Aquila March 2023 (Vol. 12, Issue 3)

Volume XII, Issue 3 MARCH 23, 2023

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LETTER FROM THE EDITORS-IN-CHIEF ILLUSTRATIONS & DESIGN BY SHIBANI GHOSH

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Letter from the Editors-In-Chief

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VOLUME XII, ISSUE 3

to Aquila Readers The last time that Aquila had a third issue was before the pandemic ripped us away from our newsroom.

When the two of us began this school year, we set out with the hope to publish four issues – two more than we had done in our previous three years and one more than had ever been done before. We were unsure, but hopeful, that we would be able to achieve this.

The process of creating a newsmagazine is long and daunting, but is a skill that Artificial Intelligence (AI) can not mimic any time soon. However, AI art, or more accurately AI “art,” has been the subject of recent controversy and lawsuits.

In the article “Art Generating…,” reporter Zainab Shaikh dives into the world of AI art, providing a platform for differing views on the recent rise of AI software. From sources who believe that AI-generated art sparks creativity to those who believe that AI art is detrimental to human creativity, Shaikh leads a nuanced discussion about what “art” is and who should be able to create it. Read “Art Generating…” on pages 5-6.

Reporter Rajeev Devanath explores the past of one of UPA’s most infamous traditions: the seventh grade History Fair. In his article, Devanath shares the conception of the history fair—ten years ago—and the pillar it has evolved to be for the UPA community. Read “Fair as Old as Time” on page 7.

In “You’re Hired!,” reporter Katrina Tran chronicles UPA’s process for hiring new staff members. From the background checks to the interviews by department heads, “You’re Hired!” explains the criteria administrators are looking for to welcome a new member to UPA. Read the article on pages 9-10.

Some students, after being hired, find themselves contending with the work-school balance that comes

with having a job. Reporter Beza Mitachew details the after school lives of student service workers, and how it can be both difficult and rewarding to have a job. Read “Money on My Mind” on pages 11-12.

In her article “Everything I Wanted,” Reporter Nadia Hines describes her experience attending the Billie Eilish Happier Than Ever tour and watching Eilish’s first movie concert experience. Dive into the “lovely” world of “Everything I Wanted” on pages 21-22.

Reporter Haylie Yee explores romance at UPA in her article “The ‘L-word.’” Interviewing students and teachers who have experienced love and heartbreak, Yee records the highs and lows of experiencing teenage love and confronts the stereotype of teen couples’ immaturity. Read “The ‘L-word’” on pages 15-17.

Speaking of love, we’d like to thank the amazing reporters and editors that have made this possible. We realize that you, as our readers, only see the final product of countless hours of work. We’d like to share the individual stories that made this magazine possible: designers hand-tracing quizlet buttons in the corner, reporters scrambling to get food at Taco Bell and make it back to campus for production night and one of us buying a Pizookie (which promptly melted) for the other’s 18th birthday.

These stories, among the more common ones of peer-editing and encouragement, characterize this newsmagazine and the people who create it. So without further ado, welcome to Volume 12, Issue 3.

Sincerely, To: Aquila Readers

VIDYA ACHAR

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AKHILA AYYADEVARA

ABOUT AQUILA MISSION STATEMENT

Aquila is a student-produced, student-edited high school newsmagazine. It serves as a designated public forum for student expression. We aim to reflect the diversity of our community and build unity through true and accurate reporting, in hopes that each of our readers will find an article they can connect with.

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The front cover, illustrated by Vidya Achar with a background shot by Kyla Ulug and Chloe Luu, shows Artifical intelligence robots creating art in a classroom. Read “Art Generating...” on page 5.

STAFF Editors-in-Chief Vidya Achar & Akhila Ayyadevara Managing Editor Haylie Yee Publicity & Web Manager Lena Nguyen Publicity & Web Manager Taylor Nguyen Multimedia Manager Kyla Ulug Copy Editor Samita Golla Copy Editor April Nguyen Copy Editor Katrina Tran Copy Editor Ria Pandey Editor Vishaka Anand Editor Shibhani Ghosh Editor Nadia Hamilton

Editor Nadia Hines Editor Chloe Luu Editor Isaac Rios Editor Zainab Shaikh Editor Shayna Tran Reporter Lorenzo Almario Reporter Tobie Charbonnet Reporter Shreya Choudhury Reporter Rajeev Devanath Reporter Angel Froumis Reporter Karen Heng

Reporter Olive Luong Reporter Sneha Madan Reporter Samira Madden Reporter Jordan Mathew Reporter Ben Meyer Reporter Beza Mitachew Reporter Chris Park Reporter Lance Peraza Reporter Aubrey Phung Reporter Matthew Tapia Adviser Kathryn Gong-Guy

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Table of Contents Design by sneha madan

NEWS quizlet creates premium subscription Art generating...

4 5-6

Features fair as old as time

7

Standards with style

8

You’re hired!

9-10

Money on my mind

11-12

Opinion free-b-day

13-14

In-depth The “L-Word”

15-17

A&c

3

sweets galore

18-20

everything i wanted

21-22

Quizlet creates premium subscription Practice tests, set customization and offline access no longer free ARTICLE BY JORDAN MATHEW • DESIGN BY MATTHEW TAPIA

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UICK! There’s a Spanish test next period and you have not studied. In the busy hallway, you pull up Quizlet on your phone. You try to access a practice test, but now, you need to pay for a subscription.

During August of 2022, Quizlet, an academic tool used for studying, underwent several changes that impacted both UPA students and teachers alike.

One change was the loss of unlimited studying in the Learn and Test modes.

These features evaluated and examined students on the concepts they have learned by constructing practice questions fit to the user’s preference to better improve their understanding.

Another change Quizlet underwent was the removal of the user’s ability to customize study sets with images and diagrams. This feature helped visual learners. The ability to download study sets to review offline is also not available in the free version.

All the changes men-

tioned above are now available under a subscription called “Quizlet Plus.” The subscription is $8 per month or $36 annually.

On Aug. 4, Quizlet was asked about the reason for making these changes and responded with this tweet: “We made these changes

available. This is why Learn and Test will be apart of Quizlet Plus.”

Some believe that by making these abrupt changes, Quizlet is restricting users from vital studying tools.

Spanish teacher Nico Mendoza incorporates

“I would make a subscription if my parents paid for [quizlet] because i don’t have the money to pay for it every month” -Elshadi Jahdid-Alam to keep our business sustainable and ensure that we can continue to invest in the creation of products that help you get the most out of your study time. Subscriptions allow us to reinvest to develop the best study tools

Quizlet into his curriculum to serve as a tool to review the information taught in class and give his students a greater comprehension.

“I actually use Quizlet at least twice a week,” Mendoza said. “We also use

Quizlet a lot for vocabulary and grammar practice. It’s powerful in my class, especially with Spanish students who are able to retain more information and understand the concepts better.”

Mendoza feels that without the academic tool, students will have a harder time memorizing and understanding the material especially in vocabulary-heavy classes.

“I think it will be a great investment because I believe Quizlet has a lot of great aspects to it. I would actually ask UPA to consider paying the fee,” Mendoza said.

Sophomore student, Elshadi Jahdid-Alam, used to frequently utilize quizlet to study for her tests and quizzes, especially her Spanish 3 class. Now, Jahdid-Alam limits her time on quizlet in light of the recent changes.

“My studying on the website is very limited and I can only use it to review.

I would make a subscription if my parents paid for it because I don’t have the money to pay for it every month,” Jahdid-Alam said.

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art generating

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ARTICLE, ILLUSTRATIONS AND DESIGN BY ZAINAB SHAIKH • PHOTO BY POSSESSED PHOTOGRAPHY ON UNSPLASH

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rtificial Intelligence art (AI art) took popular social media platforms TikTok and Instagram by storm, with millions of posts featuring computer-generated images labeled as “art.” Also known as algorithmic art, AI art refers to images and graphic artworks that have been generated by artificial intelligence algorithms.

DALL-E, Midjourney and Dream by Wombo are some of the dozens of accessible platforms used to generate images.

While creating artwork and images within mere seconds may seem appealing, algorithmic art generates controversy regarding how human artists who make art are affected by the sudden AI takeover. The topic raises questions about the ethics and boundaries of artificial intelligence — will robots replace human creativity once and for all?

Merriam-Webster defines art as “the conscious use of skill and creative imagination especially in the production of aesthetic objects.” Cambridge Dictionary describes art as “the making of objects, images, music, etc. that are beautiful or that express feelings.”

Universally, there is no agreed explanation of what constitutes art, and its interpretations have varied greatly throughout history and across cultures.

Multimedia Arts teacher Cameron Seibly, who studied digital art in college, agrees with the dictionaries' sentiments but has his own twist to the textbook interpretation of art.

“It's subjective like a lot of things are,” Seibly said. “But if I were to nail the definition of graphic arts down with a single idea, it would be communication with either art principles, art elements or communication with shapes and colors.”

Artificial intelligence has been creating art since the 1960s, with artists and programmers having developed algorithms to enable machines to create artwork. Harold Cohen, artist, programmer and pioneer of algorithmic art, wrote the program AARON in 1973, which allowed a machine to produce drawings that followed code he had created.

From then on, graphic art algorithms have continued to evolve. Generative 5 | News

adversarial networks (GANs) were designed in 2014. Using GANs, AI software analyzes thousands of images from a database collection, then generates new images from certain keywords or phrases the user types into the algorithm. Common applications of generative adversarial networks include deepfakes (media in which a person in an existing image or video is replaced with someone else's face), voice changers and filters.

The article “Understanding Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs)”

by Towards Data Science explains how images are filtered to get the desired outcome. General adversarial networks use a "perfect generator" — code used to determine if images are desirable or undesirable — to generate new illustrations, and a "discriminator" to decide which created images are considered successful.

At his presidential address at the American Association for Artificial Intelligence in 2000, Cohen claimed AARON helped him with his own art and first turned to AI techniques in the hope of understanding his own creativity better. “[AARON] is a much more talented and creative artist than most of us would claim to be,” he said.

In contrast, Seibly stands neutral and acknowledges both the positives and negatives of embracing AI to further humanity’s abilities.

“When used properly, AI is certainly an enhancement or augmentation to human creativity,” he said.

“Again, the ability to create reference images and the ability to enhance your artwork with AI is fascinating.”

With the help of artificial intelligence, Seibly speculates pre-production of animated media will be easier.

“For example, in media or any kind of big business that involves 2D animation, you need a human team to sit down for weeks and just crank out image after image and iteration after iteration for pre-production design,” Seibly said. “It just takes a long time,

so I can imagine that with AI, you could probably produce a couple of thousand images in a few days with just the basic AI producer."

Sophomore Atlas Ebrahim is a digital and traditional artist who specializes in realism. As a creator, they aim to improve their skills and share art on their social media platform on Instagram.

While proponents of AI view algorithmic art as an enhancement to human creativity, Ebrahim does not.

“I don’t see [AI art] as any form of human creativity,” Ebrahim said. “Human creativity is something inside of you and isn’t something that you can put into a program. Creativity isn’t something you can code; it is something that just flows through you, as a human.”

In Ebrahim’s opinion, AI cannot create art because it is “not sentient.”

“I'll just imagine, ‘Hey, what if there's this scene…’ I want to paint,

and my mind will go flowing and out of nowhere. An hour later, I'll have this big painting that I painted myself. Robots can not have any form of human creativity; they are not sentient.” Ebrahim said.

Factually, artificial intelligence cannot create original art; rather, its abilities are limited to only replicating art found in its database of images.

Media utilizing AI art has already hit the big screen with the release of Netflix's animated short “Dog and Boy,” which utilized AI-produced artwork for the background images of the anime-style film. Published as an “experimental effort” to address the anime industry’s ongoing labor shortage, it was released to the streaming platform on Jan. 31, 2023. However, it garnered controversy — netizens were quick to point out that human animators who rendered the backgrounds were not included in the end credits; the background designers were only listed as “AI (+Human).”

Junior Aimee Salazar, a digital and traditional artist who sports social media platforms on TikTok and Instagram, finds the lack of acknowledgement “infuriating.”

“I understand if you want to save some time and put an AI background there, but people worked on it after that to make sure it fit,” Salazar said. “So, they should most definitely be mentioned instead of ‘AI (+Human).’”

Salazar is a firm believer in the principle that because humans are the ones who created animation, they are the heart and soul of the art form.

“Whether people acknowledge it or believe it or not, animation started because some person drew some frames and put them together and was like, ‘Oh my God, a picture that moves? That's crazy.’” she said. “Humans made this, and they should be represented and appreciated for it. If animation gets taken over by robots, that's going to be some pretty dry content.”

Within AI algorithm image databases, artworks produced by humans are also prevalent. Occasionally, algorithmic art websites blunder and display watermarks of human creators, revealing the generated byproduct to be stolen artwork from other artists. On other occasions, netizens are quick to point out AI artwork’s uncanny resemblance to several human artist’s artwork, reveal-

ing the algorithm used human made artwork to generate art.

According to the article “Good Artists Borrow, Great Artists Steal, and AI Art Generators get Sued” by Camille Sojit Pejcha, many creators, including American cartoonist and author Sarah Andersen, have filed lawsuits against AI art websites, claiming that they “violated the copyrights of millions of artists by using their work to train image generators.”

Salazar expresses concern over the negative impact AI will have upon the artists whose work was stolen by AI algorithms.

“I don't really care if people are having fun and using AI art generators for fun, but sometimes when I see those images, I'm just like, ‘that art style looks mighty familiar,’” Salazar said. “And then it just reminds me that art was stolen from artists to make this possible, even if they're not directly being hurt.”

"I don't see [AI art] as any form of human creativity.

Creativity isn't something you can code; it is something that just flows through you, as a human."

Atlas Ebrahim She believes AI can replicate, but not create, art.

“One of the biggest aspects of art, in my opinion, is that it's made with some form of emotion,” Salazar said. “Artists spend years of their life to learn what they know and to draw how they do, and then a robot comes along and does what artists do in a fraction of a second. It’s ‘art’, but it has no sentimental value to it.”

Typically, art has been observed to change with the time period, human advancement and human beliefs in different parts of the world. For instance, as different philosophical and technological innovations spread throughout Medieval Europe starting the Renaissance, paintings shifted from religious scenes to include portraits, figures from Greek

and Roman mythology and events from then-contemporary life.

As technology and communication develop, ideologies and art reach global proportions. Thanks to the internet, art from all walks of life is now accessible to everyone, in comparison to how available art from all cultures was before the digital age.

The general agreement between historians is that human civilization is in the age of contemporary art (1945-present day). According to the article “Contemporary Art” by Tate Britain, “The term contemporary art is loosely used to refer to art of the present day and of the relatively recent past, of an innovatory or avant-garde nature.” Instead of focusing on whether the piece is aesthetically pleasing or beautiful to the eye, contemporary art focuses on the meaning of the artwork and what emotions it evokes.

Senior Tyler Soong dabbles in both digital and traditional art. He thinks that art’s definition will continue to evolve, but will always remain the same for him.

“The concrete definition [of art] in the dictionary and on Google might change, but my own definition will most likely remain the same; the definition of art is to make the audience feel something the artist intends them to.”

Soong views AI art as the antithesis of contemporary art.

“If you put one billion chimpanzees in a room and gave them treats when they typed words, they are bound to write something decent.” Soong said, “I view AI art that way, but the robots learn at outstanding capabilities with correct data sets and you don't need one billion of them. AI art is not a modernist cool type of art — it’s a thing for people to make money off of and scam rich people."

While the future of art in the hands of artificial intelligence seems bleak to UPA students, Seibly remains realistic yet optimistic on how AI will reform the art industry in the coming years.

“In a perfect world, AI will not replace human beings,” Seibly said. “But in a realistic world, where people can cut corners and save money, there might be some job loss, and that kind of sucks.

We just need to take it one step at a time and have human beings be the influence that will change minds and not just be the bottom dollar.”

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Fair As old As Time Exploring the History Fair, a UPA tradition

ARTICLE BY RAJEEV DEVANATH • DESIGN BY SAMIRA MADDEN • ILLUSTRATIONS BY ANGEL FROUMIS & SHAYNA TRAN

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en years ago, Ancient Civilizations teacher Steve Guevara implemented the History Fair project into the Ancient Civilizations 7 course. For this project, students create slideshows, decorate tri-fold boards and dress up in costumes to represent any event of their choice in history.

Inspired by the film “Peabody and Sherman,” Guevara was intrigued by the idea of enabling students to explore history on their own by finding a topic that truly interests them. Once students put together their trifolds, they showcase their projects to upperclassmen. Students in grades 8-12 are able to explore the projects set up in the classroom during their free time. If students choose to, they can also vote for their favorite.

“The best part for me,” Guevara said, “is seeing the whole school get involved.”

Guevara believes that voting brings the community together and allows students to support each other. The slight competition for bragging rights also brings out students’ best work and teaches them how to produce quality work.

“It’s [the seventh graders’] introduction to project based learning at UPA,” Guevara said.

Freshman Sai Indukuri gained a great deal through the History Fair in terms of how to effectively develop and present a project.

“I learnt a lot of presentation skills which helped me with other projects in eighth and ninth grade,” Indukuri said.

The History Fair aids in preparing seventh grade students for high school and allows them also to receive feedback from upperclassmen. As a bonus, Indukuri was able to learn more about his personal passion: planes.

“I learnt so much more about the history of planes such as

7 | Features

how the first passenger airline service started,” Indukuri said.

According to Guevara, the History Fair has evolved over its decade-long lifetime.

Originally, it was an advertisement project where students expressed a selling point about a certain period of history; now, it’s more about delivering a story. Guevara, though impartial about his favorite type of the project, just enjoys seeing students produce something that is reflective of their own interests in history. The showcase and presentation is a bonus for the whole UPA community.

“All of the students have put a History Fair project together so they know what it takes,” Guevara said.

High school students especially enjoy supporting the seventh graders because they recognize the effort they have taken to put the project together.

Junior Panav Vashishat recalls when he participated in the

History Fair four years ago.

“I remember, even when it was my History Fair time, the older kids, they’d come back and reminisce. It’s just a positive environment,” Vashishat said.

Vashishat feels that it is vital to pay it forward and visit the new group of seventh graders each year. “[Now,] It’s always been really fun to just go back and check out what everyone’s doing. It’s kind of like reliving that time in seventh grade,” Vashishat said.

Seventh grader Suhrit Duba is also excited for the History Fair.

“I’m happy to share something that I find interesting with the school, and I believe that the History Fair will give me an opportunity to do it.” Duba said.

Duba’s immediate interest in the History Fair is one of numerous examples of its effect on UPA students.

Senior Mishal Damji expressed her enjoyment of doing the History Fair in her seventh grade year. Damji explored the Ottoman Empire through her History Fair project and learned about much more than just that.

“I loved [the History Fair]. I got to decorate a poster and dress up so I found it really fun. It was also a way for me to practice presentation and public speaking skills,” Damji said.

Overall, the History Fair gives seventh graders a true welcoming into UPA and expands our community in a wholesome way, and Guevara’s continual success running it has made it memorable for every UPA student.

STANDARDS WITH STYLE

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A look into how UPA teachers create their course curriculums ARTICLE BY LANCE PERAZA • PHOTO & DESIGN BY RAJEEV DEVANATH

ake up. Change up and make up curriculum.

Every year, teachers go through the process of creating a curriculum that suits their students.

The academic standing of each student varies, considering the different backgrounds they all come from.

Middle school English teacher Kathryn Beary feels responsible to determine what areas her students need improvement in, and develop the curriculum accordingly.

Beary has several strategies to gauge her student’s levels, one of such is “Data days”.

Beary explains the concept “Data days,” a day where teachers analyze graded assignments to discuss students’ current academic standings and needs. Teachers observe each students’ data to see where areas of success and growth are to plan accordingly to further advance students.

“The purpose of this exercise is to determine potential biases or areas of focus,” Beary said. “It’s important to recognize that all teachers, like students, come from a variety of backgrounds and perceptions.”

Additionally, with her students changing each year, Beary realizes that her curriculum must also change to better suit them.

“A lot of [my] teaching does not have a set curriculum that [I] can use year after year after year,” Beary said. “[I] have to assess where my current students [are] at [and] how can

I scaffold this curriculum so that it’s accessible to them.”

Furthermore, varying academic levels students are not the only data point of importance within the curriculum according to Beary, “I think what’s really important, too, is noticing

teachers also have to follow standards set by the state, called Common States Standards.

In preparation for the Advanced Placement test for her AP Literature and Composition students, English Department Chair Kristin Moore builds a curriculum based

Seibly uses his National Media Arts Standards poster to guide his curriculum. the gaps that are in your curriculum in terms of relatability to the students,” Beary said.

Knowing how the curriculum sticks with students is another factor that teachers need to understand to create a connection to the student using the curriculum as a medium.

As much as student data and engagement plays a role in curriculum development,

around her students and needs to pinpoint their needs because “there’s no set curriculum for AP Literature other than ‘These are the skills that students need to know in order to do well on the [AP] test.’”

Multimedia teacher Cameron Seibly succeeds Leo Salcedo after his departure from the school who formerly taught this course. Though

Salcedo is no longer a part of UPA, Seibly still maintains communication with him.

“I talked to [Salcedo] and we shared ideas,” Seibly said.

He told me about the class, and I had the opportunity to basically have it almost be like his class this year, but I wanted to kick things off and kind of have my own start. I have his backbone, but a lot of [the curriculum] is my own ideas that I’m fleshing out into it.”

Seibly is pacing the course differently than Salcedo did, but plans to continue past projects such as the “pixel project” and “monster face.” This meshing of curriculums allows students to take part in projects that are both enjoyable and practical.

“I have the standards here behind me, and so I can match the standards. But really, the curriculum, unlike math, for example, or science, is very up to the interpretation of the teacher,” Seibly said.

AP Literature and Composition, however, has a curriculum set by College Board and focuses on analytical skills and literary techniques. To achieve this, Moore utilizes the novels and poems students read throughout the school year to polish the skills students will need for the AP test.

“It is important that the teacher is passionate about the texts that they teach because that passion sort of spills over to the students, and it just makes the class more fun,” Moore said.

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You're Hired!

Behind the scenes of UPA’s hiring process

ARTICLE BY KATRINA TRAN • ILLUSTRATIONS BY ZAINAB SHAIKH & LENA NGUYEN • PHOTOS & DESIGN BY APRIL NGUYEN • PHOTO COURTESY OF YARIELA PEREZ

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s a charter school with the mission of preparing students With the mission of preparing its students to excel in college and university, UPA has a variety of qualities it looks for in prospective teachers to ensure that the goal of its founders lives on. Although this goal is a well-known aspect of UPA, few parents and students understand the steps of UPA’s hiring process.

The Hiring Process The hiring process begins with Business Operations and Human Resources Manager Yariela Perez, who posts the job position and its description on job and teaching platforms like Edjoin and Indeed. These descriptions typically include details about the job such as: whether the position is to teach middle or high schoolers, full time or part time, salary range, job purpose, duties, expectations and credentials. From there, prospective employees are able to submit their resumes and cover letters, which are then vetted by Executive Director David Porter and Perez before being passed onto the department chair, teachers in the department, and an administrator, such as Director of Curriculum and Instruction Jean Mastrogiacomo.

“From [a cover letter], we can get a good sense of [whether] we feel [if this applicant] would be a good fit for our students,” English Department Chair Kristin Moore said.

After applications are ex- amined and approved by the hiring

team, the candidate is emailed to indicate the school’s consideration of their application.

Once they respond, the assistant to the executive director contacts the candidate to arrange an interview. Interviews typically occur in-person, however, under certain circumstances, they may happen on Zoom. If the interviewee passes the first interview with Porter, the department chair and a teacher from the department, a second one is conducted by Porter. During the interviews, the candidate is typically asked questions regarding 9 | FEATURES

their teaching background, experiences and future aspirations. The candidate is also asked to respond to potential classroom scenarios and for their classroom structure, such as community-building activities, teaching techniques, lesson plans, classroom management, comprehension checks, homework amounts and more.

After the interview, applicants have the opportunity to ask questions pertaining to the school community and are given specific details on the job position they applied for, including the course, salary, grade level and suggested curriculum.

Through the interviewee’s responses, the interviewer can then develop an idea on who the applicant is as a person and as a teacher, using that to decide whether or not they would be a good fit for UPA and its mission. Interviews are especially crucial because even if a resume seems well polished and the person appears to be experienced, lack of detail in responses or inability to answer certain crucial questions in the interview can expose certain areas unseen in the application that may be an issue.

“I’ve been in interviews where I feel like the candidate isn’t really answering the question,” Math Department Chair Jaswinder Dhillon said. “ T h a t [ m a y m e a n that] they don’t listen very well. And if they’re [also] not able to communicate very well, that poses some cause for concern.”

After the interview process, the background verification process occurs. This includes checking references, verifying the can- didate’s employment history and an FBI database background check through fingerprinting.

Once a teacher is hired, the curriculum from previous years is shared through Google Drive or programs used by that course over the summer prior to starting. After receiving the necessary resources, a teacher who previously

taught that course meets with the hired teacher to go over the suggested pacing and material of the curriculum.

Characteristics UPA Looks For It all comes down to whether the person is a “good fit” for UPA in six main ar-

eas: experience, passion, teaching techniques, communication, view and personality.

Experience increases efficiency in teachers when it comes to completing their duties of teaching and managing a class. However, while experience is useful and looked for in applicants, it does not greatly influence whether one is hired or not.

“It’s really great if someone has a lot of experience,” Moore said. “But, we have hired many teachers who are new in their career who have ended up being amazing teachers. We’re looking for someone who can explain not just what they do in a classroom, but why they do it.”

Passion for teaching and working with students is another quality UPA looks for in its educators. Someone who is hired should be able to explain their purpose, how they aim to make the community a better place, what they wish to achieve and why they love or want the job. They also need to connect with students and enjoy what they do.

“A successful UPA employee demonstrates a passion for student education and believes that each child can achieve our mission and is willing to work towards that goal,” Porter said.

For teaching techniques, educators should be able to work well with students. This refers to their teaching styles, ability to teach different types of learners and classroom management techniques.

Most important is being able to maintain access and equity, two important concepts needed to achieve UPA’s mission.

“We want somebody who… we feel is going to have classroom

management, good poise in the classroom, and [is able to] manage different learning styles at the same time,” Dhillon said.

Teachers should also have strong communication skills with both students and other staff members. Through strong and clear communication, students will feel more comfortable and understand rules and materials. Without it, there will simply be confusion and uncertainty.

In regards to view, those hired should have the ultimate goal of helping achieve UPA’s mission of preparing students for college. To work towards this, they should be able to recognize every student’s potential and skills, refining them to help students grow. Seeing students’ potentials and guiding them is another important element of this section.

“UPA is structured on top of the mission,” Porter said. “So, the first thing is that an employee or potential employee has to understand and believe that the mission is achievable for every student… We [need] to recognize their individual strengths and skill sets and build off of those to get them prepared for college.”

UPA also looks for someone who is warm, positive, thoughtful and confident in regards to their personality. This ensures that students have a welcoming environment on campus, allowing everyone to feel safe and free while still being held accountable for school policies and rules.

“We want teachers who are intentional about their teaching practice, who understand [and are] able to describe how they actually go about supporting students,” Moore said. “And also [we’re] just looking for warmth and friendliness and someone who seems like they’ll be able to connect with their students.”

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Money on my Mind How having a job affects students at UPA ARTICLE & PHOTOS BY BEZA MITACHEW ILLUSTRATIONS & DESIGN BY ANGELICA FROUMIS

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enior Nathan Taye leaves school at 2 p.m. then heads to work at 3 p.m.

He works for seven hours, closes up and goes home. Once he arrives home around 11 p.m., he spends an hour on homework and heads to sleep around midnight.

Students at UPA have a range of jobs, from tutoring to working in fast food. They constantly balance their work and academics — which includes AP exams, college applications and homework.

Taye works during the weekend at Foot Locker as a sales associate, originally seeking a part time job to buy a car. After he bought it, he

11 | Features

wanted to build up a savings account as well as save money to start up a future business.

“I have to save money [so], when I go to college, I won’t have to worry about money,” Taye said.

Sophomore Daniel Contreras works at a Galli Produce distributing factory where he packs up fruits and vegetables. He sought employment in order to provide for himself, so he would not have to rely solely on his parents. His experience with a job has been positive for his finances, but he does note the difficulty in balancing school and work.

Contreras works night shifts, and doing schoolwork takes him approximately two hours if he decides to complete it at all.

He notes that his grades have drastically declined as he tries balancing his job and academics.

“When I work I feel like I am doing more with

my time [and] I am also helping myself in many ways,” Contreras said.

Since time after school is filled with working, some employed students find alternative times to complete their schoolwork.

“I finish most of my work in class and take advantage of class time to do homework,” Taye said.

Contreras explained how having a job forces him to adjust the way he is doing schoolwork and homework. On a typical day, he gets home from school around 4-5:30 p.m. He does homework until 6 p.m., but he usually is unable to finish..

Then, he goes to work around 7 p.m. and stays until the night shift is over, which is usually around 11 p.m., leaving him no time to do homework. He typically finishes his homework on the weekend, but some of it is turned in late. From time to time, he describes feeling stressed and very tired.

Contreras also described the positive effects of having a job. Since he is constantly hauling boxes of fruits and vegetables, he has become physically stronger. He also talked about how working has helped him acclimate to a professional working environment, making it easier for him in the future when he obtains a full-time job.

Sophomore Gabriel Galan helps cook tacos at his uncle’s taco shop, Big Ruub's & Zach's Taco Catering, mainly catering for parties. After getting his job, his sleep schedule has changed drastically. Galan believes that having a job broadens his perspective on money and has helped him learn financial management for the future. He initially got a job to support himself, but now he wants to save up for his dream career: going to UFC and becoming a professional boxer.

Galan feels a sense of independence

a job really aided him in developing his social and leadership skills through conversations he has with his coworkers and increasing levels of social interaction with people as he works. Galan has bonded with his co-workers around interests like sports, shows, and shoes, which has made his job more enjoyable.

“Many people think having a job while in school is bad,” Contreras said. “It’s not.

It does come with some flaws, but it also comes with lots of perks that I can use now and even in the future.”

“"AFTER GETTING MY JOB, I LEARNED HOW TO MANAGE MONEY."” -GABRIEL GALAN since earning money comes with an aspect of making decisions for himself. Galan loves this because he can now be in control of how he spends his money, which can benefit him in pursuing his goals faster.

For example, after just two months of working, he bought shoes he has been wanting for a long time.

“After getting my job, I learned how to manage money and [I became] super aware of how I spend money,” Galan said.

Galan revealed how having

Features | 12

F REE-B-DAY Ranking free birthday items from various chain stores

ARTICLE BY LENA NGUYEN & KATRINA TRAN • ILLUSTRATIONS BY LENA NGUYEN • DESIGN

BY SAMITA GOLLA

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ho doesn’t love receiving free products? Especially on your birthday! An extensive array of stores and eateries offer birthday freebies or coupons as a gift, so we took it upon ourselves to choose our top five favorites out of 15 selected stores offerin birthday rewards.

be sure to hurry — this offer is only valid for one week, starting on your birthday.

And if you’re hesitant about the “two or more paying adults” addition I mentioned above, think of it this way: the more, the merrier! Although your wallet might not be so happy about that mindset.

Katrina:

3. Bath & Body Works

1. Krispy Kreme For all doughnut lovers and sweet tooths, receiving a dozen glazed doughnuts valued at $16.99 for free when your birthday comes around is something you can’t go wrong with. Krispy Kreme offers this sweet birthday reward as long as you sign up for Krispy Kreme Rewards and provide your birthday. But don’t feel pressured with all of the other sweet treats you may be getting! This reward lasts for 30 days once you’ve received their email on the first day of your birth month. The only downside? There’s no way to sugar coat this aspect: this treat is not gluten or lactose-free. Nevertheless, the value, validity period and freebie itself earns Krispy Kreme the top spot on my list.

2. Tomi Buffet Looking for places to eat out on your birthday with others? In this case, Tomi Buffet is a good option to consider with its birthday offer and variety of tasty options! With a digital or physical valid I.D. alongside two or more paying adults, you can eat for free, no registration necessary.

The value of this free buffet meal differs with age and whether it’s lunch or dinner hours, varying from $10.99-$27.99. But 13 | OPINION

Enjoy using scented body and hand creams, shampoos, body washes or fragrance mists? If so, Bath & Body Works’ birthday freebie may be an option you should consider. When you join the My Bath & Body Works loyalty program and add your birthday, you will receive

a delightful gift: a free travel-sized body care item valued up to $8.95, valid for 30 days after your birthday! However, travel-sized body care items are more limited in scents and product types compared to full-sized options, and I would have preferred this birthday coupon to be expanded to all Bath & Body Works products, earning this delightful gift the third spot.

4. H&M If you love shopping and keeping up with fashion, H&M’s birthday 25% off one item coupon may be for you! Just join the H&M Loyalty Program and remember to activate or apply the coupon

before purchasing. On your birthday, you will find a coupon titled “25% off your favorite item!” under “My offers,” valid for two weeks. This reward isn’t my favorite because I personally don’t like the styles in H&M, and the value differs depending on how much money you choose to spend on the selected item, but those who enjoy keeping up with trends will certainly enjoy this coupon.

5. Cold Stone Creamery

Another birthday freebie for sweet tooths! When you sign up for My Cold Stone Club Rewards, you will get a birthday “Buy one, get one” coupon applicable for a “Create Your Own Creations,” where you can choose what size, flavor and mix-ins you want. The free ice cream will apply to the lower-priced item, which will have a value of $6 or more, based on your other purchase and how many ingredients you add. This birthday BOGO will be valid a week before and after your birthday. The main issue for me is the expensive prices for small portions, lower in value than other freebies above and how it’s not lactose-free, giving it a deserving fifth place on this list.

Honorary

mentions: 6) bucks 7) Ul ta 8) Crumbl

Star-

The other three places I visited — Starbucks, Ulta and Crumbl — have each respectively earned sixth, seventh and eighth place on my list. Although they provide decent products and offer — a free drink or snack, random beauty product that varies by month and a free cookie — the value and overall reward itself isn’t as significant as the others. They are also more limited to who it targets and requiring sign ups or email opt-ins, prior purchases (Starbucks), including

gluten and lactose unfriendly ingredients (Crumbl) or not allowing you to choose a preferred item and giving products of different values based on birth month, which I received one on the lower spectrum of prices (Ulta). However, they’re still free products, so they’re still worth signing up for and visiting!

Lena:

1. Not h ing Bundt Cakes

You can’t have a birthday without cake, so go to Nothing Bundt Cake to redeem — you guessed it — a bundt cake!

Valued at $6, there are numerous flavors to choose from, some of which are: red velvet, vanilla, strawberry & cream, lemon, white chocolate raspberry, and chocolate! After signing up for their rewards program, an email is sent to you a week before your birthday, and you have two weeks to redeem your cake by showing the email in-store. The only downside is that it might not be a favorite for those who don’t love sweets, but hey, cakes are a birthday tradition, right? To me, what made this place stand out in comparison to the rest were actually the workers. Everyone was very patient when I was contemplating what flavor to get, and they made the whole process of redeeming the cake very quick and easy.

2. Teaspoon If you want a quali-tea drink, Teaspoon is your place to go. Teaspoon specializes in milk tea, fruit teas and smoothies, all of which are options you can choose from! The only action required is signing up for their rewards program, after which you’ll receive a text notifying you of the offer. You have one week, starting from your birthday, to redeem any drink of your choice, $6 or under. But don’t let the price limit stop you — most drinks in

their menu will be under $6, even with toppings! But what really made Teaspoon win me over was its option of oatmilk! For lactose-intolerant people (like me) this is a necessity in any drink store.

3.Auntie Annes

Sweet or savory?

This is a debate that can go on forever. Well luckily, with Auntie Anne’s, both are options for whatever you’re in the mood for! All it takes is a quick sign up for their loyalty program on the app and then you have two weeks to redeem your free — sweet or savory — pretzel! If redeeming in-person (like I did), all you have to do is pull up the QR code on their app and they’ll scan it.

The location I visited also gave me the option of choosing pretzel nuggets if I didn’t want the soft pretzel, so that was a bonus! But the reason why it didn’t quite make the top of my list is because the pretzels I got were just a bit too sugary for my tastes.

4. Sephora For all beauty and skincare lovers out there, Sephora’s gifts are a must-have! This year they offer four different gift sets from ILIA, Glow Recipe, Dior and OUAI. In order to qualify you must be signed up for their Beauty Insider’s program on their app or website, then you have the entire month of your birthday to claim your gift! Sephora’s gifts have the most value (money-wise) out of all the freebies here and it also has one of the longest validity periods! However, the reason why I ranked it quite low is because what I chose turned out to not be my taste, and is probably something I won’t use too of-

ten. Additionally, one of the gift options, the Dior perfume, is rarely available at any store due to high demand. But all in all, the pluses mentioned earlier and the variety in choices to treat yourself on your birthday are more than enough to put Sephora at a solid fourth place.

5. Buffalo Wild Wings With all the sugary items you’d typically get on birthdays, it’s good to switch things up a bit! Buffalo Wild Wings offers six free wings — any flavor of your choice — which you have the month of your birthday to redeem after signing up for their rewards program. For those who would rather have real food rather than just desserts, this place should definitely be on your list! However, it’s technically not really free… if you order for take-out, there’s a fee. But, it’s only 99 cents, so don’t let that stop you from redeeming this “freebie” regardless!

Honorary mentions: 6) P inkber ry 7) Yoshinoya

Unfortunately, not everything can make the top five. Pinkberry and Yoshinoya both offer a free bowl — of frozen yogurt for Pinkberry and rice + protein of your choice for Yoshinoya — which are decent, the value around the same as those listed above. Both required signups for their loyalty program as well.

They did not make the top five because they just didn’t stand out to me as much as the others, and just weren’t to my taste. However, don’t let my tastes stop you from trying these places out, they’re still 100% worth a visit!

Now that you know of a few products you can redeem on your birthday, don’t wait — sign-up for all the reward programs ahead of time! Sweets, make-up, drinks, foods… whatever it is, pick your favorites, and enjoy them all! Everyone deserves to be treated to free gifts on their birthday, so without further delay, happy collecting!

OPINION | 14

Experiencing the cycles of falling in love, conflict and heartbreak through the eyes of UPA

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ARTICLE, ILLUSTRATIONS & DESIGN BY HAYLIE YEE

hile Panera Bread may be an unlikely place for a first date, that is where Spanish teacher Nico Mendoza knew he found the one: his wife Laura Mendoza.

“When I saw her, my heart started pounding,” Mendoza said. “I said, ‘Wow, she’s so beautiful.’ And that’s when I realized that she was the one, that she was the woman I had been looking for all my life.”

Plato’s Symposium, a philosophical text, shared a myth about the origins of love. It said that humans were originally formed round with four arms, four legs and two faces each. But when they were punished by the gods, splitting them in half, their nature was divided and each half had to search for the other. The myth defined love as reuniting with one’s other half.

“As a human being, I think that we all are in search of love,” Mendoza said.

15 | in-depth

“So I was always in search of love, to find the right person. And I found Laura.”

WHAT IS LOVE The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines love as “strong affection for another.” Oxford Languages describes it as “an intense feeling of deep affection.” From Wikipedia, love “encompasses a range of strong and positive emotional and mental states.”

Each definition varies in some certain way, but it is clear that there is no consensus about what exactly love is. Like the Wikipedia definition states, love is an abstract idea.

Junior Dakota Pekar is currently in a relationship with fellow junior Krish Nirmale. The pair have been dating since the summer of 2021 after they joined a mutual friend group during the pandemic.

“Although it’s a feeling, it’s a choice you make,” Pekar said. “So you can love someone forever, but that’s only if you choose to.”

Pekar stated that part of that choice to love someone is the willingness to devote one’s time and energy to love them.

Both Mendoza and Pekar acknowledged that love can be toxic and unhealthy if neither parties are ready for a relationship.

“Love is difficult because it’s multiple things,” Pekar said. “It can be extremely healthy, and you can be very happy, or it can be extremely unhealthy and you could be left insecure and un-

protected.”

DAKOTA & KRISH A month into their relationship is when Pekar realized she was in love. Out of the blue, on the way to pick up her brothers from daycare, she knew.

“The feeling you get, it’s quite literally like you don’t breathe for a minute,” Pekar said. “I literally had that. It’s an actual feeling, you tense up a little bit in your heart, and you need to remind yourself to breathe because they make you so happy.”

Nirmale, on the other hand, identified his feelings through romance novels. As an enjoyer of the genre, he recognized the symptoms of love. “[I was] thinking about her a lot and wanting to spend more time with her,” Nirmale said. “I enjoyed spending time with her more than I did with most other people.”

The couple’s first time communicating their love occurred over text.

“She wanted to say it first, and I waited for a bit,” Nirmale said. “But then I got impatient and texted it because she seemed nervous.”

Nirmale and Pekar had already discussed saying the “L-Word,” so Nirmale believed she took too long.

“The next week we were going to class, and then he said ‘Bye, love you,’” Pekar said. “My brain automatically says, ‘Love you too.’ And I was like, ‘Wait a minute.

He just stole the first verbal, ‘I love you.

How could you?!’”

Pekar and Nirmale face an obstacle in the form of Nirmale’s parents placing restrictions on their relationship. After his first date at Pekar’s house, Nirmale’s parents banned them from having dates there as they believe her neighborhood is dangerous.

They placed other restrictions such as not

spending money on dates, and they limited how often the pair called or how long their dates lasted.

“It hasn’t changed who we are or what we do and all that,” Pekar said. “We still get to enjoy our time together, and it’s never gonna change because his parents want to be restrictive. That’s their choice, not ours.”

Those restrictions are currently on a trial basis because his parents want to ensure Nirmale balances his extracurriculars and academics with his relationship.

“Honestly, I think they’ve affected it more positively because when something’s scarce it becomes more valuable,” Nirmale said. “When I don’t have as much time to hang out with her, every minute becomes so much more valuable and so much more precious.”

WHAT IS LOVE LIKE? (FEELING) “It’s very smiley,” Pekar said. “It’s like you can’t help it. It’s one of those smiles you get on your face. You’re kind of stuck from it just smiling and you can’t change it.”

Senior Alexander Yee shared a similar anecdote from his dating experience, beginning in the eighth grade.

“There is a warm fuzzy feeling,” he said.

“It puts a little pep in your step. You’re skipping around, and you are so happy.”

Yee believes that love is about supporting one’s partner above all.

“It’s nice knowing that someone cares,” Yee said. “It’s not obvious that everyone cares about you, and it’s like you have to figure out what you’re doing on your own.

It’s nice knowing what someone appreciates, or admires, the way that you are handling things.”

Mendoza solidified his certainty about his wife being the one when realized he could not stop thinking about her. He felt incomplete without her.

Mendoza said his marriage feels comfortable. There does not have to be a conversation for them to say they love each other.

“It feels peaceful,” Mendoza said. “You may face all kinds of problems, but when you receive that love there’s nothing that comes against it. Nothing.”

FOUNDATION OF LOVE Mendoza credited his view of love to the foundation of love his parents had taught him at a young age. His mother and father were together for over 50 years until they passed away.

“Just seeing that [their relationship] is possible, has a lot to do with the way I think now with my own marriage,” Mendoza said. “Love is forever and then nothing can tear it apart because it comes from the heart.”

In his own childhood, Yee recounted that since his father was always working, he had never seen his parents express affection for each other.

“I had no idea what love should have been like,” Yee said.

The first time Yee was first exposed to love was at his first job in food service.

“Seeing so many different couples interact with each other on a weekly basis was how I was introduced to how different people love each other and how they express their feelings,” Yee said.

As a cashier,Yee witnessed public displays of affection (PDA) that ranged from couples arguing over the bill, feeding each oth-

e r and wholesome compliments.

“I had seen people do PDA in public before I got into relationships but I didn’t know how normalized it was,” Yee said.

“I wasn’t raised seeing that type of stuff. My parents never talked about it with me either, so I had to go with the flow and figure out how I should interact with my partner.”

Pekar’s first exposure to love was her older sister Desiree’s relationship with fellow UPA alumni Tyler Yuen. Growing up, her parents were separated so Pekar felt that she did not have the same exposure to love that others like Mendoza had.

Pekar highlighted a story about her sister pranking Yuen by changing the name in his Starbucks app. The next time Yuen went, he had no clue which order was his.

“Tyler is a little more serious and reserved sometimes but [Desiree] definitely acts a little more silly around him,” Pekar said. “I learned that you can be weird and Continued on next page in-depth | 16

silly with someone who loves you.”

Pekar started attending therapy in 2019 which is where she attributes her own view of love. Her goal was to become a better person, which included becoming selfless and mature. “[Therapy is] how I learned what being loving and caring really means,” Pekar said. “It’s all about supporting the other person and engaging in activities you like.”

THE STIGMA When Pekar and Nirmale’s friends were first told that the two were dating, they started a bet on how long the couple would last—the longest being four months.

By Pekar’s definition, the stereotype of teenage love is that it never lasts as both lovers are not emotionally mature enough to sustain a healthy relationship.

Yee acknowledged this stereotype too. When entering a relationship, he does not expect it to last.

“Teenagers are fickle,” Nirmale said. “Their interests are constantly changing. And then because your interests are constantly changing, the people who they relate with are constantly changing and so are [their relationships].”

When Nirmale and Pekar began dating, Pekar said that with their peers weirded out by their relationship, it was difficult to develop it.

“I don’t really care for [the stigma],” Pekar said. “People can think high school relationships don’t last long all they want, but in the end, I’m gonna be the one that’s happy in my long-term relationship.”

Pekar believes that the success of a relationship is not dependent on age, but on maturity.

“You could be 16 but not mature at all, and you should not be in a relationship,” Pekar said. “Or you could be 20, you can be 25, you can be 30 and not mature enough for a relationship. That’s why a lot of high school relationships don’t last because you’re in that stage where people are not emotionally mature.”

COMMUNICATION AND CONFLICT Pekar cited communication as the key to any relationship.

“A part of being able to communicate is to have empathy for each other,” Pekar said. “You can never lose that. Otherwise it’s just fighting.”

Yee finds it difficult to communicate be17 | in-depth

cause it is angry and unpleasant when he expresses his feelings. He does not sugarcoat his anger, which is why he does not like communicating.

“Over time, I’ve learned to manage how I feel so I can tell [my partner] how I feel without being offensive and leading to back to back arguments,” Yee said.

“Communication is important, but it is also important how you phrase it and how you want to phrase it.”

Pekar described herself as a confident person as she had worked through her insecurities prior to the relationship. Although one does not need to be insecurity free, Pekar remarked openness to improve one’s insecurities as a mark of being relationship ready.

“IT’S NOT INTERESTING

TO FIGHT. I HAVE

NO NEED TO AND NO

REASON.” —DAKOTA PEKAR

She emphasized that if any insecurities come up within her relationship with Nirmale, they have always communicated.

“I think, why we’ve lasted so long is because we communicate and we don’t really have many reasons to fight,” Pekar said.

“It’s not interesting to fight. I have no need to and no reason.”

Pekar views any conflict not as a struggle against Nirmale, but rather an effort to work together and find a resolution.

“I think there are always going to be ups and downs and highs and lows,” Nirmale said. “But you have to stick it through. Because for every rally there’s going to be a really big hill afterwards.”

Yee reflected that throughout his relationships, lack of communication was a key cause of conflict.

“I’ve dated people who argued for fun and it’s not,” Yee said. “It’s not fun. It’s really draining. And honestly, I think that’s what made me fall out of love. We were arguing and arguing and arguing and I got sick of it.”

Yee felt that in his early relationships, his patience ran low with clingy partners.

“Over time I stopped spending every living second with them so I could get other things done,” Yee said. “I wanted to do more stuff with my life while still maintaining that relationship. But that didn’t always work because I had to sometimes spend more time doing schoolwork, working or playing sports.”

When his communication skills began faltering, Yee described those as the breaking points in his relationships. He learned to give notices in advance that he would be preoccupied because some of his partners had trust issues that he was cheating if he was gone for too long.

“With the people who got mad at me for not prioritizing enough time for them, even though I warned them days and weeks at a time that I would be busy, I feel like we weren’t on the same level or track in life,” Yee said.

HEARTBREAK Mendoza experienced a painfully memorable heartbreak in highschool with his first love.

“Everything around you looks colorful, and you’re on top of the world,” Mendoza said. “But then there’s heartbreak, it’s just painful and it hurts. But taking it back to when [the relationship] started, those moments will always be there in your memory.”

Mendoza remembered recovering from his heartbreak through time. Although he still remembered her, he accepted that she was not meant for him and moved on.

Yee also shared these feelings about heartbreak. After breaking up with a partner he recounted that it affected him for a long time and he made himself busy to avoid it.

“Whatever you learn from that relationship, carry it on to the next one so that you don’t make the same mistakes in your future relationships,” Yee said. “That’s all I’m gonna say is, learn from the past ones.

And then whatever you learn, incorporate it into your next relationship.”

sweets galore Review of local Bay Area Indian sweet shops ARTICLE, PHOTOS & DESIGN BY RIA PANDEY

kabila sweets and restaurant:

rangoli sweets:

Located in Santa Clara, Kabila Sweets and Restaurant offers an array of traditional Indian dishes alongside baked goods and sweets. The restaurant is open for in-person dining, takeout and event catering every day of the week from 11 a.m.-3 p.m. and 4:30 -9:30 p.m.

The dessert menu includes a variety of North Indian sweets such as laddoos, rasmalai and cham cham.

Laddoos, a sphere shaped sweet, are primarily made using flour, fat, sugar and jaggery (unrefined sugar that typically comes from sugar cane grown in the Indian subcontinent).

Cham cham is a Bengali specialty made by curdling milk, shaping the solid into cylindrical shapes, and then cooking it in rose-flavored sugar syrup to bring out its spongy and light texture. Typical garnishings for this dessert include coconut shavings and cut pistachios.

Rasmalai is a soft piece of cottage cheese dipped in a creamy and milky syrup made from milk, sugar, cream and saffron. Kabila Sweets guarantees fresh sweets everyday as they make everything at the beginning of the day before opening the store.

When I visited the restaurant, I decided to order my personal favorites from their menu — boondi laddoo, pink cham cham and rasmalai. The restaurant charges the sweets by the pound, and I ordered a six-piece rasmalai box, along with two pieces of cham cham and three laddoos. The total of my order came out to be $35.56 which I thought was a reasonable price point — the rasmalai cost $18 per pound, boondi lad-

Also located in Santa Clara, Rangoli Sweets is an elegant Indian restaurant that offers artistic versions of Northern and coastal Indian dishes. The restaurant not only offers Indian sweets but also is a specialty business that caters cakes for bridal, anniversary and birthday events.

The restaurant only offers take-out and no-contact delivery, having no in-person dining option. The restaurant is open all seven days of the week from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m.

I visited the restaurant on a Saturday around 3 p.m. and noticed that there was no crowd in the store at that point in the day. Most of the sweets were in packed boxes, and the refrigerated sweets were in a glass display near the cashier counter. The dry sweets that do not use milk as a main ingredient were mainly in the boxes, and the recommended time to finish eating them is within a week. The milk-based desserts however are made fresh every morning and are refrigerated until closing for that day. I ordered the same sweets I ordered at Kabila’s, and there was also no wait time because I was ordering pre-made sweets from the morning.

The sweets at Rangoli were also priced by the pound — the rasmalai cost $15 per pound, boondi laddoo was $12 per pound and cham cham was $17 per pound. My total came out to be $46.87 with tax, which was a comparable price point to the amount I had paid at Kabila.

The rasmalai was a little too sweet for my liking, and I felt like the sugar was overpowering the creaminess that

doo was $7 per pound and cham cham was $6 per pound. The quantity and quality of the milk-based sweets I had ordered generally tend to be more pricey due to the cost of cream and milk ingredients. When I visited and ordered at the restaurant around 4 p.m., there was no wait time, and we got our sweets immediately to-go.

Upon arriving home, I tried a piece of rasmalai first. The dessert was made absolutely flawlessly with the level of sweetness and texture being perfect. The cottage cheese was fully soaked with the syrup flavoring, and the sweet milky taste was not overwhelmed by the hint of floral saffron and nutty cardamom taste.

Next, I tried a boondi laddoo, a specific variation of laddoos made from small bits of fried gram flour soaked in sugar syrup, which I thought had a little bit of a harder exterior than I prefer, yet the inside of the sweet was still a softer texture. The small boondis made of the gram flour and syrup were slightly larger than the usual size, but overall, the sweetness level and taste was delicious.

The last thing I tried from Kabila was the cham cham. My favorite thing about that dessert is the variety of colors it comes in, from bright yellow to green to pink. Going with my favorite color, pink, I took a bite and immediately approved of it. The cham cham was extremely soft and just like a soft sponge that oozed sugar syrup when pressed.

The texture was soft and the hint of rose flavoring in the pink dessert was perfect.

Continued on next page

ARTS & CULTURE | 18

should have been the hero of the dish.

However, despite the sweetness level, the texture of the rasmalai was soft and spongy.

The boondi laddoo was very delicious, and the small boondis melted in my mouth as I took the first bite. Unlike Kabila’s laddoo, this one had more of a wet texture and was not too dry. The smaller boondis also made the overall dessert easier to eat and accentuated the flavor without being too sweet.

The cham cham also came in a multitude of colors just like Kabila had, and again, I ordered it in pink. The cham cham was a little hardened when I first ate it as it had just been packed from the refrigerator. The sugar syrup was soaked just right in the dessert and came as a burst of flavor in the mouth as I chewed on the solid part of the dessert.

19 | ARTS & CULTURE

milan sweets:

Milan Sweets, located in Milpitas, has a simple setup that serves exclusively vegetarian Indian snacks, delicacies, dishes and a large selection of authentic sweets. The restaurant offers all dinein, takeout and delivery options. Aside from Monday, the restaurant is open six days of the week from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.

I visited the restaurant on Sunday evening around 7 p.m., and I ordered the same sweets I had gotten from Kabila and Rangoli. Because I had gone later in the night around dinnertime, the wait was around ten minutes. When it was our turn, our order was prepared immediately because they were premade desserts from the glass display.

The rasmalai was charged per piece, each piece being $2. The other two

desserts were charged by the pound — both $15 each. I ended up ordering five pieces of rasmalai and one pound each of the other two, making up my total of $44.67 with taxes.

The rasmalai was very well made in my opinion, and I especially enjoyed the soft texture of the solid pieces of the dessert. The milk-curdled solids were coated fully in the sweet creamy milk but were not too sweet. There was also no garnishings on the dessert which I preferred in comparison because Rangoli’s rasmalai had a pistachio aftertaste that I did not like.

I found the boondi laddoos a little underwhelming as they were completely dry both on the inside and outside.

The taste itself was delectable, but the texture detracted from the overall experience. The color of the laddoo was

also less vivid than the vibrant bright orange I had observed from the other two locations.

The last dessert I tried from Milan was the cham cham which also came in pink, green and yellow. I chose my usual pink and thought it was very flavorful. Similar to Kabila, there was a perfect hint of rose flavoring to the sugar syrup which elevated the taste, adding more to the sugariness of it. I thought the soft texture was executed perfectly and was soaked in the syrup just enough to be delicious in every bite. I still felt like Kabila was slightly better in soaking up all of the syrup flavoring.

final thoughts: Pricewise, all three restaurants were fairly equal in how much they charged for around the same amount of sweets.

Out of all the sweets I tried at Kabila, the rasmalai had to be my favorite with the cham cham being a close second. I highly recommend coming here for a taste of authentic Indian desserts, especially during Indian festivity seasons like Diwali. Given all of the variety on the menu, everyone is sure to find some type of sweet that they would like.

Compared to Kabila, the slight rose flavoring that I had tasted when eating from that restaurant was not detectable in Rangoli’s cham cham, and I would have preferred a little more of the rose flavor. Overall, I enjoyed the sweets and recommend this place for quick orders and larger quantities catering for events.

I have been coming to Milan for years since I was a kid, and eating from this restaurant makes me nostalgic because I am used to all of their flavors in both the food and sweets. I love Milan Sweets, and I think, throughout all the years, they have found a way to maintain the same mouthwatering and fresh flavors.

Given the comparable price points, I felt like I had a better experience with the sweets from Kabila, especially because of my preferences of sweetness level and the softer textures in the laddoos, but the sweets still tasted good coming from each location and were worth my money.

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everything i wanted Reporter Nadia Hines reviews Billie Eilish live in concert and in theaters ARTICLE & PHOTO BY NADIA HINES • DESIGN BY CHLOE LUU

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Eilish sings “Male Fantasy” in a clip from her movie, “Billie Eilish: Live at the O2.”

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had no idea I would be able to relive Billie Eilish’s “Happier Than Ever World Tour” at the movie theaters a month after going to the concert. Eilish brought her two-hour show to theaters worldwide to provide another opportunity for both fans who wanted to see it again and those who never saw it live.

Eilish made entertainment history by moving her London O2 Arena show into theaters for one night only. The show is not in a documentary form but is a pre-recorded version of the complete experience as if you were attending the full concert live, the most noticeable difference being around a much smaller group of people.

I had the privilege of attending both the live concert and theater experience. I have been a fan of Eilish since I was 13 years old, and I saw her in person for the first time in 2022. I attended both her San Francisco show in March 2022 and Eilish’s Hometown Encore show in Los Angeles in Dec. 2022. A little over a month after the Encore show, I saw her first film in theaters. The change in both the atmosphere and the concert as a whole made it so they didn’t feel like the same event. Needless to say, I’m obsessed!

Eilish’s Encore show in Los Angeles was unlike any show I’ve ever attended. A show filled with song after song that was never in the same genre as the last was refreshing to hear. A mix of my love for her and the atmosphere of being around thousands of people with the same love overwhelmed me for the four hours at the KIA Forum. I made friends with the people around me and even met a 13-year-old girl who traveled from Ontario, Canada just to see the show. I knew I was crazily obsessed, but that should put into perspective the type of fan base Eilish has.

Concert culture as a whole feels welcoming, whichmakes it easier to make friends and start conversations with people because I already know I have something in common with them. The Encore concert was so special because it was her last hometown show, and was filled with many people that have been fans since day one when Eilish first uploaded “Ocean Eyes” on SoundCloud—a song officially released in 2016.

Each song that was played from Eilish’s sophomore album brought me a new feeling, from pure joy in “Billie Bossa Nova” to a calming peace in “idontwannabeyouanymore” and back over again. She performed her “rager” songs that were nothing but excitement, happiness and jumping around, like “Oxytocin.” She also had songs like “TV” that were calming and brought reflection and sadness for a lot of people.

It was a rollercoaster of emotions the entire time, and I truly would not trade that show for the world.

Traveling with my sister on our own, for the first time, made the experience in Los Angeles that much more special. It gives the concert a little bit of an edge over the movie as far as which one I would prefer, but the concert

alone was absolutely amazing. My answer would have been the same if the venue was 10 minutes from my house as opposed to six hours. Being in the same room as Eilish made it better than any event I could have ever attended.

With every event I go to, I have a deeper appreciation for Eilish as an artist because not one show I have seen is the same. Eilish’s San Francisco show included “Halley’s Comet” while the Encore show included “b------ broken hearts” and “TV.” Sure, the setlist is similar because of the album, but the environment and differences in the songs she chooses to sing change so much and always leave me feeling really fulfilled by the end of the night like I can officially die happy.

On Jan. 27, the film was released. I had so much excitement spilling over into my everyday activities. My classes each day that week were so much more enjoyable because I could not stop thinking about what was coming later in the week. The anticipation building up every day since buying the tickets was so ridiculously high, and I could not stop talking about it.

There was a special feeling about the movie itself because it was only in theaters for one night all around the world.

There wasn’t a time I could reschedule and travel to see it elsewhere; it was only one night. There weren’t any issues with it being sold out because of how many theaters were showing the film. That made it a lot easier to purchase tickets, and it cost much less than a live concert ticket at $15 per person versus $800 for the concert.

I heard stories about how some of Eilish’s tour dates scheduled in Canada were canceled due to COVID regulations. On social media, I saw that some people that attended the movie finally got their chance to see the show for themselves. It was incredibly lively with a theater of people who didn’t care what anyone else thought about them, and we truly lived in the moment.

There’s something more intimate about it being in a dark theater of about 60 people as opposed to a venue that holds over 17,000 people. We all bonded, got to sing with each other and some people hugged the stranger next to them because they shared the moment together. I don’t think building that type of bond is as common in concerts as large as this tour was, so the movie brought a new dynamic that gave us the chance to focus on both the movie and appreciate the people around us. I don’t believe that is attributed to the movie itself, but rather the setting the movie was shown in. There was less yelling, and the people around me were just smiling and singing along or quiet as tears filled their eyes. I felt like I was in the same boat as everyone else especially because I knew that they most likely lived around San Jose. I even ran into someone that I used to go to school with.

Some fans came with their sisters like me, and others came

with two or three of their friends or relatives. I even met a girl that was around 10 years old that came with her mom. It felt like a warm hug to see how much her mother loved her and appreciated that she learned more about her daughter’s interests. It was so much more family-friendly and safer than the live concert for someone as young as 10 years old to attend the show and have what seemed like the time of their life.

Those with the most enthusiasm created their own version of a mosh-pit where everyone could dance in a circle in front of all the seats while they listened to Eilish’s performance. I met a girl that came on her own and danced behind me just appreciating the night. She was so sweet, and I kept thinking about how she would not have been able to do that at a concert as big as Eilish’s tour. Yes, there was jumping around, but she could be free to be in her own world while watching the performance away from everyone else.

I think that’s what made the movie special in such a different way. We spent a lot of time just appreciating the art that is her and her show. I got to dance in the open space in the theater which is something I love to do anywhere there’s music. I don’t typically care about what people think around me, so dancing until my heart’s content never bothers me regardless of the setting.

The movie was similar to the concert in a lot of ways. When Eilish told the audience to clap, the audience did so. When the crowd at the concert sang in the film, we did too. When she asked the crowd questions, we answered despite not being in the concert itself. Her setlist was practically the same as her regular tour setlist without her newest addition to her setlist being “TV,” a song released in the midst of her touring months included in her “Hometown Encore” show.

Everyone in the audience knew what song was coming next and when Billie was going to take a break between songs. We sang every single song—some louder than others—and every second was something to soak in. If anything at all was different about the show itself, it would be that we got the chance to see it from her point of view for the majority of the movie. We were looking at the crowd the way she saw the crowd and there were tons of upclose shots of her singing and the instruments being played. The type of shots you could see on the jumbotron is exactly what was filmed for the movie.

If you don’t feel comfortable in large crowds regardless of the reason, the movie experience is perfect. I definitely have more memories and emotions attached to the live concert than to the movie, but I would attribute that to traveling to Los Angeles as opposed to the movie which was in San Jose. I wouldn’t trade either experience for the world, and I’m so excited to see what’s next from Eilish in the future.

“With every event I go to, I have a deeper appreciation for Eilish as an artist because not one show I have seen is the same”

Nadia Hines

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