The Coat of Arms The Coat of Arms
serving Menlo’s Upper School since
1973
Two Trips Cut as MTerm Expands to New Horizons
by MIKI KIMURA
In its third post-pandemic year, Menlo MTerm now offers the largest selection of trips in the program’s history, with new study abroad locations in Malaysia and Peru and a new Lake Superior Borderlands option this spring.
Two trips were removed from last year's offerings: Cambodia and Northern Arizona. Global Programs Director Peter Brown cited risk management, alongside other factors, as the most important reason for the removal of the Cambodia Abroad trip and Northern Arizona Borderlands trip.
In Cambodia, the homestays were six hours away from a hospital. “We were on an island in the Mekong River,” Brown said. “And as it turned out, we had a need for that hospital.” Brown also said that many students who did a homestay in Cambodia found it difficult to connect with their host families due to the language barrier. Additionally, there was a logistical challenge: students’ homestays were spread out on the island, which required them to walk long distances to get to the meeting point and took away time from bonding with their
homestay families.
This language barrier differed from other Abroad trips where many locals spoke English or Spanish, making it easier for students and faculty to communicate. Brown considers homestays to be a vital part of cultural immersion in Abroad.
Removing Northern Arizona was partially due to growing concerns about crime, safety and other issues related to the fentanyl epidemic. Students and faculty did not encounter fentanyl-related issues last year, but Brown is concerned that the epidemic is a growing problem on the reservation. “It was also a really tough trip [for] our kids and our faculty. That’s not the main reason we left, because we do a lot of tough things,” Brown added. “I think ideally we would like to have them go to a place where they get to have more interactions with more people.”
The new trip to Malaysia was inspired by science teacher Tanya Buxton — who will be leading the trip alongside history teacher Sabahat Adil — according to Brown.
Two years ago, Buxton took a sabbatical from Menlo and lived in Malaysia, where she traveled the country and immersed herself in Malaysian culture. “From the get-go, I envisioned taking a group of Menlo students to this fascinating part of the world. [...] The trip is all planned around contacts and friends that I made while I was living there,” she wrote in an email to The Coat of Arms. “I also look forward to introducing the students to the wonderful people I met when I lived there.”
During the three-week trip, students will work in the rainforest of Taman Negara
Faculty Bond Over Shared Love of Languages
by AMELIE GIOMI
When Executive Chef Ken Sligar first received a Facebook message in 2021 from someone claiming to be his halfbrother in France, he knew one thing right away: he had to learn French. “That sort of inspired me, and I’ve always loved the French food and the culture and all that,” he said. “I think it’s good to continue to learn languages — even an old guy like me.”
Sligar fell in love with Paris when he visited his half-brother in 2023 and has since tried to master the language. He uses Babbel (a language learning platform), listens to French podcasts
during his commute to school and watches the latest French movies available on Netflix.
However, Sligar’s desire to improve his French didn’t end there; starting last school year, he began meeting with French teacher Marie-Andrée Roy-Sajja. “She always would make time, one day every week or every other week during lunch period,” he said. “She’d come back here [for] about 20 to 25 minutes. [...] She’d give me homework and leave me projects to work on.”
Sligar met Roy-Sajja in one of his cooking classes for the middle school
Remembering the
Mark Aquino
foreign language classes. Besides engaging in casual conversation with Sligar to improve his conversational skills, Roy-Sajja gives Sligar foodrelated homework and activities. “She had photos of different foods with the names, and I would have to put together sentences, whether it be a croissant or a baguette or whatever it was on there, and then talk to her about it,” Sligar said. “She was really focused on me trying to have a conversation, learning to speak and [being] confident in speaking.”
Faculty Languages, pg. 12
MTerm Trips, pg. 2
Admin Works to Shift Culture Around Bigoted Language
by CAROLINE CLACK
Following incidents last spring in which two Upper School students were expelled for using discriminatory language, Menlo administrators have taken measures to maintain the “culture of kindness, trust, and belonging” outlined in Menlo’s newly-updated values.
After 20 years with the same Mission and Values statement, the school elected to rewrite its values over the course of the 2024-25 school year. Members of the senior administration thought it necessary to reformat and update the existing values to clarify expectations around student behavior. Some notable changes include emphasizing Menlo’s commitment to “ethical behavior” and dedication to a “caring community centered around connection, growth, and well-being.”
Aside from rewriting the school's values, which hang in each Menlo classroom, the administration has also worked to spread awareness of the impact of discriminatory language and racist behavior throughout the community. “We need students to feel like they belong,” Head of School Than Healy said. “It’s the foundation on which everything else rests on.”
According to Healy, fostering a community that doesn’t accept the use of bigoted language is essential to creating the welcoming atmosphere to which Menlo strives. “If we don’t have that trust, if we don’t have that respect, if we don’t have a sense of kindness on our campus,
then we don’t have anything,” Healy said.
So far, the administration has taken a variety of steps to spread awareness about the issue to students, parents and faculty members. These initiatives have included sending emails out regarding specific instances of unacceptable language and attempting to educate community members about how to respond when they witness discriminatory language. In addition, the administration has used and will continue to use Student Life time to explain its consequences and impacts, the most notable example of the latter being Healy’s address to the Upper School on Jan. 6, 2025.
In his address, Healy outlined his vision for the school — a place where students feel included and safe. He hopes that through his remarks, he inspired students to work toward the community he described. “If you’re not standing up against it, you’re condoning it,” Healy said.
Director of Student Belonging Carmen Borbón echoed Healy and other senior administrators, saying that no matter how hard the administration tries to eliminate the use of harmful language, it’s ultimately up to Menlo students to stand up to their peers when they hear bigoted language being used. “We can’t police kids. So kids need to realize that it’s not okay [to use discriminatory language] and just be better,” she said. Borbón advises students who hear
MTerm Trips
Continued from pg. 1
National Park, which will include environmental learning, biodiversity surveys and working with an indigenous population for community engagement projects. The group will be in homestays with Malay families who live near the rainforest. Additionally, the group will spend time and have some activities with an indigenous community outside of the rainforest. “These could include transcribing traditional lore that is being lost to modernity, tutoring and help with publicity [of ecotourism] via social media,” Brown wrote in an email to The Coat of Arms.
The trip to Peru will be Menlo Abroad’s first venture to South America. It will be led by math teacher Yu-Loung Chang and Latin and English teacher Tom Garvey. The trip will begin in Cusco and settle in Zurite in the Andean Highlands. Students will also have the opportunity to visit Machu Picchu and its surrounding towns of Aguas Calientes and Ollantaytambo. Brown said that regional diversity was important for the Abroad program.
For their community engagement project, students will help to survey local populations about water use, restore a community garden and map the canals in the region, according to Brown.
This trip was found through a connection that
harmful language to report the incident to an adult.
However, over the past year, issues with the use of bigoted language on sports teams in particular, have persisted. In response, the Athletics Department has strived to eliminate the use of such language within its teams, most notably through a “Sports Can Battle Racism” workshop for the Knights Leadership Council, which was held on Feb. 2. A similar professional development opportunity was also held for coaches. Director of Athletics Earl Koberlein believes that solving this issue will require an ongoing effort from faculty, parents and students. “Discriminatory language or actions have no place at Menlo,” he said.
If you’re not standing up against [discriminatory language], you’re condoning it. “
Head of School Than Healy
Senior and varsity boys basketball captain Tate Cohen is a part of the Knights Leadership Council. Cohen believes the increased focus on eliminating discriminatory language helps students realize the impact that their words can have, not only on individuals but the community as a whole. “We need to be more aware of our actions,” he said.
Upper School Assistant Director Adam Gelb believes the reason so few incidents are reported to the administration is because of the potential social consequences of coming forward. Healy agrees and points to social media as a contributing factor to the social consequences students face when turning in a peer for using discriminatory language, describing how easily rumors can be spread with the use of social media platforms. However, Healy believes that by not reporting incidents and standing up
Director of Sustainability and science teacher Chrissy Orangio had with an organization in Ecuador. Brown visited Ecuador in 2023 with the intention of scouting out an MTerm location there, but did not follow up on it due to Ecuador’s political instability. Brown said that they then looked into the sister organization in Peru.
History teacher Miles Bennett-Smith and head librarian Brittney Otero will be leading the new Borderlands trip to Lake Superior. This trip is offered in association with educational travel organization Where There Be Dragons. Similar to the discontinued Borderlands trip to Northern Arizona, the focus of the Lake Superior trip will be indigeneity. However, on the Lake Superior trip, students will learn about the Ojibwe people, also known as the Chippewa. “They have kind of a unique history and unique relationship with the U.S. government,” Brown said. “They also have a quite extensive presence in that area that extends up to Canada.”
The Ojibwe signed many treaties in the 19th century that ceded a large amount of land to the U.S. government but retained their hunting and fishing rights on the land. As a result, they were not forcibly removed from the Great Lakes, though they have had ongoing conflicts over treaty rights, which students will learn about.
The Ojibwe also live in a very different setting than the Diné on the Navajo Reservation in Northern Arizona, and the trip will cover a wider range of indigenous perspectives in comparison to the Northern Arizona trip.
Students will stay at Potter’s Farm in Washburn,
against bigoted language, the practice of using that language will continue to be normalized.
Borbón also holds social media, specifically how our current political climate is portrayed on social media, responsible for why students continue using bigoted language. According to Borbón, when students see our political leaders calling each other derogatory names on social media, they are desensitized to the impact of such language on the individuals receiving it.
Much like Gelb, junior Sulia Gayle believes the reason so few students stand up to peers using discriminatory language is because of the social repercussions. “People think it’s worse to be the snitch than to be the racist person,” Gayle said. According to Gayle, the current community at Menlo fails to socially ostracize students who use derogatory terms. In her opinion, students who have been involved in incidents using discriminatory language still maintain their close circle of friends and are generally perceived the same way as before the incident.
Members of the administration recognize that having inappropriate language on campus leads to a culture where students feel unsafe. “When you are sitting in a room with students who are having an experience that is less than [what Menlo wants for them], it is a big deal,” Gelb said.
In an effort to assist these students, Borbón conducted a Black student retreat last fall, in which she said students were able to have a facilitated conversation about their experiences hearing discriminatory language and heal from the harm they experienced last spring.
Gayle, who attended the retreat, believes that it was engaging but was not enough to erase the pain Black students like her experience when hearing derogatory terms used on campus. Gayle thinks that it is difficult for the majority of the Menlo community to understand what it feels like to hear discriminatory language targeted at them, which contributes to a lack of initiative on behalf of the student body to solve the problem. “It hurts,” she said.
Wis. and will visit places where they will learn about Ojibwe history and culture, as well as farming and conservation efforts. Brown said that he looked for trips that would provide meaningful, unique experiences.
“Lake Superior was one of several options I explored through various channels and tips starting last summer,” Brown said. “Miles Bennett-Smith and I traveled to Lake Superior last fall to scope it out further and to visit with key people that the group will eventually meet.”
These
programs aren’t cheap, but I think they’re so worthwhile.
Global Programs Director Peter Brown
“ “
Brown emphasized Menlo’s willingness to have students learn from their environments and have transformative experiences in the world. “And I think that’s a wonderful aspect of our school, because these programs aren’t cheap, but I think they’re so worthwhile,” Brown said. “So our school is fully behind transformative travel experiences in the field, especially in the international theater.”
Staff illustration: Diya Karthik
14,
A Beloved Teacher, Colleague and Friend: Community Remembers the Life and Legacy of Mark Aquino
by SONIA DHOLAKIA & ASHER DARLING
In the days and weeks after his passing, one particular photo of Mark Aquino circulated around the Menlo community: Aquino, donning a bright neon ensemble complete with roller blades, dressed as “Ken” for a “Barbie” themed spirit day. Aquino was a cherished history teacher, known for his everpopular Ethnic Studies elective. But even those who never sat in Aquino’s classroom had an appreciation for who he was as a person. That was because Aquino, on spirit days and every day, fully immersed himself in Menlo culture.
Upper School Director John Schafer described Aquino as “high profile.” That profile was a result of Aquino’s enthusiasm for Menlo and his embrace of the school. In the year and a half he was at Menlo, he was the faculty advisor to the fishing club and Asian Affinity Alliance, as well as being a friendly face on campus.
On the evening of Dec. 7, 2024, Aquino tragically passed away after suffering a heart attack in his own home. Head of School Than Healy communicated the news to the broader community in an email on Dec. 8. Junior Josie Lee, one of the student leaders of the AAA group Aquino mentored, recalls calling a fellow AAA leader immediately after hearing the news. “We just started crying together,” Lee said. “We were just really in disbelief and angry that it happened, because it’s just not fair.”
According to Lee, Aquino was eager to support AAA and its members in every possible way. “Mr. Aquino shared that passion for building a community,” she said. “Every student has that one teacher that feels more like a friend than a teacher, and like someone you can trust in. For me, that was Mr. Aquino.”
me and six other people how to do it the whole afternoon.”
History teacher Sabahat Adil worked with Aquino on the Modern World History team and also shared a classroom with him. Although she knew him for only a year and a half, Adil feels she formed an incredibly strong connection with Aquino. “He showed me that you can not spend as much time with someone, but they can make a really deep impact in your life,” she said.
regarding whether or not Ethnic Studies should even be taught. “It was kind of like looking at how selfless he was. That was his whole life’s work [...] basically studying Ethnic Studies, teaching it at multiple different schools and then sort of letting us come to our own conclusions about it,” he said.
When discussing Aquino’s legacy, Schafer spoke on the importance of continuing the Ethnic Studies program at Menlo. “Ethnic Studies is an interesting
and work and learn a great deal. And he was clearly going to do that.”
One of the things Adil admired most about Aquino was his ability to be his true self in a classroom setting. “He modeled for me that you can be human. You can be like a person with your students too and not just have it be about, like, the subject that you’re teaching,” he said.
Every student has that one teacher that feels more like a friend than a teacher, and like someone you can trust in. For me, that was Mr. Aquino.
Josie Lee
Aquino was also a passionate fisherman and outdoorsman, known for his YouTube channel, “Outdoor School of Thought.” As the Fishing Club’s faculty advisor, he shared his expertise with Menlo students. “In early November, we went to a pier in Half Moon Bay to do something called poke poling, and he instructed us and showed us how to do it,” junior Asher Lev, a co-leader of Fishing Club, said. “He basically showed
commended how Aquino prided himself on influencing the community outside of the classroom. “We don’t often see somebody just that instantly carving out a space for himself in the community in that way, beyond his classes and formal role at the school,” Hanson said.
While he was certainly a beloved figure outside the classroom, Aquino was known for his popular history elective, Ethnic Studies. “He taught an elective, so you never know how many [students] may sign up. Well, three sections of students signed up for it,” Schafer said.
“It’s amazing his impact in just a short period of time. I think to me, that’s an indication of his connection with students. I think they found him to be not just a good teacher, but fair, accessible, kind, on their side. He got to know students well.
[...] He was a really gifted educator.”
Senior Brady Kagan, one of Aquino’s students, echoed Schafer’s sentiment.
“He was a big advocate for students,” Kagan said.
When reflecting on Aquino’s class, Kagan remembers one specific unit
curriculum that became the curriculum for the whole Unified School District in San Francisco. He’s very proud of that. And at the same time, Ethnic Studies is, you know, criticized in other quarters. [...] He was very aware of the politics around Ethnic Studies,” Schafer said.
It’s amazing his impact in such a short period of time. [...] He was a really gifted educator. “ “
Upper School Director John Schafer
“So one piece of legacy I hope we continue is that we run a robust Ethnic Studies class that students want to take
Not a day goes by where I don’t think about him. “ “
Senior Brady Kagan
Hanson remembers seeing the same authenticity when Aquino first visited Menlo’s campus to demo a class.
“He was so nice, warm and sweet, and seemed so delighted by the energetic students and the intellectual dynamism at the school,” she said. Hanson described Aquino as “someone with a big agenda, but an even bigger heart.” “I just feel so lucky that I had him as a colleague,” she added.
After hearing of Aquino’s passing, Kagan was in shock. Still, he wanted to find a way to bring Aquino’s students together. “I felt like it was important to not just let his news sort of just hit us, but remember how great of a person he was,” he said.
Kagan organized a memorial service for Aquino the Monday students returned to school after the news. Students left flowers, lit candles and wrote notes to commemorate their teacher. They also participated in the “Isang Bagsak” unity clap, a Tagalog chant from the United Farm Workers of America meaning “one down,” or that “when one person in our community falls, we all fall.” Aquino ended each of his classes with “Isang Bagsak.”
Schafer was pleased with how the community — students in particular — came together to honor Aquino. “The students responded with remarkable appreciation and gratitude,” he said.
Now, over two months after his passing, Aquino’s presence is still missed on campus. “Not a day goes by where I don’t think about him,” Kagan said.
“He was so involved in the community here, I couldn’t fathom at the time how many things he was involved with and how many people would be affected by his death,” Lev said.
While the community is still reeling from the loss, Lee also spoke of her gratitude for the time she shared with Aquino. “I can be less angry [now] and so grateful and reflect on the memories,” Lee said.
Junior
Staff Photo: Malia Chen
Menlo Faces Mass Absence Due To Circulating Illnesses
by AUTUMN CHAMBERS & LILA OZDEMIR
Winter is infamous for being the season of sickness, but this year Menlo has seen a troubling wave of illness, taking down students across campus with everything from the common cold to the norovirus. Assistant School Nurse Laurel Marks says the surge is part of a larger national trend, and the impact on class attendance, sports teams and other extracurriculars is impossible to ignore.
Administrative Assistant Courtney Tyler is responsible for recording student absences for the Upper School. “We’re close to having around 50 kids sick each day, [with] a high day having at least 62,” she said on the week of January 27-31.
“We are seeing a high number of cases of illness on campus, but it’s not unprecedented,” Marks said.
Norovirus is a common and contagious stomach bug that causes vomiting and diarrhea. According to Marks, there has been a national outbreak. It is also hard to prevent since hand sanitizer is ineffective in killing it. Those infected can spread the illness for up to two weeks after recovery. Marks says that it is essential now more than ever that students wash their hands before eating to reduce the risk of infection.
Still, students often arrive on campus knowing they are transmitting germs, something Marks acknowledges.“I think that students, especially at this school, are afraid to miss their classes and feel that [...] academically, it’s too challenging to miss school, even though their teachers are very, very understanding and don’t want sick students coming to school,” Marks said.
Sophomore Celina Chen noted the difficulties of missing school. She became sick over Martin Luther King Jr. Day weekend after sitting next to one of her sick classmates for two hours at a mock trial tournament. Afterward, Chen attended school for two days, in each class feeling like she was about to fall asleep, before deciding to stay home.
“[Teachers] are very understanding of the fact that you can’t come to school,” she said. “But you do still need to catch up with your work at some point.”
Chen isn’t the only Mock Trial member who fell ill, according to Mock Trial advisor and history teacher Nick Merlesena.
“[Many students have] been unable to attend practices, and then during the day of competition, it’s
unclear whether or not students will be able to perform later in the evening,” he said, noting that the Menlo Mock Trial team has been more flexible than ever to compensate for the absences, with many students taking on new roles.
We’re close to having around 50 kids sick each day, [with] a high day having at least 62. “ “ Administrative Assistant Courtney Tyler
In addition, Merlesena noticed how illness affects his teaching. “In a class of 16, around six people were absent,” he said. His strategy has become adjusting his assignments, particularly group work, to match the uncertainty of his student’s participation ability.
Sickness and absences also affected the winter sports teams. Varsity boys basketball head coach Ben Batory has faced performance challenges, with more than half of the players not even being able to attend practice, let alone a game.
“[The lack of athletes] definitely impacted us [...] heading into the [Jan. 24] game against Priory,” he said. The Knights lost the game 77-44.
“It was very clear that we were not our best selves,” Batory said, referring to the Priory game. “Some of our regular players only played a few minutes in that game just because, physically, they couldn’t manage.”
Despite basketball being during the cold and flu season, Batory cannot remember “this many players ever getting knocked out by something.” He stresses the difficulty of running any extracurricular or sports program when most of the team is absent.
“Trying to run a practice with seven players out of 18 is [...] tough,” Batory said.
As spring approaches, Menlo’s student population should no longer be as heavily influenced by sickness, meaning classes will soon be whole again and students will experience greater immunity.
Marco’s Mission Brings Its Educational Message to Menlo
by SAVANNAH SMITH
Marco’s Mission, a non-profit dedicated to educating and spreading awareness about the risks of drug use, will be leading an assembly at Menlo in late February. Marco’s Mission was founded just five months ago, in October of 2024. Junior Tania Troper and senior Zoe Schauer were motivated to found Marco’s Mission after their brother and cousin, Marco Troper (‘23), passed away after an accidental overdose last February. “Our main mission is to educate teenagers about not only the risks of substance abuse and overdose, but what to do if you know someone who’s struggling with addiction,” Schauer said.
Presenting at high school assemblies throughout the Bay Area is one way that Troper and Schauer have been able to spread awareness. “We want to share Marco’s story because what we really want is for other teenagers to be able to relate to him and be like, ‘this could be me,’ because he was a really normal guy,” Schauer said.
“Marco did not choose to be addicted. And unfortunately, it ended up happening to him, and once he was in the addiction, it was extremely hard for him to get out of it,” Troper added.
Troper noted that these assemblies are formatted around a timeline of Marco’s life. “We share his whole story,
from when he was not addicted at all, to when he passed away,” Troper said. The end of their assemblies tend to be more fact-heavy, covering topics such as Narcan — a nasal spray used to reverse opioid overdose.
Throughout their events, Troper and Schauer underscore a fundamental message. “A key focus of Marco’s Mission is challenging students’ common misconception that they are invincible to addiction. That’s what Marco thought,” Troper said. “That’s absolutely false; it can happen to pretty much anybody on this planet.”
Troper and Schauer presented at The Nueva School in December, where they used their personal experience to share key information on recognizing the signs of an overdose, as well as steps to take if someone you know is struggling with addiction. “[We shared things like], ‘This was our first sign that Marco was addicted,’” Troper said. “‘[We also shared], this is what we wish we did more of,’ something like, ‘Talk to his friends more to see their perspective’ or ‘Let my parents know sooner,’” she added.
Along with their upcoming presentation at Menlo, the two are planning to visit other Bay Area schools, including Eastside College Preparatory.
Beyond what’s visible on the Marco’s
Mission website and throughout their assemblies, the operations are just as complex: a balance of funding, challenges and partnerships. A registered 501(c)(3), the organization has an Instagram and website, both of which Troper and Schauer attribute the traction that the nonprofit has gained. “I feel like there’s not many organizations, where we live at least, that are focusing on this cause or this topic,” Troper said. “A lot of people haven’t seen this type of thing before. It’s getting more people’s attention.”
Their efforts brought along other opportunities as well, such as partnering with Song for Charlie, a national nonprofit that focuses on fentanyl overdose. “They’ve been able to give us a lot of good tips, their slides and information,” Schauer said.
Yet Troper acknowledged that this growth can come with difficulties as well. “I would say one challenge is some
schools can be pretty hard to work with; we’ve had some instances where schools completely just ghosted us,” Troper said. Feb. 13, 2025 marked one year since Marco’s passing, a time to spend reflecting on his life story as well as the impact the organization has had in the past year. Marco’s Mission is not slowing down anytime soon. With talks with the Santa Clara Health Department about organizing a Narcan distribution and information session, as well as discussions of creating a safe space and community for teens struggling with addiction through Marco’s Mission, the organization hopes to continue expanding its influence.
“A lot of people perceive addiction as a moral failing, and it’s hard for people to see that it is a chronic relapsing disorder and it should be treated as a disease,” Schauer said. A core tenet of Marco’s Mission is to challenge and transform the shame and stigma surrounding addiction.
“We’re trying to change the way people perceive people struggling with addiction and rather approach it with empathy,” Schauer said.
Staff illustration: Amber More
Photo courtesy of Marco’s Mission
Wake Up! It’s Time To Become a Morning Person
by ANYA RAMANI
Walk into the Menlo library and you’re likely to see more heads sleeping than studying. Tired students take power naps between classes and activities after staying up too late to finish homework — a task prolonged by TikTok and Instagram brain breaks. But in the pursuit of trying to get more done, there is a more successful and healthy alternative to the 2 a.m. homework submissions and late night Celsius drinks: going to sleep and waking up early.
Morning people have a bad rep. They are the peppy Instagram runners who wake up at 4 a.m., drink collagen, run in 30-degree weather in spandex and talk about all the nature they saw. Their chirpy demeanor is particularly irritating when we judge them while sitting bleary-eyed in our beds at noon. I, personally, am not a morning person. As a long commuter to Menlo, I used to dread my 6:45 a.m. alarm going off on school mornings — the latest I could get up to catch the bus or Caltrain.
Additionally, doing my homework until the dead of night seemed logical because it gave me peace of mind to complete my work before sleeping. But as I trudged through the beginning of junior year — with homework and sports practices piling up — I didn’t have the same energy for late night homework as I did during my years as an underclassman. A few years prior, my parents had started working East Coast hours — 5:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. work days — and had pushed me to adopt their schedule. I finally took notice that they had a brain boost every every morning and their eyebags
had disappeared without the help of retinol cream.
So I gave my parents’ routine a shot. According to a study from YuLife (a wellness and lifestyle company), college students show that “morning people,” individuals who get up between 4 a.m. and 6 a.m., are about 10% more productive, have higher GPAs and have better mental well-being. Waking up
go, but in reality, students tend to work slower at night and poor sleep makes it harder to form and retain information in their long-term memory. This myriad of health benefits makes it a popular lifestyle choice that is conducive to productivity, mental clarity and overall well-being. It’s not the easiest thing to move away from a late-night routine and, if the early morning wake-up is too daunting,
early, coupled with going to bed early, is essentially the same as drinking a shot of coffee, giving you a massive productivity boost. Your epinephrine levels elevate, giving you a “morning adrenaline rush.” This jolt increases heart rate, improves breathing and dilates blood vessels and increases circulation to your brain — making you feel more alert and energetic. It might seem more productive to stay up late and finish homework in one
being a night owl is not always bad. Night owls tend to need less sleep to function for extended periods of time. They are also more likely to get bursts of creativity and brain waves that push them through brick walls. If you are a die-hard night owl, you might consider finishing STEM homework earlier in the evening and save the later nights for thinking through creative work that might be required in humanities classes.
That said, it’s worth making the shift because not only does waking up early make it easier for you to do your homework, but it also has positive effects on mental and physical health. Night owls tend to face higher stress levels, and are more susceptible to mental and emotional tolls, which reflected my own late-night experiences. Despite staying up late, I never finished my homework and I was too tired and anxious to wake up. In contrast, YuLife studies show that healthy sleepers — those who rise between 4 a.m. and 6 a.m. — have better overall sleep and daily life habits. They feel more rested in the morning, and are less anxious, which, let’s face it, is how we all want to feel.
Despite its benefits, being a morning person is a function of your chronotype, which is your body’s genetic preference for waking up early or staying up late. Overcoming your natural circadian cycle isn’t easy, and the best way to make a long-term change is to incrementally change your routine. Studies recommend shifting the time you go to bed and waking up 15 minutes earlier every day over time to become a morning person. You should still try to get the same amount of sleep, but adjust the start and end time.
It’s 4:30 a.m. while I write this article to meet my deadline. I’m well-rested and I’ll finish with time to spare. I’ll enjoy the sunrise and be the first to hear the birds chirping. Though part of me still wishes I were in bed, I’d probably still be writing the first paragraph if I had stayed up late.
Mixed Junior-Senior English Electives Need To Go
by JACOB REICH
Starting this year, juniors and seniors are enrolled in mixed-grade English electives during the second semester, replacing the juniors’ full-year classes and the electives once exclusive to seniors. There are two ways to look at this issue: from the junior perspective and from the senior perspective. Both, however, are undesirable.
To give some context, juniors and seniors used to have mixed English classes in the past. In recent years, juniors have taken year-long English courses: AP English Language, AP English Literature or English 3: Rebels. But with the administration’s broader goals of replacing APs with honors classes and giving students more choice in their course selection, juniors now take a junior-only English course for the first semester and enroll in English electives along with seniors during the second semester.
Mixed-grade English electives sound promising at first glance: increasing course offerings, and as Upper School Director John Schafer told The Coat of Arms in 2019 for a story about senior projects, “the energy of the juniors [...] buoy[ing] the low energy of the seniors” are good ideas. But mixed-grade electives don’t work in practice.
Addressing the 11th-grade perspective and Schafer’s first point — I found my junior year AP Lang course revolutionary. Through myriad timed writes, I improved my general writing skills, and thanks to fun take-home projects, I bettered my creative writing abilities. With a year-long class, I also bonded more closely with my teacher and classmates. Juniors no longer get to experience an unforgettable class like mine — the course
material is condensed into one semester, excising fun projects and shortening the time needed to form tight bonds.
Juniors can still take rhetoric (honors) or literature (honors or non-honors), but they lose out on a lot — such as the satire and editorial projects from AP Lang — and must independently study for the AP test if they want to take it.
Now onto the seniors. As a senior, I have taken one more year of English classes compared to juniors, and I feel that my writing skills have improved significantly since last year. This disparity highlights the problem with combining juniors and seniors in English classes. Students at Menlo, for example, are divided into multiple math levels within each grade to accommodate varying skill levels. Mixing grades in English ignores these differences.
Additionally, as a second-semester senior, this is the last English class that I will take at Menlo, and my hope is that it is fun and not too stressful. I plan to enjoy the class bonding with my fellow seniors; having English classes with only seniors will allow me to make those connections most closely during our last semester at Menlo.
What’s more, the second semester of junior year is a demanding time, and I don’t think juniors and seniors have a compatible ‘vibe.’ Let’s face it: many seniors have an infamous disease called senioritis: the infected experience a severe lack of motivation. Just like other diseases, senioritis is contagious. Seeing seniors not doing the work can and will expose juniors to this condition. And no, adding healthy juniors to the mix will not heal the seniors — it will infect the juniors and jeopardize their most important semester of high school.
So, these mixed-grade English electives ignore each grade’s distinct motivation and skill levels and deprive juniors of the invaluable year-long English classes that taught me and my classmates so much. More choice and fewer APs aren’t a one-size-fits-all approach, and the previous English system should be reinstated.
Staff illustration: Baelyn Batory
Junior Reid McLaughlin sits with seniors Audrey Hochstetler, Adi Garg and Ben Levin during Investigations, a mixed-grade English elective. Staff photo: Jacob Reich
Bring Back The Magic of Semi Asks!
by ALYSSA McADAMS
Three years ago, my 14-year-old self sat excitedly at a lunch table with all my friends, watching as my semiformal date slowly approached me holding a large white poster and a coffee. As a freshman, receiving my first dance invitation was thrilling and easy. The invitation felt natural; we were good friends, and our pairing made sense. No pressure, no performance, just two friends deciding that we’d “like it a latte” if we attended the dance together.
My experience was a positive one, but that moment stands in sharp contrast to what I see today. You can likely envision the scene I’m referring to: an entire grade forms a circle around their class quad, creating an arena for awkward theater. One by one, students inch forward, clutching posters bearing generic puns, approaching dates they’ve likely barely spoken to all year. A quick hug, a flutter of camera phones, and they retreat to gender-segregated huddles to await the next pair’s ask. These ritualistic performances do nothing but strip away any genuine connection between students.
Gone are the impromptu, creative, personalized asks that I so enjoyed watching as an underclassman; I vividly remember watching a senior girl perform a choreographed dance with all her friends for her date at the end of a lunch period. Instead, we’ve created a culture where students seek out anyone — even complete strangers — just to secure a date. The rest blush and mumble “nobody” when asked who they’ll be attending with, as if attending semi with friends somehow diminishes the experience. This pressure to secure a date transforms what should be a celebratory school tradition into an anxiety-inducing social competition, creating a false hierarchy among students by suggesting that your worth is determined by whether
someone asked you to be their date.
Don’t misunderstand — I recognize the excitement these “asking days” generate. Students eagerly anticipate their poster messages and plan their outfits with care,
Staffillustration:AlyssaMcAdams
even if their grade has decided to do otherwise. The rigid gender coding that has appeared in the past few years also makes same-sex asks — whether between friends or partners — feel all the more taboo in the eyes of students.
Second, if having a date feels important to you —
and trust me, I understand the desire — remember that you need to treat your date as just that: a date! A date shouldn’t just be a prop for photos or a corsage-bearer. If that’s what it is to you, what’s the point of going with that person? Rather, it’s a person you’re committing to spending time with, and it’s going to require some maturity and genuine interaction on your end. Recognize that in going with someone to a dance you are committing to putting a little bit of time and effort
Lastly, and most importantly, KILL THE CIRCLE! Regardless of whether you are asking a friend, partner, ‘talking stage’ or stranger to the dance, don’t fall into the trap of circling up and churning out rapid one-by-one asks at lunch time. I’d like to see some creativity — ask someone at the end of their sports game or at their house! There’s nothing wrong with a private ask or just having your group of close friends nearby for moral support. Or, if you’re the more extroverted type, put on a dance for them on the quad! Incorporate food, music or their interests and passions! Above all, make it memorable. Semi is an occasion for celebration, fun and making connections with your classmates. The right type of ask — whether it’s clever, personal or simply heartfelt — adds to that magic, whereas a rushed performance in front of a crowd only diminishes it. It seems to me that Menlo has traded quality for quantity when it comes to semi asks. My hope is that next school year, after I am gone from this campus, we will have redirected our priorities away from hollow invitations, and instead will aim to make semi fun, meaningful and inclusive for all students — regardless of who they choose to celebrate with.
Why Menlo Should Embrace The Flipped Classroom
by ZOE HAYES
You’re sitting in class, bored out of your mind by your lecturing teacher, waiting for it to be lunchtime. At this point, you are no longer listening and just want to leave. This is completely unproductive class time, as you are learning nothing. As the clock reaches 11:55 a.m., your teacher hands out a three-page packet due next class as homework.
While this situation might seem dire, there is hope for improvement! Instead of experiencing horrible boredom as their teacher lectures, Menlo students can absorb the material as homework through pre-recorded videos prior to coming to
class. This leaves class time for hands-on activities, collaboration and one-on-one guidance through the flipped classroom.
This teaching method is promising. It shifts learning into a new gear by transforming how class time is used and limiting students’ boredom. A flipped classroom empowers students to take control of their education, fosters collaborative learning and maximizes teacher-student interaction, making it a progressive approach for high schools such as Menlo.
The flipped classroom is not a passing trend, as it was first popularized in the early 2000s by two high school chemistry teachers in Colorado. There’s a good reason why this is not just a fad! They noticed that many of their students struggled to keep up with in-class lectures, especially when they had to miss school for sports or other activities. By moving the “lecture” component out of the classroom, class time became far more productive, allowing students to ask questions, collaborate and engage in hands-on experiments.
Menlo biology teacher Tanya Buxton uses the flipped classroom and has seen numerous benefits. “I make my lecture for the unit as a video. That way students can watch it on their own time and stop and pause it if needed,” she said. “In class, I then have time to answer students’ questions and we practice with the material and do labs that use the content knowledge from the lecture.”
Given this method’s history and proven advantages, Menlo students
could benefit from adopting flipped classrooms: teachers wouldn’t have to spend precious classroom time teaching topics from scratch. Instead, they can focus on enhancing student knowledge, answering questions and being a resource for learning.
A flipped classroom empowers students to take control of their education. “ “
Some argue that the flipped classroom requires students to do more work at home, such as watching many long videos or solving laborious problem sets. However, physics teacher Deb Jensen uses the flipped classroom model and believes in its positive merits. Jensen finds her students more prepared for class and ready with many questions that enhance their learning. Through her years of using the flipped classroom, Jensen has found she has more one-on-one time with her students and has seen improved peer collaboration. “It makes the students think, and they learn the material better,” she said.
The flipped classroom model represents a transformative opportunity
for Menlo students to take charge of their learning, engage more deeply in class, and collaborate with their peers. While at first this approach may require some effort, the long-term benefits — such as increased understanding of material and one-on-one interactions between students and teachers — make it a worthwhile investment. By further embracing the flipped classroom, Menlo can foster a more engaging and productive learning environment, ensuring that students not only retain information but also develop good study habits. It’s time to flip the classroom from traditional teaching and give students the interactive and hands-on education that they need.
Staff illustrations: Baelyn Batory
Maximize Your Free Period With These Simple Tips
by AMBER MORE
Free periods — they’re perhaps the most valuable commodity for Menlo students. A full block of time to use at your discretion? It’s liberating, exciting and full of promise… but the freedom you receive can also feel overwhelming. Menlo students can be so used to having a million things to do and highly structured classes and airtight after-school schedules, so what do you do with all of this time on your hands? Here’s where this guide comes in!
First Period Free: Self-Care & Hobbies
When you have your first period free, the obvious plan may seem like sleeping in; however, that would be limiting yourself. The morning offers a realm of possibilities, ripe for the taking. By all means, snooze a bit, but then embrace the day!
Start with a big, lengthy breakfast — it is the most important meal of the day. Whether at home or a café near Menlo (such as Andytown, Saint Frank, Coffeebar or Mademoiselle Colette), fuel up! A full stomach will definitely sustain you through the stretch between student life and lunch.
If your workload is light, use this time to recharge: read that book you’ve been putting off, finally learn to knit or just enjoy a quiet moment before the day speeds up. Taking time for yourself in the morning sets a positive tone for the rest
of the day. But, of course, if you’ve got a lot of work to do, a jumpstart on your studying is always a worthwhile choice.
Second Period Free: Productivity
A second period free can feel oddly placed — happening either after a tutorial when you’re already in the zone or following an assembly, class meeting or advocacy when you really needed a tutorial. Either way, structured productivity is key. Snag a study room in the library or a spot in Stent Hall to minimize distractions.
If you have a test coming up, use tutorial to clarify doubts, then dedicate the 75-minute block for focused studying through three rounds of the Pomodoro study technique (25 minutes on, five minutes off), or split the block between creating a study guide and comprehensive review.
For general homework, set realistic goals. A to-do list goes a long way to help you stay on track. If you have an essay, history reading and math problems, try splitting your block into 30-minute, 20-minute and 10-minute segments with breaks in between. A stress-free lunch afterward feels well-earned after a productive morning.
Third Period Free: Food and Friends
Let’s be honest — no one wants to get work done after lunch. Maybe with a free period, you don’t even want to stick around for lunch, and that’s OK! Explore
local eats from Posh Bagel on Santa Cruz Ave. to Palmetto’s in Town and Country. If you’d rather save money, round up classmates and hang out at school. Try partner yoga, walk around campus or play chess in the library. Third period is a chance to make new friends and unwind before the day wraps up. Also, a break here makes the perfect mental reset before refocusing for the last period of the day.
Last Period Free: Errands and Family
A last-period free is a blessing. Honestly, don’t kick a gift horse in the mouth; beat the traffic home and get a jump start on homework, knock out a few errands and spend more time with your family.
Maybe you’ll be able to eke out time to grocery shop with Mom or gossip about the latest scoop with Dad. Also, definitely schedule that doctor’s appointment at 2:15p.m. since you have the time: this will help you avoid falling behind from missing class and reserve after-school time to hang out with the siblings.
As for student athletes who have to stick around for sports, use this time to get ahead — finishing any school tasks you may have so after a hard practice, you can go straight to shower, family dinner and, finally, bed.
And for you readers without free periods, you can always place an order at Raising Cane’s with senior Raj Keswani, a free period connoisseur who’s discovered the commute to the chain
restaurant’s location in Hayward as a culinarily and financially enriching use of his time.
Ultimately, there really is no wrong way to do free periods as long as you’re balancing self-care with productivity, friends and family time. But from a seasoned free period veteran, take it from me: these tips can surely help you out!
Co-Editors-in-Chief..........Sonia Dholakia, Geoffrey Franc
Print Editor............................................Alyssa McAdams
Online Editor.................................................. Jacob Reich
News Editor................................................Asher Darling
Opinions Editor...............................................Sienna Lew
Spread Editor..............................................Amelie Giomi
Sports Editor............................................Devon Schaefer
Arts & Lifestyle Editor..............................Caroline Clack
Creative Director........................................... Amber More
Social Media & Marketing Director.........Eleanor Kinder
Head Copy Editor............................................Miki Kimura
Copy Editor...................................................Aaron Widjaja
Video Editor.............................................Julia Livingston
Assistant News Editor.................................Anya Ramani
Assistant Opinions Editor.............................Elaina Huang
Assistant Sports Editors..........Noah Levin, Bianca Putanec
Assistant Arts & Lifestyle Editor................Savannah Smith
Assistant Social Media & Marketing Director.. Malia Chen
Staff Writers..........Autumn Chambers, Deven Dholakia, Penny Diehl, Sadie Evans, Lauren Giesselman, Zoe Hayes, Lisa Huhs, Payton Lee, Lila Ozdemir, Shaan Parikh, Spencer Toland, Rafe Weiden, Mandy Zhang
Adviser...............................................Miles Bennett-Smith
We appreciate hearing your opinions, whether it’s through guest writing, letters to the editors-inchief or comments on our website and Instagram @menlocoa. Please reach out to the editors at sonia.dholakia@menloschool.org and geoffrey.franc@menloschool.org
The Coat of Arms is an independent, student-led open forum for student expression. All decisions relating to the management and content of The Coat of Arms are fundamentally the responsibility of students. Coat of Arms reporters strive to acknowledge their internal biases and tell meaningful stories with empathy, fairness and journalistic integrity. The Coat of Arms staff is committed to building on the legacy of past staffs while setting the foundation for future members.
Staff illustrations: Amber More
Beyond the Hierarchy: How Upperclassmen Foster Team Culture and Success
by PAYTON LEE
In the world of high school athletics, there’s an established hierarchy — upperclassmen lead, underclassmen follow. However, this dynamic should be far more than a simple power structure. The role of upperclassmen on sports teams is crucial not only for maintaining leadership and guiding younger players but also for fostering a team culture that balances experience with new talent, ultimately leading to the overall success of the team.
To me, defined roles on teams are vital because upperclassmen hold the responsibility of mentoring the underclassmen who are still adapting to the new high school culture. A prime example of this is the Menlo varsity boys basketball team, where the seniors’ leadership, mentorship and ability to set a positive example directly impact both the performance and cohesion of the entire team, making their influence vital for the performance of individuals and the team all together.
Senior Arman Shah said it best: “It’s the role of seniors to be leaders and really make sure that they’re a support system for underclassmen taking a leadership role, explaining to them what to do and giving them advice that coaches can’t always provide.”
This mentorship is not only essential for helping underclassmen feel more comfortable, but also ensuring the entire team functions properly. Underclassmen, especially those who are new to the competitive varsity sports dynamics, often struggle with the pressure of being on the team; underclassmen need the guidance from their seniors to find their footing and ease into the responsibilities.
Junior basketball captain Ethan Zhao agrees. “Leadership is important because in the game of basketball, it’s a team sport. It relies on a lot of cooperation and communication within your teammates
especially in times of adversity,” Zhao said.
Without this sense of communication and unity, no team can function cohesively. This sense of togetherness, especially during moments of pressure or conflict, plays an important role in fostering relationships of collaboration.
Realizing when to step down [...] is something I think is essential for our overall teamwork. “
Freshman Tres Onyejekwe
“
“The most rewarding part of joining the [basketball] team as a freshman has been creating these bonds and relationships with the upperclassmen that most people don’t usually hold,” freshman Tres Onyejekwe said. “Whether it’s talking on the senior and junior quads with them, or our team trip, I feel very comfortable around them and I’m lucky to have them in my life.”
The atmosphere of mentorship provided by the upperclassmen extends beyond basketball skills. It’s about shaping the overall experience of being in a team setting and cultivating an environment of tight-knit relationships. It’s especially vital for the seniors to stay focused and continue to lead the underclassmen by example. “Sometimes we get a couple of upperclassmen where they have one foot out the door. They realize their time’s going to be up so they don’t really care what the future of the
Valentine’s Day Crossword
by MIKI KIMURA
program looks like,” varisty girls lacrosse and volleyball coach Quinn Holland said. This mentality can have big impacts on the team cohesion as a whole. “In situations where upperclassmen aren’t giving their full effort, [...] I’d have to take on the responsibility of helping lead the team and my teammates as well,” Onyejekwe said. “Realizing when to step down at other times and knowing when they need to teach me things as well is something I think is essential for our overall teamwork.”
The difference between having leaders who are just racing through the finish line versus leaders who take the extra time to support their teammates and create these valuable relationships is clear when it comes to the conquest of the team. It establishes a culture built on trust and respect for every single person on the team, creating more opportunities for their team to win in more ways than one.
Mutual respect is crucial when it comes to a successful team. “When there’s a lack of respect, sometimes you don’t trust your teammates and
sometimes it can lead to conflict. When you’re on the court together, you’re basically playing for each other as brothers, so having a strong team dynamic makes it easier to play more efficiently and effectively,” Shah said.
The impact of these seniors go far beyond stat sheets or final scores of games; they’re the core of a team’s culture. Through mentorship and example, they create an environment where both experienced and new players can thrive, grow and benefit the team. The underclassmen get to see and understand their future responsibilities through those who have the most influence over them: their own teammates. These seniors, guiding and leading their teams, are a crucial part in separating a cohesive team from just a group of people playing a sport.
“There’s something that has to be said about the way you carry yourself, which influences the underclassmen who look up to you, [...] especially since they’re going to be the faces of Menlo basketball in the future,” Cohen said.
Also called a streetcar
Describing either a sick or stuckup person
Cyndrical, chocolate-covered caramel brand
French writer of 19th-century realism
A Latin or Spanish love
Something one might try to do if they commit a crime
Candy with messages
He proposed by getting down on one ____
Physicist Albert’s element, abbr.
Speedy competitions
Caesar’s 51
The last month of winter, for short
A small, burrowing mammal
Long Beach Airport IATA code
Will you be my ______?
Pertaining to a god Street abbr.
Government head in Canada, abbr.
Prefix for “copter”
What to include in thesis of your English Essay
A French king
Lengthy narrative poem
Greek letter between zeta and theta
A number that scammers are after Titanic flower
Spanish “the,” masc. Slayed
_____ & field
Lady Gaga’s “Bad _______”
Opposite of united
What a vampire might do in Spanish
Foot covering Latin “new”
Term for uninterrupted camera shot
A type of stuffed pasta typically filled with potato
“___ dat” (slang affirmation)
Sure thing
S’more ingredient
A marker or guide
Ask me anything, abbr.
Synonym for raise
Country with capital Dakar
Dad, formally
Message from candy in 4A Across The ____, a televised singing competition
Anagram of hope
Quarterback Manning and cotton gin inventor Whitney
Sophomore William Lenihan (20) receives high fives from his teammates, sophomore Kai Mawakana (23) and freshman Tres Onyejekwe (32), after earning a free throw during a game against Priory on Feb. 7. Staff photo: Alyssa McAdams
Immersion Schools Connect Students to New Cultures
by Elaina Huang
Senior Sophie Lenart watched with anticipation as golden slices of galette, an almond custard pastry, were passed around. Every year on La Galette des Rois, she hoped to receive the slice with a hidden porcelain figurine and be crowned queen for the day — a fun tradition she loved celebrating with her friends during her time at her French immersion school.
Because she attended an immersion school incorporating aspects of both French and American culture, Lenart was able to share her love of this French holiday with her classmates. Lenart has always been fond of French culture, growing up in a FrenchAmerican household with annual visits to France. Her dad, who grew up there, enrolled her in a French immersion program at Silicon Valley International School when she was just entering
kindergarten. “My parents tried to make [the experience] as French as possible because that was the whole point of the school,” Lenart said.
The school offers Mandarin, French and German immersion programs, with all classes besides English taught in the target language during elementary school. In middle school, half the classes are taught in French and the remaining half are taught in English. Lenart, who already spoke French at home, learned how to read and write in French.
Because many of Lenart’s classmates had been raised in France and were not yet fluent in English, Lenart and her friends would speak a mix of French and English outside the classroom. “It was really cool how everyone had learned French from a young age, and so everyone was really
bilingual,” Lenart said.
However, while Lenart loved speaking French and honing her skills in the language, she ultimately wanted a traditional American high school experience. During her freshman year at Menlo, Lenart found it difficult to transition into classes taught in English at first, often translating English math terms into French. Lenart also came into Menlo with little prior knowledge of US History, as her previous school focused more on global history.
Lenart took AP French for three years and continues to maintain her French skills by reading French novels in her spare time and speaking the language at home.“I feel like reading is honestly the best way to keep a language,” Lenart said.
While Lenart already spoke French at home, sophomores Ethan BlaydesGreenberg and Laila Young were completely new to Mandarin and Spanish, respectively, when they enrolled in a language immersion school. Their families wanted them to attend an immersion program to master a second language and connect with another culture.
While Blaydes-Greenberg also attended Silicon Valley International School, albeit for Mandarin, Young attended Escondido Elementary School. At Escondido, all classes besides English were taught in Spanish during elementary school. While learning another language was certainly challenging for both at first, they
found that the language started to come naturally after one year of immersion school.
“It’s better to learn a language when you’re younger since you pick up certain things you won’t be able to pick up when you’re older,” BlaydesGreenberg said.
“[The immersion program] is very special to me since not a lot of people get this opportunity.”
Sophomore Laila Young
Young believes her experience has made her more open-minded and exposed her to an entire culture she otherwise wouldn’t have known. She was able to experience Latin American holidays with her friends’ families and grow her cultural awareness. “[The immersion program] is very special to me since not a lot of people get this opportunity,” Young said.
Looking back, Lenart, Young and Blaydes-Greenberg all value their unique experiences in language immersion schools and, if given the opportunity, would not change their decision to enroll in such programs for elementary or middle school.
“From the beginning at Menlo, I’ve always looked at things from a more global perspective. And while my peers [have adjusted] to this perspective, [seeing things from a global view] is definitely a strength of mine,” Lenart said.
Multilingualism Opens Doors for Extracurriculars
by Amelie Giomi
For many students, knowing another language serves a greater purpose than just testing out of a foreign language requirement in college. Whether engaging in a casual conversation in Spanish with their coworker at a local restaurant or communicating in Hindi with farmers in India, language connects students to new communities. Multilingualism can open the doors to unique jobs, internships and volunteer opportunities.
“By knowing Spanish, it was just easier to build community and make them feel more comfortable.”
Senior Annika Talwar
Some students use their knowledge of Spanish to engage with the local Spanish-speaking community, such as senior Annika Talwar, who helped Spanish-speaking students learn English when she interned at Belle Haven Elementary School during MTerm in her junior year. Because many students did not speak English, Talwar helped translate the material on the board.
“The students who didn’t speak English felt isolated from their peers. There was a table at the edge of the classroom, and it was a table of kids
who only spoke Spanish, and so they were separated, almost, because they couldn’t connect with their peers,” she said. “By knowing Spanish, it was just easier to build community and make them feel more comfortable and welcome.” Talwar also found it useful to learn Spanish when she volunteered for food distribution at the Boys and Girls Club.
Senior Marcia Santos volunteered for a church in a Spanish-speaking community and distributed homemade food to raise money for the church.
“When we were volunteering there, it just made them feel more comfortable [when we spoke Spanish too],” Santos said. “You felt like you were a part of the community if you were able to connect with them by speaking something that they felt more comfortable in.” Santos could take on roles involving interaction instead of those behind the scenes because of her Spanish-speaking abilities.
Santos also used her Spanish to communicate with customers while working a summer job at In-N-Out in 2023. “When you know Spanish, you see the relief, and it’s kind of nice,” she said.
Similarly, junior Matthew Franc interacted with his coworkers in Spanish when he worked at Galata Bistro, a Turkish restaurant in Menlo Park. “It’s simple things. I can say ‘hi’ and talk about if there’s a soccer game going on. There was a dishwasher who I talked with a little bit,” he said.
Franc’s Spanish-speaking skills also improved when he listened to his coworkers’ conversations.
Senior Katie Bischof, too, uses Spanish when conducting mock interviews to help immigrants — most of whom are Spanish speakers — prepare for their citizenship test. “It’s very rare that someone speaks fluent English, so being able to speak Spanish avoids that complete language barrier,” she said. “It’s a little bit of Spanglish on both sides.” Without a basic understanding of the language, interacting with those who only spoke Spanish would have been difficult.
However, Spanish isn’t the only language students use for extracurriculars. Seniors Rhea Nandal and Navya Nandani received the
HAND grant to study farmer suicide and mental health in India. While Nandal does not consider herself fluent in Hindi, her basic knowledge of the language allowed her to conduct comprehensive interviews with farmers in Hindi. “[If I hadn’t known Hindi], the people we were interviewing would be less comfortable,” she said.
When senior Sophie Lenart’s employer, an American 3D printing company, partnered with a French software company on a project, she helped write a press release about the partnership and translated it into French. “Given that I speak both English and French fluently, that was a really useful skill, because in marketing, it’s all about nuances of words,” she said.
Seniors Veronica Taira and Annika Talwar pose with the students they tutor at Belle Haven Elementary School. Photo courtesy of Talwar
Staff illustration: Amber More
Beyond the Classroom: Menlo Students Embrace Language Learning
by ANYA RAMANI
To many, learning a language is more than a graduation requirement or another AP score. Languages bring people together, and some Menlo students have made extra efforts to embrace different languages to be able to build bridges with family, learn more about their culture and make traveling a more immersive experience.
Menlo offers four language options through the AT level: Spanish, Chinese, French and Latin. To gradu-
ate, students must complete three levels of a language; however, because many freshmen start at level two or three, they have time later in their high school career to pursue a third language outside of school.
Junior Simone Lev and sophomore Yuna Lee learned Korean as a way to connect with their cultural and ethnic heritage. Lev looked to her grandparents and sought outside resources to learn the language (her mom understands Korean but does not speak it well). “I really wanted to connect back with [the Korean] side of my culture,” Lev said.
At first, Lev used Duolingo to learn Korean because it was easy for her to read and navigate. She then bought textbooks and took language classes on Zoom as she progressed. Then, the summer before her sophomore year, Lev attended the Concordia Language Villages program to fully immerse herself in
– she spent six weeks at a program at Seoul National University, located in the capital of South Korea, where she attended Korean classes and explored the city. “I feel like there’s a level of things you just learn about [when you’re in the city],” she said. “I [had] to actually know how to read on subway signs, and be able to order food and figure out how to talk to cashiers.”
While Lev had the opportunity to focus on Korean over the summer, she feels as though she lost connection with the language during the school year.
“I think language is one of those things that if you’re not passionate about or connected to the culture, it’s really hard to stay motivated with,” Lev said. “Incorporating an outreach program to like other schools or programs in the area that might have different languages could be really cool.”
Lee also has Korean roots, but, unlike Lev, she has been learning Korean from a young age. Her family immigrated from Korea and her grandparents initially taught her Korean through traditional games, flashcards and constant conversations in Korean.
“[There were] times where I got really frustrated because [my grandparents] weren’t understanding me in English,” Lee said. “When I got older, [I realized] that they were sharing their own culture [with me].”
From kindergarten to 8th grade, Lee attended Korean school on weekends; initially she went to a Korean-language Catholic school
Korean language and culture. The summer camp has multiple “villages” that each focus on a single language and culture.
“In my Korean Language Village, we ate Korean food every day, the staff only talked to us in Korean and we had to talk in Korean. It was like a language immersion experience in the U.S., which was really great and amazing for language learning,” Lev said.
“I don’t think there’s any way to learn a language better than being surrounded by it, sharing it and speaking it all the time.”
Lev cherishes the time she spent at Concordia Language Villages because of the strong foundation the program provided her. “It was really cool to be in an environment where everyone was working towards the same goal,” Lev said. “I don’t think there’s any way to learn a language better than being surrounded by it, sharing it and speaking it all the time.”
Lev decided to take her learning one step further
in San Jose before moving to Silicon Valley Korean School. Not only did the program expose her to the linguistic aspects of Korean, but the cultural ones too. For example, they would celebrate Korean New Year and Chuseok — a Korean “Thanksgiving” — every year. “You could go around in your traditional Korean wear and make traditional Korean origami or eat Korean food,” Lee said of her school.
Now, Lee is a teaching assistant at Silicon Valley Korean School. “It’s just a nice way to keep up with your Korean and also it’s really fun to hang out with the kids,” she said.
While Korean was a second language for both Lee and Lev, junior Alex Olariu’s first language was Romanian. His family is from Romania and Eastern Europe, though he was born and raised in the U.S. “I had a little bit more trouble when I was super young, because I didn’t really understand English,” Olariu said.
Like many second-generation immigrant kids, Olariu has learned how to find a balance between his Romanian and American cultures. “I know a lot of people think of it as having two sides, [but] I never thought of it like that,” Olariu said.
Fluent in Romanian as his first language, Olariu is now interested in pursuing Hungarian to connect with the other half of his family. “Half of my family’s
Multilingualism
Hungarian and I only know a couple words,” he said. For some students, literacy, not just conversational ability, in another language has significant cultural value. Senior Saniya Ahmed began reading Arabic when she was just seven years old. As a Muslim, being able to read the Quran is an important part of her faith. Completing the Quran took Ahmed many years because she was learning Arabic through reading the text, but she found it to be a very rewarding experience. “I’d [read] with my teacher [...] and then he or she would correct me as I read,” Ahmed said. “I got to learn a whole new language in a way, [and] although I didn’t really know what it meant, it was just fun.”
“Language is one of those things that if you’re not passionate about or connected to the culture, it’s really hard to stay motivated with.”
Reading the Quran has improved her ability to learn other languages now. “Learning how to write in another language helped the way my brain [processes],” Ahmed said.
Ethnic or cultural background may drive many students to pursue an outside second (or third) language, but junior Zoe Zdrodowski chose to learn Khmer — the language native to Cambodia — for her travels. She spent three weeks in Cambodia on a Menlo Abroad trip and stayed with a family who spoke limited English. During the trip, Zdrodowski and fellow Menlo students took daily Khmer lessons so they could better navigate the country and participate fully in her host family’s life. “At the end of the trip, we were doing skits and holding conversations in Khmer,” Zdrodowski said.
Zdrodowski enjoyed her travel experience so much that she will be returning to Cambodia this year, along with a partner, junior Lily Hinshaw, to pursue a research project through the Hand Grant. Zdrodowski intends to learn more Khmer prior to her trip, but she has had challenges identifying local learning resources. “Khmer is not a very well known language, so it’s been difficult finding apps and websites that teach it well,” Zdrodowski said. “Duolingo doesn’t offer it, so my goal is to find a platform to educate myself before the trip.”
Junior Simone Lev
Staff illustration: Ella Skinner
Junior Simone Lev
Staff illustrations: Amber More
Family Support Expands Accomodation of Multilingual Parents
by GEOFFREY FRANC
Now it’s almost routine: whenever senior administrators send an email to the school community to mark a milestone or comment on recent events, the text in English is followed by a Spanish translation.
”We really landed on Spanish being primarily the one language that we were going to be focusing on.“
Director of Family Support
Miram Magaña
Only a decade ago, the school translated just the most important documents into Spanish, according to Upper School Director John Schafer. Now, Director and Assistant Director of Family Support Miriam Magaña and Fatima Taungahihifo, respectively, facilitate the translation of all emails to parents into Spanish and organize live interpretation for parents at school events and meetings.
To students of Spanish-speaking parents, like sophomore Avishair Barajas Morales, Menlo’s translation and interpretation programs are a valuable boon (translation deals with written works, while interpretation deals with spoken language). “I can do [translating for my parents], but I don’t have the vocabulary of my parents who have been speaking Spanish for years, compared to a translator who is really advanced in both languages,” he said.
“[Parents] know they will be met with compassion and care.”
team of interpreters to provide live services to Spanish-speaking families. When Magaña arrived at Menlo in 2021, finding interpreters for such events and assisting with day-to-day document and communication translations meant partnering with a translation agency called Alboum. “That partnership and working with Alboum — the level of services that Menlo was able to provide [...] took off,” Magaña explained. “It’s expensive, but it’s easy because they have so many people all over the world who provide the services for us on Zoom.”
However, in-person events require additional
accommodations. Parents listen to speakers through in-person interpreters who use special audio equipment to speak to multiple people at once — like a museum audio tour, only live. Events longer than an hour, though, need two interpreters to allow them to take alternating breaks. And before back-to-school night each year, the Family Support team has to find a dozen or more interpreters to be able to pair up with parents.
addition to Spanish and Mandarin. “Through Alboum, we have access to a ton of languages,” she said. “It’s just a matter of families asking and telling us what they need.”
Menlo also enlists Alboum to help translate documents, though for some short-notice written communications, Magaña and Taungahihifo still do the translations themselves. Barajas Morales explained that Menlo providing documents in Spanish saves him and his mother a lot of time. “[My mom] can just read [the document] and ask questions to either Ms. Borbón or Ms. Magaña,” he said.
Sophomore Avishair Barajas Morales
While a wide variety of languages are spoken in Menlo homes, all students and many parents who converse in another language at home also have strong English skills. That said, according to Magaña, around 25-30 families ask for translated materials in Spanish, and two have so far asked for Mandarin translation. “We really landed on Spanish being primarily the one language that we were going to be focusing on,” she said.
For events with parents, Magaña assembles a
Because most Menlo events are designed for a mostly English-speaking audience, interpreters must perform simultaneous interpretation, which, unlike consecutive interpretation, doesn’t allow interpreters much time to translate — the speaker keeps talking. “Simultaneous interpretation is a lot harder,” Magaña said.
Family Support also works to accommodate non-English-speaking families in other ways, especially for the many MSPA social gatherings where interpretation can’t be provided. “We’ve done things like encouraging that most events happen on campus because that just sets a comfortable, normal, [...] neutral ground,” Magaña said.
Barajas Morales added that the accessibility of Magaña and Director of Student Belonging Carmen Borbón deserve special credit for their efforts at making all families feel included. “[Parents] know they will be met with compassion and care,” he said.
“Menlo is the only school that had this program when I shadowed, and I think that made us feel very welcome.”
Sophomore Avishair Barajas Morales
Magaña hopes to get more departments acquainted with Alboum so faculty can request translations without going through Family Support, having already accomplished this with the admissions team. “I want to institutionalize translation and interpretation services as part of making our programming [...] more accessible to everyone,” she said.
Though in-person interpretations are currently only offered in Spanish, Magaña noted that this can change. Indeed, many Zoom events already provide Mandarin interpreters, and the communications department had Menlo’s recently revised Mission & Values statement translated into French, in
Additionally, while Family Support currently notifies teachers of students whose parents need translation services at the beginning of each school year, Magaña said she wants to make this a quarterly occurrence. “Classes change and we miss some of this in the transitions,” she said.
Still, Barajas Morales believes other schools should strive to emulate Menlo’s efforts. “Menlo is the only school that had this program when I shadowed, and I think that made us feel very welcome,” he said.
Can you translate the message in the text bubbles? The first 10 people to email geoffrey.franc@menloschool.org with the solution will receive a prize!
February 14, 2025
Faculty Languages
Continued from pg. 1
At first, Sligar felt self-conscious about his French-speaking skills, but Roy-Sajja was determined to change that. “I was always very careful in speaking because I didn’t want to really insult somebody or whatever,” he said. “So she said, ‘Get over that. Let’s do it. You’re going to make mistakes [and] you’ll say it wrong, but we’ll figure it out.’”
Meeting with Sligar ignites Roy-Sajja’s passion for teaching and reminds her that language ultimately unites people. “French is our common ingredient,” she said. “Food and language are both meant to be shared, and it’s really bringing us together over connection. I think a very wellseasoned dish, just like a great sentence in French, can both be small victories that we enjoy.”
“I love it when Charles comes to speak to me in French. [...] It’s like we have this secret little code.”
Science teacher James Dann
Sligar’s love for the French language has also sparked an unlikely friendship with another teacher on campus: science teacher Alexis King, also a French speaker. “Every Friday, I box up a couple of chocolate croissants for her, one for her daughter and one for her, and I usually write a little note on the box in French on there for her,” he said.
Sligar’s friendship with King is just one example of faculty connecting through a shared love of language. Science teacher James Dann and history teacher Charles Hanson met years ago while playing the board game Diplomacy amongst other faculty and have bonded over their passion for French ever since. “I love it when Charles comes to speak to me in French, for example, or another language, because it’s like we have this secret little code and it’s just fun,” Dann said.
Dann learned French the hard way while he participated in a particle physics experiment in France, his teacher tapping a burning cigarette on his table to communicate the meaning of “cendrier” (ashtray). Hanson explained that the
different ways they acquired French — he learned at school with textbooks and side-by-side English translations — resulted in different skills. “It’s like, I am a musician who reads music well, but Dr. Dann is a musician who can improvise,” Hanson said.
Dann and Hanson believe that some phrases can be better expressed in French than English, and weave these into conversation often. “You have a situation, and there’s just a perfect way to express it in French,” Dann said. “Even if we’re speaking English, then you could just throw that French expression in there, and we just keep going.”
While Hanson and Dann enjoy each other’s company regardless, their love for the French language adds another playful dimension to their friendship. “I like him for other reasons, but two musicians, serious musicians, tend to enjoy the company of musicians,” Hanson said. “Serious athletes enjoy the company of fellow athletes. It’s a fun thing to talk about and experience together.”
Another friend of Hanson’s, Latin and English teacher Tom Garvey, enjoys Hanson’s playful passion for languages. “I think that
my biggest partner in crime here is Dr. Hanson as a fellow, just nerd in general,” Garvey said. “We share a lot of jokes and share a lot of common languages. Our unwritten rule: leave no pun unsaid.”
Garvey is a consummate traveler — having visited 85 countries before COVID-19 — and his linguistic repertoire includes being able to speak and read nine languages with varying degrees of facility: English, Spanish, German, Italian, Portuguese, French, Latin and both ancient and modern Greek. He can also read a little Sanskrit, the ancient South Asian language that modern Hindi and Urdu developed from.
As a linguistics enthusiast, Garvey’s motivation for learning new languages isn’t driven by practicality per se. “It’s not necessarily the applications of the learning of languages that matter so much to me as just being interested in how the things fit together,” he said. “I think there’s something beautiful about just pursuing knowledge for knowledge’s sake.”
Students Celebrate Other Languages Through Song
by Sadie Evans
Whether it’s in Spanish, Italian, French or even Latin, singing breaks through language barriers. Many school choirs and students perform in a variety of languages. Not only are Menlo students showcasing their musical talents in different tongues, but they are also celebrating the very cultures that make up their own community.
Junior Claire Barnett has years of experience singing in languages other than English. “I started when I was really young because I used to do classical singing competitions that required a song in another language, so I would do a lot of Spanish art songs,” Barnett said. Having attended a Spanish immersion elementary school, Barnett chose to sing in Spanish because she was wellversed in the language.
Although sophomore and avid singer Vivian Sun took it upon herself to sing in different languages only
eight months ago, she has already learned to perform songs in Italian and French. “I just recently went to a competition for classical voice, but it was more for the overall experience because I am still a bit of a beginner,” Sun said.
The Menlo student choirs, led by vocal teacher Marie Finch, also have experience singing in alternate languages. They are currently working with Latin and English teacher Tom Garvey to practice the pronunciation of a piece in Latin titled “Lux.” They are also learning songs from the musical “Les Misérables” in French, the original language of the show.
Students have gained an appreciation for singing in different languages because it can provide a window into other cultures. “Performing in other languages
really opens up a new world of music,” Barnett said. “Every language and culture has their own style that they’ve developed. When you lean into other languages, you get to experience something completely new.”
Sun appreciates singing in other tongues because she has grown as a performer and singer. “I learned a lot about how to convey emotion in songs because, in English, it’s easier not to think about the meanings of the words,” Sun said. “When you purposely translate a song into your fluent language, it gives more emotion and meaning to the performance.”
Finch was inspired to have students perform in different languages because her choir students speak and study languages other than English. “I thought, ‘Why don’t we use the languages we know and study at Menlo?’ I want everyone to feel like these languages are attainable and approachable never scary to sing in,” Finch said.
Some are excited to indulge in their own culture and share it with the community as well. Finch speaks German and explained that it is a
beautiful language to sing in, even though it may have a reputation for sounding harsh.
Similarly, Sun would also like to explore singing in a language that she has a personal connection to. “I am Chinese and would like to learn some Chinese songs,” Sun said. “It is still hard for me to grasp the meaning because it’s not my first language.”
Though learning to sing in other languages is rewarding, it has its own set of challenges. Both Finch and Barnett agreed that mastering the pronunciation of words is the most difficult part of learning a song in an unfamiliar language. “My hope is that we do it justice and that it is fully correct. I chose to do songs in Latin and French because of the experts we have here at Menlo School,” Finch said.
Despite the challenges of mastering pronunciation and understanding the context of a song in a foreign language, singing in other languages certainly has its benefits. From helping performers connect with different emotions to learning more about other cultures, music truly is a universal language that can bring the Menlo community closer together.
James Dann learned his first word in French, “cendrier” (ashtray), when his teacher tapped a burning cigarette on his table. Staff illustration: Amber More
Staff illustration: Diya Karthik
Boys Basketball
by NOAH LEVIN
Menlo’s varsity boys basketball team has had an up-and-down season, currently sitting at a 14-9 record. After graduating seven seniors, the team has learned to play with a new roster led by junior Ethan Zhao who averages 13.7 points per game and seniors Aidan Stull and Tate Cohen who average 9.8 and 9.5 ppg, respectively. Over the holiday break, the team traveled to Oahu for the Punahou Invitational, where they went 3-1.
The tournament gave the team a great opportunity to bond and begin the season on the right foot. A major factor in the
younger players,” Cohen said.
Stull echoed Cohen’s remarks, expressing his gratitude for all his teammates. “Initially, I was a little concerned with a large team of 18 guys, but honestly I can’t imagine our team without all of them — particularly freshmen who have been playing incredibly hard,” Stull said.
However, the team’s performance has varied throughout the year. “I’d say our energy level and defensive intensity have been inconsistent. We have great high points and some frustrating lows,” Stull said. Through these “lows,” the team has come together, developing camaraderie. “I would say we’re excellent teammates and everyone’s always there for each other if someone misses a shot or has a tough game,” Stull said.
A key win this season came against Menlo-Atherton High School, a tough non-league opponent ranked ninth in the Central Coast Section. “Everyone showed up and played super strong which got us that big win,” sophomore Kai Mawakana said. Although the team’s record has struggled in league, they believe there is a chance for a strong finish entering playoffs. “We still have a few league games left, so I think we’ll be able to finish strong before playoffs to get a higher seed,” Cohen said. After losing in the CCS Division IV final to Carmel High School last year, the boys look to bounce back and capture the win this year.
Boys Soccer
by BIANCA PUTANEC
With Central Coast Section playoffs looming, the varsity boys soccer team is finding its stride at the right time. A recent win over Harker was the Knights’ 11th straight to start league play and brought the team’s overall record to 132-2. “We have had a lot of success this season, [...] especially with the fact that we lost 12 seniors. I think our team has really come together in a short time period,” junior midfielder Reed Sunwoo said.
Head coach Daniel Hicker believes the team’s preseason performance set the team up for success. The team’s trip to Los Angeles over the holiday break was an especially important learning point, including a matchup against Redondo Union High School, ranked 14th in California. Although the game ended in a 3-1 loss, Hicker saw tremendous value in the process.“We played against fairly high competition and learned from that experience,” he said.
The trip also doubled as an unexpected bonding experience for the team after the bus’s cooling pipe burst and left the players and coaches stranded on the Grapevine for several hours. “When the bus broke down on our way back, there wasn’t great cell service, so it really helped us kind of come together and get to know each other,” Sunwoo said.
In addition to the competition from preseason, Hicker attributes the team’s success in league to their work ethic. “I believe we have shown strength, and we continue to improve every day and every week. This is definitely a team you could trust will work hard every single day and game,” Hicker said. “When I look down my roster, I see great moments from everyone.” Sunwoo agrees with this point, having exemplified the work ethic in their game against Sacred Heart Prep. “If you had left five minutes early, you would have thought [it ended] 0-0,” he said. In the last 10 seconds of the game, senior captain Gabriel Gil scored off a cross from junior Adrian Collantes. “I think it just shows no matter if you are a starter, or if you are coming off the bench, everyone wants that goal,” Sunwoo said.
Next up for the Knights is a push to win an outright back-to-back WBAL title, as well as a CCS championship. The team lost in the Division II semifinals last year, but Sunwoo would enjoy the team pushing even further than DII. “I’d love to make it to DI,” he said.
Girls Soccer
by DEVON SCHAEFER
Since returning from holiday break, the varsity girls soccer team has been unbeatable — literally — winning nine games and tacking on two ties. The team is currently 12-3-2 with a 6-02 record in the West Bay Athletic League Foothill Division, putting them in a first-place tie with Crystal Springs Uplands School. “So far, I couldn’t have written [the season] out to be any better than it has,” head coach Ross Ireland said.
The squad faced a few tough preseason games, including playing against three teams currently ranked in the top 10 of the Central Coast Section, and ended up losing two of the three. “We knew it would be tough, and we performed really well in those games, despite the fact that we didn’t ever have the full complement of players until they finished club,” Ireland said.
Senior Roya Rezaee believes the team’s camaraderie this year is one reason for their success. “Even though we’re not all in the same friend group, we bond over the little things,” Rezaee said.
goals and 10 assists. Chou is second in assists with seven and junior winger Krista Arreola adds six.
The annual mid-season trip to Carmel on Jan. 10-12 was a highlight for the team. “It was a blast,” Ireland said. To him, a memorable part of the trip was when he had to jump into the freezing ocean after agreeing that he would if senior Ellie Knoll scored in their game against Carmel High School.
Additionally, according to Rezaee, the team is more intense in practice compared to previous years. “We’re fighting for the ball; we’re showing that intensity and physicality that we need,” Rezaee said.
Ireland repeats Rezaee’s sentiment of intensity. He believes that the motivation comes from the amount of depth of the team. “Players are very accountable regarding attendance and their commitment to the team, knowing that if
According to Rezaee, the trust she has with Chou makes it easy to connect the ball to her. “I know her playing style, what she does, and I don’t even have to look,” she said. “I just can pass it and I know she’s gonna get it no matter what.”
While the team is focused on finishing first in league for the next week, they have high hopes for CCS playoffs. Last season, the team lost 1-0 against Gunn High School in the Division IV quarterfinals, which was a disappointing result for the team.
Ireland is uncertain what division the team will be in, especially considering Chou recently suffered a knee injury that leaves her on the sideline for the rest of the season; however, prior to the injury, he said that he suspected they will be in DI and believed they could win. “No one will want to play us.”
Girls Basketball
by DEVON SCHAEFER
After a hot start (and 10 straight wins) for the Menlo varsity girls basketball team to open their season, tougher league competition has cooled the Knights off. The team currently
Head coach Ryan Cooper believes that while their preseason opponents were weaker, the games helped build younger players’ confidence and allowed the whole team to get in the
to approach the non-league schedule was to gain as much experience as we could because we are really young,” Cooper said.
underclassmen-heavy, the senior duo of Ruiqi Liu and Karen Xin lead the team in points per game at 17 each, while Liu also chips in an average of eight rebounds per game.
Junior Sophie Housser believes that after both Liu and Xin committed to the University of Chicago, their playing style improved significantly. “They have a lot of
confidence now, and also they’re playing for fun now,” Housser said. “It has shown a lot in their ability to be more unselfish and just more relaxed.”
However, like all the Menlo winter sports teams, illness has hit the roster hard. Liu was sick for several of the team’s games, including both against Notre Dame Belmont. The team lost 5242 in the first game but won 45-33 in the second. “For us to get a very convincing win on the road without her is just a testament to how hard the whole team not only has been working but how well they’re playing,” Cooper said.
One difference in playing style that Housser notes has helped the team is getting rid of set plays. Last year, Cooper would call plays for the team to run them, but this year, the players are encouraged to play more freely. “I think it’s really good for us,” Housser said. “It makes everyone a much better basketball player because they have more confidence in their abilities since there’s not someone just sitting in the corner the whole time.”
Both Housser and Cooper are excited to compete in the Central Coast Section playoffs, especially for the possibility for the team to win their fourth CCS championship in a row. “The goal is to be champions on March 1,” Cooper said.
February 14, 2025
To Fly or To Drive? Athletics Department Discusses Transportation for Team Trips
by BIANCA PUTANEC
After hearing a beeping sound on their team bus while returning from their trip over winter break, the boys soccer team stood waiting on the side of the ride on the Grapevine outside Los Angeles. The radiator hose in the cooling system had burst, and now the team would have to await a new bus heading from San Jose. “We were really confused [and] a little bit afraid we were going to be here for a while,” junior Stevie Halprin said. Halprin’s fears came true, as the team spent nine hours waiting for the new bus to arrive. Eventually, they returned to Menlo at 5:30 a.m. the next day after driving through the night.
The experience of going through [the bus breaking down] together reinforced our connection.
Junior Stevie Halprin
Although boys soccer took a bus to Los Angeles, other Menlo teams, such as volleyball and boys basketball, have opted to fly to locations in Southern California. So how do teams choose which mode of transportation to take?
Assistant Athletic Director Buffie Ward explained that the process of going on trips starts with proposals from coaches. “Typically, a coach approaches the Athletics Department requesting permission to go on a trip,” Ward wrote in an email to The Coat of Arms. The reasons for trips in coaches’ proposals differ. “Most often, trips are planned around an out-of-town tournament, yet, sometimes, coaches pick a destination and plan games with other teams and use the opportunity as a bonding experience for the team members.”
The logistics of these trips concerning driving or flying are at the request of the head coach. “If air transportation is requested (or required), the Athletics Department secures flights (and always hotels no matter what mode of transport),” Ward wrote.
While previous Program Director of Boys and Girls Tennis Bill Shine was a proponent of taking a bus to both teams’ annual San Diego trips, a change in leadership may shift that tradition. “Although I drove with the girls’ [team] this year, I am flying with the boys’ [team],” new program director Francis Sargeant said.
As the girls’ trip was his first time ever taking a Menlo tennis team on a trip, Sargeant followed the Shine’s driving recommendation and personally enjoyed it. “I liked the [bus], bonding with the girls and having space to have one-on-one meetings to go over the season,” Sargeant said. However, Sargeant acknowledges driving is not ideal for the players. “The team had to miss [more] school and [...] the 10 hour drive wasn’t the best preparation the day before a tournament,” Sargeant said.
The boys’ team was in favor of flying, so he will use this trip as a trial run to test which mode of transportation is better. “Flying could be a more logistical hassle, but flying could be less time [spent on travel],” Sargeant said.
However, both Sargeant and Ward acknowledge that flying is more expensive, which is why many teams opt to drive. “Flying is more costly for trips, as families incur the cost of the flight,” Ward wrote.
While driving is more timeconsuming, especially when something goes wrong — as it did with the boys soccer team — the biggest upside is the space and time it gives for teams to bond. After the bus broke down only 30 minutes into their ride home, the boys soccer team and coaches decided to wait by the
roadside for the replacement rather than stay at a hotel. Despite the delay, the team bonded through a hike and shared pizzas, which Halprin noted strengthened their camaraderie. “The experience of going through [the bus breaking down] together reinforced our connection,” he said.
Program Director of Boys Soccer Daniel Hicker shares the same sentiment that although the experience was unexpected, it was also a moment to connect. “The experience brought everyone closer together in a sense that when we see each other, we have that feeling of knowing each other a little better,” Hicker said.
Menlo Athletics Introduces New Knights Leadership Council
by SPENCER TOLAND
After the Student Athletic Advisory Board fizzled out during COVID-19, Menlo’s Athletics Department knew they had to come up with a new student-led group to advise them. Starting this school year, Athletic Director Earl Koberlein and Assistant Athletic Director Buffie Ward introduced the Knights Leadership Council.
“It’s a group of student-athletes, across all sports, that were nominated by their coaches as either captains or leaders
on their teams,” Koberlein said. “We get about 30 of them at a meeting.”
Koberlein’s goals for the council range from the sports field to the quad.
“The goal is for them to be more comfortable not only in their teams as leaders, but on campus [too],” he said.
Athletes selected for the council participate in one meeting each month, in addition to workshops on the weekend.
For the first workshop, the athletes learned about being better teammates
from a presentation by a trainer from the Positive Coaching Alliance.
Junior Tyler Hinkie, a football and lacrosse player, believes that leaders often aren’t great with positivity. “[Leaders] can be really negative towards their teammates,” Hinkie said. “Something that Menlo as a whole, and especially people on the council and leaders I’ve had on my team, are really working to go against the grain.”
Sophomore Sabina Sutaria, a water polo player, explained that this workshop changed her view of leadership. “One of my biggest takeaways from that conversation was how passion is contagious,” Sutaria said.
Feedback from the participants has been positive so far, according to Koberlein. “I’ve gotten a lot of emails from the student-athletes that they really appreciate [the council] when there’s been a good discussion or a good workshop,” he said.
However, Koberlein said that seniors who play fall sports aren’t always sure about their place within the council now that their seasons are over. “I had a conversation the other day, where someone was like, ‘Well I’m a senior, and I play football, but now I’m still [on this council] and I don’t have a team I’m working with,’” Koberlein said. Koberlein replied that these skills aren’t just for life
at Menlo, but beyond it too. In the future, Koberlein wants to add these types of leadership opportunities for freshmen and sophomores. Koberlein said he may create another group where he and others can advise underclassmen athletes and help them grow.
“ “
The goal is for them to be more comfortable not only in their teams as leaders, but on campus [too].
Athletic
Director Earl Koberlein
For Sutaria and Hinkie, the athlete experience on the council so far has been nothing short of fantastic. Both attest to the impacts the meetings have had on them. “I hope this council continues for many years,” Sutaria said.
Athletic Director Earl Koberlein speaks to the Knights Leadership Council during a lunchtime meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 4. Staff photo: Spencer Toland
Staff illustration: Amber More
Menlo Students Go All in on Sports Betting
by ASHER DARLING
It was Jan. 2, 2025, and most Menlo seniors were spending their final days of winter break relaxing or celebrating the new year. David Mhatre, however, was far from relaxed. Georgia was playing Notre Dame in the Allstate Sugar Bowl that evening, and the Menlo senior had a hefty $1,000 wager on the Bulldogs. So when inactive Georgia walk-on Parker Jones was penalized for sideline interference in a tied game, costing the Bulldogs crucial yardage, Mhatre was livid. “You feel a lot of anger towards specific plays and players when there's money on the line,” he said. Notre Dame ended up winning the game 23-10 and advancing into the College Football Playoff Semifinals.
Although he is currently in the midst of a cold streak, Mhatre understands that sports betting inevitably carries highs and lows. “I do it mainly to make the sports game a little more interesting and add more adrenaline. It’s not really about the money,” he said. “Sometimes on a Tuesday night there’s a random NHL game, and I’ll put some money on it — it becomes really interesting.”
According to Mhatre, sports betting began to pick up steam at Menlo last year after winter break when students were introduced to an app called Fliff. The platform, which was founded in 2019, gives users $1 a day until they have $5 in their account to bet on sports. “It’s very accessible,” Mhatre said. “It almost feels
like it’s not real money,”
Sports betting is illegal in the state of California. In 2022, voters rejected a proposition to legalize it across the state with a 67 percent majority. However, Fliff is able to work around regulations by advertising itself as a sweepstakes game. Similarly, popular fantasy sports websites like Prize Picks and Underdog Fantasy are legal because they operate with “pick ’em” style games instead of
traditional sportsbooks such as FanDuel or DraftKings.
Mhatre also has his own gambling philosophy to help limit risk. “I deposit an initial amount. If I hit some bets, then I’ll take out my deposit and play with house money,” he said. Initially, Mhatre deposited $240 and has since withdrawn that money from his account.
Despite his controlled approach, Mhatre acknowledges the risks. “These
apps are designed to reel you in and get you addicted. The way they do their odds — you’re set up to lose,” he said.
Sophomore Zander Deutch echoed Mhatre’s sentiment about betting’s appeal. “It’s just a way to make a game a little more fun while watching it,” he said. “It gives you that same hype and adrenaline rush.”
Deutch also emphasized the importance of moderation, adding that he’s never wagered more than $5. “The cycle of losing is what gets people. When you lose, you think, ‘Oh, I’m just going to win it back.’ And then you keep losing,” he said.
Both Mhatre and Deutch agree that betting on sports can have a darker side. “The addiction is something you can’t overlook — it’s super problematic,” Deutch said. He thinks that many people aren’t disciplined enough to avoid the pitfalls. “If you gamble expecting to win money, that’s the dumbest thing you can do,” he said.
Mhatre and Deutch both believe that while sports betting has its risks, it can be done responsibly. “I think betting can be destructive, but if done the right way, it can be a lot of fun and bring people together,” Mhatre said.
Deutch agreed, but he offered words of caution.“You’ve just got to be smart about it, and most people aren’t. That’s why it’s a problem."
Revamped 12-Team College Football Playoff Brings Excitement, Controversy and New Opportunities
by NOAH LEVIN
Following the recent conclusion of the revamped college football playoff format, Menlo students were buzzing about new changes that affected the competition and excitement of postseason play. In past years, only four teams competed in the playoffs, but under the new playoff format, this year’s national championship featured No. 8 Ohio State and No. 7 Notre Dame, sparking debate among fans over the real advantages of the new format.
SMU’s playoff spot this year shows how the new system rewards strong seasons from teams outside traditional powerhouses.
In 2014, the College Football Playoff National Championship was introduced, with the national champion decided by a four-team playoff. A decade later, the NCAA expanded the playoffs to 12 teams, with the five highest-ranked conference champions earning automatic bids. The four highest-ranked conference champions are seeded 1-4, each receiving a first-round bye. Teams seeded 5-12 play each other in the first round on the higherranked team’s home field.
Junior Zach Reynolds, a lifelong
University of Oregon fan, is excited about the new format since Oregon made the playoffs for the first time in a decade.
“Year after year, Oregon was an inch away from the playoffs but they never made it, which was very annoying. But I feel with the 12-team format, it gives more opportunity,” Reynolds said.
Similarly, Menlo alum Dylan Gold (‘23), a sophomore at SMU, sees the new rules as a massive opportunity, with SMU making its first-ever appearance. “The new 12-team playoff format is a gamechanger, especially for SMU: it gives our program a chance to compete on a national stage and play bigger programs,” Gold wrote to The Coat of Arms. “SMU’s playoff spot this year shows how the new system rewards strong seasons from teams outside traditional powerhouses.”
Gold prefers the new format because it allows more teams to compete.
“I didn’t like the old system because it often excluded deserving teams that weren’t ranked in the top four. This new format is more inclusive, making college football more competitive and fun for everyone,” he wrote. Other teams, including Tennessee, Boise State, Arizona State, Indiana and Penn State, also earned their first appearance.
The new setup has also sparked criticism among fans over the seeding and home-field advantage. Currently, the first round is hosted
by the higher-seeded team, a significant advantage in college football. This year, Penn State hosted its first-round matchup against SMU in front of a record-breaking
[The new system] is better for the fans. “ “
Junior Zach Reynolds
106,000 fans, a CFP record, according to ESPN. However, starting in the second round, games are played at neutral sites rather than at home, which puts the top four teams at a potential disadvantage coming off a bye week.
Though Reynolds enjoyed attending the Oregon-Ohio State game at the iconic Rose Bowl, he likes the idea of two home games rather than games at neutral sites. “I like the idea of having two games on college campuses just because it’s better for fans,” he said. “It’s better for the students who can’t afford to travel across the country and watch.”
Overall, the inaugural 12-team format seems to have been a success, allowing a broader range of teams that could compete for a National Championship to do so — though challenges remain with seeding and early matchups for top teams. CFP Executive Director Rich Clark said “tweaks” haven’t been ruled out for the 2025 season, according to ESPN. These tweaks could include changes to seeding, home-field advantage and redistributing the number of automatic bids given to the teams from each conference.
Staff illustration: Amber More
Dylan Gold (‘23)
Staff illustration: Alyssa McAdams
COMMITTED CORNER COMMITTED CORNER
Will Hauser, Cornell University
by RAFE WEIDEN
Senior Will Hauser didn’t start running competitively until his freshman year of high school. In September of 2024, just a few years later, he committed to run Division I cross country and track at Cornell University.
Despite his relatively late start to cross country and track, Hauser has been close to the sports from a young age, considering that both of his parents raced at the Olympic level. “Having two professional runners as parents is part of what got me into running, but my actual ability to run well was what kept me there,” he said.
Prior to his interest in running, Hauser primarily played soccer and baseball, but his main sport shifted during the pandemic. When team sports were put on pause, Hauser honed his athletic desires on running, taking the opportunity to train.
A year later, Hauser ran cross country and track for Menlo and realized he was fast — fast enough to be in the top 20 in the nation for the mile among freshmen and sophomores. During his sophomore year, his running career continued to flourish. In the 4x800 relay, Hauser along with three other Menlo runners finished second by less than half a second in the CIF State Track & Field Championships.
In his junior year, though, Hauser faced a major setback as a runner: long COVID. Initially, the COVID-19 pandemic served as a stimulus for Hauser’s running career, but now, it was what held him back. “I couldn’t run much during my junior track season which made me especially worried since that was when I was reaching out to colleges,” Hauser said.
Nevertheless, his times as an underclassmen were impressive enough to warrant attention from colleges. While Hauser initially committing to Wake Forest University in May of 2024, he recommitted to Cornell a few months later. “Cornell was just a better fit for me,” Hauser said. “The coaches, academics and team itself all stood out to me.”
Brady Kagan, Pitzer College
by DEVEN DHOLAKIA
The day before senior Brady Kagan’s senior year kicked off, he committed to play Division III football for the PomonaPitzer Sagehens. Kagan will attend Pitzer College.
Kagan’s career as a college football player was not always a given. His parents never let him play Pop-Warner tackle football during middle school because of the injuries and concussions
— only flag football. But, when the time came for Menlo football sign-ups in the summer before his freshman year, Kagan’s parents caved.
Fast forward to Kagan’s sophomore year, when he watched his upperclassmen teammates go on to play football in college and decided he would do the same. “It seemed like a pretty fun idea,” Kagan said.
Kagan created an X profile, where
Sofia Flierl, Brown University
by SHAAN PARIKH
Senior Sofia Flierl’s water polo journey started as a hobby but has evolved into an important part of her life. This past fall, Flierl committed to playing Division I water polo at Brown University.
At first, Flierl didn’t see herself as a collegiate athlete. However, her passion for the sport sprouted during her later high school and club seasons, as did her performance, leading her to receive an opportunity to play at the next level.
At Menlo, Flierl’s role as a captain has been instrumental in the girls water polo team’s success. Junior and fellow cocaptain Kate Hirsch emphasized Flierl’s impact on the team’s culture. “She brings a lot of energy and spirit, both in and out of the pool. Our team culture is really built around her,” Hirsch said.
Menlo girls water polo head coach Laura Reynolds lauded Flierl’s mental strength and leadership. “She’s willing to learn, willing to support others and takes constructive criticism well. She’s a fun player to coach,” she said.
Reynolds also highlighted her growth
as an athlete. “She’s learned how to play her size as she’s tall with long arms, and she’s become faster, stronger and more confident.”
Balancing water polo with Menlo’s rigorous academics hasn’t been easy, but Flierl credits her parents for their unwavering support. “My mom helps me prepare for games with good food, while my dad joins me at the gym,” she said. “They’ve always been there for me.”
Looking ahead, Flierl hopes to enhance her versatility in the pool and immerse herself in the team and culture at Brown. “I’m most excited about the sense of community with the team,” she said.
Flierl was also drawn to Brown because of their coaching staff. “The coach really stood out to me, because he really cares about his athletes in and out of the pool,” she said. “He also really cares about them having other hobbies [...] besides water polo.”
Reynolds, a water polo alum of Brown herself, believes Flierl will thrive in Providence. “It’s a very open community,” Reynolds said. “She’ll make big contributions to the team.”
he posted his athletic accomplishments and Hudl highlights. Kagan’s family also hired a personal recruiter to ensure that he was going to play at the next level.
During his junior year, he began talking to coaches and visiting schools. On these visits, Kagan ensured he spoke with current and past football players at each school to get an authentic view of what team experience would look like.
Additionally, football head coach Todd Smith helped Kagan immensely throughout the process, both as a mentor and as someone who could connect Kagan to college coaches. Smith and assistant coach Mike Hill brought college coaches to campus and introduced them to Kagan.
“The connections from both my coaches here at Menlo and my recruiter out at camps made my recruiting process way easier,” Kagan said.
Kagan was immediately drawn to Pitzer’s athletic and academic offerings.
“The campus is really nice, and the idea of having five different colleges’ courses to choose from really intrigued me,” Kagan said. It was one of the first camps he had gone to, and his dad attended Pomona College. “It was a no-brainer,” he said.
Kagan was ecstatic to start his senior season after committing to Pitzer.
In Menlo’s first regular season game against Tennyson High School, the team handed out a demolishing 49-0 victory; however, they suffered a colossal defeat as well. Kagan had torn his ACL. “It was heartbreaking for everybody, and [Kagan] had also went through [an] injury the year prior,” Smith said.
Although Kagan’s senior season was cut short due to injury, he still found a way to make an impact on the team.
“He started turning all of the turmoil into positive energy and directed that towards his teammates and anything that we needed in meetings,” Smith said. “Whether it was helping out the O-line and D-line in film and with certain schemes or doing anything out on the practice field. He was doing everything he could to help his team win.”
Kagan is beloved by his teammates and coaches. “He’s just a positive guy with a positive influence who wants great things for himself and his teammates. I don’t know if there’s another guy who has loved Menlo Football more than he has,” Smith said.
Kagan looks forward to having that same positive impact on his college team as well. “I’m really looking forward to playing with my new teammates and coaches at Pitzer,” he said.
Staff photo: Devon Schaefer
Staff photo: Asher Darling
Photo courtesy of Steve Pretre
Arts & Lifestyle
Menlo Couples’ Valentines Day Playbook
by SADIE EVANS & ELEANOR KINDER
February 14, 2025
After the winter holidays come to an end and the decorations are put away, pink and red chocolate, flowers and hearts decorate the store shelves. Although many argue that February 14th is a day for corporations to profit off of consumerism, the holiday can be more than that. It’s the perfect opportunity for couples to celebrate their relationship and make memories together! While some couples have established cherished traditions, others are gearing up for their first Valentine’s Day celebration together. But regardless of the novelty of your relationship, Valentine’s comes with a bit of pressure to create a day to remember. So, we took to the Menlo community for recommendations on how to make your Valentine’s Day celebration truly special!
If you are looking for a date idea that combines fun, activity and a hint of competition, mini golf is perfect for you. It’s more than just a fun activity; it’s the perfect way to create memorable moments and spark some friendly competition for Valentine’s Day. Many local courses offer extended Valentine’s day hours too. This year on the 14th, seniors Sabrina Vohra and Kavan Kumar are going back in time to when they first started dating ten months ago. “We’re going back to where I took her on our first date, mini golfing,” Kumar said.
Instead of heading out to buy some sweet treats for you and your date, why not make your own together?
Juniors Nuria Sadri and Jack Edwards, who have been together for almost a year and a half, suggest baking as an exciting and wholesome date idea. “It’s super fun because baking is something you can do together, and [you can] enjoy the product with each other’s company,” Sadri said. Baking provides a chance to work together, making baking a unique way to celebrate Valentine’s Day.
If you’re the less outdoorsy type and value time spent relaxing with your partner, you and your date could watch a romantic movie together! Movies are a great way to enjoy each other's company without the fuss of extravagant plans. So pick out a romcom, stay in and stock up on some of your favorite snacks. Some suggestions to watch together are “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before,” “The Proposal” or “Bridget Jones’s Diary.”
Why not make the beach your Valentine’s Day destination this year? Sure, the sun isn’t exactly out in February. But we highly recommend bundling up with your significant other and watching the sunset together, or taking a romantic beach walk.
Freshmen Zoe Hayes and Lincoln Bott, who have been together for a little over a month, are excited at the prospect of going to the beach as a couple. “It would be fun because you get quality time and it is a beautiful place to be,” Hayes said.
If you want to opt for an enjoyable and simple outing, consider going out to eat at a local restaurant with your date. Dining out offers the perfect opportunity to enjoy delicious food and vibrant atmospheres without the hassle of cooking at home, and you can choose your restaurant. Juniors Krista Arreola and Reed Sunwoo, who recently celebrated their one year anniversary, often enjoy going out to dinner together. “It’s a great way to talk with your date and spend some quality time together,”Arreola said.
In addition to doing fun activities and making memories together, Valentine’s Day is a time when heartfelt gifts are welcomed. The classics are chocolates, flowers or stuffed animals, which are all timeless — but, let’s face it, a bit basic and boring. Seniors Annika Talwar and Nikhil Pathak, who will celebrate their three-year anniversary soon after Valentine’s Day, prefer simplicity in their gifts. “We usually do smaller gifts for Valentine’s Day, and they are normally more sentimental,” Talwar said.
Obviously, our recommendations are great for spending the day with your special someone. But you can still draw inspiration from them even if you don’t have a significant other! Vohra said it best: “Valentine’s Day is special because it’s a day to celebrate who you love,” she said. At the end of the day, this holiday is a reminder to express your gratitude and love for others. If you take one thing away from our guide, it’s that you shouldn’t feel pressure to do something excessive. “It’s more about the sentiment than what you actually do,” Edwards said. Bott agreed: "The best Valentine’s gift, in my opinion, is being with [Hayes],” he said.
Seniors Check Off Their Second
by MALIA CHEN
Between running a 10k, completing a 24-hour challenge in Target and going on a road trip, second-semester seniors are taking advantage of their limited time before graduation. Many students have turned to bucket lists to plan their last experiences before heading to college.
Senior Lauren Dempsey made a bucket list with her friends at the beginning of the year. She wants to go to the beach at least every week, especially because she might not live near a beach next year. Additionally, Dempsey hopes to run a 10k and revisit nostalgic Menlo Park spots she and her friends would frequent as freshmen, like the boba tea store Mr. Green Bubble.
Other action items include attending a wedding — invited or not — hitting a million TikTok followers, wearing flipflops to school and biking to campus. “We wanted to make a bucket list so that we could take advantage of the time that we have left, especially things that have to do with being in high school and living in the Bay Area,” Dempsey said.
— he hopes to go on a road trip, camp in Yosemite, visit Spain and Buton Island in Indonesia.
Semester Bucket Lists
count that as success because then I’m doing more than I otherwise would have,” Coleman said.
Seniors Mia Monsalve and Saniya Ahmed started generating their bucket lists in sixth grade and have been checking items off since; they aim
Senior Jackson Coleman uses the Notes app on his phone to type out a bucket list with a total of 96 to-do's. Coleman’s senior bucket list includes watching more long-form media like movies and documentaries, creating a club, starting a business, producing music, racing cars at a race track and traveling
He also has a separate free period bucket list with fellow seniors that contains multiple different food places to try, going on hikes and having a spa day. Coleman wants to complete as much as he can before graduation. “Honestly, if I do 10% of them, then I
to finish by senior year. Their list includes breaking out into song at a restaurant — “We’re not singers, so breaking out into song would be hilarious and awkward,” Monsalve said — visiting IKEA, sneaking out of their house, wearing matching outfits, ‘booing’ people’s houses (ding-dong ditching with a twist of leaving candy at the door) and doing a 24-hour overnight challenge in Target. They’ve already attended a concert together,
watched the sunset and escaped an escape room.
Now, their prank war with other seniors is a top priority. “We’ve gotten closer to a lot of kids in our grade already while pranking them as part of our bucket list, which makes fun memories,” Monsalve said. “I love this kind of stuff [and] I really want to fulfill our sixthgrade goal.”
Senior Miraal Zaki and her friends made a bucket list of places they want to go to, which includes San Francisco, Half Moon Bay (for the sunset), concerts and a few specific restaurants. Zaki has her own personal bucket list related to self-growth, with items like meditating and figuring out a good workout routine. “When I go to college, I want to be able to take care of myself well so I have a personal, more healthy [bucket list] focused on personal self-care related goals and then a friend one that's just fun and filled with activities,” Zaki said.
Since the start of the second semester, Zaki and her friends have been adding more to their list. Now that their time at Menlo is coming to an end, Zaki thinks that completing their bucket lists will help the seniors make the most of the time they have left. “It would just remind everyone that we’re in our final stretch and we should enjoy our time together for the last few months,” Zaki said.
Staff illustration: Amber More
Arts & Lifestyle
They’re Back! Two Juniors Reflect on Semesters Away
by SAVANNAH SMITH
After nearly four months, juniors Hadley Larson — returning from Chile — and Eliza Low — returning from Maine — came together to discuss their semesters away. As the pair sat at a table overlooking the quad from the library viewpoint, they discussed their respective trips, as well as their return to the Menlo community. Low and Larson give us a snapshot into what a fully immersive, hands-on, learning experience can look like.
The following has been pared and edited for clarity.
CoA: So, what initially drew you to your respective programs?
Low: I was at a program called Chiwonke on the Maine coast. It was really strong in environmental science and field studies. That’s kind of where my excitement came from, because that’s something I want to pursue long term.
Larson: I went to this program Alzar. After the fall semester in Idaho, you go to Patagonia in Southern Chile.
That’s what drew me to it. Alzar just looked like such a cool opportunity and I always heard how beautiful Patagonia was, so I just really wanted to go explore it.
CoA: How do you think the place that you were in impacted your experience?
Larson: I’ve never been really far away from home, and it was 30 hours of travel to get to Patagonia. That made it feel much more secluded from my regular life. I also have never spoken Spanish before, so there was definitely a language barrier there. What about you, Eliza?
Low: For me, it was the first time I actually got to experience all of the seasons. Our classes were based on the land we were living on.
CoA: What social aspects of your respective programs were different from Menlo?
Low: I feel like everything. It would be hard to imagine a more different culture than what I experienced for the last three months, which is making for an interesting transition back. There are certainly elements of Menlo that I really love, like the great people, but I would say it was definitely a different culture; you live in cabins without running water or heat. We heated our own cabins using wood that past semester students had chopped. I feel like, honestly, it was just a much closer community because it was so small. Hadley, would you agree?
Larson: Yeah, completely. Alzar was pretty different from Menlo. It was just like a really close group. And I
Selected Student Profile: Blake Putanec
by MANDY ZHANG
The following has been pared and edited for clarity.
Q: Coming from the Menlo Middle School, how was the transition from 8th to 9th grade?
A: It’s a bigger responsibility. High school was a little challenging at first, especially with heavier workloads, but living up to the standard has become easier.
Q: With the added academic intensity, have your extracurricular activities also become more demanding?
A: I now play varsity soccer at Menlo. As a student-athlete, it can be very frustrating when I get home late and still have to finish homework. Learning to manage my time has become extremely important.
Q: What’s one funny moment you’ve had with the Menlo soccer team?
A: Getting stuck on the bus for nine hours, blasting music and playing games.
Q: Do you have any pregame rituals to hype yourself up?
A: I usually listen to music like R&B and UK drill before every game. There are a few songs that I will always play, but it mostly depends on how I’m feeling. I take a moment, picture myself on the field and reset.
Q: How do you spend your free time outside of soccer and school?
A: Hanging out with my friends and playing video games, like Block Blast.
Q: If you had to eat one meal for the rest of your life, what would it be and why?
A: Sushi, because there are so many different variations you can try.
Q: How about the weirdest food combination you’ve ever tried?
A: I ate a fried cricket in China when I was younger. It was really crunchy and didn’t taste bad, but it didn’t taste good either.
Q: What’s the funniest part about having an older sister at Menlo?
A: Seeing her in the hallways and doing
would say one thing that I missed about Menlo was the spirit, but I ended up planning a spirit week there.
CoA: What’s a moment that really stood out as a “culture shock” for either of you?
Low: People came from really different backgrounds, which was fantastic and made it so much more interesting, but it was just interesting to realize that I had such different frames of reference than most of the people there. Like, one of my really close friends runs a farm in Costa Rica. It was really interesting to discover that everyone had a unique passion that they really spent a lot of their time and energy on. I don’t know if that would be a culture shock, because I found that sort of lovely, but it was certainly a change. There was a lot less of an emphasis on sports and spirit, and a lot more on farming of ecology or something like that. What about you, Hadley?
Larson: One day a week, we would go to this woman’s house. She didn’t speak any English — and I didn’t really speak Spanish — but she would teach us how to make empanadas. Trying to communicate without spoken language was really cool.
CoA: What questions do you guys have for each other?
Low: What was your favorite part, Hadley?
Larson: Definitely all the moments with my friends and meeting friends — for life, really. But also, when we would go on these expeditions, we would go backpacking in the most beautiful places ever, very remote, and you would have no stress in the world. It was just the best feeling. What about you?
Low: I would definitely say the people as well, and then also I had a chance to do a solo, which is 48 hours in the woods by yourself.
Larson: Did anything crazy happen during that?
Low: No, it was remarkably chill, and I feel like that was something in itself.
our signature handshake.
Q: If you could have any pet in the world, what would you want?
A: A golden retriever.
Q: What’s a goal on your bucket list that you really want to accomplish?
A: I want to make the national soccer
team so that I would be able to achieve both of my goals: playing in different regions around the world and earning money as a professional soccer player.
Q: We hear you were blonde growing up; do you still identify as a blonde?
A: Yes, lowkey once a blonde, always a blonde.
Blake Putanec plays with blocks as a toddler in San Francisco, where he grew up.
Photos courtesy of Bianca Putanec
(Left) Hadley Larson and fellow program member backpack in the Owyhee Canyonlands in Idaho. (Right) Eliza Low creates a species account of the blue mussel during a field lab. Photos courtesy of Larson and Low
Students Embrace the Influencer Lifestyle with Brand Deals
by PENNY DIEHL
Picture this: you open TikTok, desiring a cure for boredom. With the swipe of a thumb, you see a girl, her manicured hands waving, welcoming you to her channel. She wastes no time, quickly unboxing piles of gifts — seemingly unlimited free products sent from brands.
Everyone at Menlo is very much on social media.
Sophomore Lana Khan
When watching these ‘hauls,’ some wonder what ‘PR’ packages actually are, and more importantly, how you get them. Many Menlo students think becoming a popular influencer might seem impossible, but on a smaller scale, it is more accessible than you think. People in your community, or even members of your immediate Menlo friend group, may be affiliated with or receive brand deals and products.
At first, TikTok and Instagram were
just fun ways to spend time with friends and watch videos for junior Libby Vitro. However, when Vitro started curating her Instagram content, posting photos and videos both for herself and also thinking about her audience, she delved into the world of brand deals.
According to Vitro, a social media manager of the clothing brand Edikted messaged her through Instagram, offering $300 of store credit and a discount code under Vitro’s name in exchange for Instagram posts of Vitro promoting the brand. Vitro was very happy and had a lot of fun picking out her clothes and posting online.
It might seem obvious to post on the most popular social media apps — like Instagram or TikTok — but sophomore Lana Khan has experienced success posting photos on Pinterest. Over winter break, Khan posted a pin, which quickly gained traction. Khan’s post gained 172k impressions, or the amount of times her picture showed up on other users’ screens. “I got 100k impressions, and then it just kept going up,” Khan said. For Khan, the moment when she saw her pin, a picture of her and her friends styling matching outfits on a TikTok video collage with 100k likes, was when she realized the impact of her virality. “Myself, [on] my for you page, that's
so cool.”
Although the allure of free products and media presence sounds amazing, both Vitro and Khan warn people to proceed with caution.
“If you do have a public account, it’s totally a good idea to remove
followers, block people that are weird, anything like that, and just [make] sure that the people that are watching [your] things are the right people,” Vitro said. Khan also points out that posted content could be seen by anyone and to be mindful. “Everyone at Menlo is very much on social media.”
According to Vitro, her experience with social media has positively affected her life. Khan highlighted the positive ways social media has changed her life and also how to stay safe when having a social media presence. “It’s just a super fun environment,” Vitro said.
A High School Survival Guide: Advice from Experience
by ELAINA HUANG, ELEANOR KINDER & ALYSSA McADAMS
Sophomores to Freshmen
Hello freshmen! Congratulations on making it more than halfway through your first year of high school. Sophomore year is approaching quickly, and it’s definitely an important year to prepare for. But don’t worry, I have a few tips to help you have a good second semester, and set yourself up for success next year.
First of all, if you are hoping to improve in a certain class or build a relationship with a teacher, make sure to go to lots of tutorials and show your dedication to the class. Having one-on-one meetings with your teacher, even for a quick five minutes, really helps with knowing exactly which areas you need to improve in. There is still lots of potential for the second semester, so don’t give up hope in certain subjects you may be struggling with.
But more importantly, it’s not too late to do anything! Don’t feel like you have to have found your school activities and good friends, because there’s still so much time. Don’t be afraid to go to a club for the first time or try out a sport you’re completely unfamiliar with — freshman and sophomore years are the perfect time to find out what you like and learn more about yourself. Keep an open mind, and know there are still so many possibilities; you can still join sports teams and other activities like Model UN or Menlo Mock Trial in sophomore year, and even start a club later on — there’s no need to feel behind. And more importantly, there’s still so much to look forward to!
Juniors to Sophomores
Hello sophomores! You’ve probably heard that junior year is tough, and honestly, it’s true. I’m not here to scare you, but I won’t sugarcoat it either. The good news? There are ways to prepare now to make things easier later.
First, establish good homework and study habits now. Trust me, it’ll be a lifesaver. One of the best things you can do is find a productive place to work. At the end of my sophomore year, I got into the habit of doing homework in bed, and it never ended well — I’d wake up in a panic realizing I hadn’t finished my assignments. Learn from my mistakes and find a distraction-free workspace!
Many of you are also prepping for the SAT or ACT, which is great, but remember: school assignments should come first. Right now, your grades matter more than your test scores, so prioritize turning in papers and projects on time.
And of course, procrastination; the struggle is real, even for the most productive students. Junior year will keep you busy, and you’ll be drained when it’s time to tackle tough assignments. I’m still working through my own procrastination, but what helps me most is a reward system, breaking work into smaller tasks and giving myself a snack or break after each one.
Junior year will be challenging, but you’ve got this! Wishing you all the best as you finish sophomore year and take on junior year.
Staff illustration: Amber More
Seniors to Juniors
Hello juniors! You’re entering a challenging time and I’m here to (hopefully) help alleviate some stress with a few tips.
Right now, you all are grappling with a lot of questions surrounding college admissions. Do you get outside-of-school college counselors? When do you start your essays? How difficult is your schoolwork going to be going forward?
The answer to the last one is, unfortunately, difficult. Your junior spring grades are crucial since they’re the most important ones to colleges, and your senior fall grades matter too. It’s time to stay locked in, take rigorous courses and aim for strong performances — the light at the end of the tunnel makes everything worth it.
Nobody understands the admissions process better than the Menlo college counselors, so please utilize them (schedule meetings early, as they are quite busy). I’d especially lean on them when forming your college list. If you want outside help for essays, that’s fine, but it’s also perfectly okay to rely solely on Menlo’s team. Just pace yourself and stay organized.
Speaking of pacing — this semester, focus on keeping your grades strong and touring colleges if possible. Use the summer to tackle your Common App essay, activities and UC essays. Try hard to finish these before senior year starts so you can focus on supplemental essays during your busy senior fall.
Senioritis does exist, but no senior can check out fully. Colleges monitor senior year grades and rescind offers if you slack off. And not everyone knows where they’re going to college by the time spring hits — there is still a lot of stress going around. So while senior spring will have its fun moments, keep up with
The next nine months will be tough but
Staff illustration: Ella Skinner
The Oscars are right around the corner, taking place on March 2. So naturally, we (Julia and Amber) watch a combined seven strong contenders out of 10 films nominated for Best Picture to provide you with a thorough review — plus predictions for how it will perform at the Oscars for Best Picture and other major categories.
Both of us are very passionate about movies; Julia especially enjoys learning about the filmmaking process in her media production class, while Amber is an obsessive Letterboxd user and self-proclaimed filmmaking amateur. Overall, this Oscar season has been extremely competitive and we hope to make the Oscars a little more approachable with our reviews and predictions.
A tragic interpretation of the folktale Cinderella: “Anora” chases through NYC’s Brooklyn and Manhattan in sex, glamour and Russian to comment comically (unexpectedly) on sex work and class.
Considering “Anora’s” opening scene pans across a row of strippers in a nightclub, one being the titular protagonist Anora (Mikey Madison) herself, you might be surprised to learn that there was no intimacy coordinator in this sex-positive film, so the film’s nomination for Sean Baker as Best Director may be the most contested amongst its myriad of other nominations.
Sex scenes in “Anora” are essential to the plot, but that’s not to say that they aren’t discomforting, contextualized by the major themes of consent and exploitation weaving the film together. While Madison has spoken out about declining the intimacy coordinator offered by Sean Baker on her own terms, internet discourse is still commenting on the situation, referencing potential manipulation from Baker or arguing that intimacy coordinators should be required, not offered. The controversy, which overshadows a truly gritty, emotionally compelling story, may just get between Sean Baker and his Oscar.
“A Complete Unknown” is a love letter to folk music with portrayals of leading musicians (i.e. Joan Baez, Al Kooper), soulful renditions of widely-loved songs and complete with dreamy frames and a reflective pace.
Timothée Chalamet as Bob Dylan in “A Complete Unknown” may just parallel his co-star Edward Norton’s performance as the Narrator in “Fight Club.” As evident by a highly energized press tour following the movie’s release (hosting as well as musically performing on SNL, Lime e-scootering to the movie premiere and method dressing for public events), this was a role that Chalamet took personally and heartily. And it shows. Despite his increasing popularity, Chalamet embodies Bob Dylan onscreen with such a profuse gravity that his real-life persona is utterly forgotten by the audience.
Moreover, he sings. And he plays the guitar. For Chalamet, it wasn’t enough to act out the legendary music personality — he also took on Dylan’s unique voice and strumming, generationally adored keystones of music, with a precision that feels uncanny. Chalamet deserves an Academy Award for Best Actor, just as Bob Dylan had earned one for Best Original Song.
Directed by Nick Gordon, “The Brutalist” chronicles aesthetic and historical narratives through an architect’s escape from the brutal Buchenwald Concentration Camp in Germany to prosperous Pennsylvania, U.S., for a construction opportunity under a shadowy millionaire.
At three and a half hours, this movie, at first, captured the public’s attention because of its length rather than its plot. However, upon entering the theater, much like other moviegoers, you’ll find the time fly by in a cinematic, instrumental and sensory journey. Despite operating primarily in the fictional lives of Architect László Tóth (Adrien Brody) and his wife Erzsébet (Felicity Jones), the film develops into a tale that feels completely real, like an earnest recorded account of a 1950s Jewish artist’s true lived experiences.
“The Brutalist” won Best Picture at the Golden Globes Awards, and it is most likely the strongest contender to win at the Oscars due in part to the Oscars’ tendency to lean toward drama movies rather than science fiction stories like “Dune” or musical comedies like “Emilia Pérez.”
“Emilia Pérez,” directed by Jacques Audiard, made a splash during the Golden Globes, racking up four awards including Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy. However, many viewers online are expressing disagreement with the critics, wondering why the movie is getting such high praise. In “Emilia Pérez,” a Mexican cartel kingpin (Karla Sofía Gascón) enlists lawyer Rita Mora Castro (Zoe Saldaña) to fake his own death, enabling his transformation into a woman and his pursuit of a new life.
Given that the film is being nominated for 13 awards at the Oscars, usually audiences would applaud critics for highlighting diverse casts and stories. Instead, however, viewers have criticized the film for perpetuating stereotypes of the Latino community, Mexicans and transgender people –– some go so far to say that this movie is a step back in transgender representation.
Zoe Saldaña has an outstanding performance worthy of her win at the Golden Globes and potentially an Oscar. However, there is little confidence that the movie will follow suit in the other categories; even the 13 Oscar nominations were unforeseen, which almost tied for most nominations (14) held by Titanic, so the film may perform unexpectedly.
Edward Bergery’s masterful “Conclave” pits cardinal against cardinal in the race for power as the Catholic Church picks a new pope. Main characters Cardinal Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes), Cardinal Tremblay (John Lithgow) and Cardinal Bellini (Stanley Tucci) engage viewers with powerful dialogue from screenwriter Peter Straughan. Overall, this film has accomplished something impressive –– it tells the potentially mundane story of a religious topic in an engaging way by incorporating important social themes on ambition, power and unpredictable plot twists. “Conclave” deserves the praise it’s getting, including the nomination for Best Picture.
However, the movie, highlighting some of the most pressing issues and divisions the modern Church confronts, is also facing pushback on its portrayal of Catholics. I think the movie calls attention to the difficulty of finding the balance between spirituality and temptation for power in the Catholic Church. Although I don’t think it’s going to score big at the Oscars even after eight nominations, simply because of its extremely tough competition, it remains a strong contender for Best Adapted Screenplay thanks to its richly nuanced and complex character arcs.
Would you take “the substance”? It’s all anyone could talk about following French filmmaker Coralie Fargeat’s breakout horror-sci-fi film “The Substance.” Featuring soul-crushing performances of Elisabeth Sparkle (Demi Moore) and her younger persona, Sue (Margaret Qualley), this movie deserves its flowers at the Oscars for numerous reasons — from cinematography to direction to visual effects.
What truly captured the attention of social media, however, is the completely novel approach to the wellknown dangers of lookism, sexism and female-specific ageism, concentrated into the dystopian “substance” of the two-hour, 20-minute film. Through striking visuals and a vibrant soundtrack, the movie absorbs the viewer into its self-obsessed world. Just like its protagonist, you may find yourself not wanting to come back, unsure how to face reality on your own once again.
“The Substance” feels like a perfect contradiction — a testament to Moore’s powerful performance, shaped by years of experience, juxtaposed with her character’s spiral into desperation after rejection despite her own long career. The Oscars would completely miss the point of the movie should they pass over Moore for Best Actress.
Staff illustration: Amber More
