Issue 8, 2012 by the Epic

Seniors gain a home field advantage, again

JOEY LI—EPIC

THE LONG-AWAITED FOOTBALL FIELD| Lynbrook’s anticipated football field renovations have been finished successfully ahead of schedule, allowing the class of 2012 to use it for their graduation on June 8 at 9:30 a.m.

BY JOY SHEN & KATHY LI

urn the clock back to eight months ago. Eight months ago, students, parents and faculty members gathered for what would be their last time sitting on the familiar, faded wooden bleachers of the football field. Just eight months ago, members of the Lynbrook community were exposed to mounds of dirt residing beneath a worn patch of green they once called their field. Now, eight months later, a mixture of joy and relief reside amongst the seniors, and other members of the Lynbrook community, for the long wait is finally over. On Wed. May 2, Principal Gail Davidson received the final consent to release an anticipated piece of information regarding the track and field construction going on around

Lynbrook. Two days later, in front of 417 seniors, Davidson announced, with her greatest pleasure, the completion of the highly anticipated football field. The successful rate at which the field was completed allows for the senior class to graduate at home as opposed to Cupertino High School’s field. “We’re very lucky [construction moved quickly],” says Davidson. “The sun has been shining at Lynbrook.” Davidson arranged for a surprise senior class meeting last Fri. during brunch, in order to break the news. During the meeting, she released that “the judge had agreed with the FUHSD and closed the case on the lawsuit, which means that—at this point—

JOEY LI—EPIC

A WORK IN PROGRESS| Part of the track and field renovations consists of new bleachers, which are currently still under construction.

LMU [Lynbrook-Monta Vista United] cannot stop the construction.” Rumors had already been circling amongst the seniors regarding the possibility of being able to graduate at home. However, for the most part, the announcement remained a pleasant surprise. Senior Bryan Le feels that, “It’s really nice being able to graduate at the school that you’ve gone to for the past four years.” Likewise, senior Kritika Iyer shares the excitement and

JOEY LI—EPIC

NEW GREEN| From left to right, senior class president Sameer Kausar with Principal Gail Davidson and ASB President Kevin Tu, stand on the new field.

10 YARDS| The newly renovated football field is artificial turf as opposed to the previous field which was made of grass.

Off the field and into the gym: powderpuff changes sports BY JOEY LI

owderpuff, the annual tradition of gender-switched roles in football and cheerleading, will change to dodgeball this year due to construction on the field. The games will now take place in the gym. The changes were decided upon by members in the ASB Athletics commission. Despite the change of venues, Athletics Commissioner senior Brandon Yamauchi is optimistic about the success of the switch. “I think that events in the gym are much easier to organize. The smaller space compared to the field will keep things a lot more orderly,” he says. There are, however, doubts re-

garding the event attendance. Intra-District Council Representative junior Shirley Kiang says, “The event is pretty new, so switching locations will confuse people, and we’ll probably get fewer participants because it’s a different sport that we have to hype up again.” Yamauchi disagrees, saying, “I don’t think participation will be affected, because based on last year’s attendance, Powderpuff was by far the most popular.” The inspiration for this change came from Powderpuff at Monta Vista. Teams will still be organized by class. Yamauchi says, “We thought about changing the rules to be more like March Madness so that any student could make teams at random, but we decided

says, “I feel relieved. This whole time I hadn’t let myself get my hopes up—in order to avoid disappointment—but I’m really happy that we get to graduate at Lynbrook after all.” Even though the graduation ceremony is now moved to Lynbrook, the date is still set for the morning of Fri. June 8. “Many arrangements for graduation as well as Grad Night have already been made [according to the June 8 date]. At this point, these [arrangements] cannot be changed,” says Davidson. Davidson adds that while the field is completely finished, the surrounding track and nearby buildings will not be completed in time. Despite these issues, many seniors still feel thankful and excited to be the first class graduating on the newly renovated field. As senior Elyssa Hurwitz puts it, “It’s like the cherry on top of my senior year sundae.”

that the event would be more fun if we kept all the classes going against each other.” Issues have been brought up about the event—some see the event as possibly becoming too stressful and creating too much competition between classes. Athletics Commissioner senior Gavriela Fine, however, says, “This is supposed to be a fun, stress-free event and will only be as competitive as the classes choose to make it.” Junior Class President Joseph Wei says, “If they decide to hold it, we’ll still go with it; it was just our class officers voicing our opinions. We don’t want to hinder anyone that wants to go.” Powderpuff dodgeball will take place during the week of May 21 at lunch in the gym.

Projected campus renovations for the upcoming years BY JESSICA CAO

y the end of 2014, students will have a Cove and Gym lobby, a larger Guidance and Support Services building, a cafeteria able to expand into the Quad, an auditorium lobby, a Global Learning Center (GLC) and an outdoor learning space directly adjacent to the GLC. The additions will serve to enhance life on campus. “In 2009 when we did the master planning, we considered student needs and where

the growth could be district wide,” says Davidson, “[The new structures] are all very much going to be used by the students, teachers and parents.” The blueprints and designs for the more visible projects have been drawn and will be sent to the state architect for approval next October. Between now and then, there will be meetings between architects, staff and students to give feedback about the plans. After the exterior and roofing choices of structures are finalized, it is likely that construction will start in June 2013.

As an entirely new building, the GLC has been designed as an ultra-flexible version of the collaborative space on campus known as the Flex Lab. The building will be located behind the library, as an annex. To enhance collaborative learning, there will be whiteboards on three walls, several Smart Boards and projector screens and movable furniture. Events like award ceremonies and club meetings can also be held in the GLC.

Nearby, the auditorium will be getting a facelift. A new lobby will expand outwards towards the parking lot and have areas for ticket sales, concessions and display of both large sculptural and two-dimensional art. Other than the younger-looking mug, the original structure of the auditorium will be untouched. Doors have been placed so that in the case of an emergency, occupants will be able to safely evacuate.

Letter from the Editors

icking up a copy of this issue, you may wonder why the ‘E’ in our front-page logo is flipped. Each year the Epic staff switches positions and leadership roles for our eighth issue, our “Switch issue,” to experience a new perspective of the paper-making process. The Switch issue is also a time for us to stretch our boundaries and experiment with new ideas. We’ve put more effort into having more timely and wholesome coverage, writing breaking news and incorporating more photography. It was particularly exciting to report the seniors’ on-campus graduation so soon after the formal announcement was made; if you haven’t yet already, flip back a page to read the story on pg. 1. Miss out on last week’s genocide protest? Read about Amnesty’s 500

bones project (pg. 3) to learn about the reason for and process of the demonstration, and after, redirect yourself to page 5 for a staffer’s opinion on the event. If you want to hear an animated debate, turn to pg. 4 to read two differing opinions on the current function and structure of student elections and government. Flip a section to read about featured students who regularly do parkour (pg. 8), and check out the collage of photos to see them in action. Further in, students discuss their personal perspectives and struggles with the different racial stereotypes (pg. 10) that they experience at school. Lastly, conclude your read with a guide to work-outs and exercises (pg. 14) to do in order to get your perfect prom or summer body. It has been altogether a very new and rewarding experience, not just for us but for the Epic as a whole staff. We sincerely hope you find our product an enjoyable, informative and thoughtprovoking addition to your collection of the Epic. Feel free to share your comments and feedback to the staff at enc_epic@yahoo.com. Enjoy!

Shannon Chai, Jane Jun, Lauren Tai

USED WITH PERMISSION OF GAIL DAVIDSON

Principal Gail Davidson explains, “The Cove was originally the student center back in 1965 when Lynbrook’s first students arrived. After the dance studio was built, that area was locked up to protect the dance floor and became much less a place for students We want to enclose the dance classroom as a protected space while enlarging the Cove Lobby to combine with the new Gym Lobby. This allows us to reclaim some of that space and recreate more of a student center area.” A separate ticketing and concessions area will be established on the left side where the Cove is. GRAPHIC ILLUSTRATION BY SAM CHANG

A change for balance and unity in leadership She explains that adding underclassmen to the mix will not affect admission chances. The committee is ver the past two years, it has become simply adding a number of positions for them that clear to the Associated Student Body will be determined after interviews have finished. Rising freshmen will be ineligible for the Spirit (ASB) officers that there is an underrepresentation of sophomores and freshmen in and Social committees within leadership, however, the Leadership class. This has created an “up- as “they should attend a social event before attainperclassman-only type of deal [associated with ing one of those positions. They should mature and gain experience class],” says ASB with Lynbrook [acpresidenttivities] before apelect Stephanie plying,” Hahm says. Hahm. However, The hope is that with the2012-2013 these changes, sophASB Officers are omores and freshmen revamping the can properly bounce commission inideas with their reterview process spective classmates. to include underThe committee classmen applydecided that it would ing for leadership GRAPHIC ILLUSTRATION BY SUCHETA KORWAR also bring in more class positions, advisors to ensure that student bias does not affect including rising eighth graders as well. The class is making these changes as a result the candidates’ evaluations. “We want to have more of feedback from freshman and sophomore class balance within the panel and establish a consistency officers currently in Leadership. “They felt that of what panel members saw and heard during the their classes had lower productivity because interviews,” says David Erwin, Assistant Principal of they didn’t have the same access to resources Activities. The leadership class hopes to achieve “a such as people from their own class in the com- fair and equitable practice of offering leadership opmittee. For example, Amit [Pasupathy] is the portunities to all students,” Erwin says. Interviews are being held on May 8, from 7:35 only freshman in the class so he can’t get input in leadership from other freshmen,” says Hahm. a.m. to 12:45 p.m.

BY JACOB ANTONY

News in Brief Fashion Show Come out to the quad on Friday, May 25 for Lynbrook’s annual Fashion Show, for which the overall theme is yet to be announced. Various pieces designed, created and modeled by students will be showcased. The pre-show will begin at 7:15 p.m. with the actual show following promptly at 7:30 p.m. Pops Concert

The annual Pops Concert will be put on by the music department on Wednesday, May 23, from 7:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. It will be a night of unique pop music arrangements, performed in the auditorium. Tickets will be on sale at the top of the quad. Science Bowl

The science bowl team competed in Washington, D.C. last week. Though the team did not advance into the regional competition as planned, seniors Marcus Schorow, Alexandra Cong, juniors Johnny Ho, Keegan Mendonca and Derek Lou and science teacher Amanda Alonzo received special commendation.

Awareness from a million bones

Amnesty International works with other service clubs to increase understanding about genocide

BY VIK WAGHRAY

t has been 57 years since the largest account of recorded genocide occurred. This injustice, however, still occurs around the world today. One Million Bones (OMB) is a project dedicated to spreading awareness of modern genocides through hands-on artwork. Lynbrook Amnesty International (AI) co-president senior Angela Hu heard of this organization through fellow member, senior Gloria Lin. “OMB was especially intriguing, because it combined art and activism, two things that we like,” Hu says. Unlike other activism campaigns that rely mostly on social networks, OMB involves raising awareness in a physical way, which, Hu says, “will make people more likely to take action.” The AI officers contacted OMB, who helped them develop plans for a branch of the project at Lynbrook. Hu then presented the idea to the Joint Service Committee (JSC), which was approved as a good first project for the committee. JSC chairman junior Yu Lin Chen says, “I thought this project was a great way for all the service clubs to work together, which proves the common belief that the competition between these clubs is false.” Over the next several weeks, members from different service clubs created the bones and prepared presentations to teach students about the acts of genocide. While the bones were intended to provide students with a better understanding of genocide, Hu explains that, “the ultimate goal of this proj-

SAM CHANG—EPIC

A DEADLY SIGN| Five hundred bones were laid out in the quad to represent international genocide victims.

ect was to get as many signatures as we can for the petition and also make people aware of these inhumane acts.” The petition provides a legal basis to coerce governments and private interests to take action. On May 2, five hundred bones were laid out in the quad; each bone symbolized a victim of genocide. Extra credit was offered to students who participated by answering questions on worksheets provided by AI. However, many students left before the presentations were done, so extra credit will not be offered in the future. Initially, Chen thought that three hundred bones was the maximum number they

could make. However, they ended up making five hundred. Reflecting on this outstanding number, Chen says, “The fact that we were able to make five hundred bones just goes to show how much people care about spreading the cause of ending genocide. The high attendance for this project means well for projects that we plan in the future.” Ultimately, Hu hopes to use the bones that Lynbrook students created for OMB’s final event, which is a plan to lay all bones made in the U.S. along the National Mall in Washington, D.C. This event is scheduled to occur in spring 2013, hopefully with—as the organization’s name suggests—one million bones.

DECA ICDC

The Lynbrook DECA chapter competed at the International Career Development Conference, in Salt Lake City, Utah, where sophomore Henry Shangguan won first place internationally for automotive services marketing. Besides that, there were 13 other winners. Congrats to all! CISPA

The House of Representatives passed a bill on April 26, addressing similar dangers proposed by previous bills such as PIPA and SOPA called the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA). This bill allows for the government to receive social networking sites’ user’s information per request. Currently, there is still a large debate over CISPA, as the House of Senate has not approved of the bill yet.

By Yunqing Chen & Clay Song

SAM CHANG—EPIC

LIVING CORPSES| A group of students lie down at the top of the quad during brunch in order to make a statement regarding modern day genocide occurences.

FBLA’s partnership with business achieves success BY SAM CHANG

ynbrook Future Business Leaders of America’s (FBLA) Partnership with Business project received first place in California and also placed nationally at the annual State Leadership Conference, held in Irvine this year from April 19 to 22. In the words of project chair and senior Nina Kamath, FBLA’s Partnership with Business project worked with Chevron Corporation to “enhance public recognition of Chevron Energy Solutions while simultaneously increasing awareness of energy career pathways and energy efficient solutions.” Kamath, who coordinated the project with three other officers—Vice-Chair senior Alice Pang, Secretary-Treasurer freshman Claire You and Public Relations officer sophomore Sandra Chang—spent nine months working on the project, divided into Think Energy, Talk Energy and Transform Energy. Think Energy was the phase that pro-

duced the Energy Career Pathways Toolkit, while Talk Energy was the part of the process in the partnership that implemented the toolkit in presentations given to schools and educators. The toolkits consist of storybooks, presentations, posters, a video, as well as a government correspondence. The members of FBLA used the toolkits to present to biology and physics students from Lynbrook, Saratoga and Independence High Schools. The storybooks in particular were presented to elementary schools, daycares, libraries and nonprofit organizations in the community. Transform Energy was a phase that allowed interested students the opportunity

to energy solutions in action through a competitive case study competition, business tour and guest speakers. Throughout the project, Kamath and her team faced difficulties. One of them was contacting the company. “In order to develop a viable partnership, it was challenging to actively communicate with their leaders so that they could consider the partnership as a priority,” says Kamath. At the State Leadership Conference, the project team completed a 30-page report and a presentation. During the conference, the project won first place in California. However, for the officers, winning at the confer-

ence was never a top priority. “For me, winning first place did not determine whether or not our project had a major impact on the community. Prior to the conference, I already knew we were winners—in the sense that we had successfully executed and achieved something amazing,” says Chang. Despite the success of the project at the conference, the idea of introducing energy careers is still the ultimate goal of the project. “I am really hoping to introduce alternative energy careers to a broad range of students—elementary school, middle school, high school and college students as well as educators and government officials. By creating tiered levels for the project, we were able to impact all of these groups,” says Kamath. Having had a tremendous success in the State Conference, the chapter is hoping to do the same with their project when they represent all of California in the National Leadership Conference in San Antonio, Texas this upcoming summer.

Are student elections representation or mockery? BY CLAY SONG

hances are that you supported Obama in the 2008 presidential elections. And chances are that you had no idea what policies he was advocating for. You just liked the idea of change and thought he was pretty handsome. So why complain to all your friends about the student g o ve r n m e n t elections being popularity contests and officers never doing their jobs properly? It’s just like that in the real world of politics and that’s the way that it will always be. Ever since the presidential elections of 1960, campaigns have been the game of the Populars. This was due to the introduction of television. Before, it was much harder for people to get a good look at what the candidates actually looked liked. But in the Nixon-Kennedy presidential debates, America, for the first time, was able to see the face of their possible future leaders. Since then, polls have been heavily influenced by the appearance of the candidate. In fact, one study done in 2010 has shown that ever since women were given the right to vote, candidates who had no facial hair were more likely to win than those who didn’t. And like true government elections results, student government election results do not accurately represent the entire body. The results basically reflect who has the most friends, and campaign posters have nothing to do with it. For most of us,

we don’t even look at the posters or listen to the speeches. So elections are over and the results have come out. Everyone has high expectations, hoping that ASB and the class officers will do a much better job next year. By the end of the first semester however, everyone is complaining. Disappointment happens all the time in the real world as well. Remember Obama back in 2008? Everyone was crazy about him. Now, he disappointed America and now everyone wants someone new. Same goes for Lynbrook. The officers make a mistake or an unpopular decision and suddenly, they are no longer popular. What students have to understand is that student government is just as crazy and absurd as American government. It’s popularity contests either way, so get used to the idea. And unless you start considering policy issues over looks, that’s how it will always be.

fter each rally this year, it was a common sight to see students muttering, “I hate the juniors” or “I hate the seniors.” Rather than building school spirit, the current rally system seems to have amplified interclass hate and division. As the administration and the ASB are reconsidering regulations for next year school events, they should keep in mind that rallies should ultimately bring the school together. A new system should focus on building inter-class unity and new traditions built on appreciation for other classes. The traditional rally ranking system was that generally, freshmen would be last, sophomores next, juniors after, and seniors would win. In the past two years, as this sequence became obliterated and underclass began to score higher than the older classes, the competition has grown exponentially. Junior Tammy Taller says, “The classes who beat classes under them developed a bit of an ego, and the classes who got beaten by those younger than them harbored a bit of hatred and anger. And now no class is ‘secure’ in place so we’re all scrambling to be on top, since anything can happen.” It is clear that rallies are not fulfilling their purpose and school unity is being neglected. Some competition is good, but not when it has escalated to the point of hostility and aggression. ASB Vice President-elect Shirley Kiang says, “To some extent, rallies breed an inter-school hate between the four classes, part of which is expected since rallies are a com-

BY JOEY LI

ver since elementary school, I’ve voted in student council—mainly because it was mandatory, but also to support my friends; this is how it’s been for a pretty long time. Now, however, in the aftermath of the election season, I can only agree with the words of my good friend Winston Churchill: “The best argument against democracy is a fiveminute conversation with the average voter.” Student elections seem to be, at best, a glorified popularity contest. Democracy relies on a network of informed voters, and this is precisely what Lynbrook is lacking; student ASB processes will need significant changes to better accommodate students. Far too often, I see candidates running on a platform of being well-known and loud, regardless of their actual participation or abilities. It’s hard to gauge the

What about class unity? petition. However, this hate has definitely grown unfavorably over the past few years since the competition has also been taken to new levels.” To reduce such tension without sacrificing competition altogether, the school is considering having competitions to see which class can cheer the Fight Song best and hosting rally games with students in all four classes in each team. Such ideas should definitely be developed, and a Boys vs. Girls rally rather than a class-on-class rally is another option that the ASB should continue to look into. Also, Lynbrook can establish “Superhero and Supervillain” rallies where two classes team up together to compete against the other two classes. The team pairs can alternate; for example, the first rally can be freshmen and seniors vs. sophomores and juniors, and the second can be freshmen and sophomores vs. juniors and seniors, and so on. This will allow different classes to work closely with other classes, breeding more inter-class relationships and alleviating the hate and competitiveness.

competency of a candidate simply through a two-minute speech. Instead, most find their own means to decide about a candidate, which basically comes down to popularity; likewise, a candidate cannot show their qualifications in such a short amount of time. Candidates must campaign more effectively—no, I’m not going to vote for you just because you came up with a catchy name rhyming poem; I want to know precisely why I should vote for you. If we need money, we need someone who can promote fundraisers; if we lack unity, we need an officer that can foster it. Apathy doesn’t help get you what you want in your government. Simply talking to a candidate about any problems you have would be as good as it gets. There are informed voters in the student body who do contribute, consider and connect with candidates, though they are far outweighed by those merely voting for the most well-known. It is important to keep in mind that a student government is small enough that changed voter mindset can be achieved far more easily. Lynbrook as a community always strives to achieve the best, so why fall short in student government? But being an active voter is not just clicking a box next to a friend’s name, it is becoming an educated addition to the student body. By the way, be sure to vote for me next year for class VP (I’m not your average cup of joe).

Also, the school can bring back the tradition of younger classmen “sending off” the seniors during the fifth rally of the year. Several years ago, it had been a custom for the underclassmen to honor seniors by recognizing four-year spirit leaders, valks, cheerleaders and athletes. Each class would do a skit that represented the senior class in their respective year—the freshmen would play out the seniors as they were when they were freshmen, and so on. Leadership teacher Andrea Badger says the Senior Rally used to be a “time for the seniors to see the respect they had received” and for the younger classmen to celebrate the seniors’ four years at Lynbrook. This built more inter-class bonding and students were more excited to show their appreciation for each other. This custom should definitely be brought back, rather than making the Senior Rally an exclusive event for just seniors to come and celebrate their graduation alone. Rallies should be competitive, but not at the expense of school unity. The system should be reconstructed to reduce class-on-class hate, and traditions such as a school-wide Senior Rally will reduce the antagonism that has been intensifying. ASB President-elect Stephanie Hahm says, “A main goal that we have amongst all of the ASB officers is school unity and overall spirit...next year, I want to see our rallies be a time for school-bonding, an opportunity where underclassmen can join the upperclassmen in their cheering.”

BY NOORSHER AHMED

bama is a fascist Muslim dictator and Sarah Palin is dumb enough to say that she can see Russia from her backyard, or so American media seems to play it. Media outlets such as Fox News are already well known for its conservative bias, but what many students do not realize is the media bias that most mainstream media corporations such as CBS, ABC or NBC have as well. This bias can only be avoided by students if they gathered their news from other news agencies, such as the BBC, that cover a more diverse amount of news and analysis and whose financial structure allows them to rely less on appealing to readers for financial support. News bias occurs among news agencies primarily because they are businesses. They will report only what sells or rakes in more advertising. Many of the same parent companies that own news outlets contribute to specific politicians and thus have a vested interest in reporting biased news to help their investments. For example, General Electric, the parent company of NBC, spent $913,836 in supporting incumbent candidates that supported General Electric and its interests, most of which was given to support Republican candidates. On the contrary, the BBC, a publicly owned media outlet, does not get most of its funding from private interests or advertising, but from television licensing, around USD$235 per household, which is made mandatory by the British government in order for a television to be able

to access broadcast programs, according to their annual financial report. Because the BBC has a stable revenue from licensing, there is less likelihood for manipulation by private interest groups with the promise of extra funding, making the BBC a much more reliable and unbiased source of news and analysis than most American media outlets. “At times I have a hard time believing that newscasters even take their approaches seriously, especially on commentarybased news shows. As the esteemed American cultural critic Sean Combs was known to say, ‘It’s all about the Benjamins baby’” comments AP Government teacher Jeffrey Bale on the impact of business on news. Fox News has a primarily conservative audience, making it in Fox News’s best interest to report news that is in favor of conservative political philosophy. This biased news then fuels the beliefs of the people who watch Fox News. Media biases the people, and the people bias the media. This cycle would never have been created if media outlets did not bias their news, as is the case with many European countries that have more professional and analytical media due to their independence from outside influence. “Study after study which show American high school and college graduates have pitifully low basic civic knowledge is probably related more towards apathy than bias,” says Bale. One of the main outlets of news that students use is Yahoo News, which provides a convenient way to skim the main headlines of the “news”, which gives students the sense of being aware of worldly events. However, Yahoo News has only a small amount of space—five inches by two inches—to report the news. This selectiveness allows for a biased selection of stories, and severely limits students on the diversity of news coverage they receive. “I definitely don’t rely on Yahoo News as my news source because I feel like the

Work hard to bring honor to your family

news they post is either fairly biased on certain issues or just posts really trivial news. I want to know about things that can actually impact me or my community, not what celebrities wore at the last red carpet event,” says junior Kimberly Tan. Even worse, mainstream media has begun to transition from reporting news to reporting trash, also known as celebrity tabloid reporting. Instead of covering genocides, civil wars, and humanitarian crises as foreign media such as the BBC would, American news tend to cover news about celebrities or scandals. “How likely are you to trust the academic analysis of economic news by an outlet that publishes articles entitled: Unforgettable Royal Weddings and Elusive GSpot Found? Maybe you can find legitimate news on CNN but the act has become much harder than it should be,” says junior Frank Wang. The combination of biased reporting and the reporting of tabloid level news is the reason for the American public’s lack of awareness of the world. This can be solved, however, with one step: stop watching American media and turn to more professional and ethical media outlets from other parts of the world such as the BBC, The Guardian, or The Economist from the other side of the Atlantic. Although these media outlets are not completely innocent of bias, they are able to deliver the full facts of a news story more often than other companies. By getting their news from foreign media, students will be able to create a more informed worldview that will make them better and more knowledgeable citizens of the world and create their own opinions about worldly matters rather than believe the opinions of American media.

GRAPHIC ILLUSTRATION BY CLAY SONG AND OPINON SECTION

ecent talks with my parents about paying for college ended in me promising to make the experience worth the staggering cost. If my parents are going to spend over $200,000 for me to attend the school of my choice, I’d better work hard while I’m there. Then I realized that I’ve lost that attitude toward high school. In fact, senioritis has hit me especially hard; there must be a reason I was nominated for “biggest procrastinator.” But high school shouldn’t be any different than college when it comes to effort, since our parents work ridiculously hard to afford us the education we currently have. Nonetheless, in class, students space out, sleep, do other work and go on their smartphones. Common sense says it’s poor behavior at school, yet when was the last time we questioned these habits? More importantly, is this how we repay our parents for what they’ve done to let us attend school here? To start, a majority of our parents are first-generation immigrants who have overcome huge language and culture barriers to create better lives for us here. But immigrant or not, they all pay some of the highest mortgages and property taxes in the country for homes in this area. Many other adults want to send their kids to the greatly sought-after schools in our district, but can’t afford to. Our parents have made it happen for us. It seems like we spend these four years complaining about classes and goofing off when possible, but going to such a coveted school should be even more reason to make the most of our time here. Spending all those cumulative hours playing iPhone games is throwing away our parents’ investment in our schooling. So here’s a novel idea: work hard and make the most of high school for a change. Pay attention in class, do the assigned work and don’t slack off (too hard) after college apps. The rewards will take time to reap, but in the meantime we owe it to our parents, if not to ourselves, to put effort into this hard-earned education. In the bigger scheme of things, we should be conscious about making good life decisions. The other day I saw a photo circulating online captioned, “Because bad decisions make good stories.” Um, what? When was that ever any justification for using poor judgment? Because bad decisions are exactly that: bad decisions. These days we seem to be completely unaware of how we thank—or not—our parents for the effort they put into raising us. If we just stop to think about everything they do for us, maybe the realization would spur us into actually making the most of the resources that they’ve worked so hard for us to have. Unconventional as this mindset may be, remember that by asking teachers for help during tutorial and utilizing the school library, we’re making our parents’ investment in our education worth it. In a number of other cultures, especially the Asian ones that many of us come from, respect toward one’s parents is of the utmost importance. In our more progressive American culture, however, that seems to have fallen to the wayside. If we were to respect our parents, we would recognize what they do for us and then do our fair share in return. Even so, it’s not too late to take school more seriously: working hard not only to meet expectations and get into college, but also out of internal motivation and respect for everything our parents did to get us here. And years down the road, maybe at our 20-year high school reunion, we can share success stories and be glad we made the change.

Tough Competition Yes, the UC system is admitting more out-of-state students than California students. Let’s not complain. BY SABRINA SHIE

All talk and no walk

GRAPHIC BY NIKITA DHESIKAN

o one likes dying. Especially me. That’s obvious. So why stand around with a sign saying, “Say No to Genocide?” No one is going to say yes to genocide. You could put a million bones on the ground and you won’t save a single life. During my sophomore year, Holocaust survivors were invited into the classroom to talk about their experiences. I got a firsthand account of what really happened, and just seeing an actual survivor made all that I had learned in class so much more real. Spreading awareness through paper bones and Youtube videos distance the viewer from the actual genocide. They can’t experience the pain and horror or gain a deep understanding from a pile of fake bones. Laying down on the ground pretending to be dead isn’t any better. That’s the problem with our first-world culture: we don’t know how to tackle third-world problems. Because of our geographical distance from the problems, we usually aren’t able to physically try and solve the problems ourselves. So instead, we throw money at the issue, hoping that it will solve itself. Or we strike in outlandish ways and hope that people who can do something will notice our actions and respond. Spreading awareness with paper bones won’t make a difference to the hundreds of people who are actually affected by the genocide. So what should we do? Raise money. Seriously. Even watching Youtube videos about Kony and hitting the “like” button helps a little bit. However, if passive contributions through advertisements is not your thing, why don’t you contribute five bucks to to a genocide-fighting organization like GIN (Genocide Intervention Network)? Amnesty International at Lynbrook could start a fundraiser, and if you really care about stopping genocide as much as you say you do, you’ll go to that fundraiser, instead of staring at carefully laid out bones. Now, about spreading awareness: if you’re going to do it, do it right. Once again, signs saying, “Say No to Genocide” doesn’t tell anyone anything. We’re not going to see anyone walking around with ‘I support Genocide’ pins. Remember that we’ve had multiple genocides in the past and they’ll continue in the future. It’s important to not lump every genocide into one general catagory. Each genocide usually has one totalitarian leader and a whole load of reasons behind it, and they are almost always different because of those reasons. So just calling them all genocide isn’t enough. Remember that information panel GSA (Gay Straight Alliance) club held last year? That’s what we should be doing for genocide awareness. The information panel was really informative and insightful and really opened up the minds of a lot of students. If Amnesty International held one of those for genocide awareness, if would be a lot more useful to the campus. Many students don’t know the core issues of the genocide, and before they blindly say “Say No to Genocide” they should learn about it. Talking about the issue itself spreads awareness, and knowledge is power. There’s no doubt that 500 Bones has good intentions, but it didn’t achieve its goals. Students did not come out of that day thinking that they were empowered by the knowledge that they could change the course of someone’s life by taking action. Instead, they pondered whether or not they would get extra credit for answering the questions that the history department asked them, or wondering if they did well on their Stats final like I did. Awareness is the goal, but lying on the floor pretending to be dead isn’t achieving anything except having the whole quad stare at you for a few seconds before rushing off to buy prom bids.

*According to the University of California Office of the President, Student Affairs, UC Central Application Processing file

his year set mult i p l e records in UC system admission rates. In an ongoing trend this year, an increase of 58.4 percent foreign applicants and 32.9 percent out-of-state applicants were admitted in comparison to a 3.6 percent increase in in-state applicant acceptances. The explanation for these numbers is simple: out-of-state applicants pay $54,000 more for tuition, compared to the $31,000 tuition in-state applicants pay, an extra amount that greatly helps support the UC’s underfunded system. However, the resulting rising numbers of out of state applicants have alarmed many applying Californian seniors. Still, these changes are inevitable, and students really just need to deal with them. It is understandable that California students would feel cheated because of these resulting trends. Senior Harrison Wang points out one main concern students have with the rising out-of-state admissions rate. “It’s okay but not as justified if it’s an increasingly large number since [instate students] do pay a portion of our taxes to these schools and it would be unfair to end up having a lot of your money just being used up for out of state students.” Though this may be true, it seems that many students forget two essential facts about the UC system. First of all, according to College and Career advisor Rosemary Bulaich, every single UC school has a ten percent cap on out-of-state students. In other words, the number of out-of-state students within a UC school’s population will never exceed ten percent. This figure alone completely

BY IRENE HSU

hotos of beautiful girls are common, but “thinspo” blogs, such as “Thinspiration” on Tumblr, circulate photos of beautiful, thin girls as incentives to lose weight. Girls with their shoulder blades jutting out. Girls with their hip bones jutting out, with their ribs jutting out. Thinspo blogs do not just say that beauty is pain—they say beauty is without du pain. If a girl does not starve, she is not beautiful. Thinspo blogs are, in essence, archives of thin girls, telling the selfconscious girl that others are too. Senior Haelin Lee, a former follower of thinspo blogs, says, “My friends and I would decide to go on diets, and every time we saw a picture of a skinny girl on Tumblr, it reminded us of our goal. [Thinspo blogs] made us realize, ‘You’re not alone.’” While it is important for teenagers to have support from peers who are going through the same things, followers of thinspo blogs only see the results of dieting, rather than the process. Though America is known to have an obesity problem, thinspo blogs take the battle against excessiveness to another level, cutting the issue to the bone—literally. There are no professional opinions on the blogs to promote healthy dieting through exercising and eating right. And yet, as Lee says, “Although followers know that the girls are too skinny, once you start seeing the pictures over and over again, their bodies become your ideal.” Tumblr has recently banned selfharm blogs, preferring its users to stay

JOEY LI— EPIC

dispels the myth that out-of-state students are slowly “taking over” spots in UC schools. Yes, more students from out-of-state might be getting admitted, but this amount will always be smaller than the number of in-state students attending UC schools. Not only that, the UC system is well aware of many applicants’ dissatisfaction with being rejected from the more popular UCs, such as UC Berkeley and UC Los Angeles, in place of out of state applicants. To combat this, UC’s Interim Director of Undergraduate Admissions Kate Jeffery stated that “all students who meet UC’s academic requirements are being offered a space somewhere in the system, with UC Merced as the backup if all other campuses have rejected them.” In all fairness, most students would be completely unsatisfied with being offered UC Merced instead of UC Berkeley. Still, as Bulaich points out, “The only way schools like Merced could ever become as intellectually brilliant as schools like Berkeley would be if a greater amount of intellectually capable students was admitted.” But besides recognizing the UC system’s efforts to raise more educational funds and comply with thousands of high school seniors’ wishes to be admitted, there is not much more that applicants can do. Bulaich says the greatest effort currently available to admit more in-state students is “a movement afoot to decentralize the ten percent quota and let each of the ten campuses determine their own ratio. It’s not in place yet however, just something being considered as most of all, it needs a funding source.” Unfortunately, this just goes straight back to the root of the problem: funding. Unless instate applicants are willing to pay that extra $23,000, not much is going to change in the rising trend of out-of-state acceptances. The most to be done is to simply appreciate the efforts the struggling UC system is already exerting for its in-state applicants. alive. The website’s guidelines prevent users from posting “content that actively promotes or glorifies self-harm,” including but not limited to anorexia and bulimia. As a result of this upheaval, there has been an exodus of thinspo blogs to other sites such as Blogspot, where the blogs continue to glorify the destruction of teenage girls. Junior Stephen Lee says about the ban, “It’s a violation of self-expression. I don’t think these people are harming others by expressing what they think is art. It really depends on the girl; the more confident ones will be less impacted by [thinspo blogs], but I think the weaker women, so to speak, will become obsessive [with] their image.” But thinspo blogs do not promote self-expression—they promote self-destruction. Their idea of art is photos of malnourished girls showing off all 206 bones, saying that a tiny body is a good body. Instead of promoting the treatment of eating disorders, thinspo blogs treat them like contests—the most damaged girl gets the prize. Junior Diane Kim says, “[Thinspo blogs] are just a way to make girls even more insecure about themselves. I’ve seen some blogs that are really harsh and critical of girls whose bodies aren’t ideal, criticizing each flaw [...] Tumblr is right to get rid of the [blogs] that are physically demeaning to girls.” While first amendment rights apply online, the line must be drawn when it comes to thinspo blogs. With teenagers’ fragile self-esteems and their desires to join the bandwagon, it is only a matter of time before the skeletons online today become realities tomorrow.

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY AUSTIN YU AND SAM CHANG

ip-hop isn’t just music, it’s a lifestyle, and sophomore Vidur Sanadan (left) dreams of forming a club that can bring all aspects of its culture within Lynbrook together. What he envisions is ambitious, to say the least: to have a club host a dance at Lynbrook, featuring all four tenets of hip-hop culture. Kids playing their own beats. Rapping. Breakdancing. Tagging on a large plasterboard, which will be cut up and sold to raise money for charity. It’s not as farfetched as you might think, however. The talent is already here. Considering the scale of his plans, Sanadan has had a fairly disappointing year. The first meeting of Aspiring Music Producers (AMP) was hyped by word of mouth, but as the novelty wore off, people stopped coming. Officers started skipping out on meetings too, and a quad demo of the club’s beats never happened. “I couldn’t do enough this year because of membership,” says Sanadan. “But hip-hop is all about persistence. The people who succeed come from next to nothing because they are persistent.” If hip-hop is religion, it requires dedication, and it preaches tolerance. Its very essence is to sample from and fuse diverse sounds to form something wholly unique. Sanadan isn’t AMP’s president, but his message of bringing separate groups together is purely hip-hop. After all, Lynbrook has no shortage of artists. B-boy is here. And AMP acts as an outlet for those who MC and DJ, so, why not bring them all together? Yet,

why does a sophomore who plays clarinet on the weekends and swims at DACA love hiphop so much? “Yeah, we grow up sheltered, occasionally days are hard, but it’s never really a struggle,” says Sanadan. “I stumbled upon the political, not street, aspect first. The music is more honest than, say, media outlets. It doesn’t twist facts. Propaganda is exactly what the music isn’t; it doesn’t have a reason to lie.” For Sanadan, the definition of hip-hop is cultural awareness and honesty, and the emphasis he places on motive is a result of something he’s learned. “When I first started listening to hip-hop, I was an elitist ... I thought my preferred art was the right one. But art defies logic, and while my upbringing has been math and science, music surpasses that. Music is meant to be shared rather than be argued over, and it’s never harmful to be exposed to a new genre.” A show at Lynbrook with Hieroglyphics, an Oakland collective that Sanadan describes has “achieved mastery over hip-hop,” is possible. But first, Lynbrook must understand hip-hop better. “The concert will show what hip-hop can be, but it should also show that Lynbrook is hip-hop in progress.” Mainstream hip-hop is “dead,” real artists are forced underground. In this digital age, making it easier for good and bad musicians to spread their music, it’s no wonder why Sanadan feels so passionately about advancing the genre. Hiphop isn’t unknown, but to him, it’s underappreciated. And who can say that music that has pure motives, is culturally aware and is true to itself isn’t worth spreading?

f there’s one common goal of all hip-hop fans, it’s to deal with struggles through music. Sanadan’s struggles, to reach others, are mostly societal. For junior Nikhil Ganesh (right), well, it’s more personal. His ambitions match his skills; he’s personally shown me nearly 50 beats over the past year, and he might be the most talented producer in school. There’s a catch, though: his creativity, his ever-evolving standards and the lack of “desperation” he feels limit him more than any external pressures ever could. “Vidur will succeed. I don’t agree with his principles, though. People say I’m making hip-hop music, but I want to make music that’s categorized after you make it. I think AMP can find good musicians, but not great creatives. Genres are limits defined by critics, not artists, and if you put yourself in a box as an artist, you’ll always be behind who set that standard. I want to make music that pushes the envelope, I want to make something that can’t be compared to anything, and I don’t want other people to be involved.” “People here have everything they want, but they’re brainwashed into not doing what they want to do. No one from here has gone out to be someone everyone wants to be. All of our heroes come from worse situations than the ones we’re in.” When you listen to him, you believe everything. Or rather, you want to believe everything, because it seems too good to be true. Listen closely, and there is some insecurity. Sometimes, all that confidence seems to be him trying to convince himself. “Yeah, you have a million other people

“It doesn’t mean one specific thing. It’s more like a movement, and a way for me to express myself without any restraint and let my mind flow free through wordplay.” –Derrick McMichael (10)

When McMichael moved from Philadelphia, he was met with a huge change. “In eighth grade I started participating in rap battles on the street, in corner stores or at the train station.” Even though fewer people rap here, he’s not going to stop. “I just won’t battle as often.”

AUSTIN YU—EPIC

SAM CHANG—EPIC

BY NIKITA DHESIKAN “It isn’t just a dance, but a culture of positivism and prosperity. It provides a distraction from the bad in life and instead, creates a unified world filled with love and peace.” – Shouvik Neogi (11)

Neogi believes that the best way to experience hip-hop is through jams: “You just walk in, and there’s hip-hop everywhere.” Although the culture can seem a little intimidating, Neogi advises, “The main law of hip-hop is respect. Everyone acts tough in a battle, but in the end, it’s all about love.”

trying to make music, but I just can think one step ahead, a tier above the rest. I know what will be in, I can forecast what’s going to be hot. I don’t want to make music that people like, I want people to like my music.” You wonder why he hasn’t made it when he told you that he would definitely do so by last summer. You wonder where he’ll be in 10 years. You wonder if it’s just a phase. “To be honest, I do think about worst-case scenario a lot. It seems kind of pretentious to say this, but being in my position, you have everything to lose. At the end of the day, I know everything will be alright. That’s what I fear most, that I won’t put in enough work, because there’s no desperation. I have time, I don’t need this.” And then he puts you on his “list,” the people he wants most to prove himself to. With him, it’s almost as if he invites you to doubt him, so that he can surprise you later on. I certainly hope he can. “There are other things holding me back. When I’m listening to a beat over and over, I feel tired of it. It will get old, and that’s not what I want to make anymore. As I get more advanced, I realize what I did before is no longer good enough. I’ve never reached the point of desperation where no matter how good it is, I have to put it out there. That’s the scariest part for me, that I’m going to keep pushing myself back, that I’ll never get to a level where even if I don’t like it, I’ll know that people need this.” “And when I’m making music I want to make, then I’ll be happy.”

SAM CHANG—EPIC

BY BRIAN ZHAO

“It’s just another flavor to me. I like a wide variety of music, and I don’t think it’s any better or worse than other genres. It’s like cotton candy. You wouldn’t want to eat it for every meal.” –Tony Jiang (10)

Whenever Jiang hears a beat, he tries to emulate it. “Rhythm is one of the most interesting yet underappreciated parts of music,” he says. Although Jiang mostly beatboxes for fun, he has also backed up singers: his latest project was a campaign song for a class officer candidate.

Parkour!

A group of adventurous students takes conventional running to a whole new level BY AUSTIN YU

reaking boundaries, negotiating

However,

obstacles and defying social the traceurs’ An ll, expectations. Combining all mentalities tranp a s. o w p t three is needed in order to practice the scend their time m -Tac ste p, o fr Tic wo jum ng physical and mental discipline of parkour, spent practicing. By ise a in t ion ndi re. w defined as the most efficient way of getting pushing themselves to k ms all cis la ctu ief c lo for w re nd tru Th as from an origin to a destination via the means the peak of their capa| C per the a p p a y s ok om r a of s um pla tbo Th ve he of navigating obstacles by springing, vaulting, bilities, the group is able to HT 1) IG (1 half form ot j e tex ch. lt o r t p. L tumbling, or jumping over them with nothing adopt an attitude that is not F ng er er fo th a en au ve oo th f s o w i p G a v b v but their bodies. only present when they are pracIN Hu g o 11) a 15 e o rm ch sh ng ll s er w esK e i t o i ( g n n a y f i TA on cal ert ing ed er lu e K glid e f arr os A group of friends, juniors Farhaan Khan, ticing parkour, but also strongly reln a p m b th n s ck ak he 1) er th ly o a t Anthony Huang, Jeffrey Pea, Thomas Qian and evant in their daily lives. ru ic E y m n t (1 ov ms ess in tes , bu Er sil y o ea ng for rtl nch tia asic Eric Eckert, all have been practicing the sport “Parkour is the mentality of being ea fel y P api er effo be ego t b ur. since their sophomore year. able to push yourself further, which works sa ffre , le 1) p h, ark ) n os ko Je ult (1 nc p (11 e m par With none of the equipment necessary to in real life because we all have hurdles in our va ian be f a an f th in o r perform any sports, the options were open for h lives,” says Pea. “Sometimes, you might be stuck k o Q ar th K e e v p ng an on eu the group. “For BMX in a rut, but with parkour you’re given the le rha g, an (bicycle motocross) or mentality that you can accomplish more Fa Kon al m a nti longboarding or any other than you think, and you can go over that se

sport, you need some kind of hurdle and pass it.” equipment. For parkour, all that Huang adds, “What a lot of people don’t E — is required is you and your environrealize about parkour is that we’re not just YU IN ment,” says Khan. By watching YouTube throwing our bodies out there. We know ST AU videos on parkour and working hard with how far we should go. The fun of parkour each other during weekends and whenever isn’t that you’re about to do something and the group was together, the mastery of basic, then that you’re scared of it, but it’s that we enintermediate, maneuvers came naturally and quickly. joy doing it.” Says Khan, “We started parkour mainly because we saw Despite their present success, the traa video online and thought that it was pretty cool. We deceurs have had their share of injuries. cided to just give it a try.” “When you’re starting out you don’t really By taking full advantage of the environment that surrounds have the right mentality,” says Qian, “After you’ve done [parkour] for a while, you them, traceurs (those who practice parkour) see much more know not to fool around and you know to actually commit to what you’re doing, to ordinary objects than what other passers notice. What most instead of hesitating, falling short and injuring yourself.” Pea and Khan agree with people may see as a table is perceived as an obstacle to be navithis idea; Pea says, “It’s safe to say that all of the injuries that we’ve had, like bruises, gated; parkour, after all, is the art of movement. Qian says, “When bone bruises, cuts and scrapes, are all minor and temporary.” you see something like a table or a gap, usually you’re like ‘Oh I Even though their skills in overcoming obstacles through the means of parkour have can’t make it [across the table or over a gap],’ but when you’re doreached an intermediate level—as shown by their mastery of moves such as the thief, difing parkour, it builds your confidence to let you be able to do things ferent vaults such as the kash, speed, and lazy vault, the tic-tac, the kong, and various different that you usually don’t think you would be able to do. It spurs your rolls and wall-runs—the traceurs do not believe that they are ever going to come to an end or a optimism and your courage.” complete mastery of the sport. “You have to keep trying new things and experimenting with new When practicing, the traceurs adopt a much more aggressive menplaces so we continually do that; we find new spots and experiment with different techniques,” extality, often times trying things they otherwise would not even attempt. plains Khan. “You can’t really ever finish parkour.” Qian continues, “Most of the times, we practice like that to know how Khan sums it up saying, “Parkour is not a sport, because there is no competition at all, ever. It is a discifar we can go and by pushing our limits more and more each time.” pline where everyone works together, and there can never be a winner.” C PI

The Avengers is unadulterated awesomeness BY MICHAEL PARK

hat do you get when you put Thor, Black Widow, Hawkeye, Captain America, Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk together? 142 minutes of cinematic awesomeness including action, history and humor, which filled the midnight premiere of The Avengers with laughter throughout the night. Having lost my movie premiere virginity to The Avengers, I had my expectations blown away as I witnessed people waiting in line hours before the show. Some even covered themselves in green body paint and ran around the mall in excitement. Grossing $304,000,000 with tickets sold out at many theaters, The Avengers is not only popular in America but has also become an international hit that has proved to be the most successful Marvel superhero movie to date. Although The Avengers has a collection of all the other

superhero movie backgrounds, the plot is a continuation of Thor. Thor’s brother Loki comes back as a villain trying to use the tesseract, a mysterious cube that has an unlimited energy source, in order to destroy the Earth and take control of the human race. In response, the director of S.H.I.E.L.D., Nick Fury, assembles the “Avengers Initiative” in order to fight against Loki and his alien army. Issues between the heroes inevitably rise at first but in the end, like all superhero movies, the plot is painstakingly identical, since it does not have many plot twists, and anyone could predict what happens in the end—the good guys win. In addition, the movie is filled with action scenes that satisfy any action addict. The movie’s highlights, however, are not the beat downs of alien flying-turtle monsters, but the witty humor that the superheroes put on. Between the action sequences, each character’s personality is integrated with his or her identity, and their repartee, flirting and actions made this movie a hit. The continual joking and hilarious comments made by all the

characters, such as Iron Man, were just too funny; when The Incredible Hulk mopped up the floor with Loki, the entire theater burst out into laughter. At the end, a sequel is teased, causing commotion in the theater. The Avengers revives the villain from old Marvel comics and brings Red Skull back to the cinematic light. As a film worth five stars just for the humor, The Avengers is a treat for people looking for a great movie to de-stress before AP testing or to celebrate afterwards. The Avengers is the “must-see” movie of 2012that everyone should take the time to watch either in the theaters or at home when the DVD comes out. If The Avengers 2 comes out, you can count me in on watching the sequel to a noteworthy movie.

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY YUNQING CHEN

the Epic bakes the dobos torte BY JACOB ANTONY, JESSICA CAO, KELSEY HURWITZ & JOEY LI

Sophomores vs. sophomores: Two teams take on a master recipe, in hopes of outbaking each other

Chef Club Judges Kelsey & Jacob

Jessica & Joey

Jessica Cao: It has been my culinary dream to make a dobos torte for the past year now. Although both teams were using the same recipe, I was confident we would win. The baking process was a monotonous cycle of baking layers, watching Joey scrape them off and panicking about the dwindling supply of batter. When we brought the cake into the Epic room, well, I’ve never seen a cake go that fast before. Joey Li: Due to our past baking experience, I was confident about our team, but I started to have doubts during the baking process as our cake didn’t seem to be following the recipe properly. Despite the setbacks, it came out well in the end after some small stopgap changes. Once the cake was finished, my confidence was regained and the tasting went as I predicted.

Taste

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Katherine Chen

Taste

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Taste

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Michelle Xu

Taste

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Taste

BY CHARU MEHRA

lthough I tend to stay away from sandwich places, after eating at the new Ike’s Lair at the corner of Stelling and Stevens Creek in Cupertino, I think it is safe to say that I have found an exception. This eatery is a branch of the famous Lair in San Francisco. According to Yelp, Ike’s Lair is famous for its bread, called “Dutch Crunch,” and the mayonnaise, “Dirty Secret Sauce.” When you walk in, Ike’s seems like any other fast food place. We went on a Wednesday, late in the afternoon, so it was not too crowded, but I have heard that the line can stretch out the door on some weekends. The menu is written on a chalkboard by the entrance, but the employee who greeted us at the door claimed that they make over 200

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Roy Qu

Karen Lee

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Kelsey Hurwitz: When I found out I would be doing the baking challenge, I was confident that I could follow the recipe. I began to worry when I read the recipe’s sea of advanced instructions. The recipe said it would take an hour and a half to complete, and four hours later, we were finished. It was ugly, but I’m sure it tasted good. Jacob Antony: I’ll admit it. I wasn’t too confident about our baking skills, but I knew we could make something. After we were done, well, our cake didn’t end up looking that good, but it definitely tasted like it should have. I officially deemed our creation the (insert bathroom humor here). It wasn’t exactly appetizing to look at, but I had faith in this ugly duckling of ours. It was going to go places. GRAPHIC ILLUSTRATION BY FEATURES SECTION

sandwiches, and everything is customizable. I ordered a “Sometimes I’m a Vegetarian” sandwich, which had grilled mushrooms, artichoke hearts and provolone cheese. All orders are served hot, unless otherwise specified, which I found very thoughtful. My sandwich was ready in five minutes, and although I had only ordered half, I was full before I was done. Their sauces had just the right amount of tang, but the bread did start to get soggy pretty quickly. As a whole, I was happy with my meal. I also found it cute that Ike’s has homemade pop-tarts and drinks in old-fashioned bottles. I will definitely come back again, but next time I will make sure not to eat at all in advance because their food is very filling. Despite being previously wary of sandwich places, it’s look like I’ve found a gem!

JOEY LI —EPIC

GRAPHIC ILLUSTRATION BY FEATURES SECTION

Yo, yo, yo, this is Sammyo. I can’t really rhyme, but I do like limes. What’s going down with you? Good? Good, good. Well, I’m angry right now because my role models are all selling out. Look, I come from a broken family. My parents don’t speak English. I don’t speak Chinese. When I get home, we eat dinner in silence and then I go upstairs to do Algebra homework. Stupid sine waves and whatnot. I thought I got rid of those at church. Anyway, you get why I love my celebrities, right? They’re the only ones I have. When it’s 12 a.m. and I’m watching interviews of Norm McDonald and John Frusciante on YouTube, it’s the only time I feel love. My own life is so messed up, I want to hear about someone else’s. I feel better about myself that way. And I love hearing a good story. That’s why I’m a journalist: everyone’s got a story to tell. But when these people got successful, I became disappointed. I can’t relate to them anymore. They don’t know what it’s like anymore, out hustling and making love to the streets. The following people piss me off becausethey’re gosh darn sell outs: 1. Tyler, the Creator I used to think he was the bomb. Some kid comes out and straight up disses Prada and Wacky Tacky Flame, some of the most commercialized rappers in the game. I really admire that kind of bravery. But then I went to my first Odd Future concert, and man, everyone there was a white college kid. I guess when those guys want to sing along, they have to replace “the police” with “my college loans.” If I had to choose, Tyler’s lyrics are what I despise the most. What’s so good about a rapper who raps about money and insults Bruno Mars and Hayley Williams for no reason in his song “Yonkers?” His lyrics are ridiculous to the point where they only appealto the rebellious kids, and in the end it’s all for marketing. And what’s with his name anyway? I have to pause every time I say it. If he just removed a comma, I would have an extra 50 hours to my life. 2. David Choe This artist used to inspire me. He would either be out on the streets making art and love to it or be on an adventure and hitchhike across the world while talking to people from all kinds of backgrounds. But when he struck gold and earned himself 200 million dollars in stocks from Facebook by drawing ugly and dirty figures on the company walls, I was immediately turned off by how a man like Choe can justdraw random stuff on a wall and earn a salary that would take my parents 500 years to earn. And you think he’s going to continue taking his art outside like he used to? No, now he’s probably too scared of being kidnapped and having his money stolen. 3. One Direction I’m a guy, and I’m not ashamed to say that I used to like One Direction. But I should have guessed from their name that they would have only one way to go: up. One Direction’s beautiful voice would always give me the chills. The way they harmonized and used every individual group member’s voice to the fullest potential would always impress me. Their stage presence was also a spectacular thing to witness. But I soon realized that more and more people were idolizing and almost worshipping them not because of their beautiful voices, but by their looks. Just like Justin Bieber, my ex-idol who is almost glorified because of his appealing looks. But I say that I do like One Direction to girls so I can have conversations about Harry Styles. I’m horrible with conclusions so I’ll end with this: Ladies, I’m single. Drink Fanta, Sammyo

“IS APREJUDICE BURDEN THAT CONFUSES BY NOORSHER AHMED

ith the civil rights movement ending legal discrimination once and for all in the United States in the latter half of the twentieth century, Overt racism has been on the decline in the last few centuries. Prejudice and stereotypes, however, still exist in the subconscious of every person and student. Senior Kunaal Goel expresses this, saying, “I think that often, we don’t really realize that by acting a certain way around some people, we’re discriminating against them. It’s not even intentional.” Several aspects play into the development of the racial bias present in the subconsciousness. One way that students are subliminally exposed to racial stereotypes is through television and the Internet. Television programs can sometimes propagate racial prejudices through their choice in characterization and setting. An example of this is seeing Chinese or Japanese stuntmen in martial arts movies or Hispanics engaging in gang activities. Senior Alric Siu noticed this during a trip to New York and recounting, “I just turned on the TV, and saw these shows that had Hispanic drug-related characters—it could easily give people a bad impression of Hispanics. If you live in a place that isn’t diverse and you don’t have a lot of interaction with people of other races, I think the media will shape how you deal with those people, because that’s the only chance you have of getting to know that race.” Television, however, is only the basis for the further development of racial prejudgement in a person’s mind by family and culture. Oftentimes, demands from students’ culture and family can cause them to be prejudiced about their own ethnicity. The most common stereotype at Lynbrook is thinking that all students of an Asian descent need to be smart and hardworking, or are otherwise a disappointment. While some may categorize this as a positive stereotype, history teacher Kyle Howden says, “There isn’t really such a thing as a positive stereotype, because all stereotypes have negative aspects to them. The common one here is that Asians are good at math and science, but what happens if an Asian student isn’t? What does he feel?” Sophomore Jerry Luo feels that the stereotypes that Asians have of themselves impose limitations on him. He says, “I think that the ‘typical’ Asian only has three job options: engineering, law, and health. Because of this, we are unable to look out the scope and explore a lot of the other subjects that might suit us better, and limits us to what we want to do.” Senior Rohan Shitole, who decided to join the Marine Corp instead of pursuing “traditional” careers, agrees.

THE PAST,

THREATENS THE

FUTURE, RENDERS THE

PRESENT

“

How racial stereotypes affect students in and beyond high school

INACCESSIBLE MAYA ANGELOU POET, 2011

He says, “Most Asian people from this school pursue business and engineering jobs and they find it strange that I’m not.” This racial stereotype of Asians also affects other ethnicities as well, further developing racial prejudgments. Junior Zoë Rathbun sometimes faces racial bias because of the stereotype that Asian students care the most about grades and school. She says about facing prejudice, “I think it probably started in seventh or eighth grade, when grades started to matter. Sometimes when I get better grades than them, they’re like, wow, a white girl did better than me.” Rathbun explains that other students may believe that white students are “not as smart or hard-working, and that we don’t care as much [about school]. It is kind of offensive, but I think it’s somewhat beneficial to me to have a negative stereotype because it pushes me to work harder to prove that the stereotype is not true.” People may also face racial bias because their perpetrators are ignorant of certain cultures caused by the lack of interaction with those cultures, as well as stereotypes spread by television or the internet. Freshman Payton Jones, one of the few African American students at Lynbrook says, “I find that there’s a lot more ra-

cial prejudice towards African Americans at this school because there are almost none of us here, so other students are pretty ignorant and believe everything they hear or see on the Internet.” Freshman Savannah Pumphrey also hears common stereotypes targeted towards African Americans. She says, “Some stereotypes I hear about myself are like, ‘She’s ghetto, loud, funny, slutty, sweet. She can kick someone’s a** anytime and anyplace.’ I hear how people are scared to meet me, and I also hear, ‘Oh she eats fried chicken all the time.’” Another student who has also experienced racial discrimination is Hispanic Latino freshman Mike Malagon. He says, “I face a lot of racial prejudice here. There’s this one guy in particular who [...] thinks that I’m not smart at all and that I’m stupid, even though I have much better grades than he does. He also assumes that I came to this country by ‘jumping over the fence.’ It makes me angry, but the only way I can deal with it is to just ignore it.” While racial stereotyping and bias continues to be a problem many students face, as students leave for college and enter the workforce in the future, they are likely to encounter more discrimination no matter their race. A study published in the Urban Review, a journal of urban studies, found that many minorities who transitioned to the predominantly white population of University of California at Los Angeles felt underrepresented and alienated. Because Lynbrook is composed of mostly minorities—82 percent Asian, 13 percent white, five percent other according to the 201112 school profile—it is likely that its students will experience these sentiments. Howden says, “In college and in the workforce, you don’t see overt racism, but you see the perpetuation of stereotypes. I think that we’ve definitely progressed, but are we perfect? No. There will always be racism and you’ll never really be able to make it completely go away.” Many economic factors including competition for jobs and political factors such as immigration can cause varying degrees of racial discrimination. In the future of many students, racial bias will likely exhibit itself in employment. According to the 2008 United States Census, Asians made $880, whites made $757, blacks made $601, and Hispanics made $541 on average per week. A Gallup poll found that 31 percent of Asians, 26 percent of African Americans, 18 percent of Hispanics, and 12 percent of whites interviewed experienced racial discrimination as employees. As students become more independent and face the world after high school, they will find true what the famous African American poet, Maya Angelou once said, “Prejudice is a burden that confuses the past, threatens the future and renders the present inaccessible.” Though prejudice may never be truly eliminated, Lynbrook students can find solace in reaching an increasingly accessible future.

Examining BY IRENE HSU & VIK WAGHRAY

store, crowded with people and short on employees, is the perfect destination for shoppers—as well as shoplifters. Though security cameras are set up all over stores and surveillance tags are usually pinned to expensive clothing, many teenagers are still willing to take the risk for the sake of five-finger discounts. For example, Junior Trevor Tran’s* clothes are cost over a hundred dollars. Though one would expect that shopping puts a dent in his wallet, Trans sometimes never uses a cent. Tran has shoplifted since middle school, after being influenced by his friends and his older brother. While initially he stole small items such as candy from Safeway, he began to steal things with heftier price tags attached— clothes, food, even alcohol. It has become a thrill for him; he says, “The first few times, I was pretty scared, but now it’s just an adrenaline rush. It’s exhilarating.” The motives for stealing are usually, as school therapist Dawn Bridges says, “need, peer pressure, and loss.” Tran says about his own motives, “Usually, I steal for convenience, but if I feel guilty about spending my money on something more expensive, I just take it.” Senior Vishal Kalyanasundaram believes that small thefts, such as taking candy from large chain stores, are acceptable. He says, “Do a cost-benefit analysis for you and the company, and you’ll find that what you steal won’t affect the company at all. You won’t destroy the economy.” School psychologist Brittany Stevens believes, however, that the motives for stealing run much deeper. She says, “Many people who shoplift have been found to be depressed; shoplifting may be a compensation, a feeling that they have been owed something and thus deserve it. They may feel like they paid for what they stole through their personal suffering.” For those who do get caught, there is a question of whether they put a stop to their theft. Once, Tran had stolen sev-

the shoplifter’s mentality $500 worth of merchandise in Wen’s they asked me, ‘When did we ever not give you money bag, since Wen was stealing for both when you asked?’ It was the worst day of my life.” “Shoplifters have very similar mentalities to cheaters,” herself and a friend. Consequently, Wen’s parents were called. At court, Bridges says. “Both think, ‘I always pay, so it’s fine if I don’t she was forced to pay a fine, do pay this time,’ Even though they knows the consequences community service, take a class of shoplifting and cheating, they still think, ‘People get for behavioral correction, and caught, but it’s not going to happen to me.’” Stevens agrees, have a 10 p.m. curfew for six saying, “Though students know the consequences, the fact months. She says, “I haven’t that there is only a random chance they’ll get caught, and erstolen since, now that I only intermittent punishment, makes shoplifting more of a l know the punishments. a calculated risk people are willing to take.” items Though shoplifting may seem harmless, it is important My parents were refrom othally disappointed to realize the ethics and risks involved are great. The spur er stores, in me; I remem- of the moment decision to shoplift can develop into an and uponber when impulse many teenagers cannot necessarily fight, without entering a difthey took truly delving into the root causes. ferent store, the me home alarm went off. *Names have been changed t h a t He says, “The mand a y, ager for that store just came out and searched me, but then he saw I didn’t have anything from his store so he let me go.” Though Tran doesn’t steal as much anymore, the reason for this isn’t because of the experience of almost getting caught. He says, “I only steal when I don’t have the money for something, and right now, I have money from Christmas and my birthday.” On the other hand, senior Janet Wen*, who shoplifted during her sophomore year, has been caught before at a store she often shopped at and stole from. The store manager caught GRAPHIC ILLUS COURTESY OF TRATION BY IRE NE HSU & CAND her as she was leaving the store, finding INFORMATION NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR SHOPLIFTING PREVENTION Y CHAN

Taking a shot: global angles on education BY YUNQING CHEN & JOY SHEN

PHOTO

RATION

ILLUST

Y BY JOE

ducation—it is a never-ending topic of discussion worldwide. On the surface, educational systems appear relatively similar everywhere on earth. However, when one digs beneath the surface, it becomes apparent that each country’s system of education serves as a mirror reflection of their cultural beliefs and values. As a result, the variety of educational systems exists worldwide—exposing students to environments which stress different aspects of learning. Teachers who have received education in other countries note that there are many differences between foreign educational systems and the educational system they are now a part of. A distinguishing difference lies in testing. In countries such as France, test questions are a lot more concept-drive. As a result, receiving an A on an exam is an extremely rare feat for students. As French teacher Valerie Amzallag states, “Expecting, or even striving, to get 100% [on a test] like students do at Lynbrook, is nearly impossible.” Likewise, senior Karen Wong, who previously attended school in Hong Kong, echos Amzallag’s statement, saying, “Students [in Hong Kong] are taught to memorize concepts, but not to think. Once in my history class in Hong Kong, I was given page numbers where I was supposed to have all the text memorized. I missed a couple sentences [on the test] and got 10% of my grade deducted.” Overall, systematic differences in test-taking make receiving high marks in a foreign classroom, generally, more of a challenge compared to Lynbrook. Another differentiating aspect of testing around the globe lies in the manner which teachers return exams. While test scores at Lynbrook are usually a personal matter, such privacy is not given to a large number of students worldwide.

to know their teachers on an intimate level because In most countries outside of the United States, it is the teacher’s main job is to teach. Conversations outcustomary for teachers to publicly announce each side the academic arena are very rare.” individual student’s score after taking a test. Even on an academic level, student-teacher conversa“[Teachers] sometimes arrange the tests tions at school rarely reach a purely personal level. Japanese from highest to lowest when handing them teacher Kumi Kobayashi notes that, “I couldn’t ask my teachers back, so students all know where they are in to explain my grades to me.” relation to each other,” says Amzallag. This While the American educational system encourages student system proves to be effective in decreasing participation and interactive learning methods, the education system competition amongst students, for each in Asia follows a more traditional arrangement where students listen individual is aware of their quietly while the teacher lectures at the front of the room. Wong adds, “It standing in relation is considered very impolite to confront or to question [the teacher] in to the rest of the front of the entire class. The role of the student is to do no more than class. receive information given in class lectures.” The dySimilarly, Kobayashi adds, “Sometimes students would be namic becalled on, [but rarely] were there any classroom discussions. Altween a most everything was paper and pencil. There weren’t really any projects or other applications.” For students, one of the most distinguishing differences between the American education system versus international systems is the amount of freedom students receive. Here, teachers do not possess any authoritative right over the personal lives of students. stuIn China, however, Wong recalls, “High school relationships are dent and strictly forbidden. I used to have a friend who was in a relationship teacher is also with another guy from the same school. When their teachers found out heavily impacted by [about their relationship], they forced them to break up.” cultural values. In Asian On an academic aspect, American school systems allow students more countries, where respect flexibility with their course selection, as they get to choose the majority of is heavily emphasized, stuthe classes they take. Such a system, in which a greater amount of freedom dents and teachers maintain is given to all students, proves extremely different from the Japanese and a more formal relationship. Chinese systems. While it is not surprising to Education around the world is still a varying and continually changing see students conversing with topic, as social differences create different sets of cultural values amongst their teachers in a casual manvarious countries. Ultimately, there exists many disparities amongst educaner at Lynbrook, such actions tional systems worldwide. However, in relation to foreign systems of educawould be rare in Chinese schools, tion, the American format, “requires students to do higher thinking and more where students are expected to treat sophisticated learning,” says Kobayashi. “If I had to choose [where to study],” and speak to their teachers formally. she adds, “I would choose here.” Wong states, “Students can never get

OUT OF HIS SHADOW, UNDER HIS WING | Eric Chuu (10) urges his teammate to do another set of sprints at Zenith Strength, and then it’s David Hsu’s (10) turn to give encouragement (Top). Chuu’s intense dedication to conditioning amazes even his friend, a nationally ranked tennis player and someone he strives to push towards (Bottom).

A TALE OF TWO SOPHOMORES JACOB ANTONY—EPIC

ennis doesn’t fit into high school athletics. At a time when adolescents are encouraged to join as many things as possible, it is a sport worshipping individuality. There are no umpires. Coaching during matches is prohibited. On the court, foes are not only against each other, but they also rely on one another to keep track of the score and settle disputes. Even when it’s tight, points turn into games, games to sets, and sets to matches all on the good faith and respect competitors have for each other. It’s a game based on trust and memory. Most top-tier players, especially those looking to get recruited, do have a lot to remember. “I first picked up a racquet when I was two,” says David Hsu. “I remember watching my dad play.” 12 years ago, he went down to the courts to where his father had been on the courts, and hit a ball over the net. He started playing competitively six years after that. After four more years, he was the fifth best player in the nation. He was the anchor for the team this year, playing number one and clinching the win whenever he stepped on court, while simultaneously working his ranking up the 18’s division, peaking at number 43. Next year, he’s not going to play for the school. “To be honest, this season did not help me at all,” says Hsu. “The only benefit was that playing against people not as good as me gave me an opportunity to work on things I wouldn’t normally do when it’s more competitive. Serving and volleying, for example.” What about playing a match with his nondominant hand, something Hsu’s former classmate and last year’s number one once did? He immediately bristles at the suggestion. “No, that’s a dick move. That’s unsportsmanlike.” He’s been brought up this way, playing a sport where participants are encouraged to be both selfishly ruthless and selfishly honest. When he gets on the court, he’s the one making all of the decisions, even in practice. Even on a team, he’s trying to get that win by himself, playing for himself. He’s basically alone. And striving to beat the guy right in front of you, to win that tournament right out of reach, the desire to keep getting better, it certainly builds character, but it’s all meant to benefit one person: you. Most of Hsu’s decisions are rooted in self-interest, like those of the typical tennis player. But what happens when everyone on the team has been brought up to think this way? In other sports, two different positions won’t hate each other: they have different roles to play. When everyone is playing the exact same thing, the people who are better can get slightly arrogant. There’s no hatred going on, but they might not respect the lower ranked players. And doubles

doesn’t fit into the picture at all. “Yeah, if you cover your side, you’ll be a decent doubles player. But if you really want to be better, you’ll be moving with the ball, looking for chances to poach (playing a shot for your partner). People on our team don’t know how to play with a partner.” Hsu doesn’t either, but that doesn’t stop him from being a team player—there’s a difference. “Most people are here for kicks. Eric [Chuu] is a guy who I see as really sincere. Everybody plays tennis for their own reasons, and it’s not all about competing. But when I go to practice, I try to look for people who really want to get better, and I work with them. People who are really striving for it, like my close friends. I take Eric to Zenith Strength.” This is where we (David, Eric, and I) are at right now after a fifteen minute drive. A small, out of the way strip mall. A dumpster right outside, an ironsmith right next door. A room that looks like a garage, with dim lighting and peeling paint, crammed with weight machines, but the people in this room transcend it. The boys warm up on their own, then it’s an hour of pushups, pull-ups, sprints, and pushing sleds, with the coach, Shyam Soin, periodically giving them instruction, egging them on, making sure they won’t get injured. It’s an intimate environment, with the scent of sweat and a sense of camaraderie. Mentally, Hsu doesn’t feel a lot of pressure because he knows that he’s constantly physically pushing himself to the max. There are some things you can’t outwork, though. “I can’t stand losing to people,” says Chuu. “If you’re going to do something, you might as well do it well. It’s a waste of time otherwise. For me, doing well has to be winning, really.” Sometimes, though, he’s too aggressive. “I like making the other person run. I like staying in control and being aggressive. I don’t like playing with pushers (overly cautious players). If you’re a pusher, why are you even playing?” There’s a pause. The next words are carefully enunciated. “How can you be happy when you’re not hitting freely?” Then he explodes. “Our team doesn’t care enough. When you’re playing tennis, I don’t want to hear you talk about how poorly you’re doing in math, can you just focus on the task at hand? If you’re putting the time to be out there, you should be trying to play to the best of your ability. You should be going to the weight room, getting into shape, finding out areas of the game where you can improve, not just going out there and hitting the ball. They don’t think tennis will get them anywhere. But if you want to go far, that isn’t the right mentality. Just because it isn’t going to get you into college, you’re not going to try as hard?” Hsu is more reserved in his comments. Respect is dependent on your image, and he knows this all too well, which is why he refuses to comment on his weaknesses. “Knowing

weaknesses gives players a different mindset. If you know, he’s mentally weak, he’s cramping, it motivates you to think, ‘If I work a little harder, I’ll break him.’” Chuu talks more openly, however. “People come and talk to me, and they always say my only problem is my mental game. I’m well aware that it’s my mental game. I’ve learned that instead of forcing myself to win, I’m more focused on myself hitting the ball well. It’s more important to be satisfied with how you’re playing than the result. But when you put in so much effort into something you love doing, you kind of expect to have good results.” And whatever result you get, it’s because you’re doing it. You don’t rely on or blame anyone. When you win, no one can take credit away from you. And it feels good to be on the court, hit the ball, run. Chuu, now covered in sweat, smiles for the first time in two interviews. Today, he’s put in more work than many elite players do. “Maybe now I’ll get some more respect.” He laughs and pantomimes hitting his friend with a hammer they’ve been using to pound tires. But he quickly stops and heads over to do yet another set of x-band walks. You can almost hear his thoughts. There’s more work to be done.

JACOB ANTONY—EPIC

BY BRIAN ZHAO

TRACK TEAM SPRINTS TO CCS Girls ≠ boys. So what?

developed an inferiority complex during middle school, when we had structured PE classes and I kept on hearing the phrase “girls don’t try.” I was at that age where the opposite gender just pisses you off with their stupidity, and I couldn’t stand being sidelined just because I was a girl. So naturally, when I joined the badminton team my freshman year, I reacted badly when I kept hearing the same thing. Now, four years later, I’m glad for being on one of the few co-ed teams at school, because it’s taught me how to get over my complex. Despite the “guys are superior” attitude (I’m exaggerating, but not by much), we’re placed side by side with them and given an opportunity to be equals. More often than not, we come short, but at least we get that chance. For pretty much everything else, girls are held to lower standards or given special considerations. During our fitness tests, the girls always have an easier rubric than the guys. In some sports, the varsity girls scrimmage against the JV guys. And during co-ed sports events like March Madness, they usually require a minimum number of girls per team. It’s supposed to promote equality and inclusion or something like that. What does everyone else calls it? A handicap. I would rather be brutally reminded on the court that my skills are lacking than be pitied and told I can’t amount to anything before I step onto one. The segregation that happens isn’t really because guys discriminate against girls. It happens because guys want to practice with people who can keep up with them—and that includes girls, too. I’m not condoning the general air of superiority that guys usually put on when they talk about girl athletes. The guys I respect are the ones who don’t let gender factor into the equation. I’m just not going out of my way to gain the approval of boys who can’t see past the fact that I’m a girl. I wish more sports were co-ed, or at least that they practiced during the same season, because it keeps generalizations about gender from becoming limitations. In badminton, we’re constantly reminded of how much more we can improve. There are guys running faster than we can, clearing farther than we can, smashing harder than we can, right on the courts next to us. I think about this whenever our coach decides to switch around our lineup. She usually takes the stronger girls from singles and places them in other events in order to increase our chances of winning there. The players who get assigned girls’ singles in the end are essentially sacrifices, but I haven’t seen any one of them throw a match before. That’s pretty much what it should mean to be a girl athlete in a testosterone-dominated world—even though you know you’re weaker, you’re not going to let generalizations become excuses. You’ll face your opponent and fight as hard as you can.

JOEY LI—EPIC

LEAGUE TRIALS | On May 1, Lucas Ranieri (11) ran the 110 meter hurdles at Los Altos High School, finishing in fourth place and qualifying for league finals.

qualify to compete in the CCS Semi-Finals, which takes place on May 19. Those who qualify at CCS Semi-Finals move onto CCS Finals on May 25. During each round of meets, teams can be elimininated at any time. Silverman says, “During all of the other races, even if you do poorly, your season wouldn’t be over, but starting at this meet, if you don’t finish in a certain top group such as top 6 in the meet, your season is done.” Athletes’ performances at league finals determine their ranks among all athletes of the central coast who could potentially participate in CCS. At the League Finals on May 3, 50 track and field members competed with athletes from schools including Palo Alto HS, Los Altos HS, Saratoga HS, Milpitas HS, Gunn HS and Mountain View HS.

BY SUCHETA KORWAR

fter focusing on individual performances throughout the season, the track and field team is now more than ready to put its game face on and think about CCS as a part of its future. The team’s participation in Santa Clara Valley Athletic League (SCVALs) Finals on May 3 was the first in a series of rounds that qualifies athletes for SCVALs and eventually CCS (Central Coast Section). Junior Shaelyn Silverman says, “How we do at league finals will probably be a good indicator of our performance at CCS because athletes are placed in standings among all the other athletes that have the potential to qualify for CCS.” Track members who do well at league finals and compete in SCVALs on May 11 can

Junior Lucas Ranieri competed in five events at leagues finals, and will soon be advancing to SCVALs for three of his events, so he is especially pleased. He reflects, “I think we did really well at Leagues considering the harsh practice conditions at Miller. A lot of us made it to SCVALs, which is great, because it gives us all another chance to improve and maybe even make it to CCS Semis. We showed other schools that we actually have an impressive amount of athletic ability.” Nine runners, including Ranieri, Silverman, senior Amanda Tam, junior Ethan Chiou, senior Andrew Kuo, freshman Grace Ling, junior So Masuoka, junior Daniel Sun, junior Jacqueline Hudepohl and sophomore Davis Catolico, are all advancing to SCVALs after placing in the top eight for their events at League Finals.

JV Badminton expected to win it all

Swimming hosts SCVAL tournament

BY JESSICA CAO

BY GLORIA LIN

he JV badminton team is expected to go undefeated this season and will likely win league finals. This is due in large part to the fact that all the players train, or have trained, outside of school at badminton gyms. Freshman Patrick Zhu says, “I go four times a week and train for two to three hours each time. When I’m not playing at Lynbrook, I play on the Bintang team.” The majority of the players on Lynbrook’s team go to Bintang Badminton Academy for training or instruction. Unlike the other gyms in the area, Bingtang’s courts are built for badminton and have more traction. Many of the coaches at the well-known gym are nationally ranked in their countries of birth, and students do hours of conditioning and training with them during off-season as well. Zhu’s JV doubles partner, freshman Brandon Chou, qualified for varsity this year but does not compete in that division. The pair is undefeated and Chou agrees that he owes his skills to outside training. He explains, “You have to go to a gym to succeed at badmintonbecause it’s a lot more technical than some other sports and you need good form to win. Those nationally ranked players at other high schools started out when they were really young.” These same successful JV badminton players go on to play varsity badminton. However, varsity badminton’s record currently 3-6, due to the overall lack of time spent playing and amount competing. Junior Howard Chen says, “A player can reach JV level by practicing in-season, but if you haven’t been playing since you were seven and don’t train throughout the year, you won’t make it to CCS on varsity.” While Lynbrook varsity players are by no means unskilled, the few state- or nationally-ranked players from other schoolsmake a difference by winning games worth more points. Ten years ago, getting outside training for high school badminton was unusual. However, playing at an outside gym for hours each week is now almost a requisite for being on the team. It certainly helps players get in shape for the season, but most agree that the real advantage in badminton is starting early.

or the first time in five years, Lynbrook hosted league finals, which spanned the afternoons of May 1 through 3. With an Olympic-size swimming pool, Lynbrook was more than proud to host the well-anticipated event. “This is a big deal; we have one of the fastest pools in the NOORSHER AHMED—EPIC county, and the overflow gut- LEAGUE FINALS | Cheryl Chang (10) ters and six-inch lanes help swims the last leg of the 100 yard keep swimmer backflow to breaststroke at Lynbrook on May 3. a minimum, making each swimmer more efficient in the water,” says coach Patrick Ellington. But while these features are a plus for all who tread Viking waters, it is the Vikings themselves who experience a home field advantage. Many were excited to host, since they are used to the pool. For junior Etienne Flamant, it meant “swimmer morale and spirit during leagues [are] reinforced... the greatest advantage is not having to swim in a pool saturated with salt or incensed with the fragrance of fecal coliform bacteria.” Many parents were equally excited, sacrificing much time to volunteer and provide food for swimmers. Bernice Buntaran, the mother of freshman Zoe Lie, spent 24 hours and $70 purchasing and preparing food for 60-70 people. The students’ involvement is met with nothing but support by Buntaran, who describes her role as the “manager of hospitality. I want to help these kids and encourage them to keep swimming; I give them junk food so they like me. They work so hard—the least I can do is give back.” The team will be heading to CCS this Friday. The event will be held at the Santa Clara Swim Center, beginning at 12 p.m.

SCOREBOARD 4-8

Record (W-L)

Badminton

Last two matches:

L vs Milpitas

14-16

W vs Saratoga

22-8

6-13 Baseball

Last two matches:

L vs Cupertino

0-4

W vs Monta Vista

4-1

5-12 Boys’ Golf

Last two matches:

L vs Milpitas

215-175

W vs Monta Vista

177-209

GRAPHIC ILLUSTRATION BY BRIAN ZHAO

5-7

Boys’ Tennis

15-12 Boys’ Volleyball

Last two matches:

4-3

3-1

W vs Palo Alto

L vs Monta Vista

2-5

W vs King’s Academy L vs Monta Vista

0-3

Next game:

Wilcox (5/8, 3:30, away)

Milpitas (5/8, 3:30, away)

Season is over

CCS

0-16 Softball

Last two matches:

L vs Milpitas

0-10

L vs Saratoga

6-18

Next game:

Mtn. View (5/8, 4:00, home)

BY NAMRATA SINGH

If you want to be as confident as Angelina’s leg was at the Oscars, these easy lunges will do the trick. It is the perfect balance of lower core and upper thigh workout and although it is not tough it will leave you feeling that perfect burn. This exercise is perfect for all you girls with deep slits in your prom dress for your slender legs to peek out from. Or even the males who have started to pull out their summer shorts and need some muscle to fill them out like a man.

Ryan Gosling, Zac Efron and Cristiano Ronaldo will have nothing on your defined abdominals if you perform the plank exercise correctly. Although tough at first, the excruciating pain in your lower core doesn’t seem that bad when the results start showing. Planks are an easy exercise to complete just about anywhere there is open ground space. It is important to keep your back, glutes and legs in as straight of a line as possible. This will provide you with the quickest and most effective results.

GRAPHIC ILLUSTRATION BY JACOB ANTONY& ALICE ZHANG

Are you more of a hopeless solo when it comes to crunches and core work? If so, leg lifts will be your cup of tea. This simple yet effective core workout will leave you with a sensational stretch in your lower abdomen as well as that defined pizza slice every guy aims to have and every girl yearns to see. The key is holding your legs exactly 6 inches above the ground and keeping them elevated while as straight as possible. If you perform these in reps of 3 at a time for close to 15 minutes you will begin to feel your lower abdomen strengthen and solidify in a matter of weeks.

Boys’ volleyball spikes its way to CCS BY MICHAEL PARK

n Wednesday, May 2, the Lynbrook boys’ volleyball team had a monumental victory over The King’s Academy, as they won their senior game in a final game score of 3-1. This huge victory gave the team enough points to advance to the first round of Central Coast Section (CCS), in which the team will compete against schools all across the central California for a chance to take home the CCS title. Captain senior Bryan Le reviews the game as he provides insight on how the game went: “Although we started off a little shaky with numerous errors as we underestimated Kings Academy, we pushed through the next 3 games with a greater intensity that allowed us to come out on top, which is the type of mentality we need to have at CCS. As a team we have learned to adjust to the situations we face and come out and do our best.” The game was full of exciting plays and the team depended on each other in order to execute their plays. Players such as Le had 26 kills and 12 serving points, captain Kevin Tu with 14 kills and three aces and sophomore Connor Wen with 48 assists helped bring up the morale of the team and improve the overall game play of the team. For their last league game against the Monta Vista Matadors, the team prepared tirelessly to try and end their last league game with a victory. Having lost the first game against one of the teams biggest rivals to a score of 1-3, the boys are determined to turn the tables and show how much their team has grown.

Senior Kevin Tu says, “We weren’t working together as a team when we faced [Monta Vista] the first time around, but after a whole season of practicing countless hours, bonding and having each other’s backs we are prepared to come out on top.” Unfortunately the boys had a though night has their game ended in a 3-0 loss. Even with Le’s 18 kills and four aces, senior Sandeep Peddada’s six blocks and five kills and senior Darren Shim’s 16 digs the team wasn’t able to win. Players such as Le finished first in league for kills per game while maintaining the highest hitting percentage. The team is now scrambling to prepare for their first game at CCS, and time is quickly ticking down. Although the CCS bracket has not been set up yet, the coaches are having a meeting on Saturday. Shim expresses the teams’ excitement: “Everyone is pumped to have made it to CCS, especially because we made it even when we competed in a higher league. It just makes our feat that much more amazing and encourages the team to try harder even after our setback at Monta Vista.” And as the season winds down to an end, all the regrets the team faced have dissolved away; the team has accomplished more than what they had originally intended to. Le says, “As a senior and my last year on the team I am happy to say that not only have I improved immensely but the team has matured and couldn’t make me anymore prouder.” Coaches, students and parents alike are all proud of their Viking boys’ volleyball players and all they have done this season.

WHY WE LOVE SPORTS BY BRIAN ZHAO

PRACTICAL APPLICATION BY CANDY CHANG

THANK YOU 2015 BY CLAY SONG

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BY JOEY LI

hoose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life. Lynbrook students live this out, with the jobs they hold reflecting their interests. Clockwise from top left, freshman Gianna Wu helps at her mother’s flower shop making corsages, boutonnieres and baskets. “On busy days like Valentine’s Day, I sometimes work with her until past midnight,” she says. Sophomore Nathan Kastle has been acting for seven years, starting in summer programs before expanding into short films and theater. He says, “I’ve read this book that said luck is where preparation

meets opportunity, so hopefully I get lucky.” Senior Sameer Kausar has been working at State Farm Insurance taking customer calls since January. He says, “I thought it would be interesting and fun and I’ve always loved talking to people. Why not do it while making money?” Junior Molly Cummins has ridden horses since she was seven years old and worked with horses since seventh grade, training ponies to be ridden by younger riders. “I work for around two hours a day, four days a week,” she says. “Sometimes the ponies gain bad habits being ridden by kids, so I have to keep them in line.”