The Mark January 2015 Vol. V Issue III

the MARK

Menlo-Atherton

staff

Editors-in-Chief

Gabe Cohen, Francesca gilles, and sara solomon

Copy Editor

katie webb

news editor

ian robinson-lambert op-ed editor

molly kearnan

sports editor

art editor

Nina fox

sami andrew features editor

sofia bergmann

a&e editor

sabina vitale

staff writers

Caraline albro ryan cole

kristin cwirla

sarah dairiki

tara fahimi

eliza fitz

kate flanagan

katie moffitt

theresa siri

joanna vollrath

Katrina Wijaya

adviser: Betsy Snow

letter from the editors

At the dawn of a new year, we welcome the student body back for another semester of, well, the usual. Teachers are the same, students are the same, and classes are, for the most part, the same. To break from the norm, we are proud to bring to you our very first feature issue, starring you, the community of M-A. Through this issue, we hope to highlight the many accomplishments of our students, teachers, administrators, and alumni, many of whom have remained under the radar -- until now.

At The Mark, we believe that we are a dynamic publication, one that does its best to take into account all facets of life at M-A. We have taken on quite a challenge in our attempt to represent all of M-A through a few profiles, so please, bear with us on this grand experiment. In turn, we have chosen to omit the usual page markers, save page numbers, to give the magazine a more cohesive, all-inclusive feel. You see, we do not believe that students can be filtered into categories based on interest or participation in school-sanctioned activities. We believe that M-A is a community that survives only because of the people in it. The diversity that makes us strong comes from you, the student body, and we hope that we have encapsulated at least some of this diversity through our profiles. So please, absorb the community of people around you. Peruse this magazine and see others from a different perspective. Learn something that you could not see in a classroom. We promise, you’ll be glad you did.

Enjoy!

Gabe, Francesca, and Sara

about the cover

Olivia Tai’s submission, “Individuality,” depicts an array of differing faces that symbolically represent what we hope to showcase in our features issue. Tai comments that she “wanted to create a collage of dynamic and unique personalities to represent the lovely population here at M-A.”

nous sommes charlie editorial

“L’amour: Plus fort que la haine.”

Love: Stronger than hate. As was demonstrated when the people of France took to the streets to peacefully protest the devastating attack on the staff of the French satirical newspaper, Charlie Hebdo, that took place on Wednesday, Jan. 7. An entire nation, united under one cause, thrusting their pens into the air to demonstrate to the world their dedication to protect one of their most fundamental rights: freedom of speech. A right so fundamental that we tend to take it for granted, that we forget that people all over the world are being prosecuted for what we can do without batting an eye. And so The Mark expresses its deepest condolences for the victims at Charlie Hebdo who faced the ultimate punishment for being braver than most publications could ever aspire to be.

Since the attack, some reputable journalists have accused Charlie Hebdo of going too far -- of purposefully pushing people by ridiculing their religions and their cultures. But is that not the nature of satire? Is it not the duty of satirists to bring to light the issues

that most would never dare mention? Shouldn’t the general public be able to recognize the difference between comedy and genuine insults? Surely a comedian should not have to purchase a bulletproof vest when they choose their profession.

Despite the loss of 10 of its staff members, Charlie Hebdo released its Jan. 14 issue with the cover depicting a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad, shedding a tear and holding a “Je suis Charlie” sign, below the words “All is forgiven.” The satirical magazine, as a further demonstration of defiance, will print three million copies of this issue, instead of the usual 60,000. And so Charlie Hebdo, along with the four million protesters, has chosen to stand up for its country and its fundamental rights, to unite under one name to exhibit its refusal to give in to violent threats.

As we move on from this tragedy, we must keep Charlie Hebdo’s famous phrase, “L’amour: Plus fort que la haine,” with us as we remember that violence is not a religion. A group of Islamic extremists by no means represents the

entirety of the Islamic community, a community that emphasizes peace and compassion. And so we must not make the mistake that we have made time and time again, as seen in the repercussions following 9/11, in which we turn our hate and outrage against the entire, majorly innocent Muslim population, whom have joined the protests in the streets of France and other countries to support the cause. We should instead concentrate our emotions on continuing to protect humans’ basic rights and to try to prevent further disasters. If there is to be disgust and disdain following this event, then focus on the extremists, not the religion of Islam itself. French Muslims should not be forced to feel so fearful of their own neighbors that they have to rely on the hashtag, #voyageravecmoi, a system that provides Muslims with protective transport, to get home safely.

And so the question remains: “What now?” Hopefully, we will carry on with more appreciation for our right to freedom of expression, and perhaps with a little more determination to protect it.

by the Editorial Board

Illustration Rebecca Schena

Erica Hayes

The story of a former M-A student and athlete turning her dreams into a reality

From being the first in her family to receive a college degree to becoming a professional basketball player, Erica Hayes maintained a high academic record while pursuing her passion for sports at a young age.

Hayes grew up in East Palo Alto, where she started playing basketball in first grade and joined her first team in fifth grade. She attended Menlo-Atherton, where she graduated in 2008. During her time spent at M-A, Hayes played basketball all four years, and earned the title of all-PAL Most Valuable Player during her senior year.

“To know I was honored with those titles makes me feel like I can achieve anything I set my mind to. I know it sounds cliché, but it is so true,” claims Hayes of her success.

However, earning these titles came at a price. Hayes struggled with time management and to maintain a good GPA throughout high school; luckily, she found a support system through her peers and her teachers. “What worked for me was getting extra help from my teachers as well as my teammates,” Hayes admits. Through her hard work, Hayes was able to make the M-A Honor Roll during her senior year.

Hayes began her M-A basketball career on the frosh-soph team during her freshman year, but was bumped up to varsity during her sophomore year after she proved her talent. Pamela Wimberly, Hayes’s basketball coach for the three years she was on varsity, took notice of her and saw an opportunity. “When Erica tried out for the basketball team, I knew we had a special player,” says Wimberly of Hayes’ skill.

Hayes loved playing for M-A’s team, and goes so far as to call it “more like a family than a team.” She remembers feeling how there was “so much pride in stepping out on the court, getting ready to battle to represent M-A.”

After graduating from high school, Hayes continued playing basketball in college. She attended Dixie State University in St. George, Utah, choosing the school because of the location, and commenting that it was “close enough and far enough from home,” along with the fact that she loved the “family unity from the team and how much the coach would go out of her way to make sure all [Hayes’s] needs were met.” Now as a professional basketball player, Hayes’s dreams continue to

expand. “Becoming a professional basketball player has always been one of my dreams as a kid. I would always challenge my neighborhood friends to play against me and get such a rush when I beat them. That feeling has always motivated me to continue playing basketball,” says Hayes.

Upon her induction into M-A’s Athletic Hall of Fame in November, Hayes felt incredibly honored. “When I found out I was being inducted I had one of those “is this really happening?” moments. It really had not hit me until I was actually at the ceremony,” remembers Hayes. “At the moment, I felt a huge sense of accomplishment.”

Even though Hayes is currently not playing basketball for any team, she is working with sexually exploited girls to reclaim their lives, education, family, and youth in the Bay Area. “I wanted to focus on and start my career. I love the game of basketball and it has taken me to some amazing places; however, being that I have placed since the fifth grade nonstop, I have got to the point where I was burnt out,” said Hayes. However, even though she might have put her basketball career on pause, it’s still at the center of her life: “Basketball is my heart and soul.”

by Sarah Dairiki

Photography Betsy Snow

Bob Melvin

by Ryan Cole

Former M-A student and current Oakland Athletics Manager sits down with The Mark

Overshadowed by the recent success of the San Francisco Giants, the Oakland Athletics have improved steadily over the past few seasons under manager and Menlo-Atherton alumnus Bob Melvin. Melvin, who attended M-A between 1975 and 1979, and played both baseball and basketball, reflected fondly on his time at the school in an exclusive interview with The Mark

“Obviously it was sports oriented, but starting with Frank Bettencourt who was my baseball coach, it had a big impact on my life. I still take a lot of [Bettencourt’s] principles and philosophies with me right now,” he said. “And then obviously I loved the high school basketball days, you know, packed gym. We had really good teams, so that was a lot of fun.”

Although basketball was his favorite sport in high school, Melvin always felt drawn to baseball as well. In the spring of his freshman year, he

remembers legendary M-A coach Robert Ayers trying to convince him to run track. Melvin, however, could not focus because of the track’s proximity to the baseball field.

“I guess some of the baseball guys were out on the diamond and I was a little distracted. Because of baseball it was kind of a tall order to get me to do track.”

From high school through the Major Leagues, Melvin played catcher, just like the Giants’ Bruce Bochy and many other professional managers. He credits much of his success as a manager to playing that position throughout his time at M-A and University of California, Berkeley, and in the MLB.

“Being a catcher forces you to watch the game like your manager does because you’re in constant contact with him, whether you’re on the field and getting signs from him, or talking to him off the field,” he said. “In that position you’re really forced to think like a man-

ager does and I think that’s why you see so many catchers as big league managers.”

Melvin sees no reason that the A’s success won’t continue next season.

“We feel like another quality team, similar to the type of teams we’ve had the last three years here that have been in the playoffs and won two division crowns. We’re confident we can still have success again next year.”

Drawing on his own experience of continuing to pursue sports beyond high school, Melvin offered some advice for M-A athletes.

“Well obviously it’s a huge jump from high school to college, not only academically but athletically. [But] once you realize you can play with that type of competition, you start to flourish even more so,” he said. “Believe in yourself, more than anything that. Sometimes it’s a little daunting and intimidating, but it all starts with the belief that you have in yourself.”

environment in GSA was “very appealing, because [M-A] is so freaking huge.” Laughing, Hafter-Manza jokes that in all, she’s only missed four meetings in three and a half years of membership. Perhaps the most eye-opening moment of GSA was the realization that the world around her wasn’t nearly as perfect as she would have hoped. Freshman year, Hafter-Manza recalls meeting peers whose families and friends were not as accepting as she might have thought.

“My close family,” Hafter-Manza said, “ is super accepting, so when I came out to them, it wasn’t a big deal. But I had never really met other people who had come out and it was devastating, or felt like they couldn’t come out because it would be devastating.” This in turn became a motivator for Hafter-Manza to continue her work in the club. “I was very motivated to get to know these kids, and learn from them, I guess, to see what I could learn from other people. I liked the idea that one day I would be the senior that the freshmen could go to with those struggles. I just feel like it’s very important to create a safe space at school, and I feel like GSA was my way to leave a good footprint on the school,” Hafter-Manza said. This proverbial footprint exists in GSA specifically from Hafter-Manza.

“

During freshman year Teen Talk, MA’s version of Sex Ed, Hafter-Manza and fellow student Marta Fatica noticed the somewhat one-sided nature of the class. Namely, the class only covered straight, cisgender couples, and mostly penis-in-vagina penetrative sex. “That’s not right, there’s got to be more to it,” Hafter-Manza remembers remarking to Fatica. After a conversation, they both decided to come up with a new kind of Sex Ed, and what better audience than GSA.

“So we learned how to do different condom demonstrations [during a meeting of GSA]. And we researched and found out that there were four different types of condoms, not just one, as [Teen Talk] would lead you to believe. When you get the sex talk from your parents when you’re five and you ask where babies come from, they don’t say that there are other types of sex, that’s never a thing. I think it’s really important because most kids that identify [as LGBTQ] don’t get that kind of education that they need, and I like that we were able to at least start that for them. That felt really good.”

“like, no no no no, I didn’t mean gay. And they’ll stop and think about it, and say that it’s not gay, it’s something else.”

Taking that first step is really scary, because I’ve done it, everyone else has done it, but it makes a world of difference.

“ We’re here, and we’re not bad people. we’re just the same as everyone else.

The GSA Sex Ed presentation has since evolved into a two-meeting affair, in which Hafter-Manza and Fatica discuss everything from consent, to foreplay, to a plethora of types of safe sex. Of course, Hafter-Manza and the rest of the GSA would love to continue to work on better educating not only the club but the campus overall. As to goals for the future of GSA’s Sex Ed program, as well as Teen Talk, Hafter-Manza’s personal wish would be to see more focus on the nature of gender. Especially in the wake of the suicide of 17 year old transgender girl, Leelah Alcorn, it is important to teach students what gender can be for their peers, to better foster understanding and cooperation amongst students. As Hafter-Manza said, “The more education you have, the more tolerant you are, and the more willing you might be to understand other people’s gender. And I think gender is a very important part of you. I think you have to be really comfortable with who you are, especially before you have sex.”

As to the social evolution on campus, Hafter-Manza notes that it has gone past club numbers merely increasing, and into the hallways. “I mean, I’ll hear people now catch themselves. They’ll say something like, ‘that’s so gay,’ and then they’ll catch themselves and be

This new degree of tolerance is a dramatic difference from 1998 when the club began. It is even a remarkable difference from Hafter-Manza’s own freshman year. Hafter-Manza recalled a moment in which a fellow student spoke harshly against gay marriage, a moment which upset her. Rather than merely letting it go as teachers once might have, or might still on other campuses, the teacher “stepped in and talked to her in a way that was very thought provoking, and turned it into a teachable moment.

“

He asked things like, ‘Why do you feel that way? Why do you see anyone who is gay as a lesser person?’ And he kept challenging her. Not in an attacking way, but in a way that was positive reinforcement of her being more educated about it.”

Even in the wake of more acceptance, Hafter-Manza notes that it is still a challenge to be a part of the LGBTQ community as a young person. When asked to give her best advice to her peers, Hafter-Manza cited that the best thing for LGBTQ students to do would be to use their resources. Among these resources, she recommends the GSA itself. “It can be really scary to walk into GSA as a freshman, because you’re not sure what to expect. You aren’t sure necessarily, how people will perceive you being in GSA. And I think that being open to what GSA and other resources on campus like [Black Student Union], the feminist club, all that, that being open to the resources open to you, because they were once timid freshmen, who weren’t sure if they were going to enter the queer room or not. And I think that it’s really important to remember that you do have people on your side, and you might not have met them yet, but you do have to seek them out. And I know that taking that first step is really scary, because I’ve done it, everyone else has done it, but it makes a world of difference. I would definitely recommend joining a club that makes you feel safe and helps make you feel like you can be yourself and not have to hide anything.”

Skylar MacMillan:

Only 17 percent of chemical engineers and 22 percent of environmental scientists are women. At Menlo-Atherton, only four out of the 30 members of the robotics team are female. Sophomore Skylar MacMillan is one of them, and she is convinced that the numbers are the only differences between men and women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).

“I’ve seen a lot written

Building Equality in Robotics

about sexism and feminism and STEM before, and those kind of subjects,” says MacMillan. “Being on the robotics team, I don’t feel I’m treated any differently than the other members on the team [as a woman] than I would be as a man. I don’t feel any different just because of my gender.”

MacMillan has the right idea. Right now, somewhere in this world, there is a young woman who is fascinated by science. She stays up late

their choices or doubting their abilities leads to insecurity and the likelihood of losing interest. Furthermore, girls are encouraged to become involved when other friends or role models are present, serving as a simple resource that can spur a lifelong interest in the field.

MacMillan joined the team as a freshman after her mother encouraged her to attend a meeting. “I came home five hours later and […] I was like, ‘this is amazing.’ And I was super hooked,” says Skylar. The team’s first challenge consisted of building a robot to play modified volleyball-basketball. During a six week building period, the team faced long hours and intense work, all leading up to a competition at University of California, Davis. There, the robot competed against regional high school teams. MacMillan notes that “we weren’t ranked very high. Our robot had […] some technical difficulties.” However, after being picked as an alliance to a captain team, the group won the competition, sending them to St. Louis for championships. MacMillan claims, “Championships is like [the UC Davis competition] on steroids.” Although the team did not win, they emerged successful with newfound confidence and inspiration for the next year. The memorable trip led to a stronger team, bonded by their challenges and achievements during competitions. Along with competitions, the robotics team occasionally participates in STEM outreach programs to encourage younger students to dive into robotics and other tech-related projects. “She’s very extroverted,” claims Thatcher Freeman, a friend and teammate of MacMillan, of her attitude towards

Photography Theresa Siri

MacMillan plans to continue her passion for robotics this spring and well into the future, as she would like to pursue a career in computer science or mechanical engineering, both of which relate to her current experience in robotics. MacMillan advises those

minded. “Really the worst thing that can happen is you try it and don’t like it. That’s actually the worst outcome. Best case scenario is you try it and you love it and you have a totally new interest. And then you know what you want to be

by Caraline Albro

Kiwi for keeps

New Zealand native Courtney Foliaki joins our community

by Molly Kearnan

“There’s a lot of diversity here. I’ve never been to school with white people, or Mexicans.”

A Kiwi is in our midst.

Courtney Foliaki, a junior at MenloAtherton, recently moved here from Auckland, New Zealand. Despite moving here alone, Foliaki is in fact a transfer student, not an exchange student, leaving behind her mother and sister to live with her father’s family.

“I’ve always wanted to come and live here. I actually visited when I was younger...I was meant to stay but I was so attached to my mom.”

Despite the distance between California and New Zealand, Foliaki claims to not have experienced too

extreme of a culture shock. “There’s not much of a difference. New Zealand’s native people are Mãoris and I guess cultures just depend on your background.”

Foliaki did, however, experience difficulty in acclimating to the innately competitive nature of American sports.

In New Zealand, Foliaki excelled in netball, a game reminiscent of basketball and the traditionally-female sport of her country. Upon discovering that netball is not as popular here, Foliaki quickly switched her concentration to her second sport, volleyball. “I don’t have a lot of the foundation that other girls have. I’m really having to fight for my spot.”

In terms of academics, Foliaki found difficulty in the transition between her old school and M-A. Upon planning her schedule, she discovered she didn’t have the required credits. “I had to really start again, and it was hard. It’s still hard.”

Now that Foliaki has a grasp of the American school system, she isn’t messing around. She has prioritized school over everything else, even over making friends. “When I came here, I decided that I’m just going to go to school, do whatever I have to do. I came here with the right intentions to do good so I really want to make sure that I just do my schoolwork and get somewhere.” An inspiring ideology, to say the least.

Photography Charlotte Schroeder

All Set to Go Abroad

Olivia Tai talks about her inspiration as an artist and preparing for her exciting trip abroad

In a society that emphasizes teen conformism, people with unique lifestyles are becoming increasingly rare. Olivia Tai is an exception. By embracing every opportunity life throws at her and exploring and expanding her artistic interests, applying the principles she learns to her daily life, Tai leads a vibrant and optimistic lifestyle. Tai has always been dedicated to the visual arts. In the summer of 2014, she visited an art camp in Michigan called Interlochen where she “met a lot of people who were really artistic in general and appreciate the arts overall.” Although she views her artistic pursuits more as a hobby than a passion, she tries to practice both painting and sketching as often as possible. “If I’m doing something,” Tai commented, “I’m going to try to put in the effort to be good at it.” Her desire to enrich her artistic abilities led her to the camp and helped her identify the role art plays in her life. While she does not consider herself primarily an artist, she is very drawn to the arts. Although she attended Interlochen for

by Sabina Vitale

the visual arts, she is also interested in music, fashion, acting and many other art forms. She mentioned that she wants”to have a different experience than other people, [she doesn’t] want to wear that if everyone else is wearing it, [she wants] to be individual.” This drive to seek out new and exciting experiences is also what led Tai to her decision to spend her spring semester in France. Having received inspiration from her Japanese neighbors growing up, Tai has always been interested in learning about different languages and cultures. After studying French in school for many years, she decided she wanted to experience the language and culture first hand. This coming semester she will be attending school in Montluçon, France through a foreign exchange program, where she will live with a host family and be immersed in the culture. “I know its going to be really hard, but thats kind of why I’m doing it,” Tai said of her upcoming departure. Although she is aware that the experience will pose new challenges, she is

ready for the journey knowing it will be “a very beneficial experience for me to become a more open-minded and cultured person.”

Tai enjoys activities and experiences that pose challenges to her. “I think its good to do things that are not really your favorite things to do just to do them,” she said of this tendency. For Tai, this activity is cross country. While she does not enjoy running because “you have to endure a lot of unpleasantness, and you are pushing your body to its limits,” she also recognizes that “cross country keeps [her] disciplined.” Despite the difficulties of cross country, Tai approaches it with a positive attitude, as she does everything, and appreciates that “cross country has taught [her] a lot about working for something and being dedicated.”

Driven by a colorful and kind personality, Tai accepts every new opportunity as a challenge and pushes herself to learn from every situation. Her artistic ability helps highlight her unique characteristics and separate her from the dull abstractions of teen life.

Artwork by Olivia Tai

GetTrapped

M-A senior Andre Benz is the mastermind behind a wildly-successful youtube channel and is on his way to trapping the nation

Rather than merely enjoying music in his spare time, Menlo-Atherton senior Andre Benz has chosen to pursue his passion, leading him to create a now-trending YouTube channel. In 2012, his channel, Trap Nation, made its debut, and has since accrued nearly 800 thousand subscribers. “In middle school, I was pretty antisocial, so I played a lot of video games,” Benz recalls, “but I started getting involved with some online communities for electronic music and I was like, ‘this is amazing!’” However, Benz’s love of electronic music began to transcend the boundaries of controlled online chat rooms. Through his jump to YouTube, Benz has rapidly increased his online presence and helped to popularize his favorite style of music.

Trap music is typically categorized as intense electronic dance music (EDM) with its origins in 1990s hip-hop and rap. Oftentimes, trap tracks will include harsh lyrics, layered synthesizers. Through Trap Nation, Benz attempts to widen the audience of trap music by making new tracks accessible, for free, to a limitless audience.

“The best way to try to explain it is that it’s like a radio station,” Benz shares. “I’m basically a channel that

helps underground artists promote their music. I don’t make the music; I ask permission to take other people’s music, put graphics behind it, make it all nice, and then I put it on YouTube. People just really like it.” And like it they do. Trap Nation was the first of several channels that Benz promulgated; Chill Nation, Rap Nation, and Music Nation are all branches of his main channel. In short, Benz’s success on YouTube has been tremendous, and is still on the rise; he can hardly believe it himself. “Oh my God,” he comments, “[I attribute my success to] every artist on the channel. Vine, definitely Vine. For my part, just putting a crapton of effort into it. I started when [the genre of] Trap was really young, so that was a great time to get into it.”

After a meteoric rise at such a young age, Benz finds it difficult to look towards the future. “I was originally planning to go to community college for two years, then transfer into an economics and finance program,” he explains, but things have since changed. “Right now, I want to move to the UK with my co-worker and rent an apartment there right after high school to start our thing there.” Seeing as the origins of trap

music are distinctly American, the UK seems the next logical step to a worldwide takeover of trap music.

In addition to his love of trap, Benz also enjoys listening to “EDM in general, and rock sometimes. And female vocals in any song. I just think they’re better. I don’t like to listen to pop, though.” Understandably so.

Benz’s year had a bit of a rough start. He and his family moved from New Jersey to California in 2014, and Benz, as well as his younger sister, subsequently started school at M-A.

“When I moved to M-A this year, I was pretty sad, because I didn’t really have any friends, you know? So I started focusing a lot on my channel, and it started to blow up a lot. So that’s that,” Benz recalls. He adds with a chuckle, “I basically spend all day in front of the computer.” When not behind a computer screen, Benz enjoys running, soccer, and trips to the beach with friends.

Benz’s channel can be accessed by visiting www.YouTube.com/AllTrapNation, where links to his Vine, Instagram, and Twitter can also be found. So M-A, go forth and get Trapped.

by Francesca Gilles

Don't choose a path. Create one.

by Jackie Valencia

Photography Casey Gernaat

HANE TURNER : A MUSICAL GENIUS

by Molly Kearnan

For most of us, age 5 is a year of Play-Doh, sand pits, and Teletubbies. For Shane Turner, a freshman at Menlo-Atherton, it was classical lessons and composing.

Turner’s talent was obvious from the beginning, so he dedicated his free time to writing and, by 2013, released an EP, called ‘Smile.’ After his CD, he moved on to what he describes as a “bigger, more orchestral” task -- “a small, seven minute symphonic work called ‘Sea Life.’”

But writing a symphony at age 14 is not enough of a feat for Turner, who is currently working on a musi-

cal he hopes will be finished by the end of this year. “It’s about the Hundred Year War with some fantastical twists thrown in. It’s based on the concept of redemption.” Following the completion of his first musical, he’s looking to write another one, encouraged by one of his favorite teacher’s praise for his skill in writing musicals. On top of that, he claims he “would like to record another CD within the next couple years.”

Turner attributes his drive for work to the persistent voice in the back of his head telling him that he always has to start something new, constantly asking him, “Now what?” “I know that if

I don’t have some massive project on my hands, I’ll go crazy.”

In terms of his creative process, Turner shares that he has two different approaches. “When I sit down at my computer and write my symphony or musical, I am always thinking of what I can add next.” Composing at the piano, however, is an experience within itself. “I don’t really know what happens. It kind of takes over me. It’s really an emotional release, free therapy as I call it.”

For someone who has already accomplished so much at such a young age, one can only imagine what Turner will achieve in his promising future.

Photography Nina Fox

Gray on the Stage

by Katie Webb

From anthropomorphized caterpillar to evil vampire, Gray Perrone has done it all.

“I would have to say the caterpillar in Alice in Wonderland [was my favorite] because it was sassy and

Photography

Elana Schulman

funky,” shared Perrone, discussing one of her earlier roles from middle school. Since her first play in kindergarten, Perrone has developed a passion for theater, acting in at least one show a year. “[Acting] has always been a part of who I am and one of my biggest interest...I have always loved to be in front of an audience.”

Her first real production was a play at summer camp, but her passion soon

developed and she began performing in Peninsula Youth Theater productions, then later La Entrada Middle School and M-A plays. While high school has gradually cut away at her free time so that community theater is no longer an option for the high school senior, Perrone still challenges herself with increasingly complex roles in M-A’s shows.

M-A drama teacher and play director Debra Zwicker-Sobrepena first met Perrone as a freshman, where she played a small role in Stage Door. In the past four years, Zwicker has seen Perrone take on bigger and bigger roles. “Seeing her play smaller more ensemble roles to taking on leading roles, seeing her onstage [is] great. She’s really a hard worker when it comes to getting all the details. Every step on stage, she’s really particular. To see how well she transforms herself, that’s something that really amazed me.”

While preparing for Shakespeare’s The Tempest, during her sophomore year, Perrone was tasked with playing both a female goddess character and a male character. Zwicker remembers asking Perrone to play the part and how “she just jumped into it.” Perrone also remembers the role, sharing that although it “was [her] first time acting male,” she found the challenge incredibly fun.

By her junior year, Perrone began playing the leading role in the fall play. “I was Prudence [in Love Rides the Rails] my junior year, and that was my first leading lady role. It was very fun [because although] she’s the good girl, she also had a lot of spunk and

confidence [and] she ended up saving the day.”

Taking on the leading role allowed Perrone to grow even more as an actress. Zwicker remembers, “Her mannerisms, just like her little hand gestures to her chest, are just priceless.”

Most recently, Perrone starred as one of the female leads in Dracula, playing Lucy. “My most recent role... was a perfect role for me [because] I got to play the evil [side of] Lucy when she turned into a vampire [but also] had the flirty and sassy [side].” While Perrone loves getting to bring out the sassier sides of characters, she’s willing to take on more serious roles as well. Before any role, she tries to get into the mindset of the character, a complicated process that involves reading through all her lines carefully, figuring out how the character would respond to a variety of situations, and understanding every detail of the character that makes them unique. “I try to really get in the scene…[for example, if] my mother just died, what does that do to me emotionally, what does that do to my character emotionally. For Lucy, always wear[ing] [her] wedding ring” helped her get into the role.

As she’s taken on larger roles, Perrone acknowledges the changes in her own mindset and approach to roles. “When I was younger, it was more being on the stage and just hamming up roles. I didn’t really think about what the characters were going through [but] now, I love being in the character. I love rehearsals the best because you get to become this character and evolve into this character. Now I see the depth that acting offers and I absolutely fell in love with it.”

Although she’s now finished her career on the stage at M-A, Perrone hopes to continue acting throughout college, as nothing can replace the feeling of being on stage. “I love the final performances. There’s this feeling that you get when you’re up there and you’re completely nailing it and it’s just incredible.”

An adventure from el salvador to menlo park Anderson Asencio

Anderson Asencio, a sophomore at Menlo-Atherton, is no stranger to change. At the age of ten, he arrived in Menlo Park with his whole family from El Salvador. The move was sparked by the arrival of a younger sibling, who is ten years younger than Anderson. Asencio commented that the move was driven by a desire “to have a better life, I guess.”

Asencio does not have negative memories of his life back in El Salvador. He says that his life was “pretty good, [he] had all [he] needed.” While his life in El Salvador satisfied his needs and desires as a child, his parents’ desire to secure a prosperous and happy future for their three children inspired them to move to the Silicon Valley. Asencio commented that the most notable difference between life in El Salvador and

life in the United States is that “there are more people who want to hurt you” in El Salvador. This increased level of safety and security was also a deciding factor in the move. Although Asencio never had a first-hand experience with a violent encounter while living in El Salvador, he was always aware of the presence of a possible threat. Asencio quickly assimilated into American life. Upon his arrival in California, he automatically began going to regular school without any sort of immersion program. Picking up on the language as he went, he soon became fluent and began to thrive in the American school system. His family helped encourage him to be so successful. Asencio notes that the person in his family that he is closest with is his grandmother, who traveled to the Bay Area with his

family in their move from El Salvador. He recalls that “she taught [him] everything [he] needed to know” for his future, individual life. Asencio plans to go to college and travel to new places in the future. While he is only a sophomore, he knows that he does not want to go back to live in El Salvador, although he does want to travel there and beyond. Armed with his familiarity in multiple languages and cultures, Anderson is able to openly evaluate every obstacle and situation in his path. His acquaintance with varied styles of living will aid his further adaptation into American culture and future aspirations and help him to continue to excel here in America and wherever his travels take him in the future.

by Sabina Vitale

i sit behind you

His name is Aaron. He wakes up in the morning, eats breakfast… He walks to the bus, takes the bus to school, goes to school, goes home. Mondays and Tuesdays he has choir after school. He walks home, which isn’t fun in the winter because it’s all dark out, but it’s nice to walk.

He has two dogs at his mom’s house. The poodle, whom he got from a breeder, has hip dysplasia, so she couldn’t be a show dog, which is why his family was able to adopt her. She is Arwin -- she came with the name.

His dream house might be a hole in the ground because it’s interesting. He’d have the soil all around him, and he wouldn’t have to deal with the sun getting in his eyes. It would be insulated, naturally insulated. And also it’s a kind of home you could do yourself and you wouldn’t have to cut down mahogany trees to get those nice…well he’d guess you have to…how would you get furniture down there… You know what, never mind, his dream house is just a place big enough to have a family.

He sings, and he plays video games. He love’s singing (and has a tremendous voice). He got a solo in the Winter Concert.

A funny story? He and his dad were visiting the Louvre. At first,

it was drizzling, and the guy selling umbrellas was like “five dollars for an umbrella, five dollars.” They stood out there for longer, and it started raining a little harder, and the guy was like “seven dollars for an umbrella, seven dollars for an umbrella.” Then it starts raining even harder, and the guy says “ten dollars for an umbrella, ten dollars.” This is in France, so it’s euros. “Ten euros for an umbrella.” Then it is torrentially raining, cats and dogs literally falling out of the sky, “twenty euros for an umbrella.” They are drenched walking through the Louvre. You can see their footprints, like Hansel and Gretel without trying.

He once got locked out of his dad’s house once when he was eight. He opened the door because he saw a ladybug inside and took it outside, but then he was locked out of the house for thirty minutes or so and he was terrified. He banged on the door, but Dad was asleep upstairs; he was worried that Dad wouldn’t even see him…It was scary for him.

Favorite quote? There is a quote that makes him smile. George W. Bush once said, “They misunderestimated us.” Just sums up the Bush administration. Three times, in one speech. It’s sad, though. This is the person running our country, but it’s

by Eliza Fitz

funny. In retrospect, kind of scary. In 10 years, he sees himself teaching English. He’d start out by analyzing rap lyrics, because rap lyrics are accessible. Or just lyrics in general. If you slowly transition into serious literature (not that music isn’t serious literature -- it can be very serious), you can use that as a spring board to the serious stuff most English teachers teach.

Just be yourself, he says. Stay true to yourself. And don’t let anyone tell you who you are -- you have to figure that for yourself. And if you have a passion, keep on following it. Don’t give up on it just because the going gets rough.

He says to people with learning disabilities -- no, differences -- believe in yourself. It can get rough, but you have to advocate for yourself. He says you have to recognize your differences, and not just recognize them, but appreciate how you’re different from other people, and accept all of yourself as your identity. Stay true to yourself.

This is an excerpt from the interview, direct except “I” was changed to “he,” etc. Aaron is temporarily attending a different school, but the respect for individuality that he inspires can be traced throughout M-A.

It’s All Just Fun and Games

New Application

Asupernatural battle has broken out, as devils attempt to overthrow the angel race. The only hope of maintaining order, and ensuring that the angels reign supreme is, quite literally, in all of our hands.

Seniors Danny LaPorte and Henry Hilton, the minds behind this fictional world, have been developing the iPhone game “Sky God: Angels vs. Devils,” in their first attempt to break into the application market.

“We have been working on this game since the summer before our junior years. From the first day of coding until we shipped to Apple, it took nearly a year and a half. Most of the work was done over those two summers, but we also did a lot this fall to put the finishing touches on,” LaPorte comments.

While at first unsure of the exact direction with which they wanted to take the game, LaPorte and Hilton had a few general thoughts.

“Our original idea was to have a gorilla throwing bananas at people to avenge the destroyed rainforests,” LaPorte explains. However, the pair decided to scrap this plan, as Hilton remembers looking back to his “First Generation iPod for inspiration from the black and white mini game ‘Parachute.’” Eventually, the boys decided

that they wanted the app to feature a back and forth battle, leading them to the creation of the final game.

In simple terms, Danny breaks down the game to “a war raging between angels and devils along the bottom of the screen,” as the player navigates through levels, controlling “a God in the middle of the screen who shoots bullets of energy, with the goal of tipping the battle in favor of the angels by shooting the devils as they fall, making sure not to kill any angels.”

Taking AP Computer Science as sophomores, both LaPorte and Hilton became very interested in pursuing such work outside of the classroom, and so when the opportunity arose, both eagerly jumped at it.

“We signed up to intern at a startup in Palo Alto called MakeGamesWithUs (now MakeSchool) after one of the company’s founders came to our AP Computer Science class,” LaPorte recalls. As high school students, Hilton comments on the uniqueness of the opportunity, as the atmosphere of the space they spent their first summer working on the app “was exactly [how] you would expect a startup house full of coders to look, with kids lounging all over the couches and Mountain Dew cans overflowing the bins.”

After releasing the game to the Apple App Store at the beginning of this school year, LaPorte and Hilton have been able to track the success of their first app.

“We [have] had over 300 downloads, and are still going strong. What’s fascinating is that they come from all across the world with a good portion from China and reaching as far as Vietnam, New Zealand, and Argentina,” Hilton explains.

As far as difficulties they faced, as with any ambitious project, at times, the boys found themselves in stressful situations.

LaPorte recalls, “Sometimes it seems like you Google for hours without ever finding the solution to the problem you are facing.” However, Hilton maintains, “In the end, the pride and ownership you feel of building something from nothing is unmatched. It’s worth every painstaking hour of debugging, even when you have to comb through thousands of lines of code to get there.”

In hindsight, LaPorte and Hilton hope that other students follow in their footsteps, advising kids to “keep to [their] goals, and remember the coming feeling of validation that you will experience down the road whenever you run into obstacles.”

by Gabe Cohen

Menlo-Atherton Seniors Danny LaPorte and Henry Hilton Develop

A Knack for Nacks

Natalie Montoya shares her passion for baking and her business, Nat’s Nacks

by Sofia Bergmann

AAs she holds her effortlessly crafted yet intricate pastries which will surely win an upcoming pastry contest, Natalie Montoya, a senior at Menlo-Atherton, explains the business she runs out of her home kitchen. The name? Nat’s Nacks. Her pastries, delicious and intricate, have become wildly popular as she started with her neighbors, family members, and close friends, branching out to her peers at school. Natalie has developed into an entrepeneur of her own who is able to meld passion with enterprise in the midst of all her schoolwork.

Montoya now creates small cupcake-like pastries in the shape of a square, with a small swirl of frosting on top. She then gives her customers a variety of flavors to choose from for the

cake and the cream, these are reffered to her very own “Nacks”. She explains the punny name for her business by saying that “you kind of need like a shtick, something that makes you unique and different, so Nat’s Nacks is my thing.”

“Sometimes they pay me sometimes they don’t,” Montoya goes on by sharing the logistics of her business. Not only does she bake her Nacks entirely from scratch, but she also provides a flexible menu for her customers. “Usually a family member will ask me to make a birthday cake, or a pie for a Thanksgiving party etc” and she rises to the challenge, creating a delicious masterpiece.

Montoya is part of the FHA Hero club at M-A and actively competes in their pastry competitions, one of

which she has been preparing for recently.

Despite her various talents in the art of baking, Montoya’s favorite treat to make will always remain chocolate chip cookies “because they smell so good and they taste amazing, especially if you make everything from scratch...they’re just delicious!” Even the finest French pastries will never compete with the simple yet mouthwatering chocolate chip cookies that Montoya loves to bake. Her passion for baking, especially in the art of the chocolate chip cookie, continues, as she has recently started working at CREAM, a store solely based on cookies and ice cream. Montoya is certainly on the path to following her zeal for baking, and is making her mark, one Nack at a time.

So MUCH MORE THAN just A CHEF

by Joanna Vollrath

After 20 years of working as Menlo-Atherton’s only home economics teacher, Mona Klein is still as passionate as ever. “My objective was always to have a class that students would look forward to because it’s different everyday, we have something new going on each day. I try to make everything fun, mainly by setting [the students] up for success, and then they have fun,” Klein shares. California’s 1978 Proposition 13 cut the funding for many school programs such as home economics, and even M-A suffered. Before Klein’s hard work and dedication, there was not a home economics class at M-A for six straight years. “I brought the program back from nothing,” Klein states. When she arrived, “there were even rat droppings in the bottoms of the stoves and in all the ovens.” Klein got to work by having the classroom painted and remodeled and by personally cleaning out the cupboards to eventually start up M-A’s home economics program that students still enjoy today. “I pretty much did it all by myself,” Klein remembers.

Today, Klein’s Home Economic program is thriving with student energy and participation. Klein describes the importance of Home Economics by saying, “My class is much more than just cooking; it teaches our students about nutrition through food. It teaches them about the world food supply and about how food is produced, processed, and distributed. Students learn how to get the most health and food out of a dollar. That’s what we should be teaching.”

One of the biggest responsibilities of M-A’s Home Economics program is an on-campus organization called the Grateful Bread. “The Grateful Bread is our student operated cafe and catering business. We are trying to raise it slow-

ly to be a full-blown business,” Klein explains. The Grateful Bread started to get truly active in 1997, making 2015 its 18th year. The student-run catering business prepares and delivers foods such as vegetable trays or muffins for meetings. When there is an order, Klein’s students work together during their class periods to prepare this food. In addition to these specific orders, the Grateful Bread also sells food to the staff of M-A. “We are kind of famous for our baked potatoes,” Klein states. “We have a special secret recipe, a special secret way we bake them. And then I have a full bar of toppings, and people come in, get their potato, we split it open for them, and then they go and put whatever toppings they want on it.” But the staff of M-A who get to enjoy yummy treats are not the only ones recognizing the skill and potential of this amazing group of students.

“

We can make pizza that tastes like you bought it from a pizzeria. And we make crepes once a year. Just really fun stuff. You can make ice cream, and pasta, spaghetti, or noodles.

Two years ago this class was awarded a Program of Excellence by the California Department of Education. Their chapter has also gained Superior Chapter Stance, not to mention Klein herself being named Superior Advisor last year. Klein describes the positive influence of the Grateful Bread, saying, “It really creates this fun community kind of feeling, like a family feeling. I feel that this program is really meant to soften the hard edges of M-A; it’s meant to create a sense of family and a place that’s like a home.”

The money raised by the Grateful Bread mainly goes to the Future Homemakers of America (FHA). It is an intracurricular career technical student organization, and is one of nine in California. “There are are lot of expenses,” Klein acknowledges. M-A’s home economics program has to pay for student memberships to the FHA, their registration for state meetings, the cost of ingredients, their state of the art appliances, and various other insundries. “The whole time we’ve had it, not one member has paid one penny!” Klein proudly exclaims. In addition to paying the expenses of their program, the Grateful Bread also supports other activities on and off campus. They donate about 50 dollars per year to the scholarship fund for FHA, and this year they donated 100 dollars in cash to

“

the canned food drive, as well as 50 dollars to the book drive here at M-A. At the moment, the Grateful Bread is not allowed to sell to students, but Klein shares that “someday in the future, maybe when the program grows, we might be able to sell food to the students.” Klein recaps her success by saying, “We’ve come a long way with the program, and the focus is always on what high school students need. How are they gonna learn, how are they gonna have fun?”

Photography Olivia Bloom

PHOTO hunt!

See if you can nd the differences in these two pictures:

by Ryan Jacquemet

1) Ms. Snow’s yellow bag strap 2)The arm in the lower right corner behind Ms. Snow 3) The SF Giants logo on the girl’s shirt in the lower-middle part of the frame 4)The top right balloon in the middle-right bunch 5) The M-A Bear logo on the scoreboard 6) The hat on a girl in the center of the picture 7) Posters on the left wall 8) Hooks and cables on the back wall to the right 9) Another sports emblem has been added to the back wall on the right 10) The “Girls” and “Boys” signs on either side of the scoreboard

Office Change

Newly appointed Co-Principal SimonE Kennel shares her journey to the top by Kate

Flanagan

Office Change

When she was nine, Simone Kennel and her family waved goodbye to a life many of us could never imagine -- life during Apartheid. Since then, she has lived in America and has experienced life based on the premise of natural rights and equality. Though she has spent the majority of her life in America, her original experiences in South Africa have remained an integral part of who she is and how she works.

The recent transition of Simone Kennel, former Administrative Vice Principal, into the role of acting Co-Principal has provided her with another opportunity to apply her experiences as a child in South Africa during Apartheid. For the rest of the Spring semester, Kennel will be interim Co-Principal with Matthew Zito as he transitions into his new role as Chief Facilities Officer. She discloses that this new role will provide her with “a bigger, broader view of the whole school [and] larger responsibilities.” While Kennel is Co-Principal, Maureen Campbell and Linda Common will assume the Administrative Vice Principal position together. Campbell, a recently-retired vice principal from Woodside High School, has agreed to come in at least three days per week, “which is nice, because she already has experience as the vice principal,” Kennel states.

Both Administrative Vice Principal Karl Losekoot and Zito agree that Kennel’s experiences as an AVP, teacher, and Special Education department chair have made her a prime candidate for her new role.

“It was certainly not my decision, but it was my recommendation that she would make an excellent Co-Principal during this interim period,” Zito explains. He describes Kennel as “competent and organized, thoughtful, and very committed to students.” Losekoot, who spent many years teaching in a room next door to her, believes that

“she brought a lot of stability and structure to a department that didn’t have a lot of that before she got there.” In addition to her administrative prowess, her commitment to students has contributed to the success of the AntiBullying Club and the Pride Pals program, both of which she helped to found, and the special education department. While her schedule prohibits her from being the advisor of the Anti-Bullying Club, Kennel still contributes to the lunchtime activities and the segments on M-A Today. “There’s just so much bullying that happens that students don’t always realize is bullying [...] so just getting kids to be more aware of why someone might bully, why someone might feel bullied and what can be done about it, and that we also have support for that on campus.” Similarly, while discussing the Pride Pals program, Kennel comments that “the kids feel really included and part of the school, which is kind of the feeling [she wants] to create.”

“ “

[She has really shown a commitment and loyalty to M-A [...] I think that’s something that makes us fortunate.

presumes that the major changes to M-A will involve the new facilities. She reveals that tentative plans have been made regarding the possibility of new restrooms, students spaces, and food services. Besides the facilities, which “are only going to get better,” Kennel notes that another area of change may be the dress code. “We’ve been in talks about that and it’s definitely a dynamic document that we’re willing to look at and make changes to if necessary.”

- Karl Losekoot

I miss the classroom a lot [...] Whether I teach English or resume supporting students in special-ed, I definitely want to teach again at some point.

Looking back on the nearly 13 years she has been at M-A, Kennel notes that one of the major changes she has seen is the improvement of the school climate, which may be in part due to the Anti-Bullying Club. “Students treat each other better. Of course there’s issues [...] but just the overall climate in general is just calmer. I don’t sense tension among groups of students.”

“ “

- Simone Kennel

She elaborates that “it took some years of being really consistent and firm and with a message of, hey, we’re not going to tolerate that behavior. And now it’s like, okay, kids get it.”

As for the future, Kennel

Although this change is not final, she and Losekoot have discussed the matter with several senior leadership students. The goal of the discussion was to “see where they see things and where we see things and we might get a committee together of different people to get input and come up with something we can all live with.”

While Kennel has held an administrative role for almost eight years, she wants to end her career teaching. “I miss the classroom a lot. Whether I teach English or resume supporting students in special ed, I definitely want to teach again at some point.” She explains that “being in administration is really time consuming. There are a lot of school events which I really enjoy and it’s basically a 24/7 job. And teaching can be too, don't get me wrong -- our teachers work really hard, but you do have some more built-in, structured time, like the summers.” Kennel has transitioned through several positions within the education department, but has remained loyal to M-A for about 13 years. “I think she’s had the opportunity to go elsewhere and take an advancement in a position at other schools,” Losekoot states, “but [she] has really shown a commitment and loyalty to M-A, and wanted to serve M-A’s population, M-A’s students, and [...] the community at M-A, and I think that’s something that makes us fortunate.” In short, Losekoot adds, “I think the school is very lucky that we have her here.”

Colin's Cars

by Katrina Wijaya

In the weeks leading up to the conclusion of the Canned Food Drive, one might have heard the constant sound of the wood shop saw during lunch. The one using the saw was senior Colin Hug, hard at work as he labored to complete his grand project. Partway through the first semester of wood shop, Colin Hug had decided to tackle the creation of hundreds of wooden toy cars.

“One day in wood shop I wanted to build something. There was a kid called Chase Connell that built a ton of projects [...] and we sold them and all the money went back to the shop [...] and I kinda wanted to do something like that again,” Hug shares.

The Menlo-Atherton Canned Food Drive is a schoolwide effort to collect food and other goods to donate to families in the local community. Hug decided to go a step further and make wooden toy cars for the children of those families.

“The Canned Food Drive is around the holidays, and we give food to the entire family [but] we don’t really do anything specific for the kids,” Hug explains. “Every year they do some small thing, like they have a kid’s section on distribution day, [but] it’s not really something the kids can get and take home as a gift. It’s more of them playing with stuff until their parents are done collecting food. That’s why I figured a gift would be nice, especially since [it’s] the holidays,” Hug concludes.

Although a lot of the production of toy cars is “very individual work because we only have one set of machines,” Hug credits Tyrique Johnson, Ryan Jacquemet, and the Leadership class with helping sand and assemble the cars. The car is made of three key components: the main body, wheels, and axles. His project started as a simple desire to “build something,” but soon became a daunting endeavor. As the end of the Canned Food Drive approached, it was crunch time for the remaining cars.

“For the [last] couple of weeks we would get lunch and then sand cars until it got dark. The last days leading up to distribution day, we would meet in the wood shop at lunch and before school,” Jacquemet recalls.

By the end of the Canned Food Drive, Hug and team had completed 447 toy cars. Jacquemet remarks that Hug’s work on the project “shows that he cares about others and will spend countless hours trying to make something that will hopefully make a difference in someone’s life.”

Photography Katie Webb and Katrina Wijaya

Photography Nina Fox

Steven Kryger

From the police force to the athletic field

by Ian Robinson-Lambert

There is something magnetic about talking to Steven Kryger. Anyone who has had his algebra or calculus class, or has been coached by him in lacrosse, or has even spoken to him at all, can tell you that. He has been teaching for nearly 20 years, and has one of the most interesting and inspiring backstories of any teacher at Menlo-Atherton. Kryger makes the connection between disparate topics like dealing with assistant coaches and participating in car chases seem obvious as soon as he starts to discuss them. Why wouldn’t fighting fires and teaching an algebra class have their ties? By the end of our interview, I was wondering why I hadn’t thought of the connections myself. Rather than studying teaching in college, getting a teaching degree, and finding a suitable high school to work at, Kryger’s life before M-A is unique. He worked as an executive at Macy’s after finishing college, but his more memorable profession before teaching is an Oakland police officer. “Being a cop was always something that intrigued me,” he answers when asked about his motivation to join the police force, also citing his father as a major source of inspiration. “I would ride with him on the fire trucks, and I got to see firsthand his passion for fighting fires and helping people,” he says. In particular, he recalls a house fire that both he and his father worked to put out. “That was my first taste of what he did and the passion he had for it.” The same passion would later inspire Kryger to travel west from New York after college, joining the police academy and becoming a member

of the Oakland police force within just a few months of applying for the job. Kryger holds qualities such as determination and perseverance in extremely high esteem, and goes into detail explaining how these qualities link police work, sports, and academics. “I coached youth sports when I was in high school,” he states, “and I was fortunate enough to become a training officer with the police, which was my first real foray into teaching.” He credits his high school coaches to endowing him with these qualities of fortitude and endurance, particularly those who coached football and lacrosse. “At the time, my high school coaches thought it would be a good idea to put us through hell,” he jokes. “We learned later it wasn’t quite as bad as it seemed, but there were times when we just wanted to quit, and they drilled it into us that we could survive it.” Kryger came into the field at a dangerous time - the early 1990s, the so-called “crack explosion” in Oaklandand regularly faced a multitude of dangers from gang-related violence. “People were fighting for gang territory,” he explains. “People were fighting each other to gain hold of the territory. Gangs are very territorial, so there was a lot of violence that came from that.” Despite the intensity of the job and the risks he faced every day, Kryger maintains that it was more than worth it. “The job was all about making the neighborhood safe for the people that wanted to live there,” he says. “They deserve to feel safe in their own neighborhood. We were there to serve the people, to make their neighborhoods better, and to put as many

criminals behind bars as possible in the process.” High-speed chases, drug raids, and spying on criminals are just a few of the day-to-day activities Kryger experienced as an officer. “It was certainly dangerous,” he admits, “but, in some ways, we kind of viewed it like a big game of tag. We’d hide in the shadows at night where [the criminals] couldn’t see us, we’d hide in treetops and rooftops, I even spied once from the maternity ward at Highland Hospital because it had a great vantage point.” He describes the job, while risky, as exhilarating, adrenaline-filled, and even fun at times. Dec. 20, 1993: the day Kryger’s life changed. During a drug raid at a home in Oakland, he was shot in the leg and almost certainly expected to die. “The doctors said I never should have survived,” he says, handing over a stack of graphic yet fascinating photographs from the event. “I never should have made it to the hospital. The wound was squirting like a geyser, there was blood pouring out of me everywhere.” He credits a number of factors to his survival: his age (he was only 29 when it happened), his physical shape, and the first aid conducted by the other members of his squad. “If they hadn’t done that, I wouldn’t have made it to the hospital. It’s not easy to survive that, but there were a lot of things working in my favor.” He suffered both muscle and nerve damage from the injury, a small price to pay given the likelihood of not surviving the harrowing event. In addition to the physical battle against the wound, Kryger also details the psychological battle against his own

The doctors said I never should have survived. I never should have made it to the hospital.

mind. “Even when I was laying on the ground and I thought I was going to pass out, it was a mental fight to just say, ‘Don’t quit, don’t give up.’” To win this inner battle, Kryger references his high school coaches and their lessons again. Their unwillingness to let their players give up are what inspired him to persevere through the injury, something he says most likely saved his life.

The values that helped him survive are the very same values that, 18 years later, Kryger applies to his personal teaching philosophy. It would be an understatement to say that Kryger is a busy man - in addition to teaching several classes of algebra and calculus, he coaches boy’s lacrosse and runs M-A’s athletic department along with Paul Snow, meaning he is therefore in charge of the coaches, uniforms, paperwork, transportation, and equipment associated with every sport offered at M-A. With this mountain of responsibilities, Kryger is adamant that helping his students and players succeed is the ultimate goal. “Our job is to create

an environment for coaches and players to have success. It’s important that [the coaches] realize that this is about the players, not the coach. My job is to create an environment where the players are comfortable, that they know it’s about them first.” While supporting the players is important, Kryger says that challenging them to push themselves and succeed beyond their goals is paramount, an ideal carried over from his own coaches. “I definitely support them, but at the same time I raise the bar and do everything I can to get them to reach their maximum potential as individuals and as a time.” Pushing the players is what brings out the best in them, after all. We spoke briefly about the Hall of Fame, which was restarted this year, and about how profoundly the athletes spoke about their personal journeys rather than their individual wins. “A lot of them won, that’s true, but very few of them actually talked about the wins,” Kryger notes. “They just talked about the friendships and the skills, the things you can’t get anywhere else.

You can’t get that in the classroom, you can only get it on the athletic field.” M-A was fortunate enough to induct five athletes, one coach, three athletic boosters, and two teams to the Hall of Fame, honored at a sit-down banquet which featured speeches from the inductees. “It was amazingly moving,” Kryger says. “They all looked back on their time here with such fondness.” Managing all of these responsibilities while simultaneously pushing his students and players is a gargantuan task, but Kryger takes it in stride. “It helps not to need a lot of sleep,” he adds. “Last night, I went to bed at 11:30 and I was up again at 4:45. It’s about time management and being efficient. For example, I end up doing some of my athletic director job during the school day while I’m teaching algebra.” This kind of workload might be too much for some, but Kryger is energized by it. “I constantly want to keep going,” he says. “If I sit down for any length of time and I’m not engaged by a conversation or a book, I’ll fall asleep.

A new type of learning

Socrates once said, “I cannot teach anybody anything. I can only make them think.” New AP English Language and English III teacher, Shannon Kirkpatrick, has first hand experience with this philosophy. A graduate of St. John’s College in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Kirkpatrick’s graduate education was defined in its entirety by participation in Socratic seminars. “I am a totally different teacher because of it,” Kirkpatrick comments. “You can learn so much just by communicating your ideas.”

A Socratic seminar functions much in the same manner as a book club. Participants gather in a circle to discuss a particular work, whether it be a book, article, or journal. The idea of a Socratic seminar is that both the students and the professors are on even footing; at St. John’s College, professors “prefer the title ‘tutor,’” because they wanted to be level with their students.

“They didn’t want to be seen as experts on the topic; they were just people who had more experience with the book,” Kirkpatrick explains. The profes-

sors would not “sit at the front of the table and say ‘I know more than you,’ so instead they would ask questions,” and open the floor to conversation. A typical class consisted of one of the tutors posing a broad question about the work they were studying, while the students would attempt to engage with and discuss the themes and below-the-surface concepts.

The seminars developed Kirkpatrick into a more outspoken and talkative person through this method of forcing students to communicate their opinions to their peers. “As a person, I was shier before,” she recalls. “It has benefitted me to speak my ideas more openly.” She adds, “You need students who want the discussion-type of learning, instead of ones who want to think about it on their own.”

However, regardless of student preferences, Kirkpatrick attempts to incorporate elements of the Socratic Method into her teaching at Menlo-Atherton. Junior Jorge Pont, a student of Kirkpatrick’s, comments, “We had a Socratic seminar about transcendentalism and I

was able to understand the ideals and concepts of Henry David Thoreau better through discussion with peers.”

Despite its advantages, the Socratic Method is not for everyone. However, Kirkpatrick benefits from the experience and attributes her success largely to it. “I’m really glad I had that experience,” Kirkpatrick states. “I do wish there were more schools that were like [St. John’s], but at the same time, the reason the school works the way that it does is because certain students are attracted to that type of learning.”

Because of her ability to incorporate discussion-based teaching into her repertoire, Kirkpatrick has made a positive impression on M-A. Through talking about her ideas with others, she fully interprets ideas and concepts, which reflects in her teaching. Her students gain a more well-rounded knowledge of the course material, and she gains a better perspective of each student’s learning style. It’s a win-win for everyone. by Francesca Gilles and Theresa Siri

New teacher, Shannon Kirkpatrick, circles back to Socrates

Photography Project Yesenia Hernandez, Josh Velazquez Rios, Shaun Carter, Lorenzo Carlos Garcia, Sylvia Zasslow, Emma McLeod, and Jermaine Garner

Writing her Future:

Cricket Gorey Launches W.O.M.B.A.T. club and Makes Her Mark

by Katie Moffitt

Photography Rebecca Schena

“Keep trying. Even if you fail once, twice, a thousand times, there’s always another opportunity, another chance.”

Just when you thought that MenloAtherton had it all, leave it to a fierce freshman, Kristina “Cricket” Gorey, to introduce us to Women of Medicine, Business, and Technology (W.O.M.B.A.T). The student body at M-A is about as diverse as one can get. From different socioeconomic, political, and religious backgrounds to different interests, hobbies, and passions, Gorey is doing her part to add to our culture and community. Yet, Gorey manages to stay true to herself while finding her place amidst the madness of M-A and teaches us all a lesson or two about being yourself.

Gorey dove directly into the organized chaos of M-A with a positive attitude. She credits her easy transition from middle to high school to her involvement in cross country, concert band, and a variety of clubs and recommends the same to others. “Join something. Join the play, join a sports team, join a club, join something because it helps to make friends outside of your friend group and helps to integrate you into the campus more. You won’t feel like you are a random person walking through the halls who shouldn’t be there. You will feel like you are actually part of the campus,” remarked Gorey on advice she would give incoming and other freshman on getting to know M-A. She finds the strong community surrounding sports at M-A to be a welcoming and secure environment, one of the appealing aspects of the school.

As many will not-so-fondly remember, the beginning of freshman year can be composed of stress, drama, and a general nervousness about

“I feel like an accumulation of all of your experiences is what makes you who you are.”

everything. Gorey represents how a positive attitude can lead to a positive experience. Acknowledging that while women earn many of the higher education degrees in science and math, men still dominate the workplaces of such careers, Gorey follows the steps of role models like Marie Curie with her dedication to and passion for science and math. She refuses to be discouraged by the ratio of the genders in the engineering field, reminding all to “find any way possible to pursue your passions. Even if it doesn’t seem like it would be available to you, just ask. You can get great opportunities just by asking.” Gorey herself follows her own principle, jumping at opportunities and taking initiative to immerse herself in the world of math and science.

When asked about the moment she considers the turning point of her interest in science and math, Gorey discussed the 7th grade Science Fair at Hillview. Gorey had visited the labs of HP earlier and met and learned from a variety of scientists, many female, who now are a source of motivation and aspiration. With the inspiration of an experiment at HP labs, Gorey used Jello and tabletop materials to mimic a new passive circuit element to achieve second place in the school science fair. “It even worked a little bit,” Gorey modestly adds about her experience at the science fair, the catalyst of her interest in science and math. She enjoys the “the organization and how it is constant. Once you have a rule, it’s almost always true, unless you have an an exception. Versus like in languages where there’s this irregular verb and that irregular

noun, or social studies with this person [who] may have done it for this reason or for that reason.” With her continued determination, she advanced to regional and even state science competitions. Wishing to share her new experiences with others who may not have had her luck with exposure to the sciences, Gorey founded and launched M-A’s W.O.M.B.A.T. club.

W.O.M.B.A.T. is, in Gorey’s words, “geared towards inspiring the next generation of female executives.” It is a career exploration club which hosts monthly speakers of various professions within the all-inclusive title of W.O.M.B.A.T. Over the past few months, the club has hosted Emily Evans, patent attorney and PhD, and Amber Tennant, Vice President of Operations at Coursera. Speakers are invited to monthly meetings to talk about their careers, experiences, credentials, and everything and anything else that members of the club wish to know more about. W.O.M.B.A.T. is currently working to connect girls with summer internships and other opportunities to expand experience and knowledge, while also helping to make connections which will be useful later in their careers.

Although W.O.M.B.A.T. is a club for girls, hence the name, Gorey said, “I feel that the negative connotations with feminism are grossly inappropriate. Feminism is about giving the women power, not about women who don’t like men. However, with the current associations with the word, I’d say that W.O.M.B.A.T. is about female empowerment, not so much feminism.”

Greg Camarillo

M-A Graduate Made it to the NFL

If his name was mentioned to an avid football fan, he or she would recall his 64-yard touchdown reception against the Baltimore Ravens that won a pivotal game for the Miami Dolphins that ended up being the team’s only win in the 2007 season. However, not to many people realize that the hero of the Miami Dolphins 2007 season is an MenloAtheron graduate. Greg Camarillo, M-A’s first male Athlete of the Year, graduated in 2000 and continued his football career as a walk-on football player at Stanford University. After he graduated with a dual degree in mechanical engineering and product design, he competed in the NFL for seven consecutive seasons.

It probably will not come as a surprise that Camarillo lettered in both football and basketball in high school. He specialized as a tight end in football, but was willing to play whatever position his coach wanted. As a senior football player, he was selected for the all-PAL first team, in addition to an allSan Mateo County selection. However, Camarillo had to make a choice when it came down to it: “I really enjoyed playing basketball, but was more talented at football.”

And so it was. Camarillo walked on the football team at Stanford in 2000. He was initially practicing as a

punter, but he wanted to play receiver. “I had a meeting with the coach and he was bent on the idea that I would be a punter, however during the meeting the coach decided to give me a shot to play receiver.” Camarillo redshirted his freshman year at Stanford before going on to play receiver for four seasons, during three of which he earned the title of Pac-10 Academic All-American.

After a wildly successful career at Stanford, Camarillo decided that his work in football was not nearly finished. “All of my teammates in college were giving [the NFL] a shot. At Stanford we had three very bad seasons where we only won 10 games total, so I had a drive to play more and a drive to win.”

Camarillo was signed by the San Diego Chargers as an undrafted free agent in 2005. He played two seasons with the Chargers before being traded to the Miami Dolphins. Camarillo preferred the Chargers because it was the first team to give him a chance to play, even though his best years were with the Dolphins.

In November 2008, Camarillo suffered an ACL injury that sidelined him for the rest of the season, but luckily he had signed a one year contract extension with the Dolphins just four days prior. “I always like having something to overcome and being the

underdog. It was my motivation to come back and prove everyone I could still play.” After recovering he went on to play four more seasons in the NFL with Miami, Minnesota, and then eventually ended his career in 2012 with the New Orleans Saints.

Camarillo returned to MenloAtherton in November for the 2014 Hall of Fame induction ceremony and watched the football game against Terra Nova. Camarillo was blown away by the changes to the campus since he graduated. “The campus itself is very different. The field turf, the I-Wing, Spieker pool, and the new gym were all put in after I left. It was also really cool to see a bunch of students at the football game.”

Today, Camarillo is a graduate student at San Diego State University, where he is getting a masters degree in educational leadership. His goal is to become an advisor for college studentathletes. Currently, Camarillo’s advice for student-athletes is to work hard and have fun. “High school level is the last time it’s just about playing the sport, having fun with your teammates, and creating the team bond. When you go to college and the pros it really becomes more of a business. Just enjoy the time in high school. Soak it all up.”

by Sami Andrew

Photography Betsy Snow

FRESHMEN

the future of m-a basketball

In the world of varsity basketball, it’s easy for a freshman to get lost, swallowed up by the challenge of competing with older athletes who have had more time to develop their skill and strength. Myles Nuñez and Bradley Stillman, the two freshmen on the Menlo-Atherton varsity boys basketball team, have fought to overcome these challenges and thrive in this environment.

“It’s not too difficult, you just have to come into high school with a more mature mindset. If you come in with a child’s mindset then you’re not gonna make it,” says Nuñez of the transition between eighth grade and high school, regarding both athletics and academics.

Stillman went to middle school at Hillview and Nuñez arrived at M-A from Belle Haven, but the two have been friends since they started to play American Athletic Union (AAU) basketball together in fourth grade. However, even with each others’ support, the transition has not been easy.

“The workload is more than middle school, and basketball-wise, I feel like the biggest challenge is just playing with bigger, stronger, better people,” notes Stillman. “But you can’t

really let that take over how you play. You just have to have the mindset that you can play with these guys.”

Entering the school year, neither Stillman nor Nuñez knew which team they would end up on when the season started.

“When I played with the varsity team over the summer, I thought I had a chance of making it, but I still thought I’d be JV,” says Stillman. Nuñez spent most of the summer league season with the JV team, but his success sparked aspirations of playing at a higher level.

“I figured I was on the borderline of varsity and JV. I knew if I went to varsity it would be a humbling experience.”

Only four other M-A freshmen have earned a spot on the varsity boys basketball roster in the past ten years, and never two at the same time during that period. Making the team was only the first of many basketball-related challenges the Stillman and Nuñez faced, however, as they quickly had to adapt to increased conditioning, longer and more frequent practices, and new teammates.

“At first when we got on the varsity team, we thought we didn’t fit in at all,” says Nuñez. Stillman adds, “But they were all really nice to us, saying it was okay when we made mistakes. It’s more of a family experience than any other team I’ve been a part of.”

The rest of the team has welcomed the new freshmen with open arms. “Sometimes you get left with people who are tentative and shy, but these guys are pretty good. I have no complaints—for the most part,” jokes

PHENoMS

senior captain Whittaker Jellins.

Almost whenever there are freshmen on a varsity sports team, the topic of hazing comes to the surface. In recent years, horror stories of initiation rituals for freshmen have come to light, including a scandal at Woodside High School last year that resulted in the school firing two coaches, and the victim transferring to Sequoia High School.

Thankfully, Stillman and Nuñez have experienced no such incidents so far this season, aside from certain tasks set aside for them at practices. “We understand that we’re freshmen, so of course we’re gonna have to put the balls away after practice, or sweep the floor,” says Nuñez. “We understand that we have to earn our teammates’ respect.”

Jellins confirms this report. “Well, I’m not gonna say they don’t do their ‘freshman duties.’ But I think we have a nice, safe environment. We have a family chemistry on the team, and that extends from seniors, to juniors, to sophomores, and to the freshmen, too.”

Through the first couple months of the season, the two freshmen have fought to overcome obstacles in their path and be successful at such a high level of competition. “I really like the challenge that varsity brings. It really challenges me as a player because I’m playing with older guys, and I like that,” says Stillman.

“It’s the first time I’ve ever had two freshmen on a team,” says head coach Mike Molieri. “The learning curve for them is going to be extreme, but in the long run it’ll help them out there

by Ryan Cole

by their sophomore year. That’s my expectation.”

Stillman and Nuñez both made significant contributions to the team during the non-league season, with at least one of them scoring in 11 of the 12 games, including a breakout, 20 point performance for Stillman against Palo Alto High School. They also combined to account for 40 percent of the team’s made three-pointers.

“I have to be a lot more patient because they’re coming from middle school,” says Molieri. “But they’re definitely showing some significant positive steps for themselves and for the program.”

Mirroring the success of Nuñez and Stillman, freshmen Greer Hoyem and Carly McLanahan have provided valuable contributions to the girls varsity team, helping them to a 10 win, four loss record through their first 14 games.

Both Stillman and Nuñez have expressed how eager they are to play in front of M-A’s legendary 6th Man Club. “I’ve heard it gets crazy,” says Stillman. “I’m excited for that.”

Photography Lauren Bruce

The Mark, a feature magazine published by the students in Menlo-Atherton High School’s Journalism class, is an open forum for student expression and the discussion of issues of concern to its readership. The Mark is distributed to its readers and the student body at no cost. The staff welcomes letters to the editor, but reserves the right to edit all submissions for length, grammar, potential libel, invasion of privacy, and obscenity. Submissions do not necessarily reflect the opinions of all M-A students or the staff of The Mark. Send all submissions to submittothemark@gmail.com.

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