2019 Documentary Magazine Vol 1

Freestyle Academy 2019 Freestyle Academy: Junior Documentary Articles

https://freestyleacademy.rocks

2019 Junior Documentary Articles Vol. 1

Cover Design by Syd Johnsen and Sydney Tomasello

Freestyle Academy proudly presents

2019 Documentary Articles Junior students were challenged with:

“How do you creatively and truthfully portray a significant person, group, place, idea, or issue in the community?”

For the Junior Documentary Project, students portray an intriguing person, group, place, idea, or issue, gathering primary and secondary research sources to develop a distinct perspective about their subject’s significance in the community and/or world.

The research-based paper from English serves as the copy for the magazine articles in this publication. This unit emphasizes narrative-style journalism.

Students in Digital Media learned to use Adobe InDesign for article layout, Adobe Photoshop of image editing, and Adobe Illustrator for graphic design to produce these articles. Each student in Digital Media also produced a documentary website.

Film students additionally produced a Documentary Film. Animation students additionally produced an Adnimated Documentary. Design students additionally produced a Documentary Book.

All documentary productions can be viewed through https://freestyleacademy.rocks/documentaries

Contributing Authors 2 | Freestyle Academy Spring 2019 Vol 1 | freestyleacademy.rocks

A s t r i d H u a n g � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 4 A v e r y Ta n � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 1 0 B i j a H a x h i c a n i � � � � � � � � � � � 1 6 Brandon Choi ������������ 22 Casey Snell ��������������28 E d m o n d L i � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 3 4 Elen Parry ��������������� 40 Eren George ��������������46 Eric Rustum �������������� 52 freestyleacademy.rocks | Freestyle Academy Spring 2019 Vol 1 | 3

Astrid Huang 4 | Freestyle Academy Spring 2019 Vol 1 | freestyleacademy.rocks

The Case Study of Mountain View High’s Student Athletes The Journey of Recruitment for High School Athletes

By Astrid Huang

A

fter a long Tuesday, you sit down and put your feet up. Your hand reaches for the remote to turn on the television. With a flash, a news report comes on: “College Admissions Scandals.” 50 people have been involved in this alleged criminal conspiracy including parents, teachers, coaches, and test proctors; the majority came from California and targeted well-known universities like California’s Stanford, USC, and UCLA to Ivy leagues like Yale and Harvard. The news report shares more about how the big name colleges were involved with parents paying for their children’s SAT answers to be changed or listed as college recruits without no real record of them ever playing the sport. It all started with a man who goes by the name of William Rick Singer, now known as the “college admission fraudster,” who used his organization, Key Worldwide Foundation, The Edge College & Career Network, to run his lucrative scheme. Parents of the college applicants have been accused of wiring more than $25 million between 2011 and 2018 to Singer to help their children gain admission to distinguished competitive colleges. Shock

was the only expression on your face.

The college recruiting process has always been a tough one, so getting a head start is what the Americans with college degrees who have studied next to athletes often advise especially with it being so competitive. From world outside of the college recruited athlete application process, news articles, reporters, and “professionals” write about the process and how easy it just is. According to the NCAA, 7,300,000 athletes take the chance to play in college, yet only 492,000 play. This shows the slim number of athletes that actually make it from high school to college. It shows the pressure, the chance that high schoolers will actually make it into a college as a recruitment, and the hard work that must go into being recruited to be part of that 492,000. The process isn’t easy.

Parents usually say it all starts with good grades. Academically, students have to be ready to still study in college despite also playing a sport. Next, it is essential to create a competitive resumé to showcase skills and accomplishments of the athlete.

Asking for help also is helpful because it’s tough going Above: Mountain View High School gym

freestyleacademy.rocks | Freestyle Academy Spring 2019 Vol 1 | 5

through the arduous process for the first time. Be open minded and taking everything that colleges send the recruit. It really helps with the process because the athlete can take in all the knowledge and have more options. First, let’s uncover the college admission scandal then let’s take a look at the raw faces of recruitment and their journey to becoming the next college athlete and not let the people who have been scamming their way into college stop them from reaching their goal.

“Operation Varsity Blues” is what the admission scandal has been renamed after the 1999 comedy, drama, sports film. The scandal was the largest-ever college admission prosecution that the Justice Department has uncovered.

Starting in 2011, William “Rick” Singer and his business, “The Key”, started helping parents bribe elite colleges to help their children gain admission, taking a total of over $25 million in bribes in the process. They have been known to follow two schemes. One was the changing of standardized test scores. The second was faking sports resumés to be listed as sports recruits for colleges. The first scheme is where test proctors were paid to changed change students’ standardized test answers to better their scores. The test proctor was Mark Riddell, a pro tennis player and a Harvard graduate. He would fill in the answer bubbles on test for students or change a couple answers to correct ones. Riddell didn’t change all the answers to make it less obvious that someone was changing the answers.

With his previous experience of taking the tests and getting a near perfect score on his test, he knew what many of the answers on the test were suppose to be. The second, the Key bribed college coaches with large amounts of money to put students as prospective student athletes for the college which guaranteed admissions. In most cases, the students didn’t even play the sport. Employees of the Key fabricated athletic resumés like taking pictures of them on sports training equipment, photoshopping a child’s faces on top of photos of other athletes, and making up results from events or matches. In one case, a father asked them to Photoshop his son’s face on to another athlete playing water polo. He went as far as going out to buy water polo gear to stage the photo. Coaches would receive those resumés and send them to admissions people for admissions to list the students as recruits for the college.

setter had a miscommunication and the ball ended up landing on the floor of their side of the court. But the good memories always outshine the bad. This game, Ethan had blocked three balls in a row. Being middle blocker, he must try to block all the balls coming from the opposing team so the balls don’t end up on his side of the court. Despite his great playing this game, it came down to game point. The setter set Ethan the ball and bam! Ethan had hit the ball straight on to the other side. Ethan had scored the game winning point. A highlight he will always remember.

He started caring about scholarships around sophomore year, which he says is usually a little early. With the skills and talents that he had displayed in games, Ethan believed that he had the skills to play in college. He started going to volleyball practices where they would take videos of him and send them to volleyball coaches.

Ethan started by reaching out to colleges. He emailed colleges and reached out to them. In emails, athletes usually states their name, their age, and what team they are a part of. Then they list their accomplishments and skills and interests they have about the school.

That’s often how the first email goes to get their foot in the door. From there, the coach and athlete talk about the athlete’s ability and skills.

It all started with a bump, a set, and a pass. From across the hall, anyone can see him towering over others with his 6’6” frame, yet when you talk to him, he is both nice and sweet, not a typical tall, scary, big egoed teenager. Ethan Makishima, a 16 year old junior in high school, is a student athlete who would love to play volleyball in college. He started playing with his father. He had little interests in volleyball but after “getting to pass the ball and stuff”, he thought it was really interesting. Sports come with griefs and triumphs.

Ethan recalls a time when he made a mistake in a game. It happen to be the game point. There was a pass but he and the

6 | Freestyle Academy Spring 2019 Vol 1 | freestyleacademy.rocks

The team getting ready for the next point

Then it could be sending back and forth conversations about the sport and here and there the athlete may include a highlight video, showcasing the skills of themselves in games or events, until the coach offers an official visit.

According to the Next College Student Athlete Association, sending a simple email isn’t enough to get a coach’s attention. A clear concise email with an attention-grabbing subject title will hopefully grab the attention of the coach and make them more likely open the email. The NCSA suggest that your subject line include your graduation year, your position, state, and a piece of

information that is interesting about you.

Interesting information could include a dash time, to an impressive SAT score, to the team you play club for, or an attachment of your next tournament schedule. Similarly to what Ethan said, when emailing a coach NCSA breaks it down into four sections: your general information, academics, athletics, and contact information. Often people follow their emails up a few days later with a call, so let the coach that is being contacted know at the end. An insider tip that NCSA includes is to turn on the “read receipt” function so you can see if a coach opens your email. The NCSA also has sample emails for both academic-focused and athletic-focused emails on their website.

As of now, he is reaching out to college coaches that he is interested in and seeing if they feeling the same way back. A helpful service that Ethan has found is the NCSA, which is a recruiting service. It includes highlight videos, statistics from games, pictures, a biography, and grades. The athlete can see when coaches view the account and they can send their link to their website portfolio to coaches. Ethan tries to keep communication going to show his interest and commitment. While he does that, he also tries to balance a good academic standing with being a

committed volleyball player. With his sight set mostly on studying computer science in college, he reaches out specifically to colleges that provide a computer science program. Right now, he is more focusing on school “because sport is like your hobby; it’s what you do in the meantime – but academics is more your career and actually helps you succeed.”

She started out with a swing on the

greens with her family. Being dragged into the sport by her family, she has now fallen in love with golf. Katelyn Lee, a 16 year old junior in high school, is a student athlete who would love to play golf in college. Katelyn becoming interested in playing in golf in college summer after her sophomore year. Colleges had started reaching out to her. She has had an amazing golf year with an appearance in CCS league finals, representing her school team.

Katelyn started receiving emails from colleges which now has turned into emails and phone calls. In emails, she talks a little bit about herself before saying that she is looking for a school with a good challenge in golf but mainly academics and lastly attaching her golf resume. Katelyn made a golf resume that has her golf scores and accomplishments along with her academics profile because she want to target schools with good academic standings. Whereas in phone calls, Katelyn is more finding out the team dynamic. “A big part of college golf is their environment whether it be more competitive or relax”, as she puts it. She,

in talking to the coach, is trying to find whether the golf team fits her and what she would like to play in college.

The NCSA also has information regarding calling college coaches. Their research found that an average college coach receives seven phone calls from recruits each week. A small number, it is a great option to do to stand out amongst other athletes. With phone calls though, be careful because there are certain dates that coaches can’t answer or return calls like D1 coaches can’t answer or return calls until June 15th after the athlete’s sophomore year or September 1st of their junior year.

The NCSA advise that you should practice and be comfortable on the phone prior to the call. Also, doing

research about the school and the program so you are more prepared for what they are looking for or what type of questions they could ask you based on the school’s reputation.

Calling a coach between 6-9pm when they are in season seem to work best but asking the coach for the best time is always the best option.

“Because sport is like your hobby ; it’s what you do in the meantime-but academics is more your career and actually helps you succeed.”

left: Mountain View High School right: Three volleyball players against the net

freestyleacademy.rocks | Freestyle Academy Spring 2019 Vol 1 | 7

Katelyn is keeping her options open, especially since she hasn’t figured out what she wants to study and do in the future. To stand out in academically-strong schools that have a golf team, she believes that it is also about being herself, in her words, “It’s really to me about being yourself. It’s not just you wanting to sell yourself. The coach always wants to sell themselves to you and being yourself and seeing if you will be a good fit for the team.”

Tony Nardelli, a 17 year old junior in high school, is a student athlete who would love to play water polo in college. He always thought he’d be in the water, especially with his father and grandfather’s love for the water.

He started caring about recruitment the end of his sophomore year when he began reaching out to some colleges through email. He since has been in contact with coaches, visited some colleges, and been on two official visits. Along with that, college coaches have watched him play when he is in their area. His dad told him, “don’t depend well on water polo as your way into college over school.” School is Tony’s priority which is why Tony wants to major in engineering but coaches have told him that it is difficult to juggle both in college.

As for key parts of getting recruited, standing out is important especially for a small sport like water polo.

Tony is usually a captain or leader on his water polo teams, making sure that everyone is well-behaved in the water and out. He says he’s “like the coach’s right hand man.” To grab the attention of colleges though, players have to not only be good at the sport and academically fit.

When narrowing down colleges to apply to, not every college has a team. It also depends on the style of water polo you’d like to play in the future or what division you plan on playing. Once again, building a resume with water polo achievements, and academic information like your GPA or SAT score is also helpful in recruiting. With email, Tony typically writes who he is, where he is from, a little bit of background information, what club he plays for, his grades, and classes that he is taking. In addition, his interest on the school, what other schools he’s are looking at, and asking whether he can visit the school in the future. On official visits, he is flown out or driven to the college where he stays with the water polo team at the school’s dorm for two nights. The visits seemed to be for both the team and Tony to see if they are a good match. Along with that, Tony is given a campus tour and has an one-on-one meeting with the coach. There are other little factors

that coaches look for like personality, good work ethic, and connecting with the team.

These three student-athletes hold many mixed opinions about “Operation Varsity Blues,” especially because they have been working hard to be recruited as part of their dream college’s class of 2024. Ethan, the volleyball player, believes that paying to gain admission into college is very unfair. Working hard, it is very unfair to him that people are just paying to get into colleges. He says, “I’m trying really hard to get into a school through sports, while other people have advantages and exploiting them to get into certain colleges that they shouldn’t be able to

get into” (Makishima). Schools are just taking people’s money, not people who are working really hard. Katelyn, the golfer, believes that it is frustrating, she says that golf is a small sport, similar to the crew. Katelyn says, “Golf is one of those sports that no one pays attention to and something like this could happen to the golf team” (Lee). Katelyn is also working so hard to get recruited.

She plays almost every day and practices really hard to be able to swing into the future with her golf skills. Tony, the water polo player, was actually getting recruited to USC himself but since then the USC water polo coach has been let go due to this scandal. Tony thinks that it happens a lot. He says, “You probably won’t find a school in the US that doesn’t offer bribes. It’s just whether or not they’re going to get caught or not but I personally don’t have an opinion.” Recruiting Confidential: A Father, a Son, and Big Time College Football, David Claerbaut says Gen Z has become “‘What can you do for me?’ Quick outcomes, a weaker work ethic. It’s part of the computer age. You punch in the keys and get the answer. It undermines the learning process” (136). Claerbaut’s thoughts seemed to have foreshadowed this whole scandal as the book was published in 2003. Hopefully, these parents have learned from their mistakes after the college admission scandal in history. Along with that, appreciate the time, hard work, and effort that student-athletes are putting in to be recruited to play in college.

8 | Freestyle Academy Spring 2019 Vol 1 | freestyleacademy.rocks

MVHS pool

About the Author

Astrid Huang is a junior at Freestyle Academy and Mountain View High School. She is a 17 year old and has a passion for design and marketing.

She loves exploring cities and boba places, hanging out with her friends, working, and teaching Sunday school to her kindergarteners. In college, she hopes to study industrial design and marketing. In the future, she hopes to design an interactive museum and a roller coaster.

freestyleacademy.rocks | Freestyle Academy Spring 2019 Vol 1 | 9

Avery Tan 10 | Freestyle Academy Spring 2019 Vol 1 | freestyleacademy.rocks

Mod

ern M

By: Avery Tan

othe r

A gl im fessi pse into ona l wo the life o men are c f a sing le mo hoo sing t to be her by c ho the s ole p ice and why aren o t of their lder pro child (ren) .

to be or not to be, that is the question...

S

itting at a restaurant table amongst scattered toys and haphazardly strewn Tupperware containers is Quynh Pham and her son, Ethan. He alternates his attention between showing off his toys to me and in relishing his food as noisily as possible, much to his mother’s chagrin. To an outsider, this scene looks every bit like the typical interaction between a parent and child. What is less obvious is that Quynh is a single mother raising Ethan on her own.

According to a 2018 Pew Research Center analysis, the percentage of US children living with an unmarried parent “has more than doubled since 1968, jumping from 13% to 32% in 2017” (Livingston, “LivPhoto Above: Quynh and Ethan have lunch together

ing With Unmarried Parent”). The upward trend of children living with a single parent means that there is an increased possibility of teenage girls today becoming single mothers a decade or two down the line. Alternative family structures (i.e. anything other than the “traditional” nuclear family structure) are becoming more commonplace.

Two main factors contribute to the rising trend of older, professional women consciously choosing to become mothers on their own: greater economic independence of women and change in social norms. A recent article from Forbes states that “Millennial women are poised to be the most financially independent generation in history” (Gorman).

Increased wages have given wom-

Hoo

d:

en greater control over numerous aspects of their lives, particularly when it comes to choosing a partner and having children.

Being ambitious about attaining higher education and building a career is a major reason that a professional woman might push back the age at which she has her child. Margaret Harris (name changed to protect her privacy), a Bay Area physician that considered single motherhood in the past, states that the point at which a woman has worked to a certain “level in [her] career where [she] can negotiate more flexibility in their schedule” is when thoughts of children and the fertility window start to come to the forefront of her mind.

Some women find that having children of their own is, in a

freestyleacademy.rocks | Freestyle Academy Spring 2019 Vol 1 | 11

sense, a frantic race against their biological clocks. Margaret comments that “[s]ome women have a dream of waiting to find a husband to settle down with before having kids. But you often can’t plan out these things, and your career might take up too much time.

There’s also a time limit because you’re only fertile up until a certain point, so if finding someone in time doesn’t happen, then women have to consider single motherhood if they want children.”

Quynh, a registered nurse, finds that having a child at an older age has its advantages: “I’m glad I’m raising [Ethan] at a much older age than younger… [at a] younger [age] I would have [had] a lot of my own… ego of showing [Ethan off as] a successful product.” In other words, being older allows Quynh to raise Ethan without feeling as if she needs to constantly showcase her child and compete in an “I raise my child better than how you raise yours” race; this is not to say that younger mothers are egotistical, but rather that the passage of time generally allows people to relinquish insecurities, which may translate into better parenting.

As people get older, they tend to become more financially secure

as well. Andrea Scicli, a strategic medical writer at Stryker Neurovascular, believes that having had time to build up a successful career has put her in a financial state where she could send her son to a private school if she so desired.

If finding a husband/partner is not in the books, there are alternative solutions to conceiving. The options for women looking to become single mothers include adoption, in-vitro fertilization (IVF), intrauterine insemination (IUI), and sperm donation.

The drawbacks to assisted reproductive technology (ART) are that the numerous rounds of treatment are costly; additionally, if no baby is conceived after years of treatment, ART can take a psychological toll on the woman. A woman could also suffer social consequences from doing IVF because of the ongoing bioethics debate surrounding it (Siegel). An especially gray area is how a woman should manage her leftover embryos, and whether or not discarding the embryos qualifies as “disposing of human life” (Siegel).

Although Andrea is no longer a single mother, she started her journey alone. She initially tried IUI, but her efforts were

12 | Freestyle Academy Spring 2019 Vol 1 | freestyleacademy.rocks

fruitless so she turned to adoption.

Andrea found that adoption had its own set of challenges, namely in convincing birth mothers to allow her to adopt their child.

She explains, “I got rejected many times because I was single, wasn’t part of a couple. Birth moms… can be particularly selective and will go for stability.” Birth mothers are less inclined to allow a single woman to adopt their child for fear of the child being harmed by a potential stream of short term partners walking in and out of the child’s life. Midway through the adoption process, Andrea found a husband and eventually was able to adopt a son.

T

A day in the life

o represent the daily life of a single mother as accurately as possible, I spent a day accompanying Quynh and Ethan to various activities.

Sunday Service at the Palo Alto Buddhist Temple has just ended, and temple-goers are either headed off to Dharma School (sessions to impart understanding and appreciation of Buddhist teach-

ings) or to the snack table. I catch up to Quynh and Ethan inside of the Dharma School’s preschool classroom. Ethan gazes longingly at the cracker snacks his classmates are nibbling at as Quynh tries to entice him with healthier options. Put off by his mother’s discipline, he remains sullen throughout the class and only perks up when the teacher begins storytime. Quynh looks relieved that he is finally paying attention.

She started bringing him to temple recently because “[she is] always looking for [a] community [so that they can] be in a group that helps [them] feel connected, [which] is important for happiness and for wellbeing.”

Once class has ended, she wrangles her bags together and redirects Ethan from petting a temple-goer’s dogs to the parking lot.

It takes her a couple of minutes to buckle in the very wiggly Ethan, and another five to locate the car keys in one of the bags. Finally making it to a health-foods restaurant for lunch, Quynh realizes that she left Ethan’s food bag in the car.

“Shoot,” she says to me, “I’m glad you’re here. Would you mind watching Ethan for a sec while I run and grab the stuff?”

Previous Page: Quynh brushes Ethan’s teeth

Finding adequate childcare is a daily hurdle. Some days, Quynh wakes up, frantic, not knowing if she can secure coverage for Ethan until she returns from work.

Around half a year ago, her need to find a caretaker was so great “at the end of the day, I don’t really care what the role of Mommy or Daddy is, it’s more of how I want to treat him as a person and trying to overcome my own deficiencies in terms of anger management and frustration… I don’t think it’s necessary to define gender roles in parenting.”

Quynh Pham that Quynh turned to “finding someone randomly on the street that [she] thought… looked [safe].”

Upon noticing a woman that “was pushing her grandchild [in a stroller], [Quynh] thought, ‘Oh, that’s a grandmother, she looks safe!

So I’m gonna ask her if she wants to babysit Ethan.’” The time that many couples have to screen po-

tential caretakers is all but a luxury to Quynh. The possibility that she might lose her job if she has to stay home and take care of Ethan lurks at the back of her mind.

After lunch, we stop by a grocery store on the way back to her house. Quynh closely examines the nutrition labels of a few different types of milk before selecting a carton. She carefully crafts quality meals for Ethan as a way of showing affection. By the time they arrive home, Ethan’s energy levels are back to normal and he can barely get through his afternoon shower. Quynh also tries to teach him to pee standing up, a lesson typically taught by the father of a household. While some may say that she’s fulfilling the role of mother and father, Quynh views her role differently: “at the end of the day, I don’t really care what the role of Mommy or Daddy is, it’s [more] of how I want to treat him as a person [and] trying to overcome my own deficiencies in terms of anger management and frustration… I don’t think it’s necessary to define [gender roles in parenting].”

Ethan finally is put down for a nap, and Quynh gets a quiet moment that does not truly feel

freestyleacademy.rocks | Freestyle Academy Spring 2019 Vol 1 | 13

like a break to her. She describes the restrictiveness of her situation: “I’m in a playgroup where there’s a mom that says ‘...I feel like I’m a single mom because I’m always looking to bring my child to places by myself… [so my] husband is sort of like an absent father. He’s just there.’ But… even if the husband is ‘just there,’ at least [she has] the ability to run off and do other things. If you’re just [by] yourself, you don’t have that option.” She likens having to accompany Ethan everywhere at all times to being imprisoned in her own home.

After his nap, Quynh and Ethan sit down to dinner. Quynh pulls out storyboard cards (cards with images on them that can be ordered in any way to create any storyline) for Ethan to exercise his imagination. Upset at having to share the trajectory of his sto-

ry with his mother, Ethan begins to throw a tantrum; in response to him insulting her and calling her names, Quynh sits with a calm demeanor and firmly scolds him.

When it comes to making decisions regarding discipline, she finds that “[o]ne of the things [she thinks is] nice as a single parent is that [she gets] to make all the decisions and that [she doesn’t] have to negotiate and depend on other people” to take a desired course of action.

In the end, a woman’s marital status might matter less than her emotional maturity in determining how well a child will be raised, how accomplished, and how happy that child will be. According to Karen Friedland-Brown, the director of the Parents Place Palo Alto, “research has shown… that when parents manage their conflict and pro-

14 | Freestyle Academy Spring 2019 Vol 1 | freestyleacademy.rocks

tect their children from their own challenges and negative feelings,... and they communicate reasonably well, children do well.”

I ask Quynh what the best part of being a single mother by choice is. She laughs and gently reminds me that the highs of single-motherhood can be applied to any parent’s experience. To her, “[t]he best part of being a mom in general… is [that] you get to go back and experience some of your childhood [and] seeing things with wonder. It’s another opportunity for growth… it’s a period of… developing. You’re evolving, too, and you get to see yourself [from] a different perspective.” It would do society well to remember that single-mothers are working alongside everyone else to raise the next generation. Single motherhood by choice definitely is not for the faint-hearted.

About the author

A

very is a high school junior in the San Francisco Bay Area. She highly enjoys being a design student and hopes to extend her artistic and technical interests to studying architecture or graphic design in college.

In her free time, Avery can either be found plunking out classical pieces on the piano or wandering around capturing intriguing architecture through her camera lens. She also has an affinity for learning and rooting around in the etymology of Asian languages.

This QR code leads to Avery’s documentary website, where you can view more details about the project Previous Page: Plants in various stages of life

freestyleacademy.rocks | Freestyle Academy Spring 2019 Vol 1 | 15

Bija Haxhicani 16 | Freestyle Academy Spring 2019 Vol 1 | freestyleacademy.rocks

Nuse; an Albanian Bride By: Bija Haxhicani

You are getting ready for your wedding. Looking into the mirror, you see your Mother crying in a very formal yet beautiful blue dress with your favorite black heels that she owns. Most importantly, you look at yourself in the mirror and are amazed at the completion of your look. Your hair is beautiful, makeup is stunning, and your dress is out of this world; therefore you feel magnificent. You are so overjoyed that you can’t stop smiling – you are smiling so widely you are a little scared your mouth will rip apart. Your father is dressed in a formal black suit with his favorite blue handkerchief and cute black leather shoes comes in and informs you that it is time for you to walk down the aisle and get married. You rush to stand up and start feeling the adrenaline seek through every aspect of your body. You see tears build up in your father’s eyes as he remarks how beautiful you look. You feel amazing, beautiful like there is nothing that can ruin this very happy day.

You venture off to the doors that are right before the aisle you are about to walk. You grasp hold of your father’s arm, noticing that your heartbeats are harmonizing in sync. The wedding planners in attendance countdown from three until they open the doors for you to start walking. As each number that progresses, the nerves in your stomach push you to the point of nausea, yet you persist.

The doors finally open and you are absolutely stunned. Everything that you had been planning is now in motion – it is surreal. Tears start building up in your eyes. You look around smiling at everyone until you finally make contact with your future husband who is waiting for you down the aisle.

Until you realize that you do not know him.

Then as you look around again now, realizing that you don’t know 90% of the people there. As your anxiety builds, your father holds you tighter, whispering into your ear that this is “the perfect man they have chosen for you.”

This experience represents how many women in arranged marriages feel. Despite the possible opportunities they may acquire in meeting their preordained husband, by the time the wedding day arrives, they still are unaware of whom they are marrying. Being a first generation Montenegrin-Albanian in America today, this nightmare of an experience, fortunately, doesn’t continue for young girls including myself, yet there is still some beliefs and values that hold true today. As I am becoming more aware of the beliefs and values that have been ingrained in our culture, I’ve realized it is the unspoken conversation among women. Through this documentary, I want to bring awareness to a topic that often becomes invisible and despite its progression over time, it continues to construct women’s beliefs and values that they must participate in an arranged marriage. I will be reflecting on arranged marriage in Montenegro, more specifically in a city called Ulqinj that is predominantly a demographic of people from an Albanian ethnic background. In the next chapters, my stories will cover the evolution through the course of three generations; my grandmothers, my aunt and mother, and how it exists today, especially for young first- generation Montenegrin-Albanian American women.

freestyleacademy.rocks | Freestyle Academy Spring 2019 Vol 1 | 17

The ideal future for every young girl in Ulqinj in the 1970s was to be married off and have a beautiful, healthy family. When this wasn’t achieved at a relative 15-17 age frame, the young girls and their families would be shamed by their entire community. These same customs existed for my grandmothers on both sides whom were from small villages in the countryside. As my father’s mom Mirjeme Hadzicanovic mentioned, her only focus growing up was to get married and have “a big and healthy family and that was it” (Hadzicanovic).

Once young girls in Ulqinj began entering the ages of 15-17, conversations of setting them up for marriage were the only things being discussed. The young women in these situations would have “ ‘little say over whom they eventually marry’ while ‘boys at least get the chance to look at a photograph of their intended bride, and say no’” (“Tahirih – Forced Marriage Initiative”). In marriages such as my grandmothers’, Belkize’s and Mirjeme’s, they both had a messenger, or matchmaker, who would communicate between their father and the family of the son they would be married to. The messenger would be designed to facilitate exchanging information between the families to ensure that their child was being married into the right family. Meanwhile during the exchanges, the girls would be left alone filled with anxiety anticipating who the man they marry will be. My mother’s mom, Belkize Kraja, mentioned that while this whole process was occurring, she definitely was not ecstatic because when attempting to find out information, she was shut down by her entire family. Therefore, she constantly wondered to herself “How could I be happy and excited when I didn’t even know who he was or what I was getting myself into. I was scared and anxious for what was going to happen” (B. Kraja).

The next step in the arrangement is a women’s response. After the arrangement occurs and a decision is made, the day of their wedding quickly arrives. Highlighting this process through its existence in a very small village in Montenegro, my grandma Mirjeme Hadzicanovic described her experience of her wedding day:

I knew the date for when I was getting married and I got ready with my female family members for my future husband and his party to pick me up. They came over to my house to pick me up in an old Yugoslavian car. After I was picked up, I was driven to my husband’s house where the party was happening. I remember standing by the wall the entire night looking down sad wearing the traditional clothing; which included a red veil. I remember being in this position the entire night while everyone else was enjoying themselves eating, drinking and dancing. There was loud music and I could do nothing. After the party, I went to sleep with my husband’s sister and in the morning, I met my husband.

Top Right: Naxhije Kraja

Middle: Saba Kraja, Izet Kraja and Ismet Mehmeti

"How could I be happy and excited when I didn't even know who he was or what I was getting myself into. I was scared and anxious for what was going to happen."Belkize Kraja

In comparison to how arranged marriage existed in the 1970s, for young women, especially my mother and her sister, they had the opportunity to have more of a say in their decision. Either by having a guy start talking to you after noticing you at an event such as a wedding for my aunt Sabahete or a setup made for my mother Mide, the young women were allowed to have supervised conversations to get to know their possible future husband through a brief conversation. To further expand this part of the arrangement process in more detail, my mother, Mide Kraja, explained her experience of meeting my father:

When we went to the restaurant for coffee, my mother who coordinated the meeting with her distant cousin, Riza, (matchmaker) and my future husband. I remember sitting at the restaurant and I felt that my mother was really engaged with her conversation with my future husband. I felt like I was experiencing my mom on her first date. I remember saying to my mother afterwards, you looked like you were on your first date. For example, she asked if he played cards or if he gambled. I thought that maybe this is what my mother always longed for, she never had the opportunity to experience a first date or even a boyfriend. My mother at the age of 17 was arranged to marry my father in 1975 and my mother did not meet him until the day of their marriage. Therefore, this day at the restaurant had been very exciting for my mom. When she asked me what I thought about the guy, I replied with ‘I don’t know’ and that ‘I was very upset.’ Then as we left the restaurant that day, my distant cousin Riza called up my mother and said that this guy would like to meet her daughter, aka me, again and was wondering if it was possible for us to get together. At this time, my little brother came from the states back to Montenegro. I brought my little brother with me to this restaurant in Montenegro to meet the guy. While this guy was trying to engage with me and talk about things that he wanted in a marriage, my little brother was just sitting there watching the whole thing. (M.Kraja)

After this meeting process occurs, young women are then expected to give their answer if they are interested in marriage. Eventually, the wedding day arrives and, in most scenarios, the wedding planning consists around the man’s family paying for an entire wedding with 95% of the man’s family and friends while the bride can only have 5% of their family there. Unlike Mide’s uncommon practice of a wedding through the city hall in Ulcinj, Montenegro, my aunt Sabahete Kraja had an extremely traditional wedding in San Jose, California that had over 300+ guests and very little input from her on her wedding. She recalls,

It began with me at my house where I had to do different customs that were to created/completed to ensure the pureness and hope behind the whole marriage. I remember constantly standing and standing and having to look down with a red veil covering the hair and face the entire time. I also had to cry because this situation represented a sad time where I was leaving my parents. At the time, they considered it inappropriate for a girl to look like she was enjoying her wedding. The groom came with his friends and family in their cars covered in various decorations to represent a wedding was occurring and they picked me up. Through the constant car horns, people kissing me on the cheeks and people crying I felt lost because I knew that I wasn’t happy and this wasn’t a wedding I wanted to be at, despite it being my own. The groom took me and from there we did some additional traditions and took photos/videos for our tape. After all of this, we ventured off to our celebration portion of the wedding where we spent the night with hundreds of people at a big venue with everyone dancing, cheering, appreciating the moment with my husband while I was left at my station to look down and somber. (S.Kraja)

Bottom Right on previous page: Naijim and Belkize Kraja

Arranged marriages are still an option for young women in Montenegro-Albania. In many areas, arranged marriage isn’t as traditional yet many ideas exist through a modern format. Instead of a typical arranged marriage, today many young girls are expected to marry into their culture and religion. When they don’t complete this, they are often shamed by their family and community. It is a situation that no girl wishes to subject herself and her family into because of the fear of being shunned by the community as “marriage was an important way to create bonds of friendship between families and to maintain or improve the family’s status in the community” (“Montenegrin-Albanians Marriage and Family”). Therefore, they marry within the culture in the influence of pressure and guilt brought by the family. Mide explains the relevance of arranged marriage today: “some are more progressive since they meet their guys online and they have the opportunity to get to know them and see if they are compatible” (Mide).

Aside from the opportunity they have to get to know their partners better and have more of an input on the final decision, these girls still have to go through their parents’ approval to marry. “Although arranged marriages are less common nowadays, parents still have to approve of relationships between people. Despite the increasing possibility of meeting guys on their own, young women still must allow their parents to have input in their final decision.

In my experience being a 17-year-old girl of two parents from Montenegro, I feel like I’m stuck between the two worlds: the American Dream and the Balkan tradition. It is in these two worlds that I’m caught between the tension of living from my heart and fulfilling my family’s needs. I recognize that I may not need to go through the traditional arranged marriage; however, there still exists a huge expectation that I marry into the same culture and religion. As a result, I often feel filled with guilt when realizing that I may disappoint my family and bring

In mainstream American society today, arranged marriage is frowned upon. A vast amount of families do not support the continuation of this tradition because of its negative outcomes. It is recommended for young girls to be a good wife and to marry an individual that shares the same values, religion, and culture as the family because in everyone’s eyes it is easier.

In “7 Things I Wish More People Understood About Arranged Marriages,” Huda Al-Marshida argues that arranged marriages are easier because, in her words, “I have already lost so many of my family’s culture and traditions, and I appreciate having a spouse that can help me pass down as much of my heritage to my children as possible.” Yet, this does result in freedom being taken away from many young girls, especially their hearts, because they are limited in love.

My mother often compares arranged marriage to creating a ceramic piece: a young woman is brought into the world as a lump of clay which is then molded by the beliefs and values of the family. To undo or reshape the fixture of the mold, it requires strength and right conditions (undoing the beliefs and values).(M.Kraja) However, I believe that strength needed to help reshape this fixture is comprised of the voices of young women in this situation who want to create change. If no one speaks up, the story won’t be told, and arranged marriages will persist in their traditional, patriarchal form.

Saba Kraja 20 | Freestyle Academy Spring 2019 Vol 1 | freestyleacademy.rocks

About the Author

Sebija Haxhicani is a Junior at Freestyle Academy and Mountain View High School. She enjoys spending her free time with her friends and family, playing water polo, swimming, and helping grow her garden. At Freestyle Academy, Sebija is beyond grateful for the various technological and communication skills she has acquired and hopes to apply them at a great university soon, where she plans to study dentistry.

freestyleacademy.rocks | Freestyle Academy Spring 2019 Vol 1 | 21

Brandon Choi 22 | Freestyle Academy Spring 2019 Vol 1 | freestyleacademy.rocks

IN MY MIND a documentary about street art written and designed by Brandon Choi

freestyleacademy.rocks | Freestyle Academy Spring 2019 Vol 1 | 23

A

sudden hiss breaks through the silence. As the city of New York wakes up from its slumber, a hooded figure dances and weaves along a train car, rattling the spray can in his hand. He pauses underneath the rising sun, scanning the battered metal carriage. The chirping of birds and the honks of bustling cars can be heard starting up within the city. The figure begins.

Hiss! Crackle! Pause. Hiss! Crackle! Hiss! Crackle!

Pause. This continues as the figure expertly alternates between cans, the car gradually coming alive with vivid colors and vibrant faces. The figure looks up when he hears a shout from the other side. He runs, his pounding heart deafening his ears. He hears footsteps kicking away the gravel behind him. As he approaches another train car, he slides under the carriage as he hears the voice cursing behind him, trying to find a way to get to him. The man then walks out into the rising sun of New York city, looking for another wall to tag.

This is the life of a street artist in the 1970’s.

Art has acted as a vehicle for many aspects of human culture, allowing mankind to channel their creativity and express their individuality through a variety of forms; music, paintings, films, etc. The art form of graffiti was meant to be transgressive, meaning that it was created to combat and alienate the power of commercialism and government infrastructure. Street art was viewed as a negative staple to the society at the time, however it served many benefits. The art itself created a creative outlet for the disenfranchised groups of the city to convey their dissatisfaction with the society, which at the time did not serve the minorities or the poor much justice and aid.

24 | Freestyle Academy Spring 2019 Vol 1 | freestyleacademy.rocks

New York City in the 1970’s, amidst the quickly arising graffiti scene.

“Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable.” - Banksy Graffiti art, or “tagging”, was introduced first in Philadelphia in the 1960’s, when graffiti artists “Cornbread” and “Cool Early” started to use their black markers to tag their names on public property. But the popularity of tagging really began to skyrocket when artist “Topcat-126” brought over the practice of tagging walls to the city of New York.

When in creating his tagging signature, Topcat-126 combined his nickname and street number. This method was widely adopted throughout New York. The taggers from Philadelphia and New York had a lot in common, despite being from different states.

Yes, they were all bold and creative, but also young and poor, with limited choices of how and where to spend their free time in a time of rampant gang violence.

Street art has evolved immensely from when it first originated. What was once considered vandalism, has now become a lot more urbanized and socially acceptable. Towards the middle of the 1980’s, we saw the CCP (Clean Car Program) clean up the subway cars from all graffiti, understandably so. This proved to be very successful, as subway cars also started to begin to be fenced in with dogs, restriction on paint sales were created, including an 18 years or older age restriction on buying paint from stores.

Although short-lived, the era of subway-graffiti is still an iconic one to the citizens of New York and the street art community that has paved the way for innumerable artists to step forward and create their own art.

At the turn of the 21st century, we began to see the public slowly open up to street art. Street art galleries began to get set up, where they would hold shows and showcase the beautiful artwork of the street artists. This opened up a lot of doors for young artists and also provided a new perspective to the community that had once considered street art to be detrimental to society. They were able to view art as a positive, impactful force to the world.

“I laugh at the way some people think graffiti is all selfish tagging and vandalism. Thoughtful street art is like good fiction – it speaks out on behalf of everyone, for us all to see.” - Carla H. Krueger The needle is moving and cities all throughout the US are supporting this new movement of promoting art and propagating its artists. Some cities have even started to decriminalize graffiti. For example, San Francisco, California, have created a variation of programs to funnel the talent of young artists into benefits and away from vandalism. (Although still acknowledging graffiti on public property as a crime) The approach was to use commissioned murals or other works of art to ornament buildings that would be taken down otherwise, which would cost more money.

Street art is also being used as a tool for gentrification in urban communities, which is often looked down upon in the art community. However, when looking in hindsight, these works of art greatly benefit not only the community’s outside appearance, but also benefits the spirit of the community and allows them to unify as one whole populace.

Although the world is far from perfect, if the world can evolve into a happier place through art, even slowly, then it is worth a try to sustain and nourish the culture.

26 | Freestyle Academy Spring 2019 Vol 1 | freestyleacademy.rocks

sdfldfnBrandon Choi is a junior who attends Mountain View High School and Freestyle Academy. He is an aspiring videographer/designer who has professional experience in the entertainment industry, primarily through music videos and album cover design. He hopes to reach/inform a mass public about street art and it’s history through this documentary project.

freestyleacademy.rocks | Freestyle Academy Spring 2019 Vol 1 | 27

Casey Snell 28 | Freestyle Academy Spring 2019 Vol 1 | freestyleacademy.rocks

“There has been a real powerful sense...

The future they were promised has been taken away from them.�

C o nt i n u e d

In February of 2018, hundreds of teenagers ran for their lives from the hallways and classrooms of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where 17 students and staff had been shot to death.

The following month, driven by the conviction that they should never have to run from guns again, they walked.

So did their peers. In New York City, in Chicago, in Atlanta and Santa Monica; at Columbine High School and in Newtown, Conn.; and in many more cities and towns, students left school by the hundreds and the thousands at 10 a.m., sometimes in defiance of school authorities, who seemed divided and even flummoxed about how to handle their emptying classrooms.

The first major coordinated action of the student-led movement for gun control marshaled the same elements that have defined it ever since the Parkland shooting: eloquent young voices, equipped with symbolism and social media savvy, riding a resolve as yet untouched by cynicism.

freestyleacademy.rocks | Freestyle Academy Spring 2019 Vol 1 | 29

What you just read was an excerpt from an article published in The Atlantic four years ago about this sudden surprising rise in what everyone assumed would be a temporary, short battle. Since then there has been an extraordinary up-tick in the rise of political involvement in student. And this trend only continues to grow in all corners of the political arena. Gun control, climate change, fair wages - students now more than ever are fighting for what they believe in.

President of MVHS Liberal Action Club, Michael Love, comments on these movements.

“I mean you can see these students aren’t stopping either, they’re getting more involved and I doubt they will stop until they get what they want.

I mean... These are young kids -- very young kids that are getting involved not only at a college level, not only at a high school level, My little sister even! At her middle school they just held their environmental walkout to protest climate change.”

30 | Freestyle Academy Spring 2019 Vol 1 | freestyleacademy.rocks

Writers from The Guardian agree in their article about new student activism found throughout Europe.

“This new breed of activism is spreading like wildfire across countries. The school climate strikes that have led to tens of thousands of young people taking to the streets around the world over recent months had already made their impact in the UK last fall. Thousands of pupils walked out of lessons at schools and colleges across the country amid growing concern about the escalating climate crisis. The movement started in August when the 16-year-old schoolgirl Greta Thunberg held a solo protest outside Sweden’s parliament. Now, up to 70,000 schoolchildren each week are taking part in similar protests in 270 cities worldwide.

Environmental and development groups together with students, trade unions and social movements walked out of the UN climate talks in protest at what they say is the slow speed and lack of ambition of the negotiations in Warsaw.” freestyleacademy.rocks | Freestyle Academy Spring 2019 Vol 1 | 31

It may seem like a stretch to find examples of activism halfway across the world, but we don’t even have to leave our own district to see the effects of this worldwide up-tick in student activism; some of the most ambitious young minds and projects can be found right here at Mountain View High School. In the past three years of my own MVHS student experience I’ve personally seen a lot of change, I can almost sense it in the air: they’re angry, they want to fight for what’s right. In my freshman year shootings and political issues were rarely talked about and the only club experience I had was The Queer Straight Alliance, but we had never been on the proactive end of things. It was in sophomore year after the Parkland shootings when everyone started to wake up. These students didn’t just limit themselves to walkouts, another prominent thing I saw happening after this shift in the balances of student influence was the sudden formation of far more political clubs. In the month directly following the #Enough walkout I saw the formation of the Liberal Action Club,Young Americans for Freedom, Force For Change, and Social Justice Club.

These students still weren’t satisfied; they still had work to do.

“Last year was by far the largest protest of students that I had seen during the school day. I’d seen quite a few other movements, outside the school day on weekends in general, marches and those kinds of things but the #Enough movement last year was the first one that I had really seen on a major level at a at a school. And let’s be honest it was nationwide” -MVHS principal David Grissom

You see it every day at MVHS: Liberal Action Club doing voter registration and calling their representatives, Women's Empowerment having a menstrual product drive, QSA holding events like Day of Silence and Trans Panel, or multiple clubs teaming up for something as big as the Trans Rights or Environmental Protection walkouts. These students are tired of waiting, running, and being powerless. They’ve taken it onto themselves to be a force for change.

During our follow-up interview David Grissom commented of the future of student activism: “They show no signs of slowing down. I think in the future we can expect even more student involvement. We have Trans Panel and Day of Silence coming up; there’s a Sanders rally happening is San Francisco this weekend. I think we as staff have an important role in supporting and educating our students. So many schools across the country try to suppress students and their beliefs” The future we were promised has been taken away from us. In George Orwell's 1984, the main character lives in an imperialistic suppressive dictatorship, but he knew if there was ever going to be change, it had to come from those who were the most threatened among them. His logic still holds true in today's society: the power lies with the Proles. Change isn’t coming from the policy makers, the figureheads; those in power continue to refuse action. But we as the next generation of powerful passionate elitists, we students have the power to change the world. Across the world students are refusing to be ignored and downtrodden: a generation determined to build something better, something bolder, something new.

32 | Freestyle Academy Spring 2019 Vol 1 | freestyleacademy.rocks

About The Author

Casey Snell, is a student at Freestyle Academy where he studies film, photography and various other digital media art forms. Freestyle has given him the very special opportunity to study and pursue his passion. He expresses himself through colorful socks, peculiar non sequitur, and of course his art. In his free time he writes music and makes sketches which he posts on his Instagram. When he graduates he hopes to continue with his art through collage and beyond.

freestyleacademy.rocks | Freestyle Academy Spring 2019 Vol 1 | 33

Edmond Li 34 | Freestyle Academy Spring 2019 Vol 1 | freestyleacademy.rocks

A Chinese-American’s Dream

Edmond Li

I

n a summer morning of 1950s, in a quiet library at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China, there was only one single EnglishChinese Dictionary on the bookshelf available to the readers. Breathing heavily, a young student rushed into the library in order to be the first one there to secure this coveted reference book.

He was not going home for vacation as many others were, so he made use of the summer break to read an English book, “An Automatic Factory that Produces Auto Pistons,” and later another book, “The Postage Stamps of the People’s

Republic of China.” Through the self-taught English study, his English proficiency had improved, although his technical Russian was also not bad. He later had translated a few technical articles of his field from Russian into Chinese for a reputable magazine.

Today, in America, the young student is an 81-year-old man named George. He lives in Mountain View, California, with his loving family, and he has achieved the American Dream.

There are many immigrants coming from China to America today, and George’s story of courage and hard work shows that the immigrant’s

experience can be a positive one.

From 1937 to today, the Chinese people have seen three different governments - the Japanese invaders with the puppet government, the Kuomintang (KMT), and the Communists. George was born a few days before the Japanese occupied Shanghai, while his dad, a surgeon, was in a rescue team for the injured AntiJapanese soldiers. Because of the labor, his parents could not but stay in Shanghai when it was occupied. When George was a 3rd grader, a Japanese teacher was sent to his school to teach Japanese to high grade

freestyleacademy.rocks | Freestyle Academy Spring 2019 Vol 1 | 35

students. After the Japanese surrendered and the WWII ended, the KMT resumed power and the second language in the schools switched from Japanese to English, as the KMT has a good relationship with the Western countries.

At home, George was greatly influenced by his father, who spoke English fluently among his coworkers, writing only English in patients’ charts.

George studied in school in Shanghai up to the 5th grade, where he had his first English class. During his 6th grade of elementary school, George’s father had fallen ill, so the whole family moved to his hometown in Fujian, where he soon passed away. George lived in Fujian from his middle school years to his high school years.

In 1949, the People’s Republic was founded.

Following the policy of the government, many schools switched to Russian as the second language. The school he attended was originally a Christian missionaryrun school with a strong background in English, while Russian teachers had become quite scarce. Therefore, George was fortunate enough to have English as a second language through to the end of high school education, while most of his classmates at Tsinghua University started their Russian at the beginning of high school, or even at the

beginning of middle school.

As a result, many of them do not know English. The reason is that the Communist chased after the KMT from the North to the South China in the Liberation War and Fujian is in the South East China. So the Northern schools switched to Russian earlier than the Southern schools. In summary, the politics and regimes really affected the foreign language selection in schools.

Following Mao’s death in 1976 and the downfall of the “Gang of Four,” the chaotic Culture Revolution in China came to an end. The new leader became Deng Xiaoping whose slogan is “socialism with Chinese characteristics.”

At this time, it was found that China needed lots of professionals that knew the latest science and technology, so the government planned to send a lot of qualified people to have a short term study in the advanced Western countries,

36 | Freestyle Academy Spring 2019 Vol 1 | freestyleacademy.rocks

such as the U.S., Great Britain, Germany, with the U.S. being the main destination. The scientists and engineers each had a time slot of two years maximum with no degree sought, while the currently enrolled graduate students could go as a regular student and stay until a degree was achieved. To this end, it was soon found that language shortage was a huge problem.

With Russian as the only allowed second language taught in middle schools and colleges, many scientists and engineers in China at that time knew very little English, or no English at all.

In 1977, a nationwide English exam for screening qualified personnel to study abroad was held. The young student who was teaching himself English during the summer break at Tsinghua University’s library, now a 40 year-old lecturer at a university, easily scored 93 out

George and his wife Louisa

of 100 points, which was the second highest among all the other applicants throughout the country, as a head of Foreign Language Teachers at his university later told him. It was also heard that 40 points was the minimum requirement for passing this exam; therefore, George was more than qualified as far as English was concerned.

A very strict screening was attached to the selection so that the children of high ranking officials were easily qualified; meanwhile, many candidates with relations living in the capitalist countries, or Hong Kong and Taiwan, were denied.

Therefore, George first was not so optimistic until his department head notified him that he was chosen to be sent abroad for a two-year study.

There were four of the teachers and one graduate student from his university chosen to study abroad. They came to Shanghai Foreign Language Institute for several months to improve their spoken English. Upon their arrival, the Institute set up an English test to re-group them according to their English proficiency. One of the teachers overlooking the English dictation test

whispered to her colleague, “This guy got all correct!”

George ended up going to the advanced class.

“

George had started to work on the same topic in China, the programming language he used was Algol, and the media to store the program was paper tapes with small holes punched on it.

You can imagine once there are mistakes in punching, you have to cut off part of the paper tape and connect the remaining parts together with glue. In the U.S. at that time, people used FORTRAN programming language and each sentence of the program was punched on a single IBM card with many holes. The sentence of source code was printed on the top line of the card for convenient recognition. The card deck is read into the computer via the I/O counter in seconds. All of these were new to George, and he was learning every day.

English was still difficult, especially listening comprehension, even with his good foundation in it. One of the reasons was that in China at that time there were very few native American English speakers to help improve his listening and speaking. He was able to overcome this obstacle through hard work.

George’s progress in research made Prof. K. happy.

Grandpa work very hard in his early age and he want to one of the best university in China. After that, he continue to do well, he eventually become a professor in our hometown in Fujian. In all of his career, he worked hard and he won his respect from his colleague and his student.”

- Henry

At the same time, they started to mail letters to foreign universities to seek an opportunity to be a visiting scholar or adjunct professor or graduate student at their college. He was overjoyed when he learned he had been accepted as a visiting scholar for two years at U.C.. Berkeley.

G

eorge chose to go to U.C. Berkeley to study under Professor K. in the Dept. of Mechanical Engineering; he admired Prof. K.’s published papers and wanted to learn the advanced research on the computer simulation of metal forming processes, for which the professor is one of the pioneers, leading to his being elected as member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering. Although

freestyleacademy.rocks | Freestyle Academy Spring 2019 Vol 1 | 37

He took George to present a paper at a conference in Washington, D.C. After George returned to China, another paper was presented in Great Britain at the first NUMIFORM, which is an important international conference in their field. With George’s help, Tsinghua University, George’s alma mater, invited Prof. K. to visit and give lectures, with George being his interpreter. fter being a visiting scholar for two years at Berkeley, George returned to China, and he continued to teach and do research at his old university in Fujian for another ten years. Then he was promoted to full professor. After that, he found his research direction was not quite in line with what the university wanted. Soon after, his wife’s mom broke her leg in Xiamen, so he requested to transfer to Xiamen.

However, the work in Xiamen

A

ahead with the job opening and get hired, his American Dream would not only come true, but also the three of them could get together in the U.S. However, he would lose his job in Xiamen with the pension plan, which the Chinese people referred to as an “iron bowl” because the job was so very permanent.

George decided to take a chance by joining the startup at the age of 54.

He got a plane ticket and flew to Columbus for an did not suit his specialty. interview. He was accepted.

George’s only son Henry was He canceled his returning a Ph.D. student in the U.S. at flight to China, and flew that time. After his motherto Columbus with his wife. in-law passed away, George During his twenty years with and his wife, Louisa, went to the company, he developed and America to pay Henry a visit. further improved the software At the end of this short stay, products of the company with George had a chance to visit his his coworkers. He participated former professor at Berkeley. in small projects and earned the opportunity to visit customers throughout the world. He felt the job was so interesting and rewarding.

The employer applied green cards for him in the category of “outstanding professors and researchers” together with his wife. Then they became U.S. citizens. He enjoyed working with his colleagues and retired in 2010. Even though he is very proud of his career success, what completes his American Prof. K. told him that one of Dream is his family. Today, his Ph.D. students had started George and Louisa live with my a company in Columbus, Ohio, dad, Henry, my brother, Eliot, and needed George’s expertise. and me in the Bay Area.

This offer presented George with a dilemma. If he would go

38 | Freestyle Academy Spring 2019 Vol 1 | freestyleacademy.rocks

Edmond is a junior at Mountain View High and Freestyle Academy. He enjoys activities like swimming, drawing, and video gaming. He plans to continue pursue creative work at Freestyle and in the future with a positive mindset.

freestyleacademy.rocks | Freestyle Academy Spring 2019 Vol 1 | 39

Elen Parry 40 | Freestyle Academy Spring 2019 Vol 1 | freestyleacademy.rocks

Teaching: Investigating the Disparity Between Work and Pay

By Elen Parry

“It’s not a livable wage in this valley.”

- DeRitis

Do you think your pay reflects how much time goes into your job?

“No. Not at all” - Haley

freestyleacademy.rocks | Freestyle Academy Spring 2019 Vol 1 | 41

the problem

The California Department of Education wrote that, “The average salary of public school teachers in 2016–17 for the State of California was $79,128.” (CDE 2) This number accommodates for the entire state, and not all parts of California cost the same amount to live there. This salary may be enough for a teacher living in the Central Valley, but not here in Silicon Valley.

Classroom daily schedule

DeRitis has been teaching in different districts in California for over 35 years, but her yearly pay is still a measly $114,000. She’s worked at Landels Elementary here in Mountain View for her longest period of time (31 years), but at one point, she had the same wage as her mother-in-law working in Rochester, New York. And compared to Silicon Valley, Rochester isn’t nearly as expensive to live in, so why was their pay the same?

42 | Freestyle Academy Spring 2019 Vol 1 | freestyleacademy.rocks

the work

“I

do many many hours above and beyond.�

- Parry

In order to fully understand how much a teacher should earn yearly, we need to understand how much of their workload they actually get paid for.

Elementary school teachers only gets paid from eight to three, but there is so much work they do that goes unpaid.

Even though teachers only get paid until three, most have to stay and continue work until past five. After school commitments consist of endless

Parry grading homework and creating lesson plans for the next day.

meetings, parent conferences, room organization etc.

Most teachers have to buy school supplies with their own money. Parry goes on a seemingly endless witch hunt for glue sticks and pencils throughout the year because the kids overuse them. And while the PTA does pay $700 to the teachers for supplies, Parry always ends up using around $500 of her own pocket every year.

freestyleacademy.rocks | Freestyle Academy Spring 2019 Vol 1 | 43

the pay

It can be quickly discovered that an elementary school teacher in Silicon Valley makes around $35 an hour. If their afternoon work was included in their pay, an elementary school teacher in this area would be making an extra $18,900 a year. High teacher turnover has also been plaguing the teaching profession. Many teachers across the US are quitting their job for a number of reasons, one being low pay. Carver-Thomas and Darling-Hammond explain, “Certified teachers are 25% more likely to leave their school. Other key influences on turnover include a lack of administrative support, working in districts with lower salaries, dissatisfactions with testing and accountability pressures, lack of opportunities for advancement, and dissatisfaction with working conditions.” (2).

Photos of Mrs. Parry’s classroom

44 | Freestyle Academy Spring 2019 Vol 1 | freestyleacademy.rocks

About the Author

Elen Parry is a student in Animation at Freestyle Academy. Outside of school, she enjoys playing soccer or painting. In the future, she hopes to pursue a career in film study or animation.

freestyleacademy.rocks | Freestyle Academy Spring 2019 Vol 1 | 45

Eren George 46 | Freestyle Academy Spring 2019 Vol 1 | freestyleacademy.rocks

The Emerging Rainbow) Eren George

freestyleacademy.rocks | Freestyle Academy Spring 2019 Vol 1 | 47

I

n the cubicles at Intel, the occasional whisper between colleagues becomes audible amidst the tapping of computer keys. In the break room, the coffee percolates and the teapot whistles. There are quiet steps of employees walking through the aisles of desks, weaving up and down the cubes like a maze. A hint of rainbow peeks through the blinding white of the cubicles.

The rainbow flag often ignites pride in people of the LGBTQ community because it’s something we all can feel connected to. When we see the flag we know that we aren’t the only one out there who identify as we do. Of course it’s different for everyone each person is gonna feel differently about the flags and using labels such as gay, lesbian, transgender, for some they feel a sense of pride when they see their flag and others still feel pride but maybe not as much as others do. As for labels again everyone is different and not everyone feels the same about needing a label, for me personally the reason that I use a label is that it gives me a sense of security, but I don’t feel the need to have a label for other people I use the label for myself. Intel is a multi-billion corporation who specializes in making the core processor in computers and laptops.

Intel is like any other tech company in the way they have set up their office, the workers are seated in cubicles which are lined in rows and columns. The color scheme of the office is pretty simple: white with hints of blue and

yellow. Intel is also equipped with a cafeteria for employees where they can buy a range of food from salads to small sandwiches and even soup.

Many have heard the term “LGBTQ” but a lot of those people don’t know or understand what it means to be a part of the LGBTQ community.

As some may know, the LGBTQ community has numerous flags that represent different identities. Some examples of flags are: the gay flag which is rainbow, the transgender flag which is pink blue and white, the bisexual flag which is pink purple and blue. People who choose to label themselves often find pride when they see their flag. People of the LGBTQ community go through many struggles that people outside of the community do not have to go through.

Finding a job and being included in the workplace are typically more difficult for people of the LGBTQ community. Intel is working toward a more inclusive and diverse workplace. To begin with, there are two LGBTQ groups at Intel that my interviewees are a part of. The first one is called IGLOBE, which stands for Intel’s Gay and Lesbian Organization. The second group is called the Out and In Leadership Alliance, OALC which is a leadership council focused exclusively on LGBTQ rights and issues. The main purpose of both groups is pretty much the same, to identify issues that the LGBTQ community faces at Intel, and outside of Intel, and to make sure that LGBTQ employees are fully Intel courtyard at headquarters

48 | Freestyle Academy Spring 2019 Vol 1 | freestyleacademy.rocks

integrated and supported, to make sure their career development paths are fully open to them that there’s not any unconscious bias or hidden bias, and to make sure that they’re given the same opportunities and same rewards for good work done as anyone else. Another company that has great diversity and inclusion is Visa I will be comparing Visa with Intel in

terms of diversity. Visa facilitates electronic fund transfers throughout the world, most commonly through Visa-branded credit cards, gift cards, and debit cards. On the other hand Intel is a computer chip making company. My central question is: “How do Intel and other large corporations integrate and support the LGBTQ community into a diverse workforce?”

“How do Intel and other large corporations integrate and support the LGBTQ community into a diverse workforce?”

Lawyers play an essential role in these groups even though it might not seem like they would. Lawyers in these groups do work regarding practically anything legal as well as working on other projects, one example of this is when the “Trump administration floated a memo through the health and human services division that would impact the rights of Trans people we[OALC] looked into that and how Intel and other corporations would deal with that and manage it if anything came through we put together an action plan.” Said Chris George, he worked on this action plan with a few other coworkers. Lawyers role in these groups

is to also support and reassure employees of Intel that are LGBTQ and help them feel more comfortable in the workplace. One instance of this is when Tassinari helped her coworkers feel more comfortable “what I did was I kind of took it upon myself to be the legal expert on that even though that’s not my expertise and I broke it down for folks and in some cases made them more comfortable if they were scared, people didn’t know what that meant they didn’t know if they were gonna lose their passports or their medical benefits they were really nervous about it, so I act as the legal expert for the community within Intel.”

freestyleacademy.rocks | Freestyle Academy Spring 2019 Vol 1 | 49

Real inclusion invites everyone to feel comfortable and confident that they belong at a workplace and that won’t happen unless individuals can proudly display their differences. Why? Because then they can fully contribute to the mission of the organization. After all, diverse perspectives are wasted if they are never voiced or heard.

Jolen Anderson, Chief Diversity Officer, Visa

50 | Freestyle Academy Spring 2019 Vol 1 | freestyleacademy.rocks

About the Author Eren George is a design student at Freestyle Academy of Communications and Arts and Technology. Outside of Freestyle Eren is on the dance team at Mountain View High School he has choreographed hip hop and contemporary pieces. In his free time, Eren enjoys drawing, rock climbing, petting his pug, listening to music, as well as studying Japanese and Korean culture.

freestyleacademy.rocks | Freestyle Academy Spring 2019 Vol 1 | 51

Eric Rustum 52 | Freestyle Academy Spring 2019 Vol 1 | freestyleacademy.rocks

Taking Off:

The Modern Uses of Drones Diving deep into the world of modern drones and how people have found some interesting uses for them in today’s society.

by Eric Rustum

Drones, a term used to describe any unmanned aircraft, are an evolving technology platform that is being adapted for multiple uses such as military warfare, cinematography, agriculture, etc. Because of these multiple uses, drones are starting to attract more attention, some of it negative, about the ethics and safety concerns related to drone use. In recent years, big corporations have been developing programs to involve drones in their business. In 2018 Amazon was issued a patent to experiment with drones delivering packages in less than 30 minutes and with the technology to respond to a recipient’s hand gestures. In another case, Google is currently apart of a program to aid the military with analyzing footage from warfare drones known as Project Maven. Because of the program’s controversy, the deal expires after 2019. Many people are raising questions about the safety of drones and the extent to which they should be regulated as a reaction to these news stories.

In response to these mounting concerns, the F.A.A. (Federal Aviation Administration) has increasingly created legislation on the different implications of flying any aircraft that is unmanned, including drones and model aircrafts.

In 2014, The University of Virginia paid a man named Raphael Pirker to fly his aircraft and take footage over the college campus. Pirker flew his aircraft above 400 feet, which the F.A.A. deemed that unsafe. They fined him $10,000, even though he had a spotter with him and video camera feed from the drone which would prevent it from encountering any other aircraft (Rupprecht 95).

While the F.A.A. and a vocal contingent

of critics see an urgent need to regulate drones, enthusiasts are finding new recreational and innovative ways to utilize drone technology.

A New York Times article from 2013 highlights the growing practice of using drones for environmental science, citing the work of ecologist Jim Kellner. Interested in using his drone for “‘remote sensing’ in the rain forests of Panama, Kellner planned to fly it among more than two hundred species of birds and fifty types of bat” (“Up in the Air”). Kellner’s particular interest in drones represents a faster and cheaper way of surveying endangered species for legitimate research purposes. Drones can also be used for crop surveillance by taking images which allows them to see indications of crop health that cannot otherwise be seen in person (Rupprecht 11).

In terms of recreational use, competitive racing is becoming increasingly popular. Organizations like the DRL (Drone Racing League) and the ASL (Aerial Sports League) put together competitions in which pilots race drones through a plotted course and try to complete as many laps as they can. The pilots wear goggles that receive video feed from small cameras on the drones and therefore they are able to stay in one place and navigate the drone as if they were the drones themselves. This phenomenon is known as FPV (First Person View) drone racing and, according to Marque Cornblatt, CEO of the ASL, the sport is riveting for pilots and enthusiasts alike: “Instantly when you put the goggles down, you feel like you’re flying. That experience is so addicting and transformative for people that once they start doing it, it’s all they want to do.”

freestyleacademy.rocks | Freestyle Academy Spring 2019 Vol 1 | 53

Drone racer Reza Kurniawan examines his drone to prepare for the next race.

“The most addictive thing is just the rush you get and the freedom in racing head to head against someone the same speed as you–there’s so much pressure and adrenaline.”

Racers’ drones are lined up at the starting line for the next race.

The racers can attest to that addictive feeling.

Colby Curtola, a “part-time” drone racer commonly known by his “pilot handle” (gamertag) SFPV, says he spends 40 hours a week practicing flying his drone as a part of the racing team, Velocidrone. “The most addictive thing is just the rush you get and the freedom in racing head to head against someone the same speed as you–there’s so much pressure and adrenaline.” Recently he took part in an “insane” event in New Orleans where 8 teams of 8 pilots were tasked to race for 12 hours straight. At this point, he says drone racing is too young of a sport to enable him to race full time, but he spends every possible minute attending events and he is able to receive sponsorships from companies to maintain and grow his fleet. Even when he isn’t drone racing at events, he is racing in simulators against other people online.

For Curtola, drones and drone racing are a huge part of his identity. “Drone racing is everything about me.

Everyday I think about it, and everyday I’m trying to get better at it.”

How did drones eventually start becoming so involved in people’s lives? What led to this growing phenomenon with hobbyists and business? As early as World War II the United States was developing drone technology, though at the time it was considered too expensive and unreliable. It was utilized in the Cold War by both the U.S. and the Soviet Union for spying on each other, which may explain people’s association of drones with “Peeping Tom” implications. This tactic was only used to a certain extent and to this day it is not clear specifically how much each country used drones.

Modern drone warfare began in 1982 when Israel used drones to attack the Syrian fleet. “The Israeli Air Force used military drones to recon the enemy’s position, to jam communications, and to act as decoys that would prevent the loss of pilot life” (“History of Drones”).

These new, successful tactics incited the U.S. to spend millions of dollars into developing modern warfare drones.

Flashing forward to 2006, government agencies started to use drones like the ones we see in everyday life to provide disaster relief, border surveillance, and wildfire fighting. Corporations also used drones to inspect pipelines and spray pesticides on farms (“History of Drones”). The F.A.A. started to issue their first permits to flying unmanned vehicles. For the next 7-8 years, this allowance of drones in these particular fields of interest lead to widespread consumer drone production and marketing. Much like an RC helicopter, drones were becoming increasingly popular to buy and crash

54 | Freestyle Academy Spring 2019 Vol 1 | freestyleacademy.rocks

at home. In 2013, Amazon announced its interest in using a drone delivery service, and as a result, the public awareness of drones grew.

It was around this time that recreational drone users like Curtola and Cornblatt of the ASL began to get involved with drones. At first they only bought and crashed cheap consumer drones that everyone was buying at the time, but they became interested in fixing the drones themselves with the help of YouTube videos online and making them more durable and efficient. This allowed them to become very experienced in learning about soldering and wiring as well as software programs to develop FPV technology. 2014 was the year that drone racing took off. The first amateur competitions were being held in Australia and New Zealand and the hobbyists like Curtola and Cornblatt who were building their own drones were organizing their own meetups as well.

As drone racing increased in popularity, online platforms allowed people from different backgrounds and geographic areas to meet up and develop their drone-racing interests together. Cornblatt claims this is one of the best aspects of drone racing, stating that no matter where you go, “the community is always very welcoming and very open and they want to see more pilots and new people. Especially as those new people tend to be kids and younger and younger pilots.”

In the sense of a sport like NASCAR racing, drone racing requires a lot of technical skill. Besides practicing flying the drone for hours on end like Curtola, drone racing requires knowledge about engineering, soldering, and other STEM fields in order to maintain a drone’s functionality. These subjects are not just being taught through drone racing and YouTube, they’re now being taught in American schools.

In Mountain View, California, home to Google and other Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, a class is held at Mountain View High School on these technical skills.

On a recent day in March during the class, called Engineering 1 and 2, students worked frantically on an assignment given to them two months before. The assignment was simple in purpose but difficult to execute: design, build, and fly a drone. Aidan Lansky, an Engineering I student, explains the process simply:

“There’s no instruction booklet – we ourselves have to get on computers and research what drones look like and how other people have done it. Then we see what they did and we change it a little make it our own – make it how we want it to be. Then we go out to CAD and we make it on a computer. We either 3D print

Soldering: an essential skill for the drone building process.

“The community is always very welcoming and very open and they want to see more pilots and new people. Especially as those new people tend to be kids and younger and younger pilots.”

A student solders wires for his specific drone.

it or laser cut it. Then comes the electronic part and that’s the hardest part – soldering all the circuits – it’s really hard work. Then once you have it fully built you’re only halfway done because you’re going to fail a lot before you get to the final product.

The final product is a drone that the students choose to either go as fast as possible, lift heavy weights, or make it automatically move to a specific location.

As Lansky described, it not exactly the easiest task in the world, but he thinks the skills he’s learned has outweighed the challenges he encounters. “I have definitely learned the value of trial and error; in the real world pretty much nothing is gonna work the first try, so you have to keep attacking it and seeing what you did wrong and seeing what you can do next time.”

Senior Kaveh Ghalambor, a current student in the Engineering II class, says he is still building upon the things he learned in Engineering I. “Compared to when I started in Engineering I, I’ve been able to take criticism a lot better, for the most part. It’s probably something I’ll take away from this class.”

He hopes to utilize the skills he’s learned while drone building in the university course in engineering he is taking next year.

Lansky and Ghalambor had no experience with engineering or drone building before taking the class and now they both have a desire to pursue engineering careers in the future. This was the ultimate goal for Ms. Lydia Conoway, teacher of Engineering classes at Mountain View High School and former teacher at Gunn High School. “We just want students to know that there are these career tech ed options for them and consider exploring that if that’s a passion they have.”

In the areas of drone building, Ms. Conoway says there is a big demand for students who know how to do the skills they learn in the course of the project, specifically soldering and circuit design. She explains that currently the only people holding electrical engineering jobs in the country are in their 50s and 60s, and there are fewer young people in line for those jobs, so in the next 20 years there will be a huge demand for students who have learned those skills at school or even on their own time like the drone racing community.

It seems inevitable that big tech corporations like Amazon and Google will continue to explore the implementation of drones into people’s lives in

different ways, and people will continue to develop their skills and passion for drone racing and building, all of which will result in a continuous upgrading of the technology and capabilities of drones in general. Ms. Conoway wants to continue to encourage young generations to get involved in drone building, but in areas that are created specifically for them to learn how to fly in a safe way. In terms of drone racing, Curtola thinks that the sport may be more popular if it was improved to be more suitable for spectators: “Educating people more about how amazing it really is that we’re racing around these tracks at that speed, and just making them bigger so it’s easier to see.” If drone racing became more visible to the public, Curtola could potentially pursue the sport full-time.

Cornblatt of the ASL believes that drone racing will become more and more popular with the advancing technology and increased communities around the country. He only wishes that America wasn’t so slow about accepting drones and seeing the benefits they bring, and thinks it is because people are hung up about negative and controversial stories directed at drones and drone users. “In reality, I’ve never heard of any of those stories that are true,” he says. “So it’s more just people’s concerns about those ideas than any actual practical problem occurring. It wasn’t that long ago that you couldn’t bring a drone to school, but now every school wants to have a drone program because it’s got educational value.”

Ms. Conoway and her students try to solve a problem with the group’s drone.

56 | Freestyle Academy Spring 2019 Vol 1 | freestyleacademy.rocks

Eric Rustum is a junior at Mountain View High School and is apart of the creative arts program, Freestyle Academy. Throughout his middle school and high school years he has worked in areas of film and video production, and he has slowly developed those skills as well as collaborative skills in school. When he is not writing papers for class, he is working on other projects he’s passionate about like videos, illustrations, and comics. In the future, he hopes his passions can eventually become his occupation. Below you can find his website where his documentary film can be found.

freestyleacademy.rocks | Freestyle Academy Spring 2019 Vol 1 | 57

About the Cover Designer

Syd Johnsen is a junior at Los Altos High School. She is also a design, digital media, and English student at Freestyle Academy, in Mountain View, CA. Syd is passionate about photography, design, and film production. In her freetime, she likes to work on personal art projects, take trips to the beach, and go on hikes. Syd has always had a love for dogs, and adores her own lab puppies, Hutch and Ivy. She also has a close relationship with her parents, two younger brothers, and enjoys spending quality time with them. In addition, she values every moment she spends with her friends. As of now, Syd is undecided which direction in the arts she wants to dedicate her life to, but she is prepared to work hard to achieve her goals.

58 | Freestyle Academy Spring 2019 Vol 1 | freestyleacademy.rocks

About The Cover Designer

S

ydney Tomasello is a student at Mountain View High School and Freestyle Academy. She is a Design student who is constantly drawing on whatever is in front of her.

Additionally, she is extremely passionate about the art she creates, as well as storytelling and music. She hopes to continue creating art and telling stories by pursuing a career in graphic design and illustration.

freestyleacademy.rocks | Freestyle Academy Spring 2019 Vol 1 | 59

Information about purchasing this publication is posted on https://freestyleacademy.rocks/documentaries Thank you for your support!