C HRONICLE the harvard-westlake
Los Angeles • Volume 23 • Issue 7 • March 19, 2014 • hwchronicle.com
Brown assembly to feature biographer By Jack Goldfisher
SAM SACHS/CHRONICLE
Game Face
EYES STILL ON THE PRIZE: Brian Ginsberg ’14 (#22) fields a ball in the varsity baseball team’s 1-0 win over Chatsworth March 11, as Jake Suddleson ’16 (#33) runs to backup. MaxPreps ranked the Wolverines the top team in the nation this past week.
2 students to receive Iberian, Latin-American Studies Fellowship for summer immersion
By Noa Yadidi
Two students will be awarded the new Iberian and Latin-American Studies Fellowship this spring for summer studies in the Spanishspeaking world, Head of School Jeanne Huybrechts announced in an email to students Monday. Similar to the Gunter Gross Asia Initiative, the Iberian and Latin American Studies Fellowship encourages students to “focus and extend what we already teach about the Spanish-speaking world in history, world languages, eco-
nomics, performing and visual arts classes and allow us to imagine new ways to engage with the world beyond the walls of the classroom,” the email reads. The fellowship is an additional Harvard-Westlake Global Education initiative that will be administered through the Kutler Center for Interdisciplinary Studies and Independent Research and will be awarded every year, Huybrechts said. The fellowship winners may receive up to $5,000 and rising sophomores, juniors and seniors are eligible to apply.
A fellowship proposal will describe a unique and immersive experience that will broaden and deepen the student’s understanding of Iberian and/or Latin American culture, history and society, and may or may not include travel, according to Huybrechts’ email. Additionally, those who wish to apply need not be enrolled in a Spanish class. The fellowship recipients are also expected to “create something that can be given back to the school,” Huybrechts said. This may entail contribut-
ing to the school’s new global education website that Huybrechts hopes to launch soon, presenting to a Spanish class or writing something for a school publication or website, Huybrechts said. The proposals, which are due to students’ deans April 18 and will only be identifiable by I.D. number, will be read and vetted by an anonymous selection committee. They should include a detailed statement of program, objectives, itinerary and budget. An anonymous donor is contributing the funds for the initiative, Huybrechts said.
July conference to promote extracurricular learning By Sarah Novicoff The theme for the second annual World Leading Schools Association Student Conference, hosted by HarvardWestlake this July, will be “Learning Outside the Curriculum.” The conference will be preceded by the World Youth Leadership Institute, a week-
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BELT IT: Aiyana White ’14 sings in a charity show organized by Jensen McRae ’15.
long program with leadership training for international students along with students from the Los Angeles area. “The idea is that all of us – whether you’re in a traditional Chinese school, a traditional U.S. school, an English school, an Australian school – we all have parts of school that are related to the academics, and
‘NEW DAY’: Students of Iranian-American descent observe Nowruz, the Persian New Year, with their families beginning this week.
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we also have parts of school that are outside the academics,” said Head of Summer Programs Jim Patterson, who visited China this month to promote the conference, said. “Those areas could be anything from athletics to arts, both visual and performing, clubs and activities, community service, ethics and char-
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OFF TO THE RACES: Monica Nimmagadda ’14 looks to help lead the girls’ track team to its thirdstraight Mission League title.
acter, all of these things that are certainly a part of school but not a part of the academic classroom. The theme of the conference is to talk about how those aspects of learning outside of the curriculum are similar and different across the world.” In the mornings of the • Continued on page A9
A. Scott Berg, a Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winning biographer whose writings on various subjects and personal life have made him capable of speaking on a wide array of topics, will be featured as this year’s Brown Family Speaker at an all-school assembly April 28. Berg, a graduate and former trustee of Princeton University, has chronicled the lives of presidents, celebrities and public figures during his 36-year career. Most recently, Berg, who is renowned for his extensive research, published “Wilson,” a New York Times bestselling autobiography of the United States’ 28th president Woodrow Wilson. He has also written about the lives of aviator Charles Lindbergh, editor Max Perkins and actress Katharine Hepburn. President Rick Commons worked with the Brown family to select Berg. Originally, they considered inviting Jason Collins ’97 to speak at the assembly, but after Collins signed a contract to play for the Brooklyn Nets for the remainder of the NBA season, they debated not having any Brown speaker this year, Commons said. However, Berg’s name came up in discussion and it seemed like a great fit, he said. “He has an immense ability to teach,” Commons said. “And beyond that, he can talk to Cinema Studies classes, history classes and even the GayStraight Alliance.” However, Berg’s schedule may not allow him the time to speak to all of these groups. Berg, who identifies as homosexual, has been a strong proponent of facilitating discussion about sexual orientation. He wrote the story of “Making Love,” a controversial 1982 film addressing the issues of gay relationships and coming out of the closet. “[Berg] has a great sense of humor. He’s obviously very erudite, but he’s also relatable,” Commons said.
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