Verde Volume 18 Issue 2

V. A NEW AMERICA

How our country will heal after a historic election, pg. 16

2

november 2016

VERDE MAGAZINE WANT TO ADVERTISE WITH VERDE? visit verde magazine.com

November 2016 Volume 18 Issue 2 Editors-in-Chief Danielle Macuil Tara Madhav Alicia Mies

Managing & Profiles Editor Josh Code Design & Digital Editor Laura Sieh Features Editor Madhumita Gupta Culture Editor Gabriel Sánchez Perspectives Editor Alia Cuadros-Contreras News & Launch Editors Emma Cockerell Frances Zhuang Stephanie Lee Michelle Li Art Directors Vivian Nguyen Aishah Maas Annie Zhou Photo Director James Poe

for more information

Business Managers Irene Choi Deepali Sastry Staff Writers Amira Garewal Julie Cornfield Noga Hurwitz Rebecca Yao Saurin Holdheim Sophie Nakai Stephanie Yu Tamar Sarig Thomas Chapman Adviser Paul Kandell

Publication Policy Verde, a feature magazine published by the students in Palo Alto High School’s Magazine Journalism class, is a designated open forum for student expression and discussion of issues of concern to its readership. Verde is distributed to its readers and the student body at no cost.

Letters to the Editors The staff welcomes letters to the editors but reserves the right to edit all submissions for length, grammar, potential libel, invasion of privacy and obscenity. Send all letters to veics-1617@gmail.com or to 50 Embarcadero Road Palo Alto, CA 94301. All Verde stories are posted online and available for commenting at verdemagazine.com.

Advertising The staff publishes advertisements with signed contracts providing they are not deemed by the staff inappropriate for the magazine’s audience. For more information about advertising with Verde, please contact the Verde business managers Irene Choi and Deepali Sastry through our adviser at 650-329-3837 for more information.

Printing & Distribution Verde is printed five times a year in October, November, February, April and May, by Folger Graphics in Hayward, California. The Paly PTSA mails Verde to every student’s home. All Verde work is available at verdemagazine. com.

verdemagazine.com

3

In this issue

10 BOOKS A HOME

Inside

pg. 40

Staff writer Rebecca Yao profiles an East Palo Alto organization that aims to bring reading into student’s lives.

6 Editorials 8 Launch 13 News

Photo by Rebecca Yao

PEACE MARCH pg. 28

Verde delves into the faces behind Palo Alto’s march standing up for those who have Photo by by felt attacked Stephanie Lee Donald Trump’s words.

Features

16 Teacher Verbatim 17 Cal Propositions 18 Photo Essay: The Next Day 22 Election: People Affected by Trump 26 Photo Essay: Peace March 30 Election: Trump Supporters 35 Public Transportation in the Bay Area

Profiles 38 40 42 44 47 50

Philz Watching 10 Books a Home Huang twins Marissa Yanez Memento/Parth Relan IDEO

Culture

Photo by Stephanie Lee

ON THE COVER

pg. 28

Staff writer Rebecca Yao snapped this picture of Jordan Middle School student Marina Buendia as she walked down Univeristy Avenue on Nov. 15 for all those who felt threatened by Donald Trump’s rhetoric throughout his campaign. In our cover package, we explore the implications of a Trump presidency for the future, and analyze how he rose to the highest office in the country.

4 november 2016

52 Sushi in the Bay Area 54 “Joanne” Review 55 Gamble Gardens 56 Country Music 58 Indian Culture Center 59 Peloton 60 Trying Tasty Recipes

Perspectives

62 63 65 66 67 68 70

The Virtues of Being Messy Helicopter Parenting Confronting Change Letter to Liberal America Personal Reflection on Trump My Conservative Identity Column: Political Populism

Facebook: /verdemagazine Instagram: @verdemag Issuu.com: /verdemagazine

PELOTON pg. 59

Photo by James Poe

PHILZOSOPHY pg. 38

Photo by Alicia Mies

Photo by James Poe

MARISSA YANEZ pg. 50

Staff writers Amira Garewal and Alicia Mies discuss entrepreuner Marissa Yanez’s efforts to bring educational equality through her company Empoder.

Online this month:

FROM THE EDITORS

Making our voices heard

I POLLING PLACE On election day, Verde staff writers went to the polling place at Palo Alto High School to profile voters and volunteers.

CREAMISTRY Staff writer Julie Cornfield reviews Creamistry, a new ice cream shop downtown that mixes interesting flavors with an innovative style of creation.

T IS NEARLY IMPOSSIBLE NOT TO care about social issues in this digital age. Our generation, raised in a world with instantaneous news, is the disrupter generation, ready to initiate change at a moment’s notice.

There is a difference, however, between feelings and action. The Nov. 8 election tested the resolve of many in our generation to continue working against the broken principles of the past. When Verde came to class the morning after the election, we had a choice — to stay with the stories we had spent weeks working on, or to act on the moment and plunge into the unknown. We chose the latter, took out 17 pages of our magazine on the second day of production and started from scratch.

We hope this is an issue our community can look back on with pride when we review this life-changing moment in our collective histories.

In the cover package, staff writers Amira Garewal, Alicia Mies, Julie Cornfield and Tamar Sarig discuss the

feelings of groups directly affected by the words of President-elect Donald Trump. Staff writers Josh Code and Saurin Holdheim talk to Trump supporters and how their beliefs have affected their interactions with others in what is considered a liberal community. Finally, staff writers Emma Cockerell and Stephanie Yu review the impact state propositions will have on our community. A variety of staff writers worked on putting together a photo essay the morning of Nov. 9 and covering the peace march on Nov. 15, encapsulating the efforts of the student community to make sure their opinions are heard.

One person’s voice can sound out within a crowd. Staff writer Madhumita Gupta writes to the political bubbles of a naive America in her perspective, “Letter to Liberal America,” while staff writer Stephanie Lee talks to the other side of the political sphere in “Conservative Identity Crisis.”

The ultimate lesson we hope you take away is that your voice always, always matters.

—Dani, Tara & Alicia

EDITORIALS

Decision to weight GPAs harms students

S

UPERINTENDENT MAX MCGEE LEANS BACK IN his chair. Though it’s a calm Monday afternoon, the topic’s he’s discussing has created a contentious and polarizing atmosphere for the past few weeks in Palo Alto.

McGee recalls a phrase that the President of the Illinois State Legislature told him when he was Illinois State Superintendent: “If you’re not at the table, you’re probably on the menu.”

That’s the way many students, parents and teachers felt after the November 1st School Board meeting which decided that from here on out, weighted GPAs would be reported on all PAUSD high school transcripts. Instead of voicing their opinions on this extremely influential decision, hundreds of students, teachers and parents woke up to the news that the grading system Palo Alto High School has implemented for the past 35 years was overridden by the voices of a disgruntled Palo Alto school community.

This decision disrupts the old standard of Gunn reporting weighted GPAs only on the Common App and Paly refraining from doing so. Initially, all Paly Secondary School Reports sent out in January were going to have the weighted GPA on them. However, after realizing that 165 students grades would drop with the adjustment, Paly’s administration and guidance team have deciding on making weighted grade submissions optional.

“

Due to Verde’s commitment to transparency and academic equality, Verde does not support the decision to report weighted GPAs on high school transcripts.

We as a publication and an open student forum call attention to the lack of voice on the side against the reporting of weighted GPAs at the Nov. 1 school board meeting. Of the nearly forty community members who spoke, none ” advocated for unweighted GPAs. — JOELLE DONG, Paly senior This lack of opposing voice was via Change.org petition caused by an email sent out by Paly school administration on Oct. 13 stating that any change made at this meeting would not affect the Class of 2017.

After the meeting, there was an outcry of dissent against the decision, best presented in the form of a petition created by senior Joelle Dong, which acquired 319 signatures.

Reasons abound as to why this decision hurts not just the Class of 2017, but generations of Paly students to come.

Weighting GPAs means that every student will have one GPA dependent on how many APs they take throughout their high school career. This will create an achievement gap affecting people who choose to or cannot take APs and will form a de facto ranking system. According to Sandra Cernobori, one of Paly’s college counselors, of the 165 students negatively affected by a UC/CSU GPA weight, over half were either special education

We believed that the School Board would protect our students rather than fuel a pressure-cooker culture.

Art by ANNIE ZHOU

Admin will rightfully address C-Days

students, students who come from low income families and first generation students. Many people work extremely hard throughout their high school careers, yet cannot or do not take APs. By implementing weighted GPAs, we, to say this in the bluntest terms, disrespect their academic histories and define their efforts as less than that of others because they have a lower GPA. Additionally, most private colleges recalculate GPA’s anyways, so adding a UC/ CSU weight does not make your profile more advantageous in the college admissions process.

This system will also inevitably discourage people from taking unweighted classes that will not give them an extra GPA point.

Math instructional supervisor and teacher advisor Mr. Lim is concerned with the effect that weighted GPA’s can have on Paly’s academic culture.

“One of the mantras we have in the TA department is ‘make sure things are a good fit.’ That’s not just for the colleges that you apply for but also the classes that you take. You could be facing the possibility of picking a class that’s weighted versus a class that is not weighed just because it has a weight.”

As a publication, while we disagree with the decision made, also acknowledge that there are many people across the Paly and Gunn student communities who advocate for weighted GPAs. A petition initially brought forth to the school board with 469 signatories represents the commitment to academic success on both sides. As a community, it is essential that we respect that every single person qualifies the high school experience in a different way.

Senior Maya Katz, who spoke at the Board Meeting, is one of those people.

“I believe that this does not correlate with stress,” Katz says.

“This isn’t a conversation about stress. I’m asking for the weighted GPA for the work that I have done in high school. I really hope that the board does the right thing for the students.”

That definition of “right” continues to be in flux.

Moving forward, Dr. McGee will be hosting three panels to allow for more community voices to factor into the boards final decision, which will be addressed in January. Since the November meeting, each school board member has iterated time and time again the weight student voices carry. Verde encourages Paly students to attend, and speak up for what they believe will best serve their educational experience and the overall Paly community.

In our own interpretation, Verde continues to believe that a student’s academic worth is not based on how many APs they take, a value central to the well being of our students and faculty.

With this decision, we can only hope that Paly students will continue to follow their passion without fear of disadvantaging themselves during the college admissions process.

T

HE NEW BELL SCHEDULE REVIEW Committee, selected on Nov. 4 to review C-schedules, had their kick-off meeting on Nov. 15 after school. The committee consists of five students, five parents, ten teachers, guidance counselor Susan Shultz and assistant principal Vicki Kim. According to the Paly website, their job is to “investigate, analyze and recommend a schedule that will optimize student learning and well-being.” We congratulate the administration for listening to student’s opinions on C-days and believe that the committee will find the most reasonable solution for scheduling.

Verde believes that C-schedules are inefficient and lead to additional stress for students because with all seven classes meeting, students often get over assigned homework and feel unproductive in a 50-minute class period.

While we look forward to hearing what the committee decides on scheduling, ultimately Verde agrees that having a C-schedule on Monday is not beneficial to students nor teachers.

After much debate concerning what should be done with C-days, Verde commends the administration for creating a committee to address the issue. We hope that our concerns will continue to be heard. Through visiting other high schools and examining research about schedules at surrounding schools, the committee will hopefully come to a consensus on what the best schedule is for Paly students.

Art by ANNIE ZHOU

verdemagazine.com

7

Winter Wonderland Crossword ACROSS 4. What bears, snakes, and adolescents do to pass the season 7. These people have fifty words for ‘snow’ 9. A prime destination for skiing 10. This strange winter sport is often described as ‘chess on ice’ 14. The last time it snowed in Palo Alto 16. Frosty the _____ DOWN 1. One of three common types of trees used as Christmas trees 2. The iconic song made even more iconic by the

Mean Girls’ cover 3. A super cool way to traverse large snowbanks and look elegant (ha ha not really) while doing so 5. Snow _______ 6. Run run run, as fast as you can, you can’t catch me, I’m the _________ 8. Snowflakes are formed from water and ______ 11.

The delicious drink that gets many an adolescent through the harsh winter 12.

Mysterious snow monsters 13. Winter’s signature red and white confection 15.

Exact date of the winter solstice (DD/MM)

WANT MORE?

Come enjoy freshlyprepared mexican food!

$5 off a $15 order or $10 off a $30 order!

3990 El Camino Real, Palo Alto, CA 94306

(650) 424-8599 **Expires 1/31/17

**Only eligible at this Baja Fresh location **Cannot be combined with any other coupons or offers

8

November 2016

visit us at:

verdemagazine.com

BE GREEN

Highlight Memes of 2016

by FRANCES ZHUANG Art by ANNIE ZHOU Spongegar: This meme, comprised of the iconic Spongebob character with a large brown muzzle, fangs, and a vexed expression, is often used to express disappointment or anger. For example, the Spongegar picture is typically photoshopped into a school setting, accompanied by a caption along the lines of “when the teacher gives a pop quiz.” While most of the cartoons we avidly watched as children have faded into oblivion, Spongegar remains relevant and #relatable to this day.

Pepe: While this beloved frog has been around since the dawn of time, a spot in the list of 2016’s dankest memes is reserved for him as a farewell due to his new classification as a “hate symbol” by the Anti-Defamation League. Rest in peace, cherished idol - saying goodbye really feelsbadman.

Harambe: Originally a majestic gorilla living peacefully at the Cincinnati zoo, Harambe was catapulted into stratospheric meme status after a child was dropped into his enclosure. He was unjustly sacrificed by zookeepers, and #Justiceforharambe began trending on Twitter shortly after. Harambe was a national treasure, our lord, our savior.

How to Handle the HARSH California Winter

by JULIE CORNFIELD Not ready for the harsh California winter? Here are a few tips to make it more bearable!

Even in California, a drop in temperature is a staple of winter. But why sacrifice your fashion sense for sensibility? You don’t need to give up your Birks or part with your Rainbows. Just slap on some socks and you’ve got the best of both worlds.

Don’t let the lack of snow limit you! Why miss out on hallmark winter activities like snow angels and snowmen when the quad has ample sleet to use for all of your winter needs. Lay down in the middle of the quad during brunch and show the school your best sleet-angel. Then, build your very own gender-neutral snow figure because in progressive Palo Alto we all know that snow figures with assigned genders are a social construct that belongs in the past.

Animals hibernate, so why can’t high school students? Swaddle yourself in blankets and sleep the day away.

If you’re looking to pass the time between naps, take a trip out to the car and pop a squat. Turn the butt warmers on and simply enjoy. Optional: Lure in a friend with the promise of a pumpkin spice latte.

Whether or not you choose to actually purchase the drink is a matter of preference.

Whatever you do, stay far away from San Francisco. Should you choose to venture to our local Siberia, your body will go into shock from the gigantic drop in temperature and you will likely freeze to death. After spending so much time in Palo Alto, your body probably cannot withstand any temperature colder than that of the Winter Lodge.

verdemagazine.com

9

Teacher Tweets

by REBECCA YAO Art by ANNIE ZHOU

Erik Olah

Steve Ferrerra

Scott Friedland

10

November 2016

Winter Activities

by AMIRA GAREWAL Winter break is approaching! This much needed time off from school presents the perfect opportunity to get together with friends without worrying about homework or tests.

Whether you prefer exploring the outdoors or relaxing at home, Verde has the perfect activities for you.

1

Ice skating in Union Square is a classic winter destination for friends and families alike. The plaza, filled with festive lights and holiday music, offers a truly festive experience sure to make you feel warm and fuzzy.

2

Go to the beach. Yes, you read that right. California’s coast is beautiful any time of year, so grab a jacket and a blanket and head out to the ocean front. Having the beach to yourself is worth the crisp temperatures.

3

Cuddle up with a pile of blankets, watch a movie and enjoy everything that screams winter. If you’re feeling extra festive, make perfect cup of hot chocolate.

launch

Activist Answers:

by TARA MADHAV

What was the primary goal of the Nov. 15 peace march?

“

There are instances of racism in our own community.

I know at Gunn there were some Mexican American students who were harassed by students so this stuff is a problem in our community, and by demonstrating that we won’t stand for that, we’ll come together as a community.

Thank you so much to everyone who came and spoke out, it was so nice to see all those people there.

— Maya Homan, one of the co-organizers of the recent peace march

v

CHRISTMAS PLAYLIST

by EMMA COCKERELL and FRANCES ZHUANG Art by Annie Zhou

Sleigh Ride LEROY ANDERSON

Jinglebell Rock BOBBY HELMS

Let it Go IDINA MENZEL

Peppermint Winter OWL CITY

All I Want for Christmas is You MARIAH CAREY

Nutcracker - Trepak TCHAIKOVSKY

Silent Night KELLY CLARKSON

Feliz Navidad JOSÉ FELICIANO Find this playlist on Spotify: paly.io/merrydankmas

QUIZ: Which Winter drink are you?

by DANIELLE MACUIL

1

The best thing to do over Christmas break is…

A. Fiesta!

B. Start Twitter drama anonymously.

C. Decorate gingerbread cookies.

D. Debate including Jewish holidays at Paly.

3

When your friend ditches you when you’re supposed to go ice-skating you…

A. Invite other friends and have a blast — making sure to post on Snapchat.

B. Stay home, cry about it and make her feel guilty.

C. Don’t mind and go anyways, ice-skating is the best.

D. Call your friend out for ditching you and tell her to find a new friend.

Mostly A’s: You’re Mexican hot chocolate!

You’re sweet and untraditional. You like going to fiestas and aren’t afraid to step out of your comfort zone. You also aren’t afraid of taking some heat, especially if the outcome is fulfilled by standing up for something you believe in.

Mostly B’s: The Starbucks salted caramel mocha fits your palate. Sometimes a little too sensitive, people have to watch what they say

want to go out on New Year’s Eve but your parents 2 You won’t let you, so you…

A. Sneak out and party anyways, they’ll forgive you.

B. Stay home and ignore them all night.

C. Have a blast hanging out with them instead — they’re fun too!

D. Call them out for not letting you go and then leave because no one has authority over you.

4

The best place to go on winter break vacation is…

A. Cabo! Anywhere in Mexico and Latin America honestly.

B. Nowhere because you’re too stubborn to leave town.

C. Anywhere, as long as you’re with people you love.

D. Paris, Milan, New York; Anywhere that has things to do.

when they’re around you. Although you can be salty, in the deep depths of your soul you have a sweet side.

Always warm-hearted towards your friends and family, the holiday seasons are your favorite time to be with your loved ones.

Mostly C’s: The peppermint white hot chocolate, you are traditional and full of love and joy for the holiday season. Partaking in activities such as ice-skating in Union square and singing holiday carols, you enjoy taking advantage of everything the holiday season has to offer.

Mostly D’s: Spiced cider, you are feisty and sassy. When feeling small in a crowd, your boldness shines through as you express your opinions without censoring it. You have a fresh perspective and are blunt when people ask for advice.

verdemagazine.com

11

How to Enjoy Cold Weather: It’s as Easy as Pie

by MADHUMITA GUPTA No matter what holidays we celebrate, most of us can all agree on two things — colored lights are pretty, and pies of any flavor are delicious. But pumpkin pie, the default choice, isn’t the only (or the best) option you can choose.

Here are two seasonal, just as tasty options for sharing with family.

Pie Crust:

I use the same pie crust for all my pies, and the key is balance. I use a 2.5:2 ratio, where for 2 and 1/2 cups of flour I add 2 sticks of chopped, chilled butter. Bake for 30 minutes in a 350º oven.

Berry Pie: 8 cups (about 4 pints) blueberries 1/2 cup sugar 1/4 cup cornstarch 1 tablespoon lemon juice 2 tablespoons unsalted butter 1 large egg yolk 1 tablespoon heavy cream

Pecan Pie: 4 large eggs 1 cup light corn syrup 1/3 cup packed light-brown sugar 1/4 cup granulated sugar 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 3 cups pecan halves

To Assemble: Combine filling ingredients and pour into a prebaked crust.

Bake for 30 minutes, covering the edges of the crust with foil if it begins to burn.

Holiday Gift Guide

by TAMAR SARIG

For your perpetually stressed APUSH classmate: If you have a friend who would benefit from a little relaxation, go for an adult coloring book — they’ve been shown to decrease stress and boost creativity. Bonus: your politically geeky friends will love reliving the glory days of this election with a Bernie Sanders-themed coloring book.

For the aspiring green thumb of your family:

12

This miniature garden in an egg carton is a cute and thoughtful gift for any nature lover who doesn’t have the space or time for an actual garden. Also, the box claims that all the included plants are edible, which is a definite plus for your food-loving acquaintances.

November 2016

news Palo Alto to raise minimum wage again Jan. 2017

P DEEP IN THOUGHT Councilman Cory Wolbach stands outside of Palo Alto City Hall, his place of work.

Wolbach, a Gunn High School graduate, has been in favor of legalizing marijuana since his sophomore year of High School. “The first issue that got me really interested in politics was the drug war,” Wolbach says. Photo by Xander Sherer.

Prop. 64 to be implemented

C

OUNCILMAN Cory Wolbach approves of the passage of the Adult Use of Marijuana Act due to the positive effects it will have on criminal justice.

According to Wolbach, Prop. 64 — which was voted into effect on Nov. 8 by a 56 percent majority — will do much to lessen the amount of resources devoted to the often racially biased drug war, freeing up more manpower to tackle other, more harmful crimes.

Wolbach’s strong support of the proposition is also due to the fact that much of the current marijuana industry, due to the substance’s previous illegality, is run by crime groups and is used to fund their other criminal activities. Now that legitimate, legal sources of the drug can be set up, Wolbach claims that this revenue is being taken away from criminalorganizations, defunding many of their more nefarious dealings.

“When it comes to criminal behavior I think it’s important that we focus on things which pose harm or risk to others,” Wolbach

says. This point is highlighted in drinking laws; the consumption of alcohol in and of itself is legal for people 21 and over, but driving whilst drunk is not because it poses a significant threat to the safety of others.

A common argument against the proposition is that it shows society’s acceptance of marijuana and could popularize the drug.

Additionally, it may make marijuana easier for high school students to obtain, even though its consumption remains illegal for those under 21.

Wolbach, however, disagrees with this claim. “The harm already exists in the status quo,” Wolbach says. “Kids already have access to marijuana. If a teenager wants to find marijuana, they can probably find it in California, including in Palo Alto.”

Additionally, a tenet of the proposition is that much of the tax revenue generated from the legal marijuana business will go towards teen drug prevention and treatment, further preventing the increase in teen usership of cannabis. v

by SAURIN HOLDHEIM

ALO ALTO will raise its minimum wage from $11 to $12 an hour on January 1, 2017.

This marginal hike is part of a shared goal that the city has with neighboring towns, such as Mountain View and Sunnyvale, to raise local minimum wage to $15 by 2019, according to Palo Alto Online.

The City of Palo Alto’s website says that January 1 will be the day that marks the start of a yearly increase in minimum wage until 2019, based on each year’s Consumer Price Index (CPI).

These yearly increases are intended to parallel inflation.

According to Officer Claudia Keith, the City Chief Communications, employees working in Palo Alto must work for at least two hours a week in order to be eligible for minimum wage.

Izzy Min, a junior at Palo Alo High School, works for a minimum wage job at Bill’s Cafe amd she receives tips from customers. However, she anticipates a positive effect due to the wage increase for all local minimum wage wokers.

“The wage increase will definitely be beneficial to me and other Palo Alto teens, especially those who work minimum wage jobs sans tips,” Min says. v

by JOSH CODE

verdemagazine.com

13

Club seeks to ban plastic bottles in Palo Alto

by TAMAR SARIG

P

STUDYING HARD Junior Sylvia Yee works on homework in the Paly library, a popular place for students to study during finals week. “I think that it [the expansion to the MAC] is good because people can be more spread out and have more space,” Yee said. “It’s not seem as crowded inside the library, too.” Photo by Deepali Sastry.

Admin plans finals week

by DEEPALI SASTRY

L

IBRARIANS AND ADMINISTRATION will bring back and expand the Food for Thought finals’ week program with the goal of supporting students who spend late nights in the library by providing them with dinner and teacher help.

The program that was started six years ago was to ensure that students can continue to have an environment conducive to learning.

“We will be open until 8 p.m. in the library and we’ve also secured the downstairs MAC area, which will be new, because it gets so crowded in here [the library],” said librarian Rachel Kellerman. “There’s more soft-seating and … collaboration tables and there’ll be computers available.”

According to Paly’s events and activities specialist, Mary Ellen Bena, the administration is also seeking more funds in addition to a contribution from ASB to augment the dinner provided.

“Students are there a long time; you’re on campus a long day,” Bena said.

“So you have to have not just snacks but a decent, hearty meal. I’m looking at a church right now … and a couple businesses to see if they would help.”

Bena noticed that students seem to enjoy the resources provided for them by the Food for Thought program. She is confident in its future success this year “I think it’s very important that it’s always there and it will be,” Bena said. “I think it’ll be a very long-lasting program. I just want to give them the resources and environment to feel good about being prepared for finals.” v

14

November 2016

ALO ALTO High School’s Tap Out Club is preparing to help the school campus shift towards reusable water bottles in the coming months, according to club public relations manager Maya Akkaraju.

To achieve the club’s goal of eliminating plastic bottle use at Paly and Palo Alto, Tap Out members plan to incentivize reusable bottle use by setting up water bottle filling stations around the school.

“We already have two [filling stations], at the track and in the tower building,” Akkaraju said, “but they’re at such inconvenient locations that not a lot of people use them unless they’re an athlete that uses the track or football field.”

To determine the best potential locations for the new filling stations, Tap Out conducted a survey of roughly 150 Paly students last year, and concluded that the math/history building, library and MAC are the most popular choices.

“We’re going to have to fundraise a lot in the upcoming months to get the stations installed,” Akkaraju said.

In their quest to rid Paly of plastic bottles, club members have also taken their fight to the Palo Alto City Council, according to Akkaraju.

“We started working with City Council when a current Paly alum, Nicole Chen, set us up with [City of Palo Alto Environmental Specialist] Julie Weiss,” Akkaraju said. “Julie ... helped us get in touch with the Sustainable Schools Committee, so now we’re working with them.”

The Sustainable Schools Committee has expressed its approval for the filling stations, according to Akkaraju, if the students raise the money themselves.

Following the installation of the stations, Tap Out plans to hold a trial ban on water bottles to see if the committee will place the ban for real. The club hopes that the presence of filling stations will make this transition easy and convenient.

The club also gave city employees a presentation about its mission on Nov. 10, according to Maya Rebitzer, a junior at Paly.

“The goal was basically just to spread our message and educate some City Hall employees,” Rebitzer said.

She adds that the meeting “went smoothly.”

According to Akkaraju, after Tap Out achieves its transitional goal, the club has its sights set on other Palo Alto schools, including middle and elementary schools.

“We’re really excited about this next semester,” Rebitzer said. “We want to spread Tap Out across PAUSD.” v

news

v

Annual Madrigals Feaste to come to the PAC

T

HE 14TH ANNUAL Mad- have been individually fitted for rigal Feaste will be held on costumes. The Feaste represents campus in the Performing the culmination of the students’ Arts Center on Dec. 3 to Dec. 4 hard work thus far. from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., according to “We’ve been preparing for choir director Michael Najar. this actually since day one of “This year is the 14th annu- school,” Najar said. “We have to al Madrigal Feaste where all of our start learning the music early.” students dress up in Renaissance Although the beginning of costumes and celebrate all sorts of the production process was less music with food,” Najar said. than ideal, senior Jason Pollak, The 110-student Paly Choir who will be playing King Henry will deliver a theatrical, Renais- VIII, believed that hard work and sance-based performance celebrat- continuous practice will result in a ing the era of King Henry VIII. sensational performance.

The increased availability “Only recently have most of of seating in the PAC’s auditorium our pieces started to come together will reduce ticket prices for students, as truly beautiful music,” Pollack which Nasaid. “From jar hopes how good will con- There’s no doubt in my our music tribute to mind that this is going to is sounding greater stunow, there’s dent atten- be an absolutely wonno doubt dance. in my mind derful show.” “ W e that this is — JASON POLLACK, senior now have a going to be student ticket price that is really… an absolutely wonderful show.” reasonable, because we have so many Najar expressed his excitemore seats now,” Najar said. “It used ment that the performance will be to be only 200 seats and students on school grounds. would not be able to come.”

“We’ve been in the gym; According to Najar, the Mad- we’ve been in a tent, we were at rigal production has demanded me- Jordan last year, so we’re happy to ticulous attention to detail in terms be on campus,” Najar said. v of preparation, and all participants

by STEPHANIE YU

“

MADRIGALS AT THE PAC. The Performing Arts Center will be the site of the 14th Annual Madrigals Feaste. Paly choir, directed by Michael Najar, will dress up as medieval citizens. Photo by Stephanie Lee.

Bell Schedule Revision Committee to discuss potential changes

P

ALY’S BELL SCHEDULE Revision Committee will meet to discuss making adjustments to the 2017-2018 school year’s bell schedule with hopes of presenting a recto Education The purpose of forming a ommendation Council on March 22, 2017. committee is come up with “In the last few years there been a lot of disa recommendation for a cussionhasover the benefit, or bell schedule that would lack thereof, of “C” days,” said Victoria Kim, the asbe best for students.” sistant principal of student — VICTORIA KIM, Assitant Principal services.

Students and other members of the Paly community were given the op-

by REBECCA YAO

“

portunity to apply to be a part of a committee that will research possible alternative bell schedules.

“The purpose of forming a committee is to thoroughly investigate and do research to come up with a recommendation for a bell schedule that would be best for students,” Kim said.

Although ‘C’ days are a big part of comittee discussion, Kim says the committee is not just about ‘C’ day schedules.

The committee will incorporate input from students, teachers and parents through a variety of surveys and groups.

Committee meetings will be held in the English Writing Center every Tuesday from 3:05 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. v

verdemagazine.com

15

History teacher verbatim: What do you think of the election of Donald Trump?

Text by EMMA COCKERELL and STEPHANIE YU

Grant Blackburn

David Rapaport

John Bungarden

16

November 2016

“

Initially it was surprising, but once you actually looked at the data ... you realize that it wasn’t that crazy. It wasn’t like Vladimir Putin came in and changed all the election results so he could get his buddy Donald Trump elected. ... We know what he said in his campaign; we know what his rhetoric was ... but we also know he’s changing a lot of that. He’s actually softening a lot of his stances."

“

I think I was surprised that reliably durable Democratic states did not vote for her [Hillary Clinton]. ... We’ll see if he [Trump] can fulfill his constitutional duties to represent all the people and to do so faithfully in accordance with this really sacred document called the Constitution of the United States."

“

“I was surprised the majority of the country and all the polls said that Clinton would not only win, but appear to win comfortably. … It [Trump’s campaign] was not a policy-driven campaign, so it is not clear that we chose, we being the collective wisdom of the country, chose based on policy.”

s n o i t i s o p o r p a i Californ

re than call for mo t a th s ct je which n pro egaprojects constructio m te r a e v st o r fo cy l n PASSED: 1: Requires voter approva ould increase transpare local needs.

W 5 to influence Proposition nue bonds. away voters ars in reve rll o fa cation d r n fo o s li il w $2 b finance edu o allo ls to a 0 it 0 t u ,0 b 0 , 5 d 2 n eges for ver $ taxpayers fu munity coll n salaries o m o co x d ta n e a m s lion from milie r inco -income fa on to $9 bil tes a highe w li u il it lo b st m 4 In o $ : fr 5 m 5 o for students nywhere fr Proposition proceeds a re primarily a te a -c h st lt l a a e u h n and ases an eriod. Incre factors a 12-year p according to frees te a m in r es process fo 2019-2030. , it establish s the release s of dollars te n ra o li le il e m cc f a o s s and lifornia ten rers.

57: Modifie e saving Ca it and murde sp ts e Proposition is D p r. ra io d v a te h ic e v b n n co through of such as priso ugh release ols to teach a seco ro h th sc ls c a li b in u p of dom for crim authorizing es mastery ucation by d encourag d n ughout e a ro e rs g th e a k s u a ie g e iversit ds lan tive sp n n a u e -n d m n n A o a : n 8 s 5 e ts g is e Proposition ms. Also ass sion to coll rant admis only progra ig sh m li g im n g -E n n no creasi ge, while in v. Federal ond langua ens United iz it C in g n ruli d amounts California. reme Court nd unlimite p e u S sp e to th s s e nair Regulates erturn s and billio l influence. n cks and ov o a ca ti ti tt li A ra o : o p 9 rp 5 d n Propositio t allowed co lect few unprecedente mission tha m o C gree. n nted a se io ct Ele a higher de ns and gra to io s ct n le ig e a p in m of money towards ca ntributions co ry icting ta e n o m videos dep ic h p ra g o rn ll po ate tax reduced st ndoms in a e co v f a o h se ld u u o e BLOCKED: 0: Would have required th ia. If passed, Prop. 60 w rn 6 fo n li o a ti C si Propo duced in rcourse pro e most annually. sexual inte rm of life th lion dollars il te m n l so ra ri e p v y se ing a xpayers revenues b ple, and ta enalty, mak o p e p th t a n e d ce e o n th killing of in e repealed revent the Would hav p : 2 6 to n d o e ti d n si Propo le. It inte $300 alty availab year. severe pen ags, raising b million per 0 ic st 14 $ la p d e n v sa asing eo from the ph would have s place a fe re rs o te st o v ry ct ce a tr gro eant to dis e required was also m Would hav It : 5 s.

6 rt n o o ff ti e si n Propo servatio ivert to con million to d ic bags. out of plast

Art by Vivian

Nguyen

verdemagazine.com

17

The Next Day

Reporting by VERDE STAFF

SCHOOL REACTS TO THE ELECTION

O

N NOV. 9, STUDENTS walked onto campus, knowing the results of the 2016 presidential election.

Conversations that day centered on the election, whether in classroom discussions or between classes with friends.

While for some, a Trump victory came as good news, a mood of dejection dominated the school, from students and teachers alike who genuinely feared the impending Donald Trump presidency and grieved Hillary Clinton's loss. Verde sought the opinions of the Paly community regarding the election and its implications. v

q Marylin Valdez and Santiago Ruiz, seniors Marylin: "I feel very disappointed and devastated to realize how closely those people [Trump supporters] can surround me."

Santiago: "I just think it's sad to know our country is in the hands of a man that made horrible remarks towards the Latin Photo by Laura Sieh culture."

q

Caitlin Evans, social studies teacher

"I’m shocked. The polls just got it completely wrong. But on the positive side, it was a peaceful transfer of power, which you have to put a lot of faith in. That’s huge; a lot of countries around the world don’t have that. It also is a reminder that we need to have a strong voice about what we care about. It’s hard to feel like there’s nothing we can do for the next four or eight years but that’s not true at all.It’s important that we focus on what we can do. Keep our heads up. And remember checks and balances. We’ve got a strong democracy; it hasn’t failed us yet." Photo by Amira Garewal

t Ashley Zhang, junior "I'm disappointed, sad, and frustrated that the values that people prioritize are ignored. How is that going to look for future generations?"

Photo by Stephanie Lee

p Max Usman and Anisha Patwardhan, seniors Max: "This morning we watched Hillary’s concession speech, and it dawned on me that this is real. It terrified me to my core because I realized that the vice-president-elect of our country actively funds gay conversion camps and supports gay conversion therapy.

t

Margo Wixsom, photography teacher

"I’m 61 and I’ve never experienced anything like what I’ve experienced in the last several months. So as a teacher, as a parent, as a human being, someone who has spent the last year and a half attending a lot of workshops on women’s empowerment, I am baffled and horrified .It’s a hard realization for me to

imagine after studying Hitler and McCarthy as a student and thinking that could never happen again when people are educated. There

was no reason for this to happen except for white supremacy from affluent and middle class people who think they deserve more and blame immigrants and people of color, and particularly white males, who have resented, since the 1960s that they have to share because it’s fair. They want to mock that [equality] by saying that it’s politically correct. They want to make us wrong for raising that question, 'Shouldn’t everyone be treated fairly? I thought that’s what the constitution said.' So I’m shocked and really disappointed with my country."

Photo by Deepali Sastry

It’s so terrifying to think about what’s going to happen to me, to my friends, to my community, after we’ve made so much progress in the last few years. It just feels like the rug’s been

completely pulled out from under us, and it’s terrifying."

Anisha: "This country is going to be led by someone who has actively bragged about violating women and [supports] throwing people who aren’t like him out of the country.

We need to make sure that we’re a nation that values moving forward and not blaming groups of people for what has happened.

Hillary still won the popular vote and I think that still means a lot, but we should hold our legislators accountable for things that they’ve said that they would do to make our country a better place."

Photo by Laura Sieh

verdemagazine.com

19

THE MORNING AFTER Sophomores Anoushka Sharma and Jenny Tseng comfort one another about the results of the election during brunch. Photo by Stephanie Lee.

DEMOCRACY OF THE PEOPLE, FOR THE PEOPLE,

BY THE PEOPLE. THE LIVES THAT TRUMP WILL AFFECT

R

Text by ALICIA MIES, TAMAR SARIG, AMIRA GAREWAL and JULIE CORNFIELD Art by VIVIAN NGUYEN

EPUBLICAN BUSINESSMAN DONALD TRUMP’S presidential victory came as a surprise to many, including major media publications that predicted that Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton would clinch the win. Over 60 million Americans, including 3 million Californians, welcomed the repudiation of the political and economic status quo that Trump seems to represent.

The dust of election night has settled and the nation looks to the future for the change that Trump has championed in his campaign. We talked to Palo Alto High School teachers and students and Palo Alto residents who may be affected by Trump’s first actions as president. These are the stories that we found. v

the LATINA

THE NIGHT Donald Trump was elected president, Cristina Erostico’s family decided on a spot where they will all meet in case “anything happens.” Erostico, a Palo Alto High School junior of Mexican descent, does not describe in detail what “anything” is exactly, but the implication is clear.

Upon the election of Donald Trump, families like Erosticos’ fear that his rhetoric targeting illegal Mexican immigrants may cause more hate crimes against legally immigrated Mexicans as well.

Trump has promised to deport 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States and is likely to cancel President

Obama’s executive orders establishing the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals and the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans programs, which would have temporarily pardoned some undocumented immigrants and given long-term illegal immigrants work permits. Trump’s reforms scare students like Erostico, despite the fact that her parents legally immigrated here in 2000.

“Being a Latina girl, it scares me knowing that now I could be stopped at any time and deported just because of the way I look — my skin color,” Erostico says. “I’m just hoping that maybe, somehow, he realizes that this isn’t the right thing to do.”

the DOCTOR SOPHIA YEN has known that reproductive rights and healthcare were her passion since she was 16-years-old.

“I was sexually active, and I knew that if I ever got pregnant, I better damn well have the right to decide what happens to me and my body,” Yen says.

This determination to access reproductive healthcare has morphed into a lifelong mission that has guided Yen into her current career as an adolescent medicine specialist and pediatrician, as well as CEO of Pandia Health, a birth control delivery company. Her role as a clinical associate professor at Stanford University also finds her working at a teen clinic that provides confidential care and resources. Working with teens has made Yen intimately aware of the need for easily affordable reproductive care, and she fears the consequences of a Trump administration, which has promised to repeal the Affordable Care Act (also known as Obamacare).

“Birth control currently is available with no copay, no deductible, for any FDA-ap-

EQUALITY Paly junior Cristina Erostico (pictured left) holds up a sign with the words “We Are All Equal” at the Paly-Gunn peace march on Nov. 15. She attended to support all those who felt threatened by Donaltd Trump’s words and possible action in office. Photo by Rebecca Yao.

proved medication, and women prior to that [the ACA] have had to pay hundreds of dollars each year for birth control,” Yen says. In the event that the ACA is repealed under Trump, Yen said, “I think that a lot of people are going to start having to pay out of pocket for birth control again, and I think that IUDs might not be covered.”

Yen is also concerned about the future of government programs, such as the Title X Family Planning Program, that currently provide free or reduced-cost family planning services to teens and low-income populations.

“As long as you are in California, you should be relatively safe,” Yen says, “but if they cut the federal budget for Title X Family Planning, that money has to come from somewhere.

California will step up, but will they be willing to step up to their current level of funding? I don’t know.”

Yen points out that Title X also covers STI prevention, and that any cuts to the program could potentially increase the prevalence of STIs. She also foresees an increase in more tangible restrictions on reproductive care under a more conservative administration and a Re-

publican-controlled Congress. Such restrictions include mandatory parental notification for minors seeking abortions or birth control.

“Look at Texas, and look what has happened there, and magnify it to the entire nation,” Yen says. “Texas basically shut down the entire Title X Family Planning. What they saw, and what I hope that Trump realises, is that the rate of maternal fatalities [when family planning services are cut] is on par with third world countries.”

According to Yen, without government services, pregnant women often go without prenatal and postnatal care, which can have a detrimental effect on maternal and and neonatal health.

Above all, Yen stresses the importance of accessible birth control — a privilege that may be harder to access in the coming years — to the welfare and success of young women.

“What woman would have graduated from college or higher education without birth control?” Yen says. “Seeing it [teen pregnancy] is a waste of opportunity. You can have sex, just don’t get pregnant. It’s so preventable, and I just want everybody to achieve their maximum potential.”

AISHA CHABANE, a Muslim senior at Palo Alto High School pictured.

Photo by Peter Gold

the WOMAN

the MUSLIM

FOR ANNA, a junior whose name has been changed to protect her identity, Trump’s impending presidency brings up fears about what might happen if the president-elect follows through with his promises to defund Planned Parenthood and appoint pro-life judges to the Supreme Court.

Right now, Anna, who is sexually active, doesn’t have to worry about obtaining free birth control, but the prospect of losing access to contraceptives is alarming. Now that the reproductive rights of women are threatened, Anna has been forced to think harder about the implications that Trump’s policies will have on her and on other women.

“The fact that so many women are talking to their doctors to get IUDs just shows how important birth control and contraceptives are to women,” Anna says. “Donald Trump doesn’t have the right to take that away.”

ON THE eve of election night, senior Aisha Chabane sat down to write an impassioned opinion about the election for The Paly Voice. In it, she did not take an accusatory or fearful tone, but a tone optimistic about the future.

“I didn’t write about #NotMyPresident, or whatever,” Chabane says. “Personally, I don’t think that’s going to take us anywhere. I think instead of not accepting this election, we need to be like ‘Okay, there are a ton of people in this country who are scared of Muslims so what can we do about that?’”

Chabane, a young Muslim woman, has felt that Trump’s claims of instituting a temporary ban on all Muslims coming into the United States have caused an increase of hate crimes against Muslims. In fact, according to a recent FBI report, hate

crimes against Muslims surged upward from 154 bias incidents in 2014 to 257 in 2015, a year that saw upticks for many religions and races. Chabane’s family has also experienced more subtle prejudice.

For example, her father has been stopped at the airport more often recently, mostly because of his Middle-Eastern-sounding name.

Despite this, Chabane is optimistic that the true key to eliminating hate crimes is informing those bigoted towards Muslims.

“There isn’t much that you can do besides educating others,” Chabane says. “I think that’s the only thing you can do right now. Things like the recent peace protest was great, because it showed people that there are Muslims around you, and they’re not terrorists.”

the JOURNALIST JOURNALISM TEACHER Esther Wojcicki’s has spent the past 33 years reporting on controversial issues and educating students about the power of journalism. However, to Wojcicki, Donald Trump’s future presidency poses a threat to the rights of the press that she values close to her heart.

Wojcicki says Trump’s ban of certain media outlets like Buzzfeed and Politico during his campaign is indicative of how Trump will treat the media in his presidency. She especially feels that it is inappropriate for a president-elect to to treat journalists the way that he has during his campaign.

“In the past, the presidents have all allowed media to travel with them,” Wojcicki says. “This [Trump’s hesitancy to let media travel with him] would be a violation of tradition. It’s the right of the nation to know what the president is thinking.”

However, despite what changes Trump might bring to the journalism industry in the future, Wojcicki feels that overall, journalism cannot be killed easily.

“Journalists today are not disrespected.

Journalists today are feared,” Wojcicki says.

“Like Trump, people are worried that you have information that they don’t want you to share.”

Photo by Thomas Chapman

the ENVIRONMENTALIST Photo by Thomas Chapman

SENIOR ZOE Dellaert recalls swimming quickly to catch up with a whale shark nearly five times her size through the water off the coast of Exmouth, Australia. It is moments like these that remind Dellaert of her passion for preserving the environment and her dream of studying climate change.

Dellaert, president of the Veggie Club and the founder of the Zero Waste Initiative at Paly, was surprised by the results of the election and fears that Donald Trump’s attitude toward reversing climate change will have permanent effects on all.

He has vowed to roll back Obama’s signature effort to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, known as the Clean Power Plan, and to scrap a litany of other “unnecessary” rules, especially those imposed on the oil, gas and coal sectors.

“There’s a high chance that in four years, he will also pull out of the Paris Environmental Accord and cut all funding to climate change research,” Dellaert says.

She was especially disappointed by Trump’s nomination of Myron Ebell, a Washington figure who has argued for opening up more federal lands for logging, oil and gas exploration and coal mining, and for turning over more permitting authority to the states.

“Our planet is the only thing we have left, and if we aren’t protecting it then we are doing something wrong,” Dellaert says. “If we don’t have our planet we have nothing.”

However, Dellaert says she is hopeful for the future of the planet, ironically because of the U.S.’s lack of initiative in preserving it.

“The U.S. has never been the leader of the environmental protection movement,” Dellaert says. “Other countries in the UN are amazing at renewable energy. China and India are doing a lot more to transition into renewable energy than we are. As hard as it is to be an American environmental scientist, the world will still be okay. I’m hoping.”

Marching for peace

TEENS ACROSS PALO ALTO SPEAK OUT

L

“

OVE TRUMPS HATE! LOVE TRUMPS HATE! LOVE TRUMPS HATE!” Cheers ring out across University Avenue as a stream of students, adults and even children parade proudly through the streets, powerful messages written across vibrant signs.

“HER BODY HER CHOICE! MY BODY MY CHOICE!” Men, women, girls and boys chant together.

“WHITE BLACK GAY STRAIGHT, LOVE DOES NOT DISCRIMINATE!” Colorful pride flags wave at passing cars in the wind, which in turn honk in support. Black Lives Matter signs bob up and down amongst the crowd.

“SAY IT LOUD, SAY IT CLEAR, EVERYONE IS WELCOME HERE!” Two girls march side by side, an American and a Mexican flag tied together and draped over their shoulders. People of all ethnicities, races and backgrounds take the streets together.

“I BELIEVE THAT LOVE WILL WIN!” Heads poke out of shops to observe and many stop to videotape the procession of chanting peace marchers.

And together everyone chants, “WE ARE THE FUTURE THE MIGHTY MIGHTY FUTURE.” v

p

Tyler Marik, junior

Marik got involved in the protests after junior Zoe Stedman posted in the Paly Class of 2018 group about a possible peace march. “I was very proud, I was proud of the group of us who organized it, I was proud of the people who came to participate, I was proud of the spectators, it was an amazing experience,” Marik says.

Photo by Thomas Chapman.

t Kai Song, Castilleja junior Song, a junior at Castilleja, participates in the gathering at Lytton Plaza. Her sign reflects the greater message against the oppression that the march hopes to help fight. Photo by Rebecca Yao.

Reporting by VERDE STAFF

u

Joan Baez, folk singer and Paly class of 1959

Joan Baez had her first experience at a protest at age 17 speaking out against the Vietnam War. From her junior year at Paly to now, she’s had an illustrious career as a folk singer and an activist. Baez joined student protests at Lytton Plaza on the 15th.

Photo by Rebecca Yao.

q

Richard Islas and Louisa Keyani, juniors

Islas and Keyani march down University Avenue, advocating for a peaceful society without hate. Keyani and a handful of other juniors came up with the idea for a march while on a Sociology field trip in San Francisco. She looks back with pride at the march. “It was really empowering to be able to bring so many people together in the march and spread such a positive message.” Photo by Stephanie Lee.

q Nani Takivaha and Mckenna Donworth, sophomores Takivaha and Donworth march down University Avenue in unity against hate and advocating for a hate-free society. Photo by Stephanie Lee.

ABOVE: Juniors Giselle Navarro, Alexa Morales and Zoe Stedman lead the gathering at Lytton Plaza. Photo

by Stephanie Lee. LEFT: Castilleja junior Megan Turnbull marches down University Avenue. Photo by Stephanie Lee. RIGHT: Juniors Michaela Fogarty and Simone Shaw watch the proceedings. Photo by Rebecca Yao. BELOW: A group of Paly students walks down with their banners. Photo by Stephanie Lee. BOTTOM RIGHT: Junior Maddie Hare shows off her pride flag. Photo by Rebecca Yao.

Scared to Speak Up ThomasChapm anisthehardestworking memberofVerde Magazine.

Text by JOSH CODE and SAURIN HOLDHEIM

ARE CONSERVATIVE VOICES IN CALIFORNIA BEING SUPPRESSED?

T Art by VIVIAN NGUYEN

30

NOVEMBER 2016

HE DAY AFTER DONALD Trump was elected president, walking across the Quad at brunch was tense and uncomfortable for Sophia, a Palo Alto High School student whose name has been changed for privacy. Moving amid students with furrowed brows and teary eyes, Sophia looked down at her feet, worried they could all see right through her.

One of the relatively few politically conservative students at Paly, Sophia rarely speaks truthfully about her views. She fears backlash from her peers, the overwhelming majority of whom identify as liberal. While many residents of the Bay Area have reacted to Trump’s victory with open anger and dismay, other Californians such as Sophia are inwardly celebrating the victory of their fa-

Lassen County had the highest percentage of Trump voters in California.

33%

of California voters chose Trump

62% voted for Clinton

vored candidate, while attempting to avoid the notice of their peers in fear of alienation and isolation.

A Battlefield in the Classroom Sophia’s distress did not end upon entering the classroom, where she felt just as out of place. During classes the week after Trump’s election, some teachers set aside time for students to talk about their views on the election results. According to Sophia, however, many of her classmates used the time to say insulting and unfounded things about Trump and conservatives in general, as opposed having civil and factbased conversation about pivotal election issues.

“I have not felt safe or comfortable sharing my conservative views in class and have

72%

55

Number of electoral votes California has

(That’s more than any other US state.)

struggled with being attacked all week,” Sophia says. “A student at a public school should not feel unsafe walking into class and sharing their views.”

Other Paly conservatives have gone through similar experiences while on school campus.

“This school is mainly liberal and [does] not agree with my views,” says junior Raymond Fang, a Trump supporter. “I have not received any violent physical threats, [but] I have heard verbal aggravations toward me and my peers who agree with my viewpoints.”

According to Fang, many students are dissuaded from voicing their opinions due to the strong anti-Trump sentiment which permeates the Bay Area. Trump supporters such as Fang, who do choose to speak up,

“

This school is mainly liberal and [does] not agree with my views.”

— junior RAYMOND FANG

verdemagazine.com

31

Verbatim: why do you support Trump?

“

I support Trump because our beliefs line up for what I value the most.

My biggest priority is the economy, for which I believe that conservative policies are the best.”

junior Varun Dutta

and I was completely attacked by people I continued from previous page say they are sometimes subject to both ver- considered my close friends.” bal and physical abuse.

“Being a Trump supporter at Paly, I Moving forward have learned to always be on guard due to Many conservatives at Paly feel that intolerant people who have spat on me, ha- debating political topics is no longer worth rassed me and attacked the effort due to genme,” junior Varun Being a Trump superal hostility towards Dutta says. One of the opposing opinions, a more vocal Republi- porter at Paly, I have widespread problem among both liberals cans in his grade, Dutta learned to always be and conservatives. claims that his experion guard.”

“No matter what, ences of being shoved — junior VARUN DUTTA in this game of poland choked by others itics, you take your on campus — due in own side and there’s no way you can conpart to his Trump sweater — force other vince someone else that they’re wrong,” Trump supporters to hide their true beliefs.

Fang says.

After many heated debates “I would never share my views outside which amounted to nothing — both he of my family,” Sophia says. “I tried once

“

32

NOVEMBER 2016

features

v

“

He believes in transparency and he is the only candidate that is willing to acknowledge the reality of what our country has become.”

sophomore Shannon Zhao

“

I believe that Hillary has committed crimes that have gone unpunished. I feel like a lot of the things he says seem crazy and radical, but I try to see the message behind it.”

junior Raymond Fang

and his opponent refusing to accept the opinions only with those they already agree other’s points — he is disillusioned about with. Many students, both conservative the benefits political discussion can actually and liberal, may unknowingly dwell in have. echo chambers: environments in which “To combat this ideas and biases are problem, Americans enforced and never A student at a public challenged. According need to drop their assumptions about each to Dutta, this propaschool should not other,” Dutta says. “Acgates misinformation feel unsafe walking and ignorance. cording to Pew [Re“I worry and search Center], half of into class and sharthink of the people Americans, regardless ing their views.” who cannot voice of political affiliation, — SOPHIA, anonymous their support [of feel that talking to the Trump] because they other side is ‘stressful are in fear,” sophomore Vivian Feng says. “I and frustrating’ rather than ‘interesting and ask that no matter what your political backinformative.’” ground is, you allow and accept other peoIn the current political climate, Dutta ple’s ideas that revolve around politics.” v says people are motivated to discuss their

“

verdemagazine.com

33

34

NOVEMBER 2016

features

Photo by Michelle Li

v

Text by MICHELLE LI and FRANCES ZHUANG Photos by MICHELLE LI

Where Are We Headed?

THE FUTURE OF GETTING FROM POINT A TO POINT B

A

CALTRAIN ROARS THROUGH

the University Avenue CalTrain station in a blur of red and silver, creating a large gust of wind that tousles hair and threatens to blow hats away. Gesturing animatedly and raising her voice over the din, Debra Kahrson, a postdoctoral student at Stanford University, sings her praises of public transportation.

“I think the decreased carbon footprint [that comes with riding the train] is really awesome,” Kahrson says. “Also, I just like riding public transportation. … It’s pretty fun. You get to stare out the window, do some work, read some books, catch up on your podcasts and call people out over social media without putting other people’s lives in danger.”

Alicia Szebert, a science teacher at Palo Alto High School, has also experienced the benefits of public transportation.

“When I used to sit in an hour and a half of traffic every day, literally worried for my life sometimes with people cutting me off," Szebert says. "I basically got home and couldn’t function because I was just so tired from the drive. My life standard has defi-

nitely drastically increased since I’ve been point B; however, easy access mass transit still faces hurdles on the path to ubiquity, taking the train.”

Like Kahrson and Szebert, many oth- including a lack of funding before Novemers who work and reside in the Bay Area ber and dearth of low-income riders.

Currently, Palo Alto residents enjoy rely on public transportation to commute from far-away homes to their jobs while a variety of public transportation services, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and the including the VTA’s paratransit program, demand for resource-intensive production SamTrans, buses over the Dumbarton bridge, CalTrain, Palo of cars.

Alto’s free shuttles Emissions have My life standard has and the BART lines. recently become an “About 19 perimportant concern definitely drastically cent of the employto the public due to increased since I've ees are commuting indications from our been taking the train” by transit, which is new president that he — ALICIA SZEBERT, Paly science fantastic,” says Hilwill pursue a climate teacher lary Gitelman, the change agenda that is director of the city’s starkly different from that of President Barack Obama, as evi- Planning, Community and Environment denced by the fact that Donald Trump has Department. “Only about 57 percent of alluded to the possibility of removing the the commuters are using single occupant Environmental Protection Agency, discon- vehicles, and the rest are [using] transit, tinuing Obama’s Climate Action plan and non-motorized travel, like bikes and walkwithdrawing from the Paris COP21 accord. ing, and ride-share services.”

With these concerns in mind, public Students also rely on the free crosstransportation is on track to become the town shuttles to attain greater mobility. future’s method of getting from point A to Hannah Pan, a junior at Paly, values public

“

verdemagazine.com

35

EMPHATIC Kahrson gestures enthusiastically as she declares her love for public transportation. “I love eavesdropping on people’s conversations on the train,” Kahrson says.

transportation for a variety of reasons.

“Public transportation has made a positive impact on my life,” Pan says. “I get to ... spend more time with my friends on the shuttle, which makes it more meaningful.”

Despite its benefits, the shuttle system remains imperfect, and some students call for its reform, like Miguel Moreno, a junior.

"There needs to be an increase in number of shuttles on popular routes," Moreno says.

Consequences of Driving A variety of benefits stem from public transportation usage, including a decrease in commute-related stress in addition to a reduced carbon footprint.

“It [taking public transportation] is very positive,” Szebert says. “I can relax on the train, and my focus doesn’t have to be on staying alive because when you’re driving you constantly have to watch for other cars and driving is dangerous. Also, it’s just better for the environment.”

Szebert, who gave her car to her broth-

36

NOVEMBER 2016

er and now relies solely on ridesharing services and Caltrain, says that as a result, she has reduced her carbon footprint significantly.

“Getting rid of my car has helped the environment in many ways, not just the everyday burning of fossil fuels, but my brother doesn’t have to use all the resources to buy a brand new car,” Szebert says.

On the other hand, in cities like Palo Alto, many families own multiple cars and drive them on a daily basis, which is detrimental for the environment.

“Mobile sources [of CO­2] are the biggest generator of greenhouse gas emissions in Palo Alto right now,” Gitelman says. “So to the extent that we are reducing driving, we will start to make a dent on that [reducing greenhouse gas emissions].”

Reforming Public Transportation Many have started to take advantage of the plethora of benefits that mass transit provides, thus, it seems self-evident that the next step should be to expand the Bay Area’s public transportation network to allow

ARRIVING IN PALO ALTO The CalTrain station near University Avenue provides a convenient stop for those employed Downtown or at Stanford University. “CalTrain’s nice because you can sit on it on Friday after work and have a beer and relax,” Sheehan says.

more people to access its benefits.

“We are really struggling with transit capacity in the Bay Area because ridership has gone up since the end of the recession,” Gitelman says. “CalTrain ridership is through the roof. These are huge infrastructure projects with huge costs, so that is going to be the challenge for the next 20, 30, or 50 years. We have to as a region address transit capacity and liability, just make it more convenient for more people to get on the bus or on the train.”

Multiple riders, also feeling the effects of the boom in public transportation usage, echo the sentiment that the public transportation system ought to be reformed, although there is not necessarily a clear consensus regarding what riders want.

Szebert, who brings a perspective from San Francisco, believes that the city's most pressing need is a dearth of rider capacity. Looking to other large cities, Szebert believes that San Francisco should model New York's system of subways. “I think more trains, bigger trains, more of a system of subways in the city would be very, very

helpful. I think that would alsoalleviate traffic,” Szebert says. “The more people that could take public transportation, the better it would be for everybody.”

Frequent rider Bryan Sheehan, a worker in downtown Palo Alto, takes a different approach to public transportation reform.

Instead of increasing the number of trains, he expresses interest in future efforts to have trains run more often.

“A little more frequent trains or not having them [the CalTrains] all stacked together at one time is something that I would like to see,” Sheehan says. “For the train I take in the morning, I have to get there by 7:45, and then there’s one right after 7:50 and then at 8. But if I miss that train, I have to wait for 45 minutes to an hour for the next one.”

In addition to expanding the system itself to accommodate more riders at more frequent times, the next step should also include outreach to populations who historically have not used, but could benefit frompublic transportation. Currently, public transportation can be very expensive,

thereby rendering it inaccessible to citizens with lower incomes in poorer communities.

“Service workers, who are lower income and maybe working multiple jobs, are more likely to be using single occupant vehicles,” Gitelman says. “They are less likely to get transit incentives from their employers. Some large employers offer discounted transit passes or pre tax benefits to use for transit, and all those things encourage the use of alternate modes [of transportation].

But that tends to be at the bigger companies with more office workers, and not at the lower end of the pay scale.”

This is especially the case for people who have long commutes, like Szebert.

“Ubers every month are costing me about $200 or more, and the train itself costs about $200” Szebert says.

Joe Baker, another postdoctoral student at Stanford, expresses his thanks for the fact that his position comes with free access to a useful form of public transportation, namely CalTrain.

“Now that postdocs get CalTrain passes for free, it’s a huge deal and essentially

allows us to commute for free,” Baker says.

Making Public Transportation Attainable for All To bridge the gap between the haves and have-nots of transit, a non-profit called the Palo Alto Transportation Management Association has launched programs to increase access to public transportation.

“They [the TMA] are trying to design incentives and programs that will help those workers get onto transit, ” Gitelman says.

“If we could offer the same kind of incentives to service workers ... and shift more of them onto transit, it would ... reduce traffic and hopefully provide a good alternative to what those workers are doing now.”

To make mass transit universal, Kahrson suggests that society as a whole should reconceptualize public transportation.

“We should reassert our understanding of public transportation [to become] the primary source of transportation,” Kahrson says. “Building towards that ideology ... and then creating a better infrastructure would be awesome.” v

verdemagazine.com

37

Art by Annie Z hou

OPLE YOU PHIND AT PHILZ E P E H T Text by DEEPALI SASTRY and NOGA HURWITZ

H

UNG ON THE WALL OF THE PHILZ COFFEE ON FOREST AVENUE IS THE COFFEE CHAIN’S MISSION: ‘To Better People’s Days.’ With locations in over 35 communities in California and Washington D.C., the chain continues to grow, with more to come in Southern California. Due to its laid-back atmosphere and exceptional customer service, the Philz Coffee on Forest Avenue is always filled with an eclectic group of caffeine-seeking people. Verde traveled to Philz and found exciting college students and Bay Area entrepreneurs hunched over their laptops, furiously typing, while the hums of coffee machines filled the air. We listened as they gave us their takes on life, what they’ve learned and finally, the best advice they could offer to high schoolers. v

Anna V.

Anna smiles and grasps her favorite Philz drink: Chamomile Tea. Photo

by James Poe.

Philzosophy: “Be confident in the person you choose to be.

The decisions you make, stand behind those and know that those were your decisions to make and own the things you pursue. There’s a big wide world out there and it’s very exciting, so get ready for it.” setting a course, and having the flexibility to change it when things around you create the necessity to.”

38

NOVEMBER 2016

Anna is a Palo Alto native, and graduated this past May with a degree in environmental studies and economics from Whitman College. She spent the summer traveling and hiking around the world, visiting Peru, Cuba, Austria and Germany. In the coming months she’s planning to move to Seattle to start work, potentially at an energy consulting firm. While, she lines up the job “My mom’s a flight attendant, which means that I can travel for free, but it also means you have to be really flexible, because you never know if you’re gonna go where you wanted to. That definitely informed the way I look at things: just like everyday can be an adventure but be ready to change your plans at a moment’s notice.”

profiles

v

Annie A. Annie is a New Mexico native and after graduating summa cum laude from Yale with a double major in English and art, she is currently in the sixth year of her doctoral program at Stanford.

In her current work, Annie is investigating the intersection of Judaism, feminism and psychoanalysis in 20th- and 21st-century American literature.

Annie describes that her personal experiences in college taught her a lot about acceptance and empathy. “I’ve become less judgemental as I’ve gotten older. I struggled a lot in college with feeling really perplexed by other people’s decisions, and feeling like I had to understand them, and now I’m much more comfortable with not understanding them, but rather accepting them on their own terms.”

Annie cheerfully displays her favorite Philz drink: Silken Splendor.

Photo by James Poe.

Philzosophy: “The people you’re jealous of — all of the reasons that you’re jealous of them — will probably be proven to be silly in the next few years. Hold off on judging yourself so harshly, wait 20 years, and then look back and see if you would judge yourself as harshly. You don’t have the criteria with which to judge your worth yet — so chill.”

Brett Y.

Brett poses on one of Philz’s comfortable couches with his favorite Philz drink: Philz Yerba Mate Tea. Photo by James Poe.

Philzosophy: “Try to find what you’re really passionate about and what you want to do in life. Obviously that’s something that’s gonna change as you grow and mature ... Keep that balance between setting a course, and having the flexibility to change it when things around you create the necessity to.”

Brett gently shuts his small laptop and reclines into the worn leather couch. His meticulous scruff and trendy skinny jeans are emblematic of the stereotypical Silicon Valley hipster.

After finishing college, Brett lived in Israel for five years where a chance discovery of ancient castile soap in an exotic Jerusalem bazaar led him to found his own company: Adam’s Naturals.

Currently run out of San Francisco, Adam’s Naturals is a soap and natural body care product company that utilizes resources from fair trade olive farmers and women’s cooperatives in the Middle East, specifically Israel and Palestine. Their mission is to help depressed regional economies by working with local artisans and women’s cooperatives to make their products, while giving back to charities which help victims of violence and support economic empowerment in the Middle East.

Living and working in the Middle East as a young adult was an eye-awakening experience for Brett. “...over the years I have seen how important it is to get out of one’s comfort zone and out of one’s every day reality. It’s important to have a period of time where you can experience real internal reflection and self discovery — it’s important for maturing and becoming a better person.”

verdemagazine.com

39

10 BOOKS A HOME

Text by REBECCA YAO

NONPROFIT TAKES A NEW APPROACH TO READING

S

PORTS. COOKING. JOBS. Animals. The bookshelves at 1238 Westminster Avenue in East Palo Alto are organized by theme. Children burst into the cozy garage-converted-library and grab colorful picture book classics like “The Cat in the Hat” and “Goodnight Moon.”

“I want to read about dinosaurs!” says a little voice in the background.

Spanish, English and the universal language of laughter blend together in the frigid October air. It’s Family Night at 10 Books A Home, and kids “ooh” and “aah” at experiments demonstrated by one of the organization’s volunteers. Then they get to conduct experiments of their own, dropping food coloring into different fat per-

centages of milk to observe diffusion and make their own putty.

“Look what I made!” says a little boy, showing me his plate of murky colors.

10 Books A Home is an organization that teaches kids age three to five skills like reading, counting and building. But beyond that, the nonprofit aims to help the kids beyond their graduation and to foster their personal interest in learning.

“We believe fundamentally that all children are born with an interest in learning,” says Paul Thiebaut III, the founder of 10 Books A Home. “We want to cultivate and learn about what they want to learn.”

Thiebaut’s journey to founding the organization in 2009 started when he read Malcolm X’s biography, the first book he

read cover-to-cover. This introduction to literature changed his mindset and the way he viewed education forever. “[At age 23] I was on the road to prison or death,” Thiebaut says. “I made the conscious decision to abandon the streets and enroll in college.”

When in college, Thiebaut began tutoring because of the recommendation of a friend. “A girl I worked with [in 2010] had selective mutism,” Thiebaut says. “I had never heard of it before. No one could figure out how to get her to talk.” Yet, in 45 minutes, Thiebaut was able to coax her to speak and write seven sentences.

“I found out that no one had ever took the time to ask her her favorite flower. It was a lotus,” Thiebaut says.

READING FOR FUN A kid wearing a 10 Books A Home sweatshirt reads a book about trucks in the converted library. Photo by Rebecca Yao.

40

NOVEMBER 2016

profiles Thiebaut accidentally discovered his own intrinsic learning motivation: human struggle. However, he soon realized that if he could help kids find their own intrinsic learning motivations, he could give them something that would benefit them for the rest of their lives.

When he returned to East Palo Alto from college, Thiebaut was dismayed at the lack of services nonprofits in the area were failing to provide.

“It’s my community,” Thiebaut says.

“I was very unsatisfied and disappointed.

Nonprofits provide services that people without money can’t provide for themselves. In EPA all I could find was people who provide charity. I wanted to do something more. I wanted to create a new standard to aim higher.”

93 percent of the Ravenswood School District is low-income, and 81 percent of students are below grade level. Many educational nonprofits aim to raise kids to grade level, but Thiebaut thinks more should be done.

“It’s not enough to be at grade level,” Thiebaut says. “That’s the problem.”

At first it was an organization that collected books and put out bookshelves on street corners.

However, Thiebaut wanted to do more.

In 2011, he piloted a program called “Living Room Literacy” where volunteers read with kids from preschool to grade nine.

Thiebaut quickly realized that their age range was too widespread. The organization moved to focus on preschoolers because they discovered that preschoolers could be more engaged and parents of preschoolers were more involved.

Currently, the program is structured in such a way where volunteer “role models” read with their “learners” once a week in their homes with parents and siblings for two years, from age three to five.

“We want to make sure that the role model is completely focused on their learner,” Thiebaut says.

Dovile Norkeviciute is a new volunteer with the program.

In Norkeviciute’s first meeting with her learner, she witnessed a lot of improvement. “It was very reinforcing,” Norkeviciute says. “She saw me and she had such a sunny personality. She was so happy and she was skipping. It made me very happy.”

Not only did Norkeviciute’s learner

v

FAMILY NIGHT Tables with paper plates andother materials are set out for science-themed activies at 10 Books A Home. Photo by Rebecca Yao.

improve in her scissor skills, but she had so much fun learning and practicing new skills that at the end of the lesson she cried.

“You have to go now?” the learner said.

“We’re all born good, open-to-theworld creatures,” Norkeviciute says, comparing her previous volunteer experiences.

“A lot of fear seeps into us as we go through life. If you start off on the right tracks then there is less that needs to be undone which was what it was like when I was working with a high schooler; undoing her insecurities, and showing her how education could be fulfilling.”

10 Books A Home emphasizes the importance of pursuing education because of personal motivation.

“Education should start with getting good at what you like, not because of external pressure,” Thiebaut says. “Most things are interconnected,” says Thiebaut. “There’s always more to learn.”

Unlike many similar organizations, 10 Books A Home tracks graduates of the program. The program, five years old, has data ranging from its very first graduates, second graders, to last year’s graduates, kindergarteners. Follow-up data shows that 10 Books A Home graduates are scoring above grade level in all subjects except writing.

Thiebaut eventually wants to change his CEO title to CEL, Chief Executive Learner. “I just love learning how to build an organization that’s sole focus is to support kids in learning what they love.”

At the end of the day, 10 Books A Home is about cultivating a love of learning for all people, not just for preschoolers or low-income students.

“You’re never going to eliminate poverty unless you empower the whole community,” Thiebaut says. “Learning shouldn’t be an obligation,” says Thiebaut. “It should be something you want to do.” v

verdemagazine.com

41

Two Much Talent

Text by JULIE CORNFIELD and NOGA HURWITZ

IDENTICAL TWIN ARTISTS WITH UNIQUE STYLES

I

DENTICAL TWINS AND JUNIORS at Palo Alto High School, Michael and Peter Huang have a passion for creativity and a drive to express themselves. Their mother and father are both successful artists, so art is practically in their blood. However, despite their similarities and time spent together in the womb, the Huangs have each developed their own distinct style. Verde sat down with Michael and Peter to learn more about their love of art and what propels them to create.

THE CREATIVE PROCESS Michael Huang works intently on an assignment for his advanced painting and drawing class. Both twins take the class, taught by Ms. McKenzie. Photo

by James Poe.

Verde Magazine: How did you get involved in art?

PH: We just started drawing when we were younger. Very natural, no one forced us to do art.

MH: We started holding the pencil and just let the line flow. For some reason, unlike other students we can just sketch out the shape really well. But we never collaborate because we have different styles.

V: What are each of your styles like?

PH: I like abstract art and surrealism. I dislike realism though. I don’t think that’s the meaning of art because we have photography. I also don’t like it when the teacher gives you a certain thing to draw. It really pisses me off. Just give me a topic like “happy.”

MH: I agree with Peter on the first part, but I think that realism is a really important step towards being more successful in the future. It’s like the base and you have to make it solid before you can climb higher and higher. So I think that to be able to draw realistically it’s really important. I don’t like it or dislike [it], I just think it’s a natural process.

BROTHERS AND FRIENDS The Huang twins pose in the art room after their sixth period advanced painting and drawing class. Despite their many similarities, the twins say people rarely confuse them due to Peter’s glasses and Michael’s lack thereof. Photo by James Poe.

42

NOVEMBER 2016

V: What is your favorite piece that you have created?

PH: I did a self-portrait in eighth grade and I used charcoal so it was really expressive. I had never done a piece like that in my life. I wanted to hand it to my teacher.

Just when you start drawing you can’t stop.

MH: I don’t actually have a favorite one.

Actually there’s one piece. ... I used pencil, pen, sharpie and actually some water.

I wasn’t actually trying to depict anything, it was more just me trying to go with my feelings at the time.

V: Can you explain your artistic process?

PH: We both are into hip hop. We need to listen to music when we’re drawing. We usually listen to hip hop because they express their feelings freely in music. Sometimes it’s kind of inappropriate. But it’s kind of similar to art, though. You’ve gotta open yourself up, you can’t be chained.

When you’re drawing, just do what you’ve gotta do. You have to express yourself, you gotta be you, be original. For us, there’s no real process. We’re alone, and we do what we usually do, just pick up a pencil and just start flowing.

MH: To add onto that, our parents are really successful, so we’re able to go to museums all around the world and we accumulate a lot of knowledge. So every time we start a new project we’re able to think back to previous knowledge.

V: So your parents are artists too?

PH: Well, my dad used to be an oil painter, but back in the day it didn’t make much money, so he started doing interior design.

He’s a really successful interior designer. He has his own team. He designed the World Expo building in Shanghai.

MH: Our dad gave us a lot of opportunities to learn from other famous artists and to just go outside and get to see other pieces.

He’s also like a teacher to us, he doesn’t tell us how to draw but he gives us encouragement when we face challenges.

V: We heard that you guys learned from a famous artist this summer in China. What was that like?

MH: Yeah, his name is Yan Mao. He’s really successful back in China, he’s one of the top artists. We got to work with him over the summer, which was really cool.

profiles

v

FAR LEFT A piece created by Michael Huang his advanced painting and drawing art class. Huang descrbes the faces in the background as “the forgotten.” Photo by James Poe. RIGHT TOP A piece created by Peter Huang using charcoal, which now hangs in the library. Photo by Kate McKenzie.

RIGHT BOTTOM Michael Huang’s charcoal drawing, created as an assignment for his class. His piece too now hangs in the library. Photo by Kate McKenzie.

PH: He does portraits of models for fashion shows. I like his style; he does oil paintings.

It’s super misty, it gives you a misty feeling, like secrets. He paints his feelings towards the person and also the person’s feelings towards him. It’s really complicated, really deep. He’s contemplating his life choices.

But even though we worked with him, we didn’t try to imitate his art style, because that’s pointless. That’s not what you’re supposed to do in art. You’re try to get influenced by other artists, but you don’t change your own style, you just make your own style stronger.

V: What are you like outside of art?

PH: We’re actually fairly close. We play videogames together, we play sports. I like him, he’s my brother, but when it comes to art, we have our own styles.

V: What are your goals?

PH: We both want to go to art college and eventually have our own studios.

PH: We want separate studios because, I mean I like him, he’s my brother, but when it comes to art ... We might get influenced and then our art style might change. I mean sometimes it’s good, but sometimes it’s bad because you might lose your own style.

MH: Like when you’re in the middle of the process and you’re trying to learn some-

thing from other people...you might forget your own style.

V: Do you have a message to tell other students through art?

MH: I would just tell them that they have to keep their own style. Your own style is really important and there’s no good or bad in the world of art. For me, I’m not that outgoing, so art is like another type of language, another way to express myself.

PH: You have to go out and see other people’s work, but don’t copy it. Also, never get discouraged. Art is like an adventure, and you should never give up because none of us are perfect. v

verdemagazine.com

43

GIRL

BLAZER BABE Marissa Yanez answer a question at theCUBE, a station in the middle of the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing for TV interviews, in late October. She talked about the importance of young girls in tech.

44

NOVEMBER 2016

POWER MARISSA YANEZ’S STRIVE TO EMPOWER THROUGH CODE Text by AMIRA GAREWAL and ALICIA MIES Photos by ALICIA MIES

A

T THE GRACE HOPPER Celebration of Women in Computing in Houston, uniformed recruiters from top-level tech companies like Twitter, Facebook and Apple converse with eager students and recent grads about their company policies. Marissa Yanez, however, is not part of this demographic of keen job-seekers.

She jumps from booth to booth to explain her non-profit, Empoder, to reps, hoping that she can establish partnerships with the other .

As she talks, her hands seem to tactically move within the air, almost as if they have a mind of their own. She has described her organization to strangers hundreds of times, yet each time she speaks the same story — a story about inclusion, connection and most importantly, an often neglected demographic.

Yanez is the founder and CEO of Empoder, a nonprofit that teaches low-income Latina girls in Mountain View and East Palo Alto how to code. Empoder, a Spanish word that translates to “empower,” aims to play a role in strengthening local disadvantaged communities.

“I say community because we work with students, but it’s really a holistic process,” Yanez says. “To make systemic change with young students who are in middle school or even elementary school, you have to make change within their families, make change with their parents, make changes within the community.”

Community change is not easy. According to KQED, the average income in the top 20 percent of Bay Area households is $263,000 greater than the bottom 20 percent, an income gap 50 percent higher than the national average. The communities that Yanez aims to empower through

computer science are poor, and live miles away from some of the richest people in the country. To Yanez, this income inequality is intimately intertwined with the educational gap between neighboring cities.

While the conference had plenty of representation from Silicon Valley, Yanez was the one of the only attendees who had worked in East Palo Alto. She promoted her cause through networking with some of the most powerful women in the tech industry, who are now more aware of low-income communities in the Bay Area.

Now she is back home and has plans to expand Empoder to Palo Alto High School and the greater Palo Alto area.

A Latina connection Yanez takes two business cards out of her pocket, one with a picture of the Latina girls she teaches, and the other with a picture of her and Susan Wojcicki, CEO of Youtube, and asks which one I like more. I choose the card with Susan.

“That’s funny. Most Latinas like the other one, because they can connect with these girls,” she says with a light-hearted laugh. “Most techies like the one with Susan.”

It’s clear that Yanez has a unique bond with her students from the picture in her hand, who she calls, “her girls.” In the picture, Yanez is surrounded by a group of girls attending one of Empoder’s summer programs, the group smiling widely and their arms wrapped around each other in tight embraces.

To Yanez, this connection between Latinas is one of the many reasons why Empoder is so successful at keeping girls engaged in computer science and engineering. Growing up in Los Altos, and at-

tending Los Altos High School, Yanez has grown up in the exact community that she aims to serve. After working in the public sector in D.C., Yanez felt disconnected to her Latina community, which ultimately prompted her to come back to the Bay Area.

“I identify really well with Latinas,” Yanez says. “I know who they are, who they go home to, their culture.”

How girls learn The cornerstone of Yanez’s organization hinges on getting Latina girls engaged. Yanez claims that if her girls develop apps and websites that are applicable in their lives, then they are more likely to stay engaged and pursue computer science at the college and career level.

“Study after study has shown that girls want to be in a field that they feel they can make a difference,” Yanez says. “They may not understand how creating technology or doing computer science makes a societal impact. That’s one of the first things we teach in our programs is like how can you empower yourself and your community through computer science.”

Yanez’s students designed an app that allows users to receive online homework help through a matching algorithm which pairs the needs of students with people with the skills and time. The app’s inception came out of her students’ need for homework help, particularly because many of their parents work after school.

One of Yanez’s students also created an online forum for girls who often have to move because of lack of affordable housing. The users on the website can tell their stories of how moving has affected their life at home and how it’s disrupted their ability to concentrate in school.

“This whole notion that you have to use fashion and sewing and whatever to appeal to girls, I don’t buy it because it hasn’t been my experience,” Yanez says. “A lot of girls are into the societal responsibility aspect of tech.”

Mending the gap Yanez started Empoder in 2014 in Puebla, Mexico, where she taught 25 boys and girls how to code with computers provided by a local university. In 2015, she realized the importance of having programs specifically for girls so that they can

verdemagazine.com

45

INTERVIEWING At theCUBE, Marissa Yanez spoke about her organization, Empoder, and the importance of women of color in the tech industry with John Furrier, CEO of SiliconAngle Media and Paly parent, and Rebecca Knight, a columnist for Harvard Business Review. At the conference, she connected with multiple businesses and tech leaders to form partnerships. Yanez was one of the only representatives from East Palo Alto at the conference.

explore the world of technology that is so often overlooked, and opened a program in East Palo Alto in the Ravenswood school district.

Since then, the program has extended to Mountain View and Los Altos schools, teaching 100 girls in year-round and summer programs. The success of the program is partly due to Yanez’s philosophy of mending the educational gap of Silicon Valley — Yanez employs high school students who take AP Computer Science and volunteers who work in the tech industry to teach the girls.

“It’s so important to connect both sides of Silicon Valley because the kids who take AP computer science, they’re not your low income kids; they’re the other side of Silicon Valley,” Yanez says. “There really isn’t any other organization out there right now that is connecting the two sides of Silicon Valley that are so polarized.”

However, this gap extends beyond just wealth and gender — Yanez addressed the

racial gap within the Silicon Valley tech industry, which is mostly dominated by white and Asian men. According to CNN, in 2015, Hispanic people made up approximately 3.2 percent of tech jobs in Silicon Valley and African Americans made up approximately 2.9 percent of tech jobs.

In fact, Yanez recalls a conference that she attended in which every attendee was talking about how much progress there has been for women in computer science; however, Yanez and the 10 Latina girls she brought were the only girls of color present.

“This whole project is about bringing underrepresented minority groups in Silicon Valley to light,” Yanez says. She has done just that — Empoder has impacted girls since its start and has connected with local churches and schools to make systemic change, making sure that Latinas have a seat at the table. This representation is vital simply because if Latina coders aren’t involved in making technology, the

technology won’t address their needs.

“If the majority of biotech is being created by white males, that’s why the majority of pharmaceuticals that are out there address diseases that affect white males instead of females or people from Africa or Latin America. What’s important to them [white males] is not necessarily what is important to females or to minorities,” Yanez says.

A Palo Alto future With dozens of new connections from the conference under her belt, Yanez is prepared to take Empoder to Palo Alto.

The success that has lead her to expand has been due to Yanez’s unique ability to understand the dynamics of where her students come from. She is passionate, hardworking and works with the future of Silicon Valley everyday.

“I don’t want to be cocky, but I’m really good at this,” Yanez claims with a grin.

“I’m really good at my job.” v

DYNAMIC KEYBOARD The 2010 Paly graduate Memento records the instrumentals for his song “Price I Pay,” which came out in the summer of 2016. Photo by Emma Cockerell.

Text by IRENE CHOI and ALIA CUADROS-CONTRERAS

Meeting Memento

A LOCAL MUSICIAN SHOWS HIS LIFE IN HIS MUSIC

A

HEAVY DRUM BEAT echoes from a speaker into the small storage shedturned-studio next to Memento’s, or Parth Relan’s, house on Embarcadero Road.

Memento, a musician, sits on a chair by his keyboard playing his song “Price I Pay.” Eyes lowered, he plays chords which fit perfectly into his pre-recorded music playing from the laptop next to him. He finishes the instrumentals and stands up to begin recording his vocals at the microphone near the keyboard. After putting on his headphones, he falls into a trance: eyes closed, body swaying to the beat. When the music ends, Memento remains in his world for just a few moments before opening his

eyes.

Memento, a 2010 Palo Alto High School graduate, has deviated from the conventional career path of a desk job. Although finding support for his passion was difficult in Palo Alto, Memento says he was able to find validation in himself, inspiring him to forge his own life path.

After quitting a sales job earlier this year at a technology start-up in Palo Alto, Memento began releasing his music. His music is an eclectic mix of genres, including rock, classical, rap and hip-hop. This combination of music creates an original sound, one that’s as memorable as the name “Memento” itself, which reflects how his music captures the little moments of life.

“I think my music has the ability to bring people together,” Memento says.

“There’s a lot of different genres tied together into one. Rock fans will dig it. Rap fans will dig it. Classical fans will dig it. I think I’m onto something that’s pretty unique.”

A Childhood with Music Memento discovered his love for music at the age of 13 when his mother bought him his first CD player. He remembers listening to the same three bands — Linkin Park, Green Day and Maroon Five — on repeat. His love for music eventually compelled him to start producing his own.

“My life was just about listening to music back then,” Memento says. “Then within a few years I started playing guitar.

There wasn’t ever a moment when I was inspired to play music, it was all a natural progression.”

verdemagazine.com

47

Memento faced challenges in develop- pursued an alternate career path.”

Bay Area, and promoting his music through ing his art and passion for music within an Memento released his song “The Price social media. Once he has a solid fanbase, academic, technology-centered communi- I Pay,” in May,; it explores his transition he wants to release an album. However, he’s ty. The Palo Alto school system is known from his 9-to-5 job to producing music faced difficulty in building a large fanbase, for its competitive atmosphere and its by himself. He says it’s one of his favorite mostly due to the style of his music. concentration in aca“My music isn’t that easily digestible; songs because of its demics over the arts. songwriting, flow it takes a few listens and patience to get Memento admits that It’s his personality to and honesty. The through it,” Memento says. “Because of this made it difficult music video shows that it’s been hard to find people who want not go with the sysfor him to find a place him walking around to give it that attention.” tem — it’s built into where he belonged.

Still, Memento continues to work hard social hot-spots in “I didn’t have Palo Alto to paint in pursuing his dream. This past year his him.” the best time in Paly; an image of his life attitude toward his music has shifted from — NANDINI RELAN, junior I never felt like I fit when he produces when he first began creating and releasing in,” Memento says. “I it. Though he’s chosen an untraditional his music. didn’t really care about my grades — I al“To clear my head, I had to get out of path, he has felt thevarious benefits of this ways knew that there was more to life than my studio and drive around,” Memento choice. just getting good grades and going to col- says. “I’d always go to University Avenue to “I felt most vulnerable when I was relege.” feel like I was a part of society and see peo- leasing my first song, because it was basicalEventually, Parth attended UC River- ple walking around and talking. So I want- ly my life story, and I didn’t know how othside, where he majored in business and mi- ed that video to be a window into my life.” er people would react to it,” Memento says. nored in music. He feels that he developed “But it ended up being my most popular as a musician during college, but his expe- Future Plans song, so after that, I stopped caring [about rience in the classroom taught him that he As of now, Memento’s big plan is to other people’s opinions]. I think my music doesn’t thrive in the traditional education build up his fan base by releasing one single has helped me to develop personally — I’m system. at a time, performing in shows across the a lot more comfortable being myself.” v “It wasn’t the greatest time, but it was important,” Memento says. “It helped me LOST IN THE MUSIC Memento sways to the heavy beat of the music as he records the vocals to his song “Price I Pay,” which came out in May earlier this year. Photo by Emma Cockerell. find myself. As I went through life, I realized that I’m not really about the school-college system, or the 9-to-5 system.”

Aftrer a few months, Memento found the courage to quit his post-college sales job in Palo Alto and begin to pursue his lifelong passion. Although his change in career was abrupt, his family knew he had to devote his life to what he loved. Some thought this transition was a long time coming.

“It [Memento’s pursuit of music] is refreshing, but also expected, because I know him,” says Nandini Relan, Memento’s sister and a junior at Paly. “It’s his personality to not go with the system — it’s built into him.”

“

Sacrifices Though he isn’t fond of his upbringing in Palo Alto, Memento acknowledges that being in his hometown has been crucial for him to pursue his musical career. He says that only here can he build up a fanbase while still receiving the financial support he needs to focus solely on his music.

“It’s been a little bit lonely,” Memento says. “I don’t have too many people who I can relate to because most of my friends moved away, and I’m the only person who

48

NOVEMBER 2016

Follow him on: Facebook: @mementomusic.co His website: www.mementomusic.co/music Twitter/Snapchat/Soundcloud/Instagram: Memento_Music Youtube: Memento

WANT TO ADVERTISE WITH VERDE? Visit verde magazine.com

for more information

verdemagazine.com

49

IDBEST EO: A JOB EVER

SARAH MUMMAH’S EXPERIENCE IN DESIGN THINKING Text by JULIE CORNFIELD and DANIELLE MACUIL Photos by JULIE CORNFIELD

50

NOVEMBER 2016

HUGE WHITE FLOWER looms over the front desk in the lobby of IDEO’s downtown Palo Alto location. With the touch of a button, it unfurls, entertaining bystanders with a colorful light show. At IDEO, people are paid to envision, design and create products for companies that approach them with an idea.

IDEO’s creative process is based on “design thinking,” which Chief Operating Officer Bruce MacGregor explains as “think[ing] about how to do something new and create it differently.” Using design thinking, employees harness creativity and positivity to attack big issues.

IDEO is the dream job for youngsters in Silicon Valley and across the world. Employees are hand-picked out of approximately 17,000 applicants a year, and have varied degrees in subjects ranging from engineering to anthropology. According to MacGregor, everyone at IDEO shares a few key qualities — curiosity, helpfulness and ability to collaborate. With so many hopeful applicants, what does it take to be hired?

“We talk about the idea of T-shaped people,” MacGregor says. “The vertical is what you went to school for …, the horizontal of the T is how well you can integrate all the different ideas and disciplines.

...We look for people that have a certain set of characteristics: people that are really curious, people that have built something.”

Sarah Mummah, the 28-year-old founder of Dreamcatchers Tutoring, applied for a job last year. Her expertise in behavioral research and passion for creating impact made her an exemplar of the T-shaped person the company looks for. Since then, Mummah has found her place as a Design Researcher at IDEO and spends her time learning about clients in order to make the design process as customer-specific as possible.

“We try to understand what people need, what motivates them, why they do what they do,” Mummah says. “That leads to insights that are really grounded in the people we’re designing for.”

Growing up in the Bay Area A Bay Area native, Mummah attended Crystal Springs Upland School in Hillsborough and graduated from Stanford University in 2010. Now she lives in San Francisco, but spends the majority of her time in Palo Alto. Mummah is a hard worker but strives to fill the few moments that she has to herself with productive activities.

For fun, Mummah exercises, cooks and listens to podcasts to learn about “anything that keep[s] me challenged, growing and

learning.” Mummah’s enthusiasm for learning has always been a big part of her personality. At IDEO, Mummah is surrounded by people who are eager to create positive change in the world, and here she has the tools to truly put her passion into action.

IDEO places a huge emphasis on collaboration, shown by their excessive use of Post-it notes. Poster boards are dotted with clusters of blue and pink sticky notes, each covered with different handwriting and rudimentary drawings. At IDEO, Post-its relay ideas to the group and make teamwork The workplace at IDEO easier and more enjoyable.

Mummah’s brown eyes light up from “If you have an idea and you write behind her thin wire frame glasses as she it down on a computer then it’s still your describes the feeling of idea...but if you optimism that her job write it on a post-it Working here is brings her. “I often find note and put it up myself working really unique in that your on the wall, then it hard on a project…and becomes a shared it’s because the things that job is to think of idea, and therefore we’re working on have the possibilities, not everybody owns it potential to actually make so they can build on constraints.” a difference,” Mummah it and contribute to — SARAH MUMMAH, IDEO employee says. “Working here is it,” MacGregor says. unique in that your job To Mummah, is to think of possibilities, not constraints.” sharing ideas in this manner is representaThe office space at IDEO reflects this tive of the lateral thinking required for deair of possibility that Mummah raves about. sign-thinking. She believes that collaboraWith few walls besides the four that sur- tive brainstorming unlocks creativity, a skill round the building, all employees share that is often overlooked in the classroom. a work area, their desktops being the only “Thinking creatively actually feels like item inside their bubble of personal space. a muscle…that for a lot of people is sort of The comradery in this space is palpable, and atrophied,” Mummah says. “In school there employees are able to work together and is this constant…focus on grades. People build off of each other’s ideas because of it. just become afraid of risk taking because

“

they’d rather do that ‘sure thing’ that’s going to get you that A.” Though Mummah was an outstanding student, it was her creativity and work ethic that brought her to IDEO. At IDEO and in her personal life Mummah constantly finds ways to help, inspire and teach people she meets. When asked about her goals for the future, she says “To create impact in the world. To nudge people towards being kinder to themselves and to others. To leverage behavioral science to help people be healthier and happier.” v FAR LEFT Sarah Mummah, design researcher, talks about the exciting details of her job at IDEO as she sips on her tea.

LEFT PAGE, FAR RIGHT A prompt hangs in the kitchen area, encouraging employees to share their favorite memory “in the rain” via post-it note.

RIGHT PAGE, TOP LEFT Mummah smiles in the courtyard of IDEO’s downtown Palo Alto office space, where employees gather often to socialize.

RIGHT PAGE, BOTTOM LEFT A sign in the lobby advertises the opportunity to take part in office-wide origami building.

RIGHT PAGE, BOTTOM RIGHT MacGregor sifts through “The Little Book of IDEO,” a guide to the company’s values, given to each employee.

RIGHT PAGE, TOP RIGHT Connected to the office space, IDEO’s maker lab is the where product prototypes are built.

verdemagazine.com

51

A Taste of Japan

Text by GABRIEL SANCHEZ and STEPHANIE YU

LOCAL JAPANESE RESTAURANTS IMPRESS

S

USHI HAS LONG BEEN A STAple in the Silicon Valley restaurant scene, with many Japanese cuisines establishing themselves as integral parts of our thriving culture. Verde set out on an adventure to sample dishes from two of the most popular restaurants around Palo Alto. v

Hanabi Sushi

1040 N Rengstroff Ave, Palo Alto Tucked into a comparatively unexposed corner of the Mountain View Rengstorff center, Hanabi Sushi is a small, modest restaurant that offers dishes of high quality to compensate for its low profile. After seating ourselves at one of the many empty rosewood tables, we ordered from a broad selection of reasonably priced sushi and entrees. Large plates of polychromatic sushi were whisked to our table within ten minutes of ordering. The courteous waitress approached our table multiple times to accommodate our needs, ensuring that our cups of rice tea were always filled. Overall, Hanabi is an excellent option for high schoolers craving authentic Japanese food of a moderate price range.

Orange Blossom Roll - $12.95 (5/5) A visual masterpiece, the orange blossom

52

NOVEMBER 2016

roll consists of eight sushi petals lined with pastel-hued salmon fanned out in the likeness of a flower. The large sushi, although more than generous, made the conventional sushi-eating method of swallowing each piece in one bite a difficult task. The assorted ingredients wrapped inside a layer of rice (raw tuna, imitation crabmeat, and avocado) meshed well — the taste of each component was distinguishable but subtle enough to create a harmony of flavors.

Poké Tuna Roll - ($9.95) (5/5) The striking ensemble of contrasting colors made the first bite of the Poké Tuna Roll one of expectancy and anticipation.

It did not disappoint — the ground pieces of tuna slathered in spicy mayo delivered enough zest to jolt one’s tastebuds and simultaneously leave one desiring more. The seasoned seaweed salad adorning the rice complemented the tuna with some spice of its own. Although the same four-ingredient roll was offered by Sushi Tomo, the Poké Tuna Roll from Hanabi leaves a more lasting impression with its exquisite harmony of spices and ultimately scores a higher rating.

Katsudon (Beef) - ($13.95) (4/5) The Katsudon’s external presentation — random vegetables and bits of protein

lumped together in a bowl of rice — induced skepticism as to whether this excessive amount of ingredients — carrots, mushrooms, seaweed, breaded beef, onions, cucumber, rice and breadcrumb — could conceivably form a palatable dish. Interestingly enough, the tangled confusion of flavors worked — the indescribable fusion of ingredients was undeniably enjoyable. This dish epitomized the idea of “everything in a bowl” and is recommended for open-minded individuals who explore daring concepts in food.

Sushi Tomo

4131 El Camino Way, Palo Alto Located just off of El Camino road, Sushi Tomo provides sushi and other Japanese dishes to the midtown Palo Alto area. The building is adorned with bright neon signs and the panel of windows out front allowed us to see chefs rolling sushi and waiters serving the customers. Inside, an employee promptly seated us and we were attended to in an expedient fashion. We were served green tea and miso soup at no extra charge; however, while we may have received excellent service, the food was suboptimal and we would not recommend Sushi Tomo over Hanabi.

Caterpillar roll ($12) (2.5/5) The caterpillar roll — comprised of shrimp tempura, avocado, sesame seeds and unagi sauce — was served on a wooden block.

Despite being an elegant presentation of shrimp tempura tails sticking out of the sushi ends, on first bite, it became apparent that the appearance was the best part of this dish. The crispy tempura and smooth avocado combined to form an conflictingcombination of textures. Taste wise, the roll was lacking because the shrimp tempura consisted mostly of fried batter. The avocado, while providing a creamy texture, lacked flavor. Overall, the caterpillar roll was fairly uninspired, especially considering the price.

culture

Poki Spicy Roll ($9) (3/5) The second of the rolls we ordered was the Poki Spicy Roll. Similar to the Poke roll from Hanabi, the Poki Spicy Roll consisted of tuna, spicy mayo and seaweed salad. However, in contrast to the Poke Tuna Roll, this roll was markedly worse. The pieces of sushi were far too large to eat in one bite and the texture of the tuna was slightly rough. The flavor was mediocre if not a bit too spicy and the seaweed salad added good diversity of texture and taste.

Kitsune Udon ($12) (3/5) This adaptation of udon had sweet fried soybean curds along with wheat udon noodles in a chicken broth. The soybean curds had a texture similar to that of tofu skins and added good variation to the dish. The noodles were fairly standard and the broth had decent flavour. However, the soup felt a bit simple, with the toppings only consisting of carrots, green onions and fish cakes.

v

FAR LEFT Layed out on a chopping block, the Caterpillar roll combines avacado and tempura shrimp to create a unique texture and experiance.

LEFT The Katsudon combines egg, beef, mushrooms and an assortment of other add-ins to make a complex and rich flavour.

BELOW Sushi Tomo chefs keep the rotating bar of sushi stocked.

ABOVE The artfully presented Orange Blossom roll takes advantage of both the exquisit taste and color of fresh, raw fish. Photos

by Sophie Nakai

verdemagazine.com

53

Art

Joanne

ivia

V by en guy

nN

LADY GAGA’S TRIUMPHANT 5TH STUDIO ALBUM

TITLE OF THE CAPTION IS IN BOLD AND ALL CAPS Below-photo captions are always 3 pts away from the photo. Use ABC Captions. Photo/Art by Alicia Mies

Text by SOPHIE NAKAI

I

“

T WASN’T LOVE, IT WASN’T LOve, It was a perfect illusion” — with these catchy lyrics, Lady Gaga regained her former fame. Released on September 9th, “Perfect Illusion” was the first pre-released song from Lady Gaga’s new album. The album, “Joanne,” pays tribute to a classic American vibe with influences of country, rock and roll and even some folk. From the guitar-heavy single “Joanne” to the upbeat “A-YO,” this album, released October 21st, is a major hit.

The title song, “Joanne,” was inspired by the death of Gaga’s aunt, who died from lupus, and is beautiful and powerful. With a soft guitar in the background and Lady Gaga’s powerful voice asking “Where do

54

NOVEMBER 2016

you think you’re going?” this song reflects the pain of losing someone too early and too young.

“Dancin’ in Circles” and “John Wayne,” though upbeat, contribute to the sad undertone of the entire album. With lyrics such as “Every John is just the same” and “Feels good to be lonely,” Lady Gaga depicts the hardships in finding love and keeping it. Through these mournful songs, the character of “Joanne” comes to life — a girl who lived life to the fullest, always in search of fun, who ends up dying too early.

From songs like “Bad Romance” to “Just Dance,” Lady Gaga was once one of the most famous pop queens in the music industry. When her 2013 album “ART-

POP” was released, people were disappointed with how shallow and fake it was. However, with “Joanne,” Lady Gaga reverts to the essentials of pop. Love ballads, upbeat danceable songs and raw energy comprise the core of her fifth studio album, and have helped her songs, for example, “Perfect Illusion” and “Million Reasons” shoot toward the top of the Billboard and iTunes charts.

Although this album reflects her older style, that’s not the reason why I love it so much. The tribute to her aunt, the character of “Joanne” and the spirit of the entire record comes from deep within Gaga and is raw and profound. The emotional connections in her songs make it a very compelling album. v

culture

GAZEBO The walking paths are wedged between rows of Elizabeth Frances Gamble’s favorite plants, such as roses and oak trees. Photo by James Poe.

Gamble Gardens

Text by DEEPALI SASTRY

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF A HISTORICAL GEM

H

UES OF GREEN AND PURPLE surround the white Edwardian house on Waverley Street. The serene oasis of flowers that makes up Gamble Gardens sits enveloped by the bustling of North Palo Alto.

At the age of 92, Elizabeth Frances Gamble turned her property over to the City of Palo Alto in 1981; in 1985, it was opened to the public.

According to Gamble Gardens historical records, the Palo Alto City Council debated over what was to be done with the land. The Garden Club of Palo Alto succeeded in leading a campaign to encourage restoration of the buildings and garden on the Gamble property, with the goal of saving the plants and trees that Gamble had It’s a resource to chosen during her lifetime.

“Elizabeth [Frances] Gamble everyone in Palo was a fabulous gardener with a strong Alto.” interest in irises and other specific — SARAH CORNWELL, , execuplants,” says Steve Staiger, Palo Alto tive director of Gamble Gardens historian. “She provided flowers to her church and local hospitals, as well as leaving flowers outside her gate for neighbors to take home. Her gift of the house and gardens to the City was conditioned on it being used for a public benefit.”

With the persistent and gracious spirit of Elizabeth Gamble to serve as an inspiration, the garden continues to give back to the Palo Alto community through its “Giving Tuesday” fundraiser, which will take place on Nov. 29.

“

v

“It’s a day to take a break from the rush of holiday shopping and give to others,” says Executive Director of Gamble Gardens Sarah Cornwell. “For this Giving Tuesday, Gamble Garden is raising $5,000 for elementary education like its Roots and Shoots program.”

Roots and Shoots was a program created to get young elementary school students involved in the community. Roots and Shoots coordinator, Andrea Gara says that Elizabeth Frances Gamble stipulated that the property had to be used for programs that people of all generations could enjoy.

“Overtime it evolved and it became a much more intensive gardening program, and then the volunteers started cooking with the kids,” Gara says. “Now, what we do is donate most of the produce to food pantries in the area … So, we try to tell them that they’re carrying on the legacy of Mrs. Gamble by doing something and giving back to the community in this garden.”

When creating programs like Roots and Shoots, the volunteers at the garden hope to continue maintaining Elizabeth Frances Gamble’s gift to Palo Alto.

For the past 30 years, the property has carried a special significance for the city.

“For some residents, it’s a daily part of their walk, a destination for a Sunday bike ride with their family,” Cornwell says. “Couples have been married in the garden or celebrated a special event. Hundreds of volunteers have worked in the garden and house over the last 30 years, donating thousands of hours. It’s a resource to everyone in Palo Alto. v

verdemagazine.com

55

Text by THOMAS CHAPMAN

Evolution of

COuntry music

C

OUNTRY MUSIC, A MIX of twangy banjos, harmonicas, fiddles and the occasional heartbroken southern man singing about his tractor dates back to the early 1920s as a popular blend of folk and blues music. Stars like Johnny Cash, Hank Williams, and Jimmie Rodgers dominated the scene back in the day with hits like “I Walk the Line,” “Hey Good Looking,” and “Blue Yodel.”

In recent years, country music has undergone a huge facelift as it infiltrates the music billboards of today and slowly but surely caters to the demands of the modern era. Through the introduction of rap-infused cadences, electric guitar sounds of rock radio and the casual autotune of hip hop kings, country has certainly found a funky new pair of boots. Country stars like Blake Shelton, Luke Bryan and Carrie Underwood have taken over the wheel of the tractor with their own renditions from

56

NOVEMBER 2016

Country Blues songs like Shelton’s “Came Here to Forget” to more grungy country songs like Bryan’s “Move.” Pop stars are getting in on the country craze too with Beyonce’s breakout performance of “Daddy Lessons” with the Dixie Chicks at the 50th Country Music Association Awards.

Does this spell the sweet sangria smelling end to Country Music?

The real reason why raw country music has died down in recent years is due to the lack of demand for it from the younger generations. The sad truth is that country artists have to target a new and younger demographic in order to sell as many albums as possible and to carry on the melodious tunes of the 1920s.

These days, pop country music is more alive than ever but, also more hated than ever. Tensions between country and pop country artists have risen ever since country artist Zac Brown publicly stated over Twitter that Luke Bryan’s number one hit

single “That’s My Kind of Night,” which released in April of 2013, was “the worst song I’ve ever heard.” Ever since, there has been a huge division between the die hard raw country fans and the electric autotune modern fans. Furthermore, the introduction of Beyonce in the Country Music Association Awards has sparked intense controversy in the community. While the main story in most country songs is about heartbreaks, trucks, tractors and beer, Beyonce’s take on country music has her personal spin by being more oriented towards independence and fighting.

The partition of country fans everywhere has plowed its tractor through the media and has infiltrated the hallways of Palo Alto High School as well.

“I’m not a huge fan of country becoming more pop,” said senior Ben Cleasby. ”A huge reason why I became so intrigued by country music was because it wasn’t the usual pop music I hear on the radio. But

culture

v

8 Most Iconic Country Songs 1. He Stopped Loving Her Today George Jones 2. Song of the South Alabama 3. Ring of Fire Johnny Cash 4. A Country Boy Can Survive Hank Williams Jr 5. Love Story Taylor Swift now with it becoming more pop, the kind of older more authentic rock country that got me to really to love country music has started to fade away.”

Senior Kira Enriquez believes that country pop is taking away the emotion.

“I think that takes away from a lot of my favorite things about it as a genre. I personally love how honest [country music] can be and think that [pop style country] promotes less of it.” Although many students at Paly believe country pop is taking away from the emotion of classic country, Senior Serina Nguyen thinks otherwise.

“I think country pop really changed the world of country music and brought in a bigger and younger crowd,” Nguyen says.

“Famous pop artists like Beyonce and Taylor Swift have introduced many young faces into the country scene.”

While the tragic divorce of country music is being resolved, the big question is, who wins in the settlement? Currently, the

country scene is a joint custody situation with pop country stars like Florida Georgia Line and traditional country artists like Tim McGraw sharing the crowd of crazed country fans.

In preparation of the 2016 CMA awards, Shane McAnally has made a great leap to mend the gap between the two genres by creating a collaborative mashup song of over 30 different country music artists of all sub-categories. This alliance of country artists “Country Forever,” is a combination of the classic and iconic songs including John Denver’s “Take Me Home,” Willie Nelson’s “On the Road Again” and Dolly Parton’s “I Will Always Love You.” This joint effort beautifully portrays the colorful array of country artists and their contributions, in order to unite the community of diverse diehard country fans.

The efforts of Shane McAnally have forced country fans of all genres to take a step back and appreciate country as a whole. v

6. Amarillo by Morning George Sait 7. Folsom Prison Blues Johnny Cash 8. The Dance Garth Brooks

Art by ANN IE ZHOU

Art by Vivian Nguyen

verdemagazine.com

57

Text by MICHELLE LI

LOTUS FLOWER A logo for the India Community Center, the the lotus is symbolic of purity of the body, speech and mind. Art by Vivian Nguyen.

An Oasis of Culture

INSIDE THE COMMUNITY OF INDIAN CULTURE

L

OCATED IN THE HUB OF Milpitas, California, the India Community Center is home to many generations of the community who are dedicated to spreading Indian culture.

The goal of the center is to create a place where people of different generations and cultures can practice and share unique traditions and festivals.

“It is a cultural center for Indian culture, but it is also a community center and we are open to everybody and anybody can come here and benefit from the services we provide,” says Poorvi Adavi, the community center’s Marketing Manager.

To provide social, cultural, educational, professional and recreational opportunities, the India Community Center offers a myriad of programs. These programs include the Senior program, Teen program and the Preschool program which are directed towards citizens of all ages in the community.

“We engage young minds,” Adavi says.

“We engage kids in Indian culture and we

58

NOVEMBER 2016

have different courses.”

Aside from the Senior, Teen and Preschool program, the ICC also offers many different courses such as Bollywood classes and Bengali language class.

Many of these classes, such as the Bollywood dance camp, are led by community volunteers. One of these volunteers is junior Simran Pujji.

“I worked with elementary schools kids in the bollywood dance camp and a science camp that ICC offers,” Pujji says. “I worked with the preschoolers who go to the community center.

What Pujji liked most about her volunteer work at the ICC was the interaction she had with the kids.

“I really enjoyed working with the students,” Pujji says. “I also got to learn about Indian culture...It was a new experience for me to work with elementary kids and have to be in charge of them.”

To celebrate Diwali, there is an annual fall family fiesta held at the India Community Center. During this festive time, kids come to the event to create crafts and proj-

ects and give back to the community.

“Kids will come and they learn how to make sidias and do different arts and crafts and we have also blended it into harvest activity,” Adavi says. “Kids will learn how to make small food bags, small sandwiches...then we will distribute the food bags to homeless shelters. We help children understand what it actually means to spread joy and spread the love.”

For older members of the center, the ICC provides numerous activities through their Senior Program. The activities offered are composed of Jollywood Dancers troupe, a theater group, knitting club, bridge club and a computer class.

The ICC also tends to the needs of athletes of the community with their table tennis program, North America’s largest dedicated table tennis center. In the 11 years that it has been open, the table tennis program has produced several Olympic members of Team USA, including Paly alum Lily Zhang.

“Our mission is to unite, serve, and celebrate,” Adavi says. v

culture

PELOTON

v

Text by DANIELLE MACUIL

NEWLY OPENED BIKE SHOP WORTH THE RIDE

I

WAS DECKED OUT IN EXERcise gear, with a towel and a smart water bottle in hand. Fearful, I hopped on the bike wearing hideously clunky, orange Peloton shoes specialized to lock into the bike, and adjusted my feet into the pedals until a loud click sounded. They fastened me in, making it difficult to escape early — an option that sounded appealing as soon as I got on. There were a total of 45 minutes to finish. At 39:08 minutes to go, I checked the clock and felt helplessly tied down to a healthy lifestyle that so many Palo Altans gloat to have mastered.

Spinning classes have become very popular in this past year. The appeal is clear: It’s fun, upbeat, exciting and for people of all exercise capabilities, the classes can be consistently challenging. Additionally, through adjusting the weights and resistance — I set mine pretty low — it’s customizable, with cyclists having the ability to ride to their own rhythm and capabilities. Unfortunately, my rhythms were significantly slower than I had hoped, and my exercise capabilities were lacking.

Peloton, located next to SoulCycle at Stanford Shopping center, is an indoor cycling company that sells bikes for in-home installation.

The convenience of Peloton bikes is that they’re designed for home workouts, with live and recorded videos. Why someone would want to workout at home is beyond me, but it’s possible. Peloton has studios in New York City and Chicago, but people around the country can virtually join in.

For anyone 18 and over, Peloton pays $20 an hour for a window cyclist, and, for a minor like me, one can volunteer and take a class. I volunteered to be a physically active “mannequin,” but be warned that volunteering is excruciatingly hard. For someone wanting a bike for in-home installation, they are pricey, costing $1995 with spinning class video subscriptions at $39 a month.

Shoppers pointed at me and stood to watch for a few minutes, laughing at me

with their frozen yogurt. Sometimes they even walked into the doorway to get a better look. Next door I felt judged as the cyclists getting ready for a spinning class at SoulCycle would ask how I was doing, and pitifully do a thumbs up motion because they could see my suffering via the streams of sweat running down my face.

I had never taken a spinning class prior to my publicly displayed workout. I thought that a 45-minute workout would be challenging, but nothing prepared me for the

actual rigor of the class. Just a few minutes in, I was exhausted; In the middle I felt incapable of anymore physical activity. But still I pushed on, primarily because I could feel the employees judging me.

I was in the bottom of the ranks for my agility and there were times when I pushed the resilience setting notch five below the average of the class. Window cycling was harder and more embarrassing than I thought it would be, but volunteering beats paying $34 for a spinning class at SoulCycle. v

WINDOW CYCLING Verde Editor-in-Chief Danielle Macuil, cycles in the window of Peloton at Stanford Shopping Center. People stopped as they passed by and stared. Minors can volunteer to window cycle and adults can get paid $20 an hour to do it. Photo by James Poe.

verdemagazine.com

59

Trying tasty Recipes

Text and photos by IRENE CHOI

MY ATTEMPT IN MAKING THE TRENDY RECIPES

I

T’S HAPPENED TO ALL OF US BEFORE: YOU’RE SCROLLING DOWN YOUR FACEBOOK, EITHER procrastinating on homework or taking a well-deserved break from it, when one of the auto-play Buzzfeed Tasty recipe videos start playing. Before you know it, you’re going down a rabbit-hole of food porn shots from “easy” and “delicious” recipes. But I wonder, exactly how simple are Tasty’s recipes? I went out and tried cooking three recipes for myself. Read on to see the results. Recipes courtesy of Buzzfeed Tasty. v

Pumpkin Pie Cones Ingredients: 1) 1 can pumpkin puree 2) 1/2 cup sugar 3) 1 cup evaporated milk 4) 1/2 tsp salt 5) 1 Tbsp. pumpkin spice (nutmeg, ginger, cloves, cinnamon) 6) 2 eggs 7) 2 packages of puff pastry 8) Cooking spray 9) Aluminum foil

60

NOVEMBER 2016

Steps: 1) Shape foil into cones (any size works).

2) Cover cones with oil, then get out puff pastry and roll it out.

3) After rolling pastry out, cut it into 1 inch strips and brush with water.

4) Begin rolling the pastry onto the cone molds.

5) Bake for 15 minutes at 400 degrees fahrenheit.

6) Combine pumpkin puree, sugar, evaporated milk, pumpkin spice, salt and eggs.

7) Take the cones out, take out of mold,nd pipe pumpkin mixture into the cones.

8) Bake cones for 30 minutes at 400 degrees fahrenheit.

9) Cover cooked cones with whipped cream and cinnamon.

The cones didn’t hold up — maybe I needed to make them thicker; also, I baked them for too long, so they looked burnt. Although, if I hadn’t baked them as long as I had, the pumpkin filling wouldn’t have set.

Flavor: The “cones” tasted fine, and were nice and buttery. However, I used storebought dough, so that’s probably why they tasted so good. The pumpkin filling wasn’t very sweet, so I would recommend adding more sugar.

Level of difficulty: If not for the cones, they would’ve been pretty easy to make.

Unfortunately, because the cones were the most important part of the whole recipe, I can’t say that these pumpkin cones were great.

culture

v

Loaded Cheese-Stuffed Mashed Potato Balls Ingredients: 1) 4 cups leftover mashed potatoes 2) 1/2 cup sliced green onions 3) 3/4 cup chopped cooked bacon 4) 1 tsp garlic powder 5) 1/2 tsp black pepper 6) 2 eggs 7) Small blocks of Cheddar Cheese 8) 1 cup flour 9) 1 cup bread crumbs 10) Oil for frying 11) Salt

Steps: 1) Cut cheese into blocks.

2) Mix together mashed potatoes, green onions, bacon, garlic powder, pepper and egg.

3) Flatten a lump of mixture into a circle, then put a cheese square in the center.

4) Surround the cheese with the mixture.

5) Cover in flour, then beaten egg, then breadcrumbs, then egg again, then back in breadcrumbs before frying for 5 minutes in 350 degree fahrenheit oil.

6) Take out, drain excess oil on a paper towel, and sprinkle with salt.

These were fairly good! They were very messy to make, but were worth the effort.

Flavor: The crispy outter shell and mushy potatoes contrasted amazingly right after frying, but because the crust turned soggy once they were cold, they didn’t taste as great. The sharpness of the onion came through and gave the otherwise heavy flavor a hint of freshness and the bacon gave a nice salty chew.

Level of difficulty: If you don’t know how to fry things, this was kind of hard. All the other steps, however, were easy to execute.

Bacon Egg Cups Ingredients: 1) 6 eggs 2) 1/4 tsp salt 3) 1/4 tsp pepper 4) 6 strips of cooked bacon 5) 1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese 6) 3 slices of bread

Steps: 1) Preheat oven to 400°F. 2) Cut 6 circles out of a slice of bread.

3) Press the bread circles into a greased muffin tin.

4) Take slightly cooked bacon and line the side of the individual muffin tin with it.

5) Sprinkle the top of the bread with cheese.

6) Pour egg into individual muffin tin.

7) Top each one with cheese.

8) Bake 15-20 minutes, until eggs are fully set.

These were the best! They were yummy, easy and a simple clean up. If you like a runny yolk, I’d bake these for less than 15 minutes.

Flavor: They tasted pretty good, though like the potato balls they should be eaten hot. The bacon wasn’t as crispy as I was expecting it to be. My egg was over-baked and wasn’t as runny as I would’ve liked it, but that was on me for baking them too long.

Level of difficulty: These were by far the easiest recipe to make; a 3 year old could make them.

verdemagazine.com

61

Text by REBECCA YAO

Is being messy a good thing?

DEBUNKING THE STIGMA AROUND MESSINESS

M

Y DESK IS A LANDscape. Broken binders, overstuffed folders, textbooks and dog-eared pages create shaky canyons. Loose-leaf binder paper and crumpled receipts stacked in every which way create sharp cliffs and caves.

Random little collectibles occasionally fall like loose boulders into the cleared square foot of space where my laptop barely fits.

Unsharpened pencils, uncapped pens and miscellaneous paintbrushes are trees rooted in the canyon floor.

Translation: My desk is a mess. Not moldy-food messy, but still, a true mess.

I thoroughly clean my room probably once every quarter. That’s not to say I don’t tidy bits and pieces here and there, but infrequently do I perform a complete sweep.

Normally, my version of tidying is making

Art by Aishah Maas

62

NOVEMBER 2016

piles of stuff smaller and more “organized.”

For years I’ve thought that the words “piles” and “organized” were oxymorons. You can’t make piles and be organized, can you?

Well, as Google defines it, “organized” means “arranged in a systematic way.” By this definition, aren’t piles organized?

It’s actually generally easier and more efficient to find things if you are “messy.” In “A Perfect Mess: The Hidden Benefits of Disorder,” coauthors David H. Freedman and Eric Abrahamson emphasize what benefits being messy provides, or rather, what benefits being organized doesn’t provide.

The book claims: “It’s not just that the advantages of being neat and organized are typically outweighed by the costs. As it turns out, the very advantages themselves are often illusionary.”

People have a general understanding

that being organized saves time. However, the hours someone puts into developing an organized system usually don’t give back that many hours of efficiency. Instead of trying to recall the location where something has been stored, a messy person can just search his or her recent memory and remember where that object was last seen.

“Organized” people spend approximately 36 percent more time looking for things, according to Abrahamson and Freedman’s studies.

Beyond that, clutter breeds creativity.

Kathleen Vohs, professor at the University of Minnesota, conducted a study in 2013 which tested the differences in levels of creativity in people surrounded by cleanliness versus those surrounded in clutter.

Based on the ratings of outside judges, it was concluded that on average messy people are 28 percent more creative.

That being said, you’re not excused from being a total slob. Though messiness has its benefits, being “organized” and having certain places for certain things is by no means a bad thing. It really depends on the person.

The term “messiness” certainly doesn’t deserve the bad rap it has. Alexander Fleming would most likely have not discovered Penicillin if he hadn’t left out samples in his messy office while he was on vacation and discovered Penicillin, an antibiotic growing on them.

So when people ask if you are an organized person, you can now say, “No, actually, I’m quite messy and unorganized!” and be proud of it. After all, as Einstein said, “If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of what, then, is an empty desk?” v

perspectives

v

Drone Dads and Motor Moms

TO ALL HELICOPTER PARENTS: STOP HOVERING pure; parents just want to lessen the pain of transitioning from youth to adulthood, and DEAR MOM AND DAD, pave the way for a better life than the one This is the year I’ve dreaded for so long, they had themselves. notorious for its seemingly never-ending Yet the startling truth for parents is that workload and inordinate amount of stress. they’re actually doing their children more It’s the year that students are told “grades harm than good by obsessively laying out really count,” the year when we’re forced to their child’s life. Teens who are sheltered study into the wee hours of morning to get by their parents are often not exposed to good grades and when striking a balance the many nuances of everyday life and are between extracurriculars, SAT prep and fun therefore robbed of chances to develop seems impossible. I know you two see my crucial life skills, such as self-advocation. stress and want so desperately to alleviate it, When students finally escape the protective to ease my burden, but giving me space to nest of their parents’ learn and make mistakes supervision, they are will teach me more than I have heard all too often the unequipped to navithe superficial success cries of my peers, whose par- gate the challenges of that many achieve with ents mean well but cause un- the world. parental coddling.

While I wouldn’t intended pain.”

The number of “hego as far as to charlicopter parents,” a term acterize you as helidescribing parents who are overinvolved in copter parents, I do think that you hover a their children’s lives, has risen dramatically bit too low sometimes. It’s perfectly underin recent years. Other parents — potentially standable — you’re worried for my future, your friends and colleagues — believe that and taking AP Biology may just be the dethey are doing their children the ultimate ciding factor that gets me into the amazing good by paying for tutoring and seeking out college that may just get me my dream job. lucrative summer internship opportunities. But the fact is that everything is speculative, They believe that academic success and a so while your actions are well-intentioned, prestigious college education will guarantee acting on your worry probably won’t do me lifelong stability and a fat paycheck. Their much good in the long run. intentions are Research conducted by University of Arizona professor Chris Segrin, shows that overparenting breeds narcissism and poor coping skills, which exacerbates the stress of going to college and finding a job.

Overparenting Text by Emma Cockerell

“

does the exact opposite of what parents intend to do — it leaves children vulnerable when they are forced to fend for themselves in real life.

According to the June 2013 APA Monitor, 95 percent of college counseling centers nationwide say that they’re concerned about the growing psychological issues incoming college students face due to helicopter parenting. While I’m nowhere close to having deep-seated “psychological issues,” I have felt the effects of your excessive concern; there is a point when encouragement becomes coercion and inquiries about my friends’ achievements become comparisons to mine, and that is where the stress starts.

My aim is not to complain about how difficult my life is or to air my grievances about you. I have an amazing family, a wonderful group of friends and a passionate, supportive school body. But there are certain areas of my life that I would rather be free to figure out for myself. Yes, I know that majoring in computer science will probably land me a lucrative job and a stable life, but I don’t want my professional life to be estranged from what truly inspires and motivates me.

I have heard all too often the cries of my peers, whose parents mean well but cause unintended pain. The over-occurring theme in Palo Alto and neighboring areas of high achievement seems to be the inability of parents to let their children live a little, and to let us stray what they deem to be too far away from the path to success. Overparenting, which occurs so easily and is largely unnoticed, should not go unaddressed.

I need your continued support and encouragement — I wouldn’t be where I am today without it. I attribute so much of my current success to your constant motivation and love. But I also want to be free to make mistakes. I want to be free to take the wrong path, to trip and fall but to bounce back more resilient than before.

Love, Emma Ar

tb yA

nn

ie

Zh

ou

410 California Avenue, Palo Alto CA 94306

Serving Palo Alto for 75 years!

10% off for all students and school professionals!

64

NOVEMBER 2016

perspectives

v

Text by TAMAR SARIG

What Revolution Gets Wrong THE COST OF DEMANDING RADICAL CHANGE

the very real issues of economic inequality, national security, non-transparent government and race relations that pervade this country. There can be no denying that all of those problems cry out for change. But not all change is created equal.

The change our country needs and deserves is not the racist, misogynistic mess that was sold to us as a positive break from political correctness this election season. The change we need is stable, gradual reform that addresses underlying issues.

I have spent iv the past few weeks V by hearing that a Trump Art presidency was inevitable, that he was the only one who could give the frustrated people of this country the revolution they were longing for. But frankly, I refuse to believe that this was inevitable. I cannot accept that this was the best my country could do. I still believe, despite everything I’ve heard from our new commander-in-chief about women like myself, about people of color, about the disabled, that the timeless American values of equality and tolerance are alive.

And I won’t accept that we can’t have progress without throwing half of our beautiful, incredible, diverse country under the bus.

It’s too late for this election. We’ve made our decision, and over the course of the next four years, we will discover its consequences. But I remain optimistic in our country’s ability to grow out of this desperate choice and progress into a more confident future — maybe even in four years.

Hey, America, we can do it. Next time, let’s look past the persona and elect a leader who can bring positive change to all of us, even if it doesn’t happen overnight. v Ng uy en

election, we certainly don’t get a fully qualified leader with thorough blueprints for change. Instead, we replace one form of bad politics with another.

This month, we voted against the glacial pace of politics as usual and voted in an unstable, underqualified man whose m e r curial temperament m a y prove a greater impediment to positive change than the so-called establishment ever did.

I get it. Revolution is sexier than evolution. The candidate who seemed to stand for more of the same was bound to look unappealing next to the candidate who promised to subvert the status quo.

But it’s time for us, as a nation, to take a hard look at our priorities. When we see “different” as the only qualification for our officeholders, we cheat ourselves out of quality leadership. When we don’t look past the superficial promises of revolution and look for actual, enactable policy, we end up with leaders like our new president, who sacrifice substantive, workable plans for fearmongering and inflammatory rhetoric.

We have allowed ourselves to be satisfied with the very easiest, most simplistic answer to the pains that plague our country: the answer that the “other” is responsible for our problems, that if we only keep the right groups outside of our borders, our country’s most urgent crises will be solved.

This approach is a counterproductive, crude and often discriminatory response to

ia n

W

ELL, AMERICA, WE did it. After over a year of incessant calls to burn our system down, of insistence on political upheaval at the expense of all else, we finally got the change we demanded. Starting on Jan. 20, Inauguration Day, the face representing America on the world stage will be that of President Donald J. Trump.

Is that the kind of change we wanted? On election night, roughly half of my countrymen (or rather, those who voted) said yes. And though I understand some of their reasons and motivations, I have found myself struggling with that answer, trying desperately to reconcile my fellow Americans’ choice with what I thought I knew about the core values of my country.

Ask anybody — pundits, analysts, Trump voters and opponents alike — and they’ll tell you that Trump was elected because a vast, overlooked swath of our country was starved for change. And in an upset that few polls saw coming, they have chosen a candidate whose one predictable trait is unpredictability. Our country is certain to undergo major changes in the next four years, but at what cost?

Because we made clear that our No. 1 priority was a political revolution, we have elected a man who has not proven himself capable of governing at any level of political office. In our quest to tear down the hated establishment (a term that has been stretched beyond recognition to include any person or publication that criticizes Trump) we have handed our nation’s very highest office to a man who treats a majority of his constituents with blatant contempt because of the bodies they were born into or the religion they were raised in.

We voted for the candidate whose message sounded the most attractively reckless, the man who promised the complete and utter transformation, if not destruction, of the political system as we know it today.

But what do we get when we accept that our country’s needs can only be discussed in radical terms? As we just witnessed in this

verdemagazine.com

65

To:Liberal America

WHERE SHOULD WE GO FROM HERE? Text by MADHUMITA GUPTA

O

N NOV. 8 THE AMERICAN PEOPLE defied all polls and expectations and elected a presidential candidate who has openly spoken against almost every minority group in the country. Nobody thought it would happen — FiveThirtyEight and the New York Times polls both gave Secretary Hillary Clinton at least a 70 percent chance of winning the White House. But the tables turned on election night, and America is left to learn from this experience and face a future nobody predicted. The first and most important task that all now-endangered minorities must work to complete is to understand how we can prevent our voices from being squashed again. We must bond together and organize to ensure that in the future, no other politician will be able to spew Trump-like rhetoric and still have a path to the presidency.

Many are saying we must heal and recover from this shock, but those who say that just want to crawl back into the liberal bubble of safety that led to this very outcome. It is time for us to realize that we are out of touch with the majority of the American people. Trump spoke to the white, male, Christian and heterosexual population and voiced their feelings of disenfranchisement with President Obama’s policies.

This is not a message to be taken lightly. Those who feel oppressed are always angry with the system that failed them; they will turn out in droves to vote, which is what happened on Nov. 8. Next time we have a Democratic White House, we must remember that it could all be taken from us in a second. We cannot afford to grow overconfidewnt, which is what happened to liberal America in this election.

Our first instinct is to get angry, denounce America and claim we — the liberal populace — have nothing to do with the country we live in. That’s the easy way out. That’s embracing the hatred and polarization that this election has already created. The next step needs to be an effort to reach out and heal the divided country our polarization has created. As Democrats, as the people who have championed the slogan of “Love Trumps Hate,” we have to be the ones

66

NOVEMBER 2016

to put our emotions aside and adopt a growth mindset. We cannot afford to refer to Trump supporters as “those people.”

They are Americans, as are we all. And like it or not, we have more similarities than we think—both sides want the American economy to grow faster, want better quality of life for working class Americans, want to be supported by their government.

Right now, being involved in politics means choosing a side, and wholeheartedly supporting that side while spreading the narrative that your opponents are the most evil demons to grace this side of the globe. It is our job to reach out and create a discussion, approach the next four years with an open mind, and work to create an America where people can agree with ideas from both parties, instead of feeling the need to vote down the ticket.

And the last step, the one we will have to carry out for at least the next four years, is to never lose hope. We can open a dialogue, we can understand the issues conservatives have with Obama’s America, but we will not, cannot, give up on our ideals of love, of equality, of an America for everyone. We will compromise where we have to, but we cannot compromise on human rights, on the belief that all people were created equal, that labels such as “illegal” and “Muslim terrorist” have no place in our society. Our civic duty to participate in government doesn’t only come up every couple of years. We have a duty to protect the individuals being harmed by the 89% spike in hate crime since Trump’s election. We will lobby, we will speak out when nobody else will, and come next election, we will make Donald Trump a oneterm president. We believe in Obama’s America, and we will protect that dream. It’s what Bernie, Hillary, and President Obama are asking, and we have an obligation to deliver.

Sincerely,

Madhumita

perspectives

v

Text by ALIA CUADROS-CONTRERAS Art by VIVIAN NGUYEN

Is there a place for me?

A LATINA’S REFLECTION ON THE 2016 ELECTION

M

Y MOM ALWAYS TOLD me to be proud that I was born in the United States.

Yes, this country has its issues, she said, but there is no other country with this many options for a girl, for a person of color.

Nov. 8, as we listened to the results of the 2016 presidential election, was the first time I have ever heard her say otherwise.

The radio blasts yet another state gone red, another state for Trump. I see tears brimming in her eyes as she begins to yell about the stupification of the American public by popular TV and media. “This country isn’t ready for a female president,” she tells me.

I scroll back through Facebook and see post after post of pictures captioned #imwithher and #grabhimbytheballot. I see girls, my friends, of all races -- Asian, Latina, Black, Caucasian, mixtures, blends -- carrying “Let’s Make History” signs and pointing to the “I Voted” stickers on their chests.

We were supposed to see the first woman president. We didn’t. I remember their proud smiles earlier in the day and hope they won’t fade. I hope that the next generation of women still continues to believe we deserve to be represented in government alongside white heterosexual men.

Fortunately, eight years ago we were able to see the first African-American president and at least fathom the possibility of a female president. I hold faith that this will lead us in the right direction. But, I won-

der, what will happen to the generation growing up during Trump’s presidency?

Will they ever be able to see a person of color in the White House, a woman in the White House?

Not when the majority of this country votes otherwise.

Tonight is the first time I myself have really felt ashamed to say I was born in the United States. Trump’s victory is a middle finger in my face telling me to go back to where my parents came from, a Star of David on my shirt telling everyone around me to spit in my face, a groping by a man on the bus abusing his power over my small, female form.

I turn on the news and see yet another assault on a Muslim woman wearing a hijab, yet another slew of racist attacks on minorities captioned #TrumpsAmerica.

I feel a surge of relief that I live in California, where the anti-Trump protests outweigh the instances of hate violence. But, still, I can’t help feeling glad that I can pass for Caucasian. Is this the country we live in now?

It’s hard not to feel that half of this country hates me because my parents are immigrants, that half of this country wants me deported, that half of this country wants me sexually assaulted on the street.

Did they know what they were voting for?

That they were voting for a wall of heterosexual white male Christian privilege?

I understand that the other side, the Trump supporters, feel like they are already

living behind a wall of a different sort, like their voices are not being heard under the Obama administration. I understand why the blue collar working classes of this country want to “make America great again” and see Trump as an answer to their problems.

But it pains me that the only way they know how to “make America great again” is by targeting anyone who fails to fit the mold. By trampling on the beautiful rainbow of diversity in our country. By silencing the voices of millions of individuals who came to this country to find freedom and acceptance. By allowing hate to trump love.

I think of my friends, a gorgeous array of individuals of varying genders, sexual orientations, religions, races, and abilities.

Each one of them brings something unique to this country, something inspiring, something that will advance our nation. It saddens me that half of this country chooses not to see that.

I honestly want to believe there is somewhere else I can go, somewhere else we minorities can go. I want to believe that Trump will be impeached before he yells “screw this” and tears our Constitution to shreds. I want to believe that our other government leaders are sane enough to constrain him before he pushes the button and unleashes a nuclear war.

But I am beginning to lose faith in this country. I ask myself over and over again: “Where else can I succeed but in the United States?” To this, I have no answer. v

Art by Vivian Nguyen

verdemagazine.com

67

Text by STEPHANIE LEE Art by VIVIAN NGUYEN

From the

RED SIDE

of the American dream

GROWING UP CONSERVATIVE IN THE BAY AREA

T

HE FIRST HOMEWORK assignment I received in my American Literature class was straightforward: “Create a visual representation of the American dream.”

What is the American dream?

The five words, seemingly insignificant, small and isolated on the vast expanse of white, glared up at me. I grabbed some pens and began absentmindedly scribbling words.

I was growing increasingly frustrated; the sheet of white paper in front of me had become a chaotic battleground of pens.

Sketches scarred the fiber and a massacre of red, blue, and black ink depicted the mess of emotions that brewed within my mind.

I scrawled the only answer I could think of onto a blank corner of the paper: It depends on I scribbled the only an- who you are.

The assignment swer I could think of was no longer just an onto a blank corner of artistic interpretation the paper: It depends of the American dream.

It became a hunt for on who you are. who I am, what I believe in, and what the significance of the American dream is to me.

I began trying to untangle myself from the knot of emotions, biases, and conflicting ideas — the result of 16 years of growing up as a conservative in liberal Palo Alto.

I ask myself why I am so different than everyone else around me. How were our upbringings different, and what caused me to feel this way? Surely it couldn’t just be the immigrant experience; many of my peers are children of immigrants or are immigrants themselves.

My parents’ conservative values were

passed down from their parents but they, too, were immigrants. I didn’t understand how conservatism within my family survived liberal Manhattan and even more liberal Palo Alto. But tracing my family history was a place to start.

My paternal grandmother started looking toward America when Mao rose to power. She and my grandfather fled to Taiwan in 1966, right before the Cultural Revolution. In Taiwan, she continued dreaming of a place of opportunity for her children to grow without fear of the government. She dreamt of a place where her children would never go hungry and a haven where they could grow as intellectual thinkers and good people.

Meanwhile, my grandfather came to America from Taiwan to get his law degree, leaving my grandmother to raise two young kids on her own. Three years later, they reunited in New York, living in a small apartment in a racially divided neighborhood.

Despite the hardships, she never ceased to tell her children to be grateful for what they had, no matter how hard times were.

The lesson was something that my father had always kept in mind as he grew older. His father had come back to Manhattan and went straight into the workforce. He had a burning ambition to make the American dream become a reality for his family. Consequently, he began his own business semiconductor manufacturing.

This was a business my father would take over two decades later.

Although my father didn’t see my grandfather often due to his demanding work schedule, my grandfather’s success taught him that hard work always pays

off. This belief is also the reason why my right-leaning, or how some people would father supports a free market; government give looks whenever I tried to state my ideas. interference could disrupt a hard working I won’t forget the tone of unacceptance emcitizen's efforts. bedded in one of my teacher’s voice when Later, this became one of my strongest they found out I was conservative. beliefs: To always give people the amount It didn’t help destigmatize conservaof credit they’ve earned. tives when President Trump broke major My parents taught me that American headlines during the whole election camdream today means paign. A brazen and going to a good col- I tried so hard to blend in blunt man, Trump’s lege to work in a ideas are amplified STEM related field with everyone else. I no and distorted by his so my future family longer felt confident in New York attitude and I can live comand crude comments. fortably. This doesn’t what I believed in.

While many feel differ from everyone Trump is a fear-monelse’s dream — at least not in Palo Alto. My gering demagogue, I don’t think Trump is as definition of the American dream doesn’t bad as everyone makes him out to be. But make me conservative the way it had influ- seeing how divided America is, I have conenced my parents and grandparents’ beliefs cerns over how we can keep the “united” in — it was the traditional values my parents United States of America during the next raised me with as a means to achieving that four years. dream.

I admit that I’ve spent quite a bit of This also became the foundation of time crying, tired of feeling like I had to some of my political beliefs. For example, I stand alone all the time, frustrated support the death penalty because I believe at myself for being raised conserthat if someone can take another person’s vative in the first place. I was life, it is only just that they give what they jealous at how my friends take. Additionally, I support gun rights and could speak freely about I have a conservative stance on foreign pol- their opinions without icy. However, I don’t consider myself to be needing to understand “very Republican” on the entire spectrum what it would be like to of social issues; I am conflicted on abortion, be me. legalizing marijuana and immigration, and I’ve told myself I’m more liberal about LGBT rights. over and over that I My peers and the environment have have the same rights clearly begun to reshape my conservative as everyone else to views. Part of the influence was ideological; speak my mind. I having clearly seen both sides of the issue, supposed Verde there was no right or wrong answer for me is one part of the anymore. Part of the influence was social, lesson I learned too; I had heard the way my friends and about it. Back the general public speak about conserva- when I joined in tives, and I began to alienate myself from sophomore year, my ideals for the sake of social acceptance. I was terrified of The line between what I had considered as everyone. Verde morally good and what my peers had con- was chock full sidered as morally good became blurred; I of intelligent tried so hard to blend in with everyone else. thinkers and I no longer felt confident in what I believed b r i l l i a n t in and strongly envied those who could feel w r i t e r s so passionately about issues. I was engulfed w h o in the stigma that surrounds conservatives. looked I won’t forget the little things that gave away the general negative feelings towards right wingers: How disappointed one of my friends looked when I told him I was

left while I bit my nails too often and spoke too soft and stood too far to the right. No matter how many times I told myself I had no right to censor myself, I was still scared.

But after a while, speaking up slowly became easier. All my fears came from the fact that I was going to be judged and disliked by others, but mostly, I am the only one judging myself. I still get angry words and unfriendly glances, but something tells me that I sometimes earned those looks because I was able to say something that caused someone to think.

When the project was due, I turned in a pencil drawing of an immigrant dreaming. I knew that there was no way I could spin all my revelations into one simple drawing, but that was okay. I am beginning to figure out who I am — which I know is going to be quite a journey — but I have a bit of a feeling of what it’ll be like when I get there. And for now, that is enough. v

Gabe Gets Serious

Text by GABRIEL SÁNCHEZ

Populist Problems

THE DANGERS OF MASS DEMOCRACY Art by Vivian Nguyen

Y

OU MAY BE SURPRISED THAT WE MANAGED cians just borrow the money needed to maintain both our low tax to elect a 14-year-old misogynist with no political expe- rates and numerous socialist institutions, bartering the future of rience to the highest office in the nation. Let me be the our nation and our children for short-term benefits. first to tell you that you shouldn’t be. While the modern This is not the only example of the public being given too republic is currently the best method for running a nation, the much power. On June 23, the British people were given a referenlarge amount of input that the public has on the running of the dum on whether to leave the EU, a complex decision with many country is detrimental to its efficiency and leads to unfortunate economic and social impacts. It was this decision that the Britoutcomes, like the results of the most recent election. ish government entrusted to the public, and now, the pound has Expecting the common person to be able to determine which dropped from nearly $1.60 to about $1.30 according to Bloomberg candidate has the best economic or foreign policy is ridiculous. markets. The decision was so horrendous that British Prime MinisThese are complex issues that people spend their entire lives study- ter David Cameron stepped down afterwards. Many of those who ing, and yet at the end of the day it’s politicians, not specialists, supported the Brexit, such as United Kingdom Independence Parwho run our government and the public ty Leader Nigel Farage, unsurprisingly who decides which ones have the soundsupport Trump and his brand of popExpecting the common est policy. Our present system works as if ulist support. person to be able to deterit's asking the average person the best way This is not to say that the public to build a rocket. should not be entrusted with political mine which candidate has This past election has proven that power. Our opinions on social issues the best economic or foreign are incredibly relevant. We just need the American people lack understanding of these issues, shown by their support to narrow the responsibilities of polipolicy is ridiculous.” of Trump, a candidate who plans to anticians. It is absurd that we have yet to nul the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the North American Free Trade change these duties outlined in the United States in 1791, a time Agreement, the Iran Nuclear Deal and the Paris Climate Agree- when education was extremely limited and the phrase “Renaissance ment. All of these are complex international treaties which even the Man” applied to most educated people such as Benjamin Frankmost educated voters have little to no understanding of. Yet, be- lin. While this archaic system was the best option for the time, cause we chose to elect a man with no respect for the work of those today most college graduates focus on mastering one subject. It before him, all of the effort put into these treaties will be wasted is through such a system that we could feasibly create a political and America will lose out on international trade and diplomatic system with leadership positions in government focus solely on relations, all while failing to protect the environment. economics, foreign policy, or social policy. Doing so would create Not only do people not know the best policies for our na- a system where politicians focus on a specialty area that would lead tion, they also lack the ability to compromise on the things they to a nation with more logically sound policies across the board. want out of the government. A prime example is our nation’s masAnd, finally, we need to stop pretending that someone withsive debt and continually growing deficit. Politicians refuse to cut out any political experience is fit for the highest office in the naspending and raise taxes because no voter wants fewer benefits or tion, because, to be frank, this presidential election was the biggest less money. Instead of making rational economic decisions, politi- failure in the history of American democracy. v

“

70

NOVEMBER 2016

verdemagazine.com

71

Palo Alto Unified School District Palo Alto High School 50 Embarcadero Road Palo Alto, CA 94301

Non-profit Org. U.S. Postage Paid Palo Alto, California Permit #44

verdemagazine.com