February 2010

Will there still be semiformal next year?

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Harvard-Westlake School • North Hollywood, CA • Volume XIX • Issue 5 • Feb. 10, 2010 • chronicle.hw.com

2010-11 school year to start in August

By Daniel Rothberg

daniel lundberg/vox

Due to a number of holidays falling on school days next year and a late Labor Day, the administration decided to begin the 2010-2011 school year before Labor Day, on Aug. 31.

The start date of this current school year was Sept. 9.

While the 2010-2011 school year will still end on June 8, there will be only two more school days next year than there were this year.

“Were we to stick with the traditional calendar, we’d have a substandard number of school days next year,” Head of School Jeanne Huybrechts said.

Additionally, Rosh Hashanah, a school holiday, falls on the Thursday after Labor Day this year. Therefore, if the school year were to begin after Labor Day, the first week of school would consist of two days.

“This situation has occurred before, most recently [in the] 2004-2005 [school year],” Huybrechts said. “That year, we began school the week before Labor Day and conducted the rest of the school year as usual.”

The school calendar that was decided upon by the administration in December will include a new three-day weekend in October for teachers to work on college recommendations, for seniors to work on college applications and to give underclassmen a break from school.

The school will be sending a copy of the 2010-2011 school calendar to students’ homes sometime in February or March.

“Had we not made the change, it would have been the shortest school year on record,” Huybrechts said. “And while that may sound appealing to students, a too-short school year ends up being hectic and stressful.

Excluding exams, and the PSAT day, there will be about 158 days of school next year, Huybrechts said.

INFOCUS

daniel lundberg/vox

Chloe lister/chronicle

IN MEMORIAM: Gavin Cook ’10 speaks in remembrance of Brendan Kutler ’10. (top) Students wear two hats as a tribute to Kutler’s signature attire. Math teacher Kevin Weis listens to the speakers.

Mourners remember Kutler for pursuing his passions

By Allegra Tepper

Senior Brendan Kutler, 17, who died Dec. 29 on a family vacation in Hawaii, was remembered at his memorial service for his love of Japanese culture, his “eclectic and obscure” taste in music, his athletic prowess, and, as history nathanson ’s/chronicle teacher Dror Yaron described, Brendan his role in the classroom as an Kutler ’10 “intellectual mensch.”

St. Michael’s Church was packed past capacity on Jan. 10 for Kutler’s memorial service.

Speakers echoed eulogies by Kutler’s teachers, family, and friends onto Coldwater Canyon for those who couldn’t fit into the church.

Kutler’s varsity tennis doubles partner Sean Kesluk ’09 told the audience about his devotion and support for his teammates while his dean Beth Slattery spoke of his genuine excitement when hearing he was nominated as HarvardWestlake’s nominee for the Morehead-Cain Scholarship.

“If the sorrow in this room is a way to measure, then the meaning of Brendan’s life bursts forward, refusing to be confined by his 17 years,” Rabbi Emily Feigenson said.

Kutler is survived by his parents Jon and Sara and his sister Caroline. Caroline told the audience that “to me, he was Just B.” The nickname

was printed on bracelets given to attendees after the service.

“On Dec. 28, four of us joked with friends over dinner and a Hawaiian sunset,” Jon Kutler said.

“And on Dec. 29, three of us woke up to a nightmare.”

Chaplain Father J. Young shared regret that he and those who knew Kutler would never know what he might become. While both in the eulogies and in his own writing Kutler expressed an emphasis on the journey rather than the destination, the many paths that Kutler maintained in his life left behind an ambiguity about that destination.

When recently prompted what Kutler would be doing in 10 years, one friend joked, “He will have programmed multiple video games, thus being able to retire in an awesome house by the sea in California, which will not be a failed state anymore because he will have rescued it himself, before running his own obscure music record, Frankly RHB (Rest Hurts My Brain).”

Kutler once told science teacher Antonio Nassar that he did not want to limit his studies in college to just one major, but rather to combine his knowledge of multiple fields to create something really worthwhile. Among those fields were astronomical research (he was a member of MIT’s Summer Science Program), JapaneseAmerican diplomacy (knowledge he honed as one of 40 High School Diplomats at Princeton.

See KUTLER, A9

Sex offender arrested across street from school

By Jamie Kim

A 45-year-old registered sex offender was arrested on Jan. 7 at a house directly across the street from the upper school campus.

Three black and white police cars from the city of Ontario converged on the house on the west side of Coldwater in midafternoon and Todd Whiten Siefert was taken away in handcuffs at 3:20 p.m.

He is being held in the West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga, charged with suspicion of robbery, false imprisonment, sexual battery, impersonating a police officer and alleged prior strike. Siefert pleaded not guilty and denied the prior strike charge. A hearing has been scheduled for Feb. 25.

Ontario police told the Ontario Daily Bulletin that they had received a call at 2 a.m. from a woman who claimed she was kidnapped and sexually assaulted by a man while walking on a street in Ontario on Wednesday night.

The woman said the man pulled over in his car and offered her a ride. After she had entered the vehicle, the man fondled her and tried for some time to restrain her from leaving the car. He eventually released her.

Siefert is a registered sex offender with a prior arrest record from 1996 for rape and impersonating a police officer.

In a KCAL 9 news video, Ontario police officer Anthony Ortiz said, “In 1996, he was arrested down in Chula Vista on the same exact M.O., where he impersonated a police officer, picked up a young woman, took her for a ride; somehow [he] convinces her that he’s a cop.”

Siefert served 10 years in prison.

Police suspect that “he may be doing this in other areas, not just Ontario.”

Director of campus security Jim Crawford was told by police that the Coldwater Canyon home where Siefert was apprehended belongs to Siefert’s sister.

Crawford noticed Siefert’s listing on Megan’s List, a public internet sex offender database maintained by the state. Campus security checks for new sex offenders within a five-mile radius of the middle and upper school campuses about once every other month. Security also regularly checks for sex offenders residing around Franklin Field, used by HarvardWestlake athletes.

See OFFENDER, A8

preview The age-old rivalry with Loyola heats up in the winter sports season.

on the

web

CHLOE LISTER/Chronicle

• POLL: Do you wish the school’s English curriculum included more required readings?

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podcasts videos photos blogs

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An editorial argues for an area crime bulletin. jamie Kim/Chronicle

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chloe lister/Chronicle

Teachers cook for their students.

es ur

• BLOG: Daniel Rothberg ‘11 blogs about lobbying in Sacramento with Brian Schultz ‘11 and deans Vanna Cairns and Rose-Ellen Racanelli.

Pioneeer in AIDS research speaks to upper school and ninth grade students.

feat

VIDEO+PHOTO: Hear the cast of “Our Town” talk about the show and see more photos of their performance.

A4 s w e n chloe lister/Chronicle

PHOTO: See Brendan Kutler’s ‘10 photography, which was displayed in Feldman-Horn the weekend of his memorial.

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offbeat

By Emily Khaykin

About a week ago, a strange smell permeated the first floor of Chalmers and sent students and teachers running outside for fresh air.

Filipe Anguiano, plant manager at the Upper School, said that the stench was due to a recent rat infestation.

“With the water from all the rain, the rats were looking for a refuge,” said Anguiano.

That refuge just happened to be the first floor of Chalmers.

“The rats got into the ceilings above the bookstore, dance studio, and a music room,” said Anguiano.

“I don’t even want to remember what the smell was like,” said Robby Goldman ’11, who attends symphony in the mornings, “it smelled like rotten fruit.”

The dance studio was affected by both the smell of the rats as well as by the chemicals used to clean the ceiling tiles.

“We ended up skipping a few classes because of the fumes from all the cleaning,” said Jenny Lin ’11, who takes ballet, “Our teacher got a headache and said that it really wasn’t safe to be exercising with those kinds of fumes.”

But despite the smell, all music classes continued to practice.

“It smelled really bad, but we didn’t cancel practice or anything, we just tried hard to ignore it,” said Maria Quinonez ’12 who plays in concert strings.

“The smell was pretty bad so we started to take measures to fix it right away,” said Anguiano.

Anguiano and his staff set up traps around first floor Chalmers, but after

Ashley Grossman ’11 competes in water polo internationally.

sp ort s

Alec caso/chronicle

Celebrate Valentine’s Day with stories of love in our community.

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A comparison of our English curriculum with those of nearby schools.

The Chronicle Wednesday, Feb. 10, 2010 Volume XIX Issue 5

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only catching two rats in the next week, Anguiano decided to try other things.

“We set about 40 bait boxes in the landscape around Chalmers and Weiler,” said Anguiano.

The bait boxes had food in them that successfully attracted the rats out of the building and back into the surrounding landscape.

Anguiano called a cleaning company that worked all last week to deodorize and disinfect the ceiling tiles and air ducts. The company is back all this week as well, to undergo another round of disinfecting.

“I thought, ‘what else can we do?’” said Anguiano, “and I called a fumigation company who came and put the fans in.”

This is not the first time the school has had to deal with the local wildlife.

“We’ve had to drive out opossums before, and we found a dead squirrel recently,” said Anguiano.

There are also quite a few deer and raccoons in the surrounding area that have, at one time or another, found their way on to campus.

“We’ve always had rats around the campus, but never like this,” said Anguiano, “I’ve been working here 34 years and we’ve never had an infestation like this, it’s just because of the rain.”

“The smell should be gone soon,” said Anguiano, “I hope.”

Feb. 10, 2010

The

C hronicle

A.L.I.C.E.

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Professor explains extrasolar planets

By Saj Sri-Kumar

Candice Navi/chronicle

Fighting for your life: Seniors Casper Stockwell, (from left) Chelsea McMahon and Jake Gutman attack a simulated gunman (middle school security guard Dave Green) at a Monday meeting about the A.L.I.C.E. system.

UCLA Astronomy Professor Michael Jura (Michael ’99) spoke about the search for extrasolar planets and the difficulty of finding terrestrial planets similar to Earth capable of supporting life during an optional assembly on Monday morning in Ahmanson Lecture Hall.

The event, which was held during the Upper School’s regular Monday break, was attended by around 40 students. The event was part of the school’s Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics initiative, which aims to further students’ understanding of the opportunities in those fields.

Jura was invited to speak by physics teacher Antonio Nassar, who met Jura when he taught Jura’s son.

Jura described the trouble that astronomers have had in finding terrestrial planets similar to Earth—so far, the vast majority of the roughly 400 planets that have been found have all been large gas giants, similar to Jupiter in our solar system.

Earth, with a high volume of oxygen, iron, silicon and magnesium, has a vastly different composition than Jupiter, which is mainly composed of gaseous hydrogen and helium.

Jura, however, expressed a hope that NASA’s Kepler Mission, which was launched this past March, would help them find Earth-like planets.

Jura elaborated on two methods of finding extrasolar planets. The first is to detect a decrease in light emission from a star when a planet passes between it and the earth, partially deflecting the light. This method has

BLACC invites P rotect Yourself princess to speak

By Allison Hamburger

An adopted woman whose search for her roots led her to discover that she is a princess of a West African village will speak at the annual African-American History Assembly on Tuesday.

Dean Tamar Adegbile, the faculty advisor for Black Leadership and Culture Club, asked Sarah Culberson to speak at the assembly after learning about her story.

Each year, the BLACC chooses “someone who will represent the African-Americans, but more so that they will say something that the entire school community would be interested in hearing,” Adegbile said.

Culberson was born in West Virginia and was adopted as an infant.

In 2004, she discovered that her biological father lived in Bumpe, a village in Sierra Leone.

She also learned that she is a member of the village’s royal Malahoi family.

Culberson later wrote the book “A Princess Found” with co-author Tracy Trivas.

In the book she discusses the experience of finding out about her heritage.

Culberson also co-founded the Kposowa Foundation in 2005 to improve living conditions for the people affected by the 11-year civil war in Sierra Leone.

This included rebuilding Bumpe High School, which was destroyed during the war.

The war left thousands of Sierra Leoneans killed and resulted in the destruction of the school.

She has also acted in television shows such as “The Secret Life of the American Teenager,” “Boston Legal” and “All of Us,” as well as in the film “American Dreamz.”

She is also a guest dancer for the Afro-Cuban salsa dance company ContraTiempo.

The assembly will take place between fourth and fifth periods on Feb. 16.

been successful in detecting gas giants, similar to Jupiter, which could deflect around 1 percent of the light; however, the process is not as effective in detecting smaller, Earthsized planets, because the Earth, for example, would only deflect around 0.01 percent of the sun’s light—not enough to be detected.

The second method is to look at “polluted white dwarfs.” This method entails looking at dense, high-gravity stars known as white dwarfs.

These stars could have drawn in with their gravity a minor rocky planet. The remnants of the planet can be observed, since the star (which would have normally consisted of mainly gaseous non-metals) can now be found to contain metallic, rock-forming elements such as iron.

This method was used to find a small, asteroid-sized planet near the white dwarf GD 40.

Jura said that astronomers are also aiming to find water on other planets, since it has been found on various moons in our own solar system. Scientists believe that water may be a necessary factor for life.

Jura showed the audience the cover of Isaac Azimov’s novel “Pebble in the Sky,” which involved humans interacting with life on other planets, and remarked that the book was “completely science fiction” when he was growing up; at the time, there was no evidence of life outside the earth.

However, Jura expressed his personal opinion that life will, in fact, be found at some point outside of Earth.

ATM skimming allows thieves to hijack ATMs and gain access to your PIN and password.

Use indoor ATM. These are less likely to have been tampered with.

Make sure no one can see your PIN as you enter it into the machine.

Examine machines carefully. Skimming devices need to be glued or taped down.

Do not give your PIN to anyone over the phone.

Be suspicious of any devices attached to the front of an ATM or if the keypads are missing their Braille markings.

Don’t use ATMs in isolated areas. Scams are more likely to happen in dark, out-of-the way, low security areas.

Source: Van Nuys Police Department graphic by Jordan gavens, Nicki Resnikoff, and Lara Sokoloff

Teacher takes down international scam

By Sam Adams

By day, Stephen Chan is a mildmannered middle school history teacher.

But in a court case that concluded last month, he found himself the key player in Nathanson ’s/chronicle thwarting an inStephen Chan ternational ATM caper.

One September night outside a bank, Chan arrived at the Citibank in Manhattan Village around 8 p.m. on Sept. 25, and he noticed a small crowd around the bank’s outdoor ATM. The man in front of him drew Chan’s suspicion when he started using multiple cards—15 to 20 by Chan’s estimate.

“By this time I thought there was something definitely strange going on so I started watching him,” Chan said.

“He kept [inserting more cards] and at the same time he was talking in a language I was trying to identify but

couldn’t figure out what it was.”

Only after the man completed his transactions did the mysterious crowd disperse.

Chan’s suspicion grew when he drove out of the mall, only to notice the same man using another ATM at a nearby Bank of America.

At this point, Chan decided to call the police.

When the man got into a car and drove away, Chan trailed him at a twocar distance, relaying the car’s position to the cops as he drove up the Pacific Coast Highway.

Chan said he knew his subject was not a local when he drove in the right lane, which any resident knows is frequently obstructed by parked cars.

The man pulled into a Taco Bell and eight squad cars from Manhattan, Hermosa and Redondo Beach swarmed and arrested him.

As it turns out, Chan had stumbled onto an international ATM scam being run by Romanian organized crime.

The thieves—focusing on Citibank— developed false keyboards for ATMs, which they can install and use to steal customers’ card and PIN numbers.

They would transfer this data onto fake cards and withdraw money, which is then wired to Romania where it essentially disappeared.

Chan said the four men he encountered outside the ATM were probably the ones who had installed the fake equipment, while the man using the ATM was kept separate so he would not be on any security tapes.

“The other guys who install all the stuff are on the tape,” Chan said. “He can commit the crime and not be seen.

Except by me.”

The group of four men that Chan had encountered outside his bank were responsible for $70,000 worth of theft alone.

Chan suspects that it represents a much larger plot by an organized crime syndicate.

Chan did not have to testify against the man, later identified by possible alias George Puflene, because he pleaded guilty.

He was sentenced to one year in prison for identity theft, among other charges.

The four other men escaped in a separate car and were not found.

A4 News

The

Researcher discusses HIV/AIDS

C hronicle

Feb. 10, 2010

chronicle.hw.com

By Ellina Chulpaeff

Time Magazine’s 1996 “Man of the Year” David Ho urged students to “bang on the door” about the AIDS pandemic in an all-school assembly on Monday, Feb. 1. Ho was honored with this title for establishing the use of a protease inhibitor to stunt the progression of HIV viruses in patients.

Ninth graders were bused over from the Middle School to hear Ho as a part of a Science, Technology, Entineering and Mathematics initiative.

STEM is meant to educate students about work in the sciences and mathematics. Hearing Ho speak at the assembly gave students an opportunity to understand what engineers and scientists do and the significance of their work, Head of School Jeanne Huybrechts said.

Ho was first introduced to the HIV retrovirus in the 1980s while doing his residency at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where he came into contact with some of the first reported cases of AIDS. At the time, Ho had no idea that AIDS would become, as he told students, “the worst plague in human history.”

“I went into infectious diseases thinking that all the diseases I would deal with are treatable,” he said.

Over 25 million people have already died from the virus and 35 million are currently living with it. One out of four pregnant women in South Africa has HIV and teens in Botswana have a 50 percent chance of catching the virus, Ho said. He described the technicalities of the virus and explained that although HIV only has nine genes and humans have upwards of 25,000, 10 million new variants of the virus can be

chloe lister/chronicle

man of the year: David Ho, Time Magazine’s 1996 “Man of the Year,” spoke to students and teachers about his discoveries in the field of HIV/AIDS research at an assembly on Monday Feb. 1. created every day.

“The virus is very stupid. It is like a kid who types and makes a lot of mistakes and doesn’t spell check,” he said of the various strains of HIV. Ho pointed out that although there are more than 20 drugs available to fight HIV, the virus is still incurable, even though Ho and his colleagues have been attempting to create a vaccine for the last 10 years.

Without a vaccine, Ho believes that education is vital for virus prevention.

“As I see it, there will be no vaccine available in the next decade, unfortunately,” he said.

Ho explained that his group of doctors and researchers are trying to stop the virus by inducing immune responses to block HIV transmission.

Ho has also studied monkeys and chimpanzees in West Africa which carry “cousin viruses” of HIV. He explained that HIV is a zoonotic virus; like SARS and swine flu, it was originally transmitted to humans from another species.

Despite the scientific advancements made, Ho explained that AIDS is still an epidemic in Africa because of a lack of political leadership in combatting the disease. In the United States, however, it is rare for patients to die while in treatment, Ho said.

Although the current treatment for AIDS includes a cocktail of antiretroviral drugs that Ho pioneered, he is hopeful that studying “long term survivors” of HIV will advance the scientific community’s treatment of HIV and AIDS. Ho also explained that although pharmaceutical companies dropped the $10,000 price of AIDS treatment by 85 percent for patients in developing countries, the drugs are still unaffordable to the masses.

Only donations by charities like the Gates Foundation can make the treatment affordable.

Ho urged students to get involved by raising awareness about the virus.

“Why aren’t we doing something about it?” he asked.

Actress Geena Davis to speak at assembly

By Mary Rose Fissinger

allegra tepper/chronicle

hard at work: Contracters work on Franklin Field in Oct. They continue their work despite the concerns of the neighbors.

Hudnut, Amato address Franklin Field concerns

By Jordan Freisleben

A meeting between the Army Corps of Engineers, Franklin Fields Incorporated, President of Harvard-Westlake Thomas C. Hudnut and Vice President of Harvard-Westlake John Amato on Dec. 28 subdued the neighbors’ complaints about refurbishing the field for Wolverine baseball teams, Director of Campus Operations Jim DeMatté said.

The Dec. 28 public hearing was a response to several protests, and was held in order to clarify the school’s plans for the field. “[Neighbors] had an issue about a batting cage in right field, but they had no knowledge of what it was and what it looked like,” DeMatté said.

“They were really worried about us coming in and building a stadium, and that’s not the case. This is basically just an upgrade to an existing facility—everything is the same, for the most part.”

Construction on the field started in late November and DeMatté hopes to have the project completed by midMarch. The original comple-

tion date, Feb. 20, was pushed back due to rain.

“The neighbors’ issues are actually with the Franklin Field people themselves from over the years not following the rules and not being good neighbors,” DeMatté said. “Honestly, because [Harvard-Westlake] is in the middle of a construction project, we took a little bit of the brunt of it.”

Franklin Fields Incorporated has been leasing the field from the Army Corps of Engineers since 1979. HarvardWestlake has played baseball there for the past 30 years.

“The neighbors were more concerned with how the facility was run for the last 20 years, [rather] than what HarvardWestlake was doing to spruce up the field,” he said.

Many of the neighbors’ concerns were misconceptions of what the refurbishing actually entails, DeMatté said.

At the meeting, DeMatté made a two hour presentation explaining the entirety of the project to 80 neighbors.

“I presented the whole project to the neighbors, and after that they really calmed down,” he said.

Actress Geena Davis will address the school on Monday, March 8, at the annual Women’s History Month Assembly.

Every year, English teacher Martha Wheelock asks a strong, accomplished woman to speak at the assembly.

“I try to bring speakers of diverse representation: ethnic, professional, and experience,” Wheelock said.

Wheelock was drawn to Davis because of the many female role models she has portrayed in movies and on television, including a baseball player during World War II in the film “A League of Their Own,” and the President of the United States in the TV series “Commander in Chief.”

One of her best known roles is Thelma in the movie “Thelma and Louise.”

Davis was nominated for a Best Actress Emmy for her role on “Commander in Chief ” and won an Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for her role as Muriel Pritchett in “The Accidental Tourist.”

Davis is also the founder of the Institute for Gender in Media, which advocates for more female roles in television geared towards children and for less stereotyping of both men and women.

The institute works with entertainment companies and producers to accomplish these goals.

It aspires to include more females of color in G-rated programs, along with a greater number of females whose objectives involve things other than romance.

The institution’s goals are based on the research done on gender in children’s media by Dr. Stacy Smith, Ph.D.

Munger donates $800,000 of stock to school

By Jamie Kim Trustee Charles Munger donated eight shares of Berkshire Hathaway stock, worth nearly $800,000, to HarvardWestlake. He made the donation just before the end of the calendar year.

Munger, a trustee for 40 years, has five sons and stepsons who graduated from Harvard School. His grandson William Borthwick graduated last year.

Munger, 86, is Vice Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Corporation, the investment corporation chaired by Warren Buffet. Munger is Buffet’s long-time business partner.

Munger has made many previous donations during the years he has been associated with the school. Munger has also donated to the law schools at Stanford University and the University of Michigan. “[Munger] donates to Harvard-Westlake because he considers it a necessary investment in the future,” Senior Advancement Officer Jim

“

He is demonstrating his belief in the importance of the type of education Harvard-Westlake provides.”

Pattison said.

“He is demonstrating his belief in the importance of the type of education HarvardWestlake provides, its leadership and as an example to other donors,” Pattison said.

Donations of this size to schools are not uncommon, Pattison said, but “HarvardWestlake has been fortunate to enjoy the support of a number of benefactors who have made similar, or larger, gifts.”

After taking a hard hit from the recession, “the endowment has rebounded from its low point and is in the process of recovery,” Pattison said.

On Jan. 19, Munger spoke along with Jim Gipson (James

—Jim Pattison Senior Advancement Officer ’10), Founder of the Clipper Fund and Pacific Financial Research, at a special event that was attended by lead donors of the school by invitation only.

The event was titled, “How We Got Where We Got: Reflections on the Market Meltdown,” and its purpose was “to thank those leadership donors who helped make possible the funds that were raised for The Opportunity of a Lifetime campaign,” Pattison said.

“Naming the [middle school] library after him was sort of an honor we wanted to bestow upon him for being such a supportive trustee,” Chief Advancement Officer, Ed Hu said.

Feb. 10, 2010

The

C hronicle

Departments to start reviewing operations

By Hana Al-Henaid

A cross-campus initiative for departmental evaluation called Renew and Review has been implemented this year according to Head of School Jeanne Huybrechts. Renew and Review, also referred to as Departmental Review, “takes the concept behind the whole-school accreditation and applies it to a department,” Director of Studies Deborah Dowling said.

For Renew and Review, departments are asked to report what they do and compare their systems to those of other schools. Once this initial evaluation process is completed, departments are asked to bring in a team of experts to evaluate the school’s efficiency, and then make concrete, specific plans for improvements, Dowling said.

Huybrechts explained the program to department chairs before the start of this school year and asked departments to volunteer to participate.

Each department will work collaboratively between campuses during the evaluation process.

“Each department does its review across the two campuses,” Dowling said. “[For example,] the math department is starting this year, which means the middle school and upper school math departments are working on it together, creating a single report and a single plan. This helps the school to keep its program consistent and coherent.”

Twelve departments will participate over the course of about six years, with two volunteering their participation each year, Huybrechts said.

The Communications Department and the Math Department were the first to volunteer, and volunteers for the next year or two are already lined up, Dowling said.

The Math Department, chaired

by Paula Evans, plans to review their curriculum, goals, and values, Evans said.

This spring, Communications Department Chair and Chronicle advisor Kathleen Neumeyer will travel to Shawnee Mission East, a high school in Kansas that “produces an outstanding newspaper,” Neumeyer said. Neumeyer also plans to bring a team of experts to the school as well to examine communications classes at the school.

Aside from departmental reviews, the administration is currently preparing for an accreditation from the Western Association of Schools and Colleges and the California Association of Independent Schools, which will take place next year. The accreditations occur once every six years. However, because each individual department has a small role in the larger WASC/ CAIS accreditation, Renew and Review was developed to focus on evaluations within departments.

“The goal is for departments to consider how they could improve in a serious and thoughtful way,” Dowling said.

News A5

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We all scream for ice cream

Michelle Yousefzadeh/chronicle

SUGAR RUSH: The cast and crew of “Our Town” hands out soda floats with the help of the Social Committee to promote the school play. Soda floats were involved in the climax of the of the play, which was performed last weekend.

Campus security investigates thefts from Rugby

By Sam Adams

Cindy ok/Vox

helping out: Senior Prefect Jake Gutman ’10 helps Community Council raise money for relief efforts in Haiti through the organization Partners in Health, during midterms. In total, students and faculty raised $4,074.

Community Council raises over $4,000 to benefit victims of Haiti earthquake

By Kelly Ohriner

Community Council held bake sales to raise money to donate to those affected by the earthquake in Haiti during midterms week in January. All the money raised has been donated to Partners in Health and their new initiative called “Stand With Haiti.” In total, students and faculty donated $4,074.

Before and after the English and history finals, Community Council members laid out an assortment of baked goods and allowed students to choose how much to pay with a $25 limit.

Chief Financial Officer Rob Levin explained in an e-mail that the $25 limit seemed appropriate because “many/most people

[were] donating [their parents’] money. Hence, it didn’t seem appropriate for them to be making heroic commitments. Awareness and participation seemed more important.”

“Most people were incredibly generous with their donations.

The average was around $15 to $20,” Community Council member Gaby Cohen ’11 said.

“We came up with the idea in our eighth period class, the day that [the earthquake] happened, in 20 minutes,” Community Council member Cindy Ok ’10 said.

“The Chalmers hallway was noisy as we all threw out ideas, and the 20 of us (10 seniors, eight juniors, and our two advisers) unanimously agreed that the bake sale would be the most viable fundraiser.”

“The administration was very supportive and let us use the charge card system with IDs,” Ok said. “The Prefect Council was equally good-natured in bringing baked goods and helping to run the booths. The baked goods were all brought by Community Council and Prefect Council students.”

The committee was mostly looking for participation rather than a specific dollar amount, Ok said.

“Not only did we raise over $4,000 for the cause, but there were also a lot of students who realized that the Community Council isn’t about the menial work behind service events,” Ok said. “Dozens of kids approached the table just to say ‘It’s so great that you’re doing this.’”

Campus Security is investigating the theft of lighting and sound equipment, worth $30,000, from Rugby auditorium during winter break. There were no signs of forced entry and the security camera security to the scene of the crime had been disabled.

Though there are no current suspects, Head of Security Jim Crawford believes that the perpetrator had some intimate knowledge of the school security system.

“Let’s just say nobody broke open a door or picked a lock,” Crawford said.

President Thomas C. Hudnut agrees with Crawford’s assessment of the crime.

“It seems to me that it could only be someone with a high degree of familiarity with the school and its environs,” Hudnut said. “Otherwise it seems improbable that someone would just randomly walk into a school, know exactly the right place, know exactly what equipment to take, which is very troubling.”

A lighting board, its associated computer, and some microphones were taken in the burglary, which Crawford said occurred in the days preceding or following Christmas. The thieves, Crawford said, knew which items were most valuable and only took those, leaving the rest.

Campus Security took fingerprints from the scene and has some video from cameras that were farther away. The video is currently being checked and analyzed.

“We have some information that looks pretty good, but we have to get it cleaned up,” Crawford said. “If it doesn’t clean up then we really have nothing at all.”

The winter break theft was not the first time the school has been robbed of equipment. Hudnut recalled an incident he estimates took place three years ago, in which a former employee stole sound equipment and was subsequently arrested.

“Given the number of people who go in and out of the place on a daily basis, and the amount of equipment that we have, I don’t think having something stolen every three years can’t be classified as not uncommon,” Hudnut said.

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Feb. 10, 2010

chronicle.hw.com

Clubs, electives to present efforts in Club Showcase Student organizations and elective classes will display their efforts in a Club Showcase in the quad during an activities period Feb. 17.

The event will take place as students cement their schedules for the upcoming years and aims to promote some of the lesser-known academic courses, like gender studies and ethics, sophomore prefect Rishi Bagrodia ’12 said. The Showcase will also present the student body with a rare mid-year opportunity to get involved in a new cause or discover a new hobby.

—Jessica Barzilay

Administration schedules future Wednesday breaks Students and faculty will receive a break on some Wednesdays, Harry Salamandra, Head of Upper School, said. At the urging of the Prefects, Wednesday schedules will be modified to include an activities period whenever the Monday schedule does not allow time for clubs to meet. The upcoming Wednesday breaks will fall on Feb. 17, March 10 and March 24.

—Justine Goode and Megan Kawasaki

New curriculum guides are reorganized, unified A newly revised curriculum will be distributed for course selection this year. This new version will allow students to see the future courses they might want to take directly next to the courses they are taking now.

The new guide is separated into four sections: Introduction, Academics, Arts and Athletics. Instead of a section for a Middle School and another for the Upper School, everything is sorted by department, not campus.

Each grade level will have an “at a glance” page, which will list all requirements.

—Vivien Mao

courtesy of ladwp

Green team: At left, Hunter Price ’12 looks at the Lights Out poster in the quad on Monday. Jessica Barzilay ’12 reads the electricity meter in Munger Science Center with an official from the Department of Water and Power.

Campus reduces electricity use

By Sammy Roth

Electricity use at the upper school campus was reduced by 13 percent last week, capping off the school’s second week of participation in the Green Cup Challenge.

More than 200 public and private schools across the country are participating in the GCC, which started Jan. 25 and ends Feb. 22. The goal of the GCC is for schools to reduce their electricity use by seven percent.

Environmental Club Vice President Jessica Barzilay ’12 brought the GCC to Harvard-Westlake this year, promoting it with the “Lights Out H-W” campaign which is advertised on posters around campus. The Environmental Club members are asking that students turn off computers when they finish using them, and that teachers turn off the lights in classrooms where windows provide enough natural light.

The Computer Services department is also making an effort to reduce electricity use. In the past, all lab computers on campus automatically turned on at 7 a.m. Now, no computer turns on until a student sits down and turns it on (an arrangement that will continue after the GCC ends).

“Every little bit counts,” Barzilay said. “I know it’s cliché, but I feel like this is an area in which when we take action, it actually makes a difference.”

During the first week of the GCC, the upper school campus saw a 16 percent energy reduction, but that was largely because semester break led to a three day school week.

Barzilay learned about the GCC last year. To get HarvardWestlake involved, she sought approval from Environmental Club advisor Martha Wheelock, head of the Green Committee Kent Palmer and Head of Upper School Harry Salamandra, all of whom got onboard.

Wheelock said she hopes that turning off computers and lights will become “habits of mind.”

“I feel like when you can see the reduction, when people know what’s happening, that it will be a motivator to keep turning off the lights when it’s not just February,” Barzilay said. “Even though the contest ends, the effort continues.”

Barzilay is responsible for monitoring the school’s weekly electricity use and reporting it to the Green Schools Alliance, the organization behind the GCC. Every Friday after school during the GCC, she reads the campus’s five electrical meters, and uses the readings to calculate that week’s electricity use.

A few months ago, she met with two officers from the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, who showed her how to read electrical meters.

Before the competition began, Barzilay used old utilities bills to calculate the campus’s “baseline” electricity use during the last three years. Now, she compares each week’s energy use to this number to calculate the percent decrease.

Wheelock said that while a few faculty members have told her that they do not think the GCC is a worthwhile effort, most of the feedback she has received has been overwhelmingly positive.

Huston takes leave of absence after head injury

Students trade stocks in national trading game

Beginning Feb. 17, students interested in economics can participate in the national Stock Market Game competition. Math department chair Paula Evans will serve as adviser.

The competition will take place during activities period and run through April 19.

Students are given a virtual cash account, then build portfolios by evaluating and trading stocks and mutual funds that are traded by real-world stock-brokers on the New York, NASDAQ and AMEX stock exchanges.

—Alice Phillips

Admissions Office hosts multicultural reception

More than 200 people attended the Multicultural Reception on Jan. 30, which took place at the Stoney Hills-Mountain Gate clubhouse.

“Our goal is to give applicant families an opportunity to meet Harvard-Westlake administrators, faculty, staff, and parents,” Admission Officer Melanie Léon, who organized the event, said. Léon said the reception was open to all who were interested in attending, though it was especially for families that say they are multicultural or part of a minority on the application.

—Austin Block

By Alex Leichenger

Courtesy of rose-ellen racanelli

Eighth grade Dean Rod Huston is taking an indefinite leave of absence due to a head injury he suffered on the school’s Mammoth Mountain trip over semester break.

Huston slipped on a patch of ice in a parking lot at Mammoth Mountain and hit his head, according to a letter sent to middle school parents.

Head of School Jeanne Huybrechts de-briefing session, which “gave us an said she has spoken to Huston, who is idea whether the representative would out of the hospital, as recently as last support our initiatives,” Racanelli said.

“This year WACAC had two legislative week.

She said she plans to speak to him priorities: to support and protect ongoing funding for the Cal Grant Program again in the next several days to get a and to maintain sufficient funding for sense of how long he will need to remain California higher education,” Racanelli home.

Huybrechts, who was also in Mamsaid. “Without the Cal Grant, many of our neediest students in the state would moth at the time, is legally prohibited be unable to get a college education— from discussing the exact nature of Huswhich means the state would have less ton’s injury, but said Huston was taken educated workers, and realize a widen- to the hospital with a “suspected concussion.” ing divide between the rich and poor.”

The injury is not terribly serious and Racanelli asked other deans to sugHuston is expected to make a full and gest students who were juniors and also had an interest in politics in the hope complete recovery in time, Huybrechts that they could possibly organize some- said.

“He’s okay, but he’s taking some time thing on campus next year. off,” she said.

“Our goals of acquainting the repreWhile Huston is on leave, fellow sentative with our priorities were met.

I believe they will also look to WACAC eighth grade dean Karen Wareham, the for input on educational legislation,” seventh and ninth grade deans and other she said. “My goal was met in having faculty members will pitch in to cover students included in the conference. I his responsibilities, Huybrechts said.

Math teacher Matthew Maring will hope to expand the number of students teach Huston’s Algebra II: Grade 8 who will attend from a variety of high course. schools next year.”

education: Oaks Christian college counselor Jeff Morrow, left, with deans RoseEllen Racanelli, Vanna Cairns, Oaks Christian senior Kennedy Ryhal-Holt, Brian Shultz ’11, and Daniel Rothberg ’11 pose in Sacramento at the Cal Grants conference.

Deans, students lobby legislators for Cal Grants in Sacramento

By Michelle Nosratian

This year, Upper School Dean RoseEllen Racanelli took fellow dean Vanna Cairns and juniors Daniel Rothberg and Brian Shultz to Sacramento to lobby for Cal Grant funding for the Western Association for College Admission Counseling legislative conference Feb. 3 and 4.

The WACAC legislative assembly on Cal Grants coincided with a caucus about the Dream Act, Rothberg said.

The Dream Act “provides a pathway for undocumented students to attend college with financial assistance — and after meeting some requirements would allow them to pursue permanent residence status and ultimately gain citizenship,” Racanelli said.

On the second day, “we split into groups and went to the offices of legislators and lobbied,” Rothberg said.

The delegation met with the aides of three different state legislators: Assembly Member Tom Ammiano, Senator Dave Cox and Assembly Member Mike Eng. The meetings were followed by a

Feb. 10, 2010

The

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News A7

chronicle.hw.com

inbrief

BLACC hosts dance to benefit Haiti victims

Cathi Choi

Class Reunion: President of Harvard-Westlake Thomas C. Hudnut speaks to alumni in New York at an art gallery run by alumna Stephanie Roach ’01. The reunions in New York and Washington D.C. were both evening events.

Alumni meet in New York, D.C.

By Daniel Rothberg

Nearly 100 alumni attended a reception organized by the Advancement Office in New York City on Jan. 25. President of Harvard-Westlake Thomas C. Hudnut addressed alumni at the reception, thanking them for attending and an updating them on recent school happenings, Associate Director of Alumni Relations Susan Leher Beeson ’96 said.

The reception was held at The FLAG Art Foundation, an art gallery run by Stephanie Roach ’01. In past years, the New York alumni reception has been held at the New York Harvard Club.

“It was a little different, a little more fun [and] more upbeat than I think our [past] New York receptions have been,”

Beeson said. “It was definitely a fun evening.”

In addition to the reception in New York, the Advancement Office organized an alumni reception in Washington D.C. for the following day.

Robyn Goldman ’80 hosted the event at her home. Fortyone alumni attended this event.

“It is always nice to do something at someone’s house.

People feel more comfortable,” Beeson said.

Beeson said that the receptions are beneficial for younger alumni to who want to make connections with older alumni.

In addition, she said that older alumni enjoy sharing memories and speaking about their experiences at Harvard, Westlake, or Harvard-Westlake.

School considers canceling dances

Students to study rocks, minerals in Death Valley Geology and Geology Honors students will take a field trip to Death Valley from Feb. 20 to Feb. 22.

Accompanied by geology teacher Wendy Van Norden, the classes will hike through Death Valley..

“I’m really looking forward to this field trip,” Blaise Ormond ’12 said.

—Sanjana Kucheria

Model UN to attend Georgetown conference The Model United Nations Club will travel to Washington this weekend to one of the largest Model United Nation conferences of the year.

Eight club members will attend the international conference at Georgetown University.

“This is by far the biggest conference of the year,” Junior Representative Alex Leichenger ’11 said.

The North American Invitational Model United Nations (NAIMUN) annually organizes an international conference at Georgetown.

Members of Model UN will also attend a conference at the University of California, Berkeley next month for the first time in the club’s history.

—David Burton

By Jordan Freisleben

Less than one week after the Jan. 30 semiformal, some concerned deans and faculty members raised the possibility of canceling the event for future years chaplain Father J. Young said.

“Some believe that the negatives of such an event outweigh the positives and would therefore like to cancel the dance for future years,” Young said in an e-mail to students.

Attached to this e-mail was a link to an online survey that asked students their feelings about the semiformal.

Many critiques of semiformal are not about the event itself, but rather about the activities that go on at the ensuing after-parties. “[A big problem is] the conspicuous consumption, and semiformal becomes a piece of the puzzle that can lead to heavy substance abuse,” Young said. “Though we know the after-party is not ours, one wonders if after-party would cease if semiformal were canned,” Young said.

“I don’t know how much of an effect [canceling semiformal] would make,” semiformal co-chair and prefect Christine Kanoff ’11 said. “Students would just go to other schools’ after-parties.”

“For the most part, students are safe,” she said.

“Semiformal is the only time where the whole high school comes together – it brings the school together.”

Despite the e-mail to the student body, Head Prefect Reid Lidow ’10 believes that the administration members who oppose semiformal are the “loud minority.”

Kanoff suggests discussing the detrimental effects of substance abuse in class meetings as a more beneficial alternative than canceling semiformal.

“There will still be an after-party even if semiformal was taken away,” Lidow said. “If you consider the afterparty to be a gunshot wound to the body, canceling the semiformal would be like putting a band aid on that bullet wound.”

This year, the semiformal location was changed to the California Market Center in Downtown’s Fashion District after being held at the Sheraton Universal for the past several years.

Ticket prices were reduced to $40, and a portion was donated to charity.

“It was apparent to us that no one ever ate the dinner provided at the dance, and it seemed more cost effective to the students to simply lower the prices and not provide dinner,” semiformal Co-chair Cate Barsky ’10 said.

“Students can just relax and have fun at semiformal,” said Kanoff.

The Black Leadership and Culture Club will host a dance to benefit Haitian earthquake victims on Feb. 26.

The dance will take place from 8-11 p.m. in Chalmers East and West.

BLACC encourages the entire upper school student body to attend. Tickets will be sold outside the dance. Each ticket is $10 and BLACC hopes to raise $1000.

“Our goal is to bridge the gap between the student body and show people BLACC is not just for African-Americans,” President of BLACC Sydney Haydel ’10 said.

—Sade Tavangarian

courtesy of beth stokes

Phoning in: Rae Wright ’11 and Stephen Rosen ’11 call alumni from the math department during a Feb. 3 phonathon.

Students call alumni for Annual Giving

By Daniel Rothberg

In an effort to raise money for Annual Giving, approximately 20 student volunteers made more than 300 phone calls to alumni at a phonathon on Feb. 3.

“The students called alumni who typically make their gift to the school by this time in the year as a reminder, and also made thank you calls to alumni who have made their gifts already,” Associate Director of Alumni Relations Susan Leher Beeson ’96 said.

Before the phonathon, the volunteers attended a training dinner in the student lounge. In addition to the Advancement Office staff, Casey Federman ’91 and Marcia Bryant Osborne

’92 helped train volunteers and answer their questions. “[The alumni] always ask really great questions about what’s happening now,” Beeson said. “Occasionally, they will tell a funny slash embarrassing story about when they were kids. It’s always fun.”

The student volunteers, all members of the Harvard-Westlake Student Alumni Association, made calls in the deans’ offices and in the Math Department office.

“It’s a really fun event and I encourage all students to sign up for it,” Beeson said.

Students can sign up for similar events by speaking with Beeson. The next student phonathon will be held on April 26 and 27.

Dates for senior retreat to Big Bear announced Senior retreat will take place at Camp Cedar Lake in Big Bear June 8-10, Head Prefect Jennie Porter ’10 said.

The committee in charge of planning the logistics of the retreat consists of Porter, prefect Jake Gutman ’10, Chris Holthouse ’11, and Upper School Dean Jon Wimbish.

Applications to go join the retreat committee are due soon.

—Anna Etra

Online Party Book raises money for financial aid In an effort to raise money for financial aid and build community, the Parents’ Association has created an online “Party Book,” which lists numerous parties and events that parents can sign up to attend.

The parties range from playing soccer with other parents to joining President Tom Hudnut for a book club.

The events are listed at www.hwpapartybook.com and range from $25-500 per person.

Many of the parties have a full guest list, but parents can add themselves to a wait list.

—Neha Nimmagadda

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Neighborhood watch

By Alice Phillips

Director of Security Jim Crawford logs on to the Megan’s Law website every two weeks to check if any registered sex offenders have moved to within a fivemile radius of the Upper School.

During one of Crawford’s routine checks, he noticed that a new tiny blue square (denoting the residence of a registered sex offender) had appeared on the map, too close to school for comfort.

“The problem with [Todd Siefert] is that he is 50 feet from our school,” Crawford said about the offender who was arrested at a house near the north gate on Jan. 7. “He’s a rock’s throwing distance away.”

Crawford contacted the Los Angeles Police Department, but Siefert’s parole officer assured him that Siefert did not live there, but that he had listed it as a relative’s residence in the registry.

So, when City of Ontario Police Department squad cars rolled into the driveway of a house right across Coldwater and busted down the door after connecting Siefert’s license plate to a reported crime, Crawford realized that the parole officer’s word was not the whole story.

“Probation officers and parole officers are supposed to be checking on these guys, but they’re not,” Crawford said. “Did we know he lived there? No. Can we knock on the door and ask if he’s living there? Not really, no.”

According to Professor Laurie Levenson of Loyola Law School, Megan’s Law (the law requiring known sex offenders to register their addresses) is written so that, regardless of whether it is the offender’s home or not, he is required (as Siefert did) to register the address for public record. However, Crawford said that the statute is largely unenforceable, which is part of the reason Siefert could list a residence within 2,000 feet of a school without the parole officer raising red flags.

Particularly because the school maintains an open track policy (meaning any neighborhood resident can walk onto campus to use the track), Crawford takes steps to raise awareness among his security team of the known sexual predators in the area.

He prints out mug shots of the offenders (publicly available on the Megan’s Law website) and posts them at the security kiosks at the north and south gates.

He also prints out a sex offender fact sheet of sorts, which goes beyond just name, height, and weight to include tattoo markings and known aliases.

“If there’s someone within five miles, the picture’s hanging in our kiosk,” Crawford said. “If they happen to show up on the track or on our grounds, we can essentially arrest them. My guys can hold them until a policeman comes to take them to jail.”

Whenever there is a crime trend around campus or Crawford notices a registered sex offender living near campus, he takes steps to increase security such as posting the mug shots inside security kiosks and increasing foot patrols in the St. Michaels parking lots. His protocol includes notifying a member of the administration, such as Head of Upper School Harry Salamandra or Head of School Jeanne Huybrechts.

The administrators generally defer to Crawford’s judgment as to whether to alert the broader school

Timeline:

Guarding against sex offenders

2004

Signed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on Sept. 24, Megan’s Law requires information on registered sex offenders to be put online.

2006

Passed as Proposition 83 in November, Jessica’s Law requires that all sex offenders live at least 2,000 feet away from a park or school and to be monitored by GPS.

2010

In recent years, California has passed laws creating more vigilant monitoring of known sex offenders.

The California Supreme Court ruled to uphold Jessica’s Law Feb. 1, after the constitutionality of the law had been tested.

Sources: WWW.Meganslaw.ca.gov, WWW.latimes.com graphic by Jamie Kim

Feb. 10, 2010

chronicle.hw.com

Campus security keeps tabs on criminal activity and sexual offenders near school using crime maps and the sex offender registry, but they can only do so much.

Crime in our own backyard 7 4

2

6

3

The icons represent crimes committed within a two-mile radius of the Upper School between Jan. 31 and Feb. 6.

*▲

9

theft from cars grand theft auto

5

1

personal/other thefts burglary (property)

8

robbery (violent) aggravated assault

Numbers on the map correspond to the reported residences of sex offenders, the five of whom closest to the school are pictured below. The offender may have since relocated.

1 Todd Siefert

2

3

Jerome Zemora

5

4 Dale Frank

Robert Vigil

Alfredo Perez

photos from www.meganslaw.ca.gov Sources: WWW.Meganslaw.ca.gov, WWW.Lapdcrimemaps.org graphic by alice phillips

community of a threat.

“If it was something that I believe that the school should know as a body, I’d be the first to put that information out there and let people know,” Crawford said. “Any time there’s a crime or predator near our school, we’re concerned. We get cars broken into on Coldwater, so when we see a trend we spend more time walking around on Coldwater.”

Crawford said he didn’t see the need to broadcast Siefert’s presence to the community because he had been told that he didn’t live there. Some parents, however, felt that communication was lacking when it came to their children’s safety.

“It would have been a good idea to send an e-mail to everyone. I think it is a good idea to keep people informed,” Reinhard Schwartzwald (Kevin ’11) said.

“Sometimes they don’t tell us to prevent a scare,” Demitra Natsis (George ’12, Marialexa ’14 and Niko ’10) said. “But I think knowledge is essential.”

Crawford’s preventive steps have paid off in the past. A sex offender showed up on the Megan’s Law

registration map near (but not within the 2000 foot limit) the Middle School. One day, a UPS driver making a delivery to the Middle School told Crawford (who was at the Middle School security kiosk) that he recognized one of the men on a poster in the kiosk because he delivered ammunition to him “almost every day.” Crawford informed the LAPD, who promised to follow up (receiving ammunition is a violation of a sex offender’s parole).

Although security officials like Crawford and private individuals use the sex offender registry to be more aware of possible threats in their neighborhood, some legal experts say that the stigma of being labeled a sex offender for life and the requirement to register a residence may intrude on the individual’s privacy.

“We need to make sure that the people who must register really are likely to reoffend,” Levenson said. “The current law is awfully broad and the stigma of being a registered sex offender can be devastating to a person’s life.”

Offender arrested at house near north gate from OFFENDER, A1

Crawford prints pictures of sex offenders in the area and distributes them to all security guards. If any of the listed people are seen on campus, they can be arrested for violating their parole by being on school grounds.

In addition to efforts by the school to ensure students’ safety, the state places restrictions on sex offenders’ proximity to places where children congregate.

Jessica’s Law, which was approved by 70 percent of California voters in 2006, forbids registered sex offenders from living within 2,000 feet of a school or park. It also mandates Global Positioning System supervision for life.

But Siefert may not have been covered by that law because he was released from prison weeks before the law was passed.

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation is the main body responsible for carrying out Jessica’s Law provisions. On its website, it claims to be actively enforcing the 2,000 foot residency requirements.

The CDCR’s website fails to mention that the state monitors sex offenders only for as long as they re-

main on parole.

“After that, it’s up to municipal agencies, none of which have the staff, equipment or spare funding to do the job,” the Los Angeles Times wrote in an editorial arguing that the Jessica’s law should be “dropped… or rewritten.” The Times claimed that it is too expensive and does little to improve safety.

Data on the CDCR website from January 2009 shows that not even parolees are being properly monitored– as of January, only 7,014 offenders out of 110,859 total parolees were under GPS supervision.

Furthermore, clear-cut penalties for violations do not exist.

“It cannot be enforced unless the offender is on parole or probation and the supervising agency chooses to revoke parole or probation for violation of this law,” the state attorney general’s press office said.

In other words, parolees found to be in non-compliant housing can be arrested for violating the terms and conditions of their parole and referred to revocation hearings and possibly returned to prison. Those who have been released from parole or probation, however, cannot be penalized.

“Since no criminal offense was created by the law, the concept of ‘statute of limitations’ does not apply,” the

state attorney general’s press office said.

Local police departments say the law’s provisions are too vague, making them even more difficult to enforce. Until last week, a key issue was the question of whether the residency restrictions retroactively applied to offenders who were convicted or paroled before the law was adopted in 2006.

It is possible that Siefert, having committed his first offense in 1996, was not monitored because it was unclear at the time whether the law applied to him. According to the press secretary for the CDCR, Siefert was released from prison on Sept. 1, 2006.

Last Monday, the California Supreme Court definitively ruled that the law applies retroactively to registered sex offenders who committed their crimes before the law’s passage in November 2006 but who were paroled after it took effect. “[It] looks like he barely missed the cut-off date by a couple of months,” CDCR press secretary Gordon Hinkle said. “If he goes back to prison for his most recent arrest, he would be subject to Jessica’s Law at any later release date.”

For more coverage, editorial, A12

see our

Feb. 10, 2010

The

English, History classes offer few reading choices

By Michelle Nosratian

Compared to other Los Angeles high schools, both public and private, Harvard-Westlake students read fewer books per year on average in their English courses.

“The three hour per week homework rule imposes limitations on how much reading we can give,” upper school English teacher Geraldine Harding said.

“It also comes out of concern for student workload.

For example, if we assigned you one book a week, could you realistically be expected to have time to read it?”

Jarred Green ’11 agrees with Harding.

“I’m a pretty slow reader actually, so I don’t know if I’d be able to fit more books into my schedule, especially with all the other homework,” he said.

“Sometimes I wish that we could read just one or two more books and see what happens but for people who are slow readers,” Arielle Basich ’11 said. “English reading coupled with history and language becomes a lot for them and they often just don’t do it.”

Cutting down on reading as a reaction to homework surveys has also affected the history department.

Literature such as “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl,” by Harriet Jacobs, and “Babbitt,” by Sinclair Lewis, used to be part of the required reading for the junior American history classes, history teacher Drew Maddock said.

“We cut the reading load back pretty dramatically over probably the past five or six years as a response to homework surveys,” he said. “Anywhere from a quarter to a third of the reading was cut out of the course.”

At Santa Monica High School, students read about ten books for class, in addition to the two books they are required to read over the summer, according to the school’s website.

The public high school offers five courses and eight electives in English.

“

I brought up the idea of looking into making a senior elective program to create more options.”

—Laurence Weber Head of English Department

nathanson ’s

/chronicle

C hronicle

Literary Lineup Harvard-Westlake offers fewer English electives than some of its local counterparts, both private and public. Students in grades 10-12 also read fewer books per class, on average.

HarvardWestlake

6 core courses 3 electives 6 books per class

Marlborough

Santa Monica High School

8 core courses 10 electives 7 books per class

5 core courses 8 electives 10 books per class

Source: www.hw.com, www.samohi.smmusd.org, www.marlboroughschool.org graphic by Daniel rothberg and Jessica Barzilay

“Our program is built around this notion that you have to study a work in depth to give students real space and let them come up with their own insight,” Head of the English Department Laurence Weber said. “Students are invited to be authorities in the inquiry as much as the teachers, and to stuff a program with many works, that authority shifts to the teacher to get through it, to say what ‘needs’ to be said.”

“One of the consequences of doing detailed analysis is that it’s a very slow process,” Maddock said.

“When I used to teach at a public school, it was a longer school year, we had classes five days a week… so that’s a lot of extra time. You could easily fit in one or two additional novels.”

Marlborough, however, has a similar calendar to Harvard-Westlake, and courses there still manage to cover an average of seven books per class in addition to poetry, short stories and essays.

Marlborough offers 18 English courses for grades 10 to 12, according to its English Department Head, Joseph Koetters.

At Harvard-Westlake, students read approximately six novels per year. The Upper School offers seven English courses in total, and only two of those are electives.

“We are interested in offering students choice and we’ll be looking into that, especially a senior program,” Weber said. “In our department meeting last week, I brought up the idea of looking into making a senior elective program to create more options.”

Weber stresses that the English department would like to “grow [the program] responsibly.” He added that because students are required to take English classes throughout their high school career, “personnel becomes an issue.”

“We have to cover our regular courses with the teachers we have,” he said.

The difference in the amount of reading occurs

Kutler ‘wanted to make people happy’ from Kutler, A1

this summer), computer science, international indie music, and cinema.

At an upper school assembly held Jan. 4 to pay tribute to Kutler, Cinema Studies teacher Ted Walch read the college recommendation he wrote for Kutler, which recounted his confusion when an extra student began attending his Cinema Studies class last year.

He later discovered that Kutler had been auditing the class without permission, having already reached his maximum number of classes for the year. After Slattery and Walch turned a blind eye to the auditing, Kutler became what Walch termed the “illegitimate child who set the bar for the rightful heirs,” writing papers and taking exams for a class that did not appear on his transcript. Walch spoke to a crowd of students and teachers wearing two baseball caps, a tribute to Kutler who was rarely seen without these signature accessories.

Co-founder and “resident Indie music mogul” of the entertainment and culture website 8th-circuit. com, Kutler maintained a weekly music video blog, wrote reviews and contributed to podcasts on the site.

“Kutler had a different set of music for each of his friends,” Nick Mancall-Bitel ‘10 told the St. Michael’s audience. “He wanted to make them as happy as he was, so he played what they liked. I couldn’t find anything suitable for this occasion. Everything was too happy. It was also impossible to find a single song that didn’t bring a smile to my face, and I think that’s a good thing. There’s no reason his music should stop doing exactly what it did in life; he wanted to make people happy.”

In a group page created in Brendan’s memory on Facebook, countless posts refer to his ever-present smile, evident in the hundreds of photos posted by friends and family.

News A9

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Jon Kutler experienced a brush with mortality four years ago that caused him to retire in order to spend more time with his family. With Brendan, that amounted to late night hot chocolate study breaks and trips to Diddy Riese, during which Brendan often sneaked his phone under the table to tweet to what students affectionately refer to as “The Twitter Family.”

“Only in coming so close to death did I truly appreciate the value of life,” Jon Kutler said. “It is an asset of infinite value yet one that we rarely reflect upon until it’s gone.”

In some of his recent writing, Kutler expressed a particular consonance with the Japanese proverb, “The infinite is in the finite of every instant.”

Upon visiting a temple in Japan where he believed he truly became aware of the beauty of vitality, he wrote, “After my travels, I focus on living instead of existing-and life has blossomed.” Kutler was also an avid photographer whose works were displayed in Feldman-Horn Gallery in the days following the service, featuring myriad photos of the beauty he discovered in Japan.

This past weekend’s production of Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town,” which deals with the themes of family, love and mortality, was dedicated to Kutler’s memory.

Kutler began attending Harvard-Westlake in the seventh grade after graduating from John Thomas Dye School. The JTD Class of 2004 held an event on the elementary school campus to remember their former classmate.

In closing the memorial service for his son, Jon Kutler said, “The only solace we take is that Brendan loved the concept of connectivity. It was apparent in most things he did, whether computer programs, friendships, or philosophy. Recall that Brendan was of course right. Value relationships over material things, think big thoughts, and cherish the journey along the way. Or as Caroline would say, Just B.”

“

We cut the reading load back pretty dramatically... as a response to homework surveys.”

—Drew Maddock History teacher

don hagopian/chronicle

partially because “there are guidelines, but no rules” limiting the amount of homework teachers at Malborough can give, Koetters said.

“The guidelines range from 30 minutes in seventh grade to one hour in an AP class,” Koetters said. “We have an all-school book which everyone reads each summer and each grade level also reads a book over the summer.”

Eve Bilger ’10 came to Harvard-Westlake from Marlborough in her junior year.

“The emphasis is on different elements of writing,” Bilger said. “English [at Marlborough] is very open and discussion based, open to interpretation and ideas.”

“You can’t really do everything,” Maddock said.

“But what I miss most notably is Huckleberry Finn, which was actually taught here for a long period of time,” Maddock said.

Maddock assigned “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” to his own daughter, Molly Maddock ’09, to read over the summer when he realized that it had been dropped from the English curricululm. “‘Huck Finn’ is one of the essential American classics that is taught in almost any American literature course,” he said.

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Show and tell

Feb. 10, 2010

Participation in Jacobson Cup diminishes

By Sammy Roth

Jen Bladen

IT’S ELEMENTARY: Robert Anderson (Aaron ’14) shows off his collection of different elements from the periodic table of elements to seventh and eighth graders on Jan. 20. Middle school science teacher Hillary Ethe invited Anderson to bring his elements back later this year.

Students turn to ‘The West Wing’ for political inspiration

By Erin Moy

Carleigh Coyne ’10 has been getting intimate with the White House. She knows the Cabinet members’ positions on hot-button topics, has overheard many private conversations between the President and his advisors and can navigate the halls of the West Wing adeptly.

Moreover, she has learned all of this over the course of a few weeks.

No, Coyne does not work with the Obama administration; she has been following President Josiah Bartlett’s administration on the now-cancelled television show “The West Wing.”

Coyne began watching the show after her AP United States Government and Politics teacher showed an episode to her class.

“It was really good,” Coyne said. “I got obsessed and now I watch it all the time.”

Thalia Bajakian ’10 had a similar reaction to viewing an episode in her AP U.S. Government and Politics class.

“We had watched an episode in class and I really wanted to know what would happen next,” Bajakian said. “So, I watched two and a half seasons over winter break and forgot about college applications.”

AP U.S. Government and Politics teachers David Waterhouse and Francine Werner started incorporating “The West Wing” into their classrooms in 2005 and had the opportunity to integrate more of the show into their lectures when the course was expanded from one semester to a full year in 2006, Werner said.

Viewings of “The West Wing” started to expand students’ interest in politics, Waterhouse said. He hopes that the show [will] inspire students with “idealism and the idea that politics and government are important, not just corrupt and cynical,” he said.

“The West Wing,” which aired from 1999 to 2006, chronicled both the professional and personal lives of the individuals who made up the fictional President Bartlett’s administration.

However, “The West Wing” also covered a wide variety of relevant political and legislative issues that, Werner said were often “ripped from the headlines.”

The show was thought of by many viewers as much more than a primetime political soap opera.

Along with the success of “The West Wing” in television—the show holds the record for most Emmys won in a single season—both Werner and Waterhouse, and numerous critics, believe that “The West Wing” is an accurate representation of how American government works.

“The value of this series is that it brings the

“

now with my new wealth of knowledge, I can make sense of it all.”

—Barrett Meister ‘10

nathanson ’s/chronicle

mechanics of government to life,” Waterhouse said. “You see people who are enjoyable to watch functioning as people in government actually do.”

“The viewer gets to learn and be entertained at the same time,” he said. “Clearly, ‘The West Wing’ is an idealized version of reality, but it deals with many important political issues that we discuss in class. Virtually every episode deals with four or five important issues that are related to AP U.S. Government and Politics. So, it really can help reinforce [students’] knowledge and understanding.”

Barrett Meister ’10, another fan of “The West Wing,” also sees a helpful aspect of watching the show.

“It incorporates much of the goings-on in government and therefore is a fairly useful tool for the public to understand their government more,” Meister said.

“The West Wing” was cancelled four years ago. However, both Waterhouse and Werner have seen the interest in the show grow over the years.

While Werner attributes the growing buzz to the growth in the number of AP U.S. Government and Politics classes, Waterhouse said he feels that interest in the show has peaked this year due to “Obama activating young people’s interest in politics during the last couple years.”

Students themselves see a myriad of reasons for being hooked on “The West Wing.”

“I remember watching it when it actually was on TV and since I was too young to understand at that time, now with my new wealth of knowledge, I can make sense of it all,” Meister said.

“Only a few special shows make the transition from a filler show to watch into one of the more coveted regularly watched slots.”

“It’s a perfect combination of government and personal drama that makes everything learned in AP Government much more tangible. Rather than just learning theory, West Wing allows me to see everything as it is practiced,” Bajakian said.

“Because everything is so hyped up in the show and many things are exaggerated, it makes typical government process much more exciting.”

Three years ago, all middle school students, faculty, staff and administrators were divided into four houses—Badgers, Ferrets, Otters and Polecats—beginning the annual Jacobson Cup competition.

“We need a thing that everyone does.

The Jacobson Cup might be that thing,” said then-Seventh Grade Dean and Jacobnathanson ’s/chronicle son Cup commissioner Josh Budde at the Betsy Ilg time.

Budde and Head of Upper School Harry Salamandra speculated that the Cup could even spread to the Upper School.

Now, three years later, the Cup has taken a less prominent role in middle school life, and there are no plans to bring it to the Upper School. And the Cup’s faculty commissioners say that while it still draws a lot of student interest, it isn’t the “thing that everyone does.” nathanson ’s/chronicle There have been just three competitions Jon Wimbish so far this year: a trivia contest, a contest to toss bottle caps for accuracy and an ongoing competition being run by the Green Committee, in which students can design models for sustainable structures.

“What we first envisioned it to be was something, as everything is here, very Harvard-Westlake, very big, lots of turnout,” ninth grade Dean and Jacobson Cup commissioner Betsy Ilg said. “And it’s really become much more smaller-scale.”

Ilg said that participation is not as high as she imagined it would be when the Cup began three years ago.

“We never have multitudes of people turning out, but we do often have good turnouts for things,” Ilg said. “Trivia contests may only get 60 people total, 15 kids per team, which is not huge, but it’s enough. It’s just like a club, it’s just another opportunity to do something that’s a little different.”

This year especially, Ilg said, the Cup’s momentum has “died down.” She said that while there is “still some enthusiasm for cheering for one’s team,” there have been fewer events and fewer participants than in past years.

In response to this level of student interest, Ilg said she and the other commissioners have made changes to the Cup during the last two years, such as cutting back on the number of events and relaxing rules for who can participate in certain events. The original scoring system was abandoned entirely, replaced by a less competitive system.

“The nature of the Jacobson Cup has become less competitive over the last two years,” middle school English teacher and Jacobson Cup commissioner Michael Chavez said. “The emphasis is more on participation than ‘beating’ everyone else.”

Upper school dean Jon Wimbish, who was a middle school dean and Jacobson Cup commissioner before moving to the Upper School two years ago, said he remembers that after his Badger house fell behind early on, there was “less and less” participation as the year progressed. Chavez said the commissioners have tried to address this problem.

“The morale was down for some houses who were not enjoying great success in the events,” Chavez said. “This seemed to go against the purpose of the house system, so it was altered in order to regain the participatory spirit it began with.”

Last year, the commissioners eliminated all scoring, only recognizing which house had won the most recent event by displaying that house’s flag on campus. This year, they are trying what Ilg called a “middle ground,” keeping score by counting the number of flags earned.

Another change instituted by the commissioners was loosening the rule in some competitions that teams had to include students from all grades. Wimbish said this rule was meant to help students from different grades connect, but that during his year working on the Jacobson Cup, this goal was not completely realized.

“The question became, how do we get them to meet each other?” he said.

The commissioners have also made it easier to participate in events without signing up in advance. Ilg said that at an after-school capture the flag game last year, many ninth graders passing the event stopped and asked to play.

“We’d rather have people going in there, playing for a minute or two, rather than saying, ‘Well no, you didn’t sign up,’” Ilg said. “‘The more, the merrier,’ is basically the mantra.”

Wimbish said that although he “dreamed big” when he helped start the Jacobson Cup, he understands why it has had to be changed since he left the Middle School.

“When you start something like that, you want to think that the thing that you’re creating [will become] ‘the thing,’ everybody’s into,” Wimbish said. “And sometimes that happens, sometimes it doesn’t. It’s hard to start traditions, because they need to happen organically.”

“I think the Cup is something that lives more in the background, and the events are less frequent,” Chavez said. “I still think, however, that the there is a spirit of togetherness among house members, and it provides a fun atmosphere for teachers and students. It gives us all a chance to take a break from the rigors of school.”

Feb. 10, 2010

The

C hronicle

School to provide swine flu vaccine

By Ingrid Chang

Swine flu vaccines for 250 people will be available to students, faculty and staff on campus next week.

The vaccines will be available at the Middle School on Wednesday Feb. 17 and at the Upper School the next day.

The vaccinations will be given and provided by Concentra Health Solutions at both campuses.

The vaccinations have been pre-ordered and there should be enough to cover everybody who has not already received them through their primary physicians or pharmacies, Personnel Assistant Nicole Ryan said.

Earlier in the year, more than 100 students were absent in one day on account of swine flu-like symptoms.

Since then, the school has taken measures to prevent future breakouts.

The school has installed hand sanitizers on the walls of both the upper and middle school campuses.

“We ordered them back in November,” she said. “But since then the vaccine has become so much more widely available through primary care physicians and pharmacies that probably most of the students and faculty and staff have already received their vaccines.”

Students can also receive vaccinations from physicians, pharmacies, and clinics if they need to get the vaccination injected immediately, Director of Sports Medicine Sandee Teruya said.

Although there is an overstock of H1N1 vaccine in the country, the school has not been able to obtain any until recently.

“Even though we are a school, we are considered general public, so we had to wait until all of the doctors in the Los Angeles County got their shipments and then we were able to order them from Concentra,” Ryan said.

Another factor that had delayed the vaccinations is that Concentra requires parents to sign a form giving permission for their child to be vaccinated, but Harvard-Westlake had already sent parents their own authorization form.

A sign-up form for vaccinations was mailed out in November because the administration originally thought the school would receive them sooner.

“We’re hoping to double up on them because the parents have already completed it,” Ryan said.

“We may ask that they sign one more piece of paper but it will be very minimal,” she said.

News A11

chronicle.hw.com

Honoring Carl Menifee Wilson

Alan Sasaki

Menifee’s Mark: Hank Adelmann ’11 and Hannah Rosenberg ’11 look at a photo of Carl Wilson at the exhibit “Menifee’s Mark” (named after Wilson) in Feldman-Horn on Monday. The exhibit shows Wilson’s sketches, paintings, photos and pastel works. Wilson, who died in 2008, founded the art department at Harvard School.

Council votes to keep study hall mandatory

By Noelle Lyons

Jordan Freisleben/chronicle

Can i have your autograph?: Dean Jon Wimbish gets “The Champion of Valens” signed by author Melissa Gertler ’11 at Barnes & Noble.

Book signing features junior’s book

By Jordan Freisleben

A junior’s novel was featured at a book signing at an Encino Barnes & Noble on Jan. 26.

Melissa Gertler ’11 first selfpublished “The Champion of Valens” in May 2009.

Shortly after its publication, Barnes & Noble agreed to stock Gertler’s book in a few select stores as well as online.

Gertler wrote the book for kids between ages 10 and 14, about the same age she was when she began to write it.

“I figured ‘I love to read, so why not?’” she said. “I couldn’t put a book down, so I said ‘why not write my own characters or create my own rules?’”

The fantasy and adventure novel takes place in the fictional land of Valens during the Middle Ages.

It focuses around the heroine Nara, who wants to be a warrior and succeed on the battlefield.

“My main character viewed the world from a romantic perspective,” Gertler said. “Even in my romanticized version of a bloody time period, it

wasn’t as great as we thought it would be.”

Gertler published her novel through AuthorHouse, a self-publishing company for first-time authors.

“Finding a publisher was an endless circle,” she said. “Publishers don’t want you without an agent, and agents don’t want you unless you’ve been published.”

While writing, Gertler researched Latin words as inspiration for the names of the fictional locations in her novel .

She eventually chose Valens, meaning powerful, for her country as well as Fortus, meaning strong, for its capital.

A large portion of the plot focused on the theme of growing up.

Gertler noticed themes that were prevalent in Nara and in herself at age 13.

“Both [Nara and I] struggled with conformity and nonconformity. I struggled to differentiate from people,” she said. “In the end, we were able to differentiate between ourselves and being nonconformist. Both Nara and I have somewhat grown up.”

The Sports Council voted in January to continue mandatory afterschool study halls for students with late practices or evening games, despite the suggestion of the Student Athletic don hagopian/chronicle Advisory Committee Terry Barnum to make study hall optional for athletes.

The Student Athletic Advisory Council had been getting complaints from student athletes who felt that the study halls were not necessary and that

they wanted to decide for themselves how to spend the time after school before games or practices.

Some athletes said they can’t always finish what they need to get done in the library, which is where athletes are required to spend the study hall period.

Student athletes are not obligated to do homework or study while they are in the library.

After deliberation, the members of the Sports Council voted to keep study hall mandatory. The school administration then accepted the Council’s recommendation.

“Discussions about study hall are ongoing and the school will continue to monitor the issue,” Head of the Advisory Council Terry Barnum said.

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opinion

A12

Harvard-Westlake School

Volume XIX

Issue 5

Feb. 10, 2010

The

C hronicle

3700 Coldwater Canyon, North Hollywood, CA 91604 Editors in Chief: Sam Adams, Hana Al-Henaid Managing Editors: Sammy Roth, Allegra Tepper Executive Editor: Michelle Nosratian Presentations Editor: Candice Navi

“They look fine, I don’t want to get in trouble...”

Multimedia Editor: Jamie Kim Business Manager: Neha Nimmagadda Ads Manager: David Burton Assistants: Jordan Gavens, Victor Yoon Chief Copy Editor: Ellina Chulpaeff Copy Editors: Spencer Gisser, Ester Khachatryan, Catherine Wang

When to make the call

J

VIVIEN MAO/CHRONICLE

ust say no. Be above the influence. We’ve all heard the sayings, we’ve all been told that alcohol in excess can cause alcohol poisoning. Despite this, in high school, drinking happens. Most of the time, no one gets hurt. It only takes one person to drink to excess, to not know the limit and push past the brink.

His breathing isn’t right, and nobody knows how to react. It’s a terrifying situation for everyone involved. At the unsanctioned semiformal afterparty, a non-Harvard-Westlake student was in this situation and, though the student ended up unharmed, the lag taken in calling an ambulance could have been the difference.

Too often not enough action is taken, or none at all. The fear of consequences—angry parents, blaring sirens, a ruined evening—leads to confusion when time could be a serious issue. But there is no punishment parents can give, no ticket so severe to justify pausing for an instant if a friend is in danger.

It is the responsibility of teenagers but also of the school and law enforcement to reiterate the fact that when a friend is displaying danger signs at a party, help must be called, and quickly. When 17-year-old Aydin Salek of South Pasadena died of alcohol-related causes after a party in December, his classmates did not call paramedics until it was too late for him to be saved. One of the reasons teenagers hesitate is fear of police retribution, though generally

the party is broken up and nothing more. Police must have a policy of 911 immunity, making it abundantly clear that they have no interest in issuing curfew tickets or busting underage drinkers when the stakes are so high. There can be no gray area or mixed signals if the goal is keeping teenagers safe.

Currently, there is no standard punishment for underage drinking at a party. Discipline, if any, ranges from a call to the parents to a misdemeanor charge.

The school too is responsible for informing students of the potential dangers of excessive consumption and the steps necessary to take when someone appears to be in danger. We praise the school’s Choices and Challenges curriculum that goes beyond slogans and abstinence-only deterrence, but more should be done to educate students about what to do and when to make the call.

Though it only takes one to put him or herself in danger, it takes all of us—teenagers, teachers, parents and law enforcement officials—to create an environment where help can be sought.

Neighborhood watch

I

n January, a registered sex offender convicted of rape and impersonation of a police officer was arrested at a house directly across the street from the north entrance of the Upper School on suspicion of a similar crime. The police prepared for the raid on school grounds.

Campus security said they were aware of the predator, who was registered at that address on the Megan’s List website. Jessica’s Law, which bans sex criminals from living within 2,000 feet of schools, among other places was passed two months after his release from prison in 2006.

At the Upper School, students are frequently walking off campus, out of range of the watchful eye of security guards. It is the responsibility of campus security to help students stay safe even when in the neighborhood, to alert the community of potential threats, such as the sex offender living in our backyard.

A Chronicle study found dozens of property and violent crimes reported within a close radius of the school in the past week, a higher number than you might expect. Furthermore, there are nine sex offenders registered as living in the same two-mile radius.

At the Upper School, not only are students walking more in the surrounding areas, but there

is no affluent, crime-free bubble that is the area around the Middle School. We’re not in Holmby Hills anymore.

Though our security team keeps tabs on local crime, they should pass on the information they collect to students. We suggest the creation of an area crime bulletin that can be posted on school grounds so students can be aware of who and what to look out for when off-campus.

Many colleges provide the same information for their students and it is our opinion that a similar idea would be useful at our school. It would not be to incite paranoia but rather to remind to remain alert.

We feel safe when at school. The security team’s diligent work on school shooting awareness and the regulation of campus visitors creates an atmosphere of protection—for this we are grateful.

Last month’s arrest has reminded us all that there is a world outside 3700 Coldwater Canyon, one that no number of security kiosks will be able to defend against.

News Managing Editors: Nicki Resnikoff, Michelle Yousefzadeh Section Heads: Emily Khaykin, Alice Phillips, Daniel Rothberg Assistants: Jessica Barzilay, Maddy Baxter, Hank Gerba, Sanjana Kucheria, Marissa Lepor, Rebecca Nussbaum, Hunter Price, Lara Sokoloff, Saj Sri-Kumar Opinion Managing Editors: Anna Etra, Erin Moy Section Heads: Kelly Ohriner, Jean Park Assistants: Eli Haims, Vivien Mao, Anabel Pasarow, Nick Pritzker Features and Arts & Entertainment Managing Editors: Drew Lash, Lauren Seo Features Section Heads: Jordan Freisleben, Olivia Kwitny, Mary Rose Fissinger Features Assistants: Evan Brown, Melanie Chan, Lauren Choi, Camille de Ry, Allison Hamburger, Claire Hong, Megan Kawasaki, Chelsea Khakshouri, Joyce Kim, Ryan Lash, Lauren Li Arts & Entertainment Section Heads: Ingrid Chang, Matthew Lee, Sade Tavangarian Arts & Entertainment Assistants: Justine Goode, Noelle Lyons Sports Managing Editors: Jack Davis, Alex Edel Sports Writer: Jonah Rosenbaum Photo Coordinator: Alec Caso Section Heads: Austin Block, Ashley Khakshouri, Alex Leichenger Assistants: Sofia Davila, David Gobel, David Kolin, Tiffany Liao, Judd Liebman, Austin Lee, Julius Pak, Chelsey Taylor-Vaughn Multimedia: Alex Gura, Chloe Lister, Nika Madyoon, Abbie Neufeld, Megan Wang, Susan Wang Web Designer: Jake Staahl 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 senior members of the Editorial Board. Advertising questions may be directed to Business Manager Neha Nimmagada at (818) 481-2087. Publication of an advertisement does not imply endorsement of the product or service by the newspaper or the school.

Feb. 10, 2010

The

C hronicle

Opinion A13

chronicle.hw.com

Jean

Park Faith, not religion

M

“ I feel that putting a title on my ‘faith’ would not change my real feelings nor should it have an effect on me.”

y parents have never shown much interest in religion.

Although my grandma is a Mahayana Buddhist, my mom has always told me that organized religion is just a human conception of something much greater than our own lives.

She tells me that people don’t need it to live a good life because it doesn’t have a tangible or obvious effect.

My mom sent me to an Episcopalian school, knowing that I would be forced to attend chapel services every Wednesday, read hymns in the Bible and actively participate in communion.

I always ate the bread of Christ and drank the wine, symbolic for His blood, but none of that had any profound meaning for me.

I didn’t want to be the odd one out in elementary school, so I told people I believed in God and I went to my community church on Sundays, but that was all clearly a lie. It didn’t really trouble me as a kid whether I believed in a higher power or not, since my immediate family has never stressed the importance of organized religion.

My mom’s beliefs in religion have definitely rubbed off on me a little and I have always struggled to find what I have faith in, by way of spiritual forces and higher powers.

I’ve always questioned it and I still do now.

People tell me that I “have” to have faith in something and they usually mean higher powers or spiritual forces, but I’ve been pretty content with having faith in the people in my life that I love and the emotional strength and capacity of human beings.

With my personal experiences, I have always found strength within the people around me.

I’ve watched many interviews and performances by the late comedian and author George Carlin, who blamed the whole concept of organized religion for the weaknesses of human capacity, and I think his point of view is somewhat valid.

I feel that if I had faith in uncontrollable forces, I would be setting myself up for disappointment.

I guess I am technically an atheist, but that does not mean I don’t have faith in anything.

Having faith is probably the strongest power that human beings can possess, but I honestly don’t think that people should be divided into separate religions depending on what they have faith “in.”

As long as they feel a deep and personal connection, that should be enough.

My good friend is a very devoted Catholic and my grandma, who is Buddhist, has been trying to convert me for years, but I feel that putting a title on my “faith” would not change my real feelings nor should it have an effect on me if I remain title-less.

“I have so much more TV to watchVivien before I can do homework.” mao, rYAN LASH AND ANABEL PASAROW/CHRONICLE

Me, myself and my DVR

C

ondemned by parents and older generations as “a waste of time,” television is my vice.

From my early days as a toddler “helping” Blue the Dog and Steve solve mysteries to my more recent days watching the finale of “Mad Men,” television has always been a part of my life.

I have learned how to smuggle hours of shows into my household and onto my DVR on a daily basis. I pride myself on my intricate television schedule, especially during the fall, when all 14 of my television shows coincide.

That’s 12 hours and 30 minutes of television per week. As you can imagine, the writers’ strike of 2007 was a tough four months.

It’s not television’s fault.

We students all have our ways of relieving stress. Most of the student body plays sports or works efficiently and go to bed early. I fit neither of these normal options. So what’s an easily distracted teen to do? That’s where television comes in.

“Television will freeze your brain!” my father warns.

After years of dutifully following the overdramatic plotlines of other people’s lives, I have finally found the value in television.

It is my escape. It is my reward. It’s the place where I know everyone’s name and they’re glad that I came. It is my time during

Candice

Navi

my test and homework-filled day where I can stop thinking about my life and lose myself in tantalizing plots and cut-throat reality competitions.

The characters on these shows have become familiar parts of my life that, honestly, I couldn’t imagine a week without.

I find myself bursting with excitement at the thought of Michael Scott and Dwight Schrute’s shenanigans on “The Office,” trying to guess what songs will be performed on “Glee,” and biting my nails as designers vie for a chance to show at Fashion Week on “Project Runway.”

I genuinely believe that television can be used as a teaching tool, and not just when a Laker game is interrupted by some breaking news. “The Simpsons” taught me about Hamlet long before my senior year, Stephen Colbert’s over-the-top antics are a semigenuine attempt to educate America’s coveted 18 to 49 demographic, and who knows where I would be were it not for the Count on “Sesame Street.”

The lesson I’m trying to impart is that television will not “brainwash” you. Like any other hobby, you must find time in your daily life for what you love.

It should never replace your studies or actual social interactions, but rather supplement and enhance them.

Letter to the Editor

Reading a changing art, not a lost one

The Dec. 16 issue of The Chronicle feautured a column that discussed reading habits at Harvard-Westlake. Head Librarian Shannon Acedo wrote a response.

Dear Chronicle, I understand the main point of a newspaper headline is to inspire one to read the article. To this end it is true that a vigorous and iconoclastic statement is often most effective.

In the case of Allegra Tepper’s opinion piece, “Reading, a lost art,” I can’t help wishing I could insert a nice bold question mark at the end of the title.

It is impossible for any librarian to let this one slip by. In fact, to put it in the vernacular, ‘them’s fightin’ words’ for those of us in the bibliosphere.

It is easy to say that reading is declining and that books are relics of a past civilization, but I would challenge

that view. The practice of reading is not dying; rather it is being transformed.

In fact, if you think of ‘ingesting’ a book, in all the ways that can be done (on paper, electronically through your Kindle or laptop, online via the public library or audibly through your iPod), the varieties of ‘reading’ seem to be expanding daily.

There are many studies exploring this transformation. One need only go as far as Amazon’s sales figures for books available through the Kindle to see that the tradition of reading is quite healthy indeed.

However, the experience of reading in the general public was not actually the focus of the piece, the main thrust of which was ‘here we are, at HarvardWestlake, widely regarded as premier academia, and yet, no one reads (emphasis mine).’

Here at Harvard-Westlake we all live in our own corners of campus. I live in the “library corner” of campus, and it turns out a number of HarvardWestlake students visit my corner

pretty often.

For instance, we’ve been doing a very brisk trade in Kurt Vonnegut titles, which is inspired in part by one book assigned for class reading. Student interest expanded beyond that one title, however, and we have had to get titles on inter-library loan to supply demand.

This is only for our own library circulation. Additionally, I know students have been getting their own books from many sources, including libraries and bookstores, as downloads and in paper.

I do not share Ms. Tepper’s fear that students will depart Harvard-Westlake as ‘academic clones’.

The best evidence for this is Ms. Tepper’s own declared intent of dusting the cobwebs off of her own (temporarily neglected) bookshelf. Her intellectual curiosity, fed in part by those assignments that kept her so busy, will not let her stay away for long.

-Shannon Acedo Head Librarian

A14 Opinion

The

C hronicle

Feb. 10, 2010

chronicle.hw.com

Brendan Kutler 1992-2009 L

I

am an Angelino. I spend more time driving in a car than I do at my destinations. In the span of 24 hours, I once ate a croissant, curry ramen, a barbeque burrito, dumplings with soy sauce, and Mongolian noodles—all at hole-in-the-wall restaurants within 10 miles of my house. My friends can speak more languages than I can count on two hands. The ground shaking beneath me is a normal experience. We have three seasons: “wet,” “dry,” and “fire.” I see movie stars in the grocery store, but not as much as you think.

Halfway around the garden path, I stop, absorbing the entirety of everything around me.

It is just me alone with my thoughts on a wooden bridge listening to the rushing water beneath my feet. I am truly at peace.

—Brendan Kutler 10/18/09

Brendan Kutler

I

ife is called many things, a collection of experiences or memories or simply the feeling that when you take a deep breath, you feel comfortable in your existence. For me, life is more than this: it is a symbol of all I have accomplished. For example, consider this question: “Would you, after you die, want the people you know to be sad?” Although it may seem a bit selfish, I truly want my friends and loved ones to be sad after my passing: if they weren’t, then I obviously was not a very important aspect of their life, and my own life was not as meaningful as I hope it is to be. In essence, I want to be able to reflect on my life and simply utter the words “I made a difference.” Right now, as I am staring at a computer screen at one in the morning, I feel that I am somewhat on the right track, but these next two years of high school are going to essentially define a still unclear aspect of my person, maturity, and finally my adulthood, a scary thought for a person who isn’t even able to vote. These days, our generation seems to be the people who will have to deal with more problems from the previous generation than ever before, and out of high school, I hope to gain the strength to tackle these problems, to make the difference that I am striving for.

This may not be the topic that was asked for, as it does not describe any specific instances or experiences that I have had, but I feel that these two small paragraphs have summed me up better as a person than any quirky occurrence, or reminiscing over my personal background could have ever had.

Don’t get me wrong, I have many stories, and I will be willing to share them with anyone who asks, whether it be the fact that I built my own computer last weekend, the bump I have on my neck from getting run over by a towed plastic boat traveling at 20 miles per hour, or my digital art that I create regularly, but I personally think that although the individual experiences are important, what ultimately matters is the sum of all of them: your ideals, the beliefs that you run your life by. If everyone concentrated more on their own ideals, then there would be much less misunderstanding and depression, less racism and violence, and ultimately more personal happiness.

—Brendan Kutler 4/2009

am part of the internet generation. I trade music regularly with friends in Australia, Turkey and Japan. I haven’t touched my family’s television in two years, but I still catch episodes of “The Daily Show” and “Dollhouse”. I have three computers, two monitors and five operating systems—just in my room. I run an online magazine with my friends in my free time.

Brendan Kutler

I

am a teenager. I have a curfew. I see movies with my friends and have pool parties and study groups on weekends. I know more than adults know I think, but less than what I think I know. I play tennis, read books and have LAN parties. My life can be measured in TBL (time before license) and AL (after license). School is the bane of my free time, but the place where I have the most fun. I have started clubs, left clubs, expanded clubs and joined clubs.

I

am a Kutler. I have driven an ATV in an African desert with my dad, have swum in the waters of Australia with my sister, and have cruised down the alleyways of Kyoto with my mom. I am on time (usually), and I think things are worth doing right the first time. I have five aunts, one uncle and 17 cousins. I am half- Jewish and half-Christian but I am non-religious.

I have laughed until I cried during card games. I have cried until I laughed during those long LA car rides.

This is my world--and I am ready to move on.

—Brendan Kutler 10/10/09

Brendan Kutler’s favorite quote 12/22/09 “I am anti-life, the beast of judgment. I am the dark at the end of everything. The end of universes, gods, worlds . . . of everything. And what will you be then, Dreamlord?”

“I am hope.”

—Neal Gaiman “The Sandman Vol.01: Preludes and Nocturnes”

Feb. 10, 2010

The

C hronicle

quadtalk Do you think students should know about crimes committed near school?

“I think we should know so we can be aware if we see something suspicious.”

—Brigid Sofen ’12

Opinion A15

chronicle.hw.com

makinggrades

A C

The Chronicle evaluates recent campus developments

The Community Council’s “pay what you want” bake sale for Haiti that raised over $4,000.

B+ F

The cast of “Our Town” gives out ice cream floats in the quad to promote the play.

School to start before Labor Day due to scheduling conflicts.

“depending on the crime, we should definitely be notified. for sex offenders, we should definitely know.”

The first floor of Chalmers housing a massive rat grave after an infestation caused by the rain.

bynumbers

The Chronicle polled 286 students who weighed in on security around our campus and dangerous drinking.

—Richard Weisman ’11

Campus Security “if something comes up suddenly and only the administration is aware of it then they should say something .”

—Father J. Young, Chaplain

Do you think it is the school’s responsibility to notify the students when a crime is committed around campus?

We should know what goes on around the campus neighborhood.

We want to be safe in our school environment.

It is not worth our time to know.

It is a violation of privacy.

How do you think you should respond when fellow students have had too much to drink?

“We should know since that makes us able to feel safe around our school community.”

95

94

—Courtney Reamer ’10

66 25

All photos by drew lash/Chronicle

196 66

13 9

Dangerous Drinking

Take care of them yourself for the rest of the night.

Call their parents or siblings to take them home.

Call the paramedics to make sure they are not in danger.

It is not your responsibility to look after them.

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

Feb. 10, 2010

2

Asixteen

T

candice navi/chronicle

6

3

1

candice navi/chronicle

(1) Emily Webb, played by Natalie Margolin ’10, prepares to get married. (2) Susanna Wolk ’10 gushes about the loveliness of the wedding. (3) Margolin pines for her lover atop a ladder. (4) Graham Parkes ’10 portrays Charles Webb, editor of the town newspaper. (5) Beanie Feldstein ’11 gives a pep talk to her character’s son, played by Stephen Carr ’12. (6) Jacob Axelrad ’10, playing the stage manager, runs the show.

pull up

a chair

5

Chloe Lister/chronicle

4

Chloe Lister/chronicle

Chloe Lister/chronicle

‘Our Town’ was performed in Rugby Auditorium last weekend.

The 1938 Thornton Wilder play is an American classic.

Chloe Lister/chronicle

he theater is buzzing with the typical pre-show stir as a single actor steps on stage. A soft spotlight shines on Jacob Axelrad ’10, the narrator and guide for the evening, dapper in early 20th century apparel as he patiently waits for the audience to take notice and their seats. The black Rugby stage is nearly empty. As the audience hum soften, one audience member pipes up, “That’s quite a collection of chairs. I don’t think anyone is a duplicate of another.” Indeed, a narrator and a collection of chairs was all the cast, crew, and Director Ted Walch needed to bring Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town” to stoic fruition.

An ensemble of 24 students performed “Our Town” last weekend on Feb. 4, 5, and 6. Natalie Margolin ’10 and Stephen Carr ’12 played the central characters within the play, two teenagers destined for marriage and a family. Axelrad exists independently of the Gibbs and Webb families as a 1930’s stage manager, remaining on stage to explain the drama as it unfolds. The script features raw dialogue chronicling two families as they deal with the central themes of love, marriage, life and death.

Wilder himself requested that those putting on his three-act period piece, set in 1938, cast aside curtains and scenery, allowing the tale of average citizens in the sleepy town of Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire to unfold. Often referred to as the “classic American play,” “Our Town” earned Wilder a Pulitzer Prize, and has been performed every day somewhere since its opening 72 years ago.

The cast earned a standing ovation on opening night from a packed Rugby filled with wet cheeks after the emotional and climactic third act in which Wilder harmoniously weaves the heavier motifs into a stark script that culminates in surreal commentaries on eternity and the afterlife.

Jon O’Hara ’10 accompanied the ensemble on piano, playing original works that he composed at Walch’s request. Both O’Hara and members of the cast sat in the audience at points in the play, contributing to the transformation of Rugby into that 1930s theatre. This wasn’t the first time “Our Town” was performed on that stage, however; Walch previously directed the show at HarvardWestlake in 1992 and 2002. The actor from the 1992 production who played Carr’s role of George Gibbs, Billy Eddy ’93 attended the show this weekend and joked that he would hop on the stage for a reprise should Carr forget his lines, Walch said.

“I want as many students as possible to experience this play, either on stage or in the audience, which is why I’ve directed it as many times as I have,” Walch said. “Each time it’s completely different. This is the first year with virtually no set.”

Student actors were asked to work on putting their own costumes together along with designer Lisa Peters, which Walch thought “invested them more in what they were doing.” Their only guidelines were to find an ensemble that suited their character and evoked the feeling of a time before our own.

—Allegra Tepper

features The

Harvard-Westlake School

Chronicle

Volume XIX

Issue 5

Feb. 10, 2010

quad-crossed

lovers

We may not be in fair Verona, but love stories do emerge at 3700 Coldwater Canyon.

Pages B6-7.

Photos by Allegra Tepper/chronicle

B2 Features

The

C hronicle

Feb. 10, 2010

chronicle.hw.com

ALCOHOL OVERLOAD When to call 911

What to look out for: These actions don’t help and can be actually detrimental:

1

1 2 2 3 3 4 4 Lack of Consciousness

Walking it off

avi/chronicle ace N Cand

Uncontrollable Vomiting

Drinking black coffee

Choking

Taking cold showers

Source: Dr. Joel Geiderman, Co-Chairman of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center

By Nicki Resnikoff Lights illuminated the backyard to reveal teenagers laughing sipping vodka and lemonade, enjoying each other’s company.

Stu* ’10 was having a party at his house and everyone was having fun. It was turning out to be a great night, until Stu’s friend George* ’10 had too much to drink.

“Originally, the plan was to clean him up and get him to sleep it off,” Stu said.

But, all of a sudden, everything changed: due to his impairment from alcohol, George got hurt.

“The injury wasn’t that bad,” Stu said. “But he had such a slow reaction.

We knew we had to call 911.”

Although Stu was not afraid of getting in trouble with his parents, as they knew about the party, he was a little scared about calling the police.

However, Stu’s fears did not influence his decision.

“I had to put him ahead of getting in trouble,” Stu said. “The injury was nothing, but if he hadn’t gone to the hospital, something really bad could have happened.”

George was not mad at his friends for calling an ambulance.

“I think it was a good and safe call,” he said. “Looking back it may have been unnecessary, but it was understandable.”

The Paramedics and Fire Department arrived, and took George to the hosptial, the party continued.

Alcohol causes over 10,000 deaths nationwide each year.

Binge drinking, consuming five or more drinks at one time, is the leading cause of alcohol poisoning. Although the majority of deaths from alcohol poisoning occur in adults ages 45 to 54, alcohol poisoning and binge drinking is a growing problem among high school and college students.

These visits included treatment not only for alcohol poisoning, but also injuries sustained while under the influence.

People suffering alcohol poisoning require medical attention.

Younger people are more prone to alcohol poisoning, according to Dr. Joel Geiderman, Co-Chairman of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

“Alcohol in large doses is a respiratory depressant,” he said. “It also causes loss of consciousness and may induce vomiting. A patient who drinks to excess, especially quickly, may vomit, choke on their vomitus and/or stop breathing.”

Key symptoms that indicate the need to call an ambulance are unconsciousness and choking, Geiderman said.

Other symptoms that indicate alcohol poisoning, according to the Mayo Clinic, are confusion, stupor, seizures, blue-ish or pale skin, and hypothermia.

However, the Mayo Clinic states on their website that the absence of one or more of these symptoms does not mean that an ambulance should not be called.

Many cases of alcohol poisoning are not reported, and the appropriate medical attention is not received. In a study conducted at Cornell University in 2000, 19 percent of the subjects were found to have considered calling for help for someone who was “severely intoxicated.” However, only four percent of the subjects actually ended up calling for help.

One of the most cited reasons in the Cornell study that respondents did not end up calling for help was fear of getting the intoxicated person trouble (3.8 percent).

In order to encourage students to call the necessary emergency services, over 90 universities nationwide have instituted “Good Samaritan Policies,” according to Students for Sensible Drug Policy.

These policies protect students from being punished when they call for help during an alcohol or drug related emergency. In 2007, New Mexico instituted a 911 Good Samaritan Law that shields from drug possession charges during an overdose emergency.

Many times, according to Sergeant Guttilla of the North Hollywood Division of the Los Angeles Police Department, people are afraid to call 911 when someone has passed out or having convulsions.

“Usually, an ambulance will show up,” Guttilla said. “It is up to them to call us, but they are more concerned with the medical aspect than the criminal.”

If police do arrive at a party where there is underage drinking, there are a few possibilities of what could happen.

Teenagers who have been drinking could be arrested, cited for a misde-

Source: www.mayoclinic.com

graphic By Olivia Kwitny

Sleeping it off

Blue Face

meanor and taken to juvenile court.

“Usually, we try not to take people to jail,” Guttilla said.

The police will contact parents, because there needs to be a responsible adult there, Guttilla said.

It seems that high school students still hesitate to call 911 in the case of an alcohol- related emergency.

During the unsanctioned semiformal after-party, Milken High School senior Leah Steinberg, who was just near the party and not attending it, walked into the bathroom to see a non-Harvard-Westlake girl vomiting.

“She was with a bunch of friends who kept saying ‘we have it under control,’” Steinberg said.

Steinberg said security guards present told her, ‘Sorry, but they are refusing medical attention,’” Steinberg said. “Everyone was running around, and they seemed consumed with not getting in trouble.”

Eventually, Steinberg called the paramedics herself.

“The kids said it was none of my business, but she was not in good shape.

They seemed more concerned with their own being in trouble than their friend being really sick,” she said. “I found it traumatic to watch.”

According to Geiderman, there are rarely teenagers admitted to the ER at Cedars for alcohol poisoning. When they are admitted, doctors call the patient’s parents, he said. He also suggests the parents be called when the teen gets sick.

“The first call should be to the child’s parents,” he said. “The judgment and help of an adult is useful in these situations.”

“Kids shouldn’t be willing to sacrifice their whole futures to drink in high school,” Geiderman added.

Mariah* ’11 witnessed a situation of alcohol poisoning at a party.

“There was a girl unconscious and her friends were too afraid to call for help because they feared the party would get shut down, they would get in trouble, and their friend would get in trouble,” she said.

Someone at the party finally called 911, the paramedics came. The party was not shut down, Mariah said.

“Her family was very thankful that somebody did call an ambulance because she could have died,” Mariah said.

The Cornell study found that the leading reason for students not calling for help was that they were not sure if the intoxicated person was “sick enough.” This was the reason cited by 9.3 percent of the respondents who did not call for help.

One way to determine if medical attention is needed is to call the local poison control center (1-800-222-1222). The staff will give instructions to the caller as to whether or not to go to the hospital, and the call will be confidential.

If the person is unconscious or vomiting uncontrollably, the Mayo Clinic says that 911 should be called immediately. The website suggests finding out how much of what type of alcohol the person consumed to tell emergency services.

Besides the dangers of alcohol poisoning, alcohol impairs judgment, which can lead to injuries.

Although teens in general are most vulnerable to alcohol’s effects this may be more extreme based on features or habits, According to the Mayo Clinic, gender is a factor. While males have been more prone to alcohol poisoning because of their greater tendency to drink, this is no longer the case. Females are also more susceptible to the effects of alcohol because they produce less of an enzyme that deals with alcohol in the stomach than males do.

Size and health are also important; smaller people are more susceptible to alcohol poisoning. And, health problems such as diabetes and heart disease, the Mayo Clinic’s website says, can exacerbate the consequences of binge drinking.

An empty stomach will cause alcohol to enter the bloodstream faster and taking drugs while drinking alcohol can be fatal. “[Alcohol poisoning] is especially bad when drugs are mixed in,” Geiderman said. “There is a synergistic effect.”

The Mayo Clinic website addresses home remedies to sober up that are ineffective. Among these myths are drinking black coffee, taking a cold shower and walking or sleeping it off. Not only are these methods ineffective, some are actually detrimental. The shock of cold in a cold shower as well as sleeping can cause loss of consciousness. *Names have been changed

Feb. 10, 2010

The

C hronicle

chronicle.hw.com

Crash dieting

By Jordan Freisleben

and

Emily Khaykin

Right after waking up, Alicia ’11* walked into her bathroom and stepped on the scale. As she looked down, the scale read that she was more than 20 pounds lighter than she was just a few months earlier.

Alicia achieved these results through crash dieting, severely reducing her calorie intake to one meal a day.

According to Mary Donkersloot, a Beverly Hills nutritionist, although crash dieting might seem beneficial, in the short run it can eventually lead to an obsession with food. “[Crash dieting] is not productive,” Donkersloot said. “You can go from starving yourself to gulping down food.”

During the four weeks of extreme dieting, Alicia was eating between 600 and 800 calories a day, less than half of the recommended daily allowance of 2,000 calories by the United States Department of Agriculture.

“People don’t get fat when they eat when they’re hungry,” Donkersloot said. “People gain weight when they eat when they shouldn’t be.”

When crash dieting, bodies first lose nutrients and water, according to Donkersloot. One nutrient that tends to be depleted first is glycogen, a molecule produced by the liver that stores glucose, or sugar, for later use.

“For every one gram of glycogen lost, you also lose two grams of water,” said Donkersloot, which results in severe dehydration.

“When people lose glycogen, it creates an illusion,” Donkersloot said, “from food we get both nutrients and water, and when they start eating again, they will gain glycogen again. This will cause them to gain all the weight back, and maybe even more.”

Features B3

Drastically reducing calorie intake to lose weight can cause long term consequences.

According to Wellsphere.com, a health and wellness website sponsored by Stanford University, “only five percent of crash dieters will be successful at keeping the weight that they lost off.”

Crash dieting, although more prevalent in girls, is done by boys as well, Counselor Luba Bek said.

“Guys crash diet, too, but more often for different reasons,” Bek said, “like for a wrestling tournament.”

In addition to inefficiency in weight loss, crash dieting can affect one’s performance, Donkersloot said.

“When people go on crash diets, it becomes increasingly hard to concentrate and focus, it also makes you irritable and cranky,” said Donkersloot.

“I was really irritable [when I crash-dieted] because I was always hungry,” Alicia said.

Although Alicia only crash dieted for a few months, long-term crash dieting can have serious side-effects.

“Long-term crash dieting can affect your heart and your hair will start to fall out among other things,” Donkersloot said. “You can become obsessive about certain things, as well as less spontaneous.”

About two months into her crash diet, Alicia noticed some adverse effects.

“I lost my period for a while, because I was underweight for [someone with my body type],” she said. “My mom and I also noticed that I had gotten really pale.”

Crash dieting can also disrupt sleeping patterns, Donkersloot said.

“There’s no deep psychological meaning to [crash-dieting],” Bek said, but Alicia said that while she crash dieted, she felt a change in her self-image.

“Clinically, it’s a control thing,” Alicia said. “I wanted to look like a model, and it was stupid because I wasn’t taking my actual body shape into consideration.”

Alicia turned to crash-dieting after her doctor had told her that she was overweight.

“I didn’t know any other way to diet, no other way had ever worked for me,” she said. “I wanted to lose the weight quickly.”

People choose to crash diet frequently before public events, like semiformal and Prom.

“These events are the one occasion where they [girls] want to look like a million bucks,” said Bek, “and sometimes girls really like a dress and it only happens to be in one size.”

Donkersloot recommends that the best way to lose weight is to become structured with your eating habits, instead of being a “chaotic eater.”

She suggests that people eat every three to four hours.

Alicia regrets crash-dieting, believing that it was completely ineffective.

“It was a waste of time, I gained it all back and more,” she said. “It was stupid because not only did I gain all of the weight back, but [crashdieting] gives you more emotional problems.”

Donkersloot suggests that the best way to lose weight and keep it off is by reducing your daily calorie intake by 500 calories with regular exercise. And since one pound is roughly equal to 3500 calories, at this rate a person will be able to lose one pound per week.

In all, Donkersloot suggests that instead of crash dieting, people should “change their eating habits, not stop eating altogether.”

“When you crash-diet, you start gauging your self-worth by weight and by the number you see on a scale,” Alicia said. *Name changed upon request

Candice Navi/chronicle

B4 Features

C hronicle

The

Back to the factory

By Michelle Nosratian

Rachel Kat ’11 was headed to Starbucks when her brakes failed, making her part of the atuo recall epidemic affecting thousands of drivers.

“The lovely three-day interim that so cruelly straddles one exam completed and the ensuing barrage yet to come…and I already feel as though I’m behind on the day’s studying that lies ahead,” Katz asked. “So what conclusion does any logical, stress-tormented, sleep-deprived Harvard-Westlake student come to? Head to Starbucks.”

However, what started out as an unremarkable trip to the west side for a “studycaffeination extravaganza” ended with a 2010 Jeep Wrangler crumpling head first into a power line.

Katz was shocked when the steering wheel didn’t respond to her movements. A few seconds later it was clear to Katz that the brake had “seized up too and won’t stop my car which is…coasting towards Ventura.” Katz attempted to move the gear into park only to find that it was stuck in drive. She attempted to enable her emergency brake as a last resort, but it would not budge either.

“A grand total of 50 seconds or so after this ordeal had begun, wheel locked, brake stuck, gear and emergency brake likewise stuck, essentially lacking any control whatsoever over the direction of my car, and unable to stop it as it continued to accelerate towards the boulevard on the slippery, rain-slicked concrete, I made an executive decision: Rachel, take control of the one thing over which you still have it—your body. Jump. And so I did,” she said. “Fortunately, the car door still opened and in one-fell-swoop I was out of my seatbelt and on the pavement. I rolled around just in time to hear that delightful crunch that was my [car] crashing head-on into a power line down my block.”

A Jeep representative said that the 2010 Jeep Wrangler was recalled for a defect in the brake linkage that could cause sudden brake failure. In order to determine which Wranglers are affected, customers should contact Jeep dealerships.

Recently, car companies Chrysler, Honda, Toyota and Lexus have issued recalls for certain models for a myriad of different malfunctions, ranging in hazardousness from inconvenient to life-threatening.

Toyota recalled certain vehicles already on the road and halted production of the affected models.

There are two major issues with certain models of Toyota cars: a sticking accelerator pedal and floor mat entrapment. (The affected models are listed below) According to a statement on Toyota’s website, the floor mat entrapment recall “regards

the potential for an unsecured or incompatible driver’s floor mat to interfere with the accelerator pedal and cause it to get stuck in the wide-open position.”

Toyota is also conducting a pedal recall because “there is a possibility that certain accelerator pedal mechanisms may mechanically stick in a partially depressed position or return slowly to the idle position.”

In the rare case that your pedal sticks, Toyota recommends shifting the transmission gear selector to the neutral position and using the brakes to make a controlled stop at the side of the road and turn off the engine.

Toyota has taken multiple steps to deal with the faults. For one, they have started sending letters to owners of vehicles involved in the recall to schedule an appointment at their dealership, which have extended their hours and trained a task force of technicians to make the repairs.

The car company has also halted production of affected models in North American plants in order to focus on remedying the problem for cars already on the road.

Seventy-three of the 445 cars parked at the Upper School on Monday, Feb. 8 were Toyotas, although not all of the cars were being recalled. Math teacher Jeffrey Snapp drives a 2010 Toyota Prius, which he learned was recalled on the news. He doesn’t plan to take his car to a dealership until he gets the official notice.

“It is the only car I have so I will continue to drive it,” Snapp said. “This is my fourth Toyota. I have faith in the quality and reputation of Toyota. They will fix their problems.

However, it is unfortunate that their dismissive posture on this and other issues has allowed some people to die—but that’s typical corporate reactionary strategy.”

Toyota advises owners of vehicles affected by the floor mat recall to take out their driver’s floor mat until they are contacted by Toyota and asked to bring their car to a dealership.

At the dealership, the shape of the accelerator pedal will be reconfigured, and in certain models, the shape of the floor surface will be altered to increase space between the pedal and the mat.

Toyota will lose an estimated $2 billion this year as a result of this ordeal, CNN reported.

Although the recall of Toyota vehicles principally affects those vehicles made in the United States, Lexus, which is owned by Toyota and has its vehicles assembled in Japan, is having problems with the IS and ES series, Lexus representative Elizabeth Neumen said.

“The different design on the accelerator pedals on those two particular models causes the problem,” she said. “There is not enough space between the mat and the pedal in those

>> >>

Highlander Hybrids and Camry Hybrids will remain for sale.

2005-2010 Tacoma 2004-2010 Prius

particular vehicles.”

Michael Karsh ’10 drives a 2008 Lexus IS 250, but said he’s not too worried about taking his car to the dealership.

“I love Toyota,” he said. “I think they are a great company with great cars.”

Certain components of 2007 and 2008 models of the Honda Fit are being recalled as well, but it depends on the Vehicle Identification Number (VIN).

“There are notices going out in the early part of March once we get the affected VINs sorted out,” said a Honda representative.

“If the driver’s power window master switch, which is the one that controls all the windows, is subjected to rainfall or a beverage spill the liquid can enter the switch and damage the circuit board,” the rep said. “You would have to have your window unrolled and it only occurs in very rare instances when extreme amount of liquid enters the switch and causes a heating issue, which could potentially lead to a fire.”

The rep recommended Fit owners see their local dealer immediately if they are having problems with your windows. Owners can also enter their VIN at www.owners.honda. com to find out if your car is affected by the recall.

Because they use mostly older vehicles, driving schools have remained largely unaffected by the recalls.

“Maybe we just have a good batch, but our vehicles haven’t been recalled at all,” Jessie Raniola of Melrose Driving School said. “We don’t use floor mats anyway.”

Driver’s Ed Direct, another popular driving school among Harvard-Westlake students has also not been affected.

“Our vehicles have not been recalled,” Marlene Galvan of Driver’s Ed Direct said.

“The Priuses we use are not affected.”

Katz’s Jeep was affected by the recall of several Chrysler models because of a potential defect in the brake system that could result in brake failure.

On the night following Katz’s accident, Katz’s mother called her downstairs to look at the television.

“On CNN there’s a recall on various Honda and Chrysler vehicles of this year, my Jeep included,” she said.

Katz was contacted by a Jeep engineer who “asked for a detailed oral report regarding my experience in order to help them further identify the problem.”

She is currently using her father’s car as a means of transportation, but hopes that she will soon be back in the driver’s seat of another Jeep, “though selling my parental units on that could be tough.”

– Additional reporting by Spencer Gisser and Candice Navi

king Accele Stic rat or

al

Exceptions...

o

a M r

trapment t En

As many as 20 percent of Upper School drivers may be affected by recalls.

d Pe

The following Toyota models have been recalled due to floor mat entrapment, a sticking accelerator pedal, or both.

Flo

Take it back

Feb. 10, 2010

chronicle.hw.com

2005-2010 Avalon 2007-2010 Camry 2009-2010 Corolla 2008-2010 Highlander 2007-2010 Tundra 2009-2010 Matrix

2009-2010 RAV4

2008-2010 Sequoia

2009-2010 VENZA

Camry, RAV4, Corolla and Highlander vehicles with VINs that begin with “J” are not included.

Source: www.toyota.com Infographic by Lauren choi, allison hamburger, claire hong, michelle nosratian and lauren seo

Feb. 10, 2010

The

C hronicle

gourmet on the go

Features B5

chronicle.hw.com

lauren seo/chronicle

Traveling cuisine: Joe Girton ’10 waits to order two Korean Short Rib Tacos at the Kogi Truck in Venice. He found the truck’s location on Twitter.

By Candice Navi

J

oe Girton ’10 and his mother managed to get in line for tacos early. In a matter of minutes, about 50 people suddenly lined up behind him to purchase food from a truck selling Korean tacos, right in front of a Culver City chef supply store.

After two Kalbi Tacos, Girton said his mind was blown.

Girton is a regular patron of Kogi Korean BBQ, a gourmet food truck serving what Girton described as “a natural union” of gourmet Korean and Mexican food. Soon after joining Twitter, Girton came upon Kogi’s Twitter account, which is constantly updated.

Kogi Korean BBQ has four different trucks—Roja, Azul, Verde and Naranja—which are in different locations throughout the greater Los Angeles area every day, including Venice Beach, Encino, Orange County, Pomona, Brentwood and Pasadena. The weekly schedule is available on their website or Twitter account.

Followers on Twitter are given minute by minute updates on what is still available to order and the exact location of each of the four trucks. The trucks are in operation Tuesday through Saturday, starting at around noon and ending at midnight or 1 a.m.

Tacos and drinks cost $2 and Kogi Favorites—such as sliders and kimchi quesadillas— are all $5 each.

Kogi is just one of the many gourmet food trucks that have recently sprung up across Los Angeles.

“The idea sounded so incredible,” Girton said. “I’m a foodie at heart, but I know that some of the best food in the world costs less than $10 and I had heard rave reviews about Kogi.”

Girton’s first Kalbi Tacos were made of Korean short rib beef, “this great secret spicy sauce and some kimchi on top,” Girton said. He has now eaten at Kogi about 10 times.

Convinced by his brother of Kogi’s appeal just last year, Maguire Parsons ’11 ended up waiting about an hour for his first Kogi meal.

“I had the short rib tacos which were actually really good because I’ve never had taco with barbequed short ribs in it, so that was cool,” Parsons said.

Since then, Parsons has eaten at Kogi a few more times with a shorter wait time of 30 to 45 minutes.

He has consistently gotten KBBQ Sliders, which he believes to be the best item on the menu.

“I’d probably go back for those alone,” Parsons said.

Parsons says food trucks like Kogi are hardly spoken about on campus because most students already know about them.

“They’re just not willing to wait an hour for food but I guess I am though,” Parsons said. “It’s pretty cheap I guess. I don’t mind paying $2 for a taco or $5 for a burrito. Pretty normal prices I think.”

Max Simchowitz ’10 has been to Kogi nearly 15 times and believes that food trucks like Kogi give him an excuse to drive an extra half hour to explore unknown parts of Los Angeles or to stay up after midnight.

Girton agreed, saying that the quality of food is worth the wait and the travel time.

“Usually, I find myself at Kogi late at night just because that’s when they usually go out,” Girton said.

Posting their ever-changing locations on the Internet, food trucks have become a more popular choice for cheap, quality food.

“I don’t go as much because a lot of the time they go to really random neighborhoods way out of my range.

The tacos are just as much as anywhere else—about $2.50 plus tax—but they’re so much better than anything you’d get at a taco truck or even a sit-down Mexican restaurant anywhere in L.A. So it’s a great place to eat cheaply.”

Parsons has noticed some other trucks cropping up recently, including a shaved ice truck that occasionally accompanies Kogi trucks.

“I’ve seen some knockoff trucks called Calbi and stuff but I’ve never eaten at those, they seem pretty lame,” Parsons said. “I think the truck thing in L.A. is just hype, but I like it so I can’t complain.”

Other trucks selling “Korean-Mexican” food have joined the likes of Kogi.

“One time, [Simchowitz] and I tried the Nom Nom Truck, which sells Vietnamese banh mi sandwiches,” Girton said. “It was really disappointing, so I think I’ll stick to Kogi from now on, although I’m really tempted to try The Grilled Cheese Truck, which stops near my house all the time. Their tweets are really alluring.”

Simchowitz experiences a feeling of freedom when eating from gourmet food trucks, he said.

“I guess the appeal of food trucks is a sense of liberation—you aren’t confined to a restaurant, you’re outside, you can come and go as you please and the small portions deceptively give you the impression that the food is cheap,” Simchowitz said.

Middle school English teacher Christopher Rutherford is a supporter of the “gourmet/bourgeois food truck movement.” He had gotten more than 2,200 signatures to overturn a law that penalizes truck owners who stay in one location for too long with fines or a year in jail. He believes that trucks like Kogi and The Grilled Cheese Truck have made food from trucks trendy.

“What the new trucks have achieved is making mobile food ‘cool’ in areas where it was previously seen as something dangerous and disgusting,” Rutherford said. “The new trucks have also done a good job of playing to the tastes of this demographic.”

Rutherford is not too fond of the Kogi Korean BBQ truck.

“Kogi is extremely popular, but their blog drives me crazy as an English teacher, and they are unbelievable prima donnas for someone serving tacos out of a truck,” Rutherford said. “Think of the Soup Nazi from Seinfeld if he wore his hat sideways and appropriated hip-hop colloquialisms instead of shouting ‘no soup for you!’”

As alternatives to the more trendy trucks, Rutherford recommends Leo’s Tacos on Eagle Rock Boulevard, Tacos La Estrella on York Boulevard in Highland Park, the Green Truck and the Let’s be Frank truck.

“It’s cheap, perfect, really the ultimate comfort food,” Girton said.

“Anything that costs $2.50 and puts a smile on your face is worth it, in my opinion.” laur

en se o/chronicle

Trendy trucks English teacher Christopher Rutherford and Max Simchowitz ’10 recommend popular food trucks.

Let’s be Frank

Recommended by Rutherford

Serves: Hot dogs made from California pasture-based livestock.

The Grilled Cheese Truck Recommended by Rutherford

Serves: Unlikely twists on the classic bread, butter and cheese.

Get Shaved

Recommended by Rutherford

Serves: Shaved block ice drizzled with homemade syrup.

Kogi Truck

Recommended by Simchowitz ’10

Serves: Korean barbeque in Mexican and American dishes.

wheeling out bbq: The Kogi Truck has grown in popularity for its unique, cross-cultural tastes.

B6 Features

sweet talk

Feb. 10, 2010 The

Tales of lo after sever couples, th

Lo

Tattoo for two

While spending the afternoon together, Erin Landau ’11 announced to her boyfriend, Jake Shapiro ’12 that she was bored.

“Let’s do an art project!” Landau said in order to resolve their boredom.

Shapiro liked the idea, remembering that by coincidence he had two 3-by-1 canvases lying around in his garage. The two spent the rest of the day gathering random odds and ends from around his house. By the end of the day Landau and Shapiro exchanged canvases covered in oil paints and googly eyes. The finished products are now kept as keepsakes in each of their rooms.

“It was my favorite thing we’ve done together,” Landau said.

Landau and Shapiro have been together for 10 months, meeting each other on the late bus home from her soccer practice and his volleyball practice. He sat down in the empty seat next to her where they started talking about how he was liking his freshman year.

“We got into talking about Biology. She started remembering how cool she thought the pig dissection was, and I thought it was really cool to hear that from a girl. I never would have expected that,” Shapiro said.

The two started hanging out, eventually going to the store Anthropologie that has a great scented candle collection. The candles were a bit expensive, so Landau decided not to get one.

“I knew she really liked this one candle, so I went back and bought it. I asked her out with a note inside the candle,” Shapiro said. “I hid it in her backpack. Once she got off the bus and got home, she got the note and called me saying yes.”

This started one of their unique traditions of buying each other candles.

Another tradition of theirs stems from their first date at the Santa Monica Pier. 7-Eleven was handing out coupons for free Slurpees with temporary tattoos; they got a heart and a skull with crossbones. Ever since, the couple has exchanged tattoos frequently. Among the favorites were tattoos of Aquaman, Spongebob Squarepants, and the movie “17 Again,” Landau said with a laugh.

Shapiro incorporated this tradition into the way he asked Landau to Semi-Formal.

“Jake said he had some tattoos from his house. He put them behind his back and told me to pick one. He had gotten a heart and a skull (just like our first date) and had gotten them personalized. He had written ‘Semiformal’ on them,” Landau said.

And of course, she said yes.

—Drew Lash

Ch

After typed aw until the get to kn Frien ’98 and C year.

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young love: Erin Landau ’11 and Jake Shapiro ’12 share a moment alone together on the grass outside of Rugby, away from the noise and bustle of school and friends.

hronicle

Features B7

chronicle.hw.com

ove and desire abound during February. Relationships rekindled ral decades, the transition from high school sweethearts to adult he anxiety of taking that next step: these couples tell it all.

ove for the ages

r the 30 other freshmen all signed out of the chatroom, Meri333 and Sonickool way to each other until 4 a.m. Though the two shared a Russian class, it was not ey bonded over America Online, then revolutionary in 1994, that they began to now each other. ndship fueled by post-midnight chats turned into romance, and Merideth Dunn Cary Clarke ’98 officially called each other “boyfriend and girlfriend” that very

ard-Westlake and Yale diplomas each later, Dunn and Clarke now call each artners” to emphasize their level of commitment in a relationship going strong teen years. ough the two grew up together, neither Clarke nor Dunn allows their relationdictate their own decisions, a principle Dunn believes staves off the resentment mes from prioritizing the couple over the individual. In fact, although both Russian and Eastern European Studies at Yale, choosing a college was a decide individually, with each taking separate trip to visit colleges. Nevertheless, ng college together was not without its difficulties. nk our transition to college was more difficult than it was for others,” Clarke We had to figure out how to be individuals while still being in our relationship.” r priority in growing as individuals played a huge role in their relationship in hen the two lived in different cities for the first time. Dunn moved to San Franr medical school, while Clarke moved to Portland, where he played in his band k” and founded a nonprofit organization, PDX Pop Now!, which hosted summer estivals. en you’re in different cities, you really have to check in with yourself that you’re he relationship out of habit, but that you actively want to be in it,” Dunn said. ough Dunn’s years of medical school and residency divided the two across state ey made it work by talking every day and spending one weekend a month with

courtesy of cary Clarke '98

hot stuff: Cary Clarke ’98 and Meredith Dunn ’98 climb a volcano in Guatemala. each other, a weekend Dunn said they “both tried not to put too much pressure on.”

Dunn believes that what allowed their relationship to go through so many transitions, from high school to college to the “real world,” is their friendship.

“We’re really the best of friends, and it’s the core of our relationship,” Dunn said.

“It’s honestly what makes it so great to watch each other change and grow.”

—Lauren Seo

vE

Long lost lovers, reunited at last

It was a May evening in Los Angeles more than 40 years ago when Diana Duke Grothe ’68 first met Adam Ogilvie ’67 at a Harvard student’s house. She was a 17-year-old Westlake student and he was a 19-year-old Harvard exchange student from England. It was the old story: boy meets girl, boy and girl fall in love, boy has to move back to England in two weeks.

They had a whirlwind romance, cramming all the requisites of a high school romance into the short amount of time allotted. They attended Harvard’s Grad Night and Westlake’s Prom together and made a point of cancelling all of their other plans with friends to appreciate their last moments together.

Time of course, took its toll on the young couple. Ogilvie returned to England and though they promised to write to each other cross-Atlantic, the high school relationship faded into a long distance friendship. They both established families of their own; Diana Duke got married and became Diana Grothe, Ogilvie got married and had children. In 2008 both their lives shifted as Grothe’s husband died and Ogilvie

got divorced.

It was not until last year when Ogilvie visited Los Angeles over Christmas that they saw each other again.

“We had a wonderful time together and then he had to go back to England again,” Grothe said.

It seemed like it was the spring of 1968 all over again until Grothe returned the visit, traveling to England to visit Ogilvie and his family. The visits between Ogilvie and Grothe continued regularly until Grothe’s visit to England this September when Ogilvie proposed on her 60th birthday.

Ogilvie and Duke Grothe are going to be married at St. Saviour’s Chapel on Sunday, Feb 14 with their family and Harvard and Westlake class mates in the audience.

“I feel like this has been one of the happiest years of my life,” said Grothe, “having my love come back to me after all these years.”

—Erin Moy

Photos by Mary Rose Fissinger and lael pollack

Rubber romance The condoms were everywhere. Everywhere. In his bedside table, his desk drawer. In his wallet. In his car, tucked into the glove compartment between his insurance and registration. She wrote it off to chronic teenage boyhood, but couldn’t help but be frustrated that just days before she had to be the one to ask the question, “So, can we talk about, condoms and stuff?” But the question had no doubt been looming in the fresh laundry scented air of his bedroom time and time again. And she loved him. And even more, she knew he loved her. He had calculated the train distances between their possible collegiate destinations. He had taken her to family dinners and woken her up with breakfast. So she bit the bullet and popped the question.

And there they were. For a month, his face glowed with anticipation, hoping that any moment they had alone would be the one. He’d cross the picket line. Swipe his V-card at the express checkout. Maybe some higher power would send him a Members Only jacket, an identification badge, or teach him a secret handshake.

The day did eventually arrive, and she remembers it as awkward, cumbersome and quick. She called it a stabbing pain, and he tried to cover his glee with the guilt that only he had enjoyed the encounter. The typical intimacy between them was made sour by uncomfortable pauses and tension. They’d try again, to no real avail, but the tension dissipated and the pain subsided. It wasn’t the candle-lit moment she had pictured, nor was it the transformation from boy to man that he had in mind. But they took solace in the closeness. And he kept counting the miles from one college to the next.

—Allegra Tepper

B8 Features

The

C hronicle

High Stakes

Feb. 10, 2010

chronicle.hw.com

Clue five: While some seniors already know where they are going, the majority of the class of 2010 is still playing the waiting game.

By Allegra Tepper While a weight was lifted off of the shoulders of a number of seniors in December with the arrival of positive Early Decision and early action results, the majority of the class of 2010 is still holding their breath.

Annabelle* Annabelle has given up on making any decisions about her collegiate preference until after the schools’ own decisions have arrived.

“I’ve relinquished all control,” Annabelle said.

“Every time I receive something in the mail from a school, I start leaning towards that school, but then something else comes along. I’m going to wait for the decisions to come to me.”

In recent weeks, Annabelle has been weighing her options for college athletics. She hopes to maintain her performing arts involvement in student groups and play on a competitive team.

“Division I teams scare me, because your sport officially becomes your life, and that’s not me,” Annabelle said. “But intramurals lack the competition that gets me going; the competition has to at least rival that of the Harvard-Westlake team.”

Annabelle and her dean were very pleased with her first semester grades. And as for senioritis, Annabelle doesn’t anticipate catching the bug.

Taylor* Taylor finished most of her applications over winter break, even adding a couple of applications in at the last minute based on their not-so-laborious supplement requirements.

Without any rolling schools on her list, the only decision Taylor has received was about the USC

“Where do I go now?”

Illustration by joyce kim

Presidential and Trustee Scholarships, which didn’t get Taylor the answer she was hoping for.

“I received the letter recently that told me I was taken out of the pool for the scholarships that I applied for, but I’m okay with it,” Taylor said. “There is still hope for some money from [USC’s Thornton School of Music] or just general financial aid.”

The Presidential and Trustee Scholarships at USC amount to half and full tuitions, and the school received more than 20,000 applications for those scholarships by the December deadline. The letter stated that 1,000 students of 20,000 have been selected to proceed for review for scholarships, but that does not mean anyone who received the letter has been turned down for admission.

Taylor remains interested in USC for the musical opportunities that the Thornton School of Music would offer her, but aspects of her personal life also contribute to her preference. With a boyfriend who will be in Los Angeles for the next several years, the proximity is always a pro; however, Taylor is trying not to let her relationship affect where she matriculates.

While previously Taylor has called Williams her first choice, she is now hesitant to use definitive labels when it comes to her college list.

“I’m afraid that if I rank them, I’ll be too hurt if I don’t get in,” Taylor said. “That said, I’d say Scripps, Williams, USC and Vassar are hovering at the top.”

Taylor said she was caught off-guard by her midterms which resulted in two of her AP class grades

going down. And having always worked for the sake of her teachers and not for college, she never anticipated any senioritis plaguing her last semester of high school, but that too crept up on her by surprise, she said.

Shawn* Shawn left the disappointment of his University of Pennsylvania Early Decision rejection behind him in 2009, entering the new year with two acceptance letters from the University of Michigan and the University of Wisconsin.

“I ended up applying to 17 schools,” Shawn said.

“That’s 17 people reading my application, that’s 17 people responding to me. How exciting is that?”

Michigan was one of Shawn’s top choices from the beginning, but he’s not ready to sign his name on the dotted line yet. With hopes still set on Emory, Vanderbilt, Johns Hopkins and Columbia, Shawn hopes that his 4.5 GPA for the first semester will bode well.

His GPA for his high school career thus far is now at a 3.87, a major increase since the end of last year.

“Columbia is the dream now,” Shawn said. “But you know me, I really like them all.”

While senioritis did make its way to Shawn, he’s sure it isn’t terminal; he has plans to keep his GPA up for the rest of the year. Simply for his own benefit, Shawn is hoping there is a possibility that he can bring his overall up to a 4.0 by the end of the year. *Names have been changed

“High standards, exceptional results”

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Feb. 10, 2010

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arts&entertainment

Features B9

z z a All Photos by allegra tepper/Chronicle

ALL THAT JAZZ: (left to right) Andy Arditi ’14 plays tenor saxophone, Nick Chuba ’10 plays guitar, Max Simchowitz ’10 plays tenor saxophone and Robert Lee ’14 plays bass for the middle school Jazz Band.

Players from 2 campuses harmonize in jazz show

By Alex Leichenger

Middle school and upper school jazz musicians combined for the final two songs of the middle school concert Friday at Bing Auditorium.

The middle school Jazz Band performed 10 songs before they were joined by the upper school Jazz Band and Jazz Explorers.

The Jazz Explorers had an impromptu performance of “Equinox” by John Coltrane, in between the combined acts.

It was the first time ensembles from both campuses performed together.

Middle school jazz teacher Starr Wayne came up with the idea of combining the ensembles.

The combined upper school and middle school ensembles played “Cantaloupe Island” by Herbie Hancock and “Una Mas” by Kenny Dorham. The pieces included an assortment of solos by both upper school and middle school musicians.

Performing Arts Teacher Shawn Costantino conducted “Una Mas,” the concert’s final song.

The concert, titled “Big Band Jazz 2010,” featured scores from the 1960s to the present.

“It was a blast,” bassist Robert Lee ’14 said.

Wayne said her favorite pieces performed by the middle school band were “Summertime” by George Gershwin, “You’re A Mean One, Mr. Grinch” by Albert Hague and “Blue Monk” by Thelonious Monk.

“I thought Blue Monk was the highlight of the middle school Jazz Band’s set,” Wayne said. “The Explorers’ surprise combo performance was also a great moment. Then, seeing all of the middle and upper school kids walk on stage together and play next to one another on Cantaloupe Island and Una Mas was just very moving and thrilling for me. I feel very close to all of those kids and have known and taught more than 90 percent of the upper school kids.”

“I think the best part of it was, I remember being at the Middle School and being in their shoes,” trumpet player Robby Mack ’10 said.

Mack added that he enjoyed being conducted by Wayne again.

The middle school Jazz Band consists of 19 musicians, the upper school Jazz Band of 17 and the Jazz Explorers of five.

The combined ensembles rehearsed together for one hour on the week of the concert.

Wayne said she thought the concert was “very successful.”

“This allowed everyone to see the future, the continuity of the jazz program from seventh to 12th grade at Harvard-Westlake,” she said.

“It also gave the older kids a chance to look back and remember their middle school years.”

allegra tepper/Chronicle

Side by side: Middle School saxophonist Robert Loeb ’13 solos in front of a band consisting of both middle school jazz musicians and upper school jazz musicians.

Los Angeles to Amsterdam: Jazz Bands to tour Europe

By Claire Hong Members of the Jazz Band and Studio Jazz Band will be touring cities in Europe during spring break. They will be gone for 10 days, during which time they will be performing and sightseeing.

They will have six to seven performances in Paris, Amsterdam and Bruges. Two or three of those performances will be for community service; they will be playing for the Salvation Army, at a food bank and at jazz clubs.

“I’m really excited for the jazz trip,” Brooke Levin ’12 said.

“I feel it’s going to be an amazing experience to play in other parts of the world, and it’s awesome that jazz really is a universal language.”

Some parents of the jazz musicians will

go on the trip along with Performing Arts Teacher Shawn Costantino, who is directing the trip, Carrie Green and Adam Howard.

The group of 25 upperclassmen will be performing songs they have been practicing throughout the school year.

Along with their performances, the students will be sightseeing and visiting major landmarks, such as the Eiffel Tower.

They will also stop by the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam and a few World War II memorials.

“It seems pretty distant at this point, but all the work put into this year, not just for the music itself but the academics as well, will be well worth it once the spring rolls around,” Jordan Bryan ’11 said.

“The senior class is chock full of talent, and it’s going to be a real pleasure to get to play with some of those guys.”

B10 Features

The

Long roads for short plays

C hronicle

arts & entertainment

Winners of National Playwrighting Competition make off-Broadway debuts.

By Daniel Rothberg Two one-act plays, first written for the 2008 Harvard-Westlake Playwrights Festival, were performed professionally off-Broadway at the Cherry Lane Theater from Jan. 11 to 13. Among the winners this year were Maddy SprungKeyser ’09 and Justin Kuritzkes ’08. The plays were performed as part of a conference hosted by Young Playwrights Inc., an organization founded by acclaimed dramatist Stephen Sondheim.

Every year, Young Playwrights Inc. hosts a conference for the winners of its National Playwrighting Competition. At the conference, the young playwrights participated in workshops, had rehearsals and met with professional playwrights.

Sprung-Keyser’s winning play, “Family Portrait,” explores what happens when police arrive at the home of a couple bearing nude pictures of their two-year-old daughter that were developed at a one-hour photo shop.

“For the first time, I actually got to sit in the rehearsals and work with the director,” Sprung-Keyser said. “I had so much fun and learned a lot about the editing process.”

Kuritzkes’ play, “An Autobiography About My Brother,” is about a man who attempts to write his autobiography on the eve of the execution of his brother, a serial killer.

“You learn something new every time your work gets read in front of an audience. What exactly that is, is hard to say because it’s so specific to the play that you’re currently working on,” Kuritzkes said. “Maybe I learned —Maddy that I overwrite a lot of the time.”

Young Playwrights Inc. flew Kuritzkes and Sprung-Keyser ‘09

“

IT HAS CERTAINLY MOTIVATED ME TO CONTINUE PURSUING PLAYWRIGHTING EVEN IN THE HECTIC WORLD THAT COLLEGE IS.”

Feb. 10, 2010

Sprung-Keyser, along with the eight other winning playwrights, to New York and put them up in midtown Manhattan for the weeklong conference.

On the second day of the conference, the young dramatists sat in an office for 13 hours straight, listening to cold readings of the plays.

“Sounds terrible? It was probably one of my favorite parts,” Sprung-Keyser said. “It was not only fun to hear the plays but [it was also fun] to watch the actors, who had never heard, seen, or read the plays before, figure their characters out.”

At night, the playwrights often saw shows in New York City.

“It’s always interesting to see what other people in our generation are writing, especially in the context of a festival like this one, where you’ve got people from all over the country,” Kuritzkes said. “I’d have to say that was probably the most interesting thing about the conference.”

The young writers also had the opportunity to take workshops and have dinner with distinguished playwrights while in New York.

“It has certainly motivated me to continue pursuing playwrighting even in the hectic world that college is,” Sprung-Keyser said.

In fact, because of the conference, Sprung-Keyser, a freshman at Amherst College, is considering a double major so that she may “pursue playwrighting more fully.” Sprung-Keyser is currently working on two plays and hopes to devote more time to them in the spring once her swim season is over.

Kuritzkes, a sophomore at Brown University, is also currently working on a new play.

“What it’s about is something that I’m still trying to figure out,” he said.

The National Playwrighting Competition is not the first time Kuritzkes and Sprung-Keyser have been recognized for their writing. In 2008, Kuritzkes’s play “Hawaii” was performed at a birthday charity fundraiser for the writer of “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?,” Edward Albee.

Additionally, two of Sprung-Keyser’s plays were staged at the Blank Theatre Company’s Young Playwrights Festival.

“I can’t be any prouder of them,” Harvard-Westlake Playwrights Festival Director Christopher Moore said.

photo courtesy of Brooke LEvin

centerstage: Brandon Levin ’09, a freshman at Yale University, sings a solo while peforming with his a capella group, the Yale Spizzwinks, in St. Michaels church.

Alum solos with Spizzwinks(?) at St. Michaels

By Lauren Seo

As all 19 members of America’s oldest underclassman a cappella group took the stage at St. Michael’s Church, the audience erupted in applause, anticipating the widely acclaimed performance by the Yale Spizzwinks(?).

The performance took place on Saturday Jan. 2 and was the first concert to start their winter tour.

The set included about 19 songs, each one arranged by a Yale student or alum, and was performed in front of about 300 people that night. The songs were diverse in their musical genres and included everything from country to pop to American folk.

Among those performed were “On

Broadway,” “Bless the Broken Road” and “Shenandoah”.

Jilli Marine ’10, who sang with Levin in Chamber Singers last year, said she was very impressed with Brennan Caldwell’s solo in “Grace Kelly.”

“He was amazing – he sounded exactly like Mika [, the original performer],” she said.

In its tradition of comedy, the Spizzwinks(?) also included a skit comically depicting the folly of a Harvard football player.

Brandon Levin ’09, who arranged the performance, said he was glad to be performing again near his high school.

“It was nice to sing in front of family and friends,” he said.

A few days following their performance, the

Spizzwinks(?) also came on campus to perform an abridged set for students in Bel Canto and Chamber Singers.

“I really liked it,” Megan Fleming ’10 said.

“The music choices were fun and all the guys were really talented.”

During their tour, which lasted for nine days, the Spizzwinks(?) performed about 20 concerts at such venues as the Peninsula Beverly Hills and various high schools. The group, which started in 1914, rehearses for seven hours a week.

They plan on touring South America and Asia during Spring Break and the summer, respectively, and will be performing in such countries as Ecuador, Brazil, Paraguay, Hong Kong and Thailand.

Feb. 10, 2010

The

C hronicle

Features B11

arts&entertainment

Sophomores rock out in freshman band

By Chloe Lister

Chloe lISTER/cHRONICLE

band Practice: Connor Pasich ’12 plays his guitar (top left), Vivien Mao ’12 plays the piano for the band (top right), Sami Grosslight ’12 records her singing (bottom right), Brian Gross ’12 practices his bass (bottom left).

It was during their first practice when Brian Gross ’12 and Connor Pasich ’12 realized that their newly formed band would need a name.

To solve this problem, they came up with an unusual solution.

“First we went on ‘Random Word Generator’ and we got the word ‘internal,’” lead guitarist Pasich said. Next, bassist Gross had Pasich pick a number, then went on Google and used the “I’m feeling lucky” feature.

“I picked seven, and the seventh word in the first result was ‘impact,’” Pasich said.

Thus the band was named “Internal Impact.”

Prior to this, founding members Pasich and Gross had been playing together, but decided to start a new band to add new input.

“I’ve wanted to play in a band almost my whole life, but haven’t been able to get anything together until now,” Gross said.

Their name was shortened to The Impact soon after several new members were added: vocalist Samantha Grosslight ’12, Vivien Mao ’12 playing keyboard, Charlie Troy ’12 on guitar and drummer Jason Welsh, Gross’s friend.

In order to make these additions, Gross and Pasich “just sent out a Facebook invite to anyone who wanted to audition” and selected their current members from the eight or so who did.

“I auditioned for the band because I thought it would be a good experience and because it’s a really good group of people,” Troy said, who auditioned with the song “Everlong” by the Foo Fighters.

Although The Impact is only a little over a month in the making, they’ve written and played three originals and covered “Joker and the Thief ” by Wolfmother and “Bro Him” by Pennywise. Their sound is best described as “somewhere between alternative and hard rock.”

“We all have very similar tastes in music,” Pasich said.

The band’s short term goals are solidifying a set list and playing their first show by the end of spring break, while in the long term they would like to “record a demo to send to record labels,” Pasich said.

“Music has always been a big part of my life and I know how much the band and music means to the rest of the group,” Mao said.

Moore acts on impulse in production of ‘An Oak Tree’ at Odyssey Theater

By Lauren Seo His world flipped upside down by his daughter’s death, a grieving father volunteers for a stage hypnotist’s act, looking for a way to console his immeasurable grief. The hypnotist is the one who killed his daughter. Performing Art Teachers Chris Moore played the father in the Jan. 27 production of “An Oak Tree.” He had not seen the script before he stepped on the stage.

“An Oak Tree” is performed by two actors, one of whom has never seen the play or read its script until he is acting it out in front of an audience.

Thus, the play requires a different guest actor every night, making each performance a different experience for the viewer.

“It’s really a theatrical metaphor for the story,” co-producer and Performing Arts teacher Michele Spears said. “Since the man lost his daughter, he feels lost in his life, which is reflected by how lost the actor feels as he’s performing a part he’s never seen before.”

The play opened in West Los Angeles on Jan. 6 at the Odyssey Theatre and is scheduled to run through Feb. 14. Written by British Theatre Artist Tim Crouch, who also stars as the hypnotist, the play debuted at the 2005 Edinburgh Festival, where Spears, Dan Fishbach ’94 and Will Adashek

’01 were all taken aback by its unique execution.

Impressed with the work, the three decided to produce its premiere on the U.S. west coast, along with The Odyssey Theatre Ensemble and Executive Producer Marc Platt (Hannah ’08 and Ben ’11). These producers, all friends and colleagues of Moore, were the ones who got him involved in the show.

Moore said he was immediately interested in the play because it was radically different from any theatre experience he had ever had.

“I am not an improvisational actor, and yet this was described to me as ‘improvisation, but not with words,’” he said. “Everything I was going to say was scripted, but to not be given any of the script ahead of time made playing the part wildly intriguing and a wonderfully exciting challenge as an actor. It was!”

Twenty minutes before going on stage, Moore said he met with Crouch to discuss the technicalities of the night’s performance. Moore would be given pieces of the script to read during the play and small earphones to receive lines as he performed in front of the audience.

Among the audience that night were several Harvard-Westlake teachers and students.

“I thought he was really good,” said Elana Fruchtman ’10, a student actor. “It was really in-

JESSICA BARZILAY/Chronicle

ON STAGE: Chris Moore performed in the play “An Oak Tree.”

teresting to watch the choices being made on stage and look at the process of theatre you never see in any other performance.”

Moore, who has been acting professionally since he was 9 years old, said he found it both “terrifying and liberating” to not go through all the usual acting and rehearsal conventions of knowing the plot, knowing his lines and living in his character before portraying him to an audience.

“I was asked to simply live in the moment, stay as open and honest as possible, go with my instincts and be an ‘active listener’ throughout,” Moore said.

“It was wonderful to play with all those things which I preach every day to the students I teach.”

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iology teacher Walt Werner’s eighth period class was forward to winter break. The past couple weeks had been a whirlwind stretch looking at ecology, evolution, and the food chain. Before they left school, however, the students had to complete one more mandatory assignment in the last period before two weeks of freedom.

Werner had asked students to bring flour, eggs, milk, butter, chocolate, jams and anything else needed to make their favorite crêpes.

Once the period began, Werner hurried to assemble the circular hot plate and explain the internal dynamics of the cooking process.

Students eagerly lined up behind the two hot plates and watched as the mix darkened. Different flavored jams, cans of whipped cream, and jars of Nutella shared the lab bench with cups of sliced fruits for the students to pour into their hot crêpes.

“It was a really fun day. I was pretty sad it wasn’t a double period because I’m sure everyone could have continued eating crêpes for another 45 minutes,” Esther Lee ’11 said. “But it wasn’t a completely bio-free class because he used biology terms to explain how the crêpes were being made.” “[Crêpes] have simple ingredients, are out of the ordinary, can be prepared on electric frying pans, and can be produced in very short time,” Werner said. “They also involve proteins which can be denatured with high temperature, which alters their normal shape.

Proteins are an important topic in bio classes, so it is an opportunity to combine the kitchen with the classroom.”

English teacher Jeremy Michaelson also loves to cook for his students.

“Before winter break, Mr. Michaelson made grilled cheeses for the class,” Errol Bilgin ’11 said. “He had everyone bring in the food, like I would bring the cheese and someone else would bring the bread or butter. I heard that he made pancakes as well for his morning classes, but I know that grilled cheeses are his thing.”

Michaelson began making grilled cheese sandwiches four or five years ago when his students were trying to figure out what they wanted to do the day before winter break. A student suggested making his own special grilled cheese sandwiches, which were a “huge hit” that year. The student passed on the recipe to Michaelson, who now continues the culinary tradition.

“I don’t wait for special occasions,” Michaelson said. “The special occasions I cook for are breakfast, lunch and dinner. It’s something I’ve always liked to do, even as a young kid.”

Banana bread, cookies, brownies, biscotti, pies and quiches are just a few of the treats drama teacher Christopher Moore likes to bake simply because of the “wonderful smells that fill my house when I cook and bake for others.”

Moore shares his baked creations with his colleagues in the drama offices, the students and families who attend Scene Night presentations and students in the Summer Intensive Acting Workshop, which he runs with Cinema Studies teacher Ted Walch. Sometimes, Moore drops off baked goods in the Faculty Lounge for teachers and staff.

“The funny thing is I don’t eat sweets, cakes or the like … [but] I have been cooking and baking all my life,” Moore said. “Everything I cook is not just for sustenance, but for fun. I always try new recipes.”

Coming from a family of cooks, history teacher Katherine HolmesChuba has baked brownies for her students and the rest of the History Department for several years. She cooks as a means of relaxation and chooses to make brownies because of their simplicity and her love for chocolate.

Although she considers herself more of a cook than a baker, her students like to think that her baked treats “are the best [homemade] brownies in the world,” Jill Wilson ’12 said.

When asked if any teachers would come up with a name for their own specialty dishes, Michaelson responded, “Gosh, I don’t know. I think I’ll let others handle that. What kind of dork names his own sandwich?”

From comfort food to crêpes, teachers display their culinary talents inside the classroom.

By Jean Park

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Harvard-Westlake School

Chronicle

Volume XIX

Issue 5 Feb. 10, 2010

Girls’ basketball ranked 5th in state

By Alex Edel

Courtesy Of The Los ANgeles Times

Bring out the brooms: Nate Bulluck ’10 fights for a loose ball with forward Ryan Oliver of Loyola. The Wolverines defeated Loyola 77-63, sweeping the season series for the first time in three years.

Boys’ basketball aims for 1st perfect Mission League record since ’97

By Jack Davis

The boys’ basketball team is poised for a perfect record in Mission League for the first time since 1997 after defeating Los Angeles Verbum Dei 57-18 in Taper Gymnasium Monday night.

If the boys defeat Alemany tonight, which is also Senior Night, it will give the squad a perfect 14-0 Mission League record. The last time the boys’ basketball team finished the season with a perfect Mission League record, Jason Collins ’97 and Jarron Collins ’97 starred for the Wolverines team that went on to win the state championship and were dubbed “The Best Team Ever.”

After a lackluster 2-4 start to the season, the team has won 18 straight games, with 16 of those victories coming by ten points or more.

Leading the charge for the Wolverines has been forward Erik Swoope ’10.

Swoope, who committed to play in college at the University of Miami midway through the season, is averaging 21 points, 8.5 rebounds, 2.8 steals, and 1.9 blocks per game while shooting 75 percent from the field and 73 percent from the free throw line.

The season so far has been highlighted by a series sweep of archrival Loyola.

The squad beat Loyola 74-70 Jan. 11 at Taper Gymnasium in the club’s first meeting of the year.

The Wolverines faced a nine-point fourth quarter deficit, but rallied in the final minutes behind another herculean effort from Swoope.

Swoope scored 33 points and grabbed eight rebounds as the packed crowd stormed the field once the final buzzer rang. Soon after, anticipation started building for the rematch at Loyola, with heavy trash-talking on Facebook from both sides.

An hour before the game’s opening tip, both student sections were packed, with spirited Harvard-Westlake and Loyola chants popping

up recurringly during the JV game. Loyola’s Leavy Gym quickly reached its 1,500 person capacity and some were eventually denied admittance into the game.

On the first possession of the game, Swoope stole the ball at midcourt and threw down a thunderous slam dunk at the other end, igniting the Wolverine crowd and setting the tone for a dominant first quarter by the Wolverines. Harvard-Westlake took a 29-14 lead into the second quarter but Loyola slowly cut into the deficit.

Loyola guard Miles Cartwright hit a three with two minutes left in the first half, capping an 8-0 Loyola run that cut Harvard-Westlake’s lead to 39-31, a score that stood going into half. In the third, Loyola inched closer to tying the game, cutting the deficit to as little as one point before heading into the fourth down 49-46.

However, the Wolverines proved too much in the end, using a 10-0 spurt midway through the fourth quarter to take control of the game, ultimately finishing off the Cubs handily, 77-63.

“It was just a great game,” Swoope said, who again led the charge with 37 points and 12 rebounds. “We played as a team and when we are playing like this we are hard to beat.”

Guard Austin Kelly ’10 and forward Damiene Cain ’11 added 16 points a piece for the Wolverines.

“We have a great group of guys who are used to playing with each other and it shows out there on the court,” guard Chris Barnum ’10 said. “It’s a special group and we have a chance to do something special.”

After Wednesday’s game wraps up regular season play, the Wolverines will begin preparation for playoffs. Head Coach Greg Hilliard feels confident in the Wolverines ability to make a run as repeat CIF champions.

“We are in an incredibly tough division this year, but we are playing as well as anyone,” Hilliard said. “I am confident that this bunch can compete for a repeat.”

With a 24-1 record at press time and ranked ninth in the nation, the girls’ basketball team is heading to playoffs on a twenty-game winning streak.

“This season has been incredible. We had expectations this summer, we thought we could be very good and I think that one thing our team has matured into outside of their individual skills is that we have really become a unified group,” Head Coach Melissa Hearlihy said.

The team has won every league game by at least 13 points.

Their closest game was against Chaminade, which they won 79-66. They will play their last league game tomorrow against Flintridge Sacred Heart, who they beat in their last match 6327.

“Our team has matured into a unified group and that goes beyond personal skills,” Hearlihy said. She described the team as blooming, and said that no one has played selfishly.

The team’s only loss came against national powerhouse Mater Dei, ranked number one in the nation by MaxPreps, in the Mater Dei tournament.

“You would think with our record and the way that we have beat up on people that there wouldn’t be that much else we can do but we are now focusing on defense because there are going to be times when the offense is not clicking the way you want it to and this team is so athletic that we can really pressure people so that’s going to be our focus going into the playoffs,” Hearlihy said.

The Wolverines are ranked fifth in state and ninth nationally.

Nicole Hung ’10 leads the team scorers with an average of 16.9 points per game and leads the team’s rebounds with an average of 9.2 rebounds per game.

Nicole Nesbit ’10 leads the team in both steals and assists with 3.6 in each per game.

“I think we are going to get better. There are things we can get better at,” Hearlihy said. “We are adding new components to our repertoire both offensively and defensively so that makes it fun.” She has been implementing new drills and plays to keep things fun and exciting for the team.

Although both Nesbit and Hung were top players both this year and last, there have been some surprise additions to the team who have helped. In particular, Leslie Shuman ’11 has come through as a defensive player. With Hilary King ’11 out early in the season with an injury, Shuman had to step in and got a lot of playing time in early in the season.

“It’s starting to show now, her confidence is getting stronger,” Hearlihy said. “I think that the kids have gotten a lot more confident in her. We actually look to her to play defense when we bring her in the game.”

Shuman has 37 assists this season, ranked fifth behind Hung, Nesbit, Skyler Tsutsui ’11 and Sydney Haydel ’10. She also has 54 rebounds this season so far ranked sixth on the team. Last year Shuman only had nine assists and 35 assists during the entire season. There is no one person who dominates the team, and Nesbit said that the team dynamic is akin to that of a puzzle.

“I think each person has their own talent they bring to the team. We have really good defensive players and offensive players and we all fit together like a puzzle,” Nesbit said.

Although both King and Tiana Woolridge ’11 were injured early in the season, Hearlihy feels that the team has developed and now as they come back into play they will become a better team. Looking ahead to the approaching playoffs, Hearlihy said that they are not discounting any team in their quest for a CIF and state title.

“We are not looking past anyone,” Hearlihy said. “To be honest, the main focus this year has been on us. We are going to go out and play the best game we can play and you have to beat us.

I think then you don’t get caught up with the business of worrying about anyone else. It takes maturity to do that and I think that’s where we are at.”

“Winning CIF is our goal and to hopefully go into state focusing on getting better,” Nesbit said.

inside

C2 The HW-Loyola rivalry heats up C5 Girls’ water polo aims for state C8 Q&A with Hayley Boysen ’10

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Courtesy of the los angeles times

Alex leichenger/chronicle

Its good to be a wolverine: Erik Swoope ’10 puts home a tip-back slam over the head of Loyola forward Julian Harrell. Fanatics erupt in applause during the basketball team’s 79-63 victory over Loyola. Jesse Mirman ’10 splits two defenders in Harvard-Westlake’s 2-1 home loss on Jan. 11.

Loyola rivalry heats up at winter matchups

By Jonah Rosenbaum

Most high school basketball games are just that: high school basketball games. A typical Mission League game features an almost empty gym, with the cheerleaders, parents and JV players who have just themselves played making up the majority of the crowd.

The score of the game is reported the next day in the back pages of the Los Angeles Times sports section, but no recap, no article, just a couple of numbers. When Harvard-Westlake takes on Loyola, it is not like most high school basketball games.

The battle does not start on the court, but rather on the internet. A week before the two teams’ first meeting on Jan. 11, the Loyola basketball team created an event on Facebook, and encouraged students to attend the game. Within days, the group had attracted over 600, with wall posts vulgar enough to force Loyola to remove the “wall” feature from the page.

But Harvard-Westlake was not about to let Loyola control the technological aspects of the game. The Fanatics created their own group, and gleefully announced that “unlike Loyola, we do not delete comments. Feel free to hate.” Both sides accepted the offer.

Minutes after the JV game ended, the lights went out. The crowd worked itself into a frenzy. The Harvard-Westlake team charged on to the court, music blaring and, moments later, Loyola joined them. The visiting Loyola fans kept their first chant simple: “Loyola,” they screamed loudly, over and over again.

If you didn’t listen closely, you might have mistaken Harvard-Westlake’s chant for Loyola’s. However, the Fanatics made one small change, removing the ‘L’ and replacing it with a ‘B’ to remind the Loyola fans of their school’s all male student body.

Is it just the buildup, or is there something different about the actual game? For one thing, they almost always end up being decided in the final minutes. The last five minutes were decided by a total of 20 points.

“It’s not that we care more or play harder,” forward Damiene Cain ’11 said. “Every game is equally important and we always go all out. It’s just that

with the rivalry we have with Loyola, we want to beat them so badly and they want us just as bad. There is too much pride to allow one of us to blow out the other. Records go out the window. Someone will always step up and play the game of their lives to make sure it’s a great game.”

On Jan. 11 at home, that somebody was Miamibound forward Erik Swoope ’10. Swoope out-muscled, out-jumped and out-worked the Loyola big men for 33 points and eight rebounds.

Loyola’s hot shooting allowed for them to take an early lead that they maintained until the fourth quarter. Loyola guard Miles Cartwright ’10 had a chance to tie the game in the final minute, but his missed three sealed the game for the Wolverines.

Harvard-Westlake won 74-70, to wrestle away bragging rights from Loyola, who won the last meeting last season. The win extended the Wolverines win streak to nine games, and reestablished them as an elite team after an early season slump that began with a 2-4 record.

The loss was the first of the season for Loyola, who had been ranked among the top 50 in the country.

“It was a huge win for us obviously and we played great as a team, but I can’t even explain how much it helped to have the Fanatics drowning out all the Loyola fans,” Nate Bulluck ’10 said. “Whenever we needed a lift we got one from the fans, and when we went on our run in the fourth quarter, they helped us shift the momentum and finish the game.”

The rivalry did not end for the season after the first meeting, in fact it is only just beginning. Loyola’s students instantly created a group called “HarvardWestlake vs Loyola: The Rematch.”

Revenge was promised, and one Loyola student claimed “Harvard-Westlake outplayed us but there is no question that we will win this time. We are clearly the better team.”

Loyola and Harvard-Westlake both won their next five games, and Harvard-Westlake headed into the second and final matchup on a 15 game winning streak. Loyola sported an impressive 19-1 record.

In the first quarter, Harvard-Westlake could not be stopped. They led 21-6, and finished the quarter ahead 29-14. In the 18 days between the two games,

“

I can’t even explain how much it helped to have the Fanatics drowning out all the Loyola fans.”

—Forward Nate Bulluck ’10

Loyola had plenty of time to practice, but no amount of drills would have yielded a solution for forward Erik Swoope. He had nine first quarter points, and would finish the game with 37. The Wolverines would extend their lead to as much as 18, and the game appeared all but over. Loyola’s once rowdy student section was silent and subdued, shocked at what they were witnessing. Soon they would have something to cheer about; Loyola finally woke up and stormed back.

Loyola cut the lead to 53-52 with under six minutes to play in the game. Though the Cubs had not led the entire game, they suddenly appeared poised to win the game. Then Harvard-Westlake forced the ball into Swoope’s hands, and he refused to let his team lose. The visiting Wolverines closed the Cubs out with an 11-0 run.

The Fanatics chanted “This is our house,” and counted down the final seconds before spilling onto the court and celebrating at midcourt. The win all but clinched the Mission League for Harvard-Westlake, and put them in a strong position to finish the season undefeated in the Mission League, a feat they have not accomplished in a decade. Try as they might, Loyola simply could not stop Swoope.

“He’s just an amazingly strong man and it’s going to take more than one mean to stop him, and we got the ball to him,” Head Coach Greg Hilliard said to the Los Angeles Times after the game.

Luckily for Loyola, Swoope will be a Miami Hurricane the next time the two teams meet.

Feb. 10, 2010

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Coaches, athletes earn ‘All-Decade’ recognition

By Jack Davis and Ashley Khakshouri

AleC Caso/chronicle

Best In state: Nicole Hung ’10 practices her jump shot.

She was named CalHiSports state player of the week on Jan. 30.

CalHiSports names Hung State Player of Week

By Alex Edel Nicole Hung ’10 was named CalHiSports.com state athlete of the week on January 30 for her performance both on and off the court.

CalHiSports, in alliance with Rise Magazine, chooses the athletes who it feels are the best male and female athletes of the week in California.

“I was notified after practice a couple weeks ago,” Hung said. “Coach Hearlihy came up to me and told me that a writer from ESPN Rise/Calhisports would be calling me the next morning before school to interview me.”

Part of this interview included questions like who is her favorite athlete to which she responded “Tennis player James Blake,” and what were her three tips for youngsters to which she answered “Work hard, study hard and play hard.

Make sacrifices in other areas of your life, and step back and enjoy the fruits of your labor.”

One of the games that helped CalHiSports choose

Hung was the game against Division I team Chatsworth in a 70-67 victory, where Hung scored 24 points and had 12 rebounds.

She has scored a total of 422 points this season with an average of 16.9 points per game, and has a total of 230 total rebounds this season.

“What Nicole has done this year which she did not do in past years is become a great offensive rebounder for us. She leads us in offensive rebounds two fold. A lot of the nights when she is not hitting her outside shots she is going in and getting rebounds,” Coach Melissa Hearlihy said.

Hung will play with the team in their last league game tomorrow against Flintridge Sacred Heart.

“I am very appreciative of and humbled by the recognition that the site has given me,” Hung said. “There are so many outstanding high school athletes in California, so being singled out makes me feel extremely lucky and gracious at the same time.”

Boys’ basketball coach Greg Hilliard and girls’ and boys’ tennis coach Chris Simpson were named area high school Coaches of the Decade in their respective sports by the Los Angeles Daily News.

When a friend called head boys’ basketball coach Greg Hilliard and congratulated him on being named ‘Coach of the Decade,’ the coach had a surprising reaction.

“I had no idea what he was talking about,” Hilliard admitted.

Hilliard would soon discover the Los Angeles Daily News had named him ‘Coach of the Decade’ for boys’ basketball.

“It’s very nice to be recognized for anything and it is greatly appreciated that someone would care enough to do that,” Hilliard said. “I am very grateful, but in no way do I agree with the decision. Maybe I was the only guy that coached through that whole decade,” Hilliard said.

In the past decade, Hilliard won five Southern Section CIF titles, including four in a row from 2002 to 2005.

Hilliard’s most recent Southern Section title came last year, as his squad also reached state semifinals before falling to Oceanview.

Hilliard has positive memories when looking back at the decade.

“Harvard-Westlake has been a great place to work, and my players have given me more than I could have ever given them. Again, I have so much to be thankful for,” Hilliard said.

Two alumni also received all-decade recognition. Girls’ soccer player Jill Oakes ’02 and boys’ water polo player Juan Delgadillo ’04 were

named all-decade winners for their respective sports. Oakes was named Gatorade National Player of the year when she was a senior.

Varsity boys’ and girls’ tennis coach, Chris Simpson, receives the Coach of the Decade award from the Daily News. Coach Simpson who has won Coach of the Year from the California Coaches Association, the LA Times, and the Daily News in 2005, has been the tennis director for 9 years.

He has set the coaching record at HarvardWestlake for Boys’ Varsity Tennis with a record of 183-19 overall and 104-0 in Mission League matches.

The boys’ tennis team was the first school athletic program to win a CIF division 1 Championship which was 2004 and 2005 posting a 45-0 unbeaten streak.

“It’s a great achievement but it really reflects on all the years of committed coaches, families, and players. If our players weren’t there to perform we wouldn’t win things. I accept this on behalf of the coaching staff without them I couldn’t do it,” Simpson said.

Simpson believes that a lot of the success of his players is due to having a winning mentality.

“If you have a winning mentality meaning you’re a winner you do what’s expected of you and contribute in a positive way, prepare for your matches, show tremendous support of your teammates, you will get a success in some way,” he said.

Former girls’ volleyball coach Jess Quiroz, who led the Wolverines to state titles in 2001 and 2003, was recognized as his sport’s Coach of the Decade as well. Quiroz now coaches at Campbell Hall High School.

Hurdles coach sets world record

By Alex Leichenger

Track and field hurdles coach Felix Sanchez set two world records in the indoor 400 meter hurdles in a span of one week last month.

Competing in Bourdeaux, France on Jan. 24, he ran the event in 50.93 seconds, breaking the previous record of 52.04 seconds. Sanchez then dropped his time to 50.31 Jan. 30 in Caen, France. He will compete in the event once more before returning to the school team.

Sanchez, 32, who represents the Dominican Republic in international competitions, won a gold medal in the outdoor 400-meter hurdles at the 2004 Athens Olympics.

He was the flag-bearer for the Dominican Republic in the opening ceremonies of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Sanchez is relatively new to the indoor event, which is run on a 200 meter track as opposed to a 400 meter track and has eight hurdles as opposed to ten, according to the Harvard-Westlake Athletics website.

“In a stadium that small the athletes are so close to the fans, which makes the race really electric,” Sanchez said to a French newstation.

From BBC.co.uk

Victory: Felix Sanchez crosses the finish line to win gold in the 2004 Olympics. He set a world record in January.

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By Austin Block

Last year, the girls’ varsity soccer team won the Southern California Division II Regional Championship but failed to take the league title, coming in third behind Chaminade and Flintridge Sacred Heart in the Mission League and also losing to Notre Dame. This year, with the playoffs around the corner, the team has compiled a 7-1-1 league record and is in 2nd place in league, fighting with Flintridge Sacred Heart, which has a 7-0-3 league record, for the league title.

If the team wins its last game, it will capture the league title. However, the game is at Chaminade, and the Wolverines have not defeated Chaminade on the road in three years.

“I am extremely pleased with how the team has done so far this season,” Head Coach Richard Simms said, with three games left in the season. “We have only lost one game, and we’ve been exceptionally consistent.”

“Our only loss was to Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy, and even in that game, I thought we played well and played very hard,” Simms said. “Usually in soccer it’s hard to bring the same effort and enthusiasm every night, but so far we’ve done a good job of that. We have a very hard working team.”

“I can honestly say that this may be the best team chemistry I’ve ever witnessed,” Simms said. “Last year’s team got along really well, and we’ve had some great groups before, but this team is the best in that regard. All the girls really like each other, and we have a great time together.”

Haley Boysen ’10 leads the team in scoring with 14

Alex Leichenger/chronicle

Top of the league: Katie Golden ’12 is chased by a Flintridge Sacred Heart player during the team’s 1-1 tie. Though Flintridge Sacred Heart defeated the team in their next meeting, the Wolverines are 1st in league. goals and 34 points. Danielle Duhl ’12 has seven goals and 20 points and Cami Chapus ’12 has five goals and 14 points. Goalkeeper Rebecca Magier ’12 has made 142 saves so far this season and let in 13 goals all season.

The team has an overall record of 15-1-3 and defeated San Clemente 3-0, who Simms said was ranked third in the country (at the time of the match) by ESPN Rise and won the Division I Southern California regional championship last year.

“Beating them so handily was a huge statement for our program,” Simms said.

Simms said the team’s mental strength has improved over the course of the season.

“We were a little bit sloppy at the beginning of league and we’ve really tightened things up mentally and managed to maintain our intensity from start to finish in games which is crucial in the playoffs as one slip can send you home,” Simms said.

The team will start CIF play on Feb. 19 or 20. The Wolverines and Flintridge Sacred Heart could possibly meet in the CIF championship game.

“Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy have a very, very good team this year. It’s easily the best team we played all year and they seem to have had our number so far,” Simms said. “If we want to beat them we will have to be physically stronger and tougher as that’s an area they definitely dominated us in.”

Boys’ soccer falls to Crespi, Loyola, late in regular season

By Alex Leichenger

Alex Leichenger/chronicle

Fighting for Control: Advai Pathak ’11 fights off a Loyola player. The Wolverines lost this Jan. 11 home game 2-1.

A 2-1 loss at Crespi on Friday dropped the boys’ soccer team to 7-4 in league and 16-6-3 overall with their final game of the regular season tonight against Chaminade.

The Wolverines went up 1-0 in Friday’s game against Crespi, but missed a chance to extend to their lead.

“We were given a one-on-one with the keeper where we missed an opportunity that basically changed the whole [outcome] of the game,” sweeper A.J. Hong ’10 said.

“It was the same thing with the Loyola game [Jan. 29 at Loyola]. We were up 1-0, and instead of just keeping strong, we kind of just thought we had the game, and players started relaxing and not really running as much and it gave Loyola a chance to score,” Hong said. Loyola would go on to win the game 2-1.

“We didn’t capitalize early in the game at key moments in the game in which we had the momentum,” said Head Coach Freddy Arroyo, referring to the losses to Loyola and Crespi.

The Wolverines will qualify for CIF playoffs

regardless of whether they beat Chaminade, but Arroyo said it is crucial they win to secure second place in league.

Prior to opening league play, the team won the Valley Classic tournament at Ted Slavin Field by upsetting El Camino Real, the number one team in the country in the ESPN Fab 50 rankings at the time.

Forward/midfielder Victor Kroh ’10 leads the Mission League with 30 points (11 goals and eight assists).

“We just need to work on our defense,” Hong said. “That’s going to be a big factor for us going on into CIF. We need to stop making the same mistakes over and over again—staying with our man and then being able to clear the ball out of the back instead of playing with it.”

“I told my team that once the playoffs start everyone starts with a 0-0 record,” Arroyo said.

“I think we have the talent and experience to make a run. Division I is tough, but I’m thinking for sure our first priority is to get out of the first round and then we’ve just got to take it one game at a time.”

Start times for playoffs have not been set.

Two athletes receive suspensions from teams

By Jonah Rosenbaum

Two Wolverine athletes were recently suspended for Mission League games after being ejected. Basketball player Nate Bulluck ’10 was tossed after an altercation in a game against Notre Dame.

“A Notre Dame player grabbed my throat. I responded by yelling at him and I made a poor choice in the language I chose to use. I really should not have said anything and just let the ref handle it. I took a situation that could have been an advantage for us and made it an advantage for an opponent. I deserved to be ejected from the game,” Bulluck said.

CIF rules dictate that an athlete who is ejected must sit out his team’s

next game, so Bulluck was forced to watch the Wolverines victory over Crespi from the bench.

“That was really tough to just watch and not be able to help my teammates.

I learned a valuable lesson about controlling my emotions. Luckily we were able to pull out the win, but I put my team in a bad situation and I can’t do that again,” Bulluck said.

Soccer player Ethan Mark ’11 was suspended six games after an altercation with a Loyola player during the Harvard-Westlake Loyola soccer game at Ted Slavin field on Jan. 11.

According to Mark, the Loyola player grabbed Mark below the waist and a scrum between the two players ensued, Mark received a red card and was immediatly ejected from the game.

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Feb. 10, 2010

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Girls’ water polo secures undefeated league record

By Alec Caso

The varsity girls’ water polo team is well on its way to achieving another undefeated record in season with a 17-1 record overall and a 7-0 record in league with current head coach Robert Lynn.

Last season the team had an undefeated record of 10-0 in league and a 17-6 record overall under former head coach Larry Felix.

The team beat Notre Dame, Alemany, Marymount, Louisville and Flintridge Sacred Heart during their regular season last year. The team also made it to the first round of CIF and then lost to Whittier 1920 at Harvard-Westlake. Outside of league the team played an additional 13 games making their overall record 17-6. The team lost a lot of its games to Division I, II and III teams in the Mistletoe and Irvine classics.

This year the team has almost doubled in size, and they feel very confident about their chances of making CIF. “We have had a great season, Robert Lynn is a great coach and we have bonded as a team,” Camille Hooks ’11 said.

This season, the team played their first game against Long Beach Millikan and won 18-4. They then continued to participate in the Mistletoe tournament, where they won

all five of their games. They played Santa Ynez, Hipomo, Cabrillo, Westlake and Rio Mesa and ended up winning the tournament. The team’s loss of some players in their earlier games due to injury has not hindered their success.

“We weren’t really affected by our team’s injuries. We have done well all season but our league is really not challenging,” Grossman said.

The Wolverines’ only loss outside of league was at the Irvine tournament over this past weekend. In their game against Murrieta Valley the team lost for the first time this year 10-11 in the third round of over time. They continued to win the next four games after playing Esperanza twice.

“This past weekend was a little disappointing but if we could play teams like Murrieta in every game we would be a much better team,” Lynn said.

The team only has three more games this season in league. The team beat Marymount in Monday’s game 19-5 and played Alemany on Tuesday. The team’s next game will be against Flintridge Sacred Heart at 4 p.m. this Thursday at Harvard-Westlake.

The team has already set its sights on CIF. “I am confident about our chances in CIF, the girls are doing really well and are in great shape,” Lynn said.

Austin Block/chronicle

looking for help: Bella Gonzalez ’12 looks to pass the ball during a game against Marymount on Feb. 8 at Zanuck Swim Stadium.

JVRoundup

alex leichenger/chronicle

Attacking The Ball: Tess Winebaum ’12 looks to pass the ball to a team mate. The Wolverines have a 10-5-1 overall record. Abbie Neufeld ’12 shoots the ball

Girls’ basketball

The JV girls’ basketball team has an overall record of 20-2 and a league record of 8-0.

The team has lost two games; one was to West Torrance in the South Torrance tournament by a difference of four points. They lost the other game to Notre Dame in the Burbank Tournament by nine points. The scores were 23-27 and 36-45, respectively.

The team has won 17 of their games by more than 10 points and has won 10 games with more than double the opponents’ score. The team’s biggest victory was against Flintridge Sacred Heart at home with a final score of 69-12.

Bryson Haynes and L’Tanya Robnett are the junior varsity coaches. For practices, they make the girls do post and guard drills and layup drills. “[The coaches] run some tough practices, but they absolutely know what they are doing,” Brooke Levin ’12 said.

The team’s next and final game is away against Flintridge Sacred Heart on Thursday, Feb. 11.

—David Kolin

Boys’ basketball

After going 8-8 through the first 16 games of the season, the JV boys’ basketball team has won seven out of its last ten games. The two losses were against league rivals Loyola and Crespi.

“When we went to Crespi, they managed to beat us. I was really upset, but it was definitely one of the most fun and exciting games I’ve played in even if we lost,” Noor Fateh ’11 said.

Even with these losses, the team currently holds a 15-11 record, and an 8-5 league record. The Wolver-

David Kolin/chronicle

in a game against Marymount on Mon. Feb. 8. They ended their season with a 6-9 overall record. Drew Tuttle ’11 shoots against Verbum Dei. The team is 8-2 in league.

ines are looking to end their season with a win, as the play their last game against Chaminade today at the Upper School at 5:30. “[This was a] great season. I love this team and if I could start the whole season over again; I’d do it in a heartbeat,” Fateh said.

—David Gobel

Boys’ soccer

Heading into their final match of the season against Chaminade today, the JV boys’ soccer team has an overall record of 9-3-4 and a league record of 8-2-1.

The team started off the season with two losses, three ties, and one win, but then hit a streak of 7 consecutive wins. This chain was broken with a loss against Loyola, followed by a tie against Notre Dame and a victory over Crespi.

Dino Durand, head coach of the JV team, says that he’s very happy with how the team has done this year.

“We have a bright future for Harvard-Westlake soccer,” Durand said.

—Austin Lee

Girls’ water polo

Austin Block/chronicle

The JV girls’ water polo team finished their season with a league record of 3-3 and an overall record of 6-9. The season began in November, and concluded Monday against Marymount winning 9-2.

The team lost its Feb. 3 match against Notre Dame 6-5. Prior to that, the team was on a winning streak, having won four consecutive matches against Cerritos High School, Burroughs High School, Marymount High School and El Rancho High School.

“It was a challenge at first but then after practic-

ing together it all began to come through,” Chelsea Edwards ’11 said.

This is the first year in a while that there were enough players to make a JV team, which allowed new or inexperienced players to begin playing water polo.

“For people who have just started playing the sport and learning the rules, we came together and won games,” Edwards said.

Girls’ soccer

—Tiffany Liao

The JV girls’ soccer team’s season comes to a close today with an away game against Chaminade. Finishing with a strong overall record of 10-5-1 and a league record of 6-2-1, the team had to push through a couple of obstacles on and off the field, Head Coach Dave Copeland-Smith said.

“The season was really successful even though we had a few defensive and trust issues to overcome, but we pushed through and finished strongly,” CopelandSmith said.

The team’s transformation occurred through new practice efforts and training regiments. CopelandSmith believes that good playing on the field is a result of strong practice methods and mental focus.

“Getting the girls to believe in themselves and keeping that mental focus was important to our success,” Copeland-Smith said.

The team really benefited from the practice sessions not only regarding their skills, but also their team dynamic Nicole Hirschhorn ’12 said.

“The practices have really brought our team together as a whole,” Hirschhorn said.

—Judd Liebman

C6 Sports

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ESPN Rise features Wilson on cover

By Jack Davis

Courtesy of Espn rise magazine

Featured: ESPN Rise, a regional sports magazine, put baseball talent Austin Wilson ’10 on its cover.

Baseball player Austin Wilson ’10 was featured on the cover of ESPN Rise, a regional high school sports magazine.

The magazine was published and distributed throughout the state last week and free copies were offered in a box outside of Seaver.

The article described Wilson’s dedication to schoolwork and how he strives to find a balance between baseball and grades.

“One of his teachers described him as just about perfect in every way, and that’s hard to live up to. Then you meet him and it’s hard to find any flaws. He’s straight out of central casting for a student-athlete,” Wilson’s dean Sharon Cuseo was quoted as saying in the article.

“He’s such a great kid off the field, so wellliked and he gets along with everybody,” baseball Head Coach Matt LaCour was quoted as saying in the article.

Wilson has committed to play baseball at the collegiate level for Stanford University but still has the option of forgoing college and playing professional baseball.

The Major League Baseball draft is in June and many pundits have pegged Wilson as a first round pick, with potential to rise as high as a top five pick.

“Regardless of what happens, I will still need another job after baseball and I want to succeed in that job,” Wilson said in the story.

Davis wins international competition in Germany

By Ashley Khakshouri

Lucy Davis ’11, who hopes to compete in the 2012 London Olympics, won the Young Master League Championship in Frankfurt, Germany on Dec. 20. The top 30 riders ages 25 and younger from Europe compete all year to Nathanson ’s/chronicle qualify for these championLucy Davis ’11 ships.

This was the first year the competition opened up two wild card spots to the United States Equestrian Federation.

At a show in New York in November, Davis was approached and told that she had been chosen as one of the wild card spots. She felt lucky to have the opportunity to compete on an international level, she said.

After arriving in Frankfurt, Germany, Davis formed her goal around the competition around her, she said.

“I didn’t really know what to expect. All I knew was that I wanted to do well and represent the states well. When I got there and saw the quality of the riders and horses, which was much better than the states, I made my goal to make the top 15.”

The competition began on Dec. 16. There was one class on Thursday and one on Friday which Davis attended. From those rounds, they picked the top 15 to compete on a final round on Dec. 20.

Davis made the top 15 and continued to compete in the final round. In the final round she was clear (no faults-jumps down) along with 5 other people.

Those five tied and carried on to jump what is called a jump off which is a shortened course.

The competitor with the clearest with jump and the fastest time wins. Davis won the competition by having the fastest time in the jump off and by being the only one without knocking down a rail.

“It was absolutely amazing to win. It is a much bigger sport in Germany, it’s basically second to soccer only,” Davis said. “They made such a big deal out of my win and you are really treated like a professional athlete; there were around 45,000 spectators.”

“The fact that I was representing the U.S. made it a much bigger deal than just me. I really felt like I was a part of something bigger than just myself,” she said.

Davis returned home with a saddle, a trophy, a watch, champagne, and a portion of the 20,000 euro purse.

8 wrestlers qualify for upcoming playoffs

By Jonah Rosenbaum

Despite a team composed of several young, inexperienced underclassmen and newcomers, the wrestling team qualified eight wrestlers to compete in CIF. “Considering where we were at the beginning of the season, eight kids going to CIF is an incredible accomplishment,” Tennyson Turner ’10 said.

CIF is this Friday, where a strong showing could lead to some of the wrestlers advancing to the state tournament.

“We have worked really hard and we’re in a good position to do well at CIF. Obviously we all want to win and we are capable of doing that. At the very least we want to be able to walk

out and be able to say that we left it all on the mat,” Turner said.

“As for state, our hopes mostly rely on Nick Truer ’10 and Ben Kogan ’11 who have been consistent, dominant forces for us this whole year,” Turner said.

Turner also said the team’s response to the injury of key senior Patrick Newman was a pivotal point in the season.

“Losing Patrick was a huge blow, his work ethic was contagious and he was such a talented wrestler. At the same time, everyone has stepped up in his absence and he has taken on a new role. He has become like a second coach for the team, watching practices and games and giving us advice. It’s been invaluable,” Turner said.

The article also detailed Wilson’s down-toearth personality and how he has remained the same despite all the attention that comes with being such a high profile athlete.

“He hasn’t changed one bit since he got this attention. He doesn’t think he’s better then anyone or deserves more then anyone,” Wilson’s teammate Andrew Shanfeld ’10 was quoted as saying in the article.

Wilson was named a pre-season All-American and over the summer participated in the prestigious Under Armor All-American Game and the Aflac All-American game.

Wilson gained publicity for hitting a home run at the Under Armour game, at famed Wrigley Field, off the number four ranked pitcher in the nation.

Former New York Mets general manager Steve Phillips was announcing the game, which was televised by ESPN, and after Wilson’s homerun exclaimed, “That was a shot.”

Wilson participated in his first invitational event as a junior, when he went to the Southern California Invatational, a showcase featuring the best Californian high school baseball players.

The event was the day after Wilson’s birthday, yet he stayed home on his birthday in order to be prepared for the showcase.

“My friends wanted me to go out, but I knew I had a big day the next day,” Wilson said in the article.

All-American committee nominates two seniors

By Jack Davis

Basketball players Austin Kelly ’10 and Erik Swoope ’10 have been nominated for the McDonald’s High School All-American game, the fifth and sixth players in HarvardWestlake history to be nominated for the game.

Centers Jarron Collins ’97, Jason Collins ’97, and Alex Stepheson ’06, and guard Bryce Taylor ’04 are the only other Harvard-Westlake basketball players to have been nominated to play in the prestigious high school basketball showcase.

Harvard-Westlake is one of 12 schools from California to have more than one player nominated and 85 players from California were nominated.

The first person to find out that Swoope and Kelly were nominated was head basketball coach Greg Hilliard, who had the nomination mailed to him by the McDonald’s AllAmerican nominating committee.

The next day at prac-

tice, Hilliard announced that Swoope and Kelly had received the honor.

“I’m extremely excited about it,” said Swoope. “It has always been a childhood dream of mine to get an opportunity to play against the best in high school basketball and I have to thank my team for looking for me out there on the floor to make something like this a possibility.”

The official teams, which usually consist of about 25 players, will be announced at the end of the month. Over 300 players across the country were nominated. The showcase is scheduled for March 31 at Value City Arena in Columbus, Ohio.

“I don’t know if it’s realistic to think I’ll make the team, but just to be nominated and have my name mentioned in the same breath as some of the other guys who got nominated is a real honor,” Kelly said.

“My family and I are just praying we get that call at the end of the month,” Swoop said.

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Center

of Attention

Ashley Grossman ’11 played for the U.S. Junior National water polo team this summer and was invited to play for the Senior B Olympic team.

By Austin Block

Courtesy of Gerry Grossman

Looking Towards Rio, 2016: Ashley Grossman ’11, who competed with the U.S. Junior National team this summer, prepares to throw in a school game.

Alec Caso/chronicle

on ball defense: Grossman tries to rip the ball away from a Marymount player in Harvard-Westlake’s Feb. 8 match at Zanuck Swim Stadium.

The stands were crammed with Russians wearing clothing adorned with Russian flags. A small pro-USA section was dwarfed by the enormous crowd congregated in a stadium in Khanty-Mansiysk, Siberia. It was the first night of the women’s water polo 2009 FINA Junior World Championships this summer, and Ashley Grossman ’11, a member of the U.S. Junior National team, was about to compete.

“I get super super nervous before but once the whistle blows then I’m completely fine,” Grossman, a center, said. “I think I might have scored the first goal maybe. I was just amped.”

Grossman said the USA-Russia matchup was “probably the most watched game of the tournament.”

“We lost, but the memory of playing in that game is so vivid in my mind.

We were all so amped and had so much adrenaline, were so excited, and we were in Russia and we were playing Russia on the first night,” she said. “This was everything we had trained for and the first night of the tournament was so exciting and our coach gave us an awesome speech and the whole situation was really memorable.”

The team overcame the loss to take the bronze medal in the tournament.

“Russia is probably the highlight of my life currently,” Grossman said.

Grossman hopes to compete in the Olympics with the US team.

“I’ve always been an athletic person and so I put my heart into everything.

I try to do my best in everything and I really enjoyed it. I really wanted to go far,” Grossman said. “I’ve wanted to go to the Olympics since I was six so that’s always been in my vision.”

“2012 would be great but 2016 is more reasonable out of the lineup of girls in my position,” she said. “Until I get there that will be my dream.”

The 2016 Olympic games are set to be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brasil.

Around six years earlier, a huge kid was dragging Grossman under the water by a cap string that she didn’t know she was supposed to tie under her chin.

It was her first day of water polo, and she had no clue what was happening.

“It was a struggle but I think I caught on quickly because I had people

helping me there,” Grossman said.

Grossman chose to pursue water polo over soccer and at age 14 played for the Youth National team in the 2008 Pan-American Youth Games in Sao Paulo, Brazil. That team won the silver medal.

Grossman plays six days a week with the school team and during the offseason plays five days a week with her club team.

A couple of months ago Grossman was invited to play with the national Senior B team, effectively the second string of the national Olympic team, in Canada, but a wrist injury prevented her from going.

“That was like the all time coolest thing but then I didn’t get to go so that was a letdown,” Grossman said. “[Being asked to play with the Senior B team] was my biggest personal accomplishment.”

She injured her wrist in October due to “major overuse” and couldn’t play for a month.

The weekend she hurt her wrist she was playing in the Speedo Top 40 Championships, a casual tournament in which 40 players from the Senior, Senior B, and Junior National teams played each other. This tournament was part of the larger Speedo Top 40 Open Tournament taking place at the same time, another casual tournament which Grossman was also playing in.

“It was way too much,” Grossman said. “I was going from game to game and … my body couldn’t take it.”

Grossman is back playing now, though she still wears a removable cast and tapes her wrist before games.

She is already being recruited for college. She exchanges emails with coaches, and has gone to junior days and on unofficial visits. She plans to go to UC Berkeley, UCLA, USC, or Stanford, and she said she is virtually guaranteed acceptance into all four.

Since the water polo world is so small, she knows many of the prominent coaches and Olympians.

“I’m pretty happy with it [water polo]. Of course I get tired of it, and especially when we’re swimming,” Grossman said. “Sometimes you step back and you’re like ‘is it worth it? Okay yes it is let’s go,’ I don’t plan on getting tired of it. I really love it.”

Sophomore hones ping-pong skills

By Jessica Barzilay

Yes, Timothy Choe ’12, is serious. It may often be perceived as a joke, but Choe actually is a competitive pingpong player.

“My friends usually laugh and then find out that I’m serious,” Choe said.

While most children were trying their hands in recreational soccer leagues and beginners’ ballet classes, Choe was following a different path.

Just as his father had before him, Choe was training to be a competitive table tennis athlete.

For Choe, ping-pong was a natural choice of hobby, since his father Ken Choe had achieved national acclaim as a member of the 1978-79 Korean National team and the 1982 U.S. team. As an 8-year-old in

Korea, Ken Choe, along with several of his classmates, was excused from studies to devote eight hours a day to table tennis training. Citing his father’s experience and achievements as his motivators, Choe plays the sport as an enjoyable pastime, just as his peers participate in other athletic endeavors for recreation.

As a young child training ever since he can remember, he competed in matches on an almost bi-weekly basis. These days, Choe takes advantage of the flexibility of the sport and the control he has over the intensity of his practices; according to the amount of work he is assigned at Harvard-Westlake and his other weekly commitments, he can decide his exercise and game schedule. For this reason, Choe said, he has no regrets about refraining

from more mainstream sports, like soccer and football.

Training consists of playing for two or more hours at a time, either against an opponent or facing up against a ping-pong robot, a table tennis staple for elite players.

The sport is a test in endurance, and players experience the soreness that typically accompanies more aerobic sports.

“Being in ready position the whole time makes you really sore, and you sweat a lot,” Choe said.

Several of Choe’s adversaries at local competitions are aspiring professionals, and although he is not as focused on ping-pong, Choe respects their dedication and is able to appreciate the matches both as a spectator and as a competitor, he said.

Courtesy of Timothy Choe

Ping-Pong: Timothy Choe ’12 (right) began playing ping-pong early on. His father played on the U.S. and Korean national teams.

C8 Sports

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backtalk with Haley Boysen

Senior girls’ soccer captain

By Ashley Khakshouri

Q A Q A Q A

Feb. 10, 2010

What do you enjoy most about playing soccer?

I enjoy the rush of excitement and the adrenaline I get when I score a goal or when I beat a player. I love being with my teammates and being able to share this experience with them.

What position do you play and how do you try to be a leader?

I’m a center midfielder and a forward for my team. I try to be a leader by working hard every moment on the field, and by being positive when things aren’t going our way.

How does the team look to improve after such a successful season?

February

Q A Q A Q A Q A

Our success is in the past and the future is in our hands. Just because we were very successful last year doesn’t mean that another successful season is to come. Our hard work and determination in practices is how we will accomplish what we want.

How would you describe the team dynamics on and off the field?

It’s awesome. I love every single player on my team. Everyone gets along and we’re like one big, happy family. They are like my sisters.

What are your goals for this season?

I desire to accomplish a CIF championship and another Regional championship. I know my team has the talent, skill, and determination to achieve these aspirations.

So you’ve committed to USC… How are you preparing to be a part of that team?

I’m planning on starting a fitness program this summer in order to build more muscle so that I can hold my ground in college. I am also reading this book called “10 Minute Toughness” by Jason Selk in order to become mentally stronger.

How do you think playing soccer in college will be different than playing on a high school team?

It will be way more intense. There’ll be a lot more fitness involved, and I know the competition will be very tough. I know that it’s not going to be easy to earn a starting position so I know that I’m going to have to push myself mentally and physically.

mark your calendar

Candice NAVI/chronicle

10 11 19 20 27 Boys’ Basketball Girls’ Water Polo vs. Chaminade

vs. Flintridge SH

Wrestling

Baseball

Boys’ Lacrosse

Friday at TBA Whittier High School

Saturday at 12 p.m.

Franklin Field

(Scrimmage)

CIF Tournament

vs. Alumni

vs. Corona Del Mar

Today at 7 p.m.

Taper Gymnasium

Thursday at 4 p.m.

Zanuck Swim Stadium

“If we beat Chaminade it will make us undefeated in league, something that hasn’t been done in 12 years.”

–Austin Kelly ’10

“We have such a strong team connection have worked so hard this season. This will be our last league match.”

“We are all ready to see where our hard work this season will take us in the CIF.”

“The alumni games are always fun, especially because Harvard-Westlake has really talented alumni.”

“We made playoffs last year with few seniors and now we’re hoping to win league and go further in the playoffs.”

–Paige Dewey ’10

–Jordan Bryan ’11

–Andrew Shanfeld ’10

–Cory Wizenberg ’11

Saturday at 3 p.m.

Corona Del Mar High School