life. Consequently, there’s a lot of art, photos and creative writing on there.” Villalta said that he has no qualms about these details of his life being out on the internet for anyone to read. He said he’s always surprised when people mention that they read his blog. Villalta said that for him, his blog is like a diary that lets him look back on important parts of his life. “When I was a kid, I used to try to keep a journal,” he said. “It would never work. I always stopped writing a few weeks in. When I look at my blog archive, I can go to any specific day and see what I was thinking about, or what I was doing, and in some cases, what I took pictures of. It’s like a personal time machine in a way. My blog is more for me than it is for anybody else.” Villalta also keeps a blog where he only posts art pieces that he has created. “My art blog isn’t really a ‘blog’,” Villalta said. “It’s more of a portfolio of some of my work. I post the pictures just to keep them in one place that I can access from any computer. That way, I can show my art to anyone if they want to see it.”

Graphic by victor yoon

April 27, 2011

A&E B10

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Learning the steps By Claire Hong The Advanced Dance I and II classes attended master classes on April 13 taught by dancers from the Barak Marshall Dance Theatre. The third period Advanced Dance I class had Andrew Cowan as its instructor, while the eighth period was taught by Hai Cohen. Both instructors performed at the University of California, Los Angeles with the Barak Marshall Dance Theatre April 15 and taught the dance students choreography from their own performance. “Master classes are always great,” dance

master classes: Professional dancer Hai Cohen from the Barak Marshall Dance Theatre instructs the eighth period Advanced Dance II class. He is partnered with Sara Best ’11.

Dancers from the Barak Marshall Dance Theatre led Advanced Dance I and II classes in unique choreography and technique skills training. teacher Katherine Lowry said. “This one, however, was particularly exciting because that company was actually performing, so it was a good way to get [the students] excited about professional dancers and get out into the dance world.” The master classes were also completely left to the two instructors to decide what aspects of dancing to teach the Advanced Dance classes. “A valuable lesson [Cowan] taught us was to always relate the subject of the choreography to something in your life because that makes it more meaningful, and it looks like you have a purpose while you’re dancing,” said Mikaila Mitchell ’13, who is part of the third period class.

The Barak Marshall Dance Theatre also had instructors teach during the last summer intensive workshop, so many students had the opportunity to incorporate what they learned during the master classes with the dance techniques they learned over the summer. “It was similar to that experience, but both experiences were really fun and amazing,” said Hannah Zipperman ’12. “Everything was taught so quickly so we had to be really focused to pick everything up, but the specific style we were taught was so unique and interesting, she said, I don’t know where I would have learned that style anywhere else.” PRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF kATIE lOWRY

Middle school performing arts groups win 11 singing and instrumental awards By Aaron Lyons

school spirit. I think everyone was proud of themselves and proud of the groups and proud of our The Middle School Symphony, Vocal Ensemble school. We were all really excited for each other,” and Madrigals were given the Festival Sweepstakes Cheong ’12 said. Trophy for having the highest combined scores of After having earned her position within the any other junior high school at the Heritage Mu- school, the festival recognized her individually as sic Festival on April 16 and 17 at Disneyland. They well; she received the Maestro Award for having the competed with other schools from Alabama, Alaska, best solo overall. The solo she performed was from California, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washing- the Symphony’s performance of “Dance Macabre,” ton and Wisconsin, along with two schools from Al- by Saint-Saens, a piece that they have been rehearsberta, Canada. ing in preparation for this performance. Cheong also The Vocal Ensemble received the Service Award, received the Gold Award, which was presented to her by a plaque for first place in Disneyland, for her contribuI think everyone the Women’s Choir Divitions both to her school and to was proud of sion. Madrigals received the community at large. the Gold Award for first The Middle School Symthemselves and place in the Mixed Conphony received the Gold cert Choir Division and proud of the groups Award and a trophy for the a trophy for Most OutMost Outstanding Orchesand proud of our standing Choral Group tra at the festival, both in the at the festival in the Junior High Division. It also school. Junior High and High was presented with the Ad—Sydney Cheong ’14 judicator’s Award. This was School 1A division. Together, Vocal Ensemble to the instrumental muConcert Master of given and Madrigals received sic ensemble at the festival in Middle School Symphony the Junior High Division that a trophy for the Festival Award, which was given ranked the highest from the to the top two scoring perspective of the adjucator. choirs at the festival. The group were also presented with the Gold FesSydney Cheong ’12 is the Concert Master of the tival Certificate, an award that rewards the ensemMiddle School Symphony and received two awards bles that perform at the most advanced level at the for her performance. As Concert Master, she begins festival. The Symphony, Vocal Ensemble and Madeach performance for the entire group, playing the rigals were the only groups to receive the award in notes that coordinate the ensemble and allow each the Junior High Division. Emily Reola, Department player to tune his or her instrument. To earn this Chair of Instrumental Music, explained that being position, however, she had to distinguish herself not honored in this manner opens up a number of differjust as a team player, but also as a strong solo per- ent opportunities for the programs in the future. former. “It is an invitation to perform along with other “Everyone was so enthusiastic and excited. I’ve elite ensembles from other Heritage Festivals at spenever seen that many HW students with so much cial venues, such as Carnegie Hall,” Reola said.

“

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upcoming jazz performances

The jazz program finishes the year with a series of shows both to demonstrate its year’s work and to celebrate the graduating seniors.

April 29

Spring Jazz Concert

May 15

Jazz Festival

May 21

Senior Night at Typhoon graphic by jessica Barzilay and Olivia Kwitny

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April 27, 2011

The

Chronicle

A&E B11

he’s got the world by the strings Through years of practice and dedication, Kevin Schwarzwald ’11 has become an accomplished instrumentalist and composer.

By Austin Block

arielle maxner/chronicle

printed with permission of kevin schwarzwald

MASTERFUL: Kevin Schwarzwald ’11 leads a rehearsal of a piece he wrote, which he conducted in the Symphony concert, top. Schwarzwald plays at a benefit concert with country music star Keith Urban in 2010, above.

Imagine standing on the edge of a stage with 6,000 people staring at you. Imagine improvising a solo on your violin with country music star Keith Urban and his band playing in the background. Imagine your face filling the gigantic screen behind, projecting to the audience a close-up of your tightly closed eyes, your wrinkled collared shirt and the look of fierce concentration that radiates from your expression as your bow hums across the strings. Now imagine the concert ending, the exuberance fading and the audience slowly filing out. A man and a young boy walk up to you. “My son saw you playing, and he really wanted to see you and talk to you because he was really inspired,” the father says. You are Kevin Schwarzwald ’11, accomplished composer, pianist and violinist. You are indescribably proud. Schwarzwald, who conducted a piece he wrote, Epos 1, at last night’s Symphony concert, played with Urban in a benefit concert at the University of California, Los Angeles Tennis Center last summer. As one of 80 students selected out of an applicant pool of about 2,000, Schwarzwald participated in a musical camp called Grammy Camp at the University of Southern California. A week after the program ended, he and another student musician were asked to play a song, “Days Go By,” with Urban at the benefit concert. At the end of the song, Schwarzwald got to play a solo at the front of the stage. “You don’t have that much going through your head at that point. My mind was working on the solo, but most of it was just like the Zen performance mode that you’re in,” Schwarzwald said. “It was one of those things that hits you most once you’re off stage.” He said the best moment of the night was meeting with the man and his young son. “That was a pretty amazing moment,” he said. “That really touched me.” Schwarzwald has always been immersed in music. His father is a professional saxophonist and both of his father’s parents were also professional musicians. While living in Paris when he was 7 years old, Schwarzwald and his family would listen to live music at a Hungarian restaurant. One night, one of the musicians performed exclusively for the Schwarzwald table, playing all musical requests from the family. After that, Schwarzwald began to badger his parents for a violin and lessons. When his family moved to America a

few months later, he got his wish. At age 10 he added piano. Schwarzwald played in school bands at Paul Revere Charter Middle School, and at age 12, a year younger than the minimum age, he was admitted to the Junior Philharmonic Orchestra of California. By 15, he was a section leader in the Orchestra and a new Harvard-Westlake ninth grader taking three music classes: Symphony, Jazz Band and Electronic Music. At the Upper School, Schwarzwald has taken advantage of both the classical and jazz music programs, playing violin for Symphony and piano for Jazz Band. He also leads a jazz combo. He has performed with a Blues band led by well-known singer Jean Shy and played in the pit orchestra for musicals on theater row in Hollywood, on movie soundtracks and on a start up band’s heavy metal album. He often plays on Tuesday nights with his father’s band at the House of Blues on Sunset Boulevard. Schwarzwald also composes in his free time. Although he writes mostly classical music, he has also written some jazz and rock and is currently working on arranging pop and rock music for a full orchestra. In seventh grade, he won a national composition competition for a piece he wrote, which was later premiered in Austria. Although a friend’s father taught him the basics of composition, and he has taken some other composing lessons, he said that much of what he has learned is self-taught. “A lot of it is taking pieces and composers that I admire and seeing if I can get my hands on scores of them,” he said. “I look at parts that I really like of it and I analyze, I try to see exactly what he’s doing there and how can I apply that to my work.” He said that ideas come to him at any time. “This year I think I ran out of space in all of my composing notebooks, but for the past couple of years, especially in 11th grade, I almost [always] had a composing notebook and occasionally in class I did take it out and start jotting down stuff,” he said. In 2009, the Junior Philharmonic premiered Epos 1, with Schwarzwald playing in the front row and filling in for the principal violin. “That’s a really special feeling, because you put months of work into that thing and then you finally get to hear it realized, not just with the crappy computer sounds that you’re dealing with but with an actual orchestra,” he said. For his final French Literature Honors project, he plans to write a musical response to a novel he read in the class. “I’m basically going to be rereading the book next to the piano,” he said. “A lot of it is just that general emotions get narrowed down into ideas, because a lot of music is just writing down emotion and writing down what you feel about something.” Four weeks ago, Schwarzwald had one of his most memorable musical experiences yet. He went to a restaurant called the Townhouse, where world-famous musicians gather every Sunday night for a jam session. He brought his violin, hoping to get a chance to play, but after watching Karen Briggs, who has given him violin lessons, play a dazzling 15-minute solo, an intimidated Schwarzwald decided to stay seated for the night for his own “psychological sake.” But then she asked him to play the last two or three songs of the night. So, suddenly beset with nerves, he hopped up on stage and soaked in a few precious minutes of musical bliss. “You’re only nervous until you get on stage,” he said. “Before, it can be tough, but once you’re on there, especially if you have that good of a band behind you, you float on top of it.”

April 27, 2011

Chronicle

The

B12 Features

Justine Goode/chronicle

LA dulce vida: Alex Gura ’12 wades in a fountain in Zaragoza, left. Ben Dreier ’11, Erin Landau ’11, and Andrew Hartford ’11 navigate the narrow streets of Cordoba, above. The seniors pose at a Barcelona outlook, upper right. Singers explore the Plaza de España in Seville, also known as Naboo in “Star Wars”, bottom right.

singing in Spain By Saj Sri-Kumar Chamber Singers got standing ovations and cries of “bravo” in response to their performances over a 12-day spring break through Spain. The Chamber Singers toured the country, performing in five different venues in Barcelona, Cordoba, Madrid and Seville. The group performed American, classical and Spanish songs in venues ranging from churches to a retirement home. “My favorite moment was singing at an old age home for homeless and underprivileged [people] outside of Madrid,” Jack Petok ’11 said. “They never have any concerts or anything in the town and it was just a really special experience to be able to share this music with them. There were lots of cheers and smiles we just really connected with them.”

27 Chamber Singers spent spring break touring and performing in the cities of Barcelona, Madrid, Cordoba and Seville.

Kelsey Woo ’11 said that the final concert in Seville was her favorite moment on the trip. “My favorite moment was definitely in [the] beautiful cathedral in Seville,” she said. “We were all really emotional because it was the end of the trip and we all ended up crying. We were singing this beautiful song, ‘I Carry Your Heart With Me,’ and everyone burst out in tears, especially the seniors because it was an ending.” To plan the trip, performing arts teacher Rodger Guerrero worked with Spanish teacher Roser Gelida and ACFEA Tour Consultants to plan out the best locations at which to perform. The tour company helped to advertise the trip in advance, leading to packed crowds at many of the concerts. Beanie Feldstein ’11 said that one of the biggest differences she noticed between performing in the U.S. and in Spain is that audiences are much more vocal with their praise.

“There was one old woman in Barcelona who would yell ‘bravo’ after every song that she liked,” she said. Guerrero also commented on the enthusiasm of the audiences. “The fewest standing ovations we received [at any particular concert] was two,” he said. In addition to singing, the group was able to visit museums and attractions across the country, including the Prado and Museo Reina Sofia in Madrid and Las Ramblas in Barcelona. “As an AP Art History student, I really loved seeing all the amazing art,” Feldstein said. “We saw Gaudi’s architecture [and] Picasso’s Guernica.” The trip follows a long line of choral trips to Europe. The Chamber Singers visited Austria, the Czech Republic and Hungary in 2003, Denmark, Estonia and Sweden in 2005 and Italy in 2009.

Alumnus to exhibit photographs in Feldman Horn Gallery The school will display George Steinmetz’s ’75 bird’s eye view photography in Feldman-Horn Gallery in May. By Nika Madyoon

GeorgE steinmetz

FLYING HIGH: George Steinmetz ’75 takes photos from his “flying machine,” a motorized paraglider he invented, top right. Locations have included the Lençois Maranhenses National Park in Brazil, top left, and Shibam, Yemen in 2004, bottom.

George Steinmetz ’75 soars over natural wonders, turning sand dunes into abstract swirls and elephants into miniscule figurines. With the push of a button, he converts vast landscapes into structured mazes for the world to explore. Steinmetz is no giant of great proportions nor is he a magician. He is a flying inventor-photographer. By 2008, Steinmetz had spent 26 years photographing 22 African countries, all with the help of a “flying machine” that he invented. He uses the machine to paraglide above anything from intriguing scenery to everyday African life. His book, “African Life,” contains his photographs, some of which have been printed in National Geographic magazine.

A collection of 38 of Steinmetz’s photos will be displayed in FeldmanHorn Gallery May 1-29 in an exhibit called “Wild Air: The Photographs of George Steinmetz ’75”. Steinmetz will be at the exhibit Sunday from 2 to 5 p.m. Art teachers Allan Sasaki and Kevin O’Malley curated the show, using pictures that Steinmetz sent digitally. Sasaki and O’Malley spent a great deal of time printing and mounting the 16 by 24 inch and 20 by 30 inch pieces, which will be for sale from $3,000 to $6,000. Some of the proceeds will go to the Alumni Scholar Endowment Fund. “[Steinmetz] is a great role model for students because he shows how you can take your passion for something and turn it into an amazing career,” Upper School Visual Arts Department Head Cheri Gaulke said.

ports S

Tennis triumphs Boys’ tennis defeated Peninsula 10-8, its closest match this month.

The Chronicle Volume XX Issue VIII April 27, 2011

Girls run fastest times in nation By Julius Pak

Printed With Permission of Kevin On

Record Setters: Lauren Hansson ’11 hands off the baton to Hilary King ’11 in the 4x100-meter relay during the Marymount dual meet. The girls’ team holds the best times in the nation for the 4x800-meter relay, sprint medley and distance medleys. The girls ran a nation-leading 9:03.77 in the 4x800-meter on April 15.

In the span of a month, the girls’ track and field team broke nine school records times in five meets. The 800-meter medley team of Maddy Morency ’12, KC Cord ’11, Lauren Hansson ’11 and Cami Chapus ’12 broke the school record at Oaks Christian on March 16. Three days later, Hansson and Chapus broke school records in the 100-meter and 1600-meter events, respectively, at the Triton Invitational. After an away win at Chaminade, Chapus broke her own record from Triton in the 1600-meter event at the Mt. Carmel Invitational. At the prestigious Arcadia Invitational, the team of Hansson, Cord, Amy Weissenbach ’12 and Chapus not only won the sprint medley event and broke a fourth school record this season, but was 0.01 seconds off the meet record. The medley team recorded a time of 3:59.07 in the race, which also gave Hansson her 11th individual school record. The team that won the sprint medley event also won the distance medley relay the next day, completing the women’s distance medley relay/sprint medley relay sweep. Their time of 11:40.89 was not only a new school record (the fifth of the season), but also the second fastest run in state history and the fastest time in the nation this year. Eight days after breaking records at Arcadia, the girls’ team ran another relay with the fastest time in the nation and broke a meet record in the process at the Mt. San Antonio College Relays. Yasmin see Track, C7

7th grade girl shatters varsity long jump record By Shawn Ma In an Arizona track meet during spring break, Courtney Corrin ’16 beat the girls’ varsity long jump record by over a foot. She jumped a distance of 19’2”, easily beating the varsity record of Nathanson ’s/chronicle 18’1/4” set by Cara Bickers Courtney Corrin ’16 ’07 in 2007. However, Corrin’s distance won’t go down in the Harvard-Westlake record book. Head Track and Field Coach Jonas Koolsbergen said that any jump that is not at a Harvard-Westlake affiliated meet does not count as a record, even if the athlete is a Harvard-Westlake student. Because the track meet Corrin participated in was with her club track team, the Cougars, the 19’2” jump will not be a Harvard-Westlake record. However, Corrin remains optimistic, as she knows her best jumps are still in front of her. “I do feel disappointed it won’t [go in the record book] but hopefully at the track and field championships for Middle School I will jump 19’2” feet,” Corrin said. “Well, I’m actually trying to go 20 feet.” Corrin is also the current record holder of the Middle School long jump record at 17’3”. Corrin started jumping when she was 7 and initially picked long jump because of its similarity to flying. “I jump because I enjoy flying and when I jump it makes me feel free of everything, and it makes me feel happy and excited,” Corrin said. “I always tell myself long jump is fun.” Corrin’s jump has gotten the attention of Koolsbergen. “Her jump, though [recorded] outside of school, was an extraordinary performance,” he said. “We are looking forward to having her the rest of this year plus five more years.”

David Kolin/ Chronicle

juke and jive: Cory Wizenberg ’11 circumvents a Crespi defender in the Wolverines’ 23-4 trouncing of the Celts on April 16. The win was the Wolverines’ largest margin of victory so far. The Wolverines were 11-0 overall and 7-0 in league going in to their last league game against the Brentwood Eagles last night at Brentwood.

Triple-overtime road win over Loyola keeps undefeated lacrosse season alive By David Kolin In a nail-biting showdown against rival Loyola, the lacrosse team went into triple overtime and prevailed over the Cubs 8-7. The previous face-off with Loyola at home had a very different ending (the Wolverines routed the Cubs 17-4). After Thursday’s win, the team held an 11-0 overall record and a 7-0 league record. Palisades, the team the Wolverines will play this Friday, will prove to be an even tougher match than Loyola, players said. However, the Wolverines won last year’s game 3-2. In the team’s last game against Chaminade, Cory Wizenberg ’11 set a school record for most points, combined number of goals and assists. in one game. Wizenberg scored three goals and dished out eight assists. Attackman Will Oliver ’11 attributes his team’s success to strength throughout the lineup.

“We have a lot of different threats which makes us all more dangerous because [our opponents] can’t guard all of us,” Oliver said. The offense is where the team shines through. Over the course of the season, the Wolverines have put up no fewer than eight points per game. “Our team’s strength is definitely our offense,” Mantel said. “We have a lot of talent on that end of the field, and we are able to put up solid numbers on the scoreboard. We have forced a lot of turnovers so far in our games. It gives our defense more time to rest, and it allows us to have another opportunity to score.” However, the team needs to focus on the defensive end of the field in order to hold off their opponent’s offense. “We have to focus on our communication skills on defense as well as our clearing and transition see lacrosse, C7

Facts

& Figures

April 27, 2011

Chronicle

The

C2 Sports

Number of overtimes the varsity lacrosse team played before beating Loyola 8-7, which improved its record to 11-0. The record earned the program its first Mission League championship.

10:19 The time it took cross country and track star Cami Chapus ’12 to run two miles at a meet last Thursday against Marymount.

11 16

A converted fanatic

The number of consecutive years that the boys’ tennis team has gone without losing a league match.

The number of runs the varsity softball team scored in a shutout league win over Louisville on April 20, improving its overall record to 8-6 and league to 2-2.

game of the month Boys’ volleyball May 5 vs. Alemany By David Gobel Because of the team’s loss to St. Francis on Thursday, the boys’ volleyball team will most likely need to win its last three games of the season to make CIF playoffs. A 5-4 win over Alemany on Senior Night could be the deciding factor as to who gets the last CIF playoff spot in the Mission League. The Wolverines will need to watch out for Alemany outside hitter Matt Tarantino, who is commited to the top boys’ volleyball program in the nation, Pepperdine. Tarantino is 6’8’’ and has a wingspan of 8’8’’. In order to stop him, Wolverine hitters Damiene Cain ’11 and Spencer Eichler ’11 along with libero Matt Goldhaber will need to play very efficiently to neutralize Tarantino’s dominating presence.

This Month

vs.

Wolverine History April 1995 By Micah Sperling The boys’ volleyball team stunned national number two team Loyola to tie for first place in the Mission League heading into the CIF Tournament. The Wolverines won behind standout play from Trevor Julian ’97 and Jimmy Ostridge ’96, who led the team with 20 kills. Many of the team’s players, including Ostridge and Julian, changed positions for the match, since the Wolverines were without starter Rick Routh ’96. Against Mira Costa on the previous Friday, the Wolverines had dropped the second game 15-0 en route to a five-game loss. The team would later lose to Dos Pueblos in the first round of CIF play.

Daniel Rothberg Fans piled into Taper Gym as boys’ basketball prepared to face Chatsworth for a slot in the regional semifinals for a CIF title, and I was live blogging the contest for The Chronicle. Though I had often set up and edited live blogs on he Chronicle website, I had never actually provided the content for one. For that matter, I don’t think I had ever contributed a word to the sports section for the paper, either online or in print, before covering that game. So, it’s safe to say that I was a complete amateur. I was pretty rusty on the lingo at first, and had an especially difficult time attempting to provide any Chick Hearn-esque color. However, as the game got going, I began to get the hang of it (thanks, in large part, to help from my co-Editor Alice Phillips ’11 who was blogging the game with me). Throughout the game, I dutifully hammered out play-by-play updates. As the game progressed, however, I noticed that I had become less concerned with my role as an “objective reporter” and more invested in the contest as a fan, dare I say a fanatic. During especially climactic possessions, I would begin to passionately stand up to cheer on the Wolverines, until I was stopped by the startling feeling of my laptop sliding from my lap. I remember driving home that night on a Harvard-Westlake high. It was not until this school year that I truly started to understand the importance of sports. That is not to say that I was entirely removed from the sporting world before then. After all, I had often watched professional games on television and enjoyed participating in athletic activities. In fact, at one point or another, I had even been a Harvard-Westlake athlete. I played on the volleyball team up until 10th grade and also had a stint on the water polo team in eighth grade. I was never fantastic, but I was proficient. However, up until this year, my relationship with sports was

on a take it or leave it basis. In past years, my attendance record at Harvard-Westlake matchups can only be characterized as embarrassingly weak, at best. I had been to a very meager assortment of games each year. However, especially during basketball season this year, I began attending more games. And with each game I went to, I felt a sense of pride for Harvard-Westlake that I had never felt before. It is a type of pride that may be achieved through other extracurricular endeavor, but certainly cannot be shared in the same way as it is in a sports arena. At its root, team sports are about being a part of something bigger than oneself. The individual components of a team (players, coaches, trainers, fans) are, in the end, dwarfed in comparison to what a team as a whole can represent or embody for a school or a city. In addition, there seems to be a majestic inclusivity about sports. Sure, not everybody is fit to play (I decidedly fall into that category. But everybody can watch. Everybody. An observer at a game does not need to be a sports wonk to process the outcome of a play or possession. Moreover, it is unique in that there are no demographic limits on who can attend a game. The old and the young are all in attendance at games. It brings together students, siblings, teachers, parents and grandparents. As I prepare to graduate in about six weeks, I can’t help but feel that I missed out by not attending more than a few games during my other three years in high school. I wish I had been encouraged more by teachers and friends earlier in my Harvard-Westlake career to support the Wolverines, whether it be in Taper Gym or on Ted Slavin Field. However, senior year was not too late to become a Wolverine fan. In college and beyond, I will never forget being surrounded by a sea of red while blogging and covering my first game for The Chronicle.

Orthopedic surgeons conduct study on athletes’ overuse injuries By Michael Aronson and Shawn Ma Strength and conditioning coach Greg Bishop is helping a sports medicine study involving Harvard-Westlake studentathletes to determine whether there is a correlation between the amount of training for sports and risk of injury. Bishop is coordinating his study with noted orthopedic surgeons from Los Angeles Children’s Hospital James Lee Pace and David Skaggs. Skaggs, the chief of orthopedic surgery at the hospital, is working alongside Bishop to monitor training intensity with student athletes to ensure athlete safety at the same time as keeping workouts and training at a demanding level.

“[Skaggs and Pace] were interested in examining activity levels of student athletes and how that contributed to overuse injuries,” Bishop said. Athletes willing to participate will fill out a waiver with their parents and then receive a questionnaire detailing their training schedules for their various sports. They will record the general number of practices, games or matches, the number of sports played and the total time devoted to the various sports activities which they participate in. After the questionnaires are returned, Bishop will consult the athletic training staff to match the athletes with their injury history. The study is concerned with injuries caused by repeated over-

use rather than acute or sudden injuries from trauma. “We are focused on injuries kids need to see doctors for,” Bishop said. “We aren’t monitoring short term foot pains or other minor injuries.” For example, the study is interested in shoulder injuries for water polo players, and knee tendinitis for runners. “Athletes are now doing one sport 12 months out of the year, so there is constant training,” Bishop said. “Basketball players for example, are always on a basketball team. Once they finish the school season, they move right into club season.” Bishop feels there will be a slight correlation between the amount of working out and risk of injury, but he doesn’t feel that it will be a significant one.

Sports C3

Chronicle

The

April 27, 2011

CIF ranks most teams in middle academic range By Alex Leichenger

Daniel kim/chronicle

Freshman Phenom: Jack Flaherty ’14 pitches in a 5-1 loss against Buena. He held the Bulldogs’ offense scoreless for four innings after relieving starting pitcher Lucas Giolito ’12 in the third inning.

Baseball enters home stretch trailing Chaminade in league By Judd Liebman After dominating St. Francis and Santa Monica High School, the baseball team had its three game win-streak snapped by Buena, as it lost 5-1 on Friday. The loss was only the Wolverines’ sixth this season. However, after Newbury Park High School forfeited its game against the Wolverines on Saturday, the team raised its overall record to 16-6. The team returned to Mission League play yesterday after a three-game hiatus with a game against Chaminade. The results were not available at press time. The varsity squad swept both the St. Francis and Notre Dame series but split the Alemany series, taking a 5-1 league record as of press time. The Chaminade series opens the team’s final push to CIF which consists of seven games, six of which are against league opponents. “Chaminade, Crespi and Loyola will all be tough teams, just like everyone else in our league,” Head Coach Matt LaCour said. “We don’t have easy league games.” The Wolverines’ start of the season was somewhat streaky. They opened up both a four game and three game win streak. The most recent streak was cut short by a loss against Buena, in which Giolito pitched three innings and gave up five runs. Reliever Jack Flaherty ’14 came in and shut down Buena’s offense and pitched four scoreless innings. Sam Horn ’11 contributed with a solo home run, scoring the Wolverines’ only run in the 5-1 loss. “Not a matter of working on fundamentals or mechanics, we just came off a layoff, and the team as a whole wasn’t ready to play,” Giolito said. Despite giving up five runs, the Wolverines’ de-

JV Roundup Despite dropping league games against Alemany and St. Francis, the Wolverines remain poised to win the leauge title.

Overall Record: 13-4 Last two games:

League Record: 4-2

Buena: W (10-3) Next two games:

Chaminade*

Friday vs. Chaminade May 3 vs. Loyola “It’ll get heated when we get out there [against Chaminade]. We’re looking forward to it. We’re doing pretty well in league but we could do better.” — Jacob Pardo ’14 nathanson’s/chronicle

*UNAVAILABLE AT PRESS TIME SOURCE: hw.com/AthLEtics

fense has been the backbone of their recent play, LaCour said. “Our defense has remained solid in the infield and has proved to be a real strength of our team along with controlling the running game with Arden Pabst ’13 doing a fine job behind the plate,” he said. The Wolverines were sitting second in league behind the Chaminade Eagles (7-1) going into last night’s matchup. Chaminade’s only loss this season came at the hands of St. Francis on April 5 by a score of 5-4. “Sweeping Chaminde would be huge for the team’s confidence,” Giolito said.

Varsity teams, on average, finished in the 57th percentile of grade point average for schools with enrollment of 1,500 or fewer students in the CIF Southern Section’s 26th annual academic team championships, which were announced in early April. Academic rankings for teams are based on unweighted, 4.0-scale GPAs. Boys’ soccer had the highest ranking of any Harvard-Westlake team at third place out of 39, with a GPA of 3.626. Girls’ cross country and softball were the only other teams to place in the top quartile of schools in their respective sports. Sixteen of 22 eligible Harvard-Westlake teams finished in the top half of their divisions. Last year’s varsity teams averaged placements of the 63rd percentile in GPA, with 10 of 22 in the top quartile and 14 in the top half. Wrestling won the academic title and was honored in a ceremony at Angel Stadium. The Southern Section does not give out academic awards for field hockey or lacrosse because less than 20 percent of schools with CIF membership field these teams at the varsity level. Head of Athletics Audrius Barzdukas does not think GPA alone is the best barometer for the performance of student-athletes, especially when grading scales differ between schools. “We absolutely at this school don’t judge anybody solely on the basis of [his or her] GPA,” Barzdukas said. “Not even close. It wouldn’t be much of a fun place to go to school if that was all you were judged on. I think it’s a great award — believe me, we hang those banners, and we are proud and we proclaim our pride when we get those banners also. But our challenge is for each of us to always be asking ourselves, ‘Are we achieving our potential as students, as scholars, as athletes, as artists?’” Barzdukas believes that at Harvard-Westlake, many other criteria must be considered, including the colleges to which students are accepted, test scores and their overall progress as people. “One of the things I think is great about our school is between administration, faculty, the deans, it’s a conversation about each person,” Barzdukas said. “And we take in the totality of data, and there’s also a subjective component … You’re not just in this mass of humanity where here’s a file with a grade and a score ... It would probably make everyone’s life easier and more simple if it was just some kind of formula, but that’s not how we do it. It’s a human process here in terms of assessing whether you are having a good experience, maximizing your potential.” The academic championship results showed a slight downward trend for teams in their academic percentiles as winning percentage increased, but there was no correlation between team winning percentage and GPA within Harvard-Westlake itself. Barzdukas does not think academic and athletic success are mutually exclusive. “I fight that,” Barzdukas said. “Because to me, that is jumping on the slippery slope to really wrong thinking about innate talents. I think it is entirely possible, in fact I’m here because I believe it’s possible to be a good student and a good athlete and good person all at the same time and that achieving that is just a matter of putting the work in in all three of those areas. I 100 percent disagree with the idea that you cannot be good in those two areas at the same time.”

Equestrian places 15th of 63 to conclude school season By Mariel Brunman The equestrian team finished the season 15th out of 63 schools at the Interscholastic Equestrian League’s final show April 16. This was the last of four shows held this season at the Hansen Dam Equestrian Center in Lake View Terrace. Corinne Miller ’12 led the team by earning 35 points. She placed third overall for the season in the varsity division and qualified for a varsity division medal. Ariana DuBelko ’12 placed 25th, following Miller. Captain Caitlin Murphy ’11 placed seventh overall in varsity dressage; Erin Murphy ’13 placed ninth overall in the same division. “I think that the two new co-captains, Eleonore Lund-Simon ’12 and Corinne Miller ’12, did a really good

job of bringing the team together, especially with the community service effort,” Murphy said. Amanda McAdams ’15 finished 18th out of 52 in the novice division. Seana Moon White ’13 placed 35th and Caroline Watts ’14 placed 47th. As well as competing in the show, the Wolverines volunteered at Freedom Riders, a therapeutic riding center, where they helped disabled children ride specially trained horses. “I was especially glad to get to know and bond with a lot of my teammates and of course to grow as a rider alongside them,” White said. “Equestrian is such an individual sport that it’s nice to go through competitions together. I’m really just looking forward to next year’s shows, continued bonding with the team and maybe getting to know the new additions, if any, next year.”

C4 Sports

April 27, 2011

The

Chronicle

Softball crushes Louisville 16-0

By Robbie Loeb

Following a 4-0 start to the season, the softball team has lost six out of its last 10 games. “I think we got a little too comfortable with our wins at the beginning fo the season,” Lauren Li ’12 said. “We need to approach every game the same way no matter which team we face.” The team posts an overall record of 8-6 and 2-2 in league. The Wolverines played Notre Dame on Tuesday, but results were not available at press time. They beat Flintridge Sacred Heart 2-1 last month for their first league win. After two league losses to Alemany and Notre Dame, the team bounced back against Louisville, winning 16-0, its second largest win margin this season. “After those rough couple of league games we had, a game like the one against Louisville was much needed,” Li said. “We took advantage of the pitcher every inning and had strong defense — that’s a recipe for a win. This isn’t a sign, but rather evidence that we are capable of winning.” “We went up to bat with our game plan in mind and hit the ball very well,” Emily Louy ’11 said. With five games left in league, the team is confident that it can do well in the second half of the season. “I know that we can take this momentum and carry it through to our next games,” Louy said. The team sits in fourth place in the league table as of press time, two games back of Chaminade. The team plays Chaminade tomorrow, who has yet to be scored on in their league games.

JV Roundup JV softball lost its first league game to Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy March 24 7-6 and has remained winless in league.

Overall Record: 4-4 Last two matches: Notre Dame: L (32-5) Notre Dame: April 26* Next match: Thursday v. Chaminade “Our JV team is off to a great start. I am looking forward to playing in the upcoming league games.” — Emily Plotkin ’13 *UNAVAILABLE AT PRESS TIME

nathanson’s/chronicle

Source: hw.com/athletics

Daniel Kim/chronicle

junior starter: Lauren Li ’12 pitches against Notre Dame in the girls’ softball team’s second loss of the season April 26. Li began playing softball at the age of 9, but did not start pitching until much later.

Junior pitcher leads softball team By David Kolin Since she was just nine years old, Lauren Li ’12 has been playing softball. Although she did not immediately start on a club team, by the time she was 10 years old she was playing on competitive club teams in Los Angeles. Before she started playing club softball, Li played recreationally and did not have a very strict practice schedule. Once she joined a competitive club team, Li began playing every other day of the week. “If I didn’t play every other day of the week, it would show because I was playing on very competitive teams against other competitive teams,” Li said. Li sees her pitching coach, John Sarno, once every three weeks in order to fine tune her pitching mechanics. Sarno coaches Li so infrequently because he lives far away from her and because he has many other clients, including some Olympic athletes. “I work with my pitching coach, because he knows what’s wrong,” Li said. “He is like my mirror. I can’t always see myself when I’m pitching.” Li also has a lot of experience pitching since she started practicing at such an early age. “I’ve been pitching since I was really young, and I’ve never really been good enough to be the starting pitcher on my club teams because we

were playing on such a competitive level,” Li said. “I was beaten out by other girls for the pitching spots, but I practiced with my dad all the time, and I finally got to that level in club where I could be the starting pitcher.” By 12 years old, Li had won a national tournament with her team, Victory USA. Although she didn’t pitch for her team at the time, she was the starting right fielder. Li has not had any injuries during her softball career because she hasn’t worn out her arm over the years. “Maybe not starting all the time pitching helped me in the end because I haven’t thrown that many pitches,” Li said. “My mechanics are pretty sound, so I don’t have any problems with my arm. I ice after I pitch, and I’m taking Advil around the clock.” Now, Li has reached the point in her career where she is both starting pitcher for her club team and her school team. When Li steps out on the mound before each pitch, she does not try to recall everything her coach taught her all at once. “I try to think positive thoughts,” Li said. “Thinking, ‘I’m gonna get this batter out.’ That is better than thinking about mechanics. I think about mechanics when I’m practicing. That’s when I can think more about if I’m doing the pitch right, but during the game, it kind of just comes naturally.”

Tennis defeats Peninsula, Chaminade to maintain undefeated league record By Austin Lee

Daniel Kim/chronicle

key victory: Jackson Frons ’12 won his set against Peninsula to claim a narrow 10-8 win for the Wolverines.

JV Roundup JV Tennis resumes its undefeated streak after the team’s first loss in years to University on March 8.

Overall Record: 15-1 League Record: 9-0

Last two games:

Peninsula: W (15-3) Chaminade: W (18-0) Thursday v. Chaminade at L.A. Valley College Next match:

“We’ve had a strong season, but our goal is to finish even stronger and have everyone give it their all every match.” — Jon Chu ’12 nathanson’s/chronicle Source: hw.com/athletics

The varsity boys’ tennis team scored a narrow victory over Peninsula 10-8 last Wednesday, and continued a month-long winning streak with another victory, 14-4 over Chaminade, boosting its overall record to 16-3 and its league record to 8-0. Following the two week long spring break, the team scored a second win against Loyola and defeated Beverly Hills and St. Francis. The team defeated those teams smoothly, but encountered a relatively tough opponent in Beverly Hills, but the team did manage to pull off a win even with a considerable number of players substituted in. “We are just getting back into our stride after a two week break,” Head Coach Chris Simpson said. “Three wins this week was good for the guys, but we need to get match fit again as tougher matches are on the way.” However, in their match against Peninsula, the team

only gained victory after several close matches, escaping a game count by one set. Jackson Frons ’12 scored a key victory against Peninsula’s singles 1 player, Shuhei Shibahara, coming back from a 3-5 deficit to win the set 7-5. In addition, the doubles pair of Roy Murdock ’11 and Max Rothman ’14, playing in the doubles 3 position, went on to defeat Peninsula’s doubles 2 pair and the Matt Wagner ’11 and Harrison Kalt ’13 pair defeated Peninsula’s doubles 3 pair. “I feel that the team did well against Peninsula,” Frons said. “I’m happy about my win, but it was just one match. The win was a team effort.” The team then went on to defeat Chaminade by a rather wide margin. Both Jeffrey Bu ’12 and Frons played and defeated Chaminade’s singles 1 player, after which Frons was substituted out and Bu went on to sweep the remainder of his matches. Meanwhile, the Wagner and

Kalt pair swept their matches, defeating all three of their doubles opponents. The team will be participating in the upcoming Ojai Tournament, where Frons will represent the school in singles for his second year and the Wagner and Kalt pair will represent the school in doubles. The team will be playing against Santa Barbara today, which promises to be one of the key matches in determining the crucial final seed of the team in the upcoming CIF playoffs. Currently, the team is on track to become the fourth seed in CIF, which may lead to a semifinal against University for the third year in a row, but a loss against Santa Barbara will drop the team to a lower seed. “Playoffs are the third phase of the season and training is geared to playing big points like holding service games and converting on break points,” Simpson said. “Fitness as a whole increases and we get match tough.”

April 27, 2011

Sports C5

The

Chronicle

Volleyball remains in playoff hunt despite recent slide By David Gobel

daniel kim/chronicle

killing it: Spencer Eichler ’11 kills the ball in a loss to St. Francis. The volleyball team had lost six out of its last seven games at press time.

Struggling through league play, the boys’ volleyball team has lost six out of its last seven games, including two close losses to Loyola. In order to make CIF playoffs, the Wolverines might need to win their last three games, including a match Tuesday that occurred after press time. However, the team is optimistic that about its chances of making the playoffs. “We have Notre Dame, Crespi and Alemany left, and with the personnel that we have, I think we have a pretty good shot of beating those teams,” varsity head coach Adam Black said. “It all depends on whether we come out ready to play, and if we can perform well every single play.” Black attributes the team’s recent struggles not to a lack of talent or injuries. “We made a few more errors than we would like to have made,” Black said. “Although in any game you’re going to make errors, we want to try to minimize our mistakes more to tip the odds in our favor.” In late March, the Wolverines played an extremely close game against rival Loyola, the third ranked team in the nation. The Wolverines fought hard against Loyola, working back from a 16-9 deficit in the fourth game to win it 25-23. However, they were beaten in the sudden-death fifth game 15-8 and lost the match. In their next match, the Wolverines dominated Crespi.

Following the Crespi game, the Wolverines have gone on a slump losing their last four matches. After a close 3-2 loss against Alemany, the Wolverines lost against Chaminade 3-1 and followed that up with another loss against Loyola. The Wolverines lost their fourth game in a row against St. Francis Thursday, and their league record fell to 3-6, leaving them at fourth in the Mission League.

JV Roundup After a slow start to the season, winning only one game out of its first four, the JV volleyball team has won six of nine.

Overall Record: 6-7 League Record: 5-4 Last game: Notre Dame*

Next two games: May 3 vs Crespi May 5 vs Alemany

“At the beginning of the season we had a lot of new guys, a lot of freshmen just trying to get a handle on the game itself.” — Keith Leonard ’13 nathanson ’s/chronicle

*unavailable at press time

source : www.hw.com /athletics

Swimmer shortage hurts girls’ team By Judd Liebman An undermanned girls’ swim team opened its season with three non-league losses, but bounced back with a 93-77 victory over Notre Dame to start league. The boys’ team also defeated Notre Dame 118-52 starting its league season during its opening four meet win streak, which was snapped by Crespi on April 14. The girls’ squad will have to compete without star swimmer Reyna Calderon ’12, who left the team recently. Calderon would have been the fourth girl on CIF contending relay teams. Kassie Shannon ’14 has taken Calderon’s place on the relay teams. The girls’ side fell to Alemany and Louisville to give them a 1-2 record in league and a 1-5 record overall. “The loss to Louisville was really disappointing,” Captain Catherine Wang ’11 said. “We didn’t swim poorly, we were just undermanned.” Sydney Wong ’14 has stepped up for the girls’ team. Wong swims the distance events for the team which include the 500-meter freestyle and 200-meter individual medley races. The boys’ team fell to Loyola 102-68 on April 21. In this loss, Andy Liu ’14 set the school record in the 100-meter backstroke race with a time of 55.80. Both teams are now coached by Cheyne Bloch.

JV Roundup After an 0-3 season, JV boys’ golf aims to finish on a high note with a win in its final match on Thursday.

Overall Record: 0-3

“The transition to Coach Bloch has been as smooth as I could imagine,” Wang said. “He meshes well with both the younger and veteran swimmers.” Many potential male swimmers are unable to compete for the boys’ team this year because of club water polo obligations, Brian Graziano ’12 said. The dearth of swimmers has hurt the team this year, Captain Nick Duckwiler ’11 said. “We lose a lot of the depth of the swim team because without them we have a small team,” Duckwiler said. “We can’t field a lot of the events. It’s just a matter of points, relays are a lot of points and we can’t field all of the teams.” Both teams had a meet against the Chaminade Eagles on Tuesday at Zanuck Swim Stadium. The results were unavailable at press time.

vs. Loyola: Loss (200-213) vs. Chaminade: Loss (224-238) vs. Loyola: Loss (203-228) Next match: Thursday vs. Chaminade “We didn’t play to the best of our ability, but we can still save our season wtih at least one win against Chaminade.” — Daniel Belgrad ’13 nathanson ’s/chronicle

source : www.hw.com /athletics

JV Roundup Chanell Thomas ’13 won two events in the girls’ loss to Louisville on April 14 and was named “Team Swimmer of the Meet” in the team’s loss to Alemany.

Overall Record: Boys: 3-4 Girls: 1-5 Last meet: Boys: Chaminade* Girls: Chaminade* Next meet: Boys: League Prelims (May 3) Girls: Flintridge Sacred Heart (Thursday)

Golf takes 4th in league, falls to Loyola, Chaminade By Daniel Kim

Last three matches:

Daniel Belgrad ’13

daniel kim/chronicle

flying through water: Sydney Wong ’14, a distance swimmer, flies through the water during the Wolverine 94-75 victory over Louisville at Zanuck Swim Stadium on April 14. The Wolverines have a 2-1 league record.

After beating Crespi twice, the varsity boys’ golf team fell twice against Loyola to enter the Mission League tournament with a record of 6-5. The team beat Crespi finishing with a score of 206-221 and again by 214-219. The Wolverines lost to Loyola with a score of 185202 and again by 187-201. “It was a combination of a great performance by Loyola and a lack of execution by us,” Andrew Sohn ’13 said. “We did have players that rose up to the occasion including Parker Thomas ’12 who shot a plus-two at Griffith Park [against Crespi].”

In their second loss against Loyola, both Max Goodley ’12 and Bakari Bolden ’14 shot a plus one over par. Both players will be important in the upcoming league and CIF tournaments. “Scores from players across the board have gotten better, and I am confident we will be able to have a good showing at CIF,” Sohn said. Charlie Benell ’12 did not play for the Wolverines against Loyola because he was in Texas for a golf tournament. He competed in the American Junior Golf Association tournament and tied for seventh. Bolden, a rising star in golfing, was featured in the Southern Cali-

nathanson ’s/chronicle

*unavailable at press time source : www.hw.com /athletics

fornia Golf Association golf magazine Fore. In the magazine, it profiles certain aspects of his life and his involvement in a golf mentoring program. “Bakari has been playing unbelievably and has proved himself to be one of the leading scorers on the team,” Sohn said. “I will not be surprised if Bakari puts up some good numbers for the big tournaments.” Coaches trust their athletes to set their own practice schedules, and they do not hold any formal practices, Michael Aronson ’13 said. Last year, the Wolverines placed third in the Mission League Tournament and third in the Southern Sectional. “We hope to beat our competitors like Chaminade and Loyola at league, and for individuals we hope to qualify as many individuals for CIF as we can,” Sohn said.

April. 27, 2011

Chronicle

The

C6 Sports

Heavy lifting

The strength and conditioning program features a professional female weightlifter and a new testing program for football players.

Strength coach competes in professional tournaments By David Burton It takes a certain level of physicality paired with a persistent mentality to pull off sets of squat cleans, sumo dead lift high pulls, hang snatches and push jerks. But for strength and conditioning coach Lindsey Valenzuela, these strenuous lifts are not a problem; they are routine. While playing setter for the California Lutheran University women’s varsity volleyball team, Valenzuela, initially had no intent of pursuing professional weight-lifting. Toward the middle of her college volleyball career, Valenzuela considered weightlifting as a sport. “I did ordinary lifts; all of the standard lifts for college volleyball,” Valenzuela said. “On the side, I did have a personal trainer to give me an edge in volleyball, but he also motivated me to start lifting competitively.” Although Valenzuela took an interest in weightlifting under her personal coach Bob Takano, a Hall of Fame professional weightlifter, she was unable to pursue that interest because of the possible risk of injury, which could keep her out of volleyball. Valenzuela had a successful volleyball career. In her senior campaign she was named Cal Lutheran Athlete of the Year, AVCA All-American second team, first team All-West region and made it back-to-back first team All-SCIAC selections in 2007 and 2008. She is still one of only four players in CLU history with more than 2,000 career assists as a setter. Upon graduating from CLU with a degree in exercise science and sports medicine, Valenzuela became an assistant coach to the women’s CLU volleyball team and concurrently decided to pick up her weightlifting training and possibly start competing in tournaments. The USAW is a subdivision under USA Olympic sports, which handles all affairs in regards to men and women’s Olympic style weightlifting. They sponsor meets and events throughout the year as qualifiers for the national Olympic team. Valenzuela’s first meet was the 2008 USAW open qualifier in Colorado Springs, Colo. Although she faced nerves in her first competition, she still totaled enough points in her two lifts to move on. “Nerves are natural, but when you train right and have a positive

mindset, your adrenaline sets in on the platform and allows you perform above any anxiety you might have,” Valenzuela said. Since her first meet, Valenzuela has qualified for the USAW open in Missouri for the 69-kilogram weight class, and recently qualified for the USAW Nationals in the 75-kilogram weight class. Athletes’ weight class is determined by their body mass indexes. Due to her intense training and lifting ability, Valenzuela prefers the heavier weight class. Valenzuela does cross fit training and Olympic weight training five days a week with Takano at a gym called High Voltage in Burbank. Also training at Harvard-Westlake at times, Valenzuela says that the school’s facilities are top notch and have everything she needs to train. Some may say that society has set a standard for how a woman should look and what she should do, and weightlifting is definitely out the norm. But Valenzuela has never faced these judgments, stereotypes or discrimination because she surrounds herself with a supportive friend group that also do cross-fit and Olympic style weight training. “It is empowering for a woman to lift a lot of weight, and it’s important to have self assurance internally in order to succeed in anything you do,” Valenzuela said. “Media often gives girls the wrong perspective on what they should be, when in reality they can be comfortable with anything they want to be.” Valenzuela encourages female students at Harvard-Westlake to pursue their passions with energy, while teaching them how to maximize their full physical potential through weight training. “I like not only teach how to lift, but give people perspective on any experiences that they may be going through.” Valenzuela recently gained sponsorship from a cross-fit training clothing line that sponsors professional Olympic style weight lifters called Life as RX (Life as Prescribed). “It is a great feeling to be sponsored because it shows that my hard work is paying off,” Valenzuela said, “but at the same time it is motivation to continue to work get stronger, and get better.” Currently, Valenzuela is USAW National meet in July.

Daniel Kim/chronicle

PAnacea?: The varsity football coaches are trying to remedy the team’s winless league record by implementing a new strength and conditioning testing program.

Football starts charting player strength progress in offseason By Charlton Azuoma After the football team’s disappointing season record last fall, Coach Greg Bishop has implemented a new testing system, where players go through different athletic tests and get an overall score. The testing is done every six weeks, four times a year. As a result of this testing system, there has been a raise of competition between players to get higher scores, and players say that it’s extra motivation to push themselves and each other. “It’s cool because the kids can compare themselves to each other,” Coach Bishop said. The testing includes exercises like barbell back squats, bench presses, hang cleans, 10 and 40 yard sprints, the pro-agility shuttle, 5x10x5 sprints, and the vertical jump. “The lifting for the football team definitely challenges your body physically. The improvement is a lot quicker and it works all the core muscles you need for any sport,” defensive back Cameron Komisar ’12 said. The new lifting program, just like the old one, will be headed by strength

and conditioning Coach Bishop. He says the scheduling and rotation of the lifting has changed a good amount. They tried to start a little bit earlier than last year by two weeks and shortened the preparation phase as well. In the past, the team underwent two main exercises in a four day cycle, but now they do three exercises (barbell bench press, hex-bar deadlifts, and barbell squats) on a two day cycle. “It just feels like we’re doing more exercises in our lift now,” Nick Nathanson ’13 said. Along with giving rest to the player’s lower backs, Bishop added that, “There’s more variation during exercise in hopes of providing more rest to all the muscle groups.” The players seem to appreciate the new lifting program and some of them have said that they’re already feeling the benefits of the new innovation. “Now that the football team is constantly lifting, practicing , and testing, it only motivates me more to keep working so I can do well when we test and know that the hard work is starting to pay off,” running back Correy King ’13 said.

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April 27, 2011

The

Chronicle

Relay teams, vaulter thrive at invitationals from TRACK, C1

the scoop: Evan Meister ’12 scoops up the ball during the game against Crespi. Meister had 12 poitns in the game, a new school lacrosse record.

Lacrosse wins Mission League, Palisades game next on schedule from LACROSSE, C1 game,” Mantel said. Of the 11 games the lacrosse team has played during this season, seven of them have concluded with the Wolverines leading by at least six goals. The team’s closest games so far this season have been the rematch with rival Loyola and the team’s game against Agoura High School. The Wolverines won 8-6 against Agoura. The team’s biggest win this season was over Crespi, 23-4. During that game, Crespi had difficulty defending against the Wolverine offense and struggled to maintain possession of the ball. The Wolverines managed to keep Crespi scoreless until the half. However, Crespi soon began to rally back by scoring a couple of goals at the beginning of the second half. According to maxpreps.com, the Wolverines are currently ranked sev-

Sports C7

enth in the southern section of California and 22nd in the state. The team finishes its regular season this week against Palisades.

JV Roundup The JV lacrosse squad won the Mission League title with the best record over rival Loyola.

League Record: 4-2 Overall Record: 5-3 Last game: vs. Loyola: Loss 8-5 Next game: Friday vs. Palisades “With one game left, we look to end the year strong after faltering a little after spring break.” — Gregg Myerson ’13 Source: www.hw.com/athletics

Moreno ’13, Hansson, Weissenbach and Chapus ran a time of 9:03.77 in the Girls’ 4x800-meter relay event, breaking the 2003 meet record by two seconds, and outrunning Littleton, the second place team, and Long Beach Poly, the previous holders of the meet record, by more than 15 seconds, as well as setting the nation’a fastest time in the event this year. Hansson and Weissenbach, joined by Cord and King, also won the girls’ 1600-meter sprint medley event with another nation-leading time. The girls’ team that won the girls’ distance medley event, involving Chapus, Cord, King and Weissenbach, ran a time almost twenty seconds before any other competitor. In the boys’ 1600-meter sprint medley relay event, Danilo Dragovic ’11, JJ Jones ’12, Judd Liebman ’12 and Ben Saunders ’11 took fourth place. Kevin On ’11 was supposed to be a part of an all-cross-country team with Liebman, Saunders and David Manahan ’14 that placed tenth in the 4x800-meter relay, but On suffered a season-ending calf injury and was replaced by Dragovic. On the field, Ben Gaylord ’13 tied for first in boys’ pole vault, reaching a height of 13’6”. Elena Crowe ’12 placed seventh in the girls’ division. King took third in girls’ long jump, having jumped 17’2”. Chelsea Edwards ’11 tied for sixth place in the girls’ high jump event. Last Thursday against Marymount the girls’ team broke three more records. King broke the 100-meter record previously broken by Hansson at Triton earlier in the season with a

time of 12.40, 0.15 seconds off her personal record. Hansson captured her twelfth school record when she won the 200-meter event. Chapus took her sixth school record this season, improving upon Lindsay Flack’s ’04 2004 record by almost five seconds in the 3200-meter event. Both teams will head to Estancia High School for League Prelims on May 2. “We hope, plan, and expect to do really well,” Head Coach Jonas Koolsbergen said. “There will be other very good squads there but we’re a good squad and we’ll be right in the mix.” From League Prelims, those that place high in individual events will qualify for League Finals at Los Angeles Valley College May 5. The top three from each event in League Finals will earn a chance to compete at CIF Prelims May 14 at Cerritos College.

JV Roundup Heading in to their league prelims, the JV boys’ and girls’ track teams aim for a league title.

Overall Records: Boys: 0-5; Girls: 4-2 League Records: Boys: 0-4; Girls: 4-1 Next meet: Mission League Prelims at Los Angeles Valley College “We are happy to have a winning record and we hope to add to our success in league finals.” — JT Mindlin ’13 Source: www.hw.com/athletics

C8 Sports

The

A medley of success

Hilary King ’11 and K.C. Cord ’11 are both multi-sport athletes who currently hold the fastest time in the country for the sprint medley and distance medley. King is a forward in basketball and helped set the record in the sprint medley. She also runs the 4x100 meter. Cord is a defensive player in soccer and helped set the record for the distance medley, as well as running the 4x100 meter, the 4x400 meter, and the sprint medley. By Alec Caso

Q A

and

Austin Lee

Q A

How do you feel about the races that made you fastest in the nation?

What sort of training allows you to be the number one squad in the nation?

Cord: We train every single day including days off and weekends and everyone takes it very seriously. Our entire lives revolve around our track lives, including how we eat and for the most part have pretty sad social lives [laughs]. During track season the main focus is track and only track and the fact that you have all the other members of the team just as focused is really motivating and makes it all worth it.

King: A good warm-up and workouts designed by Olympic gold medalist Joanna Hayes and Quincy Watts. They deserve so much credit. They come to practice every day ready to work us out and make us better athletes. Without them , we wouldn’t be where we are today. They support us so much every day and they are the best coaches a track team could ever ask for.

Cord: It was shocking at first but so so exciting. We knew we had put together an amazing squad but an achievement like that is so surreal at first. It’s really a testament to how hard we work day in and day out and it’s such an honor to run with and be a part of something so amazing with girls like Cami [Chapus ’12], Amy [Weissenbach ’12], and Lauren [Hansson ’11] that are the most talented, hardworking, and amazing athletes I’ve ever met.

Q A

King: I felt honored to be the national record holders of that event. KC and I dropped the baton last year in the same exact event, so I knew I had to do extremely well and make up for what happened last year. When Cami crossed the finish line it was so exciting to hear our name being called out and be able to see ourselves running on the screen. We all received a champion T-shirt, a watch and a medal. It was an amazing feeling.

Q A Q A

April. 27, 2011

Chronicle

What are some pre-meet preparations you go through?

Cord:

I don’t really have any rituals. I actually don’t like listening to music before races at all. I usually have my favorite snack, a banana and crunchy peanut butter, on meet days. Also, lots and lots of water to stay hydrated.

King: I like to eat a plain bagel with peanut butter. It gives me a lot of fuel throughout the day during long meets. I also like to drink a lot of water before meets. I don’t usually listen to music because track is a different kind of sport.

How will you approach your remaining meets as the number one medley team in the nation?

Cord:

Q A

We have league prelims and finals next week and then CIF after that. Just continue working hard knowing that a very disciplined work ethic has brought us success and will hopefully continue to bring us success. It makes it all worth it.

How does it feel watching the runners ahead of you finish the race?

King: It’s nerve-wracking but extremely exciting and there is a huge sense of accomplishment in handing the baton off to the next runner knowing you did your best for the team and now it’s their turn. Each relay team is such a unit and family that it’s amazing to watch your fellow teammates finish off what we’ve all worked so hard for.

Hilary King ’11 and K.C. Cord ’11

What was more of a time commitment, your spring or winter sport?

Cord: Track is definitely more of a time commitment. We practice more often and practices last longer. Meets also last longer than games and weekend invitationals often last all day.

King: They both require a lot of time. Basketball is more of a time commitment because it’s more of a team sport, and it’s a game that could last longer than an hour. Track allows you to do your own thing and the events I do don’t last longer than 30 seconds. Warming up may take long, but not as long as a basketball game would.

Daniel Kim/chronicle