Verde Volume 20 Issue 3

V. JEW-ISH Orthodox Jews reach out to secular community youth pg. 20 VERDEMAGAZINE.COM 1

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2 FEBRUARY 2019

VERDE MAGAZINE February 2019 Volume 20 Issue 3

Editors-in-Chief Ashley Hitchings Bridget Li Angela Liu Asia Gardias (Digital)

ON THE COVER pg. 20 Nestled at the heart of Silicon Valley innovation, Palo Alto’s Jewish community includes both a distancing teenage population caught up in academic stress and modernization and an Orthodox minority fighting to bridge this gap.

On this issue’s cover, Lead Illustrator Hannah Li, Managing Editor Kaitlyn Ho and Photo Director Lucia Amieva-Wang depict an artistic rendition of the Orthodox community’s efforts to encourage younger Jewish generations to deepen — and reconnect with — their religious ties.

Publication Policy Verde, a feature magazine published by the students in Palo Alto High School’s Magazine Journalism class, is a designated open forum for student expression and discussion of issues of concern to its readership. Verde is distributed to its readers and the student body at no cost.

Letters to the Editors The staff welcomes letters to the editors but reserves the right to edit all submissions for length, grammar, potential libel, invasion of privacy and obscenity. Send all letters to verde.eics@gmail.com or 50 Embarcadero Road Palo Alto, CA 94301. All Verde stories are online and available for commenting at verdemagazine.com Advertising The staff publishes advertisements with signed contracts providing they are not deemed by the staff inappropriate for the magazine’s audience. For more information about advertising with Verde, please contact business managers Courtney Kernick and Abe Tow at verdebusiness5@gmail.com.

Design Editor Ella Thomsen Photo Director Lucia Amieva-Wang

Managing Editors Allison Cheng Kaitlyn Ho

Multimedia Editor Zakir Ahmad

Features Editors Riya Matta Riya Sinha

Social Media Editor Jasmine Venet

Profiles Editors Zoe Stanton-Savitz Jenny Tseng

Business Managers Courtney Kernick Abe Tow

Culture Editor Warren Wagner Perspectives Editor Gila Winefeld News Editors Emma Donelly-Higgins Alex Feng Launch Editors Abby Cummings Zoe Wong-VanHaren Editorials Editor Maraleis Sinton Copy Editor Sasha Poor Adviser Paul Kandell

Art Director Yue Shi Lead Illustrator Hannah Li Staff Writers Kayla Brand Katherine Cheng Ben Cohen Rohin Ghosh Devony Hof Kobi Johnsson Rachel Lit Kate Milne Prahalad Mitra Myra Xu

Printing & Distribution Verde is printed five times a year in October, November, February, April and May, by Folger Graphics in Hayward, California. The Paly PTSA mails Verde to every student’s home. All Verde work is available at verdemagazine.com

VERDEMAGAZINE.COM 3

In this issue Foreword

6 Editorials 8 Launch 13 News

Features

16 18 20 25 29 32

Gender Studies Early Childhood Development Orthodox Jews Hotel President RVs on El Camino Computer Science Education

Profiles

ORTHODOX PARADOX

pg. 20 Palo Alto Jewish teens and Orthodox rabbis alike grapple with religious disunity

MULTIMEDIA

verdemagazine.com Visit our website to view the exclusive multimedia elements — ranging from video clips to interactive maps — that accompany the following print stories.

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35 38 40 44 46 48 50

Anya Trubelja Paly Pilots Hickey Family Gray Kim Hockey Players Scouts of America Business Babies

Culture

52 54 56 58 61 62

Ike’s Place Paly Kpop Club Oscars Predictions Taro San Board Games Bandersnatch Review

Perspectives

64 65 66 67 68 69 70

Gap Year Lessons from Swimming Self-deprecating Humor In the Whites Course Misalignment Women’s Self Defense The Gila Games

HOTEL PRESIDENT

pg. 25

EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT pg. 18

RVS ON EL CAMINO

pg. 29

NEW TEAM ON THE ICE pg. 46

IKE’S PLACE pg. 52

FROM THE EDITORS

Remembering our roots

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E IT WANING CULTURAL TIES, BITTERSWEET nostalgia or disappearing historical relics, progress comes at a price. Propelling toward ever-greater innovation in the heart of Silicon Valley, it’s easy for us to lose touch with our roots.

In this issue, we explore the implications of this disengagement and local efforts to reconnect.

For staff writers Gila Winefeld and Ben Cohen, it’s personal.

They began our cover story, “The Orthodox Paradox,” as observers of one religious community’s journey of outreach — but soon found they were coming along for the ride. The local Orthodox movement, in fact, aims to rekindle the spiritual fires of increasingly secular Jewish youth. But while many Palo Altan teens stray from their roots, others struggle to find soil to plant them in a city which favors flashy tablets over traditional texts.

Meanwhile, along University Avenue, old friends bid their last goodbyes. As staff writers Jenny Tseng and Rachel Lit journey through the floors of “Hotel President,” they share the stories of long-time residents Dennis Backlund and Iqbal Serang as well as the community they’ve grown to love and soon must part ways with — as a result of a recent corporate acquisition.

“TRANSITION!” This is the comedic signature of junior Anya Trubelja, whose half-Serbian, half-Croatian heritage is just as colorful as her language. In “Anya Trubelja, the Depressed Serbian Spy,” staff

writers Asia Gardias and Rohin Ghosh profile an Open Mic Night regular whose stand-up both dazzles and reflects.

But as we reconcile with our past, Paly students also impart conventions to those who will walk on in our place. In “From Students to Teachers,” staff writers Emma Donelly-Higgins and Abigail Cummings trace the experiences Early Childhood Development students, who learn and grow alongside their young mentees and as they contemplate careers in developmental education.

Likewise, Netflix’s latest addition to the Black Mirror franchise defies cinematic tradition while remaining true to the series’ original thought-provoking ethos. Staff writers Rachel Lit and Jasmine Venet offer their thoughts in “Bandersnatch,” a review of the entertaining and nail-biting choose your own adventure-esque episode.

As filmmakers produce cutting-edge content, residents grapple with development and displacement and students push the envelope in culture, comedy and more, we cannot — and should not — lose touch with our roots. They are the foundation of all else — the intangible cords that link one generation to another, us to our predecessors and this one to the next. After all, as author F. Scott Fitzgerald once wrote, even as we trudge on toward the future, “we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”

—Ashley, Angela, Bridget & Asia

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verdict ASB School Board representative should be an elected position

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ITH THE ASSOCIATED Student Body elections beginning March 20, Palo Alto High School ought to elect its ASB Board Representative in order to promote the opinions, voices and interests of approximately 2,000 Paly students.

While the current ASB board representative has done a commendable job, her successors should be determined by the students they represent. By electing the student to the board, the position would be more powerful, independent, transparent and refelctive of student opinion.

The representative assumes the responsibility of advocating for student interests and opinions to the board. Although the bearer of this position cannot directly vote on proposals, their remarks at board meetings are still taken into account.

“Interested candidates collect signatures and fill out an application,” ASB Senior Class President David Foster says.

“They do a written essay portion and sit for an interview conducted by student ASB officials.”

With this current process, the board representative cannot adequately represent the student body’s wishes, especially if the process for selecting the PAUSD board representative is conducted behind closed doors.

Instead, an election system would allow students to decide how they would like to be represented and would, in turn, make the representative more re-

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sponsive to their student constituents.

“Being elected gave me independence,” former Gunn High School ASB school board representative Advait Arun says. “I was not beholden to anyone specifically except the student body as a whole. I could more directly claim that I was representing students because I was directly elected.”

Howeer, former Paly appointed board representative Richy Islas opposes an election because it could make the selection process based more on popularity than actual qualifications, he says. “[Candidates for the ASB school board member position] could get their friends to vote for them,” Islas says. “If [candidates] know more people, you will have a better

chance of getting the position.”

Although this is a alid concern, an election process can still include oversight from ASB in order to ensure that candidates are qualified for their position.

“Even an elected representative needs some tacit approval from student leadership,” Arun says.

The fact that Paly has a student board representative position is truly commendable, thus, the ASB board representative should be an elected position in order to provide more legitimacy, transparency and independence to the student body’s voice. v

Art by YUE SHI

Administration must find better solution to the vaping problem

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N RECENT YEARS, vaping has transformed from meme to menace and become an increasingly prevalent problem at Palo Alto High School.

While constant fire alarms became a weekly — and sometimes even daily — nightmare first semester, the unavailability of bathrooms and the unhealthy influence on students all make the use of e-cigarettes a legitimate threat to a safe school environment.

Such a problem requires administrative action, but the Paly administration’s solutions have been ineffective, even unjust.

During first semester, the administration instituted a bathroom lockdown during the day, except during breaks and 45 minutes into each period. Howeer, in practice, the bathrooms were often not open at said times. The underlying idea was that if students couldn’t vape in bathrooms, then the

fire alarms would not be set off.

Don Austin, the Palo Alto Unified School District superintendent, told to Verde on Jan. 18 and said that closing the bathrooms is a “short-term fix that’s stopped the problem.” While he agreed that closing the bathrooms was not a good longterm solution, he gave no specifics on any definitive solutions.

Despite being described as a shortterm solution, the bathroom lockdown lasted for several months, causing great inconvenience to the student body. Preventing students from accessing their basic needs is antithetical to the school’s purpose of creating a safe, comfortable learning environment.

This problem also disproportionately affected female students because they more often require access to restrooms during menstruation. The lines to the girls’ restrooms seem to be far longer during breaks as a result.

Since the bathroom locking, Verde noticed a trend that students who use e-cigarettes on campus often commune in the re-opened bathrooms, which continues to prevent other students from using those stalls. Evidently, closing most of the bathrooms has not provided an effective solution to vaping.

When asked about the problems with e-cigarette usage, Austin claimed that students had the most influence over the problem and said that “the best [he] can hope for is to set directions and goals.”

While students may influence their friends, most have little control over the misbehavior of others and, furthermore, it is not our job to police fellow students.

Punishing the greater student body for the transgressions of a few individuals is a simplistic and unfair solution.

Thus, we hope that the administration will look for more effective ways to tackle the problem with vaping at Paly, such as further education about the illegality and dangers of e-cigarette use or randomized checks in bathrooms. v The Verdict editorial section consists of the collective opinion of the Verde staff.

Spaces on campus to be more accessible

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INCE PALO ALTO HIGH School made significant advancements in the quality and abundance of campus facilities, constructing state-of-the-art media and performing arts centers, the Peery Athletics Center and the newly renovated library, these spaces are often underutilized due to a lack of available supervision.

Currently, students are restricted to the crowded Media Arts Center or the occasional unlocked classroom during rainy lunches. By expanding student access to the Peery Center classrooms, the Haymarket Theater and other campus facilities, administrators would make significant strides to create a more comfortable environment for students.

Many of these facilities are closed to public use due to a shortage of supervision by administors. For example, many students are unable to use the gym during free periods because there is no direct teacher or administors present.

“For a gym so longly anticipated, it’s a shame that it doesn’t attract many new endeavors considering its potential,” senior Eyal Cohen says.

The same goes for the MAC. This month, since the opening of the new library, the MAC was closed during prep periods because the previous supervisor moved to the Student Center.

While it is important that students are provided supervision, we lose the opportunity to benefit from our top-notch buildings. Creating these spaces nurtures a sense of community at Paly and without these areas, we change the dynamic of the student body.

Therefore, admin should grant students access to these underutilized spaces so students can take advantage of the facilities that have been so graciously granted to us. v

VERDEMAGAZINE.COM 7

launch EIGHT QUESTIONS WITH MATH TEACHER

SHARLA MAY

Reporting by COURTNEY KERNICK

If you weren’t a math teacher, what would you be?

What superpower do you wish you had?

An architect.

Disappearing.

If you could be any animal, what would it be?

If you could talk to one person dead or alive, who would it be?

A sloth, so I can sleep more.

My grandma.

If you could be a member of any TV show family, which one would it be?

Would you rather be vegan for a week or vegetarian for a month?

The Flintstones.

Vegetarian for a month.

Would you rather be able to copy and paste or undo in real life?

Destiny or free will?

Copy and paste.

Both.

VERDE’S DIGITS Compiled by RACHEL LIT According to the Guidance Office, as students progress through high school, the frequency of honors math lane enrollment decreases. This bar graph shows the number of students enrolled in Geometry Honors, Algebra 2/Trigonometry Honors, Analysis Honors and Advanced Placement Calculus BC for the 2018-2019 school year.

Geometry H

158

Alg2/Trig H

165

Analysis H AP BC Calculus 50

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94

From the reading nook to the silent study room, the library has facilities for any work that needs to be done.

The collaboration room allows students to work in groups, and teachers can also use them to instruct students in a different environment.

The second floor of the library is home to Paly’s oldest and most important archives. With permission, students can explore this section and its yearbooks, oldest books and photographs.

Select courses will also be moving to the library, as well as the Guidance Department.

88 100

LIBRARY’S NEW FEATURES

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Reporting by KATHERINE CHENG

ASB ANSWERS

L VE IT!

Compiled by DEVONY HOF

“I got a cool new pencil. It’s a Tombow pencil. It is green, it looks really cool … It has thing where you shake it and the lead will come out but it also has a lock for that and a twist out eraser that is super good.”

— Ben

McAuliffe, senior

“They have a really good Jewish bakery at Town and Country. They make [babka].

They’re really good.”

WITH ASB SECRETARY CHARLIZE NGUYEN

— Zoe

What’s ASB busy with?

We’re really busy this month and March. [We were] thinking of having this new event that Gunn does, it’s called “love week” where they kind of match people in your grade as kind of a lighthearted thing and you kind of see whose personality you match with.

Art by YUE SHI

McCrea, sophomore

CAMPUS CONVERSATIONS What’s your opinion on Valentine’s day?

Any new announcements?

We are in the process of doing intramural volleyball so the winners should be announced shortly.

What do you like about ASB? ASB is actually a class, it’s 3rd period. It’s very student run, the ASB president and vice president, they write the agenda, everything is discussion is based so we always vote on policies, for example, how much money we want to approve for a certain event or if we want to grant money to a club.

We decide everything by vote and by majority so it’s very different from a typical class but you feel like you’re making a difference.

Reporting by RIYA SINHA Photo by LUCIA AMIEVA-WANG

PRO

CON

“I like Valentine’s day “I think Valentine’s day because I enjoy hear- has been monetized ing all the gossip.” beyond belief and has lost its true meaning.” ­— Ahmet Hosgur, sophomore ­— William Bennett, freshman Compiled by ROHIN GHOSH

VERDEMAGAZINE.COM 9

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news Board progresses with teacher housing plans

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A SAFER SOLUTION A screenshot from an official simulation of the viaduct track separation option shows how cars and pedestrians would pass underneath. Photo courtesy of Connecting Palo Alto

Track separation proceeds CALTRAIN GRADE SEPARATION BEING FINALIZED

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ITY MANAGERS FROM the Connecting Palo Alto project are drafting solutions to alleviate traffic jams at major intersections, which are expected to occur during the electrification of Caltrain.

According to Assistant City Manager Chantel Gaines, after Caltrain electrifies its diesel-powered trains, they will run as often as every 10 minutes, creating traffic at four major intersections.

The solutions proposed will separate pedestrians and street traffic from the tracks through one of three methods: a trench where the tracks would be lowered; a viaduct where the tracks would be raised; or a hybrid where the roads would be lowered and the tracks raised.

“In the next four months, we need to decide how to do the grade separation,” Gaines said. “Then we have to go through a regulatory examination to check the environmental impact.”

The four crossings that are currently under discussion are the Palo Alto Avenue crossing, Churchill Avenue crossing, Meadow Drive crossing and Charleston Road crossing. The city council has decided that the Churchill intersection will be closed to cars with an underpass similar to the one found on California Avenue for pedestrains and bikes. According to Gaines, the most recent timeline for the project predicts that it will be completed by 2022.

Individuals interested in getting involved in the decision process can atttend a community advisory panel on March 13 or email the Connection team at transportation@cityofpaloalto.org. An additional connection meeting will occur on March 27 at the Mitchell Park Library. Community members are also encouraged to take a survey to provide input on the project at https://tinyurl.com/separationfeedback.

by YUE SHI

HE PALO ALTO Unified School District Board of Education plans to move forward with a proposal by County Supervisor Joe Simitian to build new teacher housing on Grant Avenue in Mountain View.

The complex would include 60 to 120 units which would be divided between the five school districts in Santa Clara County. Simitian has requested that each district donate $600,000 to the project.

The units are designed to provide housing to teachers who do not make enough to rent a home in Palo Alto at market rate, but also do not qualify for housing assistance.

In a school board meeting on Jan. 15, several teachers and Palo Alto community members urged the board to endorse the plan. Of those speaking, Daisy Renazco, a math and computer science teacher at Henry M. Gunn High School, said she hopes the proposal will allow teachers to better support their students.

“This will only strengthen [student-teacher] relationships which will help improve learning for students,” Renazco said.

PAUSD Supt. Don Austin explained that although the project plan has not yet been finalized, the next step is getting teacher input. He plans to do this via an interest survey that will soon be distributed to PAUSD staff.

“It’s a little bit of a waiting game but in the meantime the survey is really our next step,” Austin said.

by SASHA POOR and GILA WINEFELD

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Legal controversy over Gunn sexual harassment claim

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CONFLICT BETWEEN two Henry M. Gunn High School robotics students appears to be headed for court, where lawyers will pit two competing parts of federal law against each other.

The case, most recently detailed in a Feb. 8 hearing at Santa Clara County Superior Court, revolves around a 16-year-old male student who was found to have sexually harassed a female student.

Lawyers revealed the male student is in special education in the hearing, adding a legal wrinkle to the justification of his being temporarily banned from the school robotics team, which the girl is also a member of.

The confusion is between Title IX law and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. PAUSD Board of Education member and attorney Shounak Dharap said the school board’s final decision must follow both laws.

“If there is a breakdown in these processes, it’s incumbent on me and my fellow board members to exercise oversight to make sure we are complying with the law and keeping students safe,” he stated in an email. “Likewise, when these processes work as they should, it’s important for us to communicate that to the community."

Dharap noted the challenge confidentiality laws pose.

“In these times, I hope I can earn the community’s trust that I am doing everything I can to ensure that the district protects the rights and safety of our students,” Dharap stated.

The hearing before Superior Court Judge Helen Williams is scheduled for March 8.

by EMMA DONELLY-HIGGINS

14 FEBRUARY 2019

LADIES AND GENTS, GUYS AND DOLLS Senior Robert Vetter and sophomore Anna Feenstra block out a dynamic scene that involves a fight and dance while fellow cast members Isabel Harding and Leo Marburg tango in the background. “My character plays the trumpet,” Marburg said. “I don’t know if it’s going to work out but I’m learning it.”

New musical to hit stage "GUYS AND DOLLS" MUSICAL TO OPEN MARCH 9

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CCLAIMED MUSICAL and Dolls” is set to hit the Palo Alto High School stage March 9 with action packed songs and dance numbers.

“Guys and Dolls," presented by the Palo Alto High School theater program, is about “Gamblers, dancers in a nightclub [and] super colorful characters with great music,” according to Paly theater teacher and co-director Kathleen Woods.

Woods and co-director Megan Hanks, a TheatreWorks associate, are putting their prior experience studying and directing the musical to use and aim to produce

the musical in a way that it is as close to the original production as possible.

“Between the two of us we’ve got lots of experience with the show and the research [about the show],” Woods said.

Showtimes for “Guys and Dolls” are 7:30 p.m. March 8, 9, 15 and 16, as well as 4:30 p.m. March 14 and 2 p.m.

March 17 in the Performing Arts Center. Tickets are $10 for students and $15 for adults at www.palytheatre.com.

by KATE MILNE

Paly alumni in upcoming speaker series

P

ALO ALTO HIGH school will host its annual Career Speaker Series starting Feb. 25, giving students the opportunity to learn about future job options.

“This year's [series] is actually going to be a bit different because of Paly's centennial celebration,” said senior Ashley Wang, president of the Career Month Committee.

“Our speaker lineup will include one Paly alumnus per day.”

Comprised of seven current Paly students, the committee reached out to Paly alumni to share their career paths. Speakers will be asked to share what got them interested in their respective fields, how they got

their jobs and what their day-to-day work lives looks like.

“We've worked really hard to incorporate feedback from last year, and we've actually made our speaker lineup even more diverse,” Wang said. “Some speakers to look forward to this year include a sports broadcaster, David Feldman, and an environmental writer, Jeff Ball.”

The Career Speaker Series will be held during lunch in the Performing Arts Center lobby and the Media Arts Center.

by MARALEIS SINTON

news

New course advice system for students

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HE ASSOCIATED STUDENT Body is planning improvements for the underclassmen course selection experience in response to requests from students for more information about course options.

The project is led by ASB Senior Class President David Foster; ASB President Vivian Feng; and Palo Alto High School student board representative Caroline Furrier. According to Furrier, they are hoping to create a forum where underclassmen can easily connect with older students to talk about courses.

“We just wanted [students] to get that information so they could have an ideal schedule that works well for them,” Furrier stated in an email.

However, after discussing the issue with various advisers and counselors, Assistant Principal Katya Villalobos expressed concerns

over the project, citing the possibility of rumors being spread by giving unvalidated information on a formal platform.

“We don't want our students to get wrong information and then use that information to make a decision,” Villalobos said, noting the example of the rumor that students can leave class if their teacher is over 15 minutes late.

Although the original plan was to have both an online database of student input and a fair where upper- and underclassmen could speak face to face, ASB is now aiming to create a digital resource only. If successful, the update is planned to go into effect for the 2021 course selection process.

by KAYLA BRAND

Student Center opens for breakfast

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HE STUDENT CENTER will begin to serve breakfast before 8:20 a.m. by the end of the school year.

According to Assistant Principal Jerry Berkson, students will be supervised by a rotation of teachers and teacher aides.

This policy change is primarily focused on helping students in the Voluntary Transfer Program who are often dropped before school by bus.

“[This is aimed at] Keeping the kids warm, give them places comfortable to get some of their schoolwork done,” Berkson said. “Some kids just don't have a choice as to what time they get here.”

The new policy was proposed by a concerned parent who noticed that many students were sitting outside in the cold before school.

by ABE TOW and WARREN WAGNER

v

No crime rate increase despite high profile incidents

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ESPITE THE HIGH publicity of recent crimes across Palo Alto, the police department has reported a lower crime rate compared to the same time frame in 2017.

Palo Alto Online reported on multiple pedestrian assaults and robberies as well as the robbery of downtown’s Wells Fargo. According to the Palo Alto Police Department’s website, however, recorded crimes dropped from by almost 300 instances from 2017 to 2018.

“Crime goes in spurts … sometimes it’s up, sometimes it’s down,” Palo Alto Police Department Public Affiars Manager Janine De La Vega said.

The only increase in crime Palo Alto experienced this past year was in commercial and residential burglaries by 14 and 15 percent, respectively.

Crime rate totals have fluctuated each year with 1597 recorded in 2018, slightly below the recorded year before 1881.

“Palo Alto remains a very safe city to live and [the Police] Department prides itself on its low crime rate,” De La Vega said.

by MYRA XU

Paly to host final centennial events

P A NEW CHAPTER Librarian Rachel Kellerman looks forward to final centennial events. Photo

by Allison Cheng

ALO ALTO HIGH SCHOOL will be hosting a series of centennial-themed events, including a facilities open house, a tree walk and a birthday cake celebration for the school newspaper and an evening gala on March 23.

According to librarian Rachel Kellerman, one of the main organizers of this day-long celebration, the facilities open house will include campus tours led by student tour guides.

“It [the open house] is for the public and alumni to see our new facilities,” Kellerman said.

Historic locations, such as the Tower Building and the Haymarket Theater and various notable trees, as well as newer installments, like the library and Peery Center, will be featured on the tours.

At 2 p.m., The Campanile student newspaper will celebrate their 100th year with a birthday cake celebration in the Media Arts Center.

The day will end with a centennial gala showcasing Paly performing arts groups.

by ALLISON CHENG

VERDEMAGAZINE.COM 15

Text by SASHA POOR, MARALEIS SINTON and RIYA SINHA

Photos by LUCIA AMIEVA-WANG

Engendering New Ideas

GENDER STUDIES GIVES INSIGHT ON DIVERSITY

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S A FOX NEWS CLIP PLAYS on the projector, students lean forward at their desks while Gender Studies teacher Jaclyn Edwards watches from the back of the classroom at Palo Alto High School.

When the video ends, she asks for student opinions. Hands shoot into the air as they discuss reactions to a recent controversial Gillette advertisement in which the razor company urges men to be “The Best Men Can Be” and stand up against bullying and harassment. Some students believe the company was taking a step forward by addressing toxic masculinity, while others interpret the advertisement as simply attacking men. One student comments on how the reaction would

16 FEBRUARY 2019 2019 16 FEBRUARY

have been different if the advertisement an intimate environment where students were discussing women, and another jumps are unafraid to share their points of view, in to ask what the difference would be. according to senior Ciel Tracton. A quesEdwards detion Edwards asks signed her Gencan lead to a debate I want students to under- between students, der Studies class with the hope of stand that gender is a part and she regularly shedding light on encourages stuof every aspect of our oftentimes subtle dents to expand on gender stereotheir comments, lives.” types. This semesevery so often nod— JACLYN EDWARDS, Gender Studies teacher ter, Paly students ding and saying are for the first “explain” after a time able to formally learn how gender af- student answers a question. fects their everyday lives.

“A lot of it is a lot about discussion so we get to hear what everyone else in the Back to the beginning class has to say about something,” Tracton Though Gender Studies only says. “It’s very open-ended.” debuted this semester, Edwards created the curric- Staying with the times ulum for Paly’s GenSince Edwards first created the Gender der Studies class 13 Studies curriculum, women’s studies has years ago and, until evolved, branching out into the broader this year, did not field of gender studies as the idea of genreceive enough der has changed, evolving from a binary enrollment to be definition and becoming more accepting of able to run a sec- non-binary and transgender identities. tion.

Just as how society adjusts with the “I think may- progression of norms, definitions and exbe … kids weren’t pectations, Edwards likewise adapts her ready for it [nor] curriculum to the dynamic field. did they know “Things have changed, in terms of polwhat exactly it icies and even vocab words that we use with [gender studies] regard to how we identify ourselves and was,” Edwards gender,” Edwards says. “So I had to put a says. “Then to 2.0 version to it [the curriculum] because a my delight and lot of things needed updating.” surprise, here Because it is such a new class, Edwards are these students who is fine-tuning the course curriculum as she want to take a chance … goes, incorporating current events and alThat’s why we’re here.” tering her lessons to match the current soThe class is small, cietal environment. with only 13 stuFor example, Edwards made sure to indents, of- coporate discussion about the ban on transfering gender individuals joining the military, replacing her planned warm up with a conversation about the controversial decision.

“

Art by HANNAH LI

features

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TOY STORE TEACHING Students Phoebe Crabb (left) and Maya Anderson (right) walk ahead of teacher Jaclyn Edwards. The class takes a field trip to Ambassador Toys at Town and Country Viliage to investigate gender bias in children’s toys in a local, real life case study. “I really enjoy it [the class], especially since we talk about really relevant stories and topics,” Crabb says.

“She’s trying to make it super relevant [to current events],” says senior Phoebe Crabb, who is enrolled in the class. “You kind of just have to be flexible because we would have one thing planned and then something would come up in the news an hour prior to class and we would just spend around 30 minutes just talking about it.”

Redefining gender Gender Studies represents yet another fresh elective in the history department, following in the wake of Positive Psychology and Ethnic Studies. This diversification has been praised by other social studies teachers at Paly.

“It is important in terms of looking at our history and currently where we’re headed,” says Ethnic Studies teacher Justin Cronin. “The more that you understand, the more that it’s likely that you will embrace people who are different than yourself.”

While these conversations can certainly be enlightening, the lack of diverse opinions proves to be an issue in the classroom, according to senior Mary Fetter.

“I wish we had some different perspectives in the class,” Fetter says. “Girls outnumber boys three to one and most of the class seems to be pretty liberal.”

To bring in more varied narratives, Edwards says she plans to invite guest speakers from Stanford University, as she wants students to learn more about gender in the world outside Palo Alto.

“I wanted students to see it [gender] in a global capacity in science,” Edwards says. “I wanted them to see it in all of these different lenses.” v

ENVISIONING WITH EDWARDS Social studies teacher Jaclyn Edwards designs and leads the new gender studies class at Paly. Edwards hopes to bring passion she has for the subject to students at Paly. “This class makes me giddy,” Edwards says. “It’s a small class and they’re quiet at times, but it makes me really giddy.”

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Text by EMMA DONELLY-HIGGINS and ABBY CUMMINGS Art by YUE SHI

Fr m Students to Teachers CLASS TEACHES CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT

“Y

OU MADE THIS BRIDGE? Wow, it looks like it could hold up me,” senior Luc Pardehpoosh says, working with one of the five-year-olds in the Greendell Preschool classroom. Littered with miniature desks and similarly miniature humans, the overcrowded room is alive with energy as students work with the high schoolers to build and test handmade popsicle stick bridges.

Founded and taught by Hillary McDaniel at Palo Alto High School, the Early Childhood Development class combines classroom learning with real-world experiences. California Gov. Gavin Newsom recently proposed spending up to $1.8 million on ECD programs across the state next year, and Paly’s program is a direct reflection of what could come from such a heavy focus on ECD. The high school class catches a 10-minute bus ride to and from the preschool to instruct children in the Young Fives program.

Under McDaniel’s guidance, students collaborate beforehand to make lesson plans and activities appropriate for five-year-olds.

While a room full of 18 energetic preschoolers may certainly look cute, a moment of silence is rare. As they settle down on the rainbow mat for storytime, the teens

18 FEBRUARY 2019

find themselves with multiple children piled in their laps. The children comfortably lean back into the students, fidgeting in place and reacting enthusiastically to the picture book about architecture.

This school year, a second level of ECD was added, which includes double credit as part of a dual enrollment program with Foothill College. McDaniel says she has seen her six returning students’ initiative develop while teaching the preschoolers.

“It’s pretty amazing that … they can just go in and lead an activity and that now they’re even starting to come up with their own ideas,” McDaniel says. “It’s become more natural for them to see a problem and know how to intervene and fix it without looking to me to do it.”

Now in her second year of ECD, senior Naomi Levine Sporer says she has benefited more from taking a second year of the course.

“As a senior now ... it’s like the students are the teachers so I’ve been able to be more like the teacher than a playmate to the kids,” she says.

Preparation for adulthood McDaniel says ECD is an especially important topic to learn about in school that will resonate with most high schoolers in later life.

“The vast majority of you [high schoolers] will become parents and/or be involved in the lives of children in some way or another,” McDaniel says. “I don’t know what could be more relevant than teaching about how children grow and change over time and how to best support and nurture them.”

The class provides future parents and educators opportunities to learn about the first five years of a child’s life which, according to Stanford professor Deborah Stipek, are some of the most critical. “[In] those first five years [of cognitive development] we’re creating the architecture of the brain that serves as a basis for all future development,” Stipek says.

According to many, including senior Anna Oft, who is enrolled in ECD 2, the course material is not only applicable for future parents, but for people who will enter a multitude of career paths that involve kids.

BRINGING THE PAGES TO LIFE (LEFT) Senior Luc Pardehpoosh reads aloud from a picture book about architecture to tie the lesson on bridges together. TESTING PHYSICS (LEFT MIDDLE) Senior Anna Oft guides the hands of kids as they test their bridges with toy cars. THE OUTSIDE (RIGHT MIDDLE) Senior Naomi Levine Sporer leads a train of preschoolers to the playground. RELAX WITH ME (RIGHT) Junior Lainey Germain balances two preschoolers on her lap as they settle in for storytime. Left page photos by Abby Cummings, right page photos by Emma Donelly-Higgins

“Because of the class [ECD] I definitely want to do something related to kids, no matter what that is,” Oft says.

“I’ve always been interested in social sciences and now I’m thinking about studying specifically something to do with child development.”

Impacting both sides This partnership benefits both Paly students and the preschoolers themselves, who have the opportunity to form strong, healthy bonds with older mentors.

When one girl is asked what her favorite thing about having her buddies come to teach them, she immediately becomes shy and responds with two simple words.

“It’s fun,” she says.

ECD 1 Dual Enrollment junior Lainey Germain says she thinks the kids benefit from the relationships they form with the teens.

“I guess we as teachers serve as mentors or role models for the kids,” she says.

These feelings are reciprocated by the high schoolers enrolled in ECD. While

they say spending so much time at the pre“It’s [ECD] a great introduction to school can be exhausting at times, seeing the learn how to create your own lesson plans kids’ faces light up as they walk in makes it and how do the kids learn and how every all worth it. kid’s different,” she says.

“When I’m taking a test or reflecting According to McDaniel, there are plans on a lesson with the kids, I realize that I’ve to expand the course. The PAUSD Prelimlearned so many theories and terms through inary School Site Plan 2018 Bond Measure seeing them play out in real life,” Oft says. draft details plans to build a new Career ECD 1 junior Tech Education and Brianna Miller says Science, Technoloshe has even formed I don’t know what could gy, Engineering and a close connection be more relevant than Mathematics center. with a student who is McDaniel says she part of the Voluntary teaching about how hopes the district Transfer Program, like children grow and will grant her space her. in this building to “When he sees change.” expand the ECD — HILLARY MCDANIEL, Early Childhood program to a childme at the bus stop he Development Teacher is always willing to say care center.

‘Good morning, BriNot only would anna,’ which is definitely a highlight in the the facility eliminate the need for transmorning for me,” she says. “He also, I think, portation between Paly and Greendell, but feels like he can trust me because we have McDaniel says it would also improve stusomething in common.” dent behavior and happiness around campus.

Future plans “We might, as adolescents, treat each Like many of her ECD classmates, other differently if we knew that three-and Levine Sporer says the class has inspired her four-year-olds were nearby and able to see to major in early childhood development and and hear us,” McDaniel says. “What a comteach primary school in the future. munity that would build.” v

“

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KEEPING IT REAL — Rabbi Menachem Landa, of the congregation Chabad of Greater South Bay, explains the intricate workings of the Jewish people. “We believe God — whatever he says is right, but we would like to understand, too,” he says.

The ORTHODOX Text by GILA WINEFELD and BEN COHEN Photos by GILA WINEFELD

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ORTHODOX JEWS REACH OUT TO COMMUNITY YOUTH

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’CHAIM. WE RAISED OUR GLASSES, following the motions of those around us. As secular Jewish teens, this Shabbat dinner was a flurry of the foreign and the familiar. The prayers of men in kippot — brimless caps often worn by male Jews — as they faced East toward Israel, swaying and turning under the rabbi’s direction: these were parts of a different world we’d stepped into. But the other attendees exclaiming “Shabbat Shalom!”, the dancing, as the men came together in a circle, going around and around, their hands on each others’ shoulders — this all felt warm and familiar.

We’d come to this Shabbat dinner considering ourselves largely as observers of an inner sanctum, two outsiders with a camera — that is, until sundown, when all technology had to be put away — but we were treated as friends. Perhaps thanks in part to our Jewish background, we were encouraged to participate in songs, to introduce ourselves and our reporting. Alongside us, families shared stories — all in Hebrew — of their children’s experiences in the rabbi’s after-school program and struggles teaching them their parents’ native language.

Behind this gathering was Rabbi Menachem Landa, one among a Palo Alto Orthodox community intent on stitching together pieces of the local Jewish population. Speaking with him, one gets the impression that Landa exists in some other-worldly plane. In response to our questions, he rarely offered direct answers but rather began philosophizing — about God, about life. From time to time he closed his eyes, speaking with a husky gravitas, unhurriedly, as if time were infinitely replete.

Landa’s home — the site of our Friday night dinner — serves as an Israeli-Jewish gathering place where Landa frequently hosts holiday celebrations. Landa is an Israeli immigrant and part of Chabad-Lubavitch, a Jewish Orthodox movement that has unexpectedly grown roots in majority-secular Palo Alto. And yet, in contrast with stereotypical secluded religious enclaves, Chabadniks interact frequently with unaffiliated Jews, hoping to strengthen their relationships with God and their Jewish identity.

“When people ask me how many people do you have in your congregation, I say 40,000 Israelis of the Silicon Valley — that’s my community,” Landa says. “The opportunity for a Jew to feel Jewish, to feel his identity — that’s the goal.”

Although we approached this story as reporters, we quickly realized we were part of Landa’s target demographic — Palo Altan teens Jewish by heritage and culture, not faith.

We set out to write this story from the outside in — what we envisioned would be a coveted look into veiled communities of Hasidic Palo Altan Jews. But gradually, our narrative shifted. The Palo Alto Jewish community, we found, is extremely diverse, spanning from secular Israeli immigrants to tiny Orthodox communities, and yet these groups are inextricable. The definition of Jewishness straddles the line between ethnicity, culture and religion. And as Palo Alto Orthodox communities strain to keep up with progressing Silicon Valley views, they also work to bridge the divide between an older, more observant generation and one increasingly younger, more secular and less attached to Israel.

Searching for answers, we talked to six Jewish teens with different attitudes about faith, and with two Orthodox rabbis intent on bringing those teens into a more religious world.

Connecting the disconnected Our first stop after our Shabbat dinner was Palo Alto High School, where we met with senior Naomi Levine Sporer, a member of the Reform Jewish Congregation Beth Jacob.

At school, her closest friends all come from different religions. They often talk about their varying beliefs and holidays, and Levine Sporer, too, shares stories — of honey and apples on Rosh Hashanah, of her bat mitzvah and of childishly exhilarating searches for afikoman, a piece of matzah bread traditionally hidden for children to find on Passover.

Meanwhile, a few times each week after school at a local Jewish youth group called United Synagogue Youth, Levine Sporer enters a world where her beliefs are implicitly

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80%

of Jewish teens disengage from Jewish life after their b’nai mitzvah (13 years old)

26%

of Bay Area Jews say their Jewish identity is very important, compared to 48 percent in the US as a whole

50% of Bay Area Jews attend Passover Seder, compared with 73 percent in the US as a whole

41%

of Bay Area Jews say they are not affiliated with any denomination, compared to 3 percent who identify as Orthodox

Source: EJewish Philanthropy, Jewish Community Federation

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understood by those around her. The close-knit community prays before meals, lights Shabbat candles and holds fun social activities on Saturday nights.

“It [USY] is a great way for me to keep my Jewish faith and be proud of it and … learn more about it,” Levine Sporer says. “Not a lot of people around me when I go to school are Jewish and so it’s a nice way to make friends that have something in common.”

This urge to find common ground also compels sophomore Ori Gal, a secular Jew and a member of the Jewish youth organization BBYO, Inc. The group, made up mostly of secular and Reform Jewish teens, provides Gal with a kind of kinship that is hard to find at Paly alone, he says.

“Paly sets high academic standards as well as the Silicon Valley’s fast-paced lifestyle and the focus on going to college,” Gal says.

“It’s easy to neglect one’s Jewish foundations, and only view Judaism as a cultural piece of one’s life. I was definitely guilty of that.”

It is precisely students like Levine Sporer and Gal, and us, that the local Orthodox community is trying to reach. In fact, BBYO recently invited Landa to speak about Jewish history and faith.

“It’s really awesome to hear Rabbi Landa has a mission to engage Jewish teens — having one more way for Jewish teens to discover their character,” Gal says.

Looking to gain a second Orthodox perspective, we made our next stop at Palo Alto’s Congregation Emek Beracha, where Rabbi Yitzchok Feldman stands in many ways as an antithesis to Landa — a native English speaker, he was born into a non-observant family.

It was only as a young adult that Feldman traveled to Israel on a lark, hoping to visit a kibbutz, a communal Israeli farm, merely as an observer of an intriguing historical place. However, an almost prophet-like encounter stopped Feldman in his tracks, when a man explained to Feldman that every modern Jew has a relative a few generations removed who was Orthodox, but someone later in the family decided to disconnect from religion.

“They knew that they were making a choice,” Feldman says, relaying the words which would spark his religious awakening.

“And you inherited that choice. You have no idea … what you are rejecting or what you could have.”

FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS Ita Landa, Rabbi Menachem Landa’s daughter, blesses the entrance of Shabbat, as per tradition before every Friday dinner.

After the candle-lighting, all technology must be put away for the next 24 hours. “I think younger ages need their own circle,” Rabbi Landa says.

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Feldman emphasizes that while many find the Orthodox lifestyle esoteric, for him it was largely a natural moral progression — an objective decision to choose religion as his unequivocal truth.

“I hadn’t spent all that time in the humanities talking about what’s right and wrong and what’s true and not true in order to embrace a lifestyle which was not true,” Feldman says. “There are people in any synagogue, including Orthodox synagogues, for whom it [Judaism] is a lifestyle choice and it’s not necessarily a choice between right and wrong. But that’s not the way I relate to it.”

Feldman’s goal in the midst of an overwhelmingly secular Palo Alto Jewish community is to ensure every Jew has this kind of religious agency. His kids were never forced to adhere to religious beliefs but rather encouraged to mold their own path, Feldman says.

Still, they have all remained with the Orthodox community, including Feldman’s 16-year-old daughter Malka who we visited next at Meira Academy, a tiny 15-person Orthodox girls-only school on the third floor of the Palo Alto Jewish Community Center.

Growing Orthodox roots Torahs with ornate gold lettering on their tattered spines stand between biology textbooks in the student lounge at Meira Academy. A poster with the Hebrew alphabet hangs over electron orbital diagrams. A student prepares a microscope slide beneath a window adorned with colorful block letter stickers spelling “Shabbat.”

Walking into Meira, this juxtaposition can be found at every step: the observant life of an Orthodox Jew and the academic mindset of any modern Palo Alto institution.

“It definitely helps to come to school every day and be surrounded by other people who have the same values as you, who celebrate the same holidays,” Malka says.

One of 10 kids, family life in Palo Alto is near to Malka’s heart.

But in the future, Malka envisions moving somewhere else — a place where the Orthodox community is met with more warmth and integrated into mainstream life.

“The opportunity for a Jew to feel Jewish, to feel his identity — that’s the goal.”

— RABBI MENACHEM LANDA, Chabad of Greater South Bay

“It’s kind of hard to raise an Orthodox family here because there aren’t all the resources you could have,” Malka says, explaining her frequent struggles even with trivial things like finding suitable clothes or places to eat. “I love growing up here — it’s amazing — but I feel like I would probably live in a more central Jewish place — maybe Israel, or even New York.”

As Malka and her friend chat with us during their lunch break at the JCC cafe, Malka explains that, as an Orthodox teen, she has more flexibility and room for individuality than some may think.

AN ORTHODOX OPTION Sima Levine (left) and Malka Feldman are freshmen and sophomores, respectively, at the Orthodox Jewish girls school in Palo Alto, Meira Academy. “Just because you’re Orthodox doesn’t mean you can’t be a doctor or a lawyer or really whatever you want to be,” Levine says.

Like many Paly students, she hopes to attend college and pursue a career in the field of psychology — that is, after attending religious seminary for a year post-high school.

“No one should think that being Orthodox takes you away from being able to go to college or get a great education or get a good job or … [have] a social life,” Malka says. “You’re still able to do all those things.”

Yet finding a school that combines these opportunities with a religious safe space often proves difficult. Meira is the only Orthodox high school for girls within a six-hour-drive radius — and a suitable school for boys, or for girls who feel that such a small school may not be the right fit, is even harder to find. This is what Feldman calls “the major demographic story of this community,” and it’s through him that we meet junior Danelle Tuchman, one of 14 Palo Altan teens who currently attend Jewish Community High School in San Francisco.

“A Jewish education is super important to me and my family,” Tuchman says. “My school is very much like, you practice Judaism in the way you want to and we’ll support you with doing that. …

It’s just a very open environment.”

Tuchman’s commute to school? A 40-minute train ride followed by a 20-minute shuttle — a drowsy miscellany of Starbucks, music and knitting — “Honestly, if we were having this conversa-

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“No one should think that being Orthodox takes you away from being able to go to college or get a good job or have a social life.”

— MALKA FELDMAN, sophomore at Meira Academy

JUXTAPOSING JUDAICA A bookshelf at Meira Academy, a 15-person Orthodox girls-only school, features Hebrew literature paired with traditional high school history books. “We really get to know the students in each grade,” Meira freshman Sima Levine says.

tion after my commute in the morning, I would probably be saying very different things,” Tuchman admits, laughing.

Still, she has grown to enjoy these unique moments of camaraderie, and would rather make the commute than remain an outsider at a local public school or even at Kehillah Jewish High School in Palo Alto.

And so, our final stop becomes Kehillah. According to Rabbi Feldman, the school has weakened its Jewish affiliation and Judaic Studies offerings over the years to boost inclusivity — a move Feldman says has ironically alienated the Orthodox community that aims to preserve its traditional educational values.

Cameron Golub, a junior at Kehillah seeking a more conservative Jewish lifestyle both in and out of school, feels the effects of this diversification firsthand.

“Kehillah Jewish High School provides me with a Jewish learning experience, but not the kind that I hope to have,” Golub says.

“The school is very liberal in terms of Jewish thought, and its acceptance of non-Jews has made it very hard for the school to maintain Jewish values and integrate Jewish practice.”

One of the only places Golub says he can practice his faith freely is Camp Ramah, a religious Jewish summer camp located in Ojai, California. At Ramah, Golub prays three times a day and follows strict Judaic customs such as Shabbat.

However, when he returns home every autumn, these values fall to wayside yet again, overcome by academic workload and the minutiae of daily Palo Alto life.

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“I am currently not living my ideal life in terms of [religious] practice, given that I live in an area where it is hard to live strictly by Judaism,” Golub says. “For the past few years I have wanted to live with a more strict practice as an adult but it all depends on where I end up and my career path.”

A Jewish journey With Golub, our dive into the Palo Alto Jewish community had come to an end. We anticipated a story that would require covert journalistic tactics to observe a secluded community of Orthodox Jews. But the interviews and photos we gathered instead painted a portrait of an intertwined Palo Alto Jewish community, where outreach from Orthodox groups toward more liberal Jews preserved a collective religious identity.

“A lot of people picture observant Jews as men in Brooklyn with long black coats and hats,” Tuchman tells us over the phone as she walks home from the Caltrain stop, seamlessly traveling between her two worlds — an observant school and an overwhelmingly secular Palo Alto environment. “One thing I’ve learned from being an observant Jew in Palo Alto is that … we all do things a bit differently. There’s an outline that we all follow but everything else stems from family and from personal connections to God. I feel like if there were a bigger observant community people would affiliate only with people who practice in the exact same way they do, and I think that’s the beautiful part of being observant in Palo Alto.” v

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Text by RACHEL LIT and JENNY TSENG

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Photos by LUCIA AMIEVA-WANG

RESIDENTS OF HISTORICAL LANDMARK EVICTED

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E

ACH FLOOR OF THE HOTEL PRESIDENT in downtown Palo Alto has its own character. The scent of lacquered wood and vividly painted stone tiles inset in the staircase envelop visitors’ senses as they step under the high lobby ceiling. The fifth floor emanates a sense of comfort and warmth and the spacious rooftop deck of the penthouse, a small studio filled with blank canvases and old architectural building designs, welcomes visitors into its organized clutter.

Much like the hallways, the residents’ apartments showcase their unique personalities. A peek into a third-floor apartment

3rd floor

reveals a space painted completely in bright, exuberant hues and another down the hall unveils walls adorned with picturesque landscape paintings.

Resident Dennis Backlund’s door is already parted as the elevator doors open into his corridor, a sliver of orange light spilling out into the hallway the only sign of life on his floor. Backlund is the building’s longest term tenant — when he originally moved into the President 37 years ago as Palo Alto’s historic preservation planner, Backlund thought he would live in the building for the rest of his life.

“I went to bed every night, I felt so comfortable here and I had all my books and my interests and my friends all around me,” Backlund says. “We thought we’d really have this community for a long time.”

But his stay of nearly four decades at the President is coming to an end.

In June, Adventurous Journeys Capital, a Chicago-based enterprise, bought the Hotel President, a historic landmark, with plans to commercialize the building into a luxury hotel. But ever since the change in management, the tenants’ eviction date has fluctuated, despite originally being set for last November. However, the city council denied making the zoning changes AJ Capital needed for renovations, so the company pushed eviction to Jan. 31. Now, the last few remaining residents, Backlund included, have until the end of February to move out.

The creative type The President houses mostly older citizens and freelancers, including artists, piano teachers and language coaches, presenting a stark contrast to the cluster of engineers and computer scientists who tend to be drawn to the Bay Area.

“This [Palo Alto] has become the most popular address for people to come and work at and make their millions,” resident Iqbal Serang says. “But what of those smaller creative types that are artists and teachers?

That gets put aside very easily.”

The artists of Hotel President have drawn in younger generations, including Palo Alto High School freshman Maia Johnsson. For four years, Johnsson has taken German lessons from Katja Serang, a resident who moved out a month ago and THE ARCHITECT Iqbal Serang stands in front of apartment 307, his home for the past 28 years.

“I think everyone who moves into this building sort of moves in thinking it’s a transitional move,” Serang says. “But just about everyone ends up staying longer than they had imagined.”

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elevator

struggled to find housing, Johnsson says.

“I wasn’t able to go to the lessons for about three to four weeks,” Johnsson says. “When she finally found a house, we started up [lessons] again.”

Nowhere to go Just two floors below Backlund lives his friend Iqbal Serang, an architect by day and painter by night. Serang’s residence at the President started out as temporary — he leased a room from a resident — but enjoyed his stay so much that he moved into his own apartment and converted the President’s penthouse suite into an art studio nearly 28 years ago.

As Jan. 31 approached, Serang and Backlund continued their search for housing but recognized that the eviction date was nearly impossible to meet.

According to the United States Census Bureau, people do not typically move during the winter due to the difficulties the weather presents. This could contribute to why some residents are currently struggling to relocate, Backlund says.

“Kids are in school and the [winter] weather is bad and rainy,” Backlund says. “People don’t choose to move unless they are forced to. … We do not have very much hope in finding a place to live

GOING UP (LEFT) Dennis Backlund rides the elevator, an original from 1929, to the fifth floor where his apartment is located. HISTORIC LANDMARK (RIGHT) Due to the recent change in management of the Hotel President, a city-designated historic landmark, residents will be moving out by the end of February.

“

I went to bed every night, I felt so comfortable here, and I had all my books and my interests and my friends all around me.”

— DENNIS BACKLUND, resident at the Hotel President

in a time frame like Jan. 31 and we have pointed this out to the city council.”

Despite having attended city council meetings for months and becoming “regulars” there, as Serang describes, residents have been unsuccessful in persuading AJ Capital to extend the eviction date to June, the time most residents desire.

City council member Lydia Kou says the best course of action for AJ Capital is to follow City of Palo Alto’s municipal code, which, as it stands now, does not allow most of the changes AJ Capital would like to make on the building.

“There is an effort to amend the laws by city staff,” Kou stated in an email, describing the company’s attempt to convert the President into a luxury hotel.

AJ is still requiring residents to move out, despite their non-finalized plans for renovation.

“We are not going nuts outwardly, but inwardly there’s definitely a lot of stress and pressure and concern,” Serang says. “There are people always asking you ‘Where are you going to move to?’

Where am I going to move to? I mean, I don’t want to move to any other place.”

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President’s residents Having lived in the President for over two decades together, Serang and Backlund seem to share a sense of loyalty, not only to the building but to each other. There is a sense of deep familiarity between them — they often knock on each other’s rooms when in need of some company. They finish each other’s sentences but will just as frequently talk over each other, interjecting abruptly about old records and authors or Backlund’s living room, which he used to transform into a literary salon.

Like Serang and Backlund, most residents lived in the building for years or decades and formed close connections with one another.

“People get sick and the word gets around,” Backlund says. “They open the door and there is food provided for them.”

During major holidays, tenants celebrate together. On the Fourth of July, they gather on the rooftop to enjoy a horizon full of fireworks; on Christmas, the building manager organizes an all-expenses-paid, catered Christmas celebration in the building lobby.

“It has been a real community of friends — the loss of that is the saddest thing on my mind,” Backlund says.

As Backlund reminisces fondly of the tight-knit community, Serang listens with a slight smile on his face, but his eyes are somber.

“There is a feeling of community,” Serang pauses.

“There used to be, anyway. That’s definitely breaking up now.”

Moving out and moving on Backlund, along with another resident with disabilities, is receiving services from Project Sentinel, a non-profit focused on fair-housing laws. This could give Backlund an additional 60 to 90 days to find a new place to live.

It is a sentimental goodbye as the unique community disperses and will officially cease to exist at the President in the next few weeks. Although AJ Capital’s future renovation plans are still up in the air, changes to the building’s physical appearance can be expected as well: for many, the President will no longer feel nor look like home.

“Home is where the heart is. … Your home is your refuge from the busy, uncertain world that we work in.” Backlund says. “It [eviction] is the loss of your home against your will.” v THE HISTORIAN 77-year-old Dennis Backlund enters apartment 503, a home stacked with books and old records. Backlund has lived in Palo Alto his whole life and is the city’s retired historic preservation planner. “My job was to ... protect the character of these historic buildings of Palo Alto, protect the character of the city,” Backlund says.

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5th floor

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Every 72 Hours RV LIFE ON EL CAMINO REAL

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Text by LUCIA AMIEVA-WANG and ZOË WONG-VANHAREN Photos by LUCIA AMIEVA-WANG

VERY 72 HOURS, Britney and Niles pack up their things and get ready to move. Papers, clothes and books are stuffed into drawers, their belongings hastily tucked away. Every 72 hours, they lower the jacks and remove the wooden planks under the wheels of their RV. Every 72 hours, they turn off the generator, secure the propane gas tank, align the truck and call a U-Haul. Every 72 hours, they must find a new spot to park on the side of El Camino Real, because if not, a paper will be taped to the dashboard notifying the pair that their home will be towed away.

Directly across from the entrance to Palo Alto High School, dozens of RVs line the side of El Camino Real alongside Stanford University’s athletic fields. While for some, residing in RVs is a lifestyle choice, for many others it is their only way to live in an area as expensive as Palo Alto.

Though Paly students drive past these RVs every morning, community members send in complaints about the clutter and local newspapers write about the growing number of vehicles, few know the names and stories of those affected by the housing crisis.

In this photo essay, Verde seeks to capture the raw realities and fundamental humanity of the people in our community living on El Camino Real — people like Britney, Ty and Arturo, whose last names have been omitted due to privacy concerns. v

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BRITNEY VACATION TURNED LIFE – Every time a car zooms by on El Camino Real, Britney and Nile feel their home rock side to side. Living in a ’70s blue-andmaroon trailer with an easily excitable puppy, the young couple has faced quite a few struggles living in the Bay. Britney came to California in the summer of 2014 on vacation, but ended up falling in love with the state, meeting Nile and staying. However, despite working three jobs back-to-back and splitting an apartment in South San Jose with two others, the couple found it nearly impossible to live a financially stable life. Investing in an RV, Britney explains, was their best option — it allows them to live in a safer area, find well-paying jobs and enjoy the Bay while they save up for their own place.

Most often, the police are called with complaints from the public about the look of the RV, but Britney views this as ironic.

“The public is going to call the police on these poor souls out here, who have nowhere else to go and who put a roof over their own head... so that their home gets towed,” Britney says. “What are they left with? They are out on the street, and that doesn’t solve the homeless problem.”

TY ACROSS THE CAMINO – Ty, 22, still dressed in her pajamas, peeks her head out, squinting as her eyes adjust to the bright sun. “Even though it [the RV] is slowly breaking down every day, we are trying our hardest to get out of it.” Despite keeping to themselves, Ty and her partner have experienced a lot of harassment from the police, especially during the Stanford football season. Ty recalls one night, at 11 p.m., the police searched the vehicle. “They brought us out in our pajamas — we weren’t even allowed to put on our shoes,” Ty says. “They went through all of our cabinets and the reason they gave us was that the people parked previously there had run a meth lab out of their RV.”

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ARTURO MILES AWAY FROM HOME – Arturo holds the door open with his back as he climbs into his RV, carrying a bag of food from a nearby Mexican supermarket in one hand and a ripe cantaloupe in the other. It is a Tuesday – the second full day away from his wife and six kids who live in Fresno. Arturo drives three and a half hours every weekend to get to Palo Alto, where he is employed as a painter, while his family stays rooted in place. This week he is painting the office buildings at Stanford Medical School. “I started to meet people who were coming from the Bay to work,” Arturo says in his native Spanish. “Their salaries were double what I was making and that was my motivation for coming here.” The San Jose rent for sharing one room with three others was $1,200 a month, so Arturo began looking for other housing options. One Sunday, he and his eldest daughter went out and bought the $7,000 RV that is now parked on El Camino Real. Arturo and his wife initially wanted to move their family to Palo Alto but realized it was impossible after looking at the housing prices. “Take that yellow house right there,” Arturo says, pointing toward the corner of Churchill and El Camino. “Four million dollars.

It’s very expensive. No one can buy. We could never.”

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BETTER_SOLUTION

Contemplating Code Junior Caleb Tan has faced the challenges presented by public school computer science education. “I think classes could be made more engaging by integrating fun projects into the course curriculum.”

Photo by Jasmine Venet

32 FEBRUARY 2019

PALY AND THE NATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL COMPUTER SCIENCE EDUCATION SHORTAGE

Text by ALEX FENG and PRAHALAD MITRA

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ALEB TAN ALMOST LAUGHED when the money came in; he could hardly believe that he was raking in free cash.

Put in simple terms, his program, which Google-searches answers to the popular trivia game HQ Trivia in seconds, had netted him an easy $200.

Tan, a junior at Palo Alto High School, had spent over 20 hours coding the project he initially meant as a joke. He knew he probably could have made the same amount working fewer hours under the $15 Palo Alto minimum wage, but figuring out how to intercept data packages from the HQ Trivia websocket and coding a Google frequency search that actually worked was a challenge worth 10 times more than the money itself.

A member of the Paly robotics team, Tan learned to program mainly through mentors and self-study.

Realizing he could manipulate and build the websites and apps he used daily captivated his interest; for his Paly peers, computer science has them enamored from design to data structure.

Currently, Paly students have founded three separate robotics teams, started six different on-campus computer science clubs, spearheaded Paly’s first hackathon PalyHacks and designed the award-winning journaling app Mere.

“Being able to make a product from scratch is honestly the best feeling in the world,” Paly alum and PalyHacks founder Emily Yu says. “You see technology around you everyday but to actually make it is different.”

For Tan, enrolling in challenging computer science classes, such as Advanced Placement Computer Science A, to bolster his programming skills was a logical next step. However, like many prospective enrollments, Tan had heard the rumors: it was a class with an arbitrary grading system and unrelated lectures that deviated significantly from official AP

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at CS majors to get them into their companies. I have four teaching jobs and I’m still not making as much as I could be in the industry.”

Bell touches on the very heart of the issue: the tech industry workforce shortage skyrockets demand — and wages — for qualified candidates. According to a recent report published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there will be 1.4 million available computer science jobs in 2020, and less than a third of those jobs will have qualified applicants to fill them. For computer science graduates faced with choosing a career path, the median salary for software developers in 2017 is roughly 50 percent higher than that of a high school computer science teacher.

In addition to these factors is the lack of a pathway for state computer science instruction certification which has led most districts (including PAUSD) to rely heavily on dual-position math-computer science teachers to staff their departments — a far less optimal solution. This is often compounded by the lack of physical computer science departments, which hinders teacher communication and leads to potential disconnects between class content and class goals.

“Most CS teachers that I know hold a mathematics credential and were originally hired to teach math,” Friebel states. “Computer science [at PAUSD] is not its own department, but rather a collection of electives in the Career Technical Education department. All of my time that the school allocated for collaboration went towards working with other math teachers. I was also the only teacher who taught my courses at Paly… I created all of my curriculum using a variety of resources, including my own experience, books, articles, and videos.”

According to I have four teaching Greyson, there is a growing industry jobs and I’m still not awareness of the making as much as I issue at the high could be in the indusschool level. There try.” is a motivated pop— CHRISTOPHER BELL, Paly computer ulation of students science teacher a is a devoted community of educators willing to do it all to prepare their students for the world that awaits, she says. Though the odds are stacked against high school computer science education, they are also in its favor.

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Decoding the paradox While the tech companies may be the cause of this issue, there is no doubt that some are helping to find solutions for the situation. In fact, Microsoft recently founded Technology Education and Learn

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The bugs in the system Computer science teacher Christopher Bell reclines in his chair, arms crossed and smiling slightly has he ponders the question. An 11-year teaching veteran and former industry professional, Bell knows better than anyone when he says that computer science knowledge is valuable in any profession — programming has become a basic tool in a toolbox for contemporary success. It seems rather paradoxical, then, that the growth of the industry butts heads with the very supplier of its workforce: the education system.

“There’s a teacher shortage in every subject,” Bell says. “It’s just that the [tech] industry throws money

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curriculum, requiring students to spend a substantial amount of time outside of class learning the content required to succeed on the AP test.

For some students, like Yu, the poor experience in the class almost stalled further computer science pursuits.

“The class was disengaging and the somewhat distant lectures had very little class involvement,” Yu says. “Oftentimes students came in with not enough background knowledge to teach themselves, as [the teacher] often required us to do with the assignments...AP Computer Science nearly deterred me from pursuing computer science.”

35% of high schools in Turnovers in the past year have also compoundthe 24 states surveyed ed instability for students looking to take computer offered a single comscience at Paly. Kathleen Krier, hastily hired to fill puter science class the position vacated by SOURCE: Code.org Christopher Kuszmaul’s unplanned leave-of-absence, resigned only three months into the school year amid complaints from students regarding unprofessional behavior. Will Friebel, the pioneer of Paly’s well-regarded web development class, decided to pursue a career in industry at the end of the last school year after five years as a math and computer science teacher.

Yet the issues faced by Palo Alto Unified School District are hardly isolated; they are part of a national issue. According to a 2018 report by the Code.org Advocacy Coalition, only 35 percent of high schools in the 24 states surveyed offered a single computer science class.

In an age where a computer science education has become more important than ever before, these examples beg a larger question: where are high school computer science teachers in students’ time of greatest need?

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be academically mature enough to see how computer science education could enhance their future plans.

“The establishment of a CS department [as an independent academic area] would really help us create a good flow of CS from Pre-kindergarten to junior or senior year of high school,” Antink says. “The District CS Department would have what’s called a “Steering Committee. It would include the Elementary CS Specialist, the Middle School CS ILs, and the High School CS ILs, as well as a district CS TOSA, and the two Assistant Superintendents. As CS develops and changes, they would form the communication hub to create a flow of CS education for our district.”

At the high school level, students have expressed interest in being able to pursue specializations. “None of the classes ever taught serious algorithm or application development concepts, which I would have definitely been interested in,” junior Brion Ye says.

For existing classes, Tan and Yu both believe that students would be able to benefit immensely from the incorporation of more project-based learning in classes.

“It is a great way to encourage enthusiasm amongst those who may prefer to see how the concepts they are using apply to real life,” Yu says. “As opposed to purely test-based grades, perhaps teachers could implement a more hands-on curriculum, including encouraging attendance at learning on their own outside of class, such as at hackathons or other tech conferences.”

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Algorithm for success As the world grows increasingly dependent on computers and code, having experience in the field will become critical in every profession. Outside of computer science classes, Greyson believes that computer science education will find itself gradually assimilated into a variety of classrooms and subject areas.

“I think that humanities related disciplines will increasingly integrate discussions around the ethics and impacts of technologies such a artificial intelligence,” Greyson says. “I hope that there will also be more integration into the arts as students discover the potential for creative expression through code.”

For now, Paly computer science students are faced with the task of engineering the best way to pursue computer science at higher levels, Yu says, until they feel like they will get a better education from the school programs. Some professionals, like Antink, believe that the issues with the education of computer science, including the lack of computer science teachers, will eventually be solved by itself.

“This is a question of social justice, so if they want to make a difference in the world and be a teacher, they [computer science students] might decide to be a teacher of computer science,” she says. v

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ing in School, an organization aimed toward creating effective and sustainable computer science education programs.

The state has taken steps as well. The California State Board of Education officially adopted a series of K-12 computer science standards on Sept. 6 and California Education Code Section [5331053315] requires districts to submit an implementation plan for the new standards by July 15. There are state resources that school districts can access as well. The California Computer Science Strategic Implementation Plan is a collection of teachers, college professors, and other professionals who identify solutions for challenges Cruising with Kusz Paly Computfacing computer scier science teacher Christopher ence education.

Kuszmaul engages with Object Friebel says that Oriented Programming students. better state credenPhoto by Lucia Amieva-Wang tialing pathways and greater district support will cause teachers to be naturally more inclined to teach the subject.

“Currently, you cannot enter a teacher education program as a CS teacher and earn a CS teaching credential,” Friebel says. “If that changes I think we will see an increase in CS teachers. We would also see an increase if districts began creating CS departments to give more legitimacy to the subject.”

Former math instructional supervisor and current Teacher on Special Assignment Suzanne Antink stands with Friebel and would like to see computer science education supported through the district in the form of an established department. According to Antink, the PAUSD Pk-12 Computer Science Curriculum Design Advisory Committee recommended the establishment of a district-wide computer science department along with the establishment of a computer science graduation requirement of a one-semester course, which Antink personally hopes would be offered in junior and senior year, when students would

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SELF-DESCRIBED ‘LESSER COMEDIAN’ EXPLORES IDENTITY, HERITAGE

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WOULD LIKE TO READ YOU guys a poem,” Palo Alto High School junior Anya Trubelja says, flattening her notebook with a hint of a smile before leaping into recitation. “The poem is

by Big ‘D.’ The ‘D’ stands for depression.”

For three consecutive Teen Art Council Open Mic Nights, Trubelja’s comedy stand-up performances, laced with themes of identity exploration and self-deprecation, received wide praise — and laughter — from student audience members. “Depression,” the poem she initially performed at her first Open Mic last May, is awash with simultaneous self-doubt and ego, nods to the emotional paralysis of mental illness and includes every possible synonym for penis.

“Depression: D, my d---,” she says, failing to suppress a smirk. “E, emotional; P, penis. A lesser comedian would make less d--- jokes. I am a lesser comedian. R, regret; E, anger; S, sadness; S, sexy; I, international; O, ongoing pain; N, nut from my d---.

Thank you for listening to my TED Talk.”

Trubelja is a fan-turned-performer — she frequented Open Mics since middle school before eventually stumbling into performing stand-up comedy herself.

“The first time I actually performed was just really fun and I decided to keep on doing it,” she says.

Trubelja says she scraped together “Depression” while fooling around with friends during lunchtime.

She praises junior Sofia Peterson — a friend and her on-demand comedy editor, even during late-nights before performance day — for editing spelling imperfections, catching flat jokes and listening to her practice.

“Either she [Trubelja] shares a document with me or reads it out and I listen to her and give her feedback,” Peterson says. “I also time it to make sure she’s within a five-minute time limit.”

“I help a lot,” fellow editor junior Isabel Armstrong sarcastically interjects to a chorus of chuckles. “Anya is a star, she’s incredible. I’m just an editor and I add commas where they need to happen.”

36 FEBRUARY 2019

“Yes, commas,” Trubelja says. “I do not believe in punctuation.”

The resulting poem was a hit among audience members, so Trubelja performed at the Open Mics again, and soon became a fan-favorite.

“Some people have come up to me and been like ‘You’ve inspired me to do stand up,’” Trubelja says. “That’s really cool. I get to do something that inspires other people — I find that really amazing.”

Self-deprecation, self-exploration While her primary craft is eccentric comedy, Trubelja’s side project is just as out of the ordinary. If your prototypical image of a Serbian mafia member is a tough, middle-aged mob boss, think again —

for Trubelja claims she is one as well.

“There is this a joke that I’m a part of the Serbian mafia,” Trubelja says. “I’m half Serbian and half Croatian and there are a

profiles lot of stereotypes … so I kind of play on that.”

Although the joke may initially sound fantastical, Trubelja uses this comedic trope to explore her disconnected identity as a first-generation American. She says she doesn’t know much about her parents’ home countries, and her Croatian is loše — or not as fluent as she desires — so researching her parents’ home countries for her comedic acts provides her with an excuse to brush up on the political happenings in the Balkans.

“In one of my first stand-ups, I made this joke about how much bureaucracy there is in Bosnia because I think there’s like seven presidents,” Trubelja says. “We have all the Bond villains, but seven times more bureaucracy. We’re like Russia lite.”

While her comedy is laced with (literally) depressing content and European political jargon, the themes behind her comedy are self-exploration and connection.

“It [the joke] sounds horrible, but I feel more connected to my culture,” she says.

“TRANSITION” In place of a comedic transition between jokes, Trubelja yells ‘transition.’

This clumsy approach developed from her self-described unsuccessful attempt to em-

ulate the transitions of John Mulaney, a comedian she admires.

“Mulaney has amazing transitions — you don’t even realize that he’s moved on to the next thing. I wanted to do that, but it’s really difficult. So, at first I just put it [‘transition’] in as a placeholder,” Trubelja says. “And when I was practicing in front of my friend [Peterson] ... she was the one who’s like, ‘you should just leave it.’”

Trubelja’s signature transition is not her only tribute to other comedians. She draws inspiration from comedians Bert Kreischer — who she appreciates for his freewheeling comedic style — John Mulaney, Ali Wong and Trevor Noah.

“One of the rules of comedy is you’re not supposed to laugh when you’re on stage, but ... more and more comedians are starting to break [that] — like Bert Kreischer,” Trubelja says. “He laughs all the time.”

The styles of Trubelja’s muses are prominently reflected in her performances — for example, like Kreischer, she allows herself to let a chuckle slip through on stage. She says this casual style of comedy is partly why she appeals to teen audiences.

“Being able to laugh at yourself is what most like teenagers find appealing,” Trubelja says. “Like … just being able to swear on stage and talking about d----.”

Headstrong Wong Trubelja’s favorite comedians use vary-

CREATIVE JUICES FLOWING Any a Trubelja writes in one of her notebooks. The “e” for anger from the poem “Depression” is not a typo — while brainstorming ideas, Trubelja says she stumbled, stating that anger started with an ‘e.’”

“I thought anger started with an ‘E,’” Trubelja says with a chuckle. “I’m really bad at spelling.”

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ing approaches, topics and comedic auras.

Her main female influence is Ali Wong, notable for comedic explorations of economic stratification, her children and her Asian heritage; however, Trubelja says Wong’s jokes are executed in a manner that defies expectations placed on female comedians.

“Ali Wong is one of my only female comedian role models, so I think that’s like really cool that I get to bring myself on stage,” Trubelja says. “The fact that I am a female comedian — I don’t like that term but — there’s definitely this idea that women aren’t funny, so it makes me very happy that people like actually like my stand up.”

According to Trubelja, the label “female comedian” often diminishes how people perceive women comedians.

“I am proud of being a woman but being a female comedian implies you’re a lesser comedian. I do consider myself a lesser comedian, not because I am a woman but because I sometimes hide it,” Trubelja says. “That’s why I love my character, who is the first captain in the Serbian mafia. In my mind, she is a powerful woman.”

Trubelja also believes that the term boxes women comedians into topics solely regarding the female experience. “‘Female comedian’ has a connotation like ‘I’m going to talk about gender stereotypes,’” Trubelja says, “I kinda try to have fun and try not to get into all those dark topics.”

Instead, she focuses on uplifting, formative comedy over contentious topics.

“I avoid talking about politics and social justice issues … It [comedy] is also an escape,” Trubelja says. “I want people to connect but also to be able to escape with fun facts.”

Joke’s on us At the most recent Open Mic on Feb. 1, rainbow-shifting glow floods the community room. High schoolers fill the room, either sitting in chairs or on blankets on the floor. While Trubelja says that she is unsure if she will continue to perform or for how long, the audience welcomes her to the stage with a roar of applause.

“Basically, I’m famous now,” Trubelja says sardonically, in reference to this profile.

“So I expect all of you to be laughing at my jokes. To answer your question, yes I have let the fame all go to my head and yes, I will now be selling merch.” v

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Text by JASMINE VENET and ALEX FENG

SKY HIGH

A YOUNG PILOT’S JOURNEY TO THE TOP NIGHT FLIGHTS Small planes sit in the empty Palo Alto Airport at dusk. Palo Alto High School senior Ryan Ehrlich’s dedication to flying has allowed him to earn his license after much studying and practicing, while also managing to keep up with his classes and schoolwork. “It [flying] definitely was a time suck,” Ehrlich says. ”But when I was studying the flying stuff I was also studying my chemistry and my physics and math.”

Photo courtesy of Ryan Ehrlich

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O MOST, GRIPPING THE control sticks of an airplane thousands of feet in the air seems terrifying, but it’s the feeling of being in complete control that really thrills Palo Alto High School senior Ryan Ehrlich.

Growing up in Canada, Ehrlich and his family would often canoe up a lake to watch seaplanes take off and land. Since then, Ehrlich has been fascinated with planes, but never got the chance to build on his interest until the summer before his first year of high school. This was when, Ehrlich says, he interned at a software startup which gave him flying lessons as compensation for his work.

After his first lesson, he was hooked.

Ehrlich then started regularly taking flying lessons, working directly for software companies to help pay for them. The more he flew, the more interested and dedicated he became.

“As I flew more, I became more interested in it,” Ehrlich says. “It’s very compli-

38 FEBRUARY 2019

cated and I really enjoy it; it is kind of an application of everything I’ve learned at school, which is really interesting because it made me enjoy my classes more.”

A pilot’s education When he entered high school and began renting a plane once or twice a month at the West Valley Flying Club to practice, Ehrlich says he had to figure out how to balance his academic life and that in the cockpit of the plane.

Luckily, his pilot training translated directly to his school life, allowing him to learn more about subjects like chemistry, physics and math through a practical, hands-on process.

“It’s a very real application of it [my classes],” Ehrlich says. “I’ve been doing a lot of work [at school] and it’s nice to take that and apply it to something.”

Ehrlich views flying as a one-of-a-kind learning experience that has helped make him a more procedure-oriented person.

“You have to be very responsible as a

person, and you can’t leave anything up to chance,” Ehrlich says in regards to his rules of thumb when flying. “You have to make sure you know everything that you’re about to do, and you have to be very confident in what you’re doing.”

No easy process Whether it be spent at a desk or in a plane, Ehrlich says he always makes sure to organize his time wisely, double- and triple-checking everything he has to do. His flight instructor, Wes Irish, says he admires this dedication and attention to detail, from the countless hours of work he put in to pass his pilot’s test to his meticulous inspection of the plane each time he prepares to go flying.

“He’s not only measured the tanks, he’s figured out their implications, how it affects our flight, and how to deal with it,” Irish says. “And that’s why he’s an exceptional student.”

The process of becoming a pilot is a long and strenuous one, a challenge Eh-

NOT SO PLANE Ehrlich has been flying for the past four years. Having fallen in love with it at a young age, Ehrlich decided to pursue his interest. “I like it not because it’s unconventional but because it’s very personal,” Ehrlich says. “Ultimately, you’re not competing with someone else, you’re competing against yourself to make yourself better.” Photo by Jasmine Venet

UP HIGH Ehrlich flies over the transition to San Jose International Airport’s airspace. “Everything looks so much smaller [in the air],” Ehrlich says. Photo courtesy of Ryan Ehrlich

rlich eagerly took on. Although only able become a good pilot,” Irish says. “It’s someto obtain his pilot’s license at the age of thing that takes a real dedication to doing 17, in the time leading up to that, Ehrlich properly.” practiced rigorously. He tirelessly studied for the exams that lay between him and his More than just a plane license. Ehrlich also spent hours flying in Ever since his first day of flying, Irish the cockpits of planes under Irish’s careful noticed Ehrlich’s fascination with planes, guidance, preparing and his determination to for the practical porbecome a pilot.

Ultimately, you’re tion of his exams.

“From the very beAccording to ginning, Ryan exhibited not competing with Irish, Ehrlich first the proper qualities [of someone else, you’re a pilot],” Irish says. “He had to go through a six-inch stack of basic was genuinely interested competing against reading before taking in learning to fly, and he yourself to make the Federal Aviation was, from day one, willAdministration writing to do the reading and yourself better.” ten exam and FAA willing to do the work.”

— RYAN EHRLICH, Paly senior practical exam, made From his first time up of an oral and flying alone in a plane flying exam. They require not only book last September to flying his first solo smarts, but hours and hours of flying prac- cross-country flight from one airport to tice, Irish says. another, Ehrlich says these moments have “You have to be methodical and dili- only fueled his passion for flying. gent, and if you’re not, you’re not going to “It was just really enjoyable,” Eh-

rlich says, reminiscing on his first solo cross-country flight. “We had a really beautiful day, there wasn’t a lot of traffic in the sky, and it just went really well.”

However, not everything has run smoothly, this year being an especially tough one for Ehrlich. The wild fires causing limited small plane travel and college applications taking up most of his time, Ehrlich has no thad the opportunity to fly for a couple months. These restrictions have not lessened his joy of flying, though.

Although Ehrlich says he is not sure how much flying he will be able to do in the future, his love for the hard work, complexity and most of all, feeling of satisfaction every time he safely gets his plane from point A to point B, continue to motivate him.

“I definitely love doing it [flying],” Ehrlich says. “I don’t know so much as a career because of logistics, but I’d like to fly ideally in college — I don’t know what the situation will be like there depending on where I am, but I really enjoy doing it.” v

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The Hickey Family Team ZOOMING IN ON A FAMILY OF SPORTS PHOTOGRAPHERS Text by ABBY CUMMINGS Additional reporting by ZAKIR AHMAD

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EANING AGAINST A GYM wall, two generations of the Hickey family sit side by side, cameras at the ready. As Palo Alto High School basketball players rush to the net, sophomore Jenna Hickey, her brother senior David Hickey, and their mother, Karen Hickey grip their camera lenses in unison in preparation for the perfect shot.

The ball swooshes through the net and the clicking sounds of all three cameras simultaneously fill the gym.

The Hickey family tradition of photography revolved around sports since the beginning. When Jenna started competitive gymnastics and David became involved with T-ball and soccer, Karen picked up a hobby of her own.

“A friend told me about a sports photography class and I took it,” Karen says. “I loved it and improved pretty quickly, so I got a better lens and kept going.”

Soon enough, she was shooting every one of Jenna and David’s games at Greene Middle School and eventually moved on to

Paly games. Although she originally volunteered to photograph the band at the varsity games on Fridays, her focus promptly shifted from the stands to the field. “[During varsity games] David would text me from the stands saying ‘Hey, stop photographing [the band] ... start doing football,’” Karen says. “Now, David plays varsity football and Jenna does cheer, so I’m always out there.”

Just four weeks into David’s freshman football season, he broke his arm and was confined to the bench. Instead of just watching the games, he picked up a camera and joined his mom, staying close to the action.

“I didn’t want to be on the sideline with the junior varsity team,” David says.

“My mom had a major impact on me starting to take photos. She introduced me to photography and taught me everything I know.”

Together, Karen and David have photographed nearly all of the Paly sports teams, and Jenna is quickly catching up.

PICTURE THIS Karen Hickey waits for the Paly football players to make their way to her side of the field. “It [football] is an intense game and I’ve always liked it,” Karen says. “I have to be smarter or faster than the defense in guessing where the ball will be going so I can get the photos.” Photo

by Lucia Amieva-Wang

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“

I want to show [athletes] at their best — or even capture the fun, little moments that most people might miss. A pat on the back, a smile or a hand to help someone up — that’s all about the spirit of the game.”

— KAREN HICKEY, Paly parent and photographer

The youngest of the family, she started shooting football games two years ago as a freshman. All three agree that football takes the most skill but yields the greatest rewards.

“I love photographing football because my brother plays it and it’s such a fun sport,” Jenna says. “Growing up it was on the TV every Sunday, Monday, Thursday, Friday — just so much that I’ve kind of grown up around it.”

To get the perfect action shot during football games, the Hickeys say they must constantly think smarter and act faster than the defense to predict where the ball will go next. After years of practice, they know most players by their names and numbers and can successfully navigate the field and target certain players for action shots.

“I love that I can capture a split second in time in which the athlete is at their peak performance and just say ‘Wow,’” Karen says. “It all happens so fast that you don’t

42 FEBRUARY 2019

SHOOT YOUR SHOT A typical Friday night for the Hickeys involves cameras, players and action.

“It really fills my heart to be doing something fun together,” Karen says. “I give advice and point things out, and I love watching them discover how to make an image better. But I also learn from them — they might tell me a detail about an athlete or point something out that I might have missed.” Photo by Abby Cummings

realize the effort needed to catch the ball, make the goal or swing the bat.”

In a game as intense as football, Karen says she aims to take photos that not only highlight the action but also the camaraderie between players. She pays attention to what goes on both on and off the football field.

“I want to show [athletes] at their best — or even capture the fun, little moments that most people might miss,” Karen says.

“A pat on the back, a smile or a hand to help someone up — that’s all about the spirit of the game.”

Like a coach, Karen helped her children become the skilled photographers they are today. She taught them everything from altering lighting and framing the ideal

shot to post-production editing.

“Sometimes I’ll just sit down with my parents and talk about a photo I want and they’ll walk me through what I should try,” David says. “My mom was also her [Jenna’s] main teacher, but every now and then I’ll give her a tip or something to keep in mind when taking photos.”

Recognized by players on the field and students in the stands alike, the Hickey family unit has quickly become a fixture at Paly sporting events. Photography is their way of giving back to the Palo Alto community; but most of all, it is what helps them grow closer as a family.

“Most families go hiking or something to spend time with each other,” Jenna says.

“We take photos.” v

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Text by COURTNEY KERNICK, PRAHALAD MITRA and ZOË WONG-VANHAREN Photos and art by ZOË WONG-VANHAREN

AN ASPIRING MECHANIC’S REVVING PASSION

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HERE IS A SLIGHT SMELL of burning rubber coming from junior Gray Kim’s car, but that doesn’t worry him at all. There shouldn’t be anything wrong with the car and even if there is, he can just fix it.

After all, Kim is no stranger to the intricacies of automobiles — mechanics have been a part of his life since birth. With his home-made car and self-made robotics team, Kim is jump-starting his future.

A born mechanic Kim’s family garage is perennially full of machines and gadgets — a milling machine sits in the far right corner, while a plasma cutter and welder share a table along the wall. Luckily for him, Kim says, he has had nearly free rein in his mechanical pursuits from a young age.

“It [mechanics] just kinda came naturally,” Kim says. “I have a photo of me using a hand drill and I was two or something like that. I drilled a hole in the floor.”

It was Kim’s father who taught him how to use machinery, and they have worked together on projects in their free time ever since. When Kim was in fifth grade, they built a 3D printer from a kit and he also received his first remote controlled car.

As Kim modified the car to go faster, his interest in building and designing grew.

Since the 3D printer in fifth grade, Kim has started and completed many projects on his own,

taking an interest in mechatronics and specializing in flying quadcopters and drones.

As he dove into the field, the extent to which his dad could help him lessened. In those moments, Kim turned to the Internet for knowledge, surfing YouTube and forums for information about electronics.

“My dad’s taught me a good amount about good habits when you’re designing stuff that’s mechanical but as soon as you get into electrical stuff he doesn’t know much,” Kim says.

Kim particularly enjoys the building process and speed of small drones. Over the years, he’s built six or seven drones and even sold some to his friends. From buying parts on eBay to 3D printing his own designs, Kim now manufactures advanced flying drones with built-in cameras and paired flight goggles entirely on his own.

“I love remote-controlled stuff,” Gray says. “I like it in my free time as a hobby when I’m frustrated.”

In addition to flying contraptions, Kim loves to construct wheeled vehicles.

He started building his electric bike in middle school and worked on perfecting the design for around one year. That might seem like forever, but it’s nothing compared to the time he has spent on his car.

Braking expectations After his electric bike’s success, Kim decided he wanted to go bigger. With the support of his dad, he set his eyes on building a fully-electric car.

“At first I thought: Why don’t I convert one, a Miata or something like that to electric?” Kim says. “Then I was like, it’s not that hard to convert a car and I wanted more of a challenge, so I decided to build one from the ground up instead.”

Along the way, Kim says he discovered many issues he did not know how to tackle.

The most difficult of these was when he fell off of his electric bike and injured his wrist, which required surgery.

“That was probably the hardest thing I had to go through because I couldn’t work on the car for half a year,” Kim says.

Because of his injury, the project ultimately lasted two-and-a-half years.

“It was hard to start again after that because I didn’t really feel like I was making progress for a long time,” Kim says. “Then my dad really pushed me to finish it.”

It was this persistence that yielded a fully-finished electric vehicle. Made with a forklift engine and put together in his garage, Kim’s 180-volt Lotus 7 model has been a continuously exciting process.

“Just seeing the wheels on the frame ... That was pretty fun to see, even without anything on it,” Kim says.

Though there were many thrilling moments along the way, Kim says his biggest breakthrough came toward the end of the process, when he was able to register the car.

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THE BIG REVEAL Gray Kim proudly unveils his newest creation. According to Kim, the car has been both his favorite and most difficult project. “I probably wouldn’t have started the project knowing how hard it was going to be,” Kim says.

44 FEBRUARY 2019

AROUND THE BLOCK Gray Kim drives his Lotus 7 around his neighborhood. He has spent about two-and-a-half years perfecting the design and applying what he learned in Auto class.

“When I can see it applying to something directly in real life, I feel like I latch onto it more.”

“When I got a VIN [Vehicle Identification Number] and a [license] plate — that was really fun.”

According to Kim, this project allowed him to master skills related to both mechanics and electronics and changed his perspective on conventional cars.

“As far as consumer product goes, it gives me so much respect for a company who designs a phone, or cameras,” Kim says. “It requires so much time to go from R&D [research and development] to prototyping to final production.”

Gearing up Now Kim participates in a collective R&D of his own. This year, Kim and his friend and fellow junior Quintin Dwight decided to create their own robotics team.

Dubbed “Garage Robotics” after the only location they could set up shop, the crew of 10 competes as a “rookie team” and is currently building a robot that will complete a designated challenge in the First Robotics Competition league.

Despite their small numbers and lack of resources, Garage Robotics is fine-tuning and perfecting a design which will ultimately compete against Paly’s Team 8’s.

“The nice thing about having a small team is when people are closely connected to the robot, they’re willing to help and put more in than the team of, you know, 80 that is kind of disconnected,” Kim says.

But Kim says working in a small group poses its own challenges. Garage Robotics only has nine active members, a minuscule number compared to the approximately 80 students on Team 8.

Consequently, each member of Garage Robotics has a critical role in the construction of the robot, which Kim says can naturally be a lot to handle.

“Right now the only person on my design team is me, so it’s been really stressful,” Kim says.

Creating his own robotics team has also allowed him to work with others, unlike his previous solitary projects.

“You learn a lot more when you’re collaborating,” Kim says.

Accelerating into the future Outside of his personal endeavors, Kim has also explored the world of engineering in a more professional context. Over the summer he interned at a mechanical design and product development company, which offered him a window into the lives of mechanical engineers and real-world applications.

In the future, Kim will continue to pursue mechanics and drive his car when he can. He likes giving short rides to his friends and enjoys the feeling of riding fast through the streets.

“I love driving this thing,” Kim says.

“Doesn’t it just put a smile on your face?” v

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Photos by LUCIA AMIEVA-WANG

Text by ELLA THOMSEN and KOBI JOHNSSON

NEW TEAM ON THE ICE AN OUTLET FOR PALO ALTO HOCKEY PLAYERS

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HE SOUND OF ENTHUSIASTIC tapping fills the air as the pomp of the national anthem draws to a close. As fans take their seats, the starting five players from the Palo Alto Vikings and Tahoe Prep glide across the ice to their positions. The few remaining Vikings sit down on the bench, while the Tahoe Prep players cram into theirs.

The game against Tahoe Prep is tough — the Vikings are outnumbered and under-equipped, which makes it all the more thrilling for head coach Craig Janik when the team ultimately wins. As he congratulates the players and celebrates with their parents, he can’t help but contain his smile.

“Our guys had to play very smart and very efficient to be able to play a solid three periods,” Craig says.

With only 14 players on the roster, the team struggles to field enough players for the games, leading to fewer options for substitutions and longer playing time for those on the ice.

Recruiting new players is also a challenge, since the team isn’t officially sanctioned by Paly. However, the hardest step — getting the team started — is already over.

The makings of a team The idea of an ice hockey team in Palo Alto is pretty unusual, as the California climate does not freeze local bodies of water and there aren’t many ice rinks in the area. However, for

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founding student and junior Stanley “Stosh” Janik, this was not a deterrent.

“The team started as a mutual idea between my father and I,” Stosh says. “I’ve played hockey for almost half my life and was introduced to hockey by my father, who is an enthusiastic advocate for the sport.”

Since ice hockey is not part of the California Interscholastic Federation, the governing body for high school athletics, teams are rarely recognized as school-sanctioned varsity sports.

As a result, the hockey team was not approved as a school sport by the Paly administration. So, the team joined the Sharks High School Hockey League.

Though the team is technically considered as a standalone entity, they still feel like full-fledged members of the Paly sports community.

“The players all consider themselves representing Palo Alto High School even though it’s not any kind of official thing,” Craig says. “But in their head that’s how they think about it.”

The next major hurdle they faced happened before the team was even created: they had to be able to field a team.

Though they succeeded this season, a 14-player team is relatively small and it is unclear how they will fare next season.

Seven team members are freshmen, three are seniors and the goalie is a homeschooled student provided by the league.

profiles

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(LEFT) The Vikings PRESS into Tahoe Prep’s half of the ice during the first period. The small roster they have led them to develop a unique style of play — “smart and gritty” is how Craig describes it. (MIDDLE) Sophomore Charlie Sullivan exits the ice after the Vikings’ 5-3 win against Tahoe Prep on Jan. 29. (RIGHT) Senior Ethan Geller skates inside as senior Anthony Georgiadis carries the puck into the attacking zone.

“We have a very, very skilled team, but we just have a small team,” Coach Craig says.

Taking the ice The hockey team opened the season with an emphatic 9-2 victory against Pioneer High School in San Jose, followed by a tight loss to Willow Glen, a draw against Valley Christian and close losses to St. Francis and Los Gatos High School.

Spanning from October to March, the hockey season consists of 12 games. This season, the Vikings will play two games at the SAP center in San Jose, the arena used by the San Jose Sharks. The other 10 will take place at Solar4America Ice, an arena located near the SAP center.

“Playing at the SAP center is awesome, not just because of the quality of the stadium but also because we get to meet players for the [San Jose] Barracuda and watch the games afterward,” Stosh says. “It’s definitely a little intimidating to be in the professional-size rink, but I can usually shrug it off and play my best.”

The Vikings performed exceptionally well their first season as a team; but victories aside, their main goal has been to learn to play together as a team and on the ice.

“The season so far has been great,” Stosh says. “We’ve been holding our own in the league and winning fairly often ... The games are fast, fun, clean and skilled.”

Looking to the future Despite its meteoric rise, the team’s future has yet to be determined, as only the National Hockey League can fully transform ice hockey into a varsity sport.

“These kids are incredibly dedicated to athletics, eating healthy, getting to practice, working out, getting their school work done and it’s a shame that it’s not treated as a varsity sport,” says Anthony Schweitzer, father of Benjamin Schweitzer, a freshman on the team.

Senior Anthony Georgiadis hadn’t played ice hockey since he moved from Chicago four years ago. When the team was created this year, he leapt at the opportunity to play again — varsity sport or not. It has been a successful season thus far, and Georgiadis has even higher hopes for the future.

“My assumption is that they’re [the team] going to get pretty good, especially by the time that all the freshmen are seniors,” Georgiadis says.

Craig is optimistic, especially about his short-term goal of making the play-offs and long-term goal of giving ice hockey players attending Paly the opportunity to play for their school.

Schweitzer, too, wishes to see hockey become Paly-affiliated.

“High school hockey is a lot ... more fun for the kids compared to club hockey, and school spirit is pretty important to them,” says Schweitzer. “So they get to play with a little more pride.” v

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Text by WARREN WAGNER, MYRA XU and ABE TOW Photos by WARREN WAGNER

Boy Scouts of America EXPANDING OPPORTUNITY OR CORNERING A MARKET?

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ROM THE OUTSIDE, it was a quiet evening at Covenant Presbyterian Church on East Meadow Road. But inside a bright common room, Boy Scouts — some barely out of elementary school, some nearing graduation from high school — laughed and learned as they rotated through stations on government, wildlife and more.

This noisy, late January occasion was the meeting of BSA Palo Alto Troop 14, a branch of the Boy Scouts of America in the Stanford district. This group, like all Boy Scout troops, is made up exclusively of boys and young men. But now, this troop will be joined by thousands of other nearly identical troops comprised only of girls.

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Last May, the BSA organization — an umbrella for many scouting programs, some of which are co-ed — announced that its largest institution, the Boy Scouts, would be renamed Scouts BSA and accept all-girl troops for the first time in its 109year history.

In response, the Girl Scouts of the USA sued the BSA for damaging the Girl Scouts brand. But the backdrop of this debate is the steady decline of both storied organizations.

In 2003, there were 3.2 million boys in BSA’s traditional scouting programs and 2.9 million girls in the Girl Scouts. Those numbers have since dwindled to 2.2 million boys and 1.8 million girls, respectively,

according to the BSA’s annual report and NBC New York.

Some, such as Shoshanah Cohen, troop leader of Girl Scout Troop 62868, say this policy change is “a way to get more kids doing BSA in general.”

If the move is primarily intended to boost enrollment numbers, it appears to be working. The Pacific Skyline Council — which covers Boy Scout Troops in the South Bay — has around 200 troops. That will balloon to about 220 once the new allgirl troops are added, a shot in the arm that would reverse a few years’ decline.

Ever since early February, the BSA has been accepting the first charters for all-girl troops, and the members of the BSA and

profiles CUTTING THE CAKE (LEFT) A senior BSA organizer and two girl Cub Scouts cut a cake inscribed with “Welcome to Scouts BSA!” Feb. 1 was the first time that girls could register to become Scouts in the BSA. Scoutmaster Nan Boden says “the girls that come into [BSA], I think they’ll have a wonderful, wonderful experience, just like the boys have had available to them.”

the Girl Scouts are facing the effects of this change.

Scout’s hon-her Girls and boys, toddlers and elder scoutmasters and everyone in between donned scout uniforms to welcome girls into the scout program for the first time.

It was a festive atmosphere on Feb. 1 as leaders, scouts and parents from the Pacific Skyline Council chatted excitedly over cake and punch.

One of those leaders is Nan Boden, a BSA scoutmaster, who feels that this change was a long time coming.

“In our troop in Southern California, we always had girls participate. We had what we called a little sister’s patrol — they always went with us camping, they always wanted to be a part of the activities and we always welcomed them,” Boden says. “But when it came time for the recognition of

their achievements, it just wasn’t available to them.”

Boden also says that she’s grateful that young girls will have the same life-changing opportunities that she says were given to her sons.

“My eldest son has special needs and I started scouting with him when he was in first grade, and [BSA] just made all the difference in his development,” Boden says.

“It was just as impactful on all the other boys as well, so we’ve been a scouting family ever since.”

Doubt with the Girl Scouts?

Many girls are enthusiastic about this new development, for they will have the opportunity to do activities they would rarely do in Girl Scouts.

Troop 60764 Girl Scout and Palo Alto High School sophomore Andie Tetzlaff says that this change will promote a sense of inclusion between girls and boys.

Tetzlaff is also seriously considering joining BSA. “There are more adventures with Boy Scouts,” Tetzlaff says. “I’d rather go on more camping trips and long hikes instead of meeting once a month and cooking food and occasionally volunteering.”

Tetzlaff is right in that BSA Scouts

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do engage in a lot of outdoor trips. Junior and Boy Scout Lucas Finot explains that his BSA Troop goes on one major excursion a month, with outings ranging from hiking in New Mexico to spelunking in California.

Cohen disagrees. “I hear about Girl Scouts only doing crafts, not outdoor activities, which is quite untrue,” she says.

Cohen also says she sees a double standard in the media coverage and public perception of the two organizations.

“I hear a lot about ... ‘At last, there will be a way for girls to become an Eagle scout,’” Cohen says. “For some reason they seemed focused on that, and not the [analogous] Gold Award.”

Tetzlaff also says that she finds value in being in an all-girl organization.

“I feel like boys and girls won’t have the same bond with each other,” Tetzlaff says. “There are always some things that they can’t discuss, which doesn’t enhance their relationship like girls with [other] girls can do.”

Despite some Girl Scouts’ reservations, Boden remains grateful for the policy shift.

“This milestone really represents opening the opportunity to all the youth of America without regard to gender,” she says. “And I think that’s very much timely to do.” v

REAL TROOPERS (BELOW) Paly sophomore Robbie Marlow (left) and junior Lucas Finot (right), long time scouts, lead a station teaching younger scouts about civic engagement. This group, a part of Scout Troop 4014, will soon be joined by an all-girl sister troop with which they’ll work closely.

“When you’re just joining Boy Scouts … it’s a little bit helpful to have people like you to bond with, but I don’t think [including girls] will change that that much,” says Senior Patrol Leader Ayaan Furtado-Tiwari.

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Text by KAYLA BRAND, KATE MILNE and SASHA POOR

From Friends To Family FAMILY BUSINESSES ENHANCE COMMUNITY

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OCATED ON CALIFORNIA AVENUE, two family businesses are strengthening familial and community ties through meticulous shoe repair at the European Cobblery and handcrafted coffee at Backyard Brew. Though one has been in business for decades and the other was established just recently, the relationships they foster are similar. Run by fourth-generation owners and a young family, respectively, they add character to the street and broader community. v

EUROPEAN COBBLERY

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FLOOR-TO-CEILING WINDOW DISPLAY of handworked leather purses behind sparkling glass attracts the most tasteful of California Avenue shoppers. Brightly colored socks, shelves full of unique wooden clogs and the smell of leather polish greet the senses upon entering the shop.

Even as a technological wave hits Silicon Valley, the allure of the European Cobblery, a long-standing family business founded in 1940 by Gabe Oller, has persisted.

A doorway behind the register offers a glimpse of Richard Corny and Stephen Oberhauser, two of the four owners of this family business, working on the latest repair order.

Their workspace houses racks of handheld tools; repaired boots and purses waiting to be picked up; machines that spin and send sparks flying and even a sleepy French bulldog named Ramses who rests under the counter.

“He’s the store mascot,” jokes Oberhauser, who wears a baseball cap and a friendly grin.

As the machines hum, Jessica Roth, great-granddaughter of Oller, helps a customer at the cash register. Wearing eclectic jewelry, Roth’s style fits right in with the funky footwear displayed throughout the room.

As a Palo Altan teen, Roth was never interested in being part of the business. Once the cobblery began to sell shoes and not just repair them, however, she became interested in working for her parents.

Much like their mother, Roth’s two children, junior Lilli Corny and senior Hanna Corny, have grown up in the store and spend a considerable amount of time in the current location at 410 California Ave. Lilli has many cherished memories from being in the store with her family; one of her favorites was when she was six and her mother asked her to help bring out shoes for a customer.

“I was nervous and excited and stressed out at the same time,” Lilli says. “Even though it’s such a simple task, I was worried maybe I would give the shoes to the wrong person. So I went back and my mom helped me bring them [the shoes] out.”

Although the business has always been run and owned by family members, Roth is a firm believer that her children should find their own paths in life and pursue their own passions.

“None of our kids are allowed to [take over],” Roth says.

“I’m not ready to retire anytime soon … We’re really encouraging all of our children to find their own path. Not only because we are not sure how sustainable small business is, but it’s really important to us that our kids are doing something that they like.”

For Lilli, being a part of the family business has taught her fundamental skills, and one of her most valued aspects of being involved with the store is her "relationship with the community [and] getting to know new people."

HARD AT WORK Stephen Oberhauser (left) and Richard Corny (right) hammer and paint two shoes. The workroom has a homey feel and it is clear the two cobblers know their way around quite well. "Being part of the business on California Avenue has made me part of the community," says Roth. Photo by Kate Milne

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BACKYARD BREW

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ALKING DOWN the painted alleyway into Backyard Brew off California Avenue, it’s clear this is not your generic Starbucks coffee shop. For one, the entire cafe is outdoors, with holiday lights glowing on mural-covered walls and crossing the open blue sky overhead. For another, what appears to be a simple cardboard box at first glance transforms into a 10-foot child’s fort — lovingly named “Adam’s House” after owner Ryan Khalil’s toddler son — fully equipped with peek-a-boo windows and a door handle made of a baby blue glove.

At Backyard Brew, there is no such thing as a traditional patron — only friends, says Ryan. Managed by Paly graduates and couple Ryan and Rania and staffed by their close friends, Backyard Brew strives to foster a welcoming environment where visitors can relax and residents can develop closer bonds.

Their community-oriented focus should come as little surprise given the long-standing ties their family has to this town; not only did Ryan and many of the staff grow up in Palo Alto and attend Paly, his cousin, Omar Khalil, is currently a junior at Paly.

“We're not just in Palo Alto. We are part of it,” Ryan says.

A LOVING HUG Two year old Adam Khalil (left) hugs his father, Ryan

This welcoming mentality creates an oasis of free-spirited en- Khalil, in the open plaza of Backyard Brew as the day winds to a close. ergy and a community atmosphere that can’t be found in a chain He hopes to encourage everyone to pursue what they are passionate about and attributes his want for others to succeed to those who have business. helped him in the past. "A lot of people in my life have gone out of “Backyard Brew. This is your backyard too,” says Adil Ahsan their way to help me and I just want to return the favor," Ryan says.

Photo by Kayla Brand (Class of 2009), who works at the cafe and graduated with Ryan.

The family attitude also carries over to the crossed-trained employees of Backyard Brew, whose wide range of talents and responAs important as the family business is to him, Ryan feels it is sibilities are supported by their colleagues at the cafe. important to let Omar discover his passions independently of the “Every single person has their own dream and family business. He wants him to be free to make his own not everyone wants to be in a coffee shop,” choices and live his own life. However, Omar’s visits are Ryan says. “It [Backyard Brew] is to help always welcome, Ryan says. you build the skills that you want to ob“He [Omar] has a bubble of pure positive entain over time for yourself.” ergy around him,” Ryan says.

“We're not just in

Although he now works at Trader Ryan not only appreciates Omar’s frequent Joe’s, Omar says he used to help with visits, but also his new ideas and interests, rangPalo Alto. We are cleaning and building to prepare ing from the cafe to his schoolwork. part of it.”

Backyard Brew for opening. After the “I love curiosity and excitement,” Ryan cafe opened, he worked as a barista or says. “Omar is a very curious person … and a — RYAN KHALIL, owner cashier on the weekends. very smart one too.” of Backyard Brew “The environment is really posiOmar, too, speaks highly of Ryan. tive and uplifting, just being there when “He [Ryan] is a very understanding and mindI can is so amazing because it just gives off ful person,” Omar says. “He definitely does take other such a vibe that makes me feel so relaxed and people's opinions into account and bases decisions on happy,” Omar says. everyone's input on an idea.”

However, with his taxing junior year workload and his Omar says he enjoys Backyard Brew and all he has learned new job at Town and Country, Omar hasn’t had time to work at from his cousin. Although Omar no longer has the time to work the Backyard Brew. there, the cafe provides an inspiring story and a community where Ryan says that if Omar must choose between helping out Omar can relax with friends and family. at Backyard Brew and dedicating extra time to working hard at “To see Backyard Brew grow really was eye-opening and craschool, academics is the first priority. zy,” Omar says. “It's sort of a second home.”

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Text by ABE TOW and JENNY TSENG

Photos by LUCIA AMIEVA-WANG

Love & Sandwiches

LOCAL FAVE IKE’S TO GO NATIONAL

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KE’S PLACE knows exactly how to craft the quintessential sandwich bite. The shop’s deliciously fresh bread serves as the perfect vessel for its mouthwatering fillings and its signature secret “Dirty Sauce” ensures each mouthful is packed with flavor.

In just over a decade, Ike Shehadeh, the mastermind behind the sandwiches, has perfected hundreds of sandwich options and created a sandwich empire that is soon to span across the United States.

His original store started as a humble 400-square foot café in San Francisco’s Castro district that offered breakfast foods, salads, drinks, ice cream and sandwiches. In the 12 years since, Ike has opened an additional 55 locations across California, Hawaii, Nevada and Arizona, and has recently signed a 100-store development deal to franchise out into the east side of the United States.

His newest store, which opened last month in downtown Palo Alto, seems small and unassuming but is actually a sandwich oasis in a desert of office buildings, convenience stores and clothing boutiques.

While the massive menu may look intimidating at first, the staff is friendly, patient and always willing to give personal recommendations.

Though new, the Lytton location’s quality ingredients and friendly service embody what brought Ike success in the first place.

that I thought that I needed,” Ike says. “When I checked it all, I was like ‘I guess I should just open up the restaurant now.’”

After about one year of planning, Ike opened the first Ike’s Place. But when the sandwiches began attracting more attention than the other menu items, he decided to remove everything else from the menu — save for the sandwiches he is now famous for.

“If you’re coming to Ike’s [Place], I didn’t want you to eat salad because if you got a salad you wouldn’t tell everybody that it was amazing, but if you got a sandwich you would,” Ike says.

Soon, Ike’s Place had an hours-long wait for sandwiches, so when the opportunity to open more locations presented itself, he took the offer to expand.

“My goal is to make as many people feel loved, respected and appreciated while feeding them great food,” Ike says. “So if that means I need to sell a million sandwiches per location, then that’s what I need to do.”

This is the motto he says he lives by, both in his sandwich shop and personal life — “to love people through sandwiches.” And it is this aphorism that his shops exemplify.

Another secret to the popularity of Ike’s Place is the vast menu of over 700 sandwiches. With numerous meat, vegetarian and vegan options, Ike’s Place has something for everyone. Below are some of Verde’s favorites. v

Humble beginnings Ike says it was his father, an entrepreneur, who inspired him to enter the business industry.

After graduating from college, he purchased a partnership into a supermarket, but when that went out of business, he sold his house and car and moved to Hawaii, where he stayed with a friend.

“Basically, I was homeless if it wasn’t for my friend who was there,” Ike says.

For the next couple of years, Ike worked in various positions, including at a Victoria’s Secret in California. Soon, however, he realized he would rather work for himself and started plans to open his own business.

“I had no clue what to do to open up a restaurant and I just made a list of everything

Stand-out sandwiches “Paul Reubens” ($12): One of Ike’s personal favorites, this pastrami and swiss sandwich is a flavor tsunami, as the French dressing combines with Ike’s own Dirty Sauce. The pastrami is tender and flavorful, but have napkins at the ready, for this sandwich can get messy.

“Oh Marco You’re So Sweet” ($12): True to its name, this sandwich bursts with sweet flavor.

The sauce complements the juicy chicken, keeping the sandwich moist. The strips of bacon are a welcome savory surprise.

“Packard Hewlett” ($10): With soft ham, crisp bacon, gooey American cheese, extra Dirty Sauce and Dutch crunch bread, this sandwich manages to take your mouth on a journey of textures with every bite.

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THE MASTER AT WORK (TOP) Ike Shehadeh makes a sandwich while explaining his process. THE “PACKARD HEWLETT” (BOTTOM LEFT) The “Packard Hewlett” sandwich near completion. SANDWICH ARTISTS (BOTTOM MIDDLE) Longtime employees Hollywould Shehadeh and Marco Madriz pose for a portrait. Both have sandwiches named after them — “Hollywould’s SF Cheesesteak Sandwich” and “Oh Marco You’re So Sweet.”

CULINARY CREATIONS (BOTTOM RIGHT) Two of Ike’s most popular sandwiches, the “Packard Hewlett” and the “Oh Marco You’re So Sweet,” ready to be delivered to customers. “I love to eat and I love to make people happy,” Ike says.

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K-POP M

SONG, DANCE AND A SENSE OF COMMUNITY

OUTHING KOREAN LYRICS, Palo Alto High School junior Harry Cha points to the crowd before seven more dancers pop up from their poses to join him in synchronized choreography. Completely immersed in the Korean pop music — or K-pop — blaring behind them, the ensemble pours their heart into fast-paced movements and strikes poses with attitude. Watching them perform their piece “Yes or Yes” by TWICE at Paly’s Skoglobe music festival, the crowd can not help but admire their confidence and cheer them on.

According to alumna and former member Chloe Hong (Class of 2018), the Paly K-pop Club started in 2014 as just a handful of friends with a common love for the genre of music, and only took off in popularity two years later.

After a year of advertising on social media and actively seeking performance opportunities, the club transitioned from an annual performance to regular gigs at Paly concerts and even outside venues.

“It [K-pop Club] blew up because we had been putting all that work in,” Hong says. “But also we coincided with the massive wave of BTS [K-pop band] which kind of shook the U.S. and the world.”

This year, the club has around 20 members who meet every Thursday during lunch in the dance room. Each member of the club appreciates the complex nature of the genre.

“With Western music I can just listen to the audio and pretty much get the gist of it,” Hong says. “With K-pop you have to watch the music video to get the whole package because it’s got the visuals, the choreography, the song, everything together.”

After all, for Hong and all other members of the club, K-pop is more than a dance or type of music. It is about letting loose, having fun and performing boldly — whether in front of a crowd or not — all within a welcoming a community.

“For me, performing, yeah, it’s nerve-racking,” current K-pop club co-president and junior Ben Tsai says. “But at the same time it’s a good way for me to show everybody what I love, throw away my pride and just express myself in a different way.” v

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culture

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Text by LUCIA AMIEVA-WANG, KOBI JOHNSSON and KATHERINE CHENG Photo by LUCIA AMIEVA-WANG

IT’S POPPING — The members of the club strike poses for a photo.

From left to right: Emily Cheng, Michael Kim, Mina Murata, Liza Podkamenna, Lori Pradhan, Ben Tsai, Harry Cha, Michelle Kim and Alice Wang. “I like K-pop dancing because ... you dance together with other people and you can synchronize moves,” Wang says. “You can express your creative self.”

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Art by HANNAH LI

Text by WARREN WAGNER and ZOE STANTON-SAVITZ

Silver Screen Selections VERDE’S FILM FAVORITES FOR THE OSCARS

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ROM WARRING ROYAL SUBJECTS in “The Favourite” and “Mary Queen of Scots” to the exploration of race in “Black Panther,” “BlacKkKlansman” and “Green Book” to an inside look into the music industry in “A Star is Born” and “Bohemian Rhapsody,” this year’s Oscar-nominated films span myriad genres. Before the Oscars arrive on Feb. 24, take a look at our recommendations for the Oscar winners plus a few of our own original categories. v

Best Picture — “Roma” “Roma’s” beauty lies in how raw the characters’ emotions and experiences feel. While the main characters have fewer spoken lines than they would in standard films, the viewer’s connection with them is stronger than ever.

This Netflix exclusive chronicles a year in the life of Cleo (Yalitza Aparicio), an indigenous maid to an upper-middle-class family in Mexico City during the 1970s. Much of Cleo’s character comes through in the way she interacts with her environment, making the whole film feel even more personal and real. Seeing her delicate treatment of her both employer’s children and their household helps define her reserved personality.

The aesthetics of “Roma” are particularly intriguing, as the film emanates beauty and vibrancy despite being shot in black and white and lacking grandiose landscapes. This simplicity captivates the viewers in a movie that can often feel slow in its exhaustive depiction of Cleo’s life.

“Roma” also delivers a candid look at the racial and socio-economic aspects of life through Cleo’s relationships with those close to her. Her romantic interest and employer family appear to love her deeply in most scenes, but when life gets hardest, the class differences emerge.

The viewer sees Cleo’s pain in those few moments when others snap at her or deride her due to her profession.

While not the most fast-paced or large-scale film, “Roma” demonstrates more passionate and unembellished emotion than any other movie we’ve seen in recent memory, and that’s why it deserves Best Picture.

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Best Director — Alfonso Cuarón, “Roma” “Roma” is personal for director Alfonso Cuarón. He grew up in the upper-middle-class neighborhood the film is named after, and the main character, Cleo, is based on his own caretaker. But Cuarón wasn’t interested in filming the past through rose-tinted glasses. While some scenes exude nostalgia, the movie gives an honest look into the lives of his own family and many like it.

The camera moves slowly and deliberately, usually with wide shots that take in every granular detail. Cuarón often minimizes the main characters in the frame — they frequently occupy little space, are out of focus or are obstructed by objects and extras. Despite this distinct lack of close-up shots to capture facial expression, the viewer learns volumes about Cleo’s relationship with her employer family and the world through the way she moves and acts within the frame.

Cuarón also made the choice to have the camera follow Cleo’s perspective at all times — not always showing her, but always staying in her space. The viewer only sees and knows what Cleo does, binding the viewer’s understanding of people and events to Cleo’s understanding. What shocks her surprises the audience too, and what perplexes the viewer puzzles her as well.

Cuarón’s artistic direction and the reconstruction of environments from his childhood all serve to make “Roma’s” themes of race and connection resonate even more deeply.

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Our Original Categories Best Snubbed Film — “Thoroughbreds”

Cory Finley’s “Thoroughbreds” is an intense and thoughtful exploration into the teenage mind with a stellar cast and witty writing. This movie deserved at least one nomination.

Honorable Mentions

“Annihilation” “Disobedience” “If Beale Street Could Talk” “Eighth Grade”

Best Actress — Olivia Colman, “The Favourite” Olivia Colman’s performance as the 18th century British Queen Anne in “The Favourite” is impressively eerie and heart-breaking. Queen Anne, who struggled with morbid obesity and often erupted into fits of anger and depression, is certainly a challenging role. Colman, however, fearlessly takes her on, embracing the idiosyncratic character with strength and vivacity.

Beyond Colman’s physical transformation — which includes gaining about 30 pounds to play the role — her personal transformation is remarkable. Colman portrays Queen Anne’s unrelenting insecurity and neediness in some scenes with capricious, cringe-inducing screaming outbreaks.

In other scenes, Colman’s performance is more subtle, relying on facial expressions to portray Anne’s inherent loneliness. At the end of the movie, she even manages to act using only the left half of her face, imitating the symptoms of Queen Anne’s chronic illnesses that lead to her death.

Even through the bizzare humor written in the script, Colman still evokes a sense of melancholy with every line.

It’s this sheer depth of performance, masterful spin on a historic character and ability to elicit the simultaneous pity and spite of audiences that make Colman a shoo-in for the honor of Best Actress.

Best Animal Actor — Charlie (dog), “A Star is Born”

Charlie was faced with the challenge of playing Jackson and Ally’s dog, and handled it with confidence and cuteness. He was our favorite part of the movie and the Best Animal Actor of the year.

Honorable Mentions

Honeymooner (horse), “Thoroughbreds” Hildebrand (rabbit), “The Favourite” Romeo (cat), “Bohemian Rhapsody” Borras (dog), “Roma”

Best Actor — Rami Malek, “Bohemian Rhapsody” Rami Malek’s intense and tear-jerking performance as rock band Queen’s frontman, Freddie Mercury, is completely deserving of the Best Actor award.

Known for his buck teeth and gorgeous singing voice, Mercury is a global icon with a distinct personality and tone, a challenge for any actor. However, Malek fills the role with authenticity and effervescence. Acting behind a pair of huge, false teeth, Malek portrays Mercury’s larger-than-life stage persona with uncanny accuracy.

Watching Malek’s imitation of Mercury’s final performance at Live-AID is surreally similar to the real show. He doesn’t hold back, flamboyantly strutting on stage in extravagant outfits and unapologetically filling the screen with a vivacious personality reflective of Mercury’s. And while Malek boldly takes the stage in most scenes, in others he shows Mercury’s sadness with poignancy.

Malek’s portrayal of the rock icon combines immense exuberance with tragic emotiveness. His intense and lively performance is more than deserving of the Best Actor award, giving new life to the unforgettable Freddie Mercury.

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Text by KAITLYN HO and MARALEIS SINTON Photos by KAITLYN HO

Fun in the (Taro) San STANFORD MALL WELCOMES UDON UTOPIA

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OR THE LONGEST TIME, sushi and ramen have dominated the American-Japanese food scene; Taro San, an inviting udon restaurant which opened just last month in Stanford Shopping Center, is determined to change that. The eatery aims to greet its guests with quality, delicious food in a welcoming environment.

“Right now, there aren’t a lot of places that do udon, so we are trying to start a trend,” says Adam Nguyen, the general manager.

“Everything we do is house-made. It is pretty much authentic Japanese dishes with a modern twist to it to make it a little different.”

With clean-cut blue accents around the restaurant, Taro San evokes a sense of class through its minimalistic decor — and its menu reflects a similar elegance. iPads are situated at every table, ready to take your order, and attentive waiters bustle around, eager to check on customers.

Just as the restaurant has incorporated classic Japanese elements — such as exposed wood and ceramic bowls — into its aesthetic, Taro San has likewise taken authentic dishes and has adapted them to fit its refined persona.

According to Nguyen, owner Jerome Ito has gone to great lengths to achieve authenticity — even traveling to Japan to learn the art of making noodles and purchasing the restaurant’s machinery in Asia.

Since its soft opening in January, Taro San has adapted its limited menu according to customer feeback, so far altering their udon noodles to be less chewy, Nguyen says. Otherwise, the restaurant has been positively recieved by its customers, and the restaurant has since expanded its menu to include more dishes.

“Of course, we are going to reach a point where we can’t ac-

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commodate everyone,” Nguyen says. “But until then, if there is something that someone doesn’t like and we see an issue, we will definitely take the approach to fix it ... We want to make sure that everyone who comes has a nice intimate feeling.”

Here are the highlights from our Tuesday afternoon visit to Taro San. v Original orders Tori Paitan Udon ($16): This bowl of chicken udon, which incorporates many signature Asian ingredients such as baby bok choy and enoki mushrooms, exudes a balanced and delicious flavor. Although the noodles were splendid, when eaten alone, the roasted chicken was slightly dry.

Vegan Udon ($10): With a large piece of fried tofu sitting on the top, this bowl of noodles, which also incorporates a variety of vegetables, had a fresh essence. The shiitake mushroom broth flavored the noodles well, but erred on the saltier side.

Tofu Poke Salad ($11): With crunchy lettuce and three different styles of tofu, this salad unites many textures to create a wonderful sensation in the mouth. The salad dressing was tangy, sweet and salty.

Mochi Donut Holes ($5, $8): This dish offers two different sized portions — either three or six donut holes. These donut holes, which had a stretchy mochi texture, came with creamy dipping sauces, which complemented the mochi donuts well.

Seared Tuna Sashimi ($6, $15): The thin and tender pieces of tuna were served with either two or six pieces in a serving. The marinated tuna was topped with masago and a slice of jalapeno that briefly overshadowed the beautiful cut of tuna.

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PASSING PLATES (TOP) Adam Nguyen serves an assortment of authentic Japanese dishes from behind a sheet of glass that runs the length of the kitchen. The open kitchen concept makes for a more authentic, welcoming experience.

NOTEWORHY NOODLES (BOTTOM LEFT) Tori Paitan Udon ($16) is served with neatly cut chicken, enoki muchrooms and baby bok choy.

NO STRAIN (BOTTOM RIGHT) With a deliberate arm lift, a Taro San employee strains the home-made udon noodles.

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Art by HANNAH LI

Text by DEVONY HOF and RIYA SINHA

All Fun and Games CLUB BRINGS BOARD GAMES BACK

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NE STUDENT starts flipping over and senior Javid Alasti. the shiny blue and red cards for “We were in the club last year ... and friends Codenames, while a different group with the seniors [who ran the club] and they brings out the box for Taboo, along wanted us to keep the club going,” Alasti says. with a bag of chips. Gasps of outrage resound However, the club has grown much larger from a table as one player slaps down a jack. in the last year. Now boasting over 85 signups, Another member enters, yells “Board Game Washburn attributes the rise in attendance to Cluuub!” and is greeted with a collective cheer. good advertising and word of mouth.

The club is in its own world, full of snacks, mu“I’ve always been into it [board games] ... I sic and games. don’t know if everyone here is that into it, so it’s With the arrival of video games such as cool that we’ve been able to introduce it to people Pac-Man in the ’70s, it seemed inevitable that too,” Washburn says. board games would become yet another pasSenior Maria Fletcher, a regular club memtime made obsolete by techber, says participating in the nology. However, younger exposed her to several I’d much rather be club generations have recently new games and provides re-embraced board games. spending [time] with many students a well-deAt Palo Alto High School, in break from the stressmy friends and served particular, this classic mode es of school. of entertainment is coming “I think we tend to having fun playing back into vogue. shut off during the school board games than day … Board Games Club Games such as Exploding Kittens, Codenames, just mixes it up, makes your going online.”

— MARIA FLETCHER, club member Werewolf and Taboo are a day exciting … and helps popular way for Paly stume stay focused because dents to spend time with friends and de-stress, then I have a goal to get through class so I can go and the increasingly popular Board Games Club to Board Games Club,” Fletcher says. is bringing students with a passion for board and Her passion for board games resurfaced in card games together during lunchtime. Every high school, when she realized she wanted to Thursday, room 860 is transformed from class- spend her finite time face-to-face with friends. room to club as students spread out among the “I had more time in middle school to just tables and choose from an array of board and goof around, but now that you have less time,” card games.

Fletcher says. “I’ve realized how important that “We play board games, and we also listen time is, and I’d much rather be spending it with to music and just hang out,” says senior Lucas my friends and having fun playing board games Washburn, club co-president. “Especially if it’s a than going online.” rainy day, it’s really packed in here.”

It is this same focus of creating a strong comThe recent rise in popularity of board games munity and a sense of camaraderie that Board is evidenced by a 28 percent sales increase in Games Club tries to provide, Alasti says.

2016, reported by the NPD Group, a market “When the bell rings during third or fourth research company. But the club itself is not new, period you know it’s gonna be a good next 35 according to Washburn and fellow co-president minutes,” Fletcher says. v

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Text by JASMINE VENET and RACHEL LIT Photo Illustration by HANNAH LI and BEN COHEN

INTERACTIVE FILM CHANGES THE FUTURE OF TV

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UGAR PUFFS OR FROSTIES? The question appears their backgrounds unfold at the viewer’s discretion. Whether it on the screen and the time to make a decision is running be about innocent choices like which cereal to eat in the mornout. Although a seemingly meaningless choice, your ing to climactic life-or-death situations, the user’s command judgment matters: a simple breakfast craving will affect determines what is revealed to them, creating an even more enthe course of your journey from here on out. This is “Bander- tertaining and engaging experience. snatch,” Netflix’s newest digital “Choose Your Own Adventure” According to Netflix, five distinct endings exist; however, experience. there are an infinite number of ways for audience members to Known for its stunning plot twists and societal messag- get there. “Bandersnatch” is not just a linear choose-your-ownes embedded deeply within each episode, “Black Mirror” has adventure game with one set path that restarts fresh each time. been one of Netflix’s most critically acclaimed original shows Instead, when you come to a dead end, the show loops back since its release in 2011. For their to options you might have not chofifth season, the creators of “Black sen before, allowing for a new endMirror” broke away from the tra- “Bandersnatch” consists of mys- ing or different buildups and new ditional TV show construct and in- terious characters with uncer- scenes leading to the same ending. stead created an hours-long extendThis makes the viewing experience tain histories: The storyline and much more time-consuming than ed episode titled “Bandersnatch.”

Unlike the typical movie or their backgrounds unfold at the expected, since you can choose to TV show, “Bandersnatch” relies on either end the movie or go back and viewer input for the story to unfold. viewer’s discretion. redo a separate sequence.

Countless opportunities for viewers To be honest, our patience ran to choose between two options apa little thin over the long runtime of pear at the bottom of the screen throughout the episode. De- the film. Nonetheless, we thought the process of looping back pending on the answer, the film will follow different storylines helped tie together loose ends of other characters’ stories, as which ultimately lead to distinct endings. Until its release on some endings consisted of mysterious disappearances and unDec. 28, it was impossible to fathom whether viewers would expected deaths. love or hate the concept. However, “Black Mirror” did not fail We also discovered that the order in which you watch to deliver. the endings can change the intensity and development of the This self-led adventure made a big splash garnering much story. While some conclusions are eerie, violent and extreme, attention from viewers and critics alike and completely rede- covering topics such as suicide, murder and drugs, others are fining the relationship between viewer and film. While con- light-hearted, spoof endings which break the fourth wall. This temporary movies rely on powerful character development to juxtaposition was interesting and definitely differentiated each immerse viewers in the plot, “Bandersnatch” consists of mys- unique path; however, we found that if you watch the funnier terious characters with uncertain histories: the storyline and endings first, the mysterious and creepy vibes are almost ruined

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SUGAR PUFFS

KILL HIM

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for the rest of the show, making it less enjoyable.

What we did appreciate were the Easter eggs and hidden gems found throughout the movie – for all the “Black Mirror” fans out there, keep a keen eye out for references to other episodes from the series as many previous episode names appear in clever ways during the different “Bandersnatch” plot lines. These references connect “Bandersnatch” to the mainstream seasons and allow the show to live up to the “Black Mirror” trademark of supernatural atmospherics and futuristic concepts.

Although a trailblazer in several ways, “Bandersnatch” may not have been the first interactive film. In 1967, a film called “Kinoautomat” was screened at the Montreal Expo in a theater custom-built for the movie. Radúz Činčera, the creator of the interactive movie, installed green and red buttons at each seat, where audience members could push them to choose between two scenes at various points during the film, mirroring how choices are made in “Bandersnatch.” Audience votes were then displayed on the screen, and the scene with more votes was played. Netflix also released similar audience-influenced episodes in children’s shows, such as “Puss in Boots” and “Buddy Thunderstruck: The Maybe Pile,” back in 2017.

Clearly, this next-level, interactive theme is becoming increasingly popular in recent years and has the potential to change the film industry. Smartphones redefined technology and created an incredible culture shift in society; could the same be said about this new epidemic? TV made into human-controlled, game-type episodes could change movie-watching standards in the future. In the next 30 years, we could see VR transform into holographic films, illuminating movie scenes right in your living room where you can walk through the plot alongside the characters.

Until then, “Bandersnatch” makes for a thrilling Saturday night screening. Netflix and “Black Mirror” ensure a one-of-a-kind movie-watching experience, and we recommend watching it at least once to see firsthand what all the hype is about. v

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Our Gap in Knowledge WE CAN’T LEARN EVERYTHING FROM SCHOOL

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XACTLY TWO YEARS AGO, I had the opportunity to study abroad in Barcelona. I moved back for junior and senior year, but when August comes around, I’ll be heading abroad again.

If I’ve learned anything from my previous adventures, it’s that there are things from biology to language to culture that can’t be taught in school. The world is limitless — how could a textbook know everything? So next year, I’ll be doing the unusual — taking a gap year.

Taking a year off before college is encouraged in Europe and gaining popularity in the States — so it shouldn’t be surpris ing that I am taking one. This is why I was shocked that when I would explain my plan for next year it was often recieved with confusion.

Unfortunately, one of the few times I’ve seen Paly advertising a gap year was as I walked into the guidance office and noticed the phrase written inconspicuously on the wall next to

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other post-high school paths. I have noticed that Paly, and Sillicon Valley in general, cultivate a culture centered on preparing students for a four-year college pathway. So while resources for gap years may be there, encouragement and support are not.

There is often a narrow-minded idea of achievement in Palo Alto, and it’s easy to forget that there are multiple paths and definitions of success instead of a linear timeline students are required to follow. College does not have to follow high school, graduate school does not have to follow college and a job does not have to follow graduate school.

A four-year college may be the norm at Paly, but that doesn’t mean students don’t need to hear about other options. In fact, as high schools struggle to catch up, many colleges and universities are already making huge strides to encourage gap years and

make them more accessible. Well-known universities like Harvard and Princeton encourage gap years on their websites, and many partner with gap year programs and offer financial aid for that year off.

When I planned my gap year I relied on my dad’s experience, word of mouth, my college counselor and my own research to plan my gap year. What I found blew my mind — I could do everything from hiking the Pacific Crest Trail to being a flight attendant to teaching English at a local elementary school in Hong Kong — and it made me wonder why a gap year was rarely advertised, especially in Palo Alto.

Ultimately, I decided to move to Ecuador and live with a host family to fulfill my goal of being fluent in Spanish by college graduation, all while satisfying my desire to take a gap year.

Though I don’t how my experience will shape me yet, I am certain it will shock me to my core. So come August, I will be heading off to Ecuador.

After all, life is short, so why rush it? v

Text by ELLA THOMSEN Art by SUYE SHEN

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Text by KATE MILNE Art by SUYE SHEN

Pool Principles

HOW SWIMMING TAUGHT ME TO SUCCEED

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ERTAIN THINGS ABOUT also acquired less tangible keys to my idenswimming stand out in my tity as a swimmer and individual. Having memory the most — the fire of to say “no” to playdates because I had swim nerves before a race, laughing practice upset me in elementary school, but until my stomach hurts with teammates at retrospectively, I was learning firsthand that practice and the overwhelming pride I feel commitment means loyalty and sacrifice. after I beat a personal best. Other, more Today, I continue to prioritize the team, trivial things like the smell of sunscreen and it has taught me how to truly commit and the feeling of the hot summer sun on to something time-consuming as well as my shoulders will always remind me of my physically and mentally draining. I know childhood at the pool. that this skill will benefit me immensely latI can still remember my first swim er in my life, whether that be in college, my practice. I was seven years career or life in general. old and sat on cold poolBut like most athside bleachers at Castille- The mental and letes, I began to feel ja School, clinging to my physical skills burned out and frustrated mom’s hand. I was shiverwith my performance afI’ve gained ... ing and not entirely sure ter practicing up to nine what I was getting myself helped me grow times a week for months. into, but soon realized that I decided to take a break swimming was something into the person I from the sport after my I was passionate about and am today. sophomore year. Having wanted to continue. a summer free from evSince that first praceryday practices, I got a tice, I have been a part of Alto Swim Club job, volunteered, slept in and had an unfor almost 10 years and the Palo Alto High precedented amount of flexibility in my School varsity team since my freshman schedule. To be able to travel and make year, putting in countless hours and making last-minute plans without the guilt of misssome of my best friends. During this time, ing practice made me so happy. It was a the mental and physical skills I have gained summer of self-realization and growth that have been invaluable and have helped me introduced me to activities I continue to grow into the person I am today — some- value and pursue. one who values hard work, commitment I still wasn’t swimming at the beginand, most importantly, balance. ning of my junior year, but, interested in At first, my progress in the sport was branching out to a new sport, I took the steady. As I developed water motor skills I plunge and tried out for the Paly water

polo team. While learning an entirely new sport, my long-curated swimming skills and comfort in the water were a huge help.

After a lifetime of sticking to one thing, I am proud that I tried something new and learned firsthand that the reward of meeting a group of incredible new people and learning new skills are worth the risk of potential failure.

Still, after a season of water polo, I missed my best friends from my club swim team and needed to get back into shape for the high school spring season, when I would be a captain.

Thanks to the break I took, I returned with a new respect for the sport and a fresh attitude about praticing and racing. The thing about my team I missed the most was my coaches and teammates. Being away made me realize how much I appreciated them for challenging me and pushing me to be the person I am today — someone who takes risks, works hard and seeks the right balance of swim and other activities in my life.

Swimming taught me a lot, but it was not until I took a step back and added other things to my life that I realized just how much my team and swimming itself means to me. I do not know where swimming will take me in the future, but I do know that my history with the sport has taught me how to try my hardest, see the bigger picture and strive to find a balance in life that works best for me and makes me the happiest. v

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Art by HANNAH LI

Text by KATHERINE CHENG

the joke's on me

THE BENEFITS OF SELF-DEPRECATING HUMOR

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RASH, SAD, SLEEP. Anyone with any form of social form of dark humor used as a way to hide one’s insecurities. media, whether it be Instagram, Tumblr or Discord, has However, research shows that self-deprecating humor can be seen their fair share of self-deprecating humor — a form used as a tool to relieve mental stress. of comedy that pokes fun at one’s flaws, mistakes or cirIt is not just used as a way to cheer you or a friend up — those cumstances. who use this brand of humor also reap other benefits.

This form of humor has become especially popular among adAccording to researchers at the University of Granada, the use olescents, when stress from school and friend group drama reaches of self-deprecating humor is linked to greater emotional well-beits peak. ing. Contrary to previous assumptions and beliefs, the 2018 study Lately, content creators on various social media platforms have found that self-deprecating humor does not always have negative also taken advantage of this increasingly effects and is even “indicative of high popular brand of humor. With YouTubers scores in psychological wellbeing diPossessing a willingness to mensions such as happiness.” like Shane Dawson and Emma Chamberlain incessantly poking fun at themselves in poke fun at yourself may Additionally, self-deprecating their videos, never have ten-minute videos humor is easily attainable. Though make others view you as being able to crack the best jokes and of a teenager sitting and sulking been so enticing. more humble, approach- being deemed “funny” seems like Admittedly, I often spend too long it must come naturally to people, able and down-to-earth. browsing my Instagram explore page, laughself-deprecating humor is univering at memes and sad movie GIFs with even sal because everyone has something sadder captions. After a disappointing performance on a math test, about themselves — a quality, character or circumstance — that there is nothing like a self-deprecating joke to lighten the mood. they are frustrated with.

But self-deprecating humor is not just for teenagers — it is Clearly, self-deprecating humor means much more than just also used by some of the most important people in the world. Ce- a meme. And for me, at the end of the day, the lebrities and heads of state often use this brand of humor to poke best joke is the one that makes the most people fun at themselves, and a handful of exclusive events are laugh, even if it's at my own expense. v also known for including self-defeating humor, including the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.

Besides the ability to get a laugh out of most people, possessing a willingness to poke fun at yourself may make others view you as more humble, approachable and down-to-earth.

As someone who often uses self-deprecating humor as a way to break the ice or make small talk, I see the ways in which a simple joke has helped me connect with others.

For example, humor, especially when it involves criticizing yourself, is painfully relatable and helps foster new conversations in uncomfortable situations.

In the past, self-deprecating humor was generally viewed as a degrading

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Text by MYRA XU

Art by HANNAH LI

Refine the Misaligned

CONSIDERING HARMS OF COURSE DISPARITY

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HILE MY FRIENDS were investigating a crime scene to diagnose fictional character Anna Garcia, I was one of the students taking “hard bio.”

As a freshman taking Biology Honors last year, I experienced course misalignment — when activities and assessments do not match among classes of the same course — starting from my first week of high school. Unlike mine, most Biology H classes at Palo Alto High School use a curriculum designed by nonprofit “Project Lead The Way,” which promotes a more project-based and hands-on learning approach, including cracking the mystery of Garcia’s illness.

My class was one of the few that generally stuck with the standard textbook.

While its rigorous agenda was overwhelming for many, mainly due to the heavier homework load and difficult tests, I soon adjusted and even developed a keen interest in the subject.

When the nerve-wracking SAT Biology subject test rolled around at the end of the school year, students in PLTW felt even less prepared than anxious students in “hard” bio. For the first time, I witnessed friends complaining about their relatively easygoing class, about not moving at a faster pace or learning things necessary for the subject test.

Though teachers for the same course should have flexibility when it comes to designing and running their classes, this should not be achieved through diverging curricula because it is unfair to most of their students.

But misalignment did not just occur in science. For example, in English, I felt confused by the drastic variations between classes — some were heavy on vocabulary quizzes, while others revolved around fishbowl dis-

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cussions. Personally, I’m more of an auditory learner, so classroom discussions help me most; however, not all learners share this preference, and others will also face impacts of misalignment from year to year.

Because liberal arts classes are usually more subjective, they are more difficult to align. According to English teacher George Vuong, the department tries to align major assignments and assessments, but prefers teachers to set their own ways of reaching those skill sets.

Students should not be worrying over a hard, easy or confusing curriculum.

History and Social Justice Pathway teacher Caitlin Evans says course misalignment can sometimes elevate the classroom experience.

For example, in Contemporary World History, teachers share the same main course question but conduct different case studies within regions based on their respective specialties.

“Part of the reason we [the History Department] are misaligned is that we have the things that we’re really passionate

about,” Evans says. “People like to make everything super fair; I don’t think that’s always the best fit. It doesn’t serve as many kids as possible.”

Although I recognize the benefits of teachers using their curriculum as an outlet for their passions and more creativity when it comes to the opportunity for designing their curricula, it seems unfair to students.

Students should not be worrying over a “hard” or “easy” or “confusing” curriculum.

On the other hand, departments like math are usually strictly aligned. Students usually follow a calendar with almost identical homework assignments and test schedules. The tests that are distributed among classes are essentially the same, and score averages seem to be relatively similar.

Though some students may still be dissatisfied, at least they are all given equal opportunities. Math teachers seem to incorporate their own personalities when it comes to teaching, yet I have noticed fewer complaints about classes being misaligned.

This comes down to the question of whether students should willingly adapt to the idea of going through different experiences in classes compared to their peers, or that they should rather have classes run similarly — as they do in math — which gives students a more equal experience though the classes still do not tailor to every students’ needs.

I propose that we lean closer to the math model as a step toward the goal of course alignment. Teachers should avoid teaching in a way that results in students receiving different material than their peers, and perhaps if they did, students would not feel the need to label classes in the same course as more “laid-back” or more “difficult.” Ultimately, aligning courses will ensure a more even-handed experience for students taking the same courses but are in different classes. v

perspective Text by COURTNEY KERNICK Photo by LUCIA AMIEVA-WANG

v

FIGHT ING SPIRIT

SELF DEFENSE CLASS PACKS A PUNCH

M

Y HEAD WHIPPED addition, college women aged 18 to 24 backward as my attacker are three times more likely than women yanked my ponytail to- in general to experience sexual violence. ward him. Struggling to As a soon-to-be college-bound teen free myself from his iron grip, I kicked girl, I’ve recently been concerned about his knee then quickly spun around be- my safety both at home and in the real fore sticking my thumb in his eye. world. Walking into the chilly room that Well, not his actual eye, but the foam- rainy January morning, I knew the André lined cavity in his padded helmet. I then Salvage and Associates mother-daughter proceeded to knee my mock assailant — assault prevention class would teach me really an instructor in to defend myself — a protective suit — in Our instincts are but I had no idea what the groin, grab his there for a reason, I’d really signed up for. head on both sides To my surprise, and throw him to the and 99 percent of the we wouldn’t just be ground. I was out of time, they’re right. covering self defense breath and my heart — we would learn was racing, but I had never felt so pow- how to avoid and de-escalate dangerous erful. situations before they became violent, Although Palo Alto is a relatively safe whether it be by staying vigilant or actcity, incidents still happen — there have ing assertive in uncomfortable environbeen several instances of sexual battery in ments. the past few months — so it’s important This was especially helpful because, to know how to protect yourself. as the instructors explained, women in According to the Rape, Abuse & particular are conditioned to be indisIncest National Network, females ages criminately polite and kind. However, 16 to 19 are four times more likely than in many situations, perpetrators can use the general population to be victims of this to their advantage. The key to living rape, attempted rape or sexual assault. In a more honest and safe life, I learned, is

to tell the people around you how their actions affect you with direct, firm language.

Once we finished going over the material, we moved on to simulations which tested our newfound knowledge, pushing me to say what I really felt.

This class also taught me not to doubt myself and my intuition as much.

Our instincts are there for a reason, and 99 percent of the time, they’re right.

After hours of overcoming mental obstacles, we moved on to physical ones, practicing defensive moves in the air and engaging in freestyle fighting where our objective was to take out our “attacker” by targeting four zones: the eyes, throat, groin and knees. I not only learned how to protect myself, but also gained confidence.

Since taking the class, I’ve felt a stronger sense of safety when I go to the grocery store at night or take a run through the neighborhood alone. Before, I would worry about ways I could be attacked, but now I know that I can handle whatever situation I find myself in. Now, I know that I don’t need anyone else to save me. I can be my own hero. v

VERDEMAGAZINE. VERDEMAGAZINE.CCOM OM 69 69

THE GILA GAMES

A

Art by YUE SHI The Rules: A staff writer chooses their stance on an issue, Gila takes the opposite stance and the t wo battle it out on this page!

HOW DO WE PREVENT CHEATING?

T MY HOUSE, I am allowed to take my own allowance. My parents trust me to do my homework.

Alcohol has been left unconcealed since I was a kid, but I have never drank any. Perhaps, because of the trust my parents put in me, I felt compelled to prove them right. Similarly, I believe that creating a community of responsible students is a better way to uphold academic honesty than only enforcing a traditional punishment system.

I don’t think we should do away with the traditional system of basic rules against cheating altogether, but rather supplement it with community responsibility-focused methods of establishing more trust.

No one wants another advisory session about academic honesty, and it’s nearly impossible to force people to do things they don’t believe in. Moreover, it is not always possible to catch a cheating student.

When punishment is designed to

H

ONESTY IS THE BEST POLICY — except at Palo Alto High School when it comes to test-taking. The competitive academic spirit that permeates Paly seems to breed academic dishonesty, and as such, teachers should practice more stringent anti-cheating enforcement.

For most people, no matter how strong they claim their morals to be, the main incentive against cheating is a fear of being caught.

In a 2012 study led by the University of Washington, researchers administered a math test and gave participants access to a button which allowed them to “check their answers” before inputting responses without any penalty. A large majority (68 percent) used the button — in other words, cheated.

As depressingly Machiavellian as this result is, it reflects a truth relevant to Paly: To promote a culture of fairness, we must uphold the anti-cheating punishments we have in place. Sure, a lot of the academic dishonesty at Paly is relatively benign. We help our friends in different periods by letting them know how the test went. We laugh at ludicrous stories of students typing formulas into water bottle stickers or taping cheat sheets to the inside of their shirts. There’s even a WikiHow page dedicated to teaching students clever step-by-step ways to cheat. (Please note that neither I nor Verde as a whole condone any of these methods.)

70 FEBRUARY 2019

be the main disincentive, students may avoid cheating for fear of punishment rather than because they believe it is wrong. This leads students to cheat when they think they can get away with it.

It won’t be easy to create a community that upholds its own academic honesty. However, it is possible. At Haverford College in Pennsylvania, students design and uphold their own honor code, creating a trusting campus where students can take tests without proctors and may safely leave their laptops open and bikes unlocked. Paly can strive toward the same goal. Students at Paly should similarly be encouraged to ask questions about why we have the rules we do and be able to vote on amending them.

When you cheat, you lose the opportunity to learn, to know how well you could have performed and to feel proud of your accomplishment. You receive guilt and a grade that does not represent your knowledge if you are lucky, and punishment and a zero if you are not. You also hurt other non-cheating students.

The solution to cheating lies not in punishment but rather a community of students who value academic integrity. For students to uphold the rules we have at Paly, they must believe in them. v Guest perspective by KAYLA BRAND

The idea of cheating can seem rebellious and exhilarating.

But if getting away with misdeeds becomes the norm, or is even deemed ingenious, the values we hold in our society — hard work, education, intelligence — fall to the wayside. Disingenuity pertains not only to supposedly harmless school assignments, but also to relationships, sports and work. If cheating isn’t curbed now, then when will it be?

In our community, many deem college and stellar grades sacred, and ruining a student’s chance at those things sacrilege. Our ends are honorable; however, they don’t always justify our means. When a student is caught cheating, the teacher should adhere to Paly Handbook regulations and give the student a zero rather than a gentle warning. However rigorous our academic environment, it should never give us a voucher for cheating — even when we don’t get caught. v Column by GILA WINEFELD

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