May 2013 Issue

the harvard-westlake

CHRONICLE Los Angeles • Volume XXII • Issue VIII • May 29, 2013

Dudamel conducts orchestra at assembly

By Elana Zeltser

PHOTOS BY JACK GOLDFISHER/CHRONICLE

A SCULPTURAL LEGACY: Visual Arts teacher John Luebtow peels off the covering to a reflective stainless steel sheet base of a sculpture, left, which was commissioned in honor of President Hudnut who will retire this year. The sculpture is wiped down after its installation, top right. Science teacher Dietrich Schuhl uses a bubble level to keep the structure straight, bottom right.

Hudnut assures ‘everything is ending well’ President Thomas C. Hudnut will retire after his 26 year tenure, establishing a culture of high achievement in not only academics but also the arts and athletics.

By David Lim When President Thomas C. Hudnut arrived at the Coldwater Canyon campus to take up the post of headmaster in 1987, the all-boys Harvard School was known almost exclusively for its academic reputation as an “AP factory” that churned out admittances to top colleges.

“But its performing arts were dismal, visual arts were under-appreciated and its athletics program was anemic,” Hudnut said.

His predecessor, Christopher Berrisford, had transformed Harvard School from a boarding school that had been founded in 1900 with a

strong military tradition into a day school enrolling nearly 800 boys. When Harvard’s Board of Trustees reached out to Hudnut, he jumped at the opportunity to succeed Berrisford at a school that had always been on his “dream list.”

Yet, the well-reputed school was not a particularly happy one in the years leading up to his tenure and Hudnut, who arrived with a decade of experience heading schools, faced the immediate challenge of stemming a recent “series of defections” as boys dropped out to attend other schools.

“The trustees made it clear to me that they wanted me to do something about the morale of school and make it a

happier place than that it had been,” Hudnut said.

Hudnut set out to improve the arts and athletics programs in order to make attending Harvard an enjoyable experience in itself and not simply a means to an end. But it was not until the merger with Westlake School for Girls and the resources of a larger school that Hudnut could conceive of a more ambitious educational vision—to create an institution which he describes today as having both “the academic program of a small private academy and the extracurricular opportunities of a public school.”

Hudnut also credits the merger, in retrospect, for

keeping him on the same campus for 26 years, speculating that he would have moved on when either his older son graduated after eight years or younger son did so in 12 years.

“The two campus, co-educational setup and the big opportunities that have been presented with it have made it endlessly interesting,” Hudnut said. “Such would not have been the case if it had been Harvard School.”

THE MERGER As Hudnut was about to leave for a month in France with his family during the summer of 1989, he received word that Westlake’s Board of • Continued on page A8

Garcetti ’88 to serve as next LA mayor INSIDE

By David Lim

“Mayor Bradley was this larger than life symbol of a City Councilman Eric great city,” Garcetti said. “He Garcetti ’88 will serve as the gave us a great feeling about next mayor of Los Los Angeles.”

Angeles, after defeatIn addition to ing City Controller Bradley’s accomWendy Greuel May plishments bring21 by a wide margin ing the Olympics in an election with to Los Angeles only a 19 percent and starting work turnout.

Garcetti on the subway systook 54 percent to tem, Garcetti emGreuel’s 46 percent. phasized Bradley’s Garcetti rememadeptness dealing bers seeing Los Anwith city politics.

Eric Garcetti ’88 geles Mayor Tom “To be mayor Bradley speak at an of LA you have to assembly while at Harvard engage people—you have to School and credits Bradley for earn their love and respect but “making Los Angeles into a you have to be strong enough great world class city.” to get things done,” Garcetti printed with permission of

garcetti for mayor campaign

said.

Garcetti said that his time at Harvard School impressed upon him the importance of education, which was a focus of his campaign.

“Opportunities that were all given to students and alums of this great school make me want to help provide that for every young person in Los Angeles, whether they’re lucky enough to go to Harvard-Westlake or whether they’re in a neighborhood public school,” Garcetti said. “I’m here because of my education.”

Though Garcetti was interested in politics and had lunchtime discussions with history teacher Dave Water• Continued on page A10

C1 FEVER PITCH: Jack Flaherty ’14 winds up for a pitch in the baseball game.

Dressed in a classic, crisp tuxedo, world-renowned conductor Gustavo Dudamel stepped onto the stage at Walt Disney Concert Hall to conduct the Los Angeles Philharmonic in the second installment of the Mozart/Da Ponte Trilogy “The Marriage of Figaro,” on the evening of May 23.

Earlier that same day, he opted for a black T-shirt and jeans when he stood on a platform in Taper Gymnasium to conduct the combined Harvard-Westlake Orchestra through Beethoven’s 1st Symphony at an all-school assembly.

Seated next to Linda Brown (Russell ’94, David ’96), who sponsored the open master class, Dudamel was introduced by President Thomas C. Hudnut and members of the Latino Club. Maria Gonzalez ‘13, on behalf of the Latino Club, had approached Hudnut with the idea to invite Dudamel, a family friend, as the Brown Family Speaker.

“We have had some amazing speakers,” Hudnut said, “none of them any more interesting than the one we have today. This is the hottest musician on the planet.”

Dudamel, with his signature mop of curly hair gelled back, taught an open class for the third time in his career.

He shook the hand of Concert Master Sydney Cheong ’14, removed his gray linen jacket and took a bow. Despite conducting this particular symphony only once before in Hamburg, Germany, he needed no sheet music in front of him.

“When I was 11 years old, I studied this piece,” Dudamel • Continued on page A11

ontheweb COFFEE HOUSE: Students and faculty perform at the year’s final coffee house.

See online for more coverage.

A2 Preview

The Harvard-Westlake Chronicle Wednesday, May 29, 2013 3700 Coldwater Canyon Ave. Studio City, Calif. 91604

LUKE HOLTHOUSE/CHRONICLE

JUMPING FOR HEIGHT: Alex Florent ’15 high jumps at the CIF Finals at Mt. San Antonio College May 18. Florent was one of four to qualify for State Finals June 1.

News A4

NOA YADIDI/CHRONICLE

EXPERIMENTING: Rhett Gentile ’13 explains a STEMfest display to science teacher Antonio Nassar.

A&E B10

MORGANNE RAMSEY/CHRONICLE

LEG UP: Daniel Palumbo ’14 struggles to balance on one leg during a skit in the Scene Monkeys show May 17.

Sports C1

JACK GOLDFISHER/CHRONICLE

EXTENSION: Anthony Ulloa ’14 goes for a catch. The lacrosse team won the Northern Division Championship.

offbeat

Hudnut gives away books, tchotchkes

By Julia Aizuss

“Someone grabbed the beautiful thing that I had,” President of School Thomas C. Hudnut said as he stood among a room full of memorabilia he had collected in the past 26 years.

He was searching for an item he wished to show to Director of Payroll Sue Sherman, who had trekked to Hudnut’s office to participate in his “going out of business” giveaway May 24, open to all faculty and staff.

“I thought people might want to have little tchotchkes or something,” Hudnut said as Sherman scooped a set of coasters.

Sherman had found them

on a table crowded with bobbleheads, a rooster figurine, a jar of marbles and more. Books were lined up at the back of the table: yearbooks, textbooks, “Programming Video Games for the Evil Genius” by Ian Cinnamon ’10, “Drinking, Smoking, and Screwing: Great Writers on Good Times.”

“It’s not as racy as the title suggests,” Hudnut said.

Hudnut, gesturing to a Santa hat, said he might save it so incoming President Rick Commons could take up the mantle as the school’s Santa Claus. Across the room, framed copies of Chronicle articles stood propped against the wall: “Merger construction underway,” declared a headline from May of 1991.

As Hudnut handled some dove figurines that he hypothesized were bookends, Head of School Jeanne Huybrechts entered. She took the rooster for herself and a bobblehead for middle school history teacher George Gaskin, who keeps a collection.

Before Huybrechts left, she, Hudnut and Sherman gathered around an old clock Sherman planned to take. It was broken, Hudnut said, but could be easily fixed. Huybrechts, meanwhile, tried to remember when Hudnut had acquired it, how long the clock had remained with Hudnut at the school.

“This clock was on his desk forever,” Huybrechts said.

“Forever.”

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 Ave., Studio City, CA 91604. Letters must be

NOA YADIDI/CHRONICLE

BIBBLES AND BAUBLES: A table in President Thomas C. Hudnut’s office is covered with memorabilia he gave away May 24.

signed and may be edited for space and to conform to Chronicle style and format.

Advertising questions may be directed to Leslie Dinkin at 310-975-4848. Publication of an advertisement does not imply endorsement of the product or service by the newspaper or the school.

hwchronicle.com/news

May 29, 2013

Stand outs

News A3

Students and faculty were recognized for their contributions to the school at the Awards Assembly Tuesday, May 28. Recipients of the the Bishop’s Medal and Veritas Award, the Blanche Nelson Boyle Award, George Coleman Edwards Award and David Justin Rascoff Award will be announced Friday, June 7.

Valedictorian – Rhett Gentile ’13 Salutatorian – Ben Gail ’13 Brendan Kutler ‘10 “Two Hats” Award – Daniel Palumbo ’14 Awarded to a junior who takes academic risks to pursue his or her interdisciplinary interests, engages in intellectual pursuits outside the classroom and demonstrates humility and kindness

Frederick Douglass Diversity Award – Kathi Bolton-Ford ’13 Recognizes a senior who has embraced his or her own ethnicity, religion or sexual orientation creatively, courageously and compassionately, while also honoring that of others

Lamar Trotti Jr. Award – Brent Herrera ’13 Established in memory of Lamar Trotti ‘50 and awarded to a senior who made the biggest transformation in his or her life and work during his or her years at high school

Named in honor of Performing Arts teacher Jerry Margolis, who taught for 36 years and helped create his department, and has been awarded since 2006 to a student in the performing arts program

Rensselaer Award – Kevin Zhang ’14 and Larry Zhang ’14 Given to juniors who have distinguished themselves in math and science. If the students choose to attend Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, they receive a four-year scholarship

Cuscaden Blackwood Medal – Sydney Cheong ’14 Given to a member of the junior class for outstanding contribution to the life of the school and is selected by senior class officers as well as faculty members

Humanitas Award – Nick Healy ’13 Honors a senior who epitomizes service to the school, friendliness, courtesy, kindliness and consideration for others, a sense of sincerity and humor and loyalty to the community

Created in the memory of Lester Medvene known for his “curiosity of mind and dedication of spirit” and is given to a sophomore who has made a meaningful contribution to the life of the school

Tamkin Community Service Award – Theo Davis ’13

Emily Plotkin ’13

Honors seniors for their dedication to community service

Computer Science – Eden Weizman ’13 Ducommun Award (Mathematics) – Michael Zaks ’13 English – Wendy Chen ’13 Foreign Language – Annie Wasserman ’13 The Foreign Language Department recognized one exemplary student in each language and inducted new members of the National Honors Society. See A7 for further coverage.

History/Social Studies – Josh Lappen ’13

Publications Chronicle Award – Michael Sugerman ’13 Vox Populi Award – Bree Iskandar ’13 Sandifer Creative Writing Award – Patric Verrone ’13 Science – Sophie McAllister ’13 Visual Arts – Wendy Chen ’13 William L. Davis Award (Economics) – Henry Woody ’13 Yellin Family Award for Women’s Studies – Liza Wohlberg ’13

Faculty Awards Garrett Hardin Award –

Larry Weber (distinguished service) Ashley Satterthwaite (early achievement)

Given to a senior faculty member for distinguished service and a junior faculty members for early achievement

Lester Medvene Award – Garrett Robinson ’15

Given to a sophomore who has shown “consistent effort, dedication and promise” by working on one of the school’s student publications

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

Performing Arts – Nick Healy ’13 and Megan Ward ’13

Jerry Margolis Award – Daniel Sunshine ’13

Morris Michael Landres Award – Scott Nussbaum ’15

Senior Academic Awards

Rascoff Faculty Award – Nancy Holme-Elledge Created in honor of Justin Rascoff ‘91 and funds summer sabbaticals for a faculty member

Senior Athletic Award Lee Carlson Award for Athletics –

Arden Pabst ’13 Kassie Shannon ’13

Awarded to two members of the senior class, one male and one female, who demonstrate excellence in athletics SOURCE: EMILY KENNEDY GRAPHIC BY CLAIRE GOLDSMITH

Juniors win grants for travel

By Ally White

Four juniors will go abroad this summer as winners of the Junior Summer Fellowship or the Gunter-Gross Asia Initiative.

As the recipient of the Junior Summer Fellowship, Mazelle Etessami ’14 will use the $3,500 grant to spend about two and a half weeks in Portau-Prince, Haiti.

“After reading about the current status of children in Haiti, after beginning to understand the horrors my fellow human beings have been, and will continue to be, subject to on a daily basis, I believe the choice [of where to visit] is obvious,” Etessami said.

She will be completely immersed in the culture, living with a local pastor and working at the orphanage and dental clinic he directs.

At the dental clinic, she will be applying fluoride to patients’ teeth, which, in a country where many don’t have

access to toothpaste, can help prevent cavities and infection.

She will use any extra money in her budget to buy extra fluoride.

“There’s nothing like bringing someone out of pain,” she said. “Although I don’t have a medical degree or dental degree, being able to hold the suction or shine a light on someone, just being able to assist in any way possible to that process, that’s actual change.”

The other winner of the Junior Summer Fellowship, Shelby Heitner ’14, will travel to London to spend two weeks studying the Black Plague and its influence on society.

Heitner was first introduced to the topic in Advanced Placement Human Geography where she learned about the different stages of the disease and then studied its impact on population growth in Advanced Placement Biology.

“I’ve never been to Europe before, and I thought it would be a cool opportunity to travel

and learn about a topic I’ve been studying in school,” Heitner said.

Along with working with a professor and her colleagues from the Museum of London, Heitner said she will visit exhibits and museums throughout London to “tie in different mediums of art.” She will study how the architecture and paintings of the time period were influenced by the Black Plague.

Divya Siddarth ’14 and Sinclair Cook ’14 will receive $4,000 as recipients of the Gunter-Gross Asia Initiative grant.

Siddarth will travel to southern India to practice yoga at an institution and help research the its mental health benefits.

During her time at the institution, Siddarth will meditate and practice yoga for a combined total of about eight hours each day.

“I wanted to learn yoga in the core of where it began,” Siddarth said. “The institu-

soundbyte

“I want to gain a greater understanding of the bond between language and culture.”

—Sinclair Cook ’14

tion takes a more holistic attitude instead of focusing more on physical than meditational [yoga].”

This trip will not be her first yoga experience. She began practicing yoga a few years ago and has found herself calmer and more centered as a result. She also recently published an article on the science behind yoga in a journal.

After participating in the SYA China summer program last year, Cook was worried he had exhausted his opportunities in China for this upcoming summer. After hearing about the Gunter-Gross fellowship, he realized that the personalized program it entailed was

nathanson ’s

perfect for him. Cook will spend about five weeks with a host family, taking the bullet train to Tianjin a few times each week to meet with a professor who Chinese teacher Binbin Wei recommended.

Cook will study the history and evolution of Chinese characters, focusing on the government’s simplification of the entire written language in the 20th century. He hopes to “explore the cultural implications of drastically changing a language,” he said.

“I hope to improve my Chinese language skills and have countless new adventures in this ancient country,” Cook said.

The Chronicle

A4 News

May 29, 2013

Next year to start with all-school convocation

By Julia Aizuss

SOPHIE KUPIEC-WEGLINSKI/CHRONICLE

SWAN SONG: Andrew Meepos ’13, Demren Sinik ’13, Blake Nosratian ’13 and Danny Belgrad ’13 (not pictured) sing Radiohead’s “True Love Waits” during Coffee House May 22. More than 20 students and teachers performed in the fourth coffee house of the year.

Fifth STEMfest showcases student projects, class assignments in science fields

By Nikta Mansouri

As a demonstration of hydroelectric engineering at the annual “STEMfest,” a Tesla representative drove into the quad while students and teachers surrounded it on May 20 during activities period.

Students from various clubs and classes set up 38 tables and 60 events around the quad and in the lounge to display assignments and projects.

This is the fifth installment of the showing of projects involving science, technology, engineering and math around school. The quad and Chalmers were packed with students presenting projects and learning about their peers’ work, playing games and eating cupcakes.

“I really enjoyed STEMfest,” Oliver Goodman-Waters ’14 said. “It’s really great to see

the hard work of many of my friends and colleagues manifest itself in incredibly interesting and fascinating projects. I certainly learned a lot walking around the quad last Monday.”

STEMfest was different than years past as there was a “huge, huge emphasis on the interest in building computers, using code to create art, students working with the results of the Harvard-Westlake Sports Science research, student created videos, statistics to make decisions about sports,” STEMfest coordinator and Math Department Head Paula Evans said.

The aroma of fresh waffles lingered in Chalmers as Molecular Gastronomy students Nick Nathanson ’13 and Byron Lazaroff-Puck ’13 used liquid nitrogen to crystalize the eggs and heavy cream custard to

thicken the ice cream base.

Rap and pop music filled the quad while tables such as “math in popular music,” “artists who code,” and a game of roulette were set up to show how science effects everyday life.

Dory Graham ’13 and Senior Alumni Officer Harry Salamandra, contacted Tesla and asked if they would provide a car for STEMfest and they agreed. Tesla is pushing the boundaries on electric technologies which is why Graham contacted them, she said. Graham’s presentation compared the Tesla and Fisker, another electric car company.

“It was super awesome of Tesla to do that since they really had no incentive other than to share their technology with our school,” Graham said. “I’m not sure any other

car company would have done that, especially for a student, and on short notice.”

Alumni also presented in the fest. Tess Hatch ’11 talked about engineering in college and Melissa Gottlieb (owner of Skinny Batches Baker) brought samples of healthy baked goods, demonstrating molecular gastronomy. These samples will also be available during finals as care packages, Evans said.

HW Works operated a table on the quad offering students internship applications in the STEM fields.

Due to the success of the first SciBowl match in October, a second game between students and teachers was scheduled but was canceled because many of the math and science teachers were involved in other STEM festivities.

• See A16 for photo coverage

Both upper and middle school students will gather on the Ted Slavin Field on the first day of the 2013-2014 school year for an all-school convocation and the investiture of new President of Harvard-Westlake Rick Commons.

The administration began thinking about holding an allschool opening convocation even before they knew President Thomas C. Hudnut would retire, Head of School Jeanne Huybrechts said.

With the arrival of Commons, the administration thought it would be a good year to experiment, especially since they wished to hold an investiture ceremony for Commons.

“If this goes well, if we think it was a worthwhile experience to have the entire school together once per year, we may continue this every year,” Huybrechts said.

Huybrechts said that the all-school convocation will present the rare opportunity to completely unite all the school’s students.

“Wouldn’t it be nice if once a year every single member of the community was in the same space at the same time for a particular reason?” Huybrechts said.

Students will attend a few of their classes before middle school students are bused to the upper school. After meeting on the field, Huybrechts will welcome the students, introduce the new theme for the year and introduce Commons.

She will then perform the investiture ceremony, which Commons wants to be as “short and concise and simple as possible,” Huybrechts said.

The Board of Trustees will also likely be present for the ceremony, she said.

Kaplan ’08 describes covering Boston bombing

By Elizabeth Madden

Former Chronicle editorin-chief Michael Kaplan ’08 told Chronicle classes Friday about his experience covering the Boston bombings and ensuing chaos in Boston.

Kaplan now works as a broadcast assistant for the news program “60 Minutes.”

Kaplan described his experience editing segments of video and helping reporters to track down sources for the 13 minute segment on the Boston Marathon bombings and car chase. The segment aired April 21, the Sunday following the Boston bombings, arrest of one of the suspects and death of the other.

“We were really pressed for time because we usually have three or four months to prepare a piece,” he said. “We only had 72 hours to set up [the Boston piece].”

“I had a great time when working at the Chronicle,” he said. “That’s what first piqued my interest in print journal-

ism.”

After graduating from Harvard-Westlake, Kaplan attended the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.

As a part of the undergraduate program at Medill, Kaplan traveled to Cape Town, South Africa for two months to work for a daily newspaper there.

On one of his first days on the job, Kaplan was assigned to cover a murder in an impoverished shanty town.

When he arrived at the scene, family and friends of the deceased charged toward Kaplan and tried to rip up his notes, imploring him not to cover the murders, Kaplan said.

“I had never seen a dead body before,” Kaplan said. “It was then that I realized that I was a long, long way away from home.”

“If the Chronicle sparked my interest in journalism, [the trip to] South Africa definitely sustained it,” he said.

MAZELLE ETESSAMI/CHRONICLE

BREAKING NEWS: Chronicle news managing editor Michael Sugerman ’13 listens to Los Angeles Times reporter Kurt Streeter explain how he chooses which anecdotes to emphasize in his features.

LA Times reporter speaks to The Chronicle

By Elizabeth Madden

Award-winning Los Angeles Times staff writer Kurt Streeter told Chronicle classes about his writing process and career in journalism on Tuesday.

Streeter, who has been working at the LA Times since 1998, has interviewed figures such as Kobe Bryant and Rodney King, who became nationally known after being brutally beaten by members of the Los Angeles Police Department, the event that is largely credited as being the catalyst to the 1992 Los Angeles riots.

Streeter also recently interviewed Michael Sheng ’14, Sam Sachs ’14, Eric Loeb ’14, varsity basketball coach Greg Hilliard and President Thomas Hudnut for an article entitled ‘2 L.A. high schools, 2 views of Jason Collins’, detailing different reactions of high school students about professional basketball player Jason Collins’ ’97 decision to come out as gay.

“The best thing about this job is the diversity of experiences you get,” Streeter said.

Streeter’s five-part narrative about a female boxer from East Los Angeles and

her relationship with her father, a previous gang member, won a 2005 Associated Press News Editors award. That story, along with a Column One about an elderly boxing timekeeper and his memories, was included in the 2006 edition of Best American Sports Writing, according to his bio on the L.A. Times website.

“You have to believe that there has to be a place for good story-telling,” Streeter said.

“There’s an innate need in all of us to want stories, to want information. You don’t go into journalism to get rich, you do it for the love of it.”

hwchronicle.com/news

May 29, 2013

News A5

Common App essay format to change

By Lauren Sonnenberg

The Common Application, which more than 500 colleges and universities around the country use for their admissions, no longer allows prospective college students to answer an essay prompt on a topic of their choice, has set a 650-word limit on the personal essay and has removed the short answer describing an important extracurricular.

Rising seniors will fill out a slightly different Common Application when applying to school for the 2014-2015 school year, as previous years of the Common Application required a limit of 500 words at most on the personal essay.

The fourth generation of the Common Application, dubbed “CA4” by the organization, will launch on August 1, 2013. Common Application Board President Carey Thomson said that “The New Era: 2013-2025” of the Common Application was launched because it can handle over 1,500 four-year institutions and over 3 million applicants.

The instructions for the new essay prompts warn students that 650 words is not a goal but a limit.

Upper School Dean Vanna Cairns said that though students no longer have the option to make up their own essay topic, their writing choices will not be affected.

“It’s better to write what you want and have it fit into one of the essay topics rather than be stymied trying to fit in one of the available topics,” she said.

The upper school deans will view a webinar during their early June retreat to learn more about the changes to the Common Application.

One such change is a “slide-room,” a program that “will allow students to more easily send in their art portfolios, music and dance videos,” Cairns said. “There will be a $5 charge per college for this unless the college picks up the tab.”

PHOTOS BY MICHAEL SUGERMAN/CHRONICLE

ALL THAT JAZZ: Andy Arditi ’14 plays the saxophone, left. Chris Freedman ’12 plays the bass as Daniel Sunshine ’13 drums, right. Arditi and Sunshine were among the Jazz Explorers who performed at Vibrato Grill May 19 with Freedman as a guest.

Luebtow to leave after 42 years, unveils glass sculpture dedicated to Hudnut

By Julia Aizuss

“It’s amazing,” a HarvardWestlake mother said, slowing down to gawk. “It’s stunning.

Will it be here permanently?”

With these words, 3D Art teacher John Luebtow’s glass sculpture received its first review, an auspicious one. The mother was one of several faculty, students and parents to see the sculpture before its opening Tuesday night, when Luebtow and his crew spent about four hours May 18 installing (permanently) his 10-foot high, 12-foot wide creation, which is dedicated to retiring President Thomas C. Hudnut.

After the installation, the sculpture remained covered in a blue tarp until its unveiling after the annual Senior Art Show. It was planned for 6:30 p.m. so that those who attended could see the way the interplay of the light and glass differed in daylight and at night.

Although the piece is dedicated to Luebtow’s close friend Hudnut, Visual Arts Department Head Cheri Gaulke said

that the piece is also a celebration of Luebtow’s tenure at the school. Luebtow, currently the senior member of the faculty, is retiring from teaching after 42 years at Harvard-Westlake and Harvard, where he founded the Visual Arts Department with the late Carl Wilson.

“He’s a force of nature,” Gaulke said.

Gaulke proposed commissioning a piece from Luebtow, and after Head of School Jeanne Huybrechts received the proposal with enthusiasm, Luebtow began working last June, taking inspiration from Hudnut’s love for fishing by working from the linear movement of fishing rods and lines.

“He’s an amazing fisherman,” Luebtow said. “When I was thinking about what to do for him, I was thinking, you know, the thing we’ve done together is fish.”

Since June, Luebtow has worked for thousands of hours on the sculpture while photography teacher Kevin O’Malley documented the process.

“I’m excited now because I’m done,” Luebtow said. “It’s

over with. Over a year. It’s a little bit more stressful for me doing this piece than a corporate piece because I was here when [Hudnut] was hired, I was a department chairperson, and so I was part of [the hiring panel].”

By the time Hudnut became headmaster of Harvard School, Luebtow had worked there for 17 years. He arrived in 1971, just after Harvard had transitioned from a military academy equipped with an armory and a rifle range to a college preparatory school.

“One of our classrooms was the gun storage room with all the gun racks in it,” Luebtow said.

Having arrived on a campus far different than today’s, Luebtow watched not only his new Visual Arts Department expand, from one room in Chalmers to all of Weiler Hall to a building where Munger now is to its current home in Feldman-Horn, but all of the campus expansion and change as well, from new buildings to the inclusion of girls.

Luebtow not only taught

Team of 7 teachers to oversee 1-1 initiative

By Jensen Pak

Educational Technology Committee chairman Jeff Snapp A group of middle school and Head of Middle School faculty members will serve as Jon Wimbish to discuss leadTechnology Integration Spe- ership of the initiative. After cialists and oversee discussion, science the one-to-one initiateacher David Fromtive planned for the me, English teacher 2013-2014 school year, Julia Grody, librarian Director of StudAnna Martino, Latin ies Liz Resnick anteacher Moss Pike, nounced in an email math teacher Karen to faculty. The first Stern, history teachstep of the Technoler Ian Ulmer and ogy Plan includes the librarian Dave Wee new requirement of were selected to work nathanson ’s seventh graders to on the Technology Liz Resnick bring their laptops Integration Specialist to class. The requireTeam at the middle ment will include all grades of school. Resnick will head the the Middle School in Septem- team. ber 2014 and the Upper School “We will actively work with in September 2015. seventh grade teachers and Resnick met with Head teams to integrate technology of School Jeanne Huybrechts, in order to deepen student en-

gagement and learning, provide support for middle school teachers endeavoring to incorporate computing technologies into their classes, encourage teachers and teams to experiment with laptop integration, assist teachers with effective use of the Hub, Google Drive and other web tools, conduct professional development for teachers during the school day and after school and maintain a list of recommended computing tools as well as professional development opportunities,” Resnick said.

The middle school Technology Integration Specialists will also work with Snapp and members of the computer services department at the Upper School. The team will support the rest of the middle school faculty as they begin to incor-

porate laptops into the classroom. “[To accommodate the upcoming program], we’ve significantly increased the available internet bandwidth on both campuses,” Director of Computer Services Dave Ruben said. “We’re also replacing the wireless network system on both campuses over the summer.”

According to Snapp, the Educational Technology Committee reviews school policies surrounding educational technology and makes recommendations to Huybrechts. While the middle school Technology Integration Specialists plans to meet weekly and the schoolwide Educational Technology committee meets monthly, Resnick and Snapp communicate on a daily basis.

but balanced his work at school with his work in the art world, where he was one of the pioneers of artistic glass sculpture in the 1960s. With his departure, Luebtow will be able to devote himself full time to his work.

Luebtow said leaving was like graduating after 64 years in school.

“It’s like I’ve been in school since kindergarten and finally I’m graduating,” Luebtow said.

“I’ve had summer vacations, Christmas vacations and Easter vacations for 64 years.”

Luebtow said he plans to spend time in the studio and house he owns near Seattle, where several of his friends live, and to begin working on a book about influence of philosopher Friedrich Frobel on contemporary art with the head of the Architecture Department at University of Washington.

“For some people, they don’t have anything when they retire,” Luebtow said. “I will never have that problem. I’ll never retire. I’ve just changed gears. I’ve changed focus.”

Tech To-Do List Ed-Tech chairman Jeff Snapp hopes to accomplish these goals.

Work with teachers to implement technology practices Provide support for teachers trying to incorporate technology in classes Encourage other teachers to experiment with computers Assist teachers with use of the Hub, Google Drive and other tools Conduct professional development for teachers during school.

SOURCE: JEFF SNAPP INFOGRAPHIC BY LAUREN SONNENBERG

The Chronicle

A6 News

inbrief

May 29, 2013

Construction planned for Taper

The sports medicine room on the lower floor of Taper Gymnasium will be completely redesigned during summer break. Construction on the project will start in early 2014, Head of Campus Operations J.D. De Matte said.

The room, now about 400 square feet, will be expanded to 2,000 square feet. For the sports medicine room to expand and accommodate new high-end equipment, both the boys’ and girls’ locker rooms will be redesigned.

The construction may also include adding air conditioning equipment to the top-floor of Taper gym, and will cost roughly $2 to $3 million dollars, De Matte said.

—Jack Goldfisher

New sophomore prefects elected Hunter Brookman ’16, Grace Pan ’16, Shelby Weiss ’16 and Alec Winshel ’16 have been elected sophomore prefects for next year.

Pan says she has worked along with Winshel and Cameron Cohen ’16 to develop an electronic ID card application for smart phones. They have talked with Head of Middle School Jon Wimbish, Chief Financial Officer Rob Levin and Director of Computer Services Dave Ruben about the possibilities of an electronic ID card.

—Sophie Kupiec-Weglinski

SARAH NOVICOFF/CHRONICLE

FROM WAR TO PEACE: Senior Alumni Officer Harry Salamandra, right, speaks to Pulitzer Prize winning photographer Nick Ut, left, and Kim Phuc, center. Phuc, a victim of the napalm bombings in the Vietnam War, spoke of the of the war May 10 in Ahmanson Hall.

‘Napalm Girl’ advocates for peace

By Sydney Foreman

Kim Phuc, the little girl set afire by napalm bombs during the Vietnam War, described the horrors of the war and emphasized the importance of peace May 10 in Ahmanson Lecture Hall.

A photo taken in 1972 by Associated Press photographer Nick Ut, then 19 years old, became an iconic image of the war. Phuc and Ut were both at Harvard-Westlake to screen an award-winning 26-minute ABC documentary, “The Power of a Picture.” The film tracks the impact of the Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph of Phuc screaming and running naked down a

road in Trang Bang, Vietnam, just after having her clothes scorched off.

Sarah McAllister ’15 did not initially have much of a response to the photograph, but this changed after an investigative journalism trip to Laos during sprink break with nine other students.

“I live a safe and sound life in the suburbs of California, but that photo gives me a doorway into a very different point of view, where past and current aid is not enough” McAllister said. “People are still in pain.”

Ut recalled photographing Phuc until she ran past him in tears, her back severely burned. Ut, who Phuc calls her

Teachers parody ‘Les Miserables’ Faculty and staff at the Middle School sang and danced at an all-school assembly May 6 to celebrate one month left of the school year. Their song, “One Month More,” was a rewritten variation of the Les Misérables tune “One Day More.”

English teachers Steve Chae and Erin Creznic performed with deans Colby Plath and Kate Benton, science teachers David Fromme, Alex Ras and Florence Pi, math teachers Bob Pavich and Regan Galvan, French teacher Lucille Romieu, Assistant Director of Admission Melanie Léon and art teacher Robin Miller. Bookstore associate Keith Jordan and performing arts teacher Jim Doughan also participated in the rendition.

—Claire Goldsmith

ted to study at the University of Havana, a school in a Communist country. Phuc discovered she could not become a doctor due to her own health issues but met her husband, whom she married on Sept. 11, 1992.

Phuc’s revelation and experiences with the Vietnam War led her to create The Kim Foundation, a nonprofit organization that helps children victimized by war. After her presentation, books and other merchandise pertaining to Phuc were sold to benefit the foundation. Phuc has spoken all around the globe promoting her message of peace.

“I came from war,” Phuc said. “Now I work for peace.”

First online character education course to launch this summer

Sophomores train for Peer Support Nearly 30 sophomores will learn to counsel other students as Peer Support trainees next year. School psychologist Dr. Sheila Siegel, fellow adviser Luba Bek and the Peer Support coordinators, chose 11 boys and 17 girls to be trainees next year and eventually leaders during their senior year.

Angus O’Brien ’14, Gaby Romano ’14, Max Rothman ’14 and Sophie Sunkin ’14 were elected by the current junior trainees as the new Peer Support Coordinators April 8.

—J.J. Spitz

hero, ceased taking pictures and rushed her to the hospital.

Assuming Phuc had no chance at survival, the hospital placed her in the morgue. Three days later, her parents discovered her alive. Her father transferred her to a clinic where she endured 14 months and several operations.

Phuc underwent 17 surgeries in 12 years and still has scarring on her arms, back and neck. Phuc was so grateful to her doctors that she wanted to follow in their footsteps.

In 1982 she was accepted to medical school in Saigon, but the Vietnamese government had other plans for her as a symbol of war for the state.

In 1986 Phuc was permit-

By Michael Rothberg

JACK GOLDFISHER /CHRONICLE

REMEMBERING JULIA: Jake Feiler ’13 and friends of Julia Siegler visit her memorial site for the filming of the bus safety video.

Video Art III class changes focus of video

By Sara Evall

A new bus safety video was filmed May 5 in honor of Julia Siegler ’14, who was killed by a car while walking to her bus in 2010. Michelle Paster ’98 shot the first bus safety video in November, but when Video Art teacher Cheri Gaulke showed it to her Video Art III class, they decided that it did not have the right tone. Out of her students proposed ideas, Gaulke chose Jack Goldfisher’s ’14 concept.

“I sent [Gaulke] essentially a rough outline of the script and she liked it so we got Jake Feiler’s [’13] approval who worked on behalf of Julia and her parents in the campaign and then we shot probably about three or four weeks ago,” Goldfisher said. “Now we’re in the editing process and it should be done by the

beginning of the summer.”

Goldfisher had nine of Siegler’s friends visit her memorial site, place flowers and trinkets on it and wear purple.

“It was a very relaxed and simple vibe in the concept,” Goldfisher said. “It essentially is focused around Jake and his relationship with Julia and it’s told mostly through voiceovers.”

The video will be sent out to students and parents before they sign up for bus service and the Atlantic Express bus company. Paster was heavily involved in the making of the new film. Goldfisher said that since she did not know Siegler personally, initially she did not have the right perspective.

“Our production of the second video was just our wanting to make sure that Julia was remembered positively,” Goldfisher said.

School Audrius Barzdukas to introduce a character educaThe preliminary trial run tion program into the curricufor Harvard-Westlake’s first lum. ever online course will begin After finding no pre-existthis week. ing online character education The course called Optimal courses, they decided to develLiving 101, which will cover op one for the school. character education, is schedEngelberg introduced Briuled to launch this summer, an Johnson, who created his Assistant to the Head of Up- own online character educaper School Michelle Bracken tion course for adults, to the said. project.

At this point, only one or Johnson proposed adapttwo Choices and Challenges ing his program for Harvardteachers will be alpha-testing Westlake’s curriculum. the course, “ F r o m along with these discusformer hissions and Britory teacher, an’s creative It’s exciting! The school technology digital mewill finally enter the entrepreneur dia expertise, online age formally.” and basketwhich incorball coach Ari porates some —Head of Upper a n i m a t i o n Engelberg ’89, School and cool phowho particiAudrius Barzdukas tography, Oppated in its creation. timal Living This test101 for Haring is dev a r d -We s t signed to allow the developers lake as part of the Choices and to identify any technical faults Challenges curriculum was in the program. created,” Bracken said. “The Bracken is overseeing the Choices and Challenges teachtrial of the course and will be ers will incorporate the online monitoring the curriculum curriculum in the classroom, throughout next year. with [the in-school] curricuThe course will be acces- lum designed to add a classsible from any place with in- room discussion and sharing ternet capabilities and will of thoughts and ideas from the also include various multime- online course, Optimal Living dia modules and interactive 101.” exercises.

“It’s exciting,” Barzdukas Last year, Engelberg ap- said. The school will finally enproached Head of Upper ter the online age formally.”

“

May 29, 2013

News A7

hwchronicle.com/news

inbrief

Foreign Language Honors assembly recognizes students

students as Spanish teacher Joaquin Fernandez-Castro Members of the foreign handed certificates, greeting language faculty inducted 155 each student with a hug. students into national honor Wei described the winsocieties for Chinese, French, ner of the senior Chinese Latin and Spanish at the For- award, Arianna Lanz ’13, as eign Language Honors Assem- a “great young lady who has bly on May 21. Four seniors not just done an outstandalso received awards for their ing job learning the language, long-term excellence in each but is also positive and polite.” of the language programs, and Wei recounted her experithe senior Latin award has ences teaching Lanz both at been renamed to honor Latin the middle school and upper teacher Paul Chenier. school, also citing the difficulForeign Language Depart- ties of learning a language so ment Head Margot Riemer different from a native lanbegan the assembly by intro- guage. ducing the foreign language “She wanted to do everyteachers present at the assem- thing perfectly, so I was very bly and praising the students’ happy when I learned she was progress in their study of lan- going to take Chinese,” Wei guages. said. “After she started study“Your presence today is al- ing Chinese, I came to see how ready indicative of your com- determined she was to rise to mitment to learning,” Riemer the challenge. She just kept said. trying her best, doing whatMiddle school Chinese ever she could to improve her teacher Kun Li began the in- Chinese. I believe this was a duction by reading in alpha- reflection of her positive attibetical order the names of the tude and passion for learning students studying Chinese. a new foreign language.”

Chinese teacher Binbin Wei French teacher Simona handed each student a certifi- Ghirlanda stressed the imcate as they portance of walked up to words, such the stage. as commitBefore the ment, passion Our world languages induction of and obsesthe French department is nurtured sion. GhirlanHonors Sociexplained lovingly by a world class da ety, all of the how the faculty.”

French stumeanings of dents stood these words —Jeanne Huybrechts become reland recited Head of School evant by how a pledge of dedication to we use them the study of in society. She the French language. French then introduced the senior teacher Geoff Bird announced French award recipient, Anthe names of the students nie Wasserman ’13, as a child while French teacher Marilyn who “reinvents words and uses Shield greeted them with the them appropriately to describe certificate. her labor of love for French.”

Latin teacher Derek “If this is not the definition Wilairat addressed the Latin of commitment, passion and students before reading their obsession we don’t know what names, congratulating them is,” Ghirlanda said. on their progress.

Ghirlanda said that Was“You have come upon, seen serman became committed to and conquered much of Latin her study of French language, grammar,” Wilairat said. “By and culture, even involving taking Latin, you have ensured herself in courses that she was the continuity of a cultural not formally enrolled in. legacy for over 2000 years.”

Chenier spoke of the diffiThe Spanish students also culties of studying Latin that recited a pledge before their senior Latin award recipient induction.

Middle School Josh Lappen ’13 had overcome Foreign Language Depart- in his completion of the curment Head Melissa Strong riculum. announced the names of the “The grammar can be tor-

School named best place to work in LA

A survey conducted by the Los Angeles Newspaper Group and WorkplaceDynamics ranked Harvard-Westlake “the best place to work in the Southland” in a LA Daily News article, April 29.

“I think a lot of it has to do with whom you hire,” President Tom Hudnut said in an interview with the Daily News. “If you hire people who you’d like to sit down to lunch with and people who are interesting, the chances are pretty good that you are going to enjoy working together.”

—Michael Sugerman

By Jensen Pak

“

GLI Club fundraiser raises rape awareness JENSEN PAK/CHRONICLE

LANGUAGE OF HONOR: Jack Wildasin ’13 shakes French teacher Marilyn Shield’s hand after receiving his French Honors Society certificate at the Foreign Language Honors assembly. turously complicated; even the terminology frightens,” Chenier said. “The readings you do are relentlessly dense and serious. You’ll spend many long nights with old venerable books. Even the new books aren’t new.”

However, Chenier also cited the numerous benefits of the study of Latin as a language that allowed you to adore them. He recounted Lappen’s visits during the summer to discuss the writings of Julius Caesar.

“He received no credit, no fanfare, and there was no point to it, except to talk about Caesar because the opportunity was there,” Chenier said. “This is what makes this young man special. He is blessed with the rarest of desires, the desire to grow for growth’s sake. I don’t know if you can teach that.”

Spanish teacher Roser Gelida concluded the senior awards by explaining the process of learning a foreign language, starting with basic memorization of words and ultimately understanding and analyzing literature and texts.

Gelida remarked that the recipient of the senior Spanish award, Jordan Elist ’13, was a distinguished student who understands all the aspects of studying a language.

“As my student this year in AP Spanish literature and culture, he demonstrated superior language and analytical

skills in understanding meanings,” Gelida said. “Most importantly, he was able to grasp the personal experiences and ethical complexities behind each work of literature, and connected them to the cultural and historical context.”

Gelida talked about Elist’s trip to Barcelona, Spain, to promote community service to Spanish high school students.

“This is for sure one of the best examples of relating language to the world outside of the classroom,” Gelida said.

Head of School Jeanne Huybrechts thanked all of the foreign language teachers for their service to the school.

“Our world languages department is nurtured lovingly by a world class faculty,” Huybrechts said.

Huybrechts announced the senior Latin award had been endowed in honor of Chenier and now will be known as the “Paul Chenier Award.”

Spanish teacher Javier Zaragoza concluded the assembly by promoting the annual issue of Foreign Outlook with Wasserman, the magazine’s editor. Copies of the magazine featuring student writing and photography were distributed at the assembly.

“You should be proud of your dedication,” Riemer said to all of the students. “Learning a language can be one of the most rewarding experiences of your life.”

130 students miss community service deadline

By Erina Szeto

Approximately 130 students who missed the May 6 community service deadline this year were granted an extension until May 28 to complete their requirement.

Seniors who fail to complete a half day of community service in a group of at least three other Harvard-Westlake students will not receive a diploma at graduation and their transcripts will not be sent to colleges. Sophomores and juniors will have to do triple the number of service hours over the summer. These hours will not have to be done with other community members.

If this increased why the numbers requirement is not have changed,” Commet, students will munity Council head not be allowed to Emily Plotkin ’13 enroll for the 2013said.

2014 school year or The council orreceive their school ganized several books. However, stuevents each month dents who make the throughout the year extension will not be and planned five nathanson ’s penalized. community service Emily Plotkin ’13 The number of opportunities for the students who missed weekend before the the first deadline has gone up deadline. They also provided from around 80 last year. other incentives, such as free “I think the Community Dippin’ Dots for students who Council has done a great job completed their service. with both creating and adverNext year’s service retising events and have been quirement has been changed equally if not more vocal than to 12 hours of community serlast year, so I truly don’t know vice without the added con-

dition of working with other Harvard-Westlake community members. Students still need to interact directly with their recipients.

“I’m not sure how the new requirement will change the number of people who miss the deadline, but I sure hope it will improve it,” Plotkin said.

“The reason we wanted to change the requirement was to reward people in ways that weren’t previously recognized.

Despite the change, the council next year will remain active in planning events throughout the year and will try to get kids to want to help and realize that they can make a difference.”

The Girls Learn International club posted flyers and held a bake sale May 24, promoting awareness about rape culture, raising $855.

The money from the bake sale will pay for tuition, uniforms, supplies and transportation for girls going to the SMS Sobhodero School in Pakistan.

The club had originally intended to host an “advocacy week” addressing separate topics including rape culture on separate days.

“We want people to know that rape is never the victim’s fault, but the perpetrator’s,” GLI co-president Sarika Pandrangi ’13 said.

—Marcella Park

Speakers offer advice at senior luncheons

The senior class attended the annual Father-Son and Mother-Daughter luncheons May 11, featuring speakers who offered advice to each group.

President Tom Hudnut and his son Peter Hudnut ’99, an Olympian, spoke to the senior boys and their fathers at the Santa Monica Beach Club about valuing relationships.

At the Skirball Cultural Center, actress Jessica Alba and Head of School Jeanne Huybrechts encouraged the senior girls and their mothers.

“There are people in your life who are eager to help pave the path to your future,” Huybrechts said.

—Leily Arzy

Big Sibs program to expand next year The middle school Big Siblings program received 180 requests from incoming seventh graders along with 90 eighth graders who will lead the program next year, an increase from last year.

“It will be great to see such a large group of students involved in the program,” Chaplain Emily Feigenson said.

Fourteen eighth graders were chosen for the advisory board, each leading a group of about 18 seventh graders.

The Big Siblings program pairs new seventh graders with older students. The goal of the club is to help new students build relationships with their peers.

—Scott Nussbaum

The Chronicle

A8 News

May 29, 2

Hudnut bid

Retiring president em • Continued from page A1

Last day of school for Hudnut after 60-plus years of learning

By Elana Zeltser

Perched atop a telephone pole in rural Vannes, France, Thomas C. Hudnut strung wires, redirecting electricity to farms that had remained virtually untouched since the 15th century.

As an employee of the National Electric Company the summer after his freshman year in college, Hudnut climbed down from the telephone pole, hopped in a deux chevaux truck with co-workers Guy and Claude and continued his immersion into the French language and culture he studied since high school.

“It was sink or swim,” Hudnut said. “But it was a wonderful, wonderful experience.”

Far removed from his summer as an electrician, Hudnut is retiring after 36 years as a headmaster. Yet when he applied to travel abroad in his first year at Princeton University, he had no intention of pursuing a career in education lasting nearly half a century.

Hudnut’s original career plans had him studying foreign languages and cultures to become a member of the state department.

After receiving his master’s degree from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts, he moved to Washington D.C. to begin climbing up the ladder of bureaucracy.

“I had romantic notions of what the life of a diplomat was.” Hudnut said. “It was based on the Graham Greene novels where it would be ‘Our Man in Havana’ and ‘Our Man in Moscow.’”

Instead, he accepted his first teaching job at St. Albans School in Washington as a European history teacher and stayed there seven years before becoming headmaster at the Norwood School for five years.

Following that, he moved to Marin County in Northern California to take on the same position at Branson School for five years before transferring to Harvard School, “and the rest,” he said, “is history.”

As he shifted his focus towards education, he also maintained a side career as an opera singer, performing with the Choral Arts Society of Washington, D.C. for almost 10 years.

“We were Leonard Bernstein’s favorite chorus so we sang several times for him in Carnegie Hall in New York,” Hudnut said.

Hudnut was raised in a religious household, his father

a Presbyterian minister. In sent to war.

Washington he was a church “I like war history,” Hudsoloist as well as a member nut said. “I’d be interested to of the professional quartet of know how many men my age the Washington Hebrew Con- have a tinge of regret as I have gregation of Shabbat Friday about not having gone to VietNights. He regularly attends nam. We all let other people do the Tuesday morning service it. The tinge comes from my led by Father J. Young in St. fascination with wars and war Saviour’s Chapel. heroes and people who have Hudnut said his voice is done heroic things. It leaves now out of practice, although you wondering what you would he performed with the Cham- be like in similar situations.” ber Singers this weekend as Hudnut’s interest in wars part of the Cabaret show. led him and a friend to pursue “Singing is like being an independent research, writing athlete,” Hudnut said. “If a book on the role of a French you’re not in shape, you can’t army in politics during the Aldo it as well as you want to.” gerian revolution from 1954 to Still, his love for Opera also 1962. served to expand his reper“The movie I’ve seen the toire of languages as it sparked greatest number of times is his interest in learning Ital- ‘Patton,’” the war buff said. “It’s ian.

Hudthe story of Gennut is now eral George S. setting out Patton in World on teachWar II. Patton There has been an ing himself was an incandesawful lot of diplomacy cent character, Spanish because “an very objectionrequired in schools.” educated able in a lot of —Thomas C. Hudnut ways, but admiAmerican in President rable in others.” the 21st century ought Aside from to be able to watching films, speak Spanish,” Hudnut said. Hudnut enjoys fishing in his “It’s as simple as that.” free time, even though the Lauded as a linguist, opera lake closest to his heart is not singer, teacher, scholar and conducive to fishing. Hudadministrator, Hudnut consid- nut spends his summers at ers his greatest personal ac- his family compound called complishments to be his three Windover in the mountains children, two granddaughters of upstate New York, the cenand 43-year marriage. terpiece of which is a lake and A 22-year-old Hudnut met an old farmhouse purchased his future wife at a Janis Jo- by his paternal grandfather plin concert in 1969, proposed in 1928. In the years since, two months later and walked the Hudnuts have expanded down the aisle five months af- the original property from 160 ter that. They were preparing acres and single farmhouse to for a move to Boston, Hudnut over 600 acres and nine houses. to pursue graduate school, “None of the houses are Deedie to start a new job. visible from any of the other “It’s a different world now- houses,” Hudnut said. “We adays,” Hudnut said. “We were don’t allow motorboats on the through having children at a lake. It is very peaceful.” younger age than our youngStill, a large part of his est is now and he’s just getting life is defined by time spent married this summer. We’ve on campuses. He has gone to gotten to see them grow up school as a student, teacher and see them get married and or headmaster non-stop since have children. It’s nice.” his first day of nursery school Just as Hudnut was begin- when he was 3. ning to settle down and start Even upon retirement, a family, the Vietnam War after he relaxes for the sumthreatened to pull him away. mer at Windover and sees his Hudnut had received a stu- youngest son get married, he dent deferment his sophomore will still be going to school. year of college and scored He plans to maintain his conwell on a multiple-choice test, nections with international which exempted him from the schools he has made over the draft. The soon-to-be-married years. So, his training in diploHudnut had already begun the macy, despite the divergence paperwork to join a National of his career path, has proved Guard unit in New York when useful after all, as “there has the lottery drew his birthday been an awful lot of diplomacy 326th out of 366, which made required in schools,” Hudnut it highly unlikely he would be said.

“

‘STANFORD’ Shortly after the start of co-education, Hudnut sat in his former office as headmaster on the second floor of Chalmers and made a “conscious decision” with Chair of the Board of Trustees Cynthia Baise to model Harvard-Westlake on Stanford.

“It would be difficult to find a place, a university, that values high performance in athletics

ATHLETICS The year 1997 was a turning point for Wolverine athletics. Framed on the wall next to Hudnut’s desk, a red USA Today sports page nationally ranks the Wolverines’ basketnathanson ball team with future John Luebtow NBA stars Jason ’97 and Jarron Collins ’97.

Around the same time, soccer and volleyball teams brought home championships for the first time, moving the school into a new era of athletic prominence.

“This was a place in the sports pages everyday,” he said.

Never much of an athlete himself, Hudnut saw how fans got caught up in the excitement of winning teams and the free publicity the teams brought.

In particular, he calls the growth of girls’ sports “one of nathanson the most gratifying John Feulner things in the past 25 years,” but the goal with sports, Hudnut said, has been nothing short of “to be seriously good in everything.”

ARTS The merger of the two faculties provided an immediate boost to the visual arts, allowing for a larger program that reached across more disciplines.

“Whatever happened­­—that

Hudnut around cam 1987 - Hudnut arrives at Harvard School

COURTESY OF KEVIN O’MALLEY

HE’S ‘NUTS’: President Thomas C. Hudnut’s high school senior profile displays his extracurricular acitivities, a quote of his choosing, his nickname and a picture from the Choate School in Connecticut.

Trustees had approached Harvard’s board and proposed merging the two single-sex institutions that had long acted informally as sister schools.

Though Hudnut, a veteran of single-sex boarding schools, “literally couldn’t imagine” attending a coed school, he had become a believer in co-education for providing a “a healthier learning environment” and for promoting gender equality.

A group of Westlake parents were not as easily convinced, fighting the merger with a lawsuit that ultimately failed but did not quench all doubts.

To reassure those who were still “irrationally afraid that girls would take a backseat in the merger,” Hudnut set forth on a deliberate program of modeling gender equality with one boy and one girl leading the student body as well as one boy and one girl serving as editorin-chiefs of the new newspaper, the Chronicle.

Tremendous efforts were made to make the old Harvard campus less of a “men’s club” from changing the cafeteria food to adding women’s restrooms. Though Hudnut said most issues “never rose to my level” in a generally smooth transition, he does acknowledge difficulties, especially for the girls in the class of 1992 who were shipped to the Harvard campus for their senior year.

“I have to say that a number of the girls in that class of ’92 of made the merger work,” Hudnut said. “I’m very, very, very grateful to them 21 years later for all of they did.”

and the arts as highly as [Stanford] does the academic quality of its intellectual life,” he said.

The merged school was small enough to provide enough individual attention to each student but large enough to have students to succeed across a broad range of activities, Hudnut said.

Although he can list the names of schools in California with strong programs in either athletics or academics or arts, Hudnut proudly knows of “no school that is stronger in all three aspects that I consider school to be about.”

1989

199

ANDREW GLAZIER/CHRONICLE ARCHIVES

HYPHENATION: Hudnut discusses his plans to merge Harvard School with Westlake School for girls. “While there [were] problems and difficulties attendant to the merger the overriding aim of creating a ‘super school’ was certainly worth it,” Hudnut said.

OPEN on as dedica tenure impro

ay

29, 2013

hwchronicle.com/news

bids farewell

News A9 President Thomas C. Hudnut joined Harvard School for boys in 1987 as headmaster, has presided over a merged HarvardWestlake since 1991 and is retiring after 26 years of service.

t emphasizes importance of balance in education

Stanuality aid. small indiudent stubroad said. t the ornia either arts, f “no n all nsider

was the perfect merger,” said visual arts teacher John Luebtow, who started Harvard’s visual arts program in 1971.

Without any hesitation, Hudnut said the performing arts needed the most attention after the merger.

“How much of a orchestra can you have from six kids?”

Hudnut said, referring to Westlake’s orchestra.

Hudnut said that Performing Arts Department Head Ted Walch’s arrival in 1991 was “the key to the overall success of the performing arts.”

“Performers and athletes have in common both what they’re getting from their pursuit and what they’re giving to the people who are watching and listening,” he said.

A professionally trained opera singer, Hudnut doesn’t need to nathanson ’s see any recent awards John Luebtow to know how far the choirs have come. time, “I know how good our singeams ers are,” he said. ships g the BUILDING TO EXCELLENCE hletic A December 1995 Los Angeles Times story “A Science n the Teacher’s Dream in Studio said.

City” detailed the new Munger Science Center, the first new building at the merged school.

“Our approach to science [...] necessitates first-class facilities,” Hudnut told the Times, justifying the $13 million cost of the building equaling to LAUSD’s science budget. nathanson ’s This all-out attiJohn Feulner tude to building projects has been guided by , has Hudnut’s inclusion of teachers be se- in the design process, Building ” Committee Chair John Feulner said.

Just as Hudnut believes the o fac- opening of Feldman-Horn Galediate lery increased student interest allow- in Visual Arts and expects the that “school’s fortunes in swimming lines. rise in pace” with the Copses —that Family Pool.

campus

CHANGES AT THE TOP By 2006, Hudnut had served for 19 years as both the school’s public face and the man in charge of all of the school’s dayto-day needs for the students and faculty.

“It was just too much,” Hudnut said. “I don’t think I was paying adequate attention to any of the jobs’ components let alone all of them.”

The Board of Trustees approved splitting Hudnut’s position as headmaster into two.

Jeanne Huybrechts as the first Head of School would run the school’s daily operations while Hudnut, as President, would manage the school’s external affairs, dealing with alumni and fundraising.

Hudnut moved from his Seaver office, once open to anyone dropping in, to the house he works in today.

“I have lost the kind of easy contact that I always enjoyed with faculty and students,” he concedes, though he teaches a Choices and Challenges class and his “Hudnut-isms” are constant presence on posters around campus. Recently, students dressed as Hudnut to celebrate his birthday.

“Fortunately, I continue to get to know some students, but not with the degree of intimacy that I enjoyed for so many years,” he said.

applicant pool has made it more difficult to get into the school.

Hudnut said it was “tremendously important” to continue making the school “as affordable for as many possible and has spent his last year raising money for the new Thomas C. Hudnut Scholar Endowed Fund that will allow six students every year to attend the place he helped build.

CODA The Kutler Center, the latest addition to campus, has “added cubits to intellectual life,” Hudnut said.

But he’s not as sure about the future of online education.

“Teaching machines can’t replace teaching humans,” he says, shaking his head at the idea that self-taught courses are the future.

Even as his time here comes to a close, he remains focused on the school’s future, starting off sentences with “We need… We need…

We need…”

“Everything is ending well, he concludes. “There of course have been a

few blips along the away—a major unhappiness with a student death.”

Under his left sleeve, he wears an orange “Strikeout Leukemia” bracelet to honor the life of Chris Robinson ’13.

“Even with last year, a good one and even when there are blips, I hope I have been helpful to those involved,” he added.

Last Friday, he laid out items from his office for any faculty to pick up.

Someone suggested leaving his Santa hat, which he wore for

years dressing up as Santa, for his successor, Rick Commons.

Emphasizing the “personal relationship between administrators, teachers, students and their families,” Hudnut left a few words for the next President of Harvard-Westlake.

“The leader of this school has to be invested personally in the people who work in the school and the people who attend the school,” Hudnut said.

“And this has to be an almost palpable sense of involvement and affection and respect.”

AID AND DIVERSITY Hudnut describes the ideal Harvard-Westlake student as both “adventuresome by nature” and also, “resilient.”

“There are going to be bad grades, parts in plays that you don’t get and teams that you don’t make,” he said. “You need someone who can deal with the negatives that crop up during adolescence and rise above.”

The school now is significantly more diverse than the one Hudnut arrived at partly due to an increased commitment to financial aid in the last decade. Currently, around 20 percent of students reCHLOE LISTER/CHRONICLE ARCHIVES ceive some form of aid. The consequently “constantly ‘BE A FORCE FOR GOOD’: President Thomas C. Hudnut opens the 2010 school year outside of Ahmanson increasing and improving” Lecture Hall by unveiling a bronze Wolverine statue, which has an identical copy on the Middle School campus.

Thomas C. Hudnut’s tenure as Headmaster of Harvard School for boys and President of Harvard-Westlake has overseen the growth of the school into an institution which has more than 1600 enrolled students and 200 faculty members on two campuses and was named the 12th best private high school in the United States by an April 2010 Forbes Magazine article.

1998

2007

2013

REPRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF THE KOREA TIMES

MORGANNE RAMSEY/CHRONICLE

OPENING CEREMONIES: Hudnut, right, looks on as Janis Horn and Leonard Feldman cut the ribbon dedicating Feldman-Horn Art Center. Throughout his tenure, he oversaw numerous construction projects to improve and replace facilities on both campuses.

FOREIGN RELATIONS: Hudnut speaks to students at the Hankuk Academy in Seoul. “Most of our students are going to [work] with their eyes on the other side of the Pacific ... I wonder whether we are doing enough to address the issues of the Pacific Rim,” Hudnut said.

FINAL NOTE: Hudnut performs “Cantique de Jean Racine,” with the Chamber Singers at the final choir performance of the 2012-13 school year. “I’ve always thought that visual and performing arts contribute mightily to the vitality of the school,” Hudnut said.

2013 - Hudnut retires from H-W

STEPHANIE BOSWELL/CHRONICLE ARCHIVES

GRAPHIC BY JACK GOLDFISHER, MICHAEL SUGERMAN AND NOA YADIDI

A10 News

The Chronicle

May 29, 2013

Math teacher to return to Utah

By Emily Segal

teacher, Satterthwaite initially considered following a After spending her first career path in government post-college years teaching service and joining the Federal at Harvard-Westlake, upper Bureau of Investigation before school mathematics teacher she decided that teaching was Ashley Satterthwaite plans what she was passionate about to move to Sandy, Utah for at and what she wanted to purleast the next few years. sue as a career.

Her decision to move was “I wanted to be like him prompted by job opportunities but I learned how to blaze my for her husband as well as the own trail and set a new path chance to be near her family. for myself,” Satterthwaite said.

Both Satterthwaite and In addition to teaching her husband are originally math, Sattherwaite helped from Utah and are glad that with the Track and Field protheir one-year-old son will be gram and was chair of the closer to his grandCharacter Education parents.

Committee.

Since she began Though Satterworking at Harvardthwaite is excited Westlake in 2006, about her move, she Satterthwaite has regrets having to lose primarily taught some of the connecsophomores in Algetions she’s made with bra II: The Fundestudents as well as Nathanson ’s mentals and Introwith her close knit Ashley duction to Calculus family of colleagues.

Satterthwaite Honors.

“It seems like evShe also taught ery day I recognize Precalculus: Trigonometry something new that I’m going and Functions during her first to miss,” Satterthwaite said. year at Harvard-Westlake, she Jake Bracken ’14 was in said.

Satterthwaite’s Alegbra II: “Harvard-Westlake shaped The Fundementals class last what I desire my career to be, year and remembers the class what kind of teacher I want to fondly. be,” Satterthwaite said.

“I always looked forward “Our team environment to [Satterthwaite’s] class,” here has really helped me Bracken said. “She created learn from awesome, incred- an amazing learning environible teachers so I know what to ment for us, and all of us felt aspire to as I move forward,” comfortable asking her quesSatterthwaite said. tions or going to meet with In Utah, Satterthwaite will her about concepts we didn’t continue to teach mathemat- understand,” Bracken said. ics to high school students at “She is really good at rethe Waterford School. lating to her students and you Inspired by her seventh can tell that she really cares grade English teacher, with about each one of her students whom she is still in contact, individually,” Bracken said.

Satterthwaite said she al“Math was never my faways knew she wanted to be a vorite subject, but she made mathematics teacher. it really interesting and fun to However, like her English learn about.”

Alumnus to assume title of mayor in July • Continued from page A1

class.

At homecoming last year, house, he said that he cared he told Waterhouse that that most about community service class was where he got interprojects working at downtown ested in politics. homeless shelters during his Garcetti, who said the thehigh school years. ater and jazz programs were “I always knew I wanted to a significant part of his expebring about a more just and rience at Harvard School, laanalytical world,” Garcetti mented cuts to arts programs said. “I thought I might do it in public schools in the city he internationally. I thought I calls the “most creative spot might do it in government or on the face of the earth.” non-profits, but I did not think “I understood how special that I would do it in local gov- a school makes you feel about ernment.” yourself,” Garcetti Senior Alumni said. “If you don’t have Officer Harry Salafacilities that are top mandra, who adnotch, you start thinkvised Garcetti when ing people don’t care he was elected a about you. Vice versa, prefect, remembers a great football field, a Garcetti’s interwonderful library and est in social issues big classrooms makes printed with permission of E ric Garcetti through his involveyou think about yourment in Amnesty Eric Garcetti ’88 self as someone who International. can and will succeed.”

“He seemed to always care, Garcetti studied at Columand this was obviously who he bia where he received his B.A. was as a person,” Salamandra in urban planning and political said. “He was a caring, altruis- science and later an M.A. in tic-kind of person,” Salaman- International Relations. dra said.

He also studied at OxWhen he was a junior, ford University and the LonGarcetti and some of his don School of Economics as a friends talked to Waterhouse, Rhodes Scholar. his AP US History teacher the He spent time teaching Inprevious year, into teaching an ternational Relations at USC AP Government and Politics and later at Occidental.

DAVID LIM/CHRONICLE

IN HIS ELEMENT: Austin Chan ’13, an experienced computer programmer, works on the new Chronicle website while on his MacBook Pro. He had to learn new techniques of coding for the project, he said. Chan will be interning with Yahoo! to develop new applications for eight weeks this summer.

Senior to intern, code for Yahoo!

By Michael Rothberg

Working well past midnight on a weeknight, Austin Chan ’13, typed a long series of symbols and letters into his Mac laptop.

His heart was beating fast with the Red Bull pumping through his body, but the website he had been building tirelessly for months was inching toward completion.

Within a few days, the newly redesigned HarvardWestlake Chronicle website was launched, and Chan caught up on sleep.

Chan has been learning to write computer code since he took AP Computer Science in the 10th grade, and since then has designed several applications and websites, recently landing a summer job at Yahoo! His most demanding and time-consuming endeavor yet was working on the new website for the Chronicle, he said.

In the summer of 2012, Chronicle Editor-in-Chief David Lim ’13 recruited Chan to help code for the newspaper’s redesigned website.

“Lim just came to me and said, ‘you’ve got to make our website for us.’ A lot of other people asked me to do their websites, but I had to turn them down,” Chan said.

Chan, who had no previous background in news design, had to quickly teach himself some new coding techniques to accommodate programming some of the website’s features.

“This whole journalism thing has been totally different

[than other projects],” Chan said. “The thing I had to learn most,” Chan said, “was how to be serious. I got David Lim and myself in trouble because of humorous placeholder text while designing the website.”

“Working with Austin has by far been the most traumatic experience of my life,” Lim joked.

After listening to a lecture by computer science engineers from Yahoo, Chan discussed the technology industry with one of the engineers. He then showed off some of his past work to the engineer.

“He was actually friends with one of the recruiters at Yahoo!,” Chan said. “He was really, really impressed, and put in a good word with me at Yahoo.”

“That developed into a formal case for an internship, so I went through all the steps.

I also had to write a resume and field some technical questions about coding.”

One rigorous phone interview later, he got an eightweek internship at Yahoo headquarters in Sunnyvale, near San Francisco.

“Most likely, I will be working on a mobile application or something in web development,” Chan said. “One of them I might be working on is the iPhone app for weather, which is powered

by Yahoo! I might be working on something that everyone at school and millions of others are using.”

Chan first encountered programming and computer science in 8th grade when he

took a programming class.

“It was so elementary that it didn’t really draw me in.

We didn’t learn much,” Chan said. “Then, in 10th grade, I took AP Computer Science, and that really captivated my imagination and I got really into it.”

Within the first month of taking AP Computer Science, Chan researched programming on his own to supplement what he was learning at school.

He became proficient in numerous programming languages including CSF, HTML, Java, JavaScript, PHP and Objective-C. Eventually, Chan used the small arsenal of different programming languages and techniques he had learned through his research and classes to code simple commands.

“I made a script that ‘liked’ everything on someone’s wall on Facebook,” Chan said. “I showed some of my friends and they used it. We thought it was funny. Then I moved on to another project.”

Chan said he has undertaken more serious projects in the past year that involve web design and iPhone application development.

“I love how applications are pretty much limitless,” Chan said.

“For example, Ebay has improved so many people’s lives who are handicapped and cannot walk or who do not have the full range of motion that other people have, but they can still have businesses.”

P.E. teacher to leave after 19 years

By Enya Huang

now I can have a bigger impact on families: educating people, Middle school physical helping people.” education teacher Chen started his Steve Chen is leaving coaching career 19 next year to “give the years ago. insurance business “I was first hired [his] full attention,” at Harvard-Westlake Chen said. as a walk-on for volHe has worked leyball,” Chen said. at Farmers Insur“I was the JV head ance for the past five coach and varsity asNathanson ’s months as a producsistant coach for my Steven Chen er agent. first six years with “Basically, I am the boys’ program.” able to sell insurance, [whethBesides volleyball, Chen er] home, auto or commercial, has also coached basketball, and basically I am the one that golf, tennis and a year of footis able to enforce, or bind, as ball, he said. we say, a contract,” Chen said.

He is currently a PE teach“I [have] the opportunity er, as none of his sports are in to stretch my skills outside of season. school,” he said.

Chen coaches outside of “I’ve been doing what I school as well. love, impacting students. And “I can never get tired of

sports,” Chen said. “Playing sports just takes me to a different place, a place where I don’t have to worry about the stressful real world, a place where I can feel young and really just be truly happy because I’m doing things I really enjoy, which is playing sports and being challenged.”

Chen’s love of challenges pushed him to persevere even after he injured himself while playing basketball.

Even after needing a titanium plate and four screws in his neck, Chen kept playing.

“Once you’re an athlete, you’re just 100 percent, like when you play an instrument,” he said.

“You go with it. You don’t know anything else. It’s who you are as a person and an athlete.”

May 29, 2013

hwchronicle.com/news

Dudamel instructs combined orchestra

• Continued from page A1

said. “I stole it from the archives of the orchestra because I am obsessed.”

With a wave of his conductor’s baton, the orchestra played the piece all the way through.

“Wonderful, wonderful,” he said, but the orchestra would not get off that easily.

“There are so many details we need to understand before we play,” Dudamel said.

When they set off for the second time, Dudamel stopped them after only the first note.

“This is not an affirmative,” Dudamel said. “It is not like yes, but like how. There is more intensity when you ask a question than when you answer it.”

Throughout his class, Dudamel would often describe the notes in an unexpected way.

“By explaining it differently he made it so much more organic so that the feeling actually came from the musician,” Cheong said. “Because he has everything memorized he can make eye contact and really draw out the emotion and depth of the piece.”

As he singled out the string section he said “not only Madonna sings, violinists must sing” and he hummed out their part for them.

“It is like when you sing in the bathroom and there is this beautiful echo and you are the best singer in the world,” he said.

As the symphony progressed it took many different tones. During a part of high intensity Dudamel said that it should be played as if the musicians were “swimming in a pool, but a pool full of honey.”

Later, when the piece became much lighter, Dudamel told singers to “enjoy the party. It is mysterious, but at the same time very funny.”

When the piece got darker again he told students “I would love to be your father. You are really well educated. Now yell at me!”

Dudamel said that the deeper meaning behind each note is what makes classical music an interesting and intriguing art form. He said that Beethoven’s works in particular are difficult to play because of its intricacy.

“It’s like having a baby for the first time,” Dudamel said.

News A11

NOA YADIDI/CHRONICLE

MAESTRO AT WORK: Gustavo Dudamel conducts the full orchestra, consisting of students from all musical ensembles, on Beethoven’s First Symphony during the Brown family speaker assembly.

“You touch it and it cries and you don’t know what to do.”

His occasional grunts and comments of “no, no, no,” “too early” and “breath,” culminated in a final “beautiful” when he was satisfied.

He then took a seat to answer student questions where

he explained his roots conducting a children’s orchestra in his home country of Venezuela. Dudamel has always made children’s education a focus of his career, establishing youth orchestra groups around the world to “try to change their lives through music.”

Ultimately, Dudamel made sure to emphasize the value of classical music, which he said often goes unappreciated in youth culture.

“Classical music is not boring,” he said. “It is the responsibility of the musician to bring out the feeling in every note.”

Junior organizes anti-sexism group

By Noa Yadidi

PRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF KENNEDY GREEN

GOLDEN GIRL: Kennedy Green ’14 poses with Anna Maria Chavez, the CEO of Girl Scouts of the USA, at the Girl Scout Women and Girls’ Leadership Breakfast after winning the Gold Award.

Junior earns Girl Scout Gold Award, chosen to represent city in capitol

By Nadia Rahman Kennedy Green’s ’14 Gold Award marked the pinnacle of her 10-year Girl Scout career and effectively ended it.

“That’s as far as you can go,” Green said. “After the Gold Award, your Girl Scout career is pretty much over.”

For her Gold Award, a project that requires 80 hours of direct community service and approval by a council of Girl Scout Council staff members, Green planned and held a five day camp for third through fifth graders.

“What I was trying to do was prepare them for the middle school ethic,” Green said.

“When I was in fifth grade, no one really told me what it’d be like going into sixth grade, and so, unfortunately, I got in with some bad crowds. It was really important for me to teach other kids that they don’t have to be a part of that.”

Several women on the council recommended her to represent the Girl Scouts of greater Los Angeles at the Girl Scout Women and Girls’ Leadership Breakfast in Washington, D.C. on Feb. 28.

Green was among 17 Girl Scouts from across the country who attended the breakfast.

All of the Girl Scouts invited to the breakfast had won Gold Awards.

“I always felt that Gold Awards were like quilts, like someone made a large quilt, and it took up 80 hours of their life,” Green said. “So when I saw [that] all these other girls from across the country put so much time and dedication into their own Gold Awards like I did, it was like, ‘I’m not alone in this universe.’”

After Annie Kors ’14 ran a case in an open demonstration debate about how debaters should be more sensitive with what they argue in rounds and more sensitive with the words they use, she overheard a stranger describe her as, “that stupid slut, she was probably raped, that’s why she said it.”

Since then, Kors has launched an organization called Debaters Against Sexism, along with Rebecca Kuang, a debater for Greenhill School in Dallas. With the help of other prominent female debaters and coaches on the national debate circuit, the two created a pledge against sexism and gender discrimination, which has gained over 1,300 signatures since February.

“We will be working closely with the National Forensics League to create and review legislation to help protect women in debate and to make the community more accepting of all people,” she said.

The National Debate Coaches Association unanimously decided to sign the pledge as an organization.

At last year’s Tournament of Champions only one girl

was left debating on the last day with a few female judges on a topic about domestic violence. As a result, Kors and Kuang, who won the Tournament of Champions this year, began the organization by putting the pledge online for community members to sign creating a basic, fundamental platform for the organization.

The pledge gained 1000 signatures by the end of the first week and spread into different circuits of debate, gaining more support than they expected.

“The biggest problem was just people would say that we wouldn’t actually do anything, people could just sign it and then feel better about themselves and not actually solve the problem,” Kors said.

Kors identifies herself as a feminist, a label she defines as “mostly meaning that women deserve equal respect as human beings,” she said. “Everyone deserves equal respect and treatment regardless of gender or sex.”

Debate Coach Mike Bietz said “organizations like Debaters Against Sexism will make everyone aware of how their behavior may contribute to an environment that is not friendly to girls.”

the harvard-westlake

CHRONICLE Los Angeles • Volume XXIII • Issue IX • May 29, 2013

Editors in Chief: David Lim, Elana Zeltser Managing Editors: Robbie Loeb, Michael Rothberg, Camille Shooshani Executive Editor: Rachel Schwartz Presentations Editors: Jamie Chang, Gabrielle Franchina

Opinion The Chronicle

•

May 29, 2013

Sports Editors: Michael Aronson, Luke Holthouse Chief Copy Editor: Allana Rivera News Managing Editors: Michael Sugerman, Ally White News Section Heads: Julia Aizuss, Jack Goldfisher, Elizabeth Madden, Lauren Sonnenberg, Noa Yadidi Infographics Manager: Jivani Gengatharan News Copy Editor: Jessica Lee News Online Managers: Claire Goldsmith, Jensen Pak Assistants: Leily Arzy, Sara Evall, Haley Finkelstein, Enya Huang, Sophie Kupiec-Weglinski, Jensen McRae, Nikta Mansouri, Scott Nussbaum, J.J. Spitz, Jake Saferstein Opinion Managing Editor: Ana Scuric Section Heads: Beatrice Fingerhut, James Hur, Kyla Rhynes, Tara Stone Assistants: Parker Chusid, Lucas Gelfen, Kenneth Schrupp Features Managing Editors: Maggie Bunzel, Carrie Davidson Features Section Heads: Eojin Choi, Sydney Foreman, David Gisser, Sarah Novicoff, Morganne Ramsey, Lauren Siegel Assistants: Carly Berger, Zoe Dutton, Jacob Goodman, Aimee Misaki, Marcella Park, Nadia Rahman, David Woldenberg Sports Managing Editors: Aaron Lyons, Keane Muraoka-Robertson Section Heads: Patrick Ryan, Grant Nussbaum, Lucy Putnam, Lizzy Thomas Assistants: Elijah Akhtarzad, Mila Barzdukas, Jordan Garfinkel, Tyler Graham, Miles Harleston, Erina Szeto, Jeremy Tepper Business Manager: Cherish Molezion Ads Manager: Leslie Dinkin Photographers: Mazelle Etessami, Rebecca Katz, Scott Nussbaum, Emily Segal Multimedia Team: Mazelle Etessami, Jack Goldfisher, Henry Hahn, Luke Holthouse, Eric Loeb, Sam Sachs Adviser: Kathleen Neumeyer 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 Leslie Dinkin at 818465-6512. Publication of an advertisement does not imply endorsement of the product or service by the newspaper or the school.

Thank you, Mr. Hudnut

JACOB GOODMAN/CHRONICLE

When Tom Hudnut became headmaster at the Harvard School, its student newspaper, the Harvard News, was an afterschool extracurricular activity with no faculty advisers and no journalism class. Hudnut told student editors they were free to exercise their right to free press as long as they exercised it responsibly, and they did.

When the Chronicle was born with the merger of 1991, he continued to support student right of expression, never asking to see the newspaper before it was printed and never asking that a story not be written.

His staunch defense of the newspaper included giving editors heads-up on stories and big scoops — including last spring’s announcement of his own retirement. His support has given readers a source for honest coverage and commentary of Harvard-Westlake events, whether positive or negative.

The Chronicle is one of few high school newspapers that is not censored by its school’s administration. This freedom has allowed us to become the “shining beacon for high school journalism,” the National Scholastic Press Association described in their 2012 review of

our paper.

Because the Chronicle is free to report without censorship, we have been able to play a more valuable role at the school by nailing down the facts when rumor-breeding scandals have occurred and by opening a forum for student and faculty opinion.

“One of [Hudnut’s] most important contributions was letting his student journalists be journalists,” sportswriter Eric Sondheimer wrote in the Los Angeles Times.

Free speech for the Chronicle has affected every individual at the school from the student journalists who learn to observe, question and report, to each student, teacher and community member who reads their work and gains a reliable account of Harvard-Westlake affairs.

So thank you, Mr. President.

Headed in the right direction Two years ago, a large, school-affiliated (although not school-sanctioned) semiformal after-party landed six in the hospital with alcohol poisoning, brought police to the scene and ultimately resulted in unfavorable coverage for the school from local media.

This disaster yielded some changes at Harvard-Westlake. Semiformal was cancelled, and Senior Prom was put in jeopardy.

“Some kids behaved in such a way at [last year’s] prom that the hotel that had the prom won’t have us back,” Head of School Jeanne Huybrechts said in 2011, adding that prom could only be held if it were “safe and sane.”

Due to this, prom was handed a new constraint: the administration implemented a prom pledge in which all students in attendance

must agree not to “appear under the influence of alcohol or drugs” at the prom venue and not to “plan, buy a ticket for, or attend any afterparty at a non-residential venue.”

The document does not ban consumption of alcohol or drugs — just the appearance of having done so — and parties are far from forbidden.

That said, Senior Prom 2013 resulted in neither media scandal nor complaints from the Millennium Biltmore Hotel. Prom did what it was meant to do: celebrate the seniors’ time at Harvard-Westlake in a classy and fun way where everyone appeared to behave and stay safe.

This year, prom night seemed to revolve mainly around enjoying the event, not partying before or after. The way we see it, perhaps the lack of news just may be good news.

hwchronicle.com

May 29, 2013

Opinion A13

Experiences gained and memories made

By Sarah Novicoff JACOB GOODMAN/CHRONICLE

Learning on the job

R

By Claire Goldsmith

egardless of the outcome, I’m grateful for the experience.

When I say this, I’m often told I sound like a politician. Even though many people might be insulted by that remark, I’ll take it as a compliment – after all, I’m emulating a politician I deeply admire.

Nearly a year ago, I began working on Wendy Greuel’s campaign for mayor of Los Angeles. Two summers ago, I interned for her in the City Controller’s Office.

Greuel ran against City Councilman Eric Garcetti ’88.

Treachery, you cry. How could I not support an alumnus of my school?

I based my allegiance not on each candidate’s alma mater, but on what he or she represented. In my two years working for Greuel, I saw her determination and vision for a better city. She was always friendly with her interns, knew our names and our interests, chatted with us when she had a rare free moment.

I admire Greuel, and I relish the time I spent working for her campaign. I started as an intern and worked my way up to the position of Organizing Fellow. I learned how to cold-call hundreds of people without the slightest hesitation and how to connect with complete strangers over an is-

sue they really cared about. I met some incredible people on the campaign, people I’m sure I’ll see run for office themselves one day.

The campaign showed me a realm of future possibilities, but it also reminded me why we as a society find it so difficult to break free of the past.

I fielded more calls than I could count with men who could never quite put into words why they weren’t voting for her – maybe, as California Attorney General Kamala Harris says, we’re still not comfortable with women being in charge of our money and our security.

I heard the same complaint over and over from women who loved Greuel and were impressed by her endorsements. There was just one problem, though. They couldn’t vote for her, they said, because she had a son.

After all, how could she be Mayor and be a good mother at the same time?

No matter her impressive qualifications or plans, Greuel would never be accepted by these voters.

Emblazoned with “Wendy for Mayor” buttons and sticking lawn signs wherever I could, I faced some negative reactions from my Garcettiloving peers. As a Democrat at an overall Democratic school, I’ve rarely held the

minority opinion here, at least regarding politics. I scoffed at other views since they weren’t the ones I had, without bothering to assess the validity of those arguments.

Now, having spent approximately 10 months on the other side of that interaction, I wish I had given more consideration to others’ points of view. It’s difficult enough to hold an unpopular opinion without being mocked for it.

The last lesson I learned on the campaign trail was how to accept defeat gracefully. Late Tuesday night, as the election results trickled in, Greuel conceded the race in a private phone call to Garcetti.

In her statement the next day, she congratulated her opponent, recognized their strong friendship and championed the future of both women in politics and the futre of the city.

I know I won’t succeed at everything I attempt in life, and when that happens, I hope to handle it like Greuel.

For lack of a better phrase, she’s a classy lady, and she taught me volumes during the time I spent with her.

So, congratulations to Mayor-elect Garcetti. He’ll be a great leader of the city, and if I can’t have a woman as mayor, at least I’ll have a Wolverine.

Excited, with a few fears

W

hen I received my personal essay assignment three weeks ago in English III Honors, I was terrified. The idea of writing a five or six-page essay in which I must define myself seemed like walking into a minefield.

The guidelines were broad with instructions like “Your essay should have something to offer readers who don’t know you and don’t particularly care about your life.”

Uh-oh was my first thought.

I have always struggled to write application essays for any programs. Even a question as simple as “what is your favorite color?” has always stumped me. I don’t like defining myself or committing myself to a set of ideas or behaviors.

Life is messy. A five-page paper could never capture the chocolate sauce that stains most of my sweatshirts, the discolored scar on my thigh from falling down a mountain, the story of the pet cocker spaniel I share, and all the other intimate details of my life.

I did, however, write a personal essay. It wasn’t about anything big or scary yet I am proud of it.

I wrote about my experiences with children as an assistant teacher at my religious school, as a children’s museum docent and as a camp counselor. Those experiences have made me the person I am today.

I learned a lot at Camp Harmony, the weeklong summer camp for underprivileged and homeless children where

I worked. One of my most difficult campers was Ava, a girl who at the end of the camp I discovered had been beaten by her father. When Ava confided in me, I went to a therapy session with her and the camp social worker to go over what she had said.

It was very hard not to cry while sitting with Ava and the social worker; the idea that someone would beat this adorable 7-year-old and her even younger sister with a belt was horrifying to me. I didn’t cry, though; I kept my eyes dry as I held Ava’s hand and talked her through the incident. More significantly, Ava’s eyes were dry too. Her strength moved me, but even more than that, it scared me.

A 7-year-old should not need that kind of strength, and I had to get past my own shock and fright in order to help her.

Those children taught me, and still teach me, with their generous hugs and contagious enthusiasm what it means to be happy and to appreciate the world around you. I used to view my life as merely a race towards an end goal; I was the kind of kid whom people told to smell the roses.

However, once I started teaching and spending more time with children, I began to place more importance on daily life and learned to be more patient with others. I discovered a talent for seeing things from other perspectives and came to be a better person for it.

In the end, I don’t know the meaning of life, I only know me.

As junior year comes to a close, the highs and lows of senior year loom in the distance.

By Noa Yadidi

T

op four things I’m looking forward to most about senior year: 1. Classes: For the first time in six years, I will have the opportunity, flexibility and space in my schedule to fill it with classes I actually want to take. It is the first time I’m excited for every single class and have gotten to choose each one. I get to take Molecular Gastronomy, Cinema Studies, U.S. Government, Middle East Studies, an Advanced Seminar in Math - interesting classes, some unique to our school, and not generic run-of-the-mill, required ones.

2. Traditions: Ring Ceremony, Prom, bad pranks and Graduation. These are events we’ve been anticipating since first stepping onto the middle school campus. We’ve ordered our rings, we girls have already begun browsing

for appropriate ring ceremony dresses, some of us have gotten a taste of what prom might be like, and although we’ve promised to each other that our prank “will actually be a good one” - let’s be honest, it probably won’t. It’s finally our turn to participate in the traditions of the senior class.

3. Senior privileges: Both a blessing and curse (as a result of high accident rates) is that I will now park in the senior lot. Instead of having to make the 10-minute trek from the Upper St. Michael’s parking lot, I will have a conveniently located spot. If my calculations are correct, that gives me approximately nine more minutes of sleeping each morning, accumulating to about 45 more minutes of sleep a week - sleep I could have used this year. Not only that, but we finally have the

option to go off campus during frees and consume food other than the cafeteria’s.

4. Bye bye, junior year: Finally, in becoming seniors we get to free ourselves from the shackles of junior year.

Although the first half of senior year will be rough, after a semester of exertion, we’ll finally have a semester to hang back, relax and perhaps enjoy our learning without the stress of college admissions, standardized tests and grades.

Top four things I am dreading about senior year: 1. Goodbye, class of 2013: In order for us to become seniors, the current class must vacate the position and on June 7 they will be doing exactly that. The classes of 2013 and 2014 are uncharacteristically close, and we are going to losing the presence of some of our closest friends.

2. The college process: The

single most dreaded aspect of senior year. The thing we have been preparing for for our whole lives, and most prominently in the years we’ve attended HarvardWestlake. The college process is awful, unfair and stressful.

It tests friendships, makes us deal with rejection and teaches us patience. All we can do is hope and trust that it will all work out. Although the process is unavoidable, it is definitely not something I am looking forward to.

3. One more year: We’re running out of time. All we have left is about nine months to “make our mark,” as students at Harvard-Westlake before our lives change forever. After five years of being together, the class of 2014 has only nine more months of normalcy, of familiarity before we disperse to colleges around the world and pursue our own

separate paths of life. Although our paths may cross, this is our last chance to get to know everyone around us before it’s too late.

4. Oldest on campus: Although this is not all bad, as we are going to be “the ones in charge,” we’re going to be held to a high standard; we’re expected to be the role models, the leaders. Consequently, there is something unsettling about having no one to look up to. Our responsibility will become to boast our years of experience to pave the way for the grades below us - great responsibilities we are expected to fulfill.

And as I say good riddance to junior year and goodbye and good luck to the class of 2013. I also say welcome to the class of 2016, and perhaps we can help show you the way so that you aspire to be like us one day.

The Chronicle

A14 Opinion

May 29, 2013

Live in the moment

By Morganne Ramsey

A

s junior year comes to an end, I find my friends saying, “I’m so done with school – I just want to go to college already,” even though a year still remains before we begin college.

The more I think about it, the more I realize that most of us (myself included), live our lives in anticipation of some big event: a history test, an English essay, hell week for the musical.

All I have to do is get through this history paper, and then everything will be fine, I tell myself. Until that test, school and my life will suck but after that test, my life will be perfect. Until spring break - it never ends.

Right now, I am counting down the days until summer.

When I told a friend that

I was thinking about writing this column, she immediately told me, “Life isn’t not about the destination, it’s about the journey.” I think she got the quote wrong, but the sentiment is right.

So, I am working to rid myself of this habit of always living waiting for something.

Although I do it often, I hate that I do. I feel as though I am wasting away precious time with the people I have met and the friends I have made.

By not living in the moment, I worry that I am throwing away opportunities that this school has given me.

Although I participate, am I really making the most out of it if I’m always lamenting the fact that I am not in college yet?

I only have one more

year seeing my friends every day and taking advantage of everything this school has to give me.

It is my goal to make the most of it and not waste it pining away for the next step.

I will still have a purpose to what I do, because I

am determined. I know that I’m always going to have the future in mind whenever I do anything, whether it’s how that activity will look on a college application, or how much time I’ll waste by watching the latest episode of “Downton Abbey.”

JACOB GOODMAN/CHRONICLE

But I’m also going to wander around for a while without a purpose, in the spirit of J.R.R. Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings - the Fellowship of the Ring”, “Not all those who wander are lost.”

And I’m going to smell the roses while I’m at it.

Leaving junior year behind

By Elizabeth Madden

S

pringtime has always been associated with renewal and rebirth. The days get longer, the flowers begin blooming, and animals come out of hibernation. But for students, springtime primarily signifies another school year coming to a close. For us, it represents yearbooks, finals, term papers and Vitamin C’s “Graduation (Friends Forever).”

The excitement and anticipation for summer is obvious on campus as we begin to plan weekend trips to the beach after what seemed like an endless respite. The temperature rises while our interest in physics and world history,

well, drops.

To juniors, especially, the end of this year comes as a huge relief. Junior year is notorious for pushing all juniors to the brink of a nervous breakdown (and believe me, I came close more than a few times). This year, “free time” became an abstract idea, an impossible dream. I honestly do not remember the last time I did not have some sort of school work to do.

So why am I so sad this year is ending?

I can’t help but feel an impending sense of loss. For all the stress and grief that juniors have gone through this year, we’ve come out of

it a more united and mature grade. We understand each other more deeply, and take comfort in the fact that we all made it through this year primarily by leaning on each other for emotional support.

There’s something intoxicating about overcoming a challenge that you never thought you would be capable of tackling. It’s a strange mix of gratification, humility and awe.

It’s that feeling that motivates people to train for a triathlon or to attempt to climb Mount Everest; the chase for that one moment when you finally cross the finish line or reach the summit

of the mountain.

Now, I am not trying to compare finishing junior year to climbing Mount Everest, but I still think it’s a pretty big accomplishment for all of us. After hearing about the infamous junior year that struck fear into our hearts for years, we were forced to dive right in and make the best of it, which I think we did.

That’s why I think I’ll miss it. That feeling of a constant state of growth, while typical in adolescence anyway, was palpable this year. The ground kept shifting beneath us, which forced us to be on our toes at all times. It was exhilarating, confusing and

terrifying all at once.

Of course, I’m excited to experience senior year with my friends and all the perks that come with it: prom, grad night, being able to go off campus.

I just think that we as a grade have fostered a really unique environment throughout this year, and there is a part of me that is sad to see it go. The upside is that now we know that, as a grade, we are capable of overcoming any obstacle that gets thrown our way, and that, in the end, we’ll all be okay.

So, bring it on, senior year.

The Class of 2014 is more than ready for you.

Internships give us a glimpse into the future

By Beatrice Fingerhut

I

t was the third week in.

I was running back and forth between the pre and postproduction offices when I finally decided to stop by the kitchen and grab a coffee.

That summer, I consumed the most caffeinated drinks in my almost-18 years of existence.

While I was pouring the coffee into a flimsy Styrofoam cup, a production assistant was hunting for an edible in the fridge. After exchanging pleasantries, he turned to me and asked what college I attended. I think he expected to hear Loyola Marymount University because that was where all the other interns went to school.

I laughed while telling him that I was only about to start my junior year in high school.

Dumbfounded he turns and says, “Wait, you’re 16 and you already have your first internship? Wow how the times are changing.”

In that moment, I didn’t think much of his statement

as it went through one ear and out the other. I was just bored over the summer. In the end I was grateful to have something to do, even if that meant being a go-fer for an office full of sleep-deprived 30-something year olds. Now, as I’m finishing junior year, that PA’s statement finally took on meaning.

High school students are now attempting to encroach on the territory formally held by college students: unpaid summer internships. As we attempt to do so, we are faced with more than a few challenges. Some of those obstacles we have no control over and others we can begin to remove by ourselves.

Internships are invaluable to students these days.

It gives us a small glimpse at the real world along with a chance to explore a possible career path. By all means, we don’t have to decide “who we want to be when we grow up,” but wouldn’t it be nice to

cross off a few possibilities?

Had I not interned at a television production company last summer, I would have never known that I absolutely hated it.

Every day felt painstakingly long and no aspect of the process truly captivated me.

In the end I spent more time on my computer researching colleges than researching possible actors for a TV show.

However boring those six weeks were I’m very grateful to have spent every minute there. Ok, maybe I could have cut the time of that whole experience in half but it gave me something I didn’t have before: perspective.

Now, as I’m really focusing in on what schools I want to apply to and specifically what programs or majors interest me, the possibility of an internship this summer eludes me.

Along with many other students, I assume that an internship looks good on a

college application. Interning could show drive, determination and focus. How could spending a little time working not benefit us in someway?

I realize that the only reason I got the chance to intern at the production company was due to a kind family friend who knew someone who knew someone. It is now evident that it was a one shot deal.

That is the biggest hurdle for students to overcome. The only way most of us find an internship is through connections. In my opinion, that is a very ineffective system. It is very possible that our parents may have careers that do not interest us in the slightest and are unable to help. Therefore, we have a significantly harder time finding these opportunities.

The school has created a program to help students find internships. However, many students don’t really know about it. This endeavor has

good intentions but it is still very underdeveloped. Some of those who have tried to utilize it have come out of the process disenchanted and probably without an internship.

We need to create a larger version of how we currently find these opportunities. By creating a network of connections, students will be able to pursue internships that interest them. In a small amount of time a program like this will grow and most likely be very successful, but currently we are left on our own to search.

It isn’t imperative for all high school students to have an unpaid internship, but I also don’t see how it could hinder us in any way.

Why shouldn’t we try something before we have to commit to it as adults and find ourselves unhappy? Or better yet, we should just do it for the experience and the chance to learn something new.

hwchronicle.com/opinion

May 29, 2013

quadtalk

Opinion A15

The Chronicle asked:

“What did you think about the speakers this year?”

Dara Torres

Gustavo Dudamel

April 24, 2013

May 23, 2013

“I think it’s amazing that Torres has carried on what she loves doing for such a long time. She has truly proven her passion and love for her sport.”

— Morgan Choi ’15 “It was super cool to have an Olympian come and speak at our school. Personally, I know what it’s like being the odd one out since I’m gay and an athlete. With her being so successful and being a woman, it was empowering and really inspirational.”

— Kenny Lopez ’13 “Torres was an inspiration to all women. She wasn’t afraid to beat the odds, and she showed that there’s no age limit to success.”

— Karin Rhynes ’15

“I was really just in awe of Dudamel’s whole style of conducting:use of metaphors, bringing all aspects of life into music.”

— Gracen Evall ’13

“It was so inspiring, and it helped me connect with the music in a way I never would have expected.”

— Matt Leichenger ’14

“I couldn’t believe the difference Dudamel made in the way everyone was playing. The symphony orchestra just sounded 100 times better at the end. He made everyone feel the music so much more.”

— Dory Graham ’13

Samuel L. Jackson Feb. 5, 2013

“Jackson just exuded confidence and character and it was such a pleasure to be in his presence.”

— Jacob Byrnes ’14

“I enjoyed hearing in detail about Jackson’s journey to this point of success in his life. Being African-American myself, I thought it was great to see a positive image of a black man who worked hard throughout his life to become a famous and influential figure.”

— Rebecca Armstrong ’14

“Jackson was so funny and personable, a really great speaker to have."

— Zita Biosah ’14

John Amaechi April 10, 2013

“Amaechi taught how to be comfortable with who you are--it's not going to change, so you might as well go with what you can and make the best out of it."

— Benny Weisman ’15 “Amaechi’s speech wasn’t just about being gay, but rather he touched on bullying and judging in general. In that way, he made a connection to everyone.”

— Brian Ginsberg ’14 “One of the ways you know a speaker has had an impact is when people talk about him or her for the next three days after, and that’s what people were doing.”

— Solange Etessami ’13

Cheating on your moral compass

By Julia Aizuss

L

ast month, amid the onslaught of junior year work, I read “Pale Fire”

by Vladimir Nabokov. One line stuck with me so much that I’ve quoted it in conversation to multiple people.

Whenever my email pings with the latest Honor Board case, the line often comes to mind: “‘I’m quite satisfied with my own melodrama,’ remarked the King.” In context, the line is a sarcastic play on words, but it reminds me how the experiences of others remind us of our own, how our ordeals shape us when we react to the ordeals of others.

In the fifth grade, I cheated. When I flipped to a page on my social studies test revealing questions on a topic I studied negligently, I panicked. I had a reputation for intelligence—as much intelligence as a 10-year-old can have—which I couldn’t sacrifice. How could I emerge unscathed?

My savior was close at

hand. During tests, we placed any books under our chairs.

There sat my textbook. All I had to do was push it outward, use my feet to flip the pages to the relevant section and proceed from there.

Although my plan worked, it wasn’t a subtle maneuver, so I shouldn’t have been surprised when one boy saw.

When he confronted me, I denied his accusation. It didn’t end there. My friends informed me of a rumor spreading that I had cheated on a test; I felt cold, but blithely assured them it was untrue. One morning a teacher took me into her classroom: a student had told her what happened. Was this true? Had I, in fact, cheated?

With just the two of us, the classroom felt large and empty. No, I said, of course not. I had not cheated.

She let me go. I’m not sure how I evaded further confrontation with anyone. Maybe it was because of the reputation

I cherished.

Whatever the reason for the lack of inquisition, didn’t I succeed? Wasn’t it worth it? I wasn’t caught—officially—and I maintained my reputation—among the teachers. But my cheating wasn’t worth it: I received a B. As it turned out, I wasn’t a skilled cheater, and the section I cheated on lowered my grade.

Guilt dogged me the rest of the year. Often, whether walking around at school or lying next to my Halloween candy after my friends went home, a phrase would repeat itself, drilling into me unbidden: I cheated I cheated I cheated. Even if I could’t acknowledge the fact to anyone else, I couldn’t stop repeating it to myself.

But acknowledging it to yourself is not enough. It’s never enough. It is, nonetheless, ineffably hard to admit to wrongdoing. Doing so, no matter how long it takes, requires courage and humil-

ity, so I always end up looking at Honor Board emails with a weird mixture of sympathy, respect and envy. While I, like most students, have conflicted feelings about the Honor Board, I’m sure its basic intent is necessary: to give a sense of closure that is foreign to the rest of us.

I say “the rest of us” because the cheaters who come before the Honor Board are a minority. The rest of us cheat, make mistakes, fail to obey morals. But we also strive to acknowledge these failings, resolve not to transcend them but to use them to grow as people and abide by the Honor Code.

A passage from the student handbook about the Honor Code and Honor Board says, “In our quest for academic excellence, we cannot forget that Harvard‐Westlake is not just a place to grow intellectually, but also a place to grow emotionally and personally.”

As someone who’s never gone before the Honor Board, I can’t say for sure whether it succeeds in this. Here’s what I do know: as a fifth grader, already absurdly bent on academic excellence, I cheated, and that lent me a more intimate understanding of morality, but I’ve failed to gain closure.

Sometimes, despite lingering guilt, I fear I learned nothing. I’m still relieved I evaded punishment, still glad that blemish isn’t on my record. Would I feel the same if something similar happened here? I can only wonder if the Honor Board would have given me the closure my elementary school failed to.

Hopefully, that’s what the Honor Board strives for: emotional growth and the closure that comes with it. If not, our textbooks might as well be open, like they were when we shifted in our seats and looked furtively at the pages at our feet.

A16

exposure

STEMfest The entire upper school gathered during break on Monday, May 20 to present and view their endeavors in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math both in and out of the classroom.

May 29, 2013

4 3

5 2

1

CELEBRATION OF SCIENCE: 1: Mane Williams ’14 and Frank Yeh ’14 make waffles with the “Wafflebot,” designed and built by the Harvard-Westlake Robotics Club.

2: Head of School Jeanne Huybrechts tries out a hula hoop, combining scientific concepts and fun.

3: Josh Lappen ’13 tests out another invention by the members of the Robotics Club.

4: Alex Cadiff ’13, a student in the Molecular Gastronomy class, whisks waffle batter ingredients with liquid nitrogen for a demonstration.

5: Avalon Nuovo ’13 and Jazzi Marine ’13 show off their poster and a movie they made for the Topics in Calculus and Statistics class.

PHOTOS BY JACK GOLDFISHER/CHRONICLE

Features The Chronicle • May 29, 2013

GRAPHIC BY JAMIE CHANG, GABBY FRANCHINA AND CAMILLE SHOOSHANI

Prom Pride Gay, lesbian and bisexual students and faculty describe their prom experience in a predominantly heterosexual environment.

By Sydney Foreman Rachel Schwartz

and

Jack Wilding ’13 and Adam Lange ’13 pinned boutonnieres on each other’s lapels and posed with their arms around each other at pre-prom, but Wilding said he doesn’t think any parents at the event assumed they were a dates. The boys went together as friends and while Lange identifies as gay and Wilding as bisexual, Wilding who has had girlfriends throughout his time at high school said he thought people were surprised to see him going with a boy.

“It shows how little you should assume about anything no matter what your experience tells you,” Wilding said.

“It felt cool. I felt like I was pushing boundaries.”

Wilding said that he felt totally comfortable going with another guy and didn’t feel any pressure not to do so, but still thinks prom is structured for heterosexual couples.

“I feel like hetero-normative culture is part of prom, but also a part of HarvardWestlake,” Wilding said. “On the other hand I feel like Harvard-Westlake would be at the forefront of combating that, but I don’t know why I should be happy with relatively better.”

Both Wilding and Maya to prom.

Broder ’13 cited the Sex in “The hard thing for me College senior transition semi- with come to terms with benar as an example of the het- ing bisexual was realizing that erosexual culture of Harvard- it would be easier on me in my Westlake. Wilding’s single-sex life if I ended up with a boy,” class only discussed straight Broder said. interactions and Broder’s class She said she knows the for girls was completely fo- whole world may not be as cused on recomfortable lationships with her sexuwith guys. ality as the For her school’s commusenior prom nity.

“Given the Broder first Danielle considered Strassman ’11 dominant culture taking her exsaid her experiis heterosexual, boyfriend and ence prom expethen thought rience was typibeing gay is more about takcal until she and challenging. I do ing a female her date went to friend from think society is more take their proout of school. fessional prom accepting than it She ultipicture. Strassmately deman took Meli was 25 years ago, cided to go Flores ’12 her but pressures still stag. Broder senior prom. believes that Strassman is exist.” if she took a lesbian and a girl as a —Liz Resnick Flores is bisexufriend people Director of Studies al, but they went would assume as friends. they were a “The phocouple, whereas if she took a tographer posed us in this remale friend people would not. ally awkward, buddy, acrobatic “If I did take a girl would picture,” Strassman said. “We people look at my prom pic- asked if we could get sometures differently?” Broder said. thing more romantic and he Had she been dating a girl, said ‘I don’t know any other Broder said she would have poses.’” liked to escort her girlfriend Strassman was sure this

“

would not have been the case if she had gone with a boy, even just as friends.

Director of Studies Liz Resnick went to prom with her twin brother’s best friend.

She remembers the event fondly, but felt pressures during high school that kept her from coming out.

“I still think it’s hard to come out, whenever one does it, and especially in high school,” Resnick said. “Given the dominant culture is heterosexual, being gay is more challenging. I do think society is more accepting than it was 25 years ago, but pressures still exist.”

Like Resnick, chemistry teacher Nathan Cardin was not openly gay during his senior year of high school. At his public school in south Florida in 2001, Cardin invited a girl to his senior prom. He had come out to her and a few close friends at the time, but not his parents.

“I don’t think I would have had the guts to be fully out in high school, even if I were in a tolerant, more liberal place like LA,” Cardin said.

“Even though it’s only been 12 years since I graduated high school so much has changed. I am incredibly proud and impressed by the courage of the openly gay students.”

The Chronicle

B2 Features

May 29, 2013

HANDLING

School psychologists help students handle the pressures of school, family and friends.

By David Lim

grades are dropping or somebody writes something really On a busy day, school psy- dark in their personal essays chologist Sheila Siegel doesn’t or somebody draws something have time for lunch between on their paper that is alarmher classes and the students ing,” Bek said. who stop by to see her in her Teachers pass on these conoffice. cerns to the deans who meet “I’ve seen kids every single every week with the school period so that’s five or six kids counselors, Young and Head in a day,” Siegel said. of Upper School “It’s happened a lot Audrius Barzdukas this year.” to discuss students Siegel, school with any “academic, counselor Luba Bek emotional or other and Chaplain Father issues,” Young said.

J. Young make up “Each dean disthe school’s counselcusses any kids who ing team that Mark might be having any DeAntonio, the Diissue and we conrector of Inpatient fer to come up with nathanson ’s Child and Adolescent the best plan to help Luba Bek Service at UCLA Psythat individual kid,” chiatry, called a model Young said. for schools across the country, “Red flags,” where a stuYoung said. Bek and Siegel dent reveals in Peer Support have adjacent offices tucked that they are at risk of harminto the second floor of Chalm- ing themselves, another perers behind the Advancement son or are being abused must Office. be reported to a member of Most students who see the the counseling team by the counselors seek help for deal- group leader. ing with common teenage ex“Peer Support is not meant periences such as breaking up to deal with mental health iswith a boyfriend or girlfriend sues,” Bek said. “However, very or a conflict with their parents often we first discover that a or a teacher. kid is having some issues and The counselors also help I wouldn’t put a label of menstudents with managing tal illness on it, but some emostress. tional problems — some psy“The majority of kids don’t chological problems.” have major psychiatric disBek added that students orders but they’re just over- tend to feel more comfortable whelmed and if you know first sharing such issues in a Harvard-Westlake you can “controlled environment with get really overwhelmed,” Bek their peers,” even if they know added. that what they say will result Siegel estimates that she in a session with the counselor. and Bek have seen around 10 “If the kids don’t have Peer percent of the student body. Support, they might never Many students visit either of come out with the issue,” Bek the school counselors on their said. “Peer Support has a culown or with their friends who ture that says it’s okay to seek are concerned about them. help.”

The largest source of referParents, on the other hand, rals to the school counselors is rarely ask for their child to see from teachers or deans who the school counselor, Bek said. notice concerning changes in “There’s some stigma to it,” a student’s behavior, Bek said.

Bek said. “Parents try to keep “Sometimes your teach- that away from the school. If ers notice that somebody is they find out their child is decrying in class or somebody’s pressed or that their child has

anxiety or that my child is ex“We keep things confidentremely stressed to the point tial,” Siegel said. “We try to of really not functioning, they not have to tell [the parents] think the school will think less because we want to have a reof child and his college career lationship with the student. If or be diverted to something we explain it that way most less prestigious.” parents will say fine [to the Bek said students who visit confidentiality].” her office by their own choice The school counselors or due to a referral ask her share information with teach“Are you going to tell my par- ers only with the permission of ents?” or ask her to promise the parents. that she will not tell the stu“The teachers get notified dent’s parents. by us that a kid is experienc“My answer is always ‘I ing something–like when the don’t know’ until you talk.’” kid is depressed or changing Bek said. “I promise only one medication which takes some thing and that is I will never time to work,” Bek said. “We do anything that kid will not ask the teachers to be lenient know about.” and patient.”

If she feels it is necessary The purpose of seeing a to call parents because the student for the first time is to student has a serious issue, assess if they will need more Bek always will tell the stu- meetings with the school coundent before calling. She usu- selors or whether the student’s ally gives the student a chance issues are serious enough that to either tell his or her parents he or she will be required to themselves or call the parent see an outside psychologist in front of the for diagnosis student. possibly con“In my extinuing therperience, a apy.

Very often we first lot of kids do S t u d e n ts choose to tell will be told to discover that a kid is the parents see an outside having some issues themselves psycholoand I wouldn’t put because when gist of their you do that choosing or a label of ‘mental you feel like one that the illness’ on it, but some you have the counselors control as oprecommend emotional problems posed to an that has — some psychological adult,” Bek worked with problems. said. “The reaHarvardson we do tell Westlake stu—Luba Bek dents before the parents, School psychologist and your parents someare in charge times speof you and are cializes in the the most important person in student’s particular problem. your life.”

Siegel said the most comIf a student is a minor mon long-term mental disorunder 18, parental privilege ders that affect students are allows the parents to know anxiety and depression, which about anything that is told can have serious consequences to the psychologist but Sie- on their school performance. gel emphasized that parents “There are a group of kids are only called “if the kid is who are troubled,” Siegel said. in danger or we think the kid “They can’t do school work. needs medication or hospital- Maybe they can’t finish and ization or some serious kind of they have to drop a class, get intervention.” incompletes and maybe finish

“

over the summer.”

In these cases, school counselors do communicate with out-of-school psychologists and therapists to coordinate treatment and accommodations at school. Siegel said that students who were seriously impacted by mental health issues have finished their coursework over the summer supervised by an outside tutoring company. The school counselors avoid seeing a particular student on a regular basis and establishing a close relationship with one as they would not be able to see that student if a school crisis occurred. In a few cases, Bek has ended up seeing the student regularly for more than five or six sessions.

“We can do it if the kid cannot afford therapy but usually we can find a professional who works on a sliding scale,” Bek said. “If the parents are absolutely totally against it, this is a gray area because the parents have to consent any medical care but in this case we’re a non-medical professional — a teacher just here to talk — a little loophole.”

When a full psychiatric evaluation is necessary in a crisis situation with a potentially suicidal patient, the school counselors use a connection at UCLA Department of Psychiatry to get the student evaluated quickly.

“It’s extremely difficult to quickly get into the office of a psychiatrist, especially a good psychiatrist,” Bek said.

“We have a network of doctors [that we use] who are very reputable and most of them work with UCLA. We ask them for a favor to get the kid in for an assessment—not to see them on a regular basis.”

In these cases, sometimes push comes to shove with parents who resist intervention, Bek said.

“Ethically or legally, you take a kid to this therapist, we’re not giving them an option,” Bek said.

Psychologist leaves school after 20-year tenure

By Camille Shooshani

want to do like art, and I may try to get another part time School psychologist Sheila job but I’m very sad to leave.

Siegel worked behind closed I’m really going to miss the indoors. On the other side of the teraction with the kids.” drawn blinds, students fussed Students like Bronty with magnetic toys on a O’Leary ’13 turned black leather sofa. to Siegel for emoOver the past 20 tional support after years, Siegel has transthe death of Justin formed the mental Carr ’14. health portion of Har“It’s a relaxed vard-Westlake, but she environment.

She will not be returning in kicks her feet up the fall when her post on a chair and you becomes a full time feel safe telling her commitment. anything. She treats CAMILLE SHOOSHANI “Change is good,” you like an adult,” Siegel said. “It’s good O’Leary ’13 said.

Sheila Siegel for institutions, it’s “We help kids good for the people, but when they break up it doesn’t mean it’s not hard to with their boyfriends or girlleave.” friends but there’s a gamut Siegel looks forward to ex- from everyday kind of probploring new things after she lems to huge problems: child retires. abuse, cutting or people feeling “After 20 years, I don’t want suicidal,” Siegel said. to start working full time,” she After her twin sons gradusaid. “There are things that I ated in 1992 and after giving

up on private practice, Siegel conducted a survey of students at Harvard-Westlake to enlighten her about adolescents.

“There were things that I didn’t know as a parent,” she said.

President Thomas Hudnut hired her soon after to work one day a week, which soon became three days going back and forth between the upper and middle school campuses.

“There were emotional issues and things happening,” she said. “There was this feeling that students needed professional support. I think what I brought was the awareness that there was a process.”

Siegel almost left the school entirely to pursue glass blowing, but Hudnut convinced her to scale back to one day a week while attending art school.

Therapy took time and glass blowing provided immediate satisfaction, she said. The art was demanding, but, Siegel re-

turned to three days a week.

Siegel dealt with each problem uniquely, she said.

“It’s so variable,” she said.

“No situation is ever the same.

There are things we are very careful to do but we can’t predict who absolutely will act on their feelings.”

Sometimes, parents ignore their children’s problems and refuse to seek professional help so Siegel stepped in as a therapist on a regular basis though she usually referred students and faculty to outside psychologists.

“Our job is not to do ongoing counseling but there are many cases when we do,” she said. “Some schools will sweep problems under the rug but our goal is to help the kid so they can stay here.”

The Peer Support program grew from 50 students to around 300 under Siegel.

“She gives you so many stories about her life and it not

only makes you able to relate to her more but also feel more comfortable because she trusts you as a leader,” Peer Support Coordinator Laurel Aberle ’13 said.

The counseling team has expanded since Siegel’s arrival to Luba Bek, Michelle Bracken, Father J. Young and Middle School Psychologist Susan Ko. “We have a really good, cutting edge way of approaching students about their problems,” Siegel said.

“That’s not our reputation in the community but in fact, it’s sort of the big secret,” she said. “Our concern is the mental health and well being of the student even before education.

And we have created psychological services that focus first on emotional health then on intellectual abilities. I think we do a really good job of that.

I don’t think things are really going to change.”

hwchronicle.com/features

May 29, 2013

Features B3

‘The war is in my mind’ A student gives an account of living with bipolar disorder, which is associated with mood swings ranging from depression to mania, which led to various self-destructive coping mechanisms, ranging from cutting to smoking.

By Anonymous

I

was anxious every day, and, because of my anxiety, I felt lost. The way I acted, thought, saw the world moving past me – it was all somehow off. Every day I hoped I would start feeling okay again, or, at the very least, that I would be able to define the malaise from which I was suffering.

Ever since I was a child, I can remember going through periods lasting a couple hours where things seemed strange.

I would feel uncomfortable and separated from the events around me. In the mental health profession, this state is known as derealization, where reality does not feel quite real.

The only way I can describe this is like realizing that your dream isn’t real while you’re in the middle of it.

When I visit certain places, like Pasadena and San Diego, my derealization is triggered.

If my surroundings are even slightly different from my expectations of what they should be, I am pushed over the edge into a surreal state.

At first, it manifested itself as anxiety. Early in 2012, I became very anxious over minor things and had no way to deal with the stress. I told myself that it was caused by something earlier that day. I told myself that I could deal with it. I found my first coping mechanism: cutting.

I began a pattern of destructive behavior that lasted until I could no longer keep the secret. Some scars from that time have faded, but some

never will.

On Jan. 30, 2012, I told my Peer Support group that I cut myself. I told them that it was a red flag. I wanted to get the struggle that I had been going through off my chest.

My group was supportive of my openness and it felt good to get my story out in the open. I had to see school counselor Luba Bek. I told her that I was seeing a psychiatrist and she asked me a couple questions, talked to my psychiatrist, and that was that.

None of my coping mechanisms have helped for long. Cigarettes gave only temporary relief. I did not realize that no matter what I tried, I could not solve the problems on my own. I stubbornly stuck to the idea that my mind was under my control.

I churned through all of my homework and received strong grades in return. I projected that my academic performance would be better than any year before. At the beginning my anxiety was not too bad. There were times when a teacher would be critical of me in a one-on-one meeting prompting me to go home and

Support system

By Lucas Gelfen

cut myself.

One night, I told my girlfriend that I cut myself. She acted a little strangely the rest of the night and threw my pack of cigarettes away, causing me to feel anxious and derealized. The ensuing feelings of isolation and anxiety made me seek relief through cutting.

For the last time. She made me promise that if I ever was about to cut myself again I would call her, a conversation I never felt comfortable having.

The anxiety came back with a vengeance. I was stupefied and numb from Xanax, Ativan and Klonopin, all anti-anxiety medications.

When my malady eventually progressed to the point that I could not function without being drugged I finally realized that I was no longer in control of my mind.

Treating the symptoms was a failed strategy that kept me suffering from a debilitating illness that made me question my sanity. I was attempting to juggle school, a failing relationship and the inability to think.

I saw Bek a few times during the year when my anxiety became too bad for me to re-

I do not expect this to be the last time my mind betrays me, but I know I will always have people to support me. Maybe one day I will move past what I have been through, but that day has not come yet.

main in class. I was given the ability to miss class for anxiety with almost no repercussions, a luxury I took advantage of frequently.

Eventually, I was taken to a psychiatrist who treated me based on family history instead of my direct symptoms. I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, which did not obviously explain my symptoms, but the treatment for bipolar disorder made me sane. The aftermath was as painful as the disease.

My grades had taken a steep dive, my friends, family and my girlfriend knew I was crazy and my parents had instituted things like a curfew and cut off my allowance because they were afraid that I would purchase more substances.

Everyone stood by me, though. My girlfriend was always supportive, although she admits that she never knew how bad it was, and my parents are a little scarred by my actions, but everyone is moving past my past.

The support I received from my friends and family let me get past this time in my life. I was never abandoned and, although I was placed in difficult situations, there were always people I could and did approach for help.

My physical and emotional scars may never heal. My girlfriend asked if I would want to get the scars on my arms removed by a dermatologist but I said no.

I do not expect this to be the last time my mind betrays me, but I know I will always have people to support me.

Maybe one day I will move past what I have been through, but that day has not come yet.

Sometimes I go without thinking about what happened to me for days. I doubt I will ever find closure or a way to give meaning to what happened.

It has, however, changed me and I have learned a lesson that I cannot shake no matter how hard I try.

I am not invincible. I am my own kryptonite. Control of my emotions and perception is an illusion.

For four months in a row I would wake up and think to myself, “tomorrow, I will be fine,” but that tomorrow never came. There was no quick fix.

That approach cost me the respect of myself and others, and physical and emotional pain. The real pain came from waking up every day and hoping that no one would to talk me and come to the realization that I was on the brink of losing it.

If someone asked me if I was stronger or weaker than I was seven months ago, I would respond stronger.

I am now medicated, which means that many of my symptoms affect me less. I have learned that I can handle challenging circumstances and move past them.

I have learned to never take days when I am sane and the people that I am with for granted, because they can be easily taken away from me. It has been a journey of pain, but it has been an experience from which I will grow.

The war is in my mind and the wounds are on my body.

Peer Support leaders and trainees help to resolve issues.

ven,” school counselor and humanities teacher Luba Bek Every Monday at 5:15 p.m., said, “Harvard-Westlake is so 250 sophomores, juniors and competitive and so much of seniors fill up Chalmers await- a race and at Peer Support ing the pizza and soda there is no race. It is that have become a a place to just be.” trademark of the UpMeanwhile, per School Peer Supsome see group as port program. After a place to lessen the 30 minutes of slurping, division between gulping and chewing, different grades. the students meet in “It can be really their designated classhard to trust people rooms to begin group. that are in anothPeer Support, or er grade,” Sophie nathanson ’s “group”, was created Sunkin ’14, who will Harry in the 1991-1992 school be one of the group’s Salamandra year by former Head four coordinators of Upper School and next year, said. “So I current Senior Alumtry to eliminate that ni Officer Harry Salaman- barrier, and make people more dra, along with former School comfortable with sharing their Counselor Louise Macatee. issues.”

The program’s initial purpose Sunkin also believes that was to “give people a chance to the closeness a group builds share what’s going on in their throughout the year makes lives, and to teach people how group more effective. to have more meaningful rela“It creates a mini-family,” tionships by learning how to Sunkin said. “We get so close listen and develop their inter- and you know you can rely on personal skills,” Macatee said. every member of your group Through the years, though as if they were a member of some aspects of the program’s your real family.” purpose may have changed, Every group begins with a the foundation has stayed member stating the rules of mostlythe same. Many see Big C, the code of confidentigroup as a safe place to discuss ality, and the three red flags, anything and everything that being hurt, hurting others or is happening in their lives. hurting oneself, that result in “Some see it as a safe ha- a compulsory meeting with a

school counselor. Big C acts as the overarching rule that all members of Peer Support must abide by; a breach of this rule leads to expulsion from the program. Even with these consequences, Big C has been broken before.

“Of course there are always instances when someone breaks Big C,” Bek said. “But mostly, members of group abide by the rules. The leaders and trainees are very serious about following it.”

In every group, two junior trainees and two senior leaders head discussions and keep the group in check. Both trainees and leaders meet once a cycle in a class built into their schedules. Bek said that the trainees start from scratch, learning basic counseling and listening techniques, and finding ways to calm down their inner judge. Senior leaders, on the other hand, build up on skills they learned before.

Both trainees and leaders also talk about red flags and issues brought up in their group.

Bek considers herself fortunate to work with the trainees and leaders.

“I am the luckiest person at the school because I work with the best kids, the cream of the crop,” Bek said. “I love how committed and caring they are.”

PRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF MADDIE LEAR

PRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF SOPHIE SUNKIN

BONDING: A group plays a game during the Peer Support barbecue, above. Below, another group gets together at their sleepover.

The Chronicle

B4 Features

May 29, 2013

Although support for gender equality is widespread, some students protest for change while others do not openly call themselves ‘feminists.’

By Noa Yadidi

cause students at HarvardWestlake are so privileged to At the beginning of the attend the school, many don’t year, Amanda Aizuss ’13 did realize that gender equality is a project for her AP Statistics still a very present issue. class where she asked On the other one group of students hand, while Solange whether they believed Etessami ’13 believes that all genders should in gender equality be equal and another and women’s rights, group whether they she does not consididentified as a femier herself a feminist. nist. She found that al“Technically, I’m though everyone agreed a feminist, but the all genders should be connotation that it equal, few identified as has today is of somenathanson ’s feminists. one who is kind of Amanda “According to the obsessed with womAizuss ’13 dictionary definition, en’s rights and I’m the people who annot obsessed with swered yes to the other ques- women’s rights,” she said. tion are feminists,” Aizuss For Etessami when one is said. “People are bothered by called a “feminist,” the image calling themselves feminists. of a person who simply beDoesn’t that show some kind lieves in gender equality is not of discomfort with women?” what she sees.

Feminism, as defined by “It’s just the word femithe Merriam-Webster diction- nist,” she said. “I associate that ary, is the theory of the politi- with crazy women obsessed cal, economic and social equal- with the plight of women and ity of the sexes and also the always wanting to talk about organized activity on behalf of how women are lowered, how women’s rights and interests. they’re not equal and how The first time it occurred they’re not treated well.” to Aizuss to qualify herself usWhen Etessami found out ing the term ‘feminist’ came that women were going to able when she interned at the Fem- to serve on the front lines in inist Majority Foundation last the military, she was taken summer. aback.

Aizuss is now one of the “It’s not that I don’t supco-presidents of Harvard- port it, I just didn’t like it,” she Westlake’s Girls Learn Inter- said. “I know that some people national chapter and recently think it’s a backwards point of visited the United Nations to view, but I think women need attend the Commission of the to be protected. I don’t know Status of Women with other why I have this notion that delegates from the club. She women should not be fighting also helped organize last year’s in the front lines, and I know a women’s history month as- lot of people would call me ansembly at which GLI did a ti-feminist for that, but I think presentation on how the me- it’s protecting women.” dia portrays gender and masculinity. After the assembly, NEGATIVE NUMBERS Aizuss’ classmates accused her In a poll last week of the of being a feminist, using the student body, 80 percent of label as an insult, she said. males responded that they “When people hear femi- do not identify themselves as nism they think that it’s wom- feminists publicly while 70 en trying to overtake the men,” percent don’t identify themshe said. “That’s not what it is, selves as feminists privately. we’re just trying to get to the In a similar trend, 67 percent 50-50 state and a lot of people of females did not identify think we’re at the 50-50 state, themselves as feminists pubbut we’re really not.” licly while 57 percent of them Aizuss also noted that be- didn’t privately.

In both cases, many stu- in feminism, he was weary of dents explained while, al- undertaking the label as a rethough they do support wom- sult of problems with the way en’s rights and gender equality, theories are enacted. the connotations of the word “feminist,” steered them away A CHANGE OF OPINION from the label.

Ever since he started datConsidering himself a fem- ing his current girlfriend inist both publicly and private- who is an avid, active femily, Matt Leichenger ’14 defined nist, Charlie Andrews ’13 has feminism as “believing in the gained a new perspective on equality of men and women.” how prevalent the problems of “I simply believe it,” he sexism are in our society. said.

“It has brought to my atLiza Wohlberg ’13, one of tention issues that I kind of eitwo students taking Gender ther took for granted, ignored Studies this year, recently or wasn’t thinking about as showed a TEDx-related talk much before, and talking to by creator and co-founder of her and being around her the Mentors in Violence Pre- has definitely had that effect vention Jackson Katz to se- for me,” he said. “I’ve been niors during class meeting. shocked at how often I see sexIn the video, Katz raises the ism in my everyday life.” issues of sexual violence and Andrews said that alobjectification though he as relevant for supports both men and the causes women. behind femI feel uncomfortable “If someone inism, he is says the word still hesiassuming a label. There race, people tant with are people that are think black, labeling Asian, Latihimself as a reactionary in their no,” Wohlberg feminist. feminist views and that said, emulat“I feel ing ideas Katz makes me uncomfortable uncomfortbrings forward assum[to call myself a feminist]. able in his talk. “If ing a label.

I think it alienates people There are someone says the word genpeople that from that.” der, people are reacthink women.

—Charlie Andrews ‘13 tionary in In all these their femicases the domnist views inant group is and that ignored and that’s part of how makes me uncomfortable [to they maintain power; it’s in- call myself a feminist]. I think visibility, protection.” it even alienates people from After seeing the video in that,” he said. class meeting, Greg Zatzkis ’13, who had never spoken to ADVOCATING CHANGE Wohlberg before, approached In an effort to protest and her with appreciative remarks stand up to rape culture and wanting her to know that “slut-shaming,” many students there were people who found attended SlutWalk Los Angethe video “genuinely informa- les at the Venice Boardwalk tive.”

May 19.

“I know that feminism can Slut-shaming, which is be one of those topics, espe- usually targeted towards girls, cially among guys, that can is the act of “calling a girl out sometimes spark jokes,” Zatz- on her promiscuity or her inkis, who doesn’t identify him- appropriate clothing,” Marself as a feminist, said. geaux Craske-Curtin ’14 said.

Zatzkis described that al- “It’s basically a pretty sexist though he found many truths system, and it reflects the rape

“

culture that we live in today where sexual violence or sexual exploitation of women is so pervasive throughout society that it’s okay to call out a girl for wearing a short skirt and say that she’s just trying to attract attention or she’s being slutty,” Craske-Curtin said.

Craske-Curtin emphasized the idea that a girl dressing like a “slut” does not provide a justification or invitation for rape.

During the march, CraskeCurtin described chanting along with the rest of the likeminded women and men taking part in the protest, saying things like “end slut-shaming, stop victim blaming,” and “whatever we wear, wherever we go, yes means yes and no means no.”

The organizers and participants of the walk, “want to come together across all intersectionalities to fight oppression,” in efforts to “create a cultural and institutional shift in our attitudes about rape,” according to the organization’s Facebook page.

Additionally, some marchers wear what others might consider provocative clothing.

“There are a lot of creative ways and creative outfits,” Craske-Curtin said. “We’re trying to take down the use of the world slut because we don’t think it’s actually a justified word.”

To prepare for the walk, Divya Siddarth ’14 made signs that had slogans such as “my dress does not mean yes” that she toted around during the walk.

“It clearly brought a lot of attention, especially because it’s SlutWalk so people were wearing themed clothing, or themed lack of clothing,” Siddarth said. “Part of the reason people say that SlutWalk isn’t maybe the best way to protest is because they think it oversexualizes the issue, but no one is saying at all that this is the only way to protest. It’s just one way that calls attention to the problem, especially very viscerally, to this problem of victim blaming.”

BUT only Graphics

by

M azelle E tessami

Source: Chronicle Poll *statistics

are rounded

hwchronicle.com/features

May 29, 2013

Mightier than the Sword

By Jensen McRae

ing, and I guess I just started trying to copy her.”

Seated at the piano—someAlex Haney ’14 started times in her house at 2 a.m., writing as a result of his expesometimes in a practice room riences with acting. in bottom floor Chalmers dur“I was exposed to so many ing fourth period—Dora Palm- things with acting that it just er ’15 always makes sure her kind of felt natural to me,” subway token is in her pocket Haney said. before she starts to sing, play Though Cinnamon wrote and write. her first story in second grade, “I’m a little bit OCD with she now focuses on script writit,” Palmer said. “It’s from ing and blogging.

Manhattan, from years ago, She started H-W Voices, a I believe in little charms and blogging site for students and things like that.” faculty.

Meanwhile, creative writ“The most exciting thing is ing teacher Ryan Wilson likes to see the similarities and difto have “The Complete I Ch- ferences between each blogger ing” by his after reading side while he a few of their writes. posts,” Cin“It’s an namon said.

Sometimes I’ll be ancient book “Each blogger talking to someone and develops and of chance o p e r at i o n s ,” an idea will pop into my expresses his Wilson said. or her own head, and I must write it voice.”

“It’s called ‘The Book Wilson down.” of Changes’ is a novelist —Alex Haney ’14 and a crein Chinese.

It describes ative writing where you teacher. His are, and you debut novel, get to interpret it and decide “Spiral Bound Brother,” is how you want to move for- coming out next month and is ward.” available for presale on AmaNo matter their style, or zon.com. how young they were when “To me, the idea of writthey started, or even what ing and working at a school lucky charms they use, they is something I can see myself share a love for writing, and doing forever—teaching in not just for English essays. some way, working with young Palmer and Molly Cinna- people in some way, while cremon ’14 caught the writing ating whatever I’m creating,” bug from their families.

Wilson said.

“My parents are sitcom Many writers have one writers, so I’ve grown up sur- thing in common: they work rounded by the creative pro- best at night. cess,” Cinnamon said. “I was “I usually write blogs at so amazed that they started night, and scripts and video with nothing and constructed concepts whenever inspiration something tangible and real— strikes,” Cinnamon said. and funny, of course.”

“I write from around 4 to “I have a lot of writers in 5:30 in the morning. It’s bemy family,” Palmer said. “My cause I am a father of two mom is an English teacher, young children and that’s the and my little sister, who is an only time I can get everyone to amazing singer, started writ- leave me alone,” Wilson said.

“

Features B5

Whether through posting online in a blog or composing a poem or work of fiction, teachers and students alike write to create, to thrive and sometimes to live.

“I like writing at night, like really late at night,” Haney said.

“I usually write late at night when I can’t get to sleep,” Kathi Bolton-Ford ’13 said. “Everyone says your demons come out at around 3 a.m., and writing is my way to combat that negativity,” Bolton-Ford said she has always been interested in writing, but did not start writing seriously until she joined Writegirl in eighth grade.

Bolton-Ford described Writegirl as “a non-profit organization whose goal is to encourage young female writers to find their voice through mentorships with women writers.”

“I love writing fiction,” Bolton-Ford said. “It’s the only acceptable way of telling lies.”

Other writers have different approaches to their craft.

“Sometimes I’ll be talking to someone and an idea will pop into my head, and I must write it down,” Haney said. “So I have this document on my computer, now it’s like seven or so pages long, and it just has ideas written down.”

“I try to write for at least an hour every day, whether it’s at school or at home, if I don’t have any ideas I still try to do that,” Palmer said.

For Bolton-Ford, writing is more than just a hobby; it’s an absolute necessity.

“I was able to get myself out of an unhealthy situation at home through my writing mentor,” Bolton-Ford said.

“Writing has saved my life.

For years, I carried secrets that I couldn’t speak to anyone about, but I could tell my story through the lives of my characters. It helped me to have an outlet.”

“To me it’s kind of similar to yoga and breathing, it’s like writing and living, it’s like breath, it just is,” Wilson said.

“That’s my mode of living.”

EOJIN CHOI/CHRONICLE

PRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF RYAN WILSON

PRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF ALEX HANEY

PRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF DORA PALMER

PRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF KATHI BOLTON-FORD

ILLUSTRATION BY JACOB GOODMAN

WRITE IT OUT: Although they differ in styles and approaches, student and teacher writers, including Molly Cinnamon ’14, Ryan Wilson, Alex Haney ’14, Dora Palmer ’15 and Kathi Bolton-Ford ’13, practice their craft beyond school.

B6 Features

The Chronicle

May 29, 2013

Taste the rainbow

Two seniors experience synesthesia, a neurological condition when one sense often triggers a different sensory response.

By Allana Rivera She sees sounds as three dimensional shapes moving in space, in a world where most people perceive sound as intangible noise. For her these noises take on a very real presence.

Maya Broder ’13 has synesthesia, a neurological condition in which stimuli of one sense prompt an automatic experience of another. Causes of the condition remain largely unknown, according to The Synesthesia Community, though synesthestes are known to often share a large number of traits including a poor sense of direction, excellent memory, frequent affliction by migraines and heightened introversion and creativity.

Common forms of synesthesia include assigning letters or numbers a certain color.

Broder, though, has something closer to “chromesthesia,” a type of synesthesia in which certain sounds trigger the synesthete to see colors and shapes.

Broder’s condition, however, is not as simple as sounds automatically evoking a color or figure. Broder has adapted to the more normal sounds of her daily routine. The sound of a doorbell, for instance, does not conjure up vivid images of moving spheres or curves.

Often, it is simply the ring of a doorbell. It is only when she begins to focus on the sounds around her, particularly music, that she begins to see sound moving in three dimensional space.

“It’s not 2D shape, it’s 3D movement,” Broder said. “I can see where [the music] goes.”

This sometimes helps Broder, a jazz bassist, with arrangements. When the three dimensional shapes she is seeing move better together, her songs often fit better.

She described arranging as getting from one note to another as if following a pathway, but a pathway that she physically sees. This idea helped Broder more fully understand the idea of music enveloping its listener because can she literally see “a space overcome by sound.”

The easiest thing for her to describe is her experience upon hearing “Chameleon” by

Save the Day. “It starts and, to me, the sound looks like it’s spinning in on itself,” Broder said.

While synesthesia is uncommon, Broder’s type is more common than others. Deborah Malamud’s ’13, however, is not.

Malamud, as a lexical-gustatory synesthete, experiences a rarer form of synesthesia in which certain words will evoke distinct tastes. Her condition plays a different role in Malamud’s music than it does in Broder’s.

“Sometimes when I’m rhyming lyrics, I won’t like the taste of a certain word, so I’ll either choose a different one or just suck it up,” Malamud said. “Sometimes I have to choose between synesthesia and my song. I like certain names based on taste, too.”

Despite the different way in which they reconcile their condition with their music, according to The Synesthesia Project, both Broder and M a l a m u d ’s condition may be linked with their musical inclinations.

According to the Project’s website, “Synesthetes tend to be more artistic, or drawn towards more creative and/or artistic professions and hobbies.”

Renowned artists like Billy Joel, Marilyn Monroe, Vladamir Nobakov, Wassily Kandinsky and Stevie Wonder were all confirmed synthestes.

Like Broder, Monroe also saw sound as taking on physical form, seeing vibrations when she heard sounds.

According to the project, most synesthetes are female, outnumbering males two to one, though the explanation for this remains largely unknown, as many of the affected do not realize the way they see the world is different from the way it is perceived by others, and never mention their condition.

Both Broder and Malamud did not initially realize they

“

experienced things differently. Broder only discovered her condition after she began comparing her perceptions with those around her and finally saw a psychiatist who validated her diagnosis.

“I didn’t think it was anything,” she said. “But the more I thought about it the more I realized there were legitimate movements.”

Even though she now understands she has a condition, Broder feels she does not need to be treated by a doctor.

“It doesn’t hurt me,” Broder said.

Malamud, like Broder, used to think everybody was like her before her diagnosis was confirmed.

“I thought everyone had it when I was younger,” she said. “I would say things like ‘Mm, that word tastes great!’ and was oblivious to the stares I received,” she said. “It was only when I read ‘A Mango-Shaped Space,’ a book about a girl with synesthesia, that I realized the condition I experienced was out of the ordinary.”

Her father, a doctor, later confirmed her diagnosis.

Living with synesthesia, Malamud still experiences the occasional problem but, like Broder, has adapted.

“Sometimes it distracts me when I read, if the words taste especially good or bad. That’s why I can’t really read when I’m hungry. But I can push it back and not let it distract me, typically,” Malamud said.

Broder experienced similar difficulties when she was learning piano. She became frustrated because the music she played wasn’t moving the same way as the music she heard. Despite these problems, both have embraced their condition.

“It has definitely influenced my life,” Broder said. “I like how my brain is more of a mystery to me than a lot of other things.”

I thought everyone had it when I was younger. I would say ‘Mm, that word tastes great!’ and was oblivious to the stares I received.”

—Deborah Malamud ’13

Synesthesia Statistics 1 in every 5,000 to100,000* people report having synesthesia

*People who have synesthesia often do not report it — often they do not notice they are different because they have sensed their environments in the same way since they were young or are afaid of being mistreated.

more than

35 subtypes of synesthsesia are estimated to exist

2 times as many females as males have synthesia STOCK XCHNG PRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF MAYA BRODER

SOURCE: BOSTON UNIVERSITY SYNESTHESIA PROJECT GRAPHIC BY MARCELLA PARK

hwchronicle.com/features

May 29, 2013

Features B7

EMILY SEGAL/CHRONICLE

Card Duels

By Claire Goldsmith

Sean Kiley ’14 qualified for the North American World Championship Qualifier in Yu-Gi-Oh! and could advance to the World Championships.

“I really like the strategy aspect of Yu-Gi-Oh!, since a Sean Kiley ’14 spends his competent player can play weekends dueling with drag- around almost any card their ons, mermaids and demons. opponent might threaten them His allies vary from with,” Kiley said. cupcake princesses to He also uses busiphantom lupine heliness techniques to copters, and he suftrade for better cards fers immense damage and increase the powbut never gives up. er of his deck.

A competitive “Since some peoYu-Gi-Oh! player, ple don’t actually Kiley qualified for know how much their the North American cards are worth, they World Championship would trade their nathanson ’s Qualifier July 12-14 more expensive cards Sean Kiley ’14 at Navy Pier in Chifor my less expensive cago. If he places high ones, which I could enough, he will automatically then sell to make enough monqualify for the World Cham- ey to buy the more expensive pionship in Las Vegas August cards I needed for my deck,” 10-11.

Kiley said.

“My goal for nationals this Kiley’s favorite card is summer would definitely be to Hero Kid, which has 300 atmake the top eight, and make tack points and 600 defense it to the World Championship points. It was his favorite card this year in Las Vegas,” he when he first started playing, said. and although “it’s not a very Kiley played the Japanese good card, I still like him,” he card game as a child because said. he loved the Yu-Gi-Oh! televiHe competes at local toursion show. naments of 20-30 people most When he moved to Califor- Saturdays but had to cut back nia from New York in eighth his schedule around APs. grade, he found a box of Yu- Konami, the Japanese comGi-Oh! cards and wanted to pany that owns the Yu-Gi-Oh! start playing again. brand, manages only certain He is currently a major prestigious tournaments from player in the Los Angeles Yu- the regional level through Gi-Oh! scene.

World Championships.

“I’ve stuck with Yu-Gi-Oh! Konami hosts regional probably because I see myself tournaments every two to as one of the better players in three months, and Kiley aims the LA region,” Kiley said. to place in the top cut at each Each player maintains his one. or her own 40-card deck to “In the past year and a half use in competitions. Kiley’s or so, I’ve taken my game to current deck has taken him a new level as a competitive about a year to build. player, winning from 15-20 lo-

How to Duel

1 2

cal tournaments and getting in was completely unplayable. the top 48 of a regional tour- He knew his cards would be nament, which makes me en- destroyed by his opponent, so joy the game even more,” Kiley Kiley decided to go on the desaid. “I mean, who doesn’t like fensive but his opponent won to win?” in very few turns.

At most local tournaments, To prepare for Game Two, all entrants play four to five Kiley added two cards to his rounds, after which point the deck he was sure would devastop eight players join a single tate his opponent. elimination bracket. Tourna“My opening hand was ments that only use single- much better this time, includelimination rules are more dif- ing one of the cards I added to ficult, Kiley said, because “one the deck for Game Two,” he lucky draw by your opponent said. After Kiley’s dominating can cost you the tournament.” move, his opponent conceded.

A single-elimination show- Only Game Three was left. down was all that stood be“After a long drawn out tween Kiley and an invitation Game Three, the match and to the nationmy invite to al championNationals ship. came down to In a batmy last draw, tle with an and it just so I really like the strategy ex-pro playhappened to aspect of Yu-Gi-Oh!, er who won be the perfect since a competent second place one to win me at nationals player can play around the game,” in 2006, KiKiley said. almost any card their ley faced his The na“most chaltional chamopponent might lenging mopionship this threaten them with.” ment in Yusummer will Gi-Oh!” at a —Sean Kiley ’14 be the furregional tourthest Kiley nament last has ever adDecember. vanced in the Both Kiley and his op- competitive Yu-Gi-Oh! hierponent were 7-2, so whoever archy. He plans to retire from lost the tenth and final round the national circuit in a few would be eliminated from the years. top eight, but whoever won “Honestly I could see mywould automatically qualify self playing competitively for for the national championship. another year or two at most, “Game One began, and af- but not long into college, if at ter his first turn I could tell I all,” Kiley said. “Yu-Gi-Oh! is a was doomed,” Kiley said. His lot of fun, but in the end, beopponent had one of the most ing able to sell all my cards powerful decks in the game would probably be the best use at the time, and Kiley’s hand of them.”

“

In a game of Yu-Gi-Oh! each player’s turn is split into six different phases.

Draw Phase The turn player draws a card from the top of their deck.

Standby Phase The turn player pays costs from the prior phase or activates Trap or Quick Spell Cards.

3 4

Main Phase 1 The turn player can summon a monster, change its battle positions, activate a card or set spell or trap cards.

Battle Phase The turn player battles his or her opponent’s monsters and calculates the damage the monsters undergo.

5

Main Phase 2

6

End Phase

The turn player is capable of performing the same actions they could in Main Phase 1.

The turn player resolves effects from their prior phase, and discards cards until only six are remaining in their hand.

SOURCE: YUGIOH-CARD.COM GRAPHIC BY MORGANNE RAMSEY

The Chronicle

B8 Features

Taught by Two

By Zoe Dutton and Parker Chusid

Mario Portillo ’15 hunches over a table in Silent Study, cramming for tomorrow’s history test.

He glances longingly up at the clock, makes a face and returns to his notes with a sigh.

Unlike many other students, Portillo is in this alone.

He does not use a private tutor to assist him in his studies.

“Money is the main reason,” Portillo said. “My parents also can’t pick me up, so I have to take public transportation home, so I don’t have time.”

Portillo is in the minority.

According to a Chronicle survey of 365 students, 73 percent have hired a private tutor at some point.

The administration recommends that students make full use of the resources already at their disposal before they turn to outside assistance.

“We hope that we can provide the support for each and every student,” Dean Rose-Ellen Racanelli said. “Students are encouraged to see their teachers as the first line when they have questions and they don’t understand a concept.”

Racanelli also cited the Peer Tutoring program as a possible resource.

The program pairs students who need extra assistance in a particular course with a fellow student who has already taken the class.

They then meet during mutual free periods, though

May. 29, 2013

Though private tutoring is common among students looking to boost their GPAs, some question the practice.

how often is left up to the tu- tutors effective. tee.

“In Physics C, I had a lot Peer tutors fill out an ap- of trouble catching up to kids plication and submit a teacher who already had a full year of evaluation. physics experience,” Sam Ly“[My Peer Tutor Michael ons ’13 said. “Meetings with Rahhal ’14] is helpful with my teacher weren’t really chemistry,” Warren Snyder helpful or resonant with me, ’14 said. “Peer Tutoring is way but my tutor really helps when easier [than private tutoring] I need it.” because you can meet durThe tutoring industry, ing your own which raked schedule at in $7 billion school and nationwide in he’s already 2010 accordtaken the to the reMost professional tutors ing class so it’s search firm don’t really help wtih fresh in his EduVentures, head.” is also more skills... I can count on According than willing my hands the number to the survey to vouch for only two peritself. of tutors I have run into cent of stu“ [ S t u and consider effective dents use a dents] imPeer Tutor. prove a lot, —Javier Zaragoza when they S o m e Spanish teacher work with a faculty feel that tutoring tutor,” Cyrshould part il Sebban, of a bigger founder and process.

CEO of the Beverly Hills Tu“I have always thought that toring Center said. “It’s not Peer Tutoring should be a part about struggling. It’s about of a multi-pronged approach to getting into good colleges and helping a student out,” Jordan making sure that [the stuChurch, the faculty adviser for dents] achieve and that they the Peer Tutoring program accomplish what their goal is.” and the Director of Student The Beverly Hills Tutoring Affairs, said. “It can be benefi- Center charges $50 to $80 an cial, but it should not be the hour, less than most major tuonly solution. I am not really toring services. sure how effective or ineffecSebban estimates his tutive a professional tutor is, but tors have worked with 30 to 40 I know in particular that Peer Harvard-Westlake students in Tutoring is not a solution in the past year. and of itself.”

“If we start early enough Many students, however, in the year, generally [the stusay that they do find private dent improves by] a full letter

“

grade,” tutor Adam Stone said.

He estimates that he has taught 30 to 40 HarvardWestlake students in the past seven years. Stone works at the Princeton Review.

It is one of many tutoring services popular with students, and even advertises in the Chronicle.

The cost there for a “premier” level tutor, the kind most commonly used by Harvard-Westlake students, is $330 an hour.

Even at the cheapest level at Princeton Review, tutors are $150 an hour.

This leads some to believe that private tutoring can give wealthier students an unfair edge.

“I don’t have a tutor because I’m broke,” Gertrude* ’15 said. “I think it is an unfair advantage for people that can afford it...that’s common sense.”

Others question the benefit of private tutoring altogether.

“Most professional tutors don’t really help with skills,” Spanish teacher Jaview Zaragoza said. “I can count on my hands the number of tutors I have run into and considered effective.”

He estimates that out of every class of 12 to 14 students, three will have a private tutor.

“I don’t feel that tutoring gives [wealthier] kids an unfair advantage,” Portillo said.

He looked down at his notes, “But I would like one for History.” * names have been changed

By the numbers: Tutor use

73%

of students have used a private tutor

27%

of students have never used a private tutor

2%

of students use peer tutoring

INFOGRAPHIC BY ZOE DUTTON SOURCE: SURVEY OF 365 STUDENTS

www.ombrala.com

3737 Cahuenga Blvd.

Studio City, CA 91604 info@ombrala.com 818-985-7337

Harvard-Westlake Proud Let us cater your special event!

Arts&Entertainment The Chronicle • May 29, 2013

ROBBIE LOEB/CHRONICLE

SING A SONG: President Thomas Hudnut joins the Chamber Singers for a rendition of “Canique de Jean Racine,” above. The performers hold up signs honoring Justin Carr ’14, right.

MORGANNE RAMSEY/CHRONICLE

Singers put on final concert

By Morganne Ramsey The three upper school choirs, the Harvard-Westlake Jazz Singers, and the Trebletones performed in the Upper School Spring Choral Concert, “In Good Conscience,” dedicated to Harvard-Westlake President Thomas Hudnut on May 24 and 25.

The music in the second half was chosen to reflect the message of “being good and doing good” that Hudnut tries to instill in the community through this year’s motto: “Do well and do good.”

A description of the show in the program describes the second half of the show as,

“Heartfelt warnings” and “prayers to get through tough times.”

“It’s really a call to the down-trodden,” upper school choral director Rodger Guerrero said.

As part of the dedication, the Chamber Singers sang a song with Hudnut — “Cantique de Jean Racine.”

“It was really special to honor him by singing one of his favorite works with him,” Chamber singer Alex Berman ’14 said of Hudnut.

In addition to being dedicated to Hudnut, the show was also performed in memory of Justin Carr ’14, who was a member of both Chamber

During the final choral concert of the year, students honored President Thomas Hudnut and the memory of Chamber Singer Justin Carr ’14.

Singers and Jazz Singers.

Other songs performed During the performance during the second half includof “Man in the Mirror,” the ed a performance by Chamber combined choirs held Singers of “Sound up signs in honor of of Silence,” and the Carr.

Trebletones sang and Many of the danced to “Walking signs said “Justin on Sunshine.”

Carr Wants World “The second half Peace,” and one sign was a lot of fun beread “Let’s Make a cause you had to do Change.” a lot of standing durKennedy Green ing the first half, but ’14, who saw the show during the second nathanson ’s on Friday night, said half you got to let that she had mixed Rodger Guerrero loose and just have reactions to the signs. fun,” Berman said.

“I felt like I was going to While the second half of cry,” Green said, “but also I the show consisted of modern was happy that his memory music with dance numbers, was living through the choirs.” the first half was a traditional

concert.

Over the course of two hours, the choirs performed twenty numbers.

The musical selections ranged from a Debussy piece in French: “Dieu! Qu’il la fait bon regarder,” to a piece called “Western Songs.”

The show also featured performances by student instrumentalists.

Members of jazz band performed during the Jazz Singers’ set and during a number of songs in the second half, and Michael Zaks ’13 played piano duets with the choir’s accompianist, Sara Shakliyan-Mendez, during “Shenandoah” and “Liebeslieder Walzer.”

National Poetry Slam champions perform spoken word for students

By Morganne Ramsey

Although there were two microphones situated at the front of the stage, the poets didn’t use them at all after the end of their first poem in order to move around the stage and have a more active performance.

National Poetry Slam champions Sekou Andrews (also known as Sekou Tha Misfit) and Steve Connell performed a free show for students May 27 in Rugby Auditorium.

Andrews and Connell performed spoken word – which is different than a poetry reading.

“Spoken word is poetry written from the ground up to be performed,” Andrews said.

“The stage is part of the process.”

The poets performed four poems during the show. The show began and concluded with a poem featuring both Andrews and Connell, and each poet performed one poem individually.

During his solo poem, “The Awesome Anthem,” Andrews got down on his knees.

In the final poem of the show, “Felt That Spit,” the first poem they wrote together, Connell stalked Andrews from the middle of the stage to

the side.

The poets also spoke about “Just yesterday I was shot how they got their start in po41 times,” Andrews said, re- etry. Both began writing pocoiling repeatedly as Connell etry in high school – Connell mimed shooting a gun at his would write a poem every year chest. “Filled on Martin Luwith 41 bloody ther King Day holes, and all I in honor of was doing offiKing.

Poetry is proof there cer was reachAndrews is one spirit broken ing for a poem on the other in seven billion plus that would hand only bereach your gan seriously parts. Poetry is proof soul.” writing poetry we are all connected.”

A main after trying to theme of the a career —Steve Connell make show was enas a rapper, couraging citing the atconfidence titude of peo– the focal ple involved in point of Andrews’ poem “The spoken word as a reason for Awesome Anthem,” which his making the switch into Andrews described as “an an- spoken word poetry. them to get you through whatHe said that spoken word ever you’re going through.” was all about the word, while “The census bureau just with hip-hop he had to worry released a report that two about whether or not it soundout of every three people are ed like what the record comawesome,” Andrews said. “If panies wanted and thought that is true, then out of you would sell. and you and me, the question Andrews said that he and we must now ask ourselves is Connell want to try to create ‘Which one of you two is the a commercially viable industry one that sucks? Because I am out of spoken word poetry. awesome.’”

However, they perform poIn his poem, “The Newborn etry because of their love of it.

Laws of Motion,” Conell said “Poetry is proof there is that, “Greatness is for every- one spirit broke in seven bilone brave enough to get there.” lion plus parts,” Connell said.

The other poem they per- “Poetry is proof we are all conformed was titled “Music.” nected.”

“

PRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF MOLLY CHAPMAN

Sing-along: Autumn Witz ’14, Claire Nordstrom ’14, Zita Biosah ’14, Aiyana White ’14, Andrea Torre ’14, Molly Chapman ’14, Mikaela Hong ’14, Jensen McRae ’15, Camelia Somers ’14, Nicole West ’14 and Tara Joshi ’14 close out the concert with a group number.

Concert raises $2,500 for homeless teenagers

By Sarah Novicoff

Eleven students performed at a benefit concert May 19 to raise money for the Los Angeles Youth Network.

The network is a nonprofit organization to support runaway and homeless adolescents in the Los Angeles area.

The show, named “Teens Helping Teens,” raised almost $2,500 from ticket sales and additional donations.

Approximately 90 people attended the concert at the MBar in Hollywood.

“The show was awesome,” performer Nicole West ’14 said. “We had a pretty full house, and everybody had a great time. I’m really happy I

was given the chance to participate, and I think we would all love to do something like that another time in the future.”

The concert was organized

by Molly Chapman ’14, who also performed.

“When choosing an organization, I knew I wanted it to benefit teens,” Chapman said.

“Being at this school and living a privileged life is very special, and I felt and knew I had to give back. As cheesy as this sounds, we are the future and I think we need to help one another out. I think we are lacking concern for fellow teens in our society, so I was glad that my friends and I were able to do something about it.”

The Chronicle

B10 Features

May 29, 2011

Annual solo night highlights seniors

By Maggie Bunzel

Seniors in Wolverine Chorus, Bel Canto, Chamber Singers and Jazz Singers were scheduled to perform in the annual senior solo night in Saint Savior’s Chapel on Tuesday May 28. Around 15 to 20 seniors sang, although it is not a mandatory event. At the end of the night, seniors gave a gift to both their choral instructor, Rodger Guerrero, and their accompaniest.

“It’s a very sentimental show,” said Laura Edwards ’13. “Its seniors’ last chance to perform because we’re graduating. Most seniors perform songs relevant to their high school experience. Many seniors perform duets because it’s our last chance to perform in HW choir together.”

NOA YADIDI/CHRONICLE

THE FINAL ACT: Ben Gail ’13, Anna Wittenberg ’13 and Nick Healy ’13 create a tableau during an improvisation game in their last show as Scene Monkeys, while below, left, Tara Joshi ’14, Daniel Palumbo ’14, and Emma Pasarow ’14 involve the audience. Joshi and Clay Davis ’14 crack a joke, right.

Seniors perform improv for the last time with Scene Monkeys

By Rebecca Katz The Scene Monkeys held their last performances of the year in Rugby on Friday May 17, playing improvisational games such as acting out classical ballets on the spot and performing inner-song monologues.

The Monkeys included audience members in some of their games. They chose Mila Barzdukas ’15 from the crowd and acted out a scene of her family’s Thanksgiving dinner.

Greg Lehrhoff ’14 is the accompanist for the Scene Monkeys. He sits in on all of the Monkeys’ rehearsals and improves manys of the songs for the Monkeys to perform during shows.

“My piano playing is almost entirely improv because I

don’t take lessons, so I felt like the job was perfect for me,” Lerhoff said. “Just having the chance to perform with such a talented group of students has been spectacular.”

The Scene Monkeys’, led by performing arts instructor Michelle Spears, performed seven shows this year including performances at the Playwrights Festival and a performance for Mother’s Day at the Hollywood Improv.

“I’ve loved observing the evolution of this year’s group because I think we ended the year with a really cohesive show and worked so comfortably with one another,” Tara Joshi ’14 said. “It’s been a blast.”

The one sophomore and 11 junior and senior Monkeys who perfomed said it’s been

a very rewarding experience working with such a talented group this year.

“Everyone is so crazy and talented and contributes something unique to the group,” Molly Chapman ’14 said. “It really challenged me to be the best performer I could be.”

In their last show, the ten senior Scene Monkeys wittily imparted advice regarding high school to the audience members in one of their games.

“This last show was definitely bittersweet,” Nick Healy ’13 said. “Scene monkeys has been an important part of my life for the past three years, and as ready as I am to try my hand in the college improv scene, I will miss seeing these people.”

Edwards perfromed a rendition of Taylor Swift’s “Never Grow Up” accompanied by her younger brother Michael on the guitar.

“Saying goodbye to choir and all the friends I’ve made will be extremely sad,” Edwards said. “It’s been the most wonderful opportunity.”

For Chamber Singer Michael Wagmeister, the night was about reminiscing, “It’s been a great experience and a lot of fun, he said. “In choir, I met people, made friends and had some wonderful experiences.”

Wagmeister picked his song a few weeks in advance, as did Chamber Singer Michael Zaks ’13. Zaks played a piece on the piano.

“It’s sort of sad,” Zaks said.

“I don’t want this year to end.”

Art classes display ‘best work of year’

By Jacob Goodman

validity and goodbyes and endings,” Verrone said.

The show featured a recepThe Senior Art show was scheduled to take place in tion and a showing of all the the Feldman-Horn gallery on seniors’ videos in Feldman Tuesday, May 28, exhibiting all Horn Gallery.

Afterwards, ceramics the senior artists’ works from teacher John glass to paintLubetow’s glass ing. installation, a The show to Prescomprising The art room is like my tribute ident Thomas what seniors second home. Moving Hudnut who individuis leaving the ally dub their on is bittersweet.” school after 26 “best work,” includes pieces —Michelle Chang ’13 years, was unveiled. from students’ The night sophomore, culminated junior and sewith a concert by solo vocalnior years.

The gallery exhibited se- ists from the senior class.

Michelle Chang ’13 feels niors’ works from a multitude of glass, sculpture, drawing, sentimental because this is the painting, photography and last time her art will be shown in Feldman-Horn Gallery. video classes.

Patric Verrone ’13 was set “The art room is like my to exhibit “Great,” his film second home,” Chang said. from Video Art III, which is “Moving on is bittersweet.” a modern rendition of “The Savannah de Montesqui ’13 Great Gatsby.” He also made a echoes Chang’s seniment. rendition of “The Little Mer“This last show is a meanmaid” this year. ingful one,” de Montesqui said. “[The art show is] all about

“

Advanced I, II dancers celebrate final recital

By Noa Yadidi

Dancers in the Advanced Dance I and II classes finished off their year in a spring showcase May 1 in the dance studio.

Dancers performed solos, duos, trios and in groups during the performance which was held after school.

Seniors in Advanced Dance II performed in their final number together to Little Dragon’s “Ritual Union” at the end of the show.

Each senior was then presented with a plaque and bouquet of flowers after the show as dance teacher Cynthia Winter said a few words about each girl.

The seniors have been preparing for the show since their last dance concert, which in-

cluded sophomores and juniors last March.

“I’m going to miss dancing with everyone mainly because I’m probably not going to dance in college,” Katya Konkol ’13 said. “We’ve all really bonded as a class and it’s going to be hard to leave everybody.”

Most of the numbers in the senior showcase were small group dances, a handful of solos and one big group dance with all of the seniors.

“We choreographed the dances ourselves with the help of Mrs. Winter and Mrs. Lowry, our two dance instructors,” Konkol said. “They gave us feedback about our dances and helped tweak them.”

Winter said she will miss her students, and hope they return for frequent visits.

NOA YADIDI/CHRONICLE

DANCE LIKE NO ONE IS WATCHING: Mikaila Mitchell ‘13, Sidney Moskowitz ‘13, Anna Wittenberg ’13, Jazzi Marine ’13 and Katya Konkol ’13 dance in their final senior performance of the year, top. Alisha Bansal ’14 performs a solo that she choreographed herself, left, while Kelly Crosson ’14 hands flowers to Mitchell, Moskowitz and Wittenberg, following a tradition for the last dance showcase.

hwchronicle.com/features

May 29, 2013

Features B11

Local film festival showcases four films

By Sophie Kupiec-Weglinski

SYDNEY FOREMAN/CHRONICLE

FOUR HANDS, ONE PIANO: Ted Walch moderates a Q&A session with professional pianists Danny Holt and Steven Vanhauwaert for students of the Philosophy in Art and Science class.

Four hands play ‘Rite of Spring’

By Zoe Dutton

A performance of Igor Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring” culminated the Philosophy in Art and Science class’ unit on Aesthetics.

The assembly took place during first period on May 3 in Rugby Auditorium.

The piece was performed four-hand by professional pianists Danny Holt and Steven Vanhauwaert.

Philosophy teacher Ted Walch knew Holt and Vanhauwaert through his involvement with the music group Jacaranda: Music At the Edge.

The recital also celebrated

the 100th anniversary of the premiere of the Rite of Spring in Paris.

“Mr. Weis and I both feel that this unit is made dramatically more effective by having [the pianists] out,” Walch said.

“We’re just trying to open the kids’ eyes and give them something to react to.

Walch added that they intend to make the performance an annual event.

After the recital, students had the opportunity to ask Holt and Vanhauwaert questions.

“I like how they talked about Stravinsky and how he was really novel at the time

and radical,” Rebecca Moretti ’13 said. “They talked at the end about how it was connected with the ideas of Erik Satie and they were really influenced by him. He is a pianist I really admire, so I thought that was pretty cool.”

Walch also believed that Stravinsky was an influential composer.

“Stravinksy’s importance not only in modern music but also in the history of western thought, in so many ways prefigures the modern philosophical movements of the twentieth century, everything from cubism to Dada to you name it,” Walch said.

and have adventures with the characters.

Joss Saltzman Four films made by stu- ’16 stars in the film, which dents have been chosen to be was shot during the Harvardshowcased in the Westlake Summer Los Angeles Film Film Camp. The Festival. All four process took three films will be shown weeks in total, one on June 15 and June week for prepara22 at Regal Cinemas. tion, another week “You and Me,” to shoot and the directed by Amanda final week to edit Reiter ’14 features and make the final more than 400 phofilm. tos chronicling a “It’s Not Just nathanson ’s young boy and girl One,” a public serAmanda Reiter ’14 through hand drawn vice announcement scenarios. The movdirected by Michael ie stars Jackie Carr Kellman ’16, Sarah ’14 and Nick Brooks ’14.

McAllister ’15, Kelly Morrison Reiter singlehandedly ’16 and summer school stuwrote and shot the entire film. dents Kyra Perez and Jordan The shooting of “You and Me” Seibel, raises awareness about was similar to that of stop- the mentality behind pollumotion animation. She printed tion. The film raises the point all of the photos and placed a that if people believe that piece of see-through plastic cleaning one piece of trash will over each photo and drew the not make a difference, then scenario, tweaking it on each eventually the Earth will have photo. When pieced together, billions of pieces of trash from the video’s runtime was two all the people who share that minutes and 15 seconds. mentality about littering.

“Although the process of The film was made at creating the film was really Righteous Conversations Projchallenging, it was definitely ect during the summer at the worth it,” Reiter said.

Upper School, where students Another film, titled “Find- got the chance to meet Holoing Erica Jones,” is an anima- caust survivors. tion written and directed by “Some of the inspiration Natalie Markiles ’13 about a comes from the Holocaust surdetective trying to solve a case. vivor stories that really show Markiles, George Khabbaz and how one person can make a August Blum did the anima- huge difference,” Kellman said. tion during the Summer Film In addition to the holocaust Program. survivor stories, McAllister “Forest King,” which also had another reason to make a will be shown at the Los An- film about pollution. geles Film festival, is directed “Whenever I do anything

by Nikta Mansouri ’15 and Nat outdoorsy, from taking a walk Motulsky, a student at Seattle to scuba diving, I can see what Academy High School. The exactly we can conserve if film is about a girl who has the we just tried, and it is always ability to transport herself and pretty beautiful,” McAllister her little brother into books said.

Concert features two commissioned pieces

By James Hur

In the final orchestra concert of the year, a combined wind ensemble played an original piece by Anderson Alden ’09 at the First Presbyterian Church on May 3.

“It was exciting to write for the ensemble since I owe a lot of my knowledge to Harvard-Westlake,” Alden said.

The event opened with Concert String’s performance of Léo Delibes’ “In the Old Style,” Beethoven’s “Six Country Dances,” and the English folk song “Black Is the Colour of My True Love’s Hair.”

A trio consisting of Irene Kao ’14, Lisa He ’14 and Nathan Szeto ’15 followed, performing Poulenc’s Op. 43.

Wind Ensemble continued

with Beethoven’s “Turkish March from the Ruins of Athens,” and Antonin Dvorák’s “Symphony No. 9.”

A trio consisting of Alexia Le ’14, Sydney Cheong ’14 and Justin Yoo ’15 performed Mortiz Moszkowski’s Op. 71.

All 71 members of the orchestra then performed Howard Shore’s “The Return of the King,” which was featured in the “Lord of the Rings.”

For the concert’s conclusion, the Symphony orchestra performed Beethoven’s “Symphony No. 1,” Ernest Bloch’s “Concerto Grosso No. 1” and Joan Huang’s “Lunar Jamboree,” a piece commissioned by conductor Mark Hilt.

“It was the most amazing performance we’ve had,” clarinetist Ray Kim ’14 said.

JENSEN PAK/CHRONICLE

FINISHING STRONG: Mark Hilt conducts “Seeds,” an original piece commissioned for and played by a joint group consisting of members from both the Wind Ensemble and the Symphony Orchestra.

Private party wishes to sell two side-by-side internment spaces Lot #1678, location Abiding Trust $4500 for one or $8000 for two Endowment Care Fund included Address: Forest lawn Memorial Road 21300 Via Verde Drive Covina Hills, CA

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The Chronicle

B12 Features

May 29, 2013

Two students express meaningful themes through their tattoos, while another hopes to do the same.

ELANA ZELTSER/CHRONICLE

Tat Stats $1.65 billion is spent on tattoos annually 45 million Americans have at least one tattoo 21,000 tattoo parlors are in the United States 36% of people ages 18-25 have at least one tattoo 17% of people who get tattoos regret it SOURCE: WWW.STATISTICBRAIN.COM INFOGRAPHIC BY SYDNEY FOREMAN

PRINTED WITH THE PERMISSION OF JORDAN BREWINGTON

By Camille Shooshani

“They were shocked,” she said.

“They were more mad about ordan Brewington ’13 me lying about it then actushrieked as the needle ally getting a tattoo. They pierced her left wrist were annoyed because they and her mother watched, think in a few years I will laughing. regret. I don’t think I will.”

“Oh my god, oh my god, oh Bunzel plans to get anmy god, mom, can you sing to other tattoo on the left side me?” she said. of her ribcage or wrist beAfter 15 minutes and a fore graduation this time. rendition of the Jaws theme, “It will be a dove with nathanson ’s Brewington had two dots peran olive branch,” she said. It Jordan manently etched into her skin. means peace for myself and Brewington ’13 “It felt like a knife was for my grandmother. It’s just slowly being dragged across my a cool way for me to rememwrist,” she said. “It’s creepy to ber her.” know there’s ink underneath Connor Kalantari ’14 the surface of my skin.” plans to get three tattoos On March 9 at Studio City this summer when he turns Tattoo, tattoo artist Jose of18. fered Brewington a coffee and First, he wants an elafter stenciling the design onto ephant stretching across his her wrist, used a needle to poke right shoulder, upper arm, ink under her skin. and back.

“I was having a moment “Elephants in my famduring class and decided to ily are pretty significant draw this on my wrist and I and my grandma has always nathanson ’s thought, what a great symbol loved them because they are Maggie of me and my mom,” she said. protective, good luck and Bunzel ’13 “The big one is her, the little travel in packs, but they’re one is me.” also sensitive,” Kalantari Brewington was careful to said. “It fits me because I’m make sure her tattoo wouldn’t big and strong and protechinder her in the future. tive but also sensitive.”

“I wanted it to be small, His mother and sister concealable, and not a whole also plan on getting elelot of mess,” she said. phants tattoos.

Unlike Brewington, MagAlong with the elephant, gie Bunzel ’13 did not tell her Kalantari wants his mother’s parents when she got her tatname within a cross within too at 16. a heart.

The three hearts on her left “It’s pretty typical but hip-bone are meant to repreI’ve wanted to get it for nathanson ’s sent “love and happiness in the years,” he said.

Connor past, the present, in the fuThe final tattoo KalanKalantari ’14 ture,” she said. tari is still considering is of For six months, Bunzel told the words “live without fear” her parents it was a “permain Spanish on his left arm. nent henna.” After getting in a fight “I’m Mexican and my whole family with her brother, he told her parents is tattooed except for me, so I’m the it was real. last one to have it,” he said.

J

SYDNEY FOREMAN/CHRONICLE

GETTING INKED: Jordan Brewington ‘13 holds hands with her mother and they display their matching tattoos, which symbolize their close relationship. Maggie Bunzel ‘13 shows the tattoo on her hipbone, which she had done on the Venice Boardwalk. The three hearts represent “happiness and love” in her past, present and future.

Sports The Chronicle • May 29, 2013

OLD FACES, NEW PLACES: 42 senior athletes committed to play sports next year for colleges across the nation.

C5

No.1 baseball makes CIF run

By Lizzy Thomas

At Dodger Stadium, in May of 1981, Doug Urbach and his Kennedy High School baseball teammates won the Los Angeles City Championship.

Thirty-two years later, his son, Tyler Urbach ’14, has the chance to closely replicate that feat, with a few key differences: the team is the Harvard-Westlake baseball team, ranked number one in the country by last week’s Baseball America National Poll, and the title on the line is the CIF Division I championship.

A win in Tuesday’s CIF semifinal against Los Alamitos, the results of which were unavailable at press time, would have secured a spot at CIF Finals, set for Friday at Dodger Stadium.

Heading into yesterday’s game, the personal ties motivated third baseman Urbach to continue the offensive success he’s displayed in recent games, particularly in his team’s 5-0 victory over Santa Margarita Friday to advance out of quarterfinals.

“Personally I’d love to play there,” Urbach said. “My dad’s pulling for that, my mom wants that badly.”

But as much as his father’s long-ago accomplishment has compelled Urbach toward CIF Finals, so too has his desire to fulfill the year’s worth of work his team has put towards this moment.

“We’re all best friends, we kind of joke around, at school we’re all together and we really are a brotherhood,” Urbach said. “To get to Finals, it would just be reassurance that we put in the work from September to now, because we work so hard, even during the summer we play together.”

The team, a pitching powerhouse the past few years with Lucas Giolito ’12 and Max Fried ’12 last year then Conor Cuse ’13, Hans Hansen ’13 and Jack Flaherty ’14 this year, has • Continued on page C3

PHOTOS BY LUKE HOLTHOUSE/CHRONICLE

FANTASTIC FOUR: Lizzy Thomas ’14, top left, Ben Gaylord ’13, top middle, Alex Florent ’15, bottom and Courtney Corrin ’16, right, advanced to CIF Masters on May 24 after placing high enough at CIF Finals on May 18. Thomas topped the final CIF stage in the girls’ 3200 meter race, Gaylord in the pole-vault event, Florent in the girls’ high jump and Corrin in the girls’ long jump. All four then qualified for the California State Meet on May 31.

Masters of the Track

Four Wolverine track and field athletes qualified for CIF Masters, the highest level of CIF competition. All four made it past Masters and will compete at the state-wide meet this Friday.

By Grant Nussbaum After surviving and advancing past CIF competition at Cerritos College last Friday, four Wolverines earned the right to call themselves track and field masters.

Ben Gaylord ’13, Lizzy Thomas ’14, Alex Florent ’15 and Courtney Corrin ’16 all qualified for the California State Meet at CIF Masters on May 24. On May 31 and June 1, Gaylord, Thomas, Florent and Corrin will to travel to Clovis, Calif. and vie for the title of best in state in their respective events.

“It was a fantastic evening for the program, and they were fantastic performances for the athletes,” Program Head Jonas Koolsbergen said. “[Gaylord, Thomas, Florent and Corrin] really just stuck with the process. They worked hard, got prepared and they were rewarded with super performances.”

Prior to Masters, the last and highest level of CIF competition, the four track and field athletes faced potential elimination in CIF Preliminaries and CIF Finals, where the girls’ team placed third overall in CIF Division III.

The Wolverines, however, have continued to persist all the way to the largest stage of the postseason.

The four qualifiers will represent Harvard-Westlake in three field events and one running competition at Buchanan next Friday.

At Cerritos last Friday, Gaylord placed second in the pole-vault by clearing a height of 15 feet, 10 inches, a new personal record.

“The hard mark to get to state was 15-4, so I was really just going there to clear 15-4, not to PR or anything,” Gaylord said. “The PR was just ic-

ing on the cake.”

Thomas, the only Wolverine runner, finished seventh in the girls’ 3200 meter with a time of 10:32.43.

Florent, who holds the school record in girls’ high jump, claimed seventh in the event at Masters, leaping 5 feet, 5 inches.

Three-time school record setter Corrin won the girls’ long jump event with a jump of 20 feet, 5.25 inches. The freshman had also qualified to compete in the girls’ triple jump at Masters, but scratched; • Continued on page C5

Lacrosse wins North Division title, defeated in Southern Section Finals

By Eric Loeb

JACK GOLDFISHER/CHRONICLE

REVVED UP: Midfielder Justice Sefas ’13 leans back to pass the ball in the lacrosse team’s 15-8 loss to St. Margaret’s in the Southern Section championship on May 11. The team won the North Division title game 9-7 three days earlier against Palos Verdes.

Following the completion of its most successful season ever, members of the varsity lacrosse team will have something special for a week. Each player will gain possession of the school’s first Northern Division trophy for their personal week of ownership. Some players plan on utilizing the cup as a cup and drink things like root beer floats from the cup. Others plan on just admiring the trophy and keeping

it clean.

The biggest issue that faces all members of the program, aside from graduating seniors, is whether or not Interim Head Coach Alex Weber will be returning next season to coach the team.

Weber, who was hired to the position last January, was brought in to replace Jay Pfeifer, who resigned to pursue a graduate degree in real estate at Johns Hopkins University.

This season under Weber, the team finished with a re-

cord of 15-4, and although it did not win its third straight Mission League Championship as it set out to this past winter, the team won something greater, the school’s first US Lacrosse Northern Division championship with a 9-7 win over Palos Verdes on May 8.

The team’s season was ended by a 15-8 loss to St. Margaret’s in the Southern Section final.

“I was pretty happy at how far we went,” Matt Edelstein • Continued on page C4

The Chronicle

C2 Sports

Facts &

U.S. wrestling team practices in Hamilton

Figures Number of hits Jack Flaherty ’14 has allowed through two CIF playoff games this year

7

By Luke Holthouse

104 181

Softball run differential throughout the season

Number of places the lacrosse team jumped in the newest Maxpreps National Lacrosse Rankings

245.25

Inches of Courtney Corrin’s ’16 long jump to win CIF Masters

Game to watch JUNE 1-2 Track and Field State Meet 4 p.m. at Buchanan High School

Courtney Corrin ’16 and Lizzy Thomas ’14 will compete at State for the first time, in the long jump and 3200m respectively, while Alex Florent ’15 and Ben Gaylord ’13 return to Clovis in the high jump and pole vault, respectively.

Athletes to watch: Courtney Corrin ’16 In her freshman season, Corrin has won CIF Finals and Masters in the long jump, broken the school and national freshman long jump record, and jumped 20’11” for the best mark in the country this year. All that is left for Corrin to complete a truly phenomenal freshman campaign is a state title.

Alex Florent ’15 Florent, who will compete in State Prelims high jump Friday, is a returning State meet veteran, having jumped 5’7” as a freshman last year to finish fifth. She will attempt to best the personal record of 5’10” that she set in April 2012, a mark she’s come close to this season with a 5’8” at last month’s Mt. Sac Relays.

Ben Gaylord ’13 Gaylord enters his second straight State meet riding the momentum of a second place finish at last week’s Masters Meet, where he vaulted a personal best of 15’10”. Gaylord finished fifth overall at last year’s State meet, and will look to top that finish and the 16’ barrier this weekend in Clovis.

Lizzy Thomas ’14 Thomas placed seventh overall at last week’s Masters meet, with an 18-second personal best of 10:32.43 in the 3200m. This weekend marks the first trip to the State meet for Thomas, who had never advanced past CIF Prelims before this season.

May 29, 2013

MICHAEL SUGERMAN/CHRONICLE

NATIONAL TREASURE: Team USA coaches demonstrate technique for those in attendance, top. Jake Bracken ’14 shakes hands with Olympic Gold Medalist Jordan Burroughs, below.

Lax’s May Madness I’ve always been a huge fan of “March Madness.” The national hype surrounding the NCAA men’s basketball national championship tournament is the best sporting event of the year in my opinion, and I love spending those weekends in late March sitting on my couch and watching the numerous upsets unfold.

So you can imagine how much fun I was having during the lacrosse team’s recent playoff run, or my experience with “May Madness.” I have watched many Cinderella stories unfold during a sports event, but I had never actually been a part of one until this season. And as fun as it is watching those thrilling upsets, miraculous comebacks and overtime winners on TV, the experience just doesn’t come close to joy of watching one from the field.

I think it’s no exaggeration to call our season a Cinderella story. Our former head coach Jay Pfeifer resigned in late January, our former assistant coach Alex Weber had about a month to get acclimated to his new interim head coach position before our first game, we took a sharp nose dive in the final four games of the season, lost our sole possession of the league title in a 15-7 loss to Crepsi the last regular season game of the year and were

The U.S. national wrestling practiced at Hamilton Gymnasium and met with members of the Harvard-Westlake wrestling team on Friday, May 17. The national team was preparing for an international exhibition the following day at the Los Angeles Convention Center with the Iranian national wrestling team. Though a dispute between team officials prevented the Iranian national team from making the trip to Los Angeles for either event, wrestling program head Gary Bairos was very happy the American team still met with students in Hamilton.

“It went really well,” Bairos said. “In terms of the event for us here, it was awesome.

They came in and it was a really intimate little event. They drilled, wrestled, signed some autographs and it was really amazing. The kids were genuinely excited and that’s who it was for.”

Since the International Olympic Committee voted in February to discontinue wrestling from organized Olympic competition after the 2016 Olympic Games in Brazil, various national teams around the world have been fighting to have the sport added back to the Olympic program by the 2020 Olympics. The IOC does not believe that the sport is viewer friendly for a television audience, and the wrestling community is desperately trying to spur enough fan support to have the sport added again.

The American national team invited the Iranian team to an exhibition in New York and Los Angeles as part of the attempt to generate fan sup-

port. Bairos, who wrestled at Arizona State with U.S. national team coach Zeke Jones, contacted Jones about having the two teams practice at Harvard-Westlake before the official exhibition at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

Despite growing tension in the Persian Gulf between the American government and Iranian government over nuclear proliferation, the school agreed to host both the American and Iranian team.

However, after participating in the exhibition in New York, the Iranian national team was ordered to fly home to Tehran instead of participating in the second half of the American tour. The Russian and Canadian national teams were invited last-minute and participated in the official exhibition in Los Angeles instead.

Bairos said that although their respective governments may not have the greatest relationship, their respective national teams have very good relations with each other.

“It wasn’t really a wrestling decision, it was a government decision,” he said. “USA Wrestling is going to invite them back, so we’ll see what happens.”

Bairos thanked the school for allowing him to use its facilities to host the event as it helped generate excitement for students within the school program and generate national attention for the sport.

“It’s a real character-building sport,” he said. “You can’t really excel until you’ve lost and so you’re always battling adversity. When you’re brushing up with adversity and your fears every day, you’re going to get somewhere.”

By Luke Holthouse

given the six-seed in our 16team Southern Section North Division playoff bracket. We hosted Peninsula, the 11-seed, in the first round game and handled them pretty easily, but we weren’t expected to do much after that.

Then we traveled to Agoura, the three-seed, and crushed the Chargers 16-8.

We had never advanced to the semifinals of our playoff tournament since 2004, and the upset win avenged playoff losses to Agoura my freshman and sophomore season during the quarterfinal.

Then we traveled to Westlake, the two-seed. We found ourselves down 7-3 at halftime, but climbed our way back into the game in the second half and forced sudden death overtime.

After a huge scramble for the opening faceoff, we got possession, and a pass from my brother Roman Holthouse ’15 intended for Brooks Hudgins ’14 deflected off a defender’s stick then trickled into the back of the net to win the game. No Cinderella sports story is complete without a couple lucky bounces.

Not only did we complete one of the best and biggest comebacks ever, but we earned a date with the top seed and defending champion in our bracket, Palos Verdes. If you

asked me before the season, or even before the game if we could beat PV with our current squad, I couldn’t confidently say we could because PV was so widely recognized across Los Angeles as the best team in the area. But we had one last upset left in us, and we shocked both the lacrosse community and myself with a 9-7 win for the regional title. As we rushed the field to celebrate after giving Weber a Gatorade bath, my disbelief quickly turned into joy as I began embracing all my friends, teammates and family members at the game.

Though the season ended as one of my happiest experiences at Harvard-Westlake, it was at times very frustrating from a personal perspective.

Not only was I frustrated with my lack of production during the regular season, but I broke my collarbone in the league title game against Crespi, and I had to watch our entire playoff run from the sideline. The team started playing better without me, which made the injury even harder to swallow.

But watching the playoff run from the sideline was a blessing in disguise. I could finally take the pressure off myself, stop worrying about my inability to tangibly contribute to the score sheet and just enjoy being a part of the ride.

We had a lot of selfless seniors on the team that showed up every day even without getting the most playing time, so it was easy for me to realize that the best thing I could do was to stay positive from the sideline and put the collective group’s success above my own. Once I got back into that positive mindset, I could fully enjoy sharing the run with the seniors I had spent my career with and the underclassmen I played with that year. It’s a cool feeling knowing that I was a part of the senior class that won the first regional championship in about a decade, and that we did it when no one thought we could.

Next year, the team won’t lose too much talent from graduating players. I think Weber absolutely earned a promotion from interim to official HC for uniting us all together that playoff run and all the parts will be there if he comes back to make an even better run. We actually lost our final game of the year, when we advanced from the divisional championship to the sectional championship, so I think there’s plenty more for next year’s group to do. I’m very proud of the progress our program made while I played, but I hope we can stop using the word “Cinderella” and start using the word “dynasty.”

May 29, 2013

hwchronicle.com/sports

C3 Sports Senior plays all-star basketball game

LUKE HOLTHOUSE/CHRONICLE

DIVING FOR THE CATCH: Starting third baseman Theo Miesse ’13 dives for a foul ball during the softball team’s loss in the 2nd round of CIF competition to Colton on May 21. The Wolverines lost the matchup 3-2; however, they were able to capture a Mission League title.

Softball falls in 2nd round, coach resigns

By Jordan Garfinkel

After forcing a three-way tie with Alemany and Chaminade for the Mission League title, the softball team moved on to playoffs.

The Wolverines were knocked out in the second round of playoffs in a 3-2 loss against Colton last Tuesday, May 21 .

Despite tallying at least six runs in each of the last five games, the softball bats struggled against Colton, only accumulating four hits and two runs.

Even though the offense was stagnant for the majority of the league title-clinching win over Alemany, the softball team found the ability to flip the switch late, scoring five runs in the fifth inning to rally for a 6-5 victory.

“It’s hard walking off the field knowing that you, as a team, could have done better,” Jessica Johnston ’14 said. “It’s kind of relieving to know that Colton didn’t really beat us,

we beat ourselves. The talent tro ’13, pitcher Chloe Pendwas all there, the focus just ergast ’13 and second-basewasn’t.” man Ashley Wu ’13 all played Maddy Kaplan ’14, along their last high school game on with Chloe Pendergast ’13, Tuesday. carried the starting pitching “The team was pretty this year, accumulating eight quiet since it was the last total wins game for the this season. seniors and Kaplan sentimenserved as a tal,” Wu said.

It’s hard walking off the closer in the “We’ve grown field knowing that you, final game. together and “It’s hard learned to as a team, could have to be disapplay with each done better. It’s kind of pointed with other over relieving to know that the result the years, and when you Colton didn’t really beat that has made know you our experius, we beat ourselves. gave it your ence all the The talent was all there, more meanall, and I truly believe ingful.” the focus just wasn’t. that we did,” Starting Kaplan said. catcher Molly —Jessica Johnston ’14 “Sometimes Steinberg ’14 things just feels the loss don’t go your of her senior way, and you just have to move teammates. on and try to learn from your “They were very fun and losses.” outgoing. They all brought Corner infielder Theo something to the team with Miesse ’13, catcher Tate Cas- their different personalities,”

“

Steinberg said. “We are also losing the leaders of our team for the 2013 season.”

Head Coach Joe Aranda, along with his seniors, also participated in his last high school softball game as the head coach for the Wolverines.

Aranda resigned on Thursday, ending his 15-year stint as the team’s varsity head coach.

“I have enjoyed being a member of the Harvard-Westlake community, Aranda said in a press release. “This was not an easy decision for me because I’ve enjoyed working with the girls through the years. Ultimately, I want to spend more time with my family and that is what matters most to me.”

Johnston said she will miss her coach as she plays her senior season.

“Joe was a really passionate coach who did everything in his power to motivate the girls,” she said. “You could tell he really cared about each and every individual and that was really his magic.”

Baseball sits atop nation late in CIF • Continued from page C1

been on an offensive tear as of late. In their final regular season game, the Wolverines defeated St. Francis 14-0, foreshadowing their 7-1 win over Valencia and their 12-1 defeat of El Dorado in the first and second rounds of playoffs.

Urbach attributes this success to his team’s preparation for competition against specific teams.

“We’ve really just been sticking to a plan. We have an offensive plan, where we all buy into whatever the scouting report is for that team,” Urbach said of the team’s strategy. “We have a lot of talented kids on our team and if we can all do that we can be pretty scary out there.”

An additional element that may tip the CIF scales in the Wolverines’ favor is the early postseason exit of rival Mater Dei. The Monarchs, who defeated the Wolverines the past two years in the finals of the National High School Invitational and who held the title of the best team in the country two weeks ago, were upset in

the first round of CIF playoffs

by Huntington Beach.

Mater Dei’s elimination helped to clear the path to a CIF championship for the Wolverines, but ended any possibility of a rematch between the two teams any time soon.

Depending on the outcomes of yesterday’s semifinal games, however, the Wolverines may still have another shot at a rematch with a different team.

The Loyola Cubs played yesterday against Marina in CIF semifinals, though the results were unavailable at press time.

Loyola, in addition to being a perennial rival to Harvard-Westlake boys’ sports teams, nearly cost the Wolverines their third straight Mission League title.

Loyola had all but won the Mission League title outright a week before the end of the season.

The Cubs then lost two straight games, so that they had to share the League title with their Mission League rivals, Harvard-Westlake.

Regardless of their poten-

tial opponent, if the Wolverines make CIF Finals, they will do what they’ve done all season: focus on and believe in themselves.

“Really all season long Coach [Matt] LaCour has just been saying it’s not about them, it’s all about us, and that has been evidenced here in the playoffs,” Urbach said. “No matter who we’ve played, it’s really about how we play.”

If the team is able to maintain that mindset and the momentum that comes with a 25-4 record, a third-straight Mission League title and a number one national ranking, it may well bring home the first ever CIF title in school history.

It’s a significance not lost on Arden Pabst ’13, the senior catcher who has been on teams the last few years that have come close, but never reached that CIF goal. “[Winning CIF] would mean a lot,” Pabst said. “It would be a big deal because that’s what I’ve been working towards for four years since I’ve been at Harvard-Westlake. It would be a lot of fun to bring that home.”

Natalie Florescu ’13 played in the Battle of the Valley allstar basketball game May 4 at L.A. Valley College.

Florescu, who played for the east team in a 73-49 loss, scored four points in the game on two for seven shooting, along with three assists and three steals.

“Being in an all-star game and playing with all those talented girls, we tried to make the game really fun for those who watched, throwing a ton of behind the back passes, nolook passes, and even some alley-oops here and there,” she said. “It felt like a great way to close off high school basketball and begin a new chapter of my career.”

— Jeremy Tepper

Fencing team places 6th in tournament

The fencing team wrapped up a season in which six fencers placed on the podium at the Southern California League individual Epee/Saber tournament under Head Coach Ted Katzoff.

Five students also qualified for the Junior Olympics Fencing Championships, which were held in February.

“The highlight of my season was placing first at the scholastic high school championships and it was awesome having the team perform so well there,” Jack Graham ’15 said.

— Tyler Graham

Weissenbach reaches NCAA nationals

Former Wolverine track star Amy Weissenbach ’12 qualified for NCAA Outdoor Nationals in the 800 meter race and was part of the Stanford 4x400 team that also qualified.

In the 800, she qualified fifth overall and second in her heat at Regionals with a time of 2:04.97. Her 4x400 team qualified eighth overall with a time of 3:32.65.

Next week’s NCAA Nationals, to be held June 5-8 in Eugene, Ore., will not be Weissenbach’s first collegiate national experience, as she ran the 800 at NCAA Indoor Championships this year as well.

—Aaron Lyons

LaCour tapped for U.S. youth team

ERIC LOEB/CHRONICLE

ACE: Jack Flaherty ’14 throws a pitch during the Wolverines’ 6-1 win against St. Francis at O’Malley Family Field on May 9.

Baseball head coach Matt LaCour was named the pitching coach for the Under-15 United States National Baseball Team on May 6.

LaCour, who also served as a coach for the U15 team last year, will travel with the team to Baranquilla, Colombia this summer for the COPABE “AA”/15U Pan American Baseball Championships, set to take place from July 26 to Aug. 4.

In Baranquilla, LaCour will reunite with Tom Meusborn, the head coach for this year’s 15U team and LaCour’s former boss.

Prior to his current head coaching job, LaCour was the assistant coach at Chatsworth High School, where Meusborn was and is the head coach.

—Grant Nussbaum

The Chronicle

C4 Sports

courttalk

The Chronicle asked:

“How did you react when the Jason Collins story broke?”

"I was shocked. It was really unexpected. I was lost for words."

— Derick Newton'14

Collins stands up, stands out

By Robbie Loeb

>> JACK GOLDFISHER/CHRONICLE

"It's crazy that somebody did that, especially in the sport of basketball, because I think the culture is very masculine, almost anti-gay."

— Eric Alperin '14

>> JACK GOLDFISHER/CHRONICLE

“How do you think Harvard-Westlake athletes would react to a gay teammate and how would that reaction differ from other schools?"

“A lot of people out there are really hateful and it is disturbing and unfortunate, but to us at H-W a teammate is a teammate no matter what."

— Bryan Polan '14

>>

LUKE HOLTHOUSE/CHRONICLE

"Our community is very tight-knit and something as insignificant as someone's sexual orientation would not affect us in any way, whether it be on the basketball court or at school in general."

— Alex Copeland '15

JACK GOLDFISHER/CHRONICLE

May 29, 2013

>>

"I wouldn't think it was a big deal at all, especially at our school, where we are so open to everything."

— Michael Sheng '14

>> LUKE HOLTHOUSE/CHRONICLE

The alumni base at our school is chockfull of outstanding men and women, from promising politicians like Eric Garcetti ’88 to Oscar nominees like Jake Gyllenhaal ’98, Jason Reitman ’95 and Shirley Temple ’45, but three names stand out most to me — Sally Ride ’69, Dara Torres ’88 and now Jason Collins ’97.

Ride broke a gender barrier when she became the first American woman in space in 1983, Torres broke an age barrier when she won a silver Olympic medal at the age 41 and Collins broke a hetero-normative barrier last month when he became the first openly gay athlete to be active in a major American sport.

Three weeks before Collins’ monumental announcement, there were rumblings that as many as four NFL players were contemplating coming out of the closet as an organized group.

American soccer player Robbie Rogers came out publicly in February as he announced his retirement from professional soccer at the age of 25.

The long-established wall was close to breaking down.

Then Collins’ story, which he co-wrote with long-time friend and confidant Franz Lidz, broke on the Sports Illustrated website on April 29 in advance of the May 6 issue and major professional sports had its first openly gay active athlete.

The world had been waiting for someone like Collins to take one small step into the spotlight for a giant leap for mankind.

Rogers has since returned

to the pitch after signing a deal with the Los Angeles Galaxy last week, saying he was a coward for retiring and wanted to be a role model.

The 34-year-old sevenfooter, who had guarded a secret fundamental to his identity for decades, was willing to share private details of his life with the whole world in order to facilitate greater acceptance.

Collins recognized the inequality, he recognized that young gay athletes had nobody they could aspire to be like and he recognized that he could play an influential role in history.

It must have been terrifying, not knowing how the world would react to his monumental announcement.

There was a cartoon in the Los Angeles Times depicting Collins hugging Jackie Robinson, who broke the color barrier in the MLB in 1947 and was subject to slander, violence and death threats as a result.

While the world today is much more tolerant than it was 66 years ago, Collins could not have known what backlash would occur.

He put himself out in the open because he felt it was the right thing to do, and fortunately, the response was nearly all positive.

Collins will be written about in history books as one of the leaders of the gay rights movement just as Robinson is for civil rights.

Time will tell the impact Collins’ coming out will have on the world, but what’s certain now is that Collins stands out among our school’s long list of outstanding alumni.

Lacrosse captures division title • Continued from page C1

JACK GOLDFISHER/CHRONICLE

JUKE: Brooks Hudgins '14 protects the ball from an oncoming St. Margaret's defender in the Southern Section title game on May 11.

’13 said. “It was really unexpected, especially because we fizzled out at the end of the regular season. However, I was still disappointed that we didn’t win the [final] game.”

“This group is awesome,” Weber said. “We’re a very tight knit crew, and we all have a lot of faith in one another. You’ve got to gut it out through the peaks and valleys to be a family, and we are a family.”

Although players said that at first sight, they were hesitant to give into Weber’s more serious approach to practice and the sport as a whole, the Wolverines' continual success throughout the season shifted their opinions.

“I feel great about the season,” Weber said. “We had some stumbles in the middle portion but really turned it on down the stretch. Now that we all know that caliber is in us, no reason why we can’t make it the standard;

and we will,” he said.

“He was a ten out of ten,” said Jack Temko ’14. “Weber is the best coach I have ever had. He is so involved and excited about everything and everyone. He loves lacrosse so much and just wants us to have fun and love the game as much as he does.”

“I think he was a key element to our success,” said goalie Ben Klein ’14, who players describe as a major key to the Wolverines’ success.

Many players won individual Mission League awards for the teams’ performance in league, where they went 6-2 for the season, including Temko, Roman Holthouse '15 and Noah Pompan, who were all selected for the Mission League 1st Team.

Clay Davis ’14, Brooks Hudgins ’14, Tommy Choi ’14 and Matt Edelstein ’13 were named to the 2nd team.

Temko was also named Mission League Player of the Year.

“I feel honored to be

named player of the year. I worked very hard this year and I am happy that it all payed off,” Temko said.

When asked about the award, however, the biggest honor of all the Wolverines, Temko directed the attention to how much he owed Weber of his success.

“Weber hired a great coaching staff in Lance Zimmerman and Christian Pastirik. The three of them are unbelievable coaches and I am hoping that all of them return next year,” Temko said. "That would be the first time in my high school career that I would have the same coaching staff for two years in a row.”

“My heart is with Harvard-Westlake Lacrosse 100%,” Weber said. “I think it’s about time [a Northern Division team] took down [a Southern Division team] in the CIF championship game.

It’s one heck of a tough road, and we’re up for the challenge.”

hwchronicle.com/sports

May 29, 2013

College Bound

Sports C5

42 Wolverines committed to 26 different schools across the country, seven more than the Class of 2012. All eight seniors from the girls' volleyball team will play in college.

Baseball

Volleyball

Arden Pabst Hans Hansen Max Torbiner Conor Cuse Alex Horowitz Casey Rosenfeld Joseph Corrigan Austin Schoff

Georgia Tech Emory Davidson Stanford Butler Kenyon USC Claremont McKenna

Nicole Gould

Amherst

Jackie Beyer

Bucknell

Bea DyBuncio

New York University

Madison McAndrews Arielle Winfield Ally Hirsch Caitie Benell Molly Harrower

Colgate UPenn Johns Hopkins Williams Tufts

Chase Klein

New York University

Fencing Columbia Stanford

Raymond Schorr May Peterson Rowing Ingrid Hung Martine Johannessen

UPenn Stanford

Basketball David Winfield Francis Hyde Natalie Florescu Kathy Bolton-Ford

Madison McAndrews '13

Track and Field

Soccer

Conor Cuse '13

Hannah Lichtenstein

Swarthmore

Ben Gaylord

Princeton Softball

Swimming Kassie Shannon

Davidson Colorado College Emory

Nick Edel Matthew Chen

UPenn UC Davis Westmont Oberlin

Chloe Pendergast

Cornell Golf

Jessica Wibawa

Wash. U. Tennis

Field Hockey

Savannah de Montesquiou

Johns Hopkins

UC Berkeley

Taylor Lee

Water Polo

Football Chad Kanoff Thomas Oser Henry Schlossberg Correy King

Princeton Stanford Princeton Saint Anselm

Rye Newman Andrew Miller Griffin Morgan Morgan Hallock

Claremont McKenna UC Irvine Johns Hopkins Princeton Hannah Lichtenstein '13

David Winfield '13

Track and field sends four athletes to State Meet Friday • Continued from page C1

alternate Efe Agege ’14 took Corrin’s spot in the event, but narrowly missed qualifying for State.

Agege took eighth as her triple jump totaled to 37 feet 3.75 inches.

In going up against seasoned competitors from all over California, the freshman standout finds her age and emotions to be her main drawbacks.

“I think the challenge will be just being younger and making sure not to get too nervous or too excited,” Corrin said.

“I think it’ll be good though because there’s so much competition, and I’m going to have to jump really well to hopefully win," Corrin said. "I also want to set a personal record.”

Corrin’s personal long jump record this season is

20 feet 11 inches, the school record and one inch short of her goal for State competition, 21 feet.

To calm her nerves, Corrin said she just needs to enjoy the moment. ”I always just think of relaxing and having fun because of course you get anxious, but I do what I love,” Corrin said. “The key to winning is to have fun and do what you normally do, because you can normally do it."

While State Preliminaries are set to take place on May 31, the 3200 meter does not hold a preliminary race due to its extensive time length, so Thomas will only compete in State Finals the next day.

Gaylord, Florent and Corrin will have to take part in State Preliminaries in order to make it to Finals.

“It is definitely more competitive," Gaylord said. "It’ll definitely be more nerve-

wracking, but it’s still a polevault competition. There will still be a bar, and I’ll still have to get over it.”

Koolsbergen echoed Gaylord’s sentiments, confident in the Wolverines' chances.

“State competition isn’t dramatically different," Koolsbergen said. "The athletes are still all doing events that they’re used to doing, events that they’re good at doing.

“The hardest part is managing the size of the moment, the brightness of the lights, and the stage of it. They’re very prepared," Koolsbergen said. "What sometimes isn’t apparent to people who are not in front of the sport is that the Southern Section which we participate in is the best section in the country. So if you can get out of the Southern Section, you’re ready for just about anything at the high school level.”

LUKE HOLTHOUSE/CHRONICLE

FLYING SQUIRREL: School record-holder Courtney Corrin '16 soars in the air during the long jump at CIF Finals May 18.

The Chronicle

C6 Sports

May 29, 2013

First year coach helps seven qualify for CIF Finals

By Patrick Ryan

The swimming team sent seven athletes to the CIF Finals meet in Head Coach Jonathan Carroll’s first year at the helm. Kassie Shannon ’13 represented the girls’ team while Matt Chen ’13, John Chu ’14, Henry Copses ’14, John Copses ’14, Alex Hsing ’16 and Colin Lynch ’14 represented the boys’ team.

“For my first year, the change in the expectation and the culture, it’s always going to be a struggle to get the students at a place like Harvard-Westlake to make the commitment that it takes to improve in swimming given all the other activities they are involved in,” Carroll said. “We are really still trying to have our athletes understand that to develop on the swim team, there is a minimal level of commitment that we need to get where we want to go and accomplish our goals.”

Carroll said most of the swimmers who qualified for CIF are club swimmers and the next step is adding depth to the team. He said the ulti-

mate goal is placing in the top 20 of CIF as a team.

John Copses cited attending practice and a lack of team spirit as issues for the team this year.

Copses thought that Carroll fared well in leading the team his first year.

“I think it was excellent,” Copses said. “Despite minor setbacks a few times with missing events, I think he handled it incredibly well and made us feel as though we were part of a program like Loyola’s, where we are actually not a recreational high school team. We are actually here to win and compete and I think that was really well articulated.”

Shannon, who made it to CIF Preliminaries last year in the same event, broke through and placed fifth in the 100 freestyle this year.

“I think it was a huge accomplishment considering last year I only made it to Prelims,” Shannon said. “I set a goal for myself that I wanted to make top 10 in CIF this year. I joined a club swim team last summer, so that helped a lot in getting

PRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF ALEXIS LADGE

FLYING IN WATER: John Copses ’14 swims the butterfly at League Finals April 30. Copses was one of seven swimmers that advanced from League Finals and CIF Prelims to CIF Finals.

a lot more swim training in.”

Shannon also owns two CIF titles for winning the championship in 2011 and 2012 with the girls’ water polo team. Shannon will attend Davidson next year and join the swim team.

“The fact that [Shannon] got fifth in Division I CIF is amazing and she hasn’t even been swimming that long,” swimmer Sydney Cheong ’14 said. “Her times are so fast, I am so proud of her and she deserves it.”

Shannon said she feels that the swim program is heading in the right direction. She be-

lieves in a few years there will be a lot more swimmers going to CIF because of Carroll’s plan for the program.

Chen, Lynch and Henry Copses set school records in the 200 individual medley, 100 backstroke and 500 meter freestyle, respectively.

The team was faced with adversity following the tragic death of swimmer Justin Carr ’14 in February. “[Justin] was a huge part of the swim team,” Cheong said. “He was such a big part of the team and we thought of him at every meet and all the time.”

There is optimism among swimmers and coaches alike heading into next season.

Cheong believes many of the strongest swimmers are returning and the program is on the upswing.

“I am excited about having the summer to get the ball rolling and keep the momentum rolling into the fall,” Carroll said. “I’m excited about our camps for the summer and also being able to go out and really beat the drum and hopefully be able to attract more committed swimmers to apply to Harvard-Westlake and hopefully get in.”

Boys’ golf, Bolden ousted in CIF playoffs

By Sam Sachs

MICHAEL ARONSON/CHRONICLE

FOLLOW THROUGH: Bakari Bolden ’14, pictured above, advanced farthest individually in CIF of any boys’ golfer.

gionals, and I just remember not being able to feel my legs Each of the six members of when the chip went in,” Aronthe Wolverines golf team en- son said. “I’m so proud of the tered his final hole of the first guys for finishing two-under round of CIF competicollectively on all of tion with odds stacked our last holes.” against him.

For the first The boys were a few time since 2010, the strokes behind Notre boys’ golf team adDame for the third and vanced to the CIF final spot in the first Regional round of round of CIF to advance playoff competition in playoff competition. before being eliminathanson ’s A 30-yard chip-in nated on May 10 in birdie from co-captain Bakari Bolden Palm Desert.

Michael Aronson ’13, The team needa birdie from Adrian ed to finish in the Berger ’15 and pars from the top four out of 21 of the top rest of the squad on each of teams in Southern California. the players’ 18th hole allowed The boys missed out on the the squad to finish one stroke top four by 15 strokes. Bakari ahead of Notre Dame to move Bolden ’14 led with a team on in CIF. with a score of 73 and Aronson “I told myself that a birdie followed with a 78. on the 18th could potentially Aronson said that if the give us a chance to go to Re- team minimized careless mis-

takes, it would have been able around CIF,” Bolden said. to move on in CIF competiAlthough Bolden failed to tion. repeat his individual title, he “Our coach asked us after has pride in what the Wolverthe round how many strokes ines as a team were able to acwe could have easily complish. shaved off our score, “I am so happy and it was more than and proud to call enough to help us admyself a Wolverine,” vance,” Aronson said.

Bolden said. “The “I’m still extremely team improved treproud that we made mendously since it as far as we did.” last year and I Bolden was the couldn’t be happier. nathanson ’s team’s leading scorer So many players for most of the sea- Michael Aronson stepped up when we son, and he finished needed them most.” in third place in the The team will Mission League individually. return varsity players Bolden, He was unable to repeat his Jeffrey Aronson ’15, Berger, individual Mission League Daniel Furman ’16 and Tyler crown from last year.

Graham ’15 as well as gain Bolden committed to play Head Coach Kewalremani’s college golf at USC. son Brandon Kewalremani ’17, “I had a good season over- who is one of the top junior all, but it was tough balanc- golfers for his age group in the ing school and golf, especially nation.

hwchronicle.com/sports

May 29, 2013

Boys’ volleyball falls to No. 1 Mira Costa in straight sets

By Luke Holthouse

Knowing the monster ahead of them following their first round win, the seniors on the boys’ volleyball team knew they had to call on desperate measures in desperate times.

With the defending Division I CIF champions of Mira Costa staring across them on the other side of the net, the Wolverines wanted to look equally intimidating, so they busted out razors and all sported mohawks to the game.

“It was a rallying point,” Byron Lazaroff-Puck ’13 said.

“We needed to come at Mira Costa with shock and awe, and at that point the mohawk was a last ditch resort, and we had to go for it.”

Though the intimidation tactic did not faze top-seeded Mira Costa, as the Wolverines fell in three straight sets, the game represented the culmination of one of the best boys’ volleyball seasons in years.

Beau McGinley ’13 said that not only was he happy just to have gotten to the game but he was happy with how the team played against Mira Costa.

“We did well getting up to

that point,” McGinley said. lost cause, but we went into it “We left a couple points expecting what was going to in the gym in Mira Costa, I happen but we came out with thought we could have taken probably a better turnout than one game, but in the end, we we expected.” actually played our best volleyNine seniors on the team ball of the year. We were just will graduate this June. Head outmatched, so I’d say it was a Coach Adam Black said the success getting to that point.” seniors were not only very talTo get to that point, the ented but also had great chemWolverines finished 16-9-1 in istry on the court together and the regular season as well as were crucial to the team’s suc8-4 in Mission League play, cess this year. good enough for sec“When you ond place in league lose nine seniors standings. that had some volThe Wolverines leyball in their life then beat Newbury and frankly nine Park at home in the seniors that are first round of playpretty close, that offs before the loss to leaves an open Mira Costa. book that still The Wolverines needs to be writnathanson ’s expected the Newbury ten, so we’re hopPark game to be highing that the young Adam Black ly competitive after guys can fill it in,” the Wolverines won Black said. “I’m narrowly in an earlier match- confident in the younger guys. up that year, but the Wolver- They have some volleyball exines won in three straight sets. perience, they’re playing club “Newbury Park is a fantas- and some of the younger guys tic volleyball team,” Lazaroff- got some good experience on Puck said. “The fact that we JV this year with good coachmanaged to rally and beat ing, so I’m pretty excited to them for the second time was start fresh, build them up and awesome. Against Mira Costa, see where they can be by their I’m not going to say it was a senior year.”

Sports C7

ERIC LOEB/CHRONICLE

GAME, SET, MATCH: Outside hitter Chase Klein ’13 tips a ball during the volleyball team’s playoff win over Newbury Park.

Boys’ tennis falls to rivals in CIF playoffs

By Lucy Putnam

LUCY PUTNAM/CHRONICLE

KICK SERVE: Henry Noonan ’13 serves in the team’s match against rival Loyola.

The boys’ tennis team’s winning season came to an end after its loss to University High School last Friday in the quarterfinals of the Southern California Regional Championships.

The Wolverines lost by a score of 6-1.

The team broke new ground for Harvard-Westlake, as this was the school’s first appearance in the Regional competition in the history of the boys’ tennis program.

“It was a great experience playing in the first ever Regional Tournament for Harvard-Westlake,” Max Rothman ’14 said, “and especially facing such a strong team as Uni.” The team was perfect in league play on the year. The Wolverines’ 10-0 league season

won them their 17th straight Wolverines defeated Fresno’s Mission League title.

Clovis West team 6-1 before In CIF playoffs, the journey the date with University in the ended with a 12-6 loss in the quarterfinals. semifinals on Players May 15 to Cosaid all searona Del Mar. son that UniThe team lost versity, which “The extra playing time by the same has won four score to Costraight CIF that our team got to rona Del Mar championhave during the state in the semifiships, would tournament gave us a nals last year. be the hardHowever, est team to great chance to bond. the team’s beat in playWe are all excitedly and offs.

22-5 season overall, and In douconfidently awaiting advancement bles, the next years season.” to the seminumber one finals of CIF, com—Sam Hummel ’14 team qualified it for prised of capthe Southern tains Dylan California Eisner ’13 Regional Championship tour- and Harrison Kalt ’13. The nament. second team was made up of In the opening match of Rothman and Jaird Meyer the Regional tournament, the ’15. The third team was made

“

up of Henry Noonan ’13 and Josh Rubin ’15. The individual representatives at the match included Michael Genender ’15, Sam Hummel ’14, Simon Gunter ’14 and Parker Chusid ’15.

Doubles pair Eisner and Kalt won the only match for Harvard-Westlake in the 6-1 defeat.

“The teams weakness is that we aren’t deep in doubles,” Rothman said.

Hummel spoke to next year’s season with excitement, saying that the extended run this postseason will serve as great experience for the returning players next year.

“The extra playing time that our team got to have during the state tournament gave us a great chance to bond,” he said. “We are all excitedly and confidently awaiting next year’s season.”

The Chronicle

C8 Sports

May 29, 2013

Behind the plate with

Arden Pabst ’13 Games Started:

31

Runs Batted In:

Home Runs:

5

28

nathanson ’s

Starting catcher Arden Pabst ’13 is committed to play college baseball at Georgia Tech. However, he is not certain if he will be playing in Atlanta next year. With the Major League Baseball amateur draft coming up, Pabst will soon be faced with a big decision: whether to take the potential six figure signing bonus and sign with a major league club or to play baseball through his junior season at one of the ACC’s top baseball programs.

By Sam Sachs

Q A Q A Q A Q A Q A Q A SAM SACHS/CHRONICLE

TOUCHING THEM ALL: Catcher Arden Pabst ’13 trots around the base path after his second home run of the day during a 12-5 victory over Alemany on April 19.

What has been the most memorable part of playing high school baseball?

Pabst: Just being able to play baseball with really good friends each day has been a lot of fun. The time spent with my team has just been great.

What factors have contributed to the baseball program’s rise and national success during your time here?

Pabst: Coach [Matt] LaCour came here. He knew how to make this program one of the top powerhouses in the county and he just hammered it into the players and players bought in. He had a goal, he had a mission, to make this the top program in the country and he has really succeeded at that.

What does being the best team in the country mean to the team?

Pabst: It’s cool to think about that, being number one in the nation, but at the same time it doesn’t mean anything right now. So, we just have to go out and take care of business. Right now it’s just a cool stat that doesn’t mean anything.

What made Georgia Tech such an enticing option for you?

Pabst: I went there, met the coaches and really liked them. It will give me a lot opportunities playing in the ACC.

What will go into making the decision of whether to play professional baseball or play college baseball in the ACC at Georgia Tech?

Pabst: It really comes down to how much they offer you. Because if they invest a lot of money in you, then you are going to get more opportunities. And they want to make sure they get as much out of you. So, it’s going to come down to the offer.

Can you talk about the lifestyle of playing baseball in the Minors and what you expect it to be like?

Pabst: It’s definitely a really tough lifestyle. You’re not making a lot of money, you’re on the road a lot. But you get to play baseball every single day. So, that is what I want to do. Playing baseball every day is the most fun you can have. People talk about it like it is going to be a tough lifestyle. Yeah, it’s pretty tough, but I can play baseball every day, so it would be a ton of fun.

Seniors The Chronicle • Class of 2013

The Chronicle

D2 Seniors

May 29, 2013

Gentile ’13 to deliver valedictory speech

By Julia Aizuss

When Rhett Gentile ’13 was summoned to Head of School Jeanne Huybrechts’ office a month ago, he had a hunch about what the purpose for this meeting was.

Just as Gentile had suspected, Huybrechts told him that he had been selected by faculty vote as valedictorian for the class of 2013. Gentile could tell whomever he wished, Huybrechts said, but preferred that the news be a surprise, so Gentile told only his family, he said.

President of School Thomas C. Hudnut publicly announced that Gentile would be valedictorian at the annual Cum Laude Induction Ceremony May 20, and that he would deliver the valedictory speech at graduation June 7.

Gentile named Newton’s First Law as one of the main inspirations for the speech, and also plans to weave in subjects like science, history and Latin.

Gentile performs stand-up comedy and improv outside of school, so he knows he will draw heavily from his experience there in writing and delivering his valedictory speech.

“Stand-up comedy has to [inform my speech], because that’s how I speak in public,” Gentile said. “So if I don’t crack jokes and people aren’t laughing I think that I’m failing.”

His research on the Internet has also emphasized that valedictory speeches should be funny and short.

“I’ll try to keep those things in mind,” Gentile said.

“I’ll try. I’ve never done it before. If I don’t succeed, I can’t try again. But I’ll be very sorry and apologize.”

Being valedictorian was an honor, he said, and he is both excited and terrified to speak.

“I have faith in my ability to write something meaningful and in the ability of those around me to force some meaning into my speech if I don’t write it,” Gentile said.

“And I’m pretty sure I can probably deliver it without stuttering too many times.”

UNDER THE SHEETS: Ken Grodin ’13 and Max Thoeny ’13, from left, lean up against the blanket fort constructed by Dory Graham ’13, seen right wearing a dinosaur costume and peeking out from “Blanketsburg.” The fort’s name made reference to NBC’s “Community.”

2 earn Brownstein fellowships, to take gap year

By Claire Goldsmith

The two seniors who won the Michael Brownstein ’99 Memorial Gap Year Fellowship plan to travel to Korea, Canada, India and Costa Rica before they enter college in the fall of 2014.

David Lim ’13 and Greg Zatzkis ’13 were each awarded a stipend by the Brownstein Selection Committee.

The fellowship was established in honor of Brownstein to allow students to cultivate a global humanitarian perspective.

Applicants went through a series of interviews and submitted detailed proposals including itinerary, budget and objectives.

After feeling “very burnt out” around midterms, Zatzkis talked to friends who suggested he think about a gap year.

“It almost seemed too obvious,” he said. “I’ve heard it’s a great way to get your focus back.”

Zatzkis will spend the fall of 2013 in Asia with a cultural immersion program lasting two to three months.

In the winter, he hopes to volunteer with sled dogs in Canada.

“I’ve always loved dogs and I’ve never really been in much of a cold environment, so it’s definitely going to be different,” he said.

Zatzkis will also volunteer with orphans and child care

centers, perhaps in Nepal, tutoring and helping children develop basic skills.

Zatzkis will teach conversational English and participating in an organic farming program in Hokkaido, Japan, during the spring. “[Working in Japan] definitely is the [program] where I’m most on my own, which I’m excited for,” he said. “I’ll be in small rural communities and I feel like that will give me a more intimate relationship with the Japanese culture and its people.”

Zatzkis is excited to represent the school abroad and “be an advocate for gap years,” as he wants to promote the unconventional choice to take a year to work and travel between high school and college.

He wants to apply the skills he has learned in the classroom to the real world.

The biggest reason for his choice to take a gap year was a desire for self-discovery before he attends Tufts University in the fall of 2014.

“When you’re in high school and you’ve been in school for at least a good dozen years, it’s hard to really grasp your place in the world,” Zatzkis said.

“Even though we all feel like we know who we are, it never hurts to continue to explore your identity.”

Lim was inspired to take a gap year after his Junior Fellowship trip to Italy last sum-

Doing it themselves

Lucas Foster and Avalon Nuovo: Mentored by English teacher Ariana Kelly, Foster wrote the text for an original graphic novel. Nuovo, mentored by art teacher Marianne Hall, created the accompanying illustrations for Foster’s work.

The novel, “Cop Out,” follows protagonist Peter through multiple vignettes of life.

“I’ve known for a really long time that I was going to do an independent study as a senior,” Foster said.

—Rebecca Katz Deborah Malamud: Assisted by performing arts teacher Shawn Costantino, Deborah Malamud ‘13 analyzed the music of six artists, three male and three female, and wrote her own songs inspired by their respective styles.

She finished the independent study with six covers and six originals based on the cover.

“I tried to scrape it all together in the end instead of following the deadlines,” she said. “But these mistakes were needed in order to better commit myself.”

—Ally White Natalie Markiles: Markiles wrote a screenplay about a family who is forced to go on a road trip when the grandfather’s casket is unearthed because of heavy rainfall.

Markiles wrote the screenplay with art teacher Kevin O’Malley, who she had for Video Art II in her junior year.

O’Malley said he enjoyed working with Markiles because “she is outrageously funny, creative and hard working.”

“The script she pitched to the

mer, where he visited Roman study medicine and healthcare ruins and explored ancient cul- in developing countries with ture to supplement his studies the Projects Abroad Medicine of classics. program in India. Lim hopes to “My Junior Fellowship has join Doctors Without Borders proven this to me firsthand, in the future and sees this segthat travel does not merely edu- ment of his gap year as a “trial cate but can powerfully change run” for that experience. your perspectives about what Throughout the year, Lim you think you know about the will tutor children both in Costa world and encourage you to ex- Rica with Projects Abroad and pand your horizons,” Lim said. in Los Angeles public schools Lim will spend a month of with the 826LA Volunteer his first summer in Korea in Writing Tutoring program. a language program while also “I’d have the opportunity to working in a respiratory lab. teach, one of my great interests, “I will be living with family and head to Central America, and getting to know a culture where I’ve never been,” he said. that I have not really connected Lim, who will attend Stanto at all,” he said. ford University, says he has had He will then stay in a Bud- little time for himself in high dhist temple for a week to spend school, so he will use his gap time meditatyear to learn ing and learnnew things ing how to live about himself simply. the world Even though we all feel and During the rather than like we know who we focus solely fall, Lim will go to Thailand are, it never hurts to on academia. with only the “I’d like continue to explore your to enter colclothes on his back and five lege a more identity.” other items as mature, bal—Greg Zatzkis ’14 anced perpart of a Rustic Pathways son who has program. caught up on “The program appeals per- at least some of the things on fectly to a personal philosophi- the to-do list and has a broader cal experiment to figure out understanding of the world,” how much you can simplify Lim said. “With years of work your life and a more practical and school ahead of me, I’m not outlet for service in a new envi- sure I’d ever let myself have ronment,” he said. time for such great personal In February 2014, he will development.”

“

After their independent study ideas were approved by a faculty committee, 7 students worked for a semester on their projects. committee in the spring ended up being quite different from the finished product,” he said. “But that’s why one writes, no?”

—Carrie Davidson May Peterson: Peterson, mentored by English teacher Eric Olson, wrote a scholarly analysis of the relationship between Margaret Fuller and Ralph Waldo Emerson.

“It was a really eye opening experience,” she said. “I learned a lot about transcendentalism, feminism, writing long papers, and most of all, coffee.”

—Michael Sugerman Zelda Wengrod: With her mentor, English teacher Larry Weber, Wengrod compared authors ranging from the more “mod-

ern” Raymond Carver and “classic” Ernest Hemingway as well as Flannery O’Conner, the author of Everything That Rises, and Annie Proulx, the author of Brokeback Mountain.

—David Lim Greg Zatzkis: Greg Zatzkis ’13 wrote a 25-page analysis comparing and contrasting dominant aggressive behavior in humans and in canines.

Zatzkis worked on the study with school psychologist Luba Bek, who he said helped him narrow the focus of the study to motivation.

“I tried to create a nice, simplistic view of what’s actually going on in the brain,” Zatzkis said. “In the end, I ended up taking a good look at motivation and what drives us to act a certain way.”

—Robbie Loeb

hwchronicle.com

May 29, 2013

Seniors D3

Senior transition day includes pancakes, college prep, poetry

By Jake Saferstein

A pancake breakfast, a barbecue and a variety of mini-classes were part of the traditional Senior Transition Day Wenesday.

The day started off with breakfast in Taper, followed by a meeting with dean groups.

Afterwards, students chose from various classes designed to help them in college, including classes on cooking, self-defense, Greek life, parties, managing money, sex in college, interviews and first aid.

In the molecular gas-

tronomy class, students were taught how to make many common dishes with basic ingredients, mugs and a microwave. The packet also includes a list of foods and supplies that can easily be stored in a dorm room.

“I enjoyed the sex in college class, that taught things like what can be considered rape,” James Wauer ‘13 said. “It’s nice to learn these things before going to college, and it was an interesting way to spend the day.”

After classes, the school hosted a barbecue for the seniors for lunch, followed by a performance by slam poets

Steve Connell and Sekou Andrews in Rugby.

Maddie Lear ’13 arranged for Connell and Andrews to perform, and was satisfied with the event.

“I’m just really happy that it happened, because I was trying to make it happen for the whole year,” she said. “It worked well as part of Senior Transition Day because, rather than a random assembly, they were able to fit themselves into the theme of the day.”

The day ended with yearbook staff members distributing yearbooks to the senior class.

LUKE HOLTHOUSE/CHRONICLE

THE LAST SUPPER: Jonathan Loewenberg ’13, Kyle Sugarman ’13, Jack Wildasin ’13 and Thomas Oser ’13, from left, bond over pancakes and orange juice at breakfast in Taper Gymnasium.

15% Discount for Harvard Westlake Students

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The Chronicle

D4 Seniors

Up, Up and Away!

May 29, 2013 Seniors will matriculate to a record number of schools, spreading across the world to close to 90 colleges, said the upper school deans.*

Rebecca Aaron NYU

Sara Carreras Emory University

Laura Edwards Berklee School of Music

Eli Goldman University of Pennsylvania

Nathan Iskandar USC

Laurel Aberle University of Michigan

Tate Castro University of Wisconsin

Dylan Eisner University of Michigan

Treven Goldsmith USC

Martine Johannessen Stanford University

Kevin Adler Washington University in St. Louis

Austin Chan Cornell University

Jordan Elist USC

Luis Gomez Kenyon College

Brian Jun Stanford University

Grace Chang UCLA

Solange Etessami UC Berkeley

Maria Gonzalez Wesleyan University

Mena Kalokoh Stanford University

Jamie Chang Cornell University

Gracen Evall Vassar College

Nicole Gould Amherst College

Harrison Kalt Duke University

Michelle Chang Washington University in St. Louis

Lexi Fadel University of Richmond

Dory Graham Hampshire College

Charles Kanoff Princeton University

Nicolena Farias-Eisner Duke University

Nicole Green Boston University

Kenneth Kim Brown University

Jake Feiler University of Michigan

Emily Grey NYU

Correy King Saint Anselm College

Will Feldman Tulane University

Ken Grodin Undecided

Chase Klein NYU

Sean Fisher Boston College

Michael Gromis University of Pennsylvania

Eli Kogan USC

Alex Fleischman NYU

Adam Gross Vanderbilt University

Katya Konkol NYU

Robert Flom University of Michigan

Greg Ha NYU

Kallista Kusumanegara Pratt Institute

Brenda Flores Georgetown University

Morgan Hallock Princeton University

Maya Landau University of Chicago

Natalie Florescu Westmont College

Hans Hansen Emory University

Adam Lange University of San Francisco

Lucas Foster Vassar College

Molly Harrower Tufts University

Arianna Lanz Princeton University

Tamara Fox Penn State University

Mike Hart Boston College

Josh Lappen Stanford University

Gabrielle Franchina Duke University

Nick Healy Brown University

Byron Lazaroff-Puck Cornell University

Madeleine Friendly USC

Brent Herrera University of Nevada, Reno

Madeline Lear Harvard College

Samantha Frischling Emory University

Ally Hirsch Johns Hopkins University

Bo Lee Rice University

Ben Gail USC

David Hoffman University of Pennsylvania

Brendan Gallagher Stanford University

Luke Holthouse USC

Jun Lee Washington University in St. Louis

Samantha Gasmer NYU

Joel Homan Loyola Marymount University

Ben Gaylord Princeton University

Clinton Hooks Washington University in St. Louis

Nicole Lerner Syracuse University

Alex Horowitz Butler University

Ryan Levine Cornell University

Rhett Gentile UC Berkeley

Ingrid Hung University of Pennsylvania

Hannah Lichtenstein Swarthmore College

Zach Getelman Tulane University

Francis Hyde UC Davis

David Lieber Wesleyan University

Ty Gilhuly Gap Year

Akosa Ibekwe Northeastern University

Katie Golden University of Michigan

Bree Iskandar Emory University (Oxford Campus)

David Lim Stanford University (Gap Year)

Amanda Aizuss University of Chicago Charlie Andrews-Jubelt MIT Michael Aronson Washington University in St. Louis

Matthew Chen University of Chicago

Brian Bagdasarian NYU

Tommy Chen Cornell University

Matthew Bailey Colgate University

Wendy Chen Yale University

Connor Basich Washington University in St. Louis

Brandon Chong University of Illinois

Cory Batchler USC Daniel Belgrad University of Pennsylvania Caitie Benell Williams College

Marissa Chupack USC Conor Cook University of Pennsylvania Taylor Cooper University of Arizona

Justin Berman University of Texas, Austin

Joe Corrigan USC

Hugo Bertram Vanderbilt University Sacha Best University of Pennsylvania Jackie Beyer Bucknell University

Conor Cuse Stanford University Carrie Davidson University of Colorado, Boulder Catherine Davis Lewis & Clark College

Jack Bloomfield University of Pittsburgh Ali Bloomgarden NYU Katherine Bolton-Ford Oberlin College Jordan Brewington Columbia University Maya Broder Reed College

Theo Davis Columbia University Hugo de Castro-Abeger University of Michigan Savannah de Montesquiou Johns Hopkins University Paheli Desai-Chowdry UC San Diego Leslie Dinkin Colorado College

Mariel Brunman Barnard College Maggie Bunzel Boston University Evan Burdzinski Emory University

Eric Dritley UC Santa Clara Helen Dwyer Ohio Wesleyan University Bea DyBuncio NYU

Kari Burdzinski Emory University Gabriella Bustamante UCLA Alex Cadiff NYU

Nick Edel Colorado College Matthew Edelstein University of Michigan

20 NYU *Because some students decline to state, only 84 schools are listed here.

Alyse Gellis Washington University in St. Louis

19 MICHIGAN

Taylor Lee UC Berkeley Keith Leonard USC

18 USC

hwchronicle.com

May 29, 2013

Seniors D5

Katie Lim NYU

Yasmin Moreno Harvard College

Emily Persky University of Michigan

Andrew Sohn Columbia University

Eden Weizman Brown University

Anne Liu Wellesley College

Rebecca Moretti Boston College

May Peterson Stanford University

Hunter Stanley Cornell University

Zelda Wengrod Oberlin College

Robbie Loeb University of Michigan

Griffin Morgan Johns Hopkins University

Erin Pindus Cornell University

Elana Stroud Johns Hopkins University

Ally White McGill University (Gap Year)

Jonathan Loewenberg Johns Hopkins University

Mary Morrissey Boston College

Emily Plotkin Emory University

Erin Sugarman Colorado College

Kenny Lopez NYU

Matthew Moses USC

Eli Putnam Bowdoin College

Kyle Sugarman USC

Jessica Wibawa Washington University in St. Louis

Alixx Lucas Columbia University

Sidney Moskowitz University of Michigan

Alex Ravan Tufts University

Michael Sugerman University of Michigan

Aaron Lyons USC

Keane Muraoka-Robertson Vanderbilt University

Martin Riu Emory University

Daniel Sunshine University of Rochester

Sam Lyons Vanderbilt University

Erin Murphy UC Berkeley

Allana Rivera Tufts University

Josh Swanson University of Chicago

Samantha Maccabee UC Berkeley

Calvin Murr Lehigh University

Halsey Robertson Yale University

Roxanne Swedelson Emory University

Deborah Malamud Kenyon College

Alex Musicant Wesleyan University

Casey Rosenfeld Kenyon College

Max Thoeny NYU

Merissa Mann UC Berkeley

Gregg Myerson Tulane University

Michael Rothberg Harvard College

Chanell Thomas University of Michigan

Jaslin Marine University of Michigan

Nicholas Nathanson Cornell University

Abby Sandler Barnard College

Leila Thomas Carnegie Mellon University

Natalie Markiles NYU

Henry Neale University of Colorado, Boulder

Christine Sasaki Northeastern University

Anthony Thompson Tulane University

Liza Wohlberg Columbia University (Jewish Theological Seminary)

Charlie Nelson Montana State University

Bradley Schlesinger Washington University in St. Louis

Max Torbiner Davidson College

Sam Wolk Harvard College

Rye Newman Claremont McKenna College

Henry Schlossberg Princeton University

Erica Ursin-Smith Boston College

Henry Woody University of Puget Sound

Allen Nikka Washington University in St. Louis

Lauren Schlussel UC Berkeley

Rebecca Van Dusen Wellesley College

Ashley Wu Yale University

Miranda Van Iderstine University of Chicago

James Wu Cornell University

Patric Verrone Brown University

Ryan Yadegar UCLA

Jillian Victor University of Michigan

Caitlin Yee University of Chicago

Ben Vigman Carnegie Mellon University

Kaitlyn Yiu NYU

Alan Vucetic University of Illinois

Austin Yoo NYU

Michael Wagmeister University of Pennsylvania

Michael Yorkin Washington University in St. Louis

Cassandra Martinez University of Michigan Lida Mazina Boston University Sophie McAllister Columbia University Madison McAndrews Colgate University Beau McGinley Washington University in St. Louis

Henry Noonan University of Edinburgh Blake Nosratian Columbia University

Andrew Meepos Washington University in St. Louis

Avalon Nuovo Art Center College of Design

Elana Meer Princeton University

Bronty O’Leary USC

Maguy Michelman Wesleyan University

Alex Oberfeld University of Michigan

Theo Miesse University of Richmond

Cindy Oh NYU

Andrew Miller UC Irvine

Joyce Ok Brown University

JT Mindlin Boston College

Thomas Oser Stanford University

Mikaila Mitchell University of Michigan

Arden Pabst Georgia Tech

Daniel Modlin University of Michigan

Sarika Pandrangi Yale University

Dara Moghavem UC San Diego

Dylen Papazian University of Virginia

Cherish Molezion Declined to State

Kristina Park Brown University

Seana Moon-White University of Oxford

Chloe Pendergast Cornell University

Jose Morales NYU

Sophia Penske Cornell University

Austin Schoff Claremont McKenna College Raymond Schorr Columbia University Jeremy Schreck Duke University Rachel Schwartz Princeton University Ana Scuric USC Chris Sebastian Stanford University Justice Sefas Cornell University Kassie Shannon Davidson College Sarah Shelby University of Michigan Camille Shooshani USC Natasha Simchowitz Oberlin College Demren Sinik Harvard College Jacques Sisteron Cornell University Carla Sneider Stanford University

Jack Wildasin Vanderbilt University Jack Wilding Columbia University Elle Wilson Stanford University Kacey Wilson Sarah Lawrence College Arielle Winfield University of Pennsylvania

Andrew Wallach Indiana University

David Winfield University of Pennsylvania Anna Witenberg Bard College

Gil Young Oberlin College

Tiffany Wang UC Riverside

Michael Zaks Dartmouth College

Walter Wang Stanford University Megan Ward Vanderbilt University Annie Wasserman University of Pennsylvania James Wauer University of Chicago Laurel Wayne University of Richmond Jacob Weiss Washington University in St. Louis

Greg Zatzkis Tufts (Gap Year) Matthew Zeiden Boston University Elana Zeltser USC Niki Zoka Tulane University Adam Zucker Yale University

Jeremy Soeharto NYU

14 12 13 WASHU CORNELL STANFORD ILLUSTRATIONS BY KEANE MURAOKA-ROBERTSON

The Chronicle

D6 Seniors

May 29

Our hero, Harvey W obstacles, hooligans, adventures from 7th

Harvey West was a pretty typical 12-year-old boy. He was scrawny and eagerly awaiting the day when his voice would drop from its very high pitch. He enjoyed sports, music and TV, but had never really done anything all that extraordinary.

One day, in his final year of elementary school, Harvey’s clipped on a tie, threw on an ill-fitting jacket and headed over to that intriguing school on North Faring Road. He quite liked his first visit there as he was shown around by some friendly upperclassmen, and after much procrastination, he decided to apply.

Harvey, as average as he was, was shocked and pleased to find out that he was accepted. “Congratulations on your admission to seventh grade!” the letter read.

He had an odd feeling the first morning his parents dropped him off at school. He was excited for sure, but nerves were getting to him. He signed his name as he had many times before in his life, but now it affirmed his honor.

The first few weeks of school were not an easy time for Harvey. Everyone around him was both nice and talent-

ed—the worst possible combination.

One day after school, he began wandering around campus, sullenly contemplating the water sprayed in his face by Dr. Elliot Parivar for being late to science yet again. Harvey unthinkingly strayed into the construction site that covered half of campus.

It wasn’t long before he tripped on a stray beam of wood and fell headfirst into a vat of radioactive, toxic goo.

Fully immersed in the toxic goo, Harvey was surrounded by a mist of knowledge. He saw words and numbers spiraling through the air all around him.

Lectures and theses crossed paths with each other and zoomed vigorously into his mind. Climbing out of the sludge, he felt energized and a bit queasy too.

Harvey woke up the next morning, the same boy in the same scrawny body, but he knew inside he was different. He suddenly understood how to do homework, study and write essays.

He had even taken up the bassoon and cross country.

There was only one reasonable explanation: Harvey West had become a superhero.

A year had passed since he had stepped into the radioactive vat of goo, and Harvey West was still trying to fully understand the extent of his new super powers. His class was ready to break in the shining new campus, free of stray pockets of radioactive material.

He had moved on from being the only bassoon player in Beginning Band to the second chair bassoonist in Concert Band, and he was no longer one of the slowest new runners on the middle school cross country team but rather one of the team captains.

Harvey, however, had to face challenging questions every day.

Is there enough time in his day to train for the cross country team and practice the bassoon, or would he have to practice playing the bassoon while

running on a treadmill to manage his schedule?

Would there be a social scene for him once the Bar Mitzvah cycle ended?

Why was he forced to take this awkward class to discuss his changing body?

And why oh why did he keep getting Bs on his English essays?

“Rest assured,” said Harvey’s class dean.

“You’re still just a middle school student. You don’t need to stress out about your grades. Now is just another year for you to experiment with your extracurricular activities and develop your power of time management.”

For now, Harvey could just enjoy the innocence of the Middle School.

Harvey was now the big kid on the Middle School campus. He had reached ninth grade, knew the campus better than the back of his hand, and could be a leader for those puny underclassmen who scurried around in awe of Harvey’s suave maturity.

Harvey progressed to join the Symphony Orchestra, although his bassoon career was stinted when he was no longer allowed in the orchestra rooms after eighth period due to inappropriate use of the private space. “Why?” he thought. “I just want to play my bassoon.”

Harvey even made the varsity cross country team as just a freshman. He loved the shuttle ride from the Middle School across Coldwater Canyon to the Upper School for practices, and he got a glimpse of the steep, stair-ridden terrain he would have to conquer the following year. But hanging out with all the juniors and seniors on the team made Harvey anxiously await the time when he could be the even bigger man on campus. As Janu-

ary approached Harvey realized that his powers as a superstudent would not help him as he faced semiformal.

His clip-on tie would no longer suffice.

He finally bucked up the courage to ask a girl named Nicole* but she said no, so he took a friend from outside of school.

He told himself that she was intimidated by his super human capacity and felt much better about the whole thing.

With his old friends from seventh grade and his new batch of friends that came to school in ninth grade, Harvey was feeling great about all the people he knew at school.

The only thing that could diminish the glory of this year on top was the threat of villains approaching on the horizon.

Whispers of nemeses like SAT, applications and GPA began to seep in to the culture of the class and he would never lead such a peaceful life again. *Names have been changed.

29, 2013

hwchronicle.com

Seniors D7

West, faces dangerous , and homework in his h Grade to senior year.

After a winding journey through a treacherous canyon, teachers greeted Harvey and his friends with a Boom! a Pow! and a Wack! upon their arrival at the Upper School. Harvey’s superpowers were pushed further than he anticipated as finally he faced the conglomerate headed by the notorious College Board.

His mentor, Dean X, forced him to face villains like the PSAT and the mysterious PLAN for the first time.

“Why isn’t the practice ACT called the PACT?” he asked his friend.

Nothing made sense anymore.

He worked through preliminary battles with college lists and threeyear plans.

He learned to take on the assaults his teachers threw in his path and became stronger through his failures

Harvey finally reached the epic showdown. He had been warned, but nothing could prepare him for the wrath of The College Board. Stronger than ever, this axis of evil evaluations could finally attack him.

A slew of AP’s threatened his social life and Harvey had to call on all of his strength to escape the suction powers of classes like AP US History, which tried to drown him in pages and pages of Zinn and Hofstader. The dreaded SAT weighed heavy upon him, so he turned to look for new combat skills under the wise guidance of Tutorman.

The College Board was ruthless and smart. They created even more weapons of multiple choice questions called SAT II’s to further torment Harvey and his classmates.

Harvey started to wonder if the teachers were indeed on his side.

Grades were more important than ever, Dean X told him.

He could feel his power draining as he spent night after night pouring over lab data, fighting to stay awake

and mistakes.

When semiformal came around again, the hype was even more pervasive as everyone at the Upper School look forward to the event.

He watched as the girls in his class were swooped by upperclassmen but he was still ready for a great time.

That night, however, would live in infamy. Semiformal was dead and there was nothing any editorial board, prefect or superhero could do to change that. He had let down his underclassmen who would never get to experience the excitement.

Harvey and his classmates finally made it to the end, ready for a summer more needed than ever before.

He had to restore his strength and brace himself for the epic clash that lied ahead in the next two years.

and push through his English reading and breaking pencils over math problems. When would he practice his bassoon?! How could he perform when it came time for a meet?

Harvey, in his struggles, turned to drinking.

He used coffee when he felt his superpowers had drained.

Even times of celebration seemed dreary, as semiformal was replaced by an on-campus dance and the boys’ basketball team lost both duels to the evil Loyola Cubs.

But Harvey felt a surge of confidence in late May. The zen master teachers he had struggled to please all year had actually prepared him well for his AP exams, which he defeated with a trusty no. 2 pencil.

His load was much lighter once his AP classes ended. He would spend his summer doing an internship at a UCLA research lab. This was the only thing separating him from the final battle.

Fall of 2012 had arrived, and the end was in sight.

As close the sunset on the horizon looked, and as ready as Harvey was to leave his cape behind in Studio City, Dean X reminded Harvey that the most important part of the journey was still ahead, the most vicious villains still waited and that he had to focus on his grades more than ever.

Dean X was not kidding. For the most brutal battle Harvey had ever faced awaited in his mailbox on a cold November morning.

He thought he had solved the evil Common Application with an in-depth essay about his love for the bassoon, and he was sure his GPA made him a legitimate candidate for his dream college, The University of Super Heroes.

But he was informed by the TUSH admissions board that his application would be deferred until the spring, and he had to continue his battle with school work for the rest of the semester.

Though he felt disappointed immediately after hearing TUSH’s decision, he was optimistic that he could get in during the spring and he wasn’t

going to let the deferment stop him from enjoying his senior year. He and his teammates painted their faces for Cross Country Senior Day and he finally started to feel like a senior.

He wrote a few other applications to safety schools, found the motivation for one last round of midterms, and then began to fully enjoy the life of a second semester senior.

As the spring rolled around, he started hanging out with his friends more on weekdays, worrying less about homework and feeling a sense of pride that he had gotten that far.

Over spring break, he received his acceptance letter to TUSH in the mail, and he excitedly wore his TUSH sweatshirt to school on May 1.

He played in his final orchestra concert, shedding a tear as he put his bassoon in his case one last time, and even got Nicole to accept his invitation to Prom (he baked her cupcakes).

As graduation approached, he thanked his zen masters for pushing him to be the best he could be, promised his friends he’d stay in touch while at TUSH, wiped a tear from his eye and got ready to fly off into the sunset.

Illustrations and cover by May Peterson ’13

D8 Seniors

Thanks, Dad­ — it has all been worth it

edition handed to me at my own Family Visiting Day. Yet, the most important ear Dad, thing you taught me was to The stories you choose my own path — to told about my grandneither walk in your shadow father and those nor walk in defiance of it about how you were born a — but simply live my life in great white shark probably a way that befits who I am. have something to do with my More importantly than any own inclination to tell stories practical skills I’ve gained, through this newspaper. You my three years on the paper did a good job developing my have furthered me along my sense of wonder by dragging own path by leaving me with me around to every single scia greater appreciation for the ence and art museum in town many standout individuals before I turned 7 and lookin our community that have ing at photos of your travels made it to our pages and even always recharged my wanderthose who didn’t. lust.

“The really important And I’ve always had great respect for the quiet pride you kind of freedom involves attention, and awareness, and take from your work — the discipline, and effort, and buildings that have risen up from little sketches on restau- being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice rant napkins. for them, over and over, in But perhaps you’ve most myriad petty little unsexy significantly molded me into ways, every day,” David Foster who I am by sending me to Wallace says in “This is Wathis place called Harvardter,” which I have attempted Westlake. to quote as often as possible.

It’s not cool to have such a And I’d like to believe public display of affection for writing for the Chronicle has your school, as a fellow senior certainly helped expand my pointed out recently. I’ve come awareness of this community to conclude that seniors just and myself. say “I’m so done” or “Thank To the 73 students on god, it’s almost over” to fill up staff, I once told a friend that awkward spaces of time talkyou were the “most talented, ing to someone they should diverse, hardreally know working and better after attractive six years.

But perhaps you’ve most members of But under the student all that blussignificantly molded body.” ter, I’d hope me into who I am by Though that Harvardmy body sending me to this Westlake has double Jensen been for each place called HarvardPak ’14 is of my classWestlake. undeniable mates what it proof of the has been for staff ’s attracme. tiveness, I am It’s the immensely proud of the eight kind of school where the issues that we’ve pumped out hardest question you can and incredibly honored to get on a student ambassador have been your editor-in-chief panel isn’t about that notorithis year. Thank you all. ous last Semiformal. It’s not My relationships with the even one that you’ll clumsily people I’ve met here is what have to answer with the curewill last beyond the campus, alls of Peer Support or time beyond graduation. Quite management. a few of my teachers will The toughest question is receive friend requests from from that grinning parent sitme on Facebook shortly after ting in the back who decides I receive my diploma and to mix it up by asking “So, shortly after their opinions of what do you not like about me hold no longer such great Harvard-Westlake?” sway.

I always struggled to have As for the friendships I’ve something to say while the made here, it’s hard to think exhausted junior panelist of a time when I won’t be next to me laughs off how AP seeing my friends on a daily Calculus BC 11 has caused his basis. or her chronic lack of sleep I’m really at a loss for and dampened their social words right now to express life. Yet, the panelist is there how grateful I am for all my on a Saturday morning, feedfriends that were around for ing the vicious cycle of sleep the whole journey. deprivation and his or her Before I set off on the presence alone is the greatest next adventure — a gap year testament to the school. to places defined by their Though not free of the differences to my high school ups and downs of adolescence, education, it’s time for me to Harvard-Westlake has been answer that question: “So, an excess of opportunity and what do you not like about a collection of incredible exHarvard-Westlake?” periences. From ninth grade It’s what I’ve missed. It’s retreat on the Colorado River how you can’t do everything to an incredible 10th grade you want to try in a school chemistry class that ended with so much to give and get with a chinchilla running around the classroom, a junior to know everyone you’d like to know with such an excellent year when I started living student body. And how there in Weiler Hall by choice and isn’t enough room on this page capped off with a surreal two for me to thank every person weeks in Italy on my junior who deserves it or enough fellowship, I look back with time for you to read every exthe perspective and perhaps cellent senior column here. greater wisdom of a senior Yet, six years later here I and can find little fault in the am saying it was all worth it, school itself.

Dad. Thanks to you, I didn’t Dad, you never were that miss out on Harvard-Westenthusiastic about the hours I lake but more importantly, I spent working on the Chronididn’t miss out on the expericle — although I wanted to be ences and people that came in charge of it since I saw the with it. controversy-free propaganda

The Chronicle

May 29, 2013

By David Lim

D

JAMIE CHANG/CHRONICLE

‘ALL’ THREE AMIGOS: News Managing Editor Michael Sugerman ’13, Editor-in-Chief David Lim ’13 and Managing Editor Michael Rothberg ’13, from left, relax on the rooftop of Weiler Hall.

I wouldn’t change a thing

By Michael Sugerman

A

s a ninth grader on the Spectrum, I wrote a monthly column called “What Grinds My Gears.” I still get jokes about it, which is only to be expected given that the subject matter fluctuated from siblings to dog poop.

In my “Final Rant” for the Spectrum, I wrote about multiple “gear-grinders,” grumbling about fun-sized candies, procrastination and the fact that I didn’t have my driver’s permit yet, among other topics.

However, buried in this immature list of complaints veiled as an opinion piece, there was one profound gem that is all too applicable to me now as a senior: I expressed that I was anxious about heading over Coldwater Canyon to the upper campus.

“I am not a big fan of change,” I wrote. “I have grown accustomed to and love the middle school campus. I have also enjoyed becoming friends with my teachers. And now I have to leave that all behind. I have some familiarity with the upper school, but not nearly as much as the middle school. I will miss it dearly.”

In a week, I will gradu-

ate with the Class of 2013 and history will repeat itself. Three years later, change still isn’t quite my thing, and this time I won’t be traversing Coldwater to attend school; I’ll be flying into Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Despite my qualms about leaving Harvard-Westlake to enter a freshman class pool that is nearly seven times the size of the entire upper school student body, I’ll do it with an open mind, thanks to this school.

Perhaps the most important lesson I happily sponged up as a student here was not something taught in the classroom; rather, an unspoken approach to education that enticed me to come to Harvard-Westlake in the first place – nurture pre-existing interests and don’t hesitate to pursue new ones.

This mantra is why I tested the waters on the water polo team as a seventh grader and on the swim team as an eighth grader.

It is why what started as fulfilling the arts requirement in seventh grade landed me in Eastern Europe with the Chamber Singers six years later, performing in Haydn’s Concert Hall one night and on Bulgarian national television

the next.

It is why my love for writing led me to the Spectrum and later, the Chronicle, both of which ignited a passion for journalism in me that will likely drive my plans for the future.

Finally, it is why the idea of getting myself involved in college does not daunt me.

I’ve got so many to thank for this. My parents for sending me here; the countless teachers who, with immense volumes of patience and expertise to offer, helped mold the 4-foot-7, hyper-talkative seventh grader into the student I am today; my friends who put up with my hit-and-miss sense of humor and will have to keep doing so for a long time to come.

This community has been so perfect for me. Was it ever obnoxiously competitive? Sure.

Did the struggle to balance my academics and countless extracurriculars ever land me face-down on the hypothetical, cold concrete? Oh yeah.

The thing is, at the end of the day, all of that negative junk just doesn’t “grind my gears,” because everything else made the experience more than worth it. I wouldn’t change a thing.

man-Horn, I often would go to work on the potter’s wheel.

Turning a pile of gritty clay in a bowl or vase was invariably the highlight of my day. Concentrating hard to keep the mass of clay from wobbling off center or flying off the wheel, I could focus on abstract ideas and use my hands to express them constructively.

Outside, by the far end of the track, I focused my attention on another craft, pole vaulting. I got to hang out with one of my best friends, whom I had been vaulting with for more than six years.

It was a place of levity, not just because we were flying through the air, but because of the endless supply of jokes we shared and made with our coach. Never taking anything too seriously, we perfected our form (he did this much better than I did) and had a good deal of fun.

I probably have spent the most time at school in the newsroom of Weiler Hall.

This room was almost always abuzz with hypnotic noise of typing keyboards and always

seemed to be kept at a temperature well below freezing.

It has been the site of many late nights, rushing to finish the newspaper and correct all the errors before the computers shut down.

More importantly, I got to know some of the closest friends I have made in high school in this room. We commiserated over the layout weekends that left little to no time for work or sleep and the series of English essays that seemed to always land on these weekends. We rejoiced together over the finished paper. This unique mixture of overwhelming stress to create a quality paper and the camaraderie of the journey made this room one of the most special in my time here.

Sometimes after layout, under the dark starless sky, I snuck out to the roof of Weiler with a pal or two, retreating from the hysteria of the newsroom and looking out over our vacated campus made peaceful. It seemed as though the school belonged to us amateur journalists for the time being.

There are places I remember

By Michael Rothberg

I

have come to associate landmarks and sites in my life with memories, and having spent three years on the Studio City campus of Harvard-Westlake, I have become particularly fond of a few spots on campus.

Some of these spots are well known to the student body as places of leisure, but others are a bit more unknown, the nooks and hideouts of the school where I can escape the frenzy that envelops the school environment.

At the base of the Seaver stairs, near the shady shrubbery, my friends and I occasionally congregated around a curb that bounded the open space of the quad. It resembled a street curb, so sitting on it during free periods felt oddly urban. Even when we were actually struggling through coursework, it felt as though we were just hanging out and having a good laugh on the curb.

Up at the top of school, in the ceramics room of Feld-

hwchronicle.com

May 29, 2013

Seniors D9

You are special

Passionate procrastination

By Rachel Schwartz

P

rocrastination has been a defining feature of my time in high school. I could blame all of those times during junior year when I collapsed into bed at 3 a.m., finally having printed my lab on an overwhelming workload and time-consuming extracurricular activities. I, however, would be denying that time spent on YouTube could have contributed to a full night’s rest. For a long time I was wracked with guilt over the time I spent procrastinating. I lied to my parents and I became a master of switching back to Excel when I heard their footsteps in the hall.

This year I have reevaluated how I feel about procrastination. The energy I used to put into beating myself up over time I had wasted drained me emotionally and left me feeling like a fraud. I have realized not only that my work process requires more time than what I thought I could allow myself, but also that all that time I “wasted” has made me a more dynamic person.

In the hours I spent exploring the internet I discovered new passions and resources to feed them. My voracious appetite for food

blogs inspired my interest in food science, which I am now considering for a career. My discovery of YouTubers who focus on feminist activism and sex positive education has sparked in me a fiery passion for critical thought about social constructs and inspired a commitment to issues I will hold for the rest of my life.

I used to worry that I was lying to myself about loving learning. Why else did I face such a block when I tried to complete schoolwork? With the changes I’ve made in my senior year, I’ve been able to reconcile my interest in school with my work ethic.

Finding that the time I had wasted resulted in a new body of knowledge reaffirmed my confidence in myself as a student. Now rather than worry about whether or not I can get it done on time, I worry about whether or not I have taken advantage of all the wisdom my teachers have to offer.

I am sad to leave this place where I know so much wisdom and information is left to be explored. I wish I could have fully dedicated myself to every lesson taught during these past years. I have learned that to learn the best I must give my full self to the present.

By Ally White

F

CAMILLE SHOOSHANI/CHRONICLE

LAST CALL: Presentations Editors Jamie Chang ’13 and Gabrielle Franchina ’13, Executive Editor Rachel Schwartz ’13, News Managing Editor Ally White ’13, Opinion Managing Editor Ana Scuric ’13 and Features Managing Editor Carrie Davidson ’13 celebrate the final layout weekend of their senior year together.

Prepared to trek into uncharted territory

By Carrie Davidson and Ana Scuric

O

ne of the major things we learned sitting next to each other in AP English Language this year wasn’t about the English language or composition.

As we walked away from our last day of discussions, tossing our books into the nearby trashcan in celebration, the thought that stuck out the most was actually pretty irrelevant to novels and essays.

As we discussed “Into the Wild” by Jon Krakauer, our class constantly ragged on Chris McCandless for his lack

of basic preparation and common sense. He walked into the Alaskan wilderness with a bag of rice, a small rifle and a plethora of Russian literature.

He was asking for it, our class agreed. It was basically a selfserved death sentence.

We don’t plan on traipsing into the Alaskan wilderness anytime soon, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t learn from his mistakes.

It’s pretty fair to say that the idea of college is scary.

There will be new people, unfamiliar places and we have no idea what to expect from these new classes and professors. So unlike McCandless, we should try to prepare

ourselves. When we stopped to think of how to go about this, it became clear that we already had.

We have experienced the burning eyes and back aches of being hunched over a computer finishing an English paper until 3 a.m. and we have studied for a single test for far longer than reasonable.

Harvard-Westlake has given us innumerable hurdles to jump and in doing so, has taught us to come prepared.

When we came to Harvard-Westlake in seventh grade, it was scary. We knew no one, we had metal filled mouths and questionable wardrobes. By ninth grade, we

were confident; sure that the younger grades couldn’t understand the amount of work we had to do. But when we started 10th grade, we realized how unprepared we were for the amount of work that was going to be thrown at us. Just as we got our feet under us, junior year’s workload pushed us back over. By the end of senior year, we feel confident that we know how to handle what life may throw at us.

Harvard-Westlake’s competitive environment has taught us to expect nothing but the best of ourselves and with this outlook, the Alaskan wilderness that is college isn’t that scary at all.

or most of my HarvardWestlake career, my life to a large extent, revolved around school.

The sports I played were on Harvard-Westlake teams, my friends were almost strictly from Harvard-Westlake and my main extracurricular was the school newspaper. I considered the community to be a sort of microcosm of the greater world and therefore didn’t see a great need to branch out.

But unlike most graduating seniors, I took a short “break” from Harvard-Westlake. I studied in France for my junior year, and was exposed to kids from all over the world whose schools ranged from small private schools in Alaska to huge public schools in Uruguay. My interactions with these kids made me realized how different and special Harvard-Westlake kids are from most of the world.

We are so privileged; we are surrounded by some of the smartest and most talented. However, this can be a double-edged sword. It’s easy to lose perspective. HarvardWestlake is not a microcosm.

Before studying abroad, I found myself often feeling somewhat invisible. There was always someone smarter, more athletic or just allaround more talented. France fixed my skewed perspective.

What’s important to realize is that just being part of the Harvard-Westlake community already means you’re special.

You may not be the valedictorian or first chair in symphony, but that doesn’t mean that you aren’t brilliant or a sensational violinist in the greater world. You probably are.

You are bound to compare yourself to others, and you won’t always match up. But always remember that you are part of a very special select few.

Crossing Coldwater

By Jamie Chang

and

Gabrielle Franchina

Across 6 The most expensive night at Harvard-Westlake 8 Most attended athletic even of the year 10 In this building, “To read, or not to read. That is the question.”

12 Jackson’s first name

Down 1 Coachella after-math 2 Tropical Thunder, Berry Potter and Banana Royale 3 Pickup basketball and no A/C 4 The place for last minute English and History paper print-outs

13 Free parking

5 Although this building isn’t under construction, it is InDesign

14 Phairot’s secret talent

7 Molecular Gastronomy curese hunger and is taken in ------

15 We blew it (an event)

9 Best sophmore locker location

17 “Smile. Your on camera.”

11 The closest place to get sushi

18 “Shut up and cheer”

16 Most popular spot on campus

1. Detention 2. Smoothies 3. Hamilton 4. Lounge 5. Weiler Hall 6. Prom 7. Munger 8. Homecoming 9. Chalmers 10. Rugby 11. Cafeteria 12. Sanders 13. Halkirk 14. Makeup 15. Semiformal 16. Quad 17. Silent Study 18. Fanatics

The Chronicle

D10 Seniors

The bus ride of a lifetime

Cardinal flying away

By Luke Holthouse

I

By Michael Aronson

I

was such a naïve kid in seventh grade. I still don’t know what was going through my head when I accidentally hopped on a bus to Hancock Park after school when I was supposed to take the Westside 3 bus home. It was only my second month of school after all, but I still don’t understand how I made such a hilariously ridiculous mistake.

It took me quite a while to look up from my old Voyager flip phone and realize that I was travelling with students whom I hadn’t met through places in Los Angeles that I didn’t even know existed.

It was Oct. 22 (I remember because it was the Monday before my Bar Mitzvah), and I remember feeling exceptionally upset, nervous and, for some reason, excited. It dawned on me that I had never felt so independent, and in hindsight it was actually pretty exhilarating to sit in the back of a school bus, journeying through the crowded metropolitan wilderness that is Hancock Park. I scurried to the front of the bus to notify the driver named Mr. Matlock of my predicament, and he began to chuckle when I told him what had happened.

“You’ll look back on this and laugh one day,” he said.

I didn’t really believe him at the time, but I guess he

May 29, 2013

JAMIE CHANG/CHRONICLE

BIG SHOTS: Editors-in-Chief Michael Aronson ’13, left, and Luke Holthouse ’13, right, show off four issues of Big Red sports magazine.

was right considering it’s the subject of my senior column.

Lucky for me, Mr. Matlock’s bus was going to be the shuttle from the Upper School to the Middle School that evening, and I could eventually take my actual bus home, just three hours later than intended. My unintentional bus ride that day through the streets near downtown Los Angeles perfectly encapsulates my experience at HarvardWestlake. Harvard-Westlake was my bus to Hancock Park as I was able to develop new interests that I would never have the opportunity to pursue had I not attended this school. I developed passions

for business and economics, continued my love of golf as a member of the varsity golf team and explored the world of high school sports journalism through my work on Big Red Magazine and the Chronicle sports section.

I now know never to be afraid about getting completely lost in my surroundings and trying new things just for the sake of branching out beyond my comfort zone.

Allowing students to travel to new places and try new things is something that makes Harvard-Westlake so incredible. Next time I ride a bus, I’ll make sure not to ask the bus driver where we’re going.

never got to write a column about the St. Louis Cardinals and their run to the 2011 World Series last year. Our Editor-in-Chief, Judd Liebman ’12, told me it had no place in the Chronicle because it was only relevant to my life and not to the school.

But I get a little leeway for self-indulgence in my farewell piece, and I’ll try to incorporate some meaningful analysis of my high school experience.

If you want to know how I survived Harvard-Westlake, I must thank the 2011 St. Louis Cardinals. I should also thank my family, my teachers, my classmates and everyone else that has been a part of my life the last six years, but this column will be more entertaining and less generic if I talk about baseball and save all the personal notes for yearbooks.

The playoff run that year could not have been better.

Down and out late in the year, my Redbirds made a vicious late-season ascent in the standings, snuck into playoffs on the last day of a 162-game season, upset the goliath Philadelphia Phillies in the first round of playoffs, defeated the rival Milwaukee Brewers in the second round (sorry Bradley Schlesinger ’13), then magically rallied through extra innings of Game 6 before claiming the World Series title in Game 7 against the Texas Rangers.

I woke up every morning of that playoff run with a smile, anxious about the day’s game and excited to see what the scouting report had to say.

My focus during off hours was sharper than Chris Carpenter’s curveball as I forced myself to keep four hours of my schedule open almost every day of October so I could watch the night’s game.

And when the Cardinals popped the final bottle of champagne, a mix of genuine sadness that the greatest experience of my fandom had just ended was washed away by the pride I felt as part of Cardinal Nation, the admiration I had for the new legends like David Freese or old heroes like Albert Pujols and the happiness that I felt after witnessing the perfect playoff run. I forfeited my right to complain about anything for the rest of the year.

When I was frustrated about an AP Biology lab due the next day, a cruel Chronicle deadline in the weeks ahead or the difficulty of managing lacrosse practice time with homework, I reminded myself that at least the Cardinals won the World Series and that I should appreciate all the good stuff I had going on in my life. I wish I had something more insightful to say at the end of this column about my experience at HarvardWestlake, but I feel very satisfied with my high school years here because I kept a positive attitude the whole time.

I’ll reiterate one last time my appreciation for everyone that has been a part of my Harvard-Westlake career. It has been so enjoyable because of the great people involved.

And I’ll conclude my Chronicle career with these two words: Go Cardinals.

Don’t let your past define you, be yourself

By Maggie Bunzel

I

’ve always been told that it was important to learn from my mistakes, so I went about being okay with making them as long as I took something away from them each time. Everything came to crashing halt when I made a mistake in my junior year one night at a party.

Suddenly, my private life was public and I became insecure and racked with guilt and resentment. I became so engulfed in the emotions and the rumors that I lost myself.

I became convinced that I had to keep acting like that in order to prove something to people, and perhaps, I was seeking some sort of approval, acknowledgment and acceptance.

A close friend asked me why I wanted to be accepted by my classmates so badly.

Before, I couldn’t pinpoint the reason. Now, I can. Since that night, I’ve been tainted with an identity that I can’t shake and as much as I resisted, people’s perception of me started to morph into my own perception of myself too; I started to believe what other people did. And I felt like I was driving down a long road that never ended and I couldn’t turn back, I had to keep going. Second semester of my senior year, I found a way to make a U-turn and I found myself again. Maybe it was that a friendship with one

of my closest friends ended or that a classmate passed away, or that I realized high school was almost ending.

Whatever it was, something changed in me. It started with honesty. So now, I’m telling this story because it’s a big step towards moving on and growing up. My intention with writing this is not to re-hash the past, it’s to admit to my mistakes and move forward. I’ve always been told that it was important to learn from my mistakes. And as the dust settles and senior year nears its end, I’m able to learn from the ones I’ve made during my time at HarvardWestlake.

My advice to whomever is reading this is to simply accept yourself. Let the image of who you want to be dissipate and let your honest self shine through.

Let go of the burden of feeling judged and criticized.

Close your eyes to the people you’re trying to prove something to and open your eyes to the people who truly accept you. Finally, don’t let your mistakes define you, even when you become consumed by them.

My journey through Harvard-Westlake has been an interesting one, full of handfuls of mistakes and difficulties. But, it’s also been full of amazing moments. I’ve learned a lot and at I’ve become a stronger, better person and for that, I am grateful.

JAMIE CHANG/CHRONICLE

GETTING READY TO MOVE ON: Features Managing Editor Maggie Bunzel ’13, left, and Sports Managing Editor Keane Muraoka-Robertson ’13, right, have some advice for those who come after.

Prepared to endure the unexpected

By Keane Muraoka-Robertson

W

e are prepared not to be prepared. In many ways, Harvard-Westlake is a gauntlet. Over the course of high school, Harvard-Westlake has thrown many challenges our way, and whether we like it our not, we are left with no choice but to stay on our toes and endure.

Whether we come out running, sprinting or crawling, everyone does make it.

And so, in this way, we are prepared for a future just like the present Harvard-Westlake we are so familiar with, a future in which we will no doubt be forced into unpredictable situations with less preparation than we expected.

However, unlike many others,

we have been prepared for the unexpected, to be unprepared and endure.

Harvard-Westlake has slapped me in the face.

Throughout the years I have withstood many sleepless nights, stomached an uncomfortable number of espresso shots and still sometimes I did not meet my expectations.

As a senior, it is inevitable to reflect upon your years at Harvard-Westlake.

Sadly, I face the fact that I did not achieve all that I had hoped for during my time here nor did I end up as my seventh grade self had expected.

While I did not have a clear vision of who I would be, I did have an idea of what I would have accomplished and where I would be going.

But I have come to realize that there is only so much that we can prepare for.

While you might have an idea where you will be in a few years, there is no guarantee and the chances are your plans will change. My years at Harvard-Westlake have taught me thus. Now able to count the number of school days left on my fingers, the prospect of college is no longer just an idea. At the Senior Seminars, past students told us what to expect and how to prepare.

However, we can only prepare ourselves to an extent.

After that there is no option but to just see what happens. As Harvard-Westlake students, whether we realize it or not, we have learned to handle change and thrive.

hwchronicle.com

May 29, 2013

Seniors D11

A day in the life of a managing editor O

Camille Shooshani

n a sunny Sunday I wake up with my laptop open on my chest to a half-finished article about tattoos I swore I’d finish by Thursday. I rush to Twain’s diner where Robbie Loeb ’13 stands me up because his “alarm didn’t go off.” After a series of increasingly violent texts, Michael Aronson ’13 and Luke Holthouse ’13 find me alone in a booth eating bacon.

When I finally walk into Weiler 104 at 9:30 a.m., the sports room is predictably empty while news buzzes with juniors avoiding the wrath of Michael Sugerman ’13. I escape to features, where the juniors beg for help.

Layout, as usual, is a disorienting mess. I have no idea how to illustrate mental health issues without offending someone or write an appropriate “cute” title for a story about LSD. We brainstorm concepts for features cover, which is supposed to show gay couples at Prom but end up with a bunch of offensive headlines (“Grom,” “50 shades of gay,” “The Rainbow Barrier” — courtesy of Robbie). We are not talented enough at Photoshop for many of our ideas but finally, we decide to paint a boutonniere. We order two from Ralph’s and rush to pick them up. We are 20 minutes early so Gabby Franchina ’13, Jamie Chang ’13 and I scavenge Ralph’s for popsicles (we each eat five by the time layout is over).

Boutonniere in hand, we climb to Feldman-Horn to steal paint. Jamie and I can’t

make purple so we give up but Gabby keeps us going. We end up with a work of art.

Section meetings are next.

Robbie and I avoid news at all costs. Sports has zero content except for Luke’s stories (50 percent of the section) because it’s sports and for some reason, every features page look exactly the same. At some point, I find my phone under a pile of old pages. I have four missed calls and eight texts from friends wondering if I’m surviving and why the hell I spend so much time working on a newspaper.

The real editing process starts around 6 p.m. Michael Rothberg ’13 and I probably get 90 percent of the pages because everyone is scared of Robbie’s edits. I peek at Elana Zeltser ’13 drowning in a pile of pages, yelling at Oxford commas.

Somehow, it’s now 10 p.m. and we’ve left the front page for the last possible second because we seem to like the adrenaline rush. There’s always something missing and this time it’s the inside box.

At this point, everyone’s a little hysterical, someone has cried and the sports section is freestyle rapping next door.

After the 11 p.m. deadline when the computers shut down, we head to DuPar’s for post-Chron wrapup. We order pancakes, pie and bacon. I am exhausted and sick, as usual and I don’t get home until 1:30 a.m. (mom is not happy) but somehow, I’m laughing.

I know there’s a lesson in here somewhere, but I just haven’t figured it out before this deadline.

B

Robbie Loeb

uzzzzz … Buzzzzz … I abruptly awake to the sound of my iPhone vibrating on my wooden nightstand.

I plunge back into my pillow then peek through one eye at my now calmed phone to see four missed calls and a barrage of texts from Camille Shooshani ’13.

Turns out the alarm I had set for 8:45 a.m. had actually been set for 8:45 p.m. (“Seinfeld” evidently has taught me nothing) and I am almost an hour late for my regular prelayout Twain’s breakfast with Camille.

I gather the mess of sports pages I had edited the night before that were strewn across the floor and I scramble out of the house, ready as I’ll ever be for another lengthy day at my unpaid full-time job on the HarvardWestlake Chronicle.

When I arrive on campus, an irate Camille immediately greets me with her catchphrase, “I am literally going to kill you.”

I grumble an explanation and an apology and stumble into the sports room, where future “Best Bromance” locks Sam Sachs ’14 and Eric Loeb ’14 (no relation) are wrestling on the floor.

The sports section goes through its routine of yelling at me for making illegible and unnecessary edits and I spend about an hour being “available for questions” (aka getting some much-needed shuteye in a fort of chairs set up in the corner).

Once again I abruptly awake, this time to the sound of sports editor Luke Holthouse ’13 shouting, “Bartend-

er!” at the top of his lungs for no apparent reason.

I wander into the features room, where presentations editor Gabby Franchina ’13 is curled up in the corner texting her boyfriend, “Gorf.”

I have nothing better to do, so I mosey on over and flirt with her for a while until Camille barges in, physically removes me from Gabby’s side and asks, “Can you do something productive?”

Since I tend to avoid entering the jungle of hyperambitious juniors that is the newsroom, I return to sports and do anything but “something productive.”

Section meetings begin after lunch and I occasionally grace the room with illuminative advice such as “I don’t like it” or “this needs work.”

I come up with a punny headline or two during the mind-numbingly long meetings, but my attention mostly belongs to Gabby and Snapchat.

The rest of my day goes pretty much the same way — flirting with Gabby, getting yelled at by Camille and thinking up puns — until we all call it a day and go to dinner at DuPar’s (we journalists love our diners).

Yet somehow, somewhere amidst all this slacking, I manage to get quite a bit done.

I dream up page designs, crank out a quick story or two and edit pages of the staffers brave enough to hand them to me.

I know there’s a lesson in here somewhere, but I guess I can just get a sophomore to figure it out.

Chron is life.

Finding my footing in her footsteps

By Elana Zeltser

W

hen I was little it always took me an unnecessarily long time to get dressed in the morning. Not because I can claim to care about or understand fashion, but rather because I had to wait for my older sister to pick out her outfit so I could put on exactly the same thing. She was not a fashionista either, so we often ended up in tie dye pants and water shoes.

We weren’t twins but everything had to be bought in pairs as if we were. When the same present was given to us in two different colors, I would have her choose first so that I could follow up with “that is the one I wanted all along,” grab it and run away.

She was the person I always wanted to be around, but also the person I always wanted to be.

Even when I branched out in the wardrobe department, I had a hard time making decisions for myself. This ranged from the small problems like what I should eat for lunch,

to the big ones like where I should go to high school.

After turning in my Harvard-Westlake deposit on the last possible day, I started signing up for classes. My sister was had done journalism in high school so, naturally, I joined the Introduction to Journalism class.

It didn’t take long to realize that as a member of the newspaper I could not leave the choices to other people and run away with the byline.

It took a certain amount of conviction that I truthfully didn’t have when I first joined the Spectrum.

However, as soon as I realized that the newspaper was something I cared about in my own right, I found myself being able to make calls by myself. I knew what I thought looked nice, I knew what I thought sounded weird. Even if it turned out I was wrong, I felt opinionated about something — and it felt good.

Four years later, the Chronicle room is the place where I feel most comfortable standing up for what I think.

While I usually avoid confron-

tation, I am willing to argue a design, caption, headline or flag with the other people on staff — and trust me, we do for hours. I have found people and a teacher who make room for this discussion in the first place by caring about the random details I care about — details that are so tiny, most of our readers will never notice them while consumed by a picture of baseball player Arden Pabst ’13 mislabeled as Chinese teacher Bin Bin Wei. I talk to my sister, now a film major at UCSB, on the phone almost every day, but it is never to ask her about the lead of my story.

That I can take care of on my own, knowing that my bylines are just that — mine.

After turning in my USC deposit on the last possible day, I will also study film next year, following in her lofty footsteps yet again. Clearly some things never change and I admittedly still need someone to tell me what to eat for most meals, but thanks to the Chronicle, tie dye pants will never make their comeback in my closet.

JAMIE CHANG/CHRONICLE

END OF AN ERA: Editor-in-chief Elena Zeltser ’13 and Managing Editors Robbie Loeb ’13 and Camille Shooshani ’13 take a minute to relax on the field during their last layout of senior year.

prom2013

D12 Seniors

May 29, 2013

A formal affair

At pre-prom rituals, parents turned paparazzi snapped shots of students bearing flowers on their wrists and lapels. On May 18 primped students attended their senior prom at the Millennium Biltmore.

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PRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF MEGAN WARD

2

PRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF CHRISTINE SASAKI

6

PRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF NICOLE GOULD

5

PRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF BEA DYBUNCIO

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3

PRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF BEA DYBUNCIO

PRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF KASSIE SHANNON

PROMARAMA: 1: Megan Ward ’13 and Rebecca Aaron ’13 smile.

2: Christine Sasaki ‘13 and Matt Edelstein ‘13 embrace.

3: Senior boys assemble in their bowties.

4: Kassie Shannon ‘13 and Ben Gail ‘13 beam.

5: Bea Dybuncio ‘13 pins on Eli Goldman’s ‘13 boutonniere.

6: Erin Murphy ‘13, Nicole Gould ‘13, Jillian Victor ‘13, Jordan Brewington ‘13, Alixx Lucas ‘13 and Halsey Robertson ‘13 line up for a classic prom pose.

7: Joyce Ok ‘13 and Ingrid Hung ‘13 laugh.

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PRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF INGRID HUNG