11 minute read
WiKiPEDiA BANS UPA
New League, More Pride
ARTICLE BY MIA GUEVARA • PHOTO BY CHELSEA NGUYEN • DESIGN BY EMMA FULTON
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Initially, UPA’s main focus was tied to academics, but after 12 years, the school has begun to prioritize the sports program and its development. With new Athletic Director Tommy McMahon, the sports teams have transitioned into a more advanced league of play and now have the opportunity to face more challenging teams and better competition.
“It’s settling into a nice spot where there’s pretty good competition,” McMahon said. “There are multiple divisions for some of our sports, which is just another sign the league is growing; it’s getting more competitive in certain aspects, so the league’s developing based on talent, not just location now.”
This change in leagues means playing more competitive schools that have JV teams, prompting the reintroduction of UPA’s own JV teams.
“With the addition of junior varsity, we’re now able to grow leaders from within the program earlier to develop leadership at the freshman and sophomore levels so that it’s more mature leadership by the time it gets to varsity,” volleyball and basketball coach Tom Guevara said.
The school started out in 2007 with only JV teams because the school’s only students were juniors. The JV program ended when more grades, as well as a varsity program, were added and UPA was unable to keep up with both teams, ultimately choosing to keep varsity.
“Many kids, especially underclassmen, were hesitant to try out and compete for a spot on a varsity team,” Guevara said. “and with the increased opportunities, a lot of people are more comfortable learning, growing and trying out for a sport.”
In past seasons, players paid for their own sports apparel, such as sweatshirts and warm up T-shirts. However, this year’s varsity volleyball and basketball teams had apparel paid for by the school. This prompted more student-athletes to wear apparel around campus and publicize the sports program to the entire school.
“We get a certain amount [money] per year, and then basically it’s up to us to fundraise as well as use the money that’s allotted to our athletics budget to be able to cover the cost of a program,” McMahon said. “That goes into the cost of tournaments, referees, equipment and apparel.
Before the school took over athletic funding, sports teams relied primarily on TeamSnap, a fundraising app, to earn money. Although they still use TeamSnap, the costs now are primarily covered by the school.
In the beginning, UPA’s only source of funds for athletics came through the PTSO and parent-student donations, but this year the school has taken over budgeting for all athletics in the interest of growing the sports program.
“As a public institution we have to provide everything for students and it has to be free,” Porter said. “The cost of hiring coaches and paying for referees, like the human resources costs, have been removed from the expectation that [sports] boosters have to fundraise for that. What that means is that any dollars raised by the boosters or by a team go directly into that team.”
Recently, more kids are getting involved with sports and are excited to watch upcoming games.
“Getting new apparel and wearing it around motivates kids to tryout because we have such a limited wardrobe,” senior varsity volleyball player Chanelle Snead said. Changes to the sports program have also affected school spirit.
“Based on what I’m used to seeing, as a coach, there’s a lot more students in the stands in the last three or four games here than I’ve seen in my 15 years of coaching, so I would say there’s a strong spirit of wanting to support each other,” Executive Director David Porter said.
The UPA environment has slowly been shifting into a more sports-oriented school. “We’ve seen increases in people attending the games and cheerleaders are getting involved, and I’ve seen people really enjoying themselves at some of the volleyball contests,” Snead said. Now that the sports budget has been taken over, new sports are being added to UPA. The next expected addition will be track and feld. Details regarding the new sport were discussed in an open meeting on Jan. 26, some of which included start dates, offcial practices and gathering an offcial team.
“Having the school play a more visible and vital role in athletics, making athletics more of a priority, [impacts] school culture and climate, and I think that’s great for the long term,” Guevara said.
Chanelle Snead loves wearing the new UPA apparel rather than the uniform, and her favorite is the grey quarter-zip jacket that says Girls Varsity Volleyball.
“I’m a Golden Eagle!” Snead said proudly. Photo: Eryn Duong (12) jumps up to tip a volleyball over the net. “We’re now able to grow leaders from within the program earlier...” - Tom Guevara
Memory in the Making
ARTICLE & ILLUSTRATIONS BY DESIREE PEKAR • DESIGN BY TIFFANY TRAN
The hippocampus: the part of the brain that gives answers to all of those test questions. Or sometimes does not give said answers to those questions. All of those answers are not just found in the hippocampus, but rather in our memory.
Memory is the core of learning and studying, as both activities are done daily by students. The act of remembering is a complex system that takes place in the temporal lobe of the brain, which houses the hippocampus. The hippocampus is where information is brought up from storage.
Although the hippocampus is one source of where memories are stored, there are other parts of the brain used for different types of memory. Dr. Valerie Carr, the assistant professor of psychology at San Jose State University, explained that there are multiple memory systems.
“For example, your prefrontal cortex helps to support working memory, which refers to actively holding information in mind over a short period of time, such as when you repeat a phone number to yourself before entering it into your phone,” Dr. Carr said. “A different part of the brain, the medial temporal lobe, supports [the] formation of long-term episodic memories, which are memories of events and episodes from your life, such as your 16th birthday. As a fnal example, the basal ganglia supports skill learning, such as how to play a musical instrument.”
Science teacher Loren Schwinge said the ability to memorize information has to do with certain factors of sleep, how often one repeats the information, food and opinion. The amount of sleep and a person’s opinion on a topic will infuence one’s ability to memorize information.
“You get less than fve hours of sleep, the stuff you learn the day before is in your short term [memory] and your working memory does not get consolidated into your long term,” Schwinge said. “So if you pull an all-nighter, and wake up the next day or have a 20-minute nap before you wake up, all that stuff you did didn’t get put into your long term.”
Dr. Carr recommended that instead of cramming during an all-nighter, it is best to space out your workload. “Don’t cram for several hours the day before a test/ quiz. Instead, space out your studying across several days, for a shorter time period each day,” Dr. Carr said. “Don’t pull all-nighters or stay up late studying. Sleep is incredibly benefcial to memory, and although it might seem more advantageous to stay up late and cram more material, you will do better if you simply allow yourself to sleep.”
Kathy Ngo, a senior currently taking AP Psychology, has had her fair share with a lack of sleep affecting her memory and ability to take tests. “I was taking notes and I wrote something down, and just about an hour A PROFESSIONAL VIEWPOINT: Using your memory most effectively Don’t multitask: Only focus on studying, which means stay away from your phone. Repeatedly study certain material. Don’t cram: Space out your study time. Create your own study materials: Making your own memory devices will help you. Test yourself: Have somebody test you so that your memory is strengthened. Don’t pull all-nighters: Sleep is essential to your memory.
Memory in the Making
ARTICLE & ILLUSTRATIONS BY DESIREE PEKAR • DESIGN BY TIFFANY TRAN
The hippocampus: the part of the brain that gives answers to all of those test questions. Or sometimes does not give said answers to those questions. All of those answers are not just found in the hippocampus, but rather in our memory.
Memory is the core of learning and studying, as both activities are done daily by students. The act of remembering is a complex system that takes place in the temporal lobe of the brain, which houses the hippocampus. The hippocampus is where information is brought up from storage.
Although the hippocampus is one source of where memories are stored, there are other parts of the brain used for different types of memory. Dr. Valerie Carr, the assistant professor of psychology at San Jose State University, explained that there are multiple memory systems.
“For example, your prefrontal cortex helps to support working memory, which refers to actively holding information in mind over a short period of time, such as when you repeat a phone number to yourself before entering it into your phone,” Dr. Carr said. “A different part of the brain, the medial temporal lobe, supports [the] formation of long-term episodic memories, which are memories of events and episodes from your life, such as your 16th birthday. As a fnal example, the basal ganglia supports skill learning, such as how to play a musical instrument.”
Science teacher Loren Schwinge said the ability to memorize information has to do with certain factors of sleep, how often one repeats the information, food and opinion. The amount of sleep and a person’s opinion on a topic will infuence one’s ability to memorize information.
“You get less than fve hours of sleep, the stuff you learn the day before is in your short term [memory] and your working memory does not get consolidated into your long term,” Schwinge said. “So if you pull an all-nighter, and wake up the next day or have a 20-minute nap before you wake up, all that stuff you did didn’t get put into your long term.”
Dr. Carr recommended that instead of cramming during an all-nighter, it is best to space out your workload. “Don’t cram for several hours the day before a test/ quiz. Instead, space out your studying across several days, for a shorter time period each day,” Dr. Carr said. “Don’t pull all-nighters or stay up late studying. Sleep is incredibly benefcial to memory, and although it might seem more advantageous to stay up late and cram more material, you will do better if you simply allow yourself to sleep.”
Kathy Ngo, a senior currently taking AP Psychology, has had her fair share with a lack of sleep affecting her memory and ability to take tests. “I was taking notes and I wrote something down, and just about an hour A PROFESSIONAL VIEWPOINT: Using your memory most effectively Don’t multitask: Only focus on studying, which means stay away from your phone. Repeatedly study certain material. Don’t cram: Space out your study time. Create your own study materials: Making your own memory devices will help you. Test yourself: Have somebody test you so that your memory is strengthened. Don’t pull all-nighters: Sleep is essential to your memory.
ago, right before the test started, I was reviewing my notes. I was looking at them like, ‘What does this mean?’ or ‘What event?’ So if I don’t get enough sleep, I just straight-up forget,” Ngo said.
Another aspect that heavily affects memory and ultimately impacts how well someone remembers information is an opinion on a topic.
“It’s more what your brain is most interested in. I try to tell my students that your brain is like a toddler. It likes pretty. It likes bright. It likes loud. It likes weird,” Schwinge said. “ If it doesn’t ft any of those categories, your brain gets bored. So you have to fnd ways to make [the topic] interesting.”
One of the dangers that haunts students when taking tests is misremembering information and the brain changing the information in some way.
Schwinge explained that every memory is changed in a microscopic way. It is such a tiny change that one will possibly never notice that it has been changed, like the color of a background object changing. Ngo also discusses how making associations can contribute to misremembering facts.
“Whenever you do things and you learn things, you make associations, but sometimes when you make an association that can easily be associated with something else, you might mix that up. Or remember something else instead of what you mean to remember,” Ngo said.
Schwinge elaborated on how making associations and connections can beneft students.
“A lot of teachers like having kids use analogies because it forces your brain to make a connection that was not naturally there,” Schwinge said. “That connection is what outlasts the fact and lets you bring the fact back when it disappears.”
Ultimately, playing with our minds to make a topic interesting can help with remembering answers to the hardest questions.
“So what you have to do as a learner is make things that you fnd uninteresting, you have to trick your brain and make it interesting,” Schwinge said.
—Loren Schwinge
ILLUSTRATION BY DAKOTA PEKAR
Prefrontal Cortex Basal Ganglia
Medial Temporal Lobe
