The Viewpoint February EXTRA

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A R T Viewpoint X E

Mountain View High School 2135 Mountain View Road Stafford, VA 22556 @mvtheviewpoint

STUDENT NEWS Magazine MVHS February 2015 extra

Ciara Havener, Almira Hayes and Cassidy Kelly were adopted. Check out their story on page 3.

Where’d the good stuff go?

Where did all the food go? No more muffin cart? More money for the vending machines?

What’s going on? by Callie Walker

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s it just me, or did the prices of the vending machine prices get a little more expensive? And where did the muffin cart go? Did you happen to notices that some of the new foods are now wheat? What’s going on here?

Starting this year, Mountain View High School has gone on a diet by cutting out the muffin carts completely and replacing the vending machines that were once filled with Pop-tarts and other high calorie sweets.

Now, they have replaced them with wheat Rice Krispies Treats, Simply Chex Mix, Granola bars, Cereal bars and Protein bars. They have kept the Doritos, Cheetos and other bagged chips but come on, we all know those bags are already half empty from the start.

Along with the diets of Mountain View, there is also some raise in the prices of the snacks. Last year the snacks were only 50 cents. Now the prices range from 65 cents to a dollar twenty-five.

So who is behind the disappearance of the muffin cart, and the replacement of the high calorie foods? The first lady, Michelle Obama. Her healthy meal program takes away the bad food and replaces it with the healthy food. Many students are not very fond with this program while others remain unaware of the changes.

For instance, some did not know about the lack of the muffin car this year.

“I’d always ask about it, but everyone would shake their heads and say they don’t know. I’m really upset that it was taken away, the muffin cart was my breakfast. And they had really good choices. It was nice to have honestly,” said sophomore Carmen Garcia.

Others are disgruntled about the raised prices of snacks.

“I really didn’t notice I was paying more for my snacks. I hate it. Lower them now please,” said sophomore Matty Madden.

They changed the choices in the vending machines and a lot of the students seemed to notice.

“I like the tea but the food doesn’t taste good anymore. It just taste bland and boring. I don’t like how healthy they are trying to make us eat. Just let us eat what we want,” said junior Chrissy Poff.

Many students disagree with the new transition of foods and prices. But some students really like the idea.

“I don’t like to eat unhealthy, so it’s really awesome that the school is beginning to be more healthy,” said junior Joshua Walker.

There are many opinions on the food that the school provides whether it’s healthy or not, but more students seem to enjoy the high calorie foods over the fruits and veggies.

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Our second chance The Viewpoint talked to a couple of students about adoption and their story. by Callie Walker

Ciara Havener Provided by Ciara Havener

“I was adopted on the day I was born, a prearranged adoption. Officially, I wasn’t adopted until two weeks after so the birth mother had two weeks to make a decision if she wanted to keep me or not. I’ve always known I was adopted. Being adopted is different. It’s kind of cool to have a story behind you and people think it’s weird because you look like your parents and act like your parents.

I will never forget this experience in seventh grade when we had to do a project about our parents and their history and a cross-connection about mating and I had to take our take my mom’s eye color and my dad’s eye color and put them together. Well I couldn’t do that because I’m adopted and I’m different from my parents. It was kind of weird. I don’t know my parents. When people ask me If I want to know my real birth parents I think of my parents now and how they are the best thing they have ever happened to me, they’re a blessing. I don’t really think I want to know because I’m just happy with my parents. Why would I need someone else when my birth parents gave me away? So I just look at it that way.”

“Blood doesn’t make a family.

Love does.” - The Fosters Provided by Cassidy Kelly

Provided by Almira Rosehase

Almira Rosehase “I was born in Kazakhstan in a small town called Uralsk.

Between the border of Kazakhstan and Russia. I was three, nearly four when I was adopted. I don’t know my real parents but I would love to meet my real parents. It’s pretty cool being adopted, sometimes I forget I’m adopted. I’ll walk in with my family and they’ll see my mom first who is a red head and then my dad who also looks nothing like me and we just get a look of confusion on people’s faces. I’m really grateful I’m adopted because I feel like I got a second chance. I also have an older sister who is also adopted and she is from China.”

Cassidy Kelly “I was adopted when I was two. I was originally from the province of Gaunxi. I don’t know my biological parents and I don’t know what they look like. I would definitely want to know who they are but I don’t think that will be possible because it costs so much money.

Being adopted really gives me a better appreciation of living in the United States and understanding that I could of grown up in China where it’s more communist and they don’t have democratic abilities. My sister and my brother, Sean, are also adopted.”

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The Fighters Syria’s Combatants • Embroiled in a civil war that has killed over 200,000 people, there are many factions vying for control.

• After a brief conflict with the Al-Qaeda backed Nursa Front and ISIS, the two tend to avoid fighting each other.

• The loosely affiliated, western-backed Free Syrian Army(FSA) have fought several battles with ISIS and the Syrian government.

• The Syrian government focuses its power on other rebel groups, but has been fighting recently with ISIS over several important oil fields.

The Kurdistan Parties • The Kurds are one of the largest stateless ethnic groups in the world. While many are Sunni Muslims they tend to identify more with their ethnicity.

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The war against ISIS

The latest war in the Middle East explained.

By Nico Villarreal The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is an entity that nearly everybody has heard of lately, but exactly who are they and what is really going on in the war against them?

ISIS began as a Sunni extremist group known as Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) in 2006, and sought to primarily fight the occupying U.S. forces. Although it was weakened in the U.S. Surge, it was placed under new leadership of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, regained strength and began fighting in the Syrian Civil war.

After combining their forces in Syria and Iraq, the terrorist group was renamed the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria and took control of large swathes in both countries.

The weapons they were able to seize from retreating Iraqi forces further fuelled their campaign, and while they have since lost some territory in northern Iraq, they have been gaining creeping control over the large but less populated Anbar Province and in central Syria where they have been fighting the Syrian government over several large oil fields.

The BBC estimates ISIS has influence over an area about the size of Jordan, in which nearly 8 million people live and according to the CIA has roughly 31,000 fighters. Cities under ISIS control felt massive changes. In Falluja, which was seized by the militants in January, all women, and even department store mannequins, must wear a niqab or veil, cigarettes have been banned, as have T-shirts with English words or depictions of women.

One elderly woman who was a widow, but still not able to leave her home without a male relative according to ISIS laws, was reported by Reuters to

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have shouted in front of a courthouse: “You say God does not accept a woman going outside her house alone. Then how could God accept you killing people?”

A militant responded, “We would decapitate you if you were a man.”

The extremist group has committed several mass killings since gaining prominence early this year.

These include the mass killings of soldiers from bases seized in Iraq and Syria, Yazidi, Christian, Kurds and Shia people. Even Sunni tribes that resist the militants invading force face being brutally slaughtered, such as the Albu Nimr tribe, of whom over 320 were killed.

Many have tried to escape the violence, including the extended family of Mountain View student Justin Jabro. “My parents have cousins who fled their homes when the ISIS news first hit the U.S.,” Jabro said.

One of the ways ISIS has been so successful is its innovative use of social media as a recruiting tool. Services such as Twitter and Facebook have been utilized to spread their ultra-hardline ideology across the world. It is partly because of their social media presence that ISIS has been able to enlist over 12,000 foreign fighters.

However, ISIS has not been expanding unimpeded. It has an ever-growing list of official enemies that have come to include many of the warring factions in Syria, the Kurdistan Parties, the Iraqi government, and countries around the world involved in the U.S. led coalition, all with the full intent of completely destroying the militant organization.

• After ignoring ISIS advances early on to take territory of their own, they were forced into a confrontation in August when ISIS forces attacked Kurds in both Iraq and Syria.

• The Pershmerga (Kurdistan army in Iraq) have been one of the most reliable proxies for western powers in the war against ISIS, retaking some Northern territory such has the Mosul Dam. • The fight for Kobane, a Syrian border town, has become a major battle between the Kurds and ISIS, where the town was nearly taken before coalition airstrikes stalled the ISIS advance. Pershmerga and FSA forces have since reinforced the defense.

The Iraqi Government • After the U.S. Iraqi invasion that dismantled the former Iraqi military, the rebuilt Iraqi army was armed and trained by U.S. forces. But a lack of experience and widespread corruption caused initial defences to fail when ISIS invaded, and allowed the militants to gain heavy weaponry they left behind.

• In fighting battles in the Anbar province and around Iraq, the government has often relied on Shia militias to aid their forces. These same militias have been accused of war crimes and are supported by Iran.

• During the ISIS advance, a new prime minister and government was formed with the aims of being more inclusive and to reverse alienation of the Sunni population

The US led Coalition • Starting in August, the U.S. led a coalition of western and Arab nations in bombing ISIS positions in Iraq and Syria, with the Arab allies focusing efforts in Syria and the Western allies focusing efforts in Iraq, respectively.

• Since August, there have been 551 air strikes in Iraq and 432 in Syria.

• The largest concentrations of these air strikes

were around the Mosul Dam in Iraq were Iraqi and Kurdish forces took back the largest dam in the country from ISIS, and around Kobane in Syria, were Kurdish forces have been under siege.

Volun-told?

Does requiring students to receive community service hours defeat the purpose of “volunteering”? Morgan Ocetnik

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partake in it before they graduate.

Adams said, “[volunteering ]also helps you look at the world in a different way.”

When people participate in Learn and Serve for the right reason it allows them to be more driven to do volunteer work on their own, rather then being forced into it. Half of the hours that are required, are received in the class because of the volunteer work they participate in. Adams thinks that students should have to do a small amount of community service hours for the experience of it to graduate, but “if it’s forced too much it may become more of a chore,” Adams said.

Senior Izzie Miller is a student in Learn and Serve.

Miller said that the class is definitely her favorite and that she loves doing the team building activities, because they help students connect with other people. Miller has been doing community service since middle school such as Special Olympics, working 5K’s, and currently helping a 5th grade class.

Miller said,”I know some people think of Learn and Serve as the class to fill in the spot, but Mrs. Adams has made it become something else, where we do help the community a lot, so I don’t think the hours are necessarily hard to get.” She explained that for some students, they always need someone to push them, so many students might not do community service by themselves. For her it’s about making an impact, so she only hopes that they like making an impact.

National Honor Society adviser Karl Reichert explains the duties of this program. A certain number of points are required to keep your membership, and they are gathered from service hours or brining in physical items such as food for a food drive with 14 points being the requirement. Each school year a minimum of 9 service hours are expected but typically people do a lot more.

National Honor Society is built on four pillars of scholarship, leadership, service, and character.

“When students are familiar with the process of doing community service, it takes away that level of anxiety,” Reichert said. He explained that colleges also love the experience of volunteer work and helping the community, it brings lots of exposure. He feels that requiring hours doesn’t defeat the purpose because it just gives them a minimum expectation, and a lot of them like to go above and beyond.

President of National Honor Society, senior Leila Chang enjoys community service, and realized she gets to see a lot of different groups together.

“I think I like community service because I get to work with a lot of people and see what they bring to the table. I think as being a leader, it’s really exciting because I get to see what they are able to do. You don’t realize the resources you have until you start ton do that,” Chang said.

Leila Chang explains that having hours being required puts pressure on people to find something they are interested in. For her, she wasn’t interested in doing service at first but with a push, it lead her to something she wouldn’t have experienced otherwise.

Karl Reichert Lisa Renard Spicer Stacey Adams

ommunity service should be a big part of the kind of person you are. Even if someone does not do a service, it is also good to just be helpful toward people that are in need of it. It should be effort that comes from your heart because you are willing to put in the time. When teachers or club advisers require their students to have a certain amount of service hours in order to get a grade or to letter, that might be taking away the purpose. If students are going online or asking around for things they can do to write that number of hours and get that signature, it’s no longer coming from your heart or showing an act of kindness. However, having these programs gives students a little push to go out and try something new. National Honor Society, Learn and Serve, and IB CAS provide ways for students to get involved with the community, but does that take away from volunteering?

There are two sides to required volunteer hours.

Lisa Renard Spicer is the International Baccalaureate coordinator for students. To graduate in full IB, students are required to complete Creative Active Service. This allows students to only show activity and involvement throughout the year. At the end of every month they reflect on what they did in the previous month and what they are planning to do next through junior and senior year. Lisa Renard explained that this process shows that it is part of their life rather than students rushing to write down hours or activities to get it done. Everyone is also required to do a service project in those two years that is more intensive. The benefits of this requirement are to have whole learners instead of “kids marching forward like an army of egg heads,” Renard said. She explained that balancing your education is a big part of IB, so CAS is about not only learning academically it is about giving back to your community, being physically fit and healthy, and it’s about challenging your brain creatively. People moan and groan sometimes when they have to get hours, so it really is only for some people. Though, many students end up enjoying it, and carry on with it through college. “Sometimes if you don’t have a requirement to try and push you to try new things, you don’t find those things out,” Renard said. Renard explained that she sees both sides of the coin, especially when it’s mandatory vs. voluntary. “It all has to do with your attitude and how you approach it,” Renard said.

Junior Sara Whitworth is participating in CAS and finds it beneficial. She explained that there is a merit in helping your community or volunteering, and that she loves seeing that smile on their face when they say thank you.“That’s a really rewarding aspect of helping others,” Whitworth said. Many students will show initiative in the classroom and not outside of the classroom. She explained that many colleges look at what you do outside of school rather than just inside. She believes that this program definitely sets you up for later in life. Learn and Serve teacher Stacey Adams explains the focus of her class is with volunteering. Learn and Serve requires 70 hours to pass at the end of the year and 150 hours if you

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Goodbye cursive, hello technology

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Cursive writing is a traditional skill that has been replaced with technology.

by Callie Walker

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nce considered an important aspect of school education, cursive writing is now slowly disappearing from classrooms into an abyss.

With most classrooms having new lessons that don’t require such instruction, cursive could soon be eliminated from public schools. If public schools don’t teach students how to write in cursive, then who will?

For many students, cursive is becoming foreign as to when students used slates and chalk to write.

An example that cursive has no part in many teens lives is when students took the PSAT. A vast majority of the students were talking about how the hardest part of the PSAT was writing a sentence or two in cursive. Hopefully they were just overexerting the difficulty of cursive.

Why are public schools not teaching cursive anymore? What could possibly be replacing the good ol’ cursive writing? Technology. This one simple word is changing the way students learn and work. The rise of technology could mean the downfall of cursive writing.

The loss of handwriting takes away some of the humanity of communication. Technological advances have made writing a more cumbersome process compared to typing or using voice to text options on smart phones.

Typing is good and all but there’s a big down fall to typing. A lot of students use spell check to correct their spelling errors and don’t know how to spell a lot of the words.

They count on spell check to fix their mistakes instead of learning the words and writing them down making the student’s vocabulary span very limited.

Although typing skills are a must in a technological future, a legible signature is also still needed for daily life. People are increasingly communicating by computer and smart phone. No handwritten signature necessary.

How important is typing when students are older really? History teacher Ms. Tyler said, “When you’re older, you basically type up everything but having a written signature is very important because you sign for a lot of things when your older and you can’t type your signature.”

Knowing how to type and how to create documents on a computer is obviously important and for most people, writing in cursive is a rare event. Once more efficient than print, typing is more efficient than either form of writing by hand. And as such cursive may seem like an extraneous skill.

Why keep it, though, in a keyboard era? Students are taught cursive in third grade, but after that they are on their own to choose to pursue it or not.

Already in schools, 41 of the 50 United States no longer require public schools to include cursive reading or writing as part of the curriculum.

IB English teacher Theresa Gaddy was taught cursive in school and she has noticed a decrease in the ability of cursive writing in teenagers today. She said, “Technology has made it so that we really don’t need cursive writing, so I really don’t know why people are clinging to it like it’s the best thing that ever was. As long as there are ways for people to sign their name either electronic or by hand.”

All across the country, the elaborate curls on the letter “Q” and the elegance of a scripted “Z” are vanishing into the archives of history.

Many students and older peers aren’t sad to see cursive slowly being taken away but that isn’t the case for many other students.

Senior Josh Guillemette is one of the few who still like cursive. He said, “I still really like the look of cursive. Too bad it’s a dying art.”

Jasmin Shelton was taught cursive in elementary and like many others who were taught at a younger age cursive has slipped from her mind. Jasmin said, “I think that it’s something many people need to know how to write and to read especially when your trying to get a job. Your boss might write in cursive because I guess it’s quicker and that’s what they knew how to do more of. So I think cursive is very important.”

Cursive and technology is a love-hate situation for many people all over the world, but would cursive really be that missed if technology takes over the cursive system?

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by Alex Harrington

uring the transition between fall and winter, students usually start to slow down and feel like the year is dragging on. Juniors and seniors especially feel this because their high school life is almost over. This does not give them the excuse to slow down and take it easy in their classes. It is actually the time to push harder and get better grades.

Colleges do look at all your grades throughout your high school carrier , contrary to belief. Do not feel alone if in your senior year your grades start to drop. This is not uncommon. In your senior year, colleges mainly look at your first semester grades. However, if the grades are sent out after the college administrator has looked over your application, they will evaluate it.

College administrators will greatly appreciate it if the grades are in a rising trend. Showing an improvement in grades goes a long way in their minds. This does not mean having low grades at the beginning of your high school carrier and improving them will be a benefit. In fact this will damage your odds of being accepted.

A majority of high school students complete their graduation requirements in their junior year , and take the “easy A” classes or electives senior year. When administrators look at these classes, it discourages them from considering your admission. Try to chooses the harder electives over the “easy A”.

Even if your not interested in a particular class, and it is the most challenging class available, take it. If you are academically capable you should try and take these classes. In most cases the teachers are passionate and want their students to become passionate to.

When it comes to the balancing act of school work and out of school activities, it can be hard to find the happy medium.

Colleges want to see strong time management skills. They are more interested in seeing a strong involvement in few activities. It is better to organize a fund raiser in two activities than to be a face in the crowd in five.

Most common senior year mistakes

Skipping class

Getting overwhelmed

Mismanaging your time

Second semester doesn’t count

Confusing priorities

Daydreaming

Senioritis

Forgetting to study

The long road ahead

Remembering your priorities and staying organized are essential to colleges.

Blowing off “less important work” february 2015 l the viewpoint EXTRA l 7

Bits and bytes How to build your own computer. by Dekker Jordan Computer building:

It is always surprising to me when people tell me they are impressed I built my own computer, because it isn’t that hard once you have gotten a basic understanding of computers. Having said that, it’s still something that needs explaining before you go digging around in a computer case.

The basics:

First, before anything else, let me explain what makes a computer tick in the basic sense. There are several key things every computer needs: a processor, memory, and storage. A core processing unit (CPU) is best likened to the human brain in that it is where logic is applied, allowing a computer to perform tasks. Memory is how the CPU access tasks through the use of the operating system, which is the program that delegates tasks to the CPU. RAM, or random access memory, is the almost universally used memory storage method do-to it being faster than most alternative methods. RAM, though, is volatile memory, which means when you turn off a computer all memory stored in RAM is lost. A hard drive, on the other hand, is read-only memory (ROM) that does keep memory even after a computer is turned off, but as mentioned before is slower to retrieve information from. Hard drives and disks are a form of memory storage where information is stored until the CPU calls upon it. RAM is where information that is retrieved is kept so that it is accessible to the CPU quicker if it is called for use again.

case. After that its just a matter of gently screwing it into the case in the corresponding slots. The RAM chips for memory will come in 4 GB, 8GB, and 16GB packs, I’d recommend at least 8 GB. These go in one of four (maybe more) slots near the CPU, what kind of DDR memory it takes and other relevant info should be available in the manual of the motherboard. Then you should just firmly but gently insert the RAM into the recommended slots until they are locked into place.

The core:

Hopefully you have been careful with this whole process up to this point, but you need to be extra careful with the next bit: putting the CPU in first requires you have a mother board with the correct slot configuration. Check that when you get both the motherboard and CPU. My Intel i5 core was compatible with an LGA1150 slot for example, so I

Now, let’s start with the case, and the first thing one must understand is that cases come in different sizes and have different sized fittings for components.

My case for example is about medium size and has an ATX layout, so parts that are ATX compatible fit in it. There are also seven bays for things like CD and hard drives, four that are 5.25” and three that are 3.5” and don’t worry, that is just a way of saying a drives dimensions in one number.

All drives should come sized in numbers like these and if the bay and driver size are the same they should fit. Unfortunately, many drives don’t come with the wires to connect to the motherboard, but they should have these at a local electronics store.

The wire you need may very from drive to drive so make sure you check what kind you needed before you go and buy one.

The blinky bits:

Now before you get any drives of any kind you should probably get a motherboard, memory and a CPU. Now as I said earlier my case was ATX compatible so I needed an ATX motherboard. There aren’t too many different configurations out there for motherboards but make sure your board fits your

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The pretty bits:

Now the reason most people build their own computer is to game, and you can’t build a gaming rig if you don’t have the right Graphics Processing Unit (GPU). At this point installing the GPU should be self explanatory, but in case your confused, take a look at the slots that aren’t RAM and put it in the one it fits into closest to the CPU. Remember to be gentle but firm so that it doesn’t move around on its slot and then screw it securely into place. It’s best you do this before you hook up the power supply to anything, because if you got a big one you’ll need to understand how much room you have. Speaking of which make sure the dimensions your GPU allow it to fit where you want to put it or your going to be like me and left crying in a corner with a useless GPU that didn’t fit in the case.

got a motherboard with that slot. Then follow the instructions you very likely got with it to the letter and you should be fine. Again, be very careful, the core is sensitive to the electric charge of your body so make sure you have taken precautions against static while handling. A fan probably came with your CPU, the instructions should explain its installation, but before you put it on, check to see if it has thermal paste on it. If not go and get some to apply on the core where the fan touches it, and don’t go overboard. After that follow the installation instructions closely, being gentle but firm, and you should be good.

The muscle:

Now another vital thing you need is the power supply. Again, check its case compatibility. I can’t stress that enough. I also would get a modular one; it will allow you to swap out the wires as

Internet and powering up:

Let us not forget the Internet in all this as what is the point of a computer in the modern age if it can’t connect to the Internet? Here there are two choices. First is to hook directly up to the router with an HDMI cable which you could be able to acquire with some shopping around. Alternatively you could do what I did and get a wireless adapter. You can get two kinds: ones you hook into the motherboard, and ones that hook into HDMI ports (these look a lot like flash drive). I personally wouldn’t get anything less than one running at around 450 MBPS (mega bites per second). Once this, typically, last step is accomplished its OK to hook up the power supply, turn that switch into the on position and press the power button. Now at this point you should have attached a monitor and that should be giving you the motherboards built in operating system user interface. Once everything checks out here you should start the installation of an actual operating system. At this point, it’s just a matter of installing all the drivers and such that came with the various things in your computer. Now you’re home free and should be on your way to finishing your personally built computer.

Dekker Jordan

The encapsulation:

oppose to them being irremovable and cluttering up vital space inside the case. Then once you have it screwed in, proceed to wire everything. There should be wires for drives, a main power cable for the motherboard, another cord to attach to the motherboard, and if you got a graphics card, you’re going to need to hook that up as well. It looks like more than it actually is and you shouldn’t need to many wires, maybe five or six, anymore than that and you might have gone too far, any less than five and you’re encountering a power problem and you probably missed one.