PegasusMonthly

The Rancho Solano Preparatory School Student Newspaper Volume I, Edition 6

February 2018

Editor-In-ChiefEnya Smilovic

Assistant Editor-In-Chief Myra Kamal

Varsity Basketball Boys Secure The Ring!#StateChampionsBy Enya SmilovicWhen a family works together, that family can truly accomplish any-thing. That is why I am not surprised that our Rancho Solano Varsity boys’ basketball family won the state championship, and almost every game leading up to the champion-ship. With only five losses through-out the entire season, the dedication and hard work of our boys Nikc Jackson, Caden Hoffman, Akram Hachem, Elijah Simmons, John Gorgol, Delano Gargiulo, Hunt-er Ruck, Tyson Legner, Kiimani Holt, Brett Hardt, and Evan Punch-es was beyond imaginable. They practiced for over two hours every day, to get to this point, but they definitely secured the rings. Senior team Co-Captain, Caden Hoffman, worked very hard this season, and was really proud to win the cham-pionship game. He said “Winning the state championship was a huge accomplishment and worth all the hard work.” The effort of player de-velopment specialist, Dhinesh Raj, also helped lead the team to their championship title. “The feeling of hearing the buzzer and running out to the court at the end of the state championship game was huge re-lief, and pure bliss at the same time. Everyone was in a state of complete euphoria and feeling all of our goals accomplished in one season. Not many teams walk out of a season satisfied, but we did! And that was special” Dhinesh said, moments af-ter the team won the official title. But the amazing win on Saturday, February 24th, was not the boys’

only highlight, everything leading up to it was also a major highlight. The first completion was the Hoops-giving tournament, when the boys sacrificed their fall break in order to secure the win, and they did. The game went into quadruple overtime, and the scores kept going up for both teams. But in the last few seconds

of the fourth overtime, our boys won the tournament. The boys also competed in a tournament called, The Desert Challenge. Six elite bas-ketball teams got beat by Rancho’s boys; the boys had no trouble win-ning that tournament. The boys at-tended another tournament in Chi-cago, which they won, plus another in California. Both trips resulted in more wins for our boys! The Rancho community has done a lot to show their support for the basketball team. Mr. Brown started The Stable, a group of students who made sure to come and support the Mustangs as they made their way to victory. Mr. Brown’s motto for The Stable was #RunWithTheHerd and every participant got a cool tee-shirt, and the opportunity to show support for our basketball team, “We created The Stable, to try and bring

more student involvment and fun at Rancho sporting events, Mr. Brown said. And the Rancho Solano Pom/Cheer team cheered for the boys at every home game. The committed Pom/Cheer team even drove all the way out to Prescott for the boys’ state championship game. The girls’ positive spirits definitely inspired

the boys with their amaz-ing half time shows. The Po m / C h e e r team really contr ibuted to the hype of the games, making them even more fun and sus-p e n s e f u l . Team man-ager Ameliya Anseth has also had an extremely in-tense season, managing the

team to this successful point. She said “I loved being a part of the team this season. All their hard work and dedication really paid off with this win, anyone who knows the team knows how much this means to them. Being the team manager, I was able to watch the boys grow from the first practice until now, and I’ve really seen improvement. I love all these boys and I’m definite-ly going to miss being their “mom”. My favorite memories from Rancho come from the time I spent being a part of this team, I’m so proud of them and can’t wait to see what they achieve next year.” Every day of the boys’ season marked new accom-plishments and so many memories they’ll cherish forever. This victory will definitely go down in Rancho history!

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Love All Around Rancho! Valentine’s Day, 2018By Enya Smilovic

The Rancho Solano Middle School choir, consisting of Raichel Berman, Madeline Bode, Olivia Brydon, Shyanne Comstock, Lucia Corma-ny, Kierra Fox, Isabella Lirtzman, Reese Miner, Brea Austerlade, Nora Nehmeh, Olivia Schwallier, Sania Sumar, Sophia Sweatlock, Katie White, Jaideep Sra and Abby DiSal-vo spread love through the air this Valentine’s Day! In order to spread all this love and joy, the Middle School choir sold serenades. By purchasing a serenade, the choir came and sang to your loved one during the 8th period of the day. It was a perfect way to make someone you love feel special. Middle School student, Bella Lirtz-man was part of the choir and loved the experience of performing ser-enades. “It was so much fun to do because we spent a lot of time pre-paring for it. Getting to see every-one’s reaction was rewarding, and so funny. I loved making people happy this Valentine’s Day!” Bella said after preforming serenades all Valentine’s Day long. Sophia Koss was also a performer of serenades, and enjoyed spreading the Valen-

tine’s Day cheer. She said, “It was fun to see my friends get embarrassed while I sang to them, but I knew that everyone had fun being sung to.” Af-ter performing serenades all day, So-phia herself received one! “Everyone was huddled around me singing and dancing and it was so funny. I loved getting one after having performed in them all day.” Sophomore Jena Vandenberg made sure to make her best friend, Isa-bella Rose, feel special this Valen-tine’s Day; she just knew a serenade was the perfect way to accomplish this! Jena said, “I ordered a sere-nade for my best friend to show her how important she is to me…..and she asked me to do it!” But Isabella was still surprised and “was insane-ly happy to be sang Best Friend by Queen. Isabella said. She also said “I greatly appreciated being sung to, it was so funny, and the choir is so talented!” Junior Gaby Velez-Cor-retjer also enjoyed being a recipient of a serenade, and said “It was really sweet, but a little weird at the same time. Being surrounded by Middle School students was overwhelming, but at least I got candy. They sang

me the song Dear Future Husband by Megan Trainer. It was from my amazing boyfriend, Victor Racette.” Victor was anxiously anticipating the moment Gaby would receive her serenade, and said “We were in study hall so it was very overwhelm-ing and exciting for her! It was un-expected and so funny because they completely surrounded her. And in the end she loved it and it made me so happy, it showed my love for her.” Another exciting moment was when Art teacher, Mr. Sieg, received an anonymous serenade. He was con-fused, and said, “When the Middle School started singing to me, I was bewildered, anxious, and overall surprised. I have no clue who sent it, but it was a surreal experience. They flashed a bright spotlight on me.” The Middle School choir did an amazing job spreading love through the school. Valentine’s Day at Ran-cho was so over joyous, thanks to the awesome, and talented Middle School choir.

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Rancho Takes on The AMCBy Kylie Head

Lower School Robotic PioneersBy Myra KamalAt the Lower School campus, a col-lection of eleven students were se-lected at the beginning of the year to create Rancho Solano’s first com-petitive Robotics team! These stu-dents had demonstrated an overall understanding of robot construc-tion, perseverance, problem solving skills, and an ability to work well with others. These students were the robotics team pioneers for Rancho. The major competition that they recently entered was held on Satur-day, February 3, 2018 at Salt River High School here in N. Scottsdale. There was much hard work directed into preparing for this competition. Practices for the team were held every Tuesday and Thursday from 3:10-4:00 and were devoted to the preparation. These students tack-led many challenges and learned many skills in practices, such as, constructing multiple robots, driv-ing and controlling them, as well as learning the Vex Robotics Ring Master challenge! One achieves the Ring Master challenge by getting the highest number of points that one possibly can within a one minute time limit. One obstacle the team was required to master was the rule in which two drivers of the robot,

in each team, had to switch drivers every thirty seconds. Furthermore, teams were given twenty points for releasing rings in a bonus tray. In addition, there were rings scattered around the field in which they tried to plant the same colored ring on the same pole as an opportunity to earn extra points. They said the most challenging part was using the claw attached to the robot to pick up multiple rings in only seconds! Another amazing fact was that the Rancho team was one of the few El-ementary School teams in this Mid-dle and High school competition! “Being in a Robotics Competition was a unique experience! It was fun to maneuver robots around a play-ing field to perform specific func-tions. Other teams made modifi-cations to pick up multiple rings at once, which is something we could improve next time!” said fifth grad-er, Sofia, a member of the Greenway team. Congratulations to Lower School’s first competitive Robotics team for partaking in this big event! Overall, it was an enjoyable and driven learn-ing experience that demonstrated the hard work of the students and the passion Rancho shows for Ro-botics!

On February 7, 2018, the Upper-School students of Mu Alpha The-ta (a mathematics honor society), as well as other selected students, participated in the American Math Competition 10 and 12. Mrs. Brom-field, the Mu Alpha Theta supervi-sor, stated, “The math department is excited that Rancho is participating in the AMC 10/12. The AMC 10/12 is the nation’s leading mathematics competition for high schoolers and is designed to cultivate the mathe-matical capabilities of the next gen-eration of problem solvers. There were more than 180,000 students across the nation who took these tests last year. At Rancho, we had seventeen 9th and 10th graders tak-ing the AMC 10 and twenty 11th and 12th graders taking the AMC 12. The results will arrive within the

next three weeks.” The test consist-ed of 25 problems and lasted for 75 minutes. The Mathematical Associ-ation of America website explains that, “The AMC 12 covers the entire high school curriculum including trigonometry, advanced algebra, and advanced geometry, but exclud-ing calculus.” The AMC consists of questions covering elementary alge-bra, basic geometry, num-ber theory, and probability. The test promotes academ-ic growth and skills in high school students in their mathematical abilities. In the words of eleventh grad-er Colton Terry, “It was a good challenge. I enjoyed challenging my brain in its critical thinking skills. I’m looking forward to broad-

ening my horizons of mathematical thinking.” Tenth grader Jena Van-denberg said, “It was a good expe-rience but I wish our math classes provided us with more preparation for the AMC.” The general consen-sus of students was that the test was extremely difficult, and consisted of many mathematical topics that have not yet been discussed.

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Middle School Spotlight on: Keira Ryan, Math Superstar!By Devon Miner

Upper School Spotlight on: Caleb Rosenberg, Overwatch Hero!By Isabella Rose and Jena Vandenberg

This month’s Middle School spot-light is on 8th grader, Keira Ryan. She received a very impressive score in the Math Olympiads, a series of five competitions consisting of five questions each, spread out evenly throughout the year. Each difficult question consists of multiple prob-lem-solving strategies and only 30 minutes are given to complete each problem. Over 14,000 scores have been submitted internationally.Keira’s perfect score, 5/5, was only attained by 10% of participating stu-dents. Keira was one of the highest

preforming students with a 12/15 cumulative score. “The math test was challenging and caused me to think critically, but I eventually figured each problem out, one at a time. When I found out my score, it was from a friend who saw it on the website and I was excited!” Keira Ryan says. “I think this achievement will push me to continue pursuing math in the future.”

Caleb Rosenberg joined our Ran-cho family in the eighth grade when he was thirteen years old. Caleb’s favorite class at Rancho is Physics with Mr. Costello. “Not only” says Caleb, “is Mr. Costello the best Physics teacher, but he is also my advisor and my number one supporter in Overwatch.” Prior to Mr. Costello’s interest in forming an Esports team, Caleb had been an avid Overwatch player as soon as the game came out in the sum-mer of 2016. This gave Caleb and his teamates ample time to learn and specialize in their characters. Rancho Solano’s prestigious Over-

watch team is made up of unani-mously voted team captain: Caleb Rosenberg (Off-Tank/Flex; tanks specialize in protecting allies and disrupting enemies) and team-mates: Hayden Rosenberg (DPS; Offense), Samuel Perrino (Support; Heal the DPS and Tanks), Dhinesh Raj (Tank), Will Dickerson (Off-Tank), Rocky Castro (Support) Wyatt Hammond (Lucio-bot; Wyatt specializes in a support hero named Lucio), and Logan DeSaye (Sup-port). The team is supervised by teacher, Mr. Costello. As team captain, Caleb coordinates the game times between other high schools across the country. Caleb also serves as the in-game leader and helps the team come up with strategies. When Mr. Costello was asked how he feels concerning his team having only lost about 9% with three losses to over thirty matches, he said, “I’m proud of the team and their impressive winning streak. I’ve even been approached by multiple colleges concerning giving some of my senior players $20,000 in scholarship money to play for their Overwatch team in

the TESPA League. The team has lost very few games in comparison to the amount they have played and won.” Caleb is a sophomore; however, he has two more years to play in the HSEL league for High School. Not only has the Over-watch team won most their games but they also have formed a broth-erly bond which they will carry on throughout their high school careers. When Caleb’s brother, Hayden Rosenberg, was asked about how it feels to be a lower rank (master) as compared to Caleb (grand master), he responded say-ing, “Although Caleb is better than me, he makes me try harder to be better to match his level of skill. My brother works hard to achieve his rank. Caleb motivates me and our other team members on the daily.” Rancho Solano’s Overwatch team was only started last year but they have had immense success since the beginning.

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Editorial: The Wage Gap: Is It Real? By Amelie Clark

A problem of concern that our so-ciety faces today is the wage gap. What makes this problem even more concerning is that many peo-ple deny that it even exists. The wage gap refers to women making ap-proximately 77 cents to every dollar a man makes. This number, accord-ing to Claudia Goldin, a professor of economics at Harvard University, is derived from the median of full time working individuals, when compar-ing the median income of women and men. The resulted finding is that women were paid 77% of what men make.This may not be the best way of find-ing what the wage gap is, as the wage gap is extremely complicated, and many statistics come into to consid-eration. Never the less, there is still a difference between what men make and what women make. Many peo-ple may argue that this gap comes from women choosing lower paying jobs, working less, or not working as hard. This is not necessarily true.There is a gap between the genders when looking at the yearly pay for a full time worker: men get paid more than women per year. Part of the rea-son is that women work fewer hours at their job. This is not because they are lazy, but rather because they have to spend more time working at home instead of at their job. Wom-en work on average 167 minutes for every 101 minutes a man works on household tasks in a day, according to a National Time Use Survey, cre-ated by OECD. These tasks include taking care of family members or doing house work. That’s an entire hour per day that women cannot work at their job, because they have to be at home or take care of their children. Also, women do not get paid for these extra hours of work, as these tasks are expected from a woman. While women are tak-ing care of their children, men are

working at their job, getting paid for that work, resulting in part of the gap. Many surveys found that the amount of money a woman makes as she has children decreases, while it increases for men who have kids. Part of the reason for this is that women have to work more flexible hours to keep up with their tasks at home, which employers do not ap-preciate. Employers would rather hire a man who is able to work with-out taking as much time off, and can pick up shifts after hours.Another part of the gap results purely from gender discrimina-tion. “Eight percent of the wage gap that women face today simply comes from gender discrimination,” says Claudia Goldin. Although this number may seem low compared to the 19-20% number we normal-ly hear, this is not a small amount. In one year, American women lose over $400 million from direct dis-crimination. This does not account for the imbalance of working paid hours.The discrimination continues for minorities. The wage gap is larger for people of color, and even worse for women of color. When com-paring what a white man makes to an African American, or Hispanic women, they make 54-63% of what men make, according to the Ameri-can Association of University Wom-en. This is not to say, however, that the wage gap has not improved or lessened over the years. The wage gap has narrowed largely since the 1970s. A report released by Pew Re-search Center stated that women are expected to get equal pay by 2059, but that is still over 40 years away. When asking Ameliya, a senior at Rancho, about what she thought about whether or not the wage gap was real, she responded, “Yes, it’s a real thing, but it’s severely misunder-

stood. There are people who believe in 77 cents on the dollar, people who believe it is not real, and then people who just believe that women make less than men. I would say I am part of the latter.” When I asked her if she thought it would affect her later on, she said, “I plan to have a nontradi-tional career, so I don’t think it will affect me personally, but I feel there is discrimination that will affect oth-ers.”When I asked Dylan Hoffman, a sophomore at Rancho, about his opinion on the wage gap he said, “There is a wage gap, but if people believe that it is 77 cents to a dollar, then they are wrong, and if they be-lieve it is sexism, they are wrong.” I asked him why he believed this and he said it’s because, “Natural medi-ans do not take other explanations into account. Men go for higher paying jobs, work more hours, so it is not because of sexism.” While many people believe that part of the reason for the wage gap involve in-dividual choices, this is not entire-ly true. A large explanation for the jobs that women do not get hired for do not involve choices. Women, not men, are faced with the “child penalty”. Women are less likely to be hired in certain positions because they will have to take time off if they have children. Women need more flexibility, which holds them back from acquiring some jobs or earn-ing promotions.Overall, the wage gap is extreme-ly complex and involves many fac-tors. Many people may claim that it once existed and was a problem in the 1970’s, but is no longer a prob-lem. However, it has not gone away. This is not because women choose lower paying jobs, or don’t work hard enough, it is because our so-ciety is still largely in the mindset that women are the ones who stay at home taking care of the children. The wage gap still, in fact, exists.

Diallah Athari

In a rough situation? Not sure what to do? Send your requests for advice to “Dear Diallah” by email atPegasus@ranchosolano.comDiallah will answer one to two ques-tions per month.

DEAR DIALLAH

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Dear Diallah,I know recently our lunch situ-ation has changed and I am not really sure why. Eating downstairs is crowded and loud, and lunch is no longer peaceful. I feel like if we were allowed to just do what we wanted the students would be much happier. Confused Student

Dear Confused Student, I understand that the recent switch from eating lunch upstairs to the cafeteria has been difficult and doesn’t feel ideal. It is definitely not like it used to be, and it has taken some time for adjustment. We must remember that this is our school, the place we come every day, we must treat it kindly. Sincerely,Diallah

Making The Best Of The Situation

Pegasus MonthlyComic Strip

The Rancho Solano School of Magic By Lauren PuryearIf Valentines Day Was Celebrated Hogwarts-Style...

Dear Diallah,The school trips are rapidly approaching, and I don’t get to go. I feel really bummed as I am going to be missing out on such cool and exciting things. Plus all of my friends are going, so I will be left at school by myself. Do you have any advice for me?Fear of Missing Out

Dear Fear of Missing Out, School trips are a really wonder-ful experience. I am sorry you do not get to go. Just think, the whole school will be literally empty, well not empty, empty, but you know what I mean. I know that there are always a few people who don’t end up going on the trips and this might be a great way to get closer to them, as classes will still be in session. You might really have a great time being around people you wouldn’t usually socialize with. It may end up being a good thing. Sincerely,Diallah