April 2011 Issue

Non-Profit OrganizationU.S. Postage PAID

Permit No. 782San Mateo, CA

Aragon High School900 Alameda de las PulgasSan Mateo, CA, 94402www.aragonoutlook.net

Catastrophe in Japan:

reaction from Aragon

BY ANDREW LYUNEWS

March 11, 2011. Sendai, Japan. At approx-imately 2:46 p.m., a magnitude 9.0 earth-quake struck just east of Japan’s Tohoku re-gion. The quake has been listed as one of the five largest since modern record keeping.

Following the quake, Japanese residents along the eastern coast of Tohoku region were alerted to evacuate due to a large tsuna-mi prediction. Soon, waves which peaked at about 100 feet high crashed upon the eastern coastline of Japan.

The devastation Japan faced seemed al-most unprecedented. In the face of damage estimates ranging as high as US$235 billion

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PHOTO COURTESY OF CORDIAN

PHOTO COURTESY OF OFFICIAL U.S. NAVY IMAGERY

BY BRANDON LIUNEWS

Aragon students will likely not be required to purchase summer reading books for the upcoming school year.Recent controversy over charging various fees by public schools has been sparked by a lawsuit in southern California last September.The lawsuit, which was filed by the American Civil Liber-ties Union (ACLU), alleged that dozens of districts were vio-lating the California Constitution’s guarantee to a “free” public school system. In some schools, students were forced to pay for textbooks, workbooks and gym uniforms.After the lawsuit was settled, districts were asked to review their policies and practices to guarantee this free system. In 1984, the California Supreme Court ruled in Hartzell v. Connell that public schools are prohibited from charging mandatory fees for educational requirements. The new lawsuit’s ruling essentially states that all aspects of public education must be free to students.Summer reading, which is a required component of curricu-lum in English classes and many others, asks that students use the book during the summer, and have it available when the school year starts. The controversy arises with the fact that schools can no longer require students to purchase materials necessary for their education.

In the past, districts were allowed to deal with this issue as they felt necessary, and students without the proper finances could borrow a book from the library. However, with the re-cent lawsuit, the district either has to find a way to provide books without any costs, or they need to look into a replace-ment for the summer reading curriculum. In other words, the school would have to provide a book to each student, which poses an obvious financial problem.

The issue has been discussed at the English curriculum council which has recommended that summer reading become optional. English teacher Vince Bravo says, “It’s not a matter of passing, but really an understanding of the ruling. While the Principals (at the district level) have not made an official statement, the English Cur-riculum council did make its recommendations. Because of the ruling on the case, we felt that we could not make English summer reading mandatory.”

AP U.S. History teacher Doug McGlashan says that history will continue to have mandatory reading, but they have had to adjust as well. McGlashan says, “We took a show of hands of who would buy their books and then we bought the rest. The library only had about five textbooks before, but now they will have over 50 copies.”

CONTINUED ON PAGE 4

Turn to the centerspread to check out this year’s Dons Choice Awards!

Look inside this issue for a way to get two free tickets to see Rihanna in concert!

Sailors sort humanitarian assistance supplies for distribution to Japanese citizens affected by the earthquake and tsunami.

Marines of III Marine Expeditionary Force help Japan Air Self-Defense Force members clear debris from the tsunami on an airport flightline.

Check out page 11 for a feature on how Aragon students prepared for prom!

02 NEWS volume 50, issue 07April 21, 2011

BY PETER ZHAN NEWS

California K-12 schools could face severe budget restrictions for the upcoming school year as the state legislature tries to cut spend-ing. In January, Governor Jerry Brown proposed a tax extension that would soften the effects of the cuts to education, but had dif-ficulty getting his resolution ap-proved for a June ballot, putting the funding situation for K-12 schools in limbo.

A recent Bloomberg News arti-cle stated that Brown is still trying to erase California’s remaining $15.4 billion deficit. According to the Contra Costa Times, Gov-ernor Brown proposed a budget in January that would spare K-12 schools the most severe cuts pos-sible. However, his budget was dependent on voters passing a proposition that would extend expiring taxes another five years.

The governor had been having difficulties with getting his prop-osition on the June ballot.

He missed his self-set dead-line, March 10, for the approval of the tax extension, and according to the Contra Costa Times, Jerry Brown was working to gather the two-thirds support he needed in the Legislature to carry on with his proposal for a tax extension on the June ballot, which voters would need to pass to reduce the cuts in education. He needed two Republicans in the Senate and two Republicans in the Assembly to reach the required votes.

According to Bloomberg News, “Last month, Brown said he had broken off negotiations for a statewide vote after being presented with a widening list of Republican demands.” He an-nounced that he would release a new budget May 14.

“Without the passage of the June tax extension, districts are

expecting to lose $330 to $1,000 per student depending on esti-mates by various school officials,” a recent Daily Journal article re-ported. If Jerry Brown’s proposed tax extensions were passed, these figures would be lowered to about $19 less per student.

According to Bloomberg News, Brown wants voters to vote for slight increases in personal income-tax rates, the retail-sales tax, auto-registration fees, and a substantial reduction of Califor-nia’s child tax credit.

Principal Patricia Kurtz ex-plains in more detail, “To tell you the truth, nobody knows exactly what is going to happen. Ev-ery day some new information comes out. Just today, I learned that since Jerry Brown can’t gar-ner the support he needs for this June ballot, he might consider putting a proposition on the No-vember ballot.

Although this news does not bode well for some California school districts, Kurtz is not overly worried. “Our high school district is usually stable regard-ing funding. Also, we’re a basic aid district, which means most of our money comes from local property taxes, not from the state government. Furthermore, we have adequate reserves to carry us through if needed.” Among teachers, only “temporary” teach-ers have been given pink slips this year.

Contrastingly, the San Mateo-Foster City school district, which covers elementary and middle schools, has been sustaining siz-able reductions in budget. In a let-ter sent to staff and parents a few months ago, Pendery A. Clark, su-perintendent of the SMFC school district, noted, “The San Mateo-Foster City School District has absorbed over $21 million worth of staffing and program reduc-tions over the past four years. We

will need to make additional cuts this year and will be required to plan for the worst case scenario until we know for sure what hap-pens with the June election.”

The San Jose Mercury News reports that the San Mateo-Foster City school district will be one of the hardest hit, with around 80 teachers receiving notices of pos-sible layoffs, out of 540 full-time equivalents. “The layoffs would save the district a total of $5.3 million -- $2.9 million in the gen-eral fund and $2.4 million in cat-

egorical expenses.” According to the California

Teachers Association, 1,200 Bay Area teachers were projected to receive notices of possible layoffs.

Public opinion on Jerry Brown’s budget seems to be divid-ed. According to a poll conducted by the Public Policy Institute of California, “While two-thirds of all adults (67%) and likely voters (66%) said in January that a spe-cial election was a good idea, 54 percent of all adults and half of likely voters (51%) [said] so [in

March].”Student opinion is likewise

divided. Senior Nicole Smith said, “Although budget cuts for education are bad, and schools need money to allow students to explore new things, I think that under the circumstances, budget cuts in education may be appro-priate. However, I wouldn’t take as much money from the schools as they are.”

“One of the problems,” Kurtz said, “is that schools have to sub-mit their budgets for the next year by June 30 to be certified by the county office of education and for state approval. Most schools are currently preparing two budgets—one for the worst case scenario and another for a more pleasant one. But it’s difficult to decide which budget to send in if the issue is sill undecided.”

It remains to be seen what be-comes of the education budget for the next school year.

BY LANDON HART NEWS

The second annual Regional Occupa-tional Program (ROP) Art Show will take place between May 3 and Sept. 25, 2011. Mills, Menlo-Atherton, Carl-mont, Woodside, and Aragon High School will be submitting photos and designs for the show. The show includes the work of students in digital photography, animation, graph-ics, video games and video production.

Last year, digital photography teacher Aimee Reed helped to publicize the art show through post-ers at all the high schools and school districts as well as through online marketing. The posters this year will be sub-mitted by students over the next couple of weeks.

In total, Reed chose

the works of 14 students to be in the ROP Art Show.

One of the students chosen to be in the show was junior Stacy Ozorio. “My piece of work is a picture of myself,” says Ozorio. “It was for a photography project. For the project we had to take profile pictures, so we needed to take pictures of other people and some of ourselves.”

“I think my picture is more of a fun thing, but since I’m not smiling it looks

like I’m kind of angry, but the project

was fun,” says Ozorio.Junior Christina Hsu, another partici-

pant of the show, says, “My specific piece of work is a sunrise and there are trees border-ing the sunrise. My piece of artwork is not really serious or fun, it is more of a land-scape kind of picture. I never thought that one of my pictures would be in-cluded in an art show. Ms. Reed, our teacher, one day just told us that our pictures were going to be included in the show and I was

totally shocked. I have never done this show

before, but I hope to do it again.”

Junior Me-gan Reinertson also has a piece of artwork in the ROP Art Show. “My picture is of my mom and sister hugging as we are picking her up at the airport after being away at college for a few months,” says Reinertson. “I took the picture during our portraits

unit in photography class, so it is sup-

posed to be in the moment and unplanned. My picture just shows the emotion and love my family has. Ms. Reed briefly mentioned the contest to our class and said we could enter our work, but I did not submit any-thing. A few weeks later, when I went into class, she told me she entered one of my

pictures, and I had ended up being cho-sen. I was so shocked, but glad to be in. I am excited to be included in the show be-cause it is one of my favorite pictures that I

have taken, and I am glad other people can enjoy it. Also, I don’t really consider myself to be artistic, so this is a new side of me, and something I have never done before.” This is also Reinertson’s first year in pho-tography class, so it is her first time in the ROP Show.

The entire ROP Art Show will be able to be seen online at ropartshow.com until Sept. 25, 2011.

Aragon students have art showcased in the district-wide ROP art show

YUZO MAKITANI

For more articles, photos and web-exclusive content, please check out aragonoutlook.net

Jerry Brown’s California Deficit Debacle

“I don’t really consider myself to be artistic, so this is a new side of me, and some-thing I have never done be-fore.”

-Junior Megan Reinertson

BRIAN BARCH

03NEWSvolume 50, issue 07April 21, 2011

BY WENDY YU NEWS

On April 1, the fourth annual Summer Opportunities Faire was held during an ex-tended lunch period and provided students the chance to explore a variety of different summer programs.

Elizabeth Stone, an education consul-tant, explains, “I started the faire four years ago. I’m an independent college admissions counselor and found that students had a very hard time even knowing where to look for summer experiences.”

From then on, Stone began gather-ing information and contacts of different programs. To the Parent Teacher Organi-zation (PTO), she later presented the idea of organizing a faire, which would display

a wide range of programs with representa-tives from each organization available for students to talk to.

After receiving permission to host a summer opportunities faire, Stone and the PTO created a merit-based competi-tion that would reward $500 scholarships for juniors to help pay for the program of their choice. This was done to encourage students to explore the opportunities pre-sented at the faire.

This year, the competition was available for both juniors and sophomores and re-quired a letter of application and a GPA of 3.0 or better.

A committee of one Aragon parent and two Aragon staff members review the ap-plications and rank them. Only the top ranked students receive the scholarships.

In regards to the programs present at the faire itself, Stone explains, “I try to think of bringing in a wide variety so that Aragon students have a lot to choose from. My goal is to have something for everyone, and I do my best to achieve that. ”

Though the selection process may seem flexible, Stone adds, “The only criteria I have, is that all programs must offer finan-cial aid…Because we are a public school and students come from a range of eco-nomic backgrounds, I don’t want any stu-dent to think that a program would not be possible for them to apply to.”

During this year’s summer opportuni-ties faire, the lunch period was filled with over a dozen representatives from a wide variety of organizations. There, they ad-vertised summer internships, jobs, enrich-ment courses and camps.

Some of the most popular booths were the Marine Science Institute, a hands-on program that educates students about ma-rine life and offers a variety of camps and volunteer opportunities, and the Pacific Athletic Club, a sports resort offering sum-mer lifeguard and retail associate jobs for students.

Sophomore Nicole Nasser says, “I had been thinking and pondering for a couple months about what activities I could pur-sue this summer, so I was pleased that a large variety of activities was presented to Aragon students.”

Sophomore Abby Arana says, “I thought that the summer faire was very helpful be-cause I have been trying to look for volun-teer and job options for the summer, which is hard doing on your own especially when you don’t know where to start looking.”

Though the general reception of the

faire was positive, junior Meredith Charl-son states, “I think that it would have been more beneficial to have had the faire in early March, which is right when directors begin advertising their programs. April is a little late since most applications for pro-grams are already due by then.”

Nasser adds, “If possible, because I am 15, I would have liked to have seen some job opportunities available for students who are 15 years old since the only oppor-tunities available were for older teens.”

Amongst the representatives of the or-ganizations present, the reception of the Summer Opportunities Faire was also very positive.

From the American Institute for Foreign Study Summer Program, Michelle Walters says, “I think the summer fair is great be-cause if all these programs are out here for them, then students can easily explore what is out there, and these things are al-ways fun.”

Lauren Steindel, a representative from the Marine Science Institute, adds, “Back in high school, we never had these kinds of things, so I really like the idea of easily being able to find summer experiences right in their neighborhood. It’s also a great way for local organizations to share their programs with a lot of students at once.”

All in all, the Summer Opportunities Faire, this year and in the years past, has continued its success in giving students the opportunity to discover and gain valuable summer experiences.

BY TAYLOR WESTMONT NEWS

Started last year, El Dia de Si-lencio, or the Day of Silence, is an event held by the Aragon Latino Club to promote immigration reform and continued support of the D.R.E.A.M. act. This year it will occur on Friday, April 29. The organizers chose silence as a way to symbolize how many im-migrants cannot speak out for their rights because of fears of immigration laws.

The day’s vow of silence will officially start when participants arrive at school. Teachers tend to be understanding and do not take away any participation points for the silence. Supporters are also encouraged to wear white as a sign of participation and unity. Everyone is encouraged to par-ticipate, even if they do not have any personal connection to the troubles of immigrants.

Fliers and posters are cur-

rently in production. Students and parents have been meeting to plan the day and spread the word. The Aragon Latino Club is inviting various Aragon clubs as well as Latino Clubs from other schools in the area to have their schools participate.

Many people have heard about it from their friends. Sophomore Laynie Mitchell says, “I heard about it when I was in my history class, talking with the people who sat next to me.”

A big part of the Day of Si-lence is the march that happens after school downtown. “We think we’ll start at the end of B street, at the 1st Congressional Church, and then head down El Camino and into Central Park”, says Latino Club President, senior Ariana Sacchi.

This route is similar to last years, chosen because marchers will likely be seen in these high traffic areas. The march will pass by Congresswoman Jackie Spei-

er’s office, where last year, the si-lence was broken, as students and other participants began chant-ing and cheering.

Event leaders will make stick-ers for students to wear, and par-ticipants find other ways to show their support. “People put duct tape on their mouths last year,” graduate Jackie Santizo stated. Santizo was the Aragon Latino Club President during last year’s Day of Silence.

“We hope that Loco Bloco might get involved,” said senior Jackie Cortez. Loco Bloco is a cul-tural drummer group that hopes to promote cultural diversity. The drummers would add vibrancy to the spirit of the march.

The event last year attracted news coverage by CBS 5 News and various local newspapers, which came to Aragon to inter-view students. During the rally people share their stories about how their families are affected by the immigration laws. Some stu-dents have had families broken up because of the immigration system, however all the students share how they worked through the adversity to complete high school and often times move onto colleges and universities.

Last year’s event succeeded in raising awareness, and this year the Latino Club hopes that they can inspire people to get in-volved; moreover, they hope that young Latinos see that they have a voice and they need to speak up.

Exploration of summer opportunities fair

Preparations for El Dia de Silencio

For more articles, photos and web-exclusive content, please check

out aragonoutlook.net

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A representative from the San Francisco Shakespeare Festival explains to an Aragon student the various events the organization will be hosting this summer.

Vice President Jackie Cortez addresses Latino Club members as they plan the route for the march on the Day of Silence.

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04 NEWS volume 50, issue 07April 21, 2011

Aragon plays role in aid to JapanCONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

and a death toll of over 13,000 (with still nearly 15,000 unac-counted for), the Japanese gov-ernment is also dealing with the nuclear crisis taking place at the nuclear power plant Fukushima Daiichi.

And yet, in the face of crisis, many commentators noted the surprising patience of the Japa-nese people. “[T]here was little looting that went on after the cri-sis. I commend the people who waited in line for hours to get water, food, recharge their cell phones, get gasoline, etc,” says se-nior Ayaka Chin.

For the people of Japan, even those of whom were not directly affected by the tsunami, life has drastically changed. “[B]because so many people have to buy water and food, everything is rationed at supermarkets,” says Junior Mariko Ishikawa, “My uncle said he can only buy one loaf of bread per visit.” Yet, despite the difficul-ties, it seems that the Japanese people were able to keep compo-sure. “I’m proud that the people from my country would stay or-ganized and be considerate of others while they themselves need help,” says freshman Rick Miyagi.

Even more admired was the heroism of the nuclear power plant workers at Fukushima Dai-ichi. “I think the workers that stayed at the plant made an in-credibly courageous decision. I

don’t know what I would have done if I was in their position,” says sophomore Marie Mihara.

Still, with the disaster mount-ing, anxious Aragon students awaited to hear from friends and family members in Japan. Several band students who had offered home-stays for the visiting Hana-saki Tokuharu High School band students late last winter received conformation that their friends in Japan were okay. “Their school was damaged slightly, but every person in their school was okay,” says sophomore and home-stay participant Olivia Marcus.

Sophomore Abby Clemens says “When I first heard about the earthquake, I was lying in bed waking up to a text I just received from my dad. My initial reaction was complete shock and endless worry.” Similarly, Junior Mizuki Takagi says, “I turned on the news, and saw the tsunami hit-ting the city live. It scared me a lot because I was witnessing possible deaths on TV, and while they were suffering, I was on the couch in the living room. I felt helpless.”

In the weeks following the crisis, Aragon students aimed to remedy this feeling of helpless-ness. Several groups at Aragon took up arms to raise money for Japan: students taking Japanese sold stationary, jazz students put on a benefit concert in San Jose, The Aragon Improv Team put on a benefit show.

Members of Aragon’s Red Cross club carried tin cans col-lecting money for Japan. After three weeks of hard work, they collected over $1,900.

Also, Aragonian members of the Youth Organization of Chi-nese Americans (YOCA) took part in selling “Pray for Japan” wrist-bands. Along with a coalition of 11 other high schools, YOCA was able to raise over $3,700. Junior and YOCA member Alice Zheng says “[Selling] was phenomenal. Even the littlest contribution will affect the livelihood of someone else in the world. If every high school student were to contribute just a little to the cause the dif-ference we would make would be greater and more pronounced.”

Still, there are fears that there are certain problems in Japan that money can’t readily fix. The cri-sis of the Fukushima Daiichi has shaken the world. Fear of nuclear power has skyrocketed, and thus the nuclear debate is as pertinent as ever. “Nuclear scares people,” says history teacher Doug Mc-Glashan. “People aren’t good at calculating [the] risk [of nuclear power].” The crisis at Fukushima Daiichi is still at a high level of emergency, but remains stable at its current status. Brave employ-ees have stayed to keep the plant from reaching a point of catastro-phe. For now, Japan and the rest of the world keep hopes up that things will look up for Japan.

String fling and band bash bring Borel groups to campus

BY HEIMANA VAEANEWS

Aragon’s annual String Fling occurred on the evening of Tues-day, March 22, while the Band

Bash occurred the following night on Wednesday, March 23, in the large gym. This year, Borel Mid-dle School musicians were Ara-gon’s special guests as they par-ticipated in both musical events.

These two traditions went hand in hand as they introduced young, middle school music stu-dents from around the area to developed, high school music programs. Aragon band teacher/director Troy Davis says, “We just do it to inspire younger kids and give them an opportunity to see what it’s like to play in high school.” In past years, the event also involved the p a r t i c i p a t i o n of elementary school music students in the surrounding com-munities.

On the night of the String Fling, choir and orchestra teach-er, David Martin had the high school’s Chamber Orchestra per-form three fantastic numbers in-

cluding: the Boisterous Bourree and Morning Song Op. 15.

Also, part of the evening pro-gram included by Borel’s 6th Grade Beginning Orchestra, led by Borel music director, Helene Grotans, playing Cho Cho Dances and Goondiwindi: An Austra-

lian Shearer’s Song. The hour of entertainment ended with each school playing familiar pop hits like Viva La Vida and the Lady Gaga Hit Mix, including parts

of Poker Face, Bad Romance and Just Dance.

The Aragon bands followed the string orchestra performances with the Band Bash the next night. The Borel 6th Grade Beginning Band was a repeating participant

along with new faces in the Borel Concert and Symphonic Bands. The middle school musicians per-formed pieces including Achieve-ment, Aztec, The Simpsons and Calypso Kid. The Band Bash was also the first opportunity the Borel Concert Band had to play their first combined number together with their school’s Symphonic Band; the duo played Sword of Kings. Sprinkled throughout the program were dramatic pieces by the Aragon Wind Ensemble, as they played Maachu Picchu and Pirates of the Caribbean Sym-phonic Suite.

The Aragon bands will also be participating in both their up-coming annual semester Spring Band performance and the C.M.E.A. band concert.

Summer reading in question

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1McGlashan says, “I never

thought of it as being a big bur-den because we made it clear that if it was, books would be around. However, I believe the feeling is that it puts too much of an em-barrassment on the students.”

Assistant Principal of In-struction Jim Coe believes that summer reading is important to maintain skills during the sum-mer.

He is concerned and says, “Taking two to three months off is like the old agrarian model to farm and harvest, but it is of a different era. There is steep competition around the world, and this hurts students in the long run.”

P r i n c i p a l Kurtz says that the school has not yet received the regulations, but they are currently oper-ating by what they have inter-preted from the lawsuit. A trailer bill was passed on March 15 and the official reg-ulation will come to the district in April or May.

Many students also agree with the educational benefits of summer reading. Although he dislikes the work, sophomore David Kochy says, “It’s impor-tant to maintain reading over

the summer to improve critical thinking.

Sophomore Anthony Privit-era agrees and says, “It exposed me to new literature that I wouldn’t normally have read.”

The district must also con-sider implications of the lawsuit on other programs such as field trips.

Even at Aragon, students are required to buy gym uniforms, locks and some clubs charge fees to cover costs.

Depending on the outcome, the administration will still need to take extra measures to ensure the school has the funding and the means to continue providing

the same edu-cational expe-rience.

Especially with the re-cent budget cuts to educa-tion, the dis-trict may need to reconsider their alloca-tion of funds.

While the issue of summer reading may not be as extreme as the enormous sums of money some southern California students were charged to participate in activities, the district’s interpretation of the ACLU lawsuit ruling will have much larger impact than many may realize.

Taking two to three months off is like the old agrarian model to farm and harvest, but it is of a different era. There is steep competition around the world, and this hurts students in the long run.”

-Assistant Principal Jim Coe

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The U.S. Navy assisted in its relief efforts for Japan by distributing more than 600 bags of humanitarian supplies.

“We just do it to in-spire younger kids and give them an opportu-nity to see what it’s like to play in high school.”

-Aragon Band Teacher Troy Davis

Be sure to visit www.aragonout-look.net for more content!

Borel Middle School musicians were Aragon’s guests as they participated in a series of musical events.

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05ARTS & ENTERTAINMENTvolume 50, issue 07April 21, 2011

06 FEATURES volume 50, issue 07April 21, 2011

BY SAM ALAVIFEATURES

As April comes to an end, the deadline for seniors to submit their Statement of Intent to the college of their choosing looms nearer and nearer. Although graduating seniors may not be fully aware of what to expect, Aragon teachers have plenty of advice for the seniors having had first-hand experience with col-lege life.

“The new stuff is the best part,” says history teacher Ron Berggren. “Hopefully students are going someplace new with new people, environments and opportunities. Students should use every chance they get to meet new people. I first went to a small liberal arts school where I got a chance to interact with some amazing people, including some very good history professors who opened my mind to many differ-ent things.”

Math teacher Don Bush has another piece of advice for se-niors. “Take care of your stud-ies first. The parties will always be there. If you miss a party on Thursday night, don’t worry, there’s a party on Friday night.

Miss a party Friday night, guess what? There’s a party on Satur-day night. Don’t pay attention to those polls that rate which school is a ‘party school’. Any school with 10,000 or more 18-24 year olds is a party school.”

Finding time to study while still exploring and experienc-ing every part of college life is important. Bush says, “Plan on studying ‘as long as it takes’. One thing that might be a good idea is to find or start a study group. Go to professor’s office hours for help, but more importantly, so they know who you are. That might make a difference if your grade is borderline in a class of 100 students.”

“While studying is important, you should always make time for yourself. You should always find the proper balance even if you are busy,” says English teacher and yearbook adviser Vince Bra-vo. “One semester, I was taking 21 units and working full time. I had to leave my lunch hour just so that I could attend my Shake-speare classes. I definitely didn’t get a lot of sleep at all.” Although this was manageable at the age of 18, Bravo claims that he would never be able to pull such a busy

schedule today. Being a college student also

means that students will have to spend a lot of time studying, even pulling some all-nighters. Science teacher Aaron Apperson explains, “The best thing to do is to have a group of friends who are studying for the same thing as you because you can keep each other going.”

But even amidst the studying, the social aspect is a huge part of college. “Fraternity life is fun, and a great way to make friends and be a part of the social scene,” says Bush. “However, as I look back 25 years after my gradua-tion, the college friends I keep in contact with now are those friends that I had before I joined a Frat or met outside of the Frat.”

“The most important thing to do when meeting new people is to smile,” says Apperson. “If you make the first move by smiling and letting them know you are friendly, you have already ac-complished the number one step in making new friends.”

“The most important thing to remember is to enjoy college,” says Berggren. “It is your last time to play before life gets a bit more serious.”

What do Aragon teachers think about college?

CHENWEN HWANG

BY JACK HERRERAFEATURES

While many are in the dark when it comes to the existing card game ban, rumors are circulating over a comprehensive and severe ban of all card games to be insti-tuted in the next school year.

Librarian Diane Gagliani com-mented that she has not received any specific ruling on the card games ban. “I’m waiting for the powers at be to decide [the rules regarding card games at Aragon],” says Gaglianai. “There are no card games whatsoever during class time, but during lunch, I’ll let them play. The library’s a busy place, but we police it to the best of our ability.”

Gaglianai notes the lack of specificity when it comes to the ban on card games. She men-tioned that this all may soon change, and that the regulation on card games may soon be becom-ing much stricter. “All there is to be said is that we don’t allow reg-ular card games, but we do allow magic card games,” says principal Patricia Kurtz.

Senior Eric Cura, the presi-dent of the school’s Trading Card Game Union, explains why his club is sanctioned. “We followed normal club procedures to create our club. You can play any card game except for actual playing cards,” says Cura.

“No playing cards [are al-lowed], like the type that you’d use for poker, or something like that,” says Vice Principal Joe Ma-hood.

“Playing cards are most com-monly associated with gambling,

and gambling is prohibited at school,” says senior Vincent Par-sons. Parsons and Cura both went on to say that claims of gambling with strategy cards are completely false.

“Strategy cards games are al-lowed but playing cards are not allowed, because the history of the students is that they use those cards for gambling, and we can’t have gambling on campus,” ex-plains Mr. Mahood. “The ban actually started with [former Aragon principal]Kirk Black. He banned them a long time ago.”

When made aware of the pos-sibility that students were actually gambling with strategy cards, Mr. Mahood was interested, but not surprised. “Now [that I’ve heard of the gambling with all play-ing cards] I’m going to make a suggestion that next year we ban everything and there will be no cards,” says Mahood.

When asked abut what he be-lieves the ban will comprise of in the future Mr. Mahood said “I don’t know exactly what it will be. It will have to go through ad-ministration, Mr. Valmonte, Ms. Kurtz, Mr. Coe; we’ll meet and decide what we need to do. Maybe we need a little stricter guidelines. The fact is, if students are go-ing to do the wrong thing, then they’ve pushed my hand, and it’s something we need to ban. Which is unfortunate, because I think strategy games are a wonderful thing to play.”

While strategy games remain allowed for the time being, card enthusiasts have to wait and see if card games are indeed facing their last few hands at Aragon.

Card Game Ban

Despite minor flaws, pool is great for allBY ANTHONY LUFEATURES

With the completion of the new pool, the swim team has been able to return to holding practices and meets here at school, hav-ing had its second meet, a home meet, against Mills on March 17.

“It’s really nice. They did a nice job,” says freshman swim-mer Brianna Keeling. “It adds a lot of color to Aragon, because it used to be black and now it’s blue and clear.”

The new pool is 60 feet wide (8 lanes wide) by 114 feet long, and the masthead sections off the competition area to be 75 feet (25 yards) long. The remainder of the swimming pool can be used for swim-mers to warm up for their meets. Coach Fred Farley says, “We can move the bulkhead to accom-modate different length courses [and] water polo. We can also

swim in the lanes behind the bulkhead. So it gives us a lot more flexibility.”

Sophomore and two-year swimmer Wyatt Coo-per agrees, saying, “Probably one of the more beneficial changes is

the new warm up pool created by the bulkhead, because no one ever wanted to warm up in the old side

pool due to it being small and having no lanes.”

Freshman Alison Clark says, “It is really

helpful having two more lanes and the 20 yard lanes at the end because it’s

much less crowded.”“The old [swimming

pool] was 50 years old,” says Farley. “It was falling apart. There was a crack in the bot-tom and it was leaking water

constantly. There was mold growing on the bottom. It was small.”

“It’s a lot nicer to swim in,” says junior Melina Sac-chi. “It was very necessary to get a new pool. The older

pool was negatively affecting the environment because it was leaking clean water. There was a time when our P.E. class had to

run the final instead of swim it because it was a ‘health hazard’ to swim in the pool. The little side pool wasn’t safe or hygienic.”

Junior Karol Ruiz says, “[The new pool is] much better than the old pool because there’s more space, so it feels better. We needed an upgrade to the old pool. The old pool was nice, but we needed an upgrade.”

While new and renovated, the pool is not completely free of problems. Last week, the water failed to filter due to the water level being too low, and the pool was subsequently filled with hose water.

Senior Priscilla Young says, “Two weeks into swimming, it was clear. Then all of a sudden it was murky. It’s terrible to swim in. You can’t see in it.”

Junior Ben Lewis says, “It’s a little cloudy...[the water is] not being filtered. But I still love it. I love to get in the pool. It’s my first year [on the team] but swimming is just so much fun. I look forward

to it every day.”With the new pool in place, the

swim team can now look forward to the rest of the season. “We’re starting out well,” says Farley.

“We have a lot more depth this year,” says Farley. “We have some juniors and seniors that are kind of leading the charge, and every-body else is doing well.”

Says Farley, “The new pool is a fantastic upgrade from the old pool, but still needs some minor adjustments.”

LUNA LYNCH

BRIAN BARCH

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07FEATURESvolume 50, issue 07April 21, 2011

This month’s club feature: What’s the haps at Aragon?BY JASON MAIFEATURES

There are plenty of activities for students to participate in here at Aragon, from sports teams and leadership classes to the yearbook or service commission. Aragon clubs range from ethnicity orientated to faith oriented, while others involve video games or pastimes. When you add them all up, you get 76 unique groups to choose from. Here are a few to be featured this month.

Childhood nostalgia: Kid’s TV showsBY WILL ECKSTEINFEATURES

As people have grown older over the years, their pref-erences regarding the television shows they watch have changed as well. Some shows have some more senti-mental value than others, with the reasons being as nu-merous and varied as the programming itself.

“I watched a lot of WB for kids and PBS,” says junior Kevin Durhan. “I also re-member watching Pokémon, Yu-gi-oh and Dragon Tales. Why? Be-cause they were awesome.”

Junior Cong He also has fond memories of Dragon Tales, as well as several other shows. “I mostly

watched Thomas the Choo-Choo Train and Dragon Tales. There was also the one with the guys with the squares. What was it? Teletubbies, that’s right.”

Looking back, it may seem strange as to why these programs entertained us, but Cong says he

loved them. “I wanted to be like them. I wanted to be on a grass field living with bunnies. It was just so cool.”

Junior Daniel Vasquez had his own share of enjoyable childhood television. “[I watched] Dexter’s Laboratory on Cartoon Network

and on Nickelodeon I’d watch SpongeBob Squarepants back when all those cartoons were fun to watch, but now it seems like their running out of ideas,” says Vasquez.

It is important to note that while some television shows no

longer appeal to us it does not necessarily mean that they are not good anymore. Junior Ir-ving Chen says, “It seems to me that these channels all have shows that target different age groups. ‘The Suite Life of Zach and Cody’ is more for older kids while shows like ‘Tom and Jerry’ are for a younger audi-ence.”

However, junior Alan Katz says, “In my opinion, I believe the quality of the shows has decreased because in some shows they will repeat stuff trying to make the show funny but it doesn’t work.”

If the television shows we watched as kids no longer run-ning or are cancelled, some of them still find new life through avenues such as YouTube. We will always be able to remember that hilarious cartoon or outlandish sitcom we watched when we were younger.

Sophomore Michael Alvarez, president of Breakfast Club, and a couple fel-low members pushed the desks in a math class against the walls in order to create space for their club activity.

The Breakfast Club is actually a place where kids express themselves as individuals through dancing. The origin of the name comes from the word ‘break dancing’. Alvarez coined the words ‘break’ and ‘fast’ together mean-ing “to rapidly start dancing.”

During the club meetings, students practice new tricks to get better. Alva-rez proudly says, “We get harder, better, faster and stronger!”

Past events that the Breakfast Club has participated in include the Multi-dance club events, lunch time performances and most recently, Aragon Dance Competition, where they finished in fifth place.

Go is a game of strategy and observation that requires pieces, or stones, and a board. The goal of the game is to capture as many spaces as you can. Club president and sophomore Kevin Huang says, “Go is like two hives of ants trying to conquer a territory. The club’s purpose is to promote interest of Go in the community and to provide a place for those interested to compete and play.”

The club is small at the moment and the members of the club do not want it to be just a closely-knit group of friends. Huang says, “I plan to make posters about the club to put up around school. I hope to attract some of the students’ attention and hope to bring new people into our club.”

Huang says, “In the future, our club might participate in a Bay-area high school Go tournament.” Since the club is new, they have a long way to go before taking place in any tournaments.

the Breakfast club. (sorry, no food.) Go-Go to GO-CLUB.

UNICEF Club advocates and fundraises for children all around the world in need of clean water, vaccines, food and emergency

help.

Something unusual that UNICEF club does is that during Halloween, members don’t trick or treat for candy, but for money. Members put in a lot of effort to raise money by asking for donations and spare change. Last Halloween, UNICEF club raised $230. In the past, UNICEF club has hosted an online donation

event, where members ask friends and family to donate over the Internet.

UNICEF hosted a Tap Water Project throughout America during water week, which is March 20 to 26. The goal of the project is to have people donate a dollar so that one kid can get clean water for 40 days. Aragon UNICEF club plans to ask local restaurants to charge their customers a dollar for a cup of water to help fundraise

for the cause. At the moment, members have contacted restaurants like Mimi’s Café, Fresh Choice, Armadillo

Willy’s, Jack’s Prime, and several others.

UNICEF CLUB.MAKE A DIFFERENCE.

Matches are really quick and fast at the Ping Pong Club. Members play first to score or first to three points. Because there are so many eager members and such a

short lunch period, the games have to stay short.

On the left side of the room are the people who are eating lunch and waiting patiently to play. Friends, girlfriends, and spectators crowd on the right side either watching intently at the players or cheering wildly for their friends. Some enthusiastic players roam around the room try-

ing to find a spot to play in any of the two tables.

Sophomore Ivan Chen is an active member of the club. He joined, “because his friend wanted him to. However,

I have grown to like this club, so I’m grateful he introduced me to it.” He says the worst part about the club is

waiting to play. “On the other hand, I really like the club because you get to play a sport you normally

can’t. And also, it’s a better alternative thanjust eating your lunch outside

while being bored.”

PING-PONG CLUB.

NATALIE PALTER

The secret word is: “jigsaw” (no quotes) - now go to: http://www.aragonoutlook.net/index.php/rihannatix

for a chance at free Rihanna tickets at Oracle Arena on June 30!

10 OPINION volume 50, issue 07April 21, 2011

THE ARAGON OUTLOOK:

Mission StatementThe Aragon Outlook staff

publishes a monthly newspa-per created for the students to express themselves on issues of interest and importance to them and to provoke thought and discussion within the Ara-

gon community.

AdviserScott Silton

Co-Editors in ChiefPhilip Dimaano

Daniel Fu

News EditorsOlivia Bocanegra, Sabrina

Imbler and Ryan Yu

News WritersKira Brenner, Justin Ching,

Kathryn DeWitt, Bailey Godwin, Landon Hart,

Brandon Liu, Andrew Lyu, Heimana Vaea, Taylor Westmont, Wendy Yu,

Peter Zhan

Features EditorsAlice Bebbington, Alina

Polishuk and LuShuang Xu

Features WritersSam Alavi, Paniz Amir-nasiri, Will Eckstein, Jan Marini Galabay, Camille Halley, Derek Han, Jack

Herrera, Christine Kalife, Wassim Khemici, Anthony

Lu, Jason Mai, Sangwon Yun

Photo and Technology Editor

Eric Torres

Photo StaffersKenan Chan, Kore Chan, Martin Contreras, Casey Fitzgerald, Alyssa Lim,

Kayla Solomon, Samantha Soon, Erika Wang

Arts and Graphics EditorJanice Pang

Arts and Graphics StaffersBrian Barch, Chenwen

Hwang, Luna Lynch, Yuzo Makitani, Natalie Palter,

Emily Yip

Center Spread EditorRebecca Hu

The Outlook would love to hear from you.

Visit us at:www.aragonoutlook.net

or:E-mail us at:

[email protected]

Have thoughts about an article on The Ara-

gon Outlook?Do you believe we

misreported on some-thing?

Write a letter to the editor.

1. Send us an email through our form on our website at AragonOutlook.net.

2. Email us directly: [email protected]

3. Type or hand-write your letter and submit it to the publications office, room #136.

BY SANGWON YUNFEATURES

As part of an accreditation process for the Western Asso-ciation of Schools and Colleges, Aragon is currently involved in conducting an overall evaluation of the school. As part of the pro-cess, a voluntary online parent survey is currently underway, the link to which can be found on the Aragon High School homepage. At this time, approximately two hundred responses have been ac-counted for.

Preliminary data from the survey has been examined by the Aragon faculty, though results have yet to be released to the gen-eral public. Of the many com-ments found within the results, a sentiment that was reflected was one regarding the stratification of classes at Aragon. More specifi-cally, there appeared to be some degree of desire to make changes to the current structure of class offerings.

With the exception of some special education students, most Aragon students participate in one of four varieties of classes: College Prep, Advanced Stand-ing, Honors, and Advanced Place-ment. Honors and Advanced Placement classes distinguish

themselves from College Prep and Advanced Standing classes in that the former pair will raise a student’s weighted total grade-point average in the event that he or she earns an “A” grade in such a designated class. Advanced Place-ment differs from Honors on the grounds that it is the equivalent of a freshman college course.

In addition, an examination offered by the College Board eval-uates how much and how thor-oughly the student has learned the course content and assigns a numerical score indicating the re-sults of the assessment. That score can then be used to apply for credit at a college or university. In regard to Advanced Standing and College Prep, their names indicate their difference; Advanced Stand-ing is a more advanced, accelerat-ed course while College Prep con-centrates on readying students for education after high school.

Yet, as Assistant Principal Jim Coe points out, Aragon adopted such an academic program rela-tively recently. He says, “Ten years ago, there were a lot of these hon-ors courses that had come to bear between the College Prep and the Advanced Placement… there was kind of a cop-out. For stu-dents who didn’t want to do the rigorous work for an AP course but were good students, Honors courses became sort of a skate mechanism; they wouldn’t have to put themselves up as much. It was kind of a holding ground for the smart kid who didn’t want to do the work. So, the thinking at that time was to do away with those and instill rigor. And so if you were a smart kid and want-ed to push the envelope and do your best, you had to take the AP course.”

He adds, “[Ten years ago], AS courses did not exist. They had

an Honors designation. But the UC wanted a more refined des-ignation, and so freshman and sophomore courses became Ad-vanced Standing courses, which were normally Honors courses… So that’s when the district went through and cleaned up the 9th and 10th grade courses that were formally Honors courses. After the decision, I would say there was a reduction in the number of Honors courses that students could take.”

Alluding back to Aragon’s edu-cational system from a decade ago, though, a number of indi-viduals have expressed a desire for an intermediate course between the College Prep and Advanced Placement classes offered during junior and senior year.

Aragon alumnus Ari Brenner notes, “A complaint that many students express, and one that has shown up in the Outlook a few times when I was at Aragon, was about how as of junior year, students are forced to choose be-tween College Prep and Advanced Placement for history and english. The rigor of the Advanced Place-ment is definitely increased from Advanced Standing in freshman and sophomore years, and I think some students wish that threw as a choice that fell in-between the two.”

However, Matt Bigger, the as-sociate superintendent of instruc-tion, says, “I think there’s a pretty strong view from the district that we don’t want to offer yet another level because that just further divides students. We get really concerned, then, about the third level…Suddenly you’ve got a class that can perceived as the weakest of the three, and we really don’t want that dynamic. If College Prep isn’t challenging enough, we want to look at that and make it

more challenging. I think we want to constantly fine-tune and im-prove to respond to our student-parent concerns about the curric-ulum, but I don’t see the structure changing.”

Referring to the change from ten years ago, Coe says, “Looking at the stats that were going on in the courses, that’s what lead the instruction council to make that move. Now, it’s been ten years, and it may be time to revisit that and take another look at the data. That may be something that oc-curs once the survey has been taken by a sufficient number of parents and they’ve expressed their opinion. It may be a chance to take another look at, because times change…we’ll have to wait and see what happens.”

WASC survey for parents calls for change

Little over a month ago, Ja-pan was shaken to the core with a magnitude 9.0 earthquake, one of the strongest in recent memo-ry. The resultant tsunami created enormous waves across the Send-ai coastline and the eastern shore of Japan, claiming hundreds of lives and abandoning many more amidst the rubble.

While this disaster may seem almost 6,000 miles away, minor repercussions in the Bay Area have prompted reconsiderations of our rather lax attitude towards earthquakes. The fact that Japan, a stable economic powerhouse, was nearly crippled by a natural disaster has shocked many Cali-fornians.

Another unfortunate truth is that California holds its buildings to inferior standards of earth-quake engineering than Japan. Such structural safety does not bode well in the face of an earth-quake.This revelation should be more than enough of a wake-up call to revise ineffectual earth-quake preparation plans, particu-larly here at Aragon.

It should not be news to stu-dents that California is an incred-ibly earthquake-prone state due to its position over numerous

faults. Seismologists have predict-ed a 99 percent chance of a major earthquake hitting California in the next 30 years.

Current earthquake proce-dure in SMUHSD schools falls under the category of a “Major Emergency/Disaster,” which also includes interruptions such as power outages, fires and storms. Students are required to remain at school or a safe site until it is deemed safe for dismissal. Recur-ring emergency drills through-out the year aim to help prepare students for such emergencies, but are not being taken seriously enough by many Aragon students.

Many students see drills as merely an opportunity to get out of class and talk with their friends on the field. Students place the avoidance of desktop gum in a much higher regard than actually paying attention to earthquake-safety measures. Students have adapted a false sense of security that does not bode well in the event of an actual earthquake.

Perhaps students are not the only ones at fault here. Some Aragon teachers tell their stu-dents about earthquake drills in advance to help schedule their lesson plans. But expected drills

render null their desired ben-efit of testing students’ ability to react quickly and practically in an emergency. Earthquake drills do interrupt classes, and at their current state, it is understand-able why teachers and students see them as nuisances. But the longer we perpetuate indifferent drills, the longer members of the Aragon community will be indif-ferent to the imminent threat of earthquakes.

Thus, a more efficient and seri-ous drill must be adopted. Hold-ing a single effective drill would benefit Aragon students far more than many brief drills. If students concentrated and listened during this one, extensive drill, Aragon as a whole would stand a far better chance against an earthquake.

Moreover, these initiatives should transcend the boundaries of Aragon. Earthquakes do not al-ways strike in places where people have prepared; in fact, as disasters go, they are rather tempestuous. There is a greater chance that a student will experience an earth-quake in his or her home instead of Aragon. Thus, an earthquake kit should be considered a house-hold staple. They can be found for as little as $84 to feed four people

for three days. These kits can be found at local and online stores, the latter of which makes surviv-al after an earthquake just a few clicks away.

Furthermore, the 3.8 magni-tude earthquake that occurred on Monday at 2:57 p.m. jolted the Outlook editors while writing this very editorial. And despite compiling information about earthquake protocol, we realized, to the tune of shaking comput-ers and thumping above us, that we personally were no better pre-pared for an earthquake than we were before this information. The time to act is now, and we must act. Ultimately, your life can be in either your hands or the volatile temper of earthquake faults.

California is indeed a decep-tively beautiful state. Beneath our verdant redwood forests and golden poppies lie myriad, active fault lines; seven major faults exist in the Bay Area alone. However, the crisis that would indubitably ensue following a major earth-quake is no one’s fault but our own. Earthquakes may seem to be just another facet of our “Golden State,” but we must clear the fog of our indolence towards real, ef-fective earthquake preparation.

Japanese earthquakes raise awareness for Bay Area residents

11FEATURESvolume 50, issue 07April 21, 2011

BY JAN MARINI C. GALABAYFEATURES

With college becoming ever more competitive, resume plumping has become common. Yet while Aragon students sign up for a college-worthy resume packed with extracurricular, many do it simply to satisfy their own passions and interests,

“All the activities I do, I have been doing it for three to four years now like BSU, Love More, and Leadership,” says senior Laci Moore.

Senior Jason Lee says, “I am on the swim team right now. I also participate in activities at my church. We sing songs and make food for the homeless.”

Senior June Jiao enjoys giving back to the community. She says, “I did one program called ‘Col-lege for Kids’ where elementary kids take classes at CSM. We are just basically helping them with their classes and get around.”

Moreover, having a variety of skills and interest is also attrac-tive to colleges. Lee says, “I am … a member of Glee cub, Tutor club, and Christian club. I do it because it is fun and I get to be with my friends and meet new people.”

“When I was a freshman and a sophomore, I had more time to

do tennis and badminton,” says Jiao.

“Right now, I am working at the ice center of San Mateo and I am planning to continue it be-cause it is really fun.”

With all these overwhelming commitments, some seniors say passion drives them to continue. Lee says, “Because this is my last year in high school, I want to make the best of it. [These ac-tivities] make you more outgoing and help you learn more about life. Its more exciting when I find that the people I know are in the same club as I am.”

Jiao agrees, saying, “I cre-ated a club because I wanted to do something with my group of friends and we decided to get together and talk about our com-mon interest.”

These extracurricular activi-ties also give students a glimpse of their future. Moore says, “I wanted to be a veterinarian so I volunteered at SPCA. I feel like that if you want to do something, you should know what the job is like. Then after that, I decided I did not want to be a veterinar-ian anymore. I realized that I like organizing and planning things. I want to be a wedding planner.”

Senior Anjana Amirapu says,

“I do things that I am interested in taking as a major. I was thinking of art conservation so I volunteered in an art museum.”

Senior Charles Grant, who at-tends the Malonga Casqualord Cen-ter for the Arts in Oakland, adds, “In order for me to go to a dance school and become a dancer, I had to keep up with my dancing.”

However, doing four years of active participation in clubs, sports, and community ser-vices can be exhausting. Amirapu says, “I think the commitment and everything that I had from years before is a bit less. You are kind of like ‘Ok, once I am done, I do not have to do it anymore.’ You kind of see yourself at the end of the road and you do not have to worry about these things any-more.

“But then I feel guilty because I do not want to leave the next stu-

dents [who are the next president or vice president of the club] in a weird position where they do not know what to do.”

In the end, most students agree that they participate in these ac-tivities because of the personal growth that they gain. Amirapu says, “If you are just doing it for college, it is just really wrong.”

Moore agrees, “I join these clubs [BSU and Love More] be-

cause I was interested in them and I want to learn more. It turned out that I love those clubs and I stuck with them.” Jiao adds, “Fol-lowing your interest and dreams is the most important.”

Having activities and commu-nity services helps to strengthen someone’s college resume, but the experience and knowledge gained in these activities also helps stu-dents to grow as individuals.

RESUME ACTIVITIES?

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YOU’RE INVITED: PRE-PROM PREPARATIONSProm is a memorable event for most American teenagers, a time for dressing up, for corsages and boutonnieres, and for dancing the night away. For some, preparation is a frantic

chase, and for others, it is a stress-free schedule. Either way, memories are certain to be made. Here is how the day played out for three Aragon girls:

TIMETABLEGET READY WITH...

Kathryn miyahira

YUZO MAKITANI

GET READY WITH...

ASHLEY FRANKELGET READY WITH...

DINA MARSHALEK

BY CAMILLE HALLEYFEATURES

1. Had to get things ready for prom. Parents dropped by my house to pick up things to set up. Within that time, I also painted my own nails because I had no time to get them done!

2. I got my hair done at A.S.K Salon in Downtown San Mateo. I had no idea what I wanted to do with it. But I trusted my hair stylist. I kept on getting calls and texts from everyone setting up {so] it was pretty unrelaxing.

3. I got my make-up done at Chanel in Nordstrom’s. I just asked her for a natural look with more dramatic eyes using gold and brown tones. She was amazing!

5. OFF TO PROM!I kept on telling Devon how nervousI was because I wanted to see how the Galleria turned out. The whole Prom Committee ... had worked on stuff for like 3 months, and I wasn’t even there to execute it! But everything was fine! I think it turned out even better than I had imagined it and I’m so thankful the parents were able to help out.

1. Got a bouton-niere for my date at Ah Sam.

2. Pre-Prom nap

3. Went to my dear friend Danielle’s house and had her help me with makeup, fake eyelashes and all that disgusting stuff. I bought both my dress and shoes thrift (“vintage” if you will) in Haight/Mission. I bought the dress at Buffalo Exchange, a thrift store that has many locations around the bay. I bought a 50’s style pink dress with a high neckline, an open back, lace, a bow and the works along with some white vintage heels.

6. OFF TO PROM!

1. I was cleaning my house. Every-body was coming over to my house so my mom wanted me to clean.

7. OFF TO PROM! Finish getting ready and leave for prom chauf-feured in my pimped out mini van driven by my dad.

4. Generic prom pictures.

4. Went to my friend’s house. Me and my boyfriend gave each other our corsages and boutonnieres. (Thankfully he had remembered to pick them up, his only job.)

5. Potluck dinner.

2. Washing my car. Ev-erybody was using window marker to write on my car so I needed it to be clean.

3. Shower and [prepped] my hair. I straightened my hair and then I put it into a ponytail.

4. Draw on my car. On the hood it just said prom and then on the pas-senger side it had all the names of all the people that came over to my house. There were 6 including me.

5. The girls [came] over and we start hair and makeup. My friend Amber dressed awesomely as an “evil gypsy.”

6. Salad dinner.

12 FEATURES volume 50, issue 07April 21, 2011

BY CHRISTINE KALIFEFEATURES

Advil versus generic Ibuprofen, True Religion versus simple jeans, Wonder bread, Uggs, Nalgene bottles, Starbucks. Brand names are common in today’s world, ranging from food to clothes, and medicine to colleges.

But is this obsession with brand names a result of an in-crease in materialism?

“Definitely,” says freshman Andi Kabiri. “I think that ge-neric brands are usually asso-ciated with cheap [materials] and not good quality. The me-dia is [a factor in] influencing people’s opinions on materi-alistic wealth.”

Fellow freshman Isik Yildiz states that materialism exists “because of the media and those magazines and modeling shows; and there is a lot of peer pressure in this world.”

“I think that people are ma-terialistic only because a lot of the time we attribute physical materials with wealth and hap-piness, and we all know it never really works out well,” says senior Jamison Hall.

Materialism is probably the biggest factor contributing to this

brand name craze, yet the ques-tion about whether this craze is justified still exists. Are there any differences between the widely known brand names and the ge-neric store brands?

Senior Jenny Shields says, “Sometimes. You can find stuff that are just the same but cost way less. But sometimes [the more ex-

pensive clothing] feels a lot bet-ter.”

“I think it depends on the product,” says Kabiri. “I think for clothes, it depends on the fabrics and materials they use. For food, it’s the ingredients and the way it’s prepared. So there is a difference.”

“We look for specific brands be-cause we like the way things cook and taste. Some-times the generic just does

not have the quality that we want when it comes to food,” explains Hall.

Although there may not be a visible difference between a ge-neric brand and brand named ones, it seems that consumers are more willing to purchase items with names they are familiar with.

These large names provide a sense of reassurance to those who buy them. “I would spend more money on the prescription brand be-cause I would think it was ‘safer’,” says Kabiri.

A 2008 article from Newsweek explains the ever-changing ideas of society on the importance of choosing a college.

Enrollment in a certain college can ultimately end up being an invest-ment for the future.

Senior Kalie San Felipe agrees with this sentiment. “The college selection process definitely re-

sembles that of daily purchasing – you have to try out different products, maybe even get swayed by the name brand, but in the end, you end up choosing what-ever product (or school) best suits your own needs and goals.”

Several solutions have been posed to correct this misconcep-tion regarding brand names. “I think there are a lot of people who put a negative connotation on

generic brands. I think we should try to

promote a posi-tive connota-

tion of it

[through] advertising,” says Kabiri.

Others believe the problem of materialism is never-ending and instead is only correctable by the individual.

“I think people can correct it for themselves by being around people who don’t care about [brand names]. It just comes down to who you choose to hang out with,” explains Shields.

So although the general con-sensus may be that people are ul-timately materialistic, San Felipe states, “There are definitely ma-terialistic people in the world, but it seems that for the most part, people envy those who can find cute clothes at ridiculously cheap

prices more so than those who splurge on brand name

items.”

Student thoughts on brand name importance

EMILY YIP

How much challenge is too much? Aragon students choose classes for fall

“I think that people are mate-rialistic only because a lot of the time we attribute physical mate-rials with wealth and happiness, and we all know it never really works out well.”

-Senior Jamison Hall

BY DEREK HANFEATURES

Ambitious Aragon students looking to attend four-year uni-versities are starting to challenge themselves more and more dur-ing the course selection process. For those choosing between AP and CP coursework as an upper-classman, the choice sometimes comes down to personal prefer-ence.

For many students, it’s the prospective workload that makes

them think twice about which classes they want to take.

Indeed, numerous students who

plan on not t a k i n g

any advanced standing or Ad-vanced Placement courses agree that their decision was to cut down on the amount of work.

Sophomore Hao Chang chose to not take any AP classes for ju-nior year.

“ I wanted to take [AP U.S. His-tory] but the coun-selor said it’s good to challenge yourself...[I chose not to take it] because I’m lazy,” says Chang.

Sophomore Derrick Leong says, “I chose my classes because perspective workload of each, so that I’m not overburdened by my work. I chose some of the classes

because of what I want to do in life.

Other students base their class choices off of recommendations from either counselors, siblings or friends. Freshman Alex Manu,

who plans on tak-ing no AS classes his sophomore year says, “My broth-er took [AS

classes] and he said it was a lot of work, and I didn’t want that, so I just stuck with CP classes. I expect [sophomore year] to be harder and [involve] more work.”

“I went with what the coun-selor said,” says Chang. Although Chang says that the counselors

were one of the reasons why he chose all CP classes, his parents didn’t have any influ-ence over his decisions. “All [my parents] did was sign the [sheet]. They don’t really care, they know that the classes I choose to take are the classes I can handle,” says Chang.

Sophomore Allison Kuo, who plans on taking four AP courses, says, “I chose a lot of my AP choices because I’m fol-lowing what my brother did. I’m putting it on myself that I need to match my brother.”

For other students, the lead-ing factor in choosing their classes is their own personal preferences and interests. “I wanted to limit it to five class-es,” says junior Ayelet Brown-

Jackson, “I chose classes that

interests me such as AP psychol-ogy.”

“People choose AB over BC because AB is slower, but math comes easily for me, so I chose BC,” says Kuo. “[Sophomore year] is not too stressful, and not that big of a jump.”

Junior Summer Kang, who plans on taking five AP’s out of the six classes she will take, knows that senior year will be hard work. One of Kang’s class choices of AP Physics during senior year was a process of elimination. Kang says, “I [dislike] biology and I [dislike] chemistry and physics was the only class left.”

College expectations also play a major role in influencing stu-dents on making decisions about classes. Junior Jacob Engler decid-ed to take three or four AP classes out of the five classes that he is going to take senior year. “Some people believe that colleges look down upon people that take less than six classes, but if your sched-ule is rigorous, it’s acceptable,” he says.

Sophomore Jong Lim com-

ments that taking two AP classes as a sophomore “is not stressful,” but adds that, “you need good time management.” Lim says that he chose four rigorous AP classes to take as a junior because, “It prepares you better for college be-cause the classes you’re taking are college level.”

Offering a more laid back out-look is sophomore Hunter Bar-ringer . “I don’t plan to go to a four year university, so I don’t see a major point striving too far,” says Baringer about his all CP class choices.

Leong plans to take CP English over AP English also for the safe route to make his transcript look better. “I feel that the GPA boost isn’t enough of an incentive to get a C in the class when I could get an A in a CP class and make [my transcript] look better,” Leong says.

While the madness of class selection has subsided for this semester, next year will inevita-bly bring the wonderful chaos of choosing one’s classes.

“I chose a lot of AP choices because I’m following what my brother did. I’m putting it on myself that I need to match my brother.”

-Sophomore Allison Kuo

BRIAN BARCH

Check out www.aragonoutlook.

net

13ADVERTISEMENTvolume 50, issue 07April 21, 2011

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14 SPORTS volume 50, issue 07April 21, 2011

Optimism among track and field teamBY WASSIM KHEMICIFEATURES

Last Thursday, April 14, Mills High School hosted a meet with the Aragon track and field team. Aragon’s 90 members beat Mills’ and ended up with 60 personal re-cords and 76 improvements.

“The pole-vaulters did really well because they did not have a pole-vaulting team, so all the girls placed,” says Junior Jonathan Pan. “And then the guys, we placed 2nd and 3rd. Mills had this guy that could go way high, but the other people we could beat. Long-jump and triple jump did really well. The girls got PRs and so did the frosh-soph and boys varsity. In terms of running events, the 4x4 relays were super good. I thought in general we were really support-ive of their team, and they were very supportive of us. It was a very communal meet.”

Team Captain, Senior Nick DeFerrari, reflects on the meet as “pretty good.” He says, “The frosh-soph guys did pretty well. Luiggi Sebastiani ran a pretty good 200. The meet was hand-timed, so the times weren’t very accurate. Mills has a good throwing team, and so do we. We took them in the dis-cus, but I think we took them in the shot-put. Running-wise Mills is not that good. They’re really not that good as a whole.”

DeFerrari also says that win-ning this meet is more of a confi-dence booster.

“This is more of a confidence booster for the real test. I think we still have a lot of work to do. For PAL, we’re trying to win varsity girls and varsity girls and varsity boys. Mills is just another league meet.”

As for winning PAL, many of the team members have confi-dence that they will be successful in the championships

After the meet against Carl-mont, which was hosted and won by Aragon on Thursday, March 31, many teammates were confi-dent that they’d be successful in

PALs. Aragon scored 129 PRs and 156 improvements.

“We’re doing pretty well right now,” says Senior Erica Bass. “We’ve been winning most of the races. Comparing to Westmoor, which we lost, it looks a lot bet-ter. I won two of [my races] and got second in one of them. I hope

a lot of people go to PALs and CCS. We went to CCS in 4x4 last year, for varsity girls, so hopefully we’ll go even farther this year. There definitely will be a few that will go to CCS.”

For the players who will likely go far in PAL and CCS, Bass men-tions “For long dis-tance, Lauren Croshaw, Christian Pedro. For the 400, Nick DeFerra-ri, Candace DeSauvage. For 100, Kyle Fung. I know that they try real-ly hard in practice, and there are some slackers in practiced, and they try hard and it pays off.”

Sophomore Eliza-beth McSheery shares Bass’ sentiments; She says “I think, actually, we’ve been doing really well. Jumps, we’ve been winning. We’ve been sweeping pretty much all season. Throws—we’re 18 to one. So far this season we’ve done amazing, beating out everyone. I’ve been do-ing well; I’ve gotten a couple first places, and a couple second places. We don’t actually have many varsity jumps, but we’ve been holding our

own.”In regards to PAL and CCS,

McSheery continues “I think that we’re on track, so we should be doing fine. I think it’s very likely that some of our racers will make it to CCS. I know that we have a really really good 4x4 team.

Jumps, I think we might be able to. I do both long jump and triple jump. So far, I was in first place for varsity.”

Sophomore Daniel Goldin says that the meet with Carlmont could have been better had the weather not been as hot.

“I was half a second slower than I was two days ago because of the heat,” remarks Goldin. “It probably affected the mile-run-ners more, seeing as they’re run-ning 4 laps--pain. As for me, I tied in a [race], I did good. I didn’t run it for two weeks. I mostly felt good doing the 800. I think I could run the 800 faster if I get adequate rest. As for the team, for the races, the varsity guys are doing okay, maybe losing by a couple points, we’ve run almost all the races. We’ve haven’t gotten most of the 2nds and 3rds. We’ve been doing all well last season. Last meet we won by like 100 points, which is great because the scores are usu-ally like 150-100.”

Junior Lauren Croshaw says that thus far the season has been good despite her constantly fall-ing ill--but she’s optimistic for the future of the season.

“The team has been awesome. I think we’re gonna win the sea-son or league. We only lost one meet, and we’ve had four meets. We’re closer to winning the cham-pionships.”

Boys tennis gaining momentum

BY BAILEY GODWINNEWS

The spring boys’ tennis season is just getting started, and Aragon is making great headway in their wins over other schools. Aragon has won three out of four league games so far, only getting beaten by Carlmont 6-1. In the non-league games, Aragon won against Riordan 7-0, but lost against both Serra 1-6, and Palo Alto 2-5. De-

spite these losses, the Aragon boys’ tennis team has a prom-ising outlook for this year. Coach Dave Owdom says, “We’re doing fairly well this season. We lost five out of six players this year. They were all seniors, but now Chris is the only one left.” Owdom is re-ferring to Chris Engelmann, the number one varsity player on the boys’ tennis team this year.

Owden says, “Singles are tougher to play than doubles physically, and the players tend to blame themselves instead of their partners. Doubles require coordination and communication between players to have a good match.”

Freshman frosh-soph player Travis Kwee says, “[Our outlook for this season is] good, we beat San Mateo and

Mills and killed Hillsdale, but didn’t do so well against Carl-mont and some of the private schools. Hopefully we will win more of the upcoming games,

but you never know.”Freshman frosh-soph player

Alex Furuya says, “It’s hard to tell right now, but I think we’ll be pretty good. The other teams are coached differently, their coaches focus more on aggressive strategy, but I think we’re very well-round-ed in our playing.”

The varsity team played against Carlmont on March 29. There were four singles matches

and three doubles matches plus one exhibition match. Senior player Chris Engelmann faced off against Carlmont’s Cory Peng. Though Engelmann maintained his strong serve and determina-tion, he lost both sets to Peng. “He was a pretty solid player. He forced me to make mis-takes. There’s no excuse over my game to-day, I could’ve played better,” says Engel-mann.

Freshman varsity player Dev-on Hughes, who played on the court next to Engelmann, held his own, despite the fact that he was up against an upperclassman. Hughes says, “He was really good. He was a lot taller than me, and I had to work harder to get the balls. I lost the second set, but I got through in the tiebreaker [with a final score of] 11-9.”

Even though the players’ dem-onstrated intense determination and focus in their playing, Aragon lost the match against Carlmont by a score of 6-1.

The varsity team went up against Mills that Thursday, March 31. Aragon has a winning streak against Mills; they have not lost to them in fourteen years. En-gelmann won against his oppo-

nent in both sets 6-2 and 7-5. En-gelmann says, “He was not a very challenging opponent compared to the rest of the league, but he had an interesting style of playing that I have never seen before.”

H u g h e s won against his opponent as well, opt-ing for more strategy than force. “The first set was simple, but in the second set the game changed, and my oppo-nent began

playing better,” says Hughes.Aragon won against Mills by

5-2, continuing Aragon’s against Mills.

Owden says, “I’ve coached ten-nis many times in the past, and the main aspect [the players] need to work on is mental toughness. No memory—you have no mem-ory of previous plays—you don’t let it bother you and affect the rest of the match. The team gets confi-dence from getting better.”

Hughes says, “I think we will win more of the game coming up. It’s hard being number two as a freshman, the juniors and seniors are stronger, but I think I can win more matches. It’s all about hav-ing fun.”

For more exciting articles, colorful photos and thrill-

ing web-exclusive content, please check out arag-

onoutlook.net

ERIKA W

AN

G

Senior Jeffrey Ware prepares to serve at an afternoon practice. The team was preparing for an upcoming match against Mills, in which they won 5-2.

ERIKA W

AN

G

Top Left: Sophomore Luiggi Sebastiani practices sprinting to prepare for the meet against Mills. Right: Junior Jonathan Pan practices pole vaulting, an event in which the boys placed 2nd and 3rd against Mills.Bottom Left: Sophomore Savanna Kiefer practices starting while her other teamates wait their turn.

ERIKA W

AN

G

Top: Sophomore Rahul Joshi re-turns a ball at a practice.Bottom: Freshman Devon Hughes practices overhand serving.

“We beat San Mateo and Mills and killed Hillsdale, but didn’t do so well against Carl-mont and some of the private schools. Hopefully we will win more of the upcoming games, but you never know.”

-Freshman Travis Kwee

KAYLA SO

LOM

ON

15SPORTSvolume 50, issue 07April 21, 2011

Another VictoryAragon Badminton Team sustains their undefeated record with a win

against Jefferson High School.

Varsity Baseball faces Menlo-Atherton

BY KATHRYN DEWITTNEWS

On April 15, while most other students were prepping for the Prom, the Aragon Varsity Base-ball team met the Menlo Ather-ton Bears for the second time this season.

The Dons have had a difficult season so far, with their PAL re-cord of 1 win, 5 losses, and 0 ties (1-5-0). In the past three years the Dons have always made it to CCS; however, this year, loss of

player Sam Tuivailala, who was recruited by the St. Louis Cardi-nals, seems to have changed the team dynamics.

At the top of the first inning with sophomore Aldo Sever-son pitching, the Dons allowed two hits. Senior Sam Pacholuk made an error that allowed the two runners on base to each ad-vance one base. After a fly out, Menlo Atherton’s Sam Falkenha-gen drove home the two runners with a double. When Falkenha-gen tried to steal third, Severson

connected with second baseman, senior Mitch Auer, who picked off Falkenhagen to end the inning.

With the Dons at bat, Pacho-luk walked, then attempted to steal second, but safely dove back to first base. When senior Tyler Outzen hit a double along the right foul line, Pacholuk scored Aragon’s first run. At the end of the first inning the score was 2-1.

Aragon gave up five runs in the second inning, mainly due to er-rors from dropped balls lost in the bright sun. Menlo Atherton also displayed great prowess at bat, and the inning ended 7-1.

Neither side scored for the next two innings, as both sides dug in their heels with their de-fense. In the third inning, senior Trevor McNeil caught a fly ball to end the inning stranding runners on 1st and 2nd.

Auer gained his defensive rhythm in the fourth inning, catching the first fly ball and mak-ing a play with first baseman, ju-nior Greg Lyons to prevent the runner from reaching first. The inning ended when senior Nolan Freitag caught a fly ball, leaving

runners on first and third.At the top of the fifth, Dylan

Cook of Menlo Atherton was able to work his way around the bases and scored the only run of the in-ning, while the Aragon defense prevented other runners from fol-lowing.

Aragon, down 8-1, put on their game faces and did not per-mit anyone on base in the sixth. When the Dons came to the plate, Senior CJ Sandino managed to get to third by stealing second fol-lowed by an Outzen single, but was unable to reach home.

In the final inning, the Dons worked together, with Pacholuk connecting with Lyons to tag a runner out at first, and Freitag catching two flies to quickly retire the Bears.

First up at the bottom of the seventh, Auer walked. While try-ing to pick off Auer, the Menlo Atherton first baseman stepped on Auer’s hand. The Umpire awarded Auer second for this un-sportsmanlike conduct. After Ju-nior Tom Sortwell walked, Freitag got the first hit of the inning load-ing the bases.

Junior Davarian Redd, the des-ignated hitter, hit a single, bring-ing Auer home. The bases were still loaded and Aragon was down by 6 until McNeil stepped up to the plate and hit a double, driv-ing Sortwell and Freitag home. Excitement perked in the air as Aragon was on a roll; Sandino hit a single driving Redd home. With the score now 8-5, the Dons saw a ray of hope. After Pacholuk struck out, Outzen walked. With runners on first and third, Auer, the tying run, stepped up to the plate. Sadly, he struck out, leav-ing the final score 8 -5.

After the game, Tim McNeil, a writer for godons.com, said, “[The Dons] played their hearts out, [but] made a couple of er-rors that cost the game.” Senior Alex Venosa commented on the 7th inning comeback, “It goes to show we’re always fighting.” And Outzen remarked how with each new the Dons had to “pick up our heads and make a play and forget about it.” The next home game will be at 4 p.m. on April 27, against Terra Nova.

BY PANIZ AMIRNASIRIFEATURES

Undefeated thus far in the season, Aragon’s badminton team continued their winning streak in a 14-1 victory in their match against Jefferson High School on Tuesday, April 12. Put simply, “[the match] wasn’t a huge challenge,” says sopho-more Nicky Tao.

Several other players on the team shared Tao’s opinion. “[Jefferson] looks like they have more group unity since they are all wearing team shirts, but they’re very inexperienced,” says senior Jasmine Huang.

Huang continues, “We have the experience and training, espe-cially since we have two assistant coaches this year who are both previous players on the Aragon badminton team. Also, we have two players who play outside of school.”

Senior Jonathon Lam says, “Jefferson recently came from the lower Ocean division and usu-ally when a team does that they are considered less experienced, versus our team which was the league champion last year.”

Badminton coach Linda

Brown says, “We have a mixture of experienced players and up-coming ones [while] Jefferson graduated many of their players last year, so they’re in a rebuilding cycle.”

Although determined, the Jefferson players were aware of their disadvantage. “Aragon has good technique and knows the court well. They also have many returning players while our team is made up mostly of beginners, with only a few returning veter-ans,” says Jefferson junior Denise Valencia. “I need to work on pre-

paring mentally just as much as I prepare physically before each match.”

Confirming the beginner dis-advantage, Jefferson sophomore Jhaira Monsada says, “I didn’t do that well today because I’m new to badminton, and, also, I was re-ally nervous. It was a struggle but it was also a good experience be-cause I learn from the more expe-rienced players, which helps me improve.”

Jefferson sophomore Jessica Alejandro says, “I need to work on better footwork and move-

ment, and work on communicat-ing with my partner.”

With the victory over Jeffer-son, the Aragon team now needs to focus on the decreasing num-ber of matches left before the soon approaching PALs. Junior Paul Chen, who won his first match of the season against Jeffer-son, hopes to prepare for future matches by, “trying to be more precise because I did miss a lot today.”

Lam, who lost the boys dou-bles says, “[In the next match] I hope to play a lot more aggres-

sively, make sure my shots are in, and prepare more since we just came back from spring break and are a bit out of prac-tice.”

Overall, the team seems well on their way to achieving their main goal, which is to be-come league champions for the second year in a row. Senior Andrea Chau says, “11 to 12 players graduated last year, but we’re doing really well—better than I expected.”

Lam adds, “The competition is not as fierce this year, so I just hope we stay undefeated.”

With PAL’s approaching quickly, Brown points out that, “[Although overall the team is]

kind of young, there is a strong returning senior presence.” In-deed, with senior PAL champi-ons Andrea Chau and Jasmine Huang returning this year, as well as four-year senior varsity players Jonathon Lam, Justin Mao and Lauren Nakasako, the rest of the season looks promising.

“We’re undefeated so far,” says Tao, “we just have to keep it up.”

Senior Andrea Chau steadies herself to return a serve.

ALYSSA

LIM

Junior Paul Chen lunges to return his opponent’s smash.A

LYSSA LIM

CASEY FITZG

ERALD

For more pictures, articles, and web-exclusive content, go to

the Aragon Outlook website at www.aragonoutlook.net

Senior C J Sandino evades the tag at first base, sliding into position beneath opposition player No. 29.

Sophomore Aldo Severson throws a hardball to the opposing team.

CASEY FITZG

ERALD

16 SPORTS volume 50, issue 07April 21, 2011

BY KIRA BRENNER NEWS

“It was such a big moment when we won the match against Menlo-Atherton. It really gave the team a boost of confidence,” said senior Joshua Chan.

W i n -n i n g t h e m a t c h a g a i n s t M e n l o -At h e r to n was a big deal for A r a g o n ’ s boys golf team because Menlo-Atherton is ranked second in the league and Aragon is behind them in third place. Aragon Boys Golf Coach Guy Oling said, “I was so proud of the way they played and came to-gether that day.”

The boys golf team has won 14 games and lost four. At their most recent match on Thursday, April 14, against Carlmont, the Aragon team lost. Until the championships, when teams play 18-hole matches, the matches are 9-holes long.

Senior Amol Mahal shot a 36, or par, at Thursday’s match. Junior Jer-emy Hardy shot a 44, the second best score for Aragon. Chan scored a 45, the third best score for Aragon.

In addition to currently be-ing in third place and having a very high chance of advancing to Central Coast Section (CCS) as a team, Aragon players have a

chance in sending individu-als to compete. Oling said, “Amol is one of the best, if not the best, golfers in the league.”

Mahal has gone to every CCS since his freshman year and will most likely com-pete again this year. Mahal said, “I hope

to go to Norcals, which is the next level after CCS.”A normal match

is played with 12 players total, six from each of the two schools. Each school pairs off their players, based on skill de-termined by their coaches. Each pair is matched up against a pair

from the opposing team. Within each

of the three groups of four, every player

scores another player from the other school and visa versa.

At the end of the match, the top five scores from

each school are added together, the sixth and highest score is

dropped from each team’s total, and the school with the lowest score wins the match.

Overall as a team, Oling said, “Their scores have dropped dra-matically this year.”

Aragon’s practices have the same general set up as a game; they play nine-holes during a practice. They practice for two and a half hours or more every

practice. Oling says, “They work on course strategy. It is very rig-orous.” The practices take place at Poplar Creek Golf Course and Mariners Point Golf Center.

Carlmont, currently in first place, has yet to be defeated this season. Aragon defeated Men-lo-Atherton on their March 14 match, but lost in their match against them on March 29.

Oling has been the coach of the Boys Golf Team since 1998. He said, “We have a team that is more experienced and dedicat-ed… and they have truly stepped it up a level.”

Although the team is very fo-cused and driven, it does not pre-vent the occasional slip up. Hardy laughs while remembering, “Josh had to borrow golf pants from Mr. Oling for a match when he forgot to bring his own.”

The team has not experi-enced any major changes in their dynamics this year because the members of the team have stayed the same. Chan says, “Even though we are los-ing a good number of seniors this year, I think the team will still rank very well. Ev-eryone has improved so much over the past few years.”

Chan said, “We are bonded and support each other when we play.”

Chan’s fa-vorite golf club is the seven iron, Chan said, “I can always hit far and straight with it.” The golf players may have up to 14 differ-ent golf clubs in their bags at one time. The boys own their own clubs, but the team’s boosters pay the green fees and for the golf balls.

One of the perks of being on the team is being able to play on all of the nice golf courses, w i t h o u t p a y -ing the sometimes e x o r b i t a n t

fees to belong to a county club. Oling said, “They have the op-

portunity to play at some great country clubs. The fees can be ex-tremely high.”

Mahal seconded the notion, “We play courses that we would not normally have access to.”

Hardy said, “We have a big match against Burlingame’s team soon and I hope we can

beat them.” Mahal said that, “I think that we can

finish in second place; these last games will determine how we fin-ish.”

Hardy, who was the Bowditch golf team captain all three years of middle school, said, “The season has been going great because we have not lost seniors on the team from last year, and so we all know how each other play… the familiarity is great.”

Oling said, “The team has great ca-maraderie and they truly respect the sport.”

Aragon boys’ golf third in league

BY JUSTIN CHINGNEWS

With 16 games, six wins and 10 losses, the varsity girl’s softball team has endured a rough start to the season. On April 12, follow-ing a 3-2 win over Capuchino, the Dons faced a 0-10 defeat against Hillsdale.

From the last few games, coach Bill Laskey said “Our biggest problems were errors; there were a lot of missed balls. Two games were lost because of errors, but we’re getting better.”

Having juggled positions, the team initially underwent an ad-justing period. Laskey said, “Years past I had positions that were full. It’s always tough in the beginning, but we’re starting to jell together.”

Junior Kelly Black said, “We were defeated before the game started [knowing that] Hillsdale was a good team. We made a lot of mental errors that led to physi-cal errors.”

The first inning started off with three consecutive strikeouts. Hill-sdale’s pitcher quickly ended the first half of the first inning, allow-ing no hits or runs for the Dons. Hillsdale’s turn at bat during the first inning scored three runs for

its team.Like Hillsdale’s pitcher, junior

Kelly Black threw an array of fast pitches. However, after a series of foul balls, Hillsdale’s first hit was an explosive triple. After a steal that led to Hillsdale’s first run scored, Hillsdale eventually had all bases loaded. Scoring twice more, Hillsdale ended the first in-ning at 3-0.

While at bat in the sec-ond and third innings, Ara-gon quickly struck out without scor-ing against Hillsdale’s medley of low pitches.

The lady Dons held Hillsdale from the second through the fourth innings with sophomore Stephanie Perez and freshman Nicole Horita catching fly balls. However, during the second in-ning, a missed grounder that led to a double reflected some ner-vous tension that would cause further mistakes.

Throughout the fourth inning, both teams did not score again, instead displaying an aggressive defense while each side was at field.

Though once again, a missed groundball led to a Hillsdale bat-ter reaching base. Black quickly struck out Hillsdale’s fourth pitch-er with ease, effectively ending the fourth inning with the score still at 0-3.

A combination of unyielding pitches and efficient defense by Hillsdale prevented Aragon from

hitting in the fifth inning. After a series of pitches from Black, H i l l s d a l e scored three times in the fifth inning.

Aragon’s sixth inning at bat fared approximately the same as its previous ones. Hillsdale pitched two strikeouts that were followed by an out at first base.

As Hillsdale took the bat at the top its half of the sixth in-ning, Junior Maureen Duddy re-placed Black as pitcher. Actually a centerfielder and infielder, this was Duddy’s first experience as a pitcher for the Dons.

Though Duddy’s strikes were met with applause, Hillsdale took advantage of the new pitcher to score. After a steal to third base,

Hillsdale had all bases loaded. Two walks and a double led to Hillsdale scoring thrice more in the inning, reaching a score of 10-0. Due to a mercy rule, the game then promptly ended as a loss for the Dons at the bottom of the sixth inning

Overall, the Dons played a more conservative game at bat that was marred with several mistakes in the field; Hillsdale’s pitcher kept a variety of mixed throws to keep the Dons from hit-ting. Furthermore, several ground balls that could’ve been caught were let loose, allowing Hillsdale load bases more easily.

In regards to the game, junior Elena Bowman said, “I thought the communication was good [initially]. It is just rough when you make a couple errors; the communication fell apart.”

In spite of the loss against Hill-sdale, the Dons still maintain a positive outlook toward future games and developing strategies. Laskey said, “I believe in every one of these girls that are playing are good players.”

Black said, “Forget [today’s] game. We’re going to bring the fire from Capuchino’s game from now on.”

Softball team suffers defeat

“Forget [today’s] game. We’re going to bring the fire from Capuchino’s game from now on.”

-Junior Kelly Black

“The team has great camaraderie and they truly respect the sport. ”

-Coach Guy Oling

Above and far right: Junior Maureen Duddy throws a ground ball back to her teammates.Center: Junior Kelly Black varies her pitches to keep Hillsdale on its toes.

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