Issue 6, 18-19

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Westview High School

February 15, 2019 Vol. XVII | Issue 6 wvnexus.org | @wvnexus 13500 Camino del Sur San Diego, CA 92129

A Driving Force

Blake Parker Staff Writer

family, freedom & a Ford Mustang

When Noah Magalei (11) revs his engine, he hears more than the anthem of newfound freedom.

He hears the numerous moving parts of his 1965 Ford Mustang, dissecting the interaction of each piece in his head.

He understands the role that each piece plays in the roaring orchestra that lies underneath the hood. He’s familiar with these parts because he put them together himself, piece by piece, with the help of his father.

When he was younger, Magalei saw cars as nothing but a mode of transportation, a small toy that lied in his hand, a way of getting from point A to point B. But after being exposed to cars through his father’s repair shop in Hawaii, Magalei saw cars in a new light.

This was evident when he first laid eyes on his father’s 1965 Mustang.

“I asked him ‘Whose car is this?’ and he said, ‘It’s no one’s right now,’” Magalei said. “That’s the time that I decided I wanted to drive that car.”

Magalei was drawn in by more than the black, polished paint job of the vintage Mustang. He was reminded of his father driving the car in his former home, Hawaii.

Overcome with the nostalgia of his father’s previous car, Magalei felt more than willing to accept the challenge of repairing the engine, which wouldn’t start or run at the time, with his father.

Beginning in the summer of 2016, Magalei and his father began buying parts to restore the contents of the car. The total cost of the engine parts stood at around 5000 dollars.

Magalei’s father paid 2000 of that cost, leaving 3000 dollars for Magalei, who would go on to drive the car.

The two planned to begin working on the engine over the weekends. His father would teach him of the complications that lie under the hood as they began.

“Almost everything in the car needed to be replaced unless it wasn’t completely rusted over or crumbling,” Magalei said. “We went to O'Reilly's as soon as possible just to buy cheap parts that would last temporarily while I’m in high school. In the future, we’ll work on it again so that [my dad] can still drive it.”

Starting projects together was not an unfamiliar experience to Magalei or his father. They’ve always valued staying close to each other

See Mustang, page 6

Noah Magalei (11) uses a screwdriver to switch on the choke of the engine underneath the hood of his 1965 Ford Mustang, Feb. 10. Magalei does this every morning before driving to school to allow gas circulation through the car.

Vu works aboard private boat, “The Angel” Andrea Chen Editor in Chief

Most others are fast asleep at 3 a.m., but given the chance, Nick Vu (12) can be found driving a 48-foot-long Viking yacht instead. As a deckhand and second captain, Vu spends his weekends working: throwing bait, putting bait on, hooking and cutting fish, and driving through the night.

The ship embarks on its 12-hour, 126mile long journey to Colonet High, Mexico around 9-10 p.m., Fridays. After fishing, the boat returns by 6 p.m. Sunday night, and Vu makes his way back home, weary from the 18-hour work days.

“I think staying awake is the hardest part,” Vu said. “It’s not too hard tying up a boat. My party docks it, so I don’t have

to worry about that. [But] driving is a lot of energy drinks all night just to keep you awake.”

Still, he said, he wouldn’t have it any other way.

“My favorite part is just being out on the ocean,” Vu said. “You get to see a lot of animals that no one really gets to see.

You drive past whales, dolphins all over the place, but I [also really enjoy] catching fish like yellowtail, rockfish and cuttlefish, all the cool species.”

Vu started fishing when he was 3. His father used to surf-fish in the bay pretty often, and after bringing Vu along, it soon became a father-son pastime.

“I just found [fishing] really fun, and [my dad and I] started branching off doing different types of fishing like fly-fish-

ing the surf,” he said. “So basically at the beach, catching croaker, fishing in the bay, tuna fishing, fishing largemouth bass at lakes. Just every little niche sort of fishing, everything.”

The duo would go out on the ocean a couple days at a time and fish. Eventually, Vu started working on tuna fishing boats by himself. He currently works with a privately owned business.

“I met a friend who worked on the Pacific Voyager, and now he’s the captain of this other business,” he said. “He takes his buddies out fishing, [so] I get to fish quite a bit because a lot of time the guys that come on have trouble hooking fish and whatnot.”

This boat has been using yo-yo jigs to hook yellowtails, dropping irons 250-300

feet down to the yellowtail mark on their fish-finding meter. “[Yo-yo is] a style of fishing where you’re dropping down very heavy jigs, 8-ounce irons,” he said. “Basically all [the irons] do is they kick, so they look like fish that are swimming up.”

The fish are attracted to the irons, and once they clamp down, it’s a fight until the finish, according to Vu. “It’s kind of a rush,” he said. “There’s nothing like hooking a fish after working that hard to catch one. Especially a yellowtail, with that yo-yo style fishing, when they hit that lure, it’s ferocious. It’s like a slam, and then it jolts your whole body. You have to wind through, and the fish are pulling

See Fishing, page 4

Hernandez completes physical therapy, finishes final soccer season despite breaking tibia, fibula Tiffany Le

Editor in Chief

Blake Parker

D.J. Hernandez (12) sits on the bench with teammates during the first CIF game of the season, Feb. 13. Westview won, 3-0.

News in Numbers

12 218

60

Middle and high schools in the Poway Unified School District were updated with new security systems.

See School Safety, page 3 Books were donated by the junior class in ASB’s book drive, Feb 2-7. In total, 356 books were given to Reach Out and Read.

See Book Drive, page 3 Percent of taxpayers receive only 13 percent of benefits from the Tax Cut and Jobs Act. See Taxes, page 9

D.J. Hernandez (12) found himself looking towards the sky in an immense amount of pain July 28. Moments before, Hernandez was playing in a San Diego Soccer club game, preparing for a fifty-fifty ball. The ball was in the air and no player had real possession. As he and an opposing player slid into a tackle, their shins collided, and the opposing player’s entire body-weight crushed Hernandez’s leg.

As Hernandez fell to the ground, he immediately knew something was wrong. His teammate, Izel Smith (12), ran over to ask if he was okay; Hernandez could only muster up the words, “it’s broken.”

Smith yelled to the sidelines, and trainers rushed onto the field. Hernandez said he couldn’t bring himself to look at the damage, Jessica Lin but those who were present during the incident said it looked like there was a dent in his leg.

“It was definitely the most pain I’ve ever

felt,” Hernandez said. “[The trainers] tried to put my leg in a splint but they couldn’t because my leg hurt so bad whenever try tried lifting it up.”

When an ambulance arrived, Hernandez was given painkillers, and paramedics transported him to the hospital.

There, the staff placed his leg in a half-cast, hard in the back and open in the front. Once the X-ray scans returned, it was confirmed that Hernandez broke both his fibula and tibia.

The doctors concluded that though Hernandez needed surgery, it was not of immediate need.

“One of my dad’s friends is a surgeon and he said that [my case] was the worst break he’s ever seen for the tibia,” Hernandez said.

“I was in the hospital for hours, but surgery ended up being two days later.”

Because the fracture in the tibia was so severe, a metal rod was placed at the site of the break to help his bones heal.

Blake Parker

LiNK Club organizes first benefit concert Alice Chen Staff Writer

The seats were filled, the spotlights were on, and the broken clock in the back ticked oddly in beat with Jun Sang Lee’s (11) fingers flying across the piano.

Liberty in North Korea (LiNK) Club held a benefit concert, their first event of the year, on Jan. 28. The concert featured musicians from Westview, including A Cappella Club and several Orchestra members.

LiNK Club is a chapter of a nonprofit organization by the same name, and over $260 in concert proceeds have been sent to one of the organization’s headquarters in Los Angeles.

According to its website, LiNK’s goal is to provide protection and resettlement for people who escape from North Korea, using money from donations. More than 930 refugees have reached freedom through its rescue program. “[Liberty in North Korea] is a way for us to directly help [refugees] once they escape,” co-president Nabeen Chu (11) said. “After you escape North Korea, there’s nowhere to go specifically. It’s hard for us to actually help in North Korea because the government is so restrictive, so the best we can do is [help] the refugees [so they don’t] have to go back.”

The execs agreed that the event’s good cause was worth their effort, but Daniel Jung (11), a co-president, admitted there were many things that could have gone wrong in the weeks leading up to the event, especially in regards to timing during the show.

However, the result ended up being extremely gratifying.

“While we were organizing and even on the day of the concert I was so worried,” Jung said. “If we had longer [to set up], I’d be less worried. But then everything went smoothly during the concert, and all the worry went away.”

According to the exec members, the process of organizing the event was slow-moving.

Chu said that it was too late to get posters approved, so LiNK took to other platforms like Instagram to spread awareness.

See Hernandez, page 13

See Benefit Concert, page 2

Campus Counted...

Do you feel guilty whenever you use plastic straws?*

Yes No Why?

47% 53% *Poll sample of 300 students

“I know how wasteful plastic straws are and how bad they are for the environment,” Lili Olah (10) said. “I try to keep plastic straws and reuse them at home as much as possible.”

See Pollution, page 9

Amy Wang (12) wins Gold Key Wang paints fan art for the game Detroit: Become Human at the U.S. Arts Education Center.

See Gold Key, page 11 Jessica Lin

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Feb. 15, 2019

MUN delegates earn recognition, gain experience with diplomacy

Kevin Lu

News Editor

Jessica Lin

Elise Kim (11), Jasmine Duong (12), Joyce Yang (12), Jessica Hsu (11), Erica Hsu (11), Kayla Berg (12), and Kaira Cacdac (12) perform “Idylls of Pegasus” by Richard Meyer, a piece composed for string orchestra, at the LiNK benefit concert, Jan. 28.

LiNK club raises money for refugees through benefit concert From Benefit Concert, page 1

“Social media was effective enough,” she said. “For informing people that the goal of [the concert] was to raise money to send to L.A.” The concert took place in the Westview Theater and lasted about an hour and a half.

A total of 24 students performed, including seven singers, the rest playing classical instruments.

Treasurer Seoyon Park (10) said she was impressed by all the performers, especially the cello quartet consisting of Andrew Yang (10) and Ethan Zhang (9) from Westview, as well as Darren Jiang (11) and Daniel Cai (9) from Torrey Pines High School.

“Their piece [called] Palladio really made me feel good,” Park said. “Although I’ve heard the piece before, hearing it in person was just jaw-dropping because it [sounded] so professional. All the performances were well-prepared, and everyone did amazing.”

LiNK was taken off the club roster two years ago because the exec board graduated, so at the start of this year Chu, Jung, and their friends got togeth-

er to revive the club. Jung said that it was difficult to get regular events going again.

“When we started, we didn’t really have any idea what to do,” he said. “[At] our first meeting, all we did was go over what the club is. A lot of people in our club are musically inclined, so we figured it would be best to use the talents of the group for our first fundraiser. [That’s] how we got the idea for a benefit concert.”

When Chu contacted the previous club president, she found out that LiNK had in fact held benefit concerts a few times before. She said that the current exec board was happy to continue that tradition.

“The longest part was getting all the performers,” Chu said. “We put up applications for people who maybe wanted to play, and we got a lot of applicants.

Other people, especially clubs at this school, [we] knew were good musicians so we kindly asked them [to perform].”

Joanna Ahn (11) was one of the piano soloists that Chu invited, and she said that although there were challenges, it was a really good experience. She said that since the concert's cause is import-

ant to her friends, the event became more special to her, too.

“I had to balance time outside of school for [my] competitions and for their concert,” Ahn said. “But when Nabeen and Daniel asked me to perform, I knew I’d be doing it for friends, which I really enjoy, and it’s all for a good cause.”

Chu said that like Ahn, she enjoyed the event’s aspect of helping others, but she also has a personal connection to the cause.

Recently, Chu found out that her friend’s grandparents are in North Korea.

She said that the inter-Korean summit was a really big deal to her friend because there might be a chance for them to see their grandparents.

“Not a lot of their friends would understand,” Chu said. “Because everyone just [jokes] about North Korea instead of thinking of the actual people who live there. I didn’t think my friends would actually have relatives [there], but now the issue means more to me.”

Although the club is currently more focused on rescues and resettlements through LiNK, Chu said she also wants

to bring more awareness to political changes, like liberating the country quickly so people can meet their relatives.

“If people’s relatives are older and not willing to risk [escape], they’re more looking forward to political changes,” she said. “But since we’re not in the center of North Korea’s conflict, we can’t advocate this cause to the government. We don’t get a lot of opportunities so we have to take what we can and make that our way of helping, which is why we want to [do] the fundraising and raise awareness.”

The exec members hope to do more large-scale events in the future. Park said that she would love to visit Korean language schools in the U.S. and educate younger children about the cause.

She agreed that events like the benefit concert can also encourage people to be charitable.

“Seeing people coming and participating, and seeing a wide variety of people who care for the bigger cause makes [people] feel like a part of something,” Park said. “Even if you’re not Korean, you can still be a part of something that helps the cause.”

Five delegates of the Model United Nations (MUN) club received recognition at the Scripps MUN Conference, Feb. 2.

With new members in tow, it was the first tournament for many of the MUN members. Aaron Fan (10) represented Hungary and received Outstanding Delegate for his first tournament. In his delegation, they discussed gene-editing and cloning on humans.

“Hungary is pretty anti-gene editing and cloning, so I was pretty much a hardline no,” Fan said. “Basically, I talked about the impracticality and ethics of it, and how the technology isn’t developed enough. Also, there are ethical reasons why you can’t experiment on humans yet.”

Even though it was his first time at an MUN tournament, Fan said he felt confident publicly speaking. According to him, the most challenging part was researching the details of his country and its positions. Fortunately, veterans of the club were there to guide him through the process by example. MUN Secretary Daniel Shaw (10) documented his own delegate, Jirhangga, a Manchu official from the 19th century, carefully.

“Reading up well on the positions each person took historically and working to subvert their historical goals and to inflame their historical rivalries was essential,” Shaw said.

The research done in the weeks before the competition is a crucial part, as it gave each delegate the necessary knowledge to respond accordingly to different situations during the tournament. Shaw’s delegation was focused on the Taiping rebellion, an attempt overthrow the Manchu-led Qing dynasty.

“It was educational for us all, and we had fun along the way: duels, assassinations, declarations of independence left and right, and a massive battle for Nanjing as the result of scheming and plotting,” Shaw said. “I personally orchestrated infighting among the Taiping rebels using my espionage networks, which gave us, the Wing and allies, an opportunity.”

By spreading rumors of disloyalty, Shaw and his allies could attack the rebels with more success. For Vice President Daniel Sjoholm (10), the speaking ability of all the competitors and the conviction they had were really impressive.

“I noticed that the way everyone argued for what they believed was very strong and persuasive, even for those attending their very first conference,” Sjoholm said. “The person running the conference came up to me after and asked about one of our new delegates, and when I told him it was the delegate’s first time ever competing he looked very surprised.”

MUN President Shivali Yedulapuram (12), who also participated in the committee on the Taiping Rebellion, said she felt extremely proud of the time and effort the new members put into developing the research and skills.

“Coming out there, signing up, doing all the research that went along with it was amazing,” she said. “It’s not necessarily winning the awards, but the fact that they made such a big time commitment, wrote their papers, and took a lot of initiative was a really big deal for me.”

After seeing how well the team performed at the tournament, Sjoholm said he sees a lot of potential in the club.

“They all have great skills in communicating and speaking and are definitely much more advanced than I was, even though most of them have almost no experience,” Sjoholm said. “What struck me most is that they all have the enthusiasm to learn and do better, which is really important in Model UN because there is always something you can learn and improve on.”

Wang receives Gold Key award for her acrylic painting, 'Morning' Kevin Lu

News Editor With 12 years under her belt as an artist, Amy Wang (12) won a Gold Key in the Scholastic Art and Writings Awards for her acrylic painting, Morning. Her artwork will be considered for national awards, which are announced March 13. After falling short of her goals last year and receiving a silver key and honorable mention for her work, she was much more satisfied with her results this year.

“Last year I was really disappointed because I got silver and honorable mention, but this year, I felt gratified after my hard work finally paid off,” Wang said.

After focusing on nature and landscape paintings last year, Wang decided to pivot to the aesthetics of architecture and man-made objects. Her submission, Morning, was based on a photograph her teacher at U.S. Arts Education Center took of his hometown, Lowell, MA. “This is part of my art teacher’s history, how he got to where he is now, and all his reputation and skills, and he’s taught that and now passed it down to me,” she said.

While Wang had many different kinds of materials to work with, she chose acrylic for its ease of use and traditional style.

“Acrylic tends to be really nice to use since you can work pretty fast because it dries quickly,” she said. “If you have mistakes you can cover it up really easily. Also, since it’s paint you can cover a lot of space in a very small amount of time.”

Wang didn’t start out her art career painting, though.

Inspired by a beautiful sketch by one of her classmates in Kindergarten, she got into art at a young age and took classes to improve her skills. As Wang developed, she began to feel more comfortable with working with colored pencils.

“In terms of mediums, I do like colored pencils the most, even though it’s the most tedious,” Wang said. “I feel like I have more control because it’s the closest thing to a regular pencil. I really liked painting, but I felt like painting was really mainstream and I wanted to be different.”

But as Wang advanced through high school classes Drawing and Painting 1-2, 3-4, and AP Studio Art, she experimented more with paints. Having a solid foundation in art and understanding proportions and anatomy, she said, were really important for her growth in high school.

“We had projects in Opstad’s class where we could only use one colored paint and water, so you have to di-

lute it different shades,” Wang said. “It was just pushing us to our limits to see what else we could do.”

Aside from working on projects for class, Wang also said she enjoys making fan art and sketches for her peers to enjoy.

By selling reprints of her artwork on social media and her website, she hopes to reach with a wider range of people with her artwork as well as earn a little money while doing so.

“Art doesn’t have to mean anything to the audience; it just has to mean something to the artist,” Wang said.

“So I think art, in terms of visual art, is just another way of communicating without words, which is pretty fascinating.”

In addition to communicating through art, Wang found psychology fascinating to her, and hopes to continue it through college.

“It’s a mixture of not only science and philosophy but also the social factors of how art affects us,” Wang said.

By combining her passion for art and psychology, Wang hopes to fulfill her life goal of contributing to society.

“My main goal in life is to contribute a little bit and help as many people as I can, and if I can do it then that’s great,” Wang said.

Andrea Chen Jessica Lin

At her art studio, Amy Wang (12) paints fan art for the game Detroit: Become Human.

News Stand What's happening around campus...

Feb.

27

... and around the world.

The deadline for regular registration for AP exams is Feb. 27 at 8 a.m.

The fee for each exam is $100 and can be paid online or mailed in.

“People are scared. They are frightened to leave homes, and their daily routines are broken.”

ALEXANDER MINAYEV, administrator of Belushya

A Career Connections forum featuring Allied Health will be held in the staff lounge, March 4, from 7-8:30 p.m.

March

8

March

4

The Spring Musical “The Addams Family” opens March 8 from 7-9 p.m. in the theater. Tickets are sold for $8-10 online or in person.

Guba, addressing a “mass invasion” of polar bears in a remote Russian archipelago. Bears have attacked people and entered buildings in some residental areas.

“No one can give us an ultimatum … Venezuela is not tied to Europe. This is complete insolence.”

NICOLAS MADURO, the current Venezuelan president

rejecting Europe’s demands that he step down as president and allow Juan Guaidó to take his place. Guaidó is the interim president and is leading an uprising.

“We work, we pay taxes, we care for family members, we can drive, we can do so many other things. ” ALEX SHYER, a 16-year-old Washington D.C. resident,

discussing the new bill to lower the voting age from 18 to 16. This bill would allow for 16- and 17-year-olds to vote in federal and district elections in 2020.

“There are those who say the war on drugs is not worth fighting. Those people are wrong.”

RICHARD DONOGHUE, U.S. attorney for the Eastern

District of New York, declaring the conviction of former leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, El Chapo, a victory. The tentative date for his sentencing has been set for June 25.

Compiled by Sydney Alper, Alyssa Van Waas and Kevin Lu

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Feb. 15, 2019

Redesigning the Runway Fashion Club presented "War and Peace," Feb. 1, showcasing four sub-themes through clothing and walk-patterns

2. MILITARY

1. POLITICIANS CURTAIN

CURTAIN

CURTAIN

“For the military runway, we wanted to do something more sharp, as if people were marching in a line,” Strunk said. “That’s how we came up with the triangle runway because it gave us a lot of angles to work with and it was one person [walking] at a time.”

“For this runway, we had our models come in together, but separate and stay on their own side,” Fashion Club member Shane Strunk (12) said. “They never interact to represent the two major political parties in today's modern era and how there’s polarization.”

3. PROTESTORS CURTAIN

CURTAIN

4. PATRIOTISM CURTAIN

CURTAIN

CURTAIN

“We focused more on the theme than the walk for patriotism,” Strunk said. “We thought that patriotism was a good theme to end on because it's the opposite of the protestor runway. Instead of anti-war sentiment, it’s nationalistic pride.”

“We wanted to have a lot of different movement to reflect that of an actual protest,” Strunk said. “We also wanted to have our models interact so that's why there’s a crossover.”

Design and photos by Tiffany Le

ASB hosts book Robotics organizes outreach expo for drive, donates to local FIRST LEGO League Jr. teams Reach Out and Read Rhea Jogadhenu Staff Writer

Alyssa Van Waas Staff Writer

Incorporating the theme of this years’ Winter Formal, “A Tale as Old as Time,” Sarina Oshiro (10) and Ashley Robles (11), the first-term community service ASB commissioners, wanted to find a way to benefit the community while also including the theme of the winter dance.

“We wanted to tie in the theme, ‘A Tale as Old as Time,’ with something related to community service,” Oshiro said. “Our idea was [based on] Belle’s love of reading and so we wanted to do something literacy based. We started [looking] for organizations that affected our local community.”

Their solution was to hold a book drive. From Feb. 2-7, students were encouraged to donate their gently used or new books of every reading level.

Students were able to bring their books to the center of the plaza, where tables and boxes for each graduating class were held.

These books will be donated to the Reach Out and Read San Diego organization and given to pediatric centers, where doctors are able to prescribe them to kids and encourage families to read together. “[Reach Out and Read’s] goal is to partner with pediatricians and doctors offices to provide books for children ages of 6 months to 5 years old,” Oshiro said. “[Reach Out and Read] has a big impact on literacy, especially for families where maybe their parents’ first language isn’t English. If [their language is] Spanish, for example, they give books to the kids in both Spanish and English so they can gain exposure to reading.”

After Oshiro and Robles planned the book drive and contacted Reach Out and Read San Diego, their year as community service commissioners ended, passing on the book drive to Callie Mitchell (9), Casey Johnson (9), and McKenna Kiernan (11), the new community service commissioners.

“We made a flyer for [the book drive] and publicized [it] in the newscast,” Kiernan said. “Then we made the plan [to include] spirit points for the winning class, working with the spirit commissioners.”

They decided to give spirit points to every book that was given as an incentive. Three hundred fifty-six books were collected in total. Of that, the junior class, who collected the most amount of books were rewarded with 218 spirit points.

The community service commissioners said they were thankful for all the books donated.

"Overall, our commissioner group would say [the week] was very successful,” Kiernan said.

Twenty-six FIRST LEGO League (FLL) Jr. teams arrived at Westview on Feb. 2, to participate in a outreach hosted by Robotics.

“The junior FLL expo is an event for the local teams to practice presenting their demo and LEGO project in front of judges,” Robotics President Summer Hoss (12) said. “This year’s theme was about colonizing the moon so teams had to build something related to the moon and create a poster.”

To start the day, FLL Jr. teams from the community went to pit areas, where they kept their project models on display during the expo. Here, they practiced their demonstrations and socialized with other teams. Throughout the day, the Westview Robotics program took up various jobs to ensure the competition was running smoothly.

“Some students keep track of the schedule, and some are escorts who bring teams from place to place,” Hoss said. “We also have a lot of photographers and Westview students who record each team’s presentations.”

Westview students took teams to judging rooms where they had 10 minutes to explain their presentation and answer questions from panelists. Overseeing the event coordination was Miriam Hamidi (12), Vice President of outreach. She has helped plan the annual STEM Workshop, FLL Jr. Expo, Career Technical Education Expo, student mentoring programs, and other outreach opportunities.

“Our expo is a place for these kids to present the hard work they put in on their projects and be rewarded for their dedication ” Hamidi said.

After the teams finished presenting their projects to judges, Hamidi worked with the Westview Robotics team to demo some of the projects they had been working on.

“The demos we showcase included a 3D printer, mechanical cow, and a number of FIRST Robotics Challenge (FRC) robots this year,” she said. “[These projects] are really important because they show the families the kind of cool projects that the kids can take on if they continue robotics.”

The day concluded with an awards ceremo-

Rhea Jogadhenu

Junyan Huang (11) demontrates the driving capabilities and the software of their competition robot to a young student before allowing him to test drive it, Feb. 2. ny where top teams were awarded medals. Hoss also coached one of the competing FLL Jr. teams throughout the year. She was able to see progress in the team since she began coaching at the beginning of the season.

“I guide them and give them suggestions, and help them practice their presentation,” Hoss said. ”It’s exciting to hear what they have to say about STEM and robotics.”

Westview robotics students have become involved in community outreach, as each member of the team has to participate in four hours of outreach per quarter in order to pass the 4.5 class. For Hoss, this was an opportunity to share something that she hadn’t had a chance to experience when she was younger.

“I didn’t find a lot of meaningful outreach opportunities to me until I joined robotics,” Hoss said.

“We have workshops for all different ages, intro-

ducing them to basic coding, basic fabrication, DIY derby car building projects, and arduinos. We also do a lot of mentoring for younger first-year robotics teams.”

Meanwhile, Hamidi took up her position due to her interest in increasing community outreach.

“I like that my job allows me to meet and talk to new people all the time,” she said. “I love knowing their stories, planning with them, and seeing them react to new and exciting things. My job now requires a lot of communication to see that all our events go according to plan.”

With a passion for spreading outreach in the community, these robotics students continue working to foster student interest in STEM. “I’ve found that there are a lot of things I can do to spread STEM to other places in the community,” Hoss said, “and bring kids the same excitement that we get when we do something awesome.”

PUSD updates security cameras, takes steps to increase student safety Ameera Kumar Staff Writer

At the Poway Unified School District’s Board of Education meeting, Jan. 17, Jennifer Burks, Associate Superintendent of Technology and Innovation announced that 12 middle and high school sites as well as the district office now have “updated, state-of-the-art camera systems in place.”

Burks’ announcement on the status of the security cameras follows the board’s decision to approve the new camera systems at the June meeting last year.

The cameras provide both more coverage and heightened detail, so campus security officials can better identify threats.

Part of the board’s efforts to improve security across all campuses includes training sessions for administrators and campus security officers to familiarize them with the cameras and software system.

Both the training sessions and cameras were provided

by Standard Electronics, a private distributor of fire alarm and security systems.

Additionally, each school site will be provided technical support from Standard Electronics’ audio visual team on an as-needed basis.

According to Burks, the Technology and Innovation Department, Risk Management Department, and site ad-

ministrators have worked together in order to establish standardized, internal policies and procedures for operating the new camera systems. This document will be shared to administrators at middle and high schools this month, she said.

The new cameras and software are just one of the steps the district is taking to increase campus safety and security.

The Safety Planning Committee, which was formed last year as a part of the district’s comprehensive approach to the issue of gun violence, discussed new safety priorities at its last meeting, Jan. 22.

These include decreasing the time it takes for news of any emergency situations to reach parents, increasing the number and availability of counselors and campus security specialists at school sites, and making sure that both students and staff members are adequately trained in basic “run, hide, fight” protocol.

The board is now moving forward with the process of equipping the final two middle schools, Mesa Verde and Oak Valley, with the upgraded video security cameras and software. The actual installation will most likely occur this spring.

While the surveillance videos will not be watched constantly across all school sites, all the footage will be recorded, which can help school officials and law enforcement in the event of emergency circumstances.

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4 Features

Feb. 15, 2019 In My Feelings Not So Picture Perfect Lina Lew

Courtesy of Nick Vu

Nick Vu (12) fights to catch a 65-pound bluefin tuna with a 25-pound test fishing line at the west end of San Clemente Island. Vu regularly travels to Mexico on multiple-day fishing trips due to his job.

Vu utilizes fishing expertise while working as second captain, deckhand From Fishing, page 1 really hard. There’s nothing like that.”

As for tuna, kite-fishing is their boat’s go-to technique. Last year, Vu kite-fished a 293-pound tuna in a three-hour battle using 30-pounds of drag, a 130-pound braid, and an 80-pound leader. The drag setting relates to tension, the braid is the main line, and the leader is the line for the fish to chew on, according to Vu. “It’s exciting fishing,” he said. “You’re flying your kite out 500 yards behind the boat and skipping this fake flying-fish 10 knots on the surface. When you see a 200-300 pound tuna airborne six feet in the air on a little flying-fish, it’s insane. It’s like dropping a small car on the water. These fish are six feet long or bigger. These things are huge.”

Pulling these fish up requires not just strength, but timing, according to Vu. “They pull really hard, but the thing with water is everything is lighter in water, so the fish is lighter on the line,” he said. “It’s a lot of knowing how the boat rocks up and down in the swell, and then timing it. It’s just kind of a back-and-forth thing.”

Another difficulty he faces is getting the fish to bite, as a lot of game fish like yellowtail and tuna are easily spooked by big boats and loud engines.

“There’s a lot of preparation in getting the bait presentation as well as driving the boat while not scaring all the fish,” he said.

He uses a technique called the slide to account for this, leaving the boat in gear, pulling out quickly, and letting it drift through the water.

“You can use [the slide] as a little silent bit because

you’re going with the engines off but just running into a school of fish,” Vu said. “You set up just outside of them and the wind and current will push you down a certain way and the fish will come to you.”

Vu learned these techniques with experience, and although he obtained his boating license last year, he said there’s a lot he’s had to learn from his job.

“Driving a boat actually is not easy because a lot of the time, we have to drive through shipping lanes and cargo boats,” he said. “When you’re on a collision course with another boat you have to communicate with another captain. There’s a lot of things to learn out there.”

One of Vu’s biggest scares came two weeks ago, when two thousand-foot cargo ships drove towards their boat in the middle of the night. The cargo ships were only two miles apart, and were quickly approaching the boat.

“You don’t wanna go in between them, otherwise you risk cutting someone off,” he said. “If I went around, I’d be going 10 miles to go all the way around.

If I go in front, then I’d risk crashing the boat.”

Making things more difficult, one of the boats was drifting back and forth right on Vu’s path, its heading resembling the swing of a pendulum. With the captain asleep, it was all up to Vu. Ultimately, he was able to sneak between the gap, the second boat going 6-8 knots, or around 6-8 miles per hour, faster than the drifter.

“Luckily, we have good tools on the boat, [namely] a very expensive pair of stabilizing binoculars, called gyro, where you can see the boats,” he said. “There was a three-mile gap in there, so I wasn’t more than a mile and a half close to them. But when they’re doing

Subtle Asian Traits provides community for cultural bonding Julie Zhu

those experiences alone is fascinating and comforting for members of the group to see.

Staff Writer Philip Chen (11) is another member of A group of Asian-American high school- SAT who enjoys the group’s memes. ers in Melbourne, Australia created a Face“I love seeing the creative ways people book group called “Subtle Asian Traits” are expressing themselves and their culture (SAT) to distract themselves from exams through memes,” Phillip said. “I feel like the last September. memes have a kind of special energy that Now, the group has more than one million makes you feel so at-home.” members globally, including many WestSAT has also inspired many other spinoff view students.

Facebook groups that mimic the format and Members typically post jokes and share community of SAT. memes that are centered around universal In subgroups such as Subtle Asian Dating Asian experiences, or share their own expe- and Subtle Curry Traits, members mainly riences about being Asian. share memes and posts for a specific deSome posts are relatable to the majority mographic, while other subgroups have of Asians, while others are specific to cer- evolved to allow Asian-Americans with the tain Asian nationalities, such as wordplay same interests to share their work. that utilizes Chinese characters , jokes about “There’s [groups] like Subtle Asian NetKorean quirks, or memes about classic Viet- working, which is business networking, namese movies or shows.

Asian Creative Network, where creatives, For friends like Kevwhich is what [the in Chen (12) and Richmembers] call themard Chen (12), tagging selves, in the arts and Seeing other people each other in SAT posts humanities careers nethas become a daily rit- experiencing the things you work with each other,” ual.

Kevin said.

“I pretty much tag never thought you’d share with Asian Creative Netlike five times a day, other people is really cool to work allows for profesmaybe more,” Kevin sional and recreational see.” said.

—Kevin Chen (12) artists to share and ad“I actively respond to vertise their work in a friends’ tags and comsupportive community ments if I see them, esof people with similar interests. Some artists pecially if I’m tagged myself,” Richard said. use the group to promote themselves, while Spending time in the group has added an others post artistic opportunities for other element to Asian friend groups, as they have creatives. an opportunity to share content that is speMembers of Subtle Asian Networking cifically relatable to Asian-Americans. help each other in managing school and “[SAT has] helped us grow friendship to- professional life, and have even established gether as many of us can relate to the posts branches for members in different locations, together and share a laugh,” Richard said. such as London and Singapore. “[The memes are] a different level of reThe members of SAT and its various sublatable, some memes are general memes, but groups have created a unique Asian-Amerthese memes are oddly specific Chinese and ican community that takes pride in being Asian culture things,” Kevin said. “Seeing Asian through the widespread sharing of other people experiencing the things you “subtle Asian traits.” never thought you’d share with other people “I don’t know how to explain it, but havis really cool to see.” ing that community visibly showing those Posts about managing obsessive boba traits and being proud of them enough to drinking habits, and dealing with parents make them into good memes is pretty upliftwho impose crippling academic stress and ing,” Kevin said. express their love with fruit are things that Having a massive, influential, and preAsians don’t typically share, but have all ex- dominantly Asian following that openly perienced. shares the experience of being Asian has Realizing that Asians don’t go through made SAT a cultural internet phenomenon.

“

weird things like [rotating or drifting in odd directions], it can get sketchy.”

Vu said he’s also learned responsibility with his job, not just in the sense of taking care of the boat with things like engine room checks and being accommodating to guests, but also the environment.

“We actually release quite a bit of fish,” he said. “I only keep about 5 percent of the fish I catch [that are] within size limits and regulations. It’s thinking about sustainability and conservation.”

He said he’s had to see the effect of climate change on the fish in California as well.

“After you fish these banks a lot you kinda see how their numbers fluctuate,” Vu said. “Bluefin tuna usually swim out to Japan and back across the Pacific Ocean, but the last few years, the bluefin have just been looping around California.”

With these concerns in mind, he’s been looking to apply his fishing knowledge elsewhere.

“I could [go into fishing], but honestly, it’s a grueling line of work,” Vu said. “At the rate this is going, a lot of the commercial boats do keep a lot of fish and fishers could be managed a little better.”

In comparison to a researcher who has only seen snippets from a couple trips, Vu said he believes that he can bring current and vital information to the conservation cause.

“You see a lot of closures [places where you aren’t allowed to fish] where there shouldn’t be closures, and a lack of closures where they should,” he said.

“What I’m hoping to do is take this experience [from my job] and then go into this fisher’s management field and something like NOAA where I can advocate for conservation.”

As we get older, our Christmas gifts stop looking like Razor Scooters and pajamas, and start turning into Target gift cards and cash. But this year, I got something that I wanted—an Olympus Stylus film camera: terribly old-fashioned, perfectly functional.

In fact, this outdated device conveniently went hand-in-hand with my New Year’s Resolution: to start living in the moment.

This sudden urge to live carpe diem came to me when I realized I was merely floating through the hours and days and weeks and months. Each day, it seemed as if, in one blink of an eye, I was suddenly transported from first to fourth period, from January to February, from one chaotic phase of my life to the next, without ever truly experiencing it.

I wanted to slow it down—my friends, my family, high school, the unexpected hidden beauty of the depths of Park Village— things that, in a couple months, will be out of my immediate grasp.

On the day I became a proud film camera owner, I simultaneously became a self-proclaimed envisionist. Using whatever I learned from Photo 1-2 as a guideline, I started visualizing the world as a series of moments, either pretty enough to keep or forgettable enough to discard. Every two minutes, I’d stop to whip out my camera, holding up my family or friends from our desired destination, while I played with the angle and lighting for a bit before finally saying, “No, that’s not it,” as if I even had a clue what it was.

But everywhere I went, I knew I was searching for that special something, and the moments I actually deemed worthy to photograph were conceived to perfection—or so I hoped. The tricky thing about film is that you can’t see the picture once you’ve taken it. So with fingers crossed every time I pressed the shutter, I attempted to cherry-pick gorgeous, sunlit moments of my friends at the waterfall and endearingly charming photos of my family vacationing in Seattle, all stitched together flawlessly in my head.

Then came the long wait, the weeks of anticipation as my film was developed. But what I got back wasn’t glowing faces and beautiful scenery—instead, I got half-blinking eyes that weren’t ready, crooked landscapes, fuzzy unidentifiable figures that, if you squint hard enough, could possibly be the silhouettes of my friends.

These mistakes, now immortalized, told the story of an amateur photographer, not the wistful last few months in my hometown that I had attempted to achieve.

But nitpicking over every last mistake took away from the moment itself. Sure, these photos weren’t the polished version that I had originally hoped for, but they were nonetheless authentic.

Genuine. Here, stuck in space, time, and the grainy finish of developed film, were my friends, my family, and my life, through an unfiltered lens. Where some might’ve seen flaws in composition, I saw the full story—the face before a stumble, the blurry rush of a waterfall—things that made the photo, and the moment, real.

When I got my camera, I unconsciously became bound to a life that doesn’t stop and wait for me to readjust when a picture-perfect moment walks by. There’s no wave of a magic wand to redo the shots that I’ve taken. And after a couple rolls of less-than-perfect photos, I’ve learned that’s okay. This film camera wasn’t meant to only capture perfect pictures, nor was I meant to only live in perfect snapshots of my life.

Like these photos, the painfully short number of months I have left in high school and this town, deciding my fate and my future, will be a disillusioning process of ambiguity and blurriness.

It won’t all be perfect. There will be tears, large blobs of empty washed-out space, sudden wobbly changes in direction until I’m left with nothing but a blur.

But in the meantime, I don’t want to force these moments into something they’re not. I’ll continue following my New Year’s Resolution, with one slight alteration, in that I will start living in every moment. After all, this is my life—the glamorous and the not-so-glamorous—and I want to see, and experience, it all.

Dumstorff volunteers at Safari Park, raises awareness about conservation Zara Irshad Staff Writer

Emily Dumstorff (12) has spent countless Saturday mornings watching over Mkhaya the elephant at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. She has been an intern at the park, which is home to more than 3,000 animals and 300 different species, since August.

A few Saturdays a month, she spends the day sitting in front of Mkhayas habitat and running the accompanying elephant booth, which is designed to educate visitors about the endangered animals.

Through the Conservation Corps program that the park has developed for high-schoolers, she has been able to become involved in her community.

Dumstorff discovered the program last spring while searching for ways to further explore her interest in biology that she has had since she was a child; after attending an informational meeting, she sent in an application, attended an interview, then eagerly awaited her results. The program only takes on 20 high school students per year, and Dumstorff was among the lucky few.

Since her acceptance, she has been spending anywhere from 10-20 hours a month working with the Safari Park during the weekends; some weeks she’s on-site at the park teaching guests about endangered animals and conservation, and other weeks she works in the community to apply the skills she’s acquired by helping to make areas cleaner and more environmentally friendly.

According to Dumstorff, she and her peers have done everything from beach cleanups to planting native plant species.

She said that cleaning up a homeless encampment was the hardest thing that she has had to do with the program. Not only was it emotional to experience, but it was physically a lot to endure.

“The camp was hidden in a canyon with bushes and trees, making it hard to carry the large pieces of trash,” Dumstorff said.

“There was debris everywhere and we had to be careful of dirty needles and feces.”

Nonetheless, she said that it helped her learn the importance of conservation, as she was exposed to the destruction that certain areas have endured. According to Dumstorff, while her internship isn’t the most glamorous, in the six months that she has been part of the program, she has learned a lot about the small things people can do to make a difference.

Nick Vu CourtesyCourtesy of Emily of Dumstorff

Emily Dumstorff (12) weeds out an ice plant, an invasive species. She has been volunteering at the San Diego Zoo Safari park since 2018.

“A lot of the time, it’s little decisions that can have a huge effect,” Dumstorff said.

“Choosing to use reusable silverware instead of single-use plastics can limit the amount of plastic in our oceans, or planting a native landscape in your yard can reduce your water bill, and help local endangered species thrive.”

During the weeks that the interns aren’t out in the community, they work on-site at the Safari Park. Dumstorff usually works at one of the five animal booths (giraffes, elephants, gorillas, condors, and lions), which are designed to educate kids about some of the park’s most popular animals.

When she first began the program, she had to attend a three-day training session where she learned facts about all five of the animals and techniques on how to engage park visitors at the booths. Utilizing those skills at the booths, Dumstorff said that she shows visitors animal skulls, skeletons, and pellets while telling them facts and connecting everything back to the bigger picture of conservation.

For example, she said that at the giraffe booth, she usually keeps a bowling ball on the table to intrigue the guests. When they come over to ask about the ball, she explains how a giraffe’s heart is about the same size as a bowling ball, just more dense. From there, she segways into some more facts about giraffes and eventually mentions how they are

going through a silent extinction, making more people aware of the importance of conservation and the direct impacts of deforestation.

Dumstorff said that she has definitely learned through her on-site days a lot more about specific animals that the park houses and in turn the direct effect that conservation has on them. As a result, she said she feels even more confident in the importance of her cause.

Ultimately, it is because of her experience with the Conservation Corps program that Dumstorff said she feels confident in her future studies. She said that prior to working with the program, she was unsure if a career in anthropology or zoology would be best fitted for her; after speaking to other staff members at the park, however, she discovered a field called anthrozoology through which she can pursue both.

“As an anthrozoologist, I would be working in cross-culture conservation and studying interactions between humans and animals,” Dumstorff said.

Now that she has found a career path best suited to her passions, Dumstorff said that she plans to continue educating as many people as possible about conservation both through the program and independently before she graduates to ensure that the community remains a safe and pleasant environment to live in.

Nexus

Features 5

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Review

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Feb. 15, 2019

Intertwining Cultures

Velvet Buzzsaw

Second Generation Americans learn to balance their native backgrounds with the cultural standards of the U.S by embracing different foods Jessica Lin Photo Editor

Zara Irshad Staff Writer

Russell Parker (10) always identified himself as half-white and half-Filipino, making it a point to his peers that he’s found a balance between two different cultures. But when he received his transcript from the school during homeroom, he saw that the word “white” was used to sum up his entire ethnicity.

“It labeled me as white, but I’m only 50 percent white so I’m just as white as I am Asian,” Parker said.

After some thinking, Parker realized that he shouldn’t take this mistake to heart and never got it changed.

He knewe that the words ‘white’ didn’t have to define him; as long as he embraced his own culture then nothing else should define him. His parents were both born in the U.S, making Parker a second-generation U.S. citizen. His parents encouraged Parker to keep close ties to his culture, but Parker knew that if he was ever summed up into one word, he would want it to be “American.”

According to PEW Research, about six out of 10 people who are second-generation identify as the “typical American.” But Parker said that being a typical American wasn’t

a clear cut term. He stated that it is more than eating hamburgers and hot dogs, it is about embracing different cultures and taking away valuable life lessons from them.

Like Parker, Kaila Uyeda’s (12) family had a major impact on how she developed her identity around being Asian-American.

With one side of her family from China, and the other from Japan, Uyeda said that she used to feel pressured by cultural stereotypes.

“I felt inclined to become the ideal Asian-American student who loves academics,” Uyeda said. “I asked my parents to let me take piano lessons because I genuinely thought that was how I could connect to other Asian-Americans, just by taking up the same hobbies and interests.”

However, she said that as she grew older and understood more about her family history, that mindset began to melt away.

Uyeda’s grandfather from her father’s side of the family experienced the racism that stemmed from Japanese internment camps during World War II firsthand, and her father persevered through the subsequent wave of racial slurs and prejudice in the small town he grew up in.

After surviving such experiences, she

said that her family emphasized the importance of carrying the family name with pride and honor. Similar to Parker, Uyeda is a second-generation American, but she said that it was that mindset of perseverance, knowing how much her ancestors endured, that helped her understand that she didn’t have to confine to a certain mold.

“I understand the plight of Asian-Americans who have experienced racism and prejudice and how we, as people, have an identity beyond an outdated stereotype,” Uyeda said.

Both Uyeda and Parker maintained their cultural identities in different ways. For Parker, the one thing that had continually grounded him to embrace both his cultures was learning how to cook Danish and Filipino foods.

“My mom’s side, my grandma, she teaches me how to cook classic Filipino dishes like pancit,” Parker said. “My dad helped teach me how to cook the meanest Danish pastries.”

All in all, Parker doesn’t favor one culture over the other; when it comes down to it, Parker said he proudly represents both aspects of his culture.

Uyeda practices

For as long as he could remember, Parker would begin each birthday with a bowl of Champorado, a chocolate rice pudding dish that Parker was taught by his Filipino grandmother.

Movie

balancing her cultures by being able to use the different outlooks they have afforded her. She began to show the people around her how she can rise up from the stereotypes.

“I had to develop an identity based off of what I wanted to be, not based off of who I thought others would want me to be,” Uyeda said.

Although she admits that she isn’t always exposed to a lot of Chinese and Japanese culture, she said that she does still celebrate Chinese New Year and similar to Parker, connects to her roots through cooking traditional Chinese and Japanese dishes.

“When my cousins visit, we make sushi with really fresh fish that my grandparents pick up,” Uyeda said.

“It makes me feel more connected because a large part about being Asian is that it’s so family-centric so it’s nice just to spend time with them because we’re really close.”

Uyeda and Parker both emphasized the fact that through their own cultures, they were able to shape what being an American meant to them.

“It doesn’t matter if you’re white, Filipino, black, Middle Eastern, or wherever you’re from,” Parker said.

“We’re all in the same mosh pit and [my family] really embraced that part in me.”

Uyeda grew up learning about sushi from with grandfather:- everything from the different types of fish used to how to properly eat it.

Design by Zara Irshad and Jessica Lin

6

Devanshi Tomar

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The world of art is strange in how fragile it and its people truly are. Built on perception, the market of art is driven by the fervent preoccupation of not-quite-celebrities to become known.

These slightly-known people spend millions of dollars in pursuit of fame. Their art dealers latch upon and exploit this desire to truly known for their art.

This sentiment is reflected in Netflix’s latest horror release, Velvet Buzzsaw, shows how the foundation of the art world is built on smoke and mirrors and how easily this bubble of perception can be popped. Still, for a movie that aims to lampoon the art world and the superficiality that exists within, it didn’t live to its full potential.

In Velvet Buzzsaw, the bigwigs of the L.A. art scene vie for the rights of a formerly unknown, now deceased artist’s paintings that seem to enchant their spectators. One of the main characters, critic and word-lover Morf Vanderwalt (Jacob Gyllenhaal), seems to rule the art world. He is able to make or break an artist’s career, and is always on the lookout for the next big artist.

His colleague, Rhodora Haze (Rene Russo), finds herself on the quest for the same. Meanwhile, her assistant, Josephina (Zawe Ashton), wishes to rise in the ranks of the art world. After finding the paintings of her dead neighbor, she finds a way to achieve her goal. She ignores the explicit instructions that the artist, Vetril Dease, left to destroy the paintings. Instead, Josephina brings Dease’s art to the attention of Morf and Rhodora. Soon, the entire art scene wants a piece of Dease, a now legendary artist.

In the first half, Velvet Buzzsaw achieves its goal in pointing out the feigned sincerity and sanctimony in the art world. No one truly seems to care about art, only its monetary value. Art is seen as a commodity, rather than for what it truly is—art. But even without the horror, the first half of the movie transcends the second half because of the peculiarity of the art world that Gilroy demonstrates through black comedy.

In the second half, however, the movie attempts too much; it’s spread thin between the subplots of the personal lives of the individual characters and the havoc wreaked by the Dease paintings.

The horror itself is striking visually, and provides a unique twist on the gore of a typical Hollywood film. Still, the horror, as aesthetically appealing and symbolic as it may be, seems detached from the natural chain of events of the film.

With a cast as capable and impressive as in Velvet Buzzsaw, each character is portrayed with layers and depth. Gyllenhaal stands out; he seems to truly enjoy and milk his role as a narcissistic, frivolous art critic with a growing paranoia concerning Dease’s collection and the lives it begins to ruin.

Velvet Buzzsaw is provocative in the way that it asks its viewers to question the value that we place on art, and who we allow to be the impresarios of what we see.

With more blood, more black humor, and more buzzsaw and less velvet, Velvet Buzzsaw would have accomplished what it wished to. Still, it's worth the watch for those who appreciate a unique, meaningful film with the odd Goya reference.

Felton aids students as mentor, source of positivity on campus Sydney Alper Staff Writer

Everyone knows him, whether they’ve seen him walking around campus, directing traffic, or talking to students. Some know him as the track coach, others know him as a security guard, but most people know him as a mentor. Jamal Felton uses his positivity to brighten the campus, impacting many people. He said that he does he stays positive to make people feel welcome on campus and less stressed.

“If people feel welcome, then they feel comfortable and it makes it easier for them to do what they need to do, for whatever reason they’re [at school],” Felton said. “It makes it easier for them to leave their stresses of home or outside influences away.”

While directing traffic before school, Felton greets students with a fist bump each morning.

“I feel good because I’m able to say hello every day, but I think—I hope— that it adds to a positive influence early in the morning, getting people started before they go to class,” he said.

Beyond helping students feel welcome each day, Felton does the same for parents and staff members.

“A parent who comes in for a reason that is not necessarily positive, if I can greet them in a way that’s some-

what positive, you can kind of disarm Felton said. “I think more than anythem, let them relax a little bit, take a thing, I try to be a resource.” breather and have one less stressor,” Felton said he tries to be there for he said. students in whatever way they need English teacher Derek Peterson him, whether it be as a father figure said that something that makes Felton or just a friend. One of these students stand out on campus is his ability to who said he sees Felton as a father connect with everybody. figure is Dominic Morrow (12).

“He literally has a story that reFelton supported Morrow during lates to anybody at any time,” Peter- his Black History Month perforson said. “I always hear him talking mance, even when Morrow said he to students. He messed up. paints pictures “Being there all to get the mesthe time and beHe is Westview. He sage across ing that guy who about what they really does bleed Black and says ‘you are good should do.”

Gold and he portrays that as enough’ is the One student kind of guy Jamal Felton has im- soon as he steps on campus.” is,” Morrow said. pacted is Ben have never once —Ben Weldner (12) “I Weldner (12). seen him mad in Felton encourthe five years I’ve aged him his freshman year to become known him. He is always positive, ala better football player, and ever since ways joking around, always himself.” then, Felton’s energy has continued Morrow also said that his favorite to cheer up campus. part of having Felton on campus is “He has a way of brightening ev- how unique he is and how many roles erybody’s day on campus even if he he seems to take on. has a lot going on,” Weldner said.

“He is Westview,” Weldner said.

Felton said he makes it a priority to “He really does bleed Black and Gold talk and checking with students. and he portrays that as soon as he “[I’m] not trying solve every prob- steps on campus.” lem, but at least check in with them Felton said that his high school seand see if they need help; and if curity guard Dave engaged with the they do, then I'm here to help or find people around him, helping to inspire someone who can better serve them,” his attitude today.

“

“I don’t want to say I [spread positivity] because of him, but I always respected that about him,” he said.

“I'd say that he was one person I always looked at and said, ‘man, that’s a good guy. I really appreciate him.’”

Morrow said that Felton helped him realize the importance of his grades.

“There was a time where I didn’t have the best grades during football and he would literally talk to me about it,” Morrow said. “The way he explained that my grades meant a lot, and it wasn’t just about being eligible, was a huge eye-opener and it stuck with me throughout high school.”

Weldner said that one of his most memorable moments with Felton was when Felton coached the team and helped inspire them to keep fighting, even though they were losing badly.

“We didn’t really have anything and that he was able to rally this team and me together and bring everybody up around him,” Weldner said.

Through all of this, Felton continues to come to school each day, bringing joy and positive energy, impacting the lives of the people around him.

“My hope, to be quite honest, is that when students, staff members, parents come in, when people come here, that at least I’m part of them feeling like they are welcome here,” Felton said.

“It’s the least I can do and that's the basis of how I operate.”

Blake Parker

Jamal Felton fist bumps a student before school while directing traffic. He starts every day by greeting students.

Wood pursues career in Magic: The Gathering, competes in tournaments Andrea Chen Editor in Chief

It was round 14, the win-and-in, the round that would decide whether Keaton Wood (12) and his three teammates would advance to the next round of the StarCityGames.com Open in Baltimore, Feb. 2-3.

“It was very nerve-wracking,” Wood said.

“A lot is on the line in one match. [I played] in the feature match against a very skilled player, Tannon Grace, and his team.”

Despite the pressure, Wood said he was able to soothe his nerves, focusing all his energy on advancing his team to the elimina-

tion rounds. Wood’s team ultimately placed eighth.

“It was a very fun experience,” he said. “I was rewarded for my deck choice and play because our team had 11 wins, three losses and one draw. I had a personal record of 131.”

In Magic: The Gathering players start with 20 life points. They take turns, using resource mana, which acts as fuel, to cast spells. There are five types of spells: creature, instant, sorcery, enchantment and artifact. The goal is to lower the opponent’s life points to zero.

“The best way I can describe the game is if you took chess and added elements of poker like hidden information, like not knowing your o p p o n e n t ’s hand, and an element of variance that makes the game interesting,” he said. “It also has deck-build-

ing, [which] is a skill in the game [and is] what cards you choose to register for your deck.”

Back in middle school, Magic: The Gathering was simply a way to spend time and have fun with his friends, according to Wood. It’s since morphed into the cause of some of his greatest triumphs and defeats.

Since sophomore year, Wood has competed against thousands in Pro Tours and Grand Prixs centered around the strategy card game. When Wood first started noticing ads at game stores for Magic tournaments, he tried his hand at some of the smaller, local tournaments.

He then competed in the Grand Prix circuit, a public series of tournaments that awards Pro Tour invites for players who place eighth or higher. The Pro Tour, in turn, qualifies winners for the Magic World Championships and allows repeat winners to be voted into the Magic: The Gathering Hall of Fame, according to Wood. “[Grand Prixs] have 15 rounds of what’s called swiss where everyone plays,” he said.

“After 15 rounds of swiss, they eliminate everybody except for the top 8, and the top 8 play single-elimination from there. Pro tours have the same structure but are 16 rounds and are invitation-only so the competition is

much higher and so are the prizes.”

Collecting cards, building different decks, and playing matches weaved itself into his life. Now, Wood flies out to at least one tournament a month, going as far as the east coast to compete. He’s sponsored by Brute Force Games, and is allowed to borrow cards from the store for his tournaments. “[Brute Force] originally approached me about joining their team when I won a local preliminary Pro Tour qualifier at their store,” he said.

This element of being able to borrow cards has allowed for him to explore one of his favorite parts of the game: deck-building.

“I think deck-building is really interesting,” Wood said. “It’s interesting predicting what cards my opponents generally are going to play [and] building strong plans for how to beat that.”

Before every tournament, Wood has to register 75 cards as his deck. He uses databases and deck lists online to better hedge himself against other competitors’ decks.

“I try to think, ‘Okay, when I’m building my deck, how can I build it in a way that attacks what we call a meta game,’” he said.

“There’s a website called MTG Top 8 that keeps track of a lot of events, and they have percentages of meta game shares, like ‘this

deck has six percent of people playing it.’”

With his deck and strategies on plays, Wood has won fourth place at Grand Prix Seattle and 32nd at Grand Prix Richmond for a total of $3,000 in prize money.

“It’s very difficult to get into the top 8 of events like this, because they tend to be massive,” he said. “Grand Prix Seattle is the only Grand Prix I’ve ever made top 8 at, and even then it was a 1,600 or 1,700 person event.”

Rather than obsessing over placements, Wood said he focuses on improving upon himself and the new people he meets.

“It’s just really inspiring to me that people come from all different walks of life and we’re all there playing a game and we can connect through that,” he said. “I’ve made connections with so many interesting people that I never would have met just because of our geographical distance. I have a friend who’s 15 who plays to friends who are married with kids who play.”

Wood said he plans to play more in college, as he thinks he’ll have more time to practice and go to tournaments.

“I am currently planning to try to transition it into a career,” he said. “A lot of people who play Magic get hired by game design studios like Dire Wolf Digital, but I think I will be playing it no matter what [I do] in the future.”

the

Feb. 15, 2019 Nexus 6 Features As Latin dance world champion, Itkin performs for charity Jocelyn Mi Staff Writer

Jessica Lin

Michelle Itkin (10) practices for upcoming competitions with her instructor. She rehearses for five hours a day, doing stretches and eventually complex routines.

Magalei repairs 1965 Mustang alongside father, strengthens bond

From Mustang, page 1

using odd jobs around the house as opportunities to connect with each other.

“When you're working with your family and friends, it’s the best feeling in the world when you finish your job,” Magalei said. “You’re always going to do it together.”

Magalei and his father found moments of triumph as they repaired the car’s engine together.

“One of the best times working on it was when we were putting in the transmission,” Magalei said. “We were putting the whole engine in because it connects everything together and that’s what we have to put all the other parts on. We had to rent this crane to lower it into the car and it was the best time because I just got to direct it into the car.”

But with the two’s smooth collaboration waning at times, the car’s engine seemed increasingly impossible to fix.

“We ran into a lot of problems when we were working on this car,” Magalei said. “Some of the pieces didn’t fit or we used the wrong liquid to help the engine run.”

Despite these issues, Magalei fully embraced this challenging new project. He sacrificed his time not only to work on the car during the weekends, but also to earn money to pay for the parts himself. He earned this money by working an ESS job at Sunset Hills Elementary School, where he’s been at for more than a year now.

But while Magalei recognized the sacrifices and challenges that the project would encompass from the beginning, he underestimated the bond that he and his father would form while working on the engine.

“We spent a lot of time on this car together,” he said.

“We had some hard moments because we would both always get mad at each other, but at the end of the day, we would [come together] again.”

As the 13 months of assembling the car’s working parts came to an end, Magalei felt most accomplished in a single moment: placing the engine inside the car.

“We were putting the whole engine in because it connects everything together and that’s what we have to put all the other parts on,” Magalei said. “We had to rent this crane to lower it into the car and it was the best time because I just had to direct [it] into the car.”

This last piece of the puzzle signified more than just a finished car engine. It was a manifestation of the hard work that he and his father put into the car together.

“Lowering it in and finally getting it into place was the best feeling because we were basically almost done,” he said. “We just had to connect everything together after that. That was a lot to take in.”

Despite the initial engine work being finished in the summer of 2017, Magalei and his father continue to work together on the minor issues that present themselves with car. The routine maintenance they practice allows them to find time for each other among their daily commitments.

“It’s really fun to work on it with him because I’m learning how I can fix this or that,” Magalei said. “I probably spend almost every weekend with him working on the car.”

As Magalei now presses the gas pedal of the Mustang, he’s not only thinking of the places the car will take him, but the process that brought him to it and the relationship that was strengthened through fixing it.

“It’s kind of like [my dad] is passing down his college experience to me,” Magalei said. “That’s his college car.

He used to drive it all the time. But when he sees his son driving it, I think [he gets excited]. I think he sees himself in me when I’m driving it.”

For Michelle Itkin (10), success has always come at a price.

In the process of achieving world and national titles, Latin ballroom dancing has consumed Itkin’s life.

“Ever since I was 4, I haven’t had a lot of free time,” she said.

“I was always engaged in dance, but it was my choice, so I don’t regret any of it.”

As she juggles her social life, good grades, and extracurriculars, Itkin continues to make time for dancing every day after several sacrifices.

“I would never be able to go out with friends or go to parties,” she said. “Managing homework was always hard because I always had to stay back at lunch to do it or stay up really late at night.”

Keeping to herself, Itkin wants to go far with her dancing career but right now she hopes to stay reserved about her achievements as she focuses on finishing school.

“I like to stay pretty humble so I don't really talk about my positions because I feel like your hardest and your best achievements come from when you know what you're doing instead of what other people around tell you what you’re doing,” Itkin said.

Itkin said her daily five-hour-long practices have distinguished her from competitors and have allowed her to win the U.S. National title and hold the current World Champion title in the Junior II division.

“Right after school I start out with doing a basic warm-up like stretching, a little bit of conditioning, and then I’ll usually start in my practice shoes and I’ll go over all the techniques,” Itkin said. “Then, I’ll have lessons with my coach for about two hours and then I’ll practice everything we talked about on my own.

Afterwards, I just train to build up that muscle memory, so that’s my every day.”

Despite feeling overwhelmed by her work-loaded classes and pressured to be the best at her sport, Itkin said she cherishes every moment spent on dancing and looks forward to all of her competitions.

“Competitions are where I get the most nervous, but at the same time this where I feel like the most free. It feels like you’re the only one [on] the floor and you’re just doing what you love,” she said. “As a stress reliever, I usually just [practice] breathing exercises, stretch, and find an empty corner or space where I can just do some foot warms ups and talk to myself.”

Itkin said that the 11 years she spent doing rhythmic gymnastics has also helped set her apart from competitors and has benefitted her dancing career.

“With rhythmic gymnastics, I’m stronger, have more stamina, and [I] also [have] the flexibility of being a gymnast, which has helped me in dance,” she said. “So I feel like I have an edge over the competitors because I have more of a different past than them.”

With plenty of experience and different training techniques through rhythmic gymnastics, Itkin’s hard work is reflected in her award-winning routines. She has competed at the 2018 National Dance Competition of America and the 2018 Embassy Ballroom Championships, winning both titles under the Junior II division.

With prestigious titles, Itkin is constantly getting invited to travel around the world for competitions every year.

“I travel all over the U.S., but mostly cities in Europe,” she said. “When I travel to Europe, I’ll go from one country to another country in a row, and then finally come back and take a long break.”

Before every season, Itkin receives a set of five dances (the cha-cha, samba, rumba, jive, and pasodoble) from her coach that she’ll be competing with.

As the season passes, she’ll continually improve, modify, and add to her routines.

Not only does Itkin focus on her own dances, but she also coordinates her routines with a dance partner. Though throughout her dancing career, she said she has found it difficult to find a committed partner.

“Throughout the past 11 years I had a partner for the first seven years, then I had another partner, then for the past two years I have been dancing Pro-Am with my coach because there's usually not a lot of boys in this art, especially in America,” Itkin said.

This year, Itkin decided to use her skills for a good cause and perform at charity concerts with other dancers.

On Jan. 26, Itkin attended an event for Blue Ribbon, a charity organization for kids with lung cancer who cannot get the proper treatment they need.

All proceeds from the ticket sales went directly to the organization.

Wanting to make an impact on other people's lives through her passion, Itkin longs to dance for as long as she can. She hopes to savor the freedom and adrenaline she gains from dancing.

“It kind of feels like the whole world disappears around you,” she said. “The second you step on the floor, the second the music turns on and you start dancing, everything just disappears and you’re focused on yourself, your feelings, what’s going on.

I dance to work through things, like if I have a problem and I need to relieve myself, I just start dancing.”

Johnson participates in Spartan Races, builds endurance through rock climbing training Grace Kim Staff Writer

Barbed wire crawls, spear throws, monkey bars, and jumping over fires are obstalces Taylor Johnson (11) regularly faces. Since freshman year, Johnson has competed in Spartan Races. These races are 8-10 miles long and consist of 24-29 obstacles throughout the course. Some races can last up to eight hours.

“Spartan Races have obstacles that will literally push you to your limits for every single muscle in your body,” Johnson said.

Johnson’s first Spartan Race was when she was only 14 years old. Johnson recalled that most racers around her were adults. As a result, she received many curious stares.

“When I started, people would be like ‘How old are you’ or ‘Why would you want to do this and not go play a sport?’” Johnson said. “But in a weird way it was empowering to know that people were shocked to see me there, because I was proving to them that I was able to do something they didn’t expect.”

Common Spartan Race obstacles include weights, where competitors need to carry bags of gravel or rocks for a couple of miles. There’s also the tire flip and rope climbing. Another obstacle is the foot tall fire that racers need to jump over right before the end of the race.

In particular, Johnson said she struggles the most with endurance, especially while running uphill. Specifically, during the Spartan World Championships in Lake Tahoe, Johnson faced only uphills throughout the whole race.

“I don’t even think I ran a fourth of it because it was so steep and it took me eight hours to finish,” Johnson said.

But Johnson was able to make the most out of that experience by looking down at the sparkling, clear lake and the healthy trees from the mountain.

“You look up pictures of Lake Tahoe and you get all these magazine pictures, and that’s basically what it looked like,” Johnson said.

But when there are no scenic views to mar-

vel over in times of hardship Johnson makes sure she is mentally prepared.

“I try to assess what I’m going to have to do for that obstacle and try to calm my heart rate down, relax a bit, and shake out my arms,” Johnson said. “I definitely want to make sure I’m ready for whatever I have to do.”

But perhaps the most difficult obstacles are the ones Johnson has never encountered before.

“Every new year, new obstacles are added to the race,” Johnson said. “Most of the time it’s usually an obstacle I haven’t trained for and it can be difficult.”

Johnson recalls that one year, the new obstacle was a slanted wall with only handholds on the top. She said she needed to bend her knees and pull herself up in order to get to the top.

“I didn’t really know how to get through it and my arms got tired halfway through,” Johnson said.

In situations where Johnson fails to complete an obstacle, she does 30 burpees on the spot.

In order to prepare for these difficult moments and work on endurance, Johnson goes into the canyons. She also works on sprints for two hours whenever she is not in the pool playing water polo along with that. She also utilizes equipment like sandbags.

Some days, Johnson will bring her sandbags and practice hill sprints. Other days, Johnson will practice throwing with her spear towards bales of hay to improve accuracy. During the real race, competitors are given similar spears to throw into a bale of hay. If the spear bounces off, they must do penalty burpees. In order to work on her upper-body strength, Johnson rock climbs.

In the end, Johnson’s training and races are motivated by what she feels after completing each race.

“It’s that feeling of ‘wow, I was able to do that’ and I wanna see how much further I can push myself,” Johnson said. “I’ll stop and take a second to really be thankful for where I am and that I can do these events with supportive people.”

Sydney Alper

Taylor Johnson (11) rock climbing during practice, Feb 10.

This helps her to improve upon her endurance skills.

A-MEER ANALYSIS

The Princess Diaries At the age of 6, I decided that there was only one life for me: that of a princess.

Without a drop of royal blood in my veins, I knew that I would have to marry well. But as I grew older, I realized that the number of princes in the Western hemisphere was on a rapid decline, and that most of them were well into their 30s and in varying stages of hair loss. It took a while to digest, but I had to accept that if I was ever going to live in a castle, I had to find another way in.

I already had the Disney-fueled dreams, the Halloween costumes—puffy ball gowns and tiaras. I even had the name; I don’t think my mom fully anticipated the effect of naming me Ameera—princess in Arabic.

But it was fitting. I’ll make no attempt to hide the narcissistic tendencies here, because any such attempt on my part would come off as ingenuine, but I could tell I was destined, from the day I was born, for better, for higher things. I could feel it.

I had—and I use ‘had’ tentatively as I’m not convinced that it’s an affliction that’s been cured entirely—a bit of a princess complex.

I wasn’t spoiled. But I thought that genies and fairy godmothers grew on trees, that a dream was a wish

your heart makes. I thought that if I wanted something, it was undoubtedly mine, that other people, other circumstances would always be there to help me get it. The world, full of pretty and happy things revolved around me, the prettiest, happiest thing. I was entitled.

I lacked any sense of internal motivation because I expected everything to come to me, somehow. Because Cinderella made it to the ball. Because Jasmine married the commoner. For most of my childhood, I was idealistic, if idealism meant chasing fairytales as much as it means chasing perfection.

And I know it’s not just me. We were the generation told to dream big. We wanted to be astronauts and presidents and surgeons and Olympians. But then one day, we woke up and realized that they told us what to dream, but never told us how to get there. We had dreams but no idea how to achieve them, because, since conception, we felt entitled to them.

I turn 18 this month. It’s no longer acceptable to be dreaming of castles when I’m supposed to be choosing a career, supposed to finally be taking my life into my own hands. But, it’s hard to have to abandon the life philosophy that’s carried me this far—the belief that things will work out in my favor, that everyone

Ameera Kumar around me is there to help with my every whim, that I have to put in work, and a lot of it, to live the life I want to live. I thought that the world was full of princes until I woke up one day drowning in frogs. But then I remembered that I’m no Snow White, Belle, or Ariel, that I’m not some flawless do-gooder deserving of all the love, admiration, and goodwill the world has to offer. High school taught me that everyone is always far too busy living out their own fantasies to bother playing supporting characters in someone else’s. My best friends had other best friends. My parents, who used to center their lives around me, moved on. They got a dog to spoil instead.

Life repeatedly proved to me that it was distinctly unmagical, that I wasn’t the heroine of the story, and that the things that I wanted wouldn’t happen if I just tried to will them into being. So I had to learn how to do things myself—opening jars, filling out a W2 form.

I still want to be a princess, still crave castles, clout.

But I don’t want to be a princess who sits around waiting for other people, for destiny, to run its course. I want to be a princess empowered enough, humble enough, gracious enough, to build her own kingdom, to create her own happily ever after, for herself.

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Editors in Chief Andrea Chen* Tiffany Le* News Editor Kevin Lu* Features Editor Lydia Zhang* Opinions Editor Lina Lew* Sports Editor Mark Troftgruben Final Focus Editor Devanshi Tomar* Photo Editor Jessica Lin Managing Editor Evan Buckland* Staff Writers Sydney Alper Rohin Awasthi Alice Chen Alec Felderman Zara Irshad Rhea Jogadhenu Grace Kim* Ameera Kumar* Jocelyn Mi Kevin Pert* Isabelle Ritter Alyssa Van Waas Michelle Wang* Deepali Yedulapuram Julie Zhu Adviser Jeff Wenger Assistant Adviser Stephanie Tanaka

To advertise in The Nexus, please call (858)-7802000, ext.3180 or email us at thewvnexus@gmail. com *Member of the Editorial Board

Staff Editorial

Test corrections allow self-reflection, encourage students to learn from mistakes

Several factors can contribute to a failing or unsatisfactory grade. Whether it be tied to an overwhelming extracurricular-load or purely just not studying enough, the underlying reason is due to a lack of understanding of a course’s material.

To help students learn the material, some classes allow students to make test corrections. Teachers incentivize these corrections by allowing students to receive partial credit for accurate and complete corrections. The amount of credit granted to a student varies: some teachers offer credit based on a scale (for example, an A would gain a single percentage point, a B two, a C three, etc.), while others allow students to retake an assessment/rewrite a paper for credit up to a certain grade (usually to a minimum passing grade).

Currently, test corrections aren’t offered in every class.

Westview as a whole should implement policy to offer them to at least some extent across campus. There are several benefits to corrections. Without them, students may not review errors and make a thorough effort to master the material missed on an assessment. Test corrections allow a student to process the reasons behind errors during a test. This can mean assessing whether an error is due to a computational error, a gap in understanding, or sometimes even just copying an answer incorrectly. It also means analyzing common trends in weaknesses, and using that information to create a more effective studying plan in the future.

Test corrections could also help fix a flaw created by Westview’s open-enrollment policy. In some instances, a student will enroll in a class that they aren’t ready to take. Classes often don’t get into the meat of a class’s curriculum until a few weeks in, so students can be unaware of a class’s difficulty until after the drop deadline. For students who are putting the effort needed into a class but are still struggling due to simply not being ready for a particular class’ rigor, test corrections can be a source of cushion for them. Though this may seem as hand-holding to some, the reality is that students are still in high school, and we should still try to aid students instead of allowing them to fail.

Additionally, if a normally high-performing student scores particularly poorly on a singular test, test corrections can ensure that their overall grade isn’t negatively impacted by that one grade. For classes with a limited number of assessments, test corrections can help ensure that a final grade isn’t so defined by one low score.

Teachers worried about students potentially taking advantage of this policy could alternatively have test corrections be assigned as homework. This would address potential concerns that test corrections coddle or enable students and encourage complacency. Given that Westview has an AP grade-change policy that awards students by an entire letter grade if they test high enough, allowing students to earn credit retroactively isn’t any different fundamentally. Test corrections simply abide by the Westview philosophy that students should be awarded credit if they master material, even if they initially don’t.

By implementing test corrections throughout campus, students across campus would gain another valuable learning tool. This would engrain the concept of review, a valuable life skill, into students.

The Nexus Mission Statement The Nexus is an open forum for student expression that aims to provide information to the public, following ethical standards of accuracy, truthfulness, and professionalism. The Nexus aspires to be a source of news, opinions and entertainment for its readers while showing enthusiasm through in depth coverage. In reporting information, writers strive for impartiality by presenting multiple viewpoints on issues.

When opinions of an individual are expressed, they are labeled accordingly. Members of the editorial board write and select the staff editorial.

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

Feb. 15, 2019

Crumbling church-state divide harms U.S. Isabelle Ritter Staff Writer

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”

Thomas Jefferson’s famous words have gained a life of their own beyond their original First Amendment context. Usually paraphrased as “separation of church and state,” this clause draws a vital boundary between the powers of the government and the clergy.

Although religious influence in the public has decreased and diversified immensely in the last 200 years, religious influence in politics has remained relevant and powerful. Presidents have historically crossed the church-and-state barrier as means to gain voters.

Presidents like William McKinley, Jimmy Carter, George W. Bush (who once said “I believe God wants me to be president”), have appealed to “Christian values” as means of assuring their voters they will be good presidents.

As Protestantism was the dominating religion of the 17th-20th century in America, 38 out of 43 U.S. Presidents have been Protestants—the other four were Unitarian, while President Kennedy has been the only Catholic president to date.

More recently, President Trump

appealed to the Protestant and Evangelical vote as a means of winning the Midwest states, oft referred to as the “Bible Belt,” in the 2016 Presidential election.

According to the Pew Research Center, 78 percent of white Evangelical voters said in June 2016 they would vote for Trump. Trump also selected staunch Evangelical Mike Pence as his running mate to secure this voting base.

After being elected as president in 2016, Trump continued to pander to the Evangelical and Christian voters, who make up 70 percent of the American public, according to Pew Research Center.

“They’re going to show up for me because nobody’s done more for Christians or evangelicals or, frankly, religion than I have,” Trump said in an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network, Nov. 18, 2018.

Despite this theatrical statement that “nobody has done more for religion” than he has, many people of faith do not feel the same way.

In fact, many people, both religious and not, are upset that Trump’s presidential campaign included a proposal abolishing a key policy in the separation of church and state— the Johnson Amendment.

The amendment was enacted into legislation more than 50 years ago, when it was included in the Internal

Revenue Code of 1954. The amendment prohibited all religious organizations, including houses of worship, from endorsing political candidates officially.

However, as “protecting Christian values” became more prominent in the modern political sphere with the rise of such identity politics, suddenly many preachers across the nation felt the need to preach their political views from the pulpit, and are campaigning again for the Johnson Amendment to be repealed.

During his 2016 presidential campaign, Trump called for the repeal of the amendment. On Feb. 2, 2017, President Trump vowed at the National Prayer Breakfast to “totally destroy” the Johnson Amendment.

However, repealing the amendment would only corrupt politics more than it already is. Sermons and mass invaded with political jargon and religious groups acting as interest groups in elections would not only spoil the integrity of religious institutions but also the integrity of politics, more than they have already been spoiled by other interest groups.

The attempts by President Trump at repealing the Johnson Amend-

Sorry not sorry: second semester seniors should embrace senioritis

Tiffany Le

valid explanation: we’re second-semester seniors!!!

Editor in Chief Honestly, I turned this article in late, not To the opinions editor, my co-chief, and my with the intention of screwing over The Nexteacher adviser: us staff during press week, but because I just I would like to begin by just being honest. couldn’t finish it on time!

I sincerely apologize for turning in this article I’m burnt. I’m tired. I’m wasting away. late.

Twelve and a half years in this PUSD system But hear me out: it’s not my fault! No, my really does a number on you. I’ve survived the imaginary dog didn’t eat my papers; no, I ENS triathlon, the Honors Humanities thesis didn’t have to babysit a nonexistent younger paper, the countless SATs, the AP culture of sibling. Rather, something very real and very Westview. detrimental has overwhelmed my life recentI know my article was due yesterday, but ly—senioritis. come on, don’t I deserve a little break? ConIt’s a seasonal affliction all students are trary to popular belief, I firmly stand by the arwarned about from the moment we enter high gument that it’s the destination, not the journey, school, a disease many claim to have caught as that matters. Cause look, the article is finally early as sophomore year. Ditching class, not in, isn’t it? completing homework, failing assignments— Now yes, I understand that still doesn’t make all signs of the ever-present, foreboding senior- what I did right, but can’t you agree that what I itis. did should be, at the very least, okay? Call me And it’s not just me who’s been infected! It's a lazy and careless person because my priorian epidemic, really. ties no longer parallel that of an aspiring FACE The other day I walked student, but the reality into my first-period class is that after I sent in my and sat in my seat. Per usulast college application in al, the bell rang, however, No more late night Red Bull, November, I finally felt a I found myself in the back, no more crying over home- sense of relief. alone.

For the first time since work, no more stress to Fifteen minutes passed, 45 prove myself to everyone. high school started, I minutes, an hour, but none didn’t feel an impending of my five other table-mates sense of doom with evcared to show up. All of ery assignment I turned these students I sit with are, in, test I took, and words unsurprisingly, seniors.

I managed to utter during a socratic seminar.

Admittedly, missing classes has grown into For once, I didn’t feel the need to constantly such a common routine for seniors that my check my grades on Synergy. Instead, I focused friend and I like to bet on who we think won’t on making the most out of my last term in high show up. Nine times out of 10, we’re right. And school. whenever I ask my peers why they didn’t come No more late night Redbull, no more crying to class, I’m often met with the response, “I just over homework, no more stress to prove myself couldn’t.” to everyone.

Quite a lame excuse on its surface, isn’t it?

It’s hopeless to promise that I will turn in evWell, I’d be a hypocrite if I don’t admit that ery article on time in the future, but what I can, I’m guilty of feeling this restrictive force as and will, promise is to make the most out of my well. time left on this staff.

At first, I thought my persistent lack of moI’m a second-semester senior, and with this, tivation was rooted in the possibility that my I’ve become well-aware that this chapter of my circadian rhythm is out of sync because the sun life is soon coming to a close. sets at 5:30 nowadays, or that this is merely a So, truly, thank you for putting up with me side-effect of my brain shutting down due to for this long and thank you for your undernot-so-sunny San Diego’s dreary weather re- standing. cently.

It’s time for me to go watch some Netflix and But ask any other 12th-grader and I assure take a nap now, you they will echo that our perpetual state of apathy towards school stems from a very, very Tiffany

ment is a final straw in the overreach of religion into a supposedly secular government.

The Johnson Amendment must stay intact to protect the government from heavy religious influence. Further, there should be more restrictions regarding religion—for example, the White House should only recognize and celebrate secular holidays, and presidents shouldn’t endorse specific religions.

With so much attention on Trump’s border wall, there’s another, more vital wall Americans are failing to recognize—the crumbling wall separating church and state.

Three-day weekends provide productive break from school Evan Buckland

Managing Editor President’s Week is around the corner, and students are getting ready to take advantage of the long vacation by spending time with family and relaxing. As much as we all look forward to a week away from school, such a break in the middle of the quarter can be problematic, especially for teachers, who have their lessons disrupted, and for students, who have to remember the obscure symbols in Of Mice and Men after lying in bed for nine days.

Instead of an entire week, all would benefit if PUSD scattered the five days of that week into more threeday weekends throughout the school year. Some schools in more rural areas of the country are already experimenting with increasing the number of four-day school weeks, while some have altered their schedule to have four-day school weeks throughout the year. In return, many of these schools have seen huge benefits from this change.

For example, the Chattooga County School District in Georgia shifted to a four-day school week and found a 73 percent decrease in discipline referrals and a 20 percent increase in student attendance. With more time to rest on longer weekends, students were far less likely to miss class or be disruptive.

Student performance also increased due to four-day school weeks. The Oakridge School District in Oregon has seen their test scores and graduation rates rise after switching to a four-day school week. At Westview, many students struggle to manage academics and extracurriculars along with relaxation and recreation. An extra day off school can provide students time to be productive and get more work done as well as a chance for them to breathe. It also offers a time for students to partake in more extracurricular activities so that they are more well-rounded. As for teachers, this day can be used to prepare for upcoming lessons and get their classroom ready for the week ahead.

Many companies are switching to four-day week because it not only benefits employees but has continuously been shown to benefit these companies as well. The same applies to students. By giving them the option to work at home, students will be able to utilize this time to be even more productive. Moreover, this extra day off can be used as a much-needed mental break to relieve the stress that comes with a five-day school week.

While three day weekends are great, Westview shouldn’t switch to a four-day-a-week schedule completely. However, rather than have a random week off in the middle of February, we should be given more three-day weekends so that we can reap the benefits.

NFL rules require revision after atrocious referee calls Kevin Pert Staff Writer

This NFL season was a mess.

This entire year, football was marred by controversial, questionable-at-best roughing-the-passer calls, blatantly missed calls during critical moments, and increasingly confusing rulings on pass interferences.

The peak of this catastrophically reffed season took place during the Saints-Rams NFC Championship game, in which a fourth-quarter pass interference no-call led to the Saints losing an almost sure-fire win. In this incident, the cornerback had completely made contact with the receiver, preventing him from catching the ball. He wasn’t looking for the ball, and the hit was helmet-to-helmet, yet there was no penalty called.

Although bad calls happen all the time, this was not just any bad call—this was possibly the worst call I’ve ever seen.

I’m hardly alone in this view. After all, the Rams cornerback in question, Nickell Robey-Coleman, didn’t stray far from the truth when asked about it, saying, “Oh, hell yeah, that was pass interference.”

Rams players and fans alike have also admitted that this was a blown call. After this game, many Saints fans boycotted the Super Bowl. Saints head coach Sean Payton even received an apology from the league office.

So with all of this disappointment, backlash, and accepted blame on the part of the officials, there’s one clear takeaway: something has to be changed.

One solution to this issue is that pass interference plays should become reviewable. Although the occasional failure of reviewing officials is a problem in itself, this solution would surely prevent blatant officiating blunders like the one in New Orleans.

Some may argue that this would make games longer or ruin the flow of the game, but this isn’t necessarily true.

The Canadian Football League allows pass interference calls to be challenged, but the average length of each game in the league has actually gone down by five minutes since this rule was implemented, per NBC Sports. Reviewing plays wouldn’t drag out the game or stop the flow, it would just facilitate fair play.

More importantly, this blown call was not an isolated incident. All year, players have complained about egregious officiating, and one official was deemed so incompetent that he was fired. The NFL as a whole needs to adapt.

The officiating system has gotten out of control, and though we can attribute this to experienced refs retiring or new rules being implemented, it’s clear that many of these calls are objectively wrong. But while it’s easy to place blame on the officials alone, they’re not exclusively at fault.

The NFL rule book is too complicated. It seems as if every year we come across a new question: “What’s a fumble?”, “What’s a catch?”, and this year, “What’s roughing the passer?”, but football shouldn’t be so needlessly complicated. The NFL Rulebook is more than 80 pages long, and the cri-

teria for a catch looks closer to a legal analysis than it does a description of a ball being caught.

Most football rules should be intuitive because overthinking doesn’t work in a fast-paced sport.

This is why every NFL team approved a simplified catch rule last year. It seems that everyone knows this besides the league rule-makers themselves.

These blown calls are unfair to fans, unfair to players, and unfair to entire cities.

Football is a sport that many of us hold dear, but after watching countless ruined games in an otherwise promising season, it’s clear that the NFL needs to swallow its pride and make changes. Otherwise, we’ll end up with another season full of games like the Rams offense in the Super Bowl: boring, disappointing, and mostly moving backwards.

Nexus

Opinions 9

the

Feb. 15, 2019

Individual blame for pollution misguided Isabelle Ritter Staff Writer

“Are we using a straw tonight or are we saving the turtles?”

My waitress asks me this loudly, sneering condescendingly down at me as she brings a round of waters to my table. She sashays away without waiting for an answer, and I realize her question was harshly rhetorical. As I watch her sleek black Olive Garden apron disappear into the busy restaurant, I begin to sip my water: sad and strawless.

Now, this is not to say I am severely impacted by this new movement, primarily instigated among the Twitter “activism” community, to eliminate straws as means of decreasing plastic use. I can easily survive without straws, so the sudden overzealous anti-straw activism sweeping the nation isn’t detrimental to my daily life. In fact, I’m practically unaffected, aside from occasional encounters with sassy waitresses, and the occasional twinge of guilt I feel each time I sip my iced Starbucks latte through a plastic straw.

However, this isn’t the case for everyone. Plastic straws are actually a vital part of many disabled people’s lives, aiding many who have difficulties controlling movement while eating or drinking.

“I noticed a thing while on vacation” disabled writer Erin Hawley wrote on Twitter. “Every time I took my bendable, plastic straw out in public, I momentarily felt like people were judging me. No one should have to feel uncomfortable about using assistive tools to live.”

In the case of straws, it can be detrimental for disabled people and discourage many from going out to eat at restaurants or coffee shops.

This plastic straw controversy is just one example of a trendy kind of scapegoating fueled by social media.

From pushing vegan diets to shaming people for not recycling, placing blame singularly on “regular people” is misinformed and oversimplified.

Individual shaming for pollution is not only hurtful but misinformed. Person-by-person impact on environment

and climate change is statistically insignificant, according to a study done by the University of Warwick.

“Although the power of consumers is strong, it pales in comparison to that of international corporations, and only governments have the power to keep these interests in check,” Morten Fibieger Byskov, postdoctoral researcher in international politics at the University of Warwick, said.

Another report by the Carbon Disclosure Project found that just 100 companies are responsible for 71 percent of global emissions since 1988.

It’s up to the government, not the individual, to monitor and enforce environmental legislation of big corporations, who are the biggest contributors by far of environmental pollution. The government could also make renewable energy generation, from sources such as solar panels and wind turbines, affordable to all consumers through subsidies.

Affordable and low-carbon public transportation could also be provided by state and federal governments.

Although the current administration hasn’t prioritized environmental protection in their legislation, if we write to our Congresspeople and protest the environmental damage our country causes, there’s hope that future administrations, or local/state government officials will enact more environmental legislation.

All this isn’t to say that we shouldn’t make efforts to be more environmentally conscious in our daily lives. Individual effort can make a difference, albeit a small one.

Lessening or altogether eliminating meat consumption has been proven to be one of the effective ways that we can reduce our environmental footprints, according to Scientific American. Elimi-

Current administration's tax legislation hurts lower class households, worsens wealth gap Lina Lew

Opinions Editor For eight hours a week, $10.50 an hour, I sit with my knees cramped behind a too-short desk and teach 6-year-olds math and reading.

This also means that I am a part of the American workforce. I am a citizen who clocks in and out, chats with the other employees, and every other Wednesday receives a long-awaited paycheck—$140, on a good day.

But as happy as I am to receive money to cover gas and my fartoo-frequent Chick-Fil-A runs, I’ve been through enough upper-level mathematics courses to realize that the hours I’m clocking in aren’t equivalent to the money I’m getting back.

It all made sense when I got my W-2 form. This missing money, it seems, has been magically disappearing from my already feeble pockets into the hands of the government to pay taxes for things like Social Security, Medicare, national defense and border security.

As much as I would’ve liked to keep that extra cash for more waffle fries, I knew these taxes weren’t that big of a deal—for me, at least.

After all, I’m considered a dependent, living under my parents’ roof.

They’re the ones who cover most of my expenses, and my career at Kumon is nothing more than funding for my gluttonous lifestyle.

However, these taxes are a very big deal to low-income individuals who struggle to get by while depending on these monthly paychecks.

Though the exact qualifications

vary case by case, many low-income families or individuals don’t qualify to pay federal income tax— however, around 10 percent of their paycheck gets taken out to pay for state and local taxes, Medicare, and Social Security, to name a few.

To some, these relatively small cuts may not seem like much.

It may actually seem unfair that low-income citizens get to pay less federal income taxes than their middle-class counterparts, while still receiving tax returns.

But there are a lot of things that seem unfair.

In a world where tax-brackets point fingers at the ones below them, shouting accusations of what’s “fair” and “unfair,” it also seems unfair that the poorest 20 percent of Americans, making an average of $25,000 a year, pay 11 percent of their income—more than any other tax bracket—in state and local taxes, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP).

It seems unfair that, according to the ITEP, 11 million undocumented immigrants are paying $11.64 billion toward Social Security and Medicare, and yet are ineligible to reap those same benefits.

It seems unfair that people call low-income earners “undeserving” of their tax returns, yet the average return is only $3,000—over 80 percent of which spent to pay for debt or basic living expenses, according to the National Retail Federation.

It seems unfair that those who qualify for earned income tax credit, with an average income of $20,000, make up 36 percent of those audited by the IRS, and are

therefore unable to receive tax returns until their case is approved.

Sure, the government does its part in relieving the financial pressure from low-income households through federally funded programs.

But recent enactments, such as President Donald Trump’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, only reinforces the opposite sentiment. According to the ITEP, the bottom 60 percent of taxpayers receive only 13 percent of the TCJA benefits, while the top five percent receive 53 percent of the benefits. Furthermore, the disparities are only expected to increase in the coming years as the act takes full effect.

So when the discussion of what’s fair and unfair in our tax system arises, I like to take a look at my W-2 form. Yes, to those wondering, the tax system is unfair, because while I have lived my life spending my paychecks on waffle fries, there are people who struggle to keep their heads above water on the small tax return they may eventually receive, struggling to live paycheck-to-paycheck with a whole tax system against them.

Many government programs aid low-income families, but with our recent administration’s enactments, taxes have become increasingly regressive. By trying to benefit the middle and upper class, it’s easy to lose sight of the lower class, who struggle the most to pay regressive taxes.

What we need to do is remain progressive, increasing tax rates with increasing income and ultimately helping those who have less than they can afford.

After all, it only seems fair.

Made in Ameerica by Ameera Kumar

nating or decreasing fish from your diet has also been proven an effective way to slow the extinction of oceanic creatures and plastic waste in the ocean.

In fact, not eating fish is much better for the ocean than eliminating straw usage, as 94 percent of plastic waste in the ocean is a result of commercial fishing, not individual plastic use, according to National Geographic.

Ironically, no one’s berating people at restaurants for ordering the salmon, but condemn them for using a plastic straw.

It’s all too easy to jump on the activist bandwagon when things are trendy.

The difficulty lies in seeking truth through activism and making sure one advocates for the most efficient and inclusive solution possible, rather than what is deemed cool by social media.

The point in all this is that doing these things, like using plastic straws or eating a burger once in awhile, doesn’t make someone a bad person, or to blame for pollution and climate change.

To blame the individual for the environmental crimes of much bigger forces at work is a kind of victim blaming, as those in poverty and middle class communities are most likely to be affected by climate change and pollution.

Therefore blaming “regular people” for small actions such as using a straw is really counterintuitive, because they will be the ones who suffer the consequences of global warming and severe pollution.

“One-third of the planet’s land is no longer fertile enough to grow food” Emma Schwartz, information officer at Mercy Corps, said. “More than 1.3 billion people live on this deteriorating agricultural land, putting them at risk of climate-driven water shortages and depleted harvests. These circumstances lead to worsening hunger and poverty.”

At the end of the day, although it’s a good thing to reduce plastic usage and meat consumption, shaming others for making different choices than yours is wrong. Individual blame for environmental damage fails to recognize the bigger corporations and the government with the power to police them, who are really to blame.

In honor of our current president, I'm spending President’s Week just like he does: doing absolutely nothing.

-Sydney Alper The biggest problem I face as a gay girl is having to cross out the word “boyfriend” on CVS Valentine’s cards.

-Isabelle Ritter If Oprah’s spirit guru can run for president, then maybe I can get into college!

-Jessica Lin Priorities: getting passed over by Berkeley this week hurts more than getting rejected on Valentine’s Day. -Zara Irshad To submit a Praise or Folly, message us through Twitter, log onto our website at www.wvnexus.org, or drop your submission off in room L-104. Include your name, grade level, and phone number. The Nexus will decide which submissions to print based on quality of writing and value to readers. They may be edited for space or content reasons.

Despite admirable motives, Me Too movement proves detrimental to both men and women in workplace Devanshi Tomar

ymous wealth adviser added that even hiring women has become “an unknown risk.”

There is no denying that the Me Too movement has This avoidance has been termed the “Pence Rule.” Vice caused ripples. Beginning with sexual allegations made President Mike Pence has been vocal about his practice against powerful men in Hollywood, the stories and reper- of restraint around women. He states that he dines with cussions have since broadened to the workplace. no woman other than his wife, thereby avoiding anything More than 19 million women have tweeted “#MeToo,” that is or may seem morally objectionable. Many men in according to the Pew Research Center. The hashtag sym- Wall Street have since adopted this practice, which in turn bolizes a larger movement that has empowered victims of could potentially stagnate the careers of women, as many sexual abuse, providing a platform upon which individuals men are too paranoid to act as a mentor to a junior female. unite against sexual violence.

And, as of 2018, only about five percent of Fortune 500 The movement has aimed to educate both men and company CEOs and only 22 percent of members of execwomen on proper sexual conduct and respecting social bar- utive committees in Fortune Global 100 companies across riers. In Hollywood, the Time’s Up movement came to fru- America were female. ition because of Me Too, and So, female executives to look to for aimed to provide much-needed guidance are often not an option for change for women in enter- Men less-experienced women lookshouldn’t have to younger, tainment. ing to climb the ladder and develop their between lusting careers further.

As a result, the Producers’ choose Guild of America, a trade asso- after a woman or This has created an equally insidious ciation consisting of 7,000 film environment for women and men alike. and television producers, has completely avoiding her.

Avoidance conduct can be effective in established guidelines against curbing potential sexual harassment allesexual harassment. Additiongations, but it can also back men into anally, $22 million has been raised for funds and nearly 800 other corner: gender discrimination. The Equal Credit Opvolunteer lawyers have been recruited by those in charge of portunity Act protects individuals from discrimination in the movement for its legal defense. the workplace—in this case, based on gender. Those who These changes that the Me Too movement have elicited violate this act face liability charges and punitive damages. in the movie industry brings hope to many. Still, the moveIn attempts to create a less problematic environment and ment has soured and been taken too far in some workplac- avoid allegations of sexual harassment by averting onees. on-one interactions with women, men who abide by the One-third of company executives have said that they ad- “Pence Rule” might run the risk of a gender discrimination justed their behavior to avoid sexual harassment, according lawsuit. Even without violating laws, there is still an obvito a survey by the Society for Human Resource Manage- ous divide between men and women in the workplace, and ment. While it is essential to rethink behavior around wom- this divide could potentially reverse any rise of women in en, the increased awareness of sexual harassment allega- the workforce that has been seen. The fact clearly remains tions doesn’t bode well for women. that women are still considered as objects to some, instead According to a Bloomberg report, men have adopted of colleagues and people. complete avoidance as a method of prevention. Men no Men shouldn’t have to choose between lusting after a longer dine with their female colleagues. They no longer woman or completely avoiding her. book their hotel rooms on the same floor as their female The solution for most, according to Lisa Kaufman, chief colleagues. Doors are left open in one-on-one meetings, no executive officer of LaSalle Securities, is to simply be civil matter the confidentiality of the circumstances. An anon- and “not let fear be a barrier.”

Final Focus Editor

Big Wang Theory by Michelle Wang

Nexus

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10 Sports SCOREBOARD THE

Feb. 15, 2019

Boys Basketball

21 - 7

2/5: Win vs. Mt. Carmel, 59-52 2/8: Win vs. Mt. Carmel, 57-44 Next Game: TBA

16 - 13

Girls Basketball 2/8: Win vs. Mt. Carmel, 57-31 2/12: Win vs. Mira Mesa, 60-56

Next Game: Today: CIF Quarterfinals vs. Poway, 7 p.m. (Away)

Roller Hockey

9-8

2/11: Loss vs. Scripps Ranch, 11-5 2/12: Loss vs. Rancho Bernardo, 4-1 Rohin Awasthi

Next Game: 2/18: CIF First Round, TBA

10 - 8 - 5

Boys Soccer 2/7: Win vs. Mt. Carmel, 2-1 2/12: Win vs. Southwest SD, 3-0

Next Game: Today: CIF Quarterfinals vs. Eastlake, 5 p.m. (Away)

9-6-4

Girls Soccer 2/5: Win vs. Poway, 2-0 2/7: Win vs. Mt. Carmel, 1-0

Next Game: Tomorrow: CIF Quarterfinals vs. TBA, 5 p.m. (Away)

14 - 16

Girls Water Polo 2/9: Win vs. Helix, 5-4 2/12: Win vs. University City, 9-4

Next Game: Tomorrow: CIF Finals vs. Torrey Pines, 5 p.m. (Away)

1-7

Boys Wrestling 1/22: Loss vs. Rancho Bernardo, 63-9 1/24: Loss vs. Poway, 48-12

Next Meet: Today: Masters Tournament, 9 a.m. (Away)

Records as of Tuesday Compiled by the Sports Staff

Emiliano Mendoza (10) takes a warmup shot before Westview’s rivalry game vs. Mt. Carmel, Feb. 7. He was inspired to play soccer by his father, a former player for a professional Mexican club, who regularly encouraged him to improve his passing skills.

Mendoza follows in father’s footsteps

Evan Buckland Managing Editor

“Watch the center-mid—see how he looks for his pass and makes his run,” Emiliano Mendoza’s (10) father would say. “Always watch the player in your position so that you can learn how they play.”

Mendoza’s memories of living in the small Mexican town of Guadalajara with his family are very distinct. He recalls days when he, his siblings, cousins and neighbors would all go outside and play soccer on their street.

“We would get our clothes, hats or other things, and throw them down as goals,” Mendoza said. “A lot of the time, we were playing on concrete because there were no nice turf fields anywhere nearby.”

Mendoza found a passion for soccer early on because it was the sport that he and everyone in his community played. Strolling around the neighborhood, he would see groups of kids playing in the streets and on small patches of grass.

His biggest influence when it comes to the sport, however, is his dad. Mendoza’s father spent three years playing for Puebla, a club in the top division of professional Mexican soccer, in addition to two years playing for the Mexican Youth National team. According to Mendoza, his father is very knowledgeable about the game.

“My dad takes soccer really seriously and it’s something he and I loved watching together,” he said. “There was one game when Mexico was playing the U.S. in a competitive tournament. I remember Mexico won that game and every time they scored, my dad and my family would go crazy.

You could hear people celebrating outside because everyone in the town was watching it.”

When he was really young, Mendoza just played recreationally. There were not many official youth clubs in his area so he developed his skills by playing on the street

every day and watching games on television.

But after living in Mexico for nine years, Mendoza and his family moved to the U.S. He had to leave behind his long-time friends and family members and was thrust into a completely new life.

Because soccer did not have the same cultural appeal as it did in Mexico, Mendoza had to find a recreational league and team to join.

“One thing that I did when I got here was look for an outlet to continue playing soccer,” Mendoza said. “I joined a local recreational team in Poway and really enjoyed it.

It was the first time I was playing like full on organized soccer on turf with a full team.”

When he was 11, Mendoza’s father asked him if he wanted to try playing competitive soccer in order to move on to the next level and improve his game. With his passion for the sport growing even after he immigrated to the U.S., Mendoza was eager to join a youth club.

He tried out for a club in Poway called “Mecaros.”

At tryouts, Mendoza was placed on the B-team, which was the lowest level of competitive soccer for the club.

Immediately, he realized that he was not at the same skill level as some of the other players.

“A lot of these guys had been playing competitive for a long time, but I was new to it, so I was pretty bad to be honest,” Mendoza said. “I also had played goalkeeper my whole life when I lived in Mexico. So when the coach thought I would be better as an outfield player, it took me some time to transition. I had to work on my footwork and passing in order to get better.”

Still, Mendoza worked really hard. He kept the mentality of wanting to be the best player on the team and continued to work hard at practice while also spending extra time at home to practice with his dad. The two would also watch professional games and analyze the players.

The hard work paid off as Mendoza was placed on the

A-team the very next season.

“I met a lot of really good players on that team, some that I play with right now, and some that I play against,” Mendoza said. “That team is really where I learned most of my soccer and I improved incredibly.”

One day, during a club game with the Mecaros A-team, Mendoza realized that this sport had become more than a hobby. He wanted it to become a profession. He began to dream of playing professionally—just like his dad.

“I played really well in that game and my dad was telling me about his experience professionally and told me that if I worked hard enough and stayed really disciplined, I could go and follow my dreams,” Menzoa said. “I think that’s when I realized that this is something I want to do professionally.”

Mendoza switched competitive soccer clubs and joined San Diego Soccer Club after three seasons with Mecaros.

At his new club, he met a new squad of players and learned a lot about working well with a team, and understanding the way his teammates played around him.

In his freshman year of high school, Mendoza was placed on the JV team that went undefeated in league play, winning every game except for one draw. This season, he’s been an integral part of the varsity team’s midfield with five assists and three goals. Just last week, he scored the final goal of the Wolverines 2-1 win over Mt. Carmel. He dribbled the ball down the right flank and evaded two defenders before blasting the ball across goal into the net.

According to Mendoza, his main focus is just to help out the team right now. He wants to play professionally, but he is patient and wants to take it one step at a time.

“I’m working my absolute hardest to follow in my dad’s footsteps,” Mendoza said. “Soccer means so much to me and my dad. It’s been everything to us. To be able to play professionally would mean so much not just to me but him as well.”

Mahan overcomes anxiety, rediscovers joy on soccer pitch Isabelle Ritter Staff Writer

The soccer ball had been an irreplaceable part of Olivia Mahan (12) since she was a toddler—as irrevocable as an arm or a leg.

“Soccer was my first competitive sport,” she said. “I started playing at age 4 and started competitive soccer around age 6. I always loved it so much.”

She continued playing soccer on competitive teams like the Del Mar Sharks and the San Diego Surf throughout middle and high school.

She also played on national teams for futsal, a kind of indoor soccer, and was selected for the Elite Clubs National Team, one of the best soccer teams in Southern California.

When she reached high school, her skills as a soccer player carried her to be a varsity tri-sport athlete her freshman year, being a starter on the varsity soccer team and running varsity cross-country and track.

However, after two years as a tri-sport athlete, Mahan found herself struggling to maintain her busy lifestyle as an athlete and as a student.

“Last year was a struggle for me,” she said. “It was junior year, the hardest year in high school. I was dealing with keeping myself mentally healthy.”

Mahan had combatted vocal cord dysfunction, a disorder similar to asthma that results from severe anxiety, since her freshman year.

“Vocal cord dysfunction shows up when you are extra stressed or anxious, so for me, I always do great in practices, but when it comes to meets, that’s when my breathing acts up,” she said. “It’s triggered by stress and not much else.”

Mahan’s anxiety became so intense her junior year that she was forced to seek more intensive treatment, missing two months of school while she sought help for her mental health. An unfortunate consequence of her anxiety was that Mahan couldn’t play her third year of varsity soccer.

“I was juggling all these things and it just became too much, so I had to make the tough decision of not playing soccer,” she said. “A little after soccer season [junior year] had started, I ended up needing to focus on myself even more and didn’t go to school for over two months due to the

mental health difficulties I was facing.”

Although it was hard to give up the sport she loved so much, Mahan said it was worth it in the end because she was able to decrease her anxiety through intensive treatment and return to school. Mahan took almost a year off from playing sports to heal, but that didn’t mean she stopped exercising and working hard.

“I went to the gym a lot, like five times a week, and made sure I went on runs at least twice a week,” she said.

Working out and running not only kept Mahan active and in shape while she wasn’t playing sports, but it also helped her stay mentally healthy.

“I have always enjoyed working out,” she said. “It makes me happy and so being able to just workout often kept me in a better mood and state of mind.”

She also worked hard to improve her mental health through therapy and self care.

As time went on, Mahan began to feel that she was ready to return to the soccer field.

“During [the beginning of] senior year, I was definitely thinking about maybe doing soccer or track again,” she said. “And honestly, I thought about it a lot and realized

how happy I was when I played and how much I really missed it.”

However, Mahan had no idea if she still had the skills to regain her spot as a starter on varsity, or even to gain a spot on the team at all.

On the final day of tryouts, Mahan was approached by one of the coaches, who offered her a spot on the team.

“I was very happy when I knew for sure that I made the team,” she said. “I was honestly a little scared when they started talking to me individually because I had no idea if they were mad at me for not playing last year or maybe I was rustier than I thought.”

Rusty she was not. Mahan fought her way back to a starting position on varsity and now plays outside and center forward.

Regaining her spot on the team her senior year was more than just a validation of her athletic talent, she said, but a missing piece in her life that was filled again.

“Soccer enhances my life so much,” Mahan said. “It’s as simple as it brings more healthy and good relationships into my life, it brings me happiness, and I love being able to have a competitive side to my life again.”

Jessica Lin

Olivia Mahan (12) shields the ball away from a Mt. Carmel defender, Feb. 7.

Girls water polo upsets Helix, finals tomorrow Mark Troftgruben Sports Editor

Westview: 5 Helix: 4 With 20 seconds left in the second overtime and the game tied at 4-4, the fate of girls water polo’s season was in the hands of Julia Derunes (11), Saturday morning. It was their quarterfinal match against the No. 1-seeded Helix Charter High School and everyone knew that in the next few moments, only one team would advance to the 2019 San Diego Division I CIF semifinals.

Derunes scanned the waters before her, breathing heavily with wind, rain and a Highlander’s hands in her face. Nobody was open and two opponents stood between her and the goal, 15 feet away. Earlier in the first quarter, Derunes had accidentally bumped the ball into her own goal. But now, this was her chance for redemption. She had done it before and she could do it again.

“After I drew my last foul, I noticed that the de-

fenders were scrambled and the goalie was not set up correctly,” she said. “It was a great opportunity, so I just took my shot and hoped for the best.”

After a quick fake to her left, Derunes thrust herself backward, out of the water and away from the defender, throwing the ball as hard as she could towards the upper-right corner of the goal. The ball splashed in the water, but rolled into the goal just before Helix’s goalie could grasp it. The Coggan Family Aquatic Complex erupted with the cheers of Westview’s supporters. When the Wolverines stole the ball from the Highlanders in the last eight seconds of that second overtime period to secure their 5-4 victory, they piled onto each other in the center of the pool, hugging and shouting.

Coming into this game, the odds were stacked against Westview.

“Helix had beaten us twice before, so it was a little daunting,” captain Abby Kooyman (12) said.

“But this time, we had all our players back healthy and were confident in ourselves. We knew we were going to have to win this by heart—and that’s exactly what we did.”

The Wolverines came out aggressively on offense with Derunes scoring in the first minute of

the game and Lauren Kim (12) making two floater shots in the second quarter. But their production stopped in the third and their defense couldn’t hold up any longer.

“It wasn’t that our defense was weak,” Kooyman said. “Piper McCulloch (12) made a bunch of saves and we got a lot of steals, but there were just times where we wouldn’t press aggressively enough and would leave a man too close to the goal.”

The fourth quarter was an artillery fest as both teams barraged each other’s goals for a total of eighteen shot attempts. When Kaia Wong (9) scored to give Westview the lead, 4-3, with 26 seconds left in the game, the game seemed like it was over.

But Helix quickly passed the ball down the pool, stunning the Wolverines with a goal just before the buzzer. In the next two overtime periods that followed, nobody scored. That is, until Derunes’ game-winning goal.

“It’s indescribable,” Kooyman said. “To be able to win this and be this far my senior year means a lot. We’ve still got two more games and I’m excited to play Tuesday, but for the moment, it’s just awesome to experience this moment and see my teammates make big plays in clutch situations.”

Nexus

Sports 11

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Feb. 15, 2018

Hernandez breaks leg, expectations

SIG NIFICANT FIG URES

From Hernandez, page 1 “Surgery is my biggest fear,” he said.

“Sophomore year, I broke my face [ in the orbital floor] and had to get surgery, but going in the second time, I was still super scared even though I’d already done it. I know it rarely happens, but it’s the fear of waking up in the middle of surgery or something going wrong.”

After Hernandez woke from the procedure, he was informed that everything went smoothly. Although this was reassuring news, Hernandez knew that his battle to recovery had only just begun.

“When I broke [my leg], the pain was like a 10 out of 10, but then for the following week it was still at like an eight out of 10,” he said. “The rod in my leg is super strong, so I could walk if I wanted to, but it just hurt too bad so I was on crutches for maybe four weeks. I didn’t have to get a cast and was in a boot if I walked.”

For the first three weeks, Hernandez said he was essentially unable to do anything but stay on the couch and perform simple exercises like stair stepups, calf-raises and squats.

“I went to physical therapy for 12 different sessions, and I was really negative at first, but my dad just kept telling me I had to be positive to get through it,” Hernandez said. “I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to play [soccer] again at all. So I felt really upset and it was hard at times, but I never let myself get frustrated because I knew it would get better.”

Hopping: 23 points

Post-surgery

Initial fracture

Design by Tiffany Le Photo by Rohin Awasthi, X-rays provided by D.J. Hernandez

D.J. Hernandez (12) prepares to kick a ball to a teammate, Feb. 11. After breaking his fibula and tibia during a club game in July, Hernandez underwent surgery to have a rod inserted in his leg.

This perseverance proved to be worth it.

Four months later, Hernandez finally improved to the point where he could train for soccer again.

Though he missed the initial tryouts

for Westview’s season and could not participate during the first two weeks, Hernandez gradually involved himself during light practices without contact.

One month later, he was cleared for contact practices.

“My first game back was the first league game,” Hernandez said. “Getting hurt is still in my head all the time, and I can still feel how out of shape I am, but I’m glad my career didn’t end.

I’m just going to keep working hard.”

Ricardo Hopping (12) scored 23 points, roughly 40 percent of all points scored by the Wolverines, in their 57-44 win over Mt. Carmel, Feb. 8. Hopping played a major role in keeping Westview’s momentum up in the third quarter, scoring nine out of the team’s 15 points and fending off the Sundevils’ biggest offensive push.

Ho ppin g’s offensive presence sparked the offense often this season as they finished with a record of 21-7, heading into Wednesday’s firstround playoff game.

Rohin Awasthi

Bjork’s wrestling regimen results in CIF title Paroline: 1 Sydney Alper Staff Writer

With 11 seconds left in the first period, Victoria Bjork (11) pinned her opponent from Steele Canyon High School at the 2019 CIF Championships, Feb. 2.

She said that she pushed herself harder in that match than in any other match before.

“That was the exact moment I had been training for, for all of my wrestling career and I wasn't going to stop short for any reason,” she said.

After getting second place in the 2017 San Diego CIF Championships her freshman year, Bjork said she wanted to work extra hard to win it all this year.

“I feel like this past season I was willing to do the

extra stuff and was willing to train and do everything that it took to be a champion and I feel like it paid off,” she said.

She said she would train three times a day- running before school, attending wrestling practice, and then working out again afterwards.

All of this training cut into her family and social life, but her extra effort paid off.

“Early in the mornings I get up on a run, not because coach told me to, but because I know that’s what I need to do to get on top of that podium,” Bjork said. “I needed to go work out even after practice for the third time of the day because I know that’s what I need to do to be the best.”

She said that sometimes it was hard to stay moti-

vated, but heading into the final match, she said she felt prepared.

“I had gone the extra mile whenever I could and put in all the extra effort and sacrificed so much,” Bjork said. “I was ready to have that pay off.”

At the end of the match, she said that she was crying along with her coaches, her mother, and her teammates.

That’s when she said she realized how much support she had been given and how much it had helped her.

“I wouldn’t have been able to do it without them pushing me when I wasn’t able to push myself or motivating me when I couldn’t really find that motivation myself,” Bjork said.

Dynamic freshman duo bolsters girls water polo Grace Kim Staff Writer

The addition of two freshmen Lauren Jennings (9) and Kaia Wong (9) has sparked the girls water polo team with their talent.

Being attentive while playing is a quality that make Jennings and Wong skilled water polo players.

“You need to be alert because there’s a lot going on like you need to be ready to counter or shot block or pick up a drive,” goalie Taylor Johnson (11) said.

“You also have to anticipate passes and

figure out where the girl’s going to pass to or what move she’s going to make.”

Johnson said that this is one of Wong’s strongest quality.

“Kaia is incredibly intuitive,” Johnson said. “She’s able to see plays and predict plays before they’re happening.”

Wong practices this tactic by watching herself play on video. By watching game tapes, she’s able to look at what she did well and which areas she needed to improve on.

On the other hand, Jennings’ more aggressive playing style allows her

Kevin Pert

Sydney Alper

SANTOS

BOLANO

to have success in stealing balls and shooting goals.

During one game on Jan. 28, against Poway, Jennings stunned everyone by making a half pool goal.

This goal was one of many that showed just how aggressive she can be during games.

“I’m aggressive in the way that I go for the ball,” Jennings said.

The duo has combined to score 61 goals, make 26 assists, and grab 79 steals together for the team.

This is only Jennings’ and Wong’s third year playing water polo. Never-

theless, they are passionate about the sport and contribute a lot to varsity, which moved on to the 2019 San Diego Division I CIF semifinals, Tuesday. “[Water polo] is so much fun and when you’re in the water you forget about everything else,” Wong said.

“You’re just playing in the moment.”

Jennings said she considers the community as tight-knit.

“We all work so hard and unless you play water polo you have no clue of how much the sport takes out from you,” Jennings said. “Your team is your family.”

goal

With 25 minutes left and the score still 0-0, boys soccer desperately needed a goal in their rivalry game against Mt. Carmel, Feb. 7. Lorenzo Paroline (11) quickly found an answer, evading the red and white sea of defenders to launch the ball into the top right corner, scoring the first goal of the match.

Paroline continued passing throughout the game, getting the ball to center midfielder Emiliano Mendoza (10), who split several defenders for an air-tight goal, securing the win for Westview, 2-1.

Tiffany Le Written by Alec Felderman and Kevin Pert

BLACK & GOLD

Grace Kim

KOOYMAN

WRESTLING

BASKETBALL, Point Guard

WATER POLO, Defender

Inspired by her sister, a fellow wrestler, Karina Santos (10) started wrestling her freshman year. Santos said that she and her sister have always had a special bond in wrestling, especially this year, as it’s their last year wrestling together.

“When I’m down, she’ll encourage me to not be sad and that I can do better,” she said. “If I’m not having a good day at practice, she’ll be there for me and help improve my wrestling too.”

According to Santos, this encouragement propelled her, helping her win 15 matches, 10 more than last year, and place sixth at the 2019 CIF Championships.

Standing at 5’6’’, Lance Bolano (12) has never been the tallest player on the court.

“I don’t think I’ve ever been on the floor where’s there’s someone shorter than me,” Bolano said.

Despite this, he’s never lets his height hold him back from thriving, using his technique to compensate for his stature.

“I use quickness and timing,” Bolano said. “How quick I jump, or when I jump—it all affects the flow of the game.”

“I love the sport,” Bolano said.

“So I’ve always tried really hard to let the coaches know that I’m working, and it’s paid off.”

At the end of the second quarter, Westview was tied in a game against down a couple of points against CCA. It was the team’s first CIF game of the season, and Abby Kooyman (12) knew she needed to score.

Kooyman called for the ball and after receiving a pass from her teammate, moved in closer and shot the ball into the goal.

“The goal definitely helped the dynamic of the team and motivated and pumped us up to come back and win the game,” Kooyman said.

Kooyman ended up scoring one goal and the game ended, 8-6.

Jocelyn MI

Evan Buckland

Isabelle Ritter

MAHLOW

DACIO

ROLLER HOCKEY, Goalie

BASKETBALL, Shooting Guard

Despite being completely new to roller hockey, Matthew Mahlow (9) starts as a goalie.

“I’m a goalie who doesn’t give up,” Mahlow said. “My team says I work hard and I’m the only goalie they can believe in when they get behind because of my overall consistency.”

Throughout the season, Mahlow has made 95 saves on 110 shots, for a .864 save percentage.

“The shots are really fast and I feel challenged by that,” he said. “There are a lot of competitive players on this team who are really fun to work with.”

Sarina Dacio (11) is no stranger to shooting her shot: she was 5 when she started playing basketball. Dacio has helped lead her team to a winning season, 15-13,.

A key moment came when she scored eight points within the last minute of the game to secure her team’s 61-52 win against San Clemente High School, Dec. 30.

“I always want to find ways to contribute to my team,” she said. “It can be the littlest thing, just one rebound or a steal. I’m known for my shot, but I am constantly trying to improve every aspect of my game.”

GARCES

SOCCER, Center Midfielder

Antonio Garces (11) said he never thought that breaking his hand would cause him to discover his passion for soccer. After he was forced to stop playing tennis, he decided to join a recreational soccer league because it didn’t require him to use his hands.

“Being Latino, soccer was always a big part of my culture, but I had never played it competitively,” Garces said. “Ever since I started playing organized soccer, I fell in love with the sport.”

Garces has recently returned from injury in time to partake in Varsity's CIF season.

12 Final Focus

the

Nexus

Feb. 15, 2019

Innate Ability vs. Hard Work Research suggests that people with a strong work ethic fare better than those who rely on their intellect to succeed Devanshi Tomar Final Focus Editor

In today’s educational and professional landscape, management consultant and business psychologist James Brook said that employers are often met with the difficulty of choosing between two types of candidates: those with natural talent and those who work hard.

Recent psychological studies show that people have a natural bias towards those who possess this innate talent. As a result, the talent of hard workers is overlooked and underappreciated.

However, while intelligence is an asset in the workplace and in coping with the challenges and demands of work, Brook said that mere intellect is insufficient for true success in today’s work environment.

“It is often those who are more passionate about their work and are more willing to persevere that outperform disengaged or partially engaged intellectuals,” Brook said.

In High School Brook’s observation seems to be flipped in high school, where students believe that innate talent is what will help them achieve success. It is what we celebrate in classrooms when we tack the highest-scoring student essays on our walls, call out the names of students who earn As on tests, and litter the walls of our office with the faces of students who amass a throng of 5s on their AP tests.

Although not all students with high achievements rely on their innate talent, the message sent by schools is that top results should be celebrated, not necessarily top improvers.

Students who work hard to advance from a state of minimal understanding to higher understanding remain unrecognized, leading parents and students alike to over-value raw intelligence, and undervalue practice and planning.

However, learning specialist Dr. David Sortino said that true success is more about what one does, rather than what one is born with.

“Success is 90 percent perspiration, and 10 percent inspiration,” Sortino said. “Intelligence is changeable and can be developed through education and hard work.”

When he was at Westview, Yuchen Zhang (’17) relied on this raw intelligence, only doing homework that was mandatory and studying last-minute for exams.

“It was just a lot of winging things,” Zhang said. “I got pretty good at doing things on the fly just because I had so much practice because of my lousy work ethic.”

Unlike Zhang, Mattie Sanseverino (’18) describes herself as a focused individual and said that she works as hard as she can.

“I’ve always been super driven, and I knew that I had to work hard to get where I wanted to be,” Sanseverino said.

Involved in various extracurriculars on and off campus, Sanseverino said that she had to rely on her ability to work hard in order to achieve in her academics.

“I had to be organized and realize what my priorities were to stay sane,” Sanseverino said.

Even with extracurriculars such as sports and writing for the school newspaper, Sanseverino remained diligent in her studies, pursuing subjects that she had interest in.

“I am enthusiastic about learning things, and that would usually give me motivation to work hard,” Sanseverino said.

In contrast, Zhang said that because of his work ethic, he often did the minimum to achieve what he needed to in order to succeed.

“I was the student who wanted A’s and wanted to attend a prestigious university,” Zhang said. “But, I wasn’t passionate in the ways I pursued that. It was definitely more formulaic, where I hit the checkmarks to have a good shot at good grades, and decided that was good enough.”

For students like Zhang, success is defined by one’s achievements and not one’s improvements.

“I was a student with a 4.3 GPA who was reasonably involved [on campus],” Zhang said. “But, I was definitely more of a slacker.”

Zhang said the focus on specific concepts rather than application of said concepts in many of his classes was what enabled this type of work ethic.

“Concepts tested in high school were very surfacelevel [for me],” Zhang said. “I found it pretty easy to skim, cram a concept in my head, and work out how to apply it come test day.”

In College While students who rely on innate talent can be successful in high school academics, Sortino said that their lack of a strong work ethic can show later in life.

“It ultimately catches up with students [who rely on innate talent] in higher education,” Sortino said. “They are confronted with instructors who have succeeded in academia because of effort as well as ability.”

Zhang is now a sophomore at Northeastern University in Boston. Faced with new challenges, Zhang said that his old study habits did not suffice in university.

“I thought college and nursing would be the same thing [as high school], but it was drastically different,” Zhang said. “In the beginning, it was really hard for me to adjust.”

Zhang added that his major, nursing, requires intensive studying and review.

“I wasn’t used to sitting down and actually devoting hours every day to studying and memorizing everything,” Zhang said. “A lot of my classes [in college] were very much centered on the mentality of ‘you know it, or you don’t.’”

As a result, Zhang had to adapt and develop the study

habits needed in order to succeed.

“The first two semesters of college involved a ton of studying, but also finding a studying style that suited me,” Zhang said.

Zhang also said that he wished he had developed his current work ethic during high school, rather than in the process of his college education because of the amount of studying required for his major.

“A stronger work ethic would have helped me during my transition to college,” Zhang said. “College is a time where your career seems to loom over you, so there’s a more concrete, greater incentive to work harder.”

On the other hand, Sanseverino said her diligence in academics during her high school career benefited her as she navigated through new trials at UCLA this year as a freshman.

“I already knew what it was like to have to balance things and to be organized so I could be successful,” Sanseverino said. “I was able to use those skills that I developed in high school and I’ve adapted them to my college life so I’m able to be focused on different things and be successful in areas that make me happy.”

In The Workplace These benefits of a strong work ethic continue and even amplify in the professional work environment.

According to Brook, grit, which is what enables individuals to work hard and stick to their intrinsic goals, is what truly contributes to success in the highly pressured workforce.

“Those with high levels of grit work hardest to overcome obstacles and are more effective,” Brook said.

“Those with low levels of grit give up on the task earlier.”

Brook also adds that while intelligence is important in fulfilling tasks and producing effective results, it is the ability to take the time and effort improve that truly determines long-term success.

“Those who are not willing to take that time and effort to gain new skills and adapt to changes at work will not be successful in the longer run,” Brook said.

Brook further says that if even the most intelligent people are not willing to persevere, employers more often prefer employees who possess less intelligence but who can achieve more through their perseverance.

Zhang now agrees with this, and said that working full time at a hospital, a job that is directly related to his major and career path has reaffirmed the work ethic he has built in college.

“Through opportunities to apply skills and treat patients based off of the foundation I’ve built with the hours I’ve spent studying, I’m starting to see the direct correlation between working hard and equipping myself with skills that will further aid me in the future,” Zhang said. “People who were like me in high school will have to adapt, and they will eventually find their academic rhythm.”

Art by Alice Chen