The Nueva Current | February 2024

02/09/24

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NUEVA CURRENT Photo by Robin Loznack

THE

VOLUME

Collage by Owen Yeh-Lee; illustrations by @freepik, @rawpixel.com, @antonio via Freepik; photo by Library of Congress

NEWS

Photo by Aaron H.

Arishka J. ’26 is one of 18 youth plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency. [ P 4 ]

A R T S & C U LT U R E

Photo by Ed Robertson

For students with open-campus privileges, check out these local restaurants for the best off-campus budget lunches. [ P 7 ]

F E AT U R E S

Photo by Mishaal Zahed/Unsplash

Upper School faculty share their experiences as renters and homeowners in the Bay Area housing market. [ P 12 ]

OPINION

Photo by Niam K.

Female and non-binary STEM faculty in the Upper School pen an open letter reaffirming their commitment to combatting sexism at school—and sharing some of their personal stories experiencing sexism. [ P 13 ]

SPORTS Best Dressed: The JV boys basketball team has leaned into their tradition of wearing suits and ties on game days. [ P 19 ]

Activism unplugged How has social media changed the way the Nueva community—and the world—views and engages in activism?

By Owen Y-L. & Josie B. By the time she reached her freshman year of high school, Anjuli M. ’25 had grown weary of pre-made Instagram templates. Yet, each time a petition about climate change appeared on her feed, a nagging voice urged her to share it.

Anjuli has long suffered from climate anxiety—a chronic fear of climate change’s impacts on the planet and human existence.

The condition is growing among young people today; according to a 10-nation study published in The Lancet, over 40% of 16-to25-year-olds suffer from daily distress due to climate-related worries.

For many, Anjuli included, social media seems like the answer to these daily worries.

It’s quick and accessible. It’s very public. But for Anjuli, it wasn’t enough. While posts and petitions kept piling up, she still felt powerless and isolated.

“I wanted to go to climate rallies; I wanted to meet people,” Anjuli said.

Activism on social media is more widespread than ever. According to a 2023 survey by Pew Research Center, 46% of social media users in the U.S. have participated in some form of activism on social media in the past year, including

changing their profile picture in support of a movement, using activist hashtags, and joining online activist groups.

Yet, it is only the latest chapter in a long history of humans yearning to resist oppression, disrupt the status quo, and drive change.

“THERE IS NO ONE-SIZE-FITSALL APPROACH” According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, the word “activist” first appeared in 1915 when Swedish activists—coined as the opposite of “pacifists”—pressured their government to end its neutrality in World War I. However, the first recorded instance of organized revolt can be traced back to the first century BCE, when some 120,000 slaves rebelled against their Roman oppressors.

In the U.S., dissent has defined national identity ever since American colonists began to resist British colonial rule, said Upper School history teacher Tom Dorrance.

There is no one-size-fits-all approach to activism. Throughout history, he explained, the most effective activist movements have been those that adapt to their specific contexts and goals.

For example, Dorrance said, factory workers demanding better working

THE NUEVA SCHOOL: 131 E. 28TH AVE. SAN MATEO, CA 94403

conditions and wages in the 1930s organized strikes and sit-ins, disrupting operations and dealing direct economic hits to their employers. On the other hand, Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights leaders used non-violence as a form of resistance and critique of the violence perpetrated by white supremacist power structures.

Identifying and targeting these “pressure points,” as Dorrance calls them, has historically been key to maintaining an effective activist effort. Dorrance himself has participated in marches, including for the international Occupy movement in 2011, and has led “teach-ins”—workshops about activist causes.

Younger generations are now beginning to follow in their activist predecessors’ footsteps. That can come with a burden, Brenna A. M. ’25 said.

“I think that our generation feels more pressure to fix things in society because of the lack of action taken by older generations,” Brenna said. “I know a lot of people our age who are deeply empathetic to issues going on worldwide.”

As aspiring changemakers search for ways to contribute, many turn to a familiar tool: social media. [ CONTINUED ON P 10 ]

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02/09/24

Student-led filmmaking conference inspires aspiring creators

By the

Numbers Recent snapshots of campus life

k a Freepi aphol vi @mrsir Photo by

G U I D I N G YO U T H Oliver C. ’25 leads students in a discussion about during his workshop on film techniques.

filmmaking.

“The world of film is so broad and it is important to explore it. Don’t be confined to what you already know, think outside of the box,” Kairah said.

The last workshop focused on the Citizens Environmental Council film festival (CEC), a high school environmental short-film competition hosted by BEC that takes place every year. Students were introduced to seven key tips for the film festival while also breaking down past films.

As the day concluded, the kids enjoyed a game of Jeopardy, quizzing kids on knowledge taught during the day, and kids who won were awarded gift cards. After all the activities were over, one student shared how this conference impacted her.

“I’ve always wanted to get into filmmaking, but I never knew where to start,” said Athena G., an 8th grader at Ralston Middle School. “This conference finally gave me direction.”

256 socks

collected by the Environmental Club’s first ever Sock Drive

374

requests

for a schedule change was submitted to Upper School Scheduling Coordinator Kevin Dineen in the beginning of the second semester.

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led by Upper School students, taught how to craft high-quality films using affordable materials and shared the three things that make a good film: Story, Technique, and Editing.

A featured guest speaker from Stanford University and documentary filmmaker Julie Gaynin shared about her involvement with the environmental nonprofit Extinction Rebellion and a quick clip from her upcoming thesis film about snowmaking. Gaynin then took questions from the audience to end the section.

In the creative lab workshop, attendees brainstormed various environmental concepts to prepare for the competition. Students played matching games and read articles with environmental topics.

“It is important to teach students about a diversity of topics, whether that be environmental or not, and expand their knowledge of the world beyond a select few widely known topics,” said Oliver C. ’25, the founder of SIFC. Oliver explains that in past films, students tended to focus on overarching environmental issues like global warming, neglecting more specific areas such as electrification.

Kairah M., a sophomore from Burlingame High School, emphasizes the importance of originality in

Photo by Kayla

Through collaborative workshops and expert insights, the Bay Area Social Impact Filmmaking Conference at the Upper School in early February aimed to inspire new filmmakers, emphasizing the message: “I can be a filmmaker too.”

Students from the Bay Area in 4th to 8th grade came to the Upper School to learn about filmmaking.

The Social Impact Filmmaking Club (SIFC), a student-led group focused on creating short films addressing social change, partnered with Burlingame High School’s environmental club (BEC) and the Burlingame Citizens Environmental Council to host this conference. This council educates the public on environmental issues, advocates for sustainability, and empowers young leaders.

The event aimed to teach young filmmakers the basics of film and how to create impactful films on environmental topics using limited materials and resources while also preparing students for the film festival.

“We are trying to inspire the next generation of filmmakers and inspire filmmakers for social good,” said SIFC club member Izzy F. ’25.

With 87 kids from 20 different schools in attendance, the day featured three workshops that attendees could rotate between: one on film techniques, one on brainstorming and pitching video concepts, and one introducing tips for the upcoming youth filmmakers competition.

The film techniques workshop,

Photo by Ethan H.

By Jordan F.

took place during the Upper School’s Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Observance Day on Jan. 24

By Kayla L. Head of School Lee Fertig delivered his annual 90-minute comprehensive updates of the school at San Mateo on the evening of Jan. 11 and Hillsborough the next morning. He discussed a breadth of topics, including student enrollment, finances, and updates on the strategic framework.

Fertig began his first fully in-person addresses by sharing three dimensions of Nueva’s performance in the last year: metrics, progress on the five-year plan’s strategic goals, and testimonials by community members from across divisions.

He also shared key figures of Nueva’s finances: a quadrupled endowment between 2020 and 2023, and a 94% participation rate in the Nueva Fund, the school’s annual fundraising initiative.

“It’s a testament to the generosity of our community,” Director of Annual Giving Anne Cavanaugh said.

Fertig also presented data from Nueva’s admissions department. Over the past seven years, applications have risen by 66% across divisions—with major growth in the Lower School and Upper School—while Nueva’s

acceptance rate has fallen to 13%.

In the second part of his presentation, Fertig shared qualitative data about the 12 goals of the 2022–2027 strategic framework: Renew, Innovate, Belong. Among many advances, he highlighted the San Mateo and Hillsborough campuses’ art and athletic renovations; soft launching a Center for Applied Research in Education (CARE), where Nueva will apply research to positively impact educators across the country; the creation of an Upper School community service learning coordinator position for the 2024–2025 school year; and increasing community awareness of DEI policy and protocols.

And, for the first time, Fertig invited four community members to share their blind reactions at the end of his speech: Alex W. ’24, alum Lucie Lin ’23, Assistant Director of Communications and Upper School journalism teacher LiAnn Yim, and Nueva Parents Association (NPA) co-president Lindsay Louie.

All four panelists shared gratitude for the uniquely Nueva offerings that Fertig had presented: Alex for the internship program, Upper School Quest program, and the opportunity to dive deeply into his classes; Lin for renewed commitment to fostering civil discourse and diversity in the community; Yim

L E E ’ S S TAT S :

967

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currently enrolled across the Lower, Middle, and Upper School divisions.

received from prospective Nueva students received in 2022, across all divisions.

raised by The Nueva Fund in the 2022-2023 school year, signifying the largest capital campaign in the school's history.

Photo by Diane Mazzoni

Head of School delivers fourth annual State of Nueva presentation

for the humanities and arts expansions and Fertig’s transparent updates on the strategic plan; and Louie for Fertig’s efforts to spotlight and collaborate with parent volunteers.

Louie also shared her reflections on the twelve different strategic framework pillars, which Nueva will continue to work on over the next four years. “They feel so right for this school at this moment,” she said. “I’m always struck by how each [strategic plan pillar] resonates with me.”

Nueva parent Peter Blaustein, similarly, appreciated seeing the “breadth and depth” of Nueva’s progress. Reflecting on the continued efforts of administration and parent volunteers, “we just keep getting better by putting in time and energy,” he said.

Beyond Louie and Blaustein, Fertig’s presentation sparked reflections among other parents on topics ranging from upcoming campus expansions and renovations, to schoolled trips, to efforts for diversity and inclusion.

Nueva parent Jennifer Sepulveda reacted to the update by Fertig on increasingly competitive admissions at the school.

“Sad isn’t quite the right word, but it made me think of how much we need to reach

T O G E T H E R AT L A S T Fertig's second presentation took place at the Hillsborough campus, where attendees gathered in the Lower School Ballroom.

gifted students not at Nueva,” Sepulveda said.

“How do we think about our responsibility externally?”

Another Nueva parent, Hoon Cho, was interested in the school-wide community survey conducted last spring that found that one-third of students don’t feel comfortable expressing their views at Nueva.

“There is a shared responsibility to not equate majority opinion with dogmatic or correct,” he recognized.

The State of Nueva presentations, led by Fertig and attended by parents and faculty, saw dozens of adults come together in a shared effort to support the school’s students. “When [students] realize adults in the community care about them, it’s the greatest feeling in the world,” said Middle School Division Head Karen Tiegel.

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Holocaust survivor shares his story with Upper School

By Natalie L. Students and faculty gathered in the gym for a profound encounter with living history on Jan. 30. In an hourlong presentation and Q&A, Holocaust survivor Herb Barush, age 86, captivated the Upper School community as he recounted his harrowing experiences of survival during the Holocaust.

In sharing his story, Barush hoped to educate students on the dangers of oppressive mobilization and the importance each person plays in “controlling destiny.”

Born in 1937 in Vienna, Austria, Barush recounted the chaotic exodus of Jews prompted by the Nazi annexation of Austria in 1938. He recalled the challenges his Jewish family faced in obtaining visas before resorting to being smuggled into Brussels, where they found temporary refuge.

“There was no transportation, no cars, and no buses to get out of the country, just hundreds and hundreds of people marching,” Barush said.

The Nazi’s invasion came soon after their arrival in Brussels, resulting in oppressive policies and the eventual arrest and deportation of many Jews.

Barush's family narrowly escaped deportation, with their survival attributed to a deal his family had previously made

with Mr. Hoberg, a German industrialist, to make fur hats for German soldiers.

Scant minutes before the arrival of German trucks tasked with transporting Jewish citizens from the holding site to concentration camps, Hoberg granted Barush and his mother freedom while the rest remained.

“We were very fortunate that we were able to get out of there,” said Barush. “In the moments before [our escape], my mother and I huddled together, crying— everyone in that room knew that this would be their end.”

Despite the powerlessness his family felt under German occupation, Barush’s family found small ways to demonstrate their resistance.

“When my father got an order for 10 dozen helmet liners that needed to be a size 12, he gave them 10 dozen in a size eight,” Barush said. “That was his little effort to do something for the war. It was all he could do.”

Soon after this incident, Barush was given by his parents to a lady named Maria, who was part of a group dedicated to temporarily sheltering and safeguarding Jewish youths. He was given a French name and began a new hidden life living in the St. Vincent DePaul monastery until the end of the war.

During the time Barush spent living with Maria and the nuns of the church, Germans would occasionally visit the

Photo by Diane Mazzoni

Herb Barush recounts his experiences of surviving the Holocaust and advocates for Holocaust education

T H I S I S M Y STO RY Barush shares his survivial story of the Holocaust to four hundred faculty and students in honor of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, which is on Jan. 27.

church. The soldiers posed as friendly figures and engaged in deceptive games to coax the children into revealing themselves as Jewish.

“They would play 'Simon Says’ with us,” Barush said. “We would be playing, and then they would ask in Yiddish, a Jewish language, ‘Simon says tell me if you can [speak] Yiddish.’ Some children would admit they did, and were immediately taken away.”

During the Q&A session after his presentation, Barush answered questions from both students and faculty on topics.

“How did your experience impact your relationship with Judaism?” one student asked. “How have you seen antisemitism evolve over the course of your lifetime?” asked another.

Brenna A. ’25, a Jewish student,

shared that Barush’s presentation deeply resonated with her own Jewish identity and family history. “[Barush’s] presentation opened the conversation for me and my Jewish friends to share our family history with each other,” Brenna said. “I felt a lot of solidarity with my Jewish friends after the meeting.”

Today, over 90% of survivors are over the age of 80, according to Israel’s Labor and Social Affairs Ministry. As the average age of Holocaust survivors rises, Barush underscores the significance of sharing his experiences.

“Time is marching on where there's still an opportunity for eyewitnesses to say the Holocaust did exist,” Barush said. “My survival of the Holocaust not a hero story.

It's the reality of what happened.”

Innovations to Science of Mind curriculum highlight cohesion and practicality

By Neel G. When Upper School students were surveyed last year about their Science of Mind (SOM) experience by the SOM team, who sought feedback on the curriculum, students expressed some dissatisfaction with a lack of cohesion and an abundance of redundancy.

The survey results also emphasized the importance of creating an environment that doesn’t force students to be vulnerable, but at the same time fully supports it.

In response to the survey, and as part of the ongoing development of the SOM program, the Upper School is currently piloting an upper school SOM program with new senior elective Ethics & the Good Life, and a revised curriculum for SOM 11 that emphasizes applicability with a focus on maintaining healthy environments.

The updated program will allow juniors to opt-out of taking SOM in the spring semester and instead take a semester-long SEL elective, such as Ethics & the Good Life, during their senior year in spring, as seniors usually have no mandatory SOM classes. The proposed curriculum, which may be dubbed “Senior

“The class is really a conversation, for the most part. It’s interesting to compare my perspective and beliefs from my cultural upbringing... with other people’s perspectives.”

TAJ D-J. '24

Seminar,” aims to relieve stress and free time for students while they work on college applications. The program was pitched before

by SOM teacher Sean Schochet, and with the recent feedback from the upper school, faculty found it a perfect opportunity to test the idea.

Ethics & the Good Life is a prototype course for Senior Seminar, where social-emotional learning concepts are based in philosophy and students are encouraged to challenge their own subconscious values and dissect fundamental questions of ethics like, “How should we live?” and “What is moral good?” Other potential Senior Seminar courses include SEL in the I-Lab, financial literacy, and social activism, each ending in a capstone.

Upper School SOM head Lee Holtzman, who is currently teaching Ethics & the Good Life, leads the multifaceted curriculum with her all-senior class by analyzing sources ranging from Aristotle to the hit Netflix show, The Good Place. Through presentations, interviews of fellow students, and class discussions, students examine societal and personal values.

“The class is really a conversation, for the most part,” said Taj D-J. ’24, who is currently taking the seminar. “It’s interesting to compare my perspective and beliefs from my cultural upbringing, whether that’s through media or gender or race, with other people’s perspectives. It’s pretty amazing how different our opinions can be.”

For the SOM team, it was also important for the course to deliver relevant content and skills while maintaining a lighter workload.

“I think if we design the senior capstones well, it will feel important and applicable without adding too much work,” Holtzman explained. “We really want it to be a special experience and so far it’s been so, so fun.”

The SOM faculty have also begun piloting a new curriculum for the junior grade that

Photo by Kayla L.

SOM faculty pilot updated junior course and new senior elective “Ethics & Good Life”

A N E V O LV I N G CURRICULUM Jacob M. ’25, Luki D. ’25, and Natalie C. ’25 engage in their SOM 11 class on a Friday afternoon.

aims to foster holistic decision-making skills, through considering credibility of sources, perception of external influences, and relationality to personal values. They analyze their decisions through various lenses like epistemology, ethics, awareness of situations,and knowledge of self-identity.

“We want to prepare students for managing their lives and getting involved in the world in the 21st century,” said junior SOM teacher Amy Hunt. “The new 11th grade course is so that we're not just reacting to the world, but we have tools, practices, and a model for how we can hold that decision making space and move forward intentionally.”

The updated courses are part of a larger plan by faculty to create continuity in the SOM curriculum. Instead of separate courses each year, the SOM team hopes to build an arc that builds on itself throughout the highschool journey, where SOM 11 is the peak of that arc.

Holtzman hopes the skills learned in this class will serve students well beyond their high school years.

“I’m hoping that when juniors and seniors go off [to college] that they feel really confident in core social emotional skills to progress through the world,” Holtzman said. “That means their phenomenal communication skills, understanding of optimizing and acting in relationships, great self-management and awareness, but in a really nuanced and versatile way.”

The SOM team looks forward to potentially piloting more senior classes next year with a greater variety of elective options. “We’ll see as time goes on if they land, and I want the student voice to be a big part of that. Before we leap in head-first, we might pilot a few more [courses,]” Holtzman said. “ Hopefully we have some 11th graders excited to be part of pilots next year, and for the 11th grade curriculum, we’ll hear from the juniors how it’s going.”

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Fighting for the “right to life:” Photo by Robin Loznack / Our Children's Trust

California teens sue Environmental Protection Agency The 18 youth plaintiffs, including Arishka J. ’26, allege that the agency violated their constitutional right to a healthy climate

By Owen Y-L. Arishka J. ’26* isn’t old enough to vote yet. But that hasn’t stopped her from pursuing climate justice and seeking to hold the government accountable—in a federal court, no less. Arishka is among a group of 18 California children ranging from 8 to 17 years old who are plaintiffs on a recent lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency.

The lawsuit, Genesis B. v. EPA, was filed by the nonprofit law firm Our Children’s Trust on Dec. 10. and argues that the EPA has infringed upon children’s constitutional rights by failing to adequately regulate and limit carbon emissions.

Arishka first learned about Our Children’s Trust while following Held v.

Montana, another case brought by the firm.

While browsing Our Children’s Trust’s website in November, she saw that the firm was recruiting plaintiffs for an upcoming lawsuit and filled out the sign-up form.

After a phone interview, she was formally onboarded as a plaintiff. As part of the lawsuit, Arishka wrote a short testimony detailing her personal experiences with climate impact, including sea level rise and wildfire smoke, and her motivations for joining the case.

Since Redwood Shores, the bayside neighborhood where she lives, is constructed on reclaimed land, it is especially vulnerable to sea level rise. According to her statement, Redwood Shores “is likely to be flooded completely if a 100-year flood with 3.3 feet of sea level rise occurs.”

Arishka has already experienced firsthand the impacts of rising sea levels.

Amid heavy rainstorms on New Year’s Eve in 2022, water seeped through the floorboards of her home, flooding the

kitchen. Due to widespread flooding in the area and the holiday season, Arishka’s family had trouble finding a contractor and ended up using a pump to manually remove the water.

“I think if the climate was different and if the weather was more sustainable, it wouldn’t have happened. Climate and weather patterns changing in the future is definitely going to make this happen to more people and make it even more severe,” she said, “so I’m kind of scared for the future in that way.”

The future—and specifically how actions today could negatively affect generations downstream—is the primary focus of the lawsuit. Because those in influential, policy-making positions are predominantly

“Some adults often don’t understand the fact that they’re leaving a world with bad climate problems to us.

For them, it’s a pretty distant issue. For children, it’s going to be an existential crisis.”

ARISHKA J. ’26

adults, Arishka worries that they may not be able to fully empathize with younger generations’ concerns about the planet they will inherit.

“Some adults often don’t understand the fact that they’re leaving a world with bad climate problems to us,” she said. “For them, it’s a pretty distant issue. For children, it’s going to be an existential crisis.”

The case is the latest in an emerging trend of climate litigation centering around young voices. Our Children’s Trust is also

behind the Juliana v. United States case, which names the entire federal government as defendants; Held v. Montana, which asserts that the state unconstitutionally disregarded climate impacts when approving fossil fuel projects; and several other statelevel cases involving youth plaintiffs.

The lawsuit claims that the EPA violated the plaintiffs’ Fourteenth and Fifth Amendment rights, which assert that no person should face discrimination or be denied equal protection of the law based on age, race, gender, or other characteristics.

The plaintiffs allege that the EPA has unfairly discriminated against youth by failing to consider how their policies will affect future generations.

Arishka pointed to “the social cost” of the EPA’s conduct—that is, the economic and social damages that result from climate change.

“They value lives in the future less than lives now. And that’s discriminatory to youth because we are going to be living in the future, and climate change is going to affect us more,” she said.

The case also revolves around the constitutional “fundamental right to life.” For Arishka, that means ensuring that people are not only alive but “living meaningfully.”

“Constantly living in fear of natural disasters and suffering because of climate change, that reduces our ability to live safely,” she said. “We need a livable climate in order to actually obtain the right to life.”

The lawsuit is likely to face legal headwind. Juliana v. United States, a previous lawsuit filed by Our Children’s Trust in 2015, has faced consistent pushback from the Obama, Trump, and Biden administrations. The government has claimed that Juliana falls outside of the court’s jurisdiction, since it addresses

FOR THE PLANET Hailing from across California, the plaintiffs gathered in person for the first time in San Francisco to file the lawsuit. In the above photo, Arishka stands in the top center.

policy contained within the legislative and executive branches. In response to potential criticism, Arishka argues that judicial and legislative action need to happen simultaneously.

“The judicial branch makes sure that the government is doing the right thing. Laws and policies are important, but we also have to make sure that the EPA itself can ensure that it protects the constitutional rights of youth in the United States,” she said.

“I think that’s a prerequisite for any more powerful legislative action.”

The plaintiffs do not seek any financial compensation or specific policy changes. Instead, they are requesting a declaratory judgment from the court that the defendants have violated their constitutional rights by intentionally and disproportionately endangering the lives of children. In particular, Arishka hopes the case will set a legal precedent in “enshrining children’s rights” and holding policymaking bodies accountable.

“I think it’s definitely important for this case to focus on children, because we are a class of people that has been especially marginalized by policy,” she said. “By the time we become adults, it might be too late to make a drastic impact. But right now it’s not too late, so we have to make sure that adults are prioritizing and valuing us.” *Because the plaintiffs are minors, their full last names are withheld in the lawsuit. This article will honor that confidentiality.

Photo via Our Children's Trust

These graphs, included in the lawsuit, depict the disproportionate impact climate change will have on today’s children, when compared to an adult born one or two generations prior (left); and the US's carbon emissions, in millions of metric tons (right).

Source: Boston Children’s Hospital, NOAA NCEI, CISESS NC

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For California, the first competitive Senate race in decades

The results of the state's primary on March 5 will be key in picking the state's next Senator

By Jackson H. California's 2024 primary elections will take place on March 5. Among the races on the ballot, the Senate seat opened by the death of Senator Dianne Feinstein is particularly competitive—especially for a blue state.

Feinstein occupied the seat from 1992 until her death in September 2023, by which time her weakening physical and mental state had brought significant negative attention. After she passed away, Gov. Newsom appointed political lobbyist and activist Laphonza Butler to temporarily hold the seat until a new person is elected this year.

There are four major candidates vying for Butler’s seat: Congressman Adam Schiff, a high-profile Democrat from Burbank notable for leading the first impeachment of Donald Trump; Congresswoman Katie Porter, a progressive Orange County Democrat and close ally of Senator Elizabeth Warren; former MLB player Steve Garvey, who has increasingly consolidated support among California Republicans; and

Oakland Congresswoman Barbara Lee, the most left-leaning major candidate.

While each candidate’s platform centers on common issues in California politics, such as homelessness and the cost of living, the main pitche of each Democrat’s policy focus still varies. Schiff points to combatting democratic erosion with a particularly anti-Trump focus, Porter is concerned most about corporate power in politics, while Lee is the strongest prosocial justice voice in the field.

California’s primary elections are distinct from most other states: candidates appear on one ballot, regardless of party affiliation, and the top two in the primary will advance to the general election in November. As of right now, polling shows Schiff as the frontrunner, with Garvey leading in a close fight for second place with Porter.

The two progressive candidates, Lee and Porter, combined would likely beat Garvey to the general election. A major factor in the results of the election will be the vote splitting of each party: more Republican votesplitting increases the likelihood of

Collage by Natalie Lai, Photos by Andrew Harnik and Mark J. Terrill

Schiff and Porter advancing, while more Democratic vote-splitting likely would result in Garvey challenging Schiff for November.

California, with its population and size, naturally produces high-cost elections.

Both Porter and Schiff are notably big fundraisers: at the end of September, Schiff had $32 million of cash on hand, putting him in the same range as the presidential campaigns for Biden (also $32 million) and Trump ($37 million) at that time. Porter had $12 million cash on hand.

As a result, some Democratic strategists have expressed dread at two Democrats advancing to the general election. Against each other, Schiff and Porter would be in a tight race to outraise the other. With a Republican in the final match-up, California’s partisan lean would reduce the need for funds and push money to other races.

The four candidates all appeared at a debate on Jan. 22. The Democratic candidates took opportunities to attack Garvey: mainly by pinning him, a self-described moderate conservative, to Trump. Under pressure from his opponents and the moderators, Garvey equivocated on whether he would vote for Trump in November.

The clearest difference between the candidates was on the IsraelHamas war. Lee stood the most firmly in support of a ceasefire, while Schiff stood by Israel’s right to selfdefense after the original attacks.

Porter tried to find a path down the middle, advocating for a ceasefire after certain conditions needed for a lasting peace are met.

The 2024 election will likely result in another senator from southern California, with Lee as the only candidate from northern California in the race. It would leave the Bay Area without representation in the Senate for the first time since 1969.

Adam Schiff

Democrat - Representative - Burbank Schiff, 63, has served in the House since 2001. Schiff managed Trump's first impeachment, and has since made his record against Trump key to his campaign's pitch.

He has been endorsed by most of California's Congressional delegation, including Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi.

Katie Porter

Democrat - Representative - Irvine Porter, 50, entered Congress in 2018, flipping a previously Republican district in Orange County. A member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, Porter has consistently focused her efforts on corporate power in politics. A notable endorsement comes from Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who Porter studied under at Harvard.

Steve Garvey

Republican - No Office - Los Angeles Garvey, 75, has emerged as the leading Republican candidate. Garvey played for the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres between 1969 and 1987. He's run as a moderate, focused on local issues rather than national Republican platform items.

Barbara Lee

Democrat - Representative - Oakland Lee, 77, has been in Congress since 1998.

A former chair of both the Congressional Black Caucus and Congressional Progressive Caucus, Lee stands as one of the most left-leaning members of the House, especially known for her antiwar votes after 9/11. Her most notable endorsements come from Black and progressive Democrats.

If not Trump or Biden, then who?

The major parties' nominations are basically decided, but challengers and independents remain in the race

By Roan W. With the 2024 presidential election just 9 months away, the race is setting up to be a hotly contested competition. The majority of the Class of 2024 will be able to vote in the election, and it’s vital the student body inform themselves about their options.

While sources like the Associated Press agree that the election will come down to a Trump vs Biden competition, the remaining candidates are still fiercely fighting for the slim chance of the nomination. It’s quite possible that the fate of the election could possibly be influenced by one of these other candidates.

The Republican nomination was contested by a total of 13 candidates, including former President Donald Trump.

With the first debates beginning last August, candidates like Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Vivek Ramaswamy were among some of Trump’s competitors.

However, many of these candidates’ runs were short-lived. Trump was declared the victor of the Iowa caucuses by the Associated Press only 30 minutes after beginning. Similarly, in the New Hampshire primary, Trump won just more than half the vote, with former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley trailing him by 10 points. She’s a traditional conservative, and emphasizes her life experience as a first generation American to sway voters.

Breaking convention, a few candidates have risen to challenge President Joe Biden

in the primaries. The first was Marianne Williamson, a self-help author and former spiritual advisor to Oprah Winfrey, attempting a repeat of her 2020 candidacy on a platform of peace and health.

Second is Dean Phillips, a representative from Minnesota, who thinks that the Democratic Party needs a “strong, credible contender… and [that] Biden needs to step aside.” At the same time, he agrees with most of Biden’s policies.

Outside of the two main parties, the independent candidates are a mixed bag of candidates on the outskirts of the political mainstream.

The most popular independent is Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a former environmental lawyer from New York who initially ran as a Democrat. He’s particularly notable for his promotion of conspiracy theories, such as vaccines causing autism, and that coronavirus was “engineered” to not harm Jewish and Chinese people.

Next is Professor Cornel West, who has taught philosophy at Yale, Princeton, and Harvard. He’s a known progressive political activist particularly known for his criticisms of former President Obama’s foreign policy.

Finally is Green Party candidate Jill Stein, a physician who was the party's nominee in 2012 and 2016. She’s running on a platform of "economic rights," which include the right to employment, health care, housing, and education. As her party's name suggests, she's also very focused on climate change. However, she has drawn criticism for vaccine skepticism.

Primary Rundown

The pie charts represent the popular votes of each primary and caucus held, as of Feb. 7.

Trump

DeSantis

Haley

Biden

Phillips

Williamson

Ramaswamy

IOWA 40 delegates were awarded to candidates in the Iowa caucuses on Jan. 24. With subzero temperatures, only 15% of Republicans voted.

SOUTH CAROLINA South Carolina gave Biden a landslide victory with 96% of the vote. But turnout was incredibly low, around half of what it was in 2020.

NEW HAMPSHIRE

NEW HAMPSHIRE

22 delegates were awarded on Jan. 23. By this point, only Haley and Trump remained in the race.

The reordering of the Democrats' primary calendar resulted in this primary not counting, with Biden not even on the ballot. Still,, Biden won as a write-in candidate.

NEVADA

NEVADA

Nevada holds a primary and a caucus, but for Republicans, it's the caucus that awards delegates. Only Nikki Haley appeared on the primary ballot on Feb. 6.

63% of voters still selected "None of the Above," presumably supporting Trump.

All 36 delegates went to Biden, who recieved 89% of the vote. Dean Phillips was not on the ballot in Nevada.

Nevada's "None of These Candidates" option also got nearly 6%.

Infographic by Jackson Hayward

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CULTURE

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02/09/24

The Color Purple fails to render the vulnerability and intensity of its narrative

By Gabe H.

My expectations for the 2023 remake of The Color Purple were steep. After attending the 2016 Broadway musical, I was transfixed by the marriage of its lyrical storytelling and soaring ballads. But when the musical film was announced, I felt conflicted.

What purpose would be served by the cannibalization of this timeless story?

Directed by Blitz Bazawule, The Color Purple, released on Dec. 25, 2023, only partially answered this question.

The Color Purple centers Celie (Fantasia Barrino), a sharecropping black woman in 1920s rural Georgia. Forced into marriage with a brash and physically abusive older husband whom she calls Mister (Coleman Domingo) and mourning the estrangement of her newborn babies and beloved little sister Nettie (Halle Bailey), Celie struggles to reconcile her faith. When she meets Shug Avery (Taraji P. Henson), a famous blues musician, they fall into a risky affair.

The narrative is situated within the context of the antebellum South and explores the intersections of institutional racism and misogyny.

Interplaying scenes of spectacle and simplicity, The Color Purple uncomfortably straddles the line between tragedy and levity.

Through Bazawule’s direction, The Color Purple sets a somber and terrifying stage during scenes of Celie’s abuse. In the early stages of the film, Celie transitions from young Phylicia Pearl Mpasi to adult Barrino as the years oscillate—the story takes place between 1907 and 1947—the continuity of her physical abuse at the hands of Mister is a grueling portrait. However, it is confusingly juxtaposed with an added number “Keep it Movin,’” a feel-good track about the joy of youth and sisterhood that is emotionally resonant in its lightheartedness, but misplaced in a broader narrative context.

Still, the narrative functions somewhat effectively in a movie-musical format, a testament to the story’s broader alchemy. In the original 1985 film, Celie’s romance with Shug was redacted. This adaptation explores Celie and Shug’s relationship in a form that neither the initial film nor Broadway production could fully capture.

Moreover, the musical format allows some of the supporting characters to shine. With the introduction of Sofia (Danielle Brooks), Celie is gifted a new friend who implores her to stand her ground. In her high spectacle number “Hell No!,” Sofia dares her husband Harpo (Corey Hawkins) to lay a hand on her so that she can beat the you-know-what out of him. The film soars when

Photo by Eli Ade / Warner Bros

The latest adaptation of Alice Walker’s text impresses with spectacle, but struggles with depth Celie feeds off Sofia’s no-nonsense energy and Brooks’ Oscar-nominated performance is heroic and scene-stealing.

Scenes with Sofia and Shug are tactfully rendered so that Celie’s joy is weaponized as a tool of resistance to oppressive societal forces governing the antebellum South. Yet, the depth of Celie’s internal turmoil, brought forth in Fantasia’s meditative performance, is stifled by the film’s awkward pacing. Though it runs 2 hours and 21 minutes, much of The Color Purple is budgeted toward executing the perfect show stopping number at the expense of character building. In that regard, various scenes in the book where Celie is alone to wrestle with her emotionality are scrapped for time, with moments of solitude uncomfortably sandwiched between belty vocal numbers. In previous adaptations, Celie’s isolation was a tool for liberation itself, her contemplation allowing her to envision a future for herself beyond abuse.

In this film, though, when the time comes for Celie to sing her powerhouse number “I’m Here,” her swift transformation from victim to victor feels both rushed and idiosyncratic with the rest of the narrative. By rushing Celie’s pivotal transformation from suffering to empowered, the film diminishes Celie’s interiority.

Still, The Color Purple’s flaws are partially netted by its

DREAMS REMADE Taraji P. Henson and Fantasia Barrino sit on the set of The Color Purple

dynamic cast. In addition to Fantasia and Brooks’ powerhouse performances, Henson bedazzles as Shug Avery. Domingo is nothing short of a fright as Mister, contrasting with Hawkins’ agitated Harpo and Bailey’s jocular Nettie. With a wider cameo ensemble featuring stars like Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah, who originated the roles of Celie and Sofia in the 1985 film, The Color Purple feels like a historic moment.

In reprising this story, the 2023 adaptation lends The Color Purple further musical depth. It also brings the story back into the mainstream, which is of sore necessity in a time when it’s being widely censored in states banning critical race theory from school. Nonetheless, it lacks the depth of interiority necessary to capture a character as complicated as Celie. After viewing the film, I felt moderately re-affirmed that the story should be left alone.

Photo by Jojo Whilden / Paramount

Get in losers,

Mean Girls is back

A note to the directors of the latest remake: Stop trying to make fetch happen.

MEET THE PLASTICS

By Ellie L.

Renée Rapp stars as Regina George in the new adaptation.

Confession time: My Mean Girls phase has lasted embarrassingly long.

I’ve watched the 2004 movie several times, seen the Broadway musical, and even worked on the production side of a high school musical. My phase has lasted long… but it has ended with this remake of a remake.

The remake’s tagline boasted that it was “not your mom’s Mean Girls.” This is one of the few promises it delivers on.

The jokes are snappy, the use and role of social media is accurate, and even the Burn Book insults are Gen Z coded.

But updated jokes and insults are not enough to keep this movie from failing.

At its core, this remake is not different enough from the original movie or the musical. The story and characters are the same, just seemingly pulled from 2004, through the 2018 musical, to today.

The movie is not technically a remake of the 2004 movie, nor is it just an adaptation of the musical, or even a remix of the original book’s setup.

It exists in the gray space in between, a strange amalgamation of the worst

elements of both. In short, it feels unnecessary. Too many iconic lines are taken from the original movie. The nuance given to Karen in the musical is completely gone. Worst of all, the soundtrack is a wreck.

The musical’s soundtrack boasts 18 ballads, campy ensemble numbers, and sweet songs, all of which flesh out the inter-Plastics’ relationships, Karen’s vulnerability, and Cady’s longing for something more.

The movie thins these poignant, emotional aspects down. No amount of darker lighting or Bebe Wood’s convincing attempts can rescue the nuance of Gretchen and Regina’s friendship, when Gretchen’s gutwrenching refrain about not feeling beautiful becomes a soundbite with little nuance. Such visual effects and ditsy songs instead try to carry the narrative, and drop it completely.

Cady, herself, also feels colorless. Her distress is not something to care about, even when focused on. Angourie Rice’s

Cady is saccharine sweet, a lackluster nice girl who never convincingly becomes a Regina clone, nor can sing more than the plaintive songs of teenage crushes or angst.

In comparison, the throaty, strong voices of Renee Rapp’s Regina and Auli’i Cravalho’s Janis outshine the screen.

Regina’s introduction, “My Name is Regina George,” is still just as powerful as before, complemented by the black leather outfit and hot pink lighting. Her other solos—vaguely eerie “Someone Gets Hurt” and dramatic “World Burn”— may have the same deep belts and vaguely stupid lyrics, but they overtake the screen, firmly establishing Regina as a magnetizing, bewitching force. The movie leans into this, devoting more screen time to Regina’s anger, pride, and cruelty— which could have acted as the perfect foil to Cady, if only Cady had not been so listless.

Auli’i Cravalho similarly dazzles with her vocals and the pure heart of

her character. When Jaquel Spivey’s Damien reveals the dolls of middle school Regina and Janis, Janis’ devastation is vibrant and easily empathized with. Her powerhouse belts, from the confetti-filled “Revenge Party” to “I’d Rather Be Me,” are impossible to ignore.

But neither standout actor can save an otherwise bland movie, when the core of the movie, Cady, is simply boring, and the scenes feel mundane. This remake is flat, and does not feel like a worthy addition to the Mean Girls universe.It’s easy to dismiss these criticisms as unfair comparisons, but that is perhaps the inherent flaw. How can a remake be interesting if there is no drastic change? How can a remake be good if it cannot complement the existing material nor stand on its own?

These are the questions studios are still trying to answer. As nostalgia falls away, let’s hope they figure it out soon, or try to make something actually original.

The limit does not exist.

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Pop Culture Report Card

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7

Photo by Spotify

By Gabe H.

Megan Thee Stallion has a simple message for her haters: you’re gonna hear her hiss. In her latest single, Megan spits bars, decimating the cacophony of people on the internet who refused to take seriously her infamous shooting in 2020 at the hands of thenboyfriend Tory Lanez. In releasing the record, Megan found an unlikely nemesis in Nicki Minaj, who took umbrage with a lyric referencing Megan's Law— legislation mandating that registered sex offenders be publicly searchable. Minaj has long crusaded on behalf of her husband, Kenny Petty, and brother Jelani Maraj, both of whom have been charged with sexually assaulting a child.

Suavecito's Quesabirria are crispy on the outside, but melt like butter inside your mouth.

The best lunch spots you’re not going to

Tired of Chipotle and mall food for lunch? Try these two local restaurants

Photo by Comedy Central

By Aaron H.

Jon Stewart returns to The Daily Show: C+

Every school week, students are given at least two full lunch periods in which we’re allowed—with open campus privileges—to explore San Mateo’s dining options to the fullest. And yet, too many of us spend our lunches at Chipotle or Panda Express.

Here are three alternatives to fast food chains and all the other Hillsdale mall lunch spots:

Photo by Selin Kandemir

When Trevor Noah took over as host of The Daily Show in 2015, he owed the world to Jon Stewart, who built the late-night talk series from the ground up and shook the nation with his witty commentary about American politics.

When Noah announced his departure from the network in 2022, I watched with anticipation, casting my bets on who would be his successor. Which of the correspondents would he pass the mantle to? Now, the network has announced Stewart’s return, a decision which is promising in that Stewart will continue to soar, but deeply anticlimatic and un-inclusive of new voices in comedy.

Photo by Barbie

B E N T O B OX E S G A L O R E

Internet craze after Oscars snubs: DBarbie envisioned a land free of patriarchy, where women had the autonomy to create and dominate their own political structures. So when the Academy Awards nominated Ryan Gosling rather than Stereotypical Barbie herself Margot Robbie and female director Greta Gerwig— the first female director of a billion-dollar grossing film— fans immediately expressed outrage. However, the mere fact that their lack of nominations caused outrage became a controversy in itself, with people reposting social media threads leveraging the persecution of women in Gaza as evidence that the Oscar’s snubbing Gerwig and Robbie was not a form of sexism worth honoring.

A bento box of chicken karaage (left) and two orders of chicken katsu curry (right) steam up the camera lens.

Kobeya 140 W 25th Ave (3 minute drive, 10 minute walk) Tucked away and hidden behind a dull-green exterior, Kobeya is a homey mom-and-pop restaurant serving some of the best bang-for-your-buck Chicken Katsu Curry I’ve ever had.

When ordering at the counter, you’ll soon realize Kobeya’s kitchen appliances look more suited for an Asian grandma’s house than a Bay Area restaurant—and you’d be right. With only two people working behind the counter—one who takes

Awards Season

Photo by Calvin Klein

Notable moments from pop culture awards season

By Milo K.

Photo by California Forever

Jeremy Allen White's Calvin Klein Campaign: F

An ad campaign became a PR nightmare when Jeremy Allen White, a caucasian actor known for his role in The Bear, headlined a January campaign from the clothing brand Calvin Klein. Typical of Calvin Klein campaigns, he wears underwear and flexes a chiseled shape. However, controversy abounded when British singer FKA Twigs, a black woman who starred in a seminude UK-based campaign, saw her campaign censored by the UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). Calvin Klein emerged at the forefront of a tense debate over double standards in the fashion and beauty industries.

Many argued that the brands’ deference to the UK’s biased advertising policies rendered its own commitment to diversity, as a form of currency-less corporate allyship.

Photo by Suavecito

QUIERES QUESABIRRIA

“Hiss” by Megan Thee Stallion: A+

TROPHY TRIUMPH Ayo Edebiri smiles big after winning the Emmy for outstanding actress in a comedy series for her role in The Bear.

your order, another cooking the food—the food can take around five to 10 minutes to be prepared, but I assure you it’s being cooked with love.

For $13, you’ll receive an entire tray of Chicken Katsu Curry cut into strips and layered atop more rice than you’ll be able to eat. For $9, you’ll have a bento box of the crispiest, but also most delicate and juicy, Chicken Karaage I’ve been able to try. And despite being advertised as a Japanese Curry restaurant, Kobeya’s menu runs deep: sushi rolls and bento boxes take up their own section on the over three page lunch menu.

Kobeya is open at 11:30 on all weekdays and is a must try for those tired of the stale and room temperature Asian food from Panda Express. uavecito Birria & Tacos S 1100 S Amphlett Blvd (8 minute drive) Suavecito is a far cry from Kobeya—where Kobeya felt like my grandmother was serving me my food, Suavecito is a literal hole in the wall. Kobeya’s kitchen appliances could be commonly found in households, while Suavecito’s looks industrial with cook and preparation lines. But don’t let the impersonal nature of Suavecito’s design fool you, the quesabirria tacos are exquisite and burritos are just as good.

Although not as close to Nueva as Kobeya or the next restaurant on this list, Suavecito is worth the around 8 minute drive. Although it also takes around 5-10 minutes to get your food after ordering, there is more than enough time to eat your food and head back to Nueva before your next class. Trust me, I’ve done it dozens of times.

The quesabirria tacos ($15.95) come with three crispy on the outside but gooey and tender inside tacos, consome, and a salsa that ties the dish together perfectly. The Suavecito Burrito ($11.95) is also a must try—I recommend getting birria meat for an additional dollar, and guacamole for another two dollars more. Either of these two dishes are enough for lunch, but go down even better when paired with the rather steep costing “Strawberry-Lime Agua Fresca” or the “Housemade Horchata” ($5.50).

While Chipotle edges out Suavecito in cost—a Chipotle steak burrito with guacamole is $14.85—it loses in consistency of quality and flavor.

The start of every year signifies a season of X (formerly known as Twitter) outrage, careers being made, and the peak of celebrity culture.

Join the Nueva Current Staff in reviewing the biggest surprises, snubs, and celebrations from the awards season.

Best Performance: Tracy Chapman and Luke Combs’ Fast Car Since 2009 Tracy Chapman rarely made public appearances. Even following the massive success of Luke Combs’ country cover of her biggest hit Fast Car, she only took one interview. However, at this year’s Grammys she performed Fast Car with Luke Combs, and it was chock full of all the emotions, mutual respect, and thunderous applause the performance deserved.

Biggest Total Success: Oppenheimer This year, Oppenheimer did something very few movies can do—be critically acclaimed, gross an immense profit, and be historically accurate. The biopic about the creator of the atomic bomb managed to appeal to both grandparents and film buffs, grossing $955 million and achieving a best-of-year 13 Oscar nominations.

Fondest Farewells: boygenius and Succession In one year, supergroup boygenius did it all. The trio of Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus, and Julien Baker released their first album, went on tour, made a surprise appearance at Taylor Swift’s Eras tour, released an EP, created a single commemorating Sinéad O'Connor, disbanded, and most recently won three Grammys. Phoebe Bridgers in particular was successful, raking in four awards including best duo performance with SZA. While all three boygenius members were first time winners, Succession (a conference room drama series) is no stranger to awards, winning three Emmys for best drama series. This year Succession tied with the Bear, both claiming a best of show six awards.

Most Repostable Moment: Jelly Roll’s Country Music Award Speech While Ryan Gosling’s confusion about his I’m Just Ken Critics Choice Award and Jenifer Lawrence mouthing “If I don’t win I’m leaving” at the Golden Globes are both very memeable, Jelly Roll’s rousing speech after winning New Artist of the Year is bound to be reposted on inspirational Instagram Reels for years to come.

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FEATURES

02/09/24

Photos by Kayla L.

PAGE

Where practice meets perception

Community weighs in on the Upper School’s increasing attention to on-campus safety

By Gabe H. & Kayla L. During a November all-hands assembly, the Upper School student body gathered in the gym for a review of the school’s safety and security protocols. It was the first assembly of such nature since pre-pandemic, and the first for the current Upper School student body.

Addressing the community, Dean of Students Jackee Bruno discussed the importance of on-campus vigilance, alerting students to proper emergency exit routes, iterating the appropriate etiquette in a situation with an intruder, and lastly, facilitating a school safety tour where students across the grades gathered in groups of five and put into practice these safety tasks.

When Bruno entered Nueva in August 2022, he realized the need to reinvigorate school safety precautions at the Upper School. Alongside Director of Operations Steve Osborne, he increased attention, time, and space towards prioritizing regularly-scheduled safety drills and wanted to carve out a portion of his job to protect students’ physical safety.

One of his efforts to prioritize students’ safety was to highlight white star stickers, which denote safe, enclosed areas on campus, including restrooms, classrooms, and closets.

According to a Jan. 29 survey by The Nueva Current...

148 Upper School students responded anonymously, rating each statement on a scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree).

During the assembly on Nov. 8, he alerted students to these locations, candidly stressing that students’ familiarizing themselves with these places could save their lives.

Since the November assembly, students have become more alert to these white stars, but the safety indicators themselves have been in use since 2018, first introduced as an initiative from the Nueva leadership team.

That year, Osborne also adopted and implemented the Big Five security protocol, a common emergency plan produced by the San Mateo County's Coalition for Safe Schools and Communities. The framework provides a foundation for emergency response, as well as proactive trainings for faculty and staff. “It’s a common language for communication between the police department, the fire department— everyone,” he said.

Also tasked with ensuring on-campus safety is the Upper School Safety Committee, a task force that meets monthly to review concerns related to school safety. An additional resource is the Emergency Response Team (ERT), which are faculty and staff emergency responders that

sweep the building in the event of an evacuation or medical emergency.

In addition to the physical presence of new safety mechanisms, technological advancements in Nueva’s internal software are aiming to streamline school safety, emphasizing transparency about where students are and at what time.

With the debut of Nexus, a centralized online platform supported by the cloud computing company Blackbaud, in August 2023, teachers are now able to view the status of their students’ attendance in a more accessible format than the previous MyNueva platform. Also in the vision of transparency, Nueva has made improvements to its check-in/check-out system, so that attendance data is immediately converted to the Nexus platform.

Due to its relative infancy at Nueva, the Nexus is still developing its capacity to protect student safety. However, Bruno is optimistic that it will eventually make an impact. “When everyone knows how to use it, it will be an improvement from the past. Currently, we're in transition.”

Bruno and Osborne both emphasized the common goal of re-prioritizing students’ attention towards safety. “We do a lot of work behind the scenes,” Osborne said. “The last thing we want is for students to be worried

in a very safe area and have really good security measures. But I feel like [the security protocols] came late. With gun violence being more in the news, Nueva realized that they needed to do something,” Izel said.

Samara B. ’24 agreed. Though she recalled feeling safe for the duration of her time at the Upper School, that didn’t hinder a wider fear of the threat of school shootings nationwide.

“When it’s making national headlines, I’m forced to think about it,” she said.

Samara added that Nueva’s geographical location is uniquely situated in the national dialogue about gun violence. “Living in the Bay Area, we tend to think we're so liberal that [gun violence] can't touch us here. But that's just not true.”

Carson M. ’26 noticed that the November assembly lacked explicit references to gun violence, which caused some of his classmates to feel disconnected. “I think at this school we can be very sensitive when we're talking about issues,” he said. “In many ways I understand that. But I think we need to treat these very severe incidents with the directness that they deserve.”

Later, Bruno said that he aimed to show in the assembly that threats to safety or security extend beyond gun violence. For Bruno, personally, an active shooter is the first security

76% 41% strongly agreed with the statement “I feel physically safe at school on a daily basis.”

about it.”

Due to recent increased student attention and awareness about a strong system of protocols, Osborne is “absolutely” confident in the school’s security.

With all of these precautions underway, students are reacting to this shifting playing field surrounding school safety in varied and sometimes conflicting ways.

Brenna A. M. ’25 has always felt physically safe on campus at Nueva. “There’s a lot of people making sure that we're safe at all times,” she said, referencing Nueva’s check-in system and the presence of security guards. Even so, her personal feelings of safety were yet improved after the assembly on Nov. 8.

“As we've had more safety drills, I have felt a lot safer. That assembly put a lot of my personal worries to rest,” Brenna added.

For Izel L. P. ’25, the threat of a potential school shooting is too looming to cast aside as an implausibility. The pervasiveness of school violence has “broken the facade of ‘this can’t happen to me,’” they said.

“At a private school, we're very lucky to be

the country, according to Wisevoter, a political research think tank.

Moreover, Everytown ranks California as the strictest regulator of guns in the country, the efficiency of which has been backed by quantitative research. According to data in a press release by Gavin Newsom, enforcing strict waiting periods for prospective gun owners can reduce homicides by 17%. Moreover, California boasts a gun fatality rate that is 43% lower than the rest of the country.

Newsom’s office also presented data suggesting that California’s gun laws between 2013 and 2022 helped save 19,000 lives that would have been lost to gun violence, in comparison with the U.S.’s overall gun violence mortality rate.

According to Upper School security guard Jonathan Piper, contracted by Pro Guard Security Services to work at Nueva since August 2022, the physical safety of students has never been in jeopardy. Having worked on security teams at high-security-risk companies like Google and Apple, Piper remarked on the similarities between security measures at those companies and Nueva.

“The tech campuses all had badge readers where people were supposed to badge into areas. There’s a similarity here actually,” he said.

Upper School history teacher Simon Brown,

3.8

rated the statement “The all-school safety assembly on Nov. 8 was useful and adequately prepared me to be safe on campus” a score of 3 or below.

Average rating for the statement “If there was an active threat on campus, I would know what to do/ where to go.”

threat that comes to mind. However, “the threat of violence isn’t always a gun.”

“Words are important,” Bruno said. “An active shooter is an important thing to think about, but it's actually not that common. In America, they take up a lot of space on the news and claim a lot of attention when they happen because they're important. But they're not commonplace,” he added.

According to the K–12 School Shooting Database, an open-source research project, incidents of national school shootings more than doubled in 2021, and 2023 saw the highest incidents of school shootings in the country’s history at an unprecedented 346. More broadly, 2023 was the second deadliest year on record for mass shootings with 656 recorded incidences, according to a report by CNN—second only to 2021, a year that saw 686 incidences.

Over the past few years, California has had at least seven school-related shootings annually— and 2022 saw a statewide record 16, Everytown Research & Policy documents. When factoring in California’s large population size, though, it has the sixth-lowest gun violence per capita in

who was previously employed at a school with metal detectors at the entrances and higher securitization, appreciates that Nueva’s approach to school safety de-emphasizes surveillance.

“That's not an experience most students should have to have,” Brown reflected, adding “there’s a big cost to having a highly securitized school.”

At the Upper School, Brown experienced a pointed shift in school safety approaches.

Students are not required to pass through metal detectors and there is no police presence on campus. On a daily basis at Nueva, Brown says he doesn’t think about school shootings very often and feels that the bulk of his concerns about national threats of school safety are put to temporary rest.

Upper School English & SEL teacher Pearl Bauer expressed similar confidence in Nueva’s approach. For her, safety is never top of mind since “there’s just an embedded trust” that the school will take the proper precautions.

“It might be a false trust, but the space itself makes me feel I don't need to be in survival mode,” Bauer added.

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Get to

KnowMe:

Unmasking the “invisible” parts of the teenage experience 11th-grade student develops digital matching service for teens struggling with hardship

By Ethan H.

Computer science teacher Wes Chao, who worked at Facebook for six years, helped Charlotte build the website in his software engineering class last semester.

“It's certainly a less common approach to the problem. Typically, people will say, ‘Let's connect teens with healthcare professionals.’ But this isn't necessarily always about people in crisis,” said Chao. “Connecting people with similar experiences to build community is the most promising part of social networks: that we can create communities online that are as powerful or more than the ones that we have in person.”

Charlotte’s inspiration and motivation to create KnowMe stemmed from her experiences with family challenges in middle school, recalling how it was difficult for her to find peers to open up to.

“That’s when I realized there really is no way for young people to connect at a deeper level than what's on the surface.

KnowMe is for the parts of us that are a little bit more invisible,” she said.

This emphasis on what Charlotte calls “invisible needs,” has been the focal point of many of her projects in the past, including GreenSwing, a device that harnesses the energy of opening doors to charge batteries, and The Community Photobooth, a student-led photography initiative that fundraises for organizations around the globe. Charlotte’s goal with her projects is to empower those with these needs.

“I feel like the world is biased towards the people who have the loudest voices, are the most public about their problems, and are the most mainstream,” she said. “But I think oftentimes we forget about the everyday people in our

9

lives who are struggling, and I think it’s important that we amplify those voices.”

After creating an account, users are prompted to set up a profile with a username that keeps them anonymous, a short bio, and tags for interests and challenges they have gone through. Lastly, users input if they prefer to be matched with students at their school or at other schools. Once this is done, users can see others’ profiles and begin sending connection requests.

In facilitating conversations, Charlotte hopes KnowMe can allow for every user’s voice to be heard and provide a judgmentfree space.

Sam S. ’25 was one of the first users to sign up for the platform.

“One of the biggest problems we deal with today is this kind of fear of scaring away people when we need to talk about our problems,” said Sam. “I think a lot of people deal with this, and it’s nice to have an alternative like KnowMe where you can talk with people who want to be opened up to. It brings a sense of comfort and alleviates that fear.”

Charlotte expressed her gratitude for the students who have already started using the platform, acknowledging the bravery and kindness they needed to take the first step in engaging with strangers.

She hopes that KnowMe will continue to expand to serve teens all around the Bay Area, but ultimately, Charlotte wants all students, whether or not they decide to use KnowMe, to know that there is a community out there for them.

“It could be KnowMe, but it's also the people who sit next to you in your math class or across from you by the WRC fireplace,” Charlott said. “In the end, we’re all humans.

We’re all one humanity, facing challenges with imperfect lives, so the best we can do is be there and support each other.”

Freep

ik

“Unmasking adversity, building community.” These are the welcoming words on the home screen of KnowMe. The website, created by Charlotte R. ’25, is an anonymous online message platform that allows teens to cultivate authentic friendships with those who have faced similar adversities.

With the internet and social media available at our fingertips, Charlotte observed that much of our windows into people’s lives are what they want us to see. This is precisely the reason that she chose to direct her attention toward online environments, rather than faceto-face ones.

“No one is putting in their Instagram bio that their parents are getting divorced, right? We don't find or make friends based on those parts of our identities,” said Charlotte.

“KnowMe allows for digital and online connection over the deeper, more meaningful, and more impactful parts of our lives, not how great you look in a selfie or what sports you play.”

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To make a KnowMe account, visit joinknowme.vercel.app.

Chronic procrastinator? Habit Hackers are here to help.

Tutors in new peer assistance program share their secrets for maximizing productivity

In our world of constant distractions and demanding schedules, time management is a crucial skill to navigate the challenges of academic and personal responsibilities. This year, the Upper School Writing and Research Center (WRC) launched a new Upper School peer-to-peer tutoring program focused on providing strategies for executive functioning and time management.

The tutors, self-dubbed as Habit Hackers, began offering private 15 to 45-minute meetings with students in January to introduce students to timemanagement platforms and strategies, among other resources.

To find the most effective tool or method to increase productivity, Habit Hacker Soraya J. ’26 recommends that students first determine the root of what’s encouraging them to procrastinate. Each challenge, whether it's a lack of guidance to start homework or confusion about the material, requires a distinct overlap of solutions and resources.

For students that struggle with time allocation, she suggests shifting away from a traditional to-do list.

“I used to create to-do lists, but they stressed me out because I didn't know how or when I could do everything,” Soraya shared. “I often found myself aimlessly checking off tasks without being truly productive.”

As a substitute, the Hackers

recommend time blocking, a scheduling format in which students allocate specific hours of the day to each task using Google Calendar or another calendar app. For instance, a student might reserve 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. in their calendar for studying for a test, 8:30 p.m. to 8:45 p.m. for a break, and 8:45 p.m. to 10 p.m. for completing an essay.

According to the Hackers, this approach can prove effective in averting delayed starts or prolonged breaks.

“Time blocking makes my tasks seem more tangible to me,” Habit Hacker Oliver C. ’25 said. “When I mark out specific times for completing assignments, missing that start time means I have to physically shift each task down an hour.”

Soraya agrees, pointing out that, with practice, students who use time blocking develop an instinct for estimating task durations, making it easier to schedule dedicated time slots.

Recording work and rest intervals through timers offers another quantitative method for assessing productivity. Toggl Track, an app, records time spent on specific activities and allows users to label each task for easy R AC E AG A I N ST TIME Emily M. '26 is engrossed in her phone screen, while the assignment at hand sits expectantly on her open laptop.

tracking.

“I'm very numbers-oriented, so I feel better when I can quantify productivity of a certain day,” Oliver said, emphasizing that the timers create a sense of urgency in completing every task.

However, the Hackers acknowledge that these regulated approaches may not be effective for some students. For those who prefer a more traditional task planner and notebook, the Hackers recommend using Notion, a free web application for organization and note-taking.

Adjusting to new systems is a gradual process. Habit Hacker Natalie S. ’25

encourages students to start small and stresses the importance of patience and persistence throughout the process.

“Keep improving your systems bit by bit,” Natalie said. “Choose one thing that you want to keep note of. If that’s tutorials, just track tutorials. If that’s homework assignments, do the same thing. Time management gets a lot easier once you learn more about what helps you best function.”

Photos by Kayla L. and Freepik

By Natalie L.

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Make your Move Navigating activism in the digital age

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Activism unplugged: charting advocacy’s course

How has social media changed the way the Nueva community—and the world— views and engages in activism?

By Owen Y-L. & Josie B.

[ CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1]

A NEW ERA OF ACTIVISM

When DEI coordinator Steven Mathis was growing up, he saw human-centered protests and boycotts as the primary manifestations of solidarity and hope. Without accessible ways to communicate information widely, Mathis recalls that activists “just had to hope everyone would show up” for their demonstration or protest.

“There were no wires, numbers, or devices creating these moments or these movements; it was the people,” Mathis said.

However, access to the internet and social media suddenly enabled large groups to mobilize faster and easier than ever before.

“Young people are now using all of these different platforms to bring issues to light that people in my generation have been trying to deal with for so long,” Mathis said.

Dorrance believes that, like any tool, social media can be powerful when used effectively. He pointed to the #MeToo movement, which encouraged social media users to share their experiences of sexual harassment or assault. Millions of victims used the hashtag, and hundreds of powerful men lost their jobs as a result of accusations, according to a New York Times analysis—an impact almost unimaginable without the vast reach of social media.

For Brenna A. M. ’25, social media’s most powerful contribution is its accessibility. For “the average Joe,” Brenna believes social media makes it easier to both learn about current events and contribute to a global conversation.

Brenna doesn’t consider herself an activist but uses social media to post about issues that are important to her, such as the Israel-Hamas conflict in

Gaza. She mainly aims to inform the friends who follow her account.

“It’s really important to me to educate them so that they can have some compassion for the things that I’m feeling,” said Brenna, who is Jewish.

Sometimes, friends will respond to her posts, connecting over shared identities or asking questions. For Brenna, it’s these conversations that highlight social media’s potential for positive change. In fact, a 2023 Pew Research Center study found that 23% of users in the U.S. say they have changed their view on an issue based on something they saw on social media.

However, social media’s immense reach and accessibility can be a double-edged sword. Because it is easier to participate in activist movements on social media, Dorrance worries that activism may become more passive and less disruptive.

“I think that protest and activism have to cause inconvenience if you want to shake people out of the way they’ve been living,” Dorrance said.

“One of the laments about social media is that it’s just not super disruptive. It doesn’t really require much sacrifice.”

As a result, Upper School biology teacher Lindy Jensen says people are able to get “the feel-good points in your brain” without going further to reflect on their own biases and think critically.

“They post just a picture of Black Lives Matter or something, which is great and supportive,” Jensen said. “But also: What did you do in your daily life? How have you changed the way that you behave? And how have you evaluated your own life for systemic and institutional racism and the ways you benefit from it?”

With the mass digitization of activism, Mathis sometimes worries that the human-centered communal movements of his youth will become a relic of the past.

“Making a trend out of activism loses the humanity of it, which ultimately affects the people who we are supposed to be advocating for, because people just want the clicks or followers,” Mathis said. “A fear of mine is that access to the internet and social media becomes too much of a vortex.”

Another phenomenon of the digital

age is cancel culture, the movement to shame or withdraw support from a public figure who has acted in a manner deemed socially unacceptable.

The idea of provoking public shame in response to a betrayal in moral agreement or trust “is not an invention of the internet age,” Dorrance said.

However, Brenna has noticed that the public-facing nature of social media can lead to more peer pressure for the everyday person to speak out on timely political issues, even if they are not well informed on the subject.

“Cancel culture expects everybody to always be educated on things or to always be engaging in activism,” Brenna said.

This pressure, she says, can lead to an inadvertent “echo chamber of misinformation.”

“What bothers me is that, because of cancel culture, people are really afraid to form their own opinions,” Brenna said. “They will just believe and keep spreading the first thing they heard.”

Similarly, Anjuli has noticed that nuance can be easily lost when complex issues are distilled into easyto-digest infographics.

“The best way to learn about policies is to watch city council meetings, read agendas, read information packets, and call policymakers,” Anjuli said. “You can’t boil all that information down into social media posts.”

In her own climate activism efforts, Anjuli has found in-person dialogue to be the most impactful.

“When I’ve talked to people about climate activism, or if someone came to me with questions and I was helping them through something, those conversations are 100% more valuable, and people get more out of it,” she said.

Despite these concerns, social media seems to be here to stay. As its influence grows, for many activists, the question has shifted from “Should we use social media?” to “How can we use it effectively?”

“BRIDGING THE GAP” OF DIGITAL ACTIVISM

Jensen’s journey with activism began with social media—more specifically, with a meme.

While pursuing a PhD at the University of Michigan, she recalled

facing ableism due to her learning disability. She felt unsure of how to create changes in institutional culture until she saw a meme of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer with the caption, “Deviation from the norm will be punished unless it is exploitable.”

Inspired to use this otherwiseodious sentiment as a marketing approach, Jensen co-founded a student organization that encouraged professors to implement DEI practices in classrooms and research labs by explaining how those practices would benefit them in addition to their trainees.

Jensen is optimistic that the power of social media can be combined with on-the-ground action to produce lasting change. The hard part, she said, is “bridging the gap between getting somebody to engage with your material on social media and getting them to do something in real life.”

To begin bridging that gap, Mathis invites students to “pop the bubble [they] live in” and learn about communities different from their own.

“I think it is important for those who have power and privilege to look out for those who don’t,” Mathis said.

“Leave what’s comfortable and go see the other side of things—how they live, how they struggle, and how they survive.”

For young people eager to make a difference, Jensen has one piece of advice: start local. With access to national and international politics at social media users’ fingertips, it may be easy to overlook issues affecting their local communities, where one vote can have a much greater impact.

While living in Michigan, Jensen campaigned for a county prosecutor who promised to end cash bail for nonviolent crimes. She encourages students to seek similar opportunities to contribute meaningfully on a local scale.

“I might not be able to end cash bail in the United States, but I can do it for this subset of people in my own community and I have a much better chance of succeeding,” Jensen said.

“If everybody everywhere focuses more on their own local communities, everybody everywhere ends up benefiting quite a bit.”

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02/09/24

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Humanitarian aid—through mini-games?

By Isabella X.

There’s a newcomer on the TikTok scene: venue-generating video effects. Following he Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, such ffects have become an increasingly common ght on users’ For You Pages—the platform’s ersonally-tailored home feed—and orphed into a new avenue for activism.

In November, a video featuring one such ffect went viral. It featured creator Jourdan hnson (@xojourdanlouise) holding solemn ye contact with the camera while dragging watermelon emoji across the screen in a ace-the-line style mini-game. Red, white, reen, and black, the watermelon parallels he colors of the Palestinian flag, and has been symbol of Palestinian resistance since the raeli government banned public displays of he flag in 1967. Overlaid in the forefront was he simple phrase “FILTER FOR GOOD.” In the TikTok, Johnson explained that ecause of TikTok’s Effect Creator Reward rogram, simply using the effect for free ould generate revenue. All of the payments he received, Johnson promised, would be onated to humanitarian aid in Gaza. ​​In just over a month, the filter had massed 11 million unique uses, generating 14,000. Johnson donated the funds to octors Without Borders and the purchase eSIMs for Gaza residents.

The impact of the fundraising filters ow extends beyond the Israel-Palestine onflict. The success of the effect spurred her AR creators to make filters that romise to donate to causes undercovered by ainstream media.

Creator Shumirun Nessa (@ herealoverloadcomedy) has made effects for umanitarian aid in Yemen, the Democratic epublic of the Congo, Afghanistan, Syria, nd Sudan, with each garnering hundreds of housands to millions of uses.

The videos claim that even a private ost generates revenue, allowing users to asily participate without a large platform.

TikTok’s own fine print, however, only artially corroborates this, stating that Effect Creator Rewards excludes deleted, uplicated, banned, and some private deos.”) The barrier to entry for online ctivism, it seems, is lower than ever.

When Reid D. ’26 sees these filters on his ed, he doesn’t hesitate to participate.

“I make a little private video and go on with y day,” he said. While he doesn’t typically onfirm the exact organization the money is eing donated through, Reid believes that ecause the detriment to his own daily routine minimal, there’s no harm in participating.

Worst case, it's 10 or 15 seconds of my day gone. o I just kind of hold out hope.”

For Beckett B. ’26, however, this lack of ansparency left him skeptical.

If he could confirm where the donations ent, Beckett explained, he’d be more nclined to participate.

“I honestly do feel morally pressured,” eckett said, referencing TikTok user @ rdows4, who promoted the “simple filter” s a way to “help thousands of [P]alestinian ds and mothers.”

He’s hesitant to being guilted, a feeling he

believes is magnified by TikTok’s algorithm desensitizing him to such guilt-inducing language. “[There’s] a trend on TikTok where there’s a dog and it’s like, ‘Oh, you click three buttons and then you can save me.’ When I see these, I don’t want to feel guilted, so I just avoid touching any buttons and hope the algorithm gets it off my feed,” he said.

Still, Carina T. ’24 believes that the filters prompt worthwhile discussion.

“Even though social media comment spaces are usually wretched places to be in, I've actually seen very productive comment spaces on these videos,” said Carina, who describes her For You Page as “activistoriented.” She recalled frequently seeing discussions about how popular news outlets cover Middle Eastern crises. “People are actually able to share opinions in a safe-ish space.”

Carina believes the online and somewhat anonymous aspect of TikTok is a major contributor to forging such safe spaces, where users discuss issues they might not otherwise feel comfortable talking about.

While these filters have forged online “safe spaces” for some students to learn about activist issues, others question whether it has real-world impact.

Like Carina, Lara M. ’25 has found great value in discussing current events with her friends and family.

“I’ve gotten closer to my sister as we’ve both come to understand issues like Palestine and anti-Zionist movements as Reform Jews,” Lara said. “And we’ve both grown intellectually because of it.”

Lara believes the current system of posting private TikToks using filters prevents such discourse. “If you choose to use a filter, but you someone has a problem with that, no one actually discussed it beyond the private TikTok you posted.”

But to Lara, the solution is not simply to post such filters publicly. “[I think it becomes] a way for people to advertise what they think the correct opinion is and show their ‘moral superiority’ to other people,” Lara said. “It’s a big thing for show.”

Anika G. ’26 agreed, having felt pressured into it herself while scrolling through her For You Page.

“As someone who tries to be vocal about social justice, I've seen a lot of posts that I feel obligated to repost—even if I sometimes disagree with their lack of nuance,” Anika said.”

She sees parallels between the current popularity of TikTok fundraising filters and the hashtag that took social media by storm following the murder of George Floyd in 2020: #BlackoutTuesday. On Instagram, over 28 million users participated, posting black squares to show solidarity.

“All that did was flood people's feeds. It didn't give any information about Black Lives Matter or how to donate. It was just about getting validation and maintaining this digital persona of being an activist,” Anika said.

Rather than catalyzing in-person activism, Anika believes that social media activism sometimes deters it.

“There's a lot of people who double-tap and ‘like’ an infographic, scroll through it

quickly, then forget about it but feel satisfied that they did something,” Anika said. “They get that validation then move on.”

This phenomenon, Anika believes, is reflected in statistics—she shared that according to Pew Research Center, 50 percent of all Americans consider themselves politically active on social media, but only 19 percent research and attend protests.

“I think both the filters and other posts don’t teach you the real radicalism of being an activist or ally,” Anika said.

Where Anika, Lara, and Carina all agree, however, is that filters can serve as entry points to the world of activism for those without the time or resources to participate in traditional activism.

“While it's ideal to call your senators or donate, if that’s not an option for you, you might as well use a watermelon filter,” Lara said. “It’s a baby step!”

Carina added that, while the magnitude of the filters’ impact may not be great, they still bring some benefit.

“It's kind of like the whole recycling argument—yeah, [recycling] doesn’t make a big difference in our ecosystem, but it can help in small ways,” Carina said. “And I think that's similarly what these filters provide.”

Photo by @xojourdanlouise via TikTok

Revenue-generating TikTok filters provide new avenue for activism

The "FILTER FOR GOOD" game is simple—simply drag a cartoon watermelon along the curvy lines

OPINION

Hashtags won’t solve a climate crisis Social media activism is passive, insincere, and performative

By Ellie K. Gen Z bears the weight of “fixing” the world’s crises and social inequalities, so it makes sense that we’ve turned to social media—our generation’s defining forum for connection—as our platform for change-making. However, unlike in-person activism, social media activism (Instagram stories and TikTok filters, for example) does not require courage and risk. Limiting oneself to digital demonstrations or virtual protests is the coward’s way out: protected behind the screen, there’s no boldness to posting, scrolling, or liking. Activism has lost its essence.

When activism becomes a game of reposts and likes, it loses authenticity.

Whether intentionally or not, social media activism is a performance. The act becomes about the actor. It no longer matters what’s on the screen, but whether a person engages with it and presents themself as someone committed to change-making. Did you repost that video of starving children to appear humanitarian? Did you support BLM by changing your profile photo to a black screen? Did you share that war infographic because everyone else did?

Educating oneself—even comprehending the material—is no longer a prerequisite for participation.

On social media, information is decorated with doodles and wrapped up in a bow, rarely fact-checked by experts and incapable of offering nuance and diverse perspectives. To ensure viewer engagement, social media turns

everything into bite-sized, digestible pieces—diluting the complexity of crises and prioritizing viewership over understanding.

Ultimately, social media apps vie for engagement. Users want to go viral, gathering likes and reposts as if they’re points in a video game. One week, we’ll be using a filter to donate money to those in need, while the next week, something new takes its place. As the views on protest videos decline, so does the attendance at those events. That’s how social media works: there will always be a shiny new toy to keep viewers engaged.

Social media activism alone will not work, but social media and activism can and will still coexist. Social media offers widespread movement of information and the ability to gather followers— essential elements for organizing social action. People unable to access the news now have an easy entrance into the conversation. Younger people can now become aware of events, rallies, and protests happening in their communities.

Social media can serve as a platform where individuals plan in-person events and build community, but the activism cannot take place virtually.

We cannot replace activism with social media activism, or else nothing will change. To make real impact, we need to shut off our phones and rally, fundraise, and protest in person. Why communicate in hashtags when we can speak face-toface? Like buttons will never hold the same power as showing up and speaking out. It’s time to log off and step up to make an actual difference.

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FEATURES

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02/09/24

Traversing an

impossible market

By Gabe H. Upper School faculty are weathering a shifting playing field when it comes to Bay Area housing markets. These diverse markets are distinct in their pricing and home rates, but are united by a nationwide quality: high interest rates beget inflated borrowing costs, stymying affordability. With widespread fluctuations in housing prices throughout the pandemic years, rising interest rates, and rent hikes, these faculty members have been forced to quickly adapt.

In 2021, Allen Frost remembers the hassle experienced by friends relocating before the once plummeting San Francisco rental prices began to go back on the incline.

During that time, he said, “Everyone moved because at that point, we didn’t know when people were going back to work.”

Shortly thereafter, prices bounced back and the San Francisco rental market became yet more expensive. A year later, during the Spring of 2022, home prices were on the rise along with interest rates. It was during this window when Upper School Science Teacher Jehnna Ronan and her husband closed on their first house in Excelsior, a quiet neighborhood in the southernmost region of San Francisco.

“Everything was really competitive when we were looking for homes,” she recalled.

Before finally closing on their home, Ronan and her husband had been saving up since college.

“It still took a really long time,” said Ronan, who described the stages of the homebuying process as an uphill climb.

Ronan’s house search was expedited by a real-estate investment service called Landed, a company with which Nueva corporately partnered to provide down payment assistance to faculty. Landed provided down-payment assistance for prospective homeowners, helped them in the process of obtaining affordable mortgages, selling their homes, and even acquiring shares of an LLC. Now they collaborate with companies in creating appreciation down payment assistance programs.

“They helped us a lot with the process,” Ronan said. “They hooked us up with our real estate agent, did a read-through of every home we wanted to make a bid on to tell us pros and cons and things to look out for. They really helped because they have lots of knowledge.”

US Design Thinking Teacher and 12th Grade Dean Morgan Snyder has found less luck in purchasing a home in San Francisco, even though she’s been on the hunt for the last three years. As a teacher, she found that there was a sizable gap between what kind of housing her salary permits her to seek versus what tech workers could afford.

“The homes in my price range are still in pretty bad shape,” she said, noting problems of structural integrity in affordable homes she’s visited. She has even visited houses with lead in the pipes.

While these homes fit Snyder’s budget, they come with “serious drawbacks to consider if

Photo illustration by Owen Yeh-Lee. Images by @pikisuperstar, @freepik via Freepik

How Nueva faculty and staff are navigating the increasingly perplexing world of securing housing in the Bay Area

[she] were to buy it.”

However, for Director of I-Lab Angi Chau, luck was in the cards. Chau and her husband bought their home in San Francisco’s Glen Park in 2011, when both were graduate students. Low interest rates that year allowed Chau to afford housing in San Francisco.

They searched on a low operating budget—“We weren’t overflowing with cash,” Chau said”—and ultimately they found a home that had been foreclosed on by a bank. Once their offer was accepted, Chau and her husband negotiated for a mortgage that would safeguard against high interest rates, which have ratcheted up prices in the housing market and contributed to an overall unaffordability of San Francisco homeownership.

Fast forward to today’s market, and the housing terrain has dramatically shifted from 2011. Last year, cities in the North Bay were widely impacted by housing price drops. San Francisco, a city on the shortlist of countless news articles touting America’s priciest housing market cities, saw a 5.6 percent

market was very compelling,” she said.

However, Kintz found that renting also has unique drawbacks, citing the cutthroat process she and her husband underwent in securing their unit in Rockridge, a residential neighborhood in Oakland.

“It was really competitive to get it because we were competing against other professionals who have families. We would see something on the market and just a couple of days later, it would be already rented,” she noted.

Before moving to the Bay Area, Kintz lived in St. Louis, Missouri, where she found the price of living far more affordable. She recalled that her sister bought a house in St. Louis during the pandemic with a mortgage half the cost of her monthly rent in Oakland.

While Kintz expressed optimism about drops in Alameda County home prices, she said that the market itself is “still really unaffordable.”

Upper School History teacher Simon Brown was compelled to relocate from his apartment unit in Albany—a city Northwest of

“Will San Francisco shift to be more of a buyer’s market or seller’s? I don't know, because San Francisco is seven by seven miles with a very limited housing supply and that’s partly what keeps it expensive.”

CHELSEA DENLOW

decline in the average home value by the end of 2023. The median house price slipped from $1.29 million to $1.22 million in 2023. This was the largest drop in median home values of any major city in California across this period.

While homes in the South Bay have gotten more expensive—San Jose’s average home rate climbed 6.6 percent, increasing from $1.24 million in December 2022 to $1.32 million in December 2023—San Francisco’s decline may be linked to administrative policies in the tech sector, which have had more flexibility with employees working from home rather than returning to the office during the pandemic.

The neighboring city of Oakland has also seen a conspicuous drop but tells a slightly different story. With homes dropping $33,000 on average, this 4 percent drop is the secondhighest decline in the state’s major cities.

Since building 8,000 new homes from 2013 to 2023, Oakland’s population saw growth increases, expanding from 406,000 residents in 2013 to roughly 430,000 in 2022.

For US Librarian Katie Kintz, who moved to the Bay Area summer of 2022, steep housing prices prevented her and her husband from buying, but the rental market was a mixed bag.

“The housing market is so unaffordable that a lot of people in our position as working professionals can’t afford a house. The rental

Berkely—in 2020, when his landlords announced the building’s conversion to luxury condos.

“I was basically kicked out because my rents increased and they were going to rebuild these luxury condos,” Brown said. “And then the place I lived after that I also moved out when the landlord said they’re going to consider raising rates.”

Brown partially attributes rent hikes in the area to UC Berkeley, adding, “Berkeley is a slightly different area when it comes to housing because it’s so much driven by the university. They get more and more students every year and so Berkeley housing values always seem to go up.”

Now, Brown rents an apartment in Oakland, which he said has afforded him greater stability than Berkeley.

“Having a year where my rent did not go up at all felt different,” he noted.

At the end of 2020, San Mateo housing prices stabilized at a median of $1.2 million.

On March 13 of that year, Upper School Science of Mind teacher Sean Schochet and his wife, a teacher at Menlo School, bought their home in the heart of San Mateo. Little did they know that a global health emergency would drive future prospective homeowners to San Mateo in droves, jacking up housing prices to a roughly $1.6 million median by April 2021.

Schochet described the process of homebuying in this market as “very scary and nerve-wracking.” He recalled being told “to be ready to be on an emotional rollercoaster, with nothing you could do to prepare you for it.” The process of being rejected for a house they bid on was “heartbreaking.”

Affording a house anywhere in California, let alone the Bay Area, was an undertaking, and Schochet and his wife had to make accommodations. They finally closed on a two-bedroom, one-bathroom house.

“Our only option was to buy a smaller home and then renovate ourselves,” said Schochet, who is now working on adding a bedroom and bathroom for his family.

Four years ago, when Upper School math teacher Veena Krishnan bought her home in Foster City, she observed a positive feedback loop in the home-buying market. When prospective buyers made an offer, they often bid higher than the selling price to present a more attractive offer to sellers, driving a causal increase in price medians.

Though prices have gone down in the last year, Krishnan harbors increasing apprehension about housing price hikes. “I hope there’s an upper limit,” she said, adding, “I am a little worried that it keeps going up.

People will get priced out very quickly.”

Upper School Lead Student Counselor Aviva Jacobstein and her wife bought their Redwood City home in December 2023, during a period where housing prices plummeted throughout the county. For Jacobstein, buying during that window was key to their ability to afford their house.

“I don’t think we could have purchased it a year ago,” she said, not just because the house’s price would have been inflated but because the amount of offers would have been excessive. Jacobstein’s real-estate agent friend noted that one San Mateo home on the market having up to twenty offers was a normal occurrence.

Though housing markets in the Bay Area have observable patterns of rapid increases and decreases, a window into the future of these markets is difficult to ascertain. Upper School History teacher Chelsea Denlow, who teaches an elective on Urban Studies, speculated on the future of Bay Area housing trends but hesitated to provide a qualitative forecast on where these trends would go.

“Will San Francisco shift to be more of a buyer’s market or seller’s?” Denlow asked.

“I don’t know, because San Francisco is seven by seven miles with a very limited housing supply and that’s partly what keeps it expensive.” She then noted that since areas outside of San Francisco are getting pricier, there is a sizable amount of ambiguity in predicting the future of these markets.

Since Denlow purchased her West Portal home at the start of the COVID pandemic, she was less impacted by the hassle of competition that would flood the San Francisco housing market in years to come. Nonetheless, she emphasized that “San Francisco will always be competitive.”

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GUEST OPINION

A letter to our community

Penned by the female and non-binary STEM teachers at Nueva

By Female & Non-Binary STEM Faculty at Nueva Dear Nueva Community, We, the collective group of female and non-binary STEM faculty here at Nueva’s Upper School, are writing this article because some recent events, as highlighted in the last issue of the Current, have brought to the forefront an issue that is very important to all of us. Regardless of the intentions behind the events leading up to that article, all of us were saddened and worried about the negative impacts on our non-male student body. Instead of focusing on one specific incident however, we want to zoom out to address the issue of sexist behaviors more broadly and how creating an inclusive and more beloved community will require all of us working together.

As such, this letter is our commitment to all students, regardless of how you identify on the gender spectrum: we are here with you, we see you, and we stand ready to listen to your stories.

Last year, we created an affinity space for female-identifying and non-binary students to share about their experiences at Nueva. More recently, we have also begun meeting as the group of female/ non-binary STEM faculty and aim to continue meeting regularly throughout the school year. We know it is only through being able to talk about tough issues in community with each other that we can truly make progress, so we must continue these conversations even if they are difficult.

To be more specific, we want all of our non-male students reading this to know that we see you and we are with you. You are not alone—we want to listen to your stories and learn how you navigate the various spaces at Nueva, whether maledominated or not. If you are experiencing “othering”, we hope you will reach out to any of us to share what you have been experiencing. And if you do not feel comfortable advocating directly for changes, we want to offer to serve as your mediators and advocates. By sharing what you all are going through as you go about your school days with us, we can help our entire community grow.

Photos by MugsyClicks Photography

Veena Krishnan

Angi Chau

Director of Innovation Labs Age 46

As someone who has been in the STEM field since I graduated from high school (loooong ago), I am certainly no stranger to sexist behavior. I have been interrupted by men countless times in meetings and conversations, assumed to not be one of the “technical people” on teams, intentionally been left off emails (that I only found out about later when male colleagues told me about them), been told that I “wouldn’t last” in certain positions, etc., etc. The truth is that these microaggressions (and some not-so-micro aggressions) hurt regardless of how old I am, how many degrees in STEM I have, or how much experience I have on my resume.

At the last school I taught at, an all-girls

Signed,

Mara Ballmer Angi Chau Jana Comstock Roya Curtis Francine Farouz Michelle Grau Lindy Jensen Veena Krishnan Zoe Monosson Kathy Paur Braelyn Riner Jehnna Ronan Morgan Snyder Preethi Sundaresakumar

US Biology Teacher Age 27

I-Lab Shop Manager Age 29

After college, I worked at a startup with about 80 people– eight of us were women. I constantly fought for my seat at the table and for my voice to be heard, not just as a woman, but also as the first designer.

Our human resources lead was also a woman, fresh out of college. She started a new tradition on our company’s Instagram account where she'd post about what the women in the company were working on called "Women Crush Wednesdays."

I was honored to be the first woman featured.

However, when the post came out, it was all about "this is Zoe. Look at her happy, smiling face. Don't you want to work with her? Come work at our company!" I was shocked and felt belittled. She could have highlighted so many projects that I felt proud of, yet all she described was my looks and energy. I couldn't believe that someone else who understood the struggle of being taken seriously, couldn't take me seriously either.

I spoke with her, she changed the caption on the post, and we figured it out. I knew she meant no harm with the post, but it reminded me how easy it is to fall into a system of oppression, without thinking about it or realizing that you're going along with it.

is the result of intentional targeting. At the same time, we recognize that lack of intention does not always mean lack of impact. Therefore, we feel it is important that we come together as a group to write this letter to you all.

We care deeply about this community and we believe that if we all commit to working together, we can all become better versions of ourselves. And isn’t that really what lifelong learning is all about?

Our doors are open. Please come in and talk with us.

Mara Ballmer

Zoe Monosson

US Math Teacher Age 47

My dad was an electrical engineer, who specialized in robotics and automation and worked for Indian Atomic Energy Commission, and his younger sister, my aunt, is a mechanical engineer who worked on the development of India’s first surface-to-air missiles for the Indian Armed Forces. Both of them were brilliant and patriotic.

On numerous occasions, after my dad and my aunt began their own companies in the 1990s, they would often come together during business negotiations with other companies.

Even though my aunt was highly qualified, the questions were often addressed to my dad. My dad would smile and then tell the folks at the table to redirect their questions to my aunt.

It takes courage to stand up and correct the situation immediately. I believe these stories have served as a reminder to me as I have navigated the STEM world and it is my hope that my daughter will not have to deal with microaggressions and sexist behavior in her academic journey and beyond.

We also want all of our male students reading this to know that we are also here for you. We know it’s not always easy to know how to be an ally and we can be your sounding board if this is something you feel ready for. And of course, we all make mistakes sometimes and do or say things that can end up impacting others negatively. In those moments, we want to help you process what happened, recognize how blindspots can get in the way of even the best of intentions, and brainstorm ways for making repairs. It is this type of really hard work that will actually let you transform those good intentions into actions that move all of us forward.

As shared in the stories below, sexist behavior is prevalent in our society, and even more so in STEM fields. This is something we have all experienced in one way or another and disappointingly, continue to experience even today. At Nueva, we are certainly not immune to it.

But just because this has been something we have experienced and continue to experience doesn’t mean that we have resigned ourselves to it. As a group, we also know that not every sexist incident

My friend Claire and I were the only girls in my senior-level high school physics class, surrounded by 28 boys. They never wanted to partner with us on projects, never asked to compare homework, never sat next to us in class. We sat at a back table, observers to a class that we didn’t feel like we could be a full part of. While not outright rude, our peers didn’t make space for us in class.

I’m grateful to Mr. Weldele, who taught that class, for always stopping by our table to answer questions, for calling on us during class, and for his words of encouragement and support. I hope that I can be that for my own students. In class, I have seen strong leaders try to make themselves smaller so that they don’t come across “naggy” or “bossy”, words that we only use to describe women. I see who chooses to sit with whom in class and who is the last person picked to be in a group project. I know there is more that I don’t see. I aspire to be your Mr. Weldele, welcoming you into this space with encouragement and excitement.

school, I remember taking the robotics team to a competition where some of the older, male engineers who were mentoring other teams would come by our booth to make conversation, only to promptly assume my students were the cheerleaders instead of the robot builders. Oof, did I get so mad!

And yet I am hopeful because I have also seen that change doesn’t have to require huge gestures. For example, a former female student of mine (from that same robotics team) told me that one day, her bike got a flat tire while she was in college. While she was working on fixing her bike on the side of the bike path, a guy stopped near her. But instead of saying he could fix this for her, this random stranger

instead said, “Hi! So I know that you don’t need my help fixing this but I wanted to stop to see if you could use an extra pair of hands to hold stuff for you.” On the surface, this is a small, tiny gesture. And yet I can imagine the layers underneath that provided the foundation. I imagine someone kindly correcting this guy at some point in the past about a better way to offer help. I imagine this guy being open to receive this gift of feedback and then committing to improving. I imagine what kind of change might be possible if everyone commits to be both the kind corrector (for someone) and the feedback receiver (when we misstep). THAT is a world that gives me hope because that world actually feels within our grasp.

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02/09/24

OPINION

S T U D E N T S TA N D O F F

A city built from the ground up

Not the planners we want, but the ones we need California Forever’s Solano County plan has potential for greatness

By Milo K.

Most American cities are severely flawed.

Unreasonably car-centric infrastructure, high cost of living, and generational inequalities have, over time, created deeply imperfect cities. So why not start anew?

In Solano County, California Forever has the potential to create a blueprint for a successful modern city, unhindered by a city’s financial difficulties because of the billionaires backing the project. While I am cautious, I think California Forever has the funding, plans, and groundwork to create a city that alleviates some of the Bay Area’s crises.

The most obvious problem the Bay Area faces is housing. Much of this can be attributed to the pace new housing is being built at. With over 7,000 unhoused people living in San Francisco, there is a clear need for further development within the Bay Area, and San Francisco is not building fast enough to compensate. On average it takes over 500 days for the city to give developmental jurisdiction, compared to the 385 days for the second slowest city in the state. To circumvent it, developers of California Forever are looking outside of the city, and Solano County has the space—both in quantity and locality—to reduce homelessness and cheapen rent.

While I do not love a conglomerate of billionaires having complete control over this city's development, a centralizing force is massively helpful for development.

The project has the potential to build a cohesive city, not through tacked on highways and apartment complexes. Modern American cities are built around car-

centric infrastructure, organizing through freeways and parking lots rather than people. The Solano County project seems to stray away from this structure. Through the speculative renderings shared so far, California Forever is planning to create a 15-minute city—an urban planning concept that everything, from work to healthcare, should be within a 15-minute walk of any home. This idea is central to creating a walkable city, something shown to be massively beneficial for both local and global environmental future, citizen health, promoting a local community, and more.

Large scale planning done by a singular group has potential to make a singular cohesive city, one unlike much of what we have seen before.

The California Forever project in Solano County has no guarantee it will work. There is still so much unknown about the project, including why the billionaires backing California Forever have invested so much into it. However, the downside of it failing will be at very minimal financial cost for the residents of Solano County. The landowners have been paid at an above market value rate and the project is legally required to operate at no cost to Solano taxpayers. If it does work and they manage to create a city from scratch, the benefits could be immense. More jobs, better education, healthier transportation, and more could all arise from this project. While I prefer if this initiative were taken on by residents and city planners, the wealth behind the California Forever project could create a city for the residents that remedies so many of the Bay Area’s issues.

Photos by Flannery Associates ,LLC, and MugsyClicks Photography

California Forever, a company backed by billionaires, is attempting to build a new city in Solano County, Calif., facing pushback from residents. Students weigh in on the controversial project.

Is this really a new idea?

Redoing the urban sprawl projects of the past won't solve the housing crisis

By Jackson H. Let’s begin with what we know for certain: first, inaccessible housing drives up the overall cost of living, slows economic growth, complicates health conditions, and contributes to educational and financial disparities in California. Second, the solution is for there to be more housing. The question is how and where do we develop?

The billionaire creators of California Forever in Solano County have a pitch: a brand-new city in the outskirts of the Bay Area, on previously undeveloped land. Their renderings illustrate a modern vision of bikes, brunches, and solar panels. But it’s not a 21st-century idea: it’s recreating the suburban sprawl of the post-war years.

We’ve learned our lesson with suburbia.

20th-century developments created racial and economic segregation even after housing discrimination was made illegal.

Today, living in low-density residential towns basically mandates car ownership and all its environmental consequences.

But even beyond that, housing projects built in new settlements are less affordable than their urban counterparts. According to the Greenbelt Alliance, public utilities and services in these kinds of suburbs are significantly more expensive, offsetting the advantages of being in a lower-demand area.

Advocates for the new city may reject describing it as simply another suburb, but that’s what it is. Regardless of how much investment goes into its downtown, it will be drawn into San Francisco’s orbit. If the entire reason for its existence is to relieve the City’s housing shortage, then it follows that the people moving there will have jobs and lives centered around the City. California Forever is a little over an hour from San Francisco: looking at that number, it's less on the

level of Europe than it is of Saratoga.

In the end, dreams of a new city cleverly distract from opportunities for developing new and affordable housing where people already live: in San Francisco itself or in the Peninsula’s low-density suburbs. The only advantage the Solano County proposal holds over those projects is one of ethos. Existing cities’ development systems are seen as stuffy and bureaucratic, while California Forever is selling urbanism like a tech startup.

The California Forever project is a way for techie billionaires to consolidate even more power over life in the Bay Area. They’ve eroded trust in the capacity of government action to the point where anything other than a privately-owned utopia is a non-starter.

C O U N T Y TA K E O V E R Highlighted in yellow: the $1.2 billion land purchase bought by Flannery Associates in 2023. In purple: land which Flannery Associates attempted to buy.

What do community members think about the project?

“While there are reasonable critisicms, the net benefit of the housing it could provide outweighs those.”

Adam A. '24

“There is a bit of a presumptuous mentality to the project... but if this does get off the ground, it can open up really innovative urban planning ideas.”

Chelsea Deanlow

“It could be successful, but it does not seem like they are working with the residents enough, making it unlikely to happen.”

Michael S. '24

“Building a city away from public transport is an intentionally environmetally inefficent way to prevent middle class people from living there.”

Patrick Berger

CORRECTIONS: The Nueva Current welcomes comments and suggestions. We seek to publish corrections and clarifications in the subsequent issue. Please email any corrections to thenuevacurrent@nuevaschool.org.

Corrections: Issue 3, published Dec 18, 2023: On page 2, Aanya D.’s name was misspelled. On page 3, senior Mei Mei L.’s name was misspelled. On page 10, the visual displayed 119 survey responses, while the correct number of responses is 121.

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How a post-recess snack shaped my college process Using my Lower School Social Emotional Learning (SEL) skills to guide me through the stress of college application season

By Gabriel A. Twice a week we climbed up the rickety metal stairs on the southern end of the Lower School mansion. Here was the home of Social Emotional Learning (SEL): a class dedicated to developing empathy, practicing wellness skills, and building a sense of community—a precursor to the Science of Mind (SOM) curriculum in the Upper School.

During my first year at Nueva, as a seventh grader, I remember how our class would reluctantly trickle up the stairs. As former SEL teacher Abby Ryder welcomed us into the incense-soaked space, I quickly picked up on the collective eye-rolls and subtle groans: in an effort to fit in I adopted the indifferent mentality surrounding SEL. Abby would guide us through the practice of “mindful eating.” First she would reveal her extra large bag of pretzels and the handful of plump green grapes, then she encouraged us to experience the tastes and textures of the snacks before us—we were participating in a quintessential SEL tradition and practicing mental fortitude. We sat in silence, grazing off the paper towels, glad for a post-recess snack,

waiting for the period to end—oblivious and apathetic of the lesson that Abby was hoping to instill.

But now, in my final semester of high school, I’ve come to realize and appreciate the way that SEL has fundamentally shaped the way I approached the college process over these past few years.

As a junior last year, mindful eating was a long-forgotten memory. I was desperately trying to be recruited to play college soccer, I was living anywhere but the present. See, the college process is inherently foresighted— plucking the applicant up from the world that surrounds them and swirling them through the panicked mix of imagined futures. Laying awake at night, I would wander through majors, careers, cities, and college towns, trying to envision the path that I might find myself crossing. Living viscerally in these jumbled tableaus, I found that my escape from this anxiety was rooted at the top of those rickety stairs—back to the lessons of my 7th grade SEL class.

What started as arbitrary pre-game routines became habits that I used religiously to ground myself in times I felt most preoccupied with the future. Each of

Photo by Gabe A.

Gabe A., 7th grade

these rituals shared one purpose: tuning myself into the physical world. It started one morning at my second-ever college showcase in San Diego. The first of my three games left me distressed after a poor performance—I was spiraling in my hotel bed, envisioning the rejections from coaches, from college admissions, from employers, from my teammates and friends. The next morning, caught up in worry, I realized that I had forgotten to pray the evening before. In a rush, I decided to multitask: stepping into the hot shower, I turned my palms up and worked my way through my prayer. I felt the steaming water trickle off my hair and lick my arms. I felt the thick heat swell in the air, squeezing in my chest and rolling off my back.

As I recited my thanks, I was full occupied in the present.

Over time, I came to seek out other sensory outlets that drew me into the moment. This manifested in my foam rolling routine, ice baths, constantly maxed-out AirPods, and even the way I prayed before games; instead of holding my hands straight out, I would angle them slightly inward so I could better feel the current of the wind against my palms. I sought to anchor myself

in the present by focusing intensely on the sensations of being in the present.

These habits all pointed back to one thing: mindful eating. It was this initial practice that guided me to tune into the environment around me—demanding presence and awareness when sifting through the sensory experience of eating. Now, I am able to see the way Abby deliberately introduced extremities of texture, through the crunch of minipretzels and slackless skin of ripe grapes.

I was blessed to have adopted such a seemingly simple, yet powerful routine of forcing myself to experience the present through surrounding myself with an imposing sensory environment. My one wish is for students to approach the SEL and SOM courses at Nueva primed with openmindedness from my own experience. The skills we learn in these classes are never one size fits all, so we have to do our best to apply the meaning behind the practice, rather than just the practice itself. With a willingness to learn, I believe that SEL was one of the most impactful classes I have taken during my time at Nueva, truly shaping the way my academic and athletic career has unfolded in these past years.

This year’s school spirit has been one of our lowest. How can we fix it?

Spirit starts with you, your words, and your confidence

By Ellie L. Spirit is the vibrant confetti on our hallway floors. It is the extra fun in between piles of major assessments and homework. It is an essential pillar of student life, and at Nueva, that pillar is teetering, all because of our hypocrisy.

I know that we have the ability to be a spirited school. Dozens of students crowd the bleachers during home basketball and volleyball games. In our most recent spirit assembly, all students stood up to intently watch 10th Grade Dean Jonathan Quick in Simon Says and rush from corner to corner in Four Corners. Over the past few days, I have seen students wager massive amounts of Bruno Bucks, delighting in their occasional wins and their more common, extreme losses.

We should be doing the same with our dances and spirit weeks. We absolutely have been able to before.

When a few are willing to jump into something new, whether it is committing to the “country vs. country club” line dancing or a set of elaborate, coordinated dance proposals, it is easy to get swept up in it all: to cheer and join in.

All of these activities get us excited for the dance, no matter how ridiculous they are. In fact, as a part of our StuCo announcement of the dances, I always propose to Kayte C. ’25 in front of the school for that excitement factor. The bigger, the better. Unfortunately, at Nueva, we do not have a proposal culture, and never really have.

Some students attribute this to our school’s lack of dating and couples, but I disagree. We lack dance proposals because of this emphasis

T H E N A N D N OW Left: In 2022, seniors organized a “rave” during lunch. Even in pandemic recovery and amidst masking restrictions, there was still much joy and excitement.

Right: In 2023, students talk and wait for the dance to actually start. Spoiler alert: it took a while.

Photos by @nuevastuco on Instagram and Kayte C.

on the romantic aspect.

When romance becomes the focus, the proposals have much higher stakes and are more serious.

The proposals suddenly have to mean something. When students balk at that, dance proposals become rarer and rarer. They become even more of a spectacle to gawk at, material for teasing, something to spread in whispers all over the school. In short, our lack of dance proposals is a selfperpetuating cycle that worsens the longer we follow it.

A similar sort of cycle has defined how we think about spirit.

Words have impact, especially when it’s about something that relies so much on excitement and school culture. When we complain about how lame the dances are, dance hype declines. When we lament the dance music (hot take: “G6” is not even that bad), the dances are that

much more awkward. When we think we’re above the ridiculously absurd costumes for spirit week, then of course we won’t dress up like that.

I have heard these sentiments many times, and am guilty of uttering them myself. It’s easy. But if you want our spirit to be better, if you want our dances to be more fun, if you want your grade to not embarrass themselves in front of the whole school, then you need to break the cycle yourself.

However, our lack of excitement and engagement is not solely because of these complaints. After all, this year, the volunteer-based Spirit and Social club was replaced with the spirit cabinet in hopes of

Spirit is a bandwagon.

Let’s all jump on.

providing more concrete support for the Spirit and Social Representative.

The spirit assemblies have certainly never been better. Unfortunately, the dances have suffered from a lack of timely/advance notice and have coincided with sports games, college results, and breaks.

Yes, the planning and communication could be better.

But I believe it is still a question of how much we care about spirit. If we care enough to complain, we should also care enough to try. After all, once we get to the dance, the responsibility of spirit falls to us.

Take homecoming, for example.

As the first dance of the year, it sets the bar for the rest of the year of spirit, keeping it hopefully high.

This year, the homecoming spirit week participation was not terrible, and there were over 200 attendees to the well-lit, and decorated dance.

But it took us at least 15 minutes to

start on the dance floor. We stood on the edges of those black tiles and waited for someone to start it all.

Once a few people started dancing, it was easy to jump in.

A similar occurrence happened with the winter formal, only with less attendees, it took even longer for us to start dancing. This time, Taylor Swift saved the day: as soon as “Lover” started playing, we managed to get over ourselves and just dance.

These moments, in a microcosm, are the hesitation we must overcome. I know it is hard, awkward, and easy to just stand by the snack table, complaining about how no one is dancing (which was unfortunately my situation during the dance. Yes, I’m a hypocrite. We all are.).

Spirit starts with you. It starts with your own willingness to try, as hard as it is. I know it is harder to muster the energy for our dances when not as many people are doing it with you. It is easy to skip a dance when you get a free Friday out of it. It is easy to not care about a spirit day theme when no one else seems to go to the effort. It is easy to not go to the effort of a dance proposal when it might blow up into something it is not. It is easy to then complain about our lack of proposals, spirit participation, dance attendance, and more—and still, not think about where you factor in.

Lastly, spirit is a bandwagon. Make that leap of faith, whether it is a silly poster to ask a friend or an elaborate spirit day outfit, and you might be surprised who might join you.

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EDITORIAL TEAM

ENTERTAINMENT Crossword

By Marcus H.

Aaron H. ’24 Editor-in-Chief Ellie K. ’24 Isabella X. ’24 Managing Editors Natalie L. ’25 News Editor Owen Y.-L. ’24 Features Editor Josie B. ’25 Culture Editor LiAnn Yim Faculty Advisor

THE NUEVA CURRENT strives to provide informative and impactful articles for our community. Our issues cover stories related to our school, the Bay Area, California, and other relevant spheres. We are dedicated to helping readers understand the ways in which we can all make a difference in the world around us.

The opinions expressed in The Nueva Current belong solely to the writers and are not a reflection or representation of the opinions of the school or administrators.

Connections

By Marcus H.

For each puzzle, find groups of four words that share a common link! Watch out for words that could belong in multiple categories.

Ex: “Pixar movies” (Brave, Cars, Coco, Up) or “___ button” (Belly, Hot, Panic, Snooze)

This Valentine’s Day, share a gift in your unique love language

QUESTIONS, COMMENTS, SUBMISSIONS We welcome your voices.

We accept photographs, letters to the editors, articles, illustrations, and other pieces of work. Please email us at thenuevacurrent@ nuevaschool.org.

STAY CONNECTED www.thenuevacurrent.com Instagram: @thenuevacurrent Twitter: @thenuevacurrent 131 E. 28th Ave. San Mateo, CA 94403

DOWN

1. Big name in nail polish 4. Like some sandpaper 9. Place to jot things down 12. Where It.'s at 13. Shakespeare's birthplace 14. Double-helix molecule 15. Tread heavily 16. Throw in 17. Mimosa family tree 20. You might see them littered around school during lunch time...

24. Outback automaker 25. Neither Rep. nor Dem. 26. Free-for-all 31. Flight board abbr.

32. Smaller than usual, endearingly 34. "Delicious!"

35. Mythical symbol of purity 36. Electronic music genre 37. Vote against

1. Small bills 2. Brest bridge 3. "Make ___ away" 4. Is able to 5. Strange 6. Website home to r/ crossword 7. Dessert with a cherry 8. Slice of history 10. Shade tree 11. Tropical fruit 16. Spanish "here" 18. Revival technique 19. Reunion attendees 21. Self-conscious question 22. "Walk This Way" rap trio 23. Up in the air, on a sched.

27. Corner key 28. King of the jungle 29. Poet Pound 30. Start of a counting rhyme 31. 911 responder 32. Amusement 33. Popular card game

SALAMANDER

CLASP

SECURE

LOCK

BEAD

SEAL

PENDANT

CHAIN

YOSHI

PEACH

FROG

WARIO

NEWT

BOWSER

TOAD

BOLT

On Feb. 14, consider expressing appreciation for those you love!

It’s easy to forget on other days, so let these tips serve as a gentle reminder. No matter if you’re celebrating a platonic, romantic, or familial relationship this Valentine’s Day, here is a thoughtful gift in each love language to get you started.

By Kayla L.

The Nueva Current is distributed to current and alumni members of The Nueva School community.

Press run is 600 copies.

The Nueva Current is a member of the NSPA and CSPA. NSPA Pacemaker Finalist 2020, 2022, 2023.

Pacemaker Winner 2022.

ACROSS

Answers: 1. FROG, NEWT, SALAMANDER, TOAD: amphibians / 2. BOWSER, PEACH, WARIO, YOSHI: Mario Kart characters / 3. BEAD, CHAIN, CLASP, PENDANT: parts of a necklace / 4. BOLT, LOCK, SEAL, SECURE: make something safe

STAFF Gabe A. ’24 Gabriel B. ’25 Jordan F. ’27 Neel G. ’27 Gabe H. ’24 Jackson H. ’26 Ethan H. ’25 Niam K. ’26 Milo K. ’24 Ellie L. ’26 Kayla L. ’26 Roan W. ’24 Alvin Y. ’26

02/09/24

QUALITY TIME

ACTS OF SERVICE Have a lot of people you love? Bake a batch of cookies or cupcakes, and hand them out to your friends and family. For bonus points, add chocolate or a pop of red to match the Valentine’s Day theme.

Hop on the CalTrain for just a few stops from school, and public libraries are aplenty: San Mateo, San Carlos, Burlingame, and Redwood City, to name a few… Prep for your biology test, read children’s books, or discover a vintage newspaper—the options are endless. Cozy hangouts at the library are seriously underrated, and don’t underestimate them this Valentine’s Day.

WORDS OF AFFIRMATION Let’s be real: texting is Gen Z’s number one form of communication.

But that doesn’t have to make us superficial! Reach out to someone who makes your life better, and let them know what you sincerely appreciate about them.

A FINAL WORD OF ADVICE

RECEIVING GIFTS While gift cards and boxed chocolate are great and iconic options, a unique gift from Etsy could totally change the game. Think about your loved ones’ interests and personality, then shop on the website for something that relates.

Gifting and supporting a small-business simultaneously? Sounds like a win-win!

PHYSICAL TOUCH

This love language can feel tricky to some, but there’s no need to overcomplicate. Find someone you love and offer a hug. For success, read their body language and match their energy.

It’s natural to feel nervous about Valentine’s Day, but try not to put pressure on yourself or others. Share your genuine love, however that looks for you.

Keep this quote from poet Maya Angelou in mind: “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel." So, make your loved ones feel loved!

Art by Kayla L.

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Ins and Outs for 2024 With the beginning of 2024, we must decide what we will be keeping in 2024 and leaving behind in 2023. Here are a couple lists The Nueva Current staff and other community members are carrying with them into the new year.

IN: 1. Minecraft 2. Going to sleep early 3. Complimenting strangers 4. Parallel parking 5. Pleasure reading 6. "Do Not Disturb" mode 7. Feb. 29 8. Elaborate prom-posals 9. Film cameras 5. Handwritten notes OUT: 1. Doomscrolling social media 2. Fast fashion 3. Not having time 4. Snapchat 5. Nepo babies 6. Stanley cups 7. QR code menus at restaurants 8. Imposter syndrome 9. Saying "sorry" too often 10. Starbucks

June L. '27 & Mila W. '27

IN: 1. Fun socks 2. Low waisted jeans 3. Sweatpants that don't cuff at the bottom 4. Extreme sports 5. Uggs OUT: 1. Iced drinks 2. Drunk Elephant 3. Converse 4. GRWM videos 5. Taylor Swift

Mei Mei L. '24

Kerrie Z. '24

IN: 1. Lip products 2. Platonic relationships 3. Weekly tutorials 4. Spending time with her mom 5. Birthday cards OUT: 1. Hair dying 2. Baby fever 3. Rewatching shows 4. Black coffee 5. Phone in hand at all times

Sarah Muszynski, English teacher

IN: 1. Stretching 2. Candles 3. Hydration 4. Upcycling 5. Ceramics

IN: 1. 1970s style 2. Taking walks 3. Small bursts of cleaning 4. Pausing to reflect 5. Unplugging before bedtime

OUT:

OUT:

1. Fear of failure 2. Locked schemas 3. Resentment 4. Snoozing my alarm 5. Attachment to my phone

1. Instagram addiction 2. Over-planning 3. Buying hair products 4. Food waste 5. Trying to read other people's minds

Photos by Ellie Kearns

By Ellie K.

2024 IS FOR SCRAPBOOKING With scrapbooking as her "in" for 2024, Anna Feland '24 makes collages to commemorate her senior year.

Mavericks take on

Seniors use pixelated video game as a way to bond in their final semester together

The Class of 2024 began their second semester in an unconventional way: destroying bases, stealing resources from their friends, and getting to know random Hungarians and Serbians from Reddit. They have faced each other to the death but also fought side-by-side in battle. They have ransacked homes and claimed the land as their own, but also shared resources and created their own economy. All of this on one survival Minecraft server.

In early January, Syon “SyMC” P. ’24 created a Minecraft world which 55 seniors (nearly half of the grade) have logged onto over the past month and a half. The server itself has been around since 2020, but, until recently, the only users were Syon and a few of his friends.

Between class periods, Syon checks the server manager—a software that allows him to see all chat logs and active players—and often sees upwards of 10 people playing on the server.

“Blocks 1, 2, and 5 are hotspots for activity,” said Syon, describing the most frequent times people are logged onto the server.

“But usually it’s less dependent on the class and more dependent on who you're with. If you're around two or three people who are also on the server, then yeah, chances are you guys are going to play.”

Log in during Block 3 and maybe catch Jaxon “bigchungusson” J. ’24 playing during his free. Jaxon, who never has been an avid video game enjoyer—and most definitely not an avid Minecraft player—found himself playing a total of 24 hours throughout his first week on the server. In that time, Jaxon

acquired fully enchanted Netherite armor and equipment (the most powerful gear players can attain), an elytra (a glider only attainable once you complete the game), and false allegations of theft after multiple valuable items began disappearing from bases.

Joining the game at midnight? Tammer “t4mm2r” M. ’24 might be on. After some seniors posted the server address on Reddit, two Hungarian and Serbian players logged on at 3 a.m. and played with Tammer for nearly five hours. The two randoms were banned later that day to keep the server limited to Nueva seniors only.

Despite having to ban players, Syon—the server moderator—explained it’s almost always “good vibes.”

Reese “Reese_Mines” G. ’24 agreed with Patel’s sentiment, playing on the server for its “collaborative community.”

Reese was one of many who decided to unite and make a village, but with no Minecraft Homeowners Association regulating design, the builds vary drastically.

On one side of the hill, gamers will see Reese's simplistic house with a cobblestone roof and spruce plank walls. Turn to the left and they’ll see a giant sculpture of the Pokemon Meowth’s head sticking right out of the ground.

“Playing Minecraft with people has really allowed us to appreciate who people are outside of academic contexts,” Isabella "qqglizzerson" X. ’24 said.

Jack “TheLetterQ16” R. ’24 was new to Minecraft when he joined the server in late January and plays with the goal of building a nice, quiet house. Hidden between spruce trees and towering bamboo shoots, Jack's

house is rather modern in its rectangular, flat-roofed shape, but whimsical in the button nose and glass pane eye and mouth on its northern wall.

But while Jack plays the game quietly, others play as loudly as possible.

Take Bodie “Bodesterine” C. ’24, for example. In the beginning, students united to grief—a gaming term for annoying or angering people through destruction— Bodie's house. Bodie's mansion became the target of an onslaught of attacks due to its proximity to the spawn area and his early-game wealth. At first, the attacks were playful—stealing items from chests undetected—but they quickly became warlike. Giant TNT traps were set, and spawn traps prevented Bodie from protecting his house, which was soon destroyed.

For a little while, the attackers had won—claiming the conquered land as their own and building bases atop the remnants of what was Bodie's. But soon, Bodie came back, destroying the bases and reclaiming his home.

While Syon, as the server’s moderator, allowed the TNT traps and some playful stealing, he drew the line when players began cheating with fly hacks and x-ray vision. But, according to Syon, those incidents were few and far between.

Although it took four years for more than just Syon's friend group to join the server, he believes it was all worth it in the end.

“Something that’s super special is that people who usually wouldn't interact got to interact through the Minecraft server,” Syon said. “Seeing different pockets of the grade coming together was really wonderful.”

Minigame Time: Match the player and the username to their in-game skin.

1.

Tammer "t4mm2r" M.

2.

Izzy "qqglizzerson" X.

3.

Syon "SyMC" P.

4.

Reese "Reese_Mines" G.

A.

B.

C.

D.

Answers: 1A, 2C, 3B, 4D

By Aaron H.

Photo by Aaron Huang

Minecraft

SPORTS

02/09/24

Girls soccer kicks the ball to CCS As the halftime whistle blew throughout the soccer field, the Nueva girls soccer team was angry. Their opponent, the Thomas More school, had scored a rare goal on them, and they were losing. Daniel Zerabruk, their coach, gave a brutally honest briefing, and by the time their hands swung up in the Nueva cheer, their anger had turned to determination. In the second half, they came back completely, winning 5-1.

“It’s a chain reaction,” Juliet C. ’26 said.

“All it takes is one person to step up the aggression game, going in for the hard tackles, winning the 50-50 balls. And then the whole team starts playing like that.”

This team spirit appears in every tournament attended, every practice, and their over twenty games played. But the camaraderie, the quick conversations, and group chemistry they’ve developed does not end on the field. Team dinners, quick hello’s in the hallway, and laughter have only enhanced their team dynamic.

“We take [soccer] seriously, but not ourselves too seriously,” said co-captain

Kaila E. ’24 of the team.

This balance has helped them approach every league, tournament, and friendly game with a determined mindset. These games often vary in challenge, always giving the team opportunities to adapt, whether the team can try out new formations and positions, or simply, unexpected opponent aggression or plays. The adaptability and perseverance of the team is their strength.

“I’m super proud [we’re] able to play such challenging teams and keep our mental strength to not get down on ourselves,” said

Julia C. ’27.

They hope to bring this tenacity to CCS, an event they have continuously improved at, that they’re super “pumped” for, as Juliet noted.

For Kaila, this CCS will be her last, but she trusts the team will continue to flourish.

“I already see future leaders in our juniors, sophomores, and freshmen. I know our team is in good hands,” said Kaila. “I’m excited to see how our soccer program grows.”

TEAM HUDDLE Photo by Diane Mazzoni

By Ellie L.

Players put their hands together fot a signature Nueva cheer.

Girls basketball team prepares to bounce back stronger than ever next season Small but mighty, consisting of only 9 players, the girls basketball team’s spirit remains zealous. Before each game, they chant, “Big dogs on 3! 1, 2, 3, woof, woof, woof,” and run off to a heated competition full of sweat and smiles.

As of Feb. 6, the team is 7-11, leaving much room for improvement for next year.

Because they’ve lost a substantial amount of seniors and gained a scarce amount of new players over the past few seasons, their main objective this season was to rework team dynamics and skill to build a powerhouse force next year.

“This was always going to be a rebuilding year in my mind,” Gavin Bradley, who unexpectedly stepped in as head coach mid-season, said. “We’ve just been working with what we’ve got, and in that regard, it's gone well. We’re really well poised for next season, and I’m very excited.”

With a few new freshmen and strong juniors like co-captain Lara M. ’25, they are well on their way to strengthening their team foundation, as team dynamics continue to thrive with a fostering bond between upper and underclassmen.

Photo by Diane Mazzoni

By Neel Gupta

F LY I N G H I G H Siana K. '25 fights for the ball at tip-off against SF Christian

“My teammates and captains in previous years had such a positive impact on me as a player and person, and I'm so grateful for the opportunity to continue that role and grow into a leader for my younger teammates,” Lara explained. “Team-wide success is individual success, and vice versa,

and I would love everyone to acknowledge that and continue to work for it — this is the mindset we all need and should have.”

In anticipation of a successful team next year, they have been working on growing an aggressive mindset on the court and strengthening their physicality.

“We talk a lot about learning to compete and rising to the challenge consistently, instead of lowering our standards,” Bradley explained. “I’ve been preaching to them about learning how to respond to their competitors; you have to maintain a high level of energy, with the same amount of aggression.”

In order to motivate players to reach their full potential, Lara and her co-captains aim to nurture an environment that stimulates growth mindsets both on and off the court.

“At the beginning of this season, my co-captains and I wanted to revive our team roster and encourage everyone to come with a positive mindset, ready to improve and bring their most to the court,” Lara said.

“We just came in with this ready-to-improve mindset and wanted to encourage our teammates, returning and new, to have the same.”

Boys’ soccer rebounded this year, en route to a second-place finish in league

By Niam K.

This season, the boys varsity soccer team was able to combat adversity and overcome challenges.

Left-back Connor H. ’26 voiced the positives of the season, especially how they were able to support each other through adversity.

“Even though we were unable to make CCS, it was my favorite season yet,” Connor said. “Unfortunately things don’t always go as planned, and we were knocked off from our undefeated season by DCP El Primero, […] but we all supported each other through any challenges we faced this season.”

Over the past couple of years, the team has built up a fierce rivalry with Design Tech High School, more commonly known as D-Tech. Last season, D-Tech won both times the two teams faced off. Coming into this season, one goal of the team was to come out ahead in the rivalry game. Sophomore

defender Rohan K. ’26 shared his sentiments about this year’s re-match.

“We controlled most of the game and won pretty comfortably,” said Rohan, reflecting on this year’s big rivalry game win.

Despite these wins, the team still faced adversity, both Rohan and Connor consider the lack of consistent attendance as the biggest obstacle the team faced this season.

“With the people that we had, our numbers were inconsistent at times, so we had to figure out how to play with that and prepare for games,” Rohan said.

While there was a lack of players for practice and games, Huh commented on how coaches adapted to these challenges and still managed to guide the team to a second-place league finish.

“Even during these absences, we played as a team. Our coaches did a great job of trying players out at different positions, which made it a lot easier for us to adapt when we had holes in our roster,” Connor

Nueva’s very own Redeem Team

By Niam K. For the first time in Nueva history, last season’s varsity boys basketball team didn’t make CCS. This year the team came back hungry to make the playoffs. During the offseason Head Coach Mike Green and Athletics Director Brett McCabe made some big changes to the program.

Junior forward Max R. '25 spoke on how introducing cuts to the basketball program for the first time affected the team for the better.

“Introducing cuts made everyone try harder and value their spot on the team.

Now everyone feels like they need to try their best to keep their spot,” Max said.

This year, the team created a new tradition: sharing pregame meals as a team.

Sophomore guard Evan W. ’26 observed, “Getting food before games was great not only for team bonding but also so we’re not hungry.”

While this season was quite successful, the team still encountered some challenges.

Junior guard Izzy Fine ’25 attributed the biggest obstacle to injuries.

“We faced a stretch of a lot of injuries to the team but we were able to get through it,” Fine said.

Evan added, “I think our team was able to work hard and overcome these challenges and we won a lot of games through teamwork and determination.”

This season the team also put more of an emphasis on team bonding. Max reflected on a trip the team took.

“This year we all went to a Stanford game together which was really fun,” Max said.

After a one-year hiatus from CCS the team's “Redemption Year” ended up being successful as they qualified for the CCS Playoffs, where they will be competing over February break.

Photo by Diane Mazzoni

18

BUCKETS Max R. '25 scores a layup against the Menlo School

said.

Overall, the boys' soccer team made strides this season and is looking forward to making a push toward CCS next season.

PUSHING FOR A G OA L

Photo by Diane Mazzoni

PAGE

Connor H. '26 jockeys for the ball with an opponent in a match against East Palo Alto Academy

THE

NUEVA

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19

Gearing Up for Gameday

teammates on game day, as well as devote greater attention towards their purpose on the court during the daylong lead-up to tipoff.

“I feel like for me, it's just always a reminder that I have to be focused throughout the day…because I have a basketball game,” Benjamin said.

In a similar vein, Gallagher wants the shirt and tie to physically mark a distinction for the athletes between game day and every day.

“I want them on game days to be thinking, ‘Something is different about today,’ and changing the way that they do something pretty basic, like get dressed in the morning, I think is a good way to start that off,” he said.

The origin of the game day habit lies in Gallagher’s experience as a member of the basketball team when he was growing up in Boston. He relented that it might be more of an “East Coast thing,” or “a little traditional,” though that did not change his mind about implementing it here, where it appears more unique within the sphere of casual California fashion. He values the intentionality behind a more formal outfit, believing it “conveys some seriousness of purpose.”

There was some reluctance and wavering enthusiasm toward the practice, especially early on when Gallagher first introduced it.

“I thought he was crazy,” Benjamin recalled judging initially. He commented that it was hard to stick to the dress code during a week when the team had four games.

“I think in the beginning of the season, most people were skeptical about it, but we’ve come to kind of embody it as part of what we do to mentally prepare for games,” said Brooks.

That said, diligence as the season went on was imperfect. Players wore sweatshirts or jackets covering their shirt and tie, took

By Gabriel B.

Every game day this past season, the members of the JV boys basketball team could be spotted around campus in collared shirts and ties. The custom, instituted by head coach Paul Gallagher, is about recognition, team identity, and preparedness.

The athletes generally followed through on it this season, too.

In an environment where their peers are free to wear what they choose, the outfits set the athletes apart visually. That contrast is by design.

“I want the members of the JV basketball team to be recognizable to the broader community,” Gallagher said.

A number of community members indeed took note and responded over time.

“At first I think people were a little bit surprised, but after a few games now people know why we do it,” said guard Brooks W. ’26. “When someone sees us wearing a tie, they’ll say good luck or they’ll know that we have a game coming up.”

Dressing uniformly does more than just make players stand out in a crowd. To Gallagher, it is also a sacrifice of the players’ personal choice for the sake of togetherness and team unity.

“I want them to get in the habit of sacrificing some part of their autonomy for some greater good, which is part of the nature of being on any sort of team, but in this case an athletic team,” he said.

Freshman forward Benjamin Q. backed up that aspiration. “It’s definitely good to see your teammates in suits and ties and supporting something bigger than yourself.”

When they are all wearing formal attire, the players can feel more connected to their

Ready for Competition At the transition point between winter and spring sports, here are some game day rituals from teams that compete this time of year or are getting underway

When varsity girls soccer huddles up for a team cheer before taking the field, the players put their left hand in the middle because it’s closer to the heart.

Before matches, the boys tennis team forms a circle and begins bouncing and growing louder and louder. Michael S.

CLOSE TIES

“I want them to get in the habit of sacrificing some part of their autonomy for some greater good, which is part of the nature of being on any sort of team.” off the tie most of the day, or disregarded the coach’s direction entirely. The commitment that developed this year was still greater than it was last season, according to Gallagher.

The freshmen who made up most of the young JV roster largely bought into the tiewearing tradition. Gallagher credits coach Dani Moseley for the improvement. He does not usually get to spend time around underclassmen during the school day, but Moseley often sees the team members in the halls. Last year, the second coach was not on campus, but both coaches were this season and they dressed up along with the athletes.

“A lot of the productive parts of the team culture of togetherness and accountability are a credit to her because she's just able to be more present during the school day for

’24 is always in the center.

The track team boys skip jumping jacks during warmups before a race.

On the boys soccer team, Rohan K. ’26 often gets a quick haircut during his free period before leaving for games.

Drinking ginger shots before game

Photo by Niam Kaul

The JV boys dressed up to set themselves apart and bring the team together

Aidin S., Dylan S., and Benji W. ’27 in their formal attire during lunchtime the day of an away game against Pacific Bay Christian.

them,” Gallagher said.

Gallagher has around 20 years of basketball coaching experience, but this is only his second year as head coach of the JV boys at Nueva. He reflected that this year’s team, which finished with a 4–8 record, showed consistent effort and took joy in playing, practicing, and competing with each other.

“The team has come together as a whole in a way that I've been really pleased with, and I would say especially across grades, which doesn’t always happen,” he reflected.

Coming to school in shirts and ties on game day was one part of that team bond.

It contributed to team cohesion and elicited support from the wider community. Until next season, though, Feb. 6 was the last time you could see them sporting their game day look.

time has been a recent habit for Maya S. ’25 and teammates on girls basketball.

Boys basketball coach Mike Green once decided to blast some inspirational music pregame, including Miley Cyrus’ “The Climb” and “Hall of Fame” by The Script and will.i.am.

NIL, Transfer Portal, 9th-Year Athletes, and how this affects the future of college football

By Niam K. The introduction of Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) deals for college athletes and the transfer portal have transformed the landscape of college athletics. Players older than NFL players are now sharing the college field with teenage athletes straight out of high school. For comparison, the average age for an NFL rookie is roughly 22 years old while the average age for a college football senior is around 23.

College football has been severely affected

by NIL and the transfer portal as many of the top players are products of the transfer portal, each racking up more than four years in college with ease. Three of the four finalists for the Heisman Trophy this year were products of the transfer portal. Jayden Daniels, who transferred from Arizona State University to Louisiana State University two years ago, ended up receiving the Heisman this year in his sixth year of college football.

While just a few years ago athletes were turning pro at the first chance they were eligible, to enter the NFL Draft players must be

out of high school for at least three years, now for athletes that won’t be first-round draft picks, it’s not worth it–they are making more money in college from NIL deals than they would’ve earned in the NFL. Star University of Southern California quarterback Caleb Williams, who is widely regarded as the number one prospect in this year's draft class, was in the news recently as he briefly considered returning to USC for another year of college football as he reportedly didn’t want to play for any of the teams with top draft picks.

Many professional athletes have shared their views. JJ Watt, a former NFL Defensive Player of the Year, called out athletes who gain extra years of eligibility, by applying to the NCAA committee due to various reasons, on X (formerly known as Twitter): “Has college football become a place where you can just play as many years as you want? What happened to 5 years to play 4 seasons? There are young players coming up that are missing out on opportunities because we’ve got 7th and 8th year seniors…”

University of Miami Tight End Cam

McCormick garnered national attention recently when he was controversially granted a record-breaking ninth year of college eligibility from the NCAA. McCormick, who turns 26 in April, attended the University of Oregon from 2017–2022 before transferring to Miami last year.

NIL has also caused student-athletes to carry unprecedented valuations before ever playing college sports. Marvin Harrison Jr. recently faced arguably the biggest decision of his young career, choosing between entering the NFL Draft and staying at Ohio State University.

He eventually settled on the former but as a Heisman Trophy Finalist, this shouldn’t have been a question if Harrison didn’t have a 1.3 million dollar NIL valuation. This is an unprecedented amount of money for a college athlete, albeit a star, a figure that is bound to go up in the future.

This headlines the problem with college football as the increase in NIL money causes more and more athletes to stay in college. This ends up producing a ripple effect throughout all of football, from high school all the way to the NFL.

Photo by AP News/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez

Recent changes in college football are leading the sport down a path of no return

W I N N I N G AT L A S T LSU's 5th year quarterback Jayden Daniels poses with his Heisman Trophy Award

20

SPORTS

02/09/24

Photo by Patrick Smith / Thearon W. Henderson / Getty Images / NFL

PAGE

Mahomes Magic and Mr. Irrelevant: Chiefs and the Niners

The Niners and the Chiefs face off in a Super Bowl Rematch

By Alvin Y. After a long 2023–24 season, the San Francisco 49ers and Kansas City Chiefs will play a story-filled Super Bowl on Feb. 11 in Las Vegas.

The last time both teams faced off against each other in the 2020 playoffs, the Niners had taken an early lead in the Super Bowl; however, they came short after the Chiefs star quarterback—arguably the best at this position currently—Patrick Mahomes orchestrated a 10-point comeback, eventually leading his team to a 31–20 victory.

This year, the Chiefs look different compared to their previous years. Rather than requiring their offense to win games, it’s the second-best defense in the league that dictates the flow of the game, playing a major role in whether the team loses or wins.

Super Bowl Predictions

Students and Faculty share their predictions and hot takes for the Super Bowl

The Chiefs showcased their prolific talent as they defeated the number-one-seeded Baltimore Ravens and MVP-favorite Lamar Jackson in a seven-point victory, highlighting their defensive capabilities as the defense forced two fumbles and an interception, as well as holding Jackson to only 54 yards on the ground.

Not only has the defense helped them clinch their spot in the Super Bowl, but the roster’s playoff experience through their veterans has helped keep the team together during intense moments. Mahomes’ 14-1 playoff record—when not playing the now-retired Tom Brady—led to his ability to read and dissect defenses when it mattered the most, whether deciding to scramble for a first down or throw to a receiver with pinpoint accuracy.

The team’s dominance in both the regular season and playoffs was not the “Like the previous two games, the 49ers will start horribly for the first quarter. They will be down by 10 points at half, but they will win the Super Bowl by four points.

- Sean Schochet, Upper School SOM Teacher

most highlighted part of their season, as the relationship between singer Taylor Swift and Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce seemed to headline articles and posts every week. Their relationship created around $330 million in revenue for the Chiefs and increased NFL viewership considering the league received its highest female viewership since 2000.

Although Swift brings only positives to the league, the relationship between the star tight end and the singer creates much stir around the NFL community. Some viewers hate the attention Swift receives, some support their relationship, and some don’t even care about the controversy the relationship is receiving.

“I fully support it,” Upper School History Teacher Simon Brown commented on the relationship. “My view on this is that if it gets new people to watch football, that’s a good thing.”

The Niners too, have had a story-packed season. With a new roster and Brock Purdy at the helm, the Niners have again appeared in the Super Bowl, playing the Chiefs in the playoffs for a second time in five years. Their once shaky quarterback position has been filled with a controversial Purdy. Drafted as the last pick of the 2022 draft class and nicknamed Mr. Irrelevant, the 24-year-old has sparked debate among the NFL community about his legitimacy as an elite quarterback.

“The most important part about a system is that it must match the quarterback, which might mean with another system, Purdy might not be as great,” Upper school teacher Sean Schochet commented. “But, there’s something about his composure under pressure which is better than 99% of quarterbacks. The NFL game is so much faster than the college game, and he has something that you can’t teach quarterbacks. I think Purdy would excel in any system because of those intangibles.”

These intangibles Purdy contains appear in the Niners’ two consecutive wins in the playoffs against the Green Bay Packers and Detroit Lions, as Mr. Irrelevant reminds everyone why he is not the “system quarterback” many believe he is.

Against the Packers in the NFC divisional game, Purdy led a 12-play, 69-yard drive in the fourth quarter to an eventual game-winning Christian McCaffrey touchdown, showcasing the best of his ability as he was able to win coach Kyle Shanahan’s first game in which the opponent has led by seven or more points starting the fourth quarter.

After being put on full-blast by the NFL with an assumption that the team would be blown out by the Lions, Purdy and the Niners again proved the doubters wrong. After being down 24-7 in the first half, the Niners put on a scoring and defensive masterclass in the second half, outscoring the Lions 27-7 and winning the NFC championship, much due to Purdy’s decision-making and composure he retained throughout the game.

No matter the result of the Super Bowl, each team is just as deserving of the championship as the other, whether it would be Mahomes and the Chiefs or Purdy and the Niners.

“I can see Christian McCaffrey being the Super Bowl MVP. He has had an incredible season and deserves a lot of accolades.”

- Diana Chamorro, Director of Alumni and Community Engagement

“With their nine ProBowlers, the Niners will beat the Chiefs and win the Super Bowl, 31-28.” - Rohan K. '26

This Super Bowl, Usher will not have me fallin' in love

The NFL has chosen Usher as their halftime performer, filling me with an overwhelming amount of dissapointment Every February, families and friends gather around the nation to watch one of the most hyped matches of the year: the Super Bowl.

However, many viewers (115 million people tuned in to last year’s event) aren’t watching football; we’re here, debatably, for the biggest spectacle of the year—the halftime show.

But back in late September, as I eagerly anticipated a pop-culture superstar, one able to succeed the unmatched legacy of artists like Beyoncé and Prince, I was appalled to learn the headlining artist to be… Usher?

The outdated singer with about five radio hits and a lackluster discography, praised only by millennials, is taking the main stage.

This show is a defining moment in the music industry, and Usher lacks the capability or influence to successfully rise to the occasion.

While this article may slightly fracture the hearts of some teachers over the age of 32, Usher performing for the second-most televised broadcast has dismayed me, a true degradation to the image of today’s artistry.

With his performance, the target audience becomes older millennials, restricting the prominence of the show. The halftime show isn’t here just to serve people born in the early 1980s who have poor taste in music; Gen Z makes up a large portion of the viewership and acts as a major role in consumers of

pop-culture, sports, and music. We deserve an artist who releases music that excites people born in the past 20 years, and unfortunately, Usher simply doesn’t provide that.

When performers like Lady Gaga, Shakira, or Eminem were chosen, it was all the talk both before and after the game, for all viewers.

However, the only talk about Usher I’ve heard is the utter disappointment from my peers.

My friends and I only switch on the game to watch the halftime performer, but now, there’s no point in tuning in. Moving from the Rihanna to a singer whom many of the current generation hasn’t even heard of is a despicable decision, depriving us of a once-ina-year show.

Usher’s repetitive discography just adds to my irritation. To this day, I can barely tell the difference between “Yeah!,” “O.M.G.,” and “DJ Got Us Fallin’ in Love,” some of his biggest songs. While he may have had a couple trending radio-hits in the early 2000s, today his music has been demoted to club starters and the moment everyone goes silent at school dances. There’s a fine balance of performing old classics and new-hits, but Usher’s exclusively old music swamps his relevancy.

His bland artistry foresees a performance lacking versatility, richness, timeliness, and creativity, disrespecting the show’s legacy of artists like Kendrick Lamar or Madonna.

In spite of this depressing outcome, I still had a sliver of hope that he would feature some artists who are at least a little more

relevant (even though that doesn’t say much).

But, he managed to let me down once again.

His setlist consists of himself, with country star Reba McEntire, another irrelevant musician from the 1990s, Post Malone, another basic artist with a few radio-hits, and Andra Day, who may have intriguing artistry but lacks mainstream attention, therefore gaining a scarce amount of public enthusiasm.

Unfortunately, I’m afraid this year will only lessen the status and reputation of the Super Bowl. The NFL could have picked a more deserving artist, from a wide array of options. For instance, as Bruno Mars’ tour continues to trend on social media, he would have created a sensational event. If he stole the show as a guest artist with Coldplay, I couldn’t imagine the greatness he would bring to the stage as the main performer. Or, with her power-house performance quality, heightened relevance, and iconic mainstream success, Billie Eilish would have mesmerized America.

Not only does she have a renowned discography, but her connections and collaborations with other mainstream artists would only bolster her public attraction. And, whether you like Taylor Swift's music or not, she would undoubtedly captivate youth and adults alike.

In lowering expectations, I sincerely hope a miracle occurs and Usher pulls off a show that isn’t a bore to the music industry. Still, the NFL must bring a relevant artist next year, or else their reputation could tarnish like Usher’s lackluster career has in the past decade.

THIS ISN'T THE YEAR 2000 Has the NFL seriously downgraded this severely?

Photo by Kayla Oaddams / Getty Images / People Magazine

By Neel G.