Issue 1 2017-18

the Nexus Westview High School

Jack Charles (12) leads the Wolverines in a water polo game against Valhala.

See Water Polo, p. 10

September 15, 2017 | Vol. XVI, Issue 1 | 13500 Camino del Sur San Diego, CA 92129 | wvnexus.org

from the

Dalia

Daniel Lang

Nathan Xia (12) directs his film on the Warner Bros set with the help of Rulin Xiong, a sound designer and boom mic operator at USC’s film program.

Twittersphere

tweet us @wvnexus

Anuj Khetarpal (11) Aug. 28 | 12:08 AM | @KhetarpalAnuj

“I honestly can’t wrap my head around how in movies actors don’t rinse their mouth after brushing their teeth”

Kerry Wang (12) Aug. 31 | 10:39 PM | @KerryWangg

“Ok maybe it’s not a GOOD idea to take a nap at 10:30pm but at least I’m CONSISTENT with it and do it every day”

Adrianne McWilliams (11) Aug. 4 | 3:56 PM | @dree_mcwilliams

“herbie fully loaded and sky high were cinematic masterpieces and if u don’t feel the same way i want nothing 2 do w u”

Photo courtesy of Ian Corrigan

Xia creates short film at Warner Bros Studios

In this

ISSUE

Funds for the new hydration stations

$6k

Amount raised by ASB with the help of Ella Smith (‘17) and the Neighborhood Reinvestment Grant.

1.

“Love thy Neighbor”

2. a film by Nathan Xia (12)

See Hydration, p. 3

Competitors for the U-17 USA National Volleyball Team

60

Adam Chang (11) faced 59 competitors for a spot at the 2017 USA National Volleyball Camp.

See Volleyball, p. 5

52%

Support the removal of Confederate statues

“The reasons that warrant removal are not based on the erasure or denial of history.”

See Monuments, p. 8

1.

Establishing shot of the bank.

Lots of color and movement to the frame.

Symmetrically framed and has a warm color tone to represent Johnny’s (the protagonist) familiarity with the world of crime and how he enjoys it.

3.

3. The neighborhood set in Warner Brothers Studios where the majority of the film was shot in.

4.

2. Establishing

shot of the house in the neighborhood.

Symmetrically framed and has a cooler color tone to represent Johnny’s distaste for his new lifestyle.

4. The delivery of the most

important line of the film is at this point. The background is white while the character is darker illustrating his evil character in a good world.

Design by Amber Hauw and Alice Markman Film stills courtesy of Nathan Xia

Nicole Musano Staff Writer

Nathan Xia (12) does not like films.

He craves them. He needs them. But he does not simply like them. They are his thoughts and ideas, mind and soul.

Without films, there is no Nathan Xia. He does not like films.

Although, his acceptance of this reality has taken 17 years, Xia strives to be extraordinary..

After being accepted into the University of Southern California’s film school summer program, Xia was given the chance to write, direct and produce several films.

While staying at the dorms at USC, Xia may or may not have spent his time eating an unhealthy amount of ramen noodles, but at the same time, he was learning to navigate the film industry.

“To distinguish yourself,” Xia said, “[USC] stressed the importance of being someone who contributes and is easy to work with, someone who can mold to their surroundings.”

Part of learning to adapt involved class lessons on basic and more advanced film techniques, including everything from camera angles, cinematography, editing and sound design to story writing, lighting, movie analysis, and screenwriting. Xia would also learn more about the art of directing, his preferred specialization. “[Directing] is a very hands-on thing,” Xia said. “You’re communicating your vision, you’re working with actors, and you’re trying to be the best collaborator as possible.”

The connections needed to be able to work with others meant that, while class time was spent on film studies, any free time was dedicated to the subject as well.

“Even when we weren’t in class, we’d be shooting movies, we’d be talking about movies, we’d be thinking about movies, and we’d be watching movies,” he said.

Back in the classroom, Xia and the other students were given several film project assignments. One project in particular, however, caught the eye of everyone in the room as they were presented with the opportunity to direct, write, and film on the set of a Warner Bros. studio lot. In order to participate, students were told to submit scripts that the class would later vote on.

In writing his script, Xia took from his own experience of struggling with the decision to choose the life he wants rather than the life he felt he was supposed to want. Raised to value security over passion, Xia grappled with his situation for a long time.

“At the end of the day what I really want to do is be a filmmaker,” he said. “Would I be able to go a day without thinking about films? The answer is no. So am I willing to risk everything? Yes.’” After pitching his vision to the class, “Love thy Neighbor” was one of the four scripts chosen to be produced.

A short film emulating the style of a 1950s action comedy, “Love thy Neighbor” deals with the notion of free will

See Films, p. 4

Zhang discovers method for early leukemia diagnosis Kristina Nguyen

Amber Hauw

Justin Fernandez (12) and Pablo Cruz (12) fish together in La Jolla. The two starting fishing together as freshmen.

See Fishing, p. 5

Features Editor As a child, Daniel Zhang (12) was always encouraged to be curious.

“When I was little, my aunt would bring me to different places like museums and restaurants and she would encourage me to ask questions and to really dissect the world around me,” Zhang said.

But when Zhang was 8 years old, his aunt passed away from acute myeloid leukemia (AML).

“The biggest issue was that she was diagnosed late, at the

third stage of leukemia,” he said. “I’ve always had a passion for biology and chemistry, and after she passed away, she was one of the main motivations for why I wanted to go into research.”

During his freshman year, Zhang took his first step and reached out to local professors in hopes of getting the tools to begin his research.

“I had to begin emailing researchers at UCSD and Salk Institute, and my emails were crafted to ask the professors questions, so that way, they knew I was genuinely interested,” he said.

From there, he received several responses and was eventually interviewed by a professor at UCSD who invited Zhang to

work in his lab.

His first year there was mainly spent reading and learning from research papers. While reading a paper about using a concept known as methylation to differentiate between normal patients and those with Rett syndrome, he was struck with inspiration in the form of yet another question.

“When I read that paper, I said, ‘Hey, could I apply this to cancer?’” Zhang said. “That’s how [my project] kickstarted.”

His second year at the lab, he participated in a project using sequencing and techniques from the human genome project

See Research, p. 6

the Nexus

2 News

Sept. 15, 2017

From San Diego to the Path of Totality On Aug. 21, several Westview students embarked on road trips to view the first solar eclipse visible in totality from the continental U.S. since 1979. The U.S. will not see another total solar eclipse until April 2024.

Carly Burstedt Rexburg, Idaho Olivia Dealy

Staff Writer The day prior to the total solar eclipse, Carly Burstedt (12) was lucky enough to witness a sneak peek of the danger that could have resulted from staring at the sun during the eclipse without the proper protective eyewear.

“My cousin’s husband the day before had his binoculars and his eclipse glasses on and the binoculars in front of them and he was looking at the sun beforehand,” Burstedt said. “When he took his glasses off, he saw burn marks in the eclipse glasses. So yeah, we learned the lesson to not put magnification in front of the glasses because they aren’t strong enough [to endure the sun’s rays.]”

According to Burstedt, this incident proved to be nothing in comparison with the excitement that accompanied observing the full solar eclipse itself the next day.

After driving to Rexburg, Idaho–a town that was conveniently located in the path of totality, or the zones where the moon completely covers the sun–a few days prior to stay with extended family for the eclipse, Burstedt and her family were well-prepared and enjoyed the moments leading up to the eclipse.

“Leading up to [the eclipse] was cool because it slowly [got] a little colder and then at the very, very last 10 seconds before it, everything got a lot darker,” Burstedt said. “It was amazing to see the sunsets around the corona in the sky. [The corona] wasn’t a perfect circle, but a little uneven and we saw a few planets as well.”

In retrospect, Burstedt said that the breathtaking sight of the eclipse was ultimately worth driving hundreds of miles for.

“It was really breathtaking, and it was sad that it was so short,” Burstedt said.

“It [didn’t]t even [last] for two minutes, but I think it was worth going, and it was definitely a cool experience.”

Lincoln City Rexburg

Grand Island

Kobe Gatti Grand Island, Nebraska Olivia Dealy

Staff Writer At 5 a.m., Kobe Gatti’s (12) alarm buzzed, marking the start of the day he had been anticipating for weeks: the day of the solar eclipse.

“My dad and I are both really into science and astronomy, so [the solar eclipse] was a real big deal to us,” Gatti said.

With the desire to view the solar eclipse with 100 percent coverage, or in totality, the two agreed to drive all the way from San Diego to Granville, Nebraska–a rural town a few hour drive from Omaha–in order to view the eclipse.

“California was potentially the worst place to be for the eclipse since it’s only 50 percent coverage,” Gatti said. “Even if you’re in 99.9 percent coverage, there’s still 10,000 more lumens of light in totality. So, to experience not only the total eclipse without glasses, but the darkness around you [that] felt like night time [all because of] that little difference [in the number of lumens] was really crazy.”

In the hours leading up to the eclipse, Gatti and his dad drove away from their hotel in Omaha and towards the path of totality. When they reached Granville, Gatti and his dad chose a vacant parking lot to await and view the eclipse–sans the large crowds that showed up to other viewing locations.

“The eclipse just slowly crept up on us,” Gatti said. “It was exponential how dark [the sky] got and the next thing you know the eclipse was right there and it was the coolest thing I’ve ever seen. Photos really don’t do it justice, and you’ll be left in awe for sure.”

Reaching Totality This map shows the path of the moon’s umbral shadow. According to NASA, the lunar shadow entered the U.S. in Lincoln City, Oregon, at 9:05 a.m. and left at 4:09 p.m. Fractions of the sun were covered by the moon, until eventually, the sun was completely covered by the moon. This is the maximum phase of an eclipse and called totality.

Design by Amber Hauw and Mattie Sanseverino

Wu places in top 20 in National Chemistry Olympiad Tiffany Le

Final Focus Editor Throughout the year, while his peers spent their time after school with friends, playing sports, or doing homework, David Wu (11) put all his efforts into studying for the annual multi-tiered competition known as Chemistry Olympiad (USNCO).

The USNCO is a high school competition designed for the purpose of choosing the top four chemistry students to represent the United States in the International Chemistry Olympiad.

Wu was initially introduced to USNCO his freshman year during AP Chemistry when his teacher, Scott Halander, presented it to the class as an optional assignment. Having been interested in chemistry from a young age because his father majored in chemistry in college, Wu decided to give Chemistry Olympiad a shot.

“What I like the most about Chemistry is that a lot of people have access to chemicals, and you can do really basic but interesting experiments at the same time,” he said.

The competition begins with a local exam. In Wu’s case, it was held at the University of San Diego.

A maximum of two people who scored the highest in each school can then move on to Nationals, where they take three tests—multiple choice, free response, and a lab.

Based on their performance in the national section, 20 out of 16,000 students from across the Unit-

ed States are picked to attend a study camp in Colorado. Although Wu only made it through the first round as a freshman, the following year he made it to the Chemistry Study Camp. He attributes this success to the extensive hours he put into reading outside the regular AP Chemistry curriculum. While he did not spend much time studying outside of class the first year, Wu dedicated up to two hours a day to learning new topics such as molality, and organic chemistry.

Wu was flown to the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs in June and spent two weeks at the competition.

“The hardest part was actually having to manage everything by myself—even the simple things like waking yourself up in the morning at 6 o’clock every day, or living independently in dorms and having to focus on things you more ordinarily wouldn’t,” he said.

For those 14 days, Wu attended to lectures from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m., completed labs from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., and took tests from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.

“What I like about chemistry are mostly the labs,” Wu said. “My favorite was a lab we did where we synthesized aspirin. [Chemistry] allowed me to understand the world around me a little bit better, and I enjoyed being surrounded by people who had the same passion for chemistry.”

Despite the fact that the Chemistry Study Camp was a competition, Wu found himself creating numerous relationships with peers and mentors.

“I made a bunch of close friends when I was

there,” he said. “The coolest part was that they were all from completely different parts of the country.

Most of them were from central or eastern places, so I got to learn differences between their schools and ours.”

As time went on, he learned that many of his competitors were either seniors or repeating study campers, giving them more experience.

“I was fazed because when we got there, some of the people knew the material so well that I felt like they even knew it better than our mentors,” he said.

“But I tried my best and that’s the most you can do.”

His mentors repeatedly told the students that even though part of the study camp’s purpose was to pick out the top four students to represent the United States at Internationals in Thailand, it was also a way for the students to access information and materials that they wouldn’t have back at home because each of the three mentors specialized in a different subcategories of chemistry.

By the end of the two weeks, Wu took a total of three practical exams, three quizzes, and one test.

Although he was not chosen to go to Internationals, he said he felt as if the entire experience humbled him.

“Prior to this, I felt like I knew the material well, but after going in I realized there’s a lot more that I can learn,” Wu said. “After attending the camp, I feel more passionate and motivated about chemistry, and I hope that by studying even more, I can take a step forward and make it to the four-person team next year.”

Procedure for Aspirin Synthesis C7H6O3 + C4H6O3 → C9H8O4

Salicylic acid + Acetic anhydride → Aspirin

1. Put salicylic acid and acetic anhydride into a round bottomed flask and place the flask into a beaker full of boiling water for 20 minutes.

2. After reacting, add a couple drops of concentrated sulfuric acid.

3. Slowly add 1-2 milliliters of warm water to the warm mixture of the products. Let the flask slowly cool down and scratch the inside of the flask to induce crystallization of the aspirin.

4. Use vacuum filtration to pull away the excess liquid.

Design by Andrea Chen and Kevin Lu

N E W S S TA N D What’s happening around campus...

G116

Oct. 6 is the last day to turn in CSF applications.

Applications can be turned in Fridays at lunch in Mrs. Loo’s room, G-116.

$5

Westview’s Got Talent runs from 7-8 p.m., Sept. 28. Tickets are $5 and are available for purchase in the ASB room.

7:00

The Resume Writing and Interviewing Skills event, hosted by Westview PTSA Sept. 18, is located in the staff lounge from 7-9 p.m.

28th

The deadline to opt out of the PSAT for sophomores in October is Sept. 28.

Visit the website or see Ms. Garcia for the form.

... and around the world.

“We are united in facing this humanitarian crisis.”

“I stayed here so I could tell everyone what happened.”

“The establishment is out to get Donald Trump.”

“If we don’t turn back, we will go down.”

ALEJANDRO MURAT, Oaxaca state governor, on the state’s response to the 8.1 magnitude earthquake that struck Mexico Sept. 7, where the death toll has risen to 76.

VICTORIA BARRELLA, Hurricane Irma survivor, explaining why she waited out the storm when it hit Cudjoe Key at 9:10 a.m. on Sunday. Officials estimate 25 percent of residents stayed despite the evacuation warning.

JEANINE PIRRO, The host of Fox News Channel’s Justice with Judge Jeanine, criticizing the inability of the Republican party to pass legislation. Instead, President Trump worked with Democrats to raise the debt ceiling.

POPE FRANCIS, Religious leader, commenting on the numerous hurricanes battering the Gulf Coast, calling on everybody to take responsibility and take action against climate change.

Compiled by Zara Irshad and Kevin Lu

the Nexus

Sept. 15, 2017

3 News

Ziegler undertakes role as new principal Neek Azar

Editor in Chief

Neek Azar

How Ziegler came to Westview

Tina Ziegler had been the assistant principal at Westview from 2008 to 2011. After that, she moved on and served as the principal at Sunset Hills Elementary School.

“I loved the atmosphere [at Westview] but when the opportunity came to have my own school, to be a principal, I took that on,” she said.

After serving as Sunset Hills’ principal for seven years, she returned to Westview.

“West-what?”

“Westview!”

Preserving Traditions

Personalized Pathways

It was Ziegler’s first time seeing the students she would lead: the seniors she’d send off, the freshmen she was about to welcome.

As she stepped off the golf cart to face the Pep Rally crowd on the first day of school, the students began to chant.

“West-what?”

“Westview!”

“The students were so positive, the energy was amazing and what I especially enjoyed was how the students were so spirited and supportive of their students that were on the field leading it,” she said. “It was all student-led and I felt very welcomed.”

Ziegler said she looks to continue Westview’s tradition of innovation and setting the course for the rest of the district.

“A lot of what Westview was built on is what’s cycling around [in education] again now,” she said. “We were the first to do the 4x4 schedule, and also the homeroom. I want to make sure we continue with that [tradition]. The teachers here, the atmosphere, the culture of communication and the students are all a part of this culture, and leading it is so exciting.”

During her time then and now, Ziegler recognizes one thing about Westview—it allows students to pursue their passions. Ziegler said she hopes to continue in that direction.

“Personalized pathways is a very common theme that is coming up more often now in education in which you have students taking more ownership in their learning,” she said. “[At Westview], you [have the option to] take three classes and graduate early or maybe do something like an internship if you want.”

Design by Amber Hauw

School receives county grant to fund installation of two hydration stations Kevin Lu

Staff Writer Ella Smith (’17) believes that all students should have access to free, fresh drinking water on campus. She served on the California State Parent Teacher Association (PTA) her junior and senior years when she was at Westview. However, during her time there, she found that the old water fountains at Westview were dirty and weren’t functioning well, so she took matters into her own hands.

As the health committee’s representative, Smith studied health-related legislation related to K-12 students and attended monthly meetings with the legislative team in Sacramento. In her work there, Smith came across a bill that failed to pass, which advocated for students to have free, fresh drinking water.

“After one of the Sacramento meetings, [the bill] was still on my mind,” she said.

“I realized that the water fountains at Westview were few [in numbers] and not really well-functioning, [and] I was in ASB so [I] started talking to Mrs. Parker about it, talking to the head custodian, Mr. Wolfe, about it. ” During her senior year, she decided to take action to improve the drinking fountains and to further her cause, she met with the Poway Unified Board of Education.

“Mrs. Kimberley Beatty [member of the PUSD Board of Education] liked my passion for access to water, so she was really supportive and encouraged me,” Smith said.

Kevin Pert Afterwards, Smith applied for a Neighborhood Reinvestment Grant through the office Ethan Bridges (10) fills up his water bottle. The new of former county supervisor Dave Roberts. hydration stations are by the E and K boys bathrooms. The grant provides funds for county depart-

ments, public agencies, and community organizations, which include social, environmental, educational, and/or recreational needs.

“Beatty and I met with Roberts about the grant, and [social science teacher] Mr. Spiess was really helpful since he knew someone who used to work for Roberts,” Smith said.

Though applying for the grant was a confusing process, as she received little to no help on it, Smith was able to obtain $6,000 to pay for the hydration stations.

Last year, ASB raised enough money for one hydration station in the library. Now, with the money from the Neighborhood Reinvestment Grant, more hydration stations could be installed around the school.

The installation process was relatively simple and no new plumbing connecting the state water supply to the hydration stations.

“These new hydration stations are extremely convenient and you don’t have to walk to the library to fill your water bottle,” Ethan Bridges (10) said. “Even though the fountains are a little shorter than they used to be, I really appreciate the cleanliness.”

Aniruddh Khanwale (11) also found the new water fountains useful and versatile. He said that he preferred these new fountains over last year’s older fountains.

“I think they’re really cool and not dirty like last year,” he said. “I really like that you can fill your water bottle up and be able to bring it back with you to class.”

Though Smith has already graduated from Westview, she has brought about campus-wide access to clean, filtered water so that students could stay hydrated during the school day.

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Inspired by teacher, Shah organizes free coding program for local students Julie Zhu

Staff Writer Ronak Shah (12) stood at the front of the Rancho Peñasquitos Library Activity Room, watching middle and elementary schoolers trickle in, filling up the 50 chairs.

Every day from July 3rd to 7th, 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., Shah, along with SD Code Vice President Nir Levin (12) and student teacher Nicholas Spencer (11), taught a class called Introduction to Coding Fundamentals with Java, one of the three summer camps organized by the nonprofit he founded, San Diego Code.

After Shah’s introduction to coding through his friends and a summer camp in 7th grade, Shah found a passion in programming, using it as a creative outlet to express his ideas through a skill he enjoyed. After taking AP Computer Science freshman year, Shah was inspired by his teacher, Tammy Neuhaus, to continue learning and working on his coding skills.

“I’ve always been really creative and wanted a way to express that, since I’m terrible at drawing and not that great of a writer,” he said. “With coding, I felt like I could convey my thoughts and ideas through something I never had the ability to do before.”

Shah formulated his idea for a nonprofit to teach coding after his own teaching experiences with organizations like the Mesa Verde Middle School Programming Club he founded, Westview Robotics, and volunteering for Code.org.

“I had always been teaching code through other organizations, but I never really liked the way they did it ,” Shah said. “I created the non-profit so I could have my kind of structure to it and get funding to do better things.”

Last summer, Shah and Levin started SD Code as a nonprofit organization and used social media and the Rancho Peñasquitos Library calendar to advertise their summer camps and workshops and gain.

SD Code currently has a group of teachers who volunteer and manage three regular events: summer camps, workshops and coding nights.

Summer coding camps are free three-week events at the Rancho Peñasquitos Library taught by Shah, Levin and Spencer, with a different subject camp each week.

The camps’ curriculums were created by Shah, Levin and Spencer, allowing them to continue the original purpose of the nonprofit— to teach code in their own way.

“While there is a lot of great online resources, we felt that we wanted to make the curriculum even more friendly for people who have no experience,” Shah said, “We created a website called sdcoding.com and we have...curriculum on the website.

The idea is that anyone can go there and ==+walk through the curriculum, if they have any questions and help them during the workshop.”

Though these camps are only held once a year, they are the biggest and most popular events SD Code hosts, and often require waitlists to hold excess attendees.

The workshops are year-round, and are hosted every Friday at the library from 4-5:30 pm. People of any age and skill level are invited to follow online tutorials created by SD Code with coding-experienced volunteers supervising and assisting them with any problems.

These volunteers are central to SD Code’s teaching strategy.

“A lot of the time you can’t just expect to take an [online] class for everything, you have to learn how to learn it yourself, and that’s what we do in those workshops,” Shah said.

SD Code’s newest events are Coding Nights –sessions aimed at introducing elementary school students to the concept of computer programming and coding to prepare them for a technological future.

In their Introduction to Java summer camp, Shah starts the class off by dividing students into groups and giving them a simple task: write instructions on how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Shah then makes a peanut butter and jelly sandwich directly following the written instructions the way computers read code. “[The students] will say get ‘jelly, how do I get jelly?’” Shad said. “We just grabbed the whole jelly jar and put it on the bread, and then we gave them the sandwich with the two jars of peanut butter and jelly.”

By having the students write detailed instructions on simple, familiar tasks, Shah introduces them to how computers require extremely detailed codes in order to complete a task.

This year, with Shah and Levin in their last year of high school, SD Code has merged with Catalyst for Success in order to expand Catalyst’s efforts to include computer science in their club, and to ensure SD Code’s events continue even with Shah in college.

Looking back on his experience with teaching coding to young students, Shah says his favorite part of teaching is watching his students progress and grow.

“It’s really cool when the person you’re teaching shows you something you don’t know how to do, because I remember when this person didn’t know anything and now here they are showing me making me feel like, ‘Wow, how did they do that’,” he said. “It’s just when they accomplish something, it’s not just their accomplishment, you feel accomplished too and you feel, ‘Wow, I showed this kid something.”

the Nexus

4 Features

Sept. 15, 2017 Mattie’s Musings Mattie Sanseverino

Football Games and Forgetting Names

Nicole Musano

Amiet Scheidegger (12) and Ashley Thai (12) conclude their show that featured children aged 5-11. After eight weeks of practices, the kids performed their play in front of friends and family.

Scheidegger, Thai teach acting to kids, stage production of ‘Willy Wonka, Jr.’ Alice Markman

Editor in Chief “Ms. Amiet,” a seemingly-terrified girl, no older than 5, said. “Can I be an Oompa Loompa?”

Amiet Scheidegger (12) and Ashley Thai (12), two new volunteers heading a children’s theatre program at the San Diego Public Library, giggled at the girl’s request. They agreed, penciling her in the cast list they began to compile for their production of Willy Wonka, Jr. Scheidegger and Thai, both active participants in the Westview Theatre Company, spearheaded this production in hopes of bringing a free and accessible theatre program to local Rancho Penasquitos kids. Rehearsals were held in the Rancho Penasquitos public library, where at least twice a week, the recreation room was transformed from a mundane space into a magical chocolate factory.

The program, free for the children, guarantees a role for every child between the ages of 5 and 11. The production features a series of singing and acting roles that come together to form a musical. The script Scheidegger had saved from her own time doing this play in elementary school.

“Willy Wonka is a great show to do with kids because there are a lot of characters, even ones you won’t remember from the movie,” Scheidegger said. “This junior version

makes sure that everybody has a speaking part and no one has too many lines.”

That chocolate factory sparked its magic on the children in unique ways. For one of the young girls, it made her stage fright disappear.

“One cute story is of this one girl who had really bad anxiety, and on the first day her mom told me that,” Scheidegger said. “I did not really know how bad it was, or what she would feel comfortable doing. I asked her just to read one line and she almost teared up because she could not do it.

But later on, I gave her the part of Mrs. Buckett, Charlie’s mother, and she memorized [her lines] faster than almost anyone else. [Now], she projects well, she speaks well. It is almost the only time I hear her speak, but I think that if she continues to do theatre, or even just this experience or other theatre experiences in the future, they are going to help her with anxiety.”

Another magical component of the chocolate factory was its ability to create such an excitement in the kids that they uniformly started singing before the music. Participants who had never before appeared in a production sang their hearts out, all while staying in character. That magic is part of the reason Scheidegger and Thai spent two days a week for eight weeks calming down rowdy children, painting sets and conducting acting exercises. They wanted to

bring local kids what they themselves didn’t have in their childhood: a free and accessible theatre program.

“I never did any of these summer [programs] because we couldn’t afford it, or we’d be traveling somewhere, so this is completely free to them,” Scheidegger said. “Most families don’t want to spend $300 on a theatre program, and I think it is really cool that [the kids] get the opportunity to do this, especially before they go to middle school and high school where [theatre] is more commitment and it is harder to get cast in roles. This is a good time to give everybody a chance, regardless of their skill level, and introduce [theatre].”

The chocolate factory also had its own effect on Scheidegger and Thai. In addition to getting an opportunity to spend more time together, the two were able to leave an appreciation for theatre in the hearts of the kids. They both expressed hope that this appreciation will stay with the kids.

“You can see the kids we work with, the ones who are already interested in theatre, and you can tell they’re interested in acting, they want bigger parts, they like being on stage,” Thai said. “So I think being able to do this as a kid allows them to segue easier to be able to do it in middle school and high school so that they will pursue theatre.”

And for them, that effect is its own kind of magical.

I saw online that we won our first football game. I was sitting on my bed, alternating between watching episodes of New Girl and staring at a blank document that supposedly had the potential to hold a college-admittance level essay.

If I had had the choice, I would have been at the game, standing with the other seniors toward the front of the Black Hole (that is, if I could even make my way up there), singing along to the chants and possibly sporting a thin line of eye-black to look spirited but not too spirited. However, I didn’t have the choice.

Why did I even want to be there? What’s the big appeal of standing in a mosh pit of teenagers, some you’ve never seen before, others you haven’t seen since that empty “let’s hang out sometime!” eleven months ago, and a few you’ve only talked to once on the first day of school when your teacher made you introduce yourself to three new people? Why do we get so excited to cram shoulder-to-shoulder and yell in a cauldron of body-heat while collecting sweat samples from the seventeen surrounding shoulders?

Sitting at home, I couldn’t help but feel a sting of regret. I wanted to be there, at the game. I wanted to be inside of the memories that surrounded me. The specifics of these memories may have been lost in time, but the feelings remain fresh. I could remember the excitement and adrenaline from the games last year, screaming along with the crowd, belting the chants, pretending to know what’s going on, hoping for a win. I remember the sense of belonging that came with standing in that crowd, being a part of something with pure fun. I remember the sense of unity.

When we’re watching the game, it doesn’t matter if the person screaming next to you was the victim of your awkward forced introduction on the first day of school; it doesn’t matter if you forgot their name. It doesn’t matter because you’re screaming too. It’s a time when we don’t have to think about our classes or our college applications, our confusing relationships or our assignment due dates.

You’re not the only one sweating buckets and straining your throat.

Football games are one of those things that remind me, this is my

high school experience. Embrace it.

Of course, I don’t feel like I instantly became an outsider at Westview because I missed one football game. Plenty of people don’t go to games. Sometimes it seems like a big part of high school is going to fun high school events, and an even bigger part is battling the fear of missing out on these events.

Being a senior, I can see how quickly time has passed. Three years went by so fast, and this year must be going by so much faster. It’s like the stakes just got 10 times higher; there’s no more room for negotiation, no more “next year’s.”

So, if I miss the first football game, am I going to be left incomplete; will I be merely a fraction of a high school student for the rest of my life? Will I close my eyes in shame every time I make eye contact with the football field?

No, this isn’t the end of me, nor is it the end of my social career.

Time is escaping me but high school isn’t over quite yet.

I will be at the next game. I’ll dig out a Westview t-shirt and decorate my face with some eye-black. I’ll be adding to the repository of memories that are vaguely labeled: “High School Experience.”

This whole “High School Experience” thing, it’s not really about the games. It’s about finding the sense of togetherness hidden within high school. We’re all rooting for the same win, to simply make it through. We’re a team.

Kang interns in South Korea with Overseas Koreans Foundation Lina Lew

Staff Writer Daniel Kang (12) didn’t know what to expect.

He applied for the four-week business internship on a whim. The Overseas Koreans Foundation was extremely competitive and never accepted high school interns; even graduate students were often cut from the applicant pile. The foundation, which provided networking opportunities and scholarship-based resources for Koreans living outside of South Korea’s borders, was a subsidiary company under South Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Kang knew his chances of being accepted were one in a million.

“I applied thinking, ‘What if?’ but it was their mission statement, which emphasized a ‘better tomorrow for millions of overseas Koreans’ that got me hooked,” Kang said. “I told them that I could offer a lot of meaningful input, and in the future I want to do the same PR and marketing-related things that they do.”

Luckily for Kang, he turned out to be that one in a million.

Despite Kang’s youth, the Overseas Korean Foundation was impressed by his marketing skills and resume, which included Mission EIGTYE, a self-started program with a similar goal that offers opportunities to kids overseas.

Within weeks of being accepted, Kang was on a plane to Seoul, South Korea, and thrown straight into the nine-to-five lifestyle.

When he walked in on his first day, the room went quiet. Eleven pairs of eyes shot toward Kang, who had just entered the dimly lit conference room full of employees who were 10 or 20 years older than him. Kang immediately noticed that he was the youngest one in the room­—by more than a decade.

“Even though they thought I was in college, they were still hesitant on welcoming me in,” Kang said. “I thought being accepted as an intern was the end of it, but it turned out it was just the beginning. Now I had to prove myself to all these people.”

Soon enough, Kang was able to gain the trust of older employees through his unique perspective on ideas and projects, including designing the official stamp of the Overseas Korean Foundation on his own time. Kang’s hardworking attitude allowed him to become a helping hand around the office, as well as offer his own input towards the company’s final products.

“They didn’t treat me like a kid,” Kang said.

“They gave me some stuff that nobody wanted to do, but they also threw me onto some of the jobs that everyone wanted to do.”

Kang has been involved in business administration and marketing for years, participating in programs such as Mission EIGTYE, but Kang’s internship was far from anything he had ever experienced before. From editing PowerPoints for a global convention to communicating with other organizations and participants, Kang spent every waking moment learning the basics of a real-life

office job.

“I learned what it truly means to have all that responsibility fall on you,” Kang said. “I learned how to deal with deadlines that mattered more than a grade or a school project.”

During his four weeks, Kang played an important role in the Organization of Events of Global Korean Convention, a three-day conference hosted by the foundation where he was given tasks that were crucial to making sure the entire conference ran smoothly. Kang was responsible for designing the final presentation, handling VIP guests, creating the layout of the conference brochure, and more.

“I really got a true authentic work experience of the pressure of deadlines, where the managers are actually yelling at you to do stuff right,” Kang said. “One little slip-up could have horrifying consequences.”

One of the biggest challenges that Kang faced during his overseas internship was learning the technicalities of Korean office culture, which was different from what he had previously been exposed to.

Although Kang has been to Korea in the past, his internship allowed him to truly learn how to work and interact with his coworkers in a professional office space.

“Learning the culture was rough in the beginning,” said Kang. “You don’t eat with the higher-ups and you can’t talk to them unless they talk to you first. There are certain ways you need to stand, dress, and certain ways you need to ad-

dress them.”

For three days, Kang stayed up constantly, working late nights to prepare for the next day of convention with people in their 30s and 40s.

“Convention went on way past normal hours,” Kang said. “The first two days were basically non-stop work. It was super high pressure—but it was still so much fun.”

Though the convention was exhausting, Kang learned all the ins and outs of a job in the real world, treating every single task he got as an opportunity to learn more about his passion.

“I really wanted to do as much as I could in a month,” he said. “I treated the month almost as a stepping stone for a new me.”

In addition to learning about the business world, Kang also made friendships with his coworkers along the way.

“It was the small things, like going out for chicken late at night, or going on food runs for the higher-ups,” Kang said. “It was the little things that added up to a lot of camaraderie.”

Kang’s overseas internship allowed him to gain valuable connections. He attended a Teens Networking Camp where he met people from different parts of the world.

“The best part of meeting so many people was that we were all striving towards one goal-to help Koreans overseas,” he said. “I’m still in touch with a lot of them today.”

Throughout his internship, Kang said that he remained dedicated to the company and took every decision he made more seriously than he

would anywhere else, even if it ended up hurting him along the way.

One day during the convention, Kang tripped and injured his tailbone, making it difficult for him to continue working.

Once the injury grew to the point where he couldn’t even walk, Kang couldn’t ignore the pain any longer and decided to visit a doctor. The doctor gave him the option of a less painful surgery with two days of rest, or a quicker surgery with no saline fluid and no recovery days.

Knowing he had co-workers counting on him to return to work, Kang decided to push through the pain and choose the quicker, more strenuous surgery in order to get back to his internship the next day.

“That decision to choose the tougher surgery was pretty mind-blowing,” Kang said. “It was one of the biggest lessons I learned. I treated myself as a worker. Sometimes your health needs to take a backseat when you know there are deadlines and other people are counting on you.”

Kang had interned at the Overseas Korean Foundation looking to expand his horizons and become more deeply involved with real life experience in the business field. At the end of his trip, he confirmed what he had already believed in the first place.

“This business world is a chaotic place where deadlines, projects, and new issues are always coming up,” he said. “Everything is always fastpaced; it’s stressful and it’s crazy, but that’s what I love about it.”

Xia produces film at USC summer program Films, from page 1 versus destiny through the characters Johnny and Brent, a robber and FBI agent.

In an effort to live out his days in peace, Johnny moves to the suburbs, only to discover that his neighbor is the agent who almost apprehended him on his final heist.

Following Johnny’s inability to properly fit into his new life as a citizen and his struggle to deny the criminal he is inside, tensions mount throughout the film as Brent grows ever more suspicious.

Finally, at the film’s climax, Johnny uses a knife to kill Brent, throwing away his attempt to leave his life of crime behind and instead embracing it.

“I saw myself as the character,” Xia said. “I didn’t see myself committing manslaughter but I saw myself choosing the decision to make this life my own.”

The film’s style reflects Xia’s own character style. He directs and cuts scenes as

fast as he talks, one quick movement after another. Rarely stopping to take a breath, rarely stopping to wait for his audience to catch up. Xia upped the film’s suspense and intrigue through this style, and cut down on film time without deleting scenes.

“I love leaving the audience ten frames behind me, trailing behind me,” he said.

After wrapping up the final scene on the final project, Xia knew his work was far from over. On the bus ride back to the dorms, as exhausted as he was, Xia couldn’t sleep. Instead, he thought back on the scene’s significance in his own life.

“That day, I shot a scene about identity and that day I found mine,” Xia said. “This has been something that’s been brewing and stirring in my mind and in my heart for a really long time.”

Knowing what he wants out of life is one thing. Being able to actively live it out, however, is an entirely different thing. But everyone has to start somewhere.

5 features the Nexus Students connect through fishing experiences

Sept. 15, 2017 Amber Hauw Design Editor

Once Ryan Hopkins (12) cast his 20-pound line, he took a breath and laid back. For most catfishers, listening to music and talking with friends as the sunset fades to a dark night sky make this particular type of fishing relaxing. However, Hopkins and his friend Nathan Deweese (12) were having a slow night at Lake Poway.

“We were about to leave,” Hopkins said. “We packed everything up, and we were just about to bring in the rods when one of them got bit really hard. It started running really fast.”

After 30 seconds of fighting, the catfish snapped off. Although Hopkins thought he missed a good catch, 10 minutes later, the same rod got bit. What Hopkins assumed was a five-pound catfish turned out to be a 45½-pounder.

“We managed to work it around the rocks,” Hopkins said. “[Deweese] went in the water to grab it because it was so big and we couldn’t pull it up onto the shore. He went all the way out there, in chest-deep water, and bear-hugged this thing.”

Greeted by nearly 30 people on the dock, Hopkins weighed his catch, discovering he smashed a 9-year-old Lake Poway record by 10 pounds.

“It’s my home lake, and it’s my favorite place to fish,” Hopkins said. “If I were to break a record anywhere, I wanted it to be there.”

For Hopkins and many of his friends, fishing has been passed down by family members for generations. While Hopkins started fishing with his dad when he was 2, Nicky Vu (11), started just a year after. Justin Fernandez (12) started fishing as a toddler, later joining Hopkins in seventh grade.

“When Ryan and I started fishing, we went to Poway to fish for trout early in the morning,” Fernandez said.

Pablo Cruz (12) started fishing at local beaches in eighth grade, after his aunt and uncle, who also started at a young age, introduced him to a pier in Laguna Beach.

“My aunt taught me how to put bait on,” Cruz said. “After that, we caught fish every day. Fishing is our lifestyle. Sometimes we keep the fish and eat it with our family.”

Once the four started fishing, it became addictive.

“You start off with one kind of fishing and then you keep transitioning to different types,” Hopkins added. “It gets more interesting with each new type of fishing you get into.”

Although parents and relatives brought Hopkins, Vu, Fernandez, and Cruz to the water, the fishing community expanded their knowledge of it. Many fellow fishermen offer advice, and after more than a decade of experience, Hopkins, Vu, and Fernandez have accumulated a vast knowledge of the inner workings of the docks and the bite — all of which allowed Vu to get sports boat rides for free and land a part-time job on the Pacific Voyager, a charter sport boat that is locally based. Even Cruz, who has only fished for four years, said he owes a lot to fellow fishers.

“There are a lot of fishermen we hang out with,” Cruz said. “They’ve taught us a lot, especially on these boats. Deckhands helped us out often, and we eventually became friends.”

Deckhands teach young fishers about the many factors that usually determine how much of a certain fish one can catch in a day. Most fishers look for the fish instead of waiting for them to bite the rod, constantly transitioning from relaxing to hunting.

“You research before you go,” Hopkins said.

“You check the tides, the swell, the water temperature, and the weather patterns. You are always scanning the water, looking for birds diving in for bait.”

Other days, simply luck is on the fisher’s side.

“You can catch nothing for the entire day and a school of fish [will] come by,” Hopkins said. “This happens a lot, especially with tuna. You can be offshore and find 50 schools a day, but 49 don’t want to bite while one of them may bite. It can also go wide open for 30 minutes and you can catch hundreds of fish.”

Fishers like Hopkins and Vu also try to explore below the surface of the water with their rods, allowing them to pinpoint rocks, buoys, or wooden structures—spots where fish tend to gather.

“You know where that rock is or that stick is,” Hopkins said. “There’s a fish right there. There’s normally fish there. Over time, as you fish at local freshwater and saltwater lakes and ponds you’ll know that there is a rock a 100 feet out that way.”

Ultimately, the factors that need to be considered depends on the type of fish a fisher targets.

“I usually do bass fishing, and sometimes shark fishing,” Cruz said. “Bass fishing is an all-day thing. Shark fishing can take all day, but it’s better go in the morning or evening.”

In addition, here are also various times when fishers’ knowledge of the bite is not enough and they don’t catch anything.

“You’re gonna skunk a lot,” Vu said. “There were

times where I skunked for months.”

Despite this, the anticipation and the small windows of pure adrenaline that sporadically surface on the boats make fishing worthwhile for Hopkins and his friends.

“If you are always catching fish, [fishing] will not be fun anymore,” Hopkins said.

“That one day, you line up on a spot right and you get bit,” Vu said. “What’s really cool is when you get bit, you feel it or see it if you are fishing topwater. One of the best things is holding the rod and once it loads up, feeling that bend.”

It’s an all-too-familiar sensation that, to fishers like Hopkins, still feels the same as when he caught little bluegill at Lake Poway when he was 2.

During high tide at Children’s Pool, La Jolla, Ryan Hopkins (12) fishes for Calico bass with friends.

Amber Hauw

Chang attends week-long Dawson qualifies for Drum Corps International, competes around US camp, earns spot on top Evan Buckland Managing Editor

Eric Dawson (11) walked onto the field of the open class Drum Corps International Finals with excitement as he stood in front of a cheering crowd. He had never performed for this many people, and this performance would determine where his Drum Corps group placed in the tournament.

“Walking onto that field for the final performance was definitely my favorite moment,” he said. “The stands were almost full and I had not played in front of this many people before. It was really loud from people’s’ cheering.”

Dawson has been playing trumpet since the fifth grade, but it was not until 9th grade that he switched from regular band to marching band.

“My brother told me to try it [competitive marching band] for one year to see if I liked it,” he said. I was a little skeptical at first about whether I would like it or not but I ended up loving it.”

Upon joining competitive marching band, Dawson became serious about perfecting his skills with the instrument. He had a newfound sense of motivation that he had not had before.

“As soon as I joined marching band, music became more about putting on a performance, rather than just about the music,” he said. “This was something that I found that I actually really enjoyed. It made it so that others could actually see the music that we played instead of just listening to it.”

To Dawson, music became more rewarding when being able to see the reaction of the audience. It was here that Dawson found his passion for performing. After his first two years of playing in Westview Gold,

Dawson decided to apply the technique he learned in marching band and auditioned for Drum Corps International, a national competition that places young performers into groups comprised of a marching band and a color guard.

“I decided to do [Drum Corps International] because I really enjoyed high school marching band, and I thought I would try doing something that was essentially a more difficult version of what I enjoyed doing,” he said.

The band and color guard have to perform in unison in order to put on the performance. They both have to go through intensive training to work on their coordination and rhythm.

“The band is made up of percussion and brass, and then the band is paired up with color guard,” he said. “So during the performance, color guard dances to our music while we are both on the field. We are judged based on our musical ability, as well as visual.”

The visual score is based on how well the group is able to stay synchronized while marching or flag twirling. According to Dawson, there is an intricate process that the band must follow when marching in time to music.

“With marching band, it is really difficult to play and step to the music at the same time,” he said. “You have to have straight legs and you don’t want to have your marching affect your sound: the audience shouldn’t hear weird inflections in your playing when you are marching.”

With all these skills that he had acquired from Gold, Dawson auditioned for Drum Corps International with hopes of being placed on a team. Within Drum Corps International, there are two competitions. The

open class and world class competition.

The top 12 teams in open class, along with 23 other teams that originally qualified for world class, all compete in one final competition that takes place in Indianapolis. Dawson qualified for the open class competition and was put on a team of 150 people. His love for performing grew after spending the entire summer practicing for that competition with other marching band members.

“It was a really great experience to be able to spend the entire summer with these 150 people who all wanted to work towards the same goal: to put on an amazing show,” Dawson said.

Dawson’s team went through several performances in order to make it to the open class finals. They traveled to a multitude of places in order to compete.

“We started out in California, and with each competition we won, we got to travel to another state,” he said. “After California, we traveled to Wyoming, and then to Iowa, then Minnesota, then Wisconsin, then Michigan, and then our open class finals performance was in Michigan City.”

Dawson’s team finally reached the open class finals which qualified them for the world class competition. From there, the team traveled to Indianapolis for the quarterfinals of the world class performance.

Even though they did not end up winning the entire competition, Dawson said that the trip and his time spent with the other musicians opened his eye to the passion that he had for performing.

“I think it’s really fun to entertain a crowd, especially when they applaud,” he said. “When the crowd applauds, it’s so rewarding to know that all those people enjoyed something that you worked hard on all summer.”

WESTVIEW WATER POLO 2016 CIF DIVISION 1 RUNNER-UP

CHEER ON YOUR WOLVERINES AS WV CHASES ANOTHER CIF SEASON GRAB A BITE AT THE “SCHULTE SHACK”.

(VOTED BEST SNACK BAR ON CAMPUS.)

10/04

VS.

09/09 VS. VISTA VALLEY CENTER 10/06 VS. RB 10/10 VS. POWAY

10/13 10/25 10/27

VS. VS. VS.

SAN MARCOS DEL NORTE FALLBROOK

national volleyball team Mark Troftgruben

from lowest- to highest-ranked teams. So, if you got your name called earlier, you would most likely be disappointSports Editor ed.”

Sweat began to form on Adam Chang’s (11) palms as For what seemed like hours to Chang, the coaches he, along with 59 other high-schoolers age 17 and under, called name after name and his name was still never called. stood in front of a group of college volleyball coaches “Finally, it came down to just 20 of us,” Chang said. from all over the country.

“I was so nervous. I could feel my heartbeat thumping For the past five days, Chang had trained and compet- throughout my whole body.” ed against these 59 kids at the Greater Fort Lauderdale/ At last, the coaches looked up from their clipboards to Broward County Convention Center’s gym in Fort Lauder- see Chang and 10 others standing in front of them. All 11 dale, Florida for the 2017 USA players looked at each other in National Volleyball camp. disbelief, as they had made the Only 60 players aged 17 top team at camp, a group of the and under from across the Finally, it came down to just 11 best players in the U.S. for U.S. were invited. Hundreds their age group.

20 of us. I was so nervous, I of players went through a sys“I was happy to see the result tem of national tryouts that could feel my heart pumping that I made the top team in the could potentially qualify them Chang said. throughout my whole body.” U.S.,” for training programs, camps, Making the top team was also and Youth and Junior National Adam Chang (11) a relief for Chang since the past teams. two years, he had made the top But upon his arrival on July team in younger age groups.

12, Chang immediately came across some problems.

“I have to keep building a larger gap between me and “It was kind of intimidating because I realized I was them because lots of people want to be where I’m at.” one of the shortest people in my position, [middle blockThis achievement is also significant on a personal level. er]. I’m 6’5” right now and I was competing against peo“I didn’t always have passion for the sport when I ple who were 6’10”,” Chang said. “So, I had to find other started at summer camps in the sixth and seventh grade,” ways to overcome that problem.

Chang said. “But Slater Bird (11) and his dad helped me so For the first four days, Chang and his competitors much. They are the reason why I am here.” worked endlessly with their instructors, training specific Chang’s passion for volleyball matured in his first game skills and attempting to be as coachable as possible. with a competitive travel team during eighth grade.

“I’d be lifting several times during the week and I’d do “I spiked the ball really hard a couple of times that game a vertical workout every morning,” Chang said. “And I got and I really started to like the sport,” Chang said. “I love into the volleyball gym with my coaches every day to im- hitting the ball hard and how we encourage each other after prove my blocking, hitting and footwork.” every point whether we lose it or not.”

On the fifth day of camp, the coaches formed teams Chang’s love for these aspects have carried him a long based on the skill and qualities they observed in the play- way, and according to him, his path with the sport is far ers during the past four days. from over.

“They brought us all in and started naming people off “All of this is motivation for me to keep working at what and said which team we were on,” Chang said. “They went I love to do and just keep pushing forward,” Chang said.

6 Features the Nexus Zhang presents project at London International Youth Science Forum Research, from page 1

Zhang’s Leukemia Diagnosis Kit How it Works: Daniel Zhang’s (12) diagnosis kit allows physicians to determine if patients test positive for acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL). As opposed to conventional methods, which can only detect leukemia at stage 1 or stage 2, this kit can detect leukemia in its precancerous stages. circulating tumor DNA

The Steps: 1. Take a blood sample.

2. Extract DNA from the sample.

3. Run a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test to amplify DNA. 4. Conduct a gel electrophoresis test.

5. If bands match the pair length, (4 bands for AML and 7 for ALL), sample is positive.

gel electrophoresis test

AML

U

ALL

M

U

M

Design by Kristina Nguyen and Amber Hauw

order to solve a diagnosis issue. And during his third year, Zhang took on an independent project on the early diagnosis of leukemia.

“I first underwent a digital screen, [which is] using AML data from the cancer genome atlas as a proof of concept,” Zhang said. “[I then] found four biomarkers, substances that indicate when a disease is present, that could successfully differentiate between normal and cancer cells with high sensitivity and specificity.”

After this discovery, Zhang then did lab work on acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) patients’ blood samples and found seven more biomakers.

Based on these findings, Zhang began to develop a diagnostic prototype kit. He designed primers targeted toward CpG biomarkers, which enabled him to amplify specific regions of the body and then run a gel electrophoresis test in order to determine whether a patient had leukemia or not.

Before he had developed his kit, Zhang entered the Greater San Diego Science and Engineering Fair armed with his findings of the biomarkers. He placed first in the health and medicine category, qualifying him for the INTEL International Science and Engineering Fair in Los Angeles. By the time the INTEL fair came along, Zhang had a working prototype kit that was ready to be presented.

His presentation earned him first place in the health and science category, an award that was complemented by an additional trip to the London International Youth Science Forum (LIYSF) last summer.

“The majority [of the time] at LIYSF [was spent on] meeting all the new people who were from 65 different countries, interacting with different professors, attending lectures and going on optional excursions,” Zhang said.

According to Zhang, one of the most interesting parts of the forum was the “poster bazaar,” a session where about 150 out of the 500 students presented their posters to judges.

“Never in my life have I presented to that many people,” Zhang said. “It was a constant nonstop [flow] of people just coming, way more than the local fair and even INTEL. It was really cool getting to see different perspectives [from the judges] who were extremely knowledgeable, and they were able to give me input that I’ll definitely consider.”

The 150 was further narrowed down to the top 10 oral presentations, and Zhang’s was one of them.

The top 10 were given the opportunity to give a FameLab-style presentation, a three-minute presentation with no props or visuals.

“At first, I thought that was very intimidating because my project’s extremely complicated and I needed those visuals,” Zhang said. “But by talking to the LIYSF directors and managers, and also my LIYSF friends, I was able to boil it down to a three-minute presentation.”

After two weeks in London, Zhang flew back home with many new ideas.

“I was able to attend multiple lectures and ask these engaging questions,” he said. “[The forum] really broadened my mind, because talking to my LIYSF friends from all these different countries, it really widened my scope and gave me this global perspective that I can really bring back to the US.” Zhang has many plans. He will try to publish his work in a journal, along with having his biomarkers patented. And, he continues to work on his diagnostic kit and has spoken with several companies that are interested in sponsoring its development.

His start as a child of being inquisitive, of asking questions, has led him far.

“I definitely think my aunt would be proud of me,” Zhang said. “Because winning INTEL, that was my moment of giving back to my aunt. Just after all the hours, sweat and tears I’ve put into the lab research, just being able to give back to my aunt, that makes me extremely happy and I know she would be too.” research, just being able to give back to my aunt, that makes me extremely happy and I know she would be too.”

Sept. 15, 2017

the Review Luv Is Rage 2 6

(out of 10)

Album

Neek Azar

I’ll admit it. I’d never fully been on the Lil Uzi Vert wave before I’d heard “XO Tour Llif3.” Yes, I am what you can call a bandwagon fan. However, afterwards, I dug through his discography, and found that I have been missing out on some good music.

When his debut studio album, Luv Is Rage 2, was announced, I was ecstatic. Uzi’s ability to make such catchy songs that made the listener sing along to almost morbid lyrics like “all my friends are dead” is intriguing to me, and his rock star persona even more so.

On Luv Is Rage 2, however, Uzi fails to reach the emotional and music highs he did with “XO Tour Llif3.” To be fair, however, most artists would have trouble releasing an album consistent with the quality of a single that propelled them to superstardom. Even so, his latest album as a product clearly lacks the raw emotion, fantastic songwriting and unique production of “XO Tour Llife” and suffers greatly from a lack of substance and focus.

Even though it doesn’t live up to “XO Tour Llif3,” Luv Is Rage 2 does have some redeemable moments. In fact, the front half of the album is littered with casual anthems, with, “Two®,” “Neon Guts,” and “The Way Life Goes” becoming some of my favorite tracks of the year. Uzi’s nonchalant style of dancing around an instrumental is mesmerizing at times, and even his profound lyrical deficiencies are excused when I hear him belt out catchy refrains and hooks. The absurdity of the fact that the catchiest refrains of the year has lyrics like “the famous life—it’ll eat you up alive,” a sobering realization to say the least, doesn’t change the fact that Uzi’s unconventional autotuned singing and often dark lyrics have become incredibly popular and sung so often.

“The Way Life Goes” is another song that features Uzi both singing and rapping, with him reflecting on a failed relationship, and it’s possibly the closest he comes to the subject matter and feel of “XO Tour Llif3.” “Neon Guts,” featuring industry legend Pharrell, is another highlight, with Pharrell taking the prize for some of the best rapping on the album.

While Luv Is Rage 2 does lack cohesion and any real direction, and the second half of the album is one of the more forgettable stretches of music I’ve listened to as of late, the first half is stellar and shows why Uzi has been such a big face in hip-hop and pop music during the past year.

Cassen promoted to district, leaves legacy on campus Andrea Chen News Editor

After accepting a new job at the district office, former principal Todd Cassen reclined in his chair and stared at the ceiling of his soon-to-be former office at Westview, reminiscing about the first time he delivered a speech at graduation.

“Every student had given me a penny when they went to shake my hand; some students gave me dollars,” he said.

“There was just a pile of pennies because there were over 600 kids in that graduating class.”

Throughout his 15 years at Westview as a math teacher, athletic director, area administrator, assistant principal, and principal, Cassen witnessed countless milestones and achievements for students, teachers, and the school as a whole.He said that the year Westview opened, 2002, brought a lot of challenges.

“You had to do so many things with such a small staff, and you’re trying to provide so much for the students,” he said. “[But] there’s so many positive memories that stick out, those are the things that you remember.”

When Westview opened in 2002, Cassen served as the athletic director and as a math teacher.

Because he began his career in high schools that have six classes per day and restrictions on classes one is able to take, Cassen was shocked by the sheer amount of new practices, such as homerooms, long passing periods, and different schedules, that were being set into place.

In that first year, as the school and its teachers were trying to In 2010, he assumed the position that current students know find their way, Cassen said he learned some things about what him best for: principal. Despite taking on an important role as works for students. a leader of the school, Cassen continued to view himself as one “I realized that we need to do a better job of individualizing of manystaff members. education to meet the needs of the student, that having a flexi“I don’t say that I work with the staff, I think I am part of ble schedule is good,” he said. the staff, having been a teacher here and in a classroom,” he “It’s been a eye opener, and it proved [that] my original said. “Some of the best friends of my life are on this staff right philosophies and belief structures through my own experience now. Some of the greatest teachers I’ve ever worked with are were wrong. Now, when I’m reading things, I read it through on this staff.” a lens of what I’ve gone through at As much as Cassen savored his time Westview, of one size doesn’t fit all. at Westview, he said that when the opYou’ve got to figure out what works portunity to work in the district office It’s going to be a lot different for some students over here, and arose, he simply couldn’t turn the offer some students over there.” down. from getting in my car and Cassen continued to gain new “I realized that it’s going to be tough coming to Westview, where insights into education, and more to make the move at any time, but to Westview is home.” specifically, into Westview, in 2004, be able to still stay connected with the when he became one of the area adschools in the district and see what Todd Cassen high ministrators. kind of influence and leadership I can “When I became assistant princibring to that role,” he said. “I think it pal and started going into more classrooms, in World Histo- got to a point where it was like ‘you gotta take this.’ You gotta ry, in English, in Science, Special Education, in Art, I really pursue those opportunities once in awhile.” found out what amazing educators we have on this campus Cassen’s new position as Executive Director II for Learning and how lucky we are,” Cassen said. “Westview has so many Support Services allows him to oversee high school principals, outstanding educators, so it’s been great to learn from them, to registrars, the crisis response team, and counselors. grow and learn together, and try to continue to provide the best He also supervises the direction the high schools are headopportunity for our students.” ing in regarding the student support systems; the California

Healthy Kids survey and data; site safety plans; Saturday school; athletics; attendance and discipline; and assessment and accountability. “[I am] working with the principals and supporting them in any way I can to get the schools in the direction they want them to go,” he said. “All the schools are different. Everybody has a little different vision and how they do what they’re doing.

When you step on a high school campus, you can feel that immediately.”

According to Cassen, his work in the district office requires a major transition for him.

“I’m used to knowing and figuring out a way to go, so I think it’s going to have to be some time for me to sit back and reflect and learn, and see what is the best way to attack that work,” he said. “I’m going to have to have some patience.

This job [being principal] has taught me well to have a lot of patience. But I think it’s going to be a challenging year. It’s going to be a lot different from getting in my car and coming to Westview, where Westview is home.”

Still, Cassen is looking forward to the future experiences his new job offers.

“I’m excited about new learning, I’m excited about trying to challenge myself in a different direction, I’m excited that I’m still working in Poway Unified School District,” he said. “I’m excited that I still get to be on high school campuses. There’s going to be a new learning and that’s exciting, trying to really be connected to the campuses on a larger scale.”

ALUMNI TODAY: Michael Mercado (‘17), drafted in round two by Tampa Bay Rays Mark Troftgruben Sports Editor

Playing in the major leagues was Michael Mercado’s (’17) biggest dream. A dream that seemed impossible for most kids his age.

According to the National College Athletic Association (NCAA), approximately 5.6-percent of high school seniors who play baseball go on to play at the NCAA level. An even smaller, 0.5-percent of these seniors, go on to be drafted by a Major League Baseball (MLB) team.

Despite Mercado’s initial belief that this dream was impossible, he made an enormous step towards making it a reality on June 12.

He had been selected by the Tampa Bay Rays as the 40th overall draft pick out of 1,215 picks from all teams over the course of three days.

“I started playing when I was 10 and I liked the sport right away,” Mercado said. “There is so much more going on in the game than people think. They think that baseball is a slow and simple sport, but it’s very complex and can be equally fun.”

Mercado’s parents, David and Shelley, decided not to take a controlling approach to their son’s path with baseball, according to Westview pitching coach Patrick Edwards.

In an interview with Baseball America, Edwards stated that Mercado’s parents “put [Mercado] in [his] hands”.

Mercado didn’t always have a clear career path set for him with this sport. When he first joined the high school team freshman year, he had a rough start.

“My freshman year of high school, I got pulled up to varsity to get some exposure, but I didn’t throw very hard, so I got hit around quite a bit,” Mercado said. “So, in the offseason, I was able to work out and do weighted balls, as well as mature physically a bit. I was able to gain about eight miles per hour of velocity and I started to become a much more confident pitcher.”

From a combination of training with Edwards and an encouraging environment at home, Mercado produced a strong profile by his senior year.

Mercado had also developed enough that he had a scholarship in hand from Stanford and Major League Baseball scouts were attending his games. That year, Mercado compiled a record of 9-1 and an ERA of 0.69.

In 70 ⅔ innings, he struck out 97 batters and allowed only

29 hits and 17 walks.

“The biggest challenge was just being good enough to get drafted, and I did that by working very hard and making the most of my opportunities when scouts were at my games to watch me pitch,” Mercado said.

When Mercado took the win, 2-1, against Rancho Bernardo May 4, nearly 50 MLB scouts were watching.

In addition to his 6’5”, 175-pound frame, Mercado garnered attention from scouts because of his velocity and accuracy.

“One of the things that got me drafted was my velocity, which usually sits 90-93 miles per hour,” Mercado said.

“The scouts saw in me my ability to consistently throw strikes and command the strike zone with all my pitches.

Throwing hard is definitely a bonus, but if a pitcher can’t throw strikes, velocity doesn’t matter.”

On June 12, Mercado sat at home, overwhelmed with anxiety as it was the day of the 2017 MLB draft. In the MLB draft, amateur players are drafted in a system of rounds from college and high school programs.

The main differences between this draft and those of other professional sports are that players rarely enter MLB right after the draft and it is 40 rounds long because teams have to fill the rosters of their six to eight minor league teams.

“I had a draft party with some of my family and my high school team, and we were watching the draft live on television,” Mercado said.

For what seemed like hours upon hours, Mercado waited anxiously with reassurance from friends and family. Finally, the moment had come at around 7 p.m. when his name was announced on TV. Cheers erupted from within the Mercado home.

“When they announced my name and the team that drafted me, my high school team dog-piled on top of me,” Mercado said. “It was one of the happiest moments of my life.”

“After being drafted, I got a call from the scouting director congratulating me and giving me directions on what to do next,” Mercado said.

However, Mercado didn’t have to take the offer; he still had a decision to make.

“I had a 50-percent scholarship to play baseball at Stanford and it was hard to turn down, but the coaches who had recruited me my sophomore year were leaving, so this coming season they will have new coaches,” Mer-

cado said. “I also decided that baseball was what I loved to do, so I wanted to do it full-time instead of having to balance it with college classes.”

When Mercado made his decision, he flew to Tampa to sign a contract with a $2,132,400 signing bonus. Like most other drafted players, Mercado did not enter straight into the major leagues. He played for one of Tampa’s minor league teams in Port Charlotte, Florida.

“We competed in a half season of 60 games, which was our training,” Mercado said. “We practiced, lifted weights, played games, and bonded as a team.”

Mercado said he considers this to be a once-in-a-lifetime experience, as less than one percent of high school athletes receive the opportunity to continue athletics at the professional level, according to the Georgia Career Information Center. But his schedule during the minor league season did not vary too much on a daily basis.

“On a typical day, I’d get to our complex at 7 a.m., eat breakfast, and have meetings,” he said. “From there, we had practice and fundamental drills based on our specific position. After lunch, we had games at noon. Finally, we would go back to the apartment complex the players lived at and got ready for the next day.”

Despite all that Mercado had accomplished, there were still some challenges presented to him upon his arrival.

“The heat and humidity in Florida was something that I was able to get used to over time, but it’s unlike any other weather I’ve felt,” Mercado said. “Also, the ball that is used in the minor leagues is a bit bigger than the ball used in high school, so my curveball and changeup were struggling in the beginning. But with a lot of practice and help from my coaches, both pitches became really good at the end of the year.”

Over the course of Mercado’s first season, he maintained a 1.69 ERA, struck out 14 batters, and walked only four batters during the 21.1 innings that he pitched.

“Being in the minor leagues has actually made me work harder because I know I’m one step closer to being in the major leagues,” Mercado said.

Mercado says he is grateful to all the family members, coaches, and teammates who have helped him make his journey possible. But most importantly, this accomplishCourtesy of William Parmeter ment has had a profound impact on a personal level.

“Getting the opportunity to play this sport professionally means that I accomplished my childhood dream and Michael Mercado (‘17) prepares to pitch during I get to do what I love each and every day,” Mercado said. his game as part of the Tampa Bay Rays in Florida.

the Nexus PUSD policy restricts food options Sept. 15, 2017

Kyle Petrie

Opinions Editor Back in my middle school years, my older sister would tell me stories about the glory that was Club Rush, where students of all grades would convene in the quad and feast on In-N-Out burgers and Jamba Juice smoothies. I fantasized about Club Rush as an eighth grader, but alas, my dreams were shattered when the food component of Club Rush was removed the year before I entered high school.

I, like many, was heartbroken. But the cutbacks on food availability did not stop there. In my sophomore year, the student store stopped selling food as well. Even the vending machines on campus were impacted by these changes.

First, the food they offered was changed. Next, they were only open after school. And finally, last spring, they vanished for good.

It’s no secret that the food options at Westview have diminished. And while my original instinct was to blame the school food services department, it’s far from their fault.

In fact, Westview has little control over the food options, which must comply with a series of district and state regulations that dictate their content.

In 2013, a new set of regulations, called Smart Snacks in School, was developed by the USDA to set the nutritional standard for food served on school campuses. These regulations changed the food sold by food services and the student store to meet the new guidelines on sugar content, serving size, and overall nutritional content. Ultimately, you can blame this for being deprived of cheeseburgers at Club Rush.

There was nothing inherently wrong with these—the intention was clearly to get kids to eat healthier in school, an objectively noble cause. But in 2015, the Poway Unified School Board added a non-competitive clause, stating that the items sold on campuses could not compete with those sold by food services.

Under the non-competitive clause, any source of food other than food services (such as vending machines or the student store) is restricted to selling only three of five specified snacks—meat snacks (such as beef jerky), whole grain popcorn, nut or seed-based snacks, frozen fruit bars, and pudding—but only after school ends. Notice that water is not included in that list. Water, as it turns out, is competitive food item because it is sold at food services. These guidelines must be adhered to within school hours, which Poway Unified Board Policy defines as the time period between midnight and thirty minutes after school ends. As ASB Director Shannon Parker explains, this devastated the student store, which, back when it sold food products, was an enormous asset for raising funds for the school.

“Our student store has to be run by an outside employee,” Parker said. “It cannot fall under me. But you can imagine, only selling three items, how does it still remain a student-body fundraiser while paying an outside person to run the student store? We couldn’t financially justify keeping it open.”

Last spring, the vending machines fell to the same

plight. Financially speaking, it was simply not worth it to keep vending machines that only operated after school and only sold three products, not including water.

And, according to the California Department of Education (CDE) website, failure to comply gives the USDA permission to impose fines on the school.

On the PUSD Board Policy website, it is unclear if these regulations were intended to get kids to eat healthier at school or if they were intended to increase the cafeteria’s profitability. Regardless, the rules need changing.

If the intent is to gain money, wouldn’t it be smarter to keep the vending machines and student store around and simply use the profits that these institutions gain? Would that not help the fundraising cause? And if the intent of strictly regulating the food options on campus is to nudge students into making healthier choices, there is surely a better way of doing this. There are several other ways to encourage students to make healthy decisions that don’t run student stores or vending machines on campus out of business.

For example, lessons, perhaps in ENS, on healthier eating could educate students on making smarter decisions as far as their snacks go. On top this, these lessons would actually teach students how to make healthy choices, a lesson that they would be able to apply even after they leave high school. If the school board really wants to encourage us to make healthier choices, it shouldn’t do this by forcing us into one specific decision.

These guidelines are also unnecessarily harsh. If the district doesn’t want the food sold at student stores and vending machines clashing with that sold at food services, fine.

But it’s unreasonable for these “competitive food sources” to be as limited as they are. There is no clear reason that water cannot be sold outside of the cafeteria, and as for the food items, it makes no sense to have only three options made available to students. At the very least, giving us five of the five

designated items gives us more options for what to eat.

We cannot make healthy choices about the food we eat if no choice is given to us.

Loosening the grip that the non-competitive clause holds over food services is completely warranted; it’s not as though the cafeteria is secretly plotting to buy out the school district. They barely have enough money to afford decent pizza. Encouraging kids to eat healthy and gaining money for schools are both worthy causes. But the current regulations are excessively strict and are not effective ways to meet either goal.

7 Opinions

If only the Camino Del Sur construction team worked as fast as the people who painted over the W in the plaza.

-Kyle Petrie Trying to fight for a lunch table on the first day of school was more stressful than trying to finish Founding Brothers the night before.

-Zara Irshad I love the new hydration stations. I get to practice touching my toes every time I go to drink water.

-Mattie Sanseverino There’s a Student Senate meeting next Wednesday, so all one people who go to that might find it interesting.

-Kyle Petrie By the looks of everyone’s face walking out of the senior college meeting, you’d think Halloween came early.

-Olivia Dealy To submit a Praise or Folly, email us at thewvnexus@gmail. com, or drop your submission off in room L-104. Include your name, grade level, and phone number. The Nexus will decide which submissions to print based on quality of writing and value to readers. They may be edited for space or content reasons.

Men’s rights movement holds Cheerleading merits same level legitimacy despite extremists of respect as other CIF sports Neek Azar

Editor in Chief Let’s get this straight: the current Men’s Rights Movement (MRM) is supremacy under the pretense of egalitarianism. Rooted in misogyny, the first MRM originated in the 1920s in Austria when three groups of men’s rights activists formed to oppose the growing presence of women in the workforce. Failing to survive beyond 1939, the MRM faded and then rose once again in the 1970s, when the Men’s Liberation Movement split into two factions—the pro-feminist Men’s Liberation Movement and the opposing anti-feminist MRM. Even more concerning than the MRM’s blatant misogyny is its radicalization of those who are interested in men’s rights.

Communities exist across the internet that serve as a gateway to radical views.

Many of these communities purport to be arenas to discuss issues that men face but rarely amount to more than echo chambers used to bash feminists and women.

The /r/incels community on Reddit is a group that sees itself as involuntarily celibate (hence the name “incel”). The idea of being involuntarily celibate is that of resigning themselves to a chaste life not out of choice, but because they feel that women reject them. Other communities, like pick up artist (PUA) groups, make an “art” out of bedding women. On a purely surface level, these types of communities have an understandable appeal: /r/incel help men who have trouble with women bond, and PUA boards help men with bettering themselves, with tips on how to build self-esteem and guides on how to improve their style. However, the

male-bonding and companionship that these groups offer comes at a price—a sense of oppression at the hands of feminists and minorities.

Fortunately, there is an alternative to the toxic MRM. The earlier mentioned Men’s Liberation Movement is still around, and actually acknowledges issues that men face in the modern day without pinning them on feminists as a monolith. In many cases, the Men’s Liberation Movement works with feminists.

An example of something the Men’s Liberation Movement addresses is that 90 percent of prison inmates are men.

In addition, a 2012 study by Sonja Starr, a Professor of Law at the University of Michigan, showed that men receive prison sentences that are 63 percent higher than women. Women are also more likely to avoid charges when arrested, and if they are convicted, they are twice as likely as men to avoid being incarcerated. These are just a few examples of legitimate inequality that affects men, and some that merit a legitimate response.

In many cases, issues exist that are of tantamount concern to both Men’s Liberation supporters and feminists. One of these such issues, domestic abuse, is well known to many already. It is fair to say that society accepts and understands that domestic violence against women should not exist in any capacity and that the more steps we take to stop it, the better. However, on the other side, domestic abuse against men is rarely acknowledged by society. According to the CDC, one out of every four men will face domestic violence at least once in their lives, meaning that there are 3 million male domestic abuse victims every year

the Petrie Dish by Kyle Petrie

in the United States. However, just because their movements are tied to gender doesn’t mean that the Men’s Liberation Movement and feminist movement are only seeking to end domestic abuse for their side. Domestic abuse is a problem for both genders, but only widely acknowledged to be a problem for one.

Another issue that concerns many of those involved with men’s movements is the trivialization of sexual abuse of young boys that often occurs when an older woman abuses them. In 2015, a case in which a 21-year-old woman had abused an 11-year-old boy resulted in just a short probation for the woman with the rationalization by the judge that the 11-yearold boy was “sex mad” and “fully up for it.” In addition, the incident was treated even by the victim’s father not as abuse but as a “notch on his belt,” and claimed that the boy was “totally unaffected by it.” In many of these cases, these boys, who are often traumatized by their abuse, are told they should actually be enjoying it. If such comments were made about any young girl who was sexually abused, there would be outrage, and rightfully so.

However, because these are young boys, and men are societally expected to be obsessed with sex, there is no such outrage for these young boys.

Gendered movements aren’t zero-sum movements as the MRM treats them; the advancement of women doesn’t necessarily result in a loss for men and the advancement of men doesn’t necessarily have to result in a loss for women. Most men, who aren’t supremacists and have no desire to be deserve to have their often legitimate concerns addressed, and the MRM doesn’t do that.

Lydia Zhang

pretty exciting.”

Parker said that at its most advanced, members are required to be able to perform at the level of an a high-level There’s a common misconception that cheerleading is gymnast. It takes years of dedication to accumulate the neca sport designed as an excuse for girls to wear short skirts essary skills to compete at the highest level. and wave pom poms. Scenes of teams participating in pet“It is a lot of learning,” Parker said. ”You can’t be a ty rivalries from Bring It On plague our screens, portraying cheerleader who has never cheered before and just come out cheerleaders as catty girls focused on drama and popularity. of nowhere and be perfect at it. It has to be something that’s However, cheerleading is more than girls cheering on the practiced for a really long time.” sidelines during Friday nights. It is a multi-faceted sport that Stunting is the most difficult aspect of cheerleading acnot only includes sideline cheer, but also competitive high cording to Parker. It takes strength to toss human beings school cheer, each of which entail different requirements. in the air, courage to be a flyer, and trust between a flyer Starting this year, cheerleading is recognized as a CIF and their bases to execute a stunt cleanly. Beyond the highsport. With this, it may be expected that the cheerleading risk factor of stunting physically, it is also a gamble perforprogram should be going through major overhaul this year mance-wise. If a stunt doesn’t hit perfectly, it is blatantly to meet the CIF sport requirements. However, this is not the obvious to the crowd. case.

Stunting is also extremely risky.

“Cheer as a program didn’t really Cheer is considered the most danchange because we already worked gerous female-dominated sport at a CIF level; we just never got the It is easy to underestimate according to The Atlantic. The Natitle,” cheer captain Savannah Rosner cheerleading when we have tional Center for Catastrophic Sports (12) said.

Injuries also found, cheer makes up In order to be considered a CIF not experienced how diffi- for 50 percent of head, neck, and sport, teams must be actively com- cult the sport is ourselves. spinal injuries for female athletes. peting against other schools. Despite Right now, the cheer team has sevnot being an officially recognized CIF eral girls out due to injuries: a consport, the cheerleading team has alcussion, nerve damage, a torn ACL. ready been participating in such cheerleading competitions.

Cheerleaders do work as hard as other athletes. It may not Last year, they took two first-place titles, at Knotts Berry seem that way because many people are unfamiliar with the Farm and Long Beach, and a second-place title at Anaheim. inner workings of the sport. Most of us have not balanced This season, they are planning to participate in Stunt, a people on our hands or flipped through the air on flat ground. competition focused on the technical components of cheer, In our P.E classes, we are either barely exposed to the sport such as tumbling, stunting, and group jumps. or not at all. It is easy to underestimate cheerleading when Just like any other sport, cheerleaders can be scouted by we have not experienced how difficult the sport is ourselves. coaches though competitions like Stunt and eventually be ofCheerleaders have to learn new routines for every perforfered a scholarship. Sports scholarships are common occur- mance: the Fourth of July showcase, the First Day Rally, the rences throughout America, but unheard of in cheer. Offer- Homecoming Rally--the list goes on. Cheerleaders are more ing these scholarships validate and transform cheerleading than their peppy smiles and oversized bows-- they work from a fun activity to a serious extracurricular. hard, and just like any other sport, they suffer injuries and “I’ve already got college coaches interested and finding encounter challenges. They are more than the stereotype that out if we’re doing Stunt,” head coach Kenyatta Parker said. movies, TV shows, even social media perpetuates them as.

“They want to know what kind of competitions we do so Cheerleading is an official CIF spring sport this year, and they can offer scholarships to some of the girls—which is it is about time that we treat it as such.

Staff Writer

Honest-Li by Amber Li

the Nexus

8 Opinions the Nexus Westview • 13500 Camino del Sur San Diego, CA 92129 Tel: (858) 780-2000, ext. 3180 Email: thewvnexus@gmail.com Website: www.wvnexus.org Journalism Education Association/National Scholastic Press Association Spring National Convention 2017, Fourth Place Spring National Convention 2016, Seventh Place Spring National Convention 2015, Second Place Spring National Convention 2014, First Place Fall National Convention 2013, First Place Spring National Convention 2013, First Place Spring National Convention 2012, First Place Fall National Convention 2011, First Place Spring National Convention 2011, Fourth Place Spring National Convention 2010, First Place Fall National Convention 2009, Fourth Place Spring National Convention 2009, Fourth Place Spring National Convention 2008, Third Place Fall National Convention 2007, First Place Spring National Convention 2007, First Place San Diego County Journalism Education Association Grand Sweepstakes 2005-2008 First Place Newspaper Sweepstakes 2006, 2007, First Place San Diego Union Tribune Best High School Newspaper 2007, 2008 National Scholastic Press Association Pacemaker Finalist 2003, 2004, 2008, 2009, 2014 Pacemaker Winner 2003, 2008 Columbia Scholastic Press Association Silver Crown Winner Spring 2012 Silver Crown Winner Spring 2011 Gold Crown Winner Spring 2010 Gold Crown Winner Spring 2009 Gold Medalist 2010 To advertise in The Nexus, please call (858)-7802000, ext.3180 or email us at thewvnexus@gmail. com

Editors in Chief Neek Azar* Alice Markman* News Editor Andrea Chen* Features Editor Kristina Nguyen Opinions Editor Kyle Petrie* Sports Editor Mark Troftgruben* Final Focus Editor Tiffany Le* Design Editor Amber Hauw Managing Editor Evan Buckland Staff Writers Nathan Chan Olivia Dealy* Zara Irshad Grace Kim Daniel Lang Lina Lew Amber Li Kevin Lu Nicole Musano Kevin Pert Isabelle Ritter Mattie Sanseverino Michelle Wang Lydia Zhang* Julie Zhu Adviser Jeff Wenger Assistant Adviser Stephanie Tanaka

*Member of the Editorial Board

Staff Editorial

District’s 4.5 course policies need revisions to prevent confusion While regular, academic school courses require demanding curriculums and clubs are typically lenient about time commitments, the various 4.5 classes offered serve as the middle ground between these two.

Area Administrator Scott Wild said that the administration looks to utilize 4.5 periods as an extension of the classroom or a particular course that will continue to enrich learning. By providing alternative ways for students to learn content that doesn’t fit into the typical high school courses needed for graduation, 4.5 classes allow students to explore beyond the school’s standard curriculum by delving into subjects like engineering, public speaking and counseling. The 4.5 classes are based on need and interest, and the principal ultimately decides whether or not the class should be approved.

Former Speech and Debate advisor Michael Nguyen noticed that students displayed a greater level of commitment when they felt as though they were in the academic atmosphere of a classroom, as opposed to the relatively casual atmosphere of most clubs. Because organizations like Speech and Debate, Link Crew, and Robotics require that students dedicate time, but not enough to meet the base requirements to become a regular school class, 4.5 classes reward their members by offering 1.25 elective credits when the class is passed each quarter, and it is included in the students’ transcripts.

Since 4.5 classes have a pass or fail grading system, they do not elevate GPAs when passed. However, failing will result in a GPA drop, as well as an “F” grade on the student’s transcript. This may be a deterrent to some students, however, this system makes students accountable for keeping up with the commitments they signed up for throughout the entire quarter.

According to Area Administrator Alicia Graeff, the District policies state that 4.5 programs must meet for a minimum of 45 hours per quarter.

Certain 4.5 courses at school, however, require significantly less of a time commitment than this base standard. For Speech and Debate, members must spend at least one hour at an after-school meeting and go to one competition per semester. For Link Crew, members must fulfill at least 36 hours of community service. For Calculus BC Review, students must turn in work each week, and simply check in with the adviser by signing in on a clipboard.

Clearly, the district standard is not being met or enforced. As is, each 4.5 class seems free to institute its own criteria for passing.

While forcing 4.5 classes to conform to the 45-hour District policy may seem like the best solution to avoid these discrepancies, the current 4.5 classes have proven that the number of minutes working on campus does not reflect the quality of the work produced. For example, in the Calculus 4.5 Review Course, some students may spend 30 minutes completing their homework while others spend two hours on the same assignment. Regardless, Vanderby will allow both students pass the class because they ultimately learn the same information.

Though this strategy of gauging participation based on work produced rather than time seems reasonable, this is not the standard by which the district awards grades, as everything is based on seat-time to the district.

As for creating the course, math teacher Stephanie Vanderby said that when making her Calculus BC Review Course a 4.5 class, the administration told her that she’d be approved as long as she had some type of curriculum. For Speech and Debate, however, Nguyen recalls going to the registrar, acquiring an attendance sheet, and having each member of Speech and Debate fill out a 4.5 request form that gave them permission to work outside of school hours.

The majority of the school’s 4.5 classes have a three-strike policy; if a student misses more than three meetings, they are put on probation, and can either make up these hours or receive a “fail” for the course.

Robotics advisor Dawn explained that they created this penalty policy themselves to implement a sense of accountability within their organizations.

However, when creating the 4.5 class, it was never explicitly explained to them whether or not this was an actual requirement in the PUSD Board of Education policies and administrative procedures.

With inconsistencies in the way each 4.5 class was created, as well as requirements that fluctuate from course to course, the policies for 4.5 classes should be reassessed by the PUSD board to avoid confusion.

The Nexus Mission Statement The Nexus is an open form for student expression that aims to provide information to the public, following standards of accuracy, truthfulness, ethics and professionalism. The Nexus aspires to be a source of news, opinions and entertainment for its readers while showing enthusiasm in depth and coverage. In reporting information, writers strive for impartiality by presenting multiple viewpoints on issues. When opinions of an individual are expressed, they are labeled accordingly. Members of the editorial board write and select the staff editorial.

The Nexus is published by Journalism 2 students, and as the official student newspaper of Westview High School, it strives to maintain the open flow of communication fostered at school. All editorial decisions are made by members of staff, with guidance of advisor Jeff Wenger. The opinions published in The Nexus do not necessary represent those of Westview administration, Westview staff, or PUSD school board. Letters to the editor must be signed, as they represent the opinion of the individual. The editors select submissions for print based on relevancy to readers, and they may be edited for space or content reasons.

Sept. 15, 2017

Colleges should include middle class in ‘need-based’ category Lina Lew

Staff Writer Living in middle-class Rancho Penasquitos, I’ve been blessed enough to never have to worry much about finances. Not quite rich, but not quite poor, either.

I’m in the middle.

It wasn’t until this summer when I visited Stanford’s beautiful campus that I truly understood the discouraging financial situation I’m in. After listening to the tour guide gush about the school, I was sold—but it was too good to be true. My heart sank when I looked up Stanford’s tuition and saw the five followed by four long zeros. It sank even lower when I learned that someone with my family’s income would only receive enough aid to cover a quarter of the tuition. Even if I was hit with a stroke of luck and got accepted, the tuition alone would be enough for my parents to turn down the offer.

150 million Americans fall into this broad “middle-class” category, which is typically considered to be anyone who makes between $40,000 to $175,000 annually. Rancho Penasquitos, where, according to City-Data, the average income is $110,000, is also included in this category. In recent studies, people in this specific demographic have had the most trouble paying for college. Of the two biggest types of financial aid available, need-based and merit-based, the middle-class doesn’t benefit much from either. People tend to point to merit-based scholarships as the solution to middle-class financial needs. However, more selective schools such as

Stanford, Amherst, and the UCs, as well as other state schools, do not offer many merit scholarships. Because of their high standards for academics, everyone admitted should already be succeeding in merit.

In terms of need-based scholarships, federal and private financial aid initiatives generally use $40,000 as the cutoff, reserving these grants for low-income families who need it the most. For most colleges, middle-class income is not considered for need-based scholarships.

But what defines need? The need-based cut-off line is a very thin one; for some families who are sitting a thousand dollars away from this cut-off, it could mean the difference between attending the school of their dreams and turning it down because of the hefty tuition bill. In order to assist these families on the verge of sufficient financial aid, colleges should change their definition of need-based to include those who otherwise can’t afford the tuition.

According to the American Institutes for Research, public and private college costs have undoubtedly spiked over the years due to cuts in education, overspending from research universities, and a decrease in donations. This rise in tuition is especially discouraging for middle-class students who want to attend a certain college, but are offered very limited financial aid options. In fact, a study from the Institute for Higher Education Policy revealed that 40 percent of students who decline their dream school do so because they cannot afford it.

There have been efforts made by the state of California to increase financial aid for middle-class families.

In 2014, Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation creating the Middle Class Scholarship to make higher education more affordable for the middle-class. The UC schools have adopted this scholarship and now offer this to families who make $165,000 or less. This marks progress toward a more affordable education, but because of the sheer number of families who qualify for this scholarship, UC Berkeley’s financial aid website stated that in 2015-2016, the maximum Middle Class Scholarship was $3,690, only a tenth of the overall tuition.

Because of the lack of sufficient aid, middle-class students who want to go to a more selective school with a high tuition are forced to take out student loans, which pile up rapidly. Given the budget cuts, limited financial aid, and the student debt in America, there seems to be no relief in sight for the ever-rising cost of college.

The disparity between income and aid is hard to ignore, but colleges could help support the middle-class by expanding their definition of need-based income.

Nowadays, in the face of increasing college tuitions, almost everybody is, in some way, considered “needy,” and deserves a helping hand. However, the families just on the other side of the $40,000 fence are the ones who suffer the most while paying for college.

In a society where higher education has become more of a necessity than a luxury, colleges’ idea of “need-based” must change to include those who cannot keep up with the rise in college tuitions.

Confederate monuments require context Michelle Wang

Staff Writer Recently, the word “history” has been loosely thrown around. From the altright to liberals, “history” is either at risk or prospering. Currently, the debate is centered around the effect the takedown of Confederate monuments has on American culture.

An August 2017 YouGov poll found that 33 percent of Americans strongly opposed the removal of the Robert E. Lee monument in Charlottesville, while another 15 percent slightly opposed the removal. Granted, a small percentage of those surveyed genuinely believe in the ideals of the Confederacy based on those who identify as white supremacists.

Even accounting for that in the poll, the number of statue supporters still represent a staggering percentage of Americans. Most have greater issues with the removal of history from our public spaces, one being the president.

“Sad to see the history and culture of our great country being ripped apart with the removal of our beautiful statues and

monuments,” President Donald Trump States should not honor. The Confedersaid over Twitter. “You can’t change his- ate cause in itself was an act of treason, tory, but you can learn from it.” something that is counterintuitive for the But, the reasons that warrant removal United States to support. When there’s are not based on the erasure of history. no context, these monuments can be While there are some who want to see seen as representative of current Amerithe acknowledgment of the Confeder- can values. As for the protesting neo-Naacy put to an end, the monuments still zis and white supremacy groups, they have a reason can even be used to stand, just for celebration. not out in the Moving Conpublic eye.

Moving Confederate statues federate statues to The key private museums to private museums cements cements their word is context.

Some their outdated and hateful hateful ideals as monuments part of the past. ideals as a part of the past. This is anything stand in historical battlebut denial. fields, where With the recent they serve a end to the celestorytelling purpose, while others sit at bration of Columbus Day in some cities, the front of State House lawns and pub- the United States is slowly making proglic spaces, where they are representative ress to accurately honoring history that rather than historical. Keeping these deserves honoring. The United State’s monuments in public parks has no pro- record of the past is not being threatened; gressive purpose. it is being preserved. The Confederacy is In simple terms, the Confederacy not being erased from the history books fought for slavery: things the United if Confederate monuments are to be tak-

en down. It’s merely being labelled as what it is and should be, a culturally and historically significant era of the past.

More justified concerns are afraid of the slippery slope that removal creates.

Those who oppose the takedowns are worried that the next step might lead to Thomas Jefferson or George Washington statues being removed. Granted, our founding fathers’ character pitfalls are rarely honored, but no one is claiming that these were perfect human beings.

Yes, they may have been flawed, but they did not fight against the very United States that would now be paying, through tax dollars, to support them.

In a monument to Robert E. Lee, his character is glorified and his cause is justified. Now, Washington and Jefferson, although flawed, strived for the growth of the nation. While the answer isn’t black and white, it’s necessary to distinguish between those who had good intentions and those who didn’t.

There is a stark difference between denying history and contextualizing the values the United States no longer supports.

‘Start School Later’ bill would increase sleep, boost school budgets, improve teen health Nathan Chan

Staff Writer Every day, groggy teenagers admit defeat to their alarm clocks in the never-ending battle to get to school bright and early. The average amount of hours slept among teens is seven hours per night, but the Centers for Disease Control recommend that teens get at least nine and a half hours. Along with this, efforts made by teachers and public health officials have influenced the creation of a California bill that would push school start times roughly an hour ahead. And yet, despite its evident benefits, the bill has faced opposition.

The California State Senate recently sent Bill SB328, or “Start School Later,” to the California State Assembly. The bill mandates that the school day for middle and high schools start no earlier than 8:30 a.m.

If passed, it will be implemented no later than July 1, 2020. The bill also excludes zero periods, or classes that meet before the start of the regular school day.

Many school districts see this potential change as disruptive and expensive. They say that it is too much of a drastic schedule change. They say that teens just have to deal with it. But that’s narrow-minded. In the long-term, the effects of the bill could be beneficial for society and could increase school budgets.

The schedule shift could result in both better health and better school habits in teens. In a study done by the University of Minnesota, schools with later start times reported improved attendance, less tardiness, fewer cases of students sleeping in class, and fewer students visiting the office for behavioral issues. The study also linked a lack of sleep to a whole slew of mental disorders, suicide, substance abuse, weight gain, and diabetes to name a few. Moreover, sleeping in could reduce teen car accidents. When teens are both sleepy and behind

the wheel, they are endangering themselves and others, costing taxpayers what the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates to be upwards of $109 billion annually. There’s a valid reason for these negative effects: according to multiple studies, teens have shifted biological clocks. Since this clock influences the release of melatonin, the main hormone which regulates sleep, fighting fatigue is harder for teens. If the school day starts later, teens could just sleep later, synchronizing with their own bodies. This could influence the way teens grow as well, as the release of “growth hormones” like testosterone and estrogen are also influenced by sleep schedules. Many doctors are in favor of a nine and a half hour sleep schedule not just because it dramatically affects the mental health of teens, but also because it affects physical health.

Yes, shifting school start times would make teens’ schedules clash more with those of their parents. Yes, if teens opt to take school buses to avoid this, it would increase school district costs. But the bill has little impact on schedules, if any at all. In a study done by the University of North Carolina, athletic and extracurricular participation did not decrease significantly in areas where this schedule change was implemented. Transportation would not be a problem either, as there are many options for going to and from school, such as school buses and carpooling.

If more students choose to carpool, it would benefit the environment, as carpooling reduces the

amount of greenhouse gas emissions. Also, schools are paid by the number of students attending on any given day, so the bill would increase annual school earnings by roughly $17,500 per student, according to a Hamilton Project Report published by the Brookings Institution. This would make increased school bus costs unimportant. And from the same report, starting school later would surprisingly nearly double attendance and overall school performance for economically underprivileged students. This can be explained, at least in part, by the fact that most private schools for more privileged teens start after 8 a.m.; the study indicates that starting schools later could help economically underprivileged students catch up. This could have a large impact on our society, and the bill is a quick and effective way to achieve this.

Schools started earlier during the second half of the 20th century, when they didn’t know the health effects it had. But now that we do know, there is no excuse.

Sept. 15, 2017

the Nexus

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the Nexus

10 Sports the

Sept. 15, 2017

SCOREBOARD

Football

2-1

9/1: Win vs. Rancho Buena Vista, 28 - 0 9/8: Loss vs. Cathedral Catholic, 48 - 6 Next Game Today: vs. Del Norte, 7 p.m. (Home)

Field Hockey

3 - 2

9/7: Win vs. Sage Creek, 7 - 0 9/12: Loss vs. La Costa Canyon, 3 - 1 Next Game Today: vs. University City, 3:30 p.m. (Away)

Boys Water Polo

6 - 3

9/7: Win vs. Pacific Ridge, 23 - 4 9/9: Loss vs. La Serna, 10 - 6 Next Game 9/20: vs. Vista, 4:30 p.m. (Home)

3 - 1

Girls Tennis 9/7: Win vs. Rancho Bernardo, 12-6 9/12: Win vs. Poway, 14-4

Will Yocum (12) supports his teammates from the sideline during the first quarter of their second away game against Cathedral Catholic, Sept. 8. Despite his disability, Yocum has been the athletic assistant for the football program since his freshman year.

Yocum embraces role as athletic assistant

Next Game Monday: vs. Bishops, 3:15 p.m. (Home)

1 - 3

Girls Volleyball

Amber Hauw Design Editor

9/9: Loss vs. University City, 2-1 9/12: Loss vs. Great Oak, 3-1 Next Game Today: vs. Ottay Ranch, 5 p.m. (Home)

Girls Golf

Amber Hauw

0-4

9/7: Forfeit vs. Ramona, N/A 9/12: Loss vs. Poway, 278-245 Next Game Tuesday: vs. Rancho Bernardo, 3 p.m. (Away)

Boys Cross Country 8/26: Vaquero Stampede, 7th place 9/9: Bronco Round-Up, 14th place Next Meet Tomorrow: Woodbridge Classic (Silverlake Sports Park)

Girls Cross Country 9/1: Vaquero Stampede, 4th place 9/9: Bronco Round-Up, 10th place Next Meet Tomorrow: Woodbridge Classic (Silverlake Sports Park) Records as of Tuesday Compiled by the Sports Staff

When Will Yocum (12) walks onto the football field, he can’t help but feel immersed.

The thumping of the band’s drums, the chants from the Black Hole and cheer squad, and the orderly commotion on the sidelines as the coaching staff calls for players to get on and off the field are just a few of the many things Yocum gets to witness all at once during football season.

For Yocum, the atmosphere of game night is irresistible and nothing is better than the team scoring a touchdown.

When Yocum was 15 months old, he was diagnosed with moderate to severe autism.

From that age, with his parents’ guidance, Yocum developed an understanding of his limitations. Despite them, he was not deterred from involving himself in school athletics.

Yocum always saw himself playing football. Before freshman year, Yocum envisioned his family in the stands which he calls “seats.”

“When [Yocum] was in eighth grade, he would talk almost daily about how ‘high school has seats and mommy and daddy are going to watch,’” Yocum’s mom, Dawn, said.

Two weeks before his freshman year started, Yocum asked freshman assistant coach Eric Rodriguez and the freshman team’s head coach at the time, Jamal Felton, if he could join. Yocum said that being a part of the foot-

ball program is a great opportunity to get involved in the school.

“I want to show school spirit,” Yocum said.

With Yocum’s request in mind, Rodriguez and Felton created a new role in which Yocum helped the team during practices and cheered the team on from the sidelines at home games.

Yocum also played a leadership role.

“He was captain for two games freshman year and he loved walking on the field before the game,” Mrs. Yocum said.

Since he started, Yocum said he knew immediately that he wanted to continue participating in the program.

“I liked it so much,” Yocum said. “I wanted to continue until senior year.”

During his sophomore year, Yocum joined the JV team. That year, Yocum also met Nickolas Gawlik (12). At the time, Gawlik was new to football and said that meeting Yocum was all by coincidence and luck.

“It just happened to be that Will was going to be on the JV team,” Gawlik said. “I started doing Best Buddies and we got paired up together. It worked out perfectly.”

After sophomore year, Gawlik and Yocum were inseparable and have remained friends for three years.

Last summer, Yocum was further integrated into the team as an athletic assistant, passing out water to his teammates during practices and games and warming up alongside them before games and during halftime. He also

came to several summer workouts.

“Nickolas helped me over the summer by practicing throwing and catching,” Yocum said.

Although Gawlik became especially close to Yocum, Yocum also credits the teammates he has known since freshman year for enriching his experience in the program.

Whether it was Robert Bias (12) or Kobe Gubernick (12) partnering up with Yocum on the freshman team, Joe Bennett (12) high-fiving Yocum on the sidelines, or Travis Allen (12) helping Yocum adjust his shoulder pads for the team picture, the team made it clear to Yocum that he was their teammate.

While Yocum’s condition requires 24hour medical care, his teammates voluntarily demonstrate another type of care simply through Yocum’s unconditional support.

“The players are very nice to me,” Yocum said.

This aura of acceptance exuded by the team helps Yocum to feel included despite his disability. It was a kind of standard Felton made sure to set for his freshman team. “[Yocum] is a teammate, but everyone has different roles,” Felton said. “Everybody has different strengths and weaknesses, and those sometimes dictate what our role is on the team.

It doesn’t determine your worth or value to the team. While he doesn’t physically play out on the field, he has a jersey like everybody else.”

Like many of his teammates, the jersey

means a great deal to Yocum. It is one of the many reasons why he looks forward to gameday.

“The first time I put on my jersey, I was happy,” he said.

Yocum said he feels happy during the moments when the team makes a sack, scores a touchdown, or huddles up. For him, this has been his football experience for nearly four years and the reason why he takes pride in wearing his own number—cheering on the friends who did lunges alongside him during warmups as freshmen and now, as seniors. At first, Yocum’s enthusiasm to get involved on campus did not fully resonate with coaches like Felton until this year.

“I don’t think I understood how big of a deal it was to him,” Felton said. “With all the kids I have coached, there are varying degrees of how much pride they take in just wearing the jersey.”

Like Gawlik, Felton has befriended Yocum off the field as well, regularly visiting Yocum in class during school and oftentimes chatting with him about upcoming games.

“He can tell you three weeks from now who we’re playing,” Felton said. “The more he talked about game days, it became more well-ingrained in me that football means something to him. This is a part of who he is.

At that point, I took it to heart in a different way after seeing the smile on his face whenever he talked about football.”

Charles utilizes four-year varsity experience to lead teammates Mattie Sanseverino Staff Writer

For Jack Charles (12), it’s always been about more than water polo itself. It’s allowed him to connect with his brother. It’s allowed him to develop his character and connections with a variety of people. Water polo has shaped him into a leader.

Charles grew up surrounded by the sport.

“My nextdoor neighbor played water polo [and] my brother was a senior when I was in eighth grade and he was on varsity for four years. So when I got up to high school it really drove me to get on varsity and I really worked as hard as I could,” Charles said.

He’d been playing club water polo since fifth grade and believed his brother’s accomplishments were attainable.

Being a four-year varsity athlete is an impressive feat.

But, with his motivation and pure love for the sport, he made his way onto varsity, freshman year.

“I worked as hard as I could everyday in practice to contribute on the team [and] it paid off” Charles said.

It’s not easy to be a freshman on varsity. Practices are intense, games are high stakes, and the team is filled with upperclassmen. In this potentially intimidating environment, Charles found himself surrounded by nothing but support.

“The seniors always respected me and had known my brother so they already knew me. A lot of seniors showed me the ropes and they treated me as the future and I feel that that really benefited me” Charles said.

With the open arms and helpful hands of the seniors, Charles learned how to adapt to the dynamics of a high school team.

Collaboration within the team is a major aspect of the sport and something that Charles said he implemented a lot of.

As his older teammates taught him new techniques, he built connections with them and integrated himself into larger roles on the team.

Not only did the seniors help him improve his skills, they also influenced his outlook toward the overall experience. Some of the advice he received has stuck with him throughout the years.

“My freshman year we were leaving from one of our last games and [as] a senior and I were walking, he just said to enjoy everything because once it’s done there’s no getting to do it again and that’s stuck with me,” Charles said.

Charles has taken this advice to heart as he embraces every season and the challenges that they bring.

As a freshman and sophomore, he looked up to the upperclassmen on the team, who took him under their wing.

But junior year, he realized it was his turn to be the role model.

“When I was a junior, I stepped in and was a captain.

I had to lead the team and . . . really stepped up. I really tried to lead the team as best as I could in being a better player, ” Charles said.

Having lost a large amount of seniors to graduation, the team faced a lot of problems and weaknesses. But

Charles, along with other teammates, helped lead the team through the season and to their very first CIF finals game in Westview history.

As a senior, Charles said that he reminisces of his experiences three years ago when he sees the underclassmen on the team. Within the underclassmen on the team, Charles said he can see himself. Remembering all of the positive impacts that seniors had on him his freshman year, he tries his best to do the same.

“I try to be the best leader I can be in and out of the pool and show them that water polo is important [but so is] just being the best person you can be at all times,” Charles stated.

He said he wants to assist his teammates in learning new skills as well as guide them into building character.

By setting the right example in the pool and out in the open air, he feels he’s doing just that; because it’s always been about more than the game.

Just as the leaders on the team did for him, when he was younger, Charles encourages the underclassmen to look at the bigger picture by embracing the season and cherishing the memories. Because it’s not just about water polo.

“It’s [also] about having fun and building relationships,” Charles said.

Charles wants to embrace his last year on a high school water polo team and leave his mark on the younger players. “[I’m] just trying to love and cherish every second of this season,” Charles said.

Daniel Lang

Jack Charles (12) keeps tight coverage on a Valhalla High School player, Aug. 25, at a three-day tournament.

The Lowdown on the Showdown Tyran Nguyen (12) #9 Connor Simpson (12) #13 School: Del Norte (1-2)

School: Westview (2-1)

Weight: 160 lbs

Weight: 185 lbs

Position: Cornerback

Position: Wide Receiver

Height: 5’ 11”

Height: 6’ 3”

40-Yard Dash: 4.64 sec

40-Yard Dash: 4.79 sec

Bench Press: 170 lbs

Bench Press: 185 lbs

Last Game: Loss vs.

Courtesy of Tyran Nguyen

San Marcos, (61-3) Although Nguyen has a height disadvantage in defending passes to Simpson, he’s slightly faster. In this game, it’ll be up to Nguyen to use speed to stay close to Simpson and break up Simpson’s hands.

Last Game: Loss vs.

Cathedral Catholic, (48-6) Simpson’s height advantage could be the deciding factor of who wins this matchup. His long reach allows him to snatch almost every pass thrown to him.

Olivia Dealy

the Nexus

Sept. 15, 2017

11 Sports SIG NIFICANT FIG URES

20

With 20 seconds left in the first half, Zoe Sunahara (12) ran along the left sideline toward Mission Hills High School’s goal.

Sara Stone (10) passed the ball from midfield to Sunahara, who had a clear shot with Mission Hills’ goalie standing to the far-right corner of the goal. In a one-touch sweep, Sunahara scored the Wolverines’ first goal—a retaliation to Mission Hills’ first goal of the game.

Daniel Lang

Karen Gao (10) returns a hit during a doubles match against Torrey Pines High School, Aug. 29. Gao joined the team as a freshman to relieve stress but is now nationally ranked in her age group and serves as team captain despite being a sophomore.

Gao adopts role as girls tennis captain 17 Grace Kim Staff Writer

Karen Gao (10) was 13 pounds underweight in elementary school. Because of her high metabolism, she was not able to gain weight despite how much she ate every day.

The only way to fix this, according to her doctor, was to make her hungry and eat more. As a result, Gao’s parents turned to sports in an attempt to try increase her appetite, weight, and her overall health and fitness.

Before settling on tennis, Gao tried a variety of sports, including swimming, track, and basketball but none of them had clicked with her.

“I didn’t like many sports before tennis, but [my parents] had me play tennis and then I started to really like it a lot,” Gao said.

Gao pursued tennis to help relieve her stress because she forgot about everything except the game as soon as she stepped on the court.

She said that the feeling of hitting the racket against the ball was refreshing and satisfying.

For this reason, Gao kept playing and stayed motivated throughout her middle and high school years. One of the main reasons why Gao kept playing was because it was her way of relieving stress every day.

“I love the feeling and satisfaction of

hitting a [winning shot] and being able There are also many crucial factors that to figure out how to play against specific contribute to being a captain.Coaches seplayers by myself,” Gao said. lect team captains based on their leaderAnother aspect of tennis Gao likes is ship skills and personality on and off the the close knit team that she is a part of. court, along with other important aspects “The team is a nice atmosphere where that could potentially help bring further we can talk about our problems that are advances to the team. not only tennis related,” Gao said.

Coaches also choose players that are She enters this season as her second one trustworthy and great examples for other on varsity. This people. Especialyear, however, ly for tennis, capshe was chosen to tains need to have be team captain, As captains, we try to make good tactics and despite only beplans for the lineups work [by seeing] game ing a sophomore. every match in “When I first whose playing style would order to move up found out, I was go well with another person.” in tournaments really surprised, and win throughKaren Gao (10) out the season, but [it was] a good ‘surprised’ in order to reach because sophomores aren’t usually cap- their main goal. tains,” she said.

“We always have a goal, which is to In many sports, captains usually tend win CIF’s, and take that title,” coach Kirsi to be juniors or seniors because they are Marja Kiviniemi said. more experienced with the sport and have Captains also serve as role models for skilled playing techniques. Gao being the players and take responsibility of everyyoungest captain on team hopes to learn one . from the upperclassmen.

“Karen is a really great player and “Our head coach and other captains are showed me that she cares about the team leaving next year and so I want to learn as and wants to help me and the assistant much as I can from them in order to lead coach,” Kiviniemi said. the team well next year with new coaches Gao’s skills placed 47th in the state and and captains,” Gao said.

236th in the nation for her age group.

Gao is excited to work with other capAccording to players on varsity, Gao’s tains in taking care of the team and taking adept playing ability serves as a great exon responsibilties. ample to others.

In her new position, she has also been able to offer advice to her teammates about how to hit specific kinds of serves or play certain types of tennis players.

“Karen is really good at helping you find a players’ weakness and she always cheers for anyone that’s playing on the court,” Julia Bennett (10) said.

Another role of a captain is to help the team bond and make sure everyone gets along throughout the season. In order to do this, captains plan hangouts or bonding sessions outside of school in order to get to know each other better.

“Karen is definitely confident and focused [on the court].” Olivia Speir (10) said. “But with the team, she likes to have fun and we all like to have fun with her.”

Every year, the captains main goal is to help lead the team to not only win the Palomar League but also earning the title of CIF champions.

“As captains, we try to make the lineups work [by seeing] whose playing style would go well with another person and if there are any issues between players,” Gao said.

She said she looks forward to helping the seven new players who are now on varsity as they transition to more rigorous and tough training every day after school until the season ends.

“It’s a fun team and I hope we can form a strong sisterhood with one another so that we can help each other through tough times even off the court,” she said.

seconds

Amber Hauw

assists

A loud smack resounded throughout Westview’s gym as a right side hitter from Great Oak High School spiked a ball during the middle of a play. Aliyana Shivji (11) dug the ball before Kendall Smith (12) set it for Sabrina Speratti (11) to spike it back over the net for the 25th point. This allowed the Wolverines to win the match after losing their previous two matches. Smith executed 17 assists.

Daniel Lang Written by Mark Troftgruben and Amber Hauw

BLACK & GOLD

Nicole Musano

Daniel Lang

Amber Hauw

Tiffany Le

Zara Irshad

PELLOUCHOUD

BROOKER

LEUNG

TENNIS, Singles

CROSS COUNTRY

GOLF

Britney Pellouchoud (12) has played tennis since age 10 after being introduced by her cousin, a former player. Since then, she has continued to play singles, making varsity freshman year. Pellouchoud has been team captain for the past two years.

Pellouchoud says her greatest accomplishment was making it to State CIF finals junior year with her team. Although Pellouchoud has a strong bond with her teammates, she said she enjoys tennis because it’s an individual sport, especially with singles.

“I like that [tennis] is individual,” Pellouchoud said. “Everything that you do, good or bad, is on you.”

Despite the fact that Marshall Brooker (12) joined cross country for the first time as a senior, he’s already looking to qualify for the state championships.

“I joined track so I could stay in shape for soccer and I was able to run a 4:41 mile in my first race and was able to take around five seconds off every race for the first two months until I got down to a 4:15 mile,” Brooker said.

Brooker attended a summer running camp in Idyllwild, where he met some of the best running coaches at the camp in the state.

“The hardest part of the sport is the mental aspect, because running is both physically and mentally painful in general,” Brooker said.

When Isabelle Leung (11) attended golf camp at age 12, she never expected to enjoy the sport. Although she was placed in the camp to make friends, Leung grew passionate about the sport - it gave her time to reflect and unwind.

Leung has learned that although golf is an individual sport, there is a lot of team interaction.

“We’re able to share our thoughts with each other every match and help one another out during the season,” Leung said.

She said she believes that the small team size helps these interactions develop into the relationships that make her look forward to practice every day.

ALLEN

FOOTBALL, Defensive End

Travis Allen (12) has been surrounded by football his whole life.

Two of his older brothers played in high school, but as the baby of the family, he wasn’t allowed to play on a football team during middle school.

After being allowed to join the team his freshman year, Allen found that he was drawn to defensive end because he enjoyed the exhilaration of sacking the quarterback. “[As a] defensive end, you are really down in the dirt and there’s a lot of hitting,” he said. “I like to dominate when tackling because when you get a sack, you’ve got the team on your back, all happy, and it’s a really great feeling.”

Isabelle Ritter

LAUNDROCHE

Daniel Lang

WILLIAMS

VOLLEYBALL, Outside Hitter

FIELD HOCKEY, Inside Forward

The first experience Lauren Laundroche (11) had with volleyball wasn’t likely to lead to the success she’s had with the sport today. During tryouts her freshman year, Laundroche was hit square in the face by a volleyball.

“I could’ve been really discouraged after that, but I just thought, ‘I can handle it!’ and I started playing all the time.” Laundroche said, “I didn’t even know the rules, but I ended up being voted captain for the team because I’m always positive” Today, she has grown from the terrified freshman who was hit in the face to a nearly 6-foot outside hitter with 177 kills last season.

Sophie Williams (12) turned to field hockey upon realizing she didn’t want to pursue soccer in high school.

But, she was challenged with the new skills that field hockey requires and the fact that the sport only allows right-handed equipment. Being new to the sport and naturally left-handed, Williams realized she had a lot to work on.

“Developing strength on my right side was something that I really had to push myself to do,” Williams said.

And she did it. On her second year of varsity field hockey, she has right-handed capabilities and the has witnessed her hard work paying off.

12 Final Focus

the Nexus

Sept. 15, 2017

AP course loads: taking your high school career into your own hands Amber Li Staff Writer

At Westview, more than 37.5 percent of students are enrolled in one or more Advanced Placement courses.

In a school where any student, regardless of grade level, has access to numerous AP courses in a variety of subjects, students such as David Wu (11) take full advantage of what Westview has to offer. By taking AP courses, students are provided an opportunity to experience college level classes as well as show universities that they can handle a challenge.

In only two years, Wu has taken nine AP courses and plans to take 16 AP courses by the time he graduates. While people say 16 APs in four years is too much for teenagers to handle, generalizations like that tend to ignore the fact that every student has unique strengths and weaknesses. In Wu’s case, he said he understands how much he can handle.

“Although the classes are not easy, so far I feel that I have not been too stressed out because of them,” Wu said.

“I still have time outside of school to do the things that I want to do such as playing tennis and occasionally talking and hanging out with friends.”

This is not to say that Wu’s goal for the amount of AP courses he wants to take before graduation should be a universal one.

Counselor Vanessa Ho said she believes that when it comes to taking AP courses, colleges care about more than just the amount. Marushka Hirshon, an Admission Counselor at Stanford University, believes that students should “appropriately challenge” themselves when it comes to taking AP classes.

“Instead of taking as many AP courses as possible, focus on courses that interest you the most or courses that would provide an exciting academic challenge,” Hirshon said. “We understand that every student has different commitments and interests. AP courses, standardized testing and grades are only a piece of what our admission team evaluates. Don’t focus solely on your GPA throughout your high school years. Remember to cater to your dreams, aspirations and passions in and out of the classroom.”

Ho said she believes that students who take AP classes out of sheer enjoyment and curiosity as opposed to for an increase in their GPAs, have a potential advantage in the college admission process.

This mindset is what motivated Wu to continue to challenge himself.

“All the AP classes I have taken are ones that interest me,” he said. “For classes such as English, a subject I am not as interested in, I tend to stay away from those AP classes. I don’t take [AP classes] solely to increase my GPA since interest in the subject is a much more important factor to me.”

While Wu likes to challenge himself by taking numerous AP classes, he never lets it get in the way of his other endeavors.

“Outside of school I play tennis and also participate in FTC robotics,” he said. “I take part in USACO which is a coding competition as well as the Chemistry Olympiad competition because I am interested in both of those subjects.”

Ho said that colleges look for depth and self-searching in students as they go through high school. This is something that she and the college admissions officers say really comes through in a student’s college application.

In order to better understand the college admissions process, Ho and the other Westview counselors participate in college reading sessions with university representatives each year. During these readings, Ho works with the universities in mock admissions to see what types of students are admitted to certain universities. Ho noticed that the students who are accepted are not the ones with the highest GPAs or SAT scores. They are instead the students who show the most passion and really intrigue admissions officers with their class choices and extracurriculars.

DIFFERENCES In a recent survey taken of 100 students at Westview who are currently enrolled in an AP course, 54 percent of freshmen and sophomores said they view AP courses as classes that “my parents convinced me to take,” “to boost my GPA,” and most often “to get into college.”

By contrast, of the juniors and seniors surveyed, 64 percent take AP courses because “they love the subject” or “to keep [themselves] challenged and make the most of [their] educational opportunities.” What’s more, 60 percent of those upperclassmen who say they enjoy the AP challenge say they had once been among those underclassmen who only looked at AP courses as GPA boosts.

Amy Li (12) understands this discrepancy due to her own experiences. When she was a freshman, she did not have any siblings or upperclassmen friends to help her with her transition to high school. Finding herself without any guidance, Li resorted to following what her friends did by taking an AP class her freshman year.

“All my friends were doing a bunch of APs and I was like ‘Oh I don’t want to be left behind. I want to be like them. I want to be smart,’” she said.

Anthony Veritas, a former USC admissions officer and current college consulting counselor attributes these typical thoughts of freshmen and sophomores to not doing enough research about colleges.

“The biggest mistake I saw doing admissions is that most students didn’t start their college prep soon enough,” Veritas said. “They only know the colleges by name and fame, not what kind of people they want as a student body or how that school will be a good fit for them. The emphasis on everything for the college application process is all determined by the schools and or types of school the students are trying to access.”

According to Veritas, higher-tiered universities will emphasize course rigor far more heavily their lower-tiered schools.

“If you are trying to go to a school, say, like Iowa State, then AP courses will be little-to-no factor. Course rigor will be in general less of a factor, but if you’re trying to get into Ivy League schools, Stanford, USC, UC schools, then the number of APs and or course rigor definitely is now part of this evaluation. Everything is relative to the actual schools,” he said.

That is not to say top-tier schools only look at academics. Veritas said that one-dimensional students rarely earn admission to top-tier schools.

After gaining more of an understanding as to what they want to do after high school, students’ views toward AP courses changed.

“I now believe that people should take APs they are interested in. Before, I thought it was mandatory to take APs” a senior in the survey said.

Li came to a similar understanding. After doing poorly in AP Computer Science her freshmen year, Li consulted some of the upperclassmen in her class. They told her she was still young and should spend her time at Westview finding who she was and what she wanted to be. She said this aided her as she began to take her high school life into her own hands. Starting her sophomore year, Li started taking classes she found interesting and better suited to her skills. She began taking classes like AP Chemistry, Honors Humanities, and AP Biology rather than classes like AP Computer Science and AP Physics.

“I feel a lot happier with where I am now than I would be if I had just tried to fit in with everyone and do what everyone else was doing, even if it wasn’t for me,” Li said.

CHANGE For the past decade, Ho and the rest of Westview counseling team have leading students toward a balanced high school life by emphasizing it during orientation and course selection discussions.

“As a school, we are trying to push this balance and well-

ness on our campus and really trying to address that feeling that students have that ‘I have to do all of these or I will not get into college,’” Ho said. “When we go to the middle schools when we do parent nights, we try to address all of those concerns [about AP courses].”

However, Ho said that if students are ready to handle the rigor that comes with AP classes, “all the more power to them.” Ho said she understands that every student is different and should take the courses that benefit them most rather than copying the courses taken by other students.

With this mindset, students will begin to dig deeper into who they are, learning how to think for themselves and be independent.

This idea resonates with Li. After her freshman year epiphany, Li said she realized that not every person has the same strengths and weaknesses.

“When I was a freshman, I tried to force myself into [other people’s] categories of strengths rather than my own,” she said. “I didn’t fit because those aren’t my strengths and I decided I’m not going to be like that anymore. I’m going to do whatever makes me happy.”

Westview alumni and current Stanford student Haeli Baek (’17) said that success is about following your interest and challenging your abilities. Not only did she reap the benefits of the AP opportunities Westview has to offer, she immersed herself in many extracurriculars like flute, National Honor Society and Mock Trial. APs were an extension of her passions and curiosities; they were never what her high school experience revolved around.

Having taken nine AP classes, Baek said that students should take AP classes that interest them.

“There’s no one thing that gets you into a particular school,” Baek said.”It’s a culmination of factors. That being said, it’s more important to set yourself at a pace that is best for you and invest just as much energy in other activities you are interested in.”

With Li’s new outlook on high school and AP courses, she has been able to participate in programs that she believes will benefit her in the long run.

“I’m part of an internship and volunteering at a hospital and if I were taking those other classes, then I wouldn’t have time to do these things,” she said. “I wouldn’t have experienced these other things that I think have actually made high school a much more fun experience.”

FUTURE In recent years, the number of Westview students taking AP exams has dropped from 1,091 students in 2013 to 959 in 2016.

More significantly, this data also showed an increase of passing rates on AP tests from 86.8 percent of students earning a 3 or higher in 2013 to 91.2 percent of students earning a 3 or higher in 2015. While the numbers show that Westview is making progress toward a brighter future, Ho said we still have a ways to go.

What colleges are looking at, Ho said, is not how alike you are to your peers; they want to see how you take your uniqueness and use it to your advantage. What you do with you high school experience is ultimately up to you.

“Nowadays, students seem to have a single laser focus on college, but not necessarily what the point of college is,” Ho said.

Instead of focusing so hard on college, she said she wants students to ask themselves, “What do I want to do with my life?” not, “What college do I want to go to?” Having already gone through the college process herself, Ho said that the point of college is to get a career and be happy in that career.

If students are only looking at college as the end game, all they really think about are grades, but Ho said that if students start thinking about careers and dreams over a specific college, they have the potential to really branch out and look at Westview’s classes and opportunities in a way that will help them develop who they are and who they will become.

Art by Nicole Musano