August 2015 Issue by The Harvard-Westlake Chronicle

CHRONICLE THE HARVARD-WESTLAKE

Los Angeles • Volume XXX • Issue I • Sept. 1, 2015 • hwchronicle.com

No conflicts arise from lunch period By JONATHAN SEYMOUR

SAMMI HANDLER/CHRONICLE

SETTING THE TONE: From left, senior prefects Adam Yaron ’16, Shelby Weiss ’16, Jordan Strom ’16, Helene Miles ’16 and head prefect

Grace Pan ’16 look on as fellow head prefect Hunter Brookman ’16 addresses the entire student body with his opening convocation speech.

Convocation unites both campuses By HENRY VOGEL

President Rick Commons invested this year’s senior prefects during the Opening Convocation yesterday, where head prefects Grace Pan ’16 and Hunter Brookman ’16 instructed the student body to embrace the community as a family and to try new things. The ceremony began with Head of School Jeanne Huybrechts introducing the convocation as an opportunity to bring together both campuses and demonstrate school strength through unity as a community. “Convocation is a link to the past and a connection to our future,” Huybrechts said. A hallmark of the school is the student leadership, Huy-

brechts added. Commons then saying that because Harvardtook the stage to lead a decla- Westlake is a family, students ration of the student council should be able to help each oath by this year’s representa- other to achieve their goals. “Take advantage of the tives. The senior prefects were robed by their teacher or staff people sitting next to you,” Pan said. “Learn sponsors. from each othPan spoke er.” next, sharing Let us stop, look Brookman her experience then shared as the younger around and dance to a story about sister of a forthe ever-changing beat the time he mer Wolverine. learned a hipat Harvard-Westlake. ” Because they hop dance were so simi—Hunter Brookman routine for his lar, Pan said, they were ofhead prefect bar mitzvah. While he adten compared, mitted that he but instead of taking offense, she decided to was scared and constantly work together with her sister feared failing at new endeavto their mutual beneﬁt. Pan ors, he said students at Harthen transferred the same vard-Westlake should not be message to the student body, afraid to slow down, try new

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things and fully experience the school. “Let us stop, look around and dance to the ever-changing beat at Harvard-Westlake,” Brookman said. “Listening to the rhythm will open us up to inﬁnite possibilities. For more than just an instant you can become the person you never once imagined you could be.” Commons took the podium again to remind students of the relevance of the mission statement. He said relationships are one of the most important takeaways from students’ time at the school, and students should be ready to respond, to engage and to be open to inspiration. The school provided Diddy Riese cookies and water to everyone after the event.

Visions to map out steps towards mission By HENRY VOGEL

President Rick Commons introduced six visions meant to fulfill the mission statement in the next three to five years at the annual faculty meeting Aug. 25. “Mission is generational — we hope the new statement will last another 25 years,” Commons said. “Visions, in my mind and parlance here, are more specific ideas of how to fulfill the mission in the near term.” Commons’ points were: -The pursuit of excellence will remain a defining element of the Harvard-Westlake experience. -Happiness and balance will become primary values in

the Harvard-Westlake culture and in shaping the experience of students. -Our commitment to inclusion will enable every member of our community to feel an equal sense of belonging. -Faculty will nurture, inspire, and challenge all students through ongoing commitment to engaging pedagogy, curricular innovation, and professional growth. -Harvard-Westlake will ﬁnd new ways to serve Los Angeles and earn the trust of our neighbors. -A commitment to character will be an essential and recognizable part of every pursuit of excellence. The vision statements are a result of a year of commu-

nicative discussion with faculty, staff, students, parents and alumni. Commons said he spent his ﬁrst year as president chatting about the school mission and spent last year chatting about how to fulﬁll it. “I don’t want people to feel like I’m on a mountaintop thinking of these,” Commons said. “These are all a response to conversations last year.” The vision statements, which Commons also called Visions for 2020, are designed to focus on areas where the school needs to improve. “They don’t include everything,” Commons said. “There is not a vision for journalism, for example. We like it how it is. But when it comes to becoming a better servant

of greater Los Angeles, that’s new stuff. That’s something we want to do. When it comes to happiness and balance being actually a primary value in the way students experience school, that’s a new thing.” While Commons acknowledged that many students learn about their identity and their values from a coach or extracurricular adviser, the plan for the vision statements is to incorporate that learning process into the everyday education of Harvard-Westlake. “We’re trying to make it so that when students talk about their Harvard-Westlake experience, they talk not only about excellence but also about what they learned about values,” Commons said.

The new mandatory lunch period did not cause any conflicts with student schedules, the upper school deans’ office said. “We always have conflicts, but there were no extra conflicts created because of lunch,” Upper School Dean Sharon Cuseo said. “There might have been a little less flexibility. We were able to ensure from the beginning that there wouldn’t be any conflicts resulting from the lunch period because it was just treated as a course, and the great thing is that we made it a semester course.” In order to prevent conflicts caused by semester-long courses, the lunch period can be scheduled during one period in the first semester and a different period in the second semester. “I’ve gotten so much positive feedback from parents who couldn’t believe that we didn’t have a lunch before,” Cuseo said. “Some people were just shocked. There have been a handful of parents who have called and said that their children don’t need lunch, but the school can’t accommodate that. Everyone needs a lunch, and there are no exceptions.” When the school first announced its plan to introduce mandatory lunch periods this year, the deans received numerous complaints from students and parents alike who believed that the lunch period would conflict with their course choices. Most of the concerns were from students worried that they wouldn’t be able to get into the arts classes that they wanted to take, Cuseo said. Of 285 students polled by the Chronicle, 82, or 28.87 • Continued on page A3

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A2 News

March of the Living dates conflict with AP testing schedule, Prom By Jonathan Seymour

The 2016 March of the Living trip to Poland and Israel, taking place from May 1 to May 15, will conflict with all AP exams as well as the prom. Students will be allowed to make up their exams during the AP make-up period during the following week after APs. They will also have to come home two days early if they want to attend the prom on May 14. “Every year, the College Board offers a makeup date for AP exams,” Head of Upper School Audrius Barzdukas said. “Those makeup exams are offered at Harvard-Westlake and we provide proctors. This year will be no different.” The AP make-up period is one day long unless students need to make up four or more exams, in which case students can take exams over two days, the College Board said. This means that students who go on the March of the Living must take all of their exams in one or two days almost immediately after they return from Israel. “This doesn’t seem right to me,” English teacher Jeff Kwitny said. “It’s not fair.” Of 225 students surveyed, 62, or 27.68 percent said that they plan to go on the March of the Living as a senior, and the results were almost exactly the same when students considered the fact that they would have to make up all of their APs in one or two days. “The situation is really unfortunate,” Katie Kreshek ’16 said. “[The] March of the Living is such an important trip, and this year some kids will be discouraged from going because of the prom and AP conflicts. Having to cram for the AP exams is unfair even with the extension because this trip is not an excuse to party, but in fact a tour of the deadliest concentration camps responsible for the senseless killing of the Jewish people. It doesn’t af-

fect my decision because I feel so strongly about going, but I know it will undoubtedly affect some people’s decisions.” The March of the Living will also interfere with the prom, and students who plan to attend the trip have been working with Prefect Council to try to find a solution. Dora Schoenberg ’16 has been working with her parents and Monise Neumann, the Harvard-Westlake representative for March of the Living, to try to find a solution to the conflicts. “I could not choose between March of the Living, an acclaimed, life-changing experience, and my senior prom, one of the last times our entire grade will be together at Harvard-Westlake,” Schoenberg said. “Prefect Council planned and booked prom last May on the weekend they usually have it. No one could have foreseen that it would conflict with APs and the always-changing [Hebrew] lunar calendar.” The prom is unlikely to be rescheduled because of how packed the school calendar is. “Prom, because of the size of our school, has to be scheduled a year in advance,” Upper School Dean Sharon Cuseo said. “We just scheduled prom at exactly the same time relative to this calendar that we have always scheduled it.” Students who want to attend both events are allowed to leave Israel early. “After we were made aware of the conflict, we talked about our possible options for moving forward,” Head Prefect Hunter Brookman ’16 said. “We completely empathized with everyone interested in participating on the trip. As far as rescheduling, the biggest issue is that we are locked in for the venue. There are also more limitations on venues than ever since many hotels we have worked with are no longer interested in high school events. Additionally, the issues with the calendar really

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HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE: The Los Angeles delegation traveled with delegations from 30 countries and Holocaust survivors on last spring’s March of the Living from Auschwitz to Birkenau. limit our ability to change the lot of work, and so I couldn’t date of the prom since there do a good job. It was against are school events nearly every my philosophy as a teacher because I didn’t feel like I was other Saturday.” The date of the March of able to do a good job teaching the Living is determined by the them.” However, Barzdukas said date of the Jewish holiday Yom HaShoah, which translates that the school did not have to from Hebrew to Holocaust Re- change its stance on the March of the Livmembrance ing even Day, as well though so as Israeli many more IndepenWhy can’t there be a students dence Day, policy in place to make sure took part called Yom students have a fair shot to this year Ha’Atzmaut than in prein Hebrew. do well on these exams? It’s vious years. Y o m inhumane to make students “ [ T h e HaShoah March of takes place have to take all those exams the LivMay 5, in one day.” ing] is not and Yom Ha’Atzmaut —Jeff Kwitny a schoolplanned or will take English teacher a p p r o v e d place May trip,” Barz12. Both holidays are a few dukas said. “[These] absences weeks later than they were in are unexcused, just as if a 2015, when 23 Harvard-West- student were to go on a famlake students missed the two ily trip or college visit during weeks of school right before AP school. Students are responsible for making up the work exams to go on the trip. “Of all of the time during they miss.” Although students were the year to leave, that was the worst two weeks for them to able to coordinate with their go,” Kwitny said. “When they teachers to make up work came back, it suddenly hit me, when they returned to school, and I felt angry about it. How some teachers were frustrated. Because only seniors can could I teach these students and do a good job? It would go on the March of the Living have been a lot of time and a and the trip takes place in the

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HIGH STAKES: The Chronicle follows four students (the Brain, the Athlete, the Artist and the All-Around) throughout their senior year as they navigate the college application process. C1 WISHING FOR WOODSTOCK: Music festivals are a growing trend for teenagers. Students share their experiences that reveal many of the hidden downsides to these events. C6

GRAND OPENING: After a year of reno-

vations, Wang Hall is now available for use. Eighth graders can now enjoy a new lounge and visual arts spaces. A8

ABROAD IN CAMBODIA: Nineteen stu-

dents visited Cambodia over summer for a photojournalism trip, documenting the effects of genocide and the vibrant culture. B1

final weeks of school, some of the students on the trip did not see the need to make up their work when they returned. “Some of my March of the Living students made up all of their missing work while others did not do so,” physics teacher Jesse Reiner said. “With one exception, my students who went on March of the Living did pretty terribly on both the unit test that they took in advance of the trip and on the in-class final exam that they took shortly after returning. It wasn’t the only time that these particular students struggled with physics, but there is no question that they would have done better had they not missed so much class time.” More students went on the March of the Living in April or plan to go in the future than in previous years because a Holocaust survivor visited class meetings to promote the trip. “It’s popular every year and we like the program and the way it’s run, and it’s a really good program,” Cuseo said. “We’ll just have to be as accommodating as we can given the fact that it’s so much later this year. Let the record reflect that missing that much school, even for a second semester senior, can be very difficult.”

Features

LAB RATS: Eight students studied cancer this summer, dissecting mice brains and assisting graduate students at University of Southern California. A5

Arts & Entertainment

Sept. 1, 2015

Sports

NATIONAL CHAMPS: The boys’ water PRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF HARVARD-WESTLAKE ATHLETICS

GRIDIRON CAPTAINS: Marshal Cohen ’16, Nick Richmond ’16, Mike Mapes ’16 and Eric Bradley ’16 pose for the cover of the athletic department media guide. Continued on D1

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

polo team begins its quest for a third consecutive CIF Division I title. This year’s roster is different, but their goal remains the same. Young players look to emerge as stars, while seniors adapt to leadership. D1

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

Sept. 1, 2015

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News A3

Teacher trip occurs despite MERS scare By Layla Moghavem

Fifteen faculty members visited South Korea in June to learn about Korean culture and history in the midst of an outbreak of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome in the country. MERS is a viral respiratory illness that was first seen in Saudi Arabia in 2012. An outbreak began in South Korea in May, causing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to issue a travel notice advising Americans to cancel any plans to visit the country. Originally, 16 members intended to go on the trip, but upon news of the MERS outbreak, Upper School Dean Rose-Ellen Racanelli canceled due to health concerns. The school gave participants the option not to go on the trip or to attend and leave if they felt uncomfortable during their visit, but all other attendees stayed. One of the hotels that the group planned to stay at on Jeju Island had been shut down and quarantined as a patron of the hotel had been infected with MERS. “Nobody was allowed in there and the people in there weren’t allowed out, so they put us in another hotel which was very luxe and fabulous, so it worked out better for us,” History Department Head Katherine Holmes-Chuba said. “[The outbreak] didn’t re-

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GLOBETROTTERS: History teacher George Gaskin (top) plays ping-pong with a student at Seoul Science High School. Teachers (left) take

pictures of street vendors selling food at an outdoor market. Science teacher Geoff Robertson (right) plays a traditional Korean game.

ally negatively affect us at all.” The group did not have to wear surgical masks or take any other health precautions on the trip, though HolmesChuba said she took extra care to wash her hands more often than she usually would. The participants said that fewer people were traveling to South Korea because of the

outbreak, and as a result, tourist sites were more accessible and significantly less crowded. In addition, participants noted that the locals were especially welcoming because so few tourists came. “So many people from so many countries stopped their travel to Korea that the Koreans were so grateful that we

Mandatory lunch did not cause conflicts

unexpected for seniors who had anticipated using their percent, reported a missing eighth period to take PE. class or class conflict that they “I think it’s unfair to me attributed to the lunch period. personally,” Su Jin Nam ’16 “Students were complain- said. “For the past two years, ing about the lunch policy I’ve been aware that if I left PE primarily because they were up until senior year, I’d be able afraid that they would no lon- to take seven classes and take ger be able to take as many PE during my lunch break becourses,” Cuseo said. “They cause it doesn’t count as a full thought they could take more course with homework.” than seven.” Nam would rather use her In previous lunch period to years, there take PE than were only two have a longer We are situations, school day. prioritizing the lunch one involving “I think it’s physical eduunfair that now period for everybody. ” cation and the I’m suddenly —Sharon Cuseo being required other involving directed Upper school Dean to stay after study language school,” Nam courses, in said. “It’s like which students were allowed I’m being required to have an to sign up for more than seven extended school day in comcourses. parison to other people. It’s not “Students could take up to like I’m unwilling to give up my two trimesters of PE or yoga in lunch either. I would rather addition to their seven cours- take PE during my lunch time es,” Cuseo said. “Now we’re rather than after school just not allowing that, but we have because then I have a longer added an after school yoga op- day. Also, if I want to carpool tion because of the new lunch with anyone, they have to wait period. We are prioritizing the for me.” lunch period for everybody.” Because this new mandaThis means that all stu- tory lunch requires students dents who signed up for seven with seven classes to lengthen courses and also signed up for their school days, the deans PE must now take yoga after waived the PE requirement for school or find an alternative to some seniors who had comfulfill their requirement, such pleted all but one or two of as managing a sports team. their required trimesters and However, this change was had made noticeable efforts to • Continued from page A1

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complete the requirement. “The reason we did that is because the afterschool yoga option is popular, and we didn’t want classes to be overloaded because of seniors who were already close to finishing their requirements,” Cuseo said. The only real decrease in schedule flexibility caused by the lunch period has been with directed study language courses, such as Greek, Italian or German, which students used to be able to sign up for as an additional, eighth course besides their seven normal classes. Now this exception to the seven class rule is no longer allowed. The deans anticipate that the lunch period will be permanent for the foreseeable future, as it promotes a healthier lifestyle on campus. “It was kind of embarrassing to say that we had never actually had a lunch period,” Cuseo said. “People would say, ‘That’s not healthy.’ This came out of the workload survey, and I think it became apparent that people were just not eating at a normal or regular time, and I think that this was a normal, reasonable, healthy response to that.”

came,” history teacher Ken Neisser said. “We were very well-received everywhere we went and some portion of that was gratitude of our braving this fear [of MERS].” On the trip, which was funded by the school’s Gross Global initiative and Gyu Si and Min Sun Suh (Andy ’18), faculty visited historical sites,

museums, geographic sites, traditional villages and a high school in Seoul. Teachers said they gained a greater and deeper understanding of Korean art, history and culture, especially pertaining to the Korean War, which has broadened their perspective on teaching students about Asia

Six feeder schools with most enrollees 1. John Thomas Dye 2. Curtis 3. Carlthorp

4. Center for Early Education 5. Laurence 6. Mirman GRAPHIC BY JESSE NADEL

SOURCE: ELIZABETH GREGORY

Admissions gains international interest By Sammi Handler

Forty-six students from international schools applied this year, an increase over last year when 36 students applied. Five students from foreign countries enrolled. There are four students from the United Kingdom and one from Switzerland enrolled. Last year, nine students from foreign schools enrolled, four from the United Kingdom, two from China, one from Korea, one from Switzerland and one from the Netherlands. “Harvard-Westlake is definitely becoming known internationally,” Director of Admission Elizabeth Gregory said. There have been students from India, Tibet, China, Hungary, Korea, France and Russia interested in applying to grades 7-12. “The main thing that is important to us is we are not a boarding school,” Gregory said. “We insist that there be a parent that the kid will live

with while they are here. They can’t just come and stay with a friend or hire somebody to live with them. They have to have a parent in the country.” International applicants have learned about the school through friends who have attended and through the website, Gregory said. In addition, international students have applied due to the opportunities that the school offers, she said. Chinese students account for 50 percent of the interest shown in applying. Gregory also said that while the majority of incoming seventh grade students come from six independent day schools in Los Angeles, this year there are students from 68 different schools. “We get the top kids from a lot of different schools,” she said. “We continue to have a really strong applicant pool and it becomes more competitive every year.”

A4 NEWS

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SEPT. 1, 2015

285 debaters participate in summer program

By ELLIS BECKER

During the summer, 285 debaters from all around the globe took part in in the ﬁrst ever Harvard-Westlake Institute for Speech and Debate. The camp, called “debateLA,” was an intensive summer camp where students participated in debate classes. Students from 105 different high schools attended the camp from all across the United States, as well as students from Seoul, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Budapest. Those who did not live in Los Angeles were housed in UCLA dorms and bussed to the Upper School. All the coaches from the Harvard-Westlake debate team, including debate program head Mike Bietz, coached at debateLA. Other HarvardWestlake coaches included assistant coach and team administrator Steve Knell and former Harvard-Westlake debaters now in colleges such as Harvard, Yale and UCLA. Additionally, two coaches from The Harker School and a coach from Palos Verdes High School also participated. “We had an outstanding

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IN TRAINING: Debaters practice their speaking skills during a class at “debateLA.” Students from all over the United States, Seoul, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Budapest participated in the camp, and those coming from out of state were housed in UCLA dorms. staff of some of the most successful debate coaches in history along with successful recent graduates, including last year’s Tournament of Champions winner,” Bietz said. Campers staying at UCLA were offered a range of activities in the evening, including SAT and ACT prep, college counseling, additional debate work and presentations from guest speakers. On the week-

ends, students went to movie theaters, Universal Studios and the Santa Monica Pier. For a less intense experience, many younger students opted for a one-week day camp starting at 9 a.m. with a topic discussion and then participated in mock debates between the campers. There was also a camp for public speaking and general argumentation for non-debaters that wished to gain skill in those areas.

Students intern at Chinese technology, financial companies during the summer By TERESA SUH

A group of students accompanied by two teachers spent two weeks interning in China this summer at the Shanghai ofﬁce of the Parthenon Group and the Lieuhe ofﬁce for the Venture Capital Company. Jed Kronenberg ’17, Hannah Wilen ’16, Theo Velaise ’17 and Jon Nelson ’16 conversed with the workers of Chinese companies about the stock market and investments in China.

“Being in Shanghai for most of June and working in Chinese companies allowed us all to better understand Chinese culture not just from the perspective of a student, but as someone in the Chinese workforce,” Velaise said. World Languages teacher Tiantian Wang, history teacher Lauren Nichols and the four students all lived with host families that had children their age attended the World Leading Schools Association International School afﬁliated with Fudan University. “The whole trip was great,

AP Exam Highlights The school administered 1,820 AP exams last year

100 percent of students who took the AP US or European History test passed

40 students out of 42 scored a 5 on the AP Physics C exam

95 percent of students scored a 3 or above on an exam GRAPHIC BY SAMMI HANDLER SOURCE: JEANNE HUYBRECHTS

but my most memorable experience was getting to stay with a host family and talk with them every day,” Kronenberg said. “Getting to live in Shanghai with people who are actually from there was an amazing experience.” Every day after their internship work ended, the group went sight-seeing, visiting cities like Haiyan in the Zhejiang province where they could practice their oral skills outside the ofﬁce. “The trip helped my Chinese skills a lot, as I always spoke Chinese with

Connor Engel ’17 said he had a great experience with the camp and said it was educational. “I was able to grow as a debater and make a lot of new friends,” Engel said. “I appreciated that they managed to retain a lighthearted atmosphere that prevented stress, and the workload was actually reasonable.” The camp received positive feedback from students, and

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Bietz said he is conﬁdent in the success of the program. “As of now I would say the program was a huge success,” Bietz said. “I think we beat expectations in terms of numbers and reach, but we also received really amazing feedback from a number of students and parents. My hope is that Harvard-Westlake continues to want to host the program in the future and expand its offerings.”

My most memorable experience was getting to stay with a host family and talk with them everyday. Getting to live in Shanghai with people who are actually from there was an amazing experience.” —Jed Kronenberg ’17

my host family and teachers,” Kronenberg said. “Getting to practice speaking Chinese on an everyday basis was hard, but deﬁnitely helped me improve my Chinese skills.” Wang offered this chance to her Chinese III Honors and AP Chinese students in the hope that her students would take the opportunity to practice their Chinese speaking skills

NATHANSON’S

with co-workers and local students. “They have a lot of communication with the local Chinese students, and that helps their language proﬁciency,” Wang said. “They gained better understanding of Chinese culture and history and gave them more motivation for their future language study.”

Middle School bans cell phone use before 9th By BENJAMIN MOST Middle school cell phone and technology policies are being reexamined at the beginning of the second year of the One-to-One laptop initiative, which the Upper School begins this year. The laptop initiative mandates that all students bring a laptop to school, but Head of Middle School Jon Wimbish said that rules to ensure proper technology use may be necessary to prevent mobile gaming, online shopping and other distractions. “I think when we went completely one-to-one on laptops, there was this explosion of technology on campus,” Wimbish said. “It turned out the majority of our students had

smartphones, so it was more of a two-to-one ratio. We’re trying to ﬁgure out which of these devices should be used, what they should be used for, and how much they should be used for school purposes, communicating with parents and other effective uses of the technology versus the things that can be distracting and the things that can have a negative impact on the community.” Middle school students will no longer be allowed to use cell phones on campus until ninth period unless they are using the phone for class with a teacher’s permission or using a phone in a dean’s ofﬁce to communicate with a family member or coach. “We’re trying to wrestle with the best way to communi-

cate with students,” Wimbish said. “Probably the best way is through policy and rules, because that’s how things work in a middle school.” However, Wimbish said the laptop initiative had “incredibly positive” results and allowed for a more interactive feedback process. For example, in his English class, Wimbish returns students’ essays on Google Docs and the Hub with comments and gives them an opportunity to message him back with questions or explanations. Middle school teachers attended technology workshops the last week of August to help promote the laptop initiative’s smooth transition to the Upper School.

Sept. 1, 2015

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News A5

Visual Arts teacher wins award By Lara Mikhail and Ayanna Frey

PRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF MIAE CHON

Korean American Parents Association hosts annual barbecue

DANCING QUEENS: Sarah Wagner ’19, Angela Chon ’16, Nicole Kim ’18, Jenny Yoon ’19 (left to right) and Caitlin Chung ’20 perform a traditional Korean drum dance at the Korean American Parents Association’s annual barbecue Aug. 23 for parents, students, faculty and staff. The event also featured student musicians and a video of the faculty summer trip to South Korea.

Website ranks teachers number one in nation By Layla Moghavem

Rankings on Niche.com placed teachers at Harvard-Westlake at number one among U.S. private schools for 2015. Niche.com, created by Carnegie-Mellon students in 2002, provides reviews of elementary schools, middle schools, high

schools and colleges in the United States. The ranking is based on surveys from parents, students and alumni, the student-to-faculty ratio, average student SAT and ACT scores and the percentage of students who matriculate to four-year colleges. The school’s overall score was the highest out of

945 U.S. private high schools. Although faculty members are pleased by the recognition, Upper School Dean Vanna Cairns said such rankings often “simplify a very complex process” by putting more weight on statistics than student feedback. “What our teachers do every hour of every day in every

classroom is extraordinary and commendable,” Cairns said. “Yet that factor is not quantifiable. Or as much as it can be quantifiable, it is given only 10 percent of the equation here.” Niche.com also placed Harvard-Westlake’s academics as the third best nationally after Castilleja School and The Harker School.

Teacher recognized for dedication to community By Andrew Ahn

Math teacher Beverly Feulner was presented with the Carolyn and Marion Hays Award at a joint faculty meeting on Aug 25. The award is given to a Harvard-Westlake staff member who provides long-term service to the school and influences the

community in positive ways. Head of School Jeanne Huybrechts commended Feulner for contributing far more than what was required and for working for over 32 years at both the Harvard School for Boys and Harvard-Westlake. She started teaching math at Harvard in 1983. The award was created by

Harvard School alumni Thomas and Louis Hays in honor of their parents. Marion Hays was an assistant headmaster, teacher and dorm head at Harvard School from 1944 to 1970, and his wife Carolyn was also active at the school. Feulner said she was shocked when her name was

called and she discovered she won. “It was a complete surprise to me,” Feulner said. “There are a lot of people who do a lot for the school, and to even be considered was a huge honor.” Feulner teaches math courses including Math Analysis Honors, AP Calculus and Algebra II Honors.

Medina received the Kogan Family Award for Innovation in Teaching from Head of School Jeanne Huybrechts at the opening faculty meeting on August 25. Medina has been working as the primary photography teacher at the Middle School and is beginning to teach at the Upper School starting this year. Established in 2010 by Betsy and Mark Kogan (Ben ’11, Eli ’13), the award is given to a teacher who uses original approaches to improving the teaching process. For the past three years, Medina has initiated multiple photography projects throughout the Los Angeles area. Projects such as “In/Other Los Angeles,” “Sense of Place” and ‘#WhereAmI’ strive to connect a community of students through their photography. His projects have been recognized by major photography blogs such as the Los Angeles Times Lens Blog and the New York Times Lens Blog. Joining the upper school visual arts team, Medina is coming to teach two classes of Darkroom Photography while continuing to teach photography at the Middle School. “I am really looking forward to collaborating and working with Upper School Visual Arts Faculty and students. I am also looking forward to following the progression of visual arts students making the transition from the middle to upper school,” Medina said. Medina will be starting every day at the upper school and by 5th period will be teaching classes at the middle school. “A change in environment throughout the day will be nice as well .I don’t really see any challenges [by teaching at the Upper School and Middle School] other than the commute,” Medina said.

Juniors, seniors conduct stem cell, cancer research at USC summer internship By Jonah Ullendorff Eight juniors and seniors interned at a Stem Cell Research Laboratory at the University of Southern California this summer studying cancer cells and cutting open mice brains. Students spent the first week of the program in a lab learning basic cell culture techniques like pipetting, aspirating media and feeding and cultivating cells. After this, students were assigned to individual labs where they assisted graduate students with their research. The students who attended the program were Sylvia Sanders ’17, Emerson Harris ’17, Sharon Chow ’16, Jonathan Seymour ’16, Jonah Goldman ’16, Hannah Kelson ’16, Roy Dritley ’16 and Alex Kihiczak ’16. “I did the job because it’s

so awesome,” Sanders said. “I have always wanted to perform research on cancer, and the fact that I was able to start that dream at such a young age was absolutely amazing. I didn’t think twice about accepting, and I’m so glad I did. It was everything I had wanted and more. It was truly a life-altering experience.” Chow signed up for the program due to her interest in learning more about research and stem cells. She was assigned to work in Dr. Michael Bonaguidi’s lab, which focused on neurogenesis, the creation of new stem cells in the brain. “We’re working on two main projects, and the one I am part of is the aging study,” Chow said. “What we do in this project is study the effect of aging on neural stem cells or radial glia-like cells (RGLs) and their fate choice. We harvest the [mouse] brains, cut them and stain them with

flourescent antibodies with a sparse-labeling technique so the cells show up under an epiflourescent microscope. We then take pictures of the cells with a confocal microscope that takes two to three micron thick photo slices so we can make a 3-D rendering of it.” After participating in the program during the summer, Chow has considered research as a vocation for when she is older. Chow was taken by surprise that her work required live lab mice that needed to be harvested for her research. “Personally, I cut and stained a lot of brains over those past eight weeks, which I never expected to do,” Chow said. Sanders, Goldman and Seymour worked in the Stem Cell Core Facility, a lab in the Eli and Edythe Broad CIRM Center for Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research

PRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF JONATHAN SEYMOUR

SPLIT DECISION: Jonathan Seymour ’16 feeds cancer cells and separates them into petri dishes where they will grow. He was one of eight students who conducted stem cell research at USC. at USC. Seymour assisted a graduate student whose research was to determine the function of a specific protein found in cancer stem cells. As a result, Seymour was working with varying types of live cancer cells for his internship. Although Seymour said he can’t see himself becoming a

doctor in the future, he is interested in doing research in later on. “I had no idea what I would be doing until I stepped into the lab on the first day,” Seymour said. “In a million years, I would never have seen myself working with cancer, so that was shocking when I learned that that was what I would be doing.”

The Chronicle

A6 News

New Faces on Campus

11 teachers and 3 staff members join the Upper School this year. Melissa Wantz: Communications

New Staff at the Adam Levine: English Upper School By Danielle Spitz Anne Pyle Originally from eastern Washington, Anne Pyle started her first year at the Alumni Office Aug. 3. Pyle previously worked as the assistant to the Director of Institutional Advancement at St. James School in Los Angeles. As director, she helped with alumni relations, annual giving and fundraising events. Pyle earned her bachelor’s degree studying communications, graphic design and business administration at Seattle Pacific University. Her new job at the Alumni Office is more focused on answering questions and keeping their records updated. Pyle is enjoying working at the Upper School. “I’m looking forward to getting to know everyone, and learning new things from everybody,” Pyle said. “There are so many wonderful people here, and I really want to get to know each and every one of them.” —Claire Dennis

Ari Engelberg ’89 Ari Engelberg ’89 (Jacob ’12) will replace Jill Shaw as Director of Communications on an interim basis, where he will focus on strategically planning the school’s communications and marketing approach as well as fulfilling the job’s daily responsibilities, President Rick Commons said in an email to the school community. Engelberg will temporarily hold the position while the administration seeks a permanent replacement. Engelberg worked as an entrepreneur and executive director of Bright Star Schools, a collection of five charter secondary schools in Los Angeles. He is also a former Harvard-Westlake history teacher and assistant basketball coach. —Jesse Nadel

Greg Hilliard Greg Hilliard, former head of the basketball program, has held the position of Director of Alumni Athletics since last spring and will be working to organize events to reconnect alumni athletes. Hilliard has coached the boys’ basketball team for 30 years and has led them to nine CIF championships and two state championships. Hilliard’s main duty in his new position is to create a nationwide network of alumni athletes who are more involved in the student community. “The main thing that I hope will happen is [the network of alumni], since I’ve been here for 30 years and gotten to know so many athletes,” Hilliard said. Hilliard also hopes current student athletes can benefit from talking to the alumni. “I just feel lucky to be able to continue my association with the school for so long, and I hope that I can contribute in a positive way to a whole new area,” Hilliard said. —Ellis Becker

Former squash and football coach and English teacher Adam Levine will teach English II and English III: Living America. At the Kent School in Connecticut, Levine taught electives such as detective fiction, music and literature and sophomore, junior and senior English classes. Levine also coached the squash and football teams. Levine is interested in theater and music, particularly jazz music, he said. He plans

By Liz Yount

DANIELLE SPITZ/CHRONICLE

to incorporate music into his lessons. “It seems like a really warm and welcoming community, and I am excited about contributing, but also about being a part of that community in many ways,” Levine said.

Max Tash: Yearbook, Broadcast By Katie Plotkin

After two years of working part-time livestreaming athletic events through HWTV alongside the athletic department, Max Tash will teach yearbook journalism courses and build a broadcast journalism program. “The HW Broadcast Journalism program, in conjunction with the Chronicle, will be a signature program that high schools throughout the world will want to emulate,” Tash said. Tash will teach yearbook classes on both campuses. “As for Vox Populi, we are planning on creating a year-

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digital bootcamp for the Columbia Scholastic Press Association, where she is also a judge for their national competitions and serves as board president. “We want to transition the way the Chronicle publishes to become more digital first,” Wantz said. “When news breaks, it gets immediately released to the public because it’s all about serving your primary audience.”

By Noa Schwartz KATIE PLOTKIN/CHRONICLE

book that comes alive,” Tash said. “That’s all I’ll say.” Tash has worked in communications at Milken Community School in Los Angeles for the past decade. He designed and developed the visual storytelling and broadcast journalism programs at Milken.

By Carmen Levine

With more than 10 years of experience in marine and environmental biology, Nadine Eisenkolb joins the Upper School as a new AP Environmental Science teacher. Eisenkolb grew up in a landlocked portion of Germany and became interested in marine and environmental biology during a scuba-diving trip to the Canary Islands. Eisenkolb attended school at the Hilo Marine Science Program, which is often referred to as a “marine biology heaven.” She then became a research assistant at the Scripps Institute for Oceanography and earned her master’s in marine and environmental biology from the University of

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Southern California. Eisenkolb is most excited to join the school because of the students, she said. “Especially with HarvardWestlake, they are so well known for their students wanting to learn and wanting to thrive in their subject areas, so I’m definitely really looking forward to that,” Eisenkolb said.

Laurie Levenson: Criminal Law By Sarah Lee

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her husband and two trilingual children. Tannenbaum said she hopes to help her students become comfortable speaking in Spanish. “I want to empower my students and give them the confidence to speak in a foreign language,” Tannenbaum said. She also wants to educate her students about the diversity of Latin American culture.

Gustavo Godoy: Visual Arts By Hannah Cho Gustavo Godoy, a prominent sculptor whose art has been displayed in galleries and exhibitions nationally and internationally, will teach 3-D Art and Ceramics at the Upper School this year. As a kid, Godoy said he enjoyed using his hands, whether it was fixing bikes or building forts. With the skills he acquired when he was younger, Godoy was able to draw inspiration for his art. “I wasn’t afraid to get my hands dirty and use tools, and the basic skills I learned as a kid perfectly complimented my desire to make art,” Godoy said. “With sculpture, I got to

Melissa Wantz will make the commute from Ventura County to Harvard-Westlake each day to lead the upper school communications department, serve as the Chronicle and Big Red adviser and teach journalism classes. She graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara with a bachelor’s degree in English literature and received her master’s in English literature from CSUN. Wantz previously taught at Balboa Middle School for eight years and later began teaching at Foothill Technology High School where she advised the Foothill Dragon Press website, taught an English class and oversaw technology and communications. She developed a

Nadine Eisenkolb: Science

Sofia Tannenbaum: Spanish New Spanish teacher Sofia Tannenbaum hopes to inspire students with her diverse Jewish and Argentinian culture this year when she joins the World Languages Department, she said. Born in Bariloche, Argentina, Tannenbaum began her teaching career 20 years ago as an English teacher in Buenos Aires. When she moved to the U.S., Tannebaum continued her career by tutoring students privately and was inspired to work with teenagers once she saw the relationships she developed with them. “I want to have a great relationship with my students,” Tannenbaum said. “I want them to find someone they can trust in me and keep that relationship.” When she is not teaching her students, Tannenbaum enjoys cooking Argentinian food and spending time with

Sept. 1, 2015

Laurie Levenson (Dani ’17, Havi ’08, Solly ’06) will be teaching Criminal Law and Advocacy in the Kutler Center this year. Levenson teaches at the UCLA School of Law, where she received her law degree, and Loyola Law School. She has also been a legal commentator for several news networks and has worked on some major criminal cases. “Of course, teaching at a high school is different from teaching at a law school, but I plan to treat the students as the professionals that I know they will be,” Levenson said. Levenson says she looks

PRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF LOYOLA LAW

forward to working with the students at Harvard-Westlake. “My goal is to make sure the students understand the criminal justice system and get engaged in the challenges facing it,” Levenson said. “They will learn how to try cases, plea bargain, argue sentences, help people who have been wrongfully convicted and make changes in the law.”

Andy Stout: Math By Connor Reese

HANNAH CHO/CHRONICLE

be a problem solver and take advantage of my ability to make things.” Godoy had been interested in Harvard-Westlake for many years. Godoy took the job after browsing the Harvard-Westlake website and finding out that the school was looking for someone to teach sculpture and ceramics.

After working as a software engineer for several years, Andy Stout has joined the upper school math department as a computer science teacher. An alumnus of Pasadena Polytechnic, Yale and University of California, San Diego, Stout always wanted to come back to Southern California. Stout has taught courses at college and high school levels. For the past four years, he has been working as a software engineer at Teradata in San Diego. He will be teaching Design

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and Data Structures along with Advanced Topics in Computer Science. “For my first year here, I am going to stick to Mr. Fieldman’s syllabus,” Stout said, “But after this year I’ll build upon it.”

Sept. 1, 2015

hwchronicle.com/news

News A7

inbrief

Sara Cohen: English By Kami Durairaj

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Chelsea Stewart: Science By Elly Choi Chelsea Stewart will join the upper school science department and teach chemistry this year after instructing Pharmaceutical Biochemistry to graduate students at the University of California, San Diego. Stewart was also the head tutor at Reality Changers, a program that assists students with homework and introduces first-generation college students to prospective careers. Stewart earned her B.S. in

Biochemistry and Microbiology at the University of Washington. Although she has taught college kids before, teaching younger kids appeals to her. As a student, Stewart said chemistry was one of her favorite subjects. “Chemistry was always fun. We got to do cool demos, and I’m a visual learner, so that appealed to me,” Stewart said. “It’s amazing what you can find out about the world by studying simple, chemical reactions.”

Sara Cohen joins the Upper School English department after serving as a visiting fellow at Drexel University’s Great Works Symposium. Cohen, who earned a Bachelor of Arts in Comparative Literature at Occidental College and both a Master of Arts and Ph.D. in Comparative Literature at UCLA, hopes to utilize her knowledge of different styles of literature in her classroom. Not only does Cohen have an extensive background in Jewish and Yiddish literature, she has also studied pop culture in literature. In the past, she developed several elective courses around the topics of ghost stories, monsters and zombies in literature. “I can see the ways that different literatures are in dialogue with each other,” Cohen said. “I have a unique perspective that offers a lot of context because I never worked with just English literature, but with multiple languages.”

Cohen will teach English II and English III: Living in America. During her move from Philadelphia, she took a road trip through New England, visiting landmarks of famous writers, an experience which she hopes to incorporate this experience in her English III class. Cohen said she looks forward to joining the English department and collaborating with other teachers to create unique lesson palns.

and helping introduce them to what its like engineering professionally and in the real world,” Armani said. The robotics team began preparing for the season over the summer, meeting on campus and video chatting with other students who were not available in order to include

everyone in their work. “We are heavily interested in improving the pre-season education and training,” Jonas Hirshland ’16 said. “We are also talking about competing in another set of competitions that happen earlier in the year, mainly to practice for our real season.”

Peer Support to hold annual retreat

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Deniz Armani: Robotics By Claire Keller Engineer Deniz Armani will be taking over for physics teacher Karen Hutchinson to lead the Robotics Club during the school year and in their competitions beginning in January. Armani previously worked

at Glenair Inc. as the Director of Research and Development, where he identified and developed new products and technologies before the company brought them to the commercial market. “I really love engineering, and so I am excited for the interaction with the club

Back At It

Teachers who previously taught at the Upper School, either full time or temporarily, return to campus to teach Science and English classes.

English teacher comes back to school after year of writing By Kate Schrage

Former teacher Ariana Kelly will return to the English department this fall after one year away from school. Kelly departed from the school following the 2014 school year in order to complete her debut non-fiction book, “Phone Booth,” set to release Sept. 15. “I spent the majority of my time away from school researching and writing,” Kelly

said. “The time away really gave me room in which to breathe and think, reassess and regroup.” Though Kelly hadn’t expected to return so quickly, she said that her decision to do so was due to her passion for her job. “Besides writing, which requires me to figure out what I really think, I’ve never found a more compelling or worthier job than teaching,” Kelly said. While she is excited to come back to Harvard-West-

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lake, Kelly expressed some concerns regarding her career as an author. “I do worry about finding

time to write,” Kelly said. “But if the need to write is strong enough, and it is for me, I will always find time for it.”

Science teacher completes credential, will teach chemistry By Danielle Spitz

Heather Audesirk will return to the science department after first coming to the Upper School last spring. Since last teaching, Audesirk has completed her single-

subject teaching credential in chemistry at Asuza Pacific University. Audesirk will teach Chemistry and Chemistry Honors in the upcoming year. Before becoming a teacher, she was a tutor for the Harvey

Mudd Academic Excellence program, which gave her experience working with young students. “It’ll be nice to have [the students] have one set of classroom policies and procedures rather than those from

like three different teachers, which I know was really rough on everyone last year,” Audesirk said. “I’m really excited to start fresh, have everyone from the beginning and be able to make sure that everything runs smoothly.”

Former substitute teacher hired to teach English full time By Nicole Kim Darcy Cosper will return to the Upper School English department as a full-time teacher this year after previously filling in as a substitute last semester for Maura Roosevelt. Cosper has also substituted for English teachers Eric Sch-

rode in 2008 and Laurence Weber in 2010. Over the summer, Cosper started an online literary magazine called the Offing, which publishes creative writing that belongs to a variety of genres ranging from poetry to nonfiction. According to the Offing’s

website, the magazine is “a place for new and emerging writers to test their voices, and for established writers to test their limits”. Prior to assuming the position of Editor-in-Chief of the Offing, Cosper was the online editor of another literary magazine called the Swink from

2004 to 2012. However, Cosper said she wanted to return to HarvardWestlake because of “the exceptional students and faculty.” She said she is looking forward to getting to know new students in her sophomore English classes.

Members of Peer Support will go on a retreat Sept. 11 to Sept. 13 with counselor and faculty advisor Luba Bek. This year, approximately 25 senior leaders and 27 junior trainees, along with faculty advisor Kavita Ajmere and upper school dean Celso Cardenas, will travel with Bek to Camp Hess Kramer in Malibu. “In the beginning, they’re very cautious,” Bek said. “For the trainees, the incoming juniors, the level of confidence is kind of low, but by the end of the retreat everyone is like a big family.” —Josie Abugov

Future Horizons Club volunteers at UCLA

Members of the Future Horizons Club handled sign-ins at the registration desk and encouraged cancer survivors and patients June 7 at the annual Cancer Survivor’s Day at UCLA. The club, whose goal is to teach students about potential careers, decided to volunteer at the event to gain experience in the field of medical care while helping cancer patients. “We volunteered because it was a great opportunity for us to witness and understand more about being a doctor,” Future Horizons Club president Eric Han ’17 said. —Jesse Nadel

Sophomores, juniors to use new sign-in A new attendance system will soon allow sophomores and juniors to sign on and off of campus using iPads. Now, students will use an app to digitally check in. This system has been in testing for seniors, however Upper School Attendance Coordinator Gabriel Preciado hopes that the system will make attendance more accurate. “It will prove effective in the event of a major emergency,” Preciado said. “It will make a difference.” Preciado hopes to have the system available by late fall. —Carmen Levine

School to host Studio City tennis festival Harvard-Westlake, in collaboration with the United States Tennis Association and the Studio City Residents Association, is sponsoring a free tennis festival in Studio City Sept. 27. “It is designed by the United States Tennis Association to expose tennis to Studio City residents and to encourage them to engage in outside family activity,” Director of Communication and Public Affairs Stacy Marble said. The festival will take place at the Studio City Recreation Center. Harvard-Westlake women’s tennis coach Kristie Gipe and the team will be participating in the festival to assist the people who attend. —Jordan Bedikian

A8 News

The Chronicle

inbrief

Sept. 1, 2015

Alumni go to “Friday Night Lights” event

Alumni living in the Los Angeles area supported the Wolverines against rival Loyola Cubs at the football game last Friday after a dinner and a reception in the Feldman Horn gallery as part of the “Friday Night Lights” event. “We have done this in the past, and our goal is to engage and reconnect with alumni and invite them back on campus to see friends and faculty as well as enjoy a football game,” Director of Advancement David Lee ’89 said in an email. — Sabrina de Brito

Annual Giving reaches a record $7.7 million Parents, alumni, faculty and staff donated a record of $7.7 million to Annual Giving last year, the most for an independent day school in the country, according to Head of External Relations Ed Hu. Faculty and staff had 100 percent participation. Ninetythree percent of parents participated, along with 22 percent of alumni. — Sammi Handler

Information Tech doubles bandwidth The Computer Service department changed its name to Information Technology. “Mostly because Computer Services for many years now has not really been accurate as we work with a lot more [aspects of] technology than just computers,” Director of Information Technology Dave Ruben said of the name change. “It’s a very old name so we thought we would modernize it, and information technology is a little more accurate and more up to date with what we actually do.” In addition, there is now double the internet bandwidth available for students on the upper school campus. “Now that all students are bringing their own laptops, we will have an additional 300 computers all accessing the same wireless,” Ruben said. — Ayanna Frey and Anthony Weinraub

Library now loans laptops to students An update to the laptop program will allow students to take and use the borrowed devices outside of the library and to their classes due to the One-to-One program necessitating the use of laptops for every class. Library loaners can be used when a student cannot bring his or hers for several days, but they will be directed to Computer Services if they need one for a week or more. “It gives students some freedom to move around the library — and now campus — and choose a place to work that will suit the level of focus they need to get their work done,” Head Upper School Librarian Shannon Acedo said. — Claire Keller

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New sign in Taper Gym reflects Mission Statement

OUT WITH THE OLD: Administrators ordered the addition of a new sign on a wall in Taper Gym to reflect the change in the Mission Statement last school year. The sign, added during the summer, highlights the four key aspects of the school’s goals.

Senior self-publishes fantasy novel, ‘Code!’ By Ethan Knight

Elizabeth Anne Rao ’16 published her book “Code!” on July 11 using the online publishing site Outskirt Press. Her book is about a group of people who receive superpowers from a mysterious man, claiming to be a therapist that grants wishes. The protagonists later realize that

the negative aspects of their new powers outweigh the benefits. “Their actions and decisions are illogical, and I wanted to try and present how easily people, especially young people, can lose sight of reality and logic,” Rao said. As a child, Rao often daydreamed, becoming so attached to her imagination that

she channeled it into writing as a way of recording her childhood dreams. One day while browsing the Internet, Rao discovered the concept of supplements that could give people superhuman abilities. This inspired her to think about the negative effects of these superpowers, and thus “Code!” was born. Rao spent her free time

writing the book. “Balancing school with writing was difficult, and I would go weeks or months at a time completely ignoring my book in favor of school work,” Rao said. “Obviously, this hindered my writing, and I had to cut off the book without wrapping up all the loose ends.” Rao said she plans to write a sequel.

Wang Hall opens, classrooms converted By Layla Moghavem

hallways have opened up. Visual arts classrooms are The new Wang Hall is open now spaces that are specificalat the Middle School after a ly designed for art classes as opposed to the Reynolds Hall year of renovations. Wang Hall, previously arts classrooms, which were Reynolds Hall, has a new previously science labs. World eighth grade lounge. In years Language classrooms are now before the renovation, eighth larger. The bottom floor contains grade students spent their free time in the hallways by class- classrooms for Human Derooms or in their deans’ offices. velopment, and the first floor The teachers and deans found holds World Languages classthis arrangement disruptive to rooms. The second floor holds mostly history classrooms and their classes and meetings. “Before, part of the eighth a few visual arts classrooms, grade deans’ job was to go and the third floor consists mainly of visual arts outside and yell at classrooms, as well the kids to be quiet as a few history classthen go inside to finrooms and a gallery. ish their conversaIn addition to tion,” Head of Middle the Wang Hall renoSchool Jon Wimbish vations, the Middle said. “So we’re trySchool converted two ing to ameliorate that classrooms in Seaver a little bit [with the ’ Science Center into new lounge].” “maker spaces” called A new space unJon Wimbish the STEAM (science, officially called the “den,” a play on the idea of a technology, engineering, arts wolverine den, holds tables and math) room and the Incuand chairs on the second floor bator. for students to use to work on “We took a lot of our handshomework or class projects. on clubs and put them in this Eighth grade lockers are classroom called the STEAM now on the second floor, fac- room,” Wimbish said. ing the senior garden, with a The Incubator is meant to canopy installed to protect be a designated place where them from rain. Now that the science teachers can experilockers no longer line the walls ment with new labs that could indoors, Wimbish said that the be used in lessons. nathanson s

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GOING GREEN: Students converse in the open grassy area that

has replaced the trailers that were previously outside of Rugby Hall.

Grass replaces trailers, history offices renovated By Sammi Handler

Two trailers outside Rugby Hall were removed during the summer because of “a desire to return green space to the general community,” Vice President John Amato said. Teachers and students used the trailers as classrooms during the library renovations four years ago, and they remained in place after the construction was completed in 2012. The English department had used the trailers as temporary classrooms, so they had to relocate classes to ac-

commodate the change. It was determined that the trailers were no longer needed so they were replaced with artificial grass, Amato said. “Rugby is pretty packed to the gills most of the day, so we have teachers also teaching in Kutler and Chalmers,” English Department Head Larry Weber said. “We haven’t had a teacher teach in Chalmers for a long time.” The history office was also renovated this summer with new smaller desks in a new configuration, history teacher Ken Neisser said. The history classrooms and office were also painted.

C HRONICLE the harvard-westlake

Editors In Chief: Eugenia Ko, Henry Vogel Managing Editors: Angela Chon, Benjamin Most, Jonathan Seymour Executive Editors: Sacha Lin, Kelly Riopelle

Opinion The Chronicle • Sept. 1, 2015

Los Angeles • Volume XXV • Issue 1 • Sept. 1, 2015 • hwchronicle.com

editorial

Presentations Editors: Su Jin Nam, Pim Otero Ads

and

Business Manager: Kelly Loeb

Assistant Ads and Business Manager: Oliver Richards News Managing Editor: Cole Feldman News Section Heads: Sammi Handler, Layla Moghavem, Jesse Nadel News Copy Editor: Jackson Novick News Assistants: Gabi Berchtold, Maddy Daum, Claire Dennis, Brittany Hong, Emory Kim, Indu Pandey, Noa Schwartz, Danielle Spitz Opinion Managing Editor: Jonah Ullendorff Opinion Copy Editor: Lexi Bowers Opinion Section Heads: Hananh Cho, Kami Durairaj Opinion Assistants: Ayanna Frey, Claire Keller, Jiwon Park, Anthony Weinraub, Matthew Yam Features Managing Editor: Sharon Chow Features Section Heads: Sabrina de Brito, Carmen Levine, Liz Yount Features Assistants: Josette Abugov, Nicole Kim, Sophie Levy, Kitty Luo, Jadene Meyer, Alena Rubin, Kate Schrag, Alexa Zuriff

MADY MADISON/CHRONICLE

A&E Section Heads: Lauren Kim, Tiffany Kim, Katie Plotkin A&E Assistants: Jacqueline Ayastas, Ellis Becker, Isabelle Eshaghi, Sarah Lee, Caty Szeto Health & Fitness Section Heads: Eshanika Chaudhary, Sophie Cohen, Claudia Wong Health & Fitness Assistants: Sofia Guillen, Kristen Kuwada Sports Managing Editor: Bennett Gross Sports Section Heads: Juliana Berger, Zac Harleston, Jake Liker, Dario Madyoon, Carina Marx, Rian Ratnavale Sports Assistants: Eli Adler, Oliver Akhtarzad, Andrew Ahn, Jordan Bedikian, Elly Choi, Ethan Knight, Sam McCabe, Tavin North, Aaron Park, Adam Yu Sports Photography: Cameron Stine Photography Assistants: Emory Kim, Kitty Luo, Jadene Meyer, Lara Mikhail, Alexa Zuriff Creative Director: Vivian Lin Cartoonist: Mady Madison Webmasters: Carmen Levine, Cameron Stine, Bryant Wu Online Section Heads: Joe Levin, Emily Rahhal, Oliver Richards, Jean Sanders, Bryant Wu Web Assistants: Eli Adler, Claire Keller, Matthew Yam Multimedia and Podcast Managers: Joe Levin, Connor Reese Adviser: Melissa Wantz 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 Kelly Loeb at kloeb1@hwemail.com. Publication of an advertisement does not imply endorsement of the product or service by the newspaper or the school.

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Maintaining our Core Values

For the past year now, anyone who drives down Coldwater Canyon can see that our neighbors are unhappy with us. Along the way to a school that prioritizes integrity and purpose beyond ourselves, signs emblazoned with hurtful phrases like “Stop Harvard-Westlake’s Destruction of the Coldwater Canyon” paint us as some sort of evil vying for our private parking garage without a thought for our neighbors or the environment. One of President Rick Commons’ new vision statements is to “find new ways to serve Los Angeles and earn the trust of our neighbors.” We are prioritizing our relationship with our neighbors more than ever before. Although we are certainly not the kind of school that many of the signs make us out to be, we students haven’t always been the perfect neighbors, and it’s time to change that. We have seen some of our classmates block driveways when they park on Halkirk, leave trash on nearby lawns and speed up the center lane on Coldwater. The actions of only a few students have reflected poorly on the entire community —students, teachers and administrators — and they are not representative of HarvardWestlake as a whole. Upper school students do more than 10,000 hours of community service each year. We have invited local residents to use our track and pools, hosted training for the Special Olympics and planted trees with TreePeople. We value our community.

Sometimes it’s easy to get distracted defending ourselves against neighbors with “Stop Harvard-Westlake” signs on their lawns and forget where they are coming from. There is also no doubt that some students are disrepectful towards neighbors in response to these signs. When the complaints start to feel like personal attacks, it can be difficult for us to look at the bigger picture. At the end of the day, however, it is a matter of respect. While we are first and foremost a part of Harvard-Westlake, we are also members of a larger community and will continue to be for years to come. While the benefits of a parking structure may be clear to us, it is at the core of our values and beliefs to respect the opinions of those whom our decisions will affect and, more importantly, treat others, especially the neighbors, with the values we have always strived for. The minute we allow our character to be compromised by what has become a political tiff, we lose our integrity. Regardless of the matter at hand, and however many wounding pitchforks may seem to come our way, we have to rise above. It’s a new school year, a new beginning, and it is time for students to do better. What we really only have control over is how we carry ourselves. No matter how this conflict tests our character, we have to stay true to what we believe in.

A10 Opinion

The Chronicle

Sept. 1, 2015

Some change is for the better By Bennett Gross

ne of the reasons I kept going back to Laurel South summer camp year after year until two years ago was because of how receptive the staff was to constructive criticism and hearing the campers’ thoughts and suggestions each summer. At the end of August, just as the camp was about to adjourn, the director would give each camper a survey to fill out. What my friends and I enjoyed was that the camp directors read all of these slips and listened to what both our favorite and least favorite parts of each year were. The director actually responded to our complaints too; he changed the food in the dining hall and added and subtracted new activities each year to fit the interests of the kids at camp. One year several of my peers and I wanted Ultimate Frisbee as an activity. We simply put our request on the survey, and when we came back the next summer, it was an option as a sport. I think that if HarvardWestlake were to implement a survey similar to the one at my camp, the students would have a better experience each school year. A simple questionnaire asking for ratings on teachers, cafeteria foods and extracurricular activities would improve daily life at school. The surveys would not require a committee to review the data, nor would it take years to implement. All of the data could easily be summed up and analyzed by President Rick Commons or Head of School Jeanne Huybrechts. The administration would not necessarily have to hire and fire teachers or even put them on probation based solely on survey results. It could just be a way for the school to get teacher evaluations or suggestions for new sports from the students.

I am not suggesting that every student be obligated to fill this out or that there would be any penalty for not doing the questionnaire. The other way that student life could be bettered would be to add a day after the end of school for students to say their summer goodbyes. On the last day of school, once everyone has completed their finals, it would be beneficial for both the students and teachers if there were a few hours to celebrate the accomplishment of finishing a long, arduous school year. Personally, last June, I ran to my car in the pouring rain after my English final and went home through the torrential weather. There was no closure to my junior year, just a nap. Horace Mann School in New York sets aside a few hours for their students and teachers to mingle at the end of the school year. I think Harvard-Westlake students should adopt a similar practice and allow students to say goodbye after the last final on the Wednesday that school ends. Student Council could be in charge of organizing the event, with input from what the student body would like to have on that day. It could just be a couple of food trucks on the track and some games on the field. The Middle School, for example, has field trips to Universal Studios, Six Flags and Disneyland for their students to close out the school year. While the seniors have a retreat that ends before graduation, the sophomores and juniors do not have any opportunity to reflect on their year with their friends or give their teachers a last goodbye. All I want for my fellow Wolverines is for everyone’s voices to be heard and a chance for students to have a memorable last day.

MADY MADISON/CHRONICLE

Leave some room for error By Sammi Handler

ime and time again failure is seen as an essential stepping-stone for success. So I find it strange that we have such a high expectation for success and scarcely any room for failure. Providing a more stable safety net for students could help lessen stress this year. I really started to wonder about this when my ninth grade history teacher warned our class that he expected our first test to be a “bloodbath.” He told us that we needed to get used to receiving bad grades before the difficulty of history class increased sophomore year. My teacher’s warning just made us study harder to avoid an apparent slaughter of our college dreams. Consequently, we were unsuccessful in understanding the crux of his message: We will fail, so we might as well learn how to deal with it now. Students, parents and teachers tend to have a “failure is not an option” attitude. That approach is beneficial in Apollo 13 situations, but we are just trying to graduate

A space for debate By Liz Yount

ast year students had the privilege of hearing from several speakers who brought us inspiring messages of acceptance, struggle and perseverance. Terrence Roberts, a member of the Little Rock Nine, shared his experiences with the desegregation of schools and explained how racism is a persistent systemic issue. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti ’88 encouraged us to become more involved members of the community at school and throughout the city, and activist Jackson Katz sparked a heated school-wide debate when he challenged students to view sexism and gender violence as more than

just a women’s issue. Each of these speakers provided insight that influenced daily conversation and debate around campus. My hope is that we don’t stop having these conversations just because a speaker isn’t standing in front of us. At Harvard-Westlake, we are clearly in a location of privilege, and each day we ought to use that platform as a way to initiate discussions regarding these issues, even if there isn’t an assembly to guide us. This past year, a compelling speaker would ignite a flame fueling meaningful debates across campus, but after a couple of days, it

from high school. A common discussion topic among students and administration is how to alleviate the pressure and stress caused by the workload. The New York Times reported July 27 that the suicide rate for 15- to 16-year-olds increased from 9.6 deaths to 11.1 per 100,000 from 2007 to 2013, and that more than half of college-age counseling clients had severe problems with anxiety and depression. We could lessen the stress this year by accepting failure and being permitted to do corrections to earn a few more points and actually comprehend the subject. We could analyze our errors and work with teachers to prove that we know the material. Teachers allow students to meet with them after a bad test or quiz, but in most cases the grade stays the same. If there was the possibility of a slight boost, students would be more apt to make appointments and fix their errors. No one should choose to fail. That would simply be poor judgment. But failing is ultimately a life lesson that

has so many more real-life applications than knowing that President John F. Kennedy’s plan to oust Fidel Castro was called Operation Mongoose. By the way, that plan failed. At the moment there is very little room for slip-ups. A bad grade on a test will always be there to weigh you down at the end of the year, even after you have managed to pick yourself back up. Anything below a B+ is practically considered to be an eighth deadly sin, except we don’t have any sure-fire way to repent. On top of that, some classes scale certain tests while others do not, and some teachers drop an uncharacteristic test grade while others take off points for not signing the Honor Code. While inconsistencies in teaching style cannot be fixed, a safety net allowing more chances to do corrections could make up for them. Let’s make failure an option so that one “bloodbath” in history class will no longer squander our dreams of going to a certain university. Failing is really an essential part of success.

Students should keep relevant debates going, even when there is no guest speaker telling them to do so. Understanding both sides of a social issue is crucial to initiating productive conversations.

would seem as if the speaker were never there. A prerequisite to creating dialogue on campus is being educated on both sides of every issue. I am on the debate team at school, and we are required to prepare arguments on both sides of our topic. This is how I strive to approach every issue, whether it be political, social or familial. Only after I am familiar with multiple perspectives on a subject do I feel comfortable debating it in a formal setting or discussing it casually with my friends. I challenge all members of the community to learn more about the viewpoints that fundamentally contradict their

own. Read an article from that news source you always brush off. Take the time to really comprehend why your peer’s opinion is incompatible with your own. By understanding the opposing argument better, you can more confidently defend your own, and if you feel slightly uncomfortable or irritated reading material you don’t agree with, don’t worry, that’s a common side effect of learning. Once we become a community that brings multiple perspectives to every issue, we can have educated and productive campus debates. We ought to be in a constant state of discussion. We cannot afford to be complacent in the

face of injustice. Let’s continue to challenge the misconception of America as a post-racial society, even if Terrence Roberts isn’t here to provide insight. Sexism and gender violence didn’t suddenly stop being relevant just because we went on summer break. We still have an obligation to give back to our community and city, and there is a litany of other issues in our society that also warrant our attention. I urge everyone to make a conscious effort to embody the ideals brought to us last year by the speakers and to use our platform as a way of initiating the type of conversations that lead to change.

Sept. 1, 2015

hwchronicle.com/opinion

quadtalk

The Chronicle asked:

Opinion A11

“Do you think Harvard-Westlake students are respectful to our neighbors?”

Yes

“I think that Harvard-Westlake students are respectful to their neighbors, but I always think that we can be more respectful. It is a big school, and there is a lot of traffic, and so I think doing everything we can to make our neighbors happy is the best way to go.”

2 1 9

HANNAH CHO/CHRONICLE

— Keller Maloney ’18

“Sometimes we can be disrespectful of our neighbors, but respecting property boundaries is really important, especially when walking to and from Starbucks and Ralphs. When we are walking on their property, we have to realize that other people have their own opinions about Harvard-Westlake that we may not agree with.”

314 students answered a Chronicle poll Aug. 27

— Jordan Brown ’16 HANNAH CHO/CHRONICLE

“How can the student body improve its interactions with our neighbors?”

HANNAH CHO/CHRONICLE

“From my understanding we have been pretty respectful for quite a few decades. I don’t know of any incidents in my memory that we have been disrespectful, but if so, I would just like the administration or the neighborhood to tell us exactly what the certain grievances are besides parking on their side.” — Jordan Brown ’16

HANNAH CHO/CHRONICLE

“I think we are fairly respectful. My peers always make a strong effort to be as considerate as we can when we are in and around the school, especially around the neighborhood. We attend school here, they live here, and we try to respect that.” —Adam Hirschhorn ’16

Letter from the Editors

Connecting in new ways By Eugenia Ko and Henry Vogel

very year we hear that journalism is a dying profession. Even though our traditional 32-page print paper has set the standard for high school journalists across the country, the time has come to accept that much of our readership would rather receive news through other media . Last year, the Chronicle staff breathed life into the Twitter and Facebook accounts by live tweeting more sports events and constantly posting stories from the Facebook account and to the Chronicle website (hwchronicle.com). This year, we plan to take the necessary next steps to

improve our digital presence on the rapidly evolving journalism frontier. Though our website has achieved recognition for its coverage and design, look for a website relaunch this fall to make the interface even more user-friendly on devices ranging from iPhones to desktop computers. We will also provide HWTV Chronicle sports, and livestreaming of many important events. With a full digital team, we plan on bringing our readership more live streams, regular updates to the site and more interactive mediums of communication, such as video reporting and sound clips. We will also continue the

digital push into the world of social media started by last year’s staff. With a Chronicle Snapchat account (@hw_ chronicle), a separate Twitter account for the sports section (@chroniclesports) and a revamped Instagram presence, look for more personalized and in-depth live coverage of sporting events and activities around campus. Our goal when we created these social media accounts was to find a way to bring our readership into the stories we are covering. We will still have the traditional text stories both online and in the print issues, but all these different social media accounts and the new website

JONAH ULLENDORFF/CHRONICLE

SPREADING THE NEWS: Editors in Chief Eugenia Ko ’16 and Henry Vogel ’16 hope to expand to other media platforms. will enable us to to bring life to the events we cover. Despite all the change, however, the basic idea stays the same. Our job is spreading honest and relevant news to our audience. With one of

the biggest staffs in recent years, we have the personnel to accomplish this goal. As readers, keep your eyes and ears open because exciting changes are happening this year at the Chronicle.

A12

Class celebrates beginning of the end

exposure

Sept. 1, 2015

Seniors reunited at the Senior Barbecue Aug. 27 to begin their final year as Wolverines. Head of the Upper School Audrius Barzdukas told the Class of 2016 that it would be remembered as the happiest class in school history.

COLE FELDMAN/CHRONICLE

SUMMER’S END: Yoko Everard ’16 and Gabe Golob ’16 reminisce on the fire road about their summer experiences.

COLE FELDMAN/CHRONICLE

DEAR EMBRACE: Emma Caragozian ’16 and Dora Schoenberg ’16 embrace after Caragozian returned to campus after a year with School Year Abroad.

COLE FELDMAN/CHRONICLE

HEADING TO THE RANCH: The senior class and teachers line up for lunch from Wood Ranch Grill.

COLE FELDMAN/CHRONICLE

FOOD AND FRIENDS: Robert Iancu ’16, David Strauss ’16 and Augustin Letelier ’16 catch up with science teacher Nate Cardin. The faculty reunited and ate with the senior class during the barbecue.

COLE FELDMAN/CHRONICLE

ROUND TABLE: Ryan Ruiz ’16, Ian Watts ’16, Izzy Frankel ’16, Jordan Pulaski ’16 and Andrew Vanderschans ’16 enjoy the barbecue together on the quad. Wood Ranch Grill provided tri-tip sandwiches, cheeseburgers and grilled chicken breasts as well as an assortment of sliced fruit, coleslaw and cookies.

Arts & Entertainment

The Chronicle • September 1, 2015

Lights, Cambodia, Action

Nineteen students traveled to Cambodia on the summer digital storytelling adventure trip. From visiting temples to exploring the Killing Fields of the Cambodian genocide, students learned about the rich history and complex culture of Cambodia.

TERESA SUH/CHRONICLE

RETURN TO THE PAST: Arn Chorn-Pond shows students around Battambang, his home town. Pond is a survivor of the Cambodian genocide and a human rights activist committed to the preservation of Cambodian music. Prior to the trip, Chorn-Pond visited the Upper School on April 13 to be interviewed by students.

By Jean Sanders

tanding in Junom, the village where his mother lived after the Khmer Rouge took her family’s home, William Chow ’17 took out his camera and begins to film the scenery. Chow’s mother is a survivor of the Cambodian genocide that began in 1975, and Chow wanted to tell her story. He said it felt incredible to be in the exact place where his mom lived during that time in her life, and he was able to understand her experiences in a new light. “My mom always talked about Cambodia in terms of how affected she was from the genocide, and I went to Cambodia expecting a stricken and poor country,” Chow said. “After I started meeting and talking to all the local people, I realized how human and simi-

lar to me they are.” Chow was one of 19 students who attended HW! Go’s Digital Storytelling Adventure trip to Cambodia. Students on the 11-day trip visited the cities of Phnom Penh, Battambang and Siem Riep. The goal of the trip was for each student to create a short documentary focusing on one aspect of Cambodian life. After learning that sex trafficking is the second largest industry in Cambodia, William Park ’17 decided to attempt to shed light on the problem. Park recognized that people his age and younger were being forced to become sex workers, and visiting the country allowed him to see firsthand the issues they face every day. “The process of filming and interviewing allowed me to at the very least spread some awareness to the troubles

happening in Cambodia,” Park genocide on the people. “I’ve never been to a place said. Gaulke and visual arts so affected by one thing,” teacher Joe Medina chaper- Weidmann said. “Everyone oned the trip, along with tour you talk to is affected by it in organizer Alethea Paradis and some way.” Students journalist Jeff learned that MacIntyre. the arts was Students also After I started one area of visited various meeting and talking to all C a m b o d i a n historical sites such as the the local people, I realized life that was largely diKilling Fields, how human and similar minished by the Angkor the genocide. Wat and the to me they are.” They attendRoyal Palace. —William Chow ’17 ed several “I didn’t performances know that sponsored by much about Cambodia before,” Marina a program called Cambodian Weidmann ’17 said. “This trip Living Arts, which aims to remade me much more aware of store the arts that were wiped the history and the environ- out by the genocide. Henry DiNapoli ’17 decided to focus ment in the country.” Much of the trip was fo- his documentary on the work cused on understanding the done by CLA. “I was able to interview impact of the Cambodian

“

current and former students,” DiNapoli said. “It was really cool to see what they had to say about the work done by the organization.” Many students felt their perception of Cambodia and the world was changed as a result of the trip. “A country that we only know through what we learn in history class has so much more to offer,” Cole Kawana ’16 said. Others found that what they had previously thought about Cambodia was incorrect. “We thought these people might be very sad because they don’t have much,” Sebastian Ko ’19 said. “But when we went there, we saw that they were happy. I learned that even without a lot of material possessions, you can get enjoyment out of life.”

B2 Arts & Entertainment

The Chronicle

Sept. 1, 2015

Guerrero plans inter-choir collaboration By Sarah Lee

The middle school and upper school choirs will take part in several bonding activities this year in order to create a better sense of a choir community on both campuses. Performing arts teacher Rodger Guerrero said he wanted students at the Middle School to see where being a part of the choir program could take them, and he wants all choir students to feel safe in the community because it increases the quality of their performances. “If they get to know each other, then they’re more open to breaking down their personal walls, and the music is expressed and performed better when the kids are willing to express who they really are. So if this is a safe space, then the kids will go out on a line and give their all no matter how much of themselves they have to reveal,” Guerrero said. Guerrero plans to have a rehearsal day on the middle school campus followed by games, a mentor program between choir students in the seventh grade and twelfth grades, rehearsals for boys in the middle school choirs at the Upper School and rehearsals for Bel Canto at the Middle School. “Performing arts should be a place where you really make lifelong friends,” Guerrero said. “So this is just kind of a way to enhance that so no kid feels like they’re alone. If they’ve got something really tough going on in their lives, whether it’s with regards to their classes or with other teachers or students or even with their parents, they have some friends in choir that they see every day that they can really rely on and go to.”

Gaulke wins CCF Fellowship

By Ellis Becker

Upper School Visual Arts Head Cheri Gaulke won the California Community Foundation Fellowship for Visual Arts award for a successful career. The award, funded by the CCF, has provided artists funds to build their careers since 1988. The foundation has given $2.5 million to over 250 artists working in Los Angeles. Gaulke was one of 22 winners that will receive a grant from the foundation. “I feel deeply honored to receive this award,” Gaulke said. “I got the call in the middle of shooting a film project, and we were working very hard, and when I heard I just started crying. It made all the hard work worth it.” As well as receiving the award, she was granted $20,000 for future projects. Gaulke said she will use the grant as an opportunity to step back and take a look at what she is really passionate about.

PRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF ADAM HOWARD

KILLER ACTING: Faculty and alumni perform a musical number in the critically acclaimed production of “Assassins” in the Pico Playhouse. Upper School Dean Adam Howard (third from right) plays Leon Czolgosz, who assasinated President William McKinley in 1901.

Critics praise alumni revival of 5-time Tony award-winning musical ‘Assassins’

By Sabrina

Brito

A revival of the five-time Tony award-winning musical “Assassins” opened Aug. 21 to positive critical reviews. The show runs through Sept. 27 at the Pico Playhouse in Los Angeles. The musical is being produced by Red Blanket Productions, a company started by primary producer and actor Zach Lutsky ’93 and director Dan Fishbach ’94. “[‘Assassins’] is a commentary on the realization that the promise of the American dream is not reachable for most people,” Lutsky said. “[The show portrays] people coming to terms with the fact that, in a lot of ways, the promise of the American dream is unrealistic or even a lie.”

The musical illustrates the lives of nine people who assassinated or attempted to assassinate past US presidents. Written by Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman, the show takes the audience through different decades in order to watch criminals from various time periods meet, interact and influence one another. Will Adashek ’01 supervised lighting design, Lili Fuller ’05 was the choreographer and Middle School Performing Arts Teacher Alex Kolmanovsky designed the set. Upper school dean Adam Howard ’93 plays the role of Leon Czolgosz, who assasinated President William McKinley in 1901. “I was drawn to Czolgosz both musically as well as to

his seemingly timeless frustrations,” Howard said. “Czolgosz may have been a figure from the end of the 19th century, but his issues with government and socio-economic restriction seem very relevant to some of the anger we see today.” Lutsky plays John Hinckley, who attempted to assassinate President Ronald Reagan in 1981. He said he hopes that other alumni will come see the final production, as it represents how far one can go with connections made in the HarvardWestlake community. “I think only Steven Sondheim would have the brilliance to make a musical about people who kill presidents, and yet it is funny and powerful and moving,” Lutsky said.

“The themes of [‘Assassins’] and the power of it is in not trying to sympathize or forgive these people through American history, but maybe just try to understand how it could have happened.” The musical received positive feedback from the theater community. “Producers Dan Fishbach and Zach Lutsky courageously and memorably make ‘Assassins’ their own,” critic Don Grigware wrote on a theater review website called broadwayworld.com two days after opening night. “It may not be one of Sondheim’s best musicals, but it is surely thought-provoking, bizarrely entertaining and worthy of your attention. This production of the musical is as good as it gets.”

Platt brothers to star in New York musicals By Kami Durairaj

grateful and excited for the opportunity.” Jonah considers his time Jonah Platt ’04 will make his Broadway debut Sept. at Harvard-Westlake as one of 15 as Fiyero, the male lead the factors that has inspired in “Wicked,” and his brother his career. “Many teachers and facBen Platt ’11 will perform the titular role in an off-Broadway ets of [Harvard-Westlake] life production of “Dear Evan Han- helped to grow my stage confidence and deep love for musisen.” Jonah Platt will perform cal theater,” Jonah Platt said. The Grammy and Tony in the 12th anniversary of the musical “Wicked,” which made award-winning musical tells the unknown it’s debut in backstories of October 2003. the witches of His father, I’m very excited Oz-Elphaba, Marc Platt, was the Wicked the original to be able to devote Witch of the producer of the my full energy to and West and hit musical, Glinda, the which is the receive a paycheck for Good Witch. 11th longestthe pursuit I love the Jonah Platt running Broadmost.” has previously way show in acted in “Hair,” history. —Jonah Platt ’04 “Scream: The “I’m very Unauthorized excited to be able to devote my full energy Musical Parody,” “American to and receive a paycheck for Idiot,” “Floyd Collins” and the pursuit I love the most,” “Bare” and has worked on Jonah Platt said in an email. NBC’s “Parks and Recreation” “It’s a rare and beautiful thing as well as Fox’s “Family Guy.” His brother Ben will conto be able to do what you love for a living, and I’m incredibly tinue his role as the main

“

PRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF JONAH PLATT

WICKED SINGING: Jonah Platt ’04 performs as Fiyero in “Wicked” on Broadway. Ben Platt ’11 will be off-Broadway in the spring.

character in the musical “Dear Evan Hansen,” which originated at Washington’s Arena Stage this summer. After the musical received strong reviews, it was selected to run at New York’s Second Stage Theatre during the spring 2016 season. Directed by Tony Award nominee Michael Grief, the musical follows the story of high school student Evan Hansen, who is on the verge of

realizing his dreams — if a private letter gone viral does not ruin his chances. Ben Platt is also known for his performances in the musical comedy “Pitch Perfect” movies and his role in “Ricki and the Flash” with Meryl Streep. His other musical credits include the lead role of Elder Cunningham in “The Book of Mormon” in Chicago and on Broadway.

Sept. 1, 2015

hwchronicle.com/A&E

Arts & Entertainment B3

Auditions begin for ‘West Side Story’ production By Adam Yu

Auditions began Monday for the upper school theater department’s 2015 fall musical “West Side Story”. The musical is about gang warfare, but it is based on William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” and was written by Stephen Sondheim. Singing auditions are slated for today, acting auditions are scheduled for tomorrow, and dance auditions are set for Thursday. Makeup audi-

tions and callbacks will be held on Friday. The musical will be co-directed by Ted Walch and Michele Spears. Daniel Faltus will serve as the musical director. There will be an invited guest preview on Nov. 5 at 4 p.m. Regular performances will be on Nov. 6 at 8 p.m., Nov. 7 at 8 p.m. and Nov. 8 at 3 p.m. All of the shows will be performed in the Rugby Auditorium.

All-American High School Film Festival premieres student features By Tiffany Kim and Jackson Novick The All-American High School Film Festival selected 26 Harvard-Westlake studentmade films to be shown Oct. 9-11 in Times Square, New York City. A group of representatives also visited the school to screen films and network with students.Visual Arts Department Head Cheri Gaulke has submitted films every year since the first festival in 2013. “Ten films right off the bat [were] from our digital storytelling adventures,” Gaulke said. “They took five Rwandan and Cuban documentaries. I just think it’s because we have a lot of programs here, and those programs are really strong.”

More Harvard-Westlake films were recognized this year than in previous years. There were five Cuban documentaries, six Rwandan documentaries, six films from the Harvard-Westlake summer camp, three Righteous Conversations Project films and seven videos from video art classes. “I think that telling stories is very important, but personally, I’m interested in telling stories that will change the world,” Gaulke said. “I’m interested in empowering students to help someone tell a story who can’t tell their own. I’m interested in our students getting the skills to be good storytellers, to serve the world and to make the world a safer place so that we can learn from these tragic historical moments.”

Or subscribe to the print edition by sending a check for $20 to the Chronicle, attention Melissa Wantz, 3700 Coldwater Canyon, Studio City, CA 91604. If you want a second subscription for college students or grandparents, each additional subscription is $15 a year. You can also subscribe to the quarterly sports magazine, Big Red, for $15 a year. Subscriptions are mailed on the day of publications bulk rate and will arrive at your home within two weeks. Call the Chronicle office at 818487-6512 for more information.

PRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF SAMANTHA HO

Capitol Rotunda displays student portrait ON DISPLAY: Samantha Ho ’16 stands next to Congressman Brad Sherman under her pastel self-portrait titled “Pointilism Study” that is currently displayed in the Capitol Rotunda.

All-American High School Film Festival Featured Films Cuba Documentaries: “Being Cuban” Quinton Simmonds ’17 Cameron Stine ’17 “Dear America” Sammi Handler ’17 Lauren Kim ’17 “Embargo on Love” Lauren Rothman ’17 “Love and Music” Sophia Dienstag ’17 Ryan Finley ’16 Sarah McAllister ’15 “Stealing Home” Justin Ciccone ’17 Joe Levin ’17 Michael Stokdyk ’17 Rwanda Documentaries: “Children of the Genocide” Nina Milligan ’16 “Cut the Tall Trees: The Killing Power of Words” Noah Bennett ’15 Max Cho ’15 “I Am Kizito” Mike Mapes ’16 “Reweaving: Rwanda After Rape” Katherine Calvert ’15 “The Kindness of Strangers” Cole Kawana ’16 “The Rhythm of Healing”

Imani Cook-Gist ’15 The Righteous Conversations Project: “Curt Lowens: A Life of Change” Justin Binder August Blum Robert Carlson Levi Glaser George Khabbaz Kayla Mossanen Tammy Shine “It Shouldn’t Be This Easy” Trey Carlisle Ned Jacobs Connor Reese ’17 Cameron Stine ’17 HW Video Art: “An Irish Airman Foresees His Death” Javier Arango ’16 “Bernice Bobs Her Hair” Delilah Napier ’15 Danielle Stolz ’15 Marianne Verrone ’15 “Bucket” Dora Palmer ’15 “Fashionably Late” Kaira Murakoa-Robertson ’16 “Gray Matter” Henry Quilici ’15 “Heartless” Delilah Napier ’15 Danielle Stolz ’15

“Ways of Talking” Tiana Coles ’16 HW Summer Film: “Deep End” Youna Choi ’17 Griffin Gunn-Myers ’19 Mat Major ’17 “Emergency Stop (The Cycle of Violence)” Juli Freedman Becca Frischling ’19 Jess Grody ’19 “One Nation Under Mike” Vera Abrams August Hartwell Jessica Miner “Quote Unquote” Nicole Bahar ’18 Joji Baratelli Noa Schwartz ’18 “The Monster Within” Angela Soyean Chon ’16 George Khabbaz Dora Schoenberg ’16 Jordan Seibel “Triforce of Desire” Lauralee Harper ’16 Brad Pickens Isaac Sage Zara Schuster SOURCE: CHERI GAULKE GRAPHIC BY ELLIS BECKER AND TIFFANY KIM

B4 Arts & Entertainment

The Chronicle

Sept. 1, 2015

TARIN NORTH/CHRONICLE

AIDING GROWTH: Maya Hinkin ’18 and William Park ’17 (second and third from left) sit in on an art class and interact with Cambodian students and their teacher, a volunteer from England. Students at this school attend a variety of classes every day, including English, art and physical education.

Music as Medicine By Teresa Suh

in the past and letting it hold them back. The atrocities they In 1975, Cambodia faced a experienced are truly unforgenocide that killed more than gettable, but seeing some of 20 percent of its population. the Cambodian people on Headed by Pol Pot, the Khmer the streets begging, unable regime murdered, brutalized to move on and hearing how and dehumanized its own peo- terrible the genocide over and ple. Schools were turned into over was frustrating for me. prisons and torture centers As someone who gets joy from helping others, being that held the elite helpless in this situamembers of Cambotion was unbearable. dian society. However, there were Just 30 years two people that were later, I was given able to channel their the opportunity to sorrows into somevisit a country that thing beautiful. has endured such Muoy was one of hardships to see the the most blessed peoculture and to meet ’ ple I have ever met. a few of the people Teresa Suh ’17 As a child, Muoy lived who survived the fairly well and was genocide or had family members who were killed sent to study abroad. During her studies abroad, the Camduring the genocide. The first day, we visited bodian genocide commenced Cambodia Living Arts to watch and her family members were a performance by students. victims of it. While abroad, she learned After spending time with the students, a couple of the oth- the importance of equal eder students and I talked to the ucation because her school head of that group. We had provided equal education for our group leader, Chhon Ch- people of all socio-economic hea Yut, translate for us. Sur- classes. She was devastated prisingly, the one who broke by the loss of her family but down during the interview was decided she wanted to build a not the head herself, but our school and do something she group leader. She told us that could fully invest herself in. all Cambodians felt the agony She gave up everything to start experienced during the geno- her school. People said she was crazy, cide as one community. It was something absolutely unfor- but Muoy pushed through. Even through the times where gettable. What I struggled with it seemed like her idea would during this trip was seeing fail, she tried harder and was some of the Cambodians stuck able to get the funding from nathanson s

TARIN NORTH/CHRONICLE

PUPPY LOVE: William Chow ’17 holds a snoozing puppy found one morning at the Tonle Bati School in the rural areas of Phnom Penh.

Teresa Suh ’17 reflects on her experiences from her 11-day trip to Cambodia. The stories of genocide survivors have taught her the healing power of music. Arn is one of the friendliest generous donors. Her school is currently and kindhearted people I’ve flourishing and growing even ever met. When Arn finally got the bigger, with many volunteers from Europe and Australia. courage to return to the land Her story was moving and in- he felt so much shame in, he volved many hardships, but opened up his Magic School ultimately she was able to Bus, which was a bus he rode move on from them and return in with a couple other musito her home country to provide cians from Cambodia Living opportunities for the young Arts to perform live concerts for people who had never Cambodian children. Arn Chorn Pond was a heard live music before. For Arn and many othchild soldier in the Khmer Rouge during the Cambodia ers, music is a way for them Genocide. His experience was to show and relieve their distress, shame and sorrow. He first-hand. Music for Arn was some- can’t put into words how territhing that both destroyed and ble he felt during the genocide healed him. When he was in and playing music was his way the Khmer Regime, he was told of finally being able to express to play music for the prisoners it. Arn is moved by people tearto mask the sound of the killing up just hearing him play his flute. ings so that This trip has they would made me want not know For Arn and to share the the terrible many others, music is a strength music things that the Khmer way to show and relieve can give to people. Seeing artRegime was his distress, shame and ists from Camdoing. bodia Living Arts During sorrow.” like dancers, the genocide, —Teresa Suh ’17 smote singers people were and instrumenunder the imtal players, has pression that the Khmer Regime was saving furthered my belief that music them from their current soci- is the one thing that can help ety, but in reality they were everyone. There’s no language barwell on their way to becoming rier, no judgment, but ratha dictatorial society. When the reign of the er the sharing of feelings and Khmer Rouge was over, Arn reminiscent memories of the went to America where he was carnage of mental and physibullied for being different. And cal horror, as well as the relief yet despite these hardships, and triumph after.

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TARIN NORTH/CHRONICLE

PLAYTIME: William Park ’17 and Teresa Suh ’17 push a Cambodian girl on the swings during a recess when students distributed gifts to children.

Features The Chronicle • Sept. 1, 2015

highstakes Meet the Players

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY VIVIAN LIN

Four new faces evaluate their hands in preparation for the challenges of college admissions. They do not know what lies in store, but they are willing to place their bets.

By Sacha Lin The Artist: Most days, Homer* ’16 walks home from school on Ventura Boulevard or Moorpark Street. It gives him 45 minutes to think or listen to his favorite kinds of music: classic rock, film scores and Broadway show tunes. When he gets home, he does his work in silence because that’s the way he always has, he said. Homer loves theater, film and music, maybe because his father works in the entertainment industry, he said. Recently, the auditions for West Side Story have been on his mind. During the summer, Homer did a two-week choir program at Idyllwild Arts, worked as a host at California Pizza Kitchen, wrote the first draft of his college essay and filled out half of the Common App. Homer would like to go to a small-to medium-size liberal arts school with a good arts and history program because he is interested in historical fiction work. “I’ve always been a huge fan of writers like Dan Brown and Michael Craig who have been able to blend history and science into thriller novels,” Homer said. For now, his top choices are

Northwestern University, Kenyon College and Wesleyan University, three schools that meet his requirements. The All-Around: When her summer break had just begun, Virginia* ’16 found it hard to relax. “If I just sat still and watched a couple hours of TV, I’d get so anxious that I’d have to get up and go take a walk just because I could not stand being unproductive,” Virginia said. Although it got easier for her to unwind later that summer, Virginia still kept herself busy with a number of activities. She was a counselor at a program for minority children, she volunteered at a hospital, finished up old paintings and did cross country training. Virginia also did some work on her college essay and list of extracurricular activities and has launched her art supplement page online. Most of the schools she has been looking at are liberal arts colleges and Ivy League schools, though she also likes Johns Hopkins University and Duke University, schools she saw during the school organized college tour trip last year. “I think I still have a lot of work to do in terms of figuring

out what school I would see myself at,” Virginia said. The Athlete: When eighth period ends on a typical school day, Willa* ’16 quickly goes to the locker room, changes, puts on her shoes and mentally prepares herself for two hours or more of lifting, conditioning on the track or basketball practice in the gym. Willa has come a long way since she first started to shoot hoops in kindergarten, playing at travel tournaments in front of college recruiters in July. She talked a little with Division II and III coaches after her games, but she had most of her conversations with recruiters through e-mails, calls and texts in August. To keep in shape during the summer, Willa trained with coaches once or twice a week and did sprints around her neighborhood. Willa wants to go to a liberal arts college because she wants to keep her options open for the future. She is curious about human anatomy, but she is not yet sure what she would like to major in. “Coming from the athletic world, I’m interested in what happens to our bodies when they break down or when

they’re sore,” Willa said. The Brain: The ability to problem solve effectively is important to Austin* ’16, which is why he discussed current events every week with the Society of Global Affairs and competed in Ethics Bowl last year. “I like to think that everything I do is related to problem solving because I think that’s what you do in a career,” Austin said. During the summer, Austin spent a week at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, learning about possible majors and career options in engineering. He also did a two-week program at UCLA, where students find connections between visual arts and the sciences. Austin found the program at UCLA particularly relevant because he is interested in doing both fine arts and engineering in college. In addition to taking AP Biology, AP Physics C: Mechanics and AP Studio Art, Austin will be in four other AP classes. Austin would like to do the Brown-RISD Dual Degree Program, so he plans to apply early to Brown University and later to the Rhode Island School of Design if he is admitted. *Names have been changed

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ELLY CHOI ’18, PERU BY JESSE NADEL Elly Choi ’18 watched as a procession of brightly dressed Peruvians walked from an ancient sun temple through the city of Cuzco singing in the Incan language. At this moment, she realized that this is why she came to Peru. Inspired by her ninth grade Spanish teacher, Anamaria Ayala, Choi decided to apply for the Iberian and Latin-American Studies Fellowship, which she used to travel to Peru to study the Inti Raymi, the festival of the sun god. “The main goal was to study the Inti Raymi, the festival of the

sun god, but while I was there, I also tried to see what the daily lives of the people there are like,” Choi said. During her two-week trip to the South American country, Choi traveled between four cities, Lima, Cuzco, Ica and Nazca. Traveling throughout the country and experiencing different cities there allowed her to learn about the country, Choi said. “I thought it was a really educational experience,” Choi said. “I learned much more about the culture than I could have from a book. I felt that I was directly immersed in these people’s lives.”

PRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF ELLY CHOI

FELLOWSHIP FESTIVAL: Elly Choi ’18 went to Peru for Inti Rami, the festival of the sun god. She interacted with indigenous people and learned about Peruvian culture.

ARA MAHSEREDJIAN ’16, SPAIN BY KRISTIN KUWADA Ara Mahseredjian ’16 retraced Don Quixote’s steps in Spain after receiving the Iberian and Latin-American Studies Summer Fellowship. Mahseredijian was among six upper school students who received summer grants. “I thought it would be fun to go on this adventure to find a less touristic route and to find a more authentic and realistic route,” Mahseredjian said. He traveled with his family to their first stop, Toledo, for two days and later visited a small town called Daimiel. He was pleasantly surprised by how welcoming everyone was. “It was a more local community

as opposed to being in a big city,” Mahseredjian said. During the rest of his trip, he traveled from village to village, just as Don Quixote had in the novel. The biggest shock that he encountered in this experience was witnessing how many small towns revolved around Don Quixote. “There are references to him everywhere. The streets are named after him. Everyone knows who he is, and everyone knows the book. I deﬁnitely wasn’t expecting that,” Mahseredjian said. He is creating a PowerPoint presentation for his previous Spanish Literature teacher and is currently writing an article for the Babel, the upper school foreign language magazine.

PRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF ARA MAHSEREDJIAN

LIFE-SIZE FICTION: Ara Mahseredjian ’16 ﬁnds a statue of Sancho Panza, Don Quixote’s squire, in Alcazar de San Juan.

CAMERON STINE ’17, MEXICO BY CARINA MARX AND OLIVER RICHARDS Cameron Stine ’17 said he was amazed when people in Mexico completely opened up to him. “It was amazing to me how proud they were of their story and how proud they were to tell it,” Stine said. Stine traveled to Oaxaca City, Tlacolula, Teotitlan, Yanhuitlan and Apoala as a part of the Harvard-Westlake Iberian and Latin-American Studies Fellowship program. He spoke to indigenous Zapotec and Mixtec people, learning about the culture and problems plaguing the area. “I recorded their stories and recorded them speaking in their native languages,” Stine said. “These were some of the poorest people on the earth and coming into their

homes was truly special.” Stine wrote a 20-page paper on the dying culture of the natives, post-9/11 immigration reforms and discrimination. He divided the paper into the stories of individuals and his own stories to try to convey the experiences that are being lost to prejudices against their people. For Stine, however, going to the Guelaguetza celebration was the most memorable portion of the trip. “The Guelaguetza is a festival held in Oaxaca City in which all the counties in Oaxaca send a group of people to dance,” Stine said. “For many of the dancers, this is their ﬁrst time in a big city, and displaying their beautiful, colorful culture was amazing. They were so proud of their dances, and they were the best dancers I have ever seen.”

PRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF CAMERON STINE

MI CASA ES SU CASA: Cameron Stine ’17 explored the native culture of Mexico and how prejudice has plagued the lives of many in Oaxaca City, Tlacolula, Teotitlan, Yanhuitlan and Apoala. He had the opportunity of speaking to indigenous Zapotec and Mixtec people.

BY JOSIE ABUGOV Truth Cole ’16 spent a week in Italy for her Junior Summer Fellowship. She stayed in Murano, a group of islands in the Venetian Lagoon, for the majority of her trip. Her project, “Exploring the Dying Art of Glass in Murano”, allowed her to tour glass shops and museums in the region. “I also did a workshop and blew some glass which was a really

awesome experience,” Cole said. During her visit, Cole viewed the Glasstresse, an exhibit dedicated solely to glass. In addition to her project on glass, Cole also attended the world-renowned Venice Biennale Art Festival. Fifty-three countries participated this year, selecting one artist to represent their nation and display their work in the festival. “My favorite part of the trip was deﬁnitely seeing all of the art at the Venice biennial,” Cole said.

TRUTH COLE ’16, ITALY

PRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF TRUTH COLE

EXPLORING A DYING ART: In Venice, Truth Cole ’16 attended an art festival in Venice, where she saw art from 53 different countries.

C2 FEATURES

THE CHRONICLE

SEPT. 1, 2015

All Aboard the Fellowship 7 students traveled the world on grants, learning about different cultures and traditions through research and volunteer work.

VICTORIA KEATING ’16, CHINA

BY TIFFANY KIM A boy with a toy doctor kit in hand approached Victoria Keating ’16 to give her her daily thousand shots in a span of a couple of seconds. “The problem was, the ﬁrst time [the boy gave me a shot], I pretended that the shot hurt by making a noise,” Keating said. “So then, every time we played, it would be a game of how hard we could push the toy shot into my arm until I made a noise.” As part of her Global Initiative Asia Student Fellowship, Keating spent time with orphans at the Beijing China Care Home, a facility for orphans with conditions such as cleft palates or heart conditions that need surgery. “It was special because as we had all been adopted, the cause was close to our hearts in the sense that these were also children who were like us at one point,” Keating said. The trip included both volunteering and sightseeing to explore

PRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF VICTORIA KEATING

HELPING HAND: Victoria Keating ’16 and a Chinese boy play with bubbles at the Beijing China Care Home during her fellowship. Chinese heritage. Because Keating speaks Chinese, she worked with a large group of children. “Working with the kids was the best [part of the trip],” Keating said. “When you work with kids that young, each day is different because they’re so energetic and

creative.” She also visited the Great Wall of China and an orphanage in Tianjin. “The kids also really inspire you because even when they have these conditions or difﬁculties, they are still kids at heart and just as happy,” Keating said.

CAMI KATZ ’16, TIBET

PRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF CAMI KATZ

TREATS IN TIBET: Cami Katz ’16 (third from left) passes out candy and chocolate to blind children at a Tibetan school as part of her volunteer work.

BY SAMMI HANDLER Cami Katz ’16 stood among thousands of Tibetans and watched as a 40-meter-long canvas painting of the Buddha was

unveiled to kick-start the Shoton Festival, a weeklong celebration commemorating the end of the monks’ summer of praying. Katz studied Tibetan culture during the summer for her proj-

ect, “Camila Katz, A Window into Mysterious Tibet: Bringing Tibetan Culture and Lifestyle to the HW Community Through Visual Media,” after she received the Global Initiative Asia Student Summer Fellowship. She was in Tibet from Aug. 4 to 14 and spent most of her time in the capital, Lhasa. “I learned so much about Tibetan culture and how Buddhism works,” Katz said. “It brought me to understand a lot more about the Chinese government.” Katz visited monasteries, religious sites and a school for the blind. She said that although the Chinese have modernized Tibet, people still live very primitively. “There’s still a ton of nomads and shepherds and yak herders and people that live really primitively,” she said. “What happens with them is they basically live off of themselves. They have a really harsh lifestyle. The positive thing is that there are a lot of foreigners who want to help Tibetans.”

KAIRA MURAOKA-ROBERTSON ’16, NEPAL BY SABRINA

BRITO

Kaira Muraoka-Robertson ’16 studied deforestation in the Himalayas and assisted in medical clinics in rural Nepalese villages this summer under the Global Initiative Asia Student Summer Fellowship. As part of a program known as Global Crossroads, she worked in a local nursery in Chitwan for the ﬁrst week of the trip studying the effects of deforestation during the day and living in the home of a native Nepalese family at night. On days off, she taught children English at both an underprivileged orphanage and nearby elementary school. “I got to meet tons of really

amazing kids,” Muraoka-Robertson said. “The orphanage was fantastic. I learned a lot about their culture, too.” She spent the next week in the country’s capital, Kathmandu, observing standard healthcare and surgery procedures in a hospital. She spent one day actively helping out at a walk-in clinic, distributing medicine to patients of all ages. Afterwards, Muraoka-Robertson spent time in the Chitwan National Forest before going on a four-day backpacking trip in the forest surrounding the Himalayas. She plans to type up and compile her journal entries from the trip and put together an online photo log documenting her trip.

PRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF KAIRA MURAOKA-ROBERTSON

DOCTOR’S ORDERS: Kaira

Muraoka-Robertson ’16 assists in a medical clinic in Kathmandu. She handed out medicine to patients.

THE CHRONICLE

C4 FEATURES

SEPT.

A SPECIA

Special Olym globe trained a preparation f

MELTING POT: Cuban athletes and Harvard-Westlake students pose together under a colorful balloon arch on the bleachers by the Ted Slavin ﬁeld. The school hosted over 150 training athletes from both Cuba and the Czech Republic.

HOT OFF THE PRESS: President of Harvard-Westlake School Rick Commons talks to a CBS2 reporter about hosting the Special Olympics athletes. Men and women representing the Cuban teams stand behind him.

JESSE NADEL

The volunteers smiled as they handed out the sundaes, receiving a ith music blasting from “Gracias” or “Dekuju” in return from speakers and members of the grateful and happy delegates. “It was great seeing and interthe school and Studio City community cheering them on, Cu- acting with the athletes even though ban and Czech Special Olympics most of them didn’t speak English,” athletes marched down the Ted volunteer Lola Clark ’17 said. “They Slavin Field in a procession to the all seemed so excited to be there and it made the language barrier irrelequad. vant.” There, American staThis was the ﬁrst time ples – hamburgers, waterthat Los Angeles hosted the melon and pies – awaited Special Olympics. them. The students and Volunteer Katie Kreshek school jumped at the op’16 watched from her ice portunity to get involved. cream sundae booth as the These particular festiviathletes and their families ties were part of the Studio enjoyed a meal. City host town community They ate while listening ’ barbecue on the school’s to speeches and a guest Katie Kreshek campus. performer who sang and ’16 The school welcomed played guitar. more than 150 Special “The Special Olympics is such an amazing program that Olympics athletes and coaches to brings people from all over the world Los Angeles July 23, in keeping with together to celebrate each other’s President Rick Commons’ goal of differences,” Kreshek said. “When I achieving a “purpose beyond ourheard from my friends on Commu- selves.” “This event stemmed from the nity Council about the event, I knew that I wanted to help out in any way Mission Statement phrase ‘purpose beyond ourselves.’ I think that isn’t that I could.” After dinner, the athletes and just about kids doing more commucoaches formed a long line down the nity service but also about how the side of the quad and waited for the school becomes involved in the city ice cream sundaes made and served community,” Commons said. “It was a great event for the athletes, comby Kreshek and other students. BY

NATHANSON S

ALL PHOTOS PRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF STACY MARBLE

TRAINING BEGINS: Cuban athletes pose for a group photo on the upper school campus near Ted Slavin Field before training in the pool, gym, and dance studio facilities. Teams practiced a variety of sports including handball, swimming, track events and more.

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AL OCCASION

mpics athletes from across the at the upper school campus in for the 2015 World Games

The school hosted more than

150

Special Olympics athletes Athletes trained for events such as

unity and for the school.” ball, badminton and table tennis, The school aimed to fulﬁll Com- Han said. While the Future Horizons club ons’ objective through this event. In the days following the celebra- volunteered at the games themon, the athletes from Cuba and the selves, Lena Kadogawa ’18 volunzech Republic utilized the campus teered for the games before they ofﬁr training before the games began. cially started. Her job was to sort and prepare Badminton players used the m, swimmers trained in the pool the athletes’ luggage to be shipped nd gymnasts practiced in the from Cal State Los Angeles to University of California Los Angeles, nce studio. where the competitors “It is an honor for us to would be staying for the ake our facilities available duration of the event. the Special Olympics, the She settled into a closhletes and the Studio City ing rally where performers mmunity,” Commons sang and danced for the id in a press release. athletes, preceding videos The events hosted on that were shown to say mpus, however, were not goodbye to the athletes e only ways that students and wish them luck with came involved with the ’ the rest of the competition. eeklong athletic tournaLena Kadogawa said that ent that ran in Los AngeKadogawa ’18 she decided to volunteer s from July 13 to Aug. 2. because of her admiration Eric Han ’17 watched as e Costa Rica and Denmark hand- for the Special Olympics organization. ll teams began a match at UCLA. “I really support the Special After several passes, the Costa can team scored a goal, and Han Olympics, because I think it wonnd the other members of the Fu- derfully brings people together of re Horizons Club stood up and different cultures and nationalities eered, holding a handmade sign and offers great opportunities to those with intellectual disabilities support of both teams. After reaching out to the Spe- through sports, something that all al Olympics volunteer organizer, people can enjoy and appreciate,” e club was designated to lead in Kadogawa said. “It celebrates divereering for team handball, volley- sity.” NATHANSON S

Other students attended the event, not as volunteers but as spectators to simply watch the teams play and cheer them on. Cate Wolfen ’17 was volunteering at Freedom School when she attended the games with campers as part of the camp’s activities. Freedom School is a summer camp that teaches reading to underprivileged children. “I think it was a cool experience because it was such a supportive environment with a sense of mutual respect,” Wolfen said. “The Freedom School kids really liked it because they got be up close to and interact with the athletes. For example, a lot of the kids who want to play soccer when they get older went up and got to talk to one of the soccer players despite any language barriers they had.” Whether they were volunteering at the Special Olympics or simply watching the games, the students said that they were inspired by the event and honored to be a part of it. It was an experience that they will not soon forget, they said. “All of the athletes had stories of persistence and hard work behind each of their performances,” Han said. “They really inspired us, so we wanted to be there to cheer them on and inspire them to greater heights in turn.”

Handball Swimming Badminton Gymnastics The school hosted athletes from

Cuba and

The Czech Republic LOGO

ILLUSTRATION BY VIVIAN LIN SPECIAL OLYMPICS

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C6 FEATURES

THE CHRONICLE

SEPT. 1, 2015

Stop the Music Music festivals are heavily glamorized through social media, and many concert attendees ignore the imminent dangers of panic attacks, theft, overdoses and sunburns.

ence physical harm from others dancing in tals that cause the drug to have a more or less powerful effect on the user. close proximity. Another rising festival drug named me“During Run the Jewels at FYF, I had As the sun shone down on thousands of festival attendees at FYF Fest Aug. 22, Alex gotten separated with a lot of the people I phedrone, or “plant food,” induces alertGrande ’16 felt the crowd gathered in front was originally with,” Tiana Coles ’16 said. ness, excitement and openness. Most often, of Kanye West’s stage gradually begin to op- “I was shorter than a lot of the guys there, mephedrone is ordered over the internet and some person’s shoulder hit my bottom then resold in person. In a study done by press her. “There were bodies on top of bodies of lip to my tooth, and it started bleeding and the University of Sunderland in the U.K., the crystalline drug can vary wildly in cryspeople, and there was literally no space to swelling up really fast.” Music festivals may achieve a euphoric tal form and size depending on the vendor. move, and it was really hard to keep myself and carefree image due to the phenomenon As a result, overdose is more easily achieved up,” Grande said. Although Grande said the size of the of “herd mentality.” In a study issued by the as various crystalline forms have varying strength. crowd was already a concern before entering University of Leeds, “herd mentalThis summer, three girls died at the chaos, she still attempted to push her ity” is defined as the phenomenon music festivals in California from way to the front. As a result, after several where many people make similar suspected drug overdoses. These songs, Grande said she began to feel threat- decisions based upon the actions recent deaths have led Los Angeof a small subgroup. Herd menened in the cramped space. les officials to begin talking about “I sort of freaked out and started scream- tality factors into venues such as banning raves in the Los Angeles ing and crying,” Grande said. “I needed to mosh pits, where energy exerted County. get out, and some people helped me up so by a few attendees causes a large The attendees at these music group to mimic the same carefree that I could crowdsurf out.” ’ festivals who purchase these illegal These types of experiences are not rare. behavior, sometimes resulting in Alex Grande ’16 drugs are often oblivious to the inStampedes at music festivals are often re- chaos, violence and theft. creased danger in consuming these “A big part of the excitement ported by major news outlets. The Miami New Times reported in August that a securi- was the people you’re surrounded with,” substances, especially if mixing drugs. Despite the disasters a fatal overdose ty guard was hospitalized with a broken leg Coles said. “You find yourself getting into and severe brain hemorrhaging after being [the music] more, and when I was there in would bring, event organizers decline to trampled by a large crowd at the Ultra Music the moment, it was the most fun I’ve ever provide drug tests to their attendees due to the Illicit Drug Anti-Proliferation Act. The had.” Festival. Theft is a concern with all festivals, Act makes it illegal for citizens to knowingIn 2010 18 people were killed and around 100 people were injured at the Love whether attendees choose to sleep on fes- ly open, lease, rent, or maintain any place Parade, a German music festival, when a tival grounds overnight or stay only for the for any duration of time for the purpose of stampede inside of a tunnel leading into the day. Online forums sponsored by music using, distributing or manufacturing conevent broke out, according to The Guardian. festival event organizers warn attendees to trolled substances. If violated, the Act enforces heavy fines In April, Aljazeera reported a music festival wear bags with extra straps and locks that stampede that occurred in the Democratic remain in eyesight at all times to prevent upon perpetrators for accepting or encourvaluables from being stolen. aging illegal drug use. If drug purity tests Republic of Congo caused by Sometimes even these pre- are provided, organizers would indirectly a power outage that killed admit to providing land for drug use, and cautions aren’t enough. more than 20 people. I sort of freaked “I was [watching] Kaytra- are put at risk of legal action. However, the dangers of out and started As a result, event planners publicly pronada and someone ripped music festivals are someopen my backpack, but I hibit the use of illegal drugs at festivals, but times overlooked in favor of screaming and crying. I didn’t feel it,” Jared Eis- provide no aid to attendees. more exciting aspects, such needed to get out.” However, many festival goers are not dener ’16 said. “When I left as seeing a popular artist terred or are oblivious to these concerns. the concert, my friend told perform up close. This con—Alex Grande ’16 “Whenever I go to concerts with friends, me that my bag was ripped tributes to the glossy music open and my wallet wasn’t in they usually get high, and it never ends in a festival stereotype students there. I went to the lost and found and [the bad situation,” Gabrielle* ’17 said. “It’s just possibly develop because of social media. “I don’t know what I expected at the Mac wallet] was there but the credit card and really entertaining.” Even the sun presents a host of problems DeMarco concert last year at FYF. I was at money was taken out.” Theft, actual physical injury and claus- that are not immediately apparent; attendthe front and it was honestly the worst experience,” Truth Cole ’16 said. “A lot of his trophobia are only some of the dangers of ees can receive painful sunburns and unforfans are crazy, everyone was moshing, and I attending music festivals. Along with the tunate tans. These may starkly increase the euphoric stereotype, festivals risk of developing premature aging and skin had to get out by the second song. It can serve as gateways to in- cancer later in life. was horrible.” “Short term, you’ll definitely get suntroduce underage minors to According to Nielsen Media burns, which is painful, but when we talk controlled substances. Research, 32 million people ABC News reports that about sun damage it’s the repeat damage of attended at least one music these drugs, along with sun burns. That’s what causes the skin to festival in 2014. Accurately being deadly on their deteriorate when you get older,” Stephanie envisioning the sheer size of own, are sometimes Lem of Palomar Health Downtown said. “Recrowds can escape ticket tainted with harm- peated exposure to the sun will cause earbuyers until actually arful chemicals such as ly-stage aging of the skin or skin cancer [in riving at the festival, culrodent poison or are the future].” minating in panic attacks composed of varisimilar to Grande’s. Festious-sized crys*Names have been changed val goers can also experi-

By SHARON CHOW

AND

PIM OTERO

NATHANSON S

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PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY LIZ YOUNT

Health & Fitness

The Chronicle • Sept. 1, 2015

ILLUSTRATION BY TIFFANY KIM

Expens-ercise

Is the burn worth the bucks? Some students spend more than $30 a week for high-end, specialty exercise classes taught by experts.

By Jesse Nadel Sanders

and

Jean

As Sophia Van Iderstine ’17 gets ready for her late morning exercise class on a Saturday, she laces up her sneakers, grabs a bottle of Smart Water and heads for the door holding one more item in her hands: a pair of boxing gloves. These are the essentials for her regular class at Box ‘N Burn, an aerobic and strength training studio in Brentwood that specializes in kickboxing classes. “I’m really into unconventional workouts,” Van Iderstine said. “I’m not really the type of person who likes to run on the treadmill for half an hour because I like to get active and get creative in different ways.” Box ‘N Burn is just one example of the numerous highend, specialty exercise classes that are becoming a weekly staple for some students. Although Box ‘N Burn gives a first class for free, each class after that is $30, with many students attending at least one class every week. Gyms such as the cycling studio Soul Cycle, the interval training gym Orange Theory, and the work-

Crunch the Numbers 17%

17% have been to a hot yoga studio

out barre studio Cardio Barre are also at least $25 per class. Despite the high price, some students regularly attend these classes. In fact, approximately 30 to 40 percent of the clients of Burn 60, a luxury gym in Brentwood, are teenagers, Burn 60 personal trainer Nick Malizia said. Katie Kim ’18 began attending hot yoga classes, in which the room is heated to 105 degrees, at SoCal Hot Yoga last summer, and it quickly became a staple in her workout routine. The $20 per class cost or $150 monthly membership, she said, is worth it for the classes. “The first lesson was really hard, and I didn’t want to go back, but it was so satisfying I just kept going, and I ended up going twice a week with my mom during the summer,” Kim said. However, other students who have attended the expensive classes believe they’re not worth the money. After attending a $34 Soul Cycle class, Lizzie Litchmann ’17 was disappointed with her experience. “It’s too hot inside the room,” Litchmann said. “It

gets a little repetitive, because it doesn’t work out your whole body, and you never get off the bike.” Henry Platt ’17, on the other hand, attends Soul Cycle class multiple times a week as he said the classes are beneficial for both his mental and physical well being. “I find it very spiritual because all of the teachers say inspiring things,” Platt said. “I walk out feeling like I can tackle the day, which is very encouraging. Although it is fairly expensive, I think that the spiritual and physical gains that I get are definitely worth the money.” Malizia believes that classes also offer motivation that is unique to group exercise with a professional trainer. “When you go pay for a class, what they are really paying for is an expert that’s teaching the class, the energy that he or she provides and the motivation through music and anything they have to say,” Malizia said. “There’s more motivation in going to a class than staying at home. That’s not to say that you can’t do it at home, it’s just that in a class you can feel all the energy of those around you.”

The Chronicle polled 337 Harvard-Westlake students about their experiences with luxury exercise at local studios and gyms.

23%

23% have been to spinning classes

40%

65%

40% have paid more than $25 for an exercise class

65% think these classes are not worth their cost GRAPHIC BY TIFFANY KIM SOURCE: CHRONICLE POLL OF 337 STUDENTS ON AUG. 26

HEALTH & FITNESS

The Chronicle • Sept. 1, 2015

ILLUSTRATION BY TIFFANY KIM

Expens-ercise

Is the burn worth the bucks? Some students spend more than $30 a week for high-end, specialty exercise classes taught by experts.

BY JESSE NADEL SANDERS

AND

JEAN

As Sophia Van Iderstine ’17 gets ready for her late morning exercise class on a Saturday, she laces up her sneakers, grabs a bottle of Smart Water and heads for the door holding one more item in her hands: a pair of boxing gloves. These are the essentials for her regular class at Box ‘N Burn, an aerobic and strength training studio in Brentwood that specializes in kickboxing classes. “I’m really into unconventional workouts,” Van Iderstine said. “I’m not really the type of person who likes to run on the treadmill for half an hour because I like to get active and get creative in different ways.” Box ‘N Burn is just one example of the numerous highend, specialty exercise classes that are becoming a weekly staple for some students. Although Box ‘N Burn gives a ﬁrst class for free, each class after that is $30, with many students attending at least one class every week. Gyms such as the cycling studio Soul Cycle, the interval training gym Orange Theory, and the work-

Crunch the Numbers 17%

17% have been to a hot yoga studio

out barre studio Cardio Barre are also at least $25 per class. Despite the high price, some students regularly attend these classes. In fact, approximately 30 to 40 percent of the clients of Burn 60, a luxury gym in Brentwood, are teenagers, Burn 60 personal trainer Nick Malizia said. Katie Kim ’18 began attending hot yoga classes, in which the room is heated to 105 degrees, at SoCal Hot Yoga last summer, and it quickly became a staple in her workout routine. The $20 per class cost or $150 monthly membership, she said, is worth it for the classes. “The ﬁrst lesson was really hard, and I didn’t want to go back, but it was so satisfying I just kept going, and I ended up going twice a week with my mom during the summer,” Kim said. However, other students who have attended the expensive classes believe they’re not worth the money. After attending a $34 Soul Cycle class, Lizzie Litchmann ’17 was disappointed with her experience. “It’s too hot inside the room,” Litchmann said. “It

gets a little repetitive, because it doesn’t work out your whole body, and you never get off the bike.” Henry Platt ’17, on the other hand, attends Soul Cycle class multiple times a week as he said the classes are beneficial for both his mental and physical well being. “I find it very spiritual because all of the teachers say inspiring things,” Platt said. “I walk out feeling like I can tackle the day, which is very encouraging. Although it is fairly expensive, I think that the spiritual and physical gains that I get are definitely worth the money.” Malizia believes that classes also offer motivation that is unique to group exercise with a professional trainer. “When you go pay for a class, what they are really paying for is an expert that’s teaching the class, the energy that he or she provides and the motivation through music and anything they have to say,” Malizia said. “There’s more motivation in going to a class than staying at home. That’s not to say that you can’t do it at home, it’s just that in a class you can feel all the energy of those around you.”

The Chronicle polled 337 Harvard-Westlake students about their experiences with luxury exercise at local studios and gyms.

23%

23% have been to spinning classes

40%

65%

40% have paid more than $25 for an exercise class

65% think these classes are not worth their cost GRAPHIC BY TIFFANY KIM SOURCE: CHRONICLE POLL OF 337 STUDENTS ON AUG. 26

C8 FEATURES

THE CHRONICLE

SEPT. 11, 2015

ILLUSTRATION BY ESHANIKA CHAUDHARY

Heroes or Villains? By ESHANIKA CHAUDHARY AND SOPHIE COHEN

with high nutritional value. “I would buy [superfoods] at Whole Foods, and they Every morning Alyse Tran actually say on the outside ’18 opens her refrigerator and something like ‘this is a superpulls out mulberries, matcha food.’ At first I bought them powder and maca powder to because they tasted good, blend her superfood smooth- and then I started to go out ie, which she says wakes her of my way to blend them into up more quickly than caffeine smoothies or put them on top while still avoiding the mid- of other foods. They’re healthy and they taste good, which morning crash. “I first tried superfoods is definitely a plus,” Beckinsale-Sheen said. for health benefits After consciousbecause I heard a ly incorporating berlot about them, and ries, kale, maca powthey’re all the rage der, quinoa and nuts now,” Tran said. into her diet, BeckinAlthough she sale-Sheen said she now primarily eats noticed an improvethem because of the ment in the condition taste, she said their of her skin, as well as effect is noticeable. ’ an increased metabol“Eating superfoods like mulberries Lily Beckinsale- ic rate and higher enSheen ’17 ergy levels. and chia seeds in the These benefits may morning makes me feel more awake and energized, be due to the high level of antiwhich is good for when I have oxidants found in such foods, to go to field hockey practice or Lewis said. Antioxidants such Soulcycle or something,” Tran as Vitamin C or E minimize said. “I’m dependent on them free radicals, which oxidize now, so if I don’t have them I with cellular components such as DNA or cell membranes, a get a little tired.” process that inhibits cell function. Antioxidants react with Nutrient Powerhouses Certified nutritionist Deb- free radicals before they can bie Lewis of Yong at Heart To- react with cells, leading to the tal Wellness Medical Weight positive changes that BeckLoss Clinic in Encino said that insale-Sheen observed in her superfoods are nutrient pow- body. erhouses that contain antioxidants, polyphenols and vita- No Special Benefits While it is widely acceptmins, potentially reducing the risk of developing chronic dis- ed that superfoods must have eases such as cancer, diabetes high levels of nutrients, there is no consensus as to how high or even the common cold. Lily Beckinsale-Sheen ’17 they must be in order to qualsaid she has also observed the ify as a superfood, and there’s no official medical definition. benefits of superfoods. She started seeing nutri- A diet hyperfocused around tionist Phil Goglia, president superfoods is unnecessary and founder of health and because a diet consisting of wellness clinic Performance a variety of fruits and vegeFitness Concepts in Santa tables will include the same For Monica. Although he didn’t nutrients, Lewis said. tell her to specifically eat su- this reason, Harvard-Westlake perfoods, he did encourage her trainers said they don’t put to eat so-called “clean” foods an emphasis on eating superNATHANSON S

86 percent of students agree that superfoods are trendy, but only 30 percent have seen positive results from them. Are superfoods actually superior? foods for students, especially sugar even when they have no sugar added due to natfor athletes. Consuming “Our focus is to generally ural fructose. eat clean and healthy, and su- large amounts of sugar can be perfoods can be a part of that, harmful to the body in several but we don’t place priority on ways, such as potentially leadthat,” Cross Country and Track ing to Type 2 Diabetes. Also, Program Head Jonas Kools- when so much sugar enters bergen ‘83 said. “Whether [su- the body at one time, the experfoods] are different enough cess is sent to the liver, where in nutrition to be statistically it is stored as fat. Another myth concerns significant is the question. People are more likely to buy the so-called benefits of using large amounts of coit if it is marked as a conut oil in cooking, superfood than just a Lewis said. Fat is normal healthy item.” essential for healthy Some students hair and skin and is agree with Koolsberan important compogen. nent of the cell wall. “I eat whole foods While coconut oil is and nothing proa healthy alternative cessed, but I think to butter and othsuperfoods aren’t er oils, in excess, its necessarily better ’ saturated fat conthan your average Jenny Lange tent can lead to high healthy food,” Jenny ’17 cholesterol and heart Lange ’17 said. “But some of them are just good so disease. Coconut oil is being marketed as a clean superI’ll eat them for the taste.” food, causing people to use far more than the recommended Unhealthy in Excess Some items marketed as intake and ultimately causing healthy superfoods are also this “healthy” food to do more harm than good. potentially harmful in excess. Lewis encourages people Commercialized juice stores in Los Angeles such as to limit their saturated and Kreation Kafe, Juice Crafters trans fat consumption and to and Pressed Juicery make instead eat healthy fats such juices out of fruits and vege- as Omega 3 fatty acids, which tables in their stores daily and can be found in salmon and have recently grown in popu- avocados. Overall, she recomlarity and expanded to multi- mends eating in moderation. “If you are a healthy eater, ple locations all over the greater Los Angeles area. Other eat a variety a day,” Lewis companies such as Evolution said. “You don’t have to load Fresh and Naked Juice have a up on superfoods and have a similar concept but bottle and specific amount of superfoods sell their juices worldwide in a day. Eat a variety of veggies, supermarkets, using preserva- fruits and whole grains tives to keep them fresh. and lean protein Goji and acaí berries, like salmon and along with other fruits, are chicken. Get often used in fresh-pressed variety within juices and smoothies, but al- a week, and though these juices are mar- you will get keted as healthy snacks and all of the meal replacements, they can n u t r i e n t s , be unhealthy. Lewis said that vitamins and these juices are often high in antioxidants. NATHANSON S

SPORTS The Chronicle • Sept. 1, 2015

Boys’ Water Polo

Different players, same goal By JAKE LIKER

CONNOR REESE/CHRONICLE

CAMERON STINE/CHRONICLE

DARIO MADYOON/CHRONICLE

COMING UP SHORT: Quarterback Marshal Cohen ’16 attempts to run for a ﬁrst down deep in Loyola territory (left). Cohen gets stopped by two Cubs defenders in the ﬁrst quarter (top right). Running back Phil Thompson ’16 is tackled in the Wolverines 34-0 loss.

Team comes up short in season opener

By BENNETT GROSS

Coming off of ACL surgery during his sophomore season, Marshal Cohen ’16 had finally fully rehabbed from the gruesome injury he suffered against St. Paul High School two years ago. To begin the season against Loyola Aug. 28 at Ted Slavin Field, the Wolverines’ opening drive culminated in a Cohen interception on what ended up being his only pass attempt on the evening. The Wolverine defense subsequently gave up Drake Beasley Jr.’s ’17 first touchdown of the night. Down 7-0, the offense started at the 20-yard line after a touchback on the ensuing kickoff. On the first play from scrimmage, on a read option play, Cohen ran for a 42-yard gain to set the Wolverines up for what would be their best drive of the game. A few plays later on what appeared to be a triple option, Cohen threw a jump pass to wide receiver Max Robertson ’17 in the end zone. The referees initially called the play a touchdown, but after a discussion overturned the call and ruled the play an incomplete pass. Just after the overruled touchdown, Cohen ran to his right, and he was hit hard in the knee by Loyola defender Kelly Blake ’16. Not only did Blake cause a fumble, he may have caused Cohen’s season to be over. The Wolverines were even-

tually defeated by the Cubs 34-0. “We had a couple of guys injured today, but it is a nextman-up mentality, and we are handing this team to the younger guys and letting them know that it is their time now,” defensive back Alex Barnum ’16 said. On the following play, Beasley scored his second touchdown of the night with a 92yard carry. Costly penalties and some sloppy offensive possessions were the story of the rest of the game for the Wolverines. The defense ended up allowing Beasley to score two more times before the Cubs decided to pull their starters. With Noah Rothman ’16 in at quarterback, the offense had trouble stringing together ﬁrst downs without Cohen in the game. Rothman, who is known more as a pocket passer compared to Cohen’s scrambling ability, had issues throwing the ball down the ﬁeld against two of the premier defensive backs in the state, David Long Jr. ’16 and Myles Bryant ’16. During the second half, with Loyola’s starters out of the game, the second string offense for the Wolverines had some promising drives for both the rest of the season and for the future of the program. “I actually take away a lot of positives from this game,” Senior Captain Mike Mapes ’16 said. “Loyal Terry ’19 was running against the 17th ranked team in the state and

was incredible. On defense, they scored three touchdowns on the same mistake. That is fixable. We have a few easier games coming up so that should give us time to improve and be ready for league play.” As there is no junior varsity team this fall, all 14 of the freshman in the football program have the opportunity to play varsity. Several underclassmen such as Terry, Garnett March ’19, Thomas Glover ’18 and Josh Johnson ’19 got a lot of playing time in their first game. “When the freshmen came here, they probably didn’t expect to see a lot of playing time against Loyola,” Head Coach Scot Ruggles said. “It is good for us that they got a lot of reps, and it will be fun to see how our team improves weekly as the season progresses.” The defense stymied the Loyola offense in the latter part of the game, as the Cubs only managed to score three points in the final two quarters against the young, scrappy Wolverine defense. “I don’t care who you are. If you are thrown into a varsity game as a freshman it is tough,” Ruggles said. “But when you get playing time against Loyola, that is not an easy thing to do, and the underclassmen performed very well.” The squad will try to avenge the loss in next week’s battle against the Jefferson Democrats at Ted Slavin Field. “We just have to come back next week and not worry

about what happened against Loyola,” Terry said. “It was one team, and we are just looking to win the rest of the way and eventually make the playoffs.” Coming off of a grueling offseason, the Wolverines are looking to make the playoffs for a second consecutive year after last season’s first round lossw to Crescenta Valley. Led by 25 seniors, Ruggles guided last year’s squad to the playoffs after failing to earn a postseason bid in 2013. After the graduation of several key contributors in 2014, including Hassan Smith ’15, Desmond Butler ’15 and Garrett Robinson ’15, the squad was fighting an uphill battle from the beginning of spring practice. Along with the transfer of Ryan Dominick ’17 and Carter Begel’s ’17 choice to focus on basketball, the Wolverines needed some added depth. While All-American lacrosse player Phil Thompson ’16 joined the squad, along with some incoming freshman, the squad’s thin numbers entering the season and Cohen’s apparent knee injury should present some early season adversity that the team will have to overcome if they plan on getting back to the playoffs. “I was really nervous before the game, but I just took it one play at a time, I played really aggressively, I ran down hill on offense, and on defense I focused on fundamentals and tried to get in the backfield as much as I could,” Thompson said.

The boys’ water polo team enters a new season having won 37 consecutive games and back-to-back CIF Southern Section Division I Championships. Despite past accomplishments, this season’s squad refuses to rest on its proverbial laurels, Head of Aquatics Brian Flacks said. “The thing that I love about the team this year is that I never have to question this team’s effort,” Flacks said. “A lot of people talk about complacency and having problems since we’ve won the last two years; we haven’t had that problem at all. In terms of the general grind and the day-to-day basis, this team has an unbelievable work ethic and motivation, and now it’s about them going out to earn it and not expecting to be given something just because we work hard on a daily basis.” There is another potential problem, however, as the departure of an especially strong Class of 2015 has left many holes to be ﬁlled. “When you graduate eight seniors, and of those eight there are four starters and ﬁve going to Division I universities to play water polo, obviously we can’t replace all of those guys,” Flacks said. Anthony Ridgley ’15, Johnny Hooper ’15 and Ben Hallock ’16 were all named to the 2015 All-American First Team by the National Interscholastic Swim Coaches Association. Ridgley will continue his water polo career at the collegiate level at Harvard, and Hooper will do the same at University of California, Berkeley. Hallock, however, still has one more year as a Wolverine before continuing on to Stanford. • Continued on page A3

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D2 Sports

Game to watch

The Chronicle

Sept. 1, 2015

Cross Country

SEPTEMBER 5 Boys' Water Polo vs. Mater Dei Mater Dei High School

The team looks to begin its quest for a third consecutive national title on a high note in the scrimmage against Mater Dei on Sept. 5. This scrimmage could be a preview for another championship rematch.

KEY PLAYER

Evan Rosenfeld '17 After playing a key role on the varsity team for the last two years, Rosenfeld should emerge as a leader. He scored two game-changing goals, resulting in a win in the CIF-SS championship game against Mater Dei last fall. Rosenfeld and the rest of the team will look to maintain their status as one of the best teams in the country.

& Figures Facts

Rushing touchdowns ran in by quarterback Marshall Cohen ’16 in 2014

18 Number of matches won by the girls’ tennis team last year

37 65 Consecutive games won by the boys' water polo team

Goals scored by varsity field hockey last year

Junior Varsity Cross Country Next Meet:

Sept. 11 @ Seaside Invitational

Field Hockey Next Game: Sept. 1 @ Westminster HS

Girls' Tennis Next Match: Sept. 1 VS. West Ranch

Girls' Volleyball Next Match: Sept. 1 @ San Marcos

Boys' Water Polo Next Game: Sept. 9 VS. Murrietta Valley

AUDREY WILSON/CHRONICLE

RACE TO THE FINISH: Lochryn Howe '17 (left) passes a runner from Alemany High School. Jack Stovitz '16 (right) leads the pack in a cross country race Oct. 2 at the second league meet at Crescenta Valley Park. Stovitz qualified for CIF as an individual last year.

Squad achieves record numbers in preseason By Juliana Berger and Cameron Stine

With a record-setting 41 students attending the Big Bear training camp in August, cross-country is looking to work towards CIF success for both men and women. The team traveled to Big Bear for five days this summer to train in higher altitude and promote team bonding. “We had tremendous team vibe, excellent training and a real opportunity to come together as a team; it was one of, if not the most successful Big Bear trips ever,” Cross Country Head Coach Jonas

Koolsbergen said. The team had two workouts each day. They would break into four or five separate groups and compete in teambuilding competitions, such as canoe races. Koolsbergen believes that it is always difficult to get the athletes at summer workouts due to how much they travel. However, most of the seniors and key runners were there and the number of runners present increased from the end of July onwards. “I thought the trip was a great bonding experience because not everyone shows up to all the summer

practices, and pretty much everyone goes to Big Bear,” Conor Kneafsey '17 said. Many new players are joining the team, and Koolsbergen predicts they will make an impact. The girls’ team has the addition of Rasa Barzdukas ’17. The boys’ team added Austin McNabe ’18 and Andrew Shibuya ’19, who should help the team in competitions. “Obviously it is always hard to lose people who were a part of the family, but it is a natural part of high school sports,” Koolsbergen said. “Hopefully, as a group we can

replace the good players we lost last year.” The team will be continuing with its pack strategy from last year, where runners will try to stick together in order to speed up each other's pace. This strategy is ideal since in cross-country only the first five runners’ scores are recorded. “The best athletes go and do their own thing, but getting fourth and fifth place to finish with them will really help the team's score,” Koolsbergen said. “Minimizing their spread, the time between the last and the first runner, ensures the best possible result.”

Girls' Volleyball

Team to readjust to new Mission League By Dario Madyoon And Rian Ratnavale

After finishing 13-17 overall and 2-6 in a revamped Mission League last year that added Marymount and Marlborough, the varsity girls’ volleyball team is looking to improve on its record and finish atop the league this year. Despite losing seven former seniors to graduation, the squad has the leadership it needs to succeed with captains Zoe Baxter ’16 and Josephine Treadwell ’16. It is also developing young talent like freshman Chloe Mueller ’19. “High school is such that we are going to have turnover every year,” Volleyball Program Head Adam Black said. “We’ve lost some key seniors in graduation, but we have this young crop stepping up who we think is pretty hungry. There are some new kids on varsity who are excited to make their mark, and that’s part of the excitement.” The team has been practicing since July 27, and many of the players have competed for their respective club teams over the summer as well. “We've been working for a while now; the preseason has been about working together, developing fundamentals as a team and being a really cohesive unit,” Setter Sophia van Iderstine ’17 said. “We will be really prepared for the

season to come.” The main emphasis in practice has been working on fundamentals to transition to a more offensive playing style that suits the team best. “We are working hard at the fundamentals of the game, skill and technique, and spending time working on the things we believe are the most important: serving and passing,” Black said. Although the Wolverines are looking forward to every game, the players are particularly excited about playing Mission League rivals, and the coaches are well aware. “We’re most looking forward to playing our rivals, Notre Dame and Marymount,” Treadwell said. “We know a lot of the players at Marymount, so we’re looking forward to playing them.” Even though the team has great expectations for the upcoming season with a new crop of talent and veteran leadership, it knows that success on the court starts with success in practice. “We have a clear vision for this season,” Baxter said. “We’re trying to do all the little things, so day by day, we’re trying to improve at least 1 percent. We want to win league, but we realize that it’s about working really hard and coming to the gym really focused.” Assistant coach Ryan Casey said that the team is striving to

JONATHAN SEYMOUR/CHRONICLE

SERVE IT UP: Natalie Elattrache '16 prepares to serve in a four-set loss to Oaks Christian High School this past season. make every play count and put in the maximum amount of effort possible, in turn making the team more exciting to watch. Approaching the start of the squad’s season, there is a sense of excitement among players and coaches about taking another crack at the new and improved Mission League. "I think there's going to

be excitement from our team every time we step on the court,” Black said. “There's excitement in the gym right now about getting better, there's excitement in the gym about working hard and there's excitement in the gym right now about playing with and for each other. And I think that excitement is going to be contagious for our community.”

Sept. 1, 2015

hwchronicle.com/sports

Sports D3

inbrief

Field Hockey

Senior commits to Stanford University

SCOTT NUSSBAUM/CHRONICLE

CLEAN UP CREW: Defender Lexi Block ’17 clears the ball from oncoming attackers during their game against Fountain Valley High School Sept. 16 last year. The Wolverines shutout the Barons 4-0 at home. Block will play her second year of varsity this season.

Squad to depend on skill over experience By Carina Marx and Emily Rahhal

Coming off an undefeated season, varsity field hockey enters the fall season with a team that will be dependent on its younger players. The team lost Maddie Oswald ’15 to Georgetown and Brooke Reese ’15 to Yale, both Division I schools. They left the team with only three seniors and five juniors, making them reliant on the sophomore players, most of whom are new to the varsity squad. Field Hockey Program Head Erin Creznic is not worried about the change, however. “We lose big people every year,” Creznic said. “We’ve also won league for the last three years, and we’ve had great seniors every year. The only difference is that there’s

a large sophomore class, but Carolyn Kim ’18 said. “They they’re very intense.” prance around in plaid skirts. The sophomore class in- The devil wears plaid.” cludes Mia Rielly ’18 and Alyse In order to prepare, the Tran ’18, who attended the girls are practicing almost Futures Olympic development every day to strengthen both program. Both their offensive were selected and defensive for the U16 Reskills. Their seThey are gional Futures cret weapon for competitive, they Elite Team success is the from a much girls’ chemistry really fight to score. larger pool of on and off the Sometimes teams like program parfield, a camaraticipants, and derie that was that do better than will meet every not as necesteams with all-star few months sary with powplayers.” to train and erhouse athfurther their letes to depend —Erin Creznic on last season. skills. Now, the “[We are] foField Hockey girls seek reProgram Head cusing a little venge on Newbit more on port Harbor making sure Sept. 17, to whom they lost to that we master all the basics 2-1 last year. [this year],” Creznic said. “Be“Don’t let the bow fool you,” cause we can’t depend on one

“

all-star player to just take it down the field and score whenever we need her to.” The players’ first team bonding night in Oxnard was considered a success among the girls, bringing them closer so they can work harder and better together during game times. The biggest challenge entering this season is bringing the younger players up to the varsity level quickly, Creznic said. The squad will compete in the KSA tournament in Orlando, Florida on Sept. 4-5. Though the younger players may need some practice, they are mentally ahead of their competitors, Creznic said. “They are competitive, and they really fight to score,” Creznic said. “Sometimes teams like that do better than teams with all-star players.”

Baseball

6 alums playing professional baseball By Connor Reese

Heading into the final stretch of the baseball season, six Wolverines find themselves playing at the highest level of America’s pastime. MLB.com ranks Lucas Giolito ’12 as the third best prospect in the league and ranks him as the number one pitching prospect. He is ranked as the top prospect in the Washington Nationals’ farm system. Giolito is ascending the Nationals’ minor league farm system. Giolito pitched 69.2 innings for Class A+ Potomac, racking up three wins through 13 games with 11 starts. In late July, Giolito was promoted to Class AA Harrisburg. Giolito has pitched 28.2 innings and has racked up two wins through his first five starts. Max Fried ’12 was drafted seventh overall in the 2012 MLB June Amateur Draft by the San Diego Padres. After being shut down for the 2014

season, Fried was traded to the Atlanta Braves Dec. 19, 2014. The Braves assigned Fried to the Single A Rome Braves despite having just undergone Tommy John surgery in August. Fried is ranked as the 53rd best prospect by Baseball America. Right-handed pitcher Jack Flaherty ’14 was drafted 34th overall by the St. Louis Cardinals. Flaherty has pitched 81.0 innings for Class A Peoria, going 8-1 with a 2.33 earned run average and 83 strikeouts through 15 total starts. Outfielder Austin Wilson ’10 was drafted in the second round by the Seattle Mariners organization in the 2013 MLB June Amateur Draft. Wilson is hitting .224 with eight home runs and 41 RBIs over the course of 100 games this season with Class A+ Bakersfield. Pitcher Nik Turley ’08 is in his eighth season in the minors. After being drafted by the New York Yankees in the

Center Ben Hallock ’16 committed to play water polo at Stanford University next year. Ever since he started water polo, Hallock said he has aspired to reach the highest standard in the CIF division and play at the collegiate level. “I realized that I had a special talent for being in the water, and that it would help me get into a school like Stanford,” Hallock said. “That’s when I decided to put my full efforts into the sport.” To prep for the season and playing in college, Hallock will be focusing on getting stronger so that he can be at the same level as his future teammates. —Elly Choi

Alumnus receives championship ring Jarron Collins ’97 will be receiving a NBA championship ring for coaching with the Golden State Warriors during their run to the NBA Finals. The Warriors’ head coach, Steve Kerr, hired Collins to be a player development coach prior to the 2014-15 NBA season. He was promoted to Assistant Coach this summer. The Warriors defeated their opponents in the Western Conference playoffs and played against Lebron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers in the NBA Finals. They defeated the Cavaliers in six games. —Oliver Akhtarzad

Alumna competed in Women’s World Cup

This summer Ali Riley ’06 played in three Women’s World Cup Games in Canada for the New Zealand Women’s National Team. New Zealand played against the Netherlands (0-1), the United States (0-0) and China (2-2). Riley is currently signed with the club team FC Rosengård, which won gold in the Damallsvenskan, where Riley played fullback and forward. She now has four championships under her belt. Riley played on the New Zealand Women’s U-20 national team in 2006 for the 2006 Women’s U-20 World Cup finals. She was named Player of the game during the team game against Russia during the World Cup finals. —Ethan Knight

Pitcher commits to U.S. Naval Academy

SAM SACHS/CHRONICLE

WINDING UP: Jack Flaherty ’14 pitches during a 2014 game at O’Malley Field. He now plays for the Peoria Chiefs. 50th round of the 2008 MLB June Amateur Draft, Turley was traded in early 2015 to the San Francisco Giants. He has started 16 games for Sacramento, going 6-6 with an earned run average of 4.64. Outfielder Brennan

Boesch ’03 was drafted by the Detroit Tigers in the third round of the 2006 MLB June Amateur Draft. He is now with the Cincinnati Reds organization. Boesch is hitting .136 this season in 36 appearances.

Starting pitcher Gabe Golob ’16 has committed to the U.S. Naval Academy to play college baseball. Golob compiled a 6-2 record in his starts last season, and threw for a Mission League low 1.17 earned run average in 54 innings pitched, along with 50 strikeouts. Golob was a key part of the Wolverines’ playoff success last season, throwing for 3.1 innings and no earned runs in an 11-10 victory over Mater Dei in the wild card round of the playoffs. Golob said he is already relishing the opportunity ahead of him at Navy. —Jacqueline Ayestos

The Chronicle

D4 Sports

Sept.

change of

Jared Halpert Baseball Program Head

“In relation to the new mission statement, we're going to focus on being excellent in every aspect of life.” After playing college baseball, Jared Halpert started his coaching career at Fresno State. He then joined Harvard-Westlake’s baseball coaching staff in 2011. During his final year as an assistant coach, the Wolverines went 24-6 before losing in the second round of the CIF-Southern Section Division 1 playoffs to El Dorado. Halpert will replace Matt LaCour, who led the Wolverines to three consecutive Mission League titles (2011-13) during his nineyear tenure, as well as a CIF-Southern Section Division 1 championship in 2013.

Jason Schwarz Head Swim Coach

"We want to pursue what it means to be on a team and the team atmosphere." This year, Jason Schwarz will replace Jon Carroll as the Harvard-Westlake Head Swim Coach. Carroll moved positions this year to become a Middle School Dean after Paul Mastin left to become headmaster at Lawrence School. Schwarz will take over a program that sent two of its current players to the State Championship swim meet, and whose boys’ and girls’ teams each finished 17th overall in the CIF Southern Section Playoffs. Schwarz coached the Los Angeles Swim Club and qualified for the 1996 Olympic Trials team.

Erik Krum Lacrosse Program Head

"I want the kids to believe in themselves. I want the kids to believe in their skills. I want the kids to believe in each other." Erik Krum will be taking over responsibilities as Head of the Lacrosse Program. Krum is replacing Alex Weber, who went 3917 over the last three years, but stepped down at the end of last season. Before joining the Wolverines, Krum was a two-time All-American lacrosse player at Mira Costa High School, a three-time NCAA champion at Salisbury University. He was also a First Team All-American in his senior year. Krum came back to California after graduating, and in 2012 he started the Santa Monica Dragons Lacrosse Club, a youth lacrosse club.

1, 2015

hwchronicle.com/sports

Sports D5

command

Kristie Gipe Tennis Program Head

"Everybody works hard, and I think we have a really good future with this group of girls." Kristie Gipe will take over as the Girls’ Tennis Coach after Chris Simpson resigned from his position earlier in the year. Gipe graduated Cum Laude from Biola University in La Mirada, California. While playing tennis at Biola, she was the NAIA’s No 2. doubles player in the country. Gipe has over 30 years of experience at all levels of tennis, and is a USPTA Elite Tennis Professional. Gipe will take over a team that has a 134-4 record in Mission League play over the last 13 years and has won the last seven league titles.

David Rebibo Basketball Program Head

"We're going to work tirelessly. We're going to constantly strive to take the next step and get better." New Basketball Program Head David Rebibo previously worked as an assistant coach with the men’s basketball team at the University of San Francisco. He went 109-72 as head boys’ basketball coach at El Camino Real High School. Rebibo transformed them from a team that went winless in league play during his first year to a program that reached the City Section Division I title game. He will replace Greg Hilliard, who oversaw nine CIF championships and two State championships as the boys’ basketball program head.

Victoria Druehl Strength and Conditioning Coach

"I approach every new program with a positive attitude and can only hope to get more teams in and involved in the weight room. " Victoria Druehl will work as an Upper School Strength and Conditioning Coach. Prior to coming to Harvard-Westlake, she was the Head Strength and Conditioning Coach at Palmer Trinity Private School in Palmetto Bay Florida. Druehl helped train the men’s basketball team at the University of Miami and the national championship-winning women’s basketball team at the University of Connecticut. Druehl will help Head of Strength and Conditioning Gregory Bishop train teams.

D6 Sports

The Chronicle

Sept. 1, 2015

Girls’ Golf

Team hopes to benefit from deeper, more experienced roster By Elly Choi

years of high school. ers that will lead to many close “They have been on the matches. A few aspects that they The varsity girls’ golf team team for a long time, they unwill start off their season derstand what it takes to com- would like to work on are immit to their proving their process and beagainst Marygoals and coming more consistent to mount with h o p e f u l l y reach their goals individually two seniors will have a and as a team. Vivian Lin ’16 Our players are great sea“Our team is deep,” Chamand Lauren good players. We just go son ahead,” berlain said. “This makes us Song ’16 leadChamberlain different from the other teams ing them. The out, and if we play well, the league, who have two to team believes the result is that we should said.Chamber- in three good players. We have six that with this win.” lain stressed to eight good players.” advantage, that it’s not Chamberlain said that the their dynamic —Marge Chamberlain about just squad has been practicing difwill be strong. Program head Girls’ golf coach an individual ferent skills and mental manplayer stand- agement exercises and believes Marge Chaming out, but that their efforts will pay off in berlain said that with everybody returning the whole team being strong the squad winning the championships. with improved skills, they will together. “Our culture is “Winning is a be looking forward to an outhaving a team. If all product of our goals standing season. and our girls per“This year we were lucky our players play well forming at their best enough to not lose any play- and commit to the level,” Chamberlain ers and to gain several new process, we should said. “Our players are ones,” Josie Baker ’18 said. compete heavily in good players. We just “Because we haven’t lost any- the Mission League,” go out, and if we play one, our team dynamic will be Chamberlain said. Marlborough well, the result is that extra strong this season, and we should win.” the freshmen joining this year Mustangs joined the ’ The team lost one will add further depth to the CIF-SS division for Lauren the first time last year match by a score of program.” Song ’16 195-209 to Notre Last season, the team did and are a strong team Dame on Sep. 24 last not have any seniors, but this that the Wolverines year, there will be two players, are working hard to overcome. season, and ended up in secSong and Lin, who have been The Wolverines stated that ond place in the final league on the varsity team for all four Marlborough has strong play- tournament.

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nathanson s

COLE JACOBSON/CHRONICLE

CHIPPING IN: Josie Baker ’18 chips the ball during the girls’ golf match at Rancho Park. They went on to defeat Marymount 226-275. Baker will return this year for her sophomore season.

Students compete in Pan Am By Juliana Berger Two track and field athletes competed in the Panamerican Junior Athletics Championships in Edmonton, Canada Aug. 1. Courtney Corrin ’16 placed second in the Panamerican Junior Athletics Championships for the long jump with a jump of 6.13 meters (20-1 1/3). Corrin qualified for the games after winning the USA Track and Field Junior National Championships in Eugene, Ore. with a record setting jump of 21-6 1/4. Alexandra Florent ’15 tied with two others for fifth in the high jump at 1.7 meters (5-6 9/10). It was Florent’s first year qualifying for Team USA. “My goals for the games were to go into it not putting too much pressure on myself, but instead to focus on doing the little things right to ensure that I did well,” Florent said. Florent will continue her track and field career at the collegiate level, as she is committed to Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, NC. “I am a little disappointed that I didn’t do as well as I feel I could have, but I am proud to be able to say that I placed fifth while competing for the USA,” Florent said. Ashley Grossman ’11 assisted the U.S. Women’s water polo team in winning the gold medal at the Pan American games in Toronto, Canada during July. The center led the Wolverines to their first CIF championship for women’s water polo in her senior season.

Boys’ Water Polo • Continued from page D1 “There is for sure a bigger sense of urgency now that there is not a ‘next year’,” Hallock said. “But as for winning three titles in a row, nothing motivates me more than thinking about losing the championship game.” Hallock has also represented his country in addition to his school lately, playing with the U.S. Senior National Team in games against Italy and Australia. The reigning 2014 Division I Co-Player of the Year also scored four goals for Team USA in the 2015 FINA International Tournament, where the Americans took third place.

“My experience with the national team was extremely beneficial in terms of becoming a better leader and an overall better water polo player,” Hallock said. Hallock was competing against the best players every day, he said. “Although it was an extremely challenging task, I grew monumentally as a player,” Hallock said. After losing so many seniors, the change of personnel will be noticeable. Although the team’s roster may look different this year, the team’s goal remains the same. “We don’t really believe in rebuilding years,” Flacks said. “This offseason we worked to make sure we

MILA BARZDUKAS/CHRONICLE

WINDING UP: Ben Hallock ’16 scores one of his four goals against Dana Hills last season.

molded the guys in our pro- media or other people that we gram to fit roles we needed to talk to, so I don’t think that replace. Our goal, our vision the pressure has changed at every year all,” Flacks said. is to put H a l l o c k ourselves in echoed this senWe try to put more a position timent. to win a CIF “I believe pressure on ourselves than Division I that the only any external kind of forces added pressure championship, so this year is how could ever put on us.” the expechigh we set our —Brian Flacks e x p e c t a t i o n s , ” tation is to win another said. Head of Aquatics Hallock one.” “Having said Flacks that, our focus does not buy into the idea that is only on this year’s team and the program’s recent success has nothing to do with what will lead to complacency. teams have done in the past. “We try to put more pres- But we [nevertheless] expect sure on ourselves than any from ourselves to go undefeatexternal kind of forces could ed and win another Division I ever put on us, whether it be championship.”

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MILA BARZDUKAS/CHRONICLE

SOUTHPAW: Duncan Froomer ’16 looks to get the ball inside during an offensive possession in the Wolverines’ win over Dana Hills on Sept. 16 last season.

hwchronicle.com/sports

Sept. 1, 2015

Sports D7

Girls’ Tennis

New coach Gipe takes the helm with high hopes By Connor Reese

with the whole program, which was a fun way for everyone to Girls’ tennis is back with come together,” Juliana Simon a new coach and opens the ’16 said. “It’s been great havseason Sept. 8 against Santa ing the new freshman on the team.” Monica High School. To help combat tennis’ inKristie Gipe took over for dividuality, Gipe wants the Chris Simpson, who resigned girls to be one cohesive group. earlier this year. “It’s about personalities,” “I’m super excited,” Gipe said. “Everybody works hard, Gipe said, “I believe a team and I think we have a really works well when they funcgood future with this group of tion as a unit. Even though it’s an individual sport, everybody girls.” Gipe graduated Cum Laude plays better when they’re behind each other.” from Biola University. Gipe is striving to up the She was the NAIA’s number two doubles player in the focus and intensity of both offseason and season practices. U.S. “Coach Kristie and all the She has coaches over 30 years have done of experience a great job at all levels of ramping up competition. Coach Kristie and the intenShe is also sity of the all the coaches have done a USPTA Elite program Tennis Profesa great job ramping up the while still sional. intensity of the program making it The team fun,” Siwhile still making it fun.” hopes to promon said. mote bonding M a n y —Juliana Simon ’16 off and on the players court, Gipe have been said. attending The team training started off the year with a team dinner to meet the new camps and clinics through the course of this summer. members. In addition to promoting “We had a team dinner

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Changes imminent after Martin post

By Bennett Gross and Henry Vogel

A Facebook post from former Wolverine football player Jonathan Martin ’08 revealing that he attempted suicide multiple times during his NFL career and felt unable to fit in at John Thomas Dye and Harvard-Westlake will cause the athletic department to increase its focus on the wellbeing of student athletes, Athletic Director Terry Barnum said. As a mixed race student enrolled in a predominantly white high school, Martin pointed to his struggle to fit in with both white and African-American students. “You learn to tone down your size and blackness by becoming shy, introverted, friendly, so you won’t scare the little rich white kids or their parents,” Martin wrote. “Neither black nor white people accept you because they don’t understand you. It takes away your self-confidence, your selfworth, your sanity.” Martin’s comments reinforced the athletic department’s need to work towards its goal of making athletics at Harvard-Westlake diverse and inclusive, Barnum said. “We want students to feel welcomed and included in our community,” Barnum said. “We have noted that this is an ongoing journey, and it is not a destination that you get to and you are done.” The athletic department was not aware of Martin’s feel-

ings towards the school while he was a student at HarvardWestlake, Barnum said. “A lot of the feelings that he had were internal, and I think that his statement kind of said that,” Barnum said. “Just because it was not overt or readily known by any of us, obviously it was happening, but he felt that way, and we are trying to do a better job of checking in with our student-athletes to make sure that they are feeling good about being members of our community. I think that we will continue to try to improve upon that.” Martin retired from the NFL this summer due to a back injury that would have sidelined him for the 2015-2016 season. In 2013, he was in the national spotlight for publicly accusing fellow Miami Dolphin Richie Incognito of extensive bullying both in the locker room and outside of team activities. He was voted into the Harvard-Westlake sports’ Hall of Fame as a member of the 2014 class. However, his induction ceremony was postponed because until this year, he was still an active player in the NFL. Martin’s Facebook post is a chance for the athletic department to move forward, Barnum said. “It gives us an opportunity to look inward and look for ways to make our community more inclusive so that kids in the future feel included and welcomed,” Barnum told the Los Angeles Times.

AUDREY WILSON/CHRONICLE

EYE ON THE BALL: Jenna Moustafa ’17 smashes a backhand back to her opponent during a non-league loss to Santa Barbara High School at Los Angeles Valley College last season. bonding, the team is also striv- players and parents know who ing to emphasize teamshe is, she said. Despite gowork during both pracing 7-1 in Mission tices and games. league play last sea“The girls have been son, the Wolverines open-armed to me,” were knocked out Gipe said. “They’ve of CIF playoffs in been so nice. I try to the second round make a really concerted against Santa Bareffort not to just show bara by a score of up on the first day.” ’ 11-7. Gipe has tried to deJuliana “As a team, velop relationships priSimon ’16 we are all training or to that so that both nathanson s

harder on court and off court than last season and are much more motivated altogether to improve upon our past successes,” Simon said. The team aims to make a deeper run in the CIF playoffs this year. “I think that every season our goal is to win the Mission League,” Simon said. “This year, we’re working harder than ever and want to make it as far as we can in CIF.”

D8 Sports

Q&A

The Chronicle

Sept. 1, 2015

ZOE BAXTER Girls’ Volleyball By Dario Madyoon What has it been like transitioning from being a sophomore on the team to becoming the captain and more of a leader on the floor? It’s actually been really fun because I remember our senior captains from when I was a sophomore, and I was really inspired by all of them and looked up to them a lot. It’s great this year because as a senior, we have a freshman and sophomores on the team, so we can step into that leader role for the sophomores and one freshman. To be in that role now where I have to lead by example and know that how I act will affect how people work and practice is really fun. Now I have to transition into the person that I [have] always looked up to, which is a great experience. What will you try to do differently in your senior year than in years past? My position on the team has changed going into senior year as a captain. I think my biggest role is to try to keep everyone together as a team and focus on the same vision and have the same goals to try to unify them in that sense. On the court we have a lot of rivals, and we’re in one of the hardest leagues in the area. So I think a goal of mine is to be a vocal leader on the court and keep everyone focused on winning and improving. When did you start playing volleyball and when did you know it would be your sport? I think the biggest influence has definitely been older girls on the team. I’ve been watching volleyball since I started playing in fifth grade and I was always inspired by older girls and wanted to be like them. I do watch professional volleyball as well, and I think that it’s not just one player that inspires me but just anyone that goes after every ball and is hustling and also working her hardest to try to get every point and working her hardest for her team because that’s the type of player that I really want to be. Which person has had the biggest influence on your game? I started playing volleyball in the fifth grade and I used to play sports at Harvard-Westlake before I attended the school. A lot of the sports I did when I was younger were at Harvard-Westlake, so I knew the school pretty well. Mila Barzdukas ’15 played volleyball, so she inspired me to play. I started off doing 11s and 12s, and it wasn’t super competitive, but I was really into it, and I really loved the sport. So I kind of knew that I wanted to play volleyball when I started. It probably took only a season or two to know that I really loved it. What’s been the most memorable moment of your Wolverine career so far? The most memorable moment of my career was in sophomore year [during the] semifinals of the CIF game against our rivals Notre Dame. It was the fifth game to get to the finals, and we were down 11-14, and they only needed to get to 15. We were telling ourselves, “Ok we can do this, we can still win.” And we ended up coming back to win 20-18 to go to the finals, and that has stuck with me for the longest time.

Stats 55

Career Aces

Career Wins

.556

Career Win Percentage JONATHAN SEYMOUR/CHRONICLE