M O N DAY, M AY 1, 2017 Arranged marriages: Beyond Love at First sight
FEATURES pages 6 & 7
VOLUME 58 NO. 7
OPINIONS pages 4 & 5
Cultural Instruments
FEATURES pages 6 & 7
FEATURES pages 6 & 7
Gymnastics
FEATURES pages 6 & 7 EDWARD HSU
SPORTS pages 10 & 11
I’m weird. We all are.
EDWARD HSU
EDWARD HSU
FLIPSIDE page 12
The Prospector
CHSPROSPECTOR.COM
Student Newspaper of Cupertino High School
10100 FINCH AVENUE, CUPERTINO, CA 95014
EDWARD HSU
FUHSD CONSIDERS LATER SCHOOL DAY START TIMES XINYI ZHANG news assistant
GENE KIM copy editor
CHS YEARBOOK FINALIST FOR PACEMAKER AWARD ALLISON LO copy editor
On April 8, 2017, the Cupertino Nugget staff received the NSPA Pacemaker finalist award for their 2015-2016 yearbook at the National High School Journalism Convention in Seattle, Washington. The convention is sponsored semi-annually by the Journalism Education Association and National Scholastic Press Association. The National Pacemaker Awards are some of the most prestigious awards for precollegiate student journalism. Presented by the NSPA, the National Student Press Association, the Pacemaker Awards recognize publications in five categories — online, newspaper, yearbook, magazine and broadcast — based on coverage and content, quality of writing and reporting, leadership, design, photography and graphics.
Pacemaker, continued on page 3
The proposal for a later start to the school day is a recurring topic among FUHSD staff and students. Since its introduction a few years ago, in light of recent demands from the district office for the FUHSD schools to standardize their schedules, teachers of the district will vote in May for two separate schedules, both of which offer later starts. In terms of structure, one schedule is identical to the status quo while the other plans for the addition of two more block days in the week. The start of the school day could be delayed up to an hour. Nonetheless, with so many variables to take into account, students have different visions about what the ideal course of action should be, as revealed in a district-wide student survey conducted in early April. Currently, each high school in the district has a different schedule, which is a source of conflict for students interested in taking off-campus electives. However, the district’s primary objective is to reduce student stress levels and increase the amount of sleep students receive. 61% of students district-wide reported that they sleep between 10:30 p.m. and 12:00 a.m on the April survey. The majority of the remaining students reported that they sleep past 12:00 a.m. Proposers of the new schedule point out that according to pediatricians, an average teenager requires 8-9 hours of sleep daily, yet many in the district fall short. Said CHS principal Kami Tomberlain, “I hope that creating a new schedule will allow us to do a better job of responding to student needs. It’s important to me that students on campus get a great education while being healthy and strong.” Teachers will also consider the addition of a third tutorial to a regular school week because the
Late Start, continued on page 2
ROBOTICS FRC TEAM ADVANCES TO WORLDS ETHAN QI news assistant
From March 22-25, Cupertino High School’s FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) Team 2473, “The Goldstrikers” competed at UC Davis for a spot at the Worlds competition to be held in Houston, Texas. FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology), is a nonprofit charity dedicated to inspiring students to “pursue education and career opportunities in science, technology, engineering, and math, while building self-confidence, knowledge, and life skills.” In all robotics competitions, Groups of 20-30 students are presented a challenge of building robots to perform prescribed tasks, all while building valuable skills in cooperation, teamwork, and engineering. This year’s theme is “Steamworks,” a harken back to “an era in which technology relied on steam power to prepare their airships for the ultimate long distance race.” The competition starts at the regional level, with competitors advancing to the championship Worlds competition if they can complete said objectives better and faster than their competitors. The Goldstrikers first competed at the Silicon Valley Regional competition, eventually proceeding to elimination rounds in alliance with two other teams, and finally qualifying for the 2017 First Championships. Said senior and team captain Rucha Patki, “[When the results were announced] we were all on our feet hugging, laughing, and crying. I haven’t experienced anything so overwhelming, and I’m so grateful to have such a loving, dedicated team. We worked so hard to make this happen, and it was an amazing experience to realize that all of our effort had paid off. This experience has been so much fun, and I can’t thank the club enough for all the incredible experiences I’ve had and the skills I’ve gained.” In addition to qualifying, NASA also awarded them the Engineering Inspiration Award, along with $5,000 in prize money. The extra money went to covering part of the necessary expenses for their traveling to Houston, but with such a big, unexpected prospect on the horizon, they would need more funding. “Preparing to go to Houston has been a super hectic process. We needed to figure out flights, hotels, food, and most importantly sponsoring. Winning the Engineering Inspiration Award gave
ROBOTICS | Cupertino High School’s Robotics team poses for a picture at their competition
us $5,000, but this only covered the registration fee. In order to raise more, we had to contact our sponsors and cold call other companies and see what kind of support we could get,” said Patki. Being the first time in Cupertino history a robotics team has qualified to the Worlds competition, The Goldstrikers hope to pave the way for future teams hailing under the Cupertino flag. Said robotics member junior Atul Raghunathan, “Our motto is ‘Building people, Building robots.’ We hold dearly the belief that success doesn’t come through power and fear but a mutual respect and a sense of gracious professionalism. Our hope is to leave a legacy to those entering STEM that success can be achieved through graciousness towards others and to impart a certain level of humanity to all those who compete.”