The Chronicle
A4 News
May 29, 2013
Next year to start with all-school convocation By Julia Aizuss
SOPHIE KUPIEC-WEGLINSKI/CHRONICLE
SWAN SONG: Andrew Meepos ’13, Demren Sinik ’13, Blake Nosratian ’13 and Danny Belgrad ’13 (not pictured) sing Radiohead’s “True Love Waits” during Coffee House May 22. More than 20 students and teachers performed in the fourth coffee house of the year.
Fifth STEMfest showcases student projects, class assignments in science fields By Nikta Mansouri
As a demonstration of hydroelectric engineering at the annual “STEMfest,” a Tesla representative drove into the quad while students and teachers surrounded it on May 20 during activities period. Students from various clubs and classes set up 38 tables and 60 events around the quad and in the lounge to display assignments and projects. This is the fifth installment of the showing of projects involving science, technology, engineering and math around school. The quad and Chalmers were packed with students presenting projects and learning about their peers’ work, playing games and eating cupcakes. “I really enjoyed STEMfest,” Oliver Goodman-Waters ’14 said. “It’s really great to see
the hard work of many of my friends and colleagues manifest itself in incredibly interesting and fascinating projects. I certainly learned a lot walking around the quad last Monday.” STEMfest was different than years past as there was a “huge, huge emphasis on the interest in building computers, using code to create art, students working with the results of the Harvard-Westlake Sports Science research, student created videos, statistics to make decisions about sports,” STEMfest coordinator and Math Department Head Paula Evans said. The aroma of fresh waffles lingered in Chalmers as Molecular Gastronomy students Nick Nathanson ’13 and Byron Lazaroff-Puck ’13 used liquid nitrogen to crystalize the eggs and heavy cream custard to
thicken the ice cream base. Rap and pop music filled the quad while tables such as “math in popular music,” “artists who code,” and a game of roulette were set up to show how science effects everyday life. Dory Graham ’13 and Senior Alumni Officer Harry Salamandra, contacted Tesla and asked if they would provide a car for STEMfest and they agreed. Tesla is pushing the boundaries on electric technologies which is why Graham contacted them, she said. Graham’s presentation compared the Tesla and Fisker, another electric car company. “It was super awesome of Tesla to do that since they really had no incentive other than to share their technology with our school,” Graham said. “I’m not sure any other
car company would have done that, especially for a student, and on short notice.” Alumni also presented in the fest. Tess Hatch ’11 talked about engineering in college and Melissa Gottlieb (owner of Skinny Batches Baker) brought samples of healthy baked goods, demonstrating molecular gastronomy. These samples will also be available during finals as care packages, Evans said. HW Works operated a table on the quad offering students internship applications in the STEM fields. Due to the success of the first SciBowl match in October, a second game between students and teachers was scheduled but was canceled because many of the math and science teachers were involved in other STEM festivities. • See A16 for photo coverage
Both upper and middle school students will gather on the Ted Slavin Field on the first day of the 2013-2014 school year for an all-school convocation and the investiture of new President of Harvard-Westlake Rick Commons. The administration began thinking about holding an allschool opening convocation even before they knew President Thomas C. Hudnut would retire, Head of School Jeanne Huybrechts said. With the arrival of Commons, the administration thought it would be a good year to experiment, especially since they wished to hold an investiture ceremony for Commons. “If this goes well, if we think it was a worthwhile experience to have the entire school together once per year, we may continue this every year,” Huybrechts said. Huybrechts said that the all-school convocation will present the rare opportunity to completely unite all the school’s students. “Wouldn’t it be nice if once a year every single member of the community was in the same space at the same time for a particular reason?” Huybrechts said. Students will attend a few of their classes before middle school students are bused to the upper school. After meeting on the field, Huybrechts will welcome the students, introduce the new theme for the year and introduce Commons. She will then perform the investiture ceremony, which Commons wants to be as “short and concise and simple as possible,” Huybrechts said. The Board of Trustees will also likely be present for the ceremony, she said.
Kaplan ’08 describes covering Boston bombing By Elizabeth Madden
Former Chronicle editorin-chief Michael Kaplan ’08 told Chronicle classes Friday about his experience covering the Boston bombings and ensuing chaos in Boston. Kaplan now works as a broadcast assistant for the news program “60 Minutes.” Kaplan described his experience editing segments of video and helping reporters to track down sources for the 13 minute segment on the Boston Marathon bombings and car chase. The segment aired April 21, the Sunday following the Boston bombings, arrest of one of the suspects and death of the other. “We were really pressed for time because we usually have three or four months to prepare a piece,” he said. “We only had 72 hours to set up [the Boston piece].” “I had a great time when working at the Chronicle,” he said. “That’s what first piqued my interest in print journal-
ism.” After graduating from Harvard-Westlake, Kaplan attended the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. As a part of the undergraduate program at Medill, Kaplan traveled to Cape Town, South Africa for two months to work for a daily newspaper there. On one of his first days on the job, Kaplan was assigned to cover a murder in an impoverished shanty town. When he arrived at the scene, family and friends of the deceased charged toward Kaplan and tried to rip up his notes, imploring him not to cover the murders, Kaplan said. “I had never seen a dead body before,” Kaplan said. “It was then that I realized that I was a long, long way away from home.” “If the Chronicle sparked my interest in journalism, [the trip to] South Africa definitely sustained it,” he said.
MAZELLE ETESSAMI/CHRONICLE
BREAKING NEWS: Chronicle news managing editor Michael Sugerman ’13 listens to Los Angeles Times reporter Kurt Streeter explain how he chooses which anecdotes to emphasize in his features.
LA Times reporter speaks to The Chronicle By Elizabeth Madden
Award-winning Los Angeles Times staff writer Kurt Streeter told Chronicle classes about his writing process and career in journalism on Tuesday. Streeter, who has been working at the LA Times since 1998, has interviewed figures such as Kobe Bryant and Rodney King, who became nationally known after being brutally beaten by members of the Los Angeles Police Department, the event that is largely credited as being the catalyst to the 1992 Los Angeles riots.
Streeter also recently interviewed Michael Sheng ’14, Sam Sachs ’14, Eric Loeb ’14, varsity basketball coach Greg Hilliard and President Thomas Hudnut for an article entitled ‘2 L.A. high schools, 2 views of Jason Collins’, detailing different reactions of high school students about professional basketball player Jason Collins’ ’97 decision to come out as gay. “The best thing about this job is the diversity of experiences you get,” Streeter said. Streeter’s five-part narrative about a female boxer from East Los Angeles and
her relationship with her father, a previous gang member, won a 2005 Associated Press News Editors award. That story, along with a Column One about an elderly boxing timekeeper and his memories, was included in the 2006 edition of Best American Sports Writing, according to his bio on the L.A. Times website. “You have to believe that there has to be a place for good story-telling,” Streeter said. “There’s an innate need in all of us to want stories, to want information. You don’t go into journalism to get rich, you do it for the love of it.”