Winged Post Volume 19 Issue 3

WINGED POST THURSDAY, NOV. 16, 2017 | THE HARKER UPPER SCHOOL STUDENT NEWSPAPER, VOL. 19, NO. 3

Wine Country continues recovery after devastating wildfires

WHAT’S INSIDE?

President Trump’s first year 2 College applications 8-9 Gender assembly 16

DODGEBALL Juniors beat the freshmen in a match on Nov. 9.

The seniors and juniors will compete in the finals tomorrow.

PROVIDED BY BUZZ DRAPER

KATHY FANG

Spirit and DECA host dodgeball finals

michael eng & aditya singhvi reporters

Members of the senior and junior classes will compete in the first upper school dodgeball finals in three years, tomorrow in the Athletic Center during lonch lunch, after winning games against the sophomore and junior classes, respectively, on Nov. 9.

Dodgeball was reinstated this year after a three-year hiatus following a sit-in by the senior class of 2015 when they lost to the junior class of 2016, alleging there were instances of cheating during the game.

Continued on page 2.

WILDFIRES California counties are recovering from wildfires that ravaged Sonoma and Napa Valley areas in mid-October. Ecological changes the fires caused could potentially cause more damage, in addition to existing damage to thousands of structures, buildings and homes.

neil bai & adrian chu Aquila copy editor & Aquila columnist

California counties are recovering from wildfires that ravaged Sonoma and Napa Valley areas in mid-October, as they work towards prevention of future threats.

Since early November, though the Sonoma and Napa Valley fires have been contained, the ecological changes the fires caused could potentially cause more damage, and the destruction of homes, business, and other property have implications on the short term economic re-

Second women’s health discussion held sahana srinivasan editor-in-chief

Pyschology teacher Kelly Horan and biology teacher Dr. Kate Schafer led the second iteration of the women’s health discussion yesterday during long lunch in the Nichols CylerLoft.

The discussion centered around relationships and self-esteem, and it and all future women’s health discussions are open to all female-identifying students at the upper school.

The discussions will continue once a month and will focus on topics that students suggested in the first meeting.

Team wins first-ever playoff game, 56-0

ERIC FANG

global editor

PLAYING HISTORY (LEFT) Wide receiver Anthony Contreras (12) runs the ball downfield into Dragons’ territory. Anthony has accumulated 176 tackles in his varsity football career since sophomore year. (LEFT) Line backers James Pauli (12) and Mitch Kole (12) sack the Sonoma Valley Quarterback.

Harker is currently in the third seed of the Division IV playoff games. The upper school football team won its first playoff game in school history last Friday and will play their second tomorrow against Piedmont.

Women in STEM (WiSTEM) club is holding its club week to fundraise for WISER, an international organizaiton that supports girls’ education in Kenya, and to dicsuss gender issues.

The club is selling boba and brownies after school today and tomorrow oustide Manzanita.

WiSTEM also invited Dr. Marina Sirota, a research professor at University of California: San Francisco, to speak about her research in computational drug discovery and her experience as a woman in STEM during long lunch tomorrow in the Auditorium.

The club also screened “Queen of Katwe,” a movie about a young girl succeeding at chess, on Wednesday. “[Club week] allows us to impact the community beyond Harker by fundraising for WISER,” WiSTEM publicity officer Shania Wang (11) said.

“It gives us the opportunity to help spread STEM and to empower women in STEM.”

Varsity football crushed the Sonoma Valley Dragons 56 - 0 in the team’s first playoff game of the season Saturday night at home. They continue their winning streak to improve their record to a historic 10 - 0. This is not only Harker’s first time hosting a playoff game at home, but also the first time winning their first playoff game.

The Eagles opted to receive the ball after the coin toss at the beginning of the match. On just their second play of the game, wide receiver Jared Anderson (11) ran 56 yards to score Harker’s first of eight touchdowns after a pass from quarterback Nate Kelly (12). Kicker Dominic Cea (12) kicked an extra point after the touchdown.

Harker wide receiver Marcus Tymous (11) ran the ball into the Dragon’s end zone in the middle of the first quarter for a touchdown with a valid extra point by Dominic.

Sonoma Valley’s punt was deflected leading to a first down for the Eagles. Harker running back Aaron Smith (11) scored a subsequent touchdown, and after a sack by wide receiver Angel Cervantes (12), Jared scored his second touchdown of the match by running an astonishing 81 yards during a punt return. Dominic kicked valid extra points after every touchdown.

The score stood at 28 - 0 by the end of the first quarter with the Eagles boasting a strong lead over Sonoma Valley.

Continued on page 10.

Sutherland springs massacre of 26 horrifies rural Texas community kathy fang, kaitlin hsu & tiffany wong photo editor, editor-in-chief & Aquila news editor

A gunman opened fire at First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas during the facility’s weekly song and prayer service, killing at least 26 and wounding at least 20 on Nov. 5.

The shooting victims range from 5 to 72 years old.

The Texas Department of Public Safety has identified the suspect as Devin Patrick Kelley, a 26-year-old white male who previously served on the United States Air Force before being convicted of domestic assault and released on a Bad Conduct Discharge.

Wearing a ballistic vest and armed with a Ruger AR-556 semi-automatic rifle, an assault style rifle modeled after those in

the military, Kelley began firing at the church around 11:30 a.m. and entered the building soon after. He was confronted by a local resident outside the building and dropped his weapon during the altercation, fleeing the scene in his car with the resident in pursuit. Law enforcement officials found Kelley dead at the Wilson-Guadalupe county line, where he veered off the road and crashed.

Texas law follows the federal law, which permits the purchase of semi-automatic rifles such as the AR-556 but prohibits those convicted of domestic violence from possessing firearms.

According to a press release from the Department of Defense on Nov. 6, Kelley was found guilty of two domestic assault charges against his wife and stepson in 2012, information which may not have been properly entered into the National Criminal Information Center database, allow-

GAMBLING WITH GUNS This cartoon is syndicated from the Southwest Shadow, the newspaper of the Southwest Career and Technical Academy in Las Vegas, Nevada. It was created by Isabelle Del Rosario after the mass shooting in Las Vegas on Oct. 1.

ing Kelley to purchase the rifle used in the shooting.

Licensed holders are allowed to carry a concealed handgun on campus, but colleges and universities are given the choice to establish further regulations.

“Of course UT is very strict about their gun policies now

SYNDICATED FROM ISABELLE DEL ROSARIO/SOUTHWEST SHADOW

eric fang

SAHANA SRINIVASAN

maya kumar

managing editor

Continued on page 14.

Football makes school history

WiSTEM hosts club week speaker event

WiSTEM WEEK WiSTEM sells boba outside of Manzanita after school on Monday to fundraise for the WISER organization.

covery and the futures for industries. Sonoma County Fire and Emergency Services Department Captain Derrick White has been part of the recovery efforts for the fires in Napa Valley.

“The big push for us at this point now that the suppression effort is over, and the life threat and the fire are extinguished,” White said. “The next big plan we are preparing for is going to be erosion control for the upcoming rain. Now that the vegetation has burned away, whenever there is going to be significant rains that makes an increase threat of erosion and mudslides.”

that we have concealed carry or closed carry. We’ve been sent multiple emails about what is acceptable and what is not,” University of Texas at Austin student Nikhil Bopardikar (‘16). “There has been lots of debate online about gun control policies and what we have to do about it.”

2

NEWS

Class dodgeball returns to Harker spirit

VOLUME 19 • ISSUE 3 NOVEMBER 16, 2017

FAST FACTS

DODGE, DIP, DIVE, DUCK AND DODGE! (LEFT) Ramanan Vegesna (10) throws a ball to the opposing team, the seniors. Seniors won their game against the sophomores. (UPPER RIGHT) Neil Ramaswamy throws the ball against the freshman class. The juniors won their game against the freshman. (LOWER RIGHT) Sophomores Eileen Li, Emily Cheng, Chloe Chen, Emily Chen and Allie Lee view the dodgeball game.

aditya singhvi & michael eng reporters

The upper school Spirit organization and DECA hosted the first upper school dodgeball spirit event in three years in the Athletic Center on Nov. 9, with the juniors winning the first game against the freshmen and the seniors winning the second game against the sophomores. “[In my freshman year], I have memories of getting destroyed by the seniors in the first round, so it’s kind of nice to be the seniors this time and destroy

the lower classmen,” said Amitej Mehta (12).

Dodgeball was discontinued as a spirit event three years ago after the senior class of 2015 staged a sit-in after losing a game to the juniors, citing alleged cheating by the then-junior class of 2016 as their motivation.

The administration decided to reinstate the games this year.

“We felt like the students here have done a great job of being spirited and having good sportsmanship so we felt like they deserved to have a spirit event come back,” said Assistant Activities Director Eric Kallbrier.

Dodgeball has been a Harker tradition for a long time and is always extremely popular among students, according to Kallbrier.

“This is a lot of fun for people; I think it reminds them of elementary school, [of] playing games like doctor-doctor or dodgeball in elementary school,” said Kallbrier. “It’s just a fun way to engage with your class.”

DECA and Spirit partnered up to organize the event, with DECA selling boba tea outside Manzanita during lunch to raise funds and awareness for the Muscular Dystrophy Association.

“I wanted to help support my class spirit,” Rishi Dange (10), who played on the sophomore team, said. “[MDS is] something a lot of people should know about and I feel like it was a great thing to go out there and play for that. It was really fun, because all the classes were out there, [with] so many people watching. I felt like it united the school as a whole.”

The dodgeball finals between the seniors and juniors will be held tomorrow during long lunch in the Athletic Center.

NICOLE CHEN

KATHY FANG

KATHY FANG

• Three years since the last class dodgeball game • Senior sit-in staged in protest of final game decision • Teams were randomly picked out of a hat, each consisting of 10 students • Juniors and Seniors won respective games • Dolan Dworak (12) and chemistry teacher Andrew Irvine emceed the games • Final match to be held on Friday Nov. 17

Ideas worth spreading to the world sara yen & anna vazhaeparambil reporters

The upper school hosted its annual TEDx event, which featured guest speakers and representatives from startups who spoke to students and visitors about their research or innovations in the Nichols Auditorium on Nov. 4.

Guest speakers Julie Campistron, Ryan Evans, Alan Kropf, Ray Wang and student speaker Andrew (Andy) Semenza (12) presented their insights on topics ranging from economics and technology to meditation.

“The Gen Z [and] the millennials think very, very differently,” Wang, founder and chairman of Constellation Research, said. “[Current high schoolers] are going to have the biggest impact on society in the next 20 years. I think it’s really, really important that the lessons shared between generations are told,

and that those conversations are told, and those ideas spark a different way of thought.”

In between lectures, attendees interacted with several tech booths. Students learned more about new inventions and could directly talk to the people who were part of the team that created them.

“3D printing is taking off and is being used in more and more real world applications,” said a representative of ONO, a company who ran a booth promoting the first smartphone 3D printer. “Learning it at a young age and learning how you can do it can actually help push that technology forward.”

The team of students who organized the event this year started preparations as soon as the end of last year’s talks. They have contacted companies for the booths, arranged the logistics of the event and most importantly, found speakers who are not only qualified to speak to

students, but who also talk about unique topics.

“TEDx a couple years ago used to be focused on just entrepreneurship,” co-curator Anooshree Sengupta (12) said. “We’ve tried to grow past that and get speakers who are in the arts, who are in the sciences—really all areas.”

The team encouraged attendees to interact with the speakers, booths and mentors to gain a better understanding and possibly an interest in the advancements of the different fields presented at the event.

“Our goal is to bring students here in the Silicon Valley to greater intellectual heights,” said co-curator Kaitlin Hsu (12) prior to the event. “We hope you find wisdom, rebellion, innovation, and passion in your experience.”

The team will soon be choosing a new set of curators who will begin planning for the event next year.

ALL PHOTOS ASHLEY JIANG

Students and family attend Harker’s annual TEDx Talk

CREATING CONVERSATIONS (TOP) Executive Director of Education at Anchor Distilling Co. and founder of beverage magazine Mutineer Magazine Alan Kropf addresses the importance of finding happiness in one’s career. (LEFT) TEDx event attendees visit Inboard Technologies’ booth to learn more about their products. (RIGHT) Student speaker Andy Semenza (12) delivers his presentation on evolutionary biology and overspecialization.

ALL PHOTOS BY ANIKA RAJAMNANI

The cast sold boba tea and Dippin’ Dots throughout the weeks preceding the fall play to fundraise for the recent natural disasters. They raised $1700.33 in total from ticket sales. All proceeds have been donated to Habitat for Humanity in support of the relief efforts for the recent hurricanes and wildfires.

karina chen reporter

The cast of the fall play performed “The Comedy of Errors,” from Oct. 26 through Oct. 28 and fundraised for the recent natural disasters.

“The Comedy of Errors” uses misunderstanding and wordplay to tell the story of two sets of twins separated at birth.

The play describes Antipholus

OH ANTIPHOLUS! (TOP) Joel Morel (10) uses hand gestures while describing a situation to Matt Kennedy (12) and Meghna Phalke (11). (LEFT) Ellie LangRee (11), portraying the role of Dromio of Ephesus, stamps her foot in frustration at Jessica Skinner (12), portraying the role of Adriana.

of Syracuse being mistaken for his brother Dromio of Syracuse when he attempts to find him.

“It’s hilarious,” Hannah Lak (11), who plays Dromio of Syracuse, said. “I think even if it’s hard for you to comprehend Shakespearean language, the actors and actresses do a really good job of using their physicality to get all of the messages across and there are pies; there is a fat woman. It’s fun.”

“I think even if it’s hard for you to comprehend Shakespearean language, the actors and actresses do a really good job of using their physicality to get all of the messages across.”

HANNA LAK “DROMIO OF SYRACUSE” IN FALL PLAY “I want to model for the students how we need to reach out and support people in need all over the world. We, in the Silicon Valley, have the potential to be very influential and

helpful to people who are in desperate need,” said director and performing arts teacher Jeffrey Draper.

This year’s fall play incorporated many unique elements that added flair and excitement to the play.

“One thing, obviously, is that this play gives a lot more room to just be over the top, to be sarcastic and not things that we’ve seen already,” said audience member and conservatory member Praveen Batra (12).

“It’s very special.”

Additionally, live music throughout the play was featured. No pre-recorded sound effects were used and the cast held a sing-along with the audience during the intermission.

“This unique show is benefiting from a sing along at intermission and from incidental music played throughout. Last year, there were seventy, one hundred sound effects and recorded sound cues. There are none on this show and they’re all done live,” Jeffrey Draper said.

The next performing arts event will be the Student Directed Showcase in Jan. 2018.

Women’s health discussions held

KATHY FANG

Fall play cast performs Shakespeare’s “The Comedy of Errors”

rose guan Wingspan designer & senior writer

Students and teachers have held monthly student-led discussion forums for women since September.

The forums’ organization is led by Jenna Sadhu (12), who was spurred by her ReCreate Reading group’s reaction to their text, “Girls & Sex” by Peggy Orenstein, with the help of the book’s teacher sponsors, biology teacher Dr. Kate Schafer and psychology teacher Kelly Horan.

“People come together, and we talk about sexual awareness, sexual education, self-respect, self-value, social media pressure, insecurity, stigma, all of that,” Jenna said.

The most recent meeting, on Nov. 15, covered shame and sexual pressure. The next meeting of the forums, which take place in the Cyberloft in Nichols, is on Dec. 8.

NEWS

3

VOLUME 19 • ISSUE 3 NOVEMBER 16, 2017

Capitol Hill: A year later: Trump’s report card

What You Missed

B

HEALTHCARE

SAHANA SRINIVASAN

Promise: REPEAL AND REPLACE OBAMACARE Directive ending key subsidy threatens Obamacare

Part six of a seven part series on American politics kaitlin hsu & vijay bharadwaj editor-in-chief & news editor

About a year ago from November 9, Donald Trump was officially elected as President of the United States. Over the course of a contentious campaign, Trump made several promises to his constituents and supporters in areas of immigra-

C

tion, health care, tax reform - the list goes on. A year of protests, supreme court rulings and executive orders has come to a close.

As of Nov. 11, FiveThirtyEight’s poll puts President Trump’s approval rating at 37.9%, compared to 45.5% at the start of his year. Here is a look at some of the promises that Trump made during his campaign and where he stands with them now.

IMMIGRATION

Third partial repeal ends before going to vote July 28 Senate vote stalls second attempt March 24 gridlock stalls first vote

D

Promise: suspend immigration from terror places

ETHICS Promise: DRAIN THE SWAMPS

Federal judge blocks third travel ban

Ban on White House officials as foreign lobbyists

Restrictions on Chad, Yemen, Venezuela, Somalia

New lobbyist registrations higher than a year ago

U.S. Supreme partially approves travel ban

Asked for a five-year lobbying ban on senators

9th Circuit Court of Appeals blocks travel ban

Trump appointees present conflicts of interest Source: PolitiFact

Business and entrepreneurship DECA members to attend first conference of school year

Chef Jeff Henderson, author of COOKED, various workshops, including one hosted by upper school business and entrepreneurship teacher Michael Acheatel, conference roleplay event workshops and a dance.

The WRLC conference will provide workshops presented by experts in their respective professions, a roleplay conference and a way for students to network with other schools. “[We got to] practice testDECA DIAMONDS DECA students will travel to Arizona today to par- ing by working with mentors and judges that would judge ticipate in a mock conference before the official competition season begins. This event will allow DECA members to participate in roleplays you like they would in a real as well as practice written events. competition,” director of memwest coast, including Ariz. and bership Mahi Kolla (10) said. “I kaidi dai Nev. was able to get a lot a practice & nina gee “[WRLC] is a non-compet- from there, and I got my first reporters itive conference where chap- real roleplay score, which was DECA members are attend- ters from the Western United really good, so I knew what to ing their first conference of the States come together to par- improve on next time.”

This will be the first DECA year, the Western Region Lead- take in various workshops and conference for freshmen and ership Conference (WRLC), in new members of DECA. Phoenix, Arizona on today and “[I’m excited for] learning this weekend. more about DECA and learning Unlike in previous years, what it feels like to be at a real the students will not be attendDECA conference,” freshman ing the Leadership and ComAnvitha Tummala said. petitive Excellence (LACE) conOut of the over 100 stuference due to the fact that the dents involved in DECA, Silicon Valley District Action around 30 will be attending, Team, who hosted the LACE mostly new members of DECA. conferences, was dissolved last All officers will also be attendyear. The WRLC conference ing. will have essentially the same “For a lot of students, becomponents as LACE did, but cause it is a usually high school on a much larger scale. only program, they haven’t “This one is actually held had that exposure like they’ve JUSTON GLASS by national DECA rather than had for athletics, or debate, or LACE, which is just Silicon ValLEAD DECA ADVISOR performing arts before, so this ley, so it’s going to be chapters is very new to them,” Juston from all over the western region,” Vice President of public activities. Students also get a Glass, lead advisor for DECA, relations Shania Wang (11) chance to network with other said. “It is definitely a confisaid. “It’s just going to be all schools from different areas dence builder. Its an energizer of us coming together and just and explore the city of Phoe- for them to come into DECA kind of getting ready for the nix,” director of communica- and say, ‘Wow this is an amazDECA year and getting pumped tions Radhika Jain (10) said. ing program and something I “I’ve never been there, but I am want to commit my time to and and everything.”

WRLC is a non-competi- really looking forward to meet- dedicate to’.”

DECA’s next conference tive three-day leadership and ing new people from out of will be the Silicon Valley Career career development conference state and exploring Phoenix.”

Last year’s LACE confer- Development Conference, their promoting business knowledge ence, which took place Nov. first competitive conference of and presentation in a profes11-13 in Santa Clara, included the year and will take place on sional setting. It will include a speech from guest speaker Jan. 5-7. chapters from all across the

“For a lot of students, because it is a usually high school only program, they haven’t had that exposure like they’ve had for athletics, or debate, or performing arts before, so this is very new to them”

TOURNAMENT (TOP) Director of Learning, Innovation and Design Diane Main and English teacher Christopher Hurshman perform a piece.

(LEFT) Kaitlyn Nguyen (12) reads a self-written poem to the Quadchella audience. (RIGHT) The acapella groupperformed a mashup of Bruno Mars’ “Count on Me” and Jason Mraz’s “I’m Yours.”

First Quadchella features student, faculty performers in talent show zoe sanders reporter

Student council hosted the first iteration of the upper school’s newest talent showcase, Quadchella, on Nov. 3. Teachers and students from all grades performed a variety of acts, including self-written poetry and piano pieces.

Student Council Co-Student Event Committee Heads, Shania Wang (11) and Avi Gulati (10), who serve as the conduits between administrative concerns and student action, organized the event.

Student council intended for Quadchella to promote school enthusiasm and solidarity and not only to allow students to showcase their amazing talents, but also to permit teachers to share as well.

“I know we have some really talented teachers and it’s always cool when you see [them] doing something outside of the classroom,” Shania said. “In terms of students and attendees, we just want[ed] them to stop by if they [had] time so it [would be] a fun time to relax.”

The upper school got the idea and name for Quadchella from Palo Alto High School. Because Hoscars did not occur last year, the addition of the upper school’s newest talent show is especially relevant.

Each act lasted around two to three minutes, making the entire event about an hour.

Regarding the variety of different acts that will be performed at Quadchella, there is a variety ranging from musical numbers to comedy routines.

“There [was] some comedy involved, some magic, some dancing, some poetry,” Avi said, “kind of like an open-mic.”

Attendees of the event were pleased that Art Club was providing activities to do while watching the performances. This club’s presence drew in audience members.

“There were flash tattoos, we got to paint bananas, and it was all just really exciting,” Calais Poirson (9) said.

Students are encouraged to sign up to perform at Quadchella at tiny.cc/quadchella.

GLOBAL

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VOLUME 19 • ISSUE 3 November16, 2017

Kurds face obstacles to independence eric fang global editor

Saudi Arabia initiates political purge

legality was also rejected by the Iraqi government.

Dr. Dipak Gupta, a professor of political science at UC San Diego and past Fred J. Hansen professor of peace studies, believes

The Kurdish referendum is held. The vote faced opposition from many countries including the U.S..

Iraqi forces take the recently liberated city of Kirkuk from the Kurds.

Masoud Barzani, the Kurdish president that initiated the referendum, announces his resignation.

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Gemany’s highest court approved a third gender option for people that either identify do not as a male or female or for people born with ambiguous sexual anatomy.

CHUCK FREILICH SENIOR BELFOR FELLOW FOR INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

joint military exercises on the Kurdistan border, closing Iraqi Kurdistan’s border with Iran.

Iraqi forces pushed into Northern Kurdish Iraq and captured the city of Kirkuk and its surrounding oil fields on Oct. 15.

In order to avoid more conflict, the KRG offered the Iraqi government to freeze referendum results and initiate a ceasefire in late October. Later that week, Masoud Barzani announced he would step down from his position as president of Kurdistan.

“The referendum was mishandled on their part, it backfired, and weakened the Kurds’ position considerably,” Chuck Freilich, a senior fellow in the Harvard Kennedy Belfer center for international affairs said. “I’d say that they are further from independence than they were before it as they managed to unite just about everybody against them including people that supported them in the past such as the United States.”

Nov. 1

German courts approve third gender category

“I’d say that they are further from independence than they were before as they united just about everybody against them.”

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Delhi ordered all schools temporarily closed after air pollution worsened causing a public health crisis.

Kurdish people in Northern Iraq held a referendum for independence late September with the intention of raising their negotiating power with Iraq. The vote was held despite widespread opposition from the United States, United Kingdom, Russia, Iraq, Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Turkey.

The referendum attracted high voter turnout with over 72 percent of registered voters going to the polls. Referendum results yielded 92 percent for independence and only seven percent against.

Prior to the referendum, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed his country’s support for the Kurds, making Israel the first state to endorse an independent Kurdish state. The United States, Russia and United Kingdom urged the Kurds to reconsider or postpone the vote, whereas Iraq, Iran and

that the main reason so many regional countries were against the prospect of an independent Kurdistan is because of the possibility of the Kurdish state spreading over Iraqi borders.

“The main Kurdish population is centered in Iraq, Turkey, Syria and Iran, so if the Iraqi Kurds gain independence, what is to stop the Kurds in Iran or Turkey from doing the same?”

Gupta said. “Turkey has been against this for a century and if it actually happens, it would create even more chaos in the area.”

Shortly after the vote, Kurds celebrated across Iran and Iraq.

Many Iranian Kurds sang the national anthem of the Republic of Mahabad, a short-lived Kurdish state in present day Iran in 1946, leading to mass arrests.

Iraq halted all flights with the exception of military, diplomatic and humanitarian, to Kurdish international airports.

Five days after the referendum, Iraqi and Iranian forces held

Oct. 29

Delhi schools close due to air pollution

global editor

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

26 Nigerian women estimated to be between the ages of 14 - 18 were found drowned in the Mediterranean. They are suspected to be sex trafficking victims and were taken to Salerno, Italy.

Turkey threatened economic, security and diplomatic sanctions against the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). The vote’s

eric fang

Oct. 15

26 women found dead in Mediterranean

STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE A man waves a Kurdish flag at a pro-Kurdistan independence rally shortly after the referendum at the city of Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. More than 92% of the three million voters opted for independence.

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

American Martha O’ Donovan was recently jailed in Zimbabwe after politically charged Tweets about the Zimbabwean president calling him a “sick and selfish man”.

Sept. 25

American jailed in Zimbabwe for political tweets

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Mohammad bin Salman, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, arrested 11 princes within his family and several Saudi officials as a part of an anti-corruption campaign.

Barzani steps down as president of the Kurds and does not run in the November.t

Mogadishu bombings kill hundreds in Somalia

Wikimediacommons

•The United States has provided 1.5 billion dollars in funds to Somalia since 2006.

Devastating Events: A Somali walks in front of the rumble of building due to the Oct. 14 bombing in Mogadishu. Somali president Mohamed Abdullahi declared three days of national mourning for bombing.

mahika halepete & gloria zhang lifestyle editor & asst. features editor

A double truck bombing killed at least 358 people and severely injured 30 in Mogadishu, Somalia on Oct. 14. The victims were airlifted to the nearest emergency hospital in Turkey, and no terrorist organization has yet claimed responsibility for the attack.

This attack is the most deadly in almost all of Sub-Saharan Africa in recent years. Officials believe the trucks’ proximity to a fuel tanker exacerbated the explosion.

Even though no terrorist group claimed responsibility, many suspect the terrorist group Al-Shabaab, which had been waging war with the Somali government for over a decade. w “Al-Shabaab is the only arms group in Somalia, and really East Africa, that are capable, in a regular basis, in carrying out similar types of large scale attacks,

specifically with explosive, vehicle-borne devices.” Research fellow at the Harvard Kennedy school Christopher Anzalone said, “There is also precedent where Al-Shabaab is likely to carry out an attack and not claim it” According to the Department of State, the United States has provided a total of 1.5 billion dollars to Somalia in funds for drought, famine and refugees since 2006. Additionally, the U.S. works with organizations, such as the United Nations, on peacekeeping and maintaining security in the country. “[The U.S.] will continue to stand with the Somali government, its people, and our international allies to combat terrorism and support their efforts to achieve peace, security, and prosperity,” a statement released by the Department of State said.

Haris Hosseini (11) believes that few people in the school community have understanding of the bombing due to limited

• More than 358 people were killed in the bombing.

• Somali president Mohammad Abdullahi declared three days of national mourning.

• The attacks involved trucks packed with several hundred kilograms of explosives media coverage. He volunteered alongside his father, Khaled Hosseini, an ambassador for the UN Refugee Agency, to help communities in Uganda.

“I think that at some point we have to recognize that in our society, western lives take greater importance in the media,” he said. “I never want to compare or contrast disasters or tragedies or massacres, but ultimately in the end of the day, we have to recognize that we give very unbalanced attentions to certain problems and that has to do with the fact that western citizens and people are seen as inherently more significant in our social fabric.”

BREXIT FLEX-IT: The United Kingdom is set to leave the European Union on March 29, 2019. The referendum occured on June 23, 2016.

Brexit negotiations continue amid Russian involvement investigation meena gudapati & srinath somasundaram Aquila editor in chief & reporter

Over a year after the British population voted to secede from the European Union (EU), the government has yet to complete the scandal-riddled journey of completely going through with Brexit.

English teacher John Docherty, who previously lived in Ipswich, a county town in Suffolk, United Kingdom (UK), believes that Brexit will be a mistake. “[It] diminished the role of Great Britain in a broader, global economy,” he said. “I have relatives and friends in Europe that are all questioning ‘what’s going to happen to us, do we still have rights to stay?’.”

The UK is currently investigating the possibility of Russia having influenced the Brexit Vote through social media after the alleged Russian influence in the 2016 American presidential election was brought to light.

“I don’t think it’s just a group of people who got together and said ‘we want to get out of Europe’,” Docherty said. “I think there was another factor in play

MICHAEL ENG

Fast Facts

here. The Russian influence on the global scale is pretty sweeping.”

British officials are working with Facebook and Twitter in an investigation of the possible Russian involvement while also trying to tackle the larger problems that accompany the large role of social media in elections in the 21st century.

The official exit is scheduled to occur on March 29, 2019, exactly two years after British prime minister, Theresa May, activated Article 50 of the European Union, which describes the way in which a country should leave the union.

“The initial impact was actually in the currency which was one of the largest single day moves in the British Pound in the last 40 years,” said Kris James Mitchener, a Professor of Economics at Santa Clara University.

“The lasting impact hasn’t been as much as people were fully predicting in part because Brexit has yet to be fully decided.”

The three main topics that must be addressed before the exit are the UK’s debts to the EU, citizens of the EU living in the UK and vice versa, and trade relations between the UK and the various countries of the EU.

FEATURES

5

VOLUME 19• ISSUE 3 NOVEMBER 16, 2017

OF THE PEOPLE

ILLUSTRA TION BY

ROSE GU

AN

Survivors share stories to spark dialogue Me Too. Five letters, one hashtag. It’s the name of a campaign that Tarana Burke first promoted in 2007 to create dialogue about sexual violence. Ten years later, these words spur an international movement, and taking social media by storm.

2/3 OF sexual assaults go unreported

1 IN 6

women experience sexual assault during their lifetimes

45%

of facebook users have a friend with a #metoo story

1.7 million #METOO tweets as of oct. 25

Statistics: Rainn.org; Crimson Hexagon Data Analytics; Twitter; Facebook

ALLEGED ASSAULTS

BY FAMOUS MEN HOLLYWOOD:

BILL COSBY, HARVEY WEINSTEIN KEVIN SPACEY, LOUIS C.K.

PRESIDENTS: BILL CLINTON, GEORGE H.W. BUSH, DONALD J. TRUMP MEDIA: BILL O’RIELY, MICHAEL ORESKES, LOCKHART STEELE

“We’re not isolating this to one person or one industry– it’s everywhere. To recognize it as such is incredibly important.”

ANNIE CLARK WOMEN’S RIGHTS ACTIVIST Visit harkeraquila.com for the full Q & A with Clark, the mind behind the documentary about sexual assault on college capuses, “The Hunting Ground.”

team McKayla Maroney shared her #MeToo story through Twitter, and on Oct. 27, California congresswoman Jackie Speier recounted her story of sexual assault on Capitol Hill to expand the campaign by launching the #MeTooCongress hashtag.

“The #MeToo movement has highlighted how many people are impacted by sexual violence,” said EROC co-founder Annie E. Clark, whose campus sexual assault documentary “The Hunting Ground” garnered critical acclaim. “It allows us to go across industry-—venture capitals, women in tech, Hollywood, campuses. We’re not isolating this to one person or one industry. To recognize it as such is incredibly important.”

“I really support the movements of women speaking out against abuse and other similar issues. It’s a widely ignored phenomenon so it’s important that we acknowledge this and we realize it’s not okay for abusers to go without any sort of punishment.”

NELLIE TONEV (10)

Men respond with #HowIWillChange The #HowIWillChange hashtag joined the movement against sexual violence on Oct. 17 after writer Benjamin Law posted a string of messages to his Twitter followers as a response to the #MeToo campaign.

“Guys, it’s our turn,” Law wrote. “After yesterday’s endless #MeToo stories of women being abused, assaulted and harassed, today we say #HowIWillChange.”

In the following weeks, men across social media platforms pledged to take steps to support survivors of sexual assault. Both men and women have also acknowledged the importance of speaking out in support of male survivors of sexual violence.

“This shouldn’t be on the backs of survivors, it should be on all of us–we also need allies,” Clark said. “Making sure that men are involved, men of privilege and power, but also deferring to the voices of those most affected.”

To learn how to support survivors of sexual assault, scan this QR code:

HELEN YANG

#METOO Posts on facebook as of oct. 17

CHARDONNAY MADKINS EROC PROJECT MANAGER

In the month following the Weinstein investigation, other accusations arose surrounding “men of privilege and power” across industries.

On Oct. 30, actor Anthony Rapp shared his #MeToo story, accusing actor Kevin Spacey of sexual assault. Within the next few days, Netflix suspended its drama “House of Cards,” in which Spacey stars, and Spacey’s publicists rescinded his contract.

The Washington Post released a report on Nov. 9 documenting the story of Leigh Corfman, who accused Republican senatorial candidate Roy Moore of sexual assaulting her when she was 14. Moore renounced the claims at a Veterans Day event in Birmingham on Nov. 11. In response to his denial of the allegations, Twitter users launched the #MeAt14 hashtag, posting photos of their 14-yearold selves to protest the sexualization of young teenagers.

“Most media outlets tend to see these stories episodically.

They focus on one fragment of society and fail to connect the dots that it’s a larger cultural problem,” Clark said. “Unless there is accountability, we will see something like this pop up in five years. The problem isn’t awareness, it’s accountability.”

The #MeToo movement also sparked discussion about women’s healthcare and survivors’ access to protective resources.

Starting on Oct.6, the Trump administration began eliminating requirements for insurance companies’ plans to cover birth control and cutting funding for programs that provide emergency aid to sexual assault survivors.

“There’s so many things that can be done to improve women’s access, especially for survivors,” Miquel Davies, a public policy fellow for the National Women’s Law Center, said. “Ensure access to healthcare—emergency care, contraception and abortion after someone experiences violence.”

ANIKA RAJAMANI

12 MILLION

Burke launched the Me Too campaign in 2007, but the movement entered the realm of social media last month when actress Alyssa Milano posted the hashtag, along with a call for women to share their experiences of sexual assault, on Twitter.

Since then, activists, celebrities and politicians have advocated for the hashtag, and survivors across the world are using it to spark conversation.

“It means a lot because meeting people [who share your experiences] helps you cope with it,” Jenna Sadhu (12), who posted #MeToo on Twitter, said. “It’s not about sympathy—nobody came up to me and said ‘I’m so sorry.’ It’s more ‘wow, I’m really inspired that you could do that.’”

Milano promoted #MeToo in the midst of a New York Times sexual assault investigation of film studio executive Harvey Weinstein, whom the Weinstein Company fired on Oct. 8. In the following weeks, various women alleged that Weinstein had sexually assaulted them.

As of Nov. 11, Weinstein faces no charges of sexual assault.

“As of now, Harvey Weinstein being kicked out of the academy has been the only type of accountability that he’s had,” said Chardonnay Madkins, the project manager for sexual assault advocacy nonprofit End Rape on Campus (EROC). “People’s protections being revoked [is] coming from this conversation. It’s a centimeter, and we need to move a foot, but we’re gaining a little bit of traction.”

While many advocates are speaking out against the culture of assault in the entertainment industry, survivors have also shared their experiences to create dialogue regarding sexual assault in other fields.

On Oct. 19, Olympian and member of USA gymnastics

HELEN YANG

of perpetrators face no jail time

features editor & reporter

“It’s just a centimeter, and we need to move a foot, but we’re gaining a little bit of traction.

We just need to push further.”

ANIKA RAJAMANI

99.4%

prameela kottapalli & irina malyugina

“It looks like people are tired of keeping these sorts of dark secrets. If it was just one person and no one else had ever spoken up, then I think it’d be harder to take that on. But the idea that there almost seems to be this trend of at least coming forward, my belief is that there’s something to all of this. It sends a message to these powerful men”.

“Harvey Weinstein’s apology was terrible and abolishing of the allegations much like Kevin Spacey’s, whereas Louis C. K.s apology was the best that it could be - however, his apology does not make up for the fact that the allegations are true. I think it’s important to note that it happened to girls as well as guys, and that it’s equally terrible.”

“This kind of shows that there are a lot of things that have happened. Maybe some men have been doing this, who are prominent in the industry, but have been doing this for decades and we’re only figuring out about this now.

It shows us that there may be more than just the people that have been mentioned so far.”

ABEL OLIVAS GSA ADVISOR

DAVID MELISSO (11)

LISA BAROOAH (9)

FEATURES

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VOLUME 19 • ISSUE 3 NOVEMBER 16, 2017

STUDENT

Upperclassmen manage clothing brands

This cross-platform project aims to profile all members of the senior class. To view all the senior features, visit www.harkeraquila.com.

humanitarian * friend * volunteer jenna sadhu

Aquila producer

Few people know about Abha Patkar’s (12) community service accolades because she chooses not to broadcast her accomplishments. Instead, she hopes to be remembered for her genuine personality.

“I want people to remember me as the bubbly one,” Abha said. “I want everyone to know me as outgoing, or as their best friend who they can trust.”

Abha dedicates her time to the Red Cross, as community service keeps her grounded.

“Giving back and volunteering makes me feel like I’m not the only one. It puts everything in perspective,” Abha said.

Abha puts the same generosity and compassion into her relationships with others. Her best

“Nobody learns biology and only uses biology, because inherent in biology [are] concepts in chemistry and concepts in physics. You have to be looking at the broader picture and [know] how to combine different domains, different aspects. That’s where the power really comes through.”

NEELESH RAMACHANDARAN (12)

friend, Meena Gudapati (12), thinks that their contrasting personalities define the dynamic of their friendship.

“Abha is so nice and caring. I’m a bit cold and rigid. She helps balance that out,” Meena said. “One day, I opened my porch door and I see a Chipotle burrito bowl and a cup of warm Philz waiting for me, because she knew I wasn’t feeling good that day. She does the small little things that make your day.”

In the frenzy of friends and school, Abha finds comfort in the transience of each moment.

You can remind yourself, ‘Oh yeah, this shall pass.’ Life is going to pass. All these moments will never come again, so you should just act the way you want, live the way you want, do what you want,” Abha said.

PROVIDED BY NOSERIALNUMBER

Kaitlyn Nguyen (12) had been editing an album cover toward the end of her junior year when she suddenly thought, “what if this was on a T-shirt?”

That day, she decided to start a business and went on to create a website for her own line of apparel.

Kaitlyn makes designs for shirts, sweaters and hoodies using Adobe Photoshop. Her website is hosted by a company that helps her make and market her products.

“It’s kind of like a way for me to let go because a lot of times I just create art traditionally or digitally—like with a pen— but with my clothing brand, I just take photos and I edit them, and I manipulate them in ways that I wouldn’t normally think of if I was holding a pen or a pencil and just drawing on paper,” Kaitlyn said.

Several upperclassmen have similar businesses. Along with Kaitlyn, Charles “Charlie” Molin (11) and Vince Vu (12) own a personal clothing brand or fashion business as well.

Charlie makes and sells his own shirts and graphics to reach his goal of creating a community of artists with shared artwork.

He posts both his own designs

STUDENT STYLE (TOP LEFT) Connie Xu (11) models some of No Serial Number’s first designs in front of a street mural. (TOP RIGHT) Charlie Molin (11) models his clothing at a media photoshoot for “No Serial Number.” (BOTTOM) Two models show off some of Kaitlyn’s styles at a photoshoot.

doing hoodie sales.”

The students advertise in a variety of ways: Charlie relies mostly on word of mouth as well as social media, where he posts his own work as well as that of other consenting artists; Vince uses social media and eBay and Kaitlyn uses social media, word of mouth and meeting new peo-

ple to advertise.

Kaitlyn plans to keep running her business through college and hopes to branch off from the site she currently uses, Threadless. Charlie sees his business as a fun opportunity with an indeterminate future. Vince is just working on growing his brand and does not know what

PROVIDED BY FAUX THREADLESS

news reporter & reporter

and those of fellow artists on Instagram to grow this creative family.

To begin the design process, Charlie comes up with an idea for a graphic. Then, he uses Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator to create the design and contacts a screen printer to help him put the design on an article of clothing.

“I definitely like mixing photography with typography most of all; to me that’s the most interesting form,” Charlie said.

Vince buys and resells exclusive shoes, such as Kanye West’s line with Adidas. He can sell the shoes for three to four times what they’re worth, due to their rarity and popularity. He works with his brother, Vance Vu (10), and two friends.

“Ever since I was a kid, I’ve always had an interest for shoes, and as I’ve grown older, business and entrepreneurship has been an interest of mine as well,” Vince said.

To obtain these shoes, he has to compete against bots online, camp out for days in front of stores or enter lotteries. He and his co-owners attempt to procure as many pairs as possible whenever there is a large release.

“It’s honestly kind of stressful, but it’s also like you feel a lot of freedom, like you could branch off into so many different things,” Vince said. “I’ve been

lies ahead.

“I kind of just want to do this for fun, and I don’t want to be too serious about it,” Charlie said. “I feel when people see that you are just trying to have fun with what you are doing, then people will feel it’s more authentic.”

HUMANS OF HARKER ABHA PATKAR

NEELESH RAMACHANDARAN

MEENA GUDAPATI

anya weaver & vivian jin

PROVIDED BY NOSERIALNUMBER

T FAUX

LES HREAD

S

SP TLIGHT

“Life is just a super big combination of bad and good things.

When I look back on all the things in my life, I freaked out over so much, and there was no point, because it all just… passed.

Just recognizing that nothing is permanent is something that’s helped me.”

ABHA PATKAR (12)

scientist * problem solver * thinker saloni shah reporter

The book sits on a table; the table exerts a normal force on the book. You remove the book from the table; the table relaxes that force in proportion to the speed of your motion. In elementary school, Neelesh Ramachandran (12) stared at the configuration, wondering how the inanimate objects could know what to do.

“I have always thought of life in terms of dynamic animate moving things,” Neelesh said.

“People do things for a reason; there is always a rationale behind why things happen the way they do; there is always a clear explanation.”

Once an enigma, physics has come to transform Neelesh’s worldview. His love for problem

solving introduced him to the United States Association for Young Physicists Tournament (USAYPT) in high school.

“Physics sort of presents puzzles where you have to dig deep in order to figure out any sort of insight,” he said. “Once you figure out that insight, you have unlocked the key into so many different problems so many different worldly phenomena.”

Neelesh values his commitments, always deliberating before he chooses to take on a responsibility.

“If I have the time and the bandwidth to do [something] properly, then I throw myself into it and do it as properly, as deeply, as thoroughly as I can,” he said.

7

VOLUME 19 • ISSUE 3 NOVEMBER 16, 2017

PROVIDED BY RIYA CHANDRA

LIFESTYLE

er.”

farah hosseini reporter

While training in California, Andrea Faraci found himself in need of a dance partner and finally got a response after reaching out to his coaches back in Italy. The wife of one of his coaches came into contact with Iveta Faraci, who lived in Lithuania at the time and was also searching for a partner.

“We decided to do a tryout, and we did that at Blackpool in England,” Andrea says. “We really liked how [the tryout] went, and our coaches loved it. From that moment on, Iveta decided to move to America to join me and we started to dance togeth-

Three years after meeting, the dancers became engaged.

Even though they were both raised in different parts of Europe, Andrea and Iveta grew up surrounded by families, friends and coaches who loved ballroom dancing.

Born and raised in Milano, Italy, Andrea started pursuing his dream at only five years old. At the age of 18, he ventured out to the U.S. to dance professionally.

Iveta, who grew up in Lithuania, also dedicated herself to setting the foundations for her career from a very young age.

After school everyday, she would attend intense five-hour dance lessons. She then taught dance

in Hong Kong for a few years to earn money and performed in a season of Dancing With the Stars Lithuania before moving to America. “[I was] trained professionally when I was very little,” Iveta said. “By the time I was 10 years old, I already knew that my career would be in dance.”

England hosts three main ballroom dancing competitions: the UK Championship, International Championship, and Blackpool Championship, known as the most prestigious competition in the world. Andrea states that the last time they competed, they did around 36 competitions in one year, traveling to England around once a month for five or six days at a time.

“When we used to compete, we would wake up in the morning, go to the gym, go to practice for two or three hours and then we would teach [our students] all day,” Iveta says.

Andrea and Iveta no longer participate in such prestigious competitions, and currently, they own the Starlite Ballroom dance company, located in San Jose, California.

After competing and teaching for many years in America, the couple noticed the many aspects of ballroom dance that differed in Europe. He recalled that while in Italy, there was an occasion where he did not bring his tie to his lesson, and his instructor refused to teach him for the rest of the class.

The couple believes that

American ballroom dance teaching technique and European technique differ in discipline as well.“For example, if you would stretch your leg and it wasn’t straight, they would hit you,” she said. “Not hard or anything, but it was very strict. My coaches were so strict in the lesson, but they were also my best friends outside the lesson.”

Although perfectly in sync with one another while dancing, the couple offers differing opinions regarding their favorite part about dancing.

“I actually like the music,” Andrea says. “Like listening to music and expressing your body to music, I think it’s really beautiful.”

Mrs. Faraci laughs, admitting that her favorite aspect of dancing remains winning.

The one piece of advice that Iveta would give to young dancers includes being a good actor.

She believes that because everyone is human, those who perform have some level of nerves, and that is a normal feeling.

Andrea believes that ballroom dancers can only truly succeed with patience and time.

“I remember having a lesson with my teacher one day and I was extremely unhappy about a step,” Andrea said. “[My teacher] looked at me and asked me if I thought he was stupid, and I said I never thought that. He said, ‘If it took me 40 years to learn this step, why should it take you a couple of minutes?’”

English teacher flaunts unique style

“As I got older and I did more research, I realized that there used to be a great tradition of making these amazing things in America—watches, shoes, suits. And it all just started going away with globalization.

Companies are shadows of their former selves. And I’ll pay for craftsmanship.

I don’t care what it costs if it’s been well-constructed. But the things that I was buying were not wellconstructed. Making boots by hand—who does that still, right?

When you think about somebody who tanned the leather and spent time making that, that’s a big deal.”

OHAD PARAN ENGLISH TEACHER AND UPPER SCHOOL STYLE ICON

tiffany wong

With his color-coordinated dress shirts, endless drawer of patterned socks and rainbow of Apple Watch wristbands, English teacher Ohad Paran takes on every day in style. Whether he’s sporting his signature red Red Wing boots—only ever acceptably paired with his red, blue and black checkered shirt— or covered head to toe in “traffic-cone” orange, Paran never fails to turn heads with his outfits, always meticulously picked out according to a strict set of rules.

“I have two pairs of glasses—one black, one brown—and I alternate. That defines the color palette; if I’m wearing my black glasses, then I’m wearing blues, purples, greens and a lot of gray. That then dictates the color of my shirt and the color of my pants and the color of my shoes,” he said. “I have about 20 or 30 pairs of laces that are all colored, so I’ll change out the color of the laces of my shoes to go with the shirt of the day.”

Paran’s passion for fashion began when started his first job at age 14 selling shoes at Cupertino’s Vallco Mall. In high school, he worked in sales at Baby Gap and later moved to a lead cashier and manager position at the Gap in San Jose’s Valley Fair. Paran continued his career in clothing while studying at UCSD when he was transferred to a San Diego Banana Republic store, staying with the company until 2006.

“I literally spent 55 hours a week in a closet full of clothes that had to be organized by color, by style, by season. Now in my own home, I keep my closet organized by color, by style, by season,” he said. “When I became a teacher, it became a fun way to differentiate myself from some of my colleagues. Now, it’s a thing where everybody’s like, ‘oh, what ridiculously colorful sweater are you going to be wearing tomorrow?’”

Riya Chandra (‘17) began her first ballroom dance lesson at the end of her sophomore year after several dancers on the show Dancing With the Stars inspired her.

Ever since the beginning of her junior year at the upper school, she has performed in many pro/am competitions with her coach.

Pro/Am is a popular ballroom dancing system in which a professional and an amateur dance together.

As a senior, Riya performed at the upper school dance production in a duet with junior Timothy Wang, dancing to “Great Balls of Fire” by Jerry Lee Lewis.

She says that performing and competing are very different experiences because competing involves many people dancing at one time on a large stage.

“I went to take a lesson, and I didn’t know if I would like it or not, but it was super cool, and it was unlike any other dancing I had ever done,” Riya says. “This is just so different because you are with a partner.”

Annual “Turkey Trot” promotes spirit of giving varsha rammohan & jin tuan

aquila news editor

reporters

ALL PHOTOS TIFFANY WONG

ROSE GUAN

In this repeating features segment, the Winged Post profiles a different upper school faculty member each issue.

SPOTLIGHT ON RIYA CHANDRA ‘17

PURPLE POWER

OUTRAGEOUS ORANGE

AMAZING ARGYLE

MASTER OF STYLE English teacher Ohad Paran poses for the camera each day of the week. “No matter what you choose to wear, be yourself.

Trends are great—but for example, I rock a lot of orange. And I do that because it’s funny. And I think I look good in orange,” he said. “I used to follow the trends and change my style… and I don’t do that anymore because that’s not necessarily me, or it doesn’t look good on me. Good style is one that reflects your personality.”

Some of Paran’s outfits are documented by the Instagram account @180_shades_of_ohad, an enterprise started this year

by Adyant Kanakamedala (12) after he requested a letter of recommendation from history teacher Julie Wheeler. Wheeler decided to assign him to taking pictures of Paran after discussing the idea with economics teacher Samuel Lepler and history and social science teacher Damon Halback during one of the trio’s trips to the Starbucks across campus.

An avid supporter of American-made products and the United States clothing industry, Paran owns pieces from Woolrich, a Pennsylvania-based outdoor clothing company founded in 1830; Dearborn Denim, a Chicago shop of jeans handmade using 100 percent U.S. materials and Red Wing Shoes, a Minnesota footwear company specializing in leather boots, among other American brands.

“As I got older and I did more research, I realized that there used to be a great tradi-

tion of making these amazing things in America—watches, shoes, suits. And it all just started going away with globalization. Companies are shadows of their former selves,” he said.

“I’ll pay for craftsmanship. I don’t care what it costs if it’s been well-constructed. But the things that I was buying were not well-constructed. Making boots by hand—who does that still, right? When you think about somebody who tanned the leather and spent time making that, that’s a big deal.”

Paran offers the following advice to anyone looking to update their closet or simply learn a little more about fashion.

“No matter what you choose to wear, be yourself. Trends are great—but for example, I rock a lot of orange. And I do that because it’s funny. And I look good in orange,” he said. “I used to follow the trends and change my style to focus on all that, and I don’t really do that anymore because that’s not necessarily me.

Good style is one that reflects your personality.”

Dressed in iconic Turkey Trot shirts, a mass of runners crowd the starting line, rub their palms together and prepare to run in the chilly hours of Thanksgiving morning.

The annual Applied Materials Silicon Valley Turkey Trot will occur on Nov. 23 in downtown San Jose; a “Turkey Trot” is a race that is held around Thanksgiving. The first Turkey Trot was the YMCA Buffalo Trot, held in New York in 1896.

Turkey Trots are a time for friends and family to come together, wear costumes and hopefully burn off some calories before Thanksgiving dinner.

“Turkey Trot supports Second Harvest Food Bank, and they raise money and raise food to feed people in need, so it’s raising awareness and all the other things as well, so that’s what’s important,” Community Service Director Kerry Enzensperger said.

The Applied Materials Silicon Valley Turkey Trot is the largest trot in the country with 28,000 participants.

Donations to the event’s beneficiaries, , Housing Trust Silicon Valley, Second Harvest Food Bank and the Health Trust. surpassed $6.9 million over the last 12 years. “[Turkey Trot] is definitely a good way to promote bonding because you meet new people,” said Mihir Sharma (10), who participated last year.

Turkey Trot is produced by volunteers from Silicon Valley Leadership Foundation, the City of San Jose, Santa Clara County, Applied Materials and the Cen-

JIN TUAN

ROSE GUAN

A BALLROOM DANCER?

8

AFTER SUBMITTING

COMING OUT OF SUMMER

a path charting the annual journey for seniors and college

VOLUME 19 • ISSUE 3 NOVEMBER 16, 2017

Applying Early

College visits recommendations organized

ED VS REA

testing plan

HONORS PROGRAMS Scholarships Certain majors

“ 46

2018 national merit semifinalists

getting [Seniors] to realize that their college list is not just a wishlist, and getting them to really understand why they like that particular school, I think that’s the biggest challenge. ”

APPLY TO AT LEAST THREE LIKELIES

kevin lum Lung

Use naviance to communicate college list to counselors

PERSONAL statements

KEEP IN MIND the

SPRING

senioritis

be supportive of peers IMPORTANCE OF GETTING ORGANIZED/PRIORITIES

HOOK/COMPELLING STORY PERSONAL TRUTH REVEALED AVOID CLICHE

POLICY FOR SCORES MAY DEPENDING ON

You hit send, now what? anjay saklecha, anika rajamani & helen yang copy editor, reporter & Aquila asst. STEM editor

For most high school students, college application season represents a crucial turning point in life.

Over the past two weeks, many seniors have submitted their early college applications.

While every university and college has its own application deadlines, they usually fall within the same time frame. Students generally turn in early applications—either early action, early decision or single choice early action—during November, while they turn in regular applications during January and early February.

For early applications, most colleges have set early application deadlines on Nov. 1 or Nov. 15. Some schools also offer a second early application deadline on Jan. 1, because the binding nature of early decision applications benefits both colleges and students. Colleges gain confirmed attendance from accepted early decision applicants, while students receive notifica-

tion from colleges much earlier (typically in December, rather than in March or April for standard applications).

Some universities like Harvard and Yale implement a single choice early action program that prohibits early-action applicants from applying to any other schools during the early-action period until they receive notice of the early action decision.

“Start earlier, tell the kids to start writing as soon as possible, tell them to start early!

You’ll hear it if you’re a junior.”

NICOLE BURRELL COLLEGE COUNSELOR Although regular college application deadlines fall during January and early February, many students find it advisable to finish the bulk of the essays and collect recommendation letters by the end of November.

“Definitely starting the entire process early is probably the best advice to give anyone,” Makenzie Tomihiro (12) said. “I

mean, I’m still in the process of submitting applications in January, and since I had the teacher recommendations done for earlies and my personal statement and all, it will make it a lot easier. Hopefully my Christmas break won’t have a lot of extra work.”

“Never ask seniors how college apps are going” becomes a common saying among non-seniors as the school year begins.

Throughout first semester, seniors polish their applications.

Meanwhile, teachers face deadlines while writing recommendation letters.

“My stress level in the height of it is definitely a ten, because I get emotionally invested,” English teacher Brigid Miller said.

“I root for you guys in the classroom; I always want the best for you. I want to see you succeed. I want to support you and encourage you.”

Juniors, who will start college counseling in January, begin to consider college options, and freshmen and sophomores hear about the trials and tribulations of their fellow students.

“One of the things we ask [seniors] about: what advice would you give to the next class?

And 99.9 percent of them say, ‘Start earlier, tell the kids to start

writing as soon as possible, tell them to start early!’” college counselor Nicole Burrell said.

“You’ll hear it if you’re a junior.”

Even after submitting all applications, seniors are advised not to become lax in their academic studies. The stereotypes surrounding “senioritis,” a supposed drop in motivation that second-semester seniors experience, often feature in jokes as well as class skits during homecoming week every year.

But many graduated students and currently applying seniors believe that college applications are a small part of student life and should take a backseat to the larger picture of the high school experience.

“Relax. Don’t get too caught up in the application cycle,” Aditya Dhar (‘17) said. “Just enjoy wherever you end up because you’ll almost certainly have a great time.”

After submitting applications, seniors must prepare to transition to the next phase of their educational careers with further college counseling classes and, for many students who will attend school away from home, making provisions to begin the process of moving out.

“If you’re the right fit for a college, then you just have to

FAST FACTS

• College counseling starts for juniors in their second semester.

• Students coordinate most of their contact with the four college counselors, Kevin Lum Lung, Martin Walsh, Andrew Quinn and Nicole Burrell through Rae-Ann Prado.

• Students attend weekly Tuesday college counseling classes. trust that they’ll accept you and that you’ll end up where you belong,” Kshithija Mulam (‘17) said. “If not, be patient and trust in the process, because everyone makes it to the figurative finish line at the end of the day—it’s just a matter of when.”

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AFTER SUBMITTING • VOLUME 19 ISSUE 3 • NOVEMBER 16, 2017

why statements Strong opening and voice HOW YOUR VALUES ALIGN WITH COLLEGES VALUES

life after

the

Summer start

applications

uc/csu essays

COLLEGE VISITS

CONCRETE ACCOMPLISHMENTS LEADERSHIP

the

FALL

ATTEND IF YOU SIGN UP

WRITE THEN FIT TO PROMPT SPECIFICITY

frenzy

ASK QUESTIONS AND TAKE ADVANTAGE OF REP’S TIME

SCHEDULE WRITING BY WEEKS

R TEST CHANGE N SCHOOL

“

You can’t slack off, unfortunately. We know ‘senioritis’ is a real thing, but you have to maintain what you’ve been doing, and your grades and activities. Try to enjoy [it].”

the

WINTER wonderland

nicole burrell

I honestly think that the pressure that rises during college app times all come from the student themselves. It’s, for some reason, known that Harker students have to go to a good college, but that’s not it at all. You will end up at the exact correct location. Just relax and enjoy your senior year.

It’s one of the best school years of your life.

copy editor, reporter & Aquila asst. STEM editor

Julie Wheeler

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Kaity Gee (‘16) Don’t be afraid to try something different.

Harker is a small sample of a very much larger student population that you will meet and experience during college. Just because you’ve had one experience doesn’t mean you know them all. College is very unstructured, and a lot of people lose themselves in that freedom. But, don’t be afraid to form your own structure if you need it.

By the time we leave for the summer break, I am full. I know who I’m writing for, and I give my students a form where they provide feedback and do some work and explain to me why they asked me to write the letter and also provide examples of good stuff that happened in my class, so that I have more material to work with. It really just helps me and demonstrates to me that if a student is really willing to think hard and put work into the rec form I give them, then I will put that extra time into their rec.

Brigid Miller

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Aditya Dhar (‘17)

Just like everything else, college is an adjustment, so don’t expect things to fall into place right away. Keep an open mind and things will work out.

And, at the end of the day, don’t ever forget how hard you worked to get to this place in your life, so take advantage of it and don’t let any opportunity slip by. My general policy with college after being here for a few months is to live with no regrets because you’re never gonna get this time back, so make it worth it.

Teachers who write college recommendation letters for seniors way in on their writing process.

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Kshithija“KJ” Mulam (‘17)

anjay saklecha, anika rajamani & helen yang

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Alums advise current seniors on how to approach senior year and tips for applications.

anjay saklecha

Teachers weigh in on writing letters

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Alums offer advice on app season to seniors

likely/possible/ reach based on transcript

This whole business of college admissions seems to be getting more challenging and more difficult and more confusing. I think every component counts or matters so much that I put in a lot of effort, and I feel the letter carries a lot of weight. Whether it really does or not is another matter, but I certainly go into it feeling as though the letter must carry a ton of weight.

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SPORTS

VOLUME 19 • ISSUE 3 NOVEMBER 16, 2017

Varsity football defeats Sonoma Valley 56-0 in first playoff game, continuing undefeated season FOOTBALL FRENZY (LEFT) Running Back Aaron Smith cuts up the sidelines with football in hand (TOP) Marques Tymous (11) sprints downfield. He scored three touchdowns throughout the course of the game. The Eagles’ next game is against the Piedmont High School Highlanders next Saturday at 7 p.m. at home.

Nate believes the team’s success in the early quarters of the game can be attributed to the team’s extensive practices prior to the game.

“We executed on both sides of the ball, on offense, defense and special teams,” Nate said.

“I really believe that our accomplishments are a direct result of our preparation which has allowed us to dominate other teams throughout the season.”

The Eagles continued their scoring streak into the second quarter. Marcus secured two back to back touchdowns and Jared scored his second touchdown of the night. Dominic extended Harker’s advantage with extra points after every touchdown. He kicked eight through the course of the night.

The Eagles enjoyed a 49 point lead over Sonoma Valley by halftime and initiated the “continuous clock” mercy rule which runs the clock after plays where the clock would normally stop such as after an incomplete pass. This reduced game time considerably in the third and fourth quarters of the match.

Harker varsity cheerleaders performed a routine for the audience during the halftime intermission. Bobby Schick (12), Neil Ramaswamy (11) and upper school technician Alejandro Osorio played the tenor saxophone, drums and baritone saxophone, respectively, throughout the game. The sophomore class organized a fundraiser for their class during the game as well and sold beverages and candy and provided face paint.

The third and fourth quarters proceeded slowly compared to the initial quarters. Eagle wide receiver Mitchell Kole (12) picked off Sonoma Valley’s ball and Devin Keller (10) scored his first touchdown in a varsity game. Dominic missed a field goal in the middle of the third quarter.

The final score stood at 56 0 with the Eagles proceeding in the playoffs strong.

“We’ve got to move to the next round, because for us to get this 56-0 win and dominate the other team on our home turf is huge,” Jared said. “It’s a great moral boost for the team and we’re planning on performing the exact same way next week.”

Their next game will be at 7 pm against Piedmont High School at home.

Piedmont beat Lower Lake high school 24 - 19 on Friday, and the Eagles are currently in the third seat of the division four bracket with Piedmont in the sixth seed. First seed St. Bernard’s high school got a pass in the initial games but will face eighth seed San Marin high school next Saturday.

“I’m proud of them, and it has nothing to do with football,” head coach Mike Tirabassi said.

“I’m proud of the way they carry themselves, I’m proud of the gentlemen they’ve become and I’m proud of how they look at their responsibilities to represent the community. They take that very seriously and do everything possible to represent Harker well. I tell them that, but I couldn’t be prouder of the men they’ve become.”

PLAYOFFS (TOP) Quarterback Nate Kelly (12) avoids several Sonoma Valley defensive players during a play.

He scored one touchdown in the game. (MIDDLE) Kismet Singh (10) performs with the Harker varsity cheerleaders during halftime. This is her second year as a cheerleader. BOTTOM) Wide receiver Mitch Kole (12) drinks water prior to the game. The Eagles currently hold an unprecedented 10 - 0 team record.

ALL PHOTOS BY ERIC FANG

Continued from front page

Pflaging excels From novice to noticed: atJames playing badminton

alex wang & aditya singhvi

aquila opinion editor & reporter

Most people only see the two hours James Pflaging (9) spends in the pool practicing water polo everyday—what they do not see are the 18 hours a week he spends on land with a badminton racket in hand.

“One summer, I decided to do a camp, and then I didn’t play for a couple months, and I decided to play again,” James, who

first picked up a racket in the summer of 2015 and really started playing October of 2015, said.

Despite starting his badminton career only a little over two years ago, James is currently ranked 58th nationally in under-15 (U15) singles, 56th in U15 boys doubles, and 86th in U15 mixed doubles.

“A lot of people I play against have been playing for 5, 6 years,” said James. “So, having to close the gap really rapidly has led to me having a very good work ethic, and it’s one of the challenges I face.”

James has quickly advanced through the stages of his club, Synergy Badminton Academy, and now plays for their top team. “[James is] the kind of player who will play one game, have someone take a recording, and then meticulously scan every inch of the recording to see exactly what he was doing, and make correlations and theories about how he could improve his playing style,” said former fellow badminton player Arya Maheshwari (9). “He’s a really dedicated player and will spend a lot of time figuring out how to improve.”

However, due to the high level of commitment that playing badminton at a high level requires, James has had to sacrifice other activities, including other school sports, such as soccer, and some academic courses. Since he has given up some other sports in favor of badminton, James understands why relatively few people ultimately choose to commit to badminton.

“A lot of people don’t real-

ly know how badminton is really played; they just see it as something that is really easy and something they do in their free time,” he said. “It’s hard to know about the sport and know how it’s played until you really see it for the first time.”

In describing the relative

And then, there [are] a bunch of clubs throughout the Bay Area where you can drop in and play.”

Looking forward, James hopes to continue to play badminton but is rather unsure about his future in the sport beyond high school.

“It’s something that defi-

“A lot of people don’t really know how badminton is really played...It’s hard to know about the sport and know how it’s played until you really see it for the first time.”

JAMES PFLAGING (9) BADMINTON PLAYER

lack of exposure that most people get to badminton, James also gave some tips for people who want to learn more about the sport and even begin playing.

“Seeing [how] the sport [is] really played for the first time on TV can get you involved.

nitely that will stay with me for a long time,” James said. “It’s taught me some of the skills that I use everyday on a daily basis, especially the one about having an open mind about new things.”

SPORTS

11

VOLUME 19 • ISSUE 3 NOVEMBER 16, 2017

Winter sports update: Girls Soccer to play first game Tuesday kathy fang

and technical work, and what that means is working with the ball,” coach Iman Siadat said.

“As for as tactics, which is formation and system of play, we’ll spend about 30 to 40 percent of our time on that, but you really can’t implement a system if you can’t pass and trap a ball.”

Practices will continue through winter break until the end of the season in February.

The first league game will be against Eastside College Preparatory School at home on Jan. 2.

The team’s record last year was 11-5 with one tied game.

“Personally, I hope to obviously improve my soccer skill,” player Allie Lee (10) said. “As a team… since we have new players on the team I think we can definitely learn how to work together considering each other’s weaknesses and strengths and just support each other through wins and losses in the season.”

photo editor

KATHY FANG

Varsity girls soccer plays their first game on Tuesday against Gunderson High School at home.

Practices started on fall break day on Oct. 30 and are from 4:15 to 5:45 p.m. at Blackford every day until the close of the football season, when the team will start practicing at the upper school.

Exercises range from conditioning drills to Futsal, a fastpaced game of soccer that is played on a smooth surface, such as the tennis courts, to improve the players’ footwork.

“Because the level of our group varies from high level club players to players that just play during the high school season, our focus will be, throughout the entire pre-season, I would say 70 percent of it is on our technique

Fall sports finale

Boys Soccer

Girls Basketball

Captains: Julia Amick (11) Krishna Bheda (12), Stephanie Scaglia (12) Coach: Iman Siadat First game: Nov. 21 vs. Gunderson High School at home First League Game: Jan. 2, 2018, vs. Eastside College Preparatory School at home Record Last Year (W-L-T): 11-5-1

Boys Basketball

Wrestling

Varsity Cross Country

The varsity cross country team was led by Juniors Ryan Adolf and Lilia Gonzales; and Freshmen Arya Maheshwari, Aditya Singhvi and Anna Weirich at the Crystal Springs cross country course, who all qualified for the CCS championship.

Girls Golf

The girls golf team received second place in league, tied with Menlo, and lost first place to Castilleja. They advanced to the CCS championships and placed 7th and received 4th place in the Helen Lengfeld Memorial Tournament.

Varsity Boys Water Polo

The varsity boys water polo team ended the season with an overall record of 6-16 and a league record with 2-11. The team moved up to the De Anza division this season, a higher and more competitive level.

Varsity Girls Water Polo

The varsity girls water polo team ended their season with a 8-6 league record and a 15-9 overall record.

Varsity Girls Volleyball

The varsity girls volleyball team has ended the season with a league record of 3-9 and an overall record of 10-17.

Varsity Girls Tennis

The varsity girls tennis team holds a winning season record of 10-4 so far.

Although they lost 1-6 in their recent game against Monte Vista High School on Nov. 7, they won the previous game with a record of 5-2 against Stevenson High School on Nov. 6.

Their next game will be an Individual Championships game at Courtside Tennis Club on November 14.

rose guan

Wingspan designer and sr. staff writer The varsity and junior varsity girls basketball teams’ season started Oct. 30 with practices and training as they ready themselves for their first games later this month.

The teams held open gyms on Saturday mornings in October before the season started, and team members attended mandatory conditioning in the weight room after school.

The varsity team has a new head coach this year, Dan Pringle, who joined the team as an assistant coach in 2015.

“We’re trying to really focus in on the technical things, like defense, offense, sets—just trying to get used to playing with each other,” varsity team co-captain Akhila Ramgiri (11) said. “We’re all really excited about [the athletic center]. The court is longer than normal, so we feel if we can get our conditioning good, prepare well, then it’ll be a really big advantage for us because teams aren’t used to running that much.”

The varsity team starts its games with the Pescadero Tournament Nov. 30 and plays its first league games in January after winter break.

Captains: Akhila Ramgiri (11) Selin Sayiner (12) Satchi Thockchom (12) Coach (varisty): Dan Pringle Coach (JV): Hilton Hong

First game: Nov. 30, Pescadero Tournament

anjay saklecha copy editor

The varsity and junior varsity boys soccer teams started their practices on fall break day Oct. 30 to get ready for their first games later this month.

The team has a new coach this year, Jeff Baicher, who played professional soccer for 11 years and previously coached the U18 U.S. national team as an assistant coach.

CCS rules require boys soc-

rose guan

Wingspan designer and sr. staff writer

The wrestling team started its season with practices and training the week of Nov. 6 as they prepare for tournaments starting next month.

The seasons’ start was delayed compared to other winter sports because of football playoffs, as the team’s new coach this year, Ryan Kerrigan, is also the football coach.

Coach: Jeff Baicher First Game: Nov. 29 vs. Mills High School at home First League Game: Jan. 3, 2018, vs. The King’s Academy at home

humans of harker photographer and videographer & reporter

Wrestling team members look forward to a new style of training this year, focusing more on exercising, conditioning and working out than on wrestling in comparison to previous years.

“It’s going to be different from last year in the sense that it’s going to be a lot more weight training and workouts, rather than actual mat wrestling,” team co-captain Dolan Dworak (12) said. “I’m excited.”

Captains: Dolan Dworak (12), Shikhar Solanki (12)

Captains: Peter Connors (12) Eric Jeong (12)

Coach: Ryan Kerrigan

Coach (varsity): Butch Keller

KRISH KAPADIA (11)

Captain: Rohit Shah (12)

ashley jiang & kushal shah

The varsity and junior varsity boys basketball teams started practices Oct. 30 in preparation for their first scrimmages and games later this month.

The team held open gyms at the upper school in the two weeks before the season started, as well as conditioning, workouts and other training in the weight room.

With the opening of the new athletic center, the team will no longer have to travel to the Blackford campus for home games. “[The athletic center] is super convenient. We can have practices whenever we want basically now,” varsity co-captain and forward Peter Connors (12) said. “We’re also scrimmaging a lot more in practice so we have more in-game simulations and just generally harder strength and conditioning.”

The boys basketball team starts its scrimmages Saturday at Aptos High School, and it begins its games with the James Lick Tournament Nov. 29. The team plays its first league games in January, after winter break.

“When soccer season starts, you know it’s go time. We are all focused when we are out on the field”

cer teams’ first practice day to be Oct. 30 or later.

The boys also stretch and train to get ready for the season before and after practice.

Exercises include conditioning drills, lifting weights to strengthen their calves and legs and specific stretches to improve the players’ footwork.

“When soccer season starts, you know it’s go time.

We are all focused when we are out on the field,” Krish Kapadia (11) said.

ROSE GUAN

ANJAY SAKLECHA

JIN TUAN

Varsity football has had an unprecedented record of 10-0. They won their first playoff game against Sonoma Valley with a score of 56-0 and have been the first Harker team to qualify to the playoffs.

ANJAY SAKLECHA

Varsity Football

First tournament: Dec. 8 at Webber Lawson Memorial Tournament at Fremont High School

Coach (JV): Alfredo Alves First game: Nov. 29, James Lick Tournament

12

OPINION Editors-in-Chief Kaitlin Hsu Sahana Srinivasan

VOLUME 19 • ISSUE 3 NOVEMBER 16, 2017

Meetings should incorporate more student input Outside assemblies sometimes fail to meet students’ needs

Managing Editor Maya Kumar News Editor Vijay Bharadwaj Features Editor Prameela Kottapalli Opinion Editor Derek Yen STEM Editor Katherine Zhang Asst. STEM Editor Neal Sidhu Global Editor Eric Fang Lifestyle Editor Mahika Halepete Copy Editor Anjay Saklecha

Photo Editor Kathy Fang Adviser Ellen Austin, MJE

Wingspan Managing Editor Maya Kumar Wingspan Designer Rose Guan Aquila Staff Neil Bai Anvi Banga Krishna Bheda Nicole Chen Adrian Chu

Jenna Sadhu Alex Wang Tiffany Wong Helen Yang Gloria Zhang

Humans of Harker Staff Ashley Jiang Nerine Uyanik Reporters Karina Chen Zoe Sanders Kaidi Dai Arushi Saxene Michael Eng Kushal Shah Nina Gee Saloni Shah Farah Hosseini Arya Tandon Vivian Jin Jin Tuan Irina Malyugina Anmol Velagapudi Anika Rajamani Jessie Wang Varsha Rammohan Anya Weaver Aditya Singhvi Sara Yen Srinath Somasundaram Annamma Vazhaeparambil

Visit The Winged Post Online at www.harkeraquila.com Follow us on social media with the handle /harkeraquila

The Winged Post is published every four to six weeks except during vacations by the Journalism: Newspaper Concentration and Advanced Journalism: Newspaper Concentration courses at The Harker Upper School, 500 Saratoga Ave., San Jose, CA 95129.

The Winged Post staff will publish features, editorials, news, sports and STEM articles in an unbiased and professional manner and serve as a public forum for the students of The Harker School. Editorials represent the official opinions of The Winged Post. Opinions and letters represent the personal viewpoints of the writers and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of The Winged Post.

All content decisions are made by student editors, and the content of The Winged Post in no way reflects the official policy of The Harker School.

The opinions expressed in this publication reflect those of the student writers and not the Harker board, administration, faculty or adviser.

Letters to the Editor may be submitted to Manzanita 70 or emailed to wingedpost2017@ harker.org and must be signed, legible and concise. The staff reserves the right to edit letters to conform to Post style. Baseless accusations, insults, libelous statements, obscenities and letters that call for a disruption of the school day will not be considered for publication. Letters sent to The Winged Post will be published at the discretion of the editorial staff.

The Winged Post is the official student newspaper of The Harker School and is distributed free of cost to students.

2016-2017 Silver Crown-winning publication 2015-2016 Gold Crown-winning publication 2014-2015 Silver Crown-winning publication 2013-2014 Silver Crown-winning publication 2012-2013 Silver Crown-winning publication 2010-2011 Gold Crown-winning publication 2009-2010 Silver Crown-winning publication

OFF-TARGET Students themselves must take the initiative and contribute in the process of deciding topics if assemblies are to address students’ concerns with specificity and with relevance to the student body. Alissa Gao’s (9) presentation is an example of an engaging talk.

EDITORIAL THE OFFICIAL OPINION OF THE WINGED POST Speakers chosen with little input from the student community and from outside the upper school community have an inherently insurmountable task: presenting an engaging, hourlong talk to students without knowing firsthand what they actually want or need to learn.

The most recent school-wide assembly on Oct. 18 focused on gender, presented by marriage and family counselor Maureen Johnston. She spoke to the underclassmen, the upperclassmen and finally the staff after school about gender, depression and anxiety.

There was a sharp contrast between the assembly on gender and the presentation Alissa Gao (9) delivered during a school meeting some days before. Alissa engagingly and thoughtfully shared her personal experience

of being bisexual within the Harker community, all with a touch of humor. Narrated by a student herself and executed not in abstractions but in real experiences, Alissa’s presentation could not have been delivered by someone outside our community.

A week later, on Oct. 25, honor council hosted a town hall aimed to enable discussion of honor through small groups led by student moderators.

The honor council town hall meetings aimed to create a more relatable and open discussion on the honor code by having each group of four advisories be led by a couple of student moderators. But students presenting is not enough for an effective meeting alone.

Because moderators were given a script to use, any teacher could conceivably have stood in for the student moderators in the discussion. The crucial advantage of a student speaker—that they can use their own intuition and understanding to attune their presentation to the student body—could not be employed.

A call for students to contribute more to assemblies may seem to be preaching revolution.

Though it is tempting to believe that students would eschew assemblies completely if meetings were made optional, or would choose trivial topics if meeting subject choice were given to students, this is not the case.

A system that accounts for the student body’s desires will create more informative assemblies.

Creating greater engagement with school assemblies would require core changes in the way that assemblies are presented and organized. Students themselves must take the initiative and contribute in the process of deciding topics if assemblies are to address students’ concerns with specificity and with relevance to the student body.

The ample turnout and popular approval of the Women’s Health Discussion organized by Jenna Sadhu (12) and teachers illustrates that students are willing to attend meetings if they are presented in an engaging, relatable way and cater to realized

needs of the student population.

A purely optional meeting commanded a sizable following, all attributable to topic choice and presentation.

In an interview with the Winged Post, upper school Butch Keller said he is open to student input for presentations.

“What I want to do, whether it’s attached to GSA [or] whether it’s attached to whatever group, I want everybody in this community to feel included,” Keller said. “I am going to support, to the best of my ability, the things that you feel are important. All [students] have to do is come and give me the right kind of information that this is something the community needs, and I’m going to do my best to get the community what they need.”

If we want different assembly topics, we can schedule a meeting with Mr. or Mrs. Keller, our advisors or class deans and pitch topics or try to invite speakers ourselves. Keller has invited the student bodies to become active participants in the assembly process, and if we have something we want to learn, it’s now on us to accept his invitation and do something about it.

Blindly donating to relief organizations may not benefit target populations nicole chen

Aquila features editor

In light of recent global natural disasters like the northern California wildfires and Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, awareness of how resources are being utilized and organization-to-public transparency is key.

Historically, relief organizations have played a significant role in bettering the lives of those affected by natural disasters both nationally and globally, mobilizing the public through monetary donations. However, a lack of communication and accountability between these organizations and the public means that organizations that seem trustworthy may not actually be.

During the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake in 2010 that killed approximately 200,000 civilians, the American Red Cross (ARC) raised $488 million in donations towards Haiti relief efforts.

President and CEO of the ARC Gail McGovern stated that the organization was “building infrastructure for the very first time,” rather than reconstructing homes that had been destroyed in the quake.

When NPR and ProPublica followed up on the ARC’s efforts in Haiti in 2015, their investigations concluded that ARC’s results were not as promising as

they had initially seemed. In the five-year time period, the ARC built six permanent homes.

The money, ARC said on their website and press releases, went towards helping 4.5 million Haitians get “back on their feet.” However, Jean-Max Bellerive, who was prime minister of Haiti until 2011, noted that the population affected by the earthquake did not even reach that many during the time of the quake.

The worst move we can make [. . .] is to blindly trust and donate to any disaster relief organization just because of its prevalance and popularity.

Part of ARC’s attempt to fulfill its mission also included the addition of so-called “transitional shelters,” temporary homes that Haitians were housed in until permanent housing was finished. Composed of weak and flimsy material, Haitians noticed the disintegration of these homes within three to five years of being built.

Regardless of where the almost $500 million went, it seems unacceptable that the ARC spe-

cifically stated their mission of building an abundance of new homes and resulted in only six, especially with the outpouring of money in the five-year period.

Regardless, the ARC has repeatedly celebrated their success in Haiti to the public, and it remains the charity of choice for many.

The ARC scandal in Haiti raises doubts and concerns regarding humanitarian organizations when put in context of the current state of various countries in dire need of resources due to natural disasters.

Not to say that all philanthropic efforts, or the ARC’s role in Haiti for a matter of fact, are potentially ineffective. The ARC’s aid to Haitian citizens did undoubtedly better the living

conditions to some degree; however, the problem simply lay in the fact that the ARC used their resources in ways that the public was unaware of.

The worst move we can make as individuals willing to provide aid is to blindly trust and donate to any disaster relief organization just because of its prevalence and popularity.

To aid those affected by Hurricane Maria, donate to trusted organizations like UNICEF, United for Puerto Rico and Save the Children.

Collectively, our goal in bettering the lives of those in areas struck by disasters can only be achieved through helping organizations that we are certain will allocate our monetary donations and its resources effectively.

NICOLE CHEN

Wingspan Editors-in-Chief Kaitlin Hsu Sahana Srinivasan

DEREK YEN

Aquila Editor-in-Chief Meena Gudapati

OPINION

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VOLUME 19 • ISSUE 3 NOVEMBER 16, 2017

Dialectic: Gun Control

In our recurring Dialectics, two authors with contrasting viewpoints will discuss an issue of prominence in the local or broader community. We hope to use these multiple views to provoke deeper thought among the student body and help readers explore new perspectives.

The topic of gun control has reentered the public arena with increased freshness in the wake of mass shootings at Las Vegas and in Texas. What steps should be taken to prevent deaths and injury from gun related violence?

Jin Tuan is a sophomore and has been a reporter for the Winged Post for two years. Aditya Singhvi is a freshman and a first-year reporter.

ROSE GUAN

jin tuan & aditya singhvi reporters

Winged Post: After the mass shooting in Sutherland Springs, TX, Sarah Huckabee Sanders said this was not the time to debate gun control, and President Trump said the shooting was a mental health topic, not a gun control topic. When is the right time to discuss gun control?

I understand that this might be a sensitive topic, but I feel that if I was affected by this—obviously I can’t speak because this is something that is very hard to imagine— right after the shooting, I feel like it would make me feel better if I knew something was being done to prevent this from happening again.

I feel like we have an obligation to at least try, even if [new regulations] might end up not doing as much, they still might make a small impact, and that’s still ultimately less people dead. Less deaths is always good, because someone cared about these people a lot.

To us it’s a statistic, to them it’s a actual human being.

WP: In gun control debates, the point is often brought up that America is unique: America does have millions more guns than the next country. To what extent is this uniqueness real?

I agree: right after a mass shooting, everyone’s attention is on [it], that’s when the audience is the most captive and receptive towards these controls. Rather than simply putting it into later agendas, I feel like it should be discussed right after, and maybe the victims’ families would even want to come out and talk about maybe controlling guns more because it has more of an emotional appeal and they can spread their story as well.

In 2011,

I want to bring this in another direction as well. Some people after some mass shootings where the killer isn’t white, or isn’t American, want to bring the argument more toward restricting immigration. There are loopholes to immigration—there are basically loopholes to anything—and if one wants to try to restrict immigration in such a large manner, why not try that same thing on guns?

21,386 firearm suicides were committed in 2014.

11,101

people were killed and

467,300

were injured by guns

America has a long history with guns. It’s the second amendment, so its ingrained into our constitution.

And, so I think a lot of Americans emotionally feel that taking away their guns would be taking away their liberty. And I think that may cloud their judgement a little bit on regulating guns.

SOURCE: Bureau of Justice Statistics, Firearm Violence, 1993-2011 report

Guns almost [are] a symbol of freedom for Americans. I think a lot of the pushback on guns being regulated and gun rights being taken, gun control being enforced is the sense that their freedom is being blocked. That is more tied to the sentiment of guns, tied to the history behind guns, not actual guns themselves. And that’s probably something that should be taken away, the relation between guns and freedom.

399 people have been killed and

1644

have been injured from mass shootings in 2017 alone SOURCE: Gun Violence Archive

WP: This back and forth about when it’s the right time to

SOURCE: National Center for Health Statistics, 2014 deaths statistics

discuss these things, what can be done, plays out after every mass shooting. Is there reason to believe this mass shooting will be different?

I think that’s largely because of the politicization, you know, back and forth because Democrats usually try to introduce some kind of gun legislation after a mass shooting, Republicans say that it’s too early to discuss this, let’s not politicize it, and by the time that I guess it’s okay to discuss it, the impact in everyone’s mind is gone, and its not as important of an issue anymore.

I feel that it goes even beyond the impact, like the back and forth isn’t ever really done, its just sparked and brought back to the limelight by these mass shootings, so I think its just really up to someone who ignores this back and forth and just takes action by their own, no matter which party.

There are more than 40 million firearms in circulation in America SOURCE: Small Arms Survey

eart of Harker: The other side of the interview This doesn’t make sense, I told myself. I love to design; the senior section is antithetical to that. I love to brainstorm page ideas; the senior section only has room for features. And of all people, why me for Seniors Editor—I’m not even in the senior class! But more fundamentally, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I’d been shafted somehow, as if receiving this “less prestigious” position was a sign of disrespect.

In retrospect, I’d say that sophomore me was overconfident. I needed a reality check.

But while initially disheartening, the role of “Seniors Editor” has come to define my high school career.

About a week into my moping period, Ms. Austin pulled me aside and told me her “master plan” for the senior section: She

wanted to feature every single senior in the yearbook, instead of covering only a fraction as we had done in the past. She wasn’t sure if it would work, but she felt that this year’s staff was strong enough to try.

(Occasionally) taking the L: A cost-benefit analysis of senior fall

less than what I thought was my best, all day, every day, with no cost consideration involved.

The obligation to always go the extra mile wasn’t only a societal imposition. I wanted my best, and I felt guilty and stressed for doing anything less.

About a year ago, though, I started to hit a wall. I wouldn’t say I burnt out, but I finally arrived at a point where I couldn’t balance work and relaxation in the same ratio I previously had.

Everything about my aforementioned life philosophy indicated I should up my commitment to work and accommodate the loss of free time. But as you can probably guess, I decided to deviate—at first out of a desire to hold onto my relaxed younger years, and then out of a stubborn belief that I deserved to finally start considering the cost of

melissa kwan guest writer

Every spring, the journalism program undergoes a “leadership transition.” The underclassmen applying for positions curate their best work, interview with Ms. Austin and wait for the fateful decision email to appear in their inboxes. It’s comparable to the casting of a play, both in drama and in anticipation.

Sophomore year, I opened this email fully expecting to receive one of my top choice positions. After scanning the list for a few seconds, I found my name: not under Student Life or Sports Editor, but under Seniors Editor—a smaller section.

sahana srinivasan editor-in-chief

Cost-benefit analysis: It’s one of the most fundamental concepts of economics, something 100 of our upperclassmen learn every September and then again three days before May exams. For those of you not familiar with economics, it boils down to this: Is what you put into something worth what you get out of it?

Is the information gleaned from an extra hour of cramming in the middle of the night worth the loss of sleep?

Is the grade you’re presum-

ably pursuing worth the dark circles?

Is the class worth sacrificing a little bit of your health?

I’ll be the first to admit that, even after taking economics, I never looked at any of my activities or academics like that. What I gave up in pursuit of something more didn’t seem important; I rarely ever took it into consideration.

Time after time, I picked the extra hour of cramming, never thinking about the alternative.

Sure, I hung out with my friends a lot, and I tore through Netflix like it was a by-the-hour job, but I never gave anything

In retrospect, sophomore me was overconfident.

I needed a reality check.

Fast forward through a summer of planning, and the senior section became Humans of Harker. We replaced the traditional 40 short blurbs with 174 full-length features. We expanded into the online platform. We upped our environmental portraits.

Personally, leading Humans of Harker has altered the way I tell stories. Instead of asking, “How was Homecoming?”, I ask, “What keeps you up at night?”

Instead of asking, “What’s for lunch today?”, I ask, “When have you defied expectations?”

Over the past two years, I’ve had the chance to interview seniors about empathy, nonconformity, activism, friendship: all ideas that transcend the Harker bubble. In the dwindling hours before graduation, I now have a convenient excuse to start deeper conversations with my class.

I didn’t realize it at the time, but that “fateful decision email” marked a turning point in my high school career. It definitely shook my confidence. But more importantly, it taught me to see the opportunity in the wake of

rejection. Maybe my top choice positions would have offered more prestige, but Seniors Editor solidified my tendency towards optimism in suboptimal situations.

Job interviews, sports tryouts, dare I say college applications—the possibilities for rejection are endless. Regardless of whether they pan out like Humans of Harker, the least I can do is take them in stride.

what I was doing on my health and my happiness.

Was the extra college or internship or club application worth the time writing the essays? Or the time I’d be putting into that activity? Or the activity itself?

done, but I no longer want to.

I can finally acknowledge that some things just aren’t worth the time.

My new, harsher criteria of what my time is worth means that sometimes I take a loss, accepting not having done my best, for the sake of sleeping a little more, relaxing a little more or feeling a little happier, when two years ago I would have done whatever I could to fit in everything.

Sometimes I turn in an essay I’m not close to satisfied with.

Sometimes I watch a couple hours of TV on weeknights instead of doing homework, as I’m sure my parents could tell you.

Sometimes instead of working on apps when I’m far behind, I get dinner with my friends or family.

And that’s worth my time.

I decided to deviate— at first out of a stubborn desire to hold onto my relaxed younger years.

If it wasn’t, then I said no, even if one could argue it was a more productive choice than not doing anything at all.

I know that I could theoretically find the time to participate in more activites or study an extra hour even when I feel I’m

Melissa Kwan is a senior. After three years on TALON, she has finally managed to infiltrate the “superior” staff: the Winged Post.

In this repeating guest column, we encourage all writers from around the community to share their memorable experiences while at the Upper School.

Please email all column ideas to wingedpost2018@gmail.com.

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VOLUME 19 • ISSUE 3 NOVEMBER 16, 2017

GLOBAL

RESET

KATHY FANG

MASKED WOMAN A crossing guard protects herself from the smoke in the morning air by wearing a face mask. Residents in the Bay Area were advised to limit their exposure to the particulate matter in the outside air as much as possible.

Part 17 of an ongoing series

California faces wildfires aquila asst. news editor & reporter

Continued from front page The recent California wildfires have destroyed over 504,600 acres of land; more than 100,000 people have been evacuated from their homes and at least 40 people died. 2017 is ranked as the ninth worst hurricane season according to Weather Underground resulting in debate over whether climate change is the cause of the natural disasters.

“We’re pretty vocal in the fact that we believe that there is a correlation between climate change and increase in fire activity. We know that fire seasons now amount 70+ days longer than they have been traditionally,” battalion chief and information officer for CalFires Jonathan Cox said. “So that means more days that fires are burning in California - they’re burning hotter, they’re burning larger, and they’re becoming more destructive.”

This has been the third deadliest fire season in California’s history, causing $3 billion in damages. Natural disasters such as wildfires can devastate lives.

“My dad was hosing down his roof, in case any embers were to fall, so they wouldn’t start new fires, so everyone in his community just spent the day hosing down their property to make sure no new fires started,” theater teacher Jeffrey Draper said. “So many people that I’m aware of have direct contact and have lost their belongings.”

According to Cal Fire, four of the recent wildfires have been ranked in the top 20 most destructive California wildfires, including Tubbs, which destroyed 36,807 acres of land and 5,643 structures in Sonoma county, and also caused 21 deaths. As a result, damages and losses from residential and commercial property, agriculture and watercraft totaled to 3.3 billion dollars according to the California Department of Insurance.

Over 100,000 people evacuated their homes as a result of the wildfires. A state of emergency was declared for the counties of Napa, Sonoma, Yuba, Butte, Lake, Mendocino, Nevada, Orange and Solano County.

“We evacuated a 100,000+ people over the course of the fire siege in northern California, and over 8,000 structures were lost, majority of those being residential homes,” Cox said. “The correlation between climate change and loss of both property and life is pretty stark and real.”

The smoke from the fires led to the worst ever air pollution on record for Northern California, with the air quality index score in Napa county hitting 486 (anything above 201 is considered very unhealthy). The polluted air also spread to the Bay Area, resulting in cancelled sports practices, indoor lunches and other affected activities at Harker and other several other local schools.

Unlike other natural disasters, wildfires are usually caused by humans, so measures can be taken to prevent wildfires with such large impact in the future.

“Check to make sure you don’t have any trees growing

14

FIRES IN NORTHERN CALIFORNIA IN OCTOBER

504,600

5643

ACRES OF LAND BURNED BY WILDFIRES IN CALIF. THIS YEAR

21

DEATHS CAUSED BY THE TUBBS FIRE

STRUCTURES DESTROYED

BY THE TUBBS FIRE ROSE GUAN

anvi banga & anika rajamani

42

100,000

TOTAL DEATHS CAUSED

BY THE WILDFIRES

PEOPLE DISPLACED BY THE WILDIFRES

336,807 ACRES OF LAND DESTROYED BY FIRES IN SONOMA VALLEY

into power lines, because I know that the power lines were considered to be the cause to the recent fires in Northern California,” Moss said. “Also to keep brush down, foliage, extra things that

are around, it’s important especially in areas that have land around them, that you make sure you clear all unnecessary brush away.”

Predictive services from the

PROJECT PAIR Research partners Swapnil Garg (12) and Katherine Tian (11) received notice on Nov. 6 that the Siemens Foundation named them regional finalists. They developed an automatic cancer-severity classifier at the Beck Lab in Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center of the Harvard Medical School.

HEEN YANG

Siemens regional winners named

nerine uyanik & anya weaver Humans of Harker asst. videographer & reporter

Senior Swapnil Garg and junior Katherine Tian were named regional winners and national finalists in the 2017 Siemens Competition on Nov. 6 for their development of an autobiotic classifier to assess the severity of kidney cancer, advancing to the national finals.

“Our project is on automatically classifying images of kidney cancer cells,” Swapnil said. “Usually pathologists manually grade these images to determine the severity of a cancer, so we built an automatic classifier to do it, which is much faster and also correlates well with prognosis, which is the forecast for how long a patient will survive.”

Katherine and Swapnil conducted their research during her summer internship at Beck Lab, a part of the Beth

Israel Deaconess Medical Center of the Harvard Medical School, under the guidance of her mentor Dr. Jan Heng.

“I learned a lot about the way cancer works, clinical management, [and] a lot about pathology and histology on the biology side, and also how to use algorithms [and] data analytics as well as more soft-core skills like how to write a good paper, what working in a research lab would be like [and] what life is like as a researcher,” Katherine said.

A few days before they presented to the judges, the team gave a presentation of their project to the science department.

“The science department really supports students through not only our regular academic courses, but also the research program and through after school programs to provide students [with] the opportunity to engage in independent research,” upper school Science Department Chair Anita Chetty said.

Regional finalists were each awarded $1,000 in college scholarship money and participated in the Regional Finals. As regional winners, the pair received $3,000 and advanced to the National Finals, which will be held at The George Washington University in Washington, D.C. from Dec. 1 to 5.

Ten upper school students were named semifinalists for the competition on Oct. 17.

Seniors Amy Dunphy, Swapnil Garg and Amy Jin; juniors Erin Liu, Ashwin Rammohan, Katherine Tian, Laura Wu and Katherine Zhang; and sophomores Cynthia Chen and Jin Tuan were recognized for their work

N

SE

UA

G

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$3.3 BILLION DOLLARS OF DAMAGE National Interagency Fire Center suggests that California will remain the focus of periodic bursts of fire throughout November and December, due to dry drought conditions.

STARS COLLIDE A graphical rendering of two neutron stars colliding.

Scientists detected a neutron star collision for the first time in August and presented their findings on Oct. 16. Neutron stars are the core remnants after the supernovae of large stars, made when protons and electrons are compressed with so much force that they form neutrons.

Two different signals detect neutron star collision in historic scientific moment arya maheshwari & katherine zhang reporter & STEM editor

Scientists announced the discovery of a neutron star collision, which was detected on Aug. 17, in news conferences on Oct. 16.

Neutron stars are the core remnants after the supernovae of large stars, made when protons and electrons are compressed with so much force that they form neutrons.

Neutron star mergers create elements heavier than iron, spewing clouds of debris containing gold, platinum and other chemical elements. The clouds can be hundreds of times the mass of planet Earth.

Moreover, the possibility of a neutron star merger and of an event emitting two distinct types of waves had only been theoretical until this finding.

“Previous to this observation, we had only had theories that said, well, you should have this big explosion, and in this big explosion you should see light signatures,” Eric Peng, a

professor of astrophysics at Peking University in Beijing said.

“What’s really exciting about this is that...it’s the first gravitational wave detection where we could actually see it with photons.”

“It’s hard to underestimate how important this is.”

RYAN FOLEY PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR AT LAS CAMPANAS OBSERVATORY The explosion sent ripples in spacetime to earth, known as gravitational waves. Einstein theorized the existence of these waves in 1916, but scientists only proved his theories in 2015 when the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) detected gravitational waves from a black hole merger.

The gravitational waves from the kilonova were picked up

by Virgo, an observatory based in Italy, and the pair of U.S.-based detection systems at LIGO. A National Aeronautics and

Space Administration telescope picked up waves of electromagnetic radiation, helping scientists to pinpoint collision’s location.

“Astronomical objects send off signals, and two very different kinds of signals that were received, and that’s what’s special about this event,” said Dr. Raja Guhathakurta, professor of astronomy at University of Santa Cruz.

Astronomers began to scan the skies after news of the neutron star collision to find the exact spot where the a visual representation of the explosion could be seen. Within 12 hours, the One-Meter Two-Hemisphere collaboration, led by principal investigator Ryan Foley, were able to pinpoint the location of the optical element using the Swope telescope at the Las Campanas Observatory in Chile.

“In terms of what we’ve learned and what theories we’ve confirmed, it’s a long list. It ranges from theories of gravity to the detailed unders.” Foley said. “It’s hard to understate how important this is.”

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VOLUME 19 • ISSUE 3 NOVEMBER 16, 2017

Memorial held for Fields medal winner

saloni shah reporter

“I do believe that many students don’t give mathematics a real chance. I can see that without being excited mathematics can look pointless and cold. The beauty of mathematics only shows itself to more patient followers.”

MARYAM MIRZAKHANI FIELDS MEDAL WINNER Although the U.S. has been participating in the IMO since 1974, it has only sent

five female contestants. Dr. Mirzakhani also received the Blumenthal Award for the Advancement of Research in Pure Mathematics in 2009, and the American Mathematical Society honored her with the Satter Prize in 2013.

She inspires young women and girls in mathematics through her numerous awards and contributions. However, Dr. Mirzakhani had not dreamt of being a mathematician in her childhood.

“As a kid I dreamt of becoming a writer,” she said in a 2008 interview with Clay Mathematics Institute, adding that her maths grades in middle school had been poor. “I never thought I would pursue mathematics before my last year in high school. I do believe that many students don’t give mathematics a real chance…

I can see that without being excited mathematics can look pointless and cold. The beauty of mathematics only shows itself to more patient followers.”

Though her work is more theoretical, her creative research has many applications in in areas such as theoretical physics, quantum field theory, engineering and material science, robotics, computer vi-

SCHOOL

• Mirzakhani won the award for her studies of the geometry of curved surfaces.

• She graduated from Iran’s Sharif University of Technology in 1999.

• She won gold medals from the International Math Olympiad in 1994 and 1995. sion, and computer graphics.

Dr. Mirzakhani’s work involved the geometric and dynamic complexities of curved surfaces such as spheres and doughnut shapes.

With the support of a more encouraging teacher and the influence of her brother, Dr. Mirzakhani, developed an interest in math as a child.

She demonstrated her talent for math in high school when she was a member of the Iranian team at the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) in 1994; she won a gold medal two years in a row and earned a perfect score in 1995.

Mirzakhani is sruvived by her husband and their daughter.

According to Dr. Mirzakhani’s husband, Jan Vondrak, she wanted to be remembered as a role model for her drive for excellence, rather than her mathematics itself. He encouraged young people to find their own path, what they love and what is meaningful in Dr. Mirzakhani’s memory.

Math Competition Members of Math Club attended a competition at Santa Clara University on Nov. 4. They participated in a three-hour exam involving several different varieties of products.

Students who earned grades in the highest percentage categories were eligible for recognition.

Synopsys Submissions Following the change of the Synopsys Science Competition guidelines, 30 projects from the upper school will be allowed at the 2018 competition. Students learned whether or not their projects qualified for Synopsys on Nov. 2.

GLOBAL

NASA

Dr. Maryam Mirzakhani, renowned scholar and math genius, died on July 14 of breast cancer at age 40. Stanford University held a memorial service for Dr. Mirzakhani, professor of mathematics, on Oct. 21 at the Stanford CEMEX Auditorium.

Mirzakhani finished her undergraduate studies in Iran and attended Harvard University for graduate studies.

In 2004, Dr. Mirzakhani was granted her PhD, and she joined the faculty at Princeton University as a Clay Mathematics Institute Research Fellow and an assistant professor. In 2008, she moved to California to become a professor of mathematics at Stanford University.

In 2014, Dr. Mirzakhani was awarded the prestigious Fields Medal, popularly considered the Nobel Prize of mathematics, for her contributions to the dynamics and geometry of Riemann surfaces and their moduli spaces. The Fields Medal was instituted in 1936 and after 78 years, Dr. Mirzakhani became the first female mathematician to win the award.

“I thought that was very

cool because she was the first woman to be honored with [the Fields Medal], and to me that’s just great reinforcement of the fact that she was determined and she was curious,” mathematics teacher Dr. Anuradha Aiyer said. “You put those two things together so you are rewarded for what you do.”

arushi saxena reporter

PROVIDED BY JOANNA LIN

MARYAM MIRZAKHANI (TOP LEFT) A memorial service for Dr. Mirzakhani, who had taught at Stanford, was held on Oct. 21 in the CEMEX Auditorium in Stanford. (TOP RIGHT) Maryam Mirzakhani was a renowned scholar and math genius who died in July of breast cancer.

(BOTTOM RIGHT) At the memorial event, Jan Vondrák spoke of his late wife’s drive for excellence.

• Maryam Mirzakhani was the first woman to ever earn the Fields Medal.

KATHERINE ZHANG

PROVIDED BY STANFORD VIDEO

PROVIDED BY STANFORD VIDEO

PROVIDED BY THE MIRZAKHANI FAMILY

Fast Facts

Math Club members attend first travel contest michael eng & anmol velagapudi

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

The iPhone X was released on Nov. 3. The phones, with a beginning capacity of 64 GB, have a starting cost of $1000.

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Tesla announced that its Model 3 will begin production by April 2018.

This car has a range of 220 miles of range and will start at $35,000.

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

The GoPro Hero6, priced at $499, was released on Sept. 28. This new model boasts 4K video shooting as well as higher quality slow-motion video.

The Fitbit Ionic, starting at $299.95, was released on Oct. 1. Fitbit’s most expensive item yet, it has a unibody case and a new high-definition display.

A team of eight students from the Math club will compete in the Princeton University Mathematics Competition (PUMaC) in New Jersey on Nov. 18th. The upper school’s team consists of senior Swapnil Garg; juniors Katherine Tian and Michael Wang; sophomores Cynthia Chen, Rohan Cherukuri, Rishi Dange and Jeffrey Kwan and freshman Utkarsh Priyam. The team will be facing off against over a hundred other schools in many different competitions. “[The goal of the contest is] to motivate high school students to both enjoy the study of and foster a love for mathematics,” according to the PUMaC website.

The contest consists of the Power Round, the Live Round, the Individual Test, and the Team Test. The problems in the Power Round, unlike the other rounds, expose a teams to proof-based mathematics and includes questions expected to take multiple hours. The problems are given to the teams before hand so students may work on it. On the day of the competition, the teams must submit their solutions.

The Live Round, a new event that started this year, consists of problems that must be submitted as a group to receive the next set.

This is also the only round with a live scoreboard, adding to the suspense.

In the Individual Round, students choose to take a test about one of four subjects: Algebra, Geometry,

KATHERINE ZHANG

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

reporters

The InSight Mars Lander is a terrestrial planet explorer that will study the interior of Mars and the formation of our solar system through tracking Mars’s temperature, seismology, and other features. Once it is released in May 2018, the Lander will take six months to reach Mars, and it will then take another month to begin gathering data.

MATH MADNESS (TOP) The PUMaC team practices on Nov. 10. The competition will be on Nov. 18 at Princeton University.

(LEFT) Cynthia Chen (10) and Katherine Tian (11) work on problems during a practice round. (RIGHT) Rishi Dange (10) looks over a problem set in preparation for PUMaC.

Number Theory, and Combinatorics, which is a branch of mathematics about counting. Each test contains eight problems and must be completed within one hour.

The Team Test is a nonproof based test where teamwork is allowed. Teams are given a set of problems, and they do their best to complete the 15 questions in the allotted time of 30 minutes.

Additionally, the Team Tests include a minigame portion as opportunity to score more points.

“In the past, they’ve had crossword or sudoku puzzles,” team captain Swapnil said. “Or you assign bonus points to problems and you can get them based on whether or not you get the problem right or not.”

At the end, the top 3 individuals and teams will receive an award. The top 10 teams, individuals, and overall scores from each category will be acknowledged for their high placings in the competition.

“I’m really excited for the competition since I think it will be a rewarding experience,” Cynthia said, “I’ll be able to learn more math as well as bond with my team members.”

Three weeks ago, the upper school’s team started preparing for the competition by meeting for two hours every week, reviewing solving techniques and practicing Team Tests together.

“Harker got 19th place back in 2015, which is not bad. We did really well in the power round and the team round; but unfortunately, our individual total was not very high, and that’s the main reason we were 19th and not higher,” stated Swapnil. “We hope to possibly break top ten this year; that’s our main goal.”

Club members can also compete in Math Madness, the monthly California Math League, the Mandelbrot competitions, the Harvard-MIT Math and the Berkeley Math Tournaments.

DEREK YEN

arushi saxena reporter

InSight Mars Lander

CRISPR-Cas9 Recently, CRISPR, is a powerful new gene-editing software that allows scientists to alter DNA using editing enzymes, created genetically-modified low-fat pigs. These pigs have 24% less body fat than normal pigs.

PROVIDED BY MARIANA JANER

TECH TALK

Girl Scouts The Girls Scouts have developed a new K-12 curriculum which encourages girls to study STEM. This “fun with purpose” program allows girls to explore scientific topics along with the arts. The curriculum offers opportunities to improve one’s critical thinking and problem-solving skills.

BACK PAGE P O LY S E X U A L T RA N S G E N D E R A S E X UAL

S ch o o ls d eb a te p o li ci es fo r tr a n sg en d er a th le te s

G e rm a n y to a ll ow id e n ti fi ca ti o n a in te rs e x t b ir th PA N S E X U A L GG E E NNDDEERRFFLLUUIDID LG BT Q + A L LY AG E N D E R G E N D E RQ U E E R

ENGENDERIN G C H A N G E

1 . 4 m i l l i o n U .S . a d u lt

id e n t if y a s t r a n sgender

KEY TERMS GENDER EXPANSIVE an umbrella term used to refer to those who don’t identify with traditional gender roles

GENDER FLUID

a gender identity that is a dynamic mix; someone whose gender identity may shift

GENDER ROLE

The social behaviors that culture assings to each sex; societal norms but not necessarily the way people identify

B ro w n si g n s b il l a ll o w in g Ca li f. st u d en ts to u se b a th ro o m s co rr es p o n d in g to g en d er id en ti ty

Gender and se xu t h e U .S . a n d u a l it y in pper school

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f. l e g a l l y r e co g s n i ze s a t h i r d g Ju d g e b lo c k s T ender option t r a n s g e n d e r p er u m p’s b a n o n 10 m o p le in t h e m il it a r y id e n t if yi l l i o n U .S . a d u lt s a s LG BTQ +

WHAT ARE GENDER AND SEXUALITY SPECTRUMS? The Gendebread person is a tool designed to explain gender and sexuality spectrums created by itsmetrosexual.com.

How you personally define your gender, based on how much you believe you align (or don’t align with) what you see as your gender options.

Either sexual or romantic attraction to a certain identity, sex and/or gender expression, or the lack of sexual and/or romantic attraction.

TRANSGENDER

someone whose sense of personal identify does not correspond to their biological sex at birth

VOLUME 19 • ISSUE 3 NOVEMBER 16, 2017

The ways you present gender, through actions, dress, and/or demeanor, and how you interpret those presentations. Gender expression doesn’t necessarily correspond to gender idenity, biological sex or sexual orientation.

WHAT ABOUT NOW? GENDER AND SEXUALITY IN POLITICS, LAW AND CURRENT EVENTS anvi banga & nerine uyanik

Aquila asst. news editor & Humans of Harker videographer

In her presentation, Johnston talked about the history and progress of the LGBTQ+ community as well as current issues that members still have to face. Until June 26, 2015, same-sex marriage was still illegal in parts of the United States.

Even after its legalization, same-sex couples still receive far fewer privileges and benefits than heterosexual couples.

Heterosexual couples in the United States with marriage licences receive more than 1,000 legal protections and benefits to safeguard their families and protect themselves. Privileges such as hospital visitations, child custody, adoption, divorce protections, access to family insurance policies, exemption from property tax upon death of a spouse and retirement benefits are denied to married gay couples.

“People your age are so much more accepting.

That’s one of the things that makes me so hopeful.”

MAUREEN JOHNSTON SPEAKER, MARRIAGE AND FAMILY THERAPIST In addition to facing social discrimination, many members of the LGBTQ+ community also face systematic discrimination, including housing difficulties, workplace and insurance discrimination, inadequate access to affirming, affordable health care and exclusions in transgender-related health-care.

The transgender community is still fighting for access to gender-neutral bathrooms.

“One of the things we didn’t talk at all about is the generational differences and that people your age are so much more accepting, so much more understanding,” Johnston said. “That’s one of the things that makes me so hopeful. This is just part of your world. You get far more resistance from old people than you do from young people.”

Physical sex characteristics, with some options being male, female or intersex.

Students reflect on gender assembly anvi banga & nerine uyanik

Aquila asst. news editor & Humans of Harker videographer

The upper school invited guest speaker Maureen Johnston, a licensed marriage and family therapist with a practice in San Jose, to present to the student body on Oct. 18.

In the presentations that she gave to the students, Johnston discussed gender identity, gender roles and stereotypes as well as depression and anxiety.

Johnston described gender as a spectrum rather than as either male or female and explained that everyone’s gender identity lies somewhere on the spectrum.

“I want you to know your gender does not define you; you define your gender,” Johnston said.

She also emphasized the importance of having a supportive community.

Some students expressed their concerns with the presentation, which they felt was too broad and did not delve into the topics enough.

“She wasn’t very clear, she didn’t demand attention and she made depression and anxiety such a separate thing,” Gender and Sexuality Alliance (GSA) member Alissa Gao (9) said. “We thought there should have been another assembly just covering those two subjects.”

Johnston accepts the constructive criticism and agrees that her presentation would have been better with more time.

“I absolutely agree,” Johnston said. “There was way too much that I covered, and some of that was a result of the limited time that I had and some of the restrictions that the school put on me in terms of what they wanted [covered]. We were covering three really important topics all in less than one hour. It’s a really valid criticism, and there were some hard decisions that I had to make.”

“Just be someone that’s a safe person for trans and LGBTQ+ people to go to. ” LOU SANCHE GSA CO-PRESIDENT

Input to the assembly came from upper school principal Butch Keller and GSA Advisor Abel Olivas.

“What I want to do, whether it’s attached to GSA, whether it’s attached to whatever group, I want everybody in this community to feel included,” Keller said. “I am going to support, to the best of my ability, the things that you feel are important. All [students] have to do is come and give me the right kind of infor-

ENGENDERING CHANGE (LEFT) Junior Emmy Huchley snaps her fingers to indicate she knows the definition of one of the terms in the presentation. Speaker Maureen Johnston displayed several terms relating to gender identiy and asked students to snap if they knew what they meant. (RIGHT) Maureen Johnston, licensed family and marriage therapist, speaks to the upperclassmen in an assembly about gender identity on Oct. 18.

mation that this is something the community needs, and I’m going to do my best to get the community what they need.”

Many students appreciateed the thought that went into the assembly’s topic.

“The school is doing a good job trying to bring topics like this up, but I feel they need to really make sure that the person is focusing on the topic that they brought them in for,” GSA co-president Lou Sanche (11) said. “[To get information, one should] definitely go through the corresponding club, like for LGBTQ+ matters, go through the GSA club [and] get their opinion. Overall, I’m very happy that they’re at least trying to do the right thing in bringing speakers like this.”

Lou mentioned that a significant way to support the LGBTQ+ community is avoiding micro-aggressions and ensuring that others in the community do the same. They referenced a internet meme that compares identifying as a specific gender to identifying as an attack helicopter.

“If you hear anyone using hateful terms, micro-aggressions, making fun, saying my gender is an attack helicopter, call them out on it, say that that’s not cool.” Lou said.

“Just be someone that’s a safe person for trans and LGBTQ+ people to go to. It’s a lot of the micro-aggressions part that’s really impacting the students.”

ALL PHOTOS KATHEIRNE ZHANG

LG BTQ +

GENDER AND SEXUALITY