A5
Hungry Helpers: Community Council encouraged students to serve with a week of food.
B9
C2
Rough Start: The boys’ soccer team lost four of its first five games.
Smooth Jazz: Three big bands performed in the Winter Jazz Concert.
tlak the harvard-westlake
CHRONICLE Los Angeles • Volume XXII • Issue IV • Dec. 19, 2012
Next school year may begin early By David Lim and Michael Sugerman
Santa’s Curtain Call
ELIZABETH MADDEN/CHRONICLE
OLD SAINT TOM: Director of Student Affairs Jordan Church, left, Senior Alumni Officer Harry Salamandra and Head of Upper School Audrius Barzdukas, right, pose sitting on the lap of Head of School Thomas Hudnut, center, dressed as Santa Claus. Hudnut did not dress up as Santa last year, but returned to the lounge this year as a part of Monday’s Winterfest celebration.
Honor Board applies new review procedure
By Michael Rothberg
PRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF CHRISTINE HAZY
SEASON OF GIVING: Walter and Shirley Wang provided the lead donation for the renovation of Reynolds Hall.
Wangs give $5 million to renovate Reynolds
By Rachel Schwartz
A $5 million donation from Walter and Shirley Wang (Walter ’13, Chantalle ’17, Matthew ’18) will supplement the $1.5 million already raised to completely renovate Reynolds Hall. Chief Advancement Officer Ed Hu said Reynolds Hall has been a fundraising priority since completion of the Bing Performing Arts Center, Munger Library and expanded athletic facilities in 2008. The Wang family donated the funds in honor of President Tom Hudnut and his 26year tenure. “I have gotten to know the Wangs quite well over the years,” Hudnut said. “I am very touched that they did this in part to recognize my years
at the school.” Outer walls of the building will be blown out to expand classroom capacity. Hu called this a “fast track project.” Workers have already begun to hardwire the building to set up wireless accessibility. “We would like to do this over as short a period as possible,” Head of School Jeanne Huybrechts said. It remains undecided as to whether construction will be completed “piecemeal,” closing one floor at a time, or whether the school will “bite the bullet,” closing the whole building for a year or more, Hudnut said. The school would resort to temporary bungalows to compensate for a loss of classroom space. The start date of construction has yet to be announced.
The Honor Board has reviewed three cases of Honor Code infractions this year in accordance with the new format of joint deliberation between the Prefect Council and members of the administration. Under the new format, the cases were first examined by the Honor Board, which decided preliminarily on appropriate disciplinary action. After this, Head of the Upper School Audrius Barzdukas joined the discussion until the final decisions were reached. “I feel like Prefect Council, the Honor Board, we have a very productive and substantive discussion about the case and then about the subsequent discipline,” Barzdukas said. “And I have to say that the
depth of consideration that the Honor Board gave that case was a credit to them. I mean, they really thought that case through. Our school has a strong Honor Board and a good Honor Board.” Though he could not discuss the specifics of the case, Barzdukas said that both sides voiced their opinions openly during the deliberations, with the new format. One case involved a student whom the Honor Board called Gertrude ’15, whose English essay was an 85 percent match to an essay submitted by her older brother, a former Harvard-Westlake student, indicating plagiarism. The Honor Board assigned both names and genders randomly to preserve the confidentiality of the • Continued on page A9
The 2013-2014 school calendar, which may push the start date before Labor Day and move midterm exams before winter break, will be announced within the next week. The Senior Administrative Committee met Monday afternoon to reach a decision on schedule changes. Head of Upper School Audrius Barzdukas said there was a general consensus after the meeting, but the administration was “not ready to divulge that information” as of press time Monday. “Starting before Labor Day happens every five years or so,” Head of School Jeanne Huybrechts said last week. “There is a range and we make sure that every school year the number of days falls within that range because teachers need a dependable number to work with.” Huybrechts said the timing of Rosh Hashanah in the same week as Labor Day and that both Good Friday and Passover would fall outside of spring break would cut the number of days of school and were reasons for the proposed earlier start date. She added that “plenty of teachers here think [moving exams before break] is worth it to see if it does reduce stress and give teachers more time to teach.” Top administrators proposed this change in an allfaculty meeting Dec. 11, at which Barzdukas said the overwhelming majority of teachers were against pre-break testing. “There was consensus, not unanimity, that midterms after break, where they are held now, are less stressful for kids,” Barzdukas said. “The culture of Harvard-Westlake is one of continuous improvement. That means asking ourselves tough questions all the time. Every year. There is definitely a culture of constructive dissent in those discussions.”
INSIDE SING ALONG: Students showcased their artistic talents at Coffee House.
A4
EARLY EXIT: All seven fall teams fell short in their title quests.
UP IN SMOKE: Students get hooked on cigarettes, despite the negative effects.
B6
C6
A2 Preview
The Harvard-Westlake Chronicle Wednesday, Dec. 19, 2012 3700 Coldwater Canyon Ave. Studio City, Calif. 91604
ELANA ZELTSER/CHRONICLE
JUST ADD A LITTLE PI-JAZZ: Jazz teacher Shawn Costantino conducts the Jazz Ensemble at the Dec. 8 Winter Jazz Concert.
News
A5
DAVID WOLDENBERG/CHRONICLE
FOR A GOOD CAUSE: Sacha Best ’13 sells baked goods to raise money for victims of Superstorm Sandy.
A&E
B11
MAZELLE ETESSAMI/CHRONICLE
AN ABSTRACT EXPRESSION: Students in the Advanced Dance I class perform a dance for ARC.
Sports
B9
NOA YADIDI/CHRONICLE
C6
ROBBIE LOEB/CHRONICLE
A TOUGH DEFEAT: Chad Kanoff ’13 takes off his helmet after the varsity football team lost to Camarillo.
ontheweb ONLINE COVERAGE: Check out the high quality video and photo coverage of Harvard-Westlake events including Coffee House and the community service ice cream truck.
The Chronicle is the student newspaper of Harvard-Westlake School. It is published eight 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 Ave., Studio City, 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 Leslie Dinkin at 310-975-4848. Publication of an advertisement does not imply endorsement of the product or service by the newspaper or the school.
hwchronicle.com/news
Dec. 19, 2012
News A3
Iñárritu to address Film Festival
By David Woldenberg and Elana Zeltser
ELIZABETH MADDEN/CHRONICLE
JOY TO THE WORLD: Members of the Madrigals sing at the annual Christmas Convocation in St. Saviour’s Chapel, led by middle school choir director Nina Burtchaell. The singers performed traditional carols and spirituals for parents and faculty members.
New scholarship will honor Hudnut’s tenure By Lauren Sonnenberg
The Advancement Office will begin to raise $3 million to establish a new scholarship fund, called “Hudnut Scholars” in honor of President Tom Hudnut’s 26 years leading Harvard-Westlake. There will be four events second semester to celebrate Hudnut and honor his last year as headmaster and president, as he will retire this spring. Proceeds from these events will go to fund the scholarship, which will be awarded each year to six recipients. Having six scholarships will ensure that there will be a Hudnut Scholar in each grade in perpetuity. Chief Advancement Officer Ed Hu said he hopes to fund a Hudnut Schol-
ar in each class. kind of debts the family has, Hu explained that scholar- are they supporting other ships are funded from endow- family members, and figure ment income. out based on all that informaBy raising $500,000 for tion how much a family can each scholarship, an approxi- afford toward their child’s edmately 4.5 ucation,” Hu percent resaid. turn on inJosh and vestment per Beth Fried[The Friedmans] year generman (Spencer are very interested in ates the mon’09, Wesley educational causes and ey necessary ’12, Oliver ’17) educational institutions.” to fund a sinwill chair the gle scholarcampaign. —Ed Hu ship recipient They are Chief Advancement Officer “very for a year. inAn averterested in age scholareducational ship is around causes and $22,000, the precise scholar- educational institutions and ship amount is determined by are particularly impassioned the Financial Aid Office. about working with people “We look at each individual from situations where they situation: the cash flow, what don’t have the financial re-
“
sources to get into places like Harvard-Westlake,” Hu said. The Friedmans will host the annual financial aid dinner in March for families who have supported the financial aid program. Current seniors on financial aid and alumni will talk about financial aid in high school and how that impacted their lives. They will also cultivate prospective donors who are interested in financial aid but have never been to the dinner or seen the impact financial aid has on students, Hu said. Hu defined prospective Hudnut Scholars as students who “possess some kind of leadership qualities.” This campaign is part of a larger, three to five-year $15 million scholarship campaign.
Director Alejandro González Iñárritu (Maria Gonzalez ’13) will discuss his career in the movie industry as the keynote speaker at the Harvard-Westlake Film Festival on March 15, 2013. Iñárritu was the first Mexican director to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director for his film Babel in 2006. His films “21 Grams” and “Biutiful” were also nominated by the Academy. Babel also received a nomination for Best Picture. “He came to a video art class once before and was great so we’ve been trying to get him to come for years. So, we wrote him a letter,” film festival Co-Director Natalie Markiles ’13 said. Iñárritu was set to come to the Film Festival last year but had to pull out last minute due to a sudden case of appendicitis. Director Benicio Del Toro delivered the keynote speech in his place. Along with other industry professionals, Iñárritu will teach students about moviemaking at an event called the Day After.All the students involved in the winning films will have a chance to discuss their movies and receive professional advice. “He is a self-made man,” film festival Co-Director Rebecca Moretti ’13 said. “He relates to these students and can give them advice. He is very charismatic and I think he will be inspiring to the kids at the festival.”
Publications receive national recognition By Ally White Columbia Scholastic Press Association’s announced on Monday that the combined print and online edition of the Harvard-Westlake Chronicle was named as a finalist for the 2013 Crown Awards. A combined total of 1,344 publications including yearbooks, newspapers, magazines, and digital entered to win in CSPA’s competition, and in the hybrid category 16 publications including the Chronicle and its website were chosen as finalists. They were judged at Columbia University from Dec. 8 through Dec. 10 as a hybrid, a new category for publications that try to integrate their print and digital publications in CSPA’s competition. This new category was created “as a response to publications moving from print to pixels.” While the publications will be awarded either a Silver or Gold Crown at the CSPA’s 89th Annual Convention in March, the decisions have al-
ready been made. On Nov. 17, student publications scored a winning sweep in the Best of Show competitions at the National Scholastic Press Association/ Journalism Education Association fall convention in San Antonio. Chronicle and Spectrum both took first place, the former in the online category and the latter in the middle school newspapers category. The November issue of The Chronicle won second best as a big newspaper, and Big Red sports magazine’s homecoming issue placed in fourth. Vox Populi won seventh for yearbooks in its respective size category, and while last year’s Chronicle did not win a National Pacemaker, it was honored as a finalist. Twelve students who work on the yearbook, the newspaper, the website and the sports magazine attended the threeday conference, accompanied by Advancement Officer Ed Hu, yearbook adviser Jen Bladen and Spectrum adviser Steve Chae.
JACK GOLDFISHER/CHRONICLE
SOCIAL CIRCLES: Dr. Sheila Siegel and Head of Upper School Audrius Barzdukas explain the details of high school social life to parents, discussing communication and parent-child relationships.
Barzdukas, Siegel teach ‘Parenting 101’
By Elana Zeltser
School psychologist Dr. Sheila Siegel and Head of Upper School Audrius Barzdukas gave the second presentation in a series entitled HW Parenting 101 in the lounge on Dec. 6. Together they answered parents’ questions about social life in high school, drawing from their own experiences raising teenagers. One parent expressed concern about the explicit names of Harvard-Westlake parties as listed on Facebook invita-
tions, saying that they make her hesitant to let her daughter attend. “As somebody who is extremely reactive, I would react first and then ask questions,” Siegel said. “I would react and then I would ask ‘Why is this ok?’” Barzdukas stressed the importance of communication in compromising the wants of parents and their children. “As much respect as you want from them, you have to give more,” Barzdukas said. When another parent asked how best to open con-
versation with her “monosyllabic” child, Siegel recommended putting them in a car. “If you drive carpool, it’s great,” Siegel said. “They forget you are there.” Prior to this assembly, Siegel joined President Thomas Hudnut to discuss the “gift of failure,” focusing on “how to build grit and resilience” on Nov. 29. Four more seminars will take place surrounding topics such as college, grades, meditation, and adulthood. The next meeting will take place on Jan. 10.
A4 News
The Chronicle
Dec. 19, 2012
Kutler Center to add 3 courses
By Michael Rothberg
The Brendan Kutler Center for Interdisciplinary Studies and Independent Research will offer three new classes next year, department chair Larry Klein said. “Unconventional Leadership,” a course that will be taught by Director of Student Affairs Jordan Church and Dean Pete Silberman, will focus on the development of leadership skills through simulations and guest speakers as well as improvisational comedy and public speaking exercises. Students in the course will read texts from authors including Malcolm Gladwell, Niccolo Machiavelli, Robert Evans and others. Seniors who serve on Community Council will be required to take this course. Math teacher Bill Thill will offer a course called “Statistics and Sports,” which will introduce the fundamental skills of statistics. Students in the class will choose to study a topic in either sports or sports medicine and will partake in a year-long study, collecting and analyzing data, reading existing studies on their subjects, and presenting their results at the end of the year. English teacher Arianna Kelly will teach “World Religions,” in which students will examine the nature of religion as well as spirituality and morality as they relate to religion. This semester-long course will cover the practices and historical contexts of various religions including Islam, Judaism, Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism and Taoism.
REBECCA KATZ/CHRONICLE
HOLIDAY SPIRIT: Varun Gadh ’14 sings the “Constitution Preamble” from Schoolhouse Rock while strumming the violin at the Coffee House, left. Daniel Davila ’14 sings while playing the guitar, top right. Molly Chapman ’14 sings a piece that she composed while playing the piano, bottom right. The event, hosted by Prefect Council and Community Council, started Community Service Week, and donations from the event will go to victims of Superstorm Sandy.
By Julia Aizuss
Prefect Council and Community Council jointly hosted a holiday-themed Coffee House after school on Monday, Dec. 3 to raise money for victims of Superstorm Sandy, which affected the East Coast in late October. The Coffee House, along with the Community Service Club Fair during Activities Period, marked the beginning of Community Service Week, which Community Council had organized to promote community service to students. “Community Council approached [Prefect Council] because they were having a community service week, and they wanted to incorporate a
“[World Politics] has always been kind of my baby, and I’m the only one who teaches it.” —Nini Halkett, history teacher
Coffee House to generate student hype and participation,” Junior Prefect Henry Hahn ’14 said last week. “The Coffee Houses have always been great school community events, and we have previously considered ways of incorporating a fundraising element into them, so this just seemed like a good fit.” Although the ice-blended coffee and refreshments in this year’s second Coffee House were free, students were encouraged to donate at least $10 to go towards victims of the storm, which hit the East Coast in October. With the exception of Molly Chapman ’14 and Jensen McRae ’15, who performed original songs, the majority of
the 18 acts were covers, ranging from songs by artists like Joni Mitchell to the educational program Schoolhouse Rock. “If you’ve ever felt emotions, you can relate to it,” Varun Gadh ’14 said before launching into a rendition of Schoolhouse Rock’s “Constitution Preamble.” Cory Batchler ’13 was the only performer at Coffee House who didn’t sing. Instead, he performed the slam poem “Swag” by George Watsky, delivering lines like “My punchlines are like lost baggage—you’ll get them in a couple days” to the audience. Batchler also performed slam poetry at the first Coffee House of the school year a month ago, though that time
he performed an original piece. He does not perform slam poetry often, he said, but became interested in it this past summer, and decided to perform when Coffee House gave him the opportunity to do so. “Everyone always sings songs,” Batchler said. “No one ever does what actually happens at coffee houses, so I thought I’d go and do some poetry.” Kenneth Kim ’13 closed the Coffee House show with a cover of “Too Close” by Alex Clare. Kim has performed at Coffee House multiple times. “I really enjoy singing and playing and learning modern songs,” Kim said. “Coffee House is a way for me to showcase that.”
Performing Arts reintroduces fundamental music theory class By Leily Arzy
nathanson ’s
History reconfigures World Politics course The history department will remove the semester-long elective World Politics from the curriculum next year and introduce many of its components to a new year-long course called AP Geography and International Relations. The original AP Geography course is still being offered in the second semester. History Teacher Nini Halkett has taught World Politics for more than 20 years. “It’s always been kind of my baby, and I’m the only one who teaches it,” Halkett said. “Even though it’s small, it ends up being a close knit group, and I get to know the students really well in the smaller setting.”
MICHAEL SUGERMAN/CHRONICLE
Students perform at holiday Coffee House in lounge to help Superstorm Sandy victims
soundbyte
By Erina Szeto
REBECCA KATZ/CHRONICLE
Classes discuss social, economic and political issues and participate in the International Negotiations Projects, an international diplomacy computer simulation where students assume the role of a country and discuss issues from that country’s point of view. Topics include the Euro Zone crisis, human trafficking and nuclear proliferation. Halkett will bring the computer simulation to her new class in addition to taking a new approach. “I hope it will continue to foster interest in international relations,” History Department Head Katherine Holmes-Chuba said. “We need interested, willing students to be more on the diplomacy government side.”
Fundamentals of Music class, formerly known as Basic Music Theory, will be brought back next year by Performing Arts Teacher Mark Hilt to prepare students for AP Music Theory. Basic Music Theory will cover sight singing, ear training and basic melodic dictation, skills for those students who plan to advance to the more rigorous AP class, Hilt said. “What I have found in the
last four years after getting rid of the Fundamentals class is that we just have to move so fast in AP music theory because there is so much to cover,” he said. The class will also give students a better understanding of whether or not they want to move on to the AP level. Although open to all three grade levels, the course is particularly useful for sophomores, Hilt said, as the transition from the middle school to the upper school is a challenging process, and not all sopho-
mores are prepared for taking an AP course. “I was hearing that kids were trying to find a way to get as many APs in their schedule as possible, who might not have been on the track to take one in math or science, and were erroneously assuming that an AP in music without a prerequisite other than an interview with Mr. Hilt was going to be easy,” Performing Arts Department Head Rees Pugh said. “They were in for a brutal shock because music theory is complicated stuff.”
English offers new senior options By Marcella Park The English Department will offer two new, non-Advanced Placement courses next year for seniors, Shakespeare as a year-long course and Senior Practicum. Senior Practicum “will be a literature-centered course that will engage students in questions about issues of relevance and interest,” English Department Head Larry We-
ber said. Weber designed the course over the summer on a curriculum grant. Though the course will include a midterm exam, the year-end final will be a “self-generated, theme-based project, pursuing a question of choice,” according to the course description. Students will be able to take the Shakespeare course as an elective. AP Language teachers, led
by Lisa Rado, also worked on a curriculum grant to redefine the focus of AP Language, hoping to place the course’s study of rhetoric and nonfiction on par with the AP Literature class’s study of fiction. “We’re excited about offering these courses,” Weber said. “The onus will be on us to counsel students well, to counsel juniors well to the courses that will fit for them. And we’re ready to do that.”
hwchronicle.com/news
Dec. 19, 2012
Students raise $800 in week of service
News A5
New club helps tutor students using Skype By Rebecca Katz
By Lauren Sonnenberg
Community Council raised over $800 during the inaugural Community Service Week, beginning with a Community Service Club Fair on Dec. 3 and ending on Dec. 7 by packing sacked lunches for homeless people of Los Angeles. Each day, Community JACK GOLDFISHER/CHRONICLE Council provided additional opportunities for students to SERVICE WEEK: Justin Carr ’14 tells students about the community service opportunities offered by learn about community service BLACC during the Community Service Club Fair, the first event in Community Service Week. All clubs opportunities and to become that participated in community service events were invited to showcase their work at the club fair. involved. Community Service Week kicked off with the Community to the troops.” Thursday, as students hosted cial Olympics for the past 7 Service Club Fair during break Hot-dogs and hamburgers another bake sale throughout years, spoke about how Special and Coffee were available the day. Students also deco- Olympics helped her become House after for purchase rated paper bags that would more self-confident and excel school, where from the Dog be used to pack lunches for the in athletics. She encouraged students were Haus food homeless in Los Angeles. students to get involved. It was about enabling encouraged truck located “I think it was really great “From our perspective, to donate to students here to think on the quad that Community Council had a the event wasn’t about raisSuperstorm on Wednes- lot of different activities going ing money or selling hamabout community Sandy relief day. on during the week, because burgers or even being inspired efforts on Dec. service. It was time to Of the students were forced to pay by a young lady from Special 3. $7.50 students attention to what was going on Olympics, Young said. “It was get the word out and Students paid, $1.50 and participate in the activi- about enabling students here get students to think built wooden was donated ties,” Camelia Somers ’14 said. to think about community birdhouses about helping others.” to Hurricane While some students en- service, It was time to get the to donate to Sandy relief. tered the lounge to pack sack word out and get students to Habitat for —Father J. Young S t u d e n t s lunches for the homeless on think about helping others.” Humanity Chaplain were also in- Friday, others ventured outBoth Young and Direcfamilies and vited to do- side, where an ice cream truck tor of Student Affairs Jordan bought baked nate an additional amount was waiting to reward those Church expect Community goods to raise money for hy- to the relief effort if they so students who had already Service Week to become an giene kits for homeless teens. wished. completed their community annual event, following in the They also wrote letters to Around 280 food items service requirement with free footsteps of other yearly events soldiers, part of an Operation were sold, according to Chap- ice cream. such as Fanatic Fest and AcGratitude event, on Tuesday. lain J. Young. In addition to these events tivities Fair. “The letter writing for Throughout the week, throughout the week, Com“I compare it to Fanatic soldiers was amazing,” Com- there was a toy drive as well munity Council also invited a Fest because Fanatic Fest is a munity Council member Ni- as a hygiene drive and an SAT/ Special Olympics participant week to get kids excited about cole West ’14 said. “Students ACT/AP supplies drive. to speak to each grade at class school spirit, and this is a week responded really well and we Donations to the Sandy meetings. Marissa Watkins, a to get kids excited about comwere able to send lots of letters relief effort carried over to 19-year-old participant in Spe- munity service,” Young said.
“
Five debaters qualify for national championship By Claire Goldsmith
Five members of the debate team have qualified for the Tournament of Champions, which will be held April 27-29 at the University of Kentucky for the top debaters in the country. This is the greatest number of students from any school in the country, Head Coach Mike Bietz said. Brendan Gallagher ’13, An-
drew Sohn ’13, Julie Engel ’14, Annie Kors ’14 and Michael O’Krent ’14 each received two bids at various debate tournaments earlier in the season. To win a bid, a debater must reach a predetermined round at a tournament. Once a debater has two bids, he is automatically qualified for the TOC. “Especially in debate, what’s difficult is to have a
tangible marker of your success,” said Sohn, who qualified for the TOC last year and, since qualifying this year, has also received a third bid. “It’s really abstract and difficult to gauge if your work is paying off. Being qualified or having a bid is the closest you can come to having a stable metric of your proficiency in debate.” Gallagher, Kors and O’Krent also qualified last
Students contract Whooping Cough
By David Lim
Eleven students were diagnosed with pertussis, commonly referred to as Whooping Cough, during the month of November. The Los Angeles Department of Public Health reported the last of 11 cases of pertussis on both campuses on Nov. 30. Parents of middle school students were notified of the first case on Nov. 5 and later that month additional letters were sent to all parents warning of the possibility of exposure from siblings or teammates. All reported cases are now resolved and there have been no new cases this month, Community Health Officer Sandee Teruya said. All but
one of the cases were at the Middle School. Pertussis is a highly contagious respiratory infection that can potentially lead to hospitalization or death. The name Whooping Cough refers to a distinctive sound that an infected person makes after severe coughing. Over 9,000 cases of pertussis were reported in California in a 2010 outbreak, the most since 1947. The incidence of the disease has risen since 1980 partly due to reduced vaccination rates, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Students diagnosed with pertussis were not allowed to attend school until they finished five days of treatment with antibiotics and obtained written medical clearance.
In addition, students who shared a class or played on a team with a diagnosed student with pertussis were notified separately. Since July 2011, all students entering seventh grade are required by law to show proof of immunization with the TDap vaccine, which protects against pertussis. The medical forms filled out for all students before the start of every school year fulfill this requirement. However, the vaccine does not effectively prevent pertussis in all cases and the protective effect weakens over time. The CDC estimates that the vaccine is effective in preventing pertussis about 70 percent of the time. “All these cases had a booster shot,” Teruya said.
year. “I can’t wait to go to the TOC again,” Gallagher said. “I’m really happy that our debate program has grown since I was a freshman. It was very small but successful then, and now we’ve gotten to expand and be really good.” The novice team and the middle school team have both been very successful this year, Bietz said.
The Bridge to a Brighter Future completed its first month of tutoring sixth graders at the Valor Academy, raising the student’s math grades by an average of 11 percent. This is Bridge to a Brighter Future club’s first year, as it was founded last spring. The club was founded by Andrew Ravan ’15, Alan Yousefzadeh ’15 and Elijah Akhtarzad ’15. The group of friends came up with the idea in the spring of last year. “We knew we wanted to have a real impact on whoever we were helping,” Ravan said. “We wanted to serve as role models.” With the help of Assistant Director of Admission Melanie Leon, eighth grade dean Karen Fukushima and Director of Student Affairs Jordan Church, the students decided to tutor sixth graders in math at Valor Academy using Skype and other forms of technology. The club meets every Tuesday after school in Chalmers 308 from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. The tutoring is one-on-one and uses Wacom Bamboo Pen and touch tablets. The co-founders held a bake sale last summer in order to provide the tablets for both the tutors and the students at Valor Academy. “I think it’s important for the kids to get a chance to use technology like we do,” Ravan said. “It’s a unique opportunity for them.” The club currently has six volunteer tutors. Beginning in February, the tutoring program will accept applications from students, who must commit to tutor for at least a month. This way, the Bridge to a Brighter Future club can aid as many Valor students as possible. “We want Harvard-Westlake students to know that it’s an easy and fun thing to do, and a great way to fulfill your community service [requirement] while also getting the rewarding feeling of improving a young student’s education,” Yousefzadeh said.
Symptoms and Prevention Whooping Cough, or Pertussis, is a highly contagious bacterial disease that causes uncontrollable violent coughing. Eleven cases have been confirmed at Harvard-Westlake.
Steps to avoid Whooping Cough: Get the DTaP vaccination, administered five times from age 2 months to 6 years >> Take TDap vaccine, given around age 11 and every 10 years thereafter >>
Symptoms: >>
Initial symptoms similar to common cold
Severe coughing episodes start 10-12 days later >> Runny nose, slight fever, diarrhea >>
INFOGRAPHIC BY LAUREN SONNENBERG SOURCE: CENTER FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION
The Chronicle
A6 News
inbrief
Dec. 19, 2012
Robotics constructs wafflebot machine
As a pre-season task, the team decided to create their own “Wafflebot,” which can produce waffles and will be doing so this week on the quad. All waffles are complimentary. The Robotics team will be competing in the Long Beach Regional of the international FIRST Robotics Competition beginning on Jan. 5 and continuing through of March. The competition requires teams to build robots during a six-week time frame that can complete an assigned objective. Last year, the competition required teams to build robots that were able to effectively shoot a basketball. —Jeremy Tepper
SAAC announces dodgeball games The annual Student-Athlete Advisory Council sponsored Dodgeball tournament will begin during Monday break on Feb. 4. The games will continue for the next seven Monday breaks, according to an email sent out by SAAC. The tournament has been expanded to include 32 teams instead of 16. Teams must consist of seven students that each include at least two people of each gender. “Like any sports fan, you root for the underdog, and in the rare occasion that underdog wins, chaos ensues,” SAAC member Davey Hartmeier ’14 said. —Noa Yadidi
Applicants to make gingerbread houses The Admission Office will hold an event for prospective female applicants and their parents at the Middle School campus tomorrow, Director of Admission Elizabeth Gregory said. The applicants will decorate gingerbread houses to donate to charity while parents participate in a panel discussion on the value of coeducation, Gregory said. Dean and performing arts teacher Kate Benton, Paramount Pictures Executive Vice President of Business Affairs Rona Cosgrove ’85, and UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies professor Linda Sax will lead the panel discussion. —Elizabeth Madden
Club helps build house in Vietnam The Vietnam Initiative club’s fundraising led to the building of a house in the Quang Nam province in Vietnam during the week of Nov 26. The club partnered with the non-government organization East Meets West, located in Vietnam, to build the house for poor and homeless natives. The Vietnam Initiative conducted numerous bake sales during the summer to raise funds for East Meets West. —Scott Nussbaum
sarah novicoff/chronicle
SPEAKING IN CODE: Before the field trip, Sam Teller ’04, Managing Director of Launchpad LA, and Chris Gooley, co-founder and developer of LessNeglect, spoke to the Advanced Topics in Comuputer Science class about the need bring code to the business world.
Computer science class takes field trip to Launchpad LA, invites speakers
By Sarah Novicoff
side of computer science, there are too many stereotypes. A The Advanced Topics in lot of them are true, but people Computer Science class visited outside of programming don’t the headquarters of the busi- see the other side.” While at ness incubator LaunchL aunchpad pad LA Dec. LA, three different engi5. The fieldneers spoke Inside computer to the class trip was part science, the students of an ongoabout their personal exing effort by coding forget about Theo Davis periences everything else. But ’13 to explore founding companies. the other asoutside of computer pects of comJake Johnson science, there are too of DivShot puter science many stereotypes. A lot ended up at besides codL aunchpad ing. of them are true, but after his pro“I am trypeople outside of the gram won a ing to change how comprogramming don’t see C r o w d s t a r t puter science pitch compethe other side.” tition, while is perceived Gotboth inside of —Theo Davis ’13 Gabe tlieb of Yield computer science and outMetrics was a Microsoft side,” Davis said. “Inside computer science, alumnus. Yield Metrics inthe students coding forget creases transparency to the about everything else. But out- advertising business by releas-
“
ing advertiser information to interested parties. John Jersin got his start atGoogle before leaving to found his company Connectifier with another Google alum. Prior to the field-trip, Launchpad LA Managing Director Sam Teller ’04 visited the class along with Christopher Gooley. Gooley is the co-founder and developer of LessNeglect, a platform that helps companies improve their customer service through consumer tracking. The two spoke from both an engineering and entrepreneurial perspective regarding computer science, focusing on the need to bridge code with the market. They recommended a multi-step process for development that begins by finding a “pain point” or a service that one believes is lacking in the world. After producing a “quick and dirty prototype,” one should begin to use their coding skills to build the website or app. “My students learned some
direction for specific skills,” Advanced Topics in Computer Science teacher Paula Evans said. “For example, Amazon Web Services has great tools for new companies that are cost effective. Also, one startup company at LaunchPad LA, DivShot, suggested the Twitter Bootstrap as a great tool for creating the part of a website viewed by the visitor to the site. [The students] seemed to most benefit from meeting people who were creating new tools which help people. They also know that the entrepreneurs at Launchpad LA are always available to our students for guidance.” Senior Alumni Officer Harry Salamandra has also been involved with the project and will offer internships at Launchpad LA as part of the new internship and job board, New Works. Davis hopes to arrange more field-trips and speakers throughout the year to further her commitment to changing the face of computer science.
Students to visit Laos over spring break
By Ally White
“Experiencing a place and meeting the people, really imVideo arts teacher Cheri mersing oneself as a tempoGaulke is partnering rary local is what makes history relwith Friendship World Tours to take students evant.” on a spring break trip Students will be to Laos. able to attend daily The trip labeled journalism seminars an “investigative jourfrom Emmy-Award nalism adventure” winning television will last 11 days, from producer Jeff MaMarch 21 through cIntyre. nathanson ’s April 1. These daily jourFormer history nalism seminars Cheri Gaulke teacher and founder will include videoof the company, Althea journalism as well Paradis, will accompany stu- as story-telling workshops to dents on the trip. teach students how to create a “Teaching students about documentary . history in desks is a very nine“From a history perspecteenth century way to impart tive and from a perspective of information,” Paradis said. using journalism to tell stories
sightsee, but that aren’t getting out, video will not only as a tool is exciting. You can also will do volunteer work take people and conduct places, tell interviews with Laothem stories they might tian natives Experiencing a place and those not know and meeting people, about, bring who have really immersing oneself been victims that reality to them,” of cluster as a temporary local bombs. The Gaulke said. is what makes history Students trip is curwill be able rently open relevant.” to visit sevfor all stu—Althea Paradis dents in ninth eral cities Founder of Friendship through 12th including the capital, and World Tours grade Vientiane, to costs $3,885 “witness the excluding airfare. One legacy of war in a context of safety and mu- percent of the proceeds will be tual understanding.” donated to projects to help loIn these cities students cal children in the area.
“
hwchronicle.com/news
Dec. 19, 2012
News A7
inbrief Model UN wins awards at conference
KEANE MURAOKA-ROBERTSON/CHRONICLE
BEHIND THE SCENES: Jason Reitman ’95 interviewed director Nick Stoller in Ahmanson Lecture Hall at the fifth installment of the “Speaking of Movies” series, which is hosted by Harvard-Westlake Video Art program and the Harvard-Westlake Entertainment Network.
Director says failures lead to successes By Michael Sugerman and Keane Muraoka-Robertson
Writer, director and producer Nick Stoller credited his breakthrough in comedy directing to a failed show that put him into contact with the right people, in an appearance with four-time Oscar nominated director Jason Reitman ’95 in Ahmanson Lecture Hall on Dec. 11. The sit-down was conducted as part of a five-year running series with Reitman called “Speaking of Movies,” where he questions current figures in the film industry. The series is hosted by Harvard-Westlake Video Art and the Harvard-Westlake Entertainment Network.
Stoller recently wrote and directed the romantic comedy film “The Five-Year Engagement” starring alumnus Jason Segel ’97, in which a couple’s engagement is continually extended and their wedding postponed, straining their relationship. He said he got his start writing for Harvard University’s “Lampoon,” the school’s famous comedy publication. Upon graduating from Harvard, he used his talents to score a job at a New York advertising firm. “From the minute I got there, everyone who I was working for made fun of me because I was constantly trying to figure out how to get out of there,” Stoller said. “I was
trying to break into television writing. That’s hard in New York because there’s ‘Saturday Night Live,’ late night shows and not much else.” After a year at the firm, Stoller moved to Los Angeles where his agents got him a job on director Judd Apatow’s show, “Undeclared.” Through his friendship with Apatow, Stoller directed 2008 comedy hit “Forgetting Sarah Marshall,” jump starting his directing career. Stoller called these experiences “collaborative” ones that influenced his style of directing. Reitman said Stoller’s improvisational approach to filmmaking makes him unique. With Stoller’s “Get Him
to the Greek,” Reitman said he saw a form of directing he “had never seen before.” “[Stoller] was right next to the camera with a notepad full of ideas,” he said. “There were a couple of other guys, and the crazy thing was that [he was] pelting ideas at Puff Daddy and he was just taking them. It was very fast-paced and I had never seen anything like it.” Stoller told students interested in the art of film-making to write without hesitation, citing his initial failures as necessary for his ultimate successes. “Just start writing, because the first three to four screenplays aren’t going to be good,” Stoller said.
Senior helps schools form radio stations By Rachel Schwartz
PRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF MAZELLE ETESSAMI
A NEW PERSPECTIVE: The participants who attended the diversity conference posed with their chaperone Tina Cleveland.
Students attend diversity conference
By Cherish Molezion
Five students and three faculty members attended a diversity conference held in Houston, Texas from Dec. 5-8. This is the second time in five years that Harvard-Westlake students have attended the annual conference. The three-day intensive program educated students and faculty about the different forms of diversity and seven social identifiers. Key topics were religion, ethnicity, socioeconomic level, gender, race, age and sexual orientation issues. The attendees of the conference also discussed why society functions the way it does
as well as “[providing] a safe space for networking for people, who, by virtue of their race or ethnicity, comprise a form of diversity termed ‘people of color’ in independent schools,” according to their website. The students also split into affinity groups at the conference, by race, for smaller discussions. At the conference, the keynote speaker spoke about the little things that matter in life. “Throughout the conference, I thought about what she said.” Mazelle Etessami ’14 said. “I realized that the little things affect the big things, more than I had taken into account. The little steps, the daily encounters, really matter.”
which both KO and KHWS use. It allows School radio staDJ’s from different tion KHWS inspired computers to play students at four othsongs and pays the er schools to start musicians to whom their own schoolsongs are attributed. wide radio stations “The thing they in recent months. A have to realize [is] mix of students and that if you really want faculty from Oakto make this happen nathanson ’s wood, Brentwood, and make it successSam Wolk ’13 Marlborough, and ful, you are going to Beverly Hills High have to put a lot of School have worked with Sam work and a lot of time into it,” Wolk ’13, a founding member Wolk said. “It has to be someof KHWS, to figure out how thing you want to spend your to navigate the technical skills time doing.” required to broadcast and how A faculty adviser from to work with a school’s admin- Brentwood contacted Direcistration to found a station tor of Student Affairs Jordan and how to encourage listen- Church to ask about KHWS ers to tune in. and how the project started. “People don’t just listen, Church put him into contact and traffic tends to trickle as with Wolk, who has since met the months go on,” said Daniel with advisers and students. Sunshine ’13, another found- Wolk said that once they deing member of KHWS. termine how involved the adHe said that staying con- ministration will be with their fident is key to sustaining a station, he will continue to radio project through the long help with technical support. process of approval and as Though Sunshine said the avnumbers of listeners vary. A erage number of listeners for few of Wolk’s friends at Oak- KHWS ranges from 10-20, wood recently launched their Wolk said he is very happy radio station, KO, which Wolk with the success of the stasaid was entirely modeled tion considering the website after KHWS. He primarily has had 80,000 page views and helped them with tech sup- most college stations average port for the program Live 365, 30 an hour.
The Model United Nations delegation attended a tournament where their members won six awards. The HarvardWestlake team represented Germany on 15 different committees discussing various global issues. Sara Evall ’15 won best delegate while serving on the UN environment program. David Woldenberg ’15 received outstanding delegate for his work on the International Maritime Organization, and Jessie Liu’ 14, Michael O’Krent ’14, Jeremy Bradford ’14 and Jessica Lee ’14 each took home commendations for their work in their committees. —Jacob Goodman
Library reinstitutes book exchange The library has reinstituted the “Take a book, leave a book” shelf where students may leave a used book and/ or take a book another student has left. The program was popular two years ago but stopped during the construction of the new Mudd Library. The shelf currently has about 10 books but head librarian Shannon Acedo expects its numbers to grow in the upcoming weeks. “It’s a good way to clear off shelves at home,” Acedo said. “Take a book, leave a book” is housed near the entrance to the library in one of the cubbies. —Sarah Novicoff
Sound engineer visits science class
On Friday, Dr. Abeer Alwan will visit the Middle School to speak to Susannah Gordon’s Integrated Science II class about sound engineering, with an emphasis on hearing. Alwan, who is the mother of Nial Alwash ’16, is a physician at UCLA who works primarily with developing hearing aids and will be visiting Gordon’s first and second period classes. The Integrated Science II class, which focuses on chemical reactions, biological energy, energy transport through waves and mechanical energy, will utilize Alwan’s visit to understand more about hearing and how hearing aids work. —Scott Nussbaum
Clubs volunteer at children’s events
Helping Hands club members volunteered at a holiday carnival for children from economically disadvantaged backgrounds, and volunteers organized by the Chinese Cultural Club helped at Alpine Recreation Center for children in the Chinatown area. Children at both events played games, ate food and visited Santa. “It’s a great opportunity to give back to the children,” event organizer Natalie Lim ’15 said. —Marcella Park
The Chronicle
A8 News
Dec. 19, 2012
Seniors launch Secret Santa By Julia Aizuss
About one-third of Upper School students signed up to participate in a school-wide Secret Santa gift exchange initiated by Prefect Council Nov. 14, HW Santa app creator Austin Chan ’13 said. “We felt like it was a really fun activity that the student body would enjoy,” Head Prefect Katie Lim ’13 said. “It just adds to the holiday cheer and festivities.” The selection process for gift-givers and recipients for HW Santa began Monday, and gifts are due Friday. Students were able to register over the weekend through either an iPhone app or a website, which were created by Austin Chan ’13 and David Lim ’13. After selection, the giver and recipient can anonymously message each other to get to know one another better and discuss gifts. Lim came up with the idea of a school-wide Secret Santa in late November, when he was thinking of a better way to organize Secret Santa for the Chronicle, of which he is an editor-in-chief. Because of their work together redesigning the Chronicle website, Lim came to Chan with the idea, and they further developed it together. They began talking to administrators and Prefect Council after Thanksgiving to gain the school’s approval and get help in promoting the gift exchange to students. After Lim designed the app’s wireframe, Chan completed the coding in two weeks and created the website in one day. It was Chan’s first iPhone app to make it onto the App Store, Lim said, and Chan also managed to convince the App Store to shorten its app review process from one week to eight hours.
PRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF SAMARA HUTMAN
REMEMBER US: Anne Bergman, communications manager of Heal the Bay, left, accepts the PSA “It’s Not Just One” on behalf of the non-profit from Righteous Conversation’s Sarah McAllister ’15 and Kyra Perez, a Carson Senior High School student.
Righteous Conversation screens PSAs By Noa Yadidi
The Righteous Conversations Project screened its 2012 public service announcements and donated the PSAs to nonprofit organizations Nov. 15 during an event held in Ahmanson Lecture Hall. The Righteous Conversations Project, an organization part of Remember Us, is a project that brings together Holocaust survivors and teens to speak up about injustice in the world through new media workshops and community engagements. The project was first launched at Harvard-Westlake in February 2011 as an evening conversation between Holocaust survivors and teens. The program’s PSA workshop was piloted in 2011, directed by Visual Arts Department Head Cheri Gaulke. During the event, the 2011 PSAs titled “Learn the Difference” and “Love our Families”
Happiness Club hosts ‘Assassin’ game By Claire Goldsmith
Only two upper school students are still “alive” in the schoolwide game of Assassin sponsored by the Happiness Club as of press time. In the game, which began at 12 a.m. on Dec. 6, 39 seniors, 29 juniors and 11 sophomores each hunted down and “killed” a target by touching his or her back and saying “bang” before the victim could see. After a successful kill, the assassin assumed his victim’s original target and began the hunt once more, according to the Happiness Club’s official guidelines. The game continues until only one student, the ultimate assassin, is left alive. Students had a week to sign up for the game before club leader Kenneth Kim ’13 emailed each participant with the name, grade and picture of their target. Kim updated the players
nightly using a twitter account, @HWAssassin, with the number of deaths that day and any changes to the official rules. He also gave video game-style Special Achievement awards to particularly creative or speedy assassins. Mane Williams ’14 was the first to assassinate his target, Taylor Lee ’13, before school began Friday, Dec. 7. Junior prefect Oliver Goodman-Waters ’14 killed his friend and fellow prefect Henry Hahn ’14 in a Prefect Council meeting. Kim plans to hold another game of Assassin after the January break and estimates that over 150 students will participate. “Next time we’re going to publicize it more with schoolwide emails and more aggressive Facebook posts,” Kim said. “Also, because so many died on the first day, we might add safe zones or other tactics to spread out the kills.”
were screened, along with five The event also included new PSAs that were given to featured speaker Robert Beisnon-profits that will be using ner, who works as a part of them in their work. This year’s Seattle Against Slavery and PSAs were Freedom titled “It’s Not Shabbat. Just One,” “All Beisner Animals Matwas introIt was also a ceremony ter,” “Seek the duced by to acknowledge all the Truth,” “Words Remember Can Hurt” and Us Board students, teachers and “History LesPresident administrators who son.” CeCe Feiler “It was also (Jackie ’10, came together, in force, a ceremony to Jamie ’12, to make this workshop acknowledge Jake ’13). all the stuS t u happen, to make these dents, survidents from PSAs and to speak up, vors, teachers schools in in community, about and adminisLos Antrators who geles, San injustice.” came togethFrancisco er, in force, —Samara Hutman and Philato make this delphia workshop happarticipatpen, to make these PSAs and ed on the 2012 PSAs. to speak up, in community, “The Righteous Conversaabout injustice,” Remember tion Project began with three Us executive director Samara goals: to facilitate conversaHutman (Rebecca ’12) said. tions that would inspire young
“
The ‘Elite Eight’
people to become the stewards of the survivors’ stories, to reassure the survivor community that the lessons and stories they want to transmit are received with care and heartfelt commitment [and] last, to inspire young people through these inter-generational collaborations, in the face of cruelty and injustice, in their own time, never be silent and to use the tools available to them to speak up and to speak out,” Hutman said. Another goal of the program is to support one another in community to achieve their goals, she said. In creating their PSAs, they work within the community to dialogue and create them, but then reach out to give the PSAs to non-profits actively working on the issues addressed. The workshop will be offered again this summer though the Harvard-Westlake Summer Program.
Achievement Awards
The last eight assassins standing, dubbed the “elite eight,” were announced via the assassin twitter account, @HWAssassin. Assassins not crossed out are still in play as of press time.
“Assassins” were given achievement awards for performing certain accomplishments.
First Kill Award: given to the “assassin” who performs the first kill Recipient: Mane Williams ’14 Well, You Tried Award: given to the first “assassin” killed
nathanson ’s
nathanson ’s
Jack Goldfisher ’14
Caitlin Yee ’13
nathanson ’s
Rachel Schwartz ’13
Recipient: Taylor Lee ’13 Mostly Harmless Award: given when an assassin was killed without killing anyone
nathanson ’s
Cindy Oh ’13
Didax
nathanson ’s
Katherine Calvert ’15
Alexis Ladge ’15
Baby Steps Award: given any time an assassin performed their first kill Go Down Fighting Award: given when an assassin is killed after killing someone
nathanson ’s
Oliver Goodman-Waters ’14
nathanson ’s
Taleen Mahseredjian ’14
Pack of Wolves Award: given to the two different “wolf pack” alliances SOURCE: KENNETH KIM ’13 GRAPHIC BY NOA YADIDI AND SARA EVALL
hwchronicle.com/news
Dec. 19, 2012
Paintball Club sponsors games
News A9
By Jensen Pak
The Paintball Club hosted a student-faculty paintball event on Sunday, Dec. 16 at the California Paintball Park. Both middle school and upper school students attended the event to play paintball. People new to paintball were welcome to play paintball for the first time, and rental equipment was available. “This was my first time playing paintball,” William Lee ’14 said. “I was really shaky the first game and got out quickly, but after a few games I really got the hang of it. It almost felt like a video game. There’s a lot of crouching and ducking, keeping your head low and looking for targets.” Recreational paintball is played outdoors in a field with specifically designed obstacles and terrain. In team death match mode, teams fight un-
PRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF JACK COOPER
THIS MEANS WAR: Four members of faculty keep on the lookout for competitors in a paintball game. They were among a group of faculty and students to participate in a student-faculty paintball tournament sponsored by the Paintball Club Sunday, Dec. 16. til all members of one team have been eliminated. A person is eliminated when he has been shot by a paintball pellet. Games last roughly 15 minutes. The Paintball Club was created by Walter Wang ’13 two years ago and also participates in serious paintball tournaments. “Paintball has always been a passion of mine and I decid-
ed that I wanted to bring my passion to Harvard-Westlake,” Wang said. “After being encouraged by people such as Mr. Bird and Mr. Levin, I decided to make an official HarvardWestlake paintball club. It was made purely to have fun.” Wang said that many faculty members, including performing arts teacher Shawn Costantino, science teacher Tara Eitner, science teach-
er Dietrich Schuhl, athletic trainer Milo Sini, Assistant Director of Admission Melanie Leon and Attendance Coordinator Gabriel Preciado, also went to play paintball with the students. “It was a great event. Faculty, staff and students all came together and had a great time,” Eitner said. “Walter did an incredible job pulling together a wonderful event. It
Honor Board uses modified process • Continued from page A1
ELIZABETH MADDEN/CHRONICLE
Hanukkah, Oh Hanukkah
LATKES TO EAT: Students help themselves to free latkes, apple sauce and sour cream, provided by Prefect Council and Social Committee Monday, Dec. 10 as a preview for Winterfest.
Amato visits Qatar to develop model for new co-ed school
By Michael Sugerman
Vice President John Amato made a presentation to a committee planning a new school in Qatar earlier this month, showcasing Harvard-Westlake as an ideal model. Amato flew to Qatar per the invitation of the RAND Corporation, whose mission is “to focus on the issues that matter most such as health, education, national security, international affairs, law and business, the environment and more,” according to the organization’s website. “The purpose of the trip was to develop a plan for a school that would look very much like Harvard-Westlake in terms of its academic offerings and potentials, but also wrap around a school that has very significant performing and visual arts programs,” Amato said. The new school will also
was a great community building activity and was nothing but positive and light.” The paintballers returned to school, exhausted and wet, but still having enjoyed every moment of it. “We passed by Six Flags on the way back from paintball,” Peter Kim ’14 said. “I thought to myself, even if there were no lines at Six Flags, I would still go back to paintball.”
work with the Katara Foundation, whose purpose is to bring the performing and visual arts community to Qatar. “Academic excellence and excellent arts programs will go hand in hand,” Amato said. “The plan is for the school to be co-ed, and the main language would be English.” Amato gave a PowerPoint presentation to the concept committee, which showed slides of Harvard-Westlake students in and out of the classroom. The lecture included video of performing arts, including last year’s middle school dance showcase and the 2011-2012 Madrigals and middle school Symphony performance in Chicago. “They were hugely impressed by our level of musicianship,” Amato said. “Overall, they received the presentation very well. They liked the way we organize our buildings, the way practice
rooms surround performing areas.” The new school is going forward with a general concept. Now, the committee will deal with size issues including classrooms and staffing. For the rest of the year, Amato said there will be continuous contact culminating in a summer trip where another team will go to Qatar for more planning. “I just think this is a great opportunity,” Amato said. “I’ve done this a couple of times for RAND. It’s a great experience to see another part of the world. The Persian Gulf is certainly another part of the world. Qatar is still growing as a country. You can see that they are looking West, looking for models, and they want to be world leaders. They want them to grow and develop as thinkers and learners. We can absolutely and without question help them do so.”
persons involved in the cases. “Everybody was questioning me, and I answered them to the best of my ability and tried to give as much detail,” Gertrude said. Eventually, it kind of made me feel like they twisted my words.” Once Gertrude’s case was heard by the Board, she went home. Shortly after arriving home, she received a telephone call from Father J. Young, the faculty adviser of the Honor Board, requesting that she return to school. Gertrude came back to school and faced the Honor Board a second time. “The first time that I went [before the Honor Board], it was fine,” Gertrude said. “But the second time I came, I felt like it was a different atmosphere, like they were more in interrogation mode than talking to me. The second time Gertrude went before the Honor Board, she was questioned about an infraction that was unrelated to the plagiarism on her essay, she said. During these two hearings, Gertrude was caught lying repeatedly to the Board. As a result of her Honor Code infractions, Gertrude served a one-day suspension, received a zero on the plagiarized paper and was asked to re-write the paper and attend three meetings with her English teacher as well as weekly meetings with Father J. Young and a prefect to discuss her progress. These consequences were harsher than usual because of Getrude’s dishonesty before the board, Barzdukas said. “With regard to the Honor Code, few actions are more harmful to the fabric of our community than pledging to tell the truth and then lying,” Barzdukas said. “Mr. Barzdukas did not
want to be in the position of overturning a case. So far, he has not thrown any curveballs,” Young said. The Honor Board sent an email to the student body, outlining the basic context of the case and the subsequent disciplinary action. However, the email did not report the Honor Board’s preliminary recommendation and state whether the administration agreed with that decision, as the emails had in past years. Gertrude said that she believed the email did not adequately reflect the complexities of the case despite the limitations of maintaining confidentiality. Instead of more detailed emails, the Honor Board opted to hold an “informal meeting,” for each case, in which students could discuss the details and reasoning behind the case and disciplinary action with prefects in person. Students were informed of these meeting in the final sentences of the emails. The case involving Gertrude was followed by a meeting in the Dean’s Conference Room at break. Besides Young, the prefects involved in the case and a Chronicle reporter, no students attended the meeting. “We were disappointed that students chose not to attend the open forum,” Barzdukas said. “In the meantime, if any students have any questions about any case, they should feel free to ask me or Father Young.” Barzdukas will also encourage deans to remind students to attend these meeting during class meeting, he said. “We feel that our community is served better by a culture of vibrant and constructive discussion and dissent, and so that’s what we want the forums to be. Vibrant and constructive,” Barzdukas said.
The Chronicle
A10 News
Dec. 19, 2012
Film editor visits video art classes By Jack Goldfisher
Eric Myerson ’98 spoke to a Video Art III class last week about his work editing feature films, documentaries and reality television. Myerson was an all-around talented video student at Harvard-Westlake, Visual Arts Chair Cheri Gaulke said. “[He was] a great director, writer, editor and cinematographer,” she said, but Myerson decided to work as an editor. Myerson showed students clips from his various projects, including a Chinese bank heist movie and a documentary about Diana Nyad, a longdistance open-water swimmer. Throughout the clips Myerson talked about his work, for which he was nominated for an Emmy award, and an editor’s ability to hone a writer or director’s storyline by changing what the audience sees and doesn’t see. “The director can shoot whatever he wants, but ultimately it’s the editor that decides what goes on screen, and there’s a lot of creativity in that,” he said. “To be an editor, you have to be willing to spend a lot of hours sitting in a dark room,” Myerson said, “but it’s a lot of fun.”
Janowitz earns distinction
By Emily Segal
The Senior Advancement Administrator for the Office of Advancement will be commended for her hard work at a conference with over 1,000 advancement professionals. Brenda Janowitz was selected by the Council for the Advancement of Supportive Education in conjunction with the National Association of Independent Schools to receive the Support Staff Distinguished Service Award. She will receive the award at the 43rd Annual CASE-NAIS School Conference inWashington, DC on Monday, Jan. 14. Senior Advancement Officer Jim Pattinson, who nominated Janowitz for the award, describes her as “the embodiment of what the award is meant to do: honor a professional who has an impact on the institution over a long and distinguished career.” Janowitz began work at Harvard-Westlake in 1998 as a gift processor and is now in charge of the entire logistical management advancement. In a letter nominating Janowitz for the award, President Thomas C. Hudnut said, “All roads in our Advancement efforts lead to her, through her or from her. She is the indispensable link that makes everything else run smoothly. “In my 26 years as leader of this school, I can think of no one in Harvard-Westlake’s employ who has done a better job or meant more to her colleagues than Brenda Janowitz.”
NOA YADIDI/CHRONICLE
GET THE SCOOP: Jon Wiener discusses the Nation magazine, a publication he has worked on for 28 years. In his conversation with the Chronicle staff, Wiener talked about the embracing journalism’s identity in the digital age, and also about following journalistic traditions.
Nation editor emphasizes journalistic integrity in presentation to Chronicle By Julia Aizuss
A history professor at University of California, Irvine, and contributing editor to the Nation magazine shared his contrasting experiences of online and print journalism with the Chronicle staff Nov. 16. Jon Wiener, who successfully sued the FBI for the release of its files on John Lennon’s murder, works as a contributing editor for the Nation, the United States’ oldest continuously publishing weekly magazine. He has worked on the Nation since 1984, and has witnessed its expansion into online publication. While the Nation’s print edition is hard to get published in and rigorously fact-checked, Wiener said, proceedings at the website are more lax due to a constant need for content. “The website has a voracious need for content,” Wiener said. “There’s a virtually infinite need for new material on the website every hour.” Wiener said that this need for content is also evident in other news sites he has written for such as the Huffington
Post. the necessity of headlines easiHowever, Wiener empha- ly searchable on Google, which sized the importance of fact- transformed traditional headchecking and accurate report- line and lead writing, Wiener ing. said. “Accuracy is a duty, not a “We used to like clever virtue,” Wiener said, reciting witty titles with puns that what he called a Nation motto. showed how smart we are,” He praised the magazine’s Wiener said. “Now it’s got to print edition’s be something continuing like ‘Romney commitment to is a loser.’ No accuracy and I find good ideas ar- more opporcorrections, retunities to be rive in all kinds of clever. It’s a lating anecdotes of his own exunexpected places. I great loss.” periences being With the don’t think there’s a advent fact-checked of sentence by way to produce good, reader comsentence in his onoriginal ideas. You menting, articles for the line journalism just have to let them also Nation, and introemphasized the duced the poshappen.” significance of sibility of a corrections to —Jon Wiener dialogue with other magareaders bezines and newsyond letters to papers as well, like the New the editor. York Times. “Am I supposed to read Besides the necessity of all these comments?” Wiener constant new material and said, showing the class an arless rigorous fact-checking, ticle that had over 200 comWiener discussed the subtler ments. “What’s the difference changes writing for online had between a stupid comment, an wrought in journalism, such as idiotic comment and an unac-
“
ceptable comment?” Interns at the Nation must moderate the flood of comments and remove offensive ones. Despite his experiences writing for the Nation online, Wiener recognized its handling of online journalism as “archaic” overall, describing their viewpoint as “print is the real magazine, online is everything else.” The best journalism should not be reserved for the magazine but published online, he said. Wiener also discussed inspiration and the importance of specialized viewpoints in journalism. “I find good ideas arrive in all kinds of unexpected places,” Wiener said, remembering that the idea for one of his favorite recent pieces had come to him while at a dentist appointment. “I don’t think there’s a way to produce good, original ideas. You just have to let them happen.” At the end of the period, Wiener fielded questions about his experiences at the magazine.
Board approves budget for 2013-2014 year By Julia Aizuss
all of us were comfortable with, and it was not a superNew additions to campus long discussion,” Levin said. and new technologiSince both the cal additions to classKutler Center for Inrooms played little terdisciplinary Studpart in the tuition and ies and the Copses salary budget recomFamily Pool were built mended by the Fiusing donations, they nance Committee that did not influence the the Board of Trustees budget, Levin said, approved on Dec. 3 for although maintaining the 2013-2014 school them does add some year, Chief Financial extra cost. However, nathanson ’s Officer Rob Levin factors like chemicals Rob Levin said. The tuition inand electricity for the crease, which is not yet pub- new pool had already been lic, will be published in early built into this year’s budget. February when students are “We kind of knew we were required to reenroll for school going to have a new pool,” next year, Levin said. Levin said. “It’s not a raging Because of the Business Of- surprise.” fice’s decision nearly 10 years Instead, much of the disago to restrain tuition growth cussion at the Board of Trustand because constraining fac- ees meeting concerned longtors caused by the economic term financial issues, which downturn have begun to re- Levin said “aren’t really purely lent, the designing of the bud- financial, and aren’t a matter get was uneventful, Levin said. of just budget.” While the bud“We were able to propose get is tactical and concerned something to the board that with the short-term “imme-
diate how,” it rarely overlaps with the long-term “what” of strategy. These long-term issues include programs like financial aid, which involves decisions made not just by the Finance Committee but also by the planning committee, the Advancement Office and the Board of Trustees, Levin said. However, the Board of Trustees and the Business Office mainly discussed how technology will figure in the reinvented traditional education. “Right now we can say, oh, c’mon, what are you going to do, stay home and watch a whole bunch of videos on Khan Academy?” Levin said. Although it’s easy to be dismissive of virtual education, Levin said, in his presentation to the board he used the automaker General Motors, technological corporation IBM and photographic company Kodak as examples of companies who didn’t take competition seri-
ously, or never saw it coming, and were peripheralized. “We have to figure out how to reinvent ourselves so we don’t perish,” Levin said. “And we have to look around at what is the ridiculous alternative that ends up being the tiger that eats us.” The Business Office rarely puts money into technology to solve the problem, Levin said, with the possible exception of the school’s experiment with faculty iPads. Because of this, new technology rarely poses a budget problem. The licensing fee for The Hub is about $20,000 a year, which Levin called “a rounding error in the context of our budget.” “It’s not dollars, it’s mindset,” Levin said. Even though The Hub costs little, its implications for classroom education mean a lot, he said. “In the financial planning for this school’s future, the budgeting is way less important right now,” Levin said.
Dec. 19, 2012
hwchronicle.com/news
Instructors preview summer workshop
laborate successfully within a group,” according to the inforInstructors of the Indepen- mation sheet the instructors dent Theater Workshop vis- handed out during classes. ited drama classes on Dec. 12 During the workshop, the to present a preview their new students will participate in ac2013 summer program. tivities that help them become The two instructors gave better actors, writers, and dicondensed rectors. versions of By the the activities last class, at the sumstudents will mer program. perform a The instructors were “[The inplay, which is very easy going and structors] also written informed the class came to by the stuclasses, doing dents in the about the course of short demsummer prothe summer program os of their gram. two week Two inand what we would be program. It structors, doing. ” wasn’t just Nick Soper them talking, Lau—Cameron Victor ‘15 and it was them ren Ludwig, doing activiteach the ties with the program. kids,” perSoper is forming arts teacher Chris an actor, writer and teacher Moore said. who has experience in the film The summer program, the industry. Independent Theater WorkLudwig is a director, writer, shop will be Monday-Friday and educator and has earned for two weeks from 9:30 a.m. a Hollywood Fringe Festival to 5 p.m. “Best of Comedy” award and The program will be of- “Critic’s Pick” from the Chifered to rising juniors, seniors, cago Reader with her work. and recent graduates. “The instructors were very The goals of the Indepen- easy-going and informed the dent Theater Workshop are class about the course of the “to deepen [students’] perfor- summer program and what we mance abilities and to tap into would be doing. It will be two new wells of emotion. To write weeks of intensive scene study, vibrant, original material that writing, and then creating a makes an audience sit up and play,” drama student Cameron take notice. [And] to col- Victor ’15 said.
News A11
Someone’s in the Kitchen
By Jake Saferstein
“
SARAH NOVICOFF/CHRONICLE
TOP CHEF: Ingrid Hung ’13 and Erin Pindus ’13 work on a dish in their Molecular Gastronomy class while Eric Dritley ’13 and guest chef Justin Campbell of Wolfgang Puck Catering watch.
Alum becomes editor of Spectator By Enya Huang
Sammy Roth ’10 is the new editor-in-chief of the Columbia Daily Spectator. He formally started the position on Dec. 10. “I have the job now, but the hard work really starts next semester,” Roth said. Roth joined the 200-member Spectator staff his first semester at Columbia as a writer for the news section. He served as deputy news editor in 2011 and as campus news editor in 2012. “[It] is a complicated pro-
cess,” Roth said. “The way it works is the Spectator has a managing board of 25 editors, and at the end of the fall semester they start the application process. “I had to write a 20-page proposal about what I’d do with the job, I had to take a severalthousand-word ethics test and I had an hour-long interview with the turkeyshoot,” a board consisting of editors who are not applying for new positions but instead are evaluating applicants. “I was thrilled,” Roth said. “I had no idea what was going to happen.”
Roth was a managing editor of Chronicle during his senior year. “Chronicle was the main thing I did on campus,” Roth said. “I really liked working with people [and got to] understand how publications works.” Roth is exploring his postgraduation options. He is considering entering sustainable development and the publication industry for possible careers. “I’m going to give it more thought before I graduate,” Roth said.
the harvard-westlake
CHRONICLE Los Angeles • Volume XXII • Issue III • Nov. 7, 2012
Editors in Chief: David Lim, Elana Zeltser Managing Editors: Robbie Loeb, Michael Rothberg, Camille Shooshani Executive Editor: Rachel Schwartz Presentations Editors: Jamie Chang, Gabrielle Franchina Sports Editors: Michael Aronson, Luke Holthouse Chief Copy Editor: Allana Rivera News Managing Editors: Michael Sugerman, Ally White News Section Heads: Julia Aizuss, Jack Goldfisher, Elizabeth Madden, Lauren Sonnenberg, Noa Yadidi Infographics Manager: Jivani Gengatharan News Copy Editor: Jessica Lee News Online Managers: Claire Goldsmith, Jensen Pak Assistants: Leily Arzy, Sara Evall, Haley Finkelstein, Enya Huang, Sophie Kupiec-Weglinski, Jensen McRae, Nikta Mansouri, Scott Nussbaum, J.J. Spitz, Jake Saferstein Opinion Managing Editor: Ana Scuric Section Heads: Beatrice Fingerhut, James Hur, Kyla Rhynes, Tara Stone Assistants: Parker Chusid, Lucas Gelfen, Kenneth Schrupp Features Managing Editors: Maggie Bunzel, Carrie Davidson Features Section Heads: Eojin Choi, Sydney Foreman, David Gisser, Sarah Novicoff, Morganne Ramsey, Lauren Siegel Assistants: Carly Berger, Zoe Dutton, Jacob Goodman, Aimee Misaki, Marcella Park, Nadia Rahman, David Woldenberg Sports Managing Editors: Aaron Lyons, Keane Muraoka-Robertson Section Heads: Patrick Ryan, Grant Nussbaum, Lucy Putnam, Lizzy Thomas Assistants: Elijah Akhtarzad, Mila Barzdukas, Jordan Garfinkel, Tyler Graham, Miles Harleston, Erina Szeto, Jeremy Tepper Business Manager: Cherish Molezion Ads Manager: Leslie Dinkin Photographers: Mazelle Etessami, Rebecca Katz, Scott Nussbaum, Emily Segal Multimedia Team: Mazelle Etessami, Jack Goldfisher, Eric Greenberg, Henry Hahn, Luke Holthouse, Eric Loeb, Sam Sachs Adviser: Kathleen Neumeyer The Chronicle is the student newspaper of Harvard-Westlake School. It is published eight 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, Studio City, 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 Leslie Dinkin at 818465-6512. Publication of an advertisement does not imply endorsement of the product or service by the newspaper or the school.
Opinion The Chronicle
•
Dec. 19, 2012
Turn tragedy into action
Every student should feel safe coming to school. Last Friday, that sense of security was shaken for everyone in the nation. At Harvard-Westlake, we are lucky enough to have procedures in place to prevent or subdue any attacks. All students have attended ALICE training where they were told not to hide passively under their desks, but instead to resist an armed intruder. Experienced, armed campus security guards could stop a shooter with lethal force if necessary. A campus wide emergency notification system can send out texts and emails to students, teachers and parents at a moment’s notice. Perhaps more importantly, we have an effective psychological support system that may prevent these situations before they pose a threat. Not every school can afford these precautions, and there is no way to implement such safety measures in every part of our lives where gun violence is a concern, something perhaps best exemplified by the recent shooting in the Aurora movie theater. People say that a time of such grief should not be politicized — that to be respectful we should sit in silence and mourn the tragic lives
of those lost. Without progress though, those lives will have been lost in vain. It is time to move past the political arguments on gun regulation that have turned into years of legislative paralysis and to focus on action in the name of the 27 human lives that were senselessly taken last Friday. This time discussion must be turned into something more. We must establish that we will not accept mass shootings as part of life in America — that we will not allow ourselves to go through the same cycle of grief after another headline proclaiming “massacre” flashes across the screen. Of course there is no surefire way of preventing such tragedies, but there are things we can do to try to severely limit them. No matter what your political affiliations are, we should all agree action in some shape or form must be taken. Be aware of the facts, and know what you stand for. If you are passionate, email your congressman and sign a petition. Knowledge of such horrible realities will inform your decisions when you are a voter or perhaps even a leader. The worst thing we can do is nothing.
College news on Facebook is just news Deans warn seniors against sharing college acceptances at school. Facebook posts are taboo. College sweatshirts are out of the question. It is true that this time of year many seniors are understandably sensitive—perhaps overly sensitive. The culture of our school seems to frame college acceptances as predominantly hurtful rather than exciting. One person’s happiness is another’s bitterness. It is no secret that seniors consider one student’s admittance as the primary factor in another student’s rejection. We feel pitted against each other. The negative atmosphere surrounding the public announcement of college decisions at our school is unparalleled. Students must respect the defined boundary between bragging and sharing a legitimate accomplishment. There exists an absolute difference between demeaning displays and short, informative posts. Come senior year, we all incessantly talk about college. Curiosity about who gets in where, even from those of us who were deferred or rejected, is inevitable. If we actively seek out the information anyway, there is no harm in getting it directly from the credible source. Assuming that students respects the sensitivity of their peers who were there is nothing wrong with openly sharing acceptances. Some say any post on Facebook is insensitive, but at the end of the day, a respectfully written announcement is just news.
JACOB GOODMAN/CHRONICLE
Try harder for Honor Board transparency
At the end of an emailed Honor Board Recommendation, students were invited to an “informal meeting” in the Deans’ Conference Room the next day. According to a Chronicle poll, 70 percent of the 423 students polled did not know about this meeting. Besides the Chronicle reporter on the event, no students showed up to the meeting on Dec. 5. to discuss the details of the case with five prefects and Father J. Young. As part of a reformed Honor Board process announced in September, the meeting was intended to open discussion on the Honor Code and provide a meaningful way for students to have their voice in the Code that they sign on every assignment. This we support overwhelmingly as we have advocated for such an outlet in past editorials. However, this meeting replaced a comprehensive writeup by members of the Honor Board sent to all students that provided more information for students who wanted it. And with a open forum that was announced up the day before in such a small venue, we must be concerned with the lack of effort in advertising such events that Prefect Council as opposed to the care they show for social events to get students to attend. With the new concise Honor Board Recommendations, the majority of students have lost access to more details of the case. Not every student can take time out of their
break when they have clubs to attend or teachers to meet with. Previously, every student at the Upper School had the chance to skim over the facts when they had a few free minutes and crucially, a chance to see the reasoning behind the Honor Board’s actions. Not every case needs dozens of pages but if the members of the Honor Board really aspire to increased transparency, each case must have more than a two sentence summary and a list of punishments and include the reasoning behind every punishment. Without this rationale, there is no information to spark a honest discussion about the Honor Code that would drive students to an open forum. We also have little reason to have faith in opinions of our student leaders when their opinions to the case are not shown at all. Head of School Audrius Barzdukas said in September of the new process that “there will be no writing until there is an agreement” and although consensus is necessary between the students on the Honor Board and the administrators who must carry out the punishment, students should have the ability to know how this consensus was met and how different viewpoints converged to a final decision. The open forums about the Honor Code are a step in the right direction, but a more thorough recommendation is not only necessary to increase transparency on the Honor Board as was intended by the reforms but also spark to discussion.
hwchronicle.com/opinion
Dec. 19, 2012
Opinion A13
We cannot allow history to repeat itself yet again
‘When the bad man breaks in to my house, I die’
By David Lim
By Allana Rivera
M
y father grips my stepmother’s hand at the dinner table. She lost her niece in the Aurora shooting, and now her voice breaks as she says the word, “children.” While the nation cries gun control, she just cries. In the safe: rifles, shotguns and handguns. She asks me, what if there was one off-duty cop in that theater? What if one teacher had carried a gun? She has a point. As much of the country rallies against the Second Amendment, I can’t help but be wary. Banning something doesn’t make it go away. The proverbial wolf in sheep’s clothing will get the guns he wants, and we will be left comforted knowing that we live in a “safer society.” But when I no longer have the right to bear arms, what happens when the big bad man breaks into my house? What happens when he tries to rape me? Beat me? Kill me? Do I reason with him? Do I attempt to explain the urge to dominate me as a twisted mommy issue? No, I don’t. When the big bad man breaks into my house to kill me, I die. But what happens when I have the handgun in my house? My relative weakness is compensated by the incredibly powerful stopping-force mechanism in my hand, and my knowledge of how to use it. Now, I understand that a handgun is different from
a semiautomatic weapon. In the context of self-defense, a handgun seems sufficient. But it is important to note that to military families like my own, banning semiautomatics feels unjust. Shooting, to them, is not just a skill, but a hobby. Their semiautomatics better perfect their craft. A car enthusiast doesn’t need a car that reaches 200 mph, but wants it, anyways. A semiautomatic isn’t necessary, but that does not mean people should be denied the right to own one. Moreover, I do understand that the Sandy Hook Massacre was not the product of an 18-year-old girl defending herself from an intruder, but a mentally unstable 20-year-old who stole a semiautomatic rifle from his mother to shoot her, six adults, 20 children and himself. In the light of this tragedy, gun regulation is at the very least logical. A title and tag with each sale, gun training, a written test before purchase and periodic inspections and reviews are necessary in a nation with nearly 315 million people, 200 million privately owned guns and over four major shooting incidents in the past 13 years. But stricter gun laws alone will not stop massacres like the recent shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School More money and energy needs to be put into mental health research and treatment. Our sensationalized
news needs to be tempered with a clearer understanding of how our world works. People die every day, and children will be murdered. These things will happen. While we cannot stand idly by, neither can we let our sadness about this lead us to unsound conclusions. A balanced approach to the issue will yield positive results, but attacking the Second Amendment as dated and unfounded will not. I have heard people argue that our founding fathers weren’t thinking about semiautomatic weapons when they wrote the Second Amendment. Of course they weren’t, - they didn’t exist. They were thinking about overthrowing a tyrannical government, and the natural right to self-defense, among other things. We cannot disillusion ourselves into thinking that our society was founded on mutual love and respect and that the way to preserve these ideals is to limit our freedoms. We are a nation of gun owners. Out of every 100 citizens, 89 own guns. The birth of our nation came about through war, and defense of it through an incredibly advanced military. This may not be a pleasant image, but it reminds us that securing our freedoms is not always a pleasant business. We can, though, make it the best we can. We can regulate, we can invest and we can balance emotion with pragmatism.
soundbyte “The problem, of course, cannot be solved merely through more regulations on firearms. It stems from something deeper than that. In my opinion, what lies at the root of this and many other problems is an unwillingness to really try to fix them.” —Josh Lappen ’13
Road to realization By Michael Sugerman
L
ast weekend, I was driving east on Sunset Blvd. in Beverly Hills. As I passed through an intersection, a car driven by an elderly woman accelerated out of a side street. In an attempt to avoid an accident, I looked around, slammed the brakes and swerved out of the way, running over a cone and scratching my car on a nearby pole in the process. As I got out of my car, the woman — clearly in the wrong — rolled down her window and said with mocking
whimsy, “Nothing happened,” before speeding off In the aftermath of said accident, I was shaking both out of anxiety and anger. I immediately called my mom, who, upon hearing that I was okay and that my car had sustained only a minimal blemish, told me to be careful, forget about it, and in the context of this time of year especially, think of things that I am grateful for. For seniors, this “joyous holiday season” is complicated. If we get into our colleges
nathanson ’s
C
olumbine. Virginia prevent another mass shootTech. Sandy Hook. ing or examine our attitude to 27 people, including gun violence. 20 children, died last Friday, We can not ignore the shot at point blank in their fact that we are a nation of classrooms at Sandy Hook Elgun owners. Over 40 percent ementary School in Newtown, of Americans own guns and Conn. We will grieve as a Although I personally would nation and take a deep breath never dream of having a gun before the full horror of the in my house, more than a few young lives lost hits us. people you encounter on a Cable news networks daily basis own one of Amerwill flash headlines for the ica’s 300 million guns. Pronext few weeks declaring gun organizations rally behind the incident a “tragedy” or the “right to bear arms,” a “massacre.” With pictures when those arms 300 years flashing across the screen, an ago certainly could not shoot anchor will profile the 20-year dozens of bullets in a minute old “perpetrator” through his and with any sort of precision. neighbors and high school It is pragmatic, cautious friends as and prudent sometimes to plan for troubled these emerloner but gencies. But I’ve been particularly not anyone it is also a they would irked by calls to hold chilling acsuspect. ceptance that off on political action shootings will But when this tragedy happen on and not turn our fades from school camoutrage into change.” puses and the national spotlight and that guns our eyes are will continue no longer to be easily glued to TV screens seeking accessible. out every lurid detail, I fear No one gun law will defithat we will be no safer than nitely prevent further shootwe were on a Dec 14, 2012. ings but the gun registration Wearing combat gear, laws are not enough as last Adam Lanza pulled the trigweek’s tragedy illustrated. ger on “similar to a weapon But the reasonable measures used by troops in Afghanistan that a majority of Americans and Iraq,” according to the support such as banning the New York Times. His mother, sale of semiautomatic weapwho was shot in her home im- ons and limiting the size of mediately prior to the shootmagazines would reduce the ing, legally owned the semiaurisk of another mass shooting tomatic weapons used in the without infringing the right shooting. to self-defense. After the Virginia Tech These incremental changshooting, the deadliest school es may not change the reality shooting yet, state legislators of the situation but a strong failed to ban concealed handreaction to limit gun violence guns on public universities will send a message that we and require registration of cannot let this happen again. guns sold privately within the To do nothing would be an state. The federal government acceptance of the status quo: passed a comprehensive more shootings, more inI’ve been particularly irked truders in military gear on by calls to hold off on politibreaking news and more dead cal action and not turn our children. outrage into action. Every It’s a long term project for time a “massacre” happens, America to move beyond the we follow a script of sharing Wild West and join the rest in the horror and publically of the industrialized world in scrutinizing every moment of limiting gun ownership. Now a shooting, but every shock is the time to start. never ends in any measures to
“
Even though we face obstacles, we all should be appreciative of how fortunate we are.
of choice, we rejoice in the things we value. Rejection, however, can act as an acrimonious blindfold, preventing us from appreciating the simple gifts present every day. Surprisingly, my encounter with the rude, elderly woman and the subsequent conversation with my mother put things in perspective for me. I, along with the members of the Harvard-Westlake community, have so much to be thankful for. Over my six years here, I’ve made meaningful friend-
ships with students and teachers alike. I’ve participated in extracurricular activities that started as “why nots” and became integral parts of my life. I, to a certain extent, have grown up. Sappiness aside, we really do have it good. Great teachers, a comprehensive education, a talented and intellectual peer group, cars to drive (with maybe a scratch or two) and healthy lives (ridden every so often with a fatigueinduced cold) … I can’t ask for much more.
As for the college process, our school has more than adequately prepared us over the course of the last few years. In the context of my senior year, this is perhaps the best blessing of all. Sure, we won’t all get into our first choices. I certainly didn’t. But we can’t let rejection, disappointment and even explosive Facebook drama hinder us from appreciating what we have. We’ll all be sent in the right direction. Each of us can and will find success. Happy holidays.
The Chronicle
A14 Opinion
Dec. 19, 2011
All is bigger in Texas
I
By Jensen Pak
traveled to San Antonio to attend the JEA/NSPA Fall National High School Journalism Convention from Nov. 15-18, and I can confirm that everything is indeed bigger in Texas, from the food to the pride. I was very lucky to be able to go on this trip with a great group of people. Walking around in the convention center, we met several professional journalists who admired the Chronicle, which made me proud to be on the staff. Listening to the stories of diverse students and faculty made me realize the importance of student journalism in a broader context. At the final awards ceremony, we all waited in anticipation to hear the names called of the Chronicle newspaper and website, Big Red sports magazine, Vox Populi yearbook and Spectrum middle school news magazine. When we heard the name of the Chronicle announced as a Pacemaker winner, we all jumped up with excitement, until we realized that the Chronicle was also a newspaper from San Antonio, and that we did not in fact win. Nevertheless, we managed to place “Best of Show” with all of our publications, which is an impressive feat. One thing that stuck with me was that with every award announced, rousing applause could be heard. Every school cheered for one another when they were honored at the convention. Every school publication did not come to prove that they were better than every other publication. There was no actual competition between newspapers and yearbooks, only a spirit of cooperation and a communal desire to promote journalism. I had a lot of fun traveling and spending time with my friends on the Chronicle staff. This trip was not just a learning trip for journalism, but a memorable experience.
Christmas spirit every day By Luke Holthouse
E
very year, around the beginning of November, our country dives head first into one of the most important issues in our society. No, I’m not talking about the Presidential election again. This debate is much more important. When does Christmas season officially start? Starbucks goes into holiday mode the day after Halloween. On Nov. 1, Starbucks busts out its red holidaythemed coffee cups, not wasting a day to capitalize on the festive spirit. I’m more of an iced coffee kind of guy, and Starbucks always serves cold drinks in transparent plastic cups, but I do love an iced gingerbread latte, so I don’t mind the early start. Most radio stations wait until after Thanksgiving before opening up their Christmas music library. Some households wait as late as Dec. 1 to put up decorations and purchase a Christmas tree. Personally, I can’t decide whether it’s more important to get the holiday spirit going
as early as possible or if it’s better to save the excitement for when the holidays are closer. Much like a HarvardWestlake football game, you don’t want to storm the field every time the team wins, but it feels almost like a rite of passage to do it at least once before you graduate, if not more. There’s no doubt that we are now totally in the swing of Christmas time. So for everyone stressed about school work, college admissions or in my case, press deadlines, remember that even grumpy people pretend to be happy this time of year Now’s the best excuse that you’ll have to smile in a while. For seniors, this message is particularly important around this time. With the stress of college results this week, it’s easy to mope until New Years if you don’t get into your top choice. But keep a smile on your face, count your blessings and remember that if you end up at your “safety school,” it probably throws better parties than your “reaches.”
Ignorance isn’t bliss By Lauren Sonnenberg
W
hy do I care?” This is a question asked by many as they sit in classrooms, contemplating when they will ever need to know how to graph a polynomial, or wondering who will ever quiz them later in life on the details of the Arab Spring. I’ll admit, I sit and wonder the same things as I study into the late hours of the night, I even excuse myself from the last bits of my work in favor of a few more minutes of sleep, justifying my choice with the aforementioned rationalization. Because, really, why do I care? I know I have to do my homework so I don’t fail out, but a significant struggle in a teenager’s life is finding a reason to care about the world around them. The same rationale that excuses
JACOB GOODMAN/CHRONICLE
students from learning how to, say, graph a polynomial is unfortunately also used as an excuse to not learn about global events. Our school and social lives are high stress and offer little time to relax, so it is understandable that given a moment of respite, one’s motivation to read David Brooks’s latest opinion piece in the New York Times wavers. Why should we care about what’s going on in the world? Why work to understand the world’s economy, politics, social structures and environment? To empathize with the struggles of emerging nations and peoples, or be qualified to voice one’s disapproval with the treatment of the environment, or even comment about the world one must invest in the knowledge to make any such involvement informed
Once the holiday season ends, everyone should maintain their happy spirit at school. Don’t get me wrong, nothing makes me happier than hearing Nat King Cole blast “O Come All Ye Faithful” in my living room stereo when I come home from school and Winter Break is two of the best weeks of the year. But I feel like our school, or really society as a whole becomes too reliant on the holidays to be happy. There are plenty of reasons to be happy at this school. In November, I participated in No Shave November, entered into the school wide game of Assassins and started playing pick up football with my friends. Truth be told, my beard was really unimpressive even after a month of letting it go. In fact, my facial hair was very patchy and just overall gross. But the challenge was a great chance for me and my bearded brothers to laugh at ourselves and rememer to not take everything so seriously. Though I was knocked out of the Happiness Club spon-
sored Assassins Game before I had a chance to kill anyone, I’ve really enjoyed following the updates from the official Twitter account, and I hope the Happiness Club brings it back in the spring because it’s been another great way for us to do something fun. And because I want to win. Lastly, the Friday afternoon football games are perfect way to start a weekend. I get to do something fun with all the guys I love hanging out with. Simple get togethers like that can turn a boring weekend into a great one, and remind us how much we enjoy going to school with our friends. So in conclusion, I think I’ve finally decided when we should start Christmas season: every day. Find little things in your life, like games, facial hair and Friday afternoon sunshine, to be excited about. Keep a balanced perspective on whether or not the challenges in your life are big things or little things. And remember to just relax a little bit around school, because attitude goes a long way.
In the future, it will be up to us to make important decisions. But in order to do so, we have to better understand our world.
and meaningful. The statewide and congressional election is in two years; we will hold the fate of the future in our hands when some of us vote for the first time. These decisions will shape how we interact with others at home and around the world. Living in our own little cocoons, we tend to focus inwardly. We are focused on our own futures and our own social lives and our own interactions. This obsession with personal problems and issues relating to the individual are a part of being adolescent. Adolescence will end. We don’t just hold only our own fates in our hands. We hold the fate of other nations and peoples whose governments are not capable of fixing their problems. Responsibility falls on our shoulders.
Today we care about our personal problems, but one day we will have to care about healthcare for ourselves and our children, our country’s immigration laws, where we spend our money, how we choose to aid the oppressed around the world in this time of transition. We have to change our mindsets from one of internal reflection and judgment to one of external concern and seeking of knowledge. Though students may not be awarded for their desire to learn, it is that decision to devote free time to bettering oneself and learning about others that allows one to excel. I’ve grown up in a household of constant discussion and debate. My parents turn on “Meet the Press” every Sunday at 7 a.m. so my broth-
ers and I will watch and learn. There is rarely a dinner that doesn’t devolve into debates on politics and religion. Friends who join us joke of participating in the “Sonnenberg debates.” Early on, I felt as though issues were just thrust at me at home. As I grew older, however, I took on a responsibility to take the time out of my day to read the newspaper and formulate my own opinions. I have the same social needs as the next kid, Facebook is the same drug for me that it is for every other teenager, and I’m just as concerned with what happened in the newest episode of “30 Rock,” but I try to take the time to open the latest issue of Newsweek instead, if only to substantiate arguments against my father at dinner with evidence.
hwchronicle.com/opinion
Dec. 19, 2012
Opinion A15
quadtalk
The Chronicle asked:
“Do you think it is appropriate for students to post about their college acceptances on Facebook?” 420 students weighed in on the monthly Chronicle poll
“I think it’s appropriate to a certain point. If people asked me about my acceptance, then I would tell them, but I wouldn’t openly declare it.” —Koji Everard ’15
Yes, it is fine to post on Facebook
258
No, it isn’t fine to post on Facebook
“Once is fine. People are going to be happy for you. But don’t do it repeatedly. Maybe I’ll change my school info, but a status isn’t necessary.”
162
Comments:
—Taylor Cooper ’13
“I think it is appropriate if a student’s really happy about sharing it with their friends; I understand some people find it offensive, but really, it’s Facebook.” — Quinn Luscinski ’14
“Were you aware of the Prefect Council’s Dec.10 meeting open to the student body to review the most recent Honor Board case?”
“I think people should be allowed to be happy and share their good news with Facebook. We have to remember that Facebook is not only people from our school, but other friends and relatives. People do need to be able to post in a tasteful matter as to not hurt people's feelings or make them uncomfortable.” — Alixx Lucas ’13
“If people want to share, they should tell their friends. I think that it is highly insensitive to post whether or not you got into a school on facebook especially since other students may not have gotten into said college.” — Henry Copses ’14
“Given the choice, would you prefer to have midterms before or after winter break?”
423 students weighed in on the Chronicle poll
420 students weighed in on the monthly Chronicle poll Midterms should be before break
174
Midterms should be after break
296
246
“By having them after break the first semester is longer so you have more time to get your grades up before midterms so that’s a lot nicer.” —Louly Maya ’14
“After, because I like semester break and it’s nice to not worry for the whole week before winter break.”
127
—Henry Woody ’13
“Before, because then you don’t have to worry about it before winter break. It would ruin the nice break.”
Yes
reportcard
A
Reynolds Hall receives $5 million for renovation
No
A-
— Milan Serevino ’15
Holiday decorations in the lounge
B+
Movies playing in lounge throughout the week
C
Wintergrams were cash only
F
Only a week and a half after break before midterms
A16
1
exposure
Deck the Halls
By Noa Yadidi
The annual Winterfest celebration began Monday and will continue throughout the week to spread holiday cheer in the lead up to Winter Break. Each day this week will have a different theme, and for the first time this year, a different movie will be played in the lounge every day. The festivities were planned and run by Prefect Council in conjunction with Social Committee. On Monday, dubbed “Merry Monday,” students were originally asked to dress up in their most festive holiday clothing, but in light of the recent events, Prefect Council asked students in an email Sunday to wear Sandy Hook Elementary School’s school colors, green and white. During break, the
5
ARC Bell Choir performed three songs and the Jazz Singers sang two, while students decorated gingerbread cookies, played pin the nose on the reindeer, took pictures with Santa and participated in Hanukkah games. Before the performances started, Head of Upper School Audrius Barzdukas asked for a moment of silence in remembrance of the victims.“I loved watching ARC perform,” junior prefect Ashley Sacks ’14 said. “Their performances are always so touching and our community responds so well to them.” Throughout the week, Wintergrams that were purchased last week will be delivered to class meetings. Additionally, there is a school-wide Secret Santa gift exchange for the first time this year.
2 JINGLE BELLS: 1: Prefect Ben Gail ’13 watches the Jazz Singers’ performance with Suzie, a member of the ARC Bell Choir that performed at the Winterfest celebration. 2: The ARC Bell Choir performs “Silent Night” in front of the assembled students and faculty Monday at break. 3: Sarah Shelby ’13, Justin Carr ’14 and Aiyana White ’14 perform with the Jazz Choir. 4: Katie Ehrlich ’14 plays “Pin the Nose on the Reindeer.” 5: Prefects Mikaila Mitchell ’13 and Rachel Persky ’15, at left, pose with President Thomas Hudnut, dressed as Santa, a member of the ARC Bell Choir, and Prefects Morgan Hallock ’13 and Mazelle Etessami ’14, at right.
Dec. 19, 2012
3 PHOTOS BY JACK GOLDFISHER AND NOA YADIDI
4
Features The Chronicle • Dec. 19, 2012
: Worth 1,000 words By Elizabeth Madden Linda* ’13 snaps a photo on her black iPhone 4S of her new puppy, and immediately sends the photo to her friends, asking, “Is this cute enough to Instagram?” Instagram, a popular photosharing application for iPhones and Android devices, has become an obsession among some students. To use the application one creates a username and follows peers and celebrities to see the photos that they share and edit. Facebook recently bought Instagram, tying the two social media networks together so that now, users can immediately share the photos on their Facebook page as well as their Instagram profile. The application has also created a frenzy for “likes” on students’ edited photos. There are now easily accesible hacks that students, such as Josephine Kremer ’14, have discovered and use to garner more “likes” on their photos. “What you do is you follow accounts that have a ‘like for like’ policy, meaning that if you like their pictures, they’ll like yours back,” Kremer said. “It’s a great way to get extra likes on your picture.” Some students have found other ways to get more followers on the popular website, such as following “follow for follow” accounts that will follow you back and “like” all of your photos in exchange for you following them first. Another alternative is buying followers, which Jennifer* ’15 said she did with a group of her friends. “Looking back, it was pretty stupid,” she said. “But it’s pretty cool to go to my profile and see
that I have more than 1,000 followers, even if they aren’t people I know. People ask me how I have so many all the time, but I never tell them it’s because I spent money for it.” Jennifer bought the followers through a website, which she declined to name. Though would not name the price she paid, she said it was upwards of $50. Students also focus on their follower to following ratio, meaning that they make sure that the number of accounts following them are at least double the amount of accounts they themselves are following. “Sometimes, I have to unfollow people so that I have a good ratio,” Linda said. Jared* ’13, a photographer, does not participate in the photosharing application because he believes it undermines the talents of true photographers, he said. “It’s just sad, because professional photographers work so hard to create the effects that people are so carelessly using by just using their own camera, not an artificial source,” he said. “Now, everyone thinks they’re a talented photographer just because they can select the effect that makes their picture look best.” An article on The Guardian supports this view, saying that Instagram is “debasing” the art of photography and the work that so many people have trained their whole lives to perfect. “Personally, I have a love-hate relationship with Instagram,” Linda said. “Sometimes, I feel like it’s taking over my social life.” *names have been changed
CAPTURING THE MOMENT: To spruce up their photo albums, students put Instagram filters on photographs by choosing from a list of preset effects. Instagram users can choose from 18 different effects. The top left and bottom right photo feature the Amaro effect, and the photo above uses the Lo-Fi filter. Though some students use the application solely to share photos with friends and celebrities, some go as far as to spend money buying followers. PHOTOS BY THE CHRONICLE STAFF
The Chronicle
B2 Features
Under the Radar By Michael Rothberg
F
or many years, colleges and universities have factored grades, teacher recommendations, test scores and essays into their admission decisions. However, according to a 2012 poll by Kaplan Test Prep of 350 admissions officers, some colleges even view prospective students’ Facebook profiles and other social media outlets in the admissions process. Of the 350 admissions officers polled, 26 percent said they check an applicant’s Facebook wall as part of their review of the student. However, only 15 percent of colleges currently have rules against consulting an applicant’s Facebook page in the college process. According to the Kaplan study, factors that tended to negatively affect an applicant’s acceptance chances include essay plagiarism, vulgarities in blogs and alcohol consumption in photos. To avoid the investigation altogether, some seniors have swapped their real names on Facebook with fake ones to evade the watchful eyes of the college admissions officers. “I changed my Facebook name slightly to avoid being spied on by colleges, but mostly for comedic effect,” Gil Young ’13, who changed his profile name to ‘Moose Triple,’ said. “Probably some of the statuses I’ve posted wouldn’t be the best things to show to colleges due to my somewhat ‘out there’ sense of humor, but I detagged myself from any
Dec. 19, 2012
As an increasing number of colleges use social media websites to evaluate their applicants, seniors change their Facebook names in order to conceal their identities.
Online Red Flags
incriminating pictures.” These monikers, many of them puns or pop culture references, have also become an unofficial senior tradition. Instead of changing their names for privacy reasons, many seniors did it to be a part of the trend. “The reason most people change their names is to hide from colleges, but I did it mainly because it was just fun and everybody else was doing it,” Katya Konkol ‘13 said. “I didn’t have anything I needed to hide.” In order to avoid the whole privacy ordeal, dean Jim Patterson advises that students refrain from posting inappropriate material on Facebook in general. “[Facebook] is just something you need to be really careful with,” said dean Jim Patterson. “At the end of the day if a student were going to ask me for advice I would say don’t put anything on Facebook that you aren’t willing to share with everybody.” Bo Lee ’13, on the other hand, was among the students who opted not to change their Facebook names during the college process. “I don’t know if I wasn’t listening or not, but I don’t recall any dean or college rep ever mentioning Facebook pages,” he said. “We have never been warned about it, so I don’t think it’s of major concern. I really don’t have much to hide on Facebook. There might be some profanity or inappropriate comments on it, but I personally don’t feel like it’s worth it to hide it. Colleges should understand that we’re in high school and that we can’t always be the ideal student.”
Gil Young ‘13
Kaplan Test Prep asked 350 college admissions officers what they what they look for online
Plagiarism on essays
#$%*!@
Vulgarity
Alcohol Consumption
Other “Illegal Activities”
By the Numbers
87%
“Probably some of the statuses I’ve posted wouldn’t be the best things to show to colleges due to my somewhat ‘out there’ sense of humor.”
76% 73% Bo Lee ‘13
of colleges use Facebook, up from 56% in 2011
of colleges use Twitter, up from 56% in 2011
of colleges use YouTube, up from 56% in 2011
INFOGRAPHICS BY EMILY SEGAL, MICHAEL ROTHBERG AND LAUREN SIEGEL SOURCE: KAPLAN TEST PREP
Dec. 19, 2011
hwchronicle.com/features
Features B3
Keepin’ it clutch
Although most cars on campus have automatic transmission, some students prefer operating stick-shifts and find them exhilarating to drive. The growing interest in stick-shifts is reflected by the increase in sales of manual transmission cars in the US since 2007. DAVID LIM/CHRONICLE
By Allana Rivera His car has three pedals and operating them requires a careful maneuvering process. With his left foot, Ben Gaylord ’13 gradually releases the clutch, while with his right, he slowly presses down on the accelerator. He waits for the feel of first gear clicking into place before he releases the clutch entirely and accelerates into first. “The way I like to think about it is like a chemical reaction: if you don’t have enough activation energy, the car will stall,” Gaylord said. Gaylord drives a manual transmission, and he describes this first step on the pedal as a particularly delicate Automatics are shift. When boring. With a manual first learning transmission driving is a how to drive, he said, it was more active experience.” tough. One —Ben Gaylord ’13 must learn how to command the clutch, brake, accelerator and gear-shift often all at once. In an automatic gear-shift, the gears change on their own if there is a change in speed, but with a manual transmission each gear change must be done by hand and foot as one must press in the clutch while shifting up or down a gear. All, of course, while driving. “It’s a lot to think about at once.” Gaylord said. “It introduces a lot to do while you’re driving.” At this point, however, finding his car’s sweet spot is purely muscle memory, and he barely gives the process a second thought before he drives away. Gaylord is one of the few
“
students at the upper-school campus to drive a car with manual transmission. Gaylord attributes this relative unpopularity to an emphasis on driving purely for necessity. “Nowadays, people mostly drive just for the purpose of getting to their destination,” Gaylord said. “Driving for the sake of driving is dying out. If your only motive is to get where you’re going, driving automatic is just more practical because it’s easier and you’re expending less energy and focus on your driving.” Carrie Davidson ’13, another stick-shift driver, has similar opinions about the apparent aversion to stick-shift. “Honestly, I think it’s just because it’s harder,” Davidson said. “People are kind of lazy, and if you don’t have to go through these extra steps why bother? In Los Angeles it’s a pain to be in stop-and-go traffic, especially on a hill, and to have be driving a manual car.” Bradley Schlesinger ’13, who drives an automatic transmission, said that despite wanting to learn he isn’t sure of its practicality. “It’s cost-benefit analysis,” Shlesinger said. “How many times am I going to drive a stick shift?” Gaylord admits that Los Angeles might prove a hard city to navigate for people wanting to learn stick-shift, as the stop-and-go traffic characteristic of the city requires constant changing of gears. “In LA, where there’s constant traffic, it makes more sense to drive automatic,” Gaylord says. Charlie Nelson ’13 recalls his first lessons of learning to drive stick with a chagrined smile. “I did it once. wasn’t too
Stick shift speeding up
8.48 percent of cars purchased domestically in 2002 were stick shift vehicles.
good,” Nelson said. He laughs as he remembers driving down Sunset before completely stalling at a light on Beverly Glen. “I was stuck at that light for a long time,” Nelson said, remembering that there was a long line of angry drivers behind him. Gracen Eval ’13, however, is eager to learn for the “value of knowledge.” More importantly, she deems it necessary for her future career in reality-television. “To fulfill my dreams of being on the Amazing Race, I would need to learn to drive a stick-shift,” Evall said. Aside from this, Evall recognizes the benefits of driving stick for traveling purposes. In Europe and many other parts of the world, manual transmission dominates as the main means of automobile transportation, so knowing how to drive stick-shift is an invaluable skill for Evall. In Europe, about 85 percent of cars are sold with stick-shifts while in America, about 95 percent are sold with automatics, according to cartalk.com. Davidson and Gaylord both cite this as obvious benefits to driving stick-shift. “My dad has this idea that all his children need to drive stick-shift,” Davidson said. “He says it makes you a more capable human being.” Davidson and Gaylord both also enjoy the power afforded by driving a manual transmission. “You are in control of everything your car does,” Gaylord said. “It feels really good to have that control.” USA Today cites this among the many reasons for the recent boom in manual transmission sales.
“Many people consider manuals more fun to drive than automatics,” James R. Healy wrote in USA Today. “Even those who don’t often see them as a way to wring the most pep possible from the small-engine, low-power cars that are getting more attention because they use less fuel and cost less to buy.” Despite the preference for automatics among teens and Los Angeles natives, Americans have recently shown “a growing crush on manual transmissions,” according to Healy. Manual cars are cheaper, more fuel-efficient, and with newly improved technology are more user-friendly than they have been ever before. Most importantly, they are far more fun to drive. “Automatics are boring,” Gaylord said. “With a manual transmission, driving is a more active experience.” “It’s really fun to have control of the car,” Davidson agreed. “With an automatic, you have a certain amount of control but with a manual I can control my speed and how the car handles much more precisely.” Now, driving an automatic has become a strange experience for Gaylord. His foot twitches and his right hand reaches for the gearshift when he is driving out of habit, Gaylord said. Davidson describes the experience like having “phantom pain.” “When I first started having to control the clutch with my left foot, it was a really strange feeling because I had learned to drive in an automatic car,” Davidson said. “Now, however, whenever I drive an automatic I have this urge to use my left foot and it feels really weird not to.”
Since 2007, sales of manual transmission cars have begun to rise back to 2002 levels of 8.48 percent.
2.91 percent of cars purchased domestically in 2007 were stick shift vehicles.
6.98 percent of cars purchased domestically in the first five months of 2012 were stick shift vehicles. INFOGRAPHIC BY JAMIE CHANG SOURCE: EDMUNDS.COM
The Chronicle
B4 Features
Dec. 19, 2012
HAVE A LITTLE
FAITH
By Mazelle Etessami
A
fter eating her lunch fifth period, Mintis Hankerson ’14 treks from the lower quad to St. Saviour’s Chapel. The door opens with a creak, and in silence she takes a seat in one of the pews. Pulling out her iPhone, Hankerson opens Islamic Compass, an application that points her in the direction of Mecca, the holiest city of Islam. She stands and pulls the scarf that loosely wraps around her neck over her head in the fashion of a Muslim hijab. She walks to the chapel’s elevated pulpit and kneels. For the next eight minutes, she chants a Muslim prayer in Arabic. The chapel Hankeron prays in is Episcopalian, although Harvard-Westlake is home to a student body whose diverse array of beliefs range from secular to devout. Hankerson said she was not always this devoted to her religion. Her father has been a committed Muslim since converting through the Nation of Islam more than 20 years ago. Two years ago, she decided to follow in his footsteps and officially converted to Islam. “I didn’t always have religion,” she said. “I wasn’t always a Muslim, and I wasn’t always serious about it, but praying makes me feel like I’m doing something right — like I’m keeping my mind focused.” Choosing to follow this path, Hankerson sometimes feels that she has to defend her religion to other students. “Jihad means struggle, it doesn’t mean to kill people,” Hankerson said. “My jihad is explaining to people what my religion really stands for.” Liza Wohlberg ’13, is an active member of the Jewish community.
“
Being religious isn’t really about going to church every Sunday. It’s more about developing a relationship with God. It comes from the inside.”
-Malanna Wheat ‘14
“
“Everyone at school who knows me knows that I am Jewish,” Wohlberg said. “My religion is such a big part of my life. It finds its way into most of my classes and friendships in some way or another.” Wohlberg, who has spent time studying Hebrew and the principles of Judaism, often finds herself driven by her religious views in the face of challenges. “Problems sometimes arise when I feel that others dismiss religious ideas as though they are not substantial enough to be the foundation of an argument,” Wohlberg said. “I beg to differ.” Despite her strong affiliation, Wohlberg enjoys engaging in conversations with those who have different beliefs than she does to discuss the implications and impact of religion. “Sometimes it is difficult given that religion is often of a sensitive, personal nature but I think it is crucial to be able to talk to others about something so important, and to be open to different perspectives,” Wohlberg said. History teacher Matthew Cutler, a practicing Christian, believes that engaging in such discussions can make people more universally accepting. “When I was a teenager, I often struggled expressing my religious beliefs to my peers fearing that I would be judged,” Cutler said. “This is why I believe it is so important that teachers feel comfortable expressing their religious views, so as to provide an environment where students feel equally as comfortable expressing their views.” Cutler, who has engaged in religious discussions with both teachers and students, said that such conversations are “natural among people who are academically inclined.
If people are willing to talk in a civilized manner, I’m willing to talk about anything. I would love to talk to people about religions, but people are tentative.”
-Maya Broder ‘13
“
So long as we are respectful of each other’s opinions, these discussions are rewarding. I have had a religious discussion with students, but again, these are not disputes.” Father J. Young, who identifies himself as an Episcopalian, said that religious conversations can enlighten the school and the issues students face every day. “Talking about things that are greater than us can lift up a community in a certain way,” Young said. Young leads an Episcopal service every Tuesday morning for a congregation of around ten people in St. Saviour’s Chapel. “There are a handful of teachers and administrators who go to chapel with me on Tuesday mornings,” Morgan Hallock ’13 said. “It’s nice to see them at school during the day, knowing them as someone else other than a teacher.” Although others criticized her religious beliefs in ninth grade, Hallock, a devout Christian, said students have become more open-minded and respectful of her choices over time. “I think that people get too caught up in defending their religious beliefs, when really, the true purpose of religion is to give people hope, love and something to believe in,” Hallock said. “I would encourage students to find what they believe in and be confident in it.” Young agrees that affiliation with a religion can provide a true sense of comfort and camaraderie. “One of the primary benefits of being a member of a religious community is the world community,” Young said. “People are happy if they are well supported. Being in a community is a means of being well supported.”
Since my grandmother is a Holocaust survivor, I feel it’s my duty to identify myself as Jewish ... [but] I don’t really believe in organized religion.”
-Merissa Mann ‘13
“
I have my beliefs on issues such as abortion and gay rights, but my beliefs have nothing to do with my religion, and I wish that others thought about things that way.”
-Sarika Pandrangi ‘13
Dec. 19, 2012
hwchronicle.com/features
Lighting Up By Carrie Davidson and Michael Sugerman
the habit whenever I want to.” School psychologist Luba Bek identified the “rebellious s she pulls up to a urges” that Bernard spoke of stoplight, Miley* ’13 as one of the main reasons pulls a cigarette from adolescents take up smoking. her lips and puffs “Adolescents are searchsmoke rings out her car win- ing for an identity,” she said. dow. It’s a skill she mastered “Ironically right now, smoking after weeks of practicing. She cigarettes is a rebellious act smoked her first cigarette at not because it’s not an okay a party out of curiosity, and thing to do, but because it’s hasn’t looked back since. Her asserting ‘I’m different from ex-boyfriend, a heavy smoker, everyone else.’ In the previonly increased her nicotine us- ous decade, smoking was more age. about grow“He and I ing up. Now, would spend it’s more a lot of time about standt o g e t h e r,” ing out, alshe said. “I though kids adapted.” aren’t willing Now, Mito admit it.” ley smokes Bek, who “You might think two to three smoked as a times a day: teenager, said it’s very innocent, once before students need but it’s one of the school and to be more most addictive once after, serious about occ asionally the negasubstances.” leaving camtive effects of —Luba Bek pus to smoke smoking. School Psychologist during a free “ Y o u period if she might think craves a cigait’s very inrette. nocent, but According to a national it’s one of the most addictive study conducted by the Uni- substances,” she said. “It’s not versity of Michigan Institute considered to be as serious for Social Research in 2011, as heroin or coke, but it is a Miley is one of roughly 18.7 serious addiction that is lifepercent of high school seniors threatening.” who smoke, 30 percent of Giselle* ’13 said she won’t whom will likely consume cig- smoke into her adulthood, and arettes into their adulthood. like Bernard, smokes for cigaThe U.S. Center for Disease rettes’ “relaxing effect.” Her Control reports that tobacco is parents don’t know that she responsible for approximately smokes, and she plans to keep 443,000 deaths per year na- them in the dark. After taking tionwide. Developing adoles- a smoke, she chews gum and cents younger than 21 years sprays herself with perfume to of age are more susceptible to disguise the cigarette odor. addiction and have more difGiselle sometimes feels ficulty quitting, according to the need to smoke during the U.S. National Library of school, but claims that she is Medicine website. not an addict. Although she Information like this does goes through roughly a pack not deter students like Ber- per week, she’s not alone; she nard* ’13, who is confident said she shares her smokes that he is not and will not with friends, especially on the be addicted to cigarettes. He weekends. began smoking during 10th “School is stressful and can grade out of curiosity and “re- get annoying,” she said. “Havbellious urges.” ing a quick cigarette helps. I “I probably smoke one ev- know it’s bad for you, but I ery few days,” he said. “Usu- don’t plan to do it forever.” ally at home after finishing However, nicotine’s relaxmy homework, or if it’s the ing effect is what ultimately weekend at a party. I just feel gets smokers hooked, accordcomfortable with it as a way to ing to a 2010 article on the relax. I enjoy the way it makes Livestrong Foundation’s webme feel, but in small doses.” site. Nicotine activates feelBernard acknowledges the ings of pleasure and reward respiratory and cardiovas- in the brain, and exposure to cular repercussions of smok- nicotine results in tolerance ing, but he said he’s not wor- for the drug. This can lead to ried. One pack of cigarettes addiction because increasing lasts him three weeks and he amounts of nicotine are redoesn’t plan to continue past quired to maintain its original college. His father discovered effect. In fact, less than one his son’s habit last year and in 10 people who try to quit was understanding. smoking succeed. “He used to smoke, but “The risk increases the doesn’t anymore,” Bernard longer you involve yourself said. “He knows I’m being cau- with it,” Cedars-Sinai Meditious about it and, as someone cal Group endocrinologist Dr. who overcame smoking very Eli Ginsburg said. “It’s the easily, he knows that I can kick amount of smoking you’ve
A
Features B5
Despite the many serious negative side effects of cigarettes, some students smoke to relieve stress or in social situations, ignoring the harm to their bodies.
done over the number of years rettes and tell me, ‘Doc, I can you’ve done it. None of it is ex- stop any time I want.’ We are act.” creatures of habit. Once you Ginsburg said in addition get that taste in your mouth, to commonly recognized ail- you’ve opened up the door.” ments, like heart disMeg said she ease and lung cancer, doesn’t crave the cigarette smoking nicotine. When her is associated with friends smoke, she bladder cancer and feels no pressure to chronic lung disjoin them. Although eases like bronchitis. she feels in control of Furthermore, smokher cigarette use, she ing only aggravates has alternative methsymptoms in people ods of dealing with prone to asthma, potential compulsion. nathanson ’s even stimulating hid“I have friends Luba Bek den heart problems trying to quit who to trigger defects like irregu- smoke electronic cigarettes, lar heartbeats. which are safer, to relieve According to statistics stress,” she said. “If it got to published in a BBC health ar- a point where I was smoking ticle Nov. 25, “Research has more, I would look into that.” [also] repeatedly linked smokNagel said e-cigs provide ing and high blood pressure to “the look without the danger,” a greater risk of cognitive de- also citing nicotine patches cline and dementia.” as outlets through which poSamuel* ’13 recognizes the tential addicts can ease off of danger smoking poses to his cigarettes. However, he said, health and is trying to cut “you have to be motivated.” He back on what he identifies as added that the few who quit a frightening addiction. He successfully often experience started small, smoking twice weight problems later in life. a week at most. As he found “You’re used to having himself swamped by the stress something in your mouth,” he of junior year, he increasingly said. “Eating is a form of adrelied on cigarettes as a source diction too. You’re just changof calm. ing one disease with another.” “I started getting scared His suggestion to avoid the about my habit this summer,” potential ailments and addiche said. “Once I recognized tions caused by smoking: don’t I had an issue, I tried to be do it in the first place. more aware of how much I was “Get high on sports,” Nagel smoking and began cutting said. “Not drugs.” down because I was doing it way too often. I was smoking *names have been changed one or two [cigarettes] on my way to school, one or two off campus during a free period and three at the end of school. It was bad.” Now, Samuel limits his smoking during the day. When he goes off campus, he invites friends who don’t smoke with him. That way, he’s not tempted to pull out a cigarette. Some students, like Meg* ’13, smoke to curb other negative desires. “When I stopped getting high, I needed a way to relieve stress,” she said. “I met other sober people and they smoked to keep from falling back into old habits, so I joined.” Meg said her stress level determines how often she smokes. “When I get stressed and find myself wishing I still had drugs, I’ll go out and smoke a cigarette,” she said. “Just one.” Beverly Hills pediatrician Dr. Ronald Nagel said this is an example of “one [potential] addiction leading to another.” “It is a much bigger problem in college,” he said. “People smoke a few ciga-
EMILY SEGAL/CHRONICLE
The Chronicle
B6 Features
Dec. 1
Risky business
This is your brain on hallucinogens
Despite both the physical and psychological risks of taking hard drugs, students experiment with hallucinogens such as LSD, salvia, mescaline, and psilocybin mushrooms.
A brain under the influence of mind altering substances will appear with heightened brain activity in a brain scan or MRI. This activity is represented by an increased area of bright color, while a healthy brain will appear will with a smaller region of color.
GRAPHIC BY MAGGIE BUNZEL SOURCE: ALCOHOLISM.COM
By Sydney Foreman
L
GRAPHIC BY MAGGIE BUNZEL AND SYNEY FOREMAN
enny* ‘14 placed the white strip of blotting paper on his tongue and 75 micrograms of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) began absorbing into his system. Within 30 minutes he relaxed and noticed the trees beginning to glow and the sun shining brighter than ever. He felt the textures of the cold smooth sidewalks and prickly grass; cotton-candylike clouds began moving and morphing together in “slanky, lanky, curly shapes.” This distorting of reality is a trait of hallucinogens such as LSD according to Dr. David Kipper, a member of the California Society of Addiction Medicine and the American Society of Addiction Medicine, explained. This false perception of reality, according to Kipper, can cause the user to engage in dangerous behavior. Unlike many other drugs, hallucinogens are not physically or psychologically addictive. Kipper attributes this to the fact that they don’t necessarily stimulate a high, which is why the brain does not crave them. Most illegal substances Lenny has used, such as nicotine, Adderall and alcohol are physically addictive. When this concern is relevant, Lenny tries to put a limit on his usage if he notices a particular craving. With physical addiction out of concern, students such as Lenny may have other worries that can cause them to restrict their hallucinogen use. “My biggest fear with most drugs is them taking over me,” Lenny said. Lenny recognizes that “there is a danger to every drug,” but he feels that the high he feels from hallucinogens outweigh the dangers. He said the major long-term risk occurs when images from hallucinogen use remain and cause uncomfortable dreams and flashbacks. “The length of time these drugs stay in the body depends, but these memories can be seared into the brain forever, much like cattle branding,” Kipper said. Father J. Young is aware of another risk with hallucinogens, which is their connection to schizophrenia. Young said that if an individual is predisposed to schizophrenia and he or she uses hallucinogens they increase their risk of developing the mental disorder. Due to this, Young is “happy to report” that he suspects hallucinogen use is fairly low among students. “I do not see hallucinogen use as often as I see marijuana or alcohol,” Young said. According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, Lenny is just one of 779,000 Americans over the age of 12 who have used LSD within the past year.
Hallucinogen users you creased risk for negative c Kipper explained. First, th pletely developed their pre describes as “a person’s jud use at an adolescent stage ability to distinguish right lier an individual begins t they are to continue using Lenny’s recreational d after seventh grade when then he has used Xanax, m Ambien and codeine. He sa hallucinogens the most. “The drugs we are mo to choose us,” Lenny said. gens have chosen me.” Salvia divinorum (salv first hallucinogen Lenny u comfort of his cousin’s hou summer, he smoked salvia time. He inhaled deeply tw each in his lungs for 20 sec then Lenny has used salvia other occasion. “Salvia is one of the l while, least energizing dr said. Despite his dissatisfact drug, Lenny took salvia to he intends to take in col amine (DMT). Around the time Lenn a close friend of his died. A he did not intend to take drug lingered. After two ye expected his grief would became even more intens would be an efficient way to like. “I just wanted to see h Lenny said. Although LSD has not goal of revisiting his relat restored much of his happ the only drug that Lenny b of reuniting him and his re Unlike Lenny’s search f gan his hallucinogen use fo Hallucinogens are curre for Casper, but he imagine important in his future. “I was really interested arose,” Casper said. “It was Casper and two friends cactus for $45 that contain pound in the plant peyote from an online seller and tea. Casper said the trip though it did not feel this l
19, 2012
hwchronicle.com/features
unger than 25 are at an inconsequences for two reasons, hese individuals have not comefrontal cortex, which Kipper dgment center.” Hallucinogen e can lead to an undeveloped from wrong. Second, the eartaking a drug the more likely it. drug use started the summer he began smoking pot. Since marijuana, alcohol, salvia, LSD, aid he enjoys
“It felt as if I was stuck in a singular static moment that was constantly getting smaller, as if time was infinitely shedding off in either direction,” Casper said. Though Casper describes this experience as “intense”, he plans on using other hallucinogens in the future. Zane* ’13, who bought the mescaline with Casper, also anticipates the importance of hallucinogens in years to come. “Psychedelics are intellectual tools,” he said. So far, Zane has consumed mescaline, LSD and mushrooms (psilocybin mushrooms). Authors such as Aldous Huxley, Terence McKenna, Timothy Leary, Hunter S. Thompson and Alexost attracted ander Shulgin sparked his interest in “Hallucinothe drugs. With each trip, Zane tried “It felt as if I was stuck in to repress any expectations. a singular static moment via) was the “I feel like if you’re expecting used. In the pretty visuals or some spiritual mystithat was constantly getting use this past cal experience you probably won’t get smaller, as if time was for the first that,” he said. wice, keeping The visual element of hallucinoinfinitely shedding off in conds. Since gens had a lesser value to Zane than either direction” a on only one the intellectual experience, which is -Casper ‘13* why he prefers the term “psychedelleast worthics” to “hallucinogens.” rugs,” Lenny “There is nothing magic in ‘shrooms, or a cactus or a chemical. tion with the Everything’s in you already; psycheprepare for “the harder stuff ” delics are just a chance to pull back the curtain on that llege, such as dimethyltrypt- part of your mind,” he said. Prior to his hallucinogen use, Zane had trouble exny became familiar with LSD, pressing himself to his friends and family. He claims it After first hearing about LSD is a prevalent issue he is trying to improve. He believes it, but his curiosity about the that hallucinogens, particularly mescaline, have given ears without his friend Lenny him self-awareness, which helps to correct this flaw. retreat, but it remained and “It’s not to say the mescaline told me anything; it alse. He decided hallucinogens lowed me to internalize,” Zane said. o recall what his friend looked With mushrooms, Zane had the most “clear-headed” experience. It gave him a “modular” view of the world. her face before my eyes again,” Zane believes that, it is impossible to have a truly bad trip because he believes all psychedelic experiences accomplished Lenny’s original are learning opportunities. His positive experiences and tive, he believes the drug has lack of craving have caused Zane to want to continue his piness. At this point, DMT is hallucinogen use. He views alcohol as a more dangerous believes may have the potential substance than any hallucinogen. elative. Zane is not fearful of his future with them partly befor pain relief, Casper* ’13 be- cause he researches each drug before consuming it. He or experimentation purposes. also feels that his newfound self-awareness allows him ently “a casual timid interest” to know his limits. es them becoming increasingly “I can’t think of a scenario where I would want to stop using them completely,” Zane said. d in them and the opportunity Despite Casper’s “daunting and scary” family hiss circumstantial.” tory of drug addiction, he, like Zane, believes getting to a s purchased a three-foot long point in which hallucinogens ruin his life is unlikely. This ned mescaline, the active com- hereditary characteristic provides “an element of fear” e. The trio obtained the plant that forces Casper to be cautious of his drug use. brewed it into a foul tasting lasted about seven hours al*Names have been changed long.
Features B7
ILLUSTRATION BY ELANA ZELTSER
What do drugs do to the brain? Take a look at some of the dangerous effects of taking hallucinogens and the properties that make some drugs mentally and physically addictive.
1 2 3
Why isn’t LSD physically addictive? LSD does not produce compulsive drug-seeking behavior and therefore is not a physically addictive drug. However one can gain tolerance for LSD, meaning they must take higher dosage to achieve the same state when continuing use.
How do drugs change your brain? Drugs affect the pleasure circuit by releasing dopamine. For example, LSD interrupts the interactions between the nerve cells and the neurotransmitter serotonin located in your brain and spinal cord.
How does LSD affect you? By changing the brain’s natural functions, LSD can distort your visuals, judgement, feelings and moods. Flashbacks are a common after effect of LSD. Flashbacks are known as Hallucinogen-Induced Persisting Perceptual Disorder (HPPD). GRAPHIC BY SYDNEY FOREMAN AND CARRIE DAVIDSON SOURCE: ABOVETHEINFLUENCE.COM AND DRUGABUSE.GOV
How many teens take LSD?
1.2%
1.9%
2.6%
8th graders 10th graders
12th graders GRAPHIC BY SYDNEY FOREMAN AND MAGGIE BUNZEL SOURCE: WWW.DRUGABUSE.GOV
The Chronicle
B8 Features
highstakes
Seniors receive admission decisions
Dec. 19 2012 Seniors receive their admissions decisions from their early decision and action colleges.
ILLUSTRATION BY JACOB GOODMAN
By Rachel Schwartz Phillip*, The Athlete Phillip received a shock last Wednesday when he was deferred from Harvard. “It was pretty disappointing but I’m trying to take it in stride,” Phillip said. “I still have a pretty good chance of getting in since I have until January to keep getting better at my sport and to keep talking to the coach.” Phillip has been on official recruiting visits to both Duke University and the University of Pennsylvania. While he was most impressed with Duke’s athletics he worries that there is not enough academic focus at the school. Rather than commit to Duke, Phillip will
apply regular decision. Though he liked Penn, he would prefer a college town rather than an urban setting. “I’m just pretending like I didn’t apply early anywhere,” Phillip said. “Track and field has such a long recruitment season so I don’t have to make a decision right now. I don’t want to lose any opportunities by deciding before I’m ready.” Doug*, The Brain Though Doug said he was not frustrated, he was ready to know whether or not he got in to Princeton, which released their early-action decisions yesterday (after press time). While Doug felt confident in the work he submitted, he has not been relaxed about his
work this year. “I feel like I want to feel senioritis, but I know that there’s a possibility I won’t get in so I prevent myself from feeling it,” Doug said. Most of all he said he is sick of doing applications. If he got in, Doug said he would plan to significantly cut down on the number of schools he would apply to. Out of the 10 on his list, he will likely eliminate five if admitted to Princeton. Francesca*, The All-Around While Francesca was deferred from Brown University, she was admitted to University of Michigan and has been focusing on maintaining her grades and finishing the 12 ap-
plications she has left. “It was really tough, don’t get me wrong, but I know what I have to do and I knew there was a chance I wouldn’t get in,” Francesca said. She said that she could easily adapt her Brown essays to other prompts. She is left mostly with the essays that ask why she chose to apply to a given school. As for tension among her peers, Francesca is trying to tune it out. “Some people don’t know how to act the day after [decisions come out,] but it feels really good to have support from my friends,” she said. Arthur*, The Artist Arthur was accepted early
decision to Brown University and is finished with his college process. He said he plans not to slack off and needs to focus on keeping his grades up but is relieved. “It hasn’t registered yet. I can’t even believe it,” Arthur said days after his acceptance. A supplemental recommendation for Arthur from a performing arts teacher was not submitted until less than a week before the day decisions came out which made the Upper School Deans angry, according to Arthur, yet he could not help but forgive his teacher. Arthur and his parents are ecstatic. When they heard the good news his parents told him, “our parenting has lead up to this point,” Arthur said.
www.ombrala.com
3737 Cahuenga Blvd.
Studio City, CA 91604 info@ombrala.com 818-985-7337
Harvard-Westlake Proud Let us cater your special event!
Arts&Entertainment The Chronicle • Dec. 19, 2012
Choral ensembles sing at Philharmonic party
By Noa Yadidi Chamber Singers, along with the Jazz Singers and the Treble Tones, performed at the Los Angeles Philharmonic Committee’s holiday party at the California Club on Dec. 8. The singers performed for 45 minutes and their set included all of their songs from the Winter Choral Concert along with songs from the men’s choir and combined numbers usually performed with other choirs. “We were very well prepared, because our Winter Concert happened to be the next night, and we had been rehearsing all week,” Chamber Singer Greg Lehrhoff ’14 said. Choral Director Rodger Guerrero introduced each LUKE HOLTHOUSE/CHRONICLE
HOLIDAY HITS: Upper school choirs performed in their winter concert titled “A Rose in Winter” under the direction of Rodger Guerrero at the First Presbyterian Church of Santa Monica.
‘A Rose in Winter’
By Luke Holthouse Upper school choirs sang holiday-themed tunes in the annual winter choral concert, titled “A Rose in Winter,” on Sunday Dec. 9 at the First Presbyterian Church of Santa Monica. The show featured performances from Bel Canto, Wolverine Chorus, Chamber Singers, Jazz Singers and the Treble Tones, a new female a capella addition to the choral program. “All in all, it was a really good performance,” Chamber Singer Landon Fadel ’15 said. “I thought everyone performed really well.” A combined group of all ensembles opened the performance and was followed
by Bel Canto, the intermediate female choir group. The combined male chorus, featuring singers from both Wolverine Chorus and Chamber Singers, proceeded to perform. The Treble Tones closed the first act of the concert, performing for the first time ever with a set of three a capella songs. After a brief intermission, Jazz Singers took the stage, performing three jazz a capella pieces. The Chamber Singers sang a set of seven songs, after which all ensembles reconvened for two closing numbers. The concert ended with the annual rendition of “Peace, Peace,” where se-
niors sang “Silent Night” in harmony with the rest of the choir. Marcia Dickstein, a professional harpist and Westlake alumna, accompanied the choir on several numbers. Director of the Choral Music Program Rodger Guerrero said that program has been rehearsing since October for the concert and will not perform again until March. “It’s a rush,” he said. “It really is an emotional high for two hours that you just don’t come down from. What it is is just a testament to the hard work that they do. Most the campus doesn’t see that, but these kids work very, very hard.”
song and its relation to the theme. The theme for their set was “A Rose in Winter,” the theme from the winter show. “There was a ton of excitement about this event, because the members of the LA Philharmonic Committee that we performed for are some of the greatest advocates of music in the Los Angeles area, so it was clear that they would judge harshly,” Lehrhoff said. The positive reactions from the crowd and praises after the performance resonated greatly with Lehrhoff, he said. “I felt like they could really see not only our drive to succeed, but also our coherence as a group and our positive mentality throughout the whole concert,” he said.
Choirs perform songs in invitational showcase By Allana Rivera On Nov. 27 Bel Canto and Chamber Singers participated in the College of the Canyons’ choir festival. “These choir festivals give ensembles the opportunity to sing before a well-known conductor who critiques each group on all aspects of their performance,” the College of the Canyons website said. The showcase is invitational and showcases different choirs to an adjudicator, typically a music professor, who critiques the choir on their performance. “I don’t really get to see a lot of choirs from other school,” Sara Carreras ‘13, a soprano on Chamber Singers said. “It’s cool to see what they’re doing,”
The adjudicator for both groups’ performance was Dr. Rob Istad from Cal State University Fullerton. “Both groups performed very well,” Choral Arts Director Rodger Guerrero said. “The experience gained, the opportunity to hear other high school choirs, and the criticism received from the adjudicator were extremely valuable. The overall experience greatly contributed to their success at the Winter Choral Concert.” The Chamber Singers’ repertoire included songs in German, English, French, and Latin. Bel Canto performed three songs. “We did well,” said Adam Lange ‘13, a bass for Chamber Singers. “It was super fun.”
Jazz band pays homage to late jazz legend Dave Brubeck in winter concert By Jensen Pak Jazz groups performing in “An Evening of Jazz” on Dec. 8 paid homage to recently deceased jazz legend Dave Brubeck and Sir John Lennon on the 32nd anniversary of his death. Before a packed Rugby auditorium, Performing Arts teacher Shawn Costantino conducted the Jazz Ensemble, Studio Jazz Band and Jazz Band in the annual winter show for the jazz program. The Jazz Ensemble kicked off the concert with “Sister Sadie” by Horace Silver and finished their section of the show with “Just a Closer Walk” in memory of Brubeck, who passed away on Dec. 5, three days prior to the show. Jazz Ensemble trumpeter Charlie Andrews-Jubelt ’13 was featured in “Just a Closer Walk” as a soloist. “I was really excited to have such an exposed and expressive solo in that piece,” Andrews-Jubelt said. “Our band was especially proud of that particular piece, so it felt
good to lead the New Orleans included “Groovin’ High” by style finale in honor of a great Dizzy Gillespie and “Us” by musician.” Thad Jones. “Groovin’ High” On stage after Jazz Ensem- featured Sinclair Cook ’14 and ble, the Studio Jazz Band per- Bridget Hartman ’15, who play formed a rendition of “Black- the alto saxophone, as soloists bird,” a Beatles song credited in the piece. to Lennon. Costantino explained how “Everything the two solo in the show parts of “Growent exceptionovin’ High” ally well,” Studio play with and Everything went Jazz Band tenor against each saxophone player other, providexceptionally well. Zach Saunders ing intricate It felt like everyone ’14 said. “It felt melodies and like everyone harmonies played better that played better throughout night than they had that night than the piece. the entire year.” they had the Costanentire year, and tino also re—Zach Saunders ’14 counted his everyone played practically perfrustration fectly on charts when he was that we could barely even fin- unable to conduct the jazz ish a few days ago. I would groups last year due to his say that all in all, it was an health, and his eagerness to outstanding performance by return this year. everyone in Studio Jazz band “I really like the piece and everyone in the rest of the ‘Us’ because it showcases us: bands as well.” me working with the group,” The Jazz Band closed the Costantino said. “I enjoy workconcert with six songs, which ing with these kids in class.”
“
JENSEN PAK/CHRONICLE
JAZZIN’ IT UP: Sinclair Cook ’14 and Bridget Hartman ’15 play saxophone during a duet (top). Charlie Andrews-Jubelt ’13 plays a solo on trumpet (left), and Andrew Jones ’14 plays an electric guitar (right).
B10 Features
CSUN annual show exhibits student art By Eojin Choi
At the school studio, Madeline Lear ’13 clicked away as the bassist “played” a rose as if it were a guitar. After choosing from her many photographs and polishing them on Photoshop, she completed her project for Photography III, which was chosen last week to be featured in an exhibit at the California State University Northridge in their main galleries. Along with Lear’s photograph, 5 other student works were selected to be featured by visual arts teachers Kevin O’Malley, Art Tobias and Dylan Palmer, including a glass sculpture by Maya Broder ’13. “[Working on the piece] was a tedious and meticulous process of cutting glass
and placing them one by one, which took such a long time,” Broder ’13 said. “But I was so proud of it when I finished, and it feels rewarding to have it be featured in CSUN.” Broder’s piece will be part of the 16th Annual High School Art Invitational Exhibition, which features works from 39 schools from Jan. 7 to 26. Pieces by six students, including Anne Liu ’13, Jun Lee ’13, Seana Moon-White ’13 and Xenia Viragh ’15, were selected to be displayed. “This is a terrific community event and we are so grateful to CSUN for their generosity all these years,” O’Malley said. “As for how I feel, I am very proud of my kids. Harvard-Westlake students always contribute real standout work to this exhibition.”
PRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF CHRIS MOORE
SING FOR JOY: Covi Brannan ’15, Delilah Napier ’15, Noah Bennett ’15, Autumn Witz ’15, Nick Healy ’13, Teddy Leinbach ’15 Tigist Menkir ’14, Sabrina Batchler ’15 and Marissa Chupack ’13 pose for a group photo after their show at Vista del Sol Care Center.
The Chronicle
Dec. 19, 2012
ZOE DUTTON/CHRONICLE
CHANGE IN SCENERY: Photos of award-winning artwork by last year’s seniors have been made into banners to decorate a blank wall outside Rugby. New banners will be installed each year.
Banners improve Rugby view
By Jivani Gengatharan
To add some color to the blank wall outside the English classrooms, the Visual Arts Department installed nine banners of artwork created by last year’s Senior Art Award recipients on the wall outside of Rugby. The pieces of art won awards in photography, drawing, video and three-dimensional art. One of the banners features an acrylic painting by Anders Villalta ’12, who won the Excellence in Visual Arts award last spring at the all
school awards assembly. Villata’s painting features the hands of two people reaching out to each other with only a view of the hands and the shoes of the people. The Visual Arts Department had been approached previously to do a mural on the blank wall outside Rugby, but the idea of banners, suggested by one of last year’s senior prefects, David Olodort ’12, was more appealing to the department. “That was a brilliant suggestion,” Department Head Cheri Gaulke said. “We decided as a department that it
Outreach Performers act, sing at care home
By Beatrice Fingerhut
Members of the newlyformed club, Harvard-Westlake Outreach Performers, sang and acted at the Vista del Sol care center, a nursing home in Culver City on Dec. 15. “I’m very excited about the performance and having everyone get to show their talents and entertain the people there,” club founder Tiggy Menkir ’14 said. The ensemble of 13 dancers, actors and singers hold practices on Sundays to prepare for shows that give back to the community. “The people are just so happy to have young people there performing,” faculty advisor Chris Moore said, “One of the things that attracted me to this, was bringing all of the talents that the kids have here to a group of people that don’t
Advanced Dance I will have an encore performance of its yearly outreach showcase tonight for students, teachers and family in the dance studio. Members of the class also held a showcase for ARC, a nonprofit organization that helps individuals with developmental disabilities on Dec. 12. The show’s theme, Outer Space, followed a young boy, played by Nick Healy ’13, who built a space ship and took the audience on an adventure though the atmosphere. The showcase was choreographed solely by the students with minimal involvement from their teacher, Cynthia Winter. The dancers focused on integrating elements such as the sun, the moon and gravity into their choreography. “I think we just wanted to
By Rebecca Katz
get to go out and have that opportunity.” Moore found a short play by Thornton Wilder, “The Happy Journey,” that the group performed. Four individuals also sang and Covi Brannan ’15 and Morganne Ramsey ’14 showcased a slam poem. “I want to have as many different kinds of members with their own various, unique talents, and we can all collaboratively work to produce a great show,” Menkir said. HWOP is planning another show before the end of the semester and to resume the club next year with a bigger cast and more elaborate plays. “It’s just to give some of our actors, singers, dancers and performers another venue to express themselves and have fun performing in front of another type of audience, and also just to give back to the community,” Moore said.
would be a great way to showcase our senior art award recipients.” The award-winning pieces of art, all in different media, were then photographed and transferred into banners. “I don’t really find them a distraction,” Cindy Oh ’13 said. “I love seeing any art that my peers make since they are all pretty talented.” New banners will be made next spring after the new Senior Art Award recipients have been announced. Gaulke said that the plan is to update the banners annually with each year’s awards winners.
Dancers to perform encore to ARC show
EMILY SEGAL/CHRONICLE
FLY ME TO THE MOON: Mia Ray ’14, Isabelle Lesh ’15 and Imani Cook-Gist ’15 perform a dance about the moon.
do something that the ARC hadn’t seen before,” Sophia Oman ’15 said. “It is very playful and mysterious, so there was a lot of room to create.” Each year, the Advanced Dance I students hold this showcase specifically for ARC. In return, some members of ARC performed in a bell choir for the dancers. Throughout the performance the audience was very involved and vocalized their opinions. “They would yell out ‘Oh so beautiful’ or ‘Wow’ and that just made me feel really good,” Oman said. At the end of the show, the dancers invited the audience on stage to dance with them. “It just makes you realize that many people take what they have for granted, and these people are so amazing despite what they go through.” Mia Ray ’14 “It’s just really rewarding to see.”
Dec. 19, 2012
hwchronicle.com/features
Features B11 Art classes display portraits in gallery By Tara Stone
SARAH NOVICOFF/CHRONICLE
LEARNING FROM A PRO: Rachel St. Marseille, a senior member of the college jazz group Pacific Standard Time, taught the Jazz Singers about vocal techniques on Dec. 11. She advised them to “listen louder than you sing” and cut off chords with a “guillotine cut-off.”
Singer advises ‘listen louder than you sing’ By Sarah Novicoff A member of the college jazz group Pacific Standard Time taught the Jazz Singers class Dec. 11 about vocal techniques. Rachel St. Marseille, a senior at the Bob Hope Conservatory at California State University Long Beach, began her lesson with vocal exercises for both the Jazz Singers and the Treble Tones. She offered such advice as “listen louder than you sing” and “when you can hear the chords, the audience
can hear the chords too.” After warming up, the Jazz Singers practiced their song “They Can’t Take That Away from Me” once without corrections and a second time as St. Marseille interrupted to teach the class about techniques. She taught the class to sing unified vowels with an open mouthed smile and to emphasize beats two and four in a jazz song. “As a group, we know more about singing classically, so jazz singing, particularly in a choir, is strange territory for
the new members like me,” Jazz Singers member Greg Lehroff ’14 said. “She gave us some great pointers on how to improve our technique and I think the group as a whole really benefited from the experience.” St. Marseille then transitioned to teaching Treble Tones, a new all female a cappella group, on their song “Let it Snow.” She encouraged students to add buoyancy by emphasizing certain notes over others and by cutting off the end of
a song with a “guillotine cutoff.” “[Her visit was] definitely enjoyable,” Treble Tones member Jackie Ridgeley ’14 said. “She taught helpful techniques on how to improve vowels and pulse, and I feel like our group was getting much more out of the song afterwards.” St. Marseille ended the lesson with advice about singing in general. “It might be tedious, but it will all pay off,” St. Marseille said. “If you practice perfection, it will be perfect.”
Senior wins 1st place playwrighting award By Jessica Lee
wrights festival and was professionally Rebecca Moretti produced at the ’13 won first place Stella Adler Theat the 2012 Youthater. PLAYS New Voices Ariel Winter One-Act Competifrom the television tion for her play series “Modern “Platform Nine” and Family” was cast as will be awarded $200 Adelie. as a cash prize. “It was awenathanson ’s Moretti wrote Rebecca Moretti ’13 some to have my “Platform Nine” for play produced by the 2011 Harvardthe Blank Theater,” Westlake Playwrights Festival. Moretti said. “I got to go to all The play centers on Ade- the rehearsals with the direclie, a young girl who runs tors and actors. It was cool beaway from her prestigious cause they asked for my input East Coast boarding school to and opinions, and I really got search for her birth mother to have a part in the producin Los Angeles. On her way tion aspect.” to California, Adelie meets Though Moretti had writSonny, a street smart trouble- ten her play in less than a maker who has escaped from week, she went through a his broken home in Los Ange- thorough editing process with les to pursue a career in New Performing Arts teacher Chris York. Despite their seemingly Moore, English teacher Isaac irreconcilable differences, the Laskin and professional dratwo teenagers form a connec- maturges. tion that remains with them “It’s important to get other for the rest of their lives in people’s opinion, and I sent it spite of the brevity of their en- to the people I trusted most,” counter. Moretti said. “With the differThe play is similar to a se- ent feedback I got I reconsidries of short stories Moretti ered some parts and decided had written in middle school how to make the play better.” that featured a girl and her Moretti said it was rebrothers searching for their warding to sit in the theater mother. and watch her play as a mem“I think that what I’m most ber of the audience. interested in is this search “The thing I enjoyed most for identity and where we all about the producing process came from and belong in the was getting to see the play world, which I think could be performed but also, more imrepresented by the search for portantly. getting to see how one’s mother,” Moretti said. the audience reacted,” Moretti “Platform Nine” was also a said. “It is nice to sit with the winner of the 2011 Blank The- audience and feel that your ater Company’s Young Play- play has touched in some way.”
SARA EVALL/CHRONICLE
WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS: Teachers and students view the work of the Photography III class during the opening.
Photo III show closes today in Feldman-Horn By Sara Evall Today is the last chance to see the winter showcase of the seven seniors in Photography III in the Feldman-Horn Gallery. Photography teacher Kevin O’Malley designed the students’ assignments. He taught most of the Photography III students in Photography II. “[O’Malley] gives us a lot of freedom to figure out what we want to do, but is also helpful and teaches us a lot,” Madeline Lear ’13 said, “He really cares about everything that he does.” The first project he assigned was the wooden block project. “I had parents at back to school day play with the blocks during discussions, and at the end of the class they had built structures that the students had to photograph,” O’Malley said.
Then, the students had to build their own composition based on of their parents’ structures and photograph them as well. As a twist to the assignment, O’Malley then had his students choose a “big block”, a street block in any city, to photograph. The second part of the seniors’ assignment was to choose a musician to photograph. O’Malley took the class to the Annenberg Space for Photography to see the exhibit entitled, “Who Shot Rock & Roll” for inspiration. The senior class’s final showcase will be held toward the end of the school year, and will feature their “greatest hits,” according to O’Malley. “I love teaching seniors because at this point of their high school careers, they’re really coming into their own, and you can see it on the walls [of the gallery],” he said.
Large sketches created by the Drawing and Painting I class were taken down from the walls of Rugby Hall on Dec. 12, to be replaced by artwork from the Drawing and Painting II class. Drawing and Painting II students, whose work is now showing, have been studying concepts from the Expressionist and Cubist movements. They have studied Picasso and Schiele. The first assignment was a self-portrait using heavy charcoal and India ink. Students used paints for the first time in the class to create any expressionist image they wanted in the second assignment. Drawing and Painting I students created sketches which were shown along with their final versions. Artists used graphite and charcoal to create intricate images that reflected the concepts of perspective and depth. “It was really exciting because we were all creating something huge and I’d never really done art on such a large scale before,” said Jake Raynis ’14.
Community Singers perform for children By Scott Nussbaum Tonight, the Community Singers are scheduled to perform in the Adat Ari El Synagogue in North Hollywood for women and children who have been victims of domestic violence from the surrounding area. From 6 p.m. to 7 p.m., members of the Community Singers club will be performing holiday songs and talking to the children in attendance. “We will be interacting with the kids, leading a sing— along, and maybe help anyone in the audience who wants to come on stage and sing themselves,” one of the club managers Megan Ward ’13 said. The club is also planning to organize a number of additional service projects similar to this in order to benefit the greater community and club members. This will be the club’s first performance of the year, club member Michael Sugerman ’13 said.
Art of Dance I, II choreograph show By David Woldenberg The winter dance showcase last night and tonight features the Art of Dance I and the Art of Dance II. Some of the dances are taken from earlier assignments in the class, like one project centered around impulsive movement. Dancers in the showcase chose their own music and choreographed their dances. There is no set theme — rather groups of students or individual students chose their own inspirations. For example, Libby Sondheimer ’15, Drew Mirman ’15 and Courtney O’Brien ’15 will perform a piece choreographed around the themes of pedestrians and forgetting about your troubles.
The Chronicle
B12 Features
Dec. 19, 2012
MICHAEL SUGERMAN/CHRONICLE
As technology becomes more commonplace, cursive is being phased out in many schools, while some teachers deduct points for poor handwriting. By Elana Zeltser Adam Zucker ’13 was taking a physics test when he was confronted with a problem involving the variable A. After a quick twirl of his pen, he reproduced the question on a scrap piece of paper and Zucker’s “A” began to look much more like a four. Continuing the problem, Zucker misinterpreted his own writing and his answer was scattered with numbers when the problem had none at all. “Unsurprisingly I lost a lot of points on that question,” Zucker said. “My handwriting confuses my teachers and even fools me on occasion.” This was not the only time Zucker has gotten points off on an assignment because of the quality of his handwriting. However, a study from ABC News reports that 41 states have diminished their emphasis on handwriting and eliminated cursive from the curriculum altogether, so legibility of penmanship is far less emphasized in school systems today. In fact, many states will begin to adopt a national curriculum guide in 2014 that requires proficiency in typing by the end of elementary school, but not in handwriting.
“The only time I actually use cursive is when I sign my signature,” Nick Healy ’13 said. “It’s only good for certain things.” While California maintains it as a standard in schools, students often take advantage of technlology over longform. With most take-home assignments completed on the computer, many students value speedtyping over penmanship. “ Wo rk i n g on my computer is faster, much neater, and I will always have it saved,” Theo Davis ’13 said. Cursive seems like an even more irrelevant skill to some students who find writing block letters much more efficient. “They taught cursive to us like it was going to be faster, but it’s really not,” Bo Lee ’13 said. Still, cursive is required during the SAT as test takers
418 students responded to the Chronicle poll:
“Do you use cursive writing regularly?” No
355
are required to write in cursive a pledge saying that they did not cheat on the exam. “I was in the SAT one time and a student raised their hand and said they didn’t know how to write the words we were given in cursive,” Davis said. “The proctor had to write some of the more difficult letters on the board and we ended up getting out later.” Still, inclass essays often are done by hand and many students find that time constraints further hinder the legibility of their writing, whether it be cursive or print. “This is how I’ve been writing for 15 years,” Hannah Lichtenstein ’13 said. “It’s not going to change now. If I know the material just as well as someone else, I shouldn’t be marked down for my handwriting.” English teacher Jeremy Michaelson said that while he
will not mark down for legibility, he occasionally has called on students to read him what they wrote if he is unable to decipher it. Michaelson said that it is most important that students can print legibly as cursive is a more outdated skill. “Language is always evolving,” Michaelson said. “Why shouldn’t penmanship as well?” Math teacher William Thill, on the other hand, said that he is constantly having issues with students over illegible answers. “I deal with it every day of every week,” Thill said. “I won’t mark down purely for messiness but if the information can’t be conveyed to the reader then I can’t give credit.” Thill said that after he marks students down they often take more care to make their next test legible. He said that he finds differences in penmanship reflective of personal style and that some simply value neatness more than others. “I care most that thoughts, sentences and words are relevant and clear,” Thill said. “But neat handwriting with no substance has no use for me either.”
soundbyte
“I use cursive so little that I can only remember half of the letters. If I need to write in cursive I just make my regular print letters a little more connected.” —Cassandra Martinez ’13
Yes
63
nathanson ’s
Sports The Chronicle • Dec. 19, 2012
This year’s top 10 moments in Wolverine sports
C4-5
’Tis the Season
Christmas came early for the boys’ basketball team who captured an overtime win to win the Palos Verdes Tournament. By Grant Nussbaum
JACK GOLDFISHER/CHRONICLE
TO THE RACK: Guard Alex Copeland ’15 shoots over a Mira Costa defender in the Wolverines’ 80-77 victory over the Mustangs in the Palos Verdes Tournament final.
Four straight wins clinched the Palos Verdes Tournament title and with it, momentum for the boys’ varsity basketball team as it approaches league play. The Wolverines earned double-digit victories over Compton Centennial, South Torrance and Lawndale before winning an overtime thriller against Mira Costa 8077 in the championship game on Dec. 15. “It was big,” guard Mike Sheng ’14 said. “Just winning games gives us a lot of confidence after losing some big games against Loyola and Fairfax, who we should have beaten.” Prior to the Palos Verdes Tournament, the team lost two straight games to Loyola and Fairfax in the Torrance Tournament, where they finished fourth. “I don’t know that things went wrong, but [the losses] indicated to us where we were,” Head Coach Greg Hilliard said. “In the first two games, we played teams that we probably should beat and we did quite convincingly. We played well, and got very excited about how things were going. Then we played two very highly ranked teams who are much further along than we are, and showed us exactly what we need to get better at by the time the games really matter in league, and as we get prepared for the playoffs. Not all of these early season losses are a bad thing, sometimes they’re a
good indicator of how far we have to go.” Sheng believes improvement on the defensive end made the difference in the Palos Verdes tournament. “We pressured the ball a lot better on defense,” Sheng said. Forward Derick Newton ’14 and Sheng lead the team in scoring with 21.4 and 13.1 points per game this season respectively. The duo rose to the occasion in the tournament finals, as Newton scored 30 and Sheng dropped 18 and added five assists. “They’re two guys that have been there before, and we rely on and they’re consistent,” Hilliard said. “Most every game they’re going to get points for us. The nice thing about it is it seems like there’s a different third, fourth or fifth option every game, which indicates we have really good depth, but at the same time we would like some pattern to consistently develop as to who’s going to step up and be that third option night in and night out.” Newton finds spreading the floor on offense to be the reason for his consistent play. “We can be very competitive,” Newton said. “I don’t see anything blocking the top two in league this year.” The boys will look to improve over last year’s 7-5 record in league. The Desert Heat Classic, starting on Dec. 26, is the team’s final tournament before starting league play at Crespi on Jan. 4.
Offensive lineman to compete in All-American football game By Michael Aronson Offensive lineman Thomas Oser ’13 will play in the second annual Semper Fidelis All-American Bowl on Jan. 4, a nationally-televised high school football game broadcast by the NFL Network at the Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif. Oser will be one of 100 high school players on the gridiron in a traditional east versus west matchup. “We believe this game is different for many great reasons, but being able to identify college ready student athletes is a key ingredient for what makes this game so special,” Bowl founder Shaon Berry said. “Players across the nation have an opportunity to have standout senior seasons and earn their way onto the playing field beyond media hype and internet analysis. These guys are immediate impact guys — they are the real deal.” Notable players who played in last year’s game in-
clude University of California are only offering this opporBerkeley wide receiver Bryce tunity to the best players with Treggs, University of Wash- high moral character who ington wide receiver Jaydon demonstrate leadership in all Mickens, Oklahoma State aspects of their lives.” quarterback Wes Lunt and Oser will report to the University of Georgia Home Depot Center running back Todd on Dec. 30 to meet Gurley. his teammates. Each The U.S. Marine team will practice Corps hosts the game for a week before the to promote “honor, Friday night game. courage and commit“I’m looking forment,” according to ward to competing the bowl’s website. with kids that I’m “The commitment probably going to be these players have competing with at nathanson ’s demonstrated to their the next level,” Oser Thomas education, the leadersaid. “It’s going to be Oser ’13 ship they have shown a good test for me.” in their school and Oser has yet to community and the courage commit to a Division I prothey have displayed in choos- gram, but he has narrowed his ing a positive life path makes choices to Oregon, Stanford them an inspiration and wor- and Vanderbilt. He will take thy to be seen on a national official visits to Stanford and stage,” Marine Commanding Vanderbilt in January before General Joseph Osterman making his commitment. said. “There are thousands “College is going to be a of skilled football players in whole other animal to tackle, the country we could select and this is the first step to see to play in our Semper Fidelis what I have against some othAll-American Bowl, but we er guys,” Oser said.
PRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF KEVIN CARDEN
NATION’S FINEST: Offensive lineman Thomas Oser ’13 warms up before the Wolverines’ football game against rival Loyola. Oser will play in a nationally-televised All-American game on Jan. 4.
The Chronicle
C2 Sports
Facts &
Figures
5
Straight wrestling matches won by James Wauer ‘13 and Jake Bracken ‘14 at the Camarillo Dual Meets.
7
Points scored by forward Derick Newton ‘14 in the Palos Verdes tournament final.
51
Cross country girls that ran under 19 minutes at CIF Finals, a school record.
30 Goals netted by the girls’ water polo team through five games this season.
Game to watch BOYS’ BASKETBALL Jan. 16 at Loyola
Wrestling defeated in lengthy dual meets By Lizzy Thomas
While after school dual meets are over within a few hours, wrestling tournaments like last weekend’s Rosemead High School tournament can last all day. “Last year we had guys wrestling into the a.m.,” Jake Bracken ’14 said. “This same tournament started at 2 [p.m.] and we had guys wrestling at 12:45 a.m.” Bracken and his teammates compete for at most 30 minutes in these tournaments, wrestling up to five, six minute matches in a day. “There is a lot of downtime,” he said. Individual wrestlers find their own way to pass the hours that can separate one match from the next. For Bracken, the time when he is not actually on the mat is spent on the sidelines. “At a tournament you’ll generally find me watching whoever’s wrestling,” Bracken said. “I’ll be on the mat, giving advice and cheering them on
Parker Jackson-Cartwright
The junior point guard has started three years for the Cubs. He is ranked 26th nationally in the Class of 2014 by ESPN. He has averaged 15 points and 8.9 assists so far this season for the undefeated Cubs, and was named MVP of the Torrance Tournament.
Previous Matchups Feb. 3: L 77-74 Nov. 30: L 80-61
Last Game: W (4-2) vs. Calabasas Boys’ Basketball (0-2) Last Game: L (64-54) vs. Simi Valley Girls’ Basketball (2-4) Last Game: W (41-39) vs. Brentwood Girls’ Soccer (4-3) Last Game: L (2-1) vs. Long Beach Poly Wrestling (0-2) Last Game: L at Rosemead Tournament
TAKE DOWN: Jake Bracken ’14 takes down a Chaminade wrestler in the Wolverines’ 44-27 loss to the Eagles on Dec. 12. The Wolverines are 0-2 on the season, with their other loss to Bishop Amat on Dec. 5.
next to our coach.” For the team’s two heavyweights, it’s a social time. Charlie Nelson ’13 and Henry Schlossberg ’13 talk to their competition, the heavyweights from other teams. “Charlie Nelson and Henry Schlossberg are very jolly guys so they’ll talk to the heavyweights and socialize with the other wrestlers,” Bracken said. “Throughout all these teams that go to these tournaments, it’s kind of known that the 220 pounders are all nice guys, but once you get down to the 130 pounders, they’re kind of mean guys who want to win.” For others, the time when they’re not attempting to take opponents down is time to
By Luke Holthouse
Opponent player to watch
Boys’ Soccer (6-0-1)
LUKE HOLTHOUSE/CHRONICLE
hit the books. In order to finish their homework, wrestlers will take their books to meets and study throughout the day, Bracken said. During the relatively short time the team actually wrestles at the weekend tournaments, the goal is to put up a number of undefeated individual performances. At the seasonopening Thanksgiving weekend Chaminade tournament, Bracken, Patrick Halkett ’14, and Schlossberg did not lose a single match. Bracken and James Wauer ’13 led the team as they both went 5-0 in the Camarillo Dual Meets, while Bracken, Halkett, Schlossberg and Nelson all advanced to the second day of the Rosemead
tournament. The Wolverines however remain stuck in a dual meet drought, as they have not won a dual meet since a 2010-2011 season victory against Alemany. In its two dual meets so far this year, the team has lost by margins of 45 points and 17 points to Bishop Amat and Chaminade, respectively. Bracken attributes the two losses in part to the lack of wrestlers in a number of weight classes, a problem he thinks can be righted in time for the team’s Jan. 16 dual meet against Alemany. “That’s closer to the end of the year, so hopefully we’ll have our weight under control and can do well,” Bracken said.
Boys’ soccer adjusts to coaching style, experiments with formations
The second meeting between the Mission League rivals will be held at a neutral site for the second year in a row. The Wolverines will be looking for payback after the Cubs won the first matchup of the season in the semifinals of the Torrance Tournament. The Wolverines have lost to Loyola the last three times the schools met.
Junior Varsity
Dec. 19, 2012
LUKE HOLTHOUSE/CHRONICLE
ATTACK: Ty Gilhuly ’13 dribbles down the field in the soccer team’s 4-1 victory over Campbell Hall on Dec. 14.
At this point in the season, the boys’ varsity soccer team is still adjusting to the new coaching styles and formations of first-year Head Coach Lucas Bongarra. With a variety of formations and personnel taking the field each game for the Wolverines, the team is trying to find its ideal style before entering Mission League play. According to Nick Knight ’14 and Beau McGinley ’13, the boys will be able to go much further with a healthy starting forward in Ty Gilhuly ’13. “It’s really nice having a target up top which has speed and quickness,” Knight said. “He can take people on in the box, which is great, and if he doesn’t have an option, he usually dishes it off and we get a shot and that usually results in a corner kick or some sort of set play, so it’s really nice having him back. He gives us a really good offensive threat.” When Gilhuly missed last weekend’s Junipero Serra
Tournament due to an injury, the Wolverines scored only one goal in three games. However, in the three games he has played in since returning from his injury, he has led the team to two wins and a a loss. The Wolverines scored seven goals in the three games since Gilhuly returned. “Ty is probably the most important piece of our team,” Beau McGinley ’13 said. “He’s able to hold the ball up and take people on. When we didn’t have him, we didn’t have anyone up top so we weren’t scoring goals. Now that we have him, he can hold the ball, take people on, and score himself. We really need him to make our offense flow.” The Wolverines opened their season with a 2-1 win over Bell Gardens, but then scored one goal over the course of a four-game losing streak. The team fell to West Ranch 2-0, St. Margaret 4-0, Alta Loma 1-0 and Corona Del Mar 4-1. However, the Wolverines ended their losing streak
with a 2-0 win over Calabasas then beat Campbell Hall 4-1. However, the Wolverines fell to Santa Margarita in penalty kicks in their most recent game, leaving the team with an overall record of 3-5. Bongarra said the team will continue to experiment with different formations throughout the year. Bongarra has used a 4-5-1 formation as well as a 4-4-2 formation. Before the Calabasas game, forward Henry Quilici ’15 was called up from the junior varsity team to play as the second forward alongside Gilhuly when the team goes into a 4-4-2 formation. Quilici had the team’s lone goal during the loss to Santa Margarita. “The chemistry is getting better,” Bongarra said. “We’re still trying to find what’s not only the best formation but the players and who fits better with what we are trying to do.” The team plays Cathedral today in their last game before winter break, and will open league play at Crespi on Jan. 4.
Creznic receives Coach of the Year nomination By Aaron Lyons
when she will find out the results of the Field hockey Head award voting. Coach Erin Creznic Creznic attribwas nominated for uted the achievethe Coach of the Year ment to the years of Award for leading the preparation that the team to a successful players go through campaign in the reguthat culminates in lar season and playoffs. their senior years. nathanson ’s This is Creznic’s “I think it starts Erin Creznic first time being nomiin middle school,” nated for the award. Creznic said. “EsCreznic coached the team pecially at our school because throughout her entire preg- no one comes in knowing how nancy. to play field hockey. We really Creznic does not know have to teach them the basics
starting in seventh grade.” Katie Lim ’13 said that the team’s extremely successful season contributed significantly to Creznic’s nomination. The field hockey team finished its season with an overall record of 16-2-2 and made it to the final round of the playoffs, but lost to Huntington Beach in overtime. “She’s probably one of the most compassionate coaches I’ve ever had,” Annie Wasserman ’13 said. “She really cares about all of the girls on the
team. The fact that she never missed a game or practice and led us to the championship game even during such a critical point in her pregnancy was really impressive.” However, Creznic believes that she should not receive all of the credit. “I think we have just a wonderful team of coaches with the field hockey program and because of that, we’ve had several years of success,” Creznic said. “We’ve just had a great year, us coaches, for [each of] the past six years.”
hwchronicle.com/sports
Dec. 19, 2012
C3 Sports Alumnus makes Yankees’ 40-man roster Left-handed pitcher Nik Turley ’08 was named to the New York Yankees’ 40-man roster on Nov. 20. Turley had a 1.88 ERA in his senior year for the Wolverines before he was drafted 50th overall by the Yankees in the 2008 MLB Draft. He pitched for the Yankees’ AA squad Trenton Thunder in 2012. —Grant Nussbaum
Rock climber wins regional tournament LUKE HOLTHOUSE/CHRONICLE
DISHIN’ AND SWISHIN’: Westmont commit and team captain Natalie Florescu ’13 dribbles up the court in the Wolverines’ 48-44 victory over Long Beach Wilson. Florescu had 14 points, five rebounds and a steal in the four-point victory on Dec. 8.
Girls’ basketball goes 2-2 in opening tournament at Redondo By Sam Sachs
LUKE HOLTHOUSE/CHRONICLE
BALL MOVEMENT: Lindsey Tse ’16 shoots in a 48-44 win against Long Beach Wilson.
The girls’ basketball team has won three of its last four games including a 30-point blowout. Most recently, the team defeated El Camino Real 52-50 on Friday, Dec. 14 in a non-league away game. The team owns victories over Oaks Christian, Carson, Long Beach Wilson and El Camino Real. The team’s losses came against JSerra, West Torrance and Sierra Canyon. The team next plays in the Santa Barbara High School Tournament of Champions, which starts today. The Wolverines will then play in the West Coast Holiday Festival, before opening their league season with an away game at Notre Dame on Jan. 8. The team will play its first league home game against Chami-
nade on Jan. 15. Natalie Florescu ’13 leads the team in scoring with 15 points per game, and posted a 24-point, five-rebound, fiveassist stat line in the team’s victory over Carson in the Redondo Tournament. Florescu is coming off a self-described tough shooting performance in the two point win over El Camino Real. “We’ve been on a roller coaster, where we’ve won one game and lost the next one,” Florescu said. “Right now, what we’re struggling with is always coming out with the same intensity. When you look at each game we’ve lost, it’s always been the first quarter where we haven’t played well.” Injuries have been prevalent early in the year. Florescu has been dealing with a finger and a hamstring injury and there have been plenty
of ankle injuries on the team, including the one forward Glenne Carter ’14 suffered that has forced her to miss time in the early season. With Carter out, the team has been even more guardheavy than expected, but Kathi Bolten-Ford ’13 has stepped up and played a big role in the frontcourt. Bolten-Ford has averaged eight rebounds a game and posted two double-doubles on the year. The Wolverines will continue to rely on production from a thin frontline that could be sparked by the return of Carter. Florescu also stressed the importance of consistency on a team that features only three seniors, and the continued success of the pressure defense to create turnovers and deflections.
Girls’ water polo begins title-defending season By Patrick Ryan
Newbury Park 7-6 and in the semifiThe girls’ water nal. The team fell to polo team had mixed Crescenta Valley 7-3 results from its first in the final. action of the year in “We need some of the Mistletoe Tournathe younger players ment, finishing second to step in and fill big to Crescenta Valley. roles,” Flacks said. nathanson ’s The Wolverines “Hopefully they can Morgan moved up to Division do that.” Hallock ’13 III this year following Center Morback-to-back Division gan Hallock ’13, the IV CIF championships. The reigning CIF Player of the team’s record stands 4-1 on Year, has often been the focal the season. point of the opponent’s de“It’s early in the season, so fense, creating opportunities it was a good opportunity to see for her teammates to score where we stand at this point. goals. Head Coach Brian Flacks ’06 “It’s a little frustrating said. “It shows we have a lot sometimes, but I think the bigto work on. I’m excited for the gest part of that is that teams opportunity to really get to do drop back in zones more work in December.” or double team me,” Hallock Freshman Hannah Eliot said. “It is just encouraging ’16 performed well in the tour- my teammates to really step nament, scoring a goal in sud- up for it. Water polo is not a den death overtime to outlast sport where you can have one
great player making all playing good defense, the plays.” and that’s why we “I think everyone’s were able to go so going to have Morgan’s far in the playoffs number, but it’s our last year because we job to find ways to still had great team deget her the ball, and fense and really good for her teammates to team communicamake plays and for othtion,” Cheong said. nathanson ’s er players to step up,” “That is obviously Sydney Flacks said. something we can Cheong ’14 Hallock, a Princimprove upon this eton commit, said the year to get back to team showed spurts of strong that point.” play on both offense and deOther veterans on the fense, but also stressed that team include Kassie Shannon the team is still adjusting to ’13 and Rebecca Armstrong ’14 playing together. who bring experience to the “There is a lot of athleti- new team. cism, a lot of potential water The Wolverines played polo talent for the underclass- their first home game at the men,” Hallock said. “I see them Copses Family Pool yesterday improving every day.” against Mater Dei in a Mission Set guard Sydney Cheong League matchup. ’14 believes the team can imResults were not available prove on defense, which is as of press time, but will be usually a strength of the team. provided on the Chronicle’s “We pride ourselves on website.
Rock climber Charlie Andrews-Jubelt ’13 won the Southern California Regional Championships on Dec. 8. The event was the qualifying round for the invitational post-season rock climbing competitions. Andrews-Jublet qualified for the event by competing in two other local competitions in the fall. “Winning felt really good, and I thought I competed very well on some of the challenging routes, but the important thing is that I qualified for Divisionals, and I’m moving on to bigger and more competitive events,” Andews-Jublet said. —Ally White
Water polo player named All-CIF CIF named water polo’s Warren Snyder ’14 to its AllCIF Divison I first team in his first year as a starting center guard. He was the only representative from Harvard-Westlake to be named to the team. “I feel like all my hard work has really paid off,” Snyder said. “It’s just an honor to be named to the first-team CIF.” Snyder was a reserve at the start of the season, but eventually took over the starting role for the Wolverines’ squad. The team lost to Mater Dei, which ended up winning the CIF championship for the fifth consecutive year. The team will return all its starters heading into next season. —Patrick Ryan
Boys’ soccer endures conditioning tests First-year Head Coach Lucas Bongarra implemented fitness tests to examine the conditioning skills of his boys’ soccer players on Dec. 11. The tests measured four components of the players’ physical game: vertical jump, speed, flexibility and acceleration. “The idea is to use this to determine progress and to see where the players need to improve,” Bongarra said. The next fitness test will be in late January after the team begins league play. —Lucy Putnam
Private party wishes to sell two side-by-side interment spaces Lot #1678, location Abiding Trust $4500 for one or $8000 for two Endowment Care Fund included Address: Forest lawn Memorial Road 21300 Via Verde Drive Covina Hills, CA For more information, contact Lan Ky: (626)-392-1692; (626)-675 1556
The Chronicle
C4 Sports
Dec. 19, 2012
Top 10 of 2012
chronicle.hw.com
Sports C5
Wolverine Fanatics witnessed CIF championships and Olympic gold medals in 2012. Sports editor Luke Holthouse recalls the top 10 moments in Wolverine athletics from the past year.
2 1
Robbie Loeb/chronicle
printed with permission of getty images
Max Fried ’12 and Lucas Giolito ’12 sign multi-million dollar MLB contracts in June
Track coach Felix Sanchez wins Olympic gold medal alongside three Wolverine alumni in London
Though they only wore the same uniform for one season, this past June Max Fried ’12 and Lucas Giolito ’12 became the first set of high school teammates ever to be picked in the first round of the MLB draft the same year. Fried, a southpaw, pictured above, who transferred to Harvard-Westlake for his senior season, was selected seventh overall by the San Diego Padres. Giolito, who was projected by some analysts to go first overall before he injured his pitching elbow, went to the Washington Nationals with the 16th overall pick. Fried and Giolito, both signed for about $3 million signing bonuses and passed up scholarship offers from UCLA to play professionally.
When track and field assistant coach Felix Sanchez, pictured above, returns to Harvard-Westlake this spring to coach hurdles, he will have plenty of inspirational stories to share with the Wolverines he coaches. Sanchez won his second career Olympic gold medal at the London Olympics this summer representing the Dominican Republic in the 400-meter hurdles. Three other Wolverine athletes competed at the Olympics with Sanchez. Ali Riley ’06 competed for the New Zealand women’s national soccer team, Peter Hudnut ’99 played on the US men’s water polo team and Alex Osbourne ’06 rowed for US men’s national crew team.
3
printed with permission of Becky Miller-cheong
Girls’ water polo wins CIF championship against Los Osos Los Osos seemed as though it had snatched the title of best Division IV girls water polo team away from Harvard-Westlake. After losing to the Wolverines in the CIF championship game the year before, Los Osos upset the Wolverines in the regular season with a 14-13 win in January. However, when given a second shot at Los Osos, this time with their entire season on the
7
line in the CIF championship game, the Wolverines rose to the occasion. In dominating fashion, the Wolverines, beat Los Osos 9-2 on Feb. 25 to claim their second straight CIF championship and prove that they still had the upper-hand in the rivalry against Los Osos. First-year Head Coach Brian Flacks ’06 joined his team in the pool to celebrate the victory.
4
judd liebman/chronicle
Amy Weissenbach ’12 three peats in the 800, Cami Chapus ’12 wins second straight Dream Mile With seven state championships between them, it was only fitting that Amy Weissenbach ’12 and Cami Chapus ’12 ended their high school careers in record setting fashion. With a time of 2:05.70, Weissenbach, pictured above, captured her third straight state championship in the 800-meter dash. Chapus won her second straight Adidas Dream Mile, a competition that invites the most elite high school milers across the country, with a time of 4:39.64. Chapus’s career hardware also includes a state championship in the 1600-meter dash and two individual state championships in cross country. With a team state championship won together in cross country as well, the duo left Harvard-Westlake as the most decorated Wolverine runners of all-time.
Boys water polo beats Ventura 16-4 in first ever athletic competition in Copses Family Pool The $6.5 million investment that started in Italy, crossed the Panama Canal and finally found its destination in what used to be part of the Taper parking lot at Harvard-Westlake’s upper school campus in North Hollywood finally came to fruition as the boys water polo team took the pool for the first time in 2012. After playing the entirety of their last season without a pool, the Wolverines finally had home pool advantage on their side during home games. The massive body of wa-
ter contains hundreds of thousands of gallons and is big enough to host a game while a club swim team practices on a walled off section of the swimming facility at the other end. The boys water polo team christened the pool with a 16-4 win over Ventura in September, setting the tone that the new facility would help grow both the water polo and swimming programs at Harvard-Westlake into powerhouses big enough to fill the pool itself.
Football qualifies for CIF playoffs for the first time since joining Mission League three years ago This was finally going to be the year. A star studded senior class led by new Head Coach Scot Ruggles gave the program its best chance in years to make the playoffs. Behind Division I college football bound linemen Thomas Oser ’13 and Henry Schlossberg ‘13, quarterback Chad Kanoff ’13, pictured above, led a high-powered no-huddle spread offense attack that averaged about five touchdowns a game. In league play, the biggest determinant of which teams receive playoff bids, the Wolverines did just enough in a league widely regarded as the toughest in the Western Division of CIF. With a blowout 44-11 win at St. Paul and a nerve racking 41-36 win over St. Francis, the team earned an atlarge bid to its first postseason run since joining the Mission League three seasons ago.
As the entire football team eagerly jumped up and down on the sideline in anticipation, the referees of the Los Angeles Field Hockey Association championship semifinal had to tell team not to make any noise as the Wolverines prepared for strokes. Scoreless after regulation and scoreless after overtime, Bonita and Harvard-Westlake resorted to a penalty kick-like shoot out. Glenne Carter ’14, pictured above, converted her stroke into a goal in the team’s game. Goalie Daniela Grande ’15 stuffed four of five attempts made by Bonita players, sending the field hockey team to the playoff championship as well as the football team onto the field in celebration. The Wolverines ultimately fell to Huntington Beach in the final, but the playoff run represented a very successful season for Head Coach Erin Creznic.
9
“North Carolina was an unbelievable experience. Our team really went out and played well. We came up against some tough competition and showed what we can do. It also brought our team together for the rest of the season. We proved to ourselves that we could play against everyone.” —Pitcher and infielder Jack Flaherty ’14, pictured left.
camille shooshani/chronicle
Field hockey places second in LAFHA championship after nail-biter in overtime
jack goldfisher/chronicle
michael aronson/chronicle
Baseball places second at National High School Invitational Tournament in North Carolina
jack goldfisher/chronicle
6
5
8
Robbie loeb/chronicle
Fans storm the court after girls’ volleyball shuts out Mission League foe Notre Dame on Homecoming
The girls’ volleyball team fell to Notre Dame on the road earlier in the team’s season, but a victory in straight sets over the Knights on Homecoming prompted Wolverine fanatics to storm the court in jubilation.
Both boys’ and girls’ cross country teams make State Finals Meet “Coming into the season no one expected us to do anything – they pretty much expected us to drop out after League Finals. But we showed them. We went to CIF Finals and we went to State despite everyone’s expectations and you can’t ask for more than that. I’m proud of my teammates.” —David Manahan ’14, pictured right.
10
printed with permission of john weissenbach
The Chronicle
C6 Sports
Dec. 19, 2012
ROBBIE LOEB/CHRONICLE
Fall teams finish playoff competition without CIF titles By Grant Nussbaum
ROBBIE LOEB/CHRONICLE
COMING UP SHORT: Davey Hartmeier ’14 and Thomas Oser ’13 embrace after the football team’s season-ending loss to Camarillo, top. Warren Snyder ’14 passes to a teammate in the water polo team’s playoff loss to Mater Dei in the CIF Division I quarterfinals.
All seven fall teams made it to the playoffs, but zero received a CIF ring. In its first season under Head Coach Scot Ruggles, the varsity football team made CIF playoffs for the first time since 2009. The team went 6-5 overall with a 2-3 record in league play, but was knocked out in the first round of playoffs after losing to Camarillo 48-21. “We grew as a program, without question,” defensive tackle Henry Schlossberg ’13 said. “We like to think we set a precedent for making playoffs in this league for other classes to come.” In Mission League finals, the girls’ varsity tennis teams swept singles and doubles titles. After league finals, the girls defeated Viewpoint 16-2 in the first round of the CIF playoffs, but lost 11-7 to Tesoro in the second round. The tennis team concluded its season with a record of 172, and an undefeated league record of 10-0.
Following the girls’ fifthstraight Mission League championship, both the boys’ and the girls’ varsity cross country teams survived two elimination rounds in CIF preliminaries and CIF Finals to make it to State Finals. The girls team placed fifth at State with Trishta Dordi ’15 finishing 13th in the girls’ race. The boys placed 12th overall with David Manahan ’14 finishing 27th in the boys’ race. The boys’ varsity water polo team defeated Beckman 16-3 in a wild card round to reach the CIF playoffs. The Wolverines then defeated El Toro 15-11 in the first round, but fell to number one ranked Mater Dei 15-6 in the CIF quarterfinals, ending their season with an overall record of 20-10. The Wolverines return all of their starters heading into next season. “This offseason, we are all going to play with each other in this club, we are going to be practicing year-round,” center guard Warren Snyder ’14 said. “We are going to be so close and we are going to have a lot
of momentum heading into next season.” With the 2-1 strokes victory over Edison in league semifinals, the varsity field hockey team advanced to league finals, where it was defeated by Huntington Beach 1-0 in a golden goal overtime period. The team’s season ended with an overall record of 16-22, with a 7-1-1 record in league. After winning the Mission League title, the girls’ varsity volleyball team defeated Calvary Chapel 3-0 in the first round of CIF Playoffs. However, the Wolverines’ season was brought to an end in a 3-2 defeat to San Juan Hills in the second round. The girls’ volleyball team had a final record of 24-11 in 2012. Girls’ golf went 6-1 in the regular season before taking second in Mission League finals. At team CIF Finals, the Wolverines just missed winning the CIF title, placing second to Notre Dame. Additional reporting by Luke Holthouse and Patrick Ryan.
Girls soccer switches offensive formation
By Aaron Lyons
Since changing formations at the start of the season, players say the varsity girls’ soccer team has been very successful and will be testing its skill in the Canyon in Mater Dei Invitational. The major change that the team made this season was changing its formation from a 4-3-3 to a 4-4-2. Head Coach Richard Simms made the switch because the team was struggling in the 4-3-3 formation. With four defenders, four midfielders and two fowards, the 4-4-2 formation is one of the most common formations in soccer throughout the world.
“Switching from a 4-3-3 to a 4-4-2 was huge for our team,” Gores said. “After the switch we started to really connect and form a rhythm to our game. It wasn’t very difficult to adjust because we played a 4-4-2 last year and we’re already pretty comfortable with the formation.” The team’s first game was against Calabasas, in which the Wolverines powered past their opponents with an 8-0 shutout. The team has recorded its only loss against Mira Costa, 2-1. However, the Wolverines were able to turn it around with consecutive wins against Hart and Oaks Christian. Hannah Lichtenstein ’13 and Rina Gores ’15 have been
at the front of the attack this season with seven goals apiece. “We get better and more experienced every game,” Lichtenstein said. “Talentwise, I think we are superior to most of the teams we will be playing in both Mission League and CIF. Our main issue will be our size and the ability to stay focused and mentally tough. However, I have a great amount of faith in this team especially after the El Camino performance.” The team will soon play in the Canyon in Mater Dei Invitational. The first game will be against Mater Dei. “The Mater Dei tournament is a rough wakeup call,” Lichtenstein said. “All the teams down there play a
very direct, aggressive style that we really don’t see around our area, but will be our biggest competition come CIF. The tournament is a great way to see where the team is at right now and where we’re going to need to be in February.” The team competed in the competition last year, but was knocked out by Aliso Niguel in the quarterfinals. Last year, the team only recorded two losses, both to teams that will also be competing in this years’ tournament. The team’s first league game will be on Jan. 4 against Louisville. “I can tell you that the highest goal for everyone on this team is to get a ring,” Lichtenstein said.
JACK GOLDFISHER/CHRONICLE
TOUCH: Tiffany Guerra ’15 dribbles down the sideline.
Dec. 19, 2012
hwchronicle.com/Sports
Sports C7
Athletics promotes Games of Trimester By Jordan Garfinkel and Tyler Graham
Matthew Gooden ’15 said. “We want to play well so people will come back to see us.” The varsity boys’ basketThe boys’ basketball team ball, boys’ soccer, and girls’ is 5-2 this season and will be water polo teams will be com- looking for strong crowd suppeting in matches against port against Chaminade. Chaminade High School in “I’m very excited to play the second installment of the in front of all of the fans. I Games of the Trimester on always look forward to playWednesday, Jan. 9. ing in front of fans. I The Games of the hope all of the fans and Trimester features the fanatics show up. several home sports We really like having games on a particutheir support; it helps lar day in each trius a lot on the court,” mester of the school forward Bryan Polan year. ’14 said. “I think we’re This will be the looking very good. DIDAX second event of the The team is sharing 2012-2013 sports Vince Orlando the ball, and the team season, following the chemistry is very high. Games that took place on Oct. I love battling with my team4. mates and going to war with “I thought the last one them.” went really well. I thought The girls’ water polo team there was enough variety for will also be seeking a victory to people to see with the aquat- add a win to its 4-1 record and ics event, the volleyball game, continue its mission to a third and the field hockey,” Assis- straight CIF title. tant Athletic Director Vince “From a variety standpoint Orlando said. “That’s what we and from a competitive standkind of wanted to do, was give point, we thought it would be a a perspective of being able to good day to choose. Obviously, see different sports, at least we want as many Harvardtwo or three different sports Westlake students to get out in one particular day.” and support them,” Orlando The boys’ soccer team has a said. record of 3-5 under new Head The varsity field hockey Coach Lucas Bongarra, and is team beat Glendale, and the looking forward to showcasing freshman, junior varsity and its team to a larger crowd. varsity volleyball teams de“When we play in front feated Chaminade and boys of a big crowd, the team gets water polo beat Damien last pumped up,” varsity forward Games of the Trimester.
LUKE HOLTHOUSE/CHRONICLE
ROBBIE LOEB/CHRONICLE
LUKE HOLTHOUSE/CHRONICLE
ATTRACTING FANS: Forward Matthew Gooden ’15 protects the ball from a Campbell Hall defender, bottom. Forward Ty Gilhuly ’13 dribbles towards the goal, top left. Guard Mike Sheng ’14 advances the ball up the court, top right. The Games of the Trimester will be on Jan. 4, featuring three winter teams.
15% Discount for Harvard Westlake Students
Pick-ups and Dine-ins from the regular menu
C8 Sports
The Chronicle
Dec. 19, 2012
Up front with Hannah Lichtenstein ’13 nathanson ’s
Forward Hannah Lichtenstein ’13 is the captain of the girls’ soccer team. She is the team’s leading scorer along with Rina Gores ’15. The Swarthmore commit is the team’s only starting senior. By Lucy Putnam
Q A Q A Q A Q A Q A Q A ROBBIE LOEB/CHRONICLE
FULL CONTROL: Center forward Hannah Lichtenstein ’13, left, advances the ball up the field in the girls’ playoff loss to San Clemente last year. She is one of the team’s leading scorers.
What was your most memorable goal of the season? Lichtenstein: The second goal in the game against El Camino. We were down 3-1 and I felt the momentum shift. I had to run and get the ball from the net and bring it back up to midfield. Obviously, Quinn Frankel ’16 tied it up for us in the last two minutes, which was really exciting.
How do you feel the new players complement your style of play? Lichtenstein: We have really fast outside mids this year, like Mackenzie Howe ’14 and Quinn Frankel, which helps because they can get to the line and cross the ball, putting the forwards into great positions to score. Our midfielders are really young and creative — they have the potential to be like Danielle Duhl ’12, but are just not at that maturity yet. So it’s a little bit of an adjustment.
As captain do you feel you have a greater pressure to play well? Lichtenstein: I do, not only being a senior, but also one of the oldest on the team and having played soccer for so long. But everyone else on the team takes a lot of the pressure off. Other people are scoring goals, creating chances and playing well, so I don’t feel that I have to do everything. We have a talented team that can perform well no matter what.
Why do you think the new 4-4-2 system is more successful? Lichtenstein: I completely understand why we played a 4-3-3, having incredibly talented midfielders like Courtney Corrin ’16, Chloe Castaneda ’15 and Courtney O’Brien ’15, but in the outside areas, we didn’t really know what to do. In addition, Catherina Gores ’15 and I have a similar style of play, so it is easier for us to both play in the center, moving across their defensive line as opposed to one playing on outside and the other playing inside like we did in the 4-3-3.
What made you choose Swarthmore? Lichtenstein: Soccer’s been a huge part of my life for a while and I knew that I wanted to play in college. I got looks from a lot of Division I schools, but honestly the type of environment I wanted was a small liberal arts school. The idea of going to a large school and sitting on the bench for two years before getting a look from the coach really frustrated me. I felt at a Division III school I would get to play more and showcase my abilities ... I fell in love with Swarthmore immediately, I love the coach and they needed a forward, so it all fell into place.
How will you beat San Clemente since they knocked you out of CIF last year? Lichtenstein: Honestly, I am not over that loss, as creepy as that sounds. I hate them and I hate the Orange County style of play. I think it is extremely frustrating and unskilled. It’s just power over finesse. We are going to have to play their game and beat them at their game, meaning we cannot possess the ball as much as we tried to do last year against them. This year, we are going to have to launch the ball from defense and muscle them up front, which Mackenzie Howe and Brianna Gazmarian ’15 are really good at. So it’s going to be a rough and ugly game.