The Chronicle
News A4
Classes elect new prefects
April 24, 2013
By Rebecca Katz
The Class of 2015 elected Jackson Beavers ’15, Albert Choi ’15, Rachel Persky ’15 and Sarah Winshel ’15 as next year’s junior prefects. All candidates were asked a prepared question by this year’s Head Prefects, Michael Wagmeister ’13 and Katie Lim ’13 and ended with a statement about what sets them apart. Six female and five male candidates ran for junior prefect. Voting opened Friday April 19 after the sophomore class meeting when candidates discussed topics from campus cleanliness to character. Current junior prefects Ashley Sacks ’14 and Henry Hahn ’14 were chosen as Head Prefects by default and will lead Prefect Council next year. Hahn ran unopposed as the only male candidate. Sacks was left as the only female candidate after Mazelle Etessami ’14 withdrew her candidacy for Head Prefect due to an Honor Board violation. Etessami was only allowed to run for senior prefect after sending an email to the junior class in which she admitted to breaking the Honor Code earlier this year, confessing that she had become overwhelmed by school work and extracurricular activities. Etessami said that having been on both sides of the Honor Board will make her a better representative. The Class of 2014 elected Etessami, Oliver GoodmanWaters ’14, Greg Lehrhoff ’14 and Malanna Wheat ’14 to serve as senior prefects from three female and five male candidates.
MICHAEL SUGERMAN/CHRONICLE
NOA YADIDI/CHRONICLE
APPEARANCES: Nick Healy ’13 asks John Amaechi a question at the assembly, left. Amaechi speaks to the students and faculty, right.
First openly gay NBA player implores students not to form preconcieved labels By Lauren Sonnenberg
Former NBA player and openly gay performance psychologist John Amaechi asked upper school students to combat poisonous words, preconceptions and stereotypes at an all-school assembly April 10. Amaechi said that all words have impact and warned against “labels,” which can only broadly reflect people’s’ appearance and demographic. He explained that others often have a hard time believing that he is gay or a psychologist, because his towering frame and the color of his skin seem to imply that he can be nothing but a basketball player. Amaechi said assumptions like these, based on physical appearance, are quite dangerous “I regularly got knocked back by gay bars,” he said. ”Unless I show up in hot pants
with an apple-tini, I’m not getting in.” As a child, Amaechi said he was mocked for being fat, and the scorn haunted him even at the peak of his athletic career. Though he had only four percent body fat, he was too selfconscious to take off his shirt and swim with his Orlando Magic teammates. “When you’re younger, negative reactions are like wet cement,” he said. “There is an opportunity to smooth it over, but if you don’t act immediately, it sets.” As an 11-year-old, Amaechi began to look for a hero in books that he could identify with. He found his match after reading “The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” as both he felt he and the hunchback seemed to invoke fear and receive ridicule from their respective peers. He even asked his mother if he, like the hunch-
3 run for Dean of Faculty position By Ally White
Teachers will elect a new Dean of Faculty due the departure of current dean and math teacher Jacob Hazard. Math teacher Suzanne Lee, science teacher Jesse Reiner and science teacher Dietrich Schuhl are vying for the position, which has a term of two years. The winner will be announced Monday April 29 after four days of elections. The candidates will not make speeches or write statements, but between the announcement of the candidates and elections there is a twoweek period when faculty can go to them and ask questions if they are undecided. The purpose of the dean of faculty is to be “the conduit of information for the faculty to the administration and also from the administration to the faculty,” Hazard said. The dean of faculty manages the sunshine fund, which is tapped into to send cards for birthdays, gifts for new babies and flowers when a death occurs in the family. He or she is also part of the upper school leadership team which includes Associate Head of Harvard-Westlake Audrius Barzdukas, Director of Studies Liz Resnick, Head Dean Beth Slattery and the FAC chair Ken Nealis “to make sure things are getting done,” Hazard said. This year the position
has expanded to include orga- ty,” he said. nizing faculty meetings. A few faculty members enThe position of dean of couraged Lee to try for the pofaculty has been appealing to sition, but it was her family’s Schuhl almost since he came encouragement that was the to the school. deciding factor she said. “If [Hazard] wasn’t leav“I feel like I am well inteing at the end of the year, I grated with the faculty,” Lee certainly wouldn’t have chal- said. “I understand where lenged him for the role, but they are coming from and as I’m actually really exalso a math teacher cited that the opporI know what I want tunity is available,” he my school to do, so added. I think I could be a While Schuhl good representative doesn’t plan on takof the faculty.” ing the role in a comIf elected, Lee said pletely new direction she hopes to create if he wins, he does more activities that have a few changes facilitate school bondhe’d like to make to ing. nathanson ’s improve the school’s A colleague also Jacob Hazard feeling of community. suggested to Reiner He also wants to work on that he should run for the poways in which the faculty at sition. middle and upper school can “It took me by surprise move more easily between and I was flattered and it also campuses to better communi- made me very nervous,” he cate on a professional level. said. “The fact that it made me What he considers to be nervous alerted to me to the the most challenging goal he fact it might be a good chalwishes to accomplish is to lenge for me.” “represent the faculty more Reiner said he does not to our physical plant devel- have any bold new plans for opment.” As of now teach- the position but would want ers merely receive an an- to settle into the position nouncement about additions first before making any major or changes to the campus. If changes. elected Schuhl hopes to be“It would be [a great] honcome part of the discussions or to represent an awesome of “what we are going to build, group of teachers and to have what we are going to do with an opportunity to play a part an ear to how we can help the in making the school as good faculty be a better communi- as it can be,” Reiner said.
back, was a monster. Amaechi jokingly compared his mother to a Jedi from “Star Wars” because of her ability to walk into a problematic situation and reduce tension by reminding involved parties that they could cope with whatever problem they were confronted with. He says this experience helped inspire him to become a psychologist. In his adult life, Amaechi said he is still “assaulted by people’s perceptions on a daily basis,” but prides himself on not fitting labels. He encouraged students to do the same. In a reception at Feldman-Horn after the assembly, Amaechi advised that a nasty comment made by a stranger on the street should not impact you or make you feel bad, but that a comment made about your behavior by a friend should weigh heavily and force reconsideration of
how you act. Amaechi said he had heard positive reactions from students and faculty and said the his visit’s impact is “a question of how many people are willing to take advantage of this plastic moment when they’re willing to change and be flexible to reflect and change a little and push so that by the time things go back to being rigid, they’ve already changed shape.” After hearing Amaechi speak at the assembly that morning, Sam Schlesinger ’15 approached Amaechi and asked him to narrate his Video Art I project about growing up, titled “The Minister of Exams,” which they then recorded after school. “He just had the right voice for my project. It was great because he was super easy to work with and really brought my project to the next level,” Schlesinger said.
Graduating with honors 57 seniors with GPAs in the top 20 percent of their class will be inducted into the Harvard-Westlake chapter of the Cum Laude society May 20. Kevin Adler Charlie Andrews-Jubelt Michael Aronson Daniel Belgrad Austin Chan Wendy Chen Theodora Davis Paheli Desai-Chowdhry Jordan Elist Solange Etessami Brendan Gallagher Rhett Gentile Eli Goldman Nicole Green Michael Gromis David Hoffman Martine Johannessen Brian Jun Kenneth Kim Maya Landau Arianna Lanz Joshua Lappen Madeline Lear Bo Lee David Lim Samantha Maccabee Sophie McAllister Elana Meer
Dara Moghavem Yasmin Moreno Kristina Park May Peterson Allana Rivera Michael Rothberg Jeremy Schreck Rachel Schwartz Christopher Sebastian Demren Sinik Carla Sneider Andrew Sohn Hunter Stanley Elana Stroud Leila Thomas Michael Wagmeister Walter Wang Annie Wasserman Eden Weizman Jackson Wildasin John Wilding Eleanor Wilson Samuel Wolk Ashley Wu James Wu Ryan Yadegar Caitlin Yee Adam Zucker
SOURCE: CUM LAUDE SOCIETY PHOTO COURTESY CUM LAUDE SOCIETY GRAPHIC BY ENYA HUANG AND JAKE SAFERSTEIN