Issue 6 - April 2016

T H U RS DAY, A P RI L 7, 2016

What’s it like to be a...

Opinions page 5

Flipside page 12

Once Upon This Island Review

concert photographer?

College Board sets unrealistic guidelines for AP Classes LIFESTYLES page 8

VOLUME 57 NO. 6

Lifestyles page 8

FEATURES pages 6 & 7

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FUHSD Model United Nations clubs host mock conference

PHOTO BY JENNIFER ZARATAN

MAKE A MOTION | The Futuristic Security Council is called upon to discuss the issue of alien invasion. Conferences often run “crisis committees” to dramatically shift the discourse in committee

JENN ZARATAN lifestyles assistant

On March 26, more than 50 students congregated to spend seven hours discussing everything from aliens to the breakup of Yugoslavia. The second Model United Nations (MUN) conference ever hosted at the school, the Stevens Creek MUN Conference assembled MUN clubs from six schools both outside and within the district; club officers were responsible for organizing the conference and chairing committees.

Each Model United Nations school assumed the roles of different countries to simulate the debates around foreign policy and other issues widely discussed within the real United Nations.

A country and topic were assigned to each participant beforehand, allowing them sufficient time to complete the necessary research and write a position paper that details the history of the country’s involvement in an issue.

The ultimate goal of a conference was not necessarily to win an argument but instead to reach a consensus.

“The nature of MUN is that it encourages more cooperation than competition. [...] While you are trying to stand out, it is important to realize that you are here to make allies and form these coalitions, so you can address a problem collectively and not just unilaterally,” said Lynbrook senior Alvin Fan, who acted as the Futuristic Security Council Chair.

What started out as more of an exclusive, practice conference for only Cupertino students last year has now evolved. In organizing their second conference, officers from FUHSD schools collaborated to create a more formal and developed conference.

Topics for the conference were carefully chosen by committee chairs, ensuring that they were both complex and intriguing.

Topics can be contemporary, historical, and even hypothetical and futuristic: the Futuristic Security Council discussed alien probes landing on Earth.

“The situations that you are presented with are not situations where you can just copy it from a book. You have to think about it and then come up with the ideas yourself and try to apply them in a real-world scenario,” said freshman Leo Rassieur,

Math Modeling Club forms student-run non-profit organization COURTESY OF ASSOCIATION OF COMPUTATIONAL AND MATHEMATICAL MODELING

MATH MODELING WORKSHOP | A group of students learns to use Matlab during a workshop hosted by the Association for Computational Mathematical Modeling

BRIAN ZHONG editor-in-chief

“How should a professor distribute the difficulty of problems on a test to ensure that a group of students, with varying abilities, will form an ideal distribution?”

Over the course of 72 hours, 111 teams of high school students from 13 countries pondered this question, mulled it over with their teams, and utilized mathematical modeling to tackle the issue.

The event, which occurred from Sept. 11 to Sept. 13, constituted the first com-

Math Modeling Club, continued on page 3

whose topic of extraterrestrials required creative and impromptu thinking outside research to come up with a plausible approach.

“It is definitely very hard [to research]. You have to compare aliens to what the equivalent would be, or what happened in the past; maybe that is a country that you are very opposed to, or an enemy. If you know what your country wants in general, you can tackle any scenario, no matter how ridiculous it is.”

Deliberating over worker’s rights for sustainable development, female genital mutilation, and Yugoslavia’s breakup required the intuitive thinking and considerable preparation. Even the historical topic of Yugoslavia’s breakup, an issue that had been resolved decades before, was no exception; the former country’s divide was anything but perfect, catastrophically resulting in a series of wars. Thus, delegates were still able to create a variety of resolutions, straying from what was decided on historically.

The conference gave participants not only a chance to improve speaking and leadership skills, but also the unique and lively experience of thinking creatively and fostering friendships in their larger community.

STEM Club participates in local science fair ALEX SHIEH online assistant

On March 17, 23 students from the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) club participated in the Synopsys Silicon Valley Science and Technology Championship, a regional science and engineering fair that took place at the San Jose Convention Center. This fair was designed to provide high school students who had interest in science and engineering with an opportunity to experiment and to recognize student talents.

Said junior Megha llango, “Unlike other clubs and activities at this school, the Synopsys involves a largely independent process, and it can be very intimidating for a lot of students. Students are not given help and are not rewarded until the final results.”

“My partner and I had to record data from our experiment every day and that can someSynopsys. continued on page 3

COURTESY OF DANIEL STAVIS

SYNOPSYS SCIENCE FAIR | Tino STEM Club entered 23 students into the Synopsis Science Fair, hosted at the San Jose Convention Center

2

News The ProsPecTor

S TA F F 2015-2016

The Prospector

ELECTION

SPOTLIGHT

April 7, 2016

RISHI NAIR sports assistant

For many students at the school, the 2016 presidential election is the first they have seriously observed. Meanwhile, experienced pundits point out the historicity of 2016, dubbed the “year of the insurgency” because ntiestablishment political outsiders, who do not represent

TED CRUZ

Cupertino High School Established 1958 Vol LVII, No. 6 | 2016

Having titled the Republican establishment the “Washington Cartel”, the anti-establishment Texas senator is billed as a grassroots conservative especially among those looking for an alternative to Donald Trump. In response to dwindling poll numbers for traditionally establishment figures such as Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio, the establishment has rallied behind Cruz to counter Trump’s momentum.

editors-in-chief maithilee kanthi brian zhong news editor meilinda sun opinions editor shalmali patil special report editor stephanie shi

the the views of the party, have surged ahead in the polls: no one expected Donald Trump to lead the Republican party and even fewer anticipated that Bernie Sanders would eventually pose a legitimate challenge to Hillary Clinton. Nonetheless, the 2016 election has left the establishment scrambling to regain its momentum, portending changes to the entire political system.

DONALD TRUMP Trump has breezed through the primaries thus far, gaining the support of 739 of the 1,237 delegates he needs to win the nomination.

The former businessman’s supporters are disillusioned Americans who feel betrayed by establishment politicians. His continued domination of the race is widely unprecedented and he has experienced backlash from former Republican nominee Mitt Romney and other establishment figures.

arts and entertainment editor isabel lin

HILLARY CLINTON

sports editor peter martin

Having amassed the support of 469 superdelegates, Clinton has led the race despite competition from Sen. Bernie Sanders, who has won 31 superdelegates. Clinton boasts strong name recognition as a former First Lady and Secretary of State and has political connections. Despite her political strengths, she has been faced with a spate of accusations regarding her use of a private email server and her handling of the crisis in Benghazi, Libya.

flip side editor melissa silva managing editor daniel fertelmeister copy editors delanie medina anirudh pai photo editors jason muñoz jeremy xue

JOHN KASICH The Ohio governor has won favor among moderates. While support for Kasich has increased since candidates began to drop out of the crowded Republican field, he has yet to gain the name recognition that Trump and Cruz command. Kasich has prided himself in avoiding personal attacks and offering a “positive” vision for the country.

online editors michelle pyke jay shroff

BERNIE SANDERS

business manager mark wang news assistants

ethan qi amy zeng

opinions assistants

sudarshan kannan saagar sanghavi

special report assistants

josephine robinson erin song

arts and entertainment assistants

aishwarya laddha jennifer zaratan

sports assistants

rishi nair mark wang

flip side assistant

caroline gee

online assistants photo crew

allison lo lily marvin alex shieh catherine seok adviser ann peck

Editorial Policy “The Prospector” is an open forum of expression for student editors to inform and educate their readers. It will not be reviewed by or restrained by school officials prior to publication or distribution. Advisors may and should coach and discuss content during the writing process.

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The Independent Vermont senator and self-proclaimed Democratic socialist was initially expected to not garner enough support to pose a legitimate challenge to Clinton. However, in light of his proposals to make college free and tax and regulate Wall Street, Sanders has managed to gain much support from young people and educated white men.

ALL PHOTOS COURTESY OF DONEKY HOTEY

The changing dynamics of the Supreme Court How the death of conservative justice Antonin Scalia changes American politics DELANIE MEDINA copy editor

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, one of the Court’s most conservative members, died early February of natural causes. Scalia, who died at 79, was appointed to the Supreme Court by Ronald Reagan in 1986. His untimely death leaves the Supreme Court with only eight justices for the remainder of this year’s term and invalidates his votes on decisions made but not yet carried down. In the event of a tie, the decision of the lower court stands and no precedent is set.

Almost immediately after Justice Scalia’s passing, House Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced that he would not consider an appointment made by President Barack Obama to fill the conservative justice’s seat. “The American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court Justice,” McConnell said.

“Therefore, this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new president [in office].”

Most Senate Republicans have followed suit, saying they will not meet with any nominee. Democrats contend that a majority of Americans want a hearing for President Obama’s nominee.

Democrats argue that the American people have already had a voice in the selection of Scalia’s replacement: they re-elected Barack Obama to office in 2012, but they also promoted Mitch McConnell majority leader in 2014. Americans speak with a divided voice, but the electoral process provides no way to resolve their uncertainty.

Justice Antonin Scalia’s death has proved itself to be a test for the polarized political system — a test may say it is unlikely to pass.

In mid-March, President Obama nominated appeals court judge Merrick Garland as his choice to serve on the Supreme Court.

Garland, a moderate federal appeals court judge and former prosecutor, has a fierce reputation for collegiality.

Obama’s appointment is sure to disappoint progressives who had hoped to see him pick a judge that would “take on” the court’s conservatives, much like Justice Scalia, who over the years went head-to-head with the court’s more liberal judges. Even though Merrick Garland is considered a centrist jurist, his appointment to the seat left by Justice Antonin Scalia would tilt the balance of power on the Supreme Court and give liberals a majority for the first time in decades.

Whole Woman’s Health v. Cole The Court will hear arguments on whether two Texas anti-abortion laws place an “undue burden” on Texas women by closing abortion clinics.

U.S. v. Texas A challenge to President Obama’s executive action on immigration, which would protect about 4 million people from deportation. A tie would uphold The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals decision against the Obama administration.

Evenwel v. Abbott

A case regarding whether all residents or only eligible voters should be counted when drawing state legislative districts. The District Court for the Western District of Texas held that all residents should be counted, and a tie would uphold that.

Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association Public employees, who are not members of a union, argue that they should not be required to pay a“fair share fee” for collective bargaining for a contract that does not apply to them. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against the nonunion teachers and the tie in the Supreme Court upheld the ruling.

Zubik v. Burwell

A challenge to the Obama administration’s accommodation for religious nonprofits that object to being required to offer health insurance covering birth control. The Third Circuit Court of Appeals found that the accommodation is not a burden on religious freedom.

Fisher v. Texas

A challenge to Texas’s use of affirmative action in admissions that the Court sent back to a lower court in 2013.

Synopsis Science Fair continued from page 1

times be very difficult,” said sophomore Emily Lo, “But, I really enjoyed the experience, especially being able to see all the different experiments at the science fair in the end.”

At the fair, the judges evaluated projects and experiments with distinct fields of study, including behavioral science, biomedical engineering and environmental science.

These evaluations were composed of five criteria: scientific thought or engineering goals, creativity, thoroughness, skill, and clarity.

“There are different criteria for science and engineering projects,” junior Bennett Ngan said. “However, they are both pretty similar in the sense that participants need to define a need or something that they want to explore.”

Despite the outcome, many students find that the mere act of participating in Synopsys is an immense accomplishment in and of itself.

“I think even if a project does not end up the way it was expected to be, showing up at the science fair and being able to get to the end is something people should be proud of,” junior Pallavi Narayanan said.

Said junior Anita llango, “I think the actual moment when something works or a mistake is found in a science project is much more exciting than winning an award. People spend such a long time working on their projects and that feeling of accomplishment is simply amazing.”

Nonetheless, half of the school’s projects received an award. One of these projects was conducted by freshmen Katie Kang and Leo Rassieur.

“[Winning the award] was really gratifying,” Rassieur said. “My experiment required so much manual labor—laboring over the experiment for months, putting in journal entries and conducting research every week, and finally creating this almost 5-foot tall diorama to display all my work.

Having all that recognized and awarded is truly amazing.”

In a society that is constantly evolving in the field of science and technology, fairs such as the Synopsys allow young people to explore problems and seek solutions that do not yet exist. While many of these ideas may seem insignificant and even unfeasible, these students will carry forward the skills they obtained from the process and may eventually develop solutions to real-world issues.

COURTESY OF DANIEL STAVIS

PROSTHETICS PROJECT | Juniors Anita Ilango and Megha Ilango used computer science to optimize brain-controlled prosthetics

California raises minimum smoking age ETHAN QI news assistant

MARK WANG business manager

On March 10, the California state legislature passed a new bill that would increase California’s minimum smoking age from age 18 to 21, making California the second state in the United States after Hawaii to raise the minimum smoking age to 21. The bill would also impose a steeper tax of $2 per pack in place of the current tax of 87 cents.

Because of the myriad of health problems linked to smoking, the bill aims to deter people, primarily youth, from smoking in the first place. California lawmakers in support of the bill believe that the law will reduce medical costs for the state by millions of dollars and may potentially save thousands from the dangers of smoking and secondhand smoking.

Senior Ishan Sharma worked as an intern during his sophomore year and junior year for state senator Jim Beall, who voted for the bill.

Said Sharma, “I think it would help California economically and improve many people’s health

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April 7, 2016

3

Math Modeling Club continued from page 1

petition hosted by the Association of Computational Mathematical Modeling (AoCMM)—a student-run non-profit organization spearheaded by senior Yunkai Zhang. Now, the organization seeks additional ways to engage high school students in mathematical modeling, such as through holding workshops at the Cupertino Library or instructing students during weekly meetings.

Said Zhang, “We realized that most of the mathematical modeling materials online involved too much advanced mathematics that tended to scare high school students away. Therefore, we first established a math modeling club in our school and later expanded it to an actual non-profit organization.”

Organizing the event required months of preparation, from securing the funding to providing incentives to promoting the competition. Said junior Rohit Jawle, “We had to proactively contact lots of companies to obtain sponsorships, but these sponsorships proved very valuable. For example, we partnered with Think Tank Learning, and they helped us by promoting the competition to its clients.”

Of the 111 teams, two teams with members from the school won awards. Seniors Raman Kathuria, Kedar Thakkar, and Kevin Yang and juniors Srikar Boinapally and Adi Menon earned beta prizes, granted to the top eight percent of teams.

Ultimately, AoCMM strives to impart the value and applications of mathematical modeling to high school students. “Exposing high-schoolers to challenging problems involving both interesting maths and the abstraction of real-life situations is rarely done,” said Ariel Amir, a competition judge and Harvard professor.

“Modeling is an important skill relevant for many disciplines.”

$2

tax per pack

by deterring them from smoking. fornia is one of the biggest states to do edent for other states to follow and see how it In addition, the new bill would also afof electronic cigarettes. Furthermore, the bill curb the effects of secondhand smoking and such as restaurants, bars, hotel lobbies, and movie In opposition are Republicans who reasoned and should therefore be able to exercise all of their 18, Californians can vote and join the military, and are mature enough exercise their full autonomy. They legislature does not have the authority to raise the However, Sharma disagreed with that argument, saying that increasing the minimum smoking age would provide a safer atmosphere to the high school campuses.

And because Calithis, it sets a precplays out.” fect purchases also intends to w o u l d render some locations theaters, smoke-free zones. that by age 18, residents are adults rights and responsibilities: at age have therefore become adults who have also maintained that the state minimum smoking age.

SOURCE: LATIMES

Opinions

4

April 7, 2016

PRIVATE BUSINESSES SHOULD COMPLY WITH THE GOVERNMENT’S DEMANDS sports editor

The court case between Apple and the FBI in the wake of the recent terror attacks in San Bernardino has sparked another of the increasingly frequent discussions of security in the 21st century.

Apple claims that the FBI’s request for the company to develop a method to unlock the iPhone 5c owned by one the shooters in this incident would pose an unprecedented threat to security worldwide. In his open letter to customers, Apple CEO Tim Cook stated that fulfilling the request would “undermine decades of security advancements that protect our customers.” That, however, is Apple’s problem.

Tim Cook would have you believe that the FBI’s demands are unreasonable and unprecedented. Said Cook, “We can find no precedent for an American company being forced to expose its customers to a greater risk of attack”. In reality, there are hundreds of years worth of precedent for just that; the United States has had a legal process for requiring individuals or companies to present documents or other property under their possession or control that has relevance to a court case.

Search warrants and subpoenas have been a part of the country’s legal system since the 18th century.

A search warrant can be ordered by a magistrate or judge and allows for law enforcement to search a specific location for specific information or property. It simply requires that said official establish “probable cause” for the search. Subpoenas can be ordered by an attorney or court to produce documents and other property legally owned or controlled by the recipient. Of course these orders can be challenged, but unless a court rules otherwise, it is the legal obligation for said recipient to produce the requested information. The shooter who possessed the phone is dead, and the device was owned by his employer, the San Bernardino County. With the actual owner of the phone unable to access it, Apple has effectively become the controller of this property and information. That would make Apple, the controller of this information, responsible for producing it to authorities for a criminal investigation. These laws apply all individuals and companies, such as telephone and internet service providers, hospitals, and banks. Similar to Apple, banks control physical property and information owned by customers, both of which the company may be asked to produce with a subpoena, search warrant, or a variety of other heavily precedented methods. Unless we have collectively agreed that Apple’s position as a tech monolith puts it above the law, it should be expected to work within the system like everybody else.

The true concern of many involved in this case is one of security. How can Apple create such a tool, a “backdoor” as they call it, and not compromise the security of the company? Which brings us back to the crux of this issue: That’s Apple’s problem. Apple has tried to argue that this is an issue of public security, but in reality this should be an issue only for the company. The judicial system is not responsible for the quality of Apple’s security, Apple is. This is one of the largest and most profitable technology companies in the world saying that it is above the law. Apple is not, and never has been the victim. The problem lies not with the FBI expecting an American company to comply with a standard information request precedented by hundreds of year, but with a $600 billion private corporation claiming it can either provide security for its customers or follow the law, not both. And from Apple, both should be expected.

In their fiscal budget for 2017, the FBI asked for $85 million more for cypersecurity.

SOURCE: THE WASHINGTON POST

The All Writs Act states that the courts hold the ability to “issue all writs necessary or appropriate in aid of their respective jurisdictions and agreeable to the usages and principles of law.”

SOURCE: THE WASHINGTON POST

A string of 0’s and 1’s that make up 256 digit encryption key. While the standard passcode is four to six digits, creating 10,000 to one million combinations.

PIN:

****

SOURCE: VOX

Cyrus Vance, the Manhattan District Attorney, he would like Apple’s help with getting into 175 iPhones and he claims that there are supposedly hundreds move all over the nation.

SOURCE: VOX

CON

ANIRUDH PAI copy editor

The aftermath of the San Bernardino shooting that left over 14 dead has polarized the nation to even greater lengths. In an effort to uncover more information about the couple who carried out the attack, Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik, the FBI secured the iPhone utilized by Syed Rizwan Farook. Although Apple could have unearthed the information easily, the FBI ignorantly made the issue the significant hassle it is today. An anonymous Apple executive stated that less than 24 hours after the iPhone was placed into the government’s possession, the Apple ID was changed.

If the identification were not changed, Apple could have accessed the iCloud data rather than suffer the misplaced abuse due to the FBI’s lack of care.

Said Tim Cook,Chief Executive Officer of Apple, “Unfortunately, in the early days of the investigation, FBI directed the county to reset the iCloud password. When that is done the phone will no longer back up to the cloud. I wish they would have contacted us earlier so that would not have been the case.”

Evidently, the fault of the matter lies upon the FBI, so why should consumers and corporations suffer? The answer lies with the FBI’s argument, highlighting the depths the government will go in order to have access to consumer information. As a last resort the government has issued the All Writs Act of 1789, stating judges have the ability to compel others to act in a certain way within limits of the law. Even though times have changed and America has adapted to the modern era, the FBI clearly has not and they have no real authority to access this data besides an act from the eighteenth century.

However the FBI is purposely squirming into a loophole by not asking Apple to crack the phone rather they urge the company to design software that would allow the FBI unlimited tries to break into the IPhone by themselves. Tim Cook has repeatedly stated that if Apple were to design such an operating system, it would be the “software equivalent of cancer.”

Yet the most troubling area of this ordeal is the precedent that the decision sets, cementing the power of the government over technology companies. Companies would be thoroughly searched for incriminating evidence against criminals, violating the privacy of every user. The government additionally cannot prove their software is secure from hackers. Once the government is known to contain such information, entire organizations could breach the system, decrypting the data of millions of users, none of which committed any wrongdoing.

Instead of settling this in private, the FBI made this matter public simply because they believed the public would take their side. Now the government is retreating from the fight because individuals chose privacy over “security” that can’t be protected. If we hold companies to extraneous standards of securing data, why are we negligent toward the government’s egregious actions?

It is easy to blame technology companies for fighting against the government tyranny, but America is the land of protecting the fundamentally rights of people. Allowing the FBI to break into individuals devices intrudes on both privacy and security, making this idea indubitably a net negative toward the American people.

AP Exams by the numbers

PRO

PETER MARTIN

60%

Over of U.S. high school and 15,000 high schools worldwide include AP Courses in their curriculums.

SOURCE: COLLEGE FOUNDATION OF NORTH CAROLINA

57%

The pass rate for AP Tests in 2002 was 61 percent. As of the 2012 the rate has dropped to 57 percent.

SOURCE: POLITICO

22%

The percent of students recieving ones on the exams have increased from 14% to 22% SOURCE: POLITICO

27%

CA is 6th in the nation for of graduates performing well on AP Tests.

SOURCE: COLLEGEBOARD

Opinions

The Prospector

April 7, 2016

5

The GOP is out of touch with millennials and loyal Republicans MEILINDA SUN news editor

Central issues voters will be basing their decisions on in the Republican Primaries include the size of Donald Trump’s hands among the sizes of other body parts, and whether Trump will “spill the beans” on Ted Cruz’s wife, Heidi. The establishment has unleashed a monster, and his name is Donald Trump.

Policy is certainly the biggest loser of the Republican Primaries, but even more tragically, the lack of an issues-centered primary betrays middle- and working-class Americans. Unfortunately, this mess of a primary is the result of years of the Republican establishment’s mistakes, which Democrats have used against the party.

Intellectual conservatives and nativist conservatives often agree on similar policy goals— pursuing a skills-based immigration system, for example—but their justifications for supporting such policies highlight a sharp divide within the party: for example, while intellectual conservatives advocate deportations in the name of upholding the rule of law, populist conservatives justify their views with racist beliefs. In such a liberal area as California’s Silicon Valley, most students never hear a credible conservative voice. Thus, the voice of populism rings louder than that of intellectual conservatism, leading liberals to villainize the entire Republican party because they believe that the voice of the populists represents the beliefs of the entire party. The rise of Donald Trump leads liberals to believe that Trump represents all Republicans and that Republican politicians, many of whom are appeasing lobbyists, represent all Republicans. In and of itself, the Republican Party advocates limited government and in turn, limited government spending –– not the wave of populist messages that alienate Mexicans, women, and atheists. The party has failed to divorce itself properly from such beliefs, leading minorities to cast off the GOP. One of the most pervasive misconceptions liberals have about conservatives is that conservatism inherently neglects poor, nonwhite Christians. While one could easily argue that Republicans in Congress are bought and, therefore, represent only the interests of corporations and the super-rich, an important distinction must be drawn between conservatism and what the Republican Party actually represents. Conservatives and Liberals believe that poverty is a major problem –– it does not take a socialist to recognize that income inequality is a threat to the country. At their core, conservatives and liberals disagree on how to deal with income inequality.

However, the Republican party has failed to advocate a conservative agenda to help the poor: the

establishment’s fatal mistake is that while many conservative strategies may actually be effective in lifting the people out of poverty, these are not central to Republican campaigns. Democrats have capitalized on the lack of discourse, criticizing Republicans for not talking about issues such as college debt; Republicans do care about college debt, but the lack of prioritization of such working and middle-class issues makes the party seem like it does not care. Newly-minted House Speaker Paul Ryan gave a speech to House Republicans shortly after he was elected to his post and implored: “Overhauling the tax code, what does a replacement of Obamacare look like, how do you effectively attack the root causes of poverty, how do you get economic growth?”

Speaker Ryan points out that Republicans have failed to provide its voters with a vision.

A valid argument could be made that Obamacare does more harm than good. Republicans threaten to “repeal and replace Obamacare” at every debate, but the lingering question is always: replace it with what? Speaker Ryan urged his fellow Republicans to be a “proposition party” and not an “opposition party” –– to not merely be the anti-Obama party, but instead, to be pro-something.

Many Republican politicians, in an attempt to garner votes from the populist camp, portray the 2016 presidential election not as a collective effort to reinvigorate the conservative movement and pass policies that do good; instead, the election is a culture war, protecting Dixieland from contamination by scourges of immigrants, gays, and “radical, left-wing politicians”.

Despite offering reasonable policies, John Kasich and Marco Rubio pale in comparison to the only politicians who provide a vision –– Ted Cruz and Donald Trump, who capitalize on growing white, working-class American disillusionment: hardliners, Ted Cruz, and Donald Trump’s vision for America is unrealistic and frankly, harmful –– the only group Trump won’t criticize is the KKK. America is undergoing a major demographic shift: Al Jazeera projects that in 30 years, whites will be a minority in this country. Millennials are increasingly liberal and loyal Republicans, too, are defecting from a party that has betrayed them. If the GOP wants to remain relevant, it must change. First, moneyed interests must be rooted out from the party which has evolved from a middle and working-class party to one that represents corporate interests. Second, the Republican party must appeal to a more diverse audience. Hispanics –– Cubans, for instance –– and Asian Americans –– the fastest growing racial group in the country –– often have socially conservative beliefs, and the GOP has failed to capitalize on these votes, which will become increasingly critical in elections as demographics continue to evolve.

JAY SHROFF online editor

As the month of May nears, the words “AP Test” strike a collective panic among students who have elected to take AP classes.

These classes come pre-wrapped with words of caution and concerns; yet, within this bubble, the number of AP classes students take each year seem to serve almost as an irrational, but justifiable, way to measure one’s “success” level to other peers. AP Literature, AP Chemistry, AP Computer Science, AP Calculus—the list seems to be endless.

Yet many individuals have expressed their frustration at the way these college-level classes are being taught on campus. Some cite the lack of proper instruction and too much material being shoved at them while others complain that the seemingly endless number of tests and quizzes promote a harmful culture of stress.

Taking multiple AP classes in one year often multiplies the stress, for project deadlines and or schedule tests are often inadvertently assigned on the same days. Clearly, no teacher means to purposefully exacerbate student stress; students need to gain a comprehensive understanding of the situation each side comes from before pointing fingers at the sources for their stress.

Many students fail to realize that teachers of AP classes have limited options concerning class structure; in order to be designated as an “AP” class, teachers are required by the College Board to follow an almost unyielding and constrictive set of guidelines-eliminating instructor freedom with curriculum. Before offering an AP class, teachers are required to submit a course audit outlin-

in AP Chemist ry AP U.S. Governmen t and Politics

lifestyles assistant

ing the year’s curriculum to College Board for approval beforehand. AP courses, in particular, AP Sciences, are so overloaded with material that it is almost is impossible for teachers to fit in what would be addressed in 9 hour weeks at most colleges into 5 hour weeks. AP science labs, completion of which are mandated

by College Board, are time-consuming and deprive teachers of the ability to engage in instruction; since these labs cannot be completed at home, as students do not have the materials nor the safety systems in place, teachers have little choice but to leave what would be lecture material for students to self-study at home to make room for lab time.

To combat the paltry amount of time teachers have with students at the school, some schools have resorted to a system known as “flipped teaching” in which teachers record themselves lecturing about the lesson and then assign the video and notes to their class as a guide while completing textbook readings. This has been met with mixed results: some students found that this style provides them with ample learning material however the vast majority of students reported difficulty learning important concepts virtually versus in a traditional classroom setting.

In recognition that the load of an AP class cannot be lessened due to the rigid guidelines set by the College Board, students have voiced their support for a widespread implementation of “Teacher-Boards”: these boards are a way for students and teachers to have a visual representation on a large monthly calendar of all upcoming tests, quizzes, large projects that students across all classes have. The school has exercised many ways to try and encourage healthy student growth and relieve academic stress, yet this simple and inconsequential action of adding a homework board to the classroom at no additional cost or time to teachers is not widely practiced. Many students often encounter weeks,

affectionately coined “hell-weeks” (often right before breaks or holidays), where numerous tests and assignments due dates are stacked on the same days. The use of this board in different departments around the school may serve as a preventative measure for situations as such by giving teachers the option and knowledge to spread out work that students have to complete over the week, an action that would greatly benefit the student body.

Although students seem to blame AP teachers and their respective departments for the cause of all the stress that they feel, a closer look at the system has indicated that the school faculty is not the one to blame. To find the root of student stress and teacher anxiety in these classes, one only need to look to our friends in New York for the answer. The College Board expects teachers to teach in 3.8 hours per week from September to April, a course that are normally taught at a College or University in a 5-6 hour week, from August to June. The monopolistic control of the College Board becomes one of the leading causes of stress at our school, nearly 2500 miles away; the teachers merely become a vessel for students to direct their frustration towards.

There is clearly a significant disconnect between the College Board’s requirements and guidelines for classes and what is actually feasible to be taught at a typical public school. Teachers become puppets of College Board that conform to its ridiculous requirements yet face to an extent unwarranted criticism from students, when the real problem lays within the College Board, the institution that runs this game. Therefore, students should understand that AP courses do demand a high level of rigor, while teachers should strive to be mindful of the high expectations placed on students themselves. Ultimately, a collaborative effort by both teachers and students can minimize the stress and hostility often linked to AP classes.

How to Get a 5

AISHWARYA LADDHA

Crash Course: AP Biology

College Board's guidelines for AP Classes are unfeasible

6

Special Report

TYPICAL DAY:

EMERGENCY MEDICAL TECHNICIAN ALLISON LO online assistant

For most people, dealing with medical emergencies is a rare and nerve-wracking experience, but for EMTs like Divya Ambu, handling life-and-death situations is part of the job. An emergency medical technician, or EMT, often works in ambulances and is responsible for providing medical care in the event of an emergency. Not to be confused with a paramedic, who undergoes higher levels of training, an EMT provides basic life support with less invasive procedures, usually without the administration of any drugs.

A “normal” day for an EMT is anything but normal, as EMTs must be ready for any type of call. “Typical” situations range from allergic reactions and emergency childbirths to cardiac arrests. Upon arrival on scene, EMTs must first evaluate and stabilize a patient’s condition.

EMTs are responsible for a wide range of tasks, like splinting broken bones and performing CPR. Saving lives demands rigorous preparation: beyond stocking and restocking supplies,

EMTs must also locate medical equipment instantly upon request, requiring a level of clarity and medical know-how on the spot.

A junior at UC Berkeley, Ambu volunteers with the Berkeley Medical Reserve Corps in her free time. “The most important thing that I have learned is how to work under pressure,” Ambu said. “EMTs are usually the first medically trained professionals at the site of an incident, so the treatment they offer is extremely crucial.

In emergency medicine, there is the “golden hour” of treatment, which is the first hour after the occurrence of an incident that can ultimately be the deciding factor for the fate of a patient.”

Said Ambu, “Being the first person onscene for an emergency can be extremely stressful, but over time, you learn to overcome anxieties and think with a clear head. You can read and rehearse how to handle an emergency situation for hours, but you do not really know how you will react until you are actually placed in one.”

Ambu still recalls the first time she treated a patient in critical condition. “When I was completing my emergency room training, we had a woman who overdosed on sleeping pills

SENIOR POLICY ANALYST SHALMALI PATIL opinions editor

Attending White House conferences is nothing new for Senior Policy Analyst Mark Johnson, who regularly visits the nation’s capital to offer his expert opinions to the various departments in the White House. Not only does Johnson help new employees at the Department of Education educate and orient, but he also helps his fellow employees and new staffers understand the current issues weighing on the entire department in general and the responsibilities.

Mark Johnson takes an active role in the government’s policy development by providing his expert opinion during his meetings with the rest of the White House staff. Since Johnson is in such a high position in the U.S. Department of Education and has such a large impact on countless students, a vast majority of his job includes extensive research regarding new possible policies.

A typical day in Johnson’s life is hardly typical by the standards of most people unless you would consider spending some of your busiest days at the White House normal. On some of his busiest days, Johnson usually has to start off with conferences at the White House up until a brief break for lunch. Following his lunch, Johnson can typically be found back at his office located in Washington D.C. There he checks in with contracted research firms, writes and prepares briefs and holds phone conferences. However, the majority of his days are high variable in terms of schedule and include a string of inter-agency meetings, meetings with contractors, developing projects and scanning the news. For such a highend and influential government job, something

seemingly simple such as catching up on current events can be a monumental help one’s job.

Johnson mainly works to implement regulations on current policies and increase the transparency of the department as a whole. But one of the central objectives of each of the policies that he changes and creates is to increase the leadership opportunities available for students.

One such student aid programs that Johnson worked on includes the Ability to Benefit Rule which “expanded student aid to allow some people who did not get high school educations to get federal aid to attend high level vocational or technical schools.”

He recommends that anyone interested in a high-end government career, such as his job as the Senior Policy Analyst for the United State’s Department of Education, have a strong interest in one particular field and develop and thorough and expert understanding of it prior to applying to top-tier government positions. But for high school students, who are not yet ready for such careers, Johnson recommends getting involved in one’s community as much as possible and “develop a vision for your life.”

Actively searching for opportunities to grow one’s understanding about particular fields that interests one, will help one to “develop academic and people skills” that they need for a career of such a high caliber. Johnson also encourages students to take risks as “being willing to make a mistake is good.”

Despite all of the hard work that it is to have his job, Johnson finds it to be personally very rewarding as in his position, he is able to help students indirectly and serve the best interests of young people.

April 7, 2016

and alcohol,” Ambu said. “She needed to be put on Life Support, so the respiratory therapist gave me a bag valve mask to ventilate the unconscious woman. All of the doctors and nurses were busy preparing her for a procedure, and in that moment, I realized that the only thing keeping the woman alive was me and the breaths I was giving her.”

Despite the stressful nature of being an EMT, Ambu finds comfort in knowing that her work is meaningful. “I love being an EMT,” Ambu said. “I used to volunteer at a local hospital, but there was little patient interaction. After becoming an EMT, my field of practice drastically opened up. Instead of watching doctors treat patients, I could now be an active participant on a scene and help treat patients as well.”

Said Ambu, “Becoming an EMT is an investment regarding both time and money. I highly recommend talking to EMTs and having an end goal in mind before beginning training, but I also highly encourage anyone who is interested in emergency services or medicine to become an EMT.”

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Special Report

The Prospector

April 7, 2016

CONCERT PHOTOGRAPHER JEREMY XUE photo editor

G-Eazy, Galantis, The Chainsmokers.

What do these artists have in common? They have all worked with Fremont High School ‘15 graduate and concert photographer, Ojas Devanathan. Devanathan began his photography journey with street photography and shooting portraits for friends, but saw an opportunity for growth while browsing his Twitter feed.

Said Devanathan, “I saw that one of my favorite rappers from the East Coast, Huey Mack, was going to be in town in L.A. that weekend. I decided, why not, I am going to tweet him.” In his sub-140 character message, Devanathan informed the artist that he was a big fan, and asked if he could shoot photos for his upcoming show.

“Surprisingly, he tweeted back saying, ‘Yeah man, love to have you here.’ His management team messaged me on Twitter, got my

name, and told me I would be on the will call.

That is how it started”, Devanathan said.

Since his first gig, Devanathan has shot for dozens of other artists over the past year. His portfolio contains artists such as Diplo, Logic, Charlie Puth, and Gallant.

When asked about which gig was his favorite to shoot, Devanathan said, “I would probably say G-Eazy. It was his hometown show [Oakland], so it was a 7,000-seater sold out performance, and it was the last show in his US tour.”

Devanathan states that there are two ways for him to find the opportunity to shoot for an artist. The first involves a lot of persistence in emailing. The second, is when the artist themselves reach out to him as a result of his press.

Said Devanathan, “I work with Color Me with Chaos, which is a West Coast music publication. Now that I have shot more shows, I have built up a portfolio. For instance, Galantis actually reached out to me rather than the opposite.”

However, attending concerts regularly requires a large amount of time, and as a full-time student, Devanathan must balance his roles as a photographer and a student.

“There are definitely times where I have to manage my workload with going to shows and shooting. You have to learn to prioritize— sometimes there will be artists I really like in town, but I would also have a test the next day,” Devanthan said.

However, concert photography is something that Devanathan finds his passion in, despite the burden of time.

As advice for aspiring concert photographers, Devanathan said, “Do not be afraid to reach out to artists. A small artist would probably be in desperate need for a photographer, while a big artist might be able to choose between dozens. Although it might be an unpaid gig, I would say to start with the small artist, because it gives you an opportunity to grow.”

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COURTESY OF OJAS DEVANTHAN

COURTESY OF OJAS DEVANTHAN

SING ALONG | Some of Ojas Devanthan’s work featured in his portfolio. Devanthan has worked with artists such as G-Eazy, Galantis and The Chainsmokers.

9 UNUSUAL JOBS THAT EARN OVER $100K: GOVERNMENT ASTRONOMER: $139,140/YR AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER: $122,530/YR PETROLEUM ENGINEER: $130,280/YR MATHEMATICIAN: $101,360/YR PODIATRIST: $116,440/YR HOLLYWOOD ART DIRECTOR: VARIES/YR PROSTHODONTIST: $169,130/YR AIRLINE PILOT: $114,200/YR OIL AND GAS GEOSCIENTIST: $137,750/YR COURTESY OF CBSNEWS.COM AND THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS

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8

Arts & Entertainment short and sweet a

note-worthy student

MUSIC GROUPS PHOTOS COURTESY OF HEART VS MIND, THE RITS, MASS98

SAAGAR SANGHAVI opinions assistant

ERIN SONG features assistant

In the midst of the academic-focused and, often times, stressful culture of Cupertino High, students find refuge in a variety of activities. Those that use music as their escape sometimes take their passion to the next level and collaborate with fellow musicians to create their own bands.

Some groups compose original song lyrics for their performances. Juniors Priya Govind and Alejandra Serrano formed their own band, Heart vs. Mind, after a friend suggested that they find friends who played different instruments to accompany a song that Govind and Serrano had written. After recruiting fellow juniors Matthew Webb, Matthew Ygay, Elena Chang, and Akshay Bhide, the group decided to form an official band.

Said Serrano, “We were not actually close friends at the beginning, but as we spent more time as a band, we really [bonded].”

“Any time that I feel anything that I am not able to expressed through words, I just translate it into music,” Govind said. “[From there], I develop a full song.”

Both members of Heart vs. Mind recall the time the band performed live at Santana Row as their favorite experience.

“People would walk by to see us, and I never performed in such an open space for everyone. Our family and friends came to Santana Row to watch and, as a band, we collaborated very well musically. It helped me as a performer and a musician, working with other people,” Govind said.

Other groups of students make covers on existing songs and include unique instrumentation and lyrical expressionism to vary their style.

“Mass98 is a band that Ekta, Rishita, Prateek, and Divya had originally started for a Chemistry project,” senior Rithu Simha said.

“They really liked how they sounded, so they started to have jam sessions together. After Divya moved to Seattle, I replaced her as the lead singer.”

Simha, an avid singer in the school’s Cappella group, enjoys her time on the band thoroughly.

“I have been in choir for four years now, and I had not done anything like this before,” Simha said. “Usually, if I do covers by myself, I have to play piano and record it. [In a band], they actually play instruments with me, so that is really cool.”

“We usually just play music on the radio or something else fun that we would find on Spotify or other sources,” Simha said. “We do anything we think is really cool and want to cover.”

Said Simha, “My favorite memory is probably the 10th-anniversary library performance. It was our first performance, and we were satisfied with how many people came. We have also performed at Christmas in the Park, Tino’s Got Talent, and other events.”

While bands such as Heart vs. Mind and Mass98 perform with musical accompaniment, other groups choose to sing without the aid of any instruments. The Rits, comprised of six singers from different schools, originated when members of the Crystal Children’s Choir decided to create their own a capella group.

“Everything is vocal,” Rits member Leon Hua said. “It is really hard, especially when there are only six people, because there is only one person on each part. When you sing a capella, it can easily sound bad if it is out of tune.”

“Because it is a small group, you have to keep tempo well. Arranging complex pieces exclusively for voices can also pose a challenge,” Hua said.

As an individual, Hua enjoys singing as a passion.

“I do not really know when I developed a talent for singing.

I only started singing in sixth grade, and I was not that good back then,” Hua said. “As I started to sing more, it became more natural.

Singing is more of a personal thing for me; it is something that I do and enjoy with my friends. Something I will look back at.”

While the students at school continue to express themselves through a variety of mediums, music tends to be a popular nd personal choice for many. For these students, music is the legacy they choose to leave behind at Cupertino High.

case

for

short

Short films hold a special place in my heart. As much as I would like to join the masses in their pursuit to buy tickets for yet another feature of the Marvel franchise, I am simply not satisfied with the oftentimes surface level commentary. Others may find comfort in its action-filled plot, and I respect that, but popular Hollywood movies are just not my cup of tea. The objective of the film industry is to produce pictures that sell—a fact that I think contributes to the homogeneity of its content in general. Themes that may have been subject to hours of pondering decades before are just thrown in the center of stories nowadays. This is why I turned to short films for my viewing pleasure.

Mind you, I am a humanities-oriented student, so any form of metaphor is warmly welcomed into my home.

Other than notable names at the box office, short films last for roughly

films

MICHELLE PYKE online editor

thirty minutes to an hour and explore questions that pass by unnoticed in the midst of everyday life. These flicks may be released solely on YouTube or short film websites. A personal favorite of mine is ambiguously named “SHELL” and was produced by Wong Fu Productions (a company formed by UCSD college graduates, I might add). In merely six minutes, the creators manage to draw a relationship between two individuals through a curious question: “If you could look through a window that softened the edge between reality and fiction, what would you want to see? What would you want to remember?” The thought-provoking mood of the video is accomplished with few changes in scenery and symbolic transitions in action.

There lies a freedom in expression when it comes to short films, especially with cultural tastes and habits. For example, I have watched short films with

TOP US-GROSSING SHORT FILMS 1. cirque du soleil: journey of man (2000) 2. america! (2014) 3. haunted castle (2001) 4. cyberworld (2001) 5. santa vs. the snowman (1997) COURTESY OF IMDB.COM

April 7, 2016

scripts written entirely in Taiwanese. I am still able to appreciate these works not only because of the English subtitles, but also because I can understand the significance of interactions between characters, which ultimately reflect the culture they belong to. Language is a powerful reminder that humankind has the ability to develop in multiple forms.

The Oxford dictionary may not store words for certain feelings or actions, but another country may find these to be a fundamental source of communication. This truth is pretty self-evident in short films because the level of honesty accomplished by these mediums is not matched by their popular counterparts.

There may be contradictions to this statement (there always are), but in my humble opinion, I would rather sit on the couch and view a clip on my laptop rather than find myself in a movie theater surrounded by movie enthusiasts.

DID YOU KNOW... any film under 40 min. long is eligible for the Academy Awards’ shorts category?

GRAPHIC BY FREEPIK.COM

once on this

ISLAND

a review of the CAT musical

ALL PHOTOS BY JASON MUNOZ

MELISSA SILVA flipside editor

CAT’s recent portrayal of Once On This Island proved to be a heartbreaking, family-friendly musical that consisted of both ups and downs. The play follows the classic “forbidden love story” of a poor peasant girl and a rich, high-class boy who fall madly in love with each other but are unable to be together due to forces beyond their grasp.

The cast was, as a whole, quite talented. Junior Ilana Greenberg, who portrayed main character Ti Moune, captivated the audience with her beautiful voice and successfully conveyed an innocent, hopeful, somewhat naive Ti Moune.

The actors portraying the four gods each developed their characters thoroughly over the course of the show, with an especially outstanding performance by freshman Luna Conrad. Conrad’s solo as the Earth Goddess Asaka in “Mama Will Provide” sent chills down my spine—her powerful voice filled the entire theatre. The casting of little Alexis Vaile as a younger version of Ti Moune enchanted me, the young girl’s sweet smile firmly remaining on her face throughout the musical.

The costumes and set were fantastic. The island setting was successfully conveyed by the jungle-themed backdrop and the actors’ outfits. The socioeconomic divide between the two sides of the island was obvious with the differing outfits —long, colorful skirts accompanied by head wraps versus the all white, more pristine clothing. One particularly stunning costume was the wedding dress worn by Sydney Reiss, who played Andrea Deveraux. An added tribal effect was provided

by the intricate temporary tattoos—a subtle and creative addition—which decorated most, if not all, of the actors. It was interesting to see a few Mickey Mouse and Pizza My Heart t-shirts incorporated into the peasant costumes, providing a more contemporary look to the performance.

Although the actors very professionally went on with the show, there were some noticeable technical issues during the play. Being that I sat near the speakers, I was able to sometimes hear, for a few seconds at a time, discussions occurring backstage; these served to confuse me and interrupt the ongoing performance. I also heard some static from the speakers, and although it did not occur consistently throughout the play, it happened enough to distract from the musical.

One particular actress experienced mic trouble multiple times during her performance. I appreciated the actors’ professional approach to carrying on with the show, but these technical issues detracted from the overall appeal of the performance.

The well-known motto of “the show must go on” was proudly displayed in this musical. Richard Hornor performed despite having his left arm in a sling, completing the lively choreography along with everyone else.

Although the music overpowered some soloists at times, most likely due to the sound system’s difficulties, the live onstage music was performed wonderfully and provided a nice effect to the musical.

Overall, I was very pleased with yet another entertaining CAT performance. Despite the technical issues, opening night of Once On This Island, proved to be a success.

GRAPHIC BY FREEPIK.COM

Arts and Entertainment

The Prospector

April 7, 2016

9

$20 THRIFTING CHALLENGE REVIEWS SAVERS

1545 Parkmoor Ave, San Jose, CA 95128

PRICING

CROSSROADS 1959 West San Carlos, San Jose, CA 95128

PRICING

QUALITY OF ITEMS

As far as thrift stores go, clothes were pricey. Shirts were about $10 but ranged up to $20 while pants went for about $15 to $25; however, many clothes still had tags on them, so it was definitely cheaper than retail.

SHOPPING EXPERIENCE

Very few items showed signs of wear, most looked almost new while many had tags on them still. Clothes were trendy and current, similar to clothes you might find at H&M or Urban Outfitters in style.

OVERALL THOUGHTS: 3/5

The clothes were well organized based on size and type. The men’s clothing section was relatively small; there was a much wider selection of clothing for female shoppers. Of note was the wide variety of shoes, with gently used shoes like Vans for under $20.

Prices were about 50 percent cheaper than retail; in general, shorts were $7, shirts and blouses ranged between $4 and $8, and jackets were $13.

Most items were visibly worn and used, but a small number of items appeared to be new or gently used.

For the most part, clothing items were outdated and old-fashioned.

The clothing at Savers was relatively organized; items were sorted by type, then size. It was easy to browse around for specific items, and the shopping experience was made even more convenient through shopping carts that were provided for customers.

For the individual with time to spare and extreme patience, Savers is a great thrift store to visit. Though most of Savers’ items may appear outdated or worn, the keen thrifter can find unique, like-new clothing items at Savers for just a fraction of retail value.

PURCHASED ITEMS

(see photos on chsprospector.com) Forever 21 blouse = $4.99, Forever 21 dress = $6.99, Newport News maxi dress = $7.99

QUALITY OF ITEMS

SHOPPING EXPERIENCE

OVERALL THOUGHTS: 4.5/5

While not ideal for shopping on a tight budget, Crossroad’s offers high quality and stylish clothing to consumers wishing to dress well and spend far less money than they would at traditional retail stores.

PURCHASED ITEMS

(see photos on chsprospector.com) Banana Republic short sleeve henley = $12

REVIEW BY ISABEL LIN

INSIGHT EDUCATION SPRING PREP

REVIEW BY JASON MUNOZ

NEARLY NEW 225 E Maude Ave, Sunnyvale, CA 94085

PRICING

Clothes ranged from $2 to $20. Pants tended to be in the $15 range while shirts ranged from $3 to $20.

QUALITY OF ITEMS

Most items seemed to be in a nearly new condition, and there was an equal offering of clothing items in all sizes. Be warned though—most clothes fall under the description of outdated. Some items could be considered “vintage cool” or “retro”, but that is the exception.

SHOPPING EXPERIENCE

The level of organization at Nearly New Shop was commendable. There were racks for different types of clothing, such as dresses, blouses, pants, etc. The racks themselves were conveniently separated by size, and then further, by color. It was extremely easy to find what one was looking for in the store.

OVERALL THOUGHTS: 4/5

For someone who may be looking for a quick shopping trip and not expecting to carry home a major haul, Nearly New Shop is a wonderful store to check out. The kind staff and convenient organization make for a pleasant experience. And, despite the out-dated items, the selection can wield a hidden gem or two for a bargain.

PURCHASED ITEMS

(see photos on chsprospector.com) Sutton Studio 100%-cashmere sweater = $18, flannel = $3 REVIEW BY MAITHILEE KANTHI

Sports 10 ANOREXIA AND BULIMIA AMONG FEMALE ATHLETES April 7, 2016

CAROLINE GEE online assistant

LILY MARVIN online assistant

“I knew about eating disorders during that time, but I thought, “I do not have that; I just want to lose a little weight,” Sarah Jones* said, recalling the words that she had been repeating to herself as a young dancer. Yet the symptoms all said otherwise; at the age of thirteen, Jones had been skipping meals for months, avoiding breakfast and lunch in an effort to satisfy her unhealthy obsession with losing weight.

Surrounded by athletic dancers who would regularly drop ten to twenty pounds for competitions, Jones first developed an eating disorder over feelings of self-consciousness. Said Jones, “They would drop all this weight for ballet, and you can just see it come off of them. They dropped it really quickly too, so it was really scary.”

“It hurt to look at all the other girls and see how skinny they were. I wanted to be like that,” Jones said.

Jones continued to skip meals for several months, despite the harmful consequences that followed. Skipping meals was depriving her of the daily nutrients she needed, such as iron, calcium, and other minerals vital for bone development and muscle growth.

“It definitely made me more prone to sickness, like the flu, because my immune system was down, and I was not getting all the nutrients that I needed,” Jones said. “I felt lightheaded in dance because I was not getting the stuff I needed.”

Anorexia (excessive weight loss by not eating) and bulimia (binge eating followed by selfinduced vomiting) are common psychological disorders for many athletes and were particularly prevalent among females in sports that emphasize appearance or weight requirements.

As a ballet dancer, sophomore Justine Qiu is forced to withstand the daily pressure to cultivate the ideal body.

Said Qiu, “There is this [expectation] that one has to look this one way and that everyone has to be skinny, have long legs, a 2:1 body ratio and everyone has to have perfect feet, perfect everything.”

This highly competitive setting is a breeding ground for eating disorders, especially since many young dancers believe that maintaining an extremely low body weight is essential to reaching their goals.

“One of my friends wants to go professional. She eats a lot, but she ends up going to the bathroom and throwing it up,” Qui said.

Although Qiu has reached out to her teammate, the belief that being thin is a necessary step towards becoming a professional ballerina motivates the dancer to continue her harmful habits.

Said Qiu, “She never thinks that her body will be good enough. She continues to do this thinking that it will make her body better, but in the long run it is making it worse because she is getting weaker by doing this.”

Gymnast and sophomore Olivia Chong remembers discovering that her friend suffered from anorexia and bulimia when she was only in fifth grade.

“I caught my friend skipping a few meals for a month or a week just because she thought she was fat, or because she thought that she had to lose weight before a competition,” Chong said.

“When she really did eat, she would eat a ton and then she would hide away to the bathroom. I got a little suspicious, so I followed her to the bathroom, and I heard retching noises.”

Since wearing skin tight leotards exposes their bodies for the public to openly judge, some gymnasts suffer from low-self esteem and develop eating disorders over the pressure to achieve the perfect body.

Understanding the severity of the situation, Chong went to her friend’s coach. “I told her coach, but I do not think he realized how severe the problem was, so I told her mom, and that really sparked a reaction.”

Years later, Chong stands by her decision. “A little bit of trust was broken, but we are still friends, “ Chong said. “Looking back on it, I think she understands that what I did was probably the best for her.”

Although people like Chong can help others overcome their eating disorders temporarily, oftentimes feelings of low self-esteem never truly leave an athlete. For Jones, body-image is still an issue that she wrestles with. But when asked how she recovers from these momentary lapses, she responded, “I eat.”

A LEAP

BOY’S VARSITY TENNIS MAKES A RACKET

OF FAITH The deal with diving, as explain by CHS diver Rucha Patki JOSEPHINE ROBINSON

SUDARSHAN KANNAN

features assistant

opinions assistant

While diving is not one of the most traditional high school sports, the members of the Cupertino High School diving team knows first-hand what it feel like to dive almost every day. “I like the feeling of just being in the air and flipping, and ripping that clean entry through the water,” said junior Rucha Patki, one of the two people currently on the Cupertino diving team.

Her love of being in the air translated from her ten years of gymnastics experience and allowed her to dive into another sport. Patki has been diving for four years now. She first joined a club team outside of school, and joined the school swim team in her first year in high school. While the school does not have an official diving team yet, Patki and Hannah Tiendas both compete against the same schools that the swim team competes against.

Additionally, as the school does not have diving boards, the members of the diving team practice with their club team outside of school. Most of the people she dives against in school meets are from her club team, so Patki often considers meets to have a friendly competition atmosphere. Patki practices for two hours a day, six days a week. Said Patki, “It is both mentally and physically exhausting. It is a larger strain than people perceive it to be.”

When she is not in the water, Patki has dry-land practice. She prepares for her competitions at the NorCal training center, where she does cardio workouts, strength training, and a diving practice routine called “modeling”. During modeling, Patki wears a harness that is attached to the ceiling and allows her to go through the actions of a dive in the air.

During a diving meet, multiple judges watch each diver perform. Each diver is judged based on the height of the diving board which is a standard one meter for high school meets, but can be changed for non-school competitions- execution, entry, and form. Each of the three judges gives a score from zero to ten. Then, all three scores get added up and multiplied by the difficulty level.

While dive meets are at the same school as the swim meet was that week, dive meets occur one day before the swim meet takes place. Additionally, if the swim meet is at a school that does not have diving boards, such as Cupertino High, the default school is then Fremont High.

While millions of viewers watch “funny” diving fails on YouTube, to the eye of a diver, they are incredibly scary. “If you do not land a perfect entry on dives, it can hurt, especially on the ten-meter diving board. Before you hit the water you can me traveling up to 30 mph, so if you hit the water wrong it can hurt,” Patki said.

Despite her four years of training, one of the biggest challenges Patki faces is being mentally prepared. Since divers have to jump off boards into the water, divers have to prepare themselves mentally as well as physically. “You have to [jump] before your body can refuse mentally. You have to realize that you will not achieve anything if you do not just go for it,” said Patki. “It is normal to be scared but it is about embracing that fear and putting yourself out there.”

Having won the title of league champions last season, the Boys Varsity Tennis team entered this season with high expectations. With an undefeated record, the team moved up from the El Camino League to the more competitive De Anza League and, in anticipation of more difficult opponents, the team opted to increase the rigor of practices and focus on physical conditioning.

Said junior Shankara Srikantan, “We have moved up to the De Anza league this season, so obviously the competition we are facing is fiercer than that of last year. At the same time, we have gotten some really good new players to replace the seniors that graduated last year. Kyle Shun, our team mascot, is an absolute beast, and Pranav Hariharane and Vishnu Allanki are solid freshman.”

Indeed, this season has already proved to be significantly more challenging than their last, with the team currently holding a 3-3 record. The loss of graduated seniors Chirag Narayanakare and Jason Wong, junior Mihir Singh, sophomores Aditya Singh and Nathan Fekadu placed a serious dent in the backbone of the team, with several readjustments having been made to the lineup as a result.

Said Coach Manny Zarate, “When we lost Aditya Singh and Nathan Fekadu, it hurt our team because we were [initially] very strong in singles, which meant that we had to restructure our team.

But Kyle Shun and Rishan Girish stepped it up a lot. Even though we lost our top players, we are still hanging up there at the big league”.

Despite a slow start, the team is optimistic about establishing a solid place in the league, especially as many of the players have now gained a grasp of the level of play required to be competitive in their division.

Said Zarate, “I have strong doubles teams, but in our league, you need at least four wins [three doubles wins plus a singles wins] to win a match. I have had to rearrange our team multiple times to figure out where our strength and weakness lies. We are not losing as much as we thought we would, so our training has paid off.”

Currently, the team is on track to qualify for CCS, with much of the team’s energy being devoted towards getting past the CCS quarterfinals- a focus that is reflected in the changed practices.

Said Srikantan, “We have been doing less running than last year. Coach likes to focus on match play and playing good doubles, because winning our doubles matches is key to winning the match.”

Despite all these changes in the structure and dynamic of the team, the one thing that has not changed is their sense of fun and team spirit., with laughter and inside jokes characterizing a sizeable portion of practices.

Said Zarate, “Well sometimes after we play a lot of matches we just like to joke around a bit.

We like to make the freshman do the grunt work, and then there is senior night. Sometimes they are kinda lazy, and our team has a team tradition of bringing a slice of cake and four granola bars to senior night, so I usually end up buying a lot of pizza.”

April 7, 2016

The Prospector

HOLE IN ONE DANIEL FERTELMEISTER managing editor

Junior Allyson Chiu stands just off the green, the breeze in her back, and measures her shot. She is at the Sunnyvale Municipal course on a warm March afternoon, putting for birdie on the par-three seventh hole.

As the two-year captain and reigning MVP of the team, Allyson’s teammates do not see her as “the girl golfer,” but rather a veteran teammate to look up to.

While most sports that the school offers to its students put forth separate boys’ and girls’ teams, golf does not. Instead, the girls on the team play as a part of the boys season. According to Chiu, “There has never been a girls’ golf team in the history of CHS. When I was a freshman, I was definitely a bit taken aback when I found out I would be playing during the boys season.”

For Chiu and the four other female golfers currently competing on the boys’ team, the rules that CCS put forth created a complicated road. Like volleyball, boys’ and girls’ golf teams compete during different seasons – girls in the fall and boys in the spring. Because Cupertino does not have an actual girls’ team, however, the female members of the team have to compete individually in the fall and as part of the boys’ team in the spring. Their performances in the fall do not get team recognition, and their performances in the spring do not get individual recognition.

Chiu does not necessarily mind playing and competing with boys, saying that it gives her a new, different perspective on how to approach the game and beat other competitors. “It is actually pretty funny that I sometimes unintentionally intimidate some guys because they are embarrassed by the fact that a girl can beat or out-drive them.”

But even though they gain vital experience from the male competitions, Allyson and Cupertino’s other female golfers hope to start the Pioneer’s first ever girls’ golf team next year. And they are well on their way to doing so. Tino’s golf coaches have been supportive, with Coach Gilmore sacrificing coaching the JV Football team to coach the girls’ golf team.

With a coach locked up, the only thing they are missing is golfers. The team already has five girls, but must have a minimum of six members (with eight being the preferred number) to branch off. This year, the golf team had 13 players on the team – teams normally only have 8-12 players – in order to recruit and develop more girls to prepare them for team competition.

They are close; all they need now is a couple more female golfers.

From the fringe, Chiu carefully strikes the ball, watches it roll slowly for 20 yards until she finally hears the satisfying knock of the ball falling into the cup. Next year, perhaps she can be recognized for that.

Sports

11

Flip Side

April 7, 2016

12

MARCH IN PHOTOS JASON MUNOZ

JEREMY XUE

JASON MUNOZ

SPRING MUSICAL | Junior Ilana Greenberg and fellow Cat members perform the musical Once On This Island

JEREMY XUE

JEREMY XUE

JASON MUNOZ

TINO GIVES RALLY | The Golden Spurs performs a dance routine at the “Tino Gives” March Rally

JEREMY XUE

INTERNATIONAL WEEK | ELD students talk about their native countries and cultures in the library on March 31

Samantha Mendenhall: Black Student Activism

JUNIOR PROM | Junior Class President Oscar Li takes photos at Communication Hills before junior prom

Q: What steps do you take to be active and to reduce stereotypes, bias, and prejudice?

A: I did not know how to swim my whole life until this past summer-- there is this stereotype that black people do not know how to swim. It is not really my job to refute stereotypes, [but I think] not putting those stereotypes on other people and realizing that they are a person is important. Also, when you talk to your friends from different backgrounds-- I make a lot of friends from different cultural backgrounds-- it is very fun to learn about their cultures.

Q: What type of social bias or prejudice have you personally faced and how have responded to it?

A: I get confused a lot. Just like how we say “all Asians look alike” and they hate it, I think they just do the same thing with others. Also, it was harder for [me and my friend] to enter higher-level classes. I talked to other friends with an Asian background and they said they did not have that problem. I thought that was interesting. It was hard for us to get into American Literature Honors, and it was weird because I was in an AP Lit class at another school.

Q: What do you do to stay active in your community?

A: I attend a church in Oakland and we have [a club called] Black Youth in Action.

We discuss issues that are prevalent in African American communities and what we can do about those issues. My friends are all in it, and I really like to get my voice out there and heard. I know in the past- about two generations ago- people would not really talk about or complain about [inequality]. Your friends are the people who you talk to and socialize with, and sometimes people do not really know what is going on [with anyone else]. So I feel that it is really important to bring problems to people’s attention and to work on them as a community.

COMPILED BY CATHERINE SEOK

NEXT MONTH: APRIL

April 4 - April 8

Impact Teen Driving Presentation Wednesday, April 20

Spring Break

Gold Awards

Smarter Balance Testing

Blood Drive

April 11 - April 15 April 18 - April 19

Thursday, April 21 Monday, April 25

TRACK AND FIELD | Sophomore Daniel Overcamp competes in the 400 meter race at the meet against Fremont CATHERINE SEOK

The Prospector talked with senior Samantha Mendenhall about what it means to be a black student activist in Cupertino.

Q: Being an African-American, what is it like to be in a minority group at school?

A: It is different; you have a different experience, so it is not that there are not a lot of people you can relate to, but we all have different backgrounds and experiences, and you have to find those people within the student body.

Cheer Tryouts

ALEX SHIEH

Giving and Receiving AMY ZENG news assistant

When I signed up for a VolunteerMatch account in the beginning of 2016 as an extension of the holiday spirit of giving, I never thought I would use it for anything “below the surface”. Yet here I am, three months later, a weekly volunteer at a senior care center as a result of one fateful email advertising “six ways for you to get involved with your community.”

Every Saturday morning, I drive more than half an hour to Webster House Health Center in Palo Alto. The first day, I was extremely nervous and worried about whether the residents would like me. I was in charge of activities with a group of patients with dementia, and it was disheartening to see that only a handful of the residents were able to participate. Most of them fell asleep within a few minutes of beginning the activities and remained unresponsive for the rest of the time. I left feeling like I had not made an impact. Though I seriously reconsidered whether or not I would continue to volunteer at Webster House, I eventually decided that I would try again.

The next week, I gradually began to step out of my comfort zone and make an effort to really talk to all of the residents, though it was hard and scary at first.

I learned that not all of these senior citizens can hear me, and many of them could not understand me. But no matter what, I had to keep trying and do everything that it takes to bring a smile to their faces. Sometimes this means I sit with a woman for nearly 15 minutes, listening to her repeat the same phrase over and over again while holding her hand. But I have found that when I take the time to connect with the residents, not only do the residents themselves feel heard and understood, but I benefit as well.

Since I began volunteering, I have made so many friends who love to talk with me and listen to me face-to-face or during a stroll outside- actions that have become rarities in our world of 10-second Snapchats and 140-character tweet limits.

Flora and I speak in Mandarin. Ruby loves to go on walks and talk to me about her childhood in Colorado. Barbara paints my nails, Michael likes playing board games, Jennifer is good at cards, Maria is an artist and a knitting pro. Slowly but steadily, I overcame my initial hesitation and began to be a part of this family at Webster House.

We live in a society that is all about making a mark and living large. But I know that as a high schooler, changing the world can seem impossible. Every Saturday, however, I am reminded that simple words and a kind smile do make a difference—at least in the lives of the senior residents at Webster House. I have learned that volunteering is not, and should not, be about you or your college application or your resume. It is about the people you are helping, spreading the joy, and receiving it in return.