Software: Adobe InDesign, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Lightroom

BankBreak ing

theVolume 3 Issue 3

QC

We’re Online @ my.hsj.org/ca/southsanfrancisco/thecq and coltquarterly.wordpress.com7 8

Student finances at El Camino

BankBreak ing

the

Volume 3 Issue 4

QC

We’re Online @ my.hsj.org/ca/southsanfrancisco/thecq and coltquarterly.wordpress.com7 8

CONTENTS

Pg 4 South San Francisco responds to recent violenceAfter the recent death of four males in Old Town December 22, community members and the South San Francisco Police Department are striving to keep the rising level of crime under control.By RJ Refuerzo

Pgs 12-13 Students who shine: Sports EditionFrom bowling to fencing, students participate in a variety of sports outside of school that may not be as mainstream. Their passion and dedication is show-cased in their talents. By Bisma Shahbaz

Pg 14 Student Survival Guide: Web presenceWith Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr becoming increasing popular worldwide, students need to be aware that what they post can not only get them in trouble now, but follow them forever.By RJ Refuerzo

Pg 25 Choosing the right path: Gangs or successSince the recent outbreak of violence in the community, gangs and crime have been on the minds of many students. The importance of making good choices, getting an education and resisting the urge to break the law is explored. Editorial

4 12

Editor-in-chiefCatherine Tadina

Photo EditorKatrina Nolasco

Art DirectorChristen Alqueza

Quarter 3 Editors

Managing EditorRebecca Gigi

Page EditorsMarcus Ismael

Ryan Kratsas-LoveKatrina Nolasco

RJ RefuerzoMarivic Victoria

Editorial InternsPaula Eberle

Kayla Kohlmeister

Staff WritersChristen Alqueza

Erin LynchJustin SanchezBisma Shahbaz

PhotographersRay ConcepcionMarcus Ismael

Lead ResearcherShannon Keach

Online EditorCatherine Tadina

AdviserAdam G. McLearan

PrinterFolger Graphics

Hayward, CA

4

ON THE COVER

The Colt Quarterly staff recently conducted a survey of 836 El Camino students. We take an in-depth look into money sources, student spending habits, employ-ment and socioeconomic status.By Catherine Tadina

Breaking the bank: Students crack open their piggy banks to get at the funds, sometimes with explosive results.Photo Katrina Nolasco

Pg 16 Student finances at El Camino

Pg 23 Successful students Students expand themselves with extra curricular activities and some manage to continue to raise the bar and set high standards for themselves while seeing the rewards for their hard work.By Marcus Ismael

Pg 28 Shovelware or garbage goes there?With the 2010 gaming year over, many games fell below expectations com-pared to other highly anticipated counterparts. Save your time and money by leaving these games on the shelves.By Ryan Kratsas-Love

The Colt Quarterly is a news magazine dedicated to inform the El Camino High School student body and staff of the issues that affect the school and com-munity. We strive to publish each magazine with accuracy and journalistic excellence and provide a forum guided by the ethics of journalism. Our goal is to represent the voice, passion, and diversity of the El Camino student body.

We attempt to achieve journalistic excellence through thorough research, accurate reporting, and a structured editing process. All content is realized and produced by the Colt Quarterly staff.

For a copy of the Colt Quarterly’s editorial

policy please contact the adviser or editor-in-

chief.

El Camino High School 1320 Mission Rd.

South San Francisco, CA 94080

Colt QuarterlyMission Statement

QVolume 3 Issue 3

March 10, 2011

3

25 23 2823

Colt Quarterly / Quarter 3 / March 201116

STUDENT FINANCESSTUDENT FINANCES AT ELCAMINO

Money SourcesLet’s face it; everyone’s all

guilty of asking for money from their parents. But should parents be students’ primary source of funds? The survey re-sults show that students’ great-est source of money comes from their parents; an average of 37 percent of students’ money is given to them freely by par-ents without requiring repay-ment. The next greatest source of money comes as gifts given by relatives, with an average of 19 percent. Seniors get an average of 17 percent of their money from jobs—higher than any other grade level; lower-classmen only get an average of six or seven percent of mon-ey from jobs.

It seems that the major

over the years, becoming more lenient—or “doting” on the younger generations.

While freely giving teens money may be convenient for students, it may hurt them in the long run. When students receive money without working for it, they may not understand its value and may thus take it for granted. This causes them to be unprepared when dealing with finances in the adult world. “When you give something for nothing, it’s like welfare at an early age,” Compton says.

Spending Habits

Not surprisingly, students spend the majority of

the money they receive on en-tertainment, including movies, video games, music, and books. On average, students spend

sources from which students get their money has changed over the years. “When I was young-er, my parents made me work for what I wanted,” economics teacher Joel Compton said. Learning the value of money caused Compton to think twice about his purchases.

Compared to earlier gen-erations where teens usually had to work for their money, over the years more and more students have been receiving their money freely from their parents. What could possibly account for this change? Why is it that most kids don’t work, but are merely given their money as opposed to working for it?

This trend can be attrib-uted to increased competition in high school. As the chances of getting into college are get-

ting harder and harder, more and more students are focusing more on academics and less on work. Students are taking more and more AP and Honors classes, joining clubs, and par-ticipating in athletics as well as volunteering after school. Students are simply too busy to work when their hours are filled with studying, homework, and participating in activities that will give them an edge in college applications.

“[My parents] want me to focus on school first,” senior Reginne Ang said. “If I start working then I might get side-tracked because of all the money I’m earning.”

Another possibility, accord-ing to Compton, is a change in parents’ mentality. He hy-pothesizes that many parents have changed their outlook

It is said that “money makes the world go round.” If so, then how

does money make El Camino students’ worlds go round? Where does students’ money come from and what is it spent on? To answer these questions, the Colt Quarterly staff conducted a school-wide survey of 836 El Camino students detailing their money sources and spending habits.

BY CATHERINE TADINA

March 2011 / Quarter 3 / Colt Quarterly

Feat

ureL$164.31

El Camino students get an average ofe v e r ym o n t h

$140.07El Camino studentsan average of

spend

every month

Students with jobs worked for an average of

16 hours32minutesa week

$11.99 per hourStudents with jobs earned

an average of

85%of whatthey getper monthTh

at’s

$14. 21per hourMale students earn an average of

70%of whatmale studentsearnTh

at’s

$164.31El Camino students get an average of

e v e r ym o n t h

$9. 91per hourFemale students earn

an average

of

60%morethan girlsper monthBo

yssp

end

5 6 %Boys get

more moneythan girls

STUDENT FINANCESSTUDENT FINANCES AT ELCAMINO

$140.07 a month on entertain-ment, which is 85 percent of the money they get per month.

It is also interesting to note that males and females spend their money differently. Females spend more money than males on clothes with 25 percent for girls versus 16 percent for boys, grooming expenses at seven per-cent for girls versus three percent for boys, and school supplies at five percent for girls versus two percent for boys. On the other hand, males spend more money than females on food with 19 percent versus 13 percent, enter-tainment at 34 percent versus 30 percent, and transportation at six percent versus five percent. Male students typically spend their money on video games, eating out, transportation-related ex-penses including their own cars, and electronics, whereas girls

tend to spend more on beauty products and clothes.

In total, male students spend more money a month than female students. Accord-ing to the survey, male stu-dents spend an average of $192.85 a month whereas females spend an average of $76.30 a month—a 40 per-cent difference.

Out of 628 responders from the 836 surveyed, 26 percent used credit cards or debit cards. “It’s a bad call for parents to give their kids credit cards,” Compton said. “It’s easy to spend for credit when you haven’t earned it.” If students consider about the work it took to earn the money they’re spending, they might make wiser decisions when it comes to spending money.

Although El Camino’s eco-

Pho

to K

atri

na N

olas

co

17

Colt Quarterly / Quarter 3 / March 201118

Other money sources

nomics curriculum focuses little on lessons in teaching students prac-tical lessons in managing their fi-nances, several El Camino teach-ers teaching economics classes are planning to include more les-sons on financial literacy in their curriculum. Compton stresses the importance of training kids in fi-nancial literacy at an early age. He feels that his parents had pre-pared him better for managing fi-nances as an adult by making him work for his money as a kid, com-pared to his younger sister who readily received money from her parents much like the majority of El Camino students, and accord-ing to Compton, “had to learn the hard way” in the future.

El Camino’s Workforce

El Camino students who currently have or have

had jobs in the past are gen-erally employed in the retail sector. The next dominant in-dustry in which students work are family businesses, followed by the food service industry. A low percent of students earn their money through babysit-ting. Students with jobs earned an average of $11.99 an hour—60 percent more than California’s current minimum wage of $8.00.

The higher the students’ economic class, the lower their

work hours. Among the stu-dents who classified their so-cioeconomic statuses, students from low-income households worked for significantly more hours (16 hours on average) than did students from upper-income households (six hours on average). In correlation, El Camino students who quali-fied for free or reduced lunch (55 percent) worked 17 hours on average as opposed to students who did not qualify for free lunch (26 percent) who worked 15 hours on av-erage. Students from lower-income households have a bigger need to work for money whereas students from upper-income households usu-

ally work to supplement their funding.

Surprisingly—and discon-certingly—the gender gap concerning earnings doesn’t just exist for adults. Female students earn an average of $9.91 an hour, whereas male students earn an average of $14.21 an hour. Female stu-dents earn 70 percent of what male students earn, or 70 cents for every dollar that male students earn. This per-centage correlates with what statistics indicate: according to the US Census Bureau in 2004, women earn 77 cents for every dollar that men earn.

There are several possibili-

Spending habits of female vs. male studentsEl Camino students spend money on...Money sources for all student levels

Types of jobs of El Camino students

March 2011 / Quarter 3 / Colt Quarterly 19

If students had more money,

they would spend it on:

Other things on which

they’d spend their money

ties that might contribute to this dis-parity: four percent of El Camino’s workforce—all male—have indicat-ed that they work in the construction industry, where pay is higher and where women may be less inclined to apply and get hired for jobs—clearly indicating to the gap. Other possibilities are that female students make less than men because they are less assertive about asking for raises, or have less chances of being hired for higher paying jobs due to the gender discrimination that still exists in society. “It’s a shame,” Compton said. “But I think there’s still a [sexist] attitude out there.”

In addition, today’s stagnant econ-omy has made it more and more dif-ficult for high school students to find jobs. Jobs that high school students

used to have are now being taken by college students and other adults who, in turn, cannot find jobs or have lost their jobs due to the recent eco-nomic downturn.

“[Most work places] don’t want teens,” El Camino Work Experience Coordinator Skip Del Sarto explains. “I guess to them, teens are not as reli-able.”

Senior Michelle Coronado has been looking for jobs since the end of her sophomore year, but to no avail. “I’ve applied almost everywhere,” Coronado said. “I feel I had really good qualities and for them to reject me makes me feel discouraged … If I can’t find a job as a teen, how about as an adult?” She also believes that race discrimination also plays a fac-tor in her difficulty in finding work.

Spending habits of female vs. male students

%

%

%

%

%

%

%

%%

% % %% %

% %% %

% %

Money flow based on socioeconomic status

Average work hoursper week

The Colt Quarterly / Quarter 4 / May 2010

SizzlingSummer Movies

By Catherine Tadinaof 2010

This 2010 film is a remake of the 1980s television

series. The A-Team follows the story of four

elite soldiers who were sent to jail after being framed for

a crime they didn’t commit. After escaping from prison,

they work as soldiers for hire to prove their innocence.

The movie features an enticing cast. Liam Neeson plays

the cigar-smoking John “Hannibal” Smith, Brad Cooper

(The Hangover) plays the suave Templeton “Faceman”

Peck, Sharlto Copley (District 9) stars in his first

Hollywood movie as the “Howling Mad” Mur-

dock, adding humor to the mix, and

mixed martial artist

Quinton “Ram-

page” Jackson

is set to play

the tough “Bad

Attitude” Bar-

acus, originally

played by the

p o p - c u l t u r e

icon Mr. T. In

addition, the

action scenes—

high speed plane

chases, defibril-

lating ambulances,

skydiving in tanks with

parachutes—are enough to

make your head spin.

tHe A-teAM (Jun 11)

Sylvester Stallone makes a comeback to the

spotlight in this movie with Jet Li, Mickey

Rourke, and Dolph Lundgren, with appearances from

Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis. Need I say

more? This action movie features an ensemble cast of

action movie veterans from the 1980s and 1990s with

enough explosions and guns to make your summer

even hotter. Sylvester Stallone plays Barney

Ross, the leader of a band of mercenaries

who are hired to depose brutal dictator

General Gaza of the small, South Ameri-

can island of Vilena. However, when the

team arrives in Vilena, they find themselves

betrayed when they uncover darker se-

crets behind their mission. They are

forced to leave the island, sacrificing

one life in the process. Determined to

make things right, Barney convinces

the team to return to finish things

once and for all.

Because Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is pro-

duced by Jerry Bruckheimer (Pirates of the Caribbean

movies), this action-adventure film is sure to be as epic.

Although Prince of Persia is based on a popular video game

of the same name, one can still expect the movie to be as

enjoyable despite having little or no background knowledge

of the video game. Jordan Mechner, the series creator, says

they’re “taking some cool elements from the game and us-

ing them to craft a new story.” Jake Gyllenhaal (Brokeback

Mountain, Donnie Darko) plays Dastan, a street rascal who

is adopted by the king as his son after showing prowess

in battle. With the help of Princess Tamina

(Gemma Arterton), they embark upon a

quest to secure an ancient dagger from

wealthy nobleman Nizam (Ben King-

sley) that is capable of unleashing the

Sands of Time, a powerful gift from

the gods that can reverse

time.

PRiNCe OF PeRsiA:

tHe sANDs OF tiMe (May 28)

tHe eXPeNDAbLes (Aug 13)

28

Reviews

&Homework

Hanging out with friends

Stay at Home

Work

10

What do ECHS Students plan

to do during the summer?

Summer school

Travel

Volunteer

Sports Conditioning

Extracurriculars

Unsure

0Number of Students:

*241 Students Polled

May 2010 / Quarter 4 / The Colt Quarterly

Sylvester Stallone makes a comeback to the

spotlight in this movie with Jet Li, Mickey

Rourke, and Dolph Lundgren, with appearances from

Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis. Need I say

more? This action movie features an ensemble cast of

action movie veterans from the 1980s and 1990s with

enough explosions and guns to make your summer

even hotter. Sylvester Stallone plays Barney

Ross, the leader of a band of mercenaries

who are hired to depose brutal dictator

General Gaza of the small, South Ameri-

can island of Vilena. However, when the

team arrives in Vilena, they find themselves

betrayed when they uncover darker se-

crets behind their mission. They are

forced to leave the island, sacrificing

one life in the process. Determined to

make things right, Barney convinces

the team to return to finish things

once and for all.

Twilight fans have something cool

to look forward to in this hot

summer weather as Bella, Edward, and

Jacob will be back in the Twilight film

series’ third movie Eclipse, sched-

uled for June. In Eclipse, Seattle

is plagued by a series of myste-

rious murders, which Edward

believes is being committed by a

new vampire with an uncontrol-

lable thirst for blood. Meanwhile, a

malevolent vampire has come back

to Forks to seek revenge on Bella. As

Bella and Edward graduate from high

school, Bella is forced to choose between

her love for Edward and Jacob.

eCLiPse (Jun 30)

Because Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is pro-

duced by Jerry Bruckheimer (Pirates of the Caribbean

movies), this action-adventure film is sure to be as epic.

Although Prince of Persia is based on a popular video game

of the same name, one can still expect the movie to be as

enjoyable despite having little or no background knowledge

of the video game. Jordan Mechner, the series creator, says

they’re “taking some cool elements from the game and us-

ing them to craft a new story.” Jake Gyllenhaal (Brokeback

Mountain, Donnie Darko) plays Dastan, a street rascal who

is adopted by the king as his son after showing prowess

in battle. With the help of Princess Tamina

(Gemma Arterton), they embark upon a

quest to secure an ancient dagger from

wealthy nobleman Nizam (Ben King-

sley) that is capable of unleashing the

Sands of Time, a powerful gift from

the gods that can reverse

time.The Last Airbender is an adaptation of the first

season of the Emmy-winning Nickel-

odeon animated TV series, Avatar: The Last

Airbender, which takes place in a world where

people, “benders”, can control the four ele-

ments: Water, Air, Fire, and Earth. The Fire

nation wages a brutal war against the oth-

er nations in an attempt to control the

world. Hope for peace rests in Aang,

the Avatar, who has the power to

control all four elements. With

M. Night Shyamalan—who

is known for directing eerie

movies such as Signs and

The Happening—directing

this heroic adventure

movie, the results

may be interesting.

tHe eXPeNDAbLes (Aug 13)

This long-awaited third installment of

the much-loved Toy Story series is set

ten years after the second film. Andy is now a

young adult about to go off to college, causing

Woody, Buzz, and the other toys to worry

about their fates. When Andy chooses

to keep Woody and tries to store the

other toys in the attic, the toys go to

Sunnyside Daycare Center where they

will be of better use to other kids. Life

seems great for Andy’s toys at the daycare, but

when they find out that Andy is looking for

them, they decide to search for their former

master. During an escape attempt, Buzz gets

damaged, and the other toys try to fix him by pressing

the ‘reset’ button on his back. Buzz comes back to life,

but only hilariously speaks in Spanish. Will the toys be able to

get back to Andy?

tOY stORY 3 (Jun 18)

29

40 50 6010

Art Catherine Tadina

20 30

tHe LAst AiRbeNDeR(May 28)

Colt Quarterly / Quarter 1 / October 201012

50 FACTSYears

October 2010 / Quarter 1 / Colt Quarterly 13

Feat

ureL

50 YEARS50 FACTSFacts

Years

Fifty years ago, in September 1961, El Camino High School opened its doors for the first time. Since then, El Camino has

flourished over five decades, giving birth to timeless school traditions and ultimately being named the “Most Spirited School in the Bay Area.” To commemorate El Camino’s Golden Anniversary, The Colt Quarterly staff presents 50 memorable moments illustrating 50 years of El Camino’s history.

Exploring the roots of El Camino’s Past

Fact 1 Before El Camino High School was built, the land used to be a duck farm...

Colt Quarterly / Quarter 1 / October 201014

On September 29, 1961, El Camino High School

held its first pep rally.El Camino’s mascot stood on

four legs and was played by

three different people.

El Camino’s first exchange stu-

dent, Rapeeman Pirigapan-

sakul, came to South San Francisco

from Thailand.

El Camino’s annual “rent-a-senior” was

1960soriginally named “slave auction”.

Gym seats were made of wood instead of plastic.Vice principals were assigned

students according to the stu-

dents’ genders: a Dean of Girls and a

Dean of Boys.

El Camino had “Twerp Week”

wherein students dressed up in

wacky clothing, acted like “twerps”

and performed homecoming-style

skits in the courtyard.

El Camino held a Christmas dance

every December called the “Kris

Kringle” dance.

El Camino was official-ly finished being built

in its fourth year, 1965.Three EC boys who construct-

ed a bison head from fossils

they found in the hills behind Westbor-

ough received national attention and

won numerous science fair awards.

The epochal rivalry between El Camino

and South San Francisco High School began in 1967.

Jim Stoney’s ‘Exobiota’ gar-

nered national attention; he

EC had a girls’ fencing team

in ‘75.

EC held an annual school

BBQ in the courtyard.

During Homecoming, students used cars and

real floats in ‘76.

Mr. Arias was coach of the

“C” boys’ basketball team

in ‘81.

The New Wave punk rock

trend hit EC students in ‘81.

Current wrestling coach

Cliff Lentz was team cap-

tain of the ‘83 wrestling team and

was named outstanding wrestler.

The Dancing Decades Rally

was held on February 11,

1983 to promote a dance-a-thon and

those who participated went on to the

TV 20 Dance Party the next week.

A Table Tennis Club was es-

tablished in ‘83-’84.

In January 1983, teacher

and coach Owen Kasheva-

roff died after a 30-year career at

EC.

Famous ‘80s singers Go West and Eric Mar-

tin performed as EC won “The Most Spirited School in the Bay Area”.

In ‘86, Mr. Simondi was the

Mock Trial team adviser.

Exchange students from Ja-

pan and Sweden attended

EC in’86.

The National School Safety

Center ranked ECHS in the

top 10% of high schools in the US.

27

5

11

12

26

28

31

2

3

4

9

67

8

10

13

14

1516

29

30

32

3334

363738

39

404142

1980s

35

17

October 2010 / Quarter 1 / Colt Quarterly 15

ECHS also placed in the top

5% of schools with the low-

est school-wide dropout rate.

In ‘93, the EC High School

Varsity Volleyball Team was

co-ed.

In ‘95, EC won the Bell Game for the first

time in decades.EC had Friday Night Live,

a statewide program that

participated in community service

was recognized by NASA for exper-

imenting under conditions similar to

those of outer space.

The school newspaper was

originally named El Caballi-

to, published every three weeks with

Changing Tides, a literary magazine.

In 1967, lunch milk only cost a nickel.

The Scream Team was

originally named “The Yell

Team”, consisting only of male par-

ticipants that cheered along with the

all girl “Pon Poms”.

EC’s “Block C” supervised

the school and rallies, assisted at ath-

letic and school social events, similar

to today’s Leadership class.

El Camino had a girls’ gym-

nastics team in ‘71.

In 1970, the Senior Class went to Germa-

ny.Basketball uniforms were

very different in the 1970s.

Boys wore very short shorts.

In ‘70, EC’s varsity water

polo team went undefeated

6-0.

In 1973, EC had a ski

club.

The El Camino Show Troupe

from the ‘60s to ‘70s re-

ceived numerous local and national

awards.

An inter-class track meet

was held in the spring of

1973. Students from all classes com-

peted against each other.

Telecommunications Club in

‘75: A precursor to ECTV?

and leadership conferences.

EC had a homecoming tro-

phy that was awarded to the

winning class.

A pipe bomb explod-ed during the ‘90 Bell

Game, blowing away parts of the scoreboard at Clifford Field.

In ‘96, EC won the Bell Game for the second

consecutive year. Ms. Elder was the adviser for

the Class of 2001

The Sophomore Class of ‘04

won homecoming in ‘02.

Youtube star Michelle Martinez attended El

Camino from 2000-2004.In 2001, Lawrence Lim in-

dependently raised $760+

for those affected by the 9/11 trag-

edy as a sophomore.

Class of 1996 alum-nus Kurtis Ming won an

Emmy Award as a newscaster for KOVR-TV CBS13 Sacra-mento.

18

14

1516 19

20

23

39

404142

4344

4546

1970s

24

25

2122

17

2000s48

49

50

47

1990s

Editor-in-chiefCatherine Tadina

Photo EditorKatrina Nolasco

Art DirectorChristen Alqueza

Quarter 4 Editors

Managing EditorRebecca Gigi

Page EditorsMarcus Ismael

Ryan Kratsas-LoveKatrina NolascoMarivic Victoria

Staff WritersChristen Alqueza

Paula EberleKayla Kohlmeister

Erin LynchRJ Refuerzo

Justin SanchezBisma Shahbaz

PhotographersRay ConcepcionMarcus Ismael

Lead ResearcherShannon Keach

Online EditorCatherine Tadina

AdviserAdam G. McLearan

PrinterFolger Graphics

Hayward, CA

CONTENTS

Pg 4 Berg resigns to take county positionAfter six years at El Camino, Principal Adele Berg announced her resignation April 5 accepting an offer to coordinate ROP for the San Mateo County Office of Education.By Ryan Kratsas-Love

Pg 10-13 El Camino’s most valued athletes of 2010-2011A recognition of this year’s outstanding athletes, chosen by teammates and coaches based on performance and sportsmanship on their respective teams.By Ray Concepcion & Katrina Nolasco

Pg 14 Student Survival Guide: Senior yearBeing the most eventful year in high school, senior year comes with countless after school activities, preparation for college and so on. For those juniors about to become seniors, follow these guidelines to enjoy your final year.By Rebecca Gigi

Pg 23 Sojourn to the pastJunior Angelina Cowan shares her remarkable story on her the journey to the Deep South exploring the civil rights movement on the Sojourn to the past trip.By Paula Eberle

4 14

ON THE COVER

Do you ever wonder what goes into making the school lunches you consume daily? The Colt Quaterly investigates the policies and nutritional content of the lunches served at El Camino.By Catherine Tadina

What’s for lunch: National School Lunch Program, FDA, USDA, District dietitions...lunch is made up of much more than calories, protien and carbohydrates.Design by Catherine Tadina

Pg 16-19 Eat this not that?

Pg 25 S.O.S. Save Our SchoolsAmidst principals resigning, stessed teachers, overburdened students, the Dis-trict steamrolls on with its method of reform. The district needs to rethink its direction. Editorial

Pg 28 Is it really 3D?In this review the Nintendo’s new glasses free 3D handheld gaming device will blow your mind as it brings all the characters you’ve come to know and love into focus.By RJ Refuerzo

The Colt Quarterly is a news magazine dedicated to inform the El Camino High School student body and staff of the issues that affect the school and com-munity. We strive to publish each magazine with accuracy and journalistic excellence and provide a forum guided by the ethics of journalism. Our goal is to represent the voice, passion, and diversity of the El Camino student body.

We attempt to achieve journalistic excellence through thorough research, accurate reporting, and a structured editing process. All content is realized and produced by the Colt Quarterly staff.

For a copy of the Colt Quarterly’s editorial

policy please contact the adviser or editor-in-

chief.

El Camino High School 1320 Mission Rd.

South San Francisco, CA 94080

Colt QuarterlyMission Statement

QVolume 3 Issue 4

May 26, 2011

4

23 25 28

Colt Quarterly / Quarter 4 / May 201116

According to the SS-FUSD website, the mission of the SSFUSD Nutrition Services Department is to “adhere to the nutrition standards in meals provided by the National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program.” However, despite following federal and state standards, the food served at El Camino fails to meet up with a standard of quality that stu-dents and staff alike hold.

The National School Lunch Program (NSLP) is a feder-ally assisted meal program operating in public and non-profit private schools and residential child care institu-tions. Established by Harry Truman in 1946 under the National School Lunch Act of 1946, NSLP now operates in 101,000 institutions in the United States and makes “nu-tritionally balanced, low-cost or free lunches” available to over 31 million children in the United States every day.

The United States Depart-

ment of Agriculture

(USDA) has set guidelines recom-

mending the amount of nutri-ents each person should get per day. The USDA requires schools to adhere to the Di-etary Guidelines for Ameri-cans, which mandates that “no more than 30 percent of an individual’s calories come from fat, and less than 10 percent from saturated fat.” Schools are also required to provide one-third of the Recommended Dietary Al-lowances of protein, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, iron, calcium, and calories.

El Camino adheres to the Nutrient Standards of the USDA Charter and uses the Traditional Meal Pattern. Stu-dents at El Camino are allot-ted a maximum of 1200 cal-ories for both breakfast and lunch meals at school, and the remainder is reserved for whatever meal students eat outside of school, such as dinner. As required by the USDA, the school allots

300 to 5 0 0 c a l o -ries for breakfast and 450 to 500 calories for lunch. The remaining 800 calories are allotted to what stu-dents may consume outside of school. High school students are also allotted ten grams of protein, which is obtained from the turkey and chicken sandwiches served at school with three ounces of meat, and three ounces of grain through bread. Students are required two servings of fruits sand one serving of vegetables. The total fat must be at least five percent and must not exceed 30 percent, whereas ten percent of total calories should come from saturated fat.

School lunches must meet Federal guidelines, but it is up to the discretion of the school or the district to decide what foods they serve and how they want to divide and

distribute the calories through what is served at their schools. The department director and the district’s Registered Dieti-cian Linda Carrozzi calculates and distributes the allotted calories between the meals. The foods’ nutrition values can be easily divided by dividing the food by weight. El Camino then gets pre-packaged foods from contractors; the pre-packaged foods have to be FDA-approved. Any compa-nies the school buys food from must adhere under guidelines of the USDA and must have the USDA seal. Then, the food service assistants—more com-monly known as “lunch la-

EAT THIS...

Where’s the lettuce?!

Yum!

By Catherine

Tadina

May 2011 / Quarter 4 / Colt Quarterly

Feat

ureL

dies”—sort and package the food according to the standards set by the district. The USDA inspects the cafeteria every two years, usu-ally during sum-

mer school to make sure the school adheres to federal standards.

Many students buy the food served at school either because they get it for free or reduced prices, or they do not have time to prepare food for themselves in the morning. Perhaps, the only opportunity for even some students to eat is through the meals served at school. Consequently, for many students, the school lunch is their only option. Thus, it is important for the school to carefully consider the food they are serving to their stu-dents as they are the ones who maintain the monopoly over the nutrition that most of the students get per day. Unfortunately, although the food served is in accordance to USDA s t a n -d a r d s , m a n y students complain a b o u t the poor q u a l -

ity of the food that is being served.

“Overall the quality is poor. I often get the pepper-oni pizza and it’s either burnt or not well-done. Today, I got a pepperoni pizza and the cheese and the sauce were burnt all over,” senior Jocelyn Anaya said. “The rice and veggies that come with [the Teriyaki beef are] complete-ly [bad], the vegetables are stale, no flavor, and the rice

is disgusting. It reminds me of prison food straight from the freezer. The quesadillas they give are shameful and have no flavor, and the m e a t tastes r u b -

bery. [The food has] too many preservatives. They try and give fresh fruit to even it out but the fruit por-tions are small.”

“The food looks fake and is too greasy,” freshman Natalie Garcia said. “They also contain too much salt—especially the ground meat for the nachos.”

Even those who are ame-nable to the food served at school believe there is some-

thing to be desired. “The breakfast, which serves ba-gels and cereal, has good variety. The school lunch, on the other hand, is okay, but could be better.” se-nior Claudia Arroyo-Serret said.

Several years ago, the school also used to serve lunch to the teach-ers at the teachers’ lounge; the food that was served to the teachers was similar to the food served to the stu-dents. However, the number of teach-ers who bought the school lunches dwindled as the quality of the food dwindled, and with the advent of the recent budget cuts, the lunches served for teachers was taken out entire-ly. Most, if not all teachers in El Camino, usually bring their own lunch and only resort to buying school lunches during times when they fail to bring or prepare their own lunch. It is disconcerting to find that the teachers would prefer not to eat the food that is being served to the students them-selves.

“You will find that a lot of teachers bring lunch,” math

teacher Megan Connery said. “It’s unfortunate

...NOT THAT!

So greasy...

How much sugar

in this fruit?

By Catherine

Tadina

School Lunch items with high sodium content per serving (100g):

Turkey Breast (deli meat) - 1,015mgTaco Sauce - 1,049mg

Turkey Corn Dog - 1,067mg Ketchup - 1,114mg

Salad croutons (seasoned) - 1,238mg Salad dressing (Italian dressing) - 1,654mg

Colt Quarterly / Quarter 4 / May 2011

that we’re serving it for kids.”With regards to the teachers’ disre-

gard of the school lunches being served to students, Arroyo-Serret comments, “Why do they expect us to eat [the school lunches] when adults don’t even want to touch it?”

“I find [the school lunches] disappoint-ing. The fruit portions are small,” Social studies teacher Ingrid Gron says. For the past eight years of teaching at El Cami-no, Gron estimates buying only school lunches at an average of two per semes-ter. “The quality [of the school lunches] is not what we would eat.” Gron believes that the school should serve healthier food choices, such as adding more fruits instead of less healthier items such as p o - tato puffs or “tater

tots”.Some teach-

ers also

concur that the school lunches being served at El Camino are lacking when it comes to nutritional value. Upon seeing the salads being served, Connery com-mented, “The salad that’s being served in school is iceberg lettuce—there’s no value, but all water.”

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requires food products to include food labels on their packages and for food establishments and restaurants to make their nutrition facts and food in-gredients readily available for full dis-closure, either through their website or in-store.

Surprisingly, the nutrition facts for food served at El Camino are not eas-ily accessible, nor are the nutrition facts for high school meals available on the

SSFUSD Nu-

trition Services website. One has to ask the school food authorities for a disclo-sure of the nutrition labels of the foods served at school. In addition, students would have to search a 27-page long document to find information on their food items. For instance, to find out the nutritional information for the pizza served at El Camino, a student can look up that item and find the values. How-ever, in the case of the burger, a student has to look up the individual elements, such as the meat and the bread sepa-rately, then add up the total nutritional information and convert it to the number of servings—an arduous process which might discourage students from inquiring about information that should be read-ily available to them.

According to studies from the Journal of Consumer Research, nutritional infor-mation can help influence consumers’

Chicken TeriyakiMeal

It’s so soggy... Gross!!

Delicious!

18

CheeseburgerMeal

May 2011 / Quarter 4 / Colt Quarterly

eating habits. In one study, participants ate a sandwich that they later found was unexpectedly high in calories. After this discovery, the participants consumed fewer snacks throughout the rest of the day. This illustrates the importance of making nutrition information readily available to El Camino students.

“I think they should make the nutrition facts available to students,” Anaya said. “It will influence our decision because we will actually know what’s going in our body.”

“It would make me think twice about the food I buy,” Arroyo-Serret said.

In the nutritional information provid-ed, the amount of sugars per serving is not reported directly, but is instead

merely included within the “Total Carbohydrates”. Another concerning fact

is that the school does

not provide many healthy choices except for the Salad Line/Garden Bar, or the Sandwich Line which is served on Tues-days and Thursdays. Thus, students might still end up making unhealthy choices by choosing fewer nutritious foods like piz-za and hamburger, completely avoiding the healthier food options offered at school.

Although the school cafeteria ad-heres to USDA standards, most of the food that is being served merely meets the bare minimum requirements of nutri-tional value. The Big Daddy Pizza, the most popular meal served at school, has 470 calories per serving. The sec-ond most popular meal item, the Spicy Chicken, contains 240 calories. The only healthiest food choices from the lunch menu are the salads and the sandwich-es, which are sold inside the cafeteria on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Even so, while

the salads seem like the healthiest op-tion, they contain a lot of sodium—the salad dressing alone contains 15,470 milligrams of sodium per serving. The next contender for the most amount of sodium is the Taco Seasoning mix, which contains 7004 milligrams of sodium per serving.

The school should take steps in serving healthier lunches to El Camino students and in making the nutritional information more accessible. For example, a pos-sible solution is that the school can re-vert back to serving students fresh food that is made on-the-spot. “I would prefer that the school serve us healthier choic-es,” Arroyo-Serret said. “I don’t care if it costs a bit more.” Although giving stu-dents healthier food options may be a bit more costly, in the long run it will be worth it, especially because it concerns the health of El Camino students.

Chicken TeriyakiMeal I’m okay with this.

Favorite Lunch Meals at El

Camino

Spicy ChickenMeal

Healthiest item on the lunch menu:

Least healthy item on the lunch menu:

said “None”said “Salads”

said “Fruit”said “Carrots”said “Veggie

burger”

said “Pizza”said “Burger”

said “Nachos” said “Quesadilla”

29% 33% 19% 24% 18% 23% 18% 19% 15%

*231 surveyed

The Colt Quarterly / Quarter 2 / December 200928

Reviews

&

Lord of the Flies William Golding

Lord of the Flies, unlike many required reading books, can be used as an in-

troduction to understanding both literature and the world around us.

Set in a time of war, it presents an ac-count of a group of British school boys stranded on a deserted island after their plane crashes into the sea, their battles with human nature and the hierarchal structure, and their struggles dealing with each other. An encounter with “the beast”, a creature of unknown identity that haunts their stay on the island, adds still more tension to the situation, and helps to ultimately bring cha-

os and destruction upon the boys.Lord of the Flies facilitates deeper think-

ing, and requires the reader to look beyond the surface of words. Even “the beast” holds many different levels of meaning, symbolizing death, the devil, the boys’ inse-curities and fears, and what Golding sees as mankind’s primal instinct to do great evil. Although at times the book can be very dark, it still gets a 5 out of 5 ranking in lei-sure. Lord of the Flies is perfect for students learning to analyze symbolism and thinking on a higher level, giving it a 4 out of 5 rank-ing in academics.

Best School BooksBestbooksSCHOOL

The Great GatsbyF. SCOTT

FITZGERALD

The Great Gatsby is narrated by Nick Carraway who comes to know his

party-throwing neighbor Jay Gatsby, and becomes involved with Jay’s torturous rela-tionship and his obsession with a married woman named Daisy Buchanan. Through-out the book, Nick witnesses Gatsby’s har-rowing path towards self-destruction.

In addition to being a classic, The Great Gatsby is also a stepping stone into under-standing the use of imagery and descrip-tion to reveal a higher meaning within the text. Fitzgerald uses imagery to describe his characters and the setting with the sense

of disillusionment so popular with expatri-ate literature such as this.

There are blatantly obvious symbols such as Dr. T.J. Eckleburg’s faded glasses watching over the Valley of Ashes. How-ever, meaning can even be found within the very name of a character, like Gatsby’s, which symbolizes death, obsession, and re-demption. At times the vast amounts of imagery and symbolism can be overwhelm-ing, making the leisure ranking only a 3 out of 5. However, the full breadth of meaning and instructive value in the book calls for an 10 out of 5 in academics.

What’s Hot What’s Notand

NOT!

Leisure: 4 out of 5Academic: 4 out of 5

Leisure: 3 out of 5Academic: 10 out of 5

Great Expectationsby Charles Dickens

Things Fall Apartby Chinua Achebe

Grapes of Wrathby John Steinbeck

Canterbury Talesby Geoffrey

Chaucer

December 2009 / Quarter 2 / The Colt Quarterly

By Yasmine Mahmoud

29

The Human Comedyby William Saroyan

Best School Books Have you ever looked at your class reading list and wondered, “Why am I reading this?” To help puzzled students understand not only the literary merit, but the educational value of the books you have or will be reading, the best book from each grade level has been summarized and analyzed to answer such questions.books

Shakespeare’s Hamlet tells a tale of death, sorrow, and revenge. Hamlet,

the prince of Denmark, comes home from school abroad for his father’s funeral to find that his mother has remarried--to Hamlet’s uncle Claudius. When Hamlet learns that his father’s death was no accident but a case of murder committed by Claudius, he swears vengeance. And so begins the true story. The chaos that ensues following Hamlet’s oath is filled with madness, double-handed tactics, and indecision, all leading up to the amazing, astonishing, astounding final scene.

Hamlet is perhaps best known for its fan-

tastic use of diction. The characters’ very word choices give insight into the feelings and intentions that they are trying to dis-guise from those around them and even themselves. Puns, paradoxes, antitheses, and other literary devices show the contradic-tory meanings of speeches and soliloquies throughout the play. Being Shakespeare, it is sometimes hard to follow, giving it a 4 out of 5 in leisure. But in educational value it earns an 5 out of 5. Hamlet offers solid examples of many different literary tech-niques, and serves as a fantastic resource for students learning how to use them.

Hamlet William Shakespeare

Homer The Odyssey

Though the entirety of the text is not read in every class, The Odyssey is still

one of the most important books read in freshman year.

The epic centers on the war hero Odys-seus. Trapped by the nymph Calypso, he longs to return home but is unable to do so alone. What follows is a tale of trials and tribulations like no other, filled with angry gods, cyclopses, sirens, and test after test of willpower, strength, and wits.

Despite the poem’s length and some-what meandering plot, The Odyssey continues to stay on the required reading list because

of its reoccurrence throughout literature through allusions and references. It has also been used as a basic template of the epic journey that is still used today. The tem-plate, or the Epic Hero’s Journey, consists of several parts, all relating to The Odyssey. The hero must have a flaw, have a quest, and be aided by supernatural aids. Some mod-ern examples that follow this template are Wall-E, Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, and O Brother Where Art Thou. The overall enjoy-ment of this book rates at 3 out of 5, but in educational benefit it definitely ranks at an 5 out of 5.

Leisure: 3 out of 5Academic: 5 out of 5

Jane Eyreby Charlotte

Bronte

What’s Not with El Camino school books?

HOT!

By Lauren Eberle

Leisure: 4 out of 5Academic: 5 out of 5

A Midsummer Night’s Dreamby William Shakespeare

East of Edenby John Steinbeck

Canterbury Talesby Geoffrey

Chaucer

The Colt Quarterly / Quarter 4 / May 201030

Jo h n Ban-

ville’s The I n f i n i t i e s

wittily reveals what it means to be human and probes the mysteries of humanity, all from the perspective of Greek gods.

Old renowned mathema-tician Adam Godley is veg-etating on his sickbed after a severe stroke. His dear fam-ily surrounds his bedside: his son Adam, whose sud-den shock of his vegetating father brings him to a state of restlessness; his daugh-ter Petra who is psychologi-cally distraught; and their stepmother Ursula, whose relationship with the chil-dren is bland at best. Adding

to the mayhem are the gods meddling with the Godley’s affairs: Hermes, the inquisi-tive and omniscient narrator; Zeus, whose sexual lust for young Adam’s wife wreaks havoc; and Pan, whose wis-dom renews old acquain-tances.

The Infinities is clearly a must-read for Greek mythol-ogy fanatics who are inter-ested in godly meddling. The book also evokes profound ideas on the philosophy of life, death, emotions, eternity, and time. However, if you’re not a fan of mythology, you’ll definitely be lost in what seems to be digressions into irrelevance.

Overall, this novel de-serves a 4 out of 5.

It’s easy to surmise why El Zocalo, an El Sal-

vadorian restaurant located along El Camino Real in the Winston Manor Shopping Center, was overflowing with customers.

I started my meal off with an order of cheese quesadillas and a side of Chimole, a mildly spicy and chunky salsa which added some ‘pizzazz’ to the dish. For the main course, I ordered the two cheese enchi-lada verde with a side order of pupusa’s ruelta. My enchiladas, which came with with rice and beans, were topped with spicy green sauce and filled with perfectly cooked cheese. The rice was exquisite and full of flavor, perhaps the best rice I have ever tasted.

The pupusa’s ruelta, which included a pickled cab-bage-like concoction called gordita, were very flavorful yet a little greasy .

Although the only item on the dessert menu was empanadas, that was okay be-cause I felt that my appetite had already been fulfilled by my dinner. The prices of the dishes were very reasonable, which was surprising due to the good quality of the food. The cost of my overall meal was $12.00. I would recom-mend this restaurant to any-one who likes a very casual atmosphere and traditional El Salvadorian food. El Zo-calo earns a 4 out of 5.

Ra y -mond

v. Raymond, Usher’s new album released on March 30, 2010, features fourteen new songs, of which three are radio singles. Since this was my first time listen-ing to songs from the R&B genre, the songs weren’t very appealing at first. But after the second try I started to get a feeling of the music, mak-ing me sing along with the rhythm. After the third try I started to really understand the deeper meaning in Ush-er’s songs.

The album was pretty funky with good beats. Ush-er’s voice matches the rhythm and beat for the song, but at times his voice doesn’t go

with the music. After lis-tening to “OMG (featuring Will.I.Am)” for the first time it made it made me want to sing and dance along with the song. One song I liked the best is “Hey Daddy (Daddy’s Home).” Whenever I listen to this song, I would get a feeling that when he sings, he puts a lot of effort and energy to the song to make it sound good.

The rating I would give this album is 4.5 out of 5. I took away half a point be-cause the album is confus-ing at times. Nevertheless, the songs were pretty good to listen to. The rhythm and beats make the music enjoy-able, even for a first-time R&B listener.

In Iron Man 2, Robert Downey Jr. suits up

once more as Tony Stark and Ironman to take on the government, a mid-life crisis, alcoholism, and a deadly new enemy. Stark’s health is en-dangered by the very object keeping him alive as he spi-rals into self-destruction.

The new technology and gadgets in the sequel are ex-citing and the CG animation is well-done. The visual ex-perience is excellent; the Iron Man animators create awe-inspiring fight scenes with enough jaw-dropping explo-sions. Additionally, humor is no stranger to Iron Man, al-lowing for a few good laughs throughout the film. The in-troduction of the new char-acters—particularly Mickey Rourke’s Whiplash—makes

Raymond v. Raymond review the movie

more inter-esting and enjoyable.

Yet Iron Man 2 isn’t without its flaws. At times throughout the movie, the plotline seems incoherent and sometimes nonexistent. There are also mistakes done with the casting: I felt Don Cheadle wasn’t fit to replace Terrance Howard’s Rhodey character, and there were-too many new characters to keep track of. While the CG fight scenes may be great, the movie relies too heavily on them.

Iron Man 2 is a great film to see this year. Whether you choose to see it in a theater or save it for DVD, you will not be disappointed. I give Iron Man 2 a 4 out of 5.

Iron Man 2 review

The Infinities review El Zocalo review

By Marcus Ismael

By Michael Wong

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Software: Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Dreamweaver, Adobe Fireworks Coded using CSS and HTML

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MANOPO2012

WHEN: April 21, 2012 3-6 pmWHERE: Bayanihan Center

1010 Mission Street San Francisco, CA 94103

jmarcos8@stanford.edu for more information

Come join us in celebrating the Filipino veteranos’ recognition through HR210 and show that the youth today care about their invaluable dedication

to the country.