Highlander Newsmagazine Issue 5 2019-20

HIGHLANDER WHAT IS LOVE? Scotlight: What is love?

READ IT ON PG. 16

IN THIS ISSUE:

Asian New Years traditions READ IT ON PG 4

Stop buying chocolate READ IT ON PG 26

How to survive winter READ IT ON PG 30

Vol. XI Issue V | February 2020 | Carlmont High School | scotscoop.com

HIGHLANDER

in this issue...

Highlander Editors-in-Chief Nisha Marino Emma Romanowsky

Traditions of the Lunar New Year

newsmagazine

Scot Scoop Editor-in-Chief Veronica Roseborough ScotCenter Editor-in-Chief Mandy Hitchcock Publicity Director Rachel Matatyaou Faculty Adviser Justin Raisner Editors Andrea Butler Molly Donaldson Francesca D’Urzo Rachel McCrea Kimberly Mitchell Emma O’Connor Mari Ramirez Auva Soheili Staff Writers Joshua Baxter Audrey Boyce Brianna Cheng Samantha Chu Eoin Cunningham Natalie Doud Anna Feng Nihal Karim Zachary Khouri Audrey Luey Ayal Meyers Miki Nguyen Miles Ozorio Bella Reeves Ava Richards Alena Ruhstaller Maddy Ting Taisiia Yakovenko Highlander is a newsmagazine dedicated to providing Carlmont students, staff, and the community with highquality news, features, and opinion articles. We want to keep our readers informed on important issues ranging from events at Carlmont to international news, and want to engage them with unique stories and designs. Highlander is a publication completely run by the students of the journalism classes at Carlmont High School. Story ideas are generated by the students and the published content is up to the direction of the editorial staff. This issue’s editorial was written by Andrea Butler and the editorial cartoon was drawn by Lexi Romanowsky. The models on the front are Taisiia Yakovenko and Kimberly Mitchell.

features 4-9 Is the U.S. still racist?

Consequences of sharing your DNA data

campus 10-13

Why we have the Happy Campers Daycare Student TikTokers

sports 22-25 Trash talk isn’t allowed at basketball games Opinion: Take high school sports seriously

opinion 26-31 Stop buying chocolate

Be more conscious of the news you listen to A guide to California’s winter

SCOTLIGHT: What is love?

Scotlight is Highlander newsmagazine’s in-depth cover story section.

In this issue, Scotlight explores the concept of love at Carlmont.

Scotlight takes a look at the science of love inside our brains, explaining the more chemical aspect of the phenomenon. We also delve into the relationships of two campus couples, and some individuals who have found that the most important love is the one we have for ourselves. All this is an attempt to answer the age-old question: What is love?

READ ON PAGE 16 Scotlight was designed and written by Kimberly Mitchell.

Carlmont High School 1400 Alameda de las Pulgas, Belmont, CA

Editorial: Love is in the eye of the beholder In general, the more we search for the things we want, the more elusive they become. This holds especially true for love; the more desperate you become, the less you find love in other places.

To make matters worse, the fact that the dating pool at our age is mainly limited to your high school means your options are limited for four years. As “cuffing season” comes to a close, people seem to resign themselves to a lonely existence, shutting out any possibility of happiness while in the moment.

The fact of the matter is, people are more loved than they realize but it’s up to the individual to recognize and accept the love they receive. Whether love is expressed through a quick hug because someone notices sadness or through a gift of time, it shows someone cares.

However, thanks to the expectation that people need to either find a person to date or forever be alone, it becomes easy to overlook the love given on a daily basis.

Even recognizing that there’s love beyond a significant other is a good start.

Using the five love languages is a good

way to realize how people show and receive love. The five are as follows: “Words of Affirmation,” “Acts of Service,” “Receiving Gifts,” “Quality Time,” and “Physical Touch.”

Words of Affirmation can be anything from little phrases of “I love you” to written letters spelling out emotions. Acts of Service are things people do for one another to show their love, like doing chores or other such tasks. Receiving Gifts is literally receiving gifts, but sometimes the time put into the gift means more than the gift itself. Quality Time is spending or dedicating time to a person to show that love is there and that they care. Lastly, Physical Touch can be anything from a handshake to a hug.

Everyone speaks a different love language and sometimes it’s hard to accept that a significant other doesn’t recognize the love that they receive. Nevertheless, every combination of expression of love is valid, and small gestures can make someone’s day and show how much someone cares.

By the same token, being in a relation-

ship is great as long as unrealistic expectations don’t ruin what’s in the relationship.

Instead of going in wanting a certain list to be fulfilled, you can have an open mind and figure out how that person expresses and receives love and appreciate them for what they have.

Another aspect of love that many forget and overlook is the love you should have for yourself. That doesn’t necessarily mean that you need to be happy and content with everything about you right now, but it does mean that you should be included in their recognition of love.

If quality time is what is important, then taking some alone time to de-stress or relax can aid in giving some love to yourself. No matter what different people do for themselves, realizing that the love people crave during the season of love overshadows the importance of love the people can show to themselves.

Even though romantic love may be hard to find for real, you still can receive and give other types of love from your friends and family after you realize that the love you see is up to you.

Great Uncle’s Cantonese Steamed Fish Ingredients: • Fish (about 2 lbs); scaled and gutted • 1 tsp salt • 2 oz. sliced ginger • 2 tbsp cooking oil • 2 scallions, with greens cut into large segments Sauce: • ½ tsp ground white pepper • 1 tsp sesame oil • 2 tbsp soy sauce • ¼ tsp sugar • ½ tsp white wine

Tang Yuan (汤圆) is a dessert of glutinous rice flour balls, served with a sweet syrup. They are often filled with sesame or red bean paste, but can also be eaten plain.

The round shape of the tang yuan symbolizes family togetherness.

1. Use water mixed with a tsp of vinegar to wash the fish and get rid of the smell 2. Sprinkle salt on both sides of the fish and move onto serving plate 3. Put ginger on and around the fish 4. Boil a pan of hot water. Once the water is boiling, place the fish inside and cover 5. Steam for about 12 minutes.

At the same time, heat the oil until it reaches 160°F and mix together the ingredients for the sauce 6. Turn off the stove, open the lid, and pour sauce over fish 7. Spread green onions on top of the fish and pour the hot oil over the fish Serve!

Tteokguk (떡국)is a savory soup dish filled with sliced rice cakes and usually garnished with egg, meat, and seaweed. Another variant of the dish is Tteokmanduguk, which is the basic tteokguk served with mandu, or dumplings. Koreans consider eating the soup dish as a birthday ritual, with people turning a year older only after they have consumed it.

4 HIGHLANDER FEATURES

Brianna Cheng

The taste of New Years

How Asians in the Bay Area celebrate the New Year Brianna Cheng The smell of freshly-cooked rice wafts from the kitchen. Children eagerly gather around the feast as the adults try to rearrange platters to fit even more dishes onto the table. As the family settles down to eat, the room fills with laughter.

This heart-warming scene is at the core of every Lunar New Year celebration, from Koreans living in Seoul, Vietnamese in Hanoi, Chinese in Beijing, to Asian Americans in San Francisco.

The Lunar New Year is celebrated by many East and Southeast Asian cultures.

It’s known by various names, including the Seollal in Korea, Tet in Vietnam, and Spring Festival in China.

Many households prepare well in advance for the celebrations, often as soon as 15 days before the start of the new year, by cleaning their homes to remove the bad luck from the previous year. Some also hang New Year’s decorations, buy new clothes, and settle debts, all in preparation to start off the new year with a clean slate.

“To celebrate the New Year, my family follows many traditional customs. For example, we cut our hair before the New Year to cut off bad luck, but you never cut it during the New Year or else you’re cutting away the good luck,” said Millicent Ku, a junior who helped organized Carlmont’s Chinese New Year event.

Another significant aspect of the New Year celebrations is honoring family. In Korea, sebae is an important ritual of filial piety. Children wish their elders a happy new year by showing deep reverence.

“When I was younger, I remember me and my brother bowing down to our grandparents and saying ‘Happy New Year’ in Korean. That’s a very big thing we always do. While you give your respect to your elders, you wear this traditional Korean outfit called ‘hanbok,’ For girls it’s like a dress, and for men, it’s a robe garment.

It’s a traditional, formal outfit that’s worn for many holidays,” Nina Chung, a Korean American student, said.

Many traditional activities surrounding the holiday are associated with prosperity

and longevity in the new year. This can be seen in the foods featured in the feasts families prepare to celebrate the new year. Some dishes have names that are homophones for lucky phrases.

“Most of the food that you eat during Chinese New Year is for good omens. The fish (鱼; yú) is a major dish because it sounds like ‘excess’ (餘; yú), that’s where you get the saying 年年有餘 (nián nián yǒu yú), which means ‘abundance through the year,’” Chinese teacher Mindy Chiang said.

Some New Year delicacies are specific to certain regions, because the linguistic symbolism is only apparent in certain dialects.

For example, pineapples are considered a New Year’s treat in Taiwan, but aren't associated with the holiday anywhere else.

“In Taiwan, they always have pineapples, because ‘pineapples’ (王梨; ông-lâi) in Taiwanese sounds like ‘prosperity’ (旺來; ōng-lâi). That’s a Taiwan-specific tradition, because it’s in a different dialect from other Chinese languages,” Chiang said.

The symbolism in food isn’t only limited to Chinese New Year. In Korea, a soup dish called tteokguk is eaten for Seollal.

According to the official web portal of South Korea, the white rice cakes in the soup symbolize cleanliness and good luck.

Along with tteokguk, some Koreans also consume mandu, which are dumplings, similar to the Chinese jiaozi.

“We make the rice cakes for the tteokguk, along with dumplings called mandu.

It’s a tradition for all families come together and make the mandu with the rice cake, it’s a time for family to bond,” Chung said.

The feasts are also a moment for families to catch up with each other. The time it takes to prepare the traditional dishes lets everyone relax before the festivities.

“I love meeting with my mother’s side of the family, because we don’t see them very often. It’s nice to see the cousins because everyone’s growing up and doing different things. A lot of them are close to my age so we all enjoy just talking and catching up,” Camran Hitchcock, a Vietnamese American student, said.

However, the celebration isn’t limited

to just catching up. Many fun activities are done, especially for the new year. Dragon and Lion dances are part of traditional Chinese and Vietnamese festivities.

Martial artists perform intricately choreographed routines underneath the iconic lion costumes. Other dancers use poles to manipulate the winding dragon structure down city streets. These dances are often accompanied by firecrackers, which scare off evil spirits.

“When I was younger in Taiwan, the children played together, we’d light fireworks, and eat snacks that we usually wouldn’t have during the year,” Chiang said.

The community festivities extend to Carlmont as well. Every year, the school hosts a Chinese New Year celebration to show off a variety of cultural activities to students taking Chinese. The event kicks off with traditional performances by the students. The Chinese New Year party also celebrates the diversity in Chinese culture by setting up stations where students learn about Chinese food, games, and art.

“At the stations, we will have traditional snacks and food on the sides such as nian gao (New Year rice cake) and many snacks.

Examples of the stations include dumpling wrapping, mahjong, calligraphy, etc,” Ku said.

These cultural experiences help foster new memories and introduce new customs and values to the Carlmont community.

“I like celebrating with students because I introduce them to the cultural aspect that we don’t talk about in class through handson experience. Some students come from a Chinese background, but they might celebrate it differently due to regional differences. We connect the language with the culture and community,” Chiang said.

Ultimately, no matter the country or culture, the Lunar New Year is about the community coming together to bestow well-wishes for the upcoming year. The food, games, and traditions that symbolize good luck and prosperity make the holiday special, but the families that come together to celebrate these values tie the whole celebration together.

FEBRUARY 2020 HIGHLANDER 5

The silent past

Racism in modern America and the impact of the civil rights movement Taisiia Yakovenko “Before I went on the Sojourn Trip, I was blind,” Sam Lombardi, a senior, said.

“We live in this Bay Area bubble where everyone is very accepting and understanding, but outside of it, there are places where people are still segregated and discriminated against because of their race.”

The Sequoia Union High School District allows students to go on a Sojourn trip.

“The Sojourn Project is a wholly unique, transformative, academic, moving classroom immersion program, and a catalyst for humanity,” according to the Sojourn Project website.

“Sojourn is a trip to five states in the Deep South: Georgia, Arkansas, Alabama, Tennessee, and Mississippi,” Lombardi said. “That firsthand experience with cities and places where the civil rights movement took place allowed me to better understand that there are still bits and pieces of racism that exist today.”

The Carlmont population mostly shares

1955

Emmett Till was kidnapped from his uncle’s house in Money, Mississippi, a heavily segregated town. His body was found four days later with heavy bruises and a shot to the head. Till’s kidnapping brought attention to the racial violence in the South and called for support for reforms in the region through media.

One month after Till’s murder, his half-brother was accused and sentenced for the incident, which caused African American rallies and demonstrations in northern cities such as Chicago, Baltimore, and New York.

6 HIGHLANDER FEATURES

this general philosophy, as many students and teachers agree on the idea that racism is still present in today’s society, even if they don’t experience it firsthand.

Beginning in the early 17th century, American society was segregated by race as colonists started to import Africans as a source of cheap labor. From there, the foundations of American society have been based on segregation, according to History.com.

“Not many people know this, but in the colonial era there were some communities where escaped slaves, native Americans, and Europeans all lived in harmony, ” U.S. History teacher David Gomez said. “Unfortunately, those communities were very small and rare; most of the colonies were still heavily segregated by race.”

The oppression of those minority groups brought attention to the issue of existing racism and started a number of social movements. The civil rights movement began in the early 1950s and specifically addressed the racism that the African American community faced.

“The civil rights movement was about African Americans making a difference in American society through a series of peaceful speeches and marches,” said Virginia Brase, a vice-president of the Black Student Union (BSU). “The movement showed everyone that all the stereotypes about African Americans were false and, in a sense, it can be viewed as people coming together to speak up against any kind of discrimination.”

Since the end of the civil rights movement in the late 1960s, the expression of racism has morphed from legal racial segregation to economic inequality based on race.

“The most important part of the civil rights movement was the fact that it ended legal racial segregation,” Adrian Fernandez, a senior, said. “Even though racial equality was a law and was written in the Constitution, the racist society did not just end there.”

Although the civil rights movement addressed the issues of institutional racism, the movement did not address all of

1960

Sit-ins are a form of peaceful protest that were first employed by African American students in Greensboro, North Carolina. African American students would sit in places that would typically segregate African Americans from whites. This form of protest mainly targeted the established social norms and laws of “separate but equal” to further advance the civil rights movement. Greensboro sit-ins called national attention and gathered about 300 participants. Although sit-ins in other Southern cities were not as successful, they brought a lot of attention to the civil rights movement

the aspects of racism that were present in American society.

“The federal government was a reluctant but supportive partner in ending segregation by passing the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and securing voting rights with the Voting Rights Act of 1965,” Race and Ethnicity teacher Karen Ramroth said.

“However, it was resistant to creating economic equality for all races.”

Since the issues of economic equality were not addressed between the 1950s and 1960s, they still persist today.

“Today, there is still a lot of racism happening. However, we don’t talk about it because it is ‘hidden’ in a sense. The majority of that ‘hidden’ racism can be seen through the economy,” Gomez said. “There are still a lot of areas that are racially segregated, not by law but by the income of different groups of people.”

Since the conversation about race does not appear much in today’s society, the issue of current racism is not being addressed.

“I think that we need to talk about racism and the issue of discrimination way more at school,” Arzoe Kaur, a senior, said.

“Those conversations allow people to be more curious about the topic and learn a lot more about it than they would be willing to do by themselves on their own time.”

1962

In September, riots erupted on the campus of the University of Mississippi as the crowd protested the attempts of James Meredith, a U.S. army veteran, to integrate the all-white school. After the riot was settled, Meredith was allowed to enroll in the university and became the first African American graduate of the University in 1963. Prior to Meridith’s case, the lower courts sided with the university of Mississippi when another student sued it for denying admission based on race.

The lack of conversation about race at school could be explained by the established norm that dictates its sensitive nature and tends to ward people away from talking about racial issues.

“We were taught a colorblind philosophy (i.e., “I don’t see race”) and that it was impolite to talk about race, so we were never given the tools to have courageous conversations about topics that may cause discomfort,” Ramroth said. “That lack of discussion leads to ignorance on the problem causing us, as a society, to ignore it.

Until we start seeing these things as problems that affect the American community as a whole, they will continue to persist.”

Moreover, the lack of conversation causes misinformation about the topic, which leads to some misconceptions.

“Every year, I do a short answer question for my students about whether or not Martin Luther King’s dream society exists today,” Gomez said. “I always find it interesting that year after year, the majority of my white students say ‘yes’ and the majority of students from minority races say ‘no.’”

That lack of consensus between different members of society on whether or not racism is still an issue today contributes to more ignorance about the existing problem.

“The more we ignore and mask the

problem of racial inequality, the worse it becomes,” Brase said. “We will eventually have to come up with some kind of solution to it. However, the longer we wait, the worse it becomes. We need to act on it now.”

Carlmont, like many other high schools in the area, offers students an opportunity to learn more about the civil rights movement and racial relations in America through classes like Race and Ethnicity Studies, the annual Sojourn trip, and the BSU. “Education is the biggest thing that would make a difference. We need to be more educated on how to deal with racism to open up more conversations about what is happening in the world outside our bubble,” Kaur said. “We need to learn more about racial discrimination and its history at school because the majority of the students would not be willing to spend their time doing research and learning more about it.”

Enhancing modern conversation about race with more information about the topic would allow people to be passionate about making change.

“As a teacher, there is not so much that I can do by myself to combat his issue directly,” Gomez said. “However, I hope that my students will take their knowledge and go out into the world to make a difference.”

1965

In June, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference launched an innovative grassroots organizing campaign, the Summer Community Organization and Political Education (SCOPE) project. The main goal of the project was to increase voting rights and encourage African American political participation. The project placed 100 white students into predominantly black areas in the southern states to help lead voter registration drives.

SCOPE volunteers, along with local volunteers, registered more than 50,000 African Americans for voting.

Emma O’Connor

FEBRUARY 2020 HIGHLANDER 7

Unseen implications of DNA testing What is your data being used for, and by whom?

Bella Reeves While some people give up their DNA test results willingly, others don’t. According to the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), those who have never taken an at-home DNA test can be identified based on readily available genetic information from a relative’s DNA. Consumer DNA tests that create personalized genetic reports for their customers have been on the rise since the beginning of the 20th century. The DNA tests have been so popular that people even buy them for family members as birthday presents.

According to a study conducted by MIT Technology Review, more than 26 million people have taken an at-home ancestry test.

The at-home DNA test is as simple as spitting into a tube. With just half a teaspoon of saliva, consumer genetic testing companies can provide a detailed report of a person’s heritage and project their possible health risks.

Although it may seem intriguing, some see it as a threat to their personal security.

The idea of sharing one’s DNA with large companies has become a controversial topic that even the Biotechnology Institute (BTI) at Carlmont debated it in their English classes, which tend to focus on the ethics of the developing biotechnology industry.

“The data is usually sold to other companies for research purposes or even given to the police to track down criminals through a relative’s DNA,” Olivia Troy, a junior in BTI, said. “However, many customers are unaware that they have consented to this when reading the terms of agreement and unless notified, would not agree to such terms.”

8 HIGHLANDER FEATURES

In 2018, 23andMe made a $300 million deal with the pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline. In the agreement, 23andMe would share consumers’ anonymous genetic data to help with the research and development of new drugs.

Every time a person submits a DNA test, although their information is kept secret, their relatives can still be affected.

According to the AAAS, “the technique [at-home DNA tests] could implicate nearly any U.S. individual of European descent in the near future.”

“The data is usually sold to other companies for research purposes or even given to the police to track down criminals through a relative’s DNA.” Millicent Ku Junior

While finding a biological parent may seem great, their information could have been leaked without their consent.

“It’s not only a privacy risk since we all know that these specific companies sell our information to third parties, but information always has a high risk of being compromised,” Millicent Ku, a junior, said.

In October of 2017, MyHeritage,

an Israeli company that provides an online genealogy platform, underwent a major security breach by hackers in which 92 million accounts were compromised.

Imagine finding out that your credit card has been stolen: you call your bank, freeze your account, and request a new card. Now imagine someone hacked into a DNA database.

You can’t change DNA. “It’s fine to share your DNA test results as long as you’re okay with your information going to other places like biotech companies to help create a drug that could be life-saving or police databases,” Arianna Soberanis, a junior in BTI, said.

The growing DNA database has been used to solve cases. California detectives were able to catch the Golden State Killer using DNA from a relative to track him down.

Using GEDmatch, an open-source genealogy website based in Florida, the police found Joseph James DeAngelo, who was arrested for 12 homicides, 45 rapes, and over 100 residential burglaries.

According to the AAAS, “between April and August 2018, at least 13 cases were reportedly solved by long-range familial searches,” most of which were cold cases.

Although the growing DNA database can be considered a law enforcement breakthrough, it’s not as easy to utilize as it seems. According to Yaniv Erlich, the chief science officer at MyHeritage, generally, a person has around 850 relatives who are third cousins or a closer relation.

Law enforcement still has to do a lot of work to narrow the 850 people down to one. According to Erlich, if they know the culprit’s age, it narrows the pool of people down by 90%. If they know where they live, it’s reduced by 50%, and so on.

Although some may think their personal information is easy to find by law enforcement, it takes more effort than it seems.

4 million

people share their information on 23andMe

147

scientific discoveries published by 23andMe

30 states

allow immediate DNA testing of crime suspects

$39-$199

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According to Erlich, when law enforcement collects DNA from a suspect without their consent, they typically analyze it with a technique called Short Tandem Repeat (STR), which removes the DNA of biologically relevant information. It is simply used as a means of identification, similar to a fingerprint.

In 2013, the Supreme Court declared that STR was not a violation of the Fourth Amendment.

“Our DNA could be given to the government to use for cracking cold cases, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but I wouldn’t want to get caught up in a case that has absolutely nothing to do with me,” Ku said.

The more information shared with genetic databases, the more people make each other easier to find.

“There is some transparency about sharing DNA test results, which is why reading consent forms is important,” Susan Gold, a BTI English teacher, said. “It’s also important to understand the protections and limitations of the Genetic Information Non-Discrimination Act and the extent to which law enforcement can utilize DNA test results that are made publicly available on ancestry sites.”

DNA database consumer companies essentially sell a fortune teller. From just a small collection of spit, these companies’ technologies can calculate possible future health problems as well as find long-lost family members.

“I would encourage folks to make an informed decision before purchasing a kit,” Gold said. “It is important to understand the extent to which the data provided is accurate, the various privacy concerns, and the potential risks of getting unsettling and unexpected results about paternity, heritage, or genetic health.”

Although the benefits of sharing one’s data do seem interesting, people should be advised of the looming privacy issues that come with it. The growing lack of privacy protection on the internet makes it easier for one’s personal information to be stolen.

Sharing DNA test results can lead to a more informed society, but it all comes down to reading the terms of service.

FEBRUARY 2020 HIGHLANDER 9

Daycare on campus

Happy Campers is part of Carlmont's community Audrey Luey Tucked away on Carlmont’s campus, the Happy Campers daycare was built in hopes of providing assistance for those in the Carlmont community.

“The daycare is amazing. The kids are like a little family, and the teachers treat them like they are their own babies. The staff are so knowledgeable, helpful, and resourceful. It has eliminated the stress of trying to find consistent childcare, and it’s an economical solution,” Samantha Gingher, the Carlmont health aide, said.

Although many students are unfamiliar with the daycare on the Carlmont campus, its impact on the school community plays a large role in Carlmont staff members’ lives.

The Happy Campers daycare was founded by the Grech Family in 1993 and has been family-owned ever since. The program has been a part of the San Carlos community for over 20 years, serving over 1,000 families to date.

Formerly, the establishment operated as a private school. Recently, however, a contract with the Sequoia Union High School District (SUHSD) was issued in affiliation with the California Department of Social Services. The contract’s intent was to provide discounted childcare to staff members as a way of helping them with their living expenses.

In 2017, Happy Campers was chosen to open on Carlmont High School campus. If any SUHSD staff member sends their child to the daycare, they receive 30% off tuition.

“Since housing costs are so high and we

10 HIGHLANDER CAMPUS

Auva Soheili

Happy Campers Daycare can be found on campus between the Performing Arts Center and the senior lot. are not able to effectively address them, we reduce daycare costs for teachers so that they can divert those savings to housing costs,” Principal Ralph Crame said.

The initial goal of adding the daycare was not only to assist in making teachers’ lives easier, but also to allow Carlmont students to become more involved in their community.

“We were talking about tying it in with education programs, but it came with some obstacles that we don’t have the capacity to address right now,” Instructional Vice Principal Jennifer Cho said.

Carving out space on campus for an en-

tirely new facility proved to be a challenge that required great consideration. According to Administrative Vice-Principal Grant Steunenberg, one of the biggest conflicts was moving classes from the buildings near the senior parking lot to the S, T, and U buildings.

Additionally, there were specific guidelines that needed to be met in order to create an appropriate allocated space for the daycare, such as having big enough dimensions for the outside play environment, and child-friendly bathrooms installed.

Another one of the critical components

for ensuring the success of the daycare is communication. Figuring out how emergency and safety protocols would be reported between Carlmont's administration and the daycare administration proved challenging.

“Whenever there’s anything safetyrelated, like if we have drills, we need to figure out the best way for the daycare to participate in that. The staff members have to be in the same notification system as us, and we need to establish what their responsibilities are and what they need to know,” Cho said.

Despite the many factors that needed to be taken into consideration, the investment seems to have paid off, as many teachers have benefitted from the ingrained system.

“I think that having the daycare on campus and associated with the school district is a great benefit for the teachers.

The quality of the daycare is great and it’s wonderful to have it so close. The cost was competitive with other options, but the discount makes it very good,” said Tyler Kochel, a Carlmont teacher whose son has been attending the daycare for about a year and a half.

Many of the teachers at Carlmont have young kids or may in the future, and the daycare alleviates the potential for logistical stress.

“I appreciate that I don’t need to stop twice to drop-off or pick-up my child from daycare on the way to or from school. If any issues come up during the day, there is the possibility of being able to go down and easily address them,” Kochel said. “I also get more one-on-one time with my son than if the daycare was closer to home, or if we participated in a nanny-share.”

Another benefit of having the daycare on Carlmont's campus is that the staff at the daycare are reliable, as they were selectively chosen by the Carlmont

administration. The extra sense of security and comfort that Happy Campers is able to provide adds to its overall success.

“I feel that you really understand children when you work with them. The teachers understand the high schoolers, they are not afraid to bring their children to our school. They feel comfortable with their children at our site, even staff members at different SUHSD locations are comfortable with bringing their kids to my school,” Heather Chrisholm, the director of Happy Campers, said.

There are a few non-SUHSD families that have enrolled their kids into the daycare on Carlmont campus, but Chrisholm explains that the primary goal of this particular facility is to serve the teachers.

While the daycare is open to the rest of the public community, there is no discount offered.

“My public families, however, are not so interested in this school. I think it’s because there’s a social fear of being on a high school campus. People see it as ‘what if a gunman comes?’ but that is such a rare thing. But at the end of the day, it’s in people’s minds,” Chrisholm said.

The Happy Campers located on the Carlmont campus may be more suitable for some than others, but the interactions between the students on campus and the preschoolers have been only positive. Students tend to monitor their behavior when near the facility, leaving it undisturbed.

Some students even work at the daycare, or are in the process of applying.

“The connection between daycare and high school is pretty straightforward.

There’s a lot of sponge learning going on,” Chrisholm said. “The toddlers and infants are watching the world and absorbing everything that’s happening on a level that adults and older children don’t do anymore because their brains are done with that function. The children hear everything, see

everything, and interpret relationships and reactions; it’s good for them.”

With the developing connection between high school students and the daycare, the Carlmont community continues to grow day by day.

“Having a daycare center with young children changes the mindset of our students coming to and from campus.

Our teachers feel like it’s an addition to community because some of their kids are down there, and I do feel the daycare has become part of Carlmont,” Crame said. “It may not seem that way, and we may not offer it that way, but I think it makes up who we are.”

"Having the daycare on campus and associated with the school district is a great benefit for the teachers. The quality of the daycare is great and it’s wonderful to have it so close. The cost was competitive with other options, but the discount makes it very good."

Tyler Kochel Carlmont teacher

FEBRUARY 2020 HIGHLANDER 11

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Teens use TikTok for self-expression Nihal Karim

When you hear “TikTok,” what do you think of?

In 2009, you might have thought of Ke$ha.

In 2020, however, you’re probably thinking of the video-sharing social media service that has been gaining popularity amongst people of all ages, especially teenagers. Many teenagers use the app to post their own videos, while others just like to watch them.

“I got TikTok a while ago because of my friend,” Jessica Ma, a junior, said. “I made fun of her a lot for having it, but she hyped it up so much that I just ended up creating an account.”

While the platform remains popular, many see people with TikTok accounts as “cringey” or “annoying.”

“I feel like people either love it or hate it,” Nika Lobykina, a junior, said. “Once you get TikTok, though, it’s kind of addicting. I like it because it has a lot of different content I find interesting.”

With so many users and trends, many people, including a number of Carlmont students, have gone viral and received attention from their videos. One of these students is Christian Buck, a senior, who has gained significant recognition from his TikTok account.

“I started posting because I saw a funny video and wanted to make something similar, ” Buck said. “I think the fourth video I made got around 9,000 views. I was surprised and thought it was exciting, so I just kept posting.”

This video was among the first of Buck’s videos to go viral and gain views, which allowed him to get more followers and attention.

“Another video I made with a friend got around 300,000 views and I gained about 1,000 followers after. I still didn’t expect anything out of it and kept making funny, cringey videos,” Buck said.

TikTok has a large user base that posts

a variety of content. Many videos, such as “storytimes” and art videos, tend to get a lot of views and likes, and often make it on other platforms such as Instagram and YouTube.

“One of my videos that ended up getting a lot of views was a joke I made about me struggling and failing math,” Buck said. “I think people liked it because they thought it was very relatable.”

Besides these popular videos, some of the first viral TikTok videos were dancing challenges, which resulted in many of the earlier users of the app getting fame and exposure by partaking in that genre.

“I personally do not like dancing videos,” Ma said. “I think other people like them because they’re popular, and it’s sort of a trend to know all the TikTok dances. But I feel like at this point, they’re overdone. After a while, it gets boring watching people just move their hands around.”

In the beginning, dancing videos were the most prominent on TikTok, but now a variety of content has become popular as the app has gained more users.

TikTok videos can be as long as 60 seconds, which makes it easy for teens to spend hours on the app without even realizing it.

“I go on TikTok every day, and it’s honestly kind of addicting,” Ma said. “I feel like teens and people in our generation have such short attention spans, so something like a 20-second video with a storyline is just quick and interesting enough to grab our attention.”

Since it is not uncommon for videos on TikTok to go viral, the definition of “fame” is not very clear.

According to Lobykina, who posts on TikTok, a user should have at least 5,000 followers and have several viral videos to be considered famous.

In contrast, Ma, who does not post any videos and has a private account, says that even a thousand followers can make a person “famous.”

“There are so many accounts on TikTok that have 20,000 and 30,000 followers that it

isn’t even a big deal anymore. You have to have at least 100,000 followers to be considered famous. Otherwise, you’re just well known,” Buck said. “I got some clout, but I would not consider myself famous. I do feel like it made me realize how annoying it would be to be famous.”

Because TikTok is considered by some to be embarrassing and by others to be cool, reactions to students who have posted viral videos may differ from person to person.

“After my first viral TikTok, I got made fun of for a week, and at least one person in all of my classes mentioned it,” Buck said. “Other people thought it was interesting, though, and some people at school I don’t know have recognized me.”

Despite some of these disadvantages, many teens like the app because they find it fun and relaxing.

“Even though a lot of people see TikTok as cringey and embarrassing, I think that you just have to learn how to have fun with it because it’s actually fun to watch 8.5k and film videos,” Lobykina said.

Whether they’re watching videos or filming them, many TikTok users use the app to share their personalities 3,216 or find common ground with one another in the virtual community.

“I use TikTok because I think it’s fun, and I can post a bunch of silly, 1,654 random things,” Lobykina said. “People just make videos where they express their personality and hope that others will watch it and like it.”

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SEARCHING FOR THROUGH STORIES OF

LOVE Article and Design by Kimberly Mitchell

H

ow does it feel to be in love?

To know, in your heart, that what you have is real?

That the feelings exploding in your chest and traveling wildly through your veins are not yours alone? That someone else is experiencing the same excitement, fear, and sweaty palms?

For generations, philosophers, writers, scientists, and normal people have searched desperately to understand and define love.

16

Humans tend to comprehend, micromanage, and organize our feelings into boxes we can understand, but love is not a concept that can be easily defined or confined.

Love is experienced differently from person to person and the way you love a parent is different from the way you love a partner, or even yourself. Yet even these categories of platonic, romantic, and selflove are ever-evolving.

Instead of trying to define love, the following pages will examine the variety of ways in which people experience the countless variations of this phenomenon.

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LUCK

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LOVE ON THE BRAIN

hough we often associate love with the heart, the true magic can be seen inside the brain.

Being in love floods the brain with chemicals and hormones that produce feelings of pleasure, obsession, and attachment. Many researchers have compared the effects of love to cocaine, a notion that has been the source of many love songs in recent decades.

According to Abby Marsh, a professor at Georgetown University, there are two main neurotransmitters involved with attraction: dopamine and adrenaline.

Dopamine makes you feel good.

Couples often show high levels of dopamine resulting in higher energy, suppressed hunger, improved focus, and less need for sleep.

“Because of this, you not only fall in love with the person but begin to build a romanticized view of the world around you,” Marsh said. “Simply put, we love being in love.”

This is one of the reasons why many couples such as Sarah Dunwoody and Rafael Montalvo describe looking at life through rose-colored glasses after falling in love.

“When I would see her in the halls I would catch myself smiling for the rest of the day,” Montalvo said. “And as someone who usually sleeps early, I found myself staying up past 1:00 a.m. just to continue having a conversation with her.”

When you first start to fall in love with a person, your stress response is activated, increasing the level of adrenaline and cortisol in your body.

This explains why you might have sweaty palms and a racing heart when you see your crush. The quick release of adrenaline causes blood vessels to dilate, improving the flow of blood and oxygen throughout the body but also turning our faces a telltale pink.

Marsh admits that to many, the idea that so much of our attraction is influenced by chemicals and evolutionary biology can seem cold and scientific rather than romantic.

However, she argues that knowing that your entire body is playing matchmaker to decide if that beautiful stranger is right for you instills a greater sense of appreciation for what otherwise may be dismissed as a fleeting attraction.

“After all, just because the calcula-

tions are happening in your brain doesn’t mean those warm, fuzzy feelings are all in your head,” Marsh said.

Once attraction is confirmed, your bloodstream is flooded with norepinephrine, activating your fight or flight response. Your heart beats faster, your pupils dilate, and your body releases glucose for additional energy — not because you’re in danger, but because your body is telling you that something important is happening.

To help you focus, norepinephrine creates a sort of tunnel vision, blocking out surrounding distractions, possibly even warping your sense of time and enhancing your memory.

This might explain why many couples never forget their first kiss, their first crush, or the place they went to on their first date.

“ When I would see her in the halls I would catch myself smiling for the rest of the day. ” – Rafael Montalvo

Art by Nina Chung

17

BREAKING THE FRIEND-ZONE U nrequited crushes are the bane of many high schoolers.

However, for Rafael Montalvo and Sarah Dunwoody, being friend-zoned was a blessing.

The two first met in freshman year through choir and as they had several mutual friends, they gradually grew closer.

Somewhere along the way, Montalvo and Dunwoody began to realize that they each had a crush.

“We both had crushes on other people,” Dunwoody said. “We would talk to each other about how we were upset that our crushes didn’t like us back and that things weren’t going well.”

The two didn’t realize at the time, but their ability to be emotionally vulnerable with each other fostered an intimacy that would blossom into something more than just being choir buddies.

“It laid the foundations of trust and supporting each other, which are important in any relationship,” Montalvo said. “Even in non-romantic relationships, trust and communication are super important.”

After nearly a year of countless late-night rants and laughs, Dunwoody

18

began to notice a change of heart at the start of her sophomore year.

“I got over my crush because I was starting to develop feelings for Rafael,” Dunwoody said. “Which was super confusing because I liked this other person for so long and all of a sudden, I find myself having this deep connection and friendship with someone else.”

Once Dunwoody became aware of these budding feelings, everything became clear in both her mind and heart.

“I just felt so happy when I was around him,” Dunwoody said.

Unbeknownst to Dunwoody, her rosy cheeks and smiles were far from concealed; Montalvo began to catch on.

“I have kind of a similar story in the sense that as I was getting over the person I liked, I was like, ‘I’m 99.9% sure I’m about to get friend-zoned by this person,’’’ Montalvo said. “And then I started piecing things together and I was like, ‘I get this feeling Sarah kind of likes me.’”

When Montalvo caught onto Dunwoody’s feelings, he realized his own and decided to give love another shot.

Just three days after finding out Dunwoody’s feelings through her

friends, Montalvo asked Sarah out on a date.

“Things just kind of moved really fast,” Dunwoody said. “But it all kind of felt like a dream.”

When it comes to unrequited crushes and being stuck in the friend-zone, the couple believes that the fear that holds many back from “shooting their shot” is rarely realized.

“As someone who has been friendzoned twice, I’d say it was worth the risk because I’m still really good friends with the two people I’ve gotten rejected by,” Montalvo said. “Sure there was some awkwardness at the start, but we got over it really quickly and there have been no issues since.”

For Dunwoody, pursuing a relationship with someone she was close friends with was not a source of concern either.

“I didn’t really have anxiety about switching from the friend-zone because everything just felt right,” Dunwoody said. “When he asked me out, I was so excited that the thought of us not being friends again never crossed my mind because everything that was natural.”

Rafael Montalvo

HIGH SCHOOL SWEETHEARTS F or most, adolescence is steeped in awkwardness and hormones.

But there are couples who meet during that time of change and confusion who find — and stay in — love.

It was November of 2000 when Karen Ramroth made her move.

“There was a guy who wanted to ask me out to homecoming, but I didn’t particularly want to go with him,” Karen Ramroth said. “But I also didn’t want to reject him either.”

After thinking it over Karen, realized that if she had a date before the boy asked her out, then it would not be “mean” to reject him.

But even with her new plan, she realized she first needed to find another guy.

“The guy I originally wanted to go with was going with another girl,” Karen Ramroth said. “I remember wondering, ‘Who should I ask?’ and thinking ‘Andy seems like a nice guy, I should ask him.’”

Like Karen, Andy was also in need of a date at the time as the person he wanted to ask out was already cuffed.

“I originally wasn’t planning to go because I had already been rejected,” Andy Ramroth said. “But Karen and I had been friendly enough so when she asked me out I was happy to go with her.”

The two had known each other since they were 11 but only grew close once they got to Mills High School.

Even though the pair attended the dance together, their first official date was four months later; March 9, 2001, to be exact.

“We went to Red Robin and watched

Courtesy of Karen Ramroth

THE RAMROTHS NOW

Courtesy of Karen Ramroth

THE RAMROTHS AT PROM

a Brad Pitt movie,” Andy Ramroth said.

While the date may seem ordinary at first, the two slowly developed a relationship that would stand the test of time.

Unlike many high school romances that fade after the end of senior year, the two high school sweethearts carried their love beyond the halls of Mills.

During the college admission process, Karen and Andy decided that they wouldn’t get in the way of each other’s academic dreams. However, once the couple received their acceptance to the University of California Berkeley, they made a new promise to each other.

“We always just kind of say, like, nobody better ever really came and so we just never broke up,” Karen Ramroth said.

Just months after graduating from college, while on a date in Santa Cruz, Karen remembers teasing Andy for waiting so long to propose to her. Little did she know, the brown paper bag that Andy had been crinkling anxiously the whole day had a ring just for her.

“The whole time I was pushing us through our dinner and everything else

we wanted to do on our date to get to the beach,” Andy Ramroth said.

He wanted to wait for the perfect moment when the setting sun illuminated the clear sky in hues of golden rays and pink clouds. However, as the hours passed by, it became clear that his romantic sunset proposal plan fell through.

“We finally got to the beach but we missed the sunset because that beach does not face west so there was just no sun at all,” Andy Ramroth said.

Even though he didn’t get his golden hour moment, he pulled out the ring and dropped down on his knee.

“It was lovely and romantic even without the sunset,” Karen Ramroth said.

The married couple returned back to where they fell in love, this time not as students but as teachers.

Karen has recently returned to Carlmont after her maternity leave and is now adjusting to campus life with a baby.

“It’s difficult, but having the daycare service and the support of my husband makes the journey easier and each day we are learning something new,” Karen Ramroth said.

“It’s a partnership,” Andy Ramroth added. “When you really feel like you are in this together, it doesn’t matter what obstacles come your way. We always try to solve them together.”

19

BECOMING YOUR OWN BOO W

e live in a culture where romantic love is often placed on a pedestal.

However, there is more to love than the people you crush on or date.

In fact, the love shared between close friends and the love one has for oneself can make some of the most powerful and profound experiences.

Like a growing number of youths, Ana Alvarez’s most important love is the one she’s learned to have for herself.

Along with the falling leaves and rainy days, the changing seasons brings its special friend to spice up the end of holidays: cuffing season.

According to Cosmopolitan, “cuffing season” is the period from October to March when people tend to feel a growing desire to be “cuffed up” with someone or begin a relationship.

The phenomenon stems from the

20

idea that the cold weather and the lack of sunshine creates a sense of loneliness among single people.

People, especially teenagers, can experience a strong sense of urgency to find someone to help take away the cold winter blues.

“It’s almost like a chain reaction,” Alvarez said. “Soon enough, everyone is dating just to try stay warm for the winter.”

Most teenage relationships don’t last long because people rush into them too fast or are not mentally prepared to commit long-term to someone. With cuffing season, the appeal is to simply be in a relationship but not necessarily to work with the other person in developing the relationship past the honeymoon stage.

Rather than trying to find someone to cuff up, Alvarez and her friend Emna

Sellami make the most of their high school experience together, as friends who support and love each other.

“ there’s no point IN being in love ... if i can’t love myself first. ” – Ana Alvarez

For Alvarez, her friendships and selfcare is worth more than a one-month relationship.

“I know that there is no point in being in love with someone else if I can’t love myself first,” said Alvarez.

Kimberly Mitchell

FEBRUARY DATES The stories we showcased so far are not all there is to love and we would like you to help continue this story. Share your stories of love, loss, or any questions you have by emailing us at is.this.love.podcast@gmail.com or tweeting us at @IsThisLovePodc. In the meantime, below are a collection of date ideas for you and your significant other, your friends, or just for yourself.

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Screamin’ Scots cheer restricted at basketball games Joshua Baxter You’re sitting in the bleachers at a basketball game. The score is tied entering the fourth quarter in an intense matchup versus Sequoia, the school’s rival.

There are 20 seconds left, and Carlmont is up by just one point when a player fouls the leading scorer on Sequoia.

As he heads to the free throw line, the crowd erupts around you, making as much noise as they possibly can.

He misses the first free throw, and everyone on Carlmont’s side gets even louder: cheering and shouting at the top of their lungs.

Then he misses the second shot. Once again, the crowd begins to cheer, only this time everyone starts chanting “choker.”

Not long after this begins, ASB and Carlmont’s administration come onto the court to quell the chanting.

Unlike professional leagues, sports at the high school level do not tolerate trash talk — they only allow encouragement.

According to the California Coastal Section (CCS) sportsmanship policy, there are eight components of their fifth rule, which relate to the fan bases and students of schools.

Carlmont is a part of the CCS which is a regional section that makes up part of the governing body of California high school athletics, the California Interscholastic Federation.

Their rules address the notion that students and parents are under no circumstances allowed to berate the opposing school, or make negative signs or obscene motions. They cannot disrespect the opponent or the referees and their calls. Lastly, attendees are forbidden to wear body paint anywhere other than the face.

The penalty for violation of these components is a submission of an apology and possible punishment by the League and CCS commissioner.

This leaves both the coaching staff and school administration with the responsibility to stop any possible misconduct from over-competitive fans or players.

Carlmont is no exception to this rule, and while there is a Screamin’ Scots section to create noise, there is neither trash talk nor artificial noisemakers (another violation of the code).

However, during the fourth quarter of 22 HIGHLANDER SPORTS

Joshua Baxter

Daniel Awad, a junior, dribbles the basketball up the court while looking for an open pass against Menlo-Atherton in the Scots' first quad game of the season.

Carlmont’s first quad game of the season against Menlo-Atherton, in which the Scots lost 39-63, fans of the Bears started chanting “air-ball” when a Carlmont player took a shot and completely missed both the rim and the backboard.

This action was a blatant taunt targeting an individual player, yet it went unchecked.

“Everything is supposed to be positive and directed at your team, and MenloAtherton wasn’t supposed to do things like that. Both teams are supposed to adhere to the same principles, but it just depends on who’s going to enforce it,” Patrick Smith, the Athletic Director at Carlmont, said. “It’s not our job to tell the M.A. fans what to do, it’s our job to control our fans.”

Ron Ozorio, the head coach of Carlmont’s varsity basketball team, stresses how essential it is for players to shrug off any bad-mouthing and keep their heads in the game.

“We try to make sure the players disregard that stuff and play hard. I’m sure it does affect them but we try not to pay attention to anybody — not our friends, not our family — because that takes you away from what your job is, so we try to keep it separate,” Ozorio said.

The players take his advice to heart, so no matter what fans may say, they try their hardest to keep pushing through.

“The fans can get in your head after a couple of seconds. If it does mess with you, you have to take yourself out of the game for a bit,” Alex Wong, a junior who plays small forward, said.

Players aren’t the only ones who can be affected by trash talk from the opposing team.

Joey DuBois, a junior at Carlmont, feels that not being able to trash talk is somewhat unfair, especially when the rival fans are doing so.

“It kind of makes you feel helpless because reacting will result in punishment, and if you don’t do anything, you’ll end up regretting it later on,” DuBois said. “I also think all games become more fun and more intense when

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trash talk takes place, and rivalries are what make sports fun.”

At the collegiate and professional levels, trash talk is generally accepted as a part of the game itself.

According to the Bleacher Report article “21 Ways Sports Fans Can Be Terrible,” written by Amber Lee, many fans lack boundaries and often show excessive amounts of rage, yelling, and berating players for making mistakes. There is a difference between pro-ball and high school, though.

“You’re talking about pros that are making millions and millions of dollars; they have a lot of security around to protect them, as well as fans that are too boisterous in their cheers and how they see the game,” Smith said. “In a Boston Celtics game recently, a player was ejected, and then a fan threw a drink onto the court, and stuff like that is not a good environment for any team to be playing in, but especially at the high school level you don’t want to see that.”

Additionally, adolescents are impressionable: when kids watch adults bad-mouth others at college or pro-games, it inspires them to do the same. This is part

of the reason why the CCS created these regulations.

The Carlmont Screamin’ Scots, led by the ASB Director Jim Kelly, encourages fans to get loud and cheer without putting the other team down.

“I take a lot of pride in the fact that Screamin’ Scots does not subscribe to the societal norm of poor sportsmanship from the fans at athletic contests,” Kelly said.

“Just because it’s a norm is no reason to allow it at our school. Screamin’ Scots is a recognized model program by the Central Coast Section and the state of California.

As educators, we have to teach what is right, not what is popular.”

The point of Screamin’ Scots is to excite the crowd regardless of who is winning the game, and to make sure that everyone is fair and kind.

“We live in a day and age where it is so easy to direct hatred toward others.

It’s accepted and even encouraged,” Kelly said. “However, it does not make it right.

Screamin’ Scots is a place where students can engage in good old-fashioned spirited fun. Our main rule: only positive cheers about our team. ”

Joshua Baxter

The Screamin’ Scots section erupts in cheer after a Scots player makes a basket and gives Carlmont the lead over Menlo-Atherton.

FEBRUARY 2020 HIGHLANDER 23

High school sports should be taken seriously Miles Ozorio

This may be hard to hear, but you’re probably not that special. And that goes for most of us.

Most of us will end up a mildmannered adult, with a mild-mannered job, with a mild-mannered family, with marginally less-mild-mannered kids.

The fact is, with so many people in the world, and with so few widely recognized names, the overwhelming majority of us are, well, average.

And although a C+ “human ranking” might make you feel like you didn’t get a fair shake, there is something to be appreciated in not being a name worth mentioning. That is, when you are dead set in the middle of society, satisfaction can be attained in countless ways. When you are born to do nothing, you can do anything; when you have no path to follow, you can choose any you like.

Yet, for many, the path doesn’t always lead to the satisfaction they were hoping for. And when an adolescent chooses athletics to be their path for the time being, it can be especially hard to be content when their sports career ends.

And it’s going to end. According to the NCAA, less than 6% of male high school athletes go on to compete at the collegiate level. The percentage is even lower for

some of the more widely played sports.

Unless you won the genetic lottery and have plans to play sports professionally in the near future, past the slim chance an athlete makes it to the collegiate level, there’s not much left. Sure, recreational leagues are fun, but the competition lessens as athletes’ bodies gain weight and lose flexibility.

I reckon the main reason for the dissatisfaction many aspiring athletes experience is a result of not having a purpose behind their play; devoting such a significant part of your life to something you most likely have no future in can be tough to justify.

As a result, finding your reason for playing is the most critical factor when it comes to an athlete’s satisfaction at the end of their career.

So what is a student-athlete’s purpose?

Why should someone dedicate so much of their adolescent life to sports?

In order to answer that question, it is critical to analyze the pros and cons of being a student-athlete. By seeing if the positives outweigh the negatives, we can better understand why a person would devote their adolescence to athletics.

Like any well-structured argumentative essay, I’m going to start with the counterargument first: the cons of being a student-athlete.

First, the main downside of a high-level

% of high school boys to NCAA

Basketball

Football

Baseball

Cross Country

Soccer

Lacrosse

3.4% 5.3%

7.1% 5.5%

7.3% 7.3%

% of high school girls to NCAA

Basketball

Volleyball

Softball

Cross Country

Soccer

Track & Field

4.0% 7.0%

Statistics from NCAA

24 HIGHLANDER OPINION

3.9% 7.1%

5.5% 6.1%

pursuit of athletic excellence is the time it consumes. At Carlmont, most varsity sports practice five to six times a week for at least two hours each day. The loss of time deters many developing athletes all by itself. You may miss out on dinners, downtime, birthday parties, and sleep — a lot of sleep.

Second, varsity sports often demand extraordinary physical and mental effort. For a majority of varsity sports at Carlmont, teams start practicing weeks or months before their designated seasons. And when the real season starts, the physical toll only increases; practices often get more strenuous and coaches demand laser focus.

Moreover, it can be difficult for athletes to see their labor reap reward. When the amount of time and effort doesn’t add up to wins and great performances, athletes become discouraged. Constant physical and mental struggle is difficult to endure, especially with no immediate gratification.

An exhausting lifestyle coupled with an astounding loss of free time makes it clear that high-level varsity sports aren’t for everyone.

I readily acknowledge that varsity level sports aren’t for everybody. If P.E. credits are what you’re looking for, the demands of a varsity sport might not be worth it.

However, such demands may be very much worth it to others.

The path to athletic success is not an easy one. Yet, I have found that many of my closest friends and I consider athletics to be a special part of our personality.

When you take pride in the athletic ability that has resulted from years of determination and hard work, countless hours of sweating, getting yelled at, and pushing further and further, it becomes built into your character. Your work ethic matures and your sense of self strengthens.

And it is to those athletes who have sacrificed a healthy portion of their adolescence that it becomes profoundly more important to take high school sports seriously. For most athletes, high school is the final shot at athletic success and, as a result, it’s where the climax of your athletic career comes to pass.

Therefore, I call true athletes to leave it all on the table. If this really is your last shot at doing something great with your athletic career — to which you’ve given so much — don’t hold back.

Miles Ozorio

FEBRUARY 2020 HIGHLANDER 25

The hidden side of chocolate

Supporting the chocolate industry supports use of child labor Samantha Chu Chocolate is not so sweet once you find out where it comes from.

Nowadays, you wouldn’t expect your bag of Hershey’s kisses to be a product of child labor, but I guess you learn something new every day.

The source of chocolate goes all the way to West Africa and Latin America, where cacao trees flourish. The seeds of this tree are then dried and fermented to make cocoa beans, the basis of chocolate.

Because cocoa beans are a vital part of chocolate production, regions where they are most likely to grow are highly populated with cocoa farms, where workers harvest large quantities of cocoa beans.

According to the Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB), approximately 60% of the world’s annual supply of cocoa comes from Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire, two countries in West Africa.

While cocoa farms may seem like a

foreign concept here in America, without them, we wouldn’t have any chocolate.

This means no Valentine’s Day chocolates or chocolate candy bars for Halloween.

Impossible to imagine, right? There is no denying that chocolate is an essential part of American culture, and it’s only becoming more popular. According to the ILAB, cocoa production rose by 30% between 2010 and 2015 and is predicted to increase even more in the years to come.

However, these delicious treats usually come at the expense of children, specifically those in West Africa.

There, children and their families are often surrounded by poverty. According to Oxfam International, West Africa has the highest number of countries with more than 30% of the population living on $1.90 or less a day. Children that are in this tight financial situation are often forced to work at a young age to support their families.

Knowing this, cocoa traffickers convince them to work on cocoa farms by enticing

them with high pay.

However, once these children start working, they rarely ever stop. Until they become adults, they’re basically trapped on the cocoa farm.

And harvesting cocoa is no easy job, especially for young children. They work long hours outdoors and constantly use dangerous tools like chainsaws and machetes, putting their bodies at risk for serious injury. And, according to “Shady Chocolate,” a documentary on cocoa trafficking, these children actually work with little to no pay, thus giving them the name “chocolate slaves.”

To combat this issue, the U.S. government has attempted to take action through legislation. In 1999, President Bill Clinton issued an executive order that prohibits federal agencies from buying products made by enslaved children. While cocoa was included in this list of products, derivatives of cocoa, such as chocolate, were not. This meant that federal agencies

Instead of this...

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could still buy chocolate even if children harvested the cocoa in it.

So, three years later, the Chocolate Manufacturers Association and World Cocoa Foundation decided to sign the Harkin-Engel Protocol, an overall agreement to eliminate the use of abusive child labor in the cocoa-growing industry.

But despite these efforts, over 2 million children still work as chocolate slaves, according to the ILAB. This is largely due to the high demand for chocolate.

Companies like Nestlé and Mars make millions off of their chocolate sales, but they cannot guarantee that their chocolate is entirely child labor free. Especially with the need for chocolate increasing, these companies only become more focused on producing their product rather than changing their practices to help children in West Africa. And while many companies have promised to change their ways in order to decrease chocolate slavery, practically nothing has changed.

Since government progress on this issue is slow, the consumers must start the change. If the demand for their chocolate goes down, companies will be more motivated to do as they promised. The only

way to make this happen is to stop buying their chocolate. The more we buy, the more chocolate gets made, and the more cocoa children have to harvest.

We endanger millions of young children every day to have chocolate. They could potentially sustain life-threatening injuries, while we only get a minute of satisfaction from a small candy bar.

The most straightforward way to solve this problem is to stop eating and buying chocolate. By doing this, we can convince these companies that using cocoa harvested by children is not okay and that it needs to change.

But I know for chocolate-lovers, transitioning to a life without chocolate is nearly impossible. So, the next simplest way to help this cause is to be selective with your chocolate.

According to Slave Free Chocolate, an organization dedicated to eliminating child labor in the cocoa industry, many chocolates are slave-free, meaning that they don’t use cocoa harvested by children. These ethical chocolates typically have a Fair Trade symbol on their wrapper, indicating that the product was made without child labor. Such chocolate brands include Theo

Chocolate, Divine, Sweet Impact Chocolate, and many others.

Companies that do not have this label on their packaging usually aren’t Fair Trade certified, which means that there is no guarantee that their chocolate slavefree. We need to avoid brands that don’t guarantee that their chocolate is slave-free and support the ones that do.

But, if you’re lazy like me, you probably just want to buy whatever is convenient, whether that be an ethical or unethical brand. “It’s only one chocolate bar,” you tell yourself. “What harm can it do?”

In reality, it does a lot of damage. While you keep on telling yourself that one chocolate bar makes no difference, 1,000 other people are also saying the same thing. But it only takes one person to swim in the opposite direction. Be the leader, don’t just follow what others do.

And for those who are worried about the price of these ethical chocolates, not eating chocolate is still the cheapest and easiest way to ensure you aren’t promoting child labor.

So next time you pick up a piece of chocolate, remember its roots. Don’t feed into the problem — change it.

...try this!

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Can you spot fake news?

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People need to think for themselves Anna Feng

When the Oscar nominations for “Parasite” first came out, I, like most people who had seen the film, knew that there was little to no chance for the film to actually win the categories that it had been nominated for and, in my opinion, deserved. I, like most people, felt indignant on the film’s behalf because I, like most people, equated success with an American award notorious for its politicking and lack of partiality. If “Parasite” didn’t win an Oscar, the underlying notion was that, well, it wouldn't have been successful.

What I had failed to recognize was the role that media — and by extension, American culture — played in shaping my belief that the Oscar was the ultimate affirmation of success in filmmaking.

This realization got me thinking. How many of our beliefs are truly ours and how many of them are based on what the media has told us?

When I visited China earlier this year, I expected to see a smoggy, depressed country; precisely what the American media had reported. Popular media outlets like The New York Times and Washington Post had painted the country as a bleak place under the restrictive control of a near-dictatorial regime. Instead, I found a clean, thriving nation alive with culture.

In fact, there were even aspects that the United States could learn from — an antigun policy, constant security checkpoints in highly populated areas, and well-kept streets.

Returning and watching videos on issues in China from an American perspective was like whiplash because it was so different from my own experiences.

For example, a common Western criticism about China revolves around its lack of privacy due to constant government surveillance.

When I arrived, I realized that the supposed surveillance felt very similar to the surveillance systems that we have in the United States. Like China, the U.S. also employs security cameras in public areas, such as traffic intersections. Just as Chinese websites like TikTok may be stealing your data, it’s not much different from the way that Facebook and Google steal our information.

While the debate over privacy is valid, it does take on a hypocritical tone when we fail to recognize our own problems at home while criticizing foreign nations for doing much of the same thing.

When you live in the Silicon Valley, popular misconceptions like the ones about privacy still abound despite our pride in being well-informed on social injustice issues. Despite our desire to be “woke,” we still fall prey to media bias that ultimately shapes our own opinions. Just as Western propaganda and culture had led me to believe that the Oscars were the ultimate affirmation of filmmaking, Western media has also led us to prejudge others with our own cultural notions without taking the time to educate ourselves on the situation.

45% of Americans perceive some bias in the way media outlets report politics, up from 25% in 1989.

Gallup 2017 Poll

And this isn’t just in reporting about foreign nations. Reporting bias also permeates deep into our own political coverage, investigation of controversial topics, and more.

According to a 2012 study by the Pew Research Center, mainstream news sites like MSNBC and Fox heavily deviated from their peers in their coverage of the 2012 presidential candidates. MSNBC reported Obama in an overwhelmingly favorable light while Fox reported Obama in an overwhelmingly negative light, flipflopping in the case of Romney’s coverage.

Pew notes that in both cases, both media outlets “spent more time focused on the candidate that received more negative

treatment than they did on the candidate they portrayed positively — especially Fox.” Our opinions about many controversial issues are often informed by the politics — and by extension, the media — that we choose to believe in. While it may feel self-gratifying to consume media that only confirms and aligns with one’s political viewpoints, it only results in more entrenched political ideals and a mindset more resistant to change. In the long run, this means we become more oblivious to our biases, resulting in the belief that we are “woke” despite doing little work to actually confirm our opinions.

In an article, the American Press Institute acknowledged the bias in media reporting, writing, “Journalists, nevertheless, often feel compelled to try to prove that they are ‘unbiased.’ But what if they took a different approach? What if journalists acknowledged that bias does exist, that it is built into the choices they make when deciding what to leave in and what to leave out? … What if the journalist said, in other words, that bias may not always be a bad thing? That it may serve to create narrative texture or make a story understandable.”

Something important to understand is that eliminating bias in reporting is nearly impossible. For as long as we have humans writing articles or even humans coding machines to write articles, we will never be able to escape bias. To not include bias leaves a dry, boring article devoid of the spark of humanity that makes the English language worth reading. However, it is ultimately up to the reader to choose and curate their own media experience to try to form a well-rounded view of the world.

This means reaching across the aisle and looking at facts and opposing viewpoints to judge for yourself whether you want to align your beliefs one way or another.

This means looking beyond just American news outlets’ reports on foreign countries and consuming media produced by those actually affected and well-educated about the situation in those countries.

This means doing extra work to think about the probability of the situation rather than going with the majority opinion.

And sometimes, you just might find that your opinion can be changed.

FEBRUARY 2020 HIGHLANDER 29

Warming up to the winter season

Your guide to surviving Winter Wonderland Maddy Ting Calling all Californians!

My, my, how chilly it is outside. Are you one of those people who can’t stop shivering? Are your fingers so numb they feel like they’re about to freeze off? Maybe you’re catching a cold or have a chill down your spine?

Then this guide is for you!

Before we get into details, can we address the other coast? East Coast always says WE’RE the weak ones, but I say they’re wrong. Californians can totally beat them when it comes to summer. People come from all over the nation, no, from all over the world to enjoy our summers and sunny beaches.

But alas, summer can seem so far away when you’re in the middle of the coldest time of the year. The nights grow longer and the days grow shorter as you pack away your beach clothes and pull out your fuzzy socks.

“Will the chill ever go away?” you wonder, goosebumps rising on your skin as you shiver.

If you’re like me, your thin Californian skin can’t take much more of the cold.

Lucky for you, I’m here to help. You can thank me later.

The first essential you need to survive winter is a good, sturdy mug. Mugs are useful for all sorts of things, like holding pencils or paintbrushes, but the one you’ll want to focus on is hot drinks.

Need ideas? Hot chocolate on a cold day is a classic staple, from the steamy marshmallows to the whipped cream melting in your mouth. Or, you could go for tea or coffee, both of which are popular options. Plus, who doesn’t like caffeine every once in a while?

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Remember that old wives tale that says you lose most of the heat through your head? Turns out you lose heat depending on exposed surface area, so instead of shorts, opt for jeans or some comfy sweats.

That being said, winter beanies are useful, and super cute too. They come in all sorts of colors and patterns, allowing them to match any outfit you might come up with. Plus, they hide hat hair pretty well. Goodbye bad hair days, hello fashion model.

Other cool (get it?) winter items include scarves and gloves. Snag a pair of fluffy pajama pants to wear to sleep, around the house, or even school if you’re feeling fancy. Bonus points if you get a pair of sweet, sweet Carlmont Scots flannel pajama pants from the Student Store.

Speaking of clothing, I have one word for you when it comes to keeping out the cold: layers. This is a given, but adding heavier jackets on top of lighter shirts helps keep warmth close to your body.

Apply layers to your blankets as well as your daily outfits. It’s time to bring out your thick comforters and put away the thin sheets you had for the summer heat.

For additional comfort, put the fluffy blankets closest to your body, and you’ll be snoozing peacefully in no time.

Introducing everyone’s one true love: fuzzy socks. Sheltering bare feet from the freezing floor is easily accomplished with a good pair of fluffy socks. They’re pretty cheap and make great gifts, too. Next time you go to Target, snag some pairs for your friends and family.

“Okay, Maddy,” you say. “This is great and all, but what if I don’t want to go out and buy new things for winter?”

Don’t worry, I’ve got some great activities for you.

Taking a hot shower or bath is a relaxing way to end one’s day. But remember to keep them short and sweet. Although California isn’t officially in a drought, it’s always better to conserve water.

On the topic of doing good for the environment, open up your curtains during the day. Even if there’s limited daytime, any natural sunlight will help warm up your house. At night, make sure you have heavy drapes to preserve existing warmth.

Have you ever heard the saying, “heat rises?” Cold air settles near the ground while warm air gets pushed up, up, and away.

As you can imagine, this might prove a problem during winter, but have no fear.

Turning on a ceiling fan to clockwise at a low setting can help reverse this effect and push warm air to where you can enjoy the heat.

Want an activity that you can enjoy with others? Try baking when the chill really gets to you. Using an oven heats up the whole house, and you get yummy treats to enjoy with your friends and family.

The aroma of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies...mmm, makes me hungry just thinking about it.

Or how about exercising? Whether it’s visiting the gym or walking the dog, getting up and about is both healthy and good for warming up in the winter. But hopefully you already knew that.

Congratulations, you are now a master of the Winter Wonderland! Laugh in the face of bitter cold from the comfort of your own home. Brag to your friends about all the ways you’ve learned to conquer the chilliest time of the year, and don’t forget to spread the warmth around the end of this winter season.

Creative Commons

WHAT SEASON ARE YOU?

1. What’s your go-to drink? a) Boba / milk tea b) Ice cold soda

c) Coffee (but really, any caffeine will do) d) Piping hot chocolate

a) Chewy b) Fruity

c) Crunchy d) Minty

a) Fashionable pair of shoes b) Chic pair of sunglasses

c) Comfy Hoodie d) Cute Hat

2. Favorite candy type?

3. You receive an article of clothing for your birthday.

What is it?

4. Favorite ice cream flavor? a) Cookie Dough b) Neapolitan...or maybe strawberry. Chocolate? Vanilla?

c) Cookies and Cream d) Mint Chocolate Chip

a) Pastels are my type b) Bright, flashy colors

c) Earthy tones and some reds. d) My closet consists of...black. Okay, also blue and white.

5. What color do you wear the most of?

Mostly A’s SPRING

Mostly B’s SUMMER

Mostly C’s FALL

Mostly D’s WINTER

Maddy Ting

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