Issue 7, 2014-2015

T he

Nexus Westview High School

February 13, 2015 Volume XIII, Issue 7 westviewnexus.com

13500 Camino Del Sur, San Diego, CA 92129

>> From the Twitter Sphere

Below are recent tweets from students that we thought were thought-provoking, interesting, or funny. Tweet us at @wvnexus to share your own thoughts and opinions.

Kenna Clark (11) Feb. 4 @kennaclark24: “Once you get over yourself, get involved in your school, care about grades and find a genuine group of friends, high school is pretty great.”

Branda Sun (11) Jan. 28 @brandayangg: “When you want to drop a mixtape but the only thing dropping is your grades.”

Rodney Tompkins (11) Feb. 8 @rod_tompkins: “Sometimes you have to fall down the stairs to realize that life isn’t about spraining your ankle, it’s about getting up after.”

Sierra Tagle (12) Feb. 5 @sierratagle: “There are only two reasons I ever drive the speed limit: 1 I have my dog in the passenger seat 2 I have food in the passenger seat.”

“CAPTIVITY

KILL KILLS” S Affolter fights for cetacean rights Meilynn Shi Staff Writer

“We don’t march because we like to,” protestors shouted, championing “Captivity Kills,” “Lolita, 44 Years a Slave” and “Je Suis Lolita” signs, “We march because we have to!”

As a drum began to beat, Robbyne Kaamil, one of the event organizers, began rapping a song she wrote about the abuse the orca Lolita and her ancestors have suffered.

The crowd began to chant, “Free Lolita, let the girl go!

Free Lolita, let the girl go!”

“The energy carried through her voice made me shudder and cry,” said Zach Affolter (12), who spoke at the event and helped organize it as part of the nonprofit organization, Miracle March to Protect the Captives. “The captive industry truly is a slave trade.”

On Jan. 17, more than 1,000 people from across the nation congregated in Virginia Beach Park in Miami to join the Miracle March for Lolita, a Southern Resident killer whale that has been living and performing at the Miami Seaquarium since she was captured in Puget Sound in 1970, 44 years ago.

According to the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, Lolita’s tank size is illegal.

“It is like a prison cell,” Affolter said. “She can swim in a straight line for maybe five to 10

Insidethis Issue

37%

Surveys show that only 37 percent of LGBTQ youth describe themselves as happy.

See GSA, page 2

seconds [but] then has to turn back around.”

This movement has sparked anti-captivity protests worldwide to advocate for her release back into the wild.

“There’s a whole complex plan already created for her rehabilitation, where she’ll be released into a sea-pen in Tanaka Bay, Puget Sound and will be taken care of by humans,” Affolter said. “Even if she wouldn’t be able to be returned to her family, she could still be in her natural habitat and have a much larger area.”

The Miracle March made national headlines as the largest ever protest march against cetacean captivity. Protestors marched around the Seaquarium in a line so long that on the way back, the front ran into the middle.

“After many months of blood, sweat and tears put into planning the event, it finally paid off,” Affolter said. “I was amazed that so many people care about Lolita and her plight.”

Affolter was asked last July to film a media advertisement for the march. After returning from a conservation mission in Costa Rica to educate locals and help protect sea turtle eggs from poachers, Affolter said he worked on the video and helped organize the event for at least two hours each day.

“Organizing it with the other seven people has been a valuable experience in planning events and working and negotiating with people,” he said.

With seven other organizers, Affolter helped raise more than $20,000 in three months to fund the event and helped gather more than 177,000 signatures for a petition to include Lolita in the Endangered Species Act (ESA), since her pod is endangered. On Feb. 4, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) ruled that Lolita would now be protected under the ESA. “Captive animals such as Lolita cannot be assigned separate legal status from their wild counterparts,” the NOAA stated.

Although the ruling itself does not mandate that the Seaquarium release Lolita, it provides activist groups legal standing to sue for her release. They can argue that keeping her in an illegally-sized tank to perform for entertainment falls under the “harm and harassment” part of the ruling, which prohibits harmful activities against endangered species.

“So the next step is suing for the Miami Seaquarium to retire Lolita to a sea pen where she could be prepared for release,” Affolter said.

Lolita, who was originally

See Affolter, page 5

$41B

Fracking on an Apache burial ground is estimated to generate $41 billion.

See Fracking, page 9

195

Westview wrestlers scored 195 points total at the Julie Leonard Memorial Tournament.

See Wrestling, page 13

Photo courtesy of Zach Affolter

Zach Affolter (12) speaks at the 2015 Miracle March to advocate for the release of captive orca Lolita. Affolter has been an activist for animal rights and marine conservation since ninth grade.

$2-3M

The life insurance on Lolita is worth $2-3 million, which would be paid to the Miami Seaquarium in the case of her death.

79

There are currently only 79 “southern resident” killer whales in the Pacific Northwest, the only known resident population to exist in the U.S.

60 x 80 x 20

Lolita’s tank measures 60-by-80 feet wide and 20 feet deep, which is illegal. Lolita herself is 21 feet long.

Source: USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection

Counselors debut mental health app Brandon Victor Staff Writer

In an effort to combat the high stress levels and mental health concerns at Westview, counselor Jeff Bockert has begun to utilize the app Flipboard in order to raise awareness and educate students on how to deal with stress.

The app, which allows users to index and compress various articles regarding handling stress and mental health into a compact online magazine, primarily consists of social media posts by authors specializing in mental health. Currently, Bockert has compiled 59 articles for students to read in a Flipboard magazine, which can be accessed through a link.

Bockert found out about the app from the principal at the school where he used to work in Washington. He said that Flipboard, which is free, can be utilized during school in order for it to have an even stronger effect.

“One of the goals of the Flipboard was that it would be a wellness magazine that kids could talk about and discuss during class and potentially during homeroom,” he said. “Right now we are trying to get the magazine to be more accessible and have more people notice it.”

Stress has regularly been a problem at the high school level, but Bockert said he truly became aware of how stress carries over into college at a recent conference.

“Since World War II, there has been a major

See Flipboard, page 2

Marksmanship teams qualify for Nationals Catie Fan

Editor in Chief The night before and the morning of the state championship, the four JV and four varsity marksmanship team competitors made sure to stay hydrated. They avoided sugar and caffeine, which would make them shake, and were careful to keep their heart rates down to ensure that they would stay steady and maintain their aim at the competition.

What the marksmanship team refers to as “state” is actually Area 11, which is comprised of Southern California and Arizona. Since Area 11 is so large, the Area 11 Navy JROTC Marksmanship Championships were held Jan. 24 at three different locations, with Westview attending the one held in the gym at Troy High School in Fullerton.

Varsity entered as Westview A, while JV entered as Westview B, competing on the same level as varsity. The top three teams at the state tournament would be qualified to move on to compete at Navy nationals.

The teams arrived at Troy at around 8:30 a.m., just as the first relay, or first group to shoot, finished up. There were three relays total, each lasting around two hours. Sixteen shooters, or three to four teams, could compete at a time.

Varsity marksmanship team member Matthew Pellegrino (11) said that the team felt confident going into the tournament because they were familiar with the level of competition of the teams they would be up against.

“These people have been doing matches the rest of the year too, so we knew the majority of

See State, page 3

Kishaba ranks nationally in synchronized swimming Tonia Jaroszewska

Alex Smyth

Ryan Provencio (10) runs down the field, keeping his eyes on the ball in Tuesday’s varsity soccer game against Point Loma High School. The match ended in a tie between the two schools, 3-3.

See Tie, page 12

where the swimmer simply lies on their back and scrunches their abdomen so that their Staff Writer toes and hands touch and sink underwater.

Kiyomi Kishaba (10) stood on the pool “At the time I thought it was the coolest deck among a few other girls her age. Shiv- thing,” Kishaba said. Now she knows it’s ering, Kishaba stepped into the shallow end one of the simplest moves and is fundamenof the pool. tal to figures. Figures are specific series of She was eight years old at the time and body positions, the majority of which inhad been on the swim team for a few years. volve holding the legs out of the water.

She had decided that Within a few months she wanted someshe was capable of a thing new. few more things than My coach was pushing me very just floating.

It was synchronized swimming.

Kishaba learned hard and was constantly telling Kishaba wanted do new positions and the other girls to look up to me.” figures such as the something unique.

In synchro there “Barracuda” and the Kiyomi Kishaba (10) “Porpoise Full Twist.” were costumes and music. Synchro was These figures could be performing in the water. put together with music and sequined suits “I fell in love with the idea immediately,” to create a routine with her whole age group Kishaba said, “The idea was just so out of team, as a duet, or by herself as a solo. She the ordinary with all the gorgeous costumes, could do negative splits, and after enough that I already knew I would love it.” practice, hold her breath for the entire length The first day taught her only the basics: of an underwater lap. learning to float flat on your back, and move Last year, Kishaba became nationally forwards and backwards. Kishaba also was See Kishaba, page 4 taught a simple move called “The Oyster,”

Photo courtesy of Kiyomi Kishaba

Kiyomi Kishaba (10) (right) performs a synchronized swimming routine with her duet partner at a national qualifier in 2014.

T he

News

Stand

Sign up for the California High School Proficiency Exam (CHSPE) online by Feb. 20 to meet the regular registration deadline.

$5

20

th

Westview Improv’s Date Fright runs tonight at 7 p.m. The price of admission is $5 (or a beating heart).

Seniors, purchase your tickets for the harbor cruise for $85 at the finance office or online.

Payments and senior class trip permits must be turned in by March 6.

$85 The Creative and Liberal Arts Career Forum begins at 7 p.m. in the staff lounge March 2.

Students will meet and discuss with professionals in the arts.

7:00 The next Start Smart Teen Driving Program is Feb. 25 at Poway High School. Students must attend these seminars at least once to earn a parking permit.

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Nexus

GSA proposes LGBT-friendly changes Bhavika Anandpura Staff Writer

Gay-Straight Alliance, now known as Gender and Sexuality Alliance, (GSA) members Cee Howe (12), Rebecca Liu (11), and Bansi Parekh (11) presented a list of proposals to the administrators to make the campus a more LGBTQIA+ friendly place Feb. 5.

Four members of the administrative board, Principal Todd Cassen, and Area Administrators Alicia Graeff, Aaron Little, and Scott Wild, listened to the students’ efforts to shed light on issues LGBTQIA+ students face in school and suggest solutions. Liu, who originally contacted Principal Cassen asking to present, said she felt it was necessary to teach people about these youth and what the school could do to make them more comfortable.

“I’d been noticing a certain degree of non-acceptance from people at school, and I think that could easily be remedied by educating people,” she said. “But that’s tough to do because school doesn’t really address LGBTQ issues.”

Parekh said these students often face micro-aggressions that can cause them to feel unsafe or uncomfortable.

“Micro-aggression is a form of discrimination which is often unintended and unconsciously given,” she said. “[Because of them] people can feel excluded or unwelcome in their environment. Sometimes they feel scared, don’t feel safe, or feel like they aren’t being taken seriously, which can be very depressing and place someone in a negative state of mind.”

These micro-aggressions, such as using the wrong pronoun or expecting people to fall into certain gender roles, lead to disproportionate rates of depression and suicide in LGBTQIA+ students, according to Howe. Only 37 percent of LGBT youth

54%

describe themselves a happy, compared to name, thus allowing students to clarify 67 percent of straight youth. their preferred names, which might have To alleviate subtle bullying, the GSA a different gender connotation than the members sought to educate the adminis- original names. trators, and eventually the school, about “Often the gender of their given name is different gender and orientation prefer- not the gender they identify with,” Howe ences, and the difference between gender said. and sex.

Another problem the GSA members “Sex is the biological and physiolog- brought to the administrators was which ical characteristics that define someone, restroom non-binary students should whereas gender refers to the socially con- use. Liu suggested the designation of structed roles, behaviors, activities, and one restroom as all-gender, or labeling attributes that a given society considers the existing bathrooms with ‘urinals’ and appropriate for men and women,” Howe ‘non-urinals’ to sidestep the dilemma. The said. “Gender is a spectrum.” administrators agreed with the need for a In an effort to educate not just the staff solution, and suggested that LGBTQIA+ but also students of students use the the different facbathroom in the tors that determine nurse’s office. gender identity, Instead of using ‘he’ or While the students the GSA students ‘she,’ this would be teachers should said posted guides to an inconvenience orientation in the acknowledge the existence because of the farrestrooms. Another of non-binary identities.” off location, they way they sought to said it was a step in Cee Howe (12) the right direction. bring the issue to people’s attention Another importwas through more focus on it during No ant point the students pushed for was the Place for Hate Week. teaching of LGBT history in U.S. history Because many people don’t fit neatly classes in accordance to the Fair, Accuinto the gender binary, the use of “he” and rate, Inclusive and Respectful (FAIR) Ed“she” in English classrooms can be prob- ucation Act, passed in 2011, which ruled lematic. In order to respect gender iden- that LGBT history could not be eliminattity, Liu first proposed the acceptance of ed from history curriculums. Liu said this “they” in classrooms. Howe, president of could be incorporated in the next textbook GSA, identifies as non-binary and prefers update, and until then teachers could use the gender pronoun “they.” outside sources such as documentaries, “English teachers should recognize that and that teaching this history would make ‘they’ is now acceptable and widely used LGBTQIA+ students feel less left out. as a singular pronoun,” they said. “Instead “When I hear about a famous queer perof using ‘he or she,’ [teachers should] ac- son in history it makes me think, ‘Hey, I knowledge the existence of non-binary can do that too,’” Liu said. identities.”

In addition, the members said they Liu also proposed that teachers and sub- wanted a change in the ENS curriculum to stitutes take attendance by calling the last teach more about gender identity.

say they have been verbally harassed and called names involving anti-gay slurs

Bockert introduces Flipboard app shift in college admissions [in which] everyone is encouraged to go to college,” he said. “However, only 17 percent of students graduate from college [within four years].”

Bockert said he thinks one reason for this is the lack of a concrete plan that schools have to counter or manage stress.

“Kids have a hard time managing their time on their own, which leads to stress,” he said. “And when kids are stressed, they deal with this stress in potentially problematic ways.”

Bockert said that this conference motivated him to focus even more on the mental health project.

“It really proved that what we’re trying to do matters; that those problems exist here, which is why we are trying to help,” he said. “[Also], if we can help now, we hope that it will carry over and help them in college also.”

Additionally, Bockert said he believes that by creating a wellness plan, students will be able to figure

out ways in which they can personally handle their stress better.

“As counselors, we medicate people who are depressed [and stressed] quite often without taking into consideration if they are even doing any exercise, doing anything naturally proactive to try to fight this,” he said.

“The magazine shows people ways to be a more healthy, efficient and effective person.”

Bockert said that the counselors will need to find a way to check in on the program’s success.

“One of the things we have to do is find a way to measure and see if we are making any difference in the lives of these kids,” he said.

While the counselors as a whole have been attempting to deal with the concern of mental health for some time now, counselor Christine Cudmore said the process has moved along after they put Bockert in charge.

“We [counselors] met and decided that someone needed to spearhead this, because when all of the counselors are doing it without a leader

“Some people think this would be politicizing the classroom,” Liu said. “But it’s not politics; it’s our lives. We’re living it.”

The administrators agreed that many of these changes were feasible and necessary. They said they would look at the proposals more closely and do what was necessary to make Westview safe. They have already spoken to ASB Director Shannon Parker about a spot for a LGBTQIA+ speaker at No Place for Hate Week, and are working on the other ones.

“I think for the curriculum that’s something we’ll need to look into a little further, and talk about district-wide,” Principal Cassen said. “But the focus on learnings for staff and learnings for teachers— that’s really what I walked away with. That’s to me looking at how we can work with our staff, how we can make sure information and learnings like this are included. Because I know as a staff member I made a lot of those mistakes and had it not been brought to my attention, I would have continued to do so.”

Wild said he supported efforts to make Westview a better place.

“We’re always looking to change, always looking to improve,” he said. “We all walked away on Thursday [after the presentation] nodding our heads, I don’t think it’s going to be a top-down, policy-sweeping change, I don’t think that’s going to be as effective as maybe these small conversations that bloom into bigger ones.”

Principal Cassen said he was glad this was brought to his attention and would work to make Westview more accommodating to different students.

“We talked about bullying and snide comments, and that’s really not what Westview is about,” Mr. Cassen said.

“This needs to be a safe place for all students.”

LGBT Youth in High Schools

Compiled by Vivien Liu and Dane Persky

Flipboard, from page 1

Feb. 13, 2015

we have no one to keep us on track,” she said.

One of Bockert’s first actions after becoming the leader was to focus his time and energy on Flipboard as a sort of launching pad for the rest of the mental health program.

However, while Flipboard is meant to help students with managing their stress and mental health, it is ultimately the first step in what is meant to be a larger effort.

To generate even more ideas, Cudmore said the counselors are trying to put together a wellness committee and a wellness plan so they have strategy that reaches beyond an app for the upcoming years.

“The next step from here is to reach out to other staff members or other people and ask who wants to get involved with this so we can all collaborate,” she said. “Whether it’s kids or parents, we want to get ideas from everyone who wants to help.

We are still in the development stages of a committee, so anyone who wants to be a part of it should come see us.”

47%

say they do not “fit in,” in comparison to 16 percent of non-LGBT youth

Academic League faces Torrey Pines, CCA in division Daniel Fan

Staff Writer One buzz was heard followed by various sounds from other players attempting to buzz in at Torrey Pines’ auditorium as Westview faced off against the Falcons in Academic League Jan. 29. The night had been full of buzzer races, but Torrey Pines consistently ended up with possession, rarely missing the question, and turning the question over to Westview for a free guess.

As natural as the match may have seemed, the matchup itself was an irregular one. This year, Torrey Pines and Canyon Crest Academy took Ramona and San Pasqual High School’s places in the Inland Division, moving from the Coastal Division.

“It was a decision made by [North County Academic League],” Coach Jayne Lutgen said. “I don’t think any of the schools in PUSD or TP and CCA were happy about it. I got emails from other coaches mainly saying ‘What in the world?’”

Torrey Pines and CCA had been contenders with Westview in the playoffs. As of Feb. 5, Torrey Pines is 3-1, losing only to CCA. CCA is undefeated, with a record of 4-0. However, the new level of competition didn’t bother Lutgen or captain Kevin Li (12).

According to Li, although the season seemed more difficult, the games would be more exciting.

Westview kicked off the season with a bye-week, only to play their first match against Rancho Bernardo a week later Jan. 28 The first match ended with Westview winning, 93-64. In week two, Westview faced off against Torrey Pines and lost, 122-69.

“I think most of the questions [that were asked], the kids knew the answers,” Lutgen said. “You could see a lot times throughout the match where the [buzzers] went off one after the other.”

In the past, Westview defeated Torrey Pines in the playoffs, and Li had been part of that team and contributed to that victory. This year’s match took a different turn for Li, but did not catch him off guard.

“We lost a lot of good seniors, and we obviously knew the regular season was going to be more difficult,” Li said. “But us losing was kind of unexpected, but it’s just kind of what happens.”

For Westview, winning the game was vital for going to playoffs. Judging from the scores CCA and TP had in their previous matches, the top 3 positions would be determined on which school beat which.

“It would be safe to say that we all were kind of off [that night],” Yang said. “And maybe that was the pressure of knowing that the match pretty much decided our season.”

Despite the loss, a common sentiment among the was revealed: although the purpose of Academic League is to win each match, the first priority was always to learn more and have fun. “[Academic League] is really about the camaraderie the kids have with each other,” Lutgen said.

“It’s still about a group of ninth graders that came together, who have been together for four years and like to learn, who like to challenge themselves, and enjoy each other’s company.”

92%

say they hear negative messages about being LGBT from school, the Internet and peers Information from GSA Network and Human Rights Campaign

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2 News

BA O L G

SCOOP:

JORDAN

Brief highlights from one major current event

WHAT HAPPENED:

After crashing his plane in December 2014, Jordanian Lieutenant Moaz al-Kasasbeh was burned to death by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS). The execution came as a response to the formation of a U.S.-led anti-Islamic State coalition, of which Jordan is a member. The incident garnered heavy support against ISIS in Jordan.

WHO DID WHAT:

The U.S. led an anti-Islamic State bombing campaign, and al-Kasasbeh was participating in one such campaign when he crashed. Al-Kasasbeh’s death has ignited passion against ISIS and unified public opinion in support of the coalition, which the Jordanian government is starting to play a more active role in.

WHAT’S THE CONSEQUENCE:

The death of al-Kasasbeh has led to anti-radical sentiments among Jordanians. Initially, opinions against Jordan’s involvement were the most dominant in the area and had remained so until recently. Oraib Rintawi, director of the Amman-based Al Quds Center for Political Studies says, “Sitting in a gray area is no longer acceptable. Public opinion is angry.”

THE NEXT STEP:

Despite the highly charged environment created by the death of the Jordanian pilot, arguments against being involved still continue. Mohammad Shalabi, leader of the Salafist party, believes that further intervention against the ISIS will only succeed in breeding more violence.

However, until the atmosphere dies down, Jordan continues its airstrikes.

Compiled by Edward Qiao and Daniel Fan

Feb. 13, 2015

News 3 Nexus Chou wins WCE Dancer of the Year

T he

Giovanna Zavala Staff Writer

Photo courtesy of Emma Aspacio

Sarah Chou (11) performs her solo at competition.

Chou won West Coast Elite Dancer of the Year.

Sarah Chou (11) describes her personal style of dance in a simple term: pretty. That could not be a more accurate description for her solo routine this competition season.

Everything, from her flowing white skirt that flares when she turns, to her long and graceful extensions, is “pretty.”

Chou’s solo earned her the title Dancer of the Year at Dance Troupe’s first competition of the year put on by West Coast Elite dance Jan. 24.

Because the troupe had been preparing for the performing arts gala in Poway the week before, they didn’t feel ready to perform the competition pieces they had been working on yet. Instead, Chou, Giana Bradford (10), Sara Kvarnstrom (10), Jaylene Arnett (11), Rachel Hanson (11), Rachel Posteraro (11), Emily Loefstedt (12) and Carly McCray (12) performed solos.

Though this competition was the first official performance of the dancers’ solos, they had been working on them for months. Each solo was auditioned in front of the troupe’s adviser, Shannon Parker, in order for her to gauge where each dancer was with their routine.

Chou started to create her routine in October. She picked the song “Kissing You” by Des’Ree for her solo because of its compatibility with her contemporary style.

“I like to pick songs that start out pretty slow and then I like having a big build at the end and this one really has it,” Chou said. “It’s pretty emotional, pretty dramatic.”

After picking her song, Chou listened to it over and over again; putting it on repeat during her homework to familiarize herself with the music, and to begin choreographing her solo in her head.

“I never write anything down or choreograph physically,” Chou said. “After I do it in my head I try it out in the dance room. If something feels natural then I’ll keep it and I’ll see if something is just kind

Counselors organize Canvas survey to gauge students’ homework load

Jason Kang

The remaining data is then split up based on what grade the student earned in the class. This helps provide Staff Writer counselors with a reason behind specific responses and On Jan. 12, hundreds of students who logged onto categories to better present averages. their Canvas accounts to check their class schedule for The information drawn from the survey is part of a the new term were met with a request by the counseling larger remodeling of the way course information is prestaff to take a short survey. sented. Currently, the course descriptions that students The survey, which asked students how much time they and parents can download from the Westview website spent on each class, is part of a growing campaign by the offer only a vague description of course content and as administrators and counselors to address stress manage- a result, students can easily overload themselves or dive ment at Westview. into a subject that they aren’t prepared for. Adding the “We know that school plays a big part in stress, but we data collected by the survey will offer a more holistic also know that we can’t necessarily stop that unless we description of each course. inform people,” counselor Vanessa Crawford said. “This At other schools, such as Torrey Pines, course catalogs is a small thing that we can do to have what is called a course prohelp get people more informafile. The profile gives examples tion and hope people make better of, for instance, the prompts a stucourse selections each year.” might have to write about in We hope that students dent Open from Jan. 12 to Feb. 10, an English class or the books they actually look at their time will have to read. the survey managed to log 840 responses. After being collect“It’s realistic, tangible inforand balance when they mation ed, the data was averaged to proon what the students can select their courses.” vide a rough estimate of “hours expect,” Crawford said. “It’s alper week” students spend in that most like a syllabus. We’re trying Vanessa Crawford to move into that this year and the class. This data will be placed next to each respective class on the survey is only one part of that.” school’s course catalog.

Apart from providing this information to students and “We definitely have a lot of students who overload parents, counselors will also begin to bring the data to themselves with their classes here,” Crawford said. “We the different department heads at their weekly meetings. try having those conversations with those students but “[Teachers] don’t necessarily need to change anya lot of the times they don’t believe us because we ar- thing,” Crawford said. “But I know some teachers have en’t taking the classes. This helps us in reinforcing to the already begun to look at time spent out of class, and I students what type of time commitment they should be hope that more will too with this new information.” expecting.”

The survey closes by asking the students what other By relying on student responses, administrators can activities they are involved in outside of school, from gain a more accurate and realistic perspective on the clubs to sports to family commitments. Ultimately, counamount of schoolwork for any given class as opposed to selors hope to reinforce that school is more than simply simply asking the teachers. However, this form of data the classroom. collection also opens the door to significant data varia“We hope that students actually look at their time and tion. look at balance when they select their courses because The more extreme outlying data points are removed you’re not just about school,” Crawford said. “We want since the aim of the survey is to assess the normal or av- students to really think about their classes as being one erage that students put into a class. Also, responses that part of their entire life and not their entire lives. Hopefulare not serious are removed. ly, [the survey] will give them that information.”

of awkward that might’ve worked in my head but didn’t work on the dance floor.”

After choreographing and performing for Parker, Chou and the other dancers had sessions with Parker to focus individually on their solos: to revise choreography, work on technique and perfect the routine overall.

On the day of the competition, each of the eight soloists was guaranteed a chance to perform their solo at least once in the preliminary round of the competition.

The top 10 scorers in the preliminaries, or at this competition top 11 due to a tie, moved on to the finals round at the end of the day to perform their solos again for a chance to earn scholarship money, an opportunity to attend a summer workshop, and the title of West Coast Elite Dancer of the Year.

The routines are scored out of 100 points based on four categories: routine and choreography accounted for 35 points, execution for 35, performance and showmanship 20 points and overall impression was worth 10.

The preliminary rounds were organized by class, so Chou competed in a group of 39 juniors. Her routine ended with applause and whooping from her teammates—and with tears.

“I messed up my first leg extension and a few other things in my routine,” Chou said. “I didn’t feel good about my entire performance at all. I was crying because I thought it was so bad.”

She overanalyzed the significance of her mistakes, however, because after everyone had performed their solos once, Chou was announced to be in the finals round.

Her confidence had been shaken after her preliminary performance, but making it to finals assured her that she had done something that made the judges want to see her perform again.

When she walked onto the center of the floor to perform her solo for the last time that day, Chou still had the adrenaline and energy that made her routine come alive, but she had more confidence than the previous round—and less pressure.

“I didn’t focus on the pressure at all,” Chou said.

“I’ve watched the competition since before I was even on Dance Troupe and I always loved watching the solo finals and always wondered what it would be like to dance [in them].

“So this time when I got the chance, I knew it was already such a big accomplishment for me that I really wanted to enjoy it.”

When awards started being read, with first place being announced last, Chou kept expecting her name to be called, knocking her out of the running for Dancer of the Year.

“You never know what the judges like and you never know what scores you’re going to get,” Chou said. “Each time they announced another place I was expecting my name and it never came.”

As the names continued to be called and the competition was down to the top three, Chou was already guaranteed scholarship money as well as the privilege to attend West Coast Elite’s summer intensive program. The only thing left to earn was the title.

Chou’s second performance earned her .07 extra points that ruled in her favor, making her final score 98.03 points and making her, among 125 soloists, the West Coast Elite Dancer of the Year.

After Chou was officially awarded the prestigious title, the rest of her troupe flooded from the bleachers to the floor to congratulate her.

“One of the most exciting things about the whole night was being able to share it with [my troupe],” Chou said. “Even though we didn’t do groups, our team was still very close. There is nothing like having the support of your teammates. It meant so much to me that I was able to share that moment with them.”

More significant than the title was the confidence that came from her win.

“In general I feel a lot better as a dancer,” Chou said. “Making it into finals was already a huge confidence booster. I think the whole thing has made me feel less scared when I go out on stage.

“Not in a million years would I ever think that I would win.”

Marksmanship places at State State, from page 1

the schools that might give us trouble,” Pellegrino said.

The shooters use Crosman Challenger Pre-Charged Pneumatic (PCP) rifles, which they load with .117 caliber pellets. Each person shoots at what looks like two sideby-side rectangular boxes that each encloses 12 small, circular targets on a piece of paper, with the box acting as a shot stopper. The two targets in the middle of each box are considered sighting, or practice, targets, while the 10 targets on the outside are the actual scoring targets that count in competition.

The marksmanship team shoots in three positions: prone, or laying down, standing, and kneeling.

Each competitor shot 20 shots for each position, one shot per target, and each target was worth up to 10 points. The points awarded are based on accuracy, and the scores are put through an electronic system that posts the scores online.

At one point, in the middle of the shooting, the gym lights at Troy turned off. The range officer, who is in charge of overseeing the relay and ensuring the competitors’ safety, stopped the shooters and sent runners to turn the lights back on. However, during that time, the shooters had to get out of position and set the rifles down for safety, a distraction that caused them to lose their focuses and may have put them at a slight disadvantage compared to the other state championship locations.

Nevertheless, the results were posted online that evening: JV had taken fourth place and varsity had

taken first, beating the next teams by a margin of 44.8 and 54.8 points, respectively.

For the varsity team members, the results were not too surprising.

“That’s what we came here to do,” varsity member Quan Phung (11) said. “There was no jumping up and down. We wanted to be humble about it.”

However, JV member Robert Mao (12) said that he and the rest of the JV team were pleasantly surprised by the results.

“Coach [Lance] Martini said afterward that everyone at state shot their average or better,” Mao said.

“It didn’t feel that way when were on the range, though, but looking back, I think that’s what happens when you take your practice seriously. You do so well at competition that you surprise yourself.”

Five Westview members also placed within the top eight as individuals, including all four varsity members. Pellegrino took first, Thomas Johnson (11) third, Phung fifth, Will Komenda (10) sixth, and JV member Nathan Tran (11) eighth.

Westview has typically performed well at previous state championships, usually placing second or third. However, this was the team’s first time placing first.

Pellegrino attributes the team’s success to the fact that the same varsity team members have been training together for so long.

“We’ve had the same people going on for a while now,” he said.

“Usually the marksmanship team has seniors on varsity, but this year it’s all juniors and a sophomore, so we’ve all been training togeth-

er for a while and then even next year we’ll still all be together. It’s definitely the amount of practice and the amount of time we’ve spent with each other that has cemented how we do.”

Originally, the top three teams at state would qualify for nationals. However, since varsity already qualified for nationals at a championship postal earlier in the year, JV found out Feb. 4 that the tournament directors chose to qualify the next three teams that placed after varsity, giving JV the chance to compete at Navy nationals as well.

The Navy national championship is split into the Eastern and Western sides, and the Western tournament will be held Feb. 18-22 in Phoenix.

For the Western side, Westview took third place last year and second place the year before. With Eastern and Western results combined, Westview placed 18th and 16th, respectively.

According to Phung, this year, the team’s goal is to win first place at the Western conference and place within the top seven in the nation, East and West combined. The top seven teams then move on to compete in March at the all-service national tournament, in which they also compete with the Army JROTC and Marine Corps JROTC, and will be held in Ohio.

Both Phung and Pellegrino said that their success would not be possible without the marksmanship coaches, Martini and David Martinez.

“It was all them,” Phung said.

“They put a lot of work into this and they’re the reason why we could have gotten that far.”

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Dane Persky

Photo courtesy of Kiyomi Kishaba

Kiyomi Kishaba (10) is lifted out of the water by her teammate as she performs a duet in front of judges at the national qualifier.

Nationally ranked, Kishaba has been synchronized swimming since she was 8 years old and now swims for the Riverside Aquettes.

Kishaba excels in synchronized swim Kishaba, from page 1

ranked when she reached the final phase of qualifications of being on the National Synchronized Swimming Team.

“It was very exciting, but also nerve-racking,” says Kishaba, “I had never felt so much pressure in my life.”

The first and second phases are where the contestants compete in flexibility, figure, and other strengths and are individually judged. Kishaba competed against swimmers from the entire country.

Kishaba worked every day to ensure that she was doing all she could do prepare herself for each phase.

Kishaba was the first person from her team to pass phase three. The third phase is skills testing, where figures are assessed and given a score on scale from 1 to 10.

This part took a lot of training and Kishaba had to push herself further than she had before in order to be able to compete against some of the older girls.

“My coach was pushing me very hard and was constantly telling the other girls

to look up to me,” Kishaba said. She had practice every day and was beginning to feel the stress and exhaustion of her practices seep into other parts of her life.

There almost weren’t any days off from practice. If she couldn’t make practice because of school or choir concerts, then she would do workouts at home to maintain her flexibility and strength in her muscles. She didn’t have as much time for herself to mentally relax.

The final phase was performing a solo routine created by USA Synchro that Kishaba would perform in front of judges. To be on the elite team she had to make the top 12 out of the 20 competitors.

The weekend of the final phase was a hectic one. Kishaba was to perform the routine in the Sanford University pool.

She said she had a distinct disadvantage because USA Synchro used a solo routine that most of the girls that Kishaba was competing against already knew.

“I didn’t feel as comfortable with the routine as I would’ve wanted to be. Some of the other girls had already practiced

and competed with the routine for a year, I only had the chance to practice it for a couple months.” USA Synchro used a solo routine that most of the girls that Kishaba was competing knew already.

Kishaba said she felt intimidated by this unfair advantage of the other swimmers.

“I tried my hardest but I knew other competitors were way more experienced,” Kishaba said.

Unfortunately Kishaba was cut off didn’t make the team at 17th place out of the 20 that competed. Despite the loss Kishaba saw being 17th place as an amazing feat, and started the process at phase one again this year.

“It’s harder this year because I’m in an older age group now” Kishaba said, “Last season I was in the 13-15 age group but now I’m 16-17, and it’s really tough.”

Kiyomi is currently a part of the Riverside Aquettes Club which is an hour and a half drive from Rancho Penasquitos. Regular practices are around three to four hours long, but on occasion she has a seven hour practice to memorize a certain routine down in time for an up-

coming meet. Recently Kishaba and her duet partner received first place at a meet in Riverside, and she plans to continue pushing hard.

According to Kishaba, one of the challenges of participating in synchronized swimming is balancing her schedule, especially because she is also dedicated to the Westview Choir program as a member of Bella Voce.

“It’s really hard to coordinate my practices with all the concerts and auditions to make sure that I have a balance between synchro, choir, and all my schoolwork,” Kishaba said,” but I don’t want to miss anything so I try my hardest to make time for everything.”

At the moment, she is working towards auditions for an upcoming musical that she hopes to be in, which means she will have to be able to manage her time wisely and work under more pressure.

“My team and family expect a lot out of me because I made it to the National Training Squad last year,” Kishaba said, “I continue to strive towards finishing this season strong.”

Spin-off shows are often risky ventures. In most cases, only the most brilliant TV writers and directors can create a spin-off that both encapsulates the feel of the original show and hooks new viewers from the get-go. Riding on the success of the critically-acclaimed Breaking Bad comes Better Call Saul—and it has a lot to live up to.

Better Call Saul’s pilot episode opens in typical Breaking Bad fashion with quiet and artistic camera angles. This black-and-white beginning portion is set after the events of Breaking Bad, with Saul Goodman, played by Bob Odenkirk, laying low in Omaha, Nebraska.

However, the majority of the show takes place in 2002, seven years before the introduction of Walter White in Breaking Bad. In this setting, a younger Saul struggles as an aspiring attorney, largely due to his shady methods of acquiring money. The pilot episode follows Saul as he defends a group of delinquent boys in court, tries to reason with his impaired brother’s law firm and attempts to help skaters stage a car accident for a $2,000 profit.

This first episode is a near-perfect follow-up to the success of Breaking Bad. The character of Saul comes naturally to Odenkirk at this point, and the show’s other actors play off his persona well. New viewers are not missing out on much here, and veteran viewers will catch a few satisfying Breaking Bad references and cameos (including a surprise cameo from an unexpected character at the end).

Judging by this pilot episode, Better Call Saul viewers have a gripping ride in store for them following the antics of the shady and charismatic Saul Goodman. Breaking Bad fans rejoice.

Greenspot Salad Company Restaurant Tara Ghai

I walked into Greenspot Salad Company in 4S Ranch expecting an experience similar to most popular soup and salad chains such as Panera Bread. However, the sleek and modern atmosphere of the restaurant pleasantly surprised me. The restaurant is set up similar to a Chipotle or Subway, offering customizable salads, wraps, soups and potatoes. The Greenspot prides itself on offering fresh and premium ingredients that make eating healthy, quick and affordable, and the food reflects its high standards.

I ordered the Salad Combo, which comes with a signature salad, any side, a roll, and a drink all for $8.95.

The Ensenada salad consisted of house greens, tomato, red onion, house roasted red pepper, avocado, roasted corn, chopped cilantro and to top it off, cilantro citrus vinaigrette. You can tell the difference between the fresh, organic ingredients compared to other salad restaurants, where most of the ingredients are premade and frozen. The side order of potato wedges was also delicious, especially with the house sweet chili sauce. The restaurant doesn’t offer sodas but has black tea and lemonade options for drinks.

The Greenspot is a healthier alternative to other chain restaurants in the area and is an overall great choice for the mindful eater.

Harris receives photo critique at National Portfolio Day Tara Ghai

Staff Writer Olivia Harris (11) stepped into the crowded ballroom of The Westin San Diego with a portfolio full of her 12 best photos tucked under her arm. Her eyes darted around the ballroom full of art students whose work raged form textile design to ceramics. The room rattled with the sound of ceramic pots clicking against each other and nervous chatter from the hundreds of students gathered in the ballroom.

These prospective art students had come together to showcase their work at The Laguna College of Art and Design National Portfolio Day. National Portfolio Day is an event specifically for students like Harris who hope to pursue a career in visual arts and design. The event gives students the opportunity to meet with representatives from colleges accredited by the National Association of Schools of Art and Design, and get direct feedback from professionals to discuss the programs and opportunities different schools have to offer.

Harris plans to major in photography after graduating high school. She found her love for the art after watching her brother pursue filmmaking when she was younger, and eventually saved up enough money to get her own camera.

“I never want to be in pictures, but I love being behind the lenses and capturing other people,” Harris said. “I’m not passionate about math or science or anything, but I’m good with creativity, so I’ve always just followed that path.”

Going into the event, Harris was confident and excited to meet the representatives from her dream schools. However, the critiques were sometimes brutally honest and representatives often discouraged students from applying to their school before seeing their entire portfolio.

A lot of the representatives urged Harris to push her to take more unexpected and edgy photos.

Harris received both positive and negative feedback, and fell in love with schools that she hadn’t previously considered and changed her opinion about what she thought were her dream schools.

“Meeting the representatives from The School of Museum and Fine Arts in Boston was cool because I got really positive feedback from the school’s representative,” Harris said. “I never even really considered going to a city like Boston until I got to talk to someone from there. After researching a little more, I realized that I can only really see myself going to school in a big city like Boston.”

The event opened Harris to new connections

and opportunities that would help her pursue photography as a profession.

Other Westview students who attended the event also received similar validation after meeting with professors and critics. Noemi Palihnich (12) attended National Portfolio Day to show her studio art portfolio and learn more about applying to schools as an illustration major.

“It was overall a really positive experience,” Palihnich said. “The professors were really helpful and gave me tips on what to improve on and what to focus on. They also advised me on what major would best fit me based on my style and how to arrange my portfolio for when I apply to colleges.”

The biggest benefit for National Portfolio Day is the professional opinions students receive on their work.

For juniors, it’s a portal into the unconventional process of applying to an art school and being one step ahead on their applications and portfolios.

“The biggest thing I gained from the experience was excitement and validation in my work,” Harris said. “I’m really excited for next year and to start applying, and even though art school is a different route, there are so many opportunities and ways I can go. It’s a great feeling to know that I have a solid plan for my future in photography.”

Inside Harris’s Critique: “I took this picture of my brother at his favorite surf spot. Art school representatives said they liked how casual and interesting it is but they would have liked me to underexpose the sky a little, which I agree with.”

“I called this one ‘Mom’s Barbershop.’ The representatives loved the vibe and that it was completely unstaged and a perfect view into a casual night with a family.”

Photos courtesy of Olivia Harris Design by Shereen Nikzad

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Asdel crafts swords, teaches blacksmithing Bhavika Anandpura Staff Writer

The first few times Rusty Asdel (11) tried to make a sword, the fire just wouldn’t get hot enough. When he replaced the charcoal with wood, the new fuel heated the metal just enough to slightly dent when he hit it with a hammer. But then the wooden handles on the sides of his backyard barbecue grill kept catching on fire.

At this point, his father decided this was not safe for his 12-year-old. So Asdel’s father took him to a real forge, and enrolled him in blacksmith classes at the Ancient Gas and Steam Engine Museum in Vista, where the family was already involved in restoring old tractors.

“It’s pretty normal for boys to like to heat stuff up and hit it really hard,” Asdel said.

“So after that you can start appropriately applying your skills, and then you can start making knives, which is something that most little boys just love.”

So Asdel turned his childhood dream into reality and started learning how to properly heat, shape, and refine metal. The first thing he made was a steak turner, perhaps in honor of where he started blacksmithing. Then he moved on to knives. “[I made] ‘letter openers,’ which weren’t really letter openers,” he said. “But the project was officially called a letter opener when I brought it home to my mother.”

Although for Asdel, blacksmithing started out just for fun, he received his big break one day at a festival for blacksmiths. One of the demonstrators there was Tony Swatton, a professional blacksmith who works with Hollywood directors. Swatton made the knives used in movies such as Batman Begins and Pirates of the Caribbean. He was impressed by the skill Asdel displayed at such a young age.

“He thought it was kind of cool there was a 12-year-old kid there doing blacksmithing,” Asdel said. “Because most of the guys there were 50 or 60 years old and retired, so I was one of two kids that was there. And

he saw how hard-working I was, and how much effort I had already put into blacksmithing at this age, and I guess he thought I had talent.”

Swatton offered Asdel an opportunity: Asdel could help make the breastplate for Katy Perry’s upcoming music video. Asdel jumped at the chance and started working on a prototype for the breastplate. First, he received a plaster of the singer, from which he constructed a prototype. He sent this to Swatton, who made the actual one.

From then on, most of Asdel’s creations were sold to Swatton, who in turn sells them to movie directors. One of Asdel’s more ambitious and recent projects was a Damascus longsword, a replica of the cleaver in Braveheart.

“A Damascus longsword uses a special type of steel and materials cost about $250,” he said. “But because Damascus is so difficult to make, I ended up selling the sword for about $3,600.”

While blacksmithing does return profits, Asdel does it mainly recreationally. He volunteers at the Antique Gas and SteamEngine Museum as a docent, answering questions about medieval weaponry. Asdel said he generally receives the same questions.

“I’m there hitting hot metal and people are like, ‘Hey, that’s cool,’ and come and check it out,” Asdel said. “The first question I always get is ‘Can you make a sword,’ and the next is, ‘Have you ever burned yourself?’”

Although Asdel tells the younger children that he has never been burnt so as not to scare them, he has sustained several severe burns over the years. Once he accidentally picked up a piece of black metal that was about 900 degrees Fahrenheit, and suffered third-degree burns all across his palm.

“Basically I can’t find a spot on my skin where I’m not burnt, or don’t have a scar,” he said. “My burns never fully heal because I’m always getting new ones. That part’s not so fun.”

Despite the risks, Asdel said he enjoys creating things from scratch, and watching

scrap metal turn into something beautiful.

“I just get a strange kind of joy out of it,” he said. “I’ll sit there for hours, with sandpaper, hand-polishing stuff, just steadily watching the metal grow shinier. Something about just taking raw material and turning it into something beautiful is pleasing to me.”

Asdel takes blacksmithing classes at the Ancient Steam and Gas Museum once a month. His teacher, who lives in Denmark but comes to Vista to teach the class once a month, is currently working on restoring an ancient Viking ship.

In addition to learning new techniques and undertaking new projects, Asdel hones his blacksmithing skills by teaching the introductory classes. He says he is more suited to this than the other blacksmith because of his focus on sword crafting.

“Most of the blacksmiths stay on the more artistic side, or the more practical things like stove grates and trivets,” he said. “But I’m one of the few people who ventures off into blades, and a lot of people come into blacksmithing wanting to learn how to make a sword, so I teach them how to make blades.”

Although teaching the introductory class is difficult, Asdel said he enjoys it. The wide range of ages and backgrounds in these classes poses a challenge for Asdel that he happily accepts.

“Most people don’t come from a background of blacksmithing, or even from metal, so you just have to teach it assuming they don’t know anything,” he said. “The youngest I had was a 12-year-old kid, the oldest was I think 86, so it’s a very wide range, but they’re very responsive. They’re good students.”

In the future, Asdel hopes to create a gauntlet, which requires more skill and experience. He said that although blacksmithing won’t be something he does occupationally because it doesn’t return a steady salary, it’s definitely something he will continue to do, along with restoring antique tractors.

“It’s rough, but it’s fun,” Asdel said. “It’s definitely going to stay as a hobby.”

Asdel’s Knives Glass Dagger

Trenchknife “I put about 12 hours in. It was a challenging build because of its hybrid between brass knuckles and a knife.”

“It’s from Skyrim. It’s a complicated build because of the layers; there are three different metals that go into it.”

Ka-bar “It’s an iconic knife from the Marine Corps. People know what it should look like and you have to make it look professional.”

Sidebar by Jason Kang

Alex Smyth

Rusty Asdel (11) hammers metal flat to create a blade. Asdel has been learning to blacksmith since he was 12, and teaches the intro class.

Affolter protests with Miami Miracle March Affolter, from page 1

Photo courtesy of Zach Affolter

Zach Affolter (12) speaks about how he first began advocating for marine animal rights.

named Tokitae, which means “nice day” and “pretty colors” in Coast Salish, first lived with her pod mate, Hugo, in the Seaquarium tank. Then in 1980, after bashing his head against the tank’s concrete walls, Hugo developed a brain aneurysm and died shortly thereafter.

Lolita hasn’t seen another of her kind since. She’s been called the “world’s loneliest orca.”

“Cetaceans have high emotional capabilities,” Affolter said. “It’s incredible how anyone can overcome such grief, suffering and hopelessness.”

It was her resilience that first inspired Affolter to join animal rights and marine conservation campaigns and organizations. Ever since he has protested tirelessly against SeaWorld and has represented peta2’s Youth Advisory Board, an offshoot of PETA. Her story instilled in him a newfound purpose, one that helped lift him out of the depression he sunk into in ninth grade when his parents divorced.

“I became really depressed, and one night, I even had thoughts of suicide,” he said. “All the suffering, all the pain we had inflicted on the world had gotten to me. I was at the lowest point in my life.”

One day on the way home from school, as he stared at the grey and sunless sky, he thought of how Lolita was separated from her mother, Ocean Sun. He thought of what she must have felt when Hugo died and all the fear, anger and pain she has suffered.

“I remembered all of the hardships Lolita has endured,” Affolter said. “And yet she has been able to find love and hope in the darkest of nights, surviving longer than any of her kind in captivity.”

Remembering her struggles reinvigorated his passion to fight to protect marine animals like Lolita.

“I was suddenly filled with energy again,” Affolter said. “[She] made me remember what I was fighting for, what I love and why I am here.”

After the march, guest speakers took to the stage to share their personal stories and views. Affolter spoke of how he first became an animal rights activist after snorkeling with wild dolphins in Hawaii and the spiritual connection he established with Lolita. He ended with a poem he wrote from Lolita’s point of view about the emotional turmoil and duress she has suffered.

“For the past four decades I have been imprisoned here, entertaining ignorant, screaming people, replaying memories, and watching the sun disappear,” Affolter wrote. “Why is the world caught in a net of evil?”

Other speakers shared the same anger and passion.

“The Miami Seaquarium is a crime scene!” journalist Jane Velez-Mitchell said.

Another guest speaker, Jerry Powers, founder of the magazine Ocean Drive, had offered the Seaquarium more than $1 million 10 years ago for Lolita to be released, but the owner of the Seaquarium rejected the offer. Lolita was their “prize attraction” and was “not for sale.” The Seaquarium owns life insurance on Lolita and would be paid more than a million upon her death.

“It’s all about the money,” Affolter said. “It sickens me that Lolita is exploited like this.”

Affolter also helped lead an impression demonstration to act out Lolita’s life story.

“It signified the inspiration of Lolita’s story—her pleas for help, her suffering and her strength and perseverance,” Affolter said.

Two girls played Lolita and 40 people circled around, emulating her tank and the people ignorant of her suffering. Affolter then turned on the speakers to let recordings of Lolita’s calls echo through the park, rousing the people to free the two girls from the circle.

“It symbolized that people are waking up and understanding that we have reached a point in society where marine mammal parks are no longer popular,” Affolter said. “It shows that once we rebuild our connection with cetaceans, we can rebuild our connection with nature.”

The day after the march, Affolter visited the Seaquarium for a firsthand perspective for a book he is writing and a documentary he is filming about Lolita and her pod. His film, Breaking through the Clouds, will premiere at Phinfest, March 13-15.

“Seeing her in her illegally sized tank made me cringe,” Affolter said. “It was awful before, but seeing it in person added a whole other level to it.”

The Miracle March to Protect the Captives plans to host a march each year, including one next year in San Diego, for suffering captive animals that can potentially be rehabilitated and released.

“The event made me realize that I have the power to make a difference,” Affolter said. “We have the power to create change.”

While relaxing at the beach after the march, a pod of dolphins surfaced about 200 feet away from shore. One of the dolphins leaped into the air.

“It was incredible seeing wild cetaceans after marching for their freedom, almost like they knew we were fighting for them,” Affolter said. “We are a part of the natural world, and by destroying nature, we are only destroying ourselves.”

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Sharma’s curiosity sparks technological innovations Jason Kang

Staff Writer

For Chetan Sharma (12), home is a 10-by-12 metal workshop table tucked away in the corner of his garage outfitted with power tools, nuts, bolts, and complete with a fan hanging upside down from the wall.

There, he spends hours designing or building his latest project. On most days, that’s the first place he goes when he returns home and is last place he’ll be before heading back inside to sleep.

For Sharma, engineering has been a part of his life for as long as he can remember.

While most kids have toys or stuffed animals that remind them of the days when nap time was still mandatory, Sharma has the disassembled pieces of toasters, DVD players, and boxes full of motors.

“When I was really young, I just liked taking things apart,” he said. “After a while I would just break everything I set my hands to and I would have a bunch of random things.”

While most kids asked for video games, Sharma pushed his parents to buy him engineering books and power tools. He remembers his mother’s frightened face when he first held a soldering iron in his hand and her attempts to stop him from taking apart family electronics.

“She was always scared of me electrocuting myself to death,” Sharma said. “It was more about me constantly breaking things and not listening to them.”

But still, his parents pushed him along the way, giving him books, beginner tool sets, and wires.

He still remembers those books and the days he spent reading and eventually memorizing every page. Even now he can still flip to any page and recall what it was about.

As time passed, Sharma slowly progressed from building towers of Lego blocks to wiring circuit boards to machining out metal pieces. He loved the challenges of figuring out how everything worked, and that drive pushed him to join the Mesa Verde robotics team when he was in the seventh grade.

He’s been with robotics programs ever since.

“It’s just something really fun to obsess about,” he said. “For robotics there were some days when I would just stay up there until 9p.m. working on things. The challenges are always really hard but they’re always really fun, there’s a lot you can do.”

But for Sharma, the puzzles that he wanted answers to weren’t just found in the robotics challenges. It was the questions that filled his mind.

Up until his senior year, Sharma spent the minutes after every school day making his way towards the bus leaving Westview. The ride takes him about half an hour before he’s able to reach his home—a time spent idling over the chatter of 40 other kids each in the same situation as he is. “[My friend and I] were like, ‘What can we do on the bus?’” he said. “Then we said, ‘What if we brought a Wii on the bus?’ and we started laughing because it was really dumb, but then I realized it might be possible.”

Most of his projects start like this, as a joke between friends or from something he sees on the internet. Yet no matter how ridiculous an idea felt, Sharma would continue to grapple with it. He often has trouble letting ideas go, and he constantly finds himself penciling down designs and solutions he arrives at during classes when he should have been learning about integrals or at home when he should have been writing essays.

When he isn’t drawing out his own ideas, he’s on the internet searching for any guides or information that could help him on his way.

After becoming knowledgeable on the topic at hand, he would begin to put his designs on computer aided design (CAD) programs as a means of helping him visualize his final project.

“I would just build it, and if something was wrong I would redesign it and build it again,” he said. “My first portable Wii case was complete garbage and it tore up my backpack. The second one was a bit better, it worked for about three months or so. Things got better every time I tried again and eventually I made everything super tiny and that’s the most current [version] I have.”

This final model, which took Sharma a year and a half, fit snuggly on his lap every day for the next years worth of bus rides to and from school.

“Looking back I don’t even know why I really built it,” Sharma said. “It’s less of the fact that we needed it, but more of that fact that we could do it. If you can build things you can just do random stuff like that, you have the freedom. I just think, ‘Wouldn’t it be fun if I did that?’ and so I did.”

His design, which he posted on a DIY website called Instructables this summer, was entered in a competition that asked users to “Build the coolest thing that’s powered by a battery.” He eventually took home first place which earned him a tablet and roughly $300 worth of power tools.

For Sharma, each day consists of working on the next project, and with every completed idea comes a trophy of accomplishment that adds to his corner in his garage.

“Some people like video games because they’re a fun challenge,” Sharma said.

“For me engineering is just like that; it’s a fun challenge. You get projects that are really tough to solve so you have to be creative, you have to spend a lot of time on it, but the end results are always really satisfying.

You don’t just solve a big problem you also end up with cool stuff that you can show for it.”

Alex Smyth

Chetan Sharma (12) cuts out a design from a wood sheet with his CNC router. A CNC router, which can cost from $5,000-$10,000, was created by Sharma for only $300 worth of materials.

Chetan’s

CREATIONS CREATIONS

Portable Wii

Metal Welder

Based on a design Sharma found online, the metal welder is powered by parts salvaged from two microwaves donated to him by classmates and teachers.

Created out of a borrowed Wii, a DVD screen, and materials found around his garage, the invention only cost Sharma $50.

This is the third and final model , which took Sharma a year and a half to build.

Design by Tess Cooper

Feb. 13, 2015

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a Stories ofSitter Melanie DelaCruz

Photo Courtesy of Riley Burke

Donning a wetsuit, fins, and mask, Riley Burke (10) freedives in the reefs at Windansea beach. Burke began learning to freedive and spearfish during June of 2013, and has since gone on trips to Catalina, Albion and Mexico to spearfish in new environments.

Burke spearfishes off Pacific coast Emily Clarkson Staff Writer

Riley Burke (10) waded out into the cold clear water of Windansea beach. Once 200 yards out, he secured his mask and dove into the water, clutching a pole spear in his hand. As the reef came into focus, he started hunting for fish to spear. He watched sea creatures swim by, yet each time he found the right fish, he approached it too fast and scared it away. After an hour spent without catching any fish, Burke headed back to shore, disappointed.

Before he made it back, however, he spotted a flicker of movement when he was about 10 feet deep. This is what he had been waiting for. Burke dove down, following the fish. As he approached from several feet away, he pulled the bands attached to his spear, stretching them back as far as he could before releasing. The spear shot forward, impaling the small perch. Exhilarated, Burke collected the perch and paddled to shore. He had caught his first fish.

This was in June 2013, after learning about spearfishing from a friend. Intrigued, he decided to try the sport out for himself, although it wasn’t until this past summer that he started to become more involved, often diving every week.

Although he has less time during the winter, Burke still tries to head to the beach once a month. He said spearfishing provides him an escape from the pressure of school by presenting him with an immediate goal to focus on.

“It’s relaxing,” Burke said. “You’re not really thinking about anything else when you’re out there. You have your mind set either on enjoying it or on trying to get fish.”

Spearfishing involves freediving 30 to 35 feet under the surface, with only a wetsuit, fins and a mask. “[Freediving] is all natural,” Burke said. “We don’t use scuba tanks.”

The divers shoot fish with pole spears, a five-foot-long pole that uses rubber bands to launch a spear through several feet of water, or spearguns, which shoot spears through the use of a trigger. Although Burke learned on a pole spear, recently he has started using the speargun, which is quicker and easier to use.

He hunts calico bass, sand bass, perch and lobster, since they are edible, and he eats what he catches.

During a good day, Burke can catch four or five fish, while other times he’ll dive for two hours without results.

Burke typically dives over the weekend for two hours in La Jolla or at Windansea, since many fish inhabit the kelp patties and reefs in these areas. However, he has also gone on camping trips to spearfish.

During a five-day trip to Albion, a beach town in northern California, in June, Burke kayaked out into the river he was camped next to. With his friend, he followed the course of the river to where it met the ocean and paddled several hundred feet out.

Holding his pole spear, Burke jumped off the kayak and

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dove down. The 45-degree water was a searing cold that he felt even through his wetsuit. It froze and then numbed his limbs, yet he pushed forward, diving deeper until he reached the reefs.

As he scoured the reefs for fish, Burke marveled at the difference between the beaches in San Diego and those only a 12-hour drive away. The Albion reefs extended down into blackness. He couldn’t see the bottom, but the pinnacles spiraled up to just 10 feet below the surface. “[Albion] was a lot different,” Burke said. “There was a lot more fish and new types of fish.”

Burke has also traveled to Mexico and Catalina to experience spearfishing in new environments.

While swimming in the pristine waters of Catalina during a recent trip, Burke pulled the trigger of a borrowed speargun, which launched the spear through the water and into the side of a perch.He was relatively new at the speargun, since he had only been using it intermittently throughout the last year, but he felt his aim improving, especially in the crystal clear water of Catalina.

“Catalina was a nice vacation and a nice place to dive,” Burke said. “I liked it because it was a small town, so you could get everywhere by boat or skateboard.”

Burke hopes to continue traveling to experience spearfishing in new environments.

“I am still just getting into the sport, but every time I get in the water, it makes me want to come back,” Burke said.

I ducked my way through the vines engulfing the walkway to the front door and knocked twice.

I could hear laughter and shouting inside, but no reply to my knock. After a few moments, I knocked again, hearing a shout from behind the door.

“Come in, it’s open!”

I walked into the house I had been in so many times before and stood in the entryway peering around and looking for a hiding child.

I soon saw little Natalie, giggling and jolting past me, trying to hide, and I could not believe my eyes. She was walking and running and moving all on her very own. I had started babysitting Natalie when she was just four months old. So small, and so fragile, I would only put her down out of my arms when it was time for her to sleep in her crib. I remember my arms getting sore from having to hold her so long; nothing could compare to the accomplished feeling of finally getting the little infant to fall asleep.

I remember rocking her in her rocking chair, nervously feeding her a bottle, hoping she wouldn’t spit up on me. After she took her first rolls and flops, they eventually turned into a stumbling crawl. It had seemed like only a couple of months since I had last seen her, and somehow she’d grown and changed so much.

Natalie, now almost 2, crept up next to me and grabbed my hand. She looked down at my fingers then back at me.

“Melanie, your fingers,” she said. “Your fingers, they’re black.”

Stunned by the clarity of her words, it took a moment for me to respond. Then I smiled at her.

“I know, I painted them that color,” I told her.

Pointing at a large plastic box, she started leading me towards her living room.

“Trains!” she said excitedly. “Trains!”

I opened up the bin and started removing various wooden train track pieces. Natalie hurriedly grabbed them and began piecing the tracks together. As I sat there next to her, helping her build, I still could not believe the transformation I had witnessed. Natalie had grown so much from the fragile infant I had once had to cradle for hours at a time. She could now talk to me, not just cry. Her head didn’t need my hand to support it and she didn’t need me to bottle feed her. She was all grown up.

As I was watching the new, all-grown-up Natalie, I realized that change, growing up, is inevitable—not only for Natalie, but for me, too.

I could try to fight it, deny it, but as the looming decision of where I will go to college approaches, I realized there’s no use trying to avoid it.

Next year, everything will change. I’ll be in a new place, with new people, in a new school.

And while part of me is terrified out of my mind, change is inescapable. Just like how Natalie has to grow up, I have to too. I want to grow up with the same excitement that was on Natalie’s face while she ran around her house, and welcome the change that’s about to come as I take my first steps and say my first words on a new campus.

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Editors in Chief Melanie DelaCruz* Catie Fan* Managing Editor Edward Qiao* Design Editor Tess Cooper News Editor Vivien Liu* Opinions Editor Andrew Kim* Features Editor Shereen Nikzad Sports Editor Julia Erickson Final Focus Editor Tess Cooper Photo Editor Alex Smyth Staff Writers Bhavika Anandpura Emily Clarkson Daniel Fan Tara Ghai Jason Kang* An Nguyen Dane Persky Meilynn Shi* Jacob Tao Allyson Xie* Brandon Victor Giovanna Zavala Tonia Jaroszewska Rebecca Liu Yuchen Zhang Adviser Jeff Wenger Assistant Adviser Stephanie Tanaka

*Member of the Editorial Board

Staff Editorial

MyConnect survey takes positive step in student stress management

On the most recent U.S. News ranking of high schools, Westview stands as No. 33 in the state, a position that boasts not just laudable academic achievements but also academic rigor.

For students, this rigor is the cause of the growing stress management issue. Most students can cite either themselves or their friends as having personally experienced the negative effects that academic competitiveness has on them. The school plays a role in stress, but the reality is that schools can only go so far in providing relief. Unlike substance abuse, neither schools nor law enforcement can “remove” the issue on a legal basis.

What schools can do, however, is disseminate information to aid students decide how much schoolwork to take on—a step that the counseling department is already beginning to tackle.

Though discussions have been taking place for the past few years, the counseling department has recently begun to implement more visible programs that mark a conscious effort to tackle mental health and academic balance. This shift correlates with the information collected by the Healthy Kid’s Surveys that indicate that Westview students consistently land below the national average in rates of substance abuse but rank above when facing questions about stress and the importance of good grades.

The most recent step taken by administration was a survey sent over Canvas Jan. 12 that asked students how much time they spend on homework per week for each class. The results of this survey will be included in the school’s course catalog.

The survey is the first part of a larger reform in the way course descriptions are presented. As of right now, counselors are only able provide students with vague outlines of the commitment each class entails. In the past, students often dove into new terms without understanding the type of workload they were taking on.

The survey addresses this issue by providing quantitative information to answer those questions, allowing students to preview the type of workload they are signing up for before it’s too late.

Because the responses are pulling from hundreds of different students, the data already show significant variation. If the goal is to address the issue that students need information to make personalized class decisions, then it should be logical for the information to be presented in more ways than a single averaged value. Rather than condensing all the different values into a single average, it may be more helpful to separate the responses by criteria such as grade level and letter grade earned in each class.

By doing so, more accurate data can be presented in a matrix table rather than one number. Students viewing the course catalog can refer to relevant information relating to their own goals.

Furthermore, orienting the information by the student’s grade level may also lend credence to claims that certain classes, such as AP Biology and AP Art History, should only be taken by upperclassmen. Whether the data supports or refutes these claims, students no longer have to rely solely on word-of-mouth and can instead look at realistic data to aid them in their decisions.

Ultimately mental health is and always will play a vital role in how students balance their academic and social lives. When tackling broad issues such as this, the greatest challenge will be to provide students with information they need to make the right decisions. While a survey may seem trivial, its underlying import is that more information is beginning to become accessible.

Hopefully, administrators and counselors will continue to tackle this issue and fill the gap in communication with similar ideas. Only then can we shrink the burden of stress and allow academic success to become a realistic goal for all students.

T he

Nexus Mission Statement

The Nexus is an open forum 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 the guidance of adviser Jeff Wenger. The opinions published in The Nexus do not necessarily 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 may be edited for space or content reasons.

Feb. 13, 2015 Nexus Zoos ignore unattractive animals

T he

Allyson Xie

Staff Writer In their early days, zoos acted more as entertainment centers, with little concern towards the welfare of its animals. However, as time passed, zoos began carrying out various conservation projects, and now act as a Noah’s ark for endangered species. Conservation efforts made by zoos have saved critically endangered animals, such as the Asiatic wild horse and the red wolf. Zoo exhibits also serve as a way to spread awareness about certain endangered animals, such as the giant panda.

Even so, across the globe, zoos seem to exhibit the same animals—endangered or not—over and over again: pandas, tigers, and colorful birds--cute vertebrates. An experiment conducted by University of Prague professor Daniel Frynta concluded that humans favored “large, colorful, and longtailed” birds over duller ones. Frynta also discovered zoos tended to exhibit the former, regardless of conservation status. This preference evidently grows out of the need to satisfy consumers. Our human bias has caused us to favor and conserve “pretty” endangered animals over the uglier ones.

Zoologist Konrad Lorenz found that “cuter” animals shared several traits with human infants, including a round forehead and large eyes. According to University of Bern psychologist Janek Lobmaier, these traits activate the brain’s reward system, and a desire to protect the animal kicks in.

“The reason we are so attracted to cute animals appears to be the same mechanism that drives us to protect our babies,” Lobmaier said.

As a result, most majorly funded and exhibited animals are mammals with “cutetraits.

By excluding a large part of endangered organisms from conservation efforts, potential scientific research based on endangered animals is lost.

The endangerment of amphibians, generally regarded as unpopular animals, can debilitate medical progress. The axolotl, an aquatic salamander, possesses the ability to regenerate body parts, including spinal cords. University of Montreal professor Stephane Roy discovered axolotls also possess an unusual resistance to cancer.

Yet, there are only 1,000 axolotls left in the wild, and in general, more than a third of the world’s amphibians are at a risk of extinction. But their off-putting physical appearance has generated, in comparison to campaigns for tigers and pandas,

little awareness for their plight.

It is important to note that the conservation of popular mammals can support less popular animals. Tigers, for instance, reside at the top of the food chain and act as an ‘umbrella species’, whose conservation indirectly supports other species in their habitat. Species that share a habitat with tigers, such as pangolins and monkeys, are saved when laws are passed to protect a tiger’s habitat.

However, when natural habitats are destroyed and animals can only live safely in captivity, this notion of an umbrella species becomes defunct.

Most zoos with umbrella species, such as tigers, isolate the species.

The uncomfortable truth is that zoos, at their core, are businesses catering to consumers. Thus, zoos mostly exhibit big, colorful, or furry animals.

In fact, according to University of Denmark professor, D.A. Conde, zoos and aquariums preserve only one out of seven threatened animals.

Nonetheless, zoos also seem to spend a surplus amount of money on unnecessary attractions. In 2012, the St. Louis Zoo put down $20 million to create a new polar bear exhibit—even though its last polar bear died in 2009. Environmental laws make it illegal to transport wild polar bears into captivity, so the only way the zoo could receive polar bears is if they adopted cubs in captivity.

This money could have easily been used to create new habitats for other animals in the St. Louis Zoo. A utility closet at the back of the zoo’s Insectarium holds a plastic container of moist paper towels, where a number of Partula snails reside.

Partula snails, found only on the Pacific islands, were driven to extinction on the island when a non-native species of snail was introduced by farmers in the 1800s.

And yet, when the St. Louis Zoo had the chance to create a habitat for the snails, they chose to build a polar bear enclosure instead, leaving the snails to sit in the closet.

It may be difficult for a zoo to profit if it only exhibits unattractive animals. However, researcher Anna Gunnthorsdottir discovered that people, if told ugly animals are threatened, can perceive them as attractive.

Perhaps the most famous example in the West is the California condor, whose bald head and hooked beak make it a relatively unattractive species. In the 1980s, a loss of land and ingestion of pesticides caused their numbers to dwindle down to 22 wild birds.

Yet, a herculean effort made by conservationists and zoos brought the condor back. While still one of the world’s rarest bird species, as of last June, there were 439 California condors in the wild.

While zoos may not be able to protect all endangered animals, there is still room to conserve the less attractive ones. For both the environment and society’s sake, conservation is worth the effort.

According to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), at least 10,000 species a year are going extinct.

That means at the very least, about one organism is going extinct an hour. There may never be a true Noah’s ark to save these animals, but zoos are perhaps the closest thing next to it.

Christian films pander to viewers Andrew Kim

Opinions Editor In the past, art was often seen as a product of divine inspiration, an alternative form of worshipping, or a way of giving honor to a higher being. The results of such endeavors are now seen as some of the most significant pieces of art and are dissected in art and history classes.

In film, epics like Ben-Hur and The Ten Commandments received public and critical acclaim. These movies introduced new styles to the art of film by using emerging technologies to create some of the best visual effects of their times. The pursuit of making a good movie was not subject to stringent budgets. BenHur was one of the first adopters of the wide-screen format as well as being credited for having one of the most expensive single scenes in film history: the chariot race scene.

Currently, faith-based films are becoming increasingly frequent in theaters, appealing to the Christian audience. In the last year alone, we

saw five Christian films with major than praising. Compared to the qualreleases, an unprecedented number. ity of other modern movies, it’s like But all of these films, with the ex- watching your child’s fourth-grade ception of Noah, were consistently production of How the Grinch Stole blasted by critics. Left Behind re- Christmas after watching a Broadceived a two-percent rating on Rot- way production. You want to support ten Tomatoes, God’s Not Dead re- your kid, and you hope that it’s good, ceived 17 percent, and Exodus: Gods but in the end, you’re just forced to and Kings received 28 percent. listen to stuttering kids who forget It’s safe to their lines and say that despite have a severe their solid box inability to Christian films have a office earnhold a tune. tendency to fall short of ings, Christian This failfilms have a ure to create critical acceptance, and tendency to a good movfor good reason too. fall short of ie is a result critical accepof numerous tance, and for characteristics good reason too. Modern faith-based often found in such films. To begin films have poor acting and editing, with, many Christian movies are deforced soapboxy storylines, and in veloped specifically for the purpose general, are not good examples of of pandering to a Christian audience. cinematography.

The plotlines and characters within It’s a sad reality to face as a Chris- the films are drawn into two distinct tian. I would like nothing more than categories of Christian or not Christo be able to enjoy a film based on tian, normally with people in the latmy faith, but my attempts to view ter category being portrayed as ansuch films end in cringing rather tagonists. God’s Not Dead is a large

enforcer of this binary, painting the opposition as a single-minded group of angry people mad at the world.

The only critically acclaimed Christian film released in 2014 was Noah. However, Noah takes a different approach by creating an original narrative that fills in the blanks of the Biblical story of Noah’s Ark. Rather than preaching, it strives to tell a story first, something that is also seen in Charlton Heston classics and even The Passion of the Christ.

Noah is proof that Christian films are capable of living up to the source material. But there is no incentive for directors, writers and creators of these films to change their ways.

As long as the target audience remains, the same movies will continue to be made. And as long as we continue consuming the same uninspired films, we will be fed more of the same.

As Pastor Scott Nehring states, “If a film claims to be Christian, it was supposedly done for the glory of God, but we do not glorify God by making lousy movies.”

Cameras at concerts create phone-y experience when fans focus on filming, not on having fun Julia Erickson Sports Editor

A few weeks back, I saw a couple of bands at Viejas Arena. It was the biggest indoor concert I had ever been to, and in addition, I had an amazing spot: front row against the barricade, courtesy of my best friend’s VIP tickets.

The performances were amazing, but the atmosphere of the crowd left something to be desired.

At any given point during the set, at least half of the people in the pit had their phones out.

Over the last 15 years, the presence of cell phones has grown in concerts. First they replaced the quarters for the pay phone, then the lighter for slow songs. As camera phones have gotten higher quality, fans have become their own photographers too.

So increasingly, bands themselves often ask fans to put away cell phones for certain songs; The Lumineers, Nevershoutnever, She & Him, Bowling for Soup, Breathe Carolina, and even Rihanna have stopped their sets in order to request the full attention of their concertgoers. The reason for the appeal is that cell phones dampen the spirit of the crowd, who become more concerned with the perfect picture than enjoying the moment.

I’m not saying that taking pictures is terrible or something to shame. I have about a dozen different pictures from the concert myself. But when fans are filming every song and rationing battery life like they would normally money for merch, something is wrong.

Behind every 400-second snapchat story is a person who was holding a phone the entire night to capture those moments. Behind every shaky youtube video of a live performance with a barely recognizable song is a person who was holding a phone up the entire time to capture it. While I find it especially prevalent during concerts, the phenomena is part of a larger problem; people are more concerned about their outward appearance on social media rather than their real-life experiences. It’s the age-old battle of reputation, only now it’s gone viral. High schoolers are expected to back up their image with posts on Instagram and clever tweets.

During an interview, Yanni Philippakis of rock band Foals said that the obsession with camera phones is “part of a wider temptation to go to an aquarium and instead of looking at the fish, you take photos of the fish so you can then show your friends and pretend you understand what a barramundi is.”

Taking a few pictures and posting them is one thing, but the goal to get the perfect picture has become an obsession. The constant need to keep up appearances is a result of the “ME” generation, two parts narcissism, one part self-consciousness.

Telling people about an event has become more important than the event itself.

Psychologist Linda Henkel suggests that the infatuation with camera phones actually impairs the ability to remember.

“As soon as you hit click on that camera, it’s as if you’ve outsourced your memory,” Henkel said. “Anytime we kind of count on these external memory devices, we’re taking away from the kind of mental cognitive processing that might help us actually remember stuff on our own.”

Over time, the photo consumes the memory. A classic smiling family picture in front of the Grand Canyon leaves a two-dimensional memory of a landmark. An actual look at the canyon leaves a sense of awe that can’t be captured by a camera phone.

Going to a concert is essentially paying money for an experience. Whether that concert is $10 for standing room at The Epicenter, or $400 for the best seats in a huge arena, you get back what you put in.

Nexus Capitalists exploit tragedy for profit T he

Feb. 13, 2015 Jacob Tao

Staff Writer The hashtag, #JeSuisCharlie, has been tweeted over five million times around the globe. #Ferguson has appeared over 7.8 million times on twitter.

With every tragedy that strikes the globe, the Internet has become very good at creating catchy mottos and phrases to create global awareness of each event.

Eventually, such hashtags and phrases exit the social media world and work their way onto shirts and hats and other manufactured items.

Yet, when people buy those items to raise awareness for their cause, they don’t ask whether the creator of the products is taking advantage of them to raise money or is genuinely interested in raising awareness.

With the recent attacks on the satire magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris, the hashtag #JeSuisCharlie, or I am Charlie, spread across several different social media sites. The phrase is now internationally known and recognized, and has become a phrase for free speech without fear of punishment. Ironically, several businesses have attempted to trademark the phrase for their own purpose of selling and marketing merchandise While some businesses stated that they wanted to use the phrase for future charities, others sought to use the phrase to create products for personal profit. One business attempting to trademark the phrase #JeSuisCharlie planned to create a clothing line based around the phrase, with shirts, handbags, pants, hats and more.

Although some money does go to charities, the majority goes into the pockets of the sellers. For example, a $15-dollar Je Suis Charlie shirt on eBay claims that 10 percent of its cost will go to the charity Reporters Without Borders, which is nice, but the other 90 percent will go to the marketer to make sure that they still earn a profit. Even though most of the 90% profit would be used to make more shirts and keep production going, a fraction would still go to the sellers.

The Paris attack wasn’t the only tragedy that businesses tried to trademark. #Ferguson, #ICantBreathe, and #BostonStrong are some of the other slogans that were targeted for trade marking in the past. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has rejected these trademarks to prevent the businesses from controlling the phrases. The French Institut National de la Propriété Industrielle has rejected over 120 requests to trademark #JeSuisCharlie.

The creator of the original Je Suis Charlie image, Joachim Roncin, has stated that he regrets the use of the logo for commercial gain. Roncin has even tried to copyright the phrase to prevent its commercialization, stating that he wants the original meaning of the slogan to be preserved.

One problem that allows these businesses to take advantage of tragedies for profit is our desperation to jump on the

bandwagon and support the cause.

Before we think about who we’re buying our stuff from, we’ve already bought the merchandise to spread awareness. Although wearing clothing to spread awareness is not inherently bad, consumers who purchase on a whim are preyed upon as easy sources of money by many businesses after tragedies.

A possible solution to this issue is for consumers to look for reliable businesses that keep the buyers notified on how much money actually goes to support the cause. One such company, Product (RED), has partnered with major corporations to raise funds for their fight against HIV, and has guaranteed that it donates all proceeds to the cause.

However, most products that pop up aren’t from large corporations like Product (RED), and don’t have easily tracked profits from their merchandise.

Asking businesses that don’t openly share their donation information will typically cause them to share it just to avoid coming under fire or appease their customers.

A more radical solution would be for each of us, as individuals, to think about why we are buying the merchandise in the first place.

There are many ways to spread a message without displaying it on our heads or bodies, and they probably work better too.

Using social media and hashtags are the fastest ways to spread information globally and raise awareness faster than wearing certain attire.

But, at the same time, physical merchandise shows greater commitment to a cause, and it is not possible to force people to stop believing in things a certain way While stories of tragedies being exploited for profit have been around for a long time, the extent of it occurring is only increasing as many people jump on a bandwagon to support the cause. Allowing people to take advantage of tragic incidents for their own profit devalues the tragedy, instead of spreading awareness for it. Each hashtag or phrase that is meant to raise awareness for a tragedy should be a message for change, but businesses change them into brands for people to show off their social awareness.

Features Editor

A grade comes down to a percentage.

A grade comes down to the difference between having a 90 percent and getting an A versus having and 80 percent and getting a B versus having a 70 percent and getting a C and so forth. A grade comes down to what percent you received on your assignments.

But there’s one percent a grade shouldn’t come down to.

A grade shouldn’t come down to the percentages your specific teacher chooses to weigh certain categories, versus the way another teacher teaching the same class chooses to weight his or her categories.

For most classes offered at Westview, it’s impossible to have one teacher teach every single period of a given class.

Understandably, with multiple teachers teaching the same course, there are subjective differences between teachers that impact students’ grades. Many of these factors are essentially beyond anyone’s control.

Students have little-to-no say about which teacher they receive for a given course, and thus objectivity is critical in giving students an equal opportunity to succeed in a class no matter the teacher the student recieves for the class. Any measure that can be taken to combat the subjective grade influences that vary between different teachers should be taken.

One such measure that would greatly inAmong these policies, one only increase objectivity that is not being taken cludes quizzes, the midterm, and the fiwithin certain courses at Westview is nal, another equally weights five differstandardizing the grading policy for the ent categories, the third has six different given class. While there are courses on categories with varying weights with the campus that have taken this measure, final being weighted most heavily, and many have yet to make the switch and the final policy mimics the third with the adopt this policy. addition of a corrections and signatures One example of this is AP Calculus category worth two percent and subseAB. quently a lower midterm weight of 23 When it comes to grading, teachers percent. often break down different types of asIn classes where categories such as signments into homework and various categories. participation are For example, Any measure that can be not being taka science teacher en into account, might choose to taken to combat the sub- there’s far less have five catego- jective grade influences padding in a sturies: labs, homedent’s grade and work, quizzes, fi- that vary between teachers thus poor perfornal, and tests. mances on major should be taken.

Among those assessments have categories, the an even larger teacher would asimpact on a stusign a specific weighted percentage to dent’s grade. each category to determine its imporIn a course where all categories are tance and how much it should impacts a weighted equally, a student could potenstudent’s grade. tially have a 67 percent quiz average and Of the six teachers who teach Calcu- score a 67 percent on the midterm and lus AB, half have opted to use the exact final, and so long as they received 100 same policy, and the remaining three percent for notes and notebook checks, have each adopted their own individual the student could receive a B in the class. policy. Ironically, in a class where there If that student were placed in a class is always an objective, indisputable, where only the quiz, final, and midterm right answer, the differences in these were factored in the grade, the student grading policies leave far too much would fail the class. room for subjectivity.

The same goes for classes that incor-

For the Nguyen

by An Nguyen

9

End of Life Act grants patients dignified death Yuchen Zhang Staff Writer

Grades suffer from inconsistent policies Shereen Nikzad

Opinions

porate five or more unequally weighted categories.

In this case, a student with a 100-percent participation average, 100-percent homework average, 90-percent quiz average, 75-percent homework quiz average, 75-percent unit test average, 75-percent midterm score, and 75-percent final score would receive a B in the class. In a class where only quizzes, midterms, and finals were weighted into a grade, that same student would receive a C in the class.

While there are students who grasp concepts naturally and perform well on assessments without doing any homework or taking notes and can do well in some classes, even with solid A’s in the quiz, midterm, and final categories, if placed in a class where all categories were weighted equally, this type of student could potentially fail the class.

In a class with five or more unequally weighted categories, the student would likely receive a C. With these staggering variations in mind, it’s clear that without standardized grading policies, students are not given equal opportunities to either succeed or fail.

It’s understandable that teachers have different beliefs and ideals when it comes to what matters in a student’s grade, but the personal beliefs of each teacher shouldn’t come before fairness in the learning environment. All it takes is a compromise.

On Nov. 1, 2014, Brittany Maynard chose to end her own life with dignity and have the final say in her battle with terminal brain cancer. Although she originally lived in California, she moved to Oregon since California Criminal Statute 10.401 makes it felony manslaughter to help someone end his or her life.

Currently, the option of choosing euthanasia is only available in five states. However, recently, the End of Life Option Act has been proposed in California; this act would allow patients with six months or less to live to request lethal doses of medications to end their lives.

Although the bill has been proposed, it still faces heavy opposition. Many of the bill’s opponents believe that willingly ending a life is a moral violation and should not be allowed. Others believe that people will not know where to draw the line, and the right-to-die could become unnecessary in most cases.

The End of Life Option Act and suicide are two completely different ideas, and the law has conditions that separate it from suicide.

Only patients with a terminal illness, meaning they do not have a chance at recovery, are able to choose death with dignity. The treatments that these patients are undergoing only serve to prolong their lives for a brief, pain-filled amount of time By contrast, when people commit suicide, they terminate an open-ended span of life that has the potential to get better, but in the End of Life Option Act, patients are only hastening their impending deaths, which are not open-ended. In the end, if the patients weren’t diagnosed with their disease in the first place, they wouldn’t have to make a decision dealing with the right to die.

Ultimately, it should be the patient’s own choice whether or not they should continue living. Some patients are already going through so much pain that they do not want to live anymore.

Because their disease takes away all their autonomy, patients don’t see any purpose in prolonging their lives with life support, but because the right-to-die law has not been approved, they have no choice but to endure through their pain. The last few weeks they spend alive is not spent in comfort either. Rather than staying at home and enjoying a familiar environment, patients must stay on life-support in the hospital during their last few days, and rather than seeing their loved ones’ faces everyday, patients only see their doctors’ faces.

Matthew Hayes is a writer who described the heart-wrenching feeling of watching a loved one die painfully because the state they lived in did not support the End of Life Option Act. His grandmother suffered from heart disease and renal failure, and through all the pain and treatments, she became a shell of the woman he once knew. His grandmother told Hayes that life was not worth living for her, and she wanted to die happy.

In her last few months, she sunk further and further into despair and she endured a crippling stroke, massive blood loss after an operation, and constant hospitalization.

If the End of Life Option had been in place, Hayes’s grandmother would have been granted a peaceful death. She wouldn’t have had to suffer in her last few days and her family members would not have had to see the pain she was going through.

In addition, paying for all of the operations for patients gives families a heavy financial burden, even though the care they recieve only prolongs the pain that patients have to endure.

An estimated one out of every four Medicare dollars is spent on caring for patients near the end of their lives. Amy Kelley, a professor of geriatrics, found that around 40 percent of households cannot pay for these treatments.

Additionally, the amount of money spent on patients does not relieve their pain but only extends it, as patients must deal with their disease for a longer time and endure the disease as it grows stronger. Therefore, it would be best to give them the option of ending their life on their own terms.

No system is infallible, however, and there should be strict rules that regulate euthanasia. Although there are already guidelines set, such as a minimum patient age of 18 years old and a clause that states that patients must understand the extent of their decisions, the rules must be reviewed yearly so that they still apply and no unintended consequences are happening because of the bill.

The right-to-die law should be thought of as completely unrelated to suicide, as it provides benefits rather than losses. Dying with dignity would help give patients with a terminal illness choices and the final word in their seemingly helpless situation.

Fracking desecrates Native American land Rebecca Liu Staff Writer

Recently, I had the interesting experience of watching Kevin Costner’s Dances with Wolves, a film set against the backdrop of westward expansion that depicts the friendship between a white man and a Sioux tribe. The popularity with which Dances with Wolves was received in 1990 attests to the fact that Americans think we’re living in a post-racial society. Many lauded the cultural diversity on-screen and the movie made $424 million total in sales worldwide. The hype that surrounded the movie could be explained in part by the fact that we like to believe that we are making progress. Fifty years ago, an in-depth movie about Native Americans was unthinkable; these days, such a movie nabs a plethora of Academy Awards.

The advent of the 2015 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) allows for the sale of 2,400 acres of land to the foreign oil company Resolution Copper, yet challenges this belief.

Dances with Wolves tried to raise awareness of the objectionable way in which Native American land was grabbed by white settlers, yet, the problem is still much the same. Granted, the land in question is government-owned and not a reservation, the fact that the bill authorizing the land sale was kept secret until Dec. 2 (the NDAA was au-

thorized on Dec. 19th) seems to give the impression that there’s a certain disregard for the Native American perspective; the confidentiality that surrounded the bill seems to be an admission of guilt.

That same land is cherished by the Apache and includes territory that has long been used for burial and ceremonial rites as well as for harvesting acorns and medicinal plants. The boundaries of the 2,400 acres stops short of the site known as Apache Leap, a cliff where Apaches jumped to their death rather than face death by white settlers, but it is possible that Resolution Copper could acquire rights to that land too. Worse yet is the method of hydraulic fracturing, called “block cave mining,” which digs under the ore and causes the land above it to collapse, thus disrupting the way rain and snow is distributed down the mountain side. For Native Americans, this is especially problematic. Their culture is deeply rooted within their relationship with nature, and thus, Native American identity is intertwined with the land.

Just as disconcerting is the reaction to this problem, or lack thereof. There is almost no mainstream media coverage of the bill; there is no cry of outrage. Possibly, the problem lies within the fact that we’re taught, whether by the media, schools, or our own communities, that we live in a post-racial society. This mindset leads to complacency; instead of fixing problems in society,

we ignore them because we don’t believe they exist. We know that racism is bad, but we can’t recognize racism when we see it. The NDAA is institutionalized racism at its best: inconspicuous enough for no one to care, yet harmful enough to affect not only this generation, but many after it.

To say the NDAA is anything other than racist would be a disservice to the Apache.

Proponents of the bill claim that mining on the land could generate $41 billion over the next couple of decades, as if this is recompense for the destruction of a part of Apache culture. This is problematic because it reveals a shallow understanding and appreciation of Apache culture. For some people, there is a subconscious belief that Native American culture is “primitive” for its non-conformance to the Western tradition. Consequently, people begin to unilaterally decide what to do with this land that we view as unimportant instead of consulting Native Americans first.

Perhaps the most pressing question is why we still need to address issues of discrimination against Native Americans. As it is we celebrate the idea that we can do whatever we want with a minority’s sacred land. We fool ourselves into thinking that everything is okay, that there is no way that in our enlightened day and age we could do something wrong. Meanwhile, problems like these continue to be swept under the rug.

10 Opinions To the guy who braids toilet paper into rope in a futile attempt to keep the broken stall door closed: can you do my hair in the morning?

-Daniel Fan I can buy carnations for $3 during lunch, or I can spend an extra $2 and buy a box of Girl Scout cookies. At least the cookies won’t reject me.

-Shereen Nikzad

I find myself at a disadvantage to being admitted into the improv show when they say to present a “beating heart” for free admission. A girl stole it and stomped on it a while ago.

-Yuchen Zhang In the Westview culture of AP classes and studying, bubble soccer reminds me that we are all carnal inside.

-Dane Persky I’m beginning to think that the true purpose of Yik Yak is to destroy my faith in humanity and the name of the app is to remind me that yaks in reality are superior to humans.

-Giovanna Zavala To submit a Praise or Folly drop your submission off in room L-104. Include your name, grade level, or job title 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.

Nexus

Feb. 13, 2015 T he Multiple social media accounts hurt users Having multiple accounts for a social media site leaves users vulnerable to impersonation and split personas Dane Persky Staff Writer

With the ease of use that today’s internet provides, the content of social media has improved vastly to fit the needs of consumers. Anyone with an internet-capable device today knows the ins and outs of social media culture—namely, the importance of privacy. As such, most social media outlets give users the option to make their information either private from strangers or open to the public.

Sometimes the privacy settings are clear and simple, such as Instagram’s no-hassle “Posts are Private” switch. In other situations, such as in Facebook’s case, the sheer amount of privacy customization options makes it difficult for users to determine how public or private their accounts are.

Social media users go back and forth on who should and should not be able to see their information, whether those people be friends, family, work associates or even potential employers. This has caused many to split their social media audiences by setting up both a public account and a private one on any given social media application.

While this divvying up of accounts may seem like the perfect solution to remain both private and accessible on the internet, the fragmentation of one’s personality between accounts results in a slew of unforeseen consequences.

At the most basic level, splitting up social media accounts often results in a somewhat split personality in the real world. Catering specific online accounts to specific audiences can change how one acts around people in the real world, creating an awkward and difficult personality juggling act.

Ashley Brown, a PR consultant with the marketing and communications firm Jones-Dilworth, elaborated on this idea of personality disintegration as a result of split social media accounts.

“When on a day-to-day basis you’re fragmenting your personality into subsets of networks and assigning different aspects of yourself to different audience groups, it makes it extremely difficult to be a complete person offline,” Brown said.

In addition, when a person opens up several accounts, it becomes harder for outsiders to distinguish which ones are legitimate and owned by said person. In turn, it simply becomes easier for strangers to pose as others online and cause trouble.

Even if an owner of multiple social media accounts is unafraid of strangers potentially stealing that person’s online identity, the major issue of real online privacy persists. While separating public and private information might seem rational, nothing on the internet is ever really private.

Those looking to share their true opinions or make questionable decisions online without judgment are out of luck. No mat-

ter how tight one’s privacy settings are, nothing posted on the internet is ever really safe from prying eyes—and all social media users should be well aware of that.

Entrepreneur and marketer Seth Godin explained this point, along with his suggestion for internet users to remain safe and accessible online.

“Everything you do now ends up in your permanent record,” Godin said. “The best plan is to overload [the internet] with a long tail of good stuff and to always act as if you’re on Candid Camera, because you are.”

Striking a balance between displaying personal and professional information is key. Users should find a happy medium on a single account.

One account per social media platform that acts as both a personal and professional account is one’s best bet at avoiding the issues that can arise from the use of multiple accounts.

Money-centered careers do not deserve shame Giovanna Zavala Staff Writer

When I asked my director if I could leave One Act rehearsal early, I tried to be very vague in telling him where I was going.

I was planning to attend the math Career Connections event put on by the PTSA, which allowed students to talk to professionals to explore future career options.

“Oh, is that math Career Connections thing tonight?” my director responded.

“Yeah, you can go early.”

Walking across the quad from the theater to the student lounge, I felt like a huge weight had been lifted off of my chest, but why?

I wasn’t nervous about asking my director if I could leave early, or that he might say no. I wasn’t worried that someone would peg me as a nerd for liking or being interested in math either.

I was worried that somehow, some-

one nearby would read between the lines of my request and know at least one of the underlying reasons I was going.

Why I had started to consider my knack for math as something I could utilize, and why my possible plans of film school and media studies majors had been joined by the idea of a math major: money.

Just saying the word “money,” the mere admittance that it is something I think about on a regular basis, feels like a sin.

And above that, the idea that I would take into consideration this evil institution of currency while planning my future seems like something I should feel ashamed of.

And while subconsciously I harbor feelings of aversion towards the desire for monetary success, I resent the fact that it’s a crime to want it.

Our society is becoming more and more receptive to the idea that the pur-

suit of one’s passions is more important than the acquisition of material desires, and I fully agree with this. I don’t think any career or life decision should be made based solely on the desire for money or financial security. However, I also acknowledge the fact that money is a “necessary evil” and something I will need to have if I want to live the life I think I do. Though it has taken me a long time to admit it to myself, it does in fact take money to buy a plane ticket to Australia, new backpacking equipment, tickets to Broadway shows, birthday presents for my little brothers, and pay for voice lessons.

I also hope to express that for some people, no, a lot of people, the things I have listed are not on their agenda. Not everyone has plans for the future that require money.

I know several people pursuing musical theatre BFAs, others who have gotten degrees in philosophy and photography, and a number of other people

Open discourse opens minds to gender issues Alex Smyth

Photo Editor In countless class conversations, there’s often an audible sigh or groan when “feminism” or “gender identity” come up. Not because people don’t support the movement but because they’re bracing themselves to hear about the latest Twitter fight or another innocent social media user feeling attacked by the passionate advocates that Westview should be proud to be home to. It’s not every high school that holds a population of students with more conviction about social issues than many adults.

Being vocal about an opinion is part of spreading awareness, but creating an atmosphere that makes people afraid to ask questions is not.

Unfortunately, this atmosphere of fear and intimidation is exactly what we’re creating here.

Even with some of my own friends, who also happen to have passionate convictions about gender, part of me cringes when the topic comes around. It often feels like the kind of conversation that seems to be able to trigger a Westview World War, and I tread carefully with my words in fear of angering my friend or, in a more public setting, starting a campus riot.

I think because of this, I, along with others, have become afraid to address the subject that has become central to so many. In our pursuit of proving right

and wrong, we’ve lost the capacity to portrays the passionate advocate as acmaintain the judgment-free space where cusatory and condescending. people can feel comfortable and safe It makes sense that the liberal-mindto ask questions and to understand the ed advocates for gender equality enideas of others. courage an open-minded view where Feminism and gender identity have opinions are respected and hasty judgcome to the forefront of what represents ments aren’t made. That view should the interests of much of the student also apply to helping others understand body and, sadly, it’s something that in an objective and patient way. people who don’t know much about it I’ve noticed the helpful posters that are tentative to talk about. the Gender and Sexuality Alliance There are a lot of toes to step on and (GSA) club have posted in campus it feels like one wrong word—or pro- bathrooms are educational in a way that noun—will result in a storm of retali- doesn’t lay blame or point fingers. This ation. So instead approach emof risking verbodies the idea bal assault, we We’ve lost the capacity to of creating an choose to remain environment that silent and keep maintain the judgement-free fosters underour questions to standing . space where people can feel ourselves.

Black Girl Not knowing comfortable and safe to ask Dangerous, inieverything about tiated by activist genders doesn’t questions.

Mia McKenzie, automatically is a collaboragive someone tive website and ill-intent and just because I don’t un- forum that “seeks to, in as many ways derstand the full complexity of the issue possible, amplify the voices, experiencdoesn’t make me for or against it. es and expressions of queer and trans Questions are not attacks. Not know- people of color.” Here, contributing ing everything, admitting to it, and writer Ngoc Loan Tran made a point wanting to learn more is the basis of that I think applies to the environment what spreading awareness should be at Westview as well. It’s about “calling about, not making people too afraid to in,” rather than “calling out.” openly wonder. Feeling afraid to admit “I start ‘call in’ conversations by that and to ask questions doesn’t just identifying the behavior and defining hinder understanding but it negatively why I am choosing to engage with

Allyson Wonderland

them. I prioritize my values and invite them to think about theirs and where we share them,” Tran writes. “And then we talk about it…We offer patience and compassion to each other and also keep it real, ending the conversation when we need to andw know that it wasn’t a loss to give it a try.”

“Calling in” isn’t to replace “calling out” because anger is valid, and that’s undeniable. However in a place like Westview where it’s oftentimes our friends and peers who might be saying the seemingly wrong things, calling it in might be a better option to foster the environment that encourages discourse and understanding.

“How we are treating each other is preventing us from actually creating what we need for ourselves,” Tran writes.

The quickness with which we point our fingers at our peers, correcting them and thinking that this will further their understanding is what actually holds people back.

Students who are passionate and care about their beliefs don’t deserve to be seen as crazy or hateful, and students who want to know more and are afraid to ask deserve a patient and understanding environment to ask legitimate questions. This can only happen in an environment that isn’t so convoluted with judgment on either side, and in a place where calling people out isn’t the most important thing—but understanding is.

by Allyson Xie

who don’t have “traditional” careers.

I love that people can pursue what makes them happy with full support and optimism from the people around them, and that money is not the center of the universe anymore.

But I shouldn’t have to feel guilty when I say the word “money” when talking about my future, and, God forbid, I say the word “want” in front of it.

For a long time I think I ruled out options for my future not necessarily due to my lack of interest in a subject, but because of an aversion to the connotation of monetary success that comes with it. This seems entirely counter-productive and I’m glad I’ve begun to realize that you can be passionate about something and also appreciate the fact that it provides you with a sufficient source of money.

My discomfort with ending an article on that word only makes me feel like I should.

So, money.

Falling gas prices present unforeseen harms for consumers Edward Qiao

Managing Editor At a conference in November of last year, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) decided to continue to allow prices for oil to drop, leading to worldwide decreases in the price of oil and gas.

While the price decrease has caused economic disaster in nations in which a large portion of income is generated by oil, such as Russia, for heavy oil-consuming nations, such as the U.S., lower gas prices are good news for the general population In the U.S., the price of gas has fallen to less than $2 per gallon in some areas. The lower prices hurt people working in oil-related industries and oil-dependent states’ economies.

In the months since OPEC’s decision, the global economy has suffered as a result of the low oil prices. States where the economy is tied to oil, such as North Dakota and Texas, suffer.

Because fracking is more costly than drilling, by allowing the price of oil to drop, OPEC is pushing many of these U.S. oil producers out of business. The International Energy Agency reports that drilling permits have substantially decreased, and production growth forecasts decreased by about 8 percent.

The National Association of Counties conducted a survey on which counties had recovered the most to pre-recession economic stability. They found that the counties that recovered the most had strong oil, gas, and mining industries, meaning that these falling prices would hit them the hardest. Sixty-five counties in the United States were ranked fully recovered, and of those 65, around 60 percent are in North Dakota and Texas.

In addition to state economies, the environment suffers as businesses tied to oil and gas return to the sale of less fuel-efficient vehicles as the sale for fuel-efficient vehicles decreases.

Sales of hybrids have tanked, as people no longer have the need to worry as much about fuel efficiency. Ford’s global product development chief admitted that the most fuel-efficient vehicles have seen a decline in sales. General Motors announced that it was laying off 510 employees at two plants that build small cars, also announcing that it was selling the notoriously gas-guzzling Hummers again.

All this may also have impacts on the customers as well. In a 2012 study, the University of Michigan found that high oil prices led people to buy fuel-efficient vehicles, people returned to less fuel-efficient options once gas prices fell again.

Although the price of oil is currently at $50 per barrel, according to Bloomberg Business, this price is highly subject to either great increase or further decrease within several months.

While analysts at Barclays and the president of Goldman Sachs project a low price of $30 per barrel, the OPEC secretary general predicts a phenomenal increase to $200 per barrel.

This serves to demonstrate that the price of oil is highly unstable, meaning that low gas prices are not to be counted on.

While low gas prices are good for the average American, their detrimental effects to a large number of people make it hard for everyone to celebrate.

T he

Feb. 13, 2015

Nexus

Sports

11

Budenholzer sets sights on future beyond court Melanie DelaCruz Editor in Chief

Black Hole members stand in the bleachers, cheering and chanting and holding signs for the players. The announcer’s voice echoes through gym over the voices of the students and parents eagerly watching.

Landon Budenholzer (12) stands among his teammates as he waits to hear the transition he’s heard so many times before.

“Now let’s welcome your Westview Wolverines!”

The announcer calls for No. 3 the starting guard, and Budenholzer jogs through the tunnel of cheerleaders, greeted by handshakes from his teammates.

Looking up in the stands he sees his mother cheering him on and his father snapping photos of him and his teammates, as they had both done since he first began

Landon Budenholzer (12) warms up by taking shots before practice. Budenholzer has been on varsity basketball since his sophomore year.

playing basketball.

At the age of 4, Budenholzer picked up his first basketball. He grew up with a basketball theme in his family. His uncle, Mike Budenholzer, is the current head coach of the Atlanta Hawks and was previously assistant coach for the San Antonio Spurs.

In fourth grade, Budenholzer joined his first competitive league and in sixth he joined the Wolverines program, playing with them throughout middle school to prepare him for high school.

Entering his freshman year, Budenholzer had low expectations. He was recovering from a broken ankle and began on the freshman team. But halfway through the season he was pulled up to JV, joining his brother, Richie (`13).

Surpassing his own expectations, Landon was soon in the starting rotation. He was getting playing time with a team he had not expected to be a part of, but it didn’t stop there.

Shattering his low expectations completely, at the end of the season he was one of five players pulled up to varsity for CIFs. As per tradition, at the end of each season, coach Kyle Smith has each of the players write down academic and athletic goals, which he put in his computer to revisit later with the players.

Budenholzer told Smith that year that his goal was to make it on the varsity team, but Smith told him to set his goal higher. So, his new goal was to be on the team and to be in the rotation, getting playing time as a sophomore. Come sophomore year, Budenholzer did just that.

“I got a lot of experience as a sophomore that I didn’t necessarily expect,” he said. “I learned a lot from the guys on my team since a lot of them were three full years older. They taught me how to come in and work hard and how to be the best that I can be.”

He said as a sophomore on a team of predominantly seniors, he was there to learn and not mess up.

Ending his first season on the team, Budenholzer had indeed learned a lot from the older players on his

team. He said they taught him how to be a better competitor and how to listen to his teammates on the court, further developing him as a player.

During the summer he attended Ryan Silvers High Academic camp in Los Angeles, which catered to students hoping to pursue basketball in college as well as higher-level academics.

“I realized I had a shot at playing basketball in college,” he said. “So, I started to get in more contact with the high-academic Division III schools, realizing that was my best option.”

He recognized that Division III schools could offer outstanding educations.

“If I could go to a school that sets me up for the future through athletics, that’s what I was looking at,” he said.

Budenholzer said the key time for college recruitments was during his club season over the summer before senior year.

He played in tournaments in Los Angeles and Las Vegas, during which the coaches he had been contact with came to watch him play. He was playing on a club team based in San Marcos called Coastal League, which has no other Westview students. Budenholzer said because of this, during his games, there was a different style than he was used to.

“It is pretty nerve-racking seeing a line of coaches there with their clipboards watching you, but I once you start playing, you just play,” he said.

Entering his senior year, Budenholzer ruled out any schools he had been considering that were not toptiered academically. And there, supporting his decision, were both his parents.

Budenholzer said that despite the large emphasis placed on basketball in his household, his parents never placed too much pressure on him and were always supportive.

“They just let me play the game for fun,” he said.

Budenholzer has been in contact with 10 coaches, one of them being from Pomona College, the school his uncle had graduated from and played basketball for. Charles Katsiaficas,

head coach of the men’s basketball team there, also coached Budenholzer’s uncle. Budenholzer said his uncle has been a larger role model for him in his basketball journey.

“He sparked that fuel to really love basketball by seeing what he and his players would do on the court,” he said.

But, when applying for college, Budenholzer kept his academics at the top of his priority list.

“My love for basketball makes me want to continue playing, but I know in the future, the school I go to and the degree I get is going to be more important than if I played in college or not,” he said.

Beginning his final season as a senior, Budenholzer entered a leadership position now being a senior, the position he had seen so many of his former teammates once hold.

This year’s team only welcomed back three rotation players, which placed an even larger responsibility on Budenholzer and his returning teammates.

“It’s more pressure but that’s what sports are about,” he said.

And that’s what Budenholzer is focusing on in his last season: his team.

“You can be the most successful team, but if you don’t have the chemistry and if you don’t form the relationships that will last in your life, then there’s not really a point to it, you’re just throwing a ball out there and running around,” Budenholzer said. “We want to win our league and we want to make a run in the playoffs, but at the end of the year, especially as seniors, you always want to look back at what the program has done for you, what your teammates have helped you accomplish, how you’ve grown from playing as a little 14-year-old to now going off to college.”

And it’s those relationships, those people, that Budenholzer has said has helped him get where he is today.

“I wouldn’t be in the spot where I am today, with the chance to play in college, without the support of my teammates and coaches and everyone that has helped me throughout the years.”

Support from teammates motivates Wagner to succeed in rink

Alex Smyth

An Nguyen Staff Writer

Yves Wagner (12) strapped on his shin pads that he has been using since seventh grade. He gathered the varsity roller hockey team together to prepare for their usual chant. He yelled as hard as he could, because he not only wanted to represent and honor his team, but everyone who has helped been by his side throughout his years of roller hockey.

When four year-old Wagner and his family moved to the United States from Germany, they were not familiarized with American sports. Ice hockey is played everywhere in Europe instead of common American sports like football and baseball, so his parents picked suggested that Wagner try it out.

Wagner started playing roller hockey in sixth grade at Mesa Verde Middle School. Previously, he had played ice hockey, before that but decided to swap out his ice skates for rollerblades.

“The first time I ever played was with another kid in my neighborhood for fun,” Wagner said. “From that day, I never stopped because I loved it so much.”

Wagner still plays roller hockey with his friends that live close to him. Sam Tari (12) and Dallas Olsen (11) are just two of them and they became his teammates from his days in the middle school league and they are now all part of the varsity roller hockey team with him.

“On the team, people say that Yves is very HIL (Hockey is Life) because he has always been a good teammate and a stand up guy,” Tari said.

Tari has known Wagner since they were ten years old and they have been best friends ever since.

“It’s not a big sport that a lot of people play, but there is a handful of us that all live within a block of each other and we all love it,” he said.

Just having the chance to play the game wasn’t always easy for Wagner. His parents divorced during his seventh grade year, putting a lot of financial pressure on his family. Going into his freshman year of high school, playing on the team was going to cost Wagner a lot more.

“The jerseys and gear cost a ton of money and we couldn’t really pay for it,” Wagner said. “My mom is single with three younger kids so she didn’t really have the means to pay for my season.”

However, The Schulte Foundation donated some money to the roller hockey program on Wagner’s behalf, which gave him the opportunity to play again.

“It made me super appreciative of everything and it made me have a larger outlook that not everyone gets to play the sport so I was really grateful,” Wagner said.

Wagner has even grown closer to Skyler Schulte (11) who now also plays JV roller hockey. They are close family friends who have continued to support him through all his endeavors.

“It was definitely hard at first to know that I wasn’t able to buy basic sports equipment that I needed, but they helped me out a lot,” Wagner said.

With much support, Wagner has been playing defense on the varsity team since sophomore year. He was even chosen to be this year’s team captain.

“It has taught me to be a leader and to speak up for the team and set the tone,” Wagner said. “We are one of the only teams that goes up to the other teams and shake their hands.”

Since most of the roller hockey players at Westview have been playing together for so long, Wagner says that it makes the sport a lot easier.

“Playing games has always been serious, but we mainly just try to have fun with something we love to do,” Wagner said.

The team only practices once a week yet they play two games a week. Since the rink that they practice at is in Escondido, practice times aren’t as frequent.

The team only practices once a week yet they play two games a week.

“Because we have been playing with each other for so long, we know each other really well already. So practice is just for us to get out on a rink and keep up our skills,” Wagner said.

For Wagner, friendships have always been a large part in roller hockey. He believes that since the team is so close, they have created a working dynamic that has led to this season’s successes. They are currently ranked second in the Palomar league.

Just this last week, one of Wagner’s close friends, Harrison Clark (12), was pulled up to varsity for a game against El Cajon. This being his first year to play roller hockey at all, Wagner was ecstatic. It was a highlight for Wagner to see his childhood friend score his first varsity goal.

“That was probably one of the best moments of the season for me,” Wagner said. “Seeing him accomplish that just made me really proud.”

Wagner has shared much of his own passion for roller hockey and it is evident to his friends and teammates. As a captain, he is someone they look up to.

“Even when he is off the rink, he has that same great work ethic that he has when he is on the rink,” Tari said.

The roller hockey team is who Wagner enjoys being with. For him, they are the ones who he passes the puck to during games, but also who he eats lunch with during the week.

“To have friends that will support me is really awesome,” Wagner said. “They brought me to where I am now and without them, I probably wouldn’t even be playing such an awesome sport.”

Photo courtesy of Yves Wagner

Yves Wagner (12) sprints during a game vs La Jolla Country Day. Wagner is co-captain of the team.

12 Sports

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Nexus

Feb. 13, 2015

Thompson recovers from knee injury

After tearing her ligament and undergoing off-season surgery, Thompson returns to the pool as a varsity water polo starter Shereen Nikzad Features Editor

Alex Smyth

Rachel Thompson (11) adjusts her knee brace before practice. After two knee dislocations and surgery, Thompson is back on varsity water polo.

The buzz of ambulance sirens are too familiar for Rachel Thompson (11). Concerned faces are too familiar. The ride to the hospital is too familiar. The fear of missing out on water polo is too familiar. For Thompson, the sight of her kneecap bulging out of the side of her leg is just too familiar.

Thompson has dislocated her right knee twice, both times while on the Westview campus.

Her first injury occurred during the end of her freshman year in her ENS class. Thompson was enjoying the free time the class had been given, playing soccer with her friends.

She gained control of the ball and was making her way down the field when one of her friends went for the steal. The girl missed the ball and kicked through Thompson’s knee.

Her friends continued on with the game, but Thompson fell to the ground.

As soon as she caught sight of her knee, Thompson began to scream, shocked by the appearance of her misplaced knee.

Her screams caught her friends’ attentions and soon enough Thompson’s teacher had been alerted and an ambulance was on its way.

“I was just like, ‘Holy crap, there’s an alien thing on the side of my leg! What is that?’”

Thompson said.

At the hospital, the doctor popped Thompson’s kneecap back into place, relieving the immense pressure in her leg. Believing the injury wasn’t very serious, the doctors told Thompson that she would only have to undergo three months of physical therapy.

To Thompson’s relief, both high school water polo season and high school swim team season had ended, and she was able to return to club water polo after three weeks. She was given a brace to wear in the water to help combat rotation in her knee.

“I started playing [water polo] differently after I got back,” Thompson said. “It wasn’t better and it wasn’t worse, it was just different. The way that I would shoot was different.

I would tend to do more wet shots than normal shots just because I couldn’t get out of the wa-

ter as high.”

In water polo, a wet shot is a shot done while the player is swimming. It was easier for Thompson to do because her body would remain in a horizontal position. Normal shots required her to get her legs underneath her and egg-beater up, but she couldn’t do that as effectively post-injury because her knee was weakened.

Going into sophomore year, Thompson had high hopes for making the varsity water polo team.

Her doctors had told her that she was completely healed from her injury and no longer needed to wear a brace.

During a preseason workout before school, she was performing skip-switch lunges. She would jump, land one leg and lunge, and then she would jump, land on the other leg and lunge. She repeated the exercise until suddenly she found herself on the floor.

“I fell on the ground and it was like, ‘Oh my God, it happened again,’” Thompson said. “It was really scary because [water polo] season started in a month and a half. I really wanted to be on varsity with my friends. I wasn’t in pain as much. I was scared for the upcoming season.”

Once again, the ambulance came to take Thompson away.

The first time Thompson injured her knee, she had just gone to see her pediatrician.

This time, however, Thompson went to see a doctor who specialized in knees. She found out that with her first injury, she had actually torn a ligament in her knee that the doctors didn’t notice, meaning the recovery from her second injury would not be as simple.

The specialist presented Thompson with two options: she could undergo surgery or she could go to intense physical therapy three to four times a week.

“It was a really scary thought because surgery meant that I would be out for eight months,” Thompson said. “I did physical therapy because I wanted to be able to the play in the season.”

With her frequent physical therapy sessions, Thompson was able to make the varsity team and even received a decent amount of playing

time throughout the season despite her injury.

Her playing style once again changed. She began to rely more on her arms so her knee could heal and she now had to wear a brace in the water.

After her sophomore season ended, Thompson made the decision to undergo surgery to fully repair her knee in March 2014 because water polo season had ended and she would have several months to recover.

“They went in on the left side of my knee and they cut it open,” Thompson said. “The ligament was torn, so they stitched it bacwwk together, but then apparently it came off the knee cap, so then they anchored it back on.

Then, since that side was really weak, they went in on the other side and made small incisions on the other ligament so that they could heal almost at the same pace.”

Thompson’s surgery had a six-month recovery time, causing Thompson to miss out on spring and summer training season. Even without spring and summer practice, Thompson has returned to water polo this season.

“This season’s been pretty great,” Thompson said. “Since I’m a starter I’ve gotten a lot of playing time, and I just think we’ve had a really good season. We’ve done pretty well and I think the team dynamic is getting better and better every day.”

Thompson’s teammate, Lia Oliver (11), has noticed the skill Thompson brings to the team. “[Rachel] is an amazing player and she and I always play on the same side,” Oliver said. “She has an amazing attitude and her wet shots are insane. You never see [her wet shots] coming and she can score. I can always rely on her during a game.”

The brace Thompson wears in the pool continues to get smaller and smaller, and her doctor says that in a few weeks, she may not even need the brace at all. Thompson said the entire experience has put things in perspective for her.

“I feel like I’m lucky compared to other people because I know other people who’ve had worse injuries,” Thompson said. “I’m also slower in the water, so I have to work twice as hard to be as fast as the fastest person. I have to be more careful and I have to

Yitayew scores final goal, secures 3-3 tie against Point Loma Giovanna Zavala Staff Writer

After two game cancellations, first due to broken stadium lights and then to rain, boys soccer finally played a home game against Point Loma High School, Feb. 9.

Both teams have similar records this season, making Point Loma just one league ranking above Westview, so each team knew they had the potential to best the other.

Westview, however, was determined to win at least two of the three games they had this week, in order to improve their league ranking.

This determination, along with the similar team rankings, made for an exciting game that ended with Nati Yitayew (11) scoring the last goal in the last five minutes in the game, ending it with a tie, 3-3.

The zeal from both teams resulted in a fast opening to the game, with Westview maintaining possession of the ball for the majority of the first five minutes as well as taking several shots to attempt to se-

cure an early lead.

Ten minutes into the game, a corner kick by Jake Hughes (11) was received

by Yitayew. A pass to the center from Yitayew was received by Ryan Provencio (10), who shot at the goal.

One clean kick sent the ball sailing through the air into the top right of the goal.

It had crossed the goal line and would have counted as a goal no matter what, but as the ball bounced out Michael Yitayew (12) headed the ball back into the goal for good measure.

With Westview in the lead, Point Loma began to fight back, taking more shots on Westview’s goal.

While a couple of the Pointers’ shots seemed aimless, some shots came a little too close for comfort, and were often saved by headers executed near the goal.

Point Loma’s elevated pressure soon caught up to the Wolverines. Point Loma scored their first goal from a header after a foul gave them a free kick.

The 1-1 tie lasted no longer than the initial Westview lead. Point Loma got

Alex Smyth

WAGNER Roller Hockey

two more goals, one from a rebound after a fumble from the goalie and the other from a free kick with less than two minutes remaining in the first half.

At the beginning of the second half the score board read 3-1 to Point Loma, but the Wolverines returned with more focus than before.

Right away the team put their energy into offense, as they needed to make up two goals to tie the game. Only ten minutes into the second half Westview had taken at least five shots on goal.

After multiple failed shots, a free kick from Chris Kouris (11) was received by Hughes, who dribbled past three Point Loma defenders and shot to the left side, earning another goal for Westview and putting the Wolverines back on the score board.

The game seemed almost over, with only four minutes left, when the last goal was scored by Nati.

Hoping to hold on to their lead for just a little longer, a Point Loma defender played the ball back to their goalie to run down the clock.

“The defender was trying to play the keeper and so I kept running after the ball because I knew they were going to try and waste time,” Nati said. “Instead of keeping it up, the keeper let it roll a couple more [times]. I ran up to him and then as he picked it up I toe poked it out of his hands.

“I was waiting for the ref to blow a whistle; I thought they were going to call me. But they didn’t say anything so I turned around and the keeper dove and then I took it one more touch and then I shot.”

Yitayew’s goal tied the game at 3-3, a score that only needed to be held onto for a few more minutes.

While Point Loma ferociously tried to regain their lead, a slide tackle by defender Kevin Lyons (9) in the last two minutes of the game stopped one last attempt

by Point Loma to win the game.

Though experiencing a rocky middle, the team started the game with high confidence that paid off, allowing them to redeem themselves with a last minute goal that tied the game.

THE BLACK AND GOLD

Alex Smyth

OKHOTIN Boys Basketball

“Yves is a reliable captain who always leads through example,” Keisi Takaya (10) said.

“He always gives 100 percent effort and is first to the puck.”

“Ben is an awesome teammate and guy in general,” Robert Dill (12) said. “He helps us by raining threes and just having a great attitude on and off the court.”

•Captain •23 goals •19 assists •42 points

•Power forward •4.1 points per game •10 three-pointers

ORIBELLO

Alex Smyth

Alex Smyth

Girls Basketball

“Mac always has a strong competitive spirit and a positive attitude,” Erica Barrett (10) said.

“Mac has had an immediate impact on our team off and on the court.”

•51 assists •39 steals •138 points scored

Alex Smyth

Liam Felicelli (9) runs back to play defense against Point Loma High School, Feb. 9.

Alex Smyth

Alex Smyth

BRUCE

DUTRA-SMITH

WANG

“Haley is one of the most aggresive players on the field,” Laura Buck (12) said. “She’s one of those people who you can always count on on defense.”

“He helps out the team by leading at times others don’t want to, and he has really worked with the underclassmen instead of only focusing on himself,” Alex Bailey (12) said.

“Thanks to Angie, our team has been succesful this year,” Jessica Shanes (11) said. “She has an incredible attitude and is like a sister to me.”

•Defender •2 assists •15 tackles per game average

•Captain •122 lb. weight class •29-8 record

•Captain •136 saves •87.8 percent of shots blocked

Girls Soccer

Wrestling

Water Polo

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Feb. 13, 2015

Nexus

Sports

Five pin to place in Julie Leonard Bunker, Girten, Bauer hold unbroken winter tournament

Longest Standing Records

sports records from Westview’s earliest years

Girls Soccer GOALS IN CAREER Melissa Rose (’06)

34

ASSISTS IN CAREER Melissa Rose (’06)

44

ASSISTS IN SEASON Melissa Rose (’03)

21

Girls Basketball 3-POINTERS IN CAREER Katie Girten (’07)

241

TOTAL POINTS IN CAREER Katie Girten (’07)

1213

Boys Basketball REBOUNDS IN CAREER Nolan Bauer (’05)

13

491

Girls Soccer Records standing for twelve and nine years Melissa Rose (’06) (now Melissa Bunker), set the records for most goals in career, most assists in career, and most assists in a season during 2003. She led Westview’s first four-year class, and even as a freshman, was team captain of girls soccer.

As a midfielder, she helped the Wolverines take home the 2005 CIF championship title. She was named most valuable player in the entire CIF division.

During off season, she played with a soccer club called “San Diego Surf,” where one year she was pulled up an age group to play for the Surf Cup Girls Championships.

“It was a challenging game, but it was great playing with girls that would go on to become professional players,” she said.

After graduation, Bunker was recruited for University of Tennessee, which she ended up attending. She also received offers from prestigous California schools, like UC Santa Barbra and Pepperdine.

However, during pre-season soccer training at the beginning of her Freshman year, Bunker decided to quit playing soccer for the school.

“I excelled at soccer, but it’s not something I loved doing,” she said. “[I quit because] I wanted to think of my future in terms of educational opportunities.”

Bunker majored in Sociology at University of Tennessee. She met her husband there, and the two moved from Tennessee to Arizona to Maryland, where they reside now.

Bunker currently attends Howard Community College, where she is studying nursing.

She plays soccer recreationally for the school, as a midfielder.

Boys Basketball Record standing for ten years

Girls Basketball Record standing for eight years

Nolan Bauer (’05) set the career record for most rebounds. He spent his freshman year at Mt. Carmel High School, where he played basketball under coach David Delaney. Bauer spent his middle school years playing under Delaney in the Sun Devil youth basketball program, so when Westview opened in 2002 and Delaney was offered the coaching position there, Bauer followed him.

“There was no juniors or seniors, so our team was essential the same for all three years I was there,” he said. “We were all really close, and came together over those years.

I loved all my teammates, and 10 years later, I’m still in contact with some of them now.”

Bauer attended Cal State San Marcos, but didn’t play basketball, as they had no standing team.

For study abroad, he moved to Thailand, where he coached youth basketball skills and worked with kids from 5 years old to 17 years old. As a result, he was asked to helped assist with coaching skills to the Thai national basketball team.

He moved back to San Diego for graduation, where he settled down with his wife to start a family.

Katie Girten (’07) set the career records for most three-pointers and most total points. From her freshman year forward, she quickly helped the Wolverines establish a name in girls basketball.

Her senior year saw the best win-loss record the team had gotten so far, with 23 wins and eight losses.

In both her junior and her senior year at Westview, she was named Palomar league top three champ for most three-pointers, most valuable player for the team, most valuable player for North County Times, and was invited into the first team for All-Palomar League.

After graduation, Girten attended Palomar Community College for two years, where she played for the girls basketball team. She was named Pacific Coast Conference Player

of the Year in 2009, her second year there, and scored a career high of 40 points in one game.

After, she transferred to Chico State on a Division II athletic scholarship, where she studied Kinesiology. During her senior year, she was a co-captain of the basketball team.

But Girten has grown to focus on coaching girls basketball in more recent years. She started with helping to coach teenagers at Cal-Swish San Diego. From there, she moved to working as an assistant coach at MiraCosta Community College for a year before being named the Western Oregon University assistant coach.

She is currently also completing her master degree in coaching and athletic administration at Western Oregon University.

“My goal is to make better basketball players, make better people and prepare my student-athletes for the rest of their lives,” she said.

Content and design by Julia Erickson

Emily Clarkson Staff Writer

Created to honor Julie Leonard, whose son, AJ Leonard (10) competes on varsity, the wrestling team hosted the Julie Leonard Memorial Tournament, Feb. 1.

After Julie passed away last spring, the wrestling coaches began planning the tournament in her honor.

“We’ve always wanted to build a competitive tournament at Westview,” coach Perry Watson said. “[Julie Leonard] was a huge supporter of our program and the Julie Leonard Memorial Tournament seemed like a natural transition.”

Thirteen schools competed in the tournament, which was divided into two brackets and used double elimination to determine who would advance.

Five Westview wrestlers placed first in their respective weight class: AJ, Ryan Ritchie (11), Alex Bailey (12), Nicholas Stuckey (11), and Davan Dutra-Smith (12).

During the championship match of the 147-lb weight class, AJ wrestled Daniel Jung (10), who also competes on the Westview wrestling team.

For two two-minute periods, AJ and Jung fought against each other, each struggling to pin the other and win the match. Although AJ wrestled Jung to the ground several times, Jung managed to escape his hold and prevent the pin each time. At the end of second period, neither had won, but AJ was determined to beat Jung.

“I had so much confidence, like my mom was there with me along the way,” AJ said. “I was determined to win and I had the mentality that at the end of the match I was going to win.”

As the referee signaled the start of the third period, AJ faced off against Jung. Although AJ had wrestled in two previous matches that day, he didn’t hesitate as the clock started to count down. He dove for Jung’s legs and pulled him to the ground. Jung struggled to break his hold and get back to his feet, but AJ kept him pinned to the floor.

The move, the double leg takedown, increased AJ’s score by two points and propelled him to a 21-5 win by technical fall, a condition that awards a win to a wrestler who is beating his opponent by 15 points, but who has not ended the match with a pin.

Westview earned 195 points overall, dominating the tournament and securing first place.

The coaches plan to hold the Julie Leonard Memorial Tournament every year.

14 Final Focus Which

T he

road should I take ?

Meilynn Shi Staff Writer

Her senior year, biology teacher My-Nga Ingram was accepted early admission into Johns Hopkins University, her top choice, the perfect school to escape the familiarity of the West Coast, broaden her experiences and pursue her interests in medicine.

“The main reason why I wanted to go to Johns Hopkins was that I wanted to be a doctor,” Ingram said. “The second reason was that I wanted to get away from everybody I knew at my school. I wanted to go someplace where I was comfortable, where people were like me, but they didn’t know me, so they couldn’t prejudge me based upon what I did in high school—it [would be] a brand new start.”

Then, during second semester, Ingram’s younger brother was re-diagnosed with brain cancer.

He was first diagnosed when Ingram was in ninth grade and subsequently underwent chemotherapy and radiation. Three years later, it had recurred. This time, it was terminal.

Ingram had always wanted to go to Johns Hopkins, but at the same time, her brother only had so much time.

We have all faced and will face tough decisions like this, when no one option is better than the other, when sacrifice and compromise are inevitable, when we’re left unsure of what to do. We can’t predict the outcome nor can we know if we’ve made the right decision, but we can make it easier.

Ingram retracted her admission to Johns Hopkins and in a twist of irony, enrolled in UC Irvine, the school she least wanted to attend because it was, “where all the people I knew who wanted to stay local went, like [Westview’s] version of UC Berkeley,” she said.

“I was doing the total opposite of what I planned on doing,” she said. “I wanted to go to Johns Hopkins to get away from everybody, and I wound up being in Irvine, where I knew everyone. I wound up going to the one place I didn’t want to go.”

It was a hard decision, but it was close to home, and family mattered most.

Her brother passed away the following year.

The Deluge of Choices According to Barry Schwartz, a professor of social theory and social action at Swarthmore College and author of The Paradox of Choice, the modern world has left us scrambling under a deluge of choices.

“Everywhere we look, big things and small things, material things and lifestyle things, life is a matter of choice,” Schwartz says.

In school, work, family, marriage, identity, communication, marketing, health care, investments, pensions… We now have more autonomy than ever, and as a result, we’re confronted with more and more choices to make.

“The official dogma [of all western industrial societies] runs like this: if we are interested in maximizing the welfare of our citizens, the way to do that is to maximize individual freedom,” Schwartz says. “The way to maximize freedom is to maximize choice. The more choice people have, the more freedom they have, and the more freedom they have, the more welfare they have.”

But this abundance of freedom has only brought anxiety.

“One effect, paradoxically, is that it produces paralysis, rather than liberation,” Schwartz says. “With so many options to choose from, people find it very difficult to choose at all.”

This indecision is further augmented when we face pivotal, life-changing choices, especially when such decisions present no clear answers or quantifiable cost-benefit analyses.

The grey area is what makes making a choice “hard.”

A Battle of Values Before coming to Westview, Maya Little-Saña (10) attended High Tech High, where she loved the camaraderie and social dynamics.

“I had a great social life there,” Little-Saña said. “I was really close with a lot of people there. It was really fun, and I felt really supported emotionally.”

But she said that High Tech High lacked academic rigor.

“There’s a 100 percent graduation rate at High Tech High, and there’s also around an 89 percent [college freshmen attendance rate],” Little-Saña said. “I know they all get into college, and some of them into really nice colleges, but they won’t know anything once they’re there. And I didn’t want that for myself.”

She wanted to attend Westview, but at the same time, she didn’t want to leave her friends and all the people who had always had her back. “[It was] hard to choose between a sound social life and community that supported me emotionally and a place that teaches me things,” Little-Saña said.

On top of that, she said that she feared people at Westview would judge her for the person she was in middle school.

“I would know people, but people from when I was struggling really hard in middle school,” Little-Saña said. “They would just see me as the old middle-school me. I didn’t want anybody seeing the new me as the old me.”

But she ultimately came to Westview because education was more important to her.

“School isn’t [only] about being with friends, Little-Saña said. “It’s [also] about learning.”

Ruth Chang, a philosopher at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, stated in her 2014 TED talk, “How to Make Hard Choices,” that the choices we make define who we are.

“Hard choices uncover something about ourselves we didn’t know,” Chang says. “We can put our very selves behind an option. Here’s where I stand. Here’s who I am.”

For Little-Saña, that meant she prioritized education and learning. For Ingram, that meant she valued family above all.

Ava Fakhrabadi (12), after joining Westview theatre her freshmen year, fell in love with show business.

“I absolutely love acting, writing, singing and pretty much anything to do with show business,” Fakhrabadi said. “I enjoy being up on stage so much, and the long nights I have spent in the theatre are bliss.”

But when it came to choosing her major, her heart told her to pursue theater—after all, her brother is majoring in acting, and many of her friends are pursuing a career in directing, acting and/or writing—but her mind told her it wasn’t realistic.

“The thought of only having a degree in acting or theatre makes me feel insecure about my future,” Fakhrabadi said.

“Everyone tells you to follow your dreams when you’re young, but suddenly when you get older, it’s all about the economy.”

“So many people see getting a B.A. in theater as useless because it won’t get you anywhere,” she said. “I guess I’ve carried that mentality with me, which is why I made the choice to pursue a career of law rather than one of theater.”

Fakhrabadi said she enjoys law and wants to enter criminal justice to speak and fight for rape victims.

“I want to speak and fight for people who can’t do it for themselves,” Fakhrabadi said. “I also eventually want to become a judge to hopefully set precedents that people in the future can use to steer society in the right direction.”

Nonetheless, a small part of her still wonders whether she’s making the right choice or not.

“Sometimes, I feel like I’ve chosen the easy way out because I don’t believe in myself or because I want to make my

Nexus

Feb. 13, 2015

If only making choices were as easy as eenie meenie minie moe.

parents happy,” she said. “[But] I’m trying to be realistic.”

“It also helps knowing [that] no matter what, I can always do theatre as a hobby,” she said.

As Schwartz says, sometimes the best way to make decisions is to accept what’s “good enough.”

Those who always search for the best option—the perfect choice—create expectations that can’t be met. As a result, these “maximizers,” as Schwartz calls them, tend to be less happy and less optimistic. They have lower self-esteem and worry more about what could have been.

“It is maximizers who are most disappointed when the results of decisions are not as good as they expect,” he states.

Little-Saña sometimes wishes she hadn’t left her friends.

“I don’t get to see [my friends] very often, which is very hard,” she said. “It’s hard because I don’t have that many friends here. I had so many friends, and now I don’t really.”

She misses them, but she says she has no regrets. Westview has opened new academic doors for her.

“I feel pretty alone at Westview,” Little-Saña said. “[But] I just really wanted to learn. I don’t think I would’ve done anything differently.”

In order to mitigate regret, Schwartz says we should remove excessively high expectations and focus on the good components, rather than the bad.

“Our evaluation of our choices is profoundly affected by what we compare them with,” he says. “We should make an effort to limit how much we think about the attractive features of options we reject.”

Charlie Lu (’14) was accepted into both the Coast Guard Academy and UC Berkeley. Ever since eighth grade, he had always wanted to attend Berkeley, but the Coast Guard Academy offered him a full ride and guaranteed him a job after graduation.

“My future was set if I went to the Coast Guard Academy, but at the same time, I didn’t know if I wanted to be tied down [because] you go there for four years of college and five years of required service afterwards,” Lu said. “I didn’t know if I wanted my next decade of my life set in stone.”

Berkeley was where he wanted to go, but Coast Guard offered more practical benefits.

“I was really torn for a long time because there was a lot of pressure to go either way, and they were both amazing colleges,” Lu said. “I talked to a lot of people and tried to get opinions and views from close friends and family. It was really hard deciding.”

“But ultimately, I picked Berkeley because it allowed me to better maintain my bonds with all the people close to me,” he said. “I wanted to be able to have full decision of everything in my future no matter what changes, [as well as] be with my friends.”

In contrast with Fakhrabadi, he took the less pragmatic path.

“In tough decisions, [you have to] pick what you enjoy, what you like,” Lu said.

He says he has no regrets about his decision.

Following your Gut In order to help clear the cloud of anxiety that an overabundance of choice has brought, Schwartz says we must reduce the number of options we consider and learn how to say no.

“To manage the problem of excessive choice, people should decide where in life choice really matters and focus their time and energy there,” he said. “Everyone needs a fishbowl.”

Without such confines, we’re given so much freedom that we don’t what to do with it.

According to Chang, this means following what we truly want. Chang says that making hard choices isn’t about figuring out which alternative is better. It’s about looking inside

ourselves and understanding who we are and who we want to be. Chang encourages us to create our own expectations, free from any standards that our parents, our peers and society may impose on us. “[Our decisions are] very much up to each of us,” Chang says. “[We are] the authors of our own lives.”

Sometimes, however, it’s difficult to determine what we really want. One centuries-old way of uncovering our true feelings involves flipping a coin. First designate one side heads and the other tails, then flip the coin, cover it with your hand and without looking at which side it landed on, ask yourself which side you hope it landed on.

Most people harbor a subconscious desire for one choice over the other. Flipping a coin taps into that intuition and pulls it into our conscious memory. In such a way, we can overcome decisions that can’t be decided by reason and logic alone, such decisions where the costs and benefits can’t be accurately quantified or measured like weight, but rather rely on pure subjectivity.

“We unwittingly assume that values like justice, beauty, kindness, are akin to scientific quantities, like length, mass and weight,” Chang said. “As post-Enlightenment creatures, we tend to assume that scientific thinking holds the key to everything of importance in our world, but the world of value is different from the world of science. The stuff of the one world can be quantified by real numbers. The stuff of the other world can’t.”

Making it Easier A big source of the anxiety we face when making decisions derives from our inability to foresee future repercussions.

How do we ascertain Option B is actually better than Option A? How do we know we’re making the right decision?

We can’t, but we can take certain steps to alleviate the anxiety and lift the paralysis.

In addition to the coin flip, many recommend talking to others with similar experiences, visualizing the options, writing an essay to see if you can persuade yourself and acting as your own devil’s advocate, which psychologists call “dialectical bootstrapping.”

Barrie Davenport, a public relations executive and personal development coach, warns against dwelling too much.

“The more you ponder the decision, the more confused and stuck you feel,” Davenport says.

Sometimes, a breath of fresh air, a walk around the park, an hour of yoga or meditation can also help clear away the stress and pressure clouding our thoughts.

Benjamin Franklin devised a comprehensive system to weighing the pros and cons: first, write the decision across the top of a piece of paper; then draw a line dividing the paper into two halves, pros on one side and cons on the other; list out the reasons for each side, then for each reason, rate its importance (I) and probability (P) on a scale from one to 10 and determine its weight (W) by multiplying the importance by the probability; total the values for all the reasons, and finally, compare the scores for the pros side and the cons side.

This process forces you to think decisions through, examine short-term and long-term effects and avoid focusing too much on a little detail or exaggerating its importance.

Most importantly, according to KidsMatter, an Australian mental health and wellbeing initiative, we must develop confidence, discipline, problem-solving skills and independent thinking skills early on in order to make good decisions.

“Children learn to make good decisions when given opportunities to practice making decisions for themselves,” KidsMatter states. “Early years are the best time to promote the skills for learning and thinking.”

In such a way, we can let go of any insecurities and fears that prevent us from learning and growing.

No Regrets “Far from being sources of agony and dread, hard choices are precious opportunities for us to celebrate what is special about the human condition,” Chang says.

“It is here, in the space of hard choices, that we have the power to become the distinctive people that we are.”

Hard choices give us the chance to define our own identity and invent our own lives.

“And that’s why hard choices are not a curse but a godsend,” Chang concludes.

Every choice has its own wins and losses, its own sacrifices and risks, but as Schwartz reminds us, we must not let regret spoil our triumphs. We must look forward, both prudent and bold, both flexible and steadfast, and then, perhaps, we will not lose ourselves in the deluge of choices.

It wasn’t easy for Ingram to choose to attend UC Irvine, but she said she wouldn’t change a thing. In fact, she ended up needing the comfort of familiar faces and voices.

“It was good that I made the decision because I spent at least a year with my brother,” Ingram said. “I needed stability, and Irvine gave that to me because Irvine is a very mellow, very conservative school. I just needed somewhere calm and relaxing so I could focus on school and family.”

“At the moment, it wasn’t my best choice, but in the long term, it wound up being the best choice,” she said.

In the end, she realized she was more interested in studying how to prevent diseases and disorders rather than how to treat them. She doublemajored in molecular biology and biochemistry, pursuing a Ph.D. instead of an M.D. The puzzle pieces began to come together. If she hadn’t attended Irvine, she wouldn’t have found a job at Disneyland. And if she hadn’t been working at Disneyland, she wouldn’t have met her future husband.

Art by Allyson Xie