and Westlake history. (Page 16)
VOLUME XXXV, ISSUE 6
ARROW
THE
Boys basketball makes the shot...
\100 N. LAKEVIEW CANYON ROAD, WESTLAKE VILLAGE, CA 91362
MARCH 20, 2013
FUTURE BUSINESS LEADERS OF AMERICA SWEEPS THE COMPETITION
BULL MARKET: WHS FBLA members proudly display their plaques after coming in first place overall at the Gold Coast Section Leadership Conference.
Frances Ling News Editor Months of tireless preparation paid off, as WHS Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) dominated the Gold Coast Section Leadership Conference. Although only in its third year of competition, FBLA has quickly risen to the top of the Gold Coast Section beating 14 other schools to win the Sweepstakes. FBLA also scored the most points out of all the other schools that attended the Section Leadership Conference by over 100 points. The conference took place on March 2 at West Ranch High School and Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia. The numerous competitions were composed of both objective tests and speaking/ performance events. The objective tests ranged from Personal
Finance to Business Calculations to Economics. Members who wanted to compete in team events could choose from Global Business, Entrepreneurship, Management Decision Making, Marketing, and Parliamentary Procedure. Those who preferred to perform than take multiple-choice tests could compete in performance events including Public Speaking, Impromptu, and Job Interview. FBLA impressed at competition with many members taking first in their own category. Timur Vural ‘15, Max Wang ‘15, Kevin Ye ‘14, Rutu Shah ‘15, Sumant Iyer ‘15, Christopher Lam ‘13, Vivian Hu ‘14, Bharath Mohan ‘14, Ben Tran ‘15, and Isabel Jin ‘14 each placed first in their individual categories. Of the five team competitions, WHS finished at the top of the Entrepreneurship, Management Decision Making, and Parliamentary Procedure competitions. Gold Coast Section president as well as
club president Jane Chen ‘13 beat out five competitors from different schools to win the coveted title of Future Business Leader, one of the hardest competitions since the test takes questions from every single competition. “I am excited to have won this title and look forward to competing at State,” commented Chen. Such success did not come without lots of hard work and dedication. Members were encouraged to prepare by taking practice tests while some even found outside material to study. Of the 35 different competitions within the conference, WHS qualified in 29 of them to advance to State. Whereas 16 FBLA members advanced to the state conference last year, 33 members qualified for state this year, clearly showing that FBLA is excelling in leaps and bounds. “We’re pretty happy about how many
awards we won at sectionals this year. In almost every competition we participated in, someone placed, and a fair number of those people will be moving on to State. Last year we were all able to fit into two vans, but this year we’re taking a charter bus out, so there’s a lot more people coming out,” commented vice president Mohan. “As Gold Coast section president, I am excited to have held such a successful conference! But I am especially proud of WHS for proving we’re the best,” said Chen. WHS FBLA will represent the Gold Coast section at the state competition held in the Hyatt Regency in Santa Clara from April 18-21. As for the future of the club, Chen “knows that WHS FBLA will continue to thrive, as many underclassmen have shown great potential and leadership abilities. I hope that membership continues to grow and surpass that of Newbury Park! “
WISE changes potentially headed Westlakeʼs way Lauren Chin Advertising Manager A potential schedule restructure is on the horizon, and it promises big change through small differences. Labeled as the “Westlake Intervention Support and Enrichment” (WISE for short) program, the new schedule will be put to a vote for teacher-approval on March 18; to be approved for implementation next year it must have at least an 80% vote by the teachers.
Created to help students struggling with school, the new schedule allows for a 26-minute advisory period right before lunch, scheduled weekly Monday through Thursday. To allow for the creation of this period, each 52-minute period in the day will be shortened by two minutes to become 52-minute periods and lunch will be shortened from its current 40-minute period to become a 30-minute period. Despite the shortened lunch, however, future sophomores, juniors, and seniors have nothing to fear, as those with a 2.3 GPA or better
in this issue Page 2 Science Olympiad
Page 7 Anatomy Talent Show
are not required to enroll in the WISE period. If students haven’t had the incentive to boost their grades before, they do now, for they will enjoy the luxury of a 56 minute long lunch; this allows students to take advantage of the additional WISE advisory period to meet with teachers for help or enjoy their lengthened lunch. Students also have the opportunity to enjoy Common Planning Time (CPT) every week. CPT schedule will be in effect every Friday, instead of occurring on the first and third Wednesdays of every month. However, just as the entire schedule is be-
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ing restructured, so is CPT. Period 1 will now start at 7:05 a.m. and the free catch up period between Period 1 and Period 2 will be shortened to 40 minutes, therefore starting Period 2 at 8:46 a.m. instead of 9:07 a.m. These CPT Fridays will not include the WISE period. Lunch will also be shorter on CPT days, starting at 12:20 p.m. and ending 38 minutes later. The only time WHS will not have CPT Fridays in this new proposed bell schedule would be during rallies, in which WHS will revert back to its normal rally schedule. If the new WISE schedule is passed, it will be announced on Wednesday, March 20.
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