Octagon 2016-17 issue 8

THE

OCTAGON

VOL. 40, NO. 8

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Sacramento Country Day School

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2636 Latham Drive, Sacramento

Non-Profit Organization U.S. POSTAGE PAID Sacramento, CA Permit No. 1668 @scdsoctagon

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May 30, 2017

International students accuse study-abroad agency of mistreatment

BY SONJA HANSEN

SEE SPECIAL FEATURE, PAGE 7

School scores seven-year WASC accreditation, recomendations for change None of these recommendations caught the faculty off guard, according to head of school Lee Thomsen. aving earned a seven-year “What’s interesting about this proaccreditation, the school is cess is if you do well as a school, nothworking on the six major ing that comes up in the major recrecommendations of the ommendations will be a surprise beWestern Association of Schools and cause you’ve identified them already Colleges (WASC) and California in the self-study,” Thomsen said.

Association of Independent Schools The self-study, an evaluation that (CAIS). was started in AuAfter a team from gust and completed WASC and CAIS on Dec. 1, allowed visited March 13-15, Country Day to re‘IT’S A 30,000the school received flect on its strengths the accreditation in FOOT VIEW OF and weaknesses. late April along with The visiting team THE SCHOOL’ the visiting team’s reread the report before LEE THOMSEN, port. visiting the school to The primary recHEAD OF SCHOOL make an assessment. ommendations inThomsen and asclude undertaking a sistant head of school “comprehensive” straTucker Foehl agreed that the most tegic planning process; undertaking obvious recommendation to tackle an internal and external marketing is undertaking a strategic planning effort; creating a professional devel- process. opment plan for faculty and adminisThe Board of Trustees and differtration; and establishing “clear, trans- ent constituents of the school (the parent and constructive communica- administration, the faculty and some tion” among the Board of Trustees, parents and alumni) will begin creatadministration and faculty. ing a five-year strategic plan for the

BY SAHEJ CLAIRE

H

BINDER BRIEFING Head of school Lee Thomsen sits with the 2004 CAIS/WASC report binder containing that year’s recommendations from the evaluation team and other comments about the school. PHOTO BY JACQUELINE CHAO

school in August.

Francis Zhang (father of sophomore Allison) will chair the strategic planning committee.

The plan will cover a number of elements, including school programs, finances and new buildings.

“It’s a 30,000-foot view of the school,” Thomsen said. “It’s a big umbrella (type of plan).”

content will be the same.

“These will both be big topics when we come back to school in the fall as they coincide,” Foehl said.

“We aim to submit our action plan and finish our strategic plan at about the same time.”

In addition to beginning strategic

WASC page 6 >>

Octagon, Student Council, Medallion introduce new positions for 2017-18

Consolidating two databases, elective classes change to semesters

“It was too much for a single person.”

Fels and the current print editors-in-chief, seniors Adam Dean and The Octagon Marigot Fackenthal, also created some A triumvirate has returned to the Oc- new positions. tagon for the first time since 2013-14, Sophomores Mohini Rye and Allison with next year’s print editors-in-chief Zhang will be design editors in charge being juniors Annya and Katia Dahmani of making sure each issue is aesthetically and Sonja Hansen. cohesive.

And next year there Another new posiwill be two online edtion is media/broadcast itors-in-chief - junior editor, which will be ‘IT WAS TOO Sahej Claire and sophfilled by Jake Longoria.

MUCH FOR A omore Chardonnay His assistants will be SINGLE PERSON’ Needler. junior Bryce Longoria According to adviser and freshman David PATRICIA FELS, Patricia Fels, the workSitu.

OCTAGON ADVISER load for the online ediFels and the edition has surpassed what tors-in-chief created the one person can handle. media/broadcast editor “(Current online editor-in-chief Sonja to enhance and expand the multimedia Hansen and I) would be reading stories on the Octagon website. until late at night or early in the morning According to Fels, adding “something since we’re now publishing three to four (stories) per day,” Fels said.

NEW POSITIONS page 6 >>

BY CHARDONNAY NEEDLER

BY BRI DAVIES During the 2017-18 school year, high-school students will have to brush up on adding fractions with different denominators.

Currently, students choose three electives each year that run on a trimester schedule, while the core academic classes run on a semester schedule.

After much faculty deliberation, the decision was made to switch the electives to a semester schedule to align with the academic schedule, according to head

Country Day’s previous strategic plan is expiring this year, according to Thomsen.

In addition to a strategic plan, the school must submit an action plan to CAIS by Dec. 1 as a response to the report. Though the action plan is separate from the strategic plan - one for CAIS and one for the school, respectively - Foehl said that much of the

SCOOTER SKEDADDLE Junior Ulises Barajas and sophomore Emily Hayes race for a puck in scooter hockey during an elective I PE class. PHOTO BY JACQUELINE CHAO

of high school Brooke Wells.

He said that simplicity was one of the motivating factors, though there were other considerations.

Most importantly, the new schedule will allow the administration to consolidate two databases into one.

Now, the administration works from two databases - one for core semester academic classes and another for trimester electives -

due to the program’s inability to process the scheduling and grade reports for the two different grading cycles.

“No other school does it the way we currently do, and it’s so extraordinarily common for all of the classes to be on the same schedule, so (combining the schedules) seems like it makes the

ELECTIVES page 14 >>

2

THE OCTAGON

FEATURE

May 30, 2017

BEARDED BELL Above, English teacher Ron Bell, his wife Joanne, his daughter Alexandra, and Alexandra’s husband Tré attend a friend’s wedding. His daughter is expecting a son at the end of the summer, whom they are planning to name Theodore. PHOTO USED BY PERMISSION OF RON BELL. At right, Bell teaches his junior English class about Pulitzer prize-winning poet Philip Levine. PHOTO BY QUIN LACOMB

When art imitates life

English teacher’s novel gets real as he’s ‘going to the desert after this’

BY QUIN LACOMB

“

Going to the desert after this.”

This six-word autobiography may have been written for a fictional character, but English teacher Ron Bell seems to be living up to what he wrote five years ago.

After teaching at Country Day for 18 years, Bell has decided to retire to explore different places, write poetry and continue past writing projects, the main one being that of the character for whom the earlier autobiography was written.

Set in the small town of Borrego Springs in the Anza-Borrego State Park (just south of Coachella Valley in Southern California), Bell’s story is about a retired physics professor who

moves to the desert.

“I wrote ‘Going to the desert after In the desert, the professor has an this,’ so I created a character who did “uncanny experience” with a chu- that,” Bell said. “Why did I write what pcabra, a mythical creature from the I wrote? I wrote about the SouthAmericas, and a west because it just character who apoccurred to me. I pears to be a mystetaught my creative rious Native Amerwriting students ‘I WROTE ‘GOING TO ican shaman, but just to write what THE DESERT AFTER may be some sort came to them. of other mystical “It was near THIS,’ SO I CREATED being.

Halloween at the A CHARACTER WHO This project time, and I thought, DID THAT’ started when Bell ‘What’s spooky? A gave his creative chupacabra!’ And RON BELL, TEACHER writing class an asthen I went from signment to write a there. six-word autobiog“I wrote the story raphy, develop a main character from and thought that it was fun, so I dethat, and then go on to develop a full cided to write a series of stories constory. taining these characters.”

Bell described the completed work as being something like an episodic novel with characters who pass in and out of each other’s lives, but so far he’s written only the first two installments, with the working titles “Chupacabra” and “Shaman and Professor.”

“It’s kind of focused on the identity of the mystery man,” Bell said. “Is he an actual Native American, a mystical being or a fraud? I haven’t quite resolved the plot yet.”

According to Bell, he’s had fun creating the characters and deciding how they interact because they come from many different backgrounds and cultures and have many different philosophies.

“There’s one guy who descended from the 1930s midwestern Okie mi-

‘Uncle Dan’ says goodbye after 44 years at school

BY MEHDI LACOMBE

AP DRESS-UP History teacher Daniel Neukom, Kelley Taber, ‘84, and senior Zane Jakobs pose before the AP European History exam on May 12. The whole class joined Neukom in dressing up for the day and, per tradition, participated in their class cheer, which began in 2000, prior to the exam. PHOTO USED BY PERMISSION OF TABER

After 44 years teaching history, 31 years teaching AP European History, 25 years as dean of students, a year teaching abroad in England and one year as the AP coordinator, Daniel Neukom will retire this year.

Neukom said he has been planning his retirement for a few years.

“Too many people I know went from full time to being fully retired, and they found it very difficult,” Neukom said.

“You’re working very hard, you’re very busy, and suddenly you have a lot of free time and not much meaning in life.”

That is why Neukom chose to teach exclusively AP European History for the last three years. That meant that Neukom had to be on campus for only about two hours every day. One hour was spent teaching, and the other was spent planning

gration, one guy whose ancestors are Californios (who are descended from early Spanish settlers) and, of course, there are Native American and Mexican-American characters,” Bell said.

“The main character is of Basque descent, which represents the ethnicity of the early conquistadors. It’s like a cross section of the different peoples who made up California.”

Bell said that he’s already studied the Native American culture of the Anza-Borrego area a bit for the development of his stories, but he plans to travel down there to learn even more.

But on top of going to Southern California to do research for his story, he’s going there because it’s where

ancients have a lot to teach us,” Neukom said. “Humanity has not changed that much over the centuries, over the millennia.”

Yet Neukom was not only a teacher during his time at classes or grading papers.

“This has been great; it (has) Country Day. He was also the properly prepared me for retire- dean of students.

“It was really great to be ment,” Neukom said. “It’s much teaching all the freshmen (while more relaxed.”

Although AP European being dean) because I got to History has been Neukom’s know all of them,” Neukom said.

“To know only class them in the for the past classroom but three years, also as people he hasn’t al‘(AP EURO) WOULD allowed me ways taught it. to do my job BE ONE OF MY TOPWhen he first much better.” started teachTHREE CLASSES OF It wasn’t ing 44 years MY HIGH-SCHOOL until 13 years ago, SCDS after he startAND COLLEGE had no AP ed teaching classes. BeCAREER’ that Neukom fore teaching KELLEY TABER, ‘84 taught one AP Euro at of the first SCDS, NeuAP classes at kom taught seventh-grade world history, Country Day in 1986.

Among the students in that high-school U.S. history and very first AP Euro class was Western civilizations.

But he said his favorite class current president of the Board was freshman Ancient/Medie- of Trustees, Kelley Taber, ‘84.

And 33 years later, Taber still val History. “(Ancient/Medieval Histo- remembers the class well.

“When I look back on the ry) was the course closest to my heart because I think the classes that had the biggest im-

BELL page 4 >>

pact on me, (AP Euro) would be one of my top-three classes of my high-school and college career,” Taber said. “(Neukom’s) freshman history class would probably be on that list, too.”

Taber said she enjoyed AP European History because of Neukom’s ability to make history come alive.

“He was so enthusiastic about the history, people and significance that historic events had on people who experienced them as they unfolded,” Taber said.

And he also captivated his students with reading from outside the textbook, she said, allowing them to connect with key figures in history.

One of these was “1066: The Year of the Conquest,” a book about the Norman conquest of England.

Taber said that reading about all these colorful characters brought them and the events alive.

In Taber’s class Neukom also required students to attend cultural activities, such as a play or a classical concert for “culture points.”

NEUKOM page 4 >>

May 30, 2017

THE OCTAGON

FEATURE

3

Baird leaves legacy of skits, stories, holiday traditions after 15 years teaching history

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fter 15 years of humorous anecdotes, memorable graduation skits and the unusual holiday “Bairdmas,” teacher Bruce Baird is retiring.

ing Baird into famous pictures.

His face has been photo-edited onto figures from WWII, politicians and actors - like Douglas MacArthur, Donald Rumsfeld and Bruce Lee. These pictures hang on the walls in

BY NICOLE WOLKOV his room.

A more recent picture by senior Mac Scott features Baird’s face phoBaird taught sophomore world to-edited onto the face of “Breaking cultures, junior U.S. history and se- Bad’s” main character, Walter White. nior World War II history.

It’s titled “Breaking Baird.”

Senior Christian Van Vleck, who While his students showed their took Baird’s world cultures class and affection for Baird through their outis currently taking his World War II landish photo-edits, Baird showed class, said that he will always remem- his support for them by often attendber Baird’s skits because they are un- ing sports games. filtered and use a variety of voices and Skovran Cunningham, ‘15, who impressions. took all three of Baird’s classes and According to Baird, he started do- was his advisee, fondly remembers ing impressions when he was young, seeing Baird at soccer, baseball, basimpersonating trumpeter and sing- ketball and lacrosse games. Baird er Louis Armstrong even before his would often go to home games and voice broke. even some away games, he said.

“At the end of my first year here “He was always super loud and (2002), the students talked me into would cheer for individual players,” doing the talent Cunningham show,” he said. said.

“Even if “So I did there were only Cookie Mon‘EVEN IF THERE WERE 10 people at ster and my the game, he’d (Spanish) triONLY 10 PEOPLE AT THE yell like it was alogue (a diGAME, HE’D YELL LIKE IT h om e c om i n g. alogue with WAS HOMECOMING’ You could althree speakers). ways tell it was The students SKOVRAN him.” laughed, and CUNNINGHAM, ‘15 they applaudCunninged for a minute ham, who was with a standing in Baird’s adovation.” visory for three years, also helped to Baird said that this started a popu- decorate for Bairdmas. larity that he never understood.

Since 2008, Baird’s students have “Any time there was a faculty in- decorated his classroom with an evtroduction, the students would give ergreen tree before winter break. me standing ovations and cheer,” he Ornaments, lights and tinsel hang around the periphery of the room. As said.

“No one wanted to be introduced of 2015, there has even been a lightup green dinosaur in the corner. This after me.”

An example of Baird’s popularity holiday was started by Colin Keiner, is his students’ hobby of photo-edit- ‘11.

GHOSTLY GOLF After resisting for months, history teacher Bruce Baird finally agreed to go mini golfing with his advisees, George Cvetich and Skovran Cunningham, ‘15. According to Cunnigham, Baird won the game. PHOTO USED BY PERMISSION OF CUNNINGHAM

THE BAIRD BUNCH History teacher Bruce Baird’s advisory gathers at the Thanksgiving lunch in 2014. His advisory was comprised of all seniors in the class of ‘15. PHOTO USED BY PERMISSION OF SKOVRAN CUNNIGHAM

According to Baird, junior Keiner put a decorated Christmas tree in his classroom over the weekend.

Then the sophomores took advantage of the tree to do a secret Santa gift exchange. Baird participated, and Zach Lemos, ‘12, gave him a Santa costume. While wearing the costume, Baird went around the campus caroling with his students. The next year Keiner brought the tree in again, and the tradition has continued ever since.

Van Vleck, who brought the tree for this year’s Bairdmas, said he immediately knew he wanted to take another class with Baird after sophomore year, despite Baird’s notoriously hard multiple-choice tests.

“When people think of Dr. Baird, his tests come to mind,” Van Vleck said.

“But I really like his teaching style because it teaches you how to take tests, get help and work with a teacher.”

Cunningham, who also found Baird’s test questions challenging, would record Baird’s lectures. He’d listen to them while sleeping every night a week before the tests. After doing this, Cunningham said he felt more confident and once received a 10 out of 10 on the multiple-choice section of a test.

However, Cunningham said that he had some “weird dreams” while listening to Baird’s lectures.

Baird is also known for his thought-provoking essay questions.

“Dr. Baird makes you evaluate both sides of the story in his classes and especially his essays, even if the other side is less thought-about,” Van Vleck said.

He also said that the class was entertaining because Baird is very animated and pantomimes stories when he gives lectures.

“We were talking about Great Zimbabwe, and he pulled up a pic-

ture of a Stonehenge-like ruin,” Van with the Northern California 9/11 Vleck said.

Truth Alliance. This group, however, “He told a story about how he wasn’t interested in youth outreach, visited there and was surrounded by and Baird said that he’ll have to do monkeys, and dramatized how he was things on his own.

Baird said that he has “given up on going to fight them.” old people and looked toward young Stories like these will be recorded and expanded upon in Baird’s You- people because they are willing to look at things without blinders.”

Tube videos.

He has addressed controversial Baird is recording these stories topics each year in his classes and has to share with students and alumni.

He has already recorded “Dr. Baird received generally positive responses Dunks a Basketball,” “Dr. Baird De- from students, he said.

Cunningham is one of these. clares Jihad,” “Dr. Baird Orders Chinese Food in Poland” and “Dr. Baird “In other history classes, teachers Goes Face-to-Butt with the Mother present information as fact, but Dr. of all Grizzly Bears.” (For more infor- Baird would give controversial information, go online.) mation and let us think for ourselves,” Baird said he wanted to start with he said.

“We discussed conspiracies about personal stories that his students Pearl Harbor, would remember, JFK’s assassinabut add a cometion, 9/11 and dic twist.

(Holocaust sur“My natural ‘MY NATURAL STYLE IS vivor) Elie Wiestyle is to be an TO BE AN ACTOR ON sel, but he never actor on stage; forced his ideas STAGE; HUMOR AND humor and comon anyone.” edy are a big part COMEDY ARE A BIG Cunningham of (my personaliPART OF (MY PERSONsaid that Baird ty),” he said. wanted his stuALITY)’ “I don’t like dents to formuto get serious.

BRUCE BAIRD, TEACHER late and defend Besides, (using their own opinhumor) is a way ions. to build an audience.”

“I like being able to think of histoAlthough he’s starting with come- ry as something that’s not so cut and dy, he said he is also open to discuss- dried,” Cunningham said. ing history, philosophy and politics.

“Dr. Baird was willing to let us “I would like to take whatever think about things that other teachknowledge I have and convert it into ers would be too uncomfortable more political stuff,” Baird said. talking about.”

“I could be as controversial as I According to Cunningham, he want, but I would put this on a sepa- and other advisees - Ethan Ham, ‘15, rate YouTube channel.”

George Cvetich, ‘15 and Chris LisBaird was originally inspired to ton, ‘15 - started calling Baird “Dad” make a YouTube channel after of- in sophomore year.

“He’d respond to it, and I could fering extra credit to his students for submitting suggestions of ways to kind of tell he liked it, but he would reach youth when he was working never admit it,” Cunningham said.

4

THE OCTAGON

REMAINDER

May 30, 2017

Neukom: Mother, son both take AP Euro 33 years apart (continued from page 2) Taber remembers one student, Craig LaBare, ‘84, complaining to Neukom about heavy-metal concerts not counting for these points. “(LaBare) said that if I could go to plays and classical music performances, which I would go to anyway, and get points, then he should get points for heavy metal concerts,” Taber said. “In the end, Mr. Neukom decided that if (LaBare) could get me to go to a concert, then we could write about it for points.”

Taber said she did attend The Scorpions’ concert with LaBare. And Neukom gave them both the points.

Neukom also encouraged his students to ex‘HE TEACHES perience new (HISTORY) cultures through restaurants.

KIND OF LIKE “One time he HE’S TELLING A took our class STORY’ to the DeYoung museum in San QUIN LACOMB, Francisco, and he SENIOR brought all of us to an Indonesian restaurant to try ‘rijsttafel’ (a meal comprised of many rice-based side dishes),” Taber said. “The dish was a product of the Dutch influence in Indonesia. We could relate our study of Dutch colonialism and the influence of the Dutch East India Company with the food.”

Taber said she was thrilled to hear that her oldest son, senior Zane Jakobs, could take both of Neukom’s classes, including AP Euro.

“One of the things I’ve enjoyed so much is being able to relive the contents of the class,”

DAN THE MAN History teacher Daniel Neukom instructs seniors in his seminar “Automobile Maintenance” on how to properly wash and wax a car. Senior Zane Jakobs’ s car was used to demonstrate. PHOTO BY JACK CHRISTIAN

Taber said. “(As it did for) me, the class has made a huge impact on Zane - not just the facts and names of European history but also the significance of the events and the choices these people made thousands of years ago.”

Even though culture points are no longer part of the class, the style of AP Euro is still largely the same, according to senior Quin LaComb.

“He teaches (history) kind of like he’s telling a story, which I suppose it is to some extent,” LaComb said. “He makes you imagine how it feels to go through that event, and I think that’s because through his teaching, he brings infor-

mation from people of the time and tries to tell it through their eyes.”

Even in retirement, Neukom won’t stop teaching. Through the Sacramento Public Library, Neukom plans to volunteer to tutor illiterate people.

“They may not know how to keep a checkbook, understand a credit card bill or register a car,” Neukom said. “Because they can’t read or write and have no experience with these things, (I’ll) work with them individually on their specific needs.”

The program will require Neukom to come in

a few hours a week.

However, Neukom said he doesn’t really know what he will do beyond that.

“That’s a good question,” Neukom said. “People always talk about traveling, but that will be hard to do with my wife (English teacher Patricia Fels) working.”

Although Neukom is choosing to end his career at Country Day, he said he loved what he did.

“Being in the classroom has always been a great joy,” Neukom said. “That’s the best part of education: being with the students.”

Bell: Chupacabras, mysterious shamans, grandchild await retiring English teacher (continued from page 2) his daughter (Alexandra, ’07) and son-in-law live, and at the end of the summer he’s due to have a grandson, who will be named Theodore.

Bell is also quite optimistic about the future of his position at Country Day, which will be filled next year by Jason Hinojosa.

“I’ve already read Hinojosa’s novel (‘The Last Lawsons’), and I was impressed by it,” Bell said. “I thought it

was quite good. I’m actually donating my copy to the library at Country Day.” Bell said Hinojosa will likely have a different teaching style and focus on different material.

But this isn’t necessarily bad in Bell’s eyes.

“Hinojosa is coming here with an advanced degree in creative writing,” Bell said. “I would hope that he urges the school to allow him to teach a creative writing elective.

“Students here want to write, and I think that he could do it very well.”

Bell said that he has enjoyed teaching Country Day students because they are interesting people who are committed to learning.

“It felt like I was making a worthwhile contribution to come and share what I knew about certain things,” Bell said. “The students always gave feedback that was helpful.

“I also liked the atmosphere at Country Day. It was a very relaxed

SPITTING IMAGE English teacher Ron Bell stands in front of a portrait drawn by senior Austin Talamantes. Bell was nicknamed “God” due to his vast knowledge. Years ago, the school received a warning from Wikipedia when students changed Wikipedia’s definition of “God” to “Ron Bell.” Despite this, the nickname stuck. PHOTO BY JACQUELINE CHAO

and jovial atmosphere, while still seriously learning about things. I enjoyed interacting with my colleagues to the extent that I did. The teacher community was interesting as well.

“A lot of people talk about communities, but I was never really attracted to a sense of community. I’ve always actually been more of a loner. How-

ever, I never minded being a part of this community.”

But as the end of this year comes around, this soon-to-be-retired professor will leave the community to explore a desert.

Hopefully he won’t encounter any mysterious shamans or chupacabras there.

THE OCTAGON

May 30, 2017

SPORTS

AIDAN CUNNINGHAM

PHOTO BY KEVIN HUANG

5

PHOTO BY JACQUELINE CHAO

EMIL ERICKSON

PHOTO BY BENETT SACKHEIM

PHOTO BY KEVIN HUANG PHOTO BY KATIA DAHMANI

Teams will miss multifaceted athletic seniors

BY KATIA DAHMANI

A

fter playing catcher in the first game, senior Emil Erickson rushes from his baseball doubleheader to his tennis match. And then after finishing the match, he drives back to the baseball game in time for the third inning.

This was the struggle Erickson faced as he devoted much of his time to playing sports across all seasons.

Country Day teams often struggle to fill their rosters, and most students play a couple sports per year. But two seniors have dedicated their highschool careers to playing as many sports as possible across all seasons.

Senior Aidan Cunningham has participated in boys’ soccer, varsity basketball, lacrosse, baseball, cross country, and ski and snowboarding, while Erickson has competed on the boys’ basketball, baseball, ski and snowboarding, cross country, tennis, and soccer teams.

On multiple occasions Erickson has played in matches when he wasn’t even on the team due to a lack of players.

Erickson filled in for a lacrosse match and a golf match in his junior year and ran a cross country meet as a sophomore.

Although Erickson had no prior experience with any of these sports, he adjusted quickly because he’s a

well-rounded athlete, he said.

For instance, during the lacrosse game, Erickson scored two goals.

“I wasn’t that great at throwing the ball,” Erickson said. “But I still easily adjusted because of the hand-eye coordination I (had already) developed in baseball.”

And Erickson’s natural talent is why athletic director Matt Vargo often approaches Erickson to fill out a team.

Erickson’s a very good overall athlete with great time management, which means it’s no problem for him to play a last-minute game, Vargo said.

Erickson is generally open to helping a team out last second because he knows how hard it is for a team not to play just because they’re missing a player.

But this is athletics at Country Day; teams are strapped for players.

And although Cunningham hasn’t ever filled in at the last minute, he said he would be glad to.

Along with helping out teams here and there, both seniors play a plethora of sports across all seasons.

“I prefer playing more than one sport because then I’m less likely to burn out of a sport,” Cunningham said.

That’s why when deciding between his high-school choices of Christian

BASEBALL BOYS The 2016-17 baseball team poses for their spring picture. The team, led by coach Chris Millsback, finished with an overall 9-7 record. This season, senior Emil Erickson (top row, far left) played center field, and senior Aidan Cunningham (top row, second from right) played first base. PHOTO BY JACQUELINE CHAO

Sports Boosters’ Athletes of the Month Nate Jakobs

Jakobs was awarded first-team allleague and the baseball team’s most valuable player at the spring sports banquet on May 25. He had a .556 batting average and a .938 fielding percentage. He also had 25 hits, 23 RBIs, and 27 runs.

Heidi Johnson

In the League Championship Finals, Johnson placed first in the varsity women’s 300-meter hurdles race, long jump and triple jump. And although she’s only a sophomore, she’s one step from state championships.

Paid for by our generous Sports Boosters.

For information, please see SCDS homepage under the Quicklink “Parents.”

Brothers, Jesuit, and Country Day, Cunningham chose to attend SCDS, where he could play as many sports as he wanted despite a lack of experience or particular talent.

In fact, Cunningham has never concentrated on one sport. In middle school he played soccer and lacrosse, although he played lacrosse more than any sport until he broke his arm freshman year and fell off competitively.

Erickson primarily played soccer as a child, but he was still active in other sports, he said.

Both of their athletic trends continued on into high school, where they instantly became top-tier athletes in their class.

Basketball coach David Ancrum said that Cunningham is one of the best athletes he’s been around in his 17 years at Country Day. “He can play pretty much every sport, he’s tough, and most importantly he’s mentally strong,” Ancrum said. “Whether it’s a bigger or faster guy, it doesn’t matter; he always competes.”

Baseball coach Chris Millsback praised Erickson for being “an amazing centerfielder this year.

“Not many balls dropped in for hits when (Erickson) was in the outfield,” Millsback said.

Erickson’s athletic talent proves to

ATHLETIC SENIORS page 14 >>

6

THE OCTAGON

REMAINDER

May 30, 2017

New positions: No more events chair, Walsworth (continued from page 1) extra” to online stories - even those that run in the print - was one of the critiquer’s major suggestions at the JEA/NSPA National High School Journalism Convention in April.

“We want to increase the audio and video online because that’s where news is going,” Fels said.

The new print editors-in-chief will be dividing the work and writing more stories, Hansen said.

Annya added that one of their main goals will be to make the process of running the print and online easier for the adviser who replaces Fels after she retires.

To accomplish this, all five editors-in-chief and Fels will give lessons in the elective to the underclassmen, rotating every class.

Student Council As for Student Council, junior Nina Dym will be the president, and

OCTAGON

junior Harkirat Lally will be the vice president.

And this year, unlike years previous, class representatives will have more responsibilities, Dym said.

At the top of Dym’s priority list is an idea she and adviser Patricia Jacobsen thought of early this year having a fun event every other Friday.

The leaders of these activities, ranging from group games to free hot chocolate, will be senior class representatives Jake Longoria and Nico Burns; junior class representatives Luca Procida and Tori Van Vleck; sophomore class representatives Jackson Margolis and Garrett Shonkwiler; and the freshman class representatives, who are to be chosen in the fall.

Student Council is also replacing the events chair position with a new dance chair position, which sophomore Monique Lonergan will fill.

Jacobsen said Lonergan’s skillsets led to the creation of the new chair.

CHARDONNAY SAHEJ NEEDLER CLAIRE ONLINE EDITORS-IN-CHIEF

“Lonergan is wonderful at planning events, but I didn’t want her to be events chair since she has so many other things (Sacramento Children’s Chorus, ballet, professional theater) going on,” Jacobsen said.

She said the events chair used to be in charge of all dances; now that job is big enough to have its own chair. “(Lonergan) will be in charge of booking the venue and the DJ and planning the dance,” Dym said.

Dym said that she and Lally will plan the other events, like the Ancil Hoffman picnic and Rocktoberfest.

All other operations carried out by Student Council will be through the spirit chair (freshman Monet Cook), communications chair (freshman Briana Davies) and finance chair (sophomore Blake Lincoln).

Medallion Next year’s editors-in-chief of Medallion, juniors Nina Dym and Smita Sikaria, will bring two major changes.

For one, they’ll stop using the yearbook-specific publishing company Walsworth and instead use Friesens, which will allow them to

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ANNYA DAHMANI

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have fewer deadlines and better sports coverage.

“With Walsworth we had five deadlines, with sports’ deadlines being before the sport’s end,” Dym said.

Having the deadlines closer to the end of the year will translate into better sports coverage, Dym said.

Dym and adviser Tom Wroten saw Friesens, half the price of Walsworth, at the JEA/NSPA convention.

Their contract with Friesens will also end their use of Walsworth’s online design program, which prevented Medallion from using the more versatile Adobe InDesign.

Next year, Medallion will use Google Drive and InDesign, with the InDesign files stored on a hard drive.

In addition, the organizational structure will change.

MEDALLION

NINA SMITA DYM SIKARIA EDITORS-IN-CHIEF

SONJA HANSEN

The underclassman staffers will be assigned to a department leader, either for design, (Dym and sophomore Yanele Ledesma), managing (junior Esme Bruce-Romo), copy (junior Nico Burns), Photoshop (Carlos Nuñez) or photography (Dym).

There will also be a new illustrator position intended for those interested in expanding the Medallion’s art.

“We need something more than just photos in the yearbook,” Dym said. “(Sophomore) Michaela (Chen) wanted to go into AP Art; we wanted her to use her drawing abilities.”

As the illustrator, Chen will be in charge of creating graphics in Adobe Illustrator to add non-photo elements to the yearbook.

STUDENT COUNCIL

NINA HARKIRAT DYM LALLY PRESIDENT VICE PRESIDENT

WASC: Folsom marketing firm will conduct enrollment study (continued from page 1) planning, the school is already working on marketing, another of the recommendations.

A firm in Folsom, Connor Associates, has been retained to “conduct enrollment feasibility and five-year forecasting research” for Country Day, according to the firm’s website.

Thomsen said this means Connor Associates is gathering demographic data about households within a 35-mile radius of the school to identify potential marketing targets: families with school-aged children.

“This will impact where we will put our (marketing) resources to achieve our goals,” Thomsen said.

More resources will also be allocated to professional development, another recommendation.

The former curriculum committee has evolved into the teaching and learning committee to be more focused on professional development, Foehl said.

He added that the committee is to become a “resource for teaching and learning,” promoting both all-school and divisional professional development through “opt-in workshops” on subjects like “formative assessments, differentiated instruction and student-centered learning.”

Many faculty have also applied for grants to work in June on a wide range of topics on campus, and “pretty much all” of those who applied received a grant, Foehl said.

For example, the lower-school reading program will be getting a new look this June. And Joanne Melinson, middle- and high-school librarian, will meet with incoming teachers William Crabb and Damany Fisher to “scope and sequence research in the middle and high school,” according to Melinson.

“With so many teachers leaving, we have some holes in the curriculum, and a lot of the research curriculum comes from the history teachers,” she said.

“We’ve done many projects in the past, but it’s nice to tweak them a bit, have a different end product.”

These new collaborations between departments address another of the visiting team’s recommendations: creating transparent communication among the Board of Trustees, administration and faculty.

“We started doing this last summer when (Thomsen) arrived,” Foehl said. “He was charged by the Board to look at communication across campus. The visiting committee recognized this from our self-study and also in their own conversations with mem-

bers of our community.”

When WASC and CAIS return in the fall of 2020, the halfway point of the accreditation, for a one-day mid-year visit, they will look for these improvements.

“They want to see that we’re addressing the action items (recommendations) and making the appropriate progress,” Foehl said.

Thomsen added that the school is expected in the accreditation process to respond to all of the recommendations.

“They’re looking for evidence that the school is responding,” he said. “In a worst-case scenario, if a school ignored all recommendations and took no action, I suppose they could withdraw the accreditation.”

Despite these big-picture recommendations, Foehl says he doesn’t see the resulting change being in conflict with Country Day’s core values.

Instead, the new values will capitalize upon the old.

“That’s an important message,” he said. “We want to be more honest and open, more innovative and more collaborative - especially as we go into strategic planning.

“It’s a natural path of progress, change and development.

We have a great opportunity to build on a lot of strengths of the school, but we are not replacing the old values.”

A WORLD AFFAIR

ALL STORIES BY

SONJA

HANSEN ALL GRAPHICS BY ALLISON ZHANG & MOHINI RYE

On the following pages are the experiences of international students (seniors Kevin Huang and Fred Xu, juniors Howard Yuan and Crystal Jiang, and sophomore Jacqueline Chao) and the Ryan host family with UC Educations, a third-party organization that facilitates students coming from China to the United States.

S

ome members of the Country Day community may be surprised to find that the school uses a third-party agency to organize its international students. This agency, UC Educations, orchestrates the behind-the-scenes action that allows international students to study in America.

But Country Day hasn’t always used this agency. Sue Nellis, former head of high school, said that before 2012, Country Day admitted only a few international students into the high school, such as three siblings from Hong Kong in the mid-80s and Nancy Zhou, ’87, from Beijing. Former headmaster Stephen Repsher said that students also intermittently came from Korea, Vietnam and Germany. These students lived with their families or organized their own host families, so the school was not responsible for their housing but individually tutored those with poor English skills, according to Nellis.

But about 10 years ago, Repsher said that the school saw much more interest from mainland China and that students were using agencies to enroll in public and private schools. According to Peter Xie, founder and director of UC Educations, this interest resulted from China opening its economy to the world in the ’70s, a swelling Chinese middle class, increased competition for college admission and the growing desire for a different education system. Repsher said that at the time American schools in the Midwest took advantage of this and admitted many of these new international students because they had trouble filling their classrooms.

Country Day was also attracted to the new trend; however, according to Repsher, it was not because of the financial lure. Repsher said that SCDS wanted to increase the diversity of the student body without becoming a solely Chinese international school.

“We didn’t want to change the character of the school, so we limited the numbers,” Repsher said. “We were always shooting for 10-12 (students) from Asian countries and a few more from various parts of the world, so 10-15 total. We’ve pretty much stayed within that.”

Xie agreed and said that Country Day wanted international students as sources of enrichment rather than as moneymakers. He cited the fact that other schools ask for 30-40 students every year because international student tuition is a large portion of their incomes.

Given the limited size of the admissions office and how it was already overloaded with admitting local students, Nellis said that the administration and highschool faculty began discussing how to take in qualified Chinese students while maintaining a student body of high academic caliber.

Nellis said that the high school needed to address questions such as how many international students should be accepted, how they should be screened, how they should be supported, and how they should be housed.

The solution was a partnership between Country Day and UC Educations, a limited liability company in McLean, Virginia that recruits Chinese students through its Chinese partner, the UC Educations Beijing Company, and helps to enroll them in high schools in North America, Europe, New Zealand and Australia. The staff of about 100 currently services 200 schools, including Valley Christian Academy and Woodland Christian School, according to Xie. Originally UC Educations was dedicated to just organizing trips for Chinese company executives who wished to attend courses or meetings in America. These executives would stay for a few weeks or months while UC Educations attended to the details of their trips. But in 2009 UC Educations made a major change and opened to high schoolers.

According to UC Education’s website, its mission is to “provide American education opportunities to international students, together with guidance in understanding American culture in order to make a successful social transition so that students can adjust to the American education system while sustaining their Chinese cultural roots.”

CONTINUE>>

10

THE OCTAGON

SPECIAL FEATURE

CRYSTAL’S STORY

J

unior Crystal Jiang said that if she could give an international student one piece of advice, it would be to avoid using an agency like UC Educations at all costs.

When Jiang and her cousin, junior Howard Yuan, first began to apply to schools in America, they used a different agency to handle their applications. The pair was soon admitted to Country Day, but at the time, they had no idea that they were required to use UC Educations.

After discovering that they had to go through this agency, she and Yuan were placed in the same host family for their freshman year.

Jiang said that their host parents forced them to go to a Christian church every Wednesday and Sunday. At first Jiang, who does not follow any religion, was optimistic and said that she was open to the new experience. But after several weeks, Jiang said that she no longer wanted to go, so she repeatedly told the family and UC Educations. Her attempts to avoid the services were all in vain.

Besides being forced to attend religious services, Jiang said that she and Yuan had to use their computers in the living room because their host parents wanted to know what she and Yuan were doing online. Their laptops were also collected every night at 10 p.m.

In addition, Jiang and Yuan were prohibited from using the family’s Wi-Fi, so she paid $60 every month to buy cellular data for her phone. (They were allowed to use the Wi-Fi for their laptops, but only while being monitored.)

Food was also an issue for Jiang. While at the grocery store, her host family would dissuade her from buying snacks for school because it would cost them money, according to Jiang. Also, every Wednesday after church, the fam-

ily would buy Chipotle for themselves, while Jiang and Yuan were required to eat at the church.

Once, Jiang came home from school and found that she had received a birthday postcard from Country Day. One of her host parents had placed it on her desk.

JIANG AND YUAN WERE PROHIBITED FROM USING THE FAMILY’S WI-FI, SO SHE PAID $60 EVERY MONTH TO BUY CELLULAR DATA FOR HER PHONE.

Even though the card had included her birthdate, her host family didn’t say happy birthday or do anything to celebrate, she said.

In October 2014, Jiang requested to change host families.

UC Educations told her that she could probably move out by February 2015. But as time went on, the agency kept pushing back her move.

At some time in her freshman year, Jiang heard that current senior Kevin Huang wanted to organize a meeting with Country Day to discuss their problems with the international student program. Because of the agency’s inefficiency and how rarely it checked in with the students, Jiang considered joining Huang’s group.

However, Peter Xie, director of operations of UC Educations, heard of the plan and called Jiang’s mother in China to tell them that Jiang would get in trouble if she allied with Huang. Jiang’s mother told her not to get involved, so she didn’t attend the meeting.

Jiang was finally notified that a new host family had been found at the end of summer as she entered sophomore year. And Jiang said that her current host family is much better.

“They like to take me anywhere I want to go, such as Arden (Fair) mall,” Jiang said. “They don’t force me to do anything I don’t want to do, and I have a lot more free time.

“They take me to the market and tell me to get whatever food I like. They have a daughter, Julie, and she (helps) me study.”

However, according to Jiang, UC Educations still does little to help her. During spring break she and Yuan went home to visit their family in Beijing. After the break Jiang was unable to leave the country because her passport had expired.

Jiang said that her mother called Xie to ask about contacting Country Day and shortening the wait for a new passport. Jiang said that Xie did not answer their questions and told her mother that head of high school Brooke Wells would be very upset about Jiang missing school.

Jiang was unable to use Google Mail in China, so she downloaded a VPN on Apple Store to contact Wells, her teachers and her host family.

In the three weeks Jiang waited for her passport, she said that no staff member from UC Educations ever contacted her.

>>THE RYANS’ STORY When Galindo, who is not using UC Educations, came to live with the Ryans toward the end of his junior year, the Ryans turned their office room into a bedroom. When UC Educations found out about the arrangement, they gave the Ryans “a hard time” because they were concerned that Galindo was bunking with their students.

Later, when the Ryans began living in their leased duplex by school on weekdays and in their normal house on weekends, David said that UC Educations “went ballistic over the residential situation.”

However, the Ryans’ time with their international students has not totally been spent on grappling with the agency. David said that because his family takes their international students on vacation and do fun activities together, the monthly stipend of $1,000 does not cover all of their costs. But that does not seem to put a damper on things.

Patty said that she enjoyed Wang immensely before he left SCDS. “Steven was a blast,” Patty said. “He was very, very funny. He wanted to move (back) to China to be a professional basketball player.”

Patty said that she remembered one time after Wang moved in with her family, he had gone to take a shower. Just a few minutes later, Wang returned.

“Kevin joked, ‘Wow, I’ve never seen such a

short shower!’” Patty said. “(And Wang) said, ‘It’s in the contract that we can’t waste the host family’s water!’ Kevin had never heard of such a rule. I told him to take a 20-minute shower for all I care!”

But the Ryans said that they have made much deeper connections with their two remaining international students.

“We have a great relationship with these boys,” David said. “We are so glad we did it again. They are great kids. (Living with Galindo and Huang) was what you would hope a host experience would be.”

In fact, the Ryans plan to move to Berkeley in June. They didn’t relocate earlier, even though David’s corporate office moved to Santa Clara in September, because they wanted to allow Galindo and Huang to finish their senior years. But the Ryans will not take on another international student once settled in Berkeley.

“We would never take another child from this agency,” Patty said. “We will no longer contribute to an agency that profits off of vulnerable kids.”

David said that in the coming years there are many ways to solve these problems. One would involve federal legislation to completely shut down this type of activity that takes place across the nation. David said that the foreign resident student visa program that many agencies have dialed into would have to be changed to have a long-lasting impact.

I

May 30, 2017

HOWARD’S STORY

n 2014, his freshman year, junior Howard Yuan wanted to join Country Day’s basketball team. Yuan said that he had always liked the sport and thought that it would be a really good experience for him. But when Yuan asked his host family about it, they said that the basketball schedule would be very difficult for them to accommodate, so Yuan couldn’t join the team.

That was what life was like for Yuan during the two years that he lived with his first host family. In his freshman year, he and his cousin, junior Crystal Jiang, shared the family, but she moved out as she entered sophomore year because she wanted to improve her English and disliked their host family.

Yuan said that he also “really didn’t like them” because he had frequent arguments with the family about their house rules (see Crystal’s story). But he also said that he didn’t argue with his host parents all the time because he didn’t want to get into trouble with the agency. He said that by causing trouble he risked losing his visa.

“I don’t want people to think I’m a really bad kid,” Yuan said. “I try to behave.”

Yuan did not move out despite the arguments because he thought that it would be too much work to move his things out of their house.

Furthermore, Yuan said that he did not complain of his situation to director of admissions Lonna Bloedau, head of high school Brooke Wells or his local coordinators because he is “really flexible.”

“It’s really hard to say something bad about my host family because I’m living in their house,” Yuan said.

Language also posed a problem for Yuan.

If he were to complain, he would have had trouble explaining his situation in English.

But Yuan said that most international students choose not to complain because they don’t want to get in trouble with UC Educations, so they try to solve any problems themselves.

“The agency makes me feel really un-

comfortable,” Yuan said while tucked into the fetal position and playing with his shoes. “I don’t want to leave Country Day. Country Day is a really good school. But I want to leave the agency.”

So, like Jiang, when Yuan heard during his freshman year that senior Kevin Huang was planning to organize a meeting between the international students and the school to explain their issues with UC Educations, he thought about attending the meeting. But when Peter Xie, director of operations for UC Educations, heard of this, he called Yuan’s parents and told them to convince Yuan that he would get into trouble if he allied with Huang.

Consequently, Yuan did not go forward with the plan.

Yuan put up with his host family’s rules until April of his sophomore year, when the family suddenly announced that they were moving to North Dakota and that he needed to move out.

“I was really angry about that,” Yuan said.

“They didn’t communicate with me.”

A couple weeks later, his first host family placed him with a temporary host family for the remaining two months of school, but Yuan said that this family was nicer than his first.

In the summer before junior year, Yuan was put into his current host family with freshman Ted Zhou by UC Educations. His “totally different” host family is open to driving him to concerts, according to Yuan. They also taught him how to drive and helped him get his license.

But Yuan said that he still struggles with the agency’s rule about flying from Sacramento to the San Francisco International Airport (SFO) whenever he flies home to Beijing.

He said that his current host family is willing to drive him to SFO for free because he is treated like their own child. But Yuan continues to fly to SFO because Zhou told him that if international students get a ride to the airport, they will be kicked out of school.

‘THE AGENCY MAKES ME FEEL REALLY UNCOMFORTABLE. I DON’T WANT TO LEAVE COUNTRY DAY. COUNTRY DAY IS A REALLY GOOD SCHOOL. BUT I WANT TO LEAVE THE AGENCY’ -JUNIOR HOWARD YUAN

Another option is for the school to create its own program that bypasses UC Educations. David said that he has heard of schools that buy houses in their neighborhood and allow their faculty to live in the houses as long as they host a couple international students. However, he admits that this is not a practical option for a school as small as Country Day and the cost of setting up an administration poses a challenge.

Patty said that the school could also end its policy of charging considerably more for international student tuition so that Country Day isn’t drawn to accepting students by the financial aspect. Patty said that many international students have to retake English or history classes during the summer because they can’t keep up, so in addition to their hefty tuition, they must pay for more classes.

Another solution would be to begin recruiting Country Day families. David said that in the 10 years that his family has been part of the community, they had never been asked to be involved in the program. Of the 500 or so families at Country Day, only a handful would be needed to host all of the international students, David said.

This method would require making the program a community effort but would be absolutely worth it, according to Patty.

Patty said that local representative Russell McCollough, whom she calls a “salt-of-the-earth

kind of guy,” recruits many host families from his Christian congregation; however, because many of these families are elderly, they have no way to get their students to extracurricular activities.

And the role of the local representative itself could be changed. Patty suggested that the local representative needs to speak Chinese and understand Chinese culture, so that the kids can explain any emotional or complex experiences.

“When a Chinese kid tells you ‘Things are not going well,’ that’s like an American kid telling you ‘Danger! Danger!’ and screaming ‘Help me! Help me!’” Patty said.

David said that because English immersion is difficult and most other schools with international student programs have an English as a second language class, it would also be best if the school had very specific programs that catered to that need.

Regardless of how Country Day chooses to solve this crisis, David, a former member of the Board of Trustees, said that the Board should care about what the school is involved in.

“This agency needs to be held to account and, frankly, the school does too,” Patty said.

THE OCTAGON

May 30, 2017

SPECIAL FEATURE

11

KEVIN’S STORY

A

round campus, you may know him as the helpful, tech-savvy tall guy who hangs around the Makerspace from dawn till dusk while sporting his new Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute sweats. You might also catch him at a sporting match as he takes pictures for the Octagon, even though he’s not getting credit for the class. Or you could find him climbing a tree, just for kicks.

Anywhere you find him, he’ll have a smile on his face.

But just a few years ago, senior Kevin Huang was not such a happy camper. Then, Huang said, he was facing a neglectful host family and an obstinate

saved his family lots of money. But Country Day told Huang that he had to stick with the agency and have a host family.

Huang said that because of its limited resources UC Educations “just throws students to families.” It can take more than six months for a request for a change of host families to go through, and Huang estimates that only 50 percent of international students are actually happy with their current host families.

Huang said that the majority of host families are low-income and try to make money off of their monthly stipend of $1,000, causing international students A MONTH INTO HIS STAY, HIS to struggle with HOST FAMILY CLAIMED THAT getting enough food and finding THEIR MONTHLY STIPEND HAD transportation to NOT BEEN PAID AND REFUSED extracurricular TO PROVIDE HUANG WITH activities.

THE FOOD HE HAD Huang’s first ALREADY PAID FOR. host family was an elderly couple who did not want agency that he has had to push back him to go to after-school activities or against his entire high-school career. hang out with his friends.

When they were first enrolling in The pair also did not have enough Country Day, Huang’s family was not food. A month into his stay, they claimed aware that they were required to go that their monthly stipend had not through this agency in order to attend been paid, and they refused to provide the school. In fact, Huang thought that Huang with the food he had already he was communicating with Country paid for. So Huang looked up the closDay’s own admissions office instead est grocery store, got on his bike and of a third-party agency. Huang finally went shopping. He continued grocery found out that that he was speaking shopping for himself for the majority of with UC Educations a month or two af- his stay, he said. ter he had enrolled.

Huang finally moved out when he Huang said that he fought with UC asked to live with a friend.

Educations frequently in his first two But on top of his probyears as he figured out how the agency lems with his first host famoperated. For example, Huang learned ily, Huang also encountered that if the students do not pay problems the first time he travtheir monthly fee, Country eled home to China. When Huang Day is required to ask returned to the U.S., he asked his host them to leave. Such an family to pick him up from San Francisevent happened four years ago, ac- co International Airport (SFO). Huang cording to Huang, when a former stu- didn’t know that international students dent was asked to leave for not paying had to use the transport service proher monthly fee to the agency. vided by UC Educations at the time.

But Huang’s first battle was over his When the agency discovered the living situation. Huang had planned on infraction, they charged the Huangs living with a second cousin in El Dorado $800 because a van had already been Hills and told the school that he would reserved. And when his parents renot need a host family or service from fused to pay, according to Huang, UC UC Educations, which would have Educations threatened to expel him.

His parents finally caved and paid the fee.

S

Because of these problems, Huang considered leaving at the end of his freshman year. But by the time he had decided to leave, it was too late to enroll anywhere else.

When Huang asked to leave his first host family, he said that UC Educations told him that they could not find him a new one, so Huang found one himself.

Huang stayed with his friend, after that family had gone through the formal application process, for all of sophomore year. But in his junior year, Huang had to move out, so UC Educations sent him, along with former SCDS student Steven Wang, to live with the Ryans, a former Country Day family.

Throughout high school, Huang spoke with head of high school Brooke Wells and director of admissions Lonna Bloedau, who told him that these rules were just the way that the agency worked. Huang said that Bloedau tries to make international students feel like the school will take care of their issues, but, in actuality, her hands are tied, so there isn’t much action. “(Country Day’s staff) knows (international students) are stuck,” Huang said.

Huang then approached a lawyer, who reviewed his contract and said that the students should be more aware of the school’s agreement with the agency.

In his sophomore year, Huang found that other international students were going through similar experiences. So Huang made group chats with the students and their parents to discuss their problems and what progress they had made with UC Educations.

He eventually asked the students if they wanted to go to the administration together to explain their current situations. But the other students were apprehensive because they didn’t want to get in trouble with Country Day, according to Huang, so the plan did not pan out. At the time, Huang did not know that Peter Xie, director of operations for UC Educations, had called a couple of the students’ parents to convince their children to give up.

Huang said that many reasons keep international students from speaking out about this treatment. For starters, international students don’t have close friends, family or an understanding of American laws. Furthermore, Chinese students, due to East Asian culture,

tend to be quiet, respectful and disinclined to ask for help.

Huang said that Chinese people also don’t make friends as easily and quickly as Americans do. These students can become shy or unconfident in their English skills when people reach out, according to Huang. Because of this, local students believe that international students just don’t want to be friends and stop making an effort to be friendly.

So international students rarely share their experiences with local Country Day students.

As for parent reactions, Huang said that there are two types of responses.

There are some parents - like Huang’s, former SCDS student Tom Long’s and Daniel Kong’s (‘14) - who understand that they are paying for nothing and want to change the school’s policy.

The second and more common type of reaction is a typical Chinese parent’s reaction, according to Huang. This type of parent is not happy once they find out about these problems, but difficulties in communicating with Country Day, lack of understanding of American

law and business, distance, and the fear of getting their children in trouble push them to keep quiet.

The local representatives aren’t of much help either, according to Huang.

When Huang first started at Country Day, the representatives did not visit every month, as they had promised to do in their contract. It was only after international students started to complain that UC Educations upheld that promise, he said.

But even at that, Huang said that when local representatives visit, they just ask students to sign a piece of paper. Huang said that local representative Russell McCollough cannot remember his name, despite their four years of acquaintance.

Huang has several suggestions for how this agency could improve.

First of all, Huang said that students should have the choice of working with the agency and that those who have resources or family members in the U.S. should not be required to pay an extra fee.

Huang also said that the school should advertise the international student program to its own families. By staying with Country Day families, students will be integrated into the community more easily and make more friends, according to Huang. He said that by getting these issues publicized, perhaps more will finally understand what is going on with international students and offer their support.

JACQUELINE’S STORY

everal reasons pushed sophomore Jacqueline Chao to attend high school in America.

One was her dislike of the “gaokao,” a Chinese college entry test. Chao said that she finds it ridiculous that one test score determines a student’s whole future in China.

Furthermore, Chao would have had trouble even taking the “gaokao” because she had moved from Xinjiang to Beijing (2,063 miles away) because of Xinjiang’s poor health care system and its frequent Uighur terrorist attacks. Because China requires that students take the “gaokao” in their birth cities, Chao would have been at a loss.

Chao learned about UC Educations and Country Day through Peter Xie, her mother’s friend and director of operations at UC Educations. Chao said that she was already familiar with similar agencies because some of her friends in China used them to apply to American high schools.

So when Xie encouraged her to apply because of her excellent test scores, Chao enrolled and came to Country Day after winter break in her freshman year in 2016.

Before moving to America, Chao said that she learned a few facts about her host family, which

includes a 12-year-old girl, a 14-year-old boy and their mother and father and their dog.

The family had visited China once before and was interested in Eastern culture, so Chao’s host mother was looking for an enriching cultural experience, according to Chao.

Chao’s host parents also took her in because their daughter was learning Chinese. Chao said that she occasionally practices Chinese with the host daughter and is good friends with her. In fact, she and the family were considering taking the daughter on a trip to China this summer, but the plan fell through.

“They’re actually really nice,” Chao said. “They treat me like part of their family.”

And as part of the family, Chao is also expected to pitch in and help with chores, such as unloading the dishwasher or doing her own laundry. But when she is swamped with homework, Chao said that she can tell her host mother and be easily excused from chores.

Chao said that her host family is always willing to work with her to solve problems. On Oct. 26, Chao went to a concert in San Francisco with sophomore Yanele Ledesma and her brother Ruben and returned to Country Day’s parking lot at

CHAO SAID THAT HER TREATMENT MIGHT BE SO FAVORABLE BECAUSE OF XIE’S FRIENDSHIP WITH HER MOTHER. 2 a.m. to find her host mother ready to take her home.

Chao is included in her family’s fun activities as well. For example, she is allowed to go to their gym using their membership card. During spring break she visited their grandmother in Monterey and Santa Cruz, and she attended a family member’s wedding in Petaluma last year.

However, Chao’s stay has not been perfect. Because the family lives in El Dorado Hills, which is half an hour from school (an hour if there’s traffic), transportation has posed a couple problems.

Chao said that this year has been particularly

difficult since she joined the basketball team and started taking pictures for the Octagon. Chao said that she usually waits until 4:30 p.m. to be picked up by her host father.

“It can be hard to accommodate everyone’s schedule,” Chao said.

Because of the distance and her desire to dedicate more time to extracurriculars, Chao will change host families next school year. But she said that she is worried about the change because “there are a lot of uncertainties.” Chao said that she asked to change host families in March but hasn’t heard anything from UC Educations yet.

“Maybe (UC Educations is) just trying to find a really good (host family),” Chao said.

When Chao has problems, she said that she contacts Xie using WeChat and that he generally replies within a half hour. But Chao said that her treatment might be so favorable because of Xie’s friendship with her mother.

For now, Chao will stay in America for the summer pre-calculus course with the Alvarado family (sophomore Gabi, her father Alvaro, and her mother, Spanish teacher Patricia Portillo).

12

THE OCTAGON

EDITORIAL

THE OCTAGON

May 30, 2017

“Do Not Pass Go” by Mohini Rye

PRINT EDITORS-IN-CHIEF ADAM DEAN MARIGOT FACKENTHAL ONLINE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF SONJA HANSEN BUSINESS MANAGER CHARDONNAY NEEDLER PRINT COPY EDITOR QUIN LACOMB ONLINE COPY EDITOR SAHEJ CLAIRE NEWS EDITOR MARIGOT FACKENTHAL FEATURE EDITOR ANNYA DAHMANI OPINION EDITOR KATIA DAHMANI SPORTS EDITOR ADAM DEAN SOCIAL MEDIA EDITOR JACK CHRISTIAN PAGE EDITORS JACK CHRISTIAN ANNYA DAHMANI KATIA DAHMANI ADAM DEAN MARIGOT FACKENTHAL CHARDONNAY NEEDLER MOHINI RYE NICOLE WOLKOV ALLISON ZHANG REPORTERS LARKIN BARNARD-BAHN EMMA BOERSMA BRI DAVIES ANNA FRANKEL MEHDI LACOMBE BRYCE LONGORIA JAKE LONGORIA JACKSON MARGOLIS HÉLOÏSE SCHEP SPENCER SCOTT GARRETT SHONKWILER DAVID SITU CARTOONIST MOHINI RYE MULTIMEDIA & TECH QUIN LACOMB PHOTOGRAPHERS JACQUELINE CHAO KEVIN HUANG BENETT SACKHEIM ADVISER PATRICIA FELS The OcTagOn is The high-schOOl newspaper Of sacramenTO cOunTry Day. iTs purpOse is TO prOviDe a reliable sOurce Of infOrmaTiOn On evenTs cOncerning The high schOOl anD TO fOcus On TOpics Of significance anD general inTeresT in OrDer TO infOrm anD enTerTain The enTire schOOl cOmmuniTy. The sTaff sTrives fOr accuracy anD freeDOm frOm bias in iTs sTOries. significanT errOrs will be nOTeD anD cOrrecTeD. The OcTagOn shall publish maTerial ThaT The sTaff Deems in The besT inTeresT Of The schOOl cOmmuniTy. The sTaff recOgnizes The impOrTance Of The reaDership’s having accuraTe anD reliable infOrmaTiOn in OrDer TO be well infOrmeD anD On which TO base DecisiOns anD OpiniOns. The OcTagOn will publish all Timely anD relevanT news, subjecT TO The fOllOwing excepTiOns: ObsceniTy; slanDerOus Or libelOus maTerial; maTerial cOnTrary TO The besT inTeresTs Of The schOOl cOmmuniTy, as juDgeD by The newspaper sTaff anD aDviser.

eDiTOrials shall be vOTeD On by The enTire sTaff. cOlumns anD cOmmenTaries shall be clearly labeleD as such anD represenT The OpiniOn Of The auThOr Only.

in The inTeresT Of represenTing all pOinTs Of view, leTTers TO The eDiTOr shall be publisheD, space permiTTing, unless OTherwise requesTeD by The auThOr. all leTTers musT be signeD anD cOnfOrm TO The abOve resTricTiOns On publisheD maTerial.

The sTaff reTains The righT TO make changes in grammar anD puncTuaTiOn anD TO abriDge leTTers fOr space cOnsiDeraTiOns.

I

EDITORIAL: The truth is out about the international students; it’s time to act

ntolerable. That’s the only word for the living conditions of some of the international students.

Begging for food or pleading for rides to sports games should not be common occurrences for our students. Period.

For about five years now, the school has been in partnership with a third-party studyabroad program called UC Educations, which streamlines the process of bringing international students to schools in the U.S. And for most of those years, the program went unquestioned by a large majority of the school.

Now, after years of crying for help, the international students have finally released their stories.

(Read the special feature beginning on page 7.)

What the Octagon discovered about the international program is disturbing, to say the least.

And our feature doesn’t even cover the worst of it.

In five pages of copy, we barely managed to scratch the surface.

The situations international students have been subjected to are so suboptimal that it’s hard to believe the families are paying extra, let alone thousands and thousands extra. Students are dropping enormous sums of money in hopes of receiving the experience of a lifetime, and are instead being met with difficult conditions and ineffective coordinators.

None of these students could have foreseen that they would be placed with uncaring host families and then ignored by their agency.

However, despite the obviously objectionable conditions, international students have remained

relatively silent due to a justified fear of the third-party agency and, sometimes, the school itself.

When a child feels too afraid to speak up and voice his or her discomfort, that is a major sign that something wrong is running through the campus.

IF COUNTRY DAY STILL BELIEVES IN ITS MISSION OF PROTECTING ALL STUDENTS AND PROVIDING A SAFE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT, NOW IS THE TIME TO PROVE IT It seems that even those who speak up are blocked at every turn from receiving real help.

But let’s get something clear. These “international students” are our friends, peers and classmates. The people who we see every day are the ones placed into such difficult situations and expected to figure it out on their own. These aren’t strangers whom we couldn’t care less about.

Chinese international students have now attended Country Day for quite a while, building up reputations as kind, polite, contributing members of the student body. Some are quiet and maybe a little timid, while others are vibrant and fiery.

But regardless of personality, they are undeniably a valuable part of the Country Day community.

It’s evident that many of these students have endured unacceptable living conditions. Their

stories have proven this time and time again.

But it can change.

It’s time to realize that we have made mistakes. It’s high time that we apologize and then get down to work.

If Country Day still believes in its mission of protecting all students and providing a safe learning environment, now is the time to prove it.

We understand that reforming the international student program will not happen instantaneously.

We know that we may have to take a series of steps to true reform.

And perhaps one of those steps includes abandoning UC Educations.

Granted, the relationship between UC Educations and Country Day sounds perfect in theory. Their partnership provides useful services on both sides. But as some students have revealed, irresponsible execution has rendered the relationship far from ideal.

How can we comfortably continue to defend this agency after information from the students has been released?

Nevertheless, only intensive research from a body that is dedicated solely to protecting these students will clarify the situation and give us clear direction on how to proceed.

Time is of the essence for this inquiry into the operations of the international student program. More international students may begin at Country Day next fall, so the summer provides us with the perfect opportunity to take an in-depth look at what kind of a deal the school has really signed onto.

But besides launching a full-fledged investigation, what else can we do? We

can all remain vigilant.

These students absolutely need strong host families driven only to care for them.

They need families who care whether or not they are eating.

They need families who aren’t looking to profit off of their stays.

They need families who are willing simply to ask how they are doing.

They need families who want to keep their parents up to date and who understand the ins and outs of Country Day and can guide and integrate the students.

They need families who understand that living more than 6,000 miles away from everyone you know can take a toll on anyone.

And we have a responsibility to ensure that such families are found.

But going one step further, we need the school administrators who deal with UC Educations to listen to what the students are saying and to be willing to fight on their behalf.

The Octagon knows that there are good families, administrators, faculty members and students at Country Day. And if these people can step up, they will save the next international students whom Country Day admits from the conditions that the others have endured.

We’ve turned a blind eye to the international program for so long, mostly because most members of the community were unaware of just how poorly the students are treated.

Now that their stories are out, we can no longer ignore their quiet cries for help. Because helping our friends, our fellow students, our community members is not just the right thing to do. It’s the only thing to do.

THE OCTAGON

May 30, 2017

PLAN

REVIEW

13

YOUR

One room. One hour. A battle against the clock. Will you get out in time?

BY JAKE LONGORIA

W

hen I first heard of escape rooms, what came to mind was a room with the walls slowly closing in, from which I’d have to make a stressful, David-Blaine-esque escape.

But after doing some research, I found that escape room businesses aren’t even legally allowed to lock you in the room.

Lame.

Nonetheless, I was ready to put my skills to the test, so I headed to Escape Sacramento (1831 I St.) to see if I had what it took.

Escape Sacramento has three different courses: The Seance, The Gallery and The Heist, which range from two to eight people.

I wanted to bring along my smartest puzzle-solving friends. But since they weren’t available, I took seniors Adam Dean and Aidan Cunningham and my brother, junior Bryce Longoria, instead.

Since weekends are the most popular times, the only room that wasn’t already fully booked on Saturday morning was The Seance, so I secured the last four spots in the six-person room.

When we arrived, we were immediately intimidated by a wall of record times for the rooms. Our choice, The Seance, had been completed in 22 minutes and 24 seconds by someone who had done over 100 escape rooms.

And we also learned that escape might not even happen.

“Only one in five actually escapes this room,” puzzlemaster Brian Rasmussen warned us while we waited.

SEARCH FOR EVIDENCE Junior Jake Longoria examines a lamp from The Seance, the first room the group entered. Clues can be anything: keys, cards, puzzles or photos. They can be found anywhere, so if you go, don’t overlook anything! PHOTO BY ADAM DEAN

“We’re going to set a record,” I replied jokingly.

After talking with the two assigned members of our team, Addison, a brown-haired teenager with glasses, and his friend, I found that all of us were amateur escapees.

So after going over the rules and instructions, Rasmussen walked us into a dimly lit room - filled with a coffee table, letters, cabinets, a lamp, a chair, locked boxes and a boarded-up door leading to the second part of the room - and explained the situation.

“You guys are paranormal investigators investigating the house of a psychic who has released a demon from the spirit realm,” Rasmussen said.

“You have one hour before the police show up. This screen in the corner will act as a timer and will give you clues if you get stuck. Communication is key.

“Good luck,” he added before closing the door.

We immediately got to work.

“This wall has to mean something,” I said, pointing at what I thought was a sundial.

No one cared.

They instead began looking around the room.

I was still staring at the sundial when Addison proclaimed, “I got it!”

We all turned to see that he’d opened the first box in seconds.

“How’d you do that?” I asked.

“I just looked at these letters right here on the table,” Addison responded. “Look at the dates.

It’s obvious. What does this key open?”

“How does this door even open?” Bryce shouted, interrupting Addison.

“Shh! This kid is so smart,” Aidan said. “Just let him work.”

“Look, the key opens this box,” Addison said, finding a box filled of cards.

“The cards fit right into the table. We have to put them in order. If we use that code on the wall, we can read these letters.”

On the back of the entrance door, there was a code comprised of ambiguous symbols. While I was trying to match those symbols to the ones on the sundial, Addison was using them to crack the code on the table.

Due to security reasons, I couldn’t take a picture of the code, but it was insanely complex.

Even with a pen and paper, it would’ve taken me forever to decode.

But Addison did it in seconds.

“Look right here,” he said.

“It says ‘four swords,’ so put that card there.”

After repeating this process for the other cards, the boarded-up door opened remotely.

We, a group of six amateurs, were on pace to break a record set by a professional!

That door led to an even darker room containing a typewriter, a locked armoire, a desk and a teacup. Once again, Addison took the lead and opened the armoire.

We arrived at the final puzzle with 30 seconds left to break the record. Addison typed in the combination.

It was incorrect.

SUCCESS BY SECONDS Addison (a stranger but a skilled first-timer at escape rooms), juniors Bryce and Jake Longoria, and seniors Aidan Cunningham and Adam Dean pose for the customary victory picture after escaping The Seance room at Escape Sacramento in just under 25 minutes, the second-fastest time ever. Only one in five groups even escapes it, according to Puzzlemaster Brian Rasmussen. PHOTO USED BY PERMISSION OF LONGORIA But we recovered and finished just two min- think for ourselves made the experience more utes later. fun.

After opening the final door remotely, RasOn our own we suffered through failure after mussen greeted us in the waiting room. failure, but completing a puzzle meant it was all “Wow! You guys did great,” Rasmussen said. the more satisfying.

“That was the second fastest time ever! What While there was only one door in The Seance, do you want your team name to be?” there were four in The Whispering Halls, plus We SCDS students wanted “Addison the other secret crawlspaces and staircases.

GOAT” (Greatest After struggling through the of All Time), but first several puzzles, we finally Addison preferred made it to the second-to-last one.

“The Master DetecThe electric clock on the wall was tives.” ticking down: we had only 10 minWE HAD NO IDEA Since Addison utes left.

WHAT TO DO, SO WE was the reason we’d But this puzzle looked familiar. escaped in record It was the same as the puzzle from SPENT OUR LAST SECtime, there was no The Seance: the card slots.

ONDS SCREAMING AND debate.

After figuring out the order, RUNNING AROUND Before leaving, I we placed the cards in their slots, asked Rasmussen opening the door to the final puzJAKE LONGORIA, JUNIOR about the sundial. zle.

“Oh, that thing is Unfortunately, we had only five useless,” he said. “It’s minutes and no idea what to do. So just a decoy.” we spent our last seconds screaming and runI had spent the greater part of 20 minutes ning around the room. studying a wall that had nothing to do with I think we would’ve definitely finished if we helping my team escape! had had fewer people. With 12 it was just too After patting myself on the back and remind- confusing. Everyone was talking, and it was ing myself that escaping is in fact a team game, hard to keep our clues organized. we moved onto our next venue, Enchambered Although I would recommend both places, I (2230 Arden Way). would go back to Enchambered.

Enchambered has two rooms - Containment Enchambered is less about competition and Breach and The Whispering Halls - and is more about having fun. The rooms are bigger, building its third, The Hidden Tomb. We de- and the puzzles are more intricate. cided on The Whispering Halls, which holds up But if you are really competitive, Escape Sacto 12 people. ramento is for you. And if you’re aiming for a reWe arrived and met our eight teammates cord, you need to build an efficient team, keepwho would be helping us investigate an old ing in mind that more people is not necessarily Victorian manor. better (unless you can find a team of Addisons).

Not having Addison greatly reduced our Why not take a stab at The Seance to see if chances of success, but being forced to actually you can beat The Master Detectives?

14

THE OCTAGON

REMAINDER

Electives: Semester system complicates students’ PE credit (continued from page 1) most sense,” Wells said.

Additionally, students’ grades in their core academic and elective classes will all appear on the same report card. This simple change is more convenient for students and parents, as well as faculty, and the administration will also welcome less paper work, according to Wells.

Though this change sounds like a no-brainer that could have easily been implemented years ago, it comes with one important complication – athletic credit. All students will still need two full years of physical education; now, however, they’ll have to add fractions.

The problem arises for students who use seasonal sports for PE credit.

The trimester elective schedule aligned with the three sports seasons, meaning that to achieve a full year of credit, students could do a combination of PE and school sports. In other words, if a student needed a year of PE credit and wanted to play a winter sport, he or she could use that winter sport as credit for the winter trimester freeing up that second-trimester elective slot for something else.

Now, because electives are switching to the semester schedule, the credit crossover between PE and seasonal sports won’t be as clean. That same student would have to take both semesters of PE to meet the requirement, earning no credit for his participation in the winter sport.

That said, students who only take PE or only play sports remain unaffected.

“Personally, I don’t think it will really affect me,” freshman Monet Cook said. “I will probably only participate in sports and never in PE.” While student athletes may run into issues with odd fractions of credit, the administration maintains that the elective schedule change will be an overall benefit.

“It’s just simpler and easier for everyone to understand,” Wells said.

May 30, 2017

School adds new humanities, law electives

BY DAVID SITU

A

re you interested in the environment, science, civil rights, acting or poetry? If so, there might be a new elective for you.

The high school will add five new electives in the 2017-18 school year: Constitutional Law; Environmental Science; The Long Civil Rights Movement; Performance: Advanced Acting and Competitive Poetry; and Playwriting for Performance.

Performance: Advanced Acting and Competitive Poetry will be taught by drama teacher Brian Frishman.

The class is separated into two sections: acting and poetry. Students may participate in either.

Frishman said that students participating in the acting section will practice scenes that are more difficult than they are used to doing and work on unfamiliar character types in order to improve their acting skills.

In the poetry section, students

will write and recite original poems for slam poetry performances. They will rehearse and perform poems from the Poetry Out Loud competition list as practice.

ACCORDING TO CONNER, THE CONSTITUTIONAL LAW ELECTIVE WILL FOCUS ON WHAT A CONSTITUTIONAL ISSUE IS AND WHAT THE CONSTITUTION ACTUALLY IS AND SAYS “Poetry Out Loud is a great way to become a better speaker as you must use your voice to convey atmosphere, meaning, attitude, emotion, humor and dramatic interpretation - all with limited physical interpretation,” Frishman said.

He said that these factors make the elective a really good class for students who don’t speak English as their native language.

Frishman will also be teaching Playwriting for Performance, in the second semester.

In this elective students will work individually or in small groups to learn dialogue techniques, character development, theme, scenes and story arc of a play.

The play that the students create will be produced during the 2018-19 school year.

Constitutional Law and Environmental Science will both be taught by chemistry teacher Victoria Conner, a Widener University Law School graduate.

Conner said that she wanted to teach these new electives because “they are both subjects that impact students here every day whether they realize it or not.”

According to Conner, the Constitutional Law elective will focus on what a constitutional issue is and what the Constitution actually is and says.

“We’ll also look at the amendments, especially the Bill of Rights, and (how) court cases have helped shape the rule of law,” said Conner.

The main thing that Conner would like her students to learn in this elective is the basic structure of what a government is, such as what each (governmental) branch is capable of doing, along with what (the student’s) rights are.

Conner’s Environmental Science elective will cover the actual science, such as soil and water testing, to the human impact on the environment, including laws and regulations regarding what people can do to the environment.

Conner said that she wants her students to think about how they “fit into the environment and what impact they might have on it, both positive and negative, trying to turn it more toward the positive.”

The Long Civil Rights Movement will be taught by incoming history teacher Damany Fisher, and will be a year-long elective.

Athletic seniors: Boys look to compete in intramural, recreational sports in college (continued from page 5) be true since he has received many awards across the sports he’s played, such as second team all-league and honorable mention for soccer, and all-league for tennis.

He also won the Dale Lacky Scholarship on April 25 for his athletic and academic

achievements throughout high school.

Erickson attributes a lot of his academic success to the number of sports he played, since sports relieve stress for him, help him focus on school, and give him necessary physical activity.

And sports were also Erickson’s gateway for finding friends as a new freshman at SCDS. Likewise, he joined the cross-country team his senior year because his friends - seniors Jaelan Trapp, Cunningham, Adam Dean and Christian Van Vleck - were on it.

Cunningham said that he gravitates towards sports that require hand-eye or footeye coordination, which is why he decided to pick up baseball as well as continue playing lacrosse his junior year.

Although both of these seniors’ athletic careers are coming to an end at Country Day, they aren’t over forever.

Erickson hopes to continue his athletic involvement at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, where he plans to spend more time at the gym than playing sports, he said.

And Cunningham is planning on continuing snowboarding in the mountains at University of Denver, where he also wants to play either basketball or soccer intramurally.

SENIOR PIC Friends Jaelan Trapp, Adam Dean and Aidan Cunningham were all on the 2016-17 cross-country team. PHOTO USED BY PERMISSION OF DEAN

Cunningham may add yet another sport to his athletic portfolio. Depending on the prices of bikes, he may begin mountain biking.

“We obviously will miss (Erickson and Cunningham) both,” Vargo said. “We’ve had those kinds of athletes before, and hopefully we’ll have them again.”

We Thank Our Sponsors for Keeping Us in the Black!

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THE OCTAGON

May 30, 2017

COMMUNITY

15

OVER & OUT

Print editors-in-chief bid farewell with surprising confessions, memories

BY MARIGOT FACKENTHAL

I

BY ADAM DEAN

“

don’t remember exactly when it started Adam, I find it hard to believe that you would probably during puberty, because that’s post a photo on your own Twitter feed that was when a lot of things go wrong - but at some going to be published in the Octagon. point in my life, my hands started sweating “I find it even harder to believe that you a lot. would post a snarky comment with it.

Now, I know what you’re probably think“Can you explain to me why you thought posting ing: “Marigot, that’s disgusting, T.M.I., why it was a good idea?” are you writing about this in your senior This was the email I received from Octagon adgoodbye column?,” etc. I get it. It’s not like viser Patricia Fels shortly after a sophomore-year I’m unaware. But trust me - it’s a thousand basketball game against Faith Christian in Yuba times more disgusting and inconvenient for City. me than it is for you. Let me have my moMinutes before the email I had been spammed ment. by other staffers at paste-up to immediately remove Those of you who are more medically inthis infamous post. clined may have heard of this condition - it’s You may ask, what in the world did I do to cause called palmar hyperhidrosis, and is considso much outrage? ered by all of the world’s leading medical I posted a picture of Emil Erickson eating a dermatology journals to be the number-one cookie on Twitter. I don’t remember the “snarky” most negatively impacting dermatological comment, but I’m sure it was hilarious. condition. Why? How can a little extra sweat The photo was from a photo shoot earlier in the be so detrimental to one’s well-being? day for an upcoming Octagon review about cookies.

Well.

Emil, as per usual, looked very funny in one picFor starters, having perpetually wet hands ture, and I had to share the masterpiece with the is pretty embarrassing in itself. No matter world. where I am - in class, at the store, in the midI really thought there was no way that we would dle of an interview - I’m constantly wringing use the ridiculous photo in the paper, but apparently my hands or swinging my arms in vain atFels thought otherwise. tempts to dry my palms in the created wind.

The next day, my friends in the other English pe(I’m sure my classmates have noticed me doriod let me know that Fels was talking about the ing that.) At the very least, that motion offers incident and said she was considering kicking me a brief moment of cool relief before the heat WORTHWHILE WORK Editors-in-chief Marigot Fackenthal (middle) and Adam Dean (right) led the newspaper off the staff. rushes back into my fingertips. I’m also al- to second place in Best of Show at the JEA/NSPA national journalism convention in Seattle. Adviser Patricia Fels But since you’re reading this, you can guess what ways grabbing at the sides of my shirt - again, (left) holds both the online and print awards. PHOTO BY KEVIN HUANG happened! in an attempt to dry my hands.

Now I’m probably the best editor-in-chief ever, Obviously, to the unknowing observer Another major inconvenience is using a tremely painful and grants only temporary and I’m bringing home trophies for the Octagon. (which is everyone, as this isn’t something I computer. Here are some conditions: 1. I’m results), both of which are very expensive and You’re welcome, Fels. like to advertise), those coping mechanisms an enormous germaphobe and despise get- not always successful.

But actually, I’m so grateful to whoever calmed must seem like pretty bizarre habits. I know ting my keyboard and mouse sticky. 2. Sweat All that said, hyperhidrosis is probably one Fels down. Thanks, Aishwarya! (I think…) that, and it’s embarrassing, but the alterna- is sticky. 3. I have sweaty hands. of those things that is very hard for people And because I wasn’t kicked off, I’m no longer tive of literally dripping hands is objectively See the problem? to truly understand without experiencing it the same terrible writer I was when I joined three worse. (Although, to be honest, those mechBecause of this, I have a really hard time first-hand. (Ha.) I can tell you my symptoms years ago. anisms work so poorly that I usually have to focusing while trying to work at a computer. and some of the consequences, but I’ll never I still kind of throw in commas, where, they seem deal with the alternative anyway.)

Take Octagon stories for instance - whenev- be able to relate how each and every thing I like they should go, but usually That may not seem like a big deal, but it’ll er I sit down to edit a story, I’ll usually get do - my entire life - is affected I’m right. become more and more of a problem as I about two sentences in before my hands be- by this condition. For every I’ve also met some really kind, graduate and work my way into the profes- come so uncomfortable that I have to go to choice I make, I have to take motivated, and overall pretty sional world. Whenever I anticipate having the bathroom to rinse and dry them. I come sweating into consideration. cool people through Octagon. to shake hands with people, I try to discreetly back, forget where I was, start over, and get a I hate it. If a genie gave me Like Aishwarya Nadgauda, wipe them dry on my clothes before going little farther before the same thing happens one wish, I’d wish for world ‘15, Maddy Judd, ‘16, the in for the grip, but, as I just mentioned, that again. And again. And again. Just prior to peace, but I’d seriously conDahmanis (even though Katia usually isn’t enough. By the time my right starting this article, I was editing one of Ni- sider wishing for peace on my can be pretty annoying), and I’VE ALSO MET SOME REALLY hand leaves the safety of my shirt folds and cole Wolkov’s, and I must have gotten up to palms before singlehandedly most importantly: FELS!!

KIND, MOTIVATED, AND reaches the hand of my employer (or whoever wash my hands at least 12 times while read- solving hunger and war.

In early April, I was disit may be), it’s already clammy again. Really ing through it.

So after making it through OVERALL PRETTY COOL traught because I didn’t know awkward.

Driving, too, can be dif- all of high school without PEOPLE THROUGH OCTAGON where I wanted to go to college, Aside from the cosficult. And forget playing being discovered, why am and it was really bothering me. metic embarrassment, instruments. I quit the I publishing this article? A I called Fels at 8:30 p.m. (way there’s a whole slew of violin before this condi- couple reasons. First, in the past her bedtime), and we talkpractical inconvenienction really broke out, but I same way that it’s relieving to ed about my options for at least ADAM DEAN, es that come along with know I’ll never be able to finally tell someone a guilty 20 minutes. sweaty hands. go back to it. Just think- secret, revealing to everyone SENIOR Fels is one of the teachers One that stressed me ing about holding a violin the reasons for my odd bethat kids come to Country Day out a lot during high WHILE MOST STUDENTS makes my hands sweaty. havior makes me feel a little for. She cares about her students school was taking tests. WORRY THE NIGHT BEFORE Familiar with the show less insecure upon leaving and what she does.

All right, taking tests ABOUT KNOWING THE “American Ninja War- the school. Also, once people Lastly, I want to talk about might stress you out too, rior”? I always thought know my story, it’ll become MATERIAL, I WORRY MORE one of my favorite parts of Ocbut for me, they’re an abit’d be really fun to train something I can laugh about tagon this year: my co-editorsolute nightmare. There I ABOUT THE TEMPERATURE OF for that sort of thing, but with friends instead of hiding THE TESTING ROOM in-chief, Marigot Fackenthal. am, scribbling furiously regardless of how strong I to myself in self-conscious misery. It just took Yeah, I jokingly call her fat every day. And I had to solve some calculus become, even attempting me a while to come to terms with that. a field day after she cut her own hair. But I really do problem like everyone those courses would be The other reason is this: If you’re reading MARIGOT appreciate her. else and - wait, pause, impossible because of my this column and have the same issue - first At the start of our editorship, Marigot did most wipe hands. Scribbling FACKENTHAL, slippery grip. There are of all, I’m sorry. I won’t tell you to accept and of the print redesign herself. I occasionally gave my some more but my fin- SENIOR so many things I can’t do feel comfortable in your unfortunate biologiopinion, but it was pretty much all her. gers are getting so slipsimply because of sweat. cal situation, because, as you’re already aware, Because she was taking charge of designing pagpery I can’t grip my pen“But, Marigot, if it’s hyperhidrosis is a condition that’s uncomes, most staffers saw her as the one in charge at the cil - pause, wipe hands. that bad, why haven’t you fortable and socially unacceptable by nature. beginning of the year.

Writing at top speed to done anything to stop And, if you’re anything like me, bringing up Obviously I’ve gained the respect of the staff finish an in-class essay it?” There are so many an uncontrollable sweating condition with since the start of the year, but Marigot never acted on time - pause, wipe hands. Trying to write antiperspirants out there. “Have you talked friends or a significant other probably isn’t like she was better than or doing more work than but my wet hands are bothering me so much to your doctor?” Yeah, of course I have. I’m your idea of a good time. However, by writing me, when she easily could have. that I can’t keep track of a train of thought - aware of every solution available. I’ve tried this column (and completely embarrassing I love our current friendship, and can’t wait to jeez, what was I writing? - pause, wipe hands. them all except for the iontophoresis pro- myself ), I hope that I’m normalizing this sort continue making fun of her while we’re in college.

While most students worry the night before cedure (the process of shutting down sweat of conversation at least a little bit.

She’s one of the many reasons I’m so grateful that about knowing the material, I worry more glands by shocking them with low electric So, yeah, high school meant a lot to me, I’ll I never got kicked off Octagon. about the temperature of the testing room. current in water) and botox (which is ex- miss everyone, etc.

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16

THE OCTAGON

FEATURE

GRAPHIC

S BY ANN

May 30, 2017

D N U O B E G E L

YA DAHM A

NI AND JA

CKSON M

ARGOLIS

COL

SIDAD NIVER RICANA E IBOAM

U

GOODBYE, HIGH SCHOOL BOTTOM ROW: Natalie Brown (Gonzaga University), Kaeleigh Valverde (Mills College), Anny Schmidt (University of Puget Sound), Shriya Nadgauda (Harvey Mudd College), Sylvaine Bucher (St. John’s College), Michelle Li (University of San Diego), Avi Bhullar (University of Washington), Nicole Wolkov (George Washington University), Isabelle Leavy (Oberlin College) MIDDLE ROW: Mac Scott (Carleton College), Christian Van Vleck (Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo), Jesus Galindo (Ibero-American University), Emory Shi (Dickinson College), Kevin Huang (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute), Arvind Krishnan (University of Chicago), Adam Dean (Brandeis University), Daniel Hernried (Whitman College), Jaelan Trapp (Howard University), Aidan Cunningham (University of Denver) TOP ROW: Austin Talamantes (New York University), Alexa Mathisen (Wellesley College), Elizabeth Brownridge (Saint Mary’s College of California), Emil Erickson (Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo), Quin LaComb (Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo), Fred Xu (UC Santa Cruz), Zane Jakobs (University of Colorado, Boulder), Marigot Fackenthal (Cornell University), Maryjane Garcia (UC Riverside) NOT PICTURED: Camille Locke (UC Santa Barbara)