Holiday cheer comes to Chalmers

Cross country girls run to state championshipBy Austin Block And MAry rose Fissinger

Queen’s iconic “We are the Champions” blared through speakers set up in the lounge. Two pillars of red, white, and black balloons flanked the stage. School President Thomas C. Hudnut waited on the stage, students crowded the room, and the girls’ cross country team walked up to receive recogni-tion for winning the school’s first state cross coun-try title.

Hudnut recognized the coaches, gave a short speech congratulating the students on their accom-plishment and called out each of the nine players by name, including sophomore Cami Chapus ’12, who placed first overall in the state for Division IV, and Amy Weisenbach ’12, who placed fourth overall in the same division. Each player was given a lei and Jamba Juice and the cookies were served.

The girls’ cross country team became state champions for the first time in school history on Saturday, Nov. 28. Coupled with the boys’ fifth place finish, the day quickly became, in the words of the head of the cross country program Jonas Kools-bergen, “the single greatest day for running in the school’s history.”

“They have run in the dark and they have run up hills with no one watching and they have run in places that others of us only have nightmares about and they have excelled and they have done wondrously well,” Hudnut said of the state cham-pions. “In cross country everybody counts. It is the ultimate team sport and so everybody up here has contributed to this great day and to a new state champion banner…being hung down in Taper.”

The team won state at Woodward Park in Fres-no on Saturday Nov. 28 after taking the CIF title on Nov. 21 and league title on Nov. 4.

Chapus won the individual state title with a time of 17:59, a minute faster than her time from the state meet last year for which she individually qualified, and the 18th fastest girls’ time run that day for any division.

Weissenbach followed in fourth place, running 18:24 and making Harvard-Westlake the only school to score two runners in the top 10.

Lily Einstein ‘11 finished third for the team, pass-ing several runners in the final stretch and coming in 32nd place at 19:26. Claudine Yee ‘10 (46th) and Yasmin Moreno ‘13 (66th) came through next, run-ning 19:42 and 20:05 respectively and finishing off the team’s scoring. Nikki Goren ‘12 (70th) was next at 20:09 and Caitlin Yee ‘13 (78th) followed with 20:22, the first seventh runner to come through for any team by 35 places.

The Wolverines’ team time of 1:35:36 became the fastest time ever run at the state meet by a Div. IV team.

Harvard-Westlake scHool • NortH HollyWood, ca • volume XIX • Issue 4 • dec. 16, 2009 • chronicle.hw.com

The hroniclec

By AnnA etrA And erin Moy

Santa Claus came to Chalmers Lounge Monday as part of the the annual Winterfest festivities hosted by the Prefect Council and Social Committee. The cel-ebrations included Christmas carols by the Chamber Singers, cookie decorating, hot cider, the opportunity to buy Wintergrams, pictures with Santa and a video display of holiday-themed movies.

“I think it was successful this year,” Senior Prefect Aarti Rao who helped plan the event said. “I’m really grateful for the hard work everyone put into planning this.”

Winterfest was supposed to include an all-senior Secret Santa gift exchange. However, it was cancelled when the Facebook event profile indicated that par-ticipants should choose to be listed as “naughty or nice.” The event was organized by senior Prefects Syl-via Gintowt-Gindick, Chase Morgan and Aarti Rao, as well as Emma Gilhuly ’10 and Heidi Chung ’10. Under the advice of their advisers, school chaplain Father J.

Young and Jordan Church, the administrators of the group cancelled the Facebook event.

Church said that Secret Santa got shut down be-cause although the naughty vs. nice was just a ref-erence to holiday cheer, the prefects “didn’t realize the student body would misconstrue the intentions of the gift exchange.”

“I assume they misconstrued it because I have heard from students that in years past, some kids in Peer Support had done a naughty gift exchange,” Church said. “This was supposed to be a community building holiday event but people misinterpreted it to being inappropriate.”

Instead of continuing the event without any con-nection to naughty vs. nice, the “misconception was already out there, so the administrators of the group did not want to risk inappropriate activity be-ing associated with senior prefect members,” Church said.

Nevertheless, decorations will remain up for the rest of the week.

By Michelle nosrAtiAn

A Beverly Hills school that sus-pended a middle school student for cyber-bullying violated her 1st Amendment rights, a Los Angeles federal court has ruled.

The ruling addresses the ques-tion of whether school administra-tions can have jurisdiction over the verbal conduct of students outside of school.

“To allow the school to cast this wide net and suspend a student simply because another student takes offense to their speech, with-out any evidence that such speech caused a substantial disruption of the school’s activities, runs afoul” of the law, U.S. District Judge Ste-phen V. Wilson wrote in his deci-

sion.“The court cannot uphold school

discipline of student speech simply because young persons are unpre-dictable or immature, or because teenagers may often fight over hurtful comments,” he wrote.

Harvard-Westlake’s policy, spelled out in the Student Par-ent Handbook, maintains that if a student makes a serious threat using school computers or makes negative comments about another student while identifying him or herself as a Harvard-Westlake stu-dent from their home computer, the school has the right to punish the student.

“If someone is using hardware or software or networks supplied by the school, then it is an honor

code issue,” math teacher and Ed-ucational Technology Committee Chairman Jeff Snapp said.

“It really doesn’t go back to whether it is a school computer or not, it goes back to who you want in your community, and as a private independent school, we have the opportunity to say who we want in our community,” Salamandra said. “I know public schools don’t have that opportunity but we do.”

The administration has many ways of dealing with online trans-gressions, running the spectrum from a slap on the wrist to expul-sion.

“We over the years have evolved and changed things so that now online harassment is more strictly punishable,” he said.

Cyber-bullying policy stands despite ruling INSIDE

Performers show off talents at coffee house.

Page B12

chloe lister/ChRoNICLE

presiDeNt sANtA: Head of Upper School Harry Salamandra (left) sits on the lap of President Thomas C. Hudnut, playing the role of Santa Claus, during the Winterfest during Monday break in Chalmers lounge.

Questioning faith a common experience.Page B3

Video art adds cell phones to classics.Page A6

JorDAN FreislebeN

AllAN sAsAki

photo illustrAtioN by cANDice NAvi

previewWhat happens to those homework surveys after you circle the choices?A6

The ChronicleWednesday, Dec. 16, 2009Volume XIXIssue 4

A2

B8Boys’ varsity basketball captain Erik Swoope ’10 talks about the season.C8

Get suggestions on the best things to do in 2010.

A8

features sports

B2A9

on the web

blogspodcasts videosphotoschronicle.hw.com

PHOTO: See more photos from Champions’ Day, which celebrated the girls’ cross coun-try team’s CIF state title.

Lauren Seo/ChroniCle

jamie Kim/ChroniCLe

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alex israel ’00 designed the art

installations in a Culver

City mall.

an editorial encourages the giving spirit this

holiday season.

Gavin Cook ’10 started a meditation

club on campus.

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offbeatBy Sam adamS

Canh oxelson’s lookalike has really been bringing him down lately.

When someone pointed out to the upper school dean that he bore a striking resemblance to golfer Ti-ger Woods over a decade ago, Oxelson figured that it would be an easy way to earn some money for graduate school. he’s been doing corporate gigs and impersonat-ing the athlete at parties ever since. he was featured in Sports illustrated as Tiger’s doppelganger. he appeared on Cnn and in USA Today. he even met Tiger on the set of an American express commercial in which the two appeared. Business was good: by oxelson’s count, he moonlighted as the golfer eight to 12 times per year.

“After 12 years of doing this, i’ve done just about everything you can do,” oxelson said.

But in the past two weeks, daily allegations of adul-tery have come out after Tiger crashed his escalade and started a media feeding frenzy on the reserved star. He has since quit the game for an indefinite period.

“The salacious details have gotten so bad that i am starting to wonder if i even want to do any more lookalike stuff,” oxelson said. “if people are looking at me, it’s like it’s guilt by association now.”

oxelson’s second career has evaporated since the al-legations. A lucrative corporate job was canceled after the scandal broke and the company decided they didn’t want to align themselves with the tainted athlete any-more. Though he’s gotten offers to come onto TV shows as part of a Tiger parody, he said that he only wants to use his resemblance for positive messages.

The faux Tiger said that if his likeness manages to repair his image, he’d consider making a comeback. For now, though, he’s just trying to make sure that his reputation doesn’t come crashing down along with Ti-ger’s.

“So far, so good,” oxelson said. “none of my friends have turned their back on me. none of the other deans have turned their back on me, so i think i’m safe.”

news

POLL• : Do you think the homework surveys are a useful tool for assessing and amending the workload?

CourteSy of Canh oxeLSon

C7

VIDEO:Missed the ‘Up in the Air’ screening? View the entire Q&A with Jason Reitman.

ChLoe LiSter/ChroniCle

VIDEO:• View clips of students singing, dancing, and performing at the Coffee house on Nov. 23.

Lucy Davis ’11 will represent

the united States in an

international equestrian

competition.

opin

ion

PHOTO• : See all of the artwork being displayed in Feldman-Horn for the “Best of Three” photo show.

News A3Dec. 16, 2009 The hroniclec chronicle.hw.com

By Daniel RothbeRg

General Motors’ new electric vehicle, the Chevrolet

Volt, made a pit stop at a middle school assembly Nov. 30, en route to the Los Angeles Auto Show.

Using slides and short videos, Maria Rohrer of Chevrolet illustrated to students the necessity of transitioning to sustainable fuel and how the Volt is a step in making that transition possible.

Additionally, Rohrer explained how the Volt functions, and some of the features that make it unique.

The presentation was webcast live from the Bing Auditorium to more than 120 schools across the nation.

“We think that Harvard-Westlake is a place where there are a lot of future leaders,” said Tony Posawatz, Vehicle Line Director for the Chevrolet Volt, to explain why Harvard-Westlake was chosen to host the assembly.

The assembly was a part of the Harvard-Westlake STEM program’s continuing effort to excite students into pursuing careers in science, technology, and math.

“I thought it was the perfect opportunity to bring real world science to you guys,” Head of the Middle School Science Department David Cleland said in his introduction to the assembly.

Following the presentation, students and faculty

congregated outside the auditorium around the as of yet unreleased Volt.

A chassis, the inside of the car, was also on display.

Students were given the opportunity to ask Chevrolet representatives about the car.

“These are the cars that kids your age are going to be driving,” said Shelby Fox ’05, a public relations representative for General Motors. “It’s great to introduce it to everybody now and get everyone excited about alternative cars, instead of typical cars that we might be exposed to on an everyday basis.”

The Volt will be released later next year, Rohrer said.

“We really think this is going to be the beginning of the electrification of the car,” Posawatz said. “So as opposed to a few hundred units of electric vehicles, Chevy plans, beginning next year, to begin building tens of thousands of electric cars. As the presentation stated, we will change the world by doing so.”

The Volt is an electric car with extended-range capability, meaning that should the Volt run out of electrical charge, the vehicle would begin running on a small gas-powered generator.

The Volt runs for 40 miles on one electrical charge and 300 miles total with the help of the fuel-powered engine. Eighty percent of Americans commute fewer than 40 miles per day, Rohrer said. Moreover, one Volt could save up to 500 gallons of gas per year, she

said. When plugged into a standard household outlet,

the Volt can be recharged in about eight hours. However, for faster charging, the Volt can be plugged into a 240-volt outlet where it will re-charge in about three hours.

“It is our bridge to what were calling a gas free future that uses renewable energy,” Rohrer said. “The future of your transportation is truly electric. You can charge the battery and change the world.”

“I thought it was very interesting,” Luke Holthouse ’13 said after the assembly. “The car is really cool looking and very much the future and it’s great that our generation is getting a look at how our life will be like when we do run out of gas. How we are going to react to that is our responsibility and I am glad that we are getting a chance to learn about how we should handle that.”

While Harvard-Westlake students gathered outside to catch a glimpse of the new vehicle, Rohrer answered questions from students from across the nation in a webchat.

After the assembly, Chevrolet handed out information to students about the car, complimentary tickets to the Los Angeles auto show and Chevrolet Volt t-shirts.

The assembly can be watched online at www.theweeklyreader.com and www.chevroletvoltage.com.

UCLA physics professor ‘loves viruses’

GoinG Viral: UCLA physics professor Robjin Bruinsma uses a miniature soccer ball to demonstrate the shape of a virus.

By emily KhayKin

UCLA physics professor Robjin Bruinsma discussed the reasons “why physicists love viruses” in an optional assembly that was given in Ahmanson Lecture Hall on Dec. 3.

About 60 students and teachers attended the event which was during a special break period.

Professor Bruinsma came to speak as a favor to his friend, science teacher Antonio Nassar.

Bruinsma explained the similarities between physics and biology and how they have collaborated over the years in research on different viruses.

He described viruses as “part of a gray, intermediate world between living and dead matter.”

Bruinsma said that many of the tools that biologists use were first developed by physicists. For example, the electron microscope, developed in Germany, was made by physicists.

“When you look at the shape of a virus, you can tell how close we are to the world of atomic physics,” Bruinsma said.

Bruinsma stressed physicists’ interest in the symmetry of a virus. Bruinsma explained that physicists use a method called X-Ray crystallography to determine the geometry of the atoms within a virus.

Bruinsma cited several examples of physicists who conducted experiments on viruses and found some astonishing results.

For example, by taking the tobacco mosaic virus’ protein and combining it with water, salt and capsids in a test tube, two physicists, Heinz Fraenkel-Conrat and Robley Williams, discovered in 1955 that viruses were examples of

“complex systems that spontaneously assemble to make working systems.”

Another example Bruinsma gave was based on Sir Aaron Klug’s work.

Klug was the first to “show the mechanical way of how viruses assemble,” using a phase-diagram, a common graph to describe a change in motion in physics.

Klug’s discovery also showed that spherical viruses have icosahedra symmetry, making them “exactly the same shape as a soccer ball,” Bruinsma said.

Bruinsma also talked about important discoveries by Sir Francis Crick, a physicist who helped discover the structure of DNA.

Bruinsma said that Crick was one of the first scientists to ask the question “Why are viruses icosahedra?”

This question, along with many others related to it, is what Bruinsma's team of physicists at UCLA are currently working on.

“Using simple physics principles, we figured that viruses, like many other things in nature, want a low surface to volume ratio,” Bruinsma said. “Right now we are trying to push the idea that virus capsids are like miniature elastic shells.”

“That would mean that from the physics of elasticity, we know that the harmonic spring of the shell would determine the radius or the thickness of the shell,” Bruinsma said.

“Virus shells are like plastic, they have properties similar to plastic, but at the same time, a virus, unlike plastic, can be assembled and disassembled,” Bruinsma said.

“This is what initiated the love affair between physics and biology,” Bruinsma said.

Photos by alleGra tePPer/CHRoNICLE

the more you know: Middle school students speak with GM representatives about the Chevrolet Volt.

GM showcases electric car at Middle School

Daniel lunDberG/VoX

hiGh VoltaGe: The Chevrolet Volt, General Motors’ new electric car, (pictured above) was showcased to the Middle School during a presentation on Nov. 30 its way to the Los Angeles Auto Show.

By Kelly Ohriner

A senior and a sophomore Ea-gle Scout each earned Crescent Bay District Summit Awards.

Stephen Carr ’12, a member of troop 223, and Jack Kuhlenschmidt ’10, a member of troop 23, were honored with the Summit Award for their excellence in scouting by the Crescent Bay District, West-ern Los Angeles County Council of Boy Scouts of America.

Both Carr and Kuhlenschmidt are Eagle Scouts, which is the high-est rank in scouting at the national level of Boy Scouts of America.

The Summit Award, which Carr and Kuhlenschmidt received on Nov. 19, is given to recognize youth and adult excellence within the county.

Kuhlenschmidt was honored for his contributions to the communi-ty that went beyond what he did to earn his Eagle Scout Award, which he recieved in freshman year.

Many of Kuhlenschmidt’s proj-ects reflected his Eagle Scout val-ues.

For one of his projects, he con-ducted five interviews, each of which was about 30 minutes long, with United States veterans from foreign wars including World War II, the Korean War and the Viet-nam War, for the Veteran’s History Project.

After editing and packaging these interviews, Kuhlenschmidt submitted the final product to the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

The final project is now archived there at the National Folklife Cen-ter.

This project combined the video production skills Kuhlenschmidt acquired in his Video Art classes in school with his Eagle Scout val-ues.

Three of the veterans Kuheln-schmidt interviewed went to the Award Luncheon to celebrate his scouting commendation with him.

“Although I was extremely ex-cited to win the award, the most rewarding part was interviewing the veterans,” Kuhlenschmidt said. “Their stories gave me a new ap-preciation for the armed forces.”

Like Kuhlenschmidt, Carr was also awarded for his contributions beyond the fufillment of his Eagle Scout Award.

Carr conducted his Eagle Scout project working with the organiza-tion People Assisting the Home-less.

At P.A.T.H., Carr realized that there is a need to publicize and educate about non-profit organiza-tions like P.A.T.H.

This revelation inspired Carr to write and direct a video.

All aspects of production were done by Carr’s fellow troop mem-bers.

A4 News Dec. 16, 2009The hroniclec chronicle.hw.com

By ingrid Chang

Family members, strangers, oddly-shaped bell peppers and cats are among the subject matter of the senior photography show, “The Best of Three,” which began on Monday.

The name is a play on both the name of the class, Advanced Photography III, and the number of sections the show was di-vided into.

The showcase features three separate sections: “You Are My Hero,” “Homage to Edward Weston,” and “The Best of Three.”

For the You Are My Hero assignment, students photographed someone or some-thing they considered a hero and wrote an accompanying paragraph explaining their choice.

Among the hero photos are pictures of a parent who is a doctor, a pet cat, and even a self-portrait.

Bruno Seros-Ulloa ’10 chose himself as the subject of his hero project.

“I don’t live my life thinking about who I

want to be like, so I decided to choose my-self because that’s all I really can be,” he said.

Edward Weston, a photographer in the 1930s known for his monumental close-up photos, inspired the second part of the show.

“I challenged the kids by saying: it’s been 80 years since he took those pictures, the technology has improved considerably. Let’s see what you can do,” photography teacher Kevin O’Malley said.

John Billingsley ’10 photographed a bell pepper, which he edited to be black and white and to have high contrast.

“I tried to imitate his dramaticism,” he said.

The Best of Three is made up of work that the seniors have not displayed before, some of which they put into their college portfolios or submitted to the Spotlight Awards.

Each student chose a photograph from the school year or over the summer to dis-play.

Seniors present photography in ‘Best of Three’ show

Chloe lister/CHrONICLE

piCture perfeCt: Todd Albert ’10 arranges his photograph of lettuce in Feldman-Horn Gallery. The Advanced Photography III show, “The Best of Three,” opened Monday.

Courtesy of betty-jo tilley

sCout’s honor: Stephen Carr ’12 and Jack Kuhlenschmidt ’10 recieve Summit Awards on Nov. 19.

joyCe kim/CHrONICLE

Christmas Cheer: Head of School Jeanne Huybrechts reads from a prayer book alongside members of the community in the Christmas Convocation in St. Saviour’s Chapel.

By JOyCe Kim

The annual Christmas Convocation: Service of Nine Lessons and Carols was held in St. Saviour’s Chapel on Dec. 13.

Although this was a Christian service, members of all faiths were welcome to attend. The service has been conducted in St. Saviour’s Chapel for decades, even before the merger of Harvard and West-lake.

“The service is particularly beautiful because it takes place in such a historic place on our campus,” junior prefect Christopher Holthouse ’11 said.

The congregation rose from their seats as school chaplain Father J. Young came in reciting a prayer to begin the service.

The Madrigals followed Young’s prayer with a hymn. Candles in hand, the Madrigals walked into the service from outside the chapel in two rows, led by middle school choir director Nina Burtchaell, and accompanist Chris Wong.

They sang the hymn “O come O come Emmanuel” along with the rest of the congregation.

The service included readings from scriptures, communal singing of hymns and a series of musical offerings from both the upper and middle school performing arts departments.

Prefects, the President of the Parents’ Association Laurie Ember, Head of School Jeanne Huybrechts and President Thomas C. Hudnut each recited a scripture from different chapters of the Bible.

In between each reading was either a hymn or a student perfor-mance.

The Madrigals sang three songs from their own repertoire: “Ado-ramus Te” (We Adore Thee), “This Christmastide,” and “Follow That Star.”

“The significance is all about the H-W Choral Program existing as a part of the spiritual and communal life of the school,” Burtchaell said. “The students who sing these services learn so much about what the gift of music brings to life.”

Burtchaell felt it was more than a religious service. “[The Convocation] is not about religion, but about acceptance,

understanding, community and sharing,” Burtchaell said.Following the service, a reception was held in Feldman-Horn Gal-

lery.

Annual service includes all faiths

Senior, sophomore win high award in scouting

By Jamie Kim

At a private screening of his latest movie, “Up in the Air,” director Jason Reitman ’95 spoke candidly about how he adapted his screenplay to the context of an economic reces-sion, why he is drawn to polarizing characters and issues and why he could easily relate to a man whose sole purpose in life is to reach 10 million frequent flyer miles.

The screening and question and answer session is the third installment of the ‘Speaking of Movies’ speaker series, was hosted by Reitman on Dec. 8 at the Sherry Lansing Theatre at Paramount Studios. Speaking of Movies began last year when Reitman, whose credits include “Thank You for Smoking” and “Juno,” contacted photography teacher Kevin O’Malley and Head of Visual Arts Cheri Gaulke be-cause he was interested in “[giving] back to the school in some way,” Gaulke said.

“What he suggested was that he use his address book to contact some of the most fascinating people in the film busi-ness and interview them in front of an audience at Harvard-Westlake,” she said.

This year, that “guest” was Reitman and the question and answer session was preceded by a free, private screen-ing of “Up in the Air,” four days after its nationwide re-lease. Students, faculty and staff received the invitation to attend during Thanksgiving break, and the event filled up very quickly.

“Up in the Air,” named the best film of the year by the National Board of Review, was based on a 2001 novel of the same name by Walter Kirn. George Clooney stars as a cor-porate downsizer who spends more than 300 days in the air per year and relishes packing his life in a single, carry-on suitcase.

“This is not a movie about firing people,” Reitman said after the movie. “Firing people is a location for a movie about a man who is trying to figure out whether he’s going to live disconnected.”

When an audience member expressed confusion about the movie’s ending and its message, Reitman explained that

he never had the intention of sending a specific message. “I don’t want to tell you what to think,” he said. “I don’t

really want to pass moral judgment on the characters. Re-ally, I think that you can have a good life connected and you can actually have a good life disconnected. What I wanted is for this character to understand the value of human re-lationships.”

Reitman said he related to the book version of “Up in the Air” very strongly for two reasons: “One, I like human-izing characters who have kind of polarizing occupations,” he said. “My three main characters are a head lobbyist for big tobacco, a pregnant teenage girl and now a guy who fires people for a living.”

“Also, I collect air miles religiously. So, while someone may have viewed the book ironically, I approached the book as, wow, someone understands me,” he said to the audience’s laughter.

Reitman said he once went on a “mileage run” to Chicago, when he realized in December that he did not have enough miles to achieve the same airline status for the following year. (Once he arrived, he picked up a Giordano’s pizza and flew back to L.A.)

“I have the sickness,” he said. “I understand that, and I thought it’d be interesting to kind of examine why we collect things as meaningless in life as air miles.”

When he began writing the screenplay seven years ago, America was in the midst of an economic boom.

“I’d written these satirical firing scenes that were similar to the tone of ‘Thank You for Smoking.’ But that didn’t make sense now,” Reitman said. “It’s not that they weren’t funny; they just didn’t speak to what the film was about.”

After cutting out all of the firing scenes in the screenplay, Reitman released an ad in the paper asking for volunteers who had lost their jobs and were willing to go on camera for a documentary about job loss. Sixty people went on camera, 22 of whom are seen in the movie.

“They would begin to say the kinds of things I would nev-er think to write, as a writer, and they would say it in a way I would never think to direct, as a director,” Reitman said.

News A5Dec. 16, 2009 The hroniclec chronicle.hw.com

AllAn SASAki

QueStionS in the Air: Head of Visual Arts Cheri Gaulke listens to director Jason Reitman ’95 as he answers ques-tions from students, faculty and staff at a screening of his new film, “Up in the Air,” at Paramount Studios on Dec. 8.

Reitman hosts ‘Up in the Air’ screening, answers questions

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AP Chemistry visits CaltechBy Lauren Seo

Chris Dartt’s AP Chemistry class went to the California Insti-tute of Technology after school on Dec. 4, where they visited several labs, spoke to researchers and met with Nobel Prize winner Robert H. Grubbs.

The main objective of the trip was to use the institute’s Nucle-ar Magnetic Resonance machine, which was essential to the molec-ular spectroscopy lab the students were working on in class. For the lab, students were each given an unknown organic compound and were expected to deduce its chemical make-up and structure by using techniques such as quali-tative testing, mass spectroscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance and infrared spectroscopy. Harvard-Westlake’s NMR machine broke down a year ago, three days before last year’s class was scheduled to

use it, so Dartt did not have suffi-cient time to schedule a trip to use a functioning machine. However, this year Dartt had months to plan for the use of the machine, as well as plan several visits to vari-ous caltech labs he thought would interest his students.

As they tested their samples in the NMR machine, students learned about the value of the ma-chine from professional scientists.

“I remember one scientist tell-ing us how an NMR analysis makes any lab report legitimate,” Jack Petok ’11 said.

A high point, Petok said, was meeting Grubbs, who won the No-bel Prize for Chemistry in 2005 for his work in the field of olefin metathesis. Grubbs research has developed powerful catalysts for organic synthesis reactions, al-lowing scientists to custom-build molecules with specialized prop-erties. The students visited his

lab, where scientists were working on the olefin organomelatics and catalysts.

Dartt knew Grubbs as an ad-viser at a company he had previ-ously worked for, and was not sure if his busy schedule would allow him to meet the students.

The students also visited the lab where Dartt earned his doc-torate.

“It was a very eye-opening ex-perience because it wasn’t just chemistry or just physics or just biology we saw,” Jennifer Plotkin ’11 said. “It was all these different sciences combined, which made it very cool.”

“It was definitely a surprise, and I’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback from the students,” Dartt said.

“I was having thoughts of a ca-reer in science, and I feel like now these thoughts are solidified,” Pe-tok said.

Alumni reunite in LondonBy micheLLe noSratian

A Thanksgiving dinner in London reunited Harvard School alumni with former English foreign exchange stu-dents at event organized by the Eng-lish Speaking Union, the organization that facilitated the exchange program between Harvard and various English private schools.

The ESU also invited any Har-vard, Westlake, or Harvard-Westlake alumni currently living in Great Brit-ain, regardless of whether they par-ticipated in the exchange program.Communications officer Beth Stokes said that an anonymous donor paid for the event. The reunion took place at Dartmouth House, a nineteenth century mansion in central London that is the ESU’s headquarters.

“It was a wonderfully elegant set-ting for some 60 wonderfully elegant people,” attendee Rod Chamberlain said.

President of School Thomas C. Hudnut and his wife Deedie also at-tended the reunion.

“I found out that Martin Skan ’54 [the first exchange student to graduate from Harvard] was plan-ning to have this reunion of Harvard and Westlake exchange students and he was planning an American style Thanksgiving dinner in London, so the next thing you know, I was go-ing to be speaking there and was the guest of honor,” Hudnut said.

In his speech, which followed a champagne reception and a welcome speech by Skan, Hudnut brought the alumni up to date on what has hap-pened at the school, including the his-tory of the merger .

Stokes and the Advancement office staff sent over old pictures of Harvard and Westlake, as well as a slideshow of pictures of middle school construc-tion with captions.

“We also sent over some Chroni-cles, Life magazines, and a couple of other publications for people to pe-ruse,” she said.

Hudnut said that 20 exchange stu-dents out of 36 came, and there were about 60 people total in attendance.

Chamberlain said that popular discussion topics were “good or bad luck stories about girls...our most or least favourite teachers, how we spent the weekend... how the experience changed our lives [and] when we were last back and what that felt like.”

“I was inundated with people after the dinner saying ‘can we get this go-ing again, can we get this exchange program started at Harvard-West-lake again’,” he said.

By AnnA EtrA

Every year, at the end of each quar-ter, a form is distributed to every stu-dent in grades nine through twelve in every course. The form is 8.5 inches by 3 inches, with one line running across the top: “On average, how many hours per week do you spend on homework?” Under the question, there are three choices: less than three hours per week, about three hours per week and more than three hours per week. The survey is meant to be easy and anonymous, Deborah Dowling, Director of Studies said. Each teacher passes out and col-lects these forms after giving students about a minute of class time to think about it. That is the end of the process for students when it comes to home-work surveys.

For teachers, there is at least one more form they must fill out. For each class he or she teaches, a teacher must add up the amount of students in each category and submit it to Dowling. The data is then entered into a spreadsheet.

In most classes, the information is stored away because the majority of the students put less than or equal to about three hours, the number designated ac-ceptable by the workload committee as a fair amount.

However, if more than fifty percent of the students in a course or in a spe-cific teacher’s class indicate that they are spending more than three hours per week on their homework, the homework load for the class is given a “red flag,” according to Dowling, and the class is further looked into.

For every course or teacher with a class who has a red flag, Dowling speaks to the person in charge of it, either the teacher or the department chair. The

teacher speaks to the students about the results, and there is almost always a change in the students’ responses for the next quarter. The other option is that the students in a red flag class could have “gamed the system,” Dowling said. In that case, once a teacher starts discussing in detail the reasons why students might be spending over three hours on homework, and the teacher chooses to give the students an exten-sive survey about their homework hab-its, students usually confess falsifying their answers.

The current system has been in place for just over two years. At the beginning, there were many courses and teach-ers that came back with results lead-ing to red flags. Each time after that, the number of red flags reduced. At the end of the second semester last year, 99 percent of teachers and 99 percent of courses came back with an acceptable result for the amount of homework.

Although teachers feel that home-work load evaluation system is helpful, students disagree. “I don’t feel that the homework surveys make a big differ-ence in my overall homework load,” So-phie Turner ’12 said.

Ten years ago, David Hinden chaired the Workload Committee, a group con-sisting of over 30 teachers, parents and students. The idea for such a committee came up in Faculty Academic Commit-tee meeting. The committee worked to-gether to formally define the maximum amount of homework permitted for each class and decide if the limit should be applied to AP classes. The number decided upon was, on average, three hours per subject per week.

As a result, every six years, the Workload Committee reconvenes to distribute an extensive workload sur-

vey. The distribution corresponds to the halfway point of the Western Associa-tion of Schools and Colleges accredita-tion cycle. The result of the first survey was that students got more homework than they could possibly ever do.

Before Dowling developed the cur-rent system to survey each quarter, Kent Nealis, a mathematics teacher in charge of FAC, monitored homework. The department chairs would directe the teachers (by department and spe-cific class) to ask students how much time they were spending per week do-ing homework.

This informal survey was ineffective because by the time the answers came back up through the bureaucracy, “all of the results were in different forms, some of it was missing, and it really was not effective in terms of getting the information in an understandable way and making a change,” Dowling said.

Because students at Harvard-West-lake take so many courses, “teachers are not allowed to give the amount of homework that will give students the best learning experience,” Dowling said, “but rather what would be the most ef-ficient way to learn.”

At first there was concern that teachers would not be able to finish AP curriculums before May but this proved to be false, Dowling said.

A6 News Dec. 16, 2009The hroniclec chronicle.hw.com

inbrief

A photo taken on Ted Slavin Field by middle school art teacher Katherine Palmer’s husband will be featured in an art show at the Rob-ert Fullerton Museum Feb. 20.

Dylan Palmer chose his two pho-tographs from over 900 shots from a variety of angles on a Saturday in late July.

Although there was track prac-tice before the shoot and people were exercising on the track, the field was relatively empty.

The football posts were por-trayed as slingshots, as a football player was flung through, leaving only his helmet behind.

“It’s a beautiful field, and was perfect for this piece,” Palmer said.

—Jordan Gavens

Palmer features football posts in art show

Alumni choreograph on NBC singing show

Two alumni, members of an a cappella group called the SoCal Vo-Cals will compete in an NBC com-petition, “Sing Off,” tonight. Ben Bram ’06 will be working on the vocal arrangements for the group. Lili Fuller ’05 will help choreograph their performance.

In the show, eight a cappella groups will compete for a grand prize of $100,000 and an Epic Re-cords/Sony Music recording con-tract. The competition premiered on Monday, Dec. 14 at 8 p.m. and was followed by a one hour episode last night.

The final episode before the fina-le is scheduled to air tonight. The finale will air on Monday, Dec. 21.

—Vivien Mao

Sophomore dances in Thanksgiving parade

A sophomore was one of 50 danc-ers featured in the finale of the Ma-cy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Rebecca Hutman ’12 performed at the end of the parade during the unveiling of the new Santa Claus float.

Hutman first heard of the oppor-tunity through Stagedoor Manor, a performing arts camp that she at-tended during the summer.

—Jordan Freisleben

Calculus class visits Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Chris Gragg’s Topics in Calculus and Statistics class visited the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena on Nov. 12. Approximately 30 stu-dents went on the trip.

The TCS class studies calculus topics that are relevant to work done by JPL scientists. The tour in-cluded a multimedia presentation about what scientists do at JPL.

Gragg said the trip accom-plished the goals of the school’s Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics program, which aims to promote student interests in those professional fields.

—Alice Phillips

‘Cell phones rule’ in student filmBy DAniEl rothbErg

More than 35 students stood dressed in desert garb in the Feldman-Horn Art Center plaza, ready to recreate a segment from the film “Indiana Jones.”

The scene was filmed as part of an Advanced Video Art I project called “If Cell Phones Ruled the World.” Students from the video art class used tents and tables to transform the Feldman-Horn plaza into a Middle Eastern village.

The project will be composed of several segments. Each segment will feature a reproduction of a scene from an iconic film with a cell phone inserted somewhere in each scene. They will use scenes from movies such as “Pulp Fiction,” “Titanic,” “Romeo and Juliet,” “Monty Python and the Holy Grail,” “Indiana Jones” and “The Conversation.” The class is attempting to recreate the scenes as accurately as possible at different locations on campus.

“It’s a series of vignettes strung together by a running joke—the joke being that cell phones are everywhere,” Advanced Video Art I teacher Kevin O’Malley said. “We have done projects — mostly spoofs and satires — where students duplicate a famous scene from a feature film. This is the

first time to my knowledge where one of my classes has so faithfully recreated a series of scenes.”

So far, the Advanced Video Art I class has filmed four scenes. They hope to finish the piece in time for the Harvard-Westlake Film Festival deadline in January, O’Malley said.

The class reproduced each scene shot-for-shot by creating what is known as a “reverse” storyboard, O’Malley said.

“They took still frames from each camera set-up in the original scene and then designed their own shots – everything from camera angle, lighting, wardrobe and props,” O’Malley said. “And then, of course, they had to insert a cell phone somewhere in the midst of the scene.”

For each scene, students alternated producing and acting in the film. Gabe Benjamin ’11 is the project's lead editor.

From creating costumes to designing the set, each scene took hours of preparation, Nick Lieberman ’11 said.

“I definitely think that we set a precedent for a lot of preparation and working hard before we even start shooting, which isn’t always done with teenagers,” Lieberman said.

“To me, the best part of producing a movie like this is that this merry band of filmmakers keeps getting better and better as they work together,” O’Malley said,

can you hear me now?: Nick Lieberman ’11 and Romina D’Allessandro ’10 consult with teacher Kevin O’Malley, right. Lorenz Kim ’11 uses a cell phone dur-ing a recreation of an Indiana Jones scene.

Surveys monitor amount of homework

photos by allan sasaki

“I DON’T FEEL THAT THE HOMEWORK SURVEYS MAKE A BIG DIFFERENCE.”—Sophie Turner ‘12 nathanson’s/

CHRONICLE

Middle School drama teacher resigns mid-year

Performing Arts teacher Foster Solomon is leaving Harvard-West-lake mid-year, after teaching at the school since 2007. He and his wife will move back east, according to Head of Middle School Ronnie Codrington-Cazeau.

Both Solomon and Head of Mid-dle School Performing Arts Nina Burtchaell declined to comment on Solomon’s departure.

—Alice Phillips

News A7Dec. 16, 2009 The hroniclec chronicle.hw.com

inbrief

World Politics classes go to regional conference

The co-founder of CHOSA, a charity which assists underprivi-leged South African youth, intro-duced the organization’s goals to the CHOSA club Dec. 8.

Rosenberg explained the hous-ing and education issues affecting children in the country’s poverty-stricken townships.

She was invited by club president Gabe Benjamin ’11.

—Alex Leichenger

CHOSA co-founder speaks to club members

Debate team receives local, national recognition

The upper school debate team received multiple awards from na-tional and local tournaments.

Jake Sonnenberg ’11 qualified for both the Tournament of Champi-ons at the University of Kentucky and the Montgomery Bell Academy Round Robin in Nashville.

At USC, Adam Bennett ’12 quali-fied for the semifinals and Haleh Kanani ’12 was the junior varsity champion. At Damien High School, Michelle Choi ’12 and Bennett ad-vanced to the finals.

Sonnenberg and Ben Sprung-Keyser ’11 cleared to elimination rounds at The Glenbrooks in Chi-cago. Both finished with records of six wins to one loss.

—Nika Madyoon

The Mock Trial West Team made it to semifinals and the Lake Team made it to quarterfinals this year.

The two teams finished their fi-nal competition before Thanksgiv-ing break.

The Lake Team reached the third round before losing to the West Team, which placed in the semifinals on Nov. 24 and was in the top four.

Science teacher David Hinden coached the team, alongside attor-ney Margo Baxter.

—Sade Tavangarian

Mock Trial finishes final competition for season

Harmony gives toys at annual holiday party By Nicki ResNikoff

A box decorated with holiday-themed wrapping paper for the Holiday Toy Drive sat in the lounge from Nov. 19 to Dec. 4.

The toys that students donated were given to kids from East Los Angeles, ages 7 to 12, who attended United in Har-mony’s Christmas party on Dec. 12.

In an e-mail to the student body, Judd Liebman ’12 asked students to put new, unwrapped toys in the box outside Di-rector of Student Affairs Jordan Church’s office.

Liebman suggested dolls, board games and stuffed animals. United in Harmony did not want video games, because most of the children do not have the consoles to play them with.

On Dec. 3, one day before the toy drive was set to end, Liebman sent another e-mail to the community, saying that there were not nearly enough toys for all the children.

“These toys are very important to the recipients and we do not want them leaving empty-handed,” Leibman wrote.

Liebman sent the e-mail “to make sure everyone knew what United in Harmony really is.” In his e-mail, Liebman described United in Harmony as “a program that works di-rectly with children under the poverty level and living in shelters.”

After the e-mail was sent, according to Liebman, many more toys were donated.

“We actually had to make an extra trip to the drop off site because of the amazing participation,” he said.

Cate Barsky ’10 was involved worked with the administra-tion and made posters in preparation for the toy drive.

“It was a little slow to pick up, but I saw tons of toys,” she said. “I think it was definitely a success in the end.”

“It went really well,” Lara Sokoloff ’12 said. “Every kid left with a bag of clothes and a bag of toys.”

By Noelle lyoNs

When athletes have late practice, the school requires that they attend a mandatory study hall on certain days after school in the library. After nu-merous anonymous complaints, the Sports Council must come to a deci-sion on whether study hall should be required.

Along with Athletic Director Ter-ry Barnum, the Sports Council ap-proached the administration with ideas to address complaints from stu-dents, who believed this study period was not always necessary.

“Some students say they know how to manage time already; therefore, they don’t need to go to study hall,” Barnum said.

While students are not obligated to do homework, they must go to the library, where they are advised to do homework.

Teams that have late practice usu-ally require students to go to the li-brary until 4:30 p.m. There students are overseen by Steve Shaw, supervi-sor for the after-school study hall.

“The study hall has kids that range from numbers of 0-70 and an average of about 15 students normally,” Shaw said.

Punishment for failing to attend

study hall is up to the coach of each team. For some it may result in not going to practice and being prohibited from starting in the following game.

Some athletes want to be allowed to go home until their practice starts.

“Sometimes it’s unproductive, and I just want to leave,” varsity basket-ball player Hilary King ’10 said.

“When people that are supposed to be in study hall are rowdy, students can’t concentrate and aren’t allowed to get their homework done,” Sports Council Committee member Chelsea Edwards ’11 said.

Librarian Clare Lawler doesn’t no-tice the difference between library at-tendees and those in the study hall.

“In general, I can’t tell the differ-ence between regular students and those here for study hall,” Lawler said.

The Sports Council pitched the idea to the administration that study hall should be voluntary.

“We suggested that if students have a signed note from their parents, students should be allowed to decide whether or not they go to study hall,” Edwards said.

“Administration is still consider-ing our study hall idea, but eventually we should hear something about it,” Barnum said.

Sports Council debates effectiveness of study hall

Deans start college scavenger hunt By Alex leicheNgeR

The deans instituted a “College Knowledge” scavenger hunt for this year’s junior class in an effort to make the college research process more in-formative and enjoyable.

The scavenger hunt was assigned Tuesday of the week before Thanksgiv-ing break. Students in teams of two or three were required to answer 40 ques-tions pertaining to dozens of schools.

The questions varied in difficulty,

from naming the schools in the Pacific 10 conference to questions that required more than just a Google search.

“One of the big goals was to have [the juniors] understand all the differ-ent ways there are to research schools,” Bird said.

Another goal was to help students identify lesser-known schools or pro-grams at schools.

Weeklong senior privileges were awarded to the team from each dean group that answered the most ques-

tions correctly.In past years, juniors put together

PowerPoint presentations about the different types of colleges and universi-ties, such as the University of California schools or small liberal arts colleges.

“Some kids would just go scan a page from the Fiske [Guide to Colleges],” Bird said.

“We wanted to force them to do something that would actually force them to be more proactive and not pas-sive.”

nicki resnikoff/CHroNICLE

Holiday giving: Chloe Korban ’10 drops a game into the box in the lounge for the Holiday Toy Drive. The toys were given to children at United in Harmony’s Holiday Party.

About 20 students in history teacher Nini Halkett’s World Poli-tics classes attended the Face-to-Face conference at Whittier College on Nov. 21, with one class represent-ing Turkey, and one class represent-ing India.

The students also had several on-line afterschool conferences prior to the final one.

Halkett said that students at-tempted to finish their final negotia-tions and proposals in person.

Around 10 other schools partici-pated, some from out of state. —Austin Block

soundbytesStudents athletes have suggested that they should have a choice whether or not to attend study hall.

photos by nathanson’s/chRoNiclegraphic by emily khaykin

“If the Study hall were to be abolished, I thInk the StudentS who study would contInue to Study, and the StudentS that don’t, wouldn’t.” —steve shawstudy hall supervisor

“SometImeS StudentS Say where Study hall IS held, they can’t get work done.”

—Terry BarnumAthletic Director

In an effort to encourage students to reduce their consumption of meat, the Environmental Club will host a “meatless day” this Friday.

The vegetarian day is in prepa-ration for the Environmental Club entering the Green Cup challenge, a Green Schools Alliance competition to reduce the weekly electricity us-age in February.

The cafeteria will offer a wider variety of vegetarian lunch options.

The club is hoping to have the cafeteria and students more involved for future “meatless days”.

-Maddy Baxter and Jordan Gavens

Environmental Club hosts meatless Friday

A8 News Dec. 16, 2009The hroniclec chronicle.hw.com

By Michelle Yousefzadeh

Alex Israel ’00 designed art in-stallations for the new Westfield Culver City as part of the mall’s efforts to bring contemporary art into the commercial context. Israel said he was approached early in the fall by the director and curator of LAXART, a non-profit contempo-rary art exhibition space in Culver City, Lauri Firstenberg. She was searching for artists to design piec-es for the launch of the newly reno-vated Fox Hills Mall, now Westfield Culver City.

Israel’s art is displayed on an in-terior billboard wall by the mall’s

Sepulveda entrance and on the ex-terior wall adjacent to the parking lot. This was the first public exhibi-tion of Israel’s artwork.

“The offer was incredibly excit-ing,” Israel said. “The opportunity to see my work produced at that scale and for that large an audience was truly a dream come true.”

Israel used the installations as an opportunity to advertise his other projects such as his sunglass brand Freeway Eyewear, his sunglass de-sign L.A. RAYS, and web episodes titled Rough Winds. Rough Winds documents the lives of privileged, disaffected Southern California youth and is inspired by the writing

of Bret Easton Ellis and the shows Beverly Hills 90210 and The Hills, Israel said.

“I incorporated all three logos into the pieces that I made for Westfield, and in the exterior piece I created a collage of imagery that expresses the Southern California lifestyle that both my sunglasses and my webisodes investigate,” Is-rael said.

Besides working on Freeway Eyewear and Rough Winds, Israel is currently working on his gradu-ate school final thesis exhibition which will be displayed in a gallery at USC. The exhibit will include a classical sculpture show.

Alumnus designs artwork for Culver City mall

By Jordan freisleben

Former Visual Arts teacher

Carl Wilson will be honored posthumously in February in an exhibition in Feldman-Horn gallery featuring his work. Wilson, who founded the art department at Harvard School, taught at the two schools for 36 years before retiring in June 2006. He died in January 2008.

“He used to teach everything,” said Head of the Visual Arts department Cheri Gaulke. “Before he retired, he was teaching Art History, Drawing and Painting, Architecture, and he also used to teach a design course. He was really a delightful character.”

The dates of exhibition are Feb. 1 to Feb. 26 with the opening reception on Sunday Feb. 7.

In addition to the exhibit, the school is producing a 20-page hardbound catalogue featuring Wilson’s work. The catalogue will feature essays by President Thomas C. Hudnut as well as one by art historian Dr. Betty Ann Brown. Gaulke will also write the catalogue’s introduction.

The volume of Wilson’s work was unknown to his colleagues until discovered by his partner, Dan Gumbleton, after his death.

“One of the things that we discovered after Carl died was that he was drawing all the time,” Gaulke said. “We had no idea.”

Hundreds of his works were found within the past year.

“He would go through phases of being interested in shapes. It was pretty much all abstract, I’d say he was probably inspired by Kandinsky and he would like spend a year doing variations on a circle or variations of straight lines that are perpendicular to each other.”

The working title for the show is called “Menifee’s Mark.” Menifee, a family name which was Wilson’s middle name, has significance in his work.

“When he signed his work, he always signed it ‘Menifee’—that was sort of his art name,” Gaulke said. “I thought that would be a good title—it’s a play on words. He’s making marks on a page but it’s always what kind of mark does a teacher have on their students—we always hope that we have a mark on our students.”

Show to honor former teacher

By saMMY roth

Sophomores in Chinese II talked to high school students in China via live webcam Monday. About 20 students spent approximately half an hour af-ter school speaking in both Chinese and English with the students in China, using Skype, a website that allows the user to make phone calls over the internet. The conversation was an extra credit as-signment for the Harvard-Westlake students.

“The goal is to learn about how students in Chi-na are doing,” teacher Binbin Wei said. “They’re in high school, just like our students.”

The students in China were from a high school affiliated with Remmin University, which Wei said is one of the country’s best high schools. All of the Chinese II students also made Christmas cards for the students in China.

Wei said that in return, the students in China will make Chinese New Year cards for her Chinese II students.

Chinese II students communicate via Skype

don hagopian/chronicle

Carl Wilson

By alex leichenger

Members of the school newspaper and yearbook visited the floor of the House of Representatives and sat in on a Page 1 meeting of the New York Times during their trip to Washington D.C. for a national high school journalism conference Nov. 12-14.

The National Scholastic Press Association and Journalism Education Association Fall Student Journalism Convention attracted 33 Members of the staffs of Chornicle and Vox and over 6,000 total. Students were joined by faculty members Kathleen Neumeyer and Jennifer Bladen as well as Advance-ment Officer Ed Hu and Stephen Chae, advisor for the middle school newsmagazine The Spectrum.

At the closing ceremony of the convention, the 2008-2009 edition of The Chronicle won a National Pacemaker award and the November issue of the 2009-2010 edition won first place in the Best of Show competition for newspapers larger than 17 pages. The Spectrum was awarded third place Best of Show for middle school newspapers and Big Red, a sports magazine produced by staffers on The Chronicle, earned ninth place Best of Show for Newspaper Spe-cial Edition. The Chronicle website was recognized as the seventh best in the nation.

During their first day in Washington, students vis-ited the Newseum for three hours before leaving for Capitol Hill. The group was led on a tour of the Capi-tol Building by Michael Borden ’95, Senior Counsel to the House Finance Committee and former editor-in-chief of The Chronicle. After seeing the offices of congressmen and the rotunda, students were led to the floor of the House of Representatives. Borden and two congressional aides gave a brief presentation and answered questions about the history of both the room itself and the congressmen who have debated

in it.In the last segment of the Capitol tour, students

were granted access to the balcony directly outside Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s office.

Some participants in the trip opted to visit George-town University with Hu and Chae, a Georgetown alum. The group was toured on campus by current Georgetown students Mark Doumet ’07 and Chris Ballard ’08.

Journalist Nick Clooney delivered the keynote ad-dress at the formal opening of the convention that evening.

Seminars for student journalists and advisers began Friday morning, covering multiple facets of a publication such as layout and page design, inter-viewing, reporting and media ethics. Sessions were available on Friday and Saturday. Friday afternoon’s keynote speakers were Peter Baker, a Washington bureau reporter for the New York Times, and his wife, Susan Glasser of Foreign Policy Magazine.

The group later toured the Washington bureau courtesy of Times staff writer Elisabeth Bumiller and husband Steven R. Weisman, a friend of Donald Etra (Harry ’05, Dorothy ’08, Anna ’10, and Jona-than ’11, all former or current members of either The Chronicle or Vox).

Courtesy of Washington bureau chief Dean Baquet, a neighbor of Vox’s Ali Nadel ’11 while he was editor-in-chief of the Los Angeles Times, the students were able to sit in on the Page 1 meeting for the Nov. 14 issue of the New York Times. Baquet pitched a story from his bureau about Attorney General Eric Hold-er’s decision to prosecute Guantanamo Bay detainees suspected of involvement in the Sept. 11 terrorist at-tacks in New York. The article, by Charlie Savage, appeared on the front page the next day.

Following the final seminars and awards ceremony Saturday, the group visited the capital’s landmarks, including the White House, the Lincoln Memorial and the Vietnam and Korean War memorials.

page 1: Chronicle and Vox staff sit in on the New York Times front page teleconference for the Nov. 14th issue on Nov. 13th. The staffers also visited the Capitol building, the Newseum, and attended the NSPA convention.

Publications attend NSPA convention

courtesy of alex israel

Mall art: Alex Israel’s ’00 art, below, is on display at the Westfield Culver City shopping center.

saMMy roth/CHRONICLE

ni hao: Aletheia Kim ’12 and John Lee ’12 skype with high school students in China in Chinese and English.

chloe lister/CHRONICLE

opinionHarvard-Westlake scHool volume XIX Issue 4 dec. 16, 2009

Editors in Chief: Sam Adams, Hana Al-Henaid

Managing Editors: Sammy Roth, Allegra Tepper

Executive Editor: Michelle Nosratian

Presentations Editor: Candice Navi

Multimedia Editor: Jamie Kim

Business Manager: Neha Nimmagadda

Ads Manager: David BurtonAssistants: Victor Yoon

Chief Copy Editor: Ellina ChulpaeffCopy Editors:

Spencer Gisser, Ester Khachatryan, Catherine Wang

News Managing Editors: Nicki Resnikoff,

Michelle Yousefzadeh Section Heads:

Emily Khaykin, Alice Phillips, Daniel Rothberg

Assistants: Jessica Barzilay, Maddy Baxter, Hank Gerba,

Sanjana Kucheria, Jordan Gavens, Rebecca Nussbaum, Hunter Price,

Lara Sokoloff, Saj Sri-Kumar

Opinion Managing Editors: Anna Etra, Erin Moy

Section Heads: Kelly Ohriner, Jean ParkAssistants: Eli Haims,

Vivien Mao, Anabel Pasarow, Nick Pritzker

Features and Arts & Entertainment Managing Editors:

Drew Lash, Lauren SeoFeatures Section Heads:

Jordan Freisleben, Olivia Kwitny, Mary Rose Fissinger

Features Assistants: Evan Brown, Melanie Chan, Lauren Choi, Camille de Ry,

Allison Hamburger, Claire Hong, Megan Kawasaki, Chelsea

Khakshouri, Joyce Kim, Ryan Lash, Lauren Li, Lauren O’Neil Arts & Entertainment

Section Heads:Ingrid Chang, Matthew Lee,

Sade TavangarianArts & Entertainment

Assistants: Justine Goode, Noelle Lyons

Sports Managing Editors: Jack Davis, Alex Edel

Sports Writer: Jonah RosenbaumPhoto Coordinator: Alec Caso

Section Heads: Austin Block, Ashley Khakshouri,

Alex LeichengerAssistants: Sofia Davila,

David Gobel, David Kolin, Tiffany Liao, Judd Liebman, Austin Lee,

Julius Pak, Chelsey Taylor-Vaughn

Photography: Chloe Lister, Nika Madyoon

Web Designer: Jake Staahl

Adviser: Kathleen Neumeyer

The ChroniCle is the student newspaper of Harvard-Westlake School. It is published eight times per year. Unsigned editorials represent the majority opinion of the senior members of the Editorial Board. Advertising questions may be directed to Business Manager Neha Nimmagada at (818) 481-2087. Publication of an advertisement does not imply endorsement of the product or service by the newspaper or the school.

“They ran through the dark and they have run up hills with no one watching and they have run in places that others of us only have nightmares about,” President Thomas Hudut said in honoring the girls.

Last issue, The Chronicle gave a grade of F to the fact that water polo lost to rival Loyola for the fifth time in a row. Some members of the team protested, arguing that our assessment was unfair and did not reflect the intense preparation and hard work that had gone into their season.

Let us clarify here that our grade was not a condemnation of the team, but rather a commiseration in what was admittedly a tough loss for them. We on The Chronicle celebrate with our schoolmates when they triumph and agonize with them when they fall short. As in Hudnut’s speech, we stay with our teams when they run in the light and the dark. We apologize if any readers interpreted our evaluation as an attempt to single out or humiliate the members of the team.

Our school has a rich athletic tradition. Take the recent football playoff game against Oaks Christian. Our team had had a great season, upsetting high-ranked Alemany in a thrilling Homecoming game, but in the quarterfinal match loomed Oaks Christian, one of the best teams in the nation. The odds were against us and the game took place

during Thanksgiving break, but the stands were still filled with black-clad Fanatics. Confiscated inflatable noisemakers filled several trashcans in the cheerleaders’ box. Our team put up a very solid effort but was eventually overpowered by the squad. The fans stayed until the bitter end and gave the team the ovation they deserved after their season.

Few things are more engrained in our community than the water polo team’s rivalry with Loyola. Both squads are perpetually in the top tier of high school water polo and though supremacy may oscillate between the teams over the years, the games are always contested, emotional matches. Losses, especially in a series, resonate within the school community in a way that demands coverage within our pages.

Sports teams at Harvard-Westlake represent a major part of the school community, and often are a source of great pride. We honor accomplishments with confetti and cookies and leis, we congratulate team members the day after a big win, and we commiserate with our team members after a disappointing loss. If The Chronicle covers our victories, so must we our defeats. We do not do so out of spite, nor to pour salt on the wounds. However, as is so common in school, oftentimes the full story can’ t be summarized into one letter grade.

The Grinch inside all of us

We support all of our teams

Twas the day before Thanksgiving break, and all throughout Chalmers, not a student was stirring, it had never been calmer. Westside Food Bank containers were placed around campus with care, in hopes that the Harvard-Westlake community would place canned food there.

It was a lackluster showing and it was very clear, that our community was definitely lacking in holiday cheer. Nevertheless a toy drive was well underway, but as of now it seems as though Camp Harmony will have no gifts for their soiree. It is really quite sad that our giving spirit has shown itself to be rather bad.

At Harvard-Westlake, it is sometimes easy to forget the world outside our gates. We wrap ourselves up in the drama of homework, college applications and extra-curricular activities, rarely considering that there are actually issues beyond 3700 Coldwater Canyon. Let’s consider for a moment, that 14.6% of Los Angeles’ population is considered to live below the poverty line, a number that is made with obsolete and outdated estimations (the real poverty line is supposedly three times the current cutoff).

The fact that we can’t bring ourselves to donate canned food for a homeless shelter’s Thanksgiving

or a toy for homeless children’s holidays reflects poorly on us as a community. It seems as though we ca inconvenience ourselves enough to only bring our books to school, that we don’t care enough to make an effort to significantly brighten someone’s holidays. Participating in the holiday spirit can extend beyond school; the entire city has an opportunities for us to donate our time and resources.

“Maybe Christmas...doesn’t come from a store Maybe Christmas, perhaps means a little bit more…” thinks the Grinch after he stole Christmas from Who-ville. Yes, Mr. Grinch, you’re definitely right.

The holiday season isn’t only about getting gifts or a school vacation (though indeed valuable presents).It’s also about giving; the giving of food to the less fortunate, or the giving of your time by volunteering.

So though we were rather slow on the holiday cheer uptake, let’s have ourselves a rather un-Grinchy winter break.

Gathered in Chalmers Lounge during break a week ago Monday, we as a community set aside all of our school related anxiety to celebrate the girls’ cross country team’s state title championship. For a few minutes, we dropped what we were doing to savor the accomplishments of our peers.

3700 Coldwater Canyon, North Hollywood, CA 91604The hroniclec

JAMiE KiM/CHRONICLE

A9

“I would donate, but who has the time to shop?”

Millions of viewers sat aghast, eyes fixed to a TV or computer screen, watching a weather

balloon that may or may not have contained a small boy floating across the Colorado sky. The world skidded to a halt as the so-called “Balloon Boy” saga unfolded before our very eyes. As the supposed aviator Falcon (oh, the irony) later told us after emerging from the attic, it was all a hoax engineered to better position his family for a reality show. My first reaction was to see if I could get away with floating a sophomore as part of an SSR project; the project was grounded due to lack of brave volunteers. The fact that parents would crave fame so much as to risk the thousands of dollars in therapy

that the kid will require after the ordeal is a terrifying reflection on our cultural values.

Take the recent White House state dinner crashers. Two socialite morons decided to play Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn to campaign for a role on an upcoming reality show. That became the story of the evening; Not the presence of a major world leader, not the importance of a strong alliance with India, not even the green curry prawns that were served. Instead, we heard for weeks about the two chumps who really wanted to be on TV.

We may hear stories like these and scoff. We may go on with our daily lives with the quiet satisfaction that, yes, we are in fact better than these attention whores, but look deep down

and you’ll probably find a reality TV star just yearning to break free and crash the White House.

We live in an age where we can follow the lives of stars via Twitter and Facebook as though we were watching the plot of their latest blockbusters unfold. The line between the real life and the glittering mystique of celebrity is blurred. If Brad Pitt goes to the grocery store like I, by the transitive property I must indeed be a star!

Many of us live as though we are the stars of our own reality show. Those around us are supporting characters as we go through the insulated existence from each episode. A fight with a boyfriend or girlfriend becomes a cliffhanger; tune in next week. College decisions? Sweeps Week.

Our existence has become insulated by the camera lens we perceive to be following us as we walk through our daily lives.

The American Dream once stood for working hard and rising up in the world. But no longer is the endgame a house in the suburbs, a stable job and 2.2 children. The new Dream is to concoct something so outrageous that someone is bound to give us the reality show we deserve. We’ll rewrite the inscription on the Statue of Liberty: give me your Octomoms, your Hiltons, your desperate housewives yearning to breathe free.

We’re all guilty of this affliction. It’s time for our superegos to come out of their shells and break the bonds. At the end of the day, do we really want to keep up with the Kardashians?

I tell ya, life ain’t easy for a boy named Sue” sang country singer Johnny Cash. His hit song, “A Boy Named Sue,” tells a story of a young man’s lifelong quest for revenge on

the father who left him and named him “Sue.”While life isn’t so hard for a girl named

Drew, growing up with a typically male name has made me highly aware of the oh-so-subtle differences in the treatment of girls and boys because I often get both. Most of the time, it’s a case of a mistaken identity rather than the teasing and bullying Cash’s Sue had to endure.

When I was little, I was always invited to boys’ birthday parties when mothers went through the class list inviting all the boys in their son’s class. But that was the whole point of my name.

My parents grew up in a time when women were just beginning to chip away at the glass ceiling.

They thought that by giving me a boy’s name, it would give me an advantage in the professional world… until I showed up for an interview, that is.

Because my sister has a similarly ambiguous name, Ryan, we are an interesting pair. In fact, a friend of ours is a college professor and she uses us as an example in her class on gender roles and discrimination. She starts her class by saying that a family she knows has two children named Drew and Ryan.

“Are they two boys, two girls, or a boy and a girl?” she asks the students. No one has ever correctly answered that Drew and Ryan are sisters, showing that gender roles begin as soon as someone hears the name, something I’m sure Sue could attest to.

Of course, there are times when having a boy’s name allows me insight into Sue’s anger. Sue was treated differently because of his name as soon as anyone saw he was a boy. And on occasion, I am treated differently too.

Every once in a while, I find people have expectations about me and my behavior that are thrown when they discover I’m not a boy.

I was recently exchanging e-mails with an adult I had never met before and it was clear (through his use of pronouns) that he thought I was a boy. When I found out later that he would have worded his e-mail in a more delicate tone, as opposed to the slightly harsh one I received, I was infuriated.

While the context of the e-mail wasn’t particularly hurtful, the additional information I discovered was painful. The point was clear—I was being judged by my gender rather than as an individual person.

Then again, the bad comes with the good. Because of it, I have learned a lot about other people and society’s gender perceptions during my initial interactions with people.

I’ve gained a lot of insight: that even in a society that tries to focus on equality, boys and girls are still treated differently. I don’t resent my parents for naming me Drew. As a matter of fact, I actually love my name.

Eleven books sit by my bed, commiserating about their untouched second halves, unappreciated epilogues and

unacknowledged climaxes. I promise I had good intentions with every last one of them.

Some of them are the tougher ones to get through, the books I know I must read as part of my intellectual adolescence (“Lolita”) and others are just the guilty pleasure memoirs (“Teenage Hipster in the Modern World”). Nabokov or not, the story’s always the same—I, quite shamefully, rarely reach the end of a book if it won’t end with an analytical essay.

It’s been a certain looming thought of mine since bedtimes were replaced by falling asleep with the lights on with that beloved, colossal Civics textbook weighing down on my chest. I was a member of Book Bistro, a short-lived club, and an intimate one at that. Since then, I’ve become guilty of this very phenomenon, a carrier of the disease. Allow me to be plain: here we are at Harvard-Westlake, widely regarded as premier academia, and yet, no one reads.

Now before you reject the thought, peering over at the grossly annotated “Beloved” sitting beside you, think about the last time you read a book, simply for the sake of enjoying the text and nothing more. I pray that it falls within the semester, but I fear that simply isn’t the case for the greater majority of the student body.

President Thomas Hudnut begins each school year telling parents and faculty about the incredible novels he read this summer. It puts parents at ease, even excites them that their students are in such worthy hands. But somehow, we kids aren’t inspired in the same

way. How can we be led by such a thirsty intellect and not feed off of that energy?

Spanish teacher Javier Zaragoza brought this troubling thought up in a class, fearful that the flame of intellectual vitality of his students has withered away to a mere flicker.

He fears the clear diminution in students without a drive beyond the grade book can only be attributed to the post-modern revolution that is “Mytweetface.” Every great civilization faces its downfall, he said; Rome did, and now so will we.

I have no intentions of being melodramatic; however, that doesn’t erase the memory of a panic, along with many of my classmates, when presented with the question, “What books have you read outside of required reading in the last year?”

It only makes sense that students applying to these intellectual communities would have a literary repertoire and a natural desire to expand it. But no.

The easy, self-indulgent appeal would be for less work so that we could read for personal interests, not just academic pursuits. Perhaps English classes could assign students to read books of their choice and it would reignite the flame.

So what do I want you to take away from this? No, I don’t want the underclassmen to begin their scrambling a Hemingway anthology to round out their college applications. It’s about a thirst for intellectual stimulation. If we all leave Harvard-Westlake having read little outside our curriculum, I fear we’ll be academic clones.

As for me, I will give each of those cobwebbed novels attention because I’ll get the joy and freedom of intellectual stimulation we all deserve and need.

Sue, meet Drew

Drew

Lash

Sam

adamsI’m a celebrity, get me out of here

AllegrA

Tepper

“I fInd people have expecta-tIons about me and my behavior that are thrown when they dIscover i’m not a boy.”

A10 Opinion Dec. 16, 2009The hroniclec chronicle.hw.com

Reading, a lost art

VIVIEN MAO/CHRONICLE

Opinion A11Dec. 16, 2009 The hroniclec chronicle.hw.com

quadtalk

“I loved everything about 2009, I can’t pIck a sIngle moment.”—Emma Gilhuly ‘10

“When there Was a battle

royale betWeen tWo

praying manti In the

quad.” —Jordan Byran ‘12

“Stem FeSt. It Was so much fun, a bIg celebration. hoW can you go Wrong WIth robotS and rocketS? ”

—Paula Evans Math Dept. chair

“erneSt WolFe’S ‘10 dancIng In

the quad on ‘80s day

Was epic. he brought us

together through the

art oF dance.”

—Barrett Meister ’10

What is the most significant thing you remember about 2009?

3

All photos by Erin Moy/ChroniCle

1

21

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the worst of times

3The school switches photographers for the yearbook photos, resulting in longer photo shoots.

Athletic department kicks Fanatics out of the girls’ volleyball game.

Ventura Blvd. restaurants close because of water main breaking during the summer.

the economic downturn leads to budget cuts.

Students storm the field when football upsets Alemany at homecoming.

prom 2009 video featuring Andrew Lee ‘09, TeRhon O’Neil ‘09 and Danny Rudyak ‘09 rapping.

Boys’ and girls’ basketball win CIF, girls’ soccer wins the regional championship,

and girls’ cross country wins state.

The Class of 2009 has the first Senior retreat at the end of the year.

Casper Stockwell ’10 brings his pet pig as his semiformal date.

the chronicle chooses the best and worst moments of 2009.

the best of times

candy and soda are removed from the cafeteria menu

twelveADec. 16, 2009

bestof3Advanced Photography classes displayed their work in Feldman-Horn Gallery at a reception Dec. 14.

Original photo by Ethan Kurtzman ’10 Original photo by Bruno Paredes ’10 Original photo by Todd Albert ’10 Original photo by Katrina Zandberg ’10 Original photo by Candice Navi ’10 Original photo by Gracie Warwick ’10

Original photo by Megan Hilliard ’10Original photo by Candice Navi ’10Original photo by Megan Hilliard ’10Original photo by Gracie Warwick ’10Original photo by Ilica Mahjan ’10Original photo by John Billingsley ’10

Three’s company: Head of Upper School Harry Salamandra (at left, middle) wore his Winterfest hat while studying a photo in the art show; students explained their works to gallery guests over lemon bars and refreshments (center); History teacher Eric Zwemer looks at a military tribute by Chelsea McMahon ’10 (at right).

allegra Tepper/chronicle

IngrId chang/chronicle IngrId chang/chronicle

ENH

AN

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ENRICH

EXPLORE REVIVE

ADVENTUREBOO

KS

MOVIES

MU

SEUM

SRIDEREA

CH

UPD

ATE

RENEW

featuresThe hroniclec

Harvard-Westlake scHool volume XIX Issue 4 dec. 16, 2009

REIN

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CREA

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Tips and tricks to make the most of your year. 2010

yearNEWYOU.ne

w

graphic by candice navi and allegra tepper

B6-B8.

By Matthew Lee

An aura of calmness settles over the students in Feldman-Horn as they sit down and begin to meditate. One student describes the sensation of being able to feel every part of his body and to control all his thoughts. Soft murmurs of meditation in-

struction from the leaders of the Harvard-Westlake

Levitation Society can be heard, while it’s

members strive for an inner spiritual

peace.Gavin Cook

’10 founded the club in No v e m b e r, hoping to share the positive ef-

fects of medi-tation with his

peers. The club currently meets

e v e r y

Wednesday at 2:45 P.M., but Cook said that he plans to schedule meet-ings during break on Mondays and before school.

Cook started meditating during the summer before his sophomore year after a family friend intro-duced him to books about Eastern style meditation.

After reading several books, on the subject, Cook continued his meditation journey while living in China during his junior year. He took classes in Eastern medicine, and his teacher, in addition to teaching him medicine, instructed him in meditation.

“Ever since I began to live in China, I’ve been meditating daily, nightly, and ever so rightly,” Cook said.

Cook said that he named the club the Levitation Society because levitation was a good metaphor for the effects of meditation; that after a session of meditation, he feels a spiritual high, he said.

Cook emphasized the positive ef-fects of meditation that he wishes to share with his fellow students.

“By using your mind, you can re-

lax every muscle in your body and really feel the presence of your body in the world,” Cook said. “Medita-tion teaches you to live in the mo-ment.”

Cook had to work very diligently to fully feel the effects of meditation. He said that it is a gradual process and that one must slowly build up the time he or she can spend medi-tating.

“Meditation is like the internet; once you start using it, you can’t imagine how you lived without it,” Cook said.

Each club meeting lasts for 45 minutes to an hour, and during this time members meditate, and more experienced meditators aid begin-ning meditators.

“We help other members prog-ress and the atmosphere is very ca-sual and supportive,” Cook said.

Cook said that meditation changed his lifestyle in noticeable ways. He said that it helped him with his asthma; he now runs and dances every day. Since he started meditation, Cook has also noticed that studying has become more en-joyable, he said.

Club meets to meditate

lauren seo/CHrONICLE

breathe deeply: Gavin Cook ’10 takes a few minutes out of the school day to relieve stress.

By IngrId Chang and Jordan FreIsLeBen

On a Tuesday morning, Leah* ’11 called in sick for the day. However, it wasn’t a fever that was plaguing her, but rather the stress of junior year. She proceeded to spend the day catching up on sleep, relaxing and getting ahead on homework.

For Leah, mental health days are necessi-ties to deal with the demands of school.

“It releases pressure,” she said. “Some-times you need the extra time to catch up on sleep and work. If you’re really stressed at school, you won’t be able to focus.”

Stress makes it hard for students to per-form their best in school, school psychologist Sheila Siegel said.

“I think they need breaks, and when a break comes, they need it to be a real break,” she said. “When you take an honest break, you come back refreshed, with more energy to focus.”

However, Siegel’s idea of a break may differ from the ways that students spend their days off. She considers a break a day to recuper-ate.

“I think kids often take mental health days to finish a paper, so it’s not like they’re just relaxing. That’s a big difference,” Siegel said. “You only go to school for about 158 days a year, so it isn’t exactly overtaxing. But that said, sometimes people need a break.”

The administration is not oblivious to the fact that students take mental health days, even if the students try to conceal them by faking illness.

“You sense it, you know it happens,” At-tendance Coordinator J. Gabriel Preciado said. “Occasionally if a student is exhausted and they let me know, it depends on what they say. We encourage them to tell us what the truth of the matter is so we can at least work with them.”

Leah believes that being overstressed is an adequate excuse to miss a day of school.

“[Stress] is an actual issue that psycholo-gists study,” she said.

“Mental health is just as important as physical health,” counselor and humanities teacher Luba Bek said. “I’m a little bit biased as a mental health professional. But I do think that if a student is really stressed out or has a quote-unquote meltdown or is losing it, I think being at school is not a good idea.”

To Bek, a truly overstressed student com-ing to school could be just as detrimental to others as a sick student would be.

“It’s just as important to take a day off for mental health as it is if you had the flu, even if it’s not contagious,” she said. “It could even be a difficult thing for people to be around,” she said.

Carter* ’11 agrees with this sentiment. He thinks that the administration should give more consideration to the mental health of students.

“There should be allotted mental health days for students,” he said. “It would be tru-ly beneficial to the mental health of student body,” he said. “It might even improve your grades because you won’t be as stressed.”

Although Bek thinks alotting mental health days would be a good idea, she said it would be problematic for the school to implement it.

“Logistically it probably would be a night-mare to figure out how many days the student has taken, whether they were really stressed out or if they were taking the time to write a paper,” Bek said.

“But I know that students in general are really reluctant to miss school because of the amount of work, so if a kid wants to take a day off because he or she cannot handle it, then I’m all for it.”

Although teachers generally discourage taking days off unless a student is sick, histo-ry teacher Leslie rockenbach feels otherwise.

“Well, it’s a slippery slope,” she said. “I think that for the majority of students at Harvard-Westlake, I think you guys work really hard, you’re totally over-stressed. I think taking a day to yourself is a great idea, I do.”

*Names have been changed

“It’s not somethIng for me, but If It works for other people, I don’t have a problem wIth It.”

— Russell Madison ’10nathanson’s/ChronICLe

“wIth harvard-westlake’s rigorous currIculum, [mental health days] should be a necessity.”— Charlotte Gordon ’12

nathanson’s/ChronICLe

“I thInk that It If I take a mental health day I’ll just come back to more work and It’ll be more stressful.”

— Jamie Temko ’11nathanson’s/ChronICLe

“I thInk school can be stressful some-times and takIng a day off would be good, but It depends on the sItuatIon. ”

— Alex Scharch ‘11nathanson’s/ChronICLe

“everyone should be entitled to a mental health day each quarter.”

— Nikki Volpert ’12nathanson’s/ChronICLe

B2 Features Dec. 16, 2009The hroniclec chronicle.hw.com

Staying homefor sanity’s sake

Dec. 16, 2009 Features B3The hroniclec chronicle.hw.com

By Ellina ChulpaEff and nEha nimmagadda

Iris* stared down at her speedometer. Thirty-five miles per hour exactly. She hurriedly looked back up at the road. Scan-ning the intersection for stop signs, she spotted the police car. Luckily, the policeman had already pulled over another woman. Thank goodness, she thought. Everything around her

seemed like a trap. She looked at the road signs and her speedom-eter, back and forth, more times than she could count. She made sure she followed every rule was followed to the letter. Only 12 more miles to go.

Iris, who smokes marijuana at parties and kickbacks, frequently drives home after getting high. However, she attempts to wait as long as possible for the high to wear off, “unless it’s like three in the morning or something, and no one is on the road. At that point it’s just fun to drive high. Forget safety,” she joked.

Iris believes she is more alert when driving under the influence because of the constant fear that she might get pulled over.

“When you’re driving sober, you’re more careless with speeding or running stop signs or infractions like that,” she said. “But when you’re high, you feel way more intent on not making any mistakes, because you don’t want to get pulled over, so you’re more observant of traffic laws.”

“That’s called denial and rationalization,” Counselor and humani-ties teacher Luba Bek said. “Kids in general feel pretty invincible. It’s true that the reaction time you have at your age is the fast-est, but not under the influence. It slows you down. Why do people smoke? To relax, right? To chill. So, when you’re chill, then you’re not as quick. There’s some kind of incongruency in the terms.”

According to Jeff Uy, a behavioral psychiatrist with experienced in treating drug addiction, marijuana acts in stages. First, its effects are sympathetic and it acts as a stimulant. Later, it begins to act in a parasympathetic way, causimg people to calm down and become sedated.

The actual effect of marijuana on the ability of drivers to react to unpredictable situations has not yet been pinpointed by research. But according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, a meta-analysis found that increasing marijuana blood levels impaired be-havioral and cognitive skills related to driving. Also, studies based on real and stimulated driving have indicated that marijuana can negatively affect a driver’s attentiveness, memory, and perception of time and speed. Still, the National Institute on Drug Abuse concedes that more research is necessary to determine the full effect of mari-juana on drivers.

Another study conducted by the National Highway Traffic Ad-ministration in 1993 suggests that the effects of marijuana on driv-ing performance appear to be minor. In the study, increasing the dosage of THC, the psychoactive substance present in marijuana, caused more lane deviation while driving. However, the effects of marijuana seemed to be less drastic than those of alcohol. Those who had a blood alcohol content of 0.04 percent had significant driving impairments compared to a control group who did not drink any alcohol.

Even though their performance was weakened, the subjects did not seem to be impaired. The subjects under the influence of THC believed that their driving performance was altered, but in reality they were not significantly affected. Subjects under the influence of alcohol had the tendency to drive faster while those under the influ-ence of THC tended to drive slower.

Baron*, who also drives under the influence of marijuana “about once every two weeks,” agrees with Iris’s assertion that people usu-ally drive more carefully under the influence of marijuana.

“Honestly I think there is nothing wrong with like driving high if you know you can be safe,” he said. “People put a bad rap on smok-ing because it’s all politics. Smoking is just portrayed as like this evil thing that society shuns. I definitely feel more careful when I drive high because I’m a little bit more worried so I pay more attention to what I’m doing.”

However, Uy said that “scientifically speaking, you can never say that it actually improves your ability to drive.”

Senior boy Ezra* agrees with Uy. Some of his friends drive while high and also assert that it’s perfectly safe.

“It makes me so mad when people say that,” he said. “I mean, if you don’t feel any different after smoking, then why would you smoke at all? Obviously you feel different or are impaired after smoking, oth-erwise you wouldn’t smoke.”

For Iris and Baron, driving high is a much better alternative to driving drunk. They both believe that people who are generally re-sponsible and good drivers while sober are perfectly fine while driv-ing high.

“The standard deal is that the designated driver of a group can smoke, but not drink,” Iris said. “I have a friend who was telling me the other day about how he got high with his friends and they took turns purposely spinning out their cars in a parking lot at like two in the morning. See, but people like that would do that even if they weren’t high. That’s why I trust people to drive me high only if they’re good at driving when they’re sober. It’s more a question of ‘are you a maniac’ than ‘are you high’ for me.”

Attempting to determine the influence of marijuana on individu-als is very hard to do because it is subjective, Uy said.

“Different people act in different ways,” Uy said. “Marijuana has a more idiosyncratic effect on different people than alcohol does. So, it’s very hard to judge both of them because you aren’t going to get the same correlation scientifically.”

Even though the effects of smoking marijuana on driving performance are debatable, the consequences of getting caught are dire.

“More people are stopped for alco-hol than marijuana,” criminal attor-ney Donald Etra (Harry ’05, Dorothy ’08, Anna ’10, Jonathan ’11) said. “I’ve certainly had cases with people driv-ing under the influence of marijuana and the consequences are the same. A minor [anyone under the age of 21] would have an automatic year of suspension [from driving]. It could also be six months in jail.”

Harvard-Westlake can punish students for their behaviors off campus in non-school activities, even if the student is not charged with a crime, Head of Upper School Harry Salamandra said. The Student/Parent Handbook asserts the school’s right to “impose dis-cipline and penalties for conduct occurring both on and off campus…off campus behavior may be punished when it constitutes a major rules infraction…or constitutes a criminal effect.”

“Our community’s safety and the individual’s safety are para-mount to us,” Salamandra said. “We work diligently to help students make correct choices. Penalties range from working with parents and outside counselors to expulsion. Each case is evaluated to iden-tify what previous infractions the student has been involved in.”

If a student were to boast about driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol in Peer Support or admit to having a substance abuse problem, Harvard-Westlake would take action.

“We’re not a punitive organization,” Bek said. “We’re not there to get people and punish them. Basically what we do is we tell the parents. We can make sure the kids are safe at school but in terms of getting treatment, or taking your car away, we can’t do that. Our primary concern is the safety of the school community and the safe-ty of the individual.”

Still, Iris and Baron really believe that driving under the influence of marijuana is safe.

“People aren’t really impaired when they’re driving high, unless they’re really high,” Iris said. “I guess a radical idea would be to drive sober instead of drunk or high, but I mean, come on. You can’t demand perfection.”

*Names have been changed.

Many teens believe driving while under the influence of drugs does not pose a significant risk, but some experts say otherwise.

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“why do people smoke?

to relax, right? to chill. so, when you’re chill, you’re not as quick.”

— Luba BekCounselor and Humanities teacher

highrollers

ILLUSTRATION BY JORDAN FREISLEBEN

By Hana al-Henaid and MicHelle nosratian

For the past year or so, Robby Mack ’10 could not figure out what to put as his religion on Face-book. Many do not give much thought to the label, but for Mack, the inability to answer that particu-lar question represents his difficulty identifying wholly with one religion, something he struggled with while simultaneously enduring the trials of junior year. What began as a slight questioning of the values he had been brought up with evolved into a full-blown religious identity crisis.

Mack comes from a family that he describes as “Christian and conservative.”

For the first 15 or 16 years of his life, Mack never questioned the views that his family held, he said.

“In terms of both my religious and political val-ues, I listened to what my parents said,” he said. “I used to believe that God is truth, Jesus is the savior, the free market is great, Ronald Reagan was the best president we’ve ever had and that anybody can attain the American Dream. I nev-er questioned it and I’m not entirely sure what prompted it to change.”

One night, Mack was sitting on the couch of his parents’ house with his mother’s laptop when his thoughts started wandering.

“I was curious as to what the Qur’an actually says,” he said. “Maybe it was divine influence, but I went to Google and typed in Qur’an text and I was surprised because it said radically different things than I thought.”

In many ways, Mack was shocked by what he found in the Muslim holy book.

“There was one section in the Qur’an particu-larly that struck me,” Mack said. “It was Chapter 2 section 62, and it basically said Muslims, Jews and Christians all will go to heaven. I thought that was so 180 degrees from what I’ve been told.”

After he read about Islam, Mack went on to Facebook, removed the label that said ‘protestant’ and left it blank for a while.

“There was one point when I considered put-ting Muslim in there but decided against it,” he said. “After a while, this honeymoon period went away and I didn’t feel that rush when I read it any-more.”

After his fascination with Islam died down, Mack went on another religious search — literally. He looked up religions on Wikipedia, wondering “which one’s for me,” he said. He looked at Bud-dhism and once again “saw something.”

Mack’s longtime friend Myles Teasley ’10 iden-tifies himself as a Buddhist, and for a long while, Mack considered himself a Buddhist as well.

Teasley was raised by his Christian mother, a Methodist, and his Buddhist father, who converted to Buddhism before Teasley was born.

Growing up with the influences of two differ-ent religions prompted Teasley to look for a unique niche between the two.

“It was weird being raised by parents who are

different religions,” Teasley said. “It’s been really hard to answer the question of what religion I am.”

Although his parents both made the conscious effort to raise Teasley as a practicing Christian and a practicing Buddhist, Teasley said, with age he began to define his spirituality for himself.

“At first I thought I had to choose,” Teasley said. “As time went on and I got more mature, I realized that faith itself is really a choice. You don’t need to answer that question. You are what you are.”

As Teasley began exploring different facets of both faiths, he selected parts of each tradition that appealed to him.

While Teasley believes in reincarnation and nirvana, for instance, he also believes in the Ten Commandments and in a Creator.

“It’s syncretic,” Teasley said. “I have taken as-pects from a lot of places, from anything that fits, that resonates with me. I officially stopped going to church when I was 11. Now I’m more Buddhist than Christian.”

Teasley influenced Mack, for whom Buddhism seemed to fill in a lot of the gaps that Christianity left open.

“I saw the love and compassion,” Mack said. “In the Bible there’s charity and in the Qur’an, what they call Zakat, which is alms-giving, but I never saw that manifested. In Buddhism I saw the Da-lai Lama and monks being utterly compassionate and thought ‘maybe that’s what I’ve been missing.’ One of the things I saw in Buddhism is the simple honor in a life of poverty. There was a time when I wanted to drop out of high school and go to a monastery and have no material goods and just meditate.”

Although it lasted much longer than it did for Islam, the “honeymoon period died” for Buddhism as well.

“After a while, I thought ‘well, another swing and a miss,’ so I went on another search and af-ter a while, realized that there is really nothing that fits,” Mack said. “For so long, I thought the holy books were the word of God. I didn’t bother to think that this was written down by the hand of a human being, it couldn’t possibly be perfect. In fact, a lot of it couldn’t possibly be truthful.”

Mack now refers to himself as agnostic, although he appreciates the experiences he has had.

“One thing I did gain from all this is a newfound respect for all faiths,” Mack said. “By experiencing it and feeling what they felt, it opened me up to

what it is that is the essence of those faiths.”“Agnostic is Greek for ‘without knowledge’,”

Mack said. “Maybe it was the way I was brought up, but I have a very hard time just shirking the idea of there being something. I have no idea what it is, and there’s a large part of me that thinks no matter how powerful or perfect something is, does it really deserve my worship?”

School chaplain and Episcopal priest Father J. Young feels that questioning one’s religion in high school is “appropriate and normal.”

“High school is a time, as you’re maturing, that you question all of your boundaries,” he said. “Any-thing that is boundary-setting in your life, wheth-er it’s your parents’ authority or your moral ob-ligations, are tested in high school and college. It makes total sense that we also challenge and test our religion, which is another boundary setting in-stitution in our lives.”

“The main developmental goal of adolescence is to develop a sense of identity,” Counselor and hu-manities teacher Luba Bek said. “Developmentally, it’s very clear that if you were to question your religion, this is the time to do it.”

Mack used to wear a necklace with a small golden cross on it, which he hasn’t worn since he picked up the Qur’an.

“There was one night a few months ago when I put it back on for 15 minutes,” he said. “I was listening to this song by one of my favorite bands called Skillet and something inside me wants to believe, wants to have the ‘theist’ at the end of the agnostic.”

After a tumultuous year of spiritual crises, Mack has finally found a label that fits.

“My big triumph is finally changing my Face-book status,” he said. “I changed it to agnostic the-ist, although the theist part is mostly to keep my family happy.”

“As time went on And i got more mature, i reAlized thAt faith itself is reAlly A choice.”

—Myles Teasley ‘10

questioning faithExperimenting with faith, students strive to find their religious identities even if it differs from what they grew up with.

B4 Features Dec. 16, 2009The hroniclec chronicle.hw.com

Friending facultyBy Daniel RothBeRg

Last year, science teacher Stephanie Quan was pestered by several girls in her chemistry class to friend them on her personal Facebook account. Though Quan told the girls that she was not go-

ing to add students to her Facebook network, their nagging did not subside.

“We wanted to be friends with her on Facebook because we always talked to her about her life,” said Ali Nadel ’11, one of Quan’s students.

“I finally caved and at the end of the year I made a Facebook,” Quan said.

Quan put a stop to their begging by creating a separate Facebook profile for just Harvard-West-lake students. After doing this, Quan made her personal Facebook profile unsearchable. Quan uses her student accessible Facebook primarily to post links to interesting science-related videos. Quan also uses her profile to upload albums of school-related events, such as the geology class trip to Death Valley last year.

“It’s kind of nice to see what their lives are like,” Quan said.

With the Internet becoming a more prevalent form of communication, teachers have been re-cently faced with the question of whether or not it is appropriate to accept friend requests from students on Facebook. The school has no official policy stating whether or not it is acceptable for teachers to add students to their Facebook net-work, Head of School Dr. Jeanne Huybrechts said. However the school advises teachers to abide by the guidelines outlined in the Faculty Handbook regarding ethical conduct between students and faculty.

“We’ve intentionally made broad guidelines that are described in our Faculty Handbook that relate to interactions between students and adults,” Huybrechts said. “The reason that they’re broad is because you never know what new mode of communication is going to come along.”

After having Quan as a teacher, Riley Guerin ‘11 added her to his Facebook network. However, he feels that adding a teacher to Facebook can have some harmful side effects for students.

“If she ever saw something on there that was not H-W appropriate she would be well within her rights as a teacher to report us for it, and that’s kind of nerve-racking,” Guerin said.

While many teachers wait until their students graduate before adding them on their personal Facebook pages, some teachers add students while they are still enrolled in the school.

Math teacher and Educational Technology Committee chairman Jeff Snapp is one teacher who will accept invitations from current students on his personal Facebook account. Although Snapp is willing to add students to his Facebook network, his policy is to never communicate with them via Facebook.

“I think that faculty should very cautiously friend students via Facebook pages that are per-sonal,” Huybrechts said. Snapp does not believe that students are making very many incriminat-ing posts on Facebook.

“Students are more aware that what’s on there isn’t confidential and so it kind of has minimized the threat of any kind of problem arising,” Snapp said.

However Snapp does recognize that students present themselves differently on Facebook than they do in class.

“The child who I see in class is very refined, for the most part,” Snapp said. “When I see things on Facebook, I am reminded that you guys are 16, 17 and 18 years old.”

“The potential danger is that once you’re con-nected via a Facebook page, you never know what else is going to be added to that Facebook page,” Huybrechts said. “I would be very cautious about being connected with something that is always changing and is there for the whole world to see.”

Unlike Snapp, math teacher Kevin Weis only accepts friend requests of students who are no longer enrolled in Harvard-Westlake.

“I prefer to remain ignorant of any of my cur-rent students’ bad behavior. I would, for example, rather not hear them using foul language or read foul language written by them,” Weis said.

Moreover, Weis believes that friending stu-dents on Facebook might jeopardize the student-teacher relationship.

“Also, I would rather keep my own personal life private,” Weis said. “I see no reasons why my students would benefit from seeing my status up-dates.”

For this reason, Weis keeps his profile private

from anyone that he has not accepted to be his friend on Facebook.

On the other hand, Weis sees Facebook as an excellent medium for keeping in touch with grad-uates.

“I see this as Facebook’s major purpose: staying in contact with people and reconnecting with peo-ple you have somehow lost contact with. I would love to know what all of my students end up doing with their lives,” Weis said. “I hope Facebook or whatever the next thing like Facebook is will allow me to see them grow into adults.”

The Educational Technology Committee ex-plored the issues surrounding Facebook earlier this year in response to an inquiry made by foreign language teacher Nancy Holme-Elledge, Snapp said. Holme-Elledge was curious as to whether the school had developed an official policy about teachers accepting student friend requests on Fa-cebook.

Holme-Elledge has had a personal Facebook page for about a year and a half and chooses not to friend her students on Facebook.

“The relationships that I have with my students are certainly friendly. I care very much about their well-being as human beings and certainly about their learning experience,” Holme-Elledge said. “But I think it’s also perhaps prudent for me as a professional educator to perhaps maintain some distance from my students. I am not their best friend. I am their teacher. And for me that’s the kind of relationship that I choose to develop and nurture.”

However, Holme-Elledge, like many other teachers, does friend former students after they graduate from Harvard-Westlake.

Like Holme-Elledge, Joe Girton ‘10, who is Fa-cebook friends with science teacher Christopher Dartt, believes that friending a teacher on Face-book can blur the teacher-student relationship.

“Even though most of us are pretty smart with our Facebook, sometimes things get through on our Facebook that teachers shouldn’t be seeing,” Gir-ton said. “I think it should be two separate worlds. At the end of the day, I’m not going to un-friend Dr. Dartt because he is not really on Facebook much. But if I had to do it over again, I probably wouldn’t have friended him until I graduated.”

Girton feels that it is more appropriate for stu-dents to friend teachers on Facebook after they graduate high school.

“I feel like he knows too much about me for a teacher,“ Girton said. “Until I graduate and move on to a different school, he is still sort of my teach-er. But when we are at the [same] school it’s weird to mix those two dynamics. So I would avoid it.”

When it comes to Facebook, one gray area is whose responsibility it is to report illegal activity.

“The courts have looked at that. Sometimes they will say it is the adult’s responsibility. Some-times they will say it’s Facebook’s responsibility. So there is no clear-cut answer to that,” Snapp said. “So our answer to it was [for faculty to] pro-ceed with caution. That’s all we could say. That’s the official policy on that for the committee.”

The Educational Technology Committee is composed of 12 faculty members including Head of the Upper School Harry Salamandra and Head of the Middle School Ronnie Cazaeu. The committee helps develop school policy regarding technology use in classrooms and around campus.

In addition to communicating via Facebook, some teachers have set up instant message screen names for the purpose of answering questions that students may have before a test. Quan is one such teacher that has set up a screen name for her stu-dents.

“I created this screen name and I went on for an hour or two…the night before a test just to an-swer some questions,” Quan said. “Initially you will get a ton of different students trying to reach you on that. Some of them will ask you maybe two or three questions. Some of them get too dependent and they start asking more and more.”

While there are obvious drawbacks to teachers and students communicating via a social network-ing site, many teachers do recognize that positive things could arise from such a relationship.

“I absolutely support the responsible use of technology when it is helpful to students and when it advances learning,” Holme-Elledge said. “I am very interested in embracing those tools as long as they are reliable and safe and advance learning and help students.”

“A professional Facebook page is the same thing as Moodle in a lot of ways. It’s a very very useful tool,” Huybrechts said. “The Internet is an extremely useful tool for communication...and it’s here to stay for sure.”

Should teachers and students be friends’on one of the world’s most known social utility networks?

>>

>>NathaNsoN’s/CHRoNICLE

DoN hagopiaN/CHRoNICLE

Facebook

Facebook

News FeedOn one of the world’s most known social networks, teachers and students discuss their friending policy.

>>“I see nO reasOns why my studeNts wOuld benefIt frOm seeiNg my status updates.”—Kevin Weismathematics teacher

“I am Not theIr best frIend. I am

theIr teacher. and fOr me that’s the

kInd Of relatioN-ship that I choose

tO develOp and Nurture.”

—Nancy Holme-Elledge

foreign language teacher

>>

“I thInk students are mOre aware that what’s On there Isn’t coNFideNtial and sO It kInd Of has miNimized the threat Of any kInd Of problem arIsIng” —Jeff Snapp

mathematics teacher

“It’s kInd Of nIce tO see what

theIr lives are lIke. I just sOrt

Of doN’t really commeNt On It.”—Stephanie Quan

science teacher

Features B5Dec. 16, 2009 The hroniclec chronicle.hw.com

B6 Features The hroniclecDec. 16, 2009

EXPLORE

Saddle Peak from Stunt High Trail in the Santa Monica Mountains.

San Gabriel River via East Fork in the San Gabriel Mountains.

San Jacinto Peak via Palm Springs Tram.

Mt. Hollywood in Griffith Park.

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museums

jazz The Baked Potato: “Right by Universal City, this jazz venue always features prominent acts such as The Yellow Jackets, Arnold McCuller ( James Taylor Vocalist) and many modern jazz fusion acts.”

Vitello’s Jazz Club: “A club often featuring our own Harvard-Westlake combos, this venue has recently reinvented itself as the premier valley jazz club.”

Vibrato Grill Jazz ... etc: “Again, a venue where Harvard-Westlake plays from time to time, this club features live jazz six nights a week. Look out for Bob Sheppard, Peter Erskine and the occasional Joey DeFranceso sighting.”

Catalina’s: “The Premier Jazz club on the west coast. This place has rockin’ jazz all the time.”

Jazz at the LA Phil: “A wonderful concert series in Disney Hall featuring some of the most world-class jazz musicians alive today.”

bike paths

Suggested by history teacher Katherine Holmes-Chuba

20101234

To start out the new year, here are tips from students and faculty for having a more adventurous, musical, soothing, spontaneous, delicious, artsy, cultured, healthy 2010.

Exhibit: “Luis Meléndez: Master of the Spanish Still Life” at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Dates: Until Jan. 3, 2010.About: “Luis Meléndez (1716–1780) was one of the greatest still life painters of 18th century in Spain. The exhibition includes more than 20 of his paintings. Other relevant works from abroad are also grouped with this exhibit.” Exhibit: Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres’ s “Comtesse d’ Haussonville” at the Norton Simon Museum.Dates: Until Jan. 25, 2010.About: “This will be the first time the painting is in California. It is on loan from the Frick Collection in New York as a part of an art exchange program between the museums.” Exhibit:“Drawings by Rembrandt and His Pupils: Telling the Different” exhibit at the J. Paul Getty Museum.Dates: Until Feb. 28, 2010.About: “More than 30 years of scholarly research of Dutch artist Rembrandt van Rijn’s work will be presented in this exhibit. The display will pair different drawings of Rembrandt’s with those of his pupils and outline the artistic differences.”Exhibit: “The Bible Illuminated: R. Crumb’s Book of Genesis” at the Hammer Museum.Dates: Until Feb. 7, 2010.About: “Robert Crumb’s cartoon version of the Book of Genesis contains all 50 chapters of the book illustrated and incorporates every word of the text in the pieces. The exhibit will feature 207 black and white drawings.”

hiking trails

clubs1

23

45

From the intersection of Topanga Canyon Boulevard and Mulholland Drive to Malibu via Stunt Road and then Las Flores (very steep and technical descent).

In the Inland Valley Empire, Mt Baldy Road to Glendora Ridge Road to Altadena.

Malibu to Port Hueneme via Pacific Coast Highway.

Silver Lake/Echo Park to Harvard-Westlake Upper School via Riverside Drive (or the LA River bike path).

Mulholland Drive from Topanga Avenue to the beach.

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Picks from Performing Arts

teacher Shawn Costantino

Suggested by science teacher Dietrich Schuhl

Favorites from Science teacher WendyVan Norden

Features B7The hroniclec chronicle.hw.com

EXPLORE

books“Letters to a Young Poet”by Rania Maria Rilke

ENRICH

“It is a correspondence between a young writer and great poet. It’s full of life lessons and wisdom.”

“This book is accessible, resonant and they are grounding in terms of reading about common experiences. He’s a great human writer.”

“Delights and Shadows” by Ted Kooser1 2 3

“Journey to the End of the Millenium”by A.B. Yehoshua“It’s a fascinating window into the intersection of Jew, Mus-lim, and Christian at a critical historical moment, and Yeho-shua’s story suggests, among other things, a fluidity in the relationships between his diverse characters that we could learn from.”

Top picks from English teacher Laurence Weber

“I lIke them because theIr vOICEs aRE REaLLy unIque, and outsIde of theIr musIc they seem lIke REaLLy COOL PEOPLE... I mEaN, they’re twIns from canada.”

—Danielle Strassman ‘11musicCut CopyAlbum: In Ghost ColoursSong: Lights & Music

“I lIke the bEats. they have Great ENERgy.”

—Alán Snider ‘12LAUREN SEO/ChroniCle

mov

ies

“M”Directed by Fritz Lang (1931)

“Fanny and Alexander”Won four Oscars(1982)

“Au Revoir, Les Enfants”Nominated for two Oscars(1987)

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jazz

Tegan & SaraAlbum: SainthoodSong: Hell

Portugal the ManAlbum: Censored ColorsSong: Lay Me Back Down

“they blend the style from the ‘60s aNtI-waR mOvEmENt Into the new aGe aCOustIC PROgREssIvE ROCk.”

—Jack Healy ‘10

LAUREN SEO/ChroniCleStud

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avor

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clubs

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ALLEGRA TEPPER/ChroniCle

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“A Man Escaped”

(1956)

True story about a French Resistance fighter

“Don’t Look Now”

(1973)

Featuring Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie

“Being There”

(1979)4Featuring Peter Sellers and Shir-ley Maclaine

“La Strada”

(1954)Won Oscar for Best Foreign Film

Running on Empty

(1988)Won Golden Globe for Best Screenplay

“The Motorcycle Diaries”

(2004)Adaptation of Che Guevara’s journal

“America, America”

(1963)Nominated for Oscar for Best Picture

enh

an

ce update your look

B8 Features Dec. 16, 2009The hroniclec chronicle.hw.com

“‘costume’ yourself for a day and put together a themed outfit (‘Victorian dandy’; ‘secret agent’; ‘edie sedgewick goes to Bollywood’…)”

“step one: close your eyes. step two: reach in your closet and pull out one top and one Bottom. step three: make it work!”

Asanebo Sushi Nozawa

Sushi ZoStudio City

Studio City

West LA“they’re known for their sashimi dishes. one of my faVorites is yellowtail.”

“the crab hand roll is superB: highest quality seaweed, Blue craB, and warm rice.”

“the owner will ask you if you like to eat slimy and chewy. if [you say] yes, you will get the full selection of wonderful sushi.”

1 2 3

sushiA

rchivist Allan

Sasaki suggests:W

ith Costum

e Designer Lisa Peters’s tips

tricks of the trade

“dye it (one package rit + a tired old pair of jeans = american apparel lookalike mineral wash faBu-lousness for way less money!)”

“hint: cheap, size XXl thrift store merino or cashmere sweaters turn super cute and cozy after a hot wash and dry cycle.”

do a good deed

try adding...a hata bow tielegwarmerssome heavy metal

go to...a thrift storeyour grand-parents’ closetmichael’s craft stores

2one voicewhen: dec. 20, 8 a.m.-12 p.m.what: distribute meals and toys to underprivileged families. where: a bus will take you to and from the upper school. contact: communitycouncil@hw.com1operation santa claus

when: dec. 24where: 150 north madison ave., pasadena, and other locationswhat: Be santa for underprivileged children: pack your car full of toys and deliver them to boys and girls throughout pasadena and surrounding communities. contact: www.volunteermatch.org/search/opp602450.jsp 3when: any time you want to volunteer.

where: 1823 michigan ave., santa monicawhat: deliver hot lunches, or frozen food to homebound individuals.contact: 310-394-7558 or visit mealsonwheels.com

meals on wheels

NathaNsoN’s/ChroniCle

NathaNsoN’s/ChroniCle

tea LupicaWestfield and Century City“they haVe a lot of specialty teas. a good one is called lapsang souchon, which is a kind of smoky chinese tea.”

Sherman Oaks“they haVe more red teas, or roibos, all non-caffeinated.”

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Teavana

IllustratIoN by MIchelle NosratIaNeMIly KhayKIN/ChroniCle

The Community Council suggests:

IllustratIoNs by haNNah roseNberg

INfographIc by Mary rose fIssINger

By AllegrA Tepper

The first college verdicts came in this past week. Dartmouth did the honors of kicking off the blitz-krieg last Wednesday, followed by Cornell and Co-lumbia on Thursday. Columbia, the University of Pennsylvania and Stanford all received two dozen ap-plications from Harvard-Westlake seniors. U. Penn, Stanford and Wesleyan released their decisions on Friday, with decidedly mixed results.

Shawn*Shawn picked the short straw on Friday after-

noon, receiving a rejection from Penn, his first -choice school.

“I’m not upset, just disappointed,” Shawn said. “I pretty much knew that everyone else I was apply-ing with was a lot more qualified so I didn’t have the highest expectations, but I was hopeful.”

Shawn thought that the major jump in his first quarter grades would have enticed the admission of-fice at Penn (he had a 4.5 GPA, last quarter bringing his cumulative GPA up to a 3.81 weighted).

Regardless, Shawn has no intention of looking back. With a University of Wisconsin acceptance al-ready under his belt and a decision on its way from the University of Michigan on Dec. 24, he has cho-sen to look at the bright side of keeping his options open.

“I considered applying Early Decision II to either Emory University or Vanderbilt University, but I de-

cided it’s better to give myself choices,” Shawn said. Through an Early Decision II program, students ap-ply by the Regular Decision deadline. However, in re-turn for a February response, they must commit to attending if accepted.

“It’s terrible to receive a rejection when you were set on that one school, attached to it, but that wasn’t me,” he said.

Annabelle*Annabelle said she found the responses from Co-

lumbia and Stanford to her classmates who had ap-plied terrifying.

“The Columbia rejections were totally unexpect-ed,” Annabelle said. “And to hear how much they wanted to be at these schools and the school just doesn’t want you back it’s unrequited love.”

Columbia has always hovered in Annabelle’s top three schools, but she says this Thursday’s onslaught made her question how realistic her aspirations are. Similar emotions came about after the Stanford ver-dicts were revealed.

With the exceptions of her major reach schools, though, Annabelle said she is very comfortable with her current list of nine schools. Thus far, she has only applied to the University of California at Berkeley, she said maintained typical form by procrastinating past the Dec. 1 priority and scholarship deadline for the University of Southern California.

She is in the process of applying for the Ron Brown Scholar Program and the AXA Achievement Foun-

dation scholarships, through which she could earn anywhere from $2,000 to $40,000.

Taylor*For Taylor, the early results brought on regret of

deciding to wait until the regular deadline for her 12 schools (counting the UCs as a single university). Even so, she knows that committing to Williams that early in the game would have been too difficult. As of today, she has submitted applications to the UCs and USC, as well as the music supplement for her conservatory-style schools such as Oberlin.

“I recorded my supplement in a home space and I made the mistake of doing it just after the musical; it’s not my best work, but I think it only matters for a handful of schools,” Taylor said. In addition to her recording, Oberlin requested that Taylor take a mu-sic theory test on her own and submit it by February. Along with Performing Arts teacher Chris Moore, Taylor is completing an acting supplement, which will include one Shakespearean monologue, and two contemporary monologues, one dramatic and one co-medic.

“When I can, I just look at the websites. Like to-day, I looked at Vassar’s and was so inspired,” Tay-lor said, “It’s really exciting. It just makes me think about how much I want a true college experience, where everyone is there to learn and make good friendships. I can’t wait.”

*Names have been changed

Features B9Dec. 16, 2009 The hroniclec chronicle.hw.com

High Stakes

Clue four: Early decision results are in for some while other seniors finish their applications.

IlluSTrATIon by joyce kIm

www.DrFaraNosratian.com

20% off any dental procedure for Harvard-Westlake families

> Digital X-rays (80-90% less radiation)

> Aesthetic Crowns/bridges> Porcelain Veneers> Tooth Colored Fillings> ZOOM! Teeth Whitening> Root Canals> Dentures> Extractions> Implants

“High standards,exceptional results”

Colors of the rainbow: The dancers portray different colors of the rainbow. Jill Wilson ’12 in front of Advanced Dance I class (top); Sara Best ’11, Chanah Haddad ’11, and Stephanie Maldonado ’11 (bot-tom left); Chanah Haddad ’11 and Sara Best ’11 (bottom right).

By Joyce Kim

Dance classes performed two showcases earlier this month.

Dancers from the Art of Dance I and II classes performed their showcase on Dec. 9.

While there was no central theme through-out the entire showcase, each dance was centered around a specific idea, such as nature, or animals.

“We rehearsed every dance class and during frees during the week,” Celine Pourmoradi ’11 said. “We based some of our dances on impulses, nature, dreams and animals.”

A small group of dancers performed pieces any-where from three to five minutes long.

“The parents really enjoyed it and we had a good time performing it,” Pourmoradi said.

Another class that performed was Advanced Dance I. They performed their showcase twice, on Dec. 7 and 10. The first performance was not open for general admission.

The dancers performed for special guests, adults from the charity Activities for Retarded Children and Adults.

ARC is an organization that creates a home-like atmosphere for mentally disabled children and adults. The caretakers organize different activi-ties throughout the day, including a period of time for “school” during which the adults learn subjects such as math and grammar.

The dancers perform around this time every year, and ARC has been invited to these showcases before.

“Each year Art of Dance I does their showcase

for ARC and Ms. Winter plans it out,” Jill Wilson ’12 said. We spent September through November working on it, and was a great show.”

This year, the storyline of the dance consisted of all the dancers and a painter, played by Chase Morgan ’10.

The painter’s secret was that he had never painted before in his life. The dancers came on stage, as all the different colors of the rainbow, to help Morgan learn how to paint.

The dancers portrayed different colors in small groups, slowly helping the painter create a mas-terpiece.

The piece was also interactive. Morgan would often ask the audience different questions about primary and secondary colors, and had them shout out the colors of the rainbow.

There was also a dance where the painter learned to mix primary colors in order to create secondary colors.

By the end of the show, every colors of the rain-bow had been called out to dance, and there was a rainbow themed dance finale. Afterwards, the guests from ARC were invited up to dance with the students.

“It was such an amazing experience to perform for ARC because they are so different than any other audience I’ve performed for before,” Wilson said.

The dancers performed the piece both Monday and Thursday night, showing that the dance could be performed for both ARC and a general audience, and the message would be portrayed all the same to both ARC and the general audience.

B10 Features Dec. 16, 2009The hroniclec chronicle.hw.com

By catherine Wang

One hundred and fifty students and faculty members will perform at the middle school Winter Choral Con-cert tomorrow night. One hundred singers, 30 middle school Symphony members and 20 faculty singers will take the stage in Bing Auditorium.

The seventh grade Boys’ and Girls’ Choruses, the Vo-cal Ensemble, Madrigals and the Men’s Festival Chorus, will each perform about five songs each. Each ensemble is directed by Performing Arts Department Chair and Director of Choral Music Nina Burtchaell. The Men’s Festival Chorus, which comprises 55 male singers from seventh through twelfth grade, the faculty chorale and the a capella groups, will sing several songs afterward.

This is the 18th year of the Faculty Chorale’s exis-tence. The Faculty Chorale, started by Burtchaell, has had 20 to 25 members in it every year since. Some fac-ulty members, including Head of School Jeanne Huy-brechts and President Tom Hudnut, have been a part of the chorale since its existence.

Burtchaell provides the teachers with music and re-cordings with which to practice on their own. She re-hearses with them only once before the Vocal Concert.

“It is cool because the teachers and students get to make music together in a very exciting setting,” Burtchaell said.

All 150 performers will take part in the show’s clos-ing number, Vivaldi’s “Gloria.” The group was set to re-hearse together as a whole only once before the concert at a dress rehearsal last night. The instrumental music is provided by members of the middle school Symphony Orchestra, which is directed by performing arts teacher Emily Reola. To rehearse, Burtchaell will have each sec-tion sing through its part alone, with piano aocompani-ment.

“After we are all smashed up on to the stage, we run the piece as many times as we can, striving for balance, precision with the orchestra, dynamics-as perfect as we can get it!” Burtchaell said.

The Winter Choral Concert is the first of the two vo-cal concerts the Middle School puts on each year.

“It’s great way to kick off the holiday season,” Burtchaell said.

Faculty chorale to sing in Winter Choral Concert

daniel lundberg/VOx

Dance classes perform two different showcases

Upper school choirs ‘Deck the Hall ’ with holiday spiritBy Sammy roth

To conclude the winter choral concert on Saturday, senior vocalists lined the aisles and joined the audience in a rendition of “Silent Night,” while sophomores and juniors performed “Peace, Peace,” accompanied by 11 students playing handbells.

Director of the Choral Music Program Rodger Guer-rero said that the winter choral concert has ended with, “Peace, Peace,” for at least the last 19 years.

“Traditions can be comforting and emotional,” Guer-rero said. “Not only does this particular song possess both of these characteristics, it allows the seniors to be recognized while simultaneously giving the audience a chance to participate.”

The concert was held at the Santa Monica 1st Pres-byterian Church. All four upper school vocal groups performed: Chamber Singers, Bel Canto, the Wolverine Chorus and the Jazz Singers. The groups came together for three pieces, opening the concert with, “Magnificat,” and closing with “Peace, Peace,” and a few variations of “Jingle Bells.”

“There really is no magic to great performances,” Guerrero said. “It’s just that combination of variables so unique to Harvard-Westlake students: talent, intel-ligence, determination and work ethic.”

The concert also featured the four-member Jazz Combo of Hank Adelmann ’11, Spencer Horstman ’10, Charlie Mischer ’10 and Jake Staahl ’10, in addition to 12 orchestra musicians and professional accompanist Sara Shakliyan-Mendez.

This is Shakliyan-Mendez’s first year as upper school accompanist. She earned a master’s degree and Ph.D. in Choral Conducting, with a minor in piano accompani-ment, from the University of Southern California

The concert was called “Deck the Hall”. Guerrero said this title embodied the spirit of the concert.

“I usually utilize a title from one of the songs that is most descriptive of the overall character of the music to be performed,” Guerrero said. “In this year’s case, the emotions one feels when ‘decorating’ for a grand event—joy, expectation, enthusiasm, etc.—were inherent in al-most every piece of music.”

By Megan KawasaKi and Julius PaK

The newly-created Wind Ensemble performed in its first concert ever on Dec 2. The wind musicians joined the Concert Strings Ensemble and the Symphony for the upper school’s Winter Orchestra Concert at the St. Michael’s and All Angels Episcopal Church.

They performed both classical and contemporary compositions. Symphony and Concert Strings teacher Mark Hilt and Jazz Band instructor Shawn Costantino both teach the Wind Ensemble.

“Since I grew up playing wind ensemble music, teaching that class is a very natural fit for me,” Costantino said.

The Wind Ensemble played a variety of compositions, including the “Academic Festival Overture” written by Johannes Brahms and “Afton Variatons” by Carl Strommen, a contemporary jazz and orchestra composer.

“Mr. Costantino and Mr. Hilt did a very good job preparing for the concert,” Justin Ho ’12 said. They did a lot, and I’m grateful for the preparation.”

Ho performed a solo on the alto saxophone.Concert Strings performed “Four Small

Dances,” composed by Bela Bartok. Richard Chung ’12 performed a solo in the third dance, “Evening in Orchestra.”

The Symphony performed four pieces, including “Allegretto Scherzando,” the second dance of “Slavonic Dances, Op. 46,” written by Antonin Dvorak, and the overture of “Die Fledermaus,” an opera composed by Johann Strauss, Jr. During the performance, seniors Christine Byun ’10 and Simon Hunegs ’10 had solos on the flute and violin, respectively.

“The performance was amazing,” Costantino said. “The kids shined, stepped up, and totally blew me away with how great they played.”

Features B11Dec. 16, 2009 The hroniclec arts&entertainment

By sade Tavangarian

The first jazz concert of the year featured Jazz Band classes, the Jazz Ensemble and the Studio Jazz ensemble, as well as a few smaller combos.

The concert featured numerous trumpet, guitar, saxophone and piano solos.

“It was a very successful concert,” bassist Alex Silverman ’10 said. “We played exactly how we wanted to, if not better.”

After Director Shawn Costantino welcomed the audience, the Studio Jazz Band Combo Two led by Kevin Schwarzwald ’11 played “Pick to the Pieces” by Average White Band.

The Jazz Ensemble then played four songs, including “In the Mood” by Harbach and Kern and “Spain” by Chick Corea.

The rest of the concert featured the Studio Jazz class, the Jazz Explorers combo, Jazz Band and the Advanced Jazz Combo.

Studio Jazz played four songs, including “Ba-sically Blues” by Phil Wilson and “Love for Sale” by Cole Porter.

Jazz Explorers and Jazz Band followed the Studio Jazz ensemble. The Jazz Band played three songs, including “Una Mas” by Kenny Dorhan, “Makin Whoopie” by Kahn and Don-aldson.

To finish the concert, the Advanced Jazz Combo, led by Jordan Bryan ’11 and Gaby Les-lie ’10, performed “Purple Rain” by Prince and “With Bells On” by Thad Jones.

“Purple Rain’ stole the show,” Silverman said.

“Mr. Costantino chose ‘Purple Rain’ but I re-ally liked playing it because it was a really dif-ferent style than I’m used to so it was a chal-lenge,” guitarist Nick Chuba ’10 said.

The Advanced Combo also played a tune writ-ten by tenor saxaphone player Spencer Horts-man ’10. He titled it “The Libertine.”

Silverman plays two variations of the bass instrument, upright and bass guitar. He alter-nated between the two during the concert.

“It is fun to play both,” he said. “My favorite part of the concert was prob-

ably playing with the Jazz explorers because the group this year was made up of great musicians and it’s a pleasure just to be able to play with them,” Chuba said.

Wind Ensemble delivers its first performance of the year

courtesy of richard chung

By lauren seo

The Community Singers planned to perform for abused children at Adat Ari El Synagogue yester-day.

The singers arranged to perform while the chil-dren eat dinner at a holiday party.

The party would be the community service sing-ing group’s first performance outside of school this year.

The party was hosted by Family Violence Project, an organization dedicated to supporting children with abusive parents.

The nonprofit organization hosts weekly support groups as well as events such as the holiday party.

Fifteen singers, selected on a first-come, first-serve basis, volunteered to spend their evening en-tertaining the children

The singers planned to encourage the children to participate in an open mic session after the orga-nized performance.

The student-run a cappella group, led by co-coor-dinators Simon Hunegs ’10 and Lizzy Pratt ’11, has been practicing Mondays during break since Sep-tember to prepare for the event’s repertoire.

The group was started four years ago, and is cur-rently made up of around 30 members, the number fluctuating during each optional rehearsal.

The group’s next performance is Tuesday at a home for the elderly in Santa Monica.

Hunegs said the singers will perform “crowd pleaser” songs, such as “Only You,” “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” and various Disney songs.

“I think a lot of people have fun with [Community Singers] because it’s a great cause, and it’s gratifying to see the look on people’s faces as you brighten their day,” Hunegs said.

Singers spread holiday cheer

Jazzin’ it up: Jordan Butler ’11, Ellery Rosenfield ’11, Elliot Storey ’11, and Billy Singleton ’12 play “In the Mood” by Harbach and Kern. The Jazz Ensemble.

played four songs Dec 5, including “Spain” by Chick Corea. Their set was followed by the Jazz Explorers and Jazz Band.

courtesy of christina yang

symphonic bunch: Richard Chung ’12, Ian Durra ’12 and Justin Sohn ’12 of Concert Strings perform Bela Bartok’s “Four Small Dances” at St. Michael’s Church Dec 2.

All jazzed up Rugby auditorium was filled with sounds of jazz on Dec. 5.

By AllegrA Tepper

For just a moment the room grew silent as Max Druz ’10, Jasmine McAllister ’11, and Jack Petok ’11 took the Chalmers East stage. Stu-dents looked up from their home-work and paused their sipping on ice blended beverages.

From tables adorned with red res-tive table cloths, Hershey’s kisses and glitter confetti, students and faculty watched wide-eyed in anticipation as Petok shouted a line of garbled French, kicking off a dramatic read-ing of 1940s French Existentialist theatre. Then came the laughter.

The reading of Jean-Paul Sartre’s “Huis Clos” (“No Exit”) was the only performance of its kind at the first annual Coffee House, hosted by the Prefect Council on Nov. 23. Never-theless, the afternoon was not short of performers.

Classical and jazz instrumental-ists and a capella singers took turns performing for the audience of about 40.

Kathryn Gallagher ’11 started off the show with an original song fol-

lowed by Taylor Swift selections. Audience members sang along to the sounds of Gallagher’s guitar.

From then on, the set list was free-form. Students jumped from their seats in the audience whenever the stage was clear, running up to the Chalmer’s computer lab to print out sheet music when necessary.

Things took a turn for the digital when Ben Drier ’11 and Lizzy Pratt ’11 used their iPhones to read the lyrics for their duet, Aladdin’s “A Whole New World.”

The event was spearheaded by prefects Brooke Levin ’12 and Chris Holthouse ’11.

“The entire council had the idea, but Brooke and I were attracted to the project because we are both in jazz bands and would be able to try to get those musicians to perform,” Holthouse said.

Some of Holthouse’s band mates, Spencer Horstman ’10 and Jake Staahl ’10 performed a jazz tune on saxophone and piano respectively, and Druz took the stage a second time to perform Brazilian tunes on the piano. There was no limit to how

many times a student could per-forme.

“It was just a spontaneous and ca-sual venue for fun and diverse per-formers to express their various tal-ents,” Holthouse said.

Jilli Marine ’10 and Megan Flem-ing ’10 both performed several times, once as a duet and once with other members of the Jazz Singers. Flem-ing also sang Jason Mraz’s “I’m Yours” on the piano and Marine performed a duet with former Head Prefect Brandon Levin ’09.

More students crowded into the east side of the lounge as school play rehearsals and sports practices came to an end and students arrived on campus for Peer Support.

The room was packed when senior prefect Chase Morgan ’10 performed original music on electric guitar af-ter sending a shout-out to his fellow prefects for executing the event suc-cessfully.

“I think it wrapped up a bit on the early side, but I am happy that it was implemented and I think that it will gain popularity over time and with repetition,” Gaby Leslie ’10 said.

SET LIST: Kathryn Gallagher ’11 starts off the first Coffee House in Chalmers by singing and playing her guitar at top left. Hank Doughan ’12 performs on the piano at top right. Spencer Horstman ’10 plays the saxophone at middle left. Chase Morgan ’10 jams on his electric guitar at middle right. Lizzy Pratt and Ben Dreier sing at bottom left. Members of Jazz Singers sing at bot-tom right.

music mondayChLoE LISTEr and CandICE navI/CHroNICLE

B12 Features Dec. 16, 2009The hroniclec arts&entertainment

Performers showcased a variety of talents at the first annual Coffee House hosted by Prefect Council.

The hroniclecsportsHarvard-Westlake scHool volume XIX Issue 4 dec. 16, 2009

Leader of the pack

Inside Sports:

Athletes use yoga for strength training.

Q and A with Eric Swoope.

Last year, Cami Chapus ’12 placed 12th at the cross country state championship race. One year later, she returned to Woodward Park in Fresno to beat out 188 competitors and capture the Division IV individual state title.

Best in the state: Members of the girls’ cross country team celebrate (top left) after the team won the Division IV State Championship on Nov. 28. Head Coach Tim Sharpe holds the trophy aloft as the players rejoice (bottom left). Cami Chapus ’12 runs the State Finals race as Amy Weisenbach ’12 and other runners trail (right).

Boys’ cross country takes 5th in state, secures best finish in school historyBy Jonah Rosenbaum

After a fifth place finish at State Finals in Fresno, the boys’ cross country team came home with the best finish in team his-tory.

“We ran a great race and left nothing out there,” said Chris Vanderschans ’10.

Kevin On ’11 and David Ab-ergel ’11 paced the team, coming in together with a time of 16:39. Charlie Stigler ’11 and Reid Lidow ’10 were close behind, finishing in

17:04 and 17:11 respectively.“We came into this season with

very lofty expectations, we really wanted to win state,” said Vander-schans. But taking fifth place, the highest ever for the boys’ is a great accomplishment, and I’m really proud of the team.”

Key runners On, Ben Saunders ’11 and Vanderschans battled in-juries.

“We never let the injuries be an excuse for us, we used them as motivations to practice hard-er and push ourselves further,”

Vanderschans said.“What we did at state is an

incredible accomplishment. We had a lot of obstacles to overcome, but early in the season, after the Woodridge Invitational, we came together as a team and showed our new coach what we can do,” Abergel said. The Woodbridge Invitational is the biggest one-day race in the country. The team fin-ished third.

“Next year we plan on match-ing the girls and taking home state,” Abergel said.

Mary rose Fissinger/ChRONICLe

C8

C4 C2

Defending CIF champ girls’ basketball begins season.

By CatheRine Wang

On a crisp November morning, the Chapus family pile into the family’s dark green SUV outside their Pacific Palisades home. It is quite the sight, since there are six Chapus children, ranging in age from one to 15. even so, family outings are nothing out of the ordinary for the Chapus family.

What is out of the ordinary is that one member of the Chapus family is missing from the family trip.

Across town, Cami ’12, the oldest of the Chapus children, boards a bus headed for the same place as her family.

As her younger siblings laugh and watch snow-flakes fall outside their car window, Chapus giggles with her cross country teammates, jittery with ex-citement for the next day.

This is the second time Chapus has made the three

and a half hour trip to Woodward Park in Fresno – where she will compete in the State Championship for Cross Country. Last year, she was the sole Wol-verine to qualify for the race, in which she placed 12th.

This year is different though–very different. Cha-pus has one year of experience under her belt and is driven by a goal she set over the summer: to place in the top 10 of the race. Another difference: she will no longer be the lone runner on the starting line sport-ing the h-W paw print on her jersey. This year, she is accompanied by her six teammates, who she has trained tirelessly with for the past five months.

The meet’s atmosphere is overwhelming, even for Chapus. She and her teammates gape in awe at their competition, which Chapus calls “intimidating.” emo-tions run high as the best of California’s cross coun-try runners take their place at the starting line.

“A lot of people wouldn’t call cross country excit-ing,” Chapus said after the race. “But it felt excit-ing.”

From the beginning of the grueling 3.1 mile race, Chapus and teammate Amy Weissenbauch ’12 were in the forefront of the race. But just before the half-way mark, Marin Catholic of Kentwood’s Theresa Devine broke away from the pack.

“I got really confused then,” Chapus said. “I was hoping she would slow down so I could catch her. But she didn’t.”

At the race’s 2-mile mark, Chapus was a full seven seconds behind Devine. With the help of her family and friends’ fanatic cheering, Chapus “got her kick going” and began gaining on Devine.

“Once I realized I was gaining on her it clicked in my head that I could catch up to her,” she said. “Once I passed her, I kept running and didn’t look back.”

See ChaPUs, C5

Mary rose Fissinger/ChRONICLe

CoUrtesy oF teresa on

C2 Sports Dec. 16, 2009The hroniclec chronicle.hw.com

DaviD

Burton

By Alex edel

During most sports practices, athletes can be found running around the track, scrimmaging, or do-ing drills. However, there are some athletes training through the warrior pose or the downward dog.

Yoga is sometimes seen as a way for people who do not compete in sports to get some exercise, but some athletes use yoga as a supplemental activity in order to become more flexible and have more core strength.

“I appreciate both yoga and Pilates in regards to cross training, core strength gain, stretching and body awareness,” Head Swim Coach Darlene Bible said.

Under Head Coach Mark Haddad, last year’s la-crosse team had morning yoga sessions before school to supplement their other training.

“It was good for team building and it helped us physically as well,” Jake Lasker ’10 said.

Lasker felt that mandatory weight training would have been much more helpful for the team. However, he felt that yoga really helped with team bonding.

“Bonding with the team early in the morning re-ally helped us grow together as a team because of the common experience,” Lasker said.

Allison Merz ’10 feels that yoga has a more benefi-cial role in training for sports.

“Yoga has helped a lot with my flexibility, which has definitely made a difference in my swimming. It has also helped with my bad posture, which was ac-tually contributing to an injury I had, so it’s great for that reason as well,” Merz said.

After suffering a shoulder injury, Merz started do-ing yoga in order to strengthen the muscles in her shoulder and back. This helped her to prevent fur-ther injury and helped her shoulder heal.

“Yoga isn’t really considered to be important in a lot of sports, but I think it’s a great way to gain both flexibility and strength,” Merz said. “A lot of the stretches are really nice they are relaxing and they make you feel great. A lot of the positions they have are way harder than you would think. I get really sore after yoga.”

Bryce Tobias ’10 also occasionally does yoga, which he says helps with his water polo.

“It helps with my flexibility which is always good,” Tobias said.

The school does offer a yoga class taught by Amy Bird, and is offered as an alternative to P.E.

“Ms. Bird was my instructor for the two semes-ters I had and she was amazing,” Jackie Jasuta ’10 said. “She helped us get into tough positions and readjusted us if we weren’t correct, but is she also just an amazing confidant and friend. She was always whatever I needed her to be.”

Jasuta took the class for two semesters last year and says that it did help with her swimming.

“In yoga we focused a lot on breathing, controlling breathing, different ways to breathe, just laying down and breathing,” Jasuta said. “That may have helped me get into the water since I had previously just done

land sports and never really had to think about when to breathe. But because I had learned to control my breathing, swimming may have been easier than it would have been otherwise.”

The class was mainly stretching and working on positions which correctly align the body Jasuta said. Although a lot of the poses were just stretching, there were some harder poses like a headstand.

“Some things are harder than others, but the harder things are often really rewarding,” Jasuta said.

Although she feels that yoga helped her with swim-ming, she feels that weight training is still a better supplement to training.

“Perhaps every once in a while yoga is good, like we do during spring break, but I don’t think it is so beneficial as to make it as regular as weight train-ing,” she said.

Good work today Wolverines, keep pushing forward and come back tomorrow with more intensity,” your coach

exclaims after a hard-working two hour practice. You shower, grab your gear, and head home relieved that the day has come to an end. As you make your way home by whatever means, you realize that the nightly activities are not characteristic of the skyscrapers, neon lights, and vibrancy of the city you pass through.

Tonight’s post-practice agenda dreadfully consists of a quick bite to eat, ice bags, and a vain attempt not to just study, but also retain the information. Regardless of sports played or classes taken, all student athletes at some point have had to deal with the arduous battle between schoolwork and sports.

Let me be the first to assure all student athletes facing this dilemma

that. You are not alone…seriously.Since the beginning of the winter

sports season, I have grappled with balancing piles of endless homework, the reason for my need for additional hours in the day. I could use about three or five more hours. On many occasions I have avoided touching, let alone opening, my binders after a long day of classes and practice. Let’s be honest, we have all had that post-workout, pre-homework distraction that deters us from the massive four-hour homework load that is staring us down like the Geico money.

It is not like we do not try to concentrate; we do. But there is always that voice of procrastination that rescues us from the world of conformity and thrusts our mind into a technological amusement park.

Distractions. Distractions. Distractions. Aren’t they lovely?

Non-athletes often face the

distractions of Facebook, Twitter, various Blackberry/iPhone applications, which are placed on a high pedestal in most of our lives. For a student-athlete, after hours of extensive physical activity, the 30-minute nap that turns into the two-hour snooze button marathon is the routine after school distraction.

I envy the student-athletes who just finished fall season sports. They have the luxury of going home immediately after school, snatching a Jamba Juice, finishing their homework early, catching the early SportsCenter, and complying with the eight hours of sleep recommended by doctors. Good luck to my fellow winter season and the future spring season athletes.

Although it is a struggle for all student athletes to manage sports and school work, we all know what we signed up for. Harvard-Westlake has and always will have strict academic

demands. Homework is here to stay.Having homework is inevitable.

Being tired after a tough practice or game is inevitable. Being both tired and having homework as a Harvard- Westlake student-athlete is inevitable. So why complain?

As much as we student-athletes would love to come home and flop down on a new TempurPedic mattress with fresh crisp sheets and soft fluffy pillows, we have to come home from a game or practice ready to dive into our books. If it takes putting the laptop in the closet, video games under the bed, and our cellular devices on the roof in order to focus on our homework, then we must do these things.

It is necessary for us to persevere through any tiredness and remember that we have a commitment to our studies along with our sports. In line with our new Nike athletic sponsorship, “JUST DO IT.”

Balancing books and basketball

Athletes gain strength, flexibility with yoga

Alex edel/chrOnIcLe

Warrior Pose

Downward Dog Pose

Crow Pose

Tree Pose

By Austin Block

The playoff hopes of the varsity football team, kept alive by a 34-20 comeback win over Compton Centen-nial in Compton, were quickly crushed by powerhouse Oaks Christian, which outplayed the Wolverines at Ted Slavin Field. The Lions advanced to the semi-finals of CIF with a 45-10 victory on Nov. 27.

Gatorade California Player of the Year and star senior running back Mal-colm Jones, who ran for 2,477 yards on 236 carries this season and scored 45 touchdowns, ran for four touchdowns. Nick Montana, son of legendary quar-terback Joe Montana, threw two touch-down passes to Jordan Payton.

The Wolverines’ lone touchdown came near the end of the game, long after the game was out of reach. Line-backer and quarterback Oliver Lowry ’10 found Jackson Liguori ’10, who caught 13 touchdown passes this sea-son and averaged 74.8 yards per game, in the right side of the end zone.

The Lions defeated Cathedral, to whom the Wolverines lost 32-16 the next week. The Wolverines lost to de-fending Del Rey League Champion Serra 42-41 last Friday in overtime in the CIF title game due to a missed ex-tra point.

Though the Wolverines had com-piled a 6-3 record as of Nov. 6, they had lost to league rivals Cathedral and Serra, making the team’s playoff fate uncertain. It had to win its final game of the season against league opponent Bishop St. Montgomery in order to bring its league record to 2-2 and make the playoffs as the third seed in the Del Rey League. The team won decisively (37-2) to extend its season for at least one more game.

“It was a wonder and a privilege to play against Oaks Christian because other teams don’t get to play against top ranked teams in the nation. We

were lucky enough to play them at our home field and play against some of the top recruits,” said strong safety Jordan Tolson ’10, who led the team in tack-les with 115 tackles (10.5 tackles per game).

In the first quarter of the game against Compton, the Wolverines fell behind 14-0 and lost starting quarter-back Max Heltzer ’11, who threw for 1,557 yards, 17 touchdowns, and 6 in-terceptions this year, to injury. How-ever, the team tied the game 14-14 by halftime with Lowry at the helm. At the end of the third quarter, the Wol-verines led 21-20, but they broke away in the fourth quarter to set up a home matchup that generated a large amount of excitement among fans and players. Lowry also played quarterback in the game against Oaks Christian.

“The kids played great this year,” Head Coach Vic Eumont said. “We played four of the top teams in the state and our guys held their own and fought hard.”

The team will move back to the more challenging Mission League next year along with Del Rey League rivals Serra and Cathedral after several years in the Del Rey League. Members of the Mission League include St. Francis, St. Paul, and Chaminade, who the Wolver-ines lost to 24-17 this year.

“When I came here four years ago that’s what the goal was: to get back to the Mission League but to be strong enough to be able to go back and want to go back and I think we’re at that position where we want to go back,” Eumont said. “It’s not going to be an easy league but we’re not in this to be easy.”

Lowry, who played mostly linebacker and occasionally quarterback this year, was named team MVP.

“You’re never happy unless you win the state championship but [I am] very happy with the kids’ efforts and how hard they worked,” Eumont said.

Sports C3Dec. 16, 2009 The hroniclec chronicle.hw.com

Girls’ tennis season ends in CIF quarterfinals loss

Austin block/CHronICLE

By Ashley khAkshouri

Girls’ tennis ended this year with a record of 16-3, a great improvement from last year’s 12-7 record, which led them to the CIF playoffs.

The team only lost two regular sea-son matches and defeated rival Chami-nade twice 10-8, 12-6.

Other than those matches, the team won each league match by a significant amount. The team’s smallest margin of victory in those other matches was 10 games.

After winning the Mission League title, the team moved on to the League Individuals on nov. 6 and CIF Playoffs on nov. 13.

In CIF Individuals, two doubles teams and two singles players (Savan-nah de Montesquiou ’13 and Kristina Park ’13) competed.

One doubles team consisted of cap-tains nicole Hung ’10 and Izzy Heller ’10, and Kei Goldberg ’12 and Taylor Coon ’12 made up the other team.

On Nov. 9, Hung and Heller beat Goldberg and Coon in the finals 6-0, 6-3. De Montesquiou also lost against a player from Chaminade.

In the first round of CIF Playoffs, the team beat Westlake 14-4. The team traveled to Orange County for a week-end match against Woodbridge where they triumphed over them in the sec-ond round Playoffs 13-5.

“It is difficult for a team to travel far and pull off a win against a good team like that, so everyone was pleased with the win,” Coon said.

The team was defeated in the quar-

terfinals by Campbell Hall when it suffered a loss of 14-4. Campbell Hall later went on to win the CIF Champi-onship.

The team was very proud of how far it came in CIF, Hung said.

“I think we did exceptionally well in CIF… making it to the quarters was one of our main goals for the season,” she said.

“We had really good team chemistry and everyone stepped up at the end of the season which enabled us to get that far.”

A lot of the team’s success has been due to the intense training five times a week since August, Coon said.

The team has a structured workout made by the coaches that consists of a pre-warm up and warm up that help the players prepare for the matches. The training focuses on net game, es-pecially for doubles.

“Our practices were very produc-tive, and prepared us well for tough matches, such as our victories over Chaminade,” Coon said. “If the team hadn’t worked hard during practices and matches, I don’t think the team could have reached the quarterfinals.”

For Izzy Heller ’10, it was a bit-tersweet ending to the season and her varsity career.

“Obviously we wish we could’ve gotten further in CIF...and I feel we could’ve done better in individuals,” Heller said. “But we trained hard as a team and this was the first time in my varsity career we won Mission League outright, so I’m proud of our accom-plishments.”

Football loses to Oaks Christian at home

Austin block/CHronICLE

looking for options: Alex Popof ’10 gets ready to throw in the team’s 26-5 win over Alemany. The team lost in the second round of CIF to Newport Harbor.

Boys’ water polo falls in CIF By Alec cAso

The boys’ varsity water polo team ended its season in the quarter finals of CIF. The team finished league play, beating every team except for Loyola. They won their first two games against Crespi and Notre Dame, but then lost to Loyola 7-11. They won their next three games against Crespi, Alemany and Notre Dame but then lost in their second game against Loyola 8-11.

“It’s always hard during a transition year, but we gave it our all,” said Jake Schine ’10.

The team’s new Head Coach Robert Lynn led the team to second place in league, earning them a spot in CIF.

The Wolverines lost four games out-side of league. The team lost their first two games against Corona del Mar and J Serra High, but continued on to beat

La Canada and Foothill. They then lost to both LB Wilson and Mater Dei. The team participated in the S & R Cup Los Alamitos on the weekend of Oct. 30. Placing fifth, the team beat Sacred Heart and Los Alamitos but lost to Mira Monte.

Last year, the team also made it to CIF with a league record of 6-2 and an overall record of 13-9 under former Head Coach Larry Felix. The team lost in the first round of CIF to Dos Pueblos 6-7 last year.

This year the team made it to the second round against Newport Harbor. In the first round of CIF the team faced Santa Barbara at the Upper School and won 11-4. The team then faced new-port Harbor and lost 5-10.

“We went into the game playing a very good team. We lost but we played our hearts out,” said Schine.

Austin block/CHronICLE

WrApped up: Jamias Jones ’12 is tackled by an Oaks Christian player from the side. The Wolverines lost to Oaks Christian 45-10 in the second round of CIF.

on the line: Players line up during the team’s CIF second round home loss to Oaks Christian on Nov. 27. The team finished with a 7-3 regular season record.

By Jack Davis

The boys’ basketball team has begun the season with a 4-4 record, a start some members of the team have called “disappointing” after the squad opened the season ranked fifth in Southern California by the Los Angeles Times.

Expectations for the team were high after last year’s CIF Championship and run to the state semifinals. The team boasted five returning starters and lost no key seniors.

“With all the seniors we have and all the younger guys we have who have matured into bigger roles, there is no reason we can’t do everything we did last year and more,” forward Nate Bul-luck ’10 said before the season began.

However, in the Pacific Shores Tour-nament, the boys’ first tournament of the year, they suffered a disappointing second round loss to Compton.

Later in the tournament, they suf-fered another loss, this time to un-ranked Palisades High School, before dropping their next two games to Long Beach Poly and Compton Centennial, respectively.

“We have just been making too many mental mistakes,” Captain Erik Swoope ’10 said. “I’m disappointed with the start we’ve gotten off to be-cause I know we’re better than that, but I have faith we will pull in together

in time for league,” Swoope said. Part of the team’s slow start can be

attributed to injuries. Four year start-er Austin Kelly ’10 still hasn’t seen the court because of a torn meniscus he suffered in fall practices, and backup point guard Nick Firestone ’10 has also yet to play or practice with the team because of nagging injuries he suffered during football season.

“Not being able to be out there real-ly hurts,” Kelly said. “But I’ll be back in time for league games which are most important, and I’ve got a lot of faith in our team and I know we have the tal-ent and discipline to match everything we did last year,” Kelly said.

The team bounced back from its 2-4 start with two straight victories, in-cluding a 72-58 victory over the Comp-ton team which it had previously lost to.

Despite some of the early season struggles, Head Coach Greg Hilliard is satisfied with the way his team is re-sponding under adverse circumstanc-es.

“We are doing well under the cir-cumstances,” Hilliard said. “We are learning to play with key players out and some of the younger players have had to step up sooner than we would have felt was necessary. We found a way to beat Compton the second time and had a miraculous comeback against

Huntington Beach.”Hilliard also thinks his team will be

able to quickly rebound from any early season struggles that they have faced.

“We are making more turnovers be-cause of our unfamiliarity with each other in certain positions. However, we are playing hard and have shown signs of that relentless resolve that we had last year,” Hilliard said.

The team does not play again until

Dec. 26, at the Dessert Heat Classic in Palm Springs. League play for the squad begins Jan. sixth at St. Francis, a game that kicks off 14 straight league games for the Wolverines.

“League play means everything,” Kelly said. “All the early season stuff doesn’t matter if we can just win the league games like we are supposed to, and guarantee ourselves a good seeding in playoffs,” Kelly said.

By alex eDel

After a 4-0 start to the season, the girls’ basketball team will head to Phoenix, Az. tomorrow to play in the Nike Tournament which will continue through Dec. 23.

In its first official game of the sea-son, the team beat El Camino 66-40. It then went on to play in the Mater Dei Tournament where it won all four games, placing first in the tournament. The Wolverines played their first game on Monday, Dec. 7 against Chapar-ral, winning 73-56. On Dec. 8, the girls played Mayfair, winning 84-44 and on the ninth they played Corona Santiago, winning 61-55. They ended up getting second place in the tournament losing only to Mater Dei.

“We were 3-1 and although we lost to Mater Dei, we never gave up at any point in that game, which I can say makes me very proud,” Sydney Haydel ’10 said.

“This year we are looking forward to

defending our title and, hopefully, win-ning state,” Nicole Hung ’10 said.

Their first league game will be on Jan. 7 against Chaminade. However, before school starts in the fall, the team will play in the West Coast Holi-day Classic.

“We can improve on offense, ex-ecuting our half court offense, and re-bounding,” Hung said.

“Since it’s my senior season I’m just looking forward to spending this last year with the team and winning,” Haydel said. “We are also looking for-ward to the Arizona tournament com-ing up. We get to bond with each other. We all get along and you’ll always find us laughing.”

The team’s last game will be on Feb. 11 against Flintridge Sacred Heart. It will play 10 league games in total, play-ing one home game and one away game against each of the team’s five league opponents, Chaminade, Flintridge Sa-cred Heart, Louisville, Notre Dame, and Alemany.

By Jonah Rosenbaum

After two “duel” matches, which are treated as scrimmages, the boys’ wrestling team heads into tournament play this Friday at the Rosemead Invi-tational.

The team is comprised of several inexperienced but talented wrestlers, and is anchored by Ben Kogan ’11, Nick Truer ’10, and Patrick Newman ’10. Kogan went 9-0 at the Camarillo Duel and Truer finished 9-1.

Jake Sonnenberg ’11 had a strong showing as well, winning eight of his nine matches.

“This is a learning experience for a lot of these kids, and I’ve been re-ally impressed with them so far,” said Head Coach Gary Bairos. “We’re a

young, hardworking team that is going to keep getting better. A lot of these guys have never wrestled before and they are already competing at a very high level. Each time they wrestle it’s a good learning experience.”

First year wrestler Tennyson Turn-er ’10 agreed with Bairos’ assessment.

“We have a lot of new guys like my-self, but we’re progressing at a fast rate and hopefully our hard work will pay dividends by the time league play comes around,” Turner said. “We have strong leadership from Ben Kogan and Nick Truer, so even though we are a small team, I think we can be a force to be reckoned with.”

After the Rosemead Invitational, the team heads to Cerritos Dec. 29 for the Tournament of Champions.

C4 Sports Dec. 16, 2009The hroniclec chronicle.hw.com

Girls’ basketball wins first 5 games, loses to Mater Dei

Alex leichenger/CHRONICLE

Boys’ basketball ‘disappointed’ afterearly tournaments

Austin Block/CHRONICLE

Wrestling to begin tournament competition

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Drill: Leslie Schuman ’12 guards Amanda Horowitz ’10 in practice Dec. 14.

guArDeD: Zena Edosomwan ’12 faces off against Eric Swoope ’10 dur-ing practice on Dec. 14. The team has compiled a 4-4 record so far.

Sports C5Dec. 16, 2009 The hroniclec chronicle.hw.com

Austin Block/chronicle

FAst stArt: Katrina Okano ’11 dribbles the ball down the field in a game against Pasadena. The team went on to win the game 4-0.

Girls’ soccer starts with 4 straight winsBy Austin Block

Following in the footsteps of last year’s team, the defending Southern california regional girls’ soccer champions won their first four games of the season going into yesterday’s game against Mira costa, which took place after press time. The team will play San Clemente, ranked first in Division i, this Friday in the Mater Dei tournament.

The team defeated notre Dame Academy 1-0 and blew out Pasadena 4-0 at home and beat oaks christian and Westlake on the road. The team only gave up two goals in those four games, both to oaks christian.

head coach richard Simms said the team has not yet played to its full potential.

“i think that we can play better but to be honest it’s been pretty much exactly as i expected,” Simms said. “i knew we’d be a little sluggish and sloppy early on as everyone gets familiar with each other. it’s been nice to win three games knowing we haven’t yet played our best.”

“So far we’ve done a good job of taking our scoring chances. We are capitalizing on our chances at a very high rate [about 1 out of every 3 chances has been a goal],” Simms said. “We need to work on passing better and working together a little better in transition. Our fitness will also need to improve but that’s normal.”

“i think we need to work on coming out strong in the beginning instead of just warming up into the game,” said forward

haley Boysen ’10, who has already chipped in three goals, two assists, and eight points for the team [each goal counts for two points and each assist counts for one].

Boysen has won the Mission league offensive MVP two years in a row and is committed to USc.

The team will practice during winter break and plays Santa Barbara on Dec. 29. league play begins on Jan. 6 against defending league champion Flintridge Sacred heart. The team will play nine more league games and its season will end against Chaminade, who finished second in league last year, on Feb. 10. The Wolverines finished third in league last year but reached the finals of CIF and won the regional championship.

Simms said the team’s best player so far has been goalkeeper rebecca Magier ’12, who made 32 saves in the first four games for the team and has only let in 2 goals in 320 minutes of play.

“She has literally been saving us,” Simms said.

He also said that midfielders Danielle Duhl ’10, who has five points, and Doni hunter-Sallustio ’10 have been playing well.

Duhl, cami chapus ’12, leah Merkle ’10, Katie Speidel ’11, and Alex Venegas ’10 have scored this year along with Boysen. Speidel led the team with 16 goals last year.

“i feel like we’re just going to get even better as the season progresses,” Boysen said. “The chemistry this year is really awesome.”

Boys’ soccer falls in Aliso Cup semifinals, ties Bell GardensBy Alex leichenger

The week before a tie at home against Bell Gardens Friday, the boys’ soccer team advanced to the semifinals of the three-day, four-game Aliso cup tournament.

The Wolverines defeated Upland 3-0 in their first Aliso cup game Dec. 2 at Ted Slavin Field. They won 2-1 at Salesian Friday, then tied Servite 1-1 Saturday to earn a semifinal berth against Santa Ana, to whom they lost in penalty kicks.

The Wolverines were without forward and midfielder Victor Kroh ’10, who suffered a strained quadriceps, and forward Josh lerner ’11, sidelined by a groin injury amd goalie Alex

Silverman ’10, forward Michael Williams ’11 and defender Alex Markes ’11, who had varying commitments that prevented them from taking part in the semifinal game.

“We finished basically in the top four in that tournament out of 25 outstanding teams,” head coach Freddy Arroyo said. “our goal was to get the championship, but i was satisfied with the way the team played in that tournament, given the circumstances of our injuries and not having a complete team.”

Although Kroh and lerner were still out for precautionary reasons on Friday, the Wolverines closed the gap from the 3-0 loss they suffered against Bell Gardens

last season. A.J. hong’s ’10 goal gave the Wolverines the lead going into halftime before Bell Gardens evened the score.

“We can compete with anyone this year,” Arroyo said last Tuesday. “Bell Gardens is one of the top Division ii teams in the area. We played Servite, who is a powerhouse in Division i. We played Salesian, who won ciF Division V, so we can play with anyone.”

The team will play cathedral Thursday and host the Valley classic tournament Dec. 19-22.

“We have a lot of home games, so we have to try to take care of business,” Arroyo said.

After the Socal showcase tournament in oceanside, the team will visit St. Francis for its first league game Jan. 6.

Alex leichenger/chronicle

AttAck: Jesse Mirman ’10 pressures an Upland opponent in the Wolverines 3-0 season opening win in the Aliso Cup.

from chAPus page c1

chapus ran a time of 17:59 to become the school’s first in-dividual state winner. Dazed by her surprising victory, cha-pus then watched as her team-mates flew over the finish line after her, hoping their times would be fast enough to cap-ture a state title to pair with the team’s recent ciF title. And it was. The team’s com-bined time of 95:36 was not only the fastest time at the competition, but the fastest time any Div. iV has ever run.

“I definitely would not have pictured myself winning State,” chapus said. “if some-one told me last year that i would, i probably would have said ‘really?’”

But chapus seems to have

running in her blood. her mother Victoria was a dis-tance runner for UclA and her father Jean-Marc ran the 400 for harvard University.

in fact, her mother’s “phe-nomenal” running achieve-ments inspired chapus to be-gin running in the first place.

now, chapus seems to be following her mother’s foot-steps, which led Victoria to win three state track champi-onships herself.

This is the first year that chapus has trained intensive-ly for cross country. She joined the team last year as a new ninth grader, hoping to make friends and have fun.

What she found instead, was a natural talent and a pas-sion for the sport.

over the summer, chapus

trained roughly five times a week for up to one and a half hours. She ran whenever she could with her mother, her godmother, her teammates, or “basically anyone” she could find.

During the school year, cha-pus follows a similar training routine as her summer rou-tine, running almost every day after school with her school teammates. Some days the team would go on long runs. other days, chapus and her teammates would run miles or 800s consecutively.

in addition to attending taxing cross country workouts, chapus had to juggle club soc-cer workouts during the fall.

chapus, who has been play-ing soccer for the Westside Breakers since she was 11,

finished her club season just weeks ago. But cross country practices and meets almost always directly conflicted with her soccer practices and games.

After her stellar cross coun-try season last year, chapus decided that she did not want to give up either sport. She worked out an agreement with her parents. Before the cross country league Prelims meet, soccer would take priority. After league Prelims, cross country would take priority.

Mere days after her thrill-ing victory at the State cham-pionship, chapus has started the school soccer season, the second varsity sport on her yearly athletic schedule. last year, she was a member of the Southern california Divi-

sion regional championship-winning team. This year, she hopes to add to her cross coun-try team ciF title and help the Wolverines win one too.

in the spring, chapus will bring her running shoes out of her closet again and run track for the school.

“People always think that if you do cross country, you do track,” she said. “A lot of peo-ple do, but they’re definitely two different sports.”

While cross country training focuses on mileage, track training is “all about the intensity,” she said.

As for choosing a favorite sport of her three, chapus says there is no clear frontrunner.

“i like all three of them equally,” she said. “They all complement each other.”

Second year cross country runner wins state championship

Girls’ water polo wins first 7 nonleague games

Courtesy of Gerry Grossman

undefeated: Kassie Shannon ’13 holds on to the ball during a game. The team is 7-0 and won the Mistletoe tournament, beating Rio Mesa 7-4 in the final.

By Alec cAso

Under the guidance of new head coach Robert Lynn, the girls’ varsity water polo team is already 7-0 and is looking forward to its first league game on the road against Marymount on Jan. 7.

“I can speak for the entire team when I say we like Robert a lot. He has a great attitude in coaching girls,” Ash-ley Grossman ’11 said.

The team beat Notre Dame, Ale-many, Marymount, Louisville and Flintridge Sacred Heart during its regular season. The team made it to the first round of CIF and then lost to Whittier 19-20 at Harvard-Westlake. The team isn’t very worried about the Mission League in the upcoming sea-son.

“League wasn’t very hard for us last year, the closest we came to a loss was seven points but we still won by a lot,” said Grossman.

The team has almost doubled in size this year, and players feel very confi-dent about the team’s chances of mak-ing CIF.

Outside of league the team played an additional 13 games, making its overall record 17-6. The team lost sev-

eral games to Division I, II and III op-ponents in the Mistletoe and Irvine classics.

“We face a lot of division I, II and III teams in tournaments outside of league. That’s why we lost so many games out-side of league,” Grossman said.

So far this year the team has gone 7-0 overall in exhibition matches, but it has yet to play its first regular season game.

The team played its first exhibition against Long Beach Millikan and won 18-4. It then continued to participate in the Mistletoe tournament and won all five of its games. The Wolverines played Santa Ynez, Hipomo, Cabrillo, Westlake, and Rio Mesa and ended up winning the tournament. The team’s last game was against Cerritos at Cer-ritos High and it won 18-10.

The team has lost some players in recent games due to injury which hasn’t hindered their success.

“We lost some experienced players to injury but the seniors have really led the team and the younger players have really stepped it up,” Grossman said.

The team will play its next game against Burroughs Monday Jan. 4. Their first league game will be the fol-lowing Thursday, Jan. 7.

Girls’ basketballThe JV girls’ basketball team has

only lost one game this season. The team’s record is currently 7-1.

The team has won five of it games by at least 27 points.

Against Birmingham, the JV team won by four times the opponent’s score. The score of the game was 64-16. Against Westlake, the JV team pre-vailed by only five points.

The team’s only loss was to West Torrance in the South Torrance tour-nament. The score of the game was 27-23.

“We’re really trying to foster the idea of all five,” Brooke Levin ’12 said. All five is the concept that fans, sub-stitutes, and players all make up the team.

To train during the season, girls lift weights and do drills.

The team will continue to play in the Burbank Tournament, which started Monday and will go on through Satur-day. They will open league play Jan. 7 against Chaminade, who they defeated in both matchups last season, by scores of 34-25 and 37-34.

—David Kolin

Boys’ basketballThe JV boys’ basketball team won

its last two games in the preseason Ca-thedral tournament.

The team had two big wins, recently winning 66-50 against Brentwood and 75-60 against Serra. Currently, the team has a 3-1 record.

“I’m most looking forward to playing St. Francis and Loyola, since we lost to both of them last year,” said Adam Williams ’12.

The JV team’s highest scorer so far is Adel Kemal ’11, who leads the team with 19 points per game and four as-sists per game.

The team is currently playing in the Chatsworth tournament and will then play in the Redondo Tournament at Lawndale High School starting Satur-day. Its first league game will be against St. Francis on Jan. 6. It will then play 13 more league games, the last of which will be a home matchup against Cham-inade.

—David Gobel

Girls’ soccerAfter winning its first two games

with 15 goals combined, the JV girls’ soccer team has a record of 4-2 as of

Monday night. With many returning players, the

team has high expectations for the season.

“The team has a good chance of do-ing well. Our work ethic is improving and we are getting closer as a team,” Captain Tess Winebaum ’12 said.

Returning Coach Dave Smith is working the team hard with practices every weekday and working to improve the team’s defense to go with its pow-erful offense.

—Judd Liebman

Boys’ soccerThe JV boys’ soccer team is current-

ly 1-1-2. They have defeated Taft High School 2-0 in the Burroughs tourna-ment. Its only loss was to St. Francis.

The team has also tied against two teams, to La Cañada 1-1 and to Bell Gardens 0-0. In the game against La Cañada, Spencer Hartig ’12 scored the only goal; he scored again against Taft High School.

The team has also played a scrim-mage with Oaks Christian where Har-rison Kalt ’13 scored two goals and Ellery Rosenfeld ’11 scored once. To-morrow, the JV team will play a game against Cathedral.

“I think we are going to do well. Much better than last year,” Hartig said. “The returning players will help up the talent level. Our new players are very good. They are a great addition to the team.”

—David Kolin and Judd Liebman

Girls’ water poloThe JV girls’ water polo team start-

ed the season off with an overall record of 1-1.

The first game of the season was against Millikan High School, and resulted in a 4-8 loss. The team re-bounded when the team won its sec-ond game, scoring 11-9 against Cerritos High School.

Along with games, this team par-ticipates in tournaments. So far, they have participated in the Agoura Tour-nament.

“I’m really happy there’s a JV team this year because last year, there wasn’t. I get to play with new girls and make friends, and actually learn how to play and play more,” Xochi Maber-ry-Gaulke ’12 said.

The team’s next game is a home game against Burroughs High School on Monday, Jan. 4.

—Tiffany Liao

RoundupJV

C6 Sports Dec. 16, 2009The hroniclec chronicle.hw.com

Individual and Small Group Tutoring.Choose your schedule and your classmates.

800-2Review PrincetonReview.comTest names are the trademarks of their respective owners, who are not affi liated with the Princ-eton Review. The princeton Review logo are trademarks of The Princeton Review, Inc., which is not affi liated with Princeton University.

By Catherine Wang

Westlake Alum and five-time Olympic swim-mer Dara Torres’ 85 visited the Middle School Nov. 22. Torres, who won three Olympic medals at the Beijing Olympics, met with students and signed autographs.

Director of Athletics Operations Darlene Bible, who was Torres’ swim coach at Westlake, organized her visit. Torres was in Los Angeles for the Golden Goggles Awards event, a cer-emony honoring the nation’s top swimmers at the Beverly Hilton.

Torres recently had reconstructive knee surgery, so she came to the event in a brace and had to use crutches.

“The kids loved her visit and Dara loved see-ing the new campus,” Bible said.

By ashley KhaKshouri

Lucy Davis ’11 will participate in the Young Master League Championships in Frankfurt, Germany today. The top 30 riders ages 25 and younger from Europe compete all year to qualify for these championships. This is the first year that the Young Master League has opened two wild card spots to the United States Eques-trian Federation. Davis found out she was chosen in late November as one of the wild cards.

“I was at a show in New York and the United States Equestrian Federation approached me and told me I had been chosen. Then they sent me a letter confirming everything,” Davis said. “It was a really exciting mo-ment for her.”

“I am very lucky to get to compete on an internation-al level and I really enjoy competing in these pressur-ized situations,” Davis said. “It’s exhilarating. Basically riding is just my passion and I really love it.”

Davis and her family will be in Germany for a week. She hopes to do well enough in the Championship to represent the United States in a positive way, she said.

“You always want to win but really what’s important is to be consistent and try to always be in the game,” Davis said.

“It’s a little bit scary because I am the only one rep-

resenting the U.S.” Davis will be taking one of her horses to Germany

with her. “It will be a great experience and I will be able to see

a different culture which is more based on equestrian and it’ll be really fun to have a lot more spectators.”

Davis began equestrian lessons when she was five years old. It was natural for her to get involved, she said.

“My grandfather is involved with horse racing so my family has always been around horses,” Davis said.

When my mom moved to LA she started riding and so I grew up around horses and that’s how I got into it,” Davis said.

Since then, Davis has been training six days a week. She has a few stalls at her house in Brentwood but most of her horses are stabled in Lake View Terrace.

“The hardest part of equestrian is communicating with your horse. You have to know how and what they are feeling at all times. You need to feel if they are tired, strong, injured, etc. The communication is hard, espe-cially if you tend to be impatient like me,” Davis said.

The highlights of her riding career have been win-ning gold and silver medals at the North American Youth Competition this summer in Lexington, Ky. and last summer in Parker, Colo.

Junior rider to represent U.S. in international competition

Olympian visits Middle School

Sports C7Dec. 16, 2009 The hroniclec chronicle.hw.com

By Jordan FreisleBen

After three years of sporting Adidas uni-forms, all school athletic teams’ uniforms have been changed to Nike. The change to Nike was led by Athletic Director Darlene Bible, who oversees all operations of the Athletic Depart-ment.

“She is constantly looking for ways to better serve our students, while conserving school re-sources,” Head of Athletics Audrius Barzdukas said. “She was the architect of the original plan to have every school team wear uniforms with a consistent look and identity.”

The switch in brands was based primarily on the fact that Adidas had difficulty stocking enough items from which the Athletic Depart-ment could choose.

“Our vendor also had trouble filling our or-ders in a timely manner due to lack of stocked items. Special orders take a great deal of time to receive,” Bible said. “We are staying with the same vendor, and they are secure that we will have more items available and be able to receive these items more quickly while working with Nike.”

With Nike uniforms, there is more red, black and white readily available, Bible said.

“So far we are as pleased with the quality as we were with Adidas overall,” she said. “I know some of the teams receiving new uniforms this year were happy with the change, the girls’ ten-nis team for example. The quality is equal, the choices are much better and the time it takes to get the merchandise is less.”

All sports uniforms the school is scheduled to purchase are now made by Nike. Uniforms for most teams are changed approximately ev-ery three years. There are still a few teams not required to go with Nike.

“We have a deal to get Nike uniforms when-ever possible, and this brings the cost of the merchandise down,” she said. “It is actually a contract that we have with Nike, allowing a re-duced price for ordering large amounts of mer-chandise.”

School changes uniform brand

Courtesy of LuCy Davis

Leaping for LonDon: Lucy Davis ’11 jumps a hurdle while she competed in the North American Young Rid-ers Competition in Lexington, Ky. Davis who won a gold medal at the competition hopes to compete in the 2012 Olympics.

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“We haven’t beat them twice in a season for a few years so it’s important for us to win at home.”

16 Girls’ basketball vs. Notre DameSaturday at 7 p.m.Taper Gymnasium7 116 Boys’ basketball

vs. Loyola Monday at 7 p.m.Taper Gymnasium

Wrestling vs. ChaminadeThursday at 5 p.m.

Hamilton Gymnasium

“The game isn’t only a historical match, but it sets the tone for the whole season.”

15Boys’ soccervs. Crespi

Friday at 5 p.m.Ted Slavin Field

“We are pretty evenly matched with Chaminade. We are excited and ready to beat them.”

“This game is a test for us to see if we can match their intensity and come away with a win.”

mark your calendarGirls’ soccer vs. Flintridge SHWednesday at 5 p.m.

Ted Slavin Field

“They have always been one of our strongest opponents and every game is a battle.”Janu

ary

Erik SwoopebacktalkSenior boys’ basketball Captain

with

Alex edel/chronicle

A

A

A

Q

Q

Q

How would you evaluate the team’s performance so far?

So far we have had plenty of ups and downs, even though it’s early in the year. At times we look like that domi-nant team from last year that played so well, but at other moments we have mental lapses. i think we are okay for where we are but we need to tighten up some of those mental lapses and mistakes we’ve been making.

A

Are you being recruited? By what schools?

Utah, UnlV, Washington State and harvard are currently showing the most interest in me. UclA has also shown some interest.

What are your personal goals for this season?

Personally, my only goals are to help the team in any way i can. i’m not a guy who is just going to go gunning for his points or try and be a superstar, i just want to do whatever i can every night to help us win.

What does the team need to do to perform better and consistent?

After winning CIF last year, what were the goals for this year?

A

A

We just have to keep practicing. We really haven’t had a whole lot of prac-ticing time and injuries have taken away a lot of key players. once we get those guys back we will be able to keep developing that team harmony on the court.

Since we have a lot of returning se-niors and our starting five is the ex-act same, we’re looking to build on last year’s success and take the next step towardmaking a run at the state championship. i think there is no rea-son this group can’t have the same success we had last year.

What does being a team captain mean to you?

Being team captain gives me an op-portunity to lead and help take my guys to the promised land. i’ve been on varsity for four years now and being captain allows me to share that knowledge with the team.

By Jack davis

C8 Sports Dec. 16, 2009The hroniclec chronicle.hw.com

– Jordan Bryan ’11– Haley Boysen ’10 – Austin Kelly ‘10 – Alex Silverman ‘10 – Nicole Hung ’10

How are you trying to improve?

i’m working on 15 feet shooting, de-fending and overall court vision to make a transition into more of a small forward.A

Q

Q

Q

Q