August 2016 Edition by The Harvard-Westlake Chronicle

CHRONICLE THE HARVARD-WESTLAKE

Los Angeles • Volume 26 • Issue 1 • Aug. 30, 2016 • hwchronicle.com

Search for US head narrows By SAMMI HANDLER

PRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF DARLENE BIBLE

Lucy Davis ’11 wins silver medal in Rio

JUMPING FOR SILVER: Lucy Davis ’11 competes for the United States Show Jumping Team in the Olympic Games in Rio with 12-year-old, Gelding Barron, a Belgian Warmblood horse. She competed in the 2012 Summer Olympic Games for show jumping. Davis began riding when she was ﬁve years old and was on the Varsity equestrian team for Harvard-Westlake.

Resnick replaces Barzdukas as Interim Head of Upper School

By JEAN SANDERS

cepted a position as head of school at the Poly Prep Day School in BrookAlthough Liz Resnick will only fill lyn, New York. “I think anyone who does this job the position of head of Upper School for one year, she has already made brings a little something different to one permanent policy change: elimi- it,” Resnick said. “Mr. Barzdukas nating styrofoam cups from the fac- was amazing in his way and hopefully, I will do a good job beulty room. ing a very different person in However, Resnick said the job.” that will likely be the only President Rick Commons official policy change she asked Resnick to fill in as Inmakes, as in the coming terim Head of Upper School year she will be focusing in mid-March. He said her more on the day-to-day five years as Director of Upaspects of the role. per School at Crossroads “I don’t think it’s my School was a factor in her sejob to create a lot of new ’ lection for the position. things that I won’t be Liz Resnick “I love working with her,” responsible for seeing Commons said. “She’s funny, through to fruition,” Resnick said. “That being said, I think warm, smart, wise and loves stuthere are conversations that we’re in dents and teachers and school, so the middle of that should continue she’s ideal.” Resnick was previously the Dieven though I’m not the permanent rector of Studies, and said her expeupper school head.” Resnick replaced former Head of rience in that position allowed her to Upper School Audrius Barzdukas, become familiar with every member who announced in April that he ac- of the faculty. As Director of Studies, NATHANSON S

she sat in on many classes and gave department heads feedback on their curriculums to improve them. “I have seen every returning faculty teacher teach,” Resnick said. “There’s a level of trust that I hope I have with my colleagues because they’ve already worked with me on some level.” Resnick received her undergraduate degree in comparative government from Harvard University, her master’s degree from Dartmouth University, and a Masters in Business Administration from the UCLA Anderson School of Management, according to an email sent by Commons last spring. As a member of the search committee for the new head of the upper school, Resnick said she will help school administrators determine the best candidate for the job. “As a committee, the ﬁrst thing we did was try to identify what we care about and the traits we believe the upper school head should embody,” Resnick said.

A team of administrators, deans and faculty narrowed the search for a new head of the Upper School to eight candidates and expects to make an appointment at least before Thanksgiving. Two of the eight semifinalists are current faculty members and the other six come from California, Texas, Ohio and New Hampshire. The names of the faculty members who are up for consideration are confidential as it is an ongoing hiring process. Those who are not internal candidates will visit classes to get a better sense of the school and community as the interview process continues through early October. “I’m really proud to say in the context of our diversity and inclusion initiatives that of those eight semifinalists, four of them are people of color,” President Rick Commons, who is a member of the search committee, said. “I’m proud of that and pleased with it. All four of them are extraordinarily qualified. It was very important to have a diverse pool.” Since the spring, Commons, Head of School Jeanne Huybrechts, Interim Head of Upper School Liz Resnick, Head of Middle School Jon Wimbish, Head of Athletics Terry Barnum, Upper School Dean Beth Slattery and English Department Head Larry Weber reviewed 70 applications for the new posi. “They were all really impressive applications,” Commons said. “In our advertisement we stipulated the kind of experience we were looking for so we didn’t get applications from people who were really under qualified. We had 70 really good applications.” The school also released an advertisement on the school’s • Continued on A3

Consultant group to assess student, faculty diversity INSIDE By JESSE NADEL

In accordance with the vision statement to have the school’s “commitment to inclusion enable every member of our community to feel an equal sense of belonging,” the administration is engaging an outside facilitator, HR Matrix, to give recommendations on how the school can improve diversity and inclusion. The facilitators will be on campus during the fall to have conversations with students, faculty, staff, administrators and parents, President Rick Commons said. Interim Head of Upper

School and Diversity, Equi- Matrix recommendations bety and Inclusion Committee fore the the new year. “One only needs to talk member Liz Resnick said that to a few students the facilitators will into hear that some vestigate diversity of students feel that race, socio-economic they don’t belong as status, sexual orientamuch as other stution, gender and other dents, whether it characteristics. be because of racial “We felt like we background or sodidn’t want to take for cioeconomic backgranted that we underground or a sense stood everyone’s expe’ of a different learnriences of the school Rick Commons ing style or a sense so we thought it would of a different perbe a good idea to have an outside facilitator hold up sonal style,” Commons said. “We know we have work to do a mirror for us,” Resnick said. Commons said the school but knowing where that work is hoping to receive the HR is more acutely needed is what NATHANSON S

the climate assessment will be intended to do.” The decision to bring in the outside consultants came from the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee, which has been investigating ways to improve inclusion at the school. “I’m excited about the facilitators’ work but I’m also nervous about that work because we didn’t engage them to tell us that we have it all ﬁgured out, we engaged them to see what we’re not doing well, so I’m nervous to see what that is, but I’m committed to ﬁxing these problems,” Commons said.

GOTTA CATCH ’EM ALL: Although some students say Pokemon Go has made their summer more exciting, some say it has made it more dangerous due to safety concerns.

A2 NEWS

THE CHRONICLE

Alumni speak at DNC

AUG. 30, 2016

By JULIANA BERGER

Jason Collins ’97 and Jarron Collins ’97 spoke in support of Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton on the ﬁrst day of the Democratic National Convention July 25 in Philadelphia. Jason Collins became the ﬁrst openly gay professional basketball player in 2013 when he came out in a Sports Illustrated article. He said that he came out to the Clinton family before his public announcement, as he had become friends with the nominee’s daughter, Chelsea Clinton, while attending college at Stanford. “I have known their family for almost 20 years,” Jason Collins said during the speech. “I knew that they would accept me for who I was, and they would help pave a path for others to do the same. I am forever grateful for their words of wisdom back then and their unconditional support. They knew that my sexual orientation made no difference in my ability to play basketball, just as someone’s gender makes no difference in his or her ability to lead our nation.” Jason Collins, who became

PRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF COLLEGE NEWS NETWORK

A SLAM DUNK FOR HILLARY: Alumni Jason Collins ’97 and Jarron Collins ’97 stand under the LGBT ﬂag while speaking at the Democratic National Convention to endorse Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton for the upcoming presidential election in November. an activist for the gay community after retiring from the National Basketball Association in 2014, spoke highly of Clinton’s record supporting LGBT rights. Democratic support of the LGBT community will be important in the upcoming election, especially because

Republican Vice Presidential Nominee Mike Pence has supported anti-LGBT legislation in the past. “The choice for continued progress is clear,” Jason Collins said. Jarron Collins introduced his brother and spoke about the importance of the presi-

Poet Max Ritvo ’09 passes away after battling pediatric cancer By DANIELLE SPITZ

Max Ritvo ’09 passed away Aug. 23 after battling with the pediatric cancer Ewings Sarcoma. Ritvo was diagnosed at age 16 and dropped out of high school to receive treatment. Ritvo eventually became cancer-free and was able to return to Los Angeles and graduate from high school.

He received both the Sandifer Creative Writing Award and the Lamar Trotti Award for overcoming a hardship. “He was unforgettable,” performing arts teacher Ted Walch said. “From the minute you met him, you knew you would remember him forever. He was incandescently bright. He was true to himself.” Ritvo attended Yale College. Despite a cancer recurrence

during his senior year, Ritvo still graduated and received his Masters of Fine Arts. He then taught Creative Writing at Columbia University. He pursued a career in poetry and was awarded a Poetry Society of America Chapbook Fellowship in 2014 for his book “AEONS.” His work has been published in multiple publications. Ritvo is survived by his wife Victoria Ritvo, his mother Riva

dent as a role model to children, and said he believed Clinton is better suited for that role. Jarron Collins said that Clinton exempliﬁed respect towards women and people of different heritages, which is important to him since his wife is hispanic. Jarron Collins

“

He was unforgettable. From the minute you met him, you knew you would remember him forever. He was incandescently bright. He was true to himself. —Ted Walch Performing arts teacher

Ariella Ritvo Slifka, his father Edward Ritvo, his siblings Victoria Black (Rayon), Skye Oryx (Marco) and David Slifka (Michele). Milkweed Editions will publish his debut collection “Four Reincarnations” in

In the issue

Features

SHIPPED OFF: Seven students who were

THE LAND OF MILK AND HONEY: Six

granted fellowships traveled abroad during the summer to pursue a project. C4-5

faculty and staff members visited various cities in Israel during the summer as a part of an Immersion Faculty Fellowship. A3

ing a year of school in France, Danielle Kaye ’17 says that she has learned to appreciate her American education, especially her math and science classes. A10

October. “Even though I haven’t seen him in the last couple of years, Max was more than my student, he was my friend, and I will miss him very much,” performing arts teacher Christopher Moore said.

SHOW ME WHAT YOU GUAT: Students who traveled to Guatamala during the summer documented their trips. B1

HAPPY CAMPERS: The debate team attended a camp on campus that attracted students from across the country. A4

THE AMERICAN DREAM: After spend-

NATHANSON’S

Arts & Entertainment

News

Opinion

retired from the NBA in 2011 and currently works as assistant coach to the Golden State Warriors. In high school, the Collins brothers led the boys’ basketball team to consecutive CIF Division III State Championships in 1996 and 1997, then moved on to play basketball in college and the NBA.

Sports

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY ESHANIKA CHAUDHARY

FIGHT OR FLIGHT: Students with plans to travel to Europe this summer or knew someone in traveling in Europe explain how they were affected by the recent terrorist attacks.

THE CHRONICLE, the student newspaper of Harvard-Westlake School, is published eight times per year and distributed free on both the upper and middle school campuses. There are 727 students at the Middle School and 869 students at the Upper School. Subscriptions may be purchased for $20 a year for delivery by mail. Unsigned editorials represent the majority opinion of the seniors on the Editorial Board. Letters

IN REEL TIME: Olympians, commits and draftees are featured in the summer highlight reel. D4-5 LOCKER LOOKS: Taper Gym undergoes changes to that include locker room renovations and a new sports medicine facility D7

to the editor may be submitted to chronicle@hw.com or mailed to 3700 Coldwater Canyon Ave., Studio City, CA 91604. Letters must be signed and may be edited for space and to conform to Chronicle style and format. Advertising questions may be directed to Kelly Loeb at kloeb1@hwemail.com. Publication of an advertisement does not imply endorsement of the product or service by the newspaper or the school.

AUG. 30, 2016

HWCHRONICLE.COM/NEWS

NEWS A3

Teacher leads school evaluation By CLAIRE KELLER

PRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF CHERI GAULKE

FROM THE WEST COAST TO THE WEST BANK: History teachers Larry Klein and Katherine Holmes-Chuba speak to a shopkeeper in

an Israeli spice market. Sixteen faculty members spent two weeks in Israel on an Immersion Faculty Fellowship to experience the culture.

Faculty visits Israel for immersion program By DANIELLE SPITZ AND NOA SCHWARTZ

Additionally, they visited a school for special needs children. “Everyone had their own Sixteen faculty members traveled to Israel on an Immer- unique experience of immersion Faculty Fellowship June sion into a unique, ancient and current historical and 13-27. The school’s Gunter Gross spiritual culture and place,” Global Fund sponsored the Klein said. The itinerary included trip and provided faculty with the opportunity to study visits to Jerusalem, Golan Heights in the abroad. Levant, the History teacher and I learned so much Dead Sea, the Desert, trip leader about the history, current Negev Tel Aviv, the Larry Klein state of affairs in the Knesset buildsaid there was ing, Bethlehem no notable imregion, the Israeli people and the disputpact from the and their way of life.” ed territory of current politWest Bank, ical state of —Luba Bek the said counselor Israel on their Counselor and humanities trip. teacher Luba Traveling Bek, who went as a group allowed the faculty to connect outside of school, on the trip. “In two weeks’ time, I Klein said. The trip primarily consist- learned so much about the ed of different activities expos- history, current state of affairs ing the faculty to various, dif- in the region, the Israeli peoferent aspects of Israeli history ple and their way of life,” Bek said. “My favorite experience and religions. The faculty also immersed was when we visited an [Israethemselves in Israeli culture li Defense Forces] base. The and lifestyle as well as saw life of those young boys and girls, who are about the age of multiple guest speakers.

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Committee to choose Head of Upper School by the end of the fall • Continued from A1

website describing the ideal candidate for the position. The committee conducted phone and in person interviews with 15 candidates before deciding on the semifinalists. Commons hopes to name a new head of the Upper School before Halloween, but if one candidate does not stand “head and shoulders above the rest” he said the committee will choose two or three finalists. Those finalists will then spend a full day at the school, if he or she is not a current faculty member, to meet with

students and faculty and visit more classes at the Upper School so the committee can get a community reaction. The committee hopes to ﬁnd someone who can work well with all aspects of the school, from the arts department to the athletic department, Commons said. “We certainly need to ﬁnd somebody who can embrace our school’s almost unique devotion to excellence in the academic arena, the athletic arena, the artistic arena, the journalistic arena, the forensic arena - one of the things that is really distinct about Harvard-Westlake is, what I

[Harvard-Westlake] students, rounded.” who are proud to defend their Holmes-Chuba, who teachcountry and serve its people, es the senior class AP Art Hisall combined with an almost tory and the tenth grade class summer camp-like atmo- The World and Europe II, said sphere, all stood out to me as she hopes to incorporate her extraordinary.” personal experiences from the History teacher Kather- trip, such as learning about ine Holmes-Chuba said she the Bauhaus buildings in Tel enjoyed going to the Western Aviv and seeing an iconostasis Wall on Friday Shabbat as well in the Church of Nativity in as walking around JerusaBethlehem, into her lem to see the differclasses’ curriculum ent layers of history as well as classroom throughout the city. discussions. “I’ve been to IsraH o w e v e r , el before, I’ve studied Holmes-Chuba said it obviously and I’ve she also wants to reread about it, but main impartial as an there was a day that educator in order to we were up in the Goallow her students lan Heights, and sudto develop their own ’ denly Mr. Klein said, opinions on Israeli Larry Klein ‘You realize we’re current events and two miles from Syria, controversies. and we’re 20 miles from Leb“There’s enough in the anon?’ and at that point, you world today of everyone just have a whole new under- telling you how to think,” standing of how Israelis feel,” Holmes-Chuba said. “I do Holmes-Chuba said. “You un- think that one of our jobs as derstand it because you look history teachers is to get stuin a map and say ‘they’re sur- dents to think for themselves rounded,’ but when you’re ac- and not indoctrinate, but [I tually on the ground, it’s like will share] my own experiencthere’s a reason for feeling par- es, show pictures particularly anoid because they’re so sur- in Art History.” NATHANSON S

History Department Head Katherine Holmes-Chuba will be stepping down as department chair to become the SelfStudy Coordinator this upcoming year. As Self-Study Coordinator, she will be organizing the preparation for an all-school evaluation that takes place every seven years. The school will be evaluated through the Accrediting Commission for Schools and Western Association of Schools and Colleges, a program that is used nationwide to assess the quality of private and public schools. Categories include organization for student learning, support for student personal and academic support, resource management and development, curriculum, instruction, and assessment criteria. Holmes-Chuba served as department head for over 17 of her 32 years teaching at Harvard-Westlake. Her responsibilities included organizing and planning the curriculum as well as training teachers new to the department. She will continue to teach tenth grade World and Europe II as well as AP Art History classes in addition to her new position. History teacher Greg Gonzalez will ﬁll her position as new history department head. “He is going to be awesome,” Holmes-Chuba said. “He has been here for a long time and knows the department very well. I’m sure he will bring great new ideas.” Holmes-Chuba will be preparing over the next two years to make the evaluation run smoothly. The assessment will take place during the 2017-2018 school year. “Change is good.” Holmes-Chuba said. “It is very important to have new leadership, new vision, and a new way of doing things in order to progress.”

Candidate Breakdown Applicant Numbers

Semifinalist Numbers

Total Applicants

Faculty Members

Candidates

Different States

Semifinalists

People of Color

15 8

GRAPHIC BY JEAN SANDERS SOURCE: RICK COMMONS

call, centers of excellence in so many areas,” Commons said. “Most schools like ours have one center of excellence, maybe two, and we have multiple. We need to ﬁnd somebody who can embrace that approach to education.” After former Head of Upper

School Audrius Barzdukas announced in April that he would become the head of a private day school in New York, Resnick volunteered to temporarily ﬁll the administrative vacancy. She will remain in her position throughout the year.

“Even if we name somebody, ideally on Oct. 25, that person wouldn’t begin until July 1, 2017,” Commons said. “We’ve got this really powerful group of eight semiﬁnalists, so I’m excited about that work. The hard part is going to be choosing.”

A4 NEWS

THE CHRONICLE

AUG. 30, 2016

Teachers work two campuses By INDU PANDEY

KATIE PERRIN/CHRONICLE

School renovates Taper Gym with new facilities

TOUCHDOWN FOR TAPER: Football players change after practice in the newly refurbished locker room of Taper Gym. During reconstruction, athletes used trailers placed near the track as temporary changing rooms. The renovations include an automated clothes line rack, a new sports medicine facility and an expanded trainer’s room.

• Continued on D7

Science department changes chemistry course

By NOA SCHWARTZ

“Because the labs that we did were designed so that you just Chemistry students will had to follow instructions and learn from an entirely rede- not really think about it, kids signed curriculum, which in- weren’t understanding what cludes less content and more they were doing and why. homework and labs, beginning That’s what we’re trying to fix.” Additionthis year. ally, students Chemistry will now learn team leader NarThe material is concepts in a ae Park, Head revised order. pretty much the same, of the Science Instead of Department Larit’s just about how we’re beginning by ry Axelrod and getting students to memorizing science teacher Heather Audeunderstand it and think elements and their charges, sirk developed about it.” students will the new course —Narae Park learn about materials during the summer. Science teacher atomic structure. The chemPreviousistry team dely, students cided to alter the course last year because blindly memorized without teachers wanted their stu- being introduced to basic condents to be required to think cepts, Park said. Instead of optional homemore in the lab setting. chemistry students “Kids weren’t really figuring work, out concepts during the unit, will be required to complete and then they would just get bi-weekly online assignments. “The course will definitedestroyed on tests,” Park said.

“

ly be more rigorous, but we curriculum will help students. “I think it will be beneficial are trying to make up for that with added time for in-class because towards the end of homework and group prac- the year chemistry got harder tice work,” Park said. “We and this will definitely level the know that chemistry is a dif- playing field,” Spencer said. Mid-year and final assessficult course and I think that ments will be weightnow with all the extra ed less. ways for students to Park said the understand material chemistry departhave a much better ment is also considsupport system.” ering adding a lab Liam Douglass ’18 practical section to said his chemistry exthese assessments. perience last year was The redesigned stressful. chemistry curriculum “I was in the ofwill help students fice every day, trying ’ in future Advanced to understand the Emma Placement classes as material just so that Spencer ’18 well, Park said. I could pass,” Doug“If you think about it, the lass said. “I absolutely think this new program will be bene- material is pretty much the ficial because I think it will be same, it’s just about how we’re more discussion based instead getting students to underof students being overloaded stand it and think about it,” with lectures, which is some- Park said. “They’ll be writing thing I would have really ap- methods before labs, and having that skill will be useful in preciated.” Emma Spencer ’18 said AP classes they might take the she also believes altering the next year.” NATHANSON S

History teachers Celia Goedde and Lilas Lane will commute between the upper and middle school campuses to teach this year. The two history departments hope to use the program to better integrate the World and Europe classes, since the course is split between ninth and tenth grade, Goedde said. “We always want to make the students’ learning experience the best and one way to do that is to create a closer link between our campuses,” History Department Head Greg Gonzalez said. “It’s done in lots of different ways and this is one way the history department is linking the ninth and tenth grade courses more closely.” Goedde will teach two sections of The World and Europe I for ninth grade students in the mornings and two sections of The World and Europe II for sophomores in the afternoon. Lane will teach three The World and Europe I sections in the morning and one The World and Europe II class in the afternoon. Lane said she worries about the amount of meeting time available. “I’m concerned about time with students,” Lane said. “That’s my biggest issue. To me, one of the things I really value about Harvard-Westlake is that ability to have one-onone time as well as classroom time.” The history department has not outlined future plans for the program aside from Goedde and Lane commuting, Gonzalez said. Lane said she hopes to integrate more women’s history into the tenth grade course, as she has never taught that half of the course before. Goedde said she looks forward to getting better acquainted with her middle school colleagues. “It’s a whole new campus of teachers that I don’t know,” Goedde said. “Although I know some teachers, I don’t know very many of the middle school teachers, so I’m looking forward to getting to know them.”

Debaters attend summer program

By ANTHONY WEINRAUB

Debate coach Travis Fife and alumni Cameron Cohen ’16, The upper school campus Nick Steele ’16 and Michael hosted the second annual de- O’Krent ’14 also taught. “Having alumni return bate.LA summer camp from June 20 to July 29. The pro- is always great,” Bietz said. “About 20 percent gram is an intensive of our attendees speech and debate are HW students. It workshop meant to gives them the abilihelp hone debatty to learn from sucers’ skills before the cessful recent gradcompetitive season. uates.” Students of all The two oneskill levels in grades week programs ﬁve-12 were eligiconsisted solely of ble to attend, and ’ courses speciﬁcally the camp had 333 Lauren designed for beginattendees from 127 different schools in Morganbesser ’19 ner debaters. The program of10 countries. Harvard-Westlake de- fered sessions June 20-24 and bate program head Mike Bi- June 27-July 1. “Summer camp provides etz co-directed the camp with Greg Achten of The Harker an opportunity for kids to School in San Jose, California. learn debate in an intensive NATHANSON S

atmosphere,” Bietz said. “Trying to learn debate at a weekly practice during the school year really sets you behind.” The two-week ﬂagship program, which offered a broader set of courses than the beginner program, ran July 11-23. A one-week extension camp was available after. Parliamentary-style debate, Lincoln-Douglas debate and policy debate programs were all offered. During the camp, students took part in practice debates, learned debate skills, discussed philosophers and writers and practiced public speaking. Participants had the opportunity to stay in the University of California, Los Angeles dorms for the duration of the program.

PRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF MIKE BIETZ

MAKING A STATEMENT: Octavia Tyagi ’19 delivers a speech during a practice World Schools debate before her classmates. Campers staying at UCLA were able to participate in a variety of activities, including day-trips to Westwood and the Santa Monica Pier. “Staying at UCLA made my experience even better,”

program participant Lauren Morganbesser ’19 said. “It was great staying over because the coaches who taught at the camp were available at night to talk about cases, do drills and answer any questions.”

AUG. 30, 2016

HWCHRONICLE.COM/NEWS

NEWS A5

Students travel to Shanghai

By KAMI DURAIRAJ

Four Chinese language students interned in Shanghai and attended the World Leading Schools Association conference this summer. Jack Borris ’18, Izzy Reiff ’18, Strauss Cooperstein ’18 and Diego Ayala ’18 lived with host families for the duration of their internships at the Shanghai ofﬁce of the Parthenon Group. Students applied for the internship through the WLSA, a non-proﬁt organization founded by a group of American high schools, including Harvard-Westlake, and Chinese secondary schools. The organization aims to foster collaboration between “institutes of higher education around the world”, according to the WLSA website. “I feel that I gained a lot from the internship, mainly time management skills and insight into the challenges and rewards of conducting business between the U.S. and China,” Borris said. After the students’ internships were over each day, they were able to spend time with their host families and visit various locations throughout the city. Some students were able to take weekend trips with their host families, traveling by high-speed rail to the Hangzhou and Nanjing provinces. “The most meaningful learning experience, and the

PRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF STRAUSS COOPERSTEIN

PRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF ADELE CHI

PRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF DIEGO AYALA

MADE IN CHINA: (Top): Citizens walk accross a busy street in a small city ouytside of Shanghai. (Bottom left): Students hold handmade

indigo-dyed fabrics and cloths in the village of Wu Zhen. (Bottom right): WLSA interns pose at the Shanghai World Financial Center.

one I will remember most, was living with my host family,” Ayala said. “I bonded with my host family over the course of my stay, and living with them gave me insights into Chinese culture and the nature of everyday life in China while also allowing me to practice my Chinese.” In addition to the students who interned, 13 other

students attended WLSA’s “A Sustainable Future” conference July 4-10 in Shanghai, accompanied by Upper School Deans Jamie Chan and Celso Cardenas. “It’s great for our students to be able to expand their knowledge base and see what it means [to be a student leader] in other countries and to other global students,” Carde-

nas said. WLSA holds conferences every two years, and in 2014 Harvard-Westlake hosted the ﬁrst conference at UCLA. This year the conference centered on the themes of environmental sustainability and leadership. Students attended workshops, gave presentations and went on cultural trips to the Yu Gardens and the Bund.

“My favorite part about the conference is the fact that I had a rare opportunity to meet people from all around the world, such as South Africa, the Netherlands and England,” conference attendee Adele Chi ’18 said. “Being able to mingle and interact with people from all walks of life exposed me to different cultures and perspectives.”

Walch rewrites film

textbook for class

By MADDY DAUM

TINA CLEVELAND/CHRONICLE

WHAT A RE-TREAT: Middle and upper school BLACC members convened at the Middle School cam-

pus for the ﬁrst-ever retreat on Aug. 20. Club members heard from featured speaker Jarron Collins ’97.

BLACC participates in first-ever retreat

By JOSIE ABUGOV

At the ﬁrst ever Black Leadership Awareness and Culture Club retreat, guest speaker Golden State Warriors assistant coach Jarron Collins ’97 told students to work hard inside and outside of school. “The retreat was a resounding success,” associate director of admissions and retreat planner Janine Jones said. “Students seemed to be not only enjoying themselves, but also learning and planning for the year ahead.” BLACC members from both campuses were invited to the retreat, held on Aug. 20 at the Middle School. “Because we meet on separate campuses, members typically see the clubs as separate entities, and the

retreat was a reminder that we are one united club,” BLACC leader Taylor Jones ’18 said. At the beginning of the event, Collins noted his experience playing basketball, highlighting the importance of balancing academics and extracurricular activities, as well as exhibiting strong work ethic in all pursuits. After bonding activities between club members, upper school students met with BLACC faculty and discussed the importance of setting goals, while lower school students participated in a Study Skills workshop. Students then shared personal experiences of what it meant to be black at Harvard-Westlake. “[The boys in BLACC] were able to discuss strategies on how to deal with different

forms of racism at HarvardWestlake,” club member Charles Flippen ’18 said. Keynote speaker Kyle Bowser (Drew Bowser ’20) presented “Trial By Jury: the Case of the N-word,” a ﬁlm questioning the word as it’s used colloquially and in popculture. “We need to be proactive about stopping [the n-word’s] use by holding people accountable,” Flippen said. “Letting peers know that it upsets you can go a long way.” The retreat concluded with planning club activities for the 2016-2017 school year. “I love the BLACC leaders this year and we’ve already come up with some great ideas,” Andrews said. “I think we’re going to make this year one for the books.”

have to do with various aspects of film such as “the Performing arts teacher sound of silence,” which Ted Walch rewrote his cine- shows how movies use sima studies textbook entitled lence to make their point, “Cinstuds” over the summer. Walch said. The second half is a comWalch has been teaching Cinema Studies for 25 years plete list of the 24 movies the and created his own guide- students will view throughbook for his class in 2000. out the class, a summary of Last year, Walch asked the research Walch completed curriculum development and a day-to-day breakdown committee for a grant to re- of what they will be doing in class each day. vise the textbook. Throughout the textbook, Cinema studies student Javi Arango ’16 helped Walch cites secondary sourcWalch reshape the content es such as Russian filmmakof the textbook for two and er Serge Eisenstein. UCLA fina half months ished printing over the sumthe textbook mer. Henry I am crazy about last week and Erdman, a Walch intromovie poster the look of this book... duced it in the designer, creI used to print it in the Cinema Studated the cover ies class on and layout of three ring binder so we the textbook. are going to print it as a Monday. “At the “I am crazy book.” moment the about the look printing is of this book,” —Ted Walch e x c l u s i v e l y Walch said. “We now have Performing arts teacher for the people taking a 208 page the course beautiful book and when we sent it to UCLA, and the people who helped the person in charge there put together the book, like called me and said we think [Arango] and some of the this is far too good looking young people who helped me to print, as I used to print it on my research,” Walch said. in the three ring binder so “I want to live with this book we are going to print it as a for two or three years, I know there are still some things I book.” The first part of the book would like to tweak, maybe includes 10 chapters that in a major way.”

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A6 News

The Chronicle

Meet the new teachers Miriam Shapira ’97 After taking time off from her career to be a stay-athome mom, Miriam Shapira ’97 is the new executive assistant to the head of external relations. Shapira said that the excitement of seeing her two children head off to school has reignited her passion for education and inspired her to return to her alma mater. As the executive assistant to the head of external relations, she will help with event planning and scheduling. Shapira majored in comparative literature at Brown University and then earned her master’s degree in teaching from Pace University. After getting her law degree from University of California, San Francisco Hastings Law School, she worked as a corporate attorney for Warner Brothers. “I feel really lucky,” Shapira said. “I am learning a lot just by being here.” —Kaitlin Musante

Nathaly Blanco Nathaly Blanco will return as the school’s SAT and ACT coordinator after working for two years as an upper school receptionist. As the SAT and ACT coordinator, Blanco will schedule proctors, assign students to rooms and prepare the tests. Previously, she had proctored standardized tests and helped with AP exams. When previous SAT and ACT coordinator Chris Gragg retired, he decided that she would be a good fit. Blanco grew up in North Hollywood and attended the University of California, Berkeley, studying forest management and environmental sociology with a minor in education. She managed a dental practice for five years, but decided that she wanted to move back to education and began working at Harvard-Westlake. —Lucas Gelfond

Caitlin Adams

Caitlin Adams has joined the business office as the new director of human resources. Adams began the process of acclimating to the school in March when she shadowed the previous director Marty Greco. “Time with Marty was invaluable just to learn some of the behind-the-scenes stuff,” Adams said. Adams said she wishes to streamline Greco’s work. She will aid faculty members and answer questions about employment recruitment and management. Adams has 13 years of human resource experience and spent the last decade at the Broad Foundation, an organization that makes grants for educational purposes. She said the transition to the school was made easier because both organizations have similar goals. “At Broad, there were people who very passionate about reforming education and here there are people who are very passionate about teaching and educating students,” Adams said. “It’s a more direct delivery method, but there’s still that same passion.” —Saba Nia

Aug. 30, 2016

Thirteen new teachers and five new staff members are joining the upper school community this school year.

Jennifer Regas Tiari: History

Jim Burns: Communications

By Anthony Weinraub

By Jenny Li

Jennifer Regas Tiari has joined the upper school history department at the start of the year, teaching The World and Europe II and United States History. Tiari worked at University of California, Los Angeles as a teaching assistant and guest lecturer since 2011. “I’m really excited to get this opportunity to interact with students for a whole year and develop relationships with my students and get that longevity that you don’t get at a college,” Tiari said. Prior to working at UCLA, Tiari worked at The List Project, an organization which helps assimilate Iraqi interpreters who immigrated to the United States after working for the military during the Iraq War. Tiari says she plans to incorporate her experiences at The List Project into her teaching. “[I learned that] not everyone has the same life experiences as I have, not everyone has the same life experiences

New Chronicle and Big Red adviser Jim Burns has joined the Communications department this school year, replacing Melissa Wantz. Initially intending to pursue broadcast journalism, Burns attended the University of Southern California and received his Masters of Arts for Broadcast Journalism with a focus on ethnographic film. He gradually switched into print journalism, working in positions such as senior syndicate editor at the Los Angeles Times. For the past seven years, Burns has worked as the adviser for Occidental College’s The Occidental Weekly and now looks forward to the shift from his previous work to advising high school students. “Younger students are certainly more flexible than a lot of reporters,” Burns said. “Reporters can be set in their ways. They don’t want to change. I know the Chronicle staff is eager to try new things, so I can’t wait to be a part of that.” Former Editor-in-Chief of

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that my community has,” Tiari said. “I’ll tailor my teaching style, my interaction style to people with different life experiences.” While at UCLA, Tiari also worked on history-related television shows such as “Drunk History” and “Who Do You Think You Are?” “I hope that my experiences making history for the public,” Tiari said. “I hope that I can translate that into the classroom and show students who didn’t think they were future historians and teach them that they really have that opportunity to love history.”

Stephen Thompson: English

Maude Bond: Dean

By Indu Pandey

By Sophie Haber

Stephen Thompson has joined the upper school English department this fall, having completed his doctorate in English requirements in English from Cornell University earlier this year. Thompson will teach English II and AP English Language: Imagined SocietiesUtopias and Dystopias. “I’m really excited to talk about books with students,” Thompson said.” For a long time, I had just been reading books in the library. To me, literature is at its most alive when it’s in conversations. I’m really excited to see what animates [students].” Thompson graduated with high honors from the University of California, Berkeley with a Bachelors of Arts and earned

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his Master of Arts from Cornell University. Before coming to Harvard-Westlake, Thompson taught a class at a high-security prison called Writing Oneself: Literature and Autobiography for Cornell’s Prison Education Program as well as other classes for freshmen at Cornell.

Maude Bond replaced Rose-Ellen Racanelli as an upper school dean, bringing ten years of experience from both a high school counseling and a college admissions perspective. Previously, Bond was the associate director of college counseling at the United Nations International School in New York and worked as the Director of multicultural recruitment at Columbia University. She studied African and African American Literature and Theater at Sarah Lawrence and earned her Masters of Fine Arts in creative writing at New School University. Bond met with her current juniors and seniors and their parents in May, although she

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The Occidental Weekly and new Chronicle layout assistant Juliet Suess believes that Burns’ experience and personality will allow him to be a good fit for the school. “Mr. Burns is so friendly and outgoing, and he’s willing to put in the work no matter where he’s at,” Suess said. “I really think his experience and background will give Harvard-Westlake students an inside on how to run their paper in a way that will prepare them for the future.” Burns hopes to accomplish his goals for staff relations and groundwork for this year.

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did not officially start as a dean. “I’m excited to work with Ms. Bond as she seems like a qualified and kind dean,” Griffin Fenady ’17 said. “That being said, I enjoyed working with Mrs. Racanelli, and I’m sad she is leaving. I’m looking forward to getting to know Ms. Bond this year.”

Adam Varney: Math

Kathleen O’Connor: Math

By Matthew Druyanoff

By Jake Davidson

Adam Varney has joined the upper school as a math teacher and will teach Algebra II with Analysis, Precalculus: Trigonometry and Functions and Introduction to Calculus Honors. Varney attended the University of California, Santa Barbara for five years and earned a bachelor’s degree and a master’s in his time there. He was also a teacher assistant for several calculus courses. Varney took an interest in math when he was very young and continued to practice throughout his childhood. Varney enjoyed how he could incorporate math into problems in life. During elementary school, Varney’s father taught him math because he believed it was subject. When Varney began high school, he knew he wanted a job related to math or science, so he took courses in high school to figure out what he wanted to do. At UCSB, Varney also took

Los Angeles native Kathleen O’Connor became a member of the upper school math department, teaching Algebra II and Advanced Placement Computer Science after three years of teaching experience in mathematics. O’Connor has always been interested in mathematics, earning degrees from the University of California, Los Angeles and California State University, Northridge. “Everything just kind of falls into place and makes sense. When you solve a really tough problem, you can feel really proud about it,” O’Connor said. This love for math has been ingrained in O’Connor for a long time, she said. “Math I’ve always liked, ever since I was in elementary school,” O’Connor said. “My dad used to buy me these workbooks and teach me math ahead of what I was learning in school. He made it fun for me, and so I’ve always kind of liked it since then.”

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up dancing. He went to bars to dance, and he gained an interest in line dancing. Starting in college, Varney has line danced socially and competitively all around the country. Varney is 23 years old, one of the youngest teachers at the school. This is his first job after he graduated college. “Hopefully [my youth] makes me more relatable, and that way if they have questions about the college experience or high school experience, it wasn’t too long ago,” Varney said.

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While working towards her master’s, she taught full-time at John H. Francis Polytechnic High School in Sun Valley, California. She has also been involved in outreach activities sponsored by UCLA’s Joint Mathematics Education Program.O’Connor says that while teaching in the Los Angeles Unified School District has been fulfilling, Harvard-Westlake’s rigorous academics allured her. “I knew about Harvard-Westlake’s reputation as a really good academic institution,” O’Connor said.

Aug. 30, 2016

hwchronicle.com/news

News A7

Laffite Lamberto-Egan: Math

Jennifer Cardillo: Dean

By Kelly Gourrier

By Maddy Daum

Laffite Lamberto-Egan, who recently earned his doctorate, became a new member of the mathematics department this year. He will be teaching Advanced Placement Statistics, Introduction to Calculus Honors and Topics in Calculus and Statistics. “[I will bring] an excitement for math. I love teaching, and I love math,” Lamberto-Egan said. “I’m really excited to get involved in lots of clubs that happen on campus.” Lamberto-Egan competed on the Brown University Chess Club, captained the Brown men’s ultimate frisbee team and was a member of the Mezcla Latin Dance Troupe. Lamberto-Egan is fluent in Italian and Spanish and has studied in Bologna, Italy, and La Coruna, Spain.

Jen Cardillo has joined the dean office after 25 years of working in the education system, replacing upper school Dean Kyle Graham. Cardillo studied history and English at Harvard University and John Burroughs High School. She worked at Phillips Academy as a teaching fellow and at Thayer Academy as a dean and teacher. Before coming to Harvard-Westlake, she worked at Concord Academy in Massachusetts for 19 years as an English teacher and director of admissions and financial aid. She also worked on the community and equity program, which worked to plan events for students to support religious, gender and race based affinity groups on campus. “We were really trying to think about the experience of students at school and we are also thinking about larger issues in the world and how to

KELLY GOURRIER/CHRONICLE

“I haven’t been the official teacher of classes larger than 15 students in a while, so I may have to learn as I go and change as I see fit,” LambertoEgan said. “My goals are to successfully transmit my joy of learning to the students, to get involved with some of the clubs on campus and just to become a working member of the Harvard-Westlake community.”

Travis Fife: Debate By Sam Ko Travis Fife is coaching the debate team full time and is teaching middle school debate classes this year. Fife debated himself starting at the end of his sophomore year and continued through the last two years of high school. “My parents said that I needed to do an extracurricular activity, and I knew the debate teacher at my school,” he said. “I liked him quite a bit, so I joined the team and went to my first tournament at the end of my sophomore year.” Fife graduated from University of California, Los Angeles with a degree in philosophy in June but had already been coaching debate at HarvardWestlake as a part-time coach for the past three years. Fife is especially looking

Gonzalez promoted to department head MADDY DAUM/CHRONICLE

help students become good activists for causes they care about,” Cardillo said. She then made the transition into college counseling, for the past four years. “That was one of the easiest transitions in my career,” Cardillo said. “I loved admissions work. I think the only thing I didn’t love about it was that my relationships with my students was so short term.” Cardillo said college counseling allowed her to assess the compatibility between student and institution, while still maintaining the aspects of her previous positions.

Jenna Dillon-Gasparino: English By Sofia Heller

SAM KO/CHRONICLE

forward to teaching the nondebate students in the middle school debate classes. “I’m excited to teach kids who have no experience with debate and also to get to know people at Harvard Westlake more,” he said. Students who know Fife said they are happy to have him as an official coach. “[Fife] is super helpful at tournaments and great to be around. I’m so excited he’s officially going to be a teacher,” debater Lauren Morganbesser ’19 said.

Woo Young Sim: Math

Jenna Dillon-Gasparino is teaching English III: Living America as a part-time teacher this year, leading two class periods. Dillon-Gasparino said she was eager to meet her students and hopes she can help them express their individuality. “I think it’s really important to find your own voice,” Dillon-Gasparino said. “In literature it’s so great because you’re reading all of these other voices, but the real intention is that you’re reading all of these voices in order to develop your own authentic self.” Dillon-Gasparino taught at Santa Monica High School for

SOFIA HELLER/CHRONICLE

11 years. Dillon-Gasparino believes that joining the school community will help her as a teacher. “I feel like there’s a sense of support where people are excited about revealing new things to you and helping nurture growth for students and for teachers,” Dillon-Gasparino said.

Veronica Cherry: Spanish By Alison Oh

By Alexandra So Woo Sim is teaching Algebra II Honors, Algebra II with Analysis and Precalculus at the Upper School. “Looking at the type of institutions that are both great for students and as a place to work for, you can’t do better than Harvard-Westlake,” Sim said. Before teaching at the school, Sim taught calculus at the University of California, Santa Barbara after earning his master’s degree in mathematics from there. Sim has

in brief

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also spent the previous four summers in his native South Korea teaching various math classes, as well as AP, ACT and SAT preparation courses. Sim said that he is excited to get to know the students at the school and transition into a high school atmosphere.

New world languages teacher Veronica Cherry is teaching Spanish III and Spanish III Honors, replacing former Spanish teacher Margot Riemer. Cherry has been working as a Spanish teacher for two decades at a mix of public and private schools. “Before I came here I taught for 15 years at Hutchison School and before that I taught in public schools,” Cherry said. Cherry said she was interested in working at Harvard-

ALISON OH/CHRONICLE

Westlake because of its reputation for rigorous academics. “I just want to have a chance to get used to the routines of Harvard-Westlake,” Cherry said. “I’m excited to get to know my students and be able to help them wherever I can, whether it’s in Spanish or outside the classroom.”

Scott Phillips: Debate

Kattie Xu: Chinese

By Ryan Kim

By Vishan Chaudhary

Scott Phillips has joined the debate team coaching staff this year, working specifically with high schoolers on the team. Phillips will coach students after school at practices and travel with the team to tournaments on the weekends. Phillips has experience teaching and coaching debate at the Meadows School in Las Vegas. Phillips was first interested in debate in middle school when he was required to take either computer typing or debate. “Typing just seemed kind of boring to me, so I went with debate and I loved it,” Phillips

Kattie Xu has joined the upper school Chinese department and is teaching AP Chinese after spending four years at a Los Angeles Unified School District school. “I like teaching to a different diversity of students,” Xu said. “Before I graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles , I taught at a public school in Downtown Los Angeles. Most students had no experience in Chinese but we taught them culture and global issues.” Xu grew up in China and earned her bachelor’s degree from Zhejiang University of Technology before going to graduate school at UCLA

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said. Phillips was drawn to Harvard-Westlake’s great reputation and its academic rigor, he said. Phillips said he is excited to be a part of the prestigious debate program. “So far it seems like an amazing place to work,” Phillips said.

History teacher Greg Gonzalez was promoted to head of the upper school history department after 11 years of teaching. His responsibilities include organizing and planning the curriculum as well as training new teachers. As the medium for communications between teachers and administration, he also makes decisions on behalf of the department including the creation of new classes. He has already introduced a new research course on the Holocaust to be led by history teacher Larry Klein. “I will be coaching an allstar team,” Gonzalez said. “I’ve got some incredible colleagues and I am very excited for the upcoming year.” —Claire Keller

Essex becomes new benefits administrator

Yutopia Essex has joined the upper school as the new benefits administrator. In her new position, Essex will be in charge of self-insured medical plans, the school’s flexible spending account, the student accident plan and worker compensation. Los Angeles born Essex grew up in Cincinnati. She returned to Los Angeles seven years ago to pursue her dream career in acting. Prior to working at Harvard-Westlake, Essex was head of human resources at Mama Shelter, a hotel in Hollywood. Seeking a better way to manage her job and her personal life, Essex accepted a job at Harvard-Westlake. “[This position offered] more of a work-life balance, I think,” she said. Essex said she was first attracted to the school because of its extensive curriculum. “I’ve never seen a highschool that has such an amazing curriculum,” Essex said. “It’s really more like a college, so that was really exciting.” Essex said she is happy to be in a learning environment. “I’m really inspired by Harvard-Westlake and the type of education it provides, so I was really excited to come on board as the benefits administrator,” Essex said. “Anything that anyone needs, I’m here for them.” —Kitty Luo

Prefect Council sends Homecoming notice

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and earning her Single Subject Teaching Credential from Loyola Marymount University. Xu knew she wanted to be a teacher since she had many family members that were also teachers. “My mother, my grandfather, my aunts and uncles, they were all teachers,” Xu said. “In China, we respect teachers, like doctors and lawyers, so I wanted to be a teacher as well.”

The Prefect Council announced Aug. 24 to upper school students that the date for homecoming formal will be Oct. 8. Students said they are excited about attending the school dance. “Last year I was playing in an out-of-state soccer tournament the day of homecoming, and somehow managed to make it back in time for the dance,” Bridget Stokdyk ’18 said. “I had a really good time and I am looking forward to it again this year.” —Cameron Stokes and Kendall Dees

A8 News

The Chronicle

in brief

Aug. 30, 2016

The Hub leaks new teacher assignments

Upper school students found their teacher assignments on The Hub Tuesday morning, making this the second year in a row that The Hub has prematurely released teacher names and then promptly removed them from the site. Students logged onto The Hub and viewed courses to see their teacher assignments. Students had access to class schedules without teacher names between Aug. 1 and 13 before viewing was no longer available to allow the deans to accommodate schedule change requests. Schedules including teacher names and classrooms were made available Aug. 26. —Danielle Spitz

Annual Giving breaks national record again The school became the first independent day school to surpass $8 million in Annual Giving donations at the end of last year, Head of Annual Giving Eli Goldsmith said. With contributions from families, alumni and faculty and staff, donations reached a total of $8,004,323. Harvard-Westlake verifies this statistic through surveys led by the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education. “Harvard-Westlake was the first day school to surpass $5 million, $6 million, $7 million, and now $8 million—we have been a leader in Annual Giving at independent schools for many years,” Goldsmith said. —Noa Schwartz

Seniors to begin year with ring ceremony The Class of 2017 will receive rings or pins and listen to speeches and celebrate their graduating year at the annual Ring Ceremony Sept. 11. The event will be held from 5:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Students will hear speeches from President Rick Commons and the senior prefects. Jordan Khorsandi ’17 will give a speech to open the ceremony and welcome guests, faculty and students, and Carolyn Hong ’17 will give a speech on the meaning of the school crest. Lauren Genender ’17 will give a speech on the history of the ceremony, and Mat Hogan ’17 will conclude by giving a speech on the journey of the class. —Katie Perrin

Peer support to go on annual bonding trip Peer Support leaders and trainees will go on their annual retreat from Sept. 10 to Sept. 12. Counselor and psychology teacher Luba Bek and upper school psychologist Kavita Ajmere will chaperone the trip to Camp Hess Kramer in Malibu. Roughly 25 senior leaders and 26 junior trainees will go to bond before the club starts. —Ellis Becker

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School completes Rugby Hall renovations

OUT WITH THE OLD: Rugby Hall underwent renovations this summer to update the facilities in order to be ready for classes this school year. Reburfishments include a carpet replacement, freshly-painted lockers and new doors. The changes made to Rugby Hall are similar to those of Taper Gym as part of the effort to modernize the upper school campus.

French staff incorporates new sources By Claudia Wong

French teachers began a process to improve the French curriculum during a professional development workshop called “Planning and Evaluation with IPAs and Authentic Sources” at the Upper School Aug 22. French teachers Simona Ghirlanda, Jerome Hermeline, Jenn Lechevallier ’98, Myriam LeGoff, Amandine Nelaton and Heath Wagerman attended the four-hour workshop, which was presented by Genevieve Delfosse, a veteran French teacher who has presented numerous workshops at national conferences. Delflosse showed the teachers how to use original French sources in the lower language levels and stressed the importance of having students speak only in French to capitalize on their skills.

CLAUDIA WONG/CHRONICLE

BIEN FAIT: Guest speaker Genevive Delfosse leads a meeting with French teachers to encourage the introduction of interpersonal assessments and other new sources into the French curriculum. She also showed the teachers new models for assessments and had the teachers take the assessments as if they were students so they could enter their mindsets. “[Deflosse] is much more practical than theoretical,” World Languages Department Head Jerome Hermeline said. “Therefore, I will be able to use some of the resource she

shared with us in my own classes, and I will also implement some of the strategies she presented us, for instance the student reflection on their own mistakes after receiving the correction of their written works.” The workshop was part of a larger continuous process to improve the French curriculum.

“I talked with the other teachers afterwards, and everyone was extremely enthusiastic and spoke at length about what they would take from that workshop,” Hermeline said. This was the first year that the workshop was held. Hermeline said that he would consider having a similar workshop again next year.

Science teachers to instruct new engineering class By Claudia Wong

A new year-long science course called Principles in Engineering will be taught this year by science teachers Karen Hutchinson and Jesse Reiner to give students exposure to engineering. UTeachEngineering, an initiative at the University of Texas at Austin designed to expose students to engineering, developed the curriculum. Hutchinson and Reiner attended a class led by other instructors who teach the course at UT Austin in August. “There were other teachers whose areas of comfort and

discomfort were pretty much School. the opposite to mine, so we “By the end of the year, all tried to help each other out I hope that students will and learn from each have a good sense of other,” Reiner said. some of the different “I’m not an engineer fields of engineering,” by training and have Hutchinson said. no formal experience “They also should with design, so cerhave a lot of expetain aspects of the rience thinking like training were pretty an engineer—going challenging for me.” through disciplined Hutchinson and brainstorming, break’ Reiner decided to ing a complex problem Jesse Reiner teach the course afup into smaller pieces, ter Hutchinson, Scinarrowing down ideas to pick ence Department Head Larry a final design and conveying Axelrod and Head of School their design idea in writing Jeanne Huybrechts attended and drawing.” a presentation at Windward Reiner said the course innathanson s

cludes group projects, data analysis and student presentations. “The curriculum is really different than any other course I’ve taught and I think quite different than any other course in the upper school science department,” Reiner said. “I’m partly nervous because this course is so different than anything I’ve ever done before,” Reiner said. “And I’m not necessarily expert in everything that I’m going to be asking students to do, but I’m definitely excited to see what kinds of ideas our students come up with.”

C HRONICLE THE HARVARD-WESTLAKE

EDITORS-IN-CHIEF: SAMMI HANDLER, JESSE NADEL MANAGING EDITORS: LAYLA MOGHAVEM, KATIE PLOTKIN, JEAN SANDERS EXECUTIVE EDITORS: HANNAH CHO, CARINA MARX, RIAN RATNAVALE PRESENTATIONS EDITORS: ESHANIKA CHAUDHARY, SABRINA BRITO, EMILY RAHHAL

OPINION The Chronicle • Aug. 30, 2016

Los Angeles • Volume 26• Issue 1 • Aug. 30, 2016 • hwchronicle.com

editorial

NEWS MANAGING EDITORS: TERESA SUH, CLAUDIA WONG NEWS COPY EDITOR: JACKSON NOVICK ASSISTANT NEWS EDITORS: MADDY DAUM, NOA SCHWARTZ, DANIELLE SPITZ, ANTHONY WEINRAUB NEWS ASSOCIATES: EMORY KIM, INDU PANDEY OPINION MANAGING EDITOR: KAMI DURAIRAJ ASSISTANT OPINION EDITOR: BRITTANY HONG OPINION ASSOCIATES: CLAIRE KELLER, JIWON PARK, MATTHEW YAM FEATURES MANAGING EDITORS: SOPHIE COHEN, DANIELLE KAYE FEATURES COPY EDITOR: KATIE PERRIN ASSISTANT FEATURES EDITORS: JOSIE ABUGOV, NICOLE KIM, ALENA RUBIN FEAUTRES ASSOCIATES: KRISTIN KUWADA, KITTY LUO A&E MANAGING EDITOR: LAUREN KIM ASSISTANT A&E EDITORS: GABI BERCHTOLD, KATE SCHRAGE

TIFFANY KIM /CHRONICLE

A&E ASSOCIATES: ISABELLE ESHRAGI, SARAH LEE, CATY SZETO SPORTS MANAGING EDITORS: JULIANA BERGER, JAKE LIKER SPORTS ONLINE EDITORS: DARIO MADYOON, CONNOR REESE ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITORS: ELI ADLER, OLIVER AKHTARZAD, ELLY CHOI SPORTS ASSOCIATES: ELLIS BECKER, SAM MCCABE, AARON PARK, ZACH SWARTZ, ADAM YU ONLINE MANAGING EDITORS: CAM STINE, BRYANT WU ADS

AND BUSINESS MANAGER: OLIVER RICHARDS

ARTS DIRECTOR: TIFFANY KIM CHIEF

OF PHOTOHRAPHY: PAVAN TAUH

LAYOUT ASSISTANTS AND STAFF WRITERS: RYAN ALBERT, KAELYN BOWERS, VISHAN CHAUDHARY, JAKE DAVIDSON, KENDALL DEES, MATTHEW DRUYANOFF, LUCAS GELFOND, ALEX GOLDSTEIN, KELLY GOURIER, JACKIE GREENBERG, SOPHIE HABER, SOFIA HELLER, RYAN KIM, SAMANTHA KO, JENNY LI, KAITLIN MUSANTE, SABA NIA, ALISON OH, NICK PLATT, MEERA SASTRY, ALEXANDRA SO, CAMERON STOKES, ANGELA TAN, BEN TENZER, JENNY YOON LAYOUT ASSISTANT ADVISER:

JULIET SUESS ADVISER: JIM BURNS

THE CHRONICLE is the student newspaper of Harvard-Westlake School. It is published eight times per year. Unsigned editorials represent the majority opinion of the seniors on the Editorial Board. Letters to the editor may be submitted to chronicle@hw.com or mailed to 3700 Coldwater Canyon, Studio City, CA 91604. Letters must be signed and may be edited for space and to conform to Chronicle style and format. Advertising questions may be directed to Oliver Richards at orichards1@ hwemail.com. Publication of an advertisement does not imply endorsement of the product or service by the newspaper or the school.

Gaining a global perspective

eachers and students need to enter the school year with a new philosophy, one that prioritizes the discussion and inclusion of life-altering news more in the classroom. As of now, it appears that the school prioritizes class lectures over the news. “Living and learning with integrity,” a portion of the school’s mission statement, should mean encouraging healthy discussion and informing one another on current events rather than shying away in fear of straying from the rigid coursework. The school’s demanding curriculum is what it’s known for. While the curriculum prepares students for college, discussions about current events prepare students for life. Building empathy and encouraging a global perspective is just as important as testing students’ memorization skills, whether it be through news quizzes, math tests or otherwise. It’s a problem when tragedies are happening on a daily basis, some even hitting closer to home, like the tragic San Bernardino shootings, and, yet, we still fail to acknowledge any of these events in our everyday classes. According to the Chronicle August poll, 68% of students feel that their teachers do not discuss current events enough in the classroom and 83% would like their teachers to discuss them more. While this does not apply to all teachers, this is still a widespread issue at the school. The summer of 2016 saw a series

of assaults on humanity: the attacks on Nice, the shooting in Orlando, the airport attack in Istanbul, the killing of police ofﬁcers in Dallas and far too many others. Considering that so many students and faculty members have the resources to travel abroad, many of these tragedies have directly impacted members of the school community. The feature piece entitled “When Tourism Meets Terrorism” on C1, for example, highlights how terrorism affected their experiences abroad. Teachers and students should go into the school year with these events fresh on their minds, ready to discuss their signiﬁcance. Students should not feel as if their teachers are only there to teach them one single subject. Instead, they should view teachers as resources, even in areas not directly related to the class they teach. That’s not to say teachers should ignite political debates in their classes, but it’s disappointing when almost all of the Chronicle staff can say that none of their teachers addressed the San Bernardino attack on the day it happened. Teachers could, for example, moderate discussions about these tragedies to ensure everyone’s voice is heard. The school holds all-school assemblies twice a month for the purpose of building community and discussing relevant matters. Let’s use some of that time as a chance to get out of the Harvard-Westlake bubble and take a look at the world around us.

A10 OPINION

THE CHRONICLE

AUG. 30, 2016

Overcoming the pressure

By Brittany Hong

hat do you want to be when you grow up? This was a question that haunted me every night in my sleep. I didn’t know. When I was six, my mom showed me a documentary on cardiac surgeons. It was fascinating. I started thinking that I want to be one of the people on the screen. “I want to be that person in the white gown.” I said. My parents were delighted by this news. They told me, “You’re going to be a cardiac surgeon, okay?” I nodded. From then on, answering “What do you want to be when you grow up?” was a piece of cake. That question triggered a button in my brain that almost mechanically made my mouth open to utter the two words, “cardiac surgeon.” I was essentially a robot. But as I grew older, another question came lurking into my consciousness. “Why? Why do you want to be a cardiac surgeon?” I didn’t know. For me, my parents never forced me into becoming a doctor. I just happened to watch a documentary on cardiac surgeons and found it fascinating. However, that one thought, that one remark shaped my whole life and brought me to where I am currently. After I revealed my dream more than a decade ago, my parents immediately set my words in stone and began to create a checklist of my life. Straight A report card: Check. Acceptance into HarvardWestlake: Check. This checklist may be somewhat familiar to students, especially those in our community. But the checklist put me into a world where perfection was a must. Maybe this was for the better. Or maybe this was for the worse. I don’t know. However, I do know that the futures of children take up

a big bubble in the minds of every parent. The love, worry and caution add up together in that bubble until it bursts into obsession and pressure. As we kick off a new school year, we should take some time to discover ourselves and find our own interests. However, we shouldn’t neglect what our parents tell us. We might find a passion for that profession at a later time. The moment we were born, our parents painted a portrait of us, filled with all of the things that they find beautiful. However, as we grow older, we should zoom in and look at all of the details. We should paint more. We should add our hobbies and passions into that portrait. We should create a selfportrait. As high school students, we still have more than enough space to add onto our portraits. There is no need for a rush. Nor do we need to place the pressure onto our shoulders and carry it with us everywehre. We just need to take a deep breath. And pause. Everyone around us is that confused, lost child. Even our parents, maybe even the successful entrepreneurs we hear about on the news and media. However, success comes not when we complete the checklist, but when we overcome that pressure. As for me, I am beginning to paint more on my self-portrait. I am beginning to find that in fact, I do want to be what my 6-year-old self wanted to pursue. But since I did not finish my portrait, I am not sure. Unfortunately, pressure will not magically disappear. Instead of embracing the pressure, we should learn how to combat against it by painting our portrait. Only then will we take home a crown of victory. Only then will we overcome the pressure.

Benefits of our broad education

By Danielle Kaye

s the summer before my sophomore year drew to a close, I fumbled through the HarvardWestlake student portal and ﬁnally succeeded in viewing my schedule for the coming year. One thought immediately popped in my head: Why so much math and science? I’ve always been interested in the humanities and I have no intention of becoming a mathematician. Just one glance at my schedule and I was reminded, much to my disappointment, that these two ﬁelds of study would take over my waking hours for the next nine months. Spending my junior year abroad in Rennes, France

helped me achieved what I thought to be impossible: I now appreciate math and science. Don’t get me wrong – I still jump at the word “calculus” and cringe thinking about taking AP Physics this year. However, learning about the French education system has made me realize how lucky we are here at Harvard-Westlake, and in the U.S. in general, to have access to a broad education. We have the unique opportunity to explore all areas of study in high school, which is something that many of us, myself included, often take for granted. Two years ago, my now 16-year-old French host sister was forced to choose between the humanities and the

ANNA GONG/CHRONICLE

Don’t be an idiot 101: What wouldn’t Ryan Lochte do? By Claire Keller

yan Lochte’s eyes dart side to side as he attempts to form an earnest apology during his NBC interview. After shedding a few tears, the American competitive swimmer and 12-time Olympic medalist retold his story, only this time he spoke the truth. “I just want to say I am truly, 110 percent sorry,” he said. With the loss of all four of major sponsors and subsequently millions of dollars, who wouldn’t be 110 percent sorry? Kicking in a door, urinating around the room and breaking a soap dispenser on any other day may not have become an international ordeal. The fact is that Lochte decided to be an idiot during the three weeks the entire world was watching him. Yes, his behavior was immature and illegal. But were his and his fellow teammates’ actions a reﬂection of true criminal intent? Or is this an example of reckless behavior in the wrong place at the wrong time? What we can say for sure is this serves as a warning for us all. These reckless decisions are made when we fail to anticipate the consequences of

our actions. Throughout adolescence, the frontal cortex of the human brain is still developing, including a small section of the brain that determines how we make our decisions. We can conclude that at age 32, Lochte failed to use better judgement. However, as teenagers and young adults we are at a decision-making disadvantage. Though our brains do each of us a disservice, we cannot excuse ourselves just because we don’t control the growth of our hippocampus. We must learn self-discipline and control in order to surpass our biological shortcomings. Just like Lochte’s impulsive nature when vandalizing the bathroom, our fear and impulsive nature can lead us to make life-changing decisions without considering the consequences. The Olympic swimmers found themselves drowning in a pool of lies and deceit, unable to escape their fate, regardless of whether they deserved it or not. We must make the decision to tell the truth and avoid diving head ﬁrst into our own ruin. As students, we are faced

with difﬁcult decisions on a daily basis. Whether we are using Sparknotes to write essays or driving home after drinking at a party, it is imperative we learn to make the right decisions despite the appeal of the wrong ones. We need to consider our suspension-free school record and dismiss our friends asking for answers. Think of the lives we spare, including our own, by calling a car after a party. And when we do make bad decisions, coming forward with the truth will help us to see that the cover-up is almost always more detrimental than the crime. The real challenge is how we react to the results of our poor judgement. Recognizing that the lie is always bigger than the mistake will save us stress, pain and – in Lochte’s case – possibly millions of dollars worth of sponsors. We must learn to overcome mental immaturity and consider that our actions affect others. In the words of Lochte himself in his NBC interview, “If I didn’t do that, we wouldn’t be in this mess. None of this would’ve happened. It was my immature behavior.”

Students at Harvard-Westlake, and in the United States in general, are given the opportunity to explore all fields of studies, which in turn supports their lives regardless of the paths eventually taken. sciences. Her decision would determine her high school courses, her entry exam to university and her career options. She chose the science track and is now devoting her weeknights and much of her weekends to physics, having decided to study engineering after high school. I try to put myself in her shoes and cannot even begin to imagine the stress of making career-related choices at the beginning of my teenage years. After all, things change. People change. How can 14-year-old kids already know how they want to spend their professional lives without ﬁrst exploring their options? There are some advantages to the French education sys-

tem. It allows students to focus on their primary interests and achieve a high level of knowledge in these interests. My French host mother, who chose the humanities track as a student, was no longer required to take STEM courses during her last two years of high school and thus devoted more time to her French and language classes. This system led her to a successful career in communications. However, the possibility of a career involving science or math, had she so desired later on, was practically eliminated at the young age of fourteen. A broad education not only provides ﬂexibility, but also forces all types of students to challenge their brains and

learn skills essential to any career. Humanities lovers like myself learn to work well with numbers and gain a deeper understanding of the physical world. Similarly, STEM students are able to improve their writing abilities, helping them clearly convey their ideas. And those who are passionate about both areas of study are not forced to choose. As much as I would love to cross out the calculus and physics courses on my senior year schedule, the beneﬁts outweigh the drawbacks. Throughout this school year – especially during times of challenge – it is important to keep in mind the advantages of our general education.

HWCHRONICLE.COM/OPINION

AUG. 30, 2016

OPINION A11

quadtalk:“Should teachers discuss current events in class?” “It would depend on which class. I think for history it helps because, especially in U.S. history, you get to talk about the current state of the government compared to past states of government. But I don’t know if it’s good to talk about current events in math.” — Calvin Koo ’18

“I think if it’s applicable, like in history or some foreign languages, it’s always good for students to stay up to date. Unless it’s political I think it’s good for students to have knowledge of current events going on in the world because I think that’s an important part of our education at Harvard-Westlake.”

SOPHIE HABER/CHRONICLE

— Ryan Stanford ’19 SOFIA HELLER/CHRONICLE

“Yes. I feel like history repeats itself so I feel like you can learn a lot more from current events. Especially in English and history there’s a lot to analyze that’s happening now that relates to history back then.” — Haley Hicks ’17 SOFIA HELLER/CHRONICLE

INFOGRAPHIC BY SOPHIE HABER

Letter from the Editors

Starting crucial conversations By Sammi Handler and Jesse Nadel

ven with a temporary new head of Upper School, a new Chronicle adviser and a newly redesigned website, our goal for the paper this year is one that journalists have aspired to for years. We want to start conversations among the school’s community, whether that is advocating in our editorial for more discussions about terrorist attacks or shining a light on the school’s diversity issues. We don’t only measure the paper’s success by the number of awards on the walls in Weiler Hall, but by how many students we see reading the newest features on the quad and the number of hits on our website.

This year, we plan to improve our social media presence to get more of the community reading articles that we hope will ignite conversations. In previous years, we have both started and continued dialogues about cyber bullying, sexual assault and driving while high. If we hear students or teachers talking about our news articles, editorials or features on the quad, then we’ve done our job. We can only hope to carry on the distinguished reputation of the paper as we strive to provide the student body with enlightening stories and follow the words of former President Thomas Hudnut.

“It has been said that the responsibility of the press is to comfort the afﬂicted and afﬂict the comfortable, and sometimes when our student journalists have jabbed and poked, it has made us a little uncomfortable,” Hudnut said. “But that’s the role of the press, and I have defended this paper, and it has been chosen the best high school paper in the country numerous times. I’m very proud of them.” That’s a heavy burden for us to carry, but there are 86 devoted journalists in Weiler who are ready for the task. We have received awards for the print and web editions of the Chronicle, and it’s time for us again to focus on providing

CATY SZETO/CHRONICLE

BREAKING NEWS: Editors-in-Chief Sammi Handler ’17 and Jesse Nadel ’17 aim to spark important discussions on campus. award-winning content. Our features team works tirelessly to create dynamic designs that also serve to inform and our sports reporters attend each game along with the Fanatics. While still emphasizing breaking news that affects the community as a whole, we also want to push less-read articles on social media. On Facebook,

Twitter and Snapchat we plan to promote the feature High Stakes, which follows four seniors through their college processes, along with each month’s staff editorial and our sports columns. These are the stories that we hope will afﬂict the comfortable and start conversations on campus that we think are necessary for our school.

spotlight

A12

Senior Season

Aug. 30, 2016

The Class of 2017 reunited for the first time as seniors to attend the Senior Barbecue on Aug. 25. Students talked about their summers, caught up with teachers and discussed their plans for their last year as wolverines.

LAUREN KIM/CHRONICLE

CATCHING UP: Phoebe Sanders ’17 and science teacher Nadine Eisenkolb discuss their summers and what they are excited about this school year.

PAVAN TAUH/CHRONICLE

VEGGING OUT: Relishing the last few days of summer, faculty members chat

over food and begin to prepare for the responsibilities of the next school year.

LAUREN KIM/CHRONICLE

YOU CAN SIT WITH US: Members of the faculty sit together on the quad and socialize with each other at the Senior Barbeque after returning to the upper school campus from their summer vacations.

PAVAN TAUH/CHRONICLE

FUELING UP: After morning cross country practice, (left to right) Mila Danton ’17, Casey Crosson ’17, Rasa Barzdukas ’17 and Lochryn Howe ’17 relax and enjoy the food provided by Wood Ranch Grill.

LAUREN KIM/CHRONICLE

ALL UP IN MY GRILL: (left to right) Haley Hicks ’17, Sohni Kaur ’17 and Ravi Durairaj ’17 reunited after the summer to see each other for the last time before the school year started. In their last year as wolverines, the Class of 2017 will get ready to say their goodbyes to their classmates and prepare for life after high school.

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT The Chronicle • Aug. 30, 2016

PRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF CHERI GAULKE

GIRL POWER: Elly Choi ’18 takes a selfie in Santiago de Atitlan, Guatemala with members of Starfish Impact, a non-profit oranization that is dedicated to educating and empowering young Guatemalan women. Choi and 13 other students travelled to document different features of Guatemalan life through a digital medium.

Discovery through lenses

By LAYLA MOGHAVEM AND JEAN SANDERS

Olivia Bautista ’18 stands at the Starﬁsh Impact School in Guatemala and plays a video of her grandmother talking in Spanish about how, when she was 12 and living in Mexico, she could no longer afford to attend school. Tears ﬁll in the eyes of several Guatemalan teenage girls at the school to whom this story is all too familiar. “I think it was really amazing how much of a privilege education is to those girls, and that’s something that in the United States we often take for granted,” Bautista said. “I think it really meant a lot for the girls [to hear my grandmother’s message]. A lot of them were close to tears, and it was very emotional for me. They said themselves it would help them knowing that peo-

ple understand and people are supporting them.” Bautista was one of 14 students on HW! Go’s Digital Storytelling Adventure trip to Guatemala from Aug. 3 to Aug. 11. Visual arts department head Cheri Gaulke, visual arts teacher Joe Medina, tour coordinator Alethea Paradis and journalist Jeff MacIntyre chaperoned the trip. Participants visited the cities of Antigua, Santiago de Atitlan and Guatemala City. Students either ﬁlmed or photographed an aspect of life in Guatemala with their work culminating in documentaries and photo series. Bautista and Elly Choi ’18 made a documentary focusing on Starﬁsh Impact and education of girls in Guatemala. Other students’ projects included documentaries on citizens using music to heal from the Guatemalan genocide,

Fourteen students travelled to Guatemala on the HW Go! Digital Storytelling Adventure. Students documented various aspects of life in Guatemala.

young girls empowering themselves by raising awareness for trash pollution in Lake Atitlan and farmers supporting themselves ﬁnancially through coffee production. Over the course of the trip, participants visited a sustainable coffee farm, the Starﬁsh Impact headquarters, buildings constructed entirely of recycled materials and a farm in Antigua where they learned how to cook local dishes. After meeting a waiter who helped start a preschool for underprivileged children, the group decided to visit the preschool as well. “At the preschool, they have no electricity, no supplies and their teachers are really underpaid,” Cheri Gaulke said. “Our kids went there one morning, and now they’re going to raise money and buy supplies for the school. They’ve made a Kickstarter campaign and they’re really

ﬁred up about that, and that makes me really happy to see.” Gaulke and Elly Choi ’18 stayed a day and a half longer than expected in Guatemala City due to the loss of Choi’s green card. Choi, who was born in Korea and is not a U.S. citizen, needs a green card to return to the United States after traveling internationally. “When I realized that my residence card wasn’t in my case with my passport, I started panicking because I didn’t know how long I would be stuck in Guatemala,” Choi said. “Luckily, the chaperones on the trip were able to get the situation under control. However, the experience itself was stressful.” Gaulke informed school ofﬁcials and got in contact with the American embassy in Guatemala to arrange for Choi’s return. Director of Kutler Center and summer programs Jim

Patterson said that, while the turn of events was unfortunate, he was pleased with how it was handled. Still, school administration will review the situation to see if there is anything they could have done differently, though Patterson said he believes it was an isolated incident. “Obviously it’s not the best situation to go ‘I’m sorry you can’t go home today,’ but it seems like the chaperones did a tremendous job of knowing what needed to be done and helping the student remain as calm as possible in that situation,” Patterson said. “That said, anytime something comes up it is something we go back and look at to make sure that trip leaders who are going to be continuing to take students all over the world are prepared and understand what they need to do if something like this happens.”

B2 Arts & Entertainment

Actors to partake in workshops

The Chronicle

Aug. 30, 2016

By Sarah Lee

Students in The Actor and the Stage I will participate in multiple acting workshops led by specialized teachers this September. Each workshop will focus on a specific area of acting, such as having confidence on stage through humor, space work and expressing emotion without facial expression or speech, but all of the workshops reflect a broader theme of movement in acting. The workshops are part of a series that will take place over the course of the first semester and will gradually become more advanced. In previous years, students in the same class have participated in similar activities, but performing arts teacher Christopher Moore said that this year’s lectures and activities are more intense in quantity and more complex in terms of their content. He also said that the workshop lineup is based on that of a summer acting intensive he used to teach, which included activities in 26 specialized areas of acting. “Over a three-week period from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., they were going from one workshop to another, anywhere from yoga for actors to suzuki to stage combat,” Moore said. Moore said that he hopes these workshops will help his students experience a wide range of techniques that will help them throughout their acting careers. “They might be in a workshop that they go, ‘What does this have to do with anything?’” Moore said. “And then, they find out two years down the line, ‘oh, that’s why I did suzuki or that kind of thing.’”

PRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF CHAD YOON

PERFECT HARMONY: Members of Soma, a musical group that aids the disabled through music, preview an upcoming performance at the Korean American Parent Association’s annual dinner. The group performed again Saturday and donated profits to charity.

Upper school students perform at annual KAPA dinner, raise money for charities By Emory Kim

Upper school symphony students who are members of Soma, which aids the disabled through music, previewed their upcoming “Melody of Compassion” performance for the Korean American Parent Association’s annual dinner at the Oxford Hotel on Aug. 21. “We performed for them and showed them a little bit of what our symphony is and how Harvard-Westlake offers a strong music program,” Sa-

mantha Yoon ’18, who plays the cello, said. SOMA performed their show at the Mijoo Peace Church on Saturday. Members donated profits from ticket sales to Shalom Disability Ministries. With the proceeds, the organization will buy and wheelchairs and provide services like physical therapy to physically disabled people in South Korea, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, the Philippines, Burkina Faso, North Korea,

Students will present 22 films at three upcoming festivals

By Ryan Albert

Film festivals selected student films created during programs at Harvard-Westlake. Film festivals across the country will show selected student films during over the past year at multiple events in upcoming months. The school hosted other filmmaking programs that include, but are not exclusive to, Harvard-Westlake students. Most of the films that will play at the film festivals were made at these programs, including films made at HW Summer Film, public service announcements made while the school hosted The Righteous Conversations project, and documentaries that were created during the HW Go! Digital Storytelling trips to Cuba and Cambodia. These film festivals will occur from late August to early

November, with some films eligible to win awards such as scholarships, cash prizes and electronics. Five separate film festivals across the country selected 22 student films to screen. The festivals that accepted student works were the Newark Film Festival, the Tower of Youth film festival, the Citizen Jane film festival, the Latino Film Festival’s Exitos del Cine Latino and the All-American High School Film Festival. The All-American High School Film Festival will be showing the short films from the Harvard-Westlake trip to Cambodia titled “Daughters of Cambodia,” “Growing the Rose: Landmines in Cambodia,” “A Hope for the Future,” “Once Upon a Time in Cambodia,” “Cambodia: The Next Generation” and “Music Saved My Life.” They will also screen

the student films “Skin,” “Running for Life” and “Astro, Naught.” The Citizen Jane film festival will screen one film from the Cuba digital storytelling trip and another from the Cambodia trip. These films are “Para Cuba” and “Cambodia: The Next Generation.” The Tower of Youth film festival will show another film from the Cambodia trip titled “Us & Us.” Exitos del Cine Latino will screen a PSA called “The Lemonade Stand” as part of SDG&E and FilmFreeway’s Energy Conservation PSA Contest. It qualified as a top ten finalist and was later chosen as one of three winning entries. Finally, the Newark Film Festival is featuring two films made by students on the Cuba trip. These films are “Being Cuban” and “Para Cuba.”

formed a violin solo of Bach Uzbekistan and Cambodia. Violin Partita No. 3 in For Vida, a club E major, VII: Gigue. founded to spread Other Soma members awareness of refualso performed sogees in Europe, sold los or in other small organically produced groups. lip balm and accepted “Usually we play donations at the conas a group of violins, cert. The money they cellos or clarinets,” raised from the lip Yoon said. “Howevbalm sales will be do’ er at this fundraiser, nated to the housing Samantha many people played of refugees in Greece Yoon ’18 as duets, quartets by the Samaria House and solos, so it was more indiOrganization. Tony Kukavica ’17 per- vidualized.” nathanson s

Selected Films by Harvard-Westlake Students and Alums All-American High School Film Festival:

“A Hope for the Future” Elly Choi ’18 Maddy Daum ’18 “Astro, Naught” Katie Speare ’16 Sacha Lin ’16 “Cambodia: The Next Generation” Emilia Holt ’17 Marina Weidmann ’17 “Daughters of Cambodia” Maya Hinkin ’18 Tarin North ’18 William Park ’17 “Growing the Rose: Landmines in Cambodia” Sam McCabe ’18 “Media Soup” Landon Poon ’20 Sophie Haber ’19 “Music Saved My Life” Cole Kawana ’16 Teresa Suh ’17 “Once Upon a Time in Cambodia” Katie Speare ’16 “Running for Life” Kinly McCaffery ’18 “Skin” Nina Milligan ’16 “The Big A” Noah Somer ’17 “The Story of Three Rings: A Memoir of Dana Schwartz” Dora Schoenberg ’16 Elly Hong ’17

“The Story of Three Rings: A Memoir of Dana Schwartz” Dora Schoenberg ’16 Elly Hong ’17 “Us & Us” Cole Kawana ’16 Sebastian Ko ’19

Citizen Jane:

“Cambodia: The Next Generation” Emilia Holt ’17 Marina Weidmann ’17 “Para Cuba” Angela Chon ’16 Mikaela Wolfsdorf ’16 “The Story of Three Rings: A Memoir of Dana Schwartz” Dora Schoenberg ’16 Elly Hong ’17

Newark Film Festival:

“Being Cuban” Cameron Stine ’17 Quinton Simmonds ’17 “Para Cuba” Angela Chon ’16 Mikaela Wolfsdorf ’16

Tower of Youth:

“Us & Us” Cole Kawana ’16 Sebastian Ko ’19

Exitos del Cine Latino (Energy Conservation PSA Contest): “The Lemonade Stand” Eugean Choi ’21 Laura Lopez ’17 Maddy Eidinger ’19

SOURCE: CHERI GAULKE GRAPHIC BY SARAH LEE

AUG. 30, 2016

THE CHRONICLE

A&E B3

Auditions begin for musical By SARAH LEE

Students will audition for the upper school fall musical “Les Miserables” in the choral room on Wednesday and Thursday. “Les Misérables” tells the story of several characters living during the Paris Uprising of 1832. Because there are no spoken lines, all students auditioning are required to sing. Students can complete their singing and dancing auditions on either day. Performing arts teachers Ted Walch and Michelle Spears said they chose the musical because they felt that students would be able to relate to its story of revolution driven by the youth. “We are in such political turmoil right now,” Walch said. “‘Les Miserables’ is about political turmoil and young people trying to make a difference.” The performing arts department encourages students to audition for the show regardless of having musical theater or acting experience. Audition materials for the musical can be found online. Callbacks will be held from Sept. 6 to 7.

Department receives three new kilns By ISABELLE ESHRAGHI

PRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF RACHEL FIDDLER

RIGHT ON: (Top): Participants for The Righteous Conversations Project direct their film and begin a scene during a digital workshop. (Bottom left): Students discuss and record relevent topics of discussion to include in their films. (Bottom right): Students and teaching assistants voice their opinions on social issues as they begin to develop the concepts of their films and public service announcements.

Students develop digital public service announcements, short films in workshop By KRISTIN KUWADA

“I think students are very moved by the survivor stories The Righteous Conversa- and they are inspired to see tions Project held two pro- that somebody could live in grams this summer at Feld- the most horriﬁc circumstancman-Horn gallery to bring es and that these survivors were still willtogether Holoing to share caust survivors, their own stowho shared I think the ries,” Gaulke their stories, students are very moved said. and students Eight stufrom multiple by the survivor stories dents from schools. and they are inspired,” Harvard-WestThe projlake, Orange ect launched in County School 2011 at Har—Cheri Gaulke of the Arts, vard-Westlake under the diVisual Arts Department Head S h a l H e v e t School, Sierra rection of VisuCanyon School al Arts Department Head Cheri Gaulke, with and Viewpoint School created, the goal of creating an envi- “Peace by Piece: The Story of ronment where students could Harry Davids,” at the digital learn about the holocaust from storytelling workshop. After interviewing Holothose who experienced it ﬁrstcaust survivor Harry Davids, hand.

“

the students created a seven on the issue of using preferred minute film and edited and gender pronouns rather than combined his transcript with assuming a person’s sexual identity. “Keep the Lights On” their own animations. “It was amazing to hear promotes the idea of education from so many survivors and I outside the classroom, where learning extends belearned so many difyond basic school ferent things both curriculums. A story about the history of about muslim acthe Holocaust from ceptance, “American personal stories and Girl,” stresses the about filmmaking, anneed to break away imation, and art,” Becfrom cultural stereoca Frishling ’19 said. types. “The Test” is a During the pubfilm that is centered lic service workshop, around the reality of students wrote and di’ an unconscious bias rected four films titled Cheri Gaulke among all of us. “VE,” “Keep the Lights There will be a gifting cerOn,” “American Girl” and “The emony in the fall to screen Test.” These public service an- these films for an audience nouncements were made to and to donate the public serinform people of important so- vice announcements to the student selected non-profit orcial injustices. The first film, “Ve,” was based ganizations. NATHANSON S

Three new 4,000 pound kilns were delivered by crane to the upper school visual arts department on Aug. 19. These new kilns are replacements for older kilns that have been at the Upper School for more than 30 years. Clay firing requires different types of kilns to yield different appearances. “You have to do two separate firings with clay,” Palmer said. “You make something in clay, it dries, then you fire it once, you apply glaze to it, then you fire it again”. Art teachers will use one of the kilns for bisque firing, which is the initial firing, another for glaze firing in an oxygen rich environment to make the glaze shiny and the third, a reduction kiln containing a low amount of oxygen, to alter the appearance amd texture of the clay. The reduction kiln can reach temperatures as high as 2,350 degrees Fahrenheit to fire clay objects. “By doing this, it activates some of the metals that are in the glazes and makes them shiny, or brings out certain things like the iron in the clay body that you wouldn’t normally see if you do an oxidation firing,” Palmer said. Advanced and regular ceramic and three-dimensional art classes will use the new kilns beginning this year.

B4 ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

THE CHRONICLE

AUG. 30, 2016

GRAPHIC BY SARAH LEE, PORTRAIT PRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF ERIC GAULT

New choir director joins upper school performing arts By CATY SZETO

to nuanced, helpful tactics, Mr. Gault seemed to be a genEric Gault will direct the uinely nice person,” Bel Canupper school choirs following to member Alexa Frandzel ’18 the departure of Rodger Guer- said. “His personality meshed rero, who ran the choral pro- well with what I know the gram for the last 15 years. choir program to be, and I look Gault received the position forward to getting to know and after consideration from both working with Mr. Gault this a board of Harvard-Westlake year.” performing arts teachers and From the three finalists, the students in last all of whom were deyear’s choir classes. scribed as superb The search commusicians and conmittee for the upper ductors by Burtchaell, school choral posiGault stood out with tion, led by middle his character and perschool Choral Direcsonality. tor Nina Burtchaell, “In addition to his consisted of persuperb intellect, informing arts departnate musicianship, N ’ ment Chair Reese expansive knowledge Eric Gault Pugh as well as jazz of the choral reperband director Shawn toire, what stood out Costantino, upper school to me about Eric Gault was his symphony director Mark Hilt humanity,” Burtchaell said in and piano accompanist Sara an email. Shakliyan. The committee reThe committee said Gault viewed over 100 applications, would not only help the stuultimately narrowing down the dents improve musically, but selection to three finalists, in- shape them as people as well. cluding Gault. “He is the kind of human As a finalist for the position, being that makes the world a Gault interviewed with the rest better place, and I believe that of the performing arts faculty, Harvard-Westlake and the stuthe administration and teachdents that I send to him from ers from other departments. the middle school, will not only He also led rehearsals with be better musicians and singstudents in Chamber Singers ers and scholars, but they will and Bel Canto. be better people for having had “While managing his time him as their teacher,” Burtvery well and introducing us chaell said. ATHANSON S

Gault attended New Trier High School in Chicago and went on to study at Oberlin College where he completed his undergraduate studies in voice and voice pedagogy. He earned his Masters of Music in Choral Conducting and Music Education at the University of Oregon. He comes from Colombia, where he has spent much of his musical career. Prior to Harvard-Westlake, he served as guest conductor at Pontiﬁcia Universidad Javeriana in Bogota, Colombia and head the development of a new Colombian national choir training program. In between his work in Colombia, he has worked in the United States as director of choral activities at the Waterford School in Salt Lake City. Gault ﬁrst heard about the school through a colleague who worked with him at Waterford. “She spoke so highly of Harvard-Westlake, that it always peaked my curiosity,” Gault said. “I got an email in January, I believe, from [her] saying the position at Harvard-Westlake is open, you have to apply, and I thought this is the one job I would go back to the states for.” Gault said that it was the desire for excellence within Harvard-Westlake students

Eric Gault leads upper school choir programs, which Rodger Guerrero directed for 15 years.

that drew him to the school. go beyond that while having He said that like Guerrero, he everyone understand that the values that quality and feels work they are doing, no matter like Harvard-Westlake kids their group, is of equal quality can achieve that without need- and value”. His goal is to set up a culing an overly strict approach. As the new director, Gault ture where the different choirs plans to integrate much of the are seen as equal competitors music he learned in Colombia and separation is based off into the upper school choirs’ sound color and texture as repertoire, including several well as how the singers blend, rather than of his own an individuarrangeal’s ability. ments. He I want them to feel “I want also aims to that if they’re in this room, them to create a betfeel that if ter dynamic they’re doing amazing work.” they’re in between the —Eric Gault this room, three choirs at the Upper Upper School Choral Director they’re doing amazing School. work.” Gault “ W h a t said. good about Gault is excited for the the culture I’d like to keep, what I think can be im- challenge to sustain the choproved upon I’d definitely like ral program’s reputation and to change, and one of those eager to make his mark at the things is getting Bel Canto to school. “I like to look at it more as feel special and welcome and equal right off the bat,” Gault if we’re changing shoes, not filling shoes just changing said. Gault said that with Bel shoes,” Gault said. “You’ll find Canto being a non-auditioned that I’m in many ways similar choir, he didn’t want the girls to Dr. Guerrero but you’ll also to feel and be seen as inferior find that I’m different in many ways, and that’s what makes in the program. “I understand that com- music and teaching valuable.” Gault said he liked meeting petition is sometimes part of music making and sometimes the students and looks forit can help, but it can also ward to continuing the tradihurt,” Gault said. “I think that tion of excellence in the choral we can achieve excellence and program at the school.

“

FEATURES The Chronicle • Aug. 30, 2016

When Tourism Meets Terrorism In light of recent terrorist attacks in Europe, increased security and threats of possible tragedies have affected students and faculty members during their summer travels.

By SOPHIE COHEN When Rachel Madhogaria ’17 scrolled through her Facebook feed ﬁlled with the typical stream of status updates and album posts on July 14, her Facebook check seemed routine. But then, at all once, multiple articles on a recent terrorist attack in Nice, France popped up. While Madhogaria had seen Facebook news reports on terrorism before, the sense of urgency and fear that this terrorist attack elicited in Madhogaria, she said, was distinct from her reaction to previous ones: her best friend, Megan Cohen ’17, was in Nice. “All the terrorist attacks were surreal to me until that day,” Madhogaria said. “Suddenly everything was very, very real.” Madhogaria said she frantically texted Cohen but received no response. As Madhogaria’s anxiety began to peak, a notiﬁcation appeared on her laptop screen: “Megan Cohen marked herself safe during the Nice attack in France.” Madhogaria said that, although she felt a sense of relief that Cohen was not among the 86 killed on the Promenade des Anglais, she still had not spoken to Cohen directly and feared that her friend may have been injured or might become the victim of a follow-up attack. “Some of Megan’s other friends texted me freaking out, wondering if I knew anything, and it was pretty chaotic and terrifying until

we got in touch with Megan,” Madhogaria said. Madhogaria said it took three hours for her to connect with Cohen and confirm that even though she was on the beach adjacent to the promenade at the time of the firework show, she was not among the 202 injured by the Islamic State-inspired attacker who barreled a truck through the pedestrian filled walkway during the Bastille Day celebration. Many high school students, like Cohen, travel abroad to Europe in the summer for family vacations or language immersion programs. A spike in recent terrorist activity has forced students to travel under a seemingly omnipresent threat of terrorism, as evidenced by the State Department’s May 31 travel alert. The warning said that a general threat could be posed at large events that draw big crowds during the summer in Europe. This announcement came days after ISIS called for June to be a “month of conquest and jihad,” according to the American Enterprise Institute. ISIS spokesman Abu Mohammad Al-Adnani called on jihadists to “get prepared, be ready […] to make it a month of calamity everywhere for nonbelievers […] especially for the fighters and supporters of the caliphate in Europe and America.” Fifty-three percent of students who traveled to Europe expressed concern about the threats posed • Continued on C7

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY ESHANIKA CHAUDHARY

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AUG. 30, 2016

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY PAVAN TAUH AND KITTY LUO

The Chosen Ones

ation at all, but Upper School Dean Beth Slattery said that After Sophie Tippl ’17 re- most deans will at least try to ceived her full schedule with accomodate requests. “[Former Upper School teachers for her junior year, Dean Kyle] Graham loved folshe could not help but worry. Her friends had warned her lowing rules, which I admire about one teacher who had a about him - black and white reputation as one of the most there’s no gray area,” Upper difficult graders for the sub- School Dean Jamie Chan said. “So he did not entertain teachject, she said. Her friends also advised er requests. You are assigned her to switch out of the class, a class. You take the class.” However, one student conwhich she could not do since firmed to The Chronicle that schedules were already live. “I was a little scared and he or she saw his or her schedanxious,” Tippl said. “Junior ule with teacher assignments year is really important, and for the next year with a dean I didn’t want to feel like I had in the spring of the year prior. a disadvantage from the other Another student did not confirm or deny that he or she saw students.” Each year, Upper School his or her schedul early. Both students wished to Dean Sharon Cuseo receives schedule change requests from remain anonymous because students attempting to change they did not want to receive their teacher because of vari- any backlash from students or ous preconceived perceptions faculty. Slattery said that it is not that they have formed about possible for a that teacher, student to see she said. his or her full FrequentThe reality schedule in the ly, Cuseo said, spring since is every dean takes a teacher who teachers’ class one student in everythng that a periods are not may perceive student asks for and it’s finalized until to be difficult, July. all treated equally.” another may While most believe will —Sharon Cuseo students do not give them an easy A. Upper School Dean find out who they have for “Hardness each class unor difficulty is in the eye of the beholder,” she til the day before school starts when full schedules go live, in said. In a Chronicle August poll, the past two years The Hub 40 percent of the 367 students has prematurely leaked teachpolled think that the teacher er assignments. Cuseo said request process is unfair, and that students cannot try to 37 percent said that they have change their teacher after their full schedules with teacher asmade a teacher request. The deans said that the signments go live. “It is not something we process for requesting teachers, or any schedule change, is can totally accommodate and centralized. The deans look at in particular it is 100 percent the thousands of requests to- not something we can accomgether and try to accomodate modate after the schedules are requests while ensuring that released right before school,” classes fulfill gender balance Cuseo said. Students who work in the and class size requirements bookstore during the summer and that no teacher has more also have access to full schedstudents than other teachers. Students can get the teach- ules since they need to pack er because by chance those each student’s book box for factors end up working out, the year. Twenty-eight students also Cuseo said. “The reality is every dean said in the August poll that takes in everything that a stu- they had seen their teacher dent asks for and it’s all treat- assignments before the leak on The Hub. ed equally,” Cuseo said. Paige Thompson ’17, who Some deans do not take teacher requests into consider- joined the school as a new se-

BY SAMMI HANDLER

“

Many students feel that having certain teachers can affect their success for the entire year. When scheduling comes around, students often scramble to their deans for teacher requests. Some students consider this practice unfair.

nior, said that once she was said that, from their own exofficially attending the school periences, some teachers are in late June, her dean made inherently more difficult than her schedule during one of others. English Department Head their meetings. Slattery said that new stu- Larry Weber and history teachdents meet with their deans er Katherine Holmes-Chuba over the summer and try to said that the grading for hismake the next year an easy tory and English is more standardized than students realadjustment for them. “While [my dean] did not ize. Marissa Hattler ’16 said tell me what teachers I would have, I think she tried to make that grading disparity became my schedule to the best of her apparent to her and her famability to fit with what teach- ily when her twin brother, ers I would mesh well with,” who is strong in math and sciThompson said. “As a new stu- ence, was doing much better dent, I obviously don’t know than she was in a humanities teachers, besides from what course, an area in which she my brother has told me, are normally excels, she said. “He was doing a lot better the most popular, but I believe that the deans successfully try in the course than I was and to make each student’s sched- that’s because his teacher ule personalized to their inter- had lower standards on reading quizzes and probably all ests and course schedule.” Siblings cannot switch out around a less harsh grader,” of a class because their sibling Hattler said. “My teacher defihad a bad experience with a nitely expected a lot more from us. Even my parents were a teacher, Cuseo said. “Because my older sister little bit upset when they saw there was a huge difwent to HW, she is ference in the course able to tell me if she we were taking. It didn’t like any teachkind of seemed like I ers or if she loved was taking an honors some,” Audrey Kotick and he was taking a ’17 said. “If there’s regular course. Besomeone she felt very cause of that, I didn’t strongly about, I’ll ask do as well as he did.” my dean if there’s any This was not the way for me to have ’ first time Hattler and that teacher or to her family had nonot. If she can’t help Sharon Cuseo ticed discrepancies me switch it, I understand why and don’t ask between humanities teachers. During their sophomore again.” Tippl said that some teach- year, the situation was reers are harder graders than versed and she seemed to have others, but that it’s not in- the more lenient teacher in the tentional. Still, these reputa- same course, Hattler said. She said that she and her tions often compel students to request certain teachers brother were also on the same over others. Forty-nine per- math track, and they have cent of students said that found the grading, tests and they requested to have a cer- expectations have been more tain teacher to avoid another uniform across the board in whom they heard students that subject. “The humanities like Endidn’t like. “It’s just that different glish and history, those are teachers teach differently,” definitely more subjective, Tippl said. “But sometimes maybe because there’s more it’s frustrating to feel like oth- writing in them so it’s defier people are doing better or nitely more personal work,” worse because they have a Hattler said. “In terms of math different teacher for the same and science there’s always a class. Maybe I would have had correct answer, there’s always a different experience with a a uniform way of doing it.” Hattler said she was initeacher but it’s definitely scary to hear that you have one of tially excited for the challenge the hardest teachers for the of a harder teacher in a subject she liked and did not try subject.” However, some students to switch out of the class. NATHANSON S

Choices and Challenges The Chronicle polled 134 students regarding their experiences with scheduling and making teacher requests.

22%

of students polled had their teacher requests granted

37%

of students polled have made a teacher request

60% of students polled think that the teacher request process is fair IMAGES COURTESY OF CREATIVE COMMONS INFOGRAPHIC BY KITTY LUO & GABI BERCHTOLD

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highstakes

AUG. 30, 2016

ILLUSTRATION BY TIFFANY KIM

Ticket to Ride

As summer ends, seniors begin to work on their college applications and narrow down their college searches. BY SOPHIE COHEN AND DANIELLE KAYE The All-Around: Amanda* is passionate about helping others. Throughout her time at Harvard-Westlake, she has advocated for providing underprivileged students with quality education through her involvement with various diversity programs. Inspired by her Criminal Law and Advocacy Class, Amanda interned this summer at a nonprofit organization that provides legal aid to prison inmates. Amanda is devoted to the Harvard-Westlake community in a number of ways: she is an athlete, a singer and a student ambassador. With her strong performance both inside and outside the classroom, Amanda has high hopes for college. She is looking for a medium-sized university with easy access to a big city, as she believes that there are better internship and job opportunities in metropolitan areas. Though she is not yet sure where she will apply, she enjoyed both Dartmouth College and Georgetown University when she saw them in the spring. Amanda will most likely only apply regular decision due to the limited financial aid opportunities during early decision. In college, Amanda hopes to study government and law in order to eventually help others through nonprofit work. “I feel like studying law and

government and knowing how the system works will enable me to better help people on a larger platform,” Amanda said. The Brain: After playing the violin in performances in Vienna, Prague, Salzburg and Munich at the beginning of the summer, Sean* interned at a research university in the Los Angeles area and competed in several chess tournaments, most notably the U.S. Open for Chess in Indianapolis. Since June 2015, Sean has worked on Boundaries of Life, a research project designed to discover new forms of life by taking various samples of materials from all over the Earth and imaging them with a microscope. Given his strengths and passion in math and science, Sean will be taking AP Physics C: Mechanics, AP Physics C: Electricity and Magnetism and Advanced Topics in Computer Science. Sean hopes that his future college will have a strong math and science program as well as a music program. Sean is planning to apply non-restrictive early action to the University of Chicago, California Instutitute of Technology and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He wants to keep his options open rather than tie himself to a single school. “I’m mostly excited and kind of anxious to get the result [of the college process],”-

Sean said. “I haven’t toured the east coast yet, but it is fun to learn about the various programs that the different schools offer and to see the differences and similarities between all the different communities around the country.” The Artist: Though she is now a pop music and theater enthusiast, Christina* initially hated singing when her parents forced her to take voice lessons at the age of seven. Two years later, Christina began performing in elementary school talent shows, which led her to discover her passion for performing arts. As Christina doesn’t really see herself doing anything other than music, she spent this past summer working at a record label company. She has also spent the past three summers singing at a music camp that attracts young, talented musicians who hope to pursue careers in singing. Her fellow singers have motivated her to continue following her dream of a future in music, and have inspired her to apply to the Popular Music Program at the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music. As her top choice, Christina will be applying to this program for regular decision due to the non-existent early decision option at USC. To ensure that she is not bound to any other school before applying to USC, Christina will not be applying to any schools early

decision. “A lot of my friends are a part of the pop program at USC and they really, really love it,” Christina said. “It’s something that I hope to pursue in the future that I think would give me the best opportunities.” Along with USC, Christina will apply to the Berklee College of Music in Boston with the hopes of pursuing pop music. Christina also plans to apply to musical theater programs at other schools. In addition to working with a record label company and participating in the singing camp this summer, Christina has started choosing songs and other material for her auditions and has begun taking voice lessons with a professor at USC. The Athlete: Since freshman year, Mark* has had his heart set on being a member of an elite college swim team. After feeling disappointed by his CIF performance last spring, Mark has devoted his last two months to practicing at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs and to competing at three swim meets. Typically, Mark participates in more swim meets and tournaments, but this summer he decided to focus on improving his time, which he said is necessary for recruitment to his dream college, Yale. In December, Mark won ﬁrst place in the boys 100meter breaststroke for ages

18 and under at the Junior Olympics. This victory, Mark said, guaranteed him spots at Division III colleges such as Williams, Pomona, Swarthmore and New York University Stern. In order to secure a spot at Yale, Mark needed to compete well in August at the Junior Nationals in Indianapolis. However, Mark was disappointed by his performance. “It wasn’t the best tournament. I ended up in third place [in the boys’ 50-meter breaststroke] which is good, but my times weren’t the times that I expected,” Mark said. As a result of his performance, Yale would not guarantee him a spot on the team, but still encouraged him to apply early and said that he would receive a recommendation from the swim coach, which ensures an 80 percent chance of acceptance. Mark is now deciding whether to risk applying restrictive early action to his dream school or to accept the guaranteed spot at a Division III school. Knowing that he will not swim forever, Mark is looking at schools with strong academics. He feels that it is important to maintain a strong academic standing, regardless of that fact that his main focus is on athletics. With this in mind, Mark has worked with his dean to increase the rigor of his senior year schedule. He plans on taking ﬁve Advanced Placement courses. In college, Mark hopes to study applied mathematics and business.

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AUG. 30, 2016

Jolly Good Fellows Recipients of HW Go! Student Summer Fellowships travelled to Asia, Europe and Central America to immerse themselves in foreign culture.

Max Robertson: Japan By SABRINA DE BRITO Walking through a five-story designer clothing store in Tokyo, Max Robertson ‘17 said he was surprised to find some of the clothes in glass cases, as if the shop were a museum. The clothes were mixed in with other pieces of art on display, an homage to how significant a role fashion plays in Japanese culture. Robertson explored various fashion districts in downtown Tokyo this summer, specifically observing the differences in street fashion in comparison to that of downtown Los Angeles, on a grant under the Asia Initiative Student Summer Fellowship. This trip, which ran from June 30 to July 12, was Robertson’s first time

out of the United States. He said that he chose Japan because he has always been interested in the artistic, highly detail-oriented culture. He said that he has also always been interested in fashion and aspires one day to possibly open his own line. He also sketches out original designs in his free time. While many people accept Paris and Milan to be the main fashion capitals of the world, Robertson described Tokyo as a third “fashion powerhouse.” “I don’t think people [in the United States] realize how much they are influenced by Japan, especially big Japanese designers,” Robertson said, referring to famous Japanese clothing companies such as Acme Studios, Comme des Garçons and Harajuku. For example, Robertson said, recent

trends of dark-colored, oversized baggy pants and the style of half-sportswear, half-casual wear originated in Tokyo but have gained popularity in the United States. He said visited many designer stores as well as hole-in-the-wall places, interviewing employees and people on the street about the topic. He documented his trip through photography and videos and plans to present all of his findings in a gallery in Feldman Horn opening later this fall. PRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF MAX ROBERTSON

Sahale Greenwood: The Netherlands By KATE SCHRAGE Recipient of the Junior Summer Fellowship Sahale Greenwood ’17 stood on in the entrance of a harbor in Amsterdam, scanning the water and reading the words of a sign above her head “A Place Beyond Belief.” “The island was brimming with street

art, beautiful cafes and big warehouse studio spaces, yet it was far enough off the beaten path that there were no tourists there,” Greenwood said. Greenwood aimed to examine and learn about the various forms of street art not only near her Los Angeles home, but also in European cities where the art form has become increasingly popular. Greenwood spent a few days in the Los Angeles Art District before traveling to the Netherlands to begin her research abroad. She focused primarily on the artists and the legality of the art. Specifically, Greenwood wanted to know why artists wanted to publicize their messages and how local authorities responded to what they created. During her travels, Greenwood found that the Los Angeles street art incorporated sharper lines, gang

references and Latino elements. By contrast, she observed that European street art was more vibrant in color and centered around cartoonish characters. While she took guided tours of Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague to learn more about the arts from different regions, she said her favorite part of the trip was independent travel. “I’ve made all of my best discoveries while wandering the city by myself,” Greenwood said. “So often people think all the greatest things have already been discovered so they stick to their tours.” Overall, Greenwood says her fellowship inspired her to explore interests that she would not have otherwise had an opportunity to pursue. “[The experience] gave me way more than just amazing photographs,” Greenwood said. “It gave me a new devotion to explore and not mind getting lost, or being uncertain of what I was walking into.”

PRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF SAHALE GREENWOOD

Rachel Lee: South Korea By HANNAH CHO Pouring the clay and water mixture into the mold, Rachel Lee ’17 emulates her ceramics instructor Jungwon Yoo as she finishes slip casting, a technique used to manufacture ceramics into specific shapes. Lee traveled to Seoul, South Korea for 12 days under the Gunter-Gross fellowship to learn more about the way in which Korean culture affects its art. “I thought it would be such a great opportunity to learn more about slip casting since I didn’t have much experience before,” Lee said.

During her stay, Lee also visited art galleries and museums. While she mostly worked with ceramics, she also learned the history of traditional Korean folk paintings and art. “My instructor and I went to this gallery called The Treasure of Kangon, and it had scenes of daily life in Korea,” Lee said. “That’s where I learned a lot about older painting styles.” Ever since Lee was first introduced to ceramics at the middle school, she has continued to take classes in the subject at the Upper School. During the summer, she wanted to

learn different techniques and pursue her art, so she applied for the fellowship. “At school we only really use the potter’s wheel, so I wanted to branch out and learn more traditional skills,” Lee said. “When I was in Korea, I was able to not only focus on the art itself but the details, like the brushstrokes, colors and the focus on nature in paintings.”

PRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF RACHEL LEE

AUG. 30, 2016

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FEATURES C5

Connor Reese: South Korea By JIWON PARK Connor Reese ’17 walked through the walls of Seodaemun prison where his great-grandfather, Chu-Yohan, served as an inmate for five years in the 1930s. Japanese occupiers held Korean captives in the prison when Korea was under Japanese rule. “I was able to see first-hand the hardships and struggles he had gone through to help to gain back Korea for Koreans,” Reese said. He visited Seoul in June to conduct research on his great-grandfather who was a poet, politician and resistance

movement member during Japanese colonization era. Reese studied his great-grandfather’s role as a politician and the effects his poetry has on modern Korean literature. His daily schedule consisted of touring museums, visiting memorials and interviewing people such as an art museum curator, a magazine publisher, an author and two professors who studied his great-grandfather’s literary work in order to gain more insight on his family history. “I was inspired to learn more about my great-grandfather and my heritage. By learning more about my heritage and

Alison Oh: Spain By ALENA RUBIN It started simply: slow strums of the guitar, the rhythmic chanting of spoken poetry in Spanish. Five dancers took the stage, dressed in flamboyant reds and greens. The stage shook as the dancers slammed their feet on the ground in intricate sequences. Sweat splashed the audience with every movement. The Flamenco dance had begun. Among the audience was Alison Oh ’19, who travelled to Spain to study the Moorish influences on modern Spanish culture through her HW Go! Fellowship

ancestors, I was able to learn more about myself,” Reese said. “ I came to understand the true magnitude of his sacrifice to create a better future for his family, children and all Koreans.” Reese plans to create a video documenting his grandfather’s work and life based on his findings from the trip.

PRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF CONNOR REESE

grant. After learning that the Flamenco style of dance was influenced by Moors in Spain, Oh was inspired to watch a Spanish Flamenco dance. “It was really hard to take your eyes away from the dancers and the singers, and the guitar players were obviously really passionate about what they were doing and what they were creating,” Oh said. Her Spanish class inspired her to apply for the fellowship, she said, because she learned that many origins of Spanish words had been influenced by the Moors’ language, Arabic. The influence of the Moors in Spain’s history fascinated her, and she wanted to discover more about their influence on modern Spanish culture. To initially research the topic, she read the books “The Ornament of the World,” “A Vanished World” and “Moorish Spain.”

Oh visited Madrid, Toledo, Granada, Seville and Cordoba. She said some of her favorite parts of the trip were eating Moorish influenced Spanish food, such as Paella, and exploring Spanish architecture. The monuments that she visited were historical Mosques built on the Iberian Peninsula during the time of Moorish inhabitation and modern architecture that was influenced by the Moors. “On this trip I found it really interesting that next to modern architecture, you can see centuries old buildings,” Oh said. “The architectural styles would be completely different, but they would be next to each other.” Students will be able to learn more about her trip later this year when she shares a video and powerpoint presentation with the school community. She also wrote daily journal entries and is currently curating them into a travel vlog.

PRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF ALLISON OH

Alitzel Villanueva: Mexico By DANIELLE SPITZ Expecting to interview a young female student from Chiapas, Mexico, Alitzel Villanueva ’17 was instead greeted by a young mother and her one-year-old child.The high school-aged girl explained to Villanueva that her responsibilities now resided at home and her priority was her newborn, bringing her short-lived time as a student to an end. After receiving the Latin America and Iberian Studies Fellowship, Villanueva spent approximately three weeks in Mexico interviewing this young mother and three other teenagers about their perspectives on gender roles and the presence of gender inequality in their country. Villanueva plans to continue the work she did this summer by publishing

her project in an academic journal. Additionally, she hopes to start a nonprofit to aid young girls who cannot afford to attend school in Mexico. Villanueva spoke to two Mexican girls from the state of Veracruz, and two of indigenous heritage from Quintana Roo, Villanueva said in an email. The girls she interviewed were 15 to 17-years-old. “I have been inspired by the strength and ambition the girls have,” Villanueva said. “Most of the time it was hard for them to identify any gender inequality they had experienced.” Villanueva also learned about another young woman’s whose schooling was cut short. The woman’s family could no longer afford to send her to school and she was subsequently pulled out of 9th grade

Carmen Levine: Spain By KITTY LUO As Carmen Levine ’17 watched the Flamenco dancers perform in Seville, Spain, everything her dance teacher had taught her suddenly made sense. “I saw the techniques and the rhythms I had learned being put into practice,” Levine said. “It completely changed my perspective on Flamenco.” During the summer, Levine spent a week traveling in Barcelona and Seville, which is in Andalucia, PRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF CARMEN LEVINE

before her middle school graduation. However, the interviewee still informed Villanueva of her plans to one day become a doctor. Although her time in Mexico is over, Villanueva said she will not forget the girls she encountered. “Every girl had a different take on life because each girl comes from a different environment,” Villanueva said. “They are all truly one of a kind and I hope to better their lives as much as they changed mine.” PRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF ALITZEL VILLANUEVA

the birthplace of Flamenco. Determined to study everything about the art of Flamenco dancing, she visited museums, watched numerous Flamenco performances and took classes on every aspect of Flamenco except for guitar playing. As the daughter of a former Flamenco dancer, Levine grew up with songs and dances of both Spanish and Mexican styles. Although she has been a dancer since she was two years old and has studied various types of dance such as ballet and Bollywood, Levine had never danced the Flamenco. “I felt like this was the perfect opportunity to fulfill the desire I had to learn more about an area of study I’m passionate about and interested in pursuing,” she said. Initially, the purpose of her trip was to explore the effect Spanish colonization has had on the Mexican indigenous dance. However, the concept later evolved

into a cultural comparison of the Baile Zapadeado, a Mexican style of dance, and the Flamenco dance in Spain. Levine said that during her time in Spain, she has learned not to take things at face value. “On my first day, my [hand-clapping and rhythm] teacher handed me this giant chart of all the different types of Flamenco, and I remember being flabbergasted at the diversity that existed within this one genre of dance,” she said. Through her studies, Levine realized that, despite being seen mostly as an entertainment form, Flamenco is a much more complex form of artistic expression. “My teachers in Spain inspired me to keep dancing and practicing because you can study Flamenco all your life and still learn something new every day,” Levine said. “Flamenco is eternal, as one of my teachers said.”

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AUG. 30, 2016

Rock the Vote Many students participated in presidential and mayoral election campaigns as summer interns ahead of election season.

By JOSIE ABUGOV

This statistic has increased since 2012, when only 57 perAudrey Kotick ’17 said she cent of high school students ventured nervously to the Hil- cared about the outcome of the presidential lary Clinton campaign head- Obama-Romney quarters on her first day of race. According to a Chronicle work in Brooklyn, New York. She would spend the rest of poll of 336 students, 81 perher summer immersed in the cent of upper school students world of politics, listening in believe the result of the election on mass conference calls with will affect them personally. Seventy-six percent of stuhundreds of Clinton delegates and preparing with coworkers dents follow politics. Evan Keare ’18 attended the for the Democratic National Democratic National ConvenConvention. “I was working on the dele- tion and obtained a credential, gate operations team, which is the pass needed to enter the event, from a family the team that went to friend who serves on the Democratic Nathe Board of Demotional Convention,” crats Abroad. Kotick said. “We did On her second weekly role-plays in a night at the convenroom as if someone, tion, she could only such as a governor find a seat directly or a state represenbehind the stage. tative, was experi“There were no encing a problem and ’ screens or speakwould call one of us Audrey Kotick ’17 ers,” Keare said. “I to help solve it.” couldn’t hear or see Kotick also reached out to Bernie Sanders anything. It’s ridiculous they supporters on Clinton’s behalf. would even sell seats there.” She decided to use YikYak, “Working [on the Clinton campaign] has not only in- a social media platform that alspired me to want to study po- lows users to share discussion litical science in college, but threads within a five-mile rahas also led me to consider a dius, to help her find a better career in public service in the place to sit. She soon saw that “a future,” Kotick said. “This past bummed out Bernie supporter” summer was so memorable, and I hope one day to help elect was giving away a floor-level delegate pass, and she received another extraordinary leader.” In continuing her political it from them. “I, a 17-year-old girl who involvement, Kotick will travel for a week with the Clinton can’t vote, was walking around the floor of the DNC with delcampaign during September. According to the Horatio Al- egate credentials, crazy” Keare ger Association, 85 percent of said. Around midnight, when the high school students considconvention came to a close, er themselves invested in the Keare sat thirty feet from the 2016 Presidential Election. NATHANSON S

stage as she watched the first and have to be earned,” Friedfemale presidential nominee in man said. “If they care so much American history. about everyone, why haven’t “I’m very passionate,” Keare they cared in past years?” said. “Hillary or nothing.” Though he identifies as Chloe Zoller ’17 was on the conservative, Friedman does social media team for Mitch- not support Donald Trump’s ell Schwartz, who is running presidential campaign. against Mayor Eric Garcetti ’88 If voting, he said he would this spring. write in Speaker of the House Zoller said working on the Paul Ryan. campaign has made her more Eleanor Halloran ’18 volunaware of local issues and what teered for the Bernie Sanders matters most to voters in Los campaign and believes that her Angeles. involvement in Junior State of “It was a very grassroots America, a nationwide organicampaign when I started work- zation emphasizing civic eding for them, so it’s ucation, has made awesome to see the her more politically amount of progress aware. we’ve been making as Even though she we prepare for elecoriginally supported tions,” Zoller said. “It Sanders, Halloran was also really cool to now plans to volunbe on the social media teer for Hillary Clinteam because we’re ton’s campaign. literally just reaching “I’ve always high’ out to potential voters ly respected Hillary Chloe Zoller ’17 all over the country to Clinton and even if try to get support.” she wasn’t my first Jordan Friedman ’17 is a choice, I still think she’ll make member of the Young Repub- a great president. I still support licans National Federation and her, especially when the other the American Israel Public Af- choice is Donald Trump,” Halfairs Committee. He attributes loran said. high school students’ increased Although it has been over involvement in this election to a month since Keare attendpromises from candidates, speed the Democratic National cifically those of Bernie Sand- Convention, she said she still ers. remembers how surreal the Friedman said young peo- experience was, like she was ple are concerned with the civic watching history being made. duties required of adult citiShe often thinks back to zens. He said his generation’s when she was nine years old, focus on present issues is self- when she and her dad volunish. teered for Barack Obama’s “I don’t understand why 2008 campaign. so many people think they’re “It made me very humentitled to a job, free housing, ble,” Keare said. “When I saw universal healthcare. In my Obama at the DNC, I was like, opinion, those are privileges ‘I did some of that.’” NATHANSON S

GRAPHIC BY ESHANIKA CHAUDHARY

AUG. 30, 2016

HWCHRONICLE.COM/FEATURES

• Continued from C1

called to blow it up.” While the Freys decided to by ISIS, according to a Chroni- stay in France but avoid large cle poll of 134 students. crowds, Cohen opted to leave Ashley Frey ’17 and her her foreign language immerfamily were also among those sion program and return home who ventured to Europe de- to Los Angeles. spite the State Department’s Similarly, Mia Stent ’18, advisory and had their per- who was participating in a ceptions of European French program in St. travel altered by the Laurent Du Var, deevents in the Nice. cided to leave France At the time of the early after the atpromenade attack, tacks. Stent said that Frey was in Loche, though she knows France as part of a that her summer proSchool Year Abroad gram took more preprogram. She was cautions in light of the scheduled to join the massacre by avoiding ’ rest of her family in public transportation Ashley Paris, where they had and large crowds, she Frey ’17 been vacationing and chose instead to meet spent Bastille Day at the Eiffel her family at their summer Tower. home in England. “The next morning my For students who had inmom told me she couldn’t get tended to travel to France later out of bed because she felt so in the summer, such as Lara sick,” Frey said. “She couldn’t Mikhail ’18, the decision of believe that she put herself whether or not to proceed with and my brother in a situation the trip became a serious dewith over a million people. She bate. realized that if there would be After the May 19 disapa terrorist attack, it could have pearance of Egypt Air Flight easily been at the Eiffel Tow- 804 en route from Paris to Caier.” ro, Mikhail said, her grandparAfter the events at the Nice ents began suggesting to her boardwalk, Frey’s family re- parents that she should not solved to avoid public settings attend the Mourataglou Tenwith large crowds for the re- nis Academy in Biot, France in mainder of their trip. August. Despite their efforts to Yet, she said, her parents steer clear of popular tourist saw no valid reason to keep destinations that could likely her from attending. be terrorist targets, they still “My mom didn’t really encountered a threat during a think that anything was goride on the underground met- ing to happen in the south of ro train. France, but then it did, which “Everyone at the metro had was scary,” Mikhail said. “For to line up on the wall single file the first few days after the atwhile armed guards and po- tack, my parents were debatlice were hurrying past,” Frey ing if this was really a good said. “There was an unidentifi- idea to go.” able object and the police were Ultimately, Mikhail’s parNATHANSON S

Traveling in Fear

53% of students who traveled to Europe expressed concern about the threats posed by terrorism.

78%

of students who already planned to travel to Europe had terrorism affect their travel plans.

31%

of students who traveled to Europe took extra precautions due to worries about terrorism.

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY ESHANIKA CHAUDHARY

FEATURES C7

ents decided that it would be locals in Rome. be able to foil any terrorist safe for her to participate in With Rome’s reputation plots. the tennis program because as a popular tourist destinaHis confidence was rooted they believed that French au- tion, shop owners spoke open- in his visit to the 2008 Beijing thorities would heighten na- ly about fears that their city Olympics which he regardtional security to prevent fur- would be a likely target of ISIS, ed as well protected. Howevther acts of violence. Mikhail she said. er, Lachman said he quickly said her parents’ expectations Moghavem also said that observed that security in Rio of increased security were con- there were fewer tourists in went far beyond what he expefirmed when Mikhail arrived at the Italian capital rienced in Beijing. the Nice airport. She said Eu- than there were in her He added that ropean airports generally have previous visits to the while both Rio and a more lenient security system city and there was an Beijing required specthan those in American air- air of caution among tators to go through ports, but that was no longer those who were there. three different sethan case following the attack. She added that curity checkpoints, “Unlike other trips, the air- she was more obserwhich included metal port security had us take our vant and aware of her detectors and x-ray shoes off and they thoroughly surroundings, but machines, Rio had a ’ searched our bags,” she said. the increased presuniformed security Lara “I had a water bottle that was ence of security did presence throughout Mikhail ’18 empty and they opened it and little to ease her apthe city. shook it, looking for explo- prehension. “The main difference besives.” “The fact that there was tween the two Olympics was This heightened state of a lot of security should make that the police in Rio were alert was observed in other me feel safer, but it was a lit- much more visible than in BeiEuropean countries, as noted tle alarming that Italy felt the jing,” Lachman said. “The milby Layla Moghavem ’17, who need to have that much secu- itary had large guns and it set travelled to Rome 10 days after rity,” Moghavem said. a tone where you felt like the the attack in France. In contrast, Assistant Track police were there watching the “I have been to Rome before and Field Coach Matthew city and making sure everybut it was definitely very dif- Lachman ’03 said he gained thing went smoothly.” ferent in terms of security and comfort from the heightened While Lachman said he general attitudes,” Moghavem security he encountered on his was not too concerned about said. “There trip to the Rio terrorism during his trip to a was a lot Olympics. potential ISIS target, 78 permore seJ i h a d i cent of students polled who You always read curity evw e b s i t e s traveled to Europe said that about the attacks and erywhere, called for at- terrorism affected their travel see pictures, but knowing especially tacks against plans. at tourthe Olympic With the summer attacks someone who narrowly ist attracgames and across the Western world, escaped one changes tions. At the Brazilian au- students said they were more everything.” Trevi Founthorities ar- concerned about traveling tain, there 12 abroad than in previous years, —Rachel Madhogaria ’17 rested were tons i n d i v i d u a l s especially in light of experiencand tons suspected of es similar to Cohen’s. of armed planning ISIS “You always read about the guards carrying huge guns.” inspired terrorist attacks at attacks and see pictures, but Moghavem, who is a man- the Olympics on July 21, CNN knowing someone who naraging editor of The Chronicle, reported. Despite the looming rowly escaped one changes evsaid she noted a shift in the threats, Lachman said he had erything,” Madhogaria said. “It attitudes of both tourists and faith that the security would is definitely real now.” NATHANSON S

“

The Chronicle polled 134 students about their experiences traveling abroad this past summer, specifically regarding the recent increase in terrorist attacks in Europe and how their perceptions of travel changed as a result.

AUG. 30, 2016

HWCHRONICLE.COM/FEATURES

Hunting Season By KITTY LUO

tions or to lure them to certain hazardous Pokestops When Assistant to the where predators may be Head of Upper School Mi- waiting, according to The chelle Bracken received a Guardian. “It’s kind of scary,” call from her sister-in-law, she was expecting a casu- Bracken said. “This is just al chat about family and one of the examples of how friends, she said. Instead, somebody who has bad inher sister-in-law informed tentions can take advantage Bracken that her nephew of a fun thing like Pokemon had been robbed at gunpoint Go.” In spite of the numerwhile catching Pokemon. Bracken’s nephew had ous incidents of crime surbeen Pokemon hunting in rounding the new game, North Hollywood with a Bracken said Pokemon Go friend when a driver pulled can be just as fun and safe over and held them at gun- as any other smartphone However, players point, demanding their app. should consider the safekeys, wallets and phones. He was playing Pokemon ty concerns and make sure Go, a mobile app based on their personal information The Pokemon Company’s remains private. “I think that once we’ve cartoon “pocket monsters.” Developed by the software started hearing about these company Niantic, Inc., [incidents], people got smart Pokemon Go has soared with Pokemon Go and peoto the top of the download ple stopped taking advancharts since its release in tage of the game,” she said. July, making more than “So players were safer and $14 million within a week more careful. It seems pretof its launch. According to ty fun as long as kids aren’t a Chronicle poll of 337 stu- hurting themselves or walkdents, 48 percent of stu- ing across the street without paying attention. dents play Pokemon It seems fairly Go. innocent in that Pokemon Go way.” presents a GPSPokemon Go based augmented represents a rereality game, comvival of childhood plete with gyms memories for where players can those who grew battle one anothup with Pokemon er. It also includes NATHANSON’S trading cards “Pokestops,” which Michelle Bracken that were popular are local landmarks during the 1990s players visit to restock on supplies, includ- to early 2000s, Bracken ing “Pokeballs,” used to said. Matteo Lauto ’18 recatch Pokemon and healing potions, which can remembers catching Pokemon store the health of wound- next to the Colosseum while ed Pokemon. As players on his tour of Rome. “Seeing as I do play roam the physical world, their digital counterparts Pokemon in my free time, traverse an on-screen map, this app seemed like anothsearching for Pokemon that er fun way to interact with seemingly surface at ran- Pokemon,” Lauto said. “The dom. The app also enables game itself is very different the phone’s camera to show from the usual Pokemon a live feed of surroundings games, which was odd but to serve as a backdrop for refreshing.” Lauto downloaded the the cartoon creatures that app after coming across appear. Bracken’s nephew is its trailer on Youtube. Afone of the many players ter playing for a month, he who have fallen victim to decided to use his summer travels as an armed robberies because opportunity of Pokemon Go. Robbers to catch across the country have allegedly used the app’s geolocation feature to anticipate players’ loca-

FEATURES C8

The new summer app Pokemon Go has gained popularity across the world. Many students find themselves addicted, even pulling out their phones while on vacation in other countries to go Pokemon hunting, despite possible dangers.

Pokemon around the world, he said. “Whether it’s during a layover in Canada, looking at Michelangelo’s David or walking around the Trevi Fountain or the Leaning Tower of Pisa, my phone was ready to catch ‘em all,” Lauto said, referring to the Pokemon franchise’s slogan, “Gotta Catch ‘Em All”. Lauto said playing Pokemon Go has made his summer more exciting. “The game wasn’t my ﬁrst priority, of course, but it was a nice thing to have while traveling,” he said. “There are a lot of photos ruined by me looking at my phone instead of at the camera.” English teacher Paul Chenier, who has played Pokemon Go himself, said the game evokes a sense of nostalgia, and the augmented reality aspect of the game is also a part of its appeal. “I’ve never played anything before that overlays virtual things into the real world,” Chenier said. “It’s a great game.” Chenier especially enjoys playing the game at art museums including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, where the atmosphere is often abuzz with excitement for Pokemon. “I like the way places like LACMA have embraced the game,” Chenier said. “LACMA and The Getty were tweeting about how many gyms and Pokestops they had, and the LACMA cafe has great [Pokemon themed] donuts.” Chenier said Pokemon Go is also different from other smartphone apps because its location-based nature promotes outdoor activity. “The game encourages players to explore their urban environment as a pedestrian, which is a good thing, especially in LA,” he said. Bracken said the app is a welcome change from other games that encourage prolonged sedentary behavior. “It’s deﬁnitely more active than sitting and playing any of the other video games that I’m aware of,” she said. “I don’t think it’s as active as

a sport or choosing to run, “There is a lot of hand but it is more active than wringing in the news over sitting in front of a monitor.” the game,” Chenier said. This summer, Flynn “Anything new and popular Klace ’19 said she found produces that sort of news. herself exploring the out- It’s a sign that the game is doors as well as bonding different and fresh.” with her family because of News outlets such as Pokemon Go. During their ABC27 News claim that vacation in South Carolina, Pokemon Go will be a potenshe and her 11 cousins of- tial distraction for students ten strolled along the beach in school. Bracken diswhile catching Pokemon to- agrees, saying that digital gether. distractions have always ex“Even though we were isted for students and that on our phones, we got closer Pokemon Go will not be any just because we were spend- different from other mobile ing so much more time to- apps. Students will be algether,” Klace said. “It was lowed to play on campus to kind of an obsession, and a certain extent, she said. we would talk about how “I don’t know if it’ll be to transfer them or how to any more of a distraction catch one with higher [com- than kids going on Facebook bat power].” or checking their texts,” she Despite initially releas- said. “I think the adults are ing Pokemon Go in the U.S. aware of it and if it becomes and Australia, Niantic Inc. a problem we’ll have to deal has since made the game with it, but I don’t think it’s available in 67 more coun- another distraction.” tries across ﬁve continents. Moreover, Pokemon Go The app’s most recent up- has become notorious for date features safety remind- its technical drawbacks and ers advising users not to malfunctions. Concerned play while driving. players allege that the game T h e excessively game’s drains cellI’ve never developphone data ers added and battery. played anything warnings Others have before that overlays experienced after numerous server convirtual things into car acnectivity isthe real world,” cidents sues while in which playing. —Paul Chenier d r i v K l a c e English Teacher a d m i t s ers were catching Pokemon Go Pokemon instead of watch- often exhausts her phone’s ing the road. battery, but she does not Klace, however, con- think the app has taken up siders those involved in too much of her data. accidents while playing Although initially loving Pokemon Go outliers. She the game, Lauto’s experibelieves the majority of the ence was marred by congame’s players are not at stant server crashes, he risk for injury. said. “[The players who got “I’d like to think the ﬁrst into accidents] are the cra- two weeks of the game was zy people who take it way our ‘honeymoon phase’, too seriously by refusing where I thought the game to look up while driving a would change the world,” he car because they’re so ob- said. “Now that it’s been out sessed with catching one for a while, I can see it for Pokemon,” she said. “Ob- what it is.” viously no one should die Despite experiencing while playing Pokemon Go.” frustration with the game, The recent rumors Lauto is optimistic about of danger surrounding the future of Pokemon Go. Pokemon Go is all part of “The concept is brilliant, the fans’ hysteria, Chenier but quite limited,” he said. said. “I can’t wait for future updates where they implement more exciting features such as trading and more generations of Pokemon.”

“

ILLUSTRATIONS BY ALENA RUBIN MAP IMAGE TAKEN FROM POKEMON GO APP, GRAPHICS ASSISTED BY NICOLE KIM

Sports The Chronicle • Aug. 30, 2016

Water Polo

Cross Country

Preseason emphasises teamwork By Joe Levin

CONNOR REESE/CHRONICLE

APEX PREDATOR: Evan Roesenfeld ’17 passes against Huntington Beach High School on Oct. 3, 2015. The team went on to fnish the season 24-2, including a 3-0 league record and an appearance in the CIF Championship Game against Mater Dei in Irvine.

New season brings new faces and mindsets By Jake Liker The 2016 boys’ water polo squad is missing some conspicuous figures from the previous year — influential seniors whose departures must be compensated for. The task is not a new one for Head of Aquatics Brian Flacks ’06. “I think that every year every team comes with that kind of challenge, of finding the new us and what our identity is going to be,” Flacks said. “We’re

going to have a different style and our approach as a coaching staff is we hope to adapt to the players that we have. We’re not gonna stick with the same thing that worked last year.” Flacks is well aware that this year presents what is perhaps the most pressing dilemma yet in terms of replacing collegebound stars, now that the Wolverine career of Ben Hallock ’16 has drawn to a close. “Ben Hallock was by far and away the best player in the Unit-

ed States last year,” Flacks said. “He was an Olympian as a high school player and may go down as one of the top high school players of all time. It was very obvious, in terms of anyone can basically figure what we were trying to do. I mean, when you have a player of that caliber, you want to get that player the ball.” After a graduation that sent off not just Hallock, but Duncan Froomer ’16, Davis Wachtell ’16 and Sean Jung ’16, this year’s team is taking a different shape.

“This year we’re much different,” Flacks said. “We don’t have a superstar, I think we have a bunch of very very very talented players. I think we have a much more solid group in terms of overall depth. You’ll see a lot more scorers. I don’t think we could even guess right now who the top goal scorer will be next year. Last year it was easy, it was Ben. Everyone knew going into the season he was going to be our • Continued on D7

Throughout the year, members of the cross-country team have only four weeks off — two between the cross-country and track seasons and two after track ends. That means that for most of this summer, five days a week, they met at school or parks or beaches and ran. All in all, they ran somewhere close to 600 miles. Just because they were practicing doesn’t mean they weren’t enjoying a classic Southern California summer, they said. They ran about seven miles along Will Rogers State Beach, then made it back to their cars, pulled out boogie boards and rubbed in sunscreen and enjoyed a day in the waves. Another time they went to a local park and played kickball. Then there was Big Bear, California, everyone on the crosscountry team’s favorite and least favorite week of the year, they said. The team travels to train at altitude, and the workouts are infamous amongst the team. Worst of all is the “40/40” drill, members said: a 200-meter sprint done in 40 seconds followed by a 50-meter jog in 40 seconds. Repeat 40 times. At altitude. “And it’s harder than it sounds,” Cross country runner Justin Ciccone ’17 said. The flip side is what happens when the team isn’t running. They live in cabins together, race canoes and ride chairlifts to the tops of mountain. “This bond [our team shares] • Continued on D3

Football

Team optimistic after successful season opener

By Juliana Berger

Despite their youth and low number of players, the team started their season with a 20-7 win against Birmingham High School Friday. Quarterback Jameson Wang ’20 delivered solid play throughout his first game and the defense kept the Patriots scoreless until near the end of the fourth quarter. The biggest struggle heading into the rest of this season will be the team’s lack of bench depth. There are only 38 available players in the program due to a couple unrelated injuries. “I think most football programs in the country live by the analogy ‘It’s the next man up,’” Football Program Head Scot Ruggles said. “If somebody goes down, which we saw last year when Marshall Cohen [’16] went down, Noah Rothman [’16] stepped up and did a great job, and that’s the expectation we have. You never know when your number is going to be called, but you should be ready when it is.” Having a smaller team

means there are fewer substitutions available when players get tired, which means that members will have to have the endurance necessary for playing longer periods of time. With a large underclass group, younger players will need to take a larger role in games and on the team as a whole. While sophomores have the advantage of a year on varsity under their belt, freshmen, such as Wang, will have to adjust quickly to higher level play. “Since we will be playing the younger kids a little more than we did last year, they have to pick up the schemes, and pick up the pace, a little quicker than they would have had when we had a bigger team or more older kids,” Captain Max Robertson ’17 said. “That will be a little bit of a challenge but I think they can do it, I have faith in them.” The arrivals of Gavin KeippStroud ’17 and Liam Douglass ’18 have added height to the offensive line, and also showed their capabilities on the defensive line at the first game. The offensive line will be experiencing further changes due

AARON PARK/CHRONICLE

WE’RE BREAKING UP: Captain Max Robertson ’17 jumps and reaches for an incomplete pass at the season opener against Birmingham High School Friday. The Wolverines won the game 20-7. to the promotion of two assistant coaches as the new offensive coordinators. Co-offensive Coordinator Chauncey Fagan and Co-offensive Coordinator Rand Holdren will lead offensive plays in place of Ruggles, who had run them since he was hired. Despite their younger

group and loss of seniors, the team hopes to build off of last year’s league success and further the reputation of the school as a serious program. “I think what last year’s class did was win a league championship for the first time in a long time and show our underclass-

men what it takes to do that,” Ruggles said. “That’s the legacy they left, and now it’s up to the young guys that were on the team last year who got a taste of what it’s like to win big football games, and we hope that spreads throughout this year.”

D2 SPORTS

Game to watch SEPTEMBER 22

Girls' Volleyball vs. Marymount Taper Gymnasium Coming off last season's 23-10 record and a secondround playoff loss, the team hopes to get the season off to a strong start with an early league game against Marymount, their historic rivals. Last year, the teams faced each other twice, each winning once.

KEY PLAYER Chloe Mueller '19 With her aggressive style of play and high volleyball IQ, opposite hitter Mueller was a big surprise for the team, being the only freshman to make varsity. Now a year older and with an extra year of experience, Mueller is expected to be a standout on the team this year and help lead them deep into the playoffs.

& Figures Facts

30.6

Average number of points football scored per game last season

THE CHRONICLE

AUG. 30, 2016

Girls' Volleyball

Team looks to bounce back after first defeat By DARIO MADYOON

The girls’ volleyball team is looking to capitalize on its blend of young talent and experience after finishing 2310 overall last year. “With losing seniors, you have to fill a void that they’ve left,” volleyball program head Adam Black said. “That void is experience and a certain level of play. It’s obviously hard to replace experience, but what’s nice is that we have a number of players who have come up and improved and gained that experience through both club and high school play.” Among those improved players are captains Pearl Accord ’17 and Sophie Tippl ’17, Black said. Accord and Tippl will lead one of the youngest squad’s in recent memory, which will feature just six seniors, five juniors and six sophomores. “I think this is one of the youngest teams we’ve had,” Accord said. “As a leader, I want to set a good example and show people what it means to be a senior leader, be really vocal and lift others up when they feel down.” Chemistry is perhaps this

squad's greatest strength, as the team has already been practicing together all summer and many girls play club together. “Even though there are a lot of new players on our team, most of us already knew each other coming in, so we started out as a close team,” middle blocker Courtney Nunley ’17 said. One major difference between this year's squad and those of year's past is the strength at the middle blocker position. In the past, the Wolverines struggled at times when opponents played down the middle against them. This year, the team's ﬂexible rotation at the position should turn this weakness into a strength. “Caroline [Tilton ’19], Mycah [Dottin ’18] and Nunley are all in the mix, so we have a couple of girls that ﬁll a void that we've been missing the past couple of years in the middle,” Black said. “We have a good mix of players there, and that will create a lot of balance in the team both offensively and defensively.” This year, the Mission League will feature new

ELLIS BECKER/CHRONICLE

YOU GOT SERVED: Micah Dottin '18 serves during a 3-0 loss against Lakewood High School in the season opener Aug. 25. competition in Alemany and Louisville after rivals Notre Dame and Marlborough moved down to the lower ranked Sunshine League. “Honestly, I'm kind of sad to see Marlborough and Notre Dame go because they were great competition and there were deﬁnitely some strong rivalries with those schools,” Accord said. “I don't know much about Alemany and Louisville, but their addition to the league is exciting because it's always good to play new and unfamiliar teams.” The squad lost its ﬁrst game three sets to zero

against Lakewood Aug. 25. The Wolverines will need to come together as a team if they want to bounce back in their next game against Santa Barbara tonight. "As a leader, I hope to help everyone recover by just keeping them focused and helping them recognize that losses will happen, but how you recover from that adversity is what makes a team stronger and reveals character," Accord said. "We can deﬁnitely recover from this loss stronger than before, and I have so much faith in my teammates."

Field Hockey

Boys' water polo team's ranking in the US

Average weekly miles run by a cross country runner

55 Number of alums that competed in the 2016 Olympic Games

Junior Varsity Field Hockey Next Game: Sept. 6 @ Huntington Beach

Girls' Tennis Next Game:

Sept. 31 @ Brentwood

Girls' Volleyball Next Match: Sept. 22 @ Harvard-Westlake

Boys' Water Polo Next Match: Sept. 6 @ Harvard-Westlake

Cross Country Next Match: Sept. 3 @ Brookside

CARINA MARX/CHRONICLE

EMILY RAHHAL/CHRONICLE

STICKING IT: (Left): Center-forward Mia Reilly '18 takes control of the ball and pushes up the field in a game against Edison last season. (Right): Defender Erin Lee '18 signals she is open for a pass from Reilly during a free hit last season.

Squad to rely on experienced leaders

By ELI ADLER AND ADAM YU

Varsity field hockey will be dependent on both their veterans and new players to lead the team to success after finishing last season with a 7-9-1 overall record. “Last year was definitely a rebuilding year for us, but we knew that was going to happen for years because we had had three incredibly strong seasons in a row," Creznic said. "We had a really young team.” Even though the team finished with below a .500 record, they finished second in their league and said they were happy with the result.

“I think that our whole team agrees that last season was very successful since nearly half of the team was made up of sophomores,” Mia Reilly '18 said. However, Creznic and the rest of the ﬁeld hockey program remained positive throughout the course of the season. “We also knew that because the sophomore class [last year] in particular was so strong, the future looked bright." Creznic said. Following last season, four players graduated, including the team’s leading scorer Emma Wasserman '16. Because of the few departing seniors, there are

only ﬁve new varsity players, very well this season,” Reilly said. compared to last year’s eight. While most of the team “There’s no question it’s going to have a positive is made up of returning members, Creznic impact on our team believes that the new this year, because players' skill levels not only are they are on par with the returning players, rest of the team. but they’ve had experience playing “We also on varsity for two have some great or three years,” she sophomores and a said. new freshmen on the Reilly hopes that team," Creznic said. ’ since few seniors "They’re so good that Phaedra departed and that some of them will get Robinson’17 the roster is mostly starting spots even the same it will help improve over returning players." on last year's record. Reilly, along with Alyse “I think that this makes us Tran '18 and Erin Lee '18, are a more closely bonded group, expected to lead the team’s and it motivates us to play • Continued on D6 NATHANSON S

hwchronicle.com/sports

Aug. 30, 2016

Sports D3

in brief

Cross Country

Hicks to serve as new executive assistant

AUDREY WILSON/CHRONICLE

RUN THROUGH THE PARK: Mila Danton ’17 attempts to pass a competing runner from Corona del Mar High School in a cross country meet. Last year, the cross country team won the Division IV CIF-SS and qualified for the California State Finals in Fresno.

Athletes prepare for run at CIF title

gest pack, meaning that there is a group of guys — usually is super important because the three, four, five runners I don’t think that this sport — who all run more or less towould be possible if we weren’t gether and make sure that our able to lean on each other dur- score stays low,” team captain ing tough times,” team captain Nate Hollander ’17 said. That group-over-the-indiCasey Croson ‘17 said. “But most importantly, we rely on vidual focus led the underdog each other to make the sport boys to a CIF-Southern Section championship worth it by maklast year. The win ing it fun. For every qualified them for the hard practice we State competition, in have, we have three which they finished instances where we sixth. are crying, laughing The girls team comor making memories peted in CIF-SS finals, that will last. That’s but did not qualify for what makes it worth the State tournament. it. That’s what moti“Skill wise, we still vates us to run: we ’ have such an amazing do it for each other.” Casey team, I would say even Not only do they Crosson ’17 better than before lean on each other in practice, they’ll also have because so many kids have to rely on their teammates in greatly improved,” team capmeets. Cross-country is, after tain Jason Santillan ’17 said. “The quality of our team has all, a team sport. “The most successful teams just gone up like crazy these are not the teams with the past few years, and I think fastest guy, but with the stron- we’re ready to go ham this sea• Continued from D1

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son.” While they didn’t lose a large number of competitors to graduation, they are losing quality. Gone is last year’s top runner Jack Stovitz ’16, as well as standouts Henry Roskin ’16 and Lauren Jones ’16 and Nicole Araya ’16. “It’s been hard [without last year’s seniors], as it always is, because we are all so close every year, but we’re making an effort to become just as close with new underclassmen and make them feel very welcomed,” team captain Lochryn Howe ’17 said. “We’re doing our best to make sure all the young members are training as much as possible so they can all have great seasons and contribute to the team.” Hollander looks to be the top runner for the boys, whose best time last year (most crosscountry races are three miles long) was 15:52. He’ll receive help from the likes of Santillan, Nicholas Sweeny ’17 and Austin McNabb ’18.

The girls return some of their top runners from last season, including team captains Crosson and Howe. Mila Danton ’17 and London Alexander ’18 will provide added depth in races. “Lochryn, Mila and I talk all the time about how crazy it is that we have somehow gone from freshmen who barely knew each other to leaders of the team and best friends in what seems like 20 seconds,” Crosson said. “It’s starting to set in that this is the end, and we are really trying to make this season count and to leave the team knowing that we improved it and left our mark.” After all the jogging and laughing together, the teams will have their chance to see if it all paid off in the Sea Breeze Invitational on Sept. 3. “We are just as good of a team as we were last year, and I think we have the ability to do great things,” Hollander said. “It’s in our hands.” Or feet.

Softball

Griffith to become new Softball head

By Kate Schrage

Katie Griffith is taking over as the softball program head this year, after coach Claire Rietmann-Grout’s one-year tenure. Griffith attended the University of Georgia and played for its softball team. By graduation, Griffith had competed in the SEC Championship and had played in the NCAA Division I Softball Championship three times. She is now the owner of K Club Training, an indoor training establishment in El Segundo. Griffith hopes to lead the team to an undefeated record in league play this year and to create a closer bond between the teammates. “I want to first and foremost make it feel like a family unit so that all the girls know that they’re a part of something bigger than what’s just taking place for a couple hours after school,” Griffith said. While Griffith does not plan on making any immedi-

ate foundational changes to the program, the team has already started practicing earlier than it has in previous seasons. “I’m always excited to take on a new opportunity, so I feel like I’m walking into something that has some great bones and structure to it that I can really build upon and expand upon,” Griffith said. “So I kind of look at the program from the business perspective and see how we can grow it and how we can make it more valuable.” One of Griffith’s main focuses will be on building the softball team’s presence within the Harvard-Westlake community in order to boost morale and strengthen the team’s connection to the student body in preparation for the squad’s season. “You’ll probably see the softball players at a lot of other sporting events and coming to a lot of plays and shows,” Griffith said. “We’re going to try to support everyone else as well.”

Juliana Hicks will serve as the executive assistant to the Head of Athletics for the upcoming school year after she officially assumed her position Jan. 3. She was previously the head coach for the JV girls’ volleyball program and the assistant coach for boys’ and girls’ varsity volleyball teams. “I’ve been here for the past nine months, and the transition has been fairly easy and welcoming because I’ve always been a part of the athletics program,” Hicks said. Hicks will continue to be an assistant director for the Los Angeles Volleyball Academy. —Nicole Kim

College basketball prospect to join HW Johnny Juzang ’20 will begin his high school basketball career this season as a Wolverine after transferring from Viewpoint School. The 6’7” combo guard has received basketball scholarship offers from the University of Southern California, Arizona State University and the University of Alabama. His older brother Christian is a Division I athlete, as he will play basketball for Harvard University this coming season. Juzang will play with fellow college prospect Cassius Stanley ’19 in the Wolverine backcourt. —Lucas Gelfond

Girls’ volleyball to change team placement

Instead of having a concrete freshman and JV team, the players in the girls’ volleyball program will practice together and be placed on a team depending on their performance in practice and other factors. “It creates competition to get spots for the JV games, which I don’t like that much, but that also serves as motivation to work harder in practice,” volleyball team members Annie Wendorf ’19 said, “I think it’s good for the freshmen girls because they get to experience JV level too.” —Sam McCabe

Students participate in summer sports research

KATE SCHRAGE/CHRONICLE

NEW COACH: Griffith poses for a picture outisde the athletics office. Griffith is taking over as the new Softball Program Head.

During the summer upper school students did research in partnership with the Institute for Scholastic Sports Science and Medicine. Students Emmerson Harris ’17 and Miles Agus ’18 arranged partnerships with ISSSM which involves literature reviews for projects currently being run at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles ISSSM is also speaking to Agus and Sasha Pritzker ’18 about a project to use biometric measures for student stress and providing resources to facilitate their research. Brennan Lee ’17 is another participant in ISSSM research. —Ryan Albert

THE CHRONICLE

D4 SPORTS

AUG. 3

Summer Highlight Reel The Chronicle looks back at the former and current Wolverine athletes who competed in Rio, were drafted to the MLB, and committed to top level universities during the summer.

Leo Kaplan ’16 was drafted to the Chicago White Sox during the 37th round of the Major League Baseball draft, making him the 1106th pick. He will continue his studies at Northwestern University.

BENNETT GROSS/CHRONICLE

Lucas Giolito ’12 made his major league debut for the Washington Nationals June 28, defeating the New York Mets 5-0 at Nationals Park. Giolito previously played on the Harvard-Westlake Varsity team for four years.

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Midﬁelder Zac Harleston ’17 committed July 1 to play lacrosse at Williams College. Harleston scored over 20 goals in the 2015-16 season alone.

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The Pittsburgh Pirates selected catcher Arden Pabst ’13 in the 12th round of the MLB draft June 10. Pabst threw out an average of 47.8 percent of runners who attempted to steal and was also the team’s co-captain for the 2016 season.

IMAGE TAKEN BY DANIEL SPINGOLA, LICENSED FOR REUSE BY FLICKR.COM

30, 2016

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SPORTS D5

Center Ben Hallock ’16 was named to the U.S. Olympic Water Polo team this summer for the Rio Olympics. Hallock previously led the Wolverines to back to back CIF titles, winning him the Co-Division I Player of the Year award. The U.S. team fell in the prelims in Rio.

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Brandon Kewalramani ’17 committed to University of California, Berkeley this summer. He has been on the Varsity team and qualiﬁed for the Individual CIF Regional Championships every year since freshman year.

BENNETT GROSS/CHRONICLE

Ali Riley ’06 competed on the New Zealand women’s national soccer team as a fullback during the Rio Olympic games. Riley brought veteran experience to the team, as she recently reached her 100th senior cap earlier in the summer.

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Lucy Davis ’11 competed in the Rio Olympics, and won a silver medal for the U.S. team, with her horse, Barron. Davis has also enjoyed success in other competitions, winning the Young Master League Championship in Germany in 2009 and the Global Champions Tour Grand Prix in Switzerland in 2013.

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D4 SPORTS

AUG. 30, 2016

Summer Highlight Reel The Chronicle looks back at the former and current Wolverine athletes who competed in Rio, were drafted to the MLB, and committed to top level universities during the summer.

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SPORTS D5

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Leo Kaplan ’16 was drafted to the Chicago White Sox during the 37th round of the Major League Baseball draft, making him the 1106th pick. He will continue his studies at Northwestern University.

BENNETT GROSS/CHRONICLE

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Midﬁelder Zac Harleston ’17 committed July 1 to play lacrosse at Williams College. Harleston scored over 20 goals in the 2015-16 season alone.

DARIO MADYOON/CHRONICLE

BENNETT GROSS/CHRONICLE

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IMAGE TAKEN BY DANIEL SPINGOLA, LICENSED FOR REUSE BY FLICKR.COM

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The Chronicle

D4 Sports

Aug. 3

Summer Highlight Reel The Chronicle looks back at the former and current Wolverine athletes who competed in Rio, were drafted to the MLB, and committed to top level universities during the summer.

Leo Kaplan ’16 was drafted to the Chicago White Sox during the 37th round of the Major League Baseball draft, making him the 1106th pick. He will continue his studies at Northwestern University.

BENNETT GROSS/CHRONICLE

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Midfielder Zac Harleston ’17 committed July 1 to play lacrosse at Williams College. Harleston scored over 20 goals in the 2015-16 season alone.

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IMAGE TAKEN BY DANIEL SPINGOLA, LICENSED FOR REUSE BY FLICKR.COM

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D4 SPORTS

AUG. 30, 2016

Summer Highlight Reel The Chronicle looks back at the former and current Wolverine athletes who competed in Rio, were drafted to the MLB, and committed to top level universities during the summer.

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SPORTS D5

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Leo Kaplan ’16 was drafted to the Chicago White Sox during the 37th round of the Major League Baseball draft, making him the 1106th pick. He will continue his studies at Northwestern University.

BENNETT GROSS/CHRONICLE

PRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF ERIC DEARBORN

Midﬁelder Zac Harleston ’17 committed July 1 to play lacrosse at Williams College. Harleston scored over 20 goals in the 2015-16 season alone.

DARIO MADYOON/CHRONICLE

BENNETT GROSS/CHRONICLE

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IMAGE TAKEN BY DANIEL SPINGOLA, LICENSED FOR REUSE BY FLICKR.COM

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THE CHRONICLE

D4 SPORTS

AUG. 3

Summer Highlight Reel The Chronicle looks back at the former and current Wolverine athletes who competed in Rio, were drafted to the MLB, and committed to top level universities during the summer.

Leo Kaplan ’16 was drafted to the Chicago White Sox during the 37th round of the Major League Baseball draft, making him the 1106th pick. He will continue his studies at Northwestern University.

BENNETT GROSS/CHRONICLE

PRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF ERIC DEARBORN

Midﬁelder Zac Harleston ’17 committed July 1 to play lacrosse at Williams College. Harleston scored over 20 goals in the 2015-16 season alone.

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30, 2016

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D6 sports Field Hockey

Veterans primed for season

the chronicle

Aug. 30, 2016

Girls’ Tennis

• Continued from D2

strong junior class. In order to prepare for the season, players have been conditioning on their own for the whole summer and some attended overnight field hockey programs. They began practicing as a team at the beginning of the month for two hours each weekday. In practices, Creznic sees improvement from last year that she says she knows will carry on into the new season. “In the few practices we’ve had as a varsity team, the pace is so much faster than last year,” she said. “You can already see that as a team we’re going to play so much better because we have so many quicker players who think faster and who know where they need to be.” Later this week, they will fly to Orlando to compete in the KSA Tournament Sept. 2-4, where they will face other high school teams from around the country. In addition to winning games, the squad will also use the tournament as a way for the team to develop closer relationships. “It is always such a great way for our team to bond and also to play a lot of great field hockey teams,” Reilly said. Not only does Creznic believe the squad will be successful this year, but she also believes it will be successful in years to come. “We have great players on all three teams this year,” she said. “There are great players coming up through the ranks, and it looks very positive for the next several years.” The squad’s first game is today against Edison High, to whom they lost 4-0 in last year’s opening game. After a series of outof-league games including matchups against Foundtain Valley and Huntington Beach High School, and the Wolverine squad will play in their first league showdown on Sept. 20 against Bonita High School.

EMILY RAHHAL/CHRONICLE

SWINGING FOR THE FENCES: Amanda Chan ’19 whacks a backhand volley in last season’s 13-5 victory over Notre Dame at Los Angeles Valley College Oct. 1. The team went on to play in the CIF-SS ﬁnals against Peninsula, although they lost the match.

After multiple key players graduate, team refocuses and regroups during oﬀseason

By eLLY CHOi anD eLLiS BeCKer

fewer seniors to lead the team than they had last season. “It’s hard to say how the Though only six players team will be with fewer sewill return to the girls’ tennis niors, but I don’t think it will team, the team hopes to ad- affect how we play,” Jennifer Gadalov ’19 said. vance into the finals “Last year, the seagain and this time, go niors were a huge all the way. part of the team, Last season, the and even though girls’ tennis team broke we will have less every school record seniors this year, and fell short in the fiCoach Gipe and all nals by one match. of the other coaches “We have got rehave been working turning players and a hard and helping whole lot of new play’ us get ready for the ers that have come in Jenna season. It’s always and have a lot of enMoustafa ’17 hard to say how the ergy and excitement,” team will be with Girls’ Tennis Program Head Kristie Gipe said. “They are re- new players every year, but I ally excited about being on the know we have a strong team.” The squad has been workcourt and are working really hard. We are going to be a re- ing on specific strategies and different aspects of their play ally good team together.” This season, the team has to improve before the season nathanson s

to beat Peninsula,” Amanda begins. “We are focusing a lot on Chan ’19 said. “I think this our doubles because that is year we have a really good where we lost a majority of our chance to beat them. We have points last year,” Gipe said. some new girls on Varsity this “So we are working on volleys year that are really good and the girls that so that we can were on the be strong [in team last year that categohave really imry].” We can do very proved over the The season will start off well if we come together summer.” The squad Tuesday with as a team and as a is looking to a game against enhance their Valencia after unit.” teamwork and training dur—Kristie Gipe ability to work ing the summer. Girls’ tennis program head together. “Our goal However, is to create anthe squad is anticipating their rematch other team who are willing to against Peninsula, their big- play as a team and not as ingest competitor. Last season, dividuals,” Gipe said. “If we do the team fell to Peninsula in that, we can have a really good the CIF Finals, losing 10-8 to season. We can do very well if we come together as a team the Panthers. “I really hope we’re able and as a unit.”

“

Girls’ Golf

Squad looks to build oﬀ of last season for successful playoﬀ run

By aarOn ParK

The varsity girls’ golf team will enter the 2016 season with a focus on unity and cooperation, hoping to improve upon a 2015 campaign that saw them finish 5-2 and included an appearance in the CIF Divisional Playoffs. Program Head Marge Chamberlain named Chantalle Wang ’17 captain in a statement posted on the girl’s golf website Aug. 6. “She comforts players who get down on themselves and inspires others to fall in line,” Chamberlain said. “She is instrumental in organizing events outside of golf that lead to enduring mem-

ories and lasting relationships. [Wang] is every coach’s dream.” The team will also benefit from a talented freshman class, Chamberlain said. “It is the best incoming freshman class I have seen in four years,” Chamberlain said. “They will contribute a lot to our program this year. Both Daisy Wan [’20] and Skylar Graham [’20] are very accomplished golfers.” To promote bonding and to familliarize players with each other, the team took a two-day retreat to Ojai. There, the teammates practiced and participated in team-building exercises. “We have gained a couple

new players, so my main goal was to have everyone get to know each other better, and I think we achieved that on our Ojai retreat,” Wang said. Chamberlain said that it’s essential for players to depend on one another. “A lot of times, in golf, it’s not like football or basketball,” Chamberlain said. “There’s not lot of people cheering you on, and with the rigors of school and such at Harvard-Westlake, and you’ve got homework and you’re in a match, sometimes it’s easy to say ‘oh this putt doesn’t matter’ and miss a putt. “The girls’ really understand how everybody relies on everybody, and we’ve

BENNETT GROSS/CHRONICLE

BUSHWOOD COUNTRY CLUB: Emma Kateman ’17 attempts a putt on the third hole in last season’s match against Marymount. started to do that through our retreat, how we practice, trying to build a cohesive unit where people all understand that we’re all in it together.” The journey for the team’s first league championship since 2008 will begin on Sept. 1 with a match against Flintridge Sacred Heart at the Encino Golf Course.

“This season, each player on the team has improved so much, propelling us further towards new competitors who may be better than us,” third-year player Karina Guo ’18 said. “But we shouldn’t fear our competitors. Rather, we should be confident in our game knowing that we are a good team.”

hwchronicle.com/sports

Aug. 30, 2016

Locker rooms get facelift By Katie Perrin

Renovations on the Taper Gym ended in time for the start of this school year after more than a year of construction to include a new sports medicine facility, and a renovated bottom floor and locker rooms. “It’s the biggest project on campus that we have been doing for a year plus,” Chief of Campus Operations and Construction Jime DeMatte said. “It’s been open since Hell Week

for the boys but as of [Aug. 22] it has been fully open.” The gym includes new features such as an automated clothes line rack, a new coat of paint and a renovated weight room. “Everyone is able to use it, from P.E. to athletes to club sports,” DeMatte said. “Even teachers and kids who just got injured. You don’t actually have to be in a sport. Basically, it’s a nice medical facility that we’ve created. It’s all yours - locker rooms, the trainer’s

rooms, everything.” The trainers’ room has expanded from 300 square feet to almost 2,000 square feet to include more space for training tables, making the room completely state of the art. “We got a conference room and TVs,” DeMatte said. “It’s really nice. It’s like the fancy college sports medicine rooms like UCLA or Stanford.” Students and faculty who are involved in fall sports said they are excited to be able to use the new facilities for their

Sports D7

Taper athletic facilities undergo extensive renovations to upgrade locker and training rooms. upocming seasons. “The upgraded locker rooms and training rooms are longawaited additions to Taper,” defensive end Harry Garvey ’18 said. “The larger training room allows players and trainers to work without feeling cramped, and the new locker rooms are clean and more spacious.” The new locker rooms and training area have been received positively, according to field hockey player Nicole Bahar ’18. “The new locker rooms are

super cool, and they will be helpful when a lot of girls need to change at the same time,” Bahar said. Fall sports players and faculty were the first to use the new facilities this summer, which Head Football Coach Scot Ruggles said are first class. “Our football program is very thankful to [Jim DeMatte] and our administration for building us this great place,” Ruggles said.

MATTHEW YAM/CHRONICLE

CAPTAIN’S QUARTERS: Football gear sits in captain Zac Harles-

ton’s ’17 locker. The new lockers include personalized placards.

MATTHEW YAM/CHRONICLE

JENNY LI/CHRONICLE

RYAN LOCK-TE: This is a view of the newly renovated girls’ lockers.

LOCK NESS MONSTER: Offensive lineman Max Resnick ’19 adjusts his pads before football practice.

Boys’ Water Polo

Reeling from championship loss, players seek redemption

sees his inclusion in the roster as an honor, but also an best player, and that’s much opportunity. “Guarding and playdifferent this year. So I think that every game you’re going ing against some of the best to see a different best player.” players in the world my age Two of those players, Luke will help me because playing Henriksson ’17 and Felix Bro- against different people and zyna-Vilim ’17, were talented different styles will add to my enough to garner scholar- ‘quiver’ of moves,” Brozynaship offers from University of Vilim said. “This will help me California, Los Angeles. The because back home people pair committed to play for will have a hard time guardthe two-time defending NCAA ing me with some new moves and some fresh ideas on the champions last spring. Brozyna-Vilim’s tal- game.” Brozyna-Vilent also earned him im is not alone in one of 13 spots on this sentiment, as the USA Water Polo Flacks is also hopMen’s Youth National ing the experience Team’s FINA Youth will help once he World Championship and Krutonog reRoster. Alongside him turn stateside. on that list is Sam “For both of Krutonog ’18. The two them I hope that it are currently in Podjust brings a level ’ gorica, Montenegro, of competitiveness where they are comSam that they can’t get peting to be crowned Krutonog ’18 just playing high the best 18 and under men’s national teams in school in the United States,” Flacks said. “When you have the world. “It’s an honor for them the opportunity not just to just to be selected,” Flacks play against them, but to play said. “It’s a testament to the with the best players in the hard work they’ve put in for United States, it can really a long long time, mixed with bolster their water polo IQ, the natural talent they have.” their ability, and also their Brozyna-Vilim not only confidence.” • Continued from D1

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Flacks noted Krutonog’s improvement since succeeding Anthony Ridgley ’15 as goalie last year. “One of the most improved players that I’ve seen is Sam Krutonog,” Flacks said. “In terms of the national level, I think he’s one of, if not the most, elite goalie in high school at this point.” Krutonog’s spot in the starting lineup may be all but cemented, but two other spots are open, and several underclassmen are in the mix. “It’ll be very interesting to see who rounds out our fifth and sixth players in our lineup,” Flacks said. “At this point, I don’t think we’ve picked them yet.” When discussing candidates for those final two sports, Flacks mentioned Keller Maloney ’18, Ryan Neapole ’18, Pierce Maloney ’19, Alex Bucur ’19, Ethan Shipman ’20 and Mot Stothart ’20. There’s one more aspect that Flacks is trying to introduce to the program this year. After five seasons at the helm, he hopes to stray from the Wolverines’ default mindset, which has revolved around championships.

CAITLIN NEAPOLE/CHRONICLE

IS THAT YOU, NESSIE?: UCLA-bound Felix Brozna-Vilim ’17 attempts a shot in last season’s 24-1 blowout of Alemany High. “We want to be the best us that we can be,” Flacks said. “We do believe that being the best us that we can be, we can win a championship, but we kind of want to get away from the mindframe of winning and losing being our goal. We should never define our success by our wins and losses. We’ve won a lot of games, but that’s never going to be what defines us.”

So what does define the boys’ water polo team? “I think that the only way for us to define ourselves is by becoming what we feel like is our best ‘us’, which is a tough thing to define, and I think that as a coaching staff we’ve really laid out to the players where we feel like we can and should be, and we’re working hard to get there,” Flacks said.

THE CHRONICLE

D8 SPORTS

Q&A

AUG. 30, 2016

Mia Reilly Field Hockey By MATTHEW YAM How did you start playing field hockey, and when did you know you really wanted to pursue it? I was going to play girls’ lacrosse, but we didn’t have a team at Harvard-Westlake when I got here. My mom played field hockey in college, so she really wanted me to try it, so that’s kind of why I did. There wasn’t really one moment when I realized that I would take it so far to be honest, but in eighth grade we won the Delphic League. That was really cool and I definitely think it made me want to keep playing. What’s your favorite part about playing center-forward? What’s the hardest part? I play center forward for our school team, which I really like because I love scoring and offense. There’s also no “off-sides” in field hockey, so I can stay really far up on the field if I want to. That really drew me to this position. That can also make it hard, because it means there are a lot of times when it’s usually me versus three other defenders from the other team. Some goalies are really, really good also. What I think about when I play is mainly getting open for passes and communicating with everyone else on the team so that we all know who’s open and ready for when the defense gets the ball. What do you want to do differently this year? What have you been working on the most this off-season? This year, because we only have five new players, which is a lot smaller than what the years past have been, we’re definitely a really, really close team. That means we don’t have to spend as much time getting to know how everyone plays and learning how to work together as a team. We’re going to spend a lot more time just getting better and not being set back by that compared to the last [few] years. As far as training goes, in the school season we practice every weekday that we don’t have games for 2 hours. Out of season I play games every Sunday, train with the Olympic development program for 3 hours every Saturday, play tournaments for around 5 weekends in the spring and on weekdays I either practice with my club teams or do conditioning on my own. What are your personal goals for this season? In my freshman year I scored 12 goals, so this year I definitely want to score more than I did then and break my own record with that. I scored 11 goals sophomore year because I was playing more center-mid, so this year when I’m going to be doing all center-forward I just want to get 20 or something, and also I just want to help the team win as many games as possible. Are there any specific moments that you remember made you take field hockey more seriously? I played soccer since I was four, and I always thought I was going to keep playing soccer and keep playing club [soccer], but when I made varsity as a freshman, I really liked it a lot better than soccer, and definitely making the Futures team made me want to just quit soccer altogether so I could focus on field hockey. Do you have any pre-game rituals? Do you listen to any music before games? If so, what’s on the playlist?

Stats

Goals scored last year

Assists last year

Years on varsity so far

I know it’s dumb, but I’m just convinced that if I don’t eat the same thing I’m not going to play well, so every morning I have to have oatmeal and a banana and every lunch I have to have an avocado sandwich. I have to eat that and I don’t mess with that because if I don’t I’m just paranoid that I won’t play well. For music, usually our team has a playlist for the bus and that’s really fun. That’s like a nice bonding thing especially right before homecoming. It goes from ‘Baby’ by Justin Bieber to ‘Black Skinhead’ by Kanye West. It’s all over the map. What is the most memorable moment of your career? My most memorable Wolverines moment is definitely when we beat Glendora, one of the best two teams in the league at the time, at Homecoming last year. Throughout the last couple of years, they’ve been our rival, and they beat us in the preseason scrimmage, so we went into that game really freaking out. We didn’t want to lose at Homecoming in front of everybody. Then we scored within the first three minutes, and it was just the greatest thing ever, and we used that momentum to keep going, and the team just got really excited after that [they] were excited for the rest of the season. I scored in that game, I don’t remember how many times. But it was definitely special because it was Homecoming and you just get really competitive for that game. For all the 1v1 balls, I just remember every one of us would keep beating them because we had more will to win because they thought they were going to beat us really easily. CARINA MARX/ CHRONICLE

The Chronicle

D8 Sports

Q&A

Aug. 30, 2016

Mia Reilly Field Hockey By Matthew Yam How did you start playing field hockey, and when did you know you really wanted to pursue it? I was going to play girls’ lacrosse, but we didn’t have a team at Harvard-Westlake when I got here. My mom played field hockey in college, so she really wanted me to try it, so that’s kind of why I did. There wasn’t really one moment when I realized that I would take it so far to be honest, but in eighth grade we won the Delphic League. That was really cool and I definitely think it made me want to keep playing. What’s your favorite part about playing center-forward? What’s the hardest part? I play center forward for our school team, which I really like because I love scoring and offense. There’s also no “off-sides” in field hockey, so I can stay really far up on the field if I want to. That really drew me to this position. That can also make it hard, because it means there are a lot of times when it’s usually me versus three other defenders from the other team. Some goalies are really, really good also. What I think about when I play is mainly getting open for passes and communicating with everyone else on the team so that we all know who’s open and ready for when the defense gets the ball. What do you want to do differently this year? What have you been working on the most this off-season? This year, because we only have five new players, which is a lot smaller than what the years past have been, we’re definitely a really, really close team. That means we don’t have to spend as much time getting to know how everyone plays and learning how to work together as a team. We’re going to spend a lot more time just getting better and not being set back by that compared to the last [few] years. As far as training goes, in the school season we practice every weekday that we don’t have games for 2 hours. Out of season I play games every Sunday, train with the Olympic development program for 3 hours every Saturday, play tournaments for around 5 weekends in the spring and on weekdays I either practice with my club teams or do conditioning on my own. What are your personal goals for this season? In my freshman year I scored 12 goals, so this year I definitely want to score more than I did then and break my own record with that. I scored 11 goals sophomore year because I was playing more center-mid, so this year when I’m going to be doing all center-forward I just want to get 20 or something, and also I just want to help the team win as many games as possible. Are there any specific moments that you remember made you take field hockey more seriously? I played soccer since I was four, and I always thought I was going to keep playing soccer and keep playing club [soccer], but when I made varsity as a freshman, I really liked it a lot better than soccer, and definitely making the Futures team made me want to just quit soccer altogether so I could focus on field hockey. Do you have any pre-game rituals? Do you listen to any music before games? If so, what’s on the playlist?

Stats

Goals scored last year

Assists last year

Years on varsity so far

I know it’s dumb, but I’m just convinced that if I don’t eat the same thing I’m not going to play well, so every morning I have to have oatmeal and a banana and every lunch I have to have an avocado sandwich. I have to eat that and I don’t mess with that because if I don’t I’m just paranoid that I won’t play well. For music, usually our team has a playlist for the bus and that’s really fun. That’s like a nice bonding thing especially right before homecoming. It goes from ‘Baby’ by Justin Bieber to ‘Black Skinhead’ by Kanye West. It’s all over the map. What is the most memorable moment of your career? My most memorable Wolverines moment is definitely when we beat Glendora, one of the best two teams in the league at the time, at Homecoming last year. Throughout the last couple of years, they’ve been our rival, and they beat us in the preseason scrimmage, so we went into that game really freaking out. We didn’t want to lose at Homecoming in front of everybody. Then we scored within the first three minutes, and it was just the greatest thing ever, and we used that momentum to keep going, and the team just got really excited after that [they] were excited for the rest of the season. I scored in that game, I don’t remember how many times. But it was definitely special because it was Homecoming and you just get really competitive for that game. For all the 1v1 balls, I just remember every one of us would keep beating them because we had more will to win because they thought they were going to beat us really easily. CARINA MARX/ CHRONICLE