March 2023 Issue

24% of students admitted

By Averie Perrin

e school’s acceptance rate hit an all-time low this year, according to data from the Admission O ce. e overall admit rate was 24% in 2023, 11% lower than last year’s admit rate of 33%, not including students admitted from the waitlist.

is year, the school received a record 1,394 applications, the highest number to date. Admission decisions were released March 10, o ering 226 spots to students entering seventh grade, compared to 274 o ered in 2022. 98 spots were o ered to incoming ninth graders, 27 less than the 125 spots o ered in 2022.

In an email, President Rick Commons said over-enrollment last year led to the lower acceptance rate this year.

“It was an extremely competitive year, with an increase in applications of over 10% and nearly a 20% decrease in the number of o ers made, because historically high yields last year had us beginning the year at a higher enrollment than we had planned,” Commons said.

Commons said no applicants were admitted from the waitlist last year.

“We came in above our targets, and we didn’t use the waiting list at all last year,” Commons said.

• Continued on hwchronicle.com

SLIDE becomes Directed Study course

By Davis M arks

Student Leaders for Inclusion, Diversity and Equity (SLIDE) will be transitioning from meeting during lunch to having an o cial Directed Study course during the 2023-2024 school year. Unlike other student leadership groups like Prefect Council and Community Council, SLIDE does not currently have a scheduled course.

e SLIDE Directed Study will function as a common meeting time for the group’s work, as well as a student leadership development course. e class will be made up of the ve SLIDE cochairs and one leader from each

a nity group.

Upper School Visual Arts Teacher and DEI Coordinator Reb Limerick said an o cial SLIDE course will allow leaders to devote more time to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) work.

“ is year is the fourth year of SLIDE, which is developing cohesion, momentum and in uence,” Limerick said. “Although student leaders dedicate signicant time and energy to attending SLIDE meetings and planning SLIDE events, SLIDE does not show up on their course list as Prefect Council, Community Council and Peer Support do. e project of shifting this onceper-cycle meeting into an o cial

Sta remembers Andres Quintanar

By Fallon Dern Upper School Maintenance Team Member Andres Quintanar

died in an early-morning car crash in Porter Ranch on March 5, according to the California Highway Patrol.

Quintanar, 37, was killed in a wrong-way collision at 4:25 a.m. One other passenger died during the crash and the two drivers were taken to a nearby hospital with injuries.

President Rick Commons sent the school an email sharing the news about Quintanar’s passing March 7. In the email, Com-

mons said Quintanar will be remembered for his good-natured personality and work ethic.

“His colleagues describe him as quietly charismatic, a hundred percent dependable and deeply loyal to Harvard-Westlake despite his relatively brief time working at the school,” Commons said in an email. “Among a group of Harvard-Westlake employees who distinguish themselves by their remarkable work ethic, [Quintanar] stood out for his uncomplaining e ort. His positive attitude was infectious, and his warm smile uplifted everyone he encountered, whether at dawn

setting up for a school assembly or at midnight cleaning up after an alumni event.”

Since Quintanar’s passing, his family has organized a GoFundMe to cover his funeral and memorial expenses. e GoFundMe has already exceeded its $15,000 goal by several thousand dollars, with donations from teachers, faculty, sta and parents. In the fundraiser’s description, organizer Cassandra Perez-Sanchez shared Quintanar’s importance to his friends and family.

“Andres was an amazing son, brother, cousin, uncle and oh so much more,” Perez-Sanchez

course will formalize the work SLIDE does and give us double the amount of meeting time we currently have to work and collaborate in person.”

SLIDE Co-Chair Fernanda Herrera ’23 said the o cial SLIDE course will have both bene ts and drawbacks.

“SLIDE becoming an o cial class will allow more time for students to plan events and hold discussions surrounding DEl issues at the school,” Herrera said. “It will elevate the experience students have at [the school] because [SLIDE] will have more time to contribute meaningfully to our community. On the contrary, having SLIDE be a class

might bar people from signing up to be a SLIDE co-chair or a nity group leader if it means dedicating a large amount of time. ere are so many class options available that I would understand if someone chooses to [take] a di erent directed study.”

Limerick said that the SLIDE class will help members get more work done, but they will miss out on other classes possibly.

“Attending this Directed Study will be required for everyone who applies and is accepted, [so] some students will have to prioritize SLIDE over another class they may have wanted to take during the Directed Study timeslot,” Limerick said.

He was very fond of his upbringing and told great stories of his life to anyone who would ask. He would be that ‘sunshine,’ whether it was 6 a.m. or at the end of a long day.”

Ed Wormald

wrote. “Most importantly, [he was] a caring and kind person with a heart of gold that always managed to keep a big smile on his face despite any life obstacles. His laugh was unique and contagious, so much so that as I write this out I can’t help but smile remembering his laugh.”

Plant Manager Ed Wormald said Quintanar was a caring per-

l wood

son who loved connecting with other community members. “[Quintanar] was raised in Los Angeles and talked a lot about his family and childhood friends,” Wormald said.“He was very fon d of his upbringing and told great stories of his life to anyone who would ask. He would be that ‘sunshine,’ whether it was 6 a.m. or at the end of a long day.”

ISIR introduced to Middle School

By Davis M arks

Head of Middle School Jon Wimbish announced the creation of an Interdisciplinary Studies and Independent Research (ISIR) department at the Middle School in February. English Teacher Ryan Wilson will serve as the chair of this newly established department. e school created the Kutler Center and ISIR department to honor Brendan Kutler’s ’10 passion for multidisciplinary studies, following his death in 2009. Since the opening of the Kutler Center in 2012, the ISIR department has exclusively served upper school students.

Wilson said the middle school ISIR department will provide middle school students with the opportunity to explore new and interesting topics.

“ e ISIR department is all about celebrating your intellectual interests and sharing what you’ve learned in a creative way,” Wilson said. “ at kind of academic experience certainly can and should be open to middle school students.”

Wilson said he hopes the new ISIR department encourages students to develop new interests and skills.

“What our ISIR classes will all do is give students the chance to collaborate and present on culturally relevant topics,” Wilson said. “ e hope is that this department-wide approach will help develop a set of collaborative and presentational skills, and, more importantly, middle school students will enjoy it and feel genuinely engaged. We all want to keep growing and contributing when we feel excited by what

we’re learning.”

President Rick Commons said the presence of the ISIR department on both campuses allows the school to embrace new educational ideas while still maintaining its academic traditions.

“I think that we are a traditional school academically, yet we want to be a place where innovative and interdisciplinary thinking are a part of every student’s experience,” Commons said. “Having interdisciplinary studies as a department enables us to meet students and the evolving world of education where they are right now. When you have a school that follows a traditional curriculum, it can be hard, but the ISIR department allows us to do that. It’s exciting that we’re going outside the bounds of the traditional, even as we maintain our long standing departments.”

PLANNING AT POLLYANNA: Teachers attended the annual Pollyanna Conference, the largest gathering of K-12 educators in the LA area, in order to discuss the role of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) work in schools. Attending the conference was part of the school’s framework of DEI this year.

ISIR IN SESSION: e Kutler Center celebrated 10 years of ISIR this year. Now, an ISIR department is being introduced to the Middle School.

School hosts Nobel Laureate and astrophysicist Andrea Ghez

By A lden Detmer and M ejo Liao

e Kutler Center hosted the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics winner Andrea Ghez (Evan ’19, Miles ’24) as the 2022-2023 Scholar in Residence March 14-16. Ghez spoke at community-wide events and visited numerous physics, journalism, business and various Kutler Center classes.

Ghez is a professor of Physics & Astronomy at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and the Lauren B. Leichtman & Arthur E. Levine chair in Astrophysics. In 2020, she became the fourth woman to receive the Nobel Prize for Physics after discovering a supermassive black hole in the Milky Way’s galactic center.

e Scholar in Residence program, founded by Former Performing Arts Teacher Ted Walch, seeks to enhance students’ experiences by inviting

scholars on campus for three days to share their expertise.

Ghez said she accepted the invitation to become the Scholar in Residence because it was a perfect opportunity to give back to the community.

“I’ve had two kids go through Harvard-Westlake and am super grateful for the amazing education that [my] kids get here,” Ghez said. “So, in some sense, this is my way of giving back. We can all have di erent ways of giving back, but this is a way in which I could do that in a meaningful way.”

Ghez, who attended the University of Chicago Lab School, said her love for astrophysics came from her high school science experience and motivated her to inspire today’s high schoolers.

“I’ve always felt really strongly about the importance of role models in terms of encouraging a more diverse set of scientists,” Ghez said. “High school is a really critical point for teens in their

education. e main priority is continuing to open up your understanding of what’s possible. It’s really important for young [people] to see that scientists don’t always look the same. By the time I reached [the California Institute of Technology], there were very, very few women in physics, so it became really clear to me that [I needed] to commit to being a visible role model.”

At an HW Empower event on March 16, Ghez spoke to students about working in a male-dominated eld. Rheanna Vradiy ’25 said Ghez inspired her to explore her interests, no matter what they are.

“I’m still deciding on what I want to do in college and I wanted to see in what direction she took her life with this particular interest,” Vradiy said. “I am interested in astrophysics, but I also just wanted to hear about a women’s perspective in a male-dominated eld.”

• Continued on hwchronicle.com

Administration hosts support sessions with Jewish advocate

By Sammy Glassman

Jewish Community Organizer and advocate Brian Hertz begun his monthly after-school presentations about Jewish identity and antisemitism Feb. 23 and March 9. Hertz currently serves as the Assistant Director for American Jewish Committee (AJC) ACCESS Global, empowering young Jewish professionals around the globe to unite with other communities against hate, according to an email from Head of Upper School Beth Slattery. Hertz said some central themes in the meetings are coming together as a strong group of Jewish allies and sharing encounters of antisemitism.

“I believe the rst two meetings have been critical opportunities to explore how we form our identities and how we exist in community,” Hertz said. “I’ve brought in Jewish texts to guide the conversations, focusing on creating opportunities for students to re ect on their own ex-

periences and better understand the power of pride in our identities and narratives.”

Hertz said he has found students’ opinions on culture and religion insightful.

“I’ve been very impressed with students’ drive to grapple with very complex ethical and theological issues,” Hertz said. “Our society is going through a transformation as we increase our collective empathy and consciousness of others’ experiences.”

Head of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and Associate Director of Admission Janine Jones said students have been open to talk to Hertz, and that she hopes participation will grow in the coming sessions.

“ e meetings have gone very well substantively,” Jones said. “I was able to attend the last session and students responded to him very well and were very talkative.

I hope that attendance will grow since we’ve changed the time to during the school day.”

Jones said there are bene ts

By S ara Segil

e school adjusted the annual spring break college tour itinerary, replacing the Southern college tour with a New England tour. e Midwestern tour, which is still available for students, has also been changed to now include Villanova Univeristy, Haverford University and the University of Pennsylvania.

e New England tour will visit a number of Boston area schools — including Emerson College, Boston University, Boston College and Brandeis University — as well as Amherst College, Dartmouth College, the University of Vermont, the University of Connecticut and Brown University.

The New England tour has not been offered for seven years, according to Upper School Dean Nia Kilgore. Kilgore said the tour will help broaden students’ horizons when considering colleges.

“We want to be able to see schools we’ve never seen before, and go back to ones we haven’t in a while,” Kilgore said. “All while trying to reach the goal of showing kids di erent types. New England has so many schools, from urban to rural, small to large that can show students the bigger picture.”

Kilgore said the change was instituted in part as a response to travel concerns so that Boston could be used as a hub for multiple nights, therefore reducing transportation time.

“ e long drives on the Midwest tour were brutal for everyone, myself included,” Kilgore said. “Students will be able to spend more time on campuses, and less in transport.”

Savannah Mashian ’24 said she is excited to go on the modi ed Midwest tour during spring break.

“I’m really excited to go on the trip and get a better idea of schools I’m considering applying to,” Mashian said. “I’m particularly excited for the University of Michigan because I’ve heard so much about the campus but never been.”

Preston Yeh ’23, who went on the Midwest tour last year, said he wished the New England tour was made available when he was signing up for the college tour.

“My favorite stops were New York and D.C. since the city vibes were nice,” Yeh said. “I prefer the new itinerary, though, since a lot of the schools I applied to were in Boston, and there seems to be less driving on the new trip.”

Emily Malkan ’23, who went on the Midwest tour last year, said she appreciated the convenience of the school planning the complexities of traveling to various cities and states.

“Being able to go to that many states and cities in such a short amount of time is something I’ll probably never do again just because it’s so hard to plan,” Malkan said.

“My favorite part was going to a di erent city everyday, or sometimes even three states in one day. A lot of people didn’t like the long bus rides, but I personally loved them because I got to just look out the window and look at the scenery.”

Malkan said though the tour didn’t solidify her college list, it allowed her to learn more about schools and get excited about the college process.

“I didn’t know what I wanted at all, so seeing a lot of di erent variety helped me realize what I wanted a little more,” Malkan said. “ ough my list still changed for months after the college tour, so it just helped me get excited for college.”

to the discussion format during the meetings, but that she still believes students need to be supported in other ways.

“I wouldn’t say the school settled on this format as opposed to others,” Jones said. “ e school decided to utilize this format as one tool in its toolbox to support students. Everyone responds di erently to di erent modalities in terms of support so it is important that we o er multiple opportunities.”

Zoe Kramar ’24, who attended both meetings, said Hertz helped her understand that antisemitism is not just a campus issue.

“I think the meetings were a productive way to address the issues of antisemitism in general and on campus,” Kramar said. “We’ve been talking a lot about the idea of identity and personal experiences with antisemitism and how that applies to a broader sense of community.” ree more meetings are scheduled for March 21, April 11 and May 3.

L. Wood Nia Kilgore

OUT OF THIS WORLD: Kutler Center Scholar in Residence Andrea Ghez poses with EMPOWER. Ghez won the Nobel Prize in Physics for discovering a supermassive blackhole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy.

ALDEN DETMER/CHRONICLE

Addiction specialist presents

By Caroline Plunkett

Beit T’Shuvah Director of Youth and Family Services Doug Rosen spoke to juniors about substance addiction during class meeting March 15.

Beit T’Shuvah is a Jewish addiction rehabilitation organization that provides integrated care in a community setting.

Rosen told the class that he is a recovered drug addict.

“My goal is to inform you and to educate you,” Rosen said. “I damaged my physical health, my mental health, my brain by being an addict. I don’t want that to happen to any of you.”

Rosen said the intentions behind substance use impact how addiction forms.

“If you were to take an MRI of my brain playing video games in the seventh grade and me on heroin ten years later, you would see I achieved the same e ect,” Rosen said. “It does not matter what you do; it matters why you’re doing it, how you’re doing it and if your life falls apart [without it].”

Rosen said his presentation was not aimed to scare students but rather to educate them about the e ects of substance abuse.

“If, once you’re 21, you want to have a glass of wine, [you can],” Rosen said. “ e key to a healthy relationship with potentially addictive substances is intention and moderation.”

Aldo Ayala ’24 said Rosen’s less idealistic mindset set him apart from other drug prevention assemblies the school has hosted.

“Most speakers just tell us to never do anything, and that can be unrealistic,” Ayala said. “It was refreshing to see them be okay with some stu in moderation.”

Head Prefect candidates speak before junior class during preliminary election speeches

By Tate Sheehy

Head Prefect candidates delivered speeches to juniors in Rugby eater as part of the election’s preliminary round March 17. Candidates introduced themselves before being asked a prepared and unprepared question by Head Prefects Simon Lee ’23 and Yoshimi Kimura ’23.

Junior Prefects Bari LeBari ’24, Assistant News Editor Davis Marks ’24, Isiuwa Odiase ’24 and Nyla Shelton ’24 are running for the position, in addition to Glory Ho ’24 and Elizabeth Johnstone ’24, who are not currently Prefects. Juniors received the candidate statements from all six candidates via email a week before the speeches.

Shelton said the speeches are

an important opportunity for candidates to convey their ideas to their class.

“Although candidates submit a candidate statement and an infographic for the Wolverscreens, our speech reaches the most students, [as] each candidate is able to directly address the student body and share hopes and ideas for the coming year and the future of our school and community,” Shelton said. “Speeches can really allow for each candidate’s character to be demonstrated, allowing the voters a way to assess what they want and value in their future Head Prefect.”

Johnstone said being a part of the election process has allowed her to connect with fellow candidates.

“I’ve really enjoyed getting to know the other candidates, most

of whom I don’t really get to talk to on a daily basis,” Johnstone said. “It’s been so awesome that we’re all so supportive of each other and that we can all give each other hugs when we need them.”

Will Sonneborn ’24 said although he had an idea of who he was going to vote for before the speeches, the assembly helped him solidify his votes.

“ ere were some people who I knew I was already gonna vote for before I even heard the speeches,” Sonneborn said. “But de nitely for the fourth vote, I felt like I was listening to the speeches [to decide] the fourth person.”

Sonneborn said that candidates who do not have experience as Prefect or have lost elections in years past had more to prove.

“For the people who were either not Prefects or had lost a Prefect election in previous years, I think they felt like they had a lot more to prove,” Sonneborn said. “ ey certainly tried to get their point across simply because they don’t have the reputation from being a previous Prefect.”

Johnstone said her experience as a candidate who has not served on Prefect Council before is different than her peers who have.

“I’m in an interesting position in that I’m the only person running who hasn’t been on Prefect Council before,” Johnstone said. “While other candidates can highlight their track records as Prefects, I have to work a little di erently. My campaign has to be more forward-looking.”

Robotics joins FIRST

By Saisha Kumar

e Upper School Robotics

Team competed in the Central Valley Regional Tournament in Fresno on March 11 and 12. is year, the robotics team transitioned to For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), a speci c style of robotics in which teams must build a robot that plays a game chosen by FIRST. e team attended the tournament in attempt to qualify for the FIRST World Championship Tournament held in Houston, Texas and will attend their second regional qualifying tournament on March 17-19. ey placed ninth in the quali cation matches and made it through the quarter nals and to the elimiation bracket. During the rst elimination round, the robot’s motors failed and the team was forced to withdraw from the competition.

Robotics Team member Matthew Ahn ’25 said the team has been preparing ever since the tournament game was released.

“We have been preparing for the tournament since Jan. 7, but have been preparing and learning to use new machinery since the start of the school year,” Ahn said. “Last year we built a robot for last

season and attended a postseason tournament to learn the ropes.”

Robotics Team member Riyan Kadribegovic ’25 said there were many steps involved in developing a robot for the competition.

“Our rst step was to create a design for the robot, which took place over a few days, and then [we] started building,” Kadribegovic said. “In the past few weeks, to prepare, we’ve been ne-tuning wiring, coding the intake and the arm as well as practicing driving it.”

Kadribegovic said the team bene tted from the tournament.

“We learned a lot and grew as a team,” Kadribegovic said. “Since this is Harvard-Westlake’s rst FIRST tournament in six years, this tournament was a huge learning experience for us.”

Member of the Robotics Team Benjamin Ren ’24 said the team hopes to qualify for the FIRST World Championship at Los Angeles Regionals on March 17-19.

“I have high hopes for [Los Angeles Regionals] because last weekend was the rst ever regional that we’ve been to, and we did really well for our rst time,” Ren said. “I think for Los Angeles, we’d be more prepared, and I think we de nitely will be qualifying for Texas or Worlds this year.”

RUTHLESS ROBOTS: Members of the Upper School Robotics Team and Mathematics Teacher and Robotics Coach Andew eiss gather around their robot before it competes at the Central Valley Regional Tournament.

SPEAKING HER MIND: Glory Ho ’24 delivers her Head Prefect preliminary election speech to the junior class in Rugby eater. Ho is running for Head Prefect alongisde Assistant News Editor Davis Marks ’24, Bari LeBari ’24, Nyla Shelton ’24, Isiuwa Odiase ’24 and Elizabeth Johnstone ’24.

New Academic Classes

31 new classes were introduced at the Academic Fair for the 2023-2024 school year. Here is an inside look at four of them.

Catalyzing Change: Entrepreneurial Thinking

By Nathan Wang and William Liu

e Kutler Center introduced a new Interdisciplinary Studies and Independent Research course called Catalyzing Change: Entrepreneurial inking. According to the course description, the course will o er students an opportunity to explore the world of entrepreneurship through project-based and action- oriented work.

Starting next academic year, the class is open to all upper school students.

e course will feature guest speakers from alumni and several advisors for students. Head of Communications and Strategic Initiatives Ari Engelberg ’89, who will likely teach the class next year, said the course was designed with a focus on problem-solving and entrepreneurial collaboration.

“ is is the rst full-year academic course that focuses on o ering students a foundational experience and skill set in entrepreneurial thinking,” Engelberg said. “ e Catalyzing Change course will give students the skills and condence they need to tackle complex chal-

Graphic Design through the Medium of Merch

lenges in the real world, whether those are business challenges or social [or] policy challenges. [Students will learn] problem-solving; design thinking; market analysis; competitive analysis; nancial projections and analysis; organizational design strategy; and marketing.”

Entrepreneur-in- Residence Mike McGinley said the class will integrate aspects of both HW Venture and HW Works. “ is is going to be a class [where] you’re going to be really excited [that] you’ve learned something,” McGinley said. “We look at this as an upgrade in trying to consolidate some of the stu that we’re doing and integrate the other things that are already happening at Harvard-Westlake into a real class.”

Kian Shari ’24, who is interested in taking the course, said he appreciates the innovative element of entrepreneurship.

“Entrepreneurship is so interesting because it allows you to think creatively without any rules,” Shari said. “Unlike typical school subjects, entrepreneurship rewards you for doing something that no one else has done before, which makes it so unique and cool.”

Shari said he is optimistic about the new course.

“I took the Venture: Catalyzing Change directed study last year and I really enjoyed it, so I’m sure this class will be just as fun,” Shari said. “[I am] excited to learn more about it and maybe t it into my senior schedule.”

In Search of Self: How Literature Shapes Us

By H annah Shahidi and Z oe Goor

e English Department is adding a new elective available to juniors and seniors called In Search of Self: How Literature Shapes Us for the 2023-2024 school year. English Teacher Jocelyn Medawar will be teaching the course. Students in the class will participate in group discussions surrounding various texts and will be assessed through creative prompts rather than essays characteristic of other English courses. is course aims to allow students to focus on literature as a path to personal, philosophical, spiritual and intellectual growth.

Medawar said she hopes the course helps students see reading in a more positive light.

“This course is for students who

will want to focus on literature as a path to some kind of personal growth,” Medawar said. “ at’s ultimately what I’m getting at. I think that a lot of students would like a space to read literature, without the pressure of having to write an essay, without the pressure of reading quizzes. It’s about a di erent way to read.”

While the course will replace Medawar’s elective Shakespeare and Our World, Medawar said she intends for the classroom culture of the new course to have a similar feeling to that of her old elective. Carter Staggs ’23, who took Medawar’s current elective, said his class allowed him to get to know other students on a more personal level.

“People very much bring themselves to the class in a way that you don’t see in some more heavily academic intensive courses,” Staggs said. “Because of that, you get to really know the people in the class with you, and I would suppose that is why it feels so much like a family.”

English Department Head Laurence Weber said he hopes the course provides students with real-world analytical skills.

“Like all English classes, [I hope] that it nds students where they [are] at and gets them to feel more connected to each other and a world in which we [are] constantly interpreting the details,” Weber said.

By A lden Detmer

e Visual Arts Department introduced its new “Graphic Design through the Medium of Merch” Kutler Center course at the Academic Fair on March 7. Students will learn about the principles of design, layout and composition of artwork and apply it to the production of merchandise, according to the course description.

e course will occupy a block for a full year and will be open to all upper school students. e goal is for students to emerge with their own visual identity, products and skills to communicate through two-dimensional design.

Visual Arts Teacher Whitney Lasker, who will teach the course next year, said he was inspired by the power of clothing’s message.

“T-shirts, in particular, have the ability to convey humor, show support for a favorite band or sports team, or even make a statement about fashion,” Lasker said. “ is imagery can connect us with a passing stranger who also is a fellow fan or supporter. I have personally always been conscious of the message my clothing sends, and I have often wished I had the skills to turn my ideas into a shirt that I could wear and share with others. In creating my graphic design course, my goal is to empower students to turn their own ideas into physical objects that can be shared with the world.”

Lasker said graphic design’s ability

to empower personal expression sets it apart from other visual arts classes.

“Graphic design is di erent than traditional forms of art, as it usually has a function in our day-to-day life,” Lasker said. “Not to say graphic design can’t be ne art or ne art doesn’t have a function. However, good graphic design combines artistic expression with problem solving and commu nication.

Other visual art classes may focus primarily on aesthetics and person al expres sion and techniques. is course will also touch on these elements but as they relate to e ectively communicating a message or solving a visual problem.”

Kai Do ’24 said she plans to take the course next year to further explore her design interests.

“I’ve always wanted to branch out more into fashion and the other side of graphic design, since I’ve always been into art and making layouts for magazines,” Do said. “At the Activities Fair, [Lasker] was talking about how there’s going to be many mediums we get to work with. Screen printing and seeing how other companies design their merch should be super cool.”

English IV: Apocalypse Now

By A lex Dinh

e English Department is creating a new English class for seniors called English IV: Apocalypse Now for the 2023-2024 school year. In past years, seniors could choose between four honors-level options and one option in the regular track. Now, seniors will have two options. e class will analyze texts, graphic novels, lms and series about di erent ways the world might end, including Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel, Zone One by Colson Whitehead and Severance by Ling Ma.

Students will read about life after climate disasters, civil wars, global pandemics, zombie invasions, nuclear attacks and supernatural interventions and respond with critical writing, personal essays, book reviews, blogs and fan ction.

English Teacher Darcy Buck said the primary reason for creating a new course was to create more choices for seniors who don’t want to take an honors English class.

“One of the things that we were all thinking about was choice,” Buck said. “Right now we have a lot of advanced o erings for students who really want to charge hard as seniors in English. But there was only one course that was o ered for students who wanted to spend their honors chips in other places.”

In addition to critical writing assignments, students will also be completing creative writing assignments, fan- ctions, book reviews and blog posts. Buck will be one of the teachers of the class and said they hope the class will o er a more enjoyable version of English to some students.

“Our hope is to have a course that’s really fun,” Buck said. “I think for a lot of students, by the time they get to senior year, they can feel a little salty about the fact that they have to take an English class. We want to create a course that focuses on the pleasures of reading and thinking about and talking about books that are wildly speculative but also quite relevant to our lives.”

Morgan Orwitz ’24 said she is con

MUN travels to New York

By Georgia Grad

e school’s Model United Nations (MUN) team traveled to New York City to attend the National High School Model United Nations (NHSMUN) conference from March 15-18. e conference put them into committees and assigned a country and debatable topic to solve.

MUN Secretary and Treasurer Jake Lancer ’24 said that this conference provided the team with an opportunity to apply the skills they had been working on.

“We brought some younger people with us, and they got more opportunities and experience,” Lancer said. “ ey’ve been practicing a lot, so I was really excited to see them improve because I’ve been invested in their progression over the past couple of months. For myself, just the opportunity to get to go to a big conference was amazing, and I was excited to compete and just try my hardest.”

Lancer said that while team members took the conference seriously, it was also an opportunity to spend time together as a group.

“It was a travel conference, so we stayed as a team multiple nights, which I think added a greater sense of community,” Lancer said. “We’ve done travel trips, but not cross country.”

MUN Vice President Owen Huang ’24 said both returning and new delegates on the team are performing strongly this season.

“We’ve had a lot of success this year winning as a delegation at e [University of California, San Diego], the [University of California, Santa Barbara] and Marymount High School,” Huang said. “We’ve also had a good amount of individual awards, and I think that in the last couple of conferences of the year, we’re going to be able to build o of that, which is pretty exciting. One of the main things that we try to do with MUN is just meet new people.”

Prefect Council attends student leadership summit with Campbell Hall and Buckley

By Everett L akey

Prefect Council met with student leaders from Campbell Hall and e Buckley School on March 9 to discuss their respective student councils and honor boards.

Head Prefect Yoshimi Kimura ’23 said the meeting happened after Campbell Hall High School Student Council President Lila McNamee reached out to her and Head Prefect Simon Lee ’23.

“ e purpose of the summit was to understand what other [independent schools] in the area were doing in terms of student government, especially since the way that their council works are always di erent than [ours],” Kimura said. “It was a really great chance to not only

learn about other systems but get to meet some of the other student leaders in the area and make friends and learn from each other as best as we could.”

Sophomore Prefect Victor Suh ’25 said the meeting was insightful since it allowed him to consider the intricacies of Honor Boards and representative councils.

“ e focus of what each council really devotes their time to is fundamentally a little bit di erent,” Suh said.

“I noticed our school is much more academically based, as you might imagine. So the Honor Code holds much more weight here. Students know it’s something legitimate [and] something that they should be

Former advisor publishes book

By Mejo Liao

Former Chronicle Advisor Kathleen Neumeyer published her book “Advising the Chronicle: How I taught high school journalism students to run billion-dollar companies (and you can too).” Neumeyer was the Communications Department Head for 24 years, overseeing 192 issues of e Chronicle.

Neumeyer said she wrote the book to share how high school journalism a ected the careers of her former students after reading an article by Zillow CEO Spencer Rasco ’93 (Sophia ’23, Luke ’27).

“My book was inspired by a column written by [Rasco ] who was the co-editor of the Chronicle my rst year as the full time advisor, 1992 to 1993,” Neumeyer said. “He wrote a column on fortune. com on Sept. 1, 2015, with the headline ‘My High School Journalism Teacher Taught Me How to Run Billion-Dollar Companies.’ His point was that

high school journalism prepares students for almost any career they decide to pursue, not just in journalism.”

Rasco said he is honored to have inspired Neumeyer’s book.

“It is humbling to think that I was able to play a role in inspiring [Neumeyer] to write a book about her experience at Harvard-Westlake because she was such an instrumental teacher and mentor to me,” Rasco said. “To think that the roles are now somehow reversed, that I have helped return the favor by inspiring her in this stage of her career, is incredibly rewarding.”

Neumeyer said she proceeded to interview students to understand how high school journalism a ected their future careers, especially those that are not journalism-centered.

“I interviewed more than 50 former students and asked them if there was anything they learned in high school journalism that they still use,” Neumeyer said. “ ey outlined for me all the ways e

Chronicle prepared them to design theme parks and video games, to program streaming services, to run school districts and major sports enterprises, to practice law and medicine and nonpro ts. A former student who is a rabbi said that what he learned from journalism is the most important of his rabbinic skill set.”

Rasco said he hopes that educators and coaches alike reading Neumeyer’s book will learn from her example and teach the next successful students.

“[Neumeyer] was a phenomenal teacher and treated her students with enormous maturity,” Rasco said. “She was one of the rst adults that I remember treating me like an adult even though I was still a student, and the trust that she placed in all of us inspired her students to rise to the occasion. Hopefully, other educators will read [Neumeyer’s] book and become even better instructors, mentors and coaches to generations of future students.”

mindful of. On the ip side, I’ve noticed throughout the year that we haven’t been so great at promoting school spirit.”

Kimura said the meeting was a great opportunity for making friends and understanding more about how each high school and their student leadership functioned.

“[I got an] understanding [of] how other people view things that I value like DEI e orts or inclusivity, school spirit and topics like that,” said Kimura. “It was interesting to hear other student leaders’ perspectives on those things and how they work at their schools. As a school, I think it’s always great to build relationships with other independent high

schools in the area. Since there’s a lot of fake competition between us where we kind of roast each other, I think it’s nice to come together for the purpose of unity.”

McNamee said she feels the event was a success and wants to continue meetings in the future.

“Our informal name for this council is the Los Angeles Sister School Committee,” McNamee said. “ e group had just been living on a group chat, [so] I wanted to bring that to life and make it a more o cial event. I really wish Notre Dame had been able to come to it, and I would like to expand more and have all of Buckley because a lot of Buckley was missing. But, I was pleased with how the rst round went, and I’d love to see more collaboration in the future.”

COLLABORATING COUNCILS: Prefect Council attended a student government summit with Campbell Hall and Buckley to hear about how other schools run their student councils and honor boards. Members of Campbell Hall’s Honor Board presented on their system and roles.

Victor Suh ’25

B-POSITIVE: e HW Parents Association’s blood drive was hosted in Chalmers East and West. All Upper School students at least 16 years of age were eligible to donate their blood to the school’s Spring Blood Drive.

Students donate to blood drive

By Crista K im and K atelyn K im

e HW Parents Association (HWPA) hosted a blood drive with the American Red Cross on March 9. Members of the community were invited to donate blood to the school’s Spring Blood Drive, which was held in Chalmers East and West.

HWPA Co-Chair Catherine Huang (Owen ’24) said according to a UCLA representative during the blood drive last year, 77% of their blood supply came from high school students.

Huang said holding blood drives has a large impact and she appreciates how the donors are supporting a greater cause to save lives.

“Every two seconds, someone in the United States needs blood, and every donation can save up to three lives,” Huang said. “I’m in awe of our donors who so generously take time away from their busy schedules to support this worthy cause

FisHW organizes lobster shing trip

By Eden C onner

FisHW led a lobster shing trip on the Huntington Beach Pier on March 17. Participants dropped lobster traps and ate a group dinner before shing o the dock and ending the night by pulling up the traps. e cost to attend was $10.80 for a license and $5 for bait. e group left the Middle School at 4 p.m. via shuttle and arrived back at midnight.

FisHW Student Leader Ryan Whiteman ’24 said the trip was open to people with any level of shing experience, and he plans to organize more in the future.

“I nd that shing is a sense of community,” Martin said. “Something we hope to capture in this trip is to not only go out there and try and get lobster and learn how to catch the mackerel and do the things o the pier together, but also to gain that sense of camaraderie.”

Ma said the Huntington Beach Pier is brimming with sea life to catch and he is looking forward to the variety of sh that will be available to catch on the Newport trip FishHW is planning for later in the year.

with their gifts of life.”

HWPA Co-Chair Pansy Yang (Audrey ’23, Alexander ’28, Lucy ’28) said she was moved by the number of people who were willing to donate blood.

“ e turnout is always inspiring,” Yang said. “Seeing all the students, faculty, sta and parents come together to generously donate time and blood makes me proud to be part of the Harvard-Westlake community.”

Kait Lazenby ’24, who donated blood for the rst time during this event, said giving blood helped them face their fear of needles and simultaneously help others.

“I actually have a fear of needles, so I decided to donate blood to get over that fear,” Lazenby said. “ is donation is important to me because it helped me overcome my fear, and in the process, I can assist other people too.”

Red Cross Club Vice President Ofek Levy ’23, who helped orga-

Seniors participate in new basketball league

By Fiona Ryan

Presentations Managing Editor Leo Saperstein ’23 organized a senior basketball season in Taper Gymnasium during Community Time. e regular season games took place from Feb. 24 to March 16, and the postseason tournament began on March 20.

Saperstein said he organized the league to create a more formal platform for his friends and classmates to play basketball against each other during their free time.

“My peripheral friends and core friends were often in the gym playing basketball during common free times,” Saperstein said. “I thought that if we organized this into something more concrete, it could be more competitive and a lot of fun for all of us.”

“ e Shelter” team member Nick Guagliano ’23 said seniors kept both strategy and cama-

raderie in mind while forming their teams.

“As far as teams go, it was sort of on a volunteer basis, at least for our team, but there was some strategy involved in the players who were picked,” Guagliano said. “For example, Andrew Arkow ’23 has really incredible dribbling skills and a great shot, so it was obvious that he would be on the team.”

Miles Toliver ’25 said the tournament is a popular event among the school community, even non-seniors, and he enjoys experiencing the electric energy in the gym rst-hand.

“It’s cool to watch the seniors play competitively and see people who play di erent sports play the sport I love,” Toliver said. “ ey obviously enjoy playing the sport, and it’s a great way to bring our student body together in a fun and unique way.”

Regardless of the outcomes of each game, Guagliano said he appreciates the opportunity to

nize signups for the drive, said he was amazed by the community’s eagerness for the drive.

“I think the amazing part of our school is that we really didn’t have to motivate people,” Levy said. “Plenty of people came up and asked if they could donate blood. ere were plenty of people who told us that they did it last year and were excited to do it again, and we just helped them sign up. I mainly helped people through the process of signing up without di culties, and it didn’t take much to motivate the community. I think this really speaks to our community.”

Levy said he hopes to include more queer people in future blood drives. e FDA released an updated draft guidance on blood donation eligibility requirements that pertain specifically to gay and bisexual men. Previously, gay and bisexual men were prohibited from donating blood, but the FDA is moving to ease regulations on this policy. While the guidance has not yet been nalized, the American Red Cross announced in a statement that they will continue to provide data to the FDA in support of further progress.

“Most people that went haven’t shed more than two times before, so anyone can join if they have interest,” Whiteman said. “Hopefully in either a month or two, we intend on renting a party boat and doing a trip out in the same area for sea shing instead of just shing o of a pier.”

FisHW member Mark Ma ’24 said shing is a great activity for making friends and relaxing.

Whiteman said while he had limited shing experience before FisHW Faculty Advisor Aaron Martin approached him about the club, Martin’s excitement about shing inspired Whiteman to relaunch FisHW and open up the shing trip to a larger group.

“I was working the lights and sound for a show with [Martin],” Whiteman said. “If you speak with him you’ll see he’s super enthusiastic about shing. We came together with the idea of booting it back up.”

Martin said he has shed his whole life, beginning in Wisconsin with his dad. He said shing is more enjoyable when it is done with other people as opposed to doing it alone.

“We mainly focused on halibut, mackerel and lobsters, but fishermen have said that catching small sharks may also be probable,” Ma said. “We’re currently looking towards another trip in Newport Beach, where we will go on fishing boats into the deep ocean and hopefully reel in some beautiful fish.” Martin said they were very excited to catch lobster, as the season is just about nearing its end.

“ e season closes March 22, which is why we got in the trip now or we’d probably wait out the weather a little,” Martin said. “ e spiny lobsters are found all over the rocky shores at night when the water warms, so whoever pulled up the tank with the lobsters in them got to take their findings home in the cooler.”

Whiteman said although he is not the most experienced sherman, he hopes that outings like this one will improve his abilities.

“I don’t have the biggest background in shing,” Whiteman said. “I’ve been a few times, but I am not an avid sherman by any means. Martin is really passionate about it, though, and inspired me to work with him to organize this trip.”

bond with his peers and friends by playing an entertaining sport that they are all fond of.

“Unfortunately, [my team and I have] done a bit more losing than we would have liked, but it was still a lot of fun to get to play with my friends,”

Guagliano said. “I de nitely don’t regret participating in the slightest, and I’m really glad we got to have this opportunity.”

Saperstein said he hopes to organize another tournament in the future with a newly added component to creating and

balancing teams.

“I have received requests from di erent members of the league to do another version [of the tournament] later in the year that includes a draft now that we understand each other’s talents and weaknesses,” Saperstein said.

Every two seconds, someone in the United States needs blood, and every donation can save up to three lives.”

Catherine Huang

LEAGUE HIM: Presentations Managing Editor Leo Saperstein ’23 shoots a contested oater layup. e Leo Saperstein Seniors Only First Amendment Basketball League plays games during Community Time in Taper Gym.

L. Wood Mark Ma ’24

CHLOE PARK/CHRONICLE

• Continued on hwchronicle.com

Captivating Crossword

Aidan Deshong ’24 and Science Teacher

Nathan Cardin collaborated to create this issue’s huge crossword. Good luck!

DOWN:

1. Ram of the Zodiac

2. First grade of high school (but last grade at our middle school)

3. Pester and pester and pester

4. Here, there and everywhere

5. Vampire’s enlarged tooth

6. Fix the outcome of

7. Boxer Muhammad

8. X, to Romans

9. More “out there”

10. Texas dish with beans and peppers

11. Blender button

12. Oboe’s orchestra section

13. Swedish “Dancing Queen” pop band

17. Follow orders

22. Chest of drawers

25. Loses moisture

26. Moral no-nos

27. Spanish grocery stores

28. Enemy

29. Term of address with an apostrophe

30. Free speech org.

31. Gas associated with bright colors

34. It hurts to stub one

35. ___ and outs

36. Dark, seedy bread

38. Rainbow Road vehicle for Mario

39. e utmost degree

ACROSS:

1. Paquin or Kendrick

5. Wooden box

20.

Kenobi

38. Leg joints

40. PlayStation producer

41. ____ vera

42. Pings on Twitter

43. Birds that y in a V

44. Desire for science at the Upper School?

48. Discipline studied in Feldman-Horn

49. Maya Angelou or Langston Hughes, for example

50. Peter Gri n, to Stewie

53. Rojo or verde condiment

56. Type of rice sometimes used in Indian cooking

58. Ginger beer?

59. Desire for history at the Upper School?

63. Sounds of hesitation

64. Outlook message

65. Come up

66. ___ Vegas

67. Megafans, slangily

68. Take a breather

43. Makes a lot of progress

45. Removes from a whiteboard, say

46. Peace prizes

47. Gizmo with cogs

50. City with a UC campus

51. “ is is only _____”

52. In ____ straits

53. Guy you “Better Call”

54. ____ mater

55. Not as much

57. Nothing more than

60. 911 respondent: abbr.

61. Skinny battery type

62. Actor Diesel of Hollywood • Answers on C4

A League of eir Own

GIANT SLAYER: Mac Bailey ’23 attempts a contested layup over defender Nathaniel Berg ’23. Bailey is a member of the team e Pound ,which holds a regular season record of 4-1.

Editors-in-Chief: Natalie Cosgrove, Will Sherwood

Print Managing Editors: Lucas Cohen-d'Arbelo , Claire Conner, Daphne Davies, Charlie Seymour

Presentation Managing Editors: Fallon Dern, Allegra Drago, Jina Jeon, Leo Saperstein

Digital Managing Editors: Alex Hahn, Lily Lee

Executive Editors: James Hess, Emmy Zhang

News Editor: Natasha Speiss

Assistant News Editors: Davis Marks, Chloe Park, Grant Park, Tate Sheehy

Opinion Editor: Georgia Goldberg

Assistant Opinion Editors: Jade Harris, Jackson Tanner

Features Editor: Harry Tarses

Assistant Features Editors: Dylan Gra , Iona Lee, Averie Perrin, Ella Yadegar

A&E Editors: Becca Berlin, Vasilia Yordanova

Assistant A&E Editor: Kriste An

Sports Editors: Jaden Bobb, Paul Kurgan

Assistant Sports Editors: Jackson Mayer, Christopher Mo

Satire Editor: Georgia Goldberg

Multimedia Editor: Danny Johnson

Business Manager: Andrew Park

Art Director: Sophia Evans

Photography Editor: Raisa E ress

Executive Broadcast Producer: Jake Lancer

Assistant Broadcast Producers: Rohan Amin, Alexa Benitez, Hunter Bridgett, Eric Chang, Hudson Chen, Grace Coleman, William Coleman, Jack Limor, Aaron Milburn

Freelance Writers: Carter Staggs, Elizabeth Johnstone

Layout Assistants and Sta

Writers: Sasha Aghnatios, Hailey Cho, Karsten Cole, Eden Conner, Alden Detmer, Alexander Dinh, MacArthur Galavitz, Samuel Glassman, Zoe Goor, Georgia Grad, Justine Gustman, Sabrina Hamideh, Jayan Kandavel, Crista Kim, Katelyn Kim, Saisha Kumar, Everett Lakey, Alex Lee, MeJo Liao, William Liu, Daniel Mittleman, Olivia Phillips, Madeline Pimstone, Fiona Ryan, Sara Segil, Hannah Shahidi, Olivia So, Connor Tang, Justin Tang, Arielle Trakhtenberg, Max Turetzky, Mason Walline, Nathan Wang, Ti any Wang, Amber Zhang

Advisors:

Billy Montgomery, Max Tash

Layout Assistant: Jen Bladen, Lillian Suarez

Publication Information:

Founded in 1990, e Chronicle is the Harvard-Westlake Upper School’s student-led newspaper. Now in its 32nd year, e Chronicle strives to report stories accurately and to uphold its legacy of journalistic integrity. e newspaper is published eight times per year and distributed to students, parents, faculty and sta e paper is a liated with two school magazines, Big Red and Panorama. We are members of the California Newspaper Publishers Association and the Private School Journalism Association.

Valuing the Senior Vote

As the third quarter of the school year comes to a close, members of the student body participate in one of our most important school traditions: Head Prefect elections. During 11th grade class meeting last week, junior candidates for the position stood before their peers in Rugby eater and bravely spoke about the ways they plan to bring about change within our community. A select few will move on to the nal round, where they will again make speeches in front of both 10th and 11th graders. e two candidates who receive the most votes from both classes will become next year’s Head Prefects, tasked with overseeing all the other members of Prefect Council and the Honor Board — responsibilities that require both the immense trust of their peers as well as as their own hard work and intellect.

roughout this process, however, there is one part of the school noticeably missing: seniors. e primary argument for excluding 12th graders from elections is that they will have graduated by the time the elected Head Prefects take on their positions, which means that they do not have a direct stake in the election rounds. But this kind of logic is incomplete, and fails to completely take into account the unique perspectives of the senior class and the impact that their votes could potentially have on the entire school community, even after they have left the school. 12th graders have spent the most time at the school out of any other grade, including their three years at the upper school campus, meaning they have experienced the school almost in its entirety. As a result, they have a unique understanding of the school’s culture, values, strengths and weaknesses and are well-equipped to make informed decisions about who could best represent the student body as Head Prefects. While they may only be a year or two older than students in other grades, teenage development signi cantly

ABOUT US

DIVERSITY, EQUITY AND INCLUSION:

e Chronicle strives to be a diverse and inclusive community that welcomes all who wish to contribute. Our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion committee works to ensure that every member of the Harvard-Westlake community is recognized, included and given a voice.

e Chronicle's publications will aim to represent this diverse community and provide a variety of perspectives on the topics that they cover.

magni es this di erence.

Even though they might not experience the Prefects’ term, the senior class still has a vested interest in the school's long-lasting future. Nearly every senior has either friends or younger siblings who will attend the school next year. e graduating class will continue to care about the school community even after they have left, and fostering a true sense of continuity and connection between di erent generations of students at the school can only create a stronger Upper School community for students and alumni.

Allowing seniors to vote would also encourage greater participation in the election process and inspire a sense of responsibility among the student body. Voter turnout would increase and provide the school would have a better representation of students’ opinions and a statistically stronger nal outcome — a broader sample of students is more representative of the whole school’s opinions by de nition. While there may still be seniors who choose not to vote, the ones participating will be able to make a di erence.

e potential drawbacks to allowing outgoing seniors to vote in school elections — concerns that they may not take the election process seriously or may vote out of spite or for personal gain — is not unique to the 12th grade class. In fact, as the oldest group of students, they are on average more mature than their peers from other grades, and many of them are already adults and eligible to vote in local and national elections.

By allowing seniors to vote, the school can tap into a valuable resource of experience in the school community while also increasing voter turnout. Instead of denying seniors access to voting in their nal months at the school, we should instead embrace and acknowledge their contributions to the school community.

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MEMBERSHIPS:

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By Claire Conner

In the Luhansk region of Ukraine, a Russian military training facility sorts recruits using colored wristbands. They are preparing to fight in the trenches at Bakhmut, an eastern Ukrainian city and a focal point of Russia’s invasion. But these recruits are a far cry from the professional and civilian units that Russia has relied on throughout its year-long war with Ukraine. The white and red wristbands don't correspond with missions or assigned roles. They represent fatal diseases and belong to prisoners. Every single soldier at this facility has either HIV or Hepatitis C, along with a criminal record.

Most of the prisoners are sent to the front line, where their units make gains of a few hundred yards before they are killed. They have no body armor, long-term training or permission to retreat. But they have numbers, and in Bakhmut, that has been enough

to prevent a Ukrainian victory. Ukraine is not a revisionist, authoritarian country. It's not willing to mislead healthy citizens and ill prisoners by convincing them to sign up for suicide missions that gain territory at the expense of thousands. Despite this lack of cannon fodder, Ukraine has been able to stay on its feet for one key reason: Western support.

Anti-aircraft munitions, grenades, intelligence equipment and other forms of aid provided by the U.S. are worth billions of dollars. America has served as the financial and technological backbone of the Ukrainian war effort, providing more aid than any other country and convincing NATO allies to contribute. And as Russia relies on dying prisoners to make up for its lack of sophisticated technology, Ukraine and the West have a perfect window of opportunity.

If Ukrainians continue to

receive increasingly advanced weapons like long-range missiles and tanks, they can finally secure decisive victories in strategic hubs like Bakhmut — before their casualties and small numbers give Russia the upper hand.

But at this crucial moment — when the U.S. can and must step in to help push Russia out of Ukraine once and for all — American political figures decided that they’re too tired of fighting.

In an interview with Tucker Carlson, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said protecting Ukraine is not a “vital national interest," arguing that America should spend its effort on domestic projects and stop sending aid to Ukraine. Former President Donald Trump expressed an even more ludicrous version of this sentiment, saying that Russia is “not the greatest threat” and promising to fire State and Defense Department officials

A Chronicle Print Managing Editor argues that the United States needs to continue providing support to Ukraine as the war with Russia continues to harm its citizens.

who have championed support for NATO and Ukraine if he's elected in 2024. On the other side of the spectrum, Congresswoman Ilhan Omar carried her anti-war sentiment to Ukraine, criticizing the extent of U.S. military aid.

This war fatigue comes at an utterly confusing moment. Russia has started this war, and the violence that they have inflicted and would continue to inflict upon a withdrawal of American aid is unimaginable.

Ukraine's perseverance through a year of war should encourage the U.S. — we are bringing one of our greatest adversaries to its knees and supporting democracy, helping an ally maintain sovereignty. The war secured advantages for America on the international stage, reducing dependence on Russia and bringing the U.S. closer to its European allies.

A choice to stop fighting

would give Putin’s army time it needs to heal and inflict more damage on Ukraine and the world. Allowing Russian victory by withdrawing aid isn't worth the “America first” ideas, the short-term campaign promises, or destruction of American credibility and success internationally. It's time to deal the final blow.

ILLUSTRATION BY ALEXANDRA LIU

Reducing our environmental impact

By Elizabeth Johnstone

The upper school campus has a sustainability problem, and it’s nothing new either. We all know about our plastic-packaged food in the cafeteria, excessive waste problem and extravagant energy use — and the list goes on. Contrast this with the new River Park campus, whose team has taken great care to bring environmental initiatives — like stormwater capture systems, native landscaping and solar panels — into every aspect of development. When looking at these two campuses, the reason for the disparity between them seems obvious: everything in River Park is new while the buildings at our Coldwater location are mostly remnants of the 20th century. Renovations at the upper school campus are extremely costly and tricky to pull o

ough the problem seems inherent due to the natures of the campuses, after speaking with members of the administration and my peers, there’s a more fundamental issue with how we move forward with environmental initiatives. A disconnect between the administration and the general student body about the de nition and scope of environmental action paralyzes any e orts toward sustainable development by making it impossible to do anything on a united front. Moreover, a general awareness but lack of impetus on both sides disincentivizes the other from mobilizing,

exacerbating the crisis further. When it comes to students, most environmental action looks like grassroots organizing on quite a small scale relative to the size of the school. On the more formal side, the Environmental Club and classes like AP Environmental Science and the Environmental Service at HW directed study have all inspired students to take action in the HW community, shaping the recycling, hydroponics and native plants programs. While I love our work on campus, it can often be frustrating to myself and other students that this is the extent of student opportunities on campus. is work, though rewarding in its own right, diverts such a trivial amount from the waste stream and reduces such an insigni cant amount of greenhouse gas from the atmosphere compared to what our school could be doing at the institutional level.

On the administrative side, action on sustainability looks like long-term renovations and operations updates. For instance, Director of Operations Dave Mintz spearheaded a recent initiative to replace all energy-ine cient bulbs with LEDs around campus. CFO and lead on River Park development David Weil expressed interest in reopening his push for purchasing an industrial composter to combat our school’s food waste problem. However, most of the environmentally-minded changes on campus are limited

by time, funds, and the people who propose them: essentially a “we’ll do what we can when we can” approach, and only if there’s an available advocate of environmental policy. When funds are tight or another project takes precedence, sustainable development often shifts to the back burner. While these initiatives have been empirically e ective and great examples of administrative individuals’ sustainable-mindedness, steady change is sparse. e discoordination between students and administration seems dire, but even worse is the lack of impetus from both sides required to change it. is perceived apathy from students and administration creates a feedback loop of paralysis that makes uni ed change not just sparse, but nearly impossible.

On the student side, widespread apathy is a barrier to any e ective organizing that would put more pressure on the administration to prioritize environmental policy. Perhaps the most egregious example is the plastic waste problem on the Quad. Something so simple as tossing waste in the correct bins to divert land ll trash is a challenge. Further examples all revolve around excessive consumption — telling of the role of privilege in all these problems. In the cafeteria, students buy reusable water bottles and toss them within the day. ey get too much food and dump a quarter in the trash.

ILLUSTRATION

Addressing Misogyny

By Zoe Goor

Andrew Tate, a far-right social media in uencer, has been searched via #AndrewTate 22 billion times on TikTok as of the end of 2022, according to New York Magazine. Tate, a self-proclaimed misogynist, once said, “You can’t be responsible for something that doesn’t listen to you. You can’t be responsible for a dog if it doesn’t obey you, or a child if it doesn’t obey you or a woman that doesn’t obey you.”

While appalling, when incidents like this one show up on our "For You" pages, it is easy to feel like our generation has risen above this type of discrimination. I have always known that all women are likely to be victims of misogyny, but I never imagined myself on the receiving end.

I transferred to the school this year, and in the past seven months the word “bitch” has been used to describe me twice. e rst time was to my face because I called out a male student for cheating during a competition, and the second time was on a group chat (that I was not on) and of which my friend sent me a screenshot.

It is easy to rationalize this behavior because of how common it is, but we cannot excuse these comments and pretend like they have no meaning. When we permit this language, instead of teaching male students that this language is o ensive, we teach them that their actions will have no consequences.

But the problem is that it is impossible to “grow out of” a behavior that is deemed acceptable by the culture of the school. And it does not stop at language: according to a survey done by the school, 40% of respondents reported experiencing a comment of a sexual nature that was demeaning or o ensive and 25% of respondents reported that someone touched or tried to touch them in a way that made them feel uncomfortable. While the survey was not separated out by gender, a 2018 study done by National Sexual Violence Resource Center shows that women are at a higher risk of being sexually harassed or assaulted, as 81% of women and 43% of men report sexual harassment or assault during

their lives. It would be challenging to track and time-consuming to prosecute each instance that "bitch" is used, but the school needs to take concrete steps to make the culture less hostile to female students.

Head of Upper School Beth Slattery said she thinks representation matters when it comes to empowering students, and she feels many students think the school no longer has instances of gender-based discrimination because of the high representation of female students in leadership positions. Additionally, Slattery said most of the microaggressions that she has heard about happen in social and athletic settings, attributing them to displays of toxic masculinity. Slattery said she sees the solution to the problem as male students standing up for female students during misogynistic incidents.

Slattery is correct in saying that male-female allyship is the answer: all students should participate in mandatory ally training to create a more supportive school environment for women. However, the problem is not one of education, but of culture. "Bro culture" and fragile masculinity mean that male students may have outsized reactions to claims of misogyny because it threatens their "manliness." ese crises of masculinity inhibit women from standing up for themselves because their male aggressors either gang up on them or label their concerns as overly sensitive or feminist. It is up to the male students of the school, then, to speak up when they hear misogynistic comments, even if they are in a crowd of all male students.

Currently, feminism is seen negatively: when searched on YouTube, "feminism" yields results that read like Tucker Carlson Tonight headlines. To combat the prevalent anti-feminist narrative, the school should hold mandatory assemblies to speak about why we should all be feminists and to provide actionable ways for students to show their support for their female peers.

BY LOREN PARK

GRA DE PREREQUISITES

Promoting genuine interests

Protecting students' limits

By Jade H arris By H annah Shahidi

In the past few weeks, I’ve been talking with my teachers about which courses I should take next year. My teachers have explained di erent options and helped me decide what I should take based on my performance in their classes. In my English and History classes in particular, I’ve noticed that my teachers are taking into account my genuine academic interests instead of recommending I take certain courses only because of my current letter grade.

Starting next year, the school will remove the previous year minimum grade requirement of B+ for Honors United States History and Honors English III: Imagining America. e school made this change so that students won’t be restricted in their course selections and will be able to take the classes that interest them, according to Head of Upper School Beth Slattery. Having grade requirements in place for science, math and world language classes is justi ed because each class students take builds upon previous material. In humanities subjects, however, students work on improving their own skills rather than preparing for more advanced topics. Ultimately, the school's decision to remove grade requirements for honors English and history won't be harmful and will result in more bene ts for students.

As students become more immersed in di erent classes and speci c topics within broader subjects, their interests are bound to change. High school is the time when students should be able to explore the subjects that they are curious about, as opposed to being con ned to the subjects they’ve always excelled in, with little room for variability.

e school should encourage students to branch out to subjects that interest them, even if these subjects don’t come as easy to them. It is important for students to know that it is normal, acceptable and often bene cial for them to struggle in certain classes. In fact, working consistently to overcome hard tasks is what can encourage personal growth.

Additionally, a student’s level of interest in a subject can change based on what speci c topics or time periods they are studying. For example, a student can be interested in world history but not United States history. If someone performs poorly in a class that they’re not interested in, it shouldn’t a ect their ability to take classes that they will be passionate about. By removing the grade requirements for certain classes, there will be more opportunities for students to try out di erent niches to see what interests them, rather than being limited by prerequisites.

Also, the current grade requirements enforce the idea that getting anything less than a B+ in English and History is a bad grade. is promotes the idea that if students don’t get a B+ or above in a class, they are incapable of improving or doing well in a di erent course, which can lead to discouragement, frustration and lowered self-esteem.

High schoolers are constantly growing and improving — when given the opportunity to be in a challenging class that they have an interest in, many will rise to the occasion. By having grade requirements in place, the school is essentially telling students that they are incapable of improvement, which can turn people away from trying new things they might end up enjoying.

One of my rst introductions to the demanding expectations of the Upper School was the rigorous Advanced Placement (AP) European History course’s grade prerequisites and placement exam. I needed an A in ninth grade history and my teacher’s recommendation to move onto the essay exam — even then, only 19 students from about the 60 who took the test got into AP European History.

Even though I felt quali ed after going through the process, I still struggled throughout the class and was shocked by the massive jump in di culty. Rigorous courses like these are ful lling when it’s possible to meet the challenge. But with the school’s new policy of removing the grade prerequisite for Honors United States History and Honors English, students will be underprepared for such classes, which will only be more detrimental to their passion and mental health.

For years, the school has been trying to address issues of student stress, burnout and the relentless pursuit of college acceptances, but the issue doesn’t lie in whether or not people are allowed to take honors classes. Rather, the issue is the culture of competition which must be addressed prior to implementing these policies.

One of the main arguments for removing the grade requirement is that it would allow students to explore and take the classes that they enjoy or nd interesting. It’s important to allow students to explore their passions, but eliminating the grade requirement for humanities courses isn’t the correct approach. Many students max out their yearly cap of honors courses solely for advancing their college application. In fact, some students are bound to take as many honors

Turkey's grim earthquake lessons

By Jackson Tanner

California shares similar seismic conditions to Turkey, and the recent earthquakes there lay bare the vulnerability the state shares.

On the morning of February 6, the ground of Southeastern Turkey and Northern Syria was broken as a 7.5 magnitude earthquake ripped across the East Anatolian fault line. What followed was utterly catastrophic — over 6,000 buildings across the region were reduced to 210 million tons of rubble. While Turkey has faced serious earthquakes before –– including the 1999 Izmit earthquake, which killed over 17,000 people ––they paled in

comparison to the havoc which was wrecked last month. After 13 days of search and rescue operations, the nal death toll for this quake was over 50,000. California needs to take notes in order to prepare for its own and inevitable quake.

e San Andreas Fault, part of the “Paci c Ring of Fire” that produced the catastrophic 2011 Tōhoku and 2004 Sumatra-Andaman earthquakes (the most costly and deadly earthquakes of the 21st century), runs right through California and next to the Los Angeles metro area. Because of the seismic instability of the San Andreas fault, California is predisposed to experience catastrophic earthquakes. In fact,

as they can, regardless of whether or not they are intrigued by the subject. Even though taking rigorous courses is important on a transcript, colleges are searching more and more for students with genuine passions and drives within their community.

e answer to student passion isn’t to make all rigorous courses accessible; it’s to change the relentless sky-high expectations, even if they are an unintentional result of a strong college preparatory environment. If anything, access to di cult courses are only going to make those very same students dread going to their favorite classes. e constant challenge can be demoralizing for students, especially if they’re not receiving the grades they expected. e school needs to promote deep interest for the sake of learning, but this policy isn’t the solution.

According to a Chronicle poll, 71.3% of 129 students surveyed said there is a stigma around dropping classes. 67.7% said they feel pressured to stay in a class they're struggling in. While the school is heading in the right direction by focusing on cultivating student passion and interest, it is evident that there is a toxic college preparatory mindset that must be addressed rst, or else this policy will only prove detrimental to students' academic interests.

Students should take courses they are interested in and are appropriate for the amount of work they are willing and capable of doing. e only way to demonstrate interest with regards to college applications should not be taking honors classes. Otherwise, we will end up with students struggling in futile attempts to prove their passion for a subject — when they could be learning at the right pace in a di erent course.

71.1% of students* said there is a stigma aroundclassesdropping feel68.3% pressured to stay in a class they're struggling in

for the deisgnationhonors

* = 146 students polled

BY RAISA EFFRESS

Chronicle Assistant Opinion Editor argues that after the devastating earthquakes in Turkey, California needs to implement better earthquake infrastructure and organized policies to prevent inevitable disasters.

Los Angeles and do 213 billion dollars in infrastructure damage. Tens of thousands would be injured, and hundreds of thousands would be displaced. e likelihood that an earthquake larger than 6.7 magnitude hits California is over 70% in the next decade, and the likelihood one over 7.5 strikes is 30% over the next 30 years. With thousands of lives at stake, these are not numbers California should be taking lightly. e state has the economic resources to prepare itself adequately for the earthquakes, but there is a lack of political awareness and will to e ect these reforms.

One of the most signi cant issues with the Turkey-Syria

stringent earthquake building regulations in the world.

Still, these regulations are far from perfect. ere are, even after over a billion dollars was spent on retro tting soft-story buildings, over 4,000 such structures in Los Angeles. San Francisco has another 500. More dangerously, brittle concrete and unreinforced brick buildings, which according to the USGS are the two most dangerous types of buildings in an earthquake, are still widely prevalent in California. Over 1,900 of these structures remain in Los Angeles, as well as nearly 4,000 in San Francisco. Regulations for such structures are handled on a local basis, preventing uni ed total protection of California’s major cities against earthquakes.

e lack of standardized regulations is a serious aw that can have severe consequences, as local bureaucracies greatly inhibit California from ensuring that such dangerous structures are re tted.

In the Turkey and Syria earthquake, another key issue was the lack of response teams

on the ground. While they worked e ectively, the scale of destruction was simply so large that services were stretched. California should prepare for this eventuality by putting more funding and training into our local rst responders’ earthquake search and rescue capabilities, as well as increasing pre-stocking of the necessary equipment to be used in an earthquake.

All of California needs to adopt a uni ed policy to remedy both rst responder preparedness and building regulations, just as the state has done with its early warning system MyShake. It is necessary to ensure more public awareness, more organized regulations and more funding to retro t vulnerable structures and prepare rst responders to the fullest extent. ese are the logical next steps to clean up the currently con icting local policies and levels of political interest in the area of earthquake preparedness. is is a goal in which every Californian has a stake — ensuring the state does not become a repeat of what occurred in Turkey.

51.4% thinkthenew policywasthe rightdecision take62.0% classes just

By Sabrina H amideh

McConnell’s is the best ice cream parlor in all of Studio City. From the variety of tasty avors to the ambiance of the shop and even the energy of the sta , McConnell’s is superior to any other ice cream establishment.

McConnell’s serves over 20 avors of ice cream with some classic avors like mint chip and vanilla bean and also unique avors like Passion Fruit Lemon Swirl and Honey and Cornbread Cookies, which is one of my personal favorites. e diversity of avors allows ice cream enthusiasts to sample many avors that they may not be able to taste at other shops, while still carrying classic options for those who enjoy a simple ice cream eating experience. Whether you enjoy classic vanilla or venture to try more daring avors, McConnell’s has the best choices to o er. McConnell’s o ers many dairy-free options, so those who cannot eat dairy products can savor the delicious selections as well. Its choices o er a wide range of avors that are not only healthy but are delicious as well. All of the ice cream served is made from scratch and does not contain any stabilizers, preservatives or llers, giving the dessert a very organic taste.

Although the ice cream served at the shop is absolutely scrumptious, the McConnell’s experience is so much more than merely the palatable avors. When one enters the McConnell’s facility, they see a beautiful image of Ventura Blvd. from the 50s on the wall. While waiting for their ice cream, customers can observe the graphic and learn the history of the area––grounding McConnell’s as an integral part of local lore. is image truly sets the fun and nostalgic mood of the shop apart from any other. e warm, comfortable, and aesthetic environment at McConnell’s is unlike that of any other ice cream establishment I’ve seen.

e amazing sta at McConnell’s also boosts the quality of the shop. All of the employees I have encountered have been upbeat and delightful people, being more than happy to indulge numerous sample requests. e amazing employee service makes McConnell’s a top choice for enjoying some quality ice cream while taking a break from daily stresses.

If you nd yourself with a sudden craving for ice cream after school, I highly encourage you to choose McConnell’s located at 12073 Ventura Pl.

By Sasha Aghnatios

Salt & Straw encapsulates everything it means to be a good ice cream shop. Among its many outstanding factors include its modern design, positive atmosphere, and, of course, the variety of avors to choose from.

Of all the ice cream behemoths in the world of Ventura, only one is worth going to: Salt & Straw. e other ice cream places are good, of course, but why would one go to any other place when Salt & Straw is the best?

When you rst walk into the shop, the rst thing you notice is the black paint on the walls. As Oscar Wilde once said, “Sin is the only real color element in modern life.” Moreover, black is the absence of color. erefore, Salt & Straw’s walls are devoid of sin, which really shows that Salt & Straw can do no wrong.

Many of the Salt & Straw avors go beyond the traditional chocolate and vanilla and include a wide range of avors. In addition to a rotating menu of seasonal avors (the current theme is cereal!), they have a myriad of classic avors, including their most popular Salted Malted Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough. For the vegan comrades of the

world, Salt & Straw o ers Peanut Butter Brittle Caramel Fudge and Marionberry Coconut Sherbet.

e Salted Malted Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough has everything you might want in ice cream: butterscotch, cookie dough, fudge and the perfect sweet-to-salty ratio. Some cookie dough ice creams clobber your taste buds with an exceedingly and cloyingly sweet taste—Salt & Straw manages to combat this common de ciency by balancing the sweetness with some salt to produce a more balanced overall taste. Moreover, the cookie dough is neither too hard nor too soft; it marries perfectly with the ice cream and the fudge with which it is mixed. at is not to say that the ice cream is too chocolatey. Instead, it is an exquisite example of how a good cookie manages to proportionally balance chocolate and butterscotch.

e perfection of the Salted Malted Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough is unmatched, and is a microcosm of the entirety of Salt & Straw: everything is crafted to awlessness. Whether you want to relax and eat quality ice cream or are in the mood to try some unique ice cream avors, Salt & Straw is the place to be.

By Eden C onner

Fatamorgana Gelato is a hidden gem nestled among the many recognizable chain restaurants on Ventura Blvd. Walking into the shop, you are instantly welcomed by soft music, Italian glass decorations and a sudden sense of calm. Not only does Fatamorgana o er tasty, delicious avors to choose from, but it also o ers vegan and nut-free avors that make it a healthier option than traditional ice cream shops.

Fatamorgana Gelato o ers a range of classic gelato avors, but with a healthy twist. Many of the avors have the classic soft texture associated with gelato while others have a more light texture. e shop is entirely gluten-free and also serves avors that are vegan and nut-free. e nutritional value of the ingredients, however, doesn’t come without limitations: the consistency of Fatamorgana gelato is generally thinner than its traditional counterparts.

e Rocky Road — which is thick, creamy and supremely chocolatey –– is about as close as it gets to the classic gelato texture. But the Stracciatella — a gelato staple of cream and chocolate shavings –– was too thin, and fell short

as a result. With dozens of avor choices, including matcha green tea and passion fruit margarita, the shop has some winners, but it is not the sort of place where every avor tried is better than the last.

What is left to be desired in taste is made up for, however, by the shop’s chill atmosphere. e relaxed energy makes it a perfect post-school debrief spot or homework space. Sitting at the long barstool at the front of the restaurant facing a large window to the outside street, you feel a welcome sense of separation from the outside world. It is the ideal place to people-watch and snack on some treats.

Not only does Fatamorgana o er vegan and nut-free gelato avors, but it also only uses fresh and whole ingredients, putting it at the forefront of healthy, simply-made ice cream shops in the area. It is also comforting to see an ingredient list with less than ten items – it makes the dessert experience a more transparent one. e next time you are looking for a place to take friends with or without dietary restrictions, head to Fatamorgana at 12021 Ventura Blvd. for a chance to relax and enjoy quality, healthy gelato as a delicious treat after school.

By Jayan K andavel

Van Leeuwen Ice Cream, located in Sportsmen’s Lodge, has some of the most unique avors near campus — brown sugar cookie dough chunks, honeycomb and peanut butter chocolate chip are just a few of its incredible menu items. e wide range of avors available makes Van Leeuwen a highly tempting ice cream shop to visit.

Van Leeuwen Ice Cream started out as an ice cream truck in New York City with a mission to make good ice cream from high quality ingredients. Since 2008, they have added their award-winning vegan ice cream and their newest creation, ice cream bars, to their stores.

What might be one of the most appealing things about this shop is its assortment of vegan ice cream. eir vegan ice cream avors include vegan cookies and cream caramel swirl, vegan churros and fudge, vegan oat milk brown sugar chunk and vegan chocolate oat milk cookie dough chunk. us, Van Leeuwen is a great ice cream shop to go to if one wants a healthy alternative to traditional ice cream.

Van Leeuwen o ers delicious non vegan ice cream avors as well, including Malted Milkshake and Fries, Sicilian Pis-

tachio, Marionberry Cheesecake, Praline Butter Cake and Earl Grey tea. ey also sell classic avors like Vanilla Bean and Mint Chip.

Additionally, Van Leeuwen’s ice cream is rm, creamy and will melt in your mouth like sweet silky clouds. e ice cream has the perfect balance of sweetness and even acidity. Mixed with the crispy vanilla wafer cone, this is the perfect scoop. e soft texture of the ice cream along with the mixture of di erent tastes within each avor makes Van Leeuwen’s an amazing choice to grab a treat.

e store also has kind and helpful employees, who helped me nd the perfect avor and o er many free samples. e store has a welcoming and warm atmosphere — despite the perfectly chilled ice cream — which makes you feel right at home. e amazing service provided at Van Leeuwen’s further adds to its tasty assortment of avors, and is a must-visit ice cream shop.

Van Leeuwen’s variety of avors to choose from along with its excellent service and healthy options makes it a top choice for ice cream in the Studio City area. I would highly recommend this incredible shop, located at 12833 Ventura Blvd.

Studio City has some of the best ice cream shops according to our sta . Here are reviews of four of them for your next ice cream treat.

Remembering Jordan

Hello, my name is Alexandra Pacheco Garcia. Many of you know me as Ms. PG. I’m Jordan’s Photography I teacher.

I’d like to share with you a bit about the student I had and the class she was a part of. For those that didn’t know, Jordan was an extremely talented photographer and promising young artist.

Jordan’s Block 5 class is special. It’s a group made of very di erent kinds of kids that in the venn diagram of teenage interests and pursuits, not many of them would overlap beyond the classroom. But for whatever reason, there is a bond with this small, intimate group of students that is unique and wonderful to be a part of. For the students and teachers in the room, I know you know what I’m talking about. e experience of those singular classes that have this magic chemistry to them, where everyone is connected.

Jordan was a big part of that magic.

Jordan loved photography. It meant a lot to her. And she loved our class. She would spend hours after school in the lab with Andrea and Chris, blasting music and editing her photos. And she would come to school early sometimes and sit with me working a little more before rst block, chit chatting as I hustled around the classroom, prepping our space. As teachers we’re not supposed to say we have our favorites…but here it is, she was a favorite.

Jordan took our creative prompts seriously. She was dedicated, inspired and she had talent. She had folders on her phone of artists and styles she admired and wanted to gure out how to emulate. She was attracted to architectural images in golden hour light and wanted to know how she could make those kinds of pictures — you see, the exposure is tricky when there’s extremes of shadow and light. She had about ten di erent ideas for any given project and as is true with any ambitious creative problem solver, she would sometimes overthink things. And the truth was she was more than capable, my guidance was to support her creative impulses. I was a sounding board, but the vision, direction and stunning end results were all Jordan.

As a teacher there is nothing more exciting than when you have a student who loves the thing you love. You see a little bit of yourself in their passion and curiosity, you are energized by their engagement and often, especially with Jordan, delightfully surprised and moved by what they

create. I would never think to make some of the pictures in the way she did.

Jordan was sensitive. at sensitivity is useful in artmaking. She was a quiet, perceptive observer of the world around her. A great thing about the camera and photography for a sensitive soul, is that it allows for a bit of distance between yourself and the world. It’s a way to mediate and process what’s around us. rough Jordan’s lens she made images that were the poetry of the everyday. Quiet, candid introspective moments, like a man sitting alone at the back of an empty diner, holding his phone up to his ear and examining his nails. A red neon sign hangs behind him, lling the scene with a warm and slightly melancholy light. Another — two gures in a parking lot, caught at a distance in a deep conversation illuminated by the uorescent street lamp above them. And a third — a side of an apartment building at night, lling the frame, small rectangular shadowy windows glowing like muted gems, portals to people and families and stories that we can only

glimpse. at’s the frustrating thing about any given photograph — it only gives you so much information. ere’s a lot left beyond the image frame that is unknowable.

In the fall, I do this activity with my classes called the camera obscura. I turn the 100 year old Rugby tower into a giant pinhole camera that we all sit inside. For Jordan’s class that day we had a spectacular afternoon — the sky had clouds, the light was perfect. I start by leading the kids through a meditation in the dark space and when we open our eyes, you can see the outside landscape projected on the wall and ceiling behind us. We all left the obscura buzzing, having shared that experience together. What I didn’t know was that Jordan was having a tough day that day. I was so caught up, I didn’t notice, but she sent me an email afterwards. It was long loving email, part of which said:

“Your class is one of the few things I look forward to in a week and I want to say it’s like my comfort class. ere’s

something about it, maybe it’s the way you teach it, or the chemistry with the other students, or the actual photographing aspect of it (or all of the above), but it is extremely therapeutic.

As I mentioned earlier the day had not been going very well for me, and there was something about being there with the class that felt so incredibly healing and comforting that it made me want to cry because of how grateful I was for the class. But that’s all, I just wanted to express my gratitude and let you know how much your class really means to me. ank you for being my teacher Ms. PG. I hope you have a lovely long weekend.”

I have never in my tenure of teaching, received a note like that. As an adult, I feel like I don’t take enough time to tell those around me what they mean to me, and here is this 15-yearold young woman with the generosity, the self-awareness and the kindness to let me know I am valued. What a gift.

Here are a few images and moments in my head when I think of Jordan. I see Jordan with Diana and Liv and Katherine on the FH Plaza during our shutter speed workshop. I see Kathy trying to bend way, way back while Jordan is crouched below, trying to get the best angle. I can hear them shrieking and laughing as Kathy breaks the impossible back bend. I can hear those same group of friends in the studio as they shout in unison, OOOOOOO! It turns out that after many failed attempts, they were able to perfectly capture the choreography of a light up ball motion. I see Jordan’s face at the beginning of the year, I see her bright smile as a K pop song she likes comes on our class playlist, I see her bopping along in her chair and mouthing the words. I see Jordan sitting on the stool at our center worktable, her bangs perpetually in her face. Her bangs and her braces, I feel tenderly about these details when I think of her. I see Jordan at Venice Beach during our eld trip, when out of nowhere, a motorcycle crew inexplicably rolls up onto the basketball court and of course, Jordan and her friends make a direct beeline to try and get pictures of them. And nally, I see Jordan at her desk which is positioned right in front of mine. We are workshopping an idea together and I mishear what she says because the music is too loud in the classroom. I say something ridiculous and it gives us both the mean giggles.

ese are a few moments of pure joy, silliness and artmaking that will stay with me always.

PHOTOS BY JORDAN PARK ank you, Jordan, for everything.

At the memorial for Jordan Park ’25, Photography I teacher Alexandra Pacheco Garcia spoke about her meaningful relationship with Jordan.

PREFECT

By Jade H arris and H annah Shahidi

Head Prefect Simon Lee ’23 was on edge. With thousands of his peers’ eyes xated on him, he was about to give the speech that would determine his long-held dream of becoming Head Prefect. After giving his speech, Lee heard the cheers of his classmates as he walked away from the podium. Days later, when Lee learned that he was elected as Head Prefect, he said he was both overjoyed and anxious to assume this position.

“I was super nervous about it,” Lee said. “I guess it was exciting because it was something I had wanted for a while, but also, election season for people who run can be super stressful, and it places a lot of strain on relationships. While I’m lucky enough that it didn’t do that to any of my friendships, there was also kind of a worry that getting this job would kind of lead to compromising some of the relationships that I cared about.”

sure myself, and I think a lot of other people do this is, [is that] the fact that people are stressed about it is ultimately a manifestation of the fact that they care about Prefect Council.”

Prefect Council comprises of four Prefects from each grade and two additional Head Prefects that oversee the group, all of whom are elected by the student body. Junior Prefect Nyla Shelton ’24, who has been elected Prefect for the past two years, said she feels anxious during elections because she cares a lot about the positions she runs for.

Shelton ’24

Two rounds of Head Prefect elections take place every spring. After hearing speeches from candidates in the preliminary round, the junior class votes on four students to advance to a second round, where sophomores and juniors vote on two Head Prefects. Lee said he’s worried for candidates who are running for the position.

“I’m going to be real, election season is really rough,” Lee said. “And I worry for the Junior Prefects this year and anyone else who’s running. Ultimately, what I always think to reas -

“I’m right in the midst of election season, so that is denitely a big source of stress,” Shelton said. “If I’m completely honest, I think elections, obviously, are inherently stressful, just given the fact that you are speaking for a lot of people. And you do want to put your best foot forward for a position that you really care about, just like with any leadership position that you’re really wanting.”

Shelton said she spends signicant amounts of her time writing her candidate statements and preparing for other aspects of the election.

“I think I spent at least 10 hours just on all my candidate statements,” Shelton said. “Probably a total [of] 15 hours. It’ll be more by the time that elections actually happen. I guess that includes thinking about it. I wouldn’t say I was on my Google Doc for 15 hours, obviously. But I’ve de nitely spent a while thinking about it and thinking about ideas.”

Prefect Council is tasked with organizing annual school events such as Homecoming and Prom, but they also set up coffeehouses, food trucks, discount partners and tournaments throughout the year, according to Sophomore Prefect Eric Lee ’23. In addition, Prefect Council also serves as a communication line between the administration and student body, advocating for new initiatives and policy change. Shelton said she is anxious when Prefect Council projects do not work out as planned because the Council is meant to help the student body.

“I can get stressed if an initiative isn’t working out the way I’d hoped or an event is moving slowly or vendors are not getting back to me,” Shelton said. “Especially because I really take to heart the feedback that we get about these events, and if we’re not carrying out the Council’s tasks in ways that make

the students’ lives better or improve the wellness of the student body, it affects me a lot negatively, to be honest.”

Head Prefect Yoshi Kimura ’23 said she cares a lot about her role on Prefect Council, and it has forced her to develop methods to deal with stress surrounding Prefect Council elections.

“I can’t control what somebody thinks, and I don’t know if I’m what’s best for the student body,” Kimura said. “But I should believe in the system that’s been created, I should believe in the support of the people who have supported me thus far. And so reducing that stress is really important during [elections]. That being said, I was sleep deprived and I was hungry. But at the end of the day, there’s nothing but love from everyone in the community, even the people you run against.”

Former Head Prefect Quincey Dern ’22 said she spent several hours every day working on Prefect Council initiatives.

“I spent so much time on Prefect Council, and it’s not an exaggeration,” Dern said. “Truly, I was working on something Prefect Council related every single day, including the weekends. I remember speci cally, over quarantine, when we were organizing the days for kids to be brought back into social distance groups, we were trying to gure out how we should put groups together, and I remember doing that on the phone with my fellow prefects until at least 3 a.m.”

Kimura said there is a signicant time commitment to being on Prefect Council, but it’s enjoyable because of her passion and dedication to being Head Prefect.

“You know, [Lee will] call me at 12:30 at night with this idea, and I’ll be like, alright,” Kimura said. “It’s a little time here and there. But, when you’re really passionate about the things you’re putting on, it doesn’t feel like work or too much of a commitment to you know, keep talking about it. But, it is a pretty hefty amount of time,” Kimura said.

Head of School Rick Commons said Prefect Council works closely with the administration to work on issues that students face. Commons said he nds the personal and professional connections valuable.

“I think of the Head Prefects as an important source of representative student government where I can understand from people who have been elected by the student body, how the

student body is likely to react to a decision, or what the student body might like to see,” Commons said. “And so I enjoy my relationship with, for instance, [Lee] and [Kimura]. I have a great relationship with both of them and enjoy casual conversations, but will often ask them for their opinions, and they will often come to me with ideas. e whole Prefect Council will come to me with ideas, and it’s a part of my job that I love.”

Former Head Prefect Jonathan Cosgrove ’21 said he thinks fondly of his time on Prefect Council during his time at the school. He said he was able to meet many of his classmates and become more social through planning events for Prefect Council.

“[Prefect Council] forced me to become a more social and extroverted person and to make sure that I was always talking to everyone and getting to know everyone in my grade,” Cosgrove said. “I really love being a Prefect because by the end of Harvard-Westlake, I really knew every kid in my grade and every student pretty well, and I think that’s a really special thing that I gained—being able to know all 285 kids that were in my grade and being able to know them personally.”

Patrice* said she doesn’t see any results from work that Prefect Council does.

“I’ve never thought of running because it just feels like more about party planning than just actually making change on campus,” Patrice said. “I feel like nothing drastic has changed the school since I’ve been here. It seems like [Prefect Council] sets themselves really low bars intentionally so that they can say they did something like bringing in a food truck. But I feel like more meaningful change would be like looking at curriculum and homework policy and getting us more late starts. Everyone always talks about the golden age [of Prefect Council], I prefer [the] council when they were writing the honor code and setting up the honor board.”

Patrice said people who run for Prefect Council have ulterior motives behind their interest in being elected.

“I’ve heard from people that they have no legitimate interest in being Prefect,” Patrice said. “It’s just something their parents want them to do, or it’s just something they’re doing for [college applications].”

*Name has been changed

Members of the school community re ect on the stress and pressure that comes with being a member of Prefect Council.

“I was sleep deprived and I was hungry. At the end of the day there’s nothing but love from everyone in the community.

Yoshi Kimura ’23

L. W Nyla

By Ella Yadegar

At 10:45 p.m. on a Saturday, Willow* ’24 and her friends approached the entrance to a bar. ey nervously crossed their arms over their dresses as they joined the line to get inside. Once they reached the door, Willow looked inside the pulsing club, attempting to avoid eye contact with the security guard. Willow said the towering bouncer quickly glanced at them and motioned them inside, never asking to see the fake IDs they had all bought just a month ago.

“Most of the time they check your fake ID and still let you in anyway,” Willow said. “ ey don’t really examine it, unless you’re a guy and they ask you your birthday or where you’re from or your address. Once you go into the bar, you can just tell it’s lled with high school kids drinking and dancing. Last week, they weren’t even checking IDs.”

An anonymous reviewer on Yelp said the bar Willow was referring to has a tendency to let in underage people.

“I think it’s worth pointing out that I rst heard of [the bar] when it opened from my 17-year-old sister who knew about it because it was (and still is) known around L.A. private schools as the place that is really lax on fake IDs,” the reviewer said.

Candace* ’24 said most of her friends order fake IDs to use them to enter bars and nightclubs.

“Every person I know has a fake ID, and multiple too, like one from a di erent state and one from California,” Candace said. “And they’re out Friday and Saturday. Bars are just an excuse for Harvard-Westlake kids to see other kids they wouldn’t even interact with on a school basis and then hook up with them.”

Candace said even without proper identi cation, these bars are likely to let in minors who have previously bought a table or paid the bouncer at the door.

bars and nightclubs using fake IDs.

“I’m walking in sophomore year,” Candace said. “I’m using my sister’s fake ID, so it says I’m already 23, I have blue eyes, I’m blonde, I’m vefour, which I am not. My friend and I were newly 16, and we were with a group of 19-year-olds. ey won’t even look at us. ey literally go ‘turn around, you’re underage.’ [My friend] asked the valet to get in and eventually the manager was like ‘oh it’s ne, you guys can come in because you’re with a private event.’ Some guy comes in, another 19-year-old boy, and [the security guard] is like, ‘I know this is fake but you’re chill, you can go in.’”

Candace said her rst time attending the speci c bar was distracting from her school life.

“I was like ‘why am I here?’” Candace said. “I had a full on math quiz the next day but I couldn’t really care less.”

Willow said few people are now willing to take on the responsibility of hosting a party at their house.

“People have started to think that they can just go to one of these bars instead of hosting parties because they’re seeing the same group of kids that they would see at high school parties anyway,” Willow said. “All of the kids from other schools like Windward, Brentwood, Crossroads, Notre Dame, etc. who are at the clubs would already be at the Harvard-Westlake parties to begin with. Going to bars is less of a liability than parties because you’re only responsible for your own self.”

Ahren Bhatia ’24 said when he recently hosted a party at his house, the attendees caused expensive damage.

“People threw trash and towels in the toilet and broke the pipes which caused a water leak,” Bhatia said. “ en, they destroyed the fence around the garden along with a bunch of fruit trees and plants. Someone broke this Buddha head statue we had and the pool cover by sitting on it. Besides that, it was pretty much mechanical stu

experienced because of the property damage.

“Too many came and started hopping the fence which is how so many people got in,” Bhatia said. “But if I could [throw a party] at someone’s house or something where I wasn’t responsible, or if I had really good security, I might throw one again.”

Reggie*, a sophomore in college, said he began selling fake IDs during his senior year when he became aware of the high demand at his school.

“I was in the library one day [in high school], and then my cousin showed me a website to buy fake IDs for $60 each,” Reggie said. “I went up to a bunch of kids who needed fake IDs and I was like ‘$100 for two copies,’ bought them on the website, resold them and made $40 on each one. I probably sold 80 of them.”

According to Reggie, a Google search can bring up hundreds of accessible websites to illegally obtain fake IDs. Reggie said he served as a facilitator between these websites and high school students by placing orders in large quantities to lower the cost of the fakes for everyone in the group order.

“It’s so easy to get a fake ID online, but it’s just cheaper for kids to buy them through dealers who order the cards in bulk,” Reggie said. “When I used the website to buy the IDs, I could only use Bitcoin because it leaves no paper trail for the government to track the illegal transactions.”

Reggie said he has noticed that many bouncers do not check IDs.

“I don’t live [in LA] anymore, but I’ve been to [a speci c bar] and a lot of my friends go there a lot,” Reggie said. “It’s literally only meant for underage kids. People that are over 23 are frowned upon for going there because [it seems like] they would be going there to get

clubs underage can be dangerous and irresponsible at times.

“I was waiting for the manager to come down and get us and I turn around and see this girl sitting in the front seat of some 40-year-old man’s car,” Candace said. “I was like ‘oh my god, that’s [a Harvard-Westlake senior], that has to be a sugar daddy.’ I was leaving, and I see the girl holding hands across the table with the 45-year-old man.”

Kriger said although an increasing number of students are frequenting bars instead of throwing parties, she feels little pressure from classmates in her grade to purchase a fake ID.

“You can have a perfect high school experience without going to bars,” Kriger said. “If anything, you’ll miss out on your high school experience more by not going to parties than by not going to bars.”

Avery Kim ’25 said he would not purchase a fake ID because of the risks and responsibilities that come with having one.

“When a club has an age restriction, you should abide by it,” Kim said. “ ere can be plenty of dangers with going to a club, and all types of things can happen which you might not be ready for. People with fakes just have to acknowledge they have to handle a situation if something goes wrong. Getting a fake [ID] is kind of a choice for people to make for themselves. In that case, I don’t think you’re really presenting much of a danger to other people, you’re more presenting a danger to yourself with something you could potentially do wrong or have happen to you.”

Willow said one downside to attending clubs is that a night out can be much more expensive than going to a party.

“Each drink at a club is around $20 and that’s just because LA is expensive in general,” Willow said. “Versus at a high school party where you pay to get in, it could range from $10-$15.”

*Names have been changed. e bars referred to in this article did not respond to a request for comment.

By Averie P errin and Iona L ee

It’s quiet on campus. Georgiana* and the rest of the girls from the theater department gather in a circle, tucked away in one of the campus’s most secluded locations. ey believe they are alone. ese students are participating in the girls pre-show before their rst performance of the school play––a secret ritual, passed down through the department’s generations, restricted only to the female members of the cast. Little did they know, they were not, in fact, alone; they were in plain view of a school security camera.

Georgiana said the guards on the other side of the camera acted quickly, deeming the ritual inappropriate and reporting the cast’s actions to the administration.

“ e incident was determined to be of sexual nature, but we theater kids thought it was not,” Georgiana said. “It was just [sexual] in their mind. Still, I can never look at the security guards the same again.”

Georgiana said this tradition consists of performances honoring famous school theater alumni.

“We have to come two hours early

for girls pre-show, so no one sees us,” Georgiana said. “We go to a secluded spot that [will] not be revealed, somewhere on campus that people rarely ever go. ere are songs and dances involved, naturally. In the songs and dance, we pay homage to people who did theater at Harvard-Westlake and are now successful in that industry.”

Georgiana said besides just honoring alumni, the girls are forced to show reverence to upperclassmen, too.

“ e whole thing is actually about age hierarchy,” Georgiana said. “It’s all about seniors, sophomores and juniors. You have to pay respect to your elder theater kids. If you don’t, there are consequences. I’m not even kidding. ere are very speci c ways in which you have to pay respect to the seniors, and you will be shamed if you do not follow those. It’s kind of like a sorority rush.”

Georgiana said the ritual used to involve kidnapping.

“Back in the day, they used to [use] blindfolds to bring people to the location of the pre-show,” Georgiana said. “We no longer do that, but now we get harassed by the seniors out in the open, and then they chase us to the location.”

A participant in girls preshow, Elise Fried ’24 said she feels very close and comfortable

with her fellow cast members.

“I’ve been sworn to secrecy, and just the fact that we have a pre-show that you’re sworn to secrecy about is weird,” Fried said. “A lot of the layers of traditions surrounding the shows could be compared to a cult. e theater department is a really close department, and we all spend a lot of time together, and you really are bonded. So some would say cult, I would say family.”

A popular student group on campus that also requires con dentiality from its members is Peer Support. Peer Support is a club that meets after school in small groups where students can share their problems with peers, while trained student leaders moderate discussion.

Peer Support Trainee Lily Stambouli ’24 said the secretive nature of Peer Support is intimidating and can seem weird to outsiders.

“You’re literally going into a room with people who might be strangers, and you’re sharing things and playing games, and then everything that happens in those rooms is totally con dential,” Stambouli said. “ at’s lowkey culty activity, but I don’t think it’s culty activity in a bad way, necessarily. I think it’s cool.”

Stambouli said that the con dentiality of the group makes it more attractive.

“People thinking that Peer Support is a cult makes it more appealing,”

Stambouli said. “Although Peer

said. “ is year, it was Greece. And so you have people dressing up like characters from the movie Grease or just like Greek gods or goddesses. I was a frat boy because of Greek life. ere’s a lot of variety. If you have ever seen ‘Midsommar,’ that’s exactly what the Peer Support retreat is like.”

Former Chronicle Sta Writer Grace Coleman ’24 said she feels that e Chronicle, the school’s newspaper and another major student group, is exclusive and known for being weird.

“Chronicle feels like a family of incest,” Coleman said. “Everyone on e Chronicle is somehow weirdly and deeply connected to each other in this strange excluding manner that makes everyone whisper ‘What the f***’s going on with Chronicle?’ ‘Why the f*** is Chronicle so weird?’ and ‘Chronicle’s a cult,’ because Chronicle is a cult and everyone on Chronicle is in a cult, speci cally the seniors.”

Coleman said Chronicle seniors ordered her around, and she was forced to do errands and tasks for them.

“When I was a sophomore on Chronicle, the seniors and juniors would just send us out to Starbucks to pick up their food and bring everything back to Ralph’s to pick up snacks,” Coleman said. “So instead of us doing work, they just ordered us around.”

Coleman said she was hazed by upperclassmen on Chronicle and had to follow her edi

Students and faculty re ect on the reputation, dynamic and traditions of various student groups, clubs and sports on campus.

Chris Weng ’24 said he feels his team is exclusive, and members receive di erent treatment based on how much e ort they put into the sport.

“Your perceived e ort level does have a bit of bearing on how you’re treated on a team,” Weng said. “If you see someone putting e ort into something, we respect that. When you see everyone trying and putting in everything they’ve got, that creates a really close bond, but if someone’s not trying, it can kind of damage that. It just kind of feels disrespectful. I feel a little bit more closed o to them because I can’t relate to them in that same way.”

When Junior Varsity cross country member Grady Ramberg ’24 quit cross country, Weng said he and other team members held a memorial for Ramberg.

“We wanted to do something special for him, so we did a little bit of trolling and decided that we were going to see him o ,” Weng said. “Being a bunch of stupid high school boys, we bought a bunch of hardwood, brought some power tools, made a co n and painted it. We brought it to school, wore suits and ran around the track while blasting music.”

Ramberg said the ritual after he quit the team was heartwarming and felt nice to be memorialized.

“I’m just very surprised [because] I knew something was happening, but I was not expecting a co n and suits,” Ramberg said. “It was kind of nice. It’s a little sad because I won’t spend as much time with the team, so it was a nice send-o , I guess.”

Ramberg said he felt very close to the team and bonded by the di culty of the sport.

“It really is like a family, especially after going to a Big Bear, where we spend a week with each other just running up in the mountains,” Ramberg said. “We’re so close afterward because we spend so much time together. Running is so painful, and when you do that with friends, you get much closer with them. When you go through pain with someone, you really know each other and pick up on so much about the other per son. I guess this makes it seem like a cult from the outside with some of our cult-ish activities, but it’s all because we are just so close, so it makes sense why people on the outside are confused.”

Ramberg said the team environment can become unhealthy despite how much he enjoys the sport.

“I enjoy running, and I love the team, but it’s a little tox ic with getting onto varsity especially because we’re all so close to each other, and we don’t want to be ghting with each other, but we kind of have to,” Ramberg said. “With everyone running a certain amount of hours per week and having to come to every practice, it limits us to cross country being the only thing we do. We’re Harvard-Westlake students, and we can only do one thing.”

Like Weng, Ramberg said runners who do not put as much effort into the team as others are treated di erently from others who try harder and are excluded.

“You kind of get made fun of a lot if you’re not running on Varsity or if

you’re not hitting your weekly volume every week,” Ramberg said. “If you’re not running as much as the lead people, or you’re not as fast, it’s like you’re not as close with everyone or not as much part of a team. In order to belong, you have to run a certain way and be dedicated enough, but people often are able to become varsity and be part of that group. ey can train more than they’re usually able to.”

’23 said water polo is another sport that has a close-knit community that spends a lot of time together.

“A lot of us spend a lot of our time together because we have three-hour practices every single day, and it’s hard not to get really attached to everybody,” Burghardt said. “A lot of us will get lunch and dinner with each other all the time. We also have a team banquet every year, which is pretty fun.”

Burghardt said the team tries to have a light-hearted attitude.

“We’re never gonna take anything all that seriously,” Burghardt said. “We’re always gonna have fun with everything we do. Even [in] our toughest times, we nd a way to bring each other up and have a good time.”

Burghardt said there are water polo traditions to introduce players to the team.

“Every freshman has to wear a suit on the rst day of school,” Burghardt said.

English Teacher and Department Head Larry Weber said he often sees students who participate in extracurricular activities together gravitate toward each other.

“Similar interests is how you make friends,” Weber said. “We all want to have friendship, and these activities are what provide the opportunity to connect with someone interesting. It might feel like it feeds into cliquishness, but if you’re so busy and time-limited, where are you going to scratch that itch for real connection? It’s gonna be in the limited places where you spend your time.”

Water polo player Jack Burghardt

“It basically tells all your freshmen teachers that you’re on the water polo team and that even though you’re on the water polo team, you’re more committed to school than you are to water polo, and it is really fun.”

Weber said he believes these close student groups are natural and can be good social opportunities.

“ ey can be really positive as long as you don’t feel like you’re losing your identity, and if those groups don’t purposefully exclude,” Weber said. “Group identities inevitably form, and it’s kind of what makes being in a group fun. You can encourage each other towards a sense of group identity that can be a great expression of your kind of mutual sense of humor, as long as you don’t become a terrorist group.”

*Name has been changed.

“ Chronicle feels like a family of incest. Everyone on Chronicle is somehow weirdly and deeply cconnected to each other.”

Grace Coleman ’24

By Iona L ee and Averie P errin

Garrett* sat in the back of his math class with his laptop open, watching as Guest6598344956 moved a knight and anticipating his own turn in their virtual chess game. His math teacher’s voice lecturing about polar coordinates was faint in the background. Garrett, like many other students, said he frequently plays online games in class.

“I only play games on my computer in classes that don’t really matter and are easy,” Garrett said. “In math, I don’t think it really a ects [my grades] too much. Also, in Spanish, my teacher knows that I am playing chess, but she doesn’t care. I play [games] in classes where I don’t need their help and where I don’t really need to talk or interact with the teacher.”

History Teacher Dror Yaron said he often notices students are distracted when they are on their computers.

“Rarely do I nd a student solely engaged in note-taking without seeing their wandering nger,” Yaron said. “I immediately will call on them and say, ‘So what do you think?’ and they’ll jump. It’s like putting candy in front of a small child, like a lollipop, and saying that you can’t lick it, but you can play with it with your ngers. A big robust, juicy, sugar- lled, fructose lollipop. It’s very damaging.”

Yaron said students would be more engaged in class if there were stricter rules about the use of electronic devices.

“If the administration laid down the line and said, ‘no cell phones, and no computers,’ in the long term, it would be tremendously bene cial for everyone’s well-being, mental health and engagement with each other,” Yaron said. “[It would be] an active positive culture in the school, quite frankly.”

In addition to issues with technology, Yaron said few students seem more devot ed to learning than boosting their GPA.

“Rare is a student that exclusively––and maybe this shouldn’t be the case––that really is focused, on inherent curiosity and investigation,

and grades are secondary,” Yaron said. “I don’t blame the students, though. ey’re part of a system that has generated an environment of competition.”

Yaron said he worries many students use grades as a representation of their worth.

“ e grade that one earns is not a re ection of the person, it’s a re ection of the work that they undertake,” Yaron said. “It’s a re ection of the preparation, the choices, the priorities or just circumstances. I wish, in an ideal world, that grades were not as impactive, but we are made up of a community that’s very type-A personality, very hyper-competitive, very much oriented towards status, in the sense of attaining the highest status of college ranking.”

Yaron said he gives grades based on merit and not based on a student’s perceived e ort.

“I love Harvard-Westlake, and I love the students, and I love engagement with them, and obviously at the immediate level, I want to appease and appeal to students where I can,” Yaron said.

“But, at the end of the day, I will never succumb to the idea that me giving high grades is some kind of unwritten agreement that [because] I really like you as a student and know you tried really hard, here’s 105%. I think you’re discrediting the student. You’re discarding their dignity as a human being.”

Nuzzy Sykes ’24 said he appreciates his relationships with teachers, but they primarily depend on his interest in the subject.

“If I have an interest in what’s going on, I’m going to be able to interact and relate to the teacher a lot more through the topics that they’re teaching, than if I’m trying to make small talk with them,” Sykes said. “Some teachers will make jokes in class, and I like some teachers that naturally make their classes engaging and fun.”

Sykes said he feels connected to many of his teachers, even if they don’t forge particularly close bonds with students.

with the teachers [where] they just say ‘get this work done, I’ll grade it and then I’ll see you at the next class,’” Sykes said. “Sooner or later, they’ll tell some story or interact in some new way that brings another depth to them. So, there are denitely some teachers that establish more of that personal connection than others, but in general, I feel like all teachers have some level of humanity to them.”

Cole Hall ’24 said the di culty of junior year has prompted him to foster close relationships with his teachers.

“ is year, [teachers] are de nitely way more friendly,” Hall said. “I’ve been told not to disclose which teacher I call by their rst name because he doesn’t want to — he was like, ‘that’s like a terrible look, and you’re not actually allowed to do that’ — but I do call so many teachers by the rst name, and most of them have nicknames at this point. I’ve grown a lot closer with a lot of them just because this is de nitely a pressure-cooker year, and teachers kind of understand that. I feel like the teachers now, compared to all my prior years at Harvard-Westlake, are just trying to create even more of a connection with students.”

Hall said he feels disappointed in himself when he does poorly on an assignment, but that he has learned how to get back on track.

“With my relationship with my teachers, when I get a bad grade, I feel like I kind of let them down in some way, es pecially when I do spend some amount of extra time with them,” Hall said. “I personally have de ‘teachers suck’ moments, but I don’t think that’s happened this year. More so [I’ve] been like, ‘okay, how do I hop back on the horse?’ just because I’ve been able to build

those relationships with my teachers.”

When students receive poor grades, Science Teacher Nancy Chen said she does not give grades based on student effort, but that she appreciates when her students try to learn and succeed in her courses.

“For the students who put in a lot of effort and show a lot of growth, I feel very proud of them, because I know how much work it takes to understand something that you don’t really understand,” Chen said. “So I have a different set of feelings for them because I acknowledge that they’re working hard and am proud of how far they have come.”

Chen said she does not judge students who do not put as much effort into her class because she realizes they have other commitments.

“For the students who do understand the topics and [put less effort into my class], I understand that they’re still putting time into [my class], but they are also putting time into other classes,” Chen said. “[That is] why I do go to athletic events, musicals, or plays and band, because that effort could be put somewhere else that becomes more of a priority for them. Also, other subjects could be harder than my subject. So, I have to recognize that if they’re putting less effort in, that doesn’t mean that they’re not putting effort into who they are and what they’re doing to grow as a person.”

*Name has been changed.

• Continued on hwchronicle.com

Students and faculty re ect on relationships with each other and discuss the impact performance, e ort and attentiveness have on grades.

“ For the students who put in a lot of e ort and show a lot of growth, I feel very proud of them.

Nancy Chen Science Teacher

By K arsten C ole and D

In her third grade classroom, Natalia Johnson ’23 said she was always amused by her teacher’s antics. Every time she got a name wrong, Ms. Anderson would drop to the floor and do thirty five push-ups. Though Johnson didn’t know it at the time, Ms. Anderson’s background as a military veteran would go on to play an influential role in Johnson’s own life. Today, Johnson is set to attend the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, a goal she said she has been building toward for her entire life. According to the school’s matriculation data, only three students at the school have attended West Point in the last five years, but Johnson said she feels comfortable attending a service academy.

“One thing I like about service academies is that everyone’s more well connected and knows each other afterward,” Johnson said. “I wanted to be a part of West Point in particular because it has a long history, and there are a lot of great people there. I knew that a civilian college wasn’t right for me, so I wanted to go to a place that fully captured the military culture.”

According to the West Point website, service academies di er greatly from conventional colleges. e largest di erence is that all students who graduate are required to serve in the military for at least eight years. To prepare for this, students are required to participate in military training and play a sport, while also maintaining a rigorous academic schedule. Because of the service components, all students attend school for free and even get paid $1000 every month for expenses such as laundry, books and activity fees. After graduation, all students also immediately become a second lieutenant in their branch. West Point receives many applicants, but it only lets in 10.7 percent of them each year, according to U.S. News and World Re -

port. Johnson said much of this is because of its unique application, which contains many di cult requirements.

“I think it’s around an 80-hour application, and that’s only if you’re applying to one academy,” Johnson said. “You have to get a nomination from a congressman, a senator or the Vice President, which is very rare. You have to pass their medical [exam], and then you have to pass their fitness exam as well.

That’s all in addition to the regular essays. I was lucky to get my congressman’s nomination, so I wasn’t stressed about getting one from a senator.”

Johnson said her dean had to learn about the school with her during the application process since applying to a service academy is not common at the school.

“My dean was doing research along with me because the school doesn’t have any data,” Johnson said. “ e application process is so di erent for service academies, so the deans actually had to do a lot of research as well to help me. I would recommend that there [be] more resources going towards service academies, because it’s a great opportunity, and I think a lot of Harvard-Westlake students would do well there.”

Despite this, Johnson said service academies have a bad reputation in the private school community, despite the excellent education they o er.

“ ere’s this misinterpretation that going into the military is what to do if you can’t get into college,” Johnson said. “It’s like your second option, but it’s really not. ere are so many intelligent people, and you’re basically getting an Ivy League-level education and all this training for free. So it’s really an opportunity that I think a lot of students, especially in private schools, don’t realize. I also knew that a civilian college wasn’t right for me. I wanted to [go to] a place that fully captured the military culture.”

Colin Weidmann ’08, who at-

tended West Point 15 years ago, said he was also enticed by the great education o ered by the school.

“For me, [going to West Point] was about the great education,” Weidmann said. “West Point is the fifth highest producing Rhodes Scholar school of any college in the country, which a lot of people don’t realize. I also wasn’t exactly sure what I wanted to do, and it was an opportunity to do something a little bit different, which I’ve always enjoyed. I now have 11 total years in [the military], so I didn’t look at that five-year commitment as a negative.”

Once he arrived at West Point, Weidmann studied international relations and Chinese, eventually securing majors in both areas. Like all students at West Point, Weidmann also had extracurricular activities, which he said made the days grueling yet rewarding.

“I woke up at about 6 a.m. every day, and I had formation at 6:50 a.m.,” Weidmann said. “At West Point, you take a lot of classes relative to a normal college schedule. I probably averaged like 20 credit hours while I was there, and I also double majored. Everybody at West Point also has to play a sport, so I was on the club marathon team, and every afternoon, we would go do our running practice from about 3:30-5 p.m.”

Like all West Point students, Weidmann was immediately commissioned as an officer after graduation. After working in different positions for a few years, including deployment in Afghanistan, Weidmann decided to make the switch to special forces, a selective military unit designed to conduct operations with complex parameters. Weidmann said he enjoyed his time with special forces because it allowed him to experience his studies from a different perspective.

“Special Forces [is] probably one of the more intellectually rigorous jobs in the military,” Weidmann said. “We’re practitioners of international relations

at the tactical level. So, on the ground, we’re in foreign countries working with foreign militaries, going to embassies, talking with di erent people. It’s a really cool application of what you learn in the classroom actually on the ground, in being able to think through some of those problems.”

When Weidmann rst told his friend Jack LaZebnik ’09 that he was thinking about applying to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, LaZebnik said he didn’t understand the decision due to the school’s mandatory service obligation.

“Nobody joins the military coming out of Los Angeles, let alone Harvard-Westlake,” LaZebnik said. “I will never forget the rst time he brought up West Point. I thought, why would you throw away your life like that? ere’s a stigma that the military is where the rejects go.”

Just three years later, however, LaZebnik would nd himself following in Weidmann’s footsteps. While there were many factors that in uenced his decision to attend a service academy, LaZebnik said he was drawn to West Point because of the challenge it presented him with. “ ere was a point [at] which I was looking around at other universities, but they all seemed more similar than they did di erent,” LaZebnik said. “When I considered West Point, I felt like I would nish that experience in four years and have been through the hardest experience of anybody from my high school or, holistically speaking, from the country. It gave me a lot of pride.”

After graduation, LaZebnik said he immediately entered the army as an infantry officer responsible for around 40 soldiers. When he was deployed to Afghanistan, his role became far more abstract, and he said he eventually found himself leading an undercover, two-person reconnaissance team. Although the work was challenging, LaZebnik said he felt prepared by the pressure he faced at the school.

• Continued on hwchronicle.com

ylan Graff

Members of the school community re ect on service academies and their impact on students in the college admissions process and their future careers.

L. Wood Natalia Johnson ’23

Wolverine guide

Etiquette Guide (not satire)

By Claire Conner

digital

* Zoom vs. Facetime— Facetime for everything, only Zoom for school. Everyone's sick of it.

* In text, only use lowercase “haha” and “lol” when adding them to your own sentence. Using them as reactions indicates that you don’t think the joke you’re responding to is actually funny.

* Don’t text someone “we need to talk.”

* Read receipts are yucky.

* Only turn on read receipts in an emergency.

Amigos

* Driver gets the aux, but if you’re close friends, you can ask to add songs to the queue. If you consistently carpool with someone and usually drive, you should o er to let them put on one of their playlists.

* If you make eye contact with an acquaintance (someone you’ve talked to at school or a party but aren’t friends with) in public, you should smile and nod or say hi. Otherwise, you don’t have to acknowledge them but can if you’d like to.

* If you live far away from someone else in the city, you mostly have to suggest a neutral meeting place with an equal commute. Some caveats: a person has to pay for their own gas, a person can’t drive, etc.

school

* Don’t publicly complain about a grade that’s above a B+.

* It’s OK to ask for someone’s study guide if you didn’t make one, but if you did make one and have a friend who keeps using you for notes, it’s also OK to lie and say that you don’t have one.

* Never take up more than 10 minutes of a friend’s time to get help on schoolwork that isn’t a group assignment, unless they o er to help you — and then insist on continuing to work with you after that time period, even after you’ve acknowledged the time they’ve spent. Between faculty, peer tutors, the learning center, and other classmates, you have plenty of resources.

Curriculum guide (satire)

B y G eorgia G oldberg

Alright you asked for it, so here it is (for the second time): the Official Chronicle Curriculum guide. But I know a lot of you are sitting there saying, “Georgia, didn’t you do this very same article last year?” And to that I’ll say, shut up, nobody cares. But now, you’re saying, “Georgia, you didn’t take all of these classes, how could you possibly know what you’re talking about?” And to that I’ll say: wasn’t America, our great nation, founded on ill-informed opinions? And also, shut up, nobody cares.

English

English II: Read classic literature like the Sparknotes Frankenstein Summary & Analysis.

Honors Junior Seminar: You definitely don’t have a highly unhealthy emotional attachment to your English teacher.

Fanfiction Writing: The school finally gave in to the Harry Potter club’s relentless demands and created this class.

History and Social Studies

The Rise of the Modern World: The question is: how will your teach -

MonEy

* De nitely tip any waiters and delivery drivers 20% as a minimum.

* Venmo immediately.

* Splitting the bill is standard, but asking for separate checks is always okay, especially if someone orders more than everyone else.

er find a way to justify imperialism?

Honors US History: You’ll absolutely love this class — but only if your teacher is Tate Sheehy’s dad.

Honors US Government and Politics: Put your best suit on and ready yourself for the ultimate fight: The Woke Left versus The Fiscal Conservatives, Social Liberals (tickets cost three hours of homework).

Corequisite: an active Twitter account.

Interdisciplinary Studies

Middle East Studies: The Subtle Art of Bulls**tting Your Way to an A-.

The Ethics of Social Media: Yes, this is a real class at our school. I’m guessing it’s a front for money laundering. What else could explain it?

HW Media I-III: Grouping us

Chronicle elites with the lowly yearbook and broadcast kids is a TERRIBLE idea, so we’re just going to do these classes the way it should be:

Modern Journalism: Advanced Gossip and Cult Studies

Corequisite: hating yourself and loving endless work

Yearbook: I don’t know much about this class, but the yearbook kids are always talking about some book called “Holland My Heart.” Don’t know what that’s about.

Broadcasting: Because print media is dead.

Cinema Studies I: Introduction to Napping.

Prerequisite: Quiet snoring.

Cinema Studies II: I hope you hate movies directed by women!

Prerequisite: Sexism.

Ladders: This class is all about ladders.

Honors Topics in Computer Science: Single-handedly caused the Silicon Valley Bank failure.

Catalyzing Change: Entrepreneurial Thinking: Venture’s latest futile attempt at making a successful class.

Math

Calculus AB: Learn how to derive joy from your life.

[Joke credit: someone who did the mean tweets survey]

Multivariable Calculus: Ultimate Frisbee and Nonsensical Equations

Corequisite: a Harvard (or ed2 UChicago) acceptance letter

Performing Arts

Dance: Basically identical to Kate Hudson’s NYADA dance class.

Musical Theater: Awww cute, you think you can get a lead in the musical just by taking this?

Prerequisite: Understanding the Kate Hudson joke

Science

Chemistry: It might be hard for you, but everyone else thinks it’s easy.

Honors Molecular and Cellular Biology: The only thing scarier than Mr. Axelrod’s wolf howl ringtone will be your grade in the class.

Honors Physics II: I’m sure you appreciate Dr. V’s “teaching” style.

AP Physics C: Start canceling all your plans now. You already have a quiz to study for.

Arts & Entertainment

20 YEARS OF

Students and teachers discuss the work that went into preparing for the 20th edition of West ix, the school’s student-run lm festival.

By K riste A n

West ix club member Edie

Cohen ’24 said she could feel her heart utter as she sat in the Million Dollar eater, awaiting the screening of the 16 student lms to be showcased at Westix. Cohen stared at the screen, enthralled as it faded into blackness, signaling the start of the rst lm.

Cohen said she was excited to see how audience members would react to the lms that were selected, having participated in the production of the festival herself.

“I [could] not wait to see the audience’s reactions to the lms,” Cohen said. “Having waited so long for the festival, I am so glad to have had a close connection to all the work that happened behind the scenes. I [was] anxious but also excited.”

West ix is an annual student-run lm festival at the school that showcases lms from high school students throughout California. Students in the West ix Club are responsible for selecting lms and organizing the festival at a local theater. is year’s festival, its 20th iteration, featured a speech from actress and comedian Mindy Kaling, a lmmakers’ workshop with comedian, director, screenwriter and actor Jay Chandrasekhar and producer Kate Angelo and performances from the Jazz Explorers.

Cohen said her role as a judge has increased her connection to the festival.

“Having judged all of the lms that have been submitted, I feel a close connection to the

festival,” Cohen said. “Judging lms and being involved in the selection process has allowed me to become familiar with the pieces submitted and to understand the vision of the lmmakers. Being part of the decision-making process has given me a sense of ownership and pride in the nal outcome of the festival, making me feel more connected to it.”

Cohen said club members are in charge of judging the lms and selecting those to be showcased at the festival. She said she is also responsible for advertising the event.

“ e main responsibilities of the members in the club are viewing, judging and discussing the lms that have been submitted,” Cohen said. “ e more lms watched and judged, the easier the process is. Being honest about our opinions of the lms is also important. ough the leaders of the festival have a more integral role in preparing for the technical aspects of the event, I focus more on spreading the word and getting people excited about the festival.”

Cohen said the lms are judged and selected based on a number of factors related to the lm’s artistic qualities.

“ e judges review the lms submitted and use speci c criteria to evaluate the pieces’ artistic qualities, direction, writing, acting, design, editing, sound and music,” Cohen said. “ e selection is rigorous, but it is crucial to ensure that the [our] selection re ects the festival’s values.”

West ix historian

Nick Guagliano ’23 said organizing the festival can be challenging and di cult but also rewarding.

“Preparing for West ix is a process that dates back to fourth quarter of the last school year,” Guagliano said. “Since the leaders were selected, plans have been passed forward with the intention of making this the best West ix ever. e leaders did an incredible job of nding a venue that is appropriate for such an amazing occasion and promoting it so audience members will be excited. e whole process of putting the festival together has been ful lling, and being able to work with people to create something that I feel passionate about is how I wanted to spend time as a senior.”

Upper School Visual Arts teacher Reb Limerick said the team implemented a number of changes to make the festival as accommodating and welcoming as possible.

“We put a lot of emphasis on this being the 20th festival,” Limerick said. “We reached out to schools that have never been represented and tried to get a more diverse assortment of lms. We have also expanded our leadership team in adding a board, 14 seniors that are passionate about video and lm, in addition to our four festival directors. One of the board members, [Guagliano], created an interview series

where he contacted people from the past festivals to interview them. He has been putting [the series] on YouTube as well as on our Instagram.”

Limerick said the festival wanted to select lms that are student-made as well as those that showcase technical skills.

“It is great to see a gorgeous lm from a school that has a lot of lmmaking resources and has an incredible message,” Limerick said. “But also, we want to honor lms that are a little more [do-it-yourself] and that the students had a lot of fun making. is festival, we wanted to ensure that all of the lms were student-made.”

that West ix does a great job of capturing,” Guagliano said. “I am so impressed with the content and lms that are shared at each festival. One other important part of the festival is the exposure that lmmakers have in their art being viewed, appreciated and critiqued. e speaker is a big draw, but I view the judges as a more important aspect as it allows the lmmakers to garner great advice and contact information as the students continue to pursue their passions in lm.”

“Preparing for West ix is a process that dates back to fourth quarter of the last school year.”

Limerick said the festival helps propel students into the professional world of lm in allowing them to learn from experts and collaborate with others.

Nick Guagliano ’23

“Seeing the lm on a huge screen and having people view it at a huge theater professionalizes the lms,” Limerick said. “ e panel of judges [allows] students to get feedback from other students as well as [from] people in the professional world. rough the workshop, students can also meet other lmmakers, talk about their lms and connect, network and collaborate. e festival can be a point of connection for future collaboration.”

Guagliano said West ix is an excellent platform for students to share their work and receive feedback from experts.

“ ere is so much incredible talent among lmmakers in California

Student lmmaker and recipient of the Audience Choice Award Ian Kim ’24 was selected to showcase his lm “My Sisters in the Stars: e Star of Lee Yong-Soo” at the festival. Kim said he feels honored to have been chosen to present his lm at the festival because it has served as a constant source of inspiration for him.

“Getting into West ix was super exciting as I had wanted to rst introduce the lm [at] the school,” Kim said. “West ix has been a consistent source of inspiration for me throughout the times that I have attended.

ough the selection pool is smaller than most other student festivals, limited to South California, the curation of the lms [is] top-notch, demonstrating the festival’s fame and reputation. I have also seen how much work the leaders and mentors put into the festival together, and I [could] not wait to see the nal product.”

• Continued on hwchronicle.com

L. Wood

Reb Limerick

C o ncert Culture

By K riste A n and Olivia Phillips

Driving through deserts and barren plains, Nikki Dadlani ’25 said she could feel the minutes ticking as she neared the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, to attend Coachella. She said she could not wait to see some of the headliners at the concert, including Billie Eilish and e Weeknd. Dressed in her outt – handpicked to match the event – she sang along to the songs on the concert setlist, her heart beating with the tick of the clock.

Dadlani said she has been attending concerts since she was a child, both at Coachella and at venues throughout Los Angeles.

“ e rst concert that I went to was the iHeart Radio Festival, and there were a bunch of artists that I knew just a few songs from,” Dadlani said. “I started to want to go to more concerts after that. Right now, I am begging to [go] to Coldplay.”

Sam Pulaski ’24 said he goes to concerts for the rush of adrenaline he experiences during the show and for their lasting impact.

“ e reason that I love concerts, besides supporting the artists that I listen to, is because I do not think there are other experiences like it, just lis -

concerts among adolescents, students often miss class to attend these performances.

“If the artists have a big draw to them, we expect to see students missing class to see them,” Preciado said. “I think more students are going to concerts than ever before. It impacts school life so much because if a handful of students [do not] show up to class, there is no point for the teachers in teaching the class at all.”

Preciado said given the popular nature of Coachella, a major music festival in Indio, California, he expects to see an increase in absences during the festival weekends.

“It is going to be an unpleasant week,” Preciado said. “I think that social media has ampli ed the star attraction of concerts, and students want to be a part of that. It has become more of a culture as opposed to students attending concerts to see a particular artist.”

Preciado said though the school used to punish students for missing school to go to concerts in giving them detentions, it has come up with a new means of dealing with student absences.

“We used to give detention for attending Coachella and have switched to not allowing students [to] make up the assignments or exams that they miss,” Preciado said. “We are

trying to see it from the standpoint of the teachers so that the teachers do not have to put time into helping students make up their work.”

In 2018, 425 students missed school over the two weekends that Coachella spanned, according to Preciado. Around 80 of these students credited their absences to Coachella. In 2017, 102 students missed school following Coachella weekend.

Lok Gertschen-Klaseus ’25 said though he has not attended a concert himself, he recognizes the e ect that large concerts and music festivals have on students.

“You will see concerts on people’s social media stories, and if it is a big concert, half of the school will have merch from it,” Gertschen-Klaseus said. “I am not interested in going to a concert unless it is an artist that I love, but there are a lot of options for people that do want to go.”

Gertschen-Klaseus said the attention surrounding concerts can distract students from putting forth their best e ort in school.

“For some more famous artists, students are talking about the concert even before it happens,” Gertschen-Klaseus said. “I remember a few of my friends skipped class so that they could try and get Taylor Swift tickets. I am not a huge Taylor Swift fan, but I knew when her tickets were on sale because half of the kids in a class had their computers out and were watching where they were in the queue.”

Remi Cooperstein ’23 said though going to concerts is an amazing experience, there can be academic disadvantages.

“Going to a concert often means a late night out on a school night, and that comes with planning ahead and being diligent,” Cooperstein said. “One time, I went to a Harry Styles concert instead of spending the night [preparing] for a math quiz, but I will never regret a decision like that.”

In addition to its abundance of high-pro le artists, musicians and celebrities, Los Angeles is home to a number of concert venues, including the Kia Forum, So Stadium and the Rose Bowl.

ere are 409 live music venues in the Los Angeles, according to the World Cities Culture Forum.

concerts because if I want to see an artist that I know of, I know the artist will stop here.”

Illi Kreiz ’24 said being an Angeleno has ampli ed her love for music and allowed her greater accesss to concerts in the area.

“Living in Los Angeles has made me love music more given that artists tend to come here often,” Kreiz said. “Sometimes, I go [to concerts] because of the artist. I remember one time, though, my friend and I were bored, so we looked up who was playing the Roxy that night and decided to go.”

Dadlani said it is important that students balance their work as concerts can take up valuable time on school nights.

“Going to a concert often means a late night out on a school night, and that comes with planning ahead.”

Pulaski said living in Los Angeles has allowed him access to special opportunities at concerts.

“Los Angeles is where it happens,” Pulaski said. “ e rst concert I ever went to, I went with a musical artist, a friend’s dad, so we went backstage to meet the artist and had frontrow seats. I think that [this] is a Los Angeles thing, and it is not a common experience. It has made me more interested in going to

“It would be hard to go to concerts all the time, especially on weeknights,” Dadlani said.

“You end up procrastinating so much schoolwork and being so much more tired. If I went to a less intense school, I would be at a concert all the time. Balance is super important when thinking about if you want to go to one because it is a fun thing to do, but you also need to think about things like how much work you will have to make up.”

Upper School English Teacher Jocelyn Medawar said though the absence of students in

• Continued on hwchronicle.com

Students and teachers discuss the appeal of concerts and how absences relating to concerts impact students’ academic responsibilites.

L. Wood

Nikki

Dadlani ’25

Remi Cooperstein ’23

Jazz band members play spring concert

By A lex Dinh

Students performed in small groups at the Jazz Combo Concert in Rugby eater on Feb. 25 and 26. e combos, drawn from Jazz Band, Studio Jazz, Jazz Ensemble and Jazz Rhythm Section, performed with direction from Jazz Directors Chris Sullivan and Matthew Yeakley.

Jazz Band performed songs including Dolphin Shoals from Mario Kart 8 and Naima by John Coltrane.

Saxophonist and Jazz Band member Eric Vartany ’24 said playing in front of his peers was calming despite the liveliness of the concert.

Dancers perform in “Elements” showcase in Rugby Auditorium

By A mber Zhang

Students in the Upper School Dance Program performed in the Elements dance concert March 10 and 11. e production featured 19 group and solo dances in a variety of styles, most of which were student-choreographed.

Upper School Performing Arts Teacher Queala Clancy said several elements of dance are important in conveying emotions through the medium.

“Body, energy, action, time and space are crucial to embody and execute [a performance],” Clancy said. “As a performer, you are the vessel, and it is your job to tell the person’s story; it is your job to take on the energy and push it out.”

Shiara Navarro ’25 performed a contemporary solo “Cardigan,” that she also choreographed. Navarro said that she felt a sense of accomplishment after completing the show.

“I was very nervous at rst, because I was worried about my choreography, but everyone is so wonderful, and we were able to

collaborate and work together,” Navarro said. “I am very happy with the nished result.”

Hank Schoen ’24 performed a modern-jazz solo entitled “Colors” in his rst dance recital. Schoen said the experience was gratifying and helped him gain experience dancing in front of a live audience.

“ is was my rstever show,” Schoen said. “It felt good to do, and [the concert] was like a weight o my shoulders. [Performing] helped me build con dence and comfortability on the stage.”

Clancy said that the conceptual idea of Elements was important in allowing her to support her students.

“To me, Elements is acknowledging the individual dancers and the dancers collectively,” Clancy said. “It is best to acknowledge them within their element, so we create this platform that allows them to embody and share what their

element is.”

Arely Monterroso ’24 performed a solo entitled “My Bridge of Past to Future.” e dance was a blend of cultural dances from Latin America as well as hip-hop, created with the intention of representation and cultural awareness of dance forms from around the world.

“It feels really good to be able to represent my culture and meld it with my own style, and to be able to put that on stage and receive such good feedback from the crowd,” Monterroso said. e second show included an award ceremony for the performers. Lauren LaPorta ’23 was given an award for Outstanding Choreographer, Monterroso won an award for Dance Activism, Rachel Rei ’25 won an award for Outstanding Performer and Schoen won an award for Commitment to Dance.

Students screen video art projects

By Sabrina H amideh

Students in Honors Senior

Seminar: Video Art showcased their lms in an exhibition in Feldman Horn from Feb. 21 to Feb. 28. e exhibition, titled “SPECIAL TV MICROWAVE COMPUTER,” was made up of a collection of immersive multimedia audiovisual art installations from 17 students, enrolled in the class.

Olivia Rahhal ’23, who resented at the exhibition said she tried to capture students’ experiences with mental health in her installation.

“It was a documentary about how di erent people experience anxiety,” Rahhal said. “I interviewed 11 people and played those interviews on iPads with headphones. I hoped to capture the idea that feeling anxious is more than normal and more than that, that it looks di erent. I feel a lot of anxiety, and knowing that other people also feel it has helped

me. e goal was to transmit that feeling to other people and to show people that no matter their circumstances, there is no wrong feeling.”

Rahhal said she put a lot of e ort into the showcase and is glad that other students have had a chance to interact with the piece that she produced.

“It was a fun process, preparing for the showcase,” Rahhal said. “Our class put a lot of e ort into our video projects and installations, and we all feel super proud of what we created. Knowing that I put a lot of work into this project, I was so excited to see classmates and other friends watch and interact with the nal product.”

Nick Guagliano ’23 said while presenting at the showcase was frightening at rst, he is glad that people enjoyed his art installation.

“For me, presenting the showcase was terrifying,” Guagliano said. “Because the [physical] structure of the piece was

not the most sound, I was worried about it falling over a viewer’s head. Over the course of the week that it was up, I was making quick xes and changes to the interior of the box, but whenever I saw people sitting inside it, I felt waves of accomplishment rush over me as there were steps throughout its creation that I did not think would work out. I felt proud when things went according to plan.”

Eva Goldrich ’25 said looking at the lms at the exhibition inspired her as an artist.

“I visited the exhibition during class as well as during some lunch periods,” Goldrich said. “I liked being able to see all of the exhibitions as it was inspiring to see how creative people can be with a medium like a video. I do not think that there was one installation that I did not like. Looking at the immense detail in the exhibition, I could see how much time and hard work went into each of the installations. It was a cool, immersive experience.”

concert experience.

“You really get to showcase your ability a lot more in the combo concert, and it was just a fun environment to have all my friends there and do what we love,” Vourgourakis said. “ ere are people in Jazz who are really good, and they are people who just started, and we’re all great friends.”

Vourgourakis said he enjoys improvising with his friends on stage and appreciates the creativity they share.

“It was stressful to play in front of an audience, but it's very fun once you're up on stage, and you can feel the music running through your veins,” Vartany said. “ en you hear the crowd cheering for you, and it’s very relaxing, despite it being so energetic.”

Sullivan said he enjoys seeing his students’ hardwork come to fruition in concerts.

“ ese are, in many cases, life-changing performances or moments in time, and I have a bird’s eye view of that,” Sullivan said. “It’s very gratifying for me to see all their hard work pay o and get to play in front of an extremely supportive audience.”

Sullivan said he enjoys passing down his passion for musical instruments to his students and helping them grow as musicians.

“It’s gratifying to share this passion that I developed when I was in high school and see this process unfold with my current students,” Sullivan said. “It’s great to show them recordings and repertoire and then have them cling on to it, go into the room next door and start working on it.”

Bassist Manos Vourgourakis ’25 said performing with his peers in a smaller group allowed him to have a more dynamic

“Especially if you’re in a group with people you know well and you like playing with, you can go o of each other and react to what’s happening,” Vourgourakis said. “It’s just always new, so although you’re playing the same songs, the experience is always a little bit di erent because of improvisation.”

George Ma ’25 attended the concert and said he wants to attend another in the future.

“It was so emotional,” Ma said. “I wanted to cry, and it made me happy. It was an incredible concert, and I’d love to go again. e build-up to the Jazz band at the end was spectacular.”

Ma said he appreciated the solo performances.

“All of the soloists were very talented and they immersed me in the concert,” Ma said. “I especially enjoyed [Aiden Daneshrad’s ’24] alto saxophone performance.”

Studio Jazz Band and Jazz Band will perform in Italy during a ten-day trip from March 25 to April 3. Sullivan said overseas trips like these allow the musicians to grow closer and improve their performances on stage.

“Little things like being in the hotel, long bus rides and going out to these big group dinners really unite a group,” Sullivan said. “ at unity translates to the stage and to the rehearsal space. When you have a group that gets along with each other, they also play well together.”

ON YOUR TOES: Rachel Rei ’25, Lily Tamkin ’25, Sabrina Hamideh ’25 and Amelia Chiarelli ’25 perform a piece for audience members. Many dances at the performance were choreographed by students.

L. Wood Shiara Navarro ’25

@mobamba

-tall swimmer -fast swimmer

-might get recruited swimmer

@yaddydaddy

-Jake Lancer's long lost cousin -closetted studier

-Hopeless Romantic <3

@twinnem

-cheer and chains

All 12 Chronicle Juniors voted to rate Chronicle Seniors. Grades are an average of their votes.

@davis.marxist

-addicted to Prefect Council

-addicted to holding (not drinking) a strawberry acai refresher

@hamster.at.heart

[ERROR: username not found]

-HW ex-pat -Jackson, are you coming back??

-Seriously please come back

Chron Senioritis chrondr

@kristean

-Hours spent on physics: 40 -Minutes spent on you: 0

Chronicle Dating Pro les: Swipe right to Weiler

@volleyBaller

-published author -plays volleyball

-Goes by the alias basil_sushi -Westpoint recruit

@yona

-call her shorty -she does track

@uncrustable_connoisseur11

-Dr. Sheehy's son -Speedy boi

@animaljamluvr75

-On the rst date, Izzy Kashper will be there too.

@burneraccount123

-Varsity wrestler, supposedly team captain (Con dence is attractive!)

-"Hard worker"

OPEN DIVISION CHAMPS BEST IN THE WEST:

By Ella Yadegar and Averie Perrin

Basketball Program Head David Re

bibo paced up and down the court as the Wolverines trailed St. John Bosco in the third quarter March 4. Drawing up plays on his clipboard, Rebibo felt con could lead the team to a come-from-be hind success. After the team caught up in the fourth quarter and eventually over took their opponents, he quickly real ized he had won his 300th game as a high-school basketball head coach.

Rebibo said he did not focus on getting his 300th win but rather on the fact that the team had made it to the Regional California In terscholastic Federation (CIF) Finals.

“I was just excited that we won and were getting to the regional “I was proud of our guys and looking forward to getting 301. I remember a lot of very sig ni cant winning moments, but league, CIF and state championships never leave you.”

After coaching at El Camino Real and the University of San Fran cisco, Rebibo began working at the school in 2015. He has now been coaching at the high school level for 14 years. ey went on to beat Centennial High School in the California Interscholastic Federation State SoCal Regional Open Division Finals and then won the CIF Open Division State Champion-

ship against St. Joseph on March 11 for the rst time in program history, making them the No. 1 team in California according to MaxPreps.com and giving Rebibo

Rebibo said the team’s success is because of the good dynamic that players have developed.

“I’d say great chemistry, accountability and character have led to the team’s success this season,” Rebibo said. “I am proud, happy and excited for our guys. [It was] just an incredible accomplishment, and I am a very proud coach.”

Unlike a number of other high school teams, the school’s team has just one transfer student.

Forward Brady Dunlap ’23 did not join the school as a freshman, but moved from Hart High School in Newhall, Calif. in 2020.

Dunlap said Rebibo’s coaching has made him a stronger player “[Rebibo]’s very demanding,” Dunlap said. “He shoots straight, and he doesn’t sugarcoat anything, which really has helped me the court as well, in terms of just being more mentally

Dunlap said Rebibo knows him well enough as a player to showcase his most developed skills when on the court.

“He’s improved my entire skill set, most importantly my defensive awareness and defensive schemes,” Dunlap said. “He also puts me in di erent good situations

on the o ensive side of the ball, [so I’m] just ourishing in the situations he puts me in.”

Guard Trent Perry ’24 said Rebibo is committed to the team and allows room for growth in their training.

“Coach Rebibo is very passionate,” Perry said. “He’s a hard worker, and he always gives his full trust to his guys.”

Perry said Rebibo did not mention having won his 300th game, even though it is a big accomplishment in Rebibo’s career.

“It was kind of just like another win for him, honestly,” Perry said. “ at’s what I like about him as well because he just keeps everything the same, and he never really boasts about anything. He’s always very humble.”

Although he said Rebibo treated the game like any other in the season, Christian Horry ’24 said he and his teammates were motivated to achieve the accolade for Rebibo.

“ ere was a little bit of pressure that game because it was his 300th win,” Horry said. “It was also the playo s, so we really couldn’t lose that game. It was the game we really didn’t see ourselves losing because we were the one seed, and they were like the seventh or something like that. We wanted to make it special for Rebibo, since this was a really big mark in his coaching career, and he is such a great coach for Harvard-Westlake.”

Perry said he was ecstatic about winning CIF State because of all of the hard work he and his teammates put in during the season.

“I was actually so happy,” Perry said. “I thought I was gonna cry tears of joy. It was a very special moment just because we went through a lot. I’m just glad I got to get my best friends, the seniors and a championship in the end.”

Head of Athletics Terry Barnum said Rebibo’s ability to connect to the players and school community makes him an exceptional basketball coach.

“Coach Rebibo is an amazing coach,” Barnum said. “What makes him so e ective is that he understands and embraces the type of school that Harvard-Westlake is and connects really well with our students. He also cares about the school beyond his program. He is a great ambassador for the Athletic Department and the entire school. He cares deeply about every player in this program and does whatever he can to help them reach their full potential.”

Barnum said Rebibo’s methodical plan to win the State Championship made achieving that goal possible.

“At the end of last season, Coach Rebibo and I sat down and talked about what it would take for us to win an Open Division championship,” Barnum said. “He spent the entire o season building a plan to put us in position to win at the highest level. Winning the Open Division State Championship was the goal from the beginning, and he gave his athletes the con dence to believe it was possible. at’s the mark of a great leader.”

Horry said Rebibo has helped him through his injury recovery and recruiting.

“Last year, when I had hurt my ankle, I was really going through it, just because I was thinking ‘I’m really missing the playo s,’” Horry said. “It was kind of the rst time I saw him as not just my coach but someone I could reach out to if I needed help with anything. He was very supportive about it. With recruiting he’s always talking about how he can reach out to colleges for me and for clubs and just whatever I need from him. He’s just been a really supportive and helpful person.”

Brady Dunlap ’23

Baseball drops in rankings

By A lex Dinh and Everett L akey

e baseball team began the season 7-6, going 4-5 in league play. e team won two of three games against Loyola and St. Francis but was swept in a three game series against Notre Dame, losing 2-1, 6-3 and 9-4 on March 15, 16 and 17 respectively.

Last season, the team went 22-8-1 overall and 14-3-1 in Mission league play, and the year before that, it went 17-1 in league play. Before the halfway point of this season, the team has already lost more games in league play than its previous two seasons combined. To begin the year, it was ranked ninth in the country by Prep Baseball Report but has since fallen to 19th.

In elder Jack La tte ’25 said although the team is currently struggling, he believes it will improve throughout the season.

“We’re having trouble closing out games,” La tte said. “Our o ense has been struggling a little bit, but I know this team can put it together, and we should be good in the end.”

La tte said the team has a lot of good players and has the potential to nd success further along in the season.

“We have a lot of talented players, and we’re a tightly bonded group,” La tte said. “We’re a fairly small team, but we have talent everywhere around the eld. And I think that if we put it all together, we are one of the best teams in the state.”

Program Head Jared Halp-

ert said the team works to learn from experience and improve after every game.

“[ ere’s] no real change in strategy after wins and losses. We try to learn from every game regardless of the result,” Halpert said. “Every game o ers opportunities of improvement.”

Looking forward, the team has a three-game series against the rest of the Mission League. e team will play Chaminade,

Boys tennis remains undefeated after returning from Texas trip

By Jackson M ayer

e boys tennis team competed in the Universal Tennis Rating (UTR) National Tournament in Texas from Feb. 23-25, nishing 5th overall with a 3-1 record. e team has won nine straight matches after returning from the trip.

Singles and Doubles player Matthew Reiter ’25 said the team’s close connections and depth helped them succeed in

the Texas tournament.

“ e team de nitely feels more like a family, which has helped us get through some tough matches,” Reiter said.

“Everyone on the team, including the non-starters, makes a big impact on the nal result, and I think this has caused us to have a great tournament.”

e team began the season with a 6-12 loss to Peninsula High School. Since the defeat, the team has gone 12-1 overall

and 5-0 in league play.

Reiter said these victories have only motivated the team to work harder outside of games.

“Our success this year has caused us to be more focused in our practice,” Reiter said. “We are determined to win CIF and the other big tournaments.”

Singles and Doubles player Teddy Ingold ’24 said the team’s morale has improved throughout the season with their success.

“ e team morale has been

Sierra Canyon, Alemany and Crespi. Halpert said the team chemistry this season is strong and he remains con dent that wins will become easier as the playo s approach.

“I’m very proud of the way our team has competed this year,” Halpert said. “We have a very close group of guys that have each other’s back.”

Pitcher Rowan Jen ’23 said he is excited to compete against

strong opponents in this year’s Mission League and CIF playo s. Last season, the team ocnluded their season after a loss to Jserra in the CIF playo s.

“I’m excited for the challenges that we’re going to be able to tackle,” Jen said. “ ere are always great teams that we get to play in the Mission League and then in playo s, and being able to go up against challenging opponents is always really fun.”

The team de nitely feels more like a family, which has helped us get through some tough matches. Everyone on the team, including the non-starters, makes a big impact on the nal result.”

Matthew Reiter ‘25

great throughout the season,” Ingold said. “It feels like with each win, the joy meter goes a little bit higher than before.

Ingold said he wants the team to be loud and intimidating when it competes against their upcoming opponents.

“In the future I look for-

ward to increasing the rowdiness of the boys on the bench,” Ingold said. “We already have some dogs in there, but I’m hoping we can get the whole squad going nuts for the future matches.”

e team’s next test is at the All-American Boys Invitational in Newport Beach March 23-25.

Girls soccer concludes playo run

By A lex Dinh

e girl’s soccer team lost to Hart 1-0 in the Division 2 CIF Southern Section championship at College of the Canyons on Feb. 24 and then lost to San Marcos 2-0 in the Division 2 CIF regional semi nals March 2. e team nished their season as Mission League Champions with an overall record of 16-7-3, going 5-2 in the playo s and 8-1-1 in league play.

Program Head Richard Simms said the team overcame many obstacles and ultimately grew closer together throughout the season.

“ is group overcame a lot of adversity throughout the season, and they were really impressive in their ability to do that,” Simms said. “I truly believe that in my 18 years at Harvard-Westlake, this was the most that a team has ever improved.” is year, the team had a much younger lineup, as seven out of

the 11 starters were either ninth or 10th graders. Simms said he is grateful the team got to play so many playo games because it will help the young players grow for the future.

“We got the opportunity to play seven playo games, which is a lot,” Simms said. “I think these games are going to help these younger players in the future, as they’ll be really prepared for those big moments.”

Defender and Team

Captain Dani Lynch ’23 said the team grew closer together throughout the season, which helped them during their important playo games.

“In the playo s, we showed how, even with many injuries, we just push through,” Lynch said. “It showed how this team progressed over the course of the year.”

Lynch is committed to play Division 1 soccer at Clemson in the fall. She said she is excited to continue to showcase her skills at the next level.

“In addition to playing with my sister, I am also excited to grow as a player and be at the best of my ability,” Lynch said. “I just want to go and be gritty when I play in college. It’s just everyone showing o what they have and I feel like that is the best part of it.”

Forwards Kaia Santomarco-King ’26 and Vicky Pugh ’25 led the team in goals scored. Simms said he is excited to see them grow as players over the next few years.

“It’s gonna be exciting to watch [Santomarco-King and Pugh] grow,” Simms said. “ ey both still have so much potential. e sky is the limit for them.”

PLAYING IN A PUDDLE: Mid elder Gemma Ozturk ’25 passes the ball past a defender in the team’s 1-0 victory over Notre Dame on Jan. 27.

FIRING THE CANNON: Kai Caranto ’23 makes a throw to rst base in the fourth inning of the Wolverines’ 3-0 victory against Loyola to win their best of three series March 9. With the shutout, the team improved their overall record to 7-3 and their Mission League record to 4-2.

Lacrosse rebounds to 4-3 record

By Chris Mo

e lacrosse team defeated Saugus High School 13-8 on March 14 and St. Francis 15-6 on March 18, improving to 4-3 overall and 2-1 in Mission League play this season. e team’s win against St. Francis on Friday marked its third consecutive victory after a threegame losing streak.

Last season, the team went 10-7 overall and 5-4 in Mission League, ending their season with a loss against Tesoro High School in the CIF Playo s.

Team Captain and Defender Slater Vance ‘24 said the team is still nding momentum after a number of seniors graduated last year.

Track and eld team begins season undefeated

By Eden C onner

e girls and boys track and eld team started their season 3-0 with wins against Sierra Canyon School and Marlborough School in a dual meet, followed by wins versus Chaminade High School and Alemany High School March 9 and 16, respectively.

e girls team beat Chaminade 83-40 and the boys won 87-30. Against Alemany, the girls won 88-25 and the boys 85-40.

In the meet versus Chaminade School, long-distance runner Saisha Kumar ’25 took rst place in the mile and Phoebe Hsu ’24 won the two-mile. Long distance runner Nuzzy Sykes ’24 came rst in the 800 and mile, tying Leo Craig ’24 in the two-mile.

Sykes said he had to shift his strategy from running distance in cross country to running track.

“In some races the strategy is

as simple as nd someone who is racing the time you want to race and just hold on for dear life,” Sykes said. “In races when you’re working on a tactic of it, if you know your opponent is more of a sprinter than a distance runner you can take them out fast in the beginning and since they can’t hold on later in the race they’ll fall o and you can take the lead.”

e squad had a number of rst-place nishes across the eld events. Jesse Goldman ’23 threw a 52-10 in shot put, which put him in rst place in the event and met the MileSplit US Second Team Standard. e boys and girls teams won their high jump events with Pierce Neirick ’25 and Aidan Usher ’26 tying for rst in the boys high jump and Charlotte Hogan ’24 winning on the girls side. Arize Nwike ’23 and Camille Weinstein ’24 won their respective triple jump events

and Danny Tan-Goldhammer ’23 and Jessica ompson ’23 won their long jump events.

e sprint group had multiple rst place nishes, with Benson Fleisher ’23 and ompson winning the boys and girls 200 meter dash. Rasak Ayeni ’23 placed rst in the 400 meter dash and was joined by Fleisher, Usher and Mason Walline ’25 to win the 4x400 by a margin of .10 seconds, the team’s best run in the event this season.

Neirick said new hurdle coach Sydney Haydel ’10, who is in the school’s hall of fame for basketball and track and eld, has played an important role in improving the squad’s hurdles.

“We’ve been working on a lot of form and technique because with the event, you can be a super fast runner, but if you’re not fast over the hurdles it’s going to hurt your time,” Neirick said. “Our

Freshman class of ve helps softball team to best start of season in years

By Nathan Wang

e softball team started the season looking to improve after nishing 2-16 last year. e team is 2-2 following a 20-9 win against Marymount High School on March 7.

Head Coach Leesa Harris said the players on this year’s roster are uniquely dedicated.

“What sets this team apart from the previous two years is everyone’s willingness to buy into what myself and the other coaches are doing,” Harris said. “We have worked extremely hard to create a di erent culture for this year’s team, and everyone has proven to be up for the challenge.”

Harris said this year’s returning players and new freshmen have worked cooperatively to strengthen the team.

“We also have six returners who [have] experienced the previous two years and came in this year with a will to want to be better,” Harris said. “ at, mixed

with a pretty strong freshman class of ve [players], has been a complete game-changer.”

First Baseman Nathalie Paniagua ’23 said the team’s solid performance this year is due to a tight-knit team and stronger motivation to win.

“I think our performance this year has been signi cantly better than last year’s,” Paniagua. “We’re a very close team that has the drive to win, so I think that has been re ected in the way we practice and play. is year we had a signi cantly larger number of freshmen join our team, which has helped [the team] tremendously as well, setting the team up for future seasons.”

Harris said playo s are a longterm goal that the team ultimately hopes to reach by focusing on one game at a time.

“Our rst goal is to win our league,” Harris said. “We are already on track after defeating Marymount last week. en we will make a run for playo s. We

will achieve these goals by taking one game at a time and staying competitive. It will take for us to do all of the little things right and stick to what we know.”

Right Fielder Maiya Holly ’24 said keeping up the team’s momentum is another one of the team’s goals.

“I feel great about this year,” Holly said. “I’m really proud of this group of girls and love the energy and drive that we approach each game with. One of our goals every day is to build up more consistency between every game—after the win last week we want to keep up the good work.”

Holly said softball has taught her about diligence both on and o the eld.

“Repetition and work matters,” Holly said. “All the reps [and] all the time we spend on the eld makes us incrementally better, and over time, that adds up into notable progress. I try to keep that same work ethic when I move o the eld.”

new coach has been doing a really good job of teaching the group technique and step intervals. e di erence between taking three steps and ve steps between hurdles in a 110 meter hurdle race can really make a di erence.”

Sprinter and hurdler Satya Chang ’25 said that as the season progresses and the team reaches a certain level of physical tness, the most important aspect of improvement is mentality.

“My goals for this season are to [set a personal record] from last season and ideally try to get sub 50 second in the 300 hurdle race” Chang said. “ at kind of progress is de nitely pushing it, which is why it’s so important to work on the mental aspect of the sport. Physically, it’s doable, so now it’s up to putting myself in the right mindset at meets.” e team will face Notre Dame School March 23.

“I will describe our season as an adjustment period,” Vance said. “After losing seniors last year, our team has had to step up to ful ll the roles of the seniors. We are succeeding as we hit the eld with intensity and skill every time we play.”

Vance said the defense needs to work more collectively as a team in order to better execute their plays.

“On the defensive side of the game, we need to have a better understanding of how our slide package works and trust one another,” Vance said. “Understanding that we rotate as a group is crucial to any team’s success while playing defense.”

Goalkeeper Rohan Mehta ‘23 said injuries could hurt the team’s chances at success this year, especially with fewer players on the roster.

“We are a smaller team this year, but I think that lends itself to a tighter bond between everyone on the team.” Mehta said. “Everyone needs to do a better job of taking care of themselves. We cannot a ord the injuries we have been facing.”

e team will play at home game against Loyola on March 24 at 5:30 p.m.

DEAD SPRINT: Aaron Milburn ’24 competes in the 4x100-meter relay at the track and eld team’s rst meet of the season. e team won 90-28 at home against Sierra Canyon High School. e team’s next meet will be against Notre Dame, a league opponent, on March 23.

SWING, BATTER: Dylan Fischer ’26 takes a swing at the ball during a home game against La Salle High School on Feb. 21. e team won 10-0.

WOLVERINES WOLVERINESONLY ONLY

BY SLATER & BRONWYN VANCE

team’s ability to constantly perform at a high level.

My name is Slater Vance and I am both a Captain of the HW Varsity team and a Defensive starter. So far, I will describe our season as an adjustment period. As is with any period of signi cant change, the return to normalcy is bound to undulate until a new rhythm is established.

After 10 seniors graduated last year, our team has had to step up to ll the roles of the seniors who preceded us. We are succeeding, as we hit the eld with intensity and skill every time we play. Recently, we have taken some hard losses, but nothing speaks more to a team’s strength and vitality than its ability to push through adversity and learn from its shortcomings. e Varsity team has and will continue to do both these things at the standard of excellence we set for ourselves.

As we continue to learn, we can improve upon our ability to be level-headed during moments of high intensity. To quote my father, and more importantly, the Bible; “He who strives for mastery is temperate in all things.” Being able to be goal-oriented during tense situations while we compete would further our

Additionally, on the defensive side of the game, we need to have a better understanding of how our slide package works and trust one another to be in the correct positions. Understanding that we rotate as a group and not as an individual is crucial to any team ’ s success while playing defense. However, as a defensive core, we do many things well. Intensity, passion, and a chip on our shoulders’ have never been a problem for the lacrosse team. Engaging with our matchups by either staying with them or stripping them of the ball are things that we train and execute diligently. We are a very aggressive defense while still focusing on both our individual and collective goals as a defensive core.

As the season progresses, I look forward to seeing us continue to grow. Our team trains incredibly hard and with each passing practice, I see everyone’s game IQ and athletic ability steadily increase. Both qualities are essential building blocks to maintaining the great team we have, and with our foundation, I am con dent that we will reach accomplished heights as we continue in our season.

is season started o pretty rocky, with people constantly missing lifts and practices and the coaches being frustrated that the team didn’t care as much as they did. We lost about 10 players last year due to seniors graduating and people reclassing so our team was signi cantly smaller and less motivated. At our rst few practices, the energy was low. After three players got injured in a scrimmage right before the season started, everyone got their act together and we started playing as a team, securing two wins in the last week. Lots of our starting lineup have been injured since the season started, which makes it harder for our team to come out with wins.

It hasn’t been easy playing on a boys team as a girl who grew up playing girls lacrosse. In girls lacrosse, we don’t wear pads like we do in boys, we can only hit the stick in girls lacrosse while boys can hit each other bodies, there are 12 girls on the eld for girls lacrosse and 10 boys on the eld for boys lacrosse, along with many other rules that are di erent in these two sports.

I struggled with gaining respect from the other guys on my team and also struggled with not comparing myself to the strength and talent of the guys on my team. To play on a boys team is a very humbling experience because most of them lift more than I do and have the ability to push and hit the ball harder than I do. I have to learn to take their hits, and take the bruises I get everyday, even when something hurts I’ve learned to push through it.

Lacrosse has been a part of my life since I was nine years old and I’ve played club lacrosse since then. Last year, Prentiss was the rst girl to play on the boys lacrosse team, and I wish I could’ve played with her because having another girl on the team to talk to and relate to would make this experience much better. For the years to come, I hope that a girls lacrosse team is established at Harvard-Westlake so girls like me do not have to struggle just to play the sport they love. I wish playing on a boys team was an easier experience for me, but it’s taught me so many life lessons and I am beyond grateful that I got this opportunity. I am so excited for our team to bring in more wins this season and continue playing as a team but also as a family.