Aquila October 2022 (Vol. 12, Issue 1)

welcome from tHe edItors-In-cHIef

ILLUSTRATIONS VIDYA ACHAR • DESIGN ZAINAB SHAIKH

After Alexandra Rozmarin and Janessa Ulug’s departure as Co-Editors-in-Chief of Aquila, we transitioned to new leader ship. In the past three years, we have witnessed three changes in leadership, but every time, our core values were preserved. Both of us, Vidya Achar and Akhila Ayyadevara, became friends through journalism our freshman year, and are excited to take Aquila to new heights.

Vidya

As last year’s Managing Editor and a Team Editor for two years prior, I have witnessed the publication of six issues, all touching on different facets of the UPA community. Known in class as the “controversy reporter,” you may recognize me from articles about drugs on campus, political opinions, sexu al harrassment, and the COVID-19 outbreak. For the past three years, I’ve found purpose in Aquila‘s mission of seeking truth and reporting on it, but in my new role as Co-Editor-in-Chief, I’m taking a step back from reporting and instead focusing on encouraging reporters to reach their full potential.

“Reach down as you reach up”: help others while still being ambitious. After publishing the first of many issues this year, I am excited to continue a UPA tradition.

Akhila

Through my last three years at Aquila, I have had the privi lege and pleasure of seeing multiple news magazines being pub lished, including the publication of three magazines through dis tance learning. I found my love for talking to and learning about people through reporting. Asking people about themselves, questioning the minute things that make them unique, are all a product of Aquila.

Often called “Akhila the Mascot of Aquila,” you could say it was destiny that I fell in love with the publication. As the year continues, I hope to return a piece of what Aquila has given to me: a sense of community.

Looking to the Future

For the last three years, we’ve kept picking the class as our first choice elective because of our love of reporting and the community within the class. In our final year, we hope to give back: starting new traditions and upholding old ones.

In our first issue of the year, and Aquila’s first issue published solely by returning students, we have seen our reporters stay true values. In this issue a mere twelve reporters and designers, multiple students have taken on articles, photos and designs simultaneously, proving that the dedication for journalism is constant year after year.

While first year students quiet ly took notes on the principles of journalism inside the class room, returners relocated to the hallway to execute those princi ples. Returning students conducted inter

views during their free periods, stayed after school work ing on their designs on school macbooks and washed dirt out of their hair after lying on the pavement to take pictures. Thank you for all your ded ication.

In “UPA Launches Universal Meals Program,” porter Haylie Yee explains the logistics of UPA’s new free lunch program that has seen hundreds of students lining up in the Horton at 11:45 A.M. sharp. In her article, Yee breaks down the new California law mandating free meals for all high school students, and explores the impacts the program has had on UPA students. Read the article on page 5.

On page 17, the editorial board advocates for an ASL class to be added to UPA’s course list. Through UPA’s history, a sec ond language course was only offered once: French. However, the program was dissolved due to low interest. In “Hands-On Communication,” the editorial board lays out the reasons why UPA should offer ASL, and explores the benefits of such a pro gram.

Director of Student Services Michael Mansfield, who has taken over Andrew Yau’s previous position, is now in charge of the enforcement of UPA’s dress code, outlined in the handbook. Reporter April Nguyen’s opinion piece “Quick! Zip Up Your Jacket”, represented on the cover, criticizes the UPA’s dress code for stifling students’ self-expression and for its perceived vague and contradictory language. Read her opinion on page 13.

Another new development at UPA is the shuffling of adminis trator positions for the 2022-23 school year. Reporter Abhishek Mynam’s article “Snakes, Soap, Soccer and Scholars” on page 19 chronicles the hobbies, education and roles of four adminis trators: Director of Curriculum and Instruction Jean Mastrogia como, Yau, Mansfield and Director of Special Programs Laura McNabb.

In her piece “Anti-Social-Media Social Media,” on page 25, Reporter Kyla Ulug details the app BeReal’s impact, for teachers and students alike, on social media and its emerging issues. BeReal, which has taken UPA by storm, most notable feature is its unique dedication to online authenticity. Ulug, with the intention of fully understanding BeReal, downloaded the app specifically for this article.

As we usher in another year of Aquila journalism, we hope to continue our tradition of diverse storytelling and leave behind a legacy of hope, creativity and ambition.

Without further ado, welcome to Volume 12 Issue 1 of Aqui la. Enjoy!

vIdya acHar

akHila ayyadevara

AquilA staff

Akhila Ayyadevara Editor-in-Chief

Vidya Achar Editor-in-Chief

Haylie Yee Managing Editor

Kyla Ulug Multimedia Manager

Taylor Nguyen Web Manager

Abhishek Mynam Sports Photographer

Ria Pandey Copy Editor

April Nguyen Copy Editor

Nadia Hines Team Editor

Isaac Rios Team Editor

Chloe Luu Team Editor

Shayna Tran Team Editor

Zainab Shaikh Reporter

Shibani Ghosh Reporter

Kathryn Gong-Guy Adviser

aBout AquIlA MISSION STATEMENT

Aquila is a student-produced, student-edited high school newsmagazine. It serves as a desig nated 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.

“SOaRING TO NEW HEIGHTS”

From the shift of a black and white newspaper to a vibrant newsmagazine, to a broad cast channel and an active Instagram presence, we continue to innovate the way we tell stories and elevate our publication to new horizons. We do this not just because we are student journalists but because reaching for success is what it means to be a member of Aquila.

SHARE AN IDEA

Have a story to share? Scan the QR Code to submit your sugges tions or email us at aquila@upatoday.com.

ON THE COVER

Three students pose in front of a clothing rack, two featured out of dress code and and one in uniform, to illustrate the limited options of UPA approved clothing. Shot by Chloe Luu and Kyla Ulug.

Aquila Broadcast @upa_aquila upaaquila.org

Aquila Podcastupaaquila

upa l auncHes universal meals program

The school establishes a new program to provide meals for 50% of students

ARTICLE, PHOTOS & DESIGN BY HAYLIE YEE

Beginning in the 202223 school year, Edu cation Code 49501.5 required public school districts, county offices of edu cation and charter schools that serve students in grades TK–12 to provide two meals free of charge each school day to all students, regardless of their in come.

Last school year, to qual ify for a free meal, a family of four had to make less than $34,450 annually, while less than $49,025 would qualify a student for a reduced price lunch. Students also had the op tion to buy lunches through the My Green Lunch program— the previous meal provider—or purchase snacks such as Chee tos, Cup Noodles or Gatorade at the Energy Bar. As the pro

gram now provides food for all students, it no longer singles out those from lower-income households.

Universal Meals Program is a subsidiary of the government and each district receives fund ing every month. The amount that is given is dependent on the number of participants in the program. The program is fund ed by taxpayer dollars. Each meal costs three to four dollars.

California is the first state to implement a statewide Univer sal Meals Program for schools and leading UPA’s own pro gram is Business Operations Officer Yariela Perez

“We want [students] to be successful in the classroom,” Perez said. “But if you are hun gry in the morning or you don’t have food at home, you don’t

focus and you don’t have ener gy.”

UPA students have felt the program’s impacts since the beginning of the year, includ ing sophomore Jesse Jimenez, who now regularly uses the program.

“I was skipping lunch for months,” Jimenez said. “Every month I would not eat lunch for weeks on end because I would be too busy and not have time to make myself lunch or even get myself a lunch at [the En ergy Bar].”

Now Jimenez finds that the program saves him time in the mornings and space in his backpack for materials needed to focus in school.

The convenience of free food is the selling point for students who participate in the

program, including senior Be linda Ho.

“I am a bit lazy to get my own lunch in the morning,” Ho said. “I’m always rushing to school so it’s there, I just pick it up. It’s grab and go.”

UPA invited and reviewed different vendors before decid ing on the program’s current vendor, The LunchMaster.

“They had the best propos al for having good quality food and having it here on time,” Food Services Manager Kyle Murphy said. “They’re here at 8:30 a.m. every day. It’s great. So I think promptness and food quality are the main driv ing factors [behind the vendor choice].”

From Aug. 25 until Sept. 6, The LunchMaster was un able to provide food for UPA’s

Food Services Manager Kyle Mur phy implements new line control method on Sept. 1. Rather than students lining up themselves, Murphy counts off 25 students at a time to enter the Horton.

program due to being over whelmed by the amount of Universal Meals Programs that it had to provide for. They cur rently provide meals to over 10,000 students in the Bay Area and Central Valley every day.

UPA was alerted two days before the break period and opt ed to provide Costco food items such as pizza, hotdogs and sal ads for lunch. They also served Taco Bell bean and cheese bur ritos as a vegetarian option for students. This was made possi ble by Perez who picked up all the food herself.

Additionally, the school re sorted to a secondary food pro gram, Better 4 You Meals, to provide food in the absence of The LunchMaster. Better 4 You Meals started providing to UPA on Aug. 26. They provided the bulk of the lunches while Perez provided the vegetarian option.

Each month, The Lunch Master sends the school a menu—written by registered dietitians—with a variety of choices that Murphy is able to curate UPA’s specific menu from.

“Everything should fall within the USDA guidelines for the day,” Murphy said. “So it’s up to us to make sure that we’re not picking up a bunch of high sodium items that go way over the 2500 daily allowance.”

To those wondering why students are required to pick up a carton of milk along with their food, Murphy had an an swer.

“It’s a requirement,” Murphy said. “We have to comply with the nutritional guideline. Nu tritional guidelines for calcium are two eight ounce containers [of milk] a day, [students] get one at breakfast, one at lunch. Now, the kid can decide not to drink it, but [students] have to have it.”

The program does not cur rently have lactose intolerant

options as they have not en countered a problem with their milk options.

The school hired Murphy one week into the school year specifically for needs relating to the free lunch program. Mur phy is currently focusing on the program’s three critical needs: organization, storage and sani tation.

“If you don’t have the stor age to store food properly, safe ly, you cannot do anything,” he said.

“We needed to identify where we are going to be more successful providing [students] with these resources,” Perez said. “So we initiated an 8-8:30 a.m. [snack] and we noticed that there were only very few kids…But then we open for break and so we actually serve more students during those 10 minutes than in the morning.”

UPA currently serves four specials a day at lunch. Stu dents have the option to choose one of two hot meals contain

an options, vegetarian options, and I believe they’re executing that very well.”

Jimenez noticed that most vegetarian meals are salads and felt that more variety should be offered. Additionally, some non-vegetarian students still pick up the salads and that leaves vegetarian students with dietary restrictions without op tions.

After lunch, Perez and Mur phy noted that there are usually 20 leftover meals.

“With the food that is left over, we put it in some of the containers, and we put them at the front desk,” Perez said. “We also noticed that by the end of the day, the students that are switching classrooms or people that are in basketball take ad vantage [of the food].”

One solution the program developed to prevent wasting unwanted food was the share table. The share table is a metal table located in front of Horton auditorium for students to place items that they do not want or cannot eat in their meal. After lunch has ended, items on the share table are dumped as Mur phy said it was usually milk left and it would be a liability to take food back.

While breakfast is delivered the day before and heated when necessary in the morning, lunch is delivered daily between 9:30 and 10 a.m. The food is stored hot in the trucks and after arriv al, is held in 104 degrees in a food warmer within the Ener gy Bar for a few hours before serving.

Schools are legally required to give out two free meals: one at breakfast and one at lunch, but UPA serves breakfast twice—once in the morning and once at break, in addition to lunch.

ing meat, a vegetarian option and a vegan choice.

“I didn’t have that much of a high expectation because I’ve had experience with free public lunch before, and it’s not super duper good,” Ho said. “But it’s decent so that’s what I expect ed.”

Half of the meals are inclu sive to a vegetarian diet while the others contain meat.

“I think [the program] should elaborate more on di etary restrictions,” Jimenez said. “I believe they do try to be inclusive like they have veg

Basing their estimations on the My Green Lunch data from last school year, Perez said the program expected 50 students to participate in the breakfast program and 200 students to participate in the free lunch program.

Their expectations were quickly blown away as 130 students got breakfast every morning and 350 participated in the lunch program everyday, 150 more than their original es timate. Perez and Murphy also noted that pizza days on Friday were the most popular with 500 students grabbing the meal that day.

The underestimated number

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every montH I would not eat luncH for weeks on end Because I would Be too Busy and not Have time to make myself luncH.

—jesse jimeneZ

of participants led to one unprepared Friday, on Aug. 12, when the program ran out of pizza to serve, instead giving away chips and other snacks in its place.

“We were calling the vendor, requesting more lunches and more breakfasts and taking our chances,” Perez said. “There were some days where there was food leftover and then we put it outside for people to eat it and the next day they come back and ask ‘Is there anything to eat?’ Yes, of course there is food to eat.”

Due to the amount of stu dents participating in the pro gram, the free lunch lines have become a pressing issue for the students of UPA.

“It barely moves,” Ho said. “There’s always people cutting in line, so, even if you’re at the front, there’s always people who manage to wiggle through and then the end of the line ends up not moving at all.”

Supervisors, administra tors and staff attempt to main tain line control during lunch, but the process is still a work in progress. A week into the

school year, the campus super visors created the barcode cards for each student to make the checking out process quicker rather than recording the names on site.

The school tracks how many meals are consumed each day in order to submit reimburse ments to the state and federal government. Barcode scanning is the fastest way to record and document how many meals are consumed each day. The conse quence of not scanning is it will impact the tracking count and risk some of the money getting reimbursed.

In order to battle the con gestion in the lines, Director of Student Services Michael Mansfield began having the line start in front of Horton’s outside doors and counting off 25 students at a time to enter a shorter queue inside Horton’s auditorium—where the food is served.

“It’s a much better [pro cess] to control the line and the flow so that [servers] don’t get backed up inside; they can con tinue to move along,” Murphy said.

Another solution the pro gram proposed to the line issue is student employees.

“The students are really good at helping,” Perez said. “Because they are helping now, I’m able to move around the line and see people’s behavior. We also have supervisors who are paying more attention to the line. We also have the campus directors that are helping with anything that’s happening in the line.”

To become a student em ployee for the program, stu dents are required to have a minimum GPA of 3.0, compli ance with the attendance pol icies, a work permit and out standing behavior.

“One of the goals that we have is to reduce the serving time,” Perez said. “We started in about 25 minutes serving all students, and it’s been reduced to 15 minutes and what we do is that as we get more help from students, this is a program that we want to give the opportunity for students to also gain em

The LunchMaster made its daily delivery of meals on Sept. 2, leaving before second period. The lunch meals that day consisted of cheese pizza, pepperoni pizza and chicken caesar salad with a roll.

ployable skills.”

Junior Sarah Atikilt is one of five other employees in the pro gram who originally began by volunteering after noticing the servers needed assistance.

“The line is very long,” she said. “A lot of students also try to come back for double food before everyone else is gone. And it can get tough and stress ful but we get through it.”

The servers attempt to main tain order by instructing stu dents to continue moving down the serving line so the flow of student’s does not build up.

Atikilt’s main responsibil ities revolve around serving meals during lunch times and aiding with the set up and clean up before and after serving.

“This year having the free food makes the kids excited,” Atikilt said. “I hear them talking about it like ‘Oh my god, they have Taco Bell for lunch, they have pizza.’ It’s bringing ev eryone together and energizing [students] for the class.”

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I Hear tHem talking aBout it like ‘oH my god, tHey Have taco Bell for luncH, tHey Have piZZa.’ It’s Bringing everyone togetHer and energiZing [students] for tHe class.

—saraH atikilt

New Terrain

Literature enthusiast Jessica Newsome joins the English department

ARTICLE BY ISAAC RIOS • PHOTO COURTESY OF JESSICA NEWSOME • DESIGN BY ABHISHEK MYNAM

After an exhausting day of teaching, new English 7 teach er Jessica Newsome pours a bowl of cereal and eats it for dinner–her guilty pleasure. Newsome has a passion for trying new food. She loves going out to Vietnamese restaurants, and she accepts recommendations from students and coworkers that have lived in the area. Her favorite restaurant so far is Pho Kim Long, located on Capitol Ave., where she goes with her husband once a week.

Newsome is an outdoors person and she defines fun as spend ing time in the sun and outdoors, especially going to the beach and hiking.

“I think [going to the beach] is the Southern California person in me,” she said.

Newsome grew up in Redlands, California and attended high school at Redlands East Valley High School. This is where she took her two favorite classes: AP English Literature and Composition and AP English Language and Composition.

“[My teacher] had us think for our selves and ask really critical ques tions,” Newsome said. “That was the first time I had been in charge of my learning. She always said there’s no wrong answer, if you can prove it.”

Newsome considers herself a bookworm. Ever since she was young, her parents were massive readers and would read her “Nan cy Drew,” “Harry Potter” and “The Chronicles of Narnia” until she could read herself. She enjoys analyzing lit erary works with other people as she is always interested in how someone interprets text. Her curiosity in di verse interpretations of text and prose became an incentive for her to become a teacher.

“[Students] think they don’t have anything to say,” New some said. “I would argue that they do and what they think is interesting, important and valid, and I want to hear it and I want the class to hear it as well.”

Newsome taking a picture on a hike at Half Dome in Yosemite on June 16, 2022

Newsome attended Azu sa Pacific University for her bachelor’s degree in business. She worked in marketing at a technology company called Avarr during college and had the opportunity to teach “Strategic Man agement” to at-risk high school students that were under house arrest or prone to dropping out of school during her last semester of college as an assignment.

“I loved volunteering with middle schoolers more than what I was doing in my cubicle,” Newsome said.

Newsome’s university highly encourages students to volunteer, and due to being a business major, she went into the communtut to run service projects using statistics. Her involvement with at-risk students was a part of a service project that helped prepare them for future careers.

Newsome decided that the Business track was not her passion

- Jessica Newsome

after receiving her bachelor’s degree, so she went back to Azusa Pacific University to receive her master’s degree in teaching and teaching credential. After earning her teaching credential, New some taught one year in Newport Beach, two years in South San Francisco and is now entering her fourth year of teaching at UPA.

After teaching in South San Francisco, Newsome decided to look for a job closer to her home in San Jose. Newsome got mar ried in June 2020, and since her husband attended a chiropractic school in Northern California, they moved in together. She has en joyed the pace of life in the Bay Area because it feels more “down to earth,” but she misses Southern California because of the warm beaches, contrast to Northern California’s hot beaches.

Upon moving to the Bay Area, she found a job as an English teacher at UPA on Edjoin.org. In addition to her search, she found that UPA is a small charter school with a small community which motivated her to apply.

“I went to a small school while I was growing up, and I loved it,” she said. “It felt like family and felt like students were really well supported, so I wanted to be in a similar atmosphere.”

Newsome described her experience at UPA as warm and wel coming, and she hopes to bond and engage with her students better as well as help them to have a genuine appreciation for reading.

“I hope at the end of the year my students can think of at least one thing that they really enjoy reading and that at least one stu dent feels like, ‘Okay, I’m going to give reading another shot,’” Newsome said.

Newsome disagrees with the notion that a student is either “good” or “bad” at English, and she strives to help seventh graders in the writing process, especially because it is the first step into academic writing given how challenging it can be for students as they transition from elementary school to middle school.

“Every student can write. Every student has a perspective that’s worth hearing. Every student has a voice,” she said.

[Students] think they don't have anything to say; I would argue that they do and what they think is interesting, important and valid and I want to hear it and I want the class to hear it as well

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growing? how’s it growing?

EXPLORING PLANTS ON CAMPUS

ARTICLE & PHOTOS BY NADIA HINES • ILLUSTRATIONS & DESIGN BY ZAINAB SHAIKH

RUGOSA ROSE BUSH

The pink Rugosa rose bush is located near the amphitheater. This plant can be found by the path to the amphitheater near the stone tables. Its vibrant fuchsia color can be easily spotted from almost any distance. The Rugosa rose, which grows in clusters or bushes, is a species native to eastern Asia, northeastern China, Ja pan, Korea and southeastern Siberia. It typically grows near or on beaches where it can even thrive in sand dunes..

Let’s indentify plants on campus using an app called Nature ID.

FALSE HEATHER

This False Heather plant is located on the right side of UPA’s front office. The purple floral accents provide a rich color to the foliage in various places throughout the campus. The more sun, the more vibrant the color appears, and they can range in shades from rose pink to lavender. False Heathers are native to Mexico and several other areas of Central America. A fun fact about false heather plants is they can grow in most soils including sandy, clay and loam. Each flower grows individually and blooms from summer to the frost of winter.

NANDINA BUSH

This plant is called a Nandina bush. Nandina are evergreen shrubs native to eastern Asia. Despite not being bamboo, it is commonly referred to as the “Heavenly Bamboo’’ bush because its leaves look similar to those of bamboo. This bush is easy to grow and main tain as it requires little to no maintenance. Most Nandinas are dwarf plants, but the ones at UPA tower above the majority of the stu dent body. They enjoy full sunlight and thrive in environments with moist soil.

PONDEROSA PINE TREE

This group of pine trees are not the only ones you can find on campus, but the pine trees pictured are located in the parking lot by the Masonic Drive entrance. They don’t require too much sunshine, but the trees thrive in the sun nonetheless. The Ponderosa trees are by far the tallest on the campus as they tower over the buildings, providing shade for stu dents that sit on the bleachers. Ponderosa trees are native to the west coast and typically grow together in forests of various species of pine trees.

Put Some Ice On It

UPA’s struggle to hire a school nurse

ARTICLE BY CHLOE LUU • ILLUSTRATIONS BY ZAINAB SHAIKH & SHAYNA TRAN • DESIGN BY SHAYNA TRAN

During the 2021-2022 school year, UPA hired its first school nurse, Sheila Lim, for six months.

In the course of her time working at UPA as a reg istered nurse, she focused on testing students with symptoms of COVID-19, aiding them in minor illnesses or injuries. Every student has their own health form medication that includes their insurance, allergies, medication, health care provider, etc. and before Lim it had been in physical files. She assisted the school by organizing the medical records digitally in a way that is easily accessible for the staff to use in cases of emergencies, which strengthened the student safety and health system.

Lim was meant to be a part of the UPA community as a school nurse for the foreseeable future, but due to personal complications, she decided it was best to continue forward with hospice care instead of keeping her position as a registered school nurse. Lim had originally been hired from a private company named “The Stepping Stones Group.” The company strives to give clinicians, educators and therapists a chance to build on their skills and training through job opportunities to improve the quality of healthcare services throughout the com munity—providing additional resources, training, and counsel ing—either online or in person.

UPA used their COVID-19 funding from the state to hire the company for a nurse, but with a need to focus on multiple other aspects of the school improvement—teacher materials, overtime staff payment and student needs—UPA tried and ulti mately struggled to find funding for a full time nurse.

“With all the shortages lately, it’s been hard to find a nurse to work part time,” Director of Curriculum and Instruction Jean Mastrogiacomo said. “It worked for [Lim] because due to her personal schedule, she did not want to work full time.”

Aside from ensuring students were safe, she had to take care of her own children. Not only did the schedule assist Lim, it also fit UPA’s needs because Lim only worked part time, and it cost comparably less than a full time school nurse, which would average around $75,000 to $100,000 per year. Because Lim was hired by a private company, the amount of money it took for UPA to hire her is unavailable.

Lim provided students with items such as a heating pad or a hot drink and guided students in case symptoms worsened, but other than that, she could not provide more help due to certain restrictions.

“Most of the cases were smaller incidents,” Mastrogiacomo

said. “For example, students would come to the office because their stomach hurts, and there is only so much [the school] can do.”

Due to safety purposes, UPA can not administer any medi cation to students unless a specific form was filled out for the student with certain medication. Lim would help out with these forms and organize them into the system, making it easier for students to access needed medication with less of a hassle for parents. In severe cases where medication could not be admin istered or symptoms worsened, calls to first responders were necessary, and she was able to respond and communicate with them effectively.

“Schools should have nurses because students get sick, but sick is a very general term and having a more medically trained person on campus means that we can respond more appropri ately to the situation,” Executive Director David Porter said.

The Santa Clara County Office of Education guidelines rec

ommend a health official on campus for the safety of students, but there are no specific requirements. UPA meets those recom mendations by having the entire administration team registered as health officials. When faculty is hired, they are trained to know the basics of first aid and what to do during emergen

“So is it worth pulling money from other important resources that students need to provide this resource?”

- David Porter

office and a line for the nearest department of health and safety would be contacted immediately. Depending on what device the emergency medical services (EMS) are called on, the time it takes for the EMS to arrive differs for each fa cility, and Lim was able to handle the situation in between that time. When the EMS arrives at our school and treats the student in need, there are no fees for the student to pay unless they leave the hospital inside the ambulance. The charges for the ambulance ride depends on the company– averaging from $5,000 to $7,000.

Even though faculty and staff continue to assist with first aid when necessary, it was still very helpful to have a reg istered health nurse to be present and oversee the situations for concise and accurate responses to minimize panic. With her absence, UPA is trying to work out ways to organize the schools’ priorities in order to figure out whether or not it is worth the amount of money to hire another nurse and con tinue to improve staff and faculty response to student health.

“We’ve had instances where we have needed a nurse, but we don’t have a lot of incidents,” David Porter said. “So is it worth pulling money from other important resources that students need to provide this resource?”

The cost and the amount of instances that a school has makes it a difficult challenge to balance what is the best use of the limited funding. Some schools have medical issues that

happen daily and school nurses on campus have a full day of work— benefiting both students and the school—but that is not UPA’s case.

Currently, UPA continues to monitor the school’s needs and anticipates that it will be about a year until they can or ganize and make space for a part-time nurse. When UPA re ceived COVID-19 federal funding, they used it on numerous aspects such as teacher resources, compensation for extra hours, adjustments from online learning to in-person, student activities and events and field trips to reconnect students to the school and get the community together. Even without the federal and state funding, UPA still strives to provide finan cial support for the school. Their goal is to balance UPA’s mission to make it achievable: improve academic outcomes, student life enrichment, IEPs & 504s, aiding English lan guage learners, and student safety—all a part of the Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP) from the California Department of Education.

Zip up

“QUICK! your jacket”

Reporter April Nguyen breaks down the flaws within UPA’s dress code

ARTICLE BY APRIL NGUYEN • PHOTOS & DESIGN BY CHLOE LUU

he dress code and its enforcement has become an unwelcome part of the daily routine as a UPA stu dent, an immediate dread filling me as I walk past administrators, cycling through the various stip ulations of the dress code and looking down at my outfit I had no time to put together. Contrary to the intent of this policy, I spend more time rifling through my wardrobe, try ing to piece together clothes that both look good to me as well as fall within the strict rules. Each day, I find myself longing for the weekend more and more, for the feeling of waking up and putting on an outfit that makes me feel like me.

I have never believed that a dress code is needed at any school because ultimately, it is an inconvenience, becomes problematic and places unnecessary attention on clothing, which is a superfi cial practice to begin with. In previous years, I sat with my frustra tions, and I saw hope when we returned from distance learning to much looser rules, until this year.

Dress code through the years

Nothing has truly changed about the dress code since last year. The attire guide diagram that depicts the above and below the waist specifications is still the same. However, there have been noticeable differences in the enforcement of these rules.

There was a shift in administration due to the former Director of Curriculum and Instruction Matt Daugherty’s leave. The posi tion of Director of Student Services went from the current Director of Alumni Outreach and Support Andrew Yau to Michael Man sfield. Both Yau and Mansfield actively enforce the dress code with the assistance of the rest of the administration and staff.

The dress code was very different almost a decade ago, according to both administrators, who explained that stu dents used to only be able to wear white and navy blue UPA polos with khaki tan and navy slacks. I find this to be a stifling practice for teenagers who are beginning to discover who they are.

I have attended schools with strict and set uniforms that limit self-expression and promote conformity, and when it came time to make decisions about my personal style, I didn’t know what I wanted. There were aspects of fashion that I liked, but in the back of my mind, I could still feel the threat of consequences that reached beyond the perimeters of the school campus preventing me from making decisions that I wanted to make.

Fortunately, students and staff of previous years were able to

T.make changes to loosen the dress code. The expansion of the com mon dress policy to include college apparel, AP class shirts, black

Nguyen poses with a ‘Friendly Dress Code Remind er’. Administrators handed these slips out during the first week of school to serve as a precursor for more severe dress code violation consequences.

mand it,” Yau said. “They actually have to, you know, put their feelings down on paper or send it to the board or something so that it’s considered.”

Implementation of the dress code

Regarding stricter implementation of the common dress policy, Mansfield said that many of the sup posed changes that students and staff have noticed and questioned were actually already written into the dress code last year. The major difference last year was the first full return attempt from distance learning when the faculty and staff were “just happy to have everyone back,” and the nonexistent enforcement of this guideline led students to believe that, for exam ple, plain T-shirts were allowed, among other misun derstandings.

This was one of the major disappointments, frus trations and confusions going into this school year. When I went shopping over the summer, I kept UPA’s dress code policy in mind and purchased clothes with the expectation that I would be able to wear them. Even on break, I was thinking about the control that school had over my wardrobe and therefore, self-ex pression, and the lack of clear communication led to individual perception of the rules and ultimately, a waste of thought and money.

Based on complaints from administration and staff members about patterns of dress code violations, Mansfield decided to make changes in enforcement so that the rules written in the handbook were actually applied.

“Talking to all the people, all the staff that I’ve talked to, teachers, administrators, no one was advo cating getting rid of it,” Mansfield said. “Okay, so if you’re not gonna get rid of it, then you have to en force what you got on the books.”

However, rounding up students by the dozen, as was done throughout the first three weeks of school, and causing them to be 10-20 minutes late for class is not effective and is contradictory to the intended purpose of the dress code, which is supposed to con tribute to the academic success of students. Students feel uncomfortable and singled out in these situations, when in reality, their unintentional or minor violation of the dress code went unnoticed by the majority of students and staff.

For students that repeatedly violate the dress code, multiple rounds of warnings and discussions await them. Consequences include being “brought into the office,” a phone call home to parents demanding a change of clothes, or wasting time in lunch detention. I don’t see how setting up enforcement as operant conditioning, meaning to learn by means of rewards and punishments, is beneficial. We don’t end up with any meaningful takeaways or understandings of how the dress code might be promoting a certain aspect of our learning. There is only a continuous buildup

Furthermore, I think that the dress code fails in its role “to assist in the cre ation of a positive learning envi ronment.” According to Mansfield, a positive learning environment is one where a student is happy and follows the dress expectations since they support a “safe, re spectful and healthy learn ing environment.” However, this is not defined in the stu dent handbook, and this leaves the term “positive learning en vironment” completely up to the interpretation of the individual.

In regards to the statement about common dress allowing “the students and staff at UPA to focus on internal growth and expression,” Mansfield said that this was a part of the original lan guage of the student handbook draft he was given.

Realistically, I don’t think this is able to be achieved. Being self-conscious is a part of the human experience that a strict dress code can’t eliminate, and for some, the rules might place a stronger focus on this feeling of insecurity.

This year, Yau has specifically clarified that the major rationale for following the dress code should be a sense of respect towards the school, staff and administration. This justification has yet to be written into the student handbook that we are di rected to, and I don’t entirely agree with the reasoning. As students, we demonstrate respect to UPA by treating the campus and everyone in it with kindness and consid eration.

Many of the specifications under the common dress guidelines are quite contradictory to the intended purpose of the dress code— to act as an equalizer. As an example, the selection of approved tops, as defined by the dress code, seems to go directly against the intent. With UPA polos costing $20, the average AP class or club shirt costing $15, and college apparel averaging a price of $25, it is a wonder how one of the main purposes of UPA’s dress code is to act as an equalizer.

The remaining choices are a plain polo shirt and plain outer wear, both in the colors of either white, black or blue. There is not a logical explanation nor a large enough difference between a polo and a plain T-shirt that to discriminate and make one acceptable and the other not. Personally, I purchased several plain T-shirts over the summer, and I find it incredibly frustrating that I am now unable to wear 80% of the clothes that I have on a regular basis.

Similarly, the color and pattern specifications are unreasonable. Not only is the color intermediate of black and white not allowed, the entirety of the rainbow, with the exception of blue, is not per mitted. Stripes, plaid, gingham, flannel, tie dye, checkered, hound

stooth and all other geometric patterns are also forbidden, and all of this without good reason.

For the most part, I find all these restraints incredibly aggravat ing since they suddenly do not apply to articles of clothing tagged with a UPA or college logo and a higher price tag. How is it fair that a plain, green T-shirt that costs $5 is considered a violation when that same green T-shirt with the printed letters “Cal Poly,” costing $25, is acceptable?

As a school offering “an intensive college preparatory curricu lum” to students that may be unable to afford this level of educa tion at private schools, it would make sense that there is concern for students to be bullied for the way they dress or to feel ashamed by the way they dress compared to others. However, I think stu dents should be taught to not judge their peers based on the clothes that they wear, and that is not a lesson to be giv en by an attire guide of dos and don’ts. Having strict guidelines leaves little room for judg ment since everyone is expected to wear similar clothes, but our dress ex pectations do not enforce any kind of common dress since so many ex ceptions to the uniform exist. There are no rules to prevent students from flaunting expen sive, brand clothing and acces sories, making it easy for some students to feel bad about not being able to afford items from certain higher end companies.

Furthermore, the uniform option for underprivileged students illustrates a clear separation of wealth between students who are able to afford new polos and students who aren’t. UPA’s PTSO offers old and discounted polos, and it is evident in the dull navy blue color or the outdated UPA logo that a polo is a remnant from the last decade. The school also provides plain T-shirts with the small letters “UPA” printed on them for free upon request. This option not only strays from the standard uniform expectation of polos but completely stands out as it does not share the typical look of a club or college T-shirt.

In the end, does the dress code serve any purpose? Maybe it does. The common dress policy might work for students that don’t place emphasis on expressing themselves outwardly or are even unable to. I respect that. However, the myriad of confusing dis tinctions between what is and isn’t approved, for no real reason? I

can’t respect that.

What is “professional dress”?

Mansfield explained that when he was brought on this past summer, one of his earlier tasks was to analyze the language of the dress code as it was written in the handbook, and “close the loopholes,” limiting interpretations to what the expectations were. However, in discussing the supposed interchangeable terms and specific phrasing for these rules, I believe there is still work to be done.

“Common dress” refers to “default” dress, according to Mans field, which means what a student is expected to wear on a day to day basis. However, “professional dress” is meant to be applied to “common dress” in that UPA aims for a “higher standard” of dress. These terms aren’t equivalent.

With the changes to the dress code over the years, “profes sional dress” is not a term used to describe or justify these regulations.

As students, if the school is teaching us that a polo with a logo or college apparel or limited color options is considered “professional dress,” then I believe we are being misled.

“Two years ago, a student always came in a vest and a collared shirt, al ways professionally dressed,” Yau said. “Technically, they were out of dress code, but if they’re dressed better than 90% of the staff, is that really out of dress code?” Apparently.

Furthermore, “professional dress” is completely subjective to the profession: a professional yoga instructor will have different attire expectations from an ac countant. As of now, we are students that are learning, reading, writing, drawing, running, playing sports and more. We have an extremely active and diverse six to seven hours of school each day, and our attire should reflect that.

For quite some time now, many girls, including myself, have been following a major unwritten rule. The expectation that the midriff must be covered is not stated explicitly in the “Common Dress” nor “Free Dress” subsections of the student handbook. The stipulations that I assume must be addressing the length of tops reads as: “All clothing must fit prop erly and appropriately (as defined by UPA administration)” and “All clothing must remain “appropriate” in fit.” More often than not, this rule, and similar ones, discussing coverage and length, are targeting female students and teaching all students, from a very

young age, that female bodies are sexual objects. Labeling a wide variety of clothing as “inappropriate” encourages slut shaming and body shaming, perhaps unintentionally, and mainly, female stu dents learn to feel bad about their bodies in these articles of cloth ing, perpetuating traditional standards of proper attire.

Realistically, proper attire for schools should make students comfortable in their learning environment, and they should not have to be self-conscious about how much of their shoulders or stomach are or are not covered. Rules regarding the coverage or appropriateness of clothing contribute to rape culture: feminine clothing is often penalized for being too suggestive, blaming the potential victims for coming off as too provocative instead of ed ucating everyone around them that bodies are not to be viewed in a sexual lens.

In the state that UPA’s current dress code is in, I see a primary focus of control on what image the school board and administra tors want UPA to uphold—providing a narrow view of what ca reers are deemed successful—and I cannot find a good reason for promoting “professional dress.”

The Change

Now is the time to make the change. Instead of simply chang ing the language to add further restrictions and tighten previous ones, students and staff need to truly reevaluate the dress code. Which stipulations of the policy are necessary and which ones are not? Are there better ways to promote the purposes intended by the dress code?

Students should be free to dress like students. I believe that as long as students are not harming themselves or others by way of their clothing, there should not be excess restrictions in place. UPA students have a myriad of classes, clubs, sports, friends, and op portunities to focus on, and making sure a top has a collar or that a jacket is of a certain color does not need to be one of those focuses. Going from a strict uniform over a decade ago to free dress with the necessary limits is a major leap that I feel the school should take and would only benefit from. Then, I wouldn’t need that last outfit check before leaving the house.

Hands-on Communication

ARTICLE BY EDITORIAL BOARD • ILLUSTRATIONS BY ZAINAB SHAIKH • DESIGN BY APRIL NGUYEN

However, in order to do so, students must get approval from a school counselor or adminis

Unfortunately, there are limitations to that option. California Education Code 76000.3i states that only five percent of a school’s fresh men, sophomores, juniors and seniors can be enrolled in a particular community college

take the foreign language classes of their choice at those colleges because spots for both dual enrollment and college courses fill up quick ly. In addition, due to the high number of stu dents enrolled in language classes, there are less spots for other UPA students interested in taking non-language classes in order to earn the necessary credits or accelerate in their academ ic tracks.

Moreover, the addition of ASL would be beneficial for everyone involved in dual en rollment. The counseling department, which is especially busy leading up to and at the begin ning of the year, would not need to work with as many students who are all looking to resolve the same issue: how does one take a language course at a community college? With another course selection, these students would be able to avoid the process of filling out a multistep application and consulting with the counseling department in order to take classes at their local community college.

ASL is a highly valuable language. Over 1.5 billion people live with hearing loss globally, 360 million of whom are deaf, as reported by the World Health Organization (WHO). The number of people with auditory issues, accord ing to WHO, is projected to reach 2.5 billion by 2030. Proficiency in ASL enables inclusive communication between people that speak dif ferent languages and a range of hearing groups including deaf, hard of hearing and even other

Such a visual language allows silent con versation which can be useful in a classroom setting. A number of teachers at UPA make use of several signs that can communicate common messages or questions. For example, the letter “R” is signed by intertwining the index and

middle fingers with all other fingers curled in, and it is often used as a signal for “restroom” so that class instruction is not disrupted.

There is a beauty in the physical aspect of sign language; it cannot be replicated by an algorithm. Translation services like Google Translate continue to improve in its grammat ical and colloquial accuracy. Although the im portance of learning other languages remains, the need to do so in order to travel to foreign countries and speak with the people that live there is lessened by translation technology, but not when it comes to ASL. Learning to sign is like learning choreography: it takes repeated practice to commit the movements to memory, and there is no technological short cut.

Providing a com pletely different alternative to Spanish will encourage higher par ticipation in learning a foreign language on cam pus and in particu lar; adding ASL gives all students easier access to a unique and increasingly useful course.

SNAKES, SOAP, SOCCER AND SCHOLARS

UPA administrators take on new roles

ARTICLE & PHOTOS BY ABHISHEK MYNAM • ILLUSTRATIONS BY HAYLIE YEE • DESIGN BY AKHILA AYYADEVARA

Former Director of Curriculum and Instruction Matt Daugherty left UPA after the 2021-2022 school year after fourteen years of work ing at the school as both a teacher and an administrator. This upcoming school year, UPA hired two new administrators, chang ing the position of some of the previous administrators.

Director of Curriculum and Instruction Jean Mastrogiacom

Jean Mastrogiacomo was born in South Korea in 1989. At age three, she moved to Atlanta, Georgia. After living in Atlanta, she moved to California, back to Korea, and eventually, she came back to California when she was a junior in high school.

Growing up in Korea, Mastrogi acomo re

membered loving the public transit system, which allows people to travel all over the city, and how even as a young girl she was able to travel from place to place easily.

In her free time, Mastrogiacomo makes paper flowers and soap. She says she has an “obsessive personality” where she con stantly needs to be doing something, caus ing her to easily become interested in these hobbies.

“I like to have something that I’m con stantly working on. I like for my hands to be busy at all times,” Mastrogiacomo said.

After high school, Mastrogiacomo went to De Anza College for two years and trans ferred to University of California Irvine as an English major.

In college, Mastrogiacomo joined a multicultural sorority where she met new people and had the opportunity to try new things that she

would not have done otherwise.

“I found out what a little bubble I’ve been living in,” said Mastrogiacomo, “Ev erybody I knew was like me, from the same area of socioeconomic status, similar fami ly background.”

Mastrogiacomo also joined a program called Humanities, in which she volun teered at local middle schools. After vol unteering at different middle schools, she realized she loved working with kids and watching them grow, which inspired her passion for teaching.

After graduating, Mastrogiacomo re ceived her teaching credential at SJSU. She started working at UPA as an after-school English support teacher after getting a re ferral from her professor at SJSU. A few months during the next semester, Mastro giacomo started teaching an English makeup class for students at UPA who needed to complete English credits. After teaching this class, she was hired full-time as an English 8 teacher for the 20092010 school year.

While teaching at UPA, Mas trogiacomo mostly taught middle school classes such as English 7 and English 8. UPA’s founder Jackie Guevara pushed Mastrogi acomo to pursue her admin cre dential, and she eventually earned it in 2015. At first, Mastrogiacomo became an AVID coordinator, but over time, she started to attend ad ministrative meetings. Eventually, in 2018, Mastrogiacomo got her first admin position as the Director of Special Programs.

In this position, Mastrogiacomo was in charge of the Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS), an in ventory of all the programs and supports at UPA. She was in charge of award ceremonies, graduation, promotion and would coordinate all the support class es UPA had to offer.

For the 2022-2023 school year, Mas

Photo illustration of Mastergi acomo working her office.

trogiacomo has taken over for former Di rector of Curriculum and Instruction, Matt Daugherty. In this position, she is in charge of all the testing at UPA such as AP ex ams, Smarter Balanced assessments, SAT, PSAT, ELPAC (English language learner test) and NWEA. She also oversees the counseling department, helps to create the master schedule for the students and is in charge of all the textbooks and making sure that they are all ordered and returned.

Since becoming an administrator, Mas trogiacomo has said she misses teaching middle school students.

“I miss seeing all the creativity from kids in the classroom and seeing them grow,” Mas trogiacomo said. “I just re al

design, and this inspired Yau to explore his passion for art and graphic design

“Art is sort of like a creative outlet. It doesn’t have to be very rigid,” Yau said. “You can create something in your own way and come up with an end product that’s unique to you.”

From middle school to high school, Yau started working towards being an art major as he realized his hobby could be a poten tial job in the future. Over time, Yau ended up wanting a more well-rounded education, so he instead attended the University of California at Riverside as a history major since history was a topic that interested Yau in high school.

In college, as a way to make some mon ey on the side, Yau created a graphic design company called Blackstar Designs. In this company, Yau would create cus tom t-shirts with imprints of differ ent logos or designs for local high schools. Even though Yau did not pursue art as a career, he still de signs in his free time.

Yau also started a business in col lege where he specialized in turtle and snake breed ing. Yau became the “biggest aquatic turtle dealer,” west of the Missis sippi. Even though Yau made a significant profit from selling the animals, he saw his business as more of a hobby. When he first started teaching at UPA, he would bring turtle eggs and snakes to show students. At one time, Yau would have five thousand animals living in his house. Yau eventually

graders and World Geography for ninth graders. Yau liked UPA’s environment due to the smaller campus and student popula tion has enjoyed seeing how it has grown over the years.

“If there’s a problem or an issue for whatever reason, where a student’s needs aren’t being met, we can, within a week or sometimes within a few days, fix that is sue,” Yau said. “At UPA, we’re really able to sort of make decisions; we’re able to help students on the fly and make decisions on programs and things without much in terference [from the school board]”.

Over time, Yau started teaching fewer classes at UPA and started dabbling in ad ministrative work like helping out adminis trators with their tasks. A few years be fore Yau eventually made his switch to become an adminis trator

ly loved getting to know the kids really well, seeing how much they changed and became their own person by the end of eighth grade.”

Director of Alumni Outreach and Support Andrew Yau

Yau was born in San Francisco, Califor nia in 1983 but grew up in Cupertino, Cal ifornia. Yau comes from a Taiwanese back ground and partakes in celebrations such as the Moon Festival and Chinese New Year.

Yau’s older sister Liz, who is five years older than him, went to UCLA for graphic

sold the animals when he and his wife start ed a family as his wife did not want him to be away multiple times a year for shows.

After getting his bachelor’s degree in history, Yau went to San Jose State Univer sity for his teaching credential before get ting his first teaching job at UPA in 2008. Yau ended up getting connected with UPA through his advisor at SJSU who knew one of UPA’s founders, Jackie Guevara.

When Yau joined the UPA staff, he start ed off as a US History teacher and was also the first AP US History teacher at UPA. Yau also taught American History for eighth

full-time, he taught the yearbook class at UPA which was an elective. In 2016, Yau made his transition to the Director of Spe cial Programs, where he was in charge of the academic support classes at UPA which are a part of the Students of Promise (SOP) program. Yau was also in charge of orga nizing field trips such as the junior trip and college campus trips. The following year, Yau became the Director of Student Ser vices and was in charge of academic disci pline and campus safety.

Currently, in his new role as the Direc tor of Alumni Outreach and Support, he

Photo illustration of Yau and Mans field talking with each other as the supervise outside.

focuses on providing academic support and working with UPA’s alumni. Yau is in charge of making sure students are passing their classes and if not, that they are mak ing up for these classes in summer school. Yau works with students to make sure that they have enough credits to graduate, and he often meets with these students weekly.

The other half of Yau’s job consists of fulfilling UPA’s new goal of connecting UPA’s past and future alumni together. Yau’s goal for this year is to finish creat ing a website for UPA’s alumni so that they can connect with each other and post job opportunities for the UPA community, past and present. Yau hopes to even invite these alumni to UPA so they can speak to current students about college and their jobs.

Director of Student Services Michael Mansfield

Mansfield was born in 1985 in Austin, Texas, but in third grade, he moved to the Bay Area.

Mansfield’s parents put him in soccer at the early age of four. Since then, soccer has become one of his biggest passions in life. Mansfield played for multiple soccer teams in competitive

leagues growing up and even played for his high school team. Mansfield liked compet ing for a team, and he felt that soccer was a good way for him to do that.

Mansfield’s passion for soccer was not just limited to him playing; he ended up coaching soccer multiple teams, including his younger brother’s soccer team. Even now, Mansfield still plays soccer in adult leagues where he plays in tournaments. For some tournaments, he travels as far as San ta Cruz to Las Vegas.

For both his undergraduate and mas ter’s degrees, Mansfield attended UC Santa Cruz. Mansfield ended up pursuing a dou ble major in United States history and Unit ed States politics. In high school, history was a subject that Mansfield was drawn towards as he felt that it was interesting to him unlike other school subjects.

“With all love and respect, I’m a histo ry nerd. I’ve always loved history. I geek out on it. As the kid that watched History Channel and gobbled up every minute of it, just really fascinated by it,” Mansfield said.

Since high school, Mansfield knew that he wanted to go into education because working with kids was another passion of his. Growing up, Mansfield coached soc cer teams and worked at summer camps, and this sparked his

After completing his master’s program at UCSC, in 2008, Mansfield applied to over 30 teaching jobs. Eventually, Man sfield ended up getting an interview for a job at UPA. Jackie Guevara was impressed with Mansfield’s teaching, and he joined UPA’s staff during the 2008-2009 school year.

At UPA, Mansfield taught Ancient Civi lizations the first year he was at UPA. After that, he ended up teaching World History, AP World History, World Geography and AP United States Government and Politics. Mansfield also coached UPA’s soccer team up until he left UPA.

After working at UPA for a couple of years, Daniel Ordaz, the executive director before David Porter suggested that Mans field should get an administrative creden tial. So, Mansfield ended up teaching fewer periods, and he ended up doing some ad ministrative work on the side.

In 2014, Mansfield made a big decision to leave UPA and teach at a different high school. The main reason Mansfield left was due to the commute he had to make every day since he lived in Santa Cruz, and he wanted to teach in a community closer to him.

passion for work ing with kids. It wasn’t un til he in terviewed his history teach er for a school project that it clicked for him, that he could mix his passion for working with kids with histo ry.

After Mansfield left UPA, he ended up utilizing his admin credential, and he be came an assistant principal at Watsonville High School. Mans field also taught at other high schools while he was away from UPA. One of Mans field’s friends urged him to join a doctor al program, so Mansfield ended up going to San Jose State University for a doctorate in educational leadership. He completed his doctorate program in 2021.

While Mansfield was working at other high schools, he felt that nothing was the same as UPA. He loved the environment that UPA had and the values and mission that UPA instilled in its students. Mansfield values education, and he felt that UPA puts emphasis on education unlike other schools he taught at.

“Right after I left, I missed this place, and I missed it every single year I was gone,” Mansfield said.

While working at UPA, Mansfield and Yau became close friends and kept in con tact even after Mansfield left UPA. Last year, when Yau told Mansfield about how UPA was planning to switch around admin

Photo illustration of McNabb supervising during break.

positions, Mansfield knew he could not pass on the opportunity to come back to UPA.

Now, as the Director of Student Ser vices at UPA, Mansfield helps with student discipline and conflicts. He is in charge of detention, dress code violations and Satur day school. Mansfield tries to help students resolve the issues they have with other stu dents such as fights or conflicts by allow ing them to work it out with each other or with him. He believes in how mistakes help make people better and help them mature as a person.

“If you have goals and things you’re trying to achieve, go for it. Do your best. But sometimes you gotta make mistakes; something’s gonna happen, and it’s not about how it seems to end, but it is about what’s the next step,” said Mansfield. “You can always fix things, you can always ad dress things. You can always grow, and you can always get better. You can always redo the plan.”

He is also in charge of school safety such as fire drills, earthquake drills and protecting the school from harm.

girls’ team. By playing on the boys’ team, McNabb was able to perfect her skills for the future. During her junior and senior year, she played for the girls’ team, and she ended up becoming an MVP of the league both years.

Recently, McNabb got into playing wa ter polo again as a way to destress. Mc Nabb joined an all womens’, adult water polo league called a Masters Class.

McNabb considers herself the “black sheep” of her family as she is the only per son in her family who decided to go into education instead of medicine.

McNabb went to New York University for her undergraduate degree, and at NYU, McNabb ended up applying to be part of the Gallatin School of Individualized Stud ies instead of applying for a certain major.

While attending the Gallatin School of Individualized Studies, McNabb had the opportunity to take courses in all of the dif ferent colleges NYU had to offer. McNabb took courses from the Tisch School of the Arts, Steinhardt School Of Culture, Edu

“Right after I left, I missed this place, and I missed it every single year I was gone.”

Michael Mansfield

“Student services to me is a combination of helping create boundaries and helping people understand what’s okay and what’s not okay to function as a school communi ty,” Mansfield said.

Director of Special Programs, Laura McNabb McNabb was born in 1982 in Southern California.

Growing up, McNabb was an avid wa ter polo player, playing all four years of high school. At first, McNabb played for the boys’ water polo team for her first two years because her school did not have a

cation, and Human Development, School of Continuing and Professional Studies and the College of Arts and Science. The wide variety of coursework gave McNabb the opportunity to intern at Sesame Street where she reviewed television scripts and provided feedback on them. McNabb also took a script writing class, and she wrote a script for a children’s program called “An nabelle and Her Red Balloon.”

She also took classes at the Metropoli tan Museum of Art and classes about film where she studied children’s films.

McNabb eventually decided that she wanted to go into education. In taking law courses, she realized that she wanted to make a difference. McNabb stated that she

realized education was the path forward for equity, and she wanted to help provide stu dents with opportunities who may not have always been able to get them.

“I believed in education as the place that could really transform society in terms of equity and in terms of access,” McNabb said.

McNabb grew up in an affluent area where she had access to education and learning opportunities, but she realized that not everyone was in the same position as her.

“I felt that just because of where you were born, it shouldn’t determine where you were going. If you have equity with in our schools and our educational systems and we’re able to ensure that all students have access to a high-quality rigorous edu cation, then all students have doors that can open for them,” said McNabb. “Regardless of their financial standing, regardless of their immigration status. That was my pas sion.”

After this realization, McNabb switched majors at NYU from pre-law to chil dren’s educational entertainment.

McNabb was glad that she had the op portunity to go to college in New York. She stated that she felt that New York City itself was one of her “professors.” In New York, she was able to learn from be ing around diverse groups of people and having the opportunity to meet people that she would not have met if she went to a college in a different city.

After NYU, McNabb got her multiple subject teaching credential at SJSU. After getting this credential, McNabb started teaching, mostly third grade. Eventually, McNabb took a test called CPACE, and she got her admin credential. Before she came to UPA, McNabb had experience working with charter schools such as ACE Charter and San Carlos Charter Learning Center as a Director of Student Services.

McNabb was hired at the beginning of the 2022-2023 school year as the Director of Special Programs. Students may know McNabb from her signature greeting: “Hey scholars!” McNabb is focused on helping students in special education. McNabb works with students who have 504 plans and disabilities. McNabb plans to start working on the Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) at UPA where she sup ports all the students and their needs in so cial and emotional learning.

VERY NICE!VERY NICE!

Comparing Seventeen concert experiences, two years apart

ARTICLE & PHOTOS BY SHAYNA TRAN & TAYLOR NGUYEN • DESIGN BY TAYLOR NGUYEN

S Say the name, Seventeen! Seventeen!

Seventeen is a K-pop boy group that debuted under Pledis Entertainment in 2015. The group’s name is derived from the combination of its 13 members and its three subunits that join together to form one group—Seventeen.

The hip hop unit consists of S. Coups, Wonwoo, Mingyu and Vernon. The vocal unit consists of Woozi, Jeonghan, Joshua, DK and Seungkwan. The performance unit consists of Hoshi, Jun, Minghao and Dino. Each unit allows the members to release songs specifically dedicated to the hip hop, vocal, or performance category.

Though we haven’t been fans since day 1, we’ve been obsessed since the album, “Teen, Age.” They have released four studio albums, eleven mini albums, two repackaged albums and two special albums. Seventeen has had three world tours: “Diamond Edge,” “Ode to You” and “Be the Sun.”

January 21, 2020: Taylor’s POV

With their second full-length album, “An Ode,” Seventeen announced their second world tour, “Ode to You,” scheduled to start August of 2019 and end March of 2020. They were expected to perform 25 shows in seven different countries. However, due to Typhoon Hagibis in Japan and the outbreak of COVID-19 in the beginning of 2020, Seventeen canceled seven of their shows and unofficially ended their “Ode to You” world tour.

I was able to attend their concert at the SAP Center in San Jose before the COVID-19 lockdown. My mom was lucky enough to get a hold of two tickets, each $135, in section 128. It was thrilling to know that we would be sitting in close proximity to the stage and get a chance to interact with Seventeen members. Since this was my second concert experience, I knew that bags that were not clear and larger than 12-by-6-by-12 inches in dimension were not allowed inside the venue for safety purposes. With that, I grabbed my clear, plastic fanny pack and was prepared to watch one of my

Once my mom and I arrived at the venue, around 5:50 p.m., the lines had already stretched a lengthy distance. It was intimidating at first glance, but it was soon rewarding to receive some free occurrence at K-pop events.

Although the arena doors opened at 6:30 p.m., I was not able to step inside the building until

Seventeen introduces themselves one by one with Mingyu starting it off.

around 7:00 p.m. because of the lines that formed way before the doors opened. After a bag check by security and scanning our tickets, my mom and I rushed to the merchandise stands as they tend to sell out quickly. There were T-shirts, long-sleeved shirts, hoodies, sweatshirts, ball caps, polaroid photo card sets and lightsticks. Regardless of how pricey the merchandise was, ranging from $25 to $75, I purchased a T-shirt and lightstick for a whopping total of $100, not including tax. I especially had to get my hands on Seventeen’s lightstick, also known as a “carat bong,” since lightsticks tend to be a symbol of fans’ support towards K-pop idols. The lightsticks synced to the “Seventeen Lightstick Ver 2” app luminate coordinated colors throughout the whole concert—it was an enchanting sight to see.

Seventeen member Hoshi introduceshimself by imitating a tiger. Fans havegiven him this feline image basedupon his sharp visuals and dance skills.

The seats were what really made the concert worth the price: I was in the section to the right, a row near the VIP pit and had an amazing view of the stage. Before I could settle in my seat, it was 7:30 p.m. and the concert had started with all of the members strutting down the stage with bold, rhinestoned stage outfits as the opening song “Getting Closer” from their sixth mini album, “You Made My Dawn,” began to blast throughout the whole venue. Song after song, performance after performance, I was struck in a daze of admiration.

The stage was designed with a variety of props—large LED frames, a couch, chairs, a book, fake flowers, an elevated stage structure and more—that were continuously changed to fit the essence of each unique song. Along with these came the core piece that tied the visual aesthetic: coordinated outfits. Their outfits ranged from spunky and chic concepts to match their dark genre of songs to dandy outfits for their bubbly genre. The end of the concert introduced more casual outfits such as their merchandise t-shirts. The addition of props and outfit changes not only elevated the performance but was overall aesthetically pleasing to the eye.

It was a roller coaster of emotions to sing along to hype songs, such as “Lilili Yabbay” by the performance unit, and then suddenly change to slow songs, such as “Hug” by the vocal unit. I was also pleasantly surprised by the inclusion of subunit songs as I expected their tracklist to be limited to their group songs. Despite being a 13 member group, none of the members’ vocals clashed as they all sang in harmony. I was especially impressed by how surreal it was to hear DK and Seungkwan, the main vocalists of the group, hit every high note and hold a stable voice even as they danced.

One of the first songs I listened to by Seventeen is “Pretty U”

from their older album, “Love & Letter,” that ended up being my favorite performance from that night. I loved the fun and bright choreography that paired well with the sweet lyrics and the playful energy the members gave off during the performance.

A downside to the concert was the lack of energy from my section of the crowd. I expected more enthusiasm from this section since the group members were especially drawn to the sides of the stage to hype us up; however, I was mistaken. Even though Mingyu had gone to the very edge of the stage to get closer to my section during the last “Aju Nice”, it felt out of place to fully express my excitement, so I quietly swayed along with the other people beside me. At least with this level of calmness, I was able to catch some of the confetti to take home and remind myself I was actually present at Seventeen's concert and that it wasn’t a dream.

Seventeen concerts are unlike any other. Although there were two members, S.Coups and Jun, that were unable to perform that night due to health conditions, it did not lessen the experience. They truly have a talent of engaging their audience—even while transitioning into the next song—and not a single second was boring. They did not miss their chance to interact with their fans in the crowd or play around on stage with other group members all while carrying out a breathtaking performance. I would say this was one of the best concerts I have ever been to.

August 14, 2022: Shayna’s POV

To celebrate their new album, “Face the Sun,” they announced their third world tour, “Be the Sun.” Their lead single, “HOT,” had already become popular with 1.74 million pre-order sales in the first week. I was able to get a ticket for Aug. 14, 2022 in the Oakland Arena for $300.

Getting inside the venue took a long time because of security checks. When I got in, the merchandise truck and booths included crop tops, long sleeved and short sleeved tees, crewnecks, hoodies, tote bags, hats, beanies and lightsticks. There were more merch lines inside than outside of the venue, so I would recommend going to the merch lines inside of the venues because they are usually shorter. I was able to get a crewneck for $85, and it was worth the price because it is so cute. As I was going into the venue, I was able to get freebies including banners of the members’ faces and of lyrics from “Darling” and “HOT.”

When we got to our seats, Seventeen’s music videos were playing on the big screens. It was a magical moment because, in contrast to Taylor’s seating section, everyone was singing along in their seats, and we were already jumping before the show even began.

At 7:30 p.m., the show began. The concert started off with their single “HOT,” which set the mood for the concert so well. When the curtains started to lift, I was already screaming. I just couldn’t believe that they were real. I have watched so many live performances on Youtube but seeing it in real life is actually magical. There were colorful EDM lights that displayed colors based on the vibe of the song. There were even parts in between the songs where short video clips played that foreshadowed the upcoming songs. Their outfit changes were all so mesmerizing. My favorite part was when

The hiphop team performing “Gam3 Boi” as their second unit song.

Seventeen’s Jeonghan waving to thecrowd after they finished performing“Very Nice.”

it off on the big screen.

They performed a mix of songs from their newer albums and older albums which I loved. I was so excited to hear “Shadow” live because it is one of my favorite songs from the new album, but I was also excited to jump around to “Snapshoot.” There were also parts of the show dedicated to the different units, where each unit would perform their own two songs. Not even five seconds after crying to “Imperfect Love” by the vocal unit, I had to get ready to jump around and sing to “Gam3 Boi”, by the hip hop unit.

My favorite performances were “Moonwalker” and “Wave” by the performance unit. They started off dancing behind glass as an intro to “Moonwalker.” Immediately, I was in awe because there was smoke everywhere, and they had beautiful silver outfits. It was like they were hypnotizing me with their fluid dance movements and angelic voices.

They ended the show with the never ending “Very Nice,” as they did with every show on their tour. It was a tradition for the staff to keep playing “Aju Nice,” a song from their first studio album, over and over again, without the members knowing when it would end. I was so exhausted at the end, but it was so worth it—I didn’t want to leave.

My post concert depression was horrible. At school, I would just keep rewatching the videos that I recorded. I think at one point I was close to tears because I could not accept that I was at school instead of screaming my heart out.

As my friend and I were taking pictures after the concert, some other attendees went up to us and just started hyping us up. It is something that I will never forget— that I met so many amazing people after the concert ended. Honestly, I just couldn’t believe how hot and attractive they were in real life.

Look forward to more in the next Going Seventeen! Ha ha ha ha!

Seventeen’s Mingyu telling the crowd to sing louderand to jump during never ending “Very Nice.”

Seventeen’s Vernon singing his part in their first English song, “Darling.”

The Anti-Social-Media!BeReal..

Students and teachers discuss BeReal and its impact on authenticity online ARTICLE, ILLUSTRATIONS & DESIGN BY KYLA ULUG

Anotification pops up on your phone. “Time to BeReal.” You have two minutes to post a pic ture for all of your friends to see.

Launched in 2020, social media app BeReal asks users to post one front-fac ing picture and one outward-facing picture once a day, with every user posting ideally at the exact same time.

For someone accustomed to social me dia apps like Instagram, Facebook and TikTok, this style of posting seems hasty. No filters, no editing, no time—only two minutes, to be exact. BeReal has the goal of simplifying the online experience and preventing users from over-thinking their social media presence.

Science teacher Vivien Chern heard about the app from AP Psychology teacher Loren Schwinge last year. Everyone post ing everyday at the same time was a new concept for Chern, whose favorite and most-used social me dia app is Instagram. Beyond Instagram, which she uses to con nect with students, she notes that using BeRe al has given her anoth er outlet to follow up with students she has had in the past.

“Just yesterday, I was looking at the BeReal, and everyone [UPA’s class of 2022] that was in college was posting a real moment of them in their dorms, and I just thought that was super cool,” Chern said. “I

wouldn’t have seen it otherwise. I just like being able to follow them.”

Chern also comments on the more au thentic feel of BeReal in comparison to oth er social media apps. Along with BeReal, she keeps up with her “teacher account” on Instagram, on which many of her students follow her.

A major reason she created the account is to try to give students some insight into the fact that teachers do have a life.

On the same note of authenticity, Chern admires how instant and genuine BeReal is, especially because apps like Instagram are more curated. Praise aside, it took Chern a while to get used to the front-back camera of the app.

“For the longest time, I didn’t under stand how it [the front & back camera] worked until I saw someone do it in class,” Chern said.

This concept is not new, though. Other apps have used this same feature in the past: championing a casual and authentic vibe as their prime appeal. Re leased in 2013, Frontback, an app with a sim ilar concept, garnered over 200,000 down loads in a month before its shut down in Aug. 2015. If an app like Frontback failed in the past, why is the same idea blowing up eight years later?

“I think people crave [realness] to some extent,” senior Joshua Asada said. “Oth er apps don’t have the randomness aspect that BeReal has: usually there’s some level of consistency, whether it be scrolling for boredom or routinely posting stories. Even though people can post at any time after the notification goes off, it still feels more

candid because there’s not really an endless stream of content to consume.”

Asada downloaded BeReal at the start of April 2022 after hearing about it from Tik Tok and discovering its popularity within the class of 2022. Back then, more people were ‘being real’—as the app states—but as of recently, Asada comments on the ‘faker’ atmosphere of the app.

“There’s a lot more posing, a lot more being late,” Asada said. “You click on the three dots in the corner and it says ‘six re takes.’ The most I’ve seen is 25 retakes. That was very Instagram-reminiscent.”

Along with overusing the retake ability, many users take advantage of the freedom they have to post late. Both sophomore El shadi Jahdid-Alam and Asada have no ticed when people wait until they look nice or are doing a fun activity, like going to a concert, to post the daily BeReal

With the advent of ‘RealMojis’ and comments available, Asada believes the nature of the app is also shifting to be more reactionary, like Ins tagram.

“A lot of people try to post some thing that will culti vate a reaction from friends,” Asada said. “I think slowly it will become like oth er social media that are superficial.”

When thinking of superficial social media, the first thing that comes to mind for most is Instagram. While agreeing with this, Jahdid-Alam also noticed the shift from social media’s usual calculated approach to a more casual tone in recent years, noting the rise of the “Make Instagram Casual Again” movement.

The term, “make Instagram casual again,” has been circulating around social media since around 2019—some users at

“Other people just want to know that we’re all experiencing the same things.”

–Elshadi Jahdid-Alam

Social Media? !

tribute the movement’s popu larity to “relatable” influencers like Emma Chamberlain, apps like TikTok for advocating for a relaxed setting or even Insta gram’s attempt at removing the option to see likes on people’s posts.

For Jahdid-Alam, the in creasing popularity of ‘photo dumps,’ ‘spam accounts’ and ‘relatable’ content are at fault for the shift.

“On TikTok, relatable ac counts having to do with school work or trying to find the cool side of your pillow at night are popular,” Jahdid-Alam said. “Other people just want to know that we’re all experiencing the same things.”

Jahdid-Alam thinks the rise of BeReal signifies Gen Z’s mi gration towards a more relaxed atmosphere on social media.

“A lot of influencers post big trips and stuff like that,” Jah did-Alam said. “But I feel like now it’s also cool to show regu lar everyday things like going to the park or studying.”

Jahdid-Alam got BeReal in June 2022 as a way to keep in touch with friends over the summer and found it fun to check in with them everyday through the app.

“Instagram is a lot more serious than BeReal,” Jahdid-Alam said. “So, it’d be easier to show the regular me [on BeReal], whereas on Instagram, you’d still want to make sure you look good and that it’s in teresting.”

Although she rarely follows influenc ers and beauty bloggers, Jahdid-Alam still feels the effects of Instagram’s toxic stan dards.

“I don’t follow a lot of influencers. But,

there is the whole seeing pretty people on line thing: ‘Do I need to match those stan dards?’” Jahdid-Alam said. “But on Be Real, I don’t feel like that because it’s not really a competition.”

Despite any attempts to casualize social media, Asada thinks the nature of social media will always be somewhat ingenuine.

“People have always strived to look for attention, but social media just makes it a lot more accessible and quantifiable. “Clout has always existed,” Asada said. “At the end of the day, people are still posting something. When you click that post button, you’re making the ac tive decision to say, ‘Okay, this is some thing I want to show as a representation of myself.’ As long as you’re posting some thing, there’s some level of filtering go ing on.”

Despite filtering, Asada believes BeRe al has overall pushed social media users to wards having a more authentic social me dia presence.

“Instead of hav ing this institutional ized pressure to look a certain way, people have the freedom to choose how they want to portray themselves,” Asada said. “It leaves it in the hands of the peo ple to choose to be real or fake.”

“As long as you’re posting something, there’s some level of filtering going on.”

–Joshua Asada