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Harvard-Westlake School • North Hollywood, CA • Volume XIX • Issue 3 • Nov. 11, 2009 • chronicle.hw.com
Seniors earn honors in national science contest By Matthew Lee
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‘Lost girl’: Sudanese refugee Elizabeth Koch speaks at sophomore class meeting on Nov. 9. Sophomores listen to Koch speak. Presidents of DAATC Alex Glancy ’10, Michelle Yousefzadeh ’10 and Jake Gutman ’10 (from left) introduce Koch to the sophomore class.
Genocide Awareness Week opens with refugee speaker By Jordan Freisleben
The sanctity of human life is more precious than any political motive, stressed “Lost Girl” Elizabeth Kuch at junior and sophomore class meetings yesterday and on Monday. Kuch is one the keynote speakers featured this week for Genocide Awareness Week organized by the Darfur Awareness Activism and Training Club. Kuch, who will also be speaking today at senior class meeting, is a part of the group of Sudanese children whose parents were killed during the Sudanese Civil War. The children eventually made their way across the desert into refugee camps in Ethiopia and subsequently Kenya. “Being a ‘Lost Girl’ is not something to be proud of or to be ashamed of either, because it was something I couldn’t control,” Kuch said. A native of Southern Sudan, Kuch was forced to leave her country and fend for herself when she was 5 years old. “I walked through night and day with a group I didn’t know,” she said. “We didn’t know where we were walking.” It took the group three months to reach Kenya. They travelled to save themselves from being killed by Sudanese militants. Despite their efforts, several children died on the journey; killed either by enemies or starvation. Kuch was eventually reunited with three of her brothers and was one of 112 “Lost Girls”
who came to the United States. Kuch emphasized the need for everyone to speak out against genocide and to end the suffering of the Sudanese. “Refugees are not politicians,” she said. “There’s a child, an older woman and an older man suffering right now. They have not done anything; they are very innocent and have no idea what’s going on in politics.” In addition to Kuch, filmmaker Paul Freedman (Christopher ’12) will discuss the genocide in Sudan at an all-school assembly tomorrow. Freedman is the director of the HBO documentary “Sand and Sorrow”, which focuses on the genocide in Darfur for the past several years. The DAATC screened the documentary on Oct. 29 in Feldman-Horn to preview Genocide Awareness Week. The documentary features commentary from President Barack Obama while he was a senator of Illinois and White House correspondent John Prendergast. “We’re hoping not only to get the awareness out about what’s going on now in Darfur, but also past genocides that might not be as welldocumented or [wee-known],” DAATC CoPresident Jake Gutman ’10 said. “There have been so many that people, especially our age just don’t know about.” Genocide Awareness Week will also include a bake sale on Friday to raise money for the Sister School Project through Jewish World Watch.
The Siemens Foundation named Ian Cinnamon ’10 and Andrew Wang ’10 semifinalists of the Siemens Competition in Math, Science, and Technology. Semifinalist is the highest award given to students who submit research. Cinnamon submitted an experiment that analyzed stereoscopic vision, which is the don hagopian/chronicle study of how humans perceive what they Ian Cinnamon ’10 see. “The experiment included dozens of human subjects and tens of thousands of data points” Cinnamon said. “I discovered that relative stereoscopic searches require a serial search and are therefore not a fundamental feature of vision.” During the summer Cinammon participated in the Research Science Institute, sponsored by MIT and the Center for Excellence in Education. Cinnamon worked with Dr. Jeremy Wolfe, a Harvard and MIT prodon hagopian/chronicle fessor of Visual Attention, and researched Andrew Wang ’10 stereoscopic vision, a subdivision of Visual Attention. Cinnamon entered his project in the competition because almost everyone that participated in the Research Science Institute program also entered projects, Cinnamon said. Wang worked on his project with a student from another school and analyzed Mitochondrial Activity and Autophagy Response in Myoblasts. Wang and his partner discovered that the autophagy-related gene could serve as a potential therapeutic target for treating muscle atrophy. Wang never entered a science contest before entering the Siemens competition and learned about the competition from the poster in Munger. Wang said the competition gave him an opportunity to develop his skills for real life situations. “Obviously, the competition requires knowledge in science, but really it is about how you can manage a project and thus, real life situations,” Wang said. “In my opinion, Siemens Competition is one of the only high school competitions that test how well you can do in the world with your current skills.” The Siemens Competition, administered annually by the College Board, awards college scholarships from $1000 to $100,000 in individual and team categories. This year 1,348 projects were received and 318 students were selected as semifinalists.
School waits for flu vaccines By Sadé Tavangarian
The school has ordered vaccinations for the H1N1 virus, commonly known as swine flu. Although these vaccinations have not yet arrived, students will be able to receive H1N1 vaccinations on campus. For now, the school must wait as the Centers for Disease Control try to produce and distribute enough vaccine to meet demand. Community Health Officer and Director of Sports Medicine Sandee Teruya wrote a letter to families last month informing them that the school was ordering H1N1 vaccines. Teruya does not know when the vaccines will arrive. Included with Teruya’s letter was a parental authorization form for students to receive vaccinations. “At this time, I have received hundreds of signed authorizations from parents wanting their children vaccinated,” Teruya said. High school students are
among those the CDC says should be vaccinated first, because they are most at risk from swine flu. But the vaccine’s limited availability has made it difficult to find even for these priority groups. After H1N1 was first identified in the United States in April, the CDC started growing H1N1 vaccine in eggs. The CDC says there will not be a shortage of the vaccine; they plan to produce enough for everyone in the country. They began distributing vaccine in October. In California, any school that employs a medical director is eligible to order vaccines. In this case, that means Teruya. “We decided to provide the vaccinations to help our community stay as healthy as possible since we have had a few isolated cases of H1N1,” Teruya said in an e-mail. Students who have a lifethreatening allergy to eggs or seasonal flu vaccines should not be vaccinated for H1N1.
preview ews A4 The Chronicle Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2009 Volume XIX Issue 3
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Michael Raynis ’10 aims to fence in the 2012 Olympics.
PHOTO+VIDEO: View short clips and photos of the Middle School play Auntie Mame, which was performed last weekend.
• ‘OUR TOWN’ CAST LIST: Check Wednesday for the cast list of the next Upper School play, “Our Town.”
chronicle.hw.com
podcastsvideosphotos blogs
offbeat By Sam Adams
Candice Navi/chronicle
Jessica barzilay/Chronicle
Chloe Lister/Chronicle
Lisa Peters designs the costumes for upper school plays and dances.
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• POLL: Grade recent events such as the Prefect Council’s new coffee house proposal and the self-defense video in class.
An editorial advocates the use of laptops for class notes.
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PHOTO: See some noteworthy costumes from Halloween on campus.
Students walked on liquid in the Non-Newtonian Fluid Walk.
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Juniors and seniors will watch the Columbine re-enactment video.
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The goalposts of Ted Slavin Field were picking up good vibrations before school on Monday Nov. 2. Security Officer Sanders Jackson noticed the football uprights buzzing like a tuning fork despite no apparent wind. “I just thought, they shouldn’t be doing that,” Jackson said. Jackson brought science teacher Blaise Eitner to check out the strange sight as he got out of his car. Eitner felt a slight breeze he guessed to be one knot at the base of the goalposts, which were shaking noticeably in arcs of around two feet. The vibrations continued for upwards of 15 minutes, stopping by the time school started at 8 a.m. Physics teacher Antonio Nassar attributed
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all the buzz to a phenomenon known as “vortex shedding.” In it, vibrations are caused in a cylinder, such as those that comprise the goalposts, as it reacts to pockets of low pressure behind it as air flows past. The air around the goalposts had to have the perfect combination of thickness, speed and temperature to resonate with them. The science behind the vibrations is the same as what spontaneously caused the collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in 1940, the footage of which Nassar shows to students of his AP Physics B classes. The demonstration proves the destructive power that a light breeze can hold, either sending hundreds of tons of steel and concrete into a river or causing the Slavin goalposts to have a case of the Mondays.
Chris Vanderschans ’10 runs in a cross country race.
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History teachers lecture parents By Jordan Freisleben
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WHAT’S THE MATTER?: UCLA physicist and astronomer Dr. HanGuo Wang, explained to students the evidence for dark matter during an optional lecture.
UCLA physicist, astronomer explains dark matter, energy By Mary Rose Fissinger
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UCLA physicist and astronomer Dr. HanGuo Wang lectured on developing the machine engineered to detect dark matter. The optional meeting was during break on Nov. 2. The machine will be lowered 1.5 km underground to detect the particle that is nicknamed SUSY. SUSY is suspected to be the substance known as dark matter. Wang began by explaining what exactly dark matter is and how we know that it exists. One example of evidence for dark matter, according to Wang, is the leftover radiation from the Big Bang. This is still observed today when one examines the sky. The universe is at a general temperature of -270 degrees Celsius. When scientists Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson accidentally discovered cosmic background radiation, they were able to calculate the temperature of the universe. This leftover radiation is a dark matter component. Another example Wang gave was the speed of a galaxy spinning outwards. The expected outcome is that the galaxy would spin slower as it stretched away from the sun, as according to Newtonian law, but instead, the observed outcome was that the galaxy actually spun faster as is went away from the sun. This could soleley be caused by a gigantic mass, which could only be of dark matter. He also spoke about the make-up of the universe, with everything other than dark matter and dark energy making up only five percent of the universe. Dark matter only takes up 25 percent, but dark energy, which is still unexplainable, makes up seventy percent. “I learned all about half of the universe
that I never really knew existed,” Chris Holthouse ’11 said. Wang followed this overview of dark matter by speaking specifically about what his research concerns: WIMPS, Weakly Interacting Massive Particles. He searches for WIMPS by using liquid xenon lead to try to capture dark matter. The Large Hadron Collider in Geneva created a controversy last year when rumors started that it could potentially create a black hole on Earth. It is a device which would capture dark matter, but was shut down due to a malfunction. Wang, who has worked on many research projects, was involved in the construction of the ZEPLIN II, another LHC, in England, and is now working on the HARBIN in China. Wang explained that he was trying to capture dark matter by luring it into the LHC with electrons, which seems to be what it is attracted to. Wang and his group of scientists line each LHC with atoms and start up the machine, also lined with special lights to see the radiation. All of this is impossible with the background elements in the earth, especially radiation coming from space. Wang said all of the experiments are held very deep underground to reduce background radiation. The deepest LHC is in China. “I didn’t even mean to go [to the speech]; my friend dragged me along,” Hank Adelmann ’11 said, “but it ended up being really cool and I learned a lot.” At the end of his presentation, Wang laughed and jokingly predicted, “within the next decades, the nature of dark matter that holds our universe together will be discovered by a Harvard Westlake graduate.”
“pretty picture show” of Impressionism just like Impressionism, pohe gives students in his litical soap operas and AP Art History class. He conflicts in the Middle highlighted the relativeEast were the focuses of ly well-known artists of three upper school histhe period, concentrattory teachers in a series ing on Cassatt, Monet, of lectures for parents in Renoir and Degas. October. “I wanted to show don hagopian/chronicle Dror Yaron The lectures were what exactly [these a community-building artists] were trying to fundraiser organized by do and accomplish,” he the Harvard-Westlake said. “They were rebParents’ Association, the els and controversial in proceeds of which went their day.” to Financial Aid. AdmisWhat Zwemer dission to the lectures was cussed at his lecture is mostly done via online largely covered in his auction, raising a total of AP Art History course about $7,000. during the ImpressionHistory teachers Daism unit. However, he don hagopian/chronicle vid Waterhouse, Dror made a few changes for Eric Zwemer Yaron and Eric Zwethe parents. mer each gave one lec“I scaled [the unit] ture over the course of a back and made it work month. within the context,” he Head of School Jeanne said. Huybrechts suggested Yaron’s lecture fothe three teachers as cused on post-World lecturers to HWPA War I Middle Eastern member Marilyn O’Toole history. (Conor ’10), who played “The primary quesa large part in organiztion was, ‘To what exdon hagopian/chronicle ing the lectures. tent did European powDavid “The catalyst for ers shake the dynamics Waterhouse the event was that so of the current region many parents wish that – what extent did they they could take a class at Har- generate conflict, plant the seeds vard-Westlake and would love to of conflict?’” he said. learn the things their children “The Middle East is my speare learning,” O’Toole said. “This cialty – that’s my forte,” Yaron would be the opportunity to actu- said. “I do a lot of work on the ally attend a class by one of the Middle East outside of school – I fabulous teachers.” work at research centers transThe three teachers were asked lating Hebrew and Arabic into to talk about the subject that English [and] my field of study they found most interesting. in graduate school was modern For Waterhouse, it was mate- Middle Eastern history.” rial that he covers in his AP UnitAfter the October lecture seed States History class. ries, Yaron was scheduled to do During his 90-minute lecture, a three-part lecture series next he discussed what he refers to as year on the Middle East. the “sex and scandals” and the “It’s the timing – the timing is “soap opera part” of early Ameri- of the essence. I know that there’s can history. kind of an insatiable appetite for This included the corruption learning about the region,” he of the founding fathers, the con- said. “There’s a lot of information troversy over the election of 1800 out there about it as well as a lot and the duel between former of misinformation and a lot of disSecretary of the Treasury Alex- torted information. It’s a complex ander Hamilton and Vice Presi- and incredibly animated region. dent Aaron Burr, which ended in It needs explication and I thought Hamilton’s death. that I have the tools to explicate “I wanted to do something in- it.” teresting and something I already “We thought these three teachknew about,” Waterhouse said. ers would be comfortable in a lec“In my government class, we talk turing environment the first time about voting analysis – in this en- out,” O’Toole said. vironment, that could get a little “It’s a great way to integrate controversial. This was a safe and parents and teachers in their interesting topic.” various fields of specialty,” Yaron Zwemer gave the parents a said.
Senior art to be displayed in gallery By Erin Moy
Next Monday, the Feldman Horn Art Gallery will be filled with artwork from seniors who take AP Drawing, AP Design, Advanced Drawing and Painting III. 3D art and photos will also be shown, while senior work from video art will play in a loop. The Senior Art Show will feature self-portraits and spacial drawings of the art studio entitled Studio: Inside Out, as well as some still-life paintings. Visual arts teacher Marianne Hall also hopes to feature the figure drawings that students in the Advanced
Drawing and Painting class are currently creating. The art featured in the Senior Art Show has a broad variety in order to let seniors choose their own styles and perspectives. Specifically, students made portraits of how they were feeling in the beginning of senior year. Hall also feels that “seniors are excited because it is their first show. They’re excited to share their work with their friends and peers.” “It’s great to be able to share this with everyone,” Caroline Hartig ’10 said. “We have put a lot of hard work into all of these paintings.”
“[The show] is the end of three years of work in drawing and painting that really is the equivalent of a freshman foundation course for art majors in college,” Hall said. For the rest of year, seniors are allowed more freedom and will be working on their own concentrations. During the second semester, Hall says that there will be concentration shows for the senior work in Feldman Horn Gallery. “It should be great,” Peter Schwartz ’10 said, “It’s really a product of everyone’s work and I feel like everyone should be proud of what they accomplished.”
erin moy/chronicle
Express Yourself: Seniors’ self-portraits depicting how they felt at the beginning of senior year, hang in the Feldman Horn Gallery.
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SSR shows how to walk on water By Jean Park
Nov. 11, 2009
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dr. nassar wanted to make science a little more fun and intergrate the entire school.”
Students crowded around a section of the quad and jumped on top of tables to get a better view as Dr. Antonio Nassar and students in the Studies in Scientific Research conducted a scientific demonstration during a Monday break. A rectangular sandbox was assembled with smooth wooden planks to be filled with “Non-Newtonian fluid,” made from a mixture of corn starch and water. —Kristen London ‘10 Students in the SSR class “look into SSR Student things [they] don’t know a lot about and research it all and write scientific papers,” SSR class member and event leader Kristen London ’10 said. Multiple bags of corn starch lined the wall behind Nassar, while he kept a hose running to wash the over-flowing liquid off the ground. The box was designed by Ryder Moody ’10 and Charlie Fogarty ’10. “This wasn’t a project, but [SSR teacher] Dr. Nassar wanted to make science a little more fun and integrate the entire school,” London said. “He wanted to bring more interest to the class and scientific research in general.” Riley Guerin ’11 stuck his fingers into the mixture, which “took a long time [to mix] on Friday,” and gestured the OK sign to Matt Heartney ’12, who was the first volunteer to test the experiment. Heartney rolled up his pants and dashed across the mixture. The surrounding crowd of students laughed and applauded as they witnessed the “NonNewtonian fluid” act as a solid. The mixture, when agitated, is forced to bring the starch molecules closer together. Therefore, when a student runs on top of the liquid, the “impact of the force traps water between starch chains to form a semi-rigid structure,” flyers for the event explained. “When I walked fast, it was like running on dirt, but when I walked slow, it’s like walking through really thick jell-o,” said Heartney. Students began sticking their fingers into the mixture as more students prepared to walk across. “It was kind of like giant suction cups on my feet getting pulled down every time I took a step. If you walk slow, it’s hard to lift your feet. It’s really cool though,” said Michael Leuchter ’11. Guerin took a plastic stick to begin mixing the liquid once more before testing the experiment for himself. He stood at one end of the box and lifted his whole body to jump across the fluid. The students jolted backwards, but laughed and applauded Guerin when he stood still for a few seconds and fell forward as he tried to escape the agitated liquid. “This is the first time we have done something like this at school,” Nassar said. “We had to mix everything by hand, but it was pretty fun. I can see the kids having fun as well. Our school needs a little relaxation and a place to enjoy, not just to learn stuff for college.” “It felt like plaster, but melted like Godiva chocolate,” Mariana Bagneris ’11 said. “I had so much fun, but [...] my pants are dirty.” As the break period came to an end, the students lined up for one last run across the mixture before heading to their third period classes.
Grades made available online By Sammy Roth
Parents can now see their children’s grades and teacher comments on the online Parents’ Portal, as of 6 o’clock last night. Throughout this school year, report cards and progress reports will still be mailed to families in addition to being available online. Starting next year, however, families that want paper copies of students’ grades and teacher comments mailed to them will have to request it, Head of Upper School Harry Salamandra said. Moving grades and comments online is meant to decrease the school’s use of paper, Salamandra said. “The school has been trying to go in a direction to use less paper, for the whole ‘greener’ aspect of things, for years,” Salamandra said. “And it’s been a slow move, but we’re getting there.” Salamandra said he hopes that a year of putting grades online, while still mailing them to all families, will ease the transition to the online system. “Change is hard sometimes,” Salamandra said. “We’ve been sending out hard copies since we’ve started basically, so we thought that this would be a good way to transition into only online.” But even when trying to be environmentally-friendly, it is important to accommodate families who prefer the traditional method of receiving grades in the mail, Salamandra said. “I would say probably, a high 90’s percentage of parents would feel comfortable getting grades online,” Salamandra said. “But there might be some parents out there that don’t, and we’ll still continue to mail them if they want them mailed.”
All photos by Allegra Tepper/chronicle
Walking on Water: Students (at top) watch Antonio Nassar prepare the mixture. Wade Clement ’12 (at left) runs across the solution. Jesse Orrall ’10 (at right) jumps on the fluid.
Grades go green: Access your report card and teacher comments online by following these 4 steps.
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Access the Parents’ Portal at www.hw.com/parents Log in with your username and password Click on sidebar option labeled Student Reports and Grades Select first quarter grades from Report Cards pulldown menu and click view PDF
Source: Alan Homan graphic by Rebecca NUssbaum and Lara Sokoloff
The plan to put grades and comments online has been in the works for several years, with Computer Services working to make sure that online grades would be secure. The school is now confident that they will be, Salamandra said. “But our Computer Services department has been working on this for the last couple years, but we’re just now at the point where we’re ready to go with this,” Salamandra said. “We have taken every measure to ensure that this information is as secure as possible,” Senior Software Engineer Alan Homan said. The Parents’ Portal can be accessed at www. hw.com/parents.
Sophomore registers school in Green Cup By Victor Yoon
Jessica Barzilay ’12 registered Harvard-Westlake to take part in the 2010 National Green Cup Challenge in February. The challenge is for all participating schools to raise awareness about climate change and the importance of resource conservation. The GCC is held yearly by the Green Schools Alliance. The goal is to achieve weekly reductions in electricity usage on campus. Barzilay is still obtaining the necessary data to calculate the school’s history of electricity usage, which includes three years worth of electricity bills, the square footage of the school property, and the metering system the school currently uses. She is working with the Upper School Green Committee Chair and math teacher Kent Palmer to determine a “baseline” of power usage in the past. From there, Barzilay, Palmer and environmental club supervisor Martha Wheelock can begin planning reductions of electricity usage for the month of February. Barzilay said she looks forward to employing innovative methods of achieving weekly reductions with help from the environmental club. Barzilay, who was a leader
of the Green Club at the Middle School, researched ways to further the school’s environmental efforts over the summer. With the knowledge that Harvard-Westlake had registered in the GSA, an alliance of schools working to spread environmental activism and awareness, Barzilay came upon the GCC and “it seemed like the ideal way to integrate green policies while involving the school community as a whole,” she said. While the Green Cup Challenge is first and foremost a commitment and challenge, it is also a competition. Barzilay hopes to engage the student body by emphasizing school enthusiasm in their attempts to go green. Schools across the country will measure and record the amount of electricity used for each week in February, a month that will call attention to peak energy usage in the winter. This information will then be reported to the GCC website, so that the collective energy saved by all participating schools can be calculated, and the winners chosen. “My goal is not necessarily to win the competition, but to provide students with both the incentive and means of leading a more eco-friendly lifestyle,” Barzilay said.
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Upper classes to see Columbine video
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Genocide Awareness
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In the upcoming weeks, the junior and senior classes will have their chance to view the Columbine re-enactment video along with the A.L.I.C.E. (Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, Evaluate) video in their Rugby class meeting. In the dean meeting last Friday, Head of Security Jim Crawford discussed coordinating a date when the juniors and seniors will view the video. Because of the reaction and widespread debate among the student body concerning the content of the Columbine video, a rumor had spread throughout the school that the juniors and seniors would not be able to view the video for themselves. Many sophomores were upset by the video. “With the sophomores, we didn’t fully explain what the video actually was and that caused some of the reaction,” said Crawford. “The security team would especially like to make sure the seniors watch it now before they go away to college,” Crawford said. The Columbine video is a re-enactment filmed by two students based on the real school shooting that happened in Columbine High School in 1999, whereas the A.L.I.C.E. video was filmed by the prefects and serves as an example to students on how to respond if something like Columbine were to happen. Head of Upper School Harry Salamandra said in an e-mail to Director of Student Affairs Jordan Church that he hopes for the juniors and seniors to go through the same training program that the sophomores went through. Crawford says that the video will only be shown to the sophomores, juniors and seniors because it is “not appropriate for the Middle School.” “We’ve cut down a lot of the dead time in the video where nothing is happening, but all the important stuff is still there,” Crawford said. “We just want to be able to get students to the point where they know that if this happens, they do this,” Crawford said. In the coming weeks, Crawford says that students will be asked to give up one of their free periods to undergo the A.L.I.C.E. training. “With the training, we’re trying to interfere with student’s academics as little as possible,” Crawford said. “We’re going to finish up the sophomores, and then move on to the juniors and seniors,” Crawford said. “We should be finished with everyone by the beginning of next year. “Students have to keep in mind that we aren’t trying to scare them, and the Columbine video has a direct correlation with what we’re trying to teach,” Crawford said.
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Darfur club: Alex Glancy ’10 and Federica Brecha ’12 design posters to prepare for Genocide Awareness Week which will feature speakers at class meetings and will promote awareness about genocide across the world.
Athletics Dept. recalls team’s jackets By Lauren O’Neil
The Athletics Department confiscated cross country team sweatshirts because of concerns that the sweatshirts could be interpreted as offensive. The sweatshirts displayed the expression, “Families run together,” and an image of a silhouetted family running. The image was created 20 years ago by a California Department of Transportation employee, to caution drivers of pedestrians on Southern California highways near San Diego. Many of these pedestrians were illegal aliens, and the image has since become commonly known as the “illegal alien sign.” Director of Athletics Audrius Barzdukas, said he “got a couple of phone calls from people that saw the sweatshirts.” “I could understand how the image could’ve been interpreted. It’s a very iconic image for people who live in Southern California,” Barzdukas said. “When people saw the sweatshirts they interpreted them in different ways, and some weren’t positive, in ways that the creators of it didn’t foresee.” Bridget Golob ’10 designed what she thought was a family-friendly sweatshirt. “We picked the design for the sweatshirts because it depicts a family running,” Golob said. “Cross country is like one massive family so the generic, sil-
houetted image fit perfectly. I had no intent to create a sweatshirt that would disrespect anybody.” Golob discovered the image on a commercial t-shirt-making website. It has recently been added to the Smithsonian Museum as an example of American art. The team members discussed and approved the design before it was distributed. The team received no negative responses to the sweatshirts, Golob said. “The entire team and the school community that I have spoken to have really liked the sweatshirts,” Golob said. “Before Thursday, nobody had spoken to me about the sweatshirts being insensitive or feeling uncomfortable about our wearing them.” The team was forced to return the already paid-for sweatshirts to the coaches in order to board the buses before their Oct. 29 meet. “It was unannounced and somewhat humiliating,” Golob said. “We had no warm-up jackets for the meet.” Some team members agree with the administration’s decision to take away the sweatshirts. “At first I didn’t really see the point,” David Abergel ’10 said. “I wasn’t upset, because I mean they are just jackets. When I actually found out how and why the sign could be offending to people, I was really upset with myself for being ignorant on the subject. It was definite-
ly the right move on the administration’s part to confiscate them. If I would have known what they represented, I wouldn’t have even worn it.” Some believe that the design represents racism and elitism, while some people think otherwise. “There is no race to the silhouetted figures,” Golob said. “It seems that the history of the design is the reason why the sweatshirts were confiscated.” “I understand why they are offensive,” Chaplain Father J. Young said. “Everyone who sees that sign on the 405 Freeway knows what it means.” School psychologist Dr. Sheila Siegel said that the problem was that people recognize the image and associate it with the mistreatment of immigrants. She compared the image to exploitative images of women. “This issue is obviously bigger than the cross country team or our school,” Golob said. Team members were not punished for the sweatshirts. “Context is everything, and the context was innocent and well intentioned,” Barzdukas said. “But, nevertheless, because of different interpretations that people could make of it, we decided it was important to recall the sweatshirts.” The team will be refunded for the sweatshirts and given new team gear, Barzdukas said.
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Team members describe their reaction to the confiscation of their jackets:
“I was disappointed that I didn’t have a team sweatshirt but i understood where they were coming from. ” —Peter Schwartz ‘10 “The intention for the sweatshirts was actually really sweet and shows our team spirit since it meant that we were all family. It’s unfortunate and accidental. ” —Danni Xia ‘12 “they [people] interpreted them in different ways, and some weren’t positive, in ways that the creators of it didn’t forsee. ” —Audrius Barzdukas Head of Athletics
School creates music station By Sadé Tavangarian
Courtesy of shawn Costantino
HW Radio: Performing Arts Teacher Shawn Costantino helps Austin Park ’10, Nick Chuba ’10 and Max Druz ’10 work on the new radio station.
Designed for students who are interested in composing, a new electronic music station is now installed in the upper school music department. The system is equipped with a 16-channel recording studio and consists of an iMac with a customized Logic and Pro Tools work station. It was installed Oct. 15 and was donated by a Harvard-Westlake family. “It is used for my devoted electronic music students and is used for direct studies,” performing arts teacher Shawn
Costantino said. In addition to using the systems for students’ directed composition study, the music classrooms at the Upper School are in the process of being wired to the recording studio, so that choral and instrumental performances can be captured on high-quality recordings that can be used for audition submissions to various festivals, Costantino said. Although the middle school has a fewelectronic music stations in their performing arts department, the Advancment Office believed it was necessary to have one set up at the Upper School.
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School hires new Chief Accounting Officer Harvard-Westlake has hired Seth Weintraub as its new Chief Accounting Officer. Weintraub officially began his role as new Chief Accounting Officer on Oct. 22. He previously worked as the Chief Financial Officer at the Jewish Federation Council for eight years. Former Chief Accounting Officer Connie Hanstedt is now the Chief Financial Officer at Thacher School, a boarding school in Ojai. His assignment as Chief Accounting Officer is to look at the budget for the 2010-2011 school year. —Sanjana Kucheria
Choir groups perform at chamber festival The Chamber Singers and Wolverine Chorus attended the Cal State Invitational Chamber Choir Festival at Cal State Northridge on Nov. 6. “They performed beautifully and were critiqued very, very well,” Choral Arts Director Rodger Guerrero said. “Generally speaking, the adjudicator (judge) loved the choir’s rich tone and excellent blend while appreciating the incredible difficulty of the music they were performing.” —Hank Gerba
Latin students receive awards at regional contest On Oct. 24, several students won awards at the Southern California Regional Amici Madness. S.C.R.A.M holds an event where students from Southern California schools compete in Latin and Roman contests. Rhett Gentile ’13, David Lim ’13, Jensen Pak ’14, Charlotte Shih ’10, Divya Siddarth ’14, , Jonathon Sington ’14, and all won awards, all of them placing between 2nd and 4th place in their categories. Categories included Daily Life, Latin Oratory, Pentathlon, Mythology, Open Certamen, Grammar and Mottoes, Quotes and Abbreviation. —Tiffany Liao
Prefect Council to host Coffee House in lounge The Prefect Council announced that they will be holding a Coffee House on Monday Nov. 23 after school. They chose a Monday because of the high volume of students staying for Peer Support. The event will feature students performing various acts from musical performances to speeches and poetry recitals. Students will also be able to purchase various Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf beverages. The Prefect Council intends on using the stage in the student lounge in Chalmers for the performances. —Saj Sri-Kumar
Chronicle, Vox leave for Washington, D.C.
Twelve seniors, 10 juniors, 11 sophomores and four faculty members will leave today for the Fall National Scholastic Press Association High School Journalism Convention in Washington D.C. The convention lasts four days. The Chronicle will be recognized as a finalist for the National Scholastic Press Association National Pacemaker. —Catherine Wang
Students, faculty donate blood By Lauren Choi
The UCLA Blood and Platelet Center ran a blood drive on Thursday in the student lounge. A total of 65 students, parents, and faculty members donated blood. Assistant to the President of Harvard-Westlake Ann-Marie Whitman said that this blood drive was an easy and painless way for many people to be able to save lives. Each pint of blood that is donated is broken up into three parts: red blood cells, platelets, and plasma. Platelets are donated to cancer patients, and plasma is given to burn patients. The blood is going to the patients at the UCLA hospital, which is one of only a few trauma centers left in Southern California, and is always in dire need of blood. The hospital treats over 4,000 patients annually. In their lifetime, 90 percent will need a blood product. Whitman encouraged people to donate because “as a donor, in 45 minutes to one hour we can complete the process and donate a pint of blood that can save lives. “Secondly, hospitals couldn’t do all the surgeries that they need to do unless they have a good supply of blood,” Whitman said. “This includes routine and elective surgery and surgery to keep up with advancing medical technology.” “I think it is good karma. Putting your blood out there is good because you never know when a loved one will need it,” Deans’ Office Coordinator Ryan Wilson said. Members of the Harvard-Westlake community were eligible to donate blood if they were 17 or older. Food and drinks were provided for donors to raise their blood sugar levels after donating. Chelsea McMahon ’10 gives blood every three months, so Thursday’s drive seemed routine. “It’s good to help people and it makes you feel good about yourself. It doesn’t hurt that you get free food afterwards,” McMahon said.
All Photos By chloe lister/chronicle
blood drive: A doctor checks on Gabe Benjamin ’11 as he donates blood (at top). A nurse checks Plant Manager Dave Mintz’s (middle) blood pressure before he donates. Aidan Brewster ’10 (bottom) listens to his iPod to help pass the time.
Seniors apply Early Decision, Early Action By Kelly Ohriner On Nov. 1, Harvard-Westlake students scrambled to get their early admission applications sent. While some have early admissions deadlines of Nov. 10 and Nov. 15, the majority of colleges in the United States had their early-admission application due on Nov. 1. Around 72% of Harvard-Westlake students applied either Early Action or Early Decision this year, almost exactly the same percentage as last year, upper school deans said. The top schools that Harvard-Westlake students applied to early were Brown, University of Chicago, Columbia, MIT, University of Pennsylvania, Stanford and Yale. These schools had 10 or more Harvard-Westlake students apply early both this year and last year. Over the years, the number of students who apply early to these seven schools has not fluctuated very much and the students have been pretty evenly distributed. However, this year more students applied early to Stanford than Yale, which was the opposite of last year, when more students applied to Yale than Stanford, deans said. Applying early admission leads students down two different paths. While some students opt to apply Early Action, some students decide to apply Early Decision. Early Action is the process in which students are required to submit their application on Nov 1 instead of Jan. 1.
Students are allowed to decline the offer if accepted. It also may be possible for students to apply to more than one Early Action school. “Early Action isn’t always for a first choice school,” Upper School Dean Beth Slattery said. “It’s usually a top choice and most students choose early action in order to hear from schools quicker.” Early Decision is a binding commitment to enroll if accepted into a school. “The student gives up something when applying Early Decision,” Slattery said. “Early Decision is best for students who are in the running and for students who have a first choice.” According to upper school dean Sharon Cuseo, Early Action benefits the student. “The college can only hope the student does not apply anywhere else because the student can do whatever they want,” Cuseo said. On the other hand, “early decision benefits the college,” Cuseo said. “The college gets a larger yield and a larger number of students where the college they attend was their first choice,” she said. “This creates a happier environment.” Slattery said that a lot of students believe applying early gives them a better chance of admittance. However, the admittance is higher not because students applied early, according to Slattery “The admittance is higher but the quality is usually better, Slattery said. “So, you’re not really comparing apples to apples.”
soundbytes
Seniors discuss their decisions to apply Early Decision or Early Action.
“In early decision, it lets the school know it’s your number one choice.” —Grant Roper ‘10 Early Decision “by the end of the tour, i thought there couldn’t be anywhere better.” —April Rosner ’10 Early Decision “I didn’t want to be bound to a school, so i didn’t go early decision.” —Jake Staahl ’10 Early Action all photos by don hagopian/chronicle graphic by alice phillips and daniel rothberg
Nov. 11, 2009
Seniors start JSA chapter By Maddy Baxter
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Construction on LAVC tennis courts faces delays After delays, which were caused by the Department of State Architecture, the administration received approval on Nov. 6 for the construction of eight lighted tennis courts on the Los Angeles Valley College campus. The school will be meeting with Valley College tomorrow for a “kickoff ” meeting where construction dates will be set, Director of Campus operations James De Matté said. The administration does not want the $1 million tennis court project to coincide with the refurbishing of Franklin Field. “We’re hopefully going to be starting just after the New Year,” he said. —Jordan Friesleben
Lara Sokoloff
The Junior Statesmen of America club at Harvard-Westlake was created this year by Robby Mack ’10, Mark Mackey ’10 and Myles Teasley ’10. JSA is the largest non-partisan, student-run political youth empowerment organization. “In JSA you are dealing directly with issues that directly affect you either in California or in the country,” Teasley said. Teasley discovered JSA when he was searching for something to do over the summer and looking up residential political programs. During the summer, Teasley and Mackey attended a four-day JSA symposium at UCLA. At the symposium, everyone was organized into 3 groups of left, right and centrist-wing politics. Teasley was appointed deputy director and helps to manage all of the JSA conventions throughout southern California. Teasley and Mackey were inspired to create a JSA club at Harvard-Westlake because they wanted to bring politics back to campus. “I remember how pumped people were and how energized people were during the 2008 elections,” Teasley said. Mack is the Harvard-Westlake representative to the Southern California State Assembly of the program. He is a regular member of the assembly and works with other students, who will elect their own assemblymen, to create legislation that will be debated at the JSA assembly. According to Teasley, JSA is hoping to hold a fundraiser to earn money to help send students to the conventions that cost money and to pay for JSA club sweatshirts. One of the main goals of the club is to get the entire Harvard-Westlake community involved. Mackey, Mack and Teasley are the co-presidents of the Harvard Westlake JSA club. Devon Breton-Pakozdi ’12 is the vice president. Alice Phillips ’11 is the junior representative of JSA and Joey Edwards ’10 is the treasurer. David Waterhouse is the teacher adviser for the JSA club. The first conference this year was in September and was an opportunity for new chapters to come and experience JSA. At the second conference, a former Los Angeles Superior Court judge and the Los Angeles City Controller spoke. Teasley won the best speaker award, voted on by the 80 other students involved in the debate.
Exchange program hosts British debate students
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in focus: Kevin O’Malley (at left) took his Advanced Photography III class to the J. Paul Getty Museum, where they saw an exhibition of portraits by Irving Penn.
Photography III visits Getty exhibit By Cami
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Photography III classes went to visit the Irving Penn exhibit “Small Trades,” at the J. Paul Getty Museum on Nov. 3 and Nov. 6. In 2008, the Getty acquired a collection of naturally-lit portraits photographed by Penn. “The Getty purchased a large collection of Penn’s work, and it is the first time they are showing it, a month after his death. A historic opportunity, right?” Photography III teacher Kevin O’Malley said. Penn was an international 20th century photographer who mastered the photography of trades people from New York, Paris and London, with natural light and a neutral backdrop. The exhibit shows an overview of Penn’s career, beginning with French, British and American editions of Vogue. Galleries are devoted to Penn’s 1960s inspired platinum-palladium prints. Other galleries show Penn’s tech-
niques, comparing his gelatin silver and platinum-palladium techniques. O’Malley liked the variety of the trades people. “For me, it was fun trying to figure out where Penn had photographed his models – in his Paris studio, London studio or New York studio,” O’Malley said. “And of course, the various tradespeople looked very different.” There was one room comparing pictures of people of different occupations and various cities. “Mr. O’Malley made us play a game where he covered the occupation and city, and we had to guess based on how Irving Penn portrayed his subjects,” Ilica Mahajan ’10 said. When observing the photographs students were asked how they would portray certain tradespeople from different countries. The students would then compare their view to Penn’s, and interpret the photographs to see why Penn chose the particular lighting and layout that he did.
Alum designs video game software By Emily Khaykin
Jules Urbach ’92 deferred from Harvard University to play video games. “I deferred for a year, and the next year came around and I deferred again, and after a while it was clear this was where I was and I was going to continue to do this,” Urbach said in a recent interview with Variety magazine. After graduating from HarvardWestlake, Urbach created a video game called Hell Cab for Time Warner Interactive. Six years later, Urbach found ed his own company, Groove Alliance. Groove Alliance develops online video games as well as video game technologies. Now, Urbach is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of two new companies, OTOY and Lightstage.
Both companies work to “change the way graphics are handled in video games, movies, etc.,” Creative Director Clay Sparks said. However, the most recent project the two companies have been collaborating on is cloud computing. “Jules really wanted to pursue cloud computing because it is an emerging field in graphics development that seems to have a lot of potential,” Sparks said. Cloud computing will ultimately help people play high quality video games or movies on hand-held devices. People will be able to install a video game to an iPhone or a hand-held device and play it in real-time, with movie-like graphics, on their phone. “We’ve been working on this for about four, five years now,” Sparks said.
“The most difficult part about this is getting the high quality content to the server in an efficient fashion.” “Right now, time lags are causing some problems,” Sparks said. Time lags, Sparks said, are lapses in time between the moment when a person using a game issues a command and the moment when the game responds. Lags in the reaction time cause video games to lack the realistic quality that companies that develop these games pursue. “There is a lot of testing going on right now, and we hope to wrap up testing in a few years so that we can make this technology available to the public,” Sparks said. “Jules is so busy that I don’t even see him, and I work with him,” Sparks said.
Six debaters and two coaches from the City of London School for Girls visited the upper and middle school debate squads last month. The six girls came on a debate trip funded by their school to learn more about the debate program at Harvard-Westlake. On Oct. 28, the British debaters had a practice round with the middle school debate team in Bing Auditorium. —Sadé Tavangarian
Teachers train to run marathon, half-marathon Yearbook advisor Jen Bladen plans to run a half-marathon in Palm Beach, Fla. on Dec. 6 with two friends from junior high. She has been training with history teacher Karen Fukushima and librarian Anna Martino. “I have never been a runner,” Bladen said. “I had never done any kind of training at all. I just decided to do it.” Fukushima decided to run the Rock ’N’ Roll Las Vegas Marathon with her brother, and Martino is running the Carlsbad Marathon. —Vivien Mao
Mock Trial competes in county tournament The two mock trial teams will find out today if either of them has qualified for round two of the Los Angeles County Mock Trial competition. Last week, one team’s prosecution faced Palos Verdes Peninsula’s defense and the other team’s defense squared off against Sierra Canyon’s prosecution. This year’s case involves a comedian who allegedly murdered a critic that ruined his career. —Lara Sokoloff
Chronicle wins Columbia Gold Circle awards Five current seniors and one current college freshman garnered Gold Circle Awards from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association. Alex Edel ’10 won second place for a sports color photograph. The entire staff received an honorable mention for overall tabloid format design and several individuals won for tabloid format design. Candice Navi ’10 and Allegra Tepper ’10 were awarded first place in black and white news or features package design. Navi and Lauren Seo ’10 received honorable mention for a feature color page. Cathi Choi ’09, Jack Davis ’10 and Edel received honorable mention for a sports page. —Alice Phillips
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Students travel to Korea for debate
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Nov. 11, 2009
Thanksgiving Food Drive
By David Burton
Two juniors traveled to Seoul, South Korea this weekend with the U.S. national debate team for an exhibition debate against the Korean national debate team. Jake Sonnenberg ’11 and Ben Sprung-Keyser ’11 spent their weekend participating in a series of public debates between the two national teams. The U.S. team won one debate and lost the other to the Korean team. “They were very competitive and prepared,” SprungKeyser said. “It was a very challenging debate between two very good teams.” When not debating, Sprung-Keyser and Sonnenberg experienced Korean lifestyle and culture. They were hosted by two different Korean families and spent their time touring Seoul, a Buddhist temple, a demilitarized zone and a marketplace. “A major highlight of the trip was the Korean food,” said Sonnenberg. “The family I stayed with cooked great food.” Returning to the United States, both Sonnenberg and Sprung-Keyser are looking for a bid to the Tournament of Champions, which is a national Lincoln Douglas debate tournament held at the University of Kentucky in May. Sprung-Keyser needs to win two tournaments out of many held throughout the year in order to qualify for the Tournament of Champions. Sonnenberg needs to win one more tournament, having already finished first place in the Meadows tournament in Las Vegas two weeks ago. “The U.S team will continue to have tournaments, but at the same time it is time to focus on winning scholastic tournaments so we can qualify for the Tournament of Champions,” Sonnenberg said. While Sonnenberg and Sprung-Keyser were in South Korea, other students also competed in a debate this past weekend. In an interscholastic debate tournament at USC, Adam Bennett ’12 made it to the semifinals while other students made it to elimination rounds.
Candice Navi/Chronicle
time for giving: Joe Girton ’10 donates food to the Community Council’s Thanksgiving Food Drive. The food drive started this Monday and will end Nov. 23. The dean group that collects the most food will receive a food prize in their class meeting.
Middle school faculty revives holiday crafts fair By Megan Kawasaki
Crafts made by faculty ranging from scarves and pillowcases to photographs and hand-blown glass ornaments will be sold at the middle schools’ faculty craft fair on Dec. 9. This year’s event will be organized by Susan Kallok, the middle school Dean of Faculty and the Head of the Middle School Library and Technology Department. Several teachers began the event a few years ago in order to show their creative talents and original works. Although the event did not take place for a few years after its initial inception, the holiday craft fair returned last year. “Every day, I enjoy the watercolor in my dining room painted by HarvardWestlake PE teacher Barbara Welsh,” middle school librarian Carolyn Zucker said. She enjoys learning about fellow faculty members’ hidden talents. Some of the newest participants
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include history teacher Karen Fukushima and Middle School Communications Department Head Jen Bladen. “I plan on displaying some of the clothing that I’ve knit or sewn and maybe selling a few small baby items, bags, hats, and scarves for the holidays,” Fukushima said. Middle School Director of Administrative Operations Melissa Zimmerman has always delighted in the event. “We have very talented people here, and it is so much fun to see another aspect of the people you work with every day,” she said.
“High standards, exceptional results”
Parents’ Association hosts Operation Gratitude event By Catherine Wang
Westlake in the community, Community Service The Parents’ Association is Co-Chair Pier Merone hosting an Operation Grati(Lawrence ’14) said. tude community service event The Parents’ Assoon Saturday. ciation is organizing the Families and students will event with Chelsea Mcparticipate in the Operation Mahon ’10. McMahon, Gratitude Holiday Drive at the who has been involved National Guard Armory in Van with Operation Gratitude Nuys. for a year because she don hagopian/chronicle Operation Gratitude is a feels a special connection Chelsea non-profit organization that with the organization. McMahon ’10 assembles and ships care packShe plans on joining ages filled with snacks, enterthe Reserve Officers’ tainment items and letters of ap- Training Corps during college and preciation to U.S. Service Members becoming a Second Lieutenant after deployed overseas. graduating. Families that attend, they will pre“Knowing that I will be overseas for pare care packages and listen to a at least four years, I know that when military veteran speak. I’m gone I’m going to want people to This is the first Operation Grati- send me things to show support,” she tude event the Parents’ Association said. has organized. “I can relate to the troops overseas The Parents’ Association’s goal is and I want to do everything that I can to bring families together and to cre- to let them know that they are loved ate a stronger presence for Harvard- and appreciated,” McMahon said.
Two freshmen form singing group based on TV show ‘Glee’ By Anna Etra
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Inspired in part by “Glee,” the new Fox television show, Bronty O’Leary ’13 and Megan Ward ’13 started a middle school Glee Club. A Glee Club is a group of people who get together to sing short songs. In the television show, unlikely students gather to perform modern hit songs a capella. The group has four faculty sponsors: middle school Performing Arts Department Head Nina Burtchaell, English teacher Steven Chae, Math teacher Regan Galvan and English and French teacher Claire Pasternack. “We decided to make a Glee Club because we thought it would be great to incorporate a fun atmosphere into the stress that school brings, where anyone could come along and have fun
singing songs that are popular among teenagers,” O’Leary said. After the first meeting, the club consisted of 50 members. Each Thursday at break, the club members break into four sections: Sopranos, Alto, Tenor and Bass. For their first song, just like the television show, the Glee Club is singing “Don’t Stop Believin,’” by Journey. Ward has previous experience in show choirs, and wanted the middle school “to have a fun place for students to sing fun pop songs instead of the usual choral music,” she said. Eventually, the club hopes to perform publically, but for now they are just practicing. Ideally, “some eighth graders will continue the club next year, and it will get better and better every year,” Ward said.
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Alumna to bear torch By Chloe Lister
courtesy of nina burtchaell
sing along: Middle school performers were chosen to sing in a skit with Jason Segel ’97 and Jonah Hill at the Beverly Hills Hotel for the Fulfillment Fund’s party. The skit was to honor director Judd Apatow and actress Leslie Mann.
Vocal Ensemble members perform with Segel, Hill for charity event By Jamie Kim
Five middle school singers and actors performed a skit with actors Jason Segel ’97 and Jonah Hill at the Fulfillment Fund’s 2009 STARS gala event, which took place at the Beverly Hills Hotel on Oct. 26. The humorous skit, “What would my life be like without Judd and Leslie?”, opened the event which honored director Judd Apatow and actress Leslie Mann for their service to the charity. Segel and Hill were emcees for the event. The Middle School has a longstanding relationship with the Fulfillment Fund, which provides college scholarships to physically-challened students. Harvard-Westlake parent Pier Merone (Jonathan Getzoff ’14), a volunteer with the fund, contacted middle
school choir director Nina Burtchaell in need of a few young singers, dancers, or actors for the skit, Burtchaell said. The five students who participated were Lucas Gelfen ’15, Claire Nordstrom ’15, Teddy Sokoloff ’15, Camelia Somers ’14 and Ben Weissenbach ’15. The skit centered on Segel and Hill, who played pitiable orphans trying to survive the cold winter. They are discovered by Apatow and Mann, the people responsible for their rise to stardom.The five students, dressed in Oliver Twist-era attire, portrayed fellow orphans. Sokoloff described working with Segel and Hill, both experienced comedians and screenwriters, as “a great learning experience.” “You could really see them change into the character,” he said. “I thoroughly enjoyed it.”
teamingup In their seccond year, the Community Council has focused on working with students to fulfill their community service requirement. This year, the council has focused on projects involving sports teams. Girls’ soccer plays with kids Junior varsity and varsity girls’ soccer players will visit VIP Soccer tomorrow to play with children who are mentally or physically disabled. VIP Soccer is a program that allows children with disabilities to play soccer, an activity in which they normally could not participate. As their community service project, all of the JV and varsity girls’ soccer players will facilitate as the handicapped kids play together. The children will be paired with Harvard-Westlake students to ensure that they get as much help as they need to have a good time playing soccer. Kelly Rodriguez ’10, the student on the varsity soccer team who introduced VIP soccer to the school, describes the program as a way to help “the kids build confidence and teamwork skills through playing with other kids like them.” While playing soccer with other disabled kids, are able to enjoy themselves and not think about their dis-
Several other members of the Harvard-Westlake community have connections to the Fulfillment Fund, Burtchaell said. The gala included a special presentation of the Gitnick Visionary Award to Jana Waring Greer (Lindsay ’02), a Harvard-Westlake trustee, and the founders of the Fulfillment Fund, Dr. and Chena Gitnick (Neil ’85, Kimberly ’87, Jill ’89 and Tracy ’91). For years, the middle school Vocal Ensemble has sung at the Fulfillment Fund’s annual holiday party for physically-challenged kids in December, Burtchaell said. “There is a wonderful connection of philanthropy and community in this whole event — all for the benefit of education and helping underserved young people in Los Angeles make it to college,” Burtchaell said.
Alison Lerner ’09 will carry the Olympic Flame through Calgary, Canada Jan. 18 and 19, as a torchbearer for the 2010 winter Olypics in Vancouver. Lerner was chodon hagopian/chronicle sen by The Coca- Alison Lerner ’09 Cola Company to be a torchbearer. She was one of 20 people chosen for helping enact changes in local and global communities, 10 of whom are teenagers. Lerner wrote the children’s book, “The Green Street Kids: The Earth Warriors” as “a fun way to educate young children about saving our planet by establishing sustainable lifestyles,” she said. “I’ve had a passion for the environment since I was a young child and I’ve been relentless in trying to evoke change through my earth saving efforts,” Lerner said. “I am so humbled by this honor, and so proud that I have been recognized for making a difference in peoples’ lives.” The book was published in 2008 when Lerner was a senior at Harvard-Westlake. Lerner hopes to promote global change by instilling earth-saving habits, such as reducing, reusing and recycling, in young children. “Children are the hope for our future and my inspiration,” Lerner said. “I’m very hopeful that my book will receive more widespread exposure through Coca-Cola’s [torchbearing campaign] to encourage children to make small changes in their lives to help the environmental effort,” she said. Of the 45,000 kilometers the torch will travel, Lerner will carry it 400 meters, to the next selected activist. The torch run will end in Vancouver on Feb 12. “I’m still in shock that I have been chosen to be an Olympic torchbearer,” Lerner said. “To be one of 10 teenagers chosen from many thousands of nominations is such an honor. “If I can influence just one person to make a small change, and they in turn influence another person who influences another person, soon we have a community working together,” Lerner said.
Community Council works with Wolverine athletic teams to help the greater Los Angeles area.
advantages, Rodriguez said. Through VIP soccer, the kids will learn about the game and participating on a team. Each student will help a disabled kid with whatever they need. Whether the children need help learning to kick the ball or no help at all, the students will be there to encourage them and stay enthusiastic. Rodriguez has been volunteering at VIP soccer for three years. “I thought bringing the soccer team would be a good idea because not only are we helping the community, but we’re sharing our love for soccer with other kids and it really helps us to see how fortunate we are,” Rodriguez said. — Ryan Lash Boys’ water polo helps KEEN The JV and varsity boys’ water polo teams will volunteer at Kids Enjoy Exercise Now on Dec. 6 at Elysian Park. KEEN is a non-profit national organization where children with developmental and physical disabilities are able to participate in games with the help of volunteers. David Burton ’11 and Patrick Edwards ’11, members of the Community Council, have been volunteering at KEEN for a few years. There were KEEN events last year
in May and this year in early October, however, this is the first time the water polo teams are volunteering as a whole. The water polo teams will be playing non-competitive games and sports with the disabled children to help build their confidence and help them reach their individual goals, Burton said. The athletes will mentor the children and help them participate in activities such as playing on the playground or jungle gym, playing softball, playing basketball and bowling. The children will be able to play on the swings and the monkey bars. Burton said that the children will have the chance to have fun by playing with the team without thinking about their disadvantages. — Ryan Lash Baseball teams remove trash The varsity, JV and freshman baseball players took off their gloves, put down their bats, picked up rakes and got to work on Oct. 17. The team helped clean up Franklin Canyon Park by removing trash, raking up leaves and cleaning drains. The whole project lasted four and a half hours. Head coach Matt LaCour wanted his players and fellow coaches to “get their hands dirty doing something
that would benefit the local community,” he said. Helping the community was not the only goal for this project. LaCour wanted this project to also act as a team-building exercise that would benefit the baseball program. LaCour wanted his players to “serve the greater good of the community,” while building relationships that will help the team on the field he said. The players’ and coaches’ participation was mandatory, even if they had previously completed the Harvard-Westlake community service requirement. The project evoked good feedback from the players. “It was a good bonding experience,” Brandon Finkelstein ’12 said. “The team really got closer which will help us communicate on the field.” Finkelstein had a lot of fun in a casual environment that didn’t focus on baseball, he said. Next year LaCour will try to incorporate the middle school teams in a new project that will also serve the community. LaCour hopes to have a new project every year, and wants to emphasize to his players “that when they all do their part, they can get a lot done,” he said. — Judd Liebman
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Alumni giving hits record high By Daniel Rothberg
Additionally, despite a perception that Westlake alumni were not giving back as much as Just eight years ago, the Advancement their Harvard counterparts, Westlake alumni Office as we know it did not exist. What did are now contributing to Annual Giving at a exist was a Development Office that concenhigher rate than Harvard alumni. trated primarily on the school’s Annual GivWhile the Advancement Office has made ing program. strides regarding alumni participation and inAbout 10 years after the merger, the Decreasing Annual Giving, there is still work to be velopment Office was expanded from a fourdone to increase lifetime giving, Hu said. Only person office to a 10-person Advancement six alumni have given $1 million cumulatively in don hagopian/chronicle Office, with a new focus on alumni relations their lifetimes. However, over 2,000 alumni have Ed Hu and increasing alumni participation in the donated $100 in their lifetimes. Annual Giving program, Hu said. “This shows how far we have to go with alumni givSince then, Annual Giving has grown significantly. In ing,” he said. “I think it’s a pretty dramatic illustration fact, every year for the last three years, the Advance- of where our challenges are.” ment Office has raised more than $6 million for Annual “If an alum were to give a $5000 gift this year that Giving. would put them already in the 95th percentile of allAt the time of the transition, Harvard-Westlake al- time giving,” Hu said. ready had the most successful Annual Giving program Hu believes a possible explanation for this trend is of any independent day school in the nation, Chief Ad- that before 2002 the school was not doing much alumni vancement Officer Ed Hu said. Furthermore, Harvard- outreach, and therefore it was not until recently that Westlake was the first independent day school to break alumni became active in making donations. the $2 million mark for Annual Giving. Annual Giving currently makes up roughly 12 perSince the formation of the Advancement Office, much cent of the school’s budget, Hu said. The Harvard-Westprogress has been made in increasing alumni involve- lake website says that Annual Giving is specifically used ment in Annual Giving. Alumni participation, which “to buy computers and equipment, to provide assistance started in the single digits in 2002, is now at an all-time to athletics, visual and performing arts, and extracurhigh of 19 percent. However, the Advancement Office ricular activities. It helps maintain inviting and safe sets goals based on the actual number of alumni that campus facilities, as well as funds continuing education participate each year rather than the participation rate, for teachers.” because the total number of alumni increases with each The Advancement Office hopes to raise $6 million graduating class. again this year, though Hu is not entirely certain as to In 2002, Hu’s first year working in the Advancement whether they will due to the current economic condiOffice, fewer than 800 alumni donated to Annual Giv- tions. ing. Since then, however, the program has grown to in“We are not being as aggressive as we used to be clude over 1850 alumni donors. when times were good,” Hu said. Since 2004, the number of alumni donors has inAs a result of poor economic conditions, Annual Givcreased for the classes that graduated from 1970-2008, ing decreased by four percent last year, the first dewhile the number of alumni donors has not really crease in Harvard-Westlake history. changed for earlier classes. This may be partly due to Although disappointed, Hu said that, “in the context the fact that graduating class size has increased in re- of everything else, having only a four percent decrease cent years, Hu said. is pretty remarkable.” Over the last five years, the Advancement Office has In addition to raising over $6 million this year, the also seen an across-the-board increase in class-by-class Advancement Office wants to continue getting more participation. Additionally, the development of the In- alumni involved in giving. ternet has also played a role in the growth of Annual “We want to continue to increase the alums that are Giving. Online gifts increased from 533 in 2004 to 1,818 giving back to the school,” Hu said. “We will hopefully in 2009. break over 20 percent participation this year.”
Facts and figures The Advancement Office released the following stastics regarding Annual Giving, which has increased over the last few years:
6 12 19 81 87 97
Millions of dollars raised each of the last three years Percent of the school budget made up by Annual Giving
Percent of alumni who have donated to Annual Giving Percent increase in number of alumni donors in five years Percent increase in parent participation this year Percent raised of the Opportunity of a Lifetime campaign’s $175 million goal
source: Ed hu and the annual report Graphic by michelle nosratian and daniel rothberg
Advancement Office prints cost-efficient annual report By Ingrid Chang
courtesy of alan ball
learn by listening: Parents, students and faculty members attended the phonathon, the first event in this year’s Annual Giving campaign.
Phonathon kicks off this year’s Annual Giving campaign By Sam Adams
President Thomas C. Hudnut strode to the front of the room and, after a brief introduction to the evening, took a deep breath and belted out a verse of “Take Me Out to the Phonathon.” The song was a spoof on the baseball classic that he created years back in honor of the annual fundraising phonathon, and he felt the crowd-pleaser got everyone in the room in the right mood to solicit donations. “The thing about the phonathon is there’s always good cheer abound,” Hudnut said. “Everybody has a nice time who’s working there. They look forward to it, and it’s not at all like dental surgery.” More than 250 students, parents and faculty members gathered at the Oppenheimer Tower in Westwood on Oct. 26 and 27 to call other parents as well as alumni to ask for donations. The first night drew from Middle School parents,
while the second represented the Upper School. The event was the kickoff of the yearly Annual Giving campaign. Director of Annual Giving Alan Ball set the goal for the year at $6 million, a benchmark for the fundraising in past years, but the event’s organizers see a purpose outside of finances. “Our goal is to foster community and a sense of family,” said parent chairs Alison and Geoff Edelstein (Daniel ’11 and Matt ’13). Between the two evenings, volunteers made more than 2,000 solicitation calls, and 20 parent volunteers called donors from last year to thank them. Ball said that though the amount of money raised at the event has not yet been tabulated, he is pleased with the feeling of the night and is optimistic about the returns. The event was held in a plush office space that was made available for both nights by alumni parent Rick Wiseley.
The lists of donations and expenses in the annual report tell about the financial state of the school, but this year there is another indicator: the paper itself. The usually glossy 100 plus page book was switched to a less costly newspaper format. Because of the recession, all school departments were asked to make budget cuts so that money was still available for academics, teaching, and financial aid. The budget for the annual report was cut by two thirds, and the Advancement Office spent only 15 percent of what was spent on production last year. “We had to figure out a way to acknowledge our donors, still make it look nice and spent a lot less money,” said Beth Stokes, the Advancement Office Communications Officer. “The annual report is one of the biggest expenses that comes out of the advancement office,” said Stokes. Over the years, faculty had been asking if there was a less expensive way to publish the annual report. Chief
Advancement Officer Edward Hu suggested the specific idea for the new format. Instead of sending it to the outside design firm that they have used in the past, Kay Lau and Associates, owned by alum Kay Lau ’71, the Advancement Office, Middle School English teacher Steve Chae, and Head of Communication at the Middle School Jen Bladen put it together over the summer. Chae and Bladen collaboratively designed the paper. To save money, they used cheaper paper, only used color printing on the covers rather than throughout the paper, and used a smaller typeface. It was printed by News Publishers’ Press, Inc., the same company used by The Chronicle. One of the main differences is that the new report does not have feature articles about students and alumni, with the exception of the one article about the Harvard-Westlake food drive held at Dodger Stadium. However, this allowed more room for pictures of students and also cut the expense of paying writers.
Hudnut to attend alumni party By Vivien Mao
President Thomas C. Hudnut will attend an alumni party in San Francisco for alumni who live or go to college in the San Francisco Bay area. A couple weeks ago, Directors of Alumni Relation and Communication Jill Shaw and Susan Beeson sent out invitations to all alumni in the San Francisco area whose addresses are still in the Alumni office’s system. As of now, there are close to 100 people planning to attend and meet
up with old friends at Il Foranai in Levi’s Plaza on Nov. 16. “It’s an opportunity for alumni in San Francisco to see each other again,” Shaw said. Hudnut will attend and say a few words to open the night, and then will get the chance to meet up with past students. Other faculty members attending the alumni party are Director of Annual Giving Alan Ball, Chief Advancement Officer Ed Hu and Senior Advancement Officer James Pattison.
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World’s fastest oboist performs at Middle School By Melanie Chan
Maddie Friendly/VOX
Speed of Sound: Jack Cozen Harel, who holds the Guinness Book record for being the fastest to play “Flight of the Bumblebee” (in 26.1 seconds), plays his oboe as music teacher Starr Wayne looks on. Harel performed on Oct. 26 for the Beginning Band members as well as other interested students.
The world’s fastest oboist, Jack Cozen Harel, played in the middle school Bing Performing Arts Center on Oct. 26, for an audience of the Beginning Band class and other interested students. Harel holds the Guinness Book record for playing Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakoff ’s “Flight of the Bumblebee” in 26.1 seconds. After playing the 409-note composition in around 30 seconds, according to three people who timed him, he played the piece slowly. Performing Arts teacher Starr Wayne, who had invited Harel to play for her Beginning Band class, thought it would be an inspirational experience for her four seventh grade oboists. Although the performance was originally just intended to be for Wayne’s Beginning Band class, many others were interested and showed up listen after learning about the performance in an announcement made to the entire student body. For Harel to beat the previous record of 33 seconds, three prominent classical musicians had to witness his original recording. To confirm that he had accurately played the whole piece, the recording was slowed down, insuring that every note was clear. “It was amazing how he could play that fast, and it’s very impressive that he could beat the world record by such a wide margin, and that he had to go through such a long process to officially beat the record,” Sydney Cheong ’14 said. “It must have taken him a lot of dedication and hard work to play ‘Flight of the Bumblebee’ that fast.” Harel later contacted Wayne to say that he enjoyed the experience and would like to return to teach a master class with Middle School oboe students in the next couple of months.
French instructor teaches Italian Directed Study By Nicki Resnikoff
“Bonjour,” Simona Ghirlanda says in response to a student saying “Hi.” After looking up, and seeing one of her Italian students, she quickly changes her salutation to “Ciao.” Ghirlanda, in addition to teaching French, is the instructor of the school’s Italian Directed Study. A class that is usually made up of only four or five total junior and senior students, this year, Ghirlanda’s Italian Directed Study has 17 students, including one sophomore. She was born in Verona, Italy, but her first language was French, as it was her mother’s language. Ghirlanda learned Italian when she started going to school. In 1995, she moved to the United States. When she came to America, Ghirlanda was subject to some cultural shocks. “One thing that is funny, is that the first thing that shocked me was the glasses of water,” she said. “They use such large things [here] from glasses of water to the carts at the super market.” “Another thing was the positive attitude in first encounters and in small talk,” she said. “[Americans] tend to focus on what works well and leave out what doesn’t work. We Italians are whiners.” In 2006, there was an Italian club at school. This club later became the directed studies course that Ghirlanda teaches. “I have two loves: French and Italian,” she said. Ghirlanda does not see a full Italian program and department becoming part of the school soon. “There is already an estab-
“
It’s not easy because i could use some of the time, but i really enjoy doing it.”
—Simona Ghirlanda
lished French program, so it is a priority,” she said. “It’s just not realistic; it’s spreading too thin. The Directed Study is enough.” Ghirlanda hopes to offer the directed study as Italian II next year, rather than Italian I, which would allow the junior and sophomore students currently taking Italian to continue to study the language at school. Students who wish to take the Italian Directed Study next year who have not previously taken an Italian course would be able to take the introductory course as part of the school’s summer program. “Since this year I have so many juniors, it makes perfect sense to offer [Italian II]. I wouldn’t want to sacrifice anyone: Italian I could be done during the summer,” Ghirlanda said. Ghirlanda uses her own free time to teach the class. The addition of the Italian Directed Study did not change the number of French classes that Ghirlanda teaches. Although it is difficult, it isworth it, she said. “It is not easy because I could use some of the time, but I really enjoy doing it,” she said. “It’s just so fulfilling that it overcompensates.”
Photos courtesy of jason mohr
Happy Halloween: Volunteer Melanie Borinstein ’11 decorates a girl’s face at the school’s Habitat for Humanity chapter’s Halloween celebration onsite in Pacoima on Halloween.
Habitat for Humanity celebrates Halloween with children onsite By Jessica Barzilay
Volunteers and executive team members representing the Harvard-Westlake Habitat for Humanity Campus Chapter celebrated Halloween with the children of a completed Habitat construction site. The event took place on location in Pacoima on Oct. 31. Pacoima City Councilman Richard Alarcon was there with his children to show his appreciation for the chapter’s work and express his gratitude for the large-scale impact the construction has had on Pacoima as a community. “Habitat’s work has allowed for a bright future for the Pacoima area as a whole, not just on the site that we’ve been working on,” Jason Mohr ’11 said. The holiday event marked the first of the Harvard-Westlake Habitat for Humanity activities in which the chapter’s members and volunteers earned community service credit for their work. The decision to give credit for the event was made in order to widen the chapter’s volunteer base and offer students the chance to become familiar with the Habitat for Humanity organization. “This was another opportunity for kids to get a taste of what it is like being there,” Mohr said. A group of over 20 students, the chapter supervisor, history teacher Leslie Rockenbach, and science teacher Krista McClain partook in
a pumpkin carving contest, decorated masks, trick-or-treat bags and faces with the children. Two volunteers, Maxwell Warwick ’12 and Jameson West ’12, sported identical Luigi costume to one of the boys on the site, as all participants were asked to dress in costumes for Halloween. The Harvard-Westlake chapter provided all of the supplies used throughout the day’s activities. The chapter requested that those who sign up bring in whatever supplies they would need in order to celebrate Halloween, Mohr said. The Harvard-Westlake members intend to carry on working closely with their local San Fernando/Santa Clarita Valley affiliate in order to continue fostering their relationship with the international organization, the Pacoima area and the families on site. Earlier this year, the campus group took part in the “American Dream” 5K Walk, where they met the future inhabitants of the construction area. Residents of locations constructed by Habitat are required to donate 500 hours of labor to Habitat projects, so the students will continue to work alongside the same families over the course of this year. The experience has come to represent more than just the building of a structure because the volunteers have established personal relationships with the families, Mohr said.
opinion
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Harvard-Westlake School
Volume XIX
Issue 3
Nov. 11, 2009
The
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3700 Coldwater Canyon, North Hollywood, CA 91604 Editors in Chief: Sam Adams, Hana Al-Henaid Managing Editors: Sammy Roth, Allegra Tepper Executive Editor: Michelle Nosratian Presentations Editor: Candice Navi Multimedia Editor: Jamie Kim Business Manager: Neha Nimmagadda Ads Manager: David Burton Assistants: Jordan Gavens, Victor Yoon Chief Copy Editor: Ellina Chulpaeff Copy Editors: Spencer Gisser, Ester Khachatryan, Catherine Wang
Use a laptop, save a tree
VIVIEN MAO/CHRONICLE
I
t’s no secret that Harvard-Westlake is trying to go green. Water bottles are no longer sold in the cafeteria and the bookstore is selling metal water bottles that can be refilled from new filtered water spigots around campus. Increasingly, teachers are asking students to view worksheets and slideshows online instead of handing out printed copies in class. But the administration has yet to implement one commonsense, environmentally-friendly policy: allowing students to type notes during class. Most students take notes by hand every day. In a school of more than 1,600 students, reams of paper are wasted daily, and the environmental impact adds up. If the administration is serious about making Harvard-Westlake a greener school, then it should allow us to bring laptops to school so we can type notes. Laptops would make note-taking easier for many students. If a teacher is speaking quickly, it can be difficult to write down everything that he or she is saying, and typing is faster than writing by hand. Right now, students need permission to bring laptops to school, and many teachers do not permit students to use laptops during class. Some teachers have expressed the legitimate concern that they might not know whether students are playing computer games during class instead of typing notes.
But even now teachers do not know if students are are really taking notes. They could be finishing up an English paper or studying for a biology test. Replacing paper with laptops would not amplify this problem; those students who don’t want to pay attention already let their minds wander regardless. Another concern is that laptops could be stolen. While this is always possible, it is no more likely than any other valuable being stolen. Not every student will bring his or her laptop to school; some will still prefer taking notes by hand, either because they are used to it or because they retain information better when they write it by hand. Students may not have laptops to bring to school. But some of us who do would want to use them. It would be up to us to actually save paper by not printing our notes. Yes, exclusively digital notes would take some getting used to, but we would adjust. The administration should let us help Harvard-Westlake go green,.
A new skill to be taught
W
hen we graduate from Harvard-Westlake, we leave with social skills, the ability to task and time manage, leadership ability, community awareness and activism in our blood but we will lack a basic life skill: how to defend ourselves in a dangerous situation.
This year, the administration has taken postive steps toward rounding our education. Harvard-Westlake has done more about security recently than in previous years. Before, only certain groups such as Prefect Council and Peer Support leaders and trainees have experienced such training. Beginning with the Columbine video and ALICE training for sophomores, the administration is gradually introducing self-defense programs. At the most recent senior class meeting, senior lead officer of the LAPD, Dikran Melkonian, talked about what to do when to avoid becoming a victim of a crime. In a large seminar setting, the officer helped the seniors weigh the value of life versus what is in your wallet. Melkonian explained that he had never given this lecture in such a short period of time. As a result, the intended message to the senior class suffered. By receiving the truncated version, we were left with sweeping generalizations which were more of a disservice. Despite what we were told in the session, we know that it is not logical to pepper spray strangers for
simply walking too close to us down the street at night. If the school is willing to start teaching us selfdefense, we would like a follow through. Self-defense is not something that is black and white, something brief exposure has led us to believe. Instead of a 45-minute boiled down lecture, a selfdefense course should be offered. Students want to learn more than what is currently available, and need practical experience. Self-defense should be offered as an alternative Physical Education course, so students will make use of the requirement. We find it helpful that the school is taking a serious interest in the well-being of the students outside of the classroom. The seminars have been informative as far as they have gone, but it would be more effective if they could be more in depth. If we had the chance to be in small seminars, students would feel more comfortable under individualized attention. There would be more of an opportunity to ask questions and participate in a simulated situation.
News Managing Editors: Nicki Resnikoff, Michelle Yousefzadeh Section Heads: Emily Khaykin, Alice Phillips, Daniel Rothberg Assistants: Jessica Barzilay, Maddy Baxter, Hank Gerba, Sanjana Kucheria, Marissa Lepor, Rebecca Nussbaum, Hunter Price, Lara Sokoloff, Saj Sri-Kumar Opinion Managing Editors: Anna Etra, Erin Moy Section Heads: Kelly Ohriner, Jean Park Assistants: Eli Haims, Vivien Mao, Anabel Pasarow, Nick Pritzker Features and Arts & Entertainment Managing Editors: Drew Lash, Lauren Seo Features Section Heads: Jordan Freisleben, Olivia Kwitny, Mary Rose Fissinger, Emily Wallach Features Assistants: Evan Brown, Melanie Chan, Lauren Choi, Camille de Ry, Allison Hamburger, Claire Hong, Megan Kawasaki, Chelsea Khakshouri, Joyce Kim, Ryan Lash, Lauren Li, Lauren O’Neil Arts & Entertainment Section Heads: Ingrid Chang, Matthew Lee, Sade Tavangarian Arts & Entertainment Assistants: Justine Goode, Noelle Lyons Sports Managing Editors: Jack Davis, Alex Edel Sports Writer: Jonah Rosenbaum Photo Coordinator: Alec Caso Section Heads: Austin Block, Ashley Khakshouri, Alex Leichenger Assistants: Sofia Davila, David Gobel, David Kolin, Tiffany Liao, Judd Liebman, Austin Lee, Julius Pak, Chelsey Taylor-Vaughn Photography: Chloe Lister, Nika Madyoon Web Designer: Jake Staahl 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 senior members of the Editorial Board. Advertising questions may be directed to Business Manager Neha Nimmagada at (818) 481-2087. Publication of an advertisement does not imply endorsement of the product or service by the newspaper or the school.
Nov. 11, 2009
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Opinion A13
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Jean
Park
Do not judge me
L
ast week, my history class was learning about President Thomas Jefferson. Although he is now glorified and featured on those rare $2 bills, Jefferson actually represented the epitome of hypocrisy and self-contradiction. An Anti-Federalist, Jefferson strongly opposed many of Alexander Hamilton’s programs, but during his presidency, his actions were not always in line with his beliefs. In an attempt to trace Jefferson’s thought process, history teacher Dror Yaron pointed out that Jefferson’s original beliefs were contorted by the constraints of his presidency. Yaron drew a parallel to the current president, asking if anyone had read the last issue of Newsweek. The editorial tells the story of Jefferson in Barack Obama’s shoes. “The president promised to tackle the big stuff, swiftly, decisively, and in a fashion about which he was unequivocal, and voters took him at his word a year ago…Campaigns are bad crucibles in which to forge the future,” journalist Anna Quindlen wrote. I apologize for the history reference, especially to the junior class, as many classes have already painstakingly reviewed “The Age of Jefferson” in class, but I mention it because I have noticed this pattern in another place – high school. If you think about it, the original purpose of our education was to better ourselves, not just as students, but as people. We were once encouraged to pursue anything, but that once-panoramic view of our potential is slowly becoming narrower and narrower as we experience high school. Like Jefferson, we have constraints, the biggest being grades. I notice many students, including myself, have begun to care more about how others judge us than how we judge ourselves. Undoubtedly, grades are essential to our transition to life after high school, but in the end, the grade only defines the student, not the human being. I’ve always wanted the perfect high school experience. But my constraint would indeed be those very letter grades that many students share dread in. As a little kid, soccer was my life. I told myself that I would always play, but I’ve failed to keep that promise. This is something I regret, but will also learn from. What I’m trying to get at is that despite the restrictions that are already placed on students, the important thing is to be satisfied with what we do. I’m always told to contribute to the community when I do things “just for college.” It makes sense to me now and I know that doing things just to juice up my resume when I didn’t take away anything from it means nothing.
“ we have begun to care more about how others judge us rather than how we judge ourselves.”
“Can u plz pass the salt”
Excess texts
A
D
id you find everything okay?” the store clerk asked. “Yeah, just fine,” I answered, as I handed him a copy of “Thank You for Smoking.” We stood in silence for a few moments as he scanned the DVD and took my credit card. I could tell he was itching to say something. “Where are you from?” He finally asked. “Are you Brazilian?” I was taken aback by his question. What does that question have to do with renting a movie? Do I look that different from normal Americans? What does a normal American even look like? Brazilian? I’ve never gotten that one before… “Uh…no, I’m not,” I responded quizzically. “Then where are you from?” He asked. “Los Angeles.” “No, really. Like where is your
Daniel
Rothberg
few weeks ago, I was perusing the mail, when I stumbled upon an unnecessarily thick envelope. At first glance it did not seem important to me so I was inclined to put it aside; however, on a whim, I decided to see what was inside. It was my family’s cell phone bill. Looking through the bill, one thing in particular stood out to me; the number of texts I sent during the month of October. 300. I was appalled, thinking that there was no way that I could possibly send this many texts in one month. However, after talking to friends, I found that the amount of texts that I send per month is meager. We are the first texting generation and most likely not the last. According to data released by the Nielson Company, teenagers in 2008 (ages 13-17) sent more texts per month than any other age group (and me): an average of 1,742 texts per month. I am not advocating for the abolition of texting. In fact, I love texting. In many cases, texting can serve as a quick and convenient form of communication in our hectic lives. However, I do take issue with two side effects of texting that could potentially impede the growth of our generation. (And no, driving while texting is not one of them, although I do not recommend it.) First and foremost, texting, like e-mail, simply provides people with an excuse to avoid
Where are you from?
family from?” “Guess.” He guessed countries on every continent except for Antarctica. Finally I decided to help him out. “It’s in the middle east. There are about 100,000 of us in the greater L.A. area.” “Oh, Pakistan!” On the car ride home I asked myself why the clerk’s question bothered me. Sure, it was slightly intrusive, but it was not offensive in any way. I settled on the conclusion that I was too used to the atmosphere at Harvard-Westlake, where people neither ask nor care where I am “really” from. Thankfully, there is not that much tension between ethnicities on campus. Large friend groups are composed of students of multiple ethnicities, but on the other hand, tighter friend groups within those larger groups usually tend to be of one ethnicity. People generally feel more
VIVIEN MAO/CHRONICLE
conversation. Texting has become a way to dodge confrontation or “awkward” situations. This is a dangerous habit. Not only has texting (along with e-mail) led to less face-to-face interaction, but it has also led to a decreased number of phone call conversations per month. Avoiding actual conversation might work in high school, but what about when we enter the real world? Won’t we be hindered by our lack of conversational skill? The second detrimental side effect of texting is that it distracts people from living in the moment. Instead of living in reality, people tend to have their hand glued to their phone, waiting for the next text to arrive. (I am by no means an exception to this trend.) But, what irks me most is to see someone texting during a conversation or a dinner with friends and/or family. Besides it being obnoxious and disrespectful, it detaches you from the time that you are supposed to be enjoying. If you are texting something trivial, it can wait a few minutes. If you are texting something serious, you probably should not be discussing it via text anyway. Really, what are you going to remember in 20 years? The hilarious conversation you had with your family over dinner or the text you sent to your friend about the fate of “John & Kate Plus 8?”
Michelle
Nosratian comfortable with those who share the same background as themselves, and this attraction brings similar people together in a way that largely avoids tensions between groups. Also, Harvard-Westlake students are well-educated (as opposed to the clerk who mistook “Middle East” for a south Asian country). The school requires sophomores to take Choices and Challenges, a multi-faceted course which aims to promote tolerance as one of it’s goals. In addition to the Choices and Challenges requirement, many opt to take electives such as Assimilation and Conflict, Ethics, Psychology and Gender Studies, which touch upon race and gender relations in their curriculums. What some people don’t realize is that ethnicity is a sensitive subject. I don’t take racial or ethnic slurs lightly. It doesn’t matter whether they are meant to be humorous or hurtful,
they still perpetuate bad feeling towards a certain group. Some may think it doesn’t matter, and may tell people like me to “lighten up”, but having seen the destructive effects of name-calling on previous generations of my family and on friends, I have decided to adopt a zero-tolerance policy regarding racial or ethnic slurs. Sure, ethnicity is appropriate and sometimes necessary to bring up in certain contexts, for example, when some sort of inequality exists, or there is a trend that affects a particular ethnicity more, such as certain hereditary diseases. However, in everyday life, there’s no need to draw attention to somebody’s racial or ethnic background. America is a nation of immigrants and Los Angeles one of its most heterogeneous cities; it simply shouldn’t matter where somebody is “really” from.
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Nov. 11, 2009
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Alice
Phillips
Navigating upper school obstacle course
Every level (except for one) of every building (but one) on the upper school campus is, somehow, wheelchair accessible. Key word: somehow. Ponder the possibilities. How would you get from math class to the language lab? If you think about it long enough, you will come to the conclusion that by going far enough out of your way, everything becomes at this wheelchair accessible. Except for the History school, department. As a school, we have an embarrassment a wheel of riches (both financial and otherwise). We chair boast to prospective students about all of the opportunities that await them at Harvardbound Westlake, then boast to their parents about our student college matriculation and how far a HarvardWestlake education will take their children. would But before we get to college (and reap the have to benefits of those elusive opportunities), we must first survive for three years at the Upper go to School (hiking boots and altitude sickness extra- medication in tow). I’ve been on crutches for two and a ordihalf weeks because I broke my foot and nary subsequently had to have surgery. Daily, my passing periods take me 15 and lengths a half stories (not counting the initial climb to to first period or any superfluous trips to the manage.” cafeteria). Currently, with my crutches in hand, I conquer 11 of the 15 stories via elevator and 3 via a ramp or slope (that is, when I’m willing to crutch the extra quarter mile to get to the elevator or the ramp). That leaves the insurmountable summit, the pinnacle of inaccessibility: my daily trek to third floor Seaver for history. Needless to say, I lack the stamina, composure, and temperament that would be necessary to deal with these torturously roundabout routes if I were permanently impaired. Somewhere in the 121,701-word long California Access Compliance Reference Manual, disabled persons are guaranteed the right to accessibility at private schools. It’s an excellent concept which, theoretically, ensures that disabled students have the opportunity to take advantage of the same aforementioned cornucopia of opportunities as ambulatory students. Theoretically, that is. At this school, a wheelchair-bound student would have to go to extraordinary lengths (literally and figuratively) to manage. (By the way, the answer to my question: Exit the third floor of Chalmers through the eastern door; proceed right then left towards the Rugby lobby; pass straight through the lobby; turn right at the bottom of the tower and proceed past the lockers below the drama department office; make a hairpin turn down
“
Michelle Nosratian/CHRONICLE
the ramp by the Rugby service entrance; wheel your way through the quad, past Ahmanson, and through the double-doors into the Munger hallway; board the elevator and take it to the third floor, which is also the first floor of Seaver; roll yourself up the road past Head of Upper School Harry Salamandra’s parking place; turn left at onto the handicap-accessible sidewalk; enter the second floor of Seaver by the receptionist’s desk; make a right once you exit the reception area and proceed past Attendance Supervisor Gabe Preciado’s office; exit the second floor of Seaver and wheel yourself past the library lockers; turn right into the library but immediately turn left; push the elevator button to begin your final summit to the language lab where your class is, in all likelihood, nearly five minutes into the lesson). Oh, and I forgot to mention the doors. That’s six double doors, all of which are attached to auto-closing mechanisms and none of which have handicap-accessibility buttons (where you push the button so the door opens). If you read all of that, you are a better person than I and a far more patient one. If you skipped to this paragraph after the second directional clause, just imagine having to take that arduous journey day after day (after day after day). Imagine being five minutes late to every class every day (minimum). That’s one ninth of every class (and one
Little things count
I
t seems to me that every Harvard-Westlake student is a gung-ho activist for a noble cause—I’m amazed at how many are devoted to cleaning the earth, spreading genocide awareness, building homes for those in need, and helping underprivileged children. While all of these actions are necessary, rewarding and worthwhile, I noticed that if we look even closer within our very own HarvardWestlake community, lending a helping hand in the community could be as close as the classroom next to yours. The main purpose of the Community Council is to build bonds with our classmates while helping the outside community. I recently became a Peer Tutor and with that, a former perspective of my peers changed
significantly. I saw the need of several students to which many of us, myself included, tend to be oblivious. From helping three students in a subject that I always did relatively well in, something I take for granted, I realized that no matter what the class or age, there are students who unfortunately flounder, question their abilities, are genuinely frightened, and feel insecure. As someone who knows the gist of “struggle” classes, I can empathize. I know the hot frustration and the welling of tears when that certain mathematical function, verb tense or analysis just does not click. I know this sounds ridiculously trivial compared to some of the actual problems that my activist classmates fight against, but to a sophomore, not
ninth of your Harvard-Westlake education, or approximately $4,000 of your tuition per year) that you would spend wheeling yourself from elevator to elevator. So why, when we have so many resources at our disposal, do we have such an inaccessible campus? How can we respect ourselves when we claim to be a top college preparatory school if we cannot accommodate the physically disabled? Don’t mistake me; I’m not saying that the administration makes a conscious effort to maintain an inaccessible campus (most of the upper school campus is undoubtedly exempt from these codes because of grandfathering laws). There is simply no remedy for the geography of 3700 Coldwater Canyon (although leveling our portion of the Santa Monica Mountains has crossed my mind) , but surely there are some other options to accommodate disabled students. Surely, while we spend millions on new athletic facilities (which I take no issue with), we can afford to install doors that could open on command. Surely, we can afford to do at least that much. Someday, if it hasn’t happened already, a supremely qualified student who was an extraordinary addition to the community will be forced to leave because they cannot stand having to go to Uzbekistan and back just to get to class.
Jordan
Freisleben fathoming Chemistry might as well be the apocalypse. What also saddened me in my moment of realization is the loneliness and fear that so many frustrated students feel – the fact that they don’t know that several other students have gone through the same thing. They don’t know to ask their older peers, who’ve been in the same boat (or more like a cruise ship) and have managed to come out as winners. Being a peer tutor makes me feel like I’m accomplishing more than just explaining the subjunctive and conjugations, but jumping into the hole with them and saying “I’ve been in this hole before and I know how to find my way out.” In all of my years at HarvardWestlake and figuring out the way to go about my “struggle” classes, every
teacher has made the time to meet with me and take as much time as necessary out of their busy schedules to make sure to clarify every confusion that I had. However, between their several classes and hundreds of students, teachers unfortunately cannot do everything. There’s a certain level of bonding and friendship that can develop between two students who might have never known each other, in addition to the help given in the academic area. I feel that “Peer Tutor” is an inaccurate description of what is done. Sure, we help explain academic material, but so much more is accomplished. We’re pillars of support to fellow classmates we didn’t know before and in my opinion, that’s what “community” is all about.
Nov. 11, 2009
The
C hronicle
quadtalk Do you think students should be able to use computers in class to take notes?
“i don’t care. figure it out for yourself if it’s appropriate. the only thing that is lost is the physical aspect of memory—you remember better when you write.” —Art Tobias, Art History teacher
Opinion A15
chronicle.hw.com
makinggrades
A C
The Chronicle evaluates recent campus developments
Prefect Council proposes coffee houses for students to drink Coffee Bean and display their creative talents.
B+ F
Lots of Halloween costumes at school; insufficient candy.
Deadline for first quarter grades extended.
Water polo loses to Loyola for the fifth straight time.
“i would use one; we used [laptops] at the middle school and it’s so much easier to type my notes.”
bynumbers
The Chronicle polled 380 students who weighed in on the self-defense seminars and the value of laptops in class.
—Christine Sull ’12
Self Defense “people typing their notes doesn’t bother me. it’s no more distracting than a squeaky pen.”
Do you think students can benefit from self-defense classes taught in class assemblies?
They should be conducted in a smaller group setting. It’s good to have self-defense courses during assemblies. It is a waste of time
—Jake Lasker ‘10
Self-defense courses scare students.
Should students be allowed to bring their laptops to take notes in class?
162
“i’m not fond of it. i can never be sure if a student is taking notes or playing computer games.”
162
44
—David Waterhouse, History teacher
11
All photos by Candice Navi/Chronicle
180 96
95 9
Laptop Usage
We should because it would save paper. We should because it would save time. Using laptops would distract other students. Using laptops in classes is ineffective.
Results based on an online poll e-mailed to Harvard-Westlake upper school students through http://www.surveymonkey.com.
Asixteen
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“I was unanimously described as the best costume around school, and ladies loved my goggles; they’re extremely fragile.”
photos by Candice Navi
—Bruno Seros-Ulloa ‘10 Brüno
—Will Hellwarth ‘10 Steampunk
<<
“I like costumes that are funny or witty. I think It’s important to be able to laugh at yourself.”
—Cindy Ok ‘10 Giant Chicken
“I wanted something warm and cozy. Everyone wanted to snuggle with me.”
—Caity Croft ‘10 Scooby Doo
“My friends and I all dressed up like [Joel]. one brought speakers and we did the dance in the munger tech lab.”
<<
—Shantele Wicks ‘10 Joel Goodson from ‘Risky Business’
<<
Halloween may have fallen on a Saturday this year, but there was no shortage of costumes around campus on Oct. 30.
“The plastic wasn’t very bendable. After walking for a while, it started ripping and pulling at my leg hair.“
<<
be witched
Nov. 11, 2009
“it worked with the sideburns I was growing out. It was either that or Abe Lincoln.”
—Ben Castillo ‘11 Wolverine
features Harvard-Westlake School
Volume XIX
Issue 3
Nov. 11, 2009
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Enterprising students have gone out on their own to make money in the stock market, delivering food to friends and more. Pages B5-B7
B2 Features
The
C hronicle
Nov. 11, 2009
chronicle.hw.com
Heart of the problem A variety of heart problems that are dealt with by surgery and monitors manifest themselves in teenagers. By Daniel Rothberg
H
feine,” said Shannon. “Roughly half the times that I’ve seen it, it’s been related to consuming Red Bull with vodka. And that particular combo has been known to be fatal.” Atrial fibrillation is the most common form of cardiac arrhythmia. The older you are the more likely you are to have atrial fibrillation. According The American Heart Association, 70 percent of those who have atrial fibrillation are between 65-85 years old. Like Morrissey, Li had an ablation to fix the atrial fibrillation during the summer going into sophomore year. “Probably the worst part was not playing sports because I was so used to playing sports all the time,” Li, who played on a yearround club soccer team said. Roughly 4.3 million Americans have arrhythmias, according to The American Heart Association. Incidents of abnormal heartbeats are exacerbated by caffeine and energy drinks, Shannon said. In order to maintain healthy hearts, Shannon advises youth to stay in shape. In addition, lack of sleep has been shown to have a negative impact on the health of your heart, Shannon said. “A couple times a day, my heart feels like it stops, and then a few seconds later it beats really hard to compensate for the blood it didn’t pump,” Chelsea McMahon ’10 said. “It hurts a little, but I’ve gotten used to it.” McMahon was first diagnosed with an arrhythmia in eighth grade. Since her diagnosis, McMahon’s irregular heartbeat has not limited her from participating in her activities. McMahon had to wear a 24-hour heart monitor in eighth grade and week-long monitor when she was a junior. “It would beep every once in a while and the wires were really visible under my clothes, so I was pretty embarrassed,” McMahon said. McMahon is not worried about the condition affecting her in the future. “The doctor said it is something that could go away over time,” McMahon said. “I have a feeling it won’t affect me at all in the future; most of the time I completely forget I have it.”
4 blood vessels 5arteries on
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the two atria), that causes a heart murmur. 3. Cardiomyopathy: weakening of heart muscle that is caused by a complication of a viral infection. 4. Hypertension: high blood pressure in blood vessels
e dr
These five areas of the heart are each affected by different cardiac problems. Each number represents the part affected by the disease named.
by
1
Common heart problems among teens: 1. Arrhythmia: abnormalities of heart rhythm caused by irregular pulsing of the electrical nodes which results in heart sputtering and fainting. 2. Atrial Septal Defect: a hole in the septum (the wall between
courtesy of sebastian li
il
aving been shot in the heart with adrenaline, Kate Morrissey ’10 lay wide awake on the operating table as doctors examined her heart to determine what was wrong with it. After two hours, her doctors found what was causing her heart-related symptoms: tachycardia. Tachycardia is when the heart beats at a rate faster than that of a normal heart, cardiologist Norman Lepor (Marissa ’12) said. With tachycardia, the rapid heartbeat does not provide the heart with enough time to fill with blood, impairing the hearts ability to pump blood to the body efficiently. Symptoms include dizziness, shortness of breath and heart palpitations. Tachycardia is a type of arrhythmia, or abnormal heartbeat. “About five percent of the population will experience an episode of abnormal heartbeats in their lifetime,” Kevin Shannon (Kevin ’11 and Kassandra ’13), a pediatric cardiologist at University of California, Los Angeles, said. However, Morrissey’s specific type of tachycardia, atypical and typical tachycardia, is rare, Shannon said. Morrissey first began experiencing symptoms, such as rapid heart rate and shortness of breath, in her sophomore year. Subsequently, Morrissey began wearing a heart monitor, hoping that it would help diagnose her heart disease. Every time Morrissey felt symptoms related to her heart, she would press a button on the heart monitor. At the start of her junior year, Morrissey switched to a different heart monitor that measured her EKG for three weeks. “In the beginning of my junior year, I think I probably spent more time at my doctor’s office and getting tests, than I did at school,” Morrissey said. After examining her heart rate, Morrissey’s doctor finally recognized that she had a heart problem. However, her doctor was not going to know what specific disease Morrissey had without surgery. After being diagnosed on the operating table with tachycardia, Morrissey was put to sleep. Once asleep, her doctor performed an ablation, destroying some of her heart tissue and in doing so, correcting her tachycardia. An ablation is performed by putting a catheter in a vein and guiding it to the heart. Once the catheter reaches the heart, it sends out a burst of energy that destroys heart tissue. Since the surgery, Morrissey’s symptoms have subsided. Once in a while, she will have a palpation, but never to the same degree as she had prior to the surgery. “Now I can go for a run or go play field hockey without having to think about my heart,” Morrissey said. Some common heart diseases in youth are arrhythmias, congenital heart disease, cardiomyopathy, hypertension and diseases related to drugs and cocaine, Lepor said. Morrissey is not the only student who has had to undergo surgery for a heart issue. During an operation in the fourth grade to correct a lazy eye, the doctors discovered that Sebastian Li ’10 had an irregular heartbeat. As Li grew older, his irregular heartbeat did not seem to cause him any symptoms. However, in ninth grade, Li began experiencing symptoms, often finding himself out of breath and unable to play sports. Li’s irregular heartbeat turned into atrial fibrillation, Li said. In atrial fibrillation, electrical activity in the atria loses its synchrony, Lepor said. As a result, the disease prevents the heart from pumping blood efficiently to the rest of the body. “We are seeing more of it [atrial fibrillation] related to caf-
sade tavangarian/chronicle
heart beats: Kate Morrissey ’10 and Sebastian Li ’10 underwent surgery to correct their chronic heart problems.
3heart
muscle
caused by bad eating habits and obesity. 5. Drugs: overuse of certain drugs, such as cocaine, can cause heart attack by decreasing oxygen in the coronary arteries. infographic by drew lash and Lauren Choi Source Dr. Norman Lepor
Nov. 11, 2009
The
C hronicle
chronicle.hw.com
Features B3
Putting the pieces together
Lisa Peters designs and outfits casts for plays like ‘City of Angels’ By Jamie Kim
L
isa Peters handles a sewing machine like someone who has sewn her entire life. As she runs a black-and-white flower print fabric through a whirring machine, she explains how her grandmother, an avid quilter, taught her how to handle a needle and thread about the same time she was learning to read and write. “My grandmother had a quilting group that she met with on a weekly basis and when I was six or seven years old she would let me come along,” she said. “When you’re making a quilt you stretch it out on these bars; I would sit underneath the quilt and when they would reach the middle part they couldn’t reach, they would push the needle down and I would push it up.” From then on, it was a long journey to her current position as the Upper School’s official costumer, a full-time job that entails creating wardrobes for theater and dance productions and teaching two sections of Introduction to Costume Design, as well as a directed study. Peters began making costumes from when she was seven years old, starting with doll clothes, but eventually making her own. “I say I made a costume. I probably, thinking back on it, took a sheet and wrapped it around my waist and called it an apron,” she said with a big laugh. “My grandma helped me with the more elaborate ones. I think she was happy to have somebody who wanted her to sew for them.” Regardless, costumes became a serious hobby and a way to satisfy the creative bug within her. She said she was always drawn to the “storytelling aspect.” Dressing up was not only for Halloween. When senior year of high school rolled around, Peters only applied to one school: California Institute of the Arts. She started college as a graphic design major with the job market in mind, but realized that her passions lay elsewhere and soon switched to costume design. After graduating and then working for several small community theaters, she eventually landed her second job with a theme park, this time in the theme-park division at Universal Studios, where she designed employee uniforms. “Somewhere in Osaka there’s a theme park employee walking around wearing something I designed, which is kind of cool,” she said. Peters moved to San Francisco for a few years to be with her current husband. There, she set up a company that took private costume requests. “I got some really odd requests that I won’t mention,” she said, laughing. “But it was interesting because the people I met who would come in, who seemed completely normal on the surface would make some of the weirdest requests.” She added, “It’s very relevant to designing costumes for theater, though, because you might have an image in your head of a certain character and the costume you’re making for it to reflect that, but maybe that’s not at all what that person is like, maybe they’re hiding something.” Then, a new opportunity presented itself. When Peters learned that Harvard-Westlake was looking for a costumer, she recognized the school because she had worked briefly at the Middle School very briefly right out of college in 1994. At that time, she had had no idea that she would return to the same school exactly ten years later. “I remember when I was here before, at the Middle School, it was really cool that the kids were so enthusiastic about it,” she said. “Sometimes when you work with professionals, they are people who love what they do, obviously, but you don’t feel like you’re learning something, or that you’re teaching something. They know what they want to do, and you’re dealing with a lot of egos and things. Young people, they’re very open-minded.” The campus is quiet outside the costume shop, but for Peters, it’s a busy afternoon getting ready for the fall musical “City of Angels”. For about three weeks, she stays at school until rehearsal ends at 6 p.m. The costumes are especially crucial for this play, which tells its story at times in black and white and at times in color.
Chloe Lister/Chronicle
Designing Costumes: Peters cuts fabric in the costume shop. “The set will basically stay the same. There are elements that are in color and there are elements that are in black and white, but it doesn’t really switch around. So to tell the story and know which character you’re seeing, it depends on what they’re wearing,” she said. “It’s turning out to be fun because it’s such a great period. The clothes are kind of pretty,” she said. Peters wishes everyone would use their hands more and “create things more.” “I think that people that are creative, people look at them and go, ‘Oh, you’re an artist, that’s why you’re creative,” she said. “But you have to realize that everybody on this planet is creative in some way. You may not feel like we can all draw or we can all paint, but, if you can cook, you’re creative. If you can doodle, you’re creative, if you can play music, you’re creative. It’s so crucial that everybody that has that feeling lets it out in some way, because it makes the world an amazingly beautiful place.”
Chloe Lister/Chronicle
B4 Features
The
High Stakes
C hronicle
Nov. 11, 2009
chronicle.hw.com
Clue three: The seniors forge ahead as the University of California application deadline approaches. By Allegra Tepper
As seniors count down the days until their senioritis can finally kick in—that’s 72 days until second semester, for the record—some have been focusing their efforts on last minute attempts to raise their GPAs. Others have been neglecting the books in favor of early applications and a select few have found the perfect balance between the two. Shawn* Shawn says he’s mastered the balancing act, but not without a couple of bumps in the road. While other seniors were partaking in Halloween debauchery, Shawn stayed in to cool down after a marathon of submissions. Shawn sent off University of Wisconsin on Thursday and his application to the University of Michigan on Friday without snags; both schools have rolling admission programs. On Saturday, Shawn struggled to submit his Common Application before the Nov. 1 Early Decision deadline. The site wouldn’t accept the essays as formatted and his browser kept him from previewing his application before send-off. “I can’t work computers,” Shawn said. “It was terrifying.” To add more fuel to the flame, Shawn had forgotten to complete his Early Decision Contract, which required a signature from Head of School Jeanne Huybrechts. Despite the obstacles, Shawn “miraculously” submitted his Early Decision application to the University of Pennsylvania and is now turning his attention to the University of California. He plans to submit applications to six of the state campuses, his top choices being Berkeley and San Diego. Shawn said that his first quarter was nothing short of amazing. Though the schools he has already applied to don’t require his first quarter grade reports, Shawn will be sending them anyway.
Illustration by joyce kim
“I got around a 4.5 this quarter, which brought my whole GPA up from a 3.7 to a 3.81,” Shawn said. “I went home and actually did work after school this year, on a daily basis. It clearly paid off. If only I had figured that out earlier.” Annabelle* Annabelle didn’t quite have the same outcome this quarter, describing it as rough to say the least. “I can’t even gauge how I am doing in my classes and there’s not enough time to put in the effort that I want to,” Annabelle said. “I feel bad, because I actually want to, there just isn’t the time.” Her plan for second quarter: “I’ll be spending my frees being anti-social in a little corner. That’s the only way it’s going to get done.” Despite her struggles with her AP classes, Annabelle was thrilled with her October SAT scores and is gaining confidence in her applications. Although she decided that Early Decision was not for her, it recently became apparent that her peers didn’t get that message. “There’s a rumor going around that I am applying early to Stanford,” Annabelle said. “It was weird. I was like, ‘Wow! People are wondering what I am doing.’ It was too crazy. But I guess the craze is normal. We’re still kids and we’re nervous about the future, but it’s a little too much for me sometimes.” Annabelle says all of her extra time will be devoted to her applications and right now most of that energy is going into the University of California application, which is due Nov. 30. A self-described “chronic procrastinator,” Annabelle foresees a winter break filled with cramming to finish applications before the new
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year. “Right now, I don’t see any light at the end of the tunnel,” Annabelle said. “It’s a big black hole, ominous and lurking, waiting to swallow me up.” Taylor* Taylor has been directing her attention toward her music supplement, what might be the most important part of her application for the conservatory-style programs to which she is applying. Certain schools only require recordings, while schools such as Oberlin require two music teacher recommendations and resumés. The October SATs didn’t go as well as Taylor had planned, but she won’t be retaking them because she plans to retake her subject test scores in November. “Since most of my friends applied early, I’m feeling a little behind,” Taylor said. “I’ve just spent so much time worrying about it, now I have to start moving because we’re coming down to the wire.” As she does more research and solidifies her still somewhat evolving list, Taylor is coming to some surprising conclusions about her preferences. “I thought I would be really into New York City,” Taylor said. “But it turns out I just love the farmlands.” Liberal arts colleges like Williams, Oberlin and Bennington are maintaining top slots on her list. “I am so glad that I like Bennington, because I feel like I have a good chance of getting in,” she said. “I feel like they rarely get students from schools like Harvard-Westlake and I think I’m at an advantage there.” * names have been changed
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Nov. 11, 2009
The
C hronicle
Features B5
chronicle.hw.com
Delivering dinner for dough By Matthew Lee
Jono Wachter’s ’11 cell phone rings as he drove on San Vicente Boulevard. The caller, a friend of his mother, wants one chicken sandini and a large cheese pizza from Patty’s Pizza in Santa Monica. Wachter repeats the order while his partner, Chris Blackwell writes down the order in his notebook. Within one hour, the food is delivered by Wachter and Blackwell to the caller’s home. During the summer, Wachter picked up and delivered food for his own friends and his parents’ friends and charged a service fee for each delivery. “As soon as I was finished with my last final exam, I knew what I wanted to do with my time over the summer,” Wachter said, “I wanted to earn my own money.” Blackwell attended Harvard-Westlake for seventh and eighth grade, then went to England for boarding school for one year before moving to Jamaica to live with his father. Wachter and Blackwell have been contacting each other through e-mail for the past years. “When I heard that Chris was coming to
town for the summer, I knew I was going to run some sort of business with him as my partner,” Wachter said. The two friends got the idea from the business LA Bite, which takes food orders from people and delivers the food to their homes. Wachter and Blackwell decided that they could make money by offering the same services as LA Bite does and charging a fee to make a profit. To gain a pool of customers, Wachter and Blackwell obtained the e-mail addresses and phone numbers of their parents’ friends and notified them all of their new service. Blackwell said that within a day of sending out the notifications, people began to call to use the delivery service. Most of their customers were friends of their parents and most deliveries were to Westwood, Brentwood, Pacific Palisades, Bel Air and Santa Monica. The average fee, based on the distance they traveled, was $10, he said. From the beginning of July to the end of August, Blackwell and Wachter each made about $400. Wachter used his money to buy an African djembe drum, and Blackwell said that he saved the money that he earned.
candice navi/chronicle
Delivery boy: Jono Wachter ‘11 delievers dinner for cilents. He has gained a pool of customers by modeling his business after LA Bite.
Baby-sitting for faculty kids By Drew Lash
candice navi/chronicle
candice navi/chronicle
baby sitting: Chelsea McMahon ’10 and Max Zipperman ’10 help babysit their history and english teachers in their spare time.
Max Zipperman ’10 rings the doorbell of a house on a Saturday evening for his regular baby-sitting job. However, when he is greeted at the door, he is not only greeted by the children he baby-sits, but also his history teacher, Larry Klein. Zipperman baby-sits for Klein frequently, and he isn’t the only student who takes care of teachers’ children. Many students are getting to know teachers in a completely different context as parents and employers. Zipperman started baby-sitting Gracie, 6, and Toby, 10, in November 2008. He discovered that Klein was his neighbor one day in the history office. While Zipperman was in the history office, Klein walked in and greeted Coco Weaver ’09 with a “Hey neighbor!” “So I jokingly said ‘No, she’s my neighbor!’ After that we started talking and discovered we live really close to each other. I thought I had recognized him one day as I was walking my dog, but he wasn’t my teacher at that point so I wasn’t sure,” Zipperman said. Klein was Zipperman’s employer before he was his teacher. Now Klein has taught Zipperman in AP Geography and is currently teaching Zipperman in Directed Studies in Historical Research and AP United States Government. For Chelsea McMahon ’10, the chance to baby-sit for her eighth grade English teacher Julia Grody came about in a much different manner.
“My girls, Jessie, who was 6 at the time, and Jo, who was 3, met Chelsea when they visited campus a few times at the end of the day—they liked watching field hockey practice and she was on the team. They took an immediate liking to her. Once the year ended, and I wasn’t teaching Chelsea anymore, I asked if she’d be interested in baby-sitting for them,” Grody said. “It was kind of weird going to her house because she had been my teacher, but it had been a while, so it was ok,” McMahon said. Jessie and Jo has such a great time with McMahon that “they still ask for me to call her. I can’t believe Jo would remember two years ago, but she does,” said Grody. “I knew that Chelsea was responsible and fun and a good role model, and it was wonderful leaving my girls with someone I trusted so much,” said Grody. McMahon recalls playing outside for hours at a time in Grody’s backyard with Jessie and Jo every time she came over to baby-sit. McMahon also took the girls on walks. “They were really great to go on walks with because they would point to things and ask a lot of questions. It was really cute,” McMahon said. McMahon also picks up Michelle Bracken’s son, Jake, from football practice because they live near each other. “Ms. Bracken asked me one day to pick Jake up from football practice because we’re pretty close. Jake’s re-
ally cool. I always tease him and say he’s my adopted brother,” McMahon said. Zipperman says that he sometimes goes swimming with Klein’s children as well as playing Nintendo. “But watching iCarly and Spongebob are definitely our main activities,” Zipperman said with a laugh. “I’ve become quite a big fan of iCarly.” “[Klein] will sometimes stop the lecture to ask me if I can baby-sit on Saturday. It’s not weird; we make a joke out of it. He asks me to baby-sit on weekdays and weekends, even if I have a test in his class the next day,” Zipperman said. Zipperman has also been a lifeguard at Klein’s pool parties. Klein has also referred Zipperman to his friends, causing him to become “the neighborhood guy” for babysitting. “It’s really lucrative,” Zipperman said.
“
Helping out at Sunday School By Chelsea Khakshouri
Ryan Lash/chronicle
hebrew helper: Jennifer Plotkin ’11 teaches her Sunday School class at Wilshire Boulevard temple by writing Hebrew letters on the board for her students.
Since she was in eighth grade, Jennifer Plotkin ’11 has worked on Sunday mornings as a teacher’s assistant. According to the Wilshire Boulevard Temple website, the Ozrim program is to “deepen your Jewish education, develop leadership skills and become an educator”. “They choose to get paid money or collect community service hours. They get as many hours as they work, which would be over 100 for every Sunday in the year,” Head of the Ozrim program David Green said. Ozrim, plural in Hebrew for “helper” or “assistant”, is ozer in the male form and ozeret in the female form. The Ozrim apply to the program just like they would a job. “We have an application with a few short essays, and then we select them from the pool based on their qualifications and their interest in the program. We treat it like a job, so we look closely at the applications, followup with references and an interview,” Green said. “We basically work as teaching assistants. Sometimes this means cleaning up after lessons and passing out supplies, but we often take more responsibilities. For example, each of the Ozrim are required to plan and run a lesson on their own sometime during the year,” Plotkin said. “They are asked to do anything the teacher needs to
[Klein] will sometime stop the lecture to ask me if i can baby-sit on saturday.”
—Max Zipperman‘10
help in class,” Green Said. “Sometimes those are tasks like setting up class and lessons, moving kids from location to location, or doing impromptu first-aid. It’s great, especially in younger classes, to have someone to apply a band-aid for a frightened little kid with a skinned knee.” The teacher assistants are given an opportunity to connect with young children and make Hebrew school a fun experience for them, Plotkin said. “When I first began working as an Ozeret, I was kind of nervous about how to act around the kids. Eventually, I learned that even though they are young, I can still connect with them the same way I do with people my own age,” Plotkin said. The program is “designed for eighth through twelfth graders to take on leadership roles in our community while experiencing transformative personal growth” says the website. Students must be enrolled in another one of the high school programs offered before being given a position and must attend an educator training and leadership development seminar before beginning work. “There is a regular seminar that introduces topics like Jewish history and religion so our Ozrim know what they are teaching,” Green said. “We cover child development and a little psychology. We teach Ozrim pedagogic techniques, and focus on how to recognize different learning styles in kids and work with them effectively.”
2010 B6 Features
Dec. 16, 2009 The
jazz clubs Picks from Performing Arts teacher Shawn Costantino
To start out the new year, here are tips from students and faculty for having a more adventurous, musical, soothing, spontaneous, delicious, artsy, cultured, healthy 2010.
1
museums
1 2 3 4
Suggested by history teacher Katherine Holmes-Chuba
Exhibit:“Drawings by Rembrandt and His Pupils: Telling the Different” exhibit at the J. Paul Getty Museum. Dates: Until Feb. 28, 2010. About: “More than 30 years of scholarly research of Dutch artist Rembrandt van Rijn’s work will be presented in this exhibit. The display will pair different drawings of Rembrandt’s with those of his pupils and outline the artistic differences.”
gRAPHIC BY mATTHEW lEE
1 2 3 4
Saddle Peak from Stunt High Trail in the Santa Monica Mountains.
San Gabriel River via East Fork in the San Gabriel Mountains.
Mt. Hollywood in Griffith Park.
Vibrato Grill Jazz ... etc: “Again, a venue where HarvardWestlake plays from time to time, this club features live jazz six nights a week. Look out for Bob Sheppard, Peter Erskine and the occasional Joey DeFranceso sighting.”
4 5
Exhibit: “The Bible Illuminated: R. Crumb’s Book of Genesis” at the Hammer Museum. Dates: Until Feb. 7, 2010. About: “Robert Crumb’s cartoon version of the Book of Genesis contains all 50 chapters of the book illustrated and incorporates every word of the text in the pieces. The exhibit will feature 207 black and white drawings.”
1 2 3 4 5
Vitello’s Jazz Club: “A club often featuring our own HarvardWestlake combos, this venue has recently reinvented itself as the premier valley jazz club.”
3
Exhibit: Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres’ s “Comtesse d’ Haussonville” at the Norton Simon Museum. Dates: Until Jan. 25, 2010. About: “This will be the first time the painting is in California. It is on loan from the Frick Collection in New York as a part of an art exchange program between the museums.”
Favorites from Science teacher WendyVan Norden
The Baked Potato: “Right by Universal City, this jazz venue always features prominent acts such as The Yellow Jackets, Arnold McCuller ( James Taylor Vocalist) and many modern jazz fusion acts.”
2
Exhibit: “Luis Meléndez: Master of the Spanish Still Life” at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Dates: Until Jan. 3, 2010. About: “Luis Meléndez (1716–1780) was one of the greatest still life painters of 18th century in Spain. The exhibition includes more than 20 of his paintings. Other relevant works from abroad are also grouped with this exhibit.”
hiking trails
Ch
Catalina’s: “The Premier Jazz club on the west coast. This place has rockin’ jazz all the time.” Jazz at the LA Phil: “A wonderful concert series in Disney Hall featuring some of the most world-class jazz musicians alive today.”
From the intersection of Topanga Canyon Boulevard and Mulholland Drive to Malibu via Stunt Road and then Las Flores (very steep and technical descent). Mulholland Drive from Topanga Avenue to the beach. Malibu to Port Hueneme via Pacific Coast Highway. Silver Lake/Echo Park to Harvard-Westlake Upper School via Riverside Drive (or the LA River bike path).
In the Inland Valley Empire, Mt Baldy Road to Glendora Ridge Road to Altadena.
bike paths Suggested by science teacher Dietrich Schuhl
San Jacinto Peak via Palm Springs Tram.
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Features B7
chronicle.hw.com
books 1 2 3
“Journey to the End of the Millenium” Top picks from by A.B. Yehoshua English teacher “It’s a fascinating window into Laurence Weber the intersection of Jew, Mus-
lim, and Christian at a critical historical moment, and Yehoby Ted Kooser shua’s story suggests, among “This book is accessible, resonant other things, a fluidity in the and they are grounding in terms of relationships between his reading about common experiences. diverse characters that we He’s a great human writer.” could learn from.”
“Delights and Shadows”
“Letters to a Young Poet”
Suggestions from Performing Arts teacherTed Walch
movies
by Rania Maria Rilke “It is a correspondence between a young writer and great poet. It’s full of life lessons and wisdom.”
1 2 3
“A Man Escaped”
True story about a French Resistance fighter
(1956) “M”
Directed by Fritz Lang
(1931)
“Fanny and Alexander” Won four Oscars
(1982)
Allegra tepper/Chronicle
4 5 6
“Being There”
7 8 9 10
“La Strada”
Won Oscar for Best Foreign Film
Featuring Peter Sellers and Shirley Maclaine
(1979)
(1954)
Running on Empty
Won Golden Globe for Best Screenplay
“Au Revoir, Les Enfants” Nominated for two Oscars
(1987)
“Don’t Look Now”
Featuring Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie
(1973)
(1988)
“The Motorcycle Diaries”
Adaptation of Che Guevara’s journal
(2004)
“America, America”
ENRICH
Album: Sainthood Song: Hell
I AT TR
S LU
IL
“I like them because their voices are really unique, and outside of their music they seem like really cool people... i mean, they’re twins from canada.”
ON BY I GR IN
D
“I like the beats. They have Great Energy.”
—Alán Snider ‘12
Lauren Lauren Seo/Chronicle Seo/Chronicle
Portugal the Man Album: Censored Colors Song: Lay Me Back Down
Lauren Seo/Chronicle
Student favorites
G AN CH
—Danielle Strassman ‘11
Album: In Ghost Colours Song: Lights & Music
“They Blend The style from the ‘60s anti-war movement into the new age acoustic progressive rock.”
Lauren Seo/Chronicle
Nominated for Oscar for Best Picture
(1963)
Tegan & Sara
music Cut Copy
candice navi/Chronicle
—Jack Healy ‘10
B8 Features
The
C hronicle
Nov. 11, 2009
arts&entertainment
Jig is up for sophomore Irish dancer Justine Goode ’12 dances across the stage, her feet a blur, moving so quickly that only the pitter patter of her steps are heard. Goode gets in touch with her Irish roots weekly by attending Irish dance classes and dancing competitively. She has been Irish dancing since first grade when a teacher at her school began offering classes for students. Under her instruction, Goode learned traditional dances that she would try to perfect over the years. Irish dancing traces its roots back to Ireland around the 16th century. This complex form of dancing calls for precise, repetitive leg movements while maintaining a stiff rigid upper body. “It is difficult to maneuver,” Goode said, “because it includes jumping and skipping motions that require balance.” There are about seven in all, and during —Justine Goode ’12 dances the course of a dancer’s career, different and increasingly advanced versions of these dances are introduced. They include the slip jig, reel, the single jig, and light jig, and treble jig, hornpipe and the St. Patrick’s Day jig. Most jigs are updated and altered every few months, so Goode and her fellow dancers are constantly learning new steps. Goode entered her first feis, pronounced “fesh”, an Irish dancing competition, when she was in first grade and did a “really good job.” Although Goode likes performing onstage, she dislikes the atmosphere of these competitions because they’re “hot, crowded and stressful.” The competitive nature of these contests is also very extreme, she said. “Whenever I go, I always see these stage moms doing things like feeding their daughters Red Bull before they dance,” said Goode. “I’ve never enjoyed going to feises, but I know other girls who live for
“
ONce you get a hang of a hard step, it feels so good.
‘Our Town’
innumbers
45 3 acts
auditioned last week
10-12
male characters
8-10
female characters
4
1
vital role of stage manager
times directed by Ted Walch
Graphic by Jamie Kim and noelle lyons
on the web:
See the cast list online
chronicle.hw.com
them.” Goode is currently at the Prizewinner level in her dances. The levels include Beginner One, Beginner Two, Novice, Prizewinner, and 3 levels of Champion: Preliminary, Open, and World. She competes as part of the O’Farrell school, which her teacher started only a few years ago. “We’re much, much smaller than any of the other schools, but that also means we’re closer and more laid-back,” Goode said. During performances, dancers are expected to wear uniform school dresses or more elaborately decorated solo dresses, depending on their level. As for shoes, there are two different pairs used in different dances: soft shoes, known as ghillies and hard shoes. These are worn with “poodle socks”, which are knee high and have ridges knitted into them. Traditional wigs are also donned, and their fake curls bounce as the dancers jump and skip around the stage. “The wigs are disgusting and bite into your head, but they look really good,” Goode said. Of all the competitions Goode attends, the largest and most important is the Oiracheatus, an annual international Irish dancing competition. At Oiracheatus, points are given for creativity, execution and even the costume one is wearing. Goode competed at this contest with her team since only dancers of the Champion rank can compete individually. In preparation for this competition, Goode devoted two hours of practice three days a week while only in the third grade. “It was brutal,” she recalled. Now that Goode is a sophomore, she has been spending more time on school work and less time Irish dancing and competes only occasionally. However, she continues to learn new and more advanced steps whenever she does attend class. “It’s actually a lot of fun because it involves a lot of movement and big jumps. Moves are really precise and I don’t know how to explain it, but they’re really satisfying. Once you get a hang of a hard step, it feels so good,” Goode said.
Allegra Tepper/Chronicle
By Tiffany Liao
IRISH DANCE:
Justine Goode ‘12 dances in traditional Irish attire.
Cast list announced for ‘Our Town’ By Kelly Ohriner
The cast for “Our Town” was announced today and will be posted on www.chronicle.hw.com. Auditions for “Our Town” took place last week. Around 45 students auditioned for the 18-22 characters portrayed in the three-act play, 10-12 of whom are male characters and 8-10 of whom are female characters. Director Ted Walch, considered both male and female actors for the vital role of stage manager. ‘Our Town’ is generally regarded as the great American play of the 20th century. It is performed more than any other play in the history of the American theater,” Walch said. Grover’s Corners is just like any other average town in New Hampshire. “Nobody very remarkable ever come out of it, s’far as we know,” says the stage manager during the first few pages of “Our Town.” The three acts, entitled “Daily Life,” “Love and Marriage,” and “Death and Eternity” depict the everyday lives of the town’s citi-
• CATERING
zens, most notably Emily Webb and George Gibbs. Emily Webb is the daughter of the town’s newspaper editor and George Gibbs is the son of the town’s doctor. Throughout the play, the audience watches Emily Webb’s and George Gibb’s unspoken love evolve into marriage and then death. “It’s a simple play that uses virtually no scenery. It was written in the 1930’s and is set in a slightly earlier time, but the timelessness of the play is such that we will not emphasize a historical time period,” said Walch. Walch has decided, due to the lack of scenery, to have the entire cast on stage from the beginning of the play until the end. “This production, as are all our productions, is about the ensemble,” Walch said. On the audition material that was posted, Walch also informs students that the cast will be heavily involved in creating the aural and visual atmosphere of the play. Unlike many other plays, the crew members will be visible and the technical elements, such as sound and light-
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ing, will be created in full view of the audience. “Our Town” was written by one of America’s most accomplished novelists and playwrights, Thornton Wilder. He has won many awards, including a Pulitzer Prize in drama for “Our Town” in 1938. Some of his most memorable works include “The Matchmaker”, which was adapted as the hit musical “Hello, Dolly!” and his screenplay for Alfred Hitchcock’s “Shadow of a Doubt”. Walch has directed this play four other times in his career, and twice at Harvard-Westlake, in 1992 and 2002. “I want as many students as possible to experience this play, either on stage or in the audience, which is why I’ve directed it as many times as I have. I do it differently each time, and the play is so rich and so beautiful that I never tire of doing it. It’s that kind of play,” said Walch. ‘Our Town’ will be performed on Feb. 4, 5, and 6. “I can’t wait,” Walch said. “I’ve directed a lot of plays in my life, and “Our Town” is near the top of my list of favorite plays to work on.”
Math Tutoring
AP Calculus AB & BC Thomas Hyun
since 1957
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(818) 624 - 6502 (805) 405 - 4626
Thomas Hyun is the author of the Acing Math series and a private tutor with over 15 years experience.
Nov. 11, 2009
The
C hronicle
Features B9
arts&entertainment
‘Angels’ director has long credit list By Jessica Barzilay
“
Bloodshed is not usually a positive sign when it comes to building sets. However, in the case of Theater Program Director Christopher Moore, “it was not a good day’s work unless I bled,” he said. Al—Christopher Moore, though not a carpenter by trade, Moore has quite Director of the a few other occupations Theater Program to fall back on including teacher, actor, producer, playwright,and director. Moore began working on productions at the age of 13, and by 17 he was making his living as an actor while simultaneously attending the Northwestern University School of Speech. Performing Arts teacher Ted Walch had taught Moore’s best friend in college as a high school drama student, and it was in this way that Moore first established a connection to Harvard-Westlake. Later, when Moore ran professional acting classes with Walch, his relationship to the Harvard-Westlake performing arts department grew. He began building sets for school productions as an extra stage hand, resulting in a daily injuries and a fair amount of bleeding, Moore said. After graduating from college, Moore added to his theatrical resume by starring in what amounted to more than 200 national commercials, guest starring on television shows and acting in stage productions. He was also a member of the Organic Theater Company, a group that specialized in adapting novels into scripts. His experience reviewing plays gave Moore exactly the preparation he needed to edit and evaluate submissions to the HarvardWestlake Playwrights Festival, he said. Moore, who spearheads the festival of student-written one act plays, reads and works individually with every playwright over the course of the year. “From the first draft to the final selections for the festival I hardly have a free period,” Moore said. One year, Moore recorded the cumulative number of script pages he read from September to June and found the total to be a staggering 6,296 pages of plays, he said. Although it is a grueling time commitment, Moore is willing to put in the time because “the One Acts opens it up for so many people to have fun and try something new out,” he said. Moore’s goal as the leader of the Playwright’s Festival is to create a sense of ensemble on stage, by his work to involve all who audition in the One Acts in some way. He also encourages students to take chances both in his classes and as playwrights. Moore said he avoids words like “rejection” and to create a classroom environment in which everyone feels very safe. “It is important that if a student does something brilliant everyone will cheer and applaud, but the next day if they fall on their face, everyone will cheer and applaud them for trying,” Moore said. Some years Moore serves as a director or producer in the Festival in addition to fulfilling his role as mentor and teaching acting classes during the school day. Being involved in so many aspects of drama has its perks, but Moore also takes advantage of the increased respect that accompanies being an educator, he said. When Moore drove into Canada to film a commercial, he informed the border patrol that he was an actor. The guard then proceeded to complete a thorough search of his vehicle before allowing him to enter the country. Driving back home, Moore decided to approach his departure from a different angle. Upon the guard’s customary questioning at the border of Vancouver, Moore called himself a teacher. Moore enjoys the side benefits of being a teacher, but his favorite part of the job is giving kids the opportunity to explore storytelling, he said. The transition from actor to backstage helper to teacher was a natural progression for Moore, and “it’s probably safer that I stay away from building sets,” he said.
If you don’t risk failure, You never really Succeed.”
jESSICA bARZILAY/chronicle
From actor to teacher: Christopher Moore has been working around the play and movie productions scene since the age of 13.
City of Angels Cast: Stine Ben Platt ’11 Stone Nick Lieberman ’11 Gabby/Bobbi Megan Fleming ’10 Donna/Oolie Jilli Marine ’10 Buddy/Irving Hank Doughan ’12 Carla/Alaura Kathryn Gallagher ’11 Werner/ Luther Jack Petok ’11 Gerald/Peter Kingsley Simon Hunegs ’10 Avril/Mallory Kat Arenella ’10 Munoz Matthew Goldhaber ’10 Jimmy Powers Max Sheldon ’11 Dr. Mandril/ Eli Petzold ’10 Prison Guard Cop/Big Six Chase Morgan ’10 Cop/Sonny Jake Chapman ’12 Mahoney Danielle Wieder ’12 Yamato Bella Hicks ’12 Pasco Danielle Strom ’11 First Orderly Kelsey Woo ’11 Second Orderly Autumn Chiklis ’12 Anna Susanna Wolk ’10 Margaret Jenna Hamburger ’10 Del DaCosta Ben Dreier ’11 Comm. Gaines/ Gene Ben Dreier ’11 Margie Danielle Strassman ’11 Buddy’s Niece Bella Hicks ’12
The upcoming musical, “City of Angels,” directed by Christopher Moore, opens November 19. Musical Director, Conductor: Daniel Faltus Brass: Gaby Leslie, Chris Holthouse, Nick Mancall-Bitell, Rex Richardson, Ben Brown, Robby Mack Winds: Shawn Costantino, Jacob Gindi, Mandy Leiter, Spencer Horstman, Max Simchowitz Strings: Ben-Han Son, Kevin Schwarzwald, Joe Girton, Anna Romanoff, Meghan Hartman Rhythm Section: Charlie Mischer, Max Druz Angel City Eight: Berni Barta ’10 Ben Dreier ’11 Beanie Feldstein ’11 Elana Fruchtman ’10 Simon Hunegs ’10 Chloe Korban ’10 Jack Petok ’11 Lizzy Pratt ’11 graphic by Justine goode source: Christopher Moore
Drama faculty chose musical for its light side By Matthew Lee For this year’s fall musical, the members of the performing arts department wanted a lighter play, something different from the darker musicals in the past years, said Moore. “City of Angels” is based on the novel written by Larry Gelbert and is set in the late 1940s. It parallels the stories of Stine, a struggling screenwriter, and the enactment of the play he wrote. In the selection of the plays and musicals, all members of the drama department have a say. Moore said that he, Ted Walch, Rees Pugh and Michele Spears all brainstormed their ideas to select a musical. They obtained perusal copies from the people who have the copyrights on them to view different scripts and find potential musicals. Moore said that he wanted a play that would be more fun opposed to the previous musicals, which had more serious plots. Another factor in selecting “City of Angels” as the fall musical, Moore said, was
the large cast that it would incorporate. He said the “City of Angels” met the requirement of having enough parts so that many students could participate. There are 34 actors and 25 musicians involved in the musical. The music of the score is based on bigband style music and consists of strings, winds and brass instruments. The pit orchestra differs from the pit orchestras from previous productions because it includes more of the jazz musicians. If one person is particularly passionate about a certain play, then they agree to do that play. For example, Moore said that Walch was especially passionate about revisiting Thornton Wilder, which is why they chose “Our Town “ for the play. Moore said that the teachers don’t have certain actors in mind when they chose “City of Angels,” but knew they had the talent to execute it because of the strong choral program. He was also assured by the variety of talented musicians. “City of Angels” runs from Nov. 19 to Nov. 22 in Rugby Auditorium.
‘city of angels’ by the numbers:
1989
year the show premiered
878
6
number of Tony Awards won by Broadway show
performances on Broadway graphic by Justine goode source: christopher Moore
B10 Features
The
C hronicle
Nov. 11, 2009
arts&entertainment
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Photo courtesy of Kameron Lucas
In the Spotlight: Autumn Chiklis ’12 had a role on “The Shield”. Kameron Lucas ’12, who has landed roles on commercials and television shows, on the set of “Cold Case”. Morgan St. Jean ’12 sings, dances, and acts in theater productions.
Three sophomores get an early start on theatrical careers
Kameron Lucas Kameron Lucas ’12 has been a professional actor since the age of five. “I told my mom that I wanted to be an actor, so she called an agency, we went to an audition and got an agent the very same day,” Lucas said. He has appeared on hit television shows like “iCarly”, “Ned’s Declassified School Survival Guide”, “Cold Case” and nationwide commercials for Kids Bop, Frosted Flakes, Gatorade, Nike and Coca-Cola. “I enjoy making people laugh and being in front of the camera,” Lucas said. His favorite job was getting to act on the television show “Cold Case”. “I used to watch the show all the time with my mom and one day my agent called. I went to the “Cold Case” audition and they let me know I got the part the very same day.” As of now, Lucas thinks that he will want to pursue his acting career as an adult. “It’s something I love to do and I would be happy doing this for a long time.” —Sofia Davila Autumn Chiklis Autumn Chiklis ’12, like many others, wishes to enter show business. Unlike some others her career began when she was only five years old. She starred in her first play, “Hello Dolly,” in which she played Irene. By the time the play was over, her mind was already set on acting. “I remember getting really excited during the first performance, and when it was all over I took my bow and decided I was going to do that for a living,” Chiklis said with a smile. She acted in plays every chance she had until she landed her first job on TV as an extra in a show called “Daddio.”
The show starred her father, Michael Chiklis, famous for roles like The Thing from “The Fantastic Four” and being the star of the TV drama “The Shield”. Chiklis also got her first real TV job in “The Shield,” in which she played a small role. Throughout the seasons, her role gradually grew, until she finished shooting in November 2007. Because of her father’s presence in show business, Chiklis’s legitimacy as an actress is constantly questioned and doubted by critics, she said. Faced with accusations of having an unfair advantage, Chiklis has simply had to learn how to shake it off. She says that there is no easy way into show business. At the most, her father could get her an audition, not a role. The hard work had to be put in by her. “A lot of the time it seems there’s more bad than good... but you come to realize that it’s the other way around,” she said. Chiklis has considered the commitment and difficulties that come with becoming a star. “My attitude is that as long as I’m loving my work and being myself, I have nothing to worry about. I know that’s kind of Hallmark cheesy, but it really is true,” she said. Chiklis makes it clear that acting is what she wants to do. “Acting is my favorite thing to do in the world,” Chiklis said, “I’d much rather be an actress who works in little theater productions outside of town and love what I do than be something else and hate going to work in the morning.” Chiklis says that she will focus on being a student rather than an actress for now.
“I’m going to start auditioning again in the spring for some summer movies and hopefully all will go well, but at the moment, I’m fine just living my life at Harvard-Westlake,” Chiklis said. —Vivien Mao Morgan St. Jean When Morgan St. Jean ’12 was 9 years old, she sang for the Pope. “It was probably the most memorable and incredible experience of my life,” St. Jean said. Since then, she has devoted much of her time to improving her skills as an entertainer. St. Jean developed an interest in singing at a young age. “In second grade, I auditioned for my school choir and I was the youngest to make it. My director told me he wanted me to work privately with him and be the featured soloist of the group,” St. Jean said. She has been excelling in different aspects of music and theatre since then. Along with her voice lessons, St. Jean also has guitar, dance and acting lessons. She has also been cast in several choral and dance performances as well as, “The Man Who Came to Dinner” and “Guys and Dolls.” St. Jean spent three weeks of her summer at a performing arts camp in New York, where she had an opening solo in “Hair.” St. Jean also attended an intensive camp affiliated with “Acting for the Camera,” and her scene was chosen for a showing on parents’ night. “Singing was my first real passion and it comes a lot more easily to me, but acting is like a new challenge,” St. Jean said. —Nika Madyoon
Middle School brings New York to North Faring for ‘Auntie Mame’ By Chloe Lister and Chelsey Taylor-Vaughn
Chloe Lister/Chronicle
Setting the Scene: Members of the middle school cast perform “Auntie Mame”.
The Bing Performing Arts Center was a transformed place this past weekend. An expertly replicated upper crust New York apartment sat atop the stage, complete with ornately decorated walls, furniture, and a staircase leading to an upstairs bedroom. In the center of all this, Megan Ward ’13 declared to the audience that “life is a banquet, and most sons of bitches are starving to death.” Ward played Auntie Mame, an eccentric woman thrilled to be left in charge of her deceased brother’s only child, in the middle school play of the same title. Throughout this production, audience members were brought from this apartment to places ranging from a Macy’s department store to an icy mountain precipice to an old-fashioned ranch in the south. “I think this is the first time we’ve really utilized the facilities
in the Bing,” Michael Sugerman ’13 said. “Romeo and Juliet last year didn’t need all the sound effects and set changes, but this time we’re using a lot more technology.” The set was one of the largest and most complicated ever constructed for a school production, director Foster Solomon said. The set, designed by set designer Alex Kolmanovsky and built by him and Director of Campus Operations James DeMatte over a five-week period, depicted numerous locations, including an Egyptian pyramid, the Matterhorn, and the Macy Department Store ice rink. Kolmansksy said his inspiration for the intricate design was a doll house. “It’s the largest set we’ve built with walls flying in from the ceiling and two levels,” Solomon said. “I felt like I was actually there,” Taylor Nunley ’12 said.
December Performing Arts Events
2 DEC.
Fall Orchestra Concert
St. Michael’s and All Angels Episcopal Church 7 p.m. DEC.
5 9, 10 DEC.
Winter Jazz Concert
Rugby Theater 7 pm-10:30 p.m.
Dance Showcase
Chalmers Dance Studio 7 p.m.
12 DEC.
Winter Choral Concert
Santa Monica First Presbyterian Church 7:30 p.m.
Graphic by Matthew Lee
Nov. 11, 2009
C hronicle
The
arts&entertainment
Features B11
Whether they are scouting bands or playing cello for live audiences, students follow their passion for music.
Chloe Lister/chronicle
the girl at the By Chloe Lister
W
rock show
hen Melissa Flores ’12 went to the annual Vans Warped Tour, it was with the intention of seeing some of her favorite bands perform live, not getting a job. By chance, she was handed a card to download 20 songs for free. Flores visited the website on the card and after exchanging e-mails with the owner, was officially employed as a band scout. “What I do is find bands that I think are good on MySpace or other websites like that and separate them by genre and state. The only specification is that they have to be unsigned, because the purpose of what we do is to help promote them so they can gain fans and get big,” Flores said. “All I do is send them a prewritten e-mail and my boss handles the business part of it.” With her bright clothes, purple extensions, dark makeup and mess of curly hair, it’s clear that Flores is not a conventional girl, so it’s fitting that she found a less than conventional magazine to work at. Slam Scene is an online magazine founded this past summer that strives to bring fans “your scene, not theirs,” as its website so boldly proclaims. “It’s called Slam Scene Magazine because each letter in ‘Slam’ stands for something; scene, lifestyle, attitude and music. What we try to do is to make it so it’s really your world writing it, because with
bigger magazines they tend to become more what’s popular than what’s important to you. So we’ll ask you what kind of music you’re listening to, what kind of fashion you’re wearing, things like that,” Flores said. So far Flores’ job specifically has largely consisted of scouting bands for the download cards. More than 20,000 download cards were handed out in 45 different cities over the summer by Slam Scene. Slam Scene is a partnership with Punk Junk, a charity which seeks to connect fans and bands with their local homeless organizations. “We took the bands we scouted and gave them each a track on these download cards that were then distributed at Warped Tour. That way people could hear their music and, if they like it, buy more or go to a show,” Flores said. “My boss will tell us what genre to find bands from, but pop-punk is the one I mostly handle because that’s the one I really enjoy. I’m not the one to be scouting the metal bands.” Her favorite bands scouted so far have been Broadway Calls and I, Said The Spy. However, she has done some fieldwork and enjoyed the perks. “I did help at Warped Tour with passing out the cards, so I got in before anyone else,” Flores said. Flores credits her desire to be involved in the music industry to her parents. From when she was a baby, they were the ones
Courtesy of GRAYDON FEINSTEIN
Promoting Bands: Melissa Flores ’12 hands out free music download cards at Warped Tour. who introduced her to music, playing her everything from jazz to classic Spanish love songs. “My first impression of rock music was really screamo death metal and I hated it,” Flores said. Flores acknowledges Green Day as the band that began her venture into rock music. “No one really takes the time to appreciate how beautiful music can be, but for me it can even control my moods. It makes me feel good. I still love jazzy rhythms and Latin flavors but my favorite genre will definitely continue to be rock,” Flores said. However, being part of the music industry hasn’t been a longtime desire of Flores. “I actually want to be a doctor, but I feel like I don’t really fit in that world, with everyone dressed in their white coats and combed back hair, and it’s so difficult that it’s more realistic for me to do what I’m skilled at,” Flores said. “I’d love to work at a record label. To be surrounded by music all the time, that would be so amazing,” she said.
Cellist performs at Disney Concert Hall
By Saj Sri-Kumar
Devon Breton-Pakozdi ’12 was sitting in the Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown Los Angeles last June. He wasn’t there watching the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the usual performer in the hall. Instead, he was there as a cellist in a concert of the Junior Philharmonic Orchestra. “It was kind of overwhelming,” Breton-Pakozdi said. “But I’m happy I got to do it.” Breton-Pakozdi started playing cello in seventh grade. Since then, he has gone on to perform in such places as the Concert Hall, the Brentwood Country Mart, the Jazz Bakery in Culver City and even the Pasadena Jazz Institute. Breton-Pakozdi originally signed up for Beginning Strings when he was an entering seventh grader in 2006. He anticipated that he would play the guitar, only to find out that Beginning Strings did not include the guitar. Undeterred, BretonPakozdi decided to choose another instrument. He decided against the violin, thinking that it sounded to squeaky, and the double bass, finding it too big. On a whim, he Courtesy of Brooke Breton decided that he would choose the rising musician: Devon Breton-Pakozdi cello over the only other remaining ’12 performs at a jazz concert in West Hollywood. instrument, the viola, feeling that he liked the sound of the cello better.
Looking back he has no regrets; now he says, “I look at the viola with contempt.” Breton-Pakozdi practiced and became the only member of Beginning Strings to be promoted to the Middle School Symphony in eighth grade. Having only one year of experience under his belt, he also joined the alternative string group String Project Los Angeles, a group of which he is still a member. In ninth grade, Breton-Pakozdi continued to advance, joining the Junior Philharmonic and the Chamber Music Institute at the Colburn School of Performing Arts. He plans to audition next year for the American Youth Symphony, a group made mostly of college and graduate students majoring in performance that admits a few very talented high school students. This past summer, Breton-Pakozdi attended the Creative Strings Workshop in Columbus, Ohio, in a program that is usually restricted to musicians over the age of 18. The vigorous daily curriculum consisted of 12 straight hours of classes and lessons and culminated in playing at jazz clubs in and around Columbus. One day they played at three different clubs and finished with a rehearsal in front of the Workshop’s faculty. In order to achieve his goals, Breton-Pakozdi practices often for extended periods of time. He often practiced for three hours a day during the summer; however, with schoolwork he tries to get a minimum of 45 minutes each day during the school year. Breton-Pakozdi anticipates that he will continue playing cello through high school and college. Although he doesn’t think he will become a professional musician, he does say that he plans on playing cello “for the rest of my life.”
B12 Features
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Hooked on
Nov. 11, 2009
chronicle.hw.com
hookah
Contrary to the beliefs of many, smoking hookah is more addictive and dangerous than cigarettes. By Allegra Tepper Giselle* ’11 sits with her sister and mother at the dinner table. Outside the window to her sister’s apartment are the crowded streets of a Middle Eastern city, where, according to Giselle, hookahs are an inescapable fixture. Her mother passes her the hose and she takes another puff; it’s customary to gather round the three foot tall ornate contraption before moving on to dessert. When Giselle returns home, there’s no longer a hookah, or a single or multi-stemmed water pipe used for smoking shisha tobacco, standing between her and apple pie after dinner. In fact, Giselle reserves the pipe solely for her days abroad, but can’t say the same goes for her peers. “Right now, the cool thing is having a hookah,” Giselle said. “It used to feel like I had chain-smokers all around me, but people are cutting down on cigarettes because it’s no longer trendy.” Today, the party surrounds the pipe. What teenagers don’t know is that if that party goes on for too long, serious health risks may arise. Giselle believes, along with most of her peers, that smoking from a hookah is the answer to the nicotine addiction. The hookah apparatus consists of a base that is filled with water, a bowl, a heating device that contains the tobacco and other products, a pipe that connects the bowl to the base and a hose that is attached to the base to allow the smoke to be inhaled. That smoke, according to the World Health Organization, exposes the individual to high levels of toxic compounds including carbon monoxide, heavy metals and cancer-causing chemicals as well as significant levels of nicotine. According to Jameel Hourani, a pulmonologist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, the smoke inhaled in a single 60-minute hookah session amounts to 100-200 times the smoke from a cigarette; that single session is believed to be as harmful as a pack of cigarettes a day. One in five deaths in the United States is due to tobacco use according to the American Cancer Society, which includes cigarettes, cigars and water pipes. A study by the ACS showed that 50 percent of high school students had smoked tobacco in any of various apparatuses, and in 2008, more than a quarter of adolescents age 12 and older were regular tobacco smokers. Twhat comes out to roughly 71 million American teens. “How you’re smoking the tobacco doesn’t make a difference,” Cedars-Sinai pulmonologist Warren Roston said. “The addiction is stemming from the nicotine, and that’s still entering your body. While there are carcinogens in the paper that are being eliminated, they still exist in the tobacco.” The tar intake from a 45-minute hookah session is 36 times that from smoking a cigarette for five minutes, Hourani said. “A leisurely hour of puffing on a hookah produces the same carbon monoxide as smoking a pack of cigarettes a day,” Hourani said. For Giselle and her friends, it might be time to think twice before passing the hose. According to a study in the Journal of Periodontology, water pipes smokers were five times more likely than non-smokers to show signs of gum disease. The American University in Cairo discovered in 2005 that 17 percent of cases of Tuberculosis in the eastern Mediterranean were due to smoking hookah. Phoebe ’11 owns a hookah, and smokes with pals “as much as she can,” usually on a weekly basis. She’s quick to acknowledge the health effects, but despite her awareness, has no plans of breaking the habit. “I do it regardless of whether or not it’s ‘hip,’” Phoebe said. “I do it because it provides a fun, social setting, and because of the health risks, I can’t understand why anyone would do it to be hip. But I still see 8th and 9th graders doing it all the time, because that’s exactly what they think.” Giselle agrees that smoking hookah has enhanced the social smoking that once revolved around a pack of Marlboros. “Cigarettes used to be the social thing, but with hookah, it’s about relating to people, having a conversation while you share it,” Giselle said. “It’s not obnoxious to ask for a hit from a hookah like it is when you ask for a cigarette. It creates that social atmosphere.”
You’ll likely find Phoebe at Habibi Cafe and Lounge located in Westwood, which Giselle says is the hookah mecca of Los Angeles, smoking a pipe of her favorite flavor of shisha, vanilla mint. Westwood has abundant hookah bars and tobacco shops that Phoebe says provide an unparalleled atmosphere for the practice of Indian origin. “We have a large Persian population in this area, and I think that played a part in hookah’s growing popularity,” Hourani said. Giselle agreed that adolescents are curious about the cultural aspects of the practice, and that the mystery of Middle Eastern traditions exceed the appeal of the American cigarette icons. Congeniality or not, the greatest appeal may be that IDs are a non-issue at local hookah bars, making the age limit of 18 an easy obstacle to conquer for adolescents as young as the eighth grade. Smoking a hookah typically costs $10 to $15 at a cafe, and Phoebe says that she uses a fake ID to purchase the tobacco for her own hookah at CVS pharmacies, where three ounces of tobacco cost less than $6. “You can’t be addicted to hookah like you can be addicted to cigarettes,” Giselle said. “You don’t see kids running down Halkirk smoking a hookah and trying to catch the bus.” Despite the lack of mobility of a two-foot tall water pipe, hookahs are just as addictive if not more addictive that cigarettes. “Cigarettes are addictive because of the nicotine, and that doesn’t change with a hookah,” Roston said. However, Hourani believes that until the press gives hookah dangers even a portion of the attention that it has given cigarette health implications, adolescents won’t understand the consequences of their smoke sessions. And while students have observed the aftermath of cigarette addiction in for their parents and grandparents, the mystery of the hookah keeps both teens and their parents oblivious to the health risks. “If my mom found me with cigarettes, I’d be living in a box off the 405 freeway,” Giselle said. “But if she found me with a hookah, she wouldn’t mind at all.”
Did you know...
15 in
deaths in the U.S. are caused by tobacco
and a smoker ingests...
36
times as much tar in an hour of hookah smoking as in five minutes smoking a cigarette.
100-200
times the smoke from a cigarette in an hour with the hookah. graphic by mary rose fissinger source: dr. Jameel hourani and the American Cancer society
*names have been changed
Photo illustration by judd liebman, mary rose fissinger, Chloe lister and joyce kim
sports The
Harvard-Westlake School
Chronicle
Volume XIX
Issue 3 Nov. 11, 2009
alex Leichenger/chronicle
Fighting for position: Six varsity runners start League Finals after an injury plagued season. Despite these injuries, the boys’ team is ranked second in
High-ranked cross country trains for CIF By Jonah Rosenbaum
With the Mount San Antonio College invitational in their rear view mirror, the boys’ and girls’ cross country teams are gearing up for what they hope will be a deep CIF and state run. “We ran unbelievably well considering how tired we were, and the injuries we were dealing with,” David Abergel ’11 said. “We were running without three of our top seven.” Three runners, Kevin On ’11, Charlie Stigler ’11
the state for Division IV and the girls’ team is ranked first in the state for Division IV. CIF begins on Saturday at Mount San Antonio College with CIF finals on Nov.
and Chris Vanderschans ’10 were all unable to compete due to injuries. The boys were unable to place in the top five as they had hoped, though Abergel said that a large part of their low placing can be attributed to injuries. Abergel ran a personal best time of 16:03 and finished first among all competitors. “It was really surprising that I was able to finish like that,” Abergel told Flotrack.com after the race. “At the halfway point of the race I was in the middle of the pack, but I felt like I had a lot left, so I just took off. I ran the first mile in 5:04, and I saw I was in good shape, so I just said to myself let’s see what these guys got.” The Mt. SAC invitational was a race that the team had circled on their calendar for a long time. Though the team had already qualified for CIF prior to the race, it is the same course on which CIF is run. “It was a really important race for us to get acclimated with the conditions, so we know how to pace ourselves and the ins and outs of the course,” Vanderschans said. The girls’ team placed second at Mt. SAC, finishing ahead of La Reina, which was previously ranked
number one. Their runner-up showing was enough to vault the girls into the number one spot in the state rankings heading into CIF. Cami Chapus ’12 won her second straight Mission League title. Bridget Golob ’10 said she could not have envisioned the team being in a better position at this point in the season. “The season has gone insanely well,” Golob said. “I actually just read a stat that said that our H-W team, first place in the Mission League, would have beat the rest of the Mission League teams combined if it had been a dual meet. It’s crazy.” Golob also said that the team is taking a different approach this year than they had in past years. “Compared to last year, we were really just hoping to keep moving on, but this year the attitude of both the girls team and the boys team (ranked second) is infinitely more strategic,” Golob said. Golob stated that she believes the girls’ team is well-positioned to finish first for both CIF and state. The boys’ team is equally optimistic about their own chances. “Laguna Beach (ranked number 1) better watch out,” Abergel shouted after his first place finish.
Football nears season finale Inside Sports: with playoff situation uncertain C2 Fencer seeks spot in Olympics
By Austin Block
With one game left in the season, the varsity football team is in a precarious position. Last Friday’s 32-16 away loss to the undefeated Cathedral Phantoms forces them to win their Friday game against Bishop St. Montgomery, the team’s last league game, in order to grab a playoff spot. Had the team defeated Cathedral, it would have been assured at least a playoff berth, and a win against Bishop St. Montgomery and a Serra loss to Cathedral would have left it in a three way tie for first place in the Del Rey League. Now the team’s playoff fate lies in its hands, and its game this Friday could be its last.
The team has compiled a 6-3 overall record and a 1-2 league record, with its sole league win a 49-6 blowout against St. Bernard. “To succeed in playoffs, the team needs to really come together and play like a team,” player Noor Fateh ’11 said. “Right now, we aren’t as cohesive and responsible for one another as we can be, and that’s hurting us in the long run. We have a very solid team this year and I, myself, as well as others on the team believe that we can really go far once we mesh and play to our full potential.” The game against Serra was a struggle, after Serra took a 21-0 lead into halftime. The home team’s lone touchdown was scored by wide receiver Jackson Liguori ’10, who
caught a Max Heltzer ’11 pass and ran down the field to score near the end of the game. The game was fraught with penalties, and the Wolverines committed several mistakes, including a botched extra point and two failed punts. Serra is ranked fifth in the state and 25th in the nation according to MaxPreps. “We have a legitimate chance to do well in playoffs and we know we can play with anyone,” receiver Greg Comanor ’10 said. “We were blown out by Serra, a team now ranked fifth in the state. We were intimidated. But looking back at the film, we know we could play with those guys.” “We need to learn to be more consistent in the playoffs.,” Comanor said.
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Boys’ soccer and girls’ water polo preview
C8
Q&A with varsity tennis captain Izzy Heller ’10
C2 Sports
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chronicle.hw.com
Nov.11, 2009
Taking swordplay seriously
Fencing team trains, practices year round By Alex Edel
Every Monday, Wednesday and Thursday, boys and girls on the fencing team walk to the what they call the “fencing shack” in order to practice. The fencers then dress in up to four layers of clothing. There are three divisions of fencing based on the weapon used. Épée is the most basic of the swords with a curved small guard to protect the hand and the opponent can strike anywhere. The sabre has an additional piece of covering which connects the guard to the bottom of the handle and the player must wear a gray mesh shirt called a lamé covering the entire upper half of the body. An opponent can only hit in this gray region or the mask. The last of the weapons, the Foil blade, has a flatter guard and fencers wear a lamé which covers only the torso region. There are only three or four school competitions a year, which are held on weekends and sometimes last all day. The team’s biggest rival is Chaminade, but they also compete against Victor Valley, Monroe, Brentwood, Polytechnic High, Palmdale High School and other Los Angeles area schools. To train for these competitions, the team stretches,
works on footwork, runs, and lunges. “I enjoy learning new techniques and incorporating them into my bouts,” Foil team captain Jeffrey Dastin ’10 said. “The most important skill, however, is observation. A fencer must watch the slightest movements of his or her opponent and respond immediately. It is a game of feints and surprise attacks, which makes for an exciting sport.” Most of the people on the team play outside of school at various fencing studios around Los Angeles. The biggest clubs are Beverly Hills Fencing Club, Los Angeles International Fencing Center, and Swords Fencing Studio. Dastin trains at Beverly Hills Fencing Club and also has private lessons with Coach Ted Katzoff. The people on the team started fencing for various reasons. Sabre fencer Tabitha Yoo ’11 started fencing after watching her brother and his friends play. Dastin started after attending a camp which offered fencing as an activity and started playing at school in tenth grade. “It was something I had never really heard of until eighth grade. I thought it would be an interesting thing to try. I tried it, and I liked it,” Justin Ho ’12 said.
Alec caso/chronicle
ENGARDE: Sabre fencers Max Thoeny ’13 and Monica Sullivan ’13 begin a bout during practice. The team practices in what the players call the “fencing shack.”
Senior seeks place in 2012 Olympics By Austin Block
Austin Block/chronicle
duel: Harvard-bound Michael Raynis ’10 fences with Joey Rafidi ’10 during practice.
It seems like it all comes down to friends and family. Without a friend to suggest that Michael Raynis ’10 give fencing a try, he might never have become the highest ranked high school senior fencer in the nation. If he didn’t have family in Korea to visit during the summer after seventh grade, he might never have developed a passion for fencing and won several North American championships, a national championship, and the Junior Olympics. But those events did come to pass, and now Raynis harbors dreams of competing in the Olympics. “I really want to shoot for 2012, but whether or not that’s a realistic goal, I’ll find out in a couple of years,” Raynis said. Raynis is currently ranked third in the nation for all epée fencers 20 and under and first in the nation for all high school seniors. This sum-
mer, he placed second in the National Championships, a competition for all ages in which he defeated an Olympic fencer. He also placed in the top 16 of a Senior (adult) World Cup in Buenos Aires over the summer. Raynis agreed to commit to Harvard this fall after being recruited. Raynis said he wasn’t really good at fencing when he first started and was considering quitting by the time summer rolled around after seventh grade. While in Korea visiting relatives that summer, he participated in a serious Korean fencing program for about a month. “They took fencing along with every other sport they do extremely seriously and whereas I was just sort of goofing around in middle school my first two years they were like gung-ho, we’re going to win the Olympics,” Raynis said. He came back to the United States a “considerably better” fencer.
“The dynamics of fencing alone are so unique,” Raynis said. “I don’t think you have any other sport where it’s basically a one-on-one fight but relatively safe. It’s not as intense as say karate or any type of sparring sport and yet it sort of has its own artistic quality to it.” He missed two days of school in October to compete in one of the international fencing organization’s junior world cups in Slovakia. He bowed out in the first elimination round. Raynis said he has made a number of friends from a variety of countries, including England, Switzerland, Sweden, Germany, and Kazakhstan. “I think it’s one of the more enjoyable aspects of competing abroad,” he said. “I have a lot of friends from other countries, some of whom I can hardly speak to, but somehow we manage to bond and laugh together in our own strange way.”
Junior ranks in top 8 in nation under 17 By Julius Pak Emma Peterson ’11 is at the top of the fencing world. Having achieved the highest rank of A09, Peterson has competed in Épée, one of the three fencing styles, for four years at national and international levels. One of the top eight fencers in women’s cadet, Peterson’s category, which encompasses all female fencers age 16 and under, Peterson must constantly practice to stay on top. She practices around eighteen hours a week at the Los Angeles International Fencing Center in West Los Angeles, the largest fencing club in California, with her coach, Gago Demirchian, the Nation-
al Épée Champion of Armenia, and an assistant coach on the US Fencing Team. Peterson came in third at the LAIFC Invitational in early September. She also won the bronze medal at the last summer nationals, and took the gold medal the summer before. “I love fencing because it is just as much intellectual as it is physical. You really have to plan your actions based on how your opponent is fencing,” Peterson said. Peterson had the option to study abroad in Italy for her junior year, but had to turn it down at the last minute because of her obligations in fencing. “The decision to stay home rather than studying a year in
Italy was without a doubt the hardest decision that I have had to make in my life so far,” Peterson said. “Essentially, if I went to Italy, I would have to take a year off fencing,” she said. “But both my parents and I have invested so much time and effort into fencing that skipping a year just wasn’t an option.” “Initially, it seemed like I would be able to compete in Italy…but it became clear that I would not be able to fence at all in Italy, and I had to cancel. I don’t know if it was worth it, but I sure hope so,” Peterson said. Peterson will be competing in Germany for the last week in November, and then competing in France the following week.
Courtesy of emma peterson
Parry, Riposte: Emma Peterson ’11 lunges at her opponent during the Junior Olypmics in Des Moines, Iowa .
Nov. 11, 2009
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Girls’ tennis captures Mission League title By Ashley Khakshouri
Erin Moy/chronicle
Forehand with a smile: Nicole Hung ’10 hits a forehand during a match. The team won the Mission League with an undefeated league record.
Girls’ tennis ended the season as league champions after outplaying Flintridge Sacred Heart on Wednesday. The team’s league record is 10-0 and it’s overall record is 14-2, an improvement from last year when the team finished with a 12-7 record. The team has been practicing three hours Monday through Thursday since August. Their practice includes match play and specific foot work for each player. The Wolverines beat rival Chaminade twice on the way to their undefeated league record. “The team has a structured workout made by the coaches of a pre-warm up and warm up that helps us prepare for the matches. The training focuses on net game especially for doubles,” Alanna Klein ’11 said. Luna Ikuta ’11 believes that a lot of the improvement was not only due to the extensive conditioning but also the connection the team shared. “The team bonded more and that helped us support each other and therefore we were able to dominate this year’s league. Everyone worked really hard and added additional talent to the team,” said Ikuta. Captain Nicole Hung ’10 agrees that their team chemistry was great. “Everyone was into it this season and put forth a lot of effort. Since we have a young team, we improved as each girl got more experience,” Hung said. Hung recalls the best moments of the season as beating Chaminade and winning league. The girls beat Chaminade 10-8 Oct. 6 and 12-6 on Oct. 22. The freshman singles players that
assisted the team in getting so far are Savannah de Montesquiou ’13 and Kristina Park ’13. “Our doubles has a lot of depth and Park got pulled up from the JV team. She’s really helped us,” Hung said. League Individuals started Nov. 6. Two doubles teams and two singles players competed. The doubles teams were Hung and Heller, and Goldberg and Taylor Coon ’12. The singles players were de Montesquiou and Park. Park lost Friday to a Notre Dame player. On Nov. 9, the girls played the individual finals where Heller and Hung played against teammates Coon and Goldberg. Heller and Hung beat out Coon and Goldberg 6-0, 6-3. De Montesquiou also lost today against a player from Chaminade. Heller, Hung, Coon, Goldberg and de Montesquiou will continue on to play in individual CIFs because they both placed top two in league. After an undefeated league run, the team is hoping to continue their winning streak in the upcoming CIF playoffs, which start tomorrow at Weddington Golf and Tennis. “To prepare for CIF we’re hitting a lot more on the weekends and setting up practice matches to play,” Hung said. The team’s goal is to reach the quarter finals and hopefully win and go on to the semi finals, Kei Goldberg ’12 said. She believes the team needs to work hard, stick together, and communicate well in order to fulfill these goals. “All of our hard work this season has finally paid off and we finally have the opportunity to go up against the best teams,” singles player Melissa Gertler ’11 said.
Field hockey eliminated in 1st round of CIF playoffs By Alex Leichenger
A goal by Fountain Valley in overtime sent the field hockey team to a season-ending 1-0 defeat Nov. 2 at Ted Slavin Field. The team’s first round matchup in CIF Playoffs was deadlocked in a 0-0 tie until the suddendeath goal brought the game and season to an abrupt end. The Wolverines finished the season with a 10-3-2 overall record. Their 6-11 mark in league was good for second place behind Glendora. Despite the playoff loss, goalie Adrianna Crovo ’11 considered the season a huge success for a team that had lost nine starters from the previous year. “For what was originally considered a transition year, I couldn’t have asked for us to have done better,” she said. But Crovo, who surrendered the deciding goal in the Fountain Valley game, was stung by the heartbreaking end to the team’s season.
“Watching the ball roll across the line and knowing that was your last chance at moving on is an indescribably terrible feeling,” she said. After their first loss of the regular season, a 1-0 decision against Huntington Beach Sept. 17, the Wolverines did not lose another game for over a month. Their streak was snapped by Glendora in the final game of the regular season Oct. 29. The 2-1 loss was the only game out of 15 total in which the Wolverines’ opponent scored more than one goal. “With our team being as close as we became this season, our expectations for next year’s season are so high,” Kristen Lee ’12 said. “We are definitely woken up by the outcome of this season and we are ready to go into next year fully determined to win for the seniors, not only this year’s but for all of those seniors who have come before us.”
Volleyball grabs undefeated league record with 10 wins By Jonah Rosenbaum
After sweeping league play with a record of 10-0 and winning thirty straight sets, the girls’ volleyball team enters CIF playoffs as a number one seed. “We played great in the Mission League,” Kellie Barnum ’11 said. “We played an incredibly tough nonleague schedule, and that prepared us. Playing the best teams in the country showed us where we needed to improve, and all of our hard work in practice really paid off,” Barnum said. Senior outside hitter Meg Norton ’10, who was a part of the state championship team of two years ago, said that the team is playing at its best as they approach playoffs.
D E LI SA N D WI C H ES - H A MB U R GER S - F I SH ON T H E GR I L L M E AT PL AT T ER S - H U MMOU S & FA L A F EL - PA R T Y SU B S S A LA D S - SOU PS - D ESSER T S - A N D MOR E! We will cater to your special needs and create a special menu just for you!
“To win league is a great accomplishment and going undefeated is a great accomplishment. But not losing a set is an incredible accomplishment and I’m really proud of the team and how much we’ve improved,” Norton said. Still, success in the Mission League is not always indicative of playoff success. Last year, the team went 10-0 in league, but fell to Lakewood 3-2 in the second round of the CIF playoffs. “After what happened last year, we know that we can’t relax just because CHECK OUT OUR SHABBAT TO-GO MENU! we were successful in league. We have to compete in every game all the way Fax: 818.788.9890 until the end of the season,” Norton 13628 Ventura Blvd., Sherman Oaks said. your entire order The team’s first playoff game was Hours: Sun-Thurs 10:30am-9:30pm Fri: 10:30am-1 hour before Must present Smart Mail coupon Not valid with any other offers Tuesday, and results can be found on sundown Expires 11/30/09 Motzei Shabbat: 1 hour after Shabbat-12:30am at www.chronicle.hw.com.
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Breakaway: Erik Swoope ’10 catches a pass as he charges downcourt in a game against Notre Dame last season.
Boys’ basketball emphasizes fitness By Jack Davis Hall of Fame basketball coach Pat Riley once said that after a team wins a championship, the “disease of more” takes over. That is, with the ultimate goal now achieved, players become less willing to sacrifice themselves and their own personal stats in order to benefit the team. Riley summarized his argument by saying that “success is often the first step toward disaster.” Normally the disease of more isn’t found in high school, because most successful high school teams are loaded with seniors who graduate before that disease has a chance to settle in. However, with no key seniors leaving, 10 returning players, and five returning starters, the boys’ basketball team will be bringing back every key component of last year’s CIF Championship team. “All that a coach can do is warn the players of that possibility and point out any signs,” Head Coach Greg Hilliard said. “Ultimately, the players need to find an important reason to do it all over again.” So with last year’s CIF championship and run to the semifinals of the state championship a thing of the past, the basketball team hit Taper Gymnasium this summer focused, with the goal of repeating in 2010. “We’ve got to stay focused, no question,” team captain Erik Swoope ’10 said. “We were able to accomplish something great last year but that doesn’t mean anything now,” he said. “We have to still practice hard every single day, play hard every single day if we want to accomplish our goal.” Swoope, who plays power forward, along with center Damiene Cain ’11, forward Nate Bulluck ’10, guard Austin Kelly ’10, and point guard Michael Attanasio ’10 make up the starting lineup for a second consecutive year. Guards Chris Barnum ’10 and Nicky Firestone ’11 anchor the bench once again, with forwards David Burton ’11 and Zena Edosomwan ’12 providing depth in the frontcourt. Hilliard has tried to ward off the potential complacency that comes with winning a CIF Championship by reemphasizing fitness and training during summer and fall workouts. “The team is in superior condition compared to last season, and we were able to begin the fall at a much more advanced starting point over past seasons,” Hilliard said. “I think the key to repeating will be to bring the same attitude we did last year,” Kelly said. “Last year, we were in better physical shape than our opponents and just wore them out over the course of the game. If we keep up our work eth-
ic and energy over the off-season we can start the season out right away implementing our full court press and running game and just wear teams down.” Despite the strong commitment the team has made, there have been momentary lapses and complacency during practices. However, these moments have been brief and haven’t permeated into the team’s mind set, something Hilliard credits to the team’s strong leadership. “There have been moments of complacency, but the senior leadership has done a great job of re-directing the energies,” Hilliard said. And therein lies a built-in advantage the 20092010 boys’ basketball team has that the 20082009 CIF Champions did not: the maturation of last year’s core. “One of the biggest questions we faced last year was everybody saying we were too young,” Barnum said. “Now we’ve all gotten a year older, a year more advanced as players. And I mean the biggest thing is we know what to expect from each other out there.” “We should be better and the young guys will benefit from the level of competition at practice,” Hilliard said. “Being better will not assure our advancement past last season’s success, but it should lead to lots of exciting basketball for all involved.” Despite the maturation of last year’s starting five and the addition of young talent, there are potential signs for caution as the team prepares to begin their season in December. Kelly tore his meniscus tendon in an October practice, forcing him to have surgery and sideline him through the final weeks of training. While the Wolverines did not move up a division even though they won a CIF championship, other tough teams like Junipero Serra and Campbell Hall have moved into the Wolverines division, setting up a potentially more difficult playoff schedule. “Our division will be much tougher due to the teams that moved up or moved down to our division this season,” Hilliard said. In the end, no amount of speculation can predict how the Wolverines will fare. But if one thing is certain, it is that this group of basketball players are poised to win back to back CIF titles and put themselves in the lore of all time great Harvard-Westlake basketball teams. “We are actually playing a very high level of selfless basketball. Our team should be even better at sharing the basketball than last year. The team is determined to exceed last season and has the strong leadership to make that happen.”
By Austin Block Last year, the varsity gi reached the peak of Califo winning the Southern Cal gional Championship, reac compiling a 19-5-3 overall r record during the season. The team marched trium road along with the girls teams during a celebration This year’s challenge is and capture the CIF and pionships. The team finished third last year behind Flintrid Chaminade and lost in the “Last year’s CIF Finals swallow and I know we ar it,” Head Coach Richard Si er and every coach is eve year.” The team is currently week, playing two days an and speed on the other two The team will begin pra for two hours a day on Nov. will be Jan. 6 against Flintr team will play in the Mate Dec. 17 to Dec. 21.
Players to Watc
Boys’ Bask Erik
Starting power forward and John Wooden 12.7 ppg and 9
Damie
Starting center, 13.5 ppg and 11.
Girls’
Nicole Hu
Starting forw
Nicole Ne don hagopian/chronicle
Nicole Nesbit ’10
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Nicole Hung ’10
Starting poin 9.8 ppg and 4
Girls’
Hayley
Forward, committed to USC, won Mission Le MVP two consecutive years, first team
Katie
Team’s leading scorer last yea second team Sources: Maxpreps.com, Coach Richard Simms
tions
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winter, the girls’ soccer team won the Southern California Regional Championship. and girls’ basketball both won CIF and advanced deep into state playoffs. Can they new banners in Taper Gymnasium this year while dealing with raised expectations?
soccer seeks CIF
irls’ soccer team almost ornia high school soccer, lifornia Division II Reching the CIF finals, and record and 5-3-2 league
mphantly down the fire s’ and boys’ basketball n this spring. to maintain that status Mission League Cham-
d in the Mission League dge Sacred Heart and e CIF finals to Saugus. loss was a tough pill to re all hungry to avenge imms said. “Every playen more motivated this
y training four days a nd working on strength o. acticing five days a week . 16. Its first league game ridge Sacred Heart. The er Dei tournament from
Simms said this year’s team’s strengths are “speed, maturity and experience as well as tremendous technical ability,” but also said the team’s small physical size will be a disadvantage. 15 players are returning, and eight of them are starters. “The playoff experience is crucial,” Simms said. “Of our 11 starters this year, 10 played in the CIF Final last year. That will be invaluable when it comes to controlling their nerves and staying in the moment.” A few players are coming back from injuries or surgery and Simms plans to ease them back into playing. “We are focused and extremely fit,” Simms said. “The girls are excited about playing together and looking forward to the season.” Simms said team cohesion and health are the most important. “When you have a talented team the main thing you need is good chemistry. Our players need to be willing to sacrifice themselves for the greater good of the team. If they do that we will be successful,” Simms said. “We also have to stay healthy. Those things are a lot more important than luck.” “This is the most talented team we’ve had for a long time so we’re hoping to do well,” he said. “It’s hard to say specifically what we can achieve because so much can and will happen between now and the end of our season. Our main goal is to win CIF and we believe we have a realistic chance at that. Anything else would be a bonus.”
tch:
Girls’ basketball aims for League title
ketball
By Alex Edel
Swoope ’10
award recipient, 9.1 rpg last year
ene Cain ’11
.4 rpg last year
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Erik Swoope’10
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Damiene Cain ’11
’ Basketball
ung ’10
ward 18.8 ppg and 6.6 rpg last
esbit ’10
nt guard, committed to UC Santa Barbara. 4.0 apg last year
Soccer
y Boysen ’10
eague Offensive All-CIF last year
e Speidel ’11
ar with 16 goals, All-CIF last year
courtesy of Kelly Rodriguez
repeat-repeat: The girls’ soccer team celebrates after their Southern California Division II Regional Championship last spring. The team will begin its season on Dec. 3.
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Katie Speidel ’11
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Haley Boysen ’10
infographic by Allegra Tepper, Austin Block and Candice Navi
After winning CIF last year and coming within two games of winning the state title, the girls’ basketball team is already training in preparation for the start of the new season. Their first game will be Nov. 23 against Santa Monica High School. The Wolverines had an overall record of 22-10 and a league record of 8-2 last year, losing to both Notre Dame and Alemany, teams they had beaten earlier in the season. Due to these losses, the team did not win league, something which has now become one of the team’s primary goals, Coach Melissa Hearlihy said. “We were able to win CIF last year, but we had three goals last year [winnning CIF, league, and state], and we were only able to accomplish one,” Hearlihy said. “I think that the fact that the seniors have only won the league title once, makes it our immediate goal.” To prepare for the start of season, the girls have been training both on and off the court. Three times a week the team trains on the court, playing for an hour and a half on Tuesdays and Thursdays and for 45 minutes on Fridays. On Mondays and Fridays the team does conditioning which includes both running on the track and on the road. For the past two Mondays
the girls have requested to do the “Dixie run” which the boys’ basketball team does. The Dixie run consists of running down to Dixie Canyon and then all the way up to Mulholland. “We have had a lot of good practices lately, and it shows that we are really flowing together as a team,” starting forward Amanda Horowitz ’10 said. The team also plays in a fall league run by Beverly Hills High School. Because of the team’s success in this league, the team was seeded first in a tournament, which started last weekend. With a CIF title under its belt, the team has gained some confidence, which according to Hearlihy will definitely help them achieve their goals this year. “I think there is a big difference in our confidence level, and I can tell you it showed on Saturday morning when we were down by 11 with five minutes left, and we won,” Hearlihy said. “That wouldn’t have happened last year.” The team won their first game in the tournament while some of the players were out with injuries or were playing other sports. Varsity starter Nicole Hung ’10 has spent the fall as the captain for the varsity tennis team. Aside from playing tennis, Hung has been playing some club basketball and has
been working out with a private trainer. “What is unusual about Nicole, is that she is a pretty gifted kid, and outside of the actual conditioning, her actual basketball skills are pretty solid and she seems to get in shape pretty quickly,” Hearlihy said. After getting so close to winning state last year, the girls are extremely motivated to go farther this year. “The fact that we played the team that ultimately became state champions (Mater Dei Catholic) and only lost by five points gives us motivation and lets us know that we can win state,” Horowitz said. Unlike many teams who have had to adjust to the loss of seniors, the Wolverines bring back the exact same people as last year. “The seniors have mostly been playing together since ninth grade,” Horowitz said. “We don’t have to try and integrate a lot of new people, and so the chemistry is already there.” The team’s first league game is not until Jan. 7, but they will play in three major tournaments before then. “I think that we want to start by winning league and then winning the state championship because you can be good and be unlucky, so you have got to seize the moment when you can,” Hearlihy said.
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Boys’ soccer returns with few player losses By Alex Leichenger
Sam Adams/chronicle
ENd of the season: Mattie Calvert ’10 prepares to pass during the team’s first round CIF playoff loss to St. John Bosco last year. The team had a 14-9-5 record.
Nov. 11, 2009
With the return of forward/midfielder Victor Kroh ’10 and a year of added experience, boys’ soccer coach Freddy Arroyo believes his team is capable of advancing to the final four of CIF playoffs. Kroh was unable to play for the Wolverines last year because of his commitment to Real SoCal, a branch of the United Soccer Federation’s Academy program. “We’re really excited about him coming back because he’s a playmaker—he can create, he can score, and he’s an exciting player to watch,” Arroyo said. The team was eliminated in the first round of CIF last year by St. John Bosco. They won seven of 12 league games, while tying four and losing only to St. Francis. Arroyo considers St. Francis and Loyola, whom the Wolverines tied once and defeated once, to be the team’s toughest opponents. Although Kroh, 2009 All-CIF goalie Alex Silverman ’10, and sweeper A.J. Hong ’10 are entrenched as starters, Arroyo said most of the 11 starting spots remain undetermined. “On paper, we’re probably one of the best teams in the area,” Arroyo said. “Obviously we have to put in the hard work and the effort on the field, but I have high expectations. And I think everybody on the team was a little bit disappointed by how we went out last
year in the first round.” Silverman believes the combination of talent and camaraderie amongst the players is better than at any other point in his four-year varsity career. “In past years, we’ve had either groups of guys that get along really well, but weren’t the best players, and then I think even last year, we had a very talented team but we weren’t that cohesive,” Silverman said. “I think this year, our strengths are really just how well we’re friends off the field and how that translates on the field and to winning games.” Silverman and Arroyo hope that the team, which relied heavily on the defense at times last season, will have a more explosive offensive attack. “With the addition of Victor, and we really didn’t lose any guys, I think it’s going to be a shift to a more balanced team between a great offense and great defense,” Silverman said. Arroyo does not think the success of girls’ soccer, which was the 2009 Southern California Regional State Champion, or the success of the two other high-powered winter teams, boys’ and girls’ basketball, will add pressure to boys’ soccer. “We kind of like that underdog, you know, under-the-radar kind of thing,” Arroyo said. “I think it’s great for us. We know that we have talent and we know that we can compete.” Boys’ soccer will play its first scrimmage on Nov. 24.
Girls’ water polo hopes to improve under new coach By Alec Caso
With new Head Coach Robert Lynn the girls varsity water polo team is looking forward to their first game against Westlake on Nov. 23. The Wolverines hope to have another undefeated season. Last year the team had a record of 10-0 in league and a 17-6 record overall under former Head Coach Larry Felix. “I can speak for the entire team when I say we like Robert a lot,” Ashley Grossman ’11 said. “He has a great attitude in coaching girls and I am looking forward to a great season with him.” Last year, the team beat Notre Dame, Alemany, Marymount, Louisville, and Flintridge Sacred Heart during their regular season. They made it to the first round of CIF and then lost to Whittier 19-20 at home. The team isn’t very worried about league play in the upcoming season. “League wasn’t very hard for us last
year, the closest we came to a loss was seven points but we still won by a lot,” Grossman said. Last year, the team had a very small number of players. This year the team has almost doubled in size, and players feel very confident about their chances of making CIF. “We have a lot more players who are experienced and who can lead the team,” Grossman said. Outside of league, the team beat Westlake 9-8 and hopes to test itself against Westlake on Nov. 23. “We face a lot of Division I, II and III teams in tournaments outside of league. That’s why we lost so many games,” said Grossman. The team began practicing a few weeks after the school year began but has yet to have a practice with Lynn. The teams haven’t been set yet, but there are many more players than last year and Lynn has not had a chance to really evaluate the team, said Grossman.
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It’s out of her hands: Camille Hooks ’11 shoots the ball during a preseason practice on Nov. 9. The team will play its first official game on Nov. 30.
Sophomore skeet shoots By Victor Yoon
Connor Donahue ’12 hopes to compete in the 2012 Olympics, however not for a sport that one would expect a high school student to compete in. The sport that Donahue hopes to compete in is skeet shooting, where one must shoot flying, orange, clay targets out of the sky. Competitors are scored based on how many targets they shoot down in a round of 25 targets. While he has been shooting for three years, Donahue only began skeet shooting five months ago. His coach wanted him to switch from sporting clays, a more popular form of shooting, to skeet shooting so
that he could try to make it to the 2012 Olympics. Since switching to skeet, Donahue has sharpened his aim and practiced his shooting two to three times a week. However, despite the hard work he has been putting into improving, Donahue says that making it to the 2012 Olympics is a lofty goal. In order to even qualify to train in skeet shooting for the Olympics at the Colorado Springs Olympic Training Center, he has to hit 192 out of 200 targets, meaning he can only miss one target per round. “My favorite part of shooting is watching the target disappear after you fire,” Donahue said.
Courtesy of Connor Donahue
Lock and load :
Connor Donahue ‘12 lines up his shot at the Oaktree shooting range. He hopes to make the 2012 Olympics as a skeet shooter.
Nov. 11, 2009
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CIF is the next big goal for the varsity boys’ water polo team. With a league record of 6-2 and an overall record of 13-9, the team has finished its regular season and is preparing for CIF. The team finished league play, beating every team except for Loyola. They won their first two games against Crespi and Notre Dame, but then lost to Loyola 7-11. They won their next three games against Crespi, Alemany and Notre Dame but then lost in their second game against Loyola 8-11 last Tuesday. The team then won their last league game against Alemany last Thursday 26-5. “It’s always hard during a transition year, but we gave it our all,” Jake Schine ’10 said. The team’s new head coach Robert Lynn led the team to second place in league earning them a spot in CIF. “We really like Coach Lynn, he is very knowledgeable,” Schine said. The Wolverines have lost four games outside of league. The team lost its first two games against Corona del Mar and JSerra, but continued on to beat La Canada and Foothill. They then lost to both LB Wilson and Mater Dei. The team participated in the S&R Cup Los Alamitos on the weekend of Oct. 30. Placing fifth, the team beat Sacred Heart and Los Alamitos but lost to Mira Monte. The team’s loss against LB Wilson on homecoming night was a particular disappointment.
Austin Block/chronicle
passing by: Brendan Zwaneveld ’10 passes the ball by a defender during the team’s 26-5 win over Alemany Nov. 5 at Zanuck Swim Stadium. The team finished the season with a 13-9 overall record and a 6-2 league record. “Aside from Loyola, the only really disappointing game was losing to LB Wilson on homecoming,” said Schine. The Wolverines have officially made the cut for CIF and will play against Santa Barbara today at Zanuch Swim Stadium at 3:15 pm. If they win they will continue on to the second round on Nov. 13. After coming in second in league behind Loyola the team expects to face very hard teams early on
in CIF. Last year, the Wolverines made it to CIF with a league record of 6-2 and an overall record of 13-9 under former Head Coach Larry Felix. The team hopes to do better than they did last year, when they were defeated in the first round of CIF by Dos Pueblos 6-7. “Coming second in league we have a tough seed, we will play hard teams early, not that we can’t beat them,” Schine said.
JVRoundup
Golf finishes 2nd in league By Alex Leichenger
David Gobel/chronicle
Courtesy of karen stigler
Pursued: Chad Kanoff ’13 evades a Cathedral defender during a 30-18 win Nov. 7 at Ted Slavin Field. (From left) Will Tobias ’12, Greg Myerson ’13 and Graham Cairns ’12 finish League Finals at Crescenta Valley Park on Nov. 4.
Boys’ water polo Continuing its streak of victories, the JV water polo team has only lost one game all season. The team’s overall record is 13-1, and their league record is 7-1. Seven of the team’s wins have been won by at least nine points, and three of the games have been won by a point difference of 18 goals. The team lost to Loyola High School away 5-8, but won at home 10-6. The team’s last game was Nov. 5, when they beat Alemany 24-1. —David Kolin
Football By beating Cathedral 30-18, the JV football team ended an up-anddown season with a win. The team started off the season strong with wins at Rosemead and Lynwood, but struggled later on, losing a game 55-0 against Serra. However, even with these losses, the team was still able to rebound against Cathedral in a close win. Chad Kanoff ’13 and Chase Klein ’13 have alternated as starting quarterbacks. Quarterback is not the only position that freshmen and sophomores started. In fact, 17 sophomores and freshmen are starters on this JV team.
The team finished the season 4-3, improving on last season’s 3-4 record.
—David Gobel
Cross Country At their Mission League Finals on Nov. 4, the JV cross country team closed the season with the girls’ team taking second place and the boys’ team coming in third. “We kind of expected to defeat most of the other teams,” Danni Xia ’12 said. “We ran the course three or four times before, so we knew exactly what we were doing.” The boys’ team finished behind Loyola and St. Francis, and the girls’ team lost to Flintridge Sacred Heart. —Sofía Dávila and Julius Pak
Girls’ tennis Ending its season by defeating Flintridge Sacred Heart 18-0 on Nov. 4, the JV girls’ tennis team finished the season with a 14-1 overall record and a 9-0 league record. Captain Aneri Amin ’12 said she is happy about the team’s performance. The 11-player team practiced from Monday through Thursday.
The team finished the season without conceding any league matches. “We had a great season, and I’m proud of the team’s hard work,” Amin said.
—Judd Liebman
Field hockey The JV field hockey team finished their season Oct. 29 with a rematch against Glendora, their only loss of the season. The 1-0 defeat brought the team’s league record to 3-1. They faced Glendora earlier in the season as well, but won 3-1. The team only gave up two goals throughout the season. —Allison Hamburger
Girls’ volleyball Taking second place at the Santa Barbara Tournament, the JV girls’ volleyball team finished the season with a winning streak of 10 games and a league championship. With an overall score of 12-3, the team won nine of their games 2-0, and were undefeated in the Mission League. “Their level of play has gotten a lot better,” JV Head Coach Shari Sakamoto said. —Austin Lee
A second place finish in league finals capped an 8-2 season for the girls’ golf team. The squad placed one spot behind league champion Notre Dame at Balboa Golf Course Oct. 26 after winning its last three Mission League dual matches. Emily Firestein ’11 and Melanie Borinstein ’11 earned berths in the Mission League Individual Championship Oct. 28 at Calabasas Country Club by leading the Wolverines with scores of 83 and 86, respectively, on the 18-hole league final course. By finishing in the top five among Mission League golfers, Firestein and Borinstein advanced to the Northern Individual Regional round of the CIF Southern Section Individual Championships Nov. 3 at Soule Park Golf Club in Ojai. It was the first time that Firestein advanced to CIF and the second time for Borinstein, who qualified last season. “It’s really exciting to be playing with girls from all different leagues and schools, so I’m glad that I got to be a part of the championship round again,” Borinstein said. Firestein missed the cut needed to qualify for the Southern Section Finals by one stroke, shooting an 82. Borinstein shot a 93. Head Coach Linda Giaciolli said she was “very, very proud” of the team’s performance in league play. The 2008 Wolverines went undefeated en route to a league title, but Giaciolli attributed much of the drop-off this year to the loss of veteran Charlotte Abrams ’09. “With Charlotte not coming back this year, we didn’t have that in our arsenal, to field a team with the same depth,” Giaciolli said. “Some days were better than others, but I don’t think that there is anything that we could have done differently this year,” Firestein said. The team collectively decided not to attend CIF Finals this year. Not enough players were available to fill the required six-golfer roster, due to personal issues or other commitments, Giaciolli said. Next year, the team will lose 2008 Mission League Most Valuable Player Tiffany Yang ’10, but Firestein, Borinstein, and three freshmen golfers will return. Although Giaciolli said she will greatly miss Yang and fellow departing seniors Jamie Kim and Monica Chen, she is excited for the potential of her returning players, in particular freshman Amanda Aizuss. “[Aizuss] is one of the most talented players the team has ever had and will have,” she said.
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backtalk with Izzy Heller Senior Girls’ Tennis Captain
By Ashley Khakshouri
Q A Q A Q A Q A Q A Q A
As the captain, how do you lead the team towards a comprehensive goal? We are definitely big on pep talks, whether it is during the match or afterwards. We are there supporting them [team] if they are in a fight over line calls and if they just need us to back them up, kind of giving them a team setting and knowing that they have a support system.
What do you do to prepare for each match? Do you eat something special? Captain Nicole Hung ’10 and I play on weekends. We train with private coaches and we set up practice matches. We just talk and we [play] ten fingers or “never have I ever.” We have Belwood sandwiches before every match. And then after match we have hummus, pita, soybeans, Powerbars and that kind of stuff.
What is your favorite part of playing tennis and what makes you unique as a player?
I love the uniforms and pegging other girls at the net. That’s our forte. It isn’t a contact sport, so we have to get our aggression out somehow. I am the queen…I think I have gotten in a fight with every single team.
How do you keep your mind tough during games?
mark your calendar
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[Hung] definitely helps me. We will have good days and bad days. Sometimes she will have to carry me. She definitely keeps me grounded because I get really worked up if I missed like three in a row.
What would be your goal if you got to CIF singles?
At least get to quarterfinals and we are going to really train to hopefully get to finals. So we will see how that goes but we are aiming for quarterfinals.
Do you plan on continuing to play tennis in college?
I have gotten letters from Division III schools, but I’m not headed in that direction so if I go to a Division I school, I would probably just try to be a practice player instead of actually being on the team.
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Boys’ Water Polo Girls’ Volleyball CIF First Round vs. Santa Barbara
Today at 3:15 p.m. Zanuck Swim Stadium “It’s important to have a victory (today) because in the second round we will most likely be facing a much stronger team.” —Russell Madison ‘10
Football
Girls’ Tennis
Girls’ Basketball
vs. TBA
Monday at 7 p.m. Taper Gymnasium
CIF Second Round vs. Bishop Montgomery CIF Second Round vs. Long Beach Poly
Thursday at 7 p.m. Long Beach Poly “Last year we had an early exit, in the second round. We want another state title and we need to keep playing our game.” —Kellie Barnum ’11
Friday at 7 p.m. Ted Slavin Field
“This game is basically a playoff game. We need to keep winning, or else our season is over.”
—Greg Comanor ’10
Saturday at TBA TBA “Our goal of a state championship starts on Thursday. We have big aspirations but we have to focus on one game at a time. ” —Natasha Ettensberger ‘10
vs. Santa Monica
“Santa Monica High School is a team that is in one of the higher divisions. It’s better competition for us.” —Nicole Nesbit ’10