PALO ALTO UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT PALO ALTO HIGH SCHOOL 50 EMBARCADERO RD. PALO ALTO, CA 94301 NON-PROFIT ORG U.S. POSTAGE
PAI D PALO ALTO PERMIT #44
The Campanile
Vol. XCV, No. 9
Two English teachers hired to fill void left by resignations
50 Embarcadero Road, Palo Alto, CA 94301 • www.palycampanile.org
Friday, May 24, 2013
Senior named Presidential Scholar
Emily semba spotlight editor
D
ue to the resignation of English teachers Ellen Austin and Denise Shaw, who are leaving to teach at Harker School and in the San Diego Unified School District, respectively, the administration has decided to hire new teachers for the English department to compensate for their departure. Potential teachers presented 30-minute mock lessons to several English classes, allowing supervisors to receive student feedback. “[It is] pretty standard to do those kind of test lessons,” English teacher Kindel Launer said. “You want to see how you establish rapport with the students.” Principal Phil Winston said that there were certain characteristics he was searching for when choosing new staff members.
See Austin, Page A3
Courtesy of Asa Mathat
On May 6, senior Hilda Huang was named a Presidential Scholar of the Arts for her achievements as a musician after participating in the YoungArts program. See Huang, Page A3
Graduation details StephEnie Zhang EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
O
n May 29, members of the senior class will have their graduation ceremony on the quad, with girls clad in white and boys in green, as they celebrate their final days at Paly. But before their last day, seniors have many activities and events to look forward to, including the traditional Baccalaureate ceremony on May 26 and the senior picnic on May 28. This year, Baccalaureate will be held at the Flint Center at De Anza College from 12:30 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. Senior class president Michael Wang will welcome the students, Stanford’s head football coach David Shaw will be the main speaker and some students will be giving performances. “We have David Shaw speaking, and I’m very excited about that,” Wang said. “I will be speaking there, and we have a lot of performances lined up courtesy of Mr. Najar. It’s going to be a great event and I’m very excited.” The senior class picnic follows two days after Baccalaureate.
May
26
Baccalaureate
Will be held at the Flint Center at De Anza College May
28 Senior class Picnic
Attend a continental breakfast before mandatory graduation rehearsal May
29 Graduation Ceremony
Grab your caps and gowns, the day has come for you to leave Paly
See Graduation, Page A3
Science Olympiad places 16th at Nationals, wins individual awards
Maya Kitayama Editor-In-Chief
P
aly’s Science Olympiad (Scioly) team finished their historic competition run by placing 16th out of 60 high schools at Nationals, which took place on May 15 and 16 at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio. The team accumulated 497 points, with the winning team, Solon High School, receiving 178 points. The team is ecstatic about their performance at Nationals, especially considering this was the team’s first year in attendance. “Nationals was always the goal, and every year we got closer and closer, and finally, I can’t believe it has happened,” junior team captain Grace Lin said. Junior team member Annie Chen also shares the feelings of exhilaration and team pride for reaching such a high level of competition. “It’s really amazing to be able to reach Nationals considering how we’ve missed going the past years when we were close, so I’m really, really thankful that we pulled through and made it happen,” Chen said.
The team advanced to Nationals for the first time in its history after winning the Northern California State Tournament on April 13. Paly represented Northern California, along with Winston Churchill Middle School, located in Carmichael, Calif. Paly joined the 120 other high school and middle school teams, one of which travelled all the way from Japan. Final rankings are determined based off a system of cumulative team points. Team members are placed
into pairs, or in the case of experimental design, three people, and compete in events. The groups then take tests or complete an engineering event, and based off their performance, they receive a place of 1st, 2nd, 3rd, all the way up to 60th. The overall team score is a culmination of all the team’s individual placings, and the team who finishes with the lowest score wins the competition.
See Scioly, Page A3
stephenie zhang/the campanile
Junior Nicolas Quach and senior Jeffrey Yan placed third in the Material Science competition at the Science Olympiad Nationals held on May 16.
Viking senior mural to be mounted on underpass
Senior gift from the class of 2013, a painted mural, will be mounted on the Paly side of the Embarcadero underpass. will kershner senior staff writer
T
he Paly class of 2013 has begun painting its senior class gift, a viking-themed mural set to be mounted on the Paly side of Embarcadero Road underpass. After designing and working with the Public Works Department, the project was approved by the Palo Alto Public Arts Commission. Seniors
Claire Marchon, Lisie Sabbag and senior class president Michael Wang are heading up the project by working hand in hand with the City of Palo Alto to make this mural a reality. The mural has run into a couple of obstacles, namely the possibility of water damage and graffiti. In response, a decision has been made to mount the mural onto the underpass instead of directly painting it on. “We chose to mount on the wall instead of painting directly onto the wall so that the project is protected against other tagging, water damage and in the event of an emergency it can be removed,” Wang said.
In addition to being mounted, the entire painting will be completed on plywood and sealed in plexiglass to prevent damage. This approach allows for even more flexibility as the artwork can be removed and replaced. “On top of that, classes can swap out the panels and add in their own creations,” Wang said. The painting began last Saturday as seniors showed up to volunteer their time to clean, stencil, prime, paint and relax. As of now, there is no completion date set. Any senior can come out to the quad from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. this Saturday to volunteer, socialize and contribute to the senior gift.
hillel zand/the campanile
This year’s senior class gift, a mural (pictured above,) will be mounted on the Embarcadero underpass on the North end of campus
INSIDE News...............................A1-A5 Spotlight...............................A6-A7 ASB Post.....................................A8 Opinion............................A9-A12 Lifestyle................................B1 Student Life.......................B2-B4, B7 Music................................B5 Summer................................B6 Community................................B8 Sports..................................C1-C3
Check out Campanile’s new website, scan the QR code below.
courtesy of campus basement
Spotlight College Map See where the Class of 2013 will be next year A6-A7
Andrew Choi/The Campanile
Irene Ezran/The Campanile
Lifestyle A Broader perspective on Sexual Assault
Sports Year in Review
Campanile offers a new view
Paly athletics from 2012-2013.
B1
C4-C5
Check out the top moments in