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Table of
CONTENTS 3
Carlmont’s innovators.
5
Belmont’s hive of beekepers.
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Where do Ideas Come From?
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OLD PROBLEMS, NEW SOLUTIONS.
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CHANGE is Coming.
Carlmont Journalism is a nationally renowned media arts program run by the students of Carlmont High School. Our staff of 120 people works to deliver the latest news to our student body of 2,200, their families, and the community. News, within our school and beyond, is important to us, so we are committed to providing timely information, current events, and thought-provoking ideas to our audiences through storytelling, design, video, photography, and other emerging technologies. More than just another high school journalism program, our mission is to think beyond the “Bay Area Bubble” and stretch the community’s mindset to include those of the rest of the state, country, and world. We aim to encourage our community to step up and be educated advocates of change.
MISSION Scotlight is Carlmont High School’s spotlight magazine, distributed three times a year to our community. Spotlight stories take a deeper look at topics that are important to our audience and examine multiple aspects and angles. Our mission is to stimulate thoughts in our readers that are otherwise glossed over by offering in-depth feature stories that dig deeper into the lives of those around us. We aim to engage our readers through thoughtprovoking articles, photography, and design.
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR Dear Reader, People everywhere are constantly pushing the boundaries of what is considered possible. Humans have learned to fly, travel to space, reach the depths of the ocean. We, as a species, are driven to discover — and to innovate. We are always looking for the next big thing to accomplish. And to accomplish great things requires creativity, drive, and ideas. In this final issue of Scotlight, staff members Kathryn Stratz and Sean Vanderaa feature some of Carlmont’s innovators and their unique, creative talents, from business to hip-hop to robotics. Kimberly Mitchell and Alena Ruhstaller then take a step outside of campus into the local beekeeping community, uncovering how beekeepers innovate within the Bay Area. On a more global scale, innovation is key to solving some of society’s most longstanding issues. Staff members Nihal Karim and Taissiia Yakovenko focus on innovations in cancer research, following the progess that scientists are making to cure the disease. Mandy Hitchcock and Francesca D’Urzo also bring a widely known topic to the table: climate change. They examine new technologies being developed to combat its effects. Finally, Scot Scoop Editor-in-Chief Kaylee George looks at the psychological process behind creating new ideas. Innovation, when it comes down to it, is just the introduction of something new. Whether it be on campus or in the wide world, our staff touched upon several examples of individuals and groups who were striving towards greater heights. It has been a great year exploring various types of culture — from food to art and finally to cultures cultivated through innovation. Now, I would like to thank you very much for picking up the final issue of Scotlight Magazine. Best, Kylie Lin Editor-in-Chief
STAFF Alena ruhstaller Francesca D’Urzo Mandy hitchcock Kathryn Stratz Kaylee George Kimberly mitchell Nihal Karim Sean Vanderaa Taissiia Yakovenko
Student spotlight
Joseph Bazarsky, a senior, plays jazz piano in the band room during lunch. Bazarsky said, “With improvisation, jazz artists are free to take any tune wherever they want. A big part of jazz is playing ‘out’ — playing way off key to create tension in the solo. Jazz artists are free to innovate however they want to, as long as it sounds good, and vibrant, and interesting. Jazz — especially improvisation — is a manifestation of who you are at your core; with it, it’s impossible to conceal who you really are and how you really are, no matter how hard you may try.”
Carlmont’s
innovators
Creativity lives at the forefront of societal progression, and these Carlmont students add their own individualistic views to their work. Theo Korolev
03
PHOTOGRAPHY AND DESIGN BY Kathryn Stratz and Sean Vanderaa
“My vision as to why I do these things — beyond tutoring, beyond student government — is to help the community and to help people, and that’s part of the reason why I applied for environmental engineering. Neighborhood tutoring is a program where people from Belmont, San Carlos, and Redwood City have the ability to get student tutors who are exceeding at whatever subject they are marketing themselves in, whether it be French, math, English, or science. The idea behind it is to be able to offer lower prices, first of all, so financially more people can get the help they need, but also to allow a kid-with-kid interaction that allows for it to be beyond tutoring and can allow them to be a support for someone as they make the transition into high school. Both the people that are working and the people that are being tutored get value from it.”
Val Wang
Kevin Wang “Innovation for me is developing new ideas and coming up with things as well as taking risks to further science and engineering. For robotics specifically, we definitely foster innovation by letting students apply what they learn at school. Obviously everyone can take computer science classes and business classes, but there aren’t a lot of opportunities really at Carlmont to use the skills you learned in those classes, and Robotics offers this so that people can design the robot, program the robot, and learn from that to innovate ideas.”
“Hip-hop is a dance style that is based a lot on foundations, so especially for us as a group, we didn’t have any background to base choreographing on. So, a lot of it was just us hanging out and having fun. A lot of our ideas stemmed from messing around and just dancing. A lot of choreography comes from collaboration and trying something new or trying something that you wouldn’t normally do. Stereotypically, innovation to me is STEM related, but a lot of the time the successful people of the next generation are innovators and have that extra creative spark.”
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BELMONT'S HIVE of BEEKEEPERS For years, Belmont has attracted many for its rolling hills and rippling creeks. But apart from being a recluse from the Silicon Valley stress, it is also a city that is home to thousands of buzzing bees. And like the flowers after a sudden shower, a new community has taken root — beekeeping.
blagoya Golubovski
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A
lthough 2019 only marks Blagoya Golubovski’s second year of beekeeping, Belmont Beelicious has proven to be a centerpiece of his community and family life. As a buyer of local honey and a honey-lover, Golubovski bought three colonies of bees from a local beekeeper in June 2017 after attending a San Mateo Beekeeper’s Guild meeting. “Beekeeping has impacted my family very positively because we talk about it and learned quite a bit from the little society that the bees have,” Golubovski said. “Working with bees and educating yourself about how they communicate and work together gives you a time to stop and think and understand that there’s a lot going on in there that we can learn from.” Golubovski grew his three colonies into six by collecting swarms of bees from the local area. Last year, he produced a major harvest of 80-100 lb. of honey. “During the summer peak season, there could be 50,00070,000 bees in each hive,” Golubovski said. “They all work together. They tell each other where the food and water is and split jobs amongst each other. It’s just amazing.” Despite the possibility of contracting disease, Golubovski refrains from giving his bees
antibiotics and medicine to ensure that their honey is as pure as it can be. “I approach beekeeping as facilitating a bunch of houses where they make it on their own,” Golubovski said. “I don’t give them anything artificial to help them survive a disease. If they die out, it is unfortunate, but that’s how nature works, and the ones that do persevere through are much stronger.” In addition to providing his community and family with honey, Golubovski also collects and sells raw bee pollen to be used as antiallergens. “I was asked by a lot of customers to sell pollen because it’s a nutrient that people sprinkle on top of shakes or salad and helps with allergens like honey does but has a much higher concentration of anti-allergens.” According to Golubovski, it is essential to care for the bees and the environment around us in order to continue consuming beeproduced products at the current rate that we do. “About two-thirds of the food that we eat is directly an outcome of the pollination, and with the trend of the bees suffering, you can imagine what the impact would be on our food,” Golubovski said. “We often forget where our food actually comes from.”
Design by Kimberly Mitchell WRITING by ALENA RUHSTALLER
CORY KOSTRUB
H
idden by the oak trees surrounding Belmont Creek, Cory Kostrub tends to his flying friends. For the past nine years, the biologist has lived in harmony with the bees in his backyard. “I think I started beekeeping because of my interest in biology and learning more about bees,” Kostrub, who has a Ph.D. in genetics, said. Besides the added benefit of producing his own honey, Kostrub began beekeeping to bring awareness to the danger that the bees are in. “Bees are in trouble,” Kostrub said. “I learned about how big industrial beekeepers keep bees, and I got fired up because I want to do something differently.” However, while he began as a keeper, Kostrub now refers to himself as a “bee-giver.” A believer of allowing
B
nature to take its course, Kostrub maintains his hives with a hands-off approach, avoiding medication and allowing bees to breed themselves. “One thing that’s worked out for beekeeping for me is you can put as much effort into it, or as little, and right now, I’m going through a phase of little,” Kostrub said. Despite spending much of his time as a mentor for Carlmont BTI students, in his time watching over the bees, Kostrub learned a lot about the intricacies of bee-keeping that he did not anticipate. “Something that I didn’t realize going into this was how the honey would change over the seasons. The honey is really light in the spring, and it’s almost like biting into an orange or something floral,” Kostrub said. “Later in the year, it can get a little darker and more like molasses.”
brigitte roay
rigitte Roay raises her seven colonies of bees just one mile away from Carlmont. Roay started beekeeping about 10 years ago, and since then she has served her community with local honey. “My husband was retiring, and his grandfather was a beekeeper. I thought it would be a cool retirement gift to set up bees in our backyard,” Roay said. Since Roay’s business lies in the middle of the beekeeping hub of the Bay Area, Roay receives collective support from the other beekeepers in the community. “I think everywhere has this
many beekeepers,” Roay said. “San Mateo and Redwood City are flooded with beekeepers.” After going to beginner classes at the Beekeepers’ Guild of San Mateo County, Roay launched her own business on Nextdoor. By doing so, she attracted more than 30 customers from the local community. “I volunteer a lot for the Education Committee for the guild to educate more people about beekeeping and what bees do,” Roay said. “It feels good to know that you’re helping this vital insect stay on the planet.”
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Humans are constantly being drawn to the “new” — new clothing trends, new food combos, new innovations. We have a biological mandate to rebel against routine and gravitate towards creativity. But where do new ideas come from? On an elemental level, a new idea is a new configuration that your brain has never formed before, an unprecedented neural network firing. New ideas can be an instant “eureka” moment or can arise from billions of microscopic sparks intertwining deep inside your mind’s vault of memories and experiences. From essay papers to cooking, people are always looking for new ideas. Marlon Fu, a senior, has developed his creative process from creating short films on his Youtube channel Trimite. “Of course, everything that’s ever been made in this world is based on an existing concept. The same goes for filmmaking. When I first started producing miniskits on YouTube as a middle schooler, I looked up to famous YouTubers such as Key and Peele and WongFu Productions to get me started,” Fu said. Oftentimes, people believe that innovative ideas must be totally original. But in reality, as Fu remarked, a “new” idea is rarely started completely from scratch. Take one of history’s most infamous inventors: Henry Ford. Ford revolutionized the auto industry. He essentially streamlined the entire production process, creating the assembly line technique of mass production. Under one roof, resources came in one end of the factory and millions of Model Ts were driven out the other. However, when questioned on where his ideas stemmed from, Ford said, “I invented nothing new. I simply assembled into a car the discoveries of other men behind whom were centuries of work.” As one of the most respected innovators, even Ford knew that in fact, a lot of “new” ideas are really just remixed off of other ideas. And that’s okay. In a TedTalk, speaker Steve Johnson said, “We take ideas from other people, from people we’ve learned
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Writing and Design by Kaylee George
from, from people we run into in the coffee shop, and we stitch them together into new forms and we create something new. That’s really where innovation happens.” And if initial ideas don’t pan out, creative progress usually doesn’t come from just throwing away those thoughts. Fresh ideas don’t magically appear from going all the way back to the drawing board. Many of the most creative innovations come from recombining the old into new.
“Creative people, the theory goes, are constantly connecting old knowledge and experiences to new situations. According to the analogy theory, it’s because making analogies requires thinking across traditional mental categories,” one National Geographic article said. “In fact, some cognitive scientists have proposed that the farther the analogy — that is, the farther apart the previous experience and new situation — the more likely it will lead to a radically new idea.” Based on this idea, we can look at Uber as an example. Uber isn’t a whole new creation. It’s instead a connection: there are people with cars who want money and people without cars who need rides. The founders simply bridged the two needs and made a booming business that’s driving taxis out of existence.
Sophomore Hailey Garcia has also put creativity remixing into effect. She has created a successful online business selling clothes to young customers. “I sell really trendy items and buy them from China and sell them for more. But I buy from wholesaller so I’m able to make a good profit. So I’m basically doing the same thing as bigger companies do, just smaller,” Garcia said. When she wanted money, Garcia bounced off existing basic business ideas and watched Youtube videos in order to understand the business side. Rather than go through the trouble of creating something completely from scratch, she was able to take an idea and put her own creative twist on it. Further, authors Joel Chan and Christian Schunn of a University of Pittsburgh study examining workplace innovation wrote, “We might infer from the present data that incremental accumulation of many small insights is at least as likely to lead to innovative outcomes as direct generation of very novel concepts.” This incremental way of thinking is woven into many people’s ideating process. Many times, an idea has to go through multiple iterations before it can be viable. “To many, filmmaking seems like a very open-ended subject. However, it is in fact very systematic, with bits of creativity tied into each step. It all begins with an idea, and through extensive brainstorming sessions, a rough draft of a script can be devised,” Fu said. This idea process isn’t limited to right brain. Along with his artistic standpoint in film, Fu has experienced innovation from both a mathematical approach as a captain of his FIRST robotics team, “Dry Ice.” “Believe it or not, robotics involves just as much creativity as filmmaking involves concrete reasoning, and the process is not very different,” Fu said. “In robotics, much of our time is devoted to the ‘ideating’ aspect of design thinking, which in my opinion involves the most amount of creativity.”
Another huge aspect of creation is the environment where innovation is (or is not) facilitated. You might have a new idea, but it might not be a good new idea. With a collaborative group, ideas can transform and take snippets of people’s thoughts to ultimately reach a higher potential. “I typically work with a group of people on such projects, which allows us to bounce ideas off one another and provide crucial feedback,” Fu said. “Our team is never quick to dismiss a concept, no matter how simple or absurd it may be, and because of that we feel encouraged to think outside of the box to develop innovative solutions.” Most successful ideas are usually not carried out by a single person. To create new ideas takes collaboration and revision by others who have different perspectives. “Something about that environment — and I’ve started calling it the ‘liquid network,’ where you have lots of different ideas that are together, different backgrounds, different interests, jostling with each other, bouncing off each other — that environment is, in fact, the environment that leads to innovation,” Johnson said. So go out there and create. Don’t be afraid to fail. Don’t be afraid to think of the weird, wacky, and silly. Don’t be afraid if an idea doesn’t work out like you initially thought. Just keep going, and maybe you’ll stumble upon a good thought.
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Old Problems Cancer and its Development Ever since cancer was first diagnosed in the 18th century, it became one of the most pressing medical issues, according to the American Cancer Society (ACS). Since then, cancer has developed and become more prominent in more people. Today, cancer is the number two cause of death in the United States. According to the Worldwide Cancer Research (WCR), most living animals have the potential to develop cancerous cells that could form tumors and become life threatening. The human body is made up of 37.2 trillion cells, and any single one of those cells could become cancerous if its division While breast cancer is process is the most widespread impacted. form of cancer for males In order and females, lung and to exist, all bronchus cancer is the cells need most lethal type for both to be able sexes combined. to divide and create new copies of themselves. If the process of cell division is not impacted, cells divide normally and the old ones die off. When cells become cancerous, their rate of division rapidly increases and causes the creation of too many copies of those cells. “Cancer is so dangerous because it affects everyone,” said Sara Shayesteh,
a biology teacher. “It’s a DNA mutation that no one is truly protected against. Cancer cells will spread and form tumors that often grow so rapidly that they put people in fatal danger.” All types of cancer affect certain body cells that begin to divide without stopping and spread into surrounding tissues. For that reason alone, any kind of cancer could become life threatening, as it would spread and affect cells through the body and create more mutations. The spread of cancerous cells into another region of the body is best know as metastasis. Metastatic growth poses the most threat to the human body as it spreads the mutated cells into another region, which causes the development and strengthening of the disease. Some of the later stages of cancer, when metastatic growth process becomes too prominent, can no longer be treated as cancer has affected too many regions of the body. “Cancer is one of the largest research areas in modern medicine because it’s such a common illness,” Shayesteh said. “We do not know what exactly causes cancer, but the most recent research has proven that certain types of drugs and rays can cause the process of cell division to become more rapid.” Even though cancerous cells are almost always present in the human
body, their numbers are so insignificant that they do not possess any danger. However, when the number of cancerous cells expands, they create tumors that could be dangerous and potentially deadly. Although it is unknown exactly why cells become cancerous, some factors can make people more prone to developing certain types of cancer. Some of the most common perceived dangers include tobacco, alcohol, UV and sunlight rays, as well as some of the environmental factors such as certain types of metal and plastic. Although scientists have been trying to find treatment for cancer ever since it was first diagnosed, a universal method for treating the disease is yet to be discovered. According to the NCI, the most common modern cancer treatments are invasive. The treatments usually consist of surgery and chemotherapy. However, different types of cancer often require different types of treatments which might include radiation therapy or immunotherapy. These excessive treatments often cause a number of side effects that can seriously undermine one’s health.
According to the American Cancer Society, there will be approximately 607 thousand cancer deaths out of 1.8 million new cases in 2019.
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New Solutions Developments on Cancer Research Computer Assisted Diagnosis (CAD) In recent years, medical professionals worked to improve their methods of diagnosing cancer so that the disease can be detected in its earlier stages. Detecting cancer during its earliest stages allows scientists and doctors more time to combat the disease and potentially prevent its spread to the rest of the body from the affected areas. Because technology has been developing so rapidly in the last few decades, medical professionals opted to use Computer-Aided Diagnosis (CAD) as opposed to traditional methods of cancer diagnosis such as scans and X-rays. The new technology relies on an algorithm that would analyze the images from numerous scans of potentially cancerous sites and determine whether or not cancerous cells are actually present. CAD is advantageous when compared to the earlier diagnostic methods because it allows for quicker detection on potentially cancerous cells. The system allows for a greater number of patients to be tested at once and does not necessarily require a medical professional right away to diagnose the disease. In some of the most recent clinical trials, the system was able to diagnose cancer before the doctors were able to detect the disease using more traditional diagnostic methods. Because the system is a relatively new development, it is not yet widely available for use. However, its algorithm has been proven to work in most cases where doctors would need multiple trials and screenings to diagnose cancer at its earliest stages. The implementation of this technology would allow for quicker and more accurate diagnoses of lifethreatening diseases.
Writing by Taisiia Yakovenko Design by Nihal KariM
Cancer Vaccine Because cancer has been one of the most pressing medical issues in the past years, it has created a number of hypotheses around the best way to treat it in patients. Most of the methods that are used to treat cancer today are invasive, meaning that they require direct contact with the affected site, and often cause potentially lethal side effects. Some of those side effects include anemia, bleeding, bruising, and fatigue that can all lead to more serious medical problems. In 2018, Stanford scientists proposed a new solution to cancer treatment: the cancer “vaccine.� Although they were not the first to propose this idea, they were the first to implement it in a successful medical trial on mice. The proposed treatment involves injecting two immune-stimulating agents right into solid tumors. Stanford researchers, who are pioneers of cancer immunotherapy, pushed off of the idea that the best way to treat cancer is to make the body’s immune system recognize cancerous cells as foreign and combat them. The researchers rely on genetically altering already existing cancer cells. The immune-stimulating agents, which are injected into cancerous tumors, alter cells in a way that makes the immune system recognize them as invasive. One of the biggest advantages of such treatment is that once the immune system recognizes cancerous cells as foreign, theoretically there would be no need to continue with the treatment because the immune system would destroy the disease. Although the researchers have successfully tested this treatment method on mice and have proven that it works, human clinical trials require further careful review of all the potential dangers and side effects of such treatments. Human trials are on the way as scientists have been able to get approval for one of their agents.
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CHANGE IS COMING. Start-up Jupiter takes climate risk by storm The clock is ticking. The world has less than a few decades to make a change or the stability and security that many expect will cease to exist. Increased summit meetings, conferences, and press have pursued the alarming discoveries of the atmosphere, especially in the last couple of years. Now, businesses and industries tasked with tackling the impact of climate change join the fray. Gail Pomerantz is the head of marketing for Jupiter Intelligence Inc., a company launched in 2017 that predicts risk in the changing climate to better manage its effects on human civilization. “Climate change has the ability to impact everything because it’s so wide reaching and it’s a much bigger picture than we ever really thought,” Pomerantz said. Jupiter utilizes an artillery of unlimited cloud, machine learning, and artificial intelligence, enabling them to run and link multiple models that take in data from millions of ground-based satellites and sensors. Their team also boasts a line-up of some of the world’s best atmospheric and oceanic scientists from Nobel Prize winners to members of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). They have even been advised by Obama’s lead negotiator for the Paris Climate Accords. The startup is based on models that
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look into the future, rather than the past, to best form predictions. “It’s the dynamic model that is a key differentiator; our models are all based on the understanding that climate is always changing. It’s not stationary,” Pomerantz said. On the contrary, “catastrophic risk modeling” does not take into account the changing climate. Such models look backwards, and that is one of the biggest differences that sets Jupiter apart from other contenders. However, the course of action necessary to meet the upheavals in data is not as easy to secure. Alexander Wallace, a green technology and physics teacher at Carlmont, said, “Data will be showing a trend of an effective increase in climate change, while if you were to address popular opinion, you see a decreasing trend of concern. People generally don’t act until it’s affecting them right away.” Yet, jammed schedules capitulate to the demands of daily life, balancing available time between school, work, and family. These priorities often take precedence over climate change activism. This mindset of pushing the problem onto the next day, the next year, or the next generation isn’t going to cut it anymore. Change needs to happen in this generation. “I tell my students that this is the
defining issue of our species, for our generation is the last one that’s going to have the chance to fix it,” Wallace said. Katherine Emerson, a junior, had taken an interest in the state of climate change early on and hopes to impart that interest to others. Emerson said, “Climate change is a global issue that all people should be making an effort to solve. We as a society have a lot of opportunities to reduce our waste and emissions in our day-to-day lives, so everyone should do their part.” While addressing the issues of climate change is challenging as a result of fluctuating political, social, and economic policy, the necessary measures begin with students — students who grasp the weight of their impact on the future and who have the ability to manipulate that impact as a nation. “If individual change and energy is used for activism, to vote, it makes that much of a difference,” Wallace said. “Becoming more self aware in general is a great way to do that.” This accompanies increased expectations of flooding, heat, fire, and storms. Jupiter is already working to implement risk assessments, design requirements, site selection, and national security. “We have to protect the people,” Pomerantz said. “The more warning you can give someone, the better they can take action.”
BY 2100:
5.3 million Sea levels more acres will burn will rise each year in by 1-4 feet the U.S.
40% of
all land will have severe
drought
Writing By MandY Hitchcock Design by Francesca d'urzo
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Sequoia union high school district carlmont High School 1400 Alameda de las pulgas Belmont, CA 94002