the eye Singapore American High School
May 29 2007/vol. 26 no no. 8
New deputy breaks through glass ceiling With Franke Thomas’ elevation to middle school deputy, another middle- schooler is chosen for the new high school deputy position In October, Middle School Deputy Principal Franke Thomas was chosen to fill a newly-created position for a second deputy principal at the high school. Last month Thomas accepted the middle school principals’ job vacated by Principal Rob Godley. A new search for Thomas’ replacement
ended with the selection of the high school’s first female in a principal’s position. Sixth grade social studies and English teacher Lauren Mehrbach was chosen to be the new co-deputy principal. The New Jersey native came to SAS in 1999 after teaching history and anthropology in a secondary school in her home state. She taught high school history and seventh-grade social studies and helped design a middle school in Caracas, Venezuela. Principal David Norcott said that the approximately 1150 students and the number of activities and initiatives in the high school mandated additional support.
Five candidates were short-listed and each met with committees of students, teachers, parents and with Neihart and Norcott in interviews that spanned four days. Norcott said that he was looking for someone who is a leader with strong interpersonal skills and who could work well with the community, students and faculty. “The new deputy principal will be responsible for things that revolve around student-related stuff,” Norcott said. “It doesn’t affect his [Neihart’s] duties. He’ll just have some help doing them.” Current Deputy Principal Neihart handles dress code violations, day-
6th grade teacher ChristieGuggisberg with the new high school vice-principal, Lauren Mehrbach distrubte free pizzas to middle schoolers Friday. Photo by Mark Clemens.
to-day issues, instructional leadership work with faculty on different projects. Though the division of jobs is still being considered, the details will be worked out before the new school year begins. “I hope I won’t only focus on rules, but also on academic and extracurricular progress,” Mehrbach said. “For the first bit of business, I’ll get to know as many students and programs as I can, and get myself out there to familiarize myself with the school.” To pick the new co-deputy principal from the seven candidates, student, parent, and faculty committees interviewed the applicants and gave
feedback to administrators. The committees could not vote. Counselor Beth Kramer served on the faculty committee. She said that all of the candidates interviewed well, and that it was a hard choice for the committee. “It will be nice to have a woman in the administration,” she said Mehrbach said that as the third person in the administration team, she hopes to bring a new perspective to the office. “You can tell the kids up at the high school that just because they’re getting a woman, it doesn’t mean she’s a softy,” Mehrbach said.
Designated safe space proposal tabled after opposition from faculty by Sam Lloyd and Amanda Tsao Student Acceptance Space, otherwise known as SASpace, “as a concept and program has officially been tabled” until next school year, according to High School Counselor Mario Sylvander. Intended as a means of offering one-on-one support to high school students, the program would offer a two-hour training process for teachers. Upon completion of the course, teachers would receive a sticker for their door indicating that they “offer counsel to students on cultural and ethnic, religious, sexual, and national identity,” Sylvander said. Sylvander said that while he had been designated as the spokesperson of the idea for his involvement in the design of the sticker logo, the idea had been circulating in the Counseling Office for over a month. Eventually a faculty meeting was
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colleges and high schools. held to discuss the concept of “It was not a wacky, out-of-thesupporting students. blue idea, it was an SAS adaptation “We came away from the of what we thought was a step in meeting with what we thought the right direction,” he said. was support,” High School Norcott, who made the decision Principal Dave Norcott said. Following this, an email was “to not push this framework sent out to the faculty informing forward,” said, “whatever we decide to do will have to be tailored them of the specifics of the to SAS. We have different demands proposed idea. Most of the on us; we need to create our own teachers who responded to the solution.” email expressed that it was He said that the program was not the best way to approach a support network for the student intended as a tentative means to body. provide more emotional support to “I didn’t like the idea that some The logo for SASpaces representing availability of students at SAS, a goal since the teachers would have a sticker on support on cultural and ethnic, religious, sexual and beginning of the year. their door that would say ‘I’m national identity. Courtesy of Mario Sylvander, who “We didn’t want to finish the designed the logo. friendly and approachable,’” year without putting some of it out Griffin agreed. Math teacher David Rops said. on the table,” he said. He felt that In defense of SASpace, Sylvander despite some faults in the “concept “By default the teachers without the stickers would seem unfriendly and said that although some teachers had as a package,” it had some desirable called the program, in his words, aspects which could be considered in unapproachable.” “Anyone without a label would “ludicrous and novel,” similar next year’s discussions. “I think it’s a good place to start,” be labeled,” English teacher Shelley programs are widespread in U.S.
Rops said. Some criticized the program as merely an indirect way to satisfy proponents of the Gay-Straight Alliance, an organization proposed by students in recent years but not approved. “To me the support network needs to be broad enough to support students in a whole variety of questions equally as important as sexual orientation,” Norcott said. “The goal is to provide broader support than on a single issue. We want to deal with it directly but under this umbrella.” Senior Cat Ward, who has been the main proponent of a GSA at SAS, is suspicious of the motivation in the creation of the program. “ I don’t think it’s an umbrella for the Gay-Straight Alliance; I think they want it instead of a Gay-Straight Alliance,” she said.
2 news
May 29, 2007
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the Eye
TAS senior caught hacking into online grading system
by Cat Ward Recently at the Taipei American School it was discovered that a senior male had been periodically breaking into the school computer system since the beginning of the school year and changing his Calculus BC grades along with the math grades of his friends. While it was unsure at first whether the student had only changed his own grades, TAS senior Joe Hwang confirmed that he changed other students’ as well. “He changed mine along with ten others in my Calc BC class,” an senior male at TAS said. “And there should be some others.” Most students did not know of their altered grades, thinking lenient teachers were the reasons for the
small changes. A senior female from TAS said that the student learned how to make the changes during the summer prior to his senior year. “First semester he did it and got away with it,” she said. “He completely f***ed up. He had a full ride scholarship to BU.” The student could not be reached for comment, but other students speculated on his reason for hacking into the school network. Junior Henry Tsao cited secondsemester ‘senioritis’ and rejected the idea that a competitive atmosphere at TAS contributed to the action in any way. Tsao also said that the because of his actions the student was “going to get dropped off” from college.
The senior female from TAS said that although he was a slacker, he was not a “dumb guy.” While junior Andrea Freska said that TAS was pretty competitive, she said it was more so because of parents wanting students to get better grades, and not because of studentstudent competition. Because of that, she didn’t think that the atmosphere at TAS played a role in the student’s rationale for changing his grades. Hwang said he thought that the Board of Governors at TAS was going to make a decision soon about if the senior who hacked into the system is to be suspended or expelled. “He should be expelled,” Tsao said. “He was asked by the administration to leave school, so
by Rohin Dewan Deputy Principal Doug Neihart’s bulletin warnings about theft appeared often this year, but seemed to have little effect as the number of thefts increased through the year. “As we near the end of this school year, we are experiencing a significant increase in the number of items that have gone missing,” Neihart said in the May 14 Daily Bulletin. Commonly stolen items were iPods and phones. There were occasional thefts of money. “We encourage students to report stolen items, so that we can recover them quickly,” Neihart said. The majority of thefts occurred in the high school boys’ locker room where there are no cameras. Most stolen items have not been recovered. According to the administration, the culprits take expensive items and sell them to second-hand buyers at places like
Lucky Plaza. “I doubt they are doing it for the financial gain,” Neihart said. “They do it for the thrill, the adrenaline rush and then probably use the money for things that they don’t want their folks to know about.” so it seems to their folks as if they There has been an increase in the number of thefts that occur towards the end of each school year. “These people are good at what they do,” Neihart said. “They take extra precautions. These people aren’t dumb.” Security and Safety Manager Isaac Benjamin thinks that regular messages to students through the Student Council, The Eye, and announcements during breaks will decrease the amount of thefts. “It comes in waves,” Benjamin said, referring to the five thefts that took place on April 9, and the four on April 18. “It’s similar every year.” Neihart has interviewed student suspects and asked them about theft and the distribution of stolen goods.
by Rhoda Severino Over the past school year, Jenny Redlin’s fourth grade class has been producing newspaper issues filled with school news, personal stories and original cartoons. During the second semester Eye staff members assisted them with layout, editing, writing and brainstorming. Redlin’s class published the Life and Times four times this year. The first three issues were black-and-white photocopies but the Eye paid for the last issue to be published in color by the Eye’s printer. Life and Times structured itself like the Eye. It has editors for each section of the newspaper as well as an editor-in-chief with three additional co-editors. The Life and Times also had two special editors in charge of organizing the tea party for parents who came after every issue. “It’s been really crazy for me,” Life and Times special editor Allyson Harris said. “I get stressed when everyone comes in to set up.” Life and Times staff members said they enjoyed working with the Mac computers in the high school
publications lab after school. “We got to use a Mac c o m p u t e r, ” reporter Emilie Hooton said. “That was pretty awesome.” “The most exciting part about it was getting to use the iMac computers and also getting to see what the high school did in the publications lab,” Life and Times coeditor Derek Cho said. Each Life and Times staff member was required to write two articles for every issue, one of which could be written with a partner. They wrote opinion pieces, news articles and profiles, much like Eye staff members. “I wrote [an op-ed called] ‘All
expelled but not officially,” the male senior from TAS said. Michael Currinder, the TAS track IASAS administrator, said it was not true that a TAS track athlete was prohibited from attending IASAS because of hacking into the system and changing his grades. “That’s not connected to track whatsoever,” he said. “Technically, no comment.” According to the female senior at TAS the student found out that he would not attend IASAS because he had bad grades prior to being caught for going into the school network. “Before he got caught he found out that he wasn’t going to IASAS because of his grades,” she said. “He was already not going.” While an Eye reporter was
interviewing TAS senior Keum Ting, the TAS Dean of Student, Shaun O’Rourke, came up to her asked if she was inquiring about the recent events at TAS. He said that it was better not to talk about it then waited for the reporter to leave. “Apparently the school doesn’t know whether to sue him,” the female senior said. “It’s a pretty big deal. They sent colleges false grades.” An investigation was opened when teachers started noticing that their grading systems were acting unusual. They initially noticed suspect activity by looking at the number of times they and students had logged on. “Someone ratted him out ,” the senior female said. “Apparently, all his friends want to kick that guy’s ass.”
Tomlinson Incidence of theft increases at year’s end to return by Michelle Lee “Who?” The only answer to that question as any past Oiler, Student Council representative, or FST student would know, is “cares.” The man who coined the phrase at SAS, Roy Tomlinson, is set to move back to Singapore to teach. For the past year, Tomlinson has been working at the International School of Manila as the Activities and Athletics director and boys’ softball coach. At the end of the academic year, he asked out of his contract to resume his teaching career at SAS. “There’s a certain level of respect in the atmosphere at SAS that I miss.” Tomlinson said. “The kids here are great, but I miss coaching [SACAC] football.” In addition to teaching the FST and Algebra 2 classes he taught last year, he is taking on the social studies class ‘War, Peace, & The Human Experience’. “I feel it fits in nicely with my background at WestPoint,” said the former student council sponsor. Principal and ex-SACAC coach Dave Norcott is excited about Tomlinson’s return. “He was always an integral part of the community here at SAS. He is a great educator, and contributes to the school with his leadership.”
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CORECTIONS In the last issue of the Eye, we said that Student Council sponsor Eric Burnett approached Will Norris to be this year’s graduation speaker. In fact, the Senior Student Council requested Norris, not Burnett. Senior Sophie Greene is the vice president of the Senior Student Council, not the president. The Eye staff apologizes.
As in past years, the end of the school year has brought with it a rise in theft, most commonly of iPods and handphones. Staged photo by Sam Lloyd.
“If the [thieves] don’t stop or get under control, it’ll lead to more serious consequences in the future,” Neihart said. The punishment for theft is expulsion and police notification.
The number of stolen items at SAS indicates more than one thief. “It’s definitely more than one person stealing. There has to be one person watching out while another person is checking the content of a locker or backpack,” Benjamin said.
Staff lends young reporters a helping Eye
WRITERS YOUNG AND OLD: Staff from The Eye and Intermediate School’s Life and Times newspapers pose together after a session working together on stories.The Life and Times has published four issues, the latest in full color. Photo by Jenny Redlin
Work and No Play,’” Harris said. “Some people think some sports are really easy. Some boys think they can do everything I do in gymnastics and they can’t even do a decent cartwheel.” Life and Times staff members said that the Eye was helpful in improving their newspaper.
“It’s more professional now because we’re actually getting real help,” Zoe Bonnette said. “When we first started we didn’t know what to do, so we did random things,” Cho said. “I think we couldn’t have made a newspaper like this without The Eye. If I had to give it a rating from one to ten I’d give it a ten.”
the Eye
staff editorial
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times A student sits in front of every Mac computer, either working on a story or checking their email because “they have nothing else to do.” In the corner, someone is trying to get Mr. Clemens’ attention, but he is busy going on a tangent about something he read in a magazine a year ago. Teachers walk in and out asking for favors which Clemens, despite knowing he can’t handle it, willingly agrees to do. A kid is sleeping on the blue sofa chairs and another is raiding the room’s fridge for anything edible. A typical day for The Eye staff is chaotic. But when the night comes, the room clears and only a dedicated few labor on in attempts to meet the deadline we all know we’ll never make. This year, we tried to tackle issues that we knew were sensitive - issues we knew students were thinking about. Our first paper got off to a controversial start. It was an issue that ruffled administrative feathers in pieces that questioned and mocked new rules at SAS. Our aim was to preserve what we thought was an amiable, free, American environment. We didn’t want to see a school of tightly-wound, identically dressed students in the Singapore model. That failed. Come 2008, students will be dressed in standardized uniform bottoms bought from a local store. More positively though, we like to think that we did have an effect on school life and discourse. With the help of
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student council, we voiced the opinions of the student body regarding the third break which was eventually lengthened to fifteen minutes. After expressing student opinions on the new rules in the library, a committee was formed to discuss how the school could help the situation. Partly thanks to us, rules were modified so now, students are allowed to move one chair to a table. So, you’re welcome. We also attempted to celebrate our school with articles highlighting student achievements and school events. But often times, such articles were overlooked and trumped by the more controversial, negative, and ‘whiny’ articles. We did of course, have our many mishaps. A reporter left out the letter “r” in the word “shirts” and we printed Miracle Anderson’s last name wrong. Twice. We almost guarantee that there will be many more mistakes like these to come. We’ll revert back to our usual excuse and explain the crazy deadlines that we face. But perhaps you can only have compassion for this after experiencing life as a reporter. We conclude our year with a thank you. We thank you for putting up with those misspelled words, wrongly credited photos and for any misquotes we printed. We are thankful that you have supported our paper and hope that you all continue to voice your opinions. Next year Singapore American High School 40 Woodlands Street 41 Republic of Singapore 738547 Staff: (65) 6363-3404 x537 Adviser: (65) 6363-3404 x539 Fax: (65) 6363-6443 eye@sas.edu.sg
Editors-in-chief Denise Hotta-Moung, Editors-in-chief: Hot Cat Ward News editor: Sam Lloyd, Rhoda Severino Op/Ed editor: Amanda Tsao, Vicky Cheng Features editor: Jeff Hamilton, Nicole Schmitz Eye In Focus editor: Katrina DeVaney A&E editor: Arunima Kochhar, Kathy Bordwell Sports editor: Barbara Lodwick, Megan Anderson Photo/Layout editor: Rohin Dewan Reporters: Megan Anderson, Kathy Bordwell, Alex Boothe, Vicky Cheng, Katrina DeVaney, Rohin Dewan, Jeff Hamilton, Denise Hotta-Moung, Arunima Kochhar, Michelle Lee, Sam Lloyd, Barbara Lodwick, Nicole Schmitz, Rhoda Severino, Ravi Shanmugam, Amanda Tsao, Cat Ward Adviser: Mark Clemens Assistant advisers: Judy Agusti
The Eye is the student newspaper of the Singapore American School. All opinions stated within these pages are those of their respective writers and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Singapore American School, its board of governors, PTA, faculty or administration. Comments and suggestions can be sent to the Eye via the Internet at eye@sas. edu.sg. At the authorʼs request, names can be withheld from publication. Letters will be printed as completely as possible. The Eye reserves the right to edit letters for reasons of taste and space.
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May 29, 2007
op / ed 3
A last reflection on some ‘firsts’ People always talk about the four years at SAS. “lasts” of senior year. Our last Hoe While brainstorming ideas for meal at school. Our last time wearing this opinion piece, I was distracting uniforms. Our last myself by watching interim. The last time the senior video. I I’m going to bite into realized that I did a subway sandwich at not know many of school on a Monday the faces on the morning in May. The screen before me. last time I’m going to We all understand step into this classroom the difficulty in on the second week getting to know of February. But all 244 individuals looking back on this and although I have year, I would much made a few new rather remember all friends, it would the “firsts.” The first be false to say that time I visited South Denise Hotta-Moung I now know every Africa. The first time single person in the we all wore red. The class of 2007. This first time we put on our graduation year, I did, however, notice and gowns. Above all, I realized, senior observe unique, interesting qualities year was the first time I began to in people, qualities that I only wish I notice my class as individuals – the had realized sooner. talented and outstanding classmates I saw tolerance in Julia Knight that I unfortunately had not had a who has strong opinions, but at the chance to get to know in my prior same time, will genuinely listen to
any opposing views. I realized the extent of Rachel Witt’s intelligence, something that may go unnoticed because of her humble nature. I saw dedication in Stevie Day, who spent the entire night before his birthday working on a film with junior Chris Hussey, which deservedly won Best Film at the Laurie Nelson Awards. I saw strength in Cat Ward, who fought for and will continue to fight for what she believes in. I saw leadership in Abhinav Kaul, who was key in organizing many of our senior events and passion in Sneh Shah, who relentlessly fights for his dearly held beliefs. So, to any upcoming senior looking for advice for their final year, I can offer only this. In the 300 students of your graduating class, there is someone who will inspire you, someone who will understand you, someone who will amaze you and someone who will provoke you. And I only hope that you give them a chance to do so.
Enuf! crize Anglophile in defense of language American English. It is a ‘humanization’. ‘Humanisation’ is contradiction in terms. There is listed as an alternate spelling.). English, and then there is American. Realising the disservice they The two have evolved to the extent had done to poor blameless ‘s’, and that they are the English language virtually separate in general, Americans languages. attempted to rectify Americans some of the damage. have demonstrated Unfortunately, it came a profound loathing at the expense of ‘c’. for the letter ‘s’. Hence ‘defence’ has Not only have suffered the humiliation they taken ‘s’ out of becoming ‘defense’. of descision, but Two wrongs, they failed have in many cases to realise, do not make replaced it with one right. ‘z’. As someone Not content to stop with the last name there, Americans took a Shanmugam, and Ravi Shanmugam dislike to ‘t’ and pressed who does not want for more equality to become Zhanmugam, I find the between students and teachers. The idea abhorrent. Imagine if Smith latter sentiment was admirable. were Zmith and Steve Zteve. Don’t Unfortunately, its execution left like the idea? Well spare a thought much to be desired. In contemporary for ‘exquisite’ and ‘humanisation’ America, there is little to distinguish (editor’s note: the preferred between the learned professor spelling for ‘humanisation’ in the and what his students learned in Compact Oxford English Dictionary class. English recognises that the at http://www.askoxford.com is learned professor is distinguishable
TSAOISM-
Next Year’s Dress Code
from what people learnt in his class. American fails to draw that distinction. Had enough? So have I. Unfortunately for us, the Americans who decided to create what they term “American English” had not. They took it into their minds to ostracise poor old ‘u’. There is little hono(u)r in so savagely dealing with a defenceless member of the alphabet. But then again maybe honour is a foreign concept to those who speak American. After all, they can’t even spell it right. When speaking English, speak it as the English do. The wisdom in these words (phrase courtesy of Ravindran) seems to have escaped Americans. Thankfully, there is still time to redress this wrong. For all our sakes, please, please drop American. English is a truly exquisite language, and if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Americans have been responsible for many great contributions to civilisation. The mutilation of a wonderful language is not one of them.
By Amanda Tsao
4 features
May 29, 2007
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the Eye
Class of ’07
Where you’re going
Tarang Agarwal Hye-Sung Ahn Anna Allen Azhani Amiruddin Isabella Amstrup Adam Anderson Guillermo Ardon Peter Ayer Shruti Ayyar Brittany Balcom Marcus Bech Michael Bantog Brandi Bell Anushka Bharvani Alyssa Binnig Rachel Black Mariko Bock Michael Bond Kathryn Bordwell Denise Borsuk Nicole Bryson Gautam Butalia Kezia Callahan Gonzalo Caarral Joshua Chan Vishal chandaria Chandrika Chandran Ya Chun Chang Paul Charbonnet Jiamin Chen Kenneth Chen Alvin Cheng Victoria Cheng Alrick Cheung Catherine Chew Sylvia Chew Jonathan Choe Hyung Koo Choi Ee-Chien Chua Grace Chuensuksawadi Crystal Clower Eric Comstock Michelle Conway Steven Costello Clay Crawford Anit Das Jordan Dawe Stevie Day Casey Deford Sara DeNoma Keri Dixon Aubrey Doyle Jonathan Duncan Jonathan Eg Eric Eifler Kelly Fan Crista Favati Ryan Fenwick
Dartmouth College Korea Wesleyan University University of Saint Andrews Parsons School of Design University of Redlands University of Arizona Gettysburg College University of Cambridge Marshall University University of Copenhagen Central Washington University University of Virginia Emory University University of Delaware University of Arizona Waseda, Japan Texas A&M James Madison University Grinnell College Louisiana State University Worcester Polytechnic Institute Tyler College Universidad Iberoamericana, Mexico Guelph University, Canada N.S University of Southern California Emory University College of William and Mary University of Virginia Johns Hopkins University University of California, Los Angeles Rutgers University University of Washington Cornell University Singapore Institute of Management Illinois Institute of Technology Michigan State University Brigham Young University San Francisco State University DePaul University Cal Poly State University, San Luis Obispo Rice University Texas Stanford University Tufts University Embry Riddle University Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University of Oregon Villanova University MIT Santa Clara University University of Melbourne Univ. of Ill, Urbana-Champaign University of Louisville Purdue University Emmanuel College Santa Clara University
Nadia Figueroa Caroline Gillott Chris Grandidge Sophie Greene Julie Grefsrud Caitlin Hale Jeffrey Hamilton Barret Hammond Ria Harakuma Shabiba Hasan Winny Hasan Kevin Ho Warren Wei Lien Ho Breda Hogan Rhys Holding Sung Won Hong Denise Hotta-Moung Corey Householder Liam Howell Ya Han Hsu He Huang Stacie Huang Patrick Huckbody Stephanie Hue Jason Kuo-Tsai Hung Jae Won Hur Young Kyun Hur Mako Itani Kohei Ito Aubrey Jackson Hae Yeon Jeong Lauren Johnson Yoon-Young Jung Jee Won Kang Abhinav Kaul Maung Chit Khaing Arjun Khanna Hae Won Kim Hye Na Kim Ji Ye Kim Kyung-Woo Kim Sang Cheol Kim Seung-Ook Kim Bunarong Kit Sothearo Kit Julia Knight Bradley Kobylarz Arunima Kochhar Na Hoi Koo Tae Sung Kook Jeffrey Kreutter Shita Kusumawati Myung Hoon Kwack Philip Kwee Chan Lee Daniel Lee Colin Pui Sun Lee Jong Hwa Lee
13th Year of High School Marymount University Pepperdine University Colgate University Gap Year Univ. of Ill, Urbana-Champaign Colgate University London Kapiolani University of Hawaii Ringling College of Art and Design Pepperdine University Chapman University Boston University Harding University St. Louis University, Madrid Univ. of Ill, Urbana-Champaign Dartmouth College Blinn College Stetson University Indiana University N.S. University of Michigan Washington State University Boston University University of Washington University of Wisconsin, Madison Cornell University Murdoch University, Australia Japan Seattle University Macalester College Undecided Univ. of Ill, Urbana-Champaign University of Wisconsin, Madison University of Cambridge Northeastern University Indiana University Korea Emory University Pratt Institute Purdue University Duke University Manhattanville College Singapore Institute of Management Singapore Institute of Management Yale University Washington University in St. Louis Syracuse University Northwestern University Tufts University Duke University Curtin University of Technology New York University N.S./ Cornell University Washington University in St. Louis N.S. Northwestern University Univ.of Il, Urbana-Champaign
the Eye
Sang Ho and Azhani Amiruddin catch a breath during a band performance. Photo by Brian Riady.
Jordan Lee Kyu Hyun Lee Michelle Lee Noel Lee Sang Ho Lee Sang Hoon Lee Yi Tien Lee Marissa Leow Brian Leung Jessica Lin Thomas Lindh Samuel M Lloyd Alex Lopez Gabrielle Loscalzo Tryphena Luhur Winnie Ma Taryn MacArthur Valerie Mahillon Nathaniel Mahoney Brian Maissen Shintaro Masuno William McArthur Sean McCabe Kellen McCarvel David McNicol Patrick McNulty Saagar Mehta Lionel Meng Nicole Merendoni Takahide Miyauchi Joshua Moll Benjamin Moseley Vas’Star Moss Laura Mulroy Yun Ah Nam Amelia Newlin Hayden Ng Karen Ngo Cindy Nguyen Jeremy Nguyen-Phuong Jennifer Nockels Phillip Norman Simi Oberoi Hyeong Seok Oh Jun Hyung Oh Michelle Ong Michelle Ongko Thandar Oo Samanta Pena Victor Pesik Carlota Piguillema Mary Quach Iskandar Ramli Mallika Rao Robert Rathvon Charles Reinert Christel Ann Ridao Clarissa Ruslie
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May 29, 2007
features 5
A quick game of Big Two during the break for Saagar Mehta, Daniel Tsukuda and Ali Taqi. Photo by Rachel Liou.
Univ. of Ill, Urbana-Champaign Pomona College Purdue University University of Toronto University of Pennsylvania Carnegie Mellon University University of Wisconsin, Madison Macalester College University of Chicago University of Pennsylvania University of Pennsylvania Dartmouth College University of Maryland Manhattanville College Northeastern University Amherst College Brigham Young University Emmanuel College Rhodes College Villanova University Purdue University Blinn College DePaul University University of the Pacific New Zealand Bates College N.S. Northwestern University Purdue University Japan Broward Community College Lewis & Clark College Gap Year Pennsylvania State University, Tufts University Cal State Poly University, Pomona N.S. Rice University University of Arizona Pitzer College Boston College N.S. Wellesley College Michigan State University Univ. of Ill, Urbana-Champaign Columbia University Purdue University Foothill College Concordia University Purdue University London Arizona State University Purdue University New York University Texas A&M University of Pittsburg Susquehanna University Undecided
Andrea Rodriguez Mitchell Samson Alannah Sawhill Nicole Schmitz Alyssa Schodorf Adam Robert Schwarz Rhoda Severino Jamie Shah Sneh Shah Maya Shanker Shruti Shekar Sam Sheldon Jonathan Shim Anna Simpson Nicholas Soderberg Thomas Soderlund Tae Jin Son Xenia Stafford Christina Starkey Jaidev Subaiah Cindy Sunogo Anup Suresh Sara Tan Vanessa Tan Winny Tan Sean Tang Igor Tanzil Ali Taqi Veronica Toth Phuc Ngoc Tran Jason Tsai Nadia Tsao Annette Tso Daniel Tsukuda Jarrod Underwood Anka Uozumi Peter Vaz Cat Ward Lindsay Webb Kacey Whitaker Rachel Witt Abigail Wong Derek Wong Tiffanie Wu Yuting Wu Ellen Wuest Deviani Wulandari Angela Xu Shimpei Yamashita Peck Qing Yang Celine Yeh Caroline Yeheskel-Hai Ming Chin Yen Rachel Ann Yeo Nora Yin Gabe Yip Rachelle Yu Ni Zhan Pei Zhu
Anit Das, Anup Suresh and Ben Mosley enjoy a break gig. Photo by Clay Crawford.
Ringling School of Art and Design Gonzaga University Appalachian State University Wheaton College Baylor University Santa Clara University Saint Peter’s College University of Illinois at Chicago Boston University Rhode island School of Design Carleton University The Culinary Institute of America Tulsa University Elon University University of Connecticut Gap Year Vatel Institute McGill University Marquette University N.S. Boston University N.S. Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology Pepperdine University Carnegie Mellon University Northeastern University Savannah College of Art and Design Gap Year Australia Singapore Northwestern University Princeton University Australia Florida Institute of Technology Texas A&M York University N.S. Carleton College Bradley University University of British Columbia University of Wisconsin, Madison University of Auckland Parsons School of Design University of Southern California Hong Kong University Boston University Loyola Marymount University University of Toronto Singapore Princeton University Washington University in St. Louis Israeli Army N.S. Michigan State University Fordham University N.S. New York University Washington University in St. Louis Cornell University
6 arts
May 29, 2007
Left and right: seniors Thomas Lndh, T.J. Son, Clay Crawford, Paul Charbonnet and John Qwak show off their school spirit on a Spirit Day. Photos by (left) Brian Riady and (right) Mitch Samson.
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the Eye
Senior skip day or a day better skipped? Peter Ayer wows audiences with his performance in Chess. Photo by Brian Riady.
Warren Ho on track to finish well at a track exchange.
Anna Allen hard at work in dance rehersal. Photo by Cat Ward.
Aubrey Jackson lets out a smile in the midsts of senior year stress. Photo by Brian Riady.
by Vicky Cheng The 2007 SeniorAppreciation Day had a promising start. Seniors posed with the Merlion under a sunny, cloudless sky for the annual picture of the Senior Class. It started pouring within an hour. Students were expected to go to Siloso Beach on Sentosa unless they had a legitimate excuse to be out of school, such as being sick with a medical note. Student Council members took attendance on the buses to Sentosa. Neihart went through the list of seniors not accounted for and called parents to check their whereabouts. Out of 234 seniors, 203 students went to Sentosa. “This year, more seniors went [to Senior Appreciation Day] than ever before,” Deputy Principal Doug Neihart said. Senior Valerie Mahillon chose not to attend the day because she knew it was going to rain. “We knew it was going to rain and be a bad day, so Laura [Mulroy] and I went to Thailand for the weekend instead,” Mahillon said. “When the school called, our parents backed us up and said they gave us permission to go.” Some students thought that having the senior picture on Senior Appreciation Day was a trick to get more kids to go, but Senior Class Council VicePresident Sophie Greene denied this scenario, and claimed it was only on Senior Appreciation Day for the sake of convenience. “It was originally supposed to be the same day as the senior brunch and graduation rehearsal, but we realized it would be too rushed to have the brunch, the picture, and the rehearsal all in one day,” Greene said.
No rest for the weary as Jarrod Underwood studies for an upcoming math test. Photo by Rachel Liou.
These 203 seniors went to Sentosa in hopes of a day of sun, but their plans changed within half an hour of their arrival. At first, seniors enjoyed the rain. As the first drops fell, they continued playing beach volleyball or swimming in the sea. Soon, the rain was pouring down so hard it was difficult to see. “I think everybody got sick from all the rain,” senior Tiffanie Wu said. Despite the rain, many seniors found things to do, but some still wondered why the senior council didn’t have a back-up plan since it had been raining that entire week. “We didn’t think it was going to rain. Even if it did, we thought that since we’re in Singapore, it would stop after an hour,” Treasurer Jamie Shah said. Greene said that the date was already set on the school calendar by the administration. “We kind of had to plan it on chance since it’s so hard to organize something that big,” Greene said. “We figured even if it did rain, we would still be together because the main goal of Senior Appreciation Day is to get all the seniors to hang out together. Despite the rain, I think we accomplished that goal.” Greene admitted hearing other people complain. “No one said anything directly to me, but I heard people saying things like, ‘this is so stupid. Why can’t they just let us go home?’” Greene said. Senior Barret Hammond said that he didn’t mind the rain. “What ruined the day was the people who wanted to leave because of the rain,” Hammond said. “A little rain never hurt anybody!”
Brad Kobylarz shatters the silence at this year’s Peace Concert Photo by Brian Riady
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Michelle Schmitz guides Jana Goodall on a tour. Photo by Brian Riady.
Jack Kim, Adam Schwarz, Gonzalo Carral, David McNicol and Christopher Grandidge put their heads together to come up with a good photo. Photo by Adam Schwarz.
A plague on all of us
by Barbara Lodwick
At the end of every year students from every class say that they have senioritis. freshmen, sophomores, juniors and of course, seniors. You may think that you have it, but until you are at the top of the high school tier, the all-respected senior, you cannot fully bask in the senioritis glory.
Known Causes of Senioritis acceptance * college over * APs over * SATs turn 18 * access to the UB *
Only Known Cure:
* Graduation *
Comments from SAS seniors on Senioritis
“This is the most absences I’ve had in one
quarter. I have 22. I just didn’t feel like going to class. I got it once I got into college, so I kept my grades up till halfway through third quarter, then I started slacking ” Paul Charbonnet
“ Teachers are a little more laid back
with classes that are all seniors. I get away with more stuff. ” Adam Schwarz
“ It’s [senioritis] so bad, I don’t do anything but sleep and watch T.V anymore. I don’t know why I even come to school. ” Rachel Black
“Second semester senior year equals Tuger. Tiger Tuesday.” Thomas Soderlund
“When I think about doing
homework, literally in my head I’m like, ‘Eh.’ ” Sara DeNoma
Mitch Sampson chows down on a Subway sandwich during his free. Photo by Clay Crawford.
Saagar Mehta braves the dreaded Mega Brownie to help the seniiors win the eating contest. Photo by Clay Crawford.
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May 29, 2007
Trio of guest conductors inspire Music Festival by Kathy Bordwell When a Grammy award winner, an Australian conductor of opera and orchestras, and a recipient of the Citation of Excellence from the National Band Association all came into SAS’ music halls, inspiration ensued. The week of the May 14, music students were able to work with a guest conductor specializing in their musical area in order to prepare for the SAS Music Festival concerts. How they chose these conductors involved both connections and simple searching. “Each [teacher] searches for a guest conductor,” Hill said. “[Middle School band teacher Brian White] knew the guest conductor from Illinois. It hasn’t come down to drawing straws.” “The choir clinician is a very famous lady,” strings instructor Steve Bonnette said. “Mrs. Brown [the middle school choir teacher] just sent her an email. That’s the great thing about the World Wide Web, if you’re creative in pursuing, you can get results.” The choir worked with vocalist Dr. Ysaye M. Barnwell, who was a member of the 1989 Grammywinning group Sweet Honey in the Rock. Music Festival began as a choir event, Bonnette said that four years ago the “music wing” decided to make it an annual event that would see all three disciplines benefiting from the clinic. The strings classes worked with an Australian conductor of both orchestras and operas, Simon Kenway. “[Music festival] is a more a philosophy of bringing in the experts to inspire and give different points of view for pieces,” Bonnette said. “The faculty get to mingle, watch
them work, and learn from them. It’s great, a very exciting week for us as well as students.” Band instructor Brian Hill also thinks it’s important for students to hear someone new. The band worked with American conductor Dave Morrison. “One reason we do this is so students can hear a different voice,” Hill said. “It’s nothing radically different. Like any other teacher, he goes ‘just think of it this way’ and suddenly it makes sense.” Wind ensemble student Hye Sung Ahn liked this part of the conductors’ clinics. “I like having guest conductors,” Ahn said. “It gives students a chance to experience different ways of experiencing music. Every conductor has a different way of conducting” Students from all areas agreed that the week was hard. Many students didn’t get enough time to work with the guests since AP’s were happening, but they said that overall the work was a success. Choir Chorale student Jacque Moll liked how Dr. Barnwell interacted with the students. “She’s really fun. She gets you up and gets us to interact,” Moll said. “She doesn’t look for perfection. She’s looking for the message of the song. She helps to mold the song.” Moll said that Barnwell’s interaction proved a strong influence on the night of the concert as well. “The concert was really good.
Vocalist Dr.Ysaye M. Barnwell, part of the Grammy Award winning ground Sweet Honey performs with the Elementary and High school choir groups.
You could hear lots of parents say they enjoyed it. [Barnwell] was interactive with the audience as well.” Ahn enjoyed Morrison’s enthusiasm as well. “He’s very passionate. The way he conducts, he’s very active and demands lots of musicianship,” Ahn said. Sting ensemble student Genevieve Yip did not find her guest conductor as interactive as the others found theirs. “I feel like for this year the conductor didn’t really interact a lot,” Yip said. “I heard with choir their person interacted with them.”
Yip said that time constraints hampered the concert results a bit, but felt that overall it was a good performance. “Some parts we didn’t really practice,” Yip said. “We only had three meetings with him. There were not big problems, but there were a few small things.” Ahn agreed that although there was a lack of preparation time with Morrison, the concert on a whole was a success. “I think he helped a lot. If we had a longer time with him we would have done better,” Ahn said. “Lots of kids didn’t get a chance to work with him.”
Although students from all areas had less time than would be ideal, Moll thinks overall it was beneficial. “It’s a good opportunity to have someone who is a Grammy winner,” Moll said. “It was really beneficial to have [Barnwell] come.” At the end of Music Festival week, Ahn had mixed emotions about her last musical concert with SAS. “In a way I was very happy, but at the same time, I felt kind of sad,” Ahn said. “Morrison enhanced my enthusiasm for band, and I have always loved band.”
Advanced acting takes it over the river and through woods by Arunima Kochhar “Tengo famiglia,” or “I support a family.” Advanced acting play “Over the River and Through the Woods” opened to a crowded theater of over 200 parents, students and teachers on May 21 and ran for two shows. The Tuesday, May 22 show was preformed with experience and passion. Senior Steven Costello played the character of Frank Gianelli and felt that there was a higher level of energy at Tuesdays performance. “We had more confidence,” Costello said. “The crowd was more responsive so we had more energy that night.” Junior Sandy Morris who played lead Nick Cristano agreed. “The crowd was much bigger,” Morris said. “We just preformed
better.” This grandfather-son duo along with Frank’s wife Aida Gianelli played by junior Hannah GrochBegley, set the scene of a middle class Italian household in Jersey city. With their weekly dinners and
overly doting discussions, Nick’s life changing decision to move to Seattle Washington seemed to be a much more complicated process than it would seem. However, these were not the only obstacles that Nick had to over come.
With his paternal grandparents, Nunzio Cristano played by senior Sneh Shah and Emma Cristano played by senior Crystal Clower, living just around the corner, Nick had to explain his move to not two, but four individuals who could not grasp the idea of change. This tight-nit cast spent weeks rehearsing their Jersey accents to perfection and were able to incorporate humor with sorrow into a 90-minute performance. “We practiced so much,” Morris said. It was 6 days a week, 3 hours a day.” As challenging as the schedule was, cast members felt connected to the characters.
“Nunsio and Frank were my favorite characters,” Morris said. “They were just super funny.” Costello agreed. “I had a great time playing Frank,” Costello said. “He had such an interesting background and personality.” With the majority of the cast as seniors, cast members felt reminicent of their preformance. “I’m sad that its over,” Costello said. “It just made me realize that high school is over.” Clower agreed. “With it beong over, it feels like this is it,” Clower said. “I’m never going to have this experience ever again even though i am going into theater.” This cast of eight members came together as a family and were able to pull together the underlying theme of togetherness and unity of this production. “I am extremely proud of us,” Clower said. “We put so much work and it came out stunning and i think its the best production ive ever done.”
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May 29, 2007
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the Eye
POWDER PUFF GETS ROUGH
Girls prove just as tough as boys in this years tournament
by Denise Hotta-Moung Dressed in hot pink, purple, green and orange shirts, pretty ribbons wrapped around their ponytails, the high school girls entered the field ready for a friendly game of football on May 18. The match soon turned ugly as the girls, angered by what they thought were bad calls and foul play, began yelling obscenities at each other. “The language used was awful,” junior Lena Byrne said. “It was hard to tell who was kidding and who wasn’t.” Senior captain Sara DeNoma acknowledged the viciousness during the game at times, but noted that not everyone was involved. “A lot of people already had grudges and issues against each other,” DeNoma said. “This was kind of their opportunity to clobber the people they hated. Then other people saw this happening, and became part of it. It was like a domino effect.” “[The senior-junior game] was seriously like WWIII,” junior Esha Parikh said. The senior girls played the freshmen team while the juniors battled the sophomores. The winning
teams of those games were to meet in the championship game. The seniors, guided by coaches seniors Adam Anderson and Adam Schwarz, won 12-6 against the freshmen, who were coached by Max Shaulis and Jake Anderson. On the back field, the juniors, lead by coaches David Small, Barron Witherspoon, Alex Ettlin and Josh Smith, prevailed with a 12-6 victory over the sophomores, coached by Adrian Bautista and Ian Gillis. “We did better than I thought we would,”
it was really rough out there.” The juniors and seniors set up the championship game. Just before halftime, junior Alex Shaulis scored a touchdown, putting her team ahead. The seniors leveled the score in the second half with a touchdown scored by Aubrey Doyle. They then took the lead after being awarded two points for senior Tina Starkey’s touch on Shaulis in the junior safety zone. D o y l e widened the gap w i t h another touchdown, making the score 14-6. Shaulis scored her second touchdown to move her team closer to the seniors’ 14 points. However,
sophomore Vanessa Peck said. “The best part was getting the experience and it was a lot of fun. The worst part was how
the juniors were unable to add to their 12 points, and the seniors were declared Powderpuff champions with a 14-12 victory. Senior Keri Dixon said that there were positive and negative aspects of how competitive the game got. “It was good that people took it somewhat seriously. It was a good competitive game,” Dixon said. “But at the same time, it was also bad that it got that competitive because it got out of hand.” Despite the intensity of the game, most of the girls managed to have fun on the field. “There were a bunch of us in the front line and we’d all be laughing about it,” Parikh said. “It was probably just a handful of people that were actually being serious,” junior Calli Scheidt said. Scheidt said that while the game got really competitive, she hopes to play again next year. “They might have to have a teacher supervisor,” she said. “There was no authority figure who had no bias.”
Annual Decathlon seeks best male and female athletes by Alex Boothe The decathlon returned last week for its third year to test SAS’s students and determine the top male and female athletes. Last year’s top two were Megan Anderson and Adam Anderson, no relation. While Megan decided to take a break this year from the competition, Adam came back with the hopes of defending his title and winning it for the third straight year. “I guess you could say I’m the only male champion in decathlon history so far,” Anderson said. “It would be wrong if I didn’t win.” The Decathlon is a spread out over the course of three days testing students’ as well as teachers’ skills in a range of sports from swimming to badminton. Each team can have up to five team members with each ideally specializing in a different sport. For the teacher teams with 214 points Nasal Intrusion took first with Susan Carter, Lynda Scott, Chad Brekke, Peter Cuthbert and Steve Betts. For the students the Spartans took the win with a final score of 293. The team members for the Spartans were, Barron
Witherspoon, Tina Starkey, Nora Hanagan, Alex Finch, and Brian Maissen. Both Witherspoon and Finch made also it into the top five for young male individual scoring, and Nora Hanagan won first place for the young females. Kim Criens and Lynda Scott had the top scores for male and female teacher. Senior Mitch Samson took first place for young males this year with a total of 95 points, only three more than Anderson who took fifth place this year. Samson said he found the running events particularly hard because he’s slow, and also found rock climbing a challenge because of a thumb injury. “I just had a few good days,” Samson said. “I didn’t do amazing at anything, I just got enough points in each even to stay ahead.” Decathlon coordinator Eric Burnett believes it’s a good way for students, both male and female, to get together and work on challenges together, especially in sports that they are unfamiliar with. Burnett said he likes the idea of traditional athletes who normally play sports like baseball or football coming
out and playing sports that are devalued at SAS, like racquetball or badminton, to understand the skill that is involved. He believes it would ultimately translate into more respect for those athletes who play the more non-traditional sports. Weaknesses in this year’s decathlon were seen in both the golf competition and the obstacle course. Burnett found the obstacle course especially frustrating because individual scores were dependent on how your partner performed rather than solely how you did yourself. Even with minor problems overall this year’s decathlon was seen as a success. “It was by far the best ever,” Burnett said. “I think it’s now legit, because we have our best athletes out there competing.” Although Anderson didn’t win as he had expected, he exhibited great sportsmanship. “All in all, the Decathlon is an event that gives students the opportunity to come together and compete on a fun yet competitive level,” Anderson said, “It’s a great way to end the school year.”
Decathlon Results
Students:
Team Scores 1. Spartans- 293 points 2. Adams and Eves- 256 points 3. Pwnage- 253 points Individual Rankings Boys: Mitch Samson Alex Finch Adam Frogley Barron Witherspoon Adam Anderson Colin Lee
Girls: Nora Hanagan Erica Padgett Tina Starkey Calli Scheidt Sam Tierney Amber jack
Teachers:
Team Scores 1. Nasal intrusion- 214 points 2. Pastel Cubed- 204 points 3. Melba Toast- 201 points Individual Rankings Men: Kim Creins Peter Cuthbert Mark Forgeron Eric Burnett Greg Reynen Steve Betts
Women: Lynda Scott Susan Carter Pele Young Audrey Forgeron Stacey Jensen Julie Hoss
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