The Nueva Current | March 2019

STAN TWITTER Understanding the meaning behind the accounts created by young people, and what impact they have on the fans and celebrities. p. 8

A PASSING OF THE DUNGEON MASTER TORCH A group of Nueva faculty has been role-playing a Dungeons & Dragons campaign for three years. It just ended. p. 9

A RESPONSE TO THE SCANDAL

STUDENT SUMMERS

The college admissions scandal has highlighted existing flaws in the nation’s acceptance system. Read about one senior’s reaction after the college application experience.

Summers are no longer the relaxing break they should be due to constant pressure on students to build up resumés for college. p. 14

p. 14

Graphic by Freepik

The Nueva Current MARCH 29, 2019

Volume 2, Issue 5

131 E. 28th Ave. San Mateo, CA 94403 @thenuevacurrent www.thenuevacurrent.com The Official Student Newspaper of The Nueva School

FEATURES

The community service conundrum First-ever CSL Day sparks conversations around Nueva’s culture of community service Willow C. Y., Gitika P., Grace H., Eugenia X.

Two weeks ago, Upper School students and advisors dispersed across the San Mateo campus and the Bay Area to participate in volunteer activities for half the day.

They organized clothing at thrift stores, bagged food for families in need, and tended to plants on the school’s skywalk garden.

The positive effects of Community Service Learning (CSL) Day are undeniable, and the event—like others in the past—sparked discussions about the merits of mandatory community service and privilege at Nueva. For those who felt that CSL Day was a gratifying experience, they wondered why volunteering is not a more common aspect of their education. Meanwhile, other students criticized it as a shallow service opportunity.

The Upper School commu-

nity has held difficult conver� sations about privilege since its creation and has struggled to find ways to address it. One proposed solution is community service. With the completion of the first upper school CSL Day—and subsequent attention toward the Middle and Lower School’s multiple such days each year, among other reactions—discussions have flared anew.

We spoke to Stephen Dunn, the Upper School Division Head; Hillary Freeman, Dean of Student Life; Alexa Hart, 10th Grade Dean; and Community Service Representative Stephanie S. (10). These articles seek to establish and evaluate the opinions of various groups within our school community on these issues.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 10

Sophomores Michelle W., Molly D., and Eugenia X. clean toys and puzzles in the children’s section of the San Mateo Public Library.

(Photo by Willow C. Y.)

NEWS

Reaccreditation process offers chance for self-reflection, feedback for the future New recommendations focus on improving programs and providing support to community, faculty, and staff Grace H. On Monday, March 4, a committee of nine representatives from schools throughout California arrived at the San Mateo campus. They toured both campuses, spoke to community members, and sat in on classes. Their visit, a piece of the school’s reaccreditation process with the California Association of Independent Schools (CAIS) and Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC), was preceded by the preparation of a self-study on the school’s operation, programs—administrative, extracurricular, and academic— and mission.

The process is completed in seven-year cycles, which involve the self-study (where faculty, staff, and

leadership prepare a lengthy document examining the school’s strengths and areas of growth), committee visits, recommendations, plan creation and implementation, and progress reports.

Since the initial accreditation visit in 2011, the school’s strategic plan has revolved around six main objectives: expanding to PreK–12; further evolving integrated, in-depth, and innovative teaching and curricula; recruiting and retaining a “world-class team”; defining and communicating “the Nueva Experience”; strengthening community ties; and further developing and building on the Social Emotional Learning (SEL) program to create a “resiliency program.”

CONTINUED ON PAGE 2

Stria Labs takes first place at SXSW Student Startup Competition

Students’ design-thinking invention recognized by judges as “innovative” Isabel C. Room 16A on the fourth floor of the Austin Convention Center was quiet except for the groups of students practicing their presentations.

It was a different scene outside, one that struck the Stria Labs team and reminded them that they were really at the South by Southwest (SXSW) conference, a week-long mash-up of art, innovations, and more.

“It was fairly empty and there were presenters milling around,” Max S. (11) said. “At some point I left the auditorium area, and I walk outside and there are just people everywhere, the

STRIA TAKES THE WIN Juniors Wesley S., Pranav R., and Max S. represented Stria Labs at the SXSW 2019 Student Startup Competition and won the first-place award in a pool of eight finalists. (Photo courtesy of Stria Labs)

entire floor was filled. It was crazy.”

Stria Labs sent Max and Pranav R. (11) to pitch their wearable device at the fifth annual SXSW Student Startup Competition on March 6. From a pool of international applicants, Stria Labs was named one of eight finalists, earning them the opportunity to present their product at the conference. Competing with seven other teams, Stria Labs won first place, earning $1,000 in funding for their product and an invite to SXSW 2020.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 2

2 / NEWS

THE NUEVA CURRENT

Briefing

40

Photo by Jordan M.

feet of duct tape was used to create a six-foot tall mule for an exhibit called “40 Acres and a Mule: Visual Conversations about Reparations,” a collaboration between five art classes.

1,020

The number of jellybeans in a jar brought around campus by sophomores Claire G., Gabi B., and Lauren W. on Tuesday, March 19, for a statistics project. They asked roughly 200 people on campus to guess how many jellybeans were in the jar. Lucy B. (10) came closest with a guess of 1,026. “Luck was my strategy,” Lucy said, “I just went with my gut.” Her prize? The entire jar of jellybeans.

VOLUME 2, ISSUE 4

Stria Labs takes first place at SXSW Student Startup Competition Design-thinking invention recognized by judges as “innovative” Isabel C. CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

Founded in the summer of 2017 by Pranav and Noah T. (11), Stria Labs has developed an innovative product for assisting users who are visually impaired. The product—a sleek wearable belt with sensors on both sides—acts as a guide that prevents visually impaired people from walking into traffic. If the user starts to veer, the sensors buzz to let them know they are straying off course.

Connie Liu, former I-Lab engineer and founder of Invention Studio, informed the team of the opportunity in January.

“They needed a one-page application—which we had done for a lot of other grants in the past—so we took the information from [those], reworked it to fit the guidelines and submitted it,” Pranav said. “It wasn’t too difficult for us to submit so we figured why the heck not.”

They didn’t expect much—teams from all over the country would be submitting their proposals for consideration.

But a month later, the team heard back that they were a finalist. After unanimously deciding to attend, they had to decide who would represent Stria Labs at SXSW. While the team is comprised of 14 students, five 11th-graders helped write the grant—Pranav, Max, Noah, Wesley S., and Megan F..

“We pretty much decided in this spurof-the-moment Google Hangouts call where all five of us logged on,” Max said.

“Someone said they had the SAT the weekend after so they couldn’t go, and Noah didn’t think it would be valuable, so Pranav and I decided to present, and Wesley came along for support.”

They departed for the conference a day before their presentation, with strong reservations about how they would fare in the competition.

DESIGN THINKING Juniors Noah T. and Pranav R., founders of Stria Labs, work with the rest of the team to develop their wearable belt that assists the visually impaired with sensors that buzz when they veer off course.

(Photo by John Meyer)

“We weren’t sure how suited the judges would be to accepting a social-good idea as opposed to a mass-market idea,” Pranav said.

Pranav and Max both felt that Travel Time—a Waze-like app that calculates the exact time to leave your house based on security lines and general airport traffic—was their fiercest competi tion. Because of their prominence on the market already (the app is already on the iTunes App Store), the duo felt that not having a mass-market idea and connections might place Stria Labs at a disadvantage.

“They created all these partnerships with Google and Yahoo! to get their data [and] described it as a Waze for the airport,” Max said. “I thought they were going to win.”

Despite this worry, both students practiced and improved their five-minute slide deck over 10 times with help from an event coach until it became second nature to both students.

“If you have [practiced] something so many times, you feel more comfortable on stage,” Pranav said. “Perceptually to the judges it makes it feel like you know what you’re talking about; it makes it

Reaccreditation process offers chance for self-reflection, feedback for the future

New recommendations focus on improving programs and providing support to community, faculty, and staff Grace H. CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

Since these goals were initially outlined, the school has made steps toward a practical realization of each one—the “resiliency program,” for example, became the current Science of Mind (SoM) program, while the efforts to strengthen outreach and community ties led to the internship program and the development of partnerships with the Collaborative for Innovative Education, the Mastery Transcript Consortium, and Global Online Academy.

In contrast to these initial objectives—many of which were centered around the creation of new programs— the main recommendations from the most recent visit revolve around evolving, documenting, and stabilizing current initiatives. The major suggestions were that the school document a PreK–12 scope and sequence, find more effective ways to assess long-term staffing needs and employee workload, and further evolve the systems and structures in place to support the community. These recommendations made by the visiting committee are all tentative at the moment; the major and minor recommendations won’t be finalized and documented until this coming summer, after the committee submits its report and a final accreditation status is de-

termined by the CAIS/WASC standards board. The recommendations will be communicated to the school in summer 2019 with the school’s responsive action plan due in the fall.

Associate Head of School Terry Lee—who was one of the self-study coordinators along with Writing & Research Center Director Jennifer Paull, Director of Student Outreach and Special Projects Jim Morrison, and PreK–12 Equity & Social Justice Director Alegria Barclay—was unsurprised by the team’s observations; he described them as “expected [and] self-identified in our self-study process.”

Although nothing unanticipated was in the feedback, the team did encounter challenges with representing the “totality” of the school’s progress, culture, and history in the 200-page self-study, and organizing the three-and-a-half day visit for the committee to review, observe, and make recommendations. However, Lee says, “it always works.”

“Just as our students love to learn through reflection [and] collaboration with students and faculty, and aspire towards goals large and small, so too does our school,” Lee said. “The self-study, visit, and action plan are an important opportunity for the school to learn, evolve, and reach forward together.”

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feel like you actually deserve to be there and deserve to be successful.”

After their presentation, the five minutes for questions and comments from the judges’ panel went smoothly, providing them with feedback and advice.

“There was one [question] about market readiness and exact date as to when we would be market-ready, which is something we haven’t really talked about,” Pranav said. “That was probably one of the more difficult ones.”

Even with tough questions, Stria Labs was awarded first place, with the judges citing the reason for their win as their push for a “social-good change.”

“It was very surprising,” Max said. “I was pretty sure we weren’t going to win and then we did, and I was kind of like, ‘Wait, really?’”

The team is putting the funding received toward developments in increased outreach methods and manufacturing. Pranav and Max hope to expand Stria Labs in the future to recruit new students, incorporate other forms of assistive technology, and “create an ecosystem” of products with the belt as the flagship product.

2,340

lollipops from the Admissions team were consumed by students, faculty, and visitors at the San Mateo campus in less than two months (that’s 30 pounds of Dum Dums!).

people attended the Feminism Conference on March 2, which hosted speakers Aimee Allison, Alaleh Kianerci, Rabbi Lisa Kingston, and Joanna Bloor.

Photo courtesy of Dum Dums

(Graphic provided by the Feminism Club)

TEDx club hosts notable figures in Silicon Valley Amanda W.

14

Photo by Lucy B.

organizations partnered with Nueva to make CSL Day on March 15 possible.

Freshmen and sophomores worked with these organizations around the Bay Area to help people in need or organizations serving those in need, while seniors cleaned the campus.

The TEDx Youth club held their third annual TEDx Youth@TheNuevaSchool conference under the leadership of Eric J. (12) and Hanna Z. (11) on Sunday, March 23. The conference hosted seven speakers—Marc Tarpenning, Rachel Meyer, Erika Schillinger, Charlton Lee, Pete Bowers, Kevin Surace, and Monisha Perkash—who addressed topics ranging from artificial intelligence to moving past failure, under the broader theme of “cultivating curiosity.”

“The conference showed me how you can easily get in contact with such fascinating and accomplished people by simply reaching out,” club member Shalin Z. (10) said. “It offered me many perspectives on the future and how our generation can change and influence it.”

FRIDAY, MARCH 29, 2019

THE NUEVA CURRENT

NEWS / 3

STEM Fair celebrates student work and achievement Students present science raps, community circuit murals, and more Jordan M.

The smell of burning eggshells and petri dishes of E. coli drifted through the hallways at the STEM Fair on Sunday, March 17. Parents, faculty, students, and guests roamed the hallways captivated by the diverse range of projects that were presented. From science-related lectures in the STEMcast space to the circuit mural created

by I-Lab director Angi Chau, this year’s event took students into even deeper explorations of topics, like self-driving cars and science-based raps.

WISCONSIN FAST PLANTS Nirek G. (10) explains his investigation into the effects of different amino acid concentrations on Wisconsin Fast Plants, which utilized skills learned in biology class. (Photo by Jordan M.)

“What we have here is incredibly revolutionary,” said Maddie P., a junior who is one of two student co-chairs of the 2019 STEM Fair. “I think it’s only right to share it with everyone else.”

Maddie is involved in Project 80, along with biology and physics research and Invention Studio’s Stria project dedicated to creating a wearable device for the visually impaired to ensure that they can safely walk home.

Many students enjoy being involved

in planning events like the annual STEM Fair. Organizing a big event like this is “an incredible experience” according to Maddie.

“I have gotten to work closely with many STEM teachers, parents, and organizations to bring together many perspectives on STEM for this multifaceted fair,” Maddie explained. “One especially cool experience was having dinner at Diane’s house with several STEM faculty and the other co-chairs to brainstorm the mission of the fair this year!”

With the required class projects for freshmen and sophomores, students are able explore ways in which they want to present their work and ideas, whether it’s a short presentation for science-loving parents or an interactive demo session with younger children.

“I feel so grateful to have this opportunity to showcase the STEM we have to the broader community and to help Nueva students learn how to present their work,” Maddie said.

Rachel Dragos, who teaches both English and chemistry at the Upper School, led freshmen in their own explorations of science, where some teams chose to research the rate at which ibuprofen dissolves and the effects of acid on eggshells.

“I think [the STEM Fair] is a great opportunity to celebrate science and all the work that Nueva students do in science,” Dragos said. “I think the project is a fantastic way for students to practice time management [and] communication, and to develop real-world connections to what we’ve been doing in chemistry class.”

With curricula stressing the importance of real-world application and interdisciplinary studies, the science classes at Nueva account for many life

PLASMIDS On display at the STEM Fair were petri dishes filled with bacteria that had been transformed through the use of plasmids; these cultures were products of a lab done in biology class to teach students about bacterial transformation.

(Photo by Jordan M.)

skills that students should equip themselves with early on.

“What I love to see is students connecting what we’ve been doing in chemistry class to the real world, and seeing how what we learn in chemistry can be powerful for making a difference in people’s lives and in humans’ relationships with the environment,” Dragos said.

“There has been tremendous growth in their ability to plan, carry out experiments, and generally operate independently in the space,” said Jeremy Jacquot, who has taught chemistry for the past four years. “The STEM Fair project provides students with the opportunity to further refine those skills and to home in on data collection and analysis in particular.”

The freshmen are focusing on experimental design and communication in their chemistry projects, while resourcefulness and resilience are being heavily emphasized in this year’s biology curriculum with the Model Organisms Project.

Michaela Danek and Jehnna Ronan, two of three upper school biology teachers, agree that the time dedicated to working on projects for the STEM Fair is spent developing important life skills in students. With resilience as a key

Steel drum band plays for NAIS and Disneyland

Band travels south for multiple performances at big venues Isabel C. & Jordan M. Departing the San Mateo campus at 1 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 27, the steel drum band rode down to Anaheim, California, in a big tour bus, listening to rap music to pass time during the sevenand-a-half-hour drive.

After being accepted to perform at the 2019 National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) Annual Conference, Nueva’s steel drum band, consisting of 31 students and seven faculty, played a 25-minute set of five songs as an entrance to keynote presenter and award-winning actress Viola Davis before bussing off to their scheduled performance at Disneyland later that day.

The director of the steel drum band for 16 years, Jim Munzenrider, submitted a video of the band for consideration and heard back with an acceptance in early November.

“We performed on a huge, huge stage

with video screens,” Munzenrider said.

“It was like a professional rock concert basically, [with] big sound systems and cool lights [that changed] colors.”

“All of it was very upbeat and very flashy cause that’s what they wanted at the NAIS,” Munzenrider recalled. “They wanted people to get all jacked up and excited so the repertoire that I chose for those was in your face, loud, and really cool sounding tunes.”

The band rehearsed for hours and hours—including “hectic and challenging late nights” according to Jack B. (11), who has been playing steel drums since second grade—and Munzenrider told the band how proud he was of them because of how good they sounded and how much time they spent rehearsing.

“It was really a group effort that everyone was really on board with,” Munzenrider said. “Everyone contribut-

A TWEET-WORTHY PERFORMANCE The steel drum band performs ahead of keynote speaker Viola Davis. Many conference attendees tweeted enthusiastically about their opening on Twitter.

(Photo by Saya Jenks)

item for assessment, Danek describes the experimental process as “a long ride on the struggle bus.”

“It’s important to let [students] struggle through and figure things out for themselves,” Danek added, emphasizing the importance of being resourceful and learning from experience.

Danek explained that one of the key components of the biology projects was to have students explore their own areas of interest and “figure things out for themselves” so that there would be more opportunities for curiosity and further research.

“They get to experience the true reality of working in a lab,” Ronan said.

“Sometimes you get a different outcome than what you expected and don’t get results—that’s a true life thing.”

At the end of the day, what Nueva students are attempting to do within STEM at their age is truly remarkable, as Danek puts it.

“Sometimes I forget that I’m in a class of 10th graders, and when I see the [high] level of planning and coordination, I need to remind myself that most of them can’t even drive yet,” Danek said. “It doesn’t always work out, but it’s pretty remarkable how often it does work out.”

SETTING THE STAGE (LEFT) The band prepares the stage with equipment as they prepare to perform at the NAIS conference. (Photo by Jim Munzenrider) A MAGICAL PERFORMANCE (RIGHT) The steel drum band played two sets at Disneyland following their NAIS performance. (Photo by Trae Vassallo)

ed and it couldn’t have run smoother.”

Following the concert, Munzenrider saw that NAIS attendees were tweeting about how good the concert was. He said that it seemed like they were playing at a Taylor Swift concert.

“It was so funny to be standing there as I led them onto the stage,” Munzenrider said. “You come out and you see this thing, and everybody’s walking by me going like, ‘Oh my god, oh my god, this is amazing’—they rose to the occasion big time.”

“It was such a cool thing. It’s Disneyland,” said Miles G. (11), who plays double seconds on the steel drums. “I get to tell people for the rest of my life that I performed at Disneyland—and that’s like, super rad.”

4 / CULTURE

THE NUEVA CURRENT

VOLUME 2, ISSUE 5

Diversifying Young Adult books

New YA literature integrates disability without changing the formula Grace H.

The story opens with a kidnapping gone horribly wrong. Harper—a spunky, somewhat impulsive, and decidedly disenchanted teenager—encounters a strange man kidnapping a woman from the streets of Washington, D.C. In trying to stop him, she manages to be abducted herself and is whisked away to the magical kingdom of Emberfall. She arrives at Castle Ironrose, which is trapped in a Groundhog-Day-esque time loop, destined to repeat the same stretch of time until the castle’s prince finds someone who will fall in love with him. The catch?

He only has a short period of time before he turns into a beast, after

which he will attempt to kill whoever his guard has kidnapped (and everyone else in the kingdom).

Brigid Kemmerer’s A Curse So Dark and Lonely—a dark and fantastical modern retelling of Beauty and the Beast—never shies away from addressing the fact that Harper, one of the three main characters and the closest parallel to Belle, has cerebral palsy. It also never frames her as lesser for it, or somehow less effective than her able-bodied counterparts—Rhen, the beastly, desperate prince, and Grey, his loyal, long-suffering guard (and the abductor Harper encountered in D.C.).

This honest, straightforward approach to addressing disability and mental illness is shared by Kalyn Josephson’s The Storm Crow, though the specific topic it describes is different; while Harper deals with a physical handicap, Princess Anthia, the main character of Storm Crow, struggles to manage depressive symptoms from PTSD, which at times leave her entirely unable to get out of bed.

Despite this, she still takes up the mantle of the YA heroine—and does a fantastic job of it, too, managing to end up married, in league with the resistance, on a mysterious quest, and somewhat in love with the prince of the kingdom

invading her own.

While both books present the characters as successful, it is never because the two overcome or somehow “escape” their disabilities; rather, they are shown as competent with them, not in spite of them. That said, there is never any question as to whether or not they are impacted, at times negatively, by their circumstances; it is solely that these circumstances are never presented as something that must be “cured” for them to be successful, functional, or entirely capable of driving the stereotypical YA storyline with all of its tropes and trappings.

To have representation around these themes in a manner that seeks to address without othering—and to have the characters dealing with disability be effective and complete without needing to put a piece of themselves to the side when the plot comes calling—is absolutely crucial. The integration of disability into a genre that doesn’t center around it—that of the vaguely formulaic Young Adult fantasy—allows it to be seen as something that doesn’t lack impact but can, sometimes, be managed in conjunction with oddly linear quests to save

magical crows or princes in castles.

The Storm Crow and A Curse So Dark and Lonely aren’t the best books ever written. They aren’t even the best YA novels; they are painfully predictable at times, and the sheer number of love triangles is little short of exhausting. But they are a step in the right direction toward a more representative canon of characters—and a more accurate, less dangerous perception of disability.

Andrew Lam, Artist in residence

Critically acclaimed author comes to Nueva and talks about writing process Willow C. Y. Andrew Lam, a critically acclaimed journalist and author, visited the Middle School this week to help students with their writing and podcast submissions to NPR, on which he is a regular commentator. Jennifer Perry, eighth-grade writing teacher, reached out to him.

He is the author of numerous essays, short stories, and books, including Perfume Dreams, Birds of Paradise Lost, and the essay “Letter to a Vietnamese cousin: Should you come to America?”

Are you looking forward to anything in particular for your visit to Nueva?

I would love to interact with the students; I would love to see their work and hopefully improve their writing so by the end of the week, they have something workable to submit to NPR. And it would be awesome to actually see maybe one or two get picked for actual broadcasting. That would be amazing, actually.

Where do you find ideas for your pieces?

From life, from experience, and from reading. In journalism, usually for me it’s “Oh, what’s interesting about this story?” Or, when you read up on something in the morning and you’re like, “Wait a minute, what about a point of view from this angle?” Sometimes I read something and I’m like, “Wait, I disagree with that point of view.” I always like to add something to a story that’s already discussed. Sometimes, the Vietnamese or immigrant point of view is really not shared, and often the whole world is described from a white male perspective. I think that I have something to add, and to argue. It’s not hard for me to disagree with a lot of things out there, and bring my own perspective to the table.

For someone first being introduced to your works, what would you recommend for them to read?

I would say read Perfume Dreams, because it’s a memoir about growing up in the U.S. as a Vietnamese refugee.

If they’re more interested in my fiction, then Birds of Paradise Lost. If they’re interested in my essays, look for Andrew Lam on the Huffington Post. If they’re interested in hearing me read online, you can find a lot of my work on YouTube.

What projects are you currently working on?

I’m working on two books. When I was writing Birds of Paradise Lost, I wrote a lot of stories that were cut from the collection. I’m building another collection out of those pieces that were not picked.

I’m [also] writing a novel; I spend a lot of time in Vietnam because it’s cheaper to live there and also because the novel started out based in Vietnam, so it’s a good place to research.

What’s a question you’ve never been asked, but would like to have been?

No one has ever asked me, “Do you ever want to stop being a writer?” I’ve been writing for a long time. Do I ever want to stop being a writer?

I don’t know. Right now, I’m still in

Photo courtesy of the San Francisco Chronicle

the process of writing my latest collection, so not now. But a lot of people I know think that they should continue to write, but there are also people who run out of things to say. So I don’t know; maybe 10 years from now, but I don’t know.

FRIDAY, MARCH 29, 2019

THE NUEVA CURRENT

CULTURE / 5

Two new films about Ruth Bader Ginsburg reveal her continued impact on pop culture The associate justice has been empowering women for over 50 years and is more relevant than ever Mira D. “How do you justify taking a spot from a qualified man?” In 1956, Ruth Bader Ginsburg was at dinner with the eight other female students out of a class of 500, when the current dean of Harvard Law School, Erwin Griswold, asked the women this question. It’s a scene seen in the trailer and it opens the film “On the Basis of Sex.” Despite facing such blatant gender discrimination during her time in law school, Justice Ginsburg went on to become a trailblazer in eradicating gender inequality one step at a time. Her strong devotion to eliminating gender discrimination and her ascension to a seat on the highest court in the land has attracted a growing fan base and led to Justice Ginsburg’s unlikely rise not only as a role model but as a pop icon. Two films in 2018 reflect the public’s interest in her: “On the Basis of Sex,” which stars Felicity Jones in the biographical legal drama film on the life and early cases of the Supreme Court Justice, and “RBG,” a documentary that chronicles more of her life and later career.

The two films depict her emergence as a pop culture icon and role model by covering different aspects of her life. “On the Basis of Sex,” released in December, traces Justice Ginsburg’s life from a humble start at the beginning of law school to her work to change the legal system in a male-dominated world.

The film focuses heavily on the start of her career, and the central conflict is built around one of her earliest cases concerning the Social Security Act that favored women over a man because it granted certain benefits to widows but not widowers (Wienberg vs. Weisenfield).

This was one of the six landmark cases regarding gender equality (for both men and women) that she argued before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Meanwhile, the documentary “RBG,” which debuted at Sundance and was released in May, takes audiences through her life, beyond the earlier cases and into her lifelong fight for women’s rights. Both films give careful consideration to the significant strides Justice Ginsburg has made in improving gender equality and her impact on the public.

Justice Ginsburg’s celebrity status can be traced to 2013 with “The Notorious RBG” meme. The highly stylized photo of Justice Ginsburg wearing a crown and trademark lace collar was created by NYU student Shana Knizhnik, who created a viral Tumblr blog that shared excerpts from several dissenting opinions authored by Justice Ginsburg (Knizhnik would go on to co-write the bestselling biography

Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg). The meme depicts Justice Ginsburg as a gangsterlike figure, riffing off the stage name of the hip-hop performer The Notorious B.I.G. The image took off on social media, usually accompanied by captions like, “Throwing out preclearance when it has worked and is continuing to work to stop discriminatory changes is like throwing away your umbrella in a rainstorm because you are not getting wet.”

Justice Ginsburg is 5 feet 1 inch tall and below 100 pounds but remains physically and mentally strong even after several health obstacles including cancer recurrence. Her “tremendous trailblazing force” despite her small stature coined her catchy title.

“She’s the least likely person to seek

celebrity in the way that she’s achieved it now,” said Knizhnik, now an attorney.

“That contradiction between her personality as a very serious person and the larger-than-life ‘Notorious’ title is what’s so funny and cheeky about her.”

Justice Ginsburg continues her fierce attitude toward breaking barriers and fighting gender discrimination as well as emphasizing the importance of changing laws. While in 2019 protests often highlight contemporary activism, promote unity, and give voice to groups striving for power, Justice Ginsburg identified her skepticism of the results stemming from protests.

“Protests are important, but changing the culture means nothing if the law doesn’t change,” she stated. However, she is often referred to as a judge who supports gender equality activism.

Justice Ginsburg strives to have her granddaughters read the Constitution with the notion that women and men are “persons of equal stature” and that is a fundamental principle of society.

Out of the 114 justices who have served on the US Supreme Court, only four of them have been women.

Currently, Justice Ginsburg is only one of three female justices—but she is working to include more women on the court and has an ultimate goal of appointing nine female justices.

Through her celebrity status, Ginsburg is inspiring another generation of women to pursue her objective.

Justice Ginsburg’s emerging role in media, cementing her title as a pop culture phenomenon, moves her farther towards achieving her goal of all-female justices.

An indomitable force as a litigator, a respected figure on the Supreme Court, and now a pop icon, Ruth Bader Ginsburg has changed the makeup of the United States and continues to do so.

We can’t wait for you to see Us

New horror film contemplates a different kind of monster: ourselves Elijah D. Jordan Peele has directed another masterpiece: Us. The horror film is his first after the highly acclaimed 2017 film Get Out. While Get Out highlighted the impacts of systemic racism, Us is more focused on psychological horrors and suspense.

“I think the main idea that went into writing this film is that we’re our own worst enemy,” Peele explained in an interview with Refinery29. “The writing of Get Out started with me starting to make my favorite horror-thriller that’s never been made before,” commented Peele. Get Out was a realization of that intention, and Us fits seamlessly into the space the former created.

Us follows a nuclear family of four confronted by their doppelgängers, called “The Tethered,” who are intent on destroying them—psychologically and physically.

“Black Panther” co-stars Lupita Nyong’o and Winston Duke reunite in “Us” as parents Adelaide and Gabe. The actors for the family also play the roles of their Tethered clones, creating an eerie duplicity as they literally confront themselves and are forced to deal with an enemy who can predict their every move.

The family travels to a beach house on vacation, where they’re immediate-

ly set upon by their red-cloaked duplicates—the “us.” Throughout the movie, Us ratchets up the tension to unbearable levels, providing the heart-pounding moments becoming associated with Peele’s storytelling; even in the trailer, with the family’s car winding down the dusty roads, the offbeat’s casually cautious snapping alerts the viewer of the nail-biting tension to come.

In the trailer, haunting music plays over images of rabbits, the beach, and a driveway under the night sky, and the innocuous images take on a sinister association. The film opens with a young Adelaide wandering the halls of an abandoned maze of mirrors at the Santa Cruz boardwalk, separated from her family.

When the power cuts, she runs for an exit, only to bump into her mirrored reflections...until it's not a reflection. This opening scene is seen through repeated flashbacks.

The movie fast-forwards to Adelaide and her family traveling to the same beach. The first sign of is wrong is when Adelaide notices that her son, Jason, is missing at the beach. She becomes so unsettled by her surroundings that she seems to overreact. From that point on, the characters are in constant danger, and there isn’t a slow moment to be

found.

While Peele displays an impressive mastery of the horror genre in both Get Out and Us, the former boasts higher heights, both in the intensity of the suspense and the timeliness of its commentary on sociopolitical issues. While Us highlights what we think of the “other”

and how we fear those who are different from us, Get Out delivers a scathing critique of systemic racism.

Us continues the work done in Get Out to usher in a new era of more diverse casting and horror films that focus not just on the classic jump scare but instead on building up tension to create drawn out moments of terror. However, Us makes it clear from the beginning that it’s not trying to be a sequel to the ambitions of Get Out— it aims to be its own manic, fast-paced horror movie. If Peele’s debut is a political and social commentary with a side of blood, Us is at times a more comedic—though no less terrifying—take on the basic premise of a horror film.

While Us is by no means perfect, it keeps all of the elements of classic horror while adding new twists and turns to satisfy any seasoned horror connoisseur.

It has thrilled audiences worldwide, pulling in $70.3 million in the U.S.—the third largest opening of all time for a horror film—and has received rave reviews from critics and audiences alike.

The new film holds up well to his debut. With the release of Us, he has solidified his track record for delivering rule-breaking screenplays stays consistent. Highly recommended—especially with a group of friends.

6 / FEATURES

THE NUEVA CURRENT

VOLUME 2, ISSUE 5

Students plan to present findings that “nobody’s laid eyes on before in the history of humankind”

Research team will attend the upcoming American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology annual meeting with novel research Eugenia X. Six subteams of students in the Experimental Research Team (XRT) will attend the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology annual meeting alongside MD and PhD researchers. The XRT goes as part of the trips program and will be at the conference in Orlando, Florida, from Apr. 6–9. This is the first—and possibly only—year where Nueva will present original discoveries in every category of this conference from CRISPR to apoptosis to education.

The program started in 2016 under Amanda Alonzo’s wing and has developed with science teachers Trip Sweeney and Luke De (who is now the research program developer).

Aside from the structure of the class, everything in the program is studentrun and operates at the same level as “top institutions.” The students are doing research beyond “baking-soda volcanoes”; they are independently navigating uncharted waters in science.

Although XRT students have attended conferences before, this is the first time that the team will be introducing completely new information to the scientific community.

Doing novel research meant that there were few papers for the teams to reference. Tyler G. (11) and his team experienced one of the many inevitable roadblocks leading up to the conference when the cells that they needed for their experiment refused to grow for several months, making data collection extremely difficult. Clay

BIOLOGY RESEARCH Junior Clay A. creates a calcium chloride stock solution for a nematode growth medium—the agar that they use to grow their worms. (Photo provided by the Nueva Media Archive)

A. (11) encountered an obstacle that forced him to completely redirect his project—during the summer of 2018, a group of Chinese scientists completed the same experiment and published it before Clay’s team was finished.

“As Luke De eloquently put it,” Clay said, “we got ‘scooped.’”

Projects have been handed down from student to student over the course of years. De estimated that the success to failure ratio in the lab was approximately one to 100.

“But those [successes],” he said, “they’re real. They’re ours. Nobody’s laid eyes on [them] before in the history of humankind.”

De pulled up an image of a worm with bright marks in its head region.

The marks, he explained, were

HEK2293 cells. A subteam of student researchers had figured out how to make the cells glow the moment before the worm died. Their discovery and the protocols they designed could become a powerful tool for teaching lab procedures. It took them a year and a half to prove that they could do so, but they were the first to manage it.

The researchers consistently devote time and energy to the lab, and as the conference dates draw near students are prepared to dedicate extra time to make sure their projects are presentable before they leave for Orlando. Clay recalled one instance where he spent two eight-hour days in the lab working on a western blot.

Tyler admitted that he was nervous; he had never presented to

people with this amount of scientific background before, and presenting at a conference at such a young age felt like a truly unique experience. He hopes that the conference will display cutting-edge research and inspire new projects back at school. This sentiment is shared by De. “[The life-saving science at the conference] is a far cry from your biology quiz, but your biology quiz is a step, and it’s a necessary step,” De said. “[The students] have been in isolation here; I’m the only one that they measure up against. I want them to see what science is really like, that it’s just a ton of well-meaning, confused people trying to solve things that kill lots of people in the world.”

CONVERSATIONS IN STEM

Technology addiction: the new threat teens face The Nueva Current features an interview with a professional scientist every issue, ranging from psychologists to nutritionists.

Columnist Anna K. writes the Q&A-style piece, which we publish to inform readers of scientific knowledge, discoveries, and research that may be valuable for them to know about.

Anna K.

How does heavy smartphone usage affect our general psychological well-being?

I think that there are unintended consequences. There are a lot of good things about technology and smartphones and the internet, things like enhancing communication between special people in our lives, loved ones, [who are] geographically separated in time and place. [However] there is certainly a dark side, just to the extent that people don't even realize that they're compulsively checking their phones, that they're disengaging from the present moment and disappearing from a present conversation.

Anna Lembke is an associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral science at Stanford University. She is also Program Director of the Stanford Addiction Medicine Fellowship and Chief of the Stanford Addiction Medicine Dual Diagnosis Clinic. She is the author of the bestselling book Drug Dealer, MD: How Doctors Were Duped, Patients Got Hooked, and Why It’s So Hard to Stop on the prescription drug epidemic.

What are some signs that a person or a teenager may be addicted to technology?

Out of control would be when they plan to just go on for maybe an hour and four or five hours later, they're still on the computer. It's especially worrisome if they're not fulfilling their other responsibilities—they're not doing their homework, they're not doing their chores, maybe not even going to class. [Also, it’s worrisome] when...all of a sudden, things that used to be rewarding for them, maybe even something as simple as hanging out with their family or their friends, is just no longer fun.

What should an adolescent do when she or he recognizes the signs of an addiction to the internet, or to a cell phone?

I think if there's really a full blown addiction, it's important to go talk to parents, talk to healthcare providers, get some professional help.

The more common scenario is people who are just using smartphones in an unhealthy way, but isn't an addiction yet. I think for everybody, whether addicted or not, some healthy things to do are to make the phone less distracting and less appealing by

Photo provided by Anna Lembke

turning off the alerts, [and] just being very intentional about creating technology-free zones. Have at least one day per week when you have a technology holiday, even just as a way of recognizing how much time you're actually spending on the phone, which I think is one of the hardest things people really don't recognize.

What is the main method of treatment?

The main method of treatment is first abstaining...for at least a month to reset and rewire the brain. During that month of abstinence, being really very thoughtful about

what's behind the compulsive usage [is important].

It's also thinking ahead.

It's not really possible to live in the modern world and not engage in technology, so when you go back to re-engaging with technology, what are barriers that you can put in place? It can be things like getting a “dumb phone,” something that just calls and does basic texting and maybe basic rideshare and maps. It can also be only having a laptop at work or at school, or involving technology in a different way, things like sports, getting in nature, gathering together with friends, or playing board games.

FRIDAY, MARCH 29, 2019

THE NUEVA CURRENT

FEATURES / 7

Freshmen undertake chemistry projects for STEM Fair Chemistry-themed projects enhance knowledge of experimental design Eli C. At the STEM Fair on March 17, groups of freshmen watched as data from the light-colored Gatorade flowed into the data collection program Logger Pro. They were trying to find the concentration of the dyes in the drink that could possibly be harmful.

As part of their Foundations of Science class, the entire ninth grade is required to undertake a chemistryrelated project for the Nueva STEM Fair.

Projects fell in one of five areas of study: electrochemistry (the study of chemical changes and electricity), kinetics (the study of the rates of chemical reactions), thermochemistry (the study of heat energy and reactions), acid/base chemistry (the study of acids and bases), or spectrophotometry (the study of the reflection and transmission properties of a material). However, despite the categories, there were a large range of innovative projects. The students tested the effectiveness of different forms of medicines an the acidity of common beverages, measured the polarity of pen ink, fabricated disposable handwarmers, and much more.

One group of students worked on testing the absorbance and concentration of different dyes in Gatorade as well as measuring their transmittance in water through a spectrophotometer.

“We want to see how safe [it is to drink] these dyes that are in these drinks because there is a lot,” Nicholas

H. (9) said.

Their hypothesis was that there is a “nontoxic” amount of dye. Nicholas’ team found that there is an average of four milligrams of dye in one liter of Gatorade—a safe amount, as long as one doesn’t consume too much.

Another group of students attempted to build a rechargeable battery for their STEM Fair project. They believe that rechargeable batteries are the future of eco-friendly energy.

“Green energy is becoming more relevant,” said Harry V. (9), a member of the group.

As the majority of people use most of their energy during the nighttime but the amount of energy the sun can provide peaks during the day, rechargeable batteries provide an efficient solution to the problem, the team argues. The group tested multiple battery designs, one of which is called an “Edison Cell,” which uses two chemicals (nickel hydroxide and iron) reacting with water to charge or discharge power.

This type of battery is commonly used in trains and subways (for example, old New York City subways) and standalone, off-the-grid electrical appliances.

With projects ranging from Gatorade dye to rechargeable batteries, the freshmen were able to explore a wide range of topics, which they later presented on at the STEM Fair on March 17.

EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN Luca N. (9) builds a copper-zinc galvanic cell for his group’s STEM Fair project in chemistry, where freshmen were able to develop skills in experimental design and communication of ideas. (Photo by Harry V.)

Getting lost in the Bahamas? More like finding one’s self.

Junior returns home after a “life-changing” semester abroad in experiential learning Mira D. & Miki Y. It has been 100 days since junior JJ M. allowed herself the luxury of spending time on her phone for longer than 20 minutes a week. During her recent semester abroad in Eleuthera, an island in the Bahamas, JJ interacted with people solely through face-to-face interactions. She kept in touch with friends and family back home through regular mail and over the phone once a week for a limited time.

“Without WiFi or data, and no social media, I was so involved in everything that was happening around me,” JJ admitted.

JJ was enrolled in The Island School, which was founded in 1999 with the goal of conserving marine life by providing alternative food sources and jobs for the people of South Eleuthera. The school’s curriculum provides natural and cultural immersion into the landscape of South Eleuthera; students are encouraged to engage with the native people of the island to develop an “integrated cultural contact program,” while taking scientific research courses. The school allows students to deepen their understanding of sustainability, community, leadership, and a sense of place through abandoning technology.

JJ was drawn to the program because of her passion for marine biology and experimental learning, which she felt

she could explore in more depth there.

Through her classes, she learned how to collect and analyze data in sustainable energy, food production, and fishery research. In one, she studied animals and their interaction with the environment. Part of the class required an ocean dive each morning, where JJ and her peers would take notes on changes in the ocean. These firsthand experiences of observing and researching marine life such as sea turtles and lemon sharks appealed to JJ as she was able to maximize her learning and be immersed in real settings.

“I loved being a part of an actual research project that wasn’t put together for the benefit of teaching class,” JJ said.

In addition to the marine biology classes, the school provided several other educationally exhilarating and strenuous activities that challenged students.

JJ trained five mornings each week to prepare for the required physical and outdoor program, in which she swam a four-mile, open ocean swim that took almost two and a half hours.

“It was physically challenging as much as it was mentally challenging,” JJ said. “It was tough to keep telling yourself to make it to the next landmark even though you knew that you were far from the finish. When I finished, it was really weird to walk on land again, but I

HAMMOCKING OR J-CHILLING? JJ M. (11) relaxes in a camping hammock with friends; while abroad, JJ had the opportunity to spend time with peers on many camping trips across the island.

(Photo provided by JJ M.)

felt so happy and so proud.”

Although challenging, this taught JJ that she was able to physically push herself to do things she did not think she could.

JJ’s busy and fulfilling schedule at The Island School offered no space for her phone. After spending a semester there without electronics, she had gotten used to a life without constant access to technology. She stresses the unhealthy relationships with mobile devices she sees in her daily life, and reflects on her experience at The Island School where she was able to experience and interact fully with the activities and students without the disturbance of a phone.

“I wasn’t distracted and was more aware of everything around me,” JJ said.

“I found it amazing that I was able to make friends with all of the other 52 students in person.”

Since her return back to Nueva, she finds it “weird” to have constant access to the internet and social media after being without it for so long. She can’t help but notice how often her friends at Nueva are connected to their mobile devices,

constantly reaching for their phones at lunch and using technology as their main communication with one another.

After this life-changing experience, JJ was able to understand more about living sustainably, marine biology classes, mentally and physically strenuous activities, and life unplugged.

“I made so many friends that I feel as close to as friends I have known for years. I got to be part of a real research project and get the feel for that type of science. I got to go on a nine-day sailing trip with thirteen of my friends and we sailed around the island of Eleuthera. We got to take a car camping trip down the entire island and spend time to just roam around the different settlements,” JJ said. “I gained so many new perspectives on many issues that I used to think only had one right point of view. I was able to try a countless amount of new experiences and learn so much about the environment. I became so much more confident and comfortable with who I am.”

8 / FEATURES

THE NUEVA CURRENT

VOLUME 2, ISSUE 5

The secret lives of Stan Twitter Young people use the social media platform to connect with celebrities and fellow fans

Gitika P. Sam Aronoff* was 9 years old when he heard “Born This Way,” the queer anthem by Lady Gaga, for the first time.

“I remember hearing it on the radio on the way to school with my mom,” he says. “I loved it so much, but I couldn’t let her know it was because I was questioning my own sexuality.”

He downloaded the song on his iPod touch when he got to his New York City home later that day. By the end of sixth grade, he joined Twitter to connect with other “Little Monsters,” the official name for members of the Gaga fanbase. “Once I did that, there was no going back,” he confesses.

Aronoff, now 17, is one of the thousands of people who log onto Twitter every day to support their favorite musicians and actors. While specific persons of interest vary within this group, they are known collectively as “stan Twitter.” Beyond spending countless hours interacting through tweets about their idols, many fans form meaningful friendships through mutual follows and group chats. The people behind these accounts often choose to keep their online activity secret from school friends and family, an interesting choice given how much power stan Twitter wields in shaping mainstream culture.

Their self-adopted name, "stans," may clue one in about the reason for this. The term was defined after the 2000 release of “Stan,” an Eminem song about an overzealous, maniacal fan. While its roots may not be common knowledge, especially to those outside the Twitter community, the general stereotype around fans of artists persist.

Aronoff suggests that, because having a Twitter account devoted to another person is relatively uncommon, people may believe that he is overly obsessed with Lady Gaga.

“The only stans who get in the news are the ones that stalk or get crazy tattoos for celebrities,” he explains.

“But for most of us, it just means being on Twitter for a couple of hours every day with amazing people who have similar interests, and I mean beyond music and celebrities.”

Alicia Su*—a 19-year-old from Houston, Texas—is confident that part of the stigma around stan Twitter is rooted in misogyny. While older and non-female stans certainly exist, the community is mostly composed of women between the ages of 12 and 25.

“When people see me watch videos about Shawn Mendes or scream at his concerts, they think I’m crazy,” she says. “When men watch football games

every Sunday or paint their faces and get in actual brawls for their favorite teams, no one cares.”

Many also fail to acknowledge how having a stan account benefits mental health, Aronoff adds. Relative anonymity allows users to be honest about their lives, while celebrities and their careers can be an escape from life’s daily challenges. Though there is an overwhelming pressure to project an idealized version of oneself to friends on Instagram, stan Twitter appears to allow for less attention on the individual and more on discussion topics that fans care about.

For Su, being on stan Twitter is simply joyful and liberating. For

STAN TWITTER LINGO bop: used in reference to a song that is deemed good keyboard smash: a random string of characters produced by a literal smashing of the keyboard; used to show excitement OOMF: an acronym for “one of my followers” that references a Twitter user’s followers shade: a comment with an insulting intent towards an individual or group tea: a synonym for gossip, or relating to drama wig: often used in the context of something being exciting or shocking that someone’s “wig” falls off

others, it can be life-saving; Aronoff credits his internet friends with helping him overcome suicidal thoughts after coming out to his family.

Finally, many stans also push back on the idea that their online presence is motivated by the celebrity rather than the communities people have built around a shared love for them.

Eighteen-year-old Kacie Marianne from Los Angeles, believes that her friendship with other Ariana Grande stans is one of the reasons she continues to have a Twitter account.

“I have met some of my closest friends on there,” she explains. “It’s insane because the idea of having a friend online a couple years ago was creepy to me, but now it’s like…‘People online are better than in real life?’”

While Marianne admits that some

people have judged her for being on stan Twitter, she has clearly gotten the last laugh. Not only has Grande followed her account for years, but the singer also regularly likes and responds to her tweets. Last year, Marianne was one of 15 stans handpicked for an album-listening slumber party with Grande and Pharrell. Artists like Grande and Taylor Swift have been known to translate online interactions into meaningful offline friendships with their fans.

Say what you will about stan Twitter, its influence on our lives is undeniable. From popularizing slang, memes, and artists to acting as moral arbiters in celebrity controversies, what happens on stan Twitter clearly does not stay there.

While some likely originated from black and queer Twitter, phrases like "wig," "tea," "drag," "skinny legend," and keyboard smashes (typing "fgdshshfdgsj" to show excitement) were incorporated into Gen Z’s online vocabulary through stan accounts.

A stan-edited, recently viral video features a family dancing to One Direction’s pirate-inspired song, “Act My Age.” The "Get You a Man Who Can Do Both" meme was first used

by Twitter stans of Drake and other male celebrities. Finally, acts like Dua Lipa and Korean boyband BTS rose to international prominence by circulating in stan Twitter.

One of the greatest criticisms of stan Twitter is its tendency to disavow any public figure that appears problematic. Writers in the media argue that this does not allow them to grow from and apologize for their mistakes. Some say that "cancel culture" is a product of "PC [political correctness] culture," and thus overly sensitive. Others take note of stan Twitter’s eagerness to destroy careers, since brash phrases—such

as #ShaneDawsonIsOverParty and #TakeDownMillieBobbyBrown—have trended each time such celebrities misstep.

Nonetheless, it is clear that popular culture is attentive to stan Twitter disapproval. Hasty apologies by public figures—often screenshotted from the Notes app or live streamed—are tweeted all the time. Hollywood is increasingly aware of the backlash they receive for whitewashing, with the 2017 casting of Scarlett Johansson in the Manga-inspired film “Ghost in the Shell” remaining a popular joke across stan Twitter today. Celebrities may also feel pressured to speak on social justice issues, since failure to do so may bring accusations that they are either bigoted or irresponsible with their platform. Taylor Swift’s outspokenness in the 2018 midterms is a recent example of this phenomenon, while Kanye West is a cautionary tale of what can happen otherwise: “I’m canceled. I’m canceled because I didn’t cancel Trump,” West said in a June 2018 interview with The New York Times.

Many people survive being canceled (West’s album debuted at #1 on the Billboard Charts just a week prior to his statement) but lose loyal stans in the process. Su agrees that it would be “heartbreaking but necessary” for her to stop supporting someone if it felt morally incorrect to do so.

And what would Su do with her time if, for reasons related to controversy, she could no longer tweet about Shawn Mendes?

“I think I would probably just find someone else to stan,” she muses. “I already have a reputation for being a fangirl at school and I love my friends here. I’m not going to stop doing things that make me happy.” *Name changed at request of interviewee.

FRIDAY, MARCH 29, 2019

THE NUEVA CURRENT

FEATURES / 9

A passing of the Dungeon Master torch As one campaign ends and another begins, Gabriel Baker steps down and Patrick Berger assumes narrator role It’s the end of a three-year journey— eight elaborate maps of the different layers of a mysterious castle, each the size of a classroom table, are dramatically unveiled one by one. The final confrontation against the evil vampire Strahd is going to be an intense one, expected to last up to two days.

Gathered around the table are history teachers Gabriel Baker (as the Dungeon Master), Arta Khakpour (as Skelros, a goal-oriented military scout), Brian Cropper (as Bjorn Bjornsson, a vampire-hunting cleric), Associate Director of Admissions Davion Fleming (as Soran, a tiefling rogue or semi-demon), and electives teacher Patrick Berger (as Heiro, a half-orc barbarian), as well as Baker’s partner, Mandy Peacock (as Heloise, a magical bard).

Suddenly, Cropper’s Bjorn Bjornsson runs out of the room, escalating the previously diplomatic situation into unnecessary violence. Baker, the DM, is stunned and momentarily at a loss for how to proceed now that the climax of the conflict has just been abruptly aborted. Here, in their own words, is how it went down: BERGER: On this last day, Gabriel revealed the most elaborate set of maps we had ever seen. Each map was about the size of this table. He had eight of them, representing each layer of the castle we were exploring. It was the final lair of the vampire overlord, and each time we would go to a different stage, he would dramatically rip off one sheet, and we’d all gasp at the beauty and intricacy of what lay below.

BAKER: They are basically going to the stereotypical evil person’s castle to face the bad guy—something we had been building up to for three years. The story had gotten very ambiguous about whether this person was totally evil. Are all the bad circumstances this person’s fault? A lot of gray and moral ambiguity had been thrown in.

FLEMING: I think we were all on edge but really excited. I could feel a bit of melancholy falling on us, though.

CROPPER: The plan was to go into the castle and “beat the boss,” but my character had a second agenda to see if he could figure out who killed his sister, and kill that person too. So it was a “double whammy” goal. At the same time, the rest of the group didn’t really trust me— earlier on, Strahd, the bad guy, had used mind control on me and had convinced me to do something kind of nefarious.

And the group couldn’t tell if I was on the group’s side or Strahd’s side.

FLEMING: I was excited for my big reveal as becoming the new “bad guy.” My character supplanted the main antagonist, the vampire Strahd, of the campaign. Essentially he, Soran, took over the land and it fell into darkness again.

BERGER: We finally walk into the dining hall of this vampire overlord. He asks us to sit down and he starts giving us this dramatic speech, summing up all of his motives and intentions. As this moment that Gabriel had been building up to for years was finally getting to pay off in this face to face interaction with all of us, Brian just stands up and sprints out of the room.

BAKER: The characters are all sitting with this guy, Strahd, just discussing the situation—it’s not combative. Brian’s character is just like, “I’m bored with

Photo by Jordan M.

Amanda W.

A WILD ENDING Left to right, Davion Fleming (as the semi-demon Soran), Brian Cropper (as Bjorn Bjornsson, a vampire-hunting cleric), Gabriel Baker (as the Dungeon Master), Patrick Berger (as Heiro, a half-orc barbarian), and Arta Khakpour (as military scout Skelros).

this,” and gets up and runs out of the room. They were looking for someone in the castle and Brian/Bjorn was just like, “I’m going to go find this person.” He’s out of the conversation. He pushed everything into a violent encounter that did not need to be a violent encounter at all.

CROPPER: When we got there, I read the situation, I read the room, and I saw the rest of the group was timid and scared. I thought going for a surprise move, like running away and trying to find the person who killed my sister would speed up the process.

BERGER: Before he left, Brian whispered in Gabriel’s wife’s ear, that caused her character to also stand up and sprint out of the room. This was something

like magic, combat, or persuasion, as well as a class, like wizard or ranger.

Baker, as the Dungeon Master, actualized players’ thoughts and creativity into a complex fantasy world in which these characters travel, quest, battle enemies, and much more.

The players react to the guidelines and events of the world that the DM sets, often in service of an overarching mission, the “Brian word for the campaign,” as Fleming describes. Through their every move and encounter, they slowly carve out the story’s path. With the help of a 20-sided die, the DM determines the outcome of the players’ decisions.

Baker’s world, a modified version of Barovia from the D&D module “Raven-

GAME PLAY Dungeon Master Gabriel Baker hand-painted the character figurines, which took “tens of hours,” as Brian Cropper described it. The maps were used during combat scenarios to support the role playing. “This game was 50 percent Gabriel, and 50 percent out of the box,” Cropper said. (Photo by Jordan M.)

Gabriel absolutely did not expect—he spent so long planning this enormous final encounter. It had completely foiled Gabriel’s expectations, and so he had to think on the fly since half the party had just sprinted away and started exploring the castle. He decided that this character [Strahd] would just try and kill us all.

BAKER: We expected that this last game was going to last two whole days— we had two days set aside and we were going to play over the course of the weekend. Brian pushed us to completion in a single day and in only a few hours.

But it ended very cool, they were victorious—sort of—in the end. It was sort of bittersweet; we were going to have this ending that was going to last two days and it was hilarious and sort of ridiculous that Brian did that.

This freedom of narration in Dungeons & Dragons, a fantasy role-playing tabletop game commonly referred to as D&D, created one of the most memorable moments for the players.

“You can do pretty much anything,” said Baker, who appreciates how the game allows for the kind of imagination and spontaneity that resulted in this surprise ending. “It’s about being very creative within this loose set of boundaries.”

The players create their own characters and embark on adventures in a fantasy setting created by the Dungeon Master, a player who acts as the game’s referee and storyteller. Each character possesses special qualities and strengths,

loft,” is a “gothic, horror place,” as he put it; the final mission—a “cliché and stereotypical fantasy”—was to kill Strahd in order to free this land.

“My world was very clearly building up to a certain point and I would often gently push them in different directions,” Baker said.

His was a time-consuming and high-commitment position, and maintaining the campaign for over two years was a difficult task.

“I took copious notes and planned well in advance,” Baker said. “But a lot of it was because the people I played with helped me keep going. Davion was really instrumental because he was really into it—he was one of the people that would help me wrangle people up and schedule, and make sure that we played. That would help it keep going because we would lose momentum sometimes.”

Now that the first campaign has concluded, Baker is passing the DM responsibilities to Berger, who will be the DM for the next campaign. He expects Berger’s game to be more open-ended and “dynamic,” just based on the sheer number of possible missions. Berger stepped up to this position out of “guilt— exclusively guilt.”

“I think Gabe provided me with one of the craziest experiences of my life, over hundreds of hours, over two years, and that whole time he was putting all the labor into designing this huge campaign experience for us, he wasn’t getting a chance to explore it himself,” Berger

explained. “It’s like if you were to design a maze and you knew all the puzzles and trapdoors, it’s not fun for you. He just kept talking about how badly he wanted to explore someone else’s world.”

Baker will finally get the chance to do so, in the group’s second campaign, which will take place in Berger’s new world, Waterdeep, a change from Baker’s—an “open-world, horror-themed game,” as Berger described it. The second campaign will take place solely within the walls of a metropolitan center, a “confluence” that characters will have to navigate through various political, social, and cultural landscapes as well as working within the thriving underworld of gangs, criminals, and merchants who have “collectivized” into unions.

In this upcoming journey, the players will have to “grapple with the city’s power brokers,” as Khakpour puts it, and enemy and ally will be much harder to distinguish.

Cropper sees this new campaign as an opportunity to branch out in his role-playing abilities and confidence, as his character will be a blind, Dwarven female. Moreover, like Berger, he is excited to see Baker, who is “very physical” in this position, often assuming new voices and mannerisms, take on more formal role-play in the game. Fleming expects that Berger’s new world will “give them more responsibility in the storytelling.”

Not only will the players be exploring a new world, but they will also be navigating a completely different style of thinking and design, as Baker is a war historian and Berger is an economist.

“Gabriel knows a lot about Roman warfare. He would talk about defensive techniques of the other people we were fighting… and military strategies… and use his Roman military knowledge to argue with us. Gabe is into the long stories with the beginning, middle, and end,” Cropper said. “Patrick is an economist. He’s interested in exploring the economics of the city. So he’s describing the investments that have been made in neighborhoods and business connections.

It is much more of an economic introduction, rather than a historical introduction.”

For all the players, this new campaign and the continued relationship will not only be another foray into a highly imaginative and complex fantasy world, but also another way to relax and just spend quality time with friends who are also colleagues.

“Honestly, I am just looking forward to hanging out. It’s a rare occurrence that you can willingly hang out with people that you work with and don’t have to talk about work,” Fleming says. “We get together and talk about a game that is not real by any means but has helped forge and create some of the most real and meaningful relationships that I have at Nueva.”

10 / FEATURES

VOLUME 2, ISSUE 5

Student Voices

A community serv

Gitika P. There is no clear consensus among the student body about what role volunteerism should play in our curriculum. In a poll of 51 seniors, 40 percent of respondents agreed that community service hours should be required for graduation. A slim majority disagreed.

The survey also revealed a disparity in engagement among seniors, with 25 percent of them not having volunteered at all and 30 percent accumulating over 25 hours this past year.

Alex Y. (12) admits that he does not volunteer as much as he would like, but supports a service requirement. If the school does not require service hours from students, he believes a “good portion” of them will never do it on their own, an idea the poll appears to validate. While mandatory service may not inspire students to give back for the right reasons, he points out that voluntary service can also be misguided.

“When I see people post on Instagram building houses or teaching school children in Africa, I think that they might do this primarily to feel good about themselves,” he says. “Regardless of the intention, though, it still helps the people they do this for.”

Rachel D. (11) acknowledges that not everyone would like a service requirement, but says “it doesn’t mean that their contributions wouldn’t benefit the community.” As a year-round volunteer for Peninsula Bridge, she witnesses firsthand the value of her work with students from low-income backgrounds.

For Anisha K. (9), mandatory community service is especially important given how much privilege is afforded to Nueva students. She plans to give back by assisting at a music camp this summer.

“It feels wrong and entitled to complain about…giving back to your community when we have so many resources and so much luck at play in our lives,” Anisha says.

Kaia S. S. (10) also points to the educational benefits of volunteering.

“Learning to think about people other than yourself is a valuable skill that’s applicable in pretty much any interaction,” she explains.

“Those who disagree might say it’s a waste of time and doesn’t further any academic purpose, but as I see it, it’s essential [that we] learn to serve—especially for later in life when you get a job.”

Other students are less partial to community service requirements. Piper H. (11) stresses that bringing opportunities to students is key to making a requirement work.

“We are not usually given the time and opportunity to do community service, and it can be hard to do by yourself with the demands of schoolwork and extracurriculars,” Piper says.

She wonders if a mandatory class focused on social justice and service opportunities, both on-campus and off-campus, would excite students.

Eugenia T. (11) previously attended a school with a service requirement and acknowledges both the advantages and disadvantages of it.

“I think a requirement is questionable since some people said things like, ‘I did community service with my parents,’ and cheated the system, but a majority followed through on their hours,” she reflects. “If done right—like my school did by taking us on field trips and staggering hours by year so it doesn’t all add up at the end—it motivates people to actually use their privilege for a good thing.”

On the other hand, Julienne H. (12), who also attended a school with mandatory community service hours, says that it became a “begrudging” experience for most students. She worries that seeking to make our community more empathetic through required volunteering would be counterproductive, especially since so many students already do it on their own.

“Many of my peers do community service outside of school, but this part of their life is not usually public or broadcasted, because service doesn’t have that much visibility in the Nueva community,” Julienne says. “When Hillary announced the names of students who had gotten the President’s Volunteer Service Award, everybody was surprised.”

Julienne proposes that we bring more service opportunities to campus to make it more accessible and visible.

“We need to make it more interactive and stop removing ourselves from the issues like we do with bake sales and drives,” she suggests. “In a design-thinking context, we need to be able to identify needs and prototype solutions for users ourselves.”

“Nueva’s lack of mandate but presence of opportunity, when it comes to academia,” she adds, “produces intrinsically motivated youth who see meaning in what they do.”

Julienne is hopeful that a similar strategy would be effective with service, as well.

Anisha, suggesting a similar idea, says, “Nueva would benefit from an initiative that really educates people about the effects of volunteer work.” While she would like to see a community service requirement, she agrees with Julienne that service is not a popular topic among her friends. Even Kaia, who had previously won the President’s Volunteer Service Award, says she and her friends are relatively unaware of each other’s work.

While some students take issue with the specific activities they participated in during the scheduled service hours on CSL Day, all agree that they would like to see more events like this in the future. Despite disagreements about service requirements, it is clear that Nueva is eager to engage more meaningfully with the various communities that the school is a part of, like Bay Meadows and the larger Bay Area.

THE NUEVA CU

First-ever CSL Day sparks Nueva’s culture of co

CSL in the community Grace H. On Friday, March 15, three grades in the Upper School participated in its first Community Service Learning (CSL) Day. (The 11th grade went on a curriculum-based field trip.) Grouped in advisories, students spread out across the Bay Area to partner with service organizations and participate in various projects, including cleaning the kitchen of a home for families in transition and shoveling mulch in a community garden that serves people in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco.

Freeman travelled with her advisory to LifeMoves, which provides a temporary home to families coming out of homelessness and working to find their own homes, jobs, and places in

society. Her advisory, along with two others, “scrubbed the kitchen, the vents over the stove, everything, but had fun doing it together and felt good doing it.”

The work was not only gratifying in the moment but also sparked conversations about privilege and changes in the area around the San Mateo campus.

“The below-market-rate housing that’s going up next door came up in our conversations, so I was able to explain to students why that’s a great thing,” Freeman said. “[Those of us in the Nueva community are] starting on third base, and some people are starting at the top of the stadium. They haven’t even gotten down to the front row to get to the dugout or anything.

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FEATURES / 11

Admin Stance Willow C. Y. What community service looks like at Nueva hasn’t been defined from an administrative standpoint yet, according to Dunn.

“We want to do service that makes a long-lasting difference,” he says, “and that is a lot more complicated than it sounds.”

Dunn says that there are a few core tenets that they have to consider when formulating such a community service program. One of those is creating “long-lasting relationships” so that students can use their time at partnering organizations more effectively. As of right now, Dunn notes that a lot of the current community service work “benefits [us]—the volunteers—and not the agency.”

Another necessary consideration Dunn referenced was that the administration wants to have conversations with students about why community service organizations exist in order to understand what the larger impact of their work is.

“If we go to a soup kitchen and serve soup without having a discussion about hunger,” Dunn explains, “then we miss the point of the service.”

Similarly, another concern the administration has is “[utilizing] our resources in a high-leverage way to serve more people.”

“If you go to Habitat for Humanity”—a nonprofit that builds affordable housing—“[the volunteer director might say,] ‘Here’s a bucket of paint, you paint the wall, and once you’re done, you clean up and you go,’” Dunn says. “But what we really want our students to do is think, ‘How am I going to change the world, how am I going to—if we’re going with Habitat—better understand homelessness and the economics of the Bay Area?’

“Let’s work at those systemic levels, not necessarily just at the end result of ‘I have a bucket of paint, I have a paintbrush, and my service is to paint.’ I would rather our students [work] at a higher leverage position. We want our students to change the world; we don’t want them to paint it.”

Regarding possible CSL programs, there were discussions with Shields about introducing a graduation requirement for community service at the beginning of the year; the initiative was ultimately cut because of concerns that a population of students would feel “forced” to complete community service, and would thus be “counter-productive” as the students wouldn’t fully appreciate the experience and “less service” would be done for the organizations involved.

Additionally, Dunn says that one of the most important things they need to consider as they try to schedule this into the life of the school is making sure that the program “reflects the schools values.”

“We’re looking to build a program that’s sustainable and has impact,” Dunn says.

Despite the reservations that the admin has with mandatory community service, they still think that it’s important for the students and the greater narrative of addressing privilege.

“We are all privileged to be here—and I’m not talking about socioeconomic status but just to get this level of education. To be able to give back is super important [for showing] appreciation and [helping] others,” Freeman says. “Also, it’s such a personal strengthening that community service provides, and it’s needed right here in our community. It also gets us much more in touch with real life.”

The administration has not polled students so far on possible ideas for a program; Dunn says that although they try to incorporate student voices whenever they can, “if [something] is important and aligns with our values, we should do it regardless of the popularity.”

“Sometimes there are things in the life of the school that there are enough voices to say that this is important,” he says. “I think things like a Diversity and Inclusion Rep on Student Council are important, so even if the students go 90% to 10% to not to have that, we would still say that that’s something we would like to have represented in our school. We have the responsibility to shape the student experience.”

CSL on our campus Eugenia X.

Graphic by Freepik

so we have to help people.”

In Freeman’s opinion, this help is far more effective if it is done in a coordinated manner that allows students—and the school as a whole—to build long-lasting relationships with the people and organizations with whom they are working.

“I think [you can get the teenage angst about] disjointed community service. ‘Oh, we’re just going to do this one day, oh my goodness, I have to clean this kitchen, do this, whatever,’ but actually, my advisory really bonded more, worked well together, and saw the need in the community,” Freeman said. “I feel like it was successful, but I would like to build relationships with the places we go, not just a one and done.”

These partnerships and experiences are not just beneficial to the organizations the students work with. Freeman believes that the conversations students partook in during the experience have the potential to have a huge impact on their lives.

“Sometimes just conversations with people is something they’ll remember their entire lives and will really get them to where they want to be. I felt like our conversations all may resonate with students—maybe not today, maybe not next year, but you never know when these things may resonate,” Freeman said. “Giving this experience to students is beneficial to all of us, including them.”

Campus stewardship is one form of mandatory community service at the Upper School; advisories take turns cleaning the cafeteria after lunch, and every student is expected to take part.

In addition, many students do community service after school, including volunteering at Peninsula Bridge, a program that provides support to high-achieving students from low-income families through education to break the cycle of poverty.

Multiple students have earned the President’s Volunteer Service Award for the number of hours they give to volunteering. According to Freeman, there will be even more recipients of the award in the coming months from students in multiple grades. However, none of the hours these students completed were mandatory.

Many administrative leaders believe that the culture of community service is stronger at the Middle School than the Upper School.

CSL Day happens a few times a year there, and the handbook outlines that one role of middle school advisors is “planning and coordinating Community Engagement & Service Learning projects throughout the school year” while outlining no community service roles for upper school advisors. Freeman believes that there is value in modeling on the Middle School; she recalls that one of her middle school advisories decided to volunteer with the Beechwood Elementary School for a full year, which allowed them to bond with the students.

Hart and Dunn agree that establishing long-term, stronger connections with community service organizations is an important next step. Dunn hopes that it would not only allow students to do more tangible work but also establish relationships that the student body could utilize to do community service in their own time.

12 / FEATURES

THE NUEVA CURRENT

VOLUME 2, ISSUE 5

Spreading thin Parliamentary debaters prepare for the biggest tournament of the year Grace H.

The parliamentary debate team is sprawled across the couches outside the Writing and Research Center.

Some sit with their laptops open to dense Google Docs, packed with information about everything from the current U.S. economy to the likelihood of nuclear war to the Syrian refugee crisis; others argue about the merits of genetically engineered crops. One of the coaches, Gia Karpouzis, sits to the side, alternating between fielding questions about Northern Macedonia and belting out a lively rendition of Irene Cara’s “What A Feeling.”

Ninth graders Akshar R. and Pascal D., the students in charge of ensuring the team has ample research prepared for whatever they may encounter at the upcoming Tournament of Champions, mill about, checking that everyone is up to date on their assignments and, upon discovering that most people aren’t, gazing despairingly into the middle distance.

The camaraderie the team maintains is impressive—even as what is, in the words of Ben C. (12), “undoubtedly the most important tournament of the year” looms, they work together with the comfortable—albeit nowhere near relaxed—air of a group that is more than happy to practice until 8 p.m. (and keep working long after) to prepare for the next—and, for some members, last—competition.

The Tournament of Champions, referred to colloquially as the ToC, differs considerably from a typical competition, in large part because it is a higher-stakes national tournament and the final competition in the parliamentary debate season. For Ben, who won’t be able to attend this year’s ToC, it would have been the last tournament of his parli career and one of the most important.

“When you look back on your career…if you win the ToC or do particularly well in the ToC, that’s what you’ll remember most,” Ben said. “I

think everyone takes it a lot more seriously and a lot more prep goes into the tournament.”

This prep takes several forms. Outside of the whole-team practices on Tuesdays and Thursdays, where they gather research, practice rounds, and discuss team policy, each individual

to test out new strategies and prepare to face those favored by other teams.

However, despite the competitiveness of the teams, the complexity of their strategies, and the importance of the topics being discussed, the tournaments—particularly at the higher levels—are “less formal and

A PRACTICE ROUND Eugenia X. (10) practices her “spreading” in a mock debate round with partner Ben S. (12). (Photo by Grace H.)

member also does their own individual preparations based upon the specific skills they need to improve, such as giving speeches or taking notes on rounds. Last year, the team also held several day-long “cramming sessions” during which they ran practice rounds against one another in order

RESEARCH Ben S. (12) and Eugenia X. (10) research the topics they would least like to defend in a debate. (Photo by Grace H.)

restrictive than you might expect,” according to Andrew C. (9). “As you get into higher levels of the circuit, debate really comes down to being a discussion space,” said Andrew, who attended ToC last year. He attributes this in large part to the familiarity between the teams at this level.

The comparative narrowness of the ToC playing field means that many of the teams know one another, which gives debaters the ability to prepare specific counters to the strategies most commonly employed by certain opponents.

“There’s a very good team from Campolindo that loves making arguments about business confidence and its relationship to the economy, so we're doing a lot of work specifically to answer that argument,” Ben S. (12) said.

The fact that most of the teams know one another, along with the more experienced judges present at the tournament, makes ToC the perfect place for teams to try strategies relying on “really squirrely tricks” like the ones favored by Ben S. and Ben C. “Oftentimes you’re judged on the probability of an impact happening combined with the magnitude of the impact. Obviously, extinction is the biggest impact, it’s an infinite impact, so we do sketchy framing by saying [that] ‘one percent of infinity is still infinity,’” Ben C. said. “That way [the judges] have to prioritize any chance of an infinite impact happening when evaluating the round.”

This sort of strategy came into play for the pair during a round last year.

“It was a big meme; within the parli community, everyone knows about it because we basically read some really crazy arguments. In the end, the argument we went for was ‘nothing is true,’ which means the judges can’t evaluate the round so they have to vote [for the negative side],” Ben C. said.

Ben S. and Eugenia X. will be competing in the Tournament of Champions April 6–7 at New Roads School in Santa Monica. They will be accompanied by coaches Sam Timinski and Gia Karpouzis, plenty of middle-distance stares, and a playlist featuring “What a Feeling.”

CULMINATION Ben S. (12) and Eugenia X. (10) face off against freshmen Rajeev S. and Pascal D. in a debate round for the academic culmination at the end of 2018. (Photo by Jordan M.)

FRIDAY, MARCH 29, 2019

THE NUEVA CURRENT

FEATURES / 13

IN MEMORIAM

Remembering Emilio Community shares memories of beloved security guard and friend Willow C. Y. & Elizabeth B. P. Table tennis, talking, and his job were among the many things Emilio Izaguirre loved—and he could do all three at the same time.

His small belt radio blaring 60s–80s R&B songs from the Temptations and the Four Tops, baseball cap firmly squeezed over his short-cropped hair, Emilio, as he was known to all, would spend some time playing table tennis outside the I-Lab with students from all grades. He could be found there nearly every day during lunch and after school, holding conversation between swings. He remembered the names of each student he knew and greeted them in the halls.

Many students would find themselves opening up to him about their lives over the course of the game.

Emilio, who had been a security guard at the San Mateo campus for the past three years, passed away on Wednesday, March 13. The news rocked the upper school community.

He was well-loved by faculty and students alike for his warmth, kindness, and sense of humor. He knew everyone who introduced themselves to him and would take time to chat before they walked into the building. His was often the first face you would see walking through the door, standing right in front of the blue staircase or in the middle of the crosswalk, holding back the cars to let you cross safely.

He had specific greetings for many people—for students taking Spanish, an hola; for the students taking Japanese, an お早うございます; for students he knew well, an inquiry about how they

A CARING LEGACY Emilio sits in one of the hallway art sculptures. Students and faculty remember his constant interest in classes and care towards students.

were doing or an older sibling who had graduated years before. He asked, “How are you?” to many, and he waited patiently for their answers.

“Whenever he’s doing anything, he would rather be doing it while talking to someone else,” said Julienne H. (12).

After the announcement of his passing was made that morning, students, faculty, and staff swarmed the tables set up on the first floor to write cards to his family.

Julienne, who remembers the first time she saw him, was among them.

Corrections Corrections for Volume 2, Issue 4, published Feb. 27, 2019:

Masthead

“I’m always scared starting in new places,” Julienne said. “But this was my third high school and I was like, ‘Yikes, I better get it right this time.’ Emilio greeted me on the way in and I felt less bad about being in my nervous bubble of self-talk. It was just nice to see him.”

She remembers Emilio for how much he enjoyed walking around the campus and getting to know the students at the same time. He spoke often of how much he loved the Nueva students and their self-motivation to do well in school.

“He said that it inspires him, being around all of the innovative energy that we have is nourishing to his soul,” Julienne said.

Jo Newman, US Spanish teacher, describes her impression of Emilio, who often asked her about the Spanish language.

“He was very calm, very sweet,” Newman said. “He felt like a teacher to the students and seemed very aware as he was communicating with them in Spanish that this was a teaching opportunity.”

She and Emilio often had long conversations about languages— particularly Spanish, his first language.

They talked about the etymology of words and the origins of phrases.

“He enjoyed communicating with people so much that it made sense to me that he was always looking to expand his vocabulary,” Newman added. “After a conversation, he would always express how important it was to keep learning, no matter what.”

Through their interactions, Newman came to realize what so many people did: how positive Emilio remained, no matter what.

“He asked you how you were. It wasn’t just for you to respond with the usual ‘Great, thanks’ and move on,” Newman said. “The complete and utter focus that he had when he interacted with somebody [was a talent that seemed almost exclusive to him]. And I think to have that ability in life can have such a positive impact on people.”

Administrative assistant Kathy Wilson considered Emilio a friend and confidante as well a colleague. She found this caring spirit in all of her conversations with him.

“Even when he was feeling bluh, he would still put a smile on his face and speak for a while to the students,” Wilson said. “He cared about them; he cared about what was going on in their lives, and what they were doing. I mean, he loved his job.”

As time went on, they grew to be good friends.

“I would tell him things that were going on in my life and he’d give me advice, which was really nice because sometimes you just need someone to talk to,” said Wilson. “When I’d come in in the morning he’d be there, big smile on his face. We’d just start the conversation—lots of times I’d greet him [with] ‘Good morning, sunshine,’ and we’d talk about everything that’s going

Photos provided by the family of Emilio Izaguirre

“I would thank him for making our lives better, for caring so deeply, and for sharing his life experiences to guide the new generation. I think a lot of people will remember him for a very long time.”

JO NEWMAN

on in each other’s lives.”

He would also talk about his plans for the future, about how he maybe wanted to move to Los Angeles to be closer to his family in a few years when he retired.

“It makes me sad that he didn’t get a chance to do it,” Wilson said. “It makes me look at life in a different perspective now. Tomorrow’s not promised, so we need to enjoy life, and do the things that make us happy.”

His positivity made her look at things in a better light, which was part of why they became so close.

“He was the most positive person I ever met,” Wilson said.

“Even when I came with negative thoughts, he would always spin it around to something positive. He would definitely see every situation as cup halfway full.”

Even in the week before his passing when he said his “heart hurt,” according Celia Juarez, a member of the kitchen staff and one of the people who talked to Emilio every day, he said the pain was because “he was in love.”

Juarez recalled that every morning, Emilio would check in with her and other staff members in the kitchen as they began their work day, and, sometimes, would dance and sing along to the Spanish station that they played on the radio.

If she could say anything to Emilio, Wilson said, “I would want to tell him just how meant he meant to me and just how much I cared for him and just how important our friendship was. If you think about it in life, you feel that people know your feelings, but you have to say it. Saying it’s important, and I wish I had a chance to tell him that. I know he knows it, but I wish I had a chance to tell him what a good friend he was to me.”

As for Julienne, she said, “I don’t know what I would say other than ‘Thank you. Thank you for talking to me.’”

Newman said, “I would thank him for making our lives better, for caring so deeply, and for sharing his life experiences to guide the new generation.

I think a lot of people will remember him for a very long time.”

On page 1, “Concerned over climate change, students seize the spotlight in viral video” continues on page 11, not page 7. A photo of a Tweet next to the “Concerned over climate change, students seize the spotlight in viral video” article was uncredited; it was taken from the Twitter account Sunrise Movement (@sunrisemvmt). On pages 12 and 13, the Post-Secondary Process Safety Card in the “Taking Flight” article was provided by the College Wellness Task Force. On page 24, the Ken-Ken miswrote 8x as 6x. On the same page, the photos of Libby M. and Lily Brown in “What would you say?” were courtesy of iClickSmiles. Caught an error? Please email any corrections or clarifications to thenuevacurrent@nuevaschool.org. Corrections will be published in the following issue.

Questions, comments, or submissions?

We welcome your voices. We accept photographs, articles, illustrations, and other pieces of work. Please email us at thenuevacurrent@nuevaschool.org.

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

Editor-in-Chief Willow C. Y. Design Editor Jordan M. Copy Editor Isabel C. Web Editor Elizabeth B. P. Editor Anam T. Editor Aliya G. Faculty Advisor LiAnn Yim

Staff Gabi B., Eli C., Mira D., Elijah D., Grace H., Alyssa H., Zulie M., Luke M., Gitika P., Beatrice S., Amanda W., Mirielle W., Miki Y., Eugenia X.

The Nueva Current is published six times a school year. 750 print copies are distributed for free to students and faculty members in all three of Nueva’s divisions.

The Nueva Current is a member of the NSPA and CSPA.

14 / OPINION

THE NUEVA CURRENT

VOLUME 2, ISSUE 5

Learning from the college admissions scandal Beatrice S. The college admissions scandal hit news outlets two weeks ago on March 12, releasing a list of 50 people indicted for participating in a scheme to pay their way into college.

For most high school seniors, the college process is a journey riddled with hard work, frustration, anxiety, and disappointment. At the core of it all is a sense of powerlessness; the college decision process seems random at times, and no matter how hard we work we can’t control where we get in. The fact that so many students our age are able to bypass all of this hard work and uncertainty is maddening for those of us who feel as though we have paid our dues and played by the rules.

However, the exposé of uberwealthy families paying their children’s way into college is only the tip of the iceberg. College is skewed toward the wealthy in every step of the process, from admissions to graduation. And many of the things that give wealthy families a leg up in admissions are subtler than the tactics used by the wealthy parents in the college admissions scandal, and perfectly legal.

Because universities receive significant additional funding from

philanthropy, they are incentivized to admit students from wealthy backgrounds because those students are more likely to become generous alumni. Furthermore, most schools consider legacy in admissions. Since most universities have only been open to people of color and women since the late 20th century, top university alumni are disproportionately white and male. And since universities admissions have always favored the rich in America, legacy students are disproportionately wealthy.

A June 2018 article in the The Harvard Crimson reported almost 30 percent of Harvard’s graduating class of 2021 is made up of legacy students. The Crimson examined court documents in the ongoing admissions lawsuit against the university that revealed legacy students are admitted at approximately five times the rate of non-legacy students. Yet Harvard and other top universities still successfully market the public image that their admissions system is meritocratic.

Even if college admissions were completely unbiased, the skyrocketing tuitions of universities still decisively exclude students from low-income backgrounds. Even if schools provide needs-based financial aid, tui-

Photo from Freepik

The wealthy parents who bought their kids’ way into school are cheaters in a game that was never fair to begin with

tion can still place an enormous financial burden on a student’s family, and the effort of making ends meet can affect a student’s performance in school.

And once a student gets to a top university, the systems in schools often drastically favor wealthy students. For example, top universities usually close their dining halls over break. For many students who can’t afford to go home for break, the dining hall may be their only source of food. There are many subtle and not-so-subtle differences in the way wealthy students experience universities compared to low-income students.

As a Nueva student who worked hard to apply to colleges,

it’s frustrating knowing that there are people my age whose parents have removed all that hard work for them. It’s frustrating to know that there are people my age who cheated to get the same score that I worked hard for. But it’s also important to remember that, because the college system is so skewed, we as Nueva students already have a big leg up. The problem isn’t just with wealthy families who cheat their way into college admissions—it’s with the system as a whole, and the way it sets the wealthy up for success time and time again.

As we begin to hear back from universities, it’s important to remember that college admissions

are about so much more than what we submit. There’s an elaborate system going on that we don’t see, and the fact that wealthy parents were able to pull off this orchestrated cheating scheme says more about how corrupt the college system is than it does about those parents.

In a study that I find comforting during notification season, The National Bureau of Economic Research estimated that the selectivity of a college had little to no bearing on the earnings of its students nearly 20 years later; in other words, the prestige of your college doesn’t mean nearly as much for your future as the experience you have there.

It has become part of school culture to spend our time creating resumés of high scores and unique activities for college applications.

Summertime sadness

Illustration by Michelle W.

Summer break is turning into an extension of the school year Zulie M. Every year, millions of kids across America wake up the morning of their last day of school in May or June, ready to be released for the next two or three months. They rush out of their last class, discussing upcoming trips, organizing movie marathons with friends, or getting hyped about a day trip to the beach.

No matter what people do, summer is always seen as a pause on schoolwork, stress, and pressure. But the problem is, summer isn’t a break anymore.

It has become part of school culture to spend our time creating resumés of high scores and unique activities for college applications. The constant pressure of building up this repertoire with 4.0 GPAs, hours working on unique

extracurriculars, and teacher recommendations only intensifies. Traditionally, summer is the break from stress and school-year obligations, but as students move closer and closer to the post-secondary process, this reprieve diminishes.

Now, summer is a time for internships, volunteering, pre-college programs, and getting jobs, and those who don’t keep up with these changes are looked down on. Jokes about community college come up in conversations about summer relaxation, rather than appreciation for taking time to have good mental health, save money on pricey summer programs, or de-stress.

In the next two years, I fear missing out on the joy of summertime fun, and finding less enjoyment in the things I actually end up doing. I worry that I

won’t get to recharge over the summer so that I return to school in the fall ready to learn.

High school is also one of the last times summers will be free, since in college it’s even more common or necessary to get a summer job or internship or take additional classes for credit. People usually advise us to “enjoy it while we still can.” I am fully aware that, entering junior year, this coming summer will be my last time to really “enjoy it.” And yet, I still feel like I am not doing enough when all the talk around me is about the internships they got or the jobs they’ll be doing. Every time it comes up in conversation, I can feel myself getting anxious, even though I previously felt like I was doing enough.

I don’t want to apologize for taking

time off to relax, but this past year I have felt an immense pressure to make a change. Maybe it’s because of the mindsets of new generations of parents, or because schools are just becoming more competitive, but the fact that summer is turning into continuation of the academic year is detrimental and needs to be stopped.

Bottom line: taking time off to relax, recharge, and have fun is more important than stressing over college too many years early. Kids need breaks in every aspect of life, and if summer disappears then so does the one thing every student looks forward to during the year. It’s necessary and crucial to mental and physical health, and no matter what, summer should stay summer.

FRIDAY, MARCH 29, 2019

THE NUEVA CURRENT

OPINION / 15

Why “Learn by doing” matters

Unique trip experience embodies how important marine environmentalism is Alyssa H. & Miki Y. We all know Nueva’s motto of “Learn by doing.” Sometimes, it can just feel like an advertising slogan we trot out to visiting tours. But on our recent trip to Bonaire over February break, we were reminded of the meaning and truth behind it.

The trip’s purpose was to restore the endangered species of staghorn and elkhorn corals. With the rapid decrease in coral reefs due to climate change, ocean acidification, and pollution, action must be taken to restore and preserve the underwater habitats. Coral reefs only take up one percent of the oceans, but they are home to over 25 percent of all marine life. Bonaire, a small island in the Dutch Caribbean, is a world leader in coral restoration, and enforces island-wide laws and policies to protect their reefs.

Throughout our trip experience, we were able to understand these concerns firsthand.

While we were there, we met a variety of divers and researchers so entirely loyal to coral restoration that they devoted their lives to come live in Bonaire for this cause. It was impossible to not be inspired by their dedication and passion. And during the trip, we were able to put our

inspiration into action.

The trip, in collaboration with the scuba diving group Blue Endeavors, was mainly designed to participate in restoring corals, and gain our coral restoration diver certification and learn all of the required training, so that we too could participate in saving the reefs. Buddy Dive, the resort where we stayed, has created multiple nurseries to grow staghorn corals for restoration, and has done wonders in reviving reefs. A big part of their work also includes informing visitors and tourists on how to do so—including us. This created the perfect environment for us to learn about saving the ocean.

Gaining our Professional Association of Diving Instructors certification as coral restoration divers contained delicate and intricate training. Putting zip ties on corals, monofilament through a metal crimp, gently cleaning the nursery trees, and using pliers to fasten the hanging corals in place was extremely challenging underwater due to the constant swaying back and force of the surge above us, but our instructors were patient and we were persistent.

Before plunging ourselves into the tropical waters of Bo-

CORAL REEF RESTORATION Emma L. (10) dives into Buddy’s Reef to help clean baby coral and coral trees in a nursery on the trip to Bonaire—which consisted of multiple dives a day into beautful waters. (Photo by Samantha Huff)

With an area of

294 km2

Bonaire is home to about 8.7 km2 of 57 species of coral reefs.

A coastline measuring

120 km has multiple zones with different traits; the northeastern coast is exposed to wind and made up of rocky cliffs, whereas the more sheltered western coast is home to shingle beaches with coral.

Data from the Dutch Caribbean Nature Alliance

naire, we do equipment checks, put our fins on, take a breath.

Then, a step off into the water from the boat and the blue ocean swallows us, and when we look down, all we see is an underwater landscape thriving with life.

The training was incredibly rewarding once we finished. Students hung five baby staghorn corals each, coming to a total of 65 new opportunities for these reefs to thrive once again. In two years, these little, orange, spikey corals will hopefully become colossal and majestic bundles in the ocean, home to various marine species.

The whole experience was a surreal series of dives, with approximately three a day for a week. While restoring corals was the core focus, there were other dives to simply enjoy the beauty of the underwater world we were trying to protect. We were able to view marine animals flourish in the deep from the smallest lettuce sea slug to a massive tarpon glimmering in the night.

The one where my wildly unpopular opinion gets torn apart

Why do I love the eightblock days? Let me count the ways Grace H.

Willow C. Y. I present my wildly unpopular opinion: I love eight-block days.

Yes, yes; I know much of the community despises these days that they deem too short to do anything in as purposeless stretches of time or, simply, useless. But these arguments hinge on the idea that productivity can’t be achieved in these 35 to 40 minutes.

On the contrary, these eight-block days allow for the perfect time frame to do a quick activity, debrief a test or project, go through a short lesson, or, if a definitive plan doesn’t form, just have a work period, which is always appreciated.

Additionally, our attention spans are, as media has countlessly covered, tiny nowadays; thus, short classes such as these provide a “Goldilocks” amount of time for students to be concentrated and awake. The no-homework rule also contributes to the attentiveness, as students will be relatively more well-rested for school and being productive in those class times, having not stayed up late in order to complete homework for nearly eight classes.

And finally, consider the alternative: we skip out on four of the eight classes for that day, and then would have to make up those classes a month later. A schedule like that would be even more confusing to keep track of.

I’m not arguing that eight-block days are the most ideal schedule—just that they’re the best we can get.

Of course this beauty comes at a cost. Bonaire is built upon a history of slavery that can’t be ignored. On our last day on the island, we went to see some of the slave houses that have been maintained. Calling them “houses” is more than a stretch.

No more than a few feet wide, the small structures were too short to stand in. We were horrified to learn that the slaves who had lived there, forced to work endlessly in stifling heat, had an average lifespan of 16 years.

These slaves’ stories reminded us of how privileged our lives are, and how lucky we are to have had this experience.

This trip is what “Learn by doing” truly means. There is no better place to learn about climate change, ocean acidification, and coral bleaching than Bonaire. What left as a small group of interested students, came back as a tight-knit community determined to make a difference.

The eight-block days of our lives

Debating a quirk of the sixth iteration of the Upper School schedule Illustration by Alice G.

Eight-block days are, for all intents and purposes, useless. For one, there isn’t enough time to do anything meaningful in class; lesson plans are cut short, activities have to planned—and executed—on a schedule so rigid no Nueva class could possibly follow it, and the usual toast-and-tea tardies accumulated by students switch from being a slight, laughable inconvenience to actually preventing the completion of lectures and projects alike.

The fact that teachers can’t assign homework makes it impossible to avoid these issues by readings or any other form of student preparation. People come to school without any particular preparation and spend the day rushing from classroom to classroom, carrying all of their supplies and not really having the time to use any of them. Classes on eight-block days are destined to be disconnected segments of time, unable to add to the curriculum in any meaningful way due to their length and the enforced lack of student prep.

Additionally, teachers sometimes forget it’s an eight-block day, leading to in-class shenanigans—and the deferral of the lost Friday homework time and the missing 45 minutes of the class block into bewilderingly complex homework assignments, much to the dismay of students and their weekend plans.

Even though the eight-block schedule helps to maintain balance in class time, the time isn’t productive—and would be better spent doing most anything else.

16 / OPINION

THE NUEVA CURRENT

VOLUME 2, ISSUE 5

EDITORIAL

To fill an educational gap

We call for a change in how community service is offered The Nueva Current Staff In choosing the double truck (the two-page feature) story each issue, we strive to find topics that the Nueva community cares deeply about and that impacts them directly.

Sitting in room 216 several weeks ago and trying to find such an article, we came back time and time again to discussions around community service and engagement as well as what that looks like and could be at this school.

Specifically, whether or not there was “enough” of it.

Our staff’s conversations around this topic are not confined to room 216 and the paper; since the beginning of this school year, community service

and community values have been at the center of a passionate dialogue between the faculty, admin, and students. The ongoing conversation has been sparked in part by the continued habit of students leaving half-eaten lunches around the school, and partly by this year’s social justice focus addressing privilege and giving back.

The Community Service Learning (CSL) Day on March 15, and the school’s focus on community service bookending the event, urged us to consider why community service isn’t a formal part of our curriculum. After the CSL Day, many students and advisers remarked on how good it felt to volunteer their time to help organize inventory at a secondhand store or bag food so students can bring home nutritious grocery bags.

We agreed that it would have been nice to have more days like this. We started to wonder if, in addition to CSL Day (which is working to become a biannual event) and the Community Service Club’s initiatives, the Upper School should have some kind of community service requirement.

What such a requirement would look like is still unclear to us; a graduation requirement, among

We ask the Nueva community: what do you think could be a possible solution? What changes do you want to see? Let us know. other initiatives, was the subject of a few discussions in the beginning of the year but was ultimately struck because of worries that a quota would make students feel forced to serve and would thus take away from the lessons and experience.

What we do know is that community service is an issue that we care about deeply and that affects us directly; we do know that we want to see some kind of formal integration of

Graphics by Freepik

community service into our educational development. Perhaps Nueva could support students who have specific interests in creating and leading their own projects and service-oriented initiatives. Or maybe the school could just make more opportunities available to those of us who want to contribute but aren’t sure where or how to go about it. Many of us, through our classes, already find ways to put our education to work on behalf of the public good. We’re already taught to put the user first in our design thinking classes, but not everyone takes those.

Thus, we ask the Nueva community: What do you think could be a possible solution? What changes do you want to see? Let us know.

What does it mean to be white and anti-racist?

Continuing the conversation about privilege and identity Michaela Danek This article is a response to Alyssa H.’s article about privilege in the previous issue, with a goal of continuing the conversation about how privilege shapes our lives. My goal is to share my journey into understanding whiteness, racism, and white supremacy, and how I have come to understand my role in anti-racism. I hope to shed light on this process and potentially inspire more white people to take a deep and honest look at their white identity and join me in redefining their identity around anti-racism. I recognize that I am centering a white story, but this centering is for the exclusive purpose of disrupting the silence around whiteness that acts to uphold and maintain white supremacy.

When I think of my identity I can describe it along multiple facets: in addition to being white, I am cisgendered, female-identifying, mostly straight, Christian, immigrant/ naturalized-citizen, able-bodied, highly educated, middle-class— the list goes on. The person who I am comes out of the intersections of these multiple identities that interplay in a fluid and dynamic way; they are forces that shape my lived experience.

After the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which made it illegal to discriminate based on race, much of white society adopted a “colorblind ideology,” believing that the best way to move past racism was to never talk about it. Its effects were still prevalent during my childhood and as a result, there was little place for any discussion of race in my

life and I was taught from a young age that talking about race could be construed as being racist.

So, given that background, when did I first know that I was white? The answer is one that will likely resonate with many white people: I lived most of my life without any real concept of my racial identity.

And yet, I never doubted that I was not of color. Eventually, once I began filling out my own formal paperwork, I learned to check the “White/ Caucasian” box after initially hesitating, and never talked about my misgivings surrounding the act. In spite of all my high-quality schooling, I reached my twenties with little understanding of how my race impacted my life. It was not until midway through college—when I began to learn about how racial inequality is built into our educational, legal, healthcare, and other social systems—that I began to see how my life was shaped by my white identity. I started to understand the ways that racism is still a potent force that marginalizes people of color and at the same time affords me privileges regardless of whether I notice them or not.

At that time, however, my understanding was still outward-facing and emotionally disconnected and therefore not truly aware or actively against racism, or “anti-racist.” I thought that simply

MICHAELA DANEK is a biology teacher at the Upper School. (Photo courtesy of iClickSmiles via Nueva Directory)

“Understanding racism is a life-long and iterative process that requires a committed sense of curiosity and urgency to learn.”

MICHAELA DANEK

being able to name myself as white and to openly acknowledge the privileges I received while suppressing and hiding my feelings of guilt was what it meant to be “woke.”

Since then, I have continued to pursue opportunities to learn about racism and have come to realize that racial identity development is an iterative process that never stops, and that guilt is not the goal. In fact, according to Dr. Janet Helms’ acclaimed white racial identity model—a theory whose purpose is to raise racial awareness and action among white people— guilt is only part of the journey through racial identity development and, frankly, not a productive place to stay.

All of us, regardless of whether we are white or of color, are brought up in a society that is still steeped in an ideology that white people are more privileged and respected than people of color.

I felt a need to investigate the ways that I may have unwittingly internalized that ideology. That investigation helped me begin to analyze how my lens on classroom events was informed by deeply internalized ideas of white superiority that were so entrenched that I couldn’t separate them from what I considered to be right and equal. I could start to see how, in spite of my best intentions, my actions could still lead to the perpetuation of racism. These are things I was able to see only after a

deep process of self-reflection and through activist-led classes, workshops, and self-study. I have also come to realize that the process of developing this understanding is not a finite one. Over and over, in spite of the discomfort that comes along with the learning, every time I think I have reached a destination in my understanding of what it means to be white, I find a new depth to explore.

In the wake of the Christchurch shooting—yet another horrific act of white supremacist terrorism—I share these stories not to excuse ignorance but instead to embrace its inevitable presence in order to move into a place of learning.

If white people are to become agents of disrupting racism and move towards a more racially just society, even if we don’t consciously associate with a white supremacist ideology, we have to start to see how it has impacted who we are.

Therefore, if we are to be truly anti-racist and participate in the process of dismantling racism, we need to have a deep and nuanced understanding of how it works and how we participate in it.

I ask you to be honest and firm with yourself. Understanding racism is a life-long and iterative process that requires a committed sense of curiosity and urgency to learn.

If you need a person to talk to about your process or need resources, there are many, including myself, who are happy to share and talk.

FRIDAY, MARCH 29, 2019

THE NUEVA CURRENT

Track runners sprint to success Track and field team has a quick start as they push off the successes from last season Luke M. Track and field kicked off their season on Friday, March 1, at the Sunset Invitational, the first of 11 track meets for the varsity track team. The track and field athletes aim to continue the success of Nueva teams this year and add to the five league championships already won in the 2018–19 school year.

“The track team takes no prisoners and shows no mercy.

We dominate the competitive arena,” runner Jake V. (11) said.

Jake, as one of the fastest runners on the team, set a school record at the WBAL meet at Bellarmine College Prep. Even though track is considered a mostly individual sport, there is still a lot of “camaraderie,” as Brian P. (10) says.

“I do track because in my entire extracurricular life, I feel like I've missed out on team bonding,” Amanda W. (10) said.

“It's such a nice feeling when your teammates are cheering for you and you’re in the last 10 seconds of a race but your friends are there pushing you on.”

This kind of environment makes track and field one of the most popular sports at Nueva, with 48 students on the team.

“I get to spend time with friends and push myself to new limits every day,” Shalin Z.(10) said.

The track and field team will look to use their bond to propel them to new heights.

Nueva has put on impressive back-to-back performances at their recent WBAL track meets at The King's Academy and Bellarmine respectively. Nueva runners Gaelen C. and Jake V. both finished first in the 400m race at the Bellarmine track meet.

SPORTS / 17

Going swimmingly

The swim team expands as it enters its third year Grace H. The swim team is headed into its third year and might, at long last, have a pool in which to practice. The team, which started three years ago with only four boys and one girl— barely large enough for a boys’ relay—has since grown to have enough members to field (or rather, pool) both a girls’ and boys’ relay team.

Despite its small size and lack of proper practice facilities, the team has been recognized twice with the sportsmanship award for the enthusiasm its members bring to meets.

“We’re the team that cheers most for each other; even if someone’s just doing an individual race we’ll all come to the side of the pool and yell ‘go go go’ and ‘kick faster’ and stuff like that, but it comes out the most in the relays. We have four of us swimming together, and after you’re done and before you start you’re cheering for the guy or the girl in the pool. It’s really fun and you really feel like a team,” said co-captain Clay A., who has been on the team since its inception.

Senior Chris R., who was the team’s captain last year, agrees.

For him, one of the biggest highlights of last season was the 200-meter medley relay, in which four swimmers, each

Tennis team hits the courts

Mavericks remain optimistic despite uneven start to the season TOP: Maya C. (10) and Hanna Z. (11) smile their way through the 1600-meter race at the first WBAL meet at The King’s Academy on March 12. (Photo by Amanda W.) BOTTOM: LEFT TO RIGHT: Jake V. (11), Angus Z. (12), Hanna Z. (11), Maddie P. (11), Irene M.(11), Chloe K. (11), Shalin Z. (10), Maya C. (10), Vienna G. (10), Amanda W. (10). (Photo

by Quinn A.)

Playing the course, not an opponent

Alyssa H. The tennis team has entered the competition phase of their season, and despite a bumpy start—their current win-loss record is 1-5—the team remains positive about their growth and their potential for future success.

Golf team of five works on improving techniques during a season without placement in a league Isabel C. The ball soars before bouncing to a stop on the green of one of Mariners Point Golf Center’s nine holes. The wind is salty and light from the San Francisco Bay next door, and the small group of students is quiet as they watch the results of sophomore Aliya G.’s swing off the ninth hole.

“It’s relaxing,” Aliya said. “It's stimulating as well because you get to think about your shots and constantly work on improving and compare your progress.”

With only five students from three grades this season on its roster—including freshmen Raza R.and Sam T., sophomores Luke M. and Aliya, and junior Luke P.—the golf team isn’t eligible to play in a league, which means they will not play in any official matches this spring. Despite the lack of chances to play against golfers from other schools in the WBAL league, players find the team’s small size an opportunity to improve on individual goals and skills throughout the season.

doing a different stroke, swim for a 50-meter stretch before another teammate dives in and continues the race.

“It was just really cool to see people who didn’t usually swim as much pull together, swim fast, and really collaborate with the team,” Chris said.

As one of the co-captains, Clay helps lead the team practices.

Right now, those practices take the form of running laps around the field to build stamina, doing core conditioning, and practicing swimming strokes in the gym, but Clay is hopeful that the team will eventually get to work in the water. He believes getting access to a pool will not only boost the team’s performance but also increase people’s interest in the team and the sport as a whole, hopefully avoiding some of the reluctance members of the team exhibited last year.

“Last year we had a couple swimmers who dreaded coming to the meets… you can be like, ‘ugh, I don’t want to go to this meet because I’m really tired,’ but it should be worth it to people,” Clay said. “I don’t want people to be going to these things because they feel like they’re obligated to, I want them to really enjoy it and I want them to feel like they’re improving and feel good about themselves.”

Raza, a freshman who’s new both on the team and at the sport, feels hopeful he will be able to get more personalized coaching both from his teammates and from his coaches as a first-time player.

“I had played mini golf before, but never actually played,” Raza said. “One of my goals is to just get better at golf and master the basics as I just started out. I am not as good as some of the other players, but they will often give me tips and encourage me when we are actually playing.”

Aliya has been on the team since last year, when there were eight players, and plays both in the annual Nueva Cup and outside of school over the summer with another team.

“It’s definitely much more intimate,” Aliya said. “Everyone has to be with everybody. The same people are always together; you get more one-on-one coaching.”

Aliya says that the team,

headed by upper school athletics coach Chris Brandin and outside coach Ron Driscoll, wants to work on becoming the best they can during this season they have free of matches.

“The goal is to work on developing skills enough so we can play in a league and have a team that’s ready,” Aliya said. “I want to continue to work on my short game because I feel like recently I have been neglecting my short game and I think that that is definitely the most crucial thing. That’s like the missing piece.”

While the team doesn’t have any official matches they can play this season, they hope to be able to scrimmage with other local high schools such as KIPP and The King’s Academy for practice.

WORK HARD, PLAY HARD Senior Alex Y. high-fives freshman Tyler H. after a great play. Alex, who was named a co-captain along with junior Nikhil S., has been playing on the team since freshman year.

(Photo by Justin Z.)

Nikhil S. (11), one of the team’s two captains, believes that the season is going quite well. “We are in the toughest division for any Nueva sports team, and we have one of the youngest Nueva teams as well,” Nikhil said. “We’ve had a couple of very close matches, but we’ve ended up on the short end of the stick...I’m sure we’ll end up on top the next couple times.”

The team is directed by coaches Mike Geffen and Coltrane Hunt. They had their first tournament against the Harker School on Feb. 25, and have had at least one tournament per week since then.

“In just a few short weeks,

we’ve begun to form our identity and routines. While we suffered a humbling loss against Harker, we used that as a springboard to improve and work together,” Hunt said. He added that he has been very impressed with the tennis team’s commitment this season, noting that the team’s focus, from a tactical perspective, has been consistency.

After a rough season last year dictated by rain and bad weather, the tennis team has found refuge playing on indoor courts at the Bay Club in Burlingame.

With drills and matches, the team practices Monday through Friday. Beginning at 4 p.m., team captains Nikhil and Alex Y. (12) lead warm-ups and stretching, followed by drills and point play. The group then divides into singles and doubles teams.

“Before I joined the Nueva tennis team, I considered tennis a completely individual sport,” Nikhil said. “However, in high school, tennis is all about the team. Although my teammates can’t directly help me out when I’m playing, we all depend on each other in the end.”

Hardworking and committed, the team is not giving up.

With more tournaments on the horizon, their spirits remain high that their effort and training will pay off, and that they’re getting valuable practice in the meantime.

“Our players compete, they grunt, they cheer, they hustle, and they stand for each other.

It’s a great atmosphere,” Hunt said.

18 / SPORTS

THE NUEVA CURRENT

VOLUME 2, ISSUE 5

Tracking the growth of soccer in America An in-depth look at how the sport is evolving in the United States Luke M. The most popular sport in the world is one that has never caught on in the U.S. At least that is the perception.

Soccer is not known as a very prominent sport in America, but studies show that may be changing. As other sports lose their luster, soccer is becoming more popular with the younger generation. Even at Nueva, soccer is growing, as the girls’ soccer team played their first full season this year and won the PSAL championship.

Answering the question of whether soccer is on the rise in America is tough to answer with just one word. A December 2017 poll released by Gallup helps to uncover part of this mystery.

The poll revealed that football is by far the American favorite, with 37 percent listing it as their favorite to watch, and soccer was an underwhelming fourth, with 7 percent listing it as their favorite.

However, there is a lot of promise from this recent poll. Soccer was only four percentage points behind second-place basketball and only two behind baseball.

The most surprising statistic of the poll was that soccer is actually tied for the second-favorite spectator sport amongst 18–34-year-olds. Additionally, only 1 percent of 55-year-olds and older listed soccer as their favorite, showing that the bulk of American soccer fans come from younger people. Soccer being popular among young people is important

SOCCER AT NUEVA Soccer at the Middle and Upper Schools is popular among both boys and girls, with both divisions both regularly fielding varsity teams. (Photo by Jordan M.)

because that demographic will continue to expand and become the main target of sports media. Should this trend continue, soccer will continue to rise in the eyes of the American sports fan.

One major boost for the state of soccer in the U.S. was the selection of the U.S., Mexico, and Canada to host the 2026 World Cup. In just seven years, the biggest sporting event in the world will be played right here. The World Cup will bring millions of dollars in sponsorships, merchandise, tickets, and more. More importantly, the pure excitement and buzz this tournament brings will be apparent to everyone and will give soccer

a platform that it hasn’t had in America since the 1994 World Cup. In addition to the enhanced attention at home, billions of viewers from across the world will tune in to watch soccer being played in North America, bringing a lot of exposure. The power of the World Cup is also very important for domestic club teams. In 1996, Major League Soccer (MLS) used the 1994 U.S. World Cup to launch the league. The 2026 World Cup will help to bolster the already growing MLS. The ongoing popularization of soccer in America is being seen through rising TV ratings. MLS has seen more than

one million new viewers in just the last four years. In 2015, MLS recorded 686,000 viewers across all platforms. In 2018, that number jumped to 1,870,000, showing the league’s rapid growth. MLS is also gaining many viewers inside their stadiums. MLS boasts the third highest per game attendance in America and Canada, with an average of 21,873 spectators per game, more than the NBA and NHL. While MLS is still a relatively small league in terms of viewership and exposure, there is no denying its growth.

However, the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) is facing more problems. Entering its seventh season, the NWSL just lost their television agreement after Lifetime ended their deal one year early, mainly due to low viewership and interest. The NWSL has struggled to gain the same kind of traction that MLS has and faces even more problems as more big name USWNT players move to European leagues. This mainly has to do with the lower pay from American club teams compared to European clubs and the lack of a major TV deal. The contrast between the two leagues shows both the pains and triumphs of soccer in the U.S. The rate at which soccer is increasing in popularity varies by what you look at but there is no argument that it is growing. Fans of soccer in the U.S. don’t match the passion of those abroad, but they are crawling closer to that point.

THE PRESSBOX

Cutting the NET down to size

The NCAA’s new evaluation tool is letting March Madness happen Mirielle W. Tonight, anyone tuning into CBS or TBS will hear CBS’s classic college basketball theme that signals that March Madness is upon us. By now, it is all but guaranteed that there are no perfect brackets left standing. With eight teams still competing for the chance to go to the Final Four, it’s worth a look back to see how these teams’ fates were affected by the NCAA’s new evaluation metric, which placed them fortuitously into the 68-team single-elimination bracket of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament.

WHAT WAS THE RPI? Understanding the significance of this year’s seedings requires a bit of a history lesson. From 1981 to 2018, the NCAA used the Rating Percentage Index (RPI) to aid in the determination of seeding for all of the NCAA’s various tournaments, most notably men’s basketball. Generally, the index looks at each team’s winning percentage, its opponents’ winning percentage, and the winning percentage of the opponents’ opponents. The last two quantities are used to determine the team’s strength of schedule.

The RPI was never the be-all and end-all of tournament seeding, as final decisions are made by a ten-member selection committee. However, the RPI rankings were weighted heavily by the selection committee, and protests of the RPI have been a staple of college basketball for years. Detractors have a litany of complaints against the metric. Its most glaring issue is its overemphasis on strength of schedule, which heavily favors teams from major basketball conferences over comparable mid-major teams, since the majors have more chances to play opponents with higher winning percentages.

As a result of technological progress,

basketball statistics have evolved dramatically over the past decade or so.

However, the RPI still only takes flat win/loss records into account, leaving room for none of the nuance that can be found in more advanced statistics such as offensive and defensive efficiency.

In recent years, the NCAA implemented a quadrant system in an effort to shore up some of the strengthof-schedule issues inherent in the RPI’s formula. The quadrant system is an entirely separate system whose categories sort games into four different quadrants based on the opponent’s RPI ranking and whether the game was played at home, away, or on a neutral court. Though more discriminating than the RPI, the quadrant system alone couldn’t salvage the NCAA’s ranking system. In August 2018, the NCAA announced that the RPI would not be used for the 2018–2019 men’s basketball season.

WHAT IS THE NET? The NCAA Evaluation Tool, known as the NET, is new for the 2018–2019 season, replacing the antiquated RPI. Currently, the NET is solely used for men’s basketball seeding, while other sports continue to use their own incarnations of the RPI. Like its predecessor, the NET does not singlehandedly determine the seeding of the NCAA tournament, but it is valued highly by the selection committee.

Throughout the basketball season, the NET rankings held up well, especially in comparison to the RPI. And despite the contrary nature of the sports world, there is a mild consensus that the NET rankings are an improvement. Released weekly from late November onward, the NET rankings more closely echoed the AP poll and actually changed based on weekly performance as the season went on rather than relying exclusively on game results.

So why the hesitation to fully embrace the NET? Though the metric appears to be grading on all the right scales, nobody knows the details of how the NET spits out rankings. Unlike the RPI, the algorithms behind the NET are proprietary. There are no real algorithms to look at, no factors to scapegoat for uneven seeding. In a November tweet, the NCAA posted a graphic describing five different metrics that combine into a NET ranking: team value index, net efficiency, winning percentage, adjusted win percentage, and scoring margin.

It also noted that the quadrant system will be applied to the NET as it was to the RPI. The graphic does include some details on the five factors, but not nearly enough for teams to understand the weight of each of these metrics. The amalgamation of factors that make up the NET can change from year to year with no one the wiser, as can the impact of each of those factors.

This ambiguity has prompted college coaches to experiment with various tactics to bump up their NET ranking. Most of these coaches are coaching at small mid-major schools in weak conferences. It’s difficult to get recognition when playing in a conference that isn’t competitive, especially when it comes to tournament seeding, and so these coaches turn to gaming the system, or in this case, gaming the formula. Since it is unclear how the NET factors in margin of victory, some schools have taken to running up the score in an apparent attempt to improve their “net efficiency” rating, sacrificing sportsmanship for desperate tournament hopes.

Experiments like these have led to calls for the NCAA to make public the algorithms behind the NET. Of course, there is little chance of this happening— the NCAA made an intentional decision to make the NET proprietary. Moreover, transparency would not, in fact, improve

Photo provided by Clipart Library

the behavior of desperate teams. There is undoubtedly some metric hidden in the NET that teams could potentially exploit to improve their ranking, and this exploitation will always come at the expense of sportsmanship.

THE FUTURE OF SELECTION METRICS For now, the NET is here to stay. The new metric is clearly an improvement over the RPI, and will hopefully continue to rank teams accurately. However, with the rapid progress of sports analytics, it’s possible for the NET to become outdated quickly. As more and more data is being taken and analyzed from basketball teams across the nation, the metrics used to assess the quality of play will further evolve. The NCAA will need to watch that evolution closely in order to ensure that the NET keeps up.

The NCAA tournament is known as March Madness for a reason, and upsets can only happen when the right teams are allowed into the tournament.

At least for this year, the NET let the madness happen rather than obstructing the way.

FRIDAY, MARCH 29, 2019

THE NUEVA CURRENT

COMIC

The week before trips A.L.

TNC staff playlists on Spotify Discover the playlists that our staff listen to Isabel C. Everyone has their own musical tastes and enjoyments and with Spotify’s endless library of songs and pre-made playlists to choose from; it’s a guarantee that you’ll find something you enjoy. Four members of The Nueva Current staff have found their niche within the music streaming platform. From playlists with no set genre and songs that people don’t really know, to ones including increasingly popular hip-hop and rap songs that students jam out to, check out what the staff uses to stay focused (or boost energy), no matter the assignment.

Amanda W. (10) @ah.man.duh

Keywords: chaotic, depressing, lively Listens to “hell yuh” the most You should follow Amanda if you… like to feel a mix of emotions

Jordan M. (10)

@n551sm65yr0rr88wjns2srgtt Keywords: diverse, emotional, commute Listens to “♪” the most You should follow Jordan if you… like to listen to music on the train

Zulie M. (10) @xzuliez

Keywords: lots of variety Listens to her driving playlist the most You should follow Zulie if you… like to feel a mix of emotions

Scan the code above in the Spotify app to follow The Nueva Current’s playlist!

Miki Y. (9)

@mikiyang2004

Keywords: random music Listens to “my mind” the most You should follow Miki if you… like a variety of music

ENTERTAINMENT / 19

20 / ENTERTAINMENT

THE NUEVA CURRENT

VOLUME 2, ISSUE 5

HOROSCOPES

If you feel like your life is moving backwards, it might be because certain planets are

Mercury’s retrograde path from March 5-28 could explain some of the random misfortunes you encountered over the course of this past month Eugenia X. Over the past month, you might have noticed a few odd, inexplicable events happening around you. Maybe your laptop has been acting a little strange—at least, mine started refusing to open hyperlinks on all of my emails. Maybe mistakes from the past have resurfaced to haunt you, like trusting someone you should not have, causing an unprecedented amount of drama. Maybe you suddenly decided to reflect on events you’ve never really thought about until now and realized something pretty significant, like how some of my friends and I all collectively realized that certain musicals we enjoyed contained deeply problematic messages.

There may be an explanation for the chaos: the planet Mercury has been in apparent retrograde from March 5-28.

Celestial bodies’ retrograde movement is an illusion caused by different speeds and locations in orbit that makes it appear from earth that certain celestial

bodies are traveling backwards. It is a similar phenomenon to looking out of the window of a moving car and seeing the supposedly stationary trees zoom in the other direction; the trees aren’t actually moving backwards, our perspective makes it seem like they are. Mercury is the fastest planet in this solar system, meaning it moves in retrograde motion for short stints multiple times each year.

In western astrology, Mercury, as implied by the Roman god it was named after, is the planet associated with communication and the transfer of information. Mercury retrograde is said to affect technology, social lives, the significance of past events in ways that might seem completely random. These events may come as a complete surprise and often arrive as negative forces.

However, the Mercury retrograde is also said to be a good time for reflection.

This likely means that certain aspects of your social life were challenged. This will hold especially true for water signs

(Pisces, Cancers, and Scorpios) as this Mercury retrograde passes through Pisces. Water signs usually implicate emotion and fluidity; Pisces, in particular, has correspondences with trust, sadness, escapism, and selflessness. Past drama may have resurfaced. Trust between some relationships might have been tested. Emotions likely were more erratic than usual, with a predominant emotion being melancholy. You might have felt a stronger desire to pretend that everything happening around you wasn’t real.

The retrograde may also have posed issues in academics. Your electrical devices might have been extra uncooperative. They might have shut down randomly, deleted files, or closed unsaved documents, and that might have posed challenges in turning in assignments. It may have reminded you to save your documents frequently.

Motivation could have been even more difficult to come across, which would have posed issues given the number of essays,

Illustration by Eugenia X.

STEM Fair projects, and trip-preparation related projects that have been assigned across the board. As Pisces corresponds with art, the motivation issue would have especially affected creative endeavors.

This might have meant writer’s block, a sudden inexplicable inability to think of prompts for projects, or a pause in some kind of artistic project.

Mercury retrogrades are associated with reflection upon the past. For students, it literally might mean that teachers assigned a disproportionately large quantity of reflections all across the board. On the other hand, Pisces implies that the reflection probably would have been something that held personal value.

In order to resolve the social chaos the Mercury retrograde caused, you might have had to do some self-examination.

Oh, and if this month was rough, wait till the next Mercury retrograde this year, from July 8 to Aug 1. By then, at least you’ll be prepared.

Caption This!

Ken-Ken

Submit responses by DM’ing our Instagram account, @thenuevacurrent, with a picture of the photo you are describing and the caption. We'll share our favorites.

Willow C. Y.

Dissection indigestion

Thrift shop stop

INSTRUCTIONS: Your goal is to fill in the whole grid with numbers, making sure no number is repeated in any row or column.

The number and operation in the upper left corner indicates the sum/ difference/product of the squares in that section. In this 5x5 puzzle, you can use the numbers 1-5 to fill in the squares.

Nikhil takes a spill

Photos by Jordan M., Lucy B., and Amanda W.. Photos used with permission.

Crossword Willow C. Y. ACROSS 1. What is currently going out like a lamb 6. The Shabda-Brahman (the primordial sound) 7. What a cool kid may call their inferior 9. An attempt (film industry) 10. A less-popular term for millennials, with “Generation”

DOWN 1. Hotels’ less glamorous cousin 2. Alexa’s creator 3. Split 4. Derisive or humorous sound 5. Fictional donkey with a pink bow on his tail 8. Personalizable Wii avatar

11. __Pass; electronic toll collection sys.

12. Opposite to calor

13. Gosling, Reynolds, Seacrest, Lochte, Higa...

15. Fee, fi, fo...

14. Critics say liberals are this in their ideals

18. Another name for March 14

16. Most prestigious college in S. Korea 17. Tailless, primate relative to humans 19. BMW-owned, small-car brand