The Coat of Arms | NEWS
November 6, 2014
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Issues addressed at special assembly Menlo Radio to debut William Bleicher | Staff Reporter
William Bleicher | Staff Reporter
The racism assembly on Oct. 10 opened the eyes of the Menlo community. It addressed our shortcomings as a school to make it a safe place for people of all backgrounds. The assembly began with a speech from Student Body President, Alexandra Walker, regarding the increase in racist comments heard around the campus by the student body. Four students followed Walker’s speech by reading racial slurs they have heard on the quad in their time at Menlo. “I thought the assembly was a good wake up call for students because a lot of us will say a racist comment and not even have a second thought about it,” junior Erin Broderick said. The Menlo community is not going to be perfect, but the assembly made the clear point that we need to be more aware and make improvements. To close out the assembly senior Joe Klein shared a very personal story. Last year someone drew a swastika in his yearbook. Klein did not discover it until he got home but once he did, he was appalled. The swastika is a symbol of hatred and death, and represents the nucleus of this issue. “I thought [Klein] did a great job and it takes a lot of guts to share a story that personal with the school,” junior Jessie Guthrie said. It was clear after Klein’s speech that Menlo needs a change. “I was speechless after I heard him,” junior Ben Werdeger said. “I think there has been a little bit [of change] from what I have heard, people have been more conscious of how and when they are using
language. I still think it’s there, but I think that people are more empowered to stand up when they hear it,” senior Joe Klein said. While the assembly has helped, there is still work that needs to be done in order to suppress the offensive language even more. “I don’t think the administration has the capability to make the change, that’s why it must come from us,” Klein said. To finish the assembly, Upper School Director John Schafer reiterated the changes that must be made. But ultimately, it is up to the student body to implement a more acceptable community.
Dean of Students Tony Lapolla introduces the student speakers at the racism assembly . PHOTO COURTESY
JASMINE CHARLES
This fall, Menlo has started its first student-run radio program. Run by sophomore Ben Somorjai, the radio operates through the assistance of Sports Information Director Pam McKenney and a group of interested students. The radio program was schedueled to debut at the homecoming football game on October 24, but a technological difficulty impeded them from beginning. While the first attempt did not pan out, the radio program hopes to get back on track to broadcast tomorrow at the football game. Menlo Radio mixes different forms of media. “It’s going to be live broadcasting, video, and then we are going to live stream it online,” Somorjai said. If students are not able to show up to a game, but still want to see highlights or hear the play-byplay radio broadcasting of the game, now they can. “So far everyone has been really helpful, I have had meetings with the technology department and [McKenney],” Somorjai said. It is a difficult technological process to get the radio up and running, but once the radio gets started, it will hopefully catch on quickly to the Menlo community. Right now, the Menlo Radio plans to focus on sports, but as the project advances, Somorjai hopes to expand his audience by expanding the content covered. “For this year, it’s only going to be sports and we will see what happens at the end of the year. But right now we feel like sports will get the most viewership,” Somorjai said. As the fall sports season comes to an end, the broadcasts will switch to winter sports, followed by spring. “Right now there are around twenty kids working on this project, but I hope to grow that number, ” Somorjai said. The Menlo radio will need as much help as possible because of the technical expertise necessary for the project to function.
Alumna and student published Lauren Yang | Staff Reporter
Menlo prides itself on having diverse and talented individuals in the student and alumni body. These people have demonstrated exceptional talent in numerous fields, from athletics, academic achievement, to artistic endeavors. Menlo can now add two accomplished authors to the list, as senior Elaine Wong and Menlo alumnus Kate Park published literary works this year. Park, class of 2014, who is currently attending Stanford University, published a travel memoir through iBooks called “Growing Up Aloft” in September. Her book focuses on the numerous trips she and her family made all over the world and includes interesting historical facts and stunning pictures. Park’s childhood was dotted with journeys to international countries -- she has flown on 84 international flights and has spent around 250 days in Europe. During her trips, she often kept records of her excursions in travel journals. Park would later use these journals as a basis for her memoir. During Park’s second semester
of sophomore year, she revisited her earlier travel diaries and noted that her writing voice sounded very young. Her book idea stemmed from her younger journals. “[I realized] it would be a great way to write each trip from the perspective of the age I traveled at,” Park said. Park attributes some of the success of her book to her advocate and writing mentor, english teacher Lynn Anderson, who Park took an independent study with. “I would write a few entries for a trip and Ms. Anderson [... would give me] feedback every week,” Park said. The writing process lasted until the end of Park’s senior year. From there, Park began the publication procedure. Initially, she planned on publishing a traditional print book. After much consideration, Park instead decided to self-publish her travel memoir through iBooks. “Ultimately I decided to go digital [...] because my book has color photos which are very expensive to print. The photos were just as important as the anecdotes and historical facts, so I didn’t want to cut them out,” Park said.
Like Park, junior Elaine Wong also had success publishing her book. Wong’s short story, titled “Between You, Me, and Andromeda” has been published in a fiction anthology called “An Unlikely Companion”. Wong was contacted by an editor who wanted to publish her work after she won second place in a short story competition. Wong’s passion for writing sparked during her high school career. “It wasn’t until summer of sophomore year when I participated in a fanfiction competition that I fell in love with writing because I could explore my own beliefs through the stories I wrote,” Wong said. Her stories are often impacted by her interactions with others. “The people here [at Menlo] certainly have [influenced my writing]. I draw inspiration for a lot of my characters from experiences I’ve shared with other people,” Wong said. Wong is currently working on a manuscript for a novel and hopes to continue her English career. “I really do want to be an author when I grow up.” Wong said. She is going to continue writing manu-
Kate Park’s memoir “Growing up Aloft” is now available for download on iBooks. PHOTO COURTESY KATE PARK
scripts whether this novel gets published or not. While Wong pursued her passion from this process, Park learned the benefits of keeping an open mind. “I always considered myself a math person. But as people say, you should never box yourself into a category and it turned out writing my book was one of the most enjoyable experiences I have had,” Park said. Both Park and Wong took away positive experiences from their accomplishments. Park’s book is available for purchase and can be downloaded from iBooks. Wong’s short story will be included an anthology available for purchase in November.
Knight School placement: explained
Continued from Page 2 his or her first choice because [the course is just] not as sought after,” Brown said. From the administration’s point of view, the ‘Happiness Algorithm’ is a utilitarian program; over 90% of students are placed in their respective course via the algorithm, and 85% of these students receive their first or second choice. Although there is computing power to give students whom didn’t receive their top two choices the previous year preference the following year, as a student ascends in grade levels, their chances of receiving their top choice are greatly increased.
The Menlo student body does not witness Knight School placement; however, students are very verbal when it comes to complaints and questions regarding their placement. “’I got my last choice;’ ‘I got the worst choice.’ […] We offer 40 classes; you sign up for […] six. [When a student receives his or her first or second choice 85% of the time], it’s hard for me to feel sorry for the person that gets their fourth choice. Those people make a lot of noise,” Upper School Director John Schafer said. Students cannot be dissatisfied, when they are the ones who chose their Knight School courses. “It’s like applying to college. […] Let’s say you apply to ten
colleges and you don’t get into nine of them. You shouldn’t say, ‘Oh, I’m so bummed out I got into this college.’” Schafer believes these frequent complaints are actually an argument to have less choice when it comes to Knight School courses. If students have fewer options, they are more likely to find satisfaction with the course they are placed in because there are fewer choices the student did not receive. Overall, Knight School placement is a complicated task for the Administration to complete. However, the method which they have devised over the years gives a maximum number of students the course that will give them maximum utility.
Students smile for a photo after hiking within a cloud forest on the 2014 Knight School trip to Costa Rica. PHOTO COURTESY ABBEY SCHMITT