May 2017 Issue by The Harvard-Westlake Chronicle

CHRONICLE the harvard-westlake

Los Angeles • Volume 26 • Issue 8 • May 31, 2017 • hwchronicle.com

All fun and games? By Layla Moghavem

and

Jean Sanders

The Monday that Assassin started, Head Prefect Cate Wolfen ’17 saw the game as a way for students to have fun together, although it could be distracting to their schoolwork at times. The next day, she saw the game in an entirely new light. After hearing news of the Manchester attack that claimed many lives, she didn’t see students pause to think about how lucky they were to be safe but rather she saw them doing what they were doing the day before - pointing finger guns at each other and yelling ‘bang’. “The whole day just felt really sad and embarrassing to me to walk around and see this community of kids who are so lucky, me included, to be safe and not have to worry about gun violence or bombing or anything that would be as serious as what happened in Manchester was,” Wolfen said. • Continued on C7

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY NICOLE KIM

Boys’ tennis wins CIF championship By Matthew Yam In 2010, an 11 year-old Adam Sraberg ’17 approached Harvard-Westlake boys’ tennis program head Chris Simpson and Stanford tennis star Ryan Thacher ’08. “I want to be a star tennis player,” Sraberg said. “That requires a lot of hard work, Adam,” Simpson told him. “I’m up for it. I want to come play for you and I’m going to quit baseball to be a tennis star.” Fast-forward seven years: Sraberg is a captain of Simpson’s program, which has become one of the best tennis teams in southern California. The squad completes a nearperfect season, goes 28-3 overall, remains undefeated in the Mission League for the 16th year in a row and is crowned CIF champions. After losing in the CIF championship in 2014 and 2015, and being eliminated

in the second round of CIF in 2016, the senior captains were all too familiar with the sting of defeat and were determined not to feel it again. Despite injuries to key players like Stanley Morris ’18, the squad started the season firing on all cylinders, dominating its first 14 opponents by at least 13 of a maximum 18 sets in each match. The Wolverines had strength from top to bottom, with strong play from seniors Sraberg, Jed Kronenberg and Jacob Tucker, and a pair of formidable freshmen in David Arkow and Timothy Li. The first loss of the season didn’t come until March 25 against Palisades Charter in the All-American Invitational Tournament in Newport Beach. Standout freshman Li playing in an out of school tournament, and the squad missed him dearly. However, the boys did not let the loss demoralize them, and instead used it to add fuel to the fire.

“We’d gone farther than HW’s ever gone before in the tournament, and it was a sign to us that our team was capable of accomplishing the unprecedented,” Tucker said. The squad proceeded to win its next three matches, including an 18-0 shutout of Notre Dame, before going on Spring Break. In their first match after spring break, the Wolverines faced defending CIF champions Peninsula. Peninsula led 9-8 heading into the 18th and final match of the day. The Wolverines seem poised to win (Harvard-Westlake held the tiebreaker had it finished 9-9), with Sraberg leading Dariush Jalali five games to three. It was match point for Sraberg, who lead the game 40-0. He collapsed. Jalali rallied to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, and Peninsula won 10-8. “The only thing that could have gone better this season is that we could have gone un-

defeated if not for the one loss to Peninsula,” Tucker said. “However, that loss taught us a lot, and without it, I don’t know if we would’ve been hungry enough to take home the title.” Kronenberg expressed a similar sentiment in recognizing that they had to dial back in if they were achieve their goal of a CIF championship. “The Peninsula loss was a huge wake up call for us,” Kronenberg said. “We had been destroying every team, but now we knew we had to improve again. Our next few practices were beyond intense. We were determined to play better.” The boys did just that, delivering an 18-0 shutout against crosstown rival Loyola and two more dominant wins to close out the regular season, remaining undefeated in the Mission League. The Wolverines continued • Continued on page D1

INSIDE

SENIOR SUPPLEMENT: The seniors reflect on their time at the school, Chronicle and as friends.

Scan to read more about the boys’ tennis team.

A2 NEWS

THE CHRONICLE

MAY 31, 2017

School celebrates 25 years

By SOFIA HELLER JENNY LI

AND

Parents, alumni and faculty watched musical performers, took pictures and danced in celebration of the 25th anniversary of the ﬁrst graduating class after the merger May 20 at the Middle School. Former President Tom Hudnut shared the details about why he chose to merge Harvard School for Boys and Westlake School for Girls. He spoke about working with school board members and teachers to transform Harvard from what he called a “wicked strong academic program, soso athletic program, fairly adequate visual arts program, and deplorable performing arts program,” to the co-ed school it is now. Katenah Haydarzadeh ’94, a student of one of the ﬁrst merged classes, said though she was not initially happy with the merger as a freshman, she attained skills that have helped her with her life now. “A big thing [Hudnut] said that resonated was that, be-

JENNY LI/CHRONICLE

SILVER ANNIVERSARY: The school commemorated its 25th anniversary with an event for parents, alumni and faculty. Activities included musical performances by Mark Hoppus and Matt Skiba of Blink-182 and LA Philharmonic Associate Concermaster Bing Wang. cause I was a part of a school that’s new, I felt like I was a pioneer,” Haydarzadeh said. “For the rest of my life, I felt like it was a really good idea to take risks and take chances. I have no problem to try something that I don’t know is going to work, and this school taught me that.” Parent musicians also performed for the attendees in the Bing Performing Arts Cen-

ter, including Mark Hoppus (Jack ’20) and Matt Skiba from Blink-182, violinist and Associate Concertmaster of LA Philharmonic Bing Wang (Anna ’18, Andrew ’21), and songwriter Billy Steinberg (Ezra ’15). Head of School Jeanne Huybrechts spoke about her experiences at the school, and what she hoped will be her legacy after she retires this year. “To work at our school is

Alum advances in congressional primary to face fellow Democrat

By MADDY DAUM ANTHONY WEINRAUB

AND

With a national government debating a Republican healthcare proposal and broad tax cuts, Robert Lee Ahn ’94 is seeking to become the newest member of the House of Representatives, representing California’s 34th district. Ahn, a lawyer, former LA city planning commissioner and Democrat, will face State Assemblyman Jimmy Gomez in the special election June 6 following California Attorney General Xavier Becerra’s res-

ignation to assume his current position. Ahn is running as an outsider, acknowledging his past as a Republican and drawing a contrast to Gomez, who has been endorsed by most of the Democratic establishment. Ahn’s main priorities include ﬁghting the Republicansponsored American Health Care Act, promoting public safety and improving education opportunities in the 34th district. “One of the goals is to bring back additional federal resources here into the 34th district, working together with the

In the issue

News

city and county governments, along with other agencies, to ensure that we can start helping improve the quality of lives of local residents,” Ahn said. Ahn credits the school for partially helping to inspire him to run. “I would say that my Harvard-Westlake experience and education has really formed so much of my foundation and really helped shape a lot of my principles and core beliefs, so I’m forever grateful to HarvardWestlake and the HarvardWestlake community for making me the person I am today,” Ahn said.

to dwell in possibility,” Huybrechts said. “We all seek legacy, and so I hope that some of my pet projects will endure and get forward into our school’s bright future. All of my work in this school is [motivated] by a single rule that I ﬁrst learned in Girl Scout camp, ‘Always leave campground cleaner then you left it.’ If I have done that, then all is good.” Los Angeles Mayor Eric

“

I think [Ahn] would be a great candidate because as a Korean-American, it would be great to have someone to represent us in his district. Coming from Harvard-Westlake, he also has a strong foundation to make change.” —Calvin Koo ’18

Tony Kim ’91, who has hosted fundraising events for the Ahn campaign said that Ahn’s role as the only KoreanAmerican in the House would provide much needed representation. “He’s going to be bringing a whole new perspective, something that’s not the normal way of doing politics, really just serving the community,” Kim said.

look at the plots of indiviual plays in the Playwrights Festival, accompanied by pictures from each show. B2-3

Features SENIOR SEASON-AL DISORDER: Al-

though some seniors feel less pressure once second semester starts, others continue to work hard in their classes. C2-3

departing factulty members, describing their accomplishments during their time working at the school. A6-7

lis Becker discusses his viewpoint on the Student Ambassador program’s lack of transparency with prospective students. A10

In his campaign, Ahn has emphasized that he would be making history if elected, becoming the ﬁrst Korean-American elected to Congress in more than 20 years. “I think he would be a great candidate because as a KoreanAmerican it would be great to have someone to represent us in his district,” Calvin Koo ’18 said. “Coming from Harvard-Westlake, he also has a strong foundation to make change.”

PLAYING TO THE CROWD: A closer

FACULTY FAREWELL: Proﬁles of the

YOU CAN’T HANDLE THE TRUTH: El-

NATHANSON’S

Arts & Entertainment

WARDROBE WORRIES: Deans announce alterations to the wording of the Dress Code in the Student Handbook. Revised wording to acknowledge gender identity. A5

Opinion

Garcetti ’88 and actor Jake Gyllenhaal ’98 were among the alumni to wish HarvardWestlake a happy anniversary in videos throughout the evening. Parents and alumni also had the opportunity to win tickets in an auction. After the presentation in auditorium, attendees went to the reception outside for dinner, dessert and dancing.

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY JOSIE ABUGOV

CRUNCHING THE NUMBERS: A compilation of schoolwide

statistics throughout the past year, ranging from athletics, performing arts, extracurricular activities and school traditions like Prom and Cinema Sundays. C1

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

Sports

ONE FOR THE BOOKS: A review of sports teams’ achievements throughout the year, including leauge championships and CIF titles. D4-5

editor may be submitted to chronicle@hw.com or mailed to 3700 Coldwater Canyon Ave., Studio City, CA 91604. Letters must be signed and may be edited for space and to conform to Chronicle style and format. Advertising questions may be directed to Oliver Richards at orichards1@hwemail.com. Publication of an advertisement does not imply endorsement of the product or service by the newspaper or the school.

MAY 31, 2017

HWCHRONICLE.COM/NEWS

And the winner is...

The school recognized students and faculty for their contributions and dedication at the awards assembly Tuesday in the Taper Gym.

Senior Academic Awards

Valedictorian - Brendan Rose ’17 Salutatorian - Joe Levin ’17

Each department honored a senior for an outstanding commitment to or achievement in that discipline.

Lester Medvene Award - Caroline Cook ’19

Computer Science - Justin Rose ’17

Awarded to a sophomore who contributes to the life of the school and embodies Lester Medvene’s “curiosity of mind and dedication of spirit.”

Duocommun Award (Mathematics) - Eli Goldin ’17 Chronicle - Katie Plotkin ’17, Layla Moghavem ’17, and Jean Sanders ’17

Renselaer Award - Adin Ring ’18

Vox Populi - Jenny Lange ’17 and Maddy Ullola ’17

Given to a junior who has distinguished himself or herself in the study of math and science throughout the year. If the student chooses to attend Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, they receive a four-year scholarship.

English - Henry Platt ’17 Visual Arts - Russell Davis ’17

Morris Michael Landres Award - Soﬁa Heller ’19

Science - Noam Ringach ’17 and Youna Choi ’17

Recognizes a sophomore who has demonstrated “consistent effort, dedication and promise” through his or her work on a school publication.

History - Jack Hogan ’17

Tamkin Community Service Award - Sophia van Iderstein’17 and Serena Davis ’17;

Brendan Kutler ’10 ‘Two Hats’ Award - Jarett Malouf ’18

Creative Writing - Sophia Dienstag ’17

Jerry Margolis Jazz Award - Noah Moghavem ’17

Frederick Douglass Diversity Award - Anya Andrews ’17 Recognizes a senior for his or her focus on his or her own culture or others based on ethnicity, religion and sexual orientation in a creative, corageous and compassionate way through art, activism or outreach.

Garrett Hardin Early Achievement Award - Adam Levine

David Justic Rascoff ’91 Faculty Award - Kanwal Kochar

Given to a senior, in memory of Lamar Trotti Jr. ’50, who made the most dramatic transformation in his or her life and work both inside and outside of the classroom during his or her time at Harvard-Westlake.

Created in honor of David Justin Rascoff ’91, this award funds summer sabbaticals for faculty members which the recipients can decide how to use.

David Justin Rascoff ’91 Award - Kat Edminston ’17

Given to a member of the junior class for his or her outstanding contributions to the school environment and spirit. The recipient is nomianted and selected by senior class ofﬁcers and faculty members.

Given to a senior faculty member for distinguished service to the school.

Given to a junior faculty member for early achievement in his or her department.

Lamar Trotti Jr ’50 Award - Nic Smith ’17

Cuscaden Blacwood Medal - Daniel Varela ’18

Faculty Awards Garrett Hardin Distinguished Service Award - Michelle Bracken

Named in honor of performing arts teacher Jerry Margolis, who taught for 36 years beginning at the Harvard School for Boys, to a student who contributed to the jazz program during his or her time at the school.

Honors a senior who has demonstrated service to the school, friendliness, consideration for others and loyalty to the community.

Excellency in Debate - Connor Engel ’17 and Evan Engel ’17 William L. Davis Award (Economics) - Jenna Moustafa ’17

Awarded to a junior who pursues intellectual experiences outside the classroom, takes risks to pursue his or her interests and demonstrates kindness towards peers and adults inside and outside the classroom.

Humanitas Award - Matt Thomas ’17

Performing Arts - Natalie Musicant ’17 and Erick Gredonia ’17 Foreign Language - Theo Velaise ’17

Given to seniors who have given their time to serving the community, both on and off campus and both independently and with others.

Given in memeory of David Justin Rascoff ’91 to a member of the sneior class who has always spoken his or her opinions in his or her daily life.

Athletics Awards Lee Carlson Award (Athletics) - Claudia Wong ’17 and Evan Rosenfeld ’17 Awarded to two members of the senior class, one male and one female, who demonstrate excellence and dedication in athletics.

Schumacher Award - Jake Liker ’17 and Eddie Mack ’17 Given to a senior for his or her contributions to the athletics department, effort in a sport and display of sportsmanship during his or her senior year.

School announces graduation speakers By SAMMI HANDLER

Brendan Rose ’17 will speak as valedictorian and Joe Levin ’17 will speak as salutatorian at commencement June 9. The faculty selected Rose based on his academic ability and students voted for Levin in a poll sent by deans earlier this month. President Rick Commons announced Rose as

valeditorian at the Cum Laude ceremoney and Levin at the awards ceremoney Tuesday. “[I felt] a mixture of excitement and nervousness,” Rose said. “I guess I wasn’t really expecting it, but it’s nice to know that my teachers recognized all of my hard work.” Rose has started working on his speech, but is saving the details for graduation, he said.

NEWS A3

Levin, who is a member of the improv comedy troupe the Scenemonkeys and also the Editor-in-Chief of Big Red, said he is honored that the Class of 2017 chose him. “As for actually giving the speech though, it’s just that it’s such a hard speech to give,” Levin said. “You’re expected to be funny, which is always hard, and then there’s also a

“

SOURCE: AWARD CEREMONY GRAPHIC BY INDU PANDEY

[I felt] a mixture of excitement and nervousness. I guess I wasn’t really expecting it, but it’s nice to know that my teachers recognized all of my hard work.” —Brendan Rose ’17 Valedictorian

certain amount of tiptoeing you have to do to satisfy both your classmates and all the parents.”

NATHANSON’S

Levin said he will work with his “co-writers” Nate Hollander ’17, Andrew Berg ’17 and Justin Ciccone ’17.

THE CHRONICLE

A4 News

MAY 31, 2017

Assassin starts with a bang

By RYAN ALBERT

KAITLIN MUSANTE/CHRONICLE

GOING IN FOR THE KILL: Students particpate in the campus-wide Assassin game, using a student-developed app, by tracking down their targets in order to “stay alive” and to advance further.

World Languages Department honors students for outstanding achievements By KAITLIN MUSANTE

The World Languages Department inducted students into the World Languages Honors Society in celebration of their achievements in studying Spanish, French, Chinese and Latin on May 16. The inductees were sworn in by reciting a pledge in their respective languages. Also, a senior from each language was given the outstanding student award. Theo Velaise ’17 was hon-

ored for his high level of proﬁciency in the Chinese, Danielle Kaye ’17 for French, Howard Deshong ’17 for Latin and Elly Hong ’17 for Spanish. “I felt very honored and humbled when I found out,” Deshong said. “There are plenty of worthy people who deserve recognition.” Deshong said he was interested in learning Latin because of the history behind the language. “Sometimes people talk about Latin like it’s some sort

of code that stuffy speeches are written in,” Deshong said. “Some really pivotal documents were written in Latin, and so were great works of art. The Romans wrote satire, they wrote emotional poems, they even wrote their own equivalent of diss tracks. And lots of it still holds up 2,000 years on. Reading those works, we can peer into the heads of, and even relate with, people who lived millennia ago.” Before each award was presented, students performed a

More than 300 students played in the 5th annual assassin game with a newly created app. As of press time, only 45 players remain. Moderated by James Kanoff ’17 and Justin Rose ’17, the game started just after 8 a.m. May 22. The goal of the game is to be the last surviving player. Students can “assassinate” their peers by putting their hand to their specified target’s back or head and saying “bang.” They must record their “kill” with a video posted on the HW Assassin app and have their target confirm as well. “We only have about a week to finish the game so we are trying to add rules to make the game go faster,” Kanoff said. The moderators attempted to speed up the game by eliminating students without kills. On May 24, they published a “List of Shame” informing participants of a deadline to get their first kill. They also planned to remove all safe zones and create special kills using water guns or throwing socks. However, they have been met with pushback from the administration. They announced that the library, Kutler center and insession classrooms would remain safe spaces, like they

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were in last year’s game. After controversial kills, they also released rules that students could not “trespass into someone else’s home to kill them” and that they “may not kill someone meeting with a teacher or dean.” See the story on A1 for more details on the controversy. One of the remaining players, Taner Vickery ’17, said students bonded during the game. “I really feel like this game brings our school together as a community,” Vickery said. “I have talked to people who I’ve never talked to before during my three years at the Upper School.” Because the new app was not approved by Apple, students downloaded the application “TestFlight” in order to use the unpublished app. “We knew the old app was going to break in the winter because it was using a service called Parse and it went out of business,” Rose said However, their new app has had problems as well. There have been glitches when publishing the videos of kills and conﬁrming them, recording video and scrolling through the feed. Kanoff and Rose are working on ﬁxing the bugs and speeding up the app.

Some really pivotal documents were written in Latin and so were great works of art. The Romans wrote satire, they wrote emotional poems, they even wrote their own equivalent of diss tracks. And lots of it still holds up 2,000 years on.” —Howard Deshong ’17

cultural presentation coinciding with the language. Angel Hoyang ’18 performed a Chinese dance, a group of choir students sang a French song a capella, Henry Platt ’17 sang Ave Maria for Latin and Big Red Editor-in-Chief Joe Levin ’17, Nate Hollander ’17 and Andrew Berg ’17 performed a

WHITE’S

rendition of the popular Spanish song “La Bamba.” Those inducted said they felt honored to be awarded. “I was really excited and proud when I got the award because I worked hard to learn Chinese and spent lots of time on it,” Chinese student Isabella Huang ’19 said.

Record high GPA range joins National Cum Laude Society By KAITLIN MUSANTE

temporal by introducing their students to truth and beauty, Fifty-seven students who to calculus and poetry.” History teacher and Cum are in the top 20 percent of the graduating class’ grade point Laude Chapter President Ken average were inducted into the Neisser dedicated his speech to National Cum Laude Society Huybrechts to honor her last year at the school. May 15. Neisser spoke on The grade point truth and its imperaverage needed to be fections, and he adinducted was a 4.4, vised students to ﬁnd the highest it has ever their own truths. been. “With my moral President Rick code secure and my Commons also anlearning curve ever nounced that Brenrising, I can and I will dan Rose ’17 will be pursue my truth and valedictorian. WHITE’S although I might not Head of School Jeanne catch it, I will know Jeanne Huybrechts Huybrechts that my direction is kicked off the certrue and my journey emony with a reading of Jacqueline Woodson’s “Birch the right one,” Neisser said. “So yes, truth, imperfect, multiTree Poem.” “My poetry reading today faceted, and elusive as it may pays homage to poets and be, at the end of the day does teachers,” Huybrechts said. matter if it’s a life well lived that “To poets, whose poems contin- we seek.” Those who were inducted ue to speak to readers long after they have been written and said they were excited to reto teachers, who transcend the ceive the honor and that they

KAITLIN MUSANTE/CHRONICLE

BRAINIACS: Faculty induct seniors in the top twenty percent of the class, who had a 4.4 GPA or higher, into the Cum Laude Society and speak to students on the value of education and truth. were inspired by the ceremony. “I especially liked Mr. Neisser’s speech because it was just really honest,” Serena Davis ’17 said. “I liked that he addressed all the complexities of

the truth and reminded us that pursuing it, even if we never attain it, will push us closer and closer to ﬁnding it.” Davis said she came away from the ceremony having

learned something valuable. “[The speeches] really got me thinking about what’s important to me as I move forward from high school,” Davis said.

MAY 31, 2017

HWCHRONICLE.COM/NEWS

NEWS A5

Get schooled: class boosts turnout By SABA NIA NOA SCHWARTZ

AND

Former Chronicle Editor-in-Chief Nick Melvoin ’04 emerged victorious in L.A. Uniﬁed School District Board elections May 16. After garnering enough votes in the March primary election to advance to a runoff with incumbent Board President Steve Zimmer, Melvoin pulled 57 percent of the vote. Melvoin’s intern Shelby Weiss ’16 said his team spent the months between elections continuing to reach out to voters to maximize turnout and build a strong and positive campaign. As the election approached, Zimmer’s team published several disparaging advertisements urging voters not to vote for Melvoin. Weiss said she is pleased the ads did not affect election results. “In spite of the vitriol and hostility from the other side, Nick and his positive campaign prevailed, which, given

SABA NIA/CHRONICLE

LEADING THE ELECTION: Students from the Unconventional Leadership class record votes from students over 18-years-old or their par-

ents and other adults in the LAUSD election. For every 50 votes registered, a student got to pie one teacher at the First and Third Assembly.

the national political climate, was incredibly heartening to see,” Weiss said. “While, as the challenger, Nick’s odds were always long, he was undoubtedly the superior candidate. His victory is historic. An incumbent, let alone the School Board President, hasn’t been

unseated in decades.” Prior to the election, members of the Unconventional Leadership class promoted voting with a booth on the quad that featured a sign-spinner, Krispy Kreme doughnuts and music May 15. Students used a mega-

Venturing into business and finance

By KENDALL DEES

Kara Nortman ’93 discussed her work with students May 24 during Business of Life classes and offered advice for students interested in the business of venture capitalism. Nortman is a partner at Upfront Venture, a venture capital ﬁrm, where her work primarily involves large invest-

ments unique to companies in her line of work. In addition to answering questions about the world of venture capitalism, Nortman gave advice to students regarding their own ideas and projects. Harry Gestetner ’18 began the lunch asking questions regarding the company that he and Xander Klein ’18 founded called Coldwater Connections. According to Gestet-

ner said they founded the company to serve as an intermediary between college startups and angel investors and small venture capitalist ﬁrms. “I found [Kara Nortman’s advice] very interesting,” Gestetner said. “Obviously, she is a partner up front for one of the best LA funds, so it was great to hear from such an accomplished investor.” Nortman also gave HW

phone and chalk messages to attract their classmates to the booth, where they could register to vote and sign up to travel to a voting center on school buses Tuesday. Though participants have to be at least 18 years old to vote, organizers encouraged students to regis-

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ter their parents as well. “Something like this, just raising awareness for the issues in our own community, is important because students in these schools are people that we are going to be growing up with,” co-organizer Wilder Short ’18 said.

I found [Kara Nortman’s advice] very interesting. Obviously, she is a partner up front for one of the best LA funds, so it was great to hear from such an accomplished investor.” —Harry Gestetner ’18

Venture members advice on how to make their sessions more effective and conclusive. “Harvard-Westlake has this great opportunity and

NATHANSON’S

this great challenge because it is one of the best schools in the country, it doesn’t matter where you go to college,” Nortman said.

Changing it up: Dress code to address gender identity By NOA SCHWARTZ

SOPHIE HABER/CHRONICLE

READING RAINBOW: Matteo Lauto ’17 hands out rainbow heart stickers to support LGBTQ rights and to celebrate International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia day.

Showing pride: Students support LGBTQ By SOPHIE HABER

For the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia, students showed their support for the school’s LGBT community with rainbow hearts on their chests. Following an announcement about the harassment that LGBT people face during assembly May 17, GSA and P10 members, along with some prefects and faculty members, passed out pride stickers to students in honor of the global celebration of gender and sex-

uality diversity. “It’s good that people understand that there’s a bigger cause and that sometimes we need our allies to help us gain equality and stop prejudice,” P10 member Matteo Lauto ’18 said. The day commemorates the anniversary of the date the World Health Organization removed homosexuality from its International Classiﬁcation of Diseases on May 17, 1990. However, students announced at the assembly that 93 percent of teens still report hearing derogatory language

about sexual orientation, according to Violence Prevention Works. “Homophobia, transphobia and biphobia are still real problems in our society, even in 2017, and affect a lot of members of our community, whether indirectly or directly, so we want to be able to show our support in any way that we can,” GSA leader Nathan Cardin said. Community support on Wednesday was overwhelming, and GSA and P10 members quickly ran out of stickers, Lauto said.

Administrators drafted an altered wording of the school’s Dress Code, which acknowledges gender identity and issues with its enforcement, as a result of complaints from both upper and middle school students. The revised Dress Code was sent to afﬁnity groups via email May 23 and will be printed in the 2017-18 Student Handbook. Conversations about the language of the Dress Code began at the upper School following an email sent to students by Interim Head of Upper School Liz Resnick on Sept. 27. La Femme leaders requested a Town Hall meeting to address concerns with Resnick, but no ofﬁcial changes were made. The push for a change in wording was initiated by eighth grade student council members, Upper School Deans Department Head Beth Slattery said. “The middle school deans were approached by an eighth grade senator about ‘modernizing the dress code,’” Slattery said. “Her claim was that students felt ‘shamed’ and ‘violated’ when they were dress coded and that the current code relies heavily on the concept of shame and that it should

be more about respect for the school community and less about how students dress makes others feel, particularly if a male feels uncomfortable about the way a female student is dressed.” Slattery said she was pleased that changes were student-generated. Despite the fact that gender identity was not mentioned in September discussions, she said she was glad to see language that is in accordance with the school’s inclusivity agenda. Gender-Sexuality Awareness Club adviser Nate Cardin said the language and enforcement of the Dress Code has been a prominent topic of discussion in GSA meetings over the past year and that many members of GSA would like to see futher acknowledgment of gender identity in the Student Handbook. “I was really pleased to see that the dress code explicitly states that you can dress in accordance with whichever gender you identify with,” Cardin said. “I think that, recently, the school has just kind of assumed that, but it’s really nice for our students and faculty who may not strictly identify with one gender or another, or with their biological assignment, to have that afﬁrmation.”

THE CHRONICLE

A6 News

in brief Saying goodbye Paper ranks school among most difficult

The Washington Post ranked Harvard-Westlake the 91st most challenging high school in the country in its annual Challenge Index on May 5, which is based on Advanced Placement courses. The list is compiled by dividing the number of AP, International Baccalaureate and Cambridge tests offered each year by the number of graduating seniors. A charter school in Arizona, BASIS Phoenix, ranked number 1 with a ratio of 26.25. Harvard-Westlake achieved a ratio of 6.59. The education columnist who started the list, Jay Mathews, wrote in his explanation of the index that he decided to not count passing rates since some schools only allow top students to take those tests to keep rates “artiﬁcially” high. —Sammi Handler

Something fishy: APES releases trout

AP Environmental Science students released rainbow trout into Lake Castaic to combat trout depopulation May 18. AP Environmental Science teacher Nadine Eisenkolb and students raised the ﬁsh in the classroom. The class acquired the trout from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Classroom Aquarium Education Program, also known as Trout in the Classroom, whose goal is to combat severe trout depopulation, according to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. —Cameron Stokes

Peer Support chooses coordinators, trainees Upper school psychologist and Peer Support Program Head Luba Bek announced coordinators and trainees for the 2017-2018 school year April 24 and May 19, respectively. Axel Rivera de Leon ’18, Charlotte Weinman ’18, Jake Neuman ’18 and Isabel Wiatt ’18 will be next year’s coordinators. Sophomores applying for a trainee position ﬁlled out an application and were evaluated by the leaders and trainees in their groups. They were also interviewed by members of the leadership team and their ﬁles were reviewed as a whole. —Gabi Berchtold

Queen sweep: student wins chess competition Tiber Seireeni ’18 won the Harvard-Westlake Chess Championship. The championship ended with a match between Ethan Tam ’19 and Seireeni. Rounds were played between May 1 and May 22, and both ﬁnalists will be added to a trophy in Chalmers. “My favorite part [about playing chess] is being able to just play the game with friends and test my abilities to think in complex ways,” Seireeni said. —Lucas Gelfond

MAY 31, 2017 Eight longtime faculty members will leave at the end of the year.

Feulner to leave science department By SOPHIE HABER

After 37 years at the school, physics teacher John Feulner will retire to the Pennsylvania countryside. In addition to teaching physics, during his time at the school, Feulner has been Chair of the Building Committee, Head of the Science Department and a middle school science teacher. “I had no idea when I took the job here that I’d be leaving after 37 years,” Feulner said. “For teaching, it doesn’t get any

better than this school, both ter and other projects. Harvard School Now, Feuloriginally and ner focuses then Harvardtime on teachIt’s just been a real ing, and is Westlake. The way they treat honor to work with young known for the their faculty is themed shirts people of that caliber. It’s tremendous, that he wears. been a lot of fun and I’ve and the way the Feulner students treat said that albeen very pleased.” their teachers though he will —John Feulner miss his time at is tremendous.” As Chair of Science teacher the school, he the Building is looking forCommittee, Feulner oversaw ward to moving closer to famthe creation of the Kutler Cen- ily in Pennsylvania, working on

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his music and having more time to drive his cars. “I’ve been very fortuNATHANSON’S nate, esJohn pecially in Feulner teaching Physics C Mechanics, to work with the most motivated and gifted students, and it’s just been a real honor to work with young people of that caliber,” Feulner said. “It’s been a lot of fun and I’ve been very pleased.”

Longtime dean to depart after 32 years By NOA SCHWARTZ

email. “All that aside, retirement really does feel right. Upper School Dean Vanna Through the decades, so much of the college Cairns anprocess has nounced her changed. Yet retirement to I have been so very the essence of her students working with March 10 via proud to represent the families though email. school every single day. an important Cairns has All that aside, retirement rite of passage worked at the in our culture school for 32 really does feel right.” remains the years, serving —Vanna Cairns same. And that initially as a French teacher Upper School Dean is what I will miss most of and eventually all. ” as both a Dean Cairns acknowledged conand a Choices and Challenges teacher. cerns in transitioning to a new “I have been so very proud dean. to represent the school every “For my juniors, I look forsingle day,” Cairns said in an ward to working closely with

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my successor, sharing all of the knowledge that I have gathered about you, orally and in writing, to be certain of a successful college application process,” Cairns said. For my sophomores, I look forward to knowing that you will be in good hands and will have two years to work together with the new dean. I can’t wait to hear how you develop into the successful people I know you will become.” Nia Kilgore will serve as Cairns’ replacement. Kilgore has nearly two decades of experience, including as a teacher, admissions ofﬁcer at Georgetown University and as a high school dean. Kilgore earned her un-

dergraduate degree from Georgetown and earned a master’s degree from NATHANSON’S Harvard UniVanna versity. Cairns Currently, Kilgore serves as Director of College Guidance at Yeshiva of Los Angeles Girls High School. “It’s deﬁnitely a little scary to switch deans in the middle of the college process, but I wish Ms. Cairns all the best and hope it’ll be a smooth transition for me and the other kids in my group,” Kyra Rosen ’18 said. “[Kilgore] seems really great and qualiﬁed.”

Longtime geology teacher says ‘this has just been the best job ever’ By KATIE PERRIN

After 34 years, science teacher and Incident Commander Wendy Van Norden will retire to pursue her dreams to travel and explore the world at the end of this year. “I think after all these years of teaching, I ought to see what else I can do,” Van Norden said. Van Norden started out by teaching seventh, eighth and ninth grade biology at the Harvard School for Boys and tenth grade biology at Harvard-Westlake. Van Norden later taught

courses in Geology, Geology “I always thought I would Honors and AP Environmental retire when I was fried but I’m Science. not,” Van Norden said. “I love Additionit. But since I ally, Van Norlike traveling den has served and outdoorsy I think after all as the Incident things so Commander for these years of teaching, much, I can’t the school and I ought to see what else plan on being organized the ﬁt enough to I can do[...]this has just Crisis Managedo them in my been the best job ever.” ment program 70’s, so I better in 2015, helpdo them in my —Wendy Van Norden 60’s.” ing to develop Science teacher the Crisis ManVan Norden ager App with ﬁrst plans to go attendance coordinator Gabri- backpacking throughout the el Preciado. Sierras with a friend, then will

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lead friends on a hiking trip through NATHANSON’S the Cotswolds Wendy of England. Van Norden She then plans to meet up with her husband and family and will give lectures on cruises in the Baltics and the Panama Canal. “This has just been the best job ever, and I will miss the bright and interesting students, the bright and interesting colleagues, lots of great conversations, and students who made me laugh,” Van Norden said.

Performing arts teacher Villaverde to depart for Polytechnic School position By KAITLIN MUSANTE

At Harvard-Westlake, Villaverde worked with students Performing Arts teacher An- to set up lighting and sound for assemblies. drew Villaverde “When I will leave the When I think of think of [Vilschool at the laverde], I alend of the year [Villaverde], I always think to teach at the think about how he can ways about how he Polytechnic always make the best can always School in Pasaof a situation, and he is make the best dena. of a situation, At Polyalways so funny.” and he is altechnic, he will —DJ Lesh ’18 ways so funny,” work on lightDJ Lesh ’18 ing and sound said. “Even if it’s 5 a.m. and during performances.

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he and I are setting up for one of the big assemblies, or it’s midnight on a Saturday after a long show, he always is his same old kind and funny self. He and I work great together, and I deﬁnitely think things will feel very different in the theater without him.” His students said his presence will be missed. “I think the thing I will miss most about Mr. Villaverde is his personality,” Lesh said. “I have never met anyone so kind and open to learning than him.

Even though I am younger than him and I am his stuNATHANSON’S dent, he is alAndrew Villaverde ways willing to listen to my ideas and sometimes he even learns from me. While there are so many small technical things he has taught me, the best thing he has ever taught me is about life itself. He has taught me a new level of respect and a great deal about how to work with others.”

MAY 31, 2017

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Math teacher to retire

By SABA NIA

PRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF BELLA HEDLEY

FEUL OF LOVE: Feulner’s eighth period class held a party to cel-

ebrate her retirement after 34 years of teaching math at the school.

Completing her 34 year tenure with the school, math teacher Beverly Feulner will retire at the end of the school year to return to her roots in Pennsylvania with her husband, science teacher John Feulner. “I’ve done my duty, I think,” Feulner said. “My husband and I are both from Pennsylvania, and we’re moving back to Pennsylvania to be close to family.” Feulner said she’s looking forward to retirement because of the time it will provide for her to pursue her interests. She said she’s excited about sewing, playing the piano and spending a lot of time with her family. She added that she will still miss the school and cherish all the memories she made here. “I’m not sure you can ﬁnd

another school in the country that has everything that this school has to offer: the higher level mathematics I was able to teach, the really motivated, bright students and the great colleagues and other faculty members,” she said. “And the school values the faculty. I know a lot of other people who teach, and their conditions are nothing like what we have here. There are just so many things that make this wonderful place to be. And again, I didn’t particularly like California, but the only reason I stayed here was because of this job.” After graduating from Drexel University, Feulner taught at a boarding school before pursuing geophysical research. She also worked at an oil company and for small defense contractors before taking up a teaching job at Harvard School for Boys, where she met her husband.

School psychologist to work at Curtis School By JACKIE GREENBERG

Upper School Psychologist Kavita Ajmere will leave the school at the end of this year to work at Curtis School next year. Ajmere specializes in mental health and in helping students prosper academically, emotionally and socially. While Ajmere said she was excited to begin something new at Curtis, she is still going to miss helping students at HarvardWestlake. “My favorite part about Harvard-Westlake was working

with students that are bright, motivated and industrious,” Ajmere said. Ajmere teaches Choices & Challenges to sophomores, which is an extended class of Human Development. The class helps students develop life skills. “I had Choices & Challenges class with her this year, and it was always nice seeing a friendly face in the hallway,” Catherine Crouch ’19 said. “She really cares about all of us.” Ajmere is excited to begin work at the Curtis School at

the start of the next school year. “The exciting thing about working at an elementary school is that I’m hoping I can infuse change earlier,” Ajmere said. “One of the things that I will be doing there is bringing mindfulness to the classrooms. I think I’ll be able to help students regulate their emotions, not just with themselves but with other people.” Students said Ajmere promotes positive behavior, health and change throughout the campus. Ajmere is also the co-director of Peer Support, a

student run wellness program. She deals with training lead’ ers, organizKavita Ajmere ing retreats and making sure the program runs smoothly. “As someone who is so signiﬁcant to the Peer Support program, I am going to miss her guidance and contributions to it,y” Oceania Eshraghi ’18 said. “She is deﬁnitely someone that I could always turn to if I ever needed.”

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Spanish teacher to leave World Language department for retirement after 17 years By SOPHIE HABER

life with hopefully new things to do.” During her time at the After 17 years at the school, spanish teacher Roser Gelida school, Gelida has taught a variety of Spanish will retire at classes includthe end of this I’m very sad ing AP Spanish year. Language and “I am a little because she cares Culture and young to retire, so much about her but that is [alSpanish IV. students, and it is right],” Gelida Prior to coming said. “[My husto the school, always really fun to be band and I] Gelida taught in her class.” just want to enFrench as well joy our healthy —Michael Gaven ’18 as Japanese. lifestyle and Over the just continue course of her doing different things. I’m not years here, Gelida said she has sure what [we will do], but it is learned a lot about herself progoing to be a new period of my fessionally.

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“I have grown professionally. I am deﬁnitely not the same teacher I was. I hope I’m much better,” Gelida said. “Not only because I have more years but because of the things I learned. The school is so great to provide great opportunities for the teachers to learn, to go to conferences, to get degrees, to travel, so in that sense, I have grown.” Gelida also said she will miss many aspects of the school. “[I will miss] the students,” Gelida said. “Not only teaching classes but those moments [when] I go outside and I get to know students that have

Performing arts teacher Eric Gault will depart the school after teaching for one year. Gault oversaw the choir program, including Chamber Singers, Bel Canto and Wolverine Chorus. Since Gault was in a transitioning period after the departure of Rodger Guerrero, he had help with managing the choir to help make the change in leadership smoother for the program, Bel Canto member Alexa Frandzel ’18 said.

“I think a lot of the performing arts department was involved in choir this year because he was transitioning into the school and then out of the school, so I think it was a year where a lot of the department was involved in choir,” Frandzel said. Wolverine Choir member Jack Shane ’18 said Gault opened his eyes to a different style of music. “He has deﬁnitely given us more foreign language pieces than before,” Shane said. “We had a lot of German and some

Italian pieces, and our pieces were 20 minutes instead of the ﬁve minutes we were used to.” Gault also showed his students his love of singing and made the whole experience a joyful one, Bel Canto member Sam Radlovic ’18 said. “I learned that singing is so much more than just saying words. There’s a lot of passion behind it, and he really used his own to inspire us,” Radlovic said. “What I’ll miss most about him is his humor and how he made us all laugh and have fun.”

in brief A Far East feast: ASIA club hosts culture day

The Asian Students in Action club set up tables with Asian snacks, clothing and instruments for Asian Culture Day on Friday during fourth and ﬁfth periods. The club held the day to celebrate May, which is AsianAmerican heritage month. “The purpose of the Culture Day was not only to celebrate the diverse Asian cultures on campus but also to let students know that there is an Asian afﬁnity group at school as we were founded late and thus did not have a chance to publicize the club,” ASIA club leader Lucy Kim ’19 said. Students founded the ASIA club to provide a space in which Asian American students could celebrate their culture by discussing topics of culture and organizing diversity events. —Emory Kim

Voice of the people: Yearbook published Vox Populi staff distributed yearbooks to seniors Thursday during Senior Transition Day and to all other grade levels Friday. All seniors will receive new yearbooks after initial copies omitted eight seniors from their class page. “It’s really cool to see everyone carrying around and enjoying the yearbooks, especially after all the hard work that the staff has put into making the books,” Vox staffer Brooke Kawana ’18 said. —Indu Pandey

Club sells smoothies for literacy programs

their lockers around here. I’ll miss the ’ Roser Gelida classes, of course, seeing the students eager to learn or to do better. This kind of spark in their eye, I think this is what is so rewarding for a teacher. Seeing a young person learning and wanting to learn, that will be something I will miss.” Her students said they are sad about her departure. “I’m very sad because she cares so much about her students, and it is always really fun to be in her class,” Michael Gaven ’18 said.

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Performing arts teacher to depart from school after a year of managing choir programs By MADDY DAUM

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Bel Canto member Sarah Con’ way ’18 said Eric Gault Gault didn’t allow his departure to affect his teaching toward the end of the year “Despite him knowing that he was going to be leaving, he continued to be positive and put 100 percent of his effort into making sure we sounded good,” Conway said. Frandzel wishes him the best of luck in all of his future endeavors as a choir teacher.

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Students sold Jamba Juice smoothies to support the nonproﬁt Pencils of Promise today on the quad. According to its website, the organization aims to increase literacy rates around the world by building schools and providing educational resources to teachers and students. The charity is currently working in Ghana, Guatemala, Laos and Nicaragua with programs that train teachers, build educational facilities, and teach students about water and hygiene. —Saba Nia

Debaters participate in Kentucky tournament Eight debate students participated in the Tournament of Champions in Lexington, Kentucky. Evan Engel ’17 and Spencer Paul ’19 both reached octaﬁnals, the round of 16, and Connor Engel ’17 made it to the round of 32. Connor Engel also won the eight speaker award out of 86 participants in the event. The annual event was hosted at the University of Kentucky. The Tournament of Champions requires two qualifying bids to participate, making it the most exclusive tournament in the nation. —Lucas Gelfond

MAY 31, 2017

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NEWS A8

Vox Populi to reprint yearbooks By JOSIE ABUGOV

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Senior season comes to an end

YA LIKE JAZZ?: Members of the Class of 2017 wrapped up their time as Wolverines on Senior Transition Day to hear from alumni, present the class gift, sign yearbooks and perform in a Coffee House. For their senior class gift, students donated to the Jim Brink Memorial Student Assistance Fund created in memory of science teacher Jim Brink and in support of ﬁnancial aid. The Coffee House included an a cappella performance by the seniors of Chamber Singers.

CSI Studio City: police officers visit campus By JENNY LI

Law enforcement officers Tiffany Park and Vincent Cho discussed the connotations of being an officer in today’s political climate May 8. The officers also discussed the effect that gender plays on their careers. The discussion was part of Future Horizons Club’s aim to help expose students to different career paths, club leader Eric Han ’17 said. Han said it is important for students to understand what a police officer’s job entails from the perspective of one so that they can have an informed

opinion. “A lot of people at Harvard-Westlake go on to jobs in tech, finance, law and the like,” Han said. “This means that people lose exposure to blue collar jobs like law enforcement. Tiffany Park is an outstanding police officer whose perspective I think should be heard by students.” Park and Cho answered questions from students about how officers are portrayed in social media versus how they see themselves. “It’s important to know the point of view of the police officer and it’s important to be respectful, especially as a young

student,” Cho said. “I think it’s important to just realize that you’re dealing with someone who is also human and not a robot.” Han said the club provides students with the opportunity to consider their futures and what they might be interested in after they ﬁnish their schooling. “Students in high school don’t have much exposure to what exactly people do during their careers,” Han said. “Through speakers and internships in many different ﬁelds, students can gain a real understanding of their career options.”

The officers also instructed students on how to behave with a police officer to avoid confrontation. Clara Ross ’19 said the sheriffs’ perspectives helped to bridge the gap in views of law enforcement between civilians and law enforcement officers. “It was really interesting to see what it’s like to be a police officer,” Ross said. “I feel like we often take them for granted in our society and forget that they’re actual human beings. It was nice for them to have a discussion with us and show us that it still is just a job like any other.”

Due to eight missing portraits in the senior section, the yearbook staff will reprint yearbooks for the senior class and provide the entire student body with page inserts containing the missing portraits. “We feel horrible about what happened, and we’re trying our best to fix everything,” Vox Populi Editor-in-Chief Maddy Ulloa ’17 said. “We got through lots of proofs over the year. Something either could have happened on our end or on the publishing end. We’re not really sure at this point.” The yearbook staff became aware of the mistake May 24, when they first saw the finished books. “We initially found out because our executive editor [Alexa Nourafchan ’17] wasn’t placed in the book,” Ulloa said. “We were incredibly shocked and disappointed. It was a really stressful night.” Ulloa and co-Editor-inChief Jenny Lange ’17 immediately tried to correct the mistake, Ulloa said. That evening, they also emailed the eight students not included in the yearbook, Dani Mirell ’17, Alec Mendelsohn ’17, Josh Musicant ’17, Nourafchan, Catrin Murphy ’17, Charlie Noxon ’17, Dario Madyoon ’17 and Nico Mannucci ’17. Ulloa and Lange made 1600 single-sheet pages containing the missing portraits. Ulloa said the page inserts will be available to the student body on Wednesday and can be inserted into the yearbook. The yearbook staff is also redesigning their senior section and correcting other mistakes throughout the book. They will mail the updated complimentary yearbooks to the Class of 2017 this summer. The cost of reprinting will come out of the yearbook’s budget, which was not used completely in the printing and production of the book.

Students share projects in STEM-fest

By KENDALL DEES AND SABA NIA

and can relate to them,” science teacher Nadine Eisenkolb said. Though many of the preAttendees flocked to booths with liquid nitrogen sentations featured assignice cream and roaming robots ments from specific classes, as students showcased their including Studies in Scientific Research, MoSTEM-based lecular Gasprojects with tronomy, Adp o s t e r s , vanced Topics hands-on acIt’s the in Computer tivities and culmination of all the Science and free food at Principles of the ninth anwork of the year. We Engineering, nual STEMlook forward from the some of the fest on May work was crebeginning of the year to 22. ated outside of “I feel like this day.” a class. it’s becoming S t u increasingly —Antonio Nassar dent-led clubs more importScience Teacher like the Comant for anyputer Science body that is Club featured interested in technology, engineering, science and math passion projects they’ve been to learn how to communicate working on for over a year, inwith other people so the gen- cluding the club’s video game eral public can become more “Herman.” “This definitely shows the aware of scientific findings

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more creative side of computer science,” said Eli Goldin ’17, who worked on the program. “There are a lot of people who get into computer science just because they like to make stuff that’s useful, but if you want to make art, this is the kind of thing you can do.” Students said they were excited to present their work to their peers and teachers. “It’s the culmination of all the work of the year,” science teacher Antonio Nassar said. “We look forward from the beginning of the year to this day.” Presentations ranged from nitrogen-infused ice cream to a “20 Questions”-esque program to a poster detailing quiet supersonic technology for planes. Participants said they had room to infuse creativity into their work. “It’s Einstein, I’m just repeating it: imagination is more important than knowledge,” Nassar said.

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BRAIN FREEZE: Senior Alumni Ofﬁcer Harry Salamandra and Kathryn Tian ’17 served liquid nitrogen ice cream to students.

C HRONICLE the harvard-westlake

Editors-in-Chief: Sammi Handler, Jesse Nadel Managing Editors: Layla Moghavem, Katie Plotkin, Jean Sanders Executive Editors: Hannah Cho, Carina Marx, Rian Ratnavale Presentations Editors: Eshanika Chaudhary, Sabrina Brito, Emily Rahhal

Opinion The Chronicle • May 31, 2017

Los Angeles • Volume 26• Issue 8 • May 31, 2017 • hwchronicle.com

editorial

News Editors: Teresa Suh, Claudia Wong News Copy Editor: Jackson Novick Assistant News Editors: Maddy Daum, Noa Schwartz, Danielle Spitz, Anthony Weinraub News Associates: Emory Kim, Indu Pandey Opinion Editor: Kami Durairaj Assistant Opinion Editors: Brittany Hong, Claire Keller Features Editors: Sophie Cohen, Danielle Kaye Features Copy Editor: Katie Perrin Assistant Features Editors: Josie Abugov, Nicole Kim, Alena Rubin Features Associates: Kristin Kuwada, Kitty Luo A&E Editor: Lauren Kim Assistant A&E Editors: Gabi Berchtold, Sarah Lee, Kate Schrage Assistant Multimedia Editor: Isabelle Eshraghi A&E Associate: Caty Szeto Sports Editors: Juliana Berger, Jake Liker Sports Online Editors: Dario Madyoon, Connor Reese Assistant Sports Editors: Eli Adler, Oliver Akhtarzad, Elly Choi Sports Associates:

Ellis Becker, Sam McCabe, Aaron Park, Zach Swartz, Matthew Yam, Adam Yu

Online Editors: Cam Stine, Bryant Wu Ads

and Business Manager: Oliver Richards

Assistant Ads and Business Manager: Jiwon Park Arts Director: Tiffany Kim Freelance Cartoonists: Anna Gong, Mady Madison Assistant Photography Editor: Pavan Tauh Layout Assistants And Staff Writers: Ryan Albert, Kaelyn Bowers, Vishan Chaudhary, Jake Davidson, Kendall Dees, Matthew Druyanoff, Lucas Gelfond, Alex Goldstein, Kelly Gourier, Jackie Greenberg, Sophie Haber, Sofia Heller, Ryan Kim, Samantha Ko, Jenny Li, Sam Lingard, Kaitlin Musante, Saba Nia, Alison Oh, Jiwon Park, Nick Platt, Nick Reece, Asa Saperstein, Meera Sastry, Alexandra So, Cameron Stokes, Angela Tan, Ben Tenzer, Jenny Yoon Layout Assistant Adviser:

Juliet Suess Adviser: Jim Burns

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

Learning to listen

In three months, we seniors will be going off on our own into the realworld, whether that means traveling during a gap year or living alone for the first time on college campuses. Though most of us have reached 18, recently we have not been acting like adults. College means much more than the obvious responsibilities like cleaning our own rooms and doing our own laundry; we will have to be autonomous and no longer be sheltered by the HarvardWestlake environment. We realized at Senior Transition Day that we may not be quite ready for this amount of personal responsibility. While five alumni gave up a large portion of their day to speak about their experiences in college thus far, it was often hard to hear them over the scoffs and side conversations of the audience. These alumni were in no way obligated to offer us advice and personal experiences, but they visited on good grace to help us in the difficult transition we now face. Even if some people were not particularly concerned with the subject matter, it was our responsibility to behave as we will be expected to behave in college and beyond. But we allowed the lack of accountability to any adult to be an invitation to act like children. We also have to recognize that our actions affect other people. When Los Angeles County Museum of Art Director Michael Govan spoke to the student body at the annual Brown Family Assembly in March, our rowdiness

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spread to the underclassmen. We are supposed to serve as a positive example for them, not as a rationalization for bad behavior. But achieving a higher level of maturity isn’t impossible. When Katie Koestner, founder of Take Back the Night, spoke to us about sexual assault and date rape right after the alumni panel, it was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. Even so, much of the audience spent the duration of Koestner’s talk fearing that the earlier immaturity of the crowd would disrupt a very powerful speaker. Our ultimate ability to show Koestner respect, however, is not something that we should be praised for; it is what should be expected of us and what we should expect of ourselves. There shouldn’t be any difference in our actions toward Koestner and the student panel based on the topic at hand; we should be able to respect the time of any person who offers it. At a certain point, we must act politely because we are capable adults, not because we are afraid of what our dean may say. The point of this is not to admonish our peers for being too loud during the panel. Rather, we hope that we can use this as a way to look at both the legacy we are leaving behind and the new legacy we’ll begin creating for ourselves in the fall. It’s no secret that our grade doesn’t have the best reputation, but we have the opportunity to step up to the plate in college.

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The Chronicle

May 31, 2017

Information boot camp By Jake Davidson

ntelligence Quotient. I’m sure those two words, which are usually shortened to just IQ, have crossed your lips or evengrazed your thought process at some point in your lifetime. Everyone has an IQ, and the vast majority of people at the school have a high one. The quotient is meant to determine how much information can be stored in your brain at a given time, but the problem is that there isn’t a number to tell you how much of the information you store up is valuable information. If you grew up in a house with a mindset of practicality – go to school, get into a good college, be something “great” – then you probably also have heard two things in the span of your lifetime. The first was something along the lines of “you can grow up to be anything you want” and the second, when you finally expressed what you wanted to be, was along the lines of “except that.” Unabridged creativity has become traditional schooling. Arts programs are not just seen as electives to only be taken if you have room in your schedule, but the classes themselves only allow creativity if it follows a fairly strict guideline. On day one of my art course this year, my teacher gave Powerpoint Presentation detailing what art is and isn’t. We were to understand that there were some things that counted or did not count as art. And so I ask: when did art change from a fluid, boundless mass of creativity to guidelines on an assignment sheet? This constriction of brain function doesn’t just stop with art. The ways in which we are unconsciously taught to talk to authority with fear and humbling is neither productive nor constructive. We as human beings and students should feel free to

express our distaste in the administration’s actions or in the student body with fervor and without consequence. It is odd to me that our ability to speak to the administration about issues in our school community only comes when they have blocked out time, advertised as an act of good faith. That transparency should be the norm, and we shouldn’t have to meekly wait for it to come into our purview for a few days every year. And yet, nonetheless, the ways in which we as a collective think we know enough to make judgments about complex situations are shortsighted and built on a false confidence perpetuated by our need to look informed and superior. But the ways in which decisions on International Security are made are not able to be simplified to a high-schooler’s cost-benefit or probability analyses, no matter how much we think we know about politics or the world. The ways in which we need to be allowed to relate to the world in order to find who and what we truly can be are the exact ways that have been deemed as “not respectable” or “scary.” We should feel empowered to express our deepest, innermost thoughts and feelings no matter who we are talking to or what we are trying to find. Those are the only ways we can find the truth about why everyone conceals themselves whenever entering a conversation with another human being. Those are the only ways we can get past the small-talk and fake people and get to the real knowledge that every single one of our brains lacks. Yes, yours too. Yes, mine especially. I’m not saying you’re not smart; I’m saying none of us are.

The cycle of lies By Ellis Becker

or three years, I spent multiple Saturdays going to the Middle School, helping prospective applicants find their way during the Student Ambassadorhosted family visiting days and then lying to them. And although a lot of the lies I told held truths to which I was oblivious, I don’t think that the Student Ambassador program adequately prepares students to truthfully answer these questions. When the question of stress came up, I answered with the experience of only one to two years at the Middle School. When the issue of partying or substance abuse was questioned, I again only answered with the limited experience I had at the Middle School. It is not only unfair to the applicants and their families to perpetuate the lies they are told,

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Rediscovering passion and curiosity within ourselves By Alena Rubin

he was a fourth grader I met at an afterschool science workshop, a ten-year-old, and she was better at physics than me, a junior in AP Physics. In a matter of minutes, the most advanced model bridge from the back of the instructions pamphlet of The Real Model Bridge Building Kit was merely amateur practice for her. She ditched the instructions pamphlet to make her own bridge, twice as complicated as the first. Sure, I could say what centripetal force meant, but without even knowing what the word “physics” really meant, her tiny fingers had mastered it. What if physics wasn’t all F=ma, but it was a world of bridge-building? What if it was the entangling copper wires behind the screen of your iPhone? Or the pacemaker in the chest cavity of a living human, helping her heart beat? The thing is, physics is all these exciting things and so much more, but the majority of the time, what we’re learning in science and math classrooms occupies a hypothetical space, something intangible and, as a result,

less interesting. Yes, we should learn formulas and concepts, but we should also learn how we can apply what we’re learning to reality as well. Our high school classes may be the only exposure we ever receive to certain subjects, so we need to offer true glimpses into the myriad opportunities that these STEM fields can lead to. Having a more engaging, hands-on and practical STEM education will allow more students to discover their interest in pursuing STEM in the future. We need to make a concerted effort to teach students STEM beyond pen and paper. Labs are a great way of exploring the topics that students learn, but we can go further. Geology students get to go on field trips to Death Valley. Now, let’s take chemistry and biology students to cancer-research labs. We have so many highly successful parents and alums in the STEM field. Let’s reach out to them, and get more speakers for specific classes. A parent who is a surgeon can talk to biology students about the first life he saved. In history class, we have year-long term papers where students

can delve deep into any facet of history that interests them. Why don’t we do the same in science and math with research projects? Students can design their own labs and get excited about creating something real that they are truly interested in. I know that the administration has been re-evaluating the nature of learning at HarvardWestlake. They envision a utopian world where students run equally on passion as they do on caffeine. This is a goal that I think we can all get behind, but to achieve them we need to go one step further than limiting the number of AP classes students can take, and start to re-evaluate the way students are learning. So many of us come in as eager and passionate as that fourth-grade girl, but somewhere along the way, between memorizing terms and perfecting our algebra, many of us lose part of that curiosity and love for learning that had burned so brightly in us before. Let’s make our school a place where the sparks of passion are nurtured to flames, not stamped out.

The Student Ambassador program perpetuates lying about stress, substance abuse and admissions to project an ideal vision of student and academic life at HarvardWestlake that does not accurately represent the school.

but it is also unfair to have student ambassadors themselves lie to these families. And yes, there are Student Ambassadors at the Upper School, but the vast amount of tours during interviews and tours at the Family Visiting Days are conducted by middle school students, and are led by middle school students. Additionally, many of my peers who are still involved in the Student Ambassador program believe that they were much more involved in the program when they were at the Middle School, and feel like the insight they have gained at the Upper School is not being shared nearly as much as it could be. While most of the lies I perpetuated were told unknowingly, there were times that I lied to these families on purpose: the times I was directly told to.

If a family ever asked if my perception of the student would affect the admissions process, I said no, and this is simply not the truth. And although it can be reasoned that if students knew they were being evaluated then they would act differently, in my eyes that does not justify lying to people’s faces. Every year, a Student Ambassador Training Day is hosted at the Middle School. And each year, every ambassador is not only told, but even trained, to lie. Because when a family asks if the student ambassador evaluates the student, ambassadors are trained to say no and trained how to evaluate the student. After I would help my assigned student find his family when the day was over, I would enter a classroom with

a white sheet of paper taped to the window of the door, so no one could see in. In this room, I, along with other student ambassadors, would evaluate the applicants on a lime green sheet. It seemed like no big deal, but looking back on the experience, I could have changed someone’s future. That’s a responsibility I don’t want. I didn’t sign up for that. And I feel bad because I was once that little kid who got into Harvard-Westlake, believing the falsities I was told, until I got there, joined the Student Ambassador program, and perpetuated the lie that landed me here in the first place. I’m not the first kid who went through this cycle, and I won’t be the last. I remember the beat my heart skipped as I gazed for the first time upon the gorgeous

Middle School, unaware of the smaller, much more stressful Upper School. I remember being told all about the opportunities provided at HarvardWestlake, unaware of the late nights and stress it would cost. I was unaware of the trap and even more oblivious to the fact that the Student Ambassador program is the institution that sets that trap. It’s no accident that the Middle School is much more well-presented and much more developed than the Upper School. It’s no accident that there are so few tours at the Upper School, compared to the four to five a day at the Middle School. It’s no accident that the Student Ambassador program continues to allow students to perpetuate lies about stress, substance abuse and the admissions process itself.

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May 31, 2017

Opinion A11

quadtalk: “What do you think are the social implications of playing ‘Assassin’?” “There is a competitive aspect among students, but I don’t think by any means it promotes gun violence at our school.” — Jameson McMullen’19

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“I don’t think ‘Assassin’ trivializes gun violence. I think it is a fun game for Harvard-Westlake kids to take part in.” — Esther Ollivier ’18

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“No, I don’t think it trivializes gun violence, only because Harvard-Westlake students are wellinformed of gun violence. If it was the case that students are ignorant about the gun violence going around the country, then I think it might be a problem. The way it is played right now, it is more about having fun with your friends and it is a nice way to end the year. ” — Rachel Madhogarhia ‘17

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INFOGRAPHIC BY BRITTANY HONG

There is nothing wrong with my “Gibby” post By Josie Abugov Three and a half weeks ago, I decided to post a photo of iCarly character “Gibby” in a long blond wig and a pearl necklace on my Instagram. No, not on my “finsta,” or my incredibly extra “finsta finsta,” but on my “rinsta.” Had I posted a photo of myself dressed up, or my hair not in a bun on top of my head, I would have instinctively checked my phone every few minutes after posting, simultaneously anticipating complimentary comments and reminding myself that of all things I should be concerned about, Instagram falls pretty close to the bottom. But after posting this photo of Gibby, I put my phone down

on the table and continued the conversation that I had briefly halted. When I came to HarvardWestlake in ninth grade, I immediately noticed social differences from that of my public middle school and an attitude that implicitly acknowledges wealth—a nonchalance regarding high-end brands, expensive restaurants and luxury vacations. The appearance of money also manifests itself on social media, where every hotel can be tagged and every logo can be photographed. Before I attended Harvard-Westlake, I never really thought about money. But in ninth grade, I felt an unspoken requirement to post perfectly

Many people choose to follow an unspoken expectation of perfection, encompassing money and beauty, when publicizing their lives on social media. This should not be so.

colored photos of my organically sourced meals, my vacations or pictures of myself, carefully posed and even more carefully edited. I distinctively remember noticing my “explore page” in ninth grade, and scrolling through images of beautiful, thin, white girls being seemingly rich and glamorous with their even prettier, skinner and just as white friends. I felt as if there was an assumed correlation between attractiveness and thinness, wealth and straight, blown-out hair. I felt an unspoken expectation to project myself on social media in a way that highlighted money and conventional standards of beauty. I also was

determined to uphold this expectation in the clothes I wore, the restaurants I visited and my overall attitudes towards what was socially acceptable and what was not. Although my love for acai bowls has not decreased, my love for photographing them has. My Lululemon leggings still hold a place in both my heart and closet, but I made more room for my wide-leg jeans and Chinese-takeout printed socks. It is safe to say that my ninth grade self would have been intensely disapproving of my Gibby post, my “Valley Starter Pack” post and my selfie collage in which I resembled

an egg. It’s okay to be basic. But, it’s also okay to post photos of Gibby. I’m notoriously guilty for an obnoxious Starbucks order, and most of my vacations do appear on my social media. But, it’s also important to remember that someone’s social media presence is likely an inaccurate representation of the individual. Instagram feeds project idealized, glamorized, and socially acceptable versions of people’s lives. For every trendy salad and Aspen vacation photo on someone’s Instagram, there’s an order from Domino’s and an impromptu stop at CVS.

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Sending off the Class of 2017

spotlight

May 31, 2017

Upper school students concluded the year with one final First and Third Assembly. Sophomores and juniors then lined the walkway to the quad to celebrate the senior’s last few weeks on campus and to say goodbye.

POINTING TO THE FUTURE: Dana Anderson ’17, Odessa Chiklis ’17, Angelica Estrada ’17 and Sophia Van Iderstine ’17 walk alongside the graduating Class of 2017 after being dismissed from Taper Gym. The assembly included a screening of a “carpool karaoke” style video featuring President Rick Commons.

GOOD-PIE CLASS OF 2017: Nick Witham ’17 pies his history teacher Larry Klein as a part of the Unconventional Leadership Club’s promise to pie a teacher for every 50 votes cast for the LAUSD election.

SENIOR STRUT: Wesley Chang ’17, Jeremy Hecht-Arnall ’17 and Jed Kronenberg ’17 walk from the Taper Gym to the quad between lines of sophomores and juniors, reminiscing about their time on campus.

GIVING SUPPORT: Next year’s Peer Support Coordinators Charlotte Weinman ’18, Isabel Wiatt ’18, Jake Neuman ’18 and Axel Rivera De Leon ’18 raise awareness for homophobia, transphobia and biphobia.

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HATS OFF TO SENIOR YEAR: Mady Madison ’17 walks with a hat she caught during the assembly.

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT The Chronicle • May 31, 2017

Monkeying Around

The improv comedy groups, the Scenemonkeys and the Jackanapes, rehearse year-round to bond and prepare for their final shows in May.

By SARAH LEE

The lights come up, and a ﬂood of student improvisational actors run onstage. This is how both the Jackanapes and the Scenemonkeys, the school’s improv troupes, began their respective performances May 5 and May 12, as well as at their performances at the Playwrights Festival on May 18, 19 and 21. Both troupes have met weekly since the beginning of the year to rehearse. To prepare, the improvisers play the same games that they present at their performances, such as creating improvised songs, incorporating lines written by the audience into their scenes, giving advice on made-up problems and dancing. “I really like the game ‘Two Chairs’ because the suggestion is usually a location, which gives the two people in the scene a lot to work with and many different ways to build character and make a funny scene,” Scenemonkey Talia Lefkowitz ’17 said. “It is also one of the least complicated games, so what makes the scene funny is less focused on the layout of the game and more on the improvisers’ doing and saying things that are funny.” Jackanape Angel Hoyang ’18 said the performances at the Playwrights Festival served the additional purpose of breaking up the festival, especially between plays that are particularly sad or lengthy, to prevent it from becoming too overwhelming for the audience due to the fact that it allowed the audience to be part of the performance. “It gives a break for the audience from just sitting and watching and taking in so much from the plays because one thing about improv is that it uses a lot of audience participation,” Hoyang said. “Instead of watching content that’s already produced, the audience itself gets to contribute. It’s a time for them to relax, to laugh.” Scenemonkey Natalie Mu-

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IT’S BANANAS: Scenemonkeys troupe members Nicole Bahar ’18, Will Granger ’18, Amira Yashruti ’17 and Cate Wolfen ’17 perform in a scene called “Ballet” in which the the performers must dance to reﬂect a narrator’s improvised story with piano accompaniment. sicant ’17 said the perfor- sional and exciting to have mances at Playwrights also this venue that’s not just at served as an opportunity for school,” Musicant said. “People both troupes to share what are sitting at tables, and it’s a they’ve been working on all really intimate space, which is year with the rest of the school. cool, too, because it’s not like “More people come to the your audience is so far away.” Playwrights Festival than to Musicant said the audience the speciﬁc Scenemonkeys plays a very important role in and Jackanapes shows,” improv because its energy can Musicant said. “It’s often determine the mostly just an opporsuccess of a show. tunity for the groups “It’s super importto have another ant that the audioutlet to perform.” ence is on your side In addition to and that you’re not their on-campus peralienating them by formances, the Scenrejecting their sugemonkeys performed gestions or ignoring at the Hollywood Imwhat they’re saying,” ’ prov on May 14 to celMusicant said. “A Natalie ebrate Mother’s Day. lot of the time, it’s Musicant ’17 Musicant said the nerve-wracking for performance at the Hollywood the audience to watch you Improv was a unique way to do improv: they want you to culminate and celebrate ev- succeed, they want you to do erything she and the rest of well. If they start feeling like the Scenemonkeys have been you’re not doing well or you’re doing for the whole year. uncomfortable or something, “It just feels very profes- they’ll sort of shut down and NATHANSON S

turn on you really fast. They need to feel included, and that you’re all in this together.” In addition to making the audience feel welcome, Lefkowitz said another important objective of the Scenemonkeys shows was to promote cooperation. “The Scenemonkeys all stay onstage for the whole show, which makes our show seem more like everyone is involved and supporting each other, which I think is an important message for people at our school to understand,” Lefkowitz said. Jackanape Esther Grover ’19 said improv has been important to her because it has allowed her to forget about the pressure of school. “Everyone knows Harvard-Westlake can be a really high-pressure environment,” Grover said. “For those of us who are in improv, it’s nice for us to have those three hours at the end of the

week where we don’t have to think about our homework or studying yet, and we can just go and have a fun time.” Lefkowitz said having improv groups at Harvard-Westlake is especially important because it teaches conﬁdence in oneself and being supportive of others. “It helps show the community and students at Harvard-Westlake, where it feels like success is required, that spontaneity and, frankly, failure is okay,” Lefkowitz said. “Doing improv has really helped me learn to be more cooperative in daily life by being supportive and adding my own opinions and point of view. I have learned to be less in my head and not care as much about what others think of me.”

ALL PHOTOS BY PAVAN TAUH/CHRONICLE

MORE FUN THAN A BARREL OF MONKEYS: (Left): Jackanapes Jordan Yadegar ’19 and Catherine Crouch ’19 walk in a scene about lovers. (Center): Scenemonkeys Talia Lefkowitz ’17, Cate Wolfen ’17 and Charlotte Weinman ’18 act in an intense skit about competition. (Right): Jackanapes Eleanor Halloran ’18, Jenna Wong ’19 and Alexa Frandzel ’18 play a character development game during their show in the Playwrights Festival.

GRAPHICS BY SARAH LEE

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Students performed in the Festival May 18-19, 21. student writers, the plays f of themes from humor to

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1. ‘The Owen B. Falstaff Center for the Reclaimed Self’ by Jenny Lange ’17: Leo (Eli Timoner ’18) listens to troubled campers (Eva Wiener ’19 and Clay Hollander ’19). 2. ‘Facetime’ by Jarett Malouf ’18: A young couple (Tarin North ’18 and Jakob Klein ’18) shares an emotional goodbye before going their separate ways for college. 3. ‘Path of the Reckoned’ by Jakob Klein ’18: Bobby Joe Franker (Russell Davis ’17) cowers as a bounty hunter aims a gun at him in an old western saloon. 4. ‘In the Wake of the Sun’ by Gaia Murphy ’19: Daniel (Grifﬁn Fenady ’17) discusses the legend of Icharus with an unnamed woman (Charlotte Weinman ’18) in a classroom. 5. ‘Outta This World’ by Sophia Van Iderstine ’17 and Cate Wolfen ’17: An alien family (Maya Hinkin ’18, Ashley Frey ’17, Charlie Kogen ’19, Will Granger ’18) attempt to have a normal family dinner like humans. 6. ‘Rule of Threes’ by Brianna Blanchard ’18: Fates of Birth (Vanessa Payne ’19) and Life (Caroline Cook ’19) contemplate what to do after their sister kills an innocent man.

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med in the annual Playwright’s 18-19, 21. Composed by 12 the plays featured a wide range m humor to fantasy to tradgedy. 8.

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7. ‘The Undelivered Love Letters’ by Kate Schrage ’18: Olivia, Archer, Amy and Scott (Angel Hoyang ’18, Chase Garvey-Daniels ’19, Carmen Levine ’17, Josh Musicant ’17) give monologues about their exes. 8. ‘Doomsday’ by Alyson Lo ’17: Tom (Will Newhart ’19) and Sarah (Talia Lefkowitz ’17) discuss their lives post-graduation. 9. ‘Expulsion From Paradise’ by Sophie Kim ’19: Eve (Jenny Lange ’17) decides to leave the Garden of Eden against the wishes of Adam (Casey Giolito ’17). 10. ‘Rendez-Vous’ by Danielle Kaye ’17: Exchange student Claire (Carter Beardmore ’19) and her new friend Hugo (Mate Major ’18) enjoy dinner at a French cafe. 11. ‘Subway Stories’ by Sakura Price ’18: City residents (Lexi Block ’17, Malcolm Villaverde, Natalie Musicant ’17) sit and people-watch on the subway. 12. ‘Baddest of Them All’ by Sophia Dienstag ’17: The queen (Alex Goldstein ’19) opposes the prince’s (Grifﬁn Gunn-Myers ’19) poor choice for a ﬁrst girlfriend. ILLUSTRATION BY SAMANTHA KO

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MAY 31, 2017

Students host major works show By GABI BERCHTOLD Upper school instrumental and choral groups performed in a spring concert May 26 that celebrated the unity of different musical disciplines at Emmanuel Lutheran Church. Different groups from choir and band showcased pieces at the event. The show included musical numbers by all of the upper school choral groups: Bel Canto, Chamber Singers, Wolverine Chorus and Jazz singers. There were also instrumental pieces performed by Symphony, Wind Ensemble, Orchestra and Camerata Strings, as well as compositions performed by the String Quartet and the Bach Octet. “The purpose of the concert is to bring the choirs, the orchestra and the wind ensembles together to do music from all different genres and to have kind of an arts festival,” Upper School Choir Director Eric Gault said. The various instrumental

ALL PHOTOS BY KITTY LUO/CHRONICLE

MAJOR KEY: Left: Jazz singers sing a composition during the concert at Emmanuel Lutheran Church. Top right: Symphony members prepare to play a piece. Bottom right: Additional symphony members perform a song that they had been practicing for months. groups had been working on pieces for different amounts of time. Some began practicing certain pieces at the beginning of the year and other pieces during the second semester. Choir began working on songs for the concert in January. “We’ve all worked really hard on this, and we’ve all tried

to make it the best that it could be,” Chamber Singer Rachel Grode ’19 said. Although the process of putting the show together was a lot of work, students said they were able to enjoy it, and they felt as though the time and effort was worth it for the end result.

“The process [of putting the show together] was good; it was rough at times, but it’s been fun,” Grode said. “Things always work out in the end.” Despite the length of the concert and the fact that it ran an hour longer than it was supposed to, the musicians said they were pleased with the

show and felt that it was a nice culmination of all their practice and preparation. “The concert went really well, even though it was very long. We practiced for so long that it was a relief to ﬁnally perform it and have it come out so nicely,” Symphony member Matteo Lauto ’18 said.

Dancers stage end-of-year performance By GABI BERCHTOLD AND KAELYN BOWERS Members of Advanced Dance I and II performed their ﬁnal dance showcase of the year from April 26 to 27. The show took place in the dance studio in Chalmers. The performers choreographed each dance and the styles ranged from contemporary, to classical, to pop. The show had no theme, and Advanced Dance students were able to draw inspiration from wherever they wanted. Dancers from both classes were given the freedom to split into groups and choreograph a piece together. They were also able to create a solo to perform in the showcase. Advanced Dance member Victoria Steckel ’19 choreographed a dance inspired by the hardships of leaving Mexico and assimilating to Ameri-

“In our dance we tried to can culture and ideas. Maya Golob ’18 said the show how we worked well toshow was intimate and was gether,” Golob said. “We wantattended by family and close ed to set up our leadership abilities and communication friends. for next year The songs when we ranged from “Heliwill be the um” by Sia to “Rise This last leaders in Up” by Andra Day. A d v a n c e d The dancers show was a great Dance II. We learned skills for conclusion of our also wanttheir upcoming ed to create leadership roles time and a goodbye something as seniors on the to our seniors.” lightheartcompany. “Since you —Maya Golob ’18 ed, fun and more uplifthave to work with ing than the so many people and you have to put a show to- Love show.” Advanced Dance members gether in such a short amount of time, the dance concert really also took the opportunity to shows us how to work together honor the seniors in their ﬁand improve your communica- nal show with a rose presentation skills,” Breidsprecher said. tion by the upper school dance The juniors in Advanced teachers. “This last show was a great Dance II decided to produce a performance together as a conclusion of our time and a group. They choreographed to goodbye to our seniors,” Golob said. “We are Young” by Fun.

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DANCING WITH THE STARS: Advanced Dance students brought the school year to an end in a showcase that highlighted students’ talents and honored the seniors as they move on to college. Dancers performed originally-choreographed pieces.

Combined jazz bands play in spring concert By I SABELLE E SHRAGHI Middle and upper school jazz musicians performed in the annual spring jazz concert on April 29 in the Rugby Auditorium. Students performed a wide variety of pieces, including songs from World War II and songs by the band Radiohead. w The theme of the program was pieces of American music, the majority of which were made to be played by large ensembles. “We played modern, classic, big band arrangements,” Upper School Performing Arts Teacher Shawn Costantino said. “It is a very American, classic

jazz band.” Costantino said he enjoyed collaborating with all of the upper school jazz bands as well as the middle school band. “It is always really great because [Middle School Performing Arts Teacher Starr] Wayne and I get to share the concert,” Costantino said. “And when the seniors see what the eighth graders sound like, it kind of makes them think back to where they were in middle school. I think that some of the seniors stand out because of how they have improved and how much grit they have. They have just really committed.” Double bass player Cal-

vin Kaleel ’18 said this concert was a strong collaborative effort from all of the musicians involved. “I think that our saxophones really carried the whole band,” Kaleel said. “Everybody pulled [it] together for this last concert.” Kaleel also said he enjoyed his experience as a member of the upper school performing arts program and that he and his fellow performers were well-prepared for this concert. “Jazz band is sort of my release,” Kaleel said. “It’s a little bit less stressful for me. I think, going in, we were feeling confident. Everything [for the performance] was naturally coming together.”

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The Academic Epidemic While some seniors lose motivation once they enter second semester, others feel more inclined to keep up their work ethic. By DANIELLE SPITZ After discussing genetic mutations in AP Biology, the conversation took a lighthearted turn to talk about a condition more relatable to students. The symptoms for “senioritis,” including lack of motivation and oversleeping, seemed all too familiar to Eitán Sneider ’17. While he listed the side effects, Sneider’s teacher stared unfalteringly at him, confirming his diagnosis. “I probably pushed back some assignments more than I should have, but I also definitely started putting in less effort,” Sneider said. “I think as soon as I got accepted into a school that wasn’t my safety, almost all of my motivation went straight down the drain.” He said he felt he could afford to slack off second semester because he had performed well in his academic classes in the beginning of the year. “I still completed all of my assignments even if it was last minute, and I would often find myself cramming for a test the minute before,” Sneider said. “I got sent an email that reminded all admitted stu-

dents that our admission was contingent upon receiving our final transcript, and I was a little worried, but ultimately my grades didn’t drop too much, so it wasn’t that bad.” According to data collected by Upper School Attendance Coordinator Gabe Preciado, Sneider’s attitude is not uncommon among seniors. In the 2016-2017 school year, students reported 4,829 absences in first semester. During second semester, that number went up to 8,772 absences as of press time. The number of tardies also increased, going up from 327 first semester to 563 second semester. Reasons for absences include illness, appointments, sports, college trips and field trips. “After spring break is when things start changing,” Preciado said. “That’s because of Coachella and other activities that seniors partake in. It’s a cycle. Once they start missing school, then it becomes easier for them to miss on a regular basis.” If a student has 20 absences in a full-year class or 10 absences in a semester class, they run the risk of not

receiving credit for that class. Any stress levels because she felt more absence that is not resolved within secure about life after high school. two school days or any reports of “Knowing for so long that I got cutting class warrant a detention, into a school, even if it wasn’t my Preciado said. ﬁrst choice, was the biggest relief,” To combat this trend, Preciado Block said. “It’s not even so much suggested aligning the school year that you’re doing all that much less to the AP season in early May, so work, it’s just less pressure to do that the year begins and ends ear- well, to reach a certain standard, lier. because it matters so much less, “A lot of times, seniors might so you can kind of relax a little bit have certain periods that they only and just enjoy the work rather than have on their schedules, so they’re being forced to do it.” less inclined to come,” Preciado She said that once AP classes said. “The main hook for juniors is were over, she was able to focus on that they still have college looming the classes that she was most inover them. Seniors don’t have that, terested in. so that’s a big part of it. For them, “Second semester, it’s easier it’s already in the bag, so why go to for me to come to school because class?” I have so few classAfter sitting in on es, so I get to sleep an Unconventionin, and it’s just the It’s not even so al Leadership class, fun stuff,” Block much that you’re doing said. “The work President Rick Commons also thought all that much less work, is more fun to me of alternatives for it’s just less presure to do and it becomes less senior schedules by tedious when you well, to reach a certain introducing optional have less to do, like classes. working on projstandard.” “The students ects and not hav—Lexi Block ’17 ing to do the ranwho provided those ideas acknowledged dom assignments that if it were opthat I don’t feel like tional, people might very well not doing.” come,” Commons said. “The downUpper school dean Jennifer side is that this is a really fun time Cardillo said she notices her stuof year for seniors because they dents beginning to disengage from suddenly have, after a very, very their schoolwork during second seintense period of time, a lot mester and wants them to still be of space to enjoy school and motivated to learn. spend time with friends.” “I love to see students learning Lexi Block ’17 said she for the sake of learning, and so I alstill worked to maintain ways hope that their academic lives her grades second won’t be completely outcome-drivsemester but en and that some curiosity was able to and interest in course d e c r e a s e material will h e r

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continue to animate seniors at the end of students are motivated to work until the year,” Cardillo said. “I want students to the end. There is a dip in effort for a lot want to learn, regardless of whether anyone of people, but not necessarily a large is watching.” one.” She said while seniors tend to care less Marlborough School seniors finished about their grades as the end of the year ap- school May 17 this year because they proaches, second semester grades can still do not take finals. After their last day of help certain students in the college process. school, they went on a class trip to Ha“Many of my seniors ended up on wait- waii from May 20-24. lists and would have loved to be able to re“Ending school early pushed me port details of strong second semester ac- to want to finish strong, knowing the ademic work to boost their odds of getting finish line was right around the corin off of those waitlists,” Cardillo said. “The ner,” Marlborough senior Lily Grigscolleges in which seniors enroll will see their by-Brown said. “Personally, I showed second semester grades. They have worked up for all of the day because I knew hard to impress those schools before they ap- the end was near and wanted to plied. They might want to continue impress- spend it with my friends, regardless ing their school of choice with their second of if I only had one class left.” semester accomplishments.” Loyola High School senior P.J. ShoeIf a student’s grades drop drastically, maker said seniors at his school experiCardillo explained, they run the risk of facing ence senioritis from as early as first seenrollment or academic consequences from mester because of a special schedule. their college. “Seniors finish first semester one “Poor academic work during senior spring month before the rest of the school, during can spark genuine concerns about a stu- the month of January, and do a commudent’s college-readiness or can make nity service project,” Shoemaker it tempting for a school to offer a spot, said. “This kind of starts us off instead, to a strong and eager stuin the second semester already dent from the waitlist who remains checked out. I definitely feel less in excellent academic standing at the motivated to work and show up to end of the year,” Cardillo said. “They class.” might send a letter expressing their He said that once APs are concern or disappointment and askover, it’s up to the individual ing for an explanation. They might teachers to decide the curricnotify a student that he or she will ulum for the remainder of the begin freshman year on academic school year. ’ probation. And they can rescind an Kevin Wesel ’17 “Typically an AP class after offer of admission if their concern is the exam will give a long-term serious enough.” project due at the end of the Kevin Wesel ’17, who was placed on the year that we work on during class periods,” waitlist for one of his top choice colleges, said Shoemaker said. “Some of my teachers gradhe made more of an effort to keep up his work ed easier and others graded even harder to ethic. try and force you to work.” “I definitely was more compelled to keep History teacher Francine Werner said she my grades up than my peers who had gotten does tend to grade seniors slightly difin early, but it wasn’t a huge problem for me to ferent in first quarter. spend an hour each school day working,” We“If a grade is marginal first quarter, sel said. “After results came out, I was happy I then I’m more likely to give the benefit did, since I could choose to send third quarter of the doubt, like I would for a sophogrades to those colleges knowing that they ei- more or junior at the end of the year,” ther would be helpful or wouldn’t matter.” Werner said. “I’m more likely to do that While he said he was glad he worked hard at the beginning of the year then toughuntil the end of the school year, Wesel said it en up a little bit, but most of them try was difficult to have a different college applica- pretty hard up until the end.” tion experience than his peers. She said that while the work might “It was a little sad to not know for sure drop off for some seniors, the class dywhere I was going to college,” Wesel said. “After namic still depends on certain seniors. December, many of my friends felt calm and “In any class there’s a critical mass, free and could really enjoy the rest of senior and if your critical mass is still there, year. But while I still had a positive experience, then what happens to an occasional permy college process finished five months later.” son here or there doesn’t have an effect on At Crossroads School for Arts & Sciences, the entire class,” Werner said. “Senioritis where AP classes are not offered, senior Noah is the only thing about high school that I Simon said he thinks attendance levels for se- have no innate sympathy for. I don’t like niors remain relatively constant throughout the lame duck attitude, and I don’t like the year. people thinking they can skate through “I think people relax into their college choic- APs. If you sign up for something, you es and care more about their friends and their finish what you started. I don’t think high school experience in general,” Simon said. badly of anybody who suffers from it, “In lieu of working toward a single test, more but I certainly don’t encourage it.” NATHANSON S

GRAPHICS BY KRISTIN KUWADA AND KITTY LUO

C4 Features

The Chronicle

May 3

31, 2017

hWChroniCle.CoM/Features

Features C5

Bubbled In

Since students enrolled in Advanced Placement courses are required to take AP exams in May, course curricula are often geared towards standardized testing preparation. Some students believe this detracts from their quality of education. By ALENA RUBIN

on the Teaching of Foreign Languages and the College After taking her first Board to structure its curunit test in an Advanced ricula. Students’ AP test scores Placement class at the beginning of junior year, Alyse have demonstrated that AP World Languages’ efforts Tran ’18 said she felt: to devote class time almost exclusively to preparing for a) Frustration b) A decline in motiva- the AP test have been effective, with 48 of 94 and 17 tion of 34 students scoring a 5 c) Helplessness on the AP Spanish and AP d) All of the above French exam respectively in The correct answer is D. 2016. Some students, howThe test was an old AP Span- ever, believe that focusing ish Language and Culture the curriculum on AP tests Exam issued by the College detracts from their overall Board that she had been learning experiences. “I felt like I wasn’t given as a unit test. Tran said that, because it was a learning new vocabulary standardized test that had and expanding in every way been issued to hundreds of that I wanted to,” AP Spanthousands of students na- ish student Melanie Hirsch tionally, she felt that the ’18 said. Of 369 students, 143 exam tested her ability to perform under pressure as said that focusing the curopposed to her skill in the riculum on the AP test detracts from their learning. Spanish language. However, Fernan“After I took the test, I felt like I knew I hadn’t got- dez-Castro said that the ten a good grade, and I was AP language exams are frustrated because I thought more comprehensive than that how much I’d studied non-language AP exams and how much I was capable because they include both of was not reflected in how I multiple choice and free reperformed during that test,” sponse questions, including speaking Tran said. and writing. “I also realThis allows ized that, for I felt like I students the future, wasn’t learning new with differI completely ent skills decided that vocabulary and to demonI wouldn’t expanding in every way strate their waste time that I wanted to.” fluency in trying to their respecstudy for —Melanie Hirsch ’18 tive areas of these tests.” strength. Because Similarly, history teachHarvard-Westlake does not have policies regulating how er Nini Halkett believes that much of AP course curricu- testing in the form of mulla should be geared towards tiple choice can adequately preparing students for AP evaluate a student’s comtests, departments are al- prehension of a subject. “I suppose the argulowed to structure their courses however they see fit. ment could be made that Some departments devote multiple choice questions the majority of class and may favor a certain way of homework time to preparing thinking, but I’m not sure for the AP exam while others that means they will have don’t. According to the May a negative effect on a stuChronicle poll of 369 student’s learning,” she said. dents, 87 percent have no- “I have worked with many ticed that some classes are students over the years to tailored towards AP prepa- improve both their multiple choice scores and their esration more than others. “I think AP Spanish say writing, and I think dewas the most blatantly ob- veloping those skills is part vious class geared towards of the learning process.” Nonetheless, some stuprep for the AP because all of the tests for AP Spanish dents affirm that standardare formatted exactly like ized testing is not the most the AP test, whereas, [in] effective measure of a stuother classes, they definitely dent’s proficiency in a givare geared towards prepping en subject. Hirsch, who has for the AP because all the studied in a Spanish immermaterial you learn is strictly sion program in Costa Rica what’s on the AP, but as far and frequently speaks Spanas test formats go, it’s kind ish with her nanny at home, of more just a normal unit said that Spanish tests have test and not the same as an inadequately evaluated her skill level. AP,” Brook Kawana ’18 said. “Personally, I’m not a World Languages Teacher Joaquin Fernandez-Cas- great standardized test-taktro said that the World Lan- er, and I know that’s true of guages department uses a lot of kids in general,” she the national standards set said. “Sometimes I feel like by the American Council my Spanish level isn’t re-

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ﬂected by my standardized test scores.” Standardized testing has come under scrutiny following the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act in 2001 that advocated a focus on improving standardized test scores nationally. However, many have criticized standardized testing as an inaccurate and destructive way to evaluate students’ intelligence. Sir Ken Robinson, an international adviser on education who delivered the Ted Talk ‘Do Schools Kill Creativity?,’ argues that the culture of standardized testing in our country has led to “a disastrous waste of talent among students and their teachers.” “It happens in part because the dominant systems of education are rooted in the values and demands of industrialism: they are linear, mechanistic and focused on conformity and standardization,” Robinson said in the Ted Talk. According to patch. com, the National Council of Teachers released a report that said that standardized tests advocate a “formulaic” writing style in essay responses. Additionally, many standardized tests are known to award higher scores to longer responses. For these reasons, some departments, like the English department, choose to spend less time focusing on preparation for the AP English Literature and AP English Language exams. Instead, teachers spend more time “examin[ing] poems, stories, plays and novels in order to explore, through characters rendered in a variety of moral or psychological dilemmas, what it might mean to lead a human life,” Upper School English Department Head Larry Weber said. “We don’t assess our students using College Board material, nor do we organize our curriculum so as to address systematically the tasks of either AP English exam,” Weber said. He said that although the course is not designed to ﬁt the test, the fundamental concepts of the AP tests, including passage analysis and presenting clear, persuasive arguments, are already built into the curriculum of the AP English courses. In addition, teachers provide students with practice questions and prepare students for the essay tasks they will encounter in the AP exam. AP Literature student Adam Rich ’17 said that although he felt that many elements of the AP exam were unfamiliar, he would have been bored by a literature

curriculum that sacrificed AP exam preparation can discussion time for multiple inhibit teachers from being choice practice. able to spend time teaching “I liked the English content that they want to emcurriculum a lot this year,” phasize. Rich said. “I liked the teach“It definitely can be limer and the books that she iting in terms of the content chose were pretty interest- teachers want to focus on,” ing for the most part. A lot she said. “If we didn’t have of the classes where you to cover so much content know they’re teaching to- in APUSH, for example, we wards test get pretty boring could slow down, maybe because you know you’re have students read histornot going to remember it, ical novels or more current but just teaching more in- events.” teresting stuff leaves a more Among the science delasting impact.” partment, each science class Similarly, the math de- has its own policies as to partment does not devote its how much class curriculum curriculum toward “teaching is designed in line with Colthe test.” However, teachers lege Board standards. While prepare students by provid- AP Physics utilizes a gradual ing practice AP tests later in integration of AP problems the year. into homework problems “Our department phi- and unit tests throughout losophy is that if we teach the year, AP Biology’s cura rigorous and substantial riculum is not designed to course, then our students teach to the test, and unit will be prepared for the AP tests are designed by teachexam,” Upper School Math- ers because of discrepancies ematics Department Head in the goals of the AP BiolSuzanne Lee said. “Our stu- ogy curriculum and College dents are smart high achiev- Board’s AP Biology Exam. ers, so they are capable “I personally, as one of when it comes to being suc- multiple AP Biology teachcessful at taking standard- ers, am not particularly ized test. Our goal is to help happy with the design of the our students gain a AP test because our strong foundation students learn a lot so that they can more biology than apply their knowlthe test asks stuedge to any type of dents to know and question, whether understand, and I it is multiple choice find that frustrator short answer.” ing,” Upper School Unlike some Science DepartW ’ departments, in ment Head Larry Arianna which the curricAxelrod said. Shooshani ’18 ulum of AP classHe said that es is standardized the AP exam is among teachers, the histo- known to be more logic ry department allows each and reading comprehenteacher to decide how much sion-based, without asking his or her class is geared much specific knowledge toward preparing for AP ex- about biology. ams. All AP United States As of now, school policy History teachers incorporate mandates that all students AP preparation into their enrolled in an AP class take curriculum. However, some the AP exam correspondteachers model their unit ing to the class in order for tests along the lines of the their grade in that class to AP exam more than others. be weighted on a 5.0 scale. While she said that her However, with the shift to AP United States History a purely 4.0 scale that the course was more heavily tai- administration plans on imlored to the AP Exam than plementing with the current her AP Biology Course, Ari seventh grade class, stuShooshani ’18 said that she dents are unsure what the did not have a problem with policies will be regarding the the difference in the struc- requirement of AP exams ture of the courses, as some in the future. Some teachAP exams require more in- ers advocate that it may be class preparation than oth- beneficial to eliminate the ers. requirement for students to “Although practice could take the AP exam in May. have been beneficial for biol“I’ve thought a lot about ogy, I think that practice for whether having students APUSH was absolutely nec- take the AP test is actualessary,” she said. “It’s also ly worthwhile, so I’m not part of the course. Part of a big fan of the AP test at history is writing essays. I this point, and I would be think in some subjects it is fine if students didn’t take more important to have AP that,” Axelrod said. “Perprep in the class, but also I haps, in lieu of taking it, the wouldn’t say we were learn- course should just continue ing these skills in class just throughout the remainder for the AP.” of the year without having However, Halkett said to focus on the test as the that spending class time on endpoint.” HITE S

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY ALENA RUBIN

C6 FEATURES

THE CHRONICLE

high highstakes

MAY 31, 2017

After months of anticipation and uncertainty, seniors reveal which school they will be attending in the fall and reflect on the college application process.

ILLUSTRATION BY SAMANTHA KO

envisioned herself as a Hoya at Georgetown University. It had been her top choice since the fall, when she submitted The Artist: Referring to herself as a “lit- her Early Action application eral mess,” Elizabeth Gaba ’17 and later received an accepspent Friday, March 24 — the tance letter in the mail. Deday of the USC decision no- spite her acceptance in Detification — frantically call- cember, Georgetown did not ing and texting her mom. It notify her of her financial aid wasn’t until she received a package until April, prompttext saying, ‘Happy now?’ ac- ing her to apply to both safecompanied by a picture of a ty and reach schools Regular big white acceptance package Decision. One of these schools was that Gaba could breath a sigh Yale University. She submitof relief. “I knew from ninth grade ted an application expecting a that if I got into USC, there rejection, not allowing herself wouldn’t be a single question to seriously consider the poswhether would go,” Gaba said. sibility of being a Bulldog. But “The second I got that accep- on March 30, “Ivy League Detance, I didn’t even bother cision Day” Nunley found herself pleasantly checking my surprised. other ones. I “I left class just immediI think you should right when the ately submittime was for me ted my deposdefinitely go with to get [my Yale it.” fit. I think that’s a lot admissions deGaba will cision],” Nunley attend the more important than said. “I went to USC Thornprestige.” the restroom, ton School of Music and —Courtney Nunley ‘17 and I didn’t know [my classplans to purmates] all resue a degree in Popular Music Performance alized that that’s what I was doing.” with a focus on vocals. When Nunley calmly reAlthough Gaba remained attached to USC throughout turned to class, she said the application process and her classmates assumed the never lost hope about her worst due to her lack of visprospects of admission, she ible excitement. But it didn’t faced doubt from college coun- take long for a student to ask selors and adults. In the fall, about her admissions deciher college counselor strongly sion and within moments, the encouraged her to apply Early entire class erupted in celeDecision to New York Univer- bration. “For a long time, even after sity, believing it to be a more I got the decision from Yale, I realistic option. Despite these hesitations, was really thinking I’d go to Gaba said if she could redo Georgetown, just because I the application process, she want to go into political sciwould have been more con- ence and I thought D.C. was fident in her application and the place to be,” Nunley said. would have applied to fewer “But I didn’t get as much financial aid as I expected schools. Gaba credits Upper School from Georgetown, and it’s not Dean Chris Jones as her most like my mom and my aunts significant source of encour- couldn’t afford it. It’d just be a little tight.” agement. Finances played a role in “He has never for a second had any doubts in me, and Nunley’s eventual decision to he’s always been there when attend Yale this fall, as she I needed him,” Gaba said. received almost a full ride. “That’s just been a great sup- However, it was her visit to port system throughout this campus that cemented the decision and prompted her to whole process.” begin to see herself actively participating in student life at The All-Around: Courtney Nunley ’17 had Yale. By SOPHIE COHEN AND

DANIELLE KAYE

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“I didn’t want to choose it just because it’s Yale,” Nunley said. “I think you should definitely go with fit. I think that’s a lot more important than prestige. Yes, the college you go to will have some influences on jobs and things like that, but I feel like it’s more than a name on your resume. You’re going to have to spend four years there, maybe more, so you’re going to need to go somewhere where you feel comfortable and that you think it going to be good for you.” During Yale’s admitted students weekend, Nunley met with professors, attended a constitutional law class and was impressed by educational policy program within the political science major. She was also drawn to the many extracurricular opportunities, particularly Yale’s club volleyball team and a capella groups. “I like that everybody at Yale didn’t seem like they have to fit into one bubble, that they could do a ton of different things,” Nunley said. “I feel like I’ve been involved in a ton of different things in high school, and I wanted a college that would support me doing that too.” The Athlete: Wesley Chang ’17 has been coasting through senior year since he received his acceptance letter from Pomona College in December. But prior to receiving the admissions decision, he had been relying on his verbal commitment to swimming at Pomona, which he worried would fall through. Chang said three days before the application deadline, he was notified of the possibility of being rescinded due to issues with junior year grades. “That was the most stressful part of the college process: not knowing what I was going to do,” Chang said. “Not knowing after I verbally committed if I had other options and had to look for something else.” All of Chang’s concerns soon dissipated. He looks forward to majoring in Economics and International Relations at Pomona and credits his interest in economics to the AP Micro and Macro Economics Course at Har-

vard-Westlake. Chang said he 55 minutes closer than Haris also excited for the indepen- vard-Westlake. “I’m looking forward to dence that comes with living in a dorm and the freedom to staying really close to home,” enroll in broad range of class- Kukavica said. “It is so cones relating to his specific in- venient, so I should definitely take advantage of [the proximterests. In addition to anticipating ity]. I’m also looking forward to the next four years at Pomona, being in a city where there are Chang is still focusing on end- so many resources to pursue ing his high school swimming my various interests in scicareer on a high note. Both ences, violin and chess. There he and the Harvard-Westlake is just so much availability.” Having already been acswim team have had success during the current swim sea- cepted to CalTech Early Action, Kukavica was accepted son. Recently, the team placed to the University of California ninth overall at the 2017 Berkeley as a Regent ScholSouthern Section California ar and waitlisted at Harvard Interscholastic Federation University, Yale and Stanford competition, which was the University in the Regular Deteam’s highest placement in cision pool. Although he is school history. Chang was a mentally set on CalTech, Kukavica is still finalist in the actively pursu100-meter ing the Stanbreaststroke It is all part of a ford waitlist race at CIF. bigger picture and no and said that This sumone thing can ruin what he would have mer, Chang seriously will travel to you have worked for, for to consider both Croatia to all these years.” options were train with the he to be admitCroatian Na—Tony Kukavica ’17 ted. tional Teams With less and will compete in the Swimming Junior academic pressure since December, Kukavica has been Nationals in Indianapolis. Looking back on the col- focusing on his extracurriclege recruiting process, Chang ulars, particularly violin and stressed the importance of chess. His chamber music demonstrating interest to group at Colburn won a naschools, even “reach” schools, tional competition in March. as well as the advantages of Kukavica has been coaching communicating with coaches chess and running the Chess from a wide range of institu- Club by organizing tournaments for Harvard-Westlake tions. “My advice is to start filling students and selling shirts. Kukavica said he found out college questionnaires and recruiting forms early,” Chang waiting for admissions decisaid. “Even if you think you sions, especially after submitdon’t have a shot at a school, ted his Early Action applicajust fill them out because the tions, to be the most stressful schools can give you insight part of the college application about what you should do process. For him, the essays, while a about other colleges. I wasn’t fast enough for Harvard, but burden, were not as stressful they still helped me out, find- because of his time manageing different schools and con- ment and head-start on essay tacting other coaches for me.” writing during the summer before senior year. Kukavica’s advice for risThe Brain: Unlike many of his class- ing seniors is to not stress on mates who are moving hun- a singular component of the dreds of miles away from college process. “It is all part of a bigger home, Tony Kukavica ’17 will be doing the opposite this fall. picture and no one thing can He plans to attend the Cali- ruin what you have worked fornia Institute of Technolo- for, for all these years,” Kukagy, which is only five minutes vica said. “Just relax, be yourfrom his house — roughly self and things will work out.”

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C7 FEATURES

THE CHRONICLE

Target Acquired

MAY 31, 2017

Some students view assassin as a fun game that unites the school while others believe that it may trivialize gun violence.

• Continued from A1

matter. Further, although we don’t deny that teach values of inclusion and tolerance and pacthe game can be disruptive, we’ve heard from ifism.” “It was as if no one paused to think about several students and teachers that the game Naomi Barlava ’17 shares the same sentiit even for a second,” Wolfen said. “I’m all for serves as an excellent and unique community ment, believing that the game is symptomatic fun and a game that brings our community to- builder for Harvard-Westlake. Inclusive to all of a larger problem of ignorance amongst Hargether, but the implications of this game are not students, the game encourages participants to vard-Westlake students. something that anybody should truly get behind forge alliances with fellow classmates, meet new “I think that Assassin really highlights the if they really think about it.” students in pursuit of their target, and revel in fact that none of us have ever experienced gun For the past five years, at the end of the the distinct and daring attempts players make violence,” Barlava said. “We think it’s funny to school year students have played Assassin, a along the way. Like most activities, Assassin go up to people and pretend to kill them and game that assigns each player a target whom comes with pros and cons. However, for the stu- hear people shrieking on the quad, but the rethey must “kill” by aiming a finger gun at their dent body of Harvard-Westlake, we think the ality of the situation is that if that happened at back and saying “bang.” Every “kill” must be benefits clearly outweigh the concerns.” a lot of other schools, it would cause genuine documented on video and uploaded to the AsHistory teacher Dror Yaron, however, said panic. And I think the fact that we make a joke sassin app to be confirmed, and the winner is that Harvard-Westlake students don’t think out of it shows that we have very little underthe last person standing. about this aspect of the game because of the standing of how people who aren’t as fortunate According to a Chronicle poll to which 372 bubble they live in that removes them from the as us struggle with that reality.” students responded, only 8% reality of gun violence Liam Douglass ’18, however, said said they view Assassin as a in the U.S. today. he primarily views Assassin as a fun The implications game that trivializes gun vio“There’s this sense game that brings the student body tolence and 83% of students surof entitlement of innogether, and as such, he believes that it of this game are veyed said they see Assassin as a cent, protected, welloverall greatly benefits the community. not something that fun game that unites the school. to-do kids here who go “I could see how people could say anybody should truly However, 21% of students said around shooting each [the game trivializes gun violence], but they think that references to I personally do not think that it norget behind if they really other,” Yaron said. guns should be taken out of the “There is something malizes gun violence or promotes gun think about it.” game. sort of dismissively deviolence,” he said. W ’ In a statement sent to the meaning to broader soWhile Wolfen appreciates the comLiam —Cate Wolfen ’17 Chronicle, creators of this year’s ciety when playing such munity-building aspect of Assassin Douglass ’17 Assassin app James Kanoff ’17 a game. When you look and does not believe that the distracand Justin Rose ’17 said that the intent of the at the whole world, why are we trying tion it may provide is a big issue, she game has never been to make light of or trivial- to emulate the behavior of violence and conflict said that, for her, there are still major issues ize a serious issue such as gun violence. amongst groups even in a mode that’s supposed with other parts of the game. “We understand that some teachers and to be playful?” “I really think that kids feel like, first and students have concerns about the theme of the Moreover, Yaron believes that the ideas pro- foremost, this is a game that unites our comgame and its impact on the school day, and we moted by the game are inconsistent with the munity and is really fun to play, and that is an would like to make it clear that they are being values Harvard-Westlake tries to teach its stu- aspect of it, but to me, it is impossible to ignore heard,” the statement read. “That being said, dents. the subtext almost,” she said. “But it’s not even like many other games, a theme imposed to kin“When you’re in an environment here that is subtext; it’s called ‘Assassin,’ and kids are rundle a desired atmosphere doesn’t necessarily re- protected by security guards, I find it ironic that ning around pretending to shoot each other with flect the beliefs of its creators or participants on this would not be played in public schools where guns. It’s honestly interesting to watch kids be certain issues, and we think that most students kids have been exposed to violence,” Yaron said. so immersed in this game and not see how obviand teachers understand that we don’t intend “We’re talking about 6.5 miles away. It shouldn’t ous it is, at least to me, that what they’re doing to condone or make light of the game’s subject be played here at Harvard-Westlake where we is not a game at all.”

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HITE S

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY NICOLE KIM

C8 Features

The Chronicle

May 31, 2017

Money Matters Students of different socioeconomic backgrounds compare their typical school schedules and daily habits.

By Nicole Kim PHOTO BY PAVAN TAUH ORIGAMI BY ADIN RING

Fiona*:

Harrison*:

Amber*:

Transportation: This year, Fiona takes the bus. She doesn’t think a new car is within her family’s budget.

Transportation: Harrison said he takes the bus to and from school. Although he has a license, he said he is unsure whether his family can afford a new car next year. “My dad is a freelance editor, so it depends on the kind of jobs he’s working on,” Harrison said. “He’s had a pretty consistent gig for the last 12 years with ‘Dancing with the Stars,’ but that’s only six out of 12 months.”

Transportation: Amber drives a Range Rover.

Self-identifies as: Less than well-off

Financial Aid: Fiona’s family receives financial aid for a majority of the tuition, with her family paying less than $100 per month, she said. “The first year I got to school, no one told me how to keep track of the money I use from my draw account,” Fiona said. “I actually ran out of money, and my parents had to start paying out of their own pockets for a while.” In order to prevent spending more than her allotted financial aid, Fiona said she now limits herself to a monthly allowance. “I count the number of months we are in school and divide the amount of financial aid I receive by the number of months,” she said. Fiona said there shouldn’t be a social stigma surrounding financial aid. “Harvard-Westlake’s tuition is a college tuition, so it shouldn’t be a problem for people to say that they’re on financial aid,” she said. Financial aid is also covering Fiona’s enrollment in the Oxbridge Academic Programs in Paris this summer, which costs almost $8,000. Other expenditures of her financial aid include attending school plays, buying school supplies and receiving tutoring. Income: No job but asks family for money when needed. 5:00 a.m.: Fiona’s alarm goes off, and she said she doesn’t have the luxury of hitting the snooze because of the two-hour commute from her East Los Angeles home. “I live on the main street near Cesar Chavez Avenue, ELAC (East Los Angeles College), the East L.A. Public Library and a government funded housing complex nearby,” Fiona said. Lunch: Fiona said she eats lunch at the cafeteria everyday. In the uncommon instances that she goes out with friends, she said cost is a factor that determines the restaurants that she eats at. Fiona said she is often unfamiliar with restaurants that come up in conversations. “In English class, people are like, ‘I went to this restaurant’ but I’ve never even heard of it before,” she said. After school: Fiona said she does not participate in any extracurricular activities. She also said she rarely goes out to eat after school with her friends. “My friends and I don’t have the money to leave or even a car to get to restaurants,” she said. “I don’t go out that often, but when I do, my parents give me money. Sometimes, even if they give me the money, I won’t use it because it feels like a waste or that I shouldn’t [use it].” She also believes that her socioeconomic status influences the type of people she is friends with. “Money determines social connections and whether you are invited to parties,” Fiona said. “I don’t have that much money, so I don’t know anyone from that crowd.” Dinner: “My mom usually cooks,” Fiona said. “We get [our groceries] from Ralph’s and Food4Less. We stick to fresh produce and no frozen foods.”

Self-identifies as: Upper-middle class Self-identifies as: Upper class

Financial Aid: Harrison’s family receives financial aid to cover half of his tuition, he said. “We are living month by month, adjusting expenses based on a changing income,” he said. “We have two houses, a car payment, my sister attends private school, and I go to Harvard-Westlake.” Harrison said his socioeconomic standing is unique among students receiving financial aid because he still has the means to pay for his expenditures. Harrison said many students treat money as if it were disposable. “There are students who take a plane to vacation on a random weekend,” he said. “There are people who drive a Tesla or bring their Gucci backpack to school, and I’m like, ‘Why?’” At the same time, he said he believes the culture to be a part of Harvard-Westlake’s appeal. “There is something very glamorous and appealing about it because everyone wants to be in that class,” Harrison said. “Going to school is like belonging in this class through their merits.” Income: Harrison said he has a debit card that his parents add money to whenever he needs it. 6:00 a.m.: Harrison said he wakes up by 6 a.m. to catch the school bus from his home in Highland Park. “We were one of the first families to gentrify it,” Harrison said. “It was a predominantly Hispanic neighborhood, but now it’s pretty hipster with a lot of shops opening up.” Lunch: Harrison said he eats lunch in the cafeteria. Although there is a lot of freedom to go out, cost has influenced his decision to not do so in the past, he said. “When Dancing with the Stars is not in season and my dad is working jobs that don’t pay as well, there’s usually a shortage of money,” Harrison said. “If I don’t go out to lunch this time, then maybe I won’t have to cut down on groceries.” After school: Harrison said he stays late after school to participate in various extracurricular activities, including singing and theater. His hobbies, which he makes time for after school, are possible sources of expenditures, he said. “I buy [vinyls] for around $20 an album,” Harrison said. “I also take piano lessons at the Colburn School. I like to write, but I just need paper and pen. I act a lot, and you only need yourself.” With a younger sister also attending private school, Harrison said his family makes just enough to pay for all their extracurricular activities and expenditures. Dinner: Harrison said his family usually eats at home or, once a week, goes to local restaurants.

Financial Aid: Amber does not receive financial aid. Additionally, she said wealth is not a factor that determines her friendships at school. “I have friends both with and without financial aid,” she said. “Money is an issue that is there, but no one pays attention to it. You hang out with friends regardless of their economic standing. [Students] are not going to judge someone for not being as affluent.” The only time she witnessed differential treatment due to wealth was the process of how the school determines parking spots, she said. “The other day with parking spots, I was talking about how parking spots are decided, and I heard that if your family on the Board of Trustees, you automatically get better spots,” Amber said. “Obviously, not everyone at Harvard-Westlake has family members on the Board of Trustees. It shows that you’re special because your family is giving more money.” Income: Although Amber does not have a set allowance; she has a credit card. “Whenever I go out with friends, my parents make sure that I also have extra cash on me,” she said. 6:30 a.m.: Amber takes both the Interstate 405 and Interstate 101 from her home in Brentwood. “My neighborhood is pretty small,” she said. “All the houses are gated off and pretty secluded on my street. The houses are all relatively the same size.” Lunch: Amber said she usually grabs a sandwich or salad from the cafeteria. Although she doesn’t have the time to bring takeout from restaurants for lunch, a lot of her friends do. “When we do eat out, we’ll go to Café Vida in the Palisades or other small café-type restaurants,” Amber said. “Sometimes we go to La Scala [in Beverly Hills], and cost is a factor, but we all just split the bill.” After school: On a usual day after school, Amber said she has an hour-long tutoring session in either chemistry or French. In addition to receiving tutoring in academic subjects, she also takes private voice lessons, she said. “I have two private voice coaches that I work with during the week,” Amber said. “One is for music theory and the other is just for singing in general.” After finishing her homework, Amber said she either spends her downtime watching TV or working out. “Sometimes, I take a SoulCycle class or I work out at my house,” she said. “We have a gym downstairs, so I normally do an ab workout or run on the treadmill.” Dinner: “My mom cooks, and we get our groceries from Gelson’s,” Amber said. “We go out for sushi or Italian on special occasions.”

*Names have been changed

SPORTS The Chronicle •May 31, 2017

MATTHEW YAM/CHRONICLE

(TENNIS) BALL IS LIFE: Jed Kronenberg ’17 prepares to hit a slice in his doubles match with David Arkow ’19 in the CIF-SS DI Championship. While Kronenberg and Arkow lost their match 6-3, the Wolverines defeated Peninsula 10-8 to win the championship.

Game. Set. Champs. For the past three seasons, the Wolverines had come close to winning the CIF championship. This year, they emerged victorious.

• Continued from page A1

their dominance in the playoffs, beating Santa Barbara, Northwood, biter-rival Los Alamitos, and University to set up a date in the finals with Peninsula. They traded points back and forth all day, with neither team able to acquire the 10 match points required to clinch the victory. Prior to the final match of the day, the score was 9-8 Wolverines. A 9-9 result would’ve meant a win for Peninsula, as they had won more games. So here they were again, Sraberg and Jalali in the 18th and decisive match. Sraberg led five sets to three and led the game 40-0. All eyes were on Sraberg. The fate of the tennis team’s season and the seniors’ last chance at a championship ring lay in his hands. The Wol-

verines’ ace was determined to make good on his second chance at Jalali and Peninsula. “I told myself I was the better player. I knew how much I wanted to win, and I owed it to myself and my teammates to fight my tail off,” Sraberg said. “And that’s exactly what I did.” Indeed, in the biggest moment of his tennis career, Sraberg delivered a 6-3 win for the Wolverines. As he watched his final forehand zoom past Jalali, Sraberg fell down to the court in elation, as his teammates hopped the fence and stormed the court. The final match score was 10-8. The blood, sweat and tears of this season all became worth it. The Wolverines had won CIF. “I’ve dreamed of clinching like that since I was a little kid,” Sraberg said. “To have it become a reality is truly in-

credible. I am beyond proud of motivation, hunger and desire to this final having lost two every member of this team.” Sraberg’s teammates previous finals. They wanted rushed the court to celebrate it more than anything: A ring in their senior year. [I am] so their dramatic victory. “Rushing the court was one proud of them and honored to of the best moments of my life be their coach. It was a storybook ending ever. I can’t believe we finally for the players, won. It’s toespecially the tally unreal,” seniors. They Kronenberg I’ve dreamed of were able to win said. clinching like that since I and win on their S i m p son exwas a little kid. To have own terms. “I’m beyond pressed that it become a reality is proud of the he couldn’t truly incredible. boys today, not have been just for winning, any prouder —Adam Sraberg ’17 but for how we of his team, won,” Tucker especially his said. “We won seniors. “It was a fantastic perfor- with class, style and by having mance full of fight and grit to fight it out until the sweet when needed,” Simpson said. end. We proved today not just “I wouldn’t have wanted to who we are as athletes but play against our seniors to- who we are as people. We are day. They brought two years of guys who are determined and

“

AARON PARK/CHRONICLE

tenacious. We are winners.” Even though they had achieved their ultimate goal of winning a CIF ring, the Wolverines’ season didn’t end there. They advanced to the finals of the CIF/USTA Southern California regional tournament, where they fell 5-2 to a heavily favored Torrey Pines squad. Although they didn’t win, the team’s camaraderie was on full display. The runnersup could be seen smiling and laughing as they enjoyed their final moments of their magical season together. “After a whole season of being together, nothing could make me prouder than finally getting a ring with my teammates,” Kronenberg said. “Win or lose, we battled and fought for each other, which is all I could want for my last high school match. I’ll miss these guys.”

AARON PARK/CHRONICLE

SMACK IT: Left: Stanley Morris ’18 preapres to hit the ball over the net at the CIF State Regional Semifinals on May 26. Right: Jacob Tucker ’17 lunges to return a slam during the CIF Semifinals. En route to the State Regional Finals, the Wolverines were victorious in the CIF-SS DI Championship and State Regional Semifinals.

D2 SPORTS

THE CHRONICLE

MAY 31, 2017

Game to watch JUNE 3

Track and Field Buchanan High School The track team will have two representatives in the CIF State Finals competition at Buchanan. Tiber Seireeni ’18 will compete in the pole vault. The boys' 4x400 meter relay squad also advanced to the ﬁnals. Mason Rodriguez ’18, James Chung ’19, Josh Johnson ’19 and Brayden Bourquez ’19 will run the four legs of the race. In the CIF Masters, they ran a time of 3.16:63, ﬁnishing in fourth.

KEY PLAYER Tiber Seireeni ’18 Seireeni is the Wolverines top performer in the pole vault competition. His season high vault came during the CIF-SS Division 3 finals at a height of 15 feet and 6 inches May 20. He advanced to the finals after recording a vault of 13 feet and 3 inches in the prelims on May 13. In the CIF-SS Masters Meet on May 26, he vaulted 15 feet flat.

& Figures Facts

Strikeouts by Hailey De La Vera ’17 this season.

10 RJ Schreck's ’18 batting average this season

121 Seasons as Volleyball Program Head for Adam Black

RIAN RATNAVALE/CHRONICLE

LEADING THE PACK: Long distance runners, Andrew Shibuya ’19 and Nate Hollander ’17, compete in a race at Occidental College during the Mission League Finals on May 4. Track and ﬁeld will complete its sesaon in the CIF Finals at Buchanan on June 3.

Advancing to the finals, squad excels in playoffs By ELLY CHOI

Track and field is a numbers game. 19, 6, 5”3, 15’6”, 3:16.33, 1. Nineteen Wolverines qualified for CIF preliminaries. Six qualified for CIF Masters. High jumper Claire Chapus ’17 qualified with a jump of 5 feet 3 inches, pole vaulter Tiber Seireeni ’18 qualified with a jump of 15 feet and 6 inches, and the 4x400 boys relay team, composed of Mason Rodriguez ’18, Brayden Borquez ’19, James Chung ’19 and Josh Johnson ’19 qualified with a time of 3:16.33. The 4x400 team also qualified for New Balance Nationals Outdoor. Chapus qualified for CIF Masters, the 4x400 boys relay team and Seireeni qualified for

CIF Masters and will move on to CIF State on June 3. Nationals will take place June 16. The amount of qualiﬁers this year was unprecedented and has resulted in forging a new path for future relay teams according to sprinter Brayden Borquez ’19. “Harvard-Westlake has had a history of amazing runners who have accomplished many things in their high school careers,” Borquez said. “However, the young group of boys that we have going to Masters now have never made it past CIF Finals. This year has been crucial in our development not only as runners, but as a team.” The boys 4x400 relay team has become the biggest surprise for the squad, some team

members said. “The 4x100 relay team is made up of three sophomores and a junior, and each week they seem to get even better,” distance runner Casey Crosson ’17 said. “Our relay team never looks like they are going to be the team who is going to win [their heat], but they have put some talented senior sprinters from other teams to shame. They have risen to every challenge that has confronted them so far, and they are so fun to watch.” The relay team ran a time of 3:16:33, beating its previous record by four seconds. Crosson credits the team’s success to the strong relationships the athletes have built across all the events. “Having a lot of young varsity athletes really energizes the

whole group,” Crosson said. “In past years, the distance runners have occupied their own section during practice, but I felt that this year, there was more unity across the entire team. From the sprinters and the jumpers to the throwers and the distance runners, everyone felt united.” As the season comes to a close, mid-distance runner London Alexander ’18 looked forward to her ﬁnal season next year. “I would like to keep the same spirit that the team had this year,” Alexander said. “Everyone was very friendly and supportive of each other and excited to be on the team. The boys relay team will be even better than they are right now, so I am looking forward to watching them.”

Baseball

.480 Team falls short of

its championship aspirations

Boys' 4x400 meter relay CIF-SS By AARON PARK championship time All it took was one inning. One inning when pitcher Jesse Bergin ’18 looked mortal, one inning when the reliable Wolverine gloves looked just a bit too shaky. One inning, and the Wolverines were out of playoff contention. Boys' Volleyball Coming into the season fresh off an appearance in the Final Record: 8-10-1 CIF-SS D1 finals, the baseball team fell to Dana Hills and projected first-round pitcher Hans Baseball Krause on May 18 in the first round. The loss concluded a Final Record: 19-3 season where the squad compiled a 22-5-2 record, including a 12-4-2 record in league Lacrosse play. “[I am] definitely a little Final Record: 7-3-1 disappointed with the way our season ended,” pitcher Sam Hliboki ’19 said. “We had high Swimming and Diving expectations for ourselves to make it back to where we were Final Record: 7-1 last year, and so falling short of that goal, it was tough to Track and Field see some of our seniors. That being their last game, it was a Final Record: 10-3 tough way to end our season.” Bergin struck out five in 5.1 innings of work and re-

3:16.33

Junior Varsity

corded the loss. “They had a stud on the mound, we knew he was going to be good,” outﬁelder RJ Schreck ’18 said. “We knew he threw hard, but we’ve faced hard throwers all year. We saw it with [Notre Dame pitching prospect] Hunter [Greene]. We lit up Hunter. It didn’t work out well for us in the end, but we knew in our minds that we had it in us. We just needed to trust ourselves, we just needed to stay through the ball.” The team’s regular season was bookended by a pair of winning streaks. The squad won seven straight games to open the season, capturing the Easton Tournament championship in the process. It also closed the season with four straight wins against divisional opponent Crespi and Goleta's Dos Pueblos. The Dos Pueblos game was a rematch of a Wolverines victory last year. “All in all, we had a steady year,” baseball program head Jared Halpert said. “Twentytwo [wins] and four [losses], with those two ties, I think, is a pretty good year. I was hap-

PAVAN TAUH/CHRONICLE

AROUND THE HORN: Third baseman Loren Franck '18 throws the

ball across the inﬁeld to the ﬁrst baseman following a strikeout.

py with the progress that the team made this year. I thought it was a successful year. Obviously, it ended a little short, but I don’t think I would have deﬁned it as we were hot, we slumped, and then we got hot again. We played pretty steady baseball, and we ran into a guy [Krause] at the end there that threw the ball really well.” Although 12 senior players will graduate this year, three underclassmen, two inﬁelders

and an outﬁelder, started at the varsity level this past season. Hliboki was also part of the starting rotation. “With how much time and effort we put in, I think we’ll be able to prepare those younger guys for the positions that they’re going to play as well as our guys were prepared this year,” Hliboki said. “That’s what really is exciting. With how hard we work, we can make anyone ﬁll a position.”

May 31, 2017

hwchronicle.com/sports

Sports D3

inbrief

Softball

Water polo grad wins silver with Team USA

Former high school water polo standout Johnny Hooper ’15 led Team USA to a silver medal in his U.S. men’s national team debut at the FINA Men’s Intercontinental Tournament in Gold Coast, Australia last month. At the tournament, Hooper was the team’s top goal scorer in each of Team USA’s six games. Hooper led the silvermedalist Americans with 23 total goals, including six goals against New Zealand and China. Hooper also led the Cal Golden Bears to a NCAA championship in December. —Asa Saperstein

AARON PARK/CHRONICLE

LOCKED ON: Hailey de la Vara ’17 delivers a pitch during the Wolverines’ 7-1 victory March 30 over Notre Dame Academy. De la Vara led the squad with 121 strikeouts. She will attend Ohio Wesleyan University, where she will continue her softball career.

New league brings quick championship By Sam McCabe and Zach Swartz

The softball team finished its season on a hot streak with six consecutive victories and advanced to the quarterfinals of the CIF-SS playoffs before falling to Wilson by a score of 7-0. After losing seven of the first eight games of the season, the team came together and turned the season around to finish with a record of 15-12. “It was very important for us this year to make the playoffs because we wanted to show that we could do better than what we did last year,” Lauren Lapesarde ’17 said. “Last year, we reached the playoffs but were eliminated in the first round.”

The players attributed their success to how well they were able to bond. “My biggest takeaway from this season is how much we have bonded and become so much closer,” Kinly McCaffrey ’18 said. “I can genuinely say that I love our whole team and, although we are losing a few seniors, I am still very excited to play with my teammates next season.” Up and down the roster, the team said everyone grew closer as the season progressed. The biggest win of the season came against Alemany on May 4. The Wolverines lost twice to their rival last season in close games. “My favorite memory from this season is definitely beat-

ing our rival, Alemany,” McCaffrey said. “We beat them for the first time in four to five years or so, and the fact that we won 9-2 makes it so much better.” Reaching the playoffs validated the work the team put in throughout the season. “I learned how strong our team is and how much we have grown,” McCaffrey said. Heading into the season, the players said those outside of the team expected them to have a rebuilding season than a successful playoff season. However, this served as motivation, not as discouragement, they said. “Going into season, I think that a lot of people thought that this year was not going to amount to much

for us, but we showed that all of the work we put in paid off,” Lapesarde said. “Our playoff experience this year taught us that we are a team that can compete with the best teams and win in those games. The team this year had and still has tremendous talent and as our season progressed and as we continued to push into the playoffs, we found that confidence, execution and trust in each other would take us far.” The team is looking to improve on its record for next year. “I’m looking forward to having another good season and being able to lead the new freshmen like the upperclassmen did for me this year,” Emily Nutting ’20 said.

Lacrosse

Early loss ends playoff aspirations prematurely

By Ellis Becker

It wasn’t supposed to end like this. The lacrosse team had won all but one of its last 17 games, only going down to rival Loyola a few weeks before. It was May 4, and the Wolverines were about to face Oaks Christian in the second round of the US Lacrosse Regional Playoffs. They were set to play Loyola in the next round, and they weren’t focused on the game at hand. They were focused on the next match. That day, the Wolverines’ playoff hopes ended when they lost to the Lions 4-3. Last season, the team beat Oaks Christian 14-11, and this season the players expected another win. “I would say we definitely felt like we were more talented but I think that was kind of what ended up hurting us in the game,” attacker Paul Rodriguez ’18 said. “All year long our main focus was Loyola. We were slated to play them in the next round and we were somewhat look-

ing past Oaks Christian. Oaks Christian was a good team and were very well prepared and well coached. They knew a lot of our plays and we didn’t shoot the ball as well as we wanted to.” Other players also said they should have advanced over Oaks Christian and said the team was unable to recover after losing the advantage in the scoreline. “We definitely should have gone on, and I still believe we are a better team than them,” midfielder Jared Goldman ’18 said. “I think we underestimated them. During the game, our offense did not have the same flow we had in previous games. We panicked after going down one goal, and we couldn’t recover.” Despite a disappointing end to the season, the Wolverines had a successful campaign in league play, losing only one game before playoffs began. Additionally, the squad was finally able to take down rivals Loyola for the first time in two years, beating the Loyola squad 13-

Alum delivers minor league no-hit shutout Top White Sox prospect Lucas Giolito ’17 delivered a seven-inning no-hitter in a double-header May 25. Playing on the minor league team the Charlotte Knights, Giolito is the number two prospect in the Sox system, according to the MLB website. He is the first Charlotte Knights pitcher to throw a nohitter since 2013. Throwing 87 pitches on Thursday, Giolito walked three and struck out three. Giolito now has a 5.44 ERA, 43 strikeouts and 25 walks. —Asa Saperstein

Volleyball alum wins NCAA championship Jo Kremer ’14 and the USC beach volleyball team won the NCAA National Championship on May 7, beating Pepperdine 3-2. Kremer and partner Jenna Belton won the second round of the competition with a 2118 victory in the first game, followed by a 21-15 win in the second. This victory tied the overall match score at 1-1. The Trojans would go on win two more sets and lose one before clinching the victory. USC came into the final as the top-seeded team with a season record of 38-1. This is USC’s second consecutive beach volleyball NCAA title. —Ben Tenzer

Former hoops star earns NBA tryout ELLIS BECKER/CHRONICLE

CROSS HIM UP: Sultan Daniels ’19 advances on a defender during the squad’s 14-4 victory over Sierra Canyon on April 22. 12 in an intense overtime match March 25. “Beating Loyola was definitely the highlight of the year,” goalkeeper Troy Hattler ’17 said. “Specifically, Simon Pompan’s [’18] overtimecaused turnover and Paul Rodriguez’s game-winning goal were pretty cool to watch and be a part of.” Overall, the Wolverines accumulated an impressive 16-2 overall record, and a 9-1 league record, matching

Loyola’s to claim the Mission League co-championship. “The ending was definitely very disappointing, especially considering that if we had won we would’ve been able to have another shot at Loyola,” Hattler said. “Even though the season ended poorly, I think this year was a step in the right direction for the program considering how well the regular season went. • Continued on page D7

Former basketball Wolverine Zena Edosomwan ’12, who graduated last week from Harvard College, worked out with the Boston Celtics on May 19. Edosomwan averaged seven points per game in his collegiate career. “It means the world. It’s been my dream to be able to have a chance at the NBA, and to be able to work out with them was a big step towards that dream,” Edosomwan said. “It’s been a great past couple of weeks, getting my degree from Harvard and having NBA opportunities to pursue my dreams.” —Jackie Greenberg

THE CHRONICLE

D4 SPORTS

MAY 3

Trail to

Highlighting victories for two Wolverine

Field Hockey:

Boys’ B

Undefeated Sunset League Champions

CIF-SS D1A

Girls’ Cross Country:

Undefeated Cham

Mission League Champions

Girls’ W

31, 2017

HWCHRONICLE.COM/SPORTS

SPORTS D5

Victory

and accomplishments teams each season.

Basketball:

Boys’ Tennis:

A Champions

CIF-SS D1 Champions

Water Polo:

Girls’ Swimming:

Mission League mpions

Mission League Champions

ALL IMAGES LICENSED FOR REUSE BY CREATIVE COMMONS

D6 SPORTS

MAY 31, 2017

THE CHRONICLE

Swimmimg and Diving

PRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF WOO SIM

DIVE IN: Claudia Wong ’17 dives into the pool at the sound of the buzzer to begin her race. The girls’ team ﬁnished undefeated this season ﬁnishing with a record of 7-0. The

team was able to place first in the Mission League, and the boys finished in first. In the CIF Finals Division I, the girls finished 17th while the boys’ team finished in 12th place.

Girls place first, boys finish second in Mission League

By OLIVER AKHTARZAD

Both the boys’ and girls’ swim teams finished their seasons at the CIF State Championships, where both teams sent a combined total of 11 swimmers. None of them placed in the CIF State Champoinship. The two squads also placed well in the Mission League Finals, with the girls’ team finishing in first place and the boys’ team finishing in second. By the end of their season, the boys recorded an overall record of 7-1 and a league record of 5-1. The girls’ team finished their season undefeated with an overall record of 7-0 and league record of 4-0. Not only did the girls’ squad finish its season undefeated and place first in Mission League, but they also broke many individual and relay race records. Although it didn’t lose a meet, the girls’ squad believes there were weaknesses they had have improved on to have

had an even better season. “I think that we could’ve worked harder on cheering for everyone,” Mila Fejzo ’19. “It’s always hard to balance cheering and swimming because we are supposed to stay off our feet, but we also want to cheer people on. Often we only cheer for our friends or the fastest swimmers, but I think everyone should be cheered for. I hope in the next few years we can integrate the club and non club swimmers together and have everyone cheering for our teammates.” Similarly, members of the girls’ squad think that the separation of club swimmers and water polo players at practice also hindered their success and improvement. They would prefer for all the swimmers to be together in order to develop a special bond with each other. “I think our dedication to our sport and our drive to race not just for ourselves, but for Harvard-Westlake is one of our

Boys’ Golf

outtakes “The highlight of the season was when the boys’ 200 Medley Relay beat Loyola.” —Wesley Chang ’17

big strengths,” Fejzo said. “Ev- Loyola despite it ending in loss eryone always tried to outtouch and the fact they were able to the swimmer in a different cap achieve their goals they set in next to them, so we had a lot the beginning to the season. W i t h of close races to more memwatch.” bers on the In order to team, the continue their unWe also had a boys were defeated streak, able to the girls will take lot of team spirit and have more advantage of the grit when racing our swimmers resources Harparticipate vard-Westlake competition which more offers during the made us tough to beat.” in events and summer. Due to many staff mem—Brennan Lee ’17 earn more points. Debers being availspite its able to coach, the non-club swimmers will be size, not being able to rest able to continue training hard stopped the team from prein the summer to improve their forming at its best. “A strength was definitely times and help the team defend their number one position in the size and depth of our team,” Brennan Lee ’17 said. “We also the Mission League. After finishing with only had a lot of team spirit and grit one loss, the boys believe they when racing our competition ended their season success- which made us tough to beat.” Some members of the team fully and even exceeded their own expectations. The squad think that the team wasn’t as is proud of its meet against unified as it could have been.

“

Due to overlapping schedules, the swimmers and the members of the water polo team weren’t able to practice together, which some think hindered their success. “I wish we could have had the water polo players and outside club swimmers train together more often,” Wesley Chang ’17 said. “Usually, the entire swim program only gets to train together once to twice a week due to schedule conflicts. A more unified program will create a better team environment and help move the team forward.” “Personally, I will continue training during the summer to make sure I don’t get out of rhythm and am ready to compete at a high level,” Marcus Leher ’18 said. “I believe the rest of the squad has a similar plan, as our goals for next year are to score more points at the Mission League finals and qualify more swimmers for CIF.”

Squad struggles at end of the season with multiple losses By ADAM YU

PRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF JASON KELLY

SWING AND TURN: Brandon Kewalramani ’17 watches his ball ﬂy after he takes a swing at the Encino Golf Course on March 28.

The varsity boys’ golf team ended its season by winning two of its last three matches. This left the squad’s overall record at 8-2 and its league record at 5-1. However, even though the squad finished the season with a winning record, multiple players feel as though the team struggled towards the end as it was defeated by Loyola 189195 in the final match of the season. “We [played] pretty well in regular season matches, but we definitely could’ve played better [during] CIF,” Dylan Wan ’18 said. Boys’ Golf Program Head Tony Kewalramani agreed with Wan about the team struggling towards the end of the season. “Our team results felt mixed,” Tony Kewalramani said. “We started off well but then had a tough time during the end.” Others still said they accomplished a lot over the course of the entire season. “We had several achieve-

ments. We won all our league nine-hole matches except one, and that was a surprise [given] that we had six freshman,” Tony Kewalramani said. “But [our] biggest achievement was team bonding. The seniors took it upon themselves to make sure this was going to be a priority, and they did a great job.” Another highlight of the season was a seven game winning streak in which the team defeated Buckley, Notre Dame, Granada Hills, Crespi, Chaminade, Windward and St. Francis. The team also began the regular season by winning eight of its ﬁrst nine games. In the boys’ golf CIF sectionals, Wan and Owen CalvinSmith ’17 competed against 100 other players from Southern California. “The conditions were tough, and the golf course did get a bit windy towards the end of the round,” Tony Kewalramani said. “The cut line would come down to 74, and both of our players missed it by a few shots.” Calvin-Smith shot a 78, and

WHITES’S

Wan shot a 79. “It was an experience that [Calvin-Smith and Wan] will remember for a long time because only the nine best players from each league make it to this stage,” Tony Kewalramani said. Now that the season has completed, the squad is beginning to think about and prepare for next season. “I’m deﬁnitely looking forward to meeting new freshmen and leading the team in my last year playing,” Wan said. Tony Kewalramani also talked about what he and the golf program hope to do next year as well as underclassmen players who will contribute to future success of the team. “[For] next season, we are looking to improve on this season,” Tony Kewalramani said. “We’re losing three seniors this year, but we have several freshmen that will be returning who will contribute to the team’s success for next few years.” One senior is Brandon Kewalramani ’17, who signed with the Boston College Eagles. Calvin-Smith signed with the USC Trojans.

MAY 31, 2017

HWCHRONICLE.COM/SPORTS

SPORTS D7

Boys’ Volleyball

Team ends season in second round of CIF

Although El Dorado looked stronger on paper, the WolAfter failing to make the verines were able to notch playoffs last season, the Wol- out a 3-1 victory. However, the Wolverines’ verines finished their season on a high note, advancing to playoff run ended two days the second round of the CIF- later when they lost to nationally-ranked Calabasas. SS DII playoffs. While they didn’t make it The squad finished its season with an overall record past the second round, Proof 10-10-1 and a league re- gram Head Adam Black is cord of 5-7, which lent them happy with how the team fourth place out of seven played, both in the regular teams in the Mission League season and in the playoffs. “We wanted to make a and in turn qualified for the run in playoffs, but I think playoffs. The squad enjoyed late- the way we performed in the season success, a departure last weeks of the season was from the team’s stagnant great for us,” he said. Black attributed the play for the majority of the team’s stronger play this seaseason. Up until the end of the reg- son not only to more practice ular season, its record hov- but also to the work ethic ered around the .500 mark, and dedication of the team. “We were better with our as the team never had a winning or losing streak of more serve-receive and attacking,” than two games in non-tour- he said. “The guys rallied together as a team, and when nament play. However, the Wolverines we needed it, our unity and ended their regular sea- maturity as a group carried son with a dominant victory us through.” Due to relatively against St. Francis on Senior few varsity returners as well as injuries Night, winning to key playthe game in ers such as three straight Xander Klein sets. The team’s ’18, who went It was one of down with a only two times greatest strength this leg injury bethey won on year was our desire to fore the regustraight sets compete and get better.” lar season this season. started, the For Jus—Andrew Lehrhoff ‘17 squad relied tin Eitner ’18, more on its that was a underclassmen. highlight of the season. Black said the underclass“All of the seniors played their hearts out and did such men stepped up to the task a great job,” he said. “When and were a vital component Collin [Shannon ’17] got the of the team’s improvement final kill, it really sunk in just from last year. “We had a couple of guys how proud I was that I got to play with such an amazing that were fairly new to volleyball, and we had these young team this season.” The team followed its re- guys step in and carry a large sounding Senior Night victo- load for us,” he said. Team Captain Andrew ry with a first-round playoff victory at El Dorado, who fin- Lehrhoff ’17 attributes much ished first in its league with a of the young team’s success to dedication and a desire to 7-2 record.

By ELI ADLER

“

Lacrosse

Squad defeated early in CIF playoffs

• Continued from page D3

With the wealth of young talent in the program, I am confident that there are many great seasons to come under the direction of Coach Krum.” Other players also felt like the overall season was extremely strong and agreed that the squad’s hard-earned win over Loyola was the best moment. “My favorite moment of the season was beating Loyola at home,” Rodriguez said. “It was a huge team effort, and you could feel the energy of the team right when we got into the locker room before the game.” Looking forward, the team will be losing multiple key seniors, including team captain Zac Harleston ’17, defender Shane Houska ’17 and goalkeeper Troy Hattler ’17. However, a large part of the team consists of juniors

and sophomores, including two of the three midfielders. Many of the players said they understand that the team must work much harder to fill the shoes of the graduating seniors. “The underclassmen know that a lot of seniors are leaving, so they know they’ll have to step it up next year, and everyone is motivated to improve because we know they’re leaving,” Goldman said. Aside from skill, other players acknowledge the legacy that many of the current seniors have set. “Those guys were really important leaders, so it’s going to be up to this rising senior class to set the example for everyone else,” Rodriguez said. “They established a brotherhood within the team, and we have to keep it going.”

JACKIE GREENBERG/CHRONICLE

ALL THE WAY UP: Jasper Richards ’20 tosses the ball and jumps in the air as he prepares for his serve. The team was defeated by Calabasas 3-1 in the second round of the CIF playoffs May 11th. work hard and improve. “The team’s greatest strength this year was our desire to compete and get better,” Lehrhoff said. “Over the course of the season, we as a team grew a lot more comfortable playing with each other, allowing for a great deal of trust to form, which is essential to success.”

As the team has worked hard in practices and spent a lot of time developing its play, the teammates were also able to develop an especially close camaraderie, they said. As he reﬂected on his past four years, and especially this season, Lehrhoff said he will most miss these close relationships he has developed

with his teammates. “My favorite part of Harvard Westlake Volleyball has always been my teammates,” Lehrhoff said. “Not only have they constantly pushed me to be a better player, but off the court they are some to the nicest, funniest people I have ever met, and I will miss them all.”

Black steps down as volleyball program head after a decade with Wolverines By ELI ADLER

Adam Black stepped down from his role as boys’ and girls’ volleyball Program Head May 22 to become the head coach of the women’s indoor and sand volleyball programs at Moorpark College, starting this summer. Black has been at the school since 2007, when he was brought on as girls’ volleyball Program Head. He led the girls’ team to the CIF-SS DI-A finals in 2007 and 2013, winning once, as well as winning a Division III state championship in 2007. Although Ryan Casey was brought on as the boys’ volleyball head coach last season, Black returned to the head coach role this season and led the squad into the second round of the CIF playoffs. Furthermore, he led the girls’ volleyball team into the first round of playoffs

this year, as well as the sec- the athletes were great,” he said. “In a way, I still have ond round last season. For Black, one of his fa- the same opportunity to vorite aspects of his job is coach and have an impact seeing players go on and on people, but there is room for growth at Moorpark.” continue to play volleyball. Black has made a last“Honestly, the most fuling impact on filling moments are boys’ volleyball cowhen kids that I team captain Colin have coached or who Shannon ’17. have just finished “He has been playing send me a my coach since message about how freshman year, much they gained and no coach has from their experihad a bigger imence,” he said. pact on my ability At Moorpark, than him,” ShanBlack will be re’ non said. “He sponsible not only Adam Black has dedicated so for bringing women’s much time to the volleyball its first title but also for building the program and my personal women’s beach volleyball growth, and I wish him the best of luck in his new poprogram. Although he said he will sition at Moorpark College miss Harvard-Westlake, he and thank him for his years is excited for the opportu- of service to the team and his integral role in my sucnity ahead at Moorpark. “I will miss the people cess as a volleyball player.” The search for a new volat [Harvard-Westlake] the most, as collaborating with leyball program head is curmy colleagues and coaching rently underway. WHITES S

D8 SPORTS

THE CHRONICLE

Q&A

MAY 31, 2017

Adam Sraberg Boys’ Tennis

By ELI ADLER When and how did you start playing tennis? My dad took me out to our local tennis club when I was 5 years old, but I didn’t start to play competitively until I was 9. I also played baseball, and when I came to the school in seventh grade, I ultimately had to decide which sport to choose between. I chose tennis not because I was better at it per se, but because I truly enjoyed the game more. What is your favorite part about being on the court? My favorite part about being on the court is the individuality. When I’m on the court, it’s just me against the opponent. If I win, or if I lose, all the credit or blame is put solely on myself. I like that pressure, and I know it pushes me to be a better player. Do you have any specific pre-match rituals? I always re-grip my racket before a match, so that my hand doesn’t slip. Also, I always warm with Stanley Morris [’18], since I tend to get better results whenever I warm up with him. What is your favorite part of the team? My favorite part of the team is the friendships that I have created. I’ve developed some friendships that I know will last far beyond high school. In what ways has your game evolved over the last few seasons? I have personally become a more dominant player. As a freshman, my match time would average around 45 minutes. However, my matches are now much shorter, usually around 30 minutes. Being on varsity as a freshman exposed me to a new level of competitiveness and grit, which I have strived for my whole high school career. As a team captain, what did you hope to impart on the younger players? I tried to impart on the younger players that they should always embrace the moment. As a freshman and sophomore, I never really felt like I was able to do that. I always told myself “there’s always next year.” As a senior, I wasn’t able to tell myself that, and I wanted to get that feeling across to the younger guys. How did being so close to winning the title three consecutive seasons impact you guys heading in to this season? Losing in the finals twice was brutal, but it also made me want to win CIF that much more. That was the main goal for the season, and I’m really happy we were able to accomplish it. How did it feel to be the player to clinch the CIF championship? Winning as a senior was the perfect way to leave my mark on this community and this program. To be the player that clinched the win was almost too good to be true. How did the pressure of going into your championship match with the Wolverines up 9-8 impact your play? I had received a text from my coach, Bo Hardt, the night before, which said, “You are the most clutch player we have had for years now. Tomorrow is your chance to prove it.” After getting that text, I felt as if no one could bring me down. I replayed the text over and over in my mind during that match, which really helped me fight off the nerves. As soon as I was able to do that, I just let loose and had fun, as if it was just another tennis match. How do you think Wolverine tennis has prepared you for playing tennis in college? I had never been a part of a team environment like this one, and I owe it to Harvard-Westlake for giving me that opportunity. I have learned so many things during my four years on this team. I’d say the most important thing I’ve taken away is how to truly be a team player: to be selfless, kind, and genuine with my teammates and with my coaches.

Stats

Mission League MVP titles

State ranking

Overall match wins MATTHEW YAM/CHRONICLE

ILLUSTRATION BY ANNA GONG

E2 SENIOR SUPPLEMENT

THE CHRONICLE

MAY 31, 2017

The senior staff members on Chronicle reminisce on their time at Harvard-Westlake in their farewell columns.

A goodbye that isn’t really a goodbye

By JESSE NADEL

On August 24, 2014, my very ﬁrst day of Chronicle layout, I distinctly remember texting my older sister in a fury describing how scary and intimidating Chronicle was. Her response was simple -- “give it a few years and you’ll laugh at this.” Well now, almost three years later, I am, in fact, laughing at my sophomore self. I’m laughing because that sophomore didn’t understand that Chronicle would become one of the greatest shapers of my high school experience. Obviously, it’s shaped me in the form of simply learning and personal growth. Being an editor of the Chronicle has helped me deal with my worries about confrontation, taught me how to be a leader, and showed me how incredibly important the art of journalism is, especially in our current political state. But that’s not the reason I laugh at myself from sophomore year. The biggest thing I didn’t realize back then

was how important my fellow staffers would become in my life. Now, this is the point in my senior column that is responsible for making me write this at the last minute. That’s because this is where I talk about and say goodbye to my Weiler Family, one of the hardest goodbyes I have to say over the next few months. For the past three years, this group of intelligent, hilarious, and talented teenagers have meant the world to me. The fact that there will be no more late-night layout laughs, no more binges of post-mated McDonald’s, and no more edit-induced freak outs while producing one of the best high school newspapers in the country, makes me sadder than I can describe in words. But, there is one thing that gives me solace as I say goodbye to all of these memories. Like any family, the Weiler Family is not temporary. This goodbye is not actually goodbye. Sure, we won’t hang out in Weiler anymore at the periphery of the Upper School, but we will still spend time

JEAN SANDERS/CHRONICLE

HEAD HONCHOS: Editors-in-Chief Jesse Nadel ’17 and Sammi Handler ’17 take a piggyback ride down memory lane. The two have attended the same school for 13 (“Too many,” Handler said) years and have been friends for almost the entire time. together. Our group chats will still ﬂood with text messages. Our friendships will still be as strong as ever. So, that leaves me with just two things left to say.

To my sister Ali, you were completely right when you texted me from college three years ago. And, to the best coEIC, managing editors, execs, pres editors, section editors,

juniors, and sophomores who have become my Weiler family, I say goodbye to you as we move on to college, but it’s not a real goodbye, because family is forever.

A love letter to The Chronicle By SAMMI HANDLER

JEAN SANDERS/CHRONICLE

BREAKING NEWS: Managing Editor Layla Moghavem ’17, Sammi Handler ’17 and Jesse Nadel ’17 read the News in honor of their work on the section during their junior year. Moghavem has also attended school with Handler and Nadel for 13 years.

When I signed up for Chronicle in ninth grade, I remember hearing that I had just “sold my soul” to the paper. Maybe that’s true, but now I can’t imagine my Harvard-Westlake experience without late-night layouts, last-minute breaking news and everything in between, as cheesy that sounds. As a sophomore I learning about news writing, delayed ledes and the works, but what really made me fall in love with journalism was the ethics side of the paper. I read about the backlash at the Rolling Stone for its partially-fabricated story on sexual assault at the University of Virginia. I listened intently to the controversies behind some Pulitzer Prize winning photos, and I watched how the Chronicle staff adapted to its very own challenges and tribulations. I loved that our mission is to report the news; there’s something noble to it. It was clear from the start that what truly makes the Chronicle great has been our deep commitment to providing the school ethical journalism. I am exceedingly proud of how this year’s seniors have discussed and contemplated the implications of not only

what we print, but also the importance of standing up for transparent, thought-provoking stories without compromising our journalistic integrity. One of my favorite parts about working on the paper this year was how often we looked to past issues for inspiration. We saw how we are just the latest in a long legacy of hard-hitting student journalism. While we may not have written every story we wanted to look into when we first started in August, we continued the Chronicle’s reputation of professionalism and starting conversations on campus. Each year, new sophomores work hard to be able to contribute to such a storied paper and for a good reason. We’ve given the school 26 years of unfiltered, unbiased and uncensored reporting that future generations can look back 26 years from now. In one of my first stories I made a fatal error. I misidentified a staff member, but in my defense the two names were very similar. I learned from that, though, that even the smallest mistake — there was a two letter difference in the names — can have much larger consequences. That article was just about a poetry festival, but making the same error in a much bigger

story would have drastically diminished the credibility. So yes, the Chronicle does care when we spell names wrong. I remember our former advisers, Mrs. Neumeyer and Ms. Hontz, telling us that their professors at Northwestern gave articles that had names wrong a “Medill F.” Hopefully I won’t make the same mistake next year. From my time on the Chronicle, I’ve also gained a deeper appreciation for the work publications like the Washington Post and New York Times are doing right now. Even as the president has talked about jailing journalists and a candidate has actually assaulted a reporter, they’re still reporting the news. While it’s frustrating to hear that some of my peers don’t trust the Chronicle or that so many people now distrust the media in general, it gives me hope that reporters haven’t been deterred from their mission. The stories coming out are easily going to go down in history books, and I’m excited to eventually join these reporters out in the ﬁeld in a few years. While I don’t exactly know where the future of journalism will go, I do know that the Chronicle will remain strong. Good luck, 2017-18 staff. Not that you guys will need it.

MAY 31, 2017

HWCHRONICLE.COM

SENIOR SUPPLEMENT E3

Respect the education you received By CARINA MARX

JEAN SANDERS/CHRONICLE

GOT EACH OTHERS’ BACKS: Presentations Editor Emily Rahhal ’17 and Executive Editor Carina Marx ’17 stand back-to-back and reminisce on being on each others’ teams in sports.

This school is special in the way it pushes us. So much of our time here was spent not sleeping, stressing about our workloads and isolating ourselves in the name of success. But, in a decade, are you willing to look back at six, four, even two years of your teenage life and wish they were different? Or do you want to look back at the good times above the bad times and think that you were grateful they happened? It’s easy to focus only on the bad times. But it’s not worth it. Sure, many friend groups have shifted and changed throughout my time here, and I can look back and resent that. Or I can look back and appreciate the Westside 4 Bus Crew, or the brief years I spent playing softball at the middle school, or the sixth period group that accidentally fell together this year. I’d rather remember swimming in the middle of a Wednesday during fourth quarter of my senior year with my best friends. Without these groups, my life would not be as bright and fulﬁlling as I feel it is, and I thank every one of these people for making it that way. Sure, there were some teachers that deﬁnitely disliked me. They never said it openly, of course, but in many cases, it is overtly clear — like active callouts in the middle of classes. But there were also teachers that not only taught the curriculum, but taught me about life. Senior year AP Language was one of the best courses I’ve ever taken, thanks to Jeffrey Kwitny. I will

never forget how understanding and caring Rosemary van Vlijmen was when I started crying during the ﬁrst month of seventh grade in the middle of our history class, how she took me outside and let me know that she was there to help me through the transition. Without these people and more, I’d have never wanted to show up to school. Thank you all for making my educational experience fun and exciting. Without the academic pressure this school put on me and the rest of us, I would never have understood my limits. I would never have understood what I wanted in a college. Even if Harvard-Westlake ended up being a load I think I could have done without, the school itself helped me come to that realization and make a college choice that will suit me better. Roll wave, baby. A separate paragraph must be dedicated to my dean, Chris Jones. I struggled throughout my three years at the Upper School, both academically and personally, and there was one person who was always on my team. CJ, thank you for being another parental ﬁgure for me throughout everything. There’s no one else I feel deserves more credit for giving unwavering support to anyone and everyone who needed it. So, as I sit at layout for the last time, I refuse to spend my time lamenting the long hours I’ve spent staring at a computer screen. Instead, I’ll remember the days last year where the Sports family played foursquare with nine people while waiting for pages

to get through the process in the April sun. I’ll remember the pure excitement the first time the Management Team got together and really clicked on an editorial, flawlessly written by Layla Moghavem and Jean Sanders. I’ll even remember the late-night Spectrum layouts with excessive pizza orders. I’ll remember the lifelong friendships created and strengthened in Weiler Hall over everything. After over 400 hours in these rooms, I can’t help but consider all of you a family away from my family. To M-Team, thank you for being consistent friends throughout everything we’ve faced on the Chronicle this year. I have some words of advice to my beloved Sports section before I go: more fights, more donuts, more music, less lights, more faces in cakes, more pictures on the wall, more pranks, more love. Stick by each other. Seniors, don’t ignore the truth of your experience at Harvard-Westlake, but don’t demonize it. Resentment and regret have a way of spreading and tainting the happiness and warmth that everyone has undoubtedly felt because of this school at one point or another. Respect the fact that the hard times have taught you about yourself and helped you mature into the person you are today and will be going forward. Harvard-Westlake has brought me to my limits many times. This school can gain from relaxing a little bit, absolutely. Still, I thank the school and all the people and classes I’ve taken for teaching me the skills I will need to continue in my life.

Dear Olivia, my sister/best friend By EMILY RAHHAL

We’ve had some times, girl. It’s going to be nearly impossible to leave you next year - you’ve been my best friend since the day you were born, but as hard as this move will be, we are each on the brink of an incredible transition. You are about to enter some of the most stressful, difficult, exciting and shaping years of your life, but luckily, I’m on the other side of that same grind. You have so many milestones ahead of you - your first symphony concert, your first homecoming game, your first final, your first Monday night Peer Support group (yes, I’m being presumptuous here and yes, you will join Peer Support), and I’m both incredibly jealous and thankful it’s you instead of me beginning your time at Harvard-Westlake. Though the work is often tedious and the social scene can be difficult to navigate, the memories you make here will disappear faster than you know. During your time at this school, be a part of this community. Join symphony, join Spectrum, join the volleyball team, but don’t just show up - make something of your

time with an extraordinary group of people. Push yourself to discover the emotional and personal context to the people around you; never accept situations for your initial judgment. Allow yourself to learn from every person you interact with and please share your immense maturity and kindness with the people who are lucky enough to know you. Don’t let yourself simply go through the motions - be active and be involved in a meaningful way. I’m so happy for you that you have found a group of friends you adore, and I can’t offer much advice here because I too am struggling to know how I will leave my best friends behind. But this truly isn’t a goodbye in any sense of the word, rather the beginning of something different. You have an incredible ability to know and accept people for who they really are, use that to your advantage when you enter this new community. Don’t allow yourself to feel like academic achievement is the only measure of success. You probably won’t internalize this, but please try to understand that you are worth more than the grades you receive. I wish I could tell you

how you should measure your success, but that’s for you to decide. Here’s a hint: the sum of your accomplishments will certainly not be your GPA. Most importantly: please, please don’t lose sight of who you are. I love you so much. Don’t stop dressing up and making music videos, even though your best back-up dancer is leaving. Keep laughing at Snapchat ﬁlters even though I will never understand how they are so entertaining to you. Please keep wearing your frozen nightgown, I promise you it will never go out of style. And damn it when you want to take your shirt off and eat some cheese, do it. You are more intelligent than anyone I’ve known or ever will know and you are wise well beyond your years - beyond mine honestly. You are going to do incredible things. Just don’t forget who was there the ﬁrst time you peed in a big girl toilet and cleaned up your barf on New Years. This transition will be hard on us, but it certainly won’t break us. I can’t wait to see what’s in store. Love, Emily.

SAMMI HANDLER/CHRONICLE

JESSE NADEL/CHRONICLE

GIRL GANGS: Sports Editor Juliana Berger ’17, Carina Marx ’17 and Emily Rahhal ’17 (top) recreate the “Sporty Soulmates” picture from last year’s supplement. Managing Editors Layla Moghavem ’17, Katie Plotkin ’17 and Jean Sanders ’17 (bottom) show their love for each other at the last layout of the year.

E4 SENIOR SUPPLEMENT

THE CHRONICLE

MAY 31, 2017 Members of the Class of 2017 announce their plans for next year.

David Aaron Declined to State

Mitchell Burdorf Reed College

Howard Deshong Harvey Mudd College

Pearl Acord Amherst College

Owen Calvin-Smith University of Southern California

Stephanie DeSoto Ohio Wesleyan University

Aleksei Aguero New York University Dana Anderson Reed College Anya Andrews Bard College Jeremy Arnall Tulane University Lindsay Avant Williams College Jarod Bacon Washington University in St. Louis Ryan Bae Johns Hopkins University

Jason Chang UC Berkeley Wesley Chang Pomona College Claire Chapus University of WisconsinMadison Eshanika Chaudhary Northwestern University Odessa Chiklis University of Southern California Anthony Cho Carleton College

Will Dickerman Dartmouth College Jessica Dickman New York University (Tisch) Sophia Dienstag Wesleyan University Henry DiNapoli Boston College Ryan DoyLoo University of Southern California (Cornell 2022) Kami Durairaj Georgetown University Ravi Durairaj Georgetown University

Casey Giolito The Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama Aaron Glazer Boston College Justin Golden Declined to State Eli Goldin Columbia University Jordan Goldstein New York University George Gong University of Pennsylvania (Wharton) Allison Gorokhovsky University of Pennsylvania (Huntsman) Erick Gredonia Bates College

Elly Hong Amherst College Shane Houska Colgate University Paige Howard University of Pennsylvania Lochryn Howe UC Berkeley Richie Hrncir Cornell University Aurora Huiza New York University Liam Hyde Indiana University Ali Iken UC Berkeley Chasia Jeffries University of Southern California

Lara Bagdasarian Stanford University

Hannah Cho Washington University in St. Louis

Naomi Barlava University of Michigan

Youna Choi Declined to State

Patrick Egan University of Chicago

Megan Barnum Vanderbilt University

William Chow Stanford University

Gabi Enciso Barnard College

Justine Barraza Macalester College

Justin Ciccone Tufts University

Connor Engel Williams College

Rasa Barzdukas Pratt Institute

Lola Clark New York University (Steinhardt)

Evan Engel George Washington University

Eric Han California Institute of Technology

Angelica Estrada Kenyon College

Samantha Handler Northwestern University (Medill)

Gavin Keipp-Stroud Tulane University

Marley Fair Boston University

Madelynn Harbert University of Michigan

Brandon Kewalramani Boston College

GrifďŹ n Fenady Colgate University

Zac Harleston Williams College

Jordan Khorsandi Declined to State

Eden Fincher Colgate University (Cornell 2021)

Emerson Harris University of Southern California

Genie Kilb University of Georgia (Cornell 2021)

Alessandra Flaherty UC Irvine

Troy Hattler Northwestern University

Nina Kiley Amherst College

Jacob Frank Amherst College

Robert Heckerman Stanford University

Elizabeth Kim University of Pennsylvania

Ashley Frey Washington University in St. Louis

Matthew Henriks University of Michigan

Lauren Kim New York University

Luke Henriksson UCLA

Tiffany Kim New York University (Stern)

Odin Hernandez Did not respond

Nathaniel Kimmel University of Wisconsin-Madison

Haunani Bautista Gap Year Lily Beckinsale-Sheen New York University (Tisch) Carter Begel Millbrook Academy (Prep Year) Marie Begel Howard University Andrew Berg Georgetown University Juliana Berger Johns Hopkins University

Piers Clark New York University Molly Cody New York University Megan Cohen Gap Year (Hopkins 2022, SAIS 2025) Sophie Cohen University of Pennsylvania Kameron Cooper University of St. Andrews

Kat Edmiston University of Chicago

Sahale Greenwood Santa Clara University Gillian Gurney Boston University Tess Haber Georgetown University Stephen Hakim Southern Methodist University

Matthew Bergmann University of Pennsylvania

Dieter Cortez University of Southern California

Jonathan Berman Harvard College

Casey Crosson Vanderbilt University

Andrew Beyer University of Southern California

Mila Danton University of Southern California

Ethan Blaser University of Virginia

Russell Davis University of Cincinnati (DAAP)

Jordan Friedman American University (School of International Service)

Sabrina Blatteis Brown University

Serena Davis Cornell University

Oliver Friedman Gap Year (Stanford 2022)

Haley Hicks George Washington University

Lexi Block University of Colorado Boulder

Sabrina de Brito University of Pennsylvania

Madison Froomer UCLA

Jack Hogan Georgetown University

Jake Broder University of Michigan

Michael De La Rosa University of Southern California

Elizabeth Gaba University of Southern California (Thornton)

Mathew Hogan Declined to State

Hailey de la Vara Ohio Wesleyan University

Andrew Gaut UC Santa Barbara

Hunter de Rubertis New York University

Benjamin Geiger Emory University

Alex DeRonde University of Washington

Lauren Genender University of Michigan

Phoebe Brooks University of Virginia Nico Brown Emory University Felix Brozyna-Vilim UCLA

Roughly one in four seniors will attend one of these ďŹ ve schools in the fall.

Alain Friedman Washington University in St. Louis

Jessica Herrera Harvard College

Nate Hollander Northwestern University Emilia Holt University of Edinburgh Carolyn Hong Declined to State

Dustin Jones Dartmouth College James Kanoff Stanford University Emma Kateman Columbia University Sohni Kaur Scripps College Danielle Kaye UC Berkeley

Conor Kneafsey Colgate University Audrey Kotick Duke University Jed Kronenberg Pomona College Tony Kukavica California Institute of Technology Dongwon Kwak Princeton University Jennifer Lange University of Michigan

MAY 31, 2017

HWCHRONICLE.COM

Lauren Lapesarde Declined to State

Marco Marenzi Santa Clara University

Kenneth Lau Duke University

Carina Marx Tulane University

Vincent Le Columbia University

Maggie McCarthy Lewis and Clark College

Eliana Lechter UC Santa Barbara (College of Creative Studies)

Connor McCreery Tulane University

Brennan Lee Williams College Jane Lee UC Berkeley Rachel Lee Brown University Talia Lefkowitz Cornell University Andrew Lehrhoff George Washington University Joe Levin University of Texas at Austin Carmen Levine Washington University in St. Louis Carly Levitt University of Southern California Jack Li Harvard College Jake Liker Northwestern University (Medill) Lizzie Litchmann Washington University in St. Louis Alyson Lo Emory University (Oxford College) Laura Lopez University of Southern California Oliver Loshitzer Northwestern University Asher Low University of Wisconsin-Madison Aidan Luscinski Declined to State Josh Lyons Carnegie Mellon University Tony Ma University of Chicago Micah Maccoby Washington University in St. Louis (School of Engineering and Applied Science) Eddie Mack University of Southern California Rachel Madhogarhia University of Pennsylvania (School of Engineering and Applied Science) Madeline Madison New York University (Steinhardt) Dario Madyoon University of Pennsylvania (Huntsman) Nico Mannucci Claremont McKenna College

Quentin McKenzie Duke University Alec Mendelsohn Princeton University Spencer Miller Colgate University Dani Mirell University of Michigan Layla Moghavem Georgetown University Noah Moghavem University of Texas at Austin

Kathryn Plotkin Washington University in St. Louis Rohan Prashant University of Michigan Georgia Price Northwestern University Emily Rahhal Colgate University Rian Ratnavale University of Michigan

SENIOR SUPPLEMENT E5 Rachel Seplow University of Chicago

Taner Vickery University of St. Andrews

Collin Shannon UC San Diego

Alitzel Villanueva Middlebury College

Cameron Shaw UC San Diego

David Wagner Case Western Reserve University

Kent Sheridan University of Michigan Quinton Simmonds Duke University

Talia Ratnavale University of Chicago

Alex Sington University of WisconsinMadison

Connor Reese University of Michigan

Casey Slattery UC Berkeley

Margaret Renton University of Edinburgh (College of Science and Engineering)

John Smith Cornell University (Engineering)

Adam Rich University of Michigan

Nic Smith Bard College

Nathaniel Wall UC Berkeley Chantalle Wang Columbia University Marina Weidmann Washington University in St. Louis Ben Weinman Kenyon College Simon Weisberg Colgate University Frank Wells University of Rochester

Oliver Richards Harvard College

Eitán Sneider Washington University in St. Louis

Grifﬁn Richter Gap Year (Tulane 2022)

Whit Spain University of Colorado Boulder

Noam Ringach Stanford University

Adam Sraberg Vanderbilt University

Josh Musicant University of Wisconsin-Madison

Max Robertson Amherst College

Cameron Stine Cornell University

Phaedra Robinson Middlebury College

Michael Stokdyk Southern Methodist University

Natalie Musicant Northwestern University (SESP)

Brendan Rose Yale University

Teresa Suh New York University (Gallatin)

Jesse Nadel Yale University

Justin Rose Stanford University

Nicholas Sweeney University of Chicago

Blake Wong University of Southern California (Marshall)

Tivoli Nguyen University of Chicago

Evan Rosenfeld UCLA

Keaton Tam Carnegie Mellon University

Claudia Wong Brown University

Keon Niknejad UC Berkeley

Lauren Rothman University of Southern California (School of Cinematic Arts)

Matthew Thomas Declined to State

William Wright UC Berkeley

Charlie Thompson Princeton University

Bryant Wu Northwestern University

Paige Thompson Princeton University

James Xu University of Michigan

Kathryn Tian Harvard College

Amira Yashruti Vassar College

Sophie Tippl New York University

Bennett Yee University of Michigan

Spencer Towill UC Davis

Lucy Yetman-Michaelson New York University (CAS)

Marcus Tse Washington University in St. Louis

Paige Yoo New York University (Stern)

Jenna Moustafa Harvard College Ray Mueller Occidental College Catrin Murphy California Institute of Technology

Alexa Nourafchan University of Pennsylvania Jackson Novick New York University Charlie Noxon Columbia University Courtney Nunley Yale University Nicholas O’Brien Loyola Marymount University Camille Oswald Villanova University Ryan Page Kenyon College William Park Emory University Sam Peacock Tulane University Haley Perrin University of Michigan Kate Perrin Kenyon College Isobel Phillips George Washington University Henry Platt University of Pennsylvania

Ariel Saballos Declined to State Sam Saferstein Villanova University (School of Business) Jean Sanders Northwestern University (School of Communications) Jill Sanders University of the Arts London (Camberwell College of Arts) Phoebe Sanders Barnard College Sylvie Sanders Barnard College Jason Santillan Massachusetts Institute of Technology Brooke Sassa University of Southern California Lexi Scher Declined to State Jack Scher Undecided Katie Schlesinger University of Southern California

Sydney Tsutsui Skidmore College Hannah Tuchman Tulane University Jacob Tucker University of Chicago Madeline Ulloa University of Southern California

Cameron Welther Tulane University Kevin Wesel Massachusetts Institute of Technology Izzy Wiesenthal Pomona College Nick Witham University of Southern California (Marshall) Cate Wolfen Declined to State

Liz Yount George Washington University Brenda Zaragoza Wesleyan University Chloe Zoller University of Texas at Austin *Speciﬁed schools or programs are noted in parentheses.

Alex Valdez University of Notre Dame Sophia Van Iderstine University of Chicago Theo Velaise Stanford University

*Based on colleges reported to the Chronicle PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY ANNA GONG

E4 Senior Supplement

The Chronicle

As eighth graders, we became the unloved middle child of the Middle School, stuffed in the now-nonexistent, frankly dilapidated Reynolds Hall, much like Ross when Rachel dated Mark. Though we had gained our footing a little better, we stopped receiving the special treatment we’d had the year before, feeling somewhat like Ross when his coworker ate his sandwich, the one good thing he had going for him. Still, we kept our spirits up, insisting that we were FIIIIIIINE. Without Bar and Bat Mitzvahs, constant relationships were our social lifeline with hover hands and pecks on the lips galore as we sauntered around Reynolds with our flavor of the day. These short-lived relationships, much like Ross’ several marriages, kept us relevant to the plot. Like Ross, we were far away from the center of HW social life on the Commons, having to trek up the never-ending hill just to get a small bowl of white rice from the cafeteria. We were beyond ready to get to ninth grade and finally be the head honchos.

May 31, 2017

The switch from loopy, ditzy Phoebe to the pressure-cooker environment of 11th grade took a toll on our personalities, turning us into control-freak Monica. Everything had to be in its place, properly cleaned and organized or else anyone in our path would have to endure our wrath. APUSH tests and ACTs seemed as malicious and unfriendly as Monica’s new co-workers who bullied her out of her job. At times, we felt as unloved as Monica did, with our parents, the deans, favoring the seniors or sophomores over us. Though we basically lost our chill for a whole year, we kept insisting to concerned friends and family that we were “breezy.” Every now and then, we would let loose and go to basketball games to cheer on our state champs. We were tired of mindless dating and the fact that Richard would never settle down, but meanwhile we didn’t even realize that Janice, aka the college process, had our man held hostage.

May 31, 2017

hwchronicle.com

Senior Supplement E5

Finally, we could proudly march around campus, knowing we were it, just like Rachel in every fashion-forward outfit she wore. In “The One Where It All Began,” she completed the whole Friends gang, just as the new ninth graders completed our grade. We went on retreat to the Colorado River, but the government was ON A BREAK, so we all canoed down the Lower River. The honeymoon phase was over, and just as Rachel had to begin to live on her own, so did we. Still, fashion was a priority, and we made some choices that needlessly got us the title of “ladies of the evening” by nay-sayers like Ross. Some of us were even bolder, making out with each other in the oh-so-public locker cubicles. But we couldn’t stay on top forever. Upper School, here we come.

Could this year be any better? Though we still had our fair share of Chandler-esque commitment issues when choosing where to apply Early Decision, senior year was a bucket of laughs. Just like how everyone at Central Perk somehow knew that the couch was reserved for the gang, everyone on campus knew the senior tables were ours. Sometimes, it felt like colleges didn’t care about who we really were, just like the TV Guide people didn’t care that Chandler wasn’t really Miss Chanandler Bong. Janice’s nasal, grating voice haunted us all of first quarter and continued to make guest appearances now and then throughout the rest of the year, but now we all have our Monicas, be they our best friends, significant others or both. We leave our weirdly spacious “rent-controlled” apartment and cozy Central Perk confident that we have made friends for life.

Arriving at Harvard-Westlake for the first time, we felt like Joey going into one of his auditions. A little nervous. Trying to be confident. All false bravado with a dash of Axe body spray (okay, more than a dash). We weren’t sure if our new teachers liked us or if our new friends would invite us to their Bar and Bat Mitzvahs. We went a little crazy with our newfound freedom, especially in the cafeteria. Whole pizzas? Sushi? A sandwich bar? We piled as many dishes as possible - even Cup of Noodles, which gave us all stomachaches - onto our bright red trays, struggling to balance it all as we made our way to the tables on Horns Commons (or sometimes, sneaking some up to the lounge - sorry, seventh grade deans). We said “How you doin’?” to every new person we met, hoping we could find the Ross to our Rachel, the Mike to our Phoebe, the Monica to our Chandler. The lounge was our Central Perk, and we had many, many breakups and makeups within those hallowed walls - as well as thousands of games of “Zap.” Soon, we settled into our places as sevvies, figuring out where the bathrooms were and what a claim was as we prepared to spend the Days of Our Lives here.

The shock of the Upper School was real. We felt like we were thrown out into the cold when we had our first World and Europe II test, but instead of losing hope, we found a way, just like Phoebe when she mugged Ross. The social scene overwhelmed us at first, rendering us totally and completely “floopy.” On top of that, the college process really kicked in, and we all needed plans, but we didn’t even have “pla’s.” We started performing “Smelly Cat” at Coffee Houses and tried to find the Crap Bags to our Princess Consuela Banana Hammocks. Sometimes, we would have preferred to permanently change our identities and start new lives as Regina Phalange, but as we went through the year, we learned to embrace our true selves, running ever forward but in our own quirky way.

Written by Layla Moghavem

ILLUSTRATION BY ANNA GONG

E8 Senior Supplement

The Chronicle

May 31, 2017

A league all its own By Juliana Berger

It’s the first day of August layout, sophomore year, and all of the upperclassmen in the sports room just stood up all together and left for lunch. The rest of us were left to scramble after them on the walk to Five Guys, not sure where we were even going at first and too intimidated to ask. This was the first time I really questioned whether I should even be in this section. Sports is energetic to the point of riotous, and has a tendency to generate its own mythology and traditions separate from the rest of the paper. Even at the start, joining sports felt like a weird choice for me, but none of the other sections really appealed to me, and I had a few friends, Carina and Emily, who would be with me. So, it couldn’t be that bad. But I began to fear I wouldn’t be able to keep up with the pandemonium, that it would be clear from the start that I shouldn’t be there, and would forever remain outside and left behind in the tight-knit and messy group that had so long generated scorn from the other sections. But, like most things, exposure leads to acceptance, and finding my place in this new culture took less time than I expected. It became second nature to pretend to know people I had never met (Sam Sachs ‘14 is an absolute legend, even though I’ve never spoken a word to him in my life), or understand inside

jokes that were created years before I ever arrived. I spent hours in this room, working on D8 and D3 and countless briefs, and stood up for the pledge of allegiance whenever they asked, and by the end of sophomore year I felt fully integrated into the chaos of the sports section. I relished in it, and became as fiercely protective of the ideology of “that’s just the way sports does it” as anyone. We could be a little harsh at times, but I can’t imagine a better bonding experience than joining in on some friendly roasting of my fellow juniors and the sophomores below us, and even our dear senior, like we were all siblings who’ve spent too long trapped inside on a rainy day. And sure, there were fights, physical and otherwise, but there was always an acknowledgment that we cared about each other, and that there’s a bond that goes deeper than petty arguments. To be honest, it feels silly to say we’re like a family: that’s always been the one, big, clinched selling point for the sports section, when we were desperately trying to convince just one more sophomore to join the section. But when I’m defending my underclassmen from an unnecessarily harsh critique of their page, tossing around a football, or carrying on the tradition of a firm handshake after the completion of every page, and especially when my juniors call me, in all honestly, their mom, it really starts to feel like one.

CARINA MARX/CHRONICLE

LYING AROUND: Managing Editor Jean Sanders ’17 and Presentations Editor Emily Rahhal ’17 finally relax after a long year keeping the paper together and looking fresh each issue.

It was all worth it in the end

By Jean Sanders

Throughout this year every time I met a parent with a child in fifth or sixth grade they have two questions for me: “Is Harvard-Westlake worth it? Should I send my kid there?” I usually stumble out a half-formed answer — yes, I love my friends and teachers here. Yes, there’s too much work and too little sleep. Yes, it’s competitive. I think it’s worth it… As senior year comes to a close I finally have a clear answer for them. It could be the nostalgia of a six-year chapter of my life ending, but as I weigh my memories I can’t help but realize that the good vastly outweigh the bad. For every night I stayed up late trying to finish an English essay, there were countless free periods spent laughing on the quad. For every bad grade on a test, there were conversations and laughs between Mr. Kochar and our entire

first period calculus class. For every tear, every lab, every late homework, there have been what feels like a million hugs, smiles, laughs, lunches, frees and conversations. I’m sure this sounds like it could be the case for any high school student, that the good can outweigh the bad anywhere. But, in the spirit of my college essays, let me answer the question more specifically: “Why Harvard-Westlake?” Well, where else does your calculus teacher drive two hours to come all day on a Saturday to help your entire class study for the midterm? Where else would you have one sophomore year journalism teacher who reported on the Rodney King trials and one who published frontpage New York Times stories? Where else could you sit at the lunch tables and talk to peers and friends who won national debate tournaments, had interviews with ABC

about their charities and were invited to the White House for their inventions? I think what makes Harvard-Westlake so unique is that everyone is passionate about something. When you walk through the campus you can feel it in the conversations: not just “I went to a fun party over the weekend,” but also “I produced an award-winning, 32 page paper.” (Sorry, I had to get in a Chronicle brag somewhere.) The passion that everyone feels for their activities is infectious — it means that everyone wants to listen to one another and feel inspired, to share their stories and learn together. It is this passion that forges the deepest connections between teachers and students, best friends, colleagues and classmates. This passion and these connections are what make Harvard-Westlake so worth it.

places! Security Kiosk: Every morning, I start my day with a wave to Randy when pulling into school, followed by an enthusiastic “Good morning!” to Mark. And every morning, they return the favor with an even bigger smile and wave or, in Mark’s case, a gruff nod accompanied by a raised hand. Sometimes he cracks a smile too, though. The day I heard back from my Early Decision school, I got a pep talk from Mark, and he was right by my side when I anxiously texted my now-future-roommate asking if she wanted to live together next year. No matter what’s on my mind, be it annoying people or difficult classes or even how nice the weather is, I know that I can chat about it with the security guards at the end of the day and leave school smiling. Weiler: Honestly, this entire piece could’ve easily been an ode to Weiler Hall, the forgotten building on the most irrelevant edge of campus whose sign usually has at least a couple letters missing. From getting sick from binge-eating raw cookie dough to working, eating and practically living in this building packed with sweaty, stressed out, sleep-deprived teenagers, Weiler has seen it all. Many a heinous act has occurred in the shrouded secrecy of the Features Room,

from shotgunning Diet Cokes at 9 AM to stabbing grapefruits, we do it all #inWeiler. Yes, the freezer might house mini chicken quesadillas from February 2016, and yes we found a cockroach once, but Weiler has been a home away from home when I really needed it. I’ve finished many a last minute English essay in that room covered in my Chronicle blanket with my country music blasting on the bluetooth, and the computer I’ve unofficially claimed since junior year now has a sign with my name over it. I would say I’m going to miss it, but after that cockroach sighting, I think I’ll be just fine. My locker: I’m not a big locker person, which makes my locker absolutely perfect for me— it’s not big on lockers either, since it literally doesn’t lock. It doesn’t even close, as a matter of fact. I’ve had the same locker since sophomore year in a prime Drama Lab spot, and even though it won’t stay shut, I wouldn’t change it for the world. Mostly because I don’t care enough to fill out the locker change form. So here’s to my locker! Thank you for generously housing an empty binder and a few loose papers! These places have mattered so much to me over the past three years, but the experiences in them have made them so special.

Oh, the places we went! By Eshanika Chaudhary

JEAN SANDERS/CHRONICLE

WRITERS BLOC: Sports Editor Juliana Berger ’17 and Presentations Editor Eshanika Chaudhary ’17 pose outside of Weiler Hall on May 29.

I don’t do words. I’m a Presentations Editor for this paper, meaning I’m in charge of design, and I don’t like writing. But, with four years of high school journalism coming to an end, I found myself wanting to write a senior column… except, I don’t do words, and I don’t know where to start or what to say. I’ve rewritten this column countless times, and procrastinated on this more than literally any other assignment I’ve ever had in my entire Harvard-Westlake career— and that’s saying something, since I didn’t type a word of my junior year As I Lay Dying essay until 3 a.m. the night before. But the thing is, in ten years, I probably won’t remember which essays I put off. In ten years, the experiences I’ve had here will begin to fade, with only vague memories of my friends and classes and stress remaining. I won’t remember the meaning of Big C or the torturous route I had to take every day from Weiler to the top floor of Seaver last year or any of the little things like that. So, as a sort of time capsule for a future Eshanika and a small token of appreciation for all these little things, I’m going to focus on little things we hardly ever think about, yet embody so much—

May 31, 2017

hwchronicle.com

Senior Supplement E9

All gone in the blink of an eye By Sophie Cohen

JEAN SANDERS/CHRONICLE

CARINA MARX/CHRONICLE

JEAN SANDERS/CHRONICLE

THREE’S A CROWD: (Top) Executive editor Carina Marx ’17, Managing Editor Katie Plotkin ’17 and Sports Editor Juliana Berger ’17. (Middle) Presentations Editor Sabrina de Brito ’17, Managing Editor Jean Sanders ’17 and Editor in Chief Sammi Handler ’17. (Bottom) Features Editor Danielle Kaye ’17, Editor in Chief Jesse Nadel ’17 and Presentations Editor Emily Rahhal’17

Learning to lead

By Danielle Kaye

Harvard-Westlake prepares us to be leaders. We are told to take charge of our education, to manage our time, to speak up. We are encouraged to actively pursue our passions in order to distinguish ourselves from the talented students around us. We are taught that hard work and integrity make up the foundation for success. And by the time we put on our graduation gowns and transition into the adult world, we have already begun to envision ourselves taking on leadership roles in the future. But on domestic and international levels, this year has brought the very concept of leadership into question. If the President of the United States can become the leader of a global superpower without the passion or the hard work or the integrity at the core of Harvard-Westlake’s philosophy, what does leadership even mean? Do the lessons we’ve learned in high school even matter? I can’t help but wonder. As the countdown to graduation continues and the end of high school becomes more and more of a reality, I’m begin-

ning to see the stark contrast between the moral leadership I’ve been taught during the past six years and the values (or lack thereof) in the real world – a world filled with undeserving leaders and shortcuts to success. It’s demoralizing at times. When reading the news, I often worry that I’ve been living in a bubble thus far, that the long-term goals I’ve formed during high school are nothing but empty dreams. I’m scared that soon after leaving Harvard-Westlake, this bubble will pop and I’ll realize how naïve I once was. At the same time, I know, deep down, what true leadership means, what it should mean. I know because I’ve seen it for myself at Harvard-Westlake. Dr. Huybrechts is a leader. She is compassionate yet assertive, eager to stand up for what she believes in and offer a helping hand at any moment. She does not work above students but rather beside them. CJ is a leader. He guides each of his students through the Upper School as a dean and a friend. He is not afraid to tell the truth, as he realizes that objectivity helps set

“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in awhile, you could miss it.” I find myself thinking about Ferris Bueller’s famous line as the final 10 days before graduation wind down. My six years at Harvard-Westlake have been a fleeting experience. Pretty much one of the only things I remember about seventh grade was that on April 27 (the day before my Bat-Mitzvah), Coach Hieatt was spotting me doing an aerial in P.E. class and I accidentally kicked her in the head and she passed out (sorry, Coach). I remember practically nothing about eighth grade: not who my friends were, not what I did on the weekends, nor my fashion sense. While I recall more details about my first three years in high school, they still flew by and more-or-less blur together into one indistinguishable mass of tennis matches, term papers and Chronicle layouts. And now, senior year is over and like the five grades that preceded it, it passed in the blink of an eye. It is only as we approach the tail-end of our run at Harvard-Westlake, the school has organized a series of events that encourage the graduating class to slow down, be in the moment and cherish our remaining time in high school. College Sweatshirt Day, the Mother-Daughter / Father-Son Luncheon, Senior Transition Day, Senior Coffee House, Senior Retreat and Senior Grad Night are all designed to create an opportunity for us to interact with both close friends and distant

realistic expectations, regardless of how much it may hurt. But he never lets his students forget he is their biggest advocate. Jesse Nadel and Sammi Handler are leaders. They never shy away from controversy and have dedicated countless hours to their love for journalism and for the school. They use their personal experience and the lessons they learned from their many advisers – from Mr. Chae, Ms. Neumeyer, Ms. Hontz, Ms. Wantz (or so I’ve heard) and Mr. Burns – to make informed decisions on a daily basis. I could go on and on. The list of leaders I’ve learned from, been inspired by and worked beside during my years here is endless. And it is their definition of leadership that I will carry with me alongside my diploma. Although the real world will without a doubt force all of us graduating seniors to question everything we’ve learned, let’s make sure to not let it crush our goals. We can, and we will, turn our dreams into reality. We will hold onto that Harvard-Westlake integrity and passion and, each in our own way, lead the world in the right direction.

acquaintances, reflect on the times we have had together and appreciate the memories we share. These events force me to be something I have never been: sentimental about my soon-to-be alma mater. Though I have spent a lot of time throughout the last six years pausing the TV while I tackle a mountain of homework, I’ve never been good at knowing when to press pause on life and take in a moment while it is happening. It hasn’t been until these end-of-year gatherings that I have been able to slow down and recognize how special my time at the school has been. Between the friendships I have made with my peers, the close-knit relationships I have forged with teachers and my own intellectual and character development, I am so grateful for all the school has done for me and wish I had felt this appreciation much earlier in my career as a student. This late awakening that these years at Harvard-Westlake are something to cherish and not merely get through, makes me wish that these nostalgia-inducing events were sprinkled throughout senior year instead of crammed into May and June. Prior to senior year, I envisioned that my final year as a Wolverine would be more distinct than the rest of them. Don’t get me wrong; during the past nine months, I have shared a lot of indelible experiences with my classmates that I will forever cherish. But, too few of these memories were made on-campus. Maybe, I have watched “High School Musical” one too many times. But I just thought there would be more senior-specific gatherings that

would unify the 290 of us and allow us to savor our final two semesters together. While the senior specific events have provided these bonding opportunities, they come just weeks before we leave the Upper School forever. I’m looking forward to Senior Retreat next week, as I’ve heard from alumni that it is an amazing three days of camaraderie that we all know to absorb while it is happening. But to me, it seems strange to create such a strong sense of unity the day before we take our diplomas and head our separate ways. Wouldn’t it be cool to have Senior Retreat in September so that we can further strengthen that cohesive spirit over the course of the school year? How about more senior-only coffeehouses that bring the entire class together at various times throughout the year? We could also have additional events like a Senior Bowling Night, Senior Community Service Project Day, or a “real” Senior Prank Day for us to come together and unleash our rebellious spirit. I just wish there were more obvious events during senior year that made me consciously aware that I needed to slow down and truly enjoy the moment and the people around me. But maybe I’m wrong. Maybe you’re not supposed to know you’re making a memory until it’s over. Maybe these final class events are so effective in unifying us because we sense the end is near. All I know is that senior year went really fast and I can’t help but feel that I missed it... and now I’m going to miss it.

JEAN SANDERS/CHRONICLE

DOUBLE PLATINUM, SOME FEATURES: Features editors Sophie Cohen ’17 and Danielle Kaye ’17 were in the same section for years.

E10 Senior Supplement

The Chronicle

Do not go gentle...

May 31, 2017

By Layla Moghavem

I have this thing about being liked. Not necessarily loved or universally admired, but I simply never liked the idea of anyone thinking poorly of me. It’s wholly unrealistic, I know, but I thought if I could hold my tongue whenever I disagreed with anyone and let them rant uninterrupted, nobody would ever feel inclined to think ill of me. But for those of you who know me, this doesn’t really sound like me. While I don’t engage in Facebook flame wars or anything of the sort, I don’t hide my opinions — political or otherwise — so as not to alienate anyone or lose any popular support like Taylor Swift (yes, this is a callout). This is because I also have this other thing about being honest and genuine. As you might imagine, these two compulsive needs often come into conflict with one another. For the longest time, I thought honesty and likability were mutually exclusive; if I were honest, not everyone would like me and for everyone to like me, I couldn’t be honest. Depending on the day, one could get a different version of me — a quieter, eager-to-please me or a blunter,

PRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF JULIET SEUSS

READ ALL ABOUT IT: Seniors on staff admire the fruits of their labor. After joining the paper their sophomore year, they say they are proud of all they have learned and all they have accomplished. “It’s been a struggle,” Managing Editor Katie Plotkin ’17 said. snarkier me. But, as Hannah Montana taught us all, double lives never last. This was not what I wanted to hear, so I ignored the sage wisdom imparted by Miley Cyrus BCBT (Before “Can’t Be Tamed”). Leading my double life grew difficult. I didn’t like sitting there quietly while people said or did things I disagreed with — I felt like I was selling out my convictions and beliefs in exchange for people

at least feeling neutral about me. Conversely, I didn’t like expressing all my unfiltered thoughts and opinions all time, often polarizing people whose beliefs I understood and respected. I let this inner conflict stew within me for a while, but soon it began to permeate all aspects of my life, finally hitting upon the most sacred one: the Chronicle. I’m not naming names, but once upon

a time I wrote a controversial story for which I received a lot of backlash. I had to decide whether I wanted to be honest and stand by my story and the good reporting behind it or whether I wanted to meekly allow not just my but my entire staff’s credibility to be attacked. Being honest or being liked — there was no stalling. I chose honesty. I’m not saying to “be true to yourself”

or any cheesy bullshit like that — be honest with a passion and a fire. In the words of poet Dylan Thomas, do not go gentle into that good night. Rage. Don’t confuse rage with blind, unfocused anger or unfounded hate — rage is strength and conviction, steadfast and straight-backed. So everyone — but especially my Chronicle babies/ protegees — I have one message for you: rage.

More than just extracurriculars By Katie Plotkin

JESSE NADEL/CHRONICLE

THREE-IC: Managing Editors Layla Moghavem ’17, Katie Plotkin ’17 and Jean Sanders ’17 claim they were the real Editors-in-Chief. (“Sammi who? Jesse who?” Moghavem said.)

When I reflect on my time at Harvard-Westlake, I think about meeting new people in Peer Support and weekends spent at Chronicle layout. I remember the day we hosted the Special Olympics and singing in my first choral concert at the Middle School. It’s these experiences and the friends that I have made along the way that have had such an impact on me and shaped who I am. In seventh grade, I decided to try out choir. I met a group of amazing girls, some of whom have remained some of my closest friends six years later; you all know who you are. I learned to sing and sight read, but what it taught me about myself was far more valuable. When I was in eighth grade and auditioning to be in Madrigals, I convinced myself I would drop choir if I didn’t get in, that choir wouldn’t be worth it if I didn’t make it. Five months later, I found myself sitting in Vocal Ensemble. I was the only person, to my knowledge, who had auditioned for Madrigals and not gotten in. I was extremely embarrassed, but I look back on it now and can’t imagine what my life would have been like if I had quit. I can’t believe I considered giving up what seems now like a huge portion of my middle and high school career. Being in Vocal Ensemble in ninth grade allowed me to meet so many new ninth grade girls, specifically three others who became my ninth grade choir crew. If any of you are read-

ing this, I love you and thank you. Thank you for teaching me not to give up and to make the best of it when things don’t go as expected. Coming into sophomore year, I could have never expected that I would be a Managing Editor of the Chronicle. I could have never imagined that my co-Managing Editors would become some of my closest friends my senior year and that I would feel such a bond with everyone else on staff. Late nights at layout will do that for you; there is nothing quite like ten of us sitting in the news room waiting for someone to finish up their edits on a Sunday night to bond everyone. Sure, I learned how to conduct interviews and where to put the right commas, but I also met people who made me a stronger person and friend. You all inspire me with your motivation and genuine passion and care, and I will miss our delirious, late-night layouts with all of you. I also joined Peer Support sophomore year. In all honestly, I joined because my older sisters loved it, and I almost felt an obligation to join. My group that year was made up of my four leaders, two or three people who came each week, and me. Although I didn’t meet a ton of upperclassmen, I am thankful for how things ended up. I am not kidding when I say that I did not speak a single word in group until second semester. I remember physically shaking my first time sharing and how thankful I was to be able to confide in those people.

My leaders and trainees that year inspired me to become a trainee, and my experiences in Peer Support shaped me into the person that I am today. I learned how to be a good friend and the power of listening. The strength of my friendships have changed drastically for the better, and I will carry what I learned with me forever. In late sophomore year, I applied to be on the Community Council. I wanted to get more involved in community service, but I also was motivated to apply by my sister, who had been a part of the council. I worried about being seen as just her little sister and falling into the background. I was always quiet in class but eventually got involved in planning a Special Olympics event on campus. I won’t bore you with the specifics of planning and meetings we had, but I will tell you about the experience of the actual event. It was truly one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever experienced to watch these kids feel such genuine joy and excitement to be there and to see Harvard-Westlake students walk down the track holding hands with the athletes. I will never forget this day spent with these amazing people, both the athletes and the HW students, and Community Council gave me this opportunity. I will always treasure those memories. All of these activities and the people in them have made me the person I am today. If you played a part in that, thank you. You have all taught me so much.

May 31, 2017

hwchronicle.com

Senior Supplement E11

Luckier than you might think By Sabrina

JEAN SANDERS/CHRONICLE

SMILES FOR MILES: Sports Editor Jake Liker ’17, Presentations Editor Sabrina de Brito ’17 and Executive Editor Rian Ratnavale ’17 reflect on this year’s volume of the Chronicle.

Paying it back By Rian Ratnavale

In the letter that I wrote to myself in my tenth-grade Choices and Challenges class, I slipped a $20 bill into my envelope, ideally giving myself an unexpected bonus for all of my hard work at Harvard-Westlake. Before I tear open that envelope though, I want to pay Past Me back in advice for the four years of high school that shaped who I am today. Ninth grade Rian: it’s time to grow up. No more late labs or telling your teachers that all of your mistakes on tests are just careless. Own up to your mistakes. At the same time, know that you aren’t worth any less than other people just because they are getting A’s on every test and you barely scrape a B or B+. At the Upper School , there will be no more movie nights, no more teachers willing to let you move tests back a week, and, honestly, no more weeknights where you can afford to go to bed before 10:00. Ever. Fast forward a year, and I’m proud of the effort that tenth-grade Rian has put into the Upper School so far. You’re no longer the same lazy student of a year ago, but still, your grades are falling. By June, you’ll realize that you definitely put too much on your plate academically. It might seem cool to take calculus as a sophomore, but know your limits. That’s the biggest key to success: do what you love, but don’t push yourself unnecessarily. Socially, a lot is going to change starting sophomore year. Don’t be afraid to branch out outside of the one 12-person group chat you’ve clung to since 7th grade. The Upper School does a really good job of letting kids be

more independent, so take the time to join a ton of clubs, and expose yourself to people that think and act differently than you do. Peer Support especially will let you talk with a ton of upperclassmen and help you get out of your comfort zone. Eleventh Grade Rian, although everyone says that junior year is the hardest year of Harvard-Westlake, the worst of it will definitely be behind you. That’s not to say that you won’t have any bumps in the road at all, but you’ve had a year. You’ll be doing better in all of your classes, you’ll continue to grow as a writer in Chronicle and your friendships will blossom. At some point this year, you’ll realize that your best friends aren’t necessarily the ones that have similar interests as you, but are the people that unconditionally love and care for you. Never let them go. Senior year Rian, it’s almost over. Yes, it should be the time when you get to see all of your hard work pay off, but it’s not going to feel like that right away. If a college rejects you, it’s not a reflection of your intrinsic qualities, even if it happens many times. I know that the deans always say it, but everything does work out in the end. You’ll end senior year going to a college that has all of the sports that you love and great academics. The fourth quarter of senior year is going to be the best month of your life, don’t let it go to waste. Spend every waking moment of it hanging out with friends and savor all of the things you won’t ever have again when you leave for college in three months. You might be a little short on energy and money, but that’s OK. That $20 bill might come in handy...

Brito

It’s hard to not let the past define you. Sitting, shaking on a colorless couch on the first floor of Seaver, I felt completely broken. That dim Friday in early February had been a flurry of police interviews and child protective services interrogations. This marked my third CPS case in two years. There’s an unmistakable blender-stomach feeling that came with hearing kids in hallways whisper theories about why a police car might be on campus. There was immediate isolation in knowing that the officers were there to ask about how a parent had treated me. For the longest time, everything seemed to lose its color after that. I’d sit through my 4th period physics class without a smile, worrying about where I was going to sleep that night or whose clothes I’d wear the next day since I couldn’t go home. I bounced around from house to house for a bit, until a month later when I finally, permanently, ended up in my other parent’s house who I hadn’t really spoken to in a few years. The case dragged on and

on, and I re-told my story enough times that I essentially became numb to it, eventually able to spill it out monotonously in contrast to the early days when I couldn’t get through a few sentences without breaking down. The point is, I guess, that I felt like I was picked up and dropped into a deep ditch in February, and I’ve been little-by-little climbing out ever since. The thing is though, that I haven’t had to do this alone. I look around me and it’s like every third person has thrown me a different rope. I want you to know that when I had nowhere to go, deans and students and faculty and even the head of school offered up their houses. When emancipation became a very real, terrifying option, I want you to know that faculty members with backgrounds in law came out of the woodwork to help me learn as much as I could about the process. When the officers wouldn’t communicate with me and I was scared of what might happen to my family members, my dean and I investigated. When I spent that long, long night at the station and was at the point where I physically couldn’t cry anymore, it was two teachers

sitting at the table next to me trying to make me laugh and hugging me. It was a handful of incredibly kind and loving friends who let me live with them for a few weeks. It was an entire world of humans around me who gave me the support they knew I needed, without me having to ask for it. Harvard-Westlake is special in ways beyond academics and extracurriculars. This community can become family if you let it. More importantly, if you need it, like I did. I work hard to be the poster child for happy. It hasn’t been easy to do this, though, for these past few months. If I were to give up at any moment, that broken-feeling would come flooding back and the past would swallow me whole in a heartbeat. I very nearly disappeared there for a moment when it was at its worst. I might have let my past define me and take me down if it hadn’t been for Harvard-Westlake. I write this, excited about my upcoming life and ready to move on. I’m ready to finally move out of my “house” after six years and take on what’s ahead — determined to let my future define me rather than anything else.

Just one f inal request

By Jake Liker

There are thanks in order. There are the obvious recipients of gratitude (parents, friends, teachers, etc), but they know I’m thankful for them. No, this final column is dedicated to one person, who made one thoughtful gesture many years ago. I don’t speak with this person often. This person probably doesn’t know how much their gesture meant to me. But they deserve to know. The summer before seventh grade was hell for me. My anxiety flared up. I threw up every morning before going to fast start, of which I only attended a full day. I will leave it at that. September 6, 2011. My 13th birthday. The first day of school at Harvard-Westlake. I woke up. I trembled, I paced, I waited. I wandered under the happy birthday banner strung above the back doors of my house and into the backyard. I threw up. I kept pacing. And then it was time to go. I got in my Mom’s car.

She drove me to the middle school. Mom parked the car. She walked me past Munger library to the top of the steps. Time for me to make the walk down the steps on my own. The steep, daunting, unending stairs. Alone. “Happy birthday Jake!” Sylvie Sanders held out a piece of tupperware with a big cookie inside. Green and yellow icing, Green Bay Packers colors. There was a letter on it, either a J for Jake or a G for the Packers logo. I don’t really remember. I do remember saying bye to my Mom and not having to walk down those steps by myself. I remember having first period free that day. I remember that Sylvie and I had been close friends at Curtis, but slowly going our separate ways at Harvard-Westlake. And I suppose that’s why I never got to explain to her what that gesture did for me, until now. Thank you Sylvie. Because of you, I survived my first day of school without breaking down. I’m not sure I would have avoided a mental

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breakdown and going home at some point during my first period free that day had you not given me that birthday gift. And had I not made it the first day like everyone else, it only would’ve been more difficult to try again on the second day of school, or the third or the fourth. I don’t know if I would be at Harvard-Westlake. Maybe I would’ve been homeschooled. Now, another transition looms large, another unfamiliar adventure is on our horizons. It can be terrifying. So I have a request. Fellow seniors, do something nice for a classmate on the first day of college. Seventh graders, help out a wideeyed sevvie on the first day of school next year. You may not end up being friends with that person. You may forget it ever even happened. But you also might just change everything for that person, even if you don’t know it immediately, even if you don’t even think about it until six years later you read something in the school newspaper.

E12 Seniors

May 31, 2017

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PRINTED WITH PERMISSION OFKAMI DURAIRAJ

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1. Serena Davis ’17, Lola Clark ’17 and Jean Sanders ’17 2. Kelly Chang ’18, Daniel Kwok ’17, Haunani Bautista ’17, Marcus Tse ’17, out of school guest Grace Carey, Wesley Chang ’17, Brennan Lee ’17 and Claudia Wong ’17 3. Sophie Cohen ’17 and Dario Madyoon ’17 4. Katie Plotkin ’17 and Hannah Tuchman ’17 5. Layla Moghavem ’17, Naomi Barlava ’17 and Isobel Wiesenthal ’17 6. Danielle Kaye ’17, Erick Gredonia ’17, Sophia Dienstag ’17, Ryan O’Donell ’18, Sabrina de Brito ’17 and Matthew Henriks ’ 17 7. Hannah Cho ’17, Kami Durairaj ’17, Rachel Lee ’17 amd Teresa Suh ’17 8. Out of school guest Gaurav Guwankar, Liz Yount ’17, Jason Chang ’17, Carina Marx ’17, Charlie Noxon ’17 and Juliana Berger ’17