mar 7, 2011
DESCRIPTION
The Eye March 7, 2011TRANSCRIPT
www.saseye.com • 40 Woodlands St. 41, Singapore 738547 • www.sas.edu.sg/hs • (65) 6360 6005 • MICA (P) 130/04/2010
by Tyler Stuart There was more chatter than usual
during lunch in The Caf on Wednes-day, Jan. 12.
The chatter was not verbal, it was cyber. A new website was up, supply-ing a new source of drama that would fuel high school gossip for over a week.
The website listed about 20 cou-ples, some were dating, others who were not. Supposed relationships were categorized in code. Abbrevi-ated column headings specified if ‘couples’ were dating, involved in sexual relations, or if one student was interested in another.
“New AP” revisions comingCollege Board says it favors application over memorization in “New AP” program. Teachers, students voice mixed reviews.By Viraj Bindra
Starting next school year, Col-lege Board’s planned changes to its Advanced Placement curriculum will affect students at SAS and around the world.
The 2011-2012 school year will see changes in AP German Language and Culture, AP French Language and Culture and AP World History. The last two are offered at SAS. The changes planned for these courses are relatively minor, but begin to re-flect the general theme of the College Board’s “New AP” program – con-ceptualization and application rather than memorization.
In a phone interview, The Eye spoke with Trevor Pack-er, the Vice President of College Board who pioneered this new initiative. We asked him what motivated the changes.
“The trend shows that AP students are doing better in college, which is great,” Packer said. “But colleges have voiced that they would like students to have stronger abili-ties to practice or apply their knowledge.”
The Road to Change
Packer said that In 2002, the National Research Coun-cil released a report criticizing the current state of AP Bi-ology.
Working together with the National Science Founda-
tion, College Board then confirmed criticisms that the curriculum depended too heavily on rote memorization of facts and meglected adherence to practical portions of bi-ology, were legitimate concerns among colleges and high school teachers. After committee meetings, College Board began the difficult process of determining which compo-nents of the course to cut.
The procedure was similar for many of the courses, and the courses with the most change were AP Biology and AP United States History, both of which are among the most widely-taken Advanced Placement classes and tests.
Continued on Page 2
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SAS SASU.S. U.S.AP United States History AP Biology
MeanAP Exam
Scores2011:
2.7
3.5
2.6
4.5
Who’s...Who?Students victimized on anonymous Website
NO FEAR. Nikki Muller enjoys an adrenalin rush while bungee jumping in New Zealand. Photo by A.J. Hackett Co. Bungee
All home safe from journeys to four corners of Earth
“It was the category with the codes that was a complete and utter invasion of privacy,” Deputy Princi-pal Lauren Mehrbach said.
The site included a comment page. An online offer of anonymity encouraged students to post anything on their mind, unfiltered.
Comments encouraged further postings and discussion on the site. Many saw it as a source of entertain-ment rather than a harmful situation.
(28 minutes ago) Anonymous said: the creator of this site didnt do anything malicious or wrong, maybe they were incorrect about a few facts but all he did was create another place for the insecure people at our school to b**** about others. the us-ers of this site (the ones who are mali-cious) are the ones who should be in trouble by admin
Continued on Page 3
Interim Semester 2011
info from SAS student profile 2010
Singapore American School March 8, 2011www.saseye.com Vol. 30 No. 4the eye “As long as we don’t get caught”
For some, interim presents an opportunity to dare, not in bungee jumps, leaps of
knowledge, but in testing the boundaries of tolerance and outwitting sponsors.
Staff editorial and opinions, Page Four
In the Eye Online at www.saseye.comSuperintendent Dr. Brent Mutsch an-nounces decision to leave SAS at the
end of the 2011-2012 school year.
2 March 8, 2011the eye
New APs cont. from page 1“It is a move from simply learning
huge amounts of content to being able to apply knowledge either through science practical situations or histori-cal thinking skill,” Packer said. “This frees up time for teachers to really help students apply their knowledge, which required reducing the material for some courses.”
The New Curriculum: Improvement or Step Backward?
But while the intent of the changes seems to be to provide teachers with a better oppor-tunity to help students master material, AP Bio teacher Dr. Kim Melsom does not neces-sarily embrace the new cur-riculum.
“I don’t think [the new curriculum] is an improve-ment; it’s sim-ply a change,” Dr. Melsom said.
Current and past AP Biology students tend to agree. Senior Serena Grace, who took the class last year and has briefed her-self on the changes, disapproves of the manner in which College Board is modifying the course requirements.
“It seems they are inappropriately trimming down the material,” Grace said. “Instead of taking out the Ecol-ogy unit so more time can be spend on difficult material, they are trim-ming every unit down, and taking out important key terms and ideas.
For example, you no longer have to know the words that define the pro-cess of mitotis: interphase, prophase,
THENEW
APCollege BoardCollege Board
THENEW
AP2011
2012
2013
2014
German,French,WorldHistory
Spanish,BiologyLatin
UnitedStatesHistory
TobeAnnounced
et cetera. You just have to know the overall process, which gives kids the ability to fudge the FRQ portion of the exam.”
“Though it’s a lot of work to learn all of the small details and facts, without it you don’t really get to know or understand as much as you need,” concurred senior Alexandria Couch, a cur-rent student. “Dr. Melsom com-pared it to an onion. Though we are not that far into the onion that is biology, if the curriculum is cut down in anyway, we’re only going to get past the first few
layers.”Grace and
Couch both said that giv-en the choice, they would prefer to take AP Biology under the cur-rent curricu-lum.
Dr. Mel-som made it clear that she would not sacrifice the integrity of her curricu-lum.
“A lot of how this
change will turn out depends on the teacher. For me, if the standard of the new curriculum falls too far below my standards, my students will still be taught Dr. Melsom’s biology – a collegiate-level biology course,” Dr. Melsom said.
Teacher says AP U.S. History changes long overdue
Teachers and students at SAS might be slightly more accepting of the changes to AP United States His-tory, which were originally slated for the 2012-2013 school year, but have
recently been pushed back an addi-tional year.
AP U.S. History teacher James Baker said that the curriculum for the class has to be made more rigorous, and has to be remodeled in a way that reinforces application. He likened the exam in its current state to a game of Trivial Pursuit, requiring regurgita-tion of facts.
“Almost anything would be bet-ter than the system they have in place now,” Baker said.
Sophomore Sachith Siriwardane is glad that College Board is making the changes.
“I think it’s a welcome change,” Siriwardane said. “This year, there’s just so much to take in, like dates to remember, events and names. It’s just so much content and material. The only thing is, I wish [the curriculum change] came a year earlier.”
SAS not likely to change much, but US scores may benefit
The most important question is how the changes will affect students at SAS. Undoubtedly, they will re-duce the quantity of information in-dividuals will be required to process. But how will they affect test scores?
“[SAS] teachers seem to be so ef-fective teaching the courses in their current state, being able to teach them in such a way that makes the amount
of content reasonable. I can’t imagine students not excelling, given the track record of teachers at your school,” Packer said after being briefed on SAS’s performance on AP exams thus far.
Packer claims that the exams will not see a “dumbing down” effect as a result of the changes, and that the rig-or of the courses will be maintained.
Dr. Melsom said that even if other schools see a slight improvement in AP Biology scores, SAS’s results would be largely unaffected, given its students’ already strong performances on the exams.
“According to college board, the AP scores are not expected to im-prove in AP Biology by having this change, but the teachers will be able to slow down the pace which is tre-mendously fast at this time. I feel the change should improve scores for the U.S., and that needs to occur since last year 36.6% of the students who took the AP Biology exam in the U.S. scored a 1, the lowest score possible. Obviously that doesn’t occur at SAS for any of our AP courses.”
Students will see the updated AP Biology curriculum in the 2012-2013 school year, when new AP Spanish Literature and Culture and AP Latin Courses will also be introduced.
For a more thorough examination of the changes in each course, visit http://advancesinap.College Board.org/.
AP’s Packer says that SAS scores indicate students will find little to fear in course revisions
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SAS SASU.S. U.S.AP Physics B
SASU.S.AP LanguageAP Calculus AB
2.9 2.9
3.9 4.0
3.0
4.4
“A lot of how this change will turn out depends
on the teacher. For me, if the standard of the
new curriculum falls too far below my standards,
my students will still be taught Dr. Melsom’s
biology – a collegiate level biology course.
Biology Teacher, Kim Melsom “
graphs by Viraj Bindra and Leonel De Velez
by Felicity Dunbar, Eye OnlineCollege level courses were once
only meant for and taken by college students, and even upperclassmen. Now though, increasing numbers of sophomores and and even a couple of freshmen are joining the ranks of the AP students.
“The majority of sophomores aren’t ready,” counselor Dale Ford said. “AP courses are designed as uni-versity level courses, so sophomores are taking something that is meant for students three years older than the level they’re in.”
Sophomores account for 150 of the 1,465 AP seats occupied by SAS high-schoolers. A seat refers to a place taken in an AP class, so a student tak-
ing two AP courses, would occupy two seats. Social studies claim the most sophomores with 89 seats; the rest are spread over languages, arts, statistics, math and a science course.
“They need to be motivated,” AP Human Geography teacher Mike Stagg said. “There’s a lot of reading to be done. I think there are some sophomores who are very well suit-ed for these courses. From what I’m hearing, universities are not keen on students taking a ton of AP courses.”
Students push themselves to prove that they can get into the prestigious top-ranked schools. Sophomores are
mainly looking at APs to boost their college applications, even if the AP has nothing to do with their imagined degree or field of interest. The GPA increase that AP courses bestow gets more students attention than the ac-tual subject matter.
“I would find it difficult to under-stand why a student would take an AP that wasn’t relevant to something that would help them during or after high school,” science teacher Dennis Steigerwald said.
Rise in Sophomores taking APsSAS sophomores take advantage of freedom to choose more challenging courses, continuing the trend from past years.
3the eyeMarch 8, 2011
By Emily Nelson In nine months 2012 arrives, and
some people are growing more nerv-ous by the day. They believe that the world will end in December of next year.
According to the ancient Mayan calen-dar, 2012 is the end date of the Mayan Long Count calendar. New Age writers and doomsayers say the calendar predicts the end of 2012, actually, December 21, will be the end of the world as we know it.
For decades, popular writers and New Age think-ers over-analyzed this event setting in motion a string of predictions for 2012.
Many believe that 2012 will mark the date for the Earth’s collision with
another planet known as Nibiru and thus ending the world.
“The initial impact was supposed to happen in May of 2003, but when that didn’t happen, the date was
merely pushed to December, 2012, because of the ancient Mayan myth,” a NASA sci-entist said.
NASA scientists say that the Nibiru legend and simi-lar ones are all creations of the Internet and “have no substantial facts to support it.”
In 2009, action film di-rector Roland Emmerich popularized the myths even more in a catastrophe drama
titled “2012” which dealt with the most popular apocalyptic predictions. This film depicts a family struggling to find their way to safety while sur-rounded by massive tidal waves, devastating earthquakes and more.
Before the natural events and destruc-tion occur in this film, the viewer is shown a worsening climate through the years. In 2009, the earth’s core begins heating up, and in 2010, earth-quakes occur more frequently. Final-ly, in 2012, the large events occur and the end officially begins.
Calendar seudosci-ence says that Decem-ber 21, 2012, is the day the Earth is going to end. Three days into Christmas vaca-tion, and all life on Earth ends. There is a bright side for fresh-men and sophomores, who won’t have to take finals or labor through college apps.
While it is just a myth, last year, sev-eral natural disasters occurred one after an-other seemingly sig-nalling a calamitous event for some.
In October of 2010, many cities in Java, and even here in Singapore, were experiencing wet, hazy weather. This was not because of the usual “slash and burn” technique that Sin-gaporeans commonly experience, but
the result of a series of volcanic erup-tions from Mount Merapi in Java. In October, residents noticed ash com-ing from the top of the mountain and warnings for an eruption followed. Off-and-on eruptions continued for a month causing several hundred deaths and nasty weather.
In Christmas of this year, usu-ally drought-stricken Queensland, Australia, was struck by a series of floods, as unprecedented rains sent water over the river banks. The wa-ter overtook an area about the size of Germany and France together and
caused near irreversible damage. These floods have continued on into the new year, and according to the Australian “Herald Sun” costs for the damage done reaches just above 30 billion dollars.
Adding more fuel to the myths, winter brought sudden death. Liter-
ally. On New Year’s Eve 5,000 star-lings fell dead from the sky, littering the streets of Beebe, Arkansas. Sci-entists said the birds all experienced identical physical trauma but could not identify the cause.
The earthquake that devestated Christchurch, New Zealand, killing as many as 300 people will certainly be sited as additional evidence.
AP Physics teacher, Fred Craw-ford characterized the predictions as “myth.”
While Crawford does not be-lieve the end is coming, he does not deny that there is science sup-porting the myth “surrounding the gravitational forces” and alignment of the Earth and other planets.
“It is a well known fact that the alignment will occur,” Crawford said. “It is also a fact that this align-ment has occurred literally millions of times before and nothing has hap-pened.”
What Does the SAS Student Body Think of WhosWho?
“I think people need to get a life.” -Liz Conklin, senior
“I just think that it shows how immature and insecure people are.” -Pamela Chan, freshman
“The Who’s Who issue was only made serious by the inap-propriate comments that were made by viewers.” - Isabella Speciale, sophomore
“I think that it was some-thing stupid and that it was blown out of proportion.” - Ed Thome, junior
While some defended the creation of the site, describing it as harmless, Mehrbach said the site’s categoriza-tion of the couples was wrong.
“The comments were bad, clearly, but I think that the chart itself was equally as bad if not worse,” she said.
Not all the com-ments on the page were in-sensi t ive . R e a s o n -able voices joined the discussion as well.
(41 minutes ago) Anonymous said: haha you have no idea how close they are to finding you, hope it was all worth it when you get expelled!
The administration was aware of the traffic the site was generating and decided to block access to it through the SAS servers.
“We had to throw some water on the fire,” M e h r -b a c h said.
A s students con t in -ued to a c c e s s the site outs ide of school, inserting more false and malicious comments, SAS faculty be-gan to intervene. Both Mehrbach and counselor Dawn Betts posted com-ments on the website.
Betts remembered posting on the website, “I have kids crying in my of-fice, please stop.”
When the drama escalated and
Formspring ghost returns to haunt student body
Doomsayers predict end of world in nine monthsIf Mayan calendar interpretations correct, there will be no winter break next year
more potentially libelous information was posted, the site’s creator decided to shut it down.
You guys are so sad. Must you pervert everything? I’m shutting this down for a little bit, so all of you can think about what you’ve done, and so
I can put some con-trol in it. Sincerely, Creator
A c -cusa t ions about who created the
Who’s Who site surfaced in the days following the websites demise. That conversation moved to Formspring.
“It turned into a full-fledged argu-ment,” sophomore Sachith Siriwar-dane said. “Anonymous people were arguing with anonymous people.”
This incident mirrors the Form-spring incident last year. While Who’s Who fizzled out quicker than that one,
it was evidence that cy-b e r b u l -l y i n g h a s n ’ t g o n e away.
“ I t ’ s an issue that per-
vades society now,” Mehrbach said. “It’s the bathroom wall of your gen-eration. When I was a kid you had to go to the bathroom to see what was written. It didn’t come into your liv-ing room, it didn’t come into your bedroom, and you could clean it off.”
““
I have kids crying in my office, please stop.- Counselor Dawn Betts (comment posted on whos.who.beep.com)
haha you have no idea how close they are to finding you, hope it was all worth it when you get expelled!
“
“Anonymous
(posted on whos.who.beep.com)
Who’s Who cont. from page 1
Posed Photo by Leonel De Velez
MEGA-MYTH. Believers of the 2012 prophecies say that on that day a planet called Nibiru will crash into Earth. They say that the Mayan calendar ends in 2012 and that the sun might launch a calamitous electromagnectic force at the Earth.
4 March 8, 2011the eye
I’m an alcohol ic . It’s embar-rassing re-ally - the s n e a k i n g out, the late night drink-ing in hotel rooms, the lying, and worst of all,
the Asian glow. It’s not even like I can hide it. If I tried to convince you I hadn’t been drinking, you’d roll your eyes as if Pam Anderson had just told you that her well-endowed chest was au natu-rale. It just wouldn’t happen.
When I think about my predica-ment, I can’t help but feel dejected. I resort to taking shameless selfies of myself in my hotel room with my other underage, alcoholic comrades. It’s my only source of comfort.
My favorite looks include peace signs and various poses of me holding bottles of alcoholic beverages sugges-tively. The kissy-face is a classic.
Oh, how it hurts me to see those photos posted on Facebook. The comments! The “likes!” I hate the at-
A satiric look at one addict’s struggle with interim temptations
Hello, Tumblr. It’s me and my bad habits
tention. I never asked for this, I just wanted to relieve my insatiable thirst for alcohol. I don’t drink to be cool; I do it strictly out of necessity. I say to heck with undulating pastures of green and crystal waters and rare fau-na and famous architecture! The Eif-fel Tower is dumb anyway. A week of looking at a giant phallus in the “City of Love?” Like I said, the alcohol was necessary.
Then there’s the smoking. I tried to kick the habit. The nicotine patch-es, pills, even the gum. I tried it all. I was holed up in my hotel room during free time, shaking, fumbling around for my pack of Camels.
I did everything necessary to get rid of the smell. I combined every scent to convince my roommate I hadn’t been smoking. I opened win-dows, borrowed AXE from the boys, and sprayed the furniture and drapes. I blasted the air-conditioning. But shucks, I forgot to hide my pack of Camels.
Busted. I sure hope she doesn’t expose me, because that’s not what I want. I don’t want people to know what a mess I am. Because I don’t smoke pseudo-inconspicuously in hopes that someone will start gossip
about me. I just want to be left alone. I want to fade into the background. No one understands. I’m just thankful for my Internet “anonymity.”
Thank you Tumblr for listening to me. I don’t want the rumors or drama and most of all I don’t want the spot-light shining on me.
But somehow, someone always finds out. How did they know that XxMisunderstoodgirl123xX.tumblr.com was me?! Now everyone knows what I did. They know about my drinking, my smoking, and my spic-ing.
Oh yes, I got real spicy over inter-im. Rolling and rolling and rolling of the lovely faux-weed, getting higher than Kanye in Dark Fantasy (so high) till the off-putting landscape of exotic foreign countries and faces of dirty, malnourished, children melded into a soft blur.
I must be the unluckiest girl in the world. Travelling to foreign lands, meeting people who don’t even speak English (ew). It’s hard. That’s why I do it-- because I have no other choice.
I drink because I have to, smoke because I need to.
Trolls find pleasure in online anonymity Physical bullying declines, but bullies find new home in cyberspace
Editor-in-chief: Sophia Cheng, Managing editors-in-chief: Phil Anderson, Gretchen Connick, Anbita Siregar, Op/ed editor: Becky Kreutter, A&E edi-tor: Olivia Ngyuen, Sports editor: Hannah L’Heureux, Layout editor: Jen-nie Park, Photo editor: Leonel De Velez, Design chief: Leonel De Velez, Reporters: Phil Anderson, Viraj Bindra, Sophia Cheng, Gretchen Connick, Leonel De Velez, Erica Huston, Rachel Jackson, Becky Kreutter, Hannah L’Heureux, Emily Nelson, Olivia Ngyuen, Ash Oberoi, Jennie Park, Anbita Siregar, Tyler Stuart, Megan Talon, Michael Too; Adviser: Mark Clemens
The Eye is the student newspaper of the Singapore American School. All opinions within these pages are those of their respective writers and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Singapore American School, its board of governors, PTA, faculty or administration. Comments and sugges-tions can be sent to the Eye via the email address, [email protected]. At the author’s request, names can be withheld form publication. Letters will be printed as completely as possible. The Eye reserves the right to edit letters for reasons of taste and space.
the eyeSingapore American School40 Woodlands Street 41Republic of Singapore 738547Phone: (65) 6363-3404Fax: (65) [email protected]
All-American
PacemakerGold Award
International First Place
An Eye Staff Editorial
“As long as we don’t get caught...”On the Monday back from Interim, students swap stories of nasty
falls, angry animals, and off-kilter tour guides. But the stories that per-vade the most, the ones that pass from mouth-to-mouth as the day winds on tell of drinking, of smoking and of late night debauchery.
By third period, we all know. Students can rattle off five trips that got caught, and ten that should have. We know, before the administrators, which trips behaved and which partied. And in many cases, we students will be the only ones to find out. No teachers will hear word, no adminis-trators will be informed, no counselors will be told, no parents put in the loop. It’s as if we sign a collective pact to cover each other’s backs instead of a contract to not misbehave.
Students sign a behavior contract before leaving on Interim, but, the truth is, many break it. And many figure they will break it before they step onto the plane that will take them around the world. Most dutifully sign their name to paper without a second thought.
Of the 415 respondents to an Eye survey; 15 people, or four percent, admitted to drinking over interim. Another 14 people confirmed they had smoked cigarettes or shisha. Apparently, six people smoked Spice and 33 people conceded they had sneaked out. And those are only the ones who fessed up.
Why is the breathtaking view from the mountain peak not enough? Why doesn’t the historic ruin suffice? Why do kids seek out the thrill of a sip, drag or fling? The thrill we take from interim should not be alcohol, nicotine or narcotic induced. But too often it is.
And it is not all our fault. Sure, some of the blame should fall on those of us who drink. After all, we make the choice to break contract. We could resist. If peer pressure builds we could use that elementary school advice and just walk away. We could be stronger and we should.
But we are not alone in our deeds. It is not only the youngest students who get up to trouble. At times, our follies are inspired by the follies of our elders: our sponsors.
Reports of sponsors drinking and smoking in front of kids or choosing to ignore the actions of students who did so, surfaced this year. Often stu-dents were unsupervised for long periods of time. With too many unfilled hours, students found alternative activities.
When parents put their child on a plane with 19 other students and two sponsors they have to assume that the sponsors will act professionally. Just as they have to hope their kids with act maturely.
This was a year of irresponsibility on both sides. But the weight of punishment seems to fall unevenly on students.
In the 2010 interim handbook a list of applicable punishments preface the “Interim Semester Behavior Expectations” which pertains to students. But after the “Faculty Responsibilities”: zero. Nothing.
The 2010 handbook reminds teachers to “Refrain from the use of alco-hol while participating in an Interim Semester course.” The online student handbook for 2011 does not list any faculty responsibilities. And neither handbook deals with what steps the administrators will take if a teacher participates in objectionable behavior.
Dr. Stuart said that there are consequences for teachers who cross the line but that they are confidential personnel issues. He admits that things happen on Interim that will never come to his attention because just as students protect each other, teachers protect their colleagues.
Interim behavior guidelines for teachers should be listed in the hand-book with a simple statement acknowledging the serious consequences for infractions, especially those that jeopardize the safety of students. It would assure parents that teachers are being held to the same high stand-ards as their children.
Teachers, undoubtedly, should be held as accountable as students for their behavior. In reality, they should be held more accountable since they are adults being paid to “conduct the course in a professionally ethical manner.” (2010 handbook, page 3)
Reports of misbehavior may be forgivable in a naive student. They are inexcusable for a teacher.
Campus ‘toons by Erica Huston
Phil Anderson
Jennie Park
T h e traditional image of a bully is that of a large, t e s t o s t e r -one driven human-go-rilla with an i m m i n e n t a l c o h o l abuse prob-lem and
1.0 GPA. A bully’s main
source of entertainment is gathering the other knuckle-draggers to steal lunch money from small kids.
Thankfully, because of selective breeding, there aren’t many of these bully-types left in the school popu-lation. With the top predator now an endangered species, another type of bully has climbed to the top of food chain: the troll.
A troll is defined by Urban Dic-tionary as a person who deliberately writes inflammatory posts in the In-ternet to cause maximum disruption and argument. It seems that with the near disappearance of the missing link campus, cyber bullies seek to fill the void.
Last year SAS went through a Formspring craze phase, where anon-ymous, often libelous profiles were created entirely for purposes of gos-sip. So many students were harassed by these profiles that the administra-tion got involved.
But what inspires people to go out of their way to abuse, insult and as-sault their peers? What satisfaction is there in hurting other people? When bullies, cyber or physical, cause emotional and physical pain, do they feel nothing?
With the an-onymity of the Internet, anyone can be a bully, and anyone can be a victim, which in-creases the chances of bullying.
We’ve all seen the movies where the knuckle-dragging buffoon terror-izes a school by shoving kids into lockers or beating them up in the hall-ways. But those buffoons should both be reprimanded and commended.
Even though physical violence is deplorable, bullies are not afraid of backing their beliefs, in this case that violence is necessary. In no way is
physical violence morally acceptable or right, but those bullies stand by their actions and so they have some-thing that trolls dont’: courage.
Bullies have the courage to throw a punch and take the hit for it. They accept the consequences, while trolls hide from the public eye and attack from under the veil of anonymity.
Why else would anyone remain anonymous about their opinions? It
would be c o u n t e r -productive to write a n o n y -mously on a website if you want people to listen to
your opinion. An opinion should not be taken seriously if it is not connect-ed to an identity, since the weight of your opinion correlates to what peo-ple think of you.
Who would you trust over com-puter advice? Bill Gates or “Anon”?
So, to all the trolls and Anons out there, take your mother’s advice: if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.
. . . what inspires people to go out of their way to abuse, insult and assault their peers? What satisfaction is there in
hurting other people?
5the eyeMarch 8, 2011
Graphics by Viraj Bindra
Pattern of irresponsibility among students blamed for theftsBy Michael Too and Savannah Wingo
Following the theft of $250 – $300 in cash from the theater office before the Winter Break, Theater Engineer and IPAU sponsor Paul Koebnick closed the Jam Room and cancelled a Jan. 21 break gig.
Koebnick said that he first noticed the IPAU cashbox missing Dec. 9 from a desk drawer where he kept it. Most IPAU funds are locked up in the the High School Office, but the petty cash taken was the members’ equip-ment fees used to fund the upkeep of the Jam Room.
The lock on the desk drawer was broken at the time of theft. Koeb-nick’s wallet and camera were in the same drawer. They were untouched. Koebnick said he suspects the thief was an IPAU or Technical Theater member, the only people familiar with the theater office.
“We’ve got a room to be respon-sible for with thousands of dollars worth of equipment, so if they want to use that room they have to be re-
sponsible,” Koebnick said, “We’re all one community, you’ve got to be responsible.”
While the student population is largely an affluent one, one of the most affluent in Singapore, theft of cash and electronics on campus con-tinues to be a problem.
The most recent victim was sen-ior Liz Conklin whose BlackBerry was stolen from the girls locker room sometime between 4:15 and 6:00 pm on Feb. 14, Valentine’s Day, during track tryouts.
Most stolen items are taken in locker rooms. A common miscon-ception is that thefts occurring inside the locker rooms involves break-ing locks, but according to physical education department chair Charles Shriner, “thefts occur when students do not lock their belongings inside their locker.”
Students who use the locker rooms are warned multiple times of the dan-ger of leaving items unsecured. At the beginning of all PE courses, teachers inform their students about locker
room safety. Signs located in all lock-er rooms remind students to lock up any valuables.
“Some students either lose their locks or forget to properly lock their lockers creating opportunities for thieves to ransack their stuff,” Shriner said.
There have been five recent thefts in the Primary School, an area few would expect to see thefts occuring. In the first theft on Dec. 16, a primary teacher’s personal camera was taken.
“They set [the camera] down in the room, left to talk to another teacher, came back, and the camera was missing,” primary school Deputy Principal, Ken Schunk said.
After Winter break, three laptops were discovered missing on Jan. 10. They could have been taken anytime between the start of Winter break and the time of discovery of the missing laptops. One more laptop went miss-ing due to a theft that could have oc-curred any time between the 28th and 30th of Janurary.
“The teacher went out on Friday,
came back on Monday, and the laptop was missing,” Schunk said.
Schunk said the costs to the school is considerable.
“The four computers add up to $8,000. With the camera, it all adds up to $10,000.”
Though there are no suspects so far, Schunk said that firm action has taken place. The police have been notified, CCTV footage has been analyzed, and security, cleaning, and contract workers have all been ques-tioned.
Neihart suggests that thieves are not the main problem at school, but students’ irresponsibility is.
“We don’t have issues so much with the type of theft that occurs when someone deliberately takes something out of another student’s bag or purse. Our theft issues occur when someone leaves their phone or wallet on the table and it gets picked up and not turned into the office.”
“We caught two boys doing this [in the past], and they are longer with us at SAS,” Neihart said.
For a majority of students, their only source of spending money is the allowance they get from their parents, an allowance that may not be enough for some. And the number one reason for theft, according to Neihart, is to obtain expendable cash without “rais-ing any red flags with their folks.”
“Whether it’s five dollars or two hundred dollars, stealing is stealing. It’s not [about] amount so much as it’s about intent,” Neihart said.
The consequences for students caught stealing are the same, no mat-ter the item or amount of money sto-len. Consequences involve: suspen-sion, restitution, and a pre-expulsion hearing. Whether the thief gets ex-pelled depends on his or her previous discipline record.
“It’s the type of character we are looking at. Is [theft] what we want to subject our students to? If their con-science allows them to do that, are we the right place for them?”
BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING. Actual images from security cameras. There are 73 surveillance cameras in high school alone, not including the performing centers and theaters. Since 2010, 55 lost items have been reported - mostly handphones and wallets. However, 109 items have been returned to the office - including 26 handphones, 42 wallets and 16 laptops.
Egyptian Ratscrew. Awesome. Crazy. Hummus. Enlightening. Learning about different cultures. Spectacular. Eating weird food. Cold. Breathtaking. Shopping. Going on an adventure. Exhilarating. Meeting new people. Shopping. Go-ing camping for the first time. Sightseeing. Jaw-dropping. Overcoming fears. Wild animals everywhere. Singing on the bus. Peeing in the wilderness. Love. Bonding. Red bull. Holiday. Sun. Rain. Snow. Tanning. Hot chocolate. Fun. Humiliating. Playing with kids. Educationally stimulating. Squatty potties. Planes. Trains. Automobiles. Once in a life-time opportunity. Smelly. Luscious. Insane. Cool. Sleeping in other people’s homes. Visas. Jetlag. Tiring. Cross pre-carious bridges that could break at any point. Camping in tents. Egyptian Ratscrew. Awesome. Crazy. Hummus. En-lightening. Learning about different cultures. Spectacular. Eating weird food. Cold. Breathtaking. Shopping. Going on an adventure. Exhilarating. Meeting new people. Shopping. Going camping for the first time. Sightseeing. Jaw-drop-ping. Overcoming fears. Wild animals everywhere. Singing on the bus. Peeing in the wilderness. Love. Bonding. Red bull. Holiday. Sun. Rain. Snow. Tanning. Hot chocolate. Fun. Humiliating. Playing with kids. Educationally stimulating. Squatty potties. Planes. Trains. Automobiles. Once in a lifetime opportunity. Smelly. Luscious. any point. Camping in tents. Egyptian Ratscrew. Awesome. Crazy. Hummus. Shopping. Humus. Learning about different cultures. Spectacu-lar. Eating weird food. Cold. Breathtaking. Shopping. Spending time. Meeting new people. Shopping. Going camp-ing for the first time. Sightseing. Overcoming. Wild fun. everywhere. Singing on the bus. Peeing in the wilderness. Love. Bonding. Red bull. Holiday. Sun. Rain. Snow. Tanning. Hot chocolate. Fun. Humiliating. Playing with kids. Edu-cationally stimulating. Squatty potties. Planes. Trains. Automobiles. Once in a lifetime opportunity. Smelly. Luscious. Insane. Cool. Sleeping in other people’s homes. Visas. Jetlag. Tiring. Cross precarious bridges that could break at any point. Camping in tents. Egyptian Ratscrew. Awesome. Crazy. Hummus. Enlightening. Learning about different cul-tures. Spectacular. Eating weird food. Cold. Breathtaking. Shopping. Going on an adventure. Exhilarating. Meeting new people. Shopping. Going camping for the first time. Sightseeing. Jaw-dropping. Overcoming fears. Wild animals everywhere. Singing on the bus. Peeing in the wilderness. Love. Bonding. Red bull. Holiday. Sun. Rain. Snow. Tan-ning. Hot chocolate. Fun. Humiliating. Playing with kids. Educationally stimulating. Squatty potties. Planes. Trains. Automobiles. Once in a lifetime opportunity. Smelly. Luscious. Insane. Cool. Sleeping in other people’s homes. Visas. Jetlag. Tiring. Cross precarious bridges that coulfood. Cold. Breathtaking. Shopping. Going on an adventure. Ex-hilarating. Meeting new people. Shopping. Going camping for the first time. Sightseeing. Jaw-dropping. rshat could break at any point. Camping in tents. Egyptian Ratscrew. Awesome. Crazy. Hummus. Enlightening.ning different cul-tures. Spectacular. Eating weird food. Cold. Breathtaking. Shopping. Going on an adventure. eting new people. Shd break at any point. Camping in tents. Egyptian Ratscrew. Awesome. Crazy. Hummus. Enlighten differeird food. Cold. Breathtaking. Shopping. Going on an adventure. Exhilarating.g new hopping. Going camping for ime. . Jaw-dropping. Overcoming fears. Wild animals everywhere. Singing on the bus. Peeing in the wilderness. Abseiling. Doing thing’s I never thought I’d do. Sleeping under the stars. Listening to music on busrides. Making best friends. Riding ostriches. Eating the same food but not getting sick of it. Moment when you’re at the top of the mountain. Love. Awesome
6 March 8, 2011the eye
By Hannah L’Heureux and Becky Kreutter
This year there were a total of 43 different interim trips available to high school students. Students could pick from trips in Africa, Asia, Amer-ica, Singapore, the Middle East, Aus-tralia and New Zealand.
Egypt was a popular choice, but that trip was cancelled at the last minute due to political unrest in the country. The students got to choose instead from either Italy, Greece or Vienna-Budapest. Apart from some minor illnesses and injuries everyone came back to Singapore safe and with unforgettable stories to tell.
Trouble in Tanzania
In Tanzaniak 20 students sat around a campfire telling stories. As chatted, their guide pointed to an el-ephant standing by a tree. Because it was dark, the guide shined a flashlight in its direction.
Elephants tend to be very territo-rial animals, and something as little as as a flashlight can seem threatening to these massive creatures. The elephant started making its way towards the frightened safariers. As it got closer, they could tell that t
his elephant had only one tusk, an indication she had been in many fights and was more aggressive than most elephants. Fearing the elephant migh charge, sponsors shuffled stu-dents aboard a nearby bus.
“ Mr. early got very stern and kept
saying ‘back up, back up, back up,’” senior Taylor Baildon said. “ I was scared and the first one on the truck!”
A Queen’s Greeting in Bhutan
Across the Indian Ocean in Bhu-tan, students were touring a fertility temple when they bumped into one of the four queens of the country. She was there to have her first niece blessed.
“She was exactly what I expected a queen to be like - humble but au-thoritative,” senior Kelsey LaBranche said. “I can definitely see why the people of Bhutan look up to her so much.”
All the students got the chance to shake her hand and have one-on-one conversations with her. Unexpected Guests in India
The rain and hail proved to be a plan changer for the Interim group in Dharamsala, India. After a few hours of delay they were told that their hik-ing would be canceled for the day. By nighttime, their tents began to flood, some almost an inch deep in water in some places, and their clothes were getting wet. They asked a local family if they could stay in their three bed-room house.
“We all crammed into their three room house, which now contained our 22-person group and the nor-mal family which was large to begin with,” sophomore Brett Nelson said.
FIELD OF DREAMS. Junior Ciaran Ross basks in the Hawaii sun on the Hawaii Island Biogeography interim. Photo by Toby Ringheim
Bag Trouble in Australia
The 30 minute flight delay from Australia to New Zealand proved to be a much bigger problem for the Routburn Trek interim when they landed in New Zealand only to find that all 22 bags were lost along the way.
For the people who packed all their trekking material in their suit-case, a lost bag could really put a damper on the next few days of hik-ing. Luckily for the students they were reimbursed 200 dollars per hour the bag was not returned to them. The maximum amount of money any-one could receive was 1,500 dollars. Those students who never got their bags returned, rented hiking gear and clothing so they could continue with their trip.
Sickness in Syria
Students on the Syrian trip passed around a stomach flu that affected 15 or 17 students and one sponsor over the nine days of the trip.
Senior Viraj Bindra was sick for the last three days of his trip. When his plane stopped over in Dubai, Bindra chose to leave the flight and stay there with his father, who was on a business trip, to recover. He rested for two days before returning to Sin-gapore.
Stalked in South Africa
Along with lions, elephants and
giraffes, baboons were a frequent sighting for the travelers on South Africa’s Kruger National Park in-terim. While most of the group found the encounters exciting, senior Haani Mazari’s was a frightening one.
As she was going to the bath-room, one of the curious, but poten-tially dangerous, baboons followed her in. The baboon scratched on her locked stall for 15 minutes before it went away.
“I thought it would jump in, but I didn’t know what else to do,” Mazari said.
Some students have a little too much
As always, some interim travel-ers this year participated in drink-ing, smoking and sneaking out. In a survey sent out by the Eye a total of 16 people, or four percent of the 426 participants, admitted to drinking on interim while 18 percent confirmed that someone on their trip drank. But if the rumors floating around school are to be believed, the actual number of people who drank is much higher.
New this year was the introduc-tion of Spice as a way to misbehave over interim. Spice, a type of synthet-ic cannabis, is currently legal in the United States although the FDA is de-bating its legality. In survey respons-es, four people said they smoked Spice over interim. When asked if someone on their trip smoked spice
11 people, or three percent, responded affirmatively.
Eight percent said they sneaked out and three percent said they smoked smoked cigarettes or shisha. As always, the number of seniors who admitted to drinking on this survey outweighed the number of students from other grades - 11 seniors com-pared to a combined 5 students from other grades.
Freshmen claimed the number two position according to the survey, with the junior class winning best behaved spot with 91 out of 98 respondents, or 93 percent, saying they did not drink, smoke or sneak out over Interim.
When talking with students who participated in these activities about why they did so, many commented on the wealth of free time and avail-ability of alcohol and tobacco. Lax enforcement of contracts may also have contributed; 18 people said their sponsors did not care if they broke contract.
Smoking rooms in hotels also helped students break contract. Some students hid their activities in rooms that already smelled of smoke from past inhabitants.
But not all students escaped de-tection. Administrators caught at least nine participants, three from an Asian trip and six from a European trip. Most received in-school suspension and loss of next year’s Interim. [email protected]
At interim journeys end, students boast of new skills, great adventures along with usual tales of misadventure
Egyptian Ratscrew. Awesome. Crazy. Hummus. Enlightening. Learning about different cultures. Spectacular. Eating weird food. Cold. Breathtaking. Shopping. Going on an adventure. Exhilarating. Meeting new people. Shopping. Go-ing camping for the first time. Sightseeing. Jaw-dropping. Overcoming fears. Wild animals everywhere. Singing on the bus. Peeing in the wilderness. Love. Bonding. Red bull. Holiday. Sun. Rain. Snow. Tanning. Hot chocolate. Fun. Humiliating. Playing with kids. Educationally stimulating. Squatty potties. Planes. Trains. Automobiles. Once in a life-time opportunity. Smelly. Luscious. Insane. Cool. Sleeping in other people’s homes. Visas. Jetlag. Tiring. Cross pre-carious bridges that could break at any point. Camping in tents. Egyptian Ratscrew. Awesome. Crazy. Hummus. En-lightening. Learning about different cultures. Spectacular. Eating weird food. Cold. Breathtaking. Shopping. Going on an adventure. Exhilarating. Meeting new people. Shopping. Going camping for the first time. Sightseeing. Jaw-drop-ping. Overcoming fears. Wild animals everywhere. Singing on the bus. Peeing in the wilderness. Love. Bonding. Red bull. Holiday. Sun. Rain. Snow. Tanning. Hot chocolate. Fun. Humiliating. Playing with kids. Educationally stimulating. Squatty potties. Planes. Trains. Automobiles. Once in a lifetime opportunity. Smelly. Luscious. any point. Camping in tents. Egyptian Ratscrew. Awesome. Crazy. Hummus. Shopping. Humus. Learning about different cultures. Spectacu-lar. Eating weird food. Cold. Breathtaking. Shopping. Spending time. Meeting new people. Shopping. Going camp-ing for the first time. Sightseing. Overcoming. Wild fun. everywhere. Singing on the bus. Peeing in the wilderness. Love. Bonding. Red bull. Holiday. Sun. Rain. Snow. Tanning. Hot chocolate. Fun. Humiliating. Playing with kids. Edu-cationally stimulating. Squatty potties. Planes. Trains. Automobiles. Once in a lifetime opportunity. Smelly. Luscious. Insane. Cool. Sleeping in other people’s homes. Visas. Jetlag. Tiring. Cross precarious bridges that could break at any point. Camping in tents. Egyptian Ratscrew. Awesome. Crazy. Hummus. Enlightening. Learning about different cul-tures. Spectacular. Eating weird food. Cold. Breathtaking. Shopping. Going on an adventure. Exhilarating. Meeting new people. Shopping. Going camping for the first time. Sightseeing. Jaw-dropping. Overcoming fears. Wild animals everywhere. Singing on the bus. Peeing in the wilderness. Love. Bonding. Red bull. Holiday. Sun. Rain. Snow. Tan-ning. Hot chocolate. Fun. Humiliating. Playing with kids. Educationally stimulating. Squatty potties. Planes. Trains. Automobiles. Once in a lifetime opportunity. Smelly. Luscious. Insane. Cool. Sleeping in other people’s homes. Visas. Jetlag. Tiring. Cross precarious bridges that coulfood. Cold. Breathtaking. Shopping. Going on an adventure. Ex-hilarating. Meeting new people. Shopping. Going camping for the first time. Sightseeing. Jaw-dropping. rshat could break at any point. Camping in tents. Egyptian Ratscrew. Awesome. Crazy. Hummus. Enlightening.ning different cul-tures. Spectacular. Eating weird food. Cold. Breathtaking. Shopping. Going on an adventure. eting new people. Shd break at any point. Camping in tents. Egyptian Ratscrew. Awesome. Crazy. Hummus. Enlighten differeird food. Cold. Breathtaking. Shopping. Going on an adventure. Exhilarating.g new hopping. Going camping for ime. . Jaw-dropping. Overcoming fears. Wild animals everywhere. Singing on the bus. Peeing in the wilderness. Abseiling. Doing thing’s I never thought I’d do. Sleeping under the stars. Listening to music on busrides. Making best friends. Riding ostriches. Eating the same food but not getting sick of it. Moment when you’re at the top of the mountain. Love. Awesome
7the eyeMarch 8, 2011
It was Saturday morning, Jan. 29, the weekend before interim se-mester, and an email from the the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS), sat in deputy principal Doug Neihart’s inbox. It relayed informa-tion from the U.S. State Department in Cairo that the internet and phone lines were down in Egypt. It was at this point that the decision was made to cancel the Egypt interim trip. The school would not send a group of
students to a country without reliable means of communication.
This wasn’t the first time an in-terim trip was cancelled due to secu-rity issues. In the past, interim trips to Sri Lanka, Nepal, and India have either been cancelled or came close to it. What is unique about this year’s cancellation is that it was the first one caused by a Digital Revolution.
Digital Revolutions aren’t new and some of the earliest did not in-
volve the social networking sites like Facebook or Twitter. Instead, popular uprisings, such as those in the Phil-ippines and Spain during the early 2000s, were organized via SMS or text messaging.
Not until the Myanmar protests in 2008 was there significant use of internet when bloggers posted photos and videos of the monks as well as the military response to the protests. Twitter gained recognition when Ira-
nians protested alleged election fraud by President Ahmedinejad. Both of these revolutions, however, failed as the governments in Myanmar and Iran responded using force and dis-rupting the internet.
On January 28, it was thought that the protests in Egypt would also end when the military replaced the police in the street and when the gov-ernment severed the country’s inter-net connections, depriving protesters of Facebook – a tool they had used to organize and coordinate their move-ments and activities
The protests continued, however. The military remained neutral, con-tent with defending Ancient Egyptian treasures in the National Museum and serving as entry guards to Tahrir Square, checking for knives, firearms, and explosive devices. Five days lat-er, Egypt was back online.
Many of the protesters were tech-savy youths who knew how to use Fa-cebook to mobilize groups of people.
Organizers, still unsatisfied by President Mubarak’s promise to not seek re-election, launched a Face-book event called the “March of a Million”, vowing to continue until Mubarak resigned.
Not only did Facebook help or-ganize the protesters but, as The New
“I’ve never done a hike like that before, it completely changed my view of how I
see the world.”-Sophomore Klara Auerbach
“I wrestled an elephant, saving our en-tire trip from the wild ferocious beast.”
-Senior Nate Roberts
“Abseiling was probably the most daunting thing I’ve ever done.”
-Junior Stephen Long
“Never have I ever seen a cock fight before. It was pretty gruesome.”-Sophomore Christopher Couch
By Anbita SiregarSenior Iby Shalabi signed up for
Syria. He was later moved to the Egypt trip. Three days before In-terim Semester began, the Egypt trip was cancelled and Shalabi was given three choices of trips. He could not go on any of them. Instead, on Feb 3, he boarded a plane to Capetown.
A few weeks after interim se-mester registration on Oct. 20, Syria interim co-sponsor Ian Coppell told Shalabi the embassy in Kuala Lumpur would not accept his Maldivian pass-port.
“Mr. Coppell called the embassy, but they wouldn’t tell him why they denied me a visa to Syria,” Shalabi said.
In November, Shalabi was sent to Deputy Principal Doug Neihart and was reassigned to go to Egypt.
Riots broke out in Egypt in Janu-ary, and that interim was cancelled. The 20 students signed up on that trip attended a meeting where they were given their alternate choices of trips: Greece, Italy or Vienna-Budapest. All of those countries required pre-approved visas. There was no time to apply with the departure date just around the corner.
“It takes five days to get a visa [for
a Maldivian passport holder], and we were leaving in three days,” Shalabi said.
Shalabi was sent to Neihart again and was given three more choices of trips: Cambodia, Sri Lanka, and In-dia. Shalabi said he did not like any of those, and Neihart went to work to find one he did.
“He convinced [Dr. Kim Melsom] to add me on the South Africa: Cape and Coast trip,” Shalabi said.
The first Thursday back from In-terim, Coppell told Shalabi why the Syrian Embassy would not accept his passport. A question on the visa request form asked ‘Have you ever been to Occupied Palestine?” mean-ing Israel.
Shalabi had visited had visited rel-atives in the West Bank and checked the “Yes” box, which is unoccupied Palestine.
“If I had checked the ‘No’ box in-stead, I would’ve gotten into Syria,” Shalabi said.
After returning from South Af-rica, Shalabi said he didn’t mind not going to Syria.
“I guess all bad luck turns into good luck.”
Third time’s a charmDenied a Syrian passport, Shalabi opts for Egypt only to encounter revolution
TWICE SPURNED. Senior Iby Shalabi rides an ostrich during the South Africa Cape and Coast interim. Shalabi lost two interim spots before landing this one. Photo by Ali (trip guide)
CAIRO, EGYPT - FEBRUARY 03: An anti-government demonstrator holds a sign during clashes on February 3, 2011 in Cairo, Egypt. Initial protests against the government were organized on internet social media. The Egyptian army posi-tioned tanks between the protesters during a second day of violent skirmishes in and around Tahrir Square in Cairo. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)
Great Interim Moments
York Times reported, Egyptians also used these social media sites to de-fend themselves from tear gas and rubber bullets, receiving advice from Tunisian contacts who just weeks ear-lier also ousted their President.
Though there were a handful of deaths, it was a peaceful protest by most accounts and by February 11, Mubarak had relinquished control to the military, ending over 30 decades of rule. Egypt was euphoric.
News networks soon debated the true role of social networking and their contribution to the protests. Facebook was widely praised for helping the revolution but Facebook itself downplayed its part in the pro-tests, saying, “technology was a vital tool…but we believe bravery and de-termination mattered most.” In post-Mubarak Egypt, one couple named their newborn daughter Facebook Jamal Ibrahim, underling the role of the site.
Other Middle Eastern and North African countries are now using the Tunisian and Egyptian examples as models for their own protests. Citi-zens of Libya, Algeria, Yemen, and even wealthy Bahrain are protesting in the streets also calling for the re-form and democracy.
Digital Revolutionspoils interim for
20, but inspires millions in cry for
end to tyranny By Leonel De Velez
Cebu, Philippines House building
New Zealand’s Routebourn Trek
Western Australia
Tanzania
8 March 8, 2011the eye
MONKS WITH GUNS. Young monks playfully point toy guns at passers by during the Punakha Festival in Bhutan, but hide them quickly as elder monks approach them. Simplicity is the key to Bud-dhism so even the little boys are not allowed to play with material goods. Photo by Emma O’Connell
LIKE HUMAN, LIKE OSTRICH. Senior Klevrin Sitohang rides a reckless ostrich in South Africa. Klevrin and his new feathery friend sport matching facial expressions. Photo by Jennie Park
SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE? Break dance troop leader shows his audience how to “break it down” in the streets of Austria. Photo by Forrest York
CAMELING DOWN MEMORY LANE. Members of the Syria Interim trip take a camel ride through ruins in Pamyra. The sceneic stop was the final destination on the Middle Eastern excursion.Photo by Viraj Bindra
CLIMBING HIGH. Sophomore Katie Lewis rebels against the guides wishes and climbs this tower-ing tree with the village children in Dharamsala. Photo by Erica Huston
DROP AND ROLL. Senior Alex Amstrup tumbles down a sand dune after loosing his balance while sandboarding in Oman. Photo by Tom Fenton
ARABIAN DAYS. Seniors Caroline Barrett and Kisha Carpio get dressed in traditional Bedouin garbs to pose with a Bedouin family. Photo by Tom Fenton
In Pictures: 31 Countries, 168 Hours, 1154 Memories
HIGH AND WILD. Junior Maya Kale abseils down a cliff in Western Australia. Photo by Lucy Howard
9the eyeMarch 8, 2011
by Ash Oberoi“I started playing the piano when I was
five years old, and I love it because I can com-pletely immerse myself in it and I feel so free when I play,” junior Shruti Jayakumar said.
Jayakumar said that she had a three-month long period during which her dream was to be a pianist; she attended a summer program where she studied music and said she enjoyed it im-mensely.
But, Jayakumar said that it is not a career that she would ever approach, because of the instability and low compensation that she be-lieves go hand-in-hand with being a pianist.
Realistically, Jayakumar said that she would like to be a doctor because she likes bi-ology, is an extrovert and can relate to people.
Students search for talents, skills that offer chance of turning the things they enjoy doing into careers
Separating Dreams From Reality
“Dreams are different from reality. And being a doctor is what I’m going to be. And that’s [the] r e -ality. But it would be re-ally cool if I could be a pianist,” J a y a k u m a r said.
Figuring out who you are and what you want in life can be an arduous and time-
consuming process; high school students face the brunt of hav-ing to answer the ques-tion “Who am I?”
Some students find relief in having one particular talent or pas-sion that they transcend, while others link them-selves to various activities that they enjoy.
“I enjoy doing a lot of different things, and I’m not the best at [any of] them, but I still like doing them,” junior Nastassja Suri
said.Suri, who is currently on the varsity
tennis team, loves swimming and horse-back riding; she is also the president of the service club HOPE.
“I enjoy playing certain sports and partaking in clubs, but I’m not plan-
ning on doing any of these things professionally in the future,”
Suri said. Unlike Suri,
however, some students focus all or most of their attention and energy on one acquired skill that they aspire to make a career of. Junior Jacqui Geday said her love for theatre has helped shape
her interest in show busi-ness.
“It’s not really drama per se, it’s more of the enter-
tainment industry that I really want to excel in,” Geday said.
Geday said she has been fascinated with drama since she
was very young. She attributes her passion to hours of movie-watching which explains her fascination with mov-ie facts.
Geday is a member of Thespians, and has played
roles in the high school productions: “Complete Works of Shakespeare
(Abridged)” and “Scenes and Monologues”.
Senior Alex Couch, who is in the same position as Ge- d a y , said her love of music was inspired by her father, who played the piano and guitar for her when she was a little girl.
Couch said she loves listening to the calm-ing sounds that are fashioned by a few effort-less keys or chords when she plays.
Geday and Couch represent a small number of high school students who have one clear talent and one clear pas-sion. Filled with countless opportuni-ties and choices, most students struggle to find their niche in a school like SAS.
Junior Katy Thieneman said that since she doesn’t have a single talent that she surpasses others in, choosing a career is difficult. “I don’t really think that I have one good skill and, yeah, it does [bother me],” Thieneman said.
Thieneman said that her career path is consistently changing, but at the moment she’s considering a profession in business or finance.
“At school the only subject [that] I really like is math, and I know there’s a lot of math involved in business,” Thieneman said.
Thieneman also enjoys dabbling with sci-ence, tennis, dance and reading. However, she said that none of these pastimes will make for a pragmatic career in the future.
“For me, [the most important factor when choosing a career path], is being happy with what I’m doing. I’d rather make a thousand dollars less doing something that I love, than try to make a million,” Thieneman said.
I’d rather make a thou-sand dollars less doing something I love, than try to make a million.
“
“- junior Katy Thieneman
by Gretchen ConnickWith the earlier than expected absence of
high school dance teacher, Tracy Van der Lin-den, two substitutes have large shoes to fill.
Karen Lacey, dancer and friend of Van der Linden, has taken over teaching the high school dance classes while middle school teacher, Heather Rodocker, has taken on the challenge of coaching IASAS Dance.
“The IASAS dancers are a strong group and will do really well with Mrs.R, and my DP class are also a wonderful and experi-enced group who will lead the second semes-ter dance show with ease under the direction of Ms.Lacey,”Van Der Linden responded in an email.
Lacey has been dancing since the age of four and has been a dancer, teacher and chore-ographer in the UK and Europe. She said the differences in her and Van der Linden’s back-grounds is what makes them different teachers. Despite this, the course content for this years remains the same and the students are doing the same work they will do with Van der Linden.
While not coaching the dancers involved in IASAS Cultural, Lacey assisted Rodocker by being a part of the audition panel that select-ed this year’s dancers. Lacey said that she was able to be involved in helping the team decide what they would like to say with their piece.
“From a talent point of view, they are a team of strong technical dancers and they are
Two Teachers, One Big Job
Graphics by
Sophia Cheng
In a school full of creativity and competi-tiveness, most students struggle to find a talent they can call their ‘best’.
“I don’t think that being the best matters. [You should] do it because you love to do it,” senior Issa Antonio said.
Dance teacher’s early maternity leave causes a premature switch in teacher and coach
POINT YOUR TOES. Seniors Karisa Sukamto, Courtney Poli and Sophomores Melody Suzuki, Naina Mullick pay close attention to dance teacher Karen Lacey on how to execute their next dance moves. Photo by Gretchen Connick.
by Alex Wong, Eye OnlineWith the increased use of laptops on campus, students
and the administration are questioning where the line should be drawn about student misuse of the Internet. Ac-cording to Technology Coordinator Jay Atwood, the most significant issue, by far, is peer-to-peer file sharing (P2P). As of November 27, Atwood reports over 114 cases “in addition the the four today.”
Sharing via Bit Torrent, colloquially known as “tor-renting,” alludes to a torrential rain. Torrents work by con-necting a user to thousands of others online, sharing bits of files from seeders – those who have the file – to leachers – those who are downloading it.
Atwood said that when a student torrents, he or she connects to thousands of others all over the world, clog-ging the school’s bandwidth. He said that the difference between downloading from a single host site such as iTunes is exponentially smaller than that of torrents, sim-ply because of the high number of connections torrents make.
Because users are downloading media protected by in-ternational copyright laws, torrenting is illegal. Although not all media or software is copyrighted, the main purpose of torrenting is to acquire media and software without paying for it.
Atwood said that the IT department is aggressively tar-geting torrenting because it is illegal and it slows down the school’s network. He said it is important, too, that students understand the ethical issues involved.
“You wouldn’t even think of walking into a shop, pick-ing up a DVD and walking out because that’s theft; that’s stealing,” Atwood said. “Torrenting and downloading the
latest episode of ‘Gossip Girl,’ or movies, or music, or software is the same thing. It feels different, but it is theft.”
Monday, or the day after a break or day off is the busi-est day for students using torrents. Atwood said the most common excuse he hears from students is, “I forgot to turn it off.”
Once notified that a P2P sharing program is in use, Atwood immediately blacklists the user, cutting off all In-ternet privileges. Next, an email is sent out to the student, his or her counselor, the principal and the teacher whose class he or she was in at the time. Asked about the irony of sending an email to someone without Internet access, he replied that the email is “a digital paper trail,” more for documentation than for notification.
When a student violator walks in, Atwood begins by showing a visualization of the system output when the stu-dent began torrenting. Most cases involve between 2000 to 5000 connections, which makes for an extremely long list. Next, he explains the implications of downloading copyrighted material.
Finally, he deletes the student’s torrenting program. Atwood believes that he has the right to remove the stu-dent’s program.
“While you’re at school you give up certain rights be-cause you should be doing school related things.”
Since the program was free to download, it is of no financial loss to the student. After the second offence, a student is banned from the network for two weeks. A third offence results in a five week ban, a fourth gets a semester ban.
Torrenters targeted By IT Department
strong choreographically and creatively,” Lac-ey said.
Along with Lacey, Rodocker is helping the high school dancers during the time of Van der Linden’s absence. Rodocker fell in love with dance after an injury ended her gymnastics ca-reer in middle school. It is her first time coach-ing IASAS Dance and she said that she loves it.
“I’m a middle school teacher at heart, but it’s really nice to work with high school,” Ro-docker said. “The level of technique and lan-guage for the art form and level of responsibil-ity is much higher.”
Rodocker said she has seen many of the same students in middle school and that she en-joys seeing them in high school and witnessing how they have grown. Rodocker admits that she would love to jump in and help the team with their choreography, but says that it is re-ally about letting the students find and create their own piece.
So far the team’s dance is a “rough skele-ton,” but they are doing a great job considering their change in themes after one week of work, according to Rodocker.
“I am really proud of the kids. They have handled a lot of challenges with Mrs.V being gone early. They have done a great job just jumping in and rolling with it. It is a tight team effort.”
IT department not content with banning students from internet access, forces students to delete any found P2P sharing program on personal computers
10March 8, 2011the eye
Monsoons & Medals
SQUEEGEE TIME. SAS boys varsity player Kartik Das and SAS girls varsity captain Sophia Cheng dry the courts after being delayed by intermitent rain that day. Photo by Leonel De Velez
by Hannah L’HeureuxSingapore’s monsoon season
proved to be a bigger problem than expected during the three-day IASAS tennis tournament held at the United World College (UWCSEA) campus in Singapore. The rain was relentless and the only refuge for players and coaches was under awnings set up around the courts, where they huddled to keep dry.
On Saturday, the final day, after constant interruptions due to rain, the finals and consolation matches were canceled. The scores from games played were added, awarding first place to the International School of Manila (ISM) girls and International School of Kula Lumpur (ISKL) boys. The Eagle girls ended with bronze, while the boys took 5th place.
IASAS teams were doing their best to knock the Eagles girls’ and boys’ basketball teams off the first place pedestal they had occupied to-gether for two years, but to no avail.
Both teams won all five of their tournament games at ISM and moved onto the finals. The girls crushed the Jakarta International School (JIS) in their final game, 63-39. The boys’ game against ISKL was close, but SAS won 69-60. The Eagle girls took double gold for the third year in a row,
the boys for the fourth. The Eagles swimmers competed
at ISKL placing in the top once more. The boys’ team took silver with 341 overall points. Freshman Kei Hygo broke an IASAS record for the boys’ 800 meter freestyle. The girls took gold with 372 overall points, making this the 15th year in a row that girls have won gold.
Over in Taipei, Rugby and Touch IASAS was being played. The girls finished in fifth with a 2-2-2 record though they let in less total tries than the first place team, ISM. After losing more than half their team, the boys’ rugby team was one of the youngest in tournament. Nonetheless, they fin-ished strongly in 3rd place. After two losses the first day, the boys won their next four games, beating ISKL 12-0 in the consolation game.
SAS did not host a single IASAS sport on campus this year. Tennis was held at UWC because SAS does not have the 8 courts required by IASAS rules. SAS will not host another IASAS sport until first season next year, the 30th anniversary of IASAS, where they will host all three sports (soccer, volleyball and cross country) at one campus.
Tennis players copes with monsoon deluge, bag a bronze, rugby teams search for tries, bag a bronze, swimming brings home gold and silver, basketball a double gold
Boys
1. JIS2. TAS3. SAS4. ISKL5. ISB6. ISM
Boys
1. ISKL2. JIS3. ISM4. ISB5. SAS6. TAS
Boys
1. SAS2. ISKL3. ISM4. ISB5. TAS6. JIS
Boys
1. ISB2. SAS3. TAS4. ISM5. JIS6. ISKL
Girls
1. ISM2. ISB3. TAS4. JIS5. SAS6. ISKL
Girls
1. ISM2. ISB3. SAS4. TAS5. ISKL6. JIS
Girls
1. SAS2. JIS3. ISB4. TAS5. ISM6. ISKL
Girls
1. SAS2. ISKL3. ISM4. TAS5. JIS6. ISM
Rugby/Touch
Tennis
Basketball
Swimming
A STRONG SUPPORT. Junior Ciaran Ross lifts junior Scott Rozen-Levy into the air to catch a inbound pass over the KL Panther’s outstretched arms. The boys played KL twice on Satur-day beating them both times to take 3rd place. Photo by Erma Huston
SECONDS TO SPARE. Sophomore Atikah Scott celebrates as senior Becky Kreutter focuses on scoring the try. In the last 30 seconds of the game Scott passed to Kreutter to score the girl Eagles only try against Bangkok’s Panthers. Photo by Holly Kreutter
GO GIRLS GO! Ten percent physical, 90 percent mental. Senior varsity captain Therese Vainius finishes a race in ISKL. Vanius wrapped up her IASAS career with two golds, two silvers and a bronze.
HEAD IN THE GAME. Senior Matt Crema and junior Jack McCabe fight for the ball during a game against ISB in Manila. Photo by Maria Crema