Former colleagues reveal Singer’s path to college admission scandal
BY REHAN AFZAL, ANISHA MONDAL & ZEMA NASIROV
William “Rick” Singer, the mastermind behind the “Varsity Blues” nationwide college admissions scandal — which resulted in the imprisonment and prosecution of actors, CEOs, board members of Singer’s organization and Singer himself — was released from prison in August 2024, and is returning to his work as an independent college admissions counselor.
The inspiration, Singer has said in in-
terviews since his release, was a student he helped gain admittance to college while he was still incarcerated.
According to an ABC news interview aired Oct. 21, 2024, Singer, while serving time at a state penitentiary in Florida, received an email from a student asking for tips. He responded with “pointers” and the student got into his top college in March, Singer said.
This new organization, ID Future Stars (www.idfuturestars.com), features Singer on its website, and boasts an “80 to 96% acceptance rate into first-choice schools.” Singer is
photographed and quoted under the “About Us” section.
While admitting he “made mistakes,” Singer said: “The Lessons [sic] I learned from my past experience is to team up with the best legal minds and university institutional partners to help me operate my passion the right way. In my past company, both For [sic] and Non Profit [sic], I utilized my common sense instead of acquiring the appropriate guidance with small and impactful decisions that affected others.”
Singer said that after he had placed his at-
torney Donald E. Heller’s children into “great schools,” Heller told him: “You were So [sic] stupid, all you needed to do was contact an attorney and he or she would have guided you to register and set up a Lobbying [sic] company for your donations to the university’s [sic], which would have been perfectly legal.” Singer’s path took foothold here in Sacramento, and then at Sacramento Country Day School.
Past high school staff and faculty of Sacramento Country Day who remember working
SINGER page 3 >>
Country Day strengthens high school community with new activities
BY JESSE DIZON & AVA LEVERMORE
Sacramento Country Day has always prided itself on its small size and tightknit community. This year, the school has placed even more emphasis on building community through the implementation of new activities, including an “Advisory Tea Time” and games and treats shared on “Fun Fridays.”
“Advisory Tea Time” is a new addition to the already-existing advisory meetings, which dedicates every Friday’s “Flex” peri-
CAMPUSCORNER
FINALS WEEK
High school students will take their first semester finals during the week of Jan. 21-23. English, math, history, science, language and double discipline will be spread throughout the week. Good Luck!
od to social bonding, and using that time to their liking as a collective group.
Junior Lillian Wang is a part of High School English teacher Jane Bauman’s advisory.
“She always offers tea or hot chocolate. There’s a large variety like ginger and mint tea. When we have free time, she likes to bring out puzzles for us to work on,” Wang said.
Handmade goods are also sometimes served as well. From pumpkin pie to muffins, on some occasions Bauman provides treats for her advisees to enjoy.
MOCK
TRIAL
On Jan. 28, the Sacramento Country Day Varsity Mock Trial team will compete in the first round of the Gordon D. Schaber Mock Trial Tournament at the Sacramento County Courthouse. This year’s case involves the alleged kidnapping of a political candidate running for city council.
“It’s pretty fun. We get to taste them and she asks for feedback so it’s a good bonding time,” Wang said.
“Fun Fridays” — created by the student council — feature activities ranging from handing out hot chocolate at lunch to setting up games to play in the high school quad, such as cornhole, Mini-golf, foursquare and darts.
Patricia Jacobsen, High School Mathematics Chair and Dean of High School describes “Fun Fridays” as a way to put a smile on students’ faces at the end of the week.
The purpose of these activities is for students to make meaningful memories with their friends, Jacobsen said.
“What you will remember is the teachers who you connected with, the people, the classmates, the upperclassmen and the lowerclassmen who you connected with and you will remember the fun,” Jacobsen said.
On Nov. 15, Country Day students took a survey sent out by the National Association of Independent Schools. The survey’s COMMUNITY BUILDING page 6 >>
INSIDE ISSUE the
WICKED
Read a review of Universal Pictures’ film adaptation of the stage musical “Wicked.” (PAGE 11)
PHOTO COURTESY OF UNIVERSAL PICTURES
THEN AND NOW William “Rick” Singer, former Country Day assistant basketball coach (1992-93), faced charges in 2019 for admission scandal. PHOTO
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The Octagon is the student-run newspaper of Sacramento Country Day high school. The print edition is published eight times a year, and the website is updated regularly. The Octagon is committed to unbiased and comprehensive reporting, serving as a source of reliable information for SCDS students and the school community. The Octagon will publish all timely and relevant news deemed appropriate by the editors-in-chief and adviser. We seek to highlight high-school-related events and spotlight the voices of those with a story to share. Further policies can be found on our website or by scanning the QR code below.
Country Day students perform at the Capitol building
BY ANDREA YUE
On Dec. 13, the high school and middle school orchestra and the middle school and fourth grade choir performed at the California State Capitol as part of the State Capitol Holiday Music Program.
Maria Hoyos, orchestra and chamber music teacher, tailored the show’s arrangement to suit players of different skill levels. The goal, according to Hoyos, was not only to showcase the orchestra’s talent but also to create an environment where everyone could immerse themselves and “collectively celebrate the Christmas spirit.”
Although this was the third time the Country Day music department performed in the Capitol, it marked a significant milestone for both the orchestra and the choir, as it was their first time playing together in this venue.
The high school orchestra played the first and third movements of Antonio Lucio Vivaldi’s “Concerto for 2 Violins,” featuring juniors Kai Hirahara and Ryan Xu as soloists. The high school orchestra continued by playing Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Brandenburg Concerto No. 4,” and the first movement of Antonín Dvořák’s “Symphony No. 9 From the New World.”
The middle school orchestra then joined the high school orchestra for the second part of the performance, playing Mozart’s “Serenade No. 10: Gran Partita,” Tchaikovsky’s “Trepak” from the Nutcracker and Mykola Leontovych’s “Carol of the Bells.”
In the third part of the performance, both the middle school and fourth grade choirs joined the orchestra. The pieces performed included Gustav Holst’s “Jupiter from the Planets,” Antonín Dvořák’s
“Goin’ Home” and Carl Orff’s “O Fortuna” from Carmina Burana.
Hoyos said that this performance required much more planning and coordination than their previous ones.
“It’s always a challenge to match different levels of performance. So, I had to ask some students to come to practice more, mainly the middle schoolers. I worked one-on-one sometimes and took time to make sure that they were prepared as best as they could,” Hoyos said.
She tailored the show’s arrangement to suit players of different skill levels.
“This time, they really learned to share and work more as a team, being very responsive and patient with the others to make a good team job,” Hoyos said.
Hoyos described this performance with two words: “calm” and “confident.” Hoyos also added that the sound effects provided by the rotunda enhanced the entire performance.
Junior Rya Allen, second chair of the first violinists, also found the acoustics remark-
able, describing them as “off the charts.”
“The rotunda was so echoey and vibrant,” Allen said.
Looking forward to the upcoming events, Hoyos said they are having a busy spring semester. There are six middle schoolers and six high schoolers joining the honor orchestra at the end of January and February.
The high school orchestra and soloists will perform at the Aubrey Penman Golden Empire music festival on Mar. 15. The middle school orchestra will attend the same event on March 22. A spring concert will be held on Apr. 22, and “Play-a-thon” will be on May 22. In addition, there will be a performance on June 5 at the high school graduation Hoyos said in an email.
“It is important to share art with the community. Also, playing in different venues creates different environments for students. It is important for the community to know about the hard work that Country Day’s orchestras have been doing,” Hoyos said.
Country Day students and teachers take part in SDLC
BY PARSINY NIJHER
Juniors and seniors from Sacramento Country Day School attended the Student Diversity Leadership Conference (SDLC), organized by the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS).
The annual conference, which took place in Denver, Colo., Dec. 4-7, helped attendees learn valuable leadership skills and brainstorm ideas to create a more diverse and inclusive school environment.
The theme for the 2024 event was “Lifting as We Climb: Elevating Our Schools through Love and Justice.”
Seniors Ceci DeBerry and Sundiata Dumisani and juniors Ferishta Halim and Ava Levermore attended, along with Middle and High School learning specialist Tara Adams and English teacher Hannah Hohle as chaperones. Interested students filled out a Google Form sent in August, and four were selected to attend the conference.
Although Hohle has gone to NAIS events before, she said this was her first time being a chaperone for the students.
She felt it was important to go, not only because of her own past experiences with diversity issues, but also for her students.
“Growing up in predominantly white towns on the East Coast, I often was the only Asian, or person of color, so sometimes people judged me based on stereotypes,” Hohle said. “However, I’ve always gotten a lot out of going to these conferences while learning about issues of diversity, and thinking about how I can be a better teacher, educator and mentor to students.”
According to the NAIS website, the conference is a “multiracial, multicultural gathering of student leaders from eligible independent high schools across the U.S. and abroad.”
Upon arriving at the event, each of the students were divided into “family groups” (defined by the NAIS website as groups that “allow for dialogue and sharing in smaller units”) where they were
given time to form a community network with their group members and collaborate with other students from across the United States.
Levermore said she never felt uncomfortable opening up to her group and valued the connections she made with others.
“I built on existing relationships I had with kids that attended Country Day, and built new relationships as well,” Levermore said. “On the last day, we all sat in different groups and discussed what we would implement in our schools and what we liked about the conference.”
Students selected their affinity groups that best represented them at the conference, the only restriction being students had to share the identity of their chosen group.
Levermore joined the Black Affinity Group while Halim joined the Middle Eastern Affinity Group. Both enjoyed the focus on unity and inclusion.
“The Black Affinity Group was designed to support Black people, to help them find connection, support and inspiration,” Levermore said.
“I enjoyed the conference. Particularly the affinity groups where I connected with many hijabis like myself. These moments of connection were meaningful, especially since there aren’t many hijabis or Muslims,” Halim said.
By the end of the conference, both Levermore and Halim had significant takeaways and ideas they felt should be implemented at school.
“A key takeaway that I had from the conference was the power of shared identity and experience in creating strong, supportive communities,” Halim said. “The opportunity to connect with others who share your identity and experiences can deepen your understanding on the importance of inclusion and empathy in leadership.”
One specific idea Levermore wants to implement at Country Day is an event called “Unfiltered,” where students have
a safe space to voice their thoughts and emotions.
“One student said at their school, they did an event called ‘Unfiltered,’ where students can go to a safe space at school to talk about what makes them upset or confused. People would listen, and there would be changes made to better benefit the community of the school,” Levermore said.
Additionally, Levermore feels in order to help her community, Country Day could partner with other private schools to share diversity initiatives and implement them in the community to benefit the students.
Halim wants to implement resources for students to feel more comfortable with being who they are, along with support for them to do so.
“I hope to have initiatives that foster connections among students with shared identities, such as affinity groups or diversity events,” Halim said in an email. “Creating spaces where students feel seen, heard and supported could help cultivate a more inclusive and welcoming environment at school.”
Both Levermore and Halim believe that conferences like NAIS are valuable for students and entire school communities. By attending yearly conferences and interacting with others from similar backgrounds, say Halim and Levermore, new ideas are spread and created with the goals of inclusion, diversity and support for those who need it.
“Conferences like NAIS are important because they show you that you’re not the only one experiencing certain diversity, equity and inclusion issues at school. It shows that other students across the United States are experiencing the same things and that there are ways to overcome them,” Levermore said.
STUDENTS IN HARMONY Juniors Ella Harbart and Andrew Logan play cello at the California State Capitol Rotunda. PHOTO COURTESY OF MELISSA STRONG
Rick Singer: controversial comeback to college counselling
(continued from page 1)
with Singer, remain skeptical of him.
After he was fired as the basketball coach of Encina High School in 1988 for reasons that remain undisclosed, Singer worked as an assistant basketball coach at Country Day from 1992-93, and again as an independent college counselor for Country Day students.
Former Head of High School Sue Nellis knew Singer and recalled his confident demeanor.
“He was very friendly but nobody seemed to know what he was doing [as a college counselor],” Nellis said. “Rick tended to come off too self-assured and sometimes his overconfidence rubbed off in the wrong way,” she said. “He left the impression on me that he thought highly of himself and his abilities to get anyone into any college or university.”
Patricia Fels, who worked as Country Day’s college counselor from 1995-2013, first heard of Singer from her students who employed him as their independent college counselor.
“At the time, it was unusual to have a separate college counselor, so when I heard about him, I was mainly surprised that there was such a thing as an independent college counselor,” Fels said.
Through her students, Fels learned about the dishonest methods Singer resorted to. A former Country Day student, whose name Fels chooses to keep anonymous, served as vice president of a religious youth group and was advised by Singer to claim that he founded said group.
“Rick told him that nobody would check to see whether he was actually the founder, and sadly, it’s true,” Fels said. “If I had seen this kid’s college application and he had said that he founded his religious youth group, I wouldn’t question it. But the point was that Rick was advising a student to lie in his college application, which is just unethical.”
According to Fels, Singer often told students with Hispanic last names to indicate they spoke Spanish at home, even when it was not true.
Fels recalls when this approach backfired for a student — whose name Fels also chooses to keep anonymous — when applying to the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). This student, who didn’t speak Spanish, took Singer’s suggestion and lied on their application.
After being accepted into UCLA, an alumni group reached out to the student’s family in Spanish to invite them to a gathering. The group later learned neither the student nor their family spoke Spanish. After checking with the admissions office and explaining the situation, UCLA revoked the acceptance, according to Fels.
From then on, Fels became skeptical of Singer’s work ethic. She started warning her students who used independent college counselors to steer clear of Singer.
“I think he figured out that I had said some disparaging things about him because some of the parents told me that he would tell kids from Country Day to not tell me that he was their independent college counselor,” Fels said. “I really didn’t trust that guy.”
Certified Education Planner (CEP) Margaret Amott holds the CEP credential awarded by the American Institute of Certified Educational Planners to professionals demonstrating “the highest level of competence in educational planning.” She said she met Singer for the first time at a “College Night” hosted by Rio Americano High School parents in 1993 after he asked to speak at the event.
Amott said Singer presented himself under false credentials, including a doctorate from the University of La Verne, located in Southern California. He ultimately labeled himself an “educational consultant,” Amott said.
“He seemed honest. He seemed persuasive,” Amott said. “He didn’t make great
promises or guarantees and he appealed to parents who didn’t have recent experience or knowledge about the college admission process.”
Early in Singer’s college advising career, Amott said she noted discrepancies and mistakes in his work. For example, Singer failed to notice that a recruited volleyball player had not fulfilled their requirements for the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA), Amott said.
At this time, Singer additionally prepared extracurricular resumes for his students, according to Amott.
“In the ’90s, there was such a thing called ‘candy striper.’ They were hospital volunteers who wore striped apron-type uniforms,” Amott said. “The resume came back and Rick described a candy striper as someone who sprayed stripes on candy.”
According to Amott, as stories and accounts of Singer “falsifying applications” accumulated, she ultimately decided to compile a file on Singer in 2007, consisting of emails between other college counselors in the community and herself (full disclosure: Octagon staff has not seen the files; this is a record of Amott reading the files via an interview.).
“Every time I got an email from someone saying, ‘Here’s what Rick did,’ I would put it in this folder,” Amott said.
According to former Country Day Headmaster Stephen Repsher, Singer resurfaced on the Country Day high school radar in 2008, this time offering his private college counseling and math tutoring services. Eventually, Repsher learned that Singer would promote his business by slandering the Country Day high school math department, claiming that students needed his help because of its shortcomings. Hearing this, he decided to meet Singer in person.
“I was going to have him come out and meet and he said, ‘Oh, sure, I’ll come out and meet with you.’ He set up a meeting with me and no-showed. He set up another meeting, and he no-showed again, and so I began to get suspicious,” Repsher said.
Repsher then began to research Singer after the two failed attempts to meet with him.
“I looked on his website in the meantime to try to see what I could find out about him. He had listed on his website what he called a board of directors. There were probably a dozen names on the list, and some of them were pretty high ranking. It included Charles Young, who was chancellor of UCLA at the time, and also the former president of Stanford University,” Repsher said.
“Again, I got more and more suspicious, because I’m thinking, here’s this smalltime operator claiming to have these famous educational luminaries on his board, and I just didn’t think anybody would have the time of day for this guy.”
He reached out to former Stanford President Donald Kennedy, who Singer was advertising to be on his own board of directors. Repsher learned that the two had only met briefly at a cocktail party.
In addition to falsifying information on his website, Singer often referred students to a learning disability specialist, regardless of whether they had a learning disability, in order to grant extended time, Amott said.
This was extended to the taking of the at-the-time mandatory Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), where Harvard graduate and employee of IMG Academy in Bradenton, Mark Riddell, would proctor and correct students’ tests to submit a high SAT score.
In presentations Singer gave to high school students throughout Sacramento, he claimed that he read applications for the University of Southern California (USC), the University of California, Davis and Stanford University, Amott said.
Troubled by his patterns of deception, Amott and other counselors attempted to verify Singer’s claimed connections with prestigious universities, Amott said.
“We would call USC, we would call Stanford, and we would say, ‘Have you ever heard of Rick Singer?’ They’d say, ‘Who?’” Amott said. “We used to just tear our hair out. There was nowhere to turn.”
Beyond the knowledge of Fels and Amott at the time, Singer created a method he coined the “side door” — a system of bribery that weaponized college athletic recruitment for wealthy families seeking guaranteed admission into elite colleges.
According to an NBC News online article titled “College cheating ringleader says he helped more than 750 families with admissions scheme,” published on March 13, 2019, parents paid $200,000 to $6.5 million for Singer’s services, where he would photoshop student’s faces onto athletes to complete a fabricated athletic application.
The scheme capitalized on the constant fundraising pressures facing specialized athletic programs. Singer directed parents’ donations through the Key Worldwide Foundation — a nonprofit organization founded in 2014 whose mission is to “provide guidance, encouragement, and opportunity to disadvantaged students around the world” — to specific coaches and programs. In return, coaches designated unqualified students as recruited athletes, virtually guaranteeing their admission even if they did not play the sport.
According to the federal indictment, published on March 12, 2019, the fraud network spread across multiple universities and athletic programs, including Georgetown tennis, Stanford sailing, USC soccer and water polo, Yale women’s soccer, UCLA men’s soccer, University of Texas tennis, Wake Forest volleyball and University of San Diego basketball.
Singer pleaded guilty on March 12, 2019 to conspiracy to commit racketeering, conspiracy to commit money laundering, obstruction of justice and conspiracy to defraud the United States. Singer agreed to cooperate with the FBI in gathering evidence against co-conspirators.
Fifty-five defendants were named, including co-conspirators, parents participating in bribery and Singer himself.
On Jan. 4, 2023, Singer was sentenced to 42 months in prison, with an additional 3 years of supervised release. Of the other defendants, 35 were sentenced to 3 months or less in prison, with 14 serving no time at all.
Singer was ordered to pay $19.3 million, roughly split between repayment to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and surrender of money and assets.
When news of Singer’s arrest broke in March 2019, Fels was stunned.
“I never expected him to be caught,” she said. “My husband and I were in the kitchen getting our lunches ready. We had NPR on and all of a sudden they started talking about how there was an independent college counselor who had been federally investigated.”
Fels immediately called Amott to share the news.
“I couldn’t believe it. You never think that bad people are actually brought to justice,” she said. “We were just exalted. We were so happy.”
On Oct. 21, 2024, ABC News reported Singer had been released from prison to a halfway house “near Los Angeles.”
Looking back at families who continued to use Singer’s services despite known concerns, even before the arrest, Fels remains troubled.
“It makes me sick thinking that any parent, knowing what he did, would go to him after that,” she said. “He’s unethical. Why would you have your kids go to him when you know what kinds of things he did in the past? That’s irresponsible parenting.”
Now, nearly 6 years after news of the scandal broke, many families are attempting to distance themselves from their involvement with Singer.
“There’s also a lot of revisionist history going on,” Amott said. “Families who utilized his services are claiming they only
used them minimally, or that they only used his legitimate services.”
According to records in Amott’s files, Singer’s involvement went far beyond basic counseling. He maintained control of students’ college applications by managing their passwords and submission process, often completing applications himself before billing parents.
Even in supposedly legitimate cases, Singer fabricated achievements, according to Amott. Amott’s files reveal one instance where he transformed an unpublished aspiring screenwriter into an accomplished filmmaker.
“He said that this kid was a screenwriter; that he had written three 10-minute films that had been shown on current television. Well, the student was a screenwriter, but nothing had ever been published,” Amott said. “So even for students now who say, ‘I only used the legitimate part; my parents did not pay money,’ chances are he filled out the application and signed on behalf of them.”
Allegations about Singer’s involvement with former Stanford basketball player and Country Day lifer Robbie Lemons, ’10, resurfaced in Amott’s accounts of events in 2010.
“When he did not get into Stanford, his father was screaming all across town: ‘Rick Singer is gonna go to jail, I’m gonna sue him.’ And nobody quite knew what that meant or why,” Amott said. “Over the period of a few weeks, he was accepted. And then the father was quiet and didn’t talk about Rick Singer anymore.”
Lemons had briefly worked with Singer in his junior year for college counseling after being referred to him by a neighbor. He recalls Singer’s approach as manipulative.
“It felt like he was trying to position himself to my family like I was not going to be good enough to play,” Lemons said. “And that he was our only hope, having his insight and his knowledge on the system and his connections. He definitely used negativity and fear as a draw toward his services.”
Lemons parted ways with Singer by the end of his junior year in 2009. He dismissed Amott’s claim, explaining he was first waitlisted, deferred and eventually admitted as a result of a miscommunication between the athletic department and admissions office about his athlete status after being deferred, then waitlisted — not Singer’s involvement.
Lemons’ father did not respond to emails requesting an interview for a response to Amott’s claim.
Lemons went on to play basketball from 2010-14 at Stanford, where he received an athletic scholarship. Today, he serves as the assistant coach and senior director of coaching analytics and strategy for Stanford’s basketball program.
“It’s sad as someone who worked super hard to play, compete in college athletics and to get into a good school,” Lemons said. “It’s disappointing realizing that there was this other inroad, and it was given to people who maybe didn’t work as hard and maybe were not as qualified.”
Despite Singer’s claims of reform and his new approach to college counseling, those who witnessed his methods firsthand in Sacramento remain wary of his return to the profession and its implications for a new generation of students.
“It’s just sad that people would go back to him after knowing what he did,” Fels said. “If I could talk to the new students working with him, I would just tell them to find another counselor.”
Nellis also expressed similar concerns, as she finds it likely that he would be able to talk people into joining his agency.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if he is able to bring back at least a small contingency. But I certainly would not recommend him,” Nellis said.
Freshman Henry Reynen internationally ranked in GeoGuessr
BY ZACHARY VANDO-MILBERGER
Wide open plains to the left, a mountain to the right and a bollard on the side of a highway: To most, this scene could be from anywhere in the world.
Without a pause, freshman Henry Reynen zooms in on his target and clicks: a southwestern area of Malaysia. He’s half a mile off — an outstanding guess in the world of GeoGuessr.
In GeoGuessr, an online video game, players are placed in a random global location using Google Earth’s street-view software. They must attempt to guess the precise location as closely as possible using geography knowledge and the ability to recognize details such as telephone poles, trees and cars.
Reynen was ranked No. 7 globally in GeoGuessr.
“My peak is No. 7, but right now, I’m about No. 30 in the world. I’m No. 5 in the United States, though,” Reynen said.
Globally, there are around 80 million GeoGuessr players.
The game includes a competitive aspect, which is where Reynen excels.
“You play against someone, and both of you start with 6,000 hit points. If you guess closer to the location you are placed at than they do, you take some of their health. Whoever lowers the other person’s health to zero first, wins,” he said.
Reynen started playing competitively around January 2023. It took him about a year and a half to reach the international top 100. For each guess, the person farther away
from the target location loses points. The points lost are calculated by the distance from the correct location and combined with a round-based multiplier.
The GeoGuessr leaderboard uses Elo, a ranking system that takes into account the players’ wins and losses and the strength of the players they compete against, according to GameTree, a social connection website for gamers.
“When you win, you gain Elo. If I beat someone my level, I gain about 16 Elo. But if I beat someone 200 ranks below me, I only gain seven Elo,” Reynen said. “Same with ranks higher than mine; If I beat someone above me, I gain more, like 25 Elo.”
Essentially, Elo rewards lower-ranked players for beating higher-ranked players. On the contrary, higher-ranked players get lesser rewards when beating lower-ranked players.
Each week, players compete to make it to the next league. A percentage of the top players in each league move up to the next league at the end of the week.
In order to play GeoGuessr competitively, players must know how to quickly identify a location.
“Players use a lot of things — road lines, poles, bollards, the Google car, the type of camera they used, people, architecture, really anything,” he said. “There’s also a lot of niche things like trees or copyright, which is when the photo was taken.”
then they share them with other people. Then other people learn all that stuff, and then they memorize it as well.”
After deciding what country the camera is in, players must narrow down the region. Reynen uses details such as the species of the trees to decide where he is.
“The Siberian larch is found all throughout Siberia, mainly in central Siberia, for example,” he said.
Once players learn to recognize where they are placed, they must learn different winning strategies.
“There are a lot of strategies,” Reynen said. “Lots of people like to hedge. Let’s say you don’t know whether it’s Italy or Greece. You would click on the body of water between them. That’s called hedging.”
Clicking in between two probable locations allows a player to get a higher score on average, as opposed to selecting only one.
Another strategy Reynen uses is guessing instantly if he knows the exact location.
In GeoGuessr, when one player guesses, the other only has 15 seconds to guess afterward. This can throw the other player off and cause them to make a bad guess.
Distinguishing between countries is another complex aspect of the game.
Reynen said the details used to determine the location are called ‘meta,’ in which people create documents for each place. Reynen improves his GeoGuessr skills by inventing his own meta.
“For example, there is a Mongolian document that has all the Mongolian meta compiled, and it’s two hundred pages long,” he said. “People make these documents, and
Often, though, Reynen takes his time while guessing to narrow down the location and ensure accuracy. Reynen also uses other tactics such as looking at vehicle license plates to determine the country or region.
He outlined potential ways he could use the knowledge he gained from playing GeoGuessr extensively.
“I would like to go into foreign affairs — that would be cool. Or, honestly, just live in another country when I grow up,” he said.
Reynen also described the potential of winning internationally.
“When you’re 18, you can compete in the GeoGuessr World Cup. If you win, I think the prize is $20,000. Second place gets $10,000, etc.,” he said.
However, Reynen doesn’t play for the potential to earn money.
“GeoGuessr is fun. I like geography. I’ve always liked geography. I’ve always been interested, and I like memorization,” Reynen said. “I like playing and seeing how I improve.”
REYNEN’S RANKINGS
#5 in the U.S. (current)
#7 in the world (peak)
#30 in the world (current)
Eshaan Dhaliwal, ’24, undertakes cancer research and mock trial at Duke
BY SID SHUKLA
Eshaan Dhaliwal, ’24, attends Duke University in Durham, N.C. He is majoring in chemistry.
Q: Why did you choose to attend Duke University?
A: I chose to attend for two main reasons: First, Duke has a really strong pre-med program. We have a lot of access to things like research. We also have a hospital nearby on campus, so there are a lot of opportunities to get involved with things that are beneficial to your pre-med journey.
Second, I think Duke has a really good work-life balance. I talked to some people who were here when I was considering applying, and they all told me that they were really comfortable with the balance between academics, fun and other stuff like that.
Q: Which classes are you taking this semester?
A: We have a decent amount of freedom when we get to decide which classes we take in our freshman year. The only requirement was that we had to take one writing course or a seminar, and the school chooses which one you do each semester. I got the writing class.
The other three I’m taking are Introductory Psychology 101; Chem 201, which is organic chemistry and Physics 163, which is about fundamentals of mechanics and electromagnetism.
Q: Out of those, what are your favorite classes?
A: I have two favorites. Honestly, I would say either physics or psychology. The way those two classes are taught is just really captivating. They’re taught in pretty different formats.
My psychology class is like 200 people, but the lecture is very engaging and my physics class is very small. We have around 10 people there, but I really like Professor Robert G. Brown, and I know him on a bit more personal basis compared to the psychology class, but I really like both.
Q: Are you involved in any clubs or organizations on campus?
A: Yeah, there are two main things I’m involved with right now.
One is that I’m doing research in a lab. We look at this protein called G protein-coupled receptors (GPCR). GPCR-based pathways can become dysfunctional, causing certain
diseases and cancers. To treat these kinds of conditions, GPCRs become the target for many pharmacological treatments and drugs. I’m currently working at the Tsvetanova Lab at the Duke University School of Medicine, specifically looking at GPCRs.
I’m also involved in mock trial. Duke Mock Trial is a completely student-run program.
When I competed at Country Day, the program always had two or three head coaches who made final decisions about the team, like student roles on each team, tournament participation and managing administrative matters. At Duke, though, we have an elected board of members who make these decisions instead of attorney-coaches.
There’s also more of a responsibility for captains and experienced members to help teach new members and provide feedback on how to improve. Being student-run has upsides and downsides. We don’t have to spend money paying coaches and have more freedom with case theories.
But, since we don’t have attorney coaches giving us feedback, we try to get valid feedback from alumni who are either law students or attorneys who sometimes watch our tournaments or scrimmages.
Q: Why did you choose to major in chemistry?
A: I really enjoyed the subject in high school, and I did this competition called the U.S. National Chemistry Olympiad (USNCO). I first learned about the competition in my sophomore year and did a bit of light preparation then, but I didn’t fully start preparing until my junior year.
In both my junior and senior years, I scored high enough on the local exam to qualify for nationals. In my senior year, I placed in the top 150 at nationals and was recognized with honors for my performance. USNCO was one of the most difficult — if not the most difficult — academic things I did in all of high school. The work I did preparing for the competition helped me develop habits that are important in college classes.
I also studied a lot of the content in my chemistry class when I was preparing for nationals, so it’s been useful to already have exposure to most of the concepts.
I think that really helped draw my interest in the subject. So it was pretty natural for me to want to continue learning about it in college, and it aligns pretty well with all the premed requisites, so I decided to major in that.
I might major in something else too. Since we have a lot of time between now and senior year, there are a lot of options I have for
classes to take. I’m not really decided on that yet.
Q: What’s the food like on campus?
A: The food here is good overall. The way it works is we’re split up into two campuses. East Campus is where all the freshmen live, and West Campus is where all the sophomores, juniors and seniors who still live on campus stay. We eat breakfast and dinner on the East Campus, but we have lunch on the West Campus. I think the food in both places are pretty good overall, but I’d say the West Campus food is a bit better.
Q: What’s your housing situation like?
A: I have a pretty unique housing situation. The dorm I’m in is the only one on East Campus that has suites.
I’m in a suite with my roommate, and one other person who is in a single. We have this corner room, and we share a bathroom, which is nice, since we don’t have to use communal bathrooms, but the downside to that is that we have to clean our own bathroom.
It’s been fine so far, because we bought cleaning supplies and we have a schedule where every week, a different person cleans it.
Q: How’s the social scene at Duke? Any highlights?
A: I’d say the social scene is quite active overall. There’s always some kind of event or party, or people going out almost every day, and you can be as involved with it as you want to.
I think we have a really diverse community of people here. I’ve met people from California, Arizona, New York and North Carolina, and even international students from China and India.
Q: What’s your favorite part about Duke?
A: I think my favorite thing is just the huge community of great people that I’ve got to meet. Coming from Country Day, it’s a very different vibe. Back home, we had a class size of around 40 people, and the shift to having around 1,600 people in my class is a big change. It’s been really exciting to meet all these great people.
Q: Have you made any freshman mistakes that you’d warn others about?
A: I think there was one big mistake I made. The way we do orientation here is that you fill out this form in the summer, and you select from around 20 different orientation
programs in order of greatest to least preference. Some like to go hiking in the woods, some stay on campus and do activities.
I registered really late for those orientations, so I didn’t get the one that I wanted, which was kind of annoying. I wanted Project Waves, where everyone in the orientation goes on a five-day camping trip and goes kayaking on the lake next to the Duke Marine Lab in Beaufort.
I didn’t get Project Waves. I was placed in Project Lead, which was another orientation program that focused on exploring leadership and leadership opportunities on campus. I spent my orientation week on campus doing Project Lead activities, which made adjusting much easier since I was able to become well-acquainted with the campus before classes started.
That applies to other things, like for classes where you have to register, you have to be on time when you register, or you aren’t going to get the classes that you want. The big mistake I made was not registering in time for orientation, but I made sure to fix that when I registered for classes, so I got what I wanted.
Q: What advice would you give the Class of 2025?
A: In terms of college applications, the biggest piece of advice I have is to put effort into your college essays.
You can set yourself apart in the essays, and you can do things that show why you should be admitted to that college — things that really separate you from everyone else; things that other people won’t have that you do have.
In terms of college life in general, I would say just be open to meeting new people, trying new things and just do as many new things as you can. I think it really helps you grow as a person and adjust to college life more effectively.
FIVE STAR OR SUBPAR?
Quality of classes: School Spirit: Food: Social Scene: Clubs: Location: Student-Teacher Interactions:
TRUE BLUE DEVIL Eshaan Dhaliwal at Duke University with friends, attending events, dining and embracing campus life. PHOTOS COURTESY OF DHALIWAL
COUNTRY DAY COMMUNITY
(continued from page 1)
purpose was to find out whether students across the country felt like they belonged and were safe and heard in their schools.
The data breaks down into demographic, economic, racial and ethnic groups. Wells said that there has been no visible pattern based on identity that shows that one particular group is at more risk than another group.
“What it shows is that we’re working hard, we have a lot of success and we just need to keep intentionally making sure all of our kids are belonging,” Wells said.
To Wells, the most important part of this survey was to make sure that everyone feels that they belong in the Country Day community.
“If you’re comfortable and you feel part of a community — a positive community — you’re gonna think critically, creatively; you’re going to work together really well,” Wells said.
The Parents’ Association has been working extra hard this year to continue building the community with the coordinators, Marsha Lawson and Sureena Thiara.
Lawson said Country Day community building and involvement was a priority from the start.
“Our first order of business was to assess the existing calendar of events and figure out how we could further enhance activities to increase participation of students and families,” Lawson said.
This was especially difficult postCOVID when Lawson and Thiara realized the need for more connection within the
high school community, including families.
With more focus on the high school division, the Parents’ Association was able to design activities and events that catered to the interests of an older age group on campus.
“We want the students to know we appreciate all of the hard work they endure as high schoolers at an academically rigorous school,” Thiara said. “To show our support, we try to think of ways to bring joy and lightness to the high school environment.”
Some new activities implemented by the Parents’ Association so far this year were ice cream for students on a hot day, setting up sweet treats for Halloween and putting together a gingerbread house competition.
According to Lawson, one of their newest and most memorable events this year was the Inaugural High School Chili Cook-Off and Cornhole Tournament, attended by students, staff and family. The winners of the Cornhole Tournament were sophomore Ryan Scripps and his dad.
Junior Rya Allen attended the event and said she enjoyed the activities such as the cornhole.
“I had to go out of my comfort zone and talk to people I normally wouldn’t talk to,” Allen said.
The Parents’
Association is looking forward to the upcoming events they are planning for students and their families during the spring.
“We will be sprinkling in treats and smaller activities throughout the spring semester to make the second half of the year fun,” Lawson said.
Country Day’s Student Council also has a fundamental role in building community on campus.
Senior Cara Shin is the Spirit Chair of Student Council, whose role is to make posters, decorate the gym and organize for various Country Day events, such as homecoming week.
“We have to put in a lot of extra work for the activities, but I think it’s worth it if people are enjoying the activities together,” Shin said.
COMMUNITY BUILDING
Mission Alignment
STORY BY JESSE DIZON & AVA LEVERMORE; GRAPHICS BY AVA EBERHART; PHOTO COURTESY OF KEVIN LIU; STATISTICS FROM SACRAMENTO COUNTRY DAY STUDENTS VIA A NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF INDEPENDENT SCHOOLS SURVEY
Known, Seen and Heard
“Exemplary Assembly” by Claire Gemmell
EDITORIAL:
School assemblies are in need of a wake-up call
BY EDITORIAL STAFF
The year is 2025. Social media and technology are more prominent than ever — and so, too, are the risks that come with them. Sacramento Country Day’s new phone policy can only partially address these new developments. So what is the school’s other solution?
Assemblies.
This year, Country Day has been focused on promoting digital wellness and community among students through various mandatory assemblies.
However, in order for these assemblies to make a lasting impression on the student body, there needs to be a significant improvement in their quality.
There have been three assemblies since the start of school. The first, presented by speaker Dino Ambrosi from Project Reboot on Oct. 15, was ideal, according to a poll done by Country Day students on the assemblies sent out Dec. 9.
Out of roughly 180 attendees, 37 of the 40 students who responded to the poll said that the first assembly was their favorite, as it was well-organized and informative.
According to 20 students who attended, this was not the case for the second assembly on Nov. 15. These students said it was their least favorite out of the three, citing reasons such as irrelevant topics and disconnected ideas.
Sophomore Gabby Dos Santos Gonzalez feels similarly about the assemblies as a whole.
“My opinion, in general, is that the assemblies were not very interesting and perhaps not presented in the best manner to reach their intended audience,” she said.
This failure to present information engagingly was apparent again in the third assembly on Dec. 4. Presented by author Liza Wiemer, the assembly focused on standing up to injustices.
However, the organization and pacing of the presentation made the overall message hard to receive, according to junior Isaac Reynen.
“I understand that she wanted to get out this message of standing up; however, the content of what she was saying didn’t always pertain to the message. There was a lot of wandering,” Reynen said.
Additionally, Reynen thought Wiemer failed to make the presentation cohesive, which caused him to lose focus.
He cited a specific example in which Wiemer switched from speaking about the Holocaust to speaking about how she got stuck in her car in New York, and the lack of connection between the two topics made it hard for Reynen to concentrate on the speaker’s message.
Head of School Lee Thomsen has also noticed this lack of cohesion.
“There was a point where the two halves of the talk didn’t connect very clearly, which was unfortunate because I thought each piece was interesting on its own,” he said.
Clearly, the main problem with most of the assemblies is not the content or the message; a lot of students can see the value in improving their relationships with technology and speaking out against injustices.
The problem, instead, is how the messages are being conveyed.
If the school wants students to actually take away valuable lessons from assemblies, poor speakers and even more poorly organized PowerPoint slides are not the way to go.
The quality of assemblies in the future needs to improve, and the most effective way to do that is to simply hire better speakers, ones with clearly structured presentations.
For this to happen, the school needs to show more judgment when inviting guests in to speak. If more vetting is required, the likelihood of bringing in an outsider with a subpar presentation decreases.
More vetting could take different forms. One way
is to make sure that the speaker’s presentation is heard beforehand to ensure that it is relevant and on-topic. This is crucial if the presenter comes from an outside organization and is not known to the school.
Thomsen has recognized this, saying that it’s hard to know if a speaker will be good if he hasn’t heard them before.
“Anytime you invite anyone in to speak, it’s always a little bit of a risk,” he said.
Another way to reduce this risk could be to require the student council to approve a presentation beforehand, which could help to bring the students’ opinions into consideration.
Taking it even further, Wells thinks that student presenters could be the way to go.
“I’m starting to think that maybe students themselves or teachers ourselves might be able to be stronger presenters than people we’re not sure about, because it’s very hard if you don’t actually see the assembly ahead of time,” he said.
Having students present for assemblies has the potential advantage of eliminating the need for outside speakers, though if more thought is put into inviting guests, this option will not be necessary.
A potential downside, however, of continuing to have adult speakers is that they might have trouble getting through to students, though Dos Santos Gonzalez argues that that is no excuse for assemblies to be unengaging and low-quality.
“I know it’s hard talking to teenagers, and getting them to like something is complicated, but that’s just the challenge of working with them, and that is the speakers’ job,” she said.
If the speakers fail to do their job and assemblies do not improve in the future, it should not be mandatory for students to attend them if they do not enrich their education. Never again should Country Day high school students have to sit and listen to a 45-minute presentation that feels pointless.
MY ANGLE: Leave all the New Year’s resolutions back in the past
BY NOOR ALAMERI
Imagine this: it’s Jan. 5 and you’re at the peak of health. You work out twice a day, eat healthy food and are the paragon of discipline. Everything’s golden.
Flash forward two months, and you are sitting at home with a bowl of chips watching TV and receive a notification. It’s an email from your gym. The subject line might as well read “You wasted your money.” The email asks if you want to cancel your membership. In that moment, failure washes over you. The promises you made? They’re left in the dust, right next to that gym membership card and your brand-new running shoes.
New Year’s resolutions (NYRs) are akin to participation trophies. When you inevitably stop trying to improve yourself, you tell yourself, “Oh well, I tried, guess I have to wait until next year.”
But the same thing happens next year, and it’s an endless cycle of hope and disappointments. The act of giving up is almost as much of a ritual as the resolution itself, intentional or not.
Who decided that Jan. 1 was the ultimate reset button for a new life? This year it’s just another Wednesday, except this one comes with a countdown, a new calendar and oh-so-many expectations.
Yet there has been no cosmic shift, no fairy godmother, no pumpkin carriage, nothing at all to indicate that you are now a new person.
The New Year gives you that hit of motivation, you are so excited to reinvent yourself, so ready to do it all — this year you’re going to learn a new language no, make that two, and write what may be the best novel to have ever existed; and on top of all that, you are never going to touch processed food again.
You’re buzzing with motivation and excitement and everything is going so well. Life happens, you can’t figure out the accents in that new language. You have writer’s block. You don’t have time to shop and cook.
The next day is that much harder to get to do whatever it is you were planning on doing, so you take a break. And that break never ends. The motivation will run out and the perfect vision of your NYR is a distant, foggy memory, more theoretical than real.
The issue is that you’ve committed to huge changes. You’ve bitten off more than you can chew. The truth is your NYR is unrealistic.
Just thinking about what you want to do this year doesn’t mean that it’s actually going to happen. Intention is nice, but it requires action.
Some protest that NYRs provide hope and a fun way to set goals. Maybe they do, in the same way that setting off to New York with nothing but a dream and a dollar in your pocket provides hope.
You’ve gotten there, but what then? Hope without action is just a daydream but with better marketing.
Good habits aren’t just going to come to you with enough positive thinking. It’s like a houseplant; you have to water it every day, and even then it looks like it’s on the brink of death some days. You just have to keep trying and eventually that plant will flower.
Commit to small, unglamorous changes that will, with time, get you where you want to go. If you make any goals
for 2025, choose something like getting eight hours of sleep every night. Choose something that is realistic, simple and healthy.
Instead of a wildly romantic “New Year, new me” take on 2025, how about a tamer, more realistic and most importantly, more compassionate approach: “New day, slightly better me”?
Or better yet, instead of making an NYR on Dec. 31, write down everything you have accomplished this year. Put that
list somewhere you can look at it every day. Big or small, we all have things to celebrate.
It’s so easy to get caught up in the movie-makeover montage style transformations that we envision for ourselves in the New Year.
You can’t just skip over the work and get to the good part, nor can you forget to celebrate the little wins along the way. Instead of trying to fit into a cookie-cutter mold of an ideal life, just try to do a little better every day.
ADVICE: Family politics feud and a dream college rejection
BY ANONYMOUS
This advice column responds to questions shared by Sacramento Country Day students anonymously. To submit, send a question to the Google Form sent out on Dec. 9. Responses are not guaranteed, but all submissions are welcome.
Q: My stupid parents won’t listen to common sense, and we always argue when politics is mentioned at the dinner table. What should I do? It’s really disrupting our family dynamic.
Political differences within families can certainly be exhausting. It’s frustrating to feel like your voice isn’t being heard, and it’s even more upsetting when arguments disrupt relationships with people you care about most.
Especially in a country that is dramatically polarized after the 2024 presidential election, political discussions (and arguments) are seemingly inevitable, but here’s the simple truth: politics do not have to be personal. Politics shouldn’t control your family dynamic.
First, redefine the goal. Is the goal to change your parents’ minds? Force them to believe what you believe? Flip the scenario — how would you feel if they tried to force their opinions on you?
I ask you this to address the elephant in the room: if your mindset is, “my stupid parents won’t listen,” then maybe the problem isn’t just them. It’s you.
Dismissing your parents as “stupid” shuts down any chance of meaningful dialogue before it even begins. Respect is a two-way street, and expecting someone to hear you out is hard if you’ve already decided they’re not worth listening to.
That attitude will get you nowhere. Do you value your family relationship over winning a political debate?
So instead of rebutting, focus on understanding. Ask open-ended questions like, “What experiences shaped that belief for you?” Listening attentively doesn’t mean agreeing; it means giving them the dignity of being heard and responding to what they say—as opposed to just waiting for your turn to talk.
People are more likely to reciprocate that energy when they feel respected.
It’s also completely okay to limit these conversations. If political talk at the dinner table keeps descending into arguments, suggest a family activity that shifts the focus. Cook together, make music together, watch TV shows together or read The Octagon articles together.
Privately, reflect on your own emotional boundaries. Why does their stance upset you so deeply? Sometimes, the pain isn’t about the politics but the fear that differing views mean they don’t value your perspective — or you. Remember that love doesn’t require agreement, and relationships can thrive despite differences.
You can’t control their opinions, but you can choose how to strengthen and protect the relationship that matters most: family.
Q: I just got rejected from my dream school early and now I’m losing motivation to complete the rest of my applications. Any suggestions?
Getting rejected is disheartening — you’ve spent months crafting your college applications to perfection, only to feel that your hard work isn’t being recognized. However, instead of letting this rejection define your worth, view it as a redirec-
tion toward a school that’s an even better fit for you.
But first, it may help to shift your perspective on your “dream school.” While it may have seemed perfect in your eyes, every school has its drawbacks.
Take some time to explore online forums such as Reddit or College Confidential, and search for posts and discussions that highlight the school’s less-glamorous sides. Maybe grades are deflated, housing options are limited or the social scene is subpar.
Perhaps you dodged a bullet!
After you’ve taken some time to see your Early Decision school as less of a “dream” and more of an option among many, start focusing your energy on your Regular Decision applications. They’re due sooner than you might think, so it’s important to keep moving forward.
Remember, a rejection from one school doesn’t affect your chances with others, so give your best effort to the rest of your applications.
If you’re scrambling to write several new supplementary essays, you may find that many only need to be written once and can be reused with minor adjustments for different schools. To stay organized and avoid writing essentially the same essay multiple times, consider creating a spreadsheet listing all of the essay prompts for your Regular Decision schools and check for overlaps. This should save you time and effort and ease your stress.
Finally, look to your older peers. You may know someone who was rejected from their Early Decision school, only to be accepted into a school that was an even better fit for them during Regular Decision. Hopefully, their experiences can serve as a reminder that rejections can ultimately redirect you to the school where you truly belong.
“New Year’s Resolution” by Gavin Wang
The summer before his freshman year, Sacramento Country Day student Ammar Hussain fell off a cliff.
Hussain was competing in the late July to August 2024 freeride skiing international competition in Chile, navigating his way down El Colorado through ungroomed, unmarked terrain.
“It was an international competition, and it was really sick. I went with my family and friends, and it was tons of fun — I met so many new people,” he said.
One wrong move sent him tumbling hard on the snow below.
The pain was immediate. And while he was lucky the fall had not been worse, he later came to fear — would this injury end his skiing career?
Hussain first strapped on his ski boots when he was 4 years old. His parents both skied. By age 7, he joined the Mammoth freeride ski team. Growing up in Los Angeles, he would make the five-hour drive every weekend to Mammoth, Calif., to train with the team. This experience on the team ignited his passion for the sport.
“I really enjoyed doing it. I would watch all these videos of people doing these crazy ski lines and all the ski movies about the professionals who would do crazy stunts. It got me really excited. It just looked super cool. So I decided that’s what I want to do,” he said.
Hussain excels at freeride skiing, which is done on ungroomed terrain. There are no set courses or rules, and you are graded on how well you ski down the cliffs. There are several disciplines and competitions within the sport of skiing — downhill and cross-country racing and jumping, to
name a few.
“It’s more like skiing down a venue and doing tricks,” he said.
The fall he took in the Chile event affected Hussain.
“I fell pretty much off the cliff. I was really scared that it would affect me for the rest of my life. In the moment I was really hurt, but afterward, I was kind of nervous, but it turned out okay,” Hussain said.
The fall in Chile resulted in a concussion and broken tibia. After the fall, Hussain took a summer-long break so he would be able to get back to skiing faster.
“I can’t tell the difference between my hurt leg and my not-hurt leg now, because I hit rehab hard, so I wouldn’t have any problem this season. I wouldn’t say it affected me too much. It’s worked out, so far, so good,” he said.
Now living in Sacramento, Hussain skis for the Palisades Tahoe Freeride team. Once the season begins, he typically skis on Fridays as well as almost every weekend.
Skiing has helped Hussain develop many friendships on and off the team.
“I love it. I enjoy it so much, especially spending time with my family and my friends. It really helps me build bonds,” he said.
His favorite competition so far was the Crystal Three-Star Competition, held on Crystal Mountain in Washington.
“Most of my friends were there, and I had a great time,” he said. “The first day was qualifiers, and the second day was nationals. The conditions were alright. It was cloudy the whole time, but in the end, we got good snow, and it was really fun.”
To prepare for competitions off-season, Hussain goes to programs over the
summer similar to the one in Chile. He also practices dry land training on trampolines, fake snow and ramps like water ramps and dirt ramps.
“Water ramps are big ramps into the water. It’s like training, so you do tricks off the ramp,” he said.
Currently, Hussain is trying to learn the double backflip. He can do 360s, side-flips and his favorite trick, backflips.
“Backflips are so simple, but they’re super fun. It took me a while. I’ve been dreaming of it ever since I started skiing, so I was really excited to learn it two years ago. It was a progression,” he said.
With Hussain dedicating his weekends and occasionally missing school on Fridays for skiing, balancing his academic responsibilities can be a chal-
lenge. Fortunately, his teachers are flexible with his schedule.
“It’s kind of hard, but because I usually go up on Fridays, I have to get all my schoolwork done before Friday, which is my end of the week. It’s more tightly-packed,” he said.
This year, Hussain plans to join the Country Day Ski & Snowboarding team. Despite having no experience in racing, he sees it as an opportunity to try something new and spend time skiing with his friends from school.
Whether he’s landing tricks in competitions or skiing with friends, the sport has become an important part of his life, and he plans to pursue it for years to come.
“I don’t want to stop. It’s so much fun. I hope to do it for the rest of my life,” Hussain said.
STORY BY EESHA DHAWAN; GRAPHICS BY GARRETT XU; PHOTOS COURTESY OF AMMAR HUSSAIN
WICKED WICKED
My stance on screen adaptations of musicals is this: They are either awful and do the original no justice (“Cats” “Dear Evan Hansen” “Into the Woods”) or they are so good you would have rather seen this version over the original (“Hairspray” “Mamma Mia!” “Chicago”).
Somehow, “Wicked” is simultaneously both and neither, and I left the movie theater confused. I have spent the last few weeks confused. Yes, that’s the word to describe this adaptation: confusing.
The movie begins where the 1939 film “The Wizard of Oz” ends, with the Munchkins and Glinda celebrating the death of the Wicked Witch. One Munchkin asks Glinda, “Is it true? Were you friends with her?” and that is where our story truly begins, 40 years earlier, when Elphaba and Glinda both studied at Shiz University.
Elphaba and Glinda start as enemies, jealous of the other despite — you guessed it — not being so different after all. This major theme of the movie just gets shoved in your face over and over and over.
Although I am not opposed to a story having a message, the way this movie handles it is annoyingly corny at best and moral grandstanding at worst. The message is so overt that it almost feels as if it is intended for a child audience, even though the books are written for adults. They go from singing an entire song about how much they loathe the other to being best friends in one night.
After a few months at Shiz, Elphaba receives huge news: because of her magical talents The Wizard of Oz wants an audience with her. So she sets off on a train to the Emerald City, bringing Glinda with her. When Glinda and Elphaba arrive, they are enchanted by its beauty — and so was I. The set design makes me feel the grandeur with its looming, intricate spires and everything in dazzlingly bright shades of green, transporting me to Oz.
This scene also includes a cameo of the original Glinda and Elphaba Broadway actors, Kristen Chenoweth and Idina Menzel. The scene was a fun nod to the actors original roles. It also served to add some much needed context as to why the Wizard was so revered.
After they arrive in the Emerald City, Glinda and
the Wizard and earning her the moniker “The Wicked Witch of the West.” As Elphaba leaves, Glinda decides to stay and work with the Wiz ard.
For “Wicked,” the journey to the big screen has been a long one. The film ad aptation of the musical, based on the bestselling book “Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West,” follows the misunderstood Elphaba Thropp (portrayed by Cynthia Erivo) as she becomes unlikely friends with Glinda Upland (portrayed by Ariana Grande), a popular but initially shallow classmate.
The entire musical is 2 1/2 hours long, while the movie, which only con tains part one of two, is two hours, 40 minutes. They managed to bloat a beat-for-beat adaptation of a musical to twice the original run time. How did they do this? By stretching every scene out to an uncom fortably slow pace, of course. At certain points in the movie, I sat squirming in my seat just waiting for the scene to end.
The extended run time of the film was an oppor tunity squandered. They could have added more scenes from the books or given Elphaba and Glinda more fleshed-out stories.
But instead, we are given five minutes of Elpha ba and Glinda dancing at the Ozdust Ballroom — a scene that gave me the same uncomfortable sen sation as making eye contact with a stranger for far too long.
The musical’s original cast had two Broadway leg ends — Kristen Chenoweth and Idina Menzel — orig inating the roles of Glinda and Elphaba, so Grande and Erivo had big shoes to fill.
Grande brought a unique personality to Glinda. Seeing as she got her start on Nickelodeon, playing Cat in “Victorious”: a kids show following the lives of a group of teens at a performing arts school (this was also where she started her singing career) and later on “Sam and Cat”, I was worried that her over-thetop sit- com-acting style would follow her to “Wicked”. As a character, Glinda is meant to be selfish and overthe-top, but she also has a human side, I worried that Grande would overplay the character, making her seem 2D and unlikable. However, I was pleasantly surprised to find a realistic portrayal of Glinda who was filled with personality. Since her Nickelodeon days, Grande has made a career shift to music and I’m eternally thankful for it, as her acting was great but her singing is breathtaking. Grande sings two songs in this movie. The first is “No One Mourns the Wicked” and I am enamored with this song. If the rest of this movie was egregiously horrible I would not walk out of the theater feeling like I wasted my time simply because I got to hear that song. Chenoweth’s original rendition is passable, outshined by other songs and not something that I would go back to after hearing it the first time. But Grande’s? She has an uncanny ability to reach jaw-dropping high notes and transition back to lower notes smoothly. The song is upbeat and catchy but you can still hear a subtle melancholy in Glinda’s voice, especially during the chorus “And Goodness knows the Wicked’s lives are lonely/Goodness knows the Wicked die alone/It just shows, when you’re wicked/You’re left only on your own”. This moment captured on film adds another layer of complexity to the song itself. The movie also includes a close-up of Grande’s face just before she turns on the Munchkins — something we don’t get watching it on Broadway. While we’re on Broadway, it’s safe to say that Idina Menzel is a once-in-a-generation talent, so Cynthia Erivo had her work cut out for her. The original
ing. I truly believe that had Erivo just allowed her skill to shine in a way that was true to her own voice the song would have been on par with the original. She did not make the song her own. Erivo did make “What is This Feeling?” her own, singing it in her own style, and it’s a favorite of mine from the movie for that reason.
All in all, the movie is disappointing to Wicked: The Musical fans, and it might make people not want to see the musical. It had some unforgettable moments, but some of the most important parts were severely lacking. The only reason that I didn’t fall asleep at some points throughout the movie is because I –having watched the musical –- was already invested in the plot from the moment I heard about the movie. I wanted so badly to love this movie, but I just couldn’t bring myself to. So, I wonder: how did the “Wicked” movie manage to appeal to so many people, even breaking box office records? It is always infuriating when something has the potential to be great and fails. “Wicked” had everything going for it —talent, budget, a built-in fan base — but it ended up being a cash grab, and this audience member felt ripped off.
RATING:
3/5
STORY BY NOOR ALAMERI; GRAPHICS BY REHAN AFZAL; IMAGES COURTESY OF UNIVERSAL PICTURES
2024 R wind
