The Chronicle Harvard-Westlake School • North Hollywood, CA • Volume XVIII • Issue 2 • October 1, 2008 • chronicle.hw.com
Brotherly love:
Media frenzy:
Oliver Doublet ’09, with his two brothers, is one of several students with infant siblings.
Ashton Kutcher attracts paparazzi as a new freshman assistant football coach.
Jordan Freisleben/chronicle
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Space travel: Peter Diamandis speaks about his development in science and the space industry.
A8
Ethicist to speak on character
andrew lee/chronicle
By Jordan Freisleben
Ethicist Michael Josephson will discuss character and the specific challenges and pressures teenagers face at an assembly on Oct. 21 as well as a parent meeting later that night, Head of School Jeanne Huybrechts said. He was selected by Huybrechts as part of her theme for this year that “character, not circumstance, makes the person.” Josephson, the founder of the Josephson Institute for Ethics, emphasizes improving the ethical quality of society by changing decision-making and behavior. The Honor Code violations last year led to Huybrechts’ decision to invite Josephson to speak at the assembly. “I told him about the problems that we had last year and that at the end of the year we were really questioning whether we, the school, were doing an adequate job of developing character in our students,” Huybrechts said. At the assembly, he will be addressing ninth through twelfth graders about the coinciding of school and character. “I think he’s better for high school kids than middle school kids, so I invited all of our high school kids rather than have two assemblies,” she said. Huybrechts said that the topic of building ethical character amongst students continues to remain a significant focus for the school. “This is the old ‘hard right vs. the easy wrong’ scenario that all teenagers face,” she said. “How are you going to develop your own moral compass?”
Head Prefect nominated for Morehead By A.J. Calabrese
Head Prefect Brandon Levin ’09 received the nomination for this year’s Morehead-Cain Scholarship, a full four year scholarship to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. With the nomination Levin becomes one of a selective group of nationwide contenders for the award, which is awarded to 70 to 80 high school students. “I was absolutely thrilled to be representing Harvard-Westlake,” Levin said. “I really felt honored to be selected from what I’m sure was a prestigious group.” Levin found out about the nomination at the end of last year after a committee of school administrators including his dean, Jim Patterson, made the decision. “I think Brandon exemplified the qualities that Moorhead-Cain are looking for—scholarship, leadership and participation in athletics,” Patterson said. This year’s Morehead winners will be announced in March.
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Alexia Boyarsky/chronicle
Cathi Choi/chronicle
shine a light: Terrell Willard ’11 dives for a ball in the varsity football game against Rosemead last Friday (top left). Michael Diamant ’09 leads the student section in cheers (top right). Cheerleaders observe the game (bottom).
Huybrechts initiates a green scene By Carly Mandel
and
Derek Schlom
As part of a concerted school-wide effort to maximize the efficiency of energy and resources on both campuses, Head of School Jeanne Huybrechts announced plans last month to implement a series of environmentallyconscious policies, collectively known as “H-W Green.” “I believe that most of the time, most of us try to be environmentally conscious…but we could be doing much more,” Huybrechts wrote in an e-mail to faculty Sept. 18. “This year I’d like us to do much more: to become more intentional about lowering our impact on the environment, and to begin making green practices an integral part of daily operation at H-W.” “We’re going to take a look at how we at school can be greener and perhaps how we can educate our students
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about principles related to conservation,” she added in an interview last week. Middle school performing arts teacher Carrie Green and upper school math teacher Kent Palmer will be leading the “H-W Green” initiative on their respective campuses. Huybrechts has yet to declare any specific components of “H-W Green” beyond its leaders. “From my point of view there are no specific plans. There are all sorts of ideas already,” she said, citing the potential elimination of paper plates and plastic utensils from the cafeteria as an example. The creation of a committee of faculty members, Prefects and student volunteers to spearhead “H-W Green” has also been tentatively discussed, Huybrechts said. One of the committee’s goals would
COMMUNITY FAIR: Students help out underprivileged children. A7
IPHONE DEVELOPER: Ian Cinnamon ’09 creates a topselling iPhone application. A12
be to educate and raise awareness among the student body on the necessity and benefits of sustainable living, Prefect Kate Liebman ’09 said. Potential ideas include selling reusable water bottles for student use and adding an eco-friendly element to this year’s Semiformal, Liebman said. Huybrechts said she anticipates that “H-W Green” will eventually have a significant positive impact on the school’s policies and their environmental consequences. “Rather than wait a whole year and make some recommendations at the end of the year, I would like us just to become greener tomorrow, if possible,” she said. “There are so many people involved in this, so many people who are interested that I anticipate some real changes in the school.” Additional green coverage, A16
B SECTION:
election day: Students are getting involved with campaigning both on and off campus.
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Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2008 The Chronicle
preview
Kate Benton/reprinted with permission
the new kids: Seventh graders Amiya Brown Henry Hahn, and Alex Thal form a human chain to pass a
hula hoop around a circle. Seventh graders were welcomed to Harvard-Westlake at a Sept. 7 family picnic sponsored
by the Parents’ Association. A variety of activities were run by the seventh grade deans. A10
sports A23 A24
Ashton Kutcher adds star power to freshman football.
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Harvard-Westlake parents have high stakes in MLB playoffs.
Football is still unbeaten, thanks to a play by TeRhon O’Neal ‘09.
news A3
Sam Adams/Chronicle
Gay rights activist Kevin Jennings to speak to upper school students Oct. 10.
utilize new technological A10 Teachers resources to foster and create dynamic learning experiences.
getting up: Brendan Zwanefeld ’10 gets ready to pass during a water polo match against Corona Del Mar.
features
Christian Scientist Ellie A12 Devout Bensinger ’09 explains her faith. Four students work to bridge the A15 age gap with their infant siblings. Olivia Van Iderstine ’10 studies A18 circus arts at camp.
opinion
Mentoring is necessary for A20 Peer the Upper School as well as Middle Erin moy/Chronicle
celebration: President Thomas Hudnut celebrates the official unveiling of the Bing Art Center at the Middle School campus. A7
A21
School. Prefect letter hopes to change that students themselves don’t see the results of the Prefects’ work.
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fresh fish: Sushi chef Zack Sittivech prepares cut rolls at the Upper School.
off-beat
By Lucy Jackson
In a small glass case, sandwiched between, well, sandwiches, the cafeteria displays it latest specialty offering: sushi. Though the presentation – a far cry from the full sushi bar at the Middle School cafeteria – looks no different than the packaged sushi available last year, the rolls are prepared fresh Tuesdays and Thursdays by new sushi chef Zack Sittivech. “Sushi is very popular, and everybody loves it,” Director of Food Services Kay Tirakayos said. “Instead of ordering it from somewhere, we decided to create a new position and make it here.” The new sushi chef makes things like shrimp tempura rolls at North Faring and saves the spicy tuna for the Upper School’s Wolverine Café. Although his work station in the kitchen doesn’t allow him to make sushi to order like at the Middle School, he is open to suggestions from students for future creations. “I’ve been trying to gauge what kids like,” he said. “I’m experimenting with different stuff and putting it out there, and in the next few weeks I’ll be mixing it up with different fish and ingredients.” Cafeteria owners Nipa Boonyamez and Tirakayos hired him after he approached them about creating the new position last year. “We all wanted offer something new and healthy,” Sittivech said. “Sushi isn’t a food that you’re going to eat every day, but we wanted to give kids an exciting alternative when they do want to try something different.”
Oct. 1, 2008
The Chronicle
Gay rights activist to speak at assembly
News A3
ring leaders
By Ashley Khakshouri
Kevin Jennings, founder of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, the Oct. 10 assembly speaker, has shared his experiences with upper school audiences twice before. Jennings gave a speech in 1999 and 2005 at the Upper School that people still talk about, said Jeff Snapp, adviser of the Gay reprinted with permission Straight Alliance. Kevin Jennings Upper school dean, Canh Oxelson, described Jennings’s speeches as “phenomenal”. “One of the greatest things he did, was he made me really think about who I am as a person,” said Oxelson. “It made me think a lot about the kind of kid we want to graduate Harvard-Westlake,” he said, “students that really celebrate diversity and students proud of themselves.” Jennings graduated magna cum laude from Harvard in 1985. He became a faculty adviser to the nation’s first gay-Straight Alliance at Concord Academy in Massachusetts. In 1990 Jennings founded the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network. With his leadership, GLSEN has increased the number of students protected from harassment and discrimination based on their sexual orientation and/or gender identity by over 600 percent. They also made school safety a national issue. Jennings was rewarded with the Human and Civil Rights Award of the National Education Association. He has authored six books and helped write and produce a documentary. Jennings’ one-hour presentation entitled, “Hidden from History: Five Centuries of LGBT history in America” discusses the experiences of lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgender people in America from before the arrival of white people in North America to the battle over gay marriage in the 21st century. “As a lesbian woman and “out” teacher, I think it’s important to let students know, heck even other adults, that it’s okay to be just who you are -- gay, straight, bi-sexual, transgender.... an artist, a chef,” said Leslie Rockenbach, an upper school history and social studies teacher. “I think it’s so much more than about being gay...it’s about being the truth of who you are. We all need support to uncover the ways we hide from each other and ourselves,” she said.
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SENIORS SEAN NADEL, ANGELA NAVARRO, RYAN NAVI, DANNY NGUYEN AND Phoebe Novack (left to right) enter the Senior Ring Ceremony on Sept. 14. The ceremony included speeches from the senior prefects and President Thomas C. Hudnut and a performance by the Chamber Singers. Seniors received either personalized rings or keychains.
Deans permit food in lounge for two-week trial By Nicki Resnikoff
David burton/chronicle
the snack is back: Eli Stein ’09 (left) and Danny Nguyen ‘09 eat lunch in the lounge on Monday at the beginning of the two-week trial.
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Due to student complaints and a prefect-led proposal, the deans have initiated a two week trial which started on Monday permitting students to eat in the lounge. Students are expected to clean up after themselves and preserve the cleanliness of the lounge without the help of campus faculty or maintenance crews. “If after two weeks, the condition of the student lounge is not acceptable, the administration can revoke this privilege,” Head Prefect Tessa Wick ’09 said. “On the other hand, if the student lounge is in good condition after the trial period, we can continue to use it as an appropriate place to eat.” Wick said, however, even if the two weeks are extended the deans can again prohibit eating in the lounge at any point in the year should the students show they cannot keep it clean. The decision to close the lounge has been meet with contempt by some students. “I ate in the lounge basically every day,” Jake Fernandez ’10 said. “I understand why they took it away, but I’m glad they trust us again. I know we’ll keep it clean.” “The lounge was the perfect place to eat and do homework. I see why they did it, but it was just not fair to the tenth graders,” Kat Arenella ’10 said. Before the trial period was announced, Robert Reeves ’10 circulated a petition asking that the administration allow students to eat in the lounge again. Reeves sent out an e-mail with a link to a petition on www.gopetition. com called “Bring Food Back to the Lounge,” which proposed exactly that. “In signing this petition, you are
appealing to the administration for a second chance,” Reeves wrote in the petition. “In correlation with this appeal, you are pledging that, if bestowed said second chance, you will make an additional effort to maintain the cleanliness and order of the lounge.” “The idea for the petition, like most, stemmed directly from my own discontent,” Reeves said. “The lounge was my primary eating spot. So I figured why not test the democratic waters and see what everyone else thinks?” Reeves’ hope was to send the petition to the whole upper school student body; however, student accounts are not permitted to send an email to a whole class so he started by sending it to the junior class and work his way through the school. The petition argues that an inside eating area is a fundamental part of a school. It also argues that the student body is able to maintain the cleanliness of the lounge and “earn the institution.” It also calls eating outside in the valley’s heat a “strenuous ordeal.” Reeves believes that the upper school student body is different now and should be given a chance. “Has the administration considered that a new class of students enters the school, and another leaves, every year?” he asked. Reeves was prepared to possibly address Head of Upper School Harry Salamandra in the event of the petition’s failure. However, Reeves would prefer not having to make his own argument. “The weight of many,” he said, “should always be greater than that of a few, or the one.” Reeves’ activism in the matter, though, was put on hold when he heard of the prefects’ proposal at which point he closed the petition with a final tally of one hundred signatures.
A4 News
The Chronicle
Oct. 1, 2008
White House recognizes sisters at volunteer event By Annie Belfield
Courtesy of marni Barta
White Houses: Berni (left) ’10 and Marni Barta ’09 talk while they wait in the security line at the White House before entering the building to attend the reception.
Marni ’09 and Berni Barta ’10 listened to President George W. Bush’s “Remarks on Volunteering” speech at the White House Sept. 8. The Barta sisters received an invitation in recognition of Kid Flicks, an organization they founded to donate “movie libraries” to pediatric departments and children’s hospitals around the country. The Barta sisters received the President’s Volunteer Service Award last January. In his speech, President Bush specifically welcomed this group of recipients to the event. “It was inspiring to meet all the people there who had done great things for the country,” Marni said. The event was held on the Southern Lawn of the White House. Roughly 300 people attended, but no more than 20 were students, Marni said. The first hour was spent meeting the other attendees and exchanging stories of volunteer experiences. “A lot of the people had dedicated their professional lives to serving their community,” Marni said. “It opened my eyes to the possibilities of a future career in volunteering.” Bush, who called on Americans to dedicate at least 4,000 hours over a lifetime to serving “our nation through acts of compassion,” applauded the attendees for their continued dedication to volunteerism. Bush called for Congress to permanently establish programs like Citizen Corps and Volunteers for Prosperity in an effort to foster an awareness of the benefits of volunteerism around the country. “The whole trip was so quick that it seemed unreal to one day be listening to the President of the United States speak and the next day be listening to lectures in class,” Marni said.
New computer Trouble shooting programs create technical problems
Converting documents on Vista programs to make them compatible with Microsoft Office 972003 allows students to open documents written on Vista computers on computers at home that use older versions of Microsoft Office.
By Candice Navi
Matthew Lee/Chronicle
It’s a winner: Griffy Simon ’11 holds last year’s yearbook, which contains his photo honored by NSPA.
NSPA honors articles, school publications By Matthew Lee The National Scholastic Press Association selected The Chronicle as a finalist for the National Newspaper Pacemaker competition and gave VOX photographer Griffy Simon ’11 a third place prize. Michael Kaplan ’08, Andrew Lee ’09 and Cody Schott ’09 won Ryan White Excellence in Journalism awards for articles they wrote for the 2007-2008 Chronicle. The 2007-2008 Chronicle is one of 13 newspapers selected in the 17-page-or-more category, and one of 46 newspapers overall for the National Pacemaker finalists. The Chronicle has won three times, most recently for the 2006-2007 volume. The Chronicle also received the NSPA All-American honors based on the critique of last year’s paper. VOX photographer Griffy Simon ’11 won third place in the Photo of the Year for Middle School Environmental Portrait. “I felt very accomplished, and I hope to win more awards in my future,” Simon said. Simon captured a shot of the sun setting during the Malibu fires. He said he wanted to document the moment during such a catastrophe and felt it would be a great photo opportunity. For the Ryan White Awards, Kaplan won an honorable mention for his editorial “Sleep Week Just a Wakeup Call.” Lee and Schott won third place in the Features category of the award for their feature story “Swimmers Soak Up Too Much Sun,” which was about swimmers encountering problems with skin cancer. Lee won a second place award in the same category for his story about staph infections “Battling the Bacteria.” The award winners will be formally announced in St. Louis at the JEA/NSPA National High School Journalism Convention on Nov. 16.
and
Michelle Nosratian
This summer, the 2,000 computers on both campuses were updated to Windows Vista and put on a new wireless network. However, with the changes came new difficulties. Side effects of the upgrade included issues with printing, projection, tablet PCs and compatibility. Computer Services personnel found themselves split between the two campuses for the first couple weeks of school, attempting to resolve the difficulties. The newly modernized middle school campus has 1,000 new computers each of which needed to be configured to the school network, which was not complete until about the third week of school. “One day we flipped the switch and 1,000 new computers were on a new network. As you can imagine, that caused some problems,” Director of Computer Services David Ruben said. New computers were bought for the Upper School last year, and computer services upgraded the software to Vista. “It seems like it would be the other way around, but actually, changing the software was more work than the new computers were,” Ruben said. For the first couple of weeks of school, students were not able to print from the Tech Center computers and the laptops available for check-out at the Upper School library. It took intervention from on-campus Computer Services and outside assistance to determine the network problems causing the printing difficulties. “Except for the printer problem, I found Vista more interesting than problematic,” Head Librarian Shannon Acedo said. Acedo uses a free download available at www.microsoft.com to help her become accustomed to Vista. “The program takes what you would have done on the old Windows and gives you instructions on how to complete the same task on Vista,” Acedo said. Many students who have not yet made the transition from XP to Vista on their home computers are experiencing compatibility problems. Many find that files sent through e-mail between home and school computers become distorted in the process. Some cannot open e-mailed files on school computers or home computers at all. “Vista is really complicated,” Catherine Park ’10 said. “Mostly, it just makes me take longer to finish an assignment.” Compatibility between XP programs and Vista programs has also been an issue for teachers. “We knew compatibility might be an issue, so last year we tried to go around and find out what
Step 1: Click on Windows icon in top left corner. Step 2: Roll over Save As button. Step 3: Select third option on menu, entitled “Word 972003 Document.” Source: Computer Services graphic by Carly Radist
programs [teachers] were using,” Ruben said. Photography teacher Kevin O’Malley uses many obscure programs on a daily basis, including Final Draft, a program used for writing scripts. The programs used for his Haselblatt and Nikon cameras are not compatible with the new system. In addition, his school-provided laptop did not work with the printer at his home or the ones he uses at school. “One week I couldn’t print documents from the laptop to the printer in my house but I could print at school,” O’Malley said. “The next week, it was the other way around.” Some of the issues concern the nature of the programs themselves. “Educational software is among the most badly programmed software in the world,” Ruben said. “So there are lots of compatibility problems because they are not programmed well in the first place.” The entire faculty received new computers this year, which caused problems with projection. Most of the new laptops are widescreen and extra steps are needed to make them compatible with the square view of the projector. This problem sometimes cuts into class time as teachers try to project documents and slideshows during class. Some faculty opted for tablets, which posed a whole new slew of issues. The new Ultra Low Power Tablets are equipped with new software. “Everything that does the computing in the tablets is brand new,” Ruben said. The docking stations that teachers previously used to connect their laptops to projectors are not compatible with tablet computers, and teachers have to manually use wires to connect the tablets to the projector. Computer Services has resolved almost all of the problems pertaining to the upgrade, Ruben said.
Oct. 1, 2008
News A5
The Chronicle
Alumnus named top innovator By Michelle Nosratian
Photos courtesy of Lisa Hestrin-Lerner
badge of honor: Chronicle adviser Kathleen Neumeyer’s press badge hangs in the Newseum Museum in Washington D.C.
Newseum features teacher’s press credential By Derek Schlom Chronicle adviser Kathleen Neumeyer’s press badge from the 1987 Academy Awards is featured in a display of press credentials from throughout history at the Newseum in Washington, D.C. Neumeyer, who covered the Oscars that year as a reporter for United Press International, had seen a wall of various press badges when she visited the Newseum’s previous location in Arlington, Va., in 2001, and recognized a glaring absence. “As I stood and looked at them, I noticed that there were none from the big awards shows in California — the Emmys, the Grammys, the Oscars.” She later sent the Newseum several of her press badges from various awards ceremonies and received a reply that her donation had been accepted for display. Lisa Hestrin-Lerner (Jonathan ’07, Alison ’09) noticed Neumeyer’s badge from the 1987 Academy Awards in a display of press passes when she and Alison visited the Newseum last month, and informed Neumeyer of the sighting.
Seth Hallem ’97 made the MIT Technology Review magazine annual list of the top 35 leading young innovators for his work in the field of computer science. The October 2008 issue of the Technology Review featured profiles on Hallem and 34 other innovators under 35 years old that were chosen from a pool of 300 nominees by a panel of experts based on their accomplishments as researchers, inventors or entrepreneurs. Hallem’s claim to fame was improving an approach to finding bugs in a computer program. His new technology can locate problematic combinations of code within a program by simulating how the program will behave. “Our innovation analyzes a piece of software and uncovers flaws in that software that will cause crashes, unintended behaviors or security issues,” Hallem said. “Our innovation can simulate the future behaviors of the software while programmers are creating it and we can uncover programmer mistakes before the software is completed and delivered to customers.” Hallem and his colleagues were well acquainted with the difficulties of building complex software that is also free of errors. “Software failures are caused by logic errors that programmers make while creating a piece of software,” Hallem said. “Because of the huge complexity of today’s software, it is impossible for a programmer to create software without making errors of this type.” Together with his colleagues,
National Merit Scholar Semifinalists 35 seniors qualified as semifinalists based on their PSAT/NMSQT scores. Anderson Alden Anthony Baker Benjamin Barad Gina Chang Cody Davis Maxwell Eliot Spencer Friedman Alexander Fullman Harry Gallway Benjamin Goldstein Ashley Halkett Katherine Heartney Jason Hirschhorn Mercedes Jackson Rebecca Jacobs Clara Jaques Sean Kesluk Sarah Kim
Miriam Lauter Carl Lawson Brandon Levin Joseph Meyer Biswaroop Mukherjee Joshua Oreman Geoffrey Rock Adam Rothman Justin Shafa Claire Soley Michael Stampler Eli Stein Natalie Storey Yoonkee Sull Jacqueline Wee Andrew Yu Jeffrey Yu
Information Courtesy of harry salamandra graphic by nicki resnikoff
Reprinted With Permission of coverity
Global Business: Seth Hallem ’97 speaks at a press conference in Japan. Hallem is the CEO of Coverity, a company that he and his collegues started to commercialize their computer technology which helps programmers find bugs. Hallem vowed to create a technology that would help eradicate software failures. “These days software is all around us – in our cars, our mobile phones, our iPods, our televisions, our airplanes and even [in artificial pacemakers] in our bodies,” Hallem said. “Once you understand that in today’s world there literally is no perfect software, you realize there is a dire need for innovation in the tools that programmers use.” Hallem said that he was very much into mathematics and sciences at Harvard-Westlake. One of his favorite teachers was Mr. Nealis, who taught him in both Calculus BC and AP Economics classes. Hallem graduated from Stanford University in 2001 and is now the CEO of Coverity Inc., which he and his colleagues founded in San Francisco in November 2002. The technology that had its beginning at the Computer Systems Laboratory at Stanford University is now being adapted and marketed
on a large scale through Coverity. Coverity’s technology is used to detect errors in anything from operating systems to medical devices to gaming devices. Coverity has accumulated an extensive list of customers, including Yahoo!, Samsung, Sega, Philips, and Texas Instruments. “At Coverity, we have continued to innovate in building unique tools that help software programmers build software that really works,” Hallem said. “We have a great team at Coverity that continues to build unique, groundbreaking technology.” Hallem sees the recognition from The Technology Review as a manifestation of all his hard work over the past few years. “More than anything, the award is a reflection of the collaborative research environment that I came out of at Stanford and the success that we have had at Coverity in commercializing our innovation,” Hallem said. “I see it as both an honor personally and an honor to my colleagues.”
English teacher undergoes emergency appendectomy By Alexia Boyarsky Former English teacher Dr. Alan Buster will substitute for English teacher Geraldine Harding for at least the rest of this week, while Harding recovers from an emergency appendectomy, said Head of School Harry Salamanadra. Harding was hospitalized at Cedars Sinai Medical Center late Thursday evening. Buster retired from the school in 2005.
Last Friday, all ber is currently in substitutes came the process of interfrom within the viewing other canEnglish Departdidates to substitute ment, Weber said. for Harding after English teachers this week, he said. Dr. Heath Moon, Salamandra is Jeremy Michaeluncertain about how son, Lisa Rado and long Harding will be Laurence Weber away from work. don hagopian/chronicle each took on some “We think it mayGeraldine Harding of Harding’s classes be anywhere from before they could two to six weeks, find a substitute.Head of Eng- but beyond that we’re really lish Department Laurence We- not sure,” said Salamandra.
Freshmen mentor middle school students to ease transition process By Daniel Rothberg To ease the transition of new middle school students, ninth grade students have begun taking part in a school run big brother and sister program with the seventh grade. The program seeks to achieve many goals, including making new students feel more comfortable and not feel intimidated by older grades. Currently the program is in the pilot stage, meaning that it is limited to a smaller group of students to answer many questions concerning
the program, said Rabbi Emily Feigenson. The small pilot group consists of about 35 ninth graders, seven of which are leaders of the program. Feigenson and eighth grade dean Paul Mastin are the two faculty members supervising the new group. The fundamental principles for the program were taken from ninth grade student applications to participate in the program. The program is primarily student-run and many of them will be a huge part in helping to make the decisions regarding the format
and logistics involved with such a program. The ninth graders all had very positive reactions to the project, some wishing that the program had been around when they were in seventh grade, said Mastin. “What made me want to become a big sister was the fact that I knew I could help make Harvard-Westlake a better community as a whole,” Bella Hicks ’12 said. Feigenson stressed that although many of the goals are geared towards the seventh graders, the program is also for the older siblings involved.
A6 News
Oct. 1, 2008
The Chronicle
inbrief School-commissioned sculptor dies at age 58 Artist Tina Allen, who designed the Harvard-Westlake Frederick Douglass Award in 2002, died on Sept. 9 due to complications after a heart attack. She was 58. The award goes to a senior who honors and embraces their own culture, along with others. Last year Gabrielle Horton ’08 was honored. Other recipients of the award have been Julia Wick ’07, Joey Katona ’06, Phillip Burns ’05, Olusinmi Bamgbose ’05 and Katie Muslin ’03. Allen’s sculptures included prominent African-American activists George Washington Carver and the Reverend Martin Luther King. A second sculpture of Douglass was featured in the 2006 movie “Akeelah and the Bee.” —Drew Lash
Student discovers how to hack school server A sophomore boy served an in-house suspension early last month after he posted instruction on how to crack the school’s server onto what the school called a “hacking website” over the summer, he said. “He claims that he wanted to see if it was possible to do this so that he could inform us of our vulnerability,” Head of School Jeanne Huybrechts said. After discovering the holes in the server, the sophomore emailed various members of the technology services department to alert them of the problems, he said. While the school network has since been secured against potential threats posted by the boy, he now works for Director of Computer Services David Ruben as an intern, the sophomore said. —Lucy Jackson
Debaters triumph in Yale Invitational Nick Pritzker ’12 and Nika Madyoon ’12 participated in national debate finals at Yale University. In earlier rounds, the two placed in the top 10 percent of competing junior varsity debaters. Pritzker and Madyoon made it to the double-octafinals. The team’s 11 representatives, including five junior varsity and six varsity debaters, took part in the 320-person tournament. Pritzker and Madyoon were the team’s only members to obtain a high ranking in any division of the tournament, Madyoon said. The tournament was the first in which Madyoon has participated. —Spencer Gisser
Students will walk to find a cure for AIDS On Oct. 19, numerous Harvard-Westlake students will participate in the 2008 AIDS Walk Los Angeles. AIDS Walk is a nonprofit organization that holds annual walks around the country to raise and donate money for AIDS research, prevention and assistance. Registration continues until Oct. 8, and is open to anyone that wants to participate. Any questions regarding Harvard Westlake’s participation in AIDS Walk Los Angeles can be directed to middle school foreign language teacher Judith Hartjenstein. —David Burton
courtesy of nancy popp
popP art: Visual Arts teacher Nancy Popp hangs from a street lamp in Düsseldorf, Germany, in a unique performing art exhibition. Popp has exhibited her performance art in Los Angeles and San Francisco and also works with video and photography.
Popp climbs poles as art exhibition By Ester Khachatryan The intersection warning signs flash “Walk” and a pedestrian going home from work crosses the street. As he comes closer to the opposite sidewalk, he notices a cameraman pointing a camera toward the sky. The pedestrian fixes his eyes in the direction the camera is pointing. A casually dressed woman, employing no harness and “holding on to dear life” is clasped atop a pole. The woman on top of the pole was video art teacher Nancy Popp, who has exhibited “Untitled (Street Performances)” at Chapman University through Oct. 4. The exhibition is part of a video exchange involving artists from Los Angeles and Düsseldorf. Popp’s video art of her performance was exhibited in Düsseldorf, Germany in June. Popp’s video and photo images featured in the exhibition depict the action of climbing a street pole in areas designated as public spaces. “In our society, the commons are disappearing. More and more public spaces are limited by private ownership and big business,” Popp said. The commons, dating back to circa 1600’s colonial America, were areas designated for public use. Free market capitalism and corporatism have privatized America and have decreased public spaces, Popp said.
Concerned about this development, Popp said that she expressed her discontent through art. Although climbing a street pole implies protest, Popp said that it is an unclassifiable action that takes a side view of the two opposing arguments regarding the loss of public space. “The displacement of the body in an urban environment pinpoints and critiques the hierarchies and the boundaries of restricted public space,” Popp said. Popp chose recognizable streets in the cities she visited including Los Angeles, San Francisco and Düsseldorf to do her performances. Although Popp was not breaking the law by climbing poles located in public spaces, she said that her cameraman is frequently harassed by law enforcement. Through her art, Popp references the idea of Axis Mundi, which symbolizes universality of all cultures and similarity of central ideas within these cultures. Performing in different cities, Popp said, reinforces the idea of similar centers within each culture. A s time goes by, Popp said, it will be interesting to see if such similar centers within cultures become touchstones that elicit responses that strike similar chords in diverse peoples throughout the globe and more common ground is covered to the benefit of societies at large.
Students tutor Mar Vista pre-schoolers, third graders By Alex Leichenger Back for their fourth and final week of tutoring at Beethoven Street Elementary School, a group of Harvard-Westlake ninth graders enter Barbara Sandler’s third grade classroom and sit at desks beside their respective pupils. The children pull out their math homework for the evening, and when they have completed the first few problems, one realizes the marked improvement they have made since the first trip. At the end, it is bittersweet saying goodbye to the kids, but the teenagers can do so believing that they have truly had a positive impact. Once again, middle school students will be able to make a difference in the lives of young children through the Beethoven and Mar Vista Head Start programs. The tradition of students performing community service for Mar Vista Head Start began in 1983 at the Westlake school, and has since provided opportunities every year for community service credit. On eight days this school year, eighth grade students will be able to spend time after school or during the morning with young preschool students, many of whom speak English as a second lan-
guage. Students play with the children and help them with art projects and other activities in the classroom. The goal of Mar Vista Head Start, a federally funded program, is to prepare underprivileged children for kindergarten and their future elementary school endeavors. Harvard-Westlake’s trips to the preschool are overseen by history teacher Karen Fukushima, with assistance provided by Head of Community Service Victoria Goddard and by teachers Matthew Cutler, Anamaria Ayala and Jessica Kaufman. The Beethoven trips, organized by science teacher David Fromme and overseen by Goddard, allow ninth grade students to tutor similarly disadvantaged third graders at Beethoven Street Elementary School in Mar Vista. Students help the children complete their homework and gain a better understanding of concepts they have learned in class. Trips have been organized to the school for over a decade, with five sets of four trips per year. Fromme will lead the first set of trips, with English teachers Jordan Ethe and Michael Chavez and librarians David Wee and Maxine Lucas leading the others.
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Oct. 1, 2008
News A7
The Chronicle
inbrief
Tenth Muse wins NSPA All-American
The Tenth Muse, the middle school literary arts magazine, won a National Scholastic Press Association All-American ranking with four marks of distinction for concept, content, writing and editing and photography/art/ graphics/typography. The Tenth Muse opened submissions for the first time last year. Work was previously submitted only from English classes. The total score out of 500 points for the publication was 515, due to an extra 50 points because the entire publication was done by students. The editorial staff consists of members of the Spectrum. —Anna Etra
Departments review modifed break proposal Photos by Erin Moy/chronicle
Community first: Andrew Ressler ’09 (left), Rebecca Contreras ’09 (top right) and Caity Croft ’10 and Sara Fleischman ’09 (in photo at bottom) donate their Sunday to volunteer at Community Council’s first event of the year in Venice.
Community Council provides ‘hands-on’ experience at festival By Shayna Freisleben The first school-wide Community Council event was hosted last Sunday in Venice Beach at the Abbot Kinney Festival Youth and Family Courtyard. The event, organized by Sara Fleischman ’09, was sponsored by Inside Out Community Arts, an organization that provides programs, performances and festivals for under-privileged children. The Abbot Kinney Festival is held annually on Abbot Kinney Boulevard in Venice. The festival, however, is not community service-oriented. The Community Council was informed of the event two weeks ago, Fleischman said, and quickly garnered student interest through posters and a Facebook event page. “We got a lot of buzz despite the fact that we started our advertising for the event a little later than we would’ve hoped,” Fleischman said. Thirty-five students, including four Community Council members, assisted various activity booths at the festival, such as face painting and running rides. The faculty chaperones were Director of Student Affairs Jordan Church and School Chaplain Father J. Young, both Community Council advisers. Dina DeLaurentiis ’09 found the experience “fulfilling” and “felt great” completing her community service requirement. “It was an enjoyable experience being able to play and make the kids happy,” she said. The event was specifically intended to be a “hands-on” experience with under-privileged children, an aspect of the new community service requirements. Hands-on volunteer experiences will be valid for community service credit,
“it was an enjoyable experience...to play and make the kids happy.”
—Dina DeLaurentiis ‘09 Volunteer at Abbot Kinney Festival
whereas events that raise money for charities indirectly will not be, Fleischman said. Students valued personal interactions with children at the festival. “I had a great time working with the kids and sharing the experience with friends,” Emilia Louy ’11 said. Louy assisted at the tie-dyeing booth. Fleischman attended an Inside Out volunteer orientation on Saturday on behalf of the school’s participants. “We helped the festival go smoothly so these kids can enjoy themselves,” Fleischman said. “Without volunteers, they wouldn’t be able to have this portion of the festival dedicated to these kids.” This event is the first product of the Community Council “pods,” groups of three within the Council responsible for planning new events each month. Fleischman said smaller events will still be a collaborative effort within the Council, adding “the members all bring something different to the table.” The Council aspires to host similar events on a monthly basis, according to Fleischman.
The Faculty Academic Committee asked departments to consider a modified break proposal after Head Prefects Brandon Levin ’09 and Tessa Wick ’09 presented their initial proposal for a second weekly break to the FAC on Sept. 9, FAC Chairman Kent Nealis said. Students asked for a second break between fifth and sixth periods with shortened class periods. FAC asked teachers if they favored a second break on Wednesdays after second period, with shortened periods or a longer school day due to a break. Nealis said he did not know when a decision would be made. —Nicki Resnikoff
Eighth grade retreat moves to Santa Barbara Most eighth graders will spend four nights and three days together at El Capitan Canyon campground for this year’s retreat, replacing the previous site at Pali Mountain Camp. El Capitan Canyon campground is 20 miles north of Santa Barbara and part of El Capitan State Beach Park. Approximately 160 eighth graders will retreat at the campground during Oct. 13-16, while the rest of the class of 2011 will camp at Joshua Tree near Indio. —Emily Wallach
Hudnut, Huybrechts opening acts at initiation of new Bing Auditorium By Erin Moy
Erin Moy/chronicle
celebrate: Confetti rains at the inauguration of the Bing Auditorium at the Parents’ Association’s first meeting. President Thomas C. Hudnut and Head of School Jeanne Huybrechts spoke.
President Thomas C. Hudnut spoke about the process and results of hard work, and Head of School Jeanne Huybrechts talked about the importance of art in student education at the first Parents’ Association meeting of the year last Tuesday. The meeting initiated the Middle School’s new Bing Performing Arts Center. Chris Hazy (Steven ’00, Charissa ’03, Trenton ’05 Courtney ’11) cut the ceremonial ribbon, followed by red and white confetti raining down on the audience. As a slideshow played behind her, Huybrechts talked about the influence art had on her childhood in Toledo, Ohio. On Saturdays, she and her sister took art classes at the Toledo Museum of Art,
wandering around the museum after their class ended. Though she admits to no great natural talent, Huybrechts maintains the Saturday excursions instilled a lifelong love of art. “Every year I teach children, I am more convinced that they need to study art as surely as they need to study math and English, history and science,” she said. “Creating is more important than producing.” Huybrechts said she wanted students to “leave school with certain gifts, to be able to relate to art, to respond to emotional material, to create art if they are so inclined and to value creativity.” Hudnut said that in watching his son, Peter ’99, win a silver medal with the U.S. water polo team at the Beijing Olympics, he had felt
more pride in the dedication his son had shown than in the medal itself. The lesson for students, he said, is that it is “only through hard work and solid accomplishment that one knows satisfaction. Anything short of that is delusion. There can be no pride, no positive selfregard, no sense of accomplishment, without effort and application. Real success, the kind that makes you proud, can never be the result of corner cutting. “I would hope that at some point, each student at this school would be able to look at a piece of work and feel immense satisfaction, and feel the rush of pride that comes from a job well done. Sometimes your best isn’t good enough, but you can’t be faulted for having given it,” Hudnut said.
A8 News
Student ambassadors become acquainted with new campus
The Chronicle
Oct. 1, 2008
finding the silver lining
By Candice Navi Due to the Modernization Project at the Middle School, the Admissions Committee has begun retraining student ambassadors so that they can continue holding tours of either campus. A mandatory meeting took place last Wednesday at the Middle School to inform students of changes in the program and tour routes. Among other modifications, interviews will be held during the school week to allow prospective students and families to see the campus during school hours. However, Family Visiting Days are still part of the admissions process. “What we’ve tried to adjust for next year is all applicants to seventh grade will be interviewed during the week on campus,” Assistant Director of Admission Michelle Hung said. “Once we receive an application, our office will arrange for them to visit the school during the school week and come for an interview.” “Because we are a new campus, we wanted to provide many opportunities for them to see the campus,” Hung said. During the bulk of the construction last year, Ambassadors sometimes included a visit to the faculty lounge balcony that overlooked the construction and told the families they were touring about the changes. Ambassadors would also show them architectural models of what was being built. “I think the project really speaks for itself,” Hung said. “Even though we didn’t give tours of the facilities, they could read about it, they could see the skeleton, which was very impressive on its own. They can imagine all of the amazing things their kids can do in that school.” Hung said that the number of applicants was not affected last year during the construction, but there was certainly a high level of curiosity and interest from potential students and their parents. Since upper school students are not familiar with the new campus, they are more than welcome to be shown around by a fellow ambassador who is currently at the middle school campus. Even current middle school students will need time to get to know the campus first. “We are going to need some time for students to actually experience the school themselves so they can give tours,” Hung said.
Faire Davidson/chronicle
Peter Hudnut ‘99 visits Upper SChool campus SEPT. 8 to share his silver medal with students. Hudnut won a silver medal with the United States water polo team at the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics after a huge upset, in which the United States beat Serbia in the Water Cube. His team went on to lose the gold medal match to Hungary. Hudnut is the son of HarvardWestlake President Thomas C. Hudnut, who attended the games in Beijing.
X Prize founder encourages students to ‘follow their dream’ By Alexia Boyarsky
andrew lee/chronicle
SCience Whiz: Dr. Peter Diamandis, founder and chairman of the X Prize Foundation, speaks to students and faculty in an optional assembly in Rugby Auditorium on Monday about the importance of following one’s passions.
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The man who created the prize that inspired private space travel urged students Monday to make a career of doing what they love. Dr. Peter Diamandis, founder of the X Prize Foundation, spoke to an overflowing Rugby Auditorium in an optional science assembly on Monday. The X Prize Foundation aims to bring about radical breakthroughs in technology by putting up large cash prizes to provide incitement for inventors, he said. Diamandis first came up with the idea for the company when a friend of his gave him a copy of the book “The Spirit of St. Louis.” The book describes the journey of Charles Lindbergh crossing the Atlantic. Lindbergh was originally motivated by a $25,000 cash prize put up by Raymond Orteig. “If you put up an audacious cash prize,” Diamandis said, “people will do what you want them to do.” The Ansari X Prize, one of the awards that was given to a private company for an invention, required a space shuttle to be built that could carry three passengers 100 kilometers into space then bring them back
down and fly again in a week. The $10 million prize was the largest in history, and the winners were the first private company to build and launch a spacecraft, according to the X Prize Foundation website. “That was another one of the things that people told me was impossible,” Diamandis said, “I just didn’t listen to them.” Another of Diamandis’ companies is the Rocket Racing League. The company is developing a racing sport pitting high speed planes against each other. While sitting at a car race with a friend, Diamandis said he grew bored, and from there the idea of the Rocket Racing League was born. “When I get bored,” he said, “I think of putting rocket engines on the back of things.” Diamandis believes that none of his accomplishments could have been possible had he not followed his heart and chosen a career he loved. “I’m one of those people who loves to go to work,” he said. “Every day I get to play and do amazing things.” He also has never listened to people who tell him what he cannot do. “When someone says it can’t be done, maybe it means they can’t do it, but maybe you can,” he said.
Oct. 1, 2008
News A9
The Chronicle
Advancement Office wins CASE award By Shayna Freisleben
tiana woolridge/chronicle
TEACHER: Cheri Gaulke (left, with Kelley Butler ’11) lectured about The Woman’s Building, a female art think tank, as part of a series at the ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives on Sept. 21.
Art teacher speaks at event honoring feminist art movement By Alice Phillips Art teacher Cheri Gaulke spoke Sept. 21 at a lecture series about her experiences working with a womens’ art organization and how the organization affected her life and that of many others. The presentation about The Woman’s Building was the first in a four-part Culture Series whose purpose was “to bring history alive” and “to illuminate some of the collections” at the ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives, Gaulke said. She was invited to speak in connection with her artwork that is in the ONE Archives and her involvement with The Woman’s Building. Gaulke and writer Terry Wolverton spoke to a gathering of about 25 people Sept. 21 about how The Woman’s Building shaped their lives and, Gaulke said, “what contribution we think it made to art in general.” Founded in Los Angeles in 1973, The Woman’s Building was established to encourage the feminist art movement and to give women a
place to create and showcase many different kinds of art. “Women in general are more visible now in the art world than they used to be largely because of the work that we did,” she said. “There weren’t a lot of women artists being shown in museums or art history books,” she said. “We were all very isolated from each other so it was a time of coming together, supporting each other and making our work visible.” The Woman’s Building rapidly rose to prominence in the women’s art movement as a place where women’s art flourished and as an organization that was a key part of advancing women’s involvement in the arts. According to Gaulke, many people heard of the organization from articles in feminist newsletters. It was a public place where anyone could come see women’s artwork, hear poets and writers read their work, or watch feminist documentaries. Gaulke serves on the Board of Directors for the remaining legal entity of The Woman’s Building.
After a record-breaking year of Annual Giving, the Office of Advancement was honored in September with the annual award for excellence by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education. CASE is an organization headquartered in Washington D.C. that serves as a resource for professional development, information and standards in the fields of education fundraising and communications and alumni relations, according to its website. The Office of Advancement will receive an official certificate at the CASE conference in January, Director of the Office of Advancement Ed Hu said. The Annual Giving program is significantly aided by the volunteer work of parents, students and alumni, Director of Annual Giving Alan Ball said. Last year, the campaign raised $6 million. “A program such as Annual Giving allows for ample opportunities, student diversity, the best faculty, well-equipped classrooms and labs,” Ball said. CASE presented the award to both Harvard-Westlake and the Sloan School of Business at MIT after an abstract was submitted for award consideration. Ball credits the award to the gradual evolution of the Office of Advancement. “We work especially hard at making sure that each and every family is treated as an individual,” he said. “We like to celebrate the good things about home life with families as well as maintain sensitivity to changes in family situation as well as donors’ personal needs.” In addition to training new volunteers, a portal to contribute online has been installed on the school website. The Annual Giving program is vital in order to subsidize the $4,100 cost for each student on top of tuition, Ball said. Over 250 parent volunteers contribute to the capital campaign by placing phone calls, writing thank you notes, as well as attending phonathon events and fundraisers throughout the year. The Office of Advancement plans to develop a Grandparent Council and include parents of alumni in the phonathon efforts, Ball said. “Teamwork is the key to the success we have, along with strong leadership that is provided by [President Thomas C.] Hudnut and [Head of School] Jeanne Huybrechts,” Senior Advancement Officer Jim Pattison said. “It’s always gratifying when hard work is recognized.”
A10 News
The Chronicle
Oct.1, 2008
Seventh graders mingle at picnic By Julie Barzilay
COurtesy of Kate Benton/reprinted with permission
playtime for now: Seventh graders compete against each other for their respective Houses and play games at the first ever seventh grade family picnic on Sept. 7 at the Upper School Campus.
Departments adopt new technological tools in classes By Julie Barzilay
Upper school teachers have implemented a plethora of technological tools to supplement the curricula of individual courses, making use of electronic resources that have come to define the 21st century. The school’s new Technology Integration Specialist Jennifer Lamkins said that about 125 classes are using Moodle, an online forum that serves as a wiki, chat room and medium for posting documents or links, this year. The science, math and foreign language courses in particular are seeking to balance new technology and traditional teaching strategies. Math classes embrace tablets Most math teachers opted to use tablets this year instead of regular laptops. Tablets allow the user to write directly on the screen, which is simultaneously viewed on the screen and projected onto the class board. The major benefit, math department head Paula Evans said, is that a teacher can write his or her notes or lesson on the tablet, save it, and make it available online. “We always had to turn our natural [mathematical] langue and symbols into computer language” to share notes or homework, Evans said. Only math teachers Jeff Snapp, Kanwaljit Kochar and Ashley Satterthwaite-Johnson use the tablets regularly in class because it takes practice to write on the screen with ease. Posting the notes or homework solutions on Moodle presents a dilemma for the math department. “I think we reach a sort of saturation point,” Evans said. When students look at the steps of a problem before trying it, “students are not actively doing the math. We are trying to play with this to find a little bit of a medium.” The math department is also using graphing software such as Autograph, Algebra in Motion and Calculus in Motion software, Geometry Sketchpad and a calculator tool called Smartview. AP Statistics also uses a program called Fathom, which “combines visual and computational elements,” Evans said. Only sophomores consistently have
class notes posted on Moodle. While all students receive textbooks for Calculus, Precalculus, Algebra 2 The Fundamentals and Precalculus: Trigonometry and Functions, the books are also accessible online. Science classes go digital AP Physics B classes have made the leap to electronic textbooks by switching from a traditional book to a Kinetic Books Company book entitled “Principles of Physics.” The digital book is installed via CD, is cheaper than the hard copy and involves animations and interactive problems. The book allows students to highlight text on the screen and even type notes in the margins. “It’s more readable, a little more casual in its style,” science teacher Karen Hutchinson said. “It has more bells and whistles, and it can read to you, which encourages students to use it more.” Director of Studies Deborah Dowling discovered the digital book at a conference of science teachers two years ago. A poll of last year’s physics students revealed that nearly 80 percent only used their book for homework problems, Hutchinson said. Because a new edition was about to be purchased anyway, the department decided the time was ripe for the change. AP Physics B student Claire Kao ’10 is enjoying the book’s new features. “It has cool little animations to explain the concepts, which can be hard to visualize otherwise,” she said. Math teachers would like to make a similar switch, and are excited to watch this experience unfold. Meteorology, Geology and Physics B classes are also using tablets and have increased dependence on Moodle. “In science, the main disciplines are so different that there can’t be one overarching goal for the technological future,” department head Lawrence Axelrod said. “Teachers use technology as they find it helpful in each field.” English teachers utilize images The English department is also making use of Moodle and has found increased use for the presence of images and video in the classroom. They will continue to experiment with new
Seventh graders scrambled to the finish of relay races and discovered hidden Frisbee-tossing talents with their new classmates on Sunday, Sept. 7 after being placed into their respective Houses at the first ever seventh grade family picnic. The Houses are composed of the Badgers, Ferrets, Otters and Polecats and represent the teams that compete in events to win the Jacobson Cup each year. Typically, seventh graders and new ninth graders have a chance to ease into the year during the FastStart program a week before school starts, but construction at the Middle School precluded the program from being held. Because FastStart always culminates in a family picnic, the Parents Association sponsored this picnic at the Upper School so students and parents could get a chance to get to know one another. From 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., students chased each other in Duck Duck Goose games, put their heads together to play “guess the celebrity” and raced to the finish of ping pong ball relays. Seventh grade deans Kate Benton and Colby Plath also presided over Frisbee tosses and the creation of a human hula hoop chain. The offices of Advancement and Admission, seventh graders, their families and Parents Association representatives were all invited to join in. “Parents and students expressed they had a good time... and felt welcomed by the school,” Benton said. The Badgers emerged victorious this time, emerging with six points while the Polecats finished with three points and the Ferrets and Otters tied with one. “Before the picnic, I think we all were a little nervous and intimidated by our surroundings,” Madeline Abrahams ’14, a Polecat, said. “Now we feel comfortable about going and seeing our teachers or deans without any hesitation.”
Tech Savvy
Every department has introduced new technological tools into its courses to enhance the curriculum. Math Department: Digital graphing software Some teachers using tablets English Department: Posting documents on Moodle Augmenting classes with images and videos History Department: Blog discussions about the election and other current event topics Posting documents on Moodle
Foreign Language: Teachers receiving voice recordings via cell phone Online exercises in class, for homework
Science Department: Digital textbook in AP Physics B Posting documents on Moodle Some teachers using tablets
source: jennifer lamkins Graphic by alice PHillips and daniel rothberg
technology as the year progresses, department head Laurence Weber said. History teachers employ blogs, web History classes such as Laurence Klein’s AP Government class and Dror Yaron’s sophomore and junior classes are continuing to use blogs to discuss the election and the news. Many teachers are posting documents on Moodle or the school website’s Course Materials link. In AP Geography, online geographic exercises and spreadsheets are an important element of the course. Nini Halkett’s World Politics class is based on an online simulation run by Whittier College. Department head Katherine Holmes-Chuba also said that the AP Art History classes have “gone completely digital” in storing their art lecture files. Language courses tell digital stories Moodle has eclipsed the online forums used by some teachers last year. Foreign language teacher Nancy Holme-Elledge feels that the evolution of teaching technology opens a myriad of doors to help students learn better. She thinks features like the Language Lab and online exercises increase creativity, innovation and critical thinking. She is especially excited about the opportunity for her Spanish III students to creat multi-media presenations with digital storytelling programs.
Foreign language teachers, too, are relying on Moodle to post handouts, hold question-and-answer sessions and play language games. Foreign language teachers Dr. Roser Gelida and Dr. Qinru Zhou are using Sanako Lite, which enables students to record themselves speaking without a trip to the Language Lab. Gelida also discovered “GCasting,” in which students send recordings to their teachers via cell phone. A look to the future Lamkins is familiarizing herself with each department and working on several projects. She is working with Video Arts teacher Cheri Gaulke on a global video project with students in Qatar and looking into audio books with the librarians. Her goal is to make technology a truly integral part of the Harvard-Westlake education. “Looking to the future, I want to see what’s coming up the pike for our students, and try to have a campus that reflects that,” she said. Head of School Dr. Jeanne Huybrechts is excited to see where the technological aspect of the future leads the school. “I think that at the very least each teacher ought to know what’s out there and be fluent in the language of educational technology and should incorporate whatever is effective in their classes,” Huybrechts said.
Oct. 1, 2008
The Chronicle
News A11
FULL TURN THE LIGHTS ON WOLVERINE PRIDE AND HARVARD-WESTLAKE SPIRIT
Saturday, October 18, 2008 Harvard-Westlake Upper School Campus
PAGE
3700 Coldwater Canyon, North Hollywood
ATHLETIC EVENTS
BOYS’ FOOTBALL
GIRLS’ VOLLEYBALL
9:00 A.M. 7th Grade vs. TBD 11:00 A.M. 8th Grade vs. TBD 4:30 P.M. Freshman vs. St. Bernard 7:30 P.M. Varsity vs. St. Bernard
3:00 P.M. Freshman vs. Notre Dame Academy 4:00 P.M. J.V. vs. Notre Dame Academy 5:30 P.M. Varsity vs. Notre Dame Academy
TED SLAVIN FIELD
AD
TAPER GYM
BOYS’ WATER POLO ZANUCK POOL
GIRLS’ FIELD HOCKEY TED SLAVIN FIELD
1:30 P.M. J.V. vs. Chaminade 3:00 P.M. Varitiy vs. Chaminade
2:30 P.M. Freshman vs. Mater Dei 3:30 P.M. J.V. vs. Mater Dei 4:30 P.M. Varsity vs. Mater Dei
FESTIVITIES ALUMNI COCKTAIL RECEPTION
HALL OF FAME INDUCTION
5:30-7:30 P.M.
Halftime of Boys’ Varsity Football
FELDMAN-HORN GALLERY
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Ted Slavin Field
GAMES, FOOD & FUN
3:00 P.M. - 9:00 P.M. SCRIP SALES CLOSE AT 8:30 P.M.
See You There!
features
A12
The Chronicle Harvard-Westlake School Volume XVII Issue 2 Oct. 1, 2008
God faith healing acceptance services livingchristian scientist prayer hymnal doctor bible medicine church questions antibiotics hymnal
Living on a Christian Scientist Ellie Bensinger ’09 explains how her religion keeps her centered.
B
By Julie Barlizay efore her ninth grade audition for the musical “Damn Yankees,” Ellie Bensinger ’09 stood outside the choral room in the Administration Building with eyes closed, silently praying. But Bensinger is such an experienced singer, dancer and actress that stage fright is rarely a cause for concern. It was not nerves that led Bensinger to search deep inside herself in that hallway in 2006. Bensinger has been a Christian Scientist since birth, and she was doing what she always does when she doesn’t feel well. “Before the audition, I had the belief of a sore throat that made me sound like a dying frog,” she said. “Knowing that the true source [of my voice] is from God, not my damaged vocal chords, I went into that room and sang my heart out. The rest is history.” Bensinger landed the role of Lola in Damn Yankees. The sore throat passed. But Bensinger’s core belief system has been a fixture ever since she can remember. Her mother is a Christian Scientist, and took Bensinger and her younger brother to church every week growing up. However, Bensinger stressed that the religion was never forced on
iCinnamon By Lauren Seo With four iPhone applications under his belt and one more pending, Ian Cinnamon ’10 has taken his love for programming to the bank. One of his more successful creations is CarFinder. “It’ll subtract your current location from the location of your car, and then it’ll tell you north, east, west, or if you’re already at your car,” Cinnamon said. It has been recently updated with a cleaner design and an option for users to select the garage level their cars are parked on. CarFinder was originally free when it came out on Aug. 31, but after 1,400 copies were downloaded within 24 hours, Cinnamon decided that it wouldn’t hurt to charge 99 cents for it. Since then, his application has been downloaded over 10,000 times, earning him over $2,000. Cinnamon has recently been contacted by
her. She grew to embrace the ideas behind the religion as she got older. The beliefs of the Church of Christ, Scientist, founded by Mary Baker Eddy, are that God is supreme, that the true nature of each individual as a child of God is spiritual and that God’s infinite goodness heals through prayer. Bensinger attends two church services a week: one regular church service where the congregants read from the Bible and sing hymns, and one testimony meeting on Wednesday nights. The Wednesday service “is an opportunity to express gratitude for healings you’ve had or for anything you want,” Bensinger said. “I really like it.” Bensinger said there are not explicit levels of Orthodoxy in her religion, but that the individual can decide how absolutely he or she wishes to apply the ideas of Christian Science to life. She abides by most of the basics, such as not drinking, smoking or visiting the doctor, because they make sense to her. “I don’t go to the doctor because I believe I’ve found a more efficient way of healing for myself,” Bensinger said. Bensinger has attended a Christian Science summer camp for six years, and appreciates the experience of living in an environment where she says she doesn’t have to explain anything. “[At camp,] everyone already understands how I live my life and they live it the same way,” she said. “This frees me from constantly being on the defense to being able to grow in spirit and in strength.” But when back at school or in other communities, Bensinger never backs down from a debate – in fact, she has come to quite enjoy defending
Programming phenom Ian Cinnamon’s ’10 iPhone applications are top-ranked on iTunes. Skyhook Wireless, the company that makes the location system for the iPhone. They will use Carfinder to demonstrate the company’s systems’ capabilities to future customers. Cinammon’s other application, Emergency Distress Beacon, which came out on Aug. 25, allowed him to explore how the online application store works and to develop the code for GPS, which he then used for CarFinder. He made EDB free since there are free applications at the iTunes applications store with similar functions. On Sept. 3, CarFinder and EDB were ranked as the seventh and 13th most popular navigation applications at the iTunes applications store out of over 100 applications, respectively. “When I first started I thought, ‘OK, maybe 10 or 20 people would download it a day,’” he said. “So it was pretty incredible when I saw the response the applications got.”
faith Kim/ Jamie icle chron
prayer
scientist raise your voice: Bensinger ’09 sings from the Christian Science Hymnal.
her faith in the face of critics. “There are two kinds of conversations I have with people about my religion,” she said. “There is the kind where the person I’m talking to is genuinely intrigued by my religion and wants to know more, and then there is the kind where a critical someone wants to hear me say something that sounds outrageous so they can get into a heated debate. I prefer the latter.” Chaplain Father James Young believes that Harvard-Westlake is an open community, where it’s not hard to have different or unique beliefs. “It depends upon how visible that “difference” in beliefs is,” he said. “If it is a fact that the student makes fairly public, folks are often curious with lots of questions. But overall, my hunch is that it doesn’t have much impact upon their life as an H-W student.” Bensinger is familiar with curious questions, but feels it is challenging to summarize sweeping philosophical values in one conversation. “The founder of Christian Science took 700 pages to explain it, so when people ask me to sum it up I never feel like I’ve done it justice,” she said. Bensinger’s belief system affects her daily life by keeping her centered, she said. “I set out every day with a desire to express Love and Principle and Spirit.” She has never seriously considered any other religion. She has been to Christian and Jewish religious services, but has never wavered in her faith. “I’m always open to learning about new ways of viewing life, but for me Christian Science fits,” she said.
Cinn’s Apps Cinnamon has four applications on iTunes so far and expects to release a fifth in November. CarFinder: marks where you left your car and loads the location on a map with directions. Emergency Distress Beacon: sends out your latitude and longitude to rescuers. GPA Calculator: calculates your GPA using a simple, universal GPA calculator. PHPGETter: allows you to control your desktop from your iPhone. Sing Like a Rap Star: places a voice effect on users’ singing or rapping (to be released by Nov. 1).
Source: Itunes Graphic by Jamie Kim/Chronicle
Oct. 1, 2008
Features A13
The Chronicle
Marching to the military
A few good men look at the Air Force Academy, U.S. Naval Academy, ROTC.
Courtesy of Jake Schine
Taking care of business: Jake Schine ’10 holds a granade gun at a Navy Seal Recruitment station in San Diego. Schine has not decided if he would like to join the Marine Corps or the Navy.
By Mac Taylor Patriotism, a passion for politics and a passion for flying are motivating two seniors and a junior to set their sights on the national military academies or military training programs during college. Ryan Ashley ’09 is already involved with the Civil Air Patrol. In an Air Force Reserve Officer Training Program, he could train as a pilot. For Jake Schine ’10, a sense of obligation to defend his country has led him to apply to the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, while Daniel Katz ’09 hopes to attend the Air Force Academy so he can fly fighter jets. “I believe in a proactive military defense of America and would not feel comfortable believing that if I didn’t put my money where my mouth is and join the military,” Schine said. Schine has wanted to join the military for as long as he can remember, and hopes to attend the Naval Academy in lieu of a more traditional college. “I understand that it will not be a normal college experience and that it will be harder than any other school in the country, but the discipline and self-reliance taught there will aid me more than anything I could ever learn at another school,” he said. The Naval Academy requires students to serve in active duty for two months of their summer, and freshman year “is practically a boot camp,” Schine said. He is still deciding whether he wants to join the Marine Corps or the Navy. “Somewhere along the line I decided that since the purpose of the military is to fight, and Marines and SEALs are the most likely branches of the military that would allow me to see combat, I would want to join either of those,” he said. Ashley’s curiosity about politics sparked his interest in joining the military, citing the leadership experience that
High Stakes
Applications
is necessary for a political career. After becoming an Eagle Scout in the beginning of his sophomore year, he joined the Civil Air Patrol, a cadet program run by the civilian auxiliary of the Air Force. He attends meetings every Thursday for three and a half hours, as well as staff meetings on Sundays. He spends about an hour every night doing related work. Now having spent two and half years in CAP, he is the Commander of the Santa Monica Squadron, the highest rank for a cadet. He is responsible for overseeing the training and education of all the other cadets. “The leadership and self-discipline I’ve gotten from it is invaluable in my day to day life,” he said. Ashley plans to join the Air Force ROTC program in college, where he would like to become a pilot or Intelligence/Foreign Affairs officer. “I’ve always wanted to fly planes, it’s a childhood love I’ve never lost,” he said. Katz, like Ashley, also shares a love of planes and flying. “To me there is nothing cooler than flying at speeds twice the speed of sound,” Katz said. Katz’s family has been involved with the airplane industry. His grandfather owns an airplane parts manufacturer and his uncle is a pilot for United Airlines. His uncle takes him up in planes and lets him fly “just to get comfortable with it.” Katz hopes to attend the Air Force Academy for college. “It would give me the best chance of realizing my dream to fly fighter jets,” he said. Like Ashley, Katz’s fascination with flight has lasted as long as he can remember. “My theory is that after college people can get rich and buy fancy cars to only go the speed limit, but in the air, the sky is literally the limit,” he said. “There are no speed limits up there and there is a sense of freedom equivalent to nothing else.”
Chapter 2: Seniors embark on the next stage of the college admission process: applications and SATs.
By Derek Schlom The enthusiasm of the students of the class of 2009 has been dampened by an onslaught of tests, nightly readings roughly equaling the length of a Dostoyevsky tome and the general feeling that second semester of junior year may not have been the toughest time of their lives. Compounding the workload is the knowledge that the Nov. 1 deadline for early decision and early action applications is rapidly approaching. Students have been meeting with their deans, whittling down their choices and, for the most part, have been balancing cautious optimism and disappointment with their options. Denise Denise is waging a war against her nerves as the reality of impending deadlines sinks in. “I’m freaking out, actually,” she said. “I’m such an anxious person in general without dealing with college stuff.” She is reluctant to commit to a school at this point in the process, so, rather than applying early decision to Occidental or Union College (her top two choices), Denise currently plans to apply early action to Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Ore. In the event of her non-binding admission there, Denise would wait to hear from Occidental and Union before making a decision. Beyond retaking the SAT this Saturday, the feeling that Denise is limiting herself by applying primarily to colleges that aren’t particularly selective has also been weighing on her mind. “I just talk to people about where I want to go, and for some people Occidental is a safety,” she said. “I feel like maybe I should apply to harder schools to see what happens.” Denise discussed her options with her dean and her parents and now plans to apply regular decision to Amherst College, which she refers to as a “super, super reach,” claiming that she has a “99.9 percent chance of rejection.” “I think everyone just goes for a really hard school, and my dean just said to see what happens,” she said. “But no one with my GPA has ever gotten in there, I bet.”
SATs
Early Action
Early D e c i s io n
Illustration by Drew Lash
Holly After meeting with her dean, Holly has solidified her plan to apply early decision to Northwestern’s School of Communication. “[The meeting] consisted mostly of just what I need to do to get myself into Northwestern – working hard this quarter, recommendations and pulling whatever strings I can,” she said. She visited Northwestern in the summer of 2007 and will be returning at some point this fall to meet with the head of the performing arts department, sit in on acting classes, attend a football game and spend the night in a dorm. Holly plans to complete the Common Application after she retakes the SAT this Saturday. Brian Brian, a varsity athlete fielding recruitment bids by a veritable who’s-who of the nation’s top-ranked universities, still considers Stanford his first choice. He said that he has “somewhat fallen out of touch,” with his former second choice, Princeton, and that he now is strongly considering Harvard and Brown, both of which “have made big attempts to recruit me in the last month,” he said. Harvard and Princeton have eliminated their early decision programs and must compete for recruits with schools that can offer acceptance letters in December, like Stanford and Brown.As a result,
both universities send “likely letters” to recruits who will probably be accepted when official decisions are made in the spring. If Brian is not already committed to Stanford or Brown, he will only be applying to Harvard or Princeton if he is notified by the coach of his sport that he will receive a “likely letter.” Brian said that he will be visiting several of his top choices on recruiting trips over the course of the next month. Raymond Raymond, also a varsity athlete, has opted against applying to any colleges early decision or early action. He has been recruited heavily by Widener University in Chester, Penn. and has been communicating with coaches there, but is reluctant to commit. “I don’t know if Widener is the school I really want to go to,” he said. “Worse comes to worst, I know I could go to Widener.” Raymond is also being recruited by schools like Lawrence University and Dana College, but he isn’t particularly interested in either. “Right now I’m just chilling, looking for a school I like that I can probably walk on at,” he said. Raymond recently had a “really positive meeting” with his dean. “She said I’m going to college. I was stoked,” he said. “I was really expecting something negative.”
arts entertainment
A14 Features
Oct. 1, 2008
Chamber Singers bond during overnight retreat By Ellina Chulpaeff The trip to Italy over Spring Break was one of the key discussion topics during the seventh annual Chamber Singers’ retreat. Students joined together on Sept. 12 to spend two days at a 6,000 foot elevation at Camp Wrightwood. Ellie Bensinger ’09 and Jeremy Cairl ’09 were not able to come until Saturday morning because of the Friday night football game. “The fact that they left at 4:30 a.m. in order to arrive on time absolutely amazes me,” Choral Director Rodger Guerrero said. During the retreat, students had to follow a very precise schedule. After unpacking their bags and eating dinner on Friday night, students went straight to a vocal lesson. The section leaders then led the group in bonding activities. The bonding included playing charades, singing songs and participating in other activities that allowed them to get more familiar with one another. “It was most important to provide a bonding experience for the choir, especially one that took place far from the HarvardWestlake environment,” Guerrero said.
“We are all so different, but we complement each other really well.”
—Lisa Elder ‘09 alto section leader
The next day consisted of more vocal training and excercises. Because the group spent a significant amount of time voicing each section, the choir was able to find a comfortable blend of the overall sound. The singers also rehearsed a wide range of music including a song for the Senior Ring Ceremony that they would perform the day after they return. “This retreat helped me to become closer and more comfortable with the other choir members,” Lisa Elder ’09 said. “We are all so different, but we complement each other really well.” The Chamber Singers are scheduled to spend 10 days touring Rome, Florence and Venice during Spring Break. Spirited by the retreat, Guerrero said he looks forward to the rest of the year.
Student filmmakers enter festival screenings
arts ahead October
20-22
10 & 17
23
“Summer Brave” callbacks
“Summer Brave” auditions
Scene Monkeys Workshop
November
31
24
Scene Monkeys Callbacks
Scene Monkey auditions
December
6
Winter jazz concert
10
Art of Dance I and II Showcase
14-16
“Into the Woods” performances
11
Advanced Dance I Showcase
13
Winter Choral Concert
source: Harvard-westlake performing arts department graphic by cathi choi/chronicle
Russell Tutoring ›› Math all levels to AP Calculus ›› Physics ›› specializing in H-W Chemistry
(310) 459-3239
lauren seo/chronicle
Camp experience: The Chamber Singers bond together at Camp Wrightwood. Even with their rigorous schedule, they still had time to play football, do homework, and enjoy each other’s company.
Short youth-made films qualified for awards and were selected to screen at film festivals. By Ester Khachatryan Film festivals last weekend and next week will showcase films made by Harvard-Westlake students. Video arts teacher Cheri Gaulke was given an award at the the Berkeley Film Festival in Berkeley, which featured six student-made films last Saturday and Sunday. Evan Hamilton’s ’07 “The Life and Times of Buster Chaplin,” and “Broken,” Max Grey ’08 and Drew Foster’s ’08 “Ticklish,” Michael Stampler’s ’09 “Castle Made of Sand” and Sebastian Spader’s ’08 and Patrick Hibler’s ’08 “Ridden” were shown at the festival in the Youth Producer section. The festival accepts films by producers of different age groups.
Films were first submitted to prescreening by jury members who select films for final theatrical screening. All films were divided into categories based on the age of the director. Awards were given to films within each category. The youth jury of the Reel Youth Festival selected three studentmade films that will be screened on Oct. 8 and Oct. 9. The festival will feature “The Artist,” the film Noor Fateh ’11 made during the Harvard-Westlake summer video art program starring Jennifer Plotkin ’11, . Zelda Wengrod’s ’13 “The Night in Question” starring Henry Woody ’13 and Elizabeth Barcay’s ’07 “Sunny Road” will also be featured in the festival. The Reel Youth Festival is part of the Vancouver International Film Festival and showcases short films made by youth 19 years and younger. The screening features films from all over the world. The screening will feature a dialogue with the local filmmakers. There will be no judge to determine the awards. Instead, awards will be based on audience votes.
Oct. 1, 2008
Features A15
The Chronicle
mini me: Oliver Doublet ’09 hoists his brothers Will and Luke onto his car and Jacky Iniguez helps her sister Arianna learn to walk (left to right.)
Faire Davidson/chronicle
Faire Davidson/chronicle
Family bonding: Gina DeVitis ’09 holds her newborn sister Sophia in the hospital the day she was born and Nicole Hung ’10 holds her brother Ryan during a varsity tennis match (left to right.)
Baby on board photo courtesy of gina Devitis
By Faire Davidson
L
ast year’s September football game against Carson was memorable for Harvard-Westlake’s defeat. But for cheerleader Jacky Iniguez ’09, it was the day she almost missed the birth of her baby sister. Iniguez was preparing for the important game, which was to be televised, when her mother called to say she was going stay in the hospital because doctors needed to keep an eye on her. However, her mother went into labor, and after apologizing to the cheerleading squad for leaving them right before the game, Iniguez suffered through rush hour traffic on the 405 to make it to the hospital as her mother was being wheeled into the delivery room. She stayed with her mother until she gave birth to her sister Arianna at 6 p.m., two hours after she left campus. Although the 16-year age gap may seem uncommon, Iniguez is one of many HarvardWestlake students who became an older sibling in the past three years. Oliver Doublet ’09 has twin three-year-old brothers, Nicole Hung ’10 has an eight-month-old brother and Gina DeVitis ’09 has a six-month-old sister. The ease of the transition varies from family to family depending on how integrated the older sibling is into the family involving his or her younger sibling. “In some ways it’s like two different families, you know because you have the second kid,” school psychologist Dr. Shelia Siegel said. “It’s like their parents are doing their own thing.” When Iniguez was 15, her mother had a miscarriage. Iniguez and her two siblings, ages 14 and 16, had been excited about the potential addition to their family and distraught about the loss of the child. Months later, the children became suspicious when their mother slept more and had mood swings, exhibiting the same signs she had during her earlier pregnancy. After the three month mark, her mother
confirmed their suspicions and said she had waited to tell them so the family wouldn’t have to grieve as they had before. Although Iniguez was excited to have another sibling, she had some reservations. “The baby would be born the beginning of my junior year, which is supposed to be the most difficult year at Harvard-Westlake,” Iniguez said. “I know it sounds a bit selfish for me to think like that, but I couldn’t help it.” Because both of her parents work, this past summer Iniguez spent a lot of time babysitting her new sister and doing household chores with the infant in tow. “It’s a little strange being out alone with her in public though because people give me the strangest most disapproving looks, as if I was her mother,” Iniguez said. Hung already had two siblings when her parents announced that they were expecting. However, her mother was not pregnant. Her brother Ryan was born via a surrogate mother. Like Iniguez, the Hung siblings were not told until the surrogate had passed the three month mark. Intially, Hung and her sister Ingrid ’13 were upset with the news. As the oldest, they were very accustomed to their family unit, a moderate size of five. However, their eight-year-old sister Candice was much more open to the possibility of growing their family. Within the first few days after Hung heard the news, she came around and began to get excited about the impending arrival of her sibling. Although she is worried about the 16-year age gap, she is easily able to see the positive aspects of being the older, wiser sister. “I guess I’ll be able to give him better advice when he’s older and I’ll be a parental-like figure in his life,” Hung said. In 2005, Doublet went from being the baby of the family to the man of the house. That year, his mother gave birth to twin boys, Will and Luke. Doublet was living alone with his mother at the time while his older sister continued her high school education in Paris, where their fa-
erin moy/chronicle
Students with infant siblings try to bridge the age gap between them. ther lives. In a single parent family, Siegel explained, the change in the family dynamic is different because the parent does not have someone to share the burden. “Instead the parent looks to the siblings to fill that role,” Siegel said. When the twins were born, Doublet had to become more self-sufficient as his mother’s attention was often engaged with his younger brothers. His school work had to become much more independent and he had to push himself to study, which is difficult when two three year olds are racing outside his bedroom door. “I feel more like an uncle or an older friend than I do like a brother,” Doublet said. Unlike Iniguez, Doublet was not present for the birth of his siblings. Instead, in August of 2005, he was doing community service when he got the call that his brothers had been born. Sitting next to him was DeVitis. One day when DeVitis was staying at her father’s house, she found a baby magazine. And her stepmother, Lyndsey, was refusing raw foods and alcohol. So it didn’t come as a surprise when she found out she was going to be a big sister for the first time. As an only child, DeVitis was ecstatic when she heard the news. In May 2008, Sophia Pearl was born. DeVitis fears that she will not have as close a relationship with her sister as she would if their ages were closer together. As much love as they may feel, they will never experience something at the same time because of the 17 year age gap. However, it is evident that despite the differences, the bond of blood is stronger than any other. “The moment I held Sophia in my arms, it was almost like she knew I was her big sister,” DeVitis said. “I honestly can’t even explain how everything completely clicked when I held her for the first time. I love her more than anything.”
A16 Features
green tea protecting our pl
The Ch
Oct. 1,
green machine: After being picked up by Crown Disposal from the Upper School, trash is taken to a facility in Sunland, where
it is separated into recyclable material and garbage. Recyclables are compacted into huge blocks. Once the blocks are organized, they
are sent to another facility to be r interns separated the trash man
Recycling: good for the bottle, good for the The school’s waste goes to a material recovery facility where it undergoes a complex system of meticulous sorting. By Alexia Boyarsky The smell of rotting bananas wafts through the air. As the musky scent of trash left out too long drifts by on a dry breeze, spare bits of shredded paper float around high metal fences. Past large signs advising caution and explaining the need for closed toed shoes, a large pile of trash, approximately the size of a basketball court and the height of a two-story building comes into view. In the background, lifting machines are moving, trucks are beeping, conveyor belts are carrying, workers are scurrying around and from a machine, large bundles of tightly wrapped material emerge as if by magic. This is the site of Crown Disposal, a recycling facility in Sunland where most of the trash from both Harvard-Westlake campuses gets transported, sorted and then recycled.
Ten to 12 years ago, the school switched from its earlier recycling process to this facility, Upper School Plant Manager Felipe Anguiano said. Before, large recycling bins collected all forms of recyclables, which were then sorted by student interns, Assistant to the Head of Upper School Michelle Bracken said. Currently, cans are removed from the trash on a weekly basis by maintenance workers while the rest gets sent to the recycling facility. The cans from the blue recycling bins are also taken by maintenance workers and gardeners who have the option to turn them in for extra money at separate recycling facilities. “That option has always been available to them,” Anguiano said. “We do our own form of recycling.” Crown Disposal uses an intricate system of pulleys, conveyor belts and other machinery to transform its trash from the big pile by the entrance to the neatly stacked bundles standing by the exit. First, all of the trash is dumped into one huge pile. From there, the trash is slowly fed onto a conveyor belt that carries it into the Material Recovery Facility, the machine that sorts all of the trash. The trash is then sorted through a drum with different holes inside that separates it based on its size. From there the large pieces of trash go in one direction and the smaller bits travel on. Next, a series of fans blows all of the paper onto a gathering wall. Wet or damaged paper gets separated out by a different set
A look into the future...
Each department will be encouraged to follow the example of the math department, which reuses scratch paper.
of fans. This paper is then com three foot by four foot block an The metal objects are separ density. Afterwards, separated crushed to form 3,000 pound c later be sent to separate recycl metal and sell it back to compa Plastic is sorted based on dif coming mostly from the Univer packaged separately from the m of these are also compressed in facilities. Even though the majority o be machine sorted, Head of Sc the blue recycling bins rema need of recycling in the globa friendliness. “I think it’s good for studen put the plastic in the bin and Salamandra. “It’s good that the they have to recycle.” While the recycling program taken towards being more “gre lot more to be done. “It was a great start to do [program], but there is a lot mo
The school is collaborating with the Environmental Club to initiate their plan for a greener campus.
The cafeteria may start using “green” Styrofoam or a less harmful material for the enviornment than what is currently being used.
Sal Greenberger ‘09, along with science teacher Wendy Van Norden, is working on installing a solar heater for the pool in Zanuck Stadium.
am lanet
hronicle
Features A17
, 2008
School gives environmental projects the green light Seniors dream up alternative-energy car By Andrew Lee
Cathi choi/chronicle
Four seniors are trying to design the most energyefficient car in the world. They aim to create an alternative energy solution that will beat out all other gas-saving competitors, including hybrids and small and lighter cars. The vehicle they plan to make features a multi-alternative energy system that incorporates solar, electric and wind power. Rory Handel ‘09, Maxx Bricklin ‘09, Sun Ho Lee ‘09 and Carl Lawson ‘09 formed RORMaxx Automotive over the summer and have started constructing this green vehicle called Formula AE. The four seniors are creating this project as part of their Studies in Scientific Research Class taught by Antonio Nassar. After four months of work, the group has finalized all of the conceptual engineering and design and mechanics of the car. Last year in SSR, Handel and Lawson completed a small running model version of a similar electric vehicle in a 1:12 size ratio to the actual race car. Lee said their technology has proven to be at least 12 percent more energy-efficient than the average hybrid vehicle. Aside from the four seniors, people outside of SSR have taken great interest in the project and invested in the project. However, the four seniors are still looking for additional investors to fund the completion of the vehicle, which is expected to cost tens of thousands of dollars. It is anticipated that this will be settled by the
recycled. Before this method, student nually.
Courtesy of Rory Handel
way of the future: This is a mock design for the Formula AE race car four seniors plan to build. end of October. They plan to build the final version of the car at their technical sponsor’s workshop in Van Nuys. They are tackling the head engineering, mechanics, and business on their own for this project, but are hiring outside technicians and exterior designers. The team plans on spending the next five months perfecting the multi-alternative-energy technology. They will hope to test the Formula AE car at Willow Springs Raceway in the summer of 2009. The seniors want to propose their technology to global companies, mainly in the oil industry. They hope that a company will take their technology into production. “High school students of the current generation are too afraid to take risks,” Handel said. “They need to think big and not be afraid to pursue an innovative idea.”
e can
mpressed into an approximately nd wrapped with wire. rated based on their weight and d aluminum and tin products are cubes of metal. These cubes will ling facilities that melt down the anies for reuse. fferent grades. Ultra thin plastic, rsal Studios Jurassic Park ride, is medium grade plastic bottles. All nto blocks that are sent to other
of the school’s trash gets sent to chool Harry Salamandra believes ain to remind students of the al push for more environmental
nts to be conscious and purposely separate it from the rest,” said ey are conscious of the fact that
m has been a step the school has een”, Bracken believes there is a
the recycling bins and then this ore we can do,” she said.
Alexia Boyarsky/chronicle
Got Green?: Alana Klein ’11, Andy Alden ’09 get green stickers from Haley Feldman ’09, Sal Greenberger ’09 and Ju-
lie Barzilay ’09 (from left) to promote environmental awareness during the Activities on Fair Monday Sept. 22.
Other projects that will be headed by the Environmental Club:
The Environmental Club will be organizing recycling drives to collect batteries, cell phones and inkjet cartridges to bring to an organization that recycles the parts and disposes of the waste properly. This organization will compensate the school, and the money will be used to plant trees at Tree People.
A day of environmental education will be included in the Choices and Challenges curriculum. Members of the Environmental Club will teach some of the lessons.
The school will promote the use of reusable bottles, bags, lunch boxes and other reusable items. They hope to have SIGG bottles, a type of eco-friendly and refillable brand of bottles, available for students at Homecoming. information provided by the environmental club
Courtesy of Daniel Lundberg
A18 Features
Oct. 1, 2008
The Chronicle
Welcome
to the
Big Top
Illustra tion by Drew la sh
Summer camp is a balancing act for these girls. By Carly Radist Nerves boiling, Olivia Van Iderstine ’10 climbed the ladder to a platform high above the ground. Below her was a net to catch her fall. When she jumped off the platform, she experienced something new; she was flying. Although it was her fourth summer at French Woods, a performing arts camp, Olivia experienced something she had never felt before. “The adrenaline rush was huge and when I let go and fell on the net,” Olivia said. “I don’t remember a time I smiled so big.” Olivia said the feeling is like being on a rollercoaster or a giant swing, all while hanging on by her hands. Olivia was one of a few current and former Harvard-Westlake students who explore these unique stunts at circus camps. Olivia, her sister Miranda Van Iderstine ’13 and Alisa Houghton ’08 have all experienced the adrenaline rush while performing circus stunts at their respective summer camps. Olivia Van Iderstine ’10 The flying trapeze, which Olivia recently mastered, is one of the many acts which she has learned over the past four years at French Woods. She has walked on a tight wire, balanced on a globe and done the rola-bola (balancing on a plank which is on some type of cylinder,) just to name a few. As much as one would assume that circus camp is all fun and games, Olivia said that is not the case. French Woods requires training every day. Although people do work on their acts, they also participate in strength and conditioning workouts. And whenever someone
Ol pho iv to ia Va cou r n Id te er sy st of in e
is late to a session, he or she has to do a push-up for each minute he or she was late, Olivia said. Learning new tricks proves to be pretty difficult, Olivia explained. To perfect a trick or stunt, she has to be strong enough to do it, which is where the training proves to be important. But Olivia said that all of the hard work is worth it. At the end of the three to four week session, the camp puts on a full circus show with a theme, music, makeup and costumes. Olivia’s favorite moment last summer was when she finally performed an act that requires a lot more thought and effort, the fly trap. “Fly trap is not about acting, but reacting to the calls that come to you from below,” she said. “Getting your timing right, swinging your legs, then letting go at the precise moment are a lot to think about.” More than learning how to perform incredibly elaborate stunts and acts, Olivia loves the camp’s camaraderie. Through the bonds they have formed over the years, she and her friends have almost become a second family, she said. “The friends I’ve made from all around the country and the world are definitely the number one reason why I go back,” she said. Miranda Van Iderstine ’13 It was Miranda’s first time at French Woods this summer, but like her older sister, Miranda loved camp from the moment she learned the “suicide dismount roll.” “I was really scared because I had to free fall forward off of a trapeze,” Miranda said. “I loved camp after that moment.” Miranda learned a variety of stunts this summer, concluding her session with a Steve Irwin Jungle themed performance in which she did a series of 11 moves on the single trapeze. She dedicated most of her time to trapeze training,
Clowning Around: Miranda Van Iderstine ’13 practices the single trapeze at French Woods in New York.
especially the most important elements of this stunt: flexibility, trust and strength. “Lifting all of your weight with just an arm and a leg wrapped around the rope takes a lot of endurance, but the training prepared me for it,” Miranda said. Miranda’s favorite accomplishment was the monkey lift. This is a painful move, Miranda said, because she must hang, holding all of her weight on one leg and then roll up the bar by swinging backwards. However, the pain and scars were all worth it, she said. Alisa Houghton ’08 Like the Van Iderstine sisters, Alisa Houghton ’08 participated in circus events during her summers, but at a different camp: Long Lake Camp for the arts. For six years, starting when she was 10 years old, Houghton dabbled in different acts and stunts, including her favorite, the spanish web and the static trapeze. The Spanish web, which is a cloth covered rope with a loop attached near the top where the performer inserts their foot or wrist and spins, took Hougton a lot of time to get used to because of the safety precautions. She had to learn how to wrap the spanish web around her foot so she could climb it quickly and safely. Like Olivia, Houghton learned how to perform the flying trapeze act. However, it was difficult to learn because there are a number of serious injuries that one can endure from this act, like the possibility of a breaking one’s neck. “The feeling I got from nailing a stunt or even just surviving a difficult one was comparable to any feeling of having succeeded—elation, pride and renewed ambition,” Houghton said.
Oct. 1, 2008
One Grand day
The Chronicle
Students debuted their compositions and performed on Grand Avenue last Sunday. By Neha Nimmagadda Booths lined Grand Avenue and people of all ages filled the street Sunday as music streamed from outdoor stages. Inside Disney Hall, Jack McFadden-Talbot ’09 and Andy Alden ’09 looked on as others performed music they composed. As a part of the Young Composers program, Talbot and Alden collaborated on a piece, “Spring Revisited,” inspired by the fifth annual Grand Avenue Festival’s theme: Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring.” Steven Stucky, the Philharmonic’s Consulting Composer for New Music, has been teaching the two composers during the two-year program and worked with both of them for the piece. Their piece was performed by a quartet at Disney Hall as part of the Grand Avenue Festival, a one-day cultural celebration. Though the process of getting into the Young Composers Program was difficult, McFadden-Talbot and Alden both knew that music was their dream. “I picked up the violin when I was 5.” McFadden-Talbot said. “I think I pretty much knew this is what I wanted to do. I want to be a conductor, composer, violinist.” To apply for the program, Alden and McFadden-Talbot had to write three essays, submit compositions and go to interviews. Finally, they were two of the four high school students in Los Angeles chosen to become a part of the Young Composers Program. Already in the second year of the program, McFaddenTalbot and Alden have been focusing on music theory and have composed many pieces for the program. “I haven’t had a composition teacher until this program,” Alden said. “I mean, I’ve been to summer camps and stuff but
Features A19 Musicians at work: Andy Alden ’09 and Alex Steiner ’09 stand outside the hall after the concert; Jack McFaddenTalbot ’09 looks over the day’s program. (left to right)
“I picked up the violin when I was 5. i think i pretty much knew this is what i wanted to do.”
—Jack McFadden-Talbot ‘09
I’ve never had a full time teacher.” “Steven Stucky is the head composition professor at Cornell, Pulitzer Prize winner, great guy,” Alden said. “He’s the main teacher in the program that me and Jack are in. So now I’ve had lessons from him and it’s been great. I’ve also been able to talk to a lot of composers.” While McFadden-Talbot and Alden watched their piece being performed, Spencer Horstman ’10 participated in a different sense. Amid the masses of people, Spencer Horstman ’10 stepped onto an outdoor stage and looked out at the crowd. It was his first time performing as a part of the Monday Night Band from the Colburn School of Music, yet he was unfazed. “I started playing saxophone in seventh grade when I was in beginning band,” Horstman said. “This was just another way to get a place to play gigs.” Along with Horstman, Benjamin Bellon ’09 and other high school students are enrolled in the Colburn School of Music Jazz program. They auditioned to become part of the Monday Night Band which performs standards and original compositions and is comprised of high school and college-age students. The Monday Night Band played at the Grand Avenue Festival won Sunday morning, though they just started weekly rehearsals two weeks ago.
Jamie Kim/chronicle
Jazz it up: Spencer Horstman ’10 (far left) and Benj Bellon ’09 (far right) perform on Grand Avenue. The street was blocked off for the festivities.
A20 Opinion
The Chronicle
Oct. 1, 2008
The Chronicle Harvard-Westlake School•Volume XVIII• Issue 2• Oct. 1, 2008
3700 Coldwater Canyon, North Hollywood, CA 91604 Editors in Chief: Lucy Jackson, Andrew Lee Managing Editors: Alexia Boyarsky, A.J. Calabrese Executive Editors: Julie Barzilay, Derek Schlom Presentations Editors: Cathi Choi, Dana Glaser Business Manager: Carly Mandel Ads Manager: Neha Nimmagadda Assistant: David Burton Chief Copy Editor: Ellina Chulpaeff Online Assistant Editor: Mac Taylor News Managing Editors: Shayna Freisleben, Carly Radist Section Heads: Hana al-Henaid, Sammy Roth Production Head: Nicki Resnikoff Online Editors: Katherine Hong, Michelle Nosratian Copy Editor: Spencer Gisser Assistants: Olivia Kwitny, Matthew Lee, Alice Phillips, Daniel Rothberg, Sade Tavanganian, Emily Wallach, Catherine Wang Features Managing Editors: Marni Barta, Faire Davidson Section Heads: Drew Lash, Lauren Seo Production Editors: Jamie Kim, Candice Navi Assistants: Ingrid Chang, Jordan Freisleben, Jordan McSpadden, Kelly Ohriner, Hannah Rosenberg Opinion Managing Editors: Annie Belfield, Ashley Halkett Section Heads: Anna Etra, Erin Moy Production Editor: Ester Khachatryan Assistant: Sarah Enriquez Sports Managing Editors: Ben Goldstein, Cody Schott Section Heads: Sam Adams, Jack Davis Production Editors: Alex Edel, Jonah Rosenbaum Junior Varsity Editor: Cary Volpert Copy Editor: Jack Schwada Online Editors: Seth Goldman, Sean Kyle Assistants: Austin Block, Alec Caso, Ashley Khakshouri, Alex Leichenger, Tiana Woolridge Supplement Managing Editors: Emily Friedman, Candace Ravan Supplement Section Heads: Allegra Tepper, Michelle Yousefzadeh Assistants: Mary Fissinger, Jean Park 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 Carly Mandel at (818) 481-2087. Publication of an advertisement does not imply endorsement of the product or service by the newspaper or the school.
Illustration by liam allman
Let seniors ease the transition
A
mentoring system has been implemented at the Middle School in which freshmen counsel new seventh graders, and this program should be a model for the creation of such a system at the Upper School.
Sophomores need senior mentors to aid in their social and academic transition from the Middle School to the Upper School, a change that is simply too drastic to handle without proper guidance. Deans and teachers can act as a support system, but only to a certain extent; they cannot provide truly accurate insight into the joys and struggles that come with being a student at the Upper School. Peer Support can be a helpful supplement as well, but a program should be erected specifically geared towards sophomores, with each assigned to a senior mentor. Our dual campuses are separated by far more than a 20-minute drive. The oasis on North Faring is a place to discover and pursue interests for fun rather than for résumé padding, where grades are a progress report rather than a license for college rejection. The atmosphere is friendlier and gentler, and the greatest social anxiety is where to put your hands when you slow-dance with members of the opposite sex at Bar Mitzvahs. After three years of being nurtured at the Middle School, the sophomores are thrown into the lion’s den of Coldwater Canyon, an environment where, believe it or not, there is social pressure to engage in risky behavior, added onto the extra two or three hours of homework each night. Tenth graders need a helping hand from the seniors, who have slogged through 5-test weeks, AP exams and sleepless nights, and have, successfully
or otherwise, navigated the social minefield that is high school and the new temptations presented in that environment. A mentoring program would also foster a greater sense of school unity at a time when the importance of the student body coming together as one has never been more fervently emphasized. Is there any doubt that the strain of a significantly increased workload and the heightened pressures of a high school environment contributed to the events of last year? What’s done is done, but we need to examine what can be accomplished as a school to prevent such an incident from recurring. A mentoring program is a start. Last year, the class of 2008 attempted to establish a mentoring program for sophomores to little avail. Emma Kaplan ’08, who spearheaded the effort, said that the system failed because the mentors were more interested in adding “Peer Mentor” to their college applications than actually mentoring their peers. This time, the responsibility of the program’s success should fall in the hands of the administration and the Prefect Council. If these two bodies are going to continue to stress the necessity of “community,” something tangible needs to be done, and a mentoring program is a step toward that end.
Respect political differences
A
s we reach the much anticipated culmination of this political election, students and teachers should be striving to create a new kind of political environment on campus. Students of minority political groups should not be dismissed or have to battle hostility. The political majority on campus should instead follow the popular slogan from both campaigns this season and “change” their approach. Students in the majority should be striving to create as open an environment as possible. Too many times, students have been dismissed with ignorance that is not only hurtful but also regressive. Students should take advantage of the fact that they are surrounded by intelligent and involved peers from both ends of the political spectrum. And rather than dismissing opposing views, students should be strengthening their own by questioning why they support what they do. Teachers should also be conscientious of how they lead their classrooms. Teacher-guided political conversation can be one of the best opportunities for students to really listen and learn. But if the teacher seems biased, it can damage what will inevitably be an already unbalanced conversation, given the leftleaning environment at our school.
Though a comment evaluating the war or the economy might seem innocuous, it may be confirming a student’s preconceived notion of a teaching bias or encouraging a hostility built up against certain students. The decision to be outspoken about political views, whether with a sticker in the office or a comment in a lecture, should also be carefully considered because it truly affects a classroom’s environment. The effects are not necessarily always negative and can stimulate informative and open-minded conversation, but there should always be attention paid to make sure the conversation is not one-sided and doesn’t make assumptions about every student’s political views. The atmosphere nationwide leading up to Nov. 4 will undoubtedly be exhilarating because of its historical significance. Let the atmosphere on campus be just as exhilarating with a new openmindedness and willingness to listen.
Oct. 1, 2008
Opinion A21
The Chronicle
reader feedback
In the last issue, the Chronicle staff editorialized about two school issues. Here’s what 100 Upper School students had to say*:
Break Proposal:
The teachers are considering three options regarding the Break Proposal submitted by the Prefect Council. Which one would you support?
Online Comment: “If a new break is added and it means that the day must be extended, it’s better to have no new break at all.”
Community Council:
The new requirements give school credit only to a group of four or more students doing a project for at least a half-day. Do you agree?
D 3%
A 13%
C 17% D 50%
B 31%
A 10% B 70%
Online Comment: “It’s the closest we would come to having a common lunch period.”
C 6% A - No new break at all. B - A Wednesday break between second and third
periods with 40 minute classes. C - A Wednesday break between second and third with regular classes and a school day until 3:10 p.m. D - I liked the original proposal for any day, preferably Friday, between fifth and sixth with 40 minute classes.
Letters Prefects’ plan to implement new ideas
I
n the September issue of the Chronicle, the staff wrote an editorial titled “Break Proposal has Potential.” This editorial supported our 2:35 p.m. additional break proposal, noting that it is a step toward “a more unified community.” For those of you who don’t know, we proposed an additional break to be added to the schedule once a week on a rotating schedule. School would still end at 2:35 p.m. We believe this time will be used for more club involvement, constructive activities, and a chance to take a breath. We have proposed this break to FAC, a body on campus comprised of the Department chairs. As of now, we have not received an answer from FAC; we will let you know their response as soon as possible. The Chronicle also mentioned that “students themselves don’t see the results of the prefects’ work.” This year, we hope to change that. Here’s what the council is are working on currently: The Student Lounge: After we failed to keep the lounge clean at the end of last year, we were not permitted to eat in the lounge. We have met with the deans and come up with a two-week trial period to be used as an opportunity for the student body to keep the lounge clean every period of the day. If we are able to keep the lounge clean, we will regain the privilege of eating there. However, the deans reserve the right to remove this privilege at any point if the lounge becomes dirty again. Ping-Pong Table: Another goal of ours is to improve the quality of student life on a daily basis. The first of these initiatives is putting a ping-pong table in the lounge within the next few weeks. We also saw the great success of Activities Fair. We hope to have many more days where we can simply have music in the Quad. Semiformal: At the beginning of the year, Semiformal was moved from the Sheraton Universal to Taper Gym. After meeting with Dr. Jeanne Huybrechts and some of the deans, the deans and the Prefect Council agreed to move Semiformal
A - Yes, they will help our community become closer. B - It’s a good idea, but credit should also be given individually. C - No, outreach should be done alone. D - No, the requirement is too easy.
Online Comment: “By giving credit to groups of students rather than individuals, the school is shortchanging the community because less people are out there doing their own thing in individual projects.”
Online Comment: “If someone volunteers for 200 hours by themselves, they get less credit than someone who volunteers 12 hours with a friend. Is this not inherently preposterous?”
*Based on the first 100 responses to an anonymous online poll sent to the Harvard-Westlake Upper School through surveymonkey.com. Graphic by Annie belfield and ashley halkett
back to the Sheraton Universal, as long as Semiformal has a greater purpose. A Semiformal planning committee has been created. This committee will be in charge of planning the logistics of Semiformal, as well as coming up with a way to make Semiformal mean more. Honor Board and Honor Code Review: The Prefect Council is reviewing the structure of the Honor Board and the content of the Honor Code. While we evaluate, we are planning a year-long educational program to be implemented at the Middle School that would help unify HarvardWestlake as a school under the banner of our Honor Code. We also have plans to increase awareness of the Honor Code and the Honor Board and its work at the Upper School. We look forward to bettering this school in both the short term and the long term. Thank you for your support and please don’t hesitate to ask any prefect for updates and we’d welcome any suggestions you might have. — The Prefect Council
Service counts either way
D
ear Chronicle: We are disappointed and a bit perplexed by the recent criticism that has been levied against the recentlyestablished Community Council. Most of that criticism seems to center on our newly-defined community service requirement. The requirement asks that each Upper School student complete at least one half-day service project, and that this project involve at least three other members of the community in a “hands-on” effort. For clarification, we define a “hands-on” project as one in which there is face-to-face contact with the recipient(s) of the service. So, for instance, sending cards to our forces in Iraq would not qualify but visiting the wounded in a Veteran’s Hospital would qualify. The group requirement was established because the Council feels that a shared experience with others from HW is highly desirable in that this experience has the distinct likelihood of creating “community.” The “hands-on” requirement is an attempt to make experiences more meaningful,
hopefully providing a life-long impact in many of us. We realize and applaud the fact that a lot of HW students are involved in service activities that fall outside of our guidelines. It is important to note that just because these activities might not “count” for credit does NOT AT ALL mean that they don’t “count” in the greater and more important sense of impacting the world. For those students who might feel that their individual efforts are somehow invalidated by our requirement, we urge you to take a hard look at what motivated you to do the service in the first place. Our hope is that all of the service accomplished by our students is done so out of a desire to make the world a better place. Any other motive should be secondary, at best. We are saddened to see that a portion of the student body is so focused upon such a minimal requirement. As of the writing of this letter, there are 261 days left until graduation and we are asking you to spend approximately four hours of one of those days in service. For some, it will be four hours on top of the amazing service that you’ve already done. For others, it may be some of the only hours you will spend in such a manner. But in either case, these few hours may enable you to meet a new friend and make an impact in the world. How, we ask, can that possibly be a bad thing? — Jordan Church Fr. J. Young Advisers to Community Council
corrections In the September 2008 issue of the Chronicle, a photo on the Features page A15 “Rallying for Obama” was mislabeled as Brian Goldsmith ’00. His real picture is shown at right.
cbs.com
feedback The Chronicle wants feedback from its readers. Letters must be signed and may not exceed 350 words. The name of the author
may be withheld upon request. Letters must be received by Oct. 27. Submissions can be e-mailed to chronicle@ hw.com.
Oct. 1, 2008
A22 Opinion The Chronicle Shayna Freisleben
Religious refreshment
M
“She showed her faith to me just as I would proudly display my faith to her.”
y parents haven’t been too pleased with me lately. The list of problems is growing. I haven’t been working on college applications at the pace they would like. It peeves them when my sister and I squabble and when punctuality escapes me. They were really irritated when I got into a car “incident” in the Senior Lot. But when I told my mother that I wanted to attend church services, she thought I had simply lost my mind. In actuality, it was an e-mail from School Chaplain Father J. Young that piqued my interest. He invited the school community to the Episcopalian service he leads every Tuesday morning in St. Saviour’s Chapel before school. I have never been one to question my religion (unabashedly Jewish), but I have long been searching for my spirituality and faith within said religion. This summer, at Jewish sleep away camp, my personal relationship with religion grew exponentially, therefore making me more comfortable to explore things I wouldn’t otherwise explore. I opted to go to chapel last Tuesday, exactly one week before I sat in synagogue for Rosh Hashanah. I wanted to go for the experience, and partially to feel more in touch with Harvard-Westlake, when it often seems like our student body lacks any true sense of community, or so they say. Most students probably haven’t been in St. Saviour’s. It’s nice. Its wood-paneled walls, symmetrical pews, and plaques honoring the Harvard past connected me to the foundations of this very school. With so much building and razing, particularly of late, it is somewhat refreshing to walk into history. I opted not to audibly pray, but I followed along in the prayer book. I felt out of place and awkward. A friend and her mother were seated when I walked in, and I joined them. I have known this family for most of my life, and I would always pride myself on teaching her about Judaism. She knew how to say “Baruch ata Adonai” by the age of 8. But now, they were instructing me when to stand, when to kneel, when to cross my arms across my chest. She showed her faith to me just as I would proudly display my faith to her. An experience like this is intimate. Not due to the small size of the service, but because religion is particularly intimate. And when we step outside our realms of comfort or classrooms, our school’s true concept of learning is promoted. I encourage my classmates to go to chapel. Some of us could really benefit from those 30 minutes, or from the renewed mindset that comes with it. And in these next crazy few months, we could all use a little serenity.
illustration By Liam Allman
Nicki Resnikoff
Cheer up
I
n almost every high school movie and at other schools, being a cheerleader is a huge honor. A cheerleader is the epitome of school spirit. However, because the Cheer Team is seen as a joke at our school, this is not true for us. I think it is necessary that cheerleaders become more of a spirit head of our school. This is my second year on the cheer team and it is not at all what I imagined it would be. I had always thought that cheerleaders led cheers. Isn’t that the definition of the word? At our school, though, the team does our cheers and is really only joined by a truly enthusiastic crowd during “Wolverines in the Front.” As a team, we try to help boost school spirit by leading cheers for every situation, but we are very often drowned out by the Fanatics’ own chants and drums. Because we as a team are not respected or viewed as a real sport we cannot do our jobs efficiently. If no one takes the cheerleaders seriously, why should they listen? I have told friends in the past that I was really tired and therefore not looking forward to practice and they responded by saying, “well it won’t be that bad since it isn’t a real sport.” In reality though, we are a “real” hardworking sport. Year round, we run, stretch and condition just like any other team. Some may make the argument that we don’t compete, but we dance and do stunts, and are a part of the football and basketball games. Maybe there’s no risk of the cheer team losing a game or having the glory of
Dana Glaser
Live and learn
T
o the Class of 2009: Every year in May, like the Chronicle geek that I am, I look forward to reading the senior columns. For those of you not quite as conscientious about it as I am, they are great — they are written for the last issue of Chronicle when the senior class is feeling its most vulnerable and nostalgic. The columns have a kind of “to hell with it,” “total access,” “priceless jewels of wisdom” attitude about them, and they read a little like dear-diary entries. I mean that in the best way possible. I don’t know about the rest of you, but sometimes I feel like I already have one foot out the door of HarvardWestlake. I spend half my time worrying about where I am going next year and the other half wishing it were second semester. Whenever someone makes plans for next year, I get a little sick to my stomach. No point in making plans now, it’s all about the next generation. Anyway, I decided to revisit the senior columns from last year,
thinking I couldn’t go wrong with a healthy dose of irony and melodrama. I was wrong — they scared me half to death. Almost every column looked back over the writer’s years at Harvard-Westlake and found deep-seated regret. I thought about our class in eight months. About my as–yet–unborn senior column. About how the worst time to realize that we missed out on some huge, vitally important experience is up against a deadline at 11 p.m. in the Chronicle room two days before Senior Dodger night. So I thought I’d take a more pro-active approach. It’s only October, so if we listen to the advice of ’08 we may still be able to learn from their regrets and avoid our own. Here are a few examples: 1) “What I think this school really needs is to take a step back and realize that this is just high school. Why can’t people who like to sing, for example, just sing for fun, instead of constantly thinking about technical precision?” — Ali Pechman ’08 2) “I want so badly to have
winning, but with stunts there’s always the risk of getting hurt, and the glory of the crowd cheering for and with us. People, however, choose to see the cheer team here as a “joke,” and because of that they refuse to let us be a source of school spirit. I’m not denying that as a school we have spirit, but I am saying the school should see us as a foundation for that spirit. The Fanatics are great; they’re super spirited and for the most part, they support us. If I weren’t a cheerleader, I would most definitely join the club. But being so school— spirited, shouldn’t they let the cheerleaders, or H-W Spirit as I believe we are officially named, be a bigger part in rooting the team on? The Fanatics is a great institution, but by bringing chants and cheers to the games aren’t they completely shutting us out and from the start stopping us from being cheerleaders and leading cheers? There is a well known quote that describes what cheerleaders do: “Simply because we do not run across goal lines, slam dunk basketballs, or hit homeruns, doesn’t mean we can’t change the score.” Cheerleaders do make a difference, if you let them. So next time you question our athleticism as a team, or go to the game and begin to overpower our cheer with your own chant or “Wolverines in the Front” for the third time in the quarter, remember cheerleaders are athletes. Remember the cheer team’s job is to boost and lead school spirit, which we will proudly do, if you only give us the chance.
“We have a lot of individual character — what I hope for our class this year is that we can put it all together...” something profound to say here; some life changing words that will immortalize my name at 3700 Coldwater Canyon long after I’m gone. But the truth is I don’t. Not here. Not now. But someday I will. And I think that’s what I learned at HarvardWestlake.” — David Alpert ’08 3) “Ever since about a month into eighth grade, I resolved that Harvard-Westlake was simply terrible. The pressure! The competition! The snobbery! I complained and lamented for so long that it became impossible for me to open up my eyes and see that Harvard-Westlake is an awfully amazing place.” — Annie Dreyer ’08 Now before I go on I have to admit that this column is deeply flawed. It’s a cardinal rule of columns that if you present a problem you have to present a solution. I promise I really did plan on having a solution paragraph, or bullet points that detailed how we, the class of 2009, could avoid all this grief. I was going to tell Kate Liebman that yes, I would love to learn Arabic and Nick Berman that I would watch
his sports broadcast even though I hate sports. But I realized that my “suggestion box” was not a recipe for satisfaction and that nothing I said could be. All I can do is get the ball rolling. 4) So I saved this last slot for myself. I hope that doesn’t offend anyone. The other day I overheard someone say what a shame it is that our class isn’t spirited. That we are boring. I have to say that I respectfully disagree. It’s true that we haven’t hung air fresheners on the bushes or performed a rap and matching dance in the quad. So we’re different — big deal. Personally I think mayonnaise on the railing is a little over-used anyway. We have a lot of individual character — what I hope for our class this year is that we can put it all together and become true leaders on campus. So that next year, or in a few years, some rising senior hears another rising senior say, “Oh yeah, I remember they did that a few years ago. How come our class doesn’t (insert amazingly original and creative tradition here)?”
sports
A23 The Chronicle Harvard-Westlake School Volume XVIII Issue 2 Oct. 1, 2008
Water polo upsets Corona, loses to Loyola in tournament By Alex Edel
Sam Adams/chronicle
maxx power: Maxx Bricklin ’09 takes a shot in the water polo team’s 12-8 victory over sectional powerhouse Corona del Mar Wednesday, Sept. 17.
Boys’ water polo squandered a three game win streak to start the season after suffering losses to Loyola and Coronado at the Coronado Cup. They go into their third week of non-league competition with a 6-2 record. The Wolverines beat number three seed Corona del Mar on Sept. 17 in their biggest win of the season so far. “We came together as a team and were forced for the first time this season to trust and rely on each other,” James McNamara ’10 said. Last weekend the team played in the three-day Corona Cup tournament. They eventually placed fourth in the tournament after winning their first three games by at least five goals, but lost in the semifinal to Coronado and lost to Loyola. “We faded out towards the end,” Maxx Bricklin ’09 said. “I think it came down to who wanted it more, and the teams we played wanted it more.” The team has six games in the next three weeks, three of which are league games. They will also play in the S and R Cup tournament in two weeks. “We play a very competitive schedule. All non-league games are teams that are ranked in their division,” Head Coach Larry Felix said. “I feel that if we show up and play our game we have an excellent chance at winning.” Felix said that the players have been focusing on playing more as a team this year. “Each player has a role and they have been doing what is asked of them,” he
Celebrity cast as football coach By Ben Goldstein
and
Parents have high stakes in big league baseball playoffs By Jack Davis
Lucy Jackson
If the 4 p.m. freshman football games ever lacked the glamour of a Friday night varsity game under the lights, they just got the boost they needed. Actor Ashton Kutcher, trading in his trademark trucker caps for a hat adorned with the school’s insignia, joined the squad last month as an assistant coach and patrolled the sidelines for each of the team’s three games so far this season. Best known for his role as Kelso on “That 70’s Show” and for his celebrity pranks on “Punk’d,” Kutcher is a friend of Head Coach Scott Wood ‘88 and mentioned to Wood he was interested in coaching. “I played football when I was in high school and I’ve always wanted to coach,” Kutcher said. “And given the opportunity, I decided to take it up.” Kutcher went through the same selection process as every other coaching candidate, Head of Athletics Audrius Barzdukas said. He was interviewed by the freshman coach, by Head of the Program and varsity Head Coach Vic Eumont and by Barzdukas himself. He went through the same background check and fingerprinting process that all employees of the school undergo. “He’s humble, he wants to contribute and he wants to be a part of the team and their success,” Barzdukas said. “You can tell also he has done his work in a remarkably short time. He’s put in the time to learn our schemes and our systems.” see KUTCHER, page A27
said. “I don’t look at goals scored as a star like most people do. Someone had to give them a good pass and I respect team play more than anything.” Their closest margin was a 5-4 win at La Canada. “I didn’t think the La Canada game would be as close as it was, but we have had players sick and missing for recruiting trips so our training had not been the best,” Felix said. Bricklin, McNamara and Brendan Zwanefeld ’10 all have shoulder injuries while Max Eliot ’09 burst his ear drum. Two seniors have also missed practices for recruiting trips, which has interrupted their training. Although only two seniors have gone on recruiting trips, many more have spoken with college coaches. “All the seniors have been in discussions with different schools and they can all go on and play at the college Division 1 level,” Felix said. The team’s training includes morning weights Tuesdays and Thursdays, and three hours of practice every afternoon. During these practices the team swims for an hour and plays water polo for two hours. The team will play again against their biggest rival, Loyola, on Oct. 16. Loyola is 2-0 and beat Harvard-Westlake 12-11 in the Corona Cup tournament last weekend. “We are going to work really hard and try to fix the mistakes that we made during our loss to Loyola this weekend,” McNamara said. The team will play Loyola again right before the CIF tournament.
jordan freisleben/chronicle
coach kutch: Assistant freshman football coach Ashton Kutcher works the sidelines at last Friday’s game.
While hundreds of thousands of fans across the country sit anxiously on the edge of their seats this October, watching their favorite baseball teams compete for a chance to play in the World Series, there are families at Harvard-Westlake that have more than just a fan’s emotional investment on the line. Mark Attanasio (Dan ’06 and Mike ’10) and Frank McCourt (Casey ’05 and Gavin ’09) are principal owners of the Milwaukee Brewers and the Los Angeles Dodgers, respectively. For Attanasio’s Brewers, it has been a memorable season. After collapsing late last season and missing the playoffs, it seemed they were destined to suffer yet another late season collapse. But despite losing 11 of their first 14 September games, the Brewers clinched the National League Wild Card spot last Sunday. It‘s the Brewers first playoff berth in 26 years, and for Attanasio, nothing else can compare to the euphoria of winning. “It’s really an indescribable feeling,” Attanasio said. “You know there are huge amounts of tension building up, we’re sitting there watching the Mets game to see what happens, and I can’t bear to watch so I go outside the clubhouse, and I just hear this roar come out from the clubhouse.
So I take off my glasses, put on my goggles and just wait for the champagne to come. The celebration was like a giant wave of emotion coming courtesy of forbes.com over you.” Mark Attanasio Making the playoffs was the culmination of four years of diligent work by Attanasio and his staff, but what helped make the moment truly memorable was the fact that he courtesy of boston.com had his family Frank McCourt there to share in his success. “I loved being able to share that moment with my family,” Attanasio said. “Unfortunately Mike has got to go to school this week, but Dan is flying in from Scotland to meet me in Philadelphia to watch the Phillies series with me. That’s what baseball is really all about, family. We try to create a family atmosphere here within the organization.” The Attanasios are not the only families at the school who will be see PARENTS, page A26
A24 Sports
Oct. 1, 2008
The Chronicle
Football starts season unbeaten after three games By Sam Adams Fueled by red-shirted Fanatic fervor, the Wolverines look to enter league play, starting with their Homecoming game versus St. Bernard on Oct. 18. Taking advantage of a light early schedule, the team has accumulated a 2-0-1 record in the first month of its season in non-league play. Running back TeRhon O’Neal ’09 has established himself as a force, scoring six touchdowns thus far. Last Friday, the Wolverines took advantage of a diminutive Rosemead team with a 45-6 victory that was as one-sided as the score suggests. In the game, O’Neal scored two touchdowns in the first quarter that, along with Malcolm Caldwell-Meeks’ ’10 scoring reception, put the Wolverines ahead 21-0 at the end of the opening period. The Rosemead team was operating with a small staff as 13 players, including star running back Tra Sumler, were not playing due to disciplinary reasons. “[The Panthers team] is better than they showed tonight,” Head Coach Vic Eumont said. The team had opened up the season in style with a 45-0 trouncing of Franklin. In the game, O’Neal established his leading role on the team, scoring three touchdowns. The ease of victory came as a surprise to many members of the team, including Eumont, who had compared the team to that of city powerhouse Carson prior to the game. “We were surprised, [Franklin] was a very good team last year,” Eumont said after the game. “We made some big plays tonight, but we made some silly penalties. We can never relax, though, and I hope we learned that tonight.” The Wolverines drew a tie versus Lynwood sandwiched between the two blowouts. Eumont said that Lynwood’s defense focused on trying to shut down O’Neal, who proved his danger in last week’s thrashing of Franklin. “They were determined to stop [O’Neal] this week, but we tried to work around that,” Eumont said. However, the tie put the team into a type of purgatory in terms of morale. “For a tie, you think about all the little things you could’ve done to win it,” Berman said. “In some ways, it’s worse than a loss.” The three successful games, in the eyes of Eumont, portend little for the remainder of the season. He used the example of the successful USC team that was upset by the unranked Oregon State team last Thursday as proof that even the team with the best record can lose any game. “The rest of the games from here on out are going to be tougher,” Eumont said. “You can’t tell anything about the league from these games.” Offensive coordinator Dave Levy attributes the
sam adams/chronicle
Sam Adams/chronicle
sam adams/chronicle
Friday night rites: The Wolverines’ offense aligns against Rosemead last Friday night (at top).
Michael Diamant ’09 leads chants in the stands (left). TeRhon O’Neal runs in the Rosemead game (right).
early success of the team to the core of the offense. “The way you win, obviously, is having good players making good plays,” Levy said. “We don’t have a great many, but we’ve got a few. And when that happens, you’ve always got a chance.” In only the second season since light stands were installed at Ted Slavin Field, the atmosphere of the game was similar to the traditional “Friday Night Lights” style of high school football.
The cheer squad, doing stunts for the first time in years, entertained the bleachers full of students and parents who had come out to watch the games. The Harvard-Westlake Fanatics made their presence known, dressing in capes and face paint and leading chants ranging from the standard “Harvard West-lake” to, as the outcome of the first game against Franklin, became more and more clear, asking the opposing crowd “Why so serious?”
Middle school tackle switch makes waves By Sam Adams
Austin Block/chronicle
junior hits: A middle school football player is brought down in a game last Saturday.
Ten years ago, seventh grade football coach Lew Roberts had a vision for his team. Unfulfilled for several years, Roberts saw his dream come to fruition four years ago when both the seventh and eighth grade football teams made the transition from flag to tackle football. As the members of those two inaugural middle school tackle teams begin to make an impact on the JV and varsity levels, the gains from the added experience begin to make themselves clear. The extra two years spent hitting allow the students to become acclimated to the form before they are required to compete at a high school level. “In high school, you could have a 100-pound kid go up against a 300pound kid,” Delphic League commissioner and Campbell Hall Junior High Athletic Director Chris Holland said. “Here, you’ve got weight maximums that can protect them.” Starting at a younger age also allows the players to become more prepared for the high school game. “Just watch the freshmen play last year, and actually not be afraid to hit on the first game,” Middle School Athletic Director Darlene Bible said. “It used to be, tackle football in ninth grade made kids want
to get out of the way,” both in terms of joining the squad and actually hitting. Aside from learning to hit, the tackle program provides for smooth transition between levels of play. “The goal for that is to have the seventh grade, the eighth grade and the ninth grade teams use the same offensive and defensive structure that the varsity uses,” Varsity Head Coach Vic Eumont said. “Now we have younger players that are not only used to contact, but also know the terminology we use.” In the years since the middle school tackle program has been instituted, the freshman teams’ combined record has been 16-5, a statistical increase that Roberts believes can be attributed to the changes in the middle school program. “In a perfect world, we’re going to have Pop Warner rules with junior high Delphic League sensibilities,” Bible said. “We do things because we’re private schools. [For example,] we can’t play on Rosh Hashanah, we can’t play on Yom Kippur. In any other league, that wouldn’t fly.” At the beginning of the middle school tackle program, HarvardWestlake stood alone as it seceded from the football division of the middle school Delphic League four years ago. The squad played instead
against teams from local Pop Warner club teams. Against these teams with a larger number of experienced players, the middle school teams struggled. This season, though, the entirety of the Delphic League switched to tackle program in an attempt to mirror Harvard-Westlake’s resulting spike in record at the freshman level. “After we saw [Harvard-Westlake’s] success, all the schools wanted to switch over, from Campbell Hall to Viewpoint to Brentwood to Chaminade, just to stay competitive,” Holland said. A full-contact Delphic League also opens the opportunity for playoffs, Bible said. “[In the tackle era,] we’d never been in playoffs,” Bible said. “They extended into the next season, so we decided we just couldn’t do playoffs. But in the junior high Delphic League, we could do them.” A main problem, though, has been finding referees for the new initiative. League officials have looked into using varsity referees, but matching the time slots becomes difficult at times, Holland said. Though starting tackle football at a younger age may cause concerns of more injuries, middle school trainer see FOOTBALL, page A26
Oct. 1, 2008
The Chronicle
Girls’ volleyball opens season with 7-5 record By Jack Davis
The girls’ varsity volleyball team placed fourth in the Archbishop Mitty Tournament after losing to rival Marymount in four games last Saturday in San Jose. The loss was the Wolverines’ second to Marymount in a two-week span, after an earlier four-game loss at Marymount this season. The Wolverines lost the four games by scores of 25-17, 21-25, 22-25 and 15-25. They began the tournament on Friday, beating Los Gatos in three games and Cathedral in five games. They then lost to Archbishop Mitty in the semis, setting up the third place match with Marymount. “This was a game we should have won,” Jillian McAndrews ’10 said. “We could have easily swept them if we just played a little bit better.” The Wolverines have already lost four times this season in just nine matches, compared with losing only four times las season in 33 matches. “We’ve started out a bit slow this year, but we’re not really too nervous; we’re going to figure it out,” McAndrews said, who was not a member of last year’s squad. Before the season, the girls’ volleyball team was nationally ranked by the Los Angeles Daily News and was ranked
fifth in Division I-AA in a coach’s poll conducted by the Daily News. The team moved up to Division I-AA this year, after playing in Division III-AA last year. “I don’t pay attention much to the rankings or the papers,” said Head Coach Adam Black, the reigning CIF co-coach of the year. “I just try to focus on what we have to do to do our best. The expectations I place on my team are to put forth their best effort everyday and battle on the court with the intent of winning the match.” Like McAndrews, Black isn’t concerned about the team’s early losses. “As long as we execute we should be fine,” he said. “I thought that we could have played a lot better against Bishop. I think we have a lot of work to do, but we are on the right track.” “It’s not about how you start, it’s about how you finish,” said outside hitter Meg Norton ’10, who was the MVP of last year’s state title squad. “We had our struggles at times last year too, but we finished playing our best, and that’s all that ended up mattering. This team hasn’t played together that much. We are going to start to mesh together, and we will be fine when it matters.” The team will face league rival Louisville in their next game tomorrow in Taper Gymnasium.
Sports A25
courtesy of kellie barnum
service : Meg Norton ’10 hits a ball in the team’s game against Bishop Montgomery on Sept. 23 at Taper Gymnasium. The Wolverines are 7-5 so far this year.
Jack Davis Hiring Kutcher perpetuates glitzy image Paparazzi hide out in the bushes, desperately trying to get a picture of him, Demi Moore is spotted nearby wearing huge sun glasses trying not to be recognized and hoards of young, giggling girls seem to follow him wherever he goes. No, this isn’t the scene of a hip Hollywood hangout; it’s a Wednesday afternoon freshman football practice at Ted Slavin Field. As you’ve probably heard by now, Ashton Kutcher is an assistant football coach for the freshmen football team. Amid all the paparazzi, starry-eyed girls and public attention his hiring has received, I can’t help but wonder one thing. Why? Why does Harvard-Westlake, already notorious to a certain degree for its affluence, need to hire a movie star as an assistant football coach? Why do we need more media attention? First though, let me state that not for a second do I believe that Kutcher isn’t a qualified coaching candidate or had any ulterior motives for pursuing the coaching job. By all accounts of players and staff administrators alike, Kutcher is a devoted and talented coach. He went through the same application process every other
Harvard-Westlake employee goes through, he has attended nearly every practice to date and has been a contributing, integral part of the coaching staff. He definitely earned the job. Audrius Barzdukas, Head of the Athletic Department said, “Coach Kutcher has been dedicated to the kids in the program, has worked really hard and has been a pleasant addition to the staff.” But that still doesn’t change the fact that he is Ashton Kutcher. He’s a celebrity and has drawn national media attention to Harvard-Westlake, and not for the right reasons. If you watched the spots on “Entertainment Tonight” or “Hollywood Insider,” or read about the Kutcher hiring in People Magazine you probably saw there was very little information about HarvardWestlake. But unfortunately for HarvardWestlake, our reputation precedes us. Think for a second. Despite all the good, honest intentions of the Kutcher hiring, how this situation must look to an outside observer: a school known for incredible affluence, and recently cheating and drug
dealing scandals, hires a celebrity to be an assistant coach for a team of 15 year olds. Ever since the turmoil of last year, we have heard Head of School Jeanne Huybrechts and fellow administrators preach the importance of building back our reputation. Showing people what kind of school we really were, how as a whole we were a hard working, modest, diligent group of students. And how did we start that supposed transformation to regain the respect and admiration of the rest of the community? By hiring a movie star to coach football. So, like last February, we can have photographers waiting outside campus trying to interview students. Like last February, Harvard-Westlake can have national media attention for all the wrong reasons. And this national media attention isn’t something we can or should complain about, because we have brought it upon ourselves. And while once again, I don’t question Kutcher’s credibility as a legitimate hire or as a football coach, I can’t help but wonder. Why?
hE’s a celebrity and has drawn national media attention to harvardwestlake and not for the right reasons.
A26 Sports
Oct. 1, 2008
The Chronicle
Cross country starts off season on the right foot By Sean Kyle
Courtesy of geoff bird
country landscape: Two cross country runners at the end of the team’s first meet on Sept. 11 versus Alemany and Notre Dame.
After finishing in second place in the Bell-Jeff invitational last Saturday, the boys’ section of the newly joined boys’ and girls’ cross country team will look for a second strong performance this weekend in the Staub Invitational. The team’s second place finish was the first in team history, said new Head Coach Johnny Gray. Gray attributes his team’s success on Saturday and their 2-0 record this season to how young this year’s team is. “Many of our top players are new to the team and have we are really only getting glimpses right now of what they are capable of,” Gray said. Many of the squad’s top runners this year, including Aaron Detoledo ’12, Cami Chapus ’12 and Nikki Goren ’12, are freshmen: “I would not be surprised to see Cami as a future state champion,” Gray said. The trophy the boys’ team won on Saturday was presented to David Abergel ’11, who won second place individually in the invitational. “He was the one who really deserved it,” Gray said. “It was a team decision. David won against himself on Saturday. His time was 15.43 and he beat his own record. So he won even though he came in second place.” Gray has a unique philosophy and set of goals for a coach. He focuses more on the means and not on the end result. “People expect our goal to be to go to
state,” Gray said. “That’s nice but it is not our goal. Our goal is to do what it takes to go to state. Going to state is only the result.” His focus on success applies to the immediate future as well. “Too many runners run for Saturday, not Wednesday,” said Gray. “You need to run for Wednesday. And we’re doing that now. The most important meet is always the next one.” Will Borthwick ’09 appreciates the sizable impact Gray has made on the team. “Coach Gray has really changed the program for the better,” Borthwick. “He’s changed how we approach running and that has made the team better and made us better. Overall the experience has been great so far this year.” “My approach is simple,” Gray said. “But it’s not easy. It’s like learning to walk. Once we get it down we can do anything.” The team looks forward to the rest of the season. Aside from the team goals, they all have their own personal records to beat. “You are your hardest opponent and the first person you need to beat,” Gray said. “That’s what really matters. It’s important to win the meet but more important to win against yourself. That’s what I keep trying to instill in my runners. If you aren’t satisfied with yourself at the end of the day, you lost. But as long as you accomplish what you set out to accomplish, you are a winner. I think they all get it now.”
Wolverine parents own baseball playoff clubs from PARENTS, page A23 rooting for the Brewers this postseason, as four other Harvard-Westlake families have a stake in the Brewers organization. While the thrill of finally reaching the post-season for the first time in decades has Attanasio and the rest of the Brewer organization excited, for McCourt and the Dodgers, the playoffs are nothing new. This will be the Dodgers’ third trip to the postseason since 2004, when McCourt bought the team and moved his family from Boston to Los Angeles. The Dodgers battled through adversity this season, suffering injuries to many key players. But the surprising acquisition of slugger Manny Ramirez last summer bolstered L.A.’s struggling ast summer bolstered L.A.’s struggling offense. For Gavin, the Dodgers definitely have a family feel. “This year has been really exciting with the team doing this well and making the playoffs,” he said. “We try to keep it out of the house, but we all definitely get excited when the team is doing well. There is definitely a family type atmosphere within the organization. The Dodgers are something I’m able to share with my dad, and when the team succeeds it feels like we are all succeeding together.” Gavin’s mother Jamie McCourt is president of the business operations for the Dodgers. “It’s amazing isn’t it,” said Mark Attanasio. “Eight MLB Playoff Teams, Two Harvard-
Westlake parents.” The Dodgers and Brewers both open up their playoff series on the road tomorrow, the Dodgers in Chicago and the Brewers in Philadelphia. If the Dodgers and Brewers both win their series, they will face each other in the National League Championship series. “It’s pretty ridiculous that we might end up facing them,” Gavin McCourt said. “That would be crazy.” austin blocK/chronicle
HUDDLE: The Middle School J2 team huddles before a game last Saturday at Ted Slavin Field.
Middle School tackle football switch from FOOTBALL, page A23
COURTESY OF ASSOCIATED PRESS
celebration: Attanasio celebrates with star pitcher CC Sabathia after the Brewers clinched the National League wild card with a 3-1 win over the Cubs Sunday.
Robert Ruiz stated that that is not the case. “We had a player bruise his kidney and a few broken fingers, but beyond that there haven’t been any major injuries,” Ruiz said. In fact, there could be less potential for injury since the players are wearing pads in tackle, Ruiz said. Eumont also places his trust in the ability of younger players to abstain from unsafe conduct. “I really started watching million-dollar NFL players practice full speed with no pads on, but they’re doing it the right way,” Eumont said. “No one’s falling to the ground, no one’s taking cheap shots, and no one’s getting injured. If million-dollar players can do it the right way, I think seventh and eighth grade players can do it the right way.” Despite this fact, there has been reluctance on the part of
some parents to let their kids play tackle at that age, Holland said. “Parents will be parents, though,” Holland said. “There are arguments for both sides. Football is a full-contact sport, but we thought that this is the right call.” However, an inclination towards tackling is not the only skill required to play football, nor was it the primary motivation for the transition. “I don’t think just being the tough kid makes you a football player,” Eumont said. A lot of kids tackle poorly, block poorly, and therefore the chances of them hurting themselves or the chance of hurting somebody else is greater unless you teach them the fundamentals.” Harvard-Westlake’s transition to tackle came during a period of existential crisis on the part of the football program as a whole. “A year before [Coach Himebauch] came here, the school
had sort of a football rebellion; people didn’t want to play anymore,” Eumont said. “People didn’t want to play the game, so the school had to decide. The school made a decision that they wanted to continue playing football.” A by-product of this core decision was the implementation of the middle school tackle program.” No matter the reason for its emergence, the tackle program at the lower campus is here to stay. Gone are the days of the flag, replaced instead with helmets and shoulder-pads and hitting drills and playbooks that are reminiscent of the players’ future in the varsity system. Coach Roberts, a decade after he first voiced his idea, is still coaching the same seventh grade squad. Only now, he’s coaching his players not on correct flag-pulling techniques but on the same contact drills that will be run in six years.
Oct. 1, 2008
glorydays
The Chronicle
Sports A27
Greatness: 25 years later
In 1983, the Harvard “Greatness” football team went 12-0 before a last minute loss in CIF. By Ben Goldstein Most Wolverine fans remember the varsity football team’s unexpected trip to the CIF semifinals in 2006. There are some who recall the 1998 squad’s loss in the Southern Section Division VII championship. But only a handful of Wolverines know something about their school’s football team from a quarter century back. In 1983, long before the Wolverines existed, the Harvard Saracens put together one of the most successful football seasons the school has ever seen. The squad, which was dubbed the “Greatness” team, tore through its competition in the Pioneer League that season, heading into the playoffs undefeated at 10-0. Harvard’s combination of talented and experienced players helped make them a relatively easy team to coach. “The players at the offensive skill positions had speed and the ability to run, throw and catch,” said science teacher Jim Brink, an assistant coach on the 1983 team. “The linemen on both sides of the ball were strong and agile. The defense had great pursuit, hit hard and worked well as a unit.” Harvard was the only private school in its league and was smaller than most of its opponents like El Segundo, Redondo and Mira Costa. “They were determined competitors who bought into the team concept,” Brink said. “We were usually regarded as underdogs before the game.” But heading into the playoffs, underdogs they were not. “We were heavy favorites, I imagine, going into the playoffs,” the team’s defensive back Bryan Scher ’84 said. Riding on a wave of momentum from their undefeated regular season, the Saracens won their first two games in CIF play. “Emotionally, we tried to keep the players on an
even keel as the season progressed, but with each ning back Todd Jones ’84. Thabit went on to play win the buzz was a little louder and the excitement football at Harvard University, and Jones played at grew on campus,” Brink said. “Eventually we had a Rice. In addition to these two standout players were large following among students, faculty, parents and quarterback Jafer Patterson ’84 and Matt Stone ’84. alumni.” The man responsible for labeling the ’83 squad the At 12-0, the “Greatness” team seemed poised to “Greatness” team is one of the Saracens’ more colorcap off their season in the fashion their name sug- ful personalities. Linebacker George Fritzinger ’84 , gested. A victory over Atascadero on the road in the who liked to be called George Russell Fritzinger III, semifinals would give the Saracens a chance to play loved repeating certain words over and over again, for the CIF championship. and sometimes would make up entirely new ones of “We were definitely the favorite team going into in his own. that game,” Scher said. “He would say “greatness” The score in the semifinals all the time, but it was never was still 0-0 after three quarters, really regarding our team,” and it was clear Harvard had fiScher said. “He would just renally found some competition. fer to himself or [members of Both offenses moved the ball, but the team] with that word.” The as each team approached the red name caught on, and eventuzone, the defense would make a ally the squad became rememstand on fourth down or force a bered simply as the “Greatturnover. But in the final minness” team. But the name utes, Atascadero was able to condidn’t always seem so appro—Tom Foreman ’84 vert on fourth down and went on priate given the team’s difficult center, ‘83 Harvard varsity football playoff exit, Scher said. to score a touchdown. Harvard had one final possession but was “Maybe it’s acceptable when unable to score, losing its last you’re 12-0, but I don’t think game 7-0. we were using that word after the last game,” he “It was a classic high school football game with ex- said. ceptional talent on both sidelines,” Brink said. “The Twenty-five years later, the bonds between former only difference was that Atascadero was able to fin- teammates are still intact. ish off one of their drives.” Atascadero, a perennial “We were close as a team and closer as friends, and powerhouse, went on to win CIF that year. those ties have stayed strong even after 25 years,” the “Everyone was disappointed,” Scher said. “These team’s center Tom Foreman ’84 said. “I often marvel were guys who expected to win.” in the fact that my best friends in the world are those The football team was led on the sidelines that who were on that team.” season by Head Coach and former Athletic DirecMembers of the squad keep in touch through etor Gary Thran, Assistant Coach Lee Carlson and mail, and those in Southern California see each other Brink. But Scher believes the special bond between often. Some former teammates even went into busihis teammates and his coaches began long before ness together. Scher, together with linebacker Cory the 1983 season. The same boys had been together Thabit ’86 and tackle Michael Browne ’86, runs IMT since seventh grade and formed relationships with Capital, a private real estate investment firm based the coaching staff right from the beginning, he said. in Sherman Oaks. Scher also credits the importance of his sophomore He attended the team’s 20th reunion at Homefootball season in 1981, calling it “the foundation of coming in 2003, along with 14 of his teammates. They our success.” were honored during a halftime ceremony on the Scher believes there were strong players at each then newly installed Ted Slavin Field. It was fitting position, but said the two key players that season that the titans of the past ushered in a new era of were tight end-linebacker Kris Thabit ’84 and run- Harvard-Westlake football.
“We were close as a team and closer as friends, and those ties have stayed strong even after 25 years.”
Kutcher joins freshmen football staff from KUTCHER, page A23 Kutcher, a middle linebacker in high school, said that coaching is an entirely different experience from playing on the field. “It’s so new that I almost can’t even tell you what it’s like,” Kutcher said. “You have to know every position, not just your own, which changes the game. It’s just an honor to be around such a good group of guys. They’re cool kids.” Kutcher specializes in coaching the linebackers and defense, but all of the coaches collaborate with the entire team, Wood said. In their first game of the season on Sept. 5, the Wolverines defeated Franklin 21-12 in what Barzdukas calls a “miracle.” Despite several injuries, the squad was able to overcome Franklin’s 54 player-team with just 13 players in uniform. The team continued its success in home games Sept. 12 and Sept. 26 against Lynwood and Rosemeade, winning the games 14-0 and 40-0, respec-
tively. Kutcher has high hopes for the season, saying that the ultimate goal is to go undefeated. “If you don’t shoot for the stars, you’ll never reach the rooftops,” he said. Kutcher’s presence on the field ensured that at least a dozen paparazzi were there to document the first two wins on camera. Director of Campus Operations James De Matté said that the attention of celebrity photographers was “just too much.” “If he’s at a premiere, that’s one thing. That’s his job,” he said. “But at a football game?” For the home game against Lynwood, paparazzi swarmed around a gap in the trees surrounding the field and snapped pictures from Coldwater Canyon after security personnel denied them entry onto the campus. Equipped with telephoto lenses and video cameras, they jostled for position, some using steplad-
ders to get a clearer view. One photographer, who scaled a tree just inside the school gates to get a better angle, said many of them worked for X17, a celebrity gossip website that displays candid photos of celebrities. The photographers trail stars and take pictures of everything they do, regardless of how trivial, he said. Barzdukas agreed that the story isn’t worth the media attention that it has received. “The story here is the non-story,” he said. “He’s a coach like any other coach. He comes to meetings, he does his work.” While Kutcher may be well-seasoned in dealing with paparazzi, De Matté doesn’t think the players have been fazed by the media either. jordan friesleben/chronicle “You’re in the middle of Hollywood,” yes, it’s really him: Ashton he said. “It’s typical in our society that Kutcher strolls the sidelines of a this happens. I think people are fed up freshman football game. with it, if anything.”
A28 Sports
Oct. 1, 2008
The Chronicle
Girls’ tennis falls early as league play looms By Jonah Rosenbaum After losing their first two matches, the girls’ tennis squad hopes to rebound after a slow start. However, the team’s 0-2 record is not exactly what it seems, as both losses came against top Division one opponents: Palos Verdes and Peninsula, two schools known for their premier tennis programs. The losses will not count against the team’s league standings, and will not stand in the way of their ultimate goal: reclaiming the Mission League. Nicole Hung ’10 was upbeat about the two games, citing significant improvement between the games. “We got noticeably better between the two games,” Hung said. “A lot of young players stepped up, and hopefully the games will help us prepare for Chaminade and reclaiming the Mission League. In order to do that, we must beat Chaminade twice, first at home, and then at Chaminade.” Senior Caroline Richman said she was happy with the early season play, but sees plenty of room for improvement. “Each team member needs to give 100 percent during the practices so we are well prepared for each game,” she said. “We are very lucky that all the
new members to the varsity team are incredibly strong assets.” Despite all the new talent, Richman said there is still an adjustment period for the players and coaches. “It is pretty early in our season so the coaches are still deciding on the best and strongest lineup for our team,” she said. “I have seen some competitive matches so far, and I am confident in the ability and dedication of this team.” Like Hung, Richman did not duck away from the team’s powerful collective desire to win back the Mission League title. Richman said that the team must get ready for their league opener on Oct. 7 against the defending league champions and principal Wolverine adversary Chaminade. Head Coach Chris Simpson echoed similar sentiments to those of Richman. “We have a lot of new, young players on our team who are very talented,” Simspson said. “Because the level of play is so high, there is an adjustment period for all of them.” His goal was no different from that of his players. After losing Mission League for the first time in eight years, Simpson said the team wants nothing more than to beat Chaminade and reclaim the title.
erin moy/chronicle
racketeering: Caroline Richman ’09 returns a ball during the Wolverines’ 12-6 loss to Peninsula at home last Thursday.
Girls’ golf prepares for league opening By Cary Volpert Emily Firestein ’11 leads the golf crew thus far as she scored a team best 40 in the team’s last match against Louisville at Encino Golf course. She was followed closely by Tiffany Yang ’10 and Charlotte Abrams ’09, who both scored a 43. Led by Program Head Amy Alcott and new Head Coach Linda Giaciolli, the players on the team are confident they can keep up their recent success. “In my opinion, we stand a pretty good chance of winning league as a team if we don’t lose focus,” Alex Green ’09 said. Green said “the two coaches are are great and compliment each other really well,” and that “they have helped us not only with the brute physical aspects of the game, but also with the sometimes overlooked mental game.” Both Green and Yang confirm that winning the Mission League is a definite possibility but it is far too early to tell if the team or any individual players are good enough to win CIF. Last year the team had a crushing loss to Notre Dame and now the team will try to avenge their one stroke loss to the arch rival when they meet again. “We’re looking forward to Notre Dame because we came really close to beating them last year,” Firestein said. “We were only within a few strokes.” rebecca weinstein/vox
battle: Jacqi Lee ’10 (right) battles with another player during a recent game at Ted Slavin field.
Field hockey starts new season strong By Seth Goldman In the initial league game of their season, the field hockey team plays today at home against Bonita. The team heads into the game with a 4-1 record, having outscored its opponents by an aggregate margin of 15-3. Its only defeat came on the road at the hands of perennial regional powerhouse squad Newport Harbor. The team’s strong defense has resulted in shutouts in three of its first five games. The players also believe that its improvement in team unity and teamwork have been a major factor in the early success of the team.
Strong passing has led to easier scoring opportunities and more goals. Last season, they were plagued by slow starts that left them needing great second halves to win games. But this year the players have been able to start quickly and score more effectively in the early stages of the game, putting less pressure on the team to come from behind and win the game in the second half. “Our strength so far has been our strong group of seniors and juniors,” Coach Erin Creznic said. “Our biggest improvement has been our scoring. We’re converting a lot of our chances in the opponents’ circle.” The strong start has validated
the team’s early season confidence, Creznic said, and kept their goal of winning the league title as well as going to playoffs well within reach. Creznic is sticking to her preseason belief that the team should be able to win the title this year and advance deep into the playoffs. Despite the strong start, the players know that they must avoid becoming complacent, and can still improve as the season goes on. Creznic agrees with this sentiment. “We’ve been focusing so much on our offense, we just need to make sure our defense stays strong. We just need to stay aggressive in the opponent’s end and translate that over to defense.”
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Oct. 1, 2008
Sports A29
The Chronicle
Alumni come back to campus to coach their former teams By Cody Schott Peter Hudnut ’99 has won an Olympic silver medal. Frank Pfister ’04 has been drafted by the Cincinnati Reds. Scott Wood ’88 starred on multiple varsity teams in high school, and Dylan Marks ’04 played football. Matthew Krumpe ’08 is a dancer and a runner. Part of what connects them is the apostrophe and graduation year following their names, but these Wolverines are also connected by the second impression they’ve made on the school as coaches. There are a few teachers that have returned to the school to pass on the same information that they learned in its halls. Yet, coach alums are few and far between. For those who have come back, though, it turns out that their alma mater is continuing to play a role in their life. Wood coaches the freshman football team and has done so for the past seven years. He is also the head coach of the varsity boys’ golf team, a position he has held for six years. Wood has assisted the boys’ basketball team for three years as has fellow alum Ari Engelberg ’89. Yet, Wood believes some of his most valuable experience comes from having been a student who knows the pressure his players are under. “I definitely think that I can relate to them as well as one can, having gone through the academic pressure, parental pressure and expectations,” he said. Eumont also added that the school was lucky to retain Wood’s services. “Harvard-Westlake is fortunate to have an alum as talented as he is coaching young men the game of football and golf,” Eumont said. As for Marks, Wood knew him beforehand. That relationship certainly helped
Wood decide to hire him as an assistant. “Understanding the person he was off the field made it easy for me to hire him,” Wood said. Hudnut has been helping Coach Larry Felix with the water polo team for the past couple of seasons. He won a silver medal for water polo in the Beijing Olympics and played for the Wolverines during his high school years. “[Hudnut’s] passion for the game really transfers to his coaching,” Maxx Bricklin ’09 said. “He is so knowledgeable about the game so he is really able to give each of us great advice in specific situations.” Pfister is the latest to join the ranks of alums who coach. He played for Emory in college before being drafted by the Reds in the 2008 MLB Amateur Draft, along with fellow Wolverine alums Nik Turley ’08 and Josh Satin ’03. Pfister will be helping Coach Matt LaCour and Coach Alex Kocol with the baseball team. He will leave in late February to attend spring training, but will coach in the training classes leading up to the season. “Having a guy out there at training class every day that has been through HarvardWestlake is invaluable,” LaCour said. “He knows what it is like to succeed in the classroom and on the field.” Pfister said he wants to coach when he is done playing, and plans to take advantage of this opportunity. “But I think I’m lucky for the opportunity to have this learning experience, and I’m looking forward to try and give back any knowledge that can help these players develop,” he said. Krumpe has returned to Harvard-Westlake just three months after his graduation. He is helping the cross country team, a team he was part of for all his high school career.
PHOTOS COUTRESY of Dylan Marks
BEFORE AND AFTER: Dylan Marks ’04 (top) in uniform for the Wolverines. Marks (Bottom right) coaches from the sidelines with a fellow coach (left).
Former players return to their old squads in team managing capacities By Seth Goldman
and
Jonah Rosenbaum
Before the lights turned on and fans filled up the bleachers at Ted Slavin Field last Friday, Michael Lee ‘09 was on the field, making sure the players had water and setting up cameras. Once the game started, Lee filmed the action from behind the endzone. This is Lee’s new role on the football team, where he serves as the manager. Lee, like Jordan Flatt ‘09, is but one of the many students who, after leaving their sports team, wanted to stay a part of the squad as a manager. Lee has played football for Harvard-Westlake since seventh grade flag football. He started on the freshman team and the JV team, and by his junior year was playing linebacker for the varsity squad. But during a playoff game last season he dislocated his shoulder and was out for three months. He returned to spring practice seemingly healthy, but his shoulder popped out again during a spring practice.
cody schott/chronicle
PROJECT MANAGEMENT: Michael Lee ’09 sits on the bench and watches the football team practice.
Lee visited his doctor and was presented with two choices: undergo serious surgery or give up playing football. After a long talk with Head Coach Vic Eumont, Lee chose the second option. He said it was tough choice to give up a sport that was a big part of his life since he had come to the school. “Even though I got hurt, I still wanted to be a part of the team,” Lee said. “So I asked coach if I could be the manager, and he thought it was a good idea.” Lee comes to practice every day to film and make sure the players have water. Lee says that his filming of games and practices is crucial to the team’s success. Without good film, the players and coaches cannot see their mistakes and learn from them. “Mike has been a great help to us,” Eumont said. “I wish he was playing, but he does a great job and works hard in everything he does.” Lee loves being on the sidelines with the team everyday because most of his friends play football. But at the same time, he misses being out on the field. “Especially during the first game against Franklin, I really wanted to be out there on the field with the guys,” he said. “But I know that it just wouldn’t be worth it to risk a really bad injury because I have the rest of my life in front of me. I’m still part of the team, just in a different role.” Jordan Flatt ’09 doesn’t leave school at 2:35 p.m. during the basketball season. Or during the football season. Or, until this year, the baseball season. Flatt is not the latest tri-sport athlete to letter in three sports; he is something even rarer. He is in Varsity Coach Greg Hilliard’s words, a “godsend.” To football Head Coach Vic Eumont, Flatt is a “great addition to our coaching staff.” Varsity forward Erik Swoope put it best by saying Flatt is an “invaluable asset who does all the behind-the-scenes work.” Flatt is a team manager, and Harvard-Westlake’s first to work for three varsity sports. Flatt began managing after being cut from the basketball team. He wanted to remain a part of the team, but quickly fell in love with his managerial duties. “I wanted to contribute to something that I really
cody schott/chronicle
vigilant: Michael Lee ’09 sits on the bench and watches the football team practice. like, and I wanted to remain a part of the basketball team,” he said. “I get to go to every single game, and I’m definitely a part of the team.” Flatt also believes that being a manager gives him a new perspective that a fan does not get. “You realize that star players aren’t always who you think they are, and you realize just how complex game planning is, and the intricacies that make the difference between a win and a loss,” he said. Although his duties differ from sport to sport, they share one common aspect. They are important, and get little recognition and glory. “I don’t know where we’d be without Jordan,” Hilliard said. “Usually with a manager, you hope they’ll go to the home games, pass out Gatorade, do whatever they can. Jordan does not miss practices. He has earned the respect of the coaching staff and the team.” In Flatt’s words, his principal duty is “getting the practices ready and organized so that they can run smoothly, and the coaches can worry about what matters.” Both Hilliard and Eumont said that Flatt could continue to be a successful manager in college, something that he plans to do. Until then, Flatt will be there on the bench videotaping the basketball and football games, handing out water and encouragement.
A30 Sports
JV roundup
The Chronicle
Oct. 1, 2008
COURTESY OF GEOFFREY BIRD
Herd mentality: Cross Country runners, including the male component of the JV team, stick together on the trail in a pack during a meet this season. The
Field Hockey The JV field hockey team began the year with a 4-1 record. The team won its first game over Edison 4-0 on Sept. 13. “The team is made up of a lot of talented girls,” Kirstin Cook ’11 said. The team defeated Westminster 3-0, Fountain Valley 6-0 and Hungtington Beach, 1-0. “Their hardest teams [to beat] this year should be Huntington Beach and Newport,” Varsity Head Coach Erin Creznic said. On Sept. 25, the girls lost to their biggest rival, Newport, 1-0. “We’re doing really well, and I hope we can keep it up,” Noelle Lyons ’11 said. — Mary Rose Fissinger
Football After winning its first home game against Franklin 13-7, the JV football team will look to improve upon its 2-1 recrod at home against Alemany on Oct. 4th. The program’s transition four years ago introduced tackling as well as the JV and varsity systems, which has prepared the JV team’s incoming freshmen and sophomore athletes for this level of competition. “The season is really looking good, all of the players are getting really good after having played together for such a
long time,” Danny Marenzi ’11 said. The squad will not open league play until their Saturday Oct. 25 match against powerhouse Serra at Ted Slavin field. — Alec Caso
Boys’ Water Polo After opening the season with a 9-6 victory over Burroughs, the boys’ JV water polo team dealt Oaks Christian a 16-2 drubbing and then defeated rival Junipero Serra the next day, 17-5. It took a 7-4 home loss to Corona del Mar on Sept. 17 to finally end the squad’s opening hot streak. “We have a really deep team, and we should do extremely well this year,” player Sam Ruddy ’11 said. Although relatively inexperienced as a whole, the team had a record of 4-1 before finishing second in last weekend’s Los Alamitos tournament. “To be successful, we have to do a good job of mixing experienced players with new players who have talent,” Conor Eliot ’11 said. The team is led by Varsity Head Coach Larry Felix in practices, but is coached in games by alumnus Brian Flacks. The Wolverines open league play on Oct. 7 at Crespi, with their next home game on Oct. 16 versus Loyola. They will also play Mater Dei’s JV team at Homecoming on Oct. 18 at 2:30, before the varsity team plays its game. — Alex Leichenger
boys are 2-1, while the girls are 1-2. The team has a meet on Saturday at the Staub Invitational, which takes place at Crescenta Park.
Cross Country After the first two meets of the season, the JV cross country team has emerged with a 2-1 record for the girls and a 1-2 record for the boys. The team also participated in an invitational meet. In the team’s first meet at O’Melveny Park on Sept. 11, the girls defeated both Alemany and Chaminade by default, 15-50, since neither school had the minimum five runners necessary to compete in the JV race. The boys were defeated by Alemany 19-42 and lost to Chaminade 27-28. Several of the JV runners participated in the varsity race instead of the JV race, and the team would have defeated both teams if they had their help. In the meet at Pierce College on Sept. 18, the boys bounced back and beat Crespi 20-38 while the girls’ team lost to Louisville 15-48. In the Bellarmine-Jefferson Invitational on Sept. 27 at Griffith Park, the girls finished 5th and the boys finished 6th. Their next meet will be the Staub Invitational at Crescenta Park on Oct. 4. The team chef d’équipe, Geoff Bird, who is in charge of communications and scheduling and acts as a faculty mentor for the team, said that this year’s boys team is by far the strongest JV team that he has seen and that the amount of competition between the runners is at a high level this year. “We have improved immensely as a team this season under our amazing new coach Johnny Gray,” Jared Green ’11 said. Gray said that they have had some trouble with consistent attendance at practices, but he said that so far he is “very proud of everyone.” — Austin Block
Girls’ Tennis
LUcy Jackson/chronicle
Facing the defender: Andrew Hotchkiss ’11 prepares to shoot, despite there being a Corona del Mar defender in his face during the two’s match on Sept. 17.
After starting the year off strong with a win in its first preseason against Palos Verdes High School, the JV girls’ tennis team looks to build upon its success. The early victory helped the players boost their confidence and players feel more connected amid changes in the program such as a younger squad and a new coach. Last year, the team consisted of mostly sophomores and juniors, but this season the majority of the players are freshmen “Even though there are a lot of freshmen on the team, we’re starting to get to know each other and we are learning to play together,” Lauren Hansen ‘11 said, one of the few sophomores on the team.
ALEC CASO/CHRONICLE
POCKET PRESSURE: Quaterback Max Heltzer ’11 throws a touchdown pass. The players have responded well to new coach Nataliya Ostrovska. “She gives us lots of strategies and helps us with our individual skills,” Hansen said. “My goals for the year are to play as a team, compete as a team, and come out number one in the league,” Ostrovska said. The team will play two more games before starting opening league play on Oct. 14. — Tiana Woolridge
Girls’ Volleyball The girls’ JV Volleyball team placed third in the Westlake Tournament after a shaky start to its season. Since coming off two straight losses in their preseason games against Santa Barbara High School and Marymount High School, the JV girls won their season opener, defeating Bishop Montgomery. “We are still trying to find our game and build chemistry amongst the team,” Head Coach Shari Sakamoto said. “We have the players. We just have to become more aggressive and have better ball control.” “Our coaches are great and enthusiastic and are constantly pushing us to be our best,” setter Kelley Butler ’11 said. Their next game for JV volleyball, their first league match of the season, is on Thursday against Louisville High School. — David Burton
Oct. 1, 2008
Sports A31
The Chronicle
In her own words...
Krystle Higgins ’09 varsity girls’ volleyball
Photo by Cathi Choi Interview by Alex Edel
Q A Q A Q A
How long have you been playing volleyball and how did you get involved? I actually started playing volleyball when I came to the school and tried out in the seventh grade. I was surprised that I made the team because I had no clue what I was doing, but I have been playing and enjoying the game ever since.
Q A
What is the team dynamic like this year? Do you guys have a distinct personality?
Q A
What are you doing as a senior to inspire the team this seaon?
What position do you play? I am a middle blocker. I am in the front row in the middle. My position is blocking, scanning and hitting.
What is the team aiming to achieve this season? I definitely think we can win league. As the season goes on we’ll learn more about each other. We have a long road ahead. We aren’t really thinking about it. But I think we can win CIF and state again.
We are creating a team dynamic every day but as of now we are a strong team with tons of potential that needs to play together and gell more. We just need to continue to learn each other’s styles and how they contribute to the team. Also, we are constantly compared to last year’s team, and I think people need to realize that we are a completely different team with a dissimilar identity.
We are a really, really young team. We only have four seniors and all the seniors have voice. The two captains are equally important as are myself and the other senior. The younger teammates really look up to the seniors because there are only four of us.
Q A
With such a young team what are you going to have to do to get to CIF and State?
Q A
Will you continue playing volleyball in college?
As far as the game aspect, we just need to focus on reacting better to what our opponent is doing. Coach Black always says, “See the player about to play the ball” and I think that if we do that more, we’ll be in great shape for CIF and State. Also, we definitely have to practice harder and with a game-like mentality, so that we are much more prepared for tougher matches that come our way.
I committed to Boston College. I visited last spring and I fell in love with the school and the volleyball. Education and volleyball are both important to me, and there was a really good balance of volleyball and education at Boston College.
October Games to watch...
7 16 18 25 30
Girls’ Tennis
Boys’ Water Polo
Thursday at 3 p.m. Studio City Golf & Tennis
Thursday at 4 p.m. Zanuck Swim Stadium
vs. Chaminade
“Chaminade is one of our strongest competitors. It would show a lot if we beat them.” —Becky Wolke ’11
vs. Loyola
“We have to send a message that we are the best and we’ll always be the best.” —Maxx Brickln ‘09
Football
vs. St. Bernard
Saturday at 7:30 p.m. Ted Slavin Field
In the homecoming game, “Last year we lost so we have a lot to prove this year.”
—Kimo Thorpe ’09
Field Hockey
Girls’ Volleyball
Saturday at 2 p.m. Ted Slavin Field
Thursday at 6:30 p.m. Taper Gymnasium
“Last year we went down to them and won. This year they are coming to us so we want to win at home.” —Olivia Kestin ‘09
“We’re excited because they are a big competition, but we are ready for anything.”
vs. Bishop Montgomery
vs. Notre Dame
—Krystle Higgins ‘09
photo
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barrel of laughs: Kimberly Wang ’09, Sarah Kim ’09, Michelle Chung ’09 and Sayumi Kobayashi (left to right) man the Asian-American Culture Club table. Chung and Kim will be running the club this year. Where there’s smoke: Science teacher Antonio Nassar launches smoke rings at the Vortex Ring Generator for the Studies in Scientific Resarch Club table.
fair remember
a
to Raucous dance-offs, wafting smoke rings and clubs recruiting new members flooded the quad at the Activities Fair Sept. 22.
alexia boyarsky/ chronicle
green MACHINE: Sal Greenberger ’09 dressed like a tree to promote the Environental Club.
on the look out: Eli Moghavem ’10 and C Weintraub ’09 (left to right) call students to sign up Alumni Association.
o finish
Oct. 1, 2008
so you think you can dance: Nora Rothman ’09, Geoff Rock ’09, Joey Friedrich ’09 and Emma Sokoloff ’09 (clockwise from left) groove to the music in the Quad in a student-initiated, improptu dance session.
r
Charlie for the
photos by cathi choi/chronicle
sweet DIPlOMACY: Allison Lerner ’09 signs up at the Model United Nations club, which provided cupcakes with flags. peace of fruit: Katie Heartney ’09 at the Amnesty International table, where she asked students to vote which issues, like Darfur or use of torture, are most important to them.
B Section
your voice.
The Nov. 4 presidential race between the Democratic nominee, Senator Barack Obama and the Republican nominee Senator John McCain, has students speaking out about current issues. Learn how to pick a candidate and read about our politically diverse campus. The Chronicle
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Speaking their minds
cATHI CHOI/chronicle
By Sammy Roth
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here is a good chance that you have heard this conversation before: a Democrat makes a left-leaning political remark, maybe taking a position on abortion or on the war in Iraq, maybe criticizing President George W. Bush or Republican presidential nominee John McCain. A few others agree with the remark, and a consensus seems to be reached. This is not that unusual here at Harvard-Westlake, which is widely known to have a large Democratic majority. But then something more surprising occurs. Someone else voices a rebuttal, and you realize that he or she is a Republican. A political debate is quickly underway. Harvard-Westlake is certainly extremely liberal—in a mock primary election held this February on Super Tuesday, an overwhelming 81.5 percent of votes went to a Democratic candidate. However, there are vocal students across the political spectrum, fighting to have their voices and opinions heard. Among them is Libertarian Caroline Groth ’10. “Most people don’t know what a Libertarian is,” she said. “I think that if people really began to understand our viewpoints, they would probably agree with many of them.” With that in mind, Groth, along with her sister Gabby ’09 and Carleigh Coyne ’10, founded a Libertarian Club. Libertarians, Coyne explained, have a central belief in less involvement of the federal government in daily life. “The main thing is the Constitution,” Coyne said. “We believe in the basic rights given to us in the constitution, and we feel they’ve been in-
fringed upon. Government has been slowly taking away the rights that we should have from the Constitution.” Evan Ryan ’09, also a Libertarian, expanded on this. “Socially, people should be able to do what they want, and financially, people should be able to do what they want,” he said. Groth hopes to make these viewpoints better known among the masses. She hopes that even if people don’t agree, they will become more aware. “I think it is important because many people are ignorant of the beliefs of Libertarians and therefore they just look down upon the party,” Groth said. “If people truly knew our beliefs, I think they would agree or at least respect our opinions.” Faire Davidson ’09, a co-founder of the Young Republicans Club, sees awareness as a main goal of the club. She said it is especially important in a predominantly liberal region. “What we made the club for in the first place was sort of that, as diverse a city as Los Angeles is, a lot of people are completely unaccepting of Republican ideals, which is sort of hypocritical,” Davidson said. Michael Lieberman ’09, also a cofounder of the Young Republicans, says that he is the only conservative in his Advanced Placement United States Government and Politics class, a class in which he constantly finds himself defending Republican ideas. But although Lieberman has no problem with healthy political debate, he thinks Harvard-Westlake has a lessthan-friendly atmosphere for minority conservatives like himself. “It’s definitely not a warm environment if you have Republican ideas or values,” he said. The atmosphere Lieberman de-
scribed manifested itself at the Activities Fair, where both the Young Democrats Club and Young Republicans Club had sign-up tables. Davidson said, “someone wrote ‘Republicans suck’ on their sign-up sheet, and a volunteer card was torn up. “Since what we’re trying to do is create more tolerance, that was sort of inappropriate,” Davidson said. Through the Young Republicans Club, Lieberman hopes to help change this dynamic. “We really want to create a community within a community, and create a more welcoming environment,” he explained. Jenna Berger ’09, a co-leader of the Young Democrats, agreed that all opinions should be tolerated. “I think that the teachers and the administration and the students should be able to share their views with others,” she said. “I don’t think anyone should have to hide who they support, or their political views.” And with an election on the immediate horizon, political views are becoming particularly difficult to hide. Because whether they support Obama, McCain, or one of a host of Third Party candidates, students and teachers alike are getting involved, both here at school and in the world around them. Lieberman and Davidson have volunteered for the McCain campaign, and Berger said she plans to volunteer for Obama in the near future. Groth said she stays informed through www. cato.org, a Libertarian think tank, and that she is hoping to volunteer through the Pete Peterson Foundation, which tries to increase awareness of economic problems. see MINORITIES, B4
getting on board: Maddy Sprun crats Club at the Activities Fair (top left); M Caroline Groth ‘10 and Carleigh Coyne ‘10 s
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Students of all political beliefs, partciular minority groups, fight to let their voices be heard on campus.
The great debates Students feel that teachers’ opinions affect discussion dynamics in history and political classes. By Emily Friedman
I photo courtesy of michael lieberman
cATHI CHOI/chronicle
ng-Keyser ‘09 and Tessa Wick ‘09 recruit students for the Young DemoMichael Lieberman volunteers for the John McCain campaign (to right); spread the Libertarian word on the same day (above).
and
Candace Ravan
n a politically conscious environment like Harvard-Westlake it is only natural to expect students of all political backgrounds to voice their opinions in class, particularly in history classes. However, the political atmosphere at school sometimes deters students from doing so. “It is not my personality to hold back my opinions, but I have been singled out. I do think it made me stronger,” Jake Schine ‘10 said. “The teachers are overwhelmingly liberal, but they can conduct their classes as they so choose. I respect others’ opinions even if they don’t respect mine, and they definitely don’t.” Though most teachers make a conscious effort not to explicitly state their views on current topics, many times students can pick up on subtle clues about their teachers’ perspectives on political issues, often manifested in their teaching. “I don’t think it is a good idea to reveal personal opinions to students on really controversial current issues,” upper school history teacher Dave Waterhouse said. “I have certainly expressed an opinion on some things, like whether Andrew Jackson was a good leader, but I am careful to be neutral on current issues.” On the contrary, Audrina*, who considers herself a moderate, thinks that “teachers tell students facts that are really subjective history as a method of voicing their opinions.” Overall, most teachers feel that exposing their views, which may be contrary to those of some students, can hinder their participation and willingness to engage in class discussion. History teacher Nini Halkett hopes to create a comfortable atmosphere that lends itself to open discussion and debate. She would not tolerate a student showing scorn towards a peer becuase of his/her political opinion, she said. Despite the teachers’ best efforts to keep everybody comfortable, some students, like Whitney,* feel singled out. “The teachers I’ve had have not respected me having a difference of opinion, especially when I categorize myself as being in a third party,” she said. “I think that my opinions are not respected as much because I don’t consider myself a Liberal.” However, some students who are in the political minority at school don’t notice a difference. “I find that having conflicting views makes class more interesting, and I never feel that teachers try to push their beliefs on me,” Spencer Friedman ‘09 said. “They are trying to inform me on the political process because they want us to make our own opinions.” He acknowledged that some teachers fuse political views into their teaching, but they do not force it upon students. “Everyone is entitled to display their views,” he said. “My teachers love it when I have conflicting views with them, and I debate all the time with Ms. Halkett.”
Not all students feel as comfortable communicating their beliefs. “In the past it has been kind of awkward in history class because most teachers are liberal and I don’t want them to know that I disagree with them and I don’t want them to shoot me down,” Brody*, a Republican, said. Although Halkett welcomes her students to debate with her, she feels that controversial issues are often hard to avoid. “It’s not a slam dunk, one way or the other,” history teacher Francine Werner agreed. “You have to deal with controversial issues every day in U.S. Government and Politics and you just have to present both sides. There is no safe subject in government. I feel for the kids who are in the minority here. It is not pleasant to be in that situation.” Similarly, history teacher Dror Yaron said, “I never wear my politics on my sleeve, but it’s okay to joke around with students as long as no one gets hurt and both points of view are acknowledged.” Werner feels that it’s hard to navigate and keep kids listening to each other when they have opposing views, but it’s good for kids to learn how to argue. She often plays devil’s advocate to teach students how to defend their views in order to prepare them for the real world. Yaron also likes to challenge his students by arguing views not necessarily his own in order to provoke discussion and broaden their understanding. So long as everyone is civil and has a chance to express themselves, Yaron considers a little political tension among students healthy. On the other hand, Waterhouse tries to avoid conflict in his classees. “I try to keep my classes on a fairly analytical and academic level. I don’t want, nor have I ever had, political tension in my classes.” Despite the common belief that teachers are the major factor in swaying students one way or another, Yaron feels that there are some overlooked aspects in the curriculum that can alter how students form opinions and can discourage them from expressing existing ones. He acknowledged that the AP U.S. History text, for example Howard Zinn’s “A People’s History of the United States,” infuses liberal ideals into the classroom. After using a text which leans towards a left oriented approach, Yaron would like to get a more balanced understanding of history by injecting a little more conservative standpoint into the curriculum. “If you have a classroom where everyone has the same opinion, it wouldn’t make for very interesting discussions,” Halkett said. “Diversity in a classroom is a good thing.” *These names have been changed because subjects wish to remain anonymous
B4
Oct. 1, 2008
The Chronicle
how to: election
Get ready for the upcoming Nov. 4 election by registering to vote and learning about the presidential candidates.
choosing your
candidate
• Dave Waterhouse jordan mcspadden/chronicle
reaching out: David Osiri, a coordinator for the Democratic Party of the San Fernando Valley, speaks to Upper School students about the Democratic campaign.
the campaign on campus By Jordan McSpadden A Youth Outreach Coordinator for the Democratic Party of the San Fernando Valley attended the Young Democrats Club meeting last Thursday to urge students to participate in the Democratic campaign. David Osiri urged students who are interested in seeing Democrats in the office should volunteer to help campaign. Volunteers are trained to call registered voters and receive a script to read to voters when calling them. Volunteers call voters from all over the United States and also go from door to door and asking voters for their support. “Canvassing is a good experience and a safe experience,” Osiri said. “What they want students to do when you volunteer is to do the actual voter outreach, the actual voter contact.” There are two different types of volunteers at the Democratic Party of San Fernando Valley: volunteers who come in whenever they can and want to, and more dedicated volunteers who come into the office regularly. There is no set time commitment for volunteering, stu-
dents simply call and schedule times to come in and help in any way possible. Osiri said that working for the Democratic campaign looks good on a college application, and students gain experience for future job applications. The Democratic Party of San Fernando Valley has the largest campaign headquarters in California, he said. “This is a good experience for you guys,” Osiri said. “Come into the campaign office, see how it is run. We will teach you who we’re calling, why we’re calling them, where we get our data from, where we get our money from. We’ll give you the whole grand scheme, you guys will know how to campaign, and if you guys come in for a good amount of time, I guarantee you will know how a campaign runs.” There are volunteer students from schools all over Los Angeles, so students meet new kids from other schools. “Helping out with the campaign should be really fun and a good learning experience for you guys. This is a landmark election,” Osiri said. “I don’t have to sell that to you guys. If you want to get involved with an election, this is the year to jump in.”
“Read the newspaper; try to get information about the candidates’ and parties’ positions from independent, nonpartisan sources.”
• Nini Halkett
“Seek a candidate whose sincerity, integrity, intelligence, open-mindedness and ability to work with others are traits you can take faith in.” “Make sure your candidate has followed through on campaign promises to his/her constituents, has demonstrated the motivation and ability to accomplish his/her goals.”
register
to
vote
Teachers offer advice to new voters on how to get informed and choose a candidate.
• Drew Maddock
“If you’re for a candidate because your parents are for them, try thinking for yourself instead. “ “Successful Presidents have common sense, open-mindedness, flexibility, intelligence, compassion, and an awareness of the world.” “Never vote on one issue – taxes, abortion, for example – but consider the whole man, his views, and his likelihood of making good decisions.”
U.S. citizens are eligible to vote in the Nov. 4 election if their 18th birthday occurs before Nov. 4 and they have registered by Oct. 20.
To register, visit a website like www.rockthevote.org or www.sos. ca.gov/elections. These sites provide mail-in forms.
On Tuesday Nov. 4 between 7 a.m. and 8 p.m., go to the polling place specified on your sample ballot.
After you have registered, a sample ballot will be sent to your home address. Read it and decide where you stand on the issues.
Check in with a volunteeer at the polling place. Show an ID that includes your name and home address and cross your name off the roster. Step into the booth and vote.
(MINORITIES Continued from page 2) In fact, a representative from the California Democratic Party met with a group of about 25 Young Democrats on campus last Thursday. According to Technology Center Director Christopher Gragg, who this year restarted the Young Democrats Club with Visual Arts teacher Nancy Popp, the representative talked to students about volunteering in phone banks, calling battleground states such as Colorado and Nevada. Gragg hopes not only that these calls will make a difference, but that they will benefit the students making them as well. “There’s a lot of people out there that vote on emotion, and hopefully they will become more informed voters and they become more informed about the whole process early,” he said. Indeed, with the election just over a month away, some people still have not decided who they support. While most Democrats are set on Obama, most Republicans are set on McCain, and many Libertarians—like Coyne and Groth—support Libertarian candidate Bob Barr, some people are just not sure. Ryan, although a Libertarian, is trying to choose between Obama and McCain, as he will be able to vote on Nov. 4. “I’m really torn right now. I don’t like either of them,” he said. “It’s hard for me to get a good view, considering I live in LA and go to Harvard-Westlake,” he added. “It’s hard to get a straight look at them, but I guess that’s true for everywhere.” Whether or not they are deciding on their candidate of choice, debating with their classmates, or making phone calls, Gragg believes that it is important for students to get involved, no matter who they support. “You’re on the verge of being, number one, voters, and number two, we want to encourage people to become good citizens as well and voting is part of being a good citizen,” he said. “Whether you’re a Democrat, Republican, Green, or Libertarian, or whatever you vote, people need to be involved in their country and their community.”