HOMECOMING 2010

EXCHANGE STU-

Wajahat Mahmood Ali g Managing Editor

The Perfect Expansion

g Please see p.2

West art students will soon have a place to show off their skillsEllyn KirtleygEditor-in-Chief

Artistic DisplaysART

Publicly displaying their work is something that many artists aspire to, but may not have the chance to experience. Fortunately, the students who are a part of the Wauwatosa West art department will have an opportunity to do just this.

As many may have noticed, the walls of the new Steiner Technology Center are em-barrassingly bare. However, within the 2010-2011 school year, the art department will be creating an art gallery to be

housed in the technology center. Ms. Belich, the head of the

art department was enthusiastic about the project. “I’ve always wanted to have an art gallery,” she said, adding, “Two years ago we even had an architect come in to see if we could build one somewhere in the school, but it would have cost over $20,000.” That is why she was so excited when Princi-pal Calarco approached her about having the Art National Honors Society running a more perma-nent gallery in the Steiner Center.

Calarco said he felt a gallery like this would be a good way to showcase the work of art students. “I want the art department to re-ally take charge, and I want the students to really work because we have a lot of talent [here]” he said. Calarco also mentioned that he felt Steiner would have approved of this use of the Steiner Technol-ogy Center. “In the back of my mind,” Calarco said, “I think this is what Steiner would’ve wanted.”

There are many other advanta-geous reasons for having students

German exchange students experience life in the U.S.A Visit From GermanyJENNIFER FLYNNg Staff Writer

Think about a foreign country. You know the lan-guage and have studied the culture. You’re famil-iar with some of their mu-sic, celebrities, and famous landmarks. However, that’s nothing compared to actual-ly stepping off a plane there - and knowing you’ll be stay-ing with someone you’ve only exchanged emails with for the past two weeks.

This was what German students visiting East and West experienced. Coming from Fulda, Germany, they each stayed with a German language student at one of the high schools in Wauwa-tosa, which is smaller than Fulda by about 20,000 people.

The German students spent several days at the two high schools interacting with American students. Many West students expressed their excitement about having the visitors here. “It was nice to get a new perspective in talking to them because they brought in perspective about how teens around the world see things,” said junior Will Harrington. Teachers also found it interest-ing to be host to the German students. “I had students sit and talk informally with the German students for an en-tire class period. Students had to ask a certain number of questions, but I think the informal atmosphere allowed students to ask about issues that were important to them as young people,” remarked

Chris Lazarski, a teacher in the social studies department.

To some students’ surprise, there are many similarities be-tween the cultures, but there are differences as well. One of these is the difference in legal ages for certain privileges, such as driving. Lea, one of the Ger-man students, said one thing that surprised her was “People driving at 15…we can’t drive until we’re 18.” However, Ger-man teens are allowed to drink alcohol earlier; the legal drink-ing age in Germany is 16 for beer and wine and 18 for hard liquor.

Another contrast is school. Although they attend school for the same number of days, students in Germany have just six weeks off for the summer, with periodic two-week breaks throughout the year. There is a

lot less focus on school unity and involvement “We don’t really have spirit”, Lea said. For fun, German teenagers do a lot of the same things teens do in the US. They hang out with friends, go to the movies, and go shopping.

Of course, with all these differences, there’s a lot to ex-perience here. The exchange students and their hosts have had a taste of American cul-ture through movie nights, a bonfire, a barn dance, haunted houses, Homecoming, the East vs. West soccer game, and a trip to Devil’s Lake State Park. The Thursday evening before they left, there was a Thanks-giving-style farewell dinner.

While it initially may have been nerve-wracking for

g Please see p.2

WEST SIDESTORIES

November 2010 • Wauwatosa West high School • 11400 W Center Street, Wauwatosa WI • Volume 15, Issue 2www.wauwatosawest.com

VISITING GERMAN STUDENTS tour the capital building in Madison as part of their cultural activities while visiting the United States.

“When I come to West I do not see your classmates reading newspapers, but I do see dozens of faces peering into cell phones and smart phones,” said Wau-watosa Now photographer CT Kruger.

With cell phones in the hands of almost ev-ery student in this day and age, and comput-ers in almost each and every single library, internet access has become nearly universal. Anyone can go on Facebook, Youtube, or Twit-ter with just the click of a button. Indeed, it seems as though students are more inter-ested in pictures, videos and short online news stories than they are in the well devel-oped text stories found in newspapers. For this reason, following the trend set by many professional news providers, West Side Sto-ries has branched out and created two new factions: a broadcast team and a web site.

Sometimes it’s more exciting to see a story visually rather than read it, which is why the broadcast team was created. The team goes around the city capturing various events on film and then brings the videos to students, primarily through the use of the web site. One of the first projects broadcast undertook was the taping of Westock last year. The team recorded the entire event and then created DVDs. Sophomore Kylie Hogrefe, one of the broadcast editors, believes that the broad-cast team can greatly assist the newspaper. “It adds another dimension to journalism,” she said. For example, music can be added for effect, and the entire idea of bringing a story to life is more appealing to students.

The print edition of the newspaper comes out only once a month, and by the time it gets published, football games, rumors, or the class standings during homecoming week are so outdated that nobody is very interested in them anymore. The web site, which can be found at www.wauwatosawest.com, will make news available while it is still fresh in students’ memories. If one misses a football game, they can get a summary of the game the next day. In addition, after a week, the newspaper is recycled and no one will have access to the news they’ve missed. The web site has all of the editions online and will stay there until deleted so anyone can read news whenever they want, without having to worry about it going away. Junior Luke Salamone, who is in charge of the web site crew, feels that the best part of the web site is, “being able to integrate broadcast and newspaper into an easily accessible me-dium for students to be able to get news. “

The new branches of West Side Stories will surely help readers get news quicker and more efficiently than before, however, as CT Kruger puts it, these new methods of delivering news will also present new challenges. “The challenge is building the skills to tell a story or report on an event within the two to three-minute attention span of your typical online video viewer.”

West Side Stories gains access to two new facets of journalism

MEDIA

November, 2010

NEWSWEST SIDE STORIES

2

News in Brief

run the gallery. As Ms. Belich said, “It’s important that the students manage it because it is a career option that they could pursue at some point.” The students will also be in charge of writing an EFW grant applica-tion for the funds needed for materi-als. “[Writing grants] is a big thing for artists,” Ms. Belich said, “You need to be familiar with grant writ-ing because a lot of times you can’t fund your own projects. This will give students real world experience.”

Senior Rachel Long looks forward to working on the gallery as well; “I think it’ll be nice to see artists get to show their work off to the rest of the school,” she said. One impor-tant aspect of the gallery is that all artists, not just students who are enrolled in art classes at West, will have the opportunity to display their work. “If somebody makes amaz-ing quilts or paints amazing shoes, we’ll hopefully display those things.”

Art Galleryg Cont. from page 1

for both the German students and their hosts, Susie says things have turned out great. Although it wasn’t necessarily awkward at first, Susie said she needed an ice-breaker with Luisa, whom Susie hardly knew any-thing about before her arrival. Fortu-nately, it didn’t take long before the two clicked and started getting along quite well. Luisa, like the others, has adjusted well to being here and has especially enjoyed seeing the differ-ences in culture and people. However, her favorite thing so far was paint-ing the rock. This experience is sure to have been memorable for the West and German students alike. Susie is looking forward to going to Germany along with the other West hosts in June, but is still sad that the German students reached the end of their time here in the United States. “I loved it,” she said. “I didn’t want her to leave.”

g Cont. from page 1 Germans

A leaky theater has hindered the Trojan Players for years and a solu-tion has finally been put into place. Bulldozers and fences marred the front lawn of the school this month as ground was removed in order to do construction to find and seal the leak. Unfortunately, it was quite distract-ing to nearby classes. Sophomore Kou Vang said, “ When they were putting tar down, the entire room stunk and we had to move down to the library.”

Juniors in the American Public Policy course received a first hand experience in civic education when they received the opportunity to interview voters at September’s primary elections. They asked voters about what problems were facing the community. Among the an-swers were education, taxes, govern-ment spending, job creation and loss, and of course, the ever-growing deficit.

Tosa West and Tosa East squared off at Hart Park in a confrontation of epic proportions on September 15. Seven minutes into the game, fresh-man Josh Fobair scored the first goal. In the second half, Nico Zabala scored the second goal and Andrae Randle-Virgil scored again to bring the score to 3-0 for an impressive win for the Trojans. “East played well,” said ge-ometry teacher Michael Chay, “but West played stronger and faster.”

Sophomores Mariella Schmidt and Hannah Fritsch dress up for 80’s day, created to boost morale for the football team’s first game of the season. Stu-dents dressed up in leg warmers, over-sized sweatshirts and teased their hair to support West’s football team. “I think the football spirit days are pretty cool, but [the themes] could use some im-provement,” said sophomore Kou Vang.

The attendance office, staffed by Betty Marks, has been moved to the southwest entrance of the build-ing. Because Mrs. Marks is already the voice of Tosa West due to the fact that she answers the phones, admin-istration wanted her to be the face of Tosa West as well. Visitors during school hours also have to walk right past her when they enter the build-ing. “It was part of a solution that we all wanted, so the hallways would be clear of students during class, and to stop the wandering,” said Mrs. Marks.

New vending machines have been placed near the Learning Center and now dispense what administra-tion hopes are healthier options for students. These healthier options in-clude Dean’s milk, Florida Natural’s orange juice, and Starbuck’s Frap-picinos. Some students, such as Se-nior Scott Wenzel, are completely unaffected by the change. “It really doesn’t affect me; I only buy Mike and Ike’s out of the vending machines, so as long as they have that, I’m fine.”

Ellen Sauter practices with the ten-nis team as they prepare for section-als. “I think all in all we did good this season,” said Sauter. “We had two people who went to sectionals, but we didn’t do as good as we were ex-pecting to.” Ellen and her sister Ali were only one match away from mak-ing it to state. “It was pretty scary. We played Waukesha South, and we went into it really nervous. I think we played our best, but we were kind of reserved, and we weren’t play-ing as good as we usually played.”

West Side Stories has decided to im-merse itself in the world of multime-dia. The new broadcast team seeks to bring news to life by making videos of various events around the city. Unfor-tunately, a print newspaper only comes out once a month and previously, there was no way to give updates on live events. Now, through the use of the new West Side Stories web site, up-dates can be posted daily and students can get the summary of a game they’ve missed right away. The web site can be found at www.wauwatosawest.com.

West Side Stories (WSS) believes that it is essential to preserve the freedom of the press in order to preserve a free society. Therefore, WSS will resist all attempts at censorship and will serve the best interests of the students. WSS will be guided in publication by a concern for the truth, will strive to provide a comprehensive account of events in the school/community, will strive to be a leader of student opinion through its editorials, and will be an open forum of the exchange of com-ment and criticism. WSS’s editorial page will take stands on important issues, will help protect the rights of students, will support groups seeking the betterment of the community, will support candidates for school office, and will serve as a constructive critic.

Columns and reviews will be signed unless there is a consensus of opinion among the WSS editors. Copies of the complete WSS editorial policy are available in Room 267 at West High School.

Letters to the Editor: Letters are ac-cepted from all readers. Editors have the right to edit for length and ob-scenity, but will not alter the original meaning of the materials. All submit-ted letters must be signed.

Subscription information: For a sub-scription, please send $20.00 payable to Wauwatosa West High School. Send to West Side Stories, c/o Wauwa-tosa West High School, 11400 W. Cen-ter St. Wauwaotsa, WI 53226

Awards: Wisconsin Newspaper Asso-ciations awarded West Side Stories a second place in 2007-2008, a first place 2008-2009 in the General Ex-cellence category. West Side Stories has also received a Bronze Medalist ranking from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association. A number of stu-dents have also placed individually in state and national writing compe-titions.

Editors:Angela O’Brien- Editor-In-Chief

Ellyn Kirtley- Editor-In-Chief

Herschel Kissinger: Manag-ing Editor

Waj Ali: Managing Editor

Emily Hoffman: Photogra-phy Editor Staff Writers:

Emily Roznowski Luke SalimoneStephanie EberleAlex LindstromJulia RoblesErin StapletonNatalie Mullins

Jennifer Flynn

Designers: Sarah McOlashKou VangSylvania

Photographers: Kou VangMary Migdal-Gwheor

Illustrators:Izzy Fangman

STORIESWest Side

november, 2010

OPINIONSWEST SIDE STORIES

3

Dear Christine O’Donnell,

Let me speak for ladies everywhere when I say that you have been doing a fine job representing us in your cam-paign for the Delaware Senate seat. We love the absolutist views on life and the unrelenting support of guns—issues important for all ladies, as we prefer to use revolvers to protect our unborn fetuses. Your campaign has been just gorgeous, if I do say so my-self, but I feel it is my duty as a lady to inform you that you could be do-ing more to accurately represent us.

First, a lady is always consider-ate of hera off your past in witch-craft—use your satanic connections for good. You say that you never joined a coven—this was a mistake. Are you close with any coven members who could use Satan’s power to help pass favorable legislation? If so, do utilize them for the sake of your fellow ladies.

Second, a lady never has to reaffirm her chastity. Though it is admirable that as a young lady in your thirties,

you still remain chaste, why are you proclaiming it? It should already be evident by the bulging metal chas-tity belt protecting your lady parts.

Third, a lady always avoids science. Though your disgust over controver-sial experimentation is appropriate, a lady never deduces that scientists are crossbreeding humans and animals and creating mice with functioning human brains. This is not our concern as ladies. Our concern is whether or not to invite these mice-ladies to tea. Do try and forget all of this horrible nonsense; leave the science to the men.

So, my dear Christine, golf claps for all of the excellent work that you have done for we ladies thus far, and good luck to you in the race! Though a proper lady never leaves the home, an exception will be made for you to serve us in Washington. Unfortu-nately even if I could, I would not vote for you; a true lady never par-ticipates in the political process.

Delaware Candidate UnfitPOLITICS RELIGION

“Say What?”

We would like to extend our deepest gratitude to the young men and wom-en of the class of 2011. Your compas-sion, kindness, friendship, and love have done so much to comfort us over the last four years since Jack’s death. We feel that you are a very special group of young people, one that has suffered a great loss but has given so much back in return. You have learned much about the fragility of life, and that each day can never be taken for granted. For the last four years, on Oc-tober 25th you have celebrated, cried, and laughed with us and we can never thank you enough for that. It is hard to express how much it has meant to us to follow your accomplishments on

the athletic fields, the theater stage, in the classroom, or just to see you at your jobs or around town. You all car-ry a little piece of Jack with you, and we feel that when we watch you grow and mature we see Jack grow too. We wish you all the best in your last year of high school and look forward to see-ing what life after high school has in store for all of you. Please always stay in touch, and never hesitate to give us a call or stop by to share a laugh, a story, or a tear. Be safe always.

Always yours:Mike and Judy Doyle

Christine O’Donnell fails to truly represent women during her campaignEMILY ROZNOWSKI g Guest Writer

America was founded on West-ern values, and prospered because of it. Among these sacred prin-ciples are the freedom to have civil discourse and freedom of religion. Protection of these Western values from corruption should therefore be of supreme importance. Activities done in private which have little effect on the public need not ―and perhaps should not― be publicly scrutinized. However, when these activities spread into public interests, scrutiny is not only justified, but indispensible. The latter is the condition of reli-gion and the activities it provokes.

The dust has long settled in a recent conflict, which consisted of the events leading up to the May 10 “Everybody Draw Muham-mad Day”. Such a suggestion is sacrilege to Islam; this demon-strates a clear struggle between Westernism and Islam because freedom of expression is a revered enlightenment virtue. In a sacri-fice to the gods of political correct-ness, religious moderates volun-tarily surrendered the very idea of freedom which has undeniably built and fostered our civilization.

Another contentious topic was “International Burn a Koran Day”, instigated by the rather ironically named Dove World Outreach Cen-ter. The purpose of this necessar-ily destructive event is to eradicate a book that this particular church considers “of the Devil”, and the or-

ganization gained theological sup-port from Biblical examples of early Christians committing libricide themselves. To be sure, Christi-anity’s rich tradition of book burn-ing does not need another chapter.

Islam is a topic which needs scrutiny. If religion in general can incite people to bomb trains and abortion clinics and fly planes into buildings, moderates are only retarding prospects of peace by shielding religion from the public forum. Those who claim that these zealots are not true practitioners of their faith preclude it by creating a taboo against holding religion to the fire of scrutiny. This prevents any verification of that claim. If they are right, they have nothing to lose, and humanity has every-thing to gain from this acquired knowledge. The sacredness of re-ligion’s indisputability is one spell which quickly needs to be broken.

The preposition that drawings of the prophet are offensive and thus should not have been disseminated was beside the issue. In the case of the book burning event, achieving their intended ends of annihilation is practically impossible in an age with the Internet. At hand was the resulting conflict from the incom-patibility of authoritarianism with Westernism. This is a struggle in which the Internet can only serve Westernism. The Internet is the public forum in which these issues can be scrutinized, and only the ideas most fit for existence are left.

Scrutiny of ReligionLUKE SALAMONE g Staff Writer

The dangers of unchecked religious activities and how they affect the world

Remembering JackJack Doyle’s parents have words of encouragement and advice for his graduating classmates

Students offer commentary on Friday homerooms“Well if the goal is to unite the students and bring us closer together

they need to have us interact more during homeroom so its not like we are just listening to a teacher talk.” - Stephenie Eberle, 10

“I personally really like the idea of them. I think it can create more of a community feel for everyone.” - Tony Stolar, 12

“There's not enough at our school to discuss about every Friday.Once a month or once a quarter would be better.” - Courtney Kreklow, 12

Best,Emily Roznowski

COLIN DETLAFF AND JOE DOMINA show their passion for the deep south on Wednesday’s Southern Day. “We got really great reactions, especially when I managed to get him,” said Detlaff.

FROM LEFT TO RIGHT ADAM MRAZ, MITCH LAHMANN, PAUL GERHARTZ, PATRICK MCDOWELL, KYLE HANUS, KYLE HEIDEMAN AND DYLAN JENKINS sit around the lunch table playing cards to further add to the image of a group of nerds during Tuesday’s clique day. “Being a nerd was kind of sweet,” said Jenkins. “I dug the high pants and suspenders and could see myself rocking the hair part.”

PICTU

RES BY KOU

VAN

G A

ND

EMILY H

OFFM

AN

N g

West Side Stories

DRUM MAJOR AMELIA FORSMO treats Tosa West students to an electric opening performance by the marching band to start off Friday’s pep rally. Black lights turn the clothing and decorations neon as all the lights are turned off and the band gets ready to rock.

LEXI UTECH AND RUTH GEBREMEDHIN juniors, channel the hippie within during Clique Day. “It was actually pretty amazing because [my cos-tume] all came together right before I left the house,” said Utech.

TOSA WEST’S DEFENSIVE LINE squares off against Greendale’s offense during Friday nigh’ts homecoming game. The final score was 42 to 8 Greendale, but there was a marvelous last minute touchdown by Harrison Ostrenga with minutes left in the game.

ALEC REDLICH shows support for the seniors by thinking outside of the box. “I knew I had to go bigger than Wednesday’s costume,” said Redlich. “So I went 75 balloons bigger. People had fun signing them, but I had to recruit some friends as body guards so no one poppped my balloons in the halls.”

DREW ZANSKAS AND DAN SCHNECK juniors, de-cide to dress as each other for costume day. “A few people thought it was creepy,” said Schneck.

ZACK SODERBERG AND PATRICK MCDOW-ELL seniors, embrace their inner nerd. “It was fun to live as a full out nerd for a day,” said McDowell.

PAPER LINKS stretch out across the Learning Center floor during the annual Link Wars, which go to fund people in need through Key Club. This year, Key Club raised over 800 dollars through the fun spirited competition, which was more than in recent years. “I think it’s because the senior class is tired of losing,” said Emily Myers, senior. “Ev-ery year since we’ve been here we’ve always taken second. It was good to finally come

in first.” The senior blue link total stood well over 1,000 links, a well-deserved victory.

ALI KABARA senior, and other Tosa West students line up for the kickoff of the first homeroom vs. homeroom dodge-ball game. “I always got the balls for my team,” said Kabara.

MORGAN SIEGLAFF senior, displays pride in her class during Thursday’s color wars. “I think we’ve been looking up to previous classes for three years and have upped it to a new level,” said Sieglaff.

THE JUNIOR CLASS tries do outdo cheers already emitted by the freshmen and sophomores during Friday’s pep rally with a roar of approval of their own. Pride is something that every class has and one of the easiest times to display that pride is during the assembly where students can chant their respective year numbers.

November, 2010

FEATURESWEST SIDE STORIES

6

An Exemplary SoloistMUSIC

ALEX LINDSTROM g Guest WriterWest student receives high honor in State Solo and Ensemble Competition

College once seemed far away but is coming up quickly. This year will be full of applications, forms, deadlines, and waiting. For the fall, it important to get all the piec-es for your college application to-gether, find and apply for scholar-ships, and make deadlines on time.

The college application process can be confusing and overwhelm-ing. Hopefully you have found a select number colleges and universi-ties that have caught your interest. Visit your colleges’ websites to find links to applications. Always look to see if there is the Common Appli-cation, which can be used for more than one college you are applying for.

Besides filling out applications on-line, there are other important steps to be taken. Start the more lengthy things such as letters of recommenda-tion and college essays. Talk to your

guidance counselor and/or English teacher for advice on how improve your essay.

The simple, task of hav-ing your ACT and/or SAT score sent to your selected colleges through the test’s website is vital. Lastly, your transcript and letter of rec-ommendation are only sent when you request the guid-ance department to send it, so make sure not to forget that part of the application.

Unlike applications for college, scholarships need to be

applied for as early as the sum-mer, which means you need to look at ones you know you make the deadline for. Websites like www.fastweb.com can be helpful in pro-viding a variety of scholarships to look at. Also visit the websites of the colleges you are applying to see if they have scholarships available.

you are

in the school band,

orchestra, or choir,

c h a n c e s a r e

t h a t y o u

h a v e compet-

ed in

the District Solo and Ensemble Com-petition, held every year in Wauwa-tosa. Every music student has the op-tion to prepare a solo or an ensemble.

“Each time you play it, you find something new and interesting about the music that you haven’t felt before,” cellist Katie Csizmadia about her piece for last year’s Solo and Ensemble.

Each piece of music that is per-formed has a letter ranking of A, B, or C, with A pieces being the hardest and C the easiest. Students can play multiple events, and each event is individually scored by judges based on several musical elements, such as rhythm, tone, intonation, and accu-racy. The events are rated on a scale

from 1-5; 1 is the highest rank-ing. If a student plays a class

A solo very well, they can get a ranking of a 1*, and move on to the State Solo and En-semble Competition, which takes place later in the year. At the state competi-tion, the students perform and are again ranked by judges on a scale of 1-5.

The soloist musicians who perform at State also have the opportunity to win an Exemplary Soloist award. In every solo room, each judge gets to hand out three Exemplary Solos total.

According to the Wisconsin School Music Association website, wsma-music.org, “In 2009, State Festival Adjudicators identified 454 truly ex-emplary soloists at the 2009 WSMA State Festival. Consider these sta-tistics: The exemplary soloists were selected amidst 8,415 solo events of the 11,920 total qualifying events at the WSMA State Festival.” However, before the students even qualified for State, the exemplary soloists compet-ed with more than 220,000 other stu-dents who participated in over 62,927 events at WSMA District Solo and Ensemble Festivals across the state.

From Wauwatosa West High School, there were 3 Exemplary Solo awards given out last year: Katie Csizmadia re-ceived one for the cello, Amy Matzen re-ceived one for the violin, and Alex Lind-strom received one for the violin as well.

After the festival ends, the judges meet to discuss every Exemplary Solo-

ist award that was given out throughout the day, and choose just one person to represent each instrument. These cho-sen students perform at the State Mu-sic Convention on October 29th, 2010. This year, the cellist chosen by the judges was Katie Csizmadia, a senior at West. Katie has been playing the cello since fourth grade, and takes private lessons from Barbara Ballin, a retired cellist from the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. For last year’s Solo and Ensemble, Katie performed the Lalo Cello Suite, by Edouard Lalo, which she grows to like more every day.

The honor of this WSMA award is a major accomplishment for any musician, because Katie Csizmadia has been recognized as one of the top musicians in the state, not to men-tion one of the very best cellists. De-spite her achievement, Katie is very modest. “I’m very proud of my ac-complishment, but I feel like I still have a lot more to learn,” she says. Katie is planning to continue playing the cello after high school but just on her own time, saying, “I like music too much to ever make it my career.”

Fall is the time to begin your col-lege search online. By creating an ac-count on www.collegeboard.com and www.princetonreview.com you can look at a variety of potential schools from the comfort of your home. The college matchmaker on the College Board website allows you to select the college that will best suit you based on location, majors, size, cost, and more. If you do have a college in mind, you can use the Princeton Review to read quotes from actual students in re-gards to various aspects of the college. As for ACTs and SATs, it is time to prepare and register for them. It’s a good idea to plan on taking at least one of the tests twice. The ACT is great for students looking at colleges in the Midwest, but some colleges in other areas prefer or accept only the SAT. For this reason, it helps to have some idea regarding where ex-actly you would like to go to school. However, it is not vital just yet. Also most colleges that do ac-cept the ACT want the ACT with writing, so be sure to register for the appropriate one. Un-sure which one to take, take both and see which one you do better at and work on improving that score even more.

The final thing to work on as a ju-nior is to focus on your studies. Even if your grades have slacked in the past, colleges like to see improvement when looking at your high school tran-script. Junior year is most often the toughest year in high school, so try not to be too overwhelmed and make time to hang out with your friends.

Let’s face it; summer is over and school is in session. Getting back into the swing of things is difficult: remem-bering locker combinations, dealing with homework. Nothing says, “Wel-come Back!” more than the notifica-tion of your first test. But, what if I were to tell you that that first, “big test” doesn’t need to be that petrifying?

I’m sure you’ve heard it before: “Study for a short time everyday lead-ing up to the test.” It’s true; pacing yourself does help improve your mind’s retention of the material, but let’s be re-alistic… high school stu-dents aren’t made of free time, and let’s be truthful… the motivation isn’t always there. This is the problem sophomore Pat-rick Jensen faces. When asked how he chooses to study he confessed, “[I] read the book the night before…Actually, usually it’s the morning of the test.”

Luckily, new research will make studying significantly more effective, more convenient, and most impor-tantly, more realistic. For instance, Benedict Carey of The New York Times notes, “Instead of sticking to one study location, simply alternat-ing the room where a person stud-ies improves retention.” How easy is that? Rather than planting your-self in your room for the long haul, take a mini fieldtrip every once and a while. What happens is that your brain subconsciously makes associa-tions with items, colors, etc. around you; with more associations linked to

your studied material, the less likely you will be to forget it on testing day.

Hard to believe? This theory was proven in 1978 when psychologists ob-served two groups of college students. Both groups studied a list of 40 vocab-ulary words. While one group stud-ied their lists in two different rooms, the other group remained in the same room for the length of the test. The re-sults showed that the group that var-ied their location did far better on the

test than those that stayed in one place.

That’s not all that can be done to help better your test grades either. It has also been proven to be helpful if you vary the material that you’re studying (look-ing over all aspects, rather than focusing

on just one). For example, if you need to study for a foreign language,

rather than just cramming in all of the vocabulary, study portions of both grammar and vocabulary. Practicing this leaves a more permanent impres-sion on your brain, which, in the end, leaves you with a better test score!

Now that you have all of these great study skills, apply them! Stu-dents have gotten a terrible reputa-tion for being poor test takers. All teachers recognize that; when asked what the most common response to a test was, Ms. Aschenbrenner laughed, “You mean besides a groan?” You owe it to yourselves to prove them wrong and, more importantly, you de-serve to succeed! Whether you start with baby steps and practice one of these tips, or if you embark on all of them, your test scores will thank you.

ERIN STAPLETON g Guest Writer

An Easy “A” EDUCATION

Stduents learn techniques for effective studying

EDUCATION

College CornerWhat to do to prepare for a future in collegeJULIA ROBLES g Guest Writer

Juniors

If

Seniors

november, 2010

FeaturesWEST SIDE STORIES 7

In 1959, the creators of the ACT distributed their first testing booklets. Since then, the American College Test has struck fear into the hearts of mil-lions of high school stu- d e n t s , causing many long and sleepless nights. Com-prised of 215 m u l t i p l e c h o i c e q u e s -t i o n s , t h e A C T is 3 hours o f frantic bub-

ble filling. Many teachers have ques-tioned the importance of this exam, including Brian Hoffman, a guidance counselor at Wauwatosa West. “We’re like McGyver”, he maintained. “The

ACT test is our rubber band and paperclip, and we’re just sup-

posed to make the best we can out of it.” The ACT,

however, is a ma-jor factor in col-lege admissions as a measure of how much stu-dents learned (or didn’t learn) in High School.

With the latest ACT results now made public, many educa-tors are look-ing to see what is—or isn’t going right in

their school d i s t r i c t .

B e t h Erenberger, the Director of Student L e a r n i n g

for the W a u -watosa School D i s -trict, is o n e s u c h

educator. According to her latest sta-tistics, “Wauwatosa has had the high-est ACT score in 14 years”. 46 percent of Wauwatosa student’s meet the ACT college readiness benchmarks, up from the national average of just 24 per-cent. These benchmarks are the mini-mum scores students can get on four sections of the test: English, Science, Mathematics, and Reading. Not meet-ing these scores indicates the test-taker is not “college ready”. The ACT’s own research has found that this means the student will have a 50% chance of getting a B or higher on a col-lege level course, and a 75% chance of getting a C or higher. Ms. Erenberger believes these numbers can extend be-yond college as “many careers require the same skills the ACT’s measure”.

Unfortunately, however, not all the ACT statistics are so flattering to Wau-watosa. While 53% of white students meet the ACT bench marks, only 13% of African-American, and 14% of His-panic students do so. However, this phenomena is present nationwide, not just at West. Out of 36 possible points, white students had an average of 22.2 points, while African-American and Hispanic students had average scores of 16.9 and 18.9 points, respectively. Guidance counselors, like West advisor Nick Becker, say this is “a way bigger issue—about school, not testing”. He and Mr. Hoffman agree that many dif-ferent factors could be causing the gap. “It’s about the chances kids have since they were in the womb,” says Mr. Hoff-man; “how much stimulation you get”.

Mr. Hoffman, Mr. Becker, and Ms. Erenberger have all offered up the same solution to close these gaps. “The best thing you can do is take the hard-est classes possible in high school,” explained Mr. Hoffman. As Ms. Eren-berger said; “Some students can get by on the minimum amount, but most need to be challenged to really suc-ceed”. The Wauwatosa school district has already taken strides in that di-rection, adding middle school courses like advanced English and offering al-gegbra to eigth graders; and encourag-ing all students to take AP (advanced placement) courses. “For kids with-out as much opportunity, educators must fill in where parents don’t”, said Hoffman. Unfortunately, this advo-cacy does not always work. Mr.Becker has already noticed a worrying trend this year: “I’ve had a lot of kids sign up for AP classes” he explained, “but many end up just dropping them”.

Many students absolutely dread taking the ACT. “The first time I took it”, said senior Jimmy Kralj, “I was stressed, and didn’t really know what to expect”. Another senior, Annie Overholt, agreed. “It was just painful sitting through the entire test”, she recalled. They still did so, however, because the test remains an important part of the High School experience. As Mr. Becker said: “All of us question if these tests are valuable, but they are a measure, and a standard. So take them! Sure you’ve been over-tested, but at least you no longer fear tests”.

ACT: Crunching the NumbersWhy the ACT is important and how your race, gender and other factors can impact your scoreNATALIE MULLINS g Staff Writer

Students Who Work Tosa West students talk about their jobs and how they manage responsibilities on the clock and at schoolJULIA ROBLES g Guest Writer

Alec Redlich - WICPA InternshipAfter falling in debt with his parents due to a very ex-

pensive club volleyball season, Alec chose to leave his job at Murf ’s in search of a “real-world experience.” Now his

job as an intern at Wisconsin Institute of Certified Public Ac-countants (WICPA) affords him a unique opportunity: he leaves

school early three days a week, missing his two afternoon study halls, and works from noon to 3:15. Alec likes his job since, as he ex-

plained, “I get to learn a bit about accounting, a career that I will likely pursue.”His least favorite part? “Every once in a while I get more projects in a day than I can handle and I can’t be late to [volleyball] practice. I hate that feeling of not getting everything done right away.” said Alec. He also has some funny memories from work. “During this first month I broke my label maker, crashed the UPS mailing machine, jammed the mail processor (but unjammed it myself), mailed something to the wrong person, and lost my pay-check (but found it again). Luckily only the last two things were actually my fault.”

Calesa Ahola - Journey’sCalesta is in love with her new job at Journey’s at Brookfield Square. She was a previous employee of McDonalds where she “didn’t get paid fairly for everything [she] was doing,” so she quit. Working to pay her phone bill and the unfortunate

costs of gas and insurance that come with a car, she clocks in about 20-25 hours a week. But Calesta said “I have a pretty easy year and I can

finish most of my homework during study hall.” Journey’s suits her since she has an interest in shoes, despite her phobia of feet.

Favorite part of the job? “Talking to people I don’t know.” Least favorite part? “How much we have to clean be-fore close. The shoes have to be laced right, the tongue positioned right, and the shoes placed perfectly.” Funniest memory from work? “We were low on money so one of the managers, shouted into the mall ‘WE NEED MONEY!’”

Ahmadou Mfinaga - Wauwatosa Public LibraryWorking at the Wauwatosa Public Library is not a job full of excitement accord-ing to Ahmadou. He admitted that he “neither hates nor likes” his job, but he “can’t really complain” given that his job of shelving books and tending to patrons is not exceedingly difficult. Since weekday hours are from 5-9pm and he puts in about 16 hours a week, Ahmadou stated, “It used to be hard to work and keep up with school work, but I got used to it and am able to do both without any problems.”Ahmadou’s favorite part of his job is making phone calls, break, and going home after closing time.Funniest memory from work? “I was making calls to patrons notifying them that the items they re-quested had come in. I called this old lady and she tells me, ‘Omg did anyone tell you that you have a sexy voice? You should work at one of those

Jenn Asbach - Williams SonomaJenn Asbach, only 17, already has two jobs. This T-Dub-ber works at both Williams Sonoma for 30 hours each week and also cleans in a beauty salon on the side. Jenn seems happy as a runner, stocker, cleaner, and organizer. She admitted that it is hard to juggle work with school, sports, and ex-tracurriculars, but defiantly says, “You can sleep when you’re dead.” Be-sides, she needs the money; “It looks good on college applications,” she added. “My favorite part of the job is coming home and the pay,” Jenn said when asked. According to Jenn, her least favorite part is “Dealing with rich people.”Funniest memory from work? “A group of French people walked in and the manager was trying to talk to them in his broken French, but he was struggling over words. But he must have said some-thing right because they bought some set that was really expensive. “

IZZY FANGMAN g Guest Illustrator

SPORTSWEST SIDE STORIES8

November, 2010ATHLETICS

ELLYN KIRTLEY g Editor-in-Chief

Girl’s RugbyThe air shimmered above the turf

rugby field as heat radiated from the ground. Girls, with sweat running down their faces, sprinted for short spurts down the field with the ball before being viciously tackled by oth-ers. One girl on the opposing team took a serious tumble, and others gathered around her, fearing a con-cussion. The intensity of both teams was intimidating, and players be-came extremely emotional through-out the duration of the game. Thus was the situation during the rugby match between the newly-formed Wauwatosa girl’s rugby team and a Muskego high school level team.

In September of 2010, a Wauwa-tosa girl’s rugby club team was cre-ated. For its first season, the team is competing as a Division II team in the Wisconsin High School Girls Rugby league. The players are being coached by Wauwatosa School Dis-trict’s Director of Human Resourc-es, Dan Chanen. When he began working in the Tosa school district, Chanen was coaching the Brookfield high school girl’s team. Though he enjoyed working with the girls there, he wanted to coach a team within this district. “[I worked] with the Recre-

ation Department; we did an interest survey last year, and decided that it would be feasible to start a district wide club team through the recre-ation department,” said Chanen.

Because there are not enough in-terested students from Wauwatosa West or East to field a team, this rugby team is open to girls from all over the district. Kourtney Hartl, a junior at West, is the team captain as well as the only student here who is a member of the rugby team. Kourt-ney enjoys rugby, but it was not her first choice. “My mom would not allow me to play football, [so] I chose to play rugby instead,” said Hartl. “The best part of the game is that the adren-aline rush is in-tense,” she added. As the team captain, Hartl has many responsi-bilities. “There is a lot expected of me. I play two major positions; fullback and wing,” she said.

Though rugby has been played since the late 1800s (it

was officially recognized as a sport in 1895), many people still do not en-tirely understand what the sport en-tails. Played by both men and wom-en, rugby is a combination of football and soccer. In fact, rugby is what American football descended from. Like football, rugby is a full-contact tackle sport, and teams use plays and other strategies to win. Un-like in football, play is continuous; this is more reminiscent of soccer. Coach Dan Chanen remarked on an aspect unlike either of these sports: “Rugby is the only full-contact sport

for women. [In fact], players do not wear any padding or

helmets,” he said. Captain Kourtney Hartl agreed with Chanen’s assess-ment of rugby’s intensity: “It’s a very tough sport. In

rugby, we have nothing be-tween us and the opponent.” In high school rugby, there

are 15 players for each team on the field during two 30

minute halves: eight f o r - wards

(offensive players) and seven backs (defensive players). Points can be scored several differ-ent ways. Players can score

by making a try, which entails touching the ball down in the try zone (this is similar to a football end-zone), making conversion kicks (which are worth two points), or scoring penalty kicks or drop goals through the uprights (these are worth three points). The game is played on a full-size football field.

Though there are programs for children as young as five to play rugby, there is no competitive rugby in Wisconsin prior to the high school level, so many players in high school are still new to rugby. “In practice, we focus on learning the skills and tactics necessary to compete in the game and on building fitness levels,” said Chanen. This helps to rectify the fact that some players come to the team without much knowledge of the game. “Most players come to the game with something to learn,” said Chanen, “and new players are

always welcome.”

Tosa’s new girls rugby team up and running

U.S. Rugby

The USA’s Women’s Nation-al Team was ranked 5th in the World following the Women’s Rug-by World Cup in September 2010.

Since the creation of a National Rugby Tournament, 6 of Wiscon-sin’s 12 teams have placed in the top 5 at nationals at some point. Rugby is on the “emerging sports” list for the NCAA as a potential new NCAA collegiate sport for women.

While rugby may not be as prevalent in the U.S. as in Europe, a few interesting facts merit attention