Issue 1, 2011

Field under renovations

Car wash fundraisers banned across campus

BY SHANNON CHAI

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AUSTIN YU-EPIC

DIGGING IN| Principal Gail Davidson, ASB President Kevin Tu, Victor the Viking and other faculty ceremonially shovel the first heap of dirt out from the old field.

BY IRENE HSU & AUSTIN YU

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AUSTIN YU-EPIC

WELCOME ADDRESS| Principal Gail Davidson delivers the opening speech to the sea of spectators.

snapshot: 1965. The track, newly renovated with a base of concrete, layered with compressed dirt on the surface. The bleachers, facing the field, brightly painted blue and red to accommodate school colors.

And another: 46 years later, Tuesday, Sept. 12, 2011. Students, parents, and faculty members pile into the same bleachers, their colors long faded and wooden benches long worn. They chatter and clamber for the soaring packets of candy in the air, tossed by senior Chris Doi of the social committee and Victor, the Viking mascot. In front of the bleachers is the same dirt track which outlines the same grass field.

But at the very front stands Principal Gail Davidson, representing the many parents, teachers, and staff who had pushed, three years, for a new landscape: “A new track, new field, new stadium,” said Davidson in her opening speech.

Since 2008, Lynbrook High school, along with the various other schools of Fremont Union High School District, has been making strides towards improving its track and field as part of a Measure B bond, which is a grant of $198 million for the sole purpose of facilities renovation projects, such as upgrades in technology and buildings, in the Fremont Union High School District.

Since 2010, it has met opposition from nearby

see FIELD page 2

AUSTIN YU-EPIC

HIGH HOPES| ASB President Kevin Tu and Victor the Viking release balloons into the open sky.

Lynbrook receives Intel School of Distinction Award at Gala

BY GLORIA LIN

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he science departments of Lynbrook High School are exemplary, and the school is now able to prove this as it has been chosen out of 1,400 schools and 18 finalists nationwide as one of the six winners of the 2011 Intel School of Distinction award.

On the evening of Sept. 20 in Washington, D.C., the Intel Foundation named Lynbrook a School of Distinction and would receive a $10,000 cash grant and $100,000 worth of development materials for teachers.

Lynbrook is the only neighborhood public school to receive this title. To apply for the award, Lynbrook compiled data about student test scores, AP testing and college plans. In addition, Physiology teacher Amanda Alonzo worked on 10-12 essays about Lynbrook’s student life and technological infrastructure. She says, “When writing the application essays, I realized that I was really writing about what all

teachers do at Lynbrook, though I tried to focus on the science department at first.” Many aspects of Lynbrook’s science department stood out to

portunities within and beyond the classroom... provide multiple laboratory experiences for students each week, and extend learning outside the classroom,” as stated in the pamphlet listing the 2011 finalists.

Principal Gail Davidson adds, “A researcher once told [us], ‘If your students don’t get credit [for the work they do outside of class, like the Intel Science Fair,] they won’t do it.’ I told him, ‘Well, that’s not true,’ because our mentors make sure students find their fire, that they do what they’re into. There’s a purity in the passion of our students.” Lynbrook will be hosting a celebration for receiving the award, sometime by the end of Dec., an event which GRAPHIC ILLUSTRATION BY NOORSHER AHMED & JOEY LI members of the Intel Foundation, sponsors of the competition and the judges, like the fact that teachers “encourage politicians who met with the finalists in Washstudents to delve deeply into science through opington, D.C. will attend.

ake sales, Yogurtland socials, Food Club Days—it is clear that Lynbrook clubs have implemented many effective and creative fundraisers over the years. After several years of creative fundraising as a tradition, however, clubs will no longer be allowed to hold any car wash fundraisers on Lynbrook’s campus.

This new rule was implemented due to the dangers that can arise from soap residue gathering in San Jose’s storm drains. After a routine inspection last year, a city inspector determined that in accordance with San Jose storm water pollution regulations, it is unsafe for Lynbrook to be hosting car washes on its campus.

During car washes, the soapy water used can potentially contain harsh chemicals, detergents and metal pieces that are harmful to wildlife and the environment. Furthermore, the water that goes through storm drains flows directly into creeks and the bay, causing pollution that becomes even more widespread and creating effects that are detrimental to communities beyond that of the original car wash location.

Despite efforts to work around the issue and allow car washes to remain a form of fundraising, they will still be banned on campus. Assistant Principal of Activities David Erwin says, “We planned to move the car washes further away from buildings and drains so the soapy water would dry on the pavement instead of flowing into the storm drains, but that is still not allowed.”

The ban was greeted with mixed reviews from clubs that used to host annual car washes. Varsity cheerleader Trena Cai says, “Since we’re not allowed to have car washes anymore, it’s more of a hassle trying to come up with fundraising ideas that work. It’s a bummer because I feel like having car washes helps make our team bond.”

Link Crew commissioner senior Jocelyn Chen, however, says, “We won’t be losing any money, but actually [be] saving three hours of each leader’s time on a Saturday. The only negative about this is we lose an event where the leaders can get together, have fun and work on something together.”

In order to work around the ban, cheer and Link Crew are using different strategies to fund their usual expenses. Cai says, “Our team and coach had to find other ways to fundraise throughout the year, such as having lunch and dinner fundraisers at Willow Street, Chipotle and Pinkberry.”

Meanwhile, Chen says, “In the years past, leaders were required to sell two five dollar car wash tickets. This year, we’re requiring the leaders to pay ten dollars directly, so we won’t be losing money.”

Although car washes are prohibited on the Lynbrook campus, they are still allowed off campus.

Clubs can continue to host car washes at a venue with proper water reclamation facilities, such as gas stations.

FIELD | Renovations underway

BY IRENE HSU & AUSTIN YU

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continued from FIELD page 1

esidents who continue to be concerned about the harmful effects of the field renovations, including noise pollution from high school games, light pollution from the stadium lights that were planned to be installed, and air pollution from the construction.

Residents living around the area who were concerned about the impact of the construction of the fields formed Lynbrook-Monta Vista United, and filed a lawsuit under the California Environmental Quality Act. While Lynbrook continues deal with its neighbors in court to win the rights to construct lights on the fields, on Thursday, September 1st, the Department of State Architect (DSA) gave the final approval for Lynbrook High School’s Track and Field Project.

The approval officially gave Lynbrook the au-

thority to commence on the construction on their new track and field. “We’re absolutely thrilled and excited about the fact that we are going to break ground, “ said Davidson, shortly before the groundbreaking ceremony, “We have been waiting for this since the bond passed in 2008, and so here we are, it’s finally going to happen.”

Despite the many delays, Lynbrook’s field will be rid of many of the design and technical flaws seen in the constructions of neighboring schools. “As much as it’s been frustrating that we’ve been delayed,” says Davidson, “in some ways we will reap the benefits from that. For example, at Fremont, they put up some very large softball polls and they ended up having to replace them with different sized ones, some of the other schools have had some difficulties on the concession stands and the construction. We won’t have

that.”

Construction, which is about $14.9 million out of the Measure B Grant, will be set into two phases and will hopefully be completed in time for next year’s football season. The first phase is the construction of a new main field, track, and Stober Field, and the second is the construction of the new baseball and softball fields. Phase one is expected to be completed in about ten months, and phase two is expected to be completed in 22 months, though Davidson says, “We hope that it will be much shorter than that. Because we have much more detailed [blueprints] down to the height of the pole and the width of the bleachers, construction should be able to proceed without much difficulty.”

Also, by separating construction into two distinct phases, Lynbrook’s extracurriculars, including marching band and football, will continue to be able to practice on-campus. 18 constructors, hired by Robert A. Bothman, Inc.

However, the construction will not be completed in time for the graduation of the class of 2012, which will instead take place in Foothill College on June 7, 2012. Feelings about the graduation away from home are mixed; some, such as senior Gordon Ho say, “I don’t really mind where it is as long as I graduate, but I prefer it to be at Lynbrook so it would be easier and much more convenient for underclassmen to come and watch,” whereas others, such as Tu say, “The field will be full of our legacy.

When we tear [the old field] down, even though the class of 2012 will not be graduating on this field, the new field will definitely open new doors for new classes—for all Vikings, past, present, and future.”

At the closing of the ceremony, as Tu released the balloons from his hands, they caught in the wind as a mass and drifted into the sky, above the old field—”Like all of Lynbrook,” Davidson had said, “united.”

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY NEWS SECTION

Letter from the editors

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his year, the campus isn’t the only thing getting a makeover at Lynbrook. After months of preparation the 2011-2012 staff of the Epic is excited to share our redesigned publication with the community.

With the start of a new school year, we are introduced to new trends, new classes and new goals. We’ve done our best to include a story for all types of audiences here at Lynbrook to interest all of you: For seniors who are beginning the daunting process of college applications, we have investigated Private College Counselors (pg. 10), an alternative method for getting into that dream college chosen by some students.

Taking a look into the new classes on campus; the Features section has examined one of the most

latest additions to the course catalog, otherwise known as the Food Science Course (pg.

7) offered to students of all grades.

The Sports section has updates on all seven fall sports happening on campus, from Central Coast Section (CCS) aspirations to common sports injuries (pg 12-14).

Many changes have also been made throughout the paper to make our content more appealing and interactive. In the Opinion and Features sections, column series have been added that will stay consistent throughout the year. Sports has also included “Sports in Seconds,” a quick recap of all seasonal sports.

For those who are more visually inclined, photoessay is a great way to experience events, trends and student hobbies. See your teachers planking (pg.16) around the school in this issue’s photoessay.

Be sure to check out anything you may miss by liking us on Facebook and visiting our website for an archive of past issues.

On behalf of the staff of the Epic, we hope to cover the issues deemed important to the students, teachers, and parents of the Lynbrook community, and we value your feedback.

Happy Reading,

Candy Chang and Namrata Singh

Alonzo honored within county

BY SABRINA SHIE

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ast year, physiology teacher Amanda Alonzo was awarded by Lynbrook as “Teacher of the Year,” for her contributions toward Lynbrook’s science program. Last week, she was once again recognized for her efforts in education—but this time as Santa Clara County’s “Teacher of the Year.”

Although the County has only released this news last Thursday, Alonzo has actually been aware of her recognition since May of last year.

Because she was awarded as Lynbrook “Teacher of the Year,” Alonzo was also submitted, along with four other teachers from the Fremont Union High School District (FUHSD), to be considered as Santa Clara County “Teacher of the Year.”

Besides Alonzo, 30 other teachers who teach varying grades and subject matter were also selected for the consideration.

Alonzo’s selection, according to Principal Gail Davidson, is attributed to her work ethic as a teacher.

Davidson says, “Amanda’s a very creative and dynamic teacher. She has a clarity of vision and absolute commitment to creating a true science research culture and real opportunities for students to pursue meaningful research. The kids oftentimes talk about her ‘contagious enthusiasm,’ and certainly she has that—not only with students, but with her colleagues.”

Besides her role as a teacher on campus, Alonzo has constantly worked to further the science program at Lynbrook. In 2003, she applied for a seed grant from Intel, hoping to inspire students to pursue science. Working with other science teachers, as well as with Miller Middle School, Alonzo was able to realize her goal. Today, Alonzo is in charge of a research program at Lynbrook called Stem Research.

Alonzo says of Stem Research, “I think the research program I run after school was also a major

reason I was selected. [It’s a program that] allows students to do science as opposed to just reading about science in their textbook.”

Despite the accolades she has received for her achievements, Alonzo maintains that she is only doing her job as a teacher.

She says, “I think the biggest part is that I try to relate what my students are learning to their every day life. I think that’s the biggest thing that I do. To me, [winning the award] means that I’m serving my students in a way that works for them, that I am privileged to work with the students that I work with and that they appreciate the cool things that I do for them.

It really means that the work that I’m doing is effective for my students.”

Later this evening, Alonzo will be honored for her contributions toward education in science at the Teacher Recognition Celebration at the Heritage Theater in Campbell.

COURTESY OF GAIL DAVIDSON

COUNTY TEACHER| Alonzo, who teaches Biology and Physiology, was named “teacher of the year”

Stress Relief Offered in PE classes

BY LAUREN TAI

Night on the Quad On Thursday, Oct. 6, the Parent-Teacher Student Association (PTSA) will be hosting their fourth annual “A Night on the Quad” event from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Various clubs, sports teams and the music department will be present to display their respective groups and selling refreshments. School organizations have until Thursday, Sept. 30 to reserve spaces to advertise themselves and fundraise. Dinner will be served from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. for those interested.

Homecoming The 2011-2012 Homecoming Spirit Week will be held from Monday, Oct. 24 through Friday, Oct. 28. The themes for the freshman, sophomore, junior and senior classes are: Chess, Candyland, Jumanji and TBA, respectfully. Ending the spirit week will be the Homecoming Football Game against The Harker School, to be held on Friday, Oct. 24 with the frosh-soph team playing at 5 p.m., and Varsity at 7 p.m. The Homecoming dance will take place on Saturday, Oct. 29 from 7:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. in the gym.

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n March 2010, Lynbrook declared three major goals it would focus on as a school, which were recognized by Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC). Lynbrook is starting by focusing on providing students with a set of life-long skills for managing stress and building resilience The idea of aiding students in managing stress came from a year-long study group consisting of parents, teachers, and staff. The study group, which was managed by a Stanford University researcher, compiled research on stress, envisioning a method of “productive coping,” which includes resolving issues through perseverance, focusing positively and being physically fit and healthy. It was determined that becoming familiarized with exercise and knowledge would be an effective way to target students who are stressed.

To work toward relieving stress, Lynbrook is partnering with the International Association of Human Values (IHAV), an organization that collaborates with educational institutions to develop personal growth and stress management in teens.

The partnership will teach students to deal with pressure constructively.

A sister volunteer-based network, the Art of Living Foundation (ALF), will be organizing Youth Empowerment Seminar (YES) workshops to teach teens various exercises that will hopefully help relieve stress. ALF says its YES workshop “offers a life skills curgriculum that incorporates socialemotional learning and character development.”

Beginning Oct. 31, all freshmen will attend YES workshops during their Physical Education (P.E.)

periods. Students will destress through practicing aspects of yoga, including dynamic physical exercises, breathing techniques and body awareness.

The YES workshops were brought to Lynbrook through PTSA Vice President Supriya Makenini, who participated in the YES program offered outside of schools. She says, “I invited Lynbrook to join the IHAV program because I liked the idea...

[It helps] students improve their well-being and handle situations in a more positive way.”

Attendance to the YES workshops will first be geared toward freshmen with the mindset that learning these skills early on in high school will help students cope with pressure more effectively as school years progress and more challenges arise. P.E. teacher Linda Nichols says, “We know how stressful the school can get so if there is any way to help the students, we are willing to try. This is the first year we are going to try out such a program and I think it is a wonderful idea.” In addition to having leaders of outside programs come in to teach students, however, the P.E. teachers will also go through training sessions in hopes of being able to encompass all students in these exercises in the future.

“As a staff, we care about the students and are aware that they are pushing hard. We want students to be able to gain skills on how to manage stress and build resilience,” says principal Gail Davidson. “Learning new techniques and exercises seem like a good way to start.”

The school will also focus on improving oral and written communication as well as cross-disciplinary connections and teaming skills amongst students, the two remaining goals of this school.

Take deep breaths and try to relax all the muscles

Listen to classical music to calm the mind and soul

Spend some time outdoors and appreciate the solitude

Drama Fall Production Comedy, crime and mystery are in the air as the drama department prepares to perform Deathtrap as its annual fall play from Oct. 1315. Pre-sale tickets will be sold at the top of the quad and can also be purchased at the door. Prices may start at $10, but are subject to change. The show starts at 7:30 p.m. Seats are first come, first served.

Band Field Show at Homestead High School The marching band will be making its debut of this year at the Fremont Union High School District (FUHSD) band exhibition taking place on Oct. 1 at Homestead High School.

This year’s theme is Tron. The drum majors are Daniel Sun and Allison Tani. This event is open to everyone.

Practice yoga poses

Eat a healthier diet

INFORMATION COURTESY OF BODYMINDSPIRITWORKS

GRAPHIC ILLUSTRATION BY NEWS SECTION

Amnesty International pays a tribute

Tournament of the Bands

BY JOY SHEN & JESSICA CAO

The 41st annual Cupertino High School Tournament of the Bands will be held on Saturday, Oct. 8 at Cupertino High. Bands from various high schools around the Bay Area will gather at 9 a.m., with the opening parade competition occurring down Stevens Creek Blvd. beginning at 9:30 a.m. The event is scheduled to last with the Field Show Awards at 9:45 p.m.

ynbrook’s Amnesty International (AI) is partnering with One Million Bones (OMB), an organization that educates the public about genocide through collaborative art installations, to raise awareness for the OMB cause.

Under the coordination of student ambassadors seniors Angela Hu and Gloria Lin, OMB will become a committee of AI. Kathleen McEuen, the National Liason for OMB, says, “Since OMB and AI share the same mission—human rights activism, we thought it would be fitting to work together.”

AI will make fake bones out of various art ma-

By Joy Shen and Lauren Tai

Soak up the sun’s rays

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terials to honor genocide victims from all over the world. The club, following suit with other OMB chapters across the nation, will then lay the paper bones out in an open area in remembrance. The bones will then be used to create an eye-catching display.

AI’s bone-making events will be open to the school and community, and the committee will be collaborating with human rights clubs and organizations, as well as art studios and centers around the Bay Area for more support.

On Apr. 28, 2012, OMB will commence their The Road to Washington, D.C. project, in which tens of thousands of volunteer-made bones will be simultaneously laid in front of all state capitals. McEuen

says, “One Million Bones has a bunch of chapters already going on in each state, and…most of these chapters are going to be the ones that are planning and facilitating these installations with support and backing of [One Million Bones] as a whole.”

The project is scheduled to be complete during the spring of 2013, when a million bones will be laid out at the National Mall in Washington, D.C. With the assistance of AI, Hu and Lin will be organizing a series of informational and awareness events for this project. “After educating people about genocide, we hope that they will come to our meetings and understand what our project is about,” says Hu.

The last time you checked out a book...

BY BRIAN ZHAO From a statistical standpoint, library specialist Roz Davis should be able to remember the last book checked out by a student. After all, only 302 books have been checked out so far in the school year, and 61 of those are overdue. Nine out of last year’s ten most popular books, with the exception of Mockingjay, a 2010 dystopian novel, were supplementary. So, this last book was most likely one assigned or recommended by a teacher, probably Fahrenheit 451, Ender’s Game or The Catcher in the Rye and not one of the other 20,000 titles gathering dust on the library’s shelves.

This is a shame. Teachers should not have to force students to use the library. The curriculum adapts to the library’s resources. Only after the library gained digital databases were teachers able to assign research papers that required their use. Therefore, the library’s primary function and source of patrons should not have to rely on assignments that require the checkout of its books and the browsing of its online databases.

Library books are sadly underused: out of more than 20,000 different titles available, only about two percent of the library’s vast collection of print volumes had been checked out during all of the 2010-2011 school year. Some may argue that these numbers aren’t accurate; while those books are not being checked out, they are still being flipped through and used for reference. Many teachers also take

their students to the library for certain projects but disallow the checkout of such books in order to give other periods a chance to use them. Furthermore, they argue that even if students aren’t using the physical books in the library, they are at least using the databases sponsored by it. “The ideas of what libraries are have stayed the same, while their uses have certainly changed,” explains library media teacher Kimmie Marks. “In the 21st century, the focus is on finding and transferring information. If you go on our databases and look up topics, you will get really hard hitting, factual, and unbiased articles.” In modern times, libraries should function as multimedia centers.

However, while the library does contain a set of digital shelves with an almost unlimited storage of information, its potential is not even close to being fulfilled. At first glance, the numbers for the use of online databases such as Gale, Global Issues and Opposing Viewpoints are impressive. If there are approximately 37,000 searches made by 1700 students across a period of six months of school, then it averages to one search per student per every five days. However, the outlier in usage in March, when the junior and senior research papers are due, indicates that students are only utilizing this resource when prompted or forced by their teachers. The average usage in March is one search per student per three days; if March is not included in the calculations, then each student only

averages one search every ten days.

Besides that, the situation at the Cupertino Public Library disproves the “browsing” theory.

Cupertino contained 1.8 million items and had 12 million checkouts last year; its ratio of total items to checkouts was 1 to 6.8. The ratio of Lynbrook’s total items to checkouts, on the other hand, was 1 to 0.14.

This happened despite the fact that students are only steps away from the library whenever they are at school and do not need to apply for or even use a library card to check out books. Even in the best-case scenario, where the books are not being checked out but still read, Cupertino’s checkout rate is 49 times higher than Lynbrook’s.

With checkout being more convenient and yet so much lower than that of Cupertino’s, the idea that students are not checking out books but “flipping through” them is not likely.

Even vice president of Bookzilla, senior Kunaal Goel, says he prefers to check out books elsewhere.

He believes that the more accessible a library is, the more people take it for granted. “While I’m at the Lynbrook library, it’s more like I’m there with friends. If I make the effort to go to the Saratoga Public Library, it’s because I really do want to read something. It’s also super quiet, so you can actually function,” elaborates Goel.

Paradoxically, library culture may be inconducive to learning, and expansion of the physical education facilities might just create a quieter environment in the library.

Sophomores Michael Sheng and Aniruddha Rajesh are two students who have never checked out books from the library; instead, they come to the facility to “check School Loop and Gmail, finish homework and socialize.”

When asked why, Sheng replied, “I just see more people using the Internet and chatting rather than using the books.”

Reconstruction of the Cove, however, may restore a proper atmosphere to the library.

The changes

planned will connect the Cove to the gym and add a ticket booth, but more importantly, return it back to the students by providing for them a place to relax. When there are separate facilities for socializing and studying, which has become a possibility within the next few years, expect to see a more focused atmosphere in the library as people take it more seriously and therefore use it more effectively.

“Libraries are supposed to be quiet places for students to learn and study. This is not what it has become,” concludes Davis. “We’re a student center, so of course we want kids to come here. But, there is no reason not to use both computers and books to their maxim u m potential.”

GRAPHIC ILLUSTRATION BY JANE JUN, LAUREN TAI AND BRIAN ZHAO

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ow that the long-drawn Track and Field renovation debate is starting to cool, the realization that field activities must halt for a year has sparked new complains: sports teams have limited space, marching band must practice close to classrooms and the class of 2012 will not be able to graduate at Lynbrook. However, the new field renovation will benefit countless generations of students to come and its approval is something to be celebrated, not bemoan.

For now, all sports teams are sharing the Stober Field for practices since the track is no longer available. However, this is a much preferred situation compared to Monta Vista’s, which is also currently undergoing field construction. Both of their fields are being renovated simultaneously, so all their field sports teams are practicing off campus.

In addition, the marching band now practices during third periods in the Stober Field. “It was a test day and the marching band drums were playing near the math wing, and it was really distracting,” says junior Emily Pang.

Though it is regrettable, it is inevitable that the marching band has limited choices for their practice locations. Still, they should try to do the best they can with the space they have and use the farther half of the Stober Field away from the school, so that they will be less distracting to classes.

Another complaint has been that this year’s seniors will

The new field is worth it be the first to graduate off campus; ever since Lynbrook was founded in 1965, all classes have graduated at Lynbrook.

“I’m a little annoyed, since not as many people will be able to watch us graduate. But at least it’ll be for a good reason. A new field and track is definitely more important than a single graduation,” says senior Howard Yang.

Nevertheless, Lynbrook is also the last school in the district, with the exception of Monta Vista, to not have its own rubber track and turf. Lynbrook students and parents have long since pleaded for a new field to replace the currently run-down model. Now, after two redesigns, countless community feedback meetings and two years of intensive planning, their wish has finally been granted.

School Facilities Steve Chamberlain, who is helping to organize the track renovation and to plan the 2012 graduation, says, “We have to do what we have to do to get the field done.

I’m excited that we’re on the path to getting finished.”

According to Chamberlain, the graduation is currently planned to take place at Foothill College because their stands are big enough to accommodate the crowd. Monta Vista High School is also planned to graduate in Foothill as well, on the same day but at a different time. This raised major traffic concerns, since in addition to the Monta Vista graduation, Foothill classes will still be in session. If transportation was arranged for Lynbrook students to arrive at Grad Night together, this will help to stem the flow of cars bound to overflow the parking lot.

Though some students may argue that graduation should be kept limited to just Lynbrook’s students. Lynbrook will still be reserved for Grad Night after graduation. A committee of parents has already started planning Grad Night, and the class of 2012 will still receive their spotlight.

The field will be an everlasting asset for the school, and no one will regret the temporary inconveniences they endured once it is finished. Principal Gail Davidson says, “I think that our students really have an understanding of what it means to look at the bigger picture of life. I always hear them talk about how inspired they are by their parents sacrificing so much for them, so that they can have a better life. It’s the same story with the field. Students have to think of sacrificing for future generations.”

Sheltered?

I think not.

The driving force of a provisional license Y W

BY YASMINE MORTAZAVI

alk around the parking lot at lunch, and it is easy to forget that underage drivers cannot legally carry teenage passengers. Each day, many Lynbrook students drive friends around town or out to lunch, ignoring graduated driver’s license (GDL) laws, also known as provisional license laws, that restrict them from doing so. The GDL laws state that underaged drivers cannot transport others under the age of 20 years, until they have held theirlicense for at least one year.

Despite accusations of being obsolete, GDL laws are helping to make roads safer in a fair, effective way.

For one, states that have followed California’s example and put GDL systems in place have 19% lower injurious crash rates than states that do not have the GDL systems in place.

In addition, there are many students, including junior Miranda Ashland, who do follow the restrictions. “I decided not to drive other people after talking a lot about it with my mom,” says Ashland, “Even if you are doing everything right, if somebody hits you, you’re the one that gets cited. For me, it’s not worth it just to drive my friends.”

Ashland’s decision eliminates her risk of being cited for breaking GDL laws, and her caution also greatly reduces her chances of getting in an accident; studies show that 17-year-olds who drive three passengers are more than three times likely to crash. In addition, on being cited for breaking provisional license laws, teenage drivers will be fined about $100, and may get their license revoked. Even if a teenager is not at fault in an accident, he or she can also get cited.

For students like Ashland, the provisional license law works in a direct way. However, GDL laws also make students who consistently break the laws drive much safer. Underage drivers keep the penalties in the back of their minds, and as a result, they are much more careful on the road.

The reason police officers do not stand by the parking lot waiting to catch students breaking GDL laws is that there are legal barriers that don’t allow them to do so. Chris Monahan, a Lieutenant with the San Jose Police Department’s Traffic Enforcement Division says, “I can’t pull over a driver for being underage—that’s against the law.”

Because of these legal barriers, enforcement of GDL laws can only happen in certain situations. “We have officers and sheriffs making stops when violations occur. If they stop a car, see that the driver has a provisional license and is violating the rules of their license, they get cited for breaking the vehicle code and for not following

restrictions of provisional licenses,” says Monahan.

It is unfortunate that many students feel quite comfortable breaking the laws because of the limitations placed on police officers. Senior Anshul Sengupta*, who often illegally gives rides to his friends, says, “I’m aware of the law, but laws are meant to be broken. If I get caught, I’ll just have to face the consequences.”

Even for these students though, GDL laws have a positive effect. Driving underage passengers will always have an unsafe element, but at least with GDL laws, students will be more careful when they do drive friends.

Senior Carla Smithson* says, “When I drive people, I drive really carefully and safely because I could get cited for driving badly and also for driving my friends.”

If teenagers are going to carry passengers, it is best that they have some motivation to drive those passengers safely, and this is achieved by the implementation of GDL laws.

People may criticize the laws for being too ineffective, but its own way, the GDL system works.

The reality is that not everybody is going to be caught. These laws, however, still have an impact, be it direct or indirect.

*Name has been changed.

AUSTIN YU — EPIC

ou’ve heard it before. Actually, you have probably said it many times before: “Man oh man, we are just so sheltered here at Lynbrook!”

Besides statements bemoaning the tests that come with taking the multitude of AP classes that every student here allegedly signs up for, this is by far the one belief that everyone here seems to agree upon.

And really, you can’t blame us—you hear about drugs and partying (and whatever it is that defines not being sheltered) from time to time, but they are quickly replaced by diagnostic SATs and post-examination stress disorder.

Amidst all this academic pressure, we still find time to complain that the Lynbrook life doesn’t prepare us for real life and that we have not been exposed to the real world—and therein lies the problem.

When I asked a people what they thought it meant to be sheltered, in general, I got examples and vague descriptions instead of concrete definitions: “We don’t have big drug problems.”

“We don’t have gangs.” “We’re one of the lucky ones.” So what are we really saying when we’re accusing our community of making us unable to be privy to the ways of the real world?

What makes us liable to being called sheltered isn’t what we don’t have; it’s what we do have. In comparison to the rest of the world, we do have it pretty good.

In general, we’re all of a decent socioeconomic status, come from protective families and yes, we do not experience many lifethreatening issues.

So we’re “sheltered” because we’re welloff, because we lead nice, safe lives. Okay. But who’s to say which problems make you experienced in the ways of life and which don’t?

If you follow the logic of those who call us sheltered, if you’re poor and live in an undesirable neighborhood, you know what life’s about. If you don’t, you’re sheltered and don’t know beans about life.

So basically, if I grow up, become, say, a wealthy lawyer in Monte Sereno and live in the fanciest house on the block, I’ll always be sheltered. And that makes no sense to me.

I chalk this up to something I call wealthy man’s guilt, or the tendency for people who are affluent to look at all the problems poorer communities face and feel that not having such issues in their lives mean that they’re missing out and not living life.

Now there are programs with which rich people can pay to visit third-world countries and spend time volunteering for orphanages; in my opinion, that’s really taking it far. No matter how high or how low you get on the socioeconomic ladder, problems are problems— how can you label certain problems as “life lessons” and shove others off as worthless?

The way I see it, the manner in which we’re raised is easily comparable to learning how to swim. Some people get pushed right into the pool without any floaties, before they can mentally or physically prepare themselves for the cold. They feel the icy rush before anything else, and are forced to adapt.

Others (and this is where most of us Lynbrook students stand), however, get a little more time; maybe their parents signed them up for DACA or something.

In the end, nevertheless, we will all learn to adapt; fundamentally, we’re all sturdy human beings, and we all learn to adapt and splash about until the waves are warm. Gradually, what used to be a chill turns into a comfortable room temperature-level warmth, and we all learn to ride the tides of life.

I constantly hear people around campus generalizing the Lynbrook population as “sheltered” and “living in a bubble” because we’re for the most part, affluent. But that doesn’t mean we’re not ready for the real world.

Call me sheltered, but I am going to be ready for the real world, whether I live in fear of shootings outside my bedroom window every night or not.

Service your school, service yourself

BY NIKITA DHESIKAN

Less is not more for female body armor

T

he other day, I was trying to watch a couple of my guy-friends play video games, but I could barely stand to look at the screen. There was blood flying everywhere, aliens were dropping dead, bombs were exploding—and suddenly, a naked woman appeared, prancing across the screen with a gun in her hand.

Okay, so maybe she wasn’t completely naked, but the female characters in video games are definitely not supplied with enough body armor to actually protect them in battle. In reality, if a woman went into war wearing the same outfits that women in most popular video games wear, she’d be dead within seconds.

I don’t know about you, but if I was supposed to go into battle and was handed the outfit that these characters are designed to wear, there’s no way I’d feel confident enough to fight someone. I would imagine that it requires a lot of knowledge to create a video game, so how are these game designers overlooking the fact that by leaving gaping holes in the midriff and thigh section of armor, there’s a significantly higher chance of the character being wounded? It seems pretty obvious to me that if you want to stay alive for more than five seconds, you shouldn’t wear a bikini into a war zone.

If realism isn’t a high priority for game designers, then creativity should be. The last time I checked, “seduce” wasn’t listed on any character’s directory of actions. Physical attraction is only an effective method of attack if the enemies in games are programmed to drool at the sight of exposed skin. If sexuality is an absolutely essential tool in the video game market, why not create some kind of game mode where women could bring men down by their good looks? That way, at least women are being empowered because of their appearance and not just objectified. Think about it: wouldn’t it just be awesome if looks could literally kill?

There are so many other ways that video game companies could eliminate gender inequality. For one thing, by only targeting males as consumers, companies are missing out on an entire market. By putting both men and women in revealing clothing, game companies would have the opportunity to both increase their revenue and remain unbiased. Maybe teenage girls would actually buy a video game if the male characters looked a little more like Taylor Lautner and a little less like a fat, sweaty aliens with clunky metal armor.

Of course there is one more solution, and it is probably my favorite: game companies could eliminate provocativeness altogether!

It’s a revolutionary concept, but it just might work. I did a little research, and according to gamespot.com, “Gears of War 2” made more than $107 million dollars during its first year of release. Here’s an interesting fact about that game: no scantily-clad women! All of the female characters are decked out in complete protective body armor, and somehow the company still manages to make a profit. I know, I’ve just blown your mind.

Games like that give me hope for humanity, but then there’s “Catfight”; a game that completely let me down. You’ve probably never even heard of it because it was so miserably unsuccessful. So what’s the reason for it’s lack of success?

Well the women in the game are intended to be perceived as strong, powerful figures, but they’re programmed to wear such a skimpy amount of clothing that they just seem comical. The fact that “Catfight” was unsucessful is proof that the “hot women” marketing technique is not the way to go.

Hopefully you’re starting to see now that there are numerous ways to solve the issue of gender inequality in video games. All of these ideas would be extremely beneficial to video game companies in terms of profit and contribution to society, but now it’s just a question of when video game companies will take my genius ideas into consideration.

If my opinion is miraculously acted upon, don’t come chase me down with torches and pitchforks. On second thought, go ahead! I’ll be ready, and decked out in sufficient body armor.

M

andatory volunteering. The two words do not make much sense together: volunteering is doing something by choice, and mandatory is something required. However, integrating a mandatory community service project into senior year would make sense because it would benefit the community and the students.

At several school districts around the area, every senior must complete a service project in order to graduate. A service project is a form of volunteering, such as organizing a food drive or cleaning a park.

Integrating a service project would help students discover interests and job skills. Guidance counselor Malissa Goldstein says, “I am not sure why we don’t have [a service project].

I believe that there is a lot of value in having a senior service project because it broadens a student’s perspective.”

Volunteering can take people out of their own bubble and show them about the rest of the world. For example, volunteering at a homeless shelter can show students how different other people’s lives are. In addition, a

service project can help students find their interests.

Service projects benefit not only students, but also the community. Even if just Lynbrook made service projects mandatory, there would be nearly 450 more people working to make the community a better place. “When you do a service project, you take the time to invest yourself in making a change and at the end, you realize how much of a difference you made,” says sophomore Sara Dyslin.

As of now, Lynbrook doesn’t require service projects. Instead, seniors who complete 80 hours of service during their senior year receive a medal from the district. There are also many service oriented clubs on campus where students can earn a cord for graduation.

However, even with all these incentives, not every student at Lynbrook does so. Often times, the students who do volunteer do not have a target other than earning a cord. In addition, community service clubs offer some great opportunities, but the actual community service is fragmented.

“Volunteering in random places is not as effective because you are never doing anything substantial,” explains senior Jerry Lin.

Also, volunteering at one location for a few hours and then a different location the next week does not give the students a chance to connect with the community or the people they are helping. “Volunteering in clubs is not really about the volunteering, it is more for your own sake of getting community service hours,” adds junior Anamika Kumpawat.

By having a service project, the student is required to choose a part of the community to improve. To ensure that students are focused throughout the project, they should be required to write a report when they finish volunteering. Compared to the 80 hours required to receive a medal, service projects can take as little as 25 hours. After completing a service project for Girl Scouts in which she made hats for disabled children, Kumpawat says, “I made a much bigger impact than I could have ever made by volunteering through a club, and it was a very rewarding experience.”

With some planning by the district board, incorporating service projects into the senior curriculum is possible. Maybe then “mandatory volunteering” would not be such an oxymoron.

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION—SAM CHANG

FAIR Act for a fair LGBT representation

BY KATHY LI

G

ood news: more than half a year after it was originally proposed, Senate Bill 48 (SB 48) was finally signed by Governor Jerry Brown. Also called the Fair, Accurate, Inclusive and Respectful (FAIR) Education Act, the bill amends the California Education Code to include social sciences instruction on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people. The act means that the contributions of LGBTs will be featured much more in history textbooks and curricula. Along with the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell on Sept.

20, this shows a trend toward greater social acceptance of all groups. It will also give Lynbrook a more open and welcoming environment. However, as this is both new to the curriculum and a sensitive topic, the change must be approached responsibly and respectfully.

California already has certain laws for minority inclusion in public schools. The Education Code section 233 requires that schools implement “moral and civic education curricula… with the aim of fostering an appreciation of the diversity of California’s population and discouraging the development of discriminatory attitudes and practices.”

LGBTs are neither being singled out nor receiving special treatment; the FAIR Education simply adds them to the existing list of underrepresented cultural and ethnic groups, such as African Americans, Asians and Hispanics, who must be included in the curriculum for history classes.

As the name of the legislation implies, this act will finally give LGBT people fair coverage in education. Purpose- l y omitting LGBT people from our history over conflicting ideologies will give young people an incomplete and inaccurate view of the world. “Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, among other minority groups, have been marginalized for far too long,” says senior Hana Zait, vice-president of Ly n -

brook’s Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA). “This act counteracts some of the bad things that have been done to these groups in the past.”

Furthermore, including LGBT people in classroom instruction will create safer school environments. Studies compiled by Mental Health America show that in schools with LGBT education, bullying declined by more than half and LGBT students felt better equipped to make positive contributions at school. At Lynbrook, this will foster a more accepting setting for students to reach their full potential without feeling isolated.

Groups opposed to the bill often see public education about LGBT people as imposing a certain sexual orientation on students. The bill will not go into effect immediately, since textbooks take time to change, and the bill could be overturned at the ballot. Stop SB 48 Coalition, which is gaining strength in Northern California, makes the opposing argument clear: they claim that the legislation is a form of social indoctrination and “promotes a homosexual agenda.”

The intent of the bill, however, is to cover diverse groups in an educational setting, not to force anyone’s beliefs on others. “As a straight student, I see no problem with it,” says sophomore Tiffany Lin. “Learning about LGBT contributions will make stu-

dents more knowledgeable, but it won’t turn them gay.”

It is true that LGBT issues can be difficult to talk about because of the sensitivity of the topic, especially at school. “I think there are some people who actively avoid talking about LGBT because they aren’t sure of their own views on the subject,” says Zait. “It’s often because their religion says one thing, but they don’t necessarily agree with that, so they avoid talking about it.”

The act will actually help ameliorate this situation by fostering discussion on the subject. It is important that students and staff remain respectful and do not force their personal views on one another, which would be taking the act in the wrong direction, but having the subject out in the open will create more mutual understanding in the long term.

U.S. history and government teacher and head of the social sciences department Mike Williams explains that, “The debate over the bill is a political and ideological one. History continues to be made, though, and it is the job of history classes to teach about the groups that existed and what really happened. As long as the content is taught responsibly, the LGBT community has just as much of a right as anyone to be included in the telling of our history.”

The Fair Education Act may be a source of ideological controversy, but as long as it is implemented thoughtfully, it will no doubt create more inclusive and knowledgeable communities in California schools.

AUSTIN YU—EPIC

The DNA of Food

New Culinary Food Science class mixes the artistry of cooking with elements of science

BY NOORSHER AHMED

I

n the late 1990’s, as a response to the growing obesity problem in and around the world, food scientists discovered the profitability of using artificial sweeteners to sweeten foods without increasing calories. Now a decade later, a new class, Culinary Food Science, taught by Foods teacher Megan Hamilton is being introduced to Lynbrook in order to familiarize students to the science behind the art of cooking.

“Cooking is really one science experiment after another. Students will create recipes and explore scientific theories through these experiments and look at the results in a way different from most ‘typical’ cooking classes,” says Hamilton. The course is a combination of demonstrations, labs, videos, projects and other interactive and hands-on ways of learning.

This new course is replacing Advanced Cooking. The incorporation of the art of cooking with the sciences of Biology and Chemistry not only gives detail to the art, but also makes science fun.

“I think Culinary Science make science more interesting, especially when you’re doing what you love: cooking,” says junior Vivian Lee, who is taking the class after taking Advanced Cooking last year. She thinks that the addition of science has also enhanced her view of cooking, since now she knows what goes on behind each simple step in cooking and baking.

For example, students learned about Caramelization and the Maillard reaction, two processes essential to the recipes of many dishes. In Caramelization reactions, such as the browning of onions, sugars react with one another. This can generally cause the dish, or more specifically, the part being caramelized to become sweet and brown.

In Maillard’s reaction, a sugar

reacts with protein or carbohydrates. This can change the flavor in various ways, depending on other ingredients.

Maillard’s reaction is essential to baking, frying and heating of nearly all foods. It is the reason that raw bread tastes different than bread that has been heated. Caramelization is used to achieve desirable color and flavor in bakery’s goods, coffee, and many other beverages.

In the first few weeks, the students in Culinary Food Science experimented with different variables within the recipe for making a cookie, and determined its effect on the overall taste and feel of the cookie.

“My group had to experiment with the fat content. We decided to change [the recipe] to use vegetable shortening, and we came to a conclusion that [the vegetable shortening] makes the cookies less rich and buttery, and it also made the cookie more flakey and weak,” junior Erika Duboff says of the “great cookie experiment.” “[After taking this course] I will know why chefs use certain ingredients in certain dishes, and the reactions between certain ingredients. I would also know why and how the reactions take place.”

Culinary Food Sciences came to Lynbrook as a result of a district wide re-evaluation of cooking courses considered part of Living Skills. The changes mark the beginning of a new era in education where the arts and the sciences, traditionally set apart, come together to teach students both subjects, accompanied by entertainment.

GRAPHIC ILLUSTRATION BY CLAY SONG

Defeat Gym-aphobia As every autumn breeze leaves us feeling like Pocahontas in the colors of the Lynbrook wind, we all sense in our hearts the start of something new.

Facebook profile pictures undergo makeovers faster than I can say “synecdoche” as they change from Jersey Shore beach-esque to bittersweet senior portraits. The freshmen take that one giant leap for ninth-grader-kind across the street to high school.

Classmates show up in different shapes and sizes than the ones I left them in. Wait what? Yes. Not to follow the bandwagon, but joining a gym has never seemed like a better idea. Since I know that none of us want to end up like beached whales even before we gain our Freshman 15 in college, ahora es el tiempo. 15 pounds or not, a little birdie told me that September is when thou shalt provoke thy good looks out of hibernation. Because exercise is painful, here is a list of other reasons to join a gym: Hang with the senior crowd (who are probably more fit than you are).

You’ll be sure to hear some good ol’ “When I was young and the dinosaurs roamed the earth” stories about washing clothes in the creek coupled with some generation bashing bitterness (which your good manners tell you to politely laugh off, saving your energy to rant on Tumblr when you’re home). If in luck, you may hear some ravishing stories about the Cold War (or if you’re really pushing Irish, World War I) that you can bring back to base and give some substance to your nerd apparel and impress Mr. Howden with pre-unit knowledge.

Above & Beyond: Be sure to mention something vague like “I like elephants” and probe their response. If positive, infer that they are a Republican and mention what a great job Reagan did in the Cold War to score some extra candy that the elderly always keep in their purse.

Learn proper gym etiquette and learn to appreciate sanitizers & hygiene.

Appreciate the germaphobe species at school by being one with them at the gym. After seeing the man to your left drip gallons of sweat onto the treadmill that turned round and round, you will be converted. Building up a good habit of Lysol-ing all machinery after use will let you learn about all the invisible amoeba, viruses, bacteria and germs deep down in the sea of sweat. This extra scientific and technical information will also extensively prep you for that one day you meet Romeo Casanova, RC for short and also known as your perfect man.

As they say, opposites attract!

Above & Beyond: Sanitize all doorknobs when you’re home to impress your mother. Then while she’s still smiling, convince her to give you a ride

to the gym next time so you won’t have to run over.

Add to your lanyard keychain collection.

Wait no longer for your next vacation to buy a flashing keychain to accompany your sole house key on your lanyard! Luckily, gym memberships come with barcode keychain scanners that you can fashionably hook onto your keyring to appear like a more activity-immersed person. Upon adding gym keychain to lanyard, nonchalantly hook said lanyard onto index finger and swing in 360 degree motions, like so. Doing so will remind most friends of the Pokémon Drowzee and send friends into a hypnotized stage of nostalgia. Feel free to interpret their eyes glazing over as a sign of appreciation of your hard work at 24 Hour Fitness. Don’t feel selfconscious if they give you an up-down glance. Just smile and swing boys, just smile and swing.

Above & Beyond: Peel off the edges of the plastic on your Right Stuff membership keychain to show extra wear and tear, promoting the self-image of commitment and aspiration for higher fitness.

Cheerio & Adieu, Alice

New staff bring experience, variety and vibrant personalities

BY DANIELLE LERNER

A

ssistant Principal of Activities David Erwin has 16.5 years of experience in education, having been a principal, assistant principal, and history teacher. The first nine of those years were spent at middle schools, but Erwin says he “wanted to get back to high school because I missed interaction with the kids. As an AP [assistant principal], you’re dealing more with parents, staff and city council and you’re kind of removed from the kids.” So far at Lynbrook, his experience has been worthwhile. He says his favorite thing has been “working with the students in terms of helping plan dances, and seeing the ins and outs of what goes into a rally. It’s a learning experience for me. I can only imagine the homecoming rally here.”

Before starting his career as an educator, Erwin enlisted in the Navy for two years after high school in order to pay for college..

It was in the Navy that he first “became interested in education to give people choices.

Some people didn’t have a choice to be in the military, whereas I did.” He went on to obtain a history degree and a Master’s in education, and coached the Hayward High school boys’ tennis team. Now, when he’s not working, Erwin enjoys “getting out and about” with his wife and eight-year-old son, including going hiking, playing tennis and fly fishing.

AUSTIN YU — EPIC

David Erwin

C

S

pecial Education teacher Ashley Fox has known she wanted to be a teacher her whole life. “Being a teacher is my dream job, even in kindergarten,” she says.

Fox is currently in her fourth year of teaching. After previously teaching in Kansas, Fox exclaims she is “just amazed by the achievement level of the [Lynbrook] students, and the staff has been very supportive. This [special eductaion] program is a new one, and taking that challenge on is more than just being a new teacher.”

JOEY LI — EPIC

Stacey McCown

AUSTIN YU — EPIC

Ashley Fox Teaching certainly comes with many challenges and hard decisions. Once while she was teaching a kindergarten class, Fox had a timid student who would not speak during class.

However, “One day, he just got really upset with me and used some profanity in the correct context,” says Fox, “I was like ‘Oh my god that was really terrible but the right terminology’. I was really torn [between] whether to say ‘No, don’t say that’ or ‘Yay good job!’”

Despite being presented with tricky situations like this, Fox asserts that she is a “very practical” person. When she was asked what three three items she would bring to a deserted island, Fox responded, “A tent, food and water. Nothing funny, right? I guess you’d have to say a boat but I’d probably end up crashing it…”

L

iterature and Writing and Contemporary Literature teacher Stacey McCown went through many careers before finally turning to teaching. After graduating from Stanford with a Bachelor’s Degree in history, McCown worked as a historian for the National Endowment of Humanities in Washington, and later went into politics. However, her “real love was literature”, and she ended up pursuing two Master’s degrees in English Literature and English Composition. After teaching at a junior college for six years, a friend invited her to sit in on a high school class. “Initially, I thought ‘oh no’, but I was amazed by the kids’ intuitiveness… the idea of developing a relationship with students for a whole year was very appealing. It was like ‘wow, this is what I want to do.’”

In high school, McCown dreamed of being a lawyer. During college, she held a summer job at the district attorney’s office. She laughs, “My mother always thought I’d become a teacher.”

Now, she couldn’t be happier with her choice of career. Having worked in an inner city school with kids who had criminal records, McCown stresses that her pet peeve is “people who don’t have open minds. In society, people who aren’t willing to listen to the other side of the debate… I learned early on that there’s good in every single kid who walks in the room Students are people.

Everyone learns more when you show you care about them.”

oming to Lynbrook after having taughat at a school in Wisconsin and Fremont, Spanish 1 and 2 teacher Ashley Stolhand brings with her four years of teaching experience, getting her Master’s degree from UCLA. “My favorite part about teaching is watching the light bulb go on, when students just get it and make that transition.” She is excited to be at Lynbrook and describes the students as “excited to learn, excited to be here and are really talented. The staff isn’t bad either,” she says with a wink.

Despite Stolhand’s vibrant background, she didn’t always want to be a teacher. After studying Spanish in high school and living in Peru for eighth and ninth grades, she was still set on being a doctor, but changed her mind three days before college after getting hit by a car. “I swore I never wanted to teach, and it was a long process. I was kicking and screaming, but found teaching is a wonderful profession,” says Stolhand. Still, as wonderful as it is, her pet peeve is when “students expect me to grade something five minutes after they turn it in.”

She also found that the job comes with it’s fair share of excitement, remembering, “One time, we were playing a game and I had a giant football player run up to write on the board. He was so excited that he left a dent in the board with the marker. We’ve since toned down the game.”

AUSTIN YU — EPIC

Ashley Stolhand

Students sing their way out of their comfort zones

BY CLAY SONG

S

ome are born with vocal harmony, some achieve vocal harmony, and some don’t even care whether or not they have harmony; they just love singing. While most people would feel extremely queasy with the microphone in hand, there are quite a few bold singers who love the musical carefree feelings of karaoke.

Karaoke seems to originate from the family. In Taiwan and many other Asian countries, karaoke is embedded into the culture.

“My parents do a lot of karaoke, so I guess that’s why I do it too,” says senior Chang Chun Hwang. For many students with Asian backgrounds, karaoke is as common an activity as chess or a game of cards.

It is a highly social activity where friends gather to listen to each other sing their favorite songs. But karaoke is not just an Asian-only activity—people all over the world get together and sing it.

There are many karaoke houses in the commu-

nity. But the two most popular hangout sites are Gamba Karaoke and Music Tunnel KTV Café.

Each has its pros and cons. Gamba is cheaper but it is not as fancy as KTV. For a higher price, KTV is much fancier. It includes a disco ball and expensive, luxurious equipment. “KTV is definitely a cooler place to hang out. But the point is to have fun and sing, so Gamba is definitely much more worth the price” says senior Diane Kim. Unfortunately, many people can’t get past the obstacle of timidity. They are too embarrassed with the idea of singing in front of others. “Karaoke helps people to step out of their comfort zone and sing with all their friends,” says sophomore Alexander Zee. Zee believes that overcoming the awkward feeling of singing in front of people is the best way to develop a relationship. Being able to sing in front of one’s peers no matter what one’s skill level is without feeling ashamed is a sign of strong friendship.

“It’s fun watching your friends make fools out of themselves,” says Kim, “everyone is there to have fun.” She believes that karaoke should be a relaxing activity that should relieve stress, not build it up.

Some people take their passion for karaoke even further by entering competitions. Last year, junior Rachel Chang entered a relatively small and local karaoke contest.

“There were five judges, and I had to sing a song for each. But I didn’t know that because I signed up less than a week before and only prepared two songs,” she recalled.

Still, the experience was fun, and in the end, she made it to the sixteenth round and won forty dollars.

Karaoke is an activity for everyone, whether one has a crystalline voice or sounds like a crow.

The point is to have fun and share a couple of laughs with one’s friends.

ART BY SARAH TARTER

Attention Cyberspace, Meet Your New Maestro Senior Karthik Adda spends his free time composing musical sound tracks for classic video games

BY BRIAN ZHAO

F

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY SONIKA SUBRAMANIAN

or those who grew up with the video games of 1990s, replaying them brings back memories of a time where cliques, colleges and calculus did not exist. However, few are able to relive these experiences in the way senior Karthik Adda can.

Adda is part of an online community of 17,000 that modifies video games for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, an iconic console that has left a legacy of famous games such as Super Mario World, Donkey Kong Country, and Final Fantasy. While Adda been a member since 2008, only a handful of people know him other than his alias, “Buster Beetle.”

Adda often uses the forum to help him create his own versions of certain video games, and he was able to make the best of his abilities when he began collaborating with the community on a project during the summer. Because it has not been finished yet, Adda has refused to disclose many details about the game. It is a basic platformer, a 2-D jumping puzzle that contains extensive portions of his programming, including custom sprites and levels complete with enemies. Nonetheless, he considers his most important contribution to be the six songs he composed for the game.

Adda composes in Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) format, known for its distinctive 16-bit sound, which easily translates to the instruments of video game systems. Modern video game consoles can play mp3’s, but the SNES is limited by memory, thus inhibiting the size, variety and complexity of usable sample sounds. As the base form of digital music, MIDIs have the advantage of being very easy to modify as compared to mp3’s. While Adda humorously refers to them as “shidi’s” because of the narrow range of instruments available, he says, “Limitations can be fun because sometimes I am hampered by my own creativity. There are just too many options you have with modern technology. ” The unique challenge Adda faces when creating video game music is that he has to constantly think of how a player, and not just a listener, would respond to the music. For example, the soundtrack he composed to a castle level constantly changes. Depending on what the player needs to do in order to clear the stage, it sounds eerie, baroque or heroic at certain points of the level.

Furthermore, Adda’s songs are highly technical as there are actually five to eight different voices that need to be composed. The process for creating his last song still lasted six hours. So why does he do it? “Most of us associate video games with an idyllic part of our life,” Adda explains. “Video game music is specifically made to be memorable, not catchy. There are sounds you can’t really hear in real life. The nostalgia it brings can help if you’re having a bad day.” Adda’s talent makes him one of the few people who are able to seek comfort from the pixelated past.

Epic Meal Time: Michael vs. Pho Garden Challenge

BY MICHAEL PARK

I

stepped through the doors and had a single task set in my mind. To me failure was not an option, but my decision marked the longest and hardest hour of my life. I was about to take on the Pho Garden Challenge, rumored to be so daunting that even the hungriest couldn’t finish it.

I had starved myself the whole day in preparation for the challenge and by the time I had walked into Pho Garden, my stomach was growling with hunger, adrenaline was pumping through my blood and my confidence was peaking.

As I finished filling out my consent form for one of the worst decisions of my life, the head waitress asked me if I was sure. Confident, I turned in the document which stated my agreement to the terms of the Pho Garden Challenge, which separates true food masters from mere amateurs.

The rules of the Pho Garden Challenge are simple: eat all of the food to win. I soon learned, however, that I had oversimplified. The Pho Garden Challenge consists of two pounds of meat and two pounds of noodles (an equivalent to three extra-large bowls of pho) and must be finished within a time span of an hour with no help from other people. If a contestant is able to complete the challenge, the $22 meal is on the house, his or her picture is taken and put up in the front window of the restaurant and the colossal bowl gets taken home as a trophy.

Before entering the restaurant, I was advised by senior Will Cheng to “eat as fast as you can in the beginning because it takes a while before your stomach knows that you are eating.” However, these words backfired on me.

During the first 20 minutes I had shoveled wads of noodles down my throat, but instead of tricking my stomach as Cheng had said, I began to feel full. The problem was, I had barely made a dent in my bowl. I decided to change up my strategy by instead chomping away at the numerous types of meats that were floating in the ocean of my pho.

With 25 minutes left on the clock, nearly all pieces of meat were slowly crawling down my esophagus, nearly choking me as my stomach expanded further than it had ever before. I had to stop and unbutton my jeans because the pressure between my pants and my noodle baby was just too much for me to handle.

The level of pho in my bowl had sunken about three inches, but unfortunately a mountain of noodles still waited to be devoured.

I took a five-minute break to try and digest some of the food, but only made me feel worse. I decided to go to the restroom to try and freshen up. The next thing I knew most of the food I had just stuffed down my stomach had ended up in the toilet. Though this meant that technically I did not “eat” everything, I was still in the challenge and had a chance to finish.

By the time I got back I had only five minutes left to eat all of my noodles, which had absorbed all of the soup, making them thick and slimy. For the next five minutes I barely had time to breathe as I shoved chopstick after chopstick of noodles into my mouth.

By the end of the hour I had barely completed the challenge, but still managed to emerge victorious along side my friend, senior Jefferson Yau. This resulted in another trip to the restroom, but in the end we got our bowls and our pictures put up on the front window.

During my entire career as an eater, the Pho Gar-

den Challenge at Pho Garden has been by far the most difficult thing I have ever done. Even my friend who is physically bigger than me and possesses a larger appetite, had an unforgettable experience. Yau says, “I could not eat for the [entire] next day and the just by hearing the word pho would trigger the painful memories of the challenge.”

One word of advice: if you like pho don’t proceed to accept the challenge. You will never want to eat it again.

AUSTIN YU—EPIC

AUSTIN YU—EPIC

AUSTIN YU—EPIC

INFOGRAPHIC BY JOY SHEN & SARAH TARTER

AUSTIN YU—EPIC

OVERCOMING THE CHALLENGE| 1. The starting bowl of pho provided at the start of the challenge. Senior Michael Park aims to finish eating the whole bowl in an hour. 2. Park, almost to the point of tears, tries earnestly to consume his four pounds of beef and noodles. 3. Past the halfway point, Park uses utensils in both hands to continue eating. 4. Park finishes the Pho Garden Challenge and poses with his bowl.

Finding the perfect package Students seek and hire outside of school private counselors who aid in helping them maximize their chances of getting acceptance into their dream colleges

BY ALICE ZHANG

W

hen the arrow points to college applications, the road less traveled by seniors just a few years ago has now transformed into what many families consider the budding highway.

As the stress level increases as the Nov. 30 and early January deadlines approach, seniors are starting to turn to secondary sources: private college counselors, or hired consultants that provide personal assistance on components of the application.

GRAPHIC ILLUSTRATIO

N BY LAUREN TAI

A Tale of Two Counselors

Public school counselors are constrained by the sheer numbers of students they have to help out with the application process. Although most public school students manage to do well with their assistance, some turn to private counseling because they want more personalized attention.

Private college counselors encompass the motto “quality over quantity” and usually work with students one-on-one, opposed to a school college advisor who functions with groups of students.

Wan Chen, founder and college admissions counselor of IvyClimbing.com, stresses the importance of such focus.

“With a small staff-to-student ratio, students receive personalized attention in a caring and supportive environment, seven days a week,” says Chen.

In addition, Chen attests to having become “an advocate for all my students,” as many of these professional bonds last well into undergraduate and graduate school.

However, Career & College Advisor Rosemary Bulaich believes that a benefit a school college counselor has over a private consultant is direct and faceto-face contact with college reps who are ultimately the ones reading a region’s applications.

Chen agrees that her role is not mutually exclusive. “As a private counselor, I view my job as one that compliments a school counselor’s job, never to replace it. I support school counselor’s work by encouraging the students to follow school deadlines and procedures,” says Chen.

Typically speaking, the price tag on utilizing these experts is not an attractive one. Depending on the consultant’s fees and programs, out of 1191 students surveyed, 155 have counselors whose services range from $0 to $13,500 per comprehensive packages, with a median price of $3,500.

Often times, services include, but are not limited to: finalizing a list of colleges to apply to, editing essays and supplements, filling out financial aid forms and monitoring progress and deadlines.

These firms function with the primary goal of increasing each student’s chances of acceptance into their dream colleges by highlighting certain positive aspects of the candidate, and creating an application where the student can best, as Chen says, “convey what you think is most important about yourself and your work, and how admitting you would enhance the college.

Lucrative a business as it is, these firms ride on the anxiety and fears of all parties involved in this process.”

Particularly, Bulaich believes that it is the parents, whom these firms target and who ultimately make the executive decision to hire such a service.

“There is a real mystery to this whole process, and while this student, once they get into it, can navigate it pretty well by themselves, the parents are still unaware, uncertain and unconvinced that their children can” says Bulaich, “[with so many activities already,] the whole idea of fitting in time… is daunting to families.”

Searching for a Helping Hand

Senior David Liu attests to first-handedly experiencing the feelings of this frightening task, and together with his parents, decided that since “no one in [his] family has

any experience at all in the college application process,” that “any kind of guidance would be really helpful.”

Jennifer Guo, a senior who also has a college counselor, also made this decision with her parents who first introduced the option. However for her, the reasons were not so much as navigating the process as it was for Liu. “After hearing stories of friends who were seniors or were already in colleges and who got private counselors, I whole-heartedly agreed to getting one too. I was never good at writing and expressing myself, so that’s another reason why I was so quick to agree,” says Guo.

Gray Area

Through mostly positive feedback as represented in the poll, college counseling is still considered a luxury for most people.

There is no defined line that marks the area between a want and need to hire a counselor to get into a dream university, and oftentimes students are asked to examine themselves and the service before making a decision.

Especially considering the majority of top tier students that attend Lynbrook with already remarkable resumes, Bulaich questions the necessity and practicality of such a service for students in the Cupertino area. “Do you really need somebody to package you? You can present yourself. You create your own guarantee because you are the product,” she affirms.

With such a large sum of money at risk here, many different viewpoints exist on whether or not this kind of help plays the field fairly. Since college applications were created to be completed solely by students, the option of hiring a college counselor gives the affluent crowd an edge in the process, leaving many wondering if students are just paying their way into college or skewing the application pool.

Even after the whole process and acceptance letters start coming in, many “what if” questions pop up, the most common of which include “What if I hadn’t gotten a college counselor? Would I have still gotten into the schools that I did through my own abilities?”

Despite these post-application fears though, Guo believes that it’s a chance not worth taking. “Just because I have a private counselor, doesn’t mean I’m guaranteed a spot in Stanford or any college at all. Private counselors are only there to help you look as good as possible,” says Guo. Ultimately, it is hard to pinpoint or predict a certain result down either path.

It is also beneficial to consider the sensitivity and expectations of the admissions officer. It is without a doubt that they read through hundreds of applications and know when an application does stand out, for either good or bad reasons.

Bulaich believes that “the admissions people at these schools are educated readers: they definitely can tell if it’s a sincere application or when a student has been packaged, when the essay is not his own, when his own voice does not shine through and when they’ve had the work done for them.”

On the other hand, it is important to note that because of Lynbrook’s adjacent neighborhood communities and location in the heart of Silicon Valley, there is a good chance that admissions officers realize our unique situation academically and financially.

Liu’s counselor told him that “colleges are actually pretty smart about these things: they know that students like us from “wealthy” families probably have access to private guidance counseling, and even expect some of us to take advantage of it, so it’s not like the colleges haven’t adapted to this service being available to students.”

Not a Miracle Formula for all

So should a student hire a college counselor or not? Ultimately, the decision is a personal one.

Bulaich believes that some students with learning disabilities, special talents to be showcased or valuable athletic skills are the ones that might find hiring a college counselor more beneficial; however, that is not to say that those who do not have these skills do not have just as much of a reason.

Senior Kunaal Goel does not have a college counselor, but feels no regret in his decision. “Just be you and there’s something good in everyone to highlight in their essay which no counselor can make into a ‘perfect’ application,” says Goel.

Says Chen, “Is college counseling the next best thing? No, absolutely not; not all students benefit frompaid counseling services, especially those who lack motivation. For me, I always enjoyed working with students who wanted the work. Abraham Lincoln once said: ‘Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any one thing.’ This is especially true when it comes to college admissions. By the end of day, it is the student who will have to have completed all required elements on his applications, while the counselor’s job is to be there with him or her every step of the way.”

* Fraction of students per grade, out of 1191 total, who have private counselors

Two generations on September 11th

BY YUNQING CHEN

3

,000 dead. 19 hijackers. Flights 11, 175, 77 and 93. Ten years, two wars and some immeasurable hardships later, the tragedy is still a major event to thousands on the East Coast.

For many on campus, it is a different story. With the decade anniversary of 9/11 comes an inevitable circumstance: a generation that does not remember it, living right alongside those who do.

For most of the younger generation, 9/11 is the “Pearl Harbor of the 21st century,” as former President George W. Bush wrote on this year’s anniversary. Instead of the scene that thousands witnessed on the streets of Manhattan and unfolded on the television screens of millions more, those that can barely remember a time before 9/11 can easily be confined largely to history books and the idiosyncrasies of conspiracy theorists.

After all, how does one react to a tragedy one can only remember through YouTube videos and commemorative issues from TIME? The memory is faint solely because of age for some students on campus. Freshman Rahul Iyer was only five when it happened. “I was too young,” he says. “I wouldn’t have understood.”

Even senior Rachael Rodriguez, who was older

than Iyer when the towers fell, cannot recall muchfrom the tragic event. “I just remember that a lot of people were sad and were scared,” she says.

But those who do not remember are right alongside those who feel a stronger impact. For senior Jared Kim, it felt like a “nightmare that wasn’t real. I watched [the coverage of 9/11] alongside [my brother] in complete disbelief. I always thought of destruction like that as impossible. I still do actually. It felt like I was watching an action movie and my brother was playing a cruel joke. I guess I never really got over that initial shock.”

Students like Kim are rare; the different perspective caused by age is more apparent once teachers are taken into account. History teacher Esther Lee remembers the day clearly: “During my sophomore year at Berkeley, my friend’s boyfriend called me and my friend at 7 in the morning and told us to turn on the T.V. We woke to see the second tower falling. It’s not something you forget.”

Her friend’s boyfriend was supposed to be at the towers that day. “He still has a hard time talking about it,” she says.

Yet another difference between those who have enough memory of a pre-9/11 world and those who do not is that when interviewed, students did not mention their reflections on the personal

changes brought about by the incident. “Students have never known other than to take off their shoes at airport security, have grown up seeing some racial stereotypes from the anti-Muslim movement post-9/11, not knowing that that wasn’t always the norm,” says history teacher Kyle Howden.

Junior Amanda Lu is such an example. “I’ve never flown before 9/11, but I think that the security measures that came about after 9/11, though inconvenient, are better than before. Better safe than sorry.”

9/11 was the Pearl Harbor of the 21st century, a tragedy that played a part in defining the generation at the time. And with every national tragedy, there will always be those who were directly affected and those who were not.

Eventually, students will be able to look back in the past on a day and vividly recount their actions before and after experiencing something as catastrophic as 9/11.

This pragmatic view is one that represents the new generation—one that, instead of learning to move on, is learning to adapt. But no matter how differently students and teachers remember that sunny morning in September, it will remain as an important part of this country’s history. as it altered the future of this nation.

Graphic Illustration by Alice zhang & Jessica cao

Following the beats: campus thoughts on rap

BY JOEY LI & AUSTIN YU

B

iggie was right—no one ever thought that hip-hop would take it this far. But with this increasingly popular genre of music now making its way into the playlists of a number of Lynbrook students, one cannot help but wonder what aspect of the music appeals to them. As sophomore Timothy Lin says, “There’s a really big culture gap between, say, Brooklyn and the Silicon Valley. While we’re over here worrying about math tests, they’re worrying about having enough money to have food on the table.”

For some, rap can be defined simply as the spoken element of hip-hop culture. “It’s a shame when people say they ‘don’t like rap’,” says senior Kombeze Paul Ataie. “There is so much hip-hop has to offer, both then and now, that anyone who looks will find something they can enjoy.”

From the Sugarhill Gang, whose music placed an emphasis on good times, to the rise of “gangsta rap” portraying urban crime and the violent lifestyles of inner-city youths in the 1980s started by the group NWA, rap has changed to reflected the attitudes and lives of many throughout the years. Junior Aneesh Sreedhar, an avid listener of 90s-era rap, says, “[In old-school rap,] they talk about more than just smoking weed, getting drunk and partying. There’s more about just everyday life.” Freshman Sarah Kim, however, prefers more new-school hip-hop, saying, “I find it easier to relate to because it’s part of our generation. I think it’s harder to connect to old-school hip hop because things have drastically changed between then and now.”

Junior Jack Takahashi is among those with a dislike for rap. “I would compare legitimate forms of music like classical or jazz with rap as I would compare a great work of literature to a bad R-rated movie,” Takahashi says, who usually listens to classical music. He sees rap as more primordial than artistic, saying, “in classical music you have chords and melodies, while rap just consists of simple beats and vocals that resemble talking more than singing.”

Chemistry teacher Roy Rocklin’s perspective on rap is not as strong as that of Takahashi, though he too does not entirely support the genre. “It is basically poetry set to music,” he says. “The rhyming is usually good, but the music is generally simplistic.” Although he says that “students can listen to whatever they want except when I’m teaching,” he sees the genre as “musically shallow” and that “the lyrics are often degrading.” Despite this, Rocklin believes that

it does not have that much of an effect on society or listeners. “When most people listen to to rap music, they’re often listening to the beat more than the music and lyrics,” he says.

Literature teacher Josh Miller also agrees on this point, saying, “I think that rap music is like anything else: movies, TV shows, video games, etc. If someone is mature enough for the content they have chosen to listen to, then they won’t be altered by it in a negative way.”

Differing from the opinions of Takahashi, Rocklin, and Miller, Sreedhar has a different opinion about the genre. “[Rap] lyrics tell something you won’t pick up the first time,” he says. “Hardly any people do because it takes a while to understand what the song really means. Even if a song seems to be about one thing, such as growing up poor, there is always a deeper meaning. It’s about that struggle we have as well.” In addition to the lyrical content, Sreedhar also believes that the beats, or backing tracks, to rap songs are of vital importance. “Without the beats, [rap] would be all poetry,” says Sreedhar. “[The beats] are always simple, but perfect to keep the song going and the heads nodding!”

Many students often find sub-genres that they enjoy for a variety of reasons, some of which are personal. “There were times where [hip-hop] really got me out of certain conditions that were unhealthy and parts of my life where I felt at my lowest, and when I listened to tracks that at the time I never thought would have existed, it amazed me and really was a type of therapy for me,” says Ataie. “It can give you something to relate to and act as an outlet to your emotions when you’re in a state of depression or anger or things like that.” Miller has a similar view on this use of the music, saying, “ I think many students use it as an outlet for the stresses or day-to-day life, and as long as they can tell the difference between some of the adult themes in the lyrics and reality, it isn’t a problem.”

Despite the oft-stereotyped “gangsta” or “ghetto” culture surrounding it, rap, like any other form of music that can be appreciated no matter the reason. “It’s a merge of different parts of music, different aspects of life,” says Ataie. “It’s a fusion of anything and everything to produce beautiful music.”

JOEY LI—EPIC

VIKINGS ON THREE| The boys’ water polo team practices their pre-game ritual of screaming into the pool gutter, a tradition over a decade old that has enabled them to keep a 2-0 league record so far this season.

Strategic play keeps boys’ water polo team afloat

BY JACOB ANTONY

A

fter the previous year’s excellent season, the boys’ water polo team is once again priming itself for a new year and new challenges. The Vikings are itching to grab the league championships again and match their 9-3 record from last year, cementing their standing as one of Lynbrook’s strongest athletic teams.

They will need to work a little harder this year, though. “We lost a lot of our big seniors from last year, so to compensate for our loss in size we’re trying to focus more on our speed and our outside shooting,” says senior Kip Lund.

The shooting drills are accompanied by daily 800-yard swims as well as half an hour in the weight room. These exercises are designed to improve both speed and strength in the pool. The speed aspect of the team’s gameplay will be essen-

tial to its defense, as counterattacks are critical to out-swimming opponents.

However, Lynbrook’s water polo practice is not just brutal drills and conditioning. They have “intelligent” practices. “If we’re playing a specific team that we know then we model what we do in practice around [their style of play]. Last Monday we played on a course half the size of what we normally play on because we were going to Wilcox and that’s a small pool,” says sophomore Rishabh Hegde. “This year our team’s smaller and less physically imposing so we must play around that.”

For the team, this means a smarter, better defense to account for novice goalies. The team will also be working on offensive mismatches and cohesion between members. “What it comes down to is that unfortunately we’re going to have a lot more close games this season,” Hegde says.

Nevertheless, the strategy seems to be work-

ing. Although Wilcox High School handed some tough losses to the team last season, the Vikings made a comeback with a close 12-10 overtime win against the Chargers on Sept. 13. “It was nice to take a win at their pool, because they’re always [disadvantaged] at ours,” acknowledges Lund.

“We gave them a good fight,” says junior Tom Ward. “Hopefully we can keep up the good work.”

These words will be especially true when they play their next rival, Saratoga High School, on Wednesday, Sept. 28 at 3:30 P.M. “Saratoga’s a problem because they might be a little faster than us,” admits Lund, “but they only have one really good player. I think our team has much more depth…I cannot say we have it in the bag right now because we have some problems executing.”

A victory at Saratoga would ensure a strong start to the polo season this year. Despite small internal setbacks, such as the loss of some strong of-

fensive players, the team is looking to again make a bold showing this season.

The water polo team is not as spaced out on key plays as it would like to be, especially on offense as they sometimes end up crowding the middle when driving to the cage. As a result, the team becomes forced to pass to players that are not open. But, “they’re just mental errors that hopefully will not stay with us,” says Lund.

With new members and new game plans, the Vikes have a lot to look forward to. “I think if we can get the league championships again, we will be happy,” says coach Jerome Chung. “What we did last year was amazing, and with a little work I think we can do it again.”

Coach Chung, Lund, Hegde and Ward are all confident that the league championship is a viable objective for the team. It may be a rougher road this year, but the team will charge on unfazed.

Cross country packed with returners Tennis starts season on a good note

BY NIKITA DHESIKAN

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our seniors, nine juniors, one sophomore, two freshmen. With only four new varsity runners, the returners plan to lead the team this season. “The team is pretty nice because we are all friends and we are all really close since we have been running together for multiple years now,” says junior Tammy Taller. Since the returners have been running together for a couple years now, the team is both well bonded and motivated by last year’s disappointing finish at CCS. The new varsity runners have also showed promise as strong additions to the team. Although they have never run in a high school cross-country meet before, the two varsity freshmen came out strong at the first meet of the season: the Lynbrook Center Meet.

Grace Ling placed first in the Freshmen Girls Division, and finished more than a minute ahead of the next fastest runner. Tom Sanders placed second in the Freshmen Boys Division. Other new varsity runners include sophomore Rohit Sarathy and senior Vivian Chan, who both placed eighth in their divisions.

After an impressive performance in the first meet of the season, the newbies have mixed feel-

ings as they run more races. Prior to the Stanford Invitational this past weekend, sophomore Rohit Sarathy said, “I am a little bit nervous about the meet, but I am also excited to see how much I have improved over the summer and how well the whole team does.”

Last season, the team made it to the Central Coast Section (CCS) with high expectations; however, their performance fell short. Only one runner qualified for the State level. “We felt that we were going to do well but everyone burned out and ran a bad race,” says junior Silvia Signore. “I think it was partly due to overtraining, but this year we are being more conscious of the number of miles we run.” The returning varsity runners are looking forward to leading the team to CCS. “We have to redeem ourselves from last year,” says Silvia Signore.

In spite of a difficult ending at the last season and very few seniors, the team is in high spirits and excited for a great season. “I think we have a strong team this year and we should do pretty well,” says senior Vivian Chan. With a strong start at the Lynbrook Center Meet and at the Earlybird Invitational, the team looks forward to the Central Park Invite this afternoon.

BY JANE JUN

O

n Sept. 9, the girls’ varsity team left school in high spirits during first period to compete in their 1st unofficial tournament of the year, the Palo Alto Invitational. They returned in equally high spirits, having won first place.

This was the first year the girls’ tennis team entered the tournament, because in previous years the girls felt that it was beyond their skill level. Junior Jessica Qian says, “I was exceptionally proud of our achievement and the hard work of my fellow team members. They utilized a new competition format which guaranteed that every person had to play 3 sets, rather than the normal 2, or 3 if you split sets, so everyone was really tired. But we still strived to do our best and it paid off.”

The victory made the team optimistic for the rest of the season, and they won 6-1 in their first official game against Los Altos on Tuesday, Sept.

13. They won their second game 7-0 against Gunn High School on Sept. 15 and went 6 -1 against Pinewood High School, but lost their perfect streak on Sept. 22 0-7 to Monta Vista.

The team is unusually young this year. Out of the 16 varsity players, four are freshmen; just two years ago, there was only one freshman varsity player. According to co-coach Andrew Naito, having a generally younger team is a “good thing” because the presence of younger players “keeps the upperclassmen from accepting mediocrity

AUSTIN YU—EPIC

GIRLS’ TENNIS| Girls tennis team with their trophy.

The team won the Palo Alto Invitational on Sept. 10 and pushes them from behind to try harder.”

Though the main strength of the team lies in its singles, the freshmen are all doubles players and are raising the bar of the doubles performance. In order to beat the team’s primary rivals, Monta Vista and Saratoga, Naito says that “all the four singles and three doubles must be strong.” He and Coach Albert Poon are training the team to do more fitness training and conditioning in the weight room to improve the girls’ performance on the court and help them to be more “explosive.”

Qian says, “We have reached the peak of our game compared to the last couple of years and will continue aspiring to do our best. I hope to see our players achieve both personal and team accomplishments.”

The team’s next home game is this Thursday against Mountain View.

Girls’ volleyball works to improve record

BY MICHAEL PARK

D

espite the intense practices and countless hours spent conditioning and training, the varsity girls’ volleyball team missed an opportunity to clench their first league game against the Cupertino Pioneers on Tuesday, Sept. 20th. With each set less than five points apart, the game volleyed back and forth throughout the game ultimately resulting in an unfortunate 3-1 loss.

Throughout the game, individuals such as senior Gavriela Fine exhibited exceptional talent; her individual performance especially brought the team back in dire situations. Fine dominated the court with a whopping 20 kills and a total of eight blocks. Fine says, “Our team definitely has the skill to win;we just need to get our chemistry together so we can execute what we already can do.”

However, the team was not discouraged, as they bounced back with a victory against the Wilcox Chargers on the following Thursday as they shut out their opponents 3-0 placing them fourth in their league. Using the loss as motivation, the girls worked on their teamwork during the following practice. Sophomore Caitlin Lee says, “Our coach was really happy about our teamwork. We can’t wait to play Cupertino again.”

With longer practices and different approaches towards their goals, the girls continue to improve. Senior Jennifer Youm says, “We are working harder than ever now to get better: our final goal is to get to CCS and show them what we’ve got.

The lady Vikings, despite a rocky start, will continue to “set” themselves up for success and strive to achieve their goals for the season.

Taking a chance and quitting requires careful consideration

JACOB ANTONY—EPIC

I

TIP| Junior Jia Gao reaches up to tip the ball over the net in the Sept. 22 game against Wilcox. Lynbrook won in three games, bringing the team’s record to 1-1.

Field Hockey team goes back to basics for new season

T

vantage of these abilities and placing third in the semi finals at the Leigh Tournament the weekend of Sept. 16.

The main goal of the team this year is to make it to the Central Coast Section (CCS), an accomplishment that Lynbrook has not achieved in years. Throughout practices Chon states that their coaches always remind them of CCS and how much they want to get there.

The combination of great coaching and hardworking players will help them get there.

“It’s highly achievable in my opinion,” says Chon of making CCS. Regardless of the players’ age, it is hard work that pushes this team. “We all work really hard from start to finish,” says Ficovich.

The next game is today at 3:30 at Del Mar.

JOEY LI—EPIC

here are a lot of fresh faces on Stober field this year. With three underclassmen on the varsity field hockey team this season, the members of the team plan on improving their game by stepping back and re-learning the basics.

This is a big change from past years, according to Coach Jenny Dumas.

“It’s definitely a building year for the program,” says Dumas. This year, the girls plan to take advantage of their youthfulness and hone their basic skills of the game such as dribbling and pulls.

But the young team does not faze Dumas, who says, “As long as we focus on our basic skills...it shouldn’t have much of an effect on us.”

Varsity freshman Guneet Kaur, who has played

on a club team for three years, says “If you have your basics down, you’ll succeed in everything.”

“They’re catching on really quickly,” senior Katie Chon says of the new players who are stil learning the game.

Other skills that they are focusing on include transferring the ball, conditioning, bonding as a team and communication.

“We’re getting a lot better at communication,” Chon states of the team’s improvement. “We have really good chemistry on the field which I think is kind of hard to achieve, especially since a lot of us haven’t played together before.”

Although the first two games against highly ranked St. Francis and Presentation ended in losses, the players are feeling confident with their growing skills. The team ended up taking full ad-

AUSTIN YU—EPIC

DOWN, SET, HUT| Quarterback senior Kalvin Zee prepares to throw a pass during the game against James Lick on Sept. 16. The team’s record is 2-0.

The next home game is Friday, Oct. 7 against Monta Vista.

JOEY LI—EPIC

AUSTIN YU—EPIC

Commenting on the game against James Lick, Kalvin Zee (12) explains, “We did some good things and some bad things, but we still need to improve if we want to win more games.”

On the challenges facing girls’ water polo this year, Natalie Popescu (11) says, “That was a drawback this season because we’re still a really young team and we just need to learn to step up as individuals.”

IT’S ALL YOU| Junior Natalie Popescu takes a shot in the Sept.

22 game at Harker. The girls’ record is currently 2-1. Their next home game is tomorrow against Saratoga.

Evelyn Chu (12) bases her prediction of girls’ golf this season on her hope that the team makes CCS. “We’ll do pretty well in leagues, but I’m not sure about CCS because we’ve never made it to Norcal before, and that’s one of our goals this year.”

DANIELLE LERNER—EPIC

BY KELSEY HURWITZ

quit. Two simple words, yet they mean so much. And even though it has been almost a month since I quit the team which I thought of as my surrogate family for three years, I’m not yet sure if those words have a positive or negative connotation in my mind.

The decision to quit something you’ve done for a long time is never an easy one, a fact that I can testify to. Somehow though, it felt right for me. I knew from the beginning of this year’s water polo season that it was going to be tough, but in my typical stubborn fashion, I decided I was going to try to stick it out for one last year.

However, after a couple of missed practices (which, to clarify, I missed for completely legitimate reasons) which led to arguments with my coach, I decided that I was done. I’m pretty sure another inherent character flaw I possess is impulsiveness, which has put me in multiple situations where I am unhappy with my actions in the times after; and after a long time contemplating my decision to quit water polo, I have to say that I regret it.

For three years, in the “hell week” before school started, my team and I would flock to the pool deck to get back in shape after three months without training, which in turn meant inevitable tanning to at least twice as dark as usual.

As terrifying as it sounds, hell week was also always a time of bonding with old teammates and initiating the new ones. The season would progress, slowly at first and then faster as the games started and the thrill of victory mixed bittersweet with the sourness of defeat.

Looking back, those were the times. But all good things must come to an end, and so did my polo career at LHS. I think my main regret about quitting is forgetting all the amazing memories I had had with the team in the heat of the moment, and acting on an angry impulse.

It’s been a month since I quit, and even though I miss my team every time I walk by the pool, there have been benefits to my decision. I have a lot more time to explore interests I never thought I would be able to, like volunteering with underprivileged kids and devoting time to learning about my family and my culture. Every cloud has a silver lining, and it seems that mine does too.

While this may not be the case for every senior athlete starting their final season, or even underclassmen, I think a lot of you out there may have had the same struggle. And I’m here to tell you all: think long and hard before you quit your sport.

Sometimes quitting is unavoidable, but for those of you who have a choice, take into consideration everything you feel now, but also everything you will feel after quitting.

Making decisions in the heat of the moment rarely works out, and even when it does, the consequences range far and wide. Think about the years of effort, hours of practice, good moments stemming from the bad and everything in between, and make an informed, calm decision. You don’t want any regrets. Because sometimes, the best solution is to deal with it and stick it out.

AUSTIN YU—EPIC

ABOVE PAR| Senior Evelyn Chu drives the ball during practice on Sept.

20. Girls’ golf has a league record of 5-0. Their next home game is today against Evergreen.

IMPACT: Shin Splints

JOEY LI—EPIC

BY IRENE HSU

I

t started out with a dull ache just below the knee, just near the shin and just after crosscountry practice. The next day, however, the ache exploded into a sharper pain shooting up from the heel with every step up to the knee. The pain only subsided when junior Ethan Chiou, upon arriving home after practice, placed an ice pack on his propped up leg.

Shin splints, also known as Medial Tibial Stress Syndrome, are often caused by overuse of the gastrocnemius, soleus and plantar muscles, which are surrounding muscles of the shin. These muscles can become tight or inflexible due to an athlete having an abnormally rigid arch or engaging in strenuous physical activity; many runners and dancers especially experience severe shin splints due to the impact of “the muscles absorbing the landing on hard floors,” as sophomore Sasha Wootton explained.

In Wootton’s case, the impact to her shins was so damaging that it resulted in 12 stress fractures in her shin bone. A participant in gymnastics for 16 hours a week and dance for three hours a week, she experienced severe impact from the floors of her gymnastics and dance studios.

Wootton says, “Last year in December, I felt so much pain in my shins that I broke down during gymnastics on the floor crying, and I couldn’t even stand up. Five of the stress fractures were deep enough to be considered as actual fractures, and it was a long healing process.”

She spent the entirety of the next year in a leg

boot and later, a leg cast, which she still must wear this school year.

Cross-country coach Jake White says that he usually advises cross-country runners to “run on soft surfaces, and run close to home [in case] it starts to hurt.” He also advocates exercising in intervals after taking a break from the activity by “adding stress, stopping, and adding more stress the next day,” in the event that an athlete is inflicted with shin splints. This advice also applies to athletes of other sports.

Lynbrook athletes often get shin splints from running on the track, which is actually concrete with a thin layer of compressed sand on the surface. The concrete seriously impacts athletes’ shins, and causes stress on the shins and surrounding muscles.

Senior Amanda Tam who runs for both the cross-country team and the track team, says, “Though I haven’t felt the pain of shin splints during cross-country so far, during track season when we’re doing sprint workouts, I definitely feel it.

People started running on the grass instead of the dirt track, which helped.”

However, now with the new rubber track to be installed in the coming years, Tam says that running on “the rubber track is going to make a huge difference. It increases the time [in my experience] and definitely eases the pain.”

The rubber track will be installed in the coming years around the football field, which will also be renovated as part of a campus beautification project. For now, however, the dirt track is closed off until further notice.

GRAPHIC ILLUSTRATION BY CLAY SONG & NIKITA DHESIKAN

The harsh injury keeping athletes on the sidelines

BRO TANKS BY CLAY SONG (12)

GIRLS IN THE LIBRARY BY BRIAN ZHAO (12)

AUSTIN YU—EPIC

Planking Phenomenon Infects Viking Staff

BY AUSTIN YU

P

lanking, as urbandictionary.com aptly defines it, is “the art of planking is to lay horizontally across any object or the ground with their arms by their sides, aiming to occur in daring situations or a brotherly display of core-strength.”

While this up-and-coming fad has been popular among young and online hipsters, Lynbrook teachers have also begun to partake in this trend. Clockwise from top, teachers Michael Esquivel, Diana Ball, Jeff Bale, Brittany Stevens, Jeremy Kitchen and Kimmie Marks plank in the Viking Field house for a little fun exercise.

Next, to balance their inner chi, Kitchen, Marks and Bale precariously plank atop a ladder in the auditorium.

Then, the hungry teachers head over to the cafeteria where they form a line while awaiting their hard-earned lunches.

Satiated, the teachers go to the library to prepare their curriculum for the students.

AUSTIN YU—EPIC

AUSTIN YU—EPIC

AUSTIN YU—EPIC