August 2022 Issue

• Continued on A3

The school introduced a COVID-19 vaccine mandate in August 2021. The COVID-19 protocol document says all mem bers of the school community are expected to stay up to date on booster shots. The school plans to fully re open campus programs, athletics, performing arts, student travel and other activities without ca pacity limits, policies that follow LADPH guidelines.

By Davis CommunityMarksmembers cel ebrated the life and career of former Performing Arts and Interdisciplinary Studies and Independent Research Teacher Ted Walch at an event at the Upper School campus Sunday. Walch, who taught at the school for over three decades, retired in August after being diagnosed with brain cancer. The event, organized by pro ducer Marc Platt and the school, offered over 800 in-person at tendees and virtual viewers the opportunity to honor Walch with him present. The Today Show on NBC will also be producing a segment about Walch’s life and career and will feature footage from the event and testimonials fromHeadattendees.ofUpper School Beth Slattery said the purpose of the event was to celebrate Walch’s impact on the school community.

“This event really came out of the idea of what a blessing it would be for Walch to actually be there,” Slattery said. “I was in charge of his email because he could not type, and reading trib ute after tribute [people sent to Walch] showed he is emblematic of what good teaching can do. I love the idea of bringing all these people from different parts of his life, and [it is great for] him to be able to enjoy how much he means to thousands of people in his Upperlife.”

By Will Sherwood

publishedrecordsFinancial

Fellowship Recap: Julia Im ’23 and other fellows look back on their summer projects comis sioned by the school.

Senior Celebrations: With Ring Ceremony on the horizon, students past and present reflect on the chang ing traditions of the event.

• Continued on A2 Harvard-Westlake • Studio City • Volume 32 • Issue 1 • August 24, 2022 • hwchronicle.com INTHIS

suspendedPCRWeeklytests

Junior Jailbreak?: Junior Averie Perrin ’24 outlines her opinion on ju niors being allowed to leave campus during the day.

School hosts celebration of Ted Walch’s career after his retirement

• Continued on A4 D3C1B3A10

PRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF REB LIMERICK

By Chloe Park

School Dean Sha ron Cuseo said students admire Walch because of the confidence he inspires in them. “Walch is one of the most beloved and influential teach ers who [has] ever taught at the school,” Cuseo said. “He believed in every student he ever taught. To have a teacher that thinks you’re brilliant in whatever way you are brilliant is an incredible gift that will be missed.”

Associate Head of School Lau ra Ross said although COVID-19 is unpredictable, she thinks the new policies are appropriate for the current “Throughoutsituation.the past three years, we have tried to not set policies too far in advance be cause if the pandemic has taught us anything, it is that circum stances shift,” Ross said. “There could be a time when we need to reintroduce mandatory indoor masking, or there could be a time when, God forbid, we have to be remote again, but we cannot pre dict what will happen.”

While the losses resulting from the pandemic seem incal culable, the school’s tax returns for 2020-2021 tell a different story. In a year when its cam puses were closed and its com munity reeled from the effects of COVID-19, the school’s fi nancial performance broke all records, with net income surg ing 327%, according to its latest tax filing. Total assets, a measure of the school’s net worth, grew to $520.8 million, up 25.9%, driven by investments in the booming stock market and re cordFromfundraising.July2020 to June 2021, the school’s net income –– the profit of a not-for-profit organi zation –– totaled $39.3 million, according to the school’s Form 990, which is submitted annu ally to the IRS by organizations with tax-exempt status. It was the most profitable year in the school’s long history, exceeding its previous record of $31.8 mil lion in 2016, according to the returns visible on the internet. In 2021, total expenses dropped 2.4% to $5 million. While tuition increased 4% to $41,300 during the 2020-2021 year, the school reduced its pro gram expenses for its 1,624 stu dents by 4.4% to $64.9 million.

Waterpolo Warriors: This season, the boy’s varsity waterpolo team started prac ticing against college-level athletes to train.

Chief Financial Officer David Weil ’93 said because the school’s annual budget is planned ahead of time, many of the funds al located for canceled activities during the 2020-2021 school year and events were redirected, but the still lower than expected expenses left a larger net income than“Comenormal.May 2020, with just two months’ experience with online [schooling] and a rapid ly-changing COVID-19 land scape, school administrators and the Board of Trustees passed the 2020-21 budget and, conserva tively, assumed a regular school year replete with events, sports, travel, conferences and the like,” Weil said in an email. ISSUE

Nationally Noticed: Alex Lee ’24 won the Na tional Debate Champion ship and speaker award in Louisville, Kentucky. A4

The school announced revised COVID-19 health protocols in its “Return to School” document Aug. 8. Among the policies are compulsory self-testing before returning to campus, optional masking and mandatory vacci nation. Schoolwide PCR testing will no longer be required.

Attendees were welcomed into Taper Gymnasium at the start of the event to watch a program honoring Walch. In addition to pre-recorded videos, the program featured live speeches and per formances from President Rick Commons, actresses Allison Jan ney and Beanie Feldstein ’11, singer and actor Ben Platt ’11, journalists David Ignatius and Jacob Soboroff ’01, former Pres ident Tom Hudnut, members of Walch’s family and others. Fol lowing the program, attendees ate dinner from food trucks on Ted Slavin Field and socialized with each other and Walch. Hudnut hired Walch in 1991 to create a theater program for the school. Walch directed the school’s theatrical productions and built up the performing arts department while serving as the Performing Arts Department Chair. In recent years, Walch taught Cinema Studies, a course that teaches seniors how to deep ly examine and better understand film as an art form, and co-taught Philosophy in Art and Science with Mathematics Teacher Kev in Weis, which examined various philosophical principles through a collection of works. Since 2016, Walch hosted Cinema Sundays, a Kutler Center program in which he screened a variety of films and hosted discussions about them, often including guest lecturers.

WALCHFLIX IN ACTION: Former Performing Arts and Interdisciplinary Studies and Independent Research Teacher Ted Walch entertains the crowd at the 2019 edition of Westflix, the school’s film festival.

Ross also said the school’s policies align with Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (LADPH) guidelines. She said a lack of parent pushback makes her confident about the policy“Weadjustments.alwaysfollow LADPH protocols, and we do not know how those will shift, but for the moment, we are happy that the surge in Los Angeles seems to be declining,” Ross said. “When we sent out the protocols, we got al most zero responses, which lead me to believe that people think that we are taking the right ap proach and that people feel com fortable coming back.”

WalchcelebratesSchool

For the fifth consec utive year, faculty and staff salaries have risen at a higher rate than tuition, help ing the school to recruit and retain educators while also maintaining a tuition level below the median of local peer schools.The school’s fi nancial aid budget has also grown to nearly $14 million annually. Additionally, the school was able to provide weekly COVID-19 test ing, free of charge, to the entire stu dent, faculty and staff community.

Admission Office adds members

“The greatest thing about Walch is actually not that he's one of the best teachers that we've ever known — it's that his students mattered to him so much,” Com mons said. “You would think the legacy of someone who spends his life in schools is that he was the finest teacher anyone had ever en countered, but that is somewhere behind the way in which Walch affects students and colleagues as a mentor and friend.”

The school received a record $49.2 million during the 202122 school year in donations, de spite the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Annual Giving, the school's organized effort to raise funds on a yearly basis for the purpose of supporting the general operations of the school, alone reached a new record for raising over $9.77 mil lion, with 100% participation from faculty and staff for the 14th consecutive year and nearly 90% participation from parents. In a letter addressed to donors, Advancement Committee CoChairs Melanie Staggs ’85 (Cole ’16, Tyler ’18, Carter ’23) and Shirley Wong (Walter ’13, Chan talle ’17, Matthew ’18) said they are grateful for the school com munity's steadfast support.

Advancement Office reports record-high fundraising total for 2021-2022 school year

NEW FACES IN ADMISSION: Interim Director of Admission and Enrollment Greg Gonzalez steps into his new role in the Admission Office.

“The success of our Annual Giving program is a testament to the strength of our commu nity and the belief in HarvardWestlake's mission,” Staggs said. “Additionally, our incredible An nual Giving parent vol unteers and leadership team personally reach out to the entire parent body, building relation ships between our fami lies while sharing the importance of annual giving for the daily op erations of the school.”

Performing Arts Teacher Mark Hilt said Walch strengthened the school's art program and became a close friend. “It’s always wonderful to be able to celebrate the achieve ments of one of ours, whether student, faculty or staff; being able to do that while Walch can be with us is doubly satisfying,” Hilt said. “Even though [the school] had strong performing arts traditions before Walch’s ar rival, he solidified and amplified the importance of the arts in the curriculum of every student. He is a generation older than me and is actually like a brother in many ways. I have become a better teacher because of Walch’s influ ence these past 25 years.” Shanti Hinkin ’22 said Walch always supported her during her time at the school.

Director of Advancement Eli Goldsmith said among many factors that lead families to give to the school every year, the opportunity to contrib ute to the River Park project also played a key role during 202122 and will continue to be a driving force in the coming“Givenyears.the extraordi nary impact River Park will make [on] not only HarvardWestlake students, but also the local community and the envi ronment, many families jumped at the chance to be a part of it,” Goldsmith said. “Given that River Park continues to make positive progress with the City of Los An geles, there remains even greater enthusiasm to fully fund this trans formational project for the school.”

“Annual Giving is a part of a much larger team of people sup porting our children, which in cludes all the parents who have generously participated in annual giving and effectively led other parents to do so,” Kim said. “We give to provide our children with the optimal environment for learn ing. We give to open our children’s minds and transform their experi ences. We give to help our children discover new knowledge.”

Aug. 24, 2022A2 News The Chronicle • Continued from A1

DIALING FOR DONATIONS: A group of parent and alumni volunteers pose with President Rick Commons at the Spring Phonathon event at the Middle School in April. At the event, volunteers made phone calls to other parents and alumni encouraging them to make a gift to the school.

PRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF ELI GOLDSMITH

“ Walch has only ever encour aged me in my passions and given me and so many others a really loving and comforting support as we navigated some really transi tional points in our lives,” Hinkin said. “I hold him in such high es teem because of his vast experi ence in the arts and in teaching, so his praise means so much. He is such a charming and clever man that you can really feel like you are speaking with a longtime companion even when you have not known him for long.” Commons said Walch's legacy is rooted in his positive influence on people throughout his career.

By Grant Park

Junga Kim (Emory '18, Avery '25) who has been involved in An nual Giving since 2014, said she attributes much of the year’s suc cess to the community’s faith and commitment to helping every stu dent reach their potential.

DAVIS MARKS/CHRONICLE

By Davis Marks

Four new admission officers joined the school this year after a number of departures from the department over the summer. Among those officers are an in terim Head of Admission and En rollment, Assistant Director of Ad mission, Admission Administrator and two Admission Counselors. After Head of Admission and Enrollment Aaron Mieszczanski left the school, Director of Finan cial Aid Greg Gonzalez became the Interim Head of Admission and Enrollment. Gonzalez said he is temporarily stepping into the position because the school could not find a suitable candidate to permanently fill the role.

Gonzalez said he hopes to con nect with more schools across Los Angeles in order to foster a more inclusive community. “I am looking forward to con necting with the schools that send their students here,” Gon zalez said. “We want to expand our reach into all of Los Angeles, so I am really looking forward to connecting with people by either reintroducing [ourselves] and con tinuing a relationship we have al ready built or establishing a new relationship. We want to make our school as excellent as possible and live up to that mission state ment of diversity and inclusion.”

President Rick Commons said the school worked with the Ad mission Office over the summer and is confident in its ability to run the admission process. “We were sorry to see [Mieszc zanski] go, and when he made his decision, I think [Assistant Direc tor of Admission Megan Salmon] and [Admission Administrator Sara Vong] thought hard about whether it was a good point to transition to a different place in their careers,” Commons said. “We spent the summer focusing on the process, and we are very excited about the people who have come in. I think [Gonzalez] knows the system, and we would not have handed him the interim job if we did not think he was ca pable of handling it.” After the school received a re cord number of applications last year, Gonzalez said the Admis sion Office worked on making a smooth transition before the ad mission season begins. “Summer is a time for plan ning and for organization,” Gonzalez said. “There is a tre mendous infrastructure put in place, and Ms. Salmon and Ms. Vong left some incredible blue prints, but we also have many new people, and I look forward to these new people contributing their ideas and their expertise. I think [this year's admission sea son] will be a very effective and exciting blend of the best prac tices and new Newly-hiredideas.”Assistant Director of Admission Veronica Zapata said the Admission Office pro vided her with helpful training and support before stepping into her“Thisrole. will be my fourth ad mission season ever and my first at an independent 7-12 school,” Zapata said. “The training I have received has been helpful, and everyone has been supportive. There is definitely a learning curve, but I know I can ask my colleagues for help.”

white's GoldsmithEli

& LOSS: Tax

“I think we have been bless ed by a very sta ble leadership situation,” Commons said. “You go around the leadership team, and it is a group that is stable. There isn’t the turnover that many schools have experienced. Some of that is good luck, but some of it is that this is a great place to work and people want to be a part of it. I think that is reassuring to people when they’re not only sending their kids to school here but consider ing investing in the place.”

ILLUSTRATIONS BY ADDISON GAMRADT • Continued from A1 hwchronicle.com/news News A3Aug. 24, 2022

PROFIT Filings Show Record Results Despite Pandemic

In 2021, gifts, contributions and investment income drove a 28.6 percent increase in total revenues. The school took in a total of $125.8 million, breaking the previous record of $116.3 million in 2019. Gifts and contributions in 2021 increased 111% to $49.2 million, from $23.3 million in 2020. Head of Advancement Eli Goldsmith said that a number of factors make philanthropic sup port necessary for the school. “I think the case for sup port at Harvard-Westlake has never been greater,” Goldsmith said in an email. “Unlike many large universities that are fully endowed, Harvard-Westlake’s endowment only supports about 10% of operating expenses. This places a heavy burden on both Annual Giving and on tuition, which, I should add, remains below the median of our local peer schools. Harvard-West lake’s needs are significant and would not be met without the philanthropic support of our [school] community.”

In January, a Chronicle ar ticle on the school’s tax returns over the last 10 years showed that despite its not-for-profit status, the school generates mil lions of dollars every year in net income and has accumulated hundreds of millions of dollars of total assets, easily making it the wealthiest independent middle and high school in Cal ifornia. Indeed, over the last 11 years, the school has generated a total of $189.5 million in net income or Presidentprofit.Rick Commons said much of the credit for such financial growth should go to the Board of Trustees, who are responsible for overseeing the school’s investments. “A lot of [our success] is thoughtful investment on the part of the Board of Trustees and experts who have knowl edge that I don’t have with re gard to how to make sure that we make the right investments at the right times,” Commons said. “But we’re lucky to have a pretty talented Board of Trust ees, so I give them credit.” Commons also pointed to the experience and team work of the administration as major contributors to the school’s success.

In terms of staffing, the num ber of school employees dropped 7.8% to 652 — the lowest num ber in more than a decade. Also, the number of employees paid more than $100,000 dropped 13.5% to 90. The adminis tration is mind ful that this year’s declinesbecauseparisonbymayperformancefinancialsuffercomofin the stock market since January 2022 and the highest inflation in decades. Weil said although inflation could make life dif ficult for the community, the school has plans in place that are meant to help employees and their“Inflationfamilies.is our focal point given the potential that per sistent, high levels of inflation might have on the economy and, as a result, on our school com munity,” Weil said. “With the cost of living in Los Angeles al ready high relative to other cities, inflation reduces the likelihood of real wage growth and, if not addressed, could lead to a reex amination of priorities and some difficult choices. Harvard-West lake is very well prepared for the current environment, having grown our financial aid pro grams and accelerated employee compensa tion while remaining below the median tuition of LA high schools, but the eco nomic impacts of in flation are absolutely something to watch.”

Commons said although cur rent economic circumstances can be challenging, he has faith that the school will continue to thrive in years to “Harvard-Westlakecome.has such a tailwind of incredible stu dents, incredible teachers, a community that believes in the place and is willing to to back it in so many different ways, finan cial and otherwise, [so] I’m confident that we will weather whatever condi tions come.”

In 2021, the school’s total as sets grew to over half a billion dollars, driven mainly by invest ments in publicly traded and other securities, which increased 40.9% to $252.3 million. During this time, the school’s total endowment increased 30.8% to $201.8 million, also propelled by the performance of its investments.Weilsaidthat although much of the success seen in the Form 990 came from investment re turns, only a small percentage of the total endowment is available for “Ourspending.Finance Committee and Board of Trustees long-ago adopted a policy that limits our endowment draw to 4.5% of the average portfolio balance for the trailing 12 quarters. That disci pline is specifically designed to smooth out large ups and downs that would otherwise flow through to operations.”

“Fast forward a year, and many of the expenses we’d ex pect to incur for those types of activities were redeployed for significant, supplemental finan cial aid, PPE, COVID testing and measures to facilitate a re turn to campus, leaving a slight er greater operating surplus than we typically budget.”

Luke Madden ’24, one of Lee’s teammates, said he is proud of Lee’s accomplishment and thinks that the effort Lee puts into debate is shown through his success in competition.

Head Prefect Simon Lee ’23 said clubs able to impress Prefect Council with their Google Form proposals are likely to have their applications approved. “We’re trying our best to give as many groups as possible a chance to meet,” Lee said. “Pre fect Council tends to approve clubs that can demonstrate well thought out plans for the up coming year and can outline specific goals that they have in mind. Generally, we tend to give existing clubs priority, though that doesn’t mean that every re turning club will be approved and every new club disapproved.”

Elliot Lichtman ’23 said though he plans to continue with wearing masks indoors, he is not opposed to the new optional masking“Ultimately,policy. we have to start taking steps to end this at some point, and I am confident that if relaxed mask policies are lead ing to problems, then the school will be able to appropriately ad just,” Lichtman said. “Whenever a teacher or student requested that the people around them wear masks during the mask-optional times last year, everyone was ac commodating, so hopefully, in the cases that matter most, the com munity will continue to do its part to ensure that looser restrictions do not become a problem.” RossKendra’23

TALK NERDY TO ME: Alex Lee ’24 (left) poses for a picture with fellow debaters at the 2022 National Speech and Debate Tournament in Louisville, Kentucky. Lee and his teammates, under the name West LA Violents, beat out a large field en route to a national debate victory.

Lee said clubs that are not ap proved by Prefect Council may not meet on campus due to legal reasons outlined by the school, but they may gather elsewhere. “Unfortunately, due to legal liability issues with the school, denied clubs are not allowed to meet on their own terms on-campus,” Lee said. “Obvi ously, they can continue to meet off-campus and recruit at school, but the school’s insur ance policy means that non-approved groups cannot meet within schoolBearboundaries.”Boxes Club Leader Kendra Ross ’23 said if her club is ap proved, being forced to meet after school could be problematic due to other“Changingcommitments.meeting times to after school may con flict with schedules and extra curriculars,” Ross said. “Club members who may really want to participate wouldn’t be able to because of their after-school plans or homework load. I pre fer club meetings during school. That way everyone can partici pate and contribute.”

In accordance with LADPH guidelines, those who test positive must isolate for a minimum of five days and can return to campus if they test neg ative, are fever-free for 24 hours and have mild or no symptoms. Those who return to campus be tween days six and ten after the positive test must wear a mask through day 11.

Junior receives first-place recognition competing at National Speech and Debate Tournament Prefects explain revised clubs policies

COVIDprotocolsadjusted

Aug. 24, 2022A4 News The Chronicle ILLUSTRATION BY TATE SHEEHY L.Wood

In previous years, students interested in joining clubs at tended the Activities Fair, a platform for club leaders to intro duce their groups to students. Sophomore Prefect Daisy Pritzker ’25 said the Activities Fair will remain in a similar format to how it had been before. “Clubs will be ap proved before the Ac tivities Fair, and only approved clubs will be allowed to run a booth,” Pritzker said. “Other than a potentially lower number of participating clubs, the Activities Fair will not be af fected by the new policies.”

President Rick Commons said he believes the school community will continue to stay safe even with the relaxed COVID-19 policies.

“I am extremely happy about [Lee’s] victory in nationals and am proud about how well he represented [the school],” Mad den said. “His hard work and dedication clearly show through in his excellent teamwork, ar gumentative ability and knowl edge of philosophy, geopolitics, history and the World Schools debate style. I know how much effort he put in with his team to achieve that win and look forward to seeing what the de bate season looks like in the coming1,500months.”schools participated in the tournament, which be gan June 12 and ended June 17 at the Kentucky Exposition Center. This year’s tournament was the largest in the National Speech and Debate Association (NSDA) history with over 8,500 students participating across the three divisions covered. Live postings, final rounds and award ceremonies were streamed on line to additional viewers. Lee said competing in the debate was extremely rewarding and he enjoyed getting to bond with his team during the trip. “Winning Nationals felt like a culmination of my near decade-long involvement in de bate,” Lee said. “[Nationals] is the biggest tournament of the year, and the top debaters from all over the world attend. Trav eling to Kentucky with some of my best friends after what was nearly a year of intense training, preparation, practice tourna ments and coaching felt inher ently worthwhile regardless of the outcome.”

PRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF ALEX LEE

“We believe that people are go ing to be responsible for self-mon itoring, communicating with the community health office and keeping the community healthy,” Commons said. “[The school’s] two priorities are keeping every one safe and having school in person as normally as we can.” The school also included a Community Health Honor Code in the document, which says members of the school communi ty are expected to protect them selves and others by monitoring for symptoms, testing and choos ing to wear a mask when indoors. Contact tracing and notifica tion of close contacts will occur in the event of a positive case, according to the COVID-19 guidelines.

Debate Teacher and Speech Coach Sarina Wang said the ef fort Lee put into refining his de bate skills allowed him to qualify for and win nationals. “Speech and debate is an ac tivity that rewards hard work, and I definitely saw that with [Lee],” Wang said. “Prior to na tionals, he was constantly prac ticing with his team and striving to improve. It was extremely im pressive to watch his final round in an auditorium filled with hundreds of spectators. It is dif ficult to even qualify for nation als, let alone beat out hundreds of the best debaters in the coun try to be national champion. It is no surprise that [Lee] did so well because of all the work he put into the team.”

By Tate PrefectSheehyCouncil announced they will accept fewer club appli cations this year in an email Aug. 15. The email cited the school’s changing schedule, which in cludes a shortened break period, as a reason for restricting the number of clubs. Prefect Council also said teachers have raised issues with students using their classrooms during lunch periods, as it in terferes with test retakes and meetings. As a result, approved groups may have to find time to gather outside of the usual lunch and break periods.

By Davis Marks and Chloe Park Alex Lee ’24 won the Nation al Debate Championship and a speaker award at the National Speech and Debate Tournament in Louisville, Kentucky on June 18. Lee’s team won the World Schools Debate division, a three versus three style of debate that is used internationally. Lee said debate has always been personally significant to him because he found a sense of belonging in the community as an “Whenimmigrant.I first immigrated with my mom to America, the debate community was my sec ond, and in some ways, my first home,” Lee said. “It took me in under its wings, and the people I have met in this activity have become my closest friends, per sonal role models, father figures and family. Of course, I love de bate for its educational nature, the intellectual vitality it fosters and the strategically competi tive argumentation, but when it comes to my passion for debate, it stems from that background.”

• Continued from A1

“For years, there’s been Black producers or Black songwriters who are not main stream but provide songs and help with the productions of songs,” Thompson said. “So [Morales] started this organi zation called the Black Music Collective [and] began giving those Black artists and creatorsThompsonrecognition.”saidshe is currently finish ing her interviews and working on her final product, which includes a documen tary and an original song.

Thompson in terviewed Atlantic Records Vice President Riggs Morales, hip-hop star DJ Khaled and strangers in New York for her Junior SummerThompsonFellowship.saidshe chose to apply to the fellowship program for the opportuni ty to fully explore her own interests.

Learning About the Black Community’s Impact on Music

PRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF DAHLIA DELGADILLO

By Max DahliaTuretskyDelgadillo ’23 studied the lack of healthcare resources in Churcampa, Peru and its impact on local residents during her Junior Fellowship project over theShesummer.saidshe interviewed medical staff, personally helped treat patients and doc umented her findings through film to better understand and attempt to address the situation in Peru. Delgadillo said she used most of the $4,000 allotted to her by the Fellowship program to donate medical equipment to the town. She said despite having a population of roughly 44,000 people, the town’s clinic had just nine hospital beds and lacked other essential supplies; 80% of Churcampa residents had never had a colonoscopy or a cholesterol test, which deeply concerned her. She said she has a personal connection to Churcampa and the struggles the com munity faces because her grandfather, who lived in the town, died of appendi citis on his way to the closest hospital, which was over two hours away. She said her passion for medicine stemmed from this“Asconnection.Igrewolder, I became really inter ested in medicine, and I realized that the problem is, ‘Why is the nearest hospital two hours, three hours away?’” Delgadil lo said. “I asked my dad [what else my grandfather could have done], and the answer was just [go to] a small clinic that has little to no medical materials. ” Delgadillo said one of her main goals for her Junior Fellowship project was to record information and personal ac counts from the town so she could show the school the conditions faced by the people in “HearingChurcampa.[aboutthe townspeople’s] stories was really impactful, and I am really excited to share them with Har vard-Westlake,” Delgadillo said.

By Connor Tang Jessica Thompson ’23 visited New York to learn about the Black community’s im pact on the music industry.

“The inaccurate and ugly rhetoric of the previous administration had a pro found and negative impact on me as an 11-year-old,” Lombard said. “My moti vation for making this documentary is to help reframe the narrative of immigration and asylum in this country by telling a per sonal story of a family’s journey.”

hwchronicle.com/news News A5Aug. 24, 2022

“Sharing a documentary about this re gion seems like a good way to help us un derstand an area that is really in our back yard,” Patterson said. Lombard said he was first drawn to the topic of immigration in middle school, when the Trump administration passed anti-immigration policies and campaigned to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.

Fellowship Features

“My end project is called ‘What They Forgot,’ and I am turning it into a com pilation of all the interviews, sort of a documentary-type thing,” Thompson said. “[The project] is called ‘What They Forgot’ because it discusses how in today’s music industry, we fail to recognize the Black artists and individuals who got [the music industry] to where it is now.” Thompson said her fellowship experi ence helped her discover a possible career path and consider her own identity as a Black woman.

“I [have] been interested in doing re search about the music and entertainment industry because that is the field I want to work in when I am older,” Thompson said. “The basis of my project is basically the Black community’s effect on the music industry.”Thompson said her interview with Mo rales was memorable because of his kind nature and the way he addressed the issue of Black misrepresentation.

Researching the Lack of Healthcare Resources in Peru Documenting the Immigration of a Mexican Family to the US Exploring the Indian Culture of Owning Motels in America

The Summer Junior Fellowship program provided seven juniors with a grant of $4,000 to fund an independent project based on the topic of interest they applied with.

PRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF IZZY DAUM

A WARM WELCOME: Izzy Daum ’23 and her family met up with relative Arachna Patel, owner of Super 8 Motel, in Tampa, Florida as she researched Indian motel ownership.

hwChroniCle.Com

By Zoe AlejandroGoorLombard ’23 created a doc umentary about immigrant families at the U.S.-Mexico border for his Junior Sum mer Fellowship project, “Seeking Asylum.” Lombard visited the U.S.-Mexico bor der with the organizations This is About Humanity, Tijuana Sin Hambre, Interna tional Community Foundation and Mov imiento Juventud. He documented border shelters, interviewed families and recorded theirLombardstories. said he was inspired to make his film after traveling to the border a few years ago and staying in a shelter with fam ilies seeking asylum.

CheCk out the other junior fellowships on our website: Hannah Messaye ’23 studied the Ethio pian diaspora in London and Rome this summer. Her project “Out the Cradle of Civilization” was about Ethiopian peo ple in communities outside the U.S. Julia Im ’23 travelled back and forth be tween Korea and the U.S. for her proj ect focused on the illness Hwabyeong inKorean women which stems from cul ture-bound anger.

By Justin Tang Izzy Daum ’23 researched motel owner ship by Indian Americans with a focus on Indian women. For her project, Daum interviewed family members about their experiences running motels, with a focus on the im portance of women in the motel industry, and stayed at their motels in St. Petersburg, Florida and Nashville, Tennessee. Many of Daum’s family members and other Indian motel owners who immigrated from the Gujarat state of India share the common surname Patel and are referred to as the “Patel Motel Cartel” in America. Daum said she felt inspired to learn about how her relatives immigrated to America after hearing her grandmother’s story of purchasing a motel with the little money she had. “My grandma’s story inspired me to talk to other relatives I have because there are so many Patels in my family who run these motels,” Daum said. “I specifically focused on the women who run the mo tels because in my family, my grandma ran the motel [while] my grandfather worked as aDaumprofessor.”said she was interested in the passion behind her relatives’ choices but initially struggled to share their stories. Instead of focusing on how her relatives came to America, Daum chose to focus on the primary reason why her relatives im migrated, which was to give their children a better“Afterlife.afew interviews, I realized I was not sharing their true experience,” Daum said. “There was no way for me to actu ally show through this documentary how much they went through. Most of these women [chose to manage motels] for their children. You could really see in the way they talked how much they cared about their children and how much they were re ally willing to do for them, even if it meant not being able to do what they wanted.”

“Initially, I was pretty distressed and sad when I saw the tents that [the immi grants] are living in, but as I spent more time with young mothers and children, I realized that they have such strength, perseverance and hope,” Lombard said. “That’s something that I wanted to capture in this Directordocumentary.”ofKutler Center and Summer School Programs Jim Patterson, who helps develop various programs outside the tra ditional liberal arts core, said Lombard’s fellowship project stood out because of its geographical relevance.

HELPING OUT WITH HEALTHCARE: Dahlia Delgadillo ’23 helps treat patients who lack adequate access to healthcare resources and other supplies in Churcampa, Peru.

“I would say my teaching style is hands-on, but not so hands-on that students have no freedom to branch off from the template,” Montgomery said. He said he plans to improve school publications’ use of mul timedia and increase coverage in The Chronicle. Additionally, he said he encourages all journalists to learn graphic design, writing and“Iphotography.amexcited to leverage my experience to help The Chron icle reach its potential,” Mont gomery said. “It is hard improve upon something so stellar, but I am sure we will find a way.”

PRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF JULEE MADKINS

Julee Madkins joined the Up per School this year as the Direc tor of the Learning Center. Previously, Madkins served as the Director of Learning at New Roads School in Santa Monica, CA. In total, she has spent 10 years of her career as a learning specialist at independent schools in both Los Angeles and New York City, and she said she hopes her experience can help both stu dents and faculty.

TeacherJuleeMadkins: Director of the Learning Center BY RAISA EFFRESS

PRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF JILL TURNER

By Nathan Wang

By Alex Lee Billy Montgomery joined the Upper School as a Communica tions Teacher and an advisor for The Chronicle, Big Red Magazine and Panorama Magazine this year. Montgomery received a bach elor’s degree in Speech Com munication from Chicago State University and a master’s degree in Journalism from Roosevelt University in Chicago. Before coming to the school, Montgomery taught journalism and served as a media advisor at Roosevelt University and Colum bia College Chicago for 13 years. He then worked as a law clerk and a general assignment reporter at the Daily MontgomerySouthtown.saidhe views journalism as a way to inspire young people to speak up for what they believe in. “My goal is to allow young people to use [journalism] to ad dress the issues that impact their lives,” Montgomery said. “There is a moment where you see a lightbulb go off in someone’s mind, when they realize that their voice is one worth being heard. I love that moment. That’s why I Montgomeryteach.” said journalism can reveal perspectives readers may not have previously consid ered and amplify the voices of those who are not heard.

“Diversity of viewpoint is es sential in any news report,” Mont gomery said. “People should read articles that do more than just re peating the same angle. Journal ism is a tool for Montgomerychange.”saidhe uses a curriculum that both guides stu dents and gives them the space they need to grow.

Jill Turner: English

ILLUSTRATION

By Georgia Grad Jill Turner returned to the Up per School English Department this year to teach English II and Honors English III: American Studies after taking a 10-year break from teaching at the school. Before she began her six years teaching at the school in 2006, Turner previously taught at Idyllwild Arts Academy in River side, CA and Anhui University in Hefei,AfterChina.taking a break from working, Turner said she missed the classroom and got a job at Oakwood School as an English teacher in 2020, where she taught for two Turneryears.received a bachelor’s degree in English Literature from the College of William and Mary. She also earned a master’s degree in English Literature from Penn State University and a master’s degree in Communications Man agement from the University of Southern California. Turner said she discovered her love for teaching when she was offered to assistant teach her own class at Penn State. “I thought I would want to continue on the long path to get ting a doctorate and becoming a professor, doing research, getting published and teaching some,” Turner said. “But this first teach ing opportunity made me realize that it was the classroom piece of the puzzle that I really wanted.” She said her time at Idyllwild Arts Academy allowed her to discover what it means to be a great teacher and how she could become“Idyllwildone. Arts Academy made me the kind of teacher I hope to always be, one who cares an aw ful lot about the books I teach, but also about the kids I teach,” TurnerTurnersaid.said she is thankful for the opportunity to teach at the school again and looks forward to interacting with the students and“Ifaculty.remember simply feeling comfortable with and impressed by the teachers and the students at this school,” Turner said. “That feeling has actually nev er gone away for me. Coming back to [the school] feels like a true homecoming, and I am so grateful that I was hired here a second time.”

“I began my career as a classroom teacher and worked with neurodiverse students in a self-contained classroom,” Mad kins said. “That experience will help me tremendously since I will support both students and facul ty in my new role as the Director of the Learning Center.” Madkins said she decided to become an educator after seeing the positive impact good teachers can have on students. “It is such a game changer for young people when they feel seen and heard by the adults at school,” Madkins said. “I knew that I wanted to be a differ ence-maker for students the way others had been for my own chil dren and extended family.” Madkins said she is excited to join a community that is full of avid learners and work alongside her new colleagues. “It is inspiring to be with teen agers, and it keeps me young and excited to do this work,” Madkins said. “I also love my Learning Center team, [Assistant Director of the Learning Center Ramon Visaiz] and [Assistant Learning Resource Specialist] Jenna Gas parino and look forward to work ing with Madkinsthem.”said she strives to serve as a ‘warm defender’ for students, described by author Zaretta Hammond in her book “Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain,” and is deeply in vested in her students’ well being. “I want my students to know that I have so much personal af fection for them, and also that I have an unshakable belief in what they can achieve,” Madkins said. Outside of work, Madkins said she enjoys exploring the greater LA area, spending time with her husband and their three kids, traveling, reading and going to her favorite beaches.

PRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF BILLY MONTGOMERY A6 News The Chronicle Aug. 24

Billy Montgomery: Communications Teacher

Latin Teacher Brad Holmes said he is eager for Schuhl to join the“Schuhlfaculty. brings many years of experience teaching Latin and also other subjects,” Holmes said. “He is a gifted educator and a true global citizen who will be a huge asset to the World Language Department and the school. ”

By Jayan Kandavel Max Baril ’06 returned to the school this year to serve as a parttime Cinema Studies teacher. Baril received a bachelor’s de gree in Film Critical Studies from the University of Southern Cali fornia as well as a master’s degree in Cinema Studies from New YorkBarilUniversity.worked in film finance for three years and then taught middle school English at KIPP Philosophers Academy in South Los Angeles. Baril has also guest lectured in the school’s Cinema Studies class and co-hosted a pod cast “Classic Movie Musts” with former Interdisciplinary Studies teacher Ted Walch. Additional ly, Baril has appeared as a guest panelist in the Cinema Sunday program hosted by Walch. Baril said he has always been interested in film and movies. “By the time I was a student, I was sure that I wanted to attend film school,” Baril said. “It wasn’t until a few years after I finished film school, however, that I real ized my true passion was teaching filmBarilhistory.”said he wants to make learning about film an interactive experience for students.

PRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF ERIK DEANGELIS

By Hannah Shahidi Erik DeAngelis joined the Upper School as a dean this year. He will replace outgoing dean JenniferDeAngelisCardillo.worked as an Ad missions Officer at the Universi ty of Rhode Island from 2004 to 2006, where he earned a bache lor’s degree in Biological Sciences and a master’s degree in Human Development and Family Studies with a concentration in College Student Personnel. He then worked as an Assis tant Director of Undergraduate Admission at Salve Regina Uni versity in Rhode Island from 2006 to 2010. In his most re cent role, DeAngelis served as the Senior Associate Director of Admission at Brown Universi ty from 2010 to 2022. In total, DeAngelis has over 18 years of experience in college admission andDeAngeliscounseling.said he looks for ward to working with high school students as they navigate the col lege application process.

Sun said her teaching style prioritizes relating to content as a way to help students connect their education more deeply to the real world. “I go by the phrase ‘Experience first, formalize later,’” Sun said. “Language learners are capable of appreciating the target language in a variety of its authentic forms, from modern poetry to a meme created by [internet users]. Edu cation is a practice of freedom by which we deal both critically and creatively with reality and discov er how to participate in the trans formation of our world.” In her free time, Sun said she enjoys participating in a wide va riety of activities. “I have a wide range of hob bies including practicing Chi nese martial arts, playing guitar, learning languages, playing video games, foraging, hiking and go ing on walks with my dog Bella.”

Washburn said she is excited to join the community, meet stu dents and faculty and forge long lasting“Lotsrelationships.ofpeoplehave told me that [the school] is the best place they have ever worked,” Wash burn said. “I love seeing the loy alty and longevity many families have here, and it is a good sign that people can stay so connected over so many years. So far, every one has really made me feel like a part of the family.”

By Max Turetzky Marc Schuhl joined the Up per School World Languages Department as a Latin teacher to teach Latin III and Latin IV, af ter teaching at Brentwood School since 2007. In addition to teaching at Brentwood, Schuhl taught at Trinity-Pawling School in Pawl ing, New York, and served as a teacher and dean at Pace Acade my in SchuhlAtlanta.was raised in Pennsyl vania, where he said his teachers inspired him to become a Latin teacher“Whenhimself.Iwas a kid, the only college graduates I knew were my teachers, and they became models for me,” Schuhl said. “Ac ademic learning opened up a lot of real-world possibilities for me. Latin might seem like a strange subject choice, but it was simply a mandatory curricular require ment at my high school and af ter a year or two I realized that I liked it and could potentially get really good at it if I pursued a ca reer in Schuhlit.” graduated from Ford ham University with a bachelor’s degree in classical languages and anthropology, and later earned a master’s degree in classical studies at Duke University.

Li

“My entire career has been in the college admission world, so I’m excited to [start working on] what we call the other side of the desk to work more directly with students in a counseling and ad vising capacity,” DeAngelis said. “I’m looking forward to every day being a different adventure. I’m also excited about getting to know different types of schools because I’ve been accustomed to [the same] school for 12 years.” DeAngelis said he looks for ward to becoming a resource for students in his role as a dean. “I’m excited to help [students] make the best choices for them selves, to help them combat any problems or challenges that they might be having,” DeAngelis said. “But most importantly, to help them gain clarity.” Outside of work, DeAngelis said he enjoys spending time with his partner and pets. He said he is happy to move to Los Angeles and experience a new lifestyle. “We love trying out new foods [and] new restaurants and cui sines,” DeAngelis said. “I also personally love driving, which I guess is good for LA residents because you do a lot of it. I love coming up on places that not a lot of people see, kind of making your own adventure.”

Sabrina Washburn: Performing Arts Teacher

PRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF LI SUN

PRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF MAX BARIL

Erik DeAngelis: Upper School Dean Sun: Chinese Teacher

“The students in my class that day were wonderful, but what was most impressive was actu ally how [the students] interact ed with each other out on that covered patio by Seaver,” Schuhl said. “When you were not re quired to perform for adults, it was still a great mix of academic and social energy.”

“There are three things that I am most excited about coming to [the school],” Sun said. “First, I’m excited to focus my teaching energy on one subject, Chinese Mandarin. Second, I am eager to work with [the school’s] language learners, and third, I can’t wait to get to know my coworkers.”

“I want to facilitate a learn ing environment that fosters di alogue, where students are able to come to their own conclusions and find their own voice when it comes to analyzing film or any art form,” Baril said. “In my past experiences guest teaching here at [the school], I’m always blown away by the intellectual curiosity and enthusiastic engagement the students possess.”

“The first time I considered doing [theater] as a career was in my mid-20s when I was doing a theater education tour in Italy, using theater to teach English speaking skills to children of all ages,” Washburn said. “I thought it was going to be a temporary gig between acting jobs, but I never really turned back.” In her teaching, Washburn said she prioritizes developing relationships and collaborating with students. “I set up my classes by getting to know my students and work ing with who they are and what they bring to the table,” Wash burn said. “I enjoy letting out my own goofy, flawed self in front of students to help them feel more comfortable with taking risks and being vulnerable on stage, some thing very important to theater.”

PRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF SABRINA WASHBURN

Overall, Baril said he is thrilled to rejoin the school communi ty and interact with the student body again, this time as a teacher. “[Rejoining the school] is sur real,” Baril said. “I took Cinema Studies classes when I was a ju nior and senior, and [the classes] were transformative for me. To be back in Ahmanson Lecture Hall after all these years gives me a strange sense of time passing and staying still. The school has both changed a lot since I graduated, but it also seems the same in so many ways.”

By Olivia So Li Sun joined the Upper School World Languages De partment this year to teach Chi nese II, Chinese III and Honors Chinese III. From 2012 to 2022, Sun taught English for Speakers of Other Languages, Mandarin, AP Statistics and Conceptual Physics at Pilgrim School in Los Angeles, where she also served as an advisor. Sun received a bachelor’s de gree in Chinese Language and Literature from Beijing Foreign Studies University and later earned a master’s degree in Ed ucational Linguistics at the Uni versity of Pennsylvania. Sun said she realized her pas sion for teaching while working as an assistant instructor in a Mandarin class.

Max Baril: Cinema Studies Teacher

Schuhl said his teaching phi losophy is based on his belief that students should drive and shape their own “Teachingeducation.never seemed like a burden since I have always liked the learning process itself,” Schuhl said. “My guiding ques tion as I plan units and lessons is, ‘How can I shape this experience so students are producing their education rather than consuming theirSchuhleducation?’”saida key factor in his decision to join the school was his positive impression of the student body after teaching a demonstration class in March.

Marc Schuhl: Latin Teacher

PRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF MARC SCHUHL News A7hwchronicle.com/news24, 2022

“My first experience in teach ing Mandarin as an assistant teacher led me to see how work ing with learners is a humbling and empowering experience,” SunSunsaid.said she is excited to hone in on teaching Mandarin and in teract with students and faculty.

By William Liu Sabrina Washburn joined the Upper School Performing Arts department as the Director of Theater this year. She will teach The Actor and the Stage I and II and direct the musical. Washburn received a bach elor’s degree in Theater from Emerson College in Boston and a master’s degree in Educa tional Theater from New York UniversityWashburn(NYU).founded and served as the director of the theater pro gram at Grace Church school in New York from 2012 to 2022. Washburn also worked as an ad junct professor in the performing arts department at NYU and as a teacher at The American School in Switzerland.Washburn said she has re ceived many hours of profes sional development training from renowned playwrights, actors, vocalists and movement special ists and has always been passion ate about teaching theater.

Aug. 24, 2022A8 News The ChronicleChronicle staff members created the inaugural edition of the HWord Search for this issue. Watch out! Some words are backwards.HWord Search

On the first day of school, Aug. 24, the school gathered togeth er on Ted Slavin field to welcome in the challenges, successes and failures sure to accompany the new year. Convocation represents one of the few times throughout the year that students, faculty and staff will come together to hear speeches from distinguished members of the school community. Another, more overlooked time this happens is at the all-school assemblies during commu nity flex time. Each year, the school invites a set of recognized people –– actors, academics and artists alike –– to speak to the entire school about their respective topic of expertise. These events are important to our community because the topics about which our speakers lecture are the ones we most often hear discussed around our dinner table, in the national media and on the Quad in the days following. In its chosen speaker series, then, the school has the unique opportunity to use its reputation to inform our community –– and especially us students –– on some of the most pressing issues of our time.

UPDATES CORRECTIONS:ANDThoughwealwaysstrive to be as accurate as possible, staff members identify inaccuracies and receive feedback from readers.The Chronicle publishes corrections when we discover a factual error within a piece. We will continue to uphold transpar ency even in the face of mistakes following the publication of each issue.

Over the last few years, however, our Community Flex times have failed to meet this goal. The school has certainly consid ered some of the world’s most weighty issues— military service, social media in the digital age and mental health in adolescents, to name but a few examples— but they have sometimes chosen people whose presentations have proven uninsightful. To discuss the pertinent conflict of geopolitical relations between Israel and Palestine, for example, the school invited an actress-activist whose 50-minute presentation included multiple technical errors and plenty of uncontextualized information. This choice of selecting famous figures over those who may be perceived as more tedious but who are actually the most informed represents a poor instinct. In appealing to traits the students would ostensibly appreciate –– celebrity status and social media followings –– the school actually sacrifices the potential for sub stantive content from speakers. Our school is fortunate enough to have some of the smartest, most talented students and faculty in the nation, and we owe it to ourselves to use our endowed lecture series in the way that contributes most to our mission statement. That is, we must invite whoever most closely aligns with our core values and trust that our community will handle their lecture with maturity and courage. For a guide to choosing our speakers, we should look no further than the recently established Kutler Center Scholar in Residence program, which every year hosts an expert to speak to individual departmental classes on their selected topic. Past Kutler Cen ter Scholars have included Kimberly West-Faulcon, a professor of constitutional law at Loyola Marymount University; Juliette Kayyem ’87, a member of the Department of Homeland Securi ty in the Obama administration; and Daniel Holt, a pianist and composer. These figures each represent excellence in a variety of academic and practical fields, and they are the kinds of people and minds the school should invite to lecture in front of the entire studentFurther,body.we should alter our current system, in which students learn about the speaker a week or so before the event, and al low the school community to have a say in the people they hear speak; it does not have to be purely democratic, but allowing us to at least be considered in a survey prevents disconnect between the administration and student body. Taking these measures will hopefully ensure that our Community Flex times, annual speaker series and the conversations that accompany them are as engaging, numerous and fruitful as possible.

OpinionTheChronicle•Aug.24,2022Studio City • Vol. 32 • Issue 1 • Aug. 24, 2022 • hwchronicle.com Editors-in-Chief: Natalie Cosgrove, Will Sherwood Print Managing Editors: Lucas Cohen-d'Arbeloff, Claire Conner, Daphne Davies, Charlie Seymour Presentation Managing Editors: Fallon Dern, Allegra Drago, Jina Jeon, Leo Saperstein Digital Managing Editors: Alex Hahn, Lily Lee Executive Editors: James Hess, Emmy Zhang News Editor: Natasha Speiss Assistant News Editors: Davis Marks, Chloe Park, Grant Park, Tate Sheehy Opinion Editor: Georgia Goldberg Assistant Opinion Editors: Grace Coleman, Jackson Tanner Features Editor: Harry Tarses Assistant Features Editors: Dylan Graff, Iona Lee, Averie Perrin, Ella Yadegar A&E Editors: Becca Berlin, Vasilia Yordanova Assistant A&E Editors: Kriste An, Abigail Hailu Sports Editors: Jaden Bobb, Paul Kurgan Assistant Sports Editors: Jackson Mayer, Christopher Mo Satire Editor: Georgia Goldberg Multimedia Editor: Danny Johnson Business Manager: Andrew Park Art Director: Sophia Evans Photography Editor: Raisa Effress Executive Broadcast Producer: Jake Lancer Assistant Broadcast Producers: Rohan Amin, Alexa Benitez, Hunter Bridgett, Eric Chang, Hudson Chen, William Coleman, Jack Limor, Aaron Milburn Freelance Writer: Carter Staggs Layout Assistants and Staff Writers: Sasha Aghnatios, Hailey Cho, Karsten Cole, Eden Conner, Alden Detmer, Alexander Dinh, MacAr thur Galavitz, Samuel Glassman, Zoe Goor, Georgia Grad, Justine Gustman, Sabrina Hamideh, Jayan Kandavel, Crista Kim, Katelyn Kim, Saisha Kumar, Everett Lakey, Alex Lee, MeJo Liao, William Liu, Daniel Mittleman, Olivia Phillips, Madeline Pimstone, Fiona Ryan, Sara Segil, Hannah Shahidi, Olivia So, Connor Tang, Justin Tang, Ari elle Trakhtenberg, Max Turetzky, Mason Walline, Nathan Wang, Tiffany Wang, Amber Zhang Advisors: Billy Montgomery, Max Tash Layout Assistant: Jen Bladen Publication Information: Founded in 1990, The Chronicle is the Harvard-Westlake Upper School’s student-led newspaper. Now in its 32nd year, The Chroni cle strives to report stories accurately and to uphold its legacy of jour nalistic integrity. The newspaper is published eight times per year and distributed to students, parents, fac ulty and staff. The paper is affiliated with two school magazines, Big Red and Panorama. We are members of the California Newspaper Pub lishers Association and the Private School Journalism Association. editorial

about us EDITORIALS:Unsignededitorials represent the majority opinion of staffers and are written by the Editorial Board, which is composed of the Editors-in-Chief, Managing Editors and Section Editors.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR:Lettersmay 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 to conform to Chronicle style, space and format. We are committed to uplifting the voices of marginalized or underrepresented individuals and groups in accordance with our efforts to promote diversity, equity and inclusion.

Chronicle'sadvertisementsinADVERTISING:Lookingtoplaceanadvertisementourpaper?QuestionspertainingtomaybedirectedtoTheBusinessManagerAndrew Park at apark5@hwemail.com. Publication of an advertisement does not imply endorsement of the product or service by the newspaper or school.

DIVERSITY, EQUITY AND INCLUSION:TheChroniclestrives to be a diverse and inclusive community that welcomes all who wish to contribute. Our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion committee works to ensure that every member of the Harvard-Westlake community is recognized, included and given a voice.The Chronicle's publications will aim to represent this diverse community and provide a variety of perspectives on the topics that they cover.

---MEMBERSHIPS:ColumbiaScholasticPressAssociationNationalScholasticPressAssociationQuillandScrollHonorSociety

--AWARDS:PUBLICATIONNSPAPacemakerWinnerCSPAGoldCrownWinner

Improving Our Speaker Series ILLUSTRATION BY RAISA EFFRESS

We should lead the charge in making voting accessible. BY SOPHIA EVANS

By Lucas Cohen-d'Arbeloff

If you have ever happened to walk past Munger Science Center around 10:55 a.m. on a school day, you might have had to shuffle through crowds of seniors rushing to their cars to leave campus for lunch period. If you were not so lucky to join in on the trip off-campus, you might have observed or experienced the long lines to purchase food in any of the three cafeterias, where hungry sophomores and juniors wait impatiently to grab chicken tenders or prepared salads before food runs out. You might have also watched as students cut the line with their friends, hurrying to grab the Chinese chicken salad they hid earlier behind juices and cold drinks before anyone could findTheit. daily lunch lines are so long, in fact, that lunch is signifi cantly delayed for students whose classes run slightly late and those who have to travel from FeldmanHorn or Munger.While sopho mores still try to navigate through campus, juniors already familiar with the Upper School find the cafeteria lines during lunch especially inconvenient because of their busy schedules and inability to leave campus. To minimize the lunch lines, juniors should be able to leave campus for lunch like seniors. Both juniors and seniors are up perclassmen who are able to drive and have the responsibility to use off-campus privileges wisely. There is a reason why teachers trust that juniors will be able to balance one of the most demanding high school workloads in America, and for that same reason, the school should trust juniors to respect its rules. Shorts trips off campus would also provide brief changes of scenery to counteract some of the stress students face during their junior year and allow them to escape the high-pressure school environment. Shortened lunch lines would benefit juniors and seniors who would prefer to stay on campus for convenience. Being able to spend free time relaxing or working would significantly improve their busy days. If seniors were prohibited from leaving campus until they were legally adults, then keeping juniors on campus would be justi fied — but because many seniors are still 17, just like many juniors, it makes sense to extend the privi lege to both groups. Allowing juniors to leave cam pus for lunch would effectively shorten cafeteria lines and enable students to buy food at their leisure, improving the lunch expe rience for all students at school. request: permission to lunch

Claire-ifiedReduction,Inflation

O n Sept. 9, 2020, Head of Upper School Beth Slattery sent an email to families announcing that there would be no school on Election Day — Nov. 3, 2020. This change, she said, would “allow students and faculty to vote in person and people to volunteer as poll workers on thatNow,day.”nearly two years later, we are in the midst of another election cycle. States across the country have held primaries for U.S. Senate, Congressional, gubernatorial and other state and local races in the past few months. And in a matter of weeks, many students, faculty and staff will find sample bal lots for the Nov. 8 election on their doorstep. But according to our school calendar, Nov. 8 is just another school day. Both of the reasons for canceling classes that Slattery outlined in her 2020 email still apply in 2022. For one, allow ing the school community to visit in-person polling places would give them more flex ibility if they somehow do not receive their absentee ballots in time, and it would also allow them to update their voter registration record with the County Clerk. This would certainly help make the voting process less of a hassle, especially for eligible students, nearly all of whom are first-time voters. With states across the county drafting and passing legislation to restrict voting, the school should be leading the charge in making it more accessible. Also important, as Slattery noted, is enabling members of the school community to serve as poll workers on Elec tion Day. Anyone age 16 and older is eligible to volunteer in Los Angeles County, meaning many upper school students could participate. When I served as a poll worker in this year’s June 7 primary elec tion — on which the school scheduled several final exams — I found it to be a fascinat ing glimpse into the interior of my local government and a simple but educational way to give back to my community. By holding classes on Elec tion Day, the school is discour aging those who, like me, are interested in volunteering in the Nov. 8 election. Instead, after giving the community the day off, the administration could actively encourage stu dents to become poll workers by providing details about the program and distributing signup Asmaterials.aschool community, we must promote civic participa tion consistently — not just when a flashy Presidential election is on the ballot. In midterms, primaries and recall elections, the school must affirm the importance of vot ing when crafting our school calendar. By not applying the logic used to justify a day off in 2020 to this year’s election, the school is indirectly endors ing the idea that off-year elec tions are not as important. There are several ways that the school could accommodate Election Day in its schedule, including moving any of the currently scheduled fall Flex Days to Nov. 8. But whatever logistical hurdles the administra tion must overcome to make this change will be worthwhile if it means just one more person is able to vote or volunteer at the polls this year. As an educational institution, it is the school's responsibility to facillitate our political education. Whether it is Joe Biden, Gavin Newsom, Rick Caruso or Karen Bass on our ballots, the school should be a steadfast ally to students' civic participation — not a barrier.

SATagainstStandingthe

There are few decisions as difficult to make as those regarding the current infla tion crisis. Forming economic predictions during unprecedented times yields little that is concrete or easily interpretable, and even with that rickety foundation, choosing which bridge to cross feels impossible. The economy could be left to resolve itself, a choice that would risk infinite and debilitating price hikes. Alterna tively, central banks could raise interest rates to make things like mortgages more expensive, dis couraging spending and lowering demand to bring prices down, but risking a recession in doing so. For a while, the choice seemed simple to financial policymakers: do nothing. They predicted that pandemic supply chain issues would resolve quickly enough to avoid any long-term damage and decided to weather what they thought was a fleeting storm. By now, however, economists have recognized that this was a faulty assumption. Prices of goods like gas, food, cars and gardening equipment are soaring — even the school’s tuition increased by over 4% this year to match inflation. These dramatic changes in cost made inaction dangerous. Policy makers had to leap, and they had to do it quickly. The Federal Reserve, America’s central bank, raised interest rates at a pace more frequently than anything the nation has seen in decades, with Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell prom ising a “soft-ish” landing from inflation. Powell’s clear lack of confidence made sense; even the most knowledgeable and influential economists cannot guarantee that such a sharp turn in monetary policy will avoid a recession. Lowering interest rates is still worth the risk because a large part of the current crisis can be attributed to sharply increasing demand. When consumers and corporations can and want to buy more products — a trend that has continued for years — prices rise, leading to inflation. A quick way to reduce inflation, therefore, is reducing this demand, however risky this process may be. Luckily, the Fed is not the only tool Americans have to combat inflation. The president and Con gress can issue executive orders and pass legislation, respectively, that will have massive deflation ary effects over time. President Joe Biden removed a gas tax and negotiated with foreign oil provid ers to curb rising gas prices, which dropped significantly this month.

Aug. 24, 2022A10 Opinion The Chronicle

By Fallon Dern

ILLUSTRATION

Make Election Day a Flex Day

But the most substantial policy measure was the Inflation Reduc tion Act, a massive bill that passed this month and addresses far more thanTheinflation.billincludes a 15% minimum tax on all corporations worth more than one billion dol lars, a change that will eliminate their ability to avoid taxes through loopholes. These companies will have to pay roughly 300 billion dollars in additional taxes over the next ten years, and this will significantly reduce the amount they are able to spend.

• Continued on hwchronicle.com

By Claire Conner

The testing system demonstrates many flaws. Policymakers had to leap, and they had to do it quickly.

In 1923, eugenicist and psy chologist Carl Brigham’s book "A Study of American Intel ligence" unearthed an apparent revelation: White people could be proven intellectually superior to Black Americans. Through aptitude tests he created for the U.S. Army, Brigham could test for a base of knowledge more prevalent in white communities and create a system in which high scorers would gain more access to resources to demonstrate their ‘objective’ intellect. This system, commissioned by the College Board and upheld by high schools worldwide, would be called the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT). The testing system demon strates many flaws: Questions that Black and Latin American students frequently answered incorrectly were reused with the intent of continuing this pattern, according to a 2018 Teen Vogue Article. This selection harms students of color and widens the racial gap in college enrollment, according to the National Center for Fair and Open Testing. In an attempt to combat testing bias, the College Board announced the SAT Adversity Score in Spring 2019. This metric assesses 15 factors of one’s resources and use those to benefit a student's score. The public's response was right fully very negative. The College Board's proposi tion to fairly evaluate a student's intelligence should have never included pity points for students of color, as the Adversity Score would have implied had criticism not shut it down. College Board, the quickest method to place students at an equal intellectual playing field is right in front of you: close your doors. Until the day we abandon the SAT, there will always be a tool, even against a historically and systemically racist program, to game this system: money. While it cannot buy happiness, money can buy a 1600, which is basically the same thing. According to a March 2019 report from IBIS World, the test preparation industry is valued at 1.1 billion dollars. Books marketed to give students perfect scores sell in massive quantities online, and mock-tests sell for tens of dollars each. Not only has his racist regime survived a cen tury– it is an economy of its own. A UC Berkeley study charted the disparity in grades based on class in comparison to SAT scores. While grades were influenced by a student's class and culture, the data demonstrated SAT scores were usually decided by access to opportunity. Standardized access to resources or a new form of standardized test could close this performance gap. In the time window of test-optional applica tions and a post-COVID college system, all signs point to saying farewell to the SAT. In favor of eq uity and a more holistic approach to evaluating students' intel ligence, I suggest we let the SAT, just like the eugenicists behind it, rest in peace.

By Averie Perrin Junior's

Davis Letter from the Editors * = students polled HW VOICES IN ACTION ILLUSTRATION BY RAISA EFFRESSBY By Natalie Cosgrove and Will Sherwood DYNAMIC DUO: Editors-in-Chief Natalie Cosgrove ’23 and Will Sherwood ’23 smile for a photo at the first Chronicle layout of the year. CHARLIE SEYMOUR/CHRONICLE supporthaveof57%students*cableTV82%watchstreamingmorethancableTV93%theshiftfromcabletostreaming95%havestreamingservices

M any school organi zations, groups and teams have one goal right now: start off strongly. They want to win games. They want to put on great perfor mances. They want to build upon previous years’ histories and sprint forward in this new one from the very beginning. The Chronicle, however, has an additional goal. We want to start off honestly. We want to rebuild, and we know this can only happen successfully if we recognize our history and cur rent reputation among many on campus. For years, we have failed to earn and deserve your trust. It is easy to say we want to be different this year, but we know we need to be different. At a time when trust in all journalism is fading and when the school is pursuing projects and changes that will impact students for years to come, our community deserves a reliable and reputable source of informa tion and ideas. This starts with outreach. The Chronicle will conduct readership surveys this year to hear about the issues that matter most to the school. We will also be creating a tip line for anyone to share information or ideas for articles. The content we publish is meant to serve you, and we need to communicate effectively to accomplish this. We have also begun centraliz ing the paper’s interview accura cy process. All interview record ings will be put in the same place, where anyone on staff can access and verify quote content. We care about writing articles that are interesting and fun to read, but factual accuracy and journalistic integrity will always come Furtheringfirst.this ultimate goal requires that all Chroni cle staff members understand this priority and how to work toward it. Our management team has already begun what will become a year-long lecture series for juniors and sophomores, and accura cy-based ethics are at its core. Lastly, we want The Chronicle to improve readers’ lives rather than making them more difficult. Last-minute interview requests and emails for quotes about topics you have no interest in or knowledge about will be limited as much as possible. This means accelerat ing our writing cycle to provide more time for finding interview ees, along with creating a new breaking news track that will not require student interviews. We take all of these plans seriously, but we also know we will never achieve complete perfection in pursuing them. We expect to make mistakes this year and to be held accountable for them. We do this work to serve everyone in this community. This year, we promise to do right by them.

James HessBy

ByDaphne

On the morning of Nov. 22, 1963, CBS anchor man Walter Cronkite delivered perhaps the most sig nificant broadcast in American history, tearfully announcing the assassination of President John F. Kennedy to millions of listeners. Considered the most trusted man in the country for his levelheaded delivery, Cronkite represented an era of traditional cable news media now long-lost in contemporary culture. Since the advent of the internet in the 1990s and subsequent rise of pocket cell phones, digital media –– including both apps and streaming services –– have all but replaced three-station televisions and the evening news, a trend that has accelerated even more after the COVID-19 pandemic. As of 2022, long-form podcasts have become so popular that some eclipse the high est-rated cable talk shows and so ubiquitous that everyone from former President Barack Obama to comedian Seth Rogan has one. Likewise, entertainment on streaming platforms like Netflix, Hulu and Disney Plus now com prises much of what Americans view and think about. While this trend may dissapoint those who appreciate structure in their entertainment, the rise of digital media ultimately allows us to engage with longer, more diverse and better-made products. Part of the appeal of digital media is its accessibility and sheer amount of content. On apps like Youtube and Spotify, videos and music can be made by anyone at any time, producing an almost infinite range of diversity in products. Even in the stream ing world, where corporations play roles similar to producers and studios, platforms' infinite digital space allows for more independent content. While this breadth contains both low-qual ity and controversial creators, it also means that those without funding or an already large audi ence can gain viewership. Another advantage of this digital product, particularly in podcast or video form, is its length: At their best, long-form media with a curious host and knowledgeable guest can produce insights for the listener in areas ranging from sports and pop culture to politics and philos ophy –- and sometimes all in one episode. Their format also ensures that non-experts will eventually be found out, unlike the minutes-long cable system used today in politics. Think about the difference if presiden tial debates became uninterrupt ed, one-on-one discussions with the moderator instead of the current ratings-grabbing format: Candidates would have to answer tough questions about specif ic policies instead of playing disingenuous games. This makes long-form digital media espe cially important now, when our most popular way to communi cate –-on apps like Twitter –– is limited to 250 characters and when national politics are polar ized over the meaning of facts themselves. If we want to become better suited to this complicated digitalized world, embracing long-form media like podcasts and streaming services for their diversity and quality rather than traditional cable television is the best way to start.

hwchronicle.com/opinion Opinion A11Aug. 24, Becoming2022 true student news Connected by Cable Digital Diversity

When I picture my mother’s childhood, one of the first images that comes to mind is her settling into the roller-arm sofa in her East London living room like clockwork every Monday evening, keenly hoping this week’s episode of Doctor Who, broadcast on one of three British networks, would be enough to tide her over until nextFiveMonday.thousand miles away, my dad would be sitting on his own couch in his own living room in a sunny coastal Cali fornia town, flipping network channels, watching ten-minute increments of obscure movies that added up to a whole. And then, after their paths crossed years later, they would being doing the same thing, yet this time together, snuggled up in front of the now-cable TV on their couch in their joint cozy Berkeley apartment. This shared activity isn’t now extinct from their relation ship –– they have more than a few shows in common –– but by and large, they watch TV independently. Like myself and the majority of us, they are not technically watching TV, at least not in the way they were once used Instead,to.it's countless shows on streaming platforms like Hulu, Netflix and HBO Max, where media is available to watch on-demand –– another manifestation of the constant replacement of old with new in our modern Streamingworld.services exist to give us more choice and au tonomy –– the ability to decide what we want to watch, where and in what quantity. But in doing that, they fail to preserve many valuable aspects of net work and cable TV, including connection and community. For one, most people, like my parents, only had access to an incredibly limited range of movies and shows throughout their life duirng the second half of the 20th century. This selec tivity brought people together –– simply because more people were watching the same things. With the abundance of streaming services we now have, not everyone is paying for the same access to entertainment as their friends. Even if they are, Netflix alone has over 5,000 shows and movies, giving sub scribers 4970 more chances than my mom had in 1980 to watch things different from their friends and family, decreasing the chance to connect over a sharedMoreover,show. the sheer number of choices means subscribers to streaming services will have to select specific things they want to watch, unable to experience the well-rounded exposure of cable and network TV to what ever happened to be on-air. Although the decline of outdated commodities, such as typewriters, record players, or floppy disks, now feels essen tially irreversible, many of us still have cable TV as well as streaming platforms. We must remember celebrate both, and embrace the spontaneity and connectivity my parents enjoyed in their youth during ours, for as long as this remains true in our current world.

Pilipski said the popularity of new establishments may decline after an initial spike, but the new shops will keep many interested. “Even though the hype around these new restaurants is going to inevitably wear off, the plaza is quickly expanding and adding new restaurants and shop [options],” Pilipski said. “It will be a fresh spot for students to so cialize aside from school. As an incoming sophomore, I person ally find that I will probably be trying the new options out with my friends.”

LAUSD currently has 430,000 students enrolled in its schools but that number is predicted to decrease by 121,000 students within the next decade, according to Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS). Because school funding is alloted based on attendance, many schools will now receive less financial support.

DAVIS MARKS/CHRONICLE DAVIS MARKS l. wood

DAVIS MARKS/CHRONICLE SWEET TOOTH: A new location of Tuesday’s Sweet Shoppe, a family-owned Los Angeles candy shop chain, began selling a variety of different candies to customers over the summer.

UNVEILING UOVO: The new location of UOVO, a traditional pasta restaurant with fresh and handmade noodles imported from Italy, opened to customers over the summer.

Ross said LAUSD schools must find a way to maintain adequate funding despite the lack of “[LAUSDenrollment.schools] have to figure out how to deal with the attendance and funding is sues they had,” Ross said. “[The schools] have some extra fund ing in the last few years with all the COVID-19 money that has come in, but that is going to go awayRosstoo.”said the issues the LAUSD system is facing goes be yond low shortageThompsonSchoolthoseout.“[Looking]enrollment.atachievementlevelsandwherekidsare,thereisstillahugegapfromtwoyearsago,”Rosssaid.“ThereisalearninglossfromtheCOVID-19yearfrombeingonline,andlastyear,itwasnotlikeitallmagicallygotbetter.Tonsofkidsweregone,[and]itwashardforteacherstooftenhavehalftheirclassesHowdoyoucatchupwithkids?”AlexanderHamiltonHighfreshmanCallistasaidthestudenthascausedspatialissues at her school.

LauraRoss Since there are more trendy shops and more accessible places to eat for our age group, I would definitely say the new shops will help connect the school community.”

By Saisha Kumar and Tate Sheehy Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) schools face low enrollment numbers as students transition to private schools, families move to less ex pensive areas and students move into full-time employment, the Los Angeles Times reported. Since the previous year, up to 20,000 students have stopped attending or unenrolled from LAUSD schools, according to the National Broadcasting CompanyAssociate(NBC).Headof

LAUSD experiences enrollment decline New restaurants and stores launch at Sportsmen’s Lodge

Community

“A lot of times, my friends, family and I like to go [to The Shops men’s Lodge] for a quick meal,” Ho said. “Although there is not too much to do other than grab a bite, I end up liking that because since people do not take as much time there, it is easier to findSeniorparking.”Prefect Aiko Offner ’23 said she is excited to be able to visit The Shops at Sportsmen’s Lodge with friends during the school day. “I am excited to be able to go off campus, and hopefully this year I can take advantage of the discounts [Prefect Council] worked to get last year,” Offner said. “I love Sportsmen’s Lodge, and it is super close, so I hope my friends and I can coordinate and go together.”

By William Liu and Hannah Shahidi HiHo Cheeseburger, Tues day’s Sweet Shoppe, All Birds and UOVO opened near the up per school campus at The Shops at Sportsmen’s Lodge complex over the summer. Aside from new restaurants, Reformation, a clothing store, and Rolling Greens, a retail chain that sells plants are also ex pected to open soon. Other restaurants expected to open are Kismet Rotisserie, a casual restaurant that serves poultry and local vegetables, Civil Coffee, a cafe serving craft coffee, espresso and pastries and Van Leeuwen Ice Cream, a French ice cream shop. Aviv Pilipski ’25 said the new shops and restaurants will make the complex more appealing to both upper school students and Studio City residents.

School Lau ra Ross, who teaches a directed study titled “Public Education in America—Ideal to Reality,” said she is unsure there is a solution to the LAUSD enrollment deficit. “It is hard [to recover] when California is last in the country in the funding of transportation and busing,” Ross said. “It is a ques tion of if [the issue] is going to be solved or if it is a new normal.”

ILLUSTRATION BY

— Aviv Pilipski ‘25 l. wood “ Sportsmen’s Lodge before their club volleyball practices. “We have volleyball practices Tuesday and Thursday starting at 6:45, and since we all stay at school until practice starts, we usually walk to The Shops at Sportsmen’s Lodge together and go to Tocaya [Modern Mexican] for dinner and do homework,” Bobb said. “It is really nice hav ing such a luxurious shopping center right by school. I do think the longer it is there the more people will utilize it and it will become more popular.” Glory Ho ’24 said the new shops and restaurants at The Shops at Sportsmen’s Lodge are convenient since they are very close to the Upper School and are easier to get to than other lo cally available options.

“I know many students who left my school or another LAUSD school for another dis trict or private school,” Thomp son said. “The drop in enroll ment is affecting students at my school because there is increased space in classes, and unexpect ed changes in schedules lead to administrators needing to fill all thoseGraysonspaces.”Tooley ’24 said he is concerned for the future of LAUSD schools if they do not receive adequate funding.

“The lower enrollment in public schools not only affects current students this year, it af fects future generations,” Tooley said. “If less and less funding is given each year, which has al ready begun, that leads to less and less opportunities and re sources. The increase in living ex penses has not even ended yet.”

“Since there are more trendy shops and accessible places to eat for our age group, I would definitely say the new shops and restaurants will help connect the school community,” Pilipski said. “[The Shops at Sportsmen’s Lodge] can be a great place be cause there are all kinds of dining options, and many of the places are catered towards teenagers.”

Erewhon, a grocery store, opened at the Sportsmen’s Lodge in November and was soon joined by Tocaya Modern Mex ican, which serve salads, tacos, burritos, bowls and quesadillas, and SUGARFISH, which serves traditional sushi dishes. Follow ing these restaurant openings last year, Prefect Council announced student discounts for Erewhon and Tocaya Modern Mexican for 10 percent off. Studio City resident Zoe Roth ’24 said she is looking for ward to having more shops and restaurants in the area. “I am excited to browse,” Roth said. “There are not too many stores [in Studio City] like there are in Beverly Hills or Brentwood, so I am really excit ed to have something like [more retailVolleyballstores].”player Sophie Bobb ’25 said she and her teammates frequently go to The Shops at

The Chronicle • Aug. 24, 2022

With the upcoming affirmative action Supreme Court case, the community reflects on its validity. L. Wood MaddenLuke ’24

Then just a month after get ting his license, he crashed. Bar navon said he hit a trash can on the side of the road as he was swerving to avoid a truck. Though he was not injured, Barnavon said the accident was a wakeup call for him and his family. “It was very shocking,” Bar navon said. “To be honest, I didn’t think I would be getting in a car crash that soon after getting my license. My parents were obviously disappoint ed in me, but in a way, they were kind of glad that it was only a minor accident and that I learned my lesson early on.” For students at the school, small crashes like this occur frequently. According to the school’s record, there were 35 re ported accidents alone last year.

• Continued on B3

FeaturesTheChronicle•Aug.,242022 PHOTO ILLUSTRATIONS BY FALLON DERN

OVERIN

By Dylan Graff Josh Barnavon ’24 said his heart pounded as he walked into the Winnetka Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV). After six months of practice with both his parents and driving teacher to fulfill the 50 hour mandate required by the state, Barnavon said he finally felt ready to get behind the wheel for the test. During his exam, Barnavon said he was on high alert: he exag gerated his head movements, stopped behind limit lines and made sure to check his blindspot before every lane change. When he finally passed, he said it felt extremely gratifying. In fact, Bar navon only got two marks off, which he said made him overly confident in his driving abilities.

Earl Saunders, a security guard at the school who oversees the se nior lot, said that due to the high demand for parking spots, many students are forced to fit their cars into small spaces, increasing the likelihood of an accident. While the school attempted to remedy this issue by proposing a parking structure in 2017, the city planning commission struck down the idea and no further progress has been made. Saunders also said that the inexperience of student drivers also contrib utes to the number of accidents.

DRIVE-

Eshaghian said many of the girls in her class had looked forward to ring cer emony since seventh grade. “Everyone wanted to buy a special dress for it, and it was [really exciting] to get a wreath on your head,” Esh aghian said. “All of us were so excited to pick out our rings in either gold or silver. It was kind of a big deal my year because we had the option of getting either the Westlake crest or the Harvard-Westlake crest on our rings, as our senior year would be combined with the Harvard boys.” Westlake held its first ring ceremony in 1933. At its in ception, girls wore white dress es and white flower crowns to represent the importance of the ceremony and allegiance to the school.

Affirming Equity

Unlike now, when rings are awarded at the beginning of senior year, Westlake originally conducted the ceremony at the end of the girls’ junior years. Following the class of 1992, the ceremony was no longer all girls but instead the entire grade, taking place at the begin ning of senior year. Eshaghian said the origin of the ceremony was special because the tradi tion began at an all-girls school.

By Iona Lee

Sunny Whang ’92 (Ellie Whang ’24 and Charlotte Whang ’25) said her class and the administration felt it was important to contin ue the tradition the follow ing year by including boys.

“Taking away affirmative ac tion relies on the assumption that everyone’s experiences level out,” Messaye said. “It relies on the idea that everyone is start ing from the same place. That is not true and harmful be cause if you start the race three steps behind, you have to run harder in order to catch up.”

Jones and Messaye both said the fight for affirmative action is an issue of equality versus equi ty. According to an article in the Milken Institute School of Public Health, equality gives every per son the same opportuni ties and support, where as equity acknowledges that each person has dif ferent circumstances and allocates the exact resources and opportu nities needed to reach an equal outcome. Edu cational equality among all students will not cor relate to equal outcomes because of the inevitable differences in circumstances; af firmative action embraces an eq uitable approach by offering dif ferent amounts of support needed for a positive outcome, accord ing to an article in the United Way of National Capital Area. Though he said he supports the goal of affirmative action, Luke Madden ’24 said he believes affirmative action fails to select the most qualified applicants.

Students and faculty discuss changes in fashion, traditions and gender norms in ceremonies throughout the years.

“The way that we will combat [opposition towards affirmative action] is through education,” Jones said. “We need to continue to have difficult conversations. challenging, in my mind, is diversity as a goal. Most of the schools that are looking to di versify their communities are doing it because research tells us that educational institutions that are diverse, produce stronger citizens, and that learning is im proved and critical thinking skills are improved by having diverse environments. What’s at the heart of [these cases], especially [in the case of] Edward Blum, I think he’s using people for this lawsuit and for his dis tinct purpose of keeping the status quo. He is trying to hang his hat and his legal argument on affir mative action, which I think is misplaced.” The precedent for affirmative action, Grutter v. Bollinger (2003), upheld the use of racial prefer ence in University of Michigan admissions to promote a diverse student body, according to Su preme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor’s majority opinion. This case further established affir mative action as a standard in the college admissions process from the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Black Leadership Awareness and Culture Club (BLACC) Leader Hannah Messaye ’23 said discussions of affir mative action often neglect varying amounts of privilege and unique life experiences.

• Continued on B2

“Right after I got my license, I thought I was invincible,” Bar navon said. “I would drive around above the speed limit. It was very careless driving on my behalf.”

Ringing in the School Year

The sun beamed down on the North Faring campus as Head of School Nathan Reynolds spoke proudly about the achievements of the Westlake School for Girls class of 1992. Pacing excitedly in the dress she had purchased months before, junior Patricia Eshaghian ’92 waited at the top of the stairs to be given her ring, a tradition she said she had been looking forward to since the beginning of her time at Westlake. When she final ly walked down the stairs and placed the ring on her finger, Eshaghian said she truly felt like a part of the school community. This was the last all-girls ring ceremony before West lake merged with the Harvard School for Boys the follow ing year, and Eshaghian be came part of the first gradu ating Harvard-Westlake class.

A lawsuit against the affirma tive action policies at Harvard University and The University of North Carolina at Chapell Hill aims to eliminate the consider ation of race, gender and eth nicity in admissions. This case, which was brought forth by Edward Blum, will go to the Supreme Court on Oct 31. Blum’s organi zation, Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA), said it aims to dismantle racial classification in col selections un der the pre text that this violates the equal protec tion clause in the Civil Rights Act. Blum, a con servative political strategist, argued that affirmative ac tion prevents Asian Americans and white people from being admitted to universi ties and unfairly gives an advantage to other minorities in order to meet diversity quotas. Head of Diversity, Eq uity and Inclusion and Associate Director of Ad missions Janine Jones said Blum’s case questioned whether diversity should be integrated into education.

“There’s pride in being a young woman who went through the Westlake school and it’s em powering,” Eshaghian said. “It was such a big milestone that we made it to that point. Peo ple have so much pride in go ing to Westlake that they are still wearing their rings 30 years later. I even wore my ring for years after graduation and still have my wreath somewhere.”

By Ella Yadegar

Members of the community discuss ‘hw.parking’ and license culture at the school.

“There are some cases where it’s fairly clear [affirmative action] is failing in its duty to only provide equal opportuni ty to everyone going to college and also restricting opportunities from qualified candidates,” Madden said. “While I agree that we should make sure that everyone is on equal footing when it comes to what col lege they are able to attend, there’s a better solution that starts more at the source of these inequalities versus affirmative action.”

Seventy percent of Asian Americans sup port affirmative action, according to a 2020 AAPI Data Survey in Cal Matters. Im said stereo types contribute to Blum’s evenrepresentationmisofthemajorityoftheAsianCommunity’sviewpointonaffirmativeaction.“EdwardBlumisnotAsianandis trying to speak on behalf of the whole Asian community,” Im said. “It is really simple to assume that just be cause there is a race-conscious aspect to college admissions that the whole thing is rigged. That brushes over a that strives to achieve success. Im said Blum is using broad stereotypes and generalizations about Asian peo ple to perpetuate racial inequality. “He is trying to use them to justi fy banning affirmative action, which generally benefits a lot of other peo ple of color more,” Im said. “That is a tactic that is often used to justify ra cial inequality in the past, which is the nature of the model minority myth.” Messaye said the model minority myth compares different minority groups and stresses the idea that if one group can be successful, then the rest can be. “It is kind of an ‘If they can do it, you can do it mindset,’” Messaye said. “Peo ple have this idea that if Asians can get [into] these really good colleges, Black people and Latino people should be able to get into good colleges too.”

Madden said he recognizes the ineq uities at the root of racial disparities and said pursuing welfare policies would be the best solution.

Asian American Students in Action (ASiA) Leader Ju lia Im said she is upset by the hypocrisy in arguments about affirmative action. “It is frustrating that people constantly try to question the race-conscious aspect of college admissions,” Im said. “A lot of sports recruitment and legacy tactics that get you into college are supposedly race-neutral, but no one ever questions the fact that they dispro portionately benefit white Americans.”

Lee said he believes college admin istrators make decisions about candi dates from minority groups by com paring them exclusively against each other. He said he attributes the high levels of selectivity among minori ties to the large percentage of privi leged people being admitted to college.

“People believe that affirmative action means that certain people who don’t de serve it get in before people who do deserve it,” Lee said. “The reason that tradeoff ex ists in the first place is because these schools are selecting half their grades [with] people who are white, people who are wealthy, people whose parents have donated to the school and people who have double legacies. When that consti tutes 50% of [the] graduat ing class, that’s the problem. That’s the reason why people at the bottom cannot get in.”

As the court hearing date comes closer, Jones said that people should continue the discussion to combat misin formation about the subject.

70 % OF ASIAN AMERICANS SUPPORT AFFIRMATIVE ACTION

Alex Lee ’24 said that Blum’s arguments turn minority eth nicities against each other. “People like Edward Blum are saying it is Asians ver sus Blacks because of affir mative action,” Lee said. “No it is not. The reason that you think it is that is the rest of the spots have been filled up by power ful, wealthy white people who have corrupted the col lege admissions process.”

“People use the term affir mative action very broadly,” Jones said. “[People] actual ly use the term incorrectly as well. I think the way that we will combat this is through education. We just have to continue to have conversa tions about it and actually understand what it means.” BY RAISA EFFRESS PRINTED WITH PERMISSON OF IONA LEE light of the upcoming Supreme Court hearing regarding affirmative action, community members reflect on racial inequity in education.

“Affirmative action was meant to solve the inequality that exists within college admissions,” Madden said. “The source of that inequality is mainly lack of access to re sources. If we work on fixing that problem of access to re sources, we will not need such a heavy-handed approach such as affirmative action to com pensate for the inequality that currently exists in our system.”

Aug. 24, 2022B2 Features The Chronicle ILLUSTRATION

• Continued from B1 In

A demographics poll by the Harvard Crim son found that 46%theof incoming class of 2022 identifies as white, 18.1% as Asian, 14.3% as multiracial, 10.7% as Black or Afri can American, 6.5% as Hispanic or Latino, 3.8% as South Asian, 0.6% as American Indian or Alaska Na tive and 0.1% as Pacific Islander.

Students and faculty discuss changes in fashion, traditions and gender norms at school ceremonies throughout the I really do appreciate the forittakingHarvard-Westlakedirectionisthisinbecauseisanimportanteventalotofseniors.”AnikaIyer’23

Upper School Dean Sharon Cu seo said many of the ing][startedWestlakeatiniscentceremonycustomspresent-dayintheareremofthosetheoriginalcampus.“WhenIfirstworkhere,weallwent to the Middle School for Ring Ceremony,” Cuseo said. “Before the renovation of the Lower School campus, [boys and girls] would walk down steps, much like there are now, and get their rings like the girls at Westlake had.” When construction took place at the Lower School, the ceremony eventually transitioned to the upper school campus with the bleach ers replacing the original steps. The administration changed the official name of the ceremony from “Ring Ceremony” to “Senior Cere mony,” as many seniors increasingly ordered class pins instead of rings. Cuseo said regardless of its name, the ceremony still remains important because it represents the recognition of the responsibilities seniors have to undertake as the oldest on campus. “[Senior ceremony] has always been about investing the seniors with their role model status and been a nice bookend with grad uation,” Cuseo said. “The cere mony is a nice beginning to the seniors’ final year on campus.” The school has increasingly of fered different ways to wear flowers at the ceremony to all students. Cuseo

Head of Upper School Beth Slattery said the traditions of the ceremony have evolved along side the values of the school. “We have made some adaptations because it felt very gendered to a lot of people,” Slattery said. “It used to be that girls would always wear a white dress. The other thing that has [changed] is that we stopped calling it Ring Ceremony because either not everybody wants to buy a ring or can afford to buy a ring. We did not want it to be this kind of thing where it felt inequitable.”

“Convocation and Homecoming were more Harvard School tradi tions, so bringing Ring Ceremony to the co-ed campus felt purposeful and something we wanted to contin ue for decades to come,” Whang said. Whang said in the few years before her graduation, girls be gan to shift away from white dresses and toward floral pat terns that matched their crowns. “Most students formalized the ceremony by wearing floral dress es, and we were each given a floral wreath to wear,” Whang said. “Ring Ceremony was a rite of passage for us. It was based on a rich tradition, and the girls at Westlake looked forward to receiv ing their rings.”

Iyer said she is looking forward to her Senior Ceremony in Sep tember because it acknowledges the growth she and her classmates have made in their time at the school. “I think it is a cool, symbolic tradi tion, and I like what it stands for,” Iyer said. “It’s about seniors growing into their role as the leaders on campus.”

“Much like gradu ation used to include different colored gowns for male and female and now they are all the same, we give everyone the choice of different floral arrangements,” Cuseo said. “You can wear a flower on your lapel, on your dress or on your wreath. Ring Ceremony has always been fan cy, but before the merger, everyone used to wear white gowns that they had picked out for the occasion.”

Anika Iyer ’23 said she values the administration’s attempt to make the school’s long-standing ceremony less gendered, which she said she hopes will be one of many inclusivity initiatives. tion Harvard-Westlake is taking this in because it is an important event ple should be allowed to dress in a way that makes them comfortable for who they are. It is a first or sec ond step in the right direction. There are definitely more things Harvard-Westlake can do to af firm gender identities, but the fact that they are altering something that has been such a huge tradition makes me optimistic that the school will be able to take more steps to wards being more gender inclusive.”

hwchronicle.com/featuresyears. Features B3Aug. 24, 2022 • Continued from B1 ILLUSTRATIONS BY FALLON DERN AND RAISA EFFRESS PRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF FALLON DERN “

“The pressure to do something like an internship this summer was very over whelming,” Mass said. “All my friends were doing internships, and I knew that I was sup posed to be doing one because that was what my siblings also did. I felt bad because I want ed to go somewhere and

B4 Features The Chronicle Aug. 24,

“ I would always suggest that a student do something in the summer because it is meaningful to them.”

Mass attended Camp Agawak for Girls for her ninth and final summer as a camper. She said de spite her love for the camp, she felt anxious that she did not have an in ternship her junior summer because many other people she knew did.

“I wish I had more time to relax,” Brown said. “It would have been nice to be able to go to the beach or do other things for myself. I had to do extra stuff, to résumé-build or to get started on [college appli cation] essays, which really un derlines how the competitive, re sults-based culture at [the school] comes a lot more from the par ents than it does from the school.”

Sarah Brown ’24 spent her Sun day like any other day off during her summer internship at the Universi ty of Southern California: teaching kindergarteners basic math at the Math Circle. When Brown was not researching traffic patterns in rela tion to COVID-19 for her engineer ing internship or scribbling num bers on a chalkboard, she worked at Fred’s Bakery & Deli and also volun teered at her local food bank, pack ing kits of food for unhoused people. Like many other students, Brown said she spent her summer almost like her school year, balancing nu merous activities. She said the school sidered the impact of highly regard ed programs on college applications.

Students and faculty discuss the extent to which the pressures of résumé-building impact the way they spend their summers.

“I applied to another program that I wasn’t as interested in, [which] was a more prestigious program,” Brown said. “I thought it would look better for colleges, and it would be more interesting to them if I was doing [that] program, even if it was something I was less interested in.” Brown said her summer was very busy, and that despite enjoying bak ing, volunteering and her research, she was upset at the little amount of time for rest her schedule allowed.

By Averie Perrin

— Sara Miranda Upper School Dean

Brown said she felt some pressure from her par ents this sum mer but also from the myerygleerherselfenvironment,schoolandothstudents.“Everysindayorevotherday,parentsalso

“If the one opportunity that we have to recharge is in the summer [at] this fast-paced school, then you have got to capitalize on it.” Miranda said. “Once classes start, it’s fast and furious the whole way through. You’ve got to find time to free yourself, not because of what colleges think, not because of what your friends think or how it’s going to look on paper, but just because it’s the right thing to do, because it’s good for your soul.”

waysapplications.justlarextracurricuwithactivitiesforcollege“Iwouldalsuggestthat a student do some thing in the summer because it is meaningful to them and stop obsessing over what colleges think,” Miranda said. “Start doing things that bring you joy, that pique your interest and that spark intellectual curios ity, and do it so that you can learn more about the things that you think you might like to study in college or the things that you might like to do Mirandaprofessionally.”saidshewishes there could be less fixation on the college process and comparison between students. She said she suggests us ing the summer to recharge and spend time pursuing activities that students cannot typically do during the school year.

“Some people treat Har vard-Westlake like it’s a drive-thru,” Boris said. “They just go through and grab their diploma and try to go to an Ivy League [college]. I’m not like that. I feel like I can be suc cessful wherever I go.”

nallymine,dreamwas“Harvardsummer.alwaysaschoolofsoafterfigettingthe of fer, there is a lot of ac complishment that I feel,” Hinton said. “When I am not working out, I feel like I’ve had a lot of time to actual ly relax because there’s not much schoolwork for us. I’ve even been able to get some of my Driver’s Education done.” Upper School Dean Sara Miran da said she believes many students feel pressure to spend their sum mers building their résumés be cause they want to stand out from their peers in college admis sions. Miranda said stu dents should use their summer to take time for them selves and not overload their schedules

er a worry to me. I just kind of pursue my interests in practice.”

Hinton, who recently received an offer to play D1 basketball at Harvard University, said he felt more pressure earlier in the year when he hadn’t yet heard from his top schools. “Before summer, there was still a lot of pressure be cause my dream schools hadn’t offered [anything to] me at that time,” Hinton said. “I felt like I had to prove to everyone that I was as good as I thought I was. I definitely felt the pressure, but I have a lot of confidence in myself and my skills, and I already had a few offers.”

Varsity boys basketball play er Robert Hinton ’24 said stu dent-athletes face different chal lenges during their summers. He said during the recruiting process, rising juniors and seniors must demonstrate their skills to recruiters in a series of games and practices.

ILLUSTRATION BY SOPHIA EVANS Features B5hwchronicle.com/features24, 2022

Boris said he wants to enjoy his time in high school and does not want to focus excessively on com petitive college admissions.

Hinton said he has been very busy work ing out and train ing two or three times a day, but he said after hearing from Harvard, he was able to en joy his

Aug. 24, 2022B6 Features The Chronicle Members of the school community discuss student parking and @hw.parking, the Instagram account that documents it.• Continued from B1 “ To be honest, I don’t know if I’m more scared of scratching another car or being on [the account]”LilyStambouli ’24

“If I have taken the time to do the work during my summer months, I think it is important for kids to keep in touch with us about their process,” Medawar said. “Sometimes, students do not do that. That does make teachers feel a little bit — it is a strong word — but ‘used’ when a student asks you in May for a digitallyters,havepened‘Here’smyand‘Thanktodation,recommenandtheydon’tevercomeupyoutosay,you,’‘Thiswasresult,’orwhathapwithme.’”OnceteachersfinishedtheirlettheysubmitthemusingScoir,anonline tool the school uses to organize and submit application materials.

Over the last five years, students have matriculated to 180 different institutions worldwide, according to the school’s website. Despite em phasis on college admissions, Slattery said she cares about good fit schools more than prestige or selectivity. “I do not actually care where all of you go to college,” Slattery said. “I want you guys to end up at places that feel like a good match, but the actual names of the schools or whatever does not matter to me. I am just as proud when somebody goes to a place that is not super selective, that was a good match for them, as I am of the kids who go to an Ivy League school. I am proud of you all.”

l. wood

PHOTOS BY WILL SHERWOOD hwchronicle.com/features Features B7Aug 24, 2022 *names have been changed

ithandleCraigers],tationanythinkdosupposedhisterspellingtosponsibilityrewritecomletforallofstudents.“Wearetothis,andIitislikeotherexpec[forteachlikegrading,”said.“SoIjustit,Imakesurethatgetsdone.Ifitdoesn’t get done, the kid doesn’t get into col lege, and it is my fault. That’s not something I think I could have on Craig said while writing letters can be intense, especially in the fall, he still finds enjoyment in the experience. “[Writing letters of recommenda tion] is extremely stressful,” Craig said. “I personally start during the summer. Starting it during the fall makes the fall a very stressful ex perience. Still, I feel in that mo ment [when I am writing], what I am doing is not only kind of reflecting on that person’s growth, but also, hopefully, in some sense, rewarding them for all the time that they put in, the effort to go the extra mile, to workWhileharder.”the teach ers’ letters reflect a student’s experience in the classroom, the deans’ letters draw on a variety of sources, Cuseo said, including confidential teacher comments collected in a system called “Vannas,” named after the former Director of College Counseling Vanna“TheCairns.most effective route is one where there is a theme or a narrative,” Cuseo said. “We are not just going, ‘Here is the aca demic credits of the student, here is what they do extracurricularly and we recommend them to you.’ It is kind of like writing an essay be cause you assert certain qualities, then look for evidence. For us, rather than literature or research, we get it from the teachers in the juniorSlatteryevaluations.”saidthe deans strive to find qualities that make each stu dent“Maybespecial.you have a kid who is extraordinarily kind and does tons of community service,” Slattery said. “You really want to lead with that narrative. Sometimes people worry, ‘Am I going to get a good letter?’ You’re always going to get a good letter, nobody is going to agree to write a letter if they cannot write a good letter. It is just that how they are structured is different, depending on the student and what they are good at.”

“The most effective letters of recommendation, both from teachers and the deans, help the student come alive to the reader and come off the page,” Cuseo said. “If [colleges] don’t get a sense of the per son, it’s just harder for their application to make sense.”

Every morning during the final weeks of summer, Upper School English Teach er Jocelyn Medawar wakes up at 6 a.m. to make herself a cup of black coffee and scrambled egg whites. She does not bother to brush her hair or change out of her pa jamas before sitting down at her kitchen table. Surrounded by piles of papers and notes, she will not leave her chair until she has written at least two college recommen dation letters for her students. Later in the morning, Medawar is joined by her husband, fellow Upper School English Teacher Jeremy Michael son. Together, they write on their laptops and sometimes compare sentences to en sure they are making their points perfectly. cess that supports nearly 300 se niors applying to college. Medawar and Michaelson are two of the school’s most sought-after letter writers, according to Upper School Dean Sharon Cuseo. They said this job was an important part of their relationship: they first social ized outside of school over 20 years ago at the nearby Le Pain Quotidien to celebrate finishing their recommendation letters. Since Medawar began working at the recommendation. Around 90 members of the faculty submitted letters for the past year’s graduating class, with many college applications requiring one letter from the school and at least two from teachers. Before becoming Head of Upper School, Beth Slattery was a dean and later Upper School Deans Department Head. She said dean letters are intended to offer holistic insight into each student’s identity. “Deans benefit from having a multiyear relationship [with students],” Slat tery said. “35 letters is a lot, and you want them all to be robust and to capture the kids. You feel a big responsibility to make sure that they fully convey the school’s support. They are important, but they are not the most important thing in the col legeCuseoprocess.”has written thousands of let ters of recommendation since she started working at the school in 1995. She said her goal with every letter is to offer a per spective about her students that goes be yond grades and test scores.

By Will Sherwood

Upper School Teacher Craig * said in the past, he has written around 30 letters each year but felt the need to cut down in order to submit his best work. “I think students have this general ex pectation that teachers have to say yes,” Craig said. “I don’t think it’s a problem necessarily, but I just do not want to be misunderstood. The reason I am saying no is because I think the students can get a stronger letter elsewhere. That is ul timately what I and any oth er teacher would want the student to do.” Craig said once he has said yes to a request, he feels a

Over the summer, while seniors choose where they will attend college, juniors begin asking teachers for letters of recommendation for their own college applications. This year-round process requires the effort of nine deans, two coordina tors and around 90 faculty members. In total, the school will submit over one thousand letters on behalf of its students. MedawarJocelyn

The school’s college admis sions system is run from the room outside of Slattery’s office in Chalmers, where Dean Coor dinators Camille da Santos and Lynn Miller collate and submit every student transcript and recom mendation letter. Da Santos said a typical student submits around 10 to 15 applications; In 2021, for instance, the school’s 283 seniors submitted 2,810 applications to approximately 240 different colleges and universities.

Recommendation writing follows a well-established schedule with only a few months of rest each year. Just when the college admissions process ends for seniors every spring, juniors begin asking for let decided pretty early on that I wanted one STEM teacher and one humanities teach er. So once I had asked them, I almost felt like it was out of the way. Even though I sent them thank you notes, I never really had to think about it again.” Medawar, who said she cannot recall ever saying no to a student who has re quested a letter, prepares for her task long before she starts writing them throughout the“Whensummer.Iknow I am going to be writing recs over the course of the year, I will save things that students have written [in my class] where I see that they revealed something really in teresting about themselves,” Medawar said. “I will try to remember that or retain it or somehow put it somewhere so that I can do my best to bring the student to life on paper, because my understanding is that colleges want to know how a student’s brain works. If I can just have a college ad missions officer read my letter and say, ‘I have a good sense for how this kid’s mind works,’ then I have done my job.”

“The crunch time in October and No vember is definitely one with no down time,” Miller said in an email. “But we are used to it and enjoy the process. The time with our students is time that we love. It’s an incredibly gratifying process in which we are lucky to be able to participate.”

Once a student has asked for a letter in the spring, Medawar said, their interaction should not be over.

Aug. 24, 2022B8 Features The Chronicle Autumn Agenda ILLUSTRATION BY RAISA EFFRESS With school back in session, these are the important fall dates that The Chronicle staff thinks you should keep track of.

Students share their experiences showcasing their photography in the professional setting of the Getty Museum as teenage

Kim said he hopes his piece will help people recognize what it means to be a Korean Amer ican immigrant in the U.S. and how this influenced him.

KimIanartists.L.Wood’24 • Continued on hwchronicle.com ILLUSTRATIONS BY SOPHIA EVANS

Ian Kim ’24 was also cho sen to display his photograph at the Getty Museum. He said his piece, “Reconnecting with Family History,” is an homage to his Korean American roots. “When I tackled this project, I wanted to create a series of photo graphs that [show] what it is like to be a third-genera tion Korean American in the U.S.,” Kim said. “I found inspiration in my maternal grand mother, who immigrat ed in the 1960s. I tried to highlight my Korean American heritage in my photograph, par ticularly in the props and objects that are representative of my grandmother’s jour ney from Korea to America.” Kim, like Suddleson, said he was surprised to hear he was select ed to display his work at the Getty.

“Working on the project was frankly difficult,” Kim said. “It was my first time working with film rather than digital photog raphy, and it definitely took some time for me to adapt, but it gave me a chance to take a deeper dive into the photographs I was taking, and being able to take my eyes off of the photographs before I re-evaluated them was helpful.” Suddleson said working on the proj ect was a demanding experience, especially because of the dead line and the limitations of working with film. “The process of working on the project was rath er stressful,” Suddleson said. “I struggle with deadlines, and when I started the project, I had a cou ple of weeks to complete it, which made executing it difficult. The project was completely on film, too. Usually, I like to go in not knowing what exactly I am looking for, but with film, you have to be intentional because there is a lim ited supply of resources, and being able to execute what I wanted giv en the constraints was difficult.”

Suddleson said she is still ex cited to share her work with the public. She said she finds it gratifying to share her view of the world with Getty Museum visitors, though she said expressing her viewpoint has not been easy for her in the past. “I am not the best at putting things into words,” Suddleson said. “I can see it in my head, and I can feel it in my head, but I cannot say it in the right way, so for me, having this picture in the Getty is my way of expressing my thoughts. As they say, a pic ture is worth a thousand words. It is gratifying to know that peo ple go through the Getty Muse um every day and see my name beside my picture. They do not know me, but they see something that I see. It is a specific lens of the world, but it is universal in the way that everyone can see it.”

Suddleson said she enjoyed bonding with her classmates as she worked on the project, though that was nerve-racking at first. “Originally, I wanted my friend and her boyfriend to be in the photo, given the intimate na ture of the pose, but our schedules never aligned, and I had to ask two of my classmates in my photogra phy class to pose for me instead,” Suddleson said. “This made me nervous as, with film, you can never know what the end product will look like, but because they were classmates, they understood that I had an image in mind and were willing to let me direct them, even when I was being tedious. I recognize that not everyone is comfortable being on camera, so it meant a lot to me for them to step up and work with me.”

This year’s prompt, “Re connecting with _____,” invited students to reflect on what reconnecting looked like during the COVID-19 pandem ic. Suddleson said she wanted to explore the complications of maintaining a friendship through her piece, particular ly through posing and lighting. “I came up with the name, ‘Reconnecting with EachOth er,’ because I wanted to explore themes like how in a relationship, you can give your everything to a person but not see it reciprocated or how you can do everything but fail to overcome a disconnect,” Suddleson said. “In the photo, you can see two friends holding onto each other for dear life, but if you look at their faces, it is sad and somber, even more so because of the black-and-white nature of the photo. Despite their physical connection, they are isolated, rep resenting the painful and uncon trollable nature of a relationship.”

Arts & EntertainmentTheChronicle•Aug.24,2022

“Being able to present at the Getty Museum was unexpected, as doing so had not been in my orig inal plans for the project,” Kim said. “I made the piece, and I sent it off, but I did not know what to expect. I had to wait to see where it would go, so when I heard that I had won a spot in the Getty Muse um, everything that happened felt unexpected and unintentional.”

Kim said though he is proud of what he has accomplished, the process of crafting his piece was not an easy task given that he had to tackle a new medium.

“I hope that people, in look ing at my piece, would recognize that being a Korean American immigrant and being in that in between is something real and established,” Kim said. “A great deal of my project was centered [on] painting my family history with immigration and how that has impacted me, and I hope that my photograph will tell people how being a third-gen eration Korean American in the United States has shaped who I am and how I see my culture.”

By Kriste An As Olivia Suddleson ’24 stepped into the interior of the Getty Museum, she said she could not contain her excitement. She said the thought of seeing her photograph on display alongside the paintings, sculptures and other art at the Getty Museum was hard to believe. As she entered the exhi bition where her photograph was located and looked at each of the pieces that had been hand-picked by the staff at the museum, she said she could not believe her eyes. Suddleson was selected as one of the 20 winners of the Teen Pho tography Open Call, an initiative organized by the Getty Museum and Amplifier, a nonprofit design lab. Her piece, “Reconnecting with EachOther,” was selected from a pool of 1,660 submis sions from the U.S., India, Can ada, Brazil, Mexico and the U.K. Suddleson said she was elated to see her photograph on display, available for the public to see. “It was a gratifying experience seeing my work at the Getty Mu seum,” Suddleson said. “When I traveled to [the museum] with my friends, it felt like an out-of-body experience to see my piece on dis play, open for the public to see. It made me glad to know that other people appreciated the things that I found beautiful. It was weird be cause I did not feel like my picture belonged at such a major muse um, but at the same time, I knew I worked for it.”

By Sara Segil and Becca Berlin

By Vasilia Yordanova As I scrolled through Netflix’s new releases on a stifling summer night, a movie based on Jane Aus ten’s final novel quickly grabbed my attention. I have read and enjoyed several of Austen’s works and relished in modern reimag inings of them like “Clueless,” as well as faithful period pieces like “Pride and Prejudice,” so “Persua sion” seemed like a fitting film for me to Evenwatch.though I had heard many comments criticizing this new film, especially its script, I was still excited to start watching. However, I soon realized the neg ativity was well-deserved. I knew the basic plot from having read the back cover of my copy of “Persuasion,” — heroine Anne Elliot realizes she still loves the man she previously reject ed due to family pressure, only to find he is interested in one of her friends instead — but I was still hopelessly confused within the first five minutes of the film. During the beginning, the plot moved at lightning speed, which felt uncomfortable compared to reading Austen’s detail-oriented storytelling. Much of the film was rushed, but at other points, the action was so slow it became dull. I did appreciate the scenic shots throughout the film, as well as the traditional English manors and lovely Regency-era dresses. Unfortunately, the beauty of the early 1800’s setting of “Persua sion” was not enough to redeem a poorly-written movie. The main issue with “Persua sion” is that the writers, direc tors and producers did not fully commit to creating a modern adaptation, nor to accurately re telling Austen’s acclaimed novel. Modern slang scattered through out the film was completely in compatible with the time period — for example, someone being “a 10,” practicing “self-care” and having “a crush.” This felt neither quirky nor relatable, but rather awkward and forced. There are plenty of ways to make a period piece modern –– just look at Sofia Coppola’s “Marie Antoinette” ––but having your actors speak with a social media vocabulary is not a goodNetflixone. has produced much worse romantic comedies than “Persuasion”— remember “Tall Girl,” “The Kissing Booth” or “Love Hard”? — but it was still disappointing to see how they handled Austen’s novel. Watching “Persuasion” sparked my curiosity about the original book, but that was the only good thing to come from this movie.

Aug. 24, 2022C2 Arts & Entertainment The Chronicle

The third season of Netflix Original “Never Have I Ever” premiered Aug. 12, featuring the show’s funniest and most cultur ally relevant episodes to date. In the first two seasons, view ers learn that protagonist Devi Vishwakumar (Maitreyi Ra makrishnan) is an intelligent, ambitious teenage girl who is self-conscious about her Indi an-American culture, nerd status at school and the grief she expe riences from the recent death of her father. Devi fears these char acteristics will make her an out sider in her Sherman Oaks high school. She attempts to boost her social standing by trying to date the most popular boy at school. Throughout the course of the first two seasons, Devi is forced to choose between dating Paxton Hall-Yoshida, the coolest boy at Sherman Oaks High School, and Ben Gross, her academic rivalturned-friend in Model United Nations. Devi decides to date them both simultaneously, a big mistake on her part. Poor choic es in her love life and friendships often leave Devi with messes to clean up, which makes viewers even more invested in her life.

Season three, however, por trays significant growth in the entire cast’s maturity as Devi and her friends migrate through ju nior year. Devi learns to be more confident and embraces her cul ture as an asset rather than a trait that makes her unworthy of male attention. The audience may ad mire her newfound self-respect, especially because Devi has spent the past two seasons attempting to reconcile with her mistakes. The newest season also in cludes important commentary on cultural representation. For example, the show incorporates an Indian love interest for Devi for the first Consistenttime.with previous ep isodes, narrators John McEn roe and Andy Samberg amuse viewers with commentary that pokes fun at the extreme oddi ties of Devi and her classmates. Ben continues to be the comedic relief of the show during tense moments, such as arguments and Devi’s frequent distress. Netflix renewed “Never Have I Ever” in March for a final sea son, which will conclude Devi’s journey through high school and her long path to self-acceptance. Although viewers may want more seasons, the show should end be fore the characters leave for col lege to make Devi’s senior year more meaningful and to ensure the show is not drawn out.

The latest Netflix Original rom-com “Purple Hearts” at tempts to appeal to the classic idea that opposites attract, but it fails to Cassiedeliver.(Sofia Carson) is an as piring singer and Type 1 diabetic without adequate health insur ance, while Luke (Nicholas Gal itzine) is a soon-to-deploy marine in debt from his former drug ad diction. Even though they dislike each other due to their social and political disagreements, they de cide to get married before Luke is deployed to receive the mili tary benefits of healthcare and employment given to married soldiers and their spouses. The movie follows the tried-and-true formula of fake dating to a real relationship, and the protagonists quickly develop an inconceivably intense romance while Luke is stationed abroad. The chemistry between Cas sie and Luke, as well as Carson’s excellent singing voice, are en ticing but not strong enough to make the film stand out. And in just over two hours, there is not sufficient time to fully explore the social issues that the film hints at, such as gun control and access to essential healthcare.

The first thing you have to re member when watching “Strang er Things” is that there has never before been a “Stranger Things.” Sure, it is coming at a time when vast television epics are more common than blockbuster mov ies, and of course, almost every shot references some film or show more than 30 years its elder, but “Stranger Things” still manages to be something entirely unique. In no other place can you find a story so meticulously crafted, so continuously surprising or so purposefully planned. It came on strongly with sea son one, offering a nail-biting sci-fi thriller that could somehow make you nostalgic for a time you had never even lived in. Now, three seasons later, it is an all-out action blockbuster. The nine new episodes feature characters and storylines almost incomprehensibly disconnected from the show’s origin, yet it still maintains the feel of an entirely singular world, one we can escape into shamelessly and completely whenever our heart desires. I do not know what it says about our modern world that we as a peo ple are so obsessively inclined to look backward, but whatever that wanting is, “Stranger Things” of fers the solution. But “Stranger Things,” while mind-blowing, is nowhere close to perfect. For all its awe-inspir ing ambition and clear emotional compass, there are almost count less occasions when the show does not execute to its full poten tial. There were numerous times throughout season four where the ridiculousness of a sequence, the zaniness of an acting choice, or the complete unbelievability of a line were scoffworthy. This show — especially now, with all the pressures of continuing an already massive story — can be colossally, stupidly dumb. At its very worst, the show creates a darker secondary feeling of nostalgia, not for the long-gone 1980s, but for its own recent ly-deceased beginnings, when the worst thing that could happen was a kid going missing, not a multi-dimensional apocalypse. I can, however, recognize that this over-inflation of stakes and story is simply the price paid for success and scale, and howev er often the show does not stick the landing, it ultimately makes up for it with its very existence. Think about a person from the real-life 80s, and how blown away they would be by this show. It is beautiful to see just how ex pansively stories can now be told.

Chronicle staff members share their thoughts about TV shows and movies released on Netflix throughout the summer.

ILLUSTRATIONS BY SOPHIA EVANS

The movie seems reverse-en gineered to check as many box es as possible, joining the ranks of Netflix’s large repertoire of tokenism-tainted projects. For one, Cassie has Type 1 diabetes, which is portrayed realistically in one scene where she argues with a pharmacist over insulin accessibility after being denied a refill. This issue then magical ly disappears from her life and is barely mentioned again in the film thanks to her sham marriage with Luke and its consequential health care benefits. Her grow ing love for Luke then somehow becomes a more pressing issue in her life and takes prominence in the movie’s storyline, leaving the commentary on America’s health care system feeling unfinished andLukeperformative.andCassie’s love story is also left incomplete by the end of the film and makes the potential for a sequel unclear. While there is an abrupt end that leaves room for a possible follow-up film, the effect is quickly ruined by a con fusingThoughmontage.the screenplay’s at tempt to examine many relevant societal issues in a rom-com for mat is admirable, the execution is not, and it undermines the im portance and seriousness of the subject matter.

By Harry Tarses

By Ella Yadegar

Savoring the Summer

PRINTED WITH THE PERMISION OF KAI DO PRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF IONA LEE

Picnic

From the Hollywood Bowl, the Huntington Library and Art Museum to the Botanical Gar dens and Wurstküche, there are a number of places to visit when exploring LA. Growing up in LA is an experience easily taken for granted, so this summer, Chronicle staffers took to the famous streets of LA to better understand what makes our city a worldwide tourist destination. It can be easy to confine yourself to a certain area of the city, but each neighborhood offers a vastly different cultural experience that makes up the large and diverse community that is LA.

Road Trip Exploring LA

hwchronicle.com Arts & Entertainment C3Aug. 24, 2022

PRINTED WITH THE PERMISSION OF VASILIA YORDANOVA

The typical summer activity of pic nicking with friends has long been overlooked, despite its inspiration for Impressionist painters and Pinterest enthusiasts alike. This summer, several Chronicle staff members gathered snacks, blankets and friends and headed to a park or beach to enjoy the sunshine and have unplugged free time. The experience of picnicking can create great memories to look back on this school year when stress clouds your mood. Spending time lounging with friends is the perfect way to enjoy what remains of the summer sun.

Beach Day

PRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF CLAIRE CONNER PRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF VASILIA YORDANOVA PRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF VASILIA YORDANOVA

There are a number of places to go to when organizing your summer travel plans. However, taking a road trip gives you the freedom you need after a busy school year to create your own vacation schedule on the go. Some classic California roadtrip pitstops are Ostrichland USA near Santa Barbara and of course the famous Golden Gate Bridge of San Francisco.

PRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF VASILIA YORDANOVA

Summer Cooking

PRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF ABIGAIL HAILU PRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF VASILIA YORDANOVA

Going to the beach is one of many classic activities students took part in over the sum mer. Students enjoyed the view of the sea and got in the water to rejuvenate after a stressful school year. While getting exposure to the cool breeze and ocean water in the balmy hot weather, students were able to better enjoy their break.

Students share their most memorable experiences including the travel destinations, activites and hobbies that filled their time.

Cooking and baking over the summer is a great way to release stress from the school year. The process of creating any of your favorite foods whether they are salads or sweets inspires cre ativity appealing to all five senses. Several stu dents gathered their recipe books and cooking utensils in their kitchens and started mixing to produce their favorite meals over the break.

PRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF CLAIRE CONNER PRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF CLAIRE CONNER PRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF VASILIA YORDANOVA PRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF VASILIA YORDANOVA

Separate Harvard and again

Received seven likes and two comments on a tweet

By Georgia Goldberg

Got married down in the Loui siana bayou Said “gay” to Ron DeSantis Coined the word “slay”

Covered Dasani water bottles silver with silver paint for the Environmental Club Killed Schrödinger’s Tookcat

Practiced parking in SL-034 Reached HW Venture Level 2 These activities are clearly very impressive; however, the great est activity of the summer was the fun we had and the friends we made along the way.

Har vard-Westlake River Park

The students of Harvard-West lake — the school known for its widespread Prozac consump tion, mediocre football team and parking lot often mistaken for an Audi dealership — are committed to the pursuit of excellence, even during the summer. Here are just a few of the incredible activities students partook in, sure to impress any college admissions committee:

The Munger Games: Catching Fire (Sept. 1) This thrilling action film about a lab accident setting off fire alarms captures the ever-present danger of Honors Chemistry. As students on the field check Snap chat, teachers count them twelve times. The school can only be saved by a fearless group of ad ministrators...but they have to do a Chronicle interview first.

Westlake

Founded nonprofit organization Square of Men Freed the Menendez brothers

Coming to HWTV

SatireTheChronicle•Aug.24,2022

Engineered a three-state solution

BuriedatfromStoleonlyafteriotheGotUniversityatStudiesWomen’saclassHustlers#3onslither.leaderboardplayingfortwohoursC4vertebraeWoollyMammothLaBreaTarPitssaidvertebraeat

HWordSolutionsSearch

Brentwood Nine-Nine (Sept. 13) Brentwood is its name, and speeding tickets are its game. In one of the least exciting proce dural comedies since the middle school Daily Bulletin, a quirky crew of cops fails to solve crimes as mayhem spreads from The Getty to Kreation. The Saboteurs (Sept. 26) A stunning, 3-episode exposé de picts the successes of a Kars4Kids crew that has secretly been nar rowing each of the school’s park ing spaces by one inch every month in an effort to increase crash rates and boost sales. Emily in the Century City Mall (Sept. 28) This show has passion, fashion and the most exotic scenery near Rancho Park. Unfortunately, romantic dinners at California Pizza Kitchen, a sweet bonding moment at the American Girl Pop-Up Shop and a Chelsea Clinton cameo at Equinox lack the glamor and spunk needed to distract from a lifeless plot lack ing excitement and suspense.

Hunted rats in the sewers of Studio CityChosen to be the very first Jewish Pope Joined FeldsteinsonsGaveVentureHWvoicelestoBeanie’11

Fantastic Yeasts and Where To Find Them (Sept. 2) When the Jewish Family Alliance struggles to find a decent leaven ing agent for their challahs, they recruit a team of wizards to nav igate kosher market aisles filled with dementors and judgemental bubbies. This film will keep you on the edge of your tuchus! House of Commons (Sept. 10) Themes of power, ambition and betrayal are explored as a dramat ic battle over the fate of the River Park sets the stage for numerous revenge plots.

Enjoyed a crisp Diet Coke

Auditioned for the Blue Man Group (unfortunately wasn’t blue enough)

By Claire Conner

By Georgia Goldberg and Carter amDOESN’Trapthingsingingsensationsomecar,tured.frontoringhas7:15,7:00,ItaliancytheyLAZY.guys,again.wetoogetherparently),firstvard-WestlakeholyWestlake------------TIFFANI-------------Staggs31yearsago,HarvardandcametogetherinmatrimonytoformHar(becauseladiesmeansnothinghere,apandthey’vebeentoeversince.That’s31yearsmany.Hi,I’mTiffani,andneedtoseparatetheschoolsLook,Ihavenothingagainstbuttheysuck.They’reHypotheticallyspeaking,saythey’llmeetyouatafanrestaurant,likeworldfamousrestaurantMangiano’s,atandtheydon’tcomeuntileventhoughMangiano’saveryspecificpolicysayyouHAVEtoarriveat7:00elseyou’lllooklikeafoolinofeveryoneatMangiano’s.Also,alotofguysareunculImaginethis:you’reintheabsolutelyjammin’outto2000smusic.Then,popJustinBiebercomeson“Baby.”Youthinkeveryisnormal,untilLudacris’startsandheisSILENT.Heknowtherap.WhatIsupposedtodowiththat? asatsnapperlikelyslightestofthatboyfriends?shouldareaboutics,tomewithinhibitslate.beastitutes7:15theoff.pairhandspikytosomegirlsthethe-------------CHAD---------------Hi,I’mChad,andIsupportseparationofthewomenfrommen.Complaintnumber1:aretoohardonusmen.Forofus,ittakesalongtimecarefullycreamandcombourhair.Idon’tshowerbeforetomakeitstiff,likeafreshofjeanshortsIwantshowThatmeanswhenyouchangeMangiano’sreservationfromto7:00withonly40minnotice(FULLYKNOWINGtakesmeanhourtotamethisofamane),I’mgoingtobeIt’sthistimecommitmentthatmefromspendingtimetheBiebs.Thatdoesn’tmakeanon-Belieber.ALSO,IhaveprioritizelearningBieber’slyrnotLuda’s.Furthermore,canwejusttalkhowsomegirlsalwaystalkingtoJaredwhentheybehangingoutwiththeirJared’shairisn’tevenspiky.IwishIhadthatkindconfidencetonotcareintheabouthowIlook.Realcourageous.Imean,helooksaguywhoordersthehouseinsteadofthebranzinoclassyItalianrestaurantssuchMangiano’s...a.k.a.amoron. manageciatethemillionaboutAboutthinkvationREADYstaffinupItI’mcheating,Moreover,we’rewithhandsother’ser’sfriendswe’restudsupsetcampus.stillreally------------TIFFANI-------------Eventhoughsomeguyshavegoodhair,likeJared,weshouldn’tallowthemontoGuysshouldn’tgetsowhenwecomplimentlikeJaredonhishair.Like,justfriendsdoingwhatdo:strokingeachothhairandgazingintoeacheyes.JustbecauseIholdandexchangedarksecretssomeoneelsedoesn’tmeanromanticallyinvolved.itdoesn’tmeanI’manditdoesn’tmeancheatingonmyboyfriend.doesn’tmeanhegetstobreakwithme,embarrassingmefrontoftheENTIREwaitatMangiano’s,afterweALshoweduptoourreserpast7:00.-------------CHAD---------------Worstofall,though,girlswedon’tcare.Wedo.Mangiano’s.Ireallycareshowin’up,lookin’likeabucksforthehostessandbusboys.------------TIFFANI-------------IguessIdo,though,apprehowsomeguysalwaystodressupintheirjean shorts for their favorite busboys. It does show they -------------CHAD---------------care.IfIdon’thavetimetolearn a rap, it’s not out of neglect. It’s be cause I’m too busy drawing han dlebar mustaches on Jared’s year book greattheginningdingtoobronzino.acrossoutmysanctionedallmore.wantoff),aloneinferiortouchingIways------------TIFFANI-------------photo.AndIappreciatehowtheyalstickwithmeevenwhentrytomakethemjealousbyJared’s(inallhonesty)hair.-------------CHAD---------------NowI’meatingMangiano’s(it’smyfavoritebusboy’sdayandhonestly,Idon’tthinkItheschoolsseparateanyIthurtstobeinMangiano’sbymylonesome,andschoolmandatecanmendbrokenheart.------------TIFFANI-------------Mangiano’sisjustnofunwithspikyhairtoadmirefromtheboothasIdevourmyNowmyfishisgettingsaltyfromthetearsI’mshedoveralovelost,andI’mbegtothinkthatseparatingschoolsisn’tactuallysuchaidea.

Kidnapped by Ezra Miller

activitiesSummer

PRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF ALYSSA THOMPSONILLUSTRATIONS BY FALLON DERN

S

Women’s World Cup hosted by Costa Rica in early August. The team defeated Ghana 3-0 in their first game of the tourna ment Aug. 11. Thompson, who started on the wing, was able to break through Ghana’s defense before halftime and score the team’s second goal. Thompson said she felt proud of herself for scoring a goal as it felt like a culmination of all her hard“Itwork.was just nice to get [the ball] in the back of the net,” Thompson said. “It was every thing that I have been working for, so I was just happy that I got to score for our team.”

The U-20 USWNT lost its second match in the tournament 3-0 against the Netherlands on Aug. 14. To advance, the team needed to win their next game by has helped me. It has just been really cool to meet all these dif ferent people that come from different closerexperiencesbeenThompsonweCONCACAFweharderbecausethanmostThompsonin(CONCACAF)CaribbeanAmerica,wonThompsonbackgrounds.”andherteammatestheConfederationofNorthCentralAmericaandAssociationFootballchampionshipMarch.Seventeen-year-oldsaideventhoughofherteammatesareoldersheis,shewasabletofitinoftheteam’stimetogethonthefield.“Ifeellikesocially,itwasinthebeginning,butoncestartedplayingandwenttoforqualifiers,alsogotcloserasateam,”said.“Ithasbasicallythesamegroupofgirls,solikethatbroughtustogether.Iwouldn’tbeon with my teammates that I would not trade for the world,” Thomp son said. “My team and I worked as hard as we could for each oth er, and the federation to bring our dreams into fruition. Sadly, we could not bring back the gold, but I learned new things and grew as a player as a result. This World Cup is an amazing step in my soccer career, and I am thank ful for the experience.” After leading the 2020-2021 varsity girls soccer team to an undefeated season, both Alyssa Thompson and her sister, Gisele Thompson ’24, received Cal-Hi Sports State Player of the Year awards. Alyssa Thompson also won the Girls Soccer Gatorade Player of the Year Award follow ing her sophomore season. After missing the 2022-2023 season to play for club and coun what is coming up next,” Alyssa Thompson said. “At this point, I just have [club soccer]. I hope I can play for the school team this year. I would be really excited if I [get] to play, and that would be really fun. I also hope I can get called up to more of the national teamFormercamps.”varsity girls soccer player Ariana Azarbal ’22 said she is excited that her school team mate played in the World Cup. “I love bragging about her and the fact that I got to play with her,” Azarbal said. “ It was so much fun to have someone so talented on my team. Just having been able to watch her was a joy, but Alyssa has also been such a wonderful teammate off the field. When she could not actually play with us this past [school] season because of national team obliga broke the school’s girls all-time record for the fastest 100-meter dash, recorded at 11.69 seconds Mia Patel ’24, who ran track and field alongside Thompson as a sophomore, said she is inspired by her “[Alyssaathleticism.Thompson] started breaking records the second she joined track and field,” Patel said. “She competed against others who had been running for years, though she did not let this get to her and still ran faster anyway. She was always very positive at meets and was especially fun to watch. [Alyssa Thompson] was always an exceptional person off the track, too. Whenever a team mate needed assistance, she was always the first to help them.” Patel said Thompson’s dedi cation to soccer and athletic achievement bolsters the school’s reputation and spirit. “[Alyssa Thompson] going to the World Cup this summer serves to inspire all of the ath letes at our school,” Patel said. “She performs at all of the high ing Harvard-Westlake well. I can tell her passion for soccer is [so strong]. Her one-of-a-kind skills sonality make her the perfect

The football team installed their new air raid offense dur ing camp week from Aug. 1-3. Linebacker Bill Coleman ’24 said the football team’s summer schedule is always filled with lifts and practices, but camp week is different from the rest. For three days and two nights, the team sleeps at school to prac tice throughout the day. The players wake up at 6:45 a.m. and eat in the cafeteria before going into meetings and their first practice. After, they lift, eat lunch, practice again, eat dinner, participate in team bonding ac tivities and eat their final meal of the day. While the team had not held their usual camp week in two years due to COVID-19, Coleman said the practices ran smoothly this year.

“[In] the past few years, there’s been at least one person committed to play in college of the seniors or juniors on varsity,” Perkins said. “Having so many good people in the past and having such a strong team makes people want to reach that [level] every year, even if that means you have to focus on everyone on the team having the same amount of skill, rather than [falling] back on three commits.”

Perkins said choosing Hodgkins’ as the new Field Hockey Program Head seemed obvious due to the past experience and relationships she had with most of the varsity team’s“She’splayers.been working at [the school] for a very long time,” Perkins said. “She was the only person we wanted to be head coach. Everyone who’s currently in high school playing field hockey knows her, so we are all very comfortable withGoalkeeperher.” Lily Stambouli ’24 said she is excited for Hodgkins to apply her emphasis on team chemistry to the program.

Middle School English Teacher Erin Creznic stepped down from her role as Field Hockey Program Head after the 2021-2022 season.

“On junior varsity last year, we had such a great team relationship between [Hodgkins] and all of us,” Stambouli said.

• Continued on hwchronicle.com

“The most important part [of the week] is [the] team bonding element that we get out of sleeping at the school together and spending all that time together,” Cole man said. “It’s some thing that [strengthens our team] and allows us to play Headbetter.”Coach Aaron Huerta said the Wol verines utilized the time they had during camp week to institute their new air-raid offense. Popularized by Missis sippi State Head Coach Mike Leach, the Air Raid offense relies on four-receiver sets and quickly pacedOnepassing.ofthe largest benefits of the strategy is the team’s ability to score quicker and never be out of the game. However, the rapid pace is also the biggest downside of the gameplan, as it makes con trolling the clock much harder. Huerta said the new offense should be explosive and enter taining to “[Spectatorswatch.should expect] an exciting offense that is going to throw the ball all over the field,” Huerta said. “We are going to spread the ball around and get [it to] ourLikeplaymakers.”Coleman, line backer Mateo Arroyo ’25 said camp week brought the team to gether in a way normal practices do “Spendingnot.all that time with everyone to gether was a good way to build chemistry,” Arroyo said. “You could really see a leadership role from [the upperclassmen].” Huerta said the team’s offsea son training will make a large difference when the season starts. “We are going to be ready for the grind that the season comes with and [to] battle adversity team,” Huerta said.

Aug. 24, 2022D2 Sports The Chronicle

OTTO-MATIC: Otto Stothart ’26 attempts a shot on goal during a boys water polo preseason practice on Aug. 16. Team players have competed against college athletes at all of the practices. The varsity team’s first match was a home game against Crespi Carmelite High School on Aug. 22.

JACKSON MAYER/CHRONICLE

Football adopts new offensive scheme

Mnatsakanian said playing on the national team exposed him to a high degree of likeJOsintimatelymatesandcrucialteamworksideOlympicsat16summer.onersing“Thecompetition,”brings“Representingcompetition.[thecountry]aboutadifferentlevelofMnatsakaniansaid.intensitywhenyouareplaywithandagainstthebestplayintheworldisunmatched.”OtherteammembersplayedclubteamsthroughouttheTheLosAngelesPremierUnderteam,aclubteambasedtheschool,wontheJunior(JOs)thissummer.LeftattackerAlexHeenan’24saidandcooperationweretotheteam’ssuccess.“ComingtogetherasateamlearningtoplayforyourteamratherthanjustyourselfulledtothesuccesswesawJOs,”Heenansaid.“Winningwiththe16Undergroupfeltagreatwaytohonorthework

“The greatest strides our team has made are in the way we com municate and operate,” Grover said. “My personal goal is to hold [the players] to the standard re quired to win a championship on a daily basis because this is a men tality they can take forward with them in the classroom and their futureTeamendeavors.”members also participat ed in global competitions over the summer.

L. Wood ColemanBill ’24 By Leo PreviousSapersteinjunior varsity field hockey coach Susan Hodgkins entered the role of Program Head following the 2021-2022 season. The team began off-season training for its first match of the 2022-2023 fall season against Huntington Beach High School on Aug. 25. During the 2021-2022 season, the squad finished 14-2 overall and 5-2 in the Sunset League. Although three Division I commits have graduated since last season, Captain Dylan Perkins ’23 said the squad’s enthusiasm will guide its success this season.

By Dylan Graff

JACKSON MAYER/CHRONICLE

The United States Na tional Team selected left side at tacker Daniel Mnatsakanian ’23, left side attacker Chris Arakelian ’23 and right side attacker Jack Burghardt ’23 to compete in the 2022 Fédération Internationale De Natation World Men’s Youth Water Polo Championships. Mnatsakanian said he was proud to represent the U.S., who ended in ninth “Representingplace. your country is one of the biggest honors that ex ists,” Mnatsakanian said. “Every time I put on these colors, I am doing something that very few Americans ever get the opportu nity and privilege to do.”

“There was one field workout where we had a full practice and then after that, we were out on the field doing a conditioning circuit,” Coleman said. “We did sled pushes and med ball cir cuit workouts. All of that was to toughen us up.”

topromotedHodgkinsvarsity Quarterback Henry Wendorf ’23 winds up to throw the ball in a preseason practice on Ted Slavin Field on Aug. 16.

Coleman said the larger pur pose of camp week was to come together and bond as a team. In their free time, Coleman said the team watched movies, played dodgeball and enjoyed each others’ company. Coleman said these moments will translate to success on the field.

Boys water polo team begins preparation for CIF competition under new program head

AIR RAID INCOMING:

By Jackson Mayer The boys water polo team competed against college play ers in their twice-a-day practices throughout the summer in prepa ration for their upcoming season. The team also added new Program Head Jack Grover last spring. Grover was previously the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Water Polo As sistant Coach . As a player at UCLA, Grover won three Nation al Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) titles and was named an honorable mention All-American his senior year. Grover said he chose to work at the school be cause he became familiar with its water polo team through his work at UCLA.“During my last job at UCLA, I was in charge of recruiting,” Grover said. “I closely followed Harvard-Westlake, and I got to know a few of the boys and how the team operates. The intensity the team played with, the strong group of upperclassmen and the younger players with so much tal ent to be developed are what drew me to [the school] initially. Tour ing the facilities, meeting faculty members and realizing how much room I had to grow here are what caused me to take the job.” Grover said the team’s im proved communication will help them in their efforts to win the California Interscholastic Federa tion Southern Section (CIF-SS) Division I championship in this upcoming season.

PRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF NEHA TUMMALA

“Everyone is super motivat ed, especially after winning [the state championship] last year,” Thrower said. “We have high expectations and the preseason is where we really come togeth er as a team. We all want to win again and our season is not that long, so we’re trying to use ev ery opportunity that we have to getLastbetter.”season, the girls volley ball team was led by perfor mances from Daily News Player of the Year Kennedy Hill ’22 and captain Sophia Lindus ’22. With these players now playing volleyball at Northwestern Uni versity and Wesleyan Universi ty, respectively, Jones said it is essential that they quickly inte grate the younger players into the team.

Bridges ’24 commits to TCU as pitcher

Founder Rayne Duronslet said she and her husband Dominic created Rayne Athletics and con tacted a variety of high schools, hoping to set a new standard for sports“Ourphotography.photography style is more modern and based in creative studio photography,” Duronslet said. “Athletic pictures have not changed much over the decades, and we hope to help el evate the standard and promote and celebrate student-athletes. One way we do this is by design ing unique sets and backgrounds that complement the portraits and showcase each athlete in the best possibleFootballlight.”Program Head Aaron Huerta said Rayne’s photogra phy helps athletes showcase their unique personalities.

Outside hitter and Duke University commit Grace Thrower ’23 said she liked the energy the team brought to the tournament and is glad they are not taking their time together for granted.

SUMMER SPLASH: The girls vollyeball team visit Duke’s restaurant on Waikiki beach after a day’s long competition in Hawaii. The team had an overall record of 4-4 in the Hawaii tournament and won their season-opener against Woodrow Wilson High School with a score of 3-0.

Mehta ’23 to attend Emerson for lacrosse

Kelly said he decided to try Rayne Athletics after they reached out to him . “I got a commercial from Rayne, and I thought they had some cutting edge ideas,” Kelly said. “It was available to do local ly, and we figured we would con tact them and see if they might be able to do something at the high school level with us. Last year, we did a pilot program just to test out their product and what they could execute, and we put a lot of the work we did with them on social media. It seemed to be very popu lar in our Terrencecommunity.”Mathews ’23 said Rayne Athletics helps to promote team spirit in a variety of ways. “Not only was the team’s mo rale up from the high level pho tography and atmosphere of the photoshoot, the media can be used all around the school network system to promote attendance at the games,” Mathews said. “The Rayne photoshoot felt dynamic. With fun fast booths like the 360 degree camera and the personal ized photos, the Rayne photogra phy session gives you professional quality pictures in a pro athlete media day environment. The pho tos turned out amazing as well, which was great to see.” Duronslet said Rayne Athletics plans to continue to cater their unique photography experience to the“[Myschool.husband Dominic and I], look forward to creating and innovating within the field of sports photography, and provid ing [the school’s] student-athletes a picture day and media day ex perience unlike any they’ve had before,” Duronslet said.

By Jaden Bobb

“We are used to just two pic tures, one individual and one team,” Huerta said. “Now, it is a little bit more like, ‘Show your personality.’ ‘Have fun with it.’ It is not the normal old-school youth picture. It is more of, ‘Just be who you are.’ There is also the video stuff. That is so much more fun because you get to see kids in action and you get to see kids be who they Athleticare.”Director Jason Kelly said the school strives to constant ly improve its athletic communi cations and media. “We are always trying to push the envelope and be at the fore front of athletic communica tion and technology,” Kelly said. “Over the years, we have done a really good job of leading the way of high schools in terms of what we are putting out on social me dia. Recently, a lot of schools are trying to compete and do really good work in these areas, and we are always trying to stay a little bit ahead of the curve.”

PRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF RAYNE MEDIA

“Hill and Lindus were defi nitely big parts of the team both on and off the court, but we are working really hard to make our new additions to the team comfortable playing on a varsity level,” Jones said. “The seniors are also stepping into leadership roles this year, just as [they] did lastHopingyear.” to become state champions once again, Throw er said she believes the team will be able to improve over the course of the season. “We can improve on consis tently playing at a high level,” Thrower said. “We only had a week of practice before going, so that confidence and team chemistry will come with time as we get to know each other and play together more.”

STRIKE A POSE: Varsity running back Josh Dixon ’23 smiles for the camera during the football media day put on by Rayne Creative Studio.

The girls volleyball team re turned from the preseason Ann Kang Invitational tournament in Hawaii with a record of 4-4. It was their first competition of the season, and the team started with a 2-0 win against Hawaii Baptist Academy on Aug. 11, before losing 2-0 to Moanalua High School on Aug. 13. To ad vance to the semifinal game, the team needed to place top two in their pool, but they placed fourth. The squad bounced back and won their season-opener 3-0 against Woodrow Wilson HighDespiteSchool.the tournament’s outcome, outside hitter and Columbia University commit Avery Jones ’23 said she is con fident the team will be well prepared for the start of the regular“Duringseason.preseason games and practices, we are going to fine-tune some of our skills that we struggled with during the Hawaii tournament and con tinue bonding as a team,” Jones said. “With all the new people on the team, we want to make sure we create a strong team dy namic so that we can flow to gether when we’re on the court, ultimately with the goal of max imizing our skills.”

The school announced an all-program partnership with Rayne Athletics Creative Studio, who has already photographed and produced video for this year’s fall sports teams. Last year, Rayne Sports photographed boys basket ball, girls basketball and girls soc cer as part of a pilot program.

By Christopher Mo Goalkeeper Rohan Mehta ’23 committed to attend and play lacrosse at Emerson College on JulyMehta31. said the recruitment process was full of learning experiences, allowing him to develop not only as an athlete, but also as a person. “It was a real roller coaster,” Mehta said. “There were a lot of rejections and moments when I had to step out of my comfort zone with coaches. I learned a lot about how to present myself in a positive way as well as a lot of communication skills.” Mehta said he is also looking forward to enrolling in Emerson’s renowned film program. “I am very passionate about film and it is definitely what I want to study in college,” Mehta said. “Emerson has one of the best film programs while also being a competitive Division 3 program.”

By Eden PitcherConnerTommy Bridges ’24 announced his commitment to the admissions process at Texas Christian University (TCU) on Aug.Bridges4. has played on the varsity baseball team since his freshman year in addition to playing club with Legacy Baseball Group. He said playing baseball at TCU will help him grow as both an athlete and a student. “There was not a single thing that did not stand out about TCU,” Bridges said. “Being able to play college baseball at the highest level on a historic baseball team while getting an outstanding education is all I could ask for.” Bridges said his commitment was a reward for the work he put into the “Thesport.work does not stop here, Bridges said. “This decision only motivates me to be my best self.”

hwchronicle.com/sports Sports D3Aug. 24, 2022

Sports teams partner with Rayne

By Jackson Mayer

Girls volleyball kicks off new season in Hawaii

• Continued on hwchronicle.com

BYKAI FAUCHER

WOLVERINESONLY PRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF KAI FAUCHER Aug. 24, 2022D4 Sports The Chronicle

Up until I came to the school, (and I have no shame in saying this), I showed up to many of my sporting events for the sole purpose of indulging in the snacks that team moms had to offer after the game was over. I was by no means an athletic superstar child and, although I always towered above my competition, my presence didn’t phase pint-sized opponents as they dribbled between my legs to the hoop or juked me and ran for the endzone. Sure, I might snap the ball successfully or even win a tip-off, but mostly I was lost, practi cally spinning in circles on the court and field as I ventured to find the basic objective of these strange sports. My dad would always talk about the difference between just participating and re ally applying myself in the car on the way home, never to pressure me, but just to remind me of what was there for my taking should I choose to engage myself. I had no “why,” no motivation to play the game and I don’t blame myself for it; I didn’t have fun playing sports because they scared me. Although I was reminded by coaches and parents alike of my supposed athletic potential, nothing inside of me burned to compete; I hadn’t yet realized the beauty of the game. I didn’t know it yet, and wouldn’t until I had sports taken from me altogether, but I was taking every last second of time on the court and field for granted. I can still remember warming up for my first freshman basketball game and noticing new, sharp pain in my left knee. All summer, I had been playing unprecedentedly well; the makings for my very first, long-awaited breakout season. After an impressive first game, I also recall being unusually stiff and sore getting ready for the second. By the third, I was unable to even jog without wincing from the awful pain. I knew it was something bad, but I didn’t know that I would be hanging up my jersey for the next two years. In fact, I would eventually quit basketball altogether. When I emerged on the other side of an intense sur gery, the shame of a wheelchair, countless hours of painful physical therapy, and multiple missed sports seasons, I felt thoroughly humbled and in touch with just what it meant to me to be an ath lete. I promised myself that I’d never take another play off, that I would cherish the ability to sprint, pivot, jump, cut, and hit because I knew what it was to be immobilized, a complete shell of myself. The scar on my knee reminds me even today of the blood, sweat and tears that went into mold ing a new mindset and a new young man. At the same time, though, I had a loud, darker voice in the back of my head feeding me doubt, that same feeling that left me questioning whether I was even worthy of being called an athlete anymore. For so long, I never knew how much fear I car ried with me when I played the game. Whether it was football or basketball, the sports that I spent hours upon hours practicing felt unpredictable and intimidating once it was time to compete. The prospect of a weekend tournament would eat me alive from the inside and, frankly, even practices were enough to ignite my anxiety around it all. The worst part of it for me was just how abstract and inaccessible this deep, gut feeling was; I couldn’t identify a particular source to this constant pressure on my shoulders. Completing recovery surprisingly wasn’t as rewarding as I thought it would be. Although it had been a grueling couple of years, a period of intensely personal time that I spent getting in touch with my own body, I had a hole in myself and knew something was missing in my life. The time I spent away from the field certainly helped me develop my relationship with myself as an athlete, but I still couldn’t deny the fact that I hadn’t played a single game of football since my 8th grade season. The movements, the impact, the “touch” that I worked so hard to master, even the swagger that I played the game with had been reduced to nothing in my mind. With my sports identity wiped clean, the idea of starting on the varsity offensive line as a 10th grader looked far more challenging that I was ready to manage. Though I knew after intensive recovery that my body was healthy and ready to perform, it was my mindset that I was unsure would be ready to face the hardships of tackle football. With gameday just around the corner, this hidden opponent would prove to be far more challenging to grapple with than any defensive lineman or linebacker I’d face all season. My return to the world of sports was a cold (L.A.) night in March of 2021, football’s COVID Season opener against the St. Genevieve Valiants. With frost coming off of my breath and out of my helmet during warm-ups, I was comfortably numb and in a very different mental state than I was used to being in pregame; I was ready to dominate whoever lined up across from me. The sports gods could not have chosen a better game on Ted Slavin Field to have been a nail biter. The Wolverines won by 1 point off of a score in the dying seconds of the game, and I’d been a part of the offensive line had made the crucial goaline shove that allowed our running back to break the plane. I burst into tears when I heard the whistle end the play, completely overcome with pride and relief. With the doubt melting away, I realized that all I had needed was to prove it to myself.