D2 Seniors
The
C hronicle
chronicle.hw.com
May 26, 2010
2 seniors to travel abroad for gap years By Austin Block
Ladies who lunch: Chamber Singer seniors Erica Sunkin, Doni Hunter-Sallustio, Jilli Marine, Lauren Seo, Irene Manousiouthakis, Christine Lo and Kelly Rodriguez sing at the Senior Girls’ Event May 8 at the Skirball Center. The girls sang “All My Life” and “For Good.” Congresswoman Shelley Berkley, a Democrat from Nevada, speaks at the luncheon about her family history and her political career.
Photos By candice navi/chronicle
Mothers, daughters do lunch By Erin Moy
At the Senior Girls’ event May 8 at the Skirball Center, a Nevada Congresswoman advised senior girls and their mothers to take part actively in the democratic process and take advantage of educational opportunities. Upon arriving at the annual luncheon, senior girls and their mothers were greeted by a photographer at the entrance to a courtyard. The photographer took the mothers and daughters’ pictures before they headed into the courtyard. A floral theme was prevalent at the luncheon, with flowery decorations on the courtyard walls. Student jazz musicians Jordan Bryan ’11, Chris Freedman ’12, Brooke Levin ’12 and Noah Weinman ’12 performed in the courtyard while the girls and their mothers mingled outside before lunch. Once inside, the floral theme continued at the tables, with floral centerpieces that matched the invitations the guests received the mail. Along with the centerpieces, the tables were decorated with pink tablecloths and napkins.
After everyone was settled in at their tables, senior girls from the Bel Canto choir and the Chamber Singers sang while the first course was served. Then Shelley Berkley, the aunt of Megan Fleming ’10, spoke about her journey to the House of Representatives. Berkeley humorously reecounted to the crowd the story of her family’s journey from the East Coast to Nevada, which was punctuated with the audience’s laugher. Berkeley ended on a serious note. “When one door closes, a window opens,” Berkley quoted her mother as saying, while she discussed getting involved in the democratic process. The luncheon wound down with a dessert that included cupcakes, chocolate-covered strawberries and cookies. As the pairs of mothers and daughters departed, they were invited to take the centerpieces from their tables, as well as pick up their pictures, that were placed in silver frames that were engraved with “HarvardWestlake 2010.”
Reitmans speak to senior boys, fathers at annual event By Sammy Roth
Filmmaker Jason Reitman ’95 told senior boys and their fathers to “find your voice” at the annual Senior Boys’ Event. Reitman spoke alongside his own father, director and producer Ivan Reitman. The event, which included lunch and cost $60 per person to attend, took place Saturday, May 8 at the Los Angeles Athletic Club downtown. The Reitmans were introduced by President Tom Hudnut. Jason Reitman told his audience that when he graduated from high school, he planned to become a doctor. But after struggling with pre-med work at Skidmore College, he realized that he might be going down the wrong career path. He had a budding interest in making movies, however, and decided that the University of Southern California would be the better place to pursue that interest. He traveled to USC and tried to arrange a meeting with
its admissions director, but all he could get was a few minutes with her as she walked to her car. It turned out that was enough. By the time the conversation ended, Jason had talked his way into USC, he said. “He put himself in charge of his own destiny,” Ivan said. Ivan is known for directing and producing the first two “Ghostbusters” movies. Jason was nominated in the Best Director category at this year’s Academy Awards for his film, “Up in the Air,” which revolved around a man who spends much of his time on airplanes. The Senior Boys’ Event’s theme was, “Our Seniors Take Flight,” and the centerpiece at each table included miniature airplanes. Ivan encouraged students to “take advantage of the really close relationship” between fathers and sons. Jason recalled learning from his dad on a father-son retreat to a Nevada rodeo that Harvard-Westlake held while he was in 8th grade. “It was a very important
moment for my dad and I, two Jews in Nevada on this rodeo trip, when my dad said to me, ‘Do you want to go to Reno?’” he recalled. The two of them went to Reno and had a great time, which helped Reitman learn to “seize the moment,” he said. The Reitmans also discussed collaborating for the first time on “Up in the Air,” which Ivan produced. Ivan said he is used to working with first-time directors, and that it was difficult for him at first to let his son, already an established director, do his job. “I had to learn to lay off,” he said. Jason, for his part, had to remind himself that his dad was really a producer, and that he should not just “shrug him off.” Jason noted that the two biggest influences on his life have been his father and Harvard-Westlake. “This school will have a greater impact on you than you will ever imagine,” he said. “I really hope that fifteen years from now you can feel what I feel.”
At least two students will take gap years next year. The Brownstein Fellowship, a financial award given each year to one senior to support a gap year involving service and travel, was given to Gavin Cook ’10. Cook was notified he would receive the award a few weeks ago after being picked by the Brownstein Fellowship nathanson ’s/chronicle Selection Committee. Amy Schmidt ’10 will Gavin Cook ’10 spend nine months in Israel with the Year Course program. Cook, who spent his junior year in Beijing with the School Year Abroad program, plans to spend three months volunteering and learning Hindi in India, and five or six months in China. He said he will spend his first two to three months in China volunteering at a center for disabled children in Shanghai, then spend two or three months teaching English to underprivileged students in Wujiang, a nathanson ’s/chronicle rural area outside Shanghai. In between the Amy Schmidt ’10 two trips, he will take a six week break in Los Angeles. “I spent my junior year in China with School Year Abroad and I wanted to do more volunteer work than I could because it was junior year abroad. It wasn’t at all like a gap year,” Cook said. “I had to take the SATs in China and I had to do essays and homework and things, so while I got a pretty immersive cultural experience, I didn’t have time to do volunteer work and really just dive really deep into service, and that’s what I’ll do with the gap year.” Cook submitted a three-part application for the Selection Committee, which included an essay, a budget and what the Harvard-Westlake website calls a “program and itinerary.” “I wanted to go to India because I’ve always found it fascinating, and I thought ‘Why not?’” Cook said. “I have the opportunity to go to India, so I thought I would just go ahead and take it and there are lots of opportunities for service in India, so it just worked out. I love China and if I had a year to do whatever I wanted I thought I would go back to China and volunteer.” Schmidt will spend three months in Jerusalem, three months in the Negev desert and three months in a small town in Israel. She will take a specialty culinary program, take classes, see family and friends who live in Israel and do community service. “I didn’t want to go straight to college and mostly my whole principle was that when I went to Israel when I was 16, I really fell in love with it and I decided that I wanted to go there and spend an extended period of time there and get to know the people, learn Hebrew better, see my friends, see my family,” Schmidt said. “Then when the idea of a gap year program came up and my mom and I were looking at a couple of different programs, and we found this one at the Gap Year Fair and we were really interested in the whole concept of them setting you up and just living there, going to classes, doing community service, and then the options of doing specialty tracks and stuff and so we just decided that we would do this one. I’m very happy about this.” This summer, Cook will work to save additional money for the gap year. “I have an internship at a law firm downtown — a paid internship — so that will be exciting, and I’m also teaching a Chinese class to some family friends and I will be doing Chinese tutoring as well,” Cook said. Cook, who is fluent in Chinese, said he is excited to learn Hindi. He has already begun studying Hindi on the Internet. Cook said he wants to do volunteer work because he feels a sense of responsibility and because it makes him happy. “I feel the need to help others because it would make me feel happy,” Cook said. “It’s one of the very few things that I think a person can do that will really make them feel truly happy, and I feel also that I have been very fortunate to have gone to Harvard-Westlake, and I’ll be going to Princeton, and I feel like, ‘Why not give back?’ Giving back is awesome, and I also just feel the urge to really give back.” Cook will go to India with the Himalayan Gap Year program and to China with the Project Abroad program. He will stay with a host family in Wujiang.
Seniors choose salutatorian By Michelle Yousefzadeh
them laugh enough so they don’t care that I’m making them think,” Morgan said. As an actor in many performing arts shows and a senior prefect, Morgan is not a newcomer to public
Chase Morgan ’10 will speak at commencement June 11 as salutatorian. The salutatorian usually delivers a light-hearted and humorous speech. Morgan was elected by the senior class after students nathanson ’s/chronicle were asked to vote for any Chase senior at a class meeting. Morgan ’10 Morgan had secretly hoped to be chosen as salutatorian, he said. Although speaking. he has not begun to write his “My years of performing speech, he has thought about have made me jaded to being it. nervous before speaking,” he “Essentially, I want to make said.