October 2011

UNHAPPY FEET:

Fashion forward footwear, whether flat or not, may be hazardous to your health.

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B3 B3

BREAKING THE RECORD: Aaron de Toledo ’12 ran the fastest 3-mile time in school history, just under 15 minutes. His cross country team is the defending CIF champion.

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The Harvard -Westlake

hronicle

Admins name 5 scholarship nominees

Los Angeles • Volume XXI • Issue II • Oct. 19, 2011

Cazeau takes job in Seattle

By Eli Haims

A committee of administrators and deans selected five seniors to compete for prestigious scholarships at East Coast colleges.

Natalie Epstein ’12 was chosen as the Morehead-Cain Scholar candidate at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. David Olodort ’12 is up for the Jefferson Scholarship for the University of Virginia. Jessica Barzilay ’12, Jessica Gold ’12 and Richard Polo ’12 were nominated for the Robertson Scholarship at either Duke University or UNC-Chapel Hill.

All scholarships cover full tuition, room and board and research and travel opportunities.

“We look at the students at the top of the class and then we present their profiles to see how well they match,” said Upper School Dean Sharon Cuseo.

Nominees for the Morehead-Cain scholarship must possess a “moral force of character, scholarship, physical vigor and leadership.” Epstein has already submitted her application for the first round of the competition and will find out if she is a semifinalist on Oct. 31.

Epstein is a Peer Support Coordinator, a member of the Scene Monkeys, a varsity tennis player and has acted in various school plays.

Jefferson scholarship candidates are expected to exhibit leadership, scholarship and citizenship. Olodort has to submit his application by Nov. 1 and will find out on March 30 if he is awarded the scholarship.

Continued on page A8

By Judd Liebman

CHLOE LISTER/CHRONICLE

JAMMIN': Advanced Jazz Combo guitarist Max Quilici ’12 plays at Vibrato Grill & Jazz Sunday night. The Jazz Explorers and upper school performing arts teacher Shawn Costantino’s band also performed. See A16 for further coverage.

Head of Middle School Ronnie Cazeau will leave Harvard-Westlake to take a new post as Head of the Evergreen School in suburban Seattle at the beginning of the next school year.

Cazeau’s departure was announced

by President Thomas C. Hudnut in email to all faculty members Tuesday morning.

He said he made the announcement “with pride and delight, because when one of us is supremely happy, as Ronnie most certainly is, we should all rejoice.”

“It’s a huge promotion for me,” Cazeau said in a telephone interview with the Chronicle. “I am excited to be head of a school.”

She said she had gotten the job offer last week after spending several days interviewing at the K-8 independent school, meeting with administrators, faculty, parents and students. She said the school felt like a comfortable fit for her and that she was drawn by its warmth. She said she would miss Harvard-Westlake enormously.

Cazeau said she has family in the Seattle area, and her husband works at Boeing, which is headquartered there.

During her 18 years at HarvardWestlake, Cazeau taught English and history, was a grade-level dean, admissions office and has served for five years as head of the Middle School.

Hudnut said Cazeau’s “keen mind, her ready smile, cheery demeanor and abiding love for her students have helped her succeed at every step.”

INDEPTH

Campus construction forces evacuation routes to change

By Saj Sri-Kumar

Ever since the first weeks of sophomore year, upper school students have practiced the emergency evacuation plans over and over again.

With the construction of the Kutler Center and the new pool, it won’t be so simple this year.

Traditionally, students have headed down the stairs from all over campus to Ted Slavin Field. However, with the part of the main staircase leading down from the upper part of campus now closed, evacuation could become significantly more difficult.

“We tell people to be familiar with your buildings because you might not be able to use that route that you’ve always used in the drills to evacuate,” security guard Mark Geiger said. “All those people who evacuated from FeldmanHorn [and] the Library down into the quad and onto the field, they can’t go that way anymore. [The driveway] is going to be the main thoroughfare for any type of evacuation.”

Head of Upper School Harry Salamandra said he and other administrators had talked to faculty members about evacuation plans, which they plan to practice in upcoming emergency drills.

“We’ll have opportunities coming up to try this out,” he said. “We have a drill coming up in October, the California ShakeOut. We’ll see how we, students and adults on the campus, can evacuate the buildings.”

Salamandra said students and teachers who underwent Community Emergency Response Team training late last school year will be assets to the community.

“I participated in the one in June, and it was pretty comprehensive,” Salamandra said. “It was a good program. They even had you put out a real fire with a fire extinguisher to give you some training.”

Geiger also said he felt that the training could be helpful in the event of Continued on page A10

DANIEL KIM/CHRONICLE

TOUGH SHOT: Driver Alan Vucetic ’13 winds up to shoot in the Homecoming and Senior Night game against Cathedral on Oct. 15. The Wolverines won the game 10-7.

Boys’ water polo beats Cathedral, heads into Loyola game 12-6

By Michael Aronson

Brian Flacks ’06 entered UCLA’s Spieker Aquatics Center at his alma mater, but not as a player. This time, he was coaching the Wolverines, his former high school team, in its Homecoming game against Cathedral.

Parents and students filled the stands at the game in Westwood, which doubled as the team’s senior night and Homecoming game.

The Wolverines moved the ball with

ease and dominated early, jumping to a 1-0 lead.

Cesar Velazquez ’12 put the first points on the board with a goal that barely snuck into the left edge of the net just three minutes in to the first period.

Cathedral tied the game two minutes later, ripping a shot that beat goalie Rye Newman ’13.

Flacks’ hands were in the air in Continued on page C6

The Chronicle Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2011 3700 Coldwater Canyon Ave. Studio City, Calif. 91604

A2 Preview News A9

Community Council works with school groups to organize service opportunities.

CAITIE BENELL/CHRONICLE

Features B2

Some students and teachers think that students are baring too much.

NIKA MADYOON/CHRONICLE

Sports C4

Four varsity sport athlete Kristen Lee ’12 swims and runs track in the spring.

ARIELLE MAXNER/CHRONICLE

JULIUS PAK/CHRONICLE

on the

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Offbeat

Seniors return to middle school campus to revive yoga club after 2 year hiatus

By Cami

VIDEO: Spotlight on pitcher Lauren Li ’12, who recently commited to play softball at the University of Pennsylvania.

>> >>

You can now listen to KHWS radio from Sunday to Thursday.

A full DJ schedule is available online.

Enter your email address on the Chronicle home page to receive weekly and breaking news updates.

COURT JESTER: Josh Hearlihy ’12 juggles basketballs before his slam dunk at the Fanatic Fest assembly on Sept. 30, which also featured a drum line and jousting competition.

de

Ry

Disheartened by their stiff joints and inflexibility due to the loss of the Advanced Yoga Club at the Upper School, seniors plan to return to the Middle School weekly to re-establish their club meetings. The club was founded in 2008 by Catherine Haber ’12 at the Middle School with dance teacher Carrie Costantino ’99. Now Jake Schapiro ’12 and Mark Swerdlow ’12, who were core members of the club in ninth grade, are eager to start up yoga sessions again.

In ninth grade, Schapiro and Swerdlow consistently attended biweekly yoga meetings held by Costantino regardless of how much homework they had to finish, Schapiro said. Genuinely enjoying their club meetings, the two seniors were disappointed to leave it behind when they transitioned to the Upper School.

“When we went to the Upper School, stuff changed,” Schapiro said.

“Clubs only met once a week and yoga was a PE. We just didn’t have the time

or will to start up a club.”

However, they were still determined to somehow fit AYC into their hectic upper school schedules, Schapiro said. During the summer of 2010 before junior year began, Haber texted Schapiro and Swerdlow with an invitation to a yoga meeting she had organized with Costantino.

Both members eagerly attended, hoping for the opportunity to stretch their stiff and stressed out bodies as well as intending to organize future meetings at the Middle School during the school year.

Unfortunately, their hopes were crushed with the monster of their toughest academic year.

“Then junior year hit, and clearly we never had time to do afterschool yoga,” Schapiro said. “We talked about maybe doing it on Mondays before Peer Support or during breaks, but we were just always too busy to get around to it.”

However, when junior year came to an end and the senior year quickly approached, the two members anticipat-

ed more time to do yoga. At the senior barbeque in August, Swerdlow ran into Costantino in a Chalmers music room.

“She told me she was thinking about leading a yoga class after school on Wednesdays at the Middle School, and I told her that if that happened, Jake and I would definitely be there,” Swerdlow said.

Now as seniors, Swerdlow and Schapiro, along with other classmates, have attended AYC meetings at the Middle School with Costantino on Wednesday afternoons. The two plan to organize more meetings second semester and even more after APs are over.

“It’s just fantastic,” Swerdlow said.

The core members of the yoga club have expanded in the two weeks that the seniors have organized Wednesday afternoon meetings. Shana Saleh ’12 as well as other members of Middle School faculty have attended the first two weekly meetings of the club. As of now, middle school students have not attended the meetings, but according to Swerdlow, there is nothing stopping them from joining.

chronicle.hw.com

Oct. 19, 2011

News A3

Prefects propose mandated meetings

By Arielle Maxner

PRINTED WITH PERMISSON OF JOSH HA

BREAKING THE LANGUAGE BARRIER: Josh Ha ’12 teaches a South Korean woman how to speak English while

working for The Organization for One Korea in August 2010.

The woman was one of 40 refugees Ha taught for three weeks.

Senior helps publish book telling plight of North Korean refugees

By Claire Hong

Josh Ha ’12 worked with The Organization for One Korea in 2010 to publish a book released this summer, that shares the stories of refugees from North Korea.

Growing up, Ha often heard stories from his grandmother of how she and her husband had fled Korea one December evening in 1945 before the onset of the Korean War. Ha’s grandfather had been a pastor living in what is now North Korea and had been told by the government, which was installed by the communist Soviet Union, that he must preach communism or face death or torture.

“When I was younger, I didn’t really grasp how powerful these stories are and how much pain people had to endure,” Ha said. “It never occurred to me that my family had to go through such a traumatic event, and I guess it was something that I always kept in the back of my head.”

Although Ha had always grown up knowing the story of his grandparents, it wasn’t until the summer of 2010 that he felt he really understood the gravity of the North Korean situation. Ha spent three weeks in August working with TOOK, a non-profit organization that helps North Korean refugees assimilate into South Korean culture through classes and lectures. Ha trav-

elled to South Korea specifically to volunteer at the organization. He taught English to about 40 North Korean refugees, the majority of whom were women, in a classroom style setting.

He spoke to them in Korean.

“It was my first experience being a teacher of any sort, and teaching English in Korean was hard enough,” Ha said. “But to teach it to a group of North Korean refugees who spoke a different dialect complicated the communication aspect of my teaching a bit more.”

Ha had to create his own class curriculum for the one hour that he taught the refugees on weekdays. His class was one of three to four they took every day, although he said he often found time after his class to speak with some of the refugees and even hear stories about their hardship.

One story that struck him was the story of a mother who left behind her abusive husband and two daughters.

While living in North Korea, she and her daughters lived off of three kernels of corn for each meal, as her husband could not provide enough for the family from his job as a coal miner. She was often physically abused by her husband because of his frustration with their terrible living conditions. The mother of two decided to flee, escaping through China to Mongolia, eventually reaching South Korea.

Professor to share research, promote stem cell awareness

By Julia Aizuss

Genetic researcher and UCLA professor Richard Gatti is scheduled to give a general introduction of stem cell science today, speaking about fertilization and embryonic development in an optional assembly in Ahmanson Lecture Hall during break.

Gatti is one of several research scientists contacted by the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, a governmental organization that funds stem cell research programs, to participate in an outreach program in California high schools promoting stem cell awareness, Christine Sull ’12 said.

Sull interned at Gatti’s lab this summer.

Gatti, the Rebecca Smith Distinguished Professor in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at UCLA, focuses on researching DNA repair disorders. Gatti contacted Sull and offerred to speak about stem cell science on Oct. 5, Stem Cell Awareness Day, but the school couldn’t accom-

modate him that day, so the date was pushed back to Oct. 19.

Sull agreed to organize the presentation because “it’s an opportunity to speak with an expert in human genetics,” and if students “have any questions, they could ask them and better understand scientific frameworks of stem cell research,” she said.

The presentation could help “contextualize stem cell research into practices within that framework of biology and chemistry,” Sull said.

For those who take Advanced Placement Biology or Advanced Placement Chemistry, Gatti’s presentation was intended to give students enough awareness of unbiased information on the subject of stem cell science so they can make their own informed opinions.

Gatti planned to describe different types of stem cells and discuss what makes them unique.

He will also talk about how stem cells can be cultured and different types of stem cell research, therapies and technologies.

“It was a really big shock to me because I thought I was just going to be teaching English, but I was instead also exposed to the plight of the North Korean refugees,” Ha said.

During his second week in Korea, Ha said he was so moved by the refugees’ stories that he believed others should be able to hear them as well.

He spoke with Mi Nyeo Shin, the president of TOOK, and she agreed their stories should be published. Shin and Ha held a writing event for those who wished to share their stories and submit them. Of the 20 refugees who wrote stories, seven were chosen to be published in the book “Escape & Assimilation: The Memoirs of North Korean Refugees.”

The Korean edition of the book was published later in 2010, while the translated English version was published this summer. Ha wrote an introduction for the book about his experiences with the refugees.

The organization is now handing the book out for free to anyone who wants a copy. Ha also plans on donating a few copies to the school library.

“I know a lot of people who just think of North Korea as ‘human rights violators’ without understanding the gravity of the situation,” Ha said. “I hope this book gives people a glimpse of how serious the situation is and hopefully helps bring around change.”

Head Prefects Rishi Bagrodia ’12 and Brooke Levin ’12 proposed that all teachers schedule mandatory five-minute meetings with their students nathanson ’s/chronicle in the first few weeks of the year, Brooke Levin ’12 at the most recent Faculty Academic Committee meeting.

The idea aims to establish good student-teacher relationships, making students feel more comfortable asking questions, renathanson ’s/chronicle questing extenRishi Bagrodia ’12 sions or simply chatting, Levin said.

“This is an opportunity for students and teachers to get to know one another personally, so a teacher can understand that a student has a lot on their plate, and specifically what extracurriculars the students might be involved in and how this might add to their stress load,” Levin said.

“Harvard-Westlake prides itself on student-teacher relationships,” Bagrodia said. “Why not let the students know that we have this great resource and can use it?”

Bagrodia and Levin said they think requiring meetings would be beneficial by raising awareness of how open teachers are to talking to students, they said.

“I think meeting with and getting to know teachers is very important, especially at the beginning of the year,” Josh Lappen ’13 said. “If meetings were made mandatory, considering the number of students each teacher has, though, they would be short, forced and pointless. If teachers themselves decide to hold these meetings, though, I’m all for it.”

National Merit Semifinalists 37 seniors qualified as National Merit Semifinalists based on their PSAT/NMSQT scores from 2010.

Gavin Allman Priyanka Bagrodia Jessica Barzilay Adam Bennett Devon Breton-Pakozdi Jeffrey Bu Colin Campbell Jacob Chapman Michelle Choi Richard Chung Jessica Gold Joshua Ha Nicole Hirschhorn Crystal Ho Justin Ho Patrick Kang Megan Kawasaki Aletheia Kim Julie Ko

Austin Lee Marissa Lepor Nika Madyoon Vivien Mao Arielle Maxner Alexandre Moritz Julius Pak Richard Polo Hannah Schoen Justin Sohn Micah Sperling Sajjan Sri-Kumar Elliot Storey Susan Wang Wiley Webb Amy Weissenbach Gus Woythaler Victor Yoon SOURCE: NATIONAL MERIT SCHOLARSHIP CORPORATION GRAPHIC BY BEATRICE FINGERHUT AND NOA YADIDI

The Chronicle

A4 News

Oct. 19, 2011

Ball leaves to work for symphony

By Luke Holthouse

JAMIE CHANG/CHRONICLE

A NEW ANALYSIS: Neuroscientist Cendri Hutcherson explained her research on morality in relation to the brain to Malina Mamigonia ethics class this past Tuesday, introducing the notion that the brain has an impact on one’s ability to make decisons.

Neuroscientist speaks to ethics class

By Chelsey Taylor-Vaughn

Neuroscientist Cendri Hutcherson of the California Institute of Technology shared her research on morality in relation to the brain with Malina Mamigonian’s Ethics class last Tuesday.

Hutcherson posed the question of “What it means to be moral?”

Hutcherson said there are five distinct types of morality, including harm, fairness, respect for authority, loyalty and purity.

“There’s a tendency to think about the brain as nature,” Hutcherson said.

“But it turns out the brain is not just nature, it’s also a function of nurture, it’s a product of your environment and your experiences. The brain is largely a muscle, and just like muscles, the brain grows.”

Hutcherson analyzes the human brain using an MRI machine, which

inserts the patient into a giant magnet that allows neuroscientists to see the amount of blood that flows from different parts of the brain by measuring the amount of iron in the blood.

“It tells us things that people don’t necessarily want to tell us,” Hutcherson said.

“If a person has damage in the areas of the brain that facilitate moral decision-making, are they to be held responsible for their actions?” Hutcherson said.

In a PowerPoint presentation, Hutcherson explained several case studies of people who had hindrances in a part of their brain, including Charles Whitman, who had a “good life, until one day he went berserk” and killed his mother, wife and himself, Hutcherson said. Before Whitman’s suicide, he left a note that asked for an autopsy to be performed after his death. The operation found a giant tumor pressing

against Whitman’s amygdala, which is part of the brain that is “linked to emotion, fear and aggression,” Hutcherson said.

“It was an organic way of stimulating the amygdala, which led him to behave in an irrational and unethical sense,” Hutcherson said. “He couldn’t help himself,” She advised the class against “riding motorcycles, because it is the easiest way to destroy this part of your brain,” referring to the medial orbitofrontal cortex, which is located “in the front of the brain, that goes right back from your forehead and right down the center and it is important for moral behavior,” she said.

People who have damage to the medial orbitofrontal cortex “can tell you what’s right and what’s wrong, but it is very hard for them to then take that knowledge, and use it to be a good person,” she said.

Wireless internet conditionally restored

By David Lim

Student wireless internet access returned to the Upper School on Sept.

26 accompanied by an emailed warning that users will be blocked for hogging bandwidth.

The email from Head of Upper School Harry Salamandra said students should avoid using unnecessary or excessive bandwidth in accordance with the school’s Technology Acceptable Use Policy.

He also said that students should “uninstall all BitTorrent and Pointto-Point (P2P) software from [their] computer” to prevent these programs from hogging bandwidth while running in the background.

BitTorrent and Peer-to-Peer Networking are decentralized file sharing services used to download pirated movies, music, computer programs and video games. According to the magazine FastCompany, BitTorrent has over 100 million users worldwide.

The student wireless network HWUSStudentInet has been offline since a malicious denial-of-service hacking attack last May, but was reinstated all over campus.

Director of Computer Services Dave Ruben said there was “fundamentally no change” to the network since it was taken off-line and that no new safeguards have been implemented to prevent a repeat of May’s attack.

Both Ruben and Salamandra said the main issue is the network’s limited bandwidth. Approximately 50 percent of the network’s bandwidth is used at peak hours.

Salamandra said that “ultimately, Computer Services is in charge of the access” and that the main issue with student wireless access was the over-

“

Not all torrent or peer-to-peer stuff is illegal, but because we can’t discern the good from the bad and we can’t tell what a person is doing, we have to block that stuff.

—Dave Ruben Director of Computer Services

loading of the network, slowing it down for all users.

“We’re only seeing a relatively small percentage of students actually using [the network],” Ruben said. “If the [number of students] grows, this could become an issue very fast.”

The updating of apps on Apple iOS and syncing services such as iCloud also take up a significant chunk of the available bandwidth, Ruben said. These uses of the network have helped push students into comprising three-fourths of the top 10 users of daily bandwidth.

P2P and BitTorrent are the only bandwidth hogs banned on the student network. Large file downloads through other methods do not result in an automatic ban.

“Not all torrent or peer-to-peer stuff is illegal, but because we can’t discern the good from the bad, and we can’t tell what a person’s doing, we have to block that stuff,” Ruben said.

Salamandra said the three week delay from the start of school to the re-activation of the network was to allow Computer Services to prepare for its launch and to explain network policies to students.

Brandon Chong ’13 was kicked off the wireless network last year the first time he brought his computer to

nathanson ’s/chronicle

school.

“I was on the internet and 15 seconds later it doesn’t let me refresh,” Chong said.

He immediately realized that he had accidentally left his BitTorrent running and guessed that was why he was kicked off the network.

Two weeks later on April 15, he received an email from Ruben stating that the blocking had been necessary because some students were using the network to distribute copyrighted material with BitTorrent or other P2P programs.

Tom* ’13 told the librarians it had been an accident when he was blocked from the network. The librarians referred him to computer services, who told him that his access would be back in a few days.

“I knew it wasn’t a good idea to [use BitTorrent] at school but I’d never been informed that you weren’t allowed to,” Tom said.

Tom’s wireless access was not reinstated as the whole network was taken offline the following week in the wake of the DDoS attack.

Chong and Tom regained network access by April 18 but lost it again due to the attack the next week on April 26.

Director of Annual Giving Alan Ball will step down from his position at the end of October, 17 years after he first joined Harv a r d -We s t l a ke .

He is leaving to nathanson ’s/chronicle pursue a new caAlan Ball reer as the associate vice-president for development at the Pacific Symphony in Orange County.

“To be able to work with their donors and work with the people who want to support the orchestra, and the organization, I’m calling it the ‘Tootsie Roll’ opportunity,” Ball said. “It’s all of the good things wrapped up into one.”

After graduating from the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, Ball came to Harvard-Westlake as the instrumental music director at the Middle School in 1994.

“He was someone who could always smile and laugh and not take himself too seriously, and I think the students really responded to him all through his years as a teacher,” Head of Upper School Harry Salamandra said.

Ball transitioned into the Advancement office in 2002. In 2007, he was appointed to his current position.

President of Harvard-Westlake Thomas Hudnut wrote in an email to faculty informing them last week and thanking Ball “for the inspiration, good cheer, sense of adventure, devotion and hard work that he has shared with students, parents and fellow faculty and staff during his years at Harvard-Westlake.”

Using the internet How to connect:

1 2 3

Connect to HWStudentInet

Open any webpage Log in by entering your HW username and password

Network prohibitions:

1 2 3

Streaming non-school related audio or video Playing internet games Using BitTorrent or P2P file sharing SOURCE: HARRY SALAMANDRA GRAPHIC BY MICHAEL SUGERMAN

Tom suggested that students be given a warning their first time before they are completely banned from the network. Chong agreed and also suggested that students be given 5 minutes to reduce their bandwidth usage when notified by librarians.

The two students said that they have been able to access the wireless network without any problems so far this year. They also stated that they continue to use BitTorrent outside of school. *Name has been changed

chronicle.hw.com

Oct. 19, 2011

News A5

Gene bank uses student research

Fun in the Sun

By Justine Goode

PRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF ANDREW BRABBÉE

WATER FIGHT: Jackson Beavers ’15, Jaird Meyer ’15 and Sam Schlesinger ’15 play in the water during their retreat to the Colorado River last week. Seventh graders

spent their retreat at Camp Craggs and Camp Gilmore in Malibu Canyon, and eighth graders had the option to go to either El Capitan Canyon or Joshua Tree National Park.

Prefects negotiate restaurant discounts

By Arielle Maxner

Certain restaurants in the Studio City area are now offering discounts to Harvard-Westlake students, due to the efforts of the Prefect Council.

Restaurants currently offering discounts include Big Mama’s and Papa’s Pizzeria, Il Trammezino and the Coffee Bean. The discounts are 10 percent off at the Coffee Bean, 10 percent off an individual sandwich at Il Trammezino and 15 percent off at Big Mama’s and Papa’s.

The discounts are only valid at the Studio City locations of the restaurants.

“These are all chain restaurants, you can’t go out to a different location and get the discount,” Head Prefect Brooke Levin ’12 said.

Head Prefect Rishi Bagrodia ’12 and Levin are currently working on negotiating more discounts with other restaurants, and are talking to chains

including Jamba Juice and Chipotle.

The Prefect Council sent out a survey to the student body asking which restaurants students frequently eat at in the area, “to see which restaurants they go to the most to get the most optimal discounts for them,” Bagrodia said. “These restaurants are already so heavily visited that with a decreased price, we think students will eat there even more.”

The survey provided some solid proof that Harvard-Westlake students are a part of the restaurant’s profit, Levin said.

One of the biggest conditions to receive the discounts is to have one’s student ID at the restaurant.

“If students order multiple things, and one goes to pick it up, he or she has to have all the IDs,” Bagrodia said.

“It’s the restaurants’ policy. And in reality, it still helps, because 10 percent off one sandwich for each person is the same discount. So 10 percent off one

sandwich times five is 10 percent of the total of five sandwiches.”

Bagrodia said that he thinks a lot of students are reluctant to eat off campus because of the price of food, so the discounts help alleviate that concern.

It’s a “win-win situation,” Bagrodia said. “This helps students with price, and the restaurants with business as more students go.”

Overall, most restaurants were “willing to negotiate,” Bagrodia said.

“It helps their business. All of them required us or them to go through their district managers, but all of them readily endorsed the idea.”

While it may appear that the discounts would only apply to seniors, students can still go to restaurants after school or before practices, Bagrodia said.

“Granted, seniors will be the ones who can fully optimize it, but all grades can use it to their advantage,” Bagrodia said.

The sequences from a DNA barcoding project done by Genetics and Biotechnology students last year were published in the nathanson ’s/chronicle National Center David Hinden for Biotechnology Information’s Gene Bank on Sept. 29.

The project, called the DNA Barcode of Life, was done in association with the Coastal Marine Biolabs, where students put to use techniques they learned in science teacher David Hinden’s class. The project was part of a worldwide initiative designed to permit population studies and ecological management for the kelp forests off the Channel Islands, Hinden said.

DNA barcoding is a tool for taxonomic research that provides a way to identify the species of a plant, animal or fungus. Barcodes are compiled into a global, open access library, allowing the barcode of an unidentified specimen to be matched with a species in the library. The class spent two weeks during second semester extracting DNA from rockfish, which they then isolated, amplified and sent to a lab for sequencing.

“We compared the code going forwards and backwards to see if we could fill in the spaces that were empty in each using the complements,” Patrick Kang ’12 said.

Students participated in a weekend trip to the Coastal Marine Biolabs in Ventura.

About half the students successfully got results and submitted their sequences to the National Center for Biotechnology Information, including Sahar Bardi ’11, Gabe de la Rosa ’12, Sarah Fiskin ’11, Rachel Hall ’11, Kang, Alethia Kim ’12, Jack Law-Warschaw ’12, Sophia Lee ’11, Mitch Oei ’11, Emma Sczudlo ’11 and Meagan Wang ’12.

“It’s very cool to see your name,” Hinden said. “This is the kind of thing that could go in your résumé for your future. If you do something in science, it’s not too early to start.”

Doodlers deface lunch tables

By Saj Sri-Kumar

Seniors doodled in permanent marker on a table in the upper school quad last week. The drawings included animals, funny faces, and toast.

While administrators branded the doodles as graffiti, the students responsible said they believed they were simply expressing themselves artistically, claiming there was no victim.

“It’s our way of leaving our mark on the tables we sat at for years,” Norman* ’12 said.

“I’m disappointed,” Head of Upper School Harry Salamandra said. “That kind of thing doesn’t happen around here very often.”

“I was disappointed and surprised, because it is unusual to see graffiti on either Harvard-Westlake campus, particularly in very public spaces,” Head of School Jeanne Huybrecths said.

Norman said that the administration overlooked the ways the doodling helped the seniors come together as a community.

“It brought people together,” he said. “I saw people from all different friend groups come over and doodle.”

Part of the motivation for the doodles was the school’s theme for the year, “Make Your Mark,” the students said. The theme was scrawled in a few places on the table.

Huybrechts said when she chose

the motto, she recognized the possibility that it could be misconstrued.

“I selected the ‘Make Your Mark’ motto with a bit of trepidation, knowing that it could be misrepresented in this fashion,” she said. “I cannot surmise the students’ motives. I can only hope that the motto ‘Make Your Mark,’ which was intended as a call to positive action, will not be misinterpreted in the future.”

The students said they took care to ensure that the drawings were not obscene.

“None of the doodles were offensive,” Norman said. “There were mostly animals with friendly faces. That could have been a table full of d****. There was no sense that we were screwing with Huybrechts or anything.”

Huybrechts, however, said that the doodling violated the school’s Honor Code. “[The students’] expression may have been artistic, but it was also a defacement of school property, which is a violation of school rules and the Honor Code,” she said.

While Salamandra said he appreciated the students’ care to avoid objectionable content, he also said he believed that the students’ actions were misguided.

“I’m happy to hear that they weren’t being malicious and trying to vandalize the place,” he said. “But Har-

PHOTOS BY ALLISON HAMBURGER

MAKING THEIR MARK: Student graffiti in permanent marker covered a lunch table in the quad last week before the maintenance staff painted over it on Friday. vard-Westlake students should be able to look past the narrow scope of ‘Oh, this would look pretty.’ If they want to express themselves artistically, there are lots of avenues here on campus to do that.”

Salamandra said he hoped that bulletin boards on the second floor of the Seaver Academic Center could be converted to allow students to hang their artwork.

Currently, some of the boards hold art projects created in various visual arts classes, but he said that he hopes additional unused boards could be used

for independent student work, including new boards that would cover the now-unusable doorway that leads to the Kutler Center construction site.

“If we need more space, we’ll find more space, because student art is a good thing as far as I’m concerned,” he said. “The problem is if it’s on the table and it’s viewed as graffiti by some and not as art, it’s a different story.”

The maintenance department covered the doodles with a coat of paint on Friday. * names have been changed

The Chronicle

A6 News

inbrief

Oct. 19, 2011 Walk it Out

Librarians implement new extended time system To prevent cheating, students using extended time must place their tests in a drop box in Silent Study that the librarians installed on Oct. 13.

This year, while the library is under construction, students had to walk with their tests between the temporary Chalmers library and the Silent Study, allowing for potential cheating, said Upper School Testing Coordinator Candris Madison.

For the rest of the year, Madison will accompany students to silent study to take the test, and when they finish, they will time stamp their test and slide it into the drop box.

—Rebecca Nussbaum

Professional playwright leads writing workshops Professional playwright John Walch, nephew of Performing Arts teacher Ted Walch, held workshops for students considering writing one-acts for the Playwrights Festival on Oct. 3, Oct. 6, and Oct. 8.

Unlike in years past, these workshops are mandatory for all students interested in writing plays this year instead of only for first year playwrights.

Walch is currently styaing in Los Angeles for the opening of his play, “The Dinosaur Within,” at the Boston Court Performing Arts Center.

—Chloe Lister

Seniors skip 263 classes for college visits last week Seniors missed 263 classes last Thursday and Friday for confirmed college visits, Head of Attendance Gabriel Preciado said. However, in total 353 classes were missed, leaving 90 absences unconfirmed. The number of classes missed this year is much higher than the 287 classes missed during the same weekend last year.

“I think that the change is a result of seniors being better informed this year that they have the opportunity to get six days to visit colleges while only missing two days of school,” Preciado said.

—Victor Yoon

Prefect Council collects baked goods for DWP A group of students delivered hand-written notes and baked goods to construction workers last Tuesday.

English teacher Jocelyn Medawar originally thought of the project as a way to thank the construction workers and it was carried out by Prefect Council.

About six students delivered over 25 notes written by students, as well as baked goods brought in by four people to the Department of Water and Power workers replacing the water main on Coldwater Canyon Avenue.

—Abbie Neufeld

Sophomore named finalist in photo competition Mazelle Etessami ’14 is a finalist in the National Scholastic Press Association’s National Photo of the Year Competition for a photo taken last year.

The photo is of Donhem Brown ’14 at the teaser for the 2011 Dance Production performance, and was submitted

by Spectrum adviser Steve Chae.

There were 1,047 entries in the contest. Entries were judged on technical quality, artistic value and journalistic content.

“I felt really accomplished and proud of myself,” said Etessami.

The winners will be announced on Nov. 19 at the NSPA convention in Minneapolis.

—Maggie Bunzel

CAMI DE RY/CHRONICLE

RACE FOR A CAUSE: Lauren Schlussel ’13, Kristina Park ’13, Jordan Gavens ’12, Juliette West ’14 and Eliott Sasouni ’14 participated in the annual American Dream 5K Walk this weekend. The chapter raised $745.12 from a cash only bake sale.

Sophomore competes in Chinese speech contest

Math teacher to accept father’s honor

By Michael Sugerman

Upper school math teacher Michael Mori will travel to Washington to accept the Congressional Gold Medal with the World War II military unit of his deceased father, Isamu Sam Mori. The ceremony will take place on Nov. 2 inside the Emancipation Hall at the United States Capitol Visitor Center.

President Barack Obama will award the medal, the nation’s highest civilian award, to the 100th Infantry Battalion, the 442nd Regimental Combat Team and the Military Intelligence Service – which included mostly Japanese-Americans.

Three representatives from each unit will accept the medal, which will honor the Japanese-American men who “fought with uncommon bravery and valor against our nation’s enemies on the battlefields in Europe and Asia, even while many of their parents and kin were held in internment campus,” said the National Veterans Network website.

Mori’s father served in the MIS and was an interrogator for the United States in Japan towards the end of the war. While he was serving, members of the Mori family were being held in the Japanese internment camp in Poston, Ariz.

“On the one hand you can say, ‘How unjust, why should I have to go fight for a country that doesn’t respect who I am?,’” Mori said. “The beauty of this was that for the most part they felt that ‘Here in this country we are called Japs, and we are discriminated against.

If we can show the country that we are loyal citizens and good soldiers who will defend this country, they will not call succeeding generations Japs.’”

Mori mentioned that Japanese soldiers were considered to be “expendable” during the war, and many of them died in battle.

Because of the numerous deaths, Japanese units were some of the most decorated. Despite their great sacrifices, he said that immediately after the war discrimination against Japanese-

By Jack Goldfisher

PRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF MICHAEL MORI

WAR HERO: Isamu Sam Mori worked as an interrogator in Japan for the United States during World War II. Americans was still very imminent.

Because of this history, Mori appreciates the prejudice-free life he lives.

“The Japanese-American group is very much respected in the United States and I credit the men who gave their lives so that I could have the life I have,” he said.

He will travel to Washington as a “next of kin” and will be in the Capitol building with Obama as he presents the medal to one representative from each army unit.

“Because of their sacrifice I have the life that I live,” he said. “To teach at one of the best schools in the United States…if there was still discrimination I wouldn’t be here, or be allowed to be here.”

The event is intended to accentuate the positive of the war, Mori said, rather than to reflect upon the injustice towards Japanese during the World War II era.

“In some ways I think I have a special pass now, because people have respect for me as a Japanese-American – they look at me and the joke is ‘You’re good at math,’” he said. “But they look at me and see that I am someone who has the heritage of character, respect… and there are all these positive things that I am lucky enough to enjoy. But I didn’t earn it – they did, which makes it such an honor to go to the ceremony.”

Sinclair Cook ’14 competed in a Chinese speech contest in Beijing last week after placing first in the regional preliminary round during spring break. Cook and nathanson ’s/chronicle his team are now Sinclair Cook ’14 vying for points against teams from across the world, and as of press time, Cook’s team had more votes than any other team in the contest. Polls were opened for voting on the Chinese bridge website on Sept. 29, and will remain open until Oct. 29. If students want to vote, they should contact Chinese teacher BinbinWei. Cook first heard about the Chinese bridge competition, an international Chinese proficiency contest for nonnative Mandarin speakers, from Wei. The Chinese National Office for Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language, which sponsors the competition, says the competition, “aims to arouse the enthusiasm of students in various countries in learning Chinese and strengthen the world’s understanding of Chinese language and culture.”

The preliminary round, which took place at the Confucius Institute at UCLA, consisted of a five minute fullMandarin Chinese speech round and a talent round, during which he played the saxophone.

For winning, Cook got the chance to go to China and represent the United States internationally. For the final round in China, Cook was paired with two other non-native speakers and they competed for votes cast online. Teams could earn points by writing blog posts in Chinese, posting pictures relating to Chinese culture, or by people casting votes for them. ”This time around, my focus isn’t on competing. It’s more on enjoying myself,” he said.

chronicle.hw.com

Oct. 19, 2011

News A7

inbrief

Nutritionist to speak at HWPA meeting tonight

Nutritionist Shelley Janson (Ethan Gruman ’16) will discuss how parents can keep their kids eating healthily tonight at the Harvard-Westlake Parents’ Association board meeting.

She plans to incorporate information about childhood obesity and how to find healthy options for a picky eater.

Educating parents about healthy eating is part of Janson’s plan to “change the world one dinner table at a time,” she said.

—Ana Scuric

REPRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF CBSLA.COM

“AMAZING REUNION”: Adam Brown ’99, Richard Rothenberg ’85, Oliver Rothenberg and Nader Pouratian ’94 (from left)

converse during an interview on the local CBS news station. The alumni realized their Harvard-Westlake roots during surgery.

Brain surgery reunites three alumni

By Lara Sokoloff

Nader Pouratian ’94 always tries to connect with his patients before going into surgery, and Parkinson’s patient Richard Rothenberg ’85 was no exception.

Rothenberg was diagnosed with young onset Parkinson’s disease in fall 2004. The disease progressed normally for the first five or six years, Rothenberg said, but began to dramatically worsen over the past two years.

“I couldn’t drive to work, I couldn’t really be a dad, nothing that I wanted to be,” he said.

He was referred to Pouratian, and during their initial consultation, they figured out they had both gone to high school on the Coldwater Canyon campus. Pouratian also lives on the street that Rothenberg grew up on and belongs to the same temple Rothenberg attended as a child.

“There were all these coincidences,” Rothenberg said. “On top of that, he had a great recommendation from my neurologist at UCLA. So I decided on the spot to select him as my surgeon.”

Pouratian said Rothenberg was incredibly symptomatic when he first saw him.

“He would go through periods when he was frozen in place,” Pouratian said.

“He would rapidly fluctuate to the opposite extreme, where his body moved uncontrollably. It makes it personal when someone is close to your age and you see them so symptomatic. When you add the fact that their life has been so similar to your own and then seeing where he was at, it really strikes a chord.”

The surgical procedure Pouratian performed on Rothenberg on Feb. 15 required that the patient be conscious

much of the time. said.

“During the surgery, I said to Dr. “It was extremely moving knowing Pouratian, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if Tom how debilitated he had been,” PouraHudnut were here to see his two alums tian said. in surgery together?’” Rothenberg said.

The surgery allowed Rothenberg to At that moment, anesthesiologist return to his life, working and coachAdam Brown ’99 reacted. ing his daughter’s soccer team, he said.

“That’s when Dr. Brown said, ‘You “I still have Parkinson’s, but I don’t two went to Harvard? I went to Har- appear to have the symptoms of Parvard-Westlake too,’ and we realized kinson’s,” he said. “I’m able to resume the coincidence. It life as a normal was quite amusperson again, ing,” Rothenberg which I hadn’t said. given up on, but ‘Wouldn’t it be great if Tom I’d lost hope on During the surgery, a generaas a reality. The Hudnut was here to see tor was implanted surgery has really his two alums in surgery in Rothenberg’s helped me.” together?’” chest to send imPouratian and pulses to elecRothenberg have —Richard Rothenberg remained close trodes inserted in the brain. Pouraafter the surgery. tian compared the Pouratian attenddevice to a paceed Rothenberg’s maker for the brain. Rothenberg had brother’s art opening, and was included to be awake so the electrodes could be in a major fundraiser for the Michael calibrated and the doctors could gauge J. Fox foundation, which Rothenberg is how much stimulation he could handle, very active in.

Rothenberg said.

“We really just enjoy each other’s “They had me doing movements company,” Pouratian said. “Richie is with my hands and saying elaborate afflicted by a disease that none of us tongue twisters from my Shakespear- want, and I really respect him because ean acting days,” Rothenberg said. “It instead of trying to hide it, he has emwas a fun surgical experience.” braced it and made it a big part of his Brown said the surgery was unique life to make a difference and talk about because of Rothenberg’s positive atti- it.” tude.

“If there’s any message that I would “He was genuinely excited to have take away from Richie and would want the procedure done and really wasn’t other people to learn, it’s that when nervous at all,” Brown said. “His posi- you get a disease like this, it’s not your tivity and his gregarious personality fault,” Pouratian said. “If you’re okay set the mood in the operating room.” with it, you should take advantage of Rothenberg made an almost imme- that opportunity to help other people diate improvement after the surgery, with the disease, help them learn about one of the most outstanding outcomes it, and a make a difference for the rest the surgical team had seen, Pouratian of the world.”

“

Junior debater to compete in South Africa

By Mariel Brunman

Elle Wilson ’13 will travel to Cape Town, South Africa for 10 days in January to represent Team USA and compete in the World Championships of Debate. nathanson ’s/chronicle “It is such an Elle Wilson ’13 amazing opportunity to be able to go to a competition like this,” Wilson said. “I am so excited to meet all of the other debaters from other countries, and to visit South Africa, which seems like an incredible place.”

It took Wilson several years to get to the level she competes at today.

In seventh grade, Wilson competed on the middle school debate team and, in eighth grade, she competed in the middle school national debate competition. At the event, spokesmen for the U.S. National Debate Team were giving out information and recruiting members.

In 10th grade, Wilson joined Team USA as a member of the Development Program, a program to acclimate debaters to the intensity of international competition.

Her first international tournament was in New Zealand.

This summer Wilson auditioned for the World Championships debate team.

After the preliminary auditions, finalists were asked to re-audition for the team and were notified later in the summer if they had received a spot.

A third round of auditions took

place to select the team that would represent the United States in South Africa.

Members practice face-to-face throughout the year at workshops held for members on all levels of Team USA. However, as debaters from Team USA live across the country, preparation for tournaments takes place via email, phone or Skype.

Half of the topics that will be debated at the championships will be announced a month in advance, while the second half of the debates topics are and announced immediately before each the round.

“I haven’t been to a competition of this level before, so I am a little nervous to see what it will be like,” Wilson said. “There will be so many incredible debaters in South Africa this year, but it is also very exciting to have the opportunity to compete against them.”

Hudnut to chair WASC committee in Taipei

President Tom Hudnut will head a Western Association of Schools and Colleges accreditation committee in Taiwan and will make a pre-visit to Taipei American School in early November.

“I’ve chaired probably 15 or 20 visiting committees, but never out of this country,” Hudnut said.

The goal of the visit in November is to “examine all aspects of school life and operations and see whether the school is being true to its mission,” Hudnut said.

—Judd Liebman

MUN to chair conference with Marymount High The Model United Nations club will host its annual conference Saturday, co-hosting with Marymount for the first time. The conference is Model UN’s first conference of the year.

Marymount will help run committees, help determine who earns points, and help decide who will win awards.

“We’ve always had a close relationship with Marymount,” club president Vivien Mao ’12 said. “It’s a good chance to improve the chairing ability of both sides and foster more of a relationship between the two.”

—Noa Yadidi

Chinese AP educators postpone visit to school The visit of a contingent of high school teachers from Beijing has been postponed.

The trip has been delayed due to visa problems and has been rescheduled to early 2012, Associate Head of School and Head of Athletics Audrius Barzdukas said. The group of six from Beijing No. 12 High School, which Harvard-Westlake has developed a close relationship with, was originally scheduled to come in late September to early October to observe Harvard-Westlake’s Advanced Placement programs in science and math.

—Julius Pak

Chronicle and VOX each win 8 CSPA Gold Circles The 2010-2011 Chronicle and 2010 VOX won 16 total Gold Circles from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association.

From the Chronicle, Ingrid Chang ’11, Alex Gura ’12, Megan Kawasaki ’12, Joyce Kim ’11, Judd Liebman ’12, Allana Rivera ’13, Daniel Rothberg ’11 and Victor Yoon ’12 won awards. The Chronicle staff won first place for typography, the overall look of the newspaper.

VOX awards were given to Dayna Berkowitz ‘10, Julia Cambre ’10, Heidi Chung ’10, Justin Cohen ’10, Daniel Lundberg ’10, Cindy Ok ’10 Kristina Park ’13, Courtney Reamer ’10 and Tabi Yoo ’11. The staff was awarded first place for informational graphics portfolio.

—Cherish Molezion

The Chronicle

A8 News

Teachers, senior help free murder suspect

By Michael Rothberg and Elana Zeltser

On May 3, 1994, Obie Anthony, 19, was falsely identified as a murder suspect after his photograph was chosen from a group of suspects. He nathanson ’s/chronicle was tried, conDavid Hinden victed and imprisoned for the fatal shooting of another man, a crime he did not commit.

On May 3, 1994, Brooke Levin was born, and 17 years later, she played an innathanson ’s/chronicle tegral part of the Brooke Levin ’12 defense team that exonerated Anthony.

Anthony’s case was taken on by Loyola Law School under the supervision of law professor Laurie Levenson as part of the Innocence Project, an organization which provides legal counsel for inmates who have been wrongfully convicted.

Levin began interning for Levenson after attending one of her lectures when she was in eighth grade.

“She asked the best questions at the community talk I gave,” Levenson said. “I asked her if she wanted to volunteer or intern in my office.”

At the beginning of her internship, Levin did research for Levenson and wrote papers on the death penalty and California’s “Three Strikes” law based on her findings.

Levin was assigned to read through letters sent to Loyola by inmates seeking legal aid.

She came across Anthony’s letter and Levenson and her team decided there was enough evidence to prove that Anthony was, in fact, innocent.

Levin was enlisted to utilize her math skills as part of the forensic re-

Scholarly pursuits

search.

Accompanied by senior members of the team to ensure her safety, Levin went to the scene of the crime, a whorehouse turned apartment complex on the corner of 49th and Figueroa. There, she investigated whether the trajectory of the bullet matched the prosecution’s theory of where the shooter was standing.

“There were some people throwing fire crackers in the street, and it sounded like gun shots,” Levin said.

“It was a scary experience, to say the least, but also incredible. I’d never really seen this part of Los Angeles this close before,” she said.

According to autopsy reports, the bullet entered the victim’s body at a 40 degree angle.

The prosecution claimed that Anthony was standing on the ground five feet away from the victim at the time of the shooting.

Levin’s measurements, however, proved that Anthony would have to be over seven feet tall if he was the shooter from that location.

Using high school level trigonometry and her measurements, Levin determined that the only plausible location of the shooter was on the roof of the whore house.

Science teacher David Hinden, a former Assistant U.S. Attorney, was vacationing in Italy when Levenson contacted him, asking if he would help organize Levin’s findings into a professional and comprehensive report.

“We basically did two calculations, one of which showed that the prosecution’s theory was inconsistent with the physical facts of the case and the other one of which showed that at least one of the alternative defense theories had forensic evidence to support it,” Hinden said.

Hinden sent the report he created to Upper School mathematics department head Paula Evans to confirm the accuracy of the calculations.

While verifying that the math was correct, Evans realized the trigonometric concepts used in the forensics mirrored the material taught in her Precalculus, Trigonometry and Functions

The following five seniors were nominated by a committee of deans and administrators for three East Coast schools:

Morehead-Cain UNC-Chapel Hill Natalie Epstein ’12

Jefferson UVA David Olodort ’12

Peer Support Coordinator, member of the Scene Monkeys, varsity tennis player, performing arts nathanson ’s/chronicle

Senior Prefect, runs varsity track, involved with Student Ambassadors nathanson ’s/chronicle

Robertson Either UNC-Chapel Hill or Duke Jessica Barzilay ’12, Jessica Gold ’12 and Richard Polo ’12

nathanson ’s/chronicle

nathanson ’s/chronicle

nathanson ’s/chronicle

Jessica Barzilay ’12

Jessica Gold ’12

Richard Polo ’12

Community Council, president of Environmental and Operation Gratitude clubs, varsity field hockey, Chronicle

Editor of Stonecutters, secretary and co-chair of the Assisteens

Head of Community Council, varsity swimmer

SOURCE: SHARON CUSEO GRAPHIC BY ELI HAIMS

Oct. 19, 2011

PRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF BROOKE LEVIN

FREE AT LAST: Brooke Levin, back left, celebrates with Obie Anthony, center, his family and his team of attorneys after Anthony was released from prison.

“

Had he not won, he would have probably died in prison.

Brooke was there the moment he walked out of jail. I’ve been a lawyer for a long time, and that’s a pretty special moment.”

—Laurie Levenson Loyola law professor

class. She now hopes to use the report as a word problem and real world application of math in the classroom.

“Thank God for trigonometry!” Evans said.

As a result of the report Levin and Hinden prepared, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Kelvin Filer ruled that the prosecution’s key witness lied on the witness stand. Filer then overturned the verdict and ordered Anthony, now 37, set free.

A week before she began her senior year of high school, Levin was in the court room to see Anthony walk out a new man.

“When he came out and was get-

ting in his car he gave me a really huge hug, and it was the craziest moment because he stood there and said to me, ‘What you have done for me has given me my life back,’” Levin said. “I don’t think I will ever forget that moment.”

After spending nearly two decades behind bars, Anthony stepped into an entirely different world, incapable of using even a cell phone, Levin said.

“If you think about this, this was Obie’s last chance,” Levenson said.

“Had he not won, he would have probably died in prison. Brooke was there the moment he walked out of jail.

I’ve been a lawyer for a long time, and that’s a pretty special moment.”

Administration committee chooses 5 scholarship nominees Continued from page A1

apply to UVA in addition to applying for the scholarship and doesn’t think the scholarship application will be much work, as he can use essays that he has written for other schools.

In addition to full-tuition and room and board, the scholarship provides enrichment opportunities over the summer. The winners spend a week during the summer before their first year at an outdoor leadership course, two weeks before their sophomore year at the Institute for Leadership and Citizenship, five weeks before their junior year internationally and the summer before their final year interning with UVA alumni.

Robertson The Robertson scholarship seeks leaders who are “critical thinkers, compassionate, humble and adaptable in a multitude of settings.”

The program is unique in that the students who receive the scholarships are members of both the Duke and UNC communities. Applicants apply to Duke, UNC or to both, and enroll in one of the schools, but take classes at both.

Additionally, members of the program spend the second semester of their sophomore year living at the sister campus. The application for the

scholarship program is due in December and three nominees will find out if they win the scholarship in March.

All three of the nominees think that their involvement in community service helped them win the nomination. Polo is a head of the Community Council, Barzilay is also a member of the Community Council and the president of the Operation Gratitude and environmental clubs and Gold was the co-chair the Assisteens, which is a branch of the Assistant League of Southern California.

The Robertson also provides summer programs for the students to participate in. After their freshman year, the scholars participate in a community service project in the southern United States. They spend their second summer overseas to “improve their skills in a second language, experience an unfamiliar culture, or learn more about their role as global citizens,” according to the Robertson Scholars Program website. In the final summer, the students are given funds to design and develop their own program.

“I’d probably do a research one, but that’s definitely something I would look into because I’d like to do that,” Polo said of the final summer.

While only people nominated by schools are considered for the Jefferson and the Morehead-Cain, anyone may apply for the Robertson.

The Chronicle

Oct. 19, 2011

News A9

Charter school seeks math tutors

CAITIE BENELL/CHRONICLE

REACHING OUT: Girls’ Volleyball Program Head Adam Black helps a child shoot hoops, left. Volleyball player Jackie Beyer ’13 and Community Council member Caitlin Yee ’13 read to a child, right, during the volleyball team’s trip with Adopt-a-Block.

Community Council emphasizes collaboration

By Nika Madyoon

Members of this year’s Community Council have made it their mission to unify the student body. However, they do not seek to obliterate the variety of interests that characterizes the school community. Rather, the 20 student members will use these specific interests to bring the community together, taking Peer Support enthusiasts and baseball players alike and turning them all into active philanthropists.

This year’s members have adopted a methodology focused on targeting specific groups on campus. They hope to encourage a unique intra-activity bonding experience while making positive changes to the greater community, said Matthew Wolfen ’12, one of the three heads of Community Council.

Richard Polo ’12 is the head responsible for coordinating these “group” events.

“We’re trying to help people see how interested they can become in community service,” said Ryan Lash ’12, another leader and the council’s Public Relations officer.

Head of School Jeanne Huybrechts created Community Council three years ago after the former Director of Community Service, Jan Stewart, left the school.

Community Council members have always been divided into smaller subsets. Lash said this pairing up of juniors and seniors is intended to acclimate new students and guide them through the stages of conceptualizing, planning and successfully completing an event.

Some changes have been made over the years. At first, members were assigned specific causes. As it currently stands, they are free to plan events as they please, whether they are open to cam-

“

My personal goal is to someday make community service so meaningful at Harvard-Westlake that there is no need for a requirement.”

—Father J. Young Chaplain

pus-wide participation or for a specific group. In its first year, the council was run exclusively by Chaplain J. Young and Director of Student Affairs Jordan Church, the current faculty advisers.

Now, the designated student leaders have positions of reasonable authority, and this year the council functions in a “classroom-style” fashion, with the heads present to handle the concerns of other members, Lash said.

The majority of students fulfill their service requirement, half a day of hands-on service with a minimum of three other members of the school community, by participating in Community Council events. Wolfen, who oversees day-to-day pursuits and the members’ progress, said about 25 percent of students meet the requirement through outside organizations.

Head Prefect Rishi Bagrodia ’12, who is organizing an event with the council that will involve the Chess Club teaching children in downtown to play chess, appreciates the council’s role in the school community.

“It gets us involved in the things we’re most passionate about,” he said.

Not all students fulfill the requirement through Community Council events.

nathanson ’s/chronicle

“There are other causes that I want to dedicate my time to that are not offered here,” Gabi Kuhn ’12 said.

Participation with some organizations has been regular due to the popularity of past events. Kids Enjoy Exercise Now events, for example, have become common.

Other events have drawn large numbers simply because people choose to leave the requirement for the last minute. An Operation Gratitude event at the end of last year was the largest in Community Council history, with a total of 96 students participating.

“My personal goal is to some day make community service so meaningful at Harvard-Westlake that there is no need for a requirement,” Young said.

Regardless of the particular causes that members of Community Council dedicate time to, all share a sincere devotion to positively impacting the community.

“It’s an important part of growing up and learning to appreciate what you have,” Community Council member Jessica Barzilay ’12 said.

“My parents really emphasized that we could give back,” Wolfen said. “I think it would be great if every student on campus could experience that.”

A charter school in memory of Gabriella Axelrad, who attended seventh grade at HarvardWestlake before being killed in an accident, is looking for students to volunteer as math tutors for elementary school students.

This summer, Jacob Axelrad ’10, Reyna Calderon ’12, Katie Dewitt ’00, Jack Petok ’11, Allana Rivera ’13 and Parker Thomas ’12 helped prepare students at the Gabrielle Charter School for the Independent School Entrance Exam and arranged a preparation book donation.

However, the school just recently created a math club, allowing for a new service opportunity.

Liza Bercovici (Joe ’00, Jacob ’10) founded the Gabriella Charter School in 2005 in memory of her daughter Gabriella, who died in 1999 when she was struck by a vehicle while riding her bike in a national park.

The Gabriella Axelrad Education Foundation was originally opened as a dance program, “Everybody Dance!”

Volunteers will work with about 40 math club members on a variety of problems and participate in competitions.

They will be needed every Friday afternoon from 3 to 5 p.m. at the school’s campus in Echo Park.

“Having visited the campus last year, I can say that Gabriella Charter School is one of the most inspirational places I’ve ever been, and I hope some students decide to get involved,” Upper School Dean Beth Slattery said. “It will be absolutely transformational for them.”

Many Harvard-Westlake families have been involved with the Gabriella Charter School, but Harvard-Westlake has only recently formed a closer relationship with the school in the last year.

Jenny Diaz ’96 will run the new math club and students interested have been encouraged to contact her directly. Students do not need to apply and the school is hoping for at least two or three volunteers to help out.

—Maddy Baxter

soundbytes Salamandra warns homecoming party planners

By Judd Liebman

“It’s not like they went out investigating. Someone told them about it, and they got involved. What else were they supposed to do?”

—Graham Cairns ’12

“I don’t think it’s necessary for the administration to get involved in student affairs outside of school. If we’re irresponsible, we know the consequences. It’s up to us as individuals to make those decisions.”

—Autumn Chiklis ’12

“I understand why they would be worried after Semiformal, but they shouldn’t get involved with things that happen outside of school.”

—Taylor Cooper ’13

A parent sent Head of Upper School Harry Salamandra a copy of a Facebook message using the phrases “B.Y.O.B.” and “don’t puke,” alerting him of the possibility of a Homecoming after party. A group of five seniors planned an event in the weeks before Homecoming but cancelled it the day before the party.

Salamandra was under the impression that there would be alcohol at the event, so he called the hosts’ parents to ensure they knew their children were planning a party with teen drinking, he said. These calls were made before Salamandra talked to the event planners themselves.

“I didn’t like the parent involvement,” said one of the planners who requested anonymity. “I thought that was very unprofessional. I think Salamandra could have contacted us first, and that could have cleared up a lot of things. Parents were thinking it was a lot worse than it actually was.”

After the students’ parents told them about the calls, the hosts met

with Salamandra, who had mistakenly associated a separate party with their event. Salamandra warned them of the safety concerns of hosting such a large party.

“You don’t have control over the individuals at the party,” Salamandra said. “If they were your friends and they were doing something you don’t approve of, you can stop them. But if they’re people you don’t really know, then it’s different.”

Three planners said Salamandra never pressured them to shut down the party but was concerned for students’ overall safety.

“We feel responsible for students’ well-being even if they aren’t on campus,” Salamandra said.

Making a decision with limited information was difficult, Salamandra said, so he resorted to his experience with similar issues.

“Our students have been responsible with drinking and driving,” he said. “However, I can’t guarantee that’s how it’s always going to be. From what I know and what I have read, teenagers unfortunately end up making unwise

choices sometimes. If I hadn’t contacted those people, then would it have been a big deal? Maybe not. Maybe it would have gone on, and we would not have even heard about it, [but] it had the potential to be problematic.”

“There was some thinking that maybe we cancelled the party,” Head of School Jeanne Huybrechts said. “We can’t cancel a private party. Our role was simply to inform families that this was happening and we had concerns about it.”

Another event planner said administrators had an underlying message regarding disciplinary action in the context of the college process.

“The school would say things like, ‘it would be a shame for something bad to happen during the college process...,’” a planner said.

The event planners ended up cancelling the party because it was getting too large and their parents pressured them to do so.

“I’m glad we didn’t let our egos get involved and fight the school because that wouldn’t have ended up good for anyone,” a planner said.

The Chronicle

A10 News

Oct. 19, 2011

Alum enters packed 2013 mayoral race

By David Lim

Los Angeles City Council President Eric Garcetti ’88 announced his candidacy for mayor on Sept. 8 to replace term-limited incumbent Antonio Villaraigosa in the March 2013 election.

Garcetti, who has represented the 13th District since 2001, has entered a race that has become increasingly crowded early on with three of the nine declared candidates currently elected officials.

Harvard-Westlake parent Austin Beutner (Austin Jr. ’14) resigned as deputy mayor before declaring in April that he would run for mayor.

Garcetti said that he did not plan to go into politics “until the day [he] decided to run for city council.”

“I always knew I wanted to bring about a more just and analytical world,” Garcetti said. “I thought I might do it internationally. I thought I might do it in government or non-profits, but I probably didn’t think that I’d do it in local government. Maybe when I look back, all the things I learned [at Harvard School] led me there, but it wasn’t a conscious plan, it was more of a decision at the moment it felt right.”

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

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

After he graduated from Harvard School, Garcetti went on to study at Columbia where he received his B.A. in urban planning and political science and later an M.A. in International Relations. He was also studied at Oxford University and the London School of Economics as a Rhodes Scholar.

In his senior year at Harvard School, Garcetti was elected a prefect in charge of the eighth grade class. At the time, prefects were all seniors and oversaw a single grade, said Head of Upper School Harry Salamandra, who supervised Garcetti and the other prefects as Dean of Students.

“I remember very much getting in some good fights and getting some ad-

Comparing Evacuations Construction has changed evacuation routes around campus for different scenarios. In the case of a:

Shooter Do not evacuate to the field Barricade yourself in classroom Get off campus if you can safely Construction should evacuation plan

not

affect

Natural Disaster Students meet on field

Construction makes evacuation to the field difficult from Seaver Driveway is the only option for evacuation SOURCE: MARK GEIGER GRAPHIC BY: LAUREN SONNENBERG

PRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF GARCETTI FOR MAYOR 2013

ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL: Eric Garcetti ‘88, center, attends a fundraiser for his mayoral campaign, which vice,” Garcetti said of his relationship with Salamandra as a prefect. “When I was there, you had to wear collared shirts, and you couldn’t wear jeans. I think you can wear t-shirts and jeans at Harvard-Westlake because of our work.”

Salamandra also sponsored the Amnesty International Club in which Garcetti was involved.

“Social sciences were really his forte and interest from what I recall,” Salamandra said. “I wasn’t really surprised he got into politics because even something like Amnesty is social issues. He seemed to always care, and this was obviously who he was as a person. He was a caring, altruistic-kind of person.”

History teacher David Waterhouse had Garcetti as a senior during his first year teaching Advanced Placement United States Government and Politics and also as a junior in AP United States History.

Waterhouse recalls a recent conversation he had with his former student at an alumni event. “[Garcetti] said he developed his love for politics and government from my classes, and I said, ‘You must have gotten it from your father,’ and [Garcetti] said, ‘No, my father really wasn’t very political.’ At that time, when he was high school, I think his father was an assistant district attorney and supposedly had no political aspirations,” Waterhouse said.

Garcetti’s father, Gil Garcetti,

launched on Sept. 8. Garcetti faces a competitive election to replace term-limited incumbent Antonio Villaraigosa in 2013.

“I always knew I wanted to bring about a more just and analytical world...but I probably didn’t think that I’d do it in local government.”

—Eric Garcetti ‘88 Candidate for LA Mayor 2013 PRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF GARCETTI FOR MAYOR 2013

served as Los Angeles County’s District Attorney from 1992 to 2000. “[Garcetti] says that was when he really got interested in politics and government, and the rest is history,” Waterhouse said.

Waterhouse’s impact on Garcetti extended outside of the classroom as well, Garcetti said.

“He was somebody who really encouraged us to look at the world around us, locally, statewide, nationally and internationally,” Garcetti said. “[Waterhouse] really encouraged us to get involved in community service, which was a defining thing in my childhood, whether it was doing cleanup Tree People up the street, learning about the environment, or something called the downtown project, working with the homeless to feed them and help them get off the streets.”

Garcetti also got to know Waterhouse during political discussions at lunch as part of the Junior Statemen of America Club. Junior Statemen of America is a national organization

where members debate political issues and run for election at conventions.

“It was the first year I did it, when Eric was probably a junior and I was just floored by the fact that Eric would just get up there, basically the moment we walked into the building, or the hotel,” Waterhouse said.

“I was still looking around and trying to figure out what was going on and the next thing I know [Garcetti’s] up there speaking on some subject, with no hesitation whatsoever in front of a couple hundred people,” he said. “You could see that he liked to talk to the people and that he had his opinions on things and that he was really outgoing, a leader type.”

Looking back at his days at Harvard, Garcetti recalls in particular an assembly at which then-mayor Tom Bradley spoke.

“I’ll never forget that day, and I never would have dreamed I would be in the position to be one of his successors, to be in the same place,” Garcetti said.

Construction affects campus evacuation plans Continued from page A1

an emergency.

“The kids who have been through CERT training, they’re going to be sprinkled throughout campus,” Geiger said. “[Students] will be able to help each other until help gets there.”

Geiger said that he and other members of the security team have had to consider the worst-case scenario in the event of a natural disaster.

One of his concerns is that the main driveway from the Seaver Academic Center could be blocked off.

“You look at what happens if one of those trees fall,” Geiger said. “You have

to consider power lines, and if there are any power poles that if they fell, could be in a position to block the roadway.”

“Especially if we have that big nathanson ’s/chronicle earthquake, we Mark Geiger don’t really know what’s going to happen,” he said. “We don’t know if all the codes and standards are set up and if they’re going to hold. The potential for broken glass or pieces of a building breaking off, it’s there.”

Other than a fire or earthquake, another emergency situation would be in the case of a shooter on campus.

Unlike most emergencies, Geiger said that students will not be advised to go to the field, but rather to leave campus and seek safety.

As a result, Geiger said that the blocked evacuation routes wouldn’t have as much of an effect. When a shooter is on campus, the main objective would be to avoid the shooter, rather than go to a specific location.

“Active shooter situations are the one emergency where we don’t evacuate to the field,” Geiger said. “If you can do it safely, get off campus.”

Oct. 19, 2011

chronicle.hw.com

Teachers adjust to change in course loads

By Rebecca Nussbaum

First quarter is when students adjust to new teachers, subjects and schedules. But the changes are not limited to students.

On the other side of the desk, many teachers are adjusting to new courses.

Upper School Science Department Head Larry Axelrod teaches a period of chemistry after teaching only Adanced Placement Biology for three years. Although his dozen plus years of teaching chemistry prevented him from having to prepare much this summer, the switch still comes with its challenges, he said.

“What makes it harder for me is simply to go back, and having not looked at [the material] in three years, it’s more of a matter of timing,” Axelrod said. “Making sure I’m putting up a schedule out there that I can follow so students can complete units within the time frame they’re supposed to.”

After teaching sophomores and juniors for 14 years, English teacher Jeremy Michaelson is now teaching seniors in two AP English Literature classes. He requested the switch because he said he was ready for a change.

Unlike Axelrod, who had to do very little to prepare, Michaelson spent his summer reading the books he will teach in AP Literature.

“I’ve read all these books in the past, but some of them I haven’t read in quite a while,” he said. “Most of my summer was reading and rereading and prepping the whole darn curriculum.”

The other AP Literature teachers helped smooth Michaelson’s transition

by sharing their material and notes on the books, he said.

For an English teacher, one of the biggest challenges of teaching new books is not having carefully refined lesson plans, Michaelson said.

“There’s a little extra stress that goes along with that, but then again that’s what’s exciting about it, in some way discovering the literature for the first time and getting the kind of command that one gets when one is forced to teach it,” he said.

In addition to being excited about teaching new books, Michaelson looks forward to switching age groups and teaching seniors.

“They don’t have the shyness that comes with dealing with the Upper School for the first time,” he said. “It’s a little harder to draw sophomores out of themselves. With seniors, I feel like I’m crashing their party.”

However, Michaelson anticipates teaching seniors will have its difficulties.

The college process puts pressure on first quarter grades, which is at odds with English teachers’ tendency to start the year with high standards and allow students to work their way up to meet them over the year.

“If you teach seniors you have to be aware of that, and you have to figure out how you’re going to deal with that,” he said. “That’s another source of a little anxiety for me.”

Additionally, Michaelson worries about keeping the attention of notoriously disinterested second semester seniors.

“I may have to set aside something that I really want to teach because I don’t think it will be as immediately

News A11

NIKA MADYOON/CHRONICLE

TIME TO TAKE NOTES: Upper school physics teacher Joe Dangerfield from Eton College in England explains circular motion to his AP Physics B class. accessible or as engaging as something that I think is required at that point in the year,” he said. “I’m giving careful thought to what I’m going to teach, hoping to keep the seniors with me.”

Physics teacher Joe Dangerfield from Eton College in England traded places with physics teacher Karen Hutchinson this year, and although he taught an equivalent course to AP Physics B at Eton, there are still discrepancies between the two physics courses.

In Physics B, students come into class having already been exposed to the day’s lesson through podcasts and reading assignments, allowing most of class time to be devoted to practicing problems and clarifying concepts.

This is different from the more traditional lecture in class and practice at home style that Eton uses, Dangerfield said.

“That shift in emphasis in how the course is delivered and the expectations

of what the students can achieve were quite different than the equivalent course at home,” he said.

Dangerfield started preparing to teach the course over the summer by talking to Hutchinson and exchanging tips, he said.

“I spoke to people over the summer, and I did the reading in advance, but until you get to a place and see how it all fits together, you just don’t know,” he said.

Now that the year has begun, Dangerfield has found that much of the adjustment has to be done in the classroom. He spent the first few weeks of school familiarizing himself with the new teaching culture, and although he is more comfortable now, he is still adjusting, he said.

Like Michaelson, he finds the team teaching style helpful because he gets tips from teachers who have taught the course before and are teaching the same material at the same time.

Alumna writes fiction novel about Sept. 11 memorial

By Lara Sokoloff

In her seventh grade Westlake English class, Amy Waldman ’87 was asked to rewrite Harper Lee’s “To Kill a M o c k i n g b i r d ,” PIETER M. VAN HATTERN putting all of the Amy Waldman ’87 children in the book on the jury.

Other than a college fiction writing class, this was the last time she had written fiction before publishing her first novel, “The Submission.”

Waldman’s “The Submission,” which was released in mid-August, details a controversy that arises when an anonymous competition to design 9/11 memorials is won by an American Muslim.

Waldman was inspired by the controversy that erupted after AsianAmerican Maya Lin was chosen to design the Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial, she said.

“It got me thinking what the equivalent would be for 9/11,” she said.

“It’s just an interesting way into a lot of questions about whether America should change in response to being attacked, how it should change and who should be considered fully American.”

Before writing her first novel, Waldman was a journalist for the New York Times and The Atlantic.

Waldman said the career change was challenging, but liberating.

“It took a few years,” she said. “An idea does not make a novel. So I had to build a story, characters and a plot. It was a lot of trial and error and a lot of writing scenes that didn’t make it into the book. A lot of learning by doing.It’s really fun because you don’t have to be bound by the facts. It’s very much about how [the characters] would

think about these issues and going deeper and deeper into their heads.

As a journalist, you’re reliant on what people tell you, whereas a novelist, you’re inventing it.”

Waldman said much of her facility in writing and confidence to pursue her interests began at Westlake School. Speech and Debate teacher King Schofield particularly influenced Waldman’s career choices, teaching her to think critically and look at an issue from all sides.

Westlake teacher Hari Vishwanathan assigned her to attend a meeting of Vietnam veterans and then write about it, one of the first steps of Waldman becoming a journalist, she said.

“A lot of people are surprised that after having the idea for the novel, I actually pursued it and wrote it, and sort of switched careers in a way,” Waldman said. “Some of that confidence just came out of Westlake, the sense that if you work at something, you can do it.”

English teacher Lisa Rado has chosen to teach Waldman’s “The Submission” in a book club she moderates. Rado said she wanted to read a novel about 9/11 in honor of the 10 year anniversary, and chose “The Submission” because of Waldman’s deft handling of contradictory yet compelling viewpoints, she said.

“The scenario she writes about feels very real, and some of the book club members had to remind themselves that what they were reading was a fictionalized event,” Rado said.

“Waldman really has taken the pulse of a historical moment and challenges her readers to imagine the ways in which the signature event of the 21st century has fundamentally changed what it means to be an American.”

Waldman is currently working on her second novel in New York.

Chronicle The Harvard-Westlake

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Managing Editors: Eli Haims, Allison Hamburger, Austin Lee, Saj Sri-Kumar Executive Editors: Justine Goode, Rebecca Nussbaum Presentations Editors: Chloe Lister, Arielle Maxner, Victor Yoon

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The Chronicle • Oct. 19, 2011

A12

pinion Los Angeles • Volume XXI • Issue II

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News Managing Editors: Maddy Baxter, Nika Madyoon Section Heads: David Lim, Keane Robertson, Michael Sugerman News Copy Editor: Ana Scuric Assistants: Julia Aizuss, Beatrice Fingerhut, Jivani Gengatharan, Jack Goldfisher, Claire Goldsmith, Lauren Sonnenberg, Noa Yadidi Opinion Managing Editors: Abbie Neufeld, Anabel Pasarow Section Heads: Mariel Brunman, Rachel Schwartz Opinion Copy Editor: Ana Scuric Opinion Assistants: Sarah Novicoff, Lizzy Thomas Features Managing Editors: Cami de Ry, Megan Kawasaki Features Section Heads: Michael Rothberg, Megan Ward, Elana Zeltser Features Copy Editor: Carrie Davidson Features Assistants: Eojin Choi, Sydney Foreman, Eric Greenberg, David Gisser, Jessica Lee, Jessica Murdock, Morganne Ramsey, Emily Segal, Lauren Siegel Science & Health Editor: Jessica Barzilay Science & Health Section Head: Gabrielle Franchina Centerspread Editors: Caitie Benell, Jamie Chang Arts & Entertainment Editor: Claire Hong Arts & Entertainment Section Heads: Maggie Bunzel, Aaron Lyons Sports Managing Editors: David Kolin, Julius Pak Section Heads: Michael Aronson, Luke Holthouse, Camille Shooshani Sports Copy Editor: Robbie Loeb Senior Sportswriter: Charlton Azuoma Assistants: Eric Loeb, Grant Nussbaum, Patrick Ryan, Lucy Putnam, Sam Sachs Chronicle.hw.com Editors in Chief Eli Haims, Austin Lee Online Editors: David Gobel, Alex Gura, Sanjana Kucheria, Chelsea Khakshouri, Cherish Molezion, Shana Saleh, Meagan Wang, Susan Wang Online Assistants: Mazelle Etessami, Jensen Pak, Malanna Wheat Adviser: Kathleen Neumeyer The Chronicle is the student newspaper of HarvardWestlake School. It is published eight times per year.

Unsigned editorials represent the majority opinion of the seniors on the Editorial Board. Letters to the editor may be submitted to chronicle@hw.com or mailed to 3700 Coldwater Canyon, Studio City, CA 91604. Letters must be signed and may be edited for space and to conform to Chronicle style and format.

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Make your mark, but not with Sharpie

“Make your mark,” Head of School Jeanne Huybrechts asked of us, and we knew what she meant. Get involved. Make a change. Do something that will be remembered. Encouraging graffiti was obviously not her intention, and we know that. So what validates the elaborate permanent marker graffiti drawn on the lunch tables last week?

There were no obscenities, but that’s not what this is about. Among goofy heads, an octopus and toast, the most rebellious image was that of three familiar words, underlined in red: “Make your mark.”

The doodles were well-drawn enough to be considered works of art, if drawn on paper, that is. It would be nice to give the artists the benefit of the doubt, to accept that maybe they just weren’t thinking through their actions. We do currently lack a public artistic outlet, and it is not unreasonable to ask for one. The problem is, they didn’t ask. Art became vandalism.

The act was not only illegal, but also violated common decency.

Maintenance workers had to take the time to paint over the tables, doing extra, avoidable work. After so many years of being in an environment that celebrates morality, it should be

second nature for us to anticipate the consequences of our actions. Taking 20 minutes to draw a distinctive octopus was not just mindless scribbling. Pen in hand, the drawers either couldn’t see the implications or chose to ignore them. Which is worse, oblivion or malice?

In a community deeply rooted in honor, it was shocking to see such a petty method of rebellion.

In every respect, the school sets high but attainable standards for us. The majority of the time, we willingly step up and accept those challenges. The school may teach us to be respectful, but we are the ones who accept the lesson and put it into action. That’s why the Honor Code works. Witnessing a group of peers’ inconsiderate actions that contradicted those deeply rooted ideals just felt wrong.

Graffiti seldom appears on wooden

desks or bathroom stalls, but the rarity makes this isolated incident no less inappropriate. Even if we sometimes take our beautiful, clean campus for granted, we truly are lucky. So let’s keep it the way it is.

Vandalizing it hurts everyone, no matter if pencil, pen or permanent ink is used.

This is not the first time the school motto has been ridiculed. But once school property was defaced, harmless mocking escalated to outright disrespect.

The tables were repainted within a few days, but the mark had already been made. Just a single hand wrote Huybrechts’ words on the table, and that alone associated the rest of the graffiti with the phrase. The student body could have taken the high road, just chosen to accept the intended meaning of the motto, but we didn’t.

And it only takes one.

Prefects, communicate with the students Candidates in prefect elections run on the platform that they are approachable and will listen to our ideas. But listening isn’t enough. We elect prefects to link the student body to the administration and to bring our proposals to fruition, but they cannot fulfill this duty without actively seeking out our opinions and ideas.

The prefects recently proposed that teachers suggest a five minute meeting with their students during first quarter. The prefects claim this proposal will help facilitate better communication throughout the year, but 41.2% of students polled said this idea will not affect them because they already meet with their teachers.

This policy would only affect 18.9% of students polled who said they do not meet with teachers, but would feel encouraged to meet with them, were this policy enfiorced.

It wastes the Faculty Academic Committee’s time to present ideas to them that don’t necessarily have the support of the student body.

We elect the prefects to represent

us, to represent our ideas. They cannot do this without soliciting our involvement. Perhaps a student could complain to a prefect, but this would seem whiney and ultimately ineffective for a minor yet valuable goal.

It is not enough for the prefects to only bring their ideas to FAC. They need to start showing the administration the students’ ideas, ideas that they need to actively collect.

The Prefect Council recently polled students about their favorite restaurants near campus, but the polls should not be limited to the Prefect Council’s ideas. The sentiment of the poll is what the Prefect Council

should strive to do, but on a broader scale.

Town hall meetings, open to any topic or concern, could fix this issue. A forum which would allow students to present their ideas to their representatives and prefects to show students what they have been working on. Even if no consensus is reached, these gatherings would get students, prefects and by extension, the administration, to collaborate more effectively.

We elect our prefects based on ideas they have before their terms even begin, and this is the extent of the students’ involvement in getting our ideas implemented. The constituents are calling for a change.

chronicle.hw.com

Oct. 19, 2011

Opinion A13

By Rebecca Nussbaum

It’s tough breaking habits

F

all wins the award for best-named season. Sure it’s when the leaves fall, but beyond that, it’s when we fall. After spending the summer exploring new jobs, internships and countries, we fall helplessly back into routine. With fall comes the start of the school year, but after the excitement of new classes wears off, I look around and see that I’m in the same place. I have the same friends, I eat the same lunches from the cafeteria and I have the same study habits. Instead of ignoring my United States history reading, I’m not doing art history reading. Big whoop.

Humans are creatures of habit. It’s a cliché because it’s true. In a study published in “Science,” the academic journal for the American Association for the Advancement of Science, physicist AlbertLászló Barabási studied the movement of 50,000 anonymous mobile phone users.

After collecting enough data, he could predict a person’s location at any time with 93 percent accuracy. AOL News summarized the study well: “We are predictable even when we don’t have to be.”

“We are all boring,” Barabási said.

A few weeks ago I epitomized one of the 50,000 “boring” people in Barabási’s study. I’d overslept and was running a bit late but decided to try grabbing coffee.

I ran into Starbucks and was greeted by a happy surprise—in the glass case of baked goods were pumpkin scones, and the chalkboard announced the return of the Pumpkin Spice Latte. My frantic energy melted away as I stared contentedly at the new choices available. So, I went up to the cashier and ordered my usual grande iced coffee.

Rewind. Why did I order iced coffee?

I was so excited to see the pumpkin latte on the menu, yet it didn’t even occur to me to order it. By the time the barista made my drink, I grabbed it, embarrassed by my mundane order, and speedwalked to my car.

I’m still embarrassed that I didn’t order that latte. It’s about lifestyle more than the form of my morning caffeine. I learned that my instinct is to stick with what I know.

Breaking a habit takes conscious effort, but it’s something that I will think about from now on. I’ll beat Barabási by being spontaneous not seven percent of the time like the rest of the population... maybe eight.

RACHEL SCHWARTZ/CHRONICLE

Take a look outside our bubble

By Abbie Neufeld

L

ast weekend, when Al Gore called the recent “Occupy X” protests a “primal scream of democracy,” I couldn’t help but recall something I heard last Monday night at school. As I emerged from Peer Support, I saw a group of students huddled and heard what I could only describe as a “primal scream.” While I do not know this group’s reason for screaming, I couldn’t help but wonder: what if this energy had actually been directed toward something? What if, like these “occupy” protestors, these students had been attempting to improve our world? While I often hear people complain about their problems at school, I rarely hear anyone venting about the world beyond our gates.

There are school policies in place that attempt to make us informed and involved citizens of the world; news quizzes await underclassmen each week, and all upper school students are required to complete half a day of community service. While these are valid attempts, I cannot help but see them as half-hearted.

Does reading a couple of newspapers and volunteering for four hours a year create a person who wants

to be informed and involved for life?

Rather, they seem to create students who grudgingly read the news and students who see community service as a four hour requirement that they may or may not complete before the deadline.

Not to say that all students are apathetic. Sure, there are a few students who consistently read the news of their own accord, and a few who consistently volunteer for organizations like Teen Line. But how many of these students are one and the same? Being informed and being involved goes hand in hand.

Should we act without caring, or care without acting?

A friend recently told me he was taking Adcanved Placement United States Government because he wanted to learn more about the system and the issues, as he would be able to vote in the next election. But what about the rest of the seniors, almost all of whom will also be voting? Will they actually know or care about what they are voting for? Will they even care enough to vote?

And although there is not a quick fix to make people want to be informed and involved, it seems that the policies already in place could

Lessons from Steve: ‘Don’t be trapped by dogma’

I

be improved. Instead of a half-day community service requirement, couldn’t a system of continual service learning be implemented — a system that requires people to think about what they just did, even through a discussion, as we are already required to volunteer with members of the school community?

Students here are busy, but even a requirement that takes the same amount of hours on more than one occasion would serve a better purpose. Going back to the same volunteer job would show students that the work they did mattered, and would make students more likely to go back again, without being required to. Couldn’t there be some type of required civics program at the Upper School? There could be a project and/or a discussion that would help students care about more than just facts for a quiz. This could even take place bi-monthly in history classes and replace the time spent on weekly news quizzes.

As a school we have achieved and continue to strive for national excellence in many fields. Can’t being informed and involved students be something we strive for excellence in too?

In the wake of his death, Steve Jobs has been nothing short of deified and recast as a legend of our time. Yet his impact on my life has been a lot more personal.

By David Lim

encountered my first “magical” Apple product almost 11 years ago as a kindergartener walking into a room full of shiny blue iMacs at my elementary school.

The only computer I had known before in my life was my parents’ monolithic block of a Dell that stood in the corner of the living room, occasionally coming to life with the cranky tunes of a dialup modem. I mostly stayed away from it. There really is only so much entertainment Microsoft Word can offer. But the toy-like iMacs at school seemed a lot friendlier and approachable, and with the first click, I headed off into the golden days of my early childhood: avoiding cholera on the Oregon Trail, shooting at pterodactyls in Nanosaur, making new artistic masterpieces on KidPix and perhaps even learning how to type a word or two from the always friendly Mavis Beacon.

Two weeks ago, the man responsi-

ble for iMacs as well as the iPad I am currently typing this column on died.

Obituaries landed on the front page of newspapers across the country and praised him for an unmatchable number of hit products, all prefixed by a lowercase “i”. Television specials aired portraying the inspirational story of his return to Apple 20 years after he had been cast out from the company he had started when he was 21. Facebook was flooded with statuses of his most obscure philosophical musings.

In the wake of his death, Steve Jobs has been nothing short of deified and recast as a legend of our time. Yet his impact on my life has been a lot more personal. Jobs took technology, once only usable by the technological elite, and turned it into accessible consumer product. He did not invent the decades of technological innovations that made his products possible, but invented the notion that a tech

product could shape our lives.

Although rows of computers with Windows 7 grace our school, iPods and iPhones fill the pockets and backpacks of students at Harvard-Westlake and are even used for audiobooks in the library. We fill our personal devices with every element of our lives, from the music that we listen to to the websites we check up on to the iHW app that keeps us going from class to class.

Jobs was never the philanthropist Bill Gates became after his retirement from Microsoft. Jobs was a demanding, tyrannical boss whose employees avoided encounters with on the elevator, fearing exacting critiques of their work. Jobs even falsely denied under oath the paternity of his out-ofwedlock daughter. He later reconciled with his daughter when she was a teenager and paid for her education at Harvard.

His human failings do not make

him any less of an icon or an inspirational force to us all.

We all see a little of ourselves in the legacy Jobs has left behind or, at least, can aspire to his ideals. He is the outcast turned into the comeback kid, the relentless perfectionist dedicated exclusively to his work, the fearless innovator and even the jerk, who eventually came to terms with his mistakes.

Jobs was a man of his work and he has inspired us all to do what we love and what we do as he said himself: “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

The Chronicle

A14 Opinion

Oct. 19, 2011

There is no place to focus anymore

By Megan Ward

I

AUSTIN LEE/CHRONICLE

Teach us how to build

By Chloe Lister

Students truly dedicated to studying architecture in high school have to find ways to learn about it outside the official visual arts curriculum.

I

t’s no mystery that HarvardWestlake has many visual arts art classes to choose from. Students can develop and print black and white film, stretch canvases, edit films and spin themselves a pot, given they’ve taken the right course.

There’s even a Directed Study to pursue glass as a medium for sculpture. However, within this wide range of choices is a puzzling gap: Harvard-Westlake does not offer an architecture class. Architectural Design used to be an art elective offered to juniors and seniors, another option for students who didn’t want to go from Drawing and Painting I to Drawing and Painting II. The class was taught by former visual arts teacher Carl Wilson. When he retired in 2006 after 36 years at the school, his architecture class was removed from the curriculum because none of the other faculty members were proficient enough in architecture to take over the class.

The closest courses to Architectural Design the school currently offers are technical theater classes, where students builld sets for performances and help with set design. This is not the focus of the class, though.

Students are taught those building techniques only as they

apply to theater, not real skills required to go into architecture.

Students truly dedicated to studying architecture in high school have to find ways to learn about it outside the official visual arts curriculum.

For example, Luna Ikuta ’11 took an architecture course the summer before her senior year as part of the Otis College of Art and Design’s Summer of Art program, and is now studying to be an architecture major at the Rhode Island School of Design.

Jackson Foster ’11 was also interested in studying architecture in high school, although he does not plan on studying it in college. Foster chose to pursue his interest through an Independent Study he did his senior year with set designer Alex Kolmanovsky, where he designed a sustainable house.

In this Independent Study, Foster not only had to learn and utilize the art and design aspects of architecture, but also the skills in math and science.

However, it is difficult for H-W students to make time for architecture in their already hectic lives.

With students so dedicated to studying the subject, the school can hardly say that there is a lack of interest in the class.

So why make it so hard for them?

t’s 6:15 p.m. on a Tuesday when I sit down to begin my homework. I am positioned at my desk, diligently attempting to solve the math problems ahead of me.

Suddenly, my phone vibrates and dings noisily to signify a new text message.

I check the message: it’s my friend telling me to check out a sweet new remix of a song. I craft a witty response under 160 characters and grab my laptop.

I pull up YouTube and insist that I will only be using my MacBook to listen to this song and maybe some quiet music...

It’s now 11:38 p.m.

I finally end one of my many conversations on Facebook complaining about how much work I have to do and actually close my computer to finish my work. In the next two and a half hours, I groggily half read my work and hope my answers are coherent in the morning.

At 6:15 a.m., the clock radio screams at me from across the room.

I get up and hit snooze one last time before dragging myself out of bed. I am tired and use my exhaustion as an excuse for the rest of the day. I vow to never put myself through another night like that again.

I resolve to work in the library after school, thinking optimistically that for a few hours, I can focus without distraction.

However, for our generation, the distraction is almost unavoidable.

We are constantly tempted; our phones are always glued to our sides and our computers sit glowing in front of us.

With one click we can refresh our Facebook newsfeed to “stalk” another girl’s photo album.

We can comment on a clever link someone has posted, stream a funny video of a dog on a skateboard or tweet about how delicious our panini tasted and contemplate a clever hash tag to show how witty we are.

These constant distractions can be avoided by shutting off our phones and computers.

But what happens when even our quiet place at school fails to provide the setting we require for a focused environment?

The students who flood the halls now have less of a capability to produce acceptable work in a timely manner, and subsequently are forced to work harder at home after their after school commitments. This pushes back the amount of sleep a person can get in before the next day.

This is what has happened with the library this year and has made me observe the changing attitude of the students.

All too often I have heard friends complaining of their lack of sleep and their inability to focus at school. From the moment we begin seventh grade, we are taught the importance of time management.

Yes, some nights we all can become distracted and fail to finish our homework.

This year, however, it is even more difficult to accomplish our tasks at school because there is less space for us to work.

Yes, the silent study is available and quiet, but many students do not feel comfortable studying in there.

Some students claim it’s “too quiet,” they don’t like not being able to work with their peers, they think the temperature inside is too cold or they are just intimidated by the space.

I understand that with the massive construction project, there are limited places available to use on campus, but I believe the situation can be alleviated if some classrooms are opened for a study period.

During the day when classes don’t meet, different rooms could be listed in the daily bulletin or outside of the library as “open for study usage”.

People using the classrooms would be trusted to use the room properly and make sure it is left as they found it.

Opening a few rooms might not solve the entire problem, but it could make a difference in relieving the stress and helping more students focus.

There’s help for that app

By Saj Sri-Kumar

T

his is a stressful time for seniors — it goes without saying. With college application deadlines right around the corner and the end of first quarter coming within a matter of days, it’s crunch time.

Even with all of this work, it could be much worse.

We’re all lucky to have a school that is so prepared for the college process, from deans who are always willing to check over an essay for a fifth time to teachers who willingly write college recommendations, even though they get nothing but our thanks in return.

At most public schools and even at some private schools, college counselor offices are understaffed and have to manage a much larger group of students than our deans are tasked with. As a result, students are not nearly as well prepared for writing their essays and don’t have anyone to help them navigate the confusing world of college applications.

Were it not for my dean, I probably would have had a much

poorer understanding of the distinctions between early decision, early action and restricted early action (which, confusingly enough, is less restrictive than early decision).

Without the dean coordinators, I would never have known what to do with the seemingly endless number of school forms that get sent to colleges, from the school report to the final report to the optional grade report… the list goes on.

At many schools without the stellar college matriculation rate that we have, teachers aren’t nearly as experienced in writing college recommendations wouldn’t be able to advocate for students with the same efficacy.

Over the next three months, I realize that the pressure will likely intensify. There are many more applications to finish and many more tests to take.

But even with all of that work ahead of me, it’s comforting to know that the school is doing what it can to make my life more manageable.

chronicle.hw.com

Oct. 19, 2011

quadtalk

Opinion A15

The Chronicle asked:

“What do you think about students using permanent markers to doodle on lunch tables?”

360 students weighed in on the Chronicle poll. They were allowed to select more than one option.

237 160 111 83 78

“‘I think it’s all right. I haven’t even noticed them.”

—Jeffrey Bu ‘12

It is disrespectful to the maintenance staff, who had to clean it up.

“I think it’s a really frowned upon action in the school because it’s vandalism.”

It is inappropriate because it defaces school property.

It doesn’t bother me since the artwork is neither profane nor pornographic.

The doodles allow students to express themselves artistically.

The doodles mock this school year’s motto, “Make Your Mark.”

—Glenne Carter ’14

“It is destruction of property and not smart or respectful.”

—Nicolena Farias-Eisner ‘13 PHOTOS BY MARIEL BRUNMAN AND RACHEL SCHWARTZ

“Should teachers ask students to meet with them briefly at the beginning of the school year to encourage communication?”

“Yes, because it takes a while to build up one-onone communication that allows students to learn what they need to.”

—Connor Pasich ’12

“It would be a good idea because there are a lot of people who don’t see their teachers and it would help them.”

—Rhett Gentile ’13

“If students are having trouble or if they want a meeting, they should have the liberty of settting it up themselves.”

—Rebecca Moretti ’13 PHOTOS BY MARIEL BRUNMAN AND RACHEL SCHWARTZ

reportcard + B A All four varsity teams won their Homecoming games.

359 students weighed in on the Chronicle poll. They were allowed to elect more than one option.

148

I already meet with my teachers, and this would not affect me.

121 107

I already see my teachers, but I would appreciate it if my teacher initiated the first meeting.

68 38 34

These meetings would be awkward and forced.

I don’t see my teachers, and I would feel more comfortable approaching my teachers if they suggested it.

It would waste my or my teacher’s time.

I don’t meet with my teachers, but I think this is unnecessary.

The editorial board of the Chronicle evaluates recent campus developments.

KHWS has grown since its founding last year: now it has over 30 students DJs.

C

Teachers assign homework over mid-semester break.

D+

MiniMudd Library is loud and crowded.

exposure

Oct. 19, 2011

A16

A nd a ll t ha t j a z z

Students, teachers and parents filled the tables and bar at Vibrato Grill in support of the Advanced Jazz Combo, Jazz Explorers and performing arts teacher Shawn Costantino’s band in the first jazz performance of the year.

By Arielle Maxner The Advanced Jazz Combo, Jazz Explorers and upper school performing arts teacher Shawn Costantino’s band performed at Vibrato Grill and Jazz Sunday night.

Much of the audience consisted of fellow students and parents who enjoyed Vibrato’s American cuisine during the performance.

Set to begin at 7 p.m., they began right on time under the ambient lights.

The Advanced Jazz Combo was first, opening with “Tenor Madness” by Sonny Rollins, featuring a saxophone solo

by Brooke Levin ’12 accompanied by Robert Lee ’14 on bass and Max Warwick ’12 on drums. There were guitar solos and a trumpet solo as well as intense drumming and a strong syncopated bass riff, a challenging off-beat

bass line, all met with enthusiastic applause. Members of the combo would casually confer in the middle of their songs, all while keeping up the rhythm.

The Combo performed five songs.

Levin then introduced Costantino’s band. They played a set, starting with a saxophone version of “Can’t Buy Me Love.”

The Jazz Explorers followed, and the audience listened to their first song, “So Near, So Far,” just as dessert was ordered. They drew appreciative murmurs for their second song, George Gershwin’s “Summertime,” featuring a saxophone solo from Bradley Ho ’12.

The combo played an original song by Jake Chapman ’12, in which he doubled instruments, switching from vibes to piano to vibes.

The Explorers closed with “Juju” by Wayne Shorter.

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4

Chloe lister/chronicle

Chloe lister/chronicle

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Chloe lister/chronicle

The right notes: 1, Trumpeter Noah Weinman ’12 holds a long note. 2, The Advanced Jazz Combo plays for the Vibrato diners. 3, Jake Chapman ’12 takes a solo on the vibes. 4, Jazz instructor Shawn Costantino plays saxophone. 5, Jon Alkalai ’12, right, nods at his bandmates. 6, Royce Ryu ’12, Andy Arditi ’14 and Brooke Levin ’12 play in unison. 7, Alkali strums his guitar as Erin Sugarman ’13, Catherine Davis ’13 and Wiley Webb ’12 watch from the audience.

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7 Chloe lister/chronicle

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The Chronicle • Oct. 19, 2011

eatures Los Angeles • Volume XXI • Issue II

GRAPHIC BY HANK GERBA AND ARIELLE MAXNER

The Chronicle

B2 Features

Oct. 19, 2011

PHOTOS BY CAMI DE RY/CHRONICLE

By Lara Sokoloff

Baring it

S

ophomores on the water polo team strutted through the quad during Activities Fair on Monday, Sept. 19, wearing only their Speedos and leaving little up to the imagination.

“If I knew it was going to happen, I would have shut it down,” Head of Upper School Harry Salamandra said.

“It was cute and harmless, but it was important to take advantage of [the moment] and let the coach talk to the kids. It definitely was a real teaching moment.”

Catherine Haber ’12 said she has noticed a change between how people dress this year from how they have dressed in the past.

“Style has changed,” she said. “Crop tops, lace and sheer clothing have definitely become more popular, and there has become less of a difference from what people wear on the weekends and what people wear to school.”

The school’s dress code aims to “create an environment in which all students, teachers and staff feel comfortable,” the Parent-Student Handbook reads. Students are expected to dress in a way that does not distract peers or teachers.

“We view this as their place to get work done, so it’s a work place, a school place,” Salamandra said. “If anybody is wearing anything that is distracting to others in the classroom, then it’s not appropriate.”

“Teachers dress casually, but they

Is a school environment an appropriate place to let it all hang out? Some students appear to think so.

also know what’s professional and what’s not,” Luba Bek, counselor and humanities teacher, said. “How would students feel if teachers came dressed [unprofessionally]? Students have to think of school as a professional environment where you come to learn, and not to show your body parts.”

Due to the lenient nature of the dress code, the responsibility to dress appropriately falls on the students.

“We try to keep the rules to a minimum because we feel that it’s important for each individual to start to establish what is appropriate and what is inappropriate,” Salamandra said. “It’s important for students to start formulating their own set of guidelines to live by.”

Students are encouraged to use their own judgment in most aspects of their school lives, having strict dress guidelines would contradict that, school psychologist Sheila Siegel said.

Some students are not familiar with the specifics outlined in the handbook.

“I know there was [a dress code] at the Middle School that was pretty strict, but I’m not familiar with the one at the Upper School,” Hallie Brookman ’12 said.

Haber also said she was “not at all familiar” with the upper school dress code.

However, upper school dean Jon Wimbish said all upper school students who attended sophomore orientation and their first all-grade class meeting should know the dress code rules.

How much skin is too much skin?

“

The way other people dress doesn’t really affect me. I have more important things to focus on.”

—Jordan Gavens ’12

nathanson’s/chronicle

Salamandra said he had not noticed any change.

“I don’t personally feel that it’s been tremendously more of a problem than it has been in the past, but maybe time will tell,” he said.

Because the dress code does not delineate specific rules, it is more difficult for teachers to enforce it, Bek said.

“The faculty who are comfortable [enforcing the dress code] become the bad guys in the school, which isn’t right because people who are enforcing the rules are just doing their job,” Bek said.

Siegel said some teachers may not feel comfortable addressing a student directly about his or her outfit.

“You might have found a teacher that may not say anything, but they will certainly change their opinion of you,” she said. “Sometimes the choices you make have consequences that you don’t intend.”

Wimbish said he often does not feel comfortable approaching girls about dress code violations.

“As a male teacher or authority figure, if I’m saying to a girl that her cleavage or her tight pants makes me uncomfortable, there’s a kind of defacto sexual connotation in that,” he said. “I’m not comfortable saying that it makes me uncomfortable because it will embarass the girl. It’s going to embarass me. Does that mean I was looking at her in an inappropriate way?

There are all kind of weird feelings mixed up in there.”

Haber said students who dress inappropriately should be spoken to and

asked to change.

“It’s definitely an awkward situation, but it should be done, if not by a male teacher then by a friend,” she said. “Someone should be comfortable enough to say, ‘Hey, maybe you shouldn’t wear that next time.’”

Faculty occasionally discuss student dress, Bek said.

“It’s hard not to talk if you see guys with their entire butt hanging out, or girls with extremely low cut tops and nonexistent shorts,” she said. “But a lot of teachers are not comfortable pointing it out to students. We teach, we don’t monitor the fashion.”

Bek said that by not correcting these violations, the faculty is inadvertently condoning the inappropriate dress.

“For years we’ve been enforcing the lack of decent attire while still saying we want respect,” she said. “That, in my opinion, is just demoralizing.”

Salamandra said the school chose not to outline a clear, strict dress code 21 years ago when Harvard and Westlake schools first merged because administrators did not want to waste teachers’ time by asking them to enforce trivial rules.

“We don’t want to be walking around with a ruler measuring skirts,” Bek said. “I like rules only when people follow them. Otherwise it’s an exerise in futility.”

Despite a lack of enforcement and insufficient advertisement of the dress code, Salamandra said “99 percent of the kids do the right thing.”

Since there is no specific dress code at the Upper School, students’ revealing attire may make teachers and peers uncomfortable.

“

It does distract me, and I have trouble focusing on school work when a girl has barely anything on.”

—Ben Gail ’13

nathanson’s/chronicle

“

When I see guys’ butts because their pants are hanging low, I get uncomfortable.”

—Javier Zaragoza Spanish teacher

nathanson’s/chronicle

The Chronicle

Oct. 19, 2011

G

Support the sole Despite the fashion appeal of shoes like flats, flip-flops and high heels, they don’t provide the necessary support to prevent foot and ankle injury.

By Megan Kawasaki

Science of the Shoes >>Running and tennis shoes help support the arches of the foot, preventing potential injuries: Sturdy heel provides maximum foot support

Arched sole reinforces the foot’s natural curve

>>Shoes such as flats and high heels lack support and can cause arthritis, chronic pain, instability and tendonitis:

Tall heel forces body weight forward, putting pressure on the forefoot

ladiators. Flats. Flip-flops. Wedges. Hightops.

Whatever the name, shoes are a quintessential item in the wardrobe of any high school girl. Looks aside though, the prized shoes of most girls could be hurting their feet in the long run.

“Wearing heels would definitely be pretty difficult when going up these stairs,” Meghan Hartman ’12 said, referring to the numerous stairs that typify the upper school campus.

To combat the unforgiving trudge across the school terrain, she tends to wear lowtop sneakers and flip-flops, practical choices rather than stylistic ones.

“If you’re rushed in the morning like I am, it’s a lot easier to put on a pair of sandals or Converse [sneakers] rather than trying to rummage around for a really cute pair of flats or boots,” Hartman said.

However, Converse sneakers have virtually no support due to their flimsy soles, according to Dr. Jeffrey Hurless, a podiatrist in Thousand Oaks. He advocates shoes that have firm soles, a proper flex point that aligns with where the toes bend, adjustable laces and a strong heel counter at the back of the shoe, which together guarantee foot comfort and support.

Popular shoes such as Converse sneakers do not have those supportive features, but it is perfectly acceptable to wear them with insoles, Hurless said. A poor shoe’s stability can be significantly improved with orthotics, special insoles designed by podiatrists or other kinds of arch support, Hurless said.

Prolonged wear of those casual sneakers without added support often leads to unpleasant ramifications.

“If I walk around Disneyland in Converse [sneakers], at the end of the day, my feet are in so much pain,” Hartman said. “It actually hurts more than if I wore heels.”

Consistently wearing flat shoes can lead to foot and leg pain, according to the American Podiatrical Medical Association, but for people with flat feet, the problems could be more severe.

“If you ignore a flat arch, and continue to wear non-supportive style shoes, you are more susceptible to things like tendon injuries, tendonitis, arthritis, ankle instability and chronic pain,” Hurless said.

Those whose feet are healthy and pain-free have license to wear whatever types of shoes they prefer in moderation, Hurless said. This is not much of a deterrent to students, however, no matter what their feet are like.

“I feel people pick shoes based on fashion rather than function,” Hartman said. “People want to look put-together, so you might opt for the shoe that looks better with the outfit but may not necessarily feel better. Sometimes I sacrifice that little bit of comfort just to

Features B3 look nicer.”

While flat shoes have their vices, wearing fashionable high heels is not much of an improvement, if they broach into heights beyond three inches. Such shoes are considered harmful, because by pushing the body’s center of mass forward, the hips and spine can go out of alignment. The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons claims this uneven distribution of weight can possibly cause physical deformities.

For every inch the heel increases, the more pressure is placed onto the forefoot.

Shorter heels, ones that are less than an inch tall, can actually help support feet.

“A 3/4 inch to an inch [heel] is probably not going to do any damage to anybody from ages 15 to 18,” Hurless said. That’s not that extensive of a heel. It takes some of the tension off of the Achilles tendon.”

“When you’re in a sport, the load and the demand on the foot go up exponentially high,” Hurless said. “Normal humans put about two times their body weight with each walking step. When you go up to a run, five to six times your body weight goes through every single stride.”

For Danni Xia, ’12 a track and cross country runner, taking care of her feet is a major priority. She has flat feet, a relatively common condition in which the arches of the feet collapse, according to the Mayo Clinic. As a result, her ankles tend to turn inward, putting her legs slightly out of alignment. To fix it, she wears Orthotics insoles, specially designed to realign bones and correct the pronation of her feet.

“They really help my feet when I’m running and walking. It’s also really convenient because I don’t have to worry about my feet when I’m in sneakers,” Xia said.

She usually gravitates to her familiar New Balance walking shoes, which fulfill her pressing need for arch support.

Tennis player Alexia Le ’14, however, isn’t too fond of wearing her supportive shoes to school.

Le, who mostly sports Converse and Keds sneakers on campus avoids wearing sandals and believes her avid athleticism might mitigate any potential damage to her feet, she said.

As fashionable it is to wear sandals or flats to school, the potential dangers of such unsupportive shoes in the future are apparent.

“I did a six-hour surgery on a woman with flat feet, and the surgery was to reconstruct her arch because she got to the point where she had so much pain that we had to reconstruct from a flat foot,” Hurless said. “That tells you where you can go.“

Thin soles exert pressure on the ankles and can cause flat feet

SOURCE: AMERICAN ORTHOPEDIC FOOT AND ANKLE SOCIETY

GRAPHIC BY MICHAEL ROTHBERG

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY MICHAEL ROTHBERG

The Chronicle

B4 Features

Oct. 19, 2011

Lab Results The science department has modernized lab assignments with the growth of technology and progressing role of science in the society.

By Jessica Barzilay

N

e a r ly 30 years ago, science teacher Walt Werner helped to develop a new lab experiment for eighth graders at Westlake School, in which the students could determine their own blood pressure. Teachers excitedly put together the procedure, purchased the equipment and prepared the apparatus for the class.

However, the experiment required complete silence, one variable Werner could not control.

“In a room full of 18 eighth grade girls, of course it wasn’t quiet — it was a disaster,” he said, laughing. “But that’s how it goes.”

Over the course of the school’s history, lab assignments have grown with the times, progressing with technology and the constantly evolving role of science in society.

“If you think of a lab you want to do, you can go do it,” AP and regular Physics teacher Jesse Reiner said. “We’re allowed to try something and have it fail.”

In fact, the process of teachers creating lab projects bears a remarkable resemblance to that of students conducting a lab.

A lab starts with a purpose, a hypothesis to prove or disprove. Then comes the method, the description of how the experiment will be conducted. Results, analysis and conclusion follow. From there, the teachers can evaluate whether the experiment should be inocorporated.

Reiner said some of the constant modification comes from the content change of each lab’s goals. There is more than one benefit from conducting a practical experiment for high school scientists, he said, rather an array of challenges to face and skills to exercise.

“A lot of it is creative thinking, problem solving and proving to the students that what we’re doing is real,” Reiner said.

Chemistry teacher Krista McClain also said the kinesthetic quality of lab work can reinforce lessons from class that would otherwise remain abstract or theoretical.

“Through labs, students experience a hands-on approach to their learning and eventually develop a greater appreciation for the course,” she said.

From data analysis to evaluating results, the goals of a lab can range across a broad spectrum. Often, the labs teach skills the students aren’t even aware of learning.

“We hope they learn scientific writing and how to communicate in science, which is an important skill,” Reiner said.

Conversing and thinking in terms of science is a talent Werner has found increasingly important in modern society, since so much of today’s innovation is rooted in technology, he said.

The accelerated pace of technological developments has caused many alterations to lab procedures.

In physics classes, certain devices developed 20 years ago, like the Photogate and Ultrasonic locaters, revolutionized the art of labs by allowing scientists to track moving objects with precise short-term measurements. On a larger scale, Reiner notes that Microsoft Excel and its capabilities allow students in physics and AP Environmental Science to explore a different kind of analysis without linearizing all data for the purpose of interpretation.

“The physics lab program would be very fundamentally different without Excel’s graphical analysis,” Reiner said.

In Human Anatomy and Physiology, Werner was able to harness the new technology to demonstrate some of the pitfalls of students’ dependence on digital and mobile devices.

Using the basic format of measuring reaction time, Werner compared how fast the brain processes information normally to the reaction time of someone using a cell phone or sending a text message.

When students compiled and analyzed their data, “that was a real eye opener,” he said.

For regular class tracks, teachers enjoy greater liberty in designing lab projects than the instructors of advanced placement courses do.

The national requirements of an AP curriculum inhibit the teachers’ freedom to be creative. For example, AP Physics B students conduct only 12 labs during a year, while those who take regular physics complete 26.

Last year, 12 new labs were introduced to the regular physics curriculum.

The labs in AP classes differ not only in quantity but also in quality from those in standard level courses.

While the majority of AP Physics B labs are verifications of known conditions, in regular physics, students can experiment and “get out of the habit of thinking data should come out a certain way,” Reiner said.

Both Reiner and AP Physics B teacher Antonio Nassar see the opportunity to analyze errors in verification experiments as valuable, despite the limitations of proving an accepted hypothesis. In some cases, students conduct 300-yearold labs, and “use better technology to gather data, but we don’t have to have a machine take over because you lose the chance to make mistakes,” Nassar said.

While not all labs are 300 years old, certain experiments have remained unchanged.

For example, science teacher Blaise Eitner adapted Oceanographic Biology into an entirely new course, Oceanography and Marine Biology,

duri n g h i s second y e a r.

He developed several new activities that continue to comprise part of the curriculum.

Most notably, Eitner supervises the dissection of bony fishes, clams, crayfish, sea stars and squids, while he annually dissects a shark as a demonstration.

“You’d be amazed how much students can learn by looking at these specimens in 3-D,” Eitner said.

Another interactive study of animal bodies is the staining and clearing of preserved rats in Human Anatomy. For the first experiment, the students spent three to four weeks examining the skeletons of purpledyed rats.

Werner, who has led this lab since the course was introduced, said he has seen students take the preserved rats to college and parents, who place the specimens in their office for show.

Melanie Chan ’12 said her experience in science classes at the Upper School has challenged her to grow and better understand the material.

“I think I learn more in depth with labs because I actually have to think through the entire process and put together the entire scheme of things,” she said.

GRAPHIC BY GABRIELLE FRANCHINA

Oct. 19, 2011

chronicle.hw.com

Features B5

Cutting edge Girls are shaving designs onto their scalps, installing feather extensions and dying their hair colors nature never intended.

By Claire Hong

the print, her hair will grow back.

In September, Baba shaved the Claire Baba ’12 decided to shave word “ill” onto her head, although she a small portion of the left side of her didn’t like how it turned out and rehead in mid-August. She shaved it her- turned to her layered pattern when self, using a clipper and creating a pat- her hair grew back. Kellman also had tern of layers. shaved patterns, although currently “I thought it looked cool,” Baba the area is dyed leopard print. said. “We’re going to have our hair for “My mom didn’t like it at first, but 70 years, might as well do something she feels better about it now,” Kellman with it.” said. “My dad and brother hated it Baba is not the only girl to shave when I dyed it, but they like that more her head. Eliza Kellman ’12 and Reyna now as well.”

Calderon ’12 also tried the new style.

Sophiea Kim ’12, who regularly Calderon shaved her head in March dyes her hair, said she likes the new for her birthday. She told her mom a shaving trend, although she would couple weeks before that she was plan- never try it herself. ning to do so.

“Hair should be changed according “My mom wasn’t too amped, but to how it looks on you,” she said. “I like since she did this crazy zig-zag on the shaving, but it should fit the perher head in the son’s character.” ’80s, she figured Kim dyed her she couldn’t be hair light brown a hypocrite,” over the summer, Other people seem to like it.

Calderon said.

They say I rock it pretty well. But but she didn’t like Kellman first the color because frankly, I don’t care what other shaved her hair it was too blonde, people think. It’s my head, and if she said. After a last October while in Spain for they want they can turn away or month of having the School Year light brown hair, look at my right side.”

Abroad program. she dyed it black She said it was a —Reyna Calderon ’12 to her natural spontaneous dehair color. cision, as she had “I know that her hair shaved the day she thought dyeing damages my hair,” she said. of the idea. Kellman and a few of her “I space out [the time] when I dye friends just went to a barber, she said. my hair so it doesn’t get completely “I plan on keeping it for a while,” wrecked.”

Kellman said. “I still really like it, and Kacey Wilson ’13 also dyes her hair either way I don’t want to think about every two to three months. She first how I would grow it out.” dyed parts of her under hair blue, but All three girls are nervous about dyed it red when the blue faded. letting their hair grow back. Baba plans “I think dyeing hair is cool,” Wilto keep her hairstyle until the end of son said. “It’s like a different way to school, although she said she’s afraid express yourself.” the area she shaved will look awkward Wilson first had her hair dyed when the hair in that area is short and professionally about nine months ago. she is unable to tie it up.

Since her hair is dark brown, she had Calderon said she will wait until to bleach the area in order for the colthe hair on the other side grows longer. ored dye to show up.

“I plan to keep [my hairstyle] till Shana Saleh ’12 also plans on dyemy other hair grows out long enough ing her hair, but not until her feather to just hide it, and let the shaved part hair extensions naturally fall out. She of my head grow in secrecy,” Calderon had her feathers installed in her hair said. “To be honest, that could be a year at the end of school last year. from now or five years from now. I’m “My cousin asked me if I’d seen not really in a rush.” people wearing the feathers, and my Baba and Kellman said they can al- initial reaction had been, ‘No, that’s ready hide the shaved area if they flip weird,’” she said. “But then my cousin their hair in the other direction, al- and I Googled the hair extensions and though Kellman likes to show the area. decided to get them.”

Baba covers the shaved area when she When Saleh decided to get feather goes home, as she didn’t tell her par- hair extensions, she had difficulty findents she was changing her hairstyle. ing a salon that installed them because All three girls have received mostly the trend was just emerging. However, positive feedback about their shaved she and her cousin found a salon and hairstyles, although they are aware both had the feathers installed. Saleh there may be some who don’t tell them chose subtle feathers that blended in directly that they dislike the new styles. with her light brown hair. They act like “Some people just don’t think it’s a part of her hair and can be brushed, cool, and I can understand that,” Baba washed and blow-dried without probsaid. “It is weird, and it’s different.” lems. She said she often forgets they “Other people seem to like it,” are there because she doesn’t have to Calderon said. “They say I rock it pret- treat her hair any differently. ty well. But frankly, I don’t care what Saleh said she has noticed that other people think. It’s my head, and if fewer people are wearing the feathers they want they can turn away or look but will keep them until they fall out at my right side.” because “I genuinely liked the idea of Baba and Kellman also change the the feathers.” designs they shave onto their heads.

She does not plan on replacing Baba shaves a new design every month them, however, and instead will dye because she knows if she doesn’t like some layers of her hair pink.

“

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NEW DO’S: Reyna Calderon ’12 shaved a section of the left side of her head in March, top. Shana Saleh ’12 had feathers installed in her hair in April, bottom left. Eliza Kellman ’12 first shaved a design onto her head last year, bottom right.

The Chronicle

B6 Features

plugged in

Students and teachers are capti worlds of video games, not only

Math teacher by

By Victor Yoon

“Looks like I won’t be able to pick up ‘Gears of War 3’,” math teacher Kevin Weis said as he stopped writing equations and Greek symbols on the whiteboard to glance at his watch for a second.

“What’s that? I don’t even know what ‘Gears of War 1’ is,” one of the students working on homework asked.

Weis explained that Gears of War 3 is a recently released video game that a few of his former students had convinced him to buy and play with them.

Weis has always been a gamer, he said.

“I’ve been playing since I was very young,” Weis said. “I got the Atari 2600 when I was 5 years old, and I’ve been playing video games ever since,” he added before listing off quite a number of video game consoles that he has owned since then.

Being a gamer connects Weis with a certain group of students, he said.

He said that video games are

‘Words With Friends’ scores points with students

By Megan Ward

Seven glowing letters light up on Rhett Gentile’s ’13 iPod Touch: R, L, E, P, E, T, Q. He contemplates the best configuration of these letters to get the highest score. He spots a possible double word score attached to another E and lays out his tiles. REPLETE. He scores 26 points to increase his lead. This is one of the lowest word scores he’s had all game, but he still he manages to crush his opponent by 86 points.

“Words With Friends” is a Scrabble imitation game that is playable by anyone with a smartphone or Facebook account.

The player can challenge an opponent at random or can play a friend who also has the game.

“I started playing last year when I saw some of my friends play,” Gentile said. “They called me over and I had my first game and continued playing with them for a while. But eventually they all

Oct. 1

stopped playing with me because I kept beating them.”

Many people enjoy the game not only because they think it is a fun game which requires strategy, but also because it connects them with their friends who have graduated or live in other states.

“I play to have fun with friends,” Alex Rand-Lewis ’12, another frequent gamer, said. “It’s a nice way to have a funny rivalry that never gets too intense. It also keeps me in touch and in contact with my friends that go to college.”

More and more users are joining in, and games like “Words With Friends” are becoming increasingly popular. Over 2.5 million people have “liked” the application page on Facebook and the app reports over 10.2 million monthly users.

“During junior year, it took some stress off my year,” Rand-Lewis said. “It’s enjoyable. It’s a fun way to incorporate a game I played as a kid into the new age of technology.”

something th his students Club.

Although games with h play with the “I rarely students beca online a lot, it takes some games for t student has t the way he o keep a prope While it’s with current Last year, W one night wit “The way he likes to ways to beat intended. I u but seeing h some of the l beaten other said.

Weis also and teaching

19, 2011

chronicle.hw.com

Features B7

ivated by the blinking screens and alternate y playing games but designing them as well.

y day, gamer by night

hat he can talk about with after class or during Math

h he talks about video his students, Weis does not em often. play games with current ause first of all, I don’t play and also because I think e of the fun out of playing them and me when the to censor himself or change or she acts while playing to er relationship,” Weis said. s a rarity for Weis to play t students, it does happen.

Weis played all of Portal 2 in th Riley Pietsch ’11. y Riley plays games is that break the game and find t levels that maybe weren’t usually play by the rules, him work his way through levels that we couldn’t have rwise was really cool,” Weis

o said that video wwgames g don’t really cross for him.

“‘Portal 2’, the best game I’ve played in the past couple years, probably comes the closest [to really using math],” Weis said, “It’s a game all about spatial nathanson ’s/chronicle reasoning with Kevin Weis an amazing story that’s all told through a first person shooter. It’s brilliant.”

Aside from using an example of delivery quests from role-playing games to explain the importance of money when he taught economics a few years ago, he hasn’t used video games much in his teaching.

“I actually don’t think that it’s that uncommon for teachers to play video games,” Weis said. “I read somewhere that the average age of video game players is around 30 years-old now, so I wouldn’t be surprised if a couple of the teachers at this school play video games.”

Computer science class constructs alternate realities

By Daniel Kim

Chalmers 304 during eighth period is a class unlike any other class at Harvard-Westlake. The students are spread throughout the room working individually on their own laptops for most of the period, and there is no teacher lecturing on formulas or important historical figures. Instead, each student is engrossed in the work that he or she has on the screen.

“It’s not a class in the traditional sense,” James Zhang ’12 said. “It’s an opportunity for us to take our knowledge of computer science and explore its application towards things we like.”

Computer Science teacher Jacob Hazard allows students in his eighth period Advanced Topics in Computer Science Honors class to design their own project for the class. Whether they be iPhone apps or handy programs, all ideas are fair game for this project. The only requirement is that these projects be finished by May. Oscar Beer ’12, Mark Seuthe ’12, Elliot Storey ’12 and Zhang are creating a role playing game from scratch.

However, they are not the first to try creating a game. Last year, Matthew Goldhaber ’11 and Riley Pietsh ’11 created a first person shooter game as their class project by using multiple pre- and semi-programmed components. Zhang created the project map last year.

In the game Beer, Seuthe, Storey and Zhang are creating, the main character works at a company called Robo Corp. and stumbles upon records that reveal negotiations with a terrorist

group. The company finds out the information is leaked, and now the main character must escape. Making his way out, he finds spare parts and assembles gear that allows him to escape.

In order to create this game, Zhang and Beer utilize a program called Autodesk Maya, otherwise known as Maya. Maya helps create three-dimensional figures varying from lamps and furniture in a room to robots that roam the hallways of the building.

Storey and Seuthe use another program called Unity to create their game.

Unity is a game development tool that provides a framework to develop games. They import the figures created on Maya and code their game using Unity. While Maya designs elements of the game, Unity brings to life those elements to make the game functional.

But, it all starts on paper. The creators draw two-dimensional renditions of what they ultimately want to see and then work on one aspect of the picture at a time. From the background windows to the mid-ground table, they use Maya to design the figures.

When drawings don’t fully capture the ideas of the creators, they look for alternatives to pictures. For some of the robots, Beer used lego pieces to create miniature robots. These provide a three-dimensional figure that facilitates the modeling of the robots.

Since all the figures that they create are formed individually by hand from simple pre-loaded polygons, some objects can take almost an hour to shape correctly. That’s why creating a 3D game is a difficult and time consuming task, Seuthe said.

GRAPHICS BY HANK GERBA, CHLOE LISTER, MEGAN WARD AND VICTOR YOON

B8 Features

highstakes

The Chronicle

Outscoring the nation

By Arielle Maxner

Four hours of sitting. A scantron of blank bubbles. A pile of freshly sharpened pencils and bright pink erasers.

The newsprint standardized testing packet. All are familiar to the student taking a standardized test, whether it is the SAT or the ACT. This past year, according to the College Board, “the class of 2011 included 1,647,123 college-bound students who took the SAT,” more than the preceding class. However, the average national score A total score means fell six points to 1500 out of a posnothing. People who set a sible 2400, accordtotal score as a goal—that’s ing to the College Board’s annual meaningless.” report.

Califor—Sharon Cuseo nia’s state averUpper School Dean ages fell as well, to an average of 1513.

C o m p a r a t i v e l y, Harvard-Westlake’s SAT averages rose from a total score of 2012 of the 2010 graduating class to a 2058 by the 2011 graduating class.

“Look at any of our stat books,” upper school dean Sharon Cuseo said.

“You’ll see that Harvard-Westlake students are good testers.”

However, “a total score means nothing,” Cuseo said. “People who set a total score as a goal—that’s meaningless. So, it’s all about the individual thresholds that you set for yourself.

For some students, you’re going to want to break into a 600 … for most of our students, it’s the 600 threshold, the 650 threshold, the 700 threshold.

That’s what we’re looking at. For different students, there will be different thresholds.”

Over the past five years, HarvardWestlake’s averages on the SAT have ranged from a 2012 to a 2058, with the lowest and highest individual section scores being a 650 in Critical Reading in 2010 and a 697 in Writing in 2011.

Statewide, the average score for the Critical Reading section in 2011 was a 499. Harvard-Westlake’s average was a 675.

There are similar score differences for the Writing and Math sections as well, with Harvard-Westlake outscoring the national and California state averages.

In California, the average Writing score was 499 and the Math score was a 515. Harvard-Westlake students scored, on average, a 697 in Writing and a 686 in Math. This places Harvard-Westlake students among the 92nd percentile for Critical Reading, the 96th percentile for Writing and the 91st percentile for Math.

As far as colleges are concerned, upper school dean Pete Silberman said that “as long as you’re in a range that [the college you’re thinking about] re-

“

Oct. 19, 2011

State and national SAT and ACT scores fell this year while Harvard-Westlake scores continued to rise.

sponds to, they use the SAT as a sort of benchmark.”

When colleges look at an applicant’s test scores, there are many ways in which they may view the scores.

Some colleges superscore, meaning the applicant sends every score he or she has, but the institution only considers the best individual section scores.

The College Board offers a Score Choice option, in that it will only send the best section scores to the selected colleges. However, some colleges and universities only allow the scores from one sitting, so one needs to do well on every section. It is important to check the intended institution’s policy on standardized test scores.

“Scores are just one part of the evaluation,” Silberman said. “There’s the transcript, recommendations, essays, extracurriculars. Those things are probably much more important to many schools.”

Several students dislike the SAT, “I hate the SAT,” Karen Kim ’12said.

“The SAT only exists to teach you to take the SAT,” Matt Heartney ’12 said.

However, not all feel as negatively as Kim. “I think that the SAT is quite positive,” Micah Sperling ’12 said. “It’s not necessarily a measure of a student’s worth, but it’s good to separate students into categories. It’s a way of measuring a student’s accomplishment besides just grades.”

The SAT isn’t the only option. The ACT is “on the rise,” Cuseo said.

“Eleven graduates from the class of 2010 submitted the ACT as their only test,” Cuseo said. “This past year, 23 Harvard-Westlake graduates relied on the ACT alone. And, on record, we have about 100 students who took the ACT last year. There probably were more, they just didn’t put the HarvardWestlake code on there. So at least a third of the class.”

The trend is not limited to Harvard-Westlake. More graduating seniors took the ACT in 2011 compared to prior years from across the nation: 1,623,112, according to the ACT newsroom data. Ten years ago 1,069,772 graduating seniors took the ACT. Furthermore, Harvard-Westlake’s average ACT score has also been rising.

In 2011, Harvard-Westlake students’ scores averaged a 30 out of a possible 36. The national average on the ACT also rose, from a 21 in 2010 to a 21.1 in 2011. However, the California state averages fell from a 22.2 in 2010 to a 22.1 in 2011. For at least the past five years, Harvard-Westlake has consistently outscored the national and state averages on the ACT and the SAT. “[Test scores are] never as important as you think they are, but they’re more important than colleges say they are,” Cuseo said.

Test yourself The questions below contain facts about the national test scores versus Harvard-Westlake averages. How much do you know about the SAT scoring? Test your knowledge below: 1. Which of these facts is true about students’ performances on the SAT this past year?

A

The nationwide average score fell from 1506 to 1500 points.

B

The California state average score fell 1513 to 1512 points.

C

Harvard-Westlake students’ average score rose from 2012 to 2058 with the 2011 graduating class.

D

Harvard-Westlake students ranked in the 92nd percentile for Critical Reading.

All of the above

2. This past year...

A

23 Harvard-Westlake students sent only their ACT scores to colleges

B

1,632,112 graduating seniors nationwide only took ACT.

C

In 2001, 1,069,772 graduating seniors took the ACT. All of the above

3. On average, students across the state have scored...

A

499 in Critical Reading

B

515 in Math

C

499 in Writing All of the above

4. On average, Harvard-Westlake students scored...

A

697 in Writing

B

675 in Critical Reading

C

686 in Math All of the above GRAPHIC BY MAGGIE BUNZEL

“The Brain” Yale Early Action

“The AllAround” Vanderbilt Early Decision

>> Kyle* loves Yale’s top academics and fun atmosphere.

Kyle*, brainiac

>> Haley* likes Vanderbilt for its school pride.

Haley*, all-around

“The Athlete” Committed

“The Filmer” Undecided

>> Leo* will play his sport at medium-sized university.

>> Diana* now thinks NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts is too film focused.

>> On his campus visit, he met players and coaches.

Leo*, athlete

>> He is communicating with the Yale swim coach.

>> She is putting the finishing touches on the Vanderbilt supplement.

>> Kyle could see himself at a variety of top colleges.

>> The application process has been stressful, and she can’t wait to end it.

>> Leo looks forward to the school’s course variety and spirit.

>> “No matter which college I get into, I’ll be fine,” he said.

>> “I more just want to know where I’m going,” she said.

>> “If [my sport] ends up not working out, that’s still where I want to be,” he said.

Diana*, filmmaker

>> She is looking for a liberal arts approach to film education. >> Small schools like Pitzer and Pomona College excite Diana. >> “It’s a little early to settle on a career,” she said.

*names have been changed

ILLUSTRATIONS BY MICHELLE CHANG GRAPHIC BY REBECCA NUSSBAUM

A

The Chronicle • Oct. 19, 2011

rts & E ntertainment

B9

Los Angeles • Volume XXI • Issue II

Students march in stilettos to open exhibit

By Nika Madyoon

PHOTOS BY ALAN SASAKI

WALK OF PAIN: Marka MaberryGaulke ’12, Hank Doughan ’12, Lucas Foster ’13 and Nick Healy ’13 stand on Hollywood Boulevard in their red high heel shoes, above. Head of Visual Arts Department Cheri Gaulke stands next to shelves featuring the heels, middle. Inside the gallery, Doughan, Healy, Jaslin Marine ’13, Hannah Zipperman ’12 and Rebecca Hutman ’12 stand barefoot as they hold their high heels, right.

Traversing lava fields, navigating the geothermal sites of Iceland and staggering through the sand in the extreme heat of Death Valley are all difficult tasks. Attempting them in red high heels is even more daunting.

When Upper School Visual Arts Department Head Cheri Gaulke created “Peep Totter Fly,” the installation she is currently showing as part of Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions’ “Los Angeles goes Live: Performance Art in Southern California, 1970-1983,” she wanted to convey just how impractical the high heel shoe really is. Upon entering the gallery, visitors are welcomed by a wall of red high heels from size five to size 16, which they may wear while viewing the artwork.

The exhibit, which ends Jan. 29, features a video in which people attempt to walk in natural environments while wearing the pair of heels.

“The point is to show how utterly impractical and out of nature they are,” Gaulke said.

Nick Lieberman ’11 was the assis-

tant director of the video, which was edited by Gabe Benjamin ’11. Wiley Webb ’12 produced an original score for the production, which included natural and human sounds. The footage was shot throughout Los Angeles, Death Valley and Iceland.

At the opening of the exhibit on Sept. 27, students and faculty participated in a performance choreographed by performing arts teacher Michele Spears. Scene Monkeys Hank Doughan ’12, Lucas Foster ’13, Nick Healy ’13 and Hannah Zipperman ’12, as well as Rebecca Hutman ’12, Lieberman and Gaulke’s two daughters, Marka and Xochi Maberry-Gaulke ’12, all participated along with other performers.

They put on the stilettos and walked down Hollywood Boulevard, making their way to the gallery to offer their shoes to members of the audience as a way of opening the exhibit.

The rest of the exhibit, entitled “Recollecting Performance,” displays props from historic performing art pieces. The colorful nuns’ habits that Gaulke used in one of the collaborative art groups she founded, Sisters Of Sur-

Bookstore assistant makes quick change to backstage

By Allison Hamburger

On a Monday afternoon, bookstore associate Allie Costa traveled from work to work, carrying a small, black Tinker Bell bag containing more than just the usual handbag items.

“I have a script, my dinner, a prop,” Costa said. “I’m going to have a gigantic thing of water, which is currently in the fridge, my makeup, my shorts. This is the life of an actress. This is what you have.”

Leaving the school bookstore, she headed straight for Son of Semele theater in Los Angeles, where she would perform later in the evening.

Costa played Matchgirl in “What the Moon Saw, or ‘I Only Appear to Be Dead,’” running from Sept. 9 to Oct. 9.

The play, written by Stephanie Fleischmann and directed by Matthew McCray, adapted five Hans Christian Andersen fairy tales to take place in the United States just following 9/11. Each of the 11 cast members played many roles in the show, so Costa also acted as a ghoul and the Little Mermaid’s sister and helped with many scene changes.

“I maybe sit down for 30 seconds in two hours of the show,” she said.

Costa’s main role of the Matchgirl was inspired by Andersen’s story “The Little Match Girl,” in which a poor girl

sees visions in the matches she sells. In this stage version, Costa sells matches and meets others at Ground Zero, making the story more emotional.

“I often feel that I can be very loud or enthusiastic, and it’s all genuine, all of my energy is genuine, so for her I just had to make her sadder, make her grounded in a different way, and it’s one of the most intense and challenging things that I’ve had to do,” Costa said.

The role marked another first for Costa — lighting a match. The Matchgirl lights matches during her portion of the show, and during rehearsals, Costa realized that she had never lit a match.

“I don’t have a phobia, but I just tried to think, have I ever lit a candle?” she said. “I don’t think I have.”

The work, performed in a 36-seat theater, contained details uncommon for plays. For example, the moon, played by a woman seated on a raised platform, played a sparkly accordion throughout the performance.

“You don’t see that a lot,” she said.

Costa has acted for other theater productions as well as televison and film. She appeared in the short film “Goldfish Love” and on “90210” in February, among other projects. She plays a 14-year-old girl in the upcoming web

vival, were featured in the exhibit.

Gaulke’s work is also on display at Otis College of Art and Design as part of the show, “Doin’ it in Public: Feminism and Art at the Woman’s Building.” It depicts the feminist art movement born in Los Angeles in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Gaulke cited collaboration, activist art and sexuality as some of the many now-popular art trends that were invented during the movement. A large portion of artistic work at that time critiqued the role of women in society or celebrated female contributions to history, she said.

Gaulke has two installations in the exhibit, each of which displays the work she did with the collaborative art groups she founded. In 1976, Gaulke founded Feminist Art Workers, whose main focus was participatory performances. Sisters Of Survival is also featured.

“It’s the way we think about history and culture that somehow women don’t make history,” Gaulke said. “It’s ridiculous. Nothing would exist without women.”

Middle schoolers rehearse ‘Is He Dead’

By Morganne Ramsey

MEGAN HILLIARD

DOUBLE TIME: Costa poses for her headshot, which she brings to every one of her auditions and casting calls. series “Unintentionally Awesome.”

Anders Villalta ’12 attended “What the Moon Saw” in September. He had often run lines with Costa to help her prepare for auditions and rehearsal while working at the bookstore over the summer, so he anticipated seeing the final result, he said.

“Allie’s complete immersion in her character was something not many of us at Harvard-Westlake get to see,” Villalta said. “I was honored and entertained to be there when it all unfolded onstage.”

The show did not interfere with Costa’s work at school, she said, since rehearsals were at night and on weekends.

“She’s so passionate about [acting],” upper school bookstore manager Irma Hernandez said. “I hope it takes her far.”

“Is He Dead” opens on Nov. 18 in the Saperstein Theatre at the Middle School.

Taking place in the city of Barbizon, France in 1898, the play is about the destitute painter Jean-Francois Millet, played by Adam Hirschhorn ’16, who is indebted to a painting dealer, Bastien Andre, played by Teddy Leinbach ’15.

To pay off his debts, Millet fakes his own death so that his paintings will be worth more and collects his commissions as his nonexistent twin sister.

The cast of 16 is directed by middle school drama teacher Jim Doughan.

Rehearsals began in mid-September.

“You get a group of people from different grades that you get to know really well,” Hirschhorn said.

The set of “Dead,” a run-down artist’s studio, is transformed between acts one and two as Millet brings in money from his scam. In act two, the set is gaudier.

The cast has gone to multiple fittings, but they have not seen any actual costumes yet. Hirschhorn guesses that since the play takes place in 19th century France, the costumes will be reminiscent of Napoleon.

“The girls will be in skirts, corsets, and heels. The guys will be wearing suits, and a British painter is going to wear a monocle,” he said.

B10 A&E

The Chronicle

Oct. 19, 2011

The play’s the thing Many factors go into deciding which dramatic and musical theatric performances will go up on the main stage in Rugby Auditorium each year.

By Justine Goode

teachers rarely stop thinking about future projects, even when the produchough on most days the stage tions for a given year are settled. of Rugby Auditorium appears Well-established shows are always unassuming, over the years the considered, as well as productions of space has developed somewhat of an new plays performed in locations as identity crisis. It has been transformed diverse as New York, London and the into the streets of 19th century Paris, Oregon Shakespeare Festival. the set of a Los Angeles film noir, the There are several factors involved whimsical backdrop for a fractured fai- in selecting shows. When considering rytale and a show, is curthe direcrently in tors ask a the pronumber of Even given the cess of questions, becoming starting limitation of our the little with, “Is space, we are only village of it a good Anatevka show for really limited by our for Noboth our imaginations.” v e m b e r’s student producactors and —Christopher Moore tion of musicians, Performing Arts Teacher nathanson ’s/chronicle “Fiddler and will it on the be someRoof.” A thing our small group of people is responsible for audiences will enjoy?” Other factors indeciding just where audiences in Rugby clude the availability of the rights for a will be transported each year. production, the size of the cast and the Christopher Moore, Rees Pugh, message of the show. “[We wonder,] Michele Spears and Ted Walch form will both the students and audience be the committee that annually discusses moved, entertained, learn something which plays and musicals will be good from the stories?” Moore said. “Quite choices for the upcoming year. Pugh, a few musicals, for example, have very Spears and Walch alternate directing strong books, but weak songs or vice productions, though never on any spe- versa.” cific rotation schedule. Moore acts as One of the biggest issues is the size producer for most of the stage produc- of Rugby Theater. The directors have tions. to envision a production in which the “The director of any given project is set and staging will work around the the main influence in the decision mak- space’s limits. ing process since they will be spending “Rugby Theater is a wonderful the most time working on the project,” space, but it can sometimes be limiting Moore said, who spoke on behalf of the in terms of sets — for example, we have department. limited wing space to store set pieces, “Of course, they want to direct moving trucks with different flats desomething they enjoy, something they picting different locales,” Moore said. think would be good for our students “It is often a puzzle to have the varand would be both a fun as well as an ious sets, the large cast and the large educational project for our actors, stu- student orchestra all together on the dent crews and designers,” he said. stage,” he said. “However, we are inThough the committee usually credibly fortunate to have an incredmakes their decisions for shows prior ible design team who can make almost to graduation of the previous year, the anything possible in and on our limited

T

“

CHLOE LISTER/CHRONICLE

ON YOUR TOES: Emma Pasarow ’14, who plays the role of Chava, practices a dance routine for the fall musical, “Fiddler on the Roof.” The musical is directed

by Rees Pugh and has 37 cast members. stage.”

Every production relies on a team of behind-the-scenes designers to bring the story to life. Set designer Alex Kolmanovsky is in charge of creating sets for both the Rugby space as well as the much larger Bing Theater on the middle school campus. Costume designer Lisa Peters makes multiple costumes for large casts of any given show. Andrew Villaverde controls lighting and sound design.

Pugh, the director of “Fiddler,” also acts as carpenter, building any set pieces the directors and designers imagine.

Several years ago, Moore wanted a pool for the play “Metamorphoses,” so Pugh built a heated pool that extended from three inches deep to three and a half foot deep.

“Even given the limitation of our space, we are only really limited by our imaginations,” Moore said. “What our directors can imagine can usually become reality because of our amazing design team.”

The audition process is a key part of every production, though every year the directors seem to face the same problem — more girls generally turn out for auditions than boys.

“It does affect our selection process,” Moore said. “For example, we probably will never do, say, ‘Camelot’ or ‘Forever Plaid,’ as there are so few or no female roles in either of those musicals. Likewise we won’t be doing ‘Elaine Stritch, The Musical.’”

Over the years, the selections of both plays and musicals have been diverse, their time periods, settings, levity and playwrights or composers varying greatly. But it is this variety that makes it difficult for the directors to pinpoint a favorite production, and even more difficult to name one they didn’t enjoy putting on.

“I really don’t have favorite productions,” Spears said. “They are all so different and all mean so much to me.

One of my favorite composers is Sondheim, so I always enjoy working on his musicals, but other than that, I’ve loved all the Harvard-Westlake shows.”

“Fiddler on the Roof” Performances on Nov. 5, 6, 12, 13 Tevye.....................................Josh Lappen ’13 Golde..............................Daniele Wieder ’12 Tzeitel.............................Autumn Chiklis ’12 Hodel..................................Megan Ward ’13 Chava..............................Emma Pasarow ’14 Shprintze............................Maddie Lear ’13 Bielke................................Sophie Sunkin ’14 Yente...........................Solange Etessami ’13 Motel.....................................Daniel Roth ’12 Perchik.................Michael Wagmeister ’13 Lazar Wolf.....................Hank Doughan ’12 Rabbi....................................Lucas Foster ’13 Mendel............................Patric Veronne ’13 Avram.......................................Justin Carr ’14 Yussel......................................Alex Haney ’14 Nachum..........................Corey Batchler ’13 Fruma-Sarah.........................Bella Hicks ’12 Constable...............................Nick Healy ’13 Fyedka.......................................Alex Gura ’12 Sascha...........................Daniel Palumbo ’14 Shaindel..............................Elana Zeltser ’13 Moishe..........................Blake Nosratian ’13 The Fiddler....................Matthew Lucas ’14 Grandma Tzeitel........Molly Chapman ’14 Villagers of Anatevka Nadia Dubovitsky ’12, Mazelle Etessami ’14, Lexi Fadel ’13, Samantha Frischling ’13, Justine Goode ’12, Tara Joshi ’14, Jaslin Marine ’13, Mikaila Mitchell ’13, Anabel Pasarow ’12, Abby Sandler ’13, Camelia Somers ’14, Angela Torre ’14, Arden Williams ’14 GRAPHIC BY JAMIE CHANG

JAMIE CHANG/CHRONICLE

BUILDING THE SET: The set for “Fiddler on the Roof ” was created by director Rees Pugh with the help of students in the Technical Theater classes. Pugh and his

students spent multiple hours after school building the set. The set was inspired by the impressionistic style artist Marc Chagall used in his painting, “The Fiddler.”

chronicle.hw.com

Oct. 19, 2011

A&E B11

Choruses to sing at festival

By Cherish Molezion

PRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF LISA WEINGARTEN

AT THE BOWL: Jazz explorers Jake Chapman ’12, Noah Weinman ’12, Bradley Ho ’12, Daniel Sunshine ’13, Chris

Freedman ’12 and John Alkalai ’12, from left, were asked to play at the Hollywood Bowl for the charity People for Parks.

Jazz Explorers play for non-profit organization at Hollywood Bowl

By Jamie Chang

The Jazz Explorers performed at the Hollywood Bowl on Oct. 12 at a charity event for the nonprofit organization People for Parks.

The Explorers were sought out by a parent of a Harvard-Westlake alumna who works for People for Parks, a non-profit organization that strives to grow and protect parks throughout Los Angeles, especially those in underserved neighborhoods.

“It was cool to be on the stage of the Bowl and see the words ‘Harvard-

Westlake Jazz Explorers’ next to the dressing room door,” Jake Chapman ’12 said.

Bradley Ho ’12 said that “There were not as many people as I thought but overall I was satisfied with our performance and how the gig went.” The ensemble performed for an hour and played multiple songs including “Nardis” by Miles Davis and “Hurricane,” a song Chapman composed.

“We usually like to choose our songs in the moment because the spontaneity increases our improvisational potential, and makes music more enjoyable

and original,” Daniel Sunshine ’13 said.

To prepare for the event at the Hollywood Bowl, the Jazz Explorers held extra practices over the summer and after school rehearsals according to Ho. They also practice during their free periods at school and to make sure that they are ready.

Although this was not their first performance of the year, the Jazz Explorers were “excited to be playing on a stage that has featured such a broad spectrum of musical acts, not to mention a plethora of world-class performers,” Chapman said.

Students to perform alongside renowned musicians for concert honoring journalist

By Arielle Maxner Danni Xia ’12 walks into the First Presbyterian Church of Santa Monica and appraises the room, looking for “a large venue that could accommodate a few hundred people, and one that would match the theme of peace and tolerance of the memorial concert.”

“When I visited the church, it was really beautiful and I could see a successful concert there,” Xia said.

The church is the one of many venues she’s considered for the Oct. 30 concert she’s organizing as part of her work as vice-president of the Music Student’s Service League, a studentrun charity music group.

The event is the fourth annual Daniel Pearl World Music Days Concert, honoring Daniel Pearl, an American journalist who was killed in Pakistan in 2002.

“This is part of an international concert series in the month of October, which is [Daniel Pearl’s] birthday,” Xia said. “People around the world have concerts to honor him and all of his ideals. The concerts are centered around the Daniel Pearl Foundation, which was created by Daniel Pearl’s parents because he adored music and was an excellent violinist.”

“The Foundation does a lot of charity events and promotes understanding, especially religious understanding because that was one of the problems that caused the tragedy in Pakistan,” Xia said. “Basically they promote the World Music Days and they also donate to churches and Catholic events.”

Focusing on “promoting harmony, tolerance and peace through the power of music,” the concert was started in MSSL four years ago, and is the orga-

nization’s biggest event every year, Xia said.

She is not alone in helping organize the concert. Eric Lin ’14 helped with programs, Matthew Lucas ’14 with fundraising and Ashley Wu ’13 with publicity.

“My job is to basically spread the word about the concert so that we have people show up,” Wu said.

“As the head of publicity, I composed a public release statement and sent it to various newspapers, radio stations and television stations,” Wu said. “I went to Santa Monica and posted flyers in local coffee shops. I also sent emails to other music teachers in Southern California. With middle school teacher Emily Reola’s help we also spread the word to the middle school campus.”

“We had to do all these committees and programs,” Xia said. “There are so many little details to attend to that you don’t realize until you get into it, so you constantly have to be thinking steps before and trying to think what you have to do and how to organize everything.”

Both are looking forward to the concert itself and seeing their work pay off, as well as listen to the performers. Special guests include Philip Glenn, a violinist and recipient of the Daniel Pearl Peace Memorial, the Makoto Taiko Drum Ensemble and Lynn Harrell, a renowned cellist and president and founder of the HEARTbeats Foundation, Ruth and Judea Pearl, the parents of Daniel Pearl, are also making an introduction.

Lin, Lucas and Grace Pan ’16 are also performing at the concert, having passed an audition.

“After auditioning for the Daniel

“

Music is a universal language, where even if someone can’t speak it, he or she can understand and interpret it in his or her own way.”

—Grace Pan ’16

Pearl World Music Days Concert, I was very proud to be selected to perform my piece, the Presto and Adagio movements by Handel,” Pan said.

Pan, Wu and Xia got involved with MSSL through their music teachers and friends.

“Music is a universal language, where even if someone can’t speak it, he or she can understand and interpret it in his or her own way,” Pan said.

Xia agrees, saying, “I love the message of what we do and what goes into this concert. Before, I played the piano, but it’s not the same... I didn’t realize how powerful music actually is. It can impact so many people and it’s the universal language. It can break through communication barriers and language barriers. It can raise more awareness.

This concert is going towards that.

Organizing this concert and being in MSSL helped me realize how big this is and what music can do for people, and that’s really exciting.”

“It is really interesting being involved with all the behind the scenes efforts it takes to put on a huge concert,” Wu said. “I’m looking forward to the concert and seeing all our work put together.”

Bel Canto and Chamber Singers will perform Nov. 8 at the College of the Canyons Invitation Choral Festival.

This is the second consecutive year that Bel nathanson ’s/chronicle Canto and ChamRodger Guerrero ber Singers will have participated.

The festival is sponsored by College of the Canyons in Valencia, and will take place at the C.O.C Performing Arts Center.

“It’s a great, early choral event which enables each choir to gain valuable performance experience in front of other high school choirs,” choral director Rodger Guerrero said.

“This will be our first opportunity to perform as a choir for other schools and prove ourselves,” Chamber Singers Laura Edwards ’13 said. “I’m excited to perform with this special group of people and I definitely know that this is the beginning of a great year of music,” Bel Canto will sing “Hodie,” “Nobis de Caelo,” “Noel c’est l’amour” and “Deck the Halls.” Chamber Singers will perform “Angelus ad pastores ait,” “Deo Gracias,” “The Night He Was Born” and “Festejo de Navidad.”

Two of the Canyons choirs, Chamber Singers and Women’s Ensemble, will be performing. Other high school choirs include Royal High School, Glendale Adventist Academy, Burroughs High School, Glendale High School, La Cañada High School, Newberry Park High School and Santa Monica High School will perform.

“It’s a great opportunity to see college choirs and other high school choirs,” Bel Canto singer Cassandra Martinez ’13 said. “We can also see the similarities and differences between the choirs, so we’ll be able to appreciate the hard work that goes into becoming successful and see the small things that really make a difference. We’ll find what we need to improve on.”

Student releases electronic single

By Jack Goldfisher

Musician Wiley Webb ’12 released his first single through German electronic music label Plasmapool earlier this month.

The song, “Bittersweet Annathanson ’s/chronicle them,” was reWiley Webb ’12 leased for download on Beatport and Soundcloud on Oct. 10, Webb’s birthday. Soundcloud describes the new single as “a powerful and emotionally evocative anthem influenced by stadium-friendly electro and progressive house.”

Webb first signed with the record label in August. He sent them a song he had recorded and they “quickly jumped on the track.”

Webb will keep 50 percent of the revenue from sales, but Plasmapool will have exclusive distribution rights to his music for six months. After this six month period, Webb has a semiexclusive contract with the label.

Webb says there is a high chance they will later offer him a fully exclusive contract, which would likely come with,“Tons of promotion, booking agents and touring with bigger artists.”

B12 Features

The Chronicle

Oct. 19, 2011

Sticky situation While many students find that chewing gum keeps them focused in class, and scientific studies say it’s true, some teachers deem it unacceptable.

By Elana Zeltser

D

uring second period on any given day, Avalon Nuovo ’13 reaches into her bag and pulls out a pack of gum. She unwraps what will be the first of the four to five pieces she will chew before the end of school. She then tries to put it back in her bag as quickly as possible before the person sitting next to her notices she has what Nuovo refers to as “gold for HarvardWestlake students.”

According to cnn.com/health, Nuovo’s gum “addiction” may, in fact, boost her academic potential. A study at the Baylor College of Medicine using 108 students proved that chewing gum while taking standardized tests and in class actually improves scores. The study also concluded that students pay better attention and need fewer breaks if they are chewing gum.

“I really find it helps me concentrate in I find it very difficult class,” Nuovo said. “I like to to look intelligent when be moving at all you are chewing gum.” times, so without —Ken Neisser it, I feel restless.”

Nuovo history teacher andBoth Mirand van Iderstine ‘13 said gum curbs their hunger, so they aren’t distracted by food cravings during class. A study done at Louisiana State University verified that gum can momentarily satiate hunger.

Unfortunately for the students who have a reliance on either the taste or the repetitive movement of chewing gum, there are teachers who simply will not allow it.

Abby Sandler ’13 said the dance teachers are adamant about their nogum-policy, as there is a serious danger of choking.

It is simply an old wives’ tale that gum stays in your stomach for years after you swallow it, but because of its tough consistency there is a greater likelihood that it could get stuck in the trachea.

For other teachers, however, rules regarding gum are simply a matter of showing respect and maintaining the integrity of a serious learning environment.

“If you want to chew gum for 23 hours and 15 minutes out of the day, be my guest, but for 45 minutes a day in my class, you won’t,” history teacher

“

Ken Neisser said. “It’s good for you to know that you can get through that time without it. It is a place of learning.

That is what we are here for and I want to focus on that.”

Last year, a student walked into Neisser’s class commenting that one of the top generals in the army was chomping on gum while giving a press conference.

“Looked pretty smart didn’t he?”

Neisser said sarcastically. “I find it very difficult to look intelligent when you are chewing gum.”

For Neisser, gum chewing is something he associates with a casual situation. He, along with fellow history teacher Eric Zwemer, have found that it can be a serious distraction from their lectures. “[Gum] is another thing to fiddle with, to take out, to open and ultimately distract,” Neisser said. “It is as inherently fascinating as I wish history would be for all my students.”

Even students who claim to reap the benefits of gum chewing in class can, at times, find it extremely disruptive.

“I find it obnoxious when people chew gum like cows and are unaware of how much noise they are making, but if they are discreet about it, then I think it’s fine,” Solange Etessami ’13 said.

Still, the majority of students are accustomed to seeing a room full of moving mouths and often do not understand why teachers quibble with it. Josh Swanson ’13 attributed the difference in opinion to the customs that were ingrained in teachers when they were teenagers.

“I don’t find it rude, but I think it was considered disrespectful when they were in school and they are passing that on,” Swanson said.

Spanish teacher Margot Riemer, along with much of the language department, does not allow gum chewing because it negatively affects speech ability. However, she also verified Swanson’s suspicion that much of it is simply custom.

“It is about pronunciation, but also it is just historical for me,” Riemer said. “None of my language teachers ever permitted gum-chewing in class, and I am carrying on their tradition.”

Still, despite the dispute over whether gum chewing is acceptable, teachers such as Neisser, Riemer and Zwemer do not think it should be banned from the school.

“I think it is good for students to have different experiences,” Neisser said. “If there are teachers who aren’t bothered by it, then more power to them.”

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY ELANA ZELTSER

Sports The Chronicle • Oct. 19, 2011

Los Angeles • Volume XXI • Issue II

Future plans Both senior and junior athletes have committed to various colleges throughout the country.

C3 Professional golf coach to head program

By Charlton Azuoma

SARAH REINGEWIRTZ/PASEDENA STAR-NEWS

SCRAMBLE: Quarterback Chad Kanoff ’13 avoids pressure from a blitzing St. Francis defender during the varsity team’s

23-20 loss Oct. 14 at St. Francis. Despite the loss, the Wolverines have already surpassed their win total from last year.

Varsity football falls to St. Francis narrowly in Mission League opener

By Luke Holthouse

Although last Friday’s loss at St. Francis for its first league game of the year was a tough pill for the varsity football team to swallow, it had one silver lining: Harvard-Westlake is back in the Mission League.

After the 23-20 loss capped off by a game-winning 37-yard field goal by St. Francis with two seconds left in the fourth quarter, the Wolverines are still looking for their first league win since 2009. Last year’s team had an 0-5 league record and missed the playoffs, but Head Coach Vic Eumont is confident that if the Wolverines can im-

prove their strength and conditioning, they can win all four of the remaining games in league this season to make the playoffs.

“We have to get physically stronger and better conditioned so we can finish these games off,” Eumont said. “Every week, we’re going to have to play well, play hard, not make silly mistakes and finish.”

The Wolverines took a 13-10 lead into the locker room at halftime. They took the lead off a 19-yard touchdown run by quarterback Chad Kanoff ’13 on a fourth-and-12. Offensive coordinator Scot Ruggles elected to try to take the lead on the fourth-and-long situation

rather than attempt a 36-yard field goal with under a minute left in the half.

St. Francis took the ball inside the Wolverines’ 5-yard line on the following possession but was stopped on the last play of the half when the Knights elected to run the ball up the middle rather than attempt a field goal. The Wolverines’ goal line stand stole momentum from a packed homecoming crowd at St. Francis, but the Wolverines couldn’t maintain that momentum for the rest of the game, surrendering 13 points in the last 10 minutes.

Continued on page C6

Former assistant golf coach at the University of California, Los Angeles Tony Kewalramani will coach the boys’ varsity golf team.

Kewalramani replaces Scott Wood ’88, who resigned after leading the Wolverines to a 6-6 season last year.

After his six-year career at HarvardWestlake, Wood became an investment banker at Merrill Lynch.

“This is an awesome opportunity for me,” Kewalramani said. “I love the game of golf, and I look forward to working with the exceptional studentathletes at Harvard-Westlake.”

Kewalramani has coached established professional golfers including Anthony Kim, Kevin Na and Michele Wie. The specialist coached the professionals in swing technique, short game and mental game.

As a UCLA assistant, Kewalramani helped coach the women’s team to the NCAA championship in his three year tenure with the team.

“Tony is a true teacher,” Head of Athletics Audrius Barzdukas said. “He uses the game of golf to teach valuable life lessons. He’s a perfect fit for our school and golf program. Under Tony’s leadership, we expect the golf program to excel.”

Texas A&M commit Charlie Benell ’12 will captain the team, and younger talents Bakari Bolden ’14 and Tyler Tsay ’15 are also established players with outside tournament success on various junior tours.

Benell, who has known Kewalramani for a couple of years, is excited that he is joining the administration.

“He’s the best,” Benell said. “He has helped me with my putting for a few years and is going to be a great asset to the team this year.”

This will be Kewalramani’s first time coaching a high school team, but the established coach has worked with high school golfers individually for years at Moorpark Country Club.

“It’s so much fun working with golfers at this age,” Kewalramani added. “I look forward to teaching our team to play with confidence in themselves and one another. That cohesion ultimately leads to team success.”

Cross country runners win both male, female individual titles in 2nd league meet

By Julius Pak

For the first time since the new league cluster format started, the cross country teams captured the top running spots in the boys’ and girls’ races in a league meet.

Aaron de Toledo ’12, who broke years of Loyola domination with his 15:20 course time at the league cluster meet at Woodley Park, joined Amy Weissenbach ’12 as the winners of their races on Oct. 7.

Both de Toledo and Weissenbach were in fifth place at the halfway mark, but both surged in the last mile to win.

“I tried to put myself in position to win with a mile to go,” de Toledo told the LA Daily News. “It’s a testament to how strong our program has become when we have two individual

winners. Our expectations have risen a lot because both programs are really strong. We used to think to run under 17 minutes was impressive. Today, we had four guys go under 17.” “[de Toledo’s] a guy that just does everything right. From top to bottom, if you had to pick the sort of things that coaches like, he does [them],” Head Coach Tim Sharpe said. “All those things add up. It’s his undying enthusiasm for his team. He wants his team to be good and wants to be a part of a team that has high expectations and goals.”

The girls’ team won its second consecutive league meet of the season.

However, the victory was closer this meet, as the runner-up, Notre Dame, trailed by only four points. By comparison, the Wolverines, at the

first league meet on Sept. 13, beat Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy by 10 points.

Still, Weissenbach asserted Harvard-Westlake’s dominance in the league by finishing with a time of 18:15, a full 18 seconds ahead of the pack.

Monica Nimmagadda ’14 and Yasmin Moreno ’13 finished one after another into sixth and seventh places.

Elle Wilson ’13, Caitlin Yee ’13, and Lizzie Thomas ’14 also finished together in 11th through 13th places. Audrey Wilson ’15, in her first league meet on the varsity squad, came in 26th place.

Despite de Toledo’s win, the boys’ team placed fourth, losing out to defending champions Loyola, whose scored runners all finished in the Continued on page C4

DANIEL KIM/CHRONICLE

PHENOMENAL FRESHMAN: Ben Weissenbach ’15 runs in a league meet.

The Chronicle

C2 Sports

Facts & Figures

2

The girls’ cross country team has won two of two league meets so far this season.

9

The girls’ tennis team won all nine singles sets in a 17-1 victory over Notre Dame.

Oct. 19, 2011

7

The girls’ field hockey team had seven shutouts in the first ten games of season

25

Against Alemany, the boys’ varsity water polo team scored 25 goals.

Every field player scored at least once.

71 The girls’ golf team collectively shot 195 at Braemar Country Club, averaging six over par per player.

Varsity quarterback and punter Chad Kanoff’s ’13 longest punt of the season traveled 71 yards.

It landed inside the five yard line and led to a safety.

195

game of the month BOYS’ FOOTBALL vs. Chaminade

Oct. 21 at Chaminade 7:30 p.m.

The 4-2 Wolverines are looking for their first league win since 2009. The Chaminade Eagles are the best team in the Mission League and are ranked 27th in California, according to Maxpreps.com. The 5-1 Eagles have not lost a league game yet.

Previous Matchup: Harvard-Westlake fell to Chaminade 4524 at home last season.

Previous Records: Harvard-Westlake:

2-7-1 overall; 0-5 league Chaminade:

11-2 overall; 4-1 league

Opponent to Watch: Logan Scott Position: Quarterback Scott is the 198th best passer in the nation according to Maxpreps.com, and he has wide interest coming from Division I schools in his senior season. He has thrown for 774 yards so far and he has over 1000 yards from scrimmage through six games.

School Comparison:

H-W

Maxpreps State Rank:

157

27

Quarterback’s passing yards per game:

276.6

154.8

220

198

Maxpreps Quarterback National Passing Ranking:

Chaminade

For weekly coverage of varsity football, see chronicle.hw.com

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY DANIEL KIM AND AUSTIN LEE

A good time to be a Wolverine fan

By Charlton Azuoma

I

don’t think I’ve ever been more excited to go to a home football game, participate in Spirit Week festivities or just be proud of representing the red and black of the Wolverines.

During my freshman year, I was distant from all the action and fun, only tasting the true high school experience occasionally when I came to the Upper School for volleyball practices or to watch football and basketball games. But being a senior and having been included for the last couple of years, I can’t help but want to go out with a bang. Yet, I think that my newfound fanaticism goes even deeper than that.

I admit, last year was pretty rough for our school spirit. A relatively new cheerleading squad and all of the drama over fan behavior drained our school spirit. With our football team not winning as often last season as they are now, I have to admit that it was hard to look forward to home games other than the annual Homecoming game.

I know I’m not the only one who feels that winning football games is

the driving force behind a good start to the school year. I’m also not going to lie and say that football isn’t the main factor that determines our level of school spirit. So far, the team has been doing their job with a 4-2 overall record, and they’re doing well, it only helps to increase the enthusiasm for the other fall sports.

I am fully aware that the football team just lost, but one has to take into account that we lost by a mere three points to one of the better teams in our league, who pummeled us 34-14 when we played them last year.

The cheerleading squad has also shown a remarkable improvement from years past with a lot of new recruits and a rise in talent and experience that gives them the ability to actually outnumber and out-perform other schools’ squads.

The Fanatics have been doing a much better job at rallying support for all of the football, volleyball and water polo games.

They are publicizing more fall sports games, while at the same time keeping things good and clean enough for the administration.

The drum line provides an even higher level of excitement at the games. The first time I heard there was going to be a drum line, I, like most people, was a little skeptical.

However, they have proven a lot of people wrong after the first game alone.

And it’s not only these obvious things I find myself getting excited about. Whether it’s searching on Twitter to see how our teams are doing or texting my friends after games to find out how they played, I feel that it all adds to the excitement.

During the pep rally, I made sure I sat in the front row, to soak up every bit of the energy.

When I found out that my friend was chosen to be the mascot at the pep rally, I genuinely felt jealous because I wished I had the opportunity to rile up the students for what was one of the more exciting pep rallies I’ve ever been to.

So, if you’re a student at this school and for some reason just can’t seem to find the school spirit this year, take another look around. What’s there not to like?

Senior runners to appear on cover of ESPN prep magazine

By Luke Holthouse ESPN’s High School Magazine will feature cross country and track standouts Amy Weissenbach ’12 and Cami Chapus ’12 on the cover of its next issue. The monthly magazine will feature the top dynamic duos in a variety of sports across the country. The two will appear on the cover of all issues printed in California and the West Coast.

For the cover of the magazine, ESPN organized a photo shoot on the upper school track and another at Griffith Park. Chapus described the shoot as very professional, saying that the shoot lasted several hours and that ESPN hired a makeup artist and a hairstylist for the two seniors.

Chapus and Weissenbach have achieved national recognition for their

success at the state, national and international levels. Each were members of the 2009 girls cross country team that won a state championship has broken national records as members of relay teams in track and field and traveled to Lille, France to represent the United States in the International Association of Athletics Federation World Youth Championships.

After winning the team state championship in 2009, the girls’ cross country team was unable to defend their title last year, partly because Weissenbach was out with an injured hip. This year, the girls’ team has finished in first place at both league meets, meeting the high expectations the team set for themselves at the beginning of the season, as they hope to bring back another state championship next month.

AUSTIN LEE/CHRONICLE

CENTER OF FOCUS: Cami Chapus ’12 and Amy Weissenbach ’12 pose together during the photo shoot.

chronicle.hw.com

Oct. 19, 2011

Junior catcher chooses Georgia Tech

Due to field constraints, Head Soccer Coach Freddy Arroyo has added a new morning practice on Tuesdays for the varsity boys’ soccer team.

“It is definitely difficult to play that early in the morning but I think ultimately it will be beneficial to the overall performance of the team,” player Blake Nosratian ’13 said.

Approximately 10 out of the 19 players on the roster show up to the 6:45 a.m. practice, Nosratian said.

“There has been disappointment in previous seasons and there is room for improvement,” he said. “The extra effort we put into practice will help us when the season comes around.”

—Michael Aronson

Alum excels in college starting kicker position LUKE HOLTHOUSE/CHRONICLE

EYEING HOME PLATE: Arden Pabst ’13 starts to run home in a fall scrimmage held by the baseball team. Pabst is headed to Georgia Tech, and is the first member of the junior class already in college. The Yellow Jackets are ranked 20th by ESPN. I like how at Georgia Tech the baseball field is on the campus. Also, Georgia Tech is a baseball school. They’re a powerhouse.”

The most recent USA Today/ESPN Baseball Top 25 Coaches’ Poll rated Georgia Tech 20th in the nation as of June 29.

In his 17 years coaching the Yellow Jackets, Hall has compiled a 690-334 record while leading them to 13 years of NCAA regional play and the only three College World Series appearances in the school’s history. The team has won four Atlantic Coast Conference season titles and three ACC tournament titles under Hall.

“I think the ACC is the best conference,” Pabst said. “I mean, ACC and Pac-12, you could argue for both, but I kind of want to get out of California and be playing against schools like Florida State, North Carolina, Virginia Tech and Miami, because they’re heavy competition.”

Pabst’s teammate Lucas Giolito ’12 also committed as a junior last year and is expected to take the mound for UCLA next season.

“I didn’t know if I could make a

decision that early, but I felt an immediate click with [UCLA] and that baseball program,” Giolito said. “When [Pabst] stepped on the campus at Georgia Tech, he had that same type of click. It may seem early in the year, but when you make a connection with a school’s program and coaches, it’s pretty easy to make the decision that early.”

Mike Nickeas of the New York Mets, Jason Varitek of the Boston Red Sox and Matt Wieters of the Baltimore Orioles are former Yellow Jacket catchers who now play in the major leagues.

Pabst sees the MLB somewhere in his future, but he still has two full seasons as a Wolverine before he’ll trade in his red and black for old gold and white. If he continues to improve at the rate he has, however, he may be faced with the decision of whether or not to skip college altogether and head straight for the pros.

“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,” Pabst said. “But hopefully I’ll get good enough to where that will be a decision that I am going to have to make.”

College Bound Five seniors have recently committed to take their sports to the next level at colleges across the country.

Wade Clement ’12 Duke University Soccer - Goalkeeper

Jackson Frons ’12 Middlebury College Tennis - Singles

inbrief

Boys’ soccer starts new morning practice routine

By Robbie Loeb Catcher Arden Pabst ’13 committed to play baseball at Georgia Tech on Sept. 20. Pabst is now the first college-bound member of the junior class.

“I put it on Facebook and a lot of people are congratulating me at school,” Pabst said. “It feels pretty awesome.

It’s exciting, and I don’t have to worry about college applications or anything, so it’s pretty cool.”

Pabst visited the campus over the weekend of Sept. 16-18 and then verbally committed on the following Tuesday night. He will sign next year during the signing period in November.

“I felt really confident in my decision,” Pabst said. “Maybe if I had waited another year I could have gotten more offers, but the fact that they offered me so early means they really want me. I’m going to a place where I’m going to play and where they want me, and I really couldn’t have asked for anything better than Georgia Tech.”

It has been an eventful summer for Pabst since he won a Mission League title and led the Wolverines with a .434 batting average last season. He won a gold medal for the USA 16U National Team at the International Baseball Federation World Youth Championships in Mexico. He made the 20-man roster following a six-day trial period in North Carolina.

“They saw me in North Carolina for the USA trials and I played strong there,” Pabst said. “They really liked me so they got in touch with me. I talked to [Georgia Tech Head] Coach [Danny Hall] and he said, look, we really want you and we really like you.

There was no hesitation on that and I really liked that.”

Pabst was deciding between Georgia Tech and UCLA before ultimately opting to head east to Atlanta.

“I talked to [Head Coach] Matt LaCour a lot,” Pabst said. “I talked to an old travel ball coach that I keep in touch with, Sean Thompson, who has done this with a lot of guys, I talked to my dad and I made sure that I talked to as many coaches as I could to get their take on the situation.

I like the coach at Georgia Tech and

Sports C3

Former varsity kicker Will Oliver ’11 has played well as the starting kicker for the Colorado Buffaloes. Oliver has made five out of six field goals of over 40 yards, including one from 52 yards.

Oliver made four field goals in the Buffaloes’ game against the University of California Berkeley, including a 32yard field goal to send the game into overtime.

He has also made all 18 of his extra-point attempts, and has scored 45 points for the Buffaloes this season.

—Michael Aronson

Alumni volleyball players named freshmen of week

Last week, University of California Berkeley volleyball player Christina Higgins ’11 and Boston College volleyball player Kellie Barnum ’11 were honored by the Pac-12 and the Atlantic Coast Conference. They were named their respective divisions’ freshmen of the week.

As a Golden Bear, Higgins has become a legitimate offensive weapon at the net, having racked up 90 kills on the season so far.

Barnum has racked up 318 assists and only 11 errors this season as the Eagles’ primary setter. She has played in 48 of 68 games, averaging about six assists per game.

—Robbie Loeb

SAAC names top 2 fall athletes of the month

Reba Magier ’12 Swarthmore College Soccer - Goalkeeper

Lauren Li ’12 University of Pennsylvania Softball - Pitcher

Josh Hearlihy ’12 University of Utah Basketball - Forward GRAPHIC BY JULIUS PAK AND CHLOE LISTER

The Student-Athlete Advisory Council awarded quarterback Chad Kanoff ’13 and golfer Jessica Wibawa ’13 the “Athletes of the Month” award for September.

Wibawa, one of two captains of the girls’ golf team, led the team to a 7-1 record in September and 9-3 record on the season.

Kanoff has thrown 23 touchdown passes on the year with only three interceptions. The football team was 3-1 in September and is 4-2 overall.

—Luke Holthouse

FOX Sports West broadcasts football game Fox Sports West broadcast the varsity football game against St. Francis on Oct. 14.

Highlights from the game can be seen on the network’s website, foxsportswest.com.

Although the Wolverines were in the lead at the start of the fourth quarter, St. Francis defeated HarvardWestlake with a final score of 23-20.

A 37-yard field goal with two seconds left in the game sent St. Francis fans home happy after their homecoming victory.

—Emily Segal

The Chronicle

C4 Sports

Oct. 19, 2011

Head Fanatic plays 4 sports

By Michael Aronson

JULIUS PAK/CHRONICLE

LOOSE BALL: Kristen Lee ’12 steals the ball from a Bonita player at the Homecoming game Oct. 1. Lee is the only athlete

in the school who plays four sports. Along with field hockey, she plays water polo, runs track and field and is on the swim team.

Field hockey clinches playoff place with 2 games left in season

By Robbie Loeb

The varsity field hockey team clinched a playoff berth with two games left to play, with a 4-1 record as of press time. The top two teams in the league advance to the playoffs.

Still on the schedule are home games against Chaminade and Louisville on Oct. 25 and 27. In their first matchup against the Chaminade Eagles, the Wolverines won narrowly, 1-0. Against Louisville, they won by a more convincing score of 5-0.

The Wolverines played Glendora yesterday, but results were unavailable at press time.

In their Homecoming game against Bonita, the Wolverines ran up the score early on, scoring all four of the goals in the shutout win in the first half. Lucy Putnam ’14 scored two goals in that game.

“We worked a lot on goal scoring and defensive strategies in practice,” Taylor Lee ’13 said. “As we grow stronger in both, we continue to succeed.”

In the first 10 games of the season, the Wolverines have outscored their opponents 32-8. They hold an 8-2 overall record, with their two losses coming at the hands of Huntington

Beach and Glendora, 3-1 and 3-2, respectively.

“We’re going to bounce back and hopefully see them in the playoffs and beat them then,” midfielder Brigid Sofen ’12 said of the loss to Huntington Beach.

The Glendora loss represents their only league defeat so far this season.

“We played a good game [against Glendora] and fought hard,” Lee said.

“We just need to work on staying tight defensively.”

The playoffs begin on Oct. 31, followed by the semi-final round on Nov. 2 and the final on Nov. 3.

Last season, the team was undefeated in league but fell in the CIF semi-final to Newport Harbor, who scored the only goal of the game as overtime expired. This season, however, the Wolverines avenged last year’s early playoff exit with a 4-1 win over Newport Harbor in the first game of the season.

Six of 19 players on varsity are underclassmen, and considering the general success this team has had so far this season, field hockey will most likely be a dominant team for the next few years to come.

“We just need to keep winning and prevent any more goals,” Lee said.

“[Winning CIF] would mean a lot to this team, especially for the seniors.

With such a young team, we had a lot to adjust to compared to the large amount of seniors we had last year.”

JV Field Hockey As a result of a a strong coaching staff, JV field hockey has won most of its games by a large margin.

Overall Record: 17-0-1 League Record: 3-0 Last two games: Chaminade: T (0-0) Bonita: W (8-0) Next match:

Oct. 25 vs. Chaminade at Harvard-Westlake “JV this year has been really good. The coaches are really helpful, and the team gets along very well.”

—Kayla Shanassa ’14 nathanson ’s/chronicle

SOURCE: HW.COM/ATHLETICS

Out of 12 possible athletic seasons in high school , Kristen Lee ’12 has played in 14 of them.

The varsity field hockey player, water polo player, swimmer and JV track runner will have 11 varsity letters by the end of her high school athletic career after four years on the girls’ water polo and swim team and three years on the varsity field hockey team. Lee plays goalkeeper in water polo and a midfield in field hockey.

The Berkeley commit enjoys field hockey the most because it was the sport she grew watching and she spends the majority of her time playing that sport.

“Field hockey is easily my favorite sport,” Lee said. “I grew up watching my sister play, and I have made some of my best and hopefully lifelong friendships through this sport.”

Despite the ample time devoted to field hockey, the has put in many hours practicing water polo and assisted the girls’ water polo team to a State Championship last year.

On top of the four sports she plays, Lee is a Head Fanatic specifically in charge of bringing crowds to normally crowd-less games.

“I think I’m just so enthusiastic about Harvard-Westlake sports in general that I want to go to most sporting events, even if they’re not football or basketball games,” Lee said. “I know the sports I play are not generally crowd-drawers, but I just want to get fans out to as many games as possible, even if it’s not my sport.”

Lee feels she has a flexible schedule in terms of practices in the spring season despite playing two sports at once.

“In the past, [playing both sports] has worked out because I have been able to go to morning swimming workouts and still go to track in the afternoons. If meets ever conflict, I usually have to just pick one, but there were times last year I would have to run back and forth from the pool to the track and compete in two meets at the same time,” Lee said. “I actually quite enjoyed them though.”

Lee has led the field hockey team to a 9-1 record overall and 5-0 in league as of press time, and hopes to guide the water polo team to a second CIF championship in the winter season.

Girls’ cross country wins 2nd straight league meet, boys’ team finishes 4th Continued from page C1

top 13, by 44 points.

Freshman Ben Weissenbach ’15, the team’s second-fastest runner at the meet, came in 17th; Larry Zhang ’14 two places after.

Judd Liebman ’12, recovering from an injury, took 24th place. Justin Berman ’13 rounded out the Wolverines’ scored runners, 103 seconds after de Toledo’s finish, in 27th place.

Each team was missing a key runner for the meet. Back-to-back state champion Cami Chapus ’12 was out of town.

Chapus currently holds the fastest time in the state for a 3-mile course, having run the course at Estancia High School in 16:20 in September.

David Manahan ’14, the fastest freshman in the nation last year, was out with a back injury. However, Manahan has been cleared to run at the

next meet at Mt. San Antonio College, but not at his maximum, Sharpe said.

“Our expectation is that he will be 100 percent healthy by league finals,” Sharpe said.

The team’s next meet is the Mt. San Antonio College Invitational this weekend.

From there, the teams go into post-season, starting with the Mission

League Finals, of which the girls are the defending champions, on Nov. 2 at Crescenta Valley Park.

The boys’ team will seek to finally upset Loyola after the Wolverines came in second last year, while the girls’ team will be looking to defend their league championship.

If Chapus wins at league finals, she will take her third league title in a row.

JV Cross Country JV Cross Countrylooks forward to their League Finals, which will take place at Crescenta Valley Park Nov. 7.

“From the progress I’ve seen Last two meets: in my teammates throughout 1st League Cluster Meet: 5th Place this season, I feel confident 2nd League Cluster Meet: 6th Place that our goals are, without a doubt, in reach.”

Next meet: — Jeremy Bradford ’14 Friday in Mt. San Antonio College Invitational nathanson ’s/chronicle SOURCE: HW.COM/ATHLETICS at Mt. San Antonio College

DANIEL KIM/CHRONICLE

PUSHING IT: Runners Caitlin Yee ’13 and Elle Wilson ’13 race to the finish line at the Woodley Park meet on Oct. 7.

Oct. 19, 2011

chronicle.hw.com

Sports C5

Girls’ tennis lacks fans at big games

By Camille Shooshani

DANIEL KIM/CHRONICLE

HIGH HANDS: Arielle Winfield ’13, 14, and Molly Harrower ’13, 27, block a shot during the girls’ volleyball team’s Homecoming game against Lakewood on Oct. 1. The team lost integral player and captain Lucy Tilton ’12 to injury and are coping with the loss of 11 seniors. The girls lost their first league match in 47 games against the Notre Dame Knights on Oct. 1.

Girls’ volleyball winning streak in league play ends at 47 games

By Charlton Azuoma

The girls’ volleyball team has been through a lot of ups and downs this season.

Almost starting from scratch with only three returning players, the Wolverines had a 2-2 Mission League record, including victories over Lakewood and Chaminade and boast a 8-11 overall record.

From the outset, things were not going the team’s way, as they dropped three consecutive nonleague matches. But things picked up for Head Coach Adam Black’s squad after traveling to Las Vegas for the Durango Fall Classic Tournament in mid-September. The team’s good showing earned them a title in the “competition” bracket.

The Wolverines suffered their first Mission League defeat in 47 matches against the Notre Dame Knights 1-3, on Sept. 20.

After traveling to Alemany to secure its first league win of the season, 3-0, the team drew a large

crowd for their homecoming game against Lakewood Oct. 1, the same team that knocked the Wolverines out of CIF playoffs early last season.

The game was filled with big blocks and long rallies; but, in the end, the Wolverines managed to defeat the Lancers 3-1.

Unfortunately for the team, captain Lucy Tilton ’12, is out for the season due to a shoulder injury.

The younger members of the team have the chance to step up for the injured Columbia commit and are trying to make the transition as easy as possible.

Since homecoming, the team has racked up one win and one loss, beating Chaminade 3-0 Oct. 4 and losing to Louisville 3-1 Oct. 6.

“We’re on the right track,” Black said. “We’ve been steadily improving our game and I expect that we will continue along an upward path of progress.”

Later this month the Wolverines will take a trip to Santa Barbara for what they hope will not be their last

tournament of the season, as CIF playoffs would be the next.

The Wolverines host Notre Dame today at 6:30 p.m..

JV Volleyball Although the team lost three preseason games, they are now undefeated in league.

Overall Record: 17-3 League Record: 4-0 Last two games: Chaminade: W (2-0) Louisville: W (2-0) “We will all be playing together for the next two years and I think our grade has a lot of potential.”

—Kristen Goldberg ’14 nathanson ’s/chronicle

SOURCE: HW.COM/ATHLETICS

Sophomore handles varsity pressure

By Luke Holthouse & Charlton Azuoma

Three games into a preseason tournament in Oxnard, it finally hit Jo Kremer ’14. She wasn’t playing on the freshman team anymore.

“After the first serve [of the game], I realized, ‘wow this isn’t going to be easy,’” Kremer said.

As one of the only two sophomores on this year’s varsity girls’ DANIEL KIM/CHRONICLE

volleyball squad, Kremer has already made her presence known on the court. In a 3-0 sweep against Chaminade, Kremer led the team with 15 kills.

When tryouts approached over the summer, Kremer had been set on making the varsity squad from the get-go.

“The first practice, I remember [playing] hard,” Kremer said. “I think it was one of my best practices because I sort of wanted to show the juniors and seniors that I deserved to be on the team.”

Kremer played soccer and volleyball until May 2009. She made the decision to commit to volleyball, she said, because she liked it more.

It’s looking like it’s paid off so far as she has quickly evolved into a solid outside hitter for the Wolverines and the only sophomore

starting on varsity.

Earlier in the season, Kremer was an offensive weapon off the bench for the team, but due to the recent shoulder injury to captain Lucy Tilton ’12, Kremer has been given the starting nod.

“I felt really nervous to step into Lucy’s huge role on the team,” Kremer said. “I’m really excited to play and show off how hard I’ve been working the past year or so and contribute to the team.”

When not in action for the school, Kremer plays volleyball with the Santa Monica Beach Club’s U-15 team as an outside hitter.

“She comes in as a very wellrounded player. She can pass, hit, and is a solid blocker. All she needs to continue to refine [her skill]… and it’ll be really good stuff,” Head Coach Adam Black said.

Despite the girls’ tennis team’s undefeated streak in league, the only fans on the sidelines cheering on these Wolverines are their parents. nathanson ’s/chronicle It’s true that tennis Kei Goldberg ’12 etiquette limits fan behavior to applause, but team captain Kei Goldberg ’12 believes they should get more attention.

“I guess I understand that [the games are] nathanson ’s/chronicle sort of far, but Nikki Volpert ’12 we’re a Division I team and it makes sense for us to have supporters,” Goldberg said.

The girls shut out league opponent Chaminade 18-0 on Oct. 4 and beat Notre Dame and Flintridge Sacred Heart in league matches, improving their perfect league record to 5-0.

“I would love for people to actually come to our matches,” Samantha Maccabee ’13 said. “We do well when we support each other, and I can’t imagine what it would be like with legitimate fans.”

The Head Fanatics, who organize and encourage fan attendance, have done next to nothing to advertise or encourage attendance at tennis matches this year or in the past.

“Maybe we should try to advertise more,” Head Fanatic Kristen Lee ’12 said. “It’s just that historically, sports like tennis and field hockey don’t get the most fans.”

“I feel like the Fanatics do a great job with getting people out to most games,” Nikki Volpert ’12 said. “But both the girls’ and boys’ varsity tennis teams are really good, and we feel separated from the school without the support of the student body.”

“I’m actually a tennis fan and have a few friends on the team, but I’ve never seen a match advertised and would feel almost uncomfortable going to one,” Jordan Brewington ’13 said.

The girls’ overall record is 6-3, as the team struggled in its match against Campbell Hall, a favorite to win the state championship, which ended in a 17-1 loss for the Wolverines.

The team has a game today against Beverly Hills High School at 4 p.m. at Los Angeles Valley College and will play Chaminade tomorrow at Cal State Northridge.

JV Tennis The Wolverines have won 18 consecutive regular season matches, and look to continue their quest for a second straight undefeated season.

Overall Record: 8-0 League Record: 4-0 Last two games: Flintridge Sacred Heart: W (15-3) Alemany: W (11-2) Next match: Today vs. Beverly Hills

“I think the key to our success is our strong teamwork, despite the individualism of the sport.”

— Emma Lesher-Liao ’14 nathanson ’s/chronicle

SOURCE: HW.COM/ATHLETICS

The Chronicle

C6 Sports

Oct. 19, 2011

Girls’ golf enters playoffs after loss

By Austin Lee

The girls’ golf team concluded its regular season with a 237-241 loss to Chaminade, bringing its record to 9-3.

The team competed without Kate Kushi ’14, who was out due to tendinitis and ended up losing with their worst score this season. Co-captain Jessica Wibawa ’13 shot only one over on the par 38 course, for a score of 39, her best thus far on this course.

“We did not play as well as we could have, partly because we were short one of our strong players, Kate Kushi,” Wibawa said. “Overall, I think this season has been great. Even though we lost our last league match, the team got along great, and it was a lot of fun.”

This loss followed a victory over Marymount earlier that week, with a score of 233-260. The team was led by co-captain Amanda Aizuss ’13, who shot 40, or four over par, to win her medalist honors, followed by Maddy Abrahams ’14 and Wibawa, who both shot 43.

“Although our score wasn’t great, it’s a bit high for us, we still won by a lot and people who don’t usually play got a chance to play,” Aizuss said. “I was having issues with my irons going right, but my putting was great, so I managed to make pars without getting on many greens in regulation.”

“Each player has demonstrated a steady progression of improved skills and more clarity on the mental side of the game,” she said.

The team played in league prelims last Monday. Results were not available by press time.

DANIEL KIM/CHRONICLE

IN THE RECORD BOOKS: Kenji Porter ’05, Alexa Merz ’05, Jay Connolly ’05 and Jared Bell ’05, left to right, stand together on the field at halftime of the Homecoming football game. Their pictures will go on an already established board in Taper Gym.

Athletic office inducts Hall of Fame members at Homecoming football game

By David Gisser

Four graduates from the class of 2005 were inducted into the Wolverine Hall of Fame at a ceremony during halftime of the Homecoming football game against El Camino Real.

Head of Athletics Audrius Barzdukas introduced Jared Bell ’05, Jay Connolly ’05, Alexa Merz ’05 and Kenji Porter ’05 to the crowd and placed Harvard-Westlake Hall of Fame med-

als around the athletes’ necks as he listed their accomplishments.

Bell broke three track and field school records and placed sixth in C.I.F. Southern Section. His records still stand as the fastest times ever run at Harvard-Westlake in the two-mile race, the mile race and the 800 meter race.

“For me it means just knowing that all the hard work and all the sweat I put into Harvard-Westlake cross coun-

try and track and field would be remembered,” Bell said.

At CIF finals, Merz swam third place in the 50-meter freestyle and second place in the 100-meter freestyle. While swimming for the Wolverines, she accumulated 11 All-American honors.

Connolly played water polo and Porter was a two-time CIF champion and an all-state wrestler.

Plaques of the athletes are on the Hall of Fame wall in Taper Gym.

Water polo plays rival Loyola tonight Continued from page A1

DANIEL KIM/CHRONICLE

BREAKING TACKLES: Correy King ’13 goes for as many yards after contact as possible in the team’s 39-31 homecoming victory against El Camino Real high school.

Football loses first league match Continued from page C1

“We were playing hard at the end of the game, and I’m very proud of how we played, and we stayed in there, but we have to get stronger,” Eumont said.

Not only was last week’s game an improvement from last year’s 34-14 defeat against St. Francis, but the Wolverines had won four straight nonleague games before the loss.

At 4-2 a little more than half way through the season, the Wolverines already have more wins than last year’s team dud all season. The team went 2-7-1 last year.

“We just have more experience, more guys that played longer,” linebacker Richard Chung ’12 said.

The Wolverines beat Sylmar 51-14 then shut out Leuzinger 49-0. In both wins, the Wolverines’ defense outscored its opponents.

The defense scored 16 points on two touchdowns off of turnovers and a safety against Sylmar and scored two points off a safety against Leuzinger.

The Wolverines then won at Sylmar 49-13 before a 39-31 win against El Camino Real on Homecoming. Kanoff has led the Wolverines’ no-huddle offense with 23 touchdowns and three interceptions.

Chung said both of the team’s losses this year have come against pass-heavy offenses while their four wins have come against run-heavy offenses. He attributed the defense’s success against the running game to the fact that they just have more experience defending running games.

The Wolverines will play Chaminade this Friday, Oct. 21 and Cathedral on Oct. 28. They then close out their regular season with a two-game homestand, hosting Serra and St. Paul.

JV Football JV Football has not won a game so far this season due to a lack of personel.

Overall Record: 0-1 League Record: 0-1 Last game: St. Francis: L (14-41)

Next game:

Tomorrow vs. Chaminade

NATHANSON’S/CHRONICLE

“JV football allows players not on varsity to take the field on Saturdays and prove to people we can play.”

— Joey Lieberman ’14

frustration with his players, and he called the first timeout of the match to let his players hone in on their defense.

Momentum shifted back and forth to both teams throughout the match, as Cathedral tied the game three times, but freshman phenom Morio Saito ’15 and captain Alec Zwaneveld ’12 stole the show.

Saito scored two of the team’s 10 goals and Zwaneveld matched Saito, scoring goals late in the game to beat the Dons. The Wolverines were able to hold onto the lead in the fourth period to eventually win 10-7.

“This was a really important win for us because Cathedral is one of our big rivals, and this was our one chance to play in front of a home crowd,” attacker Brian Graziano ’12 said. “We rose to the task and were excited to win that game.”

The team won without the help of senior Langdon Froomer ’12. The attacker tore his labrum muscle in his right shoulder, costing him his season.

The win improved the team’s record to 12-6 overall heading in to today’s game with rival Loyola Cubs, a matchup that players have deemed the most important game of the season.

Flacks is pleased with the team’s performance so far this season and said his boys have what it takes to beat the Cubs, who stand in the third position in the CIF-Southern Section weekly rankings, five spots higher than the Wolverines.

“It is a great cross-town rivalry which has been exciting in past years, and hopefully this year we can bring it back to Harvard,” Flacks said.

Zwaneveld said this is the game to watch, considering the Wolverines lost both matches to the Cubs last season, including a nine-point loss at home.

“This is definitely the game that we need everybody at,” Zwaneveld said.

“We have been working harder than most people know and we are looking to knock [Loyola] off.”

Three of the Wolverines’ twelve

wins so far have come from teams they lost to last year, including Foothill, Ventura and Crespi.

One of the team’s most important wins so far was its 14-7 victory over Servite, who was ranked higher than the Wolverines at the time, Zwaneveld said.

“We went into [the match] wanting to prove a point,” Zwaneveld said.

“We thought that Servite being ranked higher than us wasn’t the best decision during the preseason, and I am glad we came out on top.”

After the game against Loyola, the team will head to San Jose for a weekend tournament, and it will play their final regular season match on Nov. 2 against Notre Dame.

A week later, the Wolverines will begin CIF Playoffs, looking to avenge their second round loss to Mater Dei last year.

“The boys have been very receptive to everything I have taught them,” Flacks said. “We have had limited time together, and they have done a good job learning my system.”

JV Water Polo The boys’ water polo team heads into its rivalry match with Loyola today with an undefeated league record.

Overall Record: 8-4 League Record: 2-0 Last two games: Agora: L (6-10) Alemany: W (16-6)

Next match: Today vs. Loyola at John C. Argo Swim Center, Coliseum

NATHANSON’S/CHRONICLE

“We’ve held our own as a team and just went 3-2 in a varsity tournament. We want nothing less than a crushing victory against Loyola.”

— Sacha Best ’13 SOURCE: HW.COM/ATHLETICS

Oct. 19, 2011

chronicle.hw.com

The fire still burns

By Aaron Lyons

Athletic Director Terry Barnum knew he wanted to play football at the University of Southern California when he was 6 years old and he and his dad watched the Trojans take on Ohio State at the Rose Bowl.

“I remember just falling in love with the school at that moment and wanting to be a part of it,” he said.

So when Barnum received a scholarship to play at USC, it was obvious to him that he was going to accept it.

Barnum was a standout athlete at Alemany High School, where he played football, and ran track. Barnum thinks that had he not run track, he probably

PRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF TERRY BARNUM

TROJAN PRIDE: Terry Barnum poses in uniform as a Trojan. His favorite moment of his career was his touchdown in the team’s 1996 Rose Bowl win.

wouldn’t have gotten a scholarship offer to USC. “The two sports really go hand-inhand,” Barnum said. “Being fast helps you in football.”

Barnum was recruited to USC as a running back but was switched to a more defensive role by then-head coach Larry Smith. However, after the switch, Barnum was not getting a lot of playing time.

There was a coaching change, and Barnum asked the new coach, John Robinson, if he could switch back to the running back position.

“I decided if I were to not play, I wanted to not play where I was best,” Barnum said. “I thought I was more of an offensive player by nature.”

Barnum was voted team captain during his senior year. He believed it was because people saw him as a leader who could unify all of the players on the team.

In the 1996 Rose Bowl against Northwestern University, Barnum caught a touchdown pass in the second quarter to give the team the momentum it needed to win the game 41-32. It is Barnum’s best memory throughout his football career, he said.

Barnum wanted to play football professionally but was not drafted. He just was not big enough or fast enough, Barnum said. Instead, he continued on to graduate school.

He now attends USC games when he can, but it is difficult because of all the Harvard-Westlake sports that go on during the week.

However, he tries to make it to at least one game a year and talks about football with his son.

Brian Flacks ’06 now leads both the boys’ and girls’ water polo programs this year as the new water polo head

Sports C7

Terry Barnum and Brian Flacks ’06, once star football and water polo player respectively, are now integral parts of the HarvardWestlake Athletic Program with administrative and coaching jobs.

DANIEL KIM/CHRONICLE

FROM PLAYER TO COACH: Brian Flacks ’06 crouches to talk to the team during its homecoming game. This is his first year coaching his former school’s water polo team. coach.

The athletic department conducted an extensive search last year and brought in people from around the world in hopes of finding a qualified coach.

In 2004 and 2006, Flacks assisted the Wolverines as a player to two CIF Division I quarterfinals and one CIF Division I semifinal. After high school, he played at University of California, Los

Angeles.

There, he red-shirted his freshman year then returned and played in seven games. He scored his only collegiate goal in an 18-3 win over Occidental in the Inland Empire Classic.

Flacks then went on to coach for the Los Angeles Water Polo Club for the past six years and was the graduate assistant for the Loyola Marymount University boys’ team for two years.

15% Discount for Harvard Westlake Students

Pick-ups and Dine-ins from the regular menu

The Chronicle

C8 Sports

Keeping up with

Oct. 19, 2011

Aaron de Toledo Varsity cross country runner

65

Miles per week

9:29

Fastest 2-mile time

14:59

Fastest 3-mile time

MICHAEL ARONSON/CHRONICLE

Aaron de Toledo ’12 leads the boys’ cross country team this season after years of training. He believes his experience sets him apart as a leader for the younger runners on the team, and he hopes to help the team take the state title this year.

By David Kolin

Q A Q A Q A Q A Q A

How do you push yourself to the limit?

de Toledo:

“I have recently started doing some extra workouts with a trainer who works on strength training and a lot of mental stuff. We have been working on that point when I feel like I can’t go any longer, or any farther or any faster. I push through that and use my other muscles, just thinking that I am on a mission to hit that time, doing whatever it takes and embracing the fact that it is going to hurt and just pushing through it.”

What is the biggest factor that has allowed you to reach your goals?

de Toledo:

“A lot of consistent training. [I’ve been training] the whole summer and continuing during the season I can look back and say ‘there was nothing I could’ve done differently to make me faster.’ Whatever happens at the end of the season happens, but my preparation has been right. I’ve really been focusing on just getting through all the workouts and not wasting any time, not wasting any days, and just being very consistent on being on the same page with my coach.”

How do you prepare before a race?

de Toledo:

“Before the race, I get very nervous, and I try to tell myself that no matter what happens, when the gun goes off and the race starts, I can keep up with the race for at least a mile, just because that’s the way training is and that’s the kind of shape I am in. I just have to keep telling myself that it is not that big of a deal. I do not start out hurting, I don’t start feeling the pain until later in the race. I can do the beginning of the race in my sleep, so I just have to keep telling myself that I have done it a lot before.”

As a senior on the team, how do you expect to be a leader?

de Toledo:

“Leading by example. I have been running at a high level for four years, doing all the right things and training really hard. If I were a ninth grader, and I looked at the exact image of what I am now, I would think there is no way that I [would be] able to get there. I wasn’t very fast in ninth grade and I wasn’t in great shape. It’s not about doing it all in one year. It’s about being consistent. [I am] just trying to instill the mentality in everybody that there is no one who can’t be as successful as I have been. Yes, I am not the top athlete in the country. I don’t have that kind of talent, but to be a very competitive and successful cross country runner, it has a little to do with talent. It’s more about hard work.”

What is your ultimate goal this season?

de Toledo:

“The ultimate goal is to win a state championship as a team and as an individual. We came so close last year and that still hurts. I want to get back there and get some revenge, I guess. We have a lot of races before then, and I care how I do in those races, but the ultimate goal is winning that final race in the state championship.”

DANIEL KIM/CHRONICLE