The Lowell February 2012 by The Lowell

Today

iss the tropical aura of luaus? After a long, tiresome grading period, what a better way to celebrate the fresh new quarter by attending Lowell’s own luau, Paradise, the second-to-last school dance of the year! From 6 -10 p.m., the courtyard will be transformed into a Hawaiian utopia. A colorful backdrop for photos will transport you to your long-awaited getaway. Did we mention that there will also be beach balls, leis and free beverages? Tickets are $9 with your SAC, $10 without and $12 for guests. Aloha!

■ Pair of oxford

shoes: $7.99. Vintage pair of Ray-Ban sunglasses: $60. Satisfaction: priceless.

Page 10

Backpage

Spotlight

Lowell High School, Red Edition, Vol. 217 No. 2, February 24, 2012, www.thelowell.org

Lowell The

In the news In the news

Smart shoppers’ strategies

Indie movie paradise

Inside

News

Pages

1-9

■ Club members share homegrown vegetables with school as healthy marketing tool ■ Bicyclists need to strap on their helmets and abide by safety rules to avoid accidents

Sports

Pages

11-14

■ Coach has led varsity baseball team to multiple wins in fifteen plus years

Columns

Page

■ Sophomore takes up offbeat rapping talent to relax from Lowell’s homework load

Opinion

Pages

18-19

■ Disillusioned youth reflects on Obama’s presidency as his first term comes to a close

Francisco’s independent movie industry and become a film connoisseur.

Page 20

Wordsmith crafts clever puzzles

Junior Francesco Trogu’s hobby of solving and creating crossword puzzles is honored after one of his crosswords is published in the New York Times. Try a crossword he created on Page 9. ■

By Adriana Millar

nstead of scratching your head over your crossword puzzle, simply search for Lowell’s word game guru, who not only solves but also creates the tricky word game, and recently had one published in the New York Times. Sixteen-year-old junior Francesco Trogu has been solving word puzzles since he was a sophomore. Trogu began by solving the New York Times crosswords with his registry teacher John Worth, until eventually he could complete the puzzles by himself. At the end of his sophomore year, Trogu began working on a particularly challenging version. On Jan. 30, his bird-themed crossword puzzle was featured in the New York Times. The New York Times receives about 70-100 crossword submissions a week, according to Trogu. Trogu’s orginal puzzle was accepted by the crossword editor Will Shortz on the condition that it would be revised. “They accepted me in August, three months after I first sent it in,” he said. The f irst draft of the crossword contained

some words that were considered unacceptable, including a word in Japanese, Kirisute gomen (meaning authorization to cut and to leave) a samurai term Trogu once heard in a movie. Trogu’s final version of the puzzle was approved right before the fall semester started. “I was really happy. I could get my name in the New York Times,” he said. Designing a compelling crossword takes hard work and patience. “The hardest part is getting everything to fit together. It’s trial and error,” Trogu said. “It depends on how well you want to make it.” Tr o g u ’s f u n piece has received positive responses. “My parents are re a l ly

daniel green

proud, and they sent it to a lot of ready begun to work on his next people,” he said. crossword puzzle, which he also Some of Trogu’s friends have plans to submit to the New York also attempted Times. “I am to solve his working on word puzzle. The hardest part is it with one of “It’s fun to see my friends in getting everything P it t s bu r g h ,” people work on it.” Trogu said. Trogu to fit together. It’s he said. “It’s like once attendsomeone tryed a science trial and error.” ing to solve a camp in Bosriddle you told FRANCESCO TROGU, ton where he them.” junior met his fellow Puzzlecrossword cresolvers found the search interest- ator. ing. “It was really difficult, but Trogu and his colleague plan I solved it last week,” junior to write a Sunday edition of the Ariel Barbieri-Aghib said. crossword. Barbieri-Aghib said she The Sunday crossword puzzles respected Trogu’s hobby. are the most difficult of the news“It shows that teenagers paper’s daily crossword puzzles, today don’t only care containing nine theme words, about partying and compared to three to four themedrinking.” related words in the Monday and Trogu’s accom- Tuesday ones. plishment was also Trogu’s orginal crossword was mentioned in the featured on a Monday. “The difS an Fran c i s c o ficulty level rises throughout the C h r o n i c l e i n week — the easiest being a Monday Leah Garchik’s and the hardest being a Saturday,” column on Feb. he said. “I’ve already made a daily. 3. I want to make a bigger one, one Trogu has al- that’s more of an accomplishment.”

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New opportunity to retake failed classes

After noticing the cost and inefficiency of Cyber High, an online resource for students to make up credits after failing classes, the counseling department decided to switch to Odysseyware. ■

By Melinda Leung

demic classes that he or she failed, though science Students must follow a designated curriculum courses are not offered because they require “wet and counselors can check a student’s progress labs” — labs that require the use of water to wash after every test and quiz. All tests, projects, essays and clean the materials. and quizzes are either reviewed by or graded by “I think online courses in general are con- an instructor or counselor, according to Odysclasses. seyware’s web site (www. Beginning this semester counselors have venient for students who really need the credit since odysseyware.com). replaced Cyber High, utilized by the school for Cyber High was the past two years, with Odysseyware, another they can do it during their We need to find a firstWhen implemented, fewer district-approved online resource for students free time,” Yi said. “Howin need of credit recovery. The counseling de- ever, students don’t get to more effective way to students were enrolled and thus the cost was partment switched to Odysseyware in January talk to a teacher face to face monitor the students lower. because Cyber High was too costly, according and can lose the chance to However, over two to assistant principal of student support services discuss with their classso Odysseyware is mates as well.” years of implementation, Michael Yi. the better choice.” Furthermore, the comthe number of students In the Cyber High program, students must using Cyber High inpass four out of five unit exams to earn credit for pletion rate for Cyber High MICHAEL YI, creased, according to Yi. each $90 course, according to counselor Jeffrey is disappointing. Only half assistant principal “More students are enYang. If students fail any exam, they can pay an of the first semester initial enrollment of 30-40 sturolled while the passing additional $20 if they wish to retake the test. Typically, students, not the school, pay for the dents finished the course, according to coun- rate is going down, wasting our money,” Yi said. courses, but some are unable to afford the cost, selor Jeffrey Yang. “I hope Odysseyware is more “We need to find a more effective way to monitor effective than Cyber the students so Odysseyware is the better choice.” according to Yi. In such High,” Yang said. “The The University of California approves 18 cases, the school foots students may not feel different online institutes based on their A-G rethe bill. I hope Odysseyware motivated to complete quirement that district schools can choose from. Last semester, expenses for Cyber High is more effective than the course or they may The counseling department has been looking at be too busy. Both online various options since the end of last semester and amounted to approxiCyber High. ... Both courses require dedica- is now testing Odysseyware. mately $6,000-$7,000, a As of the week of Feb. 13, students are being bill that has not yet been courses require dedi- tion; students need to utilize their free time enrolled into the program, according to Yang. cleared, although the cation; students need wisely.” These online make-up classes are only offered school plans to settle the Odyss e y ware re- to seniors and occasionally juniors. Counselors account, according to Yi. to utilize their free quires more moni- look over students’ report cards and note who There is no funding toring, ensuring that received a “D” or below in one or more classes designated to pay for the time wisely.” students stay on task. and thus needs credit recovery. Cyber High courses so They email these students and set up an apmoney is pooled from JEFFREY YANG, Another incentive the miscellaneous funds. counselor school plans to use to pointment to discuss the online course option, encourage students to according to Yi. “The students who need credit “Odysseyware avoids such complications, since it does not involve complete the course is to charge a $30 deposit, ac- recovery normally know who they are,” Yang said. cording to Yi. Upon completion of the course, the “Sometimes they come to us, while other times any costs for now,” Yi said. A student can recover credit for any core aca- school will return the money back to the students. we would go to them.”

he counseling department decided to change the online program that provides students a way to make up failed

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What’s What’s

■ Focus your lens on San

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2 NEWS

February 24, 2012

NEWSBRIEFS

School-grown veggies given out

A school club recently handed out vegetables grown at school to students in an effort to spread awareness of the renovation of a garden in the school. The gardening club distributed lettuce and mustard greens to students and teachers during February 10 as an initiative to promote the club’s presence. The gardening club decided to distribute lettuce to students and teachers after it finished growing. “Initially, we gave lettuce to individual teachers but we needed to expand our club more,” club co-chair Arty Zhang said. “So we handed some to students instead, and put some in trays in the cafeteria. Meanwhile, we informed people about what the gardening club is.” According to club co-chair Adriana Rizzo, the gardening club is currently cultivating various vegetables in a newly-redesigned garden behind the tennis courts. Constructed last December with the help of a $100,000 from the grant 2003 Proposition A bond, the gardens have lettuce, peas, fava beans, kale, cabbage and mustard greens still growing. “We’ve also got beets, carrots and a few other things about to grow in the ground,” Rizzo said. Zhang also feels that many students are still unaware of the gardening club at school. “I don’t think many know of the garden’s existence in the fields,” he said. The lack of members also restricts the club’s full potential, according to Rizzo. “Even though cultivation has been pretty easy, most of our troubles come from having too much to do and not enough members to do it,” she said. The gardening club hopes to expand more in the future and become more integrated with the school community and curriculum by informing more students about the garden. “We have more vegetables in the ground and on the way, and we want to use them in a way that involves the Lowell community,” Rizzo said. According to Rizzo, the gardening club was founded in 2009 and started out by maintaining the landscape in the front of the school. The club’s next focus has shifted to the plot in the school fields out back since the construction of the new gardens last December. “The purpose of the grant is to integrate gardening, food, and environment in the school curriculum,” Rizzo said. — Arlen Pan

The school library was given new computer adapters that will make connecting Macintosh computers up to projectors easier for students and teachers. The library received six new adapters after students complained they were unable to use their computers for school projects. “Many students bring their Macs to school for presentations, but they couldn’t connect them to our projectors,” librarian Linda Guitron said. “We didn’t have the adapters here.” After multiple requests from teachers and students, the idea to buy adapters compatible with Macs was brought up in a Technology Committee meeting. “Mr. Simon and Ms. Guitron both brought it up at the meeting since both had had teachers and students come to them looking for the adapters,” Technology Committee head and chemistry teacher Bryan Marten said. “Ms. Guitron and I worked together to make sure they were available for checking out from the library. We have recently purchased and deployed quite a number of LCD projectors for classrooms and have tried to facilitate their use in presentations with this shared resource of VGA adapters for Mac laptops.” One issue is that most Apple products each require a different connector, so the order encompassed three different types of adapters. “Apple has different VGA adapters for MacBook Air, older MacBooks/MacBook Pros and more modern MacBooks/MacBook Pros,” Marten said. “We bought two adapters for each of those three types for a total of six adapters.” According to Marten, the adapters cost $130 in all before tax and shipping. “The money came from the Technology Committee’s budget,” Marten said. “It comes from the Parent Teacher Student Association, Lowell Alumni Association, and the money allocated to the Technology Committee by Lowell’s School Site Council.” — Elena Bernick f o r t h e c o m p l e t e v e r s i o n s of stories, please visit

The Lowell on the Web

www.thelowell.org

Young artist opens up her heart

By Ashley Louie

any people admire the heart sculptures around Union Square and even take pictures with them, but few have designed one of those hearts. Sophomore Lori Chinn is the youngest person to design a heart sculpture and is the first teenager in seven years to have her design chosen. Her sculpture, along with the other winning designs, was an auction item in the Heroes and Hearts Luncheon benefiting San Francisco General Hospital on Feb. 9. She received $500 for her winning design. Chinn admired the heart sculptures she had seen around San Francisco, and thought it would be fun to design one herself. She said she liked a design she had come up with in the eighth grade, and decided to revise it for her submission. Her design contains several overlapping hands in various colors on top of a black background. “The hands represent people because the hands are all different, but when the hands overlap with the same design it also shows we all have similarities,” she said.

Every year, artists submit designs to be reviewed by a selection committee, and the winning artists craft their designs onto fiberglass sculptures provided by Kreysler and Associates. Chinn was one of 14 artists whose heart sculptures were auctioned at the luncheon.“What stood out in Lori’s design was its vibrancy,” Patrick Smith, Heroes and Hearts Luncheon Co-Chair and Macy’s Special Events Director, stated in an email on Jan. 26. “Her art has a youthful and graphic sensibility, which resonated with the selection committee. And her theme – Hands of Diversity – really conveys San Francisco General Hospital’s message of community and working together.” Chinn was ecstatic when she received a phone call after school to inform her that her design had been chosen. “I didn’t know how they usually chose the artists, but I was amazed they picked mine,” she said. She spent approximately six weeks painting her design onto a 25-pound sculpture. Chinn heard about the contest from a family friend. Although she has loved drawing since she was a child, this was the first art contest she had par-

ticipated in. “My mom always gave me paper and markers, and I enjoyed using them,” she said. She also took art classes at her middle school, AP Giannini, but avoided art classes outside of school. She would rather freelance than be under the instruction of an art teacher telling her to draw a still life, which would “drive (her) crazy. I like drawing whatever I want, and don’t really want to sit around in an art class on the weekends just drawing things that do not interest me,” she said. Chinn has also utilized her artistic talents in and out of school. Although she does not take art classes at Lowell, she is the sophomore public relations officer. One of her responsibilities as PR is to design some of the hallway posters for school-wide events. In her free time, she enjoys drawing family and friends’ names with intricate designs. Chinn doesn’t know what she wants to do in the future, but she would like to attend the California Institute of the Arts to utilize her artistic talents. Chinn’s sculpture was showcased in a side window at Macy’s in Union Square from Jan. 26 until Feb. 8.

New science club brews wizardry By Kayla Huynh

ver dreamed of becoming a magician? Well, abracadabra! The Science Magic Show club members may be unconventional magicians, disguised in goggles rather than tuxedos and top hats, but their tricks are just as likely to ignite a flaming curiosity in their audience. Founded and sponsored this semester by chemistry teacher Michelle Trimble, the new club will allow members to master science “magic” tricks, then present shows at nearby public middle schools such as Presidio, AP Giannini and Hoover. “I thought it was a wonderful opportunity to get students at Lowell hands on with interesting and fun experiments,” Trimble said. The club also allows Lowell students to improve their oral skills. “The students would work on the demos until they’re very comfortable with them,” Trimble said. “And when they present it to the students, they will have to be able to make it sound exciting so the students don’t get bored.” Club members hope the demonstrations will spark younger students’ curiosity for science. “If someone came to your school and showed you an experiment you thought was really interesting, maybe you would want to go deeper into the subject. And come to Lowell to join the club!” club president junior Verrone Liu said. According to Trimble, the club’s goal this semester is to prepare two to three demonstrations targeting fifth through seventh graders and to design one hands-on activity to teach the students. The club hopes that by the end of the semester, they will have presented to a couple of middle schools. Trimble is considering one idea that will literally spark student interest

– light steel wool on fire, then submerge it in oxygen gas. This interaction increases the concentration of oxygen so that the chemical reaction speeds up, causing the steel wool to sparkle. Another demo that Trimble has suggested involves soaking a $100 bill into a mixture of water and alcohol and lighting it on fire. The bill can miraculously survive without a single burn mark. Club members will not only carry out experiments in front of middle school students, but also discuss the scientific reasoning behind the results. For example, in this experiment the paper money remains spendable because the fire evaporates the water instead of scorching the bill. No doubt a relief to whoever provided the bill! Most middle students may think that science is a difficult subject that requires lots of thinking and memorization, however, members of the club hope to show those students why this knowledge is worth pursuing. “This club basically teaches kids, without them knowing that they’re learning because they’re having so much fun,” club vice president senior Mabel Fong said. These demonstrations will give young students a taste of what they could be learning about in years to come. “It introduces chemistry, which is important because it gives children more options in life. Maybe after seeing the demonstrations, they will want to become a chemists,” Liu said. Aspiring magicians, grab your capes and teleport to Room 339 after school on the second and fourth Thursday of each month to sharpen your science magic skills!

clubs

Library receives new adapters

Lowell High School

Debunking the college myths...

Daniel Green

Presenter James Chen, who works for the college consulting company Asian Advantage LLC, discusses the difficulties that Asian American students face when applying to elite colleges and discusses ways that students can look competitive to the nation’s top universities.The presentation was held on Thurs. Feb. 16 from 3:35 to 5 p.m. in Room 220.

The Lowell

February 24, 2012

CAMPUS

Student novelist pioneers 21st century medium By Ying Sham

viewership. Registered members can critique and edit each other’s work. “When I saw my first comment box, hovering like a little orange rectangle of doom, I was terrified beyond all rational belief,” Cockrell said. “I think I blacked out for half a second; fortunately, she had nothing bad to say, and the rest is history.” Cockrell’s first sign of growing interest in writing began with his launch into his first novel, Welcome to Omega, presently clocking in at 29 chapters. “I started writing what would eventually turn into Omega when I was twelve, back in AP Giannini,” Cockrell said. “Naturally, I’m quite embarrassed when I look at it, it was my first stab at writing.” Cockrell adds that Welcome to Omega was founded on collaboration. “My friend used to draw a lot of comics for fun; he based them off of real life, giving us (our gang of friends and acquaintances) super powers based on our personalities and what we liked to do,” Cockrell said. “So I decided to do an adaptation for the novel format. But it quickly became its own thing, going from a present-day superhero story to cyberpunk near-future revolution story.” After years of practice, Cockrell has developed his own approach to plotting. “The most planning I do is how the ending will turn out and what my characters will act like,” Cockrell said. “I just do what makes sense. If ‘X’ happens to my main character, he’s naturally going to react like ‘Y’. I let the characters and the setting run my writing, adding a few plot twists, jokes

and subplots to keep you interested.” Cockrell forged his own identity onto his Cockrell’s devotion to writing has increased pages. tenfold — he now writes for about 21 hours On Booksie, Cockrell writes under the pen per week. Cockrell’s improvement can be seen name, Jack Delgado. “I chose the name for two through Delgado’s abundance of positive praise reasons,” Cockrell said. “First, I like the name from his readers; he has been complemented Jack. I feel like it suits me. And Delgado is a as “one of the best writers on Booksie.” joke and a reference. If you’ve ever met me, Cockrell admits even he can see how far Delgado is not the word you would use to dehe has progressed. “Omega’s gotten longer, scribe me. I got it from a Stephen King book.” more detailed, more inThough still busy tricate and more actionwith his first novel, packed,” he commented. Cockrell is already layThe dull stars glared ing down blueprints for “It’s improved in almost every way. I especially future works. down on Omega City his He think my characterizarevealed that tion and dialogue have from their perches in this next fantasy piece, gotten better, less formalTales of a Fox, will rethe night sky, watch- volve around the kitsounding and stilted.” And now he can cona mythical fox in ing everything and sune, fidently give advice to Japanese folklore that novice writers. His first possesses supernatural nothing.” suggestion is to pick up abilities, allowing it to books. “If you read a lot, WELCOME TO OMEGA transform into a huyou’ll learn what works novel excerpt man. “There’s going and what doesn’t,” Cockto be a lot of trickster rell said. “Use significant detail; don’t just say, magic, and that’s always fun,” Cockrell said. for example, ‘Her hair was raven black.’ Say “There’s a princess — don’t worry, she can something along the lines of ‘Her hair shone take care of herself — some demons, annoylike spun jet in the light.’ It sounds corny, but ing mortals and much more. I don’t when people read, they don’t want to be told want to give too much away.” things. They want to be shown things.” In the future, whether it be Cockrell has drawn from multiple influ- through film or literature, Cockences to create his own style of writing; these rell’s success with his audience will include George Martin’s The Game of Thrones, always play a huge role in motivatStieg Larsson’s The Girl With the Dragon ing him to continue what he does Tattoo and Patrick Rothfuss’s The Kingkiller best. “I wouldn’t write if people Chronicles. didn’t like my stuff,” Cockrell said. “I’m an But his biggest inspiration comes from Wil- entertainer, deep down; I like to see people liam Gibson’s Neuromancer. “It’s much, much enjoying themselves, especially when they’re better than it sounds,” Cockrell said. “I write enjoying something of mine.” cyberpunk, which is a genre he pretty much And Cockrell’s last, most helpful advice invented. The extensive use of computers and should be remembered by all self-publishers. technology, his picture of a city at night, his “Check your grammar,” he said. “Leave no polluted Earth — I draw a lot from him.” mistakes.” Under the influences of other writers,

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arts

long with this year’s craze over Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games trilogy comes the rise of a new promising sci-fi writer. Sophomore Auden Cockrell, better known as Jack Delgado on the self-publishing site, Booksie (www.booksie.com), is one of the under-the-radar authors of the future. Currently working on his first full-length novel, Cockrell has gained a strong fan base clamoring to read the newest update of his science fiction story, Welcome to Omega. Cockrell loves both reading and writing his favorite genre — scifi. “My favorite genre to write is sci-fi, mostly because of how much liberty technology and the future give you,” Cockrell said. “As for reading, I love stuff that takes a new look at something old, like Percy Jackson or Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. It’s really fun to watch something you took for granted get taken to pieces and reassembled.” Cockrell took his first step towards Internet fame when he published his works on Booksie, a website where aspiring writers can post their work for views and public critique. “I published on Booksie at first because it was free and safe, but then the site began to grow on me,” Cockrell said. “I’d been posting the story on a blog, but nobody was commenting. On Booksie you only have to ask someone and they’ll tell you what they think.” Booksie has ten thousand visitors a month, giving fledgling writers exposure to a large

Aspiring scientist studies ‘Of Mice and Tumors’ By Zoe Kaiser

The on site program runs from 4 – 5:30 p.m. on Mondays ome students take loving care of pets over the sum- and Wednesdays, and is open to sophomores, juniors and semer, but junior Mollee Chu, a participant in the Lowell niors. The grade level limit is based on a concern that freshmen Science Research Program, spent her time forwarding lack the knowledge base of high-school-level science classes. science —researching the cause of spontaneous tumors in mice. “There aren’t any tests,” Shapiro said, “But I don’t want anyone to Chu joined the program as a sophomore, when uncertainty feel overwhelmed.” However, exceptions can be made, accordexisted over whether sophomores could handle the challenge ing to Shapiro, who is considering a freshman-exclusive group. The focus rests mainly on educating students and ultimately of being placed in labs, an uncertainty that quickly dissipated. “We’re not going to worry about sending out sophomores placing them in labs. This year, the mentorship program anymore,” co-founder physics teacher Richard Shapiro said has expanded to the Lawrence lab at UC Berkeley. In addition, students placed in a lab work with the with a grin. Chu was placed in an internship at McMahon Labora- scientist who runs the lab for the PI — the principal investigator — who oritory at UCSF’s Helen Diller Family ents and guides them in Comprehensive Cancer Center. In The lion’s share of our the new setting. the summer of 2011 Chu was in Shapiro esticharge of investigating tumors in funding ... is for equip- mates that eighty the BRaf CA/+ mice — the mice that were uninfected and had one ment for science classes s t u d e n t s a r e involved with conditional allele and one wild type so that all Lowell students the program, or normal allele, but still developed a core of tumors. She got to work in the will get training and expe- while around thirtylab beside her mentor, Dr. Allison Landman. She also got to observe rience doing science labs.” five participate in all meetings in the Mouse Room where she had to wear hospitals scrubs and “thin, RICHARD SHAPIRO, and events. He gauze-y blue shower caps” to prevent physics teacher continually adapts the scope of the contamination. Chu found the lab an open and welcoming atmosphere, saying via email on Feb. program as new opportunities arise. “We keep 13, “Every Thursday at four-ish, there was a coffee and cookie making it up, and changing, and developing,” time for everyone in the building to socialize and to get people Shapiro notes. “The model we use keeps evolving.” from different labs to mingle.” Shapiro is now expanding the program’s She has learned a wide range of skills since she first joined the program, from learning how to use a pipetman — a fan- possibilities, encouraging his colleagues to cier, but more accurate pipette — to the realization, “So many assign students an increasing number of labs young people like the MSTP mentors are currently able to do in classes so more students will know how to amazing research!” Chu exemplifies the unique opportunities do original research. “The lion’s share of our funding, nearly 100 percent, is for equipment and experience gained by students in the research program. Physics teacher Richard Shapiro and Lowell alumnus Julia for science classes so that all Lowell students Ye originally founded the program so that students could do will get training and experience doing science independent, original scientific research. Enhanced through labs,” Shapiro said. He hopes this will foster the speakers and the mentorship program, it was designed a love of science in more students, even those to prepare the students to be able to contribute in a research who are not aiming for professional science careers. While the current research program is an extralaboratory, according to Shapiro. Students also prepare entries curricular activity, Shapiro’s to prestigious scientific competitions such long-term goal is to make the as the Siemens Competition, the Google science program into a class Science Fair and the Intel Talent Search.

of mollee chu

photo courtesy

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curriculum

in the department’s offerings. He has received nothing but support in his effort to embed the program into the school day, but is still working out how scheduling and other aspects might be done. The most significant parts of the proposed class would occur after school, since the distinguished speakers and mentors who come in are available only in a 3:30 to 5:30 time frame. The component during the school day would function as a “class room laboratory” where students could research and prepare projects, presentations, and submissions to science competitions, along with some straight forward teaching in the relevant subjects of science and math. “What we are looking at is a hybrid program in respect to clock time . . . [that will] at least match — or more likely exceed the class time of a regular BC class.” Shapiro explained. The program has established strong ties with UCSF and the Lawrence Berkeley Lab — students visited the Lawrence Berkeley supercomputing lab on Jan. 12. Notable speakers have visited the program since it began its second year, such as J. Michael Bishop, who won the Nobel Prize for discovering cancer genes in 1989. Prof. Daniela Ushizima — who works in the field of computational physics — impressed student Reena Lam because “she was a girl working in a predominantly male science field.” Student Miriam Latibashvili was inspired by Chu’s presentation, saying over an email on Feb. 13, “All the students and participants sounded so intelligent and knowledgeable . . . I felt pretty intimidated by their position in the science world . . . the one speaker that stood out the most to me was Mollee Chu. I say this because she’s a Lowell student - only a junior. She was picked for the UCSF internship last year and watching her presentation about the research she did at the lab inspired me. It made me feel like I could, someday, be in her place.” Students who are not planning to be placed in a lab still will gain valuable skills. As senior Aysha Wildman said, “I like the idea of having a space of people who are interested in science as a career.” The research program is an opportunity for science-minded students to experience a real world exploration of scientific thought.

4 NEWS

Lowell High School

February 24, 2012

School waits for district go-ahead on pilot course The school is planning to continue a new college preparatory program, which was incorporated into ninth grade classes this year as an alternative to the required for graduation College and Career class.

By Samantha Wilcox

he school is awaiting approval from the district to continue using its pilot version of Plan Ahead for freshmen, which has replaced the traditional College and Career course this year. The school district introduced the program in 2010 to thirteen out of seventeen high schools as a trial course. The remaining schools, including Lowell, were to offer College and Career to freshmen this past fall. The district permitted schools to tweak the program to fit their student population’s needs, and Lowell did, hence the Plan Ahead program in freshman classes. Currently the school is undergoing district review to determine whether or not to continue offering Plan Ahead curriculum for next year, according to principal Andrew Ishibashi. “The district will be renewing the freshmen Plan Ahead portfolios to determine whether or not the student work submitted proves successful.” Ishibashi said. Administrators tailored the Plan Ahead program to meet Lowell’s staffing limitations by opting to have core subject teachers include certain lesson plans and “tasks” into their curriculum. “At this point Lowell has an approved implementation plan for the curriculum, designed by teachers at the school.” SFUSD Program Administrator Jason Owens said. Students then compiled assignments, such as resume writing, into a portfolio and turned it in for a final grade. Teachers are responsible for grading the assignments. The portfolios are reviewed by administrators, and students must pass with a 60 percent or higher to fulfill the requirement. According to the Jan. 26 minutes of a Union Building Committee and Administration meeting where the results of Plan Ahead were discussed, “the total points possible are 270, and so far the majority of the students have passed at or above the 60 percent level required. Students who did not submit an assignment cannot pass, and that accounts for most of the failures so far. The remaining students will take College and Careers.” Due to limited College and Career staff and the size of the incoming freshmen class, an alternative to the required class was needed,

INDUSTRY

according to assistant principal of curriculum Holly Giles. “Once the District  offered Plan Ahead, we were able to create a solution to our staffing dilemma, as well as provide more opportunities for students to take the class in the ninth grade,” Giles said. Last spring, Lowell submitted an exemption proposal to address the new policy that all schools had to teach College and Career to freshmen, the altered version of the Plan Ahead program. “Lowell tailored its implementation of the Plan Ahead Program to fit the curriculum needs of its students,” Giles said. Now if the district approves the pilot program, all incoming fall of 2012 students will meet the California State University grade requirements by completing Plan Ahead curriculum in core classes. An additional benefit to offering Plan Ahead through core classes is that Modern World, a freshman social studies class, can be kept because if incoming freshmen added College and Career as a separate course to their fall allotment of six classes, another component of their schedule would be bumped. College and Career teachers who have been teaching mixed grade College and Career courses before will have their positions impacted by the transition into Plan Ahead, since subject teachers are taking over the College and Career curriculum. “We were doing just fine teaching college and career to sophomores until the district insisted upon us offering it to freshmen,” College and Career teacher Norman Nager said. “Adolescents benefit from job skills, computer skills, communication skills and self-assessment, and they need this class.” College and Career teachers’ position will not be phased out completely, as the actual College and Career classes will continue to be offered to upperclassmen who have not taken the course yet and to students who fail the Plan Ahead course. The district and many of the school staff agree that the course helps students make educated plans for their high school classes. “It is very important for ninth grade students to know what the district’s graduation requirements are, and how they meet California State University and University of California minimum admissions requirements,” Giles said.

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addition to their curriculum. Some teachers express that they recognize the benefit of the school’s approach. “Plan Ahead was fine,” math teacher Anthony Mana said. “I had no problem teaching the course.” However, not all subject teachers agreed with adding Plan Ahead tasks to their fall curriculum. “I think that to put the burden on us means less academic time in my course,” French teacher John Raya said, “Registry teachers or counselors should have this responsibility.” Contrary to some staff opinions, most freshmen are thankful for the new program. “I thought it was good that administrators incorporated Plan Ahead into our regular classes to save us from having to take a separate course later,” freshman Leah Siegel said.

Lion dance for breakfast!

chris lee

Juniors Preston and Jordan Leung perform the traditional Lion Dance to welcome in the new Grab ‘N’ Go breakfast cart on Jan. 25. The cart serves meals, which cost $1.50 each and are packed in easily transportable bags, every day from 8:10 a.m. to 9 a.m outside the library. Meals may include cereal, bagels, yogurt, pancakes or French toast.

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Some students are envious of freshmen who undertook Plan Ahead. “It’s not fair that the freshmen get this incorporated into their classes, and it also takes away from their class time.” sophomore Douglas Jeong said. In the past, many upperclassmen took College and Career at a cost of $300 through City College’s summer program College for Teens as an alternative to taking the course during the school year. In support of the students, for the past few years, Lowell has also offered a free College and Career course funded by the Parent Teacher Student Association. “I took the course to guarantee I got credit for the class,” junior Ashley Louie, also a reporter for The Lowell, said. Teachers have had mixed reactions to the

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February 24, 2012

The Lowell

NEWS

Saving lives, one Helmet at a time

By Deidre Foley and KT Kelly So many things can go wrong in the rush to school: either your bus breaks down, you miss your carpool or you get stuck in the traffic of 19th Ave. Many students have discovered a transportation solution to all of these problems: bicycles, skateboards and even the occasional unicycle. However, although they provide exercise and an eco-friendly ride to your morning class, these vehicles can be vulnerable to disastrous accidents while on the road. Being educated about vehicle laws and safety can keep accidents at bay, helping you arrive safely — and on-time — to your first class. Bike and skateboarding laws mirror car laws Riding a bike in the city is a lot like driving a car. Bicyclists are supposed to follow laws regarding stop signs and lights, stay in the street, abiding pedestrians’ right-of-way, be visible with lights and reflectors, etc. The importance of behaving according to state laws was recently tragically demonstrated when a bicyclist sped through a red light and killed a pedestrian. Being safe on your bicycle or skateboard is much more likely if you follow the golden rules of safety. “Just because you haven’t gotten hurt doesn’t mean you’re immune,” sophomore Kevin Wong stated in a Feb. 16 survey about bicycle/skateboard safety to about 170 students through their registries.

Golden rule #1: Always, no matter what, wear your helmet Although this unfashionable hat makes anyone’s head appear overly large, a helmet just may save your life, as it protects your head, brain and face in case of an accident. n fact, according to the Bicycle Safety Institute’s website (www.bhsi.org), bicycling is the sport most prone to head injuries. In 2009, there were an estimated 151,000 head injuries for cyclists, 10,769 of which documented involved hospitalization. Just like buckling your seat belt in a car, California State Law requires all youth under the age of 18 to wear a helmet while riding a bike or skateboard. Wearing a bicycle helmet reduces the risk of brain injury by 88 percent, according to the Center of Disease Control (www.cdc.gov). However, a mere 31 percent of underclassmen sampled who have ridden a bicycle/ skateboard always wear a helmet, while 48 percent of upperclassmen sampled who have ridden a bicycle/skateboard always wear a helmet. Students have varied opinions of the age restriction helmet law. “I think it’s necessary for children under 16, but those who are bikers shouldn’t be required to wear a helmet, even though I would recommend it,” junior Shirley Liu stated in the survey. However, other students have issues with the law. “It is not very good because helmets give them a false sense of safety and security, which would cause more accidents,” an anonymous junior stated in the survey.

Golden rule #2: Ensure your bicycle is functioning properly Your ride may seem to be the coolest fixie in your crew, but if it doesn’t have brakes, it isn’t safe to ride. Before swinging on board, you should always perform a quick check on your tires, brakes, chain and seat to ensure they won’t be the cause of an accident on the road. “When people don’t adjust their brakes and go too fast, bad things happen, almost always accidents,” Galen Nishioka, assistant manager of Valencia Cyclery, said.

all illustrations by Hoi Leung

Golden rule #3: Plan ahead by taking the safety route either with bike lanes or wide roads and watch where you ride when the rubber hits the road Keep clear of any potholes, changes in road surfaces, curbs, storm gates and MUNI train rails while spinning down the street: one unexpected move and you may end up on the concrete. “I’ve heard of people riding down hills and landing in potholes,” Nishioka said. Constantly survey the road for opening car doors or other problems and, as a rule of thumb, stay a car door’s length away from other vehicles whether moving or parked. Finally, when riding your bike or skateboard down the streets, you must always ride in the bike lanes when one is marked. There are only four reasons to leave a bicycle lane on the street: when overtaking another cyclist, preparing for a left turn, avoiding debris or hazardous conditions or approaching a corner where a right turn is authorized. The bike lanes may be restricting, but they are there to keep you safe. But nothing protects you like defensive cycling. “Bicyclists have to assume that the cars are not paying attention,” Nishioka said.

Former skateboarder reflects on near-death experience

By Kai Matsumoto-Hines

almost died that day and so quickly — it seemed like it was only minutes from the moment when I fell on the concrete to the operating room. That average winter break day I woke up, around 10 a.m., without having to worry about school. I contemplated my plans while chowing down on some bacon and eggs. I wanted to go skateboarding, so I called some of my friends to see if they were down to go skate the Lowell basketball courts. We agreed on two p.m., but I decided to go early, around noon to get extra practice. The sun shone as I started out, a perfect day for skateboarding. As usual, I didn’t wear my helmet. I swung onto the school’s fire lane and was about to roll down, as I had done countless of other times. Halfway down the hill, my wheels got caught on some rocks and I lost my balance. Launched into the air, I hit the ground headfirst. I lay there in pain; I imagined my long-neglected helmet mocking me, “I warned you to wear a helmet!” I remembered banging my head at the skatepark before, as I do wear a helmet there because it seems more dangerous than skating on the streets. I didn’t feel like I was going to die just then; I had been totally fine after falling at the skatepark. I called my mom about five minutes later and she reassured me that I would be OK and that she was on her way. She wanted to see how bad the injury was before calling 911. Little did we know that I had fractured my skull and was bleeding internally, suffering from an epidural hematoma and in desperate need of

an emergency surgery. I could feel myself about to black out because my head hurt and I was getting very dizzy. Coincidentally, my teacher, Ms. Matusek, an adviser for The Lowell, arrived at school to work. When she saw me slowly trudging up to the street, she called my mother and told her that we should call 911 immediately. The ambulance came before my mother arrived on the scene, and began taking me out of Matusek’s car. My mom drove up and saw the fire truck and ambulance, and that was when it hit her that this was a serious accident. I remember hearing her panicking as the medical team hurried to put me on a stretcher and carry me into the ambulance. My mom and I were both rushed off to the hospital in a matter of minutes. By that time I was even more dizzy; I did not know if that what was happening was real life or just a dream. The doctors gave me a Computerized Axial Tomography (CAT) scan and found out that the blood building up in my head was increasing the pressure inside, which would have basically caused my brain to drown in my own blood. Before I entered the operating room, I looked up from the bed and saw my mom crying above me. I was so dizzy that at the time I did not even know how to respond. The neurosurgeons then put me to sleep and the surgery was underway. Later that night my doctor told me I was very lucky to be alive; if I had showed up any later than I had, I probably would have died. I felt my helmet lecturing me again, “How could you be so stupid as to not wear a helmet?” I stayed at the hospital for only

four days, then the doctors let me go home because of how quickly I was recovering. The doctor told me that I can’t partake in physical activities for a whole year due to the accident; I plan on taking it easy and getting caught up on my schoolwork. Of course I’ll continue to do my usual extracurricular activities, such as Youth Outreach Worker and School Site Council representative. I still have the occasional headaches when I work too hard, but all in all my recovery is going faster than the doctors expected. As for me, I am no longer going to skateboard. From now on, I am going to be extra careful when doing anything remotely dangerous. The doctor warned me that if I ever take a fall like that again, I would probably not survive. He added that I could still skateboard if I were to wear a helmet at all times, but I nicely declined that offer. I now know that you do not have to be doing an insane trick off of stairs to get hurt, but it can be something as simple as riding down a hill, my daily activity. Whenever I see someone riding their skateboard without a helmet, I feel like stopping them and warning them to wear a helmet. I wrote this for a reason — please learn from my mistake and be more cautious whenever you are doing something dangerous. However this experience is not all about the bad things; I learned that I am a very lucky person for being able to survive such a traumatic experience. I now am grateful to have such great friends and family that care about me. And I now appreciate simple things in my life, like being able to walk and talk.

6 NEWS

February 24, 2012

Lowell High School

THE COLLEGE BOARD DEMYSTIFIED BY YOSHA HUANG AND MARA WOODS-ROBINSON

v e ry w h e r e w e t u r n , we the $87 AP exam fee, the school receives an stumble over APs and the SAT. From $8 compensation to cover the costs of table The recent increase in students students whispering in the hallway rentals, proctor compensations, etc. Rentals pursuing higher education has about that brutal AP World test to SAT study cost approximately $2,000 each year and procled to a surge in business for books falling out of over-filled lockers, it’s tors are paid $100 for each exam, according test-making organizations, innearly impossible to escape those two infa- to Granucci. cluding the College Board. mous acronyms that have become such an Levin stated that the high costs are associintegral part of school life. ated with producing the most well-researched Considering the test’s pervasiveness, it tests and extensive services. “More than total revenue may surprise you that one company is respon- seven million students make use of our prosible for marketing both the SAT Reasoning grams and services annually, not to mention Test and the Advanced Placement program to countless teachers, administers and policystudents: the College Board. Founded in 1900 makers,” Levin said. “The operational costs total functional expenses as the College Entrance Examination Board, associated with programs such as AP, SAT the College Board has made its name selling and PSAT/NMSQT are considerable, and standardized tests intended to measure and these programs also must invest in ongoing assess students’ enhancements, surplus academic ability such as the AP for college adcourse redesign Approximately two-thirds missions offices. project.” of all four-year institutions “Our mission is D u r i ng t he exam development and program op. to promote excelcollege search in America require SAT or lence and equity season, students in America’s eduACT scores for admissions. incur additional cational system, costs. After the and we do that four free reports research and product development through a variety of programs and services in offered with SAT registration are used up, college readiness and college success,” College the College Board charges $10.50 per school Board Communications Coordinator Kath- to send the SAT score reports, up from $9.50 erine Levin stated in an email dated Feb. 17. in 2010 — a cost adding up significantly as printing, publications, distribution Approximately two-thirds of all four-year it becomes increasingly commonplace for institutions in America require SAT or ACT students to apply to lists of SAT-requiring scores for admissions. Effectively, nonprofits schools reaching into the double-digits. have become “virtual monopolies,” as their Although these increases are small in light lobbying products are the only options for students of the 3 percent rate of inflation, the growing Figures are from College Board’s 2009 IRS form. who wish to be competitive in the college number of College Board customers means admissions process. On the other hand, the the company’s profits are growing, a benefit uniformity of college admissions testing that is not passed along to students. and subsidies for College Board Assessments.” makes for a more accurate comparison of However, according to Levin, the increasThe College Board, supplemented by a students across the nation. “They are not ing student population also increases the school and state contribution, does offer the best measures of academic preparedness number of fee-waived students. Since there is fee waivers for their tests and services to but they’re a start,” junior Karen Yang said. no cap on the amount of fee-waivers granted, financially disadvantaged students, based on “It sets a standard for schools with different the costs incurred on the College Board like- the income guidelines of the federal free and curriculums; it’s more for comparison than wise rise. “More reduced-price anything else.” than 350,000 lunch program. But beyond its century-old tradition, the (21 percent), Students qualiCollege Board has experienced a surge in or one in every More than seven million fied for the free/ business in the past decade, likely due to our five students, lunch students make use of our reduced twenty-first century emphasis on higher edu- in the graduprog ram are cation — 68 percent of high school graduates ating class of programs and services an- automatically went on to attend college in 2010, according 2011 benefited granted AP fee to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (www.bls. from SAT Fee nually...the operational costs reductions. The gov). College Board president Gaston Caper- Waivers, and last associated with programs breakdown ton, who announced his plans to step down more than $37 year was that last March, has led the company through “a million in SAT such as AP, SAT and PSAT/ of the $87, the period of enormous growth,” according to a services were school gave up March 25, 2011 article titled “Head of College p r o v i d e d t o NMSQT are considerable.” the $8 adminBoard to Depart Next Year” in The New York fee-waiver reistrative fee, the Times (www.nytimes.com). The number of cipients during KATHERINE LEVIN, College Board students taking College Board courses or tests t h e 2 0 1 0 - 1 1 College Board Communications Coordinator deducted $22 grew from 3 million in 1999, when Caperton academic year,” from the cost, began as president, to over 7 million in 2010, Levin reported. “The number of college- and the district funded the final $57. This year, according to the article. bound seniors who benefited from SAT fee College Board contributions to low-income Yet despite the increased number of Col- waivers increased nearly 77 percent since students taking AP exams will increase from lege Board clients — and the consequent 2007 (from 198,729 students in the class of $22 to $26 per test. increase in profits — the company has only 2007).” This spring, the federal allotment for subraised its prices. The SAT Reasoning Test, Partly as a result of the availability of fee- sidizing AP exams was reduced from $43 milwhich cost $43 to waivers, minority lion to $26.95 million. Thus students granted take in 2008, is participation in the waivers will pay $15, rather than $5, for the now priced at has increased first three exams taken and face an increase The heads of College SAT $49; the AP fee by 80 percent since to $53 for each ensuing one. The school is has risen from Board are getting huge 1999. currently looking for alternative sources to $83 in 2006 to Levin also report- cover these costs increases. paychecks while the stu- ed that in the fiscal $87 today. Lowell However, partial discounts are unavailable AP Coordinator year that ended on to those above the cut-off line, so students dents of America have Steve Granucci June 30, 2011, the from middle class families are likely to feel the pointed out to empty their wallets to College Board ex- toll as costs from APs, SATs, CSS and score that the College pended nearly $100 reports pile up. Senior Max Lewin said he has pay for the test.” Board’s price inmillion in free pro- spent a total of $930.50 on College Board tests creases over the grams and services. MAX LEWIN, “The College Board and services throughout high school, includyears have been ing 8 AP tests, 16 score reports and the SAT senior has committed simireasonable. “A Reasoning and Subject Tests themselves. “It monopoly will lar resource levels is unfair that College Board is able to charge only charge what the market can bear,” in the past, and its budget for the upcoming these rates for tests when they call themself Granucci said. “They’ve been careful with fiscal year reflects a continued commitment, a ‘nonprofit,’” Lewin said. “The heads of Colraising prices.” at similar levels, to those types of activities,” lege Board are getting huge paychecks while The increase is not intended to make she said. “In the same fiscal year, the College the students of America have to empty their money for schools that host the test; out of Board provided $52.9 million in fee waivers See COLLEGE BOARD on Page 7

$623.03M

— $569.69M

$53.34M

$23.37M $7.07M

$12.83M

$849,281

“

Gavin li

The Lowell

February 24, 2012

NEWS

College Board’s non-profit status is examined in light of recent increase in college-bound students

From COLLEGE BOARD on Page 6 wallets to pay for the tests. But the amount College Board charges isn’t enough for me to say, ‘I am not going to take the tests because of their cost.’” Paradoxically, the College Board’s fees extend into financial aid. Many students applying for financial aid are required by colleges to purchase and submit the College Board’s College Scholarship Service Profile, adding the CSS Profile’s $9 application fee plus $16 per school to the more needy students’ growing College Board bills. Although approximately $150 million is provided annually to students in need, according to figures provided by Levin, the Board also reaps massive revenues each year. According to the website of a consumer rights organization, Americans for Educational Testing Reform, (www.aetr.org) the College Board made a total of $623 million in revenue in 2008 but spent only $569.7 million of it, leaving a $53.3 million surplus — a profit margin of 8.6 percent, well above the 2.7 percent average profit for nonprofit industries. AETR describes College Board’s profits as “respectable for a for-profit company,” adding that “when a nonprofit company is earning those profits, something is wrong.” The College Board identifies as a nonprofit membership organization, which under the Internal Revenue Service’s tax code means it “must be organized and operated exclusively for exempt purposes,” including charitable or educational services, and not “for the benefit of private interests, such as the creator or the creator’s family, shareholders of the organization [or] other designated individuals,” according to the IRS’s website (www.irs.org). But in the midst of the College Board’s recent growth, questions have been raised over the discrepancies between the company’s nonprofit status, its consistent yearly surpluses, and its high executive compensation. Dean Zerbe, a former senior tax counsel for the Senate Finance Committee, was critical of the nonprofit for its money-mongering business tactics in “College Board Leader Paid More than Harvard’s,” an August 2011 Bloomberg article. “This is the kind of salary I would

expect from a for-profit business that is paying taxes,” Zerbe (www.cnn.com). “All revenues from our products, services or stated in the article. “Congress should take a hard eye at these grants are re-invested into improved or additional services that tax-exempt testing companies that pay big-time salaries and support our mission.” seem to want to shake every dollar possible out of the pockets According to the College Board, those mission-supporting of students applying to college.” expenditures include influencing the political process to help Generally, nonprofits are required to spend at a significant transform education in America. The College Board has portion of any yearly surplus disclosed lobbying expendion the charitable or public tures of over $600,000 per purpose the organization year between 2005 and 2009, was formed to support — in The College Board also lobbies including $1.3 million in the College Board’s case, to 2008, according to the AETR for fee reductions from the state, website. According to the “connect students to college success,” as stated on its own Disclosure Act of which is certainly advantageous Lobbying website (www.collegeboard. 1995, 501(c)(3) nonprofits, org). But groups such as to the students. But it is true that or tax-exempt nonprofits Fairtest (www.fairtest.org), with open membership, like in the long-run, the money would the College Board, cannot an American educational organization that opposes devote a “substantial part” of come from tax-payers.” many standardized testing their activities to influencing practices, have argued that legislature; the exact amount STEVE GRANUCCI, College Board throws the allowed is determined by the Lowell AP Coordinator money away on executive “substantial part test” based salaries and benefits. “The on the amount of time detop officers of the College Board, allegedly a nonprofit orga- voted and the amount of money in proportion to total earnings, nization, earn $500, 600, 800 thousand dollars a year,” Robert as determined by the IRS. Schaeffer, a representative for Fairtest, said in a 2009 episode While tax-exempt nonprofits are allowed to lobby, they of CNN’s American Morning. “That’s where lots of that money cannot support specific candidates nor make campaign contriis going.” butions. The AETR argues that the College Board should not The six-figure salaries of the College Board’s executives be allowed to lobby with their earnings since they are already well exceed those of standard nonprofit executives. In 2008, government-endorsed organizations. Recently, the College Caperton earned $872,061 in salary and perks — well above Board has lobbied to keep its experimental section in place. the $147,273 average income of nonprofit leaders the same year, “The College Board also lobbies for fee reductions from the according to online charity evaluator Charity Navigator (www. state, which is certainly advantageous to the students,” Granucci charitynavigator.org), while the company’s 23 executives make said. “But it is true that in the long-run, the money would come an average of $355,271 per year, according to the AETR website. from tax-payers.” The College Board countered the charge of overcompensaSo how much does it really cost to be college-bound? tion by defending its expenditures. “We do not generate profits Perhaps it is time to crack open those AP Calculus books and or ‘make money,’” said the company in a statement to CNN SAT-approved TI-84 calculators and assess your investment.

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February 24, 2012

Lowell High School

February 24, 2012

The Lowell

NEWS

From rotting floors to broken heaters, admin tackles faulty facilities By Adam Chac

and low priority work orders, which include hile building maintenance moving a bookshelf or whiteboard and problems have been submitted changing or installing an extra light fixture, to the district, it has yet to come are addressed as time allows, according to Burnett. in to repair the heaters. The issue of timely response arose during Assistant principal of administration Ellen Reller reported the schools’ heating a leak in the women’s staff bathroom near the problems to the district on Jan. 19, but the bungalows last semester. “In the bathroom, total repairs have not yet been addressed. the leaky sewage caused the floor tiles to The main area of the library is often too hot, rot, developing holes and causing the tiles while the Meyer library is usually too cold, to loosen,” Lo said. Reller sent in a work order for the weakand several classrooms in the main building ened floor tiles on Sept. 12, 2011. and bungalows have similar problems. When maintenance workers came to Broken heaters, such as the ones in the restrooms near the bungalows, result in investigate the problem, they also found uncomfortably low temperatures, often even rotting wood in the men’s staff bathrooms. lower than temperatures outside, according “When the rotting was exposed in September, it was still pretty sturdy in there,” Reller to English teacher Winifred Lo. English teacher Lorna Galang said that said. “But over time, it became more of a the heaters are on all the time in her class- problem. Teachers became worried that the room, Room 135. These classrooms do not floor wouldn’t hold.” The workers were waiting for a holiday have individual thermostats, so Galang has to fix the bathrooms because they did not no control over the heaters. The only way to cool the room down want to close off parts of the bungalow area when it heats up is to open the windows. “On to students during the renovation. This cold days, it’s not a problem at all, but on days problem was logged as resolved on Dec. 13, when it’s really hot, it’s horrible,” Galang said. 2011, as the repairmen came before winter However, the district has resolved some break when the damage became a safety isappliance problems. A district worker came sue, according to Reller. There would be fewer problems if there to fix a thermostat in the heater in the girls’ was someone to perform preventative mainlocker room, according to Reller. The district is responsible for building tenance, according to the administration. maintenance. Reller requests repairs through “For example, the hardware on our windows is sturdy and well an online form, built, but breaks usually sending in over time because an average of ten a Ideally, it would be great the windows aren’t week. The forms go to the buildif Lowell and other large serviced annually,” Reller said. “Havings and grounds schools had their own fix-it ing someone make division of the San the latches Francisco Unified persons ... so we don’t have sure are yearly oiled so School District Central Office. to wait until things break.” they function well could prevent a They have a dispatch person who ellen reller, lot of the window reviews the work Assistant principal of administration breakages that we have. Ideally, it orders and assigns them to the appropriate craft shop, accord- would be great if Lowell and other large ing to Director of Buildings and Grounds schools had their own fix-it persons who would not only deal with emergencies, but Larry Burnett. Because they receive eighty to one hun- could work to maintain and service what we dred work orders each day, the buildings have so we don’t have to wait until things and grounds department addresses the work break.” However, the district lacks the funds to orders in order of priority. Emergency work orders are those having do that, according to the district. “A long to do with security, health and safety issues, time ago, when we had twice as many worksuch as exterior doors that won’t lock, sewer ers we have now and twice the budget, we backups, broken glass or obscene graffiti. could afford to leave a couple workers at a “Those work orders are dealt with within school for a few weeks until almost everything at the school was fixed,” Burnett said. the hour,” Burnett said. High priority work orders such as “Unfortunately, in today’s times, with half non-obscene graffiti or fence repairs are the staff and half the budget, we don’t have responded to within 24 hours. Medium pri- that luxury any more.” In the meantime, regarding the heaters, ority orders, such as minor paint peeling or an interior door that will not close properly; staff and students will dress in layers.

Gavin Li

Counseling intern Caitlin Walsh, the innovative mind who suggested bringing Counseling Week to the school, mans the department’s booth as a student writes an appeciative note to her counselor.

Compliments for cookies: students praise counselors

By Ian James

he school participated in a national event to celebrate the contribution of professional counselors this month, with the goal of encouraging students to visit their counselors more often. The event, called “School Counselors: Helping Students Be Brilliant,” took place the week of Feb. 6. It included a booth set up outside the main office with the intent of educating students on both the mental and academic benefits of visiting counselors. “The school has never tried something like this before, but it has really caught on,” counseling intern Caitlin Walsh said. “Our goal was to make ourselves visible to students, show them how their counselors can help, including helping them with things like colleges but also emotional problems.” Counselors working at the booth handed out pamphlets, stickers and snacks to promote their message of counselor importance. “We decided on the booth because it’s committed to the idea of counselors being out there and accessible,” Walsh said. “Lots of students don’t have enough time to fill out full surveys so we hand out pamphlets and other small things to help get our message across.” Students appreciated the convenience of the booth. “I stopped by the booth because it was really quick,” sophomore Joe Mueller said. “I didn’t have to wait around and fill out a long survey, yet I still managed to learn more about

ACROSS

1 Cookie container 4 “Madam, I’m __” 8 Spaces 12 __-Wan Kenobi 13 Thick string 14 Width x height 15 Type of sandwich, for short 16 NaCl subject 18 Stitch to hold fabric together 20 Additional 21 Actress Jessica 24 Pale, as a face 28 Ciao subject 31 WALL-E’s love interest 32 Planets follow them 33 Holy 36 __ Hill, of San Francisco 37 y = mx + b subject

my counselors. I could just pick up a cookie and be off to my next class” Walsh originally learned about the idea while taking courses in counseling. “The course I’m taking is very data-driven and this idea showed really good numbers when it comes to promoting student interaction with counselors,” Walsh said. The idea was quick to gain support from other counselors at the school, who had been trying more creative ways to connect with students before. “It’s good to be able to interact with students in large groups, because we usually stay in our offices, working one-on-one with students and a lot of students do not take the time to come visit us,” counselor Marie Aguirre said. “Our goal was to increase the interaction between students and counselors and overall student responses have been good. We also posted pictures of counselors and facts about them, so students will feel more familiar.” The ‘meet your counselor’ bulletin board is in the hallway next to the main office. The annual counseling week is sponsored by The American School Counselor Association, according to the ASCA website (www. schoolcounselor.org). The counselors have high hopes for t. “This is the first National Counseling Week and I hope the ASCA will continue to sponsor it,” Aguirre said. “I think it really helped students better understand what counselors are for and it is a program I think is worth continuing.”

38 Breaks, as a branch 41 12:00 PM 42 Color of Santa’s cheeks 44 Golfing pegs 48 Civil War subject 53 Like MJ, some years 54 Minute __ 55 __ Karenina 56 American soccer star Hamm 57 Vatican resident 58 Ray of light 59 Key between control and command

DOWN

1 Apple co-founder Steve 2 Competent 3 Andie MacDowell role in “Groundhog Day” (1993) 4 Part of a circle

5 “Shoot!,” to Homer Simpson 6 Tarzan, e.g. 7 Office message 8 Oxygen and carbon dioxide, e.g. 9 Watercolor painting, e.g. 10 The “p” in r.p.m. 11 Speak 17 401(k) alternative 19 Country bordering the Ivory Coast 22 Set aflame 23 Four-year degrees: Abbr. 25 Spice 26 At any time 27 Nothing, in Spain 28 Charged particles 29 “__: Legacy” (2010 film) 30 “Dancing Queen” group

33 __-mo 34 “A long time __, in a galaxy far, far away. . . .” 35 50 __ (rapper) 37 “__ can cook” – Ratatouille 39 Arrogance 40 Distress call, for short 45 Actress Stone, from “Easy A” (2010) 43 Jab, as with a knife 46 Like Satan 47 Said angrily 48 Baseball ref, for short 49 __ Paulo 50 Chic 51 Messenger or transfer, e.g.: Abbr. 52 Sweet potato

Whizz kid junior Francesco Trogu, who recently had his orignal crossword placed in the Jan. 30 edition of The New York Times, created this puzzle for The Lowell. For answers, please visit thelowell.org.

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SLEUTHING FOR SAVINGS Your shoes only cost a dollar — but no one needs to know. Sherlock Holmes your way around the Bay Area with a limited pocket book and a handful of coupons to expand your closet with limited funds. By Mara Woods-Robinson

n these tight times, nobody wants to loosen their purse strings. Maybe your parents had to cut your allowance in half (they are on a budget too), maybe you just could not find a summer job, but the question remains: how can you buy a pair of vintage Nike kicks — cheap? Thanks largely to the 2008 recession, popular new shopping trends — and rejuvenated old ones — have arisen around the quest to find great deals. From thrift store fiends disdainful of retail jeans to extreme couponers desperately scouring the city for savings, bargain hunting has become more than just a way to stretch your dollar: it’s the new cool. Older is Better As the age-old saying goes, “One man’s junk is another man’s treasure.” And, sure enough, generations of thrifters and flea market-goers have found their most valued possessions amid piles of others’ cast-offs. The flea market is an adventurous tradition dating back as far as the 19th century, when marchés aux puces — or “markets of fleas” — began popping up outside of Paris, selling discarded belongings for cheap. In a modern flea market, many, even hundreds of vendors set up shop together in an open lot, displaying their tolerably-priced antiques, collectibles, clothing, books, trinkets, furniture, appliances and even the occasional snack. Most flea marketers just lik e to poke around in hopes of finding some cute retro clock or a 1940s-era typewriter, but some hardcore collectors and bargain hunters take things much more seriously. Shoppers intent on snatching the best loot at the lowest prices arrive when the market opens and haggle with the best of them. Anyone curious to test their skills should venture to the Alameda Point Antiques Faire, the largest flea market in northern California, where over 800 vendors sell items at least 20 years or older on the first Sunday of every month. But if that is too out of the way, head to San Francisco’s weekly Alemany Flea Market this Sunday and wander past VHS tapes and stone Buddhas to spot the fringed cowboy boots you have been coveting. For those less inclined to peruse piles of knickknacks in the open air, sifting through racks of retro sweaters and blouses at thrift stores can be another way to get your secondhand fix. Technically, a thrift store sells donated goods at low prices to raise money for charity, but Bay Area vernacular has expanded the term to include consignment shops which sell others’ goods but take a cut from the sales for their own business purposes. Although more high-end used clothing stores — often poshed-up as “vintage boutiques” or “recycled clothing shops” — exist for dabblers in the world of secondhand couture, their prices are too lofty for many hardcore, bargainseeking thrifters. The truly frugal are willing to brave the unwashed chaos of the grimiest thrift stores, digging through piles of hideous sweater vests to find that adorable skirt hidden in the back — or, alternately, purchasing a dorky argyle sweater vest in a grand ironic gesture. The craftiest thrifters of all know how to sew, allowing them to consider shirts with holes or too-long dresses that others passed over.

All illu stratio n s by H oi Leun g

According to the Yellow Pages (www.yellowpages.com), San Francisco is home to 90 thrift stores. Shoppers with a little extra spending money can stroll down Haight Street, where shops like Wasteland, Crossroads Trading Company and Buffalo Exchange sell higher-quality used clothing. But those ready to tackle thrifting full-on should head straight to the Mission. Incredible deals await the dedicated shopper in the neighborhood’s many treasure troves, including Yelp favorites Community Thrift, Mission Thrift and Thrift Town. Today, recessionistas across the country have embraced secondhand shopping. But the benefits of buying used items go beyond cheaper prices and fuller wallets. Many products sold at flea markets and thrift stores are impossible to find anywhere else, like 19th century writing desks or authentic Led Zeppelin 1968 tour shirts. So secondhand shoppers can put together entirely unique, retro wardrobes — a necessity for those subscribing to the cooler-than-thou mustachioed hipster culture. And for the green-loving politicos concerned about the environmental repercussions of our over-manufacturing consumer culture, buying secondhand can help reduce carbon footprints and lessen a guilty conscience. Extreme Couponing Have you ever waited in a checkout line while another customer sifted through handfuls of clippings? If so, you have witnessed an extreme couponer in action. Coupons first emerged in 1894 as Asa Candler’s innovative business strategy to popularize his new soda: Coca-Cola. The then-infant soft drink company distributed paper vouchers through mail and magazines giving complimentary sodas to recipients, which in turn served to popularize what is now considered the most ubiquitous soft drink in the world. But it was not until the Great Depression that coupons gained widespread popularity, as millions of tight-budgeted Americans began jumping at opportunities to get more bang for their buck. Since then, coupon usage in the United States has fluctuated through economic booms and busts. The recent recession in particular has caused a significant spike in coupon usage, and perhaps more notably given rise to the latest manifestation of the American dream: extreme couponing. The term “extreme couponer” was first coined in a March 2010 Wall Street Journal article profiling a handful of compulsive shoppers who collect thousands of coupons to save thousands of dollars on massively over-bought household items. The popular media wasn’t far behind: this radical approach to shopping achieved even more publicity through TLC’s reality television show Extreme Couponing, which first aired on Dec. 29, 2010. The “eleventh commandment” of every Extreme Couponing shopper essentially reflects that of featured couponer J’aime Kirlew: “Thou shalt not pay retail.” Each episode of the show follows two different couponers as they formulate a game plan and attack the aisles the grocery store, racking up massive bills at the checkout counter that usually get slashed into double- or even single-digit figures after they bring out their coupons. The shoppers cross-reference in-store sales with their extensive coupon collections to score incredible bargains — savings of 90 percent or more on their overall transactions. Adding even more meaning to their “extreme” moniker, some couponers can actually leave the store with more cash than they came with, by combining sales and piling up coupons that will reduce prices below zero and actually earn them change. The spoils of these shopping sprees are then compiled into at-home stockpiles, which can take up entire rooms of the coupon-clippers’ houses, where they will hopefully be utilized or donated to charity before going bad. Though critiqued by some as a melodramatic homage to American overconsumption, an internet subculture has sprung up around these deals beyond just Groupon (www.groupon.com), the big-name hotspot that offers deals on local goods and services. Lesser-known extreme couponing sites like Couponers (www.couponers. com) and The Krazy Coupon Lady (www.thekrazycouponlady.com) compile links to print-out coupons, tips and strategies for successful couponing, and forums where couponers can swap war stories. But whether you are piling up coupons for supermarket binges or twirling around in thrifted ensembles in front of dressing room mirrors, it is comforting to know that you can make your money stretch. Think of the extra money you saved by buying that flea market rug instead of that generic Ikea carpet — buy some Giants tickets, treat your friends to a fancy meal, plan a trip to Disneyland. Welcome to the world of thrift!

PE teacher and baseball coach John Donahue enters SF Prep Hall of Fame

Lowell High School February 24, 2012

Page 13

Page 11

Cardinals eye championship with 11-0 record By Sean Wang

espite a starting line-up with mostly juniors, the varsity girls’ basketball team is tearing through their opponents left and right, with an undefeated 11-0 record so far in the Academic Athletic Association league. On Feb. 21, Lowell wrapped up their regular season with a win against Wallenberg, 59-19. The Cardinals were up the whole game, with a 19-point lead by halftime. B esides challenging their opponents offensively, Lowell played well defen-

JV boys By Henry Hammel

sively as well, forcing Wallenberg to commit multiple turnovers and shutting out the Bulldogs from scoring in the third quarter. Team captain and senior guard Natalie Moy led the team in scoring with 13 points. At the annual Battle of the Birds at Kezar on Jan. 27, the Cardinals gave the Washington Eagles their first loss in the AAA, winning 4735. Lowell surged ahead in the third quarter with nine unanswered points, giving them a six-point lead of 32-26. Junior starter point guard Katarina Lum scored five of those points, one of which was a three-pointer. “It felt great and relieving to know that we got the lead and it made it harder for them to come back,” Lum said. The Cardinals have a good amount of experience this year, with most of the key players returning from last year. Three of this year’s regular starters, Moy, team captain and senior forward Jillian Doherty and junior center Lorna Tu’ufuli started last year as well. “As returning post players, Jill and I have developed a strong chemistry playing together,” Tu’ufuli said. This year, just like every other year, the team is focusing on defense. “If we keep the opposing team under forty points, we’ll probably win the game,” Doherty said. The team also works on controlling the ball, getting it to the post players and preventing turnovers, according to senior forward and guard Rachel Nghe. Practices this season have been oriented towards conditioning and the fundamentals of basketball, which involve a lot of running, sprinting, defensive and offensive drills and endurance training. In their non-league games during preseason, the Cardinals played well with a record of 10-4. They defeated Sacred Heart Cathedral in the Burlingame Invitational Daniel Green

Daniel Green

Senior Jillian Doherty dominates the key at the Battle of the Birds. The Cardinals won 47-35.

and then toppled Gunn before losing to St. Francis by 7 points in the championships. They also participated in the Napa Tournament, winning the championship game, and then placed 4th at the St. Ignatius tournament. During these games, most of the opponents were bigger and slower, so the team used speed to their advantage as much as possible, according to Nghe. In comparison, AAA league teams have smaller players, so the Cardinals utilize their height advantage by passing the ball to their forwards and centers in the post. “We focus more on the post players because they’re more skilled now,” Lum said.

Lowell defeated Washington last year to win the championships 50-40. This year, they are prepared to win their third consecutive championship title. “Compared to last season, I would say we’re playing better as a team, we’re blowing out each team, even Wash, which is a very talented team,” Nghe said. “Last year, we lost to them by one point during the regular season, but now, we’re undefeated.” Come cheer on the lady Cardinals tonight as they play their first playoff game at Lowell, at Lowell against Mission, and the time is to be determined as of Feb. 21. For live game updates, check out Twitter (@thelowell) and The Lowell’s website (www.thelowell.org).

forced to take early playoff exit

ophomore center Alvin Norman slams back to the court after a rebound, then the ball swishes through the basket after being released by sophomore forward Sammy Pollard. Sophomore guard Evan Louie races down the court signaling teammates of the next play. This is a typical boys’ JV basketball game. The team’s hope for a championship win was crushed on Feb. 7 when they were defeated by the Mission Bears 52-63 in a playoff game. “Mission is a really good team and they played well,” head coach Jonny Lee said. “They were ready for everything we threw at them and just outplayed us that day, both offensively and defensively.” Despite losing the playoff game, the boys finished the season in second place with an 8-2 final record, due to the Lincoln Mustangs forfeiting eight games because of an ineligible player, according

the San Francisco section of the California Interscholastic Federation website (cifsf.org). This year the team was led by two new coaches: Lee and assistant coach Rhys Thieriot. Despite the change in coaching staff, many coaching practices are unchanged. “I was an assistant to the former head coach Aaron Koga for the previous four seasons,” Lee stated in an email on Feb. 8. “Coach Koga and I have similar coaching styles. We have a couple of different offenses but that’s about it.” Thieriot is assisting both the boys’ JV basketball team and the boys’ varsity basketball team, according to Lee. “We are extremely lucky to have him as an assistant because he does an incredible job of scouting and coming up with great game plans,” Lee said. The returning players led the team during game time. “The main difference between freshmen and sophomores is game experi-

ence,” Lee stated. “Sophomores usually have a little more game experience than freshmen so they make better decisions and are a little bit more aggressive.” Sophomore forward Sammy Pollard is one of the returning players that helped build confidence on the court. “We set the tone in games,” Pollard said. “A lot of the freshmen are nervous and we try to get rid of that bad feeling.” The veterans also show how much dedication is required for the team to be successful. “These guys really lead the team by example,” Lee stated. “They work hard and it shows the new players how hard they have to work in order for us to reach our goals.” This year the team focused on sharing the ball, according to Lee. “During the beginning of the season we didn’t know each other or each other’s strengths,” freshman guard Nick See BOYS’ BBALL on Page 12

12 SPORTS

February 24, 2012

Lowell High School

Standings As of February 24, 2012

Vars. Boys’ Basketball

12-3

standing: 2nd place next game: today at 5:30 p.m. against Washington

Vars. Girls’ Basketball

ELI ALPERIN

11-0

standing: 1st place next game:4:00 p.m. today at home against Mission

Sophomore forward Sammy Pollard lays up in Kezar Stadium at the Battle of the Birds while being contested by two Wash defenders.

JV Cardinals clinch second place MVP From BOYS’ BBALL on Page 11 Gong said. “Over the season we learned that we could each do someThe Lowell’s choice for boys’ JV basketball most valuable players thing different and contribute to the team.” For example, Gong, as a are sophomore guard Evan Louie, sophomore forward Sammy Polpoint guard, was responsible for calling out plays during the game. lard and sophomore center Alvin Norman. These three returning High school basketball requires much more commitment than players of the team have shown their dedication both on and off the court. middle school basketball, according to Gong, who played basketball at St. Anne All three excel at different aspects of school. “We practice six days a week the game. “Sammy is a good attacker and a lot of fouls,” freshman guard Nick including Saturdays; when I played in My goal for the players draws Gong said. “Evan is a leader, he knows middle school we practiced about twice a week,” he said. individually is top pre- what plays to call and who should be on the court, he also has a good jump shot. Adjusting to high school basketball pare each and everyone of Alvin is a motivator, when we are down has not been easy. “High school basketball moves a lot faster,” Pollard said. “We try to brings back points and he’s good in them for the varsity level.” he the key.” teach them to be tough — a lot of times The boys, especially Norman, have other teams try to push us around on the put in the extra time to succeed. “Often court, it’s important to not let that happen.” NICK GONG Alvin would ask if the coaches had film “It’s much more competitive, everyone freshman guard is stronger, faster and older,” Gong said. or a scouting report on an upcoming Besides goals set for the team, Lee has opponent that he could review before goals for the players themselves. “My goal practice,” assistant coach Rhys Thieriot for the players individually is to prepare each and everyone of them said. “He showed a rare desire and initiative to go the extra mile to better prepare himself for games.” for the varsity level,” Lee stated.

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JV Boys’ Basketball

8-2

standing: 2nd place (final score: 52-63)

JV Girls’ Basketball

10-0

standing: 1st place AAA league Champions (final score 46-16)

Wrestling

3-2

standing: 3rd place next meet: All City Tournament @ 10 a.m. on 2/25 at Lincoln

SPORTS

February 24, 2012

The Lowell

Coach adds another award to his mantle after years with Lowell’s baseball team photo courtesy OF tim figueras

By Michelle Hwang ITH ITS RED-WHITE diamond cut giving shape to the grassy field, baseball has been played, coached and loved by many Americans, including varsity baseball coach and Physical Education teacher John Donohue. Since 1983, Donohue has been coaching varsity baseball at Lowell, leading the team to 10 City-Sections Championship victories and 640 wins. He has served in many organizations such as being an American Baseball Coaches Association representative (1999-2005) and won many awards, including the California Coaches Association Baseball Coach of the Year (2006) and the West State Regional Coach of the Year (2007). This year he has been chosen as a San Francisco Prep Hall of Fame Honoree. The various strategic techniques used throughout baseball are one of the reasons why he is passionate about the game. “It’s a fun game to play. There’s so many different ways to win games; pitching and defense win a lot of games,” Donohue said one of the reasons he enjoys a role on the field: “It’s exciting to play but sometimes, it’s boring to watch.” Donohue coaches the team not only for his love of the game but also because of the adrenaline and perks that come with it. “I like the competitiveness of it and that our players have a chance to play for the championships at AT&T Park,” he said. “Every time we win a championship at AT&T it’s so exciting, and we’ve won several. We were the last school to win at Candlestick and the first team to win at AT&T.” With the season in full swing, Donohue has his expectations to develop “dedication, loyalty, trustworthiness, and hustle” laid out for the Lowell team. “Hopefully,

to win championships. For the past three years we haven’t done that,” he said. “We can do this by doing the fundamental things right, such as making the plays on defense and getting some timely hits. Washington and Balboa are very good.” Donohue appreciates the positive characteristics the team has. “What I’m really noticing is that we’re really good on defense and we make very few errors,” he said. “Now we’re starting to hit the ball a bit. If we could start to throw a couple of strikes, I think we’d be really happy about that.” Donohue and the assistant coaches, Tom Ledda, Emil DeAndreis and James Burke use different techniques to help the Cardinals become successful baseball players. “We do various drills to improve. We do station to station where one group works on hitting and one group on defense,” he said. “Also, we work on not making mental mistakes like throwing to the wrong base. We make enough physical mistakes but the mental mistakes are what we try to cut back on.” Donohue expressed that winning all comes down to the team. “They’re intelligent not only in the classroom but also on the baseball field,” he said. “Any success we’ve had, I’ve had, is because of them and my assistant coaches.” Because of his familiarity with the sport, the assistant coaches respect Donohue’s style of teaching. “It’s seasoned, it’s experienced,” he said. “He’s worn so many hats over the years, from basketball ref to gym teacher to baseball coach, and his lengthy career has primed him to be able to handle a wide range of situations, both on and off the field, with calmness and poise. As a one time player and now colleague of his, I can confidently say that JD provides his players one of the best overall experiences an athlete in San Francisco can have,” DeAndreis said. “In my four years playing for him, thanks to his organization and generosity, I was given the opportunity to travel to San Diego, Cooperstown (to the hall of fame), New Orleans (during Mardi Gras), Las Vegas and Hilo, Hawaii, which would end up being my destination for college baseball,” he said. “Playing for JD has historically given high school kids opportunities that they can’t get anywhere else in the city-- in my experiences, the best stories and the best memories belong to those who have been fortunate enough to play under him.” Donohue gained coaching experience at various places such as the St. Brendan Parish School and St. Cecilia Elementary School. He also coached at the Flame League, run by the San Francisco Fire Department which sponsors Bronco (ages 1112) and Pony (ages 13-14), which are both youth baseball teams. “But coaching at Lowell has been fantastic. To teach here has been a great opportunity to work with young people who are dedicated,” he said. As a native San Franciscan, Donohue roots for his home team, the San Francisco Giants. “I have been a fan of theirs for forty years,” he

said. “I’ve watched them growing up.” After so many years of watching and coaching baseball with various teams, Donohue finds that his most memorable moments are with the Cardinals. “I remember Harley Augustino, he broke his left arm fighting in the playoff game against Lincoln,” he said. “He had a cast on and we weren’t sure if he’d be able to play. But he was able to warm up and win the championships.” Players benefit and improve from Donohue’s experienced coaching advice. “His style is unique and detailed and he’s good at outsmarting the opponent,” senior outfield and pitcher Nick Tam said. “What’s helpful is that he’s positive and optimistic, he puts a lot of trust in his staff and in his players. He’s good at identifying our strengths and weaknesses and uses every player to their best ability.” Assistant coach Tom Ledda learns from Donohue’s interaction with the players on the team. “He’s well-respected among his players,” he said. “He’s an excellent role model and he’s a great leader.” The team learns positive morals from Donohue and find it a rare chance to be taught by him. “If there is one thing I learned from JD, it’s that we have the ability to overcome any challenge as a team,” senior second base player Nick Magyari said, “There is no game that is out of our control. It is an honor to be coached by someone who has such storied success,” he said, “Coming out of such a well-coached program leaves every player with a sense of accomplishment and belonging.” Donohue also finds that coaching has given him an opportunity to be taught from the players. “I learn a lot because they bring a lot of effort and enthusiasm to what they do,” he said.

all illustrations by vivian tong

14 Lowell High School

February 24, 2012

SPORTS

Seniors Celebrate After a 48-21 win over the Wallenberg Bulldogs on Feb. 21, the senior boys celebrate the end of their last home game of the regular season and a spot in playoffs. Clockwise: (Top Left) Senior guard Taylor Tsang proudly presents his mother. (Top Middle) Senior guard Darion Lee , his mother and senior cheer co-captain Mackenzie Foley celebrate the boys’ victory. (Top Right) Senior cheerleader Sally Mei congratulates senior forward Antonio Chacon with a rose. (Bottom) All the senior varsity basketball boys and their parents soak up a great night and celebrate the boys’ four-year commitment to the basketball program. all photos by daniel green

Star pitchers & defense: keys to champs

By Pasha Stone HE DAY WAS May 5, 2011. Varsity baseball head coach John Donohue led his team to a semi-final playoff game at Graham Field against Balboa. One win was needed to play in AT&T Park for the city championship. The Cardinals entered the playoffs with a promising record of twelve wins against two loses, which was good enough for second seed and even a first round bye. However, that day Lowell was upset in a 12-2 rout by the Buccaneers, putting the hope of a city title on hold for another year. Fast forward a year and the boys’ varsity baseball team has high hopes for this season. “We look a lot better than I thought we would; we have good defense and really good pitching,” Donohue said. “Our summer players have improved very much.” Anyone who knows sports well knows the old saying “defense wins championships.” And that’s exactly what Lowell plans to do. Last year, the team boasted a strong 2.53 Earned Run Average. The major league average was 3.94 in 2011, according to Yahoo! Sports (www.sports.yahoo.com). The current starting pitcher rotation consists of juniors Elijah Saunders and Aaron Leong and senior Nick Tam, with five men in the bullpen. Last season those three pitchers struck out 100 opponents over 88 innings. Leong had a 3.23 ERA over 21 2/3 innings, while Saunders had a 2.62 ERA over 16. Tam shows a lot of promise this coming season; he led the team with 51 innings pitched

with 53 strikeouts. He also has the lowest ERA (2.20) out of any returning player. The team will benefit from the number of returning players. “We show a lot of promise this year,” said Leong. “Our team is very in-depth and built for the future.” [Lowell stats provided courtesy of sports site, MaxPreps (www. maxpreps.com)] Saunders is more than just a pitcher; he is also a dominant hitter. He led the team in several categories — on base percentage, bases on balls, and stolen bases. This earned him a spot on the All-City first team. Fellow first team All-City member, junior outfielder Andy Glickfeld, cited Saunders as an inspirational force. “When Elijah comes to play, I think we can beat anyone in the city…scratch that, I KNOW we can beat anyone!” Glickfeld said. The team, having achieved excellent pitching, is working to improve its offense. Last year, the Cards had an impressive OPS (On-Base Plus Slugging) of .812. However this past season, the team only posted a .393 slugging percentage, according to Max Preps. Donohue looked past the numbers; calling his batters “timely hitters.” And with 6.2 runs per game, this praise is clearly earned. The team lost nine seniors this year, including two All-City first and second teamers: short stop Oscar Gates-Kent and catcher Jacob Gleason. Currently, 12 out of the 27 players on the roster are underclassmen, including two freshmen who show a lot of promise, according to Donohue. There are only five

seniors returning this season. Despite the turnover, the Cardinals have worked to build on their strengths. “Even though we lost some key players, the juniors have really stepped up and players have filled their roles,” junior catcher Ryan Werth said. The Cardinal’s last city championship was four years ago, during the 2007-08 season; the team is looking to regain the chord they struck three seasons ago. However, the competition is still pretty thick. Their biggest opposition will be the Washington Eagles and the Balboa Buccaneers, according to Donohue. Balboa bounced them out of the playoffs a year ago and Washington went undefeated and took the AAA title at AT&T Park, but Lowell seems pretty confident about this season. “I really think this is our year; I believe we can beat any team in the city,” sophomore pitcher Joe Mueller said. Come and see the Cardinals next Wednesday, February 29, at 3:30 p.m. at Sweeny Field, as they face off against the O’Connell Boilermakers in a leap year game.

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February 24, 2012

The Lowell

PROFILES

Alumnus Time editor travels roads and kingdoms By Jeffrey Wong

e never thought of being a journalist, not even in college. But it was his interests that shaped and led him to where he is today. Lowell alumnus Class of 1993 Nathan Thornburgh has worked his way up to be the founder of the online magazine, Roads and Kingdoms, which features a mix of food, music, travel, and even war stories while creating a home for foreign correspondence will make you want to pack your bag and grab your passport. During his years at Lowell, Thornburgh’s main extracurricular was the Forensics Society, where he found himself passing the time by writing. “My somewhat legendary Lowell teacher, Jack Anderson, made me sit in class and just write each day. He saw me as a writer,” Thornburgh said. “Forensics kept me interested in writing, which I would learn to be my passion later on.” Feeling almost completely burnt out by the school’s workload by the end of his junior year, Thornburgh took advantage of an all-expensespaid Congress-Bundestag scholarship to spend his senior year studying abroad in Germany. The year after, he went on to Stanford University. After college, Thornburgh started out as a musician as means for a living, having played in a number of bands since he was

16 — in Germany, college and now after college. “I liked jazz and Latin because I was a horn player, and that music just respects horns more,” Thornburgh said. But he soon found himself supplementing his income as a writer, developing journalistic talent. At age 24, he wrote music reviews as a freelancer for The Stranger, a free alternative-weekly newspaper, in Seattle, Washington. It didn’t quite pay the bills, making only eight cents a word, but he still enjoyed the experiences and connecting with new people, then describing the scene in words — getting a satisfaction he had never gained from his former odd jobs in sales, copyediting and dishwashing. But he had always had his heart in politics. In fact, in his music reviews, he made references to the 2000 presidential election. “This was a big election because the incumbent couldn’t run again,” Thornburgh said. “Both Bush and Gore were lying through their teeth about so many things. So political fever sort of caught hold of me and infected everything I was writing.” However, the entertainment and political genres didn’t always mix well. In 2000, he approached Time magazine, sent in some sample articles he had written for The Stranger, in hopes of becoming a “stringer,” a non-staff, freelance reporting job.

Former writer and editor for Time magazine, Thornburgh now runs the online magazine Roads and Kingdoms, featuring life and food from around the world. Top: Sunday morning mass at Burmese refugee camp. Bottom Left: Traditional pork larb dish from Laos.

Fortunately, Terry McCarthy, the newest West Coast bureau chief for Time, was looking for reporters at that time and hired Thornburgh. For the first three years the only stories he wrote dealt with breaking news — over the entire Pacific Northwest. After he moved to Boston, he reported on the 2004 election cycle, which involved New Englanders John Kerry and Howard Dean. Thornburgh earned his reporter stripes. In late 2004, Thornburgh moved to New York and was promoted to a full-time staff job on the news magazine. He became the Time New York correspondent, then a staff writer, then an editor, and later was titled a senior writer. “Like everything else, I became an editor through a combination of hard work and good luck,” Thornburgh said. “I’ve edited a lot of sections in the magazine, from politics to the Briefing section — the quick-hit news section in the front of the book, or front of the magazine (journalism jargon) — which I edited for a year.” His most memorable experience for Time was four years ago in November, when he touched down for a story about the Cuban band El Septeto Tipico de la Habana. Thornburgh had played with the members in 1999, when he was 24 and living

in Havana. In this Time article, “The Sound of Change: Can Music Save Cuba?” Thornburgh interviewed the musicians, telling the story of Cuba by telling stories about the political, economic and sociological impact on the band members’ lives. “In general, the experience of having reported in countries like China, Burma, Russia, Israel, Turkey, Mexico and Cuba have definitely opened my eyes,” Thornburgh said. “Cuba does not have a free media. Dissidents, journalists and bloggers alike face government pressure for writing about life as it really is in Cuba. I just know that we are lucky to be living in a country with a relatively free press.” Although having printed a few stories on the cover of Time, he wanted to explore new options in journalism. In December 2011, he started Roads and Kingdoms with cofounder Matt Goulding. The two are in charge of every aspect of this independent company, from business strategy to reporting to soliciting work from other writers and photographers. Thornburgh continues to report on current events both in America and, as a foreign correspondent, world events. Yet he still holds the title “Contributing Writer, Time Magazine” as Thornburgh stays connected to the prestigious magazine.

ALL photos courtesy of Nathan Thornburgh and roadsandkingdoms.tumblr.com

“Roads and Kingdoms is still in startup mode, and not able to pay of its co-founders yet,” Thornburgh said. “I love working for Time, and enjoy keeping that relationship.” Thornburgh’s love for journalism stems from his curiosity towards the lives of interesting people and places. “Maybe it was having moved around a bit in my childhood, or just having lived in a Babel like San Francisco, but I am pretty happy walking into strange situations and asking strangers strange questions,” Thornburgh said. “I love how it’s so basic and easy, yet important to society. As a job, it can certainly be overwhelming by being put in some difficult situations, but to me it’s not work.” Yet every job has its limitations to happiness. “The business questions around journalism — how can you pay for real reporting?” Thornburgh said. “It’s something I really hope to figure out with Roads & Kingdoms.” As a Lowell alumn, he empathizes. But he has a message for the youth: “All this hard work sucks, I know because I suffered just as much and hated it when I went there,” Thornburgh said. “But it all pays off in the end. Lowell instilled a work ethic in me, and for that I feel that I have been more successful and a harder-working person.”

Skulling against the clock, rowers make record books By KT Kelly

split,” (A split is how long it takes a rower to row 500 meters, t is one thing to “row, row, row your boat gently down similar to a miles-per-hour measurement). The competitive spirit never failed Coblentz nor Stefani the stream.” It’s a whole other thing to break a world record doing it. Freshman Gena Coblentz and sophomore Jovanni nor their partners, as with 500 meters calling for 60 strokes, according to assistant coach Michaela Glaeser, Stefani, who both row crew for the Pacific Rowthe record meant 12,000 strokes for the young ing Club have sculled their way into the rowing athletes. “What motivated me the most was just record books. knowing that I could beat a world record,” Stefani Coblentz and her partner, Emile Theriaultsaid. “It’s rarely done, and I knew I could beat it Shay, a freshman at Lick-Wilmerding High by a lot because the old record was very slow.” School, broke the world record for the Tandem Rowing, more recently known as “crew,” is Under 19 Heavyweight 100k, rowing 100,000 one of the oldest Olympic sports. Athletes stream meters, on Dec. 28, 2011, while Stefani and across the water on thin, sleek vessels. Each his partner, Jeff Wang, a senior at Sacred Heart rower has an oar that they pull from the toes to Cathedral, broke the Tandem Under 19 Lightthe torso to drive the boat forward. Crew also weight 100k on Dec. 17, 2011. Both teams used has the option of using two oars for each rower, Concept 2 ergs - a machine that enables rowers Jovanni Stefani coined “sculling.” Coblentz and Stefani practice to go through the action of rowing on land with at Lake Merced five or six times a week for two different weights and resistances. The two duos to three hours a time - sometimes even at around were not racing anyone but the clock. 4:45 a.m. “The reason why we commit to crew is Coblentz and Theriault-Shay were cheered to because we love it,” Coblentz said. the finish by a group, including their coaches EmStefani didn’t just jump on one of the ergs mie Koenig and Bob Maclean and their friends and set a world record without preparation. and family. “While I was setting the record, I “The night before, I ate a lot of carbohydrates,” mostly zoned out and focused on whittling the Stefani said. “I also drank a lot of chocolate milk, meters down,” Coblentz said. “When Emile was because it helps.” Well-fueled, he could whip out rowing, and I was taking my break, I felt a sense a new world record with his renewed strength. of elation knowing that we were closer and closer During the challenge, neither team was to finishing the 100,000 meters.” focused on the pain of their inflamed muscles, After Wang, Stefani’s doubles partner who although the strain did take its toll. “I felt tired had seen the existing record of 6 hours and 58 Gena Coblentz and dead afterwards,” Coblentz said. “Walking minutes with an average split of 2:05.6 online, around the next day was hard, but I was satisfied.” told Stefani about the possibility of breaking a record, Stefani After their mighty push to defeat the records, the rowers are took advantage of the opportunity. “I knew I could beat it because it was just a 2:05 split and that would be pretty easy,” satisfied with their results. “It’s great to have a pretty certificate Stefani said. “So we finished it half an hour early and on a 1:53.8 and my name on the Concept 2 website, (www.concept2.com),

Photo courtesy of Gena Coblentz

Coblentz rows against the clock on the Tandem Under 19 Heavyweight 100k, breaking the record on Dec. 28, 2011.

the maker of the machine that we set the world record on. Also simply being able to say that I, Gena Coblentz, am a world record holder,” Coblentz said. “But the best thing for me was the pride of having completed such a huge distance.” Coblentz started this sport in the eighth grade, and while most kids stressed over high school entrance exams, she channelled the anxiety into her outlet - rowing. “Every day, I could simply leave all my worries behind, and go do something I loved, with teammates who I can practically call family,” Coblentz said. “Every single day, I know that I am getting better, faster and stronger at the sport I love.” But their legacy does not stop here. Coblentz and Stefani want to continue setting records well after their graduation. “In the future, I hope to make the Junior National Team and row in college,” Coblentz said. “After that I might be a rowing coach part-time. Rowing is the best sport ever!”

16 PROFILES

February 24, 2012

Lowell High School

Fashion-forward girls set trends for industry By Daffany Chan and Elena Bernick MILA FELDMAN

Mila Feldman

photo courtesy of mila feldman

ALEXIS YUP

sing the hallways as a runway and her free time to flip through fashion magazines, senior Alexis Yup has a passion for fashion. Yup is an intern in the Brass Plum department, a spot dedicated to teen fashion at Nordstrom’s in Stonestown Galleria. “It was the fashion that drew me in,” Yup said. “For a lot of people our age, there aren’t a lot of opportunities like the BP fashion board for us to dive into fashion.” Yup’s love of fashion is innate. “I have always been into fashion since I was a little girl,” Yup said. “My mom and my grandma have a great sense of style and they have passed it onto me.” Yup finds inspiration to be fashionable not only at home, but in the urban outdoors. “I see street fashion that makes runway fashion look wearable for everyday people,” Yup said. “You can express so much personality with what you choose to wear every day. I think it’s fun to grab from what other people choose to wear and try to make it your own.” As for her style, Yup refers to her clothing as being “like a chameleon.” Her fashion, like

ith one foot planted firmly before the other, junior Mila Feldman struts down the Nordstrom’s runway, channeling the confident fashion pioneer as if she were Madonna. With one fullblown fashion show already under her belt, Feldman’s fashion career is just getting started. For Feldman, fashion is a lifestyle. “Most of my friends would call me a fashion addict,” Feldman confessed. A true aficionado, she gets her daily fashion fix from style magazines and blog sites, Tumblr and Lookbook. She spends most of her free time shopping or even just roaming the city, snapping pictures of unique outfits. “I’m constantly inspired by people on the street,” Feldman said.

Fashion has been in Feldman’s blood since she was a child. Feldman walked the runway at just five years old; her mom was hosting a costume design fashion show in Spokane, Washington. “I wore a dress with a pony on it and blew bubbles on the stage,” Feldman said. Feldman’s memory of that first runway sparked her interest in joining Nordstrom’s Brass Plum, or BP, Fashion Board. The board is comprised of fashion-focused teenagers. Members help the store choose merchandise and styles by participating in surveys and beauty seminars. For example, one of the seminars that the board attended was focused solely on makeup. “Basically, we give our opinions and they use them to choose what they should be selling,” Feldman said. One of the main perks of being on the fashion board is interacting

San Francisco’s weather, can go in many different directions. “On certain days I like to dress girly, some days I dress more rocker,” Yup said. “I’m a risk-taker.” Yup first learned about an internship a year ago after shopping around Nordstrom’s, and was intrigued by the possibility of working at a high-level department store. While on the job, Yup gets an invaluable look into the fashion world, like exclusive sneak peaks at up-and-coming trends and new merchandise, like the fresh shipment of prom dresses BP is bringing in. In addition to the stylish side of the job, Yup also gains important work experience. “I currently work on-call,” Yup says. “I notify people about our sales, help out on the sales floor and file papers.” Between coaching girls’ volleyball for Lawton Middle School and finishing college applications, there is not a lot of time for a demanding job. Yup has found the perfect arrangement; while following her interest in style, the internship only requires participants to attend a meeting once a month for a few hours, besides the occasional work on the sales floor.

with experienced professionals in the fashion industry. Feldman got the opportunity to meet the creator of Falling Whistles, Sean Carsasso. New to Nordstrom’s this year, Falling Whistles, a non-profit organization, sells whistle necklaces to raise awareness for peace in Congo. “Sean Carasso uses fashion to do something bigger, so I find him the most inspiring stylist,” Feldman said. Feldman participated in a retail project this past winter break when the board put on a fashion show at Nordstrom’s, creating a runway show that reflected the vision of the new generation. Her greatest challenge was not the hours of organizing, but wearing the wacky outfits the fashion-forward audience would find exciting. “The stylists put me in leopard print pants that I would normally cringe at the sight of,” Feldman said. “But after walking in them, they were

Aside from free samples and fashion shows displaying the hottest new trends, creating a bond with coworkers has been the best part for Yup. “It’s great to be around people who share the same interest as you,” Yup said. “When you work closely with one another you get to know each other really well. That’s fun for me.” Even though Yup loves fashion, she does not see it a career, but a job for now and during college. “A future in fashion is not in the forecast,” Yup said. “I want it to be a part of my life, because it’s something I really enjoy, but I don’t know how to fit it in.” Yup does hope that she will continue her relationship with the department store for awhile. “I already have my foot in the door, so it might be easier to get a job at Nordstrom’s in the future,” Yup said. Filing papers and cleaning dressing rooms may not seem like a glamorous fashion job, but the experience will come in handy in the future. Working with customers and coworkers will ultimately help Yup, given she wants to be a dermatologist when she’s older. “When I was little, I would always play with my mom’s skincare products and her make-up,” Yup said. “I have a passion for aesthetics, whether it

actually quite flattering.” Though Feldman is surrounded by the newest trends at Nordstrom’s and the city, she still follows fashion in her own way. “Fashion is my creative outlet,” Feldman said. “I’m a bit shy so it’s my way of standing out and being unique.” Feldman’s current go-to look is a tomboy-ish style reminiscent of fashion icon Alexa Chung, wearing thrifted men’s shirt collars and her collection of six blazers. She also experiments with ear cuffs, but according to Feldman, this trend hasn’t permeated into mainstream American fashion just yet. “I can tell you just about every trend out there,” Feldman said. “I’ve been super into cosmic print.” When Feldman isn’t immersed in the fashion world, she dances with the school’s Varsity Song team. Feldman may be shy, but her unique style speaks for her.

Alexis Yup

applies to how things are presented or how people dress.” Her dream of a medical career is not the only thing that makes her hesitate about her future in fashion. “You have to be very lucky to succeed in the fashion world,” Yup said. “But if I could I would definitely want to be a stylist on the side. Fashion will always be apart of me.”

Ways to Join Journalism: Next semester, choose between the following prerequesites:

Journalism 1: Grades 9-12 10-2 Ethnic Lit: Writing for Publication Then the following semester help put out The Lowell in Journalism 2

COLUMNS

February 24, 2012

The Lowell

Young rapper blends rhythms, rhymes and ‘Radance’ By Michelle Hwang

of rap and dance. Radance is a fun, easyo, it’s King Kwong and Hwangalongchong. going way to enhance lyrics: as we state in We’re so cool we made an awesome song,” were the one line of our witty poem, we add a small first lines in our video that launched a (very-semi) motion to act out the idea. From then on, professional rapping career consisting of three ingredients: we just go with the flow. Surprisingly we won third place in the creativity, fun and swag. talent show because as Back in October my friend and I were the Hot Sauce slogan the announcers for my church’s youth states, “We’re hawt and group and I thought it would be hilarious spicay!” to rap the announcements. So we started Usually we do not writing bits of lyrics and rapping them in radance but rather acfront of our youth group, using the stage company ourselves with names of King Kwong for my buddy and self-taught beat boxing. Hwangalongchong for me. People were Whenever we’re filming interested because it was fresh and new or performing our raps, and it appealed to those who listen to I end up cracking up, rap. In our church’s history, no one had my laughter provoked ever tried rapping the news. However, by my friend’s hilariwe didn’t get our inspiration to rap from ous imitation of beat professional rappers. In fact, my friend boxing. This is why my and I do not even listen to rap. The real motivation to match rhymes with beats came from my sister friend and I switch off our roles of beat and her friend because they too did all sorts of silly things to boxing and rapping. Although I giggle bring up the group’s energy during announcements, although at my creative lyrics, I thoroughly enjoy they never tried rapping. During our little performance, I rhyming poetically: “We’re leavin’ the couldn’t help laughing. At one moment I was laughing so much hood to go to Jamba Juice. We’re havin’ I ended up falling to my knees, gasping for breath for about a blast so give us a boost. Look at this pine tree, it’s lookin’ so free, now, that’s thirty seconds. That same fateful day we made a video of us rapping for our just happy King Kwong and me,” I am friend’s upcoming birthday. When we posted it on our youth clumsy with my rhythm so whenever I try to “make the beat” I group’s Facebook wall, we got a lot spit out the phrase of comments. And thus began our “boots-in-cats” to tradition of birthday rap videos. I know getting down with channel the sound of We create our lyrics based on beat-boxing. Howcool traits the person has and our my buddy is a memory I’ll ever, nothing can birthday wishes for them such as Photo courtesy of Michelle Hwang with my “I’m a boy scout you better watch Hwangalongchong and King Kwon showcase their skills as they rap their souls out treasure for the rest of my compete friend’s sense of a out! I make wallets out of duct tape beat. into any cool shape. I’m the presilife. I enjoy making dent and you know what I meant. lyrics and loud performances as we rock back and forth on the these videos although I sometimes find I like the Domo backpack and the stage. It takes a lot of chin rubbing, head-scratching and paper myself thinking how peculiar it is for me, Totoro keychain. I’m so smart, I’m to think of ingenious lines every month, but we manage to pull a studious girl who seems quiet. But then on top of the charts!” Occasionally out a couple of humorous lyrics with the help of our friend we add in a couple of teasing remarks and messages to mess I remind myself how it doesn’t matter what others think — I’ve combining our ideas to create: “With hearts of Jesus CHRIST found a hobby I like. Although I have no intention of becoming around with them. on a dark starry NIGHT, we walk by faith and not by sight!” Our When we performed at our youth group’s talent show in the new Mickey Cho (despite the fact that I have no doubt that circle of friends is an inspiration to Hot Sauce because of each December, we decided to call ourselves Hot Sauce. We entered I have the skills for it), I know getting down with my buddy is one’s random remarks and funny ways of expressing their own because we wanted to lighten the competitive mood and bring a memory I’ll treasure for the rest of my life. creativity — weirdness I mean! Like Hwangalongchong and Through this wacky way of having fun, I “de-stress” myself more laughter to the audience (and of course, ourselves). We King Kwong say whenever they walk off the stage with “spicaydid not beat box but invented the infamous ‘Radance,’ a fusion from the weekly overload of schoolwork. My friend and I like ness” lingering in the air, I sign off with “Palabra and Adios!” it because it’s so much fun to see others laughing at our lame

“Y

Sophomore learns to accept his unusual heritage By Pasha Stone

o most, the words “Persian” and “Jewish” seem almost completely opposite, but to me, its what defines my heritage. The Jewish State of Israel is on the verge of war with Iran, and yet I’m part of both. Despite their differences, their parenting style makes a surprisingly fluid combination — one that sometimes almost drowns me! Most children of Persian parents consider their parents a bit too involved, and most Jewish children consider their mother to be over-protective. As a Persian Jew, my mom is like extreme parenting squared. I am the product of a father with a Slavic-Jewish background, while my mother immigrated here from Iran when she was 17. She is also 100 percent Jewish. For a Persian-Jewish mother, fairly obvious safety tips become constant reminders. All of eighth grade and throughout my freshman year, my mother would tell me to watch out for cars when she dropped me off to school. Most parents would trust their child — especially since at six feet I’m fairly visible to drivers — but not a Jewish mother. After much pleading on my part, she finally decided I was old enough to cross the street without a parental reminder to look both ways. However, when I decided I wanted to

play football, my mother and grandmother it prevents stomach aches. that I can make friends with people whom I took their shared over-cautiousness a bit too However at any time of the day I am wel- don’t sit beside in a desk. She will command: far. They spent about a week come to eat a salad. Persian salads are not like “Name three things about him,” and I have to arguing that I could practice American salads. There are no croutons, no list three “mom-friendly” facts, such as “He with the football team, but fancy dressings, no gourmet approach with loves physics” or “He’s been to Chile.” I try to not play in the games, showing fruit, just lettuce, someanswer as many questions that they were unclear of the times vegetables — caras possible so as not to concept of being on a sports rots or cucumbers or provoke any follow-ups. I try to answer as many team. But they relented, and such — and vinegar. answer as many quesnow I am a defensive tackle. If I’m lucky, balsamic tions as possible so as not questions as possible so To be fair, there’s no National vinegar. I am required to provoke any followas not to provoke any ups. Football League team in Iran. to eat an entire bowl at Instead of what most least once a day and a In my house, privacy follow-ups. Jewish mothers do, which is plateful for every meal. is impossible. Every time yelling “Eat! Eat!” the other I think the reason why I’m on the phone, my culture takes over, because they want me to eat mother makes up various Persian mothers love control- fruit and salads so much is because in Iran farfetched reasons as to why she has to be in ling what their kids eat, most those are the only healthy foods available; they the room. If I call someone at 11 p.m., even of the time telling me what I can’t have. In my don’t have much processed food. though my mom usually goes to bed at 10 p.m. Persian family, they have a thing called “hot” Ask any Jewish child, and they’ll tell you, she will scurry into the downstairs room — and “cold” foods, I “Permission to hang out which at night is my haven — and begin to have no idea what with friends?!!” Ugh, type on her computer. If I question her, she exactly determines what a pain.” The first will respond, “I’m going through invoices, go Despite their differences, question my mom asks back to your phone call.” I know my parents’ if a food is hot or cold — I do know their parenting style makes is “Where?” I always business, specialty advertising, pretty well, it has nothing to do want to answer, “Oh, and my mom and dad can usually close up at a surprisingly fluid combi- a friend’s house,” or three in the afternoon. Clearly eavesdropping with physical temperature — but my they already has its own rewards: to make sure I’m not nation — one that some- locations mom seems to have know, Lowell for ex- ordering a bomb over the phone or anything. it all memorized. ample. Otherwise I’ll At the end of the day, no matter how cluttimes almost drowns me! From what I underhave to suffer through tered or confusing my family’s motives are, it stand, most citrus her essentially forcing does come from a deep love. I know that most things are cold, and most salty things are me to write a Wikipedia entry on where I of the seemingly insane requests my family warm. Ironically, honeydew, my favorite fruit, am going. For a new friend, I must suffer has are for my safety. I know this because is the only fruit in the world that is warm. This an ever-changing Q and A. I’m asked the the flip side is that Persian-Jewish children leads me to believe it’s just a scheme to make buddies’ full names and what classes I have love their mothers very much — even when me eat healthier, even though my mom claims with them, because my mother can’t accept ticked off.

18 EDITORIALS

February 24, 2012

Lowell High School

EDITORIALS School can do more to connect students with foreign peers

Editors-in-Chief Caitriona Smyth • Nancy Wu Amy Char • Natasha Khan

ith increasing globalization, the world is as inter-connected as ever and a second language is important not only in the workplace, but also for broadening awareness of cultural diversity. The school should do more to foster international communication. Because the school does not receive funds from the school district for student exchange programs, teachers individually set up programs for their students through outside foundations, according to world language department head and Chinese teacher Xiaolin Chang. Currently, teachers from the world language department organize two cross-cultural programs throughout the year. However, the school has the potential to further develop global education. According to Korean teacher Ah-mi Cho, the Korean class organizes an exchange where the school hosts around 75 students from Global High School in Seoul each fall, and 10 to 15 Korean language students spend three weeks of the summer in Seoul. The students go abroad through the Foundation for Korean Culture and Language, an organization subsidized by the Korean government, and pay approximately $2,300. Traditionally, the foundation awards two of the fifteen students $2,200 scholarships, and Cho awards $100 scholarships to six students using class funds. The Italian exchange program is similar to the Korean program, with the school hosting visitors and some students spending the summer travelling abroad through a travel agency, according to Italian teacher Judith Branzburg. Each student pays approximately $5,000. Because of budget limitations, sponsoring pricey exchange programs at public schools can be difficult. With limited funding, some public schools have begun using the Internet as a cheaper and innovative channel for students to learn from their foreign peers. According to a January Education Week article, a public K-12 school district in Michigan, Oxford Community Schools, plans to start up a flagship fulltime Internet-based exchange program beginning next year. Michigan students will attend a Chinese school virtually for the school year, communicating with Chinese peers online. Virtual education programs may be useful by allowing schools and teachers to tailor the program to their students’ appropriate level. The Chinese language program at Lowell currently has no formally sponsored exchange program. Some students traveled to China in past summers with the Confucius Institute, a non-profit institution funded by the Chinese government and promotes Chinese culture, but was not organized by the school. According to Chinese teacher Brian Danforth, the program did not suit the students academically — the program was targeted at students with little Chinese language background, but many of Danforth’s students are beyond the introductory level. Schoolwires, a private company, runs a virtual exchange program called Greenleaf that pairs American schools with Chinese schools, and costs approximately $10,000 per virtual classroom. Because one classroom allows up to 50 participants, virtual education maximizes the opportunity for students to have exchange experiences, while reducing the cost per student, in this case to $200. Given the school’s international reputation and diverse community, global education should be a priority of the school and the school should look into more opportunities such as virtual exchange programs. After all, it’s a small world.

Web Tech Editor-in-Chief Aaron Pramana

Vivian tong

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Students satirize issue of AP caps, call for AP requirements instead Dear Editor, In 2012, Lowell forfeited over $240,000 in potential AP test revenue compared to the year before. Each year more teachers receive pink slips, and though the great and benevolent Lowell Alumni Association has managed to scrape together $300,000 in emergency funds, hard-working teachers and students are buckling under the pressure of class sizes that never cease to grow. Indeed, the situation is dire, but there is a clear solution: instituting a minimum AP class requirement for all students at Lowell. Foremost, setting an AP requirement would accumulate much-needed cash for our beloved institution. Lowell would be able to afford more teachers, lowering class sizes and increasing teachers’ ability to lend each student love and attention. Increased funding would also provide for a modern, livable learning environment, which is severely lacking at this time. Contrary to the assertions of ill-informed cynics, administering more AP tests would rid students of stress by eliminating bad teachers and unpleasant surroundings. Like Roundup Weed & Grass Killer, funds generated through AP tests would attack Lowell’s biggest deficiency at the roots, causing the school’s problems to promptly wither away. While money alone provides suf-

ficient justification for an AP requirement, there exists a far nobler cause: the love of learning. Experiencing scholastic motivation early on would help students develop study skills for when it counts, namely during grades ten through eleven and in college. Staggering the number of AP courses required for each grade would maximize the benefits of exposure to a real-world workload while minimizing collateral stress. Freshmen could be required to enroll in a mere two AP courses, whereas sophomores, juniors and seniors would be prompted to take a slightly more substantial four, five, and four, respectively. Encouraging students to challenge themselves with AP material would not only allow hopeful pupils to demonstrate their academic abilities to selective elite colleges; it would also assist them in developing healthy habits of hard work and perseverance, aiding them the rest of their lives. To clarify, Lowell’s situation does not warrant a state- or nation- wide AP mandate. Other students simply do not have strong enough intellectual foundations to benefit from AP courses. But at dollar-deprived Lowell, where students must overcome cutthroat competition in order to succeed in a competitive admissions process, and thus in life, such a policy is precisely what we need. See complete version on thelowell.org

— Alex Hillan, Letitia Liu, Jeffrey Woo and Andrew Xu

Want to have your opinions published in the next issue of The Lowell? You can submit your letter to the editor to lowellopinion@gmail.com. You can also deliver it in person outside of S107.

News Amy Char, Yosha Huang, Natasha Khan, Caitriona Smyth Sports Joseph Fiorello, Nancy Wu Features Jenna Rose Fiorello, Eva Morgenstein Columns & Profiles Adriana Millar, Grace Sun Opinions Michelle Wan Reporters Elijah Alperin, Natalia Arguello-Inglis, Elena Bernick, Isabel Boutiette, Adam Chac, Daffany Chan, Elazar Chertow, Deidre Foley, Campbell Gee, Henry Hammel, Michelle Hwang, Kayla Huynh, Ian James, Zoe Kaiser, KT Kelly, Melinda Leung, Cooper Logan, Ashley Louie, Kai Matsumoto-Hines, Adriana Millar, Eva Morgenstein, Arlen Pan, Ying Sham, Pasha Stone, Sean Wang, Samantha Wilcox, Jeffrey Wong, Mara Woods-Robinson, Audrey Yu Photo Editor Daniel Green, Chris Lee Photographers Nicholas Fong, Gavin Li, Jeremy Varon Web Staff Elijah Alperin, Monica Castro, Nicholas Fong, Daniel Green, Henry Hammel, Chris Lee, Gavin Li, Jason Lo Art Editor Vivian Tong Illustrator Hoi Leung Business Managers Martin Costa, Rachel Hsu, Sophie Solomon

Advisers Print Sharn Matusek Web Samuel Williams

Published every four weeks by the journalism classes of Lowell High School, Room S108, 1101 Eucalyptus Drive, San Francisco, CA 94132 Phone: (415) 759-2730 Internet: thelowellads@yahoo.com; http://www.thelowell. org. All contents copyright Lowell High School journalism classes. All rights reserved. The Lowell and The Lowell on the Web strive to inform the public and to use their opinion sections as open forums for debate. All unsigned editorials are the opinions of the staff. The Lowell welcomes comments on schoolrelated issues from students, faculty and community members. Send letters to lowellopinion@gmail.com. Letters must be signed. Names will be withheld upon request. We reserve the right to edit letters before publication. 2011 NSPA All-American 2011 NSPA Online Pacemaker 2009 NSPA First Class Honors 2007 NSPA All-American 2007 NSPA Online Pacemaker 2007 CSPA Gold Crown 2006 NSPA Pacemaker 2006 NSPA All-American 2005 CSPA Gold Crown

Colleges should offer alternate options for admissions test requirements

s juniors and seniors begin applications for college, many of them will face hours upon hours of preparation for one of the main college admissions tests — the SAT Reasoning Test. An individual’s scores has been viewed as one of the determining indicators of his or her college preparedness. However, SAT scores are not the most effective measure of college readiness — a student is more than a number, even if the number is 2400. Therefore, colleges should accept a wider variety of standardized test scores instead of focusing on the SAT Reasoning Test or ACT (American College Testing) Assessment. Introduced by the College Board in 1926, the SAT started an entire standardized test preparation industry, including institutions such as Kaplan, TestMagic and Princeton Review. Too often the offerings of these companies teach students about taking the test — but not necessarily about learning the material, with their focus on improving students’ scores rather than their skills in the core subjects of math, critical reading and writing. According to the description on Kaplan’s Premier 2011-2012 study guide, the guide contains “expert tricks” and “insider tips.” Clearly, students’ test results can be influenced by how long they studied test-taking strategies, rather than their knowledge and abilities. In addition, these tutoring courses are incredibly expensive. Kaplan’s small group instruction for the SAT starts at $1,499. This further calls into question the students who cannot afford tutoring programs and are put at a disadvantage as their SAT scores may impact their college admissions, especially when based on a

limited criterion. According to the 2009 College Board Total Group Report, students from families with higher incomes received higher test scores, suggesting they found test prep more affordable, which generated higher scores. The open-ended, subjectively-graded essay portion of the SAT contradicts the claim that the test is standardized. Each essay is scored according to a standard rubric, but the graders may not necessarily read with the exact same critical approach. According to a 2007 FairTest article, “each essay is read in less than three minutes and rated on a holistic 1- 6 scale by two readers, who are supposed to evaluate writing skills using a vague set of criteria including factors such as variety in sentence structure and range of vocabulary.” A 2010 ABC news article on their website (abcnews.go.com) used a study conducted by teenager Milo Beckman with verification from Les Perelman, Director of Writing Across the Curriculum in the Program in Writing and Humanistic Studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, to conclude that the longer the essays, the higher students’ scores tended to be, regardless of the essays’ content. The essay portion should simply be removed to keep the test format standardized to guarantee that all students’ tests can be scored uniformly. Because of the SAT Reasoning Test’s flaws, some colleges have deemed the test as one of the less effective methods of measuring prospective students’ readiness, and have made submitting SAT scores either optional or unnecessary for admissions consideration. We applaud those edicational institutions’ openness to consider

test scores other than the SAT. In April 2009, New York University announced on its website (www.nyu.edu), that it would give its applicants more options in test score submissions. Beginning with applicants entering as freshmen in fall 2010, applicants can choose to report scores from one of the following: the SAT, ACT with Writing, three SAT Subject Tests, three AP Tests, the IB Diploma or three IB exams. “We believe that the current level of our SAT scores … may be discouraging applicants with lower scores from applying; this may include students who might have some remarkable talents that we would welcome,” NYU said in its announcement. Because the SAT does not accurately assess a students’ college readiness, colleges and universities should be more flexible in their requirements for candidates to prove they are ready for the university. The SAT Reasoning Test does not allow students strong in subjects other than English and math to flaunt their skills to colleges. However, SAT Subject Tests and AP exams cover a wide range of subjects with both breadth and depth. Colleges should make their testing requirement flexible; that way students strong in math and English can demonstrate their skills through the SAT Reasoning Test, whereas students strong in other subjects, such as science or social studies, can submit AP/SAT Subject Test scores to emphasize their specialties. As of fall 2011, FairTest has recorded 883 test scoreoptional colleges in the United States. Since students have various intelligences, more colleges should follow and accept various topics for proof of readiness from their applicants.

The Lowell

February 24, 2012

OPINION

change I believed in

Student becomes disillusioned after four years of partially-fulfilled promises By Elazar Chertow

s an impressionable, and perhaps naïve 13-yearold kid with little direction, I was eager for a role model, a man that I could look up to, someone who made his mother proud. When Barack Obama jumped into the national scene in 2008, I knew immediately that he was just my kind of guy. He spent most of his life overcoming adversity, and I, a chubby kid more concerned about the results of the Super Bowl than those of Super Tuesday, had so much respect for him that I went out and bought The Audacity of Hope (even though I could only reach page 30). But with all my heart, I converted almost immediately to Obama’s “yes we can” optimism, believing that I myself could very well be an agent of change. But as his presidency continued, on many issues, the president’s decisions have seemed more like the monotonous Washington political moves than promised radical changes, making his 2008 campaign slogan “Change We Can Believe In” begin to sound like the average political rhetoric of his Republican critics. In order for President Obama to win back my support, and that of the very voters that put him in the White House four years ago, he needs to start by re-assessing not only his promises to the American people, but what it means to truly be the commander-in-chief, and act accordingly. He needs to fight harder to accomplish those goals that seemed unattainable during his first three years in office. In addition to not raising the dividends tax on higher-income taxpayers nor instituting a cap-and-trade policy regarding global warming, President Obama has not fulfilled many of the promises he made on the campaign trail, including support for the closure of the Guantanamo Bay prison. In a speech regarding national security at the White House on May 21, 2009, Obama said, “The second decision that I made was to order the closing of the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay.” However, on March 7, 2011, the president issued an executive order stating “that military detention of individuals at the U.S. Naval Camp, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba … continues to be carefully evaluated and justified.” In addition, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights recently condemned the United States for continuing to house prisoners at Guanta-

namo Bay, saying that the fact the prison was still open was in clear violation of international law. This year’s race for the Republican presidential nomination has been riddled with dishonesty and verbal attacks — from almost all candidates. The only candidate, Republican or Democrat, that stood out to me as honest was Governor Jon Huntsman of Utah. He campaigned as a moderate, speaking genuinely, often siding with the president on key issues, such as the war in Afghanistan and small tax increases for the wealthy. Not willing to talk trash about fellow candidates, or to adulterate small mishaps of his peers for his personal advantage, Huntsman seemed like not only one of the most honest candidates of my lifetime, but also one of the most electable. One of the reasons why a candidate such as Gov. Huntsman was not able to tread

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water, leading eventually to his withdrawal from the race on Jan. 16, is the invention of the new political machine, the SuperPAC. A SuperPAC is a traditional political action committee, except without the restrictions of campaign finance laws or requiring the candidates’ approval for often negative adds. PACs have grown due to the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission Supreme Court decision stating that the government cannot set up a limit on how much an individual can donate to for “political purposes,” such as SuperPACs. The money that the SuperPACs receive from donors is used to increase the appeal of individual candidates, often at the expense of others. For instance, before the Jan. 31 Florida primary, the pro-Romney SuperPAC Restore Our Future aired 4,696 television spots, 99 percent of which were negative, according to Kanter Media’s Campaign Media Analysis Group. In an unexpected move, President Obama did not criticize his Republican challengers’ actions, but rather condoned them. On Feb. 6, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney announced in a press briefing that the president approves of the pro-Obama SuperPAC Priorities USA Action, even allowing senior cabinet members to speak at committee events. In contrast to his new position, in his 2010 State of the Union address, Obama had said, “I don’t think American elections should be bankrolled by America’s most powerful interests ... they should be decided by the American people.” When I heard on the news that the president had switched his stance on SuperPACs, I was not only surprised, but also disappointed. Although it is understandable that Obama wants to compete financially when it comes to re-election, he got elected because he himself campaigned on the notion that he would not play the petty political games, such as attacking other candidates on personal issues through PACs, that are all too frequent in the politics of today. This November, voters, including high school seniors, who will vote for the first time, will have to make the choice whether or not to re-elect the man who inspired hope in a great many of us just four years ago. And who knows, maybe The Audacity of Hope will finally get off my bookshelf and back into my hand. hoi leung

CITY CINEMANIACS EMBRACE adventurous indies

Combo

movie

By Campbell Gee

f you’re looking for an escape from the Slurpee-stained seats and lackluster movie selections of the AMC at the Metreon and Daly City’s Century 20, San Francisco’s independent and alternative movie theaters are the perfect cure for the commercialized cinema blues. With the Red Vic and the Alexandria already crumbled under the rocky economy, only the most unique small theaters have withstood the test of time.

Movies Not For the Masses

The Roxie Theater in the Mission District — which celebrated its 100th year in 2009 — has proved to be one of the oldest and most popular indie movie houses in town. Its alluring neon marquee and smallish screening rooms host a mixture of blockbuster movies, guest appearances by quirky directors and actors, such as John Waters and Amy Sedaris, up-andcoming artsy shorts and documentaries, like Eames: The Architect and the Painter and film festivals and events such as the Fourteenth Annual San Francisco Indie Fest. The one-of-a-kind movie selections of the Roxie prove that size isn’t everything when compared to equally tiny theaters like the 4-Star and the Bridge. The Roxie prides itself in its advantage over conglomerate movie houses. “Commercialized theaters have a lot more on the line than we do so they can’t take the chances we take,” special events programmer Mike Keegan said. “We always strive to show controversial and thoughtprovoking stuff.” Other happenings at the hipster-filled Roxie Theater include the recurring film noir series showcasing forgotten vintage crime movies and screenings of the documentary Exit Through the Gift Shop about Banksy and other street artists — Keegan’s personal favorite — which ran for a whopping 21 weeks in late 2010. Occasionally screenings involve fun interaction; the forthcoming movie Everything Is Terrible is composed of a 90-minute sequence of dogs from various videos and as the film is shown, the creators of the film dress up as dogs and run wild around the theater. Find the Roxie’s film schedule on their website (www.roxie.com). If the jejune movie remakes and overuse of talentless Hollywood actors (I’m talking to you, Taylor Lautner) in modern day cinema bore you, Oddball Film and Video is a far cry from the redundancy of vampire thrillers and sappy romantic comedies that permeate the American movie industry. Created by filmmaker Stephen

h o u s e s,

festivals

Parr, who filmed music icons like the Ramones and poetry legend Allen Ginsberg in the 1970s, the company functions as both a stock footage business and eccentric movie theater located in the Mission District. An Oddball screening culls from Parr’s 50,000 16 millimeter film reels of clips piled up high in an old warehouse — ranging from animation to industrial films and medical footage to kitschy commercials. Each film night at Oddball features a themed set of videos from Parr’s film reels. Past eclectic screenings have been given oddly appropriate titles like “Crazy Cats! : Feline Thrillers, Thwarters, Stalkers and Charmers,” “Christmas Mess,” “Erotic Horror: Dracula’s Daugher (1936)” and “Trailer Trash: B-Movie Trailers from the 1930s to 1970s,” just to name a few. Check the company’s website for upcoming shows (www.oddballfilms.blogspot.com), a bargain at $10. Parr, whose first client was director Ridley Scott of Blade Runner, Alien and American Gangster, credits the stock footage portion of his business for the initial success of the offbeat cinema company. “I founded Oddball Film and Video to acquire footage for my personal projects and it evolved into a stock footage business, distributing footage to clients and producers worldwide who need clips for their feature films or documentaries,” Parr said. From there, Oddball Film and Video built a business on the unmet need for “found” film snippets. Most of all, Parr expressed pride in having built the largest — and probably most unusual — film archive in Northern California right here in San Francisco. “San Franciscans are freethinking open-minded cinema lovers,” Parr explained. “There aren’t many independent theaters left in the city, but there are small alternative spaces that program eclectic works. It’s what makes the city attractive to people; it’s creative nerve.” photo released by the weinstein company

and

Join the Film Festivities

youth

spark

San Francisco is known for its celebratory week-long film festivals that bring together cinephiles to view a selection of avant garde, occasionally obscure flicks, shown at venues all around the city. For film junkies looking to learn more about their ethnic heritage or just increase their cultural knowledge, annual fests like New Italian Cinema held at the Landmark Theater, The South Asian Film Festival located at the Roxie and The Latino Film Festival at the Brava Theater fit the bill. Other movie buffs that are looking for a cinematic discovery can check out events like this month’s Indie Fest at the Roxie and the San Francisco International Film Festival hosted by multiple venues. And if The Artist inspired you to delve into cinema’s original magic, the San Francisco Silent Film Festival is a great way to experience film’s lively yet quiet beginnings. For 17 years, The San Francisco Silent Film Festival has left modern movie go-ers satisfyingly “speechless” by introducing them to the wonderful subtlety of the silent film era. The festival aims to make noise by reintroducing attendees to cinematic gems made before the “talkies.” The SFSFF was founded by Melissa Chittick and Stephen Salmons, who figured that the open minds of San Franciscan cinephiles predicted a hit. Since receiving an audience of almost 2,000 at the first festival, this year over 11,000 people flocked to the Castro Theater — the gala’s annual venue. To bring life to the movies shown at the festival, vivacious soundtracks are provided by live musical accompaniment from renowned musicians. “When you include the addition of live music, it becomes a cinematic event that is a completely different experience than going to watch a sound film,” SFSFF operations director Lucia Pier said. Although she kept mum about what films they plan to screen during the 2012 festival in July, Pier spoke fondly about the masterpieces from recent years like F.W.

independents

Murnau’s popular film Sunrise (1923) and underrated motion pictures such as Herbert Ponting’s The Great White Silence (1927), a documentary exhibiting Britain’s exploration of the South Pole. “The silent era was a full 30 years long, and during that time these films made were subtle, beautiful and technically advanced,” Pier explained. “It was the birth of cinema.” For silent film fans that are eager to get a taste of what the festival has to offer, the SFSFF presents a special screening of Abel Gance’s Napolean in early March, complete with musical accompaniment by the Oakland East Bay Symphony.

Teens in the Director’s Chair

For teenagers aspiring to direct like Martin Scorsese or even critique like Roger Ebert, San Francisco is a richly cultured city for young film aficionados. The San Francisco Film Institute’s Youth Education program has exposed over 40,000 students from over 250 Bay Area schools to the wonderful world of film. Since it was started in 1991, the program has offered the services of professional filmmakers to schools from elementary to high school classrooms to create a semester-long class in which students create collaborative short films. These youth-made films range from short documentaries about their school to stop-motion animation. Program director Keith Zwolfer believes it is crucial for children showing interest in a specific career — including cinema — to have available the essential educational opportunities for their passions. “It is a sad reality that the arts are one of the areas in the schools that consistently have their funding reduced, so our organization and other amazing arts organizations in the city help students to connect with things they are passionate about,” Zwolfer stated over an email dated Feb 7. “Film as a medium has the power to take us on journeys we wouldn’t be able to experience in other art forms, like traditional visual arts or music and the stories students engage with as audience members to make them more active and compassionate global citizens.” And for teen movie directors looking for an intensive motion picture-making track, the program also offers a Young Filmmakers Camp over the summer, information available on their website (www.sffs.org). Independent movie companies and specialty festivals and programs have cultured a broad-thinking group of theater patrons. Now inspired youth can explore beyond blockbusters to the discoveries that await the adventurous in film-friendly Frisco.

The Lowell Backpage February 24, 2012 All illustrations by vivian tong