the Epic, Volume 57, Issue 3 - December 7, 2021

GAMING THE RANKINGS

BY MEI CORRICELLO AND MYLES KIM

Stanford Recruits

Princeton: Rank #1

#6 k n a rd: R o f n a St

Northeastern: Rank #49

Anton Ouyang, Golf

Clarem Rank # ont McKenna 8 Liber al Arts :

UIUC : Rank #47

Crystal Qian, Fencing Sports Section Read more on page 14

Urinals need dividers, now

BY ANIRUDH SESHADRI

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ollege education has always been synonymous with social mobility. With more than 4,000 accredited higher education institutions in the U.S., �inding the right one can seem like �inding a needle in a haystack — and that’s where college rankings come in.

Rankings from U.S. News, Forbes and Times Higher Education impact student decisions and higher education institution admissions. As these rankings gain popularity as ways for students to weed out the best schools, many colleges have discovered loopholes to climb toward the top.

According to David Webster, the author of Academic Quality Rankings of American Colleges and Universities, rankings can generally be de�ined as a list of the best colleges and universities according to the creators’ interpretation. Rankings can be used to compare individual departments within a college or university and measure the quality of an institution holistically; there are separate rankings for graduate education.

College rankings are either based on outcomes or reputations. Outcomebased rankings use data about a student’s post-graduate success — with differing methodologies — to approximate the quality of the education at that school. Reputational rankings are based on peer review and focus on the institution’s reputation over the prominence of graduates.

L Between 1910 and the 1960s, the quality of colleges was most frequently judged through their education of distinguished persons. The �irst outcomebased rankings were published by James Mckeen Cattel, a psychologist who studied eminent men. The �irst methodology for reputational-based rankings was developed in 1925 by Raymond Hughes, a chemistry professor at Miami University in Ohio.

Reputational-based rankings would become the dominant form of academic quality rankings starting in 1959, paving the way for the U.S. News’s debut.

U.S. News published its �irst reputationalbased college rankings in 1983. In their �irst three years, they provided college and university presidents with a list of schools similar to their own and asked each to choose the �ive schools they felt provided the best undergraduate education.

Beginning in 1988, U.S. News started publishing annual rankings and made changes to their methodology after academics criticized the reputation-based

rankings.

Afterward, U.S. News started to include opinions of school faculty and decreased the reputational component to 25% of the overall ranking, with the remaining 75% for data determined by admissions selectivity, faculty strength, educational resources and graduation rates, similar to the criteria used today.

Since then, outlets have constantly tweaked their methodologies to better capture what they feel makes a college great. The popularity of the U.S. News rankings led to the creation of other rankings, most notably The Princeton Review in 1992 and Forbes in 2008.

In-Depth Section Read more on page 11

ong before social distancing became common, it was already happening in boys’ bathrooms. Uncomfortable faces looked furtively to identify the farthest vacant urinal as others quickly tried to �inish their business. One easy solution to resolving this awkward interaction in boys’ bathrooms is to install dividers between urinals.

“Dividers would be good to add in boys bathrooms as it will give the privacy that people want,” senior Pranav Kartik said.

The lack of dividers in boys’ bathrooms is a long unaddressed issue and pressures students to use only the corner urinals and individual stalls. These privacy concerns make the other urinals, which can number anywhere from four to eight, obsolete.

Many students have tried to �igure out solutions to minimize the awkwardness without dividers, but most of the solutions involve avoiding using some of the urinals, causing long lines of students waiting to use the bathroom.

“Everyone only uses alternate urinals, skipping the ones in between to not make it awkward,” junior Vachan Arora said. “Dividers would make those skipped urinals actually useful.”

Since most of the bathrooms were built with the school in 1965, there are no urinal partitions between them.

Opinion Section Read more on page 5

02

NEWS

the Epic lhsepic.com

Murals bring fall and winter spirit to campus

BY SUSANNA TANG

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kiing skeletons, a fall-themed puppy and a spooky viking boat. Public Art Club is working on three murals to hang around campus to spread seasonal cheer this winter.

The �irst mural is of a viking boat sailing beside a waterfall into a colorful sunset. The second mural features a puppy with a fall-themed background, and the third mural features two skeletons with a winter-themed background. The club aims to �inish the �irst two murals by the beginning of second semester and hang them on the bulletin boards around campus.

“Anytime you put color on the walls in a school, it makes it a fun place to be,” art teacher and Public Art Club adviser Judy Schulze said. “It creates a more positive school climate.”

In past years, the club has done a number of shortterm projects, including decorations for the “Beauty and the Beast” musical hosted by Studio 74, paintings on teachers’ windows and a paper crane installation in the library. As the club’s �irst longterm project of the year, painting murals around campus is a way to make the club’s presence felt in the school community.

“We thought it would be a good idea to make murals because it lets the members bond with each other,” junior and Public Art Club Vice President Kayla Chen said. “Our club also has a lot of emphasis on the members

having fun and de-stressing through art.”

On Wednesdays, the art room at lunch is alive with music and chatter as the club paints the murals, creating a lively and buoyant environment in Room 73.

Public Art Club of�icers introduced the project to members on Sept. 29 to present the overall plan and inspiration so members could brainstorm compositions.

Groups of six to seven members pitched design ideas inspired by example murals and the guiding themes of fall, winter and Lynbrook spirit.

“My partner and I wanted to incorporate the festivities of the season,” sophomore Madison Guan said. “With Halloween coming up at the time we began, and now with Christmas coming up, we wanted to combine those two ideas together and paint skeletons riding a ski lift.”

Final compositions, which were agreed upon within groups, were then sketched onto eight-by-eleven-inch papers. The members used the grid method — making proportionate grids on the sketch and the mural, then copying the drawing onto the mural one grid at a time — to copy the enlarged drawing onto X-Boards, a lightweight and reusable heavy duty �loor protection board, with the correct proportions.

Lastly, members carefully brushed acrylic paint onto the canvases, bringing out the seasonal spirit of the paintings.

“I absolutely love murals,” Schulze said. “I was teaching at an elementary school for the last 12 years, and we had a muralist come and paint murals on the campus. It’s like it just comes to life.

All the schools in the Cupertino district looked the same with cream-colored buildings and blue trim, but when you get those murals on there, it just fosters more creativity.”

PHOTOS BY SUSANNA TANG GRAPHIC ILLUSTRATION BY CHELSEA LEE

Students compete in Lynbrook’s first ever hackathon

BY AUDREY SUN

L Letter from the Editors Dear readers, As Finals Week approaches, our �irst semester back in-person at full capacity is drawing to a close. Take a break from our favorite Common and Coalition Apps or �inals cram and enjoy our last issue of 2021!

While Santa Claus has been sitting idly in the North Pole causing a shortage of cookies and milk, the Epic has been working hard to produce top-notch stories for the holiday season. Wondering why gifts are so expensive or always out of stock? While Santa’s monopolistic operation in the North Pole where there’s a steady supply of cheap elf labor, low environmental standards and tax breaks may be a reason; read our In-Depth story on global supply chains and in�lation to learn more (pg. 12). Still shopping for Christmas gifts? Remember not to follow Santa’s super�icial, materialistic giftgiving traditions. Instead, read Amy Liu’s story on thoughtful, genuine Christmas spirit (pg. 4).

While we are deeply disappointed in Santa’s poor example for naive, impressionable corporations and society, we are proud of our staff for producing our �irst three print issues in nearly 2 years. We hope you are proud of what you’ve done this semester too. Have a wonderful winter holiday, and we will be back next year!

Happy holidays, Mei Corricello & Bennie Chang Editors-in-Chief

ynbrook Engineering Club collaborated with Coding Art Club, Web Development Club and Machine Learning Club to host its �irst-ever hackathon, LEC Hacks.

From Nov. 19 to Nov. 21, more than 200 competitors collaborated on their projects, listened to workshops and participated in team bonding activities at the 36-hour-long virtual event.

LEC Hacks’s organizers decided to host the competition over Discord, enabling competitors to easily communicate with teammates using voice chats, attend workshops through Discord Stages and receive announcements all in one platform.

Since the event was virtual, the organizers opened the hackathon to students across the country.

“We opened registration two weeks early for FUHSD students as an incentive to sign up,” senior and Lynbrook Engineering Club Vice President Michael Florip said. “Since LEC Hacks is virtual, it makes it easier for students from other places to compete.”

LEC Hacks split their competition into �ive tracks, allowing competitors to choose which they were most interested in among the general, mobile apps, website development, hardware and machine learning tracks.

The hackathon began with an opening ceremony to welcome all competitors, which included a guide to the competition and icebreaker games like Skribbl.io. The second day was the heart of the competition, in which competitors attended workshops and collaborated on their projects with teammates.

“The competition was well organized, and the of�icers made sure competitors received all information necessary to compete,” said sophomore Aayush Talluri, who was one of four Hackathon winners. “They also provided workshops that were engaging and well-structured.”

On the second day, LEC Hacks started

off with a workshop delivered by Machine Learning Club. The purpose of this workshop was to offer students a general overview of natural language processing.

“We decided to teach this topic for our workshop since we found it fascinating that machine learning can learn how to understand language,” said sophomore Anish Lakkapragada, who created the machine learning workshop. “It doesn’t really require too much past experience in machine learning to understand.”

Shortly after Machine Learning Club’s workshop, Coding Art Club held a workshop that was geared toward students interested in arti�icial life.

“I was very excited when LEC Hacks invited me to teach a workshop about arti�icial life,” said senior Helena Su, who created the workshop. “I wanted more people to see how coding could be applied artistically and creatively instead of just technically.”

The day ended with a workshop from Web Development Club on making public apps on the internet, and from Command Tech, an internationally-based coding organization, teaching competitors about website design, respectively.

To plan such a large event within a short time frame, of�icers worked hard to create a

GRAPH IC ILLU STRAT AUDRE ION BY Y SUN & CHE LSEA L EE

website from scratch, contact companies for sponsorships, create agendas and reach out to potential judges.

“It was very time-intensive, especially in the beginning,” Florip said. “But overall, it was quite rewarding as everything ended up going well.”

The winners of the competition were announced on the second day of the competition. The �irst place team at LEC Hacks was team MoreCycle composed of Lakkapragada, Talluri, sophomore Soumik Sinha and sophomore Abhishek Nambiar.

MoreCycle created a mobile app that determines an item’s recyclability based on a photo uploaded by the user. They did this by training a machine learning model on multiple datasets to differentiate between items that need to be recycled and trashed.

“Overall, the hackathon provided a very inclusive and enjoyable environment and provided me a chance to build more connections and make new friends,” Talluri said.

December 07, 2021

NEWS

03

Smash Bros Club holds first live tournament

BY LAUREN LIU

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mash Bros Club held their �irst tournament of the year on Friday, Nov. 19 in Room 112, where matches ended with �ist bumps between competitors amid a whimsical atmosphere.

“We like to hold tournaments because we think it helps our club become closer,” junior and Smash Bros Club President Jacob Chung said.

Twenty students participated in the double elimination bracket tournament.

Club of�icers set up eight stations, each equipped with a monitor, a Nintendo Switch and a docking station. The monitors were provided by the club, and club members lent their personal switches and docking stations.

As the tournament progressed, stations devolved from competitive to friendly matches. Most players brought their own controllers, but players without one could borrow controllers from other players.

A double elimination bracket consists of a winning and a losing bracket. Players who lost once moved to the losing bracket, in which they

continued to play until they lost again, at which point they were eliminated. Matches were determined by the best of three rounds, and each round had a time limit of seven minutes.

Starting with the semi�inals round in the winning bracket and the �inals round in the losing bracket, matches were the best of �ive rounds. Senior and Smash Bros Club Treasurer Saadhan Pittala was the victor of the losing bracket’s �inals, and he moved on to the grand �inals against junior and Smash Bros Club Secretary Darian Liu, the victor of the winning bracket.

Pittala beat Liu in a best of �ive match, and the players battled a second time as Liu was moved into the losing bracket. Pittala again won the second matchup, winning the tournament.

This tournament marked the �irst time the club had streamed their events. Chung commentated on the Twitch livestream using his personal equipment, and participants also commentated when they wanted to. Monta Vista’s Smash Bros Club President Max Hu also attended the event, commentating alongside Chung and playing a few friendly matches.

The event also attracted alumni of�icers Wei Chong and Vamsi Mannava.

They participated in the tournament, and their match against each other attracted a small crowd. Although the club has held tournaments since 2019, when Chong founded the club, Chong and Mannava were impressed by how the tournaments have evolved.

“It’s really cool to see that people are continuing my legacy and the club that I co-founded,” Chong said.

The club is considering holding another tournament in December 2021, and there are plans for more tournaments starting in the second semester and new activities during regular club meetings.

“The best part about being able to hold a tournament in person again is just the atmosphere,” senior and Smash Bros Club Vice President Raymond Chi said. “We’re really a club that lives or dies based on the atmosphere and the feeling that the members have.”

PHOTOS BY LAUREN LIU GRAPHIC ILLUSTRATION BY AMY LIU

Upcoming Viking Events Winter Concert Listen to band, orchestra and choir perform at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 8 or Thursday, Dec. 9 at Monta Vista High School.

Finals Week Finals for �irst semester are from Monday, Dec. 13 to Thursday, Dec. 16.

Winter Wellness Week From Dec. 13 to Dec. 16, enjoy fun holidaythemed activities and grab care packages with hot cocoa and hand warmers provided

by ASB Recognition.

Mid Year Break No school for two weeks starting Friday, Dec. 17. Enjoy the holidays!

Martin Luther King Jr. Day No School on Monday, Jan. 17.

Winter Rally Come out to the quad on Friday, Jan. 28 for the Winter Rally. Be sure to cheer your class on by participating in the dance and helping with decorations.

Winter Formal Winter Formal will be held at the San Jose City Hall Rotunda on Saturday, Jan. 29.

By Meera Nambiar Photo by Audrey Sun

Sanskriti celebrates South Asian culture

BY AMISHI CHANDRA

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or the �irst time ever, the American Indo Student Association hosted Sanskriti, a showcase dedicated to classical South Asian art forms such as carnatic music, bharatanatyam and kathak. Held on Nov. 19 in the cafeteria, Sanskriti, which means culture in Sanskrit, highlighted the elegant talents of many students.

The show consisted of 11 different acts and was anchored by the introductions from the emcees, whose skit embraced Indian culture and the uniqueness of each performance.

Performances included kathak dancers junior Medha Lolyaker and freshmen Avani Viswanathan; carnatic singers freshmen Athreya Iyer, freshman Vrishank Chandrasekhar and senior Alaap Rag; bharatanatyam dancers freshman Sanjana Kamath, freshman Hiranmayi Srinivasa, junior Netra Ramanatham and sophomore Maya Iyer and LHS Shakti. Other performers included sophomore Nidhi Prasad and sophomores Anika Debhar and Rutvi Pota. LHS Shakti, a dance group focusing on classical and hip hop fusion, performed a Bollywood and bharatanatyam fusion dance. Many of the dances, songs and music had not been represented in other Bay Area showcases prior to Sanskriti.

“AISA creates such a fun culture,” Iyer said. “My favorite part of my performance was just singing and being able to collaborate with my accompaniments who are also my friends — just being able to look at them and see the joy in our eyes”.

The �irst act of Sanskriti was carnatic singing, followed by hindustani singing and classical dancing. Carnatic singing emphasizes the musician’s connection to the raga bhava, which is the ultimate state of mind that a musician reaches.

Hindustani singing, which is a type of music from North Indian culture, focuses

our art form and be more proud of who we mainly on melodic development.

Another art form featured was Kathak, are,” senior and AISA President Alaap Rag one of the eight major forms of classical said. “By taking this small step of performing dancing. Kathak includes many spinning on campus where all of our peers were, those and standing movements and uniquely who don’t know our art form can learn about integrates cultural elements of both Hindu it and enjoy it.”

Planning the show took six months, with and Muslim gharanas, or communities of musical performers. The other major art the idea �irst proposed in summer 2021 and form of the night was Bharatanatyam, one of coming to fruition during the �irst months the oldest forms of classical dancing that is of the school year. AISA will be hosting this event again in the future, with goals to based on rapid hip movements.

Overall, the show had a warm and include more performers and reach a larger inclusive feeling, with everyone celebrating audience. Next year, AISA hopes to showcase each other’s unique talents. The audience kuchipudi, another type of classical dance was supportive that includes and the performers impressive, quick felt that they could footwork, dramatic embrace their culture characterization, and show their skills. expressive eye I did this to increase our “There were way movements and representation of classical more performances spirited narrative. art forms from South Asia than I had expected,” “Sanskriti was because we don’t get that audience member really well organized,” recognition. and junior Sruti performer and Elangovan said. “I sophomore Annika think overall the Dhebar said. “It was Alaap Rag, event covered all the really fun for all of us Senior and AISA President different classical to come together and forms very well.” �ind common ground The audience’s through Indian support encouraged classical art forms”. the performers to give it their all.

While South Asian classical art forms are “I really enjoyed seeing the audience’s rarely portrayed in shows around the Bay reactions, and dancing was also fun,” Lolyaker Area, Sanskriti successfully celebrated Southsaid. “My favorite part was meeting the other Indian culture and the diverse talents of the performers backstage and seeing what art students. It also gave many students the form they do as well as their passion for it.” opportunity to learn about classical dance In the past, AISA has hosted Silsilay, an forms, show off their singing and dancing, annual event that highlights performances and appreciate the work of their peers. that combine elements from Bollywood “I’m being appreciated and recognized and hip hop. This year, the of�icers created for my talent and my ability to sing,” Rag Sanskriti to bring representation to the South said. “That’s what made me feel so happy. I Indian classical art forms as well. Sanskriti did this for people like me, and I did this to gives dancers and singers an opportunity increase our representation of classical art to perform in front of their peers, some of forms from South Asia because we don’t get whom have never interacted with South that recognition.”

Indian culture before.

PHOTOS BY AMISHI CHANDRA “I want classical artists like me to embrace GRAPHIC ILLUSTRATION BY MEERA NAMBIAR

04

December 07, 2021

NEWS

BY JASMINE RIHAL

S

tudents from Lynbrook and Monta Vista’s bands and orchestras performed melodious and thoughtful solos at the combined Concerto Competition, held at Lynbrook on Nov. 17. Lynbrook junior and violin player Eunseo Oh took �irst place and won the opportunity to play with the Symphony Orchestra in the Spring Concert.

Although some students have performed a solo in a piece played by a larger ensemble, concertos like this one, in which students get the opportunity to perform alone, are rare.

Combined, Lynbrook and Monta Vista had 20 students participating. Each student was given a time slot to perform their piece privately before a panel of four judges, including Lynbrook band teacher Michael Pakaluk. Students were allotted time to practice in practice rooms before their time slot, and runners escorted them to the judges when their performance time came.

Judges critiqued factors such as tune, tone and tempo; the blending and balance of sound throughout the piece; collaboration between the soloist and accompanist together; mastery over rhythm; articulation and expression; variety in volume shadings in addition to appropriate selection and appearance. Judges also provided feedback on the performers’ strengths and areas of improvement to help polish their careers as

musicians.

Oh, the winner of the competition, �irst discovered her passion for violin when she was 8 years old. She has served as the coconcertmaster of San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra and is currently serving as the concertmaster of Lynbrook’s Chamber Orchestra. Oh has participated in other music competitions like the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, in which she won a gold medal.

On the day of the Concerto Competition, Oh was nervous but tried to enjoy the moment during her performance.

“If I concentrate on the music rather than the nerves I get when I’m performing, I am more satis�ied with my performance, and I think it turns out better too,” Oh said.

Students like sophomore and saxophone player Maya Iyer auditioned because they felt that the competition — and the chance to play with an orchestra in Scotland if they won — were opportunities they couldn’t miss. While Iyer found the experience to be nerve-wracking, she also saw it as a valuable learning experience, especially since she placed fourth among the band students.

“I learned to come more prepared because I wasn’t as prepared as I could have been,” Iyer said. “But now I have the experience and know what to expect in the future.”

Monta Vista junior and violin player Jordan Teoh also performed. Like other

competitors, Teoh felt nervous but ultimately found it to be a fun experience. He also saw this as a learning experience and focused on the ways he could re�ine his musical skills.

“Even if I made a mistake, I was focusing on being able to recover quickly,” Teoh said.

The competition was largely an educational experience for the performers.

Though the majority of the competitors had no prior experience with solo competitions, they learned how to handle their nerves and prepare for similar competitions. Students also learned to continue taking advantage of competition opportunities because they are incredible learning experiences.

“For them to prepare and work on a solo piece, and then present it for others to listen to — that’s a monumental accomplishment,” Pakaluk said.

“Then, to present yourself, put yourself out there for adjudicators to critique it — it takes a lot of courage.”

PHOTO BY JASMINE RIHAL GRAPHIC ILLUSTRATION BY NICOLE GE

Junior Eunseo Oh wins LHS, MVHS Concereto Competition

OPINION

the Epic lhsepic.com

05

Dividers between urinals are necessary for privacy

BY ANIRUDH SESHADRI

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that inspired some students to vandalize the bathrooms. However, the Lynbrook administration can sometimes be unaware of fundamental needs that are not openly voiced by students due to the intimate nature of the problem. Since discomfort over the lack of dividers has not been publically vocalized by students, it may not have been obvious for administration to act to �ix the issue.

“Before, we put so much emphasis and focus on safety and sadly, privacy took a backseat,” Duenas said. “If the lack of privacy was caused by something as obvious as if there was a door missing in a toilet stall, we would take it out and not want anyone

to risk using it, but installing urinal partitions has never occured to me.”

Installing dividers is a quick and easy process that would constitute great strides in protecting students’ privacy. Lynbrook should work to address this issue quickly to boost ef�iciency in the boys’ bathrooms and show empathy for one of the hurdles that male students face during adolescence and beyond.

GRAPHIC ILLUSTRATION BY MYLES KIM

ong before social distancing became common, it was already happening in boys’ bathrooms. Uncomfortable faces looked furtively to identify the farthest vacant urinal as others quickly tried to �inish their business. One easy solution to resolving this awkward interaction in boys’ bathrooms is to install dividers between urinals.

“Dividers would be good to add in boys bathrooms as it will give the privacy that people want,” senior Pranav Kartik said.

The lack of dividers in boys’ bathrooms is a long unaddressed issue and pressures students to use only the corner urinals and individual stalls. These privacy concerns make the other urinals, which can number anywhere from four to eight, obsolete.

Many students have tried to �igure out solutions to minimize the awkwardness without dividers, but most of the solutions involve avoiding using some of the urinals, causing long lines of students waiting to use the bathroom.

“Everyone only uses alternate urinals, skipping the ones in between to not make it awkward,” junior Vachan Arora said.

“Dividers would make those skipped urinals actually useful.”

Since most of the bathrooms were built

with the school in 1965, there are no urinal partitions between them. While Lynbrook has constructed dividers for the new bathrooms in the cafeteria, gym and GSS, it has not made any changes to the original bathrooms. The school should make it a priority since they increase bathroom ef�iciency and foster privacy and comfort among male students.

However, it may take some time for the custodial team to add dividers to the older bathrooms.

“It’s not as simple as hanging dividers in these urinal areas,” facilities manager Edgar Duenas said. “The U.S. Department of State Architecture in California must inspect any renovation to the restrooms.”

Still, the cost and time necessary for putting in dividers is insigni�icant compared to the comfort they can provide, and they would create a much safer and ef�icient bathroom system.

High school is a time of growth and development, which can make many teenagers insecure about their bodies. By putting up dividers, Lynbrook can provide a private and comfortable bathroom environment for all male students.

Lynbrook has consistently proven its dedication to provide a safe environment for its students. For example, they immediately dealt with the “devious lick” TikTok challenge

Gender disparities in AP courses influence classroom dynamics

A

lthough Lynbrook is widely viewed as an encouraging environment for students to pursue their aspirations regardless of sex, there are still signi�icant disparities between the number of male and female students present in certain classes, especially in AP-level STEM classes, which feature an average 3-2 ratio of boys to girls.

Students of different sexes are typically treated equitably in these classes, but the demographic disparity can make minority groups feel inferior and hesitant to fully engage in the content.

With women holding less than 30% of all STEM jobs in America, many companies are reevaluating their hiring processes, and educational institutions are pushing more women to pursue STEM majors and careers. These efforts to encourage more women to pursue STEM careers are even more effective when implemented early on, especially in schools.

To combat this, the Lynbrook community should continue working toward creating comfortable classroom environments for people of both sexes.

Teachers and administrators should encourage students of the sex that traditionally make up a lesser portion of certain classes to sign up to take the course through outreach efforts to naturally motivate student interest.

Lynbrook prides itself on student enthusiasm surrounding its STEM courses such as AP Computer Science A, AP Chemistry and AP Physics C, which have consistently been a top request by students over the years. Yet when looking at the distribution of sex throughout classes, only a few advanced classes have a ratio of male and female students similar to that of the student body. For example, many STEM courses often have only several girls in a class full of boys. For example, in Thanh Nguyen’s 6th period AP Physics class, there are 19 boys but only nine girls. This is also a trend in other higher level science or math classes, such as AP Calculus BC and AP Chemistry, in which the ratio of male to female is often close to 2-to-1.

However, the ratio of girls to boys in AP humanities courses often tilts in the opposite direction. AP Language and Composition teacher Josh Miller’s 3rd and 4th period APLAC classes are 69% girls and 31% boys and 72% girls and

Staff Editorial The Voice of the Epic 28% boys, respectively. AP Language and Composition teacher Dave Clark notes a similar disparity, citing an approximate 60% to 40% split between females and males. The overall ratio of all APLAC students, however, is 73% girls and 27% boys.

Despite the counselors’ best efforts, disparities remain. However, they are constantly working to equalize the number of girls and boys in classes. At the beginning of each year, if time permits, counselors go through every subject area of classes and examine the demographics. If they notice any large disparities, they will do their best to change students’ tentative schedules in order to reach close to a 1-1 ratio of sex while still providing an equal opportunity of classes to every student.

“We’re conscientious about gender disparities in terms of classroom dynamics, so we try to split girls and boys evenly in each class,” guidance counselor Nikki Dang said.

A degree of the disparities can be explained in part by the total difference between boys and girls in the school. The total student enrollment in the 2020-21 school year was 1922 — 52% were male and 48% were female. These numbers have stayed consistent over the years, so in general, there are slightly more males than females in any average class. However, the amount of interest in each course by gender also plays a substantial role.

GRAPHIC ILLUSTRATION BY ELIZABETH CHENG

“We assign students their classes based on what they signed up for,” Dang said. “If it’s a 5-1 ratio of males to females, [then] that’s what is re�lected in class demographics.”

Since less girls are signing up for STEM classes, the disparity will persist. However, what discourages some girls from taking advanced STEM classes are classroom dynamics that promote the notion that girls are more successful in humanities courses.

“It is de�initely more intimidating to speak up [in a male-dominated class] because it’s harder to identify a support system in your peers when you feel like you can’t easily relate to them,” said senior Jasmine Hou about her experience in AP STEM classes such as AP CSP, AP Physics, AP Calculus BC, AP Biology and AP Statistics.

The solution to these disparities is more complex than just equalizing the number of male and female students in classes. To maintain an equal number of sign-ups for courses, Lynbrook and FUHSD should provide outreach and education opportunities to inform students and parents about the importance and interest in taking both STEM and humanities. However, it should be noted that Lynbrook is fairly progressive when it comes to promoting women in STEM and tends to be supportive of anyone looking to pursue STEM, mainly due to the larger emphasis placed on STEM in Silicon Valley.

“I can see there is a positive trend in

classes like AP CS principles,” Computer Science teacher Mark Kwong said. “But there is still a lot of work to do to even out the rest of the CS classes.”

For example, before course selection is due, teachers from AP courses could create short videos explaining their courses, in an attempt to inform and pique student interest in an effective and ef�icient manner. This approach could also be taken on by the guidance counselors, who often already visit classrooms during course selection. In addition to their current presentation, they could help familiarize students with the content they would be learning in AP courses. Furthermore, in the second semester, teachers could explain the following year’s available courses to their class so students are fully informed when selecting courses.

Making students comfortable in the classroom environment in regards to gender interaction should be taken into consideration. Students can work on including all their peers when working in groups and communicating respectfully with everyone in class. Teachers have already taken on this task — for example, when there is an evident disparity, Kwong makes sure all girls in his AP CS classes are seated near another girl in order to make them feel supported.

“I try to seat girls together in class when there is a disparity, usually in my Java programming class,” Kwong said.

“It’s probably daunting to walk into a class as the minority, so I try to help them feel more comfortable.”

Lynbrook’s students, teachers and administration have made consistent efforts to promote equality among the classes, clubs and other organizations on campus. However, students and teachers alike must continue to work toward inclusive classes so all students feel comfortable, respected and empowered on campus. *the Epic staff voted 32-0 in favor of this stance, with 4 staff members abstaining.

For the sake of data comparison, this analysis of sex on campus is split into male and female, but the Epic recognizes the complexity of gender identities and those who identify as non-binary. If you’d like to be a part of this conversation, you are encouraged to submit a guest column or letter to the editors.

06

OPINION

December 07, 2021

BBB: Biden Be Better

BY JASON SHAN// IN MY OPINION

“What else do you have left?”

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GRAPHIC ILLUSTRATION BY CATHERINE ZHOU

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uring the 2020 election, Biden campaigned on the slogan “Better Days Lie Ahead.” But almost a year later, is the country truly better off? Many Americans disagree, with Biden’s approval rating dropping to 42% as of Dec. 2. A loss in Virginia and a close win in New Jersey in the Nov. 2 gubernatorial elections further evinced Biden and Democrats’ decreasing popularity even in states that Biden easily won in the 2020 presidential election.

Though Biden’s presidency started swtrong with a COVID-19 stimulus bill, problems ranging from alarming in�lation to party in�ighting show that Biden has not been the president he promised to be.

Biden started his presidency by upending many Trump-era policies. The U.S rejoined the Paris Climate Accords and the World Health Organization, turning back from Trump’s isolationist sentiments. He reversed many of Trump’s most controversial policies by halting construction on the U.S.-Mexico border wall and removing the Muslim ban.

Biden also improved upon COVID-19 policies from the Trump era, implementing a science-based policy with mask mandates on federal land and vaccine requirements for federal workers. Vaccinations rates also substantially increased, with Biden succeeding in his promise to administer 100 million vaccinations in 100 days.

“Biden’s COVID-19 plan has been pretty well-executed,” sophomore and Lynbrook Politics member Ryan Zhou said. “He has been trying to increase the administration of vaccines to the public with incentive programs.”

Under the Biden administration, there has been a nationwide decrease in COVID-19 mortality and hospitalization rates, especially for the vaccinated. One of Biden’s greatest pandemic accomplishments is the American Rescue Act, passed in March 2021.

The $1.9 trillion bill gave stimulus checks to millions of Americans and helped small businesses struggling with pandemic losses.

However, one of Biden’s biggest failures so far was the Afghanistan withdrawal and the subsequent reemergence of the Taliban.

Once in of�ice, Biden promised to withdraw the troops and end America’s longest war.

However, weeks before the withdrawal was set to �inish, the Taliban took over the Afghan government, causing chaos as people tried to �lee the country. Afghanistan is now in the same place as it was twenty years ago: Freedom of press and womens’ rights are heavily restricted, as women are banned from school and jobs and unable to move freely in public. Now, the Afghan economy is on the brink of collapse without foreign aid, and millions of children could face malnutrition.

“This was a lose-lose situation,” said Economics and AP Government teacher Jeffery Bale. “[When] you look back at the

because it took months after Senate approval presidents [who] have been involved in to be passed by the House, the law was the Afghan war, nobody wanted to be the passed too late to help the Democrats in the president that removed the troops. So it Nov. 2 elections. fell into Biden’s lap. Although there could “The infrastructure bill was one of Biden’s have been improvements, it was gonna be weak areas because it only recently passed,” a disaster for whoever was in of�ice at the freshman and Lynbrook Politics member time.”

Sanaa Lokray said. “He could have probably There were no good options for Biden worked harder on pushing it. I feel like he when it came to dealing with Afghanistan: If just let the bill get stuck in Congress for a troops remained, the endless war would have while.” continued, and if troops withdrew, Afghans Similar to the infrastructure bill, Biden’s would have had to fend for themselves. key social spending bill, the Build Back However, the U.S. had an obligation to the Better Plan, is still being debated in Congress people of Afghanistan to prevent cruel and has not been passed by the Senate. If punishment from the Taliban and ensure approved, the bill will supply Americans with that all women had the right to education provisions and paid family leave to switch and freedom. Biden’s failed withdrawal to renewable energy. But due to in�ighting leaves Afghanistan with an uncertain future between liberals and moderates in the of violence and oppression.

Democratic Party, the bill remains stalled.

One issue that Biden has not addressed Biden’s entire agenda rests on this bill, enough is one of the most controversial and failure to pass it indicates failure from topics in the U.S.: immigration. Biden tried the Democrats in improving the country’s to reinstate the Obama-era Deferred Action broken social programs system. for Childhood Arrivals program, and the The Democratic Party is split between Build Back Better Plan includes some liberals who advocate for mass reform provisions about immigration, but and moderates who do not want immigration remains one of the an expensive bill. Though lowest priorities on Biden’s it is dif�icult to gain agenda.The Southern support of everyone border saw a marked in the Democratic increase in the Party, passing a in�low of illegal compromised immigrants bill is better as well as than not the volume passing one of Hatian at all. If Biden refugees at cannot unite the border the party w a i t i n g and pass the for asylum.

Build Back B i d e n ’ s Better Plan, it i m m i g ra t i o n could cost the policy has left Democrats the almost everyone 2022 midterms. unhappy, with R E NE “I think the liberals believing he D 83 MI S S A TU J Democratic Party needs is being too strict and Y DE NB NTS to get in order and get their conservatives believing ATIO - GRAP HIC ILLUSTR priorities in line because the more his policies are leaving the dysfunctional the Democrats are, the less borders open.

“Immigration hasn’t been the best likely they’re going to stay a major player in issue,” Zhou said. “There has been a surge national politics,” Lokray said.

Overall, Biden’s �irst year of presidency has of immigrants, and the government has not �lashed both positive and negative aspects. been treating those immigrants very well.”

After months of negotiation, Congress His COVID-19 response was well executed �inally passed Biden’s bipartisan and has led to widespread vaccinations, and the passage of his infrastructure bill will Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act on improve America’s physical infrastructure.

Nov. 6. The law aims to �ix America’s aging Despite these successes, Biden has faced infrastructure, with solutions ranging from problems with withdrawing troops from building roads and bridges to repairing Afghanistan, preventing an immigrant crisis broadband lines. The law, which had support at the border and passing his social spending from Democrats and some Republicans, bill. proved that bipartisanship and compromise “If I had to give him a grade, I’d give him was still possible, even in today’s divided a C plus,” Bale said. “I think he’s shown real political climate. The bill’s passage is a big competency in some areas, and I think that step toward improving the lives of Americans there has been a real lack of awareness and demonstrates Biden’s ability to ful�ill his in others. So I would say that it has been a promise of reducing gridlock in Congress moderate �irst year.” and being a man of compromise. However, IH A

BY MEERA NAMBIAR

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t was a question that my parents had asked and one I had asked myself countless times during the summer before high school. I had quit nearly all my extracurricular activities, so as I entered high school, where there was an unrelenting pressure to overachieve, I felt lost.

My life in middle school was a comfortable pattern that had been drilled into me for years: school, homework, then the day’s extracurricular activity. As a result, my schedule was super�icially �illed: I never felt a true passion to dribble a basketball down the court or read the music of some longdeceased classical pianist, but it gave me a sense that I was doing something.

For years I repeated the tooth-pulling process of begrudgingly dragging my feet from home to sports practice.

I fell prey to the sunk-cost fallacy, reasoning that the hardships I labored through were the stepping stones to a “good” college and a better future.

This reap-what-you-sow mentality, coupled with my comfort in the established norm and my parents’ expectations, resulted in my aversion to change. Quitting was never an option.

One day, as I was preparing for basketball practice, in a spur-of-themoment decision, I told my mom that I wanted to quit. I had the simple epiphany that I shouldn’t be dedicating so much of my life to an activity that I didn’t want to do. I realized that I had agency over my own life, and as a maturing teenager, I no longer needed to live by the path my parents decided. Talking to my parents helped me see that they trusted my decisions and, as platitudinal as it sounds, wanted what was best for me.

The second turning point was when I quit piano. I had played piano for years, yet after a few lessons with a substitute teacher, the new environment gave me a fresh perspective, opening my eyes to the fact that I never liked playing the piano. This time, quitting was a more thought-out process, and after discussing with my parents and the academy director, I concluded that it would be best if I moved on.

In retrospect, my impulsive decisions bespoke my immature age. If I were to redo it, I would have talked more with my family and friends to better balance my parents’ wishes with my newfound independence.

Quitting ended up being the right choice for me. My schedule opened up for me to pursue things I was genuinely interested in. In eighth grade, I joined the Cupertino Education Endowment Foundation, one of the �irst organizations I ever joined of my own volition, catalyzing a future �illed with more independent endeavors. In freshman year, I was part of a youth group that would later work with a local media channel to host a community-wide video competition, and in early 2021, I helped organize a youthled AAPI march and rally after the rise of anti-AAPI sentiments. I joined these organizations because of my own interest in making meaningful change. I was also able to dedicate time to computer science through various projects that touched on concepts like website development, machine learning, app development and blockchains. I thought that quitting would reduce my opportunities, but it instead opened me to countless possibilities I never knew existed.

December 07, 2021

OPINION

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Don’t catch the Christmas consumerism craze

BY AMY LIU

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he day after Halloween, homogenous marketing greets shoppers in each store: Posters and signs glare at passersby from front windows, holiday music screams in customers’ ears and mountains of Christmas goods at entrances beg to be bought. Every year, an increasing number of Americans are pulled into the Christmas scheme of spending money on lavish gifts to impress family and friends as they disregard the true meaning behind holiday gift-giving.

Christmas was �irst celebrated for the winter solstice and the birth of Jesus Christ, but today, it is celebrated by both Christians and non-Christians worldwide as a commercial sensation. As early as two months before the holiday, stores begin selling Christmas products to build excitement for the holiday.

“In the U.S., Christmas is about overdoing it on gifts,” Spanish teacher Kim Revilla said.

“Basically, it’s just a fest of excess.”

The Christmas industry is huge in order to meet the demands of holiday shoppers.

Christmas retail sales have been on the climb since 2018, and in 2021, they are expected to reach a whopping $843.4 billion. The increased consumption of goods during this time is detrimental to the environment.

According to a study done by Stanford University, Americans throw away 25 million tons of trash from Thanksgiving to New Years, 25% more than any other period of the year.

Much of the waste comes from Christmas decorations such as wrapping paper and ribbons. To do their part in reducing this waste, consumers should reuse or recycle decorations and seek biodegradable options to minimize waste.

Hanging Christmas lights that turn neighborhoods into festive, glowing winter wonderlands are also a tradition for the holidays. Despite the beauty they bring, electricity consumption is at an all-time high during the holiday season. The U.S. uses an average of 6.63 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity during the Christmas period annually, far more than any country in the world. Christmas lights are typically chains of incandescent light bulbs, which produce more heat, burn out faster and require a higher wattage than led-emitting diode lights, a more environmentally friendly alternative.

“For our house, we’ve tried to use energy ef�icient lights,” Revilla said. “Even the decorative lights we have on the outside of our house are usually LEDs, so they last a long time.”

For most Americans, interior decorations consist of stockings, ornaments and

BY SRUTHI MEDAPALLI // IN MY OPINION

A non-Christian merry Christmas

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creeching songs about jingle bells, throwing tinsel on trees, hastily wrapping last-minute gifts and baking box double-chocolate brownies for a fat white man and his fat reindeer — while my phony Christmas-infused childhood seems to desperately cling to American traditions, Christmas has always been a way for my immigrant family to pave concrete customs in a new environment. The holiday was more

Christmas trees. Contrary to popular belief, arti�icial trees are actually worse for the environment than real trees. Real Christmas trees are biodegradable, recyclable and sustainable, whereas the arti�icial trees are made of plastic and steel, materials that eventually end up in the land�ill.

Although arti�icial trees can render lesser environmental impacts if reused for �ive years or more, they cannot be recycled once discarded. Real Christmas trees can be bought from tree lots or home improvement retailers, such as Home Depot and Costco.

Because of how crucial shopping, decorating and gift-giving are to the Christmas experience, consumers feel pressured to purchase more expensive products to gift.

“The Christmas culture pressures people to give a gift to others in order to show that they care about them,” sophomore Shovan Jagadev said. “That creates an unnecessary pressure for people to buy an expensive gift for those they care about. It also creates the idea that your attachment to other people is based on how much money you’re able to spend on them, which is inherently �lawed.”

By focusing on monetary value of gifts, gift givers fail to consider factors such as usefulness. A study by Groupon revealed that one in six gifts are left untouched after Jan. 1. According to a study by Censuswide, 46% of Americans have lied about liking a gift.

However, gifts do not have to be expensive, store-bought or tangible in order to be memorable a n d likeable. A heartfelt card, a

homemade present or a warm experience can also brighten one’s Christmas and create long-lasting memories.

“I tend to choose gifts that people will �ind useful or relevant, and not necessarily something that’s expensive or super trendy,” junior Edward Sha said. “I’ll try to �ind something that they’ll actually use or remember. I also always think of something meaningful to write on a card, because that’s more valuable than any gift I can buy.”

Another way to avoid stressing over the cost of a gift is to consider what the giftreceiver would �ind useful or special. This can be determined by simply asking them what they need or observing their passions.

“A meaningful gift comes from somebody who knows you well,” Revilla said. “Pay attention w h e n you’re out w i t h

them and what they see in a shop, or make a mental note of their hobbies and interests. A gift doesn’t have to be super expensive — it just has to have some meaning behind it.”

This Christmas, gift with the purpose of celebrating and appreciating your loved ones rather than breaking the bank. Christmas traditions can and should be continued without heavy spending or worrying about expectations.

GRAPHIC ILLUSTRATION BY JASMINE RIHAL

than just a chance for cultural assimilation.

It was also an opportunity for holiday fervor, a thing that every 5-year-old craves. Two weeks off of school and a federal holiday for my working immigrant parents were just another reason to get into the jolly spirit, with the context of religion overlooked.

My earliest memories of Christmas, rough around the edges and a bit pathetic, involve sculpting little gingerbread men ornaments out of clay — they were fun at school but wildly out of place at home. After all, as a Hindu family, we had no real need for a Christmas tree. Our holidays were different — Navratri and Diwali instead of Thanksgiving and Christmas — during which we would gather herds of relatives to eat, talk and bond. But with glass ornaments and sugar cookies in hand, my elementaryschool self introduced a Christmas tree into our home, beginning my Christmas craze.

The days leading up to Christmas each year still consist of my brother and I throwing around phrases like “Letters to Santa” while simultaneously striking bargains with our parents on budgets for gifts and whether to have a Christmas dinner or not. There’s one annual conversation that I vividly associate with the holiday season:

Me pestering my mom about what she wanted for Christmas, and she responding with what I found to be the most infuriating answer: world peace. The answer was my most exasperating enemy, ironic given how committed I was to the do-gooder Christmas spirit. I was looking for something I could make or ask my dad to order on Amazon.

But the traditions that had begun as an inundated ritual transformed into a genuine source of joy and connection. I would wake up to the morning sunshine, wiggling my toes in fuzzy green-and-red socks and poking my resting parents until they woke up — the day’s plans consisted of climactic gift-unwrapping, calling overseas family members and cooking traditional South Indian food, our personal touch. Our family savors the Christmas routine having evolved from the ambition of an overzealous 5 year old. Despite my mother’s annual request for world peace, our immigrant family has been able to ease into the American-style Christmas that overzealous 5-year-old always dreamed of.

My childhood was marked by two wondrous annual occasions. Around October, there’s the Hindu festival, Navaratri, and of course, in December, Christmas. Despite the seeming irony, the celebrations are not

just about religion for me or my family.

Saved for two holidays, a dusty corner of our living room sits empty for most of the year. Only in retrospect did the irony of two different religions become clear. However the celebrations are not just about religion.

During Navratri, we set up a display of dolls in that corner, use a Costco-sized bag of sugar to make sweets and stay up late gazing at the lights and colors swimming in front of us. It takes weeks of bargaining and whining after the holidays for us to have the heart to �inally deconstruct the display.

The corner sits empty for an uneventful month until December, when my family and the rest of America unbox glass ornaments and put on our Santa hats. The warmth and radiance returns to the corner as our Christmas tree goes up, and despite the different religious connotations of both holidays, there’s a striking resemblance in the way we celebrate and who we have become. We buy another bag of sugar, spend late nights admiring the string lights on our tree and hold off till New Years to take down the tree. Christmas and Navratri both connect us to religion and culture but much more importantly to a familial bonding and goodwill.

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FEATURES

the Epic

lhsepic.com

Afterlife: The revival of the Ghostbusters

BY KATIE CHIN

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GRAPHIC ILLUSTRATIONS BY JASON SHAN

he Ghostbusters series has long been eternalized as a witty, imaginative cinematic treasure, and its newest installment, Ghostbusters: Afterlife, has revitalized the nostalgic characters and features of previous movies.

In 1984, the �irst Ghostbusters movie became an instant cultural sensation thanks to its creative fusion of comedy, action and science �iction. Ghostbusters’ comedic icons of the 80s brought a light-hearted spirit to their battle against dangerous mythological evils. Marked with creative, paranormal technologies and the best special effects of the time, Ghostbusters has been revered as one of the most iconic movies in Hollywood.

The most recent �ilm is directed by Jason Reitman, the son of the original Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters II director Ivan Reitman. Following the �lop of Paul Feig’s 2016 all female Ghostbusters reboot in the box of�ice, Reitman has successfully reclaimed his father’s legacy, bringing society’s bungling mis�its and the ludicrous, fantastical horrors of ancient demons back to the big screen.

Ghostbusters: Afterlife follows the journey

of Callie Spengler, a struggling single mom played by Carrie Coon, and her children Phoebe and Trevor as they move to their late grandfather Egon Spengler’s abandoned farmhouse in rural Oklahoma.

Alongside their teacher, played by Paul Rudd, the children uncover the mystery of their grandfather’s sudden relocation and revive the Ghostbusters following a catastrophic, supernatural phenomenon that threatens the world.

Phoebe, played by young star McKenna Grace, is introduced as a nerdy preteen tomboy. Trevor, played by Finn Wol�hard of Stranger Things, parallels her character with his awkward attempts at capturing the eye of a small-town girl, Lucky. The addition of Lucky and Phoebe’s friend, Podcast, to the young Spenglers and Lucky rounds out a new generation reminiscent of the Ghostbusters’ core four.

Reitman’s �ilm relies heavily on much needed nostalgia, closely paralleling many beloved scenes from the original Ghostbusters and resurrecting the same mythological villains.

The movie brings back the classic Ghostbusters car and technologies in addition to rekindling the world’s love for the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, arguably the movie’s most celebrated character.

The revival of iconic scenes and characters has answered the prayers of all Ghostbusters fans, preserving the franchise’s landmark features and breathing fresh new life into the classic story.

Despite these glaring similarities to the original, disparities among the main characters are too noticeable.

The 1984 Ghostbusters starred the best comedians of the time whose dry, jocular humor captured the love of fans and was unforgettable among fantasy horrors. In this movie, their young successors take stabs at whimsical banter, but fall back onto the stereotypical broody, outcasted characterization of teenaged movie characters today. In addition, rather than focusing solely on the daring pursuit of mystical ghosts, Ghostbusters: Afterlife diversi�ies unsuccessfully, languidly following the mediocre coming-of-age of young Phoebe Spengler and attempting to forge budding yet easily forgettable romances among characters.

The stars of the original Ghostbusters — Bill Murray, Dan Akyroyd and Ernie Hudson — reprise their legendary roles in this �ilm, lovingly re�lecting on their reckless days as Ghostbusters alongside the audience. The �ilm features both

a mid-credit and postcredit scene, in which memorable characters m a k e r e a p p e a ra n c e s that immerse the audience in wistful memory and leave them anticipating the future of the Ghostbusters.

Honoring the late Harold Ramis through his character Egon’s apparition and affection toward his family, the �ilm pays homage to the actor by creating parallels between his nerdy, lovable character and his granddaughter’s, d e v e l o p i n g a sentimental connection between them.

The 1984 Ghostbusters was known for its captivating special effects, and this �ilm mirrors them perfectly. Dodging any critique on the timeless, enthralling appearance of the supernatural in this �ilm, the portrayal of ghosts and proton streams remain entirely unchanged despite the obvious growth in Hollywood special effects since the 80s. The whimsical nature of the franchise, however, is lost to the focus on the dark mystery behind mythological demons. Humor is a burden carried by only a few comedic relief characters.

Though strongly dependent on nostalgia, Ghostbusters: Afterlife revives the fading legacy of the Ghostbusters franchise, restoring the movie’s place in Hollywood history.

As trends change with the decades, the original’s eccentric humor is regrettably replaced by today’s archetypal portrayal of teen crises and drama. Yet, answers to long-standing questions about the demons in the �irst Ghostbusters are presented, and the classic mythological apocalypse is brought to the big screen once more. Ghostbusters: Afterlife sets the stage for a new era of the franchise, and with its release, a new generation of fans are born.

Blach company staff build a career in construction

BY EMMA CONSTABLE

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o complete their projects like the new science wing, scheduled to be completed by July 2023, the Blach Construction team has become a familiar presence on campus. In previous years, the company’s employees have transformed the cafeteria, quad, gym lobby and the GSS from blueprints to physical amenities that students enjoy daily. Behind the dust and caution tape, the construction team followed unique paths to arrive at their current careers. Meet three of the people behind Lynbrook’s most recent architectural additions.

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ammi Williams grew up in Los Gatos, Calif. and has been a project manager at Blach Construction Company for a year and a half. As the middleman between the architect and the client, her daily responsibilities include managing project �inances, distributing tasks and documenting paperwork.

Initially interested in pursuing architecture, Williams decided against the career in high school.

“It’s not like what I thought it was going to be,” Williams said. “I wanted to design houses, but those jobs are a little harder to come by.”

She began her path into construction after discovering the construction management major at Cal Poly State University. Upon graduating, Williams became a project engineer before being promoted to project manager. Her favorite part of the job is being on-site and working closely alongside a team rather than in an of�ice simply watching construction happen.

For students interested in construction careers, Williams encourages them to pursue their passions and explore different positions this �ield has to offer.

“There’s a million ways to build a building,” Williams said. “If you like construction, there’s a lot of career options, whether it be on the construction �ield side or more on the of�ice management side.”

ith a family background in framing and drywall, superintendent Bill Lawrence was born into construction. He worked for his family’s company before it closed its doors 10 years ago, which led him to his current job.

“I’ve always had a passion to be the general contractor on site,” Lawrence said.

As superintendent of Blach Construction for the past four years, Lawrence has helped build the Lynbrook cafeteria, gym lobby, girls locker room and GSS building.

He reviews plans and documentation before putting jobs up for bid, and oversees the building side of active projects.

Raised in Modesto, Calif., Lawrence has close ties to the Lynbrook community. His mother and two cousins attended Lynbrook, and his aunt was in the �irst graduating class in 1968. His daughter plans to become a project manager like Williams after college, continuing the family’s legacy in the �ield.

Construction work presents a new challenge every day, re�lecting the beauty of the multistage process.

“I like to see the progression of starting from nothing to what it actually becomes,” Lawrence said.

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riginally from Fresno, Calif., Nick Wilcots has been a project engineer for two years. Besides assisting Williams with administrative tasks, he is in charge of requesting information about construction plans as well as photographing and documenting the process.

Wilcots grew up playing with Legos, which inspired his love for building.

“I knew I wanted to build things and be on site every day,” Wilcots said.

As a project engineer, he has ful�illed these dreams working in school districts across California. Wilcots has been involved in �ive major projects in his career, ranging from basketball courts to a diving pool complex.

His �irst project was at San Benito High School in Hollister, Calif., where Blach constructed a two-story Science and Robotics Lab to support the school’s course offerings. The company employed its innovative building solution, Folia, which is designed to increase longevity. Wilcots was able to look upon the �inished facility with pride after 11 months of hard work.

GRAPHIC ILLUSTRATIONS BY FEATURES SECTION

December 07, 2021

FEATURES

09

Student artists paint life into San Jose’s streets

BY CHELSEA LEE

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n daily drives and evening walks, local residents �ind art ranging from scenic snow-capped mountains to a giant book. Local student artists are the visionaries behind these pieces, thinking outside of the box to add color to our commutes by painting the most unexpected and often overlooked objects: power boxes.

Easily unnoticed due to their weatherworn olive color, power boxes mounted to sidewalks house equipment to control the electrical supply of nearby houses. For many artists, power boxes also hold the potential to beautify our cities. Decorated power boxes painted with multi-colored abstract shapes, delicate blooming �lowers and other subjects are scattered throughout the streets of Santa Clara County. Rainbow butter�lies are what some Lynbrook students see every day as they walk through the intersection between Bollinger Road and Johnson Avenue.

The City of San Jose and Hongyun Art studio host city-wide design contests open to children of all ages for the opportunity to unleash their imagination on local power boxes. Selected designs are painted through a collaborative effort between the winning designers and teams of Hongyun Art students with the goal of spreading positive messages on topics of sustainability, such as water conservation and green transportation. In the middle of a Cupertino plaza at the intersection between Stevens Creek Boulevard and Bandley Drive, there is a power box encouraging people to reduce their food waste.

“It gives people an idea that we’re a community that cares about our environment and that we p e r s o n a l ly can take a c t i o n ,” Hongyun Art cofounder

Tommy Suriwong said. “I’m hoping that’s the message that everybody’s seeing, especially for the kids when they walk around and see this fun image. I feel like that’s a good way to solidify it, especially in a young person.”

Members of Public Art Club have assisted similar power box design contests for the City of Saratoga in the past by priming the metal surfaces of power boxes, preparing them for designers and painters to bring their plans to life. One of the power boxes that Public Art Club members have primed now looks like a giant book, located by the Saratoga Library.

“Power box art de�initely brings more color literally and �iguratively to the community, and it’s nice to see art around,” former Public Art Club President Isabel Moh said. “The Bay Area is such a STEM-heavy location, [and] it’s just great to be reminded that art has a larger impact than you think.”

Local artist and senior Alyssa Meng also paints power boxes as an independent community project for the City of San Jose, separate from Hongyun Art. She was pleasantly surprised when she saw her work featured on the popular mobile game, Pokémon Go. In augmented reality, players of Pokémon Go go to speci�ic locations, or PokéStops, to catch Pokémon characters. Two PokéStops showcase the work she completed during the past summer. A power box at the intersection between South Tantau Avenue and Bollinger Road displays an

abstract world encompassing vivid mountains, �lowers and planets, while dainty red roses and butter�lies decorate a power box at the intersection between Bollinger Road and South Blaney Boulevard.

“I remember one time when I was working on this one utility box with a lot of pops of color, this woman came up to me and said, ‘I drive past this street every single day, but this new painting really brightened up my usual, everyday drive,’ and that really resonated with me,” said Meng. “I felt like I really wanted to do more.”

For Meng, this project started in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic as a productive activity to get her out of the house while giving back to the community, and she plans to complete three more by the end of summer 2022.

She also enjoys painting power boxes because it includes an unusual medium and acts as an outlet to relieve academic stress.

“I see art as something that de-

stresses me, that I can enjoy and that I don’t suck at,” Meng said. “School is something that is uncertain and sometimes you don’t know if you’re going to fail, whereas with art, I know I can create something beautiful no matter what.”

GRAPHIC ILLUSTRATION BY JASON SHAN

ELLIU HUANG//PURSUITS AND PASTIMES

Bagels, bananas and hot dogs

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alking past the Lynbrook tennis courts on a lazy Sunday afternoon may yield a strange sight. A kid laughs as he bounces around the court to hit the craziest shots. On the other end of the court, a man dances behind the baseline to strike the ball with precision and power.

Upon a closer look, the kid wears a blue headband for intimidation and a t-shirt that

reads, “Varsity Tennis Team. No snack no win. 0-6 0-6.” The man wears a red hat to keep the sun from his eyes and the standard team uniform — white shirt and blue shorts.

The kid holds a black and yellow racket with pink strings and a Hello Kitty dampener. The man grips the same racket but with black strings and a black circular dampener.

Shoes squeaking on the acrylic surface, the kid and the man battle in a practice match. The kid plays, a smile on his face as he tries every trick in the book without much regard for the outcome of the match. He �licks his wrist to curve the ball like a banana around the net post. He slices the ball to generate enough underspin for it to bounce back over the net. He charges back to hit the ball between his legs to produce a hot dog.

Meanwhile, the man dictates every point in search of ways to break through the impenetrable defense. Years of �lexibility and weight training enables him to slide on the concrete like an ice skating rink and strike the ball to produce RPGs (rocket-propelled groundstrokes). He �loats to the net with impeccable footwork to produce insane pickups to start the love game.

Even though the man easily bagels and breadsticks the kid (6-0, 6-1), the kid and the man are really one person.

Me. Six years ago, I watched on live TV as Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer locked horns at the 2015 U.S. Open. As Federer frequently de�ied the laws of physics, the commentators went into a frenzy.

“Call 911! Federer has just gotten out of jail with an astonishing pickup!” cheers tennis commentator Robbie Koenig as Federer lands an unreturnable half-volley.

On the other side, Djokovic smoothly glides across the court from 20 feet behind the baseline, defending everything Federer threw at him.

“You’ve got to be kidding me! HOW did he win that point from out of nowhere!” cries Koenig as Djokovic does the splits while �iring a backhand down-the-line passing shot.

As they played tennis near the Gods, the battle between these two greats of the sport epitomized the constant struggle within me, playing with either style or smile.

Sometimes, going for that banana forehand

or tweener has cost me key points in a match.

Yet at the same time, there’s more to the game than going for the highest percentage shots and ending the match in the safest way.

Producing these dazzling shots that light up the crowd is what fuels my desire to push my tennis prowess even further.

Looking back at the Lynbrook tennis courts, there is no difference between the kid and the man. The kid in me will go out of the way in every match to hit a tweener. He will fail miserably sometimes and hit more than just the tennis ball. The man in me will spend that extra hour in the weight room training to be a stronger player. He will pick up Djokovic’s �lexibility, Federer’s grace and Nadal’s grit.

Despite the fundamental difference in mindset, we both love the rush of adrenaline of hitting a down-the-line, no-look tweener and the fresh smell of victory, serving fresher bagels, breadsticks and hotdogs than the cafeteria. The kid may play to land crazy trickshots, and the man may play to dismantle opponents. But we both play to enjoy the masterpiece of the tennis game.

And they will always live in harmony.

A walk through our campus’s foliage and flowers Fortnight lily dietes iridioidesFortnight lilies have white �lowers with purple teardrop shapes inside. For this reason, one might think it is a plain white �lower until they look inside the bloom.

This beautiful �lower can be found next to the entrance to the music and art wing from the quad.

Garden geranium pelargonium x hybridum- Located in concrete plant pots in front of classrooms, these bright red �lowers with frilly, lily-pad-like leaves have caught the eyes of many students. Blooming almost year-round, they are considered annual plants in some places and evergreen in others.

Magnolia magnolia grandi�lora- Magnolia trees have large leaves that are a waxy, shiny dark green on top and a fuzzy golden-brown color on the underside.

The tree sprouts large fragrant white �lowers in the spring. Find this tree along the side of the boys’ locker room.

Aleppo pine pinus halepensisLining the outer edge of the parking lot, Aleppo pines originate from the Mediterranean and thrive in the dry California climate. Its shape differs from that of pine trees common in nearby forests; instead, its branch structure is more similar to deciduous trees.

Century plant agave americana- The century plant, located in the planter box in front of the library, is large and has patterned fronds. Common in deserts, this plant has thrived throughout droughts common in California.

Southern blue gum eucalyptus eucalyptus globulus- Eucalyptus trees have leaves that hang off of drooping branches. The leaves’ fragrance is strong, but one might not recognize the eucalyptus scent until they tear open a leaf.

Eucalyptus trees can be found in multiple planter boxes or next to the Chinese elm.

Chinese elm ulmus parvifolia- The most notable feature of the Chinese elm is its trunk. The gray bark of the tree is usually peeling away, exposing its tan underbark and creating a pattern similar to an animal.

Plants on campus can go unnoticed in the busy atmosphere of Lynbrook, but stopping to appreciate the foliage can offer a moment of calm and appreciation.

GRAPHIC ILLUSTRATION BY SAMYUKTA SARMA

IN-DEPTH

the Epic lhsepic.com

11

Gaming the rankings: Race to the top

BY MEI CORRICELLO AND MYLES KIM “Rankings became popular through marketing campaigns that cropped up in the 80s hyping rankings as authoritative, and high-ranking schools as more valuable,” Founder and CEO of Bluestars Admission Counseling Amy Morgenstern said.

U.S. News splits colleges into four categories: national universities, liberal arts colleges, regional universities and regional colleges. The latter two categories are further split into north, south, midwest and west. Alongside data from annual spring surveys sent to each school, college administrators also report their SAT score average, retention rate, graduation rate and more.

“It is very helpful to have rankings laid out for you that you know are chosen by well-known publications with extensive research,” senior Nishi Kaura said. “It’s more convenient than going and researching each college on your own, as these rankings are suitable for everybody and have made the college application process much easier for me.”

Forbes also publishes annual college rankings based on its own criteria, which rank the top 600 schools in the country.

Although long considered a reliable source, Forbes faced major backlash this year when it ranked UC Berkeley at No. 1, ahead of institutions such as Princeton and Stanford.

The reason for UC Berkeley’s sudden leap to the top was Forbes’s change in ranking methodology, as they integrated a new criteria of low-income student outcomes.

James Weichert, Academic Affairs Vice President of the Associated Students of UC, believes that the school’s diversity stems from new test-blind application policies, which aim to remove biases in the admissions process.

However, those policies stirred controversy, especially in the Bay Area, where many believe colleges should be ranked purely by academic prestige.

“I think it’s very important that all students, including low-income students, feel like they can thrive at a university,” Kaura said. “But, I don’t think those numbers should be considered above the actual academics and quality of education that a university offers. UC Berkeley is considered a public Ivy, but I don’t think it should be at the top just because of this low-income outcome criteria.”

When colleges are ranked higher, their number of applicants typically increases, which directly affects the amount of funding and tuition they collect.

For many students, these rankings play a substantial role in determining which schools they apply to.

“People really care about brand names and about rankings, and when a student might not be a top 10, top 20 or top 30 student, I tell them to not worry,” Morgenstern said. “I really wish students didn’t feel bad about themselves. So many highly successful adults went to schools we might not consider prestigious. Everyone has their own path.”

The average college graduate earns around $30,000 more than people with a high school degree each year. Considering the academic competition students face at Lynbrook, students also feel pressured to shoot for the most prestigious colleges — even though they may not be the best �it for them.

“Lynbrook culture encourages students to apply to as many schools as possible, and at the end of the day, they all end up being super prestigious schools,” senior Amy Zhou said.

In recent years, with college admissions becoming more competitive, several colleges have been caught gaming the ranking system by �inding creative ways to meet r a n k i n g criteria and even falsifying admissions data.

F o r example, beginning in 2005, Claremont McKenna Co lle ge , a small southern California liberal arts s c h o o l , in�lated each SAT score by 10 to 20 points when

reporting t h e m to the U.S. News.

While seemingly minor, such changes can boost a school by a few spots, which can in�luence applicants building their college lists and accepted students choosing a school to commit to. With a 10.3% acceptance rate, Claremont McKenna has always been regarded as an excellent college, but its fraudulent activity has propelled it to a prestigious No. 9 in the U.S. News liberal arts colleges ranking.

In 2012, George Washington University in Washington, D.C. was caught falsifying high school class ranks of incoming students, and Emory University in Atlanta, Ga. was caught misreporting high school GPAs of incoming students.

In 2008, Baylor University in Waco, Texas, offered students scholarships to retake standardized tests after they were accepted by the university in an effort to boost SAT and ACT scores on its report to U.S. News.

Another university that has repeatedly made headlines for their manipulation of the ranking system is Northeastern University, located in Boston, Mass. Richard Freeland, who became president of the school in 1996, devised a plan to boost the school from its then No. 162 spot into the top 100 national universities, even calling it a life-or-death matter for Northeastern. Northeastern now holds a rank of No. 49.

In order to reduce class size at Northeastern, he hired additional faculty and made sure most classes had 19 students, just under the 20 student maximum that U.S. News was looking for. In 2003, Northeastern started

allowing applicants to apply through the Common Application, driving application numbers up and acceptance rates down. Northeastern was also able to construct new dormitories, which have been proven to increase graduation and retention rates. Freeland and his colleagues even approached other schools’ presidents to in�luence Northeastern’s peer rankings.

In 2004, Freeland even met with Robert Morse, author of the U.S. News rankings, to protest the publication’s approach in grading Northeastern’s co-op program, where students spent the semester gaining career experience instead of taking classes. He won his point, and Northeastern eventually stopped including co-op students in its reports, which made school resources seem better allocated across less students.

“There’s no question that the system invites gaming,” Freeland said in an interview with Boston Magazine in 2014. “We made a systematic effort to in�luence the outcome.”

Recently, Northeastern admissions employees have also spent resources traveling to recruit as many applicants as possible, making the school appear even more selective.

While rankings are valuable, they are overemphasized. It is ultimately more important for students to �ind community, grow their passions and establish �inancial security later in life. Inaccurate college rankings hurt students above all.

GRAPHIC ILLUSTRATION BY SUSANNA TANG AND ANWEN HUANG

12

December 07, 2021

IN-DEPTH

Homekey: A key to a better future for homeless families

BY SRUTHI MEDAPALLI AND CATHERINE ZHOU

P

roject Homekey aims to combat the homelessness crisis in the Bay Area by converting commercial properties and existing buildings into housing for the homeless. While advertised as an effective and sustainable way to provide housing solutions for those in need, it has faced backlash from residents living near the proposed sites.

In 2019, the San Jose homeless count was 9,706, a 31% increase from 2017. As the COVID-19 pandemic forced residents home, homeless populations, of which chronically ill and elderly people constitute a large portion, were placed at disproportionate risk of contracting the virus due to a lack of access to vaccination clinics and decreased economic

opportunities due to their lack of housing.

The �irst round of Project Homekey was initiated by the Newsom administration in July 2020 and targeted the crisis by using $600 million to diversify housing options for homeless people at risk for COVID-19 and further protect Californians experiencing or at risk of homelessness. A new budget released in January 2021 set aside $1.4 billion in grant funding to public entities to build and convert public arenas such as hotels and motels into housing for the homeless.

To establish a Project Homekey site, an application must be submitted by a state, regional or local public entity or corporations partnering with a public entity. Locations are proposed based on the facility’s existing features and whether the owner is willing to sell their property. After the applicants receive funds, they can purchase and turn the proposed site into permanent or interim housing. While Homekey covers up to 24 months of operating expenses, projects eventually need to secure long-term sources of funding.

Potential tenants apply through the county of�ice before undergoing a thorough screening process. Tenants are accepted based on their scores on a vulnerability index, preferential to those with disabilities and therefore more in need of safe housing. Accepted tenants will pay rent that does not exceed 30% of their monthly income, and tenants who are unable to pay can apply for rent subsidization programs.

Once accepted, a tenant has access to a multitude of facilities within the site, including a stovetop, on-site meal services and a bed. A typical Homekey location has around 120 units, each housing one or two residents. Given that permanent housing still requires payment, tenants often leave and return from Homekey sites as they go about their work day, similar to an apartment.

“There’s a full mental health staff, there’s food, they give rides and bus tokens — there’s a lot of resources here,” resident Yvette Valles said.

Currently, Santa Clara County is home to four sites under Project Homekey: Hillview Apartments, Best Western SureStay Hotel, Casa de Novo and LifeMoves Mountain View. On Nov. 2, two more sites were approved: the Crestview in Mountain View and the Bella Vista Inn in Santa Clara. $33 million in Homekey funding will be used to buy and turn these hotels into permanent supportive housing sites.

Combined, the two projects will provide 200 units of affordable housing to those in need.

Despite the positive results of

the project, news of the proposals sparked a heated debate between residents and local advocates in the area. Many support the project out of the moral obligation to help and cite the need for affordable housing among the skyrocketing rent and housing prices in Santa Clara.

“I’m de�initely supportive of it because we need to do something — we can’t just have them stay in the streets without assistance,” English teacher Andrew Seike said.

However, hundreds of residents have expressed opposition. Letters sent to the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors claim insuf�icient correspondence about Homekey plans. In addition, since the sites are located only 0.9 miles apart in densely populated residential areas, some are concerned that the hotels will attract crime and sink property values, using a murder at Hillview Apartments as an example. Tenants at the site have also expressed concerns about safety.

“Compared to being on the streets or in a hospital, being here is okay,” Hillview Court resident Kanani Tejero said. “But there’s a lot of people here that I don’t agree with being here, in regards to safety reasons.”

Petitions opposing the projects have also garnered more than 2,500 signatures each. Despite government approval for both projects, residents remain opposed to construction of affordable housing. In response to the public outcry, supervisor Otto Lee promises more community involvement in the process. To address concerns of surrounding families, there will be multiple public meetings before any large project is approved. Additionally, Homekey sites will be monitored by security companies and on-site of�icers.

Given that Homekey can only provide up to two years of funding for renovation, �inancial issues remain. Santa Clara County supervisors made the �irst commitment toward this challenge by dedicating $25 million to Project Homekey sites.

In addition, the county has submitted dozens of proposals to the state to build 800 housing units over the next nine months.

Due to its success in California, Project Homekey has become a national model for housing the homeless. In the federal stimulus bill approved in March 2021.

Congress allocated $5 billion for states to create new affordable housing, such as hotel and motel conversions.

While Project Homekey’s solution to the homelessness crisis continues to draw opposition, the project has set a precdent for a new method of creating sustainable housing opportunities. For those experiencing homelessness, it is a key source of hope for a brighter future.

GRAPHIC ILLUSTRATION BY ANWEN HUANG

BY TIMOTHY KIM AND ANIRUDH SESHADRI

S

upply chain shortages and increasing in�lation from the COVID-19 pandemic have hindered the exportation of different items, ranging from fruit syrups to computer chips, to the Bay Area and across the world.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, supply chains across the globe have suffered major disruptions due to nationwide lockdowns and restrictions imposed on factories and production facilities. Although millions of white-collar workers have been able to work from home, many factories and their blue-collar workers have not been able to do the same.

Factories require many workers, but employees often are unable to follow COVID-19 safety precautions because the nature of their employment involves operating equipment in close proximity to others. With many taking leave for personal issues, the exportation of raw materials and �inished products has been hindered, leading to delays in production. In addition, many workers are also quitting their jobs, citing dangerous and unfair conditions at work, low wages and overwork. And although worker shortages have always been prevalent in factories, the devastating effects of COVID-19 have resulted in as many as 1.4 million open positions.

The drastic reduction of supply has affected the purchase of everyday items, both in-person and online, as businesses and shoppers experience delays in shipping due to a lack of movement in docks and storage facilities.

For instance, the Long Beach-Los Angeles port complex, which receives 40% of all shipments from Asian factories nationwide, has been obstructed with thousands of

containers loaded onto ships waiting in docks. Receivers and workers shortage is worse than ever before, causing substantial delays as customers splurged during the holiday season.

“Recently, I bought a couple of sweatshirts online that didn’t arrive until three weeks after the initial estimated delivery date,” junior Kevin Davies said. “My guess is that there are a lot of delays because we’re coming close to the holiday season, and everyone is buying presents online. Most manufacturers are in different countries with different COVID-19 regulations, which probably causes delays in shipping products from there to here.”

Production of new vehicles and cars has also been halted due to a shortage of microchips, a necessary component of vehicle navigation systems. Caused by the pandemic’s closure of computer chip factories, this shortage has started March 2020 and has persisted ever since. When paired with the sharp increase in demand for technology since the start of the pandemic, it has caused signi�icant problems for car dealers.

“There are no more car sales events or promotions in the U.S. these days, and you can’t see a car or test drive in-person — you have to sign a contract only by looking at pictures,” said Hongjoon Yoon, employee of multinational semiconductor contract manufacturing and design company GlobalFoundries. “Vehicles require a lot of semiconductor chips as building components, but the quantity that can be produced cannot keep up with demand due to a lack of semiconductors. In the early days of the pandemic, there was a shortage of production manpower itself, and over time, it affected the supply chain, so there are double hardships.”

S u p p l y c h a i n problems have also resulted in in�lation of food, vehicle, gas and shelter prices. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, prices in 2021 increased by 6.2%, a percentage that had not been reached since 1982, with October 2021 alone tallying a hefty 0.9% price increase.

Furthermore, several shipping companies have raised prices because of limited cargo space on ships. Most U.S. imports arrive from overseas in containers, and the lack of cargo space has rendered imported goods too expensive for some local retailers. Many local businesses have had to �ind new solutions to address product shortages they wanted. For example, Go Fish Poke Bar stopped serving yellowtail and replaced it with a new item called the seared salmon mix.

“We used to provide yellowtail, but now it’s a little bit more expensive, so our company does not want to buy it anymore,” Go Fish Poke Bar back of house employee Ryan Ehara said. “This has de�initely affected us negatively.”

Another nearby boba business, Mr. Sun Tea, has also been affected due to cargo space limits and the pandemic. Ingredients are scarce because of the shipping constraints since the ingredients come from Taiwan, Vietnam and China, regions majorly affected

by COVID-19.

“We make handmade boba so we get the powder from Taiwan, which gives us an advantage,” Mr. Sun Tea business partner Justin Chen said. “Most people get premanufactured boba, and they’re all �ighting

for t h a t .

Luckily, we just get the ingredients, and then we can make boba here in the United States.”

Supply chain and in�lation issues resultant of the pandemic can potentially have dramatic effects on the business industry and economy if left unchecked.

Thus, many businesses are starting to explore different work environments and large changes in standard processes to combat these issues.

GRAPHIC ILLUSTRATION BY RIA PHELAN

Supply chain shortages slow deliveries and production

December 07, 2021

IN-DEPTH

13

New math guidelines bring integrated courses, not integrals

BY ELIZABETH CHENG AND NICOLE GE

I

n February 2021, the Instructional Quality Commission, the advisory body to the Calif. Board of Education, released new guidelines for mathematical education. If approved in July 2022, the guidelines may drastically alter the subject’s framework by offering alternative courses to calculus and integrating middle school math classes.

The IQC hopes that the new guidelines will create an inclusive and equitable environment for mathematical education.

However, the proposal received severe backlash from parents and community members who felt it would hinder high achievers and prevent students from meeting calculus prerequisites for STEM majors.

The new guidelines promote integrated math — a type of mathematics education that covers multiple topics in one course — for middle schoolers to help students see the connections between mathematical topics.

It also intends to create a more equitable environment by requiring all middle students to take all middle students to take the same math

GRAPHIC ILLUSTRATION BY TIMOTHY KIM

curriculum, so students will no longer be placed into classes varying in dif�iculty based on a diagnostic test taken in �ifth grade.

Some community members feel that such changes, also known as de-tracking — as students will no longer be separated into different tracks — will hold back highachieving students who are ready for more challenging material. They also argue that already struggling students will lag further behind in class that do not suit their level.

“The current form of tracked courses is already sort of a mix of integrated and nonintegrated courses because you are taught based on what skill level you are, while also keeping students with others in their grade level,” sophomore Anish Lakkapragada said.

“I think it is a pretty good model because it doesn’t make students feel bad about themselves without diluting rigor.”

While supporters say that de-tracking will lead to more students taking advanced math classes in the future, opponents say tracking may be the only way to overcome requirements for STEM majors: calculus.

The IQC hopes to prevent students from rushing to ful�iill calculus prerequisites by offering data science, which could be of equal weight on certain college applications.

In fact, some colleges, including those in the UC system, have already changed their requirements to allow data

science courses as the required third year of mathematics.

The IQC argues data science practices 21st century skills, contrasting traditional math lessons that have been criticized as methodical and irrelevant to real life.

“Whether it’s asking students to collect their own data, create their own mathematical models or come up with their own questions, it’s just giving them an experience that might be new,” FUHSD Math Curriculum Lead Jessica Uy said. “It’s not like one is better than the other — it’s just a different approach.”

In the Framework Second Field Review, the IQC states that “the push to enroll more students in high-school calculus often leads to shortchanging important content that does not lead directly to success in the advanced placement calculus syllabus, which is signi�icantly procedural.” The commission hopes that this new guideline will encourage students to not rush into calculus.

Due to the increasing relevance of social justice, guidelines suggest teachers educate students about social justice and equity issues through math problems. Word problems will be examined and recreated if they contain gender or racial stereotypes. Ultimately, these efforts aim to teach students to apply similar investigations in the real world and learn to question societal norms, which is also what the IQC hopes students will gain from data science.

In addition, the IQC wants to make a mathematical education more equitable, a goal that FUHSD is already working toward.

“We’ve really been focusing on professional development to create equitable learning for students,” FUHSD Coordinator of Curriculum & Teacher Leadership Welton Kwong said. “We certainly invested a lot of time, effort and resources into professional development so that students can experience math in various ways and productively struggle through math tasks. We think about equity that way: How teachers can support students to learn moves, strategies and practices so that students can access and experience math in multiple ways.”

The �irst 60-day public commentary period for these guidelines has sparked backlash from community members who believe the current system should not be changed, but proponents of the change say it will bene�it students who normally would not have excelled at math. The second 60day public commentary period is scheduled for next spring, and the California Board of Education will be able to approve the guidelines as early as summer of 2022.

If approved, the new framework will not become a mandate at FUHSD but will act as guidelines that the district can choose to follow.

14

SPORTS

the Epic lhsepic.com

stanford recruits fencer crystal qian and golfer anton ouyang

BY ANUSHKA ANAND AND NEHA AYER

S

F

enior Crystal Qian started fencing at the age of 8. After years of hard work and ambition, she committed to Stanford after being recruited for her internationally recognized achievements.

At 9 years old, Qian competed in her �irst regional competitions, in which she accumulated a collection of silver medals but consistently struggled to win gold. When she was 10, she competed in her �irst Summer National Championships and placed in the top 16 for her age group.

At 12 years old, Qian medaled for the �irst time at a national level. Two years later, in her �inal year of Y14, Qian demonstrated a marked improvement from her previous performances, winning silver and bronze at two North American Cups. In the �inal competition of that season, the 2019 Summer National Championships, she capped off her youth career by winning her �irst national championship.

These successes solidi�ied her desire to fence at the international a n d collegiate levels.

“I think my �inal year of Y14 was one of my strongest years in terms of national results because I won the entire medal set,” Qian said. “I think that year really encouraged me to entering the recruiting pool for collegiate fencing.”

After concluding her youth career, Qian earned a spot on the Cadet National Team, which comprises of the top 20 fencers in the country, and started competing internationally. In the 2019-20 season, she traveled with Team USA to compete at World Cups in England, Austria, France and Italy. She won her �irst international medal in France, placing 6th individually and winning silver in the team event. Through these international competitions, Qian earned international points that eventually elevated her national ranking to No. 1 in her age group.

“Some of my greatest fencing memories are from my �irst year of competing internationally,” Qian said. “I became really close with the people on the team, and it was really cool because we were all from different parts of the country.”

In April 2021, Qian was selected for the Cadet World Team, an honor conferred upon the top three fencers in the nation, to compete at the World Championships in Egypt. Although her experience at the World Championships was unconventional because of COVID-19, she was grateful for the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

“Making the World Team was a dream I had since I was a little girl, so that was a really exciting moment of my fencing journey,” Qian said.

Qian looks forward to enjoying a regular competition season again, traveling upward of once a month for various national and international competitions. Every month takes Qian to a different state, and she has made many out-of-state friends over her years of traveling and competing.

As Qian transitions into collegiate fencing, she is extremely grateful for the relationships and life lessons that she has gained through the sport.

“I’m really excited to experience a different dynamic of fencing that places more emphasis on fun and community,” Qian said. “The structure of NCAA fencing will allow me the opportunity to, for the �irst time, work as part of a team in an otherwise individual sport.”

ollowing a long recruitment process, senior Anton Ouyang committed to Stanford Golf.

Ouyang’s golf journey started at the age of 1 when his father taught him how to hold a golf club. He played his �irst junior golf tournament at Santa Teresa Golf Club when he was only 5 years old; watching the winners hold their trophies at the end of the day, he was motivated more than ever to improve.

“I still look back at this moment as the �irst time I realized how much passion I had to compete and how addicted I was to getting better,” Ouyang said.

When Ouyang started playing competitively, he learned about the importance of creativity when overcoming challenges. He developed diligence and determination when he �irst set deadlines for himself while practicing, promising that he would not leave the course until he made a certain shot — something that often took more than four hours. One of his favorite golf memories is from a family vacation he took at the Bandon Dunes Golf Resort. While his family was busy taking pictures of the beautiful ocean view, Ouyang was concentrating on breaking his record of scoring less than 80 points on the golf course.

At 9 years old, he made the Professional Golfers’ Association Junior League All-Star team and played his way into the Regionals tournament. Two years later, he competed at the PGA Junior League National Championship, which also marked his �irst time appearing on television.

Ouyang’s greatest win came at the age of 12, when he won the 2017 IMG Junior World Championship, which featured 150 of the best junior golfers in the world.

“Winning the IMG Junior World Championship gave me the con�idence I needed to realize that I could really do it,” Ouyang said. “That summer in 2017, I won my next �ive tournaments, highlighting one of my best seasons ever.”

Ouyang decided to take a huge risk at the end of 2018, revamping his swing completely in hopes of becoming a better player. Although the changes were dif�icult to get used to, results began to surface when he won the Central Coast Section Individual Championship in 2019 as a freshman.

Ouyang quali�ied for the 108th California Amateur as the youngest player in the �ield at 14 years old, and he later earned a place on the American Junior Golf Association Junior All-Star Team as a top 10 junior golfer in the nation.

In 2021, Ouyang built on his momentum to achieve a career-best No. 8 national rank.

He also quali�ied for the 73rd U.S. Junior Amateur as a co-medalist at Stanford Golf Course, representing Northern California in the most prestigious junior golf tournament.

Ouyang’s most ambitious goal is entering the U.S. PGA, but there are many stages to qualifying.

“I feel like I owe it to myself to try and make it to PGA because I have been trying to get to that level ever since I started to play golf,” Ouyang said.

Ouyang is excited to be part of a team in college, especially because golf is typically an individual sport.

“Golf is not only an individual sport but also a lonely one,” Ouyang said. “Having someone to practice with and having people that motivate you is exciting. You are playing for something more than yourself.”

GRAPHIC ILLUSTRATION BY SHARLENE CHEN AND SPORTS SECTION

SPORTS

December 07, 2021

15

Cheer team takes over basketball court sidelines

BY DEEKSHA RAJ

A

s the football season came to an end, the cheer team said goodbye to the football �ield and hello to the basketball courts, transitioning to cheering for the boys basketball teams for the winter sports season. The team is expanding its contagious energy and passion for school spirit to basketball.

The cheer team held their senior night and cheered for the varsity football team during the last home game of the season on Oct. 29.

Throughout her four years on the team, senior and varsity cheer captain Ayaho Sakurai describes cheering for the football team as a thrilling and unforgettable experience.

“I cheered for basketball my freshman and sophomore year and remember it being very fun,” Sakuri said. “I was captain my sophomore year, and it was a rewarding experience.”

When it comes to basketball, the cheer team has cheered for both the boys and girls varsity teams in the past, but they currently only cheer for boys basketball.

The cheer team cites a signi�icant difference between their experience

GRAPHIC ILLUSTRATION BY ANUSHKA ANAND

cheering for each of the two sports. In contrast to the more intricate cheers performed during the football season, the team practices a different type of cheer, sideline cheering, for the basketball season. Some of the new cheers for basketball include imitating a basketball shot that goes into the net and stomping.

The largest difference between cheering for the two sports is the audience: On the football �ield, they cheer facing a large and loud audience, while on the basketball court, they face the team from the sideline.

“Cheering for football is more stressful than [cheering for] basketball because of the larger audience,” Sakurai said. “For basketball we are just in the corner cheering.”

Furthermore, the cheer team will be wearing a different uniform for the basketball season. The football season requires warm clothing to perform outdoors in the cold night air. On the other hand, for the basketball season, the cheer team cheers inside the heated gym, so they wear lighter uniforms with less coverage. The �it of each cheerleader’s uniform is important in order to be �lexible enough to perform stunts while wearing their uniform during games. To ensure their uniforms �it comfortably, the cheer team prepares them beforehand.

To raise money for the basketball season, the cheer team organized The team also partakes in other activities a fundraiser to support their program at MOD Pizza on together, such as decorating a Christmas Nov. 11. They made �lyers, tree at the Christmas in the Park event in promoted the event on social downtown San Jose. This year, the cheer media and invited friends team got together on Nov. 19 to decorate and family to enjoy pizza their Christmas tree. They decorated their together. The fundraiser tree with a red, white and navy color scheme was a success, and they to represent Lynbrook, as well as hung ultimately reached their ornaments with their names written on fundraising goal of $150. The them.

After three months of cheering for the total amount they raised was $182.52. Due to the successful football team, the cheer team is excited for turnout of the fundraiser, the cheer team the new challenge of cheering for basketball.

“I love cheering, so I am excited we can has planned another fundraiser that is set to take place on Dec. 11 at Chipotle. They are continue for the boys basketball team,” Sakurai said. aiming to raise the same goal of $150.

The cheer team will begin its of�icial basketball cheer season in early January 2022. This year, they will be focusing more on boys basketball. As the season begins, the cheer team is excited to perform newly established wroutines and stunts for the audience and motivate players throughout their games and most importantly to hype up the fans supporting Lynbrook.

“Cheering makes the crowd more hype, and the football players have said to me it’s really nice to have cheerleaders because they feel more supported and motivated to do well,” sophomore Ayanna Beberg said. “It’s important to be supportive of our school’s sports teams.”

16

December 07, 2021

SPORTS

Faithful in red and gold: 75 years of 49ers history winning four Super Bowls and three Super Bowl MVP awards. As the other half of the he San Francisco 49ers have weathered legendary quarterback-wide receiver duo, a tumultuous season following a string Rice shattered countless receiving records of injuries and a progression of ever- that still stand unparalleled today.

Lefty quarterback Steve Young, known for inactive rookies. In spite of their recent hitches, their 2021 season coincides with his uncanny scrambling ability, headed the the decorated franchise’s 75th anniversary team following Montana’s departure. With Young at the helm in 1994, the 49ers dusted — one that boasts �ive Lombardi Trophies.

Founded in 1946 by Tony Morabito, the the San Diego Chargers 49-26 in Super Bowl 49ers were the �irst NFL team based on XXIX, becoming the �irst team to win �ive the West Coast. As charter members of the Super Bowls — the ultimate measuring All-America Football Conference, the 49ers stick of success in the NFL. The 2000s were a patchy period for the consistently �inished second in the AAFC next to the Cleveland Browns and were granted 49ers due to front of�ice struggles, evinced admission into the NFL in 1950. In the next by the �iring of numerous administrators decade, they boasted a plethora of individual and head coaches. Following any last gasps of stars including quarterbacks Frankie Albert, glory under quarterback Jeff Garcia and head Y. A. Tittle and John Brodie; running backs coach Steve Mariucci, the 49ers experienced Hugh McElhenny and Joe Perry; tackle Bob some of the roughest years in team history in the Mike Nolan St. Clair; and defensive and Mike Singletary tackle Leo Nomellini. eras.

In 1957, Morabito “The 2000s were collapsed from a fatal “I believe that the future is awful,” Baugh said. heart attack during a bright with Trey Lance, and “You always wanted home game against once he starts playing, he to blame somebody, the Chicago Bears. will prove that he is worth and there was a In memory of their more than just two firstlot of wasted time departed owner, the round picks.” just as a fan. But 49ers rallied back from a it’s really exciting 10-point halftime de�icit Alex Jeong, to follow them to “win for Tony.” The Senior through the highs season was also home and lows.” to Tittle’s famous “Alley2011 saw Oop” touchdown pass to wide receiver R.C. Owens, and the 49ers a compelling, albeit brief resurgence in gained enough momentum to eventually tie the Jim Harbaugh era, remembered for a the Detroit Lions for the Western Division stalwart defense, a heated rivalry with the crown. Although the season marked the Seattle Seahawks and the emergence of closest the 49ers had come to a league Nevada standout Colin Kaepernick. In his championship, their success was short-lived: �irst season, Harbaugh led the 49ers to a The 49ers immediately experienced a 12- stunning 13-3 record and their �irst playoff berth since 2002, generating widespread year playoff drought.

The 49ers �lirted with success in the surprise throughout the league. Noted for early 1970s by capturing three consecutive his vocal coaching style, Harbaugh strung NFC West Division titles. However, in all together a talent-laden team to record three seasons, they suffered crushing three consecutive NFC Championship playoff defeats — including two in the appearances and one Super Bowl NFC Championship Game — to the Dallas appearance.

After Harbaugh’s departure, the Cowboys.

A new era dawned for the 49ers in the 49ers tumbled back into mediocrity, late 1970s, when Edward DeBartolo Jr. and new head coaches Jim Tomsula gained ownership of the team and hired head and Chip Kelly were �ired after coach Bill Walsh, now a legendary �igure in just one season when the 49ers history. Initially, many traditionalists 49ers �inished 5-11 and 2-14, rebuffed his radical offensive schemes that respectively.

In 2019, the young hotemphasized passing routes in lieu of running plays, but Walsh revolutionized the game of shot Kyle Shanahan �leetingly football by demonstrating the reliability of a breathed life into the 49ers with a short, well-timed passing game. By coupling Super Bowl run, but since then, the his “West Coast Offense” with excellent draft injury-riddled team had seemingly selections in perennial Pro Bowl players Joe spiraled down from their Super Bowl Montana, Ronnie Lott and Jerry Rice, Walsh hangover. On the periphery of this reinvented a fallen franchise into a dominant year’s playoff chase, the 49ers’ recent uncertainties have silver linings: A dynasty.

“The Joe Montana days in the 1980s are lineup of young talent — including my favorite era,” math teacher and long-time Trey Lance, acquired for two future 49ers fan Chris Baugh said. “Montana was �irst-round draft picks — are hungry just so dominant and cool under pressure. to elevate the 49ers into league contenders and hoist the elusive The team was really exciting to watch.”

In the 1981 NFC Championship Game sixth Lombardi Trophy in Santa against the Cowboys, wide receiver Dwight Clara.

“The 49ers being in the Clark snared a leaping catch in the back corner of the end zone en route to the 49ers’ playoff picture even with many �irst Super Bowl — a legendary play that injuries shows that they can entered NFL lore as “The Catch.” Against win with a strong run game the Cincinnati Bengals, the 49ers won their and a dominant front �irst Super Bowl 26-21 behind kicker Ray seven,” senior Alex Jeong Wersching’s four �ield goals and Montana’s said. “I believe that the Super Bowl MVP performance. From there, future is bright with the 49ers posted a franchise-high 15-1 Trey Lance, and once regular season record and won two more he starts playing, he Super Bowls to cement their domination of will prove that he is worth more the 1980s.

Walsh’s handpicked successor George than just two Seifert continued to take advantage of the �irst-round team’s existing talent. The 1989 49ers were picks.” regarded as one of the most dominant teams ever as they won all three playoff games by a combined 100 points. Steamrolling the Denver Broncos 55-10 in Super Bowl XXIV, the 49ers became the only team to win backto-back Super Bowls under different head coaches.

During their 1980s golden age, the 49ers were dotted with superstars: Montana was in a class of GRAPHIC ILLUSTRATION BY CRYSTAL QIAN AND EMMA CONSTABLE his own,

BY CRYSTAL QIAN

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