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WE NEED MORE NURSES
“The nurse is unable to stay in her office at all times and cannot care for all the students in need of medical attention.”
SF NEIGHBORHOODS “Although people typically think of San Francisco as a politically liberal city, racially it’s still significantly segregated.”
LOWELL’S FIRST TRACK STATE CHAMP “Despite these challenges, Fung considers his condition to be an encouragement for him to work harder.”
TAEKWONDO COLUMN “If I can become a black belt, than there is no reason for anyone else to confine themselves to others’ expectations.”
MS. NICKELS MEMORIAL “Nickels was seen by many students, including junior Nicole Stetsyuk, as a parental figure who they could go to for advice.”
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CONTENT IN THIS ISSUE
Lowell The
Editors-in-Chief
olivia sohn susan wong
News Editors
michelle kim emily sobelman olivia sohn
Sports Editors
susan wong jocelyn xie
Opinion Editors
allison dummel sofia woo
Column Editor Multimedia & Photo Editor Art Manager Illustrators
olivia moss christina johnson valentin ngyuen jasmine liang amy marcopulos warren quan
Reporters
crystal chan joelle chien elyse foreman kate green allison jou anna kaplan lee wilcox
Photographers
zephyr anderson lauren caldwell xinglin li anita liu xaria lubensky christina kan andrea tran nathan yee
Business Managers
jacquline ruan anson tan
Web Managers
brandon bui connie liu
Social Media Managers
ashley franco chloe wong kristen yeung
Adviser
Awards
eric gustafson
2018 PACEMAKER FINALIST 2014 nspa online pacemaker 2012 nspa print pacemaker 2011 nspa all-american
2011 nspa online pacemaker 2009 nspa first class honors 2007 nspa all-american
2007 nspa web pacemaker 2007 cspa gold crown
EDITORIAL Why Lowell should hire another nurse Lowell’s nurse Vanessa Compagno has about 30 to 40 students visit her office every week. She is the first medical responder to medical injuries for approximately 2700 students and 200 faculty members. However, she is often occupied with many other tasks, including staff meetings and special support for students with chronic illnesses. These staggering numbers call for additional medical support from the school district. Compagno is essentially a Wellness Center staff, but she has her own separate space and provides different services than the Wellness Center. While the Wellness Center connects students with reproductive care and campus and community resources, Compagno provides medical support for students with chronic illnesses and physical injuries. “However, it’s important to note that our approach to community wellness is holistic,” Wellness Center staff and Community Health Outreach Worker Sarah Cargill explained through email. “We operate as one team to address student health and wellness from multiple angles.” In addition to providing first aid for injured students, Compagno attends meetings to support students who require accommodations and those with special health needs. Students who have health impairments or chronic illnesses pay regular visits to the nurse. At the beginning of the school year, the nurse meets with students who require special attention to do a health assessment that creates an Individualized Education Plan, which includes important information to ensure their safety at school. If a student has diabetes or seizures and requires medication or tube feedings, Compagno refers to their IEP to decide the best treatment for them. On top of these visitations, Compagno is often called to the field by injured P.E. students. Most injuries include common wounds like cuts or lacerations. Once in a while, the P.E. Department staff have students who experience overexertion or have a fractured wrist or broken arm and “need more care than a [P.E.] teacher can provide,” P.E. teacher Terence Doherty said. As her attention is in high demand from different areas of school, the nurse is unable to tend to all of the physical injuries from the P.E. department. “It’s great to have the nurse here
on campus, but that doesn’t always happen,” Doherty said. Most of the P.E. teachers are trained to perform first aid for injured students, but they only have a basic first aid kit for the entire department and don’t have access to a lot of materials that the nurse has access to. Because the nurse is not always available, many students turn to the Wellness Center to address their immediate needs. Although the Wellness Center is a reliable resource when the nurse is absent, the Wellness Center is closed every Wednesday and every day during 5th block, which leaves students unattended. In addition, there are limitations on treatments that Wellness staff can offer because they are not medical professionals, but therapists and social workers. “If a student is having a panic attack and things like that, [Wellness staff] can obviously provide emotional support and basic first-aid as well, but they’re not necessarily an alternative,” Compagno said. All SFUSD high schools currently have only one nurse, and some middle and elementary schools don’t even have a nurse, according to Compagno. “Other [schools] that do have nurses, that one nurse is often split between a few schools, which makes it really hard,” Compagno said. “[That’s] really challenging because you’re only at one school site like once or twice a week. How much can you really do as a nurse if you’re split?” Compagno would love another nurse on site to help her out, but she recognizes that the lack of district funding poses a roadblock. “Not all schools can have nurses because of funding,” Compagno said. “There’s a lot of technical, legal stuff that I don’t really know or understand.” The Lowell contacted Mary Jue, SFUSD School Nurse and Supervisor of the School Health Programs for an interview, but Jue was not available to comment. Despite the various challenges that currently prevent the Lowell administration from hiring an additional nurse, Compagno hopes that another nurse will be hired in the near future. “It’s a lot of different hats to wear,” Compagno said. “It’s hard to manage. I really wish we could have one nurse that went to all the meetings and then one nurse that could just be here taking care of students with health needs or injuries. That would be the dream.” v
The Lowell is published by the journalism classes of Lowell High School w All contents copyright Lowell High School journalism classes w All rights reserved w The Lowell strives to inform the public and to use its opinion sections as open forums for debate w All unsigned editorials are opinions of the staff w The Lowell welcomes comments on school-related issues from students, faculty and community members w Send letters to the editors to thelowellnews@ gmail.com w Names will be withheld upon request w We reserve the right to edit letters before publication w The Lowell is a student-run publication distributed to thousands of readers including students, parents, teachers and alumni w All advertisement profits fund our newsmagazine issues w To advertise online or in print, email thelowellads@yahoo.com w Contact us w Lowell High School Attn: The Lowell journalism classes w 1101 Eucalyptus Drive w San Francisco, CA 94132 w 415-759-2730 w thelowellnews@gmail.com
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The Lowell January 2019
CARTOON
Stonestown lunch runs
ILLUSTRATION BY AMY MARCOPULOS
FROM THE EDITOR Dear readers of The Lowell, Anyone who lives in San Francisco knows that each neighborhood is vastly different from the next. Walking through the city can feel surreal: the Castro and the Sunset can seem like two different worlds. But most San Franciscans know that culture isn’t the only thing distinguishing our neighborhoods. There are distinct ethnic lines dividing our city, resulting in ethnically concentrated neighborhoods. Reporter Olivia Moss found that there are many causes for this. One of these is chain migration, which is defined as immigrants migrating to an area concentrated with people from the same country. Other causes are covenants (neighborhood agreements that sometimes occur on racial terms) and zoning laws that discourage large families. These zoning laws disproportionately affect people of color and especially immigrants, who often have large families. Segregation in San Francisco has deep roots in racism, especially through the practice of redlining. Though no longer practiced, the
effects of this nefarious practice linger. Essentially, banks avoided giving loans to certain neighborhoods, typically those with a larger concentration of minorities. This made it much harder for those residents to buy housing and often meant that they couldn’t afford to move to ‘nicer’ neighborhoods. Although it’s easy to believe that segregation is a problem of the past, the truth is that many San Francisco neighborhoods are still segregated, and are becoming more so. While neighborhood segregation is acknowledged by many students at Lowell, some don’t see this as a problem. Moss’ story tries to bring light to this issue through several students’ experiences. While many celebrate the diversity found in San Francisco, let’s not forget the differences in opportunities offered around the city. Editors-in-Chief, Olivia Sohn and Susan Wong
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A City Divided
Understanding segregation in San Francisco
by Olivia Moss
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SUSAN WONG
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owell students come from all over the city–from the Mission with its colorful murals, to the Sunset with its foggy beaches, to Noe Valley with its quaint cafes. But while San Francisco’s distinct neighborhoods provide personality and culture, underneath lurks a more sinister issue: segregation. We typically think of segregation as a phenomenon of the past, but this isn’t the case. While our neighborhoods are no longer segregated by law, ethnic concentrations are still very much present, and have a very real impact on the way people within different communities live. Because students come from different places and situations, there can be a disparity in the opportunities they get and the resources they have access to. From the schools they attend, to their income status, to their neighborhood communities, there are a lot of factors that affect a student’s personal and educational experience. Although San Francisco is a politically liberal city, it’s still
significantly racially segregated. Neighborhood separation by race affects wealth distribution, educational opportunities, access to resources and a variety of other factors. The ethnic makeup of individual neighborhoods typically varies significantly from the makeup of San Francisco in general. If each neighborhood was reflective of the population of the city, it would be around 41 percent white, 35 percent Asian, 15 percent Hispanic and 5 percent African American, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. This is almost never the case. Wealth disparity in San Francisco varies drastically by race. The overall poverty rate in San Francisco is around 13 percent, but for African Americans it’s 32 percent, and for whites only 8 percent, according to World Population Review. The poverty rate for Asians is 13 percent and 15 percent for Hispanics. A recent UC Berkeley study examined possible causes for concentrations of poverty and segregation in the Bay Area.
“There’s a certain sector of the city that believes that economic change and population change is an inevitable part of urban life."
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COVER SPREAD ILLUSTRATION BY VALENTIN NGUYEN
According to Miriam Zuk, co-author of the study, they found a significant increase in the number of segregated neighborhoods with a large proportion of households living in poverty, as well as an overrepresentation of certain ethnic groups. The study found a correlation between these segregated neighborhoods and a rise in housing prices and rent, as well as a shift in where low-income people of color lived during the study, which lasted from 2000 to 2015. This phenomenon can have fairly devastating effects, according to Zuk. “I think in general we found historically that concentrating low-income households in specific neighborhoods without resourcing those neighborhoods is not a good thing,” she said. “It can be pretty damaging to children and their opportunity set.” These differences in income and ethnicity can play a large role in the school system, especially in elementary and middle schools, according to former AP Human Geography and current AP Economics teacher Rebecca Johnson. Schools from disparate neighborhoods have varying amounts of funding, parent involvement and pressure to perform well. “You’ve got this kind of clustering of schools that are supposed to be feeding into Lowell, but based on the education those kids are receiving, some of them don’t feel as prepared,” she said. Kathleen Coll, a politics professor at the University of San Francisco, believes that changing the district assignment policy and lifting the cap on racial groups has led to an increase in racial isolation among schools. “The way that residential segregation has played out historically and continues today creates challenges for having neighborhood schools that are not racially isolated and have equal quality and equal amount of resources,” she said. Coll sees that segregation has become more normalized in the city. “There’s a certain sector of the city that believes that economic change and population change is an inevitable part of urban life, and there’s others for whom it’s a priority to try to maintain racial and economic diversity and to avoid forced displacement,” she said.
San Francisco Ethnic Breakdown
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any students don’t think of ethnic concentration as a significant issue, even though they recognize that their neighborhoods may disproportionately reflect a certain ethnicity. Sophomore Tarsa Yuen lives in Visitacion Valley, a neighborhood he says is portrayed as “part of that area you want to avoid.” He regards it as fairly unsafe. “In general in the neighborhood you do have to be a lot more careful,” Yuen said, “because there’s a lot of sketchy people and violence in the streets and sometimes you’ll hear gunshots being fired.” He also stated that, by and large, Visitacion Valley is populated by poor people of color. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, less than 6 percent of Visitacion Valley’s population is white, with 54 percent being Asian, 23 percent Hispanic, and 11 percent African American. It’s also one of the poorest neighborhoods in the city, with a median income of $55,600, according to Statistical Atlas. Because they face a lot of the same issues, people who live in his neighborhood have formed more of a cohesive culture, according to Yuen. “They know that this area is labelled as bad, they know that the schools are labelled as terrible, as dangerous, as sketchy. And they know that the people are also labelled as drug dealers, or drug users, or outcasts, people that have gone to prison, all sorts of these people,” Yuen said. “But slowly people are starting to band together in a community.” Yuen sees this in a decreasing amount of violence and polarization between African Americans and Asians in his neighborhood. Yuen attended a middle school close to his home–Visitacion Valley Middle School. Minority enrollment at Visitacion Valley Middle School is 98 percent, according to Public School Review. It placed in the bottom 50 percent of test scores for all of California, with a math proficiency of 11 percent and language arts proficiency of 15 percent, lower than the respective averages of 37 percent and 48 percent for 2015-16. “It definitely does not feel super safe,” he said. “It can get kinda loud sometimes, or physical, so it kind of disrupts a lot.”
INFOGRAPHICS BY ANITA LIU DATA FROM U.S. CENSUS BUREAU
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Visitacion Valley
Noe Valley
DATA FROM U.S. CENSUS BUREAU
Hunters Point
INFOGRAPHICS BY ANITA LIU
Tarsa Yuen frequents the Visitation Valley branch library.
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Once, Yuen’s school was put on lockdown because of an active shooter in the area. “We were just playing basketball and I don’t remember what happened, someone got shot and we just went on lockdown all of a sudden; we did not know what was happening,” Yuen said. He later found out that someone had been shot at a nearby park. Many of Yuen’s peers struggled, but he doesn’t believe the school itself is at fault. “For a lot of those courses it mainly depends if you wanna put the effort towards succeeding academically,” he said, “and those people didn’t want to put that effort forward so they just didn’t do that great.” Yuen says the school was underfunded, but was lucky because it received donations from big companies such as Salesforce. Out of around 150 students in his graduating class, Yuen was one of 12 that went to Lowell. Yuen felt that while he was fairly well prepared for Lowell because of the effort he put in, many others in his class weren’t prepared for high school at all.
CHRISTINA JOHNSON Noe Valley's population is 72 percent white, whereas the whole of San Francisco is only 40 percent white.
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The average income in Hunters Point is $32,000, much lower than that of the average San Francisco resident. Yuen thinks that segregation is an issue in San Francisco, and one that is normalized, specifically with socioeconomic status. “It’s not segregation like it used to be with race but it’s more of a classist segregation,” he said.
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n contrast to Yuen’s neighborhood, Freshman Fiona Morgan lives in Noe Valley, a neighborhood she says is safe and nice to walk around in. “It’s really calm there, there’s lots of families that live there, so you just walk around and see families,” Morgan said. “It’s a really nice neighborhood.” Her neighborhood has a variety of educational opportunities, such as public libraries and tutoring. Noe Valley is 72 percent white, according to the United States Census Bureau. The second largest demographic group is Asian with 12 percent, then Hispanic with eight percent and African American with less than two percent. It also has a higher than average median income, with over 65 percent of households making over $100,000. Morgan sees her neighborhood as pretty representative of the general population. She doesn’t think that segregation is a current issue faced by San Francisco.
SUSAN WONG Darius Heckard sits atop a sculptural tribute to Jackie Robinson, the first African American to play in Major League Baseball.
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alfway across the city, junior Darius Heckard lives in West Point, a predominately African American neighborhood located within Hunters Point. Hunters Point is 53 percent African American, 16 percent Hispanic, 9 percent Asian and 8 percent white, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
“It's not the perfect neighborhood, but it’s my neighborhood. I love where I’m from.” Hunters Point is significantly less wealthy than the general San Francisco population, with a median income of $32,000, as compared to $88,000. Heckard likes where he lives. “It’s not the perfect neighborhood, but it’s my neighborhood,” he said. “I love where I’m from. I feel we’re all pretty rich,
SUSAN WONG
not like wealth-wise, but through other stuff. For us, we don’t really consider money wealth.” Most people in his neighborhood work, according to Heckard, and he himself helps pay his family’s bills. “I help my mom with rent, and I’m pretty sure my friends help their parents with rent,” Heckard said. West Point used to experience more violence, but in recent years it’s decreased, according to Heckard. “In my community we were just tired of all the violence that had been happening so we all came to some sort of an agreement to stop,” he said. Heckard thinks of his neighborhood community as a kind of family. “I know everyone on the block, and the next block,” he said. “We all pretty close. We’re more about family and community and having each others’ backs.” Heckard normally drives to Lowell, but before he had a car it was a much more of a trek. It takes three buses and an 120 minute commute to get to Lowell everyday. Apart from school, Heckard spends most of his time in West Point. “I don’t pay attention to most neighborhoods outside of my own,” he said. Heckard notices segregation in his own neighborhood. “Segregation is a problem,” he said. “I see it all the time.”
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The Mission ANITA LIU
Alexander Shketav stands on a bridge next to Dolores Park. The bridge marks a cultural divide between the neighborhood's inhabitants.
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INFOGRAPHICS BY ANITA LIU DATA FROM U.S. CENSUS BUREAU
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ophomore Alexander Shketav lives in the Mission, on Liberty Street near Dolores Park. Shketav characterizes his neighborhood as “full of random middle-class people [who] work simple jobs,” and relatively lacking in a homeless population compared to other parts of the city. He says that the residents of the neighborhood generally treat each other well, but also recalls the ostracization of certain individuals who defy the community’s requests. He thinks his neighborhood is usually safe, “other than the occasional crazy person roaming the streets.” The average household income in the Dolores Park area is $131,000, about 50 percent higher than the San Francisco average of $88,000, and it is 73 percent white, 9 percent Hispanic, 12 percent Asian and 2 percent African American. Shketav believes that San Francisco is somewhat segregated. “Although I do not pay attention much to see if there is segregation, I am sure that there is some,” Shketav said. “In the past, there may have been segregation, and that would have set the area to be segregated.” Senior Chloe Kerr-Stein also lives in the Mission–but in a very different neighborhood. Kerr-Stein’s part of the Mission is 43 percent white, 35 percent Hispanic, 14 percent Asian, and four percent African American. The median household income is $97,000, but varies greatly between different tracts of the neighborhood. “There’s two cultures,” she said. “On my side of the street, we’re on rent control. Literally across the street there’s an apartment building with million dollar apartments.” Kerr-Stein believes a big reason for this divide is gentrification. “It’s basically the wealthy side kicking out the not as wealthy side,” she said. Kerr-Stein has experienced this since she was a kid–stores changing, families leaving. “I’ll see store fronts, like this bookstore I’ve been to since I was a kid, and now it’s all boarded up and several months later it’s this really really fancy store,” she said. Kerr-Stein has lived in her part of the Mission since she was nine. Before that she lived on the outskirts of the neighborhood, near Noe Valley, which she said was much safer and family-oriented. “There’s Mission Street and then the more blocks up you go towards Church the nicer it gets,” she said. While she loves the culture of her neighborhood, there are certain issues that come with living in her part of the city. Homelessness is a big one; Kerr-Stein has seen the same people on the streets for years. “Things just aren’t getting better and that’s really sad,” she said. As Kerr-Stein grew up, her family moved further and further into the heart of the Mission. The first time they moved, their landlord paid them to leave in order to renovate the building and sell or rent it at a higher price, as it was legal for them to do so, according to Kerr-Stein. The same thing happened with her next home in Fair Oaks, but the most recent move was for a different reason. “My dad found a place that he liked more, and also he needed a storefront for his shop,” Kerr-Stein explained.
Kerr-Stein reads in Manny's Cafe, a hub of political activism.
“There’s two cultures. On my side of the street, we’re on rent control. Literally across the street there’s an apartment building with million dollar apartments.” Kerr-Stein went to Creative Arts Charter School, a K-8 school located on Turk Street that she described as “very white, very artsy and hippie, not hipster.” Creative Arts is an alternative school with a more arts based curriculum, which, according to Kerr-Stein, attracted students with quirky parents or who were a little quirky themselves. “It was all of this lint collected from all the different weird corners, like all the people who didn’t belong all being pushed together, and that was the student body.”
ANDREA TRAN Kerr-Stein stands in front of one of the many murals in the Mission District.
ANDREA TRAN
Out of her class of 50 students, 6 went to Lowell. Kerr-Stein said the school didn’t prepare her academically, but because she likes learning and does all her work she can handle the workload. Kerr-Stein does see segregation as an issue that’s becoming normalized in San Francisco. “Most neighborhoods are mostly one race,” she said. “I think it’s mostly self-segregation, though.”
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an Francisco is a lot more complicated than it may seem, and so is segregation. The nuance and intersectionality of the issue makes finding a straightforward solution difficult. Zuk believes policy makers and the general public need to be made aware of this issue in order to “create a public will to make change.” Segregation also ties back to fixing the school system, she said. “If we don’t integrate our neighborhoods we won’t integrate our schools, and it seems like we’re heading on the wrong trajectory on both counts.” Coll suggests public, rental, low-income and federal housing as “policies and programs that would prevent people from racial isolation in neighborhoods and would probably help slow the process of segregation.” While many people don’t seem phased by an increase in segregation in San Francisco’s neighborhoods, a lot of residents are actively working towards solving this issue, according to Coll. “That’s the source of a lot of community activism which has very effectively slowed things like mass eviction,” she said. “They believe that housing is not just a commodity that should be subject to the whims of the unregulated market and that there’s major consequences for the city, that it becomes racially and economically and socially polarized and segregated.” The mere existence of ethnic concentrations within neighborhoods is not inherently bad. “San Francisco has a long history of ethnic neighborhoods,” Coll said. “The existence of those neighborhoods is not a problem unless those neighborhoods are prevented from having equal access to public goods and services.” Yuen believes that in order for segregation to be addressed, an attitudinal shift needs to take place. “Most citizens of the city want to keep away from people who come from places they see as dangerous, typically low income neighborhoods,” Yuen said. “If we started accepting these people and integrated them into our society, we may see less of these struggling neighborhoods.” v Reporter Lee Wilcox contributed to this article.
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SPORTS
Ethan Fung: Blind athlete runs with a goal in sight By Crystal Chan
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CHRISTINA JOHNSON
Ethan Fung, a Lowell junior born with rod-cone dystrophy, races against the odds and wins first place at the 100th CIF State Championship. Fung, in his Cardinal-spirited Track & Field shirt, proudly holds his medal in front of his chest.
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t the 100th California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) State Championship on June 1st, junior Ethan Fung placed first in the Mens Para Ambulatory 400-meter race. He became the first Lowell student to ever win a state championship in track and field. Moreover, Fung is the first blind athlete from Lowell to compete in a state track competition. Fung was born with rod-cone dystrophy, an eye condition typically caused by misprints in a child’s genes. According to The University of Edinburgh’s Scottish Sensory Centre, people with rod-cone dystrophy have rod and cone photoreceptors that are not functioning properly. Due to his visual impairment, Fung can only see light contrasts and a basic outline of people and objects, so he trains for races with another teammate who guides him on the track field. During track practice and races, Fung and his guide each hold one end of a running tether while his guide runs slightly ahead of him, giving him verbal instructions along the way. “We have to have actual coordination, no
matter how tired I am on the races,” Fung explained. “I have to make sure that we don’t get out of sync or we don’t go into the wrong lane.” Although this practice has since become a normal part of his track routine, Fung shared that it was initially difficult to run with another person. “That was more practicing running with a person, which is the hard part,” he said. “By the end of last year, that took a majority of my time rather than just running.” Through track, Fung has developed strong bonds with his guides. In the past, Fung’s guides have included teammates Raymond Huang, Lowell’s class of ’18, and junior Nathaniel Chamberlin. One of his favorite track memories is when Huang received the Pursuing Victory of Honor award, which honors high school athletes who have demonstrated great sportsmanship. Fung was glad to see Huang being recognized for his hard work and dedication as a guide. Fung considers himself to be a mid-distance runner, with his best events being the 400- and 800-meter races. However,
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“Wait, wait, you’re almost done, go go go,” Raymond Huang, Fung’s running guide and an alum of Lowell class of 18’, says to Fung during the championship.
“You can work hard and become a pretty decent runner; you don’t have to start out amazing or be gifted.”
because there is no Para division for the 800-meter category, he can only participate in the 100-, 200, 400-meter races and shot-put events, in which the participant throws a shot - heavy ball - as far as possible. Aside from not being able to run in 800-meter races, his visual impairment has posed other challenges, such as not being able to fully see where he’s headed during races. “It’s harder to run at a peak rate when you don’t always know where you’re going,” he said, “so you lose confidence in where you’re going.” Despite these challenges, Fung considers his condition to be an encouragement for him to work harder. “I see it as motivation for myself more than anything else,” he said, “because the fact that I can still enjoy running even if I can’t see too well is cool.” Prior to the CIF State Championship, Fung was nervous because of the intense competition. “It was a lot of pressure because everybody there is in top shape and they’re top-notch,” he said. “California is a running and racing state, so [the runners] are very competitive.” Despite the competitiveness of the race, Lowell track and field coach Andy Leong believed that Fung was capable of taking first place. “We knew he had a shot,” Leong said of Fung’s chances in the 400-meter race. Based on his previous personal records, Leong believed that Fung could have finished the race in one minute. During the first 250 meters of the race, Fung recalls sprinting at a really fast pace. By the time he passed the 300-meter mark, he grew tired and wanted to stop, but mustered up his remaining strength and continued running. Nearing the end of the race, he began to slow down, because he thought the race was over. “My guide said
‘almost done,’ but I miscomprehended, so I took it to mean ‘done,’ so I actually slowed down 2-3 seconds,” Fung recalled. Huang thought Fung was tired, and slowed down his pace to adjust. However, when Fung reached a full stop, Huang realized there was a miscommunication and urged Fung to continue running, saying, “Wait, wait, you’re almost done, go go go.” Fung finished the race with a time of 1:02.57. After placing first in the event, he felt more relieved than proud. “That one moment with the 400 was kind of marred by my relief,” he said. “I can’t say I was super proud because I almost lost [the race].” For this upcoming track season, his goal is to run a 400-meter race in 58 seconds and set a new personal record. Fung’s coach is confident in his abilities. Leong has witnessed Fung’s “hardworking, motivated, [and] independent” spirit consistently during track practice. He recalls a particular instance from the last track and field season when Fung’s persistence especially shone through. “At the beginning of the [last] season, he had some soreness injury, so he spent about three weeks in the weight room,” Leong said, “and when he was ready, [he] let us know, and just started doing all the workouts.” Fung’s motivation stems from his belief that hard work brings about positive results. He thinks that “running is not something you need to be made to do.” Although being naturally fast can offer a advantage, he believes that “you can work hard and become a pretty decent runner; you don’t have to start out amazing or be gifted.” No matter which track race Fung participates in, he knows that his team will be there to support him. “Definitely running with your teammates is something that feels good,” he said. “It feels good to run at home–at [Lowell’s] track–because there’s always gonna be teammates and friends who are rooting you to go on.” v CHRISTINA JOHNSON
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KICKING DOWN EXPECTATIONS
By Kate Green
CHRISTINA JOHNSON
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t the beginning of each school year, I am often asked to share an unexpected fact about myself with the class. I watch as the cliché icebreaker works its way across the room, and when it’s finally my turn, I say proudly, “I am a thirddegree black belt in taekwondo.” Every time I am met with the same array of reactions–a few looks of mild admiration, and an overwhelming amount of shock and disbelief. Dozens of pairs of incredulous eyes look me up and down trying to fit a 5’2’’ girl with glittery eyeshadow and a colorful dress into their mental image of a black belt. For much of my ten-year taekwondo career, I too struggled to see myself as a legitimate martial artist. Only after years of hard work have I come to realize I have no responsibility to conform to anyone else’s expectations but my own.
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My journey with taekwondo began when I was six years old. At that age, I felt compelled to copy everything my older sister did, so I joined her at Park’s Taekwondo on Noriega Street. I presumed that participating in taekwondo would make me as tough and grown up as she was, but I grossly miscalculated the extent of my undertaking. Taekwondo, like any martial art, offers a unique athletic experience. Not only is there a focus on the physical strength required to achieve taekwondo’s signature head-level kicks, you must also train your mind in accordance to core Korean values. Attributes such as courtesy, self control and perseverance impose a strict atmosphere of “yes, sirs,” “no, sirs,” and rigorous expectations. Though in the long run these principles would prove
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beneficial, at the time I found the disciplined environment difficult to cope with. Wanting to stick with my sister, I had enrolled in a class with older students. The age gap between myself and my peers, paired with my novice skill level, made it difficult to keep up. I found myself devising excuses to skip class, and later tearfully riding in the back seat of my mom’s car, pleading, “I just don’t think I can do this.” But whether I liked it or not, each Monday and Friday I found myself back in the studio. I sat and stretched self consciousnessly on the shiny blue mats, wishing I was anywhere but at taekwondo. I loved many aspects of the sport, such as learning new techniques each week and watching the skillful higher ranks practice their forms, but I lacked the self confidence to see myself progressing in martial arts. When I visualized a successful martial artist, I saw a fierce yet stoic warrior, strong and athletic. Then I looked at myself, a self-professed Hufflepuff who was always picked last in P.E. class. The two didn’t add up. Yet, for all my self doubt, I didn’t quit. While my sister moved on to soccer and eventually fencing, I could never fathom disappointing my instructors and telling them I’d given up. After a few rocky years at Park’s, the business changed hands, and my parents decided to switch me over to a new studio. A family friend recommended Navarrete’s Black Belt Academy in Noe Valley, where I still train today. My early years at the Navarrete’s were equally as demanding. I still got demolished in sparring matches, had difficulties keeping up with the grueling workouts and was often self conscious of making mistakes due to the strict, demanding atmosphere. One class proved particularly deflating, as I was pinned under a boy twice my size during jiu-jitsu style ground fighting. The whole class watched as I futilely struggled to pull myself out of his grip. My instructors told me I wasn’t allowed to give up, so time ticked painfully by until class ended and he finally took me out of the chokehold. But gradually I improved. I refined my technique, and started winning sparring matches. My body strengthened to keep up with the push ups and planks. I began to alter my schema of a black belt as I befriended older girls at the studio who were friendly and accepting, yet aggressive forces to be reckoned with in the ring. The Navarrete’s also taught workshops on how taekwondo and its mindset can be applied to everyday situations of bullying at school and harassment on public transport. Being a martial artist slowly came to mean being willing and equipped to stand up for myself and those around me, which felt much more achievable. Though I was still plagued by doubts over whether I was truly cut out for taekwondo, especially when trying to explain my sport to those outside my studio, I worked my way up the ranks. In 2011, I passed my black belt test in front of the entire school
and my family, and I have since joined our studio’s leadership training program, won regional American Taekwondo Association tournaments and earned my third-degree black belt. Perhaps most significantly, those cornerstones of courtesy, self control, and perseverance have helped shape me into who I am today. So, faced with a room full of classmates in disbelief that I am a black belt, I don’t take offense. I understand it’s easy to make surface-level judgements, and the way I present myself does not align with most people’s expectations of a martial artist. That being said, I hope people can broaden their perception of strength to include those usually left out of the picture. If I can become a black belt, then there is no reason for anyone else to confine themselves to others’ expectations. v
ANITA LIU
The Lowell January 2019
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Remembering Ms. Nickels
ANITA LIU
By Anna Kaplan and Allison Jou
M
ary Carolyn Nickels, a Lowell English teacher and yearbook advisor, died on Sept. 25 at her home on Treasure Island. She was 71. Nickels was well known for her gregariousness, robust work ethic and love of ’70s music. The cause of death was cancer, according to junior Elysia Cohen-Cox, Nickels’ granddaughter. Appreciated for her empathy and wry sense of humor, Nickels taught freshman and sophomore English literature as well as expository writing. Described as “a giver, and not a taker,” by principal Andrew Ishibashi, Nickels was seen by many students, including junior Nicole Stetsyuk, as a parental figure who they could go to for advice. “My family isn’t really involved in my life because they’re always working and busy, so I don’t really have people that are [parental] figures for me, but Ms. Nickels took on that,” said Stetsyuk, who was in Nickels’ Registry. Unaware that Nickels had been ill, Stetsyuk and many members of the Lowell community were stunned when they received an email from Ishibashi announcing her death. Ishibashi had learned during the summer that Nickels was ill. Shortly after the start of the current school year, Nickels underwent a successful surgery to remove a brain tumor that had developed as a result of the metastasizing cancer, according to Cohen-Cox. Lowell administrators and staff anticipated Nickels would resume teaching in the spring. 20
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Members of Nickels’ family also thought she would be well enough to return to Lowell. Cohen-Cox recalls that Nickels was visibly better after the surgery. “She was so much happier,” Cohen-Cox said, noting that she did not understand the severity of her grandmother’s illness at the time. “I didn’t realize how bad everything was. [The doctors] kept saying there was hope and that [the brain tumor] was the problem.” Seeing her grandmother noticeably improved and with her appetite returned for the first time in months, Cohen-Cox decided to make Nickels a cheesecake, one of her favorite desserts. “I brought it to [Nickels] and she liked it,” said Cohen-Cox. “It was really nice to know that I did something good and she was happy.” Although English department head Meredith Santiago says that it was “very somber” in the English department once Nickels’ colleagues learned of her death, she also remembers many light-hearted times with Nickels. Santiago, who shared a classroom with Nickels when they both taught expository writing, remembers one particular day, when Nickels “had disco music blaring and she was dancing around the classroom,” Santiago said. “I just remember thinking, ‘This woman is hilarious.’” Born on Dec. 30, 1946 in Lewiston, Idaho to Mary, a teacher, and Walter, an airline pilot, Nickels was the first of four children. When Nickels was a teenager her family moved to Enumclaw, a Washington suburb. After graduating high school Nickels
attended Central Washington University, where she majored in English literature. In 1965, as a college freshman, Nickels participated in a United Farm Workers grape boycott, where she met Charles Cox, who became her husband in 1970. Nickels and Cox joined the Peace Corps in 1971, teaching English as a Second Language to elementary school children in Thailand and later working on an ESL textbook. Nickels and Cox returned to Washington in 1975. Two years later, Nickels gave birth to their son, Nathan. The couple divorced in 1983. Nickels, along with Nathan, relocated to San Francisco in 1984 and began teaching high school ESL. She went on to earn an M.A. in Instructional Technologies from San Francisco State University and became a teacher at Buena Vista Horace Mann, before joining the Lowell faculty in August 2006. A highly dedicated teacher, Nickels often devoted entire weekends to reviewing students’ classwork, according to CohenCox. “Some weekends she’d be inside all day, just grading papers and she would write notes on every single line,” Cohen-Cox said. Despite her grandmother’s illness, CohenCox believes Nickels would want people to remember her as the charismatic and vibrant teacher she was throughout her life. “She wouldn’t want people to think of her as weak. She wouldn’t want people to think of her as sick,” Cohen-Cox said. “She would want people to think of her as strong.”v
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