December 2018 by Sage Hill School

The

BOLT

Instagram: @shspublications

December 2018 Volume 19, Issue 4 lightningboltonline.com Sage Hill School 20402 Newport Coast Drive, Newport Coast, CA 92657

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Opening the Lightning Locker ‘A central location for everyone on campus to buy spirit wear, gifts and other branded items’ Alexis Kelly and Adam Hung The Lightning Locker, a new student store located in the Lipman Family Lobby of the Ube Gymnasium, is anticipated to open Dec. 11. By giving students easier access to clothing and other spirit items, the store will allow the Sage community to show some school pride on and off of campus. “This store will sell Sage Hill spirit wear like T-shirts, sweatshirts, and hats as well as other logo merchandise like drinkware, blankets, bags and more,” Dean of Student Life Dominic Campeau said. The idea of the store is meant to be fun and exciting, and to inspire students to show off their school spirit by wearing Sage clothes and using Sage accessories. Although students have been able to buy these items in the past, the opportunities to do so were previously limited to the online store and select sporting events on campus, such as the Homecoming football game. The decision to begin a store on campus was largely influenced by suggestions to make school spirit wear more accessible, especially for the students not involved in sports and clubs that have their own uniforms and spirit items. “We are building the Lightning Locker to make it easier and more convenient for students and families to purchase Sage Hill branded merchandise,” Head of School Patricia Merz said. “In the past, Sage Hill logo merchandise was only available to purchase online or at select school events. By creating a store, we will have a central location for everyone on campus to buy spirit wear, gifts and other branded items.” While having a store on campus will certainly make buying Sage merchandise more

Alicia Theologides-Rodriguez | The Bolt

Sage Hill’s new school store, the Lightning Locker, is holding its grand opening on Dec. 11. The store is filled with all kinds of apparel, logo merchandise and snacks for students and the rest of the community to purchase. convenient, the planning team recognizes that not everyone will be able to access it. As a result, they plan to provide alternative ways in which students and their families can purchase the new items. “In addition to the physical store, we will also have a new online store for friends, family, alumni and others who cannot come to campus to purchase their Sage Hill merchandise,” Campeau said. The new online store can be found at www.sagehillschoolstore.com.

In conjunction with the new Sage Hill Spirit Club, which meets at major Sage sports games, the store is part of a school-wide movement to increase both support for Sage’s sports teams and overall enthusiasm for the school. “I think it’s so great that they’re redoing the store. I think that they have some great ideas and it seems like they are getting a lot of students involved,” senior Paige Czepiel said. The store will also be working with the Spirit Wear Club to

ensure that students are involved in decisions about the products that the store chooses to sell. From voting on the name of the store to influencing its merchandise, Sage is making sure to take into account the voices of its community every step of the way. “The Lightning Locker will sell items that students want to purchase,” Merz said. Chief Financial Officer Jill Livermore is one of the leaders of this project and has provided guidance to all of the members of the community that have de-

cided to get involved. She is excited to be able to get involved with the students and make her mark on campus during her first year working at Sage. “I’m happy that this project has given me an opportunity to work more closely with Sage Hill students to help them bring their concepts for Sage Hill clothing and gift items to the entire student body,” Livermore said. Students and their families can look forward to many aspects of the new student store and its efforts to raise morale and school spirit.

IN THE

“

ARTS

You get to know the people who raised your parents. ” – Grace McNeill

Editorial, Page 2

News, Page 3

”

Music, Dance & Choral Community, Page 4

Soccer and Basketball Heat Up Sports, Page 6

Opinion, Page 8

The Bolt December 2018 Sage Hill School

Editorial

Youth and Healthcare: Why We Need to Care When young people are engaged in politics, they typically focus on social issues while older people tend to focus on fiscal issues, such as taxes, national debt and healthcare. However, it is very important that young people, young voters in particular, know about these issues and the policies related to them, especially those regarding healthcare, because they have a bigger impact on us than we think. The healthcare debate goes back about ten years ago, when Democrat Barack Obama was running for presidency against Republican John McCain. During his campaign, Obama widely discussed his plan to expand healthcare coverage to young people, as the uninsured rate among nonelderly people was nearly 18 percent (Kff.org). After being elected and sworn in, Obama’s healthcare plan, known as the Affordable Care Act or ObamaCare, began the formal legislative process to go into effect. With a safe Democratic majority in the House and a filibuster-proof majority of 60 in the Senate, Obama signed the Affordable Care Act into action in 2010 (Forbes.com). During his eight years in office, the uninsured rate among the nonelderly population went from a record high of 18 percent to a record low of 10 percent in 2016. Furthermore, the Affordable Care Act slowed the rise

Camille Hansen for The Bolt

of healthcare costs, established coverage for pre-existing conditions and, most significantly for young people, allowed children to stay on their parents plan until age 26. Coverage among people between the ages of 19-25 increased by 5.5 million people from 2010 to September 2015, and it’s likely that 2.3 million of those people gained access because they could be added to a parent’s plan. Yet, Republican lawmakers cumulatively pushed over 60 unsuccessful congressional votes in the past ten years to get rid of the Affordable Care Act. The fundamentals behind the Affordable Care Act – that wealthier Americans who can afford to buy insurance straight from providers are charged higher premiums to

THE BOLT

he Bolt, published seven times a year, is a student newspaper and serves the public forum at Sage Hill School. Its content - news, editorial, opinion, and feature - is protected by Education Code 48907, the state student rights law and the California Constitution which guarantees all citizens the right of freedom of speech and of the press. The Bolt accepts signed letters to the editor from members of the Sage Hill Community which may be posted as comments to our website, lightningboltonline.com, or addressed to editor-in-chief Hannah Woodworth and put in her mailbox on campus. These letters may not exceed 150 words or they will be edited for inclusion. Editors-in-Chief Halah Biviji (Storm), Daniel Fishman (Online), Madison Harris-Weiner (Bolt), Sarah Kim (Storm), Hannah Woodworth (Bolt) Editorial Board Lily Button, Miranda deBruyne, Karli Davis, Alexis Kelly, Trevor Klein, Sydney McCord, Cammi Phillips, Alicia Theoglides-Rodriguez Adviser Kelly Parker

help subsidize those with government supported insurance – go against the basic economic principles of small government, an ideology to which the Republican Party tends to align itself (Economist.com). In 2016, when Republican Donald Trump was elected, he planned to dismantle the Affordable Care Act. On his first day in office, he passed an executive order that instructed agencies to grant exemptions from, waive, or delay implementing any portion of the ACA that could cause government financial responsibility, and the Department of Health and Human Services began making it more difficult to find information about how to enroll for coverage. Since then, despite multiple attempts by President

Trump and Congress to disassemble parts of the program, most key aspects remain intact. So, why should we care about all of this? Well, as young people, the Affordable Care Act allows us to stay on our parent’s healthcare plans until we are 26 and expands overall coverage to people of all ages, but at a large public expense. If these benefits of the ACA are repealed, not only would our generation will be one of the first to be directly impacted, but millions of people would lose their healthcare coverage. Because Democrats flipped the house in the 2018 midterms in November, it is unlikely that President Trump will effectively pass legislation through Congress to continue dismantling the ACA. The next two years in DC are likely to be a stalemate not only in terms of passing healthcare legislation, but in passing any legislation because of the Republican leadership in the White House, Democratic majority in the House, and Republican majority in the Senate. If you feel strongly one way or the other about the Affordable Care Act, then one of the best ways to make a change is to advocate for a congressional candidate that represents you and your beliefs. The 2020 elections are going to play a pivotal role in the future of American politics and are the soonest chance to have a real impact.

Yuna Baek Jonathan Chance Riya Chaturvedi Ashwin Chona Courtney Davis Jacob Gibbs Isabel Gomez Ian Grimm Riya Gupta Linda Hachim Lily Humphrey Adam Hung

Sanjana Khurana Julia Kwon Valentina Lin Hana Mariappa Kate Mlouk Polina Mogilevsky Isabella Mora Anisha Punia Natalie Rosenberg Annie Tang Max Tu

News

The Bolt December 2018 Sage Hill School

A FAMILY AFFAIR Grandparents Get A Taste of Student Life For a Day

Maximilian Tu

Alicia Theologides-Rodriguez | The Bolt

Junior Daniel Towers and freshman Rachel Towers eat with their grandparents.

Alicia Theologides-Rodriguez | The Bolt

Junior Anika Nielsen and her grandparents enjoy lunch in the Ube.

On Nov. 20, Sage Hill hosted its annual Grandparents’ Day. More than 170 grandparents came to visit the campus and were immersed in the life of a Sage Hill student. The event ended with students bonding with their grandparents over lunch in the Ube. “Our grandparents get to see the campus and how their grandchildren are doing. They are able to appreciate the beautiful campus and get a taste of the Sage Hill community,” freshman Kyle Wong said. The grandparents were given an opportunity to visit the school. With outstanding art performances as well as presentations, this was truly an experience that the grandparents won’t forget. The most exciting part of the day was getting to spend time with their grandchildren. “I always wanted to be a grandparent, and I got the best of two worlds because I got both a boy and a girl,” grandmother Betty Sisemore said. Many grandparents would

do anything to have the opportunity to spend time with their grandchildren. “We love the movies. We love to chat and it’s the only time I can get him to visit,” Sisemore said. Grandparents have a lot of responsibilities. Even though they already completed an adventure with their children, they are off to a new journey with their grandchildren to make a positive impact for generations to come. “We try to give a direction to our kids and how to raise theirs. And it looks like we have no conflict,” grandfather Tony Lener said. As high school adds more pressure into the students’ lives, the window to spend time with grandparents is closing. Being able to spend time with elders is a truly remarkable experience and something students who have the opportunity should cherish. “You get to know the people who raised your parents. Who raised you to become the person you are today,” freshman Grace McNeill said.

MORE THAN A ‘DIME’ A DOZEN ‘We got interviews with angelpad and other accelerators and we are really hyped to be possibly working with some of their teams’

Ian Grimm

Staring down at the desktop monitor, animated animals trouncing onscreen work to dribble, pass, and shoot as many baskets as they can get. It’s a pixelated matchup between the Sloths and the Kangaroos, two of the animal races in the part-basketball, part-cryptocurrency, part-investment, and all-amazing gaming platform Dime. Dime, the brainchild of Sage entrepreneurs and programmers Ryan Simpson, Timothy Guo, and Jackie Ni, is a fresh take on the musty genre of sports video games, as seen through the lens of a cryptocurrency investor. A player can assemble a team of skilled animal Ballers, choosing to create new team strategies or profit off buying and selling ballers on the game’s internal marketplace. Dime is “blockchain based,” which means that it runs off a digital assembly line in the Cloud known as a blockchain. Every 10 minutes, new and randomized basketball players are created and added to the Dime marketplace, where new or experienced players can find them and

recruit them for their rosters. Last month, Guo, Ni and Simpson took their project to Global Demo Day in Silicon Valley after winning the AngelHack Los Angeles Hackathon over the summer and completing a 12-week Hackcelerator Program. At Global Demo Day, the group held their own against college-level teams as widespread as China, Colombia and Washington DC. They were mentored on how to call up Silicon Valley venture capitalists and the best ways to develop and grow a nascent company. For their project capstone, they flew in to the Bay Area to pitch to angel investors with real money to give to the company that impressed them the most. While the team didn’t end up winning, they still felt that they learned plenty from attending and participating. Jackie Ni reflected on how his startup experience gave him a realistic impression of what being an entrepreneur is like—doing every job under the sun and loving it all. “Before Dime, I solely focused on the code side of applications,” Ni said. “[But] as

Dime progressed, I started to enjoy the process. I learned a great deal about entrepreneurship, taking code and making a business out of it”. Although Dime’s current trajectory is now complete with the conclusion of the AngelHack program, the team has no inten-

tions of stopping, and they’re right now looking to grow goals bigger and better. “We got interviews with angelpad and other accelerators and we are really hyped to be possibly working with some of their teams,” Guo said. “We have a super ambitious product road-

map ahead and plan on pushing our a ton of new features.” While the competition is over, Guo, Ni and Simpson’s journey is definitely not. They look forward to enhancing the program by building off of everything that they have and continue to learn.

Photo courtesy of AngelHack Los Angeles

Senior Ryan Simpson and juniors Jackie Ni and Timothy Guo won the AngelHack Los Angeles Hackathon over the summer and in November took their pitch for their web app, Dime (formerly called Etherball), to Silicon Valley for Global Demo Day in early November.

Comm

The Bolt December 2018 Sage Hill School

The

Stage of the

Digital Age

After months of hard work, the talent and commitment of the Synergy dancers was showcased in a performance Miranda deBruyne On Nov. 16 and 17, the 13 members of the Synergy dance ensemble and their teacher, Ms. Robinson, put on a performance of 11 dances to showcase the theme of The Digital Age. Each show has a unique theme that allows each dancer to explore a variety of emotions and topics, and this year’s theme was no exception. “Each of us [senior choreographers] took a different approach and really ran with the theme, and we ended up with seven amazing student pieces that shined on stage,” senior Paige Czepiel said. “I loved choreographing my own dance and being able to watch it backstage. My dancers killed it!’ senior Erica Roque said. Senior Haley Rosmann also enjoyed this aspect of the show. “During rehearsals we are so focused on trying to get our dances done and performance ready that we barely get to pay attention to the other dances going on around us,” Rosmann said. The ensemble had been hard at work for months. “We spent about nine hours per week in the dance studio for three months,” Czepiel said. All the rehearsals began with the choreographer talking about the meaning behind their piece. “Each rehearsal after is full of hard work and creativity until we go on stage,” Rosmann said. After months of hard work, the talents and commitment of the dancers were showcased in the performance. “The show went really well! Everyone went above and beyond in the way they committed to their characters, which made the pieces really resonate with the audience,” Rosmann said. Although the dancers had another great performance, they are sad that it’s over. “‘We had the best time dancing with each other and are really proud of our hard work,” Czepiel said. If you didn’t get a chance to see this performance, Synergy will perform again, along with the other dance levels, in the spring dance concert. Photos by Julia Kwon | The Bolt

Members of Synergy dance ensemble spent months preparing for its dance concert on Nov. 16 and 17.

munity

The Bolt December 2018 Sage Hill School

Haiku

Heralded “two lone trees intertwined branches holding hands” - Jolin Chan

Nishikawa Morio translates Chan’s haiku to the audience in Japan. Yuna Baek Using the haiku above, sophomore Jolin Chan was recently named the Grand Prize Winner in the 2018 International Kusamakura Haiku Competition. Chan’s haiku submission to the competition was also published in Frogpond magazine of the Haiku Society of America in September. “With my haikus, I hope to explore the connection between nature and human beings while also taking seemingly ordinary things and making them extriord-

Photo courtesy of Jianli Hu

nary,” Chan said. Chan has a certain approach to begin writing her own unique haikus. “Haikus usually come to me spontaneously. I try to pay attention to my surroundings and find the deeper meaning behind them, which is what I did when I wrote about the two trees,” Chan said. On November 17, Chan attended the awards ceremony in Kumamoto, Japan. “The awards ceremony was great and gave me the opportunity to meet many talented poets, as well as

learn more about the art of haiku writing. I was definitely a little nervous, but everyone there was very welcoming and supportive,” Chan said. Chan discovered her passion for writing when she began at Sage Hill and worked with her English teachers to develop her interests in poetry, haikus and critical essays. “Mr. Parker taught me how to write haiku last year and it has stuck with me since,” Chan said. “[Haikus] are the perfect way to concisely summarize life’s meaningful moments.”

Sage’s Perfect Melody

Photos by Alicia Theologides-Rodriguez | The Bolt

The fall concert beautifully showcased the talent of Sage’s musicians. Polina Mogilevsky The annual Instrumental Music Concert took place on the night of Nov. 30 in the Black Box Theater and featured a variety of instruments and pieces by artists Peter Warlock, Antonio Vivaldi and the Beatles. The concert was composed of three main acts with performances by the wind ensemble, guitar ensemble and the string orchestra, with star soloists Vera Kong and Albert Gang bringing Vivaldi’s Four Seasons to life. The concert opened with the winds ensemble performing Valdres by Johannes Hansen and ended with an orchestra-wide rendition of Feliz Navidad, accompanied by senior Jack Peng on the piano. The theme for this fall’s concert was The Seasons (Part 1), and came with an inspiring message. “The instrumental music program at

Courtesy of Olivia Lowe

Senior Olivia Lowe swims with the largest fish in the ocean, the whale shark, in Isla De Holbox, Mexico.

Alicia Theologides Rodriguez | The Bolt

While in Greece, make sure to stop by the nearest bakery to pick up some fresh Bougatsa for breakfast.

Sage helps students find a way to come together, to forge new and enriched paths, and to make music that matters,” music teacher Brent Dodson said in the concert’s program. The string orchestra performed Fall and Winter from Vivaldi’s Four Seasons led by Kong and Gang on the violin. “I found out I would be performing a solo in the beginning of the school year,” Kong said. Especially for the soloists, hours of hard work went into preparing for the concert. “We rehearsed once a week on Fridays,” Gang said. In addition to some well-loved pieces, many of the works performed were lesser known and surprising to the audience. “I am 1,000 percent positive that [the audience had] never heard Izika Zumba.” Guitar ensemble member Crew Parker said.

Alicia Theologides Rodriguez | The Bolt

While in the South of France, junior Alicia Theologides Rodriguez knocked parasailing off her bucket list.

Courtesy of Jake Stewart

The Monaco coastline was a beautiful destination for Jake Stewart.

The Bolt December 2018 Sage Hill School

Sports KICKING OFF THE SOCCER SEASON

‘A goal of the team is to make it far into CIF, and I think that we can do that through comradery and being industrious’ Courtney Davis

The varsity boys’ soccer team lost their tough first game against Bolce Grande 2-4, but captains Tommy Burns and Robert Gerschultz know how to turn this around and lead

the team to victory. Gerschultz has many leadership skills, and is very eager to help the team bond with all of his experience from previous years. “Throughout the three years that I have been playing on the

team, I have been letting the seniors lead and bring the team together. Seeing how they have done it, I have learned how I would want to lead”, Gerschultz said. “Being a senior now and

Photo courtesy of Dave Sigmund

The girls’ varsity soccer team embraces after sophomore Ava Cooper scores a goal, tying the game against opponent Godinez High School on Nov. 27.

getting to be a captain I feel like I have a lot experience in soccer, and I am most looking forward to bringing this team together and cohesively acting as a unit.” “A goal of the team is to make it far into CIF, and I think that we can do that through comradery and being industrious,” Burns said. The boys’ varsity soccer team has a clear vision on what they need to do in order to take their games to the next level, and if they can execute it then they might have a shot at reaching their goals of going far into CIFs. The girls’ varsity soccer team tied 1-1 against Godinez High School in their first game of the season. The team also gained six new freshman this year, changing the team dynamic. “I am excited for how the games go. Every year there is a different way that we play with different people, and I am excited to see how we work as a team. I am also excited to go

Get your head in the game!

against new teams, because we are in a new league this year,” senior Maya Jaffe said. Jaffe also offered up some ideas on how they can improve as a team compared to last year. “We can work on more communication on the field. I think that we should continue a lot of team bonding outside of soccer like last year so that we will have more communication on the field,” Jaffe said. “A big goal this year is definitely that we beat St. Margaret’s home and away.” Senior Olivia Lowe is confident that the team can have a successful season. “I think the we should have a common goal so that we are more motivated and do not give up towards the end of the season,” Lowe said. “A big goal for all of us is to go further in CIF this year.” With this positive mindset and figuring out how to communicate better as a team, varsity girls’ soccer hope to kick it this season.

‘I am looking forward to the season because I believe that we have a very good chance at winning league, which has never been done before by Sage’s boys’ basketball team’ Sanjana Khurana

Both Sage Hill girls’ and boys’ varsity basketball teams are excited about this upcoming winter season. Last year, the Lightning girls’ team placed 5th in their division in the CIF-SS playoffs. While the varsity boys’ team didn’t place last year, they hope to rebound from this and are coming in with some strong players. “We are a very young team this year but with several returning players we are excited to see how things play out...We are in a very tough league this year and are going to put forth the best effort on making it to CIF again,” girls’ varsity head coach Kerwin Walters said. After last year’s season, the girls’ team was placed in a higher, tougher division, but Coach Walters anticipates a successful season and is ready to fuse everyone’s strengths into a powerful team. “Things are going really well. The girls have a really positive attitude this year and they’re working really hard! We have a

lot of leadership this year too so it’ll be fun to see how this season goes,” senior Nadia Akbari said. This is Akbari’s last year playing for Lighting basketball, and she is looking forward to a great season and lasting friendships. Sage Hill has two very capable and passionate teams, with the girls eager to make it to CIF again and the boys hoping to make Lightning history by winning league. “We have been playing together as a unit very well, which has allowed us to compete with very talented teams. I am looking forward to the season because I believe that we have a very good chance at winning league, which has never been done before by Sage’s boys’ basketball team, and making a deep playoff run,” junior captain Ryan Hosseinzadeh said. Hosseinzadeh is enthusiastic and confident about the upcoming season and is ready to defeat the rest of the league, go to into playoffs, and

win the championship for Sage Hill which has never been done before. Practicing for two hours every day, the dedicated players are strengthening their mind and

their skills set. In addition, they condition in order to get stronger and improve. Both teams are diverse in age with many freshmen on the girls’ team, so the upperclassmen can pass

down their skills and experience to the lower classmen. With lots of experience, both coaches are qualified and excited to lead their team into the CIF-SS playoffs.

Alicia Theologides-Rodriguez | The Bolt

Senior Darius ShayanSmith passes the ball to a teammate during practice, training for what promises to be another successful season.

Opinion How a Campaign Changed my Life Senior Shares Her Experiences Working On Harley Rouda’s Campaign

Courtesy of Hannah Woodworth (From left to right) Congressman Harley Rouda, senior Hannah Woodworth, Senator Kamala Harris, senior Tyler Wong and Governor Gavin Newsom at a campaign event on Nov. 3. Hannah Woodworth Prior to last spring, I was not actively engaged in local politics. However, that all changed when I heard my congressional representative, a conservative career politician, give a talk at Sage. Not only did I disagree with his beliefs, but I felt that his opinions inaccurately represented the constituency in our district. Hearing him speak was actually shocking to me because he was supposed to be representing me, but he clearly didn’t. This propelled me to get involved. I began interning for the Harley Rouda campaign for Congress before the primaries last June. Initially, I canvassed hundreds of houses and made thousands of calls. After reading an editorial I wrote for the Bolt last year, the campaign promoted

me from a field intern to a communications intern, and eventually to Lead Communications Intern. I was incredibly proud to represent Harley in this historic campaign, one of the five most competitive House races in the country. Now that the election is over, and Harley has won, I am incredibly excited and energized for the future – something that I never would have felt six months ago. All of our hard work flipped a historically conservative district blue for the first time in decades, reinforcing the importance of being willing to challenge the status quo. I never imagined that politics would play such a big role in my life, but now I couldn’t imagine my life without it, and I hope to major in political science next year and represent the 48th congressional district of California in Congress in my future.

The Bolt December 2018 Sage Hill School

MADISON’S MOVIE REVIEW

El Angel (2018)

Madison Harris-Weiner El Angel is not the story of an angel but rather, it is the story of a psychopath. A psychopath who puts on music and dances, as though without a care in the world, in the living room of the house he’s robbing; who shoots people dead, pointblank, then sits down to a home-cooked meal with his parents, playing the role of the perfect son to a T. El Angel is the true story of Carlos Robledo Puch, Argentina’s infamous “Angel of Death” who, during a few devastating months of 1971, committed 11 murders and 17 robberies all before he turned twenty years old. With his blonde curls, unsuspecting eyes and boyish pretense, Puch is an unlikely villain but his story lends itself perfectly to a stylish thriller whose ruthless murders and thefts are matched — under Luis Ortega’s enchanting direction — by a romantic eye for all things crime and peril. Puch, played by a baby-faced Lorenzo Ferro in his first film role, is as cold-blooded as they come but in a childish way that suggests no comprehension of consequences or impact. It seems more out of youthful curiosity than anything when, in the opening scene, he carelessly hops a fence and robs the enclosed house. Is this youthful innocence feigned? It’s hard to tell because Puch is a hard character to pinpoint. He’s charismatic yet evasive, spontaneous yet calculated, endearing yet blood-curdling. Ferro tackles the intricacies of the role brilliantly. He is completely convincing as he plays a steely lack of emotion against an eccentric playfulness to create a strange dichotomy of a character who finds amusement in every act he commits. Puch is blithe in all his movements and it’s obvious that crime courses intrinsically through his veins. In the beginning however, he steals with the intention of giving away his goods to friends to gain their admiration. It isn’t until he forms a sort of thieving trio with classmate Ramon and his father that we see Puch’s capacity for evil. While outlaws themselves, Ramon and his dad soon pale in comparison to what they bring out in Carlos which is far more sinister than a few low-level breakins. But, no matter how far he spirals, he sees it all as only a game which he’ll continue to play until the pieces come crashing down around him.

With a few scenes that lag in the middle, El Angel is perhaps a touch longer than it should be, but when the plot stumbles, Ortega’s sharp eye for visual atmosphere and keen sense of tone propel it forward. Shot in crisp colors, El Angel is a beautiful film to look at and much of its appeal is the fact that it doesn’t shy away from allowing itself to ride on the visual aesthetic it’s created. Ortega nails the ‘70’s period, with costumes, a Latin-accented rock soundtrack and a fully-realized production design that immerse the film in the era with just enough grit to not become a caricature. By the end of the film Carlos remains largely an enigma and while we feel fully and painfully the effects he’s had on the people around him, we don’t get much of a sense of how he’s affected himself, if at all. While pulling back the curtain on Puch’s mystique a bit further would have served the story well, Angel never intended itself to be an intimate character study. Instead, it asserts itself as a stylized piece that, through visual finesse and acute awareness of its undeniable coolness, lends Puch a wonderfully twisted appeal. Where Angel does attempt to delve deeper into Puch is in the relationship between him and Ramon. A sizzling attraction burns between them that wants desperately to erupt throughout the entire film, but even this plays out with an unsympathetic coolness that never reaches an emotional peak. A moment that comes closest to emotional clarity is one during the heist of a jewelry store. Ramon wants nothing more than to make quick work of the job and get out but Carlos chides him for rushing. “We’re alive, why don’t you enjoy it?” he encourages, seizing the moment himself to savor the sparkling jewels. The moment personifies Puch: He’s a certifiably-insane serial killer. But in his heart he’s also a dreamer and a romantic in futile pursuit of elusive life and just as caught up in the glamour of crime and the allure of living on the edge as the film itself is. There’s nothing that can justify what Puch has done — not his age nor his charm, not his dancing nor the single tear he sheds during a final scene — but there is an incredible sense throughout the entire film that he’s completely free. The great irony in this is that Puch is, to this day, Argentina’s longest-serving prisoner. But to face facts like that would be to shatter what El Angel has done best: created a beautiful film, a seducing illusion, around a thing so terrifying as a teenage killer.

The Bolt December 2018 Sage Hill School

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The Case For Affirmative Action How Affirmative Action Helps End Systematic Opression of Minorities

Sasha Ronaghi As a disclaimer, I am writing this as someone with a Middle Eastern heritage, so I check the race box “white.” That is a different story for a different day. The crusade against Affirmative Action is led by a conservative activist, Ed Blum. He has been suing schools for years on the idea that they are not admitting deserving White or Asian students due to “racial quotas” and “racial balancing.” These two ideas appear frequently when discussing affirmative action, but they do not depict the reality. In fact, in the 1978 Regents of University of California v. Bakke case, the Supreme Court declared it impermissible for schools to use racial quotas and racial balancing in their admission process. Instead, colleges are encouraged to be “race-conscious” in their “holistic” admissions process. This means that colleges must look at each applicant as a whole beyond their test scores, and race is one factor in a myriad of others that colleges consider. This holistic admissions process is justified. The goal of each college is to help students make great contributions to the world, and, hopefully, later to the alumni donation funds. So, the college must produce successful students, and test scores alone don’t allow them to do this. According to the Washington Post, studies conclude that more than 80 percent of the variance success is due to factors beyond test scores, like grit, perseverance, character, “learning ability,” etc. It doesn’t matter if a student is building a company or a bridge, being able to regurgitate the same SAT vocabulary words will get them, literally, nowhere. The insignificance of standardized testing also proves why it is really bad to call students of lower scores “unqualified.” Everyone is qualified in their own ways, and colleges know this. If colleges really want a successful class, they must choose candidates with talents beyond taking standardized testing. Furthermore, if all the students in a college had the same background and point of view, there would be an echochamber effect of the same ideas. It is ultimately a diversity in opinions that leads to progress and success. If you are never conscious of your race or feel it doesn’t affect how your world works, congratulations, you have privilege. But, don’t assume that for others. White people deciding that they don’t need to see the race of others because it might put them at a slight disadvantage might be as ironic as The Scarlet Letter. Race blind policies don’t acknowledge the racial identity of others, and the struggles of millions of students still battle due to centuries of systemic racism. African American teenagers walk around unarmed with the fear of being shot by a police officer because of their skin color. Female Muslim teenagers walk around afraid they will be the target of a hate crime because they wear a scarf on their head that represents the most hated religion in America (and Middle Eastern students still don’t benefit from Affirmative Action!). Being a student of color in America is difficult because you are dealing with the normal challenges as a teenager, and you are also trying to find your place in an America that continues to favor white people. If you deny students the right to be proud of their identity, then you refuse to acknowledge their struggle. And, as I have established earlier, it is how students overcome their struggles that ultimately leads to success. So what happens to underrepresented minorities when you take away affirmative action? In 1996, Proposition 209 forced the UC system to have race-blind admissions. According to University of California, there was a 30 percent admission rate drop from 1997 to 1998 for African Americans and LatinX applicants at UC Berkeley. In 2013, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, while LatinX students represented 47 percent of California high school graduates, they made up 17 percent of UC Berkeley enrollees. Considering that 22 percent of African Americans and 20 percent of Hispanics are below the federal poverty line (US Census), the reduced availability of education continues a cycle of poverty for people of

color. By contrast, Harvard, which has affirmative action policies, has a class that is a little bit more representative of the US population. According to the Census and Harvard, Hispanics make up 18.1 percent of the population and 12.3 percent of the admitted class. These numbers are not perfect, but they are better than the UC system. I think it is clear why it is so important for schools to have affirmative action for underrepresented minorities. But now, let’s talk about those who must incur a “penalty” for their race. Asian Americans actually benefit from Affirmative Action. Original Affirmative Action causes provided bilingual education to Asian Americans who were denied the right of education. In 2016, a national poll by Asian Americans Advancing Justice, found that 64 percent of Asian American voters favor Affirmative Action. If anything, the Harvard lawsuit is a white person, Ed Blum, using Asian Americans to further his personal vendetta. Furthermore, while Asian Americans make up five percent of the US population, they make up 22.9 percent of Harvard’s class of 2022. This is really important for Asian Americans because, after the UC System instituted “race-blind policies,” admission rates for Asian Americans dropped by 16.3 percent and 32 percent from 1998 to 2009 at UC Berkeley and UCLA respectively according to the National Commission on Asian American and Pacific Islander Research in Education. Not only do race blind admissions negatively affect admissions rates for Asian Americans, but also it would create precedent for the elimination of diversity initiatives in the workplace, where Asian Americans continue to face discrimination and are ranked the least likely to be promoted, according to Harvard

Business Review. For white people, affirmative action isn’t the problem; it is legacy admissions. Legacy admissions are an example of unearned advantage, the very definition of privilege. According to CNBC, Harvard’s class of 2021 is over 29 percent legacy students, which means there are more legacy students than students of underrepresented minorities. This doesn’t stop at Harvard; in fact, according to Washington Post, for the top 30 schools, children of alumni have a 45 percent greater chance of admission. The Crimson also corroborates that 21.5 percent of legacy students are white, while for African American, Hispanic, and Asian student the figures are around 4-6 percent. This is notable because 18 percent of legacy students are actually below the academic range of the average applicant. However, this doesn’t occur for students who benefit from Affirmative Action. In the iconic Affirmative Action case, Fisher v University of Texas led by the same Ed Blum, according to Washington Post, 42 of the 47 students with lower scowres than Fisher that were admitted were white. The case also forgets to mention that 168 African American and Hispanic students with better scores than Fisher’s were also denied, and they didn’t bring a case to the Supreme Court. Furthermore, when the UC system opted for race blind policies, white student acceptance rate at Berkeley only rose by two percent, according to the University of California. So, you must ask yourself: is that two percent really worth fighting for when the systematic oppression of minorities will only continue as they will be denied the right to an education and an identity? Sasha Ronaghi is a member of S.A.M.E and guest writer for this month’s Bolt.