After being drawn to the art of glass at a young age, Jack became interested in sculpting glass himself. He took this opportunity to explore something he had a profound interest in, since he was never too interested in school. In March of last year, Jack took his first lesson on glassblowing from Revere Glass in Berkeley.

“I took this lesson … and it just consumed me,” Jack said. “I didn’t need to sleep or eat. I became so disoriented; I didn’t know what time it was.”

This lesson taught Jack to use a glass-forming technique, which requires inflating molten glass into a bubble with the aid of a blow tool. Glassblowing requires Jack to labor over a hot torch as he manipulates the extremely hot glass.

Jack admits he was not an instant learner and his learning process was not without a few burns and scratches. He can even recount a time where a boiling hot tube of glass fell through his pants, burning holes upon entry and exit on both sides of his pant leg.

“It was miraculous,” Jack said. “You can really do some damage to yourself.”

Jack first began crafting pendants and other glass products in his parents’ backyard. However, after a few weeks, he found the set-up to be far too disorganized and filled with distractions, making it difficult for him to develop his skills. It wasn’t until he began renting a space at TemperChi Glass Studio in Mountain View last September that Jack’s career kicked into full swing.

Past a chain-linked fence and TemperChi’s door, Jack can be found sweating, wearing protective goggles, and using tongs to grasp a tube of glass over his torch’s hot flame. Jack works this way for at least five hours every day. Taking minimal coursework at school, he centers his day around expressing himself through glass.

“I’m getting away from all the stress in my life,” Jack said. “I just have ideas of stuff I have to make. It’s pretty cool for me to be able to picture something and plan it out and then make it happen.”

Naturally, this hobby has changed Jack’s day-to-day life as well as his personal behaviors.

“I’ve learned to be more patient, more laid back,” Jack said. “I don’t hang out with my friends as much because Friday night I’m going to be blowing glass. It may be bad, but it’s so good.”

Because Jack is so passionate and glass is expensive, Jack spends a large amount of time working so that he can pay for supplies. He is completely self-sufficient, using the money he earns working in the Stanford cafeteria to buy propane and glass tubes and rent his space. Jack said he can go through two to three $25 propane tanks a week.

Looking forward, Jack hopes blowing glass will become his career. Although he is not attending a prestigious university or making a six-figure salary coming out of high school, Jack is lucky nonetheless because he knows what he wants to do and he’s passionate about doing it.

“Glassblowing is all I want to do all day every day, so it’s what I do all day every day,” Jack said. “I just blow glass.”

Instead of dedicating their summers to sunbathing and swimming, some students will be spending their time on more charitable trips. Several students will be participating on trips to Kenya and Haiti this summer.

ODFL Goes to Kenya

Five students will be traveling to the village of Karandi in Kenya this summer with One Dollar For Life (ODFL) to build a classroom for Gakawa High School. Students will leave Wednesday, June 16 and return Thursday, July 8. Those participating include sophomores Carrie Beyer and Sophia Steffens, junior Mark Cuson, seniors Diana Chou and Nathaniel Siegel, and club adviser Lisa Bolton.

Students will spend ten days working on the construction of a new classroom for the school in Karandi. They will also stay with local families in their homes.

According to Bolton, the people in Kenya broke ground on the construction site during the last week in April. ODFL members will arrive in time to help finish the construction of the school and participate in the opening ceremony. This will be the fourth school ODFL will work on in Kenya.

About one-fifth of the money spent on the project comes from money raised at LAHS.

In Kenya, people speak Swahili, English and a mother tongue.

“No language barriers make it a much more enriching experience,” Bolton said.

Carrie, who also attended the ODFL trip to Nicaragua last summer, is looking forward to the home stays.

“I didn’t get that opportunity when I went to Nicaragua and I’m really excited,” Carrie said. “We didn’t get that connection with the community, and I’m really excited because I’ve never really gone to a home stay and just joined someone’s family.”

Carrie said she specially enjoyed experiencing the Nicaraguan lifestyle last summer.

“Here I feel like you have so many rules and [have to] follow a schedule constantly,” Carrie said. “[There] it’s not stressed, nobody gets worked up, you deal with what comes to you.”

Global Exchange goes to Haiti

Six students and history teacher Seth Donnelly will be traveling on a Global Exchange trip to Haiti during the summer.

Global Exchange is a non-profit organization based in San Francisco that organizes solidarity trips to Haiti and other poor countries. They are organizing the trip to Haiti for the middle to end of July.

According to Donnelly, students in Haiti will be helping with the physical rebuilding of the SOPUDEP school that LAHS previously supported by providing volunteer labor. They will also meet with Haitian students, activists and women’s groups, and learn about “the structure in Haiti for human rights and economic development.”

Students will also receive training in earthquake response, which they will then teach to Haitian youth through the medium of a translator, as most Haitians only speak Creole.

Students became involved in the Global Exchange trip through Donnelly’s activism with the Haiti Action Committee in the Bay Area. Donnelly approached Global Exchange as a representative of the Haiti Action Committee, suggesting that it would be “great to get youth involved.”

Student volunteers will probably stay in tents on SOPUDEP property or with the director of the school.
Donnelly and English teacher Ryan Ikeda have yet to select which students will be attending the trip. Donnelly said they have more applications than they do slots for students.

Donnelly hopes that students will continue to participate in Global Exchange trips to Haiti in the following years.

“My hope is that we will develop a sister school relationship with the SOPUDEP school,” Donnelly said. “I’m very excited for the start of something new … [for] more youth to youth ties with Haiti… and to see my friends in Haiti.”

We all remember traveling down the Oregon Trail, getting bitten by virtual rattlesnakes, getting sudden cases of cholera and drowning in the middle of rivers. We all loved being pioneers on the “Oregon Trail” computer game. But social studies teacher Derek Miyahara’s experience as a pioneer on the game was slightly different, as he helped to actually develop the game.

Miyahara was vice president for Research and Development during the final upgrade of the Oregon Trail program. The product he was working on, Oregon Trail IV, tried to incorporate a lot of video and was “hopelessly complex.”

“Oregon Trail IV was never a big seller,” Miyahara said. “There was a sense that we had gotten away from the things that had made Oregon Trail such a popular game. So our major change to the game was to go back to the version that was recognized as the best.”

Miyahara was not directly on the production team but played an executive role supporting the team of software developers who worked directly on the product.

“The design and development team were fantastic, an absolute joy to work with,” Miyahara said.

As the Vice President, Miyahara approved all the changes being made. The biggest frustration in producing the program was lacking enough time and money to make the product they wished they could make if they had enough resources.

According to Miyahara, Oregon Trail V ended up being a “stop gap” product as production for Oregon Trail VI began. However, the Fremont Development Site that was working on it got shut down, so the game never made it to the market.

However, Miyahara still feels positive about his opportunity to contribute to the program.

“I enjoyed developing educational software products for kids, and learned a lot about organizations and management in the process,” Miyahara said. “I was lucky to have been asked to lead the development efforts in Fremont because I think I just happened to have the skill sets and temperament that they needed at that point in the company’s history.”

Emma Carr

Senior Emma Carr plans to spend the upcoming year in France, taking classes and studying the language in hopes of becoming “truly fluent”. She has enrolled in a program where she will spend her first semester in Grenoble and her second semester in Paris.

“I’m excited for everything,” Emma said. “Of course to learn French and grow up and everything, but the program I’m doing is really perfect. It’s relaxed enough that I can do pretty much what I want—go out, have a good time, and on the weekends I’ll be able to go explore Europe if I want to.”

Emma made her decision to travel abroad after college decisions were released this spring.

“I knew that some time, whether it be before, during, or after college, I would want to go abroad,” Emma said. “And when I didn’t get into college, well … it seemed like fate was telling me I should go for it.”

Although excited for the journey and experience ahead of her, Emma said taking a gap year abroad will definitely be experimental.

“I’m excited because this is a big risk,” Emma said. “I’m scared times infinity because I’ll be by myself and have to figure stuff out on my own, but that’s what is exciting. I get to ensure the success or failure of this next year, and I want it to be a success.”

During her time abroad, Emma plans to fully immerse herself with the culture of France and become fluent in the language. Taking classes and staying in a dorm with university students, Emma hopes to learn not only more about the culture, but also more about herself.

“I’m just excited because this isn’t the average thing to do,” Emma said. “Ten or twenty years down the line, I wonder how it will have affected me. I’ve been anxious for high school to be over for so long, to be able to break free and become something bigger than high school. And this is my first step.”

Tommaso Carli

Senior Tommaso Carli made the decision to take a gap year after attending the Gap Year Fair held this past February.

“It was really a last minute decision, but I went to the gap year fair, heard the presentation and I realized it was something I really wanted to do,” Tommaso said.

Tommaso plans to spend his fall semester in Ghana, Africa, before visiting family and friends in Italy over winter break. He will then head back to Africa to spend his spring semester in Senegal, all before getting a job in France the following summer.

“I am most excited to try Africa cuisine,” Tommaso said. “I really like trying new foods, and I have never had the chance to travel to mainland Africa.”

After spending a year abroad, Tommaso plans to enroll in a four-year university by the time he’s back from working in France.

“I have not decided where [I’ll be going to college] yet because I think I will be looking into American universities in Europe as well.”

Overall, however, Tommaso looks forward to the unique experience ahead of him and hopes to make his travels abroad not only significant for himself, but for others in Africa as well.

“I’m really excited that I will have the chance to make a real difference in someone else’s life,” Tommaso said. “I will be seeing people who have been much less fortunate than me throughout their entire life and giving up a little bit of my life to help improve theirs is something I am really looking forward to.”

But contrary to what Hollywood would have us believe, not every guy wanted to become the football star, nor every girl the cheer captain. From the inspiring to the eclectic, the 28 who auditioned reflected a wide range of hopes and dreams that was anything but homogenous.

“MADE” provides high school students with the tools to be “made” into a person they dream of. The show first came to the school on Wednesday, March 24.

Each applicant stepped into the interview for a different reason.
For some, “MADE” kindled lifelong dreams and aspirations.

“My dad wanted me to be a singer when I was a kid and he would teach me songs and bought me a karaoke machine,” sophomore Kelly Medina said. “I felt it could be something I could try again.”

Kelly is not alone in applying to “MADE” because of long-harbored dreams. Students such as sophomore Chris Hamilton, who also applied to be a singer because he’s “been singing [his] whole life,” and junior Randy Gonzalez, who has “wanted to be a model for a while,” saw “MADE” as the opportunity to pursue their aspirations.

Like the average high school student, those who auditioned for “MADE” had entertained goals all their life but never found the time to pursue them. After hearing about “MADE,” however, they dusted off the dreams they had long since put away, as was the case of freshman Emily Rubin and her interests in clothing and couture.

“I’ve always been interested in design and fashion and thought that this would be a good way to start a possible career,” Emily said.

Not everyone applied to pursue their life goal; many auditioned for “MADE” for something daring. “It’s not like this opportunity comes every day,” junior Jasmine McGee said.

The sheer number of possibilities, however, meant that choosing what to become was sometimes the hardest part of the process. Like trying on outfits at a mall, applicants tried on a variety of identities to find a perfect fit.

Kelly “considered a bunch of crazy things” before settling on a singer.

“Here is a chance for me to do anything I want like become an extreme bungee jumper,” Kelly said. “In the end the ones that seemed more realistic to me [were being a] model, kick boxer, skateboarder [or] singer.”

Some applicants decided that the perfect fit was their exact opposite. Wanting to show the world she “had a tough side,” for example, freshman Jacqueline Scher applied as a football player.

“People view me as a girly girl so I wanted to show people I could do something out of my range,” Jacqueline said.

Jasmine was another student who tried testing the waters of something new as a surfer.

“I’ve always wanted to learn, and a lot of my friends surf,” Jasmine said. “So I just decided to go for it.”

In addition to breaking out by trying their hands at sports, students tried their feet at dance and their voice at song. For example, sophomore Lauren Amorese, who describes herself as “super self-conscious,” applied as a salsa dancer because of the confidence of the dancers, who she sees as “confident, sexy, graceful.”

“I would never refer to myself as bold or sexy,” Lauren said. “I’m definitely not graceful. I feel like salsa dancers are about as opposite as it gets.”

But whether applying for dreams or fancies, applicants found themselves smack in the spotlight on audition day. Many, of course, were nervous even before stepping in front of the judges.

“I was so nervous for the audition,” Randy said. “I couldn’t really concentrate in class the whole day because I was wondering how the audition was going to go.”

There were some embarrassing,
yet memorable moments.

“I was nervous so I had to keep asking what else I had to say,” Lauren said about her salsa audition. “At the end, he said to throw in a salsa move so I shimmied with a confused look on my face because I didn’t know a salsa move.”

When the auditions were finished, the 28 applicants took sighs of relief and contemplated what life would be like if they indeed got accepted into the show. Some are cautiously optimistic, especially about being in the limelight for a month.

As Lauren put it, “it would also just be weird to have a camera following me around school.”

In case they don’t get in, then there are always other TV shows.

“I’ll start singing again and maybe perform at a karaoke night and try out for ‘American Idol,’” Kelly said. “Hopefully I become a better singer before I decide to try out for American Idol.”

When junior Alex Cala follows senior Doug Tomlinson onstage, it’s clear that she’s desperate to talk to him. Something is bothering her. But Doug, always a few steps ahead of her, keeps changing the subject.
Drama teacher Nancy Moran promptly interrupts the scene.

“Move a little faster,” Moran tells Doug. “You’re only sixty. There are plenty of teachers at this school who are sixty, and they move quicker than that. Be spry.”

The two actors take their scene from the top, but pause again moments later.

“What type of relationship do we have?” Alex wonders out loud. “Do we talk often? Do we have an awkward relationship?”

Moran, Doug and Alex then leaf through their scripts of A.R. Gurney’s “The Dining Room.” They talk about the two characters, eventually deciding that the father and daughter have a fairly close relationship—she has visited often and still calls him Daddy.

The script of “The Dining Room” itself reveals little about the characters. Since the show is comprised of several vignettes, characters have limited time on stage and actors must get creative to understand their roles.

“Since you don’t have a huge role, there’s a lot you can play off of and create yourself,” Broken Box member senior Clarissa Johnson said. “[It’s all in] the way you portray your character—maybe through an accent or maybe the things you do when nobody’s looking at you.”

The script, for instance, says little about Alex’s character other than that Meg is “about thirty.” But Alex gleaned that her character is very “disorganized” and crafted a possible back story for her, even if no details can be found in the script.

“Meg [often] made mistakes in life,” Alex said. “She’s not very stable. When she had her kids, she wasn’t prepared at all. The relationship she has with her husband is more of a ‘high school sweetheart’ relationship.”

In a scene Alex and Doug are rehearsing, Meg approaches her father, Jim. As a result of their conversation, Alex said, Meg is forced to “finally grow up.” Doug said that the more they rehearse the scene, the more he and Alex develop an understanding of how to portray their characters.

“As you do it, you start to learn more about them and their inner characters,” Doug said. “Over time, rehearsing the scene, the relationships come out.”

In an earlier scene, sophomore Laura Delamare and junior Jasmine McGee play two eight-year-olds at a birthday party. Laura said she and Jasmine crafted a back story where their characters squabble over a boy in their grade named Timmy.

The fine details of their complex friendship are never made explicit in the final show, and Laura said that the story was a “small, silly,” made-up thing. But as viewers watch the two eight-year-olds softly chant “We want ice cream!” while banging on the dining table, it’s not hard to imagine such a relationship.

Although each scene tells a different story from a different time period, they all take place in the same dining room setting. As a one-set show, “The Dining Room” presents unique challenges but also offers opportunities for creativity.

How, for instance, can Broken Box get the audience invested in a show where the scenes are not directly related?

Part of the answer lies in the way the show is structured to have successive scenes overlap. But more importantly, the cast believes that the audience will be captivated by high-energy characters, none of whom overstay their welcome.

“[In this kind of show,] you have to really make an impression as soon as you walk through the doorway,” Moran said. “There has to be a constant flow of energy.”

Moran hopes that the show will not only entertain but also make viewers “think of their families.” After all, most of the vignettes in “The Dining Room”—just like the scene with Alex and Doug—tell stories about family.

“[It is] a very human show,” Broken Box member senior Emma Carr said. “The stories show that all families have their issues. … They show that we’re not as different as we seem. If you wanted it to be, the show could be about one family.”

“The Dining Room” began last night, Thursday, April 29, and runs through tomorrow, Saturday, May 1. Tickets are $5 in advance and $8 at the door.

For junior Johan Hugoo, Friday, April 2 was a day to leave his school textbooks behind and live “A Day In the Life” of a professional musician.

While his peers studied at Freestyle and LAHS, Johan and two students from Mountain View High School worked with music producers on the touring John Lennon Bus, where they recorded and produced their own song and music video.

“It was crazy,” Johan said. “There was so much stuff, so many programs. I didn’t even know what to do.”

According to its website, the John Lennon Bus is a traveling audio and video production studio. As an educational facility, the Bus looks to encourage students to write, play and engineer their own music.

Apple Inc., which is one of the Bus’ sponsors, invited Freestyle to send three students to the Lennon Bus as a result of Freestyle’s status as an Apple Distinguished School. Johan and MVHS students junior Miller Wren and senior Danielle Morimoto were the only three students in the Bay Area who got to work on the Lennon Bus.

Johan said the bus’ facilities included “basically everything”: drums, guitar, pianos and recording software, as well as cameras around the studio. In the morning, Johan and the other students recorded an original song they composed with the musicians and engineers from the Bus. Of the three, Johan was on beats, Miller did guitar, keyboards and vocals, and Danielle edited on the computer. In the afternoon, they created a music video of the song “Picket Fences,” which is on Freestyle’s website.

Although Fergie of the Black Eyed Peas was also scheduled to visit the bus, the three students were unable to meet her. For Johan, though, this didn’t make the experience any less enjoyable.

“We got to meet, you know, the people who make the music and stuff,” Johan said.

Freestyle Web Design and Audio Engineering teacher Leo Florendo said this was the second group of students Freestyle had ever sent on the bus, the first being in 2006.

“Being creative is what Freestyle is all about,” Florendo said. “It takes a lot of courage to compose an original song and record it for the world to hear [and] see. My part as an educator is to provide support and get out of their creative way. Sometimes the best thing I can do is to watch from afar, and that’s pretty much what I did with this group.”

The three students were chosen from a lottery. When Florendo found out about the Bus, he sent an email to Freestyle students asking who would be interested. Johan said “almost everyone” responded, leading to a random selection of who would go.

Although Freestyle peers were jealous, Johan said they were supportive when he was picked.

“They were all like, ‘you should take … tons of pictures—it should be so much fun,’” he said. “They were excited for me. It doesn’t happen all the time.”

In addition to working on the bus, the three got free tickets to the Black Eyed Peas’ concert that evening, where the group played after Ludacris and LMFAO.

Peter Ambiel
ASB Activities Commissioner

Junior Peter Ambiel is thrilled to start designing student activities. Involved in class council for 3 years, an ASB member-at-large for 1 year and club soccer for 11 years, Peter is eager to take on a new leadership role. Peter’s current goal is to “get involved … and have more fun.” If he could change one thing, it would be his face since “only angels should be able to look this good.”

Yasmeen Serhan
ASB Secretary

Sophomore Yasmeen Serhan looks forward to taking on “new challenges and responsibilities” as ASB Secretary. Yasmeen believes she will be able to take what she has learned from previous leadership positions as Co-President of the Film Club, Vice President of the French Club and board member of E3 Philanthropy and “put those skills into practice.” Yasmeen would wish for photographic memory to “help [her] out with secretarial duties.”

Carolyn Yang
ASB Vice President

People would be surprised to know ASB Vice President Carolyn Yang is a classical piano player. ASB Secretary last year, President of the Random Acts of Kindness Club and Vice President of the Juntos Club, Carolyn is excited to foster more school spirit and emphasize the school’s creativity.
“I’m looking forward to making the school a better place,” Carolyn said. “I’ve always wanted to … acquaint myself with more people, [and] this is my golden opportunity.”

Jack Montgomery
ASB President

Junior Jack Montgomery’s role model is Jack Donaghy of ‘30 Rock,’ which is why he is excited for “an excellent year” as ASB President. Vice President last year, President of the Interact Club, a founder of a nonprofit organization called Silicon for Society and crew participant, Jack has plenty of experience in leadership and community participation. He looks forward to being President and plans “to do whatever [he] can … to make the school an even better place” in the year to come.

While the high school garage band seems like a nostalgic 90s throwback, these bands are far from dead. Several students at the school play in bands that share their creative capabilities and love of music with their peers.

The Lesser Faith

The band The Lesser Faith is a collaboration between juniors Nick Darrington and Paul Madrid. The two have played at the Students for Justice Haiti fundraiser event at the Jungle.

“If you had to choose a genre … [for the band], pop punk would be the closest match,” Nick said.

While the band mostly plays acoustic style songs, Nick says they plan on playing louder, more electric music in a place they can “make noise and be obnoxious all day.”

“Right now we only have one song up [online] but we’re working on recording right now and hope to have about three to four up within the next month,” Nick said.

Imperial Ruins

Senior Andrew Llewellyn plays guitar for the band Imperial Ruins, which used to be called Ocean Burial. They are currently on hiatus writing music while searching for a second guitarist. Drew describes the band’s music as “pretty cool, if you’re into heavy riffs and breakdowns.”

Influences include Chelsea Grin, Whitechapel and Despised Icon.

“The coolest thing we did was probably when we were still called Ocean Burial and we played this show in Gilroy with some really big bands like my favorites: Chelsea Grin, Attila and American Me. There were like 230 people there and it was pretty insane.”

The band is planning live gigs in June, and is writing for and planning a tour of California, Nevada, Utah, Oregon and Arizona in July.

Crossfire

Sophomore Jack Schonher and senior Emil Hultling are the guitarist and lead singer, respectively, of the band Crossfire. Originally a Metallica cover band, Emil says that Crossfire is expanding and planning to write its own music.

“Playing music is something I love,” Emil said. “There aren’t any boundaries.”

Like Lesser Faith, Crossfire played at the Jungle as part of the Students for Justice Haiti fundraiser concert and plans to continue playing for fans live.

The Striped Ties

The three members of sophomore band The Striped Ties met in an eighth grade talent show and have been playing together ever since. Shefali Vasudevan, Jacqueline Chu and Nikita Nagpal have invented their own brand of alternative/pop blend, but primarily write pop songs.

While the Striped Ties are not sure as to when or where their next performance will be, they did play at both the Battle of the Bands and the Talent Show last year hosted by the school.

To find a harp, an instructor and the determination to play requires one to pull plenty of strings.

Nevertheless, sophomore Mya Ballin has taken harp lessons for over four years and first became interested in playing this unique instrument because her mother also played the instrument when she was younger.

“At the time, I was taking violin lessons from a teacher who also taught harp,” Mya said. “So I figured I’d give it a try since I didn’t find any particular interest in violin.”

In fact, harp proved to be a better fit and Mya is now passionate about playing the instrument. Mya has learned that a harp player must have a strong emotional connection to the music while performing. This emotion is reflected in the song, which can be interpreted in a variety of ways.

“I love … the sound and the music that is written for it,” Mya said. “What you can express through music is incredible, … something that happens to come across your mind that can’t be voiced.”

The harp, she describes, is similar to the piano in the sense that both instruments require multitasking and can reach a high level of difficulty.

“Working with the pedals on the harp can be a tricky thing to master, though, because you have to pay attention to your timing,” Mya said. “Despite that, it makes the harp much more convenient for music than the piano because you can make the string sharp or flat.”

Mya also enjoys the flexibility of the musical roles the harp can take on, whether it is a traditional, classical soft instrument or a contemporary one.

“[The harp] is known for being an elegant, quiet instrument when it oftentimes can have a harsh sound,” Mya said. “I think that’s the thing that I like the most about it, because I never get tired of the ways in which one can experiment with a piece.”

Although she is not currently in an orchestra, Mya plans to minor in harp in college to continue learning more about the instrument.

“Whether playing gigs or keep playing as a hobby, I want to continue playing harp for as long as possible,” Mya said.