Issue 3 2015

INDEPTH//

Awareness for asexuality

BY KASTURI PANTVAIDYA AND SHEFALI VIJAY

H

BY THE EDITORIAL BOARD

O GRAPHIC ILLUSTRATION BY JEFFREY YANG

n Nov. 15, a team of four Lynbrook and Monta Vista High School students calling themselves Team Trance hosted the Winter Beats mixer at the Camden Community Center. At 8:35 p.m., more than two hours before the projected end time of 11 p.m., the event was terminated by the San Jose Fire Department due to concerns of overcapacity in the facility as well as a medical emergency. At the time, members of the San Jose Police Department (SJPD) were present as well.

Those who attended the mixer were not refunded for their tickets. Students were disgruntled because they were not recompensated for the event’s premature shutdown.

“I bought tickets at the door [for $20], and I was only at the event for an hour before they shut it down,” said sophomore Lisa Cao. “I was actually pretty pissed, because I paid

$20 that isn’t going to get refunded.”

The attendees were told that no refunds were issued due to legal reasons.

“I heard from others [who heard from the event organizers] that the money had been confiscated by the police, and that’s why it is not going to be refunded,” said Cao. When attendees asked the hosts further questions regarding the possibility of a refund, Team Trance claimed to not have the money.

“I heard the money was confiscated by police, so they did not have any money to give back,” said senior Gregory Lerner.

In the report synopsis obtained by the Epic from the SJPD, however, money seizure was not mentioned. In response to the rumors of money being confiscated, Sergeant Heather Randol of the SJPD stated that “...there was no money collected from the event coordinators.” see MONEY page 2

FEATURES//

Fanfiction: the answer to all the “what ifs” you’ve had

BY PRASANN RANADE AND STEPHANIE LU

W

hat happens to Harry Potter after the war against Voldemort finally ends? What adventures does Harry’s son James Potter have in his Hogwarts years? How would the story of Harry Potter look if performed as a comedic musical?

Those questions might sound out of the blue to some readers, but these stories, published online, attract thousands. They are all part of the literary realm of fan fiction, often abbreviated as “fanfic,” a broad genre pertaining to stories building upon another’s work.

While fan fiction and its fans have a bad rep for being obsessively focused on romantic relationships or erotica, Lynbrook students reveal that there is more to fan fiction than just its stereotype.

“Usually the image people have of fan fiction is the anime stuff, especially the inappropriate or weird aspects,” said junior Ted Leung. “That part exists, but it’s really a sliver compared to the rest of fan fiction.”

Far from being merely caricatures or parodies of previously written work, the term “fan fiction” encompasses a number of other categories.

Roughly divided into three areas based upon the subject matter, the world of fan fiction includes jargon of its own: slashfics, plotfics or alternate universe (AU) fiction, and second generation or epilogue compliant material.

Slash fics are fan fictions that revolve around the relationship between two characters, with the name originating from writers who indicated the relationship their stories focused on by titling them “Character 1/

Character 2.” Plot fics, of which AU fiction is a subset, revolve around a set of characters adapting to a new set of circumstances, and relies heavily on an author’s imagination.

Lastly, second generation or epilogue compliant fiction continues an author’s work after it ends, looking at the characters’ canonically unwritten future.

Senior Archita Jain first happened upon fan fiction in sixth grade after reading the romantic young adult novel “Twilight” by Stephenie Meyer.

“I hated the book, so I thought there’s got to be some kind of parody out there, and I stumbled across this fan fiction that was relatively good called ‘Bella, Baseball, and Boys,’” said Jain. “I enjoyed it, so I started looking around and I created my first account. see FANFICTION page 9

uman growth and development books all tell you you may start experiencing sexual attraction in your high school years,” said senior Elena Parker*. “I never did.”

After getting involved with Tumblr and learning about the wide variety of genders and sexualities, Parker wondered about her own sexual identity. Subsequently, Parker did more research during her junior year and began to identify as asexual.

“I spent a lot of time learning about the spectrum of genders and sexualities,” said Parker. “Hearing about other people’s experiences made me start thinking about my own, leading me to realize that I’d never felt sexual attraction.”

Though asexuality is relatively new in terms of scientific research, the Asexual Visibility and Education Network (AVEN) defines asexuality as “...not being able to experience sexual attraction.” Asexuality, like heterosexuality or homosexuality, is a sexual orientation. But instead of being sexually attracted to men, women, or both, people who are asexual do not experience sexual feelings toward anyone.

“I don’t understand what goes on in people’s heads when they’re sexually attracted to people,” said Parker. “After doing research to see what it’s supposed to feel like, I realized that I didn’t identify with any of those feelings, which confirmed my beliefs about my sexuality.”

For years, Parker thought that she would eventually feel the physical attraction that is coupled with puberty and the maturation of teenagers.

By the end of her junior year, it occurred to her that she was almost an adult, and while she had developed romantic thoughts, the sexual aspect remained absent. After conducting online research and reaching out to various members of the LGBT community, Parker came to her conclusion.

A week after discovering her sexual identity, Parker decided to come out to her friends and family. She found that while her friends were instantly accepting, her parents were dubious. see ASEXUALITY page 12

Lynbrook’s Siemens finalists FanKave:

the race for $10,000

BY CLAIRE CHIANG

O STEPHANIE LU—EPIC

THE WRITING ON THE WALL | Seniors Aaron Huang and Ruchi Pandya, finalists in the Siemens competition, stand next to diagrams representing their projects.

BY AMANDA CHANG

O

n Oct. 20, seniors Ruchi Pandya and Aaron Huang were named regional finalists in the Siemens Competition in Math, Science and Technology, one of the nation’s premier STEM competitions for high school students. From Nov. 7-8, Pandya and Huang presented their research projects at the California Institute of Technology, where Ruchi was announced as one of six national finalists who would present their research at George Washington University from Dec. 5-8.

Ruchi Pandya Ever since she worked on a sixth grade project questioning whether aliens exist, Pandya has been interested in research. In her most recent project, titled “Development of a Carbon Nanofiber Electrode Based Biosensor for Cardiac Health Diagnostics,” she developed a portable carbon nanofiber biosensor device that tests for cardiac arrest.

This device only requires one drop of blood to test for certain cardiac biomarkers that elevate when a person goes into cardiac arrest.

“The device has the potential to revolutionize in-home cardiac care and make it easier for hospitals and paramedics to help patients,” said Pandya.

In January, Pandya started working on her project at the Center for Nanotechnology at NASA. During her sophomore year, she developed a nanoparticle-based water purification filter at Stanford University.

“My internship showed me the power of nanotechnology,” said Pandya. “They’re small materials, but they have a lasting impact.”

After consistently succeeding at the Synopsys Science Fair, Pandya thought entering

the Siemens Competition was the next step.

“I wanted to present my work on a different platform,” said Pandya. “There were Caltech faculty members on the panel of judges, so I got feedback about my work from respected judges.”

Although she was excited to enter the Siemens Competition, she did not anticipate coming this far.

Looking to the future, she is certain that STEM will be a part of her endeavors.

“Whatever I do, there will probably be a huge STEM influence, because that has become a part of me,” said Pandya. “Innovation and a push towards engineering for societal benefit is really important to me.”

Aaron Huang As a child, Huang enjoyed science-related TV shows. This past summer, Huang was able to combine astrophysics with computer science during an internship at UC Santa Cruz (UCSC). In his project, titled “The Detection of Extended Emission in Distant Galaxies”, he and his partner, a junior at Saint Francis High School, generated the first physical representations of galactic outflow among a large set of galaxies, which will give astronomers a deeper

MONEY| Investigating Winter Beats continued from MONEY page 1

Letter from the Editors Dear Readers, In this holiday season of giving, the Epic is proud to present its third issue.

Begin this issue by reading our front page story investigating the whereabouts of the profits from the Winter Beats mixer. Take a look at our in-depth story on homeschooling (pg.11). For lighter fare, check out our howto story on impressing your date (pg.8). Finish off with our sports story on a high-school boxer (pg.13).

Happy Holidays, James Wilhelmi and Khaya Bhatia.

insight into the nature of galaxy evolution.

At the start of the program, Huang’s mentor warned Huang and his partner that the project would be difficult.

“The probability of us finding a good result was slim to zero,” said Huang.

After the program ended, Huang and his partner did not have any good results, but they continued working on the project. Four days before the Siemens competition deadline, they identified and fixed the bug in their code.

They then worked to finish the paper and ended up becoming semifinalists. Later, two days before regional finalists were announced, Huang received a call from his partner.

“He told me that he got a call from this lady in D.C. and that we were regional finalists,” said Huang.

In the future, Huang also hopes to continue conducting research.

“I want to continue to conduct research in college and possibly my future career,” said Huang. “ As for this project, I plan to continue working on it for as long as I can.”

For the full version of the story, visit www.lhsepic.com

n Oct. 15, 2014, Lynbrook started its journey to a grand prize of $10,000 in a contest between local high schools using FanKave. FanKave is a social networking app available on both Android and Apple devices with chat rooms called “kaves” specifically geared toward sports-related conversations.

The ASB Athletics Commission decided to participate in the contest after being approached by Assistant Principal of Activities Craig Tuana.

“It was a win-win situation,” said senior Anshul Shah, an Athletics Commissioner. “If we won, we would receive $10,000. If not, there was nothing to lose.”

The high school with the most points

by Super Bowl Sunday, Feb. 1, 2015, will win $10,000. Each download with the code “LHS” recieves 500 points.

After a user selects his or her favorite teams in college football, Major League Soccer or the NFL for example, scores and rankings will appear, making live updates available at all times. This feature is convenient when users are chatting.

“FanKave seemed interesting since I had never previously used an app that integrated features of Hangouts and Facebook with sports updates,” said sophomore Vaishnav Balaji, a FanKave user.

To get students excited about the contest, the Athletics Commission plans to do a raffle in January. Since FanKave gives each school a $50 Visa card each month to use for related activities, the commission plans to give fifteen app users a $10 gift card. Every student with the app will automatically be entered into the raffle.

“The competition ends in February, so we have time to get back to the top, and we have fun events coming up tohelp us earn the points we need,” said sophomore Riya Mital, an Athletic Commissioner.

If Lynbrook wins first place, the Athletics Commission plans to spend a certain percentage of money on sports teams and another percentage on events and merchandise that ASB Athletics is in charge of, such as Spikefest and Vikepound shirts.

Lynbrook started out strong and is in fifth place as of this writing. The QR code to locate this app can be found on all the posters around school.

“If half the school can just download this app, we have a chance to win,” said Shah.

When asked for more information, she said that it is unknown where the money is, and the police officers do not know anything else about its whereabouts except for what the mixer hosts told them.

According to Randol, “It was reported the money was collected prior to the event.”

Information collected by the Epic has revealed numerous contradictions.

Among them are whether the money was confiscated, the total attendance of the event and the current location of the profits. Due to discrepancies in findings regarding the money, the Epic conducted an investigation into the whereabouts of the Winter Beats profits. the Epic ran into further inconsistencies while attempting to determine the number of people actually in attendance.

The maximum occupancy of the room was reported to be 630, but the police

reported that 200-300 people were at the event. There are conflicting reports regarding this estimate, however.

“When I was there, it looked like there were 400 people there,” said senior Pranav Vaish. Other people reported seeing as many as 650 people at the venue.

Based on costs of tickets pre-sale and atthe-door and the attendance figure provided by the police, revenues were $3,200 at minimum. Team Trance remains unsure of its actual intake resulting from the mixer. Camden Community Center supervisor Dan Greenly was unavailable for comment.

To look further into the matter, the Epic contacted the charities that were slated to receive a portion of the profits from Winter Beats. Team Trance planned on donating $200 to the charity Catch a Z, but according to co-founders Hersh Solanki and Aditya Gunda, no money has been donated as of this writing.

“Winter Beats was going to donate a por-

tion of their profits to our organization,” said Gunda. “However, the event faced some legal issues and was shut down by the police, and to the best of my knowledge we will not be receiving any donations from them.”

When asked why funds from the mixer were not going to be donated to Catch a Z, Solanki said, “We were told we would get some money donated, but after they ran into problems, they had no money to give us.”

In response to the statements above, Team Trance said that no profits have been donated yet because they “...still have a few sellers to collect from, so [we’re] going to be getting money from them and then contributing to Catch a Z from there.” The hosts said that there is no specified date at which they plan to collect and donate the money.

As of now, it is still uncertain what has happened to the money earned. When asked to clarify where the money is and what has been done with the funds to this point, Team Trance declined to comment.

News in Brief Winter Formal This year’s Winter Formal dance will be on Thursday, Dec. 18, from 7:30 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. Tickets are sold at brunch and lunch at top of the quad, and prices start at $55 and increase from Nov. 23.

CSF Winter Projects CSF Winter Projects will continue on to Thursday, Dec. 18. Donated clothes will be given to University of California Los Angeles’s Mobile clinic. Any donated toys will be given to the organization Sunday Friends.

Students will find the donation boxes in Room 301, Mr. Penner’s room.

Good Luck Grams Straight Talk Related to Students (STAIRS) Club will hand out free good luck grams before finals. Students may send grams to friends by emailing lynbrookstairs@gmail. com the recipient’s name, third period teacher and message.

Finals Testing Finals testing will be from Tuesday, December 16th to Thursday, December 18th.

Tuesday: Periods 2 and 5 Wednesday: Periods 1, 4, and 7 Thursday: Periods 3 and 6

Winter Break There will be no school from December 19th to January 4th. Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and good luck on finals!

By Audrey Zheng

The New and Improved Westgate Center

ILLUSTRATION BY ALLISON YUAN

STEPHANIE LU - EPIC

BY KATHLEEN CUI

I

n August 2014, the Federal Realty Investment Trust (FRIT) announced future additions of popular retailers to Westgate Shopping Center, including J. Crew Factory, Gap Factory, Vitamin Shoppe, Corner Bakery Cafe, Verizon Wireless, Carter’s, and OshKosh B’Gosh.

J. Crew Factory and Gap Factory have already opened, and the other additions are under construction.

“Recognizing that customer tastes and needs are ever changing, our leasing strategy is designed to keep our properties exciting, vibrant and successful,” said Jeff Kreshek, vice president of West Coast Leasing, in an interview with Bizjournals. “We’re already working on lease commitments with several ‘new-to-the-market’ tenants in conjunction with the renovation plans.”

“This is a new direction for Westgate Center,” said Kreshek in the same interview.

“Our customer is looking for quality, variety and diversity; a product mix that outlet shops with full-price brands can deliver.”

Both Gap Factory and J. Crew Factory are located on the west side of the mall, easily

visible to people driving by. These two cloth- berly Ku. “The traffic and parking make it so ing destinations are major attractions for that you can’t just pop in and out to get what you want. Because of this, it’s a lot more connew customers.

The center, located at the intersection venient to shop at Westgate Center’s stores, of Campbell and Saratoga Avenue, is conve- though the stock of these stores matters too.”

When asked about the diversity of retailnient for local shoppers who no longer have ers in Valley Fair compared to Westgate, to drive to shopping destinations such Ku leaned toward the former. “Valley as Valley Fair or Great Mall to buy Fair has a lot more stores to shop clothes from popular lines such at, and the overall atmosphere as J. Crew and Nike. is better than Westgate.”

“You can see there’s been Despite this, Ku an immediate result agrees that these adand response from ditions will probably that effort,” said James make Westgate more Chung, a member of the popular. “Many people Westgate leasing team, like us live near Westto Bizjournals. “It’s a gate, and it’s in walkwell positioned shoping distance,” said Ku. ping center on one of “That’s a lot more acthe best intersections cessible than Valley in the county.”

Fair, which is nearly half The feedback of stuGRAPHIC ILLUSTRATION BY KAT CUI AND JESSICA LUO an hour away.” dents was parallel to The renovation of the original expectations of the owners.

“I usually go to Valley Fair to buy clothes Westgate Center will increase the popularity from stores like J. Crew and Gap, but doing so of the location, drawing children, high school is pretty inconvenient,” said sophomore Kim- students, and adults with its future additions.

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BY CLAIRE SHEIH

P

rogram or be programmed.” Writer Douglas Rushkoff expresses the idea that if someone is not working on code, they are being worked by code.

Lately, the world has begun to understand the truth to Rushkoff’s statement.

Today reading and writing are infrastructural parts of society, so integrated into our lives that we no longer see them as novel technologies. They are the main ways we connect, not just through books, but also through texting, voting and filling out forms. Literacy is everywhere and it’s difficult to imagine life without it.

Yet for hundreds of years, reading and writing were the domain of professional scribes, employed by the elite. It wasn’t until the 15th century that literacy became available to the common people with Johannes Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press. Instead of only being available to wealthy noblemen and church leaders, reading and writing became a skill used by all of society.

Similarly, the 21st century has seen the steady rise of computer science as a universal language. We are currently in the “dark ages” of code literacy, where coding is limited to engineers and the companies that pay them. Technology has become a part of our routine. Youtube, Snapchat and Facebook are just a few of the tools we use every day that incorporate coding into our daily lives.

“In this advanced age, technology is under constant innovation,” sophomore Allen Chen. “Coding’s future place in our society is inevitable.”

As technology advances and becomes prevalent in more aspects of our lives, knowledge in computer science will soon become the status quo. Students who do not have computer science skills will be left behind, “illiterate” in the same manner that students who cannot read or

write are behind today.

One way to avoid this is through education. According to the U.S. Department of Education, only 20 states require computer science as a graduation requirement, and only 10 percent of schools from kindergarten to 12th grade teach it. That is not enough. Coding is a universal language and an empowering tool. Because of its potential, coding should be made a requirement nationwide, and taught in every school and every grade.

In addition to gaining a necessary skill, learning to code is useful in itself.

“Computer science is an excellent way for children to be exposed to the art of graphic design, logic and problem solving,” said Chen.

“Computer science is a maturing process, from simple surface level thinking to innovative and original thinking.”

Learning to program is about more than just making software. The tools gained in the act gives people skills that are important whether or not they go into computer science as a profession.

“Now especially, wherever you go, you interact with computer science,” said junior Andy Zhang. “Even with bioengineering, or modifying DNA or biology, you build computer programs to fit your needs.”

Computer science skills are also applicable in fields that are not in STEM categories.

“In political science, you use coding to handle big data and statistics,” said senior Matt Wang. “The amount of information you work with is so large, it’s impossible to process without a computer. ” Computer science is also applicable in daily life and studying.

“If I didn’t learn how to code, I wouldn’t know computational thinking at all,” said senior Nandita Iyer. “It’s definitely helped me with studying in more frustrating subjects like AP Bio. I got the patience to break difficult topics up and study them separately.

Even though it may be frustrating, if you think of the topics the same way you think of coding, it makes studying easier.”

cold weather!). Still, there are some things about how we react to the change in seasons that do not make any sense to me. Here are a few of them:

MICHELLE SU//AS I SEE IT

The Grinch of the Holidays

W

ith the increasing amount of dead leaves on the ground comes the plethora of #sweaterweather Instagram photos of said fallen leaves. Don’t get me wrong, I’m no Grinch. I love the fiery redorange leaves, warm drinks, twinkling lights, and even some of the Christmas carols that come with the holiday season (just not the

How the “holiday season” is officially declared Driving by the pumpkin patch a couple days before Halloween, I was stunned to find half of the pumpkins replaced. And no, not

by Cinderella-esque pumpkin carriages, but by tall, freshly cut Christmas trees. It is sad to think that in this day and age, our favorite “holiday season” starts once companies decide it’s time for red cups and Pumpkin Spice Lattes, special pre-Black Friday holiday deals and Christmas trees instead of Halloween pumpkins. Even the famous Thanksgiving Day Parade is branded with the Macy’s star.

This commercialized version of the holidays is too ingrained in our society, and it’s time we go back to the simple idea of spending

GRAPHIC ILLUSTRATION BY CLAIRE SHEIH

Computer science is the new literacy

Unfortunately, even as the U.S. Department of Labor predicts that the country will add 1.2 million new computer science related jobs by 2022, proportionally fewer computer science majors are graduating than in the 1980s, and the number of high school students signing up for AP Computer Science has dropped significantly.

“What is sad is that there has been a sharp decline in the amount of computer science courses offered in middle school and high schools. “ said Chen.

This can be blamed on limited funding, the fact that coding is not required for graduation, and the lack of computer science classes in many schools throughout the country.

Luckily however, there has been a growing realization that learning to program is essential, especially for the younger generation.

Partly due to the endorsement of Bill Gates, President Obama, and countless other public figures, we have begun to recognize

the importance of coding as a universal language, an empowering tool, and a necessary education staple.

Even before these endorsements, Lynbrook has had a coding curriculum. While it does not require computer science for graduation, Lynbrook is one of the few schools that teach coding.

Lynbrook’s Computer Science club provides a platform for students to further their passion for programing, and WiSTEM has been approved to participate in the program Girls Who Code, a program dedicated to closing the gender gap in technology and engineering sectors.

Lynbrook’s code-friendly environment is only a small step in the direction of widespread code literacy. What is needed is educational reform, funding for schools, and literacy promotion programs. That way, despite the population’s lack of interest, we may be able to make our way out of the Dark Ages of coding.

quality time with loved ones without the excessive shopping that comes with holiday season deals.

The increased number of creepy Santas and crushed dreams It baffles me that parents so willingly let their children climb on the laps of random old men wearing Santa costumes just so all their Christmas dreams can come true. Let’s face it, none of those department store Santas ever got us anything. Maybe I say this because I was that one toddler who cried upon meeting Santa 15 years ago, but it makes me question the influence of St. Nick and holiday gift traditions. When kids stop believing in Santa nothing really changes, because kids still receive presents for being “good.” Sadly, that’s not how life works all the time, and children brought up expecting their holiday wishes to magically come true on one special morning will eventually be disappointed.This just promites the culture of instant gratification. Just think about all the tantrums little kids have when they don’t find their favorite toy under the Christmas tree.

The newfound generosity people seem to have once holiday season is underway The holidays are a time of giving, but so is the rest of the year. It’s great that people donate more during the holidays, why limit your generosity to the months of November and December? Non-profit organizations and the volunteers that drive their efforts work year-round because there are always people in need. Instead, make it a New Year’s Resolution of yours to volunteer for an organization you care about and actually go through with it. A one-time donation to the canned food drive is great, but Thanksgiving dinner isn’t the only meal that homeless people don’t have. Even Santa (along with many helpers) works all year to be able to deliver presents on Christmas Eve.

Staff Editorial

The Voice of the Epic FREYA LIU//IN MY OPINION

Blurred Boundaries: Clarifying administration’s role in off-campus student affairs

O

n Nov. 15, a mixer was held at Camden Community Center that ended hours earlier than expected when the San Jose Fire and Police Departments intervened.

The mixer was not school-sponsored and therefore no Lynbrook administration supervised the event. But since there was a considerable amount of Lynbrook affiliation with the mixer--three of the hosts are from Lynbrook--many people thought the mixer to be Lynbrook-sponsored. In addition, some tickets were sold on campus.

“In September, I bought my ticket on campus from someone that was volunteering on behalf of the mixer team,” said a freshman*.

In general, students should better differentiate personal off-campus events from school events. But the mixer is indicative of a broader issue: the school administration’s ambiguous role in interfering with off-campus student activities.

The limits of Lynbrook’s jurisdiction in regards to off-campus activities, although not entirely nonexistent, are vague and must be more clearly defined. According to the California educational code, the school can take disciplinary action from when a student leaves his home for school in the morning to whenever he returns home.

For example, if a student smokes a cigarette on the way to school, the administration would be able to discipline him or her even though he or she has not arrived at school yet. This section of the code is not so much about disciplining students as it is about ensuring their safety to and from school.

“A lot of it has to do with transportation to school,” said Associate Superintendent of Administrative Services Graham Clark. “If you’re getting harassed by somebody on the way to school or on the way home the school has the responsibility to step in to make sure you get there safely.”

While this effectively eliminates transportation issues, the school’s jurisdiction over student actions from home to school and vice versa becomes more nebulous when

off-campus events occur, particularly during weekends or after school hours. This creates ambiguity in terms of the constant overlap of student and school life.

To provide some context to the relationship between school and private life, according to the educational code, the school has complete jurisdiction to discipline students at any school-related event.

“There’s no set boundary that we can or can’t go beyond,” said Principal John Dwyer. “If it’s related to school, planned by the school, or through the school, there will be school supervision and oversight of the whole event.”

This guideline includes weekends, vaca-

tions and anytime a school event is held on or off campus. Since the mixer event was not planned by the school, the administration felt no need to interfere. What the administration was not aware of, however, was the selling of tickets on campus.

If students want to sell tickets for their events at Lynbrook, the event is automatically affiliated with Lynbrook. In that case, the administration should be involved in some way. Therefore, the hosts of the event must let the school administration know of and be involved in the event as needed.

If necessary, the administration should clearly make school-sponsored events separate from students’ private affairs by issuing a statement in the announcements. In this student-school relationship, the school must

SHEFALI VIJAY — EPIC

A classical music revival

clearly take one stance--to become involved in off-campus events or not, which should be based on the educational code-instead of straddling a gray area oblivious to the potential consequences.

A potentially simple yet effective change would be for the school administration to add the educational code clause on off-campus student discipline in its zero tolerance policy. Currently, there is no clause relating to off-campus student activities in the Zero Tolerance Policy of the planner. In the FUHSD Extracurricular contract handout, there is some mention of students’ obligation to abide by the educational code, but the phrasing itself is ambiguous. The school should clarify vague terms and give examples of how far the school’s jurisdiction extends over student participation in off-campus activities.

By incorporating the clause into the policy and presenting it in zero tolerance speeches at the beginning of the year, students can be reminded of when they are legally allowed to be disciplined offcampus. In general, Lynbrook should also post these guidelines on the school website. Because there are so many hypothetical situations, the school can create a Q&A page specifically for students confused or curious about their rights and the school’s right to disciplinary action.

It is clearly not possible to factor in all different types of scenarios, but the school administration should make transparent efforts to further separate school life from a student’s personal one as well as establish the grounds for disciplining students in off-campus situations. *Name has been withheld to protect student’s privacy

F

rom before we could talk, we were sung to sleep every night by a Brahms lullaby and heard Tchaikovsky’s “Nutcracker” ballet every Christmas. Some of my earliest memories are of my older sister and me listening to CD’s from the “Classical Kids” collection, or of us singing along to Beethoven’s Wigs’ (a vocal group that sings lyrics written to the greatest hits of classical music) renditions of our favorite pieces. Saturday nights were spent playing duets with my sister in the family room.

It seems to me, however, that most of us lost our interest in classical music after that age, often stereotyping classical music as pretentious and old-fashioned. I say we take a stand against this baseless assumption.

Classical music should be revived in our generation; it’s not only the basis of our music now (50 Ways to Say Goodbye is basically Phantom of the Opera) but is also, in new modern arrangements, quite infectious.

Today, the market for classical music seems to be rather limited: professional orchestras and opera companies have been struggling to stay in business because a dwindling amount of people are actually going to performances. Even the New York Metropolitan Opera House—once the most prosperous opera house in world—is on the verge of bankruptcy.

Some of this is understandable. The average concert-goer is expected to dress extremely well, must stay attentive and quiet in between movements and now the difference between a “piece” and a “song.” Our lax, hoody-and-shorts generation hardly feels attracted to the overt formality.

To counteract these “snobby” conventions, some institutions - and a lot of ones around here - are changing the way they present classical music. The San Francisco Symphony, for one, is attempting to appeal to a wider audience by holding annual holiday concerts and implementing a family concert series, specifically targeted to interest adolescents. The San Francisco Chamber Orchestra makes their concerts easily accessible to the otherwise busy concertgoer by travelling to different locations, not just a designated hall, to perform. At the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, students can purchase “student rush tickets” for the Los Angeles Philharmonic and more for hugely discounted prices. We should take advantage of such modern innovations, which are primed to make classical music both more understandable and accessible to our generation.

And though it might sound heretical to the fine-tuned ears of professional musicians, interest in classical music can definitely be brought about by combining it with modern pop. The well-known “addictive” quality of pop could only help spur interest.

Take String Theory, Columbia University’s five cello student ensemble that composes and performs classical renditions of pop songs. By melding several genres of music including jazz, classical, pop and rock, String Theory has nearly 300,000 Youtube views on all their songs, many of whom are not familiar with classical music in any way.

I believe that if more and more people (as seen on String Theory’s Youtube channel) are interested in and like the mixture of classical and pop music, more of my peers would view classical music in a different light. It could be the beginning of a classical music world for all pop enthusiasts! Of course, a haunting Haydn chorale or a long and shocking Berlioz Symphony might not be particularly soothing for the general audience, but an outdated stereotype of classical music shouldn’t be what keeps people back from sitting back and enjoying some good ol’ classical music— original compositions or pop covers.

First rank is not always first choice

BY STEPHANIE LU

I

f you wouldn’t compare apples to oranges, why would you try to compare UC Santa Cruz (UCSC) to Harvard University?

The short answer is, you wouldn’t--or at least, you’d be naive to do so. In comparing and choosing colleges, Lynbrook students put too much faith in college rankings that try to rank schools of different natures when in reality, there’s no way that publications-even the highly influential U.S. News & World Report--can rank them on the same platform.

Let’s take a closer look at the two colleges in question: UCSC is mainly made up of undergraduates--15,695 in Fall 2013--while Harvard has only half that amount. From there on out, the differences only widen.

Harvard is a private school with a 2014-2015 tuition of $43,938, while UCSC is a public school with a 2014-2015 in-state tuition of $13,398. Because Harvard has a law, business and medical school, more resources are given to postgraduate students, whereas

UCSC has only one-tenth the postgrad students Harvard has.

Though junior Alyssa Zhang believes U.S. News has a better handle on comparing colleges than students do, she went on to say that “...you can’t quantify colleges, because there are so many varieties and random vicissitudes, and the rankings condense everything into one number. Things like Olympic athletes and their times you can measure, but not colleges.

Every ranking system is biased in some way. A college is a huge, complex institution, and factors like “undergraduate academic reputation,” which contributes to 22.5 percent of the U.S. News formula, are simply unquantifiable. Not that U.S. News doesn’t try; every year, it sends a survey to the country’s university and college presidents, provosts and admissions deans--as well as some high school guidance counselors--and asks them to give all the schools in their category a score from one to five. So national universities rank other national universities, liberal arts colleges rank other liberal arts colleges

and so on.

To put that into perspective, it is like asking Lynbrook’s principal to score every other public high school in the U.S. and expecting accurate results. U.S. News’ logic is as follows-- if Lynbrook is a public high school in the U.S., then our principal must have a good idea of how Monta Vista compares to Franklin Delano Roosevelt High School in Brooklyn, New York.

By relying so heavily on what sometimes boils down to simple hearsay, rankings ultimately mean little more than branding. Students need to get more than a bragging right out of their secondary educations.

If rankings really must exist, U.S. News would do better to use objective qualities like tuition. Indeed, one of the easiest things to measure would be tuition--simple, hard numbers with no room for subjectivity. “Financial resources” comprise 10 percent of U.S. News’ rankings, but it doesn’t count tuition. And yet tuition, given its effect on affordability, needs to be taken into account.

“Students will sometimes fixate on rankings and not think about the price tag,” said guidance counselor Jessica Coscia. “The top ten colleges on U.S. News might be great at X, Y, and Z, but not affordability.”

A college’s tuition says a lot about its founding purposes, and the fact that U.S. News fails to take either factor into account makes their rankings even more inaccurate.

State colleges like UCSC were founded to educate young Californians, while universities such as Harvard or Stanford are meant for the elite, exceptional cream-of-the-crop students. Naming private research universities as the best kind of universities is like saying the Tesla Model S

is always a better buy than a Honda minivan. Sure, the Tesla is great machine, but if you are a mom with three kids, it really is not preferable to the Odyssey. Unfortunately, U.S. News assumes that an expensive university focused on research is what fits every student’s needs.

The appeal of a college ranking system is easy to see. By boiling down entire institutions--factors like departments, individual teachers, location, price, or purpose notwithstanding--into one number, a quick look at the rankings tell you all you need to know about a college. For example, senior Matt Wang noted that his parents “...encouraged [him] to consider Rice [University] purely because they’d heard it was a good school.”

But by creating a system based on reputation and selectivity, U.S. News and its peers creates a ranking more suitable for country clubs: the more exclusive and well-known a college is, the better its standing. But Lynbrook seniors aren’t applying to country clubs; they’re applying to the place they will spend four years--and lots of money--living and learning in.

The Nicki Minaj effect: power of pop

BY IZABELLA KIPNIS

I

ronically, Nicki Minaj’s lyric video for “Only” debuted on the anniversary of Kristallnacht, the ‘Night of Broken Glass’ pogrom that marked the beginning of Hitler’s Final Solution and the Holocaust during World War II. Full of red, black and white propaganda from Adolf Hitler’s reign over Nazi Germany, the video portrays Minaj as a cartoon dictator with soldiers saluting her. There was immediate backfire from the media describing the video as “insensitive and anti-semitic”.

The work of celebrities and icons undoubtedly leaves a mark on its broad audience whether or not they intend for it to. And, even though people must be able to distinguish right from wrong on their own, celebrities must take responsibility for what they convey.

After reading about the video online, junior Evita Babin said, “I thought it was ignorant of her to do that, but I don’t think she intended to insult anyone. ” In response to critique, Minaj

tweeted that “she had not come up with the concept,” and “apologized if she had offended anyone.” On the other hand, director Jeff Osborne wrote in a public statement, “I’m not apologizing for my work. The flags, armbands, and gas mask are all representative of Nazism.”

The video was not aiming to promote Nazism, but rather to condemn it. The director wanted to remind younger generations of atrocities from past to prevent them from happening again. He said, “ the most effective way of connecting with people today is through social media and pop culture.”

This is not to say that her video is okay - it is extremely vulgar. The main issue, however, lies in Minaj’s ignorance about both what she was representing and the weight of the messages she relayed. She is clearly not a Nazi, but she allowed herself to be misrepresented by not understanding the ideas that her video conveyed to the public.

Not taking responsibility for the concepts expressed in her lyric video suggests apathy toward her

impact on people.

Senior Vasudha Kashyap said, “Artists affect a wide audience so it is important that their message accurately displays the image that they are trying to promote, regardless of what the image is.”

There are celebrities who consciously choose to stand behind specific movements and those who do not mean to promote something, but do so through their actions. These icons must be wary of the impact their powerful spheres of influence can have.

Many icons use their careers to spread messages they are proud to stand behind. For instance, Kanye West preaches self-respect and lives by the saying “If you’re a fan of Kanye then you’re a fan of yourself.”

“His music is based on this god complex he has and it is contagious,” said Kashyap. “Kanye talks about how great he is and if you listen to it enough you start to feel great about yourself too.”

Similarly, Beyonce uses her fame to empower women. She evoked images of herself dressed as Rosie

the Riveter and wrote songs like “Run the World (Girls)” and “Flawless”.

On the other hand, celebrities like Miley Cyrus seem oblivious to the negative effect their work can have. Her video for “Wrecking Ball” for example, sexualizes her in an untasteful way to a young fanbase - something that has the potential to be extremely damaging. She is not trying to say anything, but essentially sells her body, for what? There is no message to be found in her work.

Minaj has also taken strides toward female empowerment.

In videos such as “Anaconda” she embodies a woman who refuses to be a victim. But, her most recent lyric video “Only” did not have the intended effect.

Although celebrities did not sign up to be role models for their viewers, they must be held accountable for understanding what they are promoting - if not for themselves, then at least for their fans.

GRAPHIC ILLUSTRATION BY JEFFREY YANG

Christmas in the Park

Date: November 28 - January 1 Cost: Free!

Location: Park Ave & Market St, San Jose, CA 95113 With over 40 musical and animated exhibits, glittering lights and the 60-foot Community Giving Tree, CITP is an annual event with many attractions. This festive event includes amusement rides, a sleigh ride, a picture with Santa, the bustling ice rink, and paths to stroll around enjoying the beautiful decorations and ornamented trees. The famous hot chocolate, complete with whipped cream, candy canes and a miniature snowman, is also sure to please.

City Ballet School’s Nutcracker

Date: December 13 (2 PM and 7 PM) and December 14th (2 PM) Cost: $30 - 40 Location: 3301 Lyon St., San Francisco City Ballet School’s annual production features student dancers who perform the holiday classic, The Nutcracker. At this event, watch the protagonist Clara and the Nutcracker Prince journey through the beautiful Land of Sweets and return to the Prince’s palace. The ballet fits right in with the Christmas season, and serves as a perfect watch for children, teens or the whole family.

CHRISTMAS DESTINATIONS OF THE SEASON

BY KATHLEEN CUI

Holidays Lights and Sights Boat Parade

Date: December 12 (Friday) at 5:30 PM - 8 PM Cost: Free Location: Fisherman’s Wharf This Christmas, Fisherman’s Wharf will display more than 60 decorated boats strung with thousands of lights floating around the wharf. This dazzling display is festive for the holiday season and not to be missed. While you’re there, visit Ghirardelli Square or enjoy the delicious nearby restaurants with custom holiday menus. Watching from Pier 39 or Aquatic Park will give you the best view!

A

s the winter bells begin their chiming and the sunny weather fades behind a thick blanket of clouds, the realization dawns on us that cheery Christmas is just over the horizon.

While the festive holidays and gift-giving session are more than enough to heal our tired minds, bodies and grades, the much-anticipated winter break is one more essential bonus.

For some of us, the long two-week respite may be jampacked with long hours of hardcore SAT studying, but for those of us interested in getting into the Christmas spirit, here is a thorough, festive guide to a couple nearby events that are readily available for you, your friends and your family to enjoy.

These events range from local activities in our beloved San Jose to celebrations in Los Gatos and San Francisco, so rest assured that your winter break will be fun, festive, and anything but boring.

Fantasy of Lights

Date: December 8 - December 24 Cost: $15 per car Location: Vasona Lake County Park, 333 Blossom Hill Rd, Los Gatos, CA 95032 This two mile holiday drive-through is a Christmas classic, with bright LED light displays set up on both sides of the road.

The bright, colorful designs range from a laughing Santa Claus to prehistoric, roaring dinosaurs, expressing the jolly holiday spirit with a touch of fun.

These visuals appeal to children and adults alike, so feel free to bring your whole family and a camera! Arrive early to avoid the 30-minute wait to get into the popular drivethrough.

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY FEATURES SECTION

Mockingjay: too much to mock

BY IZABELLA KIPNIS

Ivy admissions for dummies

R

eaders, I’d like to first express both my embarrassment and my apologies for the horse that once again managed to slip through the fingers of our professional proofreaders into the photo for my column last issue. I can assure you that many measures have been set in place to ensure this issue’s column will be, in fact, horse-free.

Now for the topic at hand: how to get into an Ivy League school. I’m sure that most of you are well aware of how important an experience college is. It’s common knowledge that which college you go to will quite literally determine your life--just look at my cousin Shin, bless his soul, who ceased to exist after having been denied admittance to Harvard.

I know some of you are wondering whaauthority I have on this matter. Rest assured however; my brother attended the prestigious University of Pennsylvania, which practically already makes me an expert on these matters, and having witnessed three graduating classes as a senior, I know the ins and outs of the admissions process--what works and what doesn’t. So without further ado, here are three insider tips that are sure to get you into the college of your choice.

Tip One: become a well-rounded individual. The first step to obtaining this classic Ivy League trait is to challenge yourself and excel in many academic subjects. In fact, getting anything less than an A in a course will tell the Ivy League that you are not a well-rounded individual, but a very narrow person indeed. Next, you want to add on a good amount of meaningful extracurriculars to your workload; note that failure to obtain leadership positions indicates that they are not meaningful to you. The last piece of the puzzle is a solid resume of community service. Bonus points if you perform service work in foreign countries, as it indicates to the Ivies that you are in fact a truly global altruist--it’s not like there are any issues in the local community worth addressing anyway.

Once you realize that you have no friends and clock less than 5 hours of sleep each night because of your workload, give yourself a pat on the back; you are now a wellrounded individual and well on your way to joining the ranks of the Ivy League.

Tip Two: make connections. Everyone knows things are easier when there’s somebody watching your back, especially if that person is old friends with an admissions officer or an Intel Competition judge. Unsurprisingly, that rule holds fast when it comes to being accepted into an Ivy League school.

So here’s what I suppose--make you areborn into a family of wealth and social connections. You can trust me on this one--it’s a tried and true method that has worked for generations of Ivy League admittees.

Tip Three: sue the Ivy League. Now don’t get confused on this one: it’s a course of action I recommend only if you find yourself rejected by these Ivy League schools. Consider it as a sort of backup plan in the event that the first two precautions fail.

The process is simple: sue on the grounds of having been discriminated against in the admissions process. Pick some minority group you belong to, whether it be your ethnicity, your faith, or your involvement with the school’s Quidditch club and it is likely you’ll walk away with either the admission you are entitled to or a handsome sum of money. After all, if you are rejected by the Ivy League, it’s obviously not your problem, but that of a skewed, unrighteous admissions process.

And with this advice, I wish you all luck in your admissions process and hope that you all manage to prove your self worth by being admitted to the top schools.

C

onsidering that “Mockingjay,” by Suzanne Collins, has a very dry storyline, I cannot blame the movie for being just as weak. Set in the fictional nation of Panem, the world of “The Hunger Games” has a hierarchical society where a wealthy, authoritarian Capitol has control over 12 surrounding less fortunate districts. The Capitol reminds the districts of its power by holding annual “hunger games” for which two tributes from each district, ages 12 through 18, are selected to fight to the death in an arena where they face unexpected perils.

“Mockingjay” takes place immediately after the end of the second movie, “Catching Fire,” when the protagonist Katniss Everdeen escapes the oppression of Panem and the games. Hidden away in the militarized society of District 13, Katniss is unable to do much to feed the budding rebellion from the sidelines.

The cinematography was perhaps the movie’s best aspect; it does a fantastic job of appealing to pathos. As the rebels united together to sing as they marched toward the capital, I had the urge to stand up and join them. At certain points, I felt as though I was actually in the districts with the frightened citizens. The cameras approached them from personal angles and the soundtrack appealed to my, and everyone else’s, emotions.

On the other hand, the special effects were not as impressive in “Mockingjay” as in the first two movies. While “Catching Fire” covered its weak plot line with powerful visual imagery of the arena, this film had relatively dark settings throughout because

the majority of the plot took place underground. Granted, the producers had less room to experiment and cannot be blamed entirely, but I was certainly disappointed.

I find watching perils come to life so much more exciting than reading about them and I wished there was more to see in the movie.

The producers can be held accountable, however, with splitting “Mockingjay” into a two-part movie with the second part scheduled to release on Nov. 20, 2015. There is no justifiable reason to do that except to increase box-office revenue. Additionally, it felt as though the director established the cutoff between the parts at a strange place in the plot line. To avoid spoilers, I will not tell you when I thought itshould have ended, but I will say that after my unsatisfying experience watching Part One, it is unclear whether or not I will invest in Part Two. Furthermore, there was almost as much focus on Katniss’ chaotic state of mind as there was on the rest of the story line. I assume this was done because the rest of the plot was boring, but it made Katniss

seem psychotic and unrealistic at times.

At its surface, this movie is certainly suited for young people. It does, however, also have a nice blend of an engaging theme, a political twist, romance, action and tragedy that can appeal to an older and more educated audience. Nonetheless, the plot line does not keep people on the edge of their seats. So, if you are looking for a good date night movie or something that doesn’t require a lot of intense processing, “Mockingjay” is just right for you.

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY CLAIRE SHEIH

How to impress me on a date

BY SANA SHARFUDDIN & ANAND CHUKKA

Sana: Anand: I’ll be honest. I have only been on one date before, and it Okay, I confess. I’ve never been on a real date. This, howwas definitely not what I expected. Although the boy was courever, is what would work in a hypothetical world. teous enough to pay for the lunch, he lacked the ability to keep Date night is not laundry day: As comfortable as that may the conversation flowing beyond colleges and his AP classes. sound, the way to my heart is through a well-thought-out outIf I could go back in time and have him read this beforehand, fit. More than just looking nice, it means a lot (in a hypothetiI am sure my day would have turned out a lot better. cal world) when a date shows up with an impression that Be a gentleman: In today’s world of pompthis evening meant a lot for them. As the Weeknd ous celebrity jerks calling people beached said, “Girl, put in work.” whales, the term “gentleman,” may Passion fruit: Stanford’s most irseem just a little outdated. But I ritating essay prompt asks “What personally would love to know is intellectual vitality?” While I’m that you are a gentleman. If not expecting any answer to this a boy took the effort to ask ambiguous prompt, I really me on a date, he might enjoy talking to someone who as well take some time to enjoys learning in any form. consider being respectful, Whether you’re a history buff, maybe even offer to pay. car freak, reggae enthusiast, or Makes an effort to look a passionate Murakami fan, let me nice: You better have taken a know! The one thing that has always shower before showing up. Some most attracted me to certain women cologne would be nice, but don’t drench has been passion. I’d like to see your eyes STEPHANIE LU —EPIC yourself in the strongest Axe you can find. I’ll light up, to see you lean in, laugh a lot, and get probably run away from fear. And, you don’t have to look like hyped. an American Eagle model, but look presentable. It will show “Walk with a switch and talk with street slang”: LL me that you care enough about this date to make an effort.

Cool J has a track titled “Around the Way Girl”, and that’s exExtra points: Now, if you’re REALLY looking to impress actly what I’m looking for. LL Cool J was referring to a lady me, don’t hesitate to bring up any of my interests such as the that was confident and herself. That’s the most important “Harry Potter” series, baking, and shopping! Lighting a candle part! When I leave a date, I want to leave feeling like I met during our date wouldn’t hurt either. Oh, and if you hate on someone confident who does what she wants, when she Taylor Swift, we are never ever ever going on a date again. wants. I don’t want to find out later that you’re not actually But if you happen to impress me, there may be a blank space, into hip-hop and cars, but you’re truly a cat-lover. Be confiwhere I’ll write your name. dent, and be yourself!

FAN FICTION |Creativity comes to life continued from FANFICTION page 1 That’s how I got started [writing fan fiction].”

“I’ve read [fan fiction] since sixth grade, but writing I just picked up recently, after I finished watching the “Merlin” series,” said Jain. “A lot of it involves me doing research —it’s a very modern take in the TV show but they follow the story of the [King Arthur] legend, and I looked at what all they skipped, which was really interesting.”

Leung writes for similar creative reasons, and his passion for horror video games plays a large part in his immersion in fanfic.

“In elementary school my teacher had us submit pieces to a website, and I was highlighted by the site’s editors for exceptional writing,” said Leung. “Then I discovered fan fiction, which gave me an avenue to stories I wanted to read and write.”

For Leung, fan fiction is a way to wrap up unresolved storylines, especially those of open-ended horror video games such as “The Last of Us” and “Left 4 Dead.”

Another kind of fan fiction— one not connected to

works of fiction—focuses on real people and is sometimes termed “real person fan fiction.” Junior Diya Kalaimani is an avid reader and occasional writer of such fan fiction, especially that about Korean pop (K-pop) stars.

“The writing is really beautiful—some of these writers are really talented,” said Kalaimani, regarding K-Pop fan fiction. “I used to like reading a lot when I was a kid.

When I got into K-Pop, I was just transferring my love of reading to reading [and writing] fan fiction.”

Fan fiction’s impact, however, extends beyond building upon original work. In some cases, fandoms—a term for the community of fans that support a particular work—have expressed such ardent support that they have brought back a canceled show or resulted in a second season, such as for the well-loved TV show ‘“Friends.”

Fan fiction has also catalyzed continuations of popular shows, with the most prominent example being “The Legend of Korra,” which is currently in its fourth and final season and is the second-generation sequel to Nickelodeon’s well-received “Avatar: The Last Airbender.”

“The ‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’ fandom was so disappointed that [the show] was over, and a lot of people were really hoping there would be a spin-off or something but that didn’t happen for three years,” said Jain.

“Nickelodeon came to realize that there was this huge fandom that was just waiting, and that led to the show [‘The Legend of Korra’].”

Similarly, Starkid Theatre’s “A Very Pot-

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ter Musical” is also a form of fan fiction.

It looked at the story of Harry Potter through the lens of a comedic musical. In fact, the inspiration for the musical came from a published fan fiction story about Harry Potter.

Moving beyond specific examples of fan fiction, the genre as a whole serves as a way for new writers to “build on top of something that’s already been created, using your own creative devices,” according to Jain.

Novelist and TIME magazine book critic Lev Grossman describes fan fiction as “talking back to the culture in its own language,” a way for fans to connect more deeply with their favorite works instead of mindlessly consuming.

Leung uses fan fiction to explore uncharted territory within stories; for Jain, it is a creative outlet for her interests. In both cases, h o w e v e r, fan fiction is more than just its stereotype.

Investigating the clique network An in-depth look into the science of who students sit next to during lunch

BY DHIRAJ NALLAPOTHULA

T

he most quoted line in the song “Clique” by Big Sean, Jay-Z and Kanye West is “Ain’t nobody fresher than my [expletive] clique.” Reading between the lines and the profanity, the trio of rappers highlights an important facet of social hierarchy: cliques. While cliques are hardly a new concept, they have become the dominant force in social high school life.

According to a recent study done by Stanford Sociology Professor Daniel McFarland, school dynamics play integral roles in allowing cliques to form. These schools, according to McFarland, are those that are large, highly diverse and offer a lot academically. Such schools offer what McFarland calls the perfect “network ecology” for cliques to thrive. As a result, students naturally form a social pyramid based on the aforementioned singular interests they share with others.

It is from these singular interests that stereotypes about cliques have gained recognition in popular culture from music to cinema. While some of these stereotypes are filled with hyperbole, cliques have commonly been used to judge an individual’s interests, personality and temperament.

“Especially in high school, kids are afraid of being perceived as an outsider or a loner,” said senior Greg Lerner. “I think that there is definitely a need to feel like you have a place, and a clique is something which tends to define kids at Lynbrook. When you ask who someone hangs out with, one can infer a lot about that person from the answer because of the stereotypes and conceptions associated with that particular group of people.”

Forcing students to interact with those outside of their cliques can abate the natural instinct for adolescents to organize themselves into hierarchies in schools. This interaction transcends that involving those with common, singular interests.

“I joined a friend group because most of the people [shared] interests with me and I was already best friends with a few of the

people,” said junior Christina Tani. “I think clique-ing up is kind of a social norm because people band together everywhere.”

But, what often goes unnoticed, according to the study, is how school size has a bearing on cliques.

“Larger schools that offer more choice and variety are the most likely to form hierarchies and cliques and self-segregation,” said McFarland in an interview with the magazine The Atlantic. “In smaller schools, and in smaller classrooms, you force people to interact, and they are less hierarchical, less cliquish and less self-segregated.”

The prevalence of cliques at Lynbrook is substantial but is not necessarily viewed as a negative aspect of high school culture by students. For many, cliques offer a sense of security and social standing within a high school that aids in adolescent social development.

“Personally, a group is important to me,” said Lerner. “On my first day of school freshman year, I had no group yet and felt very self-conscious and left out. I don’t know many people who feel equally as comfortable alone than with a set group or clique.”

At the same time, however, cliques do not guarantee a better social experience as their prevalence has made not conforming to them socially adverse. Cliques can have an exclusive effect on those who choose not to join one and the repercussions may permeate other aspects of an individual’s life from academics to extracurriculars. Lerner, on the other hand, sees not conforming to cliques as source for individual empowerment.

“I honestly think that people at Lynbrook are so wrapped up in their own insecurities and lives that they do not notice who has a clique and who doesn’t,” said Lerner. “If someone wants to be a lone wolf and they decide to throw their sense of belonging and insecurities to the wind, more power to them.”

But cliques may not offer a sense of security that is particularly unique and is not necessarily social security. Any friend-group dynamic is associated with some form of security. These friend groups distinguish themselves from cliques in that they lack the rigid hierarchy unique to cliques but still retain a support system.

“I think cliques lend a sense of security personally, not socially,” said senior Sneha Mohidekar. “[For example], just knowing that you have certain people that would have your back.

[But] that is likely not exclusive to cliques since even individual friend groups could have that same sense of security.”

While students may appreciate that cliques aid in their social growth in high school, cliques can pose challenges to learning environments in the classroom. The study indicates that random seating arrangements and smaller class sizes can weaken cliques by forcing unconventional interaction, something that teachers could find beneficial to intellectual growth.

But the academic focus at Lynbrook cannot be overlooked

as a cause for its clique culture. Lynbrook offers an array of elective and AP courses that cater to each student’s interests. Such academic diversity and competition is essentially the network ecology that allows cliques to persist on campus as students have a tendency to align themselves with those who share similar academic interests and motivation.

“People are often judged based on their academic abilities [at Lynbrook],” said Lerner. “If someone is rumored to be dumb, they may have a harder time finding friendship within certain social circles. Certainly academic prowess is not the prerequisite for admission to a clique, but it is undoubtedly a factor.”

While McFarland hints at an ideal class size and school structure to reduce the clique culture, he never indicates what class size or what specific structure would have the greatest impact. Regardless, the social pyramid at Lynbrook coupled with individual academic pursuit has created a niche for cliques to thrive. These elements essentially reiterate McFarland’s message in the study: we are beholden to the environment we are raised in and that environment shapes our temperament, our interests and our behavior.

GRAPHIC ILLUSTRATION BY FRINA REDOLOZA

Adopted children embrace their identities The story of how three Lynbrook students came to terms with their adoptions

BY URMILA VENKAT AND AMANDA CHANG

J

unior Sierra Chen will probably never know her biological parents. She was found at a street corner by the police station in Chengdu, China, and was adopted at six months old. Her father, who is Chinese, and her mother, who is Caucasian, brought Chen back to America.

Chen was adopted through a closed adoption, in which the adoptive parents do not know who the children’s biological parents are, but there are other forms of adoption. Open adoption, for example,

has become increasingly prevalent in the U.S. since the 1980s, and occurs when the adoptive parents and child know who the biological parents are and may keep in contact with them. Once the most common type of adoption, closed adoptions are now only common when adopting internationally.

Freshman Garrett Riley, for instance, was part of an open adoption. Riley’s mother, realizing she would not be able to support him, gave him up for adoption. Although Riley has lived with his current family for most of his life, he met his birth mother when he was seven and still keeps in contact with her.

“I talk to my biological mom often,” said Riley. “I look upon my mom as a friend, as someone who if I need to talk will be there for me.”

Despite this relationship, Riley doesn’t feel that his relationship with his adoptive parents has changed.

“They’re still my family, so I’ll pretend that they are b i o l o g i c a l ly related to me because they’ve raised me,” said Riley. “My adopted brothers and sisters are my brothers and sisters to me.”

The effects of open and closed adoption on a child are dependent on several factors. According to Dr. Brenda McCreight, a therapist and author who studies adoption, some of those factors include age at adoption, prenatal exposure to alcohol or drugs and parental neglect early in life.

“How the adoptive parents handled the adoption-related issues will also play a huge part in the child’s capacity to experience a positive life,” said McCreight.

Junior Danyel Samuelsen, who was adopted from China at the age of three months, was not always as comfortable with being

adopted as she is now. Samuelsen once felt ashamed of being out alone with her father, since they are of different races: she is Chinese, whereas he is Caucasian.

Likewise, there have been occasions in which Chen has had difficulty with being adopted. Chen recalls that in second grade, after she revealed to her class that she was adopted when presenting a report on her family tree, some classmates teased her.

“After that instance, I stopped telling people I was adopted because I felt ashamed and different,” said Chen.

Other than occasionally having trouble accepting their identities, adoptees may experience other issues depending on the factors that they were exposed to early in life.

“If the adoptee was prenatally exposed [to alcohol and drugs] then there will be learning issues, emotional issues, behavior disorders, and possible attachment challenges, depending on the age at which they were adopted and the number of caregivers prior to adoption,” said McCreight.

Over time, Chen and Samuelsen have both embraced their unique identities. In high school, Chen sees wider acceptance among peers regarding her situation.

Riley also agrees that being adopted is not something to be ashamed of and takes great pride in it.

“I’m not afraid to talk about adoption because it’s my lifestyle and I don’t think most people are afraid to talk about how they live,” said Riley. “Being adopted is something special.”

Another way for adopted children to come to terms with adoption is to learn about their biological parents. Chen as-

serts that if it were possible, she would try to find out who they were.

“They could’ve left me because they knew they couldn’t take care of me, but if it’s just because I was a girl, then I would be pretty upset,” said Chen.

Samuelsen also wishes that she could know who her biological parents are, but it is highly unlikely that she will find out.

“My parents don’t know where I came from because it’s China and lots of kids get dumped places,” said Samuelsen.

“But it’s crazy, because sometimes at home, you just wonder.”

GRAPHIC ILLUSTRATION BY INDEPTH SECTION

Hitting the books in the comfort of your home

BY RENUKA BELWAKAR AND AUDREY ZHENG

W

hile thousands of sleepy Lynbrook students rushed to first period at 7:35 a.m., senior Shannon Lee floated around the skating rink. And when the bell signaled the end of school, Lee would finish worksheets and start online lessons.

While a majority of people go to a public or private school, Shannon Lee chose to try homeschooling for her second semester of eighth grade. The U.S. government treats homeschooling as a type of private school for which a student can be eligible after a parent or guardian files a private school affidavit.

Shannon and Erin Lee chose to conduct their schooling online through California Virtual Academies (CAVA). Its website, k12.com, provides education through independent study or with teacher support. “[Like public school,] there was a calendar for everything that I had to do,” said Shannon Lee. “The grading system is based on letter grades. The main difference is that no one checks up on you very often, and you could schedule it however you wanted to.

The supervision I got was from meeting up with a teacher once a month.”

During homeschooling, Lee kept in touch with her friends through chat and met with them in person. At times, Lee would visit her old public school, Joaquin Miller Middle School, to catch up with teachers and friends.

“I wish I never left the public school system. I missed my friends everyday and I felt

like I was distanced from them,” she said.

Erin Lee, however, preferred homeschooling. She decided to move to the homeschooling system in second grade because it allowed her to pursue her passions and focus on her interests.

“I am able to skate when there are not many other skaters on ice so I have more space and time to practice,” said Erin Lee. Homeschooling provided her with the experience and supplies to allow her to enjoy her life while learning as much as she could, and enabled her to skip two grade levels. “​I didn’t miss public school at all,” said Erin. “I still have time to socialize with friends at the rink, at musicals and through email and texting. And I enjoy studying peacefully at home much more.​” Unlike the Lee sisters, Yatrika Ajaya began homeschooling in first grade and continued into high school. Ajaya later attended De Anza College and University of California Berkeley, and is currently in her first year of grad school at the University of Columbia.

Ajaya was not officially enrolled in any program for home school, because her parents were her teachers. Self-studying with textbooks was her main source of learning and keeping up with the state curriculums.

Sometimes, Ajaya would wish to be a public school student, because she felt she would have had more social interactions and that she would have learned her subjects better.

“I realized retrospectively that I never gained the strong foundation in certain sub-

jects that were drilled into students in public school, such as math,” she said.

Starting college, Ajaya felt optimistic because she had learned to be self-motivated and independent. However, adapting to college was hard and a big learning curve due to the daily and weekly assignments. Ajaya took this challenge with a positive approach.

“It was tough, but I was motivated and

worked hard. I also had a lot of support and reached out for guidance as needed in order to succeed,” Ajaya said.

Homeschooling allowed Ajaya and Lee sister’s to focus on activities they were interested in. It created space in their flexible schedules and helped them to focus on themselves as well as to have an optimistic view on learning.

SHEFALI VIJAY–EPIC

ASEXUALITY| Debunking common misconceptions

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Moreover, it is often mistaken that asexuals are not capable of romantic relationships. In reality, they often have romantic relationships or even sexual relations if it is in their partners’ interests.

“LHS is very gender binary, meaning that most people assume that everyone around them is straight unless they are cor- rected. Lynbrook needs to be made aware of these different sexualities so there aren’t so many misconceptions,” said Winters.

AP

“We’ve been pretty close in the past and I figured they’d be okay, but they still sounded doubtful and worried about it.

They didn’t take it as well as I’d hoped,” said Parker.

Even in the wake of her coming out, Parker was able to find support and friends in the asexual community.

“I’m actually really proud of the asexual community and the level of pride and uniqueness you’ll find there,” Parker said.

“We’re a very diverse bunch.”

Parker realized that a surprising number of her acquaintances are asexual even though, according to AVEN, asexuals are supposed to compose only about 1 percent of the population.

As Parker found encouragement in her social circle, the topic began receiving an increase in public interest as well. While asexuality, commonly referred to as “ace” in the LGBT community, is not a new aspect of human sexuality, it is relatively new to public attention. AVEN was founded in 2001 by activist David Jay as a medium to create an open and honest discussion about asexuality and a safe asexual community online. Eight years later, its members and allies participated in the their first American pride parade, the San Francisco Pride Parade, and created their own unique flag to represent themselves.

One of the primary objectives of AVEN is to clear misconceptions about asexuality and inform the public of its prominence.

“Even inside the LGBTQ+ community, few people recognize sexualities apart from homosexuality and heterosexuality,” said junior Phoebe Winters, treasurer of the Gender & Sexuality Alliance (GSA) at Lynbrook.

Erasing misconceptions is proving to be a difficult task for the community and its members. According to Winters, asexuals face serious prejudice due to the public’s lack of education on the topic.

“For starters, asexuality is when someone does not experience sexual attraction,” said Winters, “Unlike celibacy, it is

not a choice. It’s a preference.”

Another common misconception is that asexuality is simply a phase and that the preference is treatable.

“Like any sexuality, it cannot be fixed or changed with therapy or hormones,” said Parker. “In fact, the whole idea of trying to ‘fix’ a part of who you are is really hurtful to asexual people everywhere.”

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continued from ASEXUALITY page 1

Parker agrees that while comprehension of asexuality is steadily improving, there is still work to be done.

“Asexual stigmas tend to affect everybody in harmful ways people don’t realize, so it’s definitely a concept that needs to be brought up more,” said Parker.

Senior Luke Ge, who also identifies as an asexual, agrees that awareness will be necessary to create a safe and honest community.

“I feel like it’s easy at Lynbrook to be open about it [being asexual], but at the same time people don’t understand what it is,” said Ge. Ge spent much of his high school life being uninterested in sex and eventually understood and accepted that his asexuality had always been there. Unlike Parker, he chose not to tell his parents of his asexuality because he did not feel it was necessary.

“It’s not something I feel like is worth coming out to your parents about. I feel like that’s kind of weird,” said Ge. “It’s not something they’d be upset about, but I don’t think that they would understand it.”

He did, however, tell his friends, who were open-minded and informed about asexuality. They were immediately accepting of Ge, who has not faced hostility on the basis of his asexuality.

“I am very okay with my sexuality,” said Ge. “I’ve never wanted to not be asexual, and I am happy with how I am now.”

Ge acknowledges the negative connotation which asexuality has both among the general public and the LGBT community. He believes that the concept is unaccepted because the lack of sexual desire that asexuals have is foreign to the rest of the community; however, he believes that with the right effort and acceptance from the public, asexuality will lose its negative stigma in the future.

“At the end of the day, it’s just another trait of a person,” said Ge. “You have to accept a person for who they are. The concept is simple.” *Name has been changed to preserve student privacy.

In the ring Senior Jonathan Huang describes his experiences as an amateur boxer.

STEPHANIE LU — EPIC

BY STEPHANIE LU

A

medley of sounds erupted with every punch senior Jonathan Huang threw at the heavy bag: the scraping of shoes alongside the rattling of the weights holding down Huang’s boxing station, punctuated by a constant staccato of blows. When his fists finally dropped, Huang--sweaty and breathing hard despite the fluidity of his earlier movements--turned and asked, “Does that work for your intro?”

Huang, who has boxed for nearly a year, originally looked into martial arts as a method of releasing anger he felt toward a few of his peers. After beginning his boxing training in March at Sunnyvale’s Gateway Neighborhood Center, Huang also began volunteering to help the kids at his gym, where the coach also trains him for free for his volunteer work.

Boxing has had a rocky history in the United States--the first cases of film censorship were state bans on the showing of prizefighting films. Promoters and popular cham-

pions like John L. Sullivan helped legitimize boxing as a sport. Modern-day boxing is split into amateur and professional boxing, with the two categories having different regulations and equipment. After completing college applications, Huang hopes to begin participating in amateur boxing competitions.

His lanky, six-foot-one frame marks Huang as an out-fighter, the term for a boxer who keeps a distance from the opponent while throwing fast, longrange punches--notably the jab--to wear his opponent down. As a beginner, Huang “really focused on speed, because speed is supposed to complement my body type . . . but [it’s important] not to let your body type dictate how you train,” noting the greater importance of strength and form as foundation skills. “Even so, I like emphasizing speed.”

At home, Huang’s training routine begins with a 30-minute warm up that includes jump-roping, speed bag training, and shadowboxing, an exercise in which the boxer spars with an imaginary opponent. For the workout, Huang works with the heavy bag and focus mitts before moving on to either defense or core conditioning. “My dad is usually my partner for defense. Basically he tries to hit me, and I try to slip,” referring to a defensive move where a boxer turns his body to avoid a punch. “A good [exercise] that helps train both [me and my dad] is, he tries to hit me hard anywhere either on my head or my stomach, while I have to try to flick his ear.

“And then I eat. I just consume, I don’t notice what I eat,” said Huang, laughing.

Besides physical benefits like increased attentiveness and energy, boxing has also taught Huang the value of respect. “Respect is a big thing, especially in the boxing community, because if you don’t have incredible respect, or know when it’s your turn to talk, then people will give you the stink eye,” said Huang. “Once [while volunteering] we divided the kids into groups, and when I trained the [kids] a little too hard the coach basically said, ‘Dude, don’t do that.’”

How to be pleasant company while watching sports GRAPHIC ILLUSTRATION BY ALLISON YUAN

BY YONATAN ZEMLYAK

D

ear non sports fans, I get it: when you guys find yourselves stuck watching a game with your devoted fanatic friends, you often feel out of place. But don’t worry: I have devised a comprehensive list to help you guys feel included - and more importantly, to prevent you from taking a catastrophic misstep and causing the fanatics in the room to turn on you.

1. If you’ve got questions about the game, make sure they’re legit.

Asking “Who’s playing?” right before kickoff is the equivalent of being invited to a fancy restaurant, only to ask “What restaurant are we going to?” while in the car. Use google, or wait until the game starts to find out.

On the other hand, asking specific questions, or even opinion-based ones like “Do you think Andrew Bogut doesn’t snap a limb today?” can make you one of us in our eyes. First impressions mean a lot to us - make yours good.

2. Don’t ask about time.

Barring overtime or extraneous circumstances, games last about three hours: do the subtraction in your head if you’re

so inclined. But asking about time simultaneously reminds the sports fans in the room that a) we should be doing other things, and b) there’s so little time remaining.

This question is not unilaterally unacceptable, however.

If you see your car being broken into outside (not that this would ever happen, seeing as your eyes are glued to the screen in front of you), and say “How much time is left? My car’s being broken into and I want to go take a look.” You will receive a comfy ride back home in one of our cars, as well as eternal respect for placing sports above transient material possessions.

3. Look engaged, even if you aren’t.

Even if you were coerced into attending, you were invited, and you did say yes, and we do know that as a non sports fan there is a very real chance you will take one of those catastrophic missteps. So please, at least look grateful to be here.

Don’t change the topic to something not sports related.

Keep the topics of conversation in the realm of the game, maybe the league. If you don’t, you’re bound to say something like “What did you guys get on the physics test” in the middle of the fourth quarter, which will incite us to direct a barrage of profanity in your direction. When sports have become sec-

ond nature, you’ll know when it’s okay to change the topic.

Until then, please don’t try.

4. Cheer, swear and boo when everyone else does.

React fast, because if you’re overtly turning around to make sure we look happy and starting to cheer when most others have already finished, you look clingy and desperate. If you realize you’re too late, just keep quiet. It’s okay.

5. Don’t talk about the future.

Sports are in the present. When we’re emotionally involved, the world revolves around the guys fighting for the ball. There is no past; history means nothing. More importantly, there is no future. Don’t say “We’ve always got next year” if our team loses. We’ll worry about next year when next year comes around, but at the moment, the sky has fallen. Similarly, asking “Why are you guys so happy? It’s only a game,” will get your attendance privileges revoked, because nobody likes people who kill the mood. Kung Fu Panda’s Master Oogway summed it up best: “Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but sports are a gift. That is why they are the present.”

For the full version of this column, please visit www.lhsepic.com.

Pioneering into viking territory Transfer twins from Cupertino High join varsity soccer team

BY SHREYAS IYER

M

STEPHANIE LU — EPIC

any students at Lynbrook have a constant in their lives. There is always something that picks them up off the ground, a hobby that allows a release of emotion. But what if that certain thing they lean on is ingrained into their routine, and without it they are at a loss? Following their journey from Ethiopia to Lynbrook, juniors Leuel and Dagmawi Demess are using soccer as their segue into a new physical and cultural environment.

Like all soccer players, the brothers and their teammates are bonded by both friendship and hardship. They moved from Ethiopia four years ago to enroll in Hyde Middle School, where they had to adapt to a completely new culture and surroundings. Through this change, however, the boys found two things to lean on--soccer and each other.

“When you come to a school for the first time, you don’t make friends easily and you have a hard time,” said Leuel. “It’s great to have a brother around.”

Dagmawi agrees with Leuel’s sentiments and enjoys the assistance he receives from his brother.

“Since I don’t have that many people to hang around with, he’s always next to me and I never feel lonely,” said Dagmawi. “If I need help on something, he’s always there to help, and even when there is nobody [nearby] he is always there.”

Together, the pair played for Cupertino’s JV team in both their freshman and sophomore years and developed strong bonds that helped them integrate better socially.

After two years on JV, the brothers were excited for a move up to varsity, but instead their aspirations for a successful year were put on hold. They were transferring schools, once more leaving behind a well-known place for an uncertain one, and replacing a promising junior season at Cupertino with an unsure future at Lynbrook.

At the start, cultural differences between the two schools made the brothers’ school swap difficult.

“The transition [between Cupertino and

Lynbrook] has been tough,” said Dagmawi.

“I don’t know a lot of people here, and the soccer system is really different between the two schools. At Cupertino, it feels a lot more outgoing, while here more people care about grades. Wherever I go, people are always talking about grades.”

To ease this switch, the brothers are playing as members of the varsity soccer team.

This new challenge for the boys represents a prime opportunity for the brothers to start adapting, and they have already shown signs of progress. Some of their teammates have already reached out to them, but Dagmawi still faces problems unlocking his full potential with Lynbrook.

“I’ve already talked to a lot of people [on the team],” said Dagmawi. “But since I’m a foreigner, it’s going to be hard for me [to play and make friends], and especially getting into a leadership position.”

Leuel, however, feels like his teammates have been very amiable with him.

“My teammates are really nice,” said Leuel. “Soccer is one of those sports where you work as a team, so they support you and you support them while we work [together], and they helped me adapt easily.”

Varsity coach Joe Simas has already seen growth from the pair, with other Lynbrook players helping them along.

“The other players have taken them under their wing, and they are adapting really well, said Simas.

“Of course, at the first game we will see how far they actually have progressed.”

This year, the duo expects not only to improve from last year, but to shatter expectations. The pair formed an excellent goal scoring combination last year, netting 22 combined goals. Leuel was an effective threat on offense for Cupertino, where he and Dagmawi, a creative midfielder, spearheaded a lethal attack.

Simas has high expectations for this year’s team, and much of his enthusiasm is based on the potential of the program’s two newest additions--the Demess brothers.

Boys’ soccer makes use of diverse team

BY KASTURI PANTVAIDYA

M

any ingredients go into the making of winning teams, such as talent, size, speed, strength and coachability.

While all are important, the intangible factor that often binds them together is known as team chemistry.

After losing eight graduating seniors last year, the Lynbrook mens’ Varsity soccer team has been working to strengthen their own.

“A lot of last year’s seniors played on varsity for all four years and on highly competitive club teams outside of school,” said varsity co-captain Chaitanya Khoche. “We have big shoes to fill.”

This year, the team has had to make large changes to its offense as a result of having less experienced players. Instead of direct playing, the team has been focused on keeping possession of the ball.

“The team relied heavily on our alumni to lead the team, so their inexperience may be a weakness,” agreed alumnus Eric Chung. Over Thanksgiving break, Chung, along with other alumni, joined the current team on the field to help them with their training.

While the team recognizes that its weakness lies in their offensive team chemistry, there are other advantages that the new roster brings to the table.

“All our defenders are three-year varsity players, so we have our defensive communication down,” said varsity co-

captain Albert Kim. As a result, the team feels that they can capitalize on their defensive line to achieve their goals.

Additionally, it is larger in size than usual, both physically and in terms of the roster. The team believes that this will be of advantage to itself going into the season.

While the team’s lack of chemistry can be seen as a weakness, their differences are also beneficial.

“I think we are a very diverse team with different playing styles,” said sophomore Trevor Aquino. “This is one of our strengths because we don’t play average soccer, we change the game.”

The team also hopes to keep possession of the ball this year to dictate the pace of the game. Due to the fact that it lost a lot of individual talent from last year, the players hope that working together to maintain possession of the ball will help them win.

“Our strategy for this season is to pass and pressure a lot, because most of our dribbling attackers were seniors last year,” said Kim. According to Kim, the team plans to condition much more than usual in order to keep up with other teams.

While the team is working to make up for the loss of old players, they have set high expectations for themselves. They hope to place at Homestead’s annual Christmas Cup, maintain a positive record, and have a high placement in the league.

Ideally, they also hope to qualify for CCS. “We expect to be competitive contenders in the league this year,” said Khoche. “The goal is always to get wins.”

STEPHANIE LU — EPIC

TAKING CONTROL| Senior captain Albert Kim steals the ball from an opponent during a pre-season game against Monta Vista High School.

EYES OF LYNBROOK HIGH

BY STEPHANIE LU

E

yes are the great equalizer of the world; everyone’s eyes has a way of spilling the beans to anyone skilled and determined enough to figure you out.

Charlotte Brontë called the eye an “unconscious but still…faithful interpreter” of the soul. She might’ve been trying to do some fancier version of “eyes are the windows to the soul,” but the lady was onto something.

Writers love eye metaphors: malicious glints in their villians’ eyes, happy gleams in their protagonists’. Eyes are the emotive version of fingerprints: each one is en-

tirely unique, and speaks volumes about its bearer—their age, mood, skill with eyeliner (or other kinds of eye makeup).

Here, five Lynbrook students—and one teacher—give you a look into their own eyes.

Clockwise from top left: junior Gabrielle Delforge, freshman Ashwin Nathan, junior Alan Li, English teacher Josh Miller, and junior Evelina Morales.

And for the romantics out there, a quote on eyes from Marilyn Monroe: “The real lover is the man who can thrill you just by touching your head or smiling into your eyes—or just by staring into space.”