VOL. 63, ISSUE 7
the PAGE www.laslomaspage.com
June 9, 2014
Las Lomas remembers Amir Khakimov one year later by Natalie Hawthorne and Lauren Gardner Co-Editor-in-Chief and Staff Writer Las Lomas student Amir Khakimov, who died last year on May 21, was honored at a vigil on the anniversary of his death. Friends and family members carried candles around the track and some spoke about Amir. Las Lomas ELD teacher Krista Hull, who was one of Amir’s teachers when he first arrived at Las Lomas in 2011, attended the vigil. “The vigil was fantastic,” said Hull. “And the best part was that Akmal and his dad both came, which was a surprise. We didn’t know if they would for sure come, and they both showed up and made all the difference, because all of it was for them. It was for us to enjoy and to remember, but most of it was to honor Amir, and to see his dad and brother there made it 100 times better.” Amir was known for being friendly and gregarious, ready to strike up a conversation with anyone. It is often hard for EL students to interact with students outside of the ELD department because of the language barrier, said Hull, but Amir was constantly
Students carried candles around the track at the vigil. Many came to show support for Amir’s brother, Akmal.
making friends. “It’s a balance between the EL student reaching out and the mainstream Las Lomas student reaching out and it’s gonna take both to
bridge that gap. And Amir was all about bridging that gap. So as EL teachers, I think a lot of us feel the desire to continue that. He transitioned, he had friends that were
C. Baloue
mainstream students and EL students and we saw that at the memorial. We saw that at the vigil. We see it all over. It was the wrestling team, EL students, mainstreams
students, staff, male, female, old, young. He united everyone. He was a phenomenal young man,” she said. Adrianne Spencer, who was Amir’s teacher for two classes, recalls that he was at ease when he interacted with the wrestling coach and parents. “He had this way of interacting with adults that was ahead of his time, he was just kind of an old soul. He would interact with adults in a very mature way and not in a rude way because sometimes that can be off-putting when students act like they’re your peers,” she said. “It was more that he had this maturity and sense of himself and still was very respectful of adults, I could kind of talk to him and he would get things that a lot of teenagers wouldn’t get.” Senior Mahmood Raid Alusi and Amir met through the ELD program and had two classes together, quickly becoming friends. “It’s kind of hard losing one of your best friends,” said Alusi. “I mean, we learned English together.” When Alusi would visit Amir’s home, he would call Amir’s parents mother and father. Continued on page 2 …
Students explore alternative paths after high school graduation by Ellie Shaw Staff Writer As graduation approaches, the seniors at Las Lomas have been busy making their plans for their next year. For some students, that means heading off to college, but occasionally there are some who decide to take a completely different route. Next year, senior Julianna Hansen will go travel to Spain to work as a nanny. “I’m planning on being gone for a year, but I have a feeling it might be more,” Hansen said. “I chose this because there will be no better time in my life than right now to do something like this and I really want to gain life experience,” Hansen said. Even though Hansen wasn’t always planning on traveling, it’s now something she’s comfortable with. “I think in this modern world, college is something that needs to happen if you want a good career, but I don’t like the idea of majoring in debt,” Hansen said. Hansen used to think gap years were a waste of time, but she now realizes that needs another year to plan her future. “I’m most excited for exploring Spain the way I can’t on vacation,” she said. “I love different cultures and different ideals. And hello, Spain men? How could I not be excited?” Las Lomas 2011 graduate Sam Naff decided not to take the common route of college right after his graduation. Instead, he took a year off and did a program that was “half a year of traveling abroad, half a year of guided internship.” During his year of traveling
Naff got to go thousands of miles away. “I spent the first four months of that year living in India,” Naff said. Naff said that taking a gap year wasn’t always an option, but neither was going to a university or community college. “Never really planned on doing any of that,” he said. “It was kind of a result of slacking in high school, not getting into a good college, and lacking scholastic drive.” However, Naff has a lot of powerful insight into taking a year off, and he said he would recommend it to others too. “You grow so much as a person between 18 and 19,” he said. “It’s stupid that our education system forces us to make life altering choices on what path we want to go down when we’re barely old enough to drive a car.” After Naff ’s year abroad, he went to DVC and recently was accepted into Chapman University in Los Angles. Like Hansen, senior Danielle Kirsebom is taking a year off in Gol, Norway to at-
tend Hallingdal Folkehøg-
skule. “This wasn’t my intention,” Kirsebom said. “I didn’t go through high school knowing that I’d take a gap year. I always planned to go to college.” This program allows Kirsebom to plan her year based on different electives. Kirsebom’s idea of a gap year all began during the chaotic times of college applications during the fall semester. “At the beginning of October, after I’d heard back from the first two schools I’d applied to, I stopped applying,” Kirsebom said. “Even though I got into my topchoice school, I knew that’s what I didn’t want to do right out of high
school.” While gap years aren’t very common in the U.S. they are rather common in Norway. The country is almost set up in a way to allows students to take a gap year take a gap year. “So a folkehøgskule (pronounced folk-high-school) is a pretty common program that Norwegian students do after high school,” said Kirsebom. “There are folkes all over Norway that have different electives, called lines, and as an applicant, you are given the opportunity to choose a school and a line that specifies in your interests. For example, at Hallingdal Folk I’m enrolled under the line Reis which translates to ‘travel’ in English, so I will be studying geography, travel safety, good packing methods, mapping, and travel planning. My classes will be taught outside and they’re not classes, really, they’re educational activities like ski touring (in the winter),
kayaking, rock climbing, slack lining, skiing, mountain biking and other physical activities. Basically, I’m going to be in the best shape of my life.” However, this program isn’t just about physical activity. “Reis also has several trips throughout the school year,” Kirsebom said. “First, we have a trip to Svalbard where we camp and ski in all different ski resorts. And then, as a group, we make a travel plan and such to meet up somewhere in Europe. So my line will split into smaller groups and we’ll travel in these groups on the Inter-rail for like three weeks and go through a number of countries before all the groups meet up somewhere in Europe.” Kirsebom’s twin brother Ben Kirsebom is also taking a gap year in Norway. “It’s comforting to know that my brother will be going through the same program in a different city in Norway at the same time,” said Kirsebom. Kirsebom knows her path is different from that of many of her peers. “I kind of feel like I’m part of a special society like… the people that didn’t go to college straight away, I feel like there’s a select few of us,” said Kirsebom. While she won’t be able to come home until next May and won’t be coming home for Thanksgiving or Christmas, Kirsebom is excited. “I can’t thank my parents enough for this incredible opportunity,” she said. “I can’t wait to talk about next year for the rest of my life. I’m ready to make some memories, meet new people. I want to travel the world and be trilingual by the time I’m 25, so here’s my starting point.”