Winged Post FRIDAY, AUGUST 30, 2013
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THE HARKER UPPER SCHOOL STUDENT NEWSPAPER, VOL. 15, NO.1
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Community remembers Jason Berry
“DON’T SETTLE” Jason Berry speaks to the Upper School community during the Baccalaureate ceremony last May. The student-elected speaker addressed the senior class about integrity. This Saturday, Berry died in his home of apparent heart failure.
editors in chief and managing editor The Harker community lost beloved English teacher, coach, and friend Jason Berry last Saturday. Berry, 38, died at his home due to apparent heart failure. Students and teachers received the news in emails sent over the weekend from Head of School Christopher Nikoloff, who wrote that Berry “impacted many with his wisdom, wit, and warmth and will be deeply missed.” Berry had been working at the Upper School for the past five years. The Harker community was his family, liter-
IN BRIEF Matriculation Postponed The Matriculation ceremony will take place in the quad next Wednesday. This year’s proceedings will be less formal, however; students are not required to wear special dress, and teachers will neither wear their robes nor sit on stage. “Doing our best as a school to welcome the incoming class of 2017 into the high school will remain the focus,” said Dean of Students Kevin Williamson. The ceremony will still contain traditional matriculation events, such as a speech by ASB President Arjun Goyal (12) , performances by various performing arts groups, and student council’s annual “Freshman 101” skit.
Nikoloff Lecture Series Head of School Christopher Nikoloff will continue with his annual lecture series this year, focusing on discussions about happiness. “I try to choose topics that will never go out of style,” he said. “No one will ever stop thinking about happiness.” His first lecture series revolved around Western thought while the next two were centered on Eastern thought, so he will once again return to Western philosophy this year. He plans to concentrate on four or five major Western philosophers of different time periods who evaluated happiness.
ally as well as figuratively. He married Director of Alumni Relations MaryEllis Deacon in Duck, North Carolina in June. Deacon is the daughter of math teacher Jane Keller and Upper School Division Head Butch Keller. When discussing his wedding with The Winged Post last week for a planned feature story, Berry had a specific recommendation. “When marriage finds you, have the most special people surround you with love and compassion,” he said. “Marry your best friend because she or he will be there for you eternally.” Recalling some of his favorite memories with Berry, Mr. Keller shared a conversation that the two had about teaching.
“He and I believed so strongly that the word ‘teacher’ has a higher meaning than most people give it credit. To be a teacher is to inspire and encourage students to do and be everything that is right in the world,” he said. “He believed a teacher was a person that was trusted in all things. A person that students came to for everything.” Senior Shenel Ekici, who was in Berry’s Honors English 3 class last year, posted a Facebook status on Saturday in honor of her teacher. “He saw something in me that no one else ever did and certainly I never recognized. Mr. Berry gave me the gift of trust—in my ideas, my words, my talents, my belief in the inherent goodness of humanity,” she wrote. “I made the
decision to pursue a major and career in writing because of his advice and encouragement.” In addition to Berry’s firm beliefs about the nature of teaching, Mr. Keller underscored his warm and nurturing personality. “He got the nickname ‘Bear’ from Mrs. Keller when she first got to know him because his personality and ‘cuddliness’ reminded her of a big snuggly bear,” he added. English Department Chair Marc Hufnagl described Berry as “one of the most compassionate, selfless people I have ever known.” The two English teachers shared a special relationship with one another: Hufnagl called Berry “The Kid,” while
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Varsity football league games canceled anishka agarwal & apurva gorti sports editors The Varsity football team has forfeited all league games, but there will still be football for the Eagles this fall. According to head coach Ron Forbes, the team does not have enough juniors and seniors participating and therefore chose not to play league games. However, that does not mean that they will not play at all. The Varsity team currently has only 11 players, which Forbes believes to be unsafe. The Athletic Department is work-
ing on contacting coaches from other schools to schedule games for the Varsity team. Due to the unconfirmed nature of the season, some games may only be announced as the season goes along, though the results of these games would not count. “Right now, we’re going to hope for the best and prepare for the worst, the worst being that we don’t have a Varsity football season here,” Forbes said. “The best case scenario, we can schedule 10 opponents, and we can kind of manipulate the games so that our seniors can have a decent senior experience playing football.” Instead of playing league games
with four 12-minute quarters, the team might play controlled games with a running clock with two 20-minute halves to avoid pressuring injured players. Forfeiting the season means that the team will not have the chance to qualify for playoffs; however, Forbes said that it will not affect the team, since they have not participated in the postseason in the past few years. Forbes remains committed to the future of the football program, and the upperclassmen are looking forward to seeing what the JV team has to offer. “It hurts to know that my season is over but I see great potential in the
JV team, and I know they will work hard to do well,” said lineman Nathan Dhablania (12). “I see a bright future ahead for the Harker football program.” Though the JV team will still play this season, it may have to reschedule some games because several other schools prefer to play both JV and Varsity teams. Forbes will continue to hold practices as normal. Athletic Director Dan Molin announced Wednesday that the school will still play on Homecoming, and festivities will remain as usual. For updates and more information regarding the team, please visit www. talonwp.com.
Tech changes implemented New portal system headlines updates anokhi saklecha reporter As students and faculty once again begin to acclimate to the early morning rise and the rigorous academic schedule, they are also adjusting to new technological software implemented for the 2013-2014 school year. The student-designed “Harker Homework Management System” (HHMS) has been replaced by a “new and improved assignment system,” according to Daniel Hudkins, Director of Instructional Technology and Information Systems. Students and faculty can still access the system online.
Instead of possessing its own network domain, it is reachable via the student personal information button on the student portal. Two other major changes have taken place. First, the scheduling system and assignment system are now combined. If a student requires class changes, the respective assignment page will be revised immediately, with the latest assignments on display. The bell schedule will be precisely in line with that listed on the assignment system. Continued page 4
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Berry called Hufnagl “Dad.” “His genuine kindness-in-action inspired me more than once to be more understanding of others and tolerant,” Hufnagl wrote in an email. “He was a true humanitarian in that way and a most wonderful friend and colleague.” English teacher Brigid Miller echoed Hufnagl’s sentiment, adding that Berry’s generosity distinguished him. “He covered my class, he took my son to school, he reminded me about deadlines I needed to meet, he brought me lunch when I didn’t have time to go to the Edge--the list goes on,” she wrote. “And he never, ever, ever wanted anything in return.” Miller also emphasized Berry’s humorous and scholarly sides, affirming his unceasing love for English literature. “We were nerds together. We would email Gatsby quotations to one another,” she wrote. “He never failed to laugh when Daisy tells Gatsby, ‘I’d like to just get one of those pink clouds and put you in it and push you around.’ I don’t know why that line, specifically, resonated with him so much, but he loved that one.” In her Facebook post on Saturday, Kristi Sun (‘12), who had Berry as a freshman, shared the impact he had upon her. “Bear was the textbook definition of the crazy-articulate, hyperintelligent scholar. His presence was almost a tangible force whenever he was around; when he spoke, we were mesmerized,” she wrote. Activities Director Kerry Enzensperger recollected Berry’s dedication to his students, friends, and family. “He would always sacrifice himself and give everything he had to everyone else,” she said. “[One time], I thought I was smart coming here super early to hide Easter eggs for a spirit event, and I got here at 6:00 and he got here at 5:30. He worked all the time just to make everything better for everybody.”
TECH-SAVVY: Help desk operator Alex Osorio assists Freddie Molinas in connecting his computer to the Upper School network. All freshman and new students attend a technology orientation prior to school beginning this week.
INSIDE:
COMMUNITY FEATURE SERIES: MEET CHEF TYRONE, 9
NEWS, 2 OPINION, 5 FEATURES, 7
BACK-TO-SCHOOL 101, 10-11
NEW TEACHERS, 7
DOUBLETRUCK, 10
GLOBAL, 12
LIFESTYLE, 13 SPORTS, 16 TECH, 18 BACK PAGE, 20
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News
AUGUST 30, 2013 the Winged Post
Freshman Orientation: Sprinklers, Sun, and Sports
Owls, Turkeys, and Chickens The orientation, held on the August 23, began when the new freshmen streamed into the Upper School gym, where they were greeted with the sight of their new advisors pretending to be animals. The new students, who were also assigned to act as a certain animal to find fellow advisory members with the same animal, warmed up to the act, and soon the gym was filled with the sounds of gobbling turkeys, clucking chickens, and hooting owls. As the noises settled down and everyone took a seat on the gym floor, Jeffrey Draper, Dean of the Class of 2017, introduced himself to the new class and informed them about the events of the day. “You have lots of support here, and really no reason to be nervous,” said Draper, while addressing the new freshman class. He stressed that this was to be a day of play and relaxation on Davis Field. Previously a dean for the Class of 2013, Draper stated that it was a little sad to leave the seniors, but that he was looking forward to his role as a dean for the freshmen. “I’m very excited. I’ll be meeting a whole bunch of new people, and there’s a lot of responsibility to make sure it all goes well. I really want them to have a fantastic freshman [orientation] day,” he said. For the next 20 minutes, the advisories spent time together and played games to get to know each other better. Some advisories opted to fill out social
A Day on Davis Field The newly formed advisories moved to Davis Field, where they sat in a circle around Shaw Dunton, Director of Apex Adventures. He explained the rules of the competition between the advisories, and within a few minutes, advisors, advisees, and Link Crew Members alike spread across the field to play a variety of games under the direction of the Apex Adventures Team. Many advisors were enthusiastic about the opportunity to bond with their new team of advisees. “I am so excited to meet all of the
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I got to meet some new kids who were in my advisory and see everyone again after summer. Kavya Duvedi (9)
new freshmen,” debate teacher and new Freshman Advisor Carol Green said. “It’s like a whole new family; an advi-
sory is like a family.” Likewise, advisors such as new Upper School Counselor Greg Roumbanis appreciated the fact that they will stay with their advisees for the rest of their high school careers. “This is pretty cool. I like the idea that I get to hang out with these guys for the next four years and get to see them grow,” said. “It’s pretty special.” The activities on Davis Field included Triangle Walk, Centipede Walk, Number Stomp, Water Tube, a “Rock, Paper, Scissors” tournament, and Card Sort. Advisories also had the opportunity to visit Singh Aquatic Center to relax by the poolside or take a dip. According to Dunton, the activities were created to promote bonding among the advisory members. “All of these activities are designed in such a way that they require a lot of teamwork to accomplish,” Dunton said. “You have to work together to accomplish a certain goal, and nothing can be done as an individual.” Additionally, the day also offered opportunities for new students to become familiar with those returning from the Middle School. Incoming freshman Kavya Duvedi, a Harker student for the past three years, thought that the event was a fun social opportunity to reconnect with old friends. “I got to meet some new kids who were in my advisory and see everyone again after summer,” Kavya said. Throughout the afternoon, advisories rotated through the activities in intervals of 20 minutes, ensuring that by the end of the day, every advisory had completed each activity once. “I’m really excited. I would have to say the centipede walk was my favorite, “ Era Iyer (9) said. She is new to the school and enthusiastic about the upcoming year. Four More Years As the day came to a close, Dunton informed the freshmen that the winning advisory from the games would be announced during the first week of school. Draper then practiced a fire drill with the new freshman class be-
and teachers meet GYM JAM: Students to promote school-wide spirit
tiara bhatacharya reporter
Students from all four classes came together on August 24 to attend Gym Jam, an annual event to promote school-wide spirit, as well as to plan for the upcoming year. After gathering in the gym, the Spirit Board, led by co-presidents Julia Wang (11) and Katy Sanchez (11), kicked off the event with a game of “Cinderella Shoe”. Upperclassmen paired with underclassmen in order to locate one another’s shoes, previously scattered across the gym by Matthew Harley, 2016 Class Dean and Biology teacher, along with Andrew Irvine, Chemistry teacher. However, Kerry Enzensperger, Director of Community Service and Advisor to Spirit club, announced a twist to the game, in that each pair can only communicate and direct each other through a unique sound they created. The room erupted into chaos as students raced to locate their partner’s shoe. “It was quite confusing at first, but it was an interesting way to create bonds between upperclassmen
and underclassmen,” said junior Vivian Isenberg. Following “Cinderella Shoe,” attendees met with their respective class deans about spirit plans for the upcoming school year. Discussions focused primarily on planning for Homecoming, which happens to be particularly early this year on September 27. Diana Moss, 2015 Class Dean and Spanish teacher, hoped that the meeting would inspire ideas on how to involve more juniors in spirit activities this year, as well as help in the effort to garner more energy during rallies. “The goal was to try to fire up the class leadership to get more cohesion for our class for the year. In particular we talked about what we needed to do to get Homecoming off the ground,” she said. Preceding a barbeque dinner, students had the opportunity to enjoy themselves at the pool, where the Spirit Club engaged swimmers with games such as “Clean Your Backyard.” As he does yearly, Irvine donned a wetsuit and paddled around the pool in his kayak.
After dinner concluded, attendees returned to the gym for a brainstorming session on spirit themes for the upcoming school year. Participants were able to come up with individual ideas such as Bollywood in an open forum, which were then voted on by the entire group of attendees. Ultimately, “Invasion By…” was chosen as the homecoming theme. An annual tradition, Gym Jam inaugurates each school year, often welcoming several new students in a non-academic environment. “Gym Jam represents that everybody in the school is just one big family because everyone from all the classes showed up and is together,” said freshman Aarti Iyer. David Lin (11) agreed with Aarti. “It represents a time for students to prepare for the school year and also get excited for the upcoming events,” he said. The event concluded early after Christopher Nikoloff, Head of School, delivered the news of English teacher Jason Berry’s passing to the students.
ALL PHOTOS VIVEK BHARADWAJ - WINGED POST
fore dismissing them to a treat of popsicles. As the field became vacant, both students and advisors were enthusiastic about working together for the next four years. “This is exciting,” new freshman advi-
sor Juston Glass said with a smile. “This is going to be the best class Harker has ever had in its history!”
Third Annual meeting
Honor Council to host conference
TIARA BHATACHARYA- WINGED POST
CRAZY KAYAKING As part of a yearly tradition, Andrew Irvine, Chemistry teacher, paddled across the pool in his one-man kayak enthralling students with his antics.
FRESHMAN FUN (Top)A freshman advisory plays the Water Tube Game, in which advisories compete against each other to raise the level of water in a leaky tube and make the rubber ducky inside float to the top. One member pours water inside the tube, while others help by plugging up the holes. (Middle) A freshman advisory races against others during the Centipede Walk. Many teams coordinated their footwork by yelling “1, 2, 3… lift!” to ensure their movements were synchronized. (Bottom) Members of the Link Crew stand in the middle of the field to a round of applause from the class of 2017. The freshman advisors and the Apex Adventures team were also recognized and thanked at the end of the orientation.
WINGED POST ARCHIVES
reporters In a corner of a sunny Davis field, new freshman advisories raced to fill a leaky tube with water. In other parts of the field, they stomped on number tiles in sequence, played under the sprinklers, and attempted to walk in large triangular frames. This was just a part of the scene at the Class of 2017 freshman orientation, a day etched in the minds of current Upper School Students as one of team-building, bonding, and fun.
Bingo forms that they had received, while others, such as Kerry Enzensperger’s advisory, decided to improvise a game of “Human Knot” and proceeded to untangle themselves.
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vivek bharadwaj & kavya ramakrishnan
HONORS CONFERENCE Ashir Bansal (11) and Maneesha Panja (12) engage in discussion at the Honors and Ethics Conference held in 2011. The Honor Council will hold their next conference on September 13.
trisha jani news editor
The Upper School Honor Council will host its annual Honors and Ethics Conference on the morning of September 13 in the Nichols Atrium. The event will be similar to the one hosted in 2011, during which several students from each grade grappled with case studies dealing with honor infringements. According to honor council advisor Kelly Horan, the Honor Council serves two main purposes: outreach and the hearing of inquiries. With the goal of “hoping to cultivate a culture of honor and ethical decision making at Harker,” this conference falls under the outreach goal. “We are trying to help the kids and the community get a little bit excited and more aware about how many opportunities there are for ethical behavior,” Horan said. “For [students] on a daily basis, [you see] how often your ethics are challenged, and that can be very tiring, especially when you are stressed.” Senior honor council representative Maneesha Panja (12) explained that the conference unifies the community. “It is also a way for students to understand the multifaceted nature of honor, and I would say it is also a way to help unite everybody in terms of their understanding of honor,” she said. Horan explained that the event
will be run similarly to the one two years ago. Students will be discussing cases in smaller groups and will try to make a decision, just like the honor council. With the results of last year’s Ethics survey indicating that students are more likely to cheat under certain circumstances, the honor council is considering a change in the way they conduct the conference. “Before, we only focused on how to look at cases. Now we are going to focus not only on that, but also a more preventive aspect, in that we are going to probably address general topics students may come across, such as stress level, and how to deal with that,” Maneesha said. According to Horan, her favorite part of the conference is seeing the students discuss the cases, because it “helps kids realize how difficult all the decisions the honor council makes are.” “I think the kids come out of that realizing that it isn’t straightforward, and maybe we should think a little bit more about our decisions,” she said. Maneesha agreed with that sentiment, saying that she “look[s] forward to talking to all the students and getting to know all of their different perspectives on honor.” She also likes the format of the conference because it is more discussion based. The Honor Council plans on hosting a conference for other schools in the Bay Area next year.
News
Cont’d
AUGUST 30, 2013 the Winged Post
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Animal rights activists protest circus In memoriam business editor “Save the elephants! Save the elephants!” nine-year-old Ostara “Star” Bence called out, holding up her own crayoned sign amid the posters of shackled circus animals that greeted visitors to the SAP Center in downtown San Jose on Wednesday, August 21. Along with some twenty others, Star and her parents carried posters and handed out leaflets in a protest by animal rights organization Humanity Through Education against the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, which arrived in San Jose last week. “It’s about compassion,” volunteer Ellis Levinson said. “These animals are confined in virtual prisons for their entire lives. They’re tortured to be trained.” Humanity Through Education alleges that Ringling and other circuses abuse animals such as tigers and elephants by physically hurting them and keeping them in unhealthy living conditions. “They chain them down and separate babies from their mothers because that’s when they’re most vulnerable. [The animals] spend 95 percent of their lives in trains going from circus to circus,” Marianne Dray, another protestor, said. According to Star’s mother Michelle Bence, animals are trained for the circus by “breaking their wills.” “It’s not natural for them to perform like that,” she said. “For elephants, they use these rods with huge pointed prongs, and the trainers hook them underneath their chins, and the animals do tricks in order to not get punished.” This pronged rod is the bullhook or guide, a tool used to handle elephants that has become a major symbol for circus animal abuse. Humanity Through Education and many other animal rights organizations condemn bullhooks as weapons, pointing to leaked videos that show circus handlers using them to strike their elephants. Ashley Smith, Director of Corporate Communications at Ringling’s parent company Feld Entertainment,
disagreed with the label. “It is the approved elephant husbandry tool. It is not a weapon, it is not used to hit them, and it is not a punishment,” she said. “It is a tactile reinforcement.” Although Smith acknowledged that some abusive incidents have oc-
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These animals are confined in virtual prisons for their entire lives.
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stephanie chen
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The Class of 2012 selected Berry to be its faculty speaker at the Baccalaureate ceremony last spring. Addressing the graduating class, he advised: “Be who you want to be, and if that doesn’t agree with you, then find, once again, your center, your inner voice; don’t settle for an imitation of yourself.” In addition to teaching English classes, Berry coached Varsity girls soccer and lacrosse through record-breaking seasons. Chemistry teacher Andrew Irvine coached lacrosse with Berry and counted him as a close friend. “He was a very scholarly individual. We definitely contrasted each other in our different expertises. I think that definitely brought us together as a package, as a coaching unit,” said Irvine. “He was a very thoughtful guy.” Matriculation events scheduled for last Monday were postponed to next Wednesday in deference to the community’s loss. Additionally, grief counselors were available to students and staff throughout the week to help them cope. Originally from New Hampshire, Berry received his Bachelor of Arts from Furman University and his Master of Arts from Clemson University. He was a Clemson University PanHellenic Council for Excellence in Teaching honoree. Berry is survived by his wife, MaryEllis Deacon; parents, Lance and Nancy Berry; brother and sister-in-law, Josh and Jessica Berry; and father-in-law and mother-inlaw, Butch and Jane Keller. The family held a memorial service yesterday at WestGate Church in San Jose, followed by a reception at the Upper School campus. To honor his memory, the school is establishing the “Jason Berry Memorial Scholarship Fund,” which will finance scholarships in perpetuity. Those wishing to contribute can send checks to the advancement office or complete a form online at www.harker.org.
Ellis Levinson, activist
curred in the past, she maintained that the videos exaggerate reality. “Those videos have sound enhancements,” she said. “In one, it looks like they’re pulling under [an elephant’s] chin, but what you can’t see is that they’re pulling a headpiece.” In response to claims that the animals lived in inhumane environments, Smith pointed out that Ringling’s enclosures meet all legal requirements. During a short visit to the enclosures, none of the animals appeared to be chained, though none were in the open air. Elephant handler Bernadette Mustee explained that Ringling gives the animals ample playtime despite their traveling schedule. According to Mustee, many of the behaviors deemed “unnatural” by activists actually emerge through play. “When it comes to behaviors they
PROTEST (Top) A Ringling Bros. Circus elephant handler demonstrates how he trains and interacts with his animals. According to activists protesting Ringling in San Jose last Wednesday, circus animals are trained through abuse. (Bottom) Two volunteers protest the Ringling Bros. Circus’s arrival in San Jose last Wednesday. According to animal rights activists, Ringling trains its animals through abuse.
need for the show, a lot of people are like, ‘elephants can’t naturally do that!’” she said. “But during playtime, they’ll stand just on their heads on tires, and you can see the joy on their faces.” Whether circus performances arise naturally or from fear of torture is widely contested, but one thing was still obvious: the SAP Center parking lot looked nothing like the Serengeti. “Animals need a lot of space in the wild to carry out their natural behaviors,” environmental science teacher Jeff Sutton said. “In captivity, it becomes difficult to meet all their needs. However, I definitely think it’s possible to improve their living conditions […]
for a traveling circus.” To Levinson, captivity in the first place is unnecessary except in the case of species rescue. “We have video now that can show the most incredible things in the wild, and instead we’re looking at animals behind bars,” he said. Despite his and the other protestors’ best efforts to increase awareness of Ringling’s alleged abuses, the ticketholders in line seemed undeterred. Audience member Steve Hays summed up the sentiment: “I’m just here for the entertainment.”
New Policies: California to implement new laws vasudha rengarajan managing editor
This year, a number of policies have been newly implemented or are pending in the state of California, affecting students, parents, faculty, and other members of the workforce. While some laws will define the lives of California citizens, others present more subtle changes.
Student Loans The interest rate on student loans has risen to double the initial figure, now standing at 6.8 percent. This policy came into effect on July 1 and will have a large impact on college-bound seniors. The law received backlash from student leaders and others who contend that burying students in debt will disincentivize higher education for the new generation, ultimately providing a disservice to the state and its future. Some of the students didn’t think the new law would have an impact on many Upper School students. “I don’t think most people put much forethought into getting loans, so there won’t be much of an impact on high schoolers. It will impact post college more because debt will be greater and jobs are harder to get,” Nicky Semenza (12) said.
Sex-segregation Pending laws stipulate that sex-segregation will be discouraged or discontinued by allowing access to the same locker rooms, bathrooms, and sports teams for males and females. Though the law has passed through state legislature, it awaits signature from Governor Jerry Brown. The law’s purpose is to extend the rights of the LGBTQ students.
Workplace New legislation expressly states the right of religious and cultural expression in the workplace and bans segregation of these people. Certain laws have created a stir over the use of the phrase “mental retardation” as a substitute “intellectual disability,” although few other changes in those aspects were implemented. As of January 1 of the new year, California will have the highest minimum wage rate in the United States at $10.55 an hour. While many green initiatives and point-specific laws were adopted only by certain cities in local legislature, new state laws in California generally reflect cost-cutting measures, tighter safety regulations, and recognition of personal freedoms.
Department of Motor Vehicles The series of new DMV laws in place further enforce existing legislation. Along with an increase in registration fees, there will be a number of styles offered for California license plates including yellow with blue lettering, blue with yellow lettering, and black with yellow lettering. Limits will be placed on the number of autonomous (or self-driving) vehicles on the road at one time. The state will be cracking down more severely on infractions such as driving under the influence: suspected drivers will no longer have the choice between chemical and urine tests. Blood tests will be required, and if unavailable, urine tests will be the substitute.
School Supplies Teachers in the California state school system are now required to pay larger costs for school supplies due to a new law mandating that parents not be accountable for purchasing school supplies including writing utensils, paper, notebooks, binders, and other classroom tools. The state made the amendment to stay consistent with every child’s right to a free public school education. The new costs for teachers will cause schools to become more dependent on Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) funding and donations and will be effective January 1, 2014.
Social Media Employers are prohibited from requiring social networking information from employees, although limited investigations are allowed. These laws extend to public and private universities in relation to prospective and current students. Having already been advised to clean up social media accounts before university applications, some students did not find the amendment to be much of a game changer. “For myself, it wouldn’t bother me to have colleges see my social media pages because I have nothing to hide, but that’s not true for everyone,” Caroline Howells (11) said. “All sorts of people can see a lot about you through your social network page, and you want to be able to present yourself to colleges as both academically and personally qualified.”
Texting While Driving Accommodating recent advances in automotive technology, the state has amended the law against texting while driving. It now allows drivers to use hands-free built in devices to dictate, listen, or send messages without consequence. “What I have noticed from my classmates is that most of them are extremely careful and conscious drivers, who don’t generally text while driving anyway. To them, I think the change in the law would serve as a conve- nience,” Maya Nandakumar (11) said. “With regard to general teenagers though, I feel that it would certainly be a helpful clause and would keep the streets safer.”
ARTWORK BY VASUDHA RENGARAJAN DESIGN BY TRISHA JANI
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News
AUGUST 30, 2013 the Winged Post
Cont’d Tech changes on campus SPIRIT : last year to reduce excess paper usage, will now be the dominant and sole method for printing. Furthermore, all student printers on campus are brand new, as of this school year. “Overall, these changes function to combine everything, making it all more accessible and more controlled,” Hudkins said. Future alterations that will take
place later in the year include an emergency text messaging system, powered through the student portal. Upper School students and faculty members will be encouraged to input their cell phone numbers into the program, thus permitting a mass text message to be administered to the school body in times of emergency or urgency.
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FRIDAY FUN Sean Knudsen (12) purchases a ticket for First Friday from Eesha Chona (10) and Mariam Sulakian (11). Tickets cost $15 and are sold at lunch.
apoorva rangan managing editor
NEW PORTAL The format and appearance of the new homework system remain the same as those of the original HHMS. However, in order to increase space and organization, only the title of a given assignment will be exhibited, with the details visible by hovering over the name.
New Addition
Preschool campus to open in fall priscilla pan reporter The Harker School’s first ever preschool campus, located on Union Avenue, San Jose, will open in the fall of 2013. The Union Avenue Campus served as both a public elementary school and as the Santa Clara County Children’s Shelter before it was put up for bidding in January of 2012. Harker recently purchased the eight acres of land which will initially be used as the preschool campus. However, in about eight to ten years, the campus will transition into the elementary school campus (K-5). Head of School Christopher Nikoloff believes that preschool “is wonderful window of time to introduce families to the Harker mission and community.” “There is a growing need for high-quality preschool education among our parents and in the Valley that prepares children for lifelong love of learning across all domains,” he said. The enrollment period for the 2013-14 school year recently ended on August 16. The preschool is available
for students ages 3-5, with four classes of 24 and one class of 18, in half- and full-day classes. Over 100 students will be accepted for the school year, which begins on September 3. Preschool administrators received a Planned Development Permit from the city of San Jose, and with the help of a leadership team, the campus preparations for the new school year are complete. The property currently includes 11 buildings with classrooms, a cafeteria, recreation space, and an open area for sports. Additionally, there is a farm, music room, art studio, and STEM lab that will help students build various skills. The classroom arrangement will facilitate the learning process for the children. “The rooms are so high-tech,” Leeza Kuo (11), who saw pictures of the new campus, said. “[It’s] a really cool place where kids can run around and re-energize their brains so they can learn .” Several media outlets have written about the new campus. For example, San Jose Mercury News reporter Sharon Noguchi described the pre-
school as a friendly and spacious environment in her article, published on August 4. “A mural-and-mosaic entrance, multicolored floor tiles and light-filled rooms welcome families,” she said in the article. “And of course, this tiny-tot heaven features a sandbox, play kitchen and lawns wide enough to do, perhaps, 75 somersaults in a row.” In the next few years, Harker plans to build a swimming pool and an equipment facility, as well as replace two of the buildings. To alleviate traffic, a long on-campus driveway on the southern side of the school and shuttle buses will be implemented. However, with the purchase of the new preschool, developments and construction in the other campuses were put on hold. “It’s nice that they are trying to expand,” Nicky Semenza (12) said, “but personally I don’t like how they set back the construction of the gym [and] perf[orming] arts a bunch of years with the purchase of Union.” After a couple years, the preschool will be relocated to a new location in the Valley.
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Leeza Kuo (11)
KYLE CAVAllARO- OFFICE OF COMMUNICATION
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[It’s] a really cool place where kids can run around and re-energize their brains so they can learn knowledge.
UNION CAMPUS The preschool campus, the newest addition to the Harker community, opens on September 3 to children from ages three to five. It is located on Union Avenue in San Jose.
Giant hamster balls? Laser tag? Oh, my! To help fire up school spirit and to replace the back-to-school mixer, Spirit Club has coordinated a “First Friday” event for students and parents today after school. Instead of the traditional back-toschool dance, the event will feature entertaining events for students, including pool games and finger food. “Last year during spirit meetings we were brainstorming about what other people want to see,” said Spirit Club co-president Julia Wang (11). Logistically, the proximity of Homecoming-related spirit events would render a back-to-school dance redundant. “The mixer really wasn’t going to happen,” said Kerry Enzensperger, Student Activities Coordinator. “It wouldn’t make sense to have dances two and a half weeks apart.” In addition to the student-centered outside activities, there will be a concurrent social event for parents. According to Events Coordinator Paulina Wegrowicz, who is also a Grade 11 parent and a GLC for the class of 2015,
the parent event used to be a breakfast for adult volunteers, but was moved to a later time slot and incorporated under the banner of “First Friday.” “Parents can come to the event to sign up for volunteer events,” Wegrowicz said. “We hope to have a lot of people turn out and see parents after the summer and socialize, and talk about how the year is shaping up.” Although several students still did not know much about the mixer, it received praise from many. “I think it should be fun because there are multiple events instead of just one mixer,” said Vikas Bhetanabhotla (12). “There’s more to the event than before.” However, the turnout to the event is still up in the air. The club has been selling $15 tickets since Tuesday. “I think the only downfall to this event is the Labor Day weekend, since a lot of students are going to be out of town for the three-day weekend,” Enzensperger said. No matter the attendance, the event hopes to bring together the whole community, including parents and students of all grades.
Campus Changes
New additions to Upper School
ELIZABETH SIEGEL- WINGED POST
SCREENSHOT
Secondly, this assignment system was merged with the campus grade book network. Advancements were made to the grade book’s user interface, rather than to the system directly. It was made to be more practical, accessible, and easy-to-use, as a result of its fusion with the scheduling and assignment structures. Ankur Karwal (10) deems the technological modifications have succeeded in their purpose. “I think it will be a lot easier to use because everything will be on one website, and it’s more convenient that way,” he said. However, while this shift was intended to make student life more practical and sensible, Aadyot Bhatnagar (11) believes otherwise. “The shift of the homework management system from HHMS to the student portal is unnecessary and counterproductive, and I see little reason for it” he said. “Moreover, the student portal has many more features to load than [an assignment system]. As a result, in the time I could be done with logging into HHMS and checking all of my assignments, the much more bandwidth-intensive student portal has scarcely completed the login process.” With these two theoretical alterations set aside, however, the format and appearance of the system will remain the same as those of the original HHMS, for the most part. There will still be the colored bars indicating the type of task that is assigned, as well as the monthly, weekly or daily view preference. However, in order to increase space and organization, from now on, only the title of a given assignment will be exhibited, with the details attainable after hovering over the name. Along with these virtual modifications, there are also changes to the on-campus printer systems. The PaperCut system, which was introduced
First Friday replaces back-to-school mixer
HEALTHY SNACKING Shah Hall is now home to a new vending machine that sells a variety of healthy foods, including snacks, chips, and sodas. A screen on the top of the vending machine shows various advertisements.
vineet kosaraju & elizabeth siegel
copy editors As summer draws to a close and students return back to school, we might be surprised to find the campus looking slightly different. Over the summer, several construction projects commenced at the Upper School campus. Several rooms have been repainted, new lockers and a vending machine have been added, and some offices have been remodeled. Paint Job: Many classrooms throughout the Upper School campus, including ones in Main and the Journalism room, have been repainted, giving them a fresh look. Additionally, the Journalism room has been redecorated with new furniture. New Attendance Office: What used to be Sue Prutton’s office in Main Hall has now been split in two. Students now need to enter through the doorway in Main rather than the doorway facing Forbes field, which is now the door to another office. New Lockers: Space has been cleared of Main Hall for a new set of lockers. These lockers will be used by seniors or sophomores. “I understand the reason for the
new lockers, we definitely needed more space for lockers, but I liked those little nooks in Main as a place to hang out,” Sarika Bajaj (12) said. “I understand the need for a trade off, but it’s going to be a little different without those corners for people to sit and keep their stuff.” Vending Machine: A new vending machine was placed in Shah Hall in order to provide for more food availability at all times of day for athletes and students. The vending machine is similar to the one already standing just outside the back end of the cafeteria. On sale are healthy snacks, chips, sodas, water, and a variety of energy drinks. A screen set up on the top of the vending machine broadcasts various advertisements, as well as nutrition information for the foodstuffs being sold. “I’m all for healthy stuff,” Gurutam Thockchom (10) said. “But if it’s ten times more expensive than the snack bar, it’s not gonna work.” New Faculty Room Interior: The existing faculty room next to the attendance room in Main Hall has been remodeled. The room now provides a variety of amenities to teachers, including new furniture, coffee machines, and new bookshelves. The walls have also been repainted.
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Dilip’s Dissertations nikhil dilip editor in chief
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Last May, I was studying for AP tests in my room, close to being done with my final review the day before the U.S. History exam. Plumbers were fixing our water heater downstairs at noise levels unsafe to the average human ear, but I thought I could still focus on my work. Okay, so the House of Burgesses was the first TRRRRRRRRRRR. Wait, what was that again? I was reading something about an important legislative TRRRRRRRRRR. Oh yeah, it was Virginia’s TRRRRRRRRRR. Yeah, this isn’t going to work. So I decided to go to my local library, the only place I thought I could study in peace. With neither of my parents home and still no driver’s license, I decided to bike there, though I hadn’t touched my bike in a few months at that point. I navigated into the archives of my garage, pulled out my bike and set off to find a place where I could work in (almost) silence. But I found that my bike ride actually helped me feel more peaceful than any library or secluded corner could. The warmbut-not-too-warm sun and cool May breeze repeatedly slapping my face catapulted me into another world, a place where I felt alone and totally at peace. In fact, I was so entrenched in my own thinking that I got lost a few times on a route that I’ve driven on countless times. Well, I eventually got to the library, studied for that APUSH exam, and returned home, but of
course working on history wasn’t the most important thing that happened to me that day. I had made a discovery. I had found a place where I knew I could relax anytime: on my bike. When summer began, I started to ride my bike a lot more. If I ever felt angry, frustrated, or stressed, I would just take out my bike, kick back the stand, and go. Most of the time, I didn’t have a destination in mind when I left the house. I would just fit my headphones snugly into my ears, connect it to my phone, and fire up some mellow music to put me in the mood. And it worked perfectly. Better than a nap or watching a movie on Netflix, my bike rides allowed me to clear my thoughts and focus on nothing for a half hour. As an added bonus, I explored my neighborhood and found quite a few places I had never visited.
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Ev e r y b o d y has their way of relaxing. [...] I’m glad I found mine.
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Opinion
Though biking originated for me as a means of transport: getting to and from my local library, it evolved into so much more that summer. I actually passed my DMV test and got my license in the first couple weeks of summer, but I still used my bike much more than a car this summer. I am happy that heading into what may be the most stressful semester of my high school life, I have found a way to calm down and actually unwind for a few moments. Everybody has their way of relaxing, something that will help them temporarily forget every worry they have and just be content. I’m glad I found mine.
August 30, 2013 the Winged Post
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tered preservation to look back on a few years from now. Since that day, I’ve been scouring through old photos taken with disposable cameras every time I finish reading a chapter of a book so that I can satiate my short attention span. It may be old fashioned and lame, but my scrapbook is like my personal print edition of Facebook where I don’t have to worry about what I post or what other people will think. It’s arguable that scrapbooking is false documentation that captures only a fraction of a second of moments that we want to remember in comparison to having the full, uncut memories in our heads. But to be honest, when I was going through all those photos, I wouldn’t have voluntarily remembered any of those memories. I like scrapbooking because it allows us to capture seconds that don’t seem like that big of deal in the moment the picture was taken, but serve as a welcome reminder of past experiences years down the road. In the past few weeks, I have often found myself playing with borders and cutting out photos when I should be working. But an added benefit (sorry to tie everything back to college) is that recalling all these memories counts towards brainstorming for application essays. Maybe that’s just me trying to justify my actions, but I think that this new distraction is the silver lining to my short attention span. So, I only semi-guiltily confess that I plan to use scrapbooking as both a panacea and an excuse for my lack of prolonged concentration and necessity for activities that require minimal brain power during this academically centric season. And unlike the hour-long commitment of watching Elementary each week, I can scrapbook whenever I want to, even if it’s only for a few minutes between homework assignments.
rum e e nations meena chetty editor in chief My short attention span is my own fault. In fact, it’s probably more of an excuse. From changing the radio station every 30 seconds while driving to reading half a page of summer reading at a time, I have accustomed myself to concentrate for about as long as a goldfish can. I thought that eliminating all electronic temptation to distract myself would grant more hours to focus on work, but I was sorely mistaken. Turns out that I can be distracted by pretty much anything. A deactivated Facebook account and a bevy of blocked websites in honor of senior year and college applications have left me with no other option than to find a new means of entertainment: scrapbooking. A couple of weeks ago, when I was trying to come up with a new way to not do work, I got distracted by a couple of polaroid photos sticking out from the stacks of books on my desk. As I started to wade through old photo collections, I came across an unfinished scrap book that my friend and I started a few years ago. Page after page, I flipped through snapshots of middle school—documented moments of hilarity, friendship, and even boredom. With a single glance, the photos allowed me to remember so many specific moments that I hadn’t thought of in years. I definitely want to have that same sense of unfil-
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Visit The Winged Post Online at www.talonwp.com Follow us on Twitter www.twitter.com/talonwp The Winged Post is published every four to six weeks except during vacations by the Journalism and Advanced Journalism Newspaper Concentration courses of Harker Upper School, 500 Saratoga Ave., San Jose, CA 95129. The Winged Post staff will publish features, editorials, news, and sports in an unbiased and professional manner and serve as a public forum for the students of The Harker School. Editorials are the official opinions of The Winged Post. Opinions and letters are the personal viewpoints of the writers and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Winged Post. All content decisions are made by student editors, and the content of The Winged Post in no way reflects the official policy of The Harker School. The opinions expressed in this publication reflect those of the student writers
TALK AROUND CAMPUS
“WHAT IS ONE THING THAT OUR COMMUNITY STANDS FOR?”
riya godbole
TalonWP lifestyle editor
“It inspires all of its students to complete whatever task they’re given with all their heart.”
“Helping and serving each other to make this community a better place for all who are in our mounds.”
Juhi Muthal (11)
Gaurav Kumar (12)
“Unity because we’re such a close-knit community that even after all the ups and downs, we’re always together.” Adithram Rengaramchandran (12)
“Togetherness.” Karina Patel (9)
and not the Harker board, administration, faculty, or advisor. Advertisements are accepted in the Post. However, The Winged Post reserves the right to deny any ad. Letters to the Editor may be submitted to Manzanita 70 or emailed to wingedpost@harker.org and must be signed, legible, and concise. The staff reserves the right to edit letters to conform to Post style. Baseless accusations, insults, libelous statements, obscenities, and letters which call for a disruption of the school day will not be considered for publication. Letters sent to the
“Everyone accepts everyone else for their talents or abilities.”
“Respect, because we talk with one another and respect each other’s ideas.”
Post will be published at the discretion of the editorial staff. Mast eagle courtesy of photographer Thomas D. Mangelsen. The Winged Post is the official student newspaper, and it is distributed free of cost to students.
Naomi Molin (10)
Stanley Xie (11)
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AUGUST 30, 2013 the Winged Post
opinion
In memoriam: Unity in times of grief EDITORIAL THE OFFICIAL OPINION OF THE WINGED POST English teacher Jason Berry wasn’t just part of the Harker fabric. He wore it every day, with pride. It seems like everyone who had him as a teacher, coworker, coach, or a friend, had a story to share — something that made them smile or something that helped shape their lives. If you dusted our community for fingerprints, his would appear in nearly every facet of our high school experiences. English 3 will not feel the same without Berry’s love for The Catcher in the Rye and The Great Gatsby. Soccer and lacrosse will not feel the same without his cheers and passion for the sports. Even simply walking through Main will not feel the same without hearing his music or his laugh. We can see his profound impact on the community through the love his students and friends have shown not
only in the past few days, but also during his time at Harker. Berry’s room has been open this week for remembrances and to be with his spirit. His voice implored us to journey together as a community, “navigating always with the support of friends.” Right now, our footing is shaky and
like this is to join together and show respect for the feelings of others. It is unfortunate that tragedy has struck our community again, after having ended last year with the loss of another faculty member, but we will continue to stand together now, as we have in the past, if
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it feels like we are voyaging with the lights turned off. But we are together, and it was his wish that we stay that way. We have been tested as a community, tested as individuals — both one and the same in times like these. And the best that we can do in a time
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not even closer. Whether you find comfort in community or solitude, we can still let one another know that we are not alone. We can help ourselves and each other treasure the stories of love and change and growth of which Berry was a part. We can honor his memo-
Dear Freshmen, dora tzeng reporter
High school is quite the opposite of prison. You have so much freedom: there are no BEST staff monitoring your every move, you have extensive course options, and the food is simply amazing. Speaking of food, savor your lunch time. Relax and hang out with friends—don’t lock yourself in the library to study, because ten minutes of cramming won’t help you. As a warning, be careful in the lunchroom. There is no lunch line whatsoever; your peers are starving and become a giant mob of very aggressive teenagers. I’ve been stepped on and hit in the head with a tray many times, so beware. You can eat an unlimited amount of fries, pizza, and dessert, but do not succumb to the temptation. The “Freshman Fifteen” refers to college, not high school. Your stomach is a microcosm of high school life—you have to keep both balanced and healthy. Sometime between freshman year and now, I realized that I should’ve crawled out of my little protective cocoon as soon as I came to high school. So, freshmen, I’m telling you now to get yourself involved in at least one new thing. Whatever you do, you’ll meet amazing people and make great friends. Academics are definitely important, but don’t neglect other activities either. There are so many different electives, sports, and clubs to be a part of. I know you’ve probably heard this many times before but high school is really the place to step out of your comfort zone. Don’t let the pressure to earn straight A+’s and get into a good college overwhelm you. Be brave and try a new sport, join a club, or participate in spirit events. I used to be a really shy freshman who didn’t care for anything other than my classes and tennis. I didn’t bother involving myself with school activities, which is kind of stupid high school is where you make memories. Sometime during sophomore year, I decided to participate in the homecoming skit. I thought
I was going to die of embarrassment, but it ended up being fun! You get to hang out with friends and take a break from academic work. And it helps you bond with classmates (might as well, because you have to spend four years with them, ya know?) During one of our homecoming skits, I was supposed to be Rainbow Dash from My Little Pony except everyone thought I was Nyan Cat, the cat who poops rainbows. Although it was quite embarrassing, I definitely won’t forget the experience. Try new things during the summer too because you will want to make good use of it. People will be working in research labs, getting internships, and all that fancy stuff. Don’t feel pressured to do whatever everyone else is doing, though—find something that interests you such as taking classes, going to camps, or getting jobs. Start research during the winter. Google some things you’re interested in, and don’t be scared to ask teachers or upperclassmen for any suggestions. Many programs require applications including teacher recommendations, so it’s a good idea to get started early. One thing you will be familiar with is advisory! All students have an advisory they’re part of for all four years of high school, but they only meet once a week. It might be awkward at first, but make an effort to bond with your advisory buddies. I love advisory, not only because I get to eat, but also because it’s a great time to relax. We have such amusing and bizarre conversations, and we even helped someone with a prom ask. One final piece of advice is to do your homework and turn it in on time. Teachers will not constantly remind students of missing assignments; you’re big kids responsible for your own work now. One missing assignment may have a huge impact on your grade. On the bright side, teachers are extremely flexible. If you’re swamped with work or have a conflict, let them know and they will gladly give you an extension on homework, labs, or tests. It’s just like what my friend says, “Teachers are your friends— just not on Facebook.”
Read it Or Weep kaity gee reporter
In the final days before school, the end of summer becomes more and more apparent: advertisements for office products infiltrating our home mailbox, social media statuses mourning the end of this glorious season, and, of course, back-toschool fashion. The hype for this one selection of clothing is ludicrous. Whether promoted by that candy-coated sickly superficial media or self-induced, this frenzy for the outfit has been a part of culture for eons. From Victorian ladies gossiping about the latest silks to magazines tweeting about stiletto heels and jeggings, fashion is a part of history. Personally, I find the hype for “the perfect outfit” ridiculous. Don’t get me wrong, I love fashion. I’m not going to deny that feeling beautiful in beautiful clothing makes me immensely happy: I believe that twirling in the right dress is a spiritual experience, and I actually enjoy spending hours on my hair, painting my lips red, or slipping into a pair of high heels. I know it’s terribly superficial, and I’ll admit it. The amount of purchases I’ve made because they are “pretty” or “cute” is preposterous, and I like the excessive amount of ribbons and the cartoon animals. But the idea behind loving looking “cute” or even enjoying a nice outfit makes me hate myself for loving it. Somehow in our generation’s “swag” obsessed culture, it became a terrible thing to care about your appearance, or at least admit to it. Girls who admitted to preferring a dress and heels are cast aside for those in skinny jeans and snapbacks. It’s a reverse judgement: You should look good, but don’t enjoy looking good; otherwise, you’re trying too hard to please. Within the milliseconds of meeting another human being, we judge them. I’m not going to deny it- we all do it. Like it or not, you
ry by moving forward together with strength and appreciation. It’s times like these when we figure out who we have behind us — who will be there for us unconditionally if we need a laugh, a break, or a shoulder to cry on. Luckily for us, times like these also remind us that we have an entire community of incredible people who care about us, always. So, as we continue our journey through the year, remember to thank your teachers more often, hug your friends a little tighter, and take a moment to appreciate the family you have here. Berry will be remembered as not only an English teacher and coach but also as an inspiring, humorous, generous, and profoundly eloquent man. It’s our duty to remember the countless lessons he gifted to us all. To his family, you are ever present in our thoughts and we continue sending you our love — and you can be sure that we will always be here for you. are being judged by how you look, how you dress, how you carry yourself, and, hopefully, your actions play a more prominent role somewhere in the mix. Still, when you haven’t known the person for more than a year, let alone five minutes, we will use whatever information we can, even if it’s just the clothing they’re wearing. I’m not saying that discrimination based on physical appearances isn’t wrong. We’re all victims to the prejudices of ageism and lookism, and we should all learn that a book is not its cover. But ultimately, we cannot help but make snap judgements; it’s human nature. Nonetheless, initial impressions and our appearances do not a person make. In a recent conversation with my mother, we discussed the upcoming school year. And of course, it reached the topic of my friends and fellow classmates. She expressed her particular disdain for a girl in my grade after seeing how impudently she treated her parents, finishing with the statement: “And she’s not even that pretty.” Needless to say, I was vexed beyond belief. The ultimate insult, the argument to finalize exactly how unlikeable my mother found this girl was once again, her appearance. This is no phenomenon to humankind, girls in particular. We’ve somehow internalized those unattainable societal standards, which convince us that self-worth is tied to our looks. Therefore, our first instinct when we meet another lady is not to make merry with them, but to scrutinize their appearance, and their outfits largely at that- acne so gruesome you could set it on fire, dress unflattering, lipstick too pink, the list goes on. Society has labelled and judged all of us on how we present ourselves and our physical appearances for centuries, and we will never be good enough. The fight is diffused in us, woven into our genetic coding, like how any culture impacts its society. The relentless competition to live up to everyday judgements on our appearances, let alone our actions, is maddening. It’s incredibly unfortunate, but nonetheless truthful: Judgement is inevitable, but we all need to learn to move past it. What I’m saying is in no measure groundbreaking, nor is it particularly deep: We need to stop associating physical differences, beautiful or not, with our self-worth. There may not be an end to initial judgement, but we can all move on. In the meantime, find something to wear that you’re comfortable being judged in for that first impression of the school year.
S traight Talk sheridan tobin opinion editor For a lot of people, three weeks of volunteering at an underprivileged children’s day camp would not be on their lists of ways to spend summer, but for me, those three weeks were some of my favorites of my entire break. I have been interested in volunteering for a while now, but there is such a difference between sorting clothes or food and actually being in a setting, such as summer camp, with the ability to interact with the people I’m helping. For that reason, InnVision Shelter Network has been near and dear to my heart since the very first day I stepped into the little yellow summer camp room. I’m not saying those three weeks were any sort of walk in the park; in fact, they were more like a never-ending game of tag— both literally and metaphorically. There was crying, misbehaving, and fighting, but as soon as those kids started warming up to me and my fellow counselors and it became apparent that they were genuinely enjoying themselves, everything was worth it. We’ve always been taught to look up to our elders, but there’s so much forgotten value in learning from young children— we should all aspire to possess certain childlike qualities, such as a carefree spirit and an appropriate amount of naïvety. These kids are the epitome of making the most of a bad situation. They all come from tough backgrounds and have had to deal with more hardship than most people are forced to face in a lifetime— all before the age of 11. What’s truly inspiring, however, is that, by just a glance, you would never be able to tell. Yes, some of them may be too young to be fully aware of their situations, but, regardless, they face every day with a smile. It’s so easy to get caught up in everything that doesn’t go exactly as planned, and we often forget to appreciate all the little things that truly matter. I’m definitely guilty of this too, but here is where we can all take a lesson from those who are younger than us. When we look back, we remember the things that made us smile. Eventually we forget about all the day-to-day struggles, so why should we waste so much time worrying about them? Considering that there are so many larger problems that we could be facing, we often neglect to fully appreciate all that we do have going for us. There’s no point in letting something bad, especially something minor that will most likely blow over quickly, define our outlooks, even if only for a few days. The fact that a group of six to eleven-year-old kids could remind me of something that is so seemingly fundamental, yet so important, is tribute to what keeps me waking up early on Saturdays, spending hours sorting through food and clothes, and playing endless games of tag. What I’ve truly become passionate about is not working for hours to turn in to school or to put on college applications, it’s the experiences, memories, and lessons gained from all of it. Gandhi once said, “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.” I’ve learned first hand that he sure was right, and for that, I wouldn’t change a thing.
August 30, 2013
features
the Winged Post
Eleven new faculty members set f
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Jonah Alves, Counseling Alves is a maternity replacement for Lauri Kohan and will stay through the fall. WP: What part of your job do you find most exciting? JA: Probably being able to talk to all the kids and getting to know them on a more personal level. […] I think in this capacity we’re able to connect with kids and talk to them a little bit more personally. I still consider myself a kid, so it’s kind of cool that I can be like, “Oh I like to do that too.” WP: Why did you choose to come to Harker? JA: I’ve coached the JV Girls basket-
ball team here at the Upper School for about two years, going onto my third season. I really enjoyed the community and got to know a few people in that way. WP: What are the top things on your bucket list? JA: I think probably number one is to have a family and have kids. That’s really important for me. And then number two, I think it would be really cool to go skydiving. Three, I would probably say travel a little bit more. I’m not a traveler, like I said, I’m more of a homebody, so traveling would totally be getting out of my comfort zone.
features editor
Lauren Collins, College Counseling WP: What part about college counseling do you think is the most important? LC: I think it’s most important to give a student a sense of confidence as they move through the process because it’s very stressful. It can be really complicated, and I think it’s important as a college counselor that I do a good job of helping students get a sense of confidence and a calmness about the way that they move through along the way. WP: What part do you enjoy the
most? LC: Meeting all of you. Everybody is different; everyone has a different story, a different goal, a different idea of what college is going to be, and I love getting all those different perspectives. WP: What are some of your hobbies? LC: I like to cook. I read a lot. I follow fashion. I shop too much, and I spend most of my free time with my three sons doing things that little boys do.
Juston Glass, Director of Business & Entrepreneurial Programs The Winged Post: How will your background in both business and education help you now at Harker? JG: Because I taught at the college level, I was able to see students who wanted to get the education they needed to be able to make their dreams a reality. In the business world, I was able to see how to make a business run so that it is as successful as possible. WP: What are your goals for the school year? JG: Our business and entrepreneurial program stands for BEP. And what I’ve decided to have it as is BEP has PEP. The P is Presence, and presence meaning not just professional pres-
Jenny Heidt, Debate
ence but also that they have a presence in their community […]. The E is Excellence, excellence in education, excellence in service, excellence in everything that they do. […] The other P is for Passion. WP: Why did you choose to come to Harker? JG: I’m finding that in the time that I’ve worked here so far, there is a lot of care that goes into this work, and that is what I think is a secret sauce here at Harker. […] I was able to see that from an outside view as a parent, and when I saw that the position was open for this, the stars aligned for me.
WP: What part about debate do you find most fascinating or exciting to teach? JH: I think that debate does an amazing job of teaching students problem solving, research, critical thinking and public speaking. I love seeing students make concrete progress in all of those areas! WP: Where/what have you taught before coming to Harker?
Katy Rees, World and AP U.S. History WP: What part about history do you find most fascinating to teach? KR: I love the process of looking at issues from different angles and different perspectives. I love doing that with the past, but I also love how the more you learn about the past and the people or the culture or an area or an issue, the more it kind of informs how you look at the world around you. WP: What are you most looking forward to? KR: I’m looking forward to teaching the three sections of US. In
the past, I was doing more World, and so I’m kind of excited to have more of a balance between the two. I’m also excited about some of the differences in the curriculum from what I was teaching before. WP: What are some of your hobbies? KR: I enjoy running and hiking, biking, kind of outdoors stuff. I also really like food, so I really like eating out and trying different foods and occasionally cooking them on my own too.
Mike Pistacchi, Biology WP: What part of biology do you find most fascinating to teach? MP: As I’ll teach in my first day’s lesson, biology is awesome. I love all of it. I’ve had the opportunity to research in labs, I’ve worked with endangered species, I’ve studied a lot of the intermolecular biology, biochemistry, I just love all aspects of biology. WP: Where have you taught before coming to Harker? MP: I spent the last fourteen years teaching at Presentation High School in Willow Glen. WP: What are your goals for the school year? MP: I’m most looking forward to get-
ting to know the Harker students, getting to know the Harker community, definitely. My main goal is really just to learn what Harker life is all about, and get involved as much as I can. WP: What are some of your hobbies? MP: I love the outdoors, and that really ties into my love of biology in general. I love hiking and fishing and surfing and mountain biking and anything that gets me outside is great. WP: What is one interesting fact about yourself ? MP: I am a polydactyl. I was born with an extra toe, but I don’t still have the 11th toe.
Ellen Austin, Director of Journalism WP: How does teaching journalism compare with other subjects you’ve taught? EA: Journalism gives you a front-row seat on history. I tell my beginning journalism students, “In a lot of classes, you can get by with your weight back in your seat and your legs out in front of you, but in journalism you’re leaning forward on the balls of your feet and you’re calling the shots.[…]” It’s a whole different mindset. WP: Why did you choose to come to Harker? EA: This campus has a reputation for being connected with each other and for being kind. […] For me, the other reason is it’s a chance to have a full spectrum. I’ve been advising a sports publication and it’s won-
derful, but it’s a chance to get back to what I love to do, which is full spectrum advising. WP: What are you most looking forward to? EA: I’m really looking forward to the relationships that get built that I’m already starting to see the beginnings of. WP: What are the top things on your bucket list? EA: I did one of them this summer. I drove a Tesla. I want to make a really phenomenal coq au vin seamlessly and with no stress. I’d like to visit all 50 United States. I’d like to finish my private pilot’s license which I’ve started and I just need to finish. I’d like to go to China, and I’d like to write a book.
Ohad Paran, 10th & 11th grade English WP: What part about English do you find most fascinating to teach? OP: I think it’s looking at the way that authors develop ideas, and they do that in ways that I would have never thought of. I look at what in my opinion separates a “good book” from a “notsuch-a-good book” and I think that it’s about language, it’s about word choice. In my class I talk to my students a lot about word choice. WP: Favorite book(s)? OP: The book that got me interested in becoming an English teacher is Catch-22. I would say that my favorite book is the Heart of Darkness.
[…] My third favorite book is Jane Eyre. WP: What are your goals for the school year, and what are you most looking forward to? OP: I left an advisory behind when I left Menlo, so I’m going to have a new group of advisees, and I’m looking forward to meeting them and all my students. WP: What are some of your hobbies? OP: My hobby is actually road bicycling, so I own a road bike, and when I have the time, I do some mileage both in the peninsula up on Highway 35, and also down in South San Jose and the Morgan Hill and Gilroy area.
JH: I have always coached debate but also used to teacher history classes. I taught at the Westminster Schools in Atlanta for 11 years, Pace Academy for the 2 years prior to that and before that I coached debate at Emory and Arizona State. WP: What are some of your hobbies? JH: Debate is my hobby! I also like traveling and reading.
Greg Roumbanis, Counseling WP: What part about your job do you find the most fascinating? GR: Always meeting people for the first time. […] Being a therapist is a very privileged position, I think, to sit in with people and talk with them oftentimes about very sensitive issues, and I actually feel very humbled and very privileged to be able to do that. WP: What are your goals for the school year? GR: My goal is to do everything in my power to help everybody who walks through my doors. Another goal of mine is to meet each and every student that is in
my letter blocks, everyone from J through Q. WP: What are some of your hobbies? GR: I love reading autobiographies, especially of musicians. […] I’m a big football fan. I’ve been a fan of the Indianapolis Colts for almost thirty years now, and they’re a passion for me. Football season is right around the corner, so I’m very excited about that and I look forward to going to a few Harker games as well. My wife and I just had our first-born son; he is 9 months old and we just adore him to pieces.
John Docherty, 11th & 12th grade English WP: What part of English do you find most fascinating to teach? JD: I think the idea of English churning into human emotions, something that we can all associate with and maybe revealing something of ourselves that we haven’t realized, that might be the biggest thing for me. WP: Why did you choose to come to Harker,? JD: The reputation of Harker is known everywhere. Even on the East Coast, I’ve heard about Harker. It’s been fabu-
lous. Everyone’s been great. The new teacher meetings, you always hear about them being tedious and boring; it hasn’t been that way. My gut reaction to Harker before coming on board has been borne out by my experiences of a week and a few days. WP: What are some of your hobbies? JD: Huge soccer fan. I’ve played in college. That’s what brought me over to the States years ago, but now I just coach. Avid reader, and also like running.
Andy Wicklund, 9th grade English WP: Favorite book(s)? AW: My favorite book is the Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkein, and I’m a huge fan of all of his work and just the fact of what he was able to do with ideas and create this massive world. WP: Why did you choose to come teach at Harker? AW: Though we were moving from Chicago and leaving family behind, (for my parents their only grandchild had just moved 1,800 miles away […]), we just said at this point in our lives, this is never going to be an opportunity we’ll have again, and this is just a wonderful place. WP: What are you most looking forward
to? AW: I’m most looking forward to meeting the students. These first few days without students is challenging. The meetings can become grueling at a certain point, but once the students arrive, then everything makes sense. What is one interesting fact about yourself ? AW: I used to donate my hair to Locks of Love. I did that for eight years, so it’d take about two years and my hair would be [shoulder-length], and I’d donate ten inches and then they would just buzz it off. […] It doesn’t really grow in as well as it used to, so I stopped.
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features
AUGUST 30, 2013 the Winged Post
TAs in class Behind the wheel features editor Taking the wheel for the first time is unpredictable. How will the days of memorizing minute traffic details apply when one’s feet are actually on the pedals? Over the summer, several students found the question out when they learned how to drive, with many going on to obtain their permits or driver’s licenses. “My very first time behind the wheel I almost got into an accident. I forgot to put up the ‘Student Driver’ sign on my car, so when I was still getting used to the brakes, I angered the person behind me,” Sahithya Prakash (12) said. “The person overtook me and stopped right in front of me, forcing me to brake really hard and stop really close to the car. After that I learned my lesson, but the fear took longer to shake off.” Although many students were nervous for their first time, most claim that driving is not difficult after getting used to it. A large part of driving is getting the experience and learning the small
nuances. “I think the most important thing is getting a feel for the pedals and how hard you have to push so you don’t floor it in your neighborhood,” Raymond Xu (12) said. Like several other students, Raymond practiced driving and got his permit over the summer. Many choose to learn to drive in high school for the independence and convenience it affords them and, according to Sahithya, “the ability to listen to any radio station I want without my parents complaining.” For some students, it is the relative flexibility of time in high school that prompts them to learn sooner rather than later. “In college, you will have less chances to drive since most people live on campus. Learning to drive sooner gives you more opportunities to get behind the wheel and practice,” Raymond said. Before being able to drive alone, students 15 ½ or older must first take driver’s education either in a classroom or online before passing a test for their provisional permit. From there, students are allowed to drive with another license-carrier over 18 years of age and take lessons from a driving training program. After reaching age 16 and other practice requirements, students
can test for their license. “I believe that the permit written test wasn’t hard, given you studied the traffic laws and other information,” Reena Sandhu (11) said. “My experience with the behind-the-wheel driving test wasn’t a pleasant one. After nearly an hour and a half wait, I took my test, which only lasted for two minutes. The DMV instructor was grouchy and definitely made the whole experience quite awkward.” Many who have their license now choose to drive to school instead of being driven by their parents. “Now that I have my license, my parents don’t have to drive me everywhere, and it gives them some extra time to do their own things,” Nikita Parulkar (11) said. Throughout the process of learning to drive, driver safety was heavily emphasized, especially to prepare students for unexpected situations. “Honestly I hate driving because during my training course, I had to watch a video ‘100 ways you could die in a car.’ After that, I’ve been wary of cute/devious little squirrels,” Rohith said. Despite the preparation, students find driving appealing for its practicality and freedom, and for the occasional memorable experience to be added to their dash.
Memorable moments Sahithya Prakash (12): “The most memorable experience when learning to drive was when I made my first turn and [felt] the steering wheel just slide through my fingers.” Raymond Xu (12): “Driving on the highway at night on the first day I started driving was pretty memorable.” Rohith Bhethanabotla (12): “‘I drive like a grandmother’ was the clean version of what a friendly Hispanic gentleman told me as I drove 20 in a 45 mph lane on accident.” Reena Sandhu (11): “The most memorable experience I have from when I was learning to drive was learning to parallel park. I’ve watched my dad do this countless times. He always made the car fit the first time; he didn’t waste time going in and out of the spot adjusting the car. Of course, I thought I would get it on my first try too. The first time I tried to parallel park, it took me several tries, not to mention I almost hit the cars that were in front and behind me.”
KACEY FANG - THE WINGED POST
Scuba diving and telescopes:
Teachers enjoy summers abroad and at home
vineet kosaraju
copy editor As students, we usually don’t think about the lives of teachers outside the classroom. Are they secretly teachers by day and superheroes by night? What do teachers even do during holidays? The Winged Post talked to teachers about their most interesting or memorable activities over the summer. Here we present five of those stories.
Diana Moss:
Over the summer, Diana Moss hosted Juan Fontes, a foreign exchange student from Granada, Spain. Along with doing some local sightseeing,
Moss introduced Juan to a few Harker students and took him to Lake Almanor for hiking, biking, and boating with her family. Juan’s family hosted Moss’ daughter for two weeks after her semester abroad in France, and in the future Moss hopes that the rest of her family can visit them in Granada. “We all enjoyed getting to know Juan so much. He has a lovely family, and I hope that we can host Juan’s two younger brothers here in the future,” she said. “We also hope that Kevin will get a chance to study abroad and spend time with the family in Granada,” she
PROVIDED BY RACHEL FREED
Over the years many teachers have implemented a system in their classes that has gone unnoticed by many: teaching assistants. While typically, especially in college, a teaching assistant teaches a class or a smaller portion of a class, the teaching assistants or In-Class Peer Tutors (ICPT) at the Upper School give up their free period to help students with homework or concepts recently taught. So far primarily used by math and computer science teachers, teaching assistants are being used by more and more teachers. Multivariable (variant? variate?) Calculus and Differential Equations teacher Victor Adler started using ICPT in 2009 for his Honors Precalculus classes after a presentation he saw at the California Association of Independent Schools (CAIS) Northern Meeting by a teacher from the Mid-Peninsula School. According to Adler, tutors should not only understand the material but also have qualities like patience and observance (sounds weird.. perceptiveness?) as well as the ability to get along with their peers. “Every student gets a lot of individual instruction and intervention when they are having problems with the material,” said Adler. “You have three or four teachers roaming around the room aiding students.” Bradley Stoll, Math Department Chair and AP Calculus BC teacher, implemented the teaching assistant system two years ago after getting the idea from Adler. While Adler tells his students of the opportunity and the requirements at the end of the year and lets them sign up, Stoll chooses his teaching assistants but is pleased when his students ask if they can tutor for him. Stoll agrees that beyond understanding the material, the students must be confident in what they know and be open to share it with their peers. “I think that any class can benefit from having TA’s in the classroom. I hope that more teachers (specifically, math) will implement this program…at least try it once,” said Stoll. “I wouldn’t mind seeing the program evolve into more of a class that students could choose.” A group of six previous AP Computer Science students, including Akhil Prakash (‘12), Apurva Gorti (12), John Hughes (12), Kristine Lin (12), Ryan Pachauri (11) and Sanjana Kaundinya (11) spent part of their summer being a teaching assistant for the summer programming class. Many of these students chose to be teaching assistants because of their interest in the subject and to further pursue this interest by helping their peers. The work of the programming teaching assistants included checking homework, grading tests, answering questions and tutoring. After experiencing what being a teaching assistant is like, most students would like to do something similar in the future such as being a teaching assistant in college. The teaching assistants have also gained a deeper appreciation for their teachers through this experience. “I’ve learned what it feels like to be a teacher, and can tell that they only take the job because they love the kids,” said Ryan Pachauri (11). Having teaching assistants gives teachers more time for instruction and allows teaching assistants to enhance their understanding of the subject while also receiving community service hours.
kacey fang
PROVIDED BY CHRISTOPHER FLORIO
sports editor
Students take advantage of the summer to get permits and licenses
PROVIDED BY DIANA MOSS
anishka agarwal
Dashboard of
mer, Dr. Schafer spent time with her family in Cambridge pursuing several interests, such as running along the towpaths of the River Cam and visiting new parts of England. “My brother and his family immigrated to England a few years ago and live in Cambridge,” she said. “Getting to spend time with them has truly been a highlight of the summer, especially my daughter getting to spend time with her cousins.”
Rachel Freed:
said, “and eventually that my husband and I will get there too!”
Offered a fantastic opportunity, Rachel Freed was among ten teachers invited to participate in a two-day workshop at Lick Observatory on Mount Hamilton. “We got to tour all of the facilities and then we got to use the one-meter Nichols telescope to do some astrophotography. I took three five-minute exposures of the M51 galaxy using three different color filters,” she said. “We also got to observe through the 36-inch refractor built in 1888,” she said. “Even though it was built in the 1880s, it is still the second largest refracting telescope in the world!” Afterwards, Freed took a course for teachers at the MERIT institute that trains them to use technology in the classroom more effectively. “It was awesome!” she said. “I met fantastic people and learned so much that I was worried my brain would explode.”
Dr. Kate Schafer:
Christopher Florio:
TEACHERS (Top Left) Christopher Florio scuba dives while making the shaka sign, a gesture associated with the Aloha Spirit. Florio visited Hawaii with his wife and also served as the principal for the Harker Summer Institute for the remainder of the summer. (Bottom Left) Over the summer, Diana Moss hosted a foreign exchange student from Granada, Juan Fontes (right). They went sightseeing, and Moss also introduced Juan to a few Harker students. (Top Right) Rachel Freed takes pictures of the M51 galaxy using the 1-meter Nichols telescope at Lick Observatory. Along with nine other teachers, Freed was invited to participate in a two-day workshop at Lick Observatory on Mount Hamilton.
Between visiting her family in Cambridge and going on a research expedition to coastal Alaska to assess garbage coming ashore for marine studies, Dr. Kate Schafer enjoyed a memorable albeit hectic vacation. “It was a team of scientists and artists looking at the issue on remote beaches in Alaska. Some of the many highlights was a very close encounter with a grizzly sow and her three cubs,” Dr. Schafer said. For the remainder of the sum-
Apart from serving as the principal for the Harker Summer Institute for the fourth consecutive year, Christopher Florio pursued his passion of scuba diving with his wife in the Aloha State, Hawaii. “I was able to go on separate dives with my wife in Hawaii,” he said. “We love tropical places, particularly where we can scuba dive. It was nice to have a great vacation.”
Features
AUGUST 30, 2013 the Winged Post
9
Behind the scenes at Harker
Inside the life and work of chef Tyrone Lockett editors in chief
The Winged Post is beginning a feature series this year that prof iles a Harker staff member each issue. This month, we feature Tyrone Lockett, a member of the school’s kitchen staff for the last ten years. The Winged Post: Where are you originally from? Tyrone Lockett: I’m from New Orleans, Louisiana. I lived in New Orleans until I was 18, and I moved to Southern California, then later to Northern California. I went to culinary school in New Orleans and cooked on Bourbon Street. My mother was a chef for 45 years in New Orleans. WP: Growing up, did you always aspire to be a chef ? TL: I actually went into banking when I moved to Northern California. I also worked in printing, running presses for newspapers. Those were the two jobs: either banking and printing or cooking and printing. I kept busy. There’s a lot of opportunities in Northern California, compared to Louisiana, so I just took a bank job when I was young. WP: How long have you been a chef ? TL: I’ve been a chef for about 20 years now, ten at Harker. WP: How did you get to Harker? TL: I was working one job at a five-star restaurant before on Great America Parkway, and I happened to be just coming home, catching the bus, and I saw the “Harker” sign. I walked on by, and I asked a few questions, saw they were hiring here and got into Harker. Just always be looking for new opportunities, something new to do. I like to experiment with a lot of different foods, always curious about food. WP: In your free time, do you experiment with food? TL: A lot of times nowadays, my free time is on the weekends, so I try to relax a bit more, go outdoors. But a lot of the time during my free time, I do like to experiment with food. WP: What are some of the hobbies you do in your free time? TL: I like to go outdoors: fishing, hunting, stuff like that. Just enjoying the sceneries. I’m an ocean person; I enjoy the ocean because it allows me to get away from the city life. WP: Is a lot of your family here or back in New Orleans? TL: Actually we’re spread out all across the United States. I used to have a lot of sisters and brothers out here in Northern California at one point, but we’re all spread out now we’re in Arizona, Texas, Seattle. We still have folks back in New Orleans. WP: How many siblings do you have? TL: I’m actually the baby of 11 kids.
WP: With your mom as a chef, are many of your siblings also into cooking? TL: There are three of us who are involved with cooking; my oldest sister took after my mom, and I took after my sister.
WP: What’s the hardest thing about cooking? TL: In terms of time and temperature, not knowing how long certain foods cook for the first time you make them and not communicating with some of your other partners. Say you have 100 people you’re catering for, and you have an hour and a half to cook something, and it burns on the stove. That’s the scary part, because you have to meet that deadline. I’ve had that happen a few times. Just quick thinking and don’t panic. Just create something new and re-do it all over. A lot of bad things can happen in the kitchen. Like I said, it’s all
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I’ve always come into work happy, and I like to see others happy.
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meena chetty & nikhil dilip
Tyrone Lockett
about teamwork and communication; no one man does it alone. It makes easier on everybody. As far as the amount of food we cook here, gives us less stress and makes us more happy. WP: What’s some advice you would give to a young person interested in cooking? TL: My advice is to stay focused and always be willing to try something. Don’t ever say, “I can’t do something.” Always be willing to learn. Sometimes in the food industry, you can overproduce or underproduce, so knowing how many people you’re cooking for is important. We have catering requests that come to us everyday. When we’re cooking for the students, we never want to run out, so we have to portion everything. We have to figure out, for example, how many vegetarians there are. When we start up school on Monday, we cook a high volume, and we count the plates so we know how many people ate the vegetarian food, so maybe the next day we cut back a little. But you also have to look at which items are popular and which aren’t. For example, chickpeas and steamed rice - a lot of vegetarians might want to go for that, Indian dishes especially. We look at the culture, too; that’s something we try to map out. Some days you might have one window way more popular than the others. What I try to do is run a grading scale, from 1 to 10. If I put a certain amount of food out, how much gets eaten by the end of the day? If I put out six pans of food and only two get eaten, I look to see
if I need to change the taste, experiment more with the ingredients. I try to learn the Indian culture, Northern Indian and Southern Indian cooking; I try to experiment with that, not to get a 2 on the scale but rather a 10. If it comes back a 9, we’ve done great. That’s part of what we do here. We’re going to be doing it so much more this year than ever, as far as trying to help the kids a lot more. We’re trying to give more veggie items to the vegetarians, because we want everything to be fair across the board. We want everybody to be happy. We want you guys to be the best you can be. WP: What’s the process that goes into creating a dish or a recipe? TL: First of all, we get the food from the vendor. We get the food out of the freezer and see if it’s fresh. Before it comes off the truck and before it gets onto the plates, I’ve got to check them. Make sure the food is right. Sometimes you might see on TV, some chicken or something that might have to get sent back, and they put a caution sign out for it. We pay close attention to that; we have to see where that food is coming from. That’s the number one check. Before we take anything off the truck, we check it with our vendors. We’ve got this laser device, where we point it at something, and it tells you how many degrees it is, see
Arjun Mehta (12)
This summer, Arjun Mehta worked at the CK-12 Foundation in Palo Alto, an organization that makes free textbooks for students. Most of his work was focused on providing input on the foundation’s work and participating in the creation of a tutoring website. As a young member of the team, Arjun helped the company cater to its desired audience. “I worked on a peer tutoring website and gave feedback to the staff on their products from a high school student’s perspective,” he said. Arjun decided to work for the foundation because it “helps students all over [gain access] to the textbooks they need,” he said. Overall, Arjun enjoyed doing his
Shiki Dixit (11)
Shiki Dixit spent his summer learning about cancer research and testing an assigned drug on tumors. “The internship was run by a senior scientist at Genentech,” he said. After learning about cancer “in depth,” Shiki and his peers were “given a program […] and made a report about a treatment.” The internship also included different lessons from scientists who had experience with creating and testing drugs, many of whom inspired Shiki to pursue an interest in biology. “The internship was really inspiring because [we met] a famous entrepreneur who made a [successful] life science company for ovarian cancer, and many knowledgeable Ph.D. scien-
WP: What’s normally the goal at the end of the day for the cooking staff ? TL: My goal is to make sure I have everything prepared for the next day, before I start up work again. Make sure everything is ready for the next day and the day after before I leave. Anything can happen on the job, someone can call in sick. If you didn’t prepare before, then that’s a lot of stress the day of. WP: Is the kitchen staff close to each other? TL: Yes, we try to be close to each other. We all come from different cultures, different people. We all try to communicate and build a relationship with each other. Sometimes on the outside, we try to do things together. Everybody has family, so that’s a challenge, but we try to be a team. A
WP: What’s something that people in our community wouldn’t know about you? TL: Maybe that I am from Louisiana. I’m very friendly, very outgoing. I’m the type of person who’s always looking out for other people. WP: If you could do anything other than cooking, what would you do? TL: I was always into catering on the side, but probably printing and banking again. I would like to do a lot of things. If I had to fall back into something, I would probably go into printing - I always loved printing newspapers. These days with the new technology, they kind of took over the industry. I started off cooking under my mother when I was 16, but I haven’t really thought much about what I would do other than cooking.
KACEY FANG - THE WINGED POST
tists who taught us about drug development.”
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The idea of being able to get firsthand experience in the field, instead of just reading about it from a book, seemed really cool to me.
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lifestyle editor
part to “help out other students [his] age.”
WP: What’s your favorite part about working here? TL: I’m here for the kids; I enjoy working for the kids. It’s a great environment. The people at Harker are great. I’ve always come into work happy, and I like to see others happy, see people with a smile on their face. I always try to stay positive.
lot of times we go out to a pool, a lot of people play ping-pong. They try to challenge with each other, and that turns out to be exciting. We go fishing together, bowling together. We do a lot of different things. When the interns come, sometimes we try to go out camping. They’re here only three months, and they don’t know parts of California, so I try to get them out on the weekends. What I do is outdoors, so they can see the mountains.
IN THE KITCHEN Lockett stands next to the oven in the Upper School kitchen. Originally from Louisiana, Lockett learned how to cook on Bourbon Street in New Orleans before embarking on his own 20-year culinary career.
Students explore broad range of interning options at summer research institutions samar malik
if it’s too warm or too cold. It’s got to be within a certain zone - we’ve got to either reheat and get it back up to a certain temperature or get rid of it.
Samantha Madala (11)
After the internship, Shiki has concluded that he is “interested in biology,” but is still unsure about a future in biotechnology.
Katia Mironova (12)
Katia spent two months interning at the Wildlife Center of Silicon Valley, a hospital where she helped staff care for various animals. “I fed the animals and changed their bedding and water,” she said. “[I also did] a lot of laundry and cleaning around the hospital itself.” She was involved in the care for various wildlife, including “finches, squirrels, ducks, seagulls, and opossums.” Her primary motivation for working at a wildlife hospital was to spend her summer serving the community in a unique way. “I just wanted to have an interesting job that would be fun and helpful,” she said. Katia’s favorite part of the internship was “holding the baby birds” at the Wildlife Center during her work to
help out animals in need of care.
Samantha Madala (11)
This summer, Samantha Madala interned at a Stanford neuroscience lab under the guidance of a mentor for two months. At first, she was told to gain “as much experience as possible in different aspects of work at the lab.” Later, however, she worked on studying brain activity in patients. “I [later] focused mostly on analyzing the electrical activity of neurons taken from patients with Dravet Syndrom: a disorder that causes pediatric epilepsy,” she said. She explained that the internship was appealing to her, as she had “always wanted to study neuroscience” and hoped to gain experience. “The idea of being able to get firsthand experience in the field, instead of just reading about it from a book, seemed really cool to me,” she said. Samantha’s work was her first step into the world of neuroscience, a subject she wishes to continue studying.
Backpack Stuffers
Get Fired Up
sheridan tobin & vedant thyagaraj opinion editor and tech editor As we dive into the new school year, it’s important to start it off right. To help you make this year your best one yet, The Winged Post has put together a list of back to school essentials to keep your studies organized, effective, and efficient.
While taking notes on a laptop may be more efficient to many people, actually writing out notes builds more muscle memory which helps with remembering the information. Additionally, some teachers don’t allow laptops in their classes, so in certain cases, handwritten notes are a must. Having a notebook for each class is an easy way to keep notes in order and in one place, whereas loose leaf paper is more likely to get torn or lost. Organized notes will come in handy when it’s time to study for tests and especially for finals. You will most likely need to write something in every class, so be sure to bring a supply of writing instruments. No one wants to be the kid who always needs to borrow a pen or pencil! Another great item to have is tracking software on laptops and mobile phones. Since so many laptops, tablets, and phones look the same, they are easily lost or mistaken for someone else’s. To avoid a permanent loss, Apple offers an application called “Find my iPhone” for its laptop computers and iPhones. This application allows students to find and locate their Apple gadgets from anywhere in the world. For Windows computers, there are many free programs that students can download to keep tabs on their laptop at all times. To avoid losing hours and hours of hard work in the case of an unforeseen computer crash, students should frequently back up documents to a USB or upload them to a cloud storage service such as Dropbox, Google Drive, Sugarsync, etc. Saving in multiple locations ensures that extra copies of documents will always be available, just in case.
Traditions and Superstitions anokhi saklecha reporter
Ever since she was a young kindergartener, sophomore Eesha Chona and her family have engaged in an annual photo-shoot tradition. On the first morning of a new school year, Eesha and her brother take a photo together in the same place, every year. “We take the pictures just right outside of my house right before we leave for school, in front of our garden,” Eesha said. The tradition not only has a ritualistic value, but also a sentimental one. “We do it for memory’s sake,” she said. “It makes me happy to see how far we’ve come from the beginning to the end of the year.” However, because her brother, Aneesh Chona (’13), will be attending college this fall, his role in the tradition has come to a finish. “Yeah, it’ll be a little weird without him there,” Eesha said. Taking pictures each year allows Eesha and her family to look back and document their growth and progress throughout childhood.
Chemistry teacher Robbie Korin heeds to a beginning-of-theyear tradition that he has had ever since his very own school years as a student. Every year, on the first day of school, Korin wears at least one new piece of clothing, whether it is a pristine tie, or a fresh pair of pants. “Growing up, my mom always made sure we went to school on the first day with new ‘school clothes’ so I guess I still do it because its best to make mom happy,” he said. According to Korin, as following this tradition also grants him good luck throughout the approaching year, over time, it has transformed into a personal superstition.
Ever since second grade, Rohith Bhethanabotla (12) has followed a long-held tradition of shooting basketball hoops on the morning of the first day of school. When he was younger, Rohith enjoyed basketball as a major extra curricular activity and team sport. However, as the years progressed, he eventually stopped playing, due to changing priorities. “I felt bad about quitting,” he said. “So, playing basketball on the first day of school represents pursuing something that I want to do in the coming year.” However, there is an added twist to this tradition. Each time Rohith swishes three shots in a row, he is given a fortunate occurrence during the upcoming year. “It’s a silly thing that I kept as a superstition,” he said. Thus, his tradition is not only a symbol of following a lost passion, but also a chance to encounter good luck during the year ahead.
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“Flame of knowledge l saying goes. The schoo wisdom in its many met to approach their educa brilliance. And just lik alike, the Upper School o for its students to e
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Welcome from Link Crew apoorva rangan managing editor
WP: Ho w has Li nk Crew chan ged ? Evan Barth: We have embroidered Li nk Crew shi rts now! But the core missi on hasn’t changed and it’s sti ll a program that features super energeti c kids to welcome the freshmen i n and, you know, i nvite them to the party.
WP: Wi ll you m i ss your ad vi s ory ? Savi J oshi (11): It works both ways. It’s not like I’m never goi ng to see my advisory agai n, so I’m goi ng to miss advisory but it’s not the end of the world. It’s sti ll a sacrifi ce I’d definitely make if I had the chance to do it over agai n. It’s great knowi ng the same ten people for four years, but it’s also ni ce to bond with another group. ALL PHOTOS APOORVA RAMGAM - WINGED POST
lights our way,” or so the ol song carries words of taphors, asking students ations with passion and ke how no two fires are offers a trove of treasures explore. Fire away!
LGBT Treatment Around the World
SPECIAL TO THE WINGED POST
global journalism project
GLOBAL
vivian lee & juliana chang Taipei American School
On June 26, the United States Supreme Court left an indelible mark on Californian history when they not only ruled DOMA (The Defense of Marriage Act) unconstitutional, but also decided not to pass Proposition 8, a state voter initiative which outlawed same-sex marriage. With the Supreme Court’s decision against the implementation of DOMA, the federal law which prevents same-sex couples from having equal legal status as heterosexual couples, the former will now be given the benefits and rights previously denied to hem. Currently, 13 states recognize same-sex marriages. However, this did beg the question, how do people spanning the globe feel about LGBT in their environments. For the inaugural edition of the Global Journalism Project, which is an ongoing collaboration between The Winged Post and several international schools, we asked the Taipei American School (TAS) about their views regarding the role of LGBT in their communities. The following article, written by TAS staff, illustrates their response to this topic. Walking along the corridors of TAS, there’s virtually no resemblance to a typical high school movie scene and it’s not just because the teachers are friendly and that we don’t have a football team. It’s because of how we deal with sexual orientation. Honestly, it’s hard to form an
“I DO” After 24 years together, Kay Knowles (left) and Megan Lovelace (right) were legally married by Santa Clara County supervisor Ken Yeager on July 26.
opinion here. It’s not that this issue is not prominent in the world today, but simply that in our little corner of the universe we haven’t been exposed to it. TAS students respect fellow classmates and teachers, regardless of orientation. While there are those who do judge others based on homophobic values, they are the ones targeted by the public, not the gays. In this school, “homophobic” is a worse thing to be than “gay”. The lack of a LGBTQ support group, or a Gay-Straight Alliance here on campus attests to the fact that there is virtually no conflict between people of varying orientations. The fact that sexual orientation doesn’t even become an interesting topic of discussion is a sign of true acceptance here at TAS. However, regardless of our acceptance of various sexual orientations, homophobic slurs still frequently populate student conversations. Phrases like “You faggot!” or “You’re so gay” open pop up in banter or jest. While the words aren’t used to discriminate
against gays, they are thrown will little discretion. Although these words are rarely used with hateful intent, it is still looked down upon on campus. The casual usage of these words will not necessarily lead to violence, but it doesn’t help the issue either. It’s important to keep in mind, this is an issue of ignorance, not hate. This year, our high school community book was “The Laramie Project”, which was a series of interviews conducted in a small town in Wyoming after an openly gay student, Matthew Shephard, was beaten and murdered, which resulted in a nationwide outcry against hate crimes. When the book was brought out, students were shocked by the brutality and hate with which Matthew Shepard was murdered. “Gay-hate crimes” were virtually a new concept to many students, especially those who have spent the majority of their lives at this school. The point of this community book was meant to teach students about
tolerance. However, I personally believe “tolerance” is the wrong word to be using here. Tolerance implies active suppression of discontent, as in “I’m tolerating your sexual orientation”. Instead of taking away “tolerance” from this book, I believe what our community should be striving towards is total indifference towards sexual orientation.
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One day, the concept of coming out of the closer will no longer exist, not because gays have disappeared, but because the closet has.
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AUGUST 30, 2013 the Winged Post
Vivian Lee, TAS (12)
I hope one day, “gay” and “straight” will hold no more weight as a descriptor than “blonde” or “tall”. Sexuality will no longer add or subtract from one’s person, but instead will only been seen as human trait. One day, the concept of coming out of the closet will no longer exist, not because gays have disappeared, but because the closet has.
Wanderer’s Words of Wisdom riya godbole TalonWP lifestyle & entertainment editor This past summer, several students opted to adventure on excursions across the globe. These are their tips on how to make any vacation as enriching of an experience as possible. 1.) “Don’t be scared to try everything, it’ll really pay off: YOLO. Plus, don’t stay too much at the hotel or resort, get out and explore the place.” – Wei Wei Buchsteiner (12) 2.) “No matter how cold the water is, go in and swim because it will be amazing.” – Aarti Kheskani (10) 3.) “Remember sunscreen, bug repellant and hair ties. Just kidding! It may be easy to just fall into a routine of just doing nothing and relaxing all day of the whole trip, which can be good on some days, but really take advantage of what you got. ” – Julia Wang (11) 4.) “If you bring a camera, don’t spend all your time behind it! Sure, take pictures, but take the time to immerse yourself in the environment. Not as an outsider, but as a part of nature. Appreciate every moment, from the quiet ambience of the morning, to the heart-racing chase after a leopard. Appreciate thecircle of life for when it just...is.” – Kenny Zhang (12)
alyssa amick TalonWP managing editor
As the jeeps bounced along the dusty dirt road, the students briskly scanned the tall grass for any sign of life. “It’s a lion!” All heads turned simultaneously to gaze in awe at the majestic animal. On July 24, 11 students and four chaperones embarked on a ten-day trip of a lifetime. One Health in Tanzania, designed by Science Department Chair, Anita Chetty, and Dr. Alexandra Kamins. After years of planning and research, the trip ultimately exceeded all of Chetty’s expectations. “You dream it all up, and you have very high expectations of how it’s going to go and it’s almost magical in your mind and it never meets your expectations,” Chetty said. “In this particularly case there were so many little things I dreamed that happened just the way I wanted that, overall, it was just my dream come true.” In addition to frequent game-drives filled with biology lessons and visiting various reserves such as Arusha and Serengetti National Park, the students also met with health professionals including a gynecologist and nurse at an AIDs clinic to learn about the medical situation in Tanzania. Currently, approximately six percent of Tanzanians have HIV. The number is smaller in urban areas, dropping to almost three percent. However, rural populations are much higher, up to 44 percent, due to lack of treatment according to the official website of the Tanzania government. Along with the biology side of the trip, three other students
joined for a chance to practice their photography and journalism skills abroad, led by head of school, Christopher Nikoloff. “I learned photography techniques and concepts in class, but I never really got a good chance to apply it until this trip,” said Jonathan Dai (10). “I feel like visiting the Masaai and meeting all the influential people broadened my perspective of the world and will make me a much better person in the future.” While in Tanzania, the students visited the Maasai tribe to learn about traditional culture and their lifestyle. Additionally, they donated toys to the local school and spent the morning playing soccer with the locals. Although overall the students enjoyed the experience, parts of it were new to them. “The most shocking part of the trip for me was when we went to fetch water and I saw what kind of water they drink,” said Lea Daran. “It was brown and there was animal manure surrounding the water, but that’s the only water they have.” Clean water is available to some in the cities. However, in the rural area where the Maasai live, the only water available comes from a pond that they use to drink and wash in that they share with animals. Prior to their trip, the group collected various prescription glasses. While visiting the village, they held an eye clinic, tested tribe members’ eyes, and distributed the proper prescription. “[My favorite part was] probably running the eye clinic,” said Parth Kothari (12). “I think the eye clinic just stood out to me just because of the value of our actions and the impact they could have.”
ALL PHOTOS BY ALYSSA AMICK - TALONWP
African Adventures: Photojournalism and Biology Trip
HARKER GONE WILD A feature of the students’ trip to Tanzania involved spotting the “Big Five,” which included the elephant, lion, giraffe, rhino, and Cape buffalo, in their natural habitats during “game-drives” to several national parks.
From the various new experiences, the eleven students learned lessons that could not have been taught in the classroom. “When we visited the Maas-
ai village, instead of being a clash of cultures, we were able to make it a blend of cultures, accepting what they had to offer us and giving what they needed, which was received with open arms,” said
Namrata Vakkalagadda (12). Chetty is planning another trip for next summer. She is collecting prescription eyeglasses and money to buy textbooks for Tanzanian children.
THE LANGUAGE CORNER FOCUS ON: Javanese (Indonesia) 1.) Jenengku - My name is
http://www.embassyofindonesia.org/about/natsymbols.htm
2.) Aku sampeyan - I love you 3.) Pangan - Food 4.) Persahabatan - Friendship 5.) Gesang - Life
Lifestyle
August 30, 2013 the Winged Post
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Students share summer travel experiences and tips
e c e e r G , i Santorin norm of SAT classes and accelerated courses this past summer by trotting around the globe. Excursions to foreign regions provided the perfect platform to sample an eclectic menu of food, whether it was Mallorcan paella or the Greek chicken souvlaki. “I’ve always loved Greek food, but in Greece I experienced it like I didn’t think was possible,” Aarti Kheskani said (10). “Everything was fresh from the salads to the chicken souvlaki, even the fast food.” New food types even led to new food obsessions. “I’ve only started liking seafood not too long ago, after I went to Spain. This time I tried a lot of different kinds of seafood. I have to say that this was some of the best food I’ve ever had in my life,” Wei Wei said. In addition to dabbling in foreign cuisine, students were able to witness the traditions of the lands they visited firsthand. Julia Wang (11), for instance, discovered Bora Bora’s burial rituals to be particularly fascinating. “When someone in the family passes, [they are buried] in the front
“Even though their customs were very different from the culture I was brought up in, everyone seemed very content with their lives. It really caused me to reflect on how fastpaced and impatient our own culture is,” he said. However, every trip had its own amusing memories. One such incident which particularly stuck out to Kenny
For musician John Mayer, writing new songs is almost as easy as breaking hearts. After around a one-year wait, Mayer has released his sixth album, Paradise Valley. Released on August 20, Paradise Valley is a hodgepodge of country, folk, rock, and the occasional jazz. It’s musically reminiscent of its predecessor, Born and Raised, but offers a more optimistic outlook in contrast to Mayer’s previous albums. Just like any other of his works, Paradise Valley presents nothing more than sappy tales of love and relationships. Mayer starts off with lead single “Wildfire,” setting the pace with upbeat claps and jazzy guitar riffs. Throwing on a pair of cowboy boots, he leans heavily towards country while mixing in some rock and pop in the album opener, singing “you and me been catching on like wildfire.” In contrast, first-released single “Paper Doll” introduces a laidback rhythm and sweet melody. The track is supposedly about his ex Taylor Swift – perhaps revenge for the country star’s “Dear John?” But whether or not “Paper Doll” is a rebuttal, Mayer proves that
his voice hasn’t lost its charm in this album standout. Almost everything except the two singles, unfortunately, just rolls downhill like tumbleweed. The album continues
Further down in the album, R&B artist Frank Ocean comes to the rescue by joining Mayer in the second part of “Wildfire,” bringing a breath of fresh air amidst the slowmoving album. Ocean flawlessly sings, “only a nascent trying to harness huge fire, out on the beach in the darkness starting bonfire,” in his signature voice. Mayer closes with “On the Way Home,” a positive and upbeat song. But then again, nothing exciting really stands out here. Singing love song after love song, Mayer is more or less the male version of TSwift. The songs drag on, leaving listeners yearning for something different. Overall, while Mayer’s country is a nice touch, Paradise Valley brings little to the table. Put simply, it’s nothing more than a collection of sappy, boring tunes – not really the paradise one would have imagined. The album deserves no more than a three-star rating. Electric Lady Studios
TalonWP webmaster
“Don’t be scared to try everyt thing, it’ll really pay off. Get ou Wei and explore the place.” – Wei Buchsteiner (12)
“No mat ter how cold is, go in and swim the water will be a mazing.” because it – Aa kani (10 rti Khes)
into a sy to just fall and “It may be ea ing nothing o d st ju f o e routin ole trip ay of the wh d ll a g in x la ill re memories w st e b e th t u [...] b ying loring and tr p x e m o fr e com (11) - Julia Wang new things.”
Bora B ora Is l and
Paradise Valley: John Mayer fails to please allison sun
Wise Travelers’ Words of Wisdom
with peaceful but dull ballades, including “Dear Marie,” “Badge and Gun,” and “Who You Love.” The lyrics lack originality, and the songs are easily forgettable. Featuring current girlfriend Katy Perry, “Who You Love” tells a boring story of settling down in plain words and ends with Perry’s annoying giggle. Though the two may be a good match in reality, their vocals clash in the harmony of this song.
“Appreci at quiet am e every moment , bience o f the mo from the heart-ra r cing cha se after a ning, to the be disap leo pointed if you do pard. Don’t ticular a n’t see a ni parworld an mal- simply app reciate th d circle o e f is.” – Ken life for what it ju s ny Zhan t... g (12)
films to look Fall Movies: Three out for this season elisabeth siegel copy editor
Prisoners
Directed by Denis Villeneuve, this thriller stars Hugh Jackman as father-turned-vigilante Keller Dover and co-stars Jake Gyllenhaal as Detective Loki. Dover’s young daughter Anna and her friend Joy both go missing one
afternoon. Dover panics and decides that he needs to take the matter into his own hands. Detective Loki heads the investigation for Anna and Joy, but the only lead he has is a broken-down RV parked on the street. Dover moves closer and closer to the line separating justice and vigilante-ism as he tries to ind the girls.
Romeo & Juliet
A modern-day reinvention of the classic Shakespearean tragedy, Romeo and Juliet once again takes place in Verona, Italy, but in the twenty-first century rather than in the sixteenth. Directed by Carlos Carlei, the movie stars Hailee Steinfeld as Juliet and Douglas Booth as her Romeo. Additionally, Holly Hunter is The
The Fifth Estate Director Bill Condon brings the national WikiLeaks phenomenon to big screens with The Fifth Estate. This drama based off of true events stars Sherlock actor Benedict Cumberbatch as Julian Assange, with Dan Stevens, Alicia Vikander, Daniel Bruhl, Laura Linney, and Anthony Mackie in supporting
Warner Bros. Pictures
Exposure to exotic locations, immersion in rich cultures, and experiences of a lifetime – all in one summer. From swimming with stingrays to jet skiing in Athens, several students decided to abandon the
took place while he distributed glasses to village members. “One very elderly woman decided to test out her newly received glasses. The word ‘sexy’ was bedazzled on the side of the frame. She decided to keep them. I thought that was hilarious,” he said. Aarti and her family had also connected with a remarkable café owner during her vacation, who, despite being from a vastly dissimilar background, had made an impact on her. “[He] just seemed genuinely happy to talk to us and see how we were enjoying the amazing food. He started to tell us about his wife[,] who was one of the chefs[,] and how they had been married for so long, never [becoming] tired of each other,” Aarti said. “It was just a really wonderful experience.” These excursions served other important purposes, though – enabling students to de-stress and reconnect with their families prior to the onslaught of school. “This will be one of the last vacations I will have before the start of my real life,” Wei Wei said. “That is why I tried to take in as much of the different cultures available to me, to enrich my cultural awareness, or something like that.” Julia, too, explained how, since both her sisters do not live with her anymore, it finding family time is rare and difficult. “This trip has allowed us to be united again, and just being family makes [it] so memorable and fun,” she said. This journey to new countries ultimately allowed students to immerse themselves win a plethora of various cultures, customs, foods, and people, all essential elements of journeys and memories which will last a lifetime.
Nurse, Ed Westwick is Tybalt, Kodi Smit-McPhee is Benvolio, and Paul Wesley is Count Paris. The movie was shot in Mantua, Italy, as well as in studios in Rome. The adaptation was written by the same screenwriter of wildly popular TV shows, namely Downton Abbey. Many critics consider the acclaimed film to be a way for a younger generation to fully appreciate the timeless work.
roles. According to MovieInsider, the movie is said to be based off of “Inside WikiLeaks: My Time with Julian Assange at the World’s Most Dangerous Website” by Daniel Domscheit-berg and “WikiLeaks: Inside Julian Assange’s War on Secrecy” by David Leigh and Luke Harding. Condon hopes for the film to enrich conversation.
Walt Disney Studious
TalonWP lifestyle editor
yard,” Julia said. “I thought it was very interesting but cool how much they honor family.” In addition to jumping, shimmying, and singing throughout the traditional Maasai welcoming dance, Kenny Zhang (12) was exposed to the jarringly different lifestyles of the Tanzanian tribe, noticing how the Maasai males not only had to participate in comingof-age ceremonies, but were also allowed to have multiple wives.
Echo Lake Entertainment
riya godbole
Release Dates - Mark Your Calendar Prisoners Romeo & Juliet The Fifth Estate October
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LIFESTYLE
AUGUST 30, 2013 the Winged Post
Sweaters with detail
Forget about plain sweaters this fall and add some detail to your sweaters. With gems, lace, and studs, a plain sweater turns into a chic statement piece. Besides being chic, detailed sweaters can be worn with skirts as well as jeans for a simpler style. If you do not want to throw out your knitted or Keep this season’s colors in mind when looking for these stylish sweaters. A knit version of a detailed sweater is available at H&M for $18.
ayushi gautam reporter
“What about fall fashionw are you looking forward to?” “I’m looking forward to wearing more neutral colored clothing.” - Mabel Luo (12)
Flare Skirt
Straight Jeans
This fall, consider fitted jeans the definition of “essential” in your fashion book because this truly staple item is coming back with a bang. When aiming for an edgier look, opt for a leather jean with a plain top. If you like to have a feminine touch in your outfit, try a leather jean that is color-blocked. For this back-to-school season, Nordstrom has a $10 discount on junior’s jeans.
Whether it is pleated or straight, a flair skirt always gives a sense of sophistication as well as a pop of color. Bright colors of leather flair skirts are the most chic versions this fall.To top this look off, wear a loose shirt with minimal detail so that more attention is given to the skirt.Skirts are avilable at Forever 21 for $15 and u.
Ankle Boots
“I’m looking forward to wearing bright and vibrant buttondown shirts.” - Nathan Dhablania (12)
The ankle boot is an utmost necessity for this back-to-school season.Choose a studded black leather version of this boot this year. Pair these fabulous shoes with a mini skirt or leggings and never wear these with bootcut jeans. Almost all department stores such as Macy’s and Nordstrom carry ankle boots for the fall.
Back-to-School Fashion: The Essentials
Casual Sweatshirts Plaid Shirts
Although finding school-appropriate shirts can be a daunting task for some boys, finding a plaid shirt will make shopping seem easier since this item of clothing is so versatile. Almost all colors of this classic shirt are in style now and will be for a very long time. H&M carries checkered shirts for $30
Since one cannot be formal all the time, a casual sweatshirt is a staple item in every boy’s closet. Even though this item is simple, it gives a relaxed look without appearing to be disheveled. At the same time, you can wear this sweatshirt with almost any shirt and pant. A grey casual
Verastile Shoes
Instead of wearing sneakers everyday, buy a pair of versatile shoes in subtle colors that can match with any outfit. Also, try to find a pair of these shoes with laces. Retail stores such as Vans, Journeys, and Macys sell multiple versions of these versatile shoes.
“Sweatshirts [...] and collared shirts.” - Sachin Peddada (11)
“I’m excited to wear beanies as the cold weather comes in.” - Sarah Tien (9)
“I’m excited to stop wearing uniforms.” - Srivatsav Pyda (9)
Remember when...
August 30, 2013
LIFESTYLE
Students share favorite moments and memories from the past few months mariam sulakian TalonWP news editor
“I loved being able to walk to my friend’s houses whenever I felt like it.” - Avni Barman (11)
ng] at the “I loved [worki er Camp Harker Summ s.” with 2nd grader (10) n lia -Namitha Vel
moable ld be r o ou mem ost mmer w irection m “My this su One D ends.” t e ri men g to th h my f 10) t n i goi cert w Najibi ( con Mar y -
“A memorable moment was was taking the night train from Berlin to Zurich in a first class sleeper.” - Marc Hufnagl
“Driving to the bea ch with A Samir, an rjun, d Sravan w here we p football in layed the sand, drank Mo tain Dew u , and buil t a sandca n- Adarsh stle.” Battu (12 )
“The most memorable part of my summer was visiting Huntington Beach with my family.” - Christina Andrus (11)
Samartime eat, drink, and be healthy.
my part of le b a r o d ost mem the Dea “ The m as floating on ack from rw camel b ael and summe a g in id r Isr Sea and veled to a r t I n he Petra w Jordan.” 12) ( a Bisla - Kiann -
“My most memorab ment was le motaking a g host tour in old tow n Sa - Smriti K n Diego.” oodanjeri
Four quick and easy breakfast ideas for school ashwini iyer reporter
By just covering a tortillas with peanut butter and sliced strawberries and bananas with just a sprinkle of cinnamon, you can enjoy a fancy and nutritious breakfast sandwich in
Oatmeal is well known for not being very flavorful, but this will leave you and your taste buds happy. The dish has up to twenty grams of protein and will
provide you with more than enough energy to keep you sharp as you plow through those early morning tests. Add milk, almonds, ginger, flaxseed, or yogurt for more flavor.
If you are in the mood for something you can take on the go, a breakfast smoothie is the answer to your prayers. A It is prepared by mixing unsweetened raspberries, almond or rice milk, honey, ginger, flax seeds
and lemon juice. According to Prevention Food Director Lori Powell, this smoothie is the best choice for students because it provides the body with the detoxying enzymes and digestive stimulation it needs.
nola or oatmeal, honey and your favorite yogurt. Some whole grain, low sugar cereal can also serve as a substitute if you do not happen to have any granola at hand. also quite appealing to the eye.
the comfort of your own home. It is recommended that you prepare this dish with corn tortillas instead of those made with flour. The vitamin C in this meal will assist immune system function.
All Images Special to the Winged Post
If you are craving a sweet but healthy option for breakfast, the parfait is the way to go. You can make it in just five short minutes by layering raspberries, blueberries, bananas and strawberries together with some gra-
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the Winged Post
Around 8th period is when I begin to weigh my options for an afternoon snack. Lunch was just a couple hours ago, but something small can’t hurt, right? Snacking has become commonplace in many of our daily routines. We reach for various food items as mid-morning, after school, and after practice snacks. These “mini meals” have the potential to add up and cause imbalances in our daily diet and often provide short-lived satisfaction. To avoid overdoing the snacks, try moving away from mindless munching and learn to treat your snacks as meals. Sit down and focus on your food; be fully aware of what and how much you’re eating. Don’t eat food directly out of the package; pour your food into a bowl, then put the bag away. This allows you to control portion sizes and actually see how much you’re eating: a small bowl of chips is better than several “small” handfuls. When you’re faced with a heavy craving for a snack, drink water or milk to help mitigate the feeling. Having a healthy beverage before snacks and meals can help you control your appetite and prevent bloating from overeating. I’ve found that I do most of my unhealthy snacking at night when my sweet tooth starts to kick in, though brushing my teeth earlier has helped me avoid mindless eating late at night. Having larger breakfasts can provide more energy throughout the day, taking away the temptation of sugary snacks. Now of course, there are several ways to turn the tables in your favor - proper snacking can give you sustainable energy to tide you over until your next meal. Healthy fats, high-protein foods, whole grains, and fruits and vegetables are staple snack items that will satiate your appetite. Opt for nuts or seeds to keep your hunger at bay; their crunchy texture won’t leave you feeling deprived of the crisp touch of potato chips. Avocado with salt, pepper, and lime provides you with enough fiber and flavor to keep you satisfied. Frozen fruits seem to be more filling and have more flavor, while the cold temperature reminds you to eat slowly. When it comes to on-thego snacks, read the labels of anything from the store and keep your pantry well-stocked. Greek yogurt with fruit is an excellent source of protein and serves as a better alternative to traditional fruit yogurts, or try bringing along nuts in a small plastic bag to have throughout the day. Nutrition bars can be beneficial to a balanced diet and can keep hunger in check - look for bars that offer more fiber, less sugar, and a sufficient amount of protein to keep you full. Melons and berries are low calorie foods to snack on - as an added bonus, they’re a great way to keep cool on hot days. Snacking is important to keep your body fueled and energized throughout a long day. Arguably, the largest issue with snacking is that we’re not always aware of how much we’re eating, not to mention that the freedom of having various options to choose from for snacks opens the door to unhealthy temptations and cravings. Cutting out snacks entirely can lead to spiked hunger which, in turn, will lead to excessively heavy meals. Instead, set parameters for when you do choose to snack, and be sure to choose foods that will provide you with prolonged energy and benefit your body.
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SPORTS
AUGUST 30, 2013 the Winged Post
Shreya Dixit (11) Volleyball
Eric Holt (11) Basketball
mariam sulakian
TalonWP news editor
STATISTICS: • total kills: 456 • total solo blocks: 57 • total blocks: 107 • total aces: 104 Shreya was the WBAL MVP in 2011 and missed the MVP vote in 2012 by one vote. In 2012, Shreya was selected as the Harker Volleyball’s player of the year.
“Even though he often gets mad on the court, he’s always trying to improve himself and everyone else around him. He’s a good player and even better teammate, often giving advice to us,” said teammate Nick Nguyen (11). “Eric’s really dedicated and he’s a real leader on our team. He more or less just helps bring our team together and become a family,” said teammate John Hughes (12). STATISTICS: • overall score: 18-8 • overall league score: 11-3 • average points per game: 8.0 • average rebounds per game: 6.1
ALL PICTURES HARKER JOURNALISM
“Shreya is well on her way to being a D1 college volleyball player. She has worked extremely hard this summer to improve as an athlete and as a volleyball player. She attended most every team workout throughout the summer and played on a high level club volleyball team that traveled to Dallas, Texas for Junior Olympics. She has committed herself to be the best player she can for Harker and beyond,” said Theresa “Smitty” Smith, Head Varsity Volleyball Coach.
Eric was Player of the Game for five games: Harker vs. Mills, King’s Academy, Menlo, Kamehameha Maui, and Tennyson.
Week-long trip spent for team bonding mercedes chien design editor
The warm breeze, towering palm trees, and undulating waves surrounded the girls as they tirelessly went about serving, setting, and hitting with their feet sinking into the soft sand. Such practice was an anomaly compared to the waxed gym floor and white walls, in which they started preseason in on August 14. The Varsity girls’ volleyball team travelled to Maui from August 18 to 23 for training and team bonding. On Monday morning, the team practiced beach volleyball with Seabury Hall’s Varsity Volleyball players, giving them an opportunity to play against different teams besides those in the Bay Area. For the remainder of the trip, the girls practiced every morning in Seabury Hall’s gymnasium, ending with scrimmages against two other teams on Thursday
afternoon. These morning practices served as the team’s “double days,” a term coined for preseason training that entails two practices a day. The girls would then have the day to themselves after practice. Many opted to relax on the beach, watch movies, or make friendship bracelets—an activity that epitomized the essence of the trip. For instance, each team member made bracelets for one another during leisure time. Unlike last season’s sans-seniors team, this year’s squad comprises four seniors, two juniors, and six sophomores and will be led by seniors Divya Kalidindi and Mercedes Chien and junior Shreya Dixit. This excursion allowed the team to renew and strengthen bonds with both old and new team members, respectively. “My favorite part was waking up early and watching the sunrise
and then going to breakfast together as a team—that was nice,” Christina Wong (12) said. Similarly, Shannon Richardson’s (10) most memorable moment was swimming in the ocean with the team. “The trip helped out our chemistry in a sense that we are now starting where we left off last year. I’m looking forward to a long season with everyone because I know it will be amazing, no matter what,” she said. Last season, the team ended their season at CCS Semifinals, losing to Harbor in four sets. Head Coach Theresa “Smitty” Smith mainly attributed the trip as a last chance for the seniors to participate in this unique experience. Typically, the team would organize a small weekend outing before the start of school for team bonding. This year, however, Smitty and Assistant Coach Yagmur Ilgen felt that a trip to Maui
PROVIDED BY GIRLS VOLLEYBALL
Varsity volleyball ends the summer basking in the Maui sun
VOLLEYBALL The team jumps to take a fun photo during their trip in Maui. The girls spent six days and five nights in Kihei, Maui to practice volleyball and bond with one another.
would significantly benefit the team and influence their performance on the court. “Volleyball is a game of trust and this trip really helped develop that sense of trust,” Ilgen said. Six years ago, the 2007-2008 sea-
son, marked the debut of such bonding outing, ending that season as NorCal Champions. The team officially begins its season on September 5 against Notre Dame-Belmont at 5:45 P.M. in the Blackford gym.
Varsity boys basketball wins Championship With only a few minutes remaining on the clock, both teams continued to battle ferociously for the ball, one fighting to close the 41 point gap, the other attempting to widen it. The buzzer sounded and cheers vibrated through the crowd as Harker won the Evergreen Valley Summer League Tournament, 66-25. The Varsity Boys were one of 16 varsity teams from the South Bay to compete in the tournament, which allows teams to play basketball in a game setting even though the actual season has not begun yet. The tournament was held at Evergreen Valley High School between June 10th to July 11th. The tournament consisted of a series of 11 games. The boys were able to beat the third place team in the division with a 20 point lead, but the games got closer as they moved up the ladder. The pressure to win can be extremely high for athletes, especially at a tournament with such highly ranked teams and most players attribute their success to keeping a calm composure. “Some games were close, but we held back our anxiety and handled the situation well, which led us to where we are,” said Kevin Su (11). The semifinal round against Independence High School, seeded first in the division, was neck-to-
neck for the majority of the game. The Eagles won the game by six points with free throws, by Nicholas Nguyen (11) and Justin Yen (11), at
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This was an incredible reward for the players and coaches Butch Keller, Varsity Boys Head Coach
the end. In the last of 11 games, the boys beat Silver Creek High School to secure the Championship title. “Winning this tournament was especially nice for our team because very few people expected it,” said Butch Keller, Varsity Boys Head Coach.. “The simple keys to our success were team defense, intensity, and
PROVIDED BY BOYS BASKETBALL
TalonWP sports editor
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roshni pankhaniya
FIERCE AND FORCEFUL The Varsity Boys Basketball pose for a photo following their win against Silver Creek High School, securing the Championship. The boys competed in the Evergreen Valley Summer League Tournament between June 10th and July 11th. They played 11 games before finishing with a 41 point lesd at the finals.
working together offensively.” In addition to Keller, coaches Mark Collins, Gary Stepan, and Joe Roan, were always there for the team and never missed a practice or game. “This was an incredible reward for the players and coaches for their dedication to each other over the summer,” said Keller. Qualification for the tournament was based on games played during the previous season. With only one loss during their regular season, the boys placed second in West Bay League Athletics Division
4, making them eligible for the tournament. The tournament is completely separate from league games played during the regular season “but is great for practice and building team chemistry,” according to Srivinay Irrinki (11). “I think we will have a great year because this is the first time Harker has ever won a summer league championship,” said Eric Holt (11) team captain. “This tournament win will also give our team the confidence it needs in order to compete for both a League and CCS title.”
The Eagles played the games without the previous season’s seniors, but still continued to prevail. “Losing the seniors takes away a lot of the leadership on the team, but every other player on thew team is capable of stepping up and filling those roles,” said Srivinay. The boys will be continuing their preseason preparation throughout the fall, with league games starting on November 26. This win could be one of many on their way to securing a CCS championship.
Sports
AUGUST 30, 2013 the Winged Post
First Game: Mercy (9/13/13) Most Anticipated Game: Castilleja and Sacred Heart Prep
Seniors: Sahithya Prakash, Ariana Shulman, Dora Tzeng, Sandra Yin First Game: Carlmont (9/10/13)
Seniors: Mercedes Chien, Divya Kalidindi, Renu Singh, Christina Wong
ADVAITA KANAKAMEDALA - TALON
Boys Water Polo
Seniors: Lea Daran, Anna Levine
Seniors: Allen Cheng, Albert Chu, Karan Kurbur, Sean Pan, Stephan Pellissier
First Game: Notre DameFirst Game: Mountain Belmont (9/15/13) View (9/19/13) Most Anticipated Game: Most Anticipated Sacred Heart Prep, Game: Senior Night Menlo, Presentation, and St. Francis
First Game: Wilcox (9/6/13)
STACEY CHAO - TALON
APURVA GORTI - WINGED POST
REGINA CHEN - TALON
Most Anticipated Game: Most Anticipated Game: Homecoming! Leage Championships (11/8/13) (9/27/13)
Seniors: Connie Li, Kristine Lin
Girls Water Polo
Hiking: Four trails in the Bay Area to try out vedant thyagaraj & emily lin
tech editor & reporter
Got nothing to do this weekend? Want to go out hiking in the beautiful California sun and enjoy some fresh air? Many people enjoy hiking because it gives them a time to relax and “destress.”
Others work hard to keep themselves fit and enjoy the amazing views. “I like hiking in Rancho because you get to see the beautiful scenery and having fresh air helps me decompress after a hard day,” said Zabin Bashar (10). Well, bring water, a bottle of sunscreen, and this useful guide to your next weekend’s hiking spot!
Stanford Dish Dubbed the “Dish,” this route is a very popular one due the magnificent scenery. You can only see the lush green plants and grass covering the sides of the trail. The Dish offers a relatively flat paved trail but does have steep climbs at certain points. At the top, you will enjoy views of Stanford, the foothills, and even the San Francisco Bay Area.
Mission Peak Fremont’s Mission Peak Regional Preserve is one of the most popular trail destinations in the Bay Area, attracting hundreds of hikers and bikers daily. The 3-mile Hidden Valley main trail is of moderate difficulty, but does not offer much shade. The 6-mile Horse Heaven trail, which is relatively unknown, is a rocky single-single steep track that attracts far fewer hikers than the main trail.
Rancho San Antonio Whether you want to go for a hike, a stroll, or an intense run, Rancho San Antonio offers a multitude of trails to choose from. Those who want take a pleasant walk might choose to take the trail to the Deer Hollow Farm. This trail is relatively flat and doesn’t challenge the body as much. For passionate athletes, Rancho’s PG&E trail (8 miles uphill) w i l l truly test your endurance.
STACEY CHAO - TALON
First Game: UNR Twilight Invitational in Sparks, NV (9/7/13)
Seniors: Adarsh Battu, Nathan Dhablania, Adithram Rengaramchandran, Vikram Naidu, Samir Chaudhry, Arjun Kumar, Kevin Moss, Chris Zhang
Girls Tennis Girls Volleyball
APURVA GORTI - WINGED POST
First Game: James Lick (9/6/13)
Seniors: Rahul Sridhar, Claudia Tischler
Girls Golf
Los Gatos Creek Trail A 9.7 mile trail open to walkers, joggers, bikers, skaters, and bladers, Los Gatos Creek Trail passes by a reservoir. It extends from Lexington Reservoir near Los Gatos all the way to Meridian Avenue down in San Jose. This trail definitely does have some pleasant scenery along the way; however, across the trail, some buildings from a shopping mall complex can be seen.
APURVA GORTI - WINGED POST
Seniors: Nikkan Ghosh, Maneesha Panja
Football
ADVAITA KANAKAMEDALA - TALON
Cheerleading Cross Country
REGINA CHEN - TALON
APURVA GORTI - WINGED POST
Fall Preview
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AUGUST 30, 2013 the Winged Post
TECH
Surveillance: Orwellian or innocuous? NSA holds immense database with telephone metadata and online digital information shay lari-hosain No, you may not be the only one reading your texts, checking your Facebook messages, or listening to your Skype calls. As brought into the spotlight by former contractor Edward J. Snowden, the National Security Agency (NSA) has been furtively monitoring and intercepting global internet traffic and telephone records in the post-9/11 era. The Wall Street Journal reported on August 20th that the NSA is capable of accessing over three-quarters of all domestic internet traffic at any given time. The clandestine surveillance of foreign information has been authorized under Section 215 of the Patriot Act and Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act. However, as reported by Glenn Greenwald of The Guardian in an ongoing series, the NSA has acknowledged that they are only 51 percent confident that a potential target is indeed a foreigner. The online series, “Greenwald on Security And Liberty,” also revealed that the NSA has deployed four primary systems for procuring and monitoring both foreign and domestic online traffic: A leaked PowerPoint presentation details how the PRISM (Planning tool for Resource Integration, Synchronization & Management) program aggregates and analyzes data from prominent tech firms’ servers, including those of Google, Facebook, Apple and Microsoft, which now owns video communications service Skype. Another measure, dubbed “XKeyscore,” permits analysts to sift through the NSA’s gargantuan database of intelligence without requiring a warrant. The XKeyscore database amasses the largest amount of communications data out of all the NSA information gathering programs. Information that can be viewed includes online chats and private messages, emails, and even browsing history. The applica-
SHAY LARI-HOSAIN - WINGED POST
reporter
SURVEILLANCE Critics of the NSA program believe the measures encroach on privacy. Supporters claim that the benefits in national security will outweigh these drawbacks.
tion is user-friendly and only involves completing a simple form with search keywords. Finally, a secret court order mandates that Verizon, a dominant telecommunications company in the United States, provide all telephone metadata to the NSA. Metadata comprises of call duration and time, the phone numbers involved, and potentially the location of both phones, but not the actual audio. In addition, centers stationed near fiber optic lines and internet junctions intercept packets of data, duplicate them, and then store them. According to a feature by Wired. com in March 2012, the NSA has commissioned the construction of a $2 billion server center in Bluffdale, Utah to house the vast amount of information acquired by all the programs. Yet, the data center’s supercomputers will also serve another purpose: decrypting confidential digital information, which includes financial transactions as well as diplomatic and military secrets. Snowden’s revelations have ignited a worldwide controversy over the necessity of the NSA’s actions. Critics of the programs question whether our privacy is being relinquished because of a lack of political oversight, while others doubt the
legitimacy of the justification for the surveillance programs’ existence at all. Oisin Coveney (10) is one such person. He contends that bulk collection of all Americans’ data is futile for national security interests, saying irrelevant information should be securely destroyed. “[The] use of secret courts to change the definition of the [Fourth] Amendment is ridiculous, and using these courts to justify the use of surveillance is completely against everything the government says about protecting us,” he said. “If the government was more transparent about how they are collecting data and used it to defend the country, I would be fine with that. However, with the way the government is reacting to whistleblowers such as Snowden and Manning, they are showing that they have something to hide.” Similarly, Nicky Semenza (12) believes that, as the government cannot search physical property without warrants, the same should be true for virtual environments. “There’s no probable cause for [the programs]; just because [digital information] is not physical doesn’t mean that it’s not private and personal property,” he said. Proponents of the surveillance
are content with what they believe is a minute sacrifice of their personal privacy for national security purposes. At a White House press conference on August 9, President Obama conceded that while some may be apprehensive about the prospect of the NSA exploiting their sensitive information, the data will not be abused. Mohnish Shah (10) agrees that Americans need not be perturbed, since the government is the only entity with access to consumer data. “[The programs] help catch criminals and stop crimes before they happen,” he said. “[Our] information isn’t publicly known, so the entire world doesn’t know what you say and do. In that sense this information is still, in a way, private.” On June 7 at the Fairmont Hotel in San Jose, Obama also addressed the choices that need to be made to keep America safe. “You can’t have 100 percent security and then also have 100 percent privacy and zero inconvenience,” he noted. For many, the surveillance measures are just that, an mere inconvenience. “I think [the unease] is something of a natural [initial] reaction; I don’t really have secrets,” said Sachin Peddada (11). Nikita Parulkar (11) echoed these sentiments but maintained that the NSA is violating American citizens’ Fourth Amendment rights. “It makes me a little bit uncomfortable that the government is able to track my online activity,” she said. “I’m willing to sacrifice my basic information for national security, but super personal information is something I would not want the government to know about.” The American public, in the end, has to consider: do we want the government to have this data? Will it make our lives more secure? Or are the NSA’s actions more reminiscent of the oppressive regime of George Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984?
ALL PHOTOS - GOOGLE
Google Glass: Fashionable or obscure?
WEARABLE COMPUTING Google Glass, which resembles a pair of glasses, is Google’s first attempt at wearable computing devices. The gadget attempts to perform some of the normal functions of a smartphone, such as taking pictures, shooting video, replying to a text message, and getting directions, but all hands-free and voice-controlled.
samar malik lifestyle editor Google’s Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt said it himself: using the Google Glass interface is “the weirdest thing.” But, can we really dub the quaint new piece of technology abnormal? Sure, according to Charles Arthur of The Guardian, one of many Glass “explorers”, the device looks like something out of Star Trek. Not to mention that everyone around you gets to hear you talk to yourself as you use the device’s voice recognition capabilities, all while staring at the strange titanium frame resting above your ear. In fact the device is asymmetrical, with one side weighing more than the other.
Mary Najibi (10) agrees with this sentiment, stating the device “isn’t very flattering” adding that Google Glass “isn’t really necessary.” Alexandra Petri from The Washington Post describes that the device makes “social interaction weird” because you are constantly “tapping the side of your face” to try and activate Glass. Similar wearable computing eyewear has already created buzz, like GlassUp: a cheaper alternative to Google Glass. Sites like techradar and Bloomberg have picked up on recent rumors regarding an upcoming Apple wristwatch. These devices open a new door of possibilities for future technology. With Glass, Google is propelling us into the future; a future filled
with in-your-face gadgets that do away with the obsolete days of desktop computers and wired telephones. With wearable technology like Google Glass, customers are learning to adapt to advanced approaches to the basic, everyday things they do, whether it is checking emails, looking for directions, or sending text messages. Arman Mortazavi (12) agrees that technology like Google Glass reveals a promising future. “It’s amazing to see how far technology has come and I can’t wait to see how these glasses impact our world,” he said. Still, Arman does agree that “it’s odd seeing people walk around with glasses that aren’t meant for vision.” The Guardian’s Charles Ar-
thur, however, explains that “for the ordinary person,” Glass seems a bit unnecessary. As of now, perhaps implements like Google Glass remain useful to only a select group of people. He argues that “the tool tries to shape us, reminding us that we should be Googling at all times, taking part in Google Hangouts, getting directions from Google Maps.” Google Glass is appealing, to say the least, to many different consumers who can push past the current price tag, which according to National Public Radio, costs 1500 dollars. Strange as it may be as an everyday addition to your wardrobe, the few niches it may find are only the beginning of a wide scale upgrade of what it means to be “tech-savvy.”
“Tech” Talk With Thyagaraj
vedant thyagaraj tech editor With two of the world’s most powerful and well-known tech titans brutally fighting against each other, the real issue at hand is not what the outcome of the litigation will be but rather what will happen to creativity. Let me explain. Since August 2011, Apple and Samsung have been suing and involving each other in a multitude of litigation cases. This war has been centered around the design of mobile devices and tablet computers, in which both companies play an active role. Apple began the feud when it sued Samsung for infringing on its intellectual property (patents, trademarks, and user interface). Samsung then countersued saying that Cupertino had violated some of the South Korean giant’s patents. After a series of court cases, the jury awarded Apple $1.05 billion in damages which would be fined against Samsung. More than that, this would prevent Samsung from selling an array of its popular smartphones in the U.S., giving Apple a massive competitive edge. As a normal bystander sitting and watching these events transpire, what’s going on in my mind? Are patents truly doing their job of protecting novel ideas from being stolen? Or are they being misused simply to make money and prevent competition? These days, so many things are getting patented. For example, take the “Slide to Unlock” feature that most iPhones and Android phones use. Apple, who initially introduced this feature, sued Samsung and Google back in 2012 over their adoption of this mechanism to unlock phones, which, according to Apple, violated its patent. Really? Many feel such a small thing like this should not be patented, as it is so simple and elementary. Patenting what is possibly the only way to unlock touch-screen phones creates unfair competition. And regarding the litigation between Apple and Samsung: was the former truly suing Samsung because it had been “copycatting” its infamous iPhones and iPads? Or was Apple frightened by the rapid adoption of popular Samsung phones and tablets? Well, unfortunately, there is no clear-cut answer. But if today is merely the world of “copy-cats,” with many people simply stealing the brilliant ideas of one another, what will happen in the future? Eventually that one source of creativity will be extinguished, as it realizes others are not there to provide healthy competition, but rather to steal all its ideas. The world will lack great ideas in the future. Innovation will die out. Is this what we want? And the issue of creativity and copying another’s ideas: this is not just an issue in the corporate world, but is also heavily applicable to us, as students. For example, one student puts together a very creative history presentation that leaves the other students and teacher gazing in awe. Because that presentation was so successful, should students go ahead and use the same format? Instinct might tell us, “No that is plagiarism.” But it is a method of guaranteed success! Each student is extremely capable of producing their own work and making it successful. When they see one of their peers producing a marvellous work, they should definitely learn from it, but more importantly, they should take it a step further and create their own piece, instead of outrightly copying the other students’ ideas. Only then will creativity abound and will more brilliant works be produced. Right now the whole system of patents is a mess. Instead of doing what its meant for, it’s only stifling creativity. This needs to be changed. Soon.
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Tech
AUGUST 30, 2013 the Winged Post
Think green: Five easy ways to be environmentally friendly
App Spotlight
vasudha rengarajan
vivek bharadwaj reporter
Talon WP features editor With the California sun shining brightly this balmy summer, an increasing number of residential communities have implemented new energy-saving techniques. Spurred by global scares about the disintegrating environment, increasingly large national carbon footprints, and alarming energy use, companies have begun to generate a steady output of environmentally friendly products, including appliances in the household to save energy during the hot summer months.
ALL PHOTOS VASUDHA RENGARAJAN - TALONWP
Cooling Systems Much of energy guzzling costs this summer stemmed from the need to beat the heat, particularly during peak afternoon hours. Advocating against the continual use of air conditioning throughout the entire household, several green initiatives advised that people open their windows for fresh air and use fans for circulation. Some students found that staying on lower levels of a building may also help keep cool, citing the fact that hot air rises. “We don’t turn on the air conditioning, and we don’t use as many lights because of additional heat and because there’s natural light for most of the day, in comparison to winter,” Savi Joshi (11) said. Simple activities such as ventilating cars, using sun reflectors, and parking in the shade also contribute to conserving energy by avoiding the use of automated cooling systems while dealing effectively with heat. Wasteful energy spending can be cut from other areas of domestic life. Laundry appliances expend an unnecessary amount of energy on heating clothes, hiking up energy bills. Washing clothes in cold water and turning water heaters down prevents energy wastage. During the summer months,
KhanAcademy
SAVING ENERGY There are many simple ways in which energy can be conserved. Fans can be used instead of AC whenever possible and electronics not in use can be plugged out. Also, using energy efficient light bulbs and solar panels can greatly help reduce energy consumption.
automatic dryers can also be avoided by drying clothes in the sun.
time to leisurely commute from one place to another.
Avoiding Overuse of Electronics Some Upper School students chose to save energy by unplugging unused appliances, taking advantage of natural lighting, and reducing wasteful usage of vehicles. “In the house, we make sure all the lights are off, and the air conditioning isn’t running while we aren’t there,” Eesha Chona (10) said. She also mentioned her use of alternative transportation. “Over the summer, instead of driving to Starbucks every day, I make sure to walk there instead.” Others used summer as an opportunity to break routines and venture away from the usual. “I bike a lot to places that are easily reachable with a car,” Shiki Dixit (11) said. “I also watch my light usage, although I might actually be guilty of using my fan too much.” Many students found summer to be a more convenient time to use alternate means of transport, with more
Alternative Energy Sources The developing renewable energy industry now employs techniques to use fewer resources to supply energy, cutting costs for existing technologies such as solar panels and LED lights. Upper School parent Venkatesan Murali, Vice President of Engineering at Twin Creeks Technologies, a company recently acquired by GT Advanced Technologies, explained the cost-cutting benefits of thinner and more pliable silicon wafers in solar panels. “Solar energy adoption rate is limited by cost per watt. Dramatic cost reduction depends primarily on lowering material or manufacturing costs and improve panel efficiency,” he said. “Our company developed a breakthrough technology that reduces the amount of silicon used by 95 percent.” The use of renewable energy is not limited to only residential and commercial interests. The United
States military has begun to utilize pliable solar-powered mats as an alternative to bulky batteries used to power radios and other electronics. Using traditional fuels increases risk of injury on the field because of their flammable properties, and seems to be a less attractive option as environmental fears loom overhead. International governmental powers anticipate a large increase in the adoption of energy conserving and environmentally friendly systems on a worldwide scale, sweeping through residential communities and commercial firms. Following some simple energy-saving tips during the summer, students met big payoffs, whether attempting to beat the heat, trying to cut energy costs, or aiming to go green.
Platform: iOS; Rating: 4.5/5 Have you ever considered learning a new subject in your spare time? Need a small refresher on a course from years ago? Whatever the case, the smartphone app from Khan Academy, the popular nonprofit video learning website, takes learning on the go with an iPhone or iPad. The official Khan Academy app for iOS allows users to browse the organization’s vast collection of over 3000 short videos on topics ranging from biology and economics to calculus. Although the videos are only a few minutes in length each, they cover material step-by-step and in detail, making them perfect for quickly picking up the basics of a new subject or just refreshing memories of an old one. The app allows users to browse videos through a list of genres and subgenres; tapping on on-screen categories (Math, Humanities, and Test Prep, to name a few) brings up lists of subcategories and the videos themselves, which play directly within the app. Additionally, the app features the option to download videos to a device for later viewing, and the ability to log in and save progress for Khan Academy members. The app is currently free on the iOS App Store, but third party apps are available on the Google Play Store.
COURSERA
Future of Education: Thoughts and Perspectives
NEW APPROACH TO LEARNING A new approach to learning, Coursera now offers more than 400 massive open online courses (MOOCs) on topics ranging from aerodynamics to philosophy at no charge to students. Coursera and similar sites that offer MOOCs have recently come under criticism from professors at San Jose State, Amherst College, and Harvard University as they may reduce the need for professors.
copy editor Swamped in student loans, unable to commute to school, and with no time to study, the average student struggles with a college education. What is the solution? A new approach to learning, online education incorporates student communication and interaction to make studying from around the globe easier and cheaper. “The basic idea behind online education is to provide free and accessible education to everyone around the world. This means making education accessible to not just students, but also professionals who are keen to improve their skill set,” said Aayush Dawra, a developer of the online education site edX. “[Online education] is a great learning tool that is potentially revolutionary in the sense that you can expand your skills at home itself and without any additional cost.” Thanks to advancements in tech-
nology, connecting with other people around the globe has become convenient by using tools such as Facebook and Skype. It has never been easier for students to interact and discuss in virtual classrooms, discussion boards, and forums. Instead of taking traditional college courses and spending money on enrollment, school supplies, and even gas money, students now have the option to take a variety of free online classes on topics ranging from aerodynamics to philosophy. Additionally, since their classes are online, students will not have to commute to classrooms, which saves time that can be used for studying, or spending time with family. According to a report by the U.S. Department of Education, students taking online courses performed better than their counterparts who studied in the traditional classroom. However, despite the benefits that it offers, several professors from San Jose State University (SJSU),
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That is exactly the fear that we expressed. E v e n t u a l l y, you will only have facilitators for those courses.
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vineet kosaraju
Karin Brown. SJSU Philosophy Professor
Amherst College, and Harvard University have criticised online education, and the massive open online courses (MOOCs) offered at sites like Udacity, Coursera, and edX. According to Karin Brown, a SJSU philosophy professor, their concern is that professors and even entire departments could lose their jobs because there would be no need for them anymore. “That is exactly the fear that we expressed,” he said. “Eventually, you will only have facilitators for those courses. There will be no need for professors or even graduate students.” Furthermore, the MOOCs are revolutionizing the concept of paying for education with their free, open source classes. Although they may be helpful for students, online education can draw funding away from schools. Jonathan Trinh (10) believes that online education will not have a major effect on traditional learning despite it being more convenient. “I don’t think online education
will impact colleges that much,” he said. “In-person college classes are more hands-on.” Samantha Madala (11) is taking an online course called Global Health, offered by Harker via its membership in the Global Online Academy. She also believes that online education has a minimal impact on colleges. “I think the online courses offered by Global Online Academy are unique, because a lot of the assignments involve collaboration with classmates from all over the country,” she said. “Even though online education is quickly becoming a common alternative to traditional education, I think a lot of people will still prefer learning in a traditional classroom setting.” Additionally, Samantha does not believe that learning online has a major benefit, because it is not necessarily more convenient for her. “I don’t think one is more convenient than the other, because I will still be doing the same amount of work either way,” she said. When asked about the impact online education would have on traditional learning, Dawra said that the impact would be minimal, because online education should augment classroom based learning, instead of being an alternative. “The thing that you need to realize is that online courses do not hope to completely replace the existing methods of teaching, but to augment them,” he said. “The purpose behind them is to actually overcome the barrier of accessibility that regular classroom teaching faces. So, I think online platforms like edX should be used as tools apart from regular classroom programs.” Although it might not have an immediate impact on learning in classrooms, online education is a unique approach to learning that is both free and accessible from around the globe.
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AUGUST 30, 2013 the Winged Post
back page A WELCOME RESPITE: In the scorching summer sun, the sprinklers seemed right as rain. Many freshmen enjoyed their orientation as the last hurrah of their summer vacation.
CROSS THE BRIDGE: As some of their first steps on campus, Ria Gandhi (9) and the class of 2017 ran through this bridge of Link Crew members.
LINKED IN: Link Crew member Mabel Luo (12) talks to a new-toHarker freshman. The students saw the pendulum in Nichols Hall as part of a campus tour.
THE WELCOMERS BY APOORVA RANGAN
ALL PHOTOS APOORVA RANGAN AND ALEX JANG
Every year, the Upper School community grows and opens its arms to a new branch of the Harker family tree. Here’s a look at those who helped the 2013-2014 school year take off.
REMEMBRANCE: On the first day of school, Head of School Christopher Nikoloff delivered an address to help the community remember English teacher Jason Berry, who died last Saturday (see p.1).
INVASION: During their first class meeting on Monday, the class of 2015 decided on the theme of their Homecoming festivities. With limited time to prepare, the council provided sign-up sheets immediately after the meeting.
RIDE THE WAVE: Emily Manigo’s face is often the first thing that students see when they come on campus. Frequently sporting seasonal accessories like Mickey Mouse gloves or a Santa Claus hat, the nine-year campus veteran helps to direct traffic and energize students for the day ahead.