BOX BRIEFSIN THE BOX

REPORTERS

EDITORIAL STAFFElaine Cunha - Editor-In-ChiefForrest Lewis - Editor-In-Chief

Gabe Schneider - Graphic Designer Anna Nordquist - News Editor

Gillen Martin - Junior News EditorPiper Bazard - Junior News Editor

Sage Fanucchi-Funes - Feature EdiorLauren McCoy - Sports EditorCalvin Ryan - Opinion Editor

Dakota Goodman - A&E EditorDay Robins - Online Editor

Ben McCreath - Media EditorSam Freed - Media Editor

Hawken Ritter - Business ManagerGrace Lovell - Art Director

Molly Salamunovich - Managing EditorShea Lignitz - Copy Editor

STAR Grade Bump � � � � � � � � � � � 6Strawberry Rock � � � � � � � � � � � � 7TEDx Youth � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 8HROP’s Future � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 9HSPA � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 10New Track Records � � � � � � � � � 11State History Day � � � � � � � � � � 12Twins � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 13Teacher Graduates � � � � � � � � � 14Parking Lot Spot � � � � � � � � � � � � 15Spring Sports � � � � � � � � � � � � 16-17No Contest: 2013 Elections � � 18-19Arcata’s Seven Wonders � � � � � 21Colin Swenson � � � � � � � � � � � � � 22Spare Change Trip � � � � � � � � � � 23Orchestra Explores NYC � � � � � 24AHS Sees Europe � � � � � � � � � � � 25Calvin on Art � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 26Tony Emmanuel � � � � � � � � � � � � 27Senior Ditch Day � � � � � � � � � � � 28

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VOLUME ISSUE

85 7

Danielle Lehman

Geena DamianErrol Funk

Steve SheetsKaitlin TuckerPatrick PaytonSam WinterJamie Maher

Dayna NaishJulia Sloan

Jonathan DedekanAidan Carroll

Astaria HollandTami Conrad

Aiyana Caldwell

DISCLAIMERQuestions regarding edi-torial content of the Pep-

perbox should be directed toward its editors� Opinions expressed in this paper are not necessarily those of Ar-

cata High School�

The Pepperbox would like to thank Western Web, based in Samoa, for printing our paper at-cost. Western Web supports student journalism throughout Humboldt County and has made publications like the Pepperbox possible for decades. We appreciate their dedication to keeping print media alive!

ADVISOR

Memorial Day: May 27Spring Week: May 28 - 31Sports Awards: May 29

Car Show: May 29Sophomore Dance: May 31Senior Awards Night: June 5

Senoir Picnic: June 6Senior Prom: June 8Finals: June 10-12

FROM THE ARCHIVES

EDITOR’S BOX

After satisfying our tastebuds, we buckled down for our second-to-last issue (sniffle). Working between spring break, STAR testing, AP testing, and the increasing circumference of our advisor’s belly, we length-ened the news cycle for this issue. Nevertheless, we uphold our commitment to reporting the news and

happenings of Arcata High� Online Editor and current ASB President Day Robins wrote an extensive analysis on what two years of uncontested ASB elections means to the democracy and future of Arcata High’s student govern-ment. In addition, we bring you record-breaking track athletes, a possible grade bump from STAR testing, a guide to the seven wonders of Arcata, and more. Keep an eye out for our third annual Pepperfaux to be released dur-ing Finals Week!

Editors-in-ChiefForrest Lewis & Elaine Cunha

BEHIND THE COVEROriginally published January 31, 1969

Issu

e 7

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Gra

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Des

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Quotable�“You do the crime, you pay the time.”

“I’ve never said this in AP Government, and I’ll never say this again, but that cartoon was kinda cute.”

AHS Principal Dave Navarre explaining to a student the consequences of participating in Senior Ditch Day�

History teacher Doug Johnson in response to a political cartoon shown during a student presentation�

“#coltonsdadhasgotitgoingon” A trending Twitter hashtag by McKinleyville High School Students in reference to fireman Sean Campbell, husband of AHS Dean Tahnia Campbell and father of MHS student Colton Campbell, who was spotted fighting the infamous MHS bathroom fire on May 7.

$1,000Reward offered by

NHUHSD and the Ar-cata Police Department for information leading to the arrest of those responsible for stealing approximately

$6,000-worth of equipment from the AHS autoshop

$14,860Dollars spent collectively on Advanced Placement testing by Arcata High School students. Each individual exam cost

$89.00

89 166Points scored by

second place girls finishing team,

Del Norte, at the H-DN Cham-pionship Track

Meet in Fortuna last week

Points scored by first place girls finishing team, Arcata, at the H-DN Cham-pionship Track

Meet in Fortuna last week

“I’d say it’s raining cats and dogs... but I don’t support animal cruelty.”

Junior Mickenzie Grubb playing Belle Malibu in the Arcata High School play, It Was a Dark and Stormy Night.

Sophomore winners Emma Zier-er (3rd), Caleb Morin (2nd), and Jacob Barth (1st) stand with HSU Mathematics Professor Jeff Haag at the 54th Annual Redwood Em-pire Mathematics Tournament.

Framable�

The Aspire Mega Soccer Acad-emy (AMSA) of underpriv-iledged soccer players in Homa Bay, Kenya sport the Arcata High girls varsity soccer team’s old jerseys.

Photo courtesy of Redwood Empire Mathematics Tournament

Photo courtesy of Otty France

Photos courtesy of Ashlynn Cox and Kasey Cather

Seniors Katerina Rocker Heppe and Nigel Wallach (Most Likely to be a Soc-cer Mom/Dad) and Gwyn Caughey and Hawken Ritter (Most Swag) sport their Sen-ior Awards after the Senior Brunch.

NewsMay 17, 2013PePPerboxAHS

P a g e 6

STAR scores could help your gradesElaine Cunha

Editor-in-Chief

In a few sentences, AHS junior Alex Yeoman summed up how most students regard Califor-nia’s Standardized Testing and

Reporting (STAR) exams: “Hon-estly, I try now just by choice, but I really don’t think it matters. I don’t think we should have to take the tests in general. They’re bogus, and I just think they’re kind of stupid.”

Many students do not seem to care, despite the fact that the tests influence school rankings, API scores, and teacher bonuses. The so-lution? Give students an incentive. This year, Arcata High launched a campaign to help students improve performance and understand why we should care about the STAR tests. The campaign included hand-ing out snacks, posting fliers around the school about why we should try on the tests, and most significantly, the possibility of a grade bump.

Yep, that’s right. Arcata High is now offering students up to a 3.3 percent grade bump in their classes for scoring proficient or advanced on the respective subject’s STAR test. The new grade-bump policy raises questions for some students.

“A grade means something, you earn an A,” said senior Anna Nor-dquist, who is staunchly opposed to the new policy.

Nordquist has her reasons. Ac-cording to the incentive, a student who earns a B+ in a class could potentially get that grade bumped up to an A-, which is recorded on a transcript and sent out to colleges as an A.

For other students, like junior Nash Karp, the idea of a student-based incentive is overdue. “Why shouldn’t we have an incentive? It takes time out of the school, and it takes time out of our lives,” Karp said. “We take the STAR test to help the state, so why can’t it help us a little back?”

This proposal originated from a committee of teacher volunteers who surveyed other schools and a panel of students. “The idea came from the students – that’s very im-portant,” AHS Principal Dave Na-varre said.

Two Arcata High School teach-ers, librarian Jennifer Berube and English teacher Susan Clark-Luera, surveyed students about how hard they tried on STAR tests, why they were or were not motivated, and what incentives would make them want to do better on the tests. Their answer: offer a grade bump.

The two teachers presented the students’ idea to Navarre, who asked the staff to vote on it, and as a result, all schools in the district are implementing the new grade-bump policy.

“In some classes, students had an

incentive if they were given extra credit or a reason to do well on the STAR test,” English teacher Susan Clark-Luera said. “But what many of us were noticing is that students were just bubbling in patterns and they didn’t really feel like there was a reason to perform well if it wasn’t part of their grade.”

In addition to school rank-ings and the API score, STAR test scores are now factored into teach-ers’ THRIVE bonuses. The new policy parallels the purpose of the THRIVE grant – it offers an incen-tive to improve test scores, only this time on the students’ end.

As with everything involving ex-tra credit, there is a catch: Students in AP and Honors courses don’t qualify for the grade bump. How-ever, these students already receive an extra grade point for taking these courses.

Yeoman sees this exclusion as contradicting the purpose of the new policy. “For AP classes where we

still have nothing to gain from this grade bump, I don’t think you’re going to see any improvement from the new incentive,” he said.

Furthermore, some STAR tests aren’t specific to the actual class subject material, especially in the sciences. “I’m in human anatomy, and they make you take the biology test; I’m in AP Physics Mechanics, and they make you take this general physics test that really has nothing to do with the class I’m in,” Yeo-man stated.

Theoretically, the new policy en-ables students who score proficient on the STAR biology test to get a grade bump in human anatomy, or students who score proficient on a cumulative high school math test (which tests up to Algebra 2) to get a grade bump in their pre-calculus class.

The administration is willing to forgo this issue if the policy works. “The students we talked to said that [the STAR tests] didn’t mean any-thing. It didn’t go on for their col-leges, it didn’t do this, it didn’t do that, and they said, what’s in it for us? So that, I think, is the feeling out there,” Navarre said. “We’re just trying to make it a little more relevant for the students.” Additional reporting by Anna Nordquist.

“The idea came from the students - that’s

very important.”-AHS Principal Dave Navarre

The New Policy by the Numbers*In 2012, 586 Arcata High students took the STAR test. 361 of them tested proficient or advanced in English and thus qualified for the grade bump (minus about 60 that are in Hon-ors/AP). 161 qualified in math (minus about 15 in AP), 190 in history (minus 30), and 308 in the sciences (minus 15).*Statistics from the California Department of Education

P a g e 7

NewsMay 17, 2013 PePPerboxAHS

Strawberry Rock’s... forever?Piper Bazard

Junior News Editor

As a breeze blows over the treetops, the soft fog slowly parts from the forest canopy, reveal-

ing a pristine sheet of ocean and a lush carpet of redwoods. The view from Strawberry Rock is among Humboldt’s most spectacular, but it could soon be gone.

Strawberry Rock, located just to the east of Highway 101 near Trini-dad, has long been a popular hiking spot for students and community members. For most, the appeal is the beauty of the area: “[The view] is amazing, and you can see all of the ocean and Trinidad head, and then all the trees in between,” sen-ior Emily Murphy said.

However, the land is owned by

logging company Green Diamond, and much of the incredible view could disappear as logging opera-tions continue in the area.

Green Diamond’s plans involve logging five small patches of land ranging from 17 to 31 acres sur-rounding the rock. In total, these areas comprise about 75 percent of the land Green Diamond owns. Although most of the second and third-growth redwood and douglas fir will be logged, older trees that are more necessary to wildlife will remain. These plans were devel-oped with input from a variety of scientists.

Currently, hiking up to Straw-berry Rock is trespassing and the company requests that the private property be respected, according to a Green Diamond representative. However, there are proposals for a conservation easement that would

involve a public access trail. For many students, the resound-

ing reaction to the logging opera-tion is disappointment: “I would be kind of bummed, because [the trees are] half the view. If there [were] no trees it would just be kind of nasty,” senior Ryley Haskell said.

Others believe logging will not only diminish the view, but the beauty of Trinidad in general. “I don’t like it... It ruins the landscape, and it makes Trinidad less beauti-ful. [Trinidad is] all trees and that’s what makes it pretty, and they’re going to cut them all down,” sopho-more Indigo Davis said.

Although the aesthetics of the area are a concern, an even bigger concern is the environmental im-pacts of the logging project. Cali-fornia has a reputation for working with ecologists to establish healthy logging practices, but some ques-tions have been raised about ex-actly how “healthy” these practices are. Environmental Science teacher and Green Club advisor Earl Peters explained that the environmental impact of logging depends on the specific area. “There are some eco-systems that actually benefit in the long run from a clear cut as op-posed to a selective cut. It depends on the terrain, it depends on the soil, and it depends on the trees,” Peters said.

Although clear cutting may not

have a negative effect on the ter-rain, it is more likely to have an im-pact on other plants and animals in the area. “A clear cut will adversely affect those species who require older trees, and established strands of those trees,” Peters said.

Sophomore Green Club mem-ber Eli Pasko has a strong moral objection to the clear cuts. “Trees are alive, so it’s not cool to just kill a bunch of them. It’s like being a mass murderer, basically,” Pasko said.

Regardless of environmental im-pact, many people in this county make a living and provide for their families through the logging indus-try and are employed by companies like Green Diamond. While stop-ping the project might help the en-vironment, it would hurt workers. Senior Green Club member Claire Appelmans thinks a compromise can be reached. “It’s important to work with people rather than just say, ‘absolutely no logging should be done,’ because that’s not going to happen,” Appelmans said.

While many differing opinions on the subject are present, one thing is clear: Strawberry Rock is a prominent local landmark, and something to be admired. “I’d love to see it preserved, because I think that outsiders and locals treasure it,” Appelmans said. “I think it’s important to respect what we have.”

The view looking west from Strawberry RockForrest Lewis/PEPPERBOX

NewsMay 17, 2013PePPerboxAHS

P a g e 8

APPLY NOW! Speaker Deadline June 1, 2013 We are looking for: l Youth Speakers & Talent l Adult Speakers & Talent l Organzing Team l Event Day Crew

TEDxYouthDay is a series of TEDx events happening all around the world coinciding with Universal Chil-dren's Day in late November. These events are designed to empower and inspire young people.

TEDxYouthDay events present a combination of live speakers and TEDTalks to audiences around the world. These events vary widely in size, format, and theme, but they share a common vision: inspiring curiosity, ignit-ing new ideas, and empowering young leaders.

NOVEMBER 17, 2013

Come be part of the 1st TEDxYouth Event and the

2nd Humboldt County TEDxHumboldtBay Event!

Share your passion with Humboldt County and join us for TEDxYouth@HumboldtBay

Email: tedxlaura@gmail.com or call/text (707) 845-4772 for questions

www.tedxyouthhumboldtbay.com

The Theme imagine→ignite

Apply Online at tedxyouthhumboldtbay.com

Putting the “you” into TEDxYouthForrest Lewis

Editor-in-Chief

M y family friend once joked that TED was the reason the inter-net was invented. Al-

though erroneous, I understood her gesture.

TED, a colloquial acronym rep-resenting the concepts of Technol-ogy, Entertainment, and Design, is a nonprofit devoted to disseminat-ing “ideas worth spreading.”

Two annual conferences in Long Beach, California, and Edinburgh, Scotland, bring together, according to the official TED website, “the world’s most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes or less).”

In the spirit of ideas worth

spreading, a group of local organ-izers led by Laura Montagna and Michael Kraft hosted the first-ever TEDxEureka event last November. It was an instant success, selling out in a matter of days and featuring a long list of interesting speakers.

Following last year’s extremely successful event, Montagna decid-ed to mix it up this year with a spe-cial TEDxYouth@HumboldtBay event to occur November 17, 2013. “Young people have very valuable input and are often times discount-ed,” Montagna said. “I want to give them a chance to say what’s impor-tant to them, to share their passion.”

Like the TEDxEureka event, TEDxYouth@HumboldtBay will also be held at the Arcata Theatre Lounge. “We’re bringing more of that young passionate wisdom to our county. We love to share ideas,” Montagna said.

The theme of the upcoming event is “imagine -> ignite,” a fitting topic for children and teenagers. “They don’t think something can’t be done, they just do it,” Montagna elaborated.

“One of my goals is to really reach out to not necessarily the top students, but young people who have something to say that might not usually have the chance to be heard,” Montagna continued. “I’m trying to reach out all over the county to attract youth.”

The event is also open to speak-

ers of all ages. In fact, it is youth-themed, so if an adult wants to pre-sent on a youth topic, they are more than welcome.

Interested in finding out more? Visit www.tedxyouthhumboldtbay.com, or find them on Facebook (www.facebook.com/Tedxyouth-humboldtbay) or Twitter (@tedxy-outhhumbay).

Among the many perks of pre-senting is that it looks great on re-sumes and it will be livestreamed. In the words of Laura Montagna, “You could be famous!”

P a g e 9

NewsMay 17, 2013 PePPerboxAHS

HROP continues to hang onErrol Funk

Reporter

The Humboldt Regional Occupational Program (HROP) is hanging in there - for now. “The

Trailer Bill will determine the fate of ROP classes across the state,” HROP Culinary Arts teacher Tanya Trump said. Arcata’s HROP classes will be continuing to run into the next school year. Although fed-eral funding will be cut, the Hum-boldt County Office of Education (HCOE) will provide funding to al-low HROP programs to continue to run. Starting next year, new career tech classes will be introduced, in-cluding Flash Animation, Game De-velopment and Robotics, depending on student interest. With the help of

the HCOE, an additional $215 per student will be allotted. However, the following year’s decision will be made determining whether or not to cut HROP. Determining fac-tors will include how the classes run and how many students attended in the previous year.

“The HCOE may choose to stay involved in some Career Technical Edu-cation programs but only a select few, if any. If this new budget ar-rangement that the Governor is proposing goes through, then

funding for high school students will be sent from the state to dis-tricts with high schools to support Career Technical Education strate-gies. For the following school year, the assumption will be that districts

will run their own Career Techni-cal Education programs using those funds,” Jan Moorehouse of the De-partment of Staff for HROP stated.

Arcata High’s HROP program helps better prepare students for oc-cupations they might pursue in their near future. “I think it’s important to keep these classes running because students receive skills that they will use in their everyday lives, which will make them well-rounded indi-viduals,” Trump said.

HROP instructor Janna Cox ex-plained, “Statewide ROP offers hands-on courses [in which] stu-dents learn more than just everyday subjects, they learn problem solv-ing techniques.”

These classes have left a positive effect on students at Arcata High: “I think it’s good for high school stu-dents to be allowed the opportunity to gain work experience at school, and personally the culinary class at Arcata has helped further my skills at becoming a world class chef,” cu-linary student Marguax Karp said.

Other students have even offered to share their skills. “HROP has helped me quite a bit. I’m willing to cook for anyone, just find me,” culinary student Andrew Dehart de-clared.

Although the fate of these classes is still somewhat unstable in the long run, students agree that AHS is privileged to have these courses for the time being.

[These classes] make them well-rounded

-Tanya Trump, Culinary Arts Instructor

HROP culinary arts student Andrew Dehart prac-ticing his cooking techniques

Errol Funk/PEPPERBOX

NewsMay 17, 2013PePPerboxAHS

P a g e 10

Arcata High School Pledge Alliance

To most of us, April 22, 2012 holds little to no relevance. To most of us, there is no recognition of

that day; no reason to remember what was founded on that rainy Spring afternoon. However, let it be known that on April 22, 2012, it was Earth Day. Fittingly, on that day, the High School Pledge Alli-ance was born.

The High School Pledge Alliance was founded by a determined team of high schoolers from our very own campus. “Arcata High school’s graduating class of 2012 was the first high school in history to take the pledge,” co-founder and senior Day Robins said. With a green-ink-

Molly SalamunovichManaging Editor

stained thumb and a green ribbon, last year’s graduating class prom-ised to “consider the social and en-vironmental consequences of future actions and associations.”

Last year’s Green Club resur-rected the idea of the pledge from HSU’s original 1987 pledge, which was written by a group of Hum-boldt college students 26 years ago. The goals of this 501(c)3 Non-Prof-it Organization are modeled off the successes of those college students’ pledges, first taken in the Redwood Bowl. Now, just over 26 years later, HSU’s pledge has since been written into graduation ceremonies at UC Berkeley, Harvard, MIT, and many other colleges around the world.

The Pledge Alliance strives to develop a movement for “social and environmental responsibil-

ity” and hopes that through raising awareness, other students around the world will spread the concepts of reaping what we sow.

Unfortunately, many students on our campus are not even aware that such an Alliance exists. Despite the efforts of students to spread the word, it still remains an unknown topic among the majority of Arcata High students and high schoolers in Humboldt County.

“Wait, what is it? The green thumb print thing?” senior Megan Viña asked quizzically, when asked if she knew about the pledge.

“A sustainable future starts with mindful everyday choices,” Robins said. “The pledge is all about in-spiring consciousness and responsi-bility in our generation and in our community. We’ve grown up in an incredible environment. Now it’s

our responsibility to protect it,” she continued.

The High School Pledge Al-liance is currently managed by two seniors. “We’re working with younger students to ensure that the pledge is a tradition for many years to come. It speaks to who we are as a student body, and as a community in general,” co-founder and senior Elaine Cunha stated.

“Because last year was such a success, we’re working on spread-ing the pledge to McKinleyville High School this year. Hopefully high schools all over California will be pledging for responsibility in the future!” Robins explicated enthusi-astically.

To join the movement and find out more, visit www.highschool-pledgealliance.org or “like” the pledge on Facebook!

AHS seniors sign the High School Pledge Alliance during the 2012 grad-uation ceremony.

Grave Lovell/PEPPERBOX

P a g e 11

NewsMay 17, 2013 PePPerboxAHS

Lauren McCoy breaks second record Grace Lovell

Art Director

The year is 1987. Arcata High se-nior Heidi Grobey runs the 400 me-ter dash in 58.65 seconds, winning sectionals. Almost three decades later, Grobey’s name is still up on the Arcata High gym wall. But now,

Grobey’s twenty-six-year reign as the record holder has come to an end. A new plaque, with a new name and a new year and an even faster time will go up on the gym wall. At the sections and All-County Quali-fying track meet in Del Norte on Thursday, May 2nd, Arcata junior Lauren McCoy ran 400 meters in a mere 57.9 seconds, breaking the

school record and astonishing ev-eryone, including herself. The now two-time record holder (McCoy broke the 300m hurdles record last year) said, “Honestly, I was just try-ing my hardest to run a 58, so when somebody told me I had ran 57, I was just like, ‘Oh my god!’ I was in disbelief.” The track star, whose previous personal record was 59

seconds, beat the second place run-ner by almost two seconds, an im-pressive number when it comes to the dash. McCoy placed first at the H-DN Championship meet, with a time of 59.16 seconds. McCoy and the rest of the track team will travel to Santa Rosa this Saturday, May 18, to compete in the North Coast Section Championships.

Track stars break records:

After finding her mark (the perfect distance from the pit to jump), freshman Ellie Earle-

Rouse looks down at the ground. She collects herself and begins her imitation of a pendulum, leaning backwards and forwards... once, twice... seven times. Her first step, skipping through the air, launches her into the strides up to the mat. By the time she has taken her last step, driving her knee skyward, she has become airborne and must contort her body to arch above and over the high jump bar. The moment Earle-Rouse’s hips go over the bar is the moment she knows if her leap of faith was her best yet.

On Saturday, April 6, 2013, Earle-Rouse had one of her best jumps. In fact, she broke Arcata High’s high jump record of 5’4” with a jump of 5’5”. She began high jumping only a year ago, as

Lauren McCoySports Editor

an eighth grader at Jacoby Creek Elementary School. One of her early jumps from last year in mid-dle school was 4’10”, a mark that would have undeniably placed first at the high school varsity level.

Since the start of her high jump-ing, Earle-Rouse has made great improvements in the height which she can clear, due largely to her rig-orous training schedule. With regu-lar workouts at 21 Grams Gym in Arcata, she works out with trainer Sarah Ingram, who guides Ellie in specified training geared toward jumping.

“Right now we are just working on her overall strength, and learning the moves and lifts,” Ingram said. Various exercises such as leg work, barbell squats, and jump squats are just a few of the many ways she gets into prime physical fitness for competition. Ingram is just the right person to be training Earle-Rouse, as she was the previous holder of Arcata High’s high jump record and certainly knows what she is doing. “When Ellie told me she broke my

record, I joked with her that I would have to put on a uniform and beat her again at the next meet! But I’m really happy for her,” Ingram add-ed.

Besides being a stellar high-jumper, she is also an excellent triple jumper. At a recent meet in Fortuna, Earle-Rouse shattered Ar-cata High’s triple jump record with a distance of 35’1.5”, which was more than two feet past the previ-ous record.

Earle-Rouse’s goal is to clear 5’8” in high jump by the end of this season, and she has already quali-fied for the Sections meet in Santa Rosa. Just this past Friday, Earle-Rouse placed first at the Humboldt-Del Norte All County Champion-ship meet in high jump and triple jump, earning two white stars and the title of best in the county at her respective events. It is safe to say Earle-Rouse is well on her way to becoming an Arcata High legend.

Ellie Earle-Rouse earns stripes

Photo courtesy of Phil Rouse Ellie Earl-Rouse clears an impressive winning height in Fortuna.

NewsMay 17, 2013PePPerboxAHS

P a g e 12

AHS juniors head to stateGillen Martin

Junior News Editor

This year’s State History Day was just another ex-ample of two of Arcata High’s defining features:

its rigorous academics and intense senioritis. This year at AHS we had sixteen qualifying students, nine qualifying projects, three alternate projects, and six alternate students. All of the qualifying students at-tended, with the exception of the seniors.

The 2013 History Day theme was turning points in history. The qualifying AHS projects covered many categories, including web-

sites, research papers, and group exhibits alike. Our students who qualified also ranged from fresh-men to seniors, although the seniors

as a whole declined the State’s cor-dial invitation to attend the actual

event. “I’m excited; I think it’ll be a lot

of fun. I’ve never been before, and I’m curious about what it’s like,” stated junior Kira Burnett (prior to attending History Day). Burnett’s project was about Yellowstone Na-tional Park and how the National Park system is saving the wild. “I liked my project a lot, and I liked the subject. I was hoping to do well, but I didn’t expect to go to State.”

State History Day in Sacramento was fortunate to have several AHS students. Besides the seniors and their two qualifying websites that did not attend, the event was utterly full with many impressive projects and brilliant individuals from Ar-cata High.

Photo courtesy of River’s momHistory Day competitor River Sween poses for a quick picture.

This year at AHS we had sixteen qualify-ing students, nine

qualifying projects, three alternate proj-ects, and six alter-

nate students.

P a g e 13

FeatureMay 17, 2013 PePPerboxAHS

Arcata’s resident womb-matesGillen Martin

Junior News Editor&

Geena DamianReporter

Psychic connections, match-ing clothes, and shared birthdays: what could be the source of these myste-

rious happenings? Twins. Slowly but surely, they have been taking over our school. We now have 32 twins in all (that’s 16 pairs), consti-tuting four percent of the school.

Whenever twins come up, they present the question: Will those of individual birth ever truly under-stand what it means to be a twin? Hopefully, this insightful article will help to explain the magical creatures and the rumors that sur-round them.

Dictionary.com defines a twin simply as “either of two children or animals brought forth at a birth,” but there is definitely more to being a twin than that. Sophomore Mariah Lewis was supposed to have a twin: “This one time... I stole all these nu-trients from my fetus twin...” com-mented Lewis. “I do think about what it would be like to have a twin.” And I’m sure we all wonder what it would be like to have Mari-ah’s double running around as well.

The biggest myth about twins is that they have some sort of psychic extra sensory perception (ESP) con-nection. Most people don’t believe this rumor, but we weren’t so sure. If you share the same DNA, who’s to say you can’t pick up on each other's thought waves? Freshman Triston Pigg has experienced this phenomenon. “Sometimes if she’s

in a bad mood, I can kinda feel it,” he Pigg commented about his sister.

Some twins share a less personal, yet nonetheless eerie psychic con-nection, such as sophomores Car-son and Westin McHaney, who have been known to catch each other humming the same song at the same time quite often. Twinstinct, twintellect, twinlepathy, whatever you call it, there is some strange connection between twin minds.

The trademark sign of young twins is the typical matching outfits. Though dorky, you can’t help look-ing at them without saying, “awww-www.” Some of our resident AHS twins were dressed identically in their youth. “Yeah, matching out-fits happened a lot. When we were little kids we had them everyday,” commented Pigg. Sophomore twin Sean Nordquist added, “It was kind of annoying.”

Being a twin has obvious pros and cons. “It’s cool having a broth-er the same age,” sophomore Taylor Camp said, although he goes on to add that the worst part about being a twin is spending so much time to-

gether. Mrs. Wozniak sympathizes with

Camp. “I can understand, after liv-ing in the womb together, you might be a little tired of each other,” Woz said when deciding not to put Se-nior twins Kaitlan and Kylie Tatro in the same group.

Triston Pigg seems to have a dif-ferent issue with being a twin. “It’s nice not being an only child, but she’s really good at everything, and that kind of gets old after a while,” Pigg commented.

Sean Nordquist may be fine hav-ing a womb-mate, but he doesn’t like being an identical twin: “It’s kind of weird to have another per-son who looks exactly like you.”

There are definitely some perks of having someone who looks ex-actly like you. Michael and Sean Nordquist, a pair of our school’s identical twins, have switched into each other’s classes just for fun: “Twice, once last year and once this year,” Sean said. Ju-niors Gina and Gloria Smith share a similar

story of deceiving their instructors. “We switched classes freshman year for two weeks straight. We got caught, but we didn’t get in trouble. The teachers would look me in the face and think I was her,” Gloria commented.

Gina’s long-time boyfriend Chandler Maskill was in one of the classes they switched for. “I had P.E. with Gloria freshman year, but Gina kept switching into it all the time. People would be weirded out because we would hold hands and they still thought it was Gloria,” Maskill recalled.

So for all of those without dou-bles, it looks like we’ll have to still go to all our classes, get into trouble on our own, and pick out our own outfits. But we’ll always have our school’s abundant society of twins to regale us with their stories of michief and excitement.

Gillen Martin/PEPPERBOXMichael and Sean Nordquist flaunt their similarities.

FeatureMay 17, 2013PePPerboxAHS

P a g e 14

Our alumni’s permanent HomecomingKaitlin Tucker

Reporter &

Geena DamianReporter

Every high school student dreams of graduation, the day they can bust out of the double doors

and never have to look back or be forced to go to high school again. So why then would anyone want to be a teacher? This is something we may never understand, and yet even more confusing is the ques-tion, why would anyone who grew up in Humboldt want to stay here? We spoke to our Humboldt alumni staff, and got insight into these be-fuddling questions.

It seems that our high school teachers are more like us than we thought. At one point in time, they too had the idea that they would never come back to a place full of embarrassing memories and child-hood dreams. According to Tanya Trump, she didn’t even apply to Humboldt State, and instead went to UC Santa Cruz. “A lot of people that leave come back, but I never

thought that I would,” Trump said. Instead of continuing her plans at UC Santa Cruz, she became… dis-tracted. “I met a boy the summer of my freshman year when I came back to visit and decided that going to HSU would be more fun,” Trump said.

Even less likely than staying in Humboldt was the prospect that Trump would become a teacher. “I came from a family of teachers; it was the last thing in the world I wanted to do,” Trump said. Yet little did Trump know that she was head-ed right toward her “nightmare.” “I went back to school to study nu-trition, and it just happened. I had parents with summers off, and I re-alized that working during the sum-mer sucked!” Trump said.

Still more shocking is the idea that our own Dean of Students, Tahnia Campbell, never thought that she would be a teacher. “I never knew what I wanted to do in high school, like maybe I knew what I wanted to do the next day, but never had a career plan.” This all changed when Jerry Paul asked her if she would want to be a coach for Arcata High. “When I was coaching, I real-ized that I wanted to teach as well,.Coaching is pretty much teaching.”

Unlike Trump, Campbell never had the desire to leave Humboldt. She went to HSU and became a basketball star. While telling us her tales of glory, Campbell reminisced her high school years from AHS: “Ghisetti always used to cheat off me on tests.”

While it seems as though Troy Ghi-setti would have been one of us typical high schoolers, with dreams to travel the world, and never go to school again, he was in fact quite the oppo-site. When we mentioned his time at Arcata High, he promptly responded with an enthusiastic, “OMG, greatest time of my life!” As to him becom-ing a teacher, apparently he took very little convincing. “My sophomore year, Mr. Mayer did a survey in health class about which career I should do. It came up with building houses or teaching, so I asked him how many days a year he worked, he said 180, and I said perfect!”

While those of us still in high school think of our final days at Arcata High, I wonder, which of us will return, and which of us will tell our students our stories of prom dates, basketball leg-ends, and cutting class.

Who knows who it will be, but re-member students of Arcata High, you could be back here in twenty years teaching history, German, or algebra.

Mr. Schmidt (P.E.) Ms. Cole (Lunch Lady)

Mrs. Campbell (Dean)

Mr. Ghisetti (P.E.)Mr. Kieselhorst (Music)

Mrs. Trump (Cooking)

Mrs. Rosebrook (History)Photos courtesy of AHS Advance

P a g e 15

FeatureMay 17, 2013 PePPerboxAHS

For others, the parking lot is a place for tradition. Parking spots have a legacy attached to them. Senior Molly Salamunovich is the fourth of six Salamunoviches who have graced the Arcata High campus. Prior to Molly’s senior year, the Salamunovich parking spot was etched in three years of heritage marking back to the oldest sister, Annie, in 2003. “It’s been passed down by generation to generation, and it’s im-portant to my family to carry out the tradition,” Salamunovich said.

When the Arcata High parking lot was first built in 1895, it was unpaved and con-

tained 12 parking spaces for the entire school. As time progressed, students became dependent on cars to commute to and from school, and the need to expand the AHS parking lot became apparent. Today, our parking lot holds nearly 150 park-ing spaces for students and visitor parking. This expansion occurred on the same small plot of land that previously housed 12 spots over 100 years earlier. With only one entrance and one exit, at the end of a dead end street, traffic jams are an expected occurrence in our daily lives.

About 400 of Arcata High’s 800 students are of driving age, making it impossible for everyone to fit into the small parking lot at the front of the school. Scarcity breeds battles; maintaining one’s “spot” is a con-stant struggle.

The parking lot is more than just a place to park your car. Ironically, parking lot geography, or where one parks, is almost more important than having a space at all. Most schools are designed to provide places for students to conglomerate and hang out in between classes and after school, but the Arcata High campus

lacks such a place. To compensate for an unpopulated senior lawn, the parking lot has become the desti-nation for all socialization. Break time, lunch, and after school, you will find students playing catch with a football, conversing in the bed of a truck, listening to music inside a car, and using their cars and trucks as lockers. Where one parks reflects which group of friends they identify with as well as their location prefer-ences. Close to the school makes it easiest to visit your car in between classes, while the edge of the lot al-lows for the quickest exit at lunch and after school.

Driving past the parking lot, one may not notice the complex stratifi-cation in place that dictates where one parks. However, the Arcata High parking lot is a hierarchy. In the eyes of many seniors, they are on top. Juniors, and especially sophomore drivers, are on the bot-tom. The three year cycle takes students through struggling to find a spot close enough to their fellow peers as a sophomore, to beginning to establish a certain area of the parking lot as their own as a junior, to expecting to come to school with your parking spot empty and wait-ing for you as a senior.

Last year’s sophomore class sparked controversy with the upper-classmen after overrunning a sec-tion of the parking lot already oc-cupied by junior and senior drivers. The previous system of respect was

obliterated, and the veteran driv-ers looked upon the year’s sopho-mores in disdain. Senior Eli Perrett, who was bothered after his parking space was taken, stated, “If you un-derstand your place in the parking lot, you will earn respect.”

Cameron Wallace, a current sen-ior at Arcata High, was one of the few sophomores two years ago to receive his license while still in school. Wallace stated, “I chose to park away from the main lot when I first got my license because I was an inexperienced driver and respected the upperclassmen.”

Current sophomore Russell Tay-lor strongly believes his fellow sophomores “should respect the up-

Establishing a parking spot at AHSHawken Ritter

Business Manager

perclassmen because we are rookies and they have been driving for two years.”

However, this belief is not shared among all sophomore drivers. Bryce Moore, a sophomore who recently got his license, boldly stat-ed, “Screw the seniors, I can park where I want.”

Although the sophomores can, by law, park wherever they want, it is important for them to realize there is an unwritten code; a system of respect and a hierarchy. Until the parking lot is renovated to accom-modate the influx of new sopho-more drivers each year, this inevi-table controversy will continue to occur.

“Screw the seniors, I can park where I want.”

-Newly licensed sophomoreBryce Moore

Gabe Schneider/PEPPERBOX

Molly’s spot

P a g e 16

Spring sports: Tigers roar onSam Winter

Reporter

This year the AHS Golf team has not achieved the success it has become accustomed to in recent years. Freshman Morgan Pennington impressively lead the team with a best score of 84. Despite the overall lack of success, the team has managed to still enjoy themselves. Senior Eli Perrett explained, “Well there’s a lot to be said about golf, that’s for sure. It’s a man’s sport. It’s something I know I’m going to be doing for the rest of my life. It’s a valuable experience. I’ve met a lot of great golfers and have had a great experience with the team. I don’t really know anything about golf though. I didn’t play in any of the tournaments.” Fellow senior Ryan Ennes continued, “We may not have been the best players, but we were the best looking.”

In a team with no seniors, the AHS softball is in the process of a solid season while looking forward to success next year. They’ve gone 0-8 in league and 3-15 overall, including preseason wins against Fort Bragg, and two impressive wins against St. Bernard’s. On the topic of their season, junior Caitlin Nieri simply commented, “Maybe next year.”

Baseball is well on its way to a solid finish to the season, with a record of 4-7 in league and 12-10 overall. The team is very young this year with six freshmen. They started out strong, going 8-3 in preseason and maintaining a good record throughout league. “We’ve got good team chemistry and we’re known for our late comebacks,” commented senior Cameron Wallace. They will, as always, compete for the league title yet again.

P a g e 17

The AHS tennis team lost for the first time in eight years, but still, as usual, won a league title. Led by seniors Jasper Severn and Forrest Lewis and junior Hayden Parker, AHS tennis has maintained its reputation as the dominant tennis school in the HDN League by being undefeated except for a single loss to Fortuna and finishing the season with a record of 13-1. They have earned a berth into North Coast Sections, but elected to not travel to the Bay Area to compete. Senior Severn summed up the season by commenting, “This was the first season in eight years that Arcata High has been challenged in our area, but despite two broken limbs and over half of our team being new recruits, we still managed to reign victorious as league champions.”

Track has put forth an impressive team in the 2013 season, consistently winning a variety of events and even breaking school records. The girls have been winning all the meets by a significant margin. Freshman high jumper Ellie Earle-Rouse has been impressive this year, breaking the school high jump and triple jump records (see page 11). The team has also shown a solid distance group, led by Jose Lopez. Lauren McCoy has repeatedly won 300m hurdles with a best time of 46.04 and long jump with a distance of 16’11”, while being part of the undefeated girls 4x400m relay whose best time clocked in at 4:08.00. Russ Taylor, who won long jump with a distance of 18’7”, summed up the season by saying, “Well, it’s been a good season... But I don’t really know if I’m good or not at track.”

P a g e 18

H a d J a m e s M o n ro e ’s o v e r w h e l m i n g s u c c e s s in the election of 1820 been because of a brilliant cam-paign, I would not be writing about him. There was, in fact,

no campaign in the election of 1820. Monroe faced no opposition, and became America’s fifth President by default.

Arcata High will see its second consecutive Monroe take office next year. The last time AHS students produced more candidates than offices available was in 2010. Since then, it seems as if the As-sociated Student Body (ASB) offices have been settled among the “candidates” in backroom deals.

Behind-The-Scene Backroom DealingShortly before last year’s ASB petitions were due, I confronted

former Junior Class President Forrest Lewis about whether he planned on running for ASB President. After a quick discussion, he made it pretty clear that he had no interest in running against me.

“I didn’t want to put on a campaign,” Lewis said, explaining his reason for settling on Vice President. “ASB VP has almost the same amount of prestige but way less work.”

“This is what happens every year,” ASB Treasurer Elaine Cunha concluded, referring to the recent phenomenon where a small group of aspiring ASB officers get together and jockey for positions, deciding amongst themselves who will hold each office - saving the inconvenience of an actual election.

Despite my AHS pride and passion for political science, I would not have run against Lewis for President. In theory, I deeply believe in democratic elections, but in practice, appointment was much, much more appealing. By running unopposed, I didn’t have to risk losing. I made one ten-second speech in front of the school and was handed the position of ASB President.

Self-appointed ASB officers are turning into an Arcata High tradi-tion, as it has carried over to this year’s pool. Their backroom deals are beginning to resemble a game of “chicken.”

“There was shuffling going on while we were deciding what posi-tions we were going to run for,” said unopposed ASB President-elect Lauren McCoy. “Morgan Brown approached me, knowing she wanted to run for an ASB office even though she will be a junior, and told me that she didn’t want to run against me,” McCoy said.

McCoy and Brown’s deal seemed almost identical to the deal Lewis and I struck last year. “In the end we decided that she would be VP and I would be President; that’s where we decided we’d both be successful,” McCoy concluded.

Unopposed ASB VP candidate Morgan Brown intended on run-ning for ASB President. “I like Lauren too much, so I settled for VP”

No ContestDay Robins

Online Editor

Backroom deals have replaced elections, put-ting democracy at Arcata High on its deathbed.

COVER from the

Brown said. “She’s also better than everyone at everything, and I didn’t want to go up against that, especial-ly because I’m just going to be a junior. It’s her senior year, and I’ll have the op-portunity to run for ASB President next year. I also didn’t want any conflict between us.”

Despite all the positives of student government, only four out of 16 class and ASB positions are contested in this year’s elec-tions. Furthermore, out of a class of 160 students, this year’s junior class could pathetically only produce two ASB candidates. Luckily, the current sophomore class stepped up to fill the void; two of next year’s ASB officers, Morgan Brown and Gillen Martin, will be juniors next year.

Not all potential candidates are worried about going head-to-head in an election. “I would have run against someone because I’m confident I’ll do a good job. That’s why I ran in the first place,” Cunha said.

McCoy feels the same confidence. “I’ve been in a leadership role for the past three years, so I’m the most qualified to take on the position of ASB President,” McCoy stated.

Looking back, I also felt extremely confident in my ability to do a good job as ASB President, but less confident in my ability to beat Lewis. I had the passion and enthusiasm for the office, but the idea of advertising myself by campaigning was outside my comfort zone.

“One of the problems with high schoolers is that they’re afraid of losing. It’s a big factor in this unopposed ASB election,” McCoy said. “People won’t want to run if they don’t think they’ll win.”

What Scares Students Away?Many students see elections as popularity contests rather than a

reflection of abilities. “There’s always the popularity thing, in any election,” freshman

Owen Reiss noted. “It seems like there’s not enough incentive to run against a candidate.”

Reiss added that if underclassmen were more encouraged to run

In theory, I deeply believe in democratic elections, but in practice, appointment

was much, much more appealing.

P a g e 19

for office, they may be more likely to become ASB officers as up-perclassmen.

“Freshman and sophomore year people are intimidated by class office,” Lewis said. “Because ASB office requires a year of class of-fice experience or a year of leadership class, many students aren’t even eligible to run for ASB office.” Given the lack of candidates in recent years, the leadership class may reconsider the requirements for ASB office to allow more kids the opportunity to run.

A lack of candidates may also stem from a lack of knowledge about ASB, which is summed up by Reiss’s curious question: “Is there any reason why people want to be ASB President?”

Why Student Government is CoolMy reply to Reiss was, “You get to call yourself ASB President.” I

had a hard time grasping that there were students who did not see the inherent prestige of ASB President as obvious.

But, there’s a much deeper meaning to ASB office. Our job is not only to put on the usual events like the assemblies, Homecoming, and Spring Week, but to brainstorm ways to make these weeks bet-ter than before. Above all, ASB officers are responsible for creating a spirited environment that makes everyone feel welcomed at AHS.

Principal Dave Navarre added his own perspective on student involvement. “Working with students is the absolute best part of my job,” Navarre said sincerely. “We rely on you guys.”

Navarre also recognized the broader rewards of ASB office. “[Stu-dent government] looks good on a resume, it gives you experience, you get to have your ideas presented, and it will help you down the road no matter what you go on to do,” Navarre said.

According to Hope Murtaugh, former assistant director of admis-sions at Princeton University, “Holding the office of Student Body President is a strong statement that that person is seen as a leader by the community...It gives an admission office a strong signal that this is...not someone who’s just going to sit back and take from the University, but rather somebody who is willing to give back in the form of their time and service.”

“A large reason I ran was so that I could write it on college appli-cations,” admitted junior Hannah Christen, who is currently running unopposed for Senior Class VP.

Being an ASB officer is nationally recognized as a positive con-tribution to the school community. Students at some schools are cut-throat about winning elections. I have heard stories of students spending over $500 on t-shirts, buttons, banners, etc. in their cam-paigns to become an ASB officer.

A$B: Cha-Ching!Student government empowers students. At Monday ASB meet-

ings, we spend thousands of dollars and make decisions that im-pact the school for years after we’ve all graduated.

“Basically everything that ASB does involves money or purchase orders,” Cunha said. Last year, ASB purchased a $6,000 marquee with money from student government’s $120,000 stock portfolio.

“Tens of thousands of dollars of purchases happen every year, based on the student government’s vote,” ASB advisor Wendy Zamboni said. “By now, in May, the student government knows parliamentary procedure, how to write a purchase order, and how to run a meeting. They could do it all without me!”

ASB by the NumbersFor 3 years in a row, AHS has not pro-duced more than 4 ASB candidates for the 4 ASB offices, out of 791 students.

In the 2013 elections, out of the 160 juniors,159 have above a 2.0 cumu-lative GPA, making them eligible to run for Class Office. Only 6 of those 159 eligible ran for 8 open class and ASB of-fices. Only 1 was male.

Only 4 of 16 class and ASB positions are contested. 12 of the “candidates” will win by default.

In this year’s student government, only 5 of 20 officers are male. 1 male and 16 females are enrolled in Leadership class.

In the past 5 years, at least 1 ASB can-didate has run unopposed.

Zamboni also made clear that ASB has the ability to change school policy, but that it has not done so in many years. “When I was in high school, my class took on the dress code and got shorts allowed,” she recalled. “If you were set on changing school policy, student government can go through the steps to make it happen.”

The System Depends on You!Of course, many students simply don’t want to put in the work

that student government requires. To those who have a political calling of any sort: feed it. “Government by the people” is the defini-tion of democracy. Democracy demands participation, and not just as a voter, but as a contributor of ideas and energy.

“In order for democracy to be substantive and not just procedur-al, people need to have meaningful choices,” City of Arcata Mayor Shane Brinton said. “The more people actively participate in the process, the more likely we are to be successful.”

Elections are essential to a healthy democracy. With every un-contested campaign, AHS students lose some of their power in our school’s democracy. “The system isn’t working if people aren’t participating,” AP Government teacher Doug Johnson summarized.

After hearing the pros of ASB office, freshman Owen Reiss con-cluded that he would be willing to run for an ASB or class office in the future. So, don’t be afraid to put yourself out there. I realize now that even if I had run for ASB President and lost, holding an actual election would have been a win for the democratic process.

P a g e 21

FeatureMay 17, 2013 PePPerboxAHS

Cafe Mokka is located on the discreet corner of 5th and J Streets. At this wonderful locale you can find not only delicious drinks, but an enchanting pond and garden�

The Valley is just one of the many awe-inspiring adventure spots in Arcata� As it’s nestled deep in the Redwood Park Forest, you may want a guide to get you there�

Turning off Samoa onto I Street toward the bay, you follow a gently winding road to a fascinating piece of environmental and physical beauty: the Marsh�

The Whale is one of the better kept secrets of Arcata, and is such for good reason� This incredible master-piece is located on a private road, Aloha Lane, off of Spear and West End. Visit this wonder at your own risk, and be sure to be repectful.

The Circle of Trees, a mysterious crop of ritualistically planted redwoods, is hidden in Arcata’s Redwood Forest in Sunny Brae� The tiny piece of sky seen through the circle evokes a sense of serenity worth a short uphill hike�

To reach the infamous Glass Fields, one must turn off of Alliance onto 17th, and follow the road to the right, and then to the left as it turns into Q Street. On the right hand side of the road is a discreet parking spot� From there you must carefully walk across a wasteland of sorts to the mirage of broken bottles and dreams�

The Top of the World is a breathtaking vantage point overlooking the Mad River and the town of Blue Lake� This steep road to such beauty is about a 30 minute drive up Fickle Hill. Look for the red gate and fence!

Seven Wonders of Arcata Humboldt County, Arcata in particular, has been considered a hotspot for adventuring and expe-riencing nature ever since the gem behind the Redwood Curtain was discovered. There are var-ious spots around town and in the surrounding areas that epitomize this spirit of adventure. Al-though they have not been around quite as long as Stonehenge, they certainly are worth a stop.

Cafe Mokka The Valley

The Marsh

The Cement Whale

Glass Fields

Top of the world

Circle of Trees

Lauren McCoySports Editor

travelMay 17, 2013PePPerboxAHS

P a g e 22

Colin Swenson on Rotary ExchangeSage Fanucchi

Feature Editor

Colin Swenson, AHS graduate and former Art Director of the Pep-perbox, has spent the

last eight months as an exchange student in Trieste, Italy, a city in Northern Italy near Slovenia and Croatia.

Pepperbox: Where are you on exchange?Colin: I’m on exchange in Trieste, Italy. It’s located in a really weird place and it’s a city of 200,000 people. It used to be the most im-portant port for the Austro-Hungar-ian Empire.What other important cities have you been to in Italy and around the world?I have travelled to Milan,Venice, Florence, Pisa, Ferrara, Sienna, Udine, Slovenia, Croatia, Austria and Denmark (to visit Zoe Tinseth, a fellow rotary exchange student and Arcata High graduate). I also went to Israel for an international peace conference.What did you do at the interna-tional peace conference?We did all sorts of stuff. We were [a group of] over 150 16 to 28-year-olds from 21 different countries all living in a small com-munity together. Getting to know people and the political and social situations from all over the world was an eye-opening experience. We saw incredible lecturers and had opportunities to brainstorm ideas to improve humanity and spread peace. I’m involved in a group that’s working on develop-ing an app that would show users volunteer opportunities in different

areas.What’s the biggest culture shock or cultural difference you’ve experienced?Well when it comes to Italians - oh [expletive]! (he begins to whisper) I can’t do this, they are all right here. Uh, when it comes to Italians, I’ve noticed they are very passion-ate about everything they do. So sometimes when they seem like they are yelling at you, they are actually asking you to do some-thing and they think it’s a really good idea, so they yell at you some more. They seem to have this idea that the louder and more they move

their arms, the more convincing they are. But it just makes them seem kinda crazy, Italian, and loud.How’s the process of learning Italian been going?I arrived knowing no Italian. So for the first couple months I didn’t really understand and couldn’t do much, which is pretty common. It’s pretty good now, I wouldn’t say I’m fluent, but I’m pretty compe-tent.What’s the funniest miscommu-nication you’ve had?My host father would go out to dinner a lot without telling me

ahead of time, and so I’d have to make my own dinner. So I asked him in Italian if he would warn me before he would go out to dinner, like a day ahead of time. But in Italian the word cena means dinner and the word cina means China. So I asked him to warn me one day ahead of time before he went to China and his response was, “How did you know I’m going to China? Yeah, I’ll warn you at least a week ahead of time.” We were both very confused. I also accidentally told people I was horny a lot, because “I’m excited” in English translates to “I’m horny” in Italian.

So what’s school been like in Italy; how does it compare to school in the U.S.?Italian school is very different from American school. There’s less of a school-wide community because you have one class that you stay with for all of your lessons, and your teachers come to you. But it also means that you become very close to everyone in your class. The Italian school system has very little money and is struggling, so that means that there are a lot of student strikes. In some student strikes the teachers participate and

those can get pretty intense. My school has toilet paper and I’m told I’m lucky because a lot of schools can’t even afford toilet paper.What’s your favorite pizza?I like four cheese pizza with speck added. And a four cheese pizza in Italy is not some Digiorno [exple-tive] where they give you four cheeses that look and taste exactly the same. This is where you get four cheeses that taste completely different.What custom would you bring back to the U.S. if you could? Italians are very, very helpful and friendly if you ask them questions. If you don’t know where you are and you ask them, they will most likely walk to where you need to go. Also the respect for food. Meals are very important and making sure you eat well and eat enough. I wish there was more of that in America. More respect for the ingredient, and more respect for what you’re putting into your body.When you come back to the U.S., what’s the first thing you’re go-ing to eat?[Expletive] Mexican food man, I just want Mexican food so bad.So if you could give advice to any future exchange students, what would it be?If you need something, ask for it. And don’t expect the beginning of your exchange to be like what the whole year is like; it can take a couple months to adjust. Also, when people ask you where you’re from, tell them California instead of that you’re American, some-times it will go over a little better. But don’t expect anyone to have any idea where Humboldt is. I’ve gotten to the point where I just say, “kind of near San Francisco.”

Photo courtesy of Paul Swenson Colin Swenson admiring the Ponte Vecchio bridge in Florence, Italy.

P a g e 23

travelMay 17, 2013 PePPerboxAHS

Spare Change conference in D.C.

“Sparing time, chang-ing minds!” This is the chant Spare Change introduced

to The 2013 Young Leaders Summit in Washington, D.C. Those in atten-dance representing Spare Change, the local peer education and theater troupe from Six Rivers Planned Parenthood, were Arcata High se-niors Sage Fanucchi, Claire Appel-mans and Astaria Holland, as well as Robin Lancaster from Academy of the Redwoods. The Young Lead-ers Summit is a conference inviting youth involved in Planned Parent-hood from all around the nation. These young adults have all vol-unteered for Planned Parenthood

as peer educators and in outreach groups. The youth’s dedication to the fight for reproductive justice was enriched by these workshops. “Being surrounded by so many motivated youth made me want to dedicate my career to providing ac-cess to reprodusctive health care to people around the world,” Appel-mans stated.

During this three day conference, students gathered for four differ-ent workshops, with topics rang-ing from “Understanding Privilege on the Path to Being an Ally” to “Beyond the Monuments: Under-standing What It Really Means to Organize in D.C.” Other activities included a scavenger hunt across the Mall, a visit from Cecile Rich-ards, the president of Planned Par-enthood, and a first-ever speech from the President of the United

States. President Obama is the first standing president to ever speak to the National Planned Parenthood conference. “Planned Parenthood is not going anywhere, it’s not going anywhere today, and it’s not going anywhere tomorrow,” concluded President Obama.

“The overall experience was in-spiring and uplifting. The confer-ence made me feel empowered to create change and continue the work Planned Parenthood does,” Fanucchi said. The Young Leaders Summit had the power to do on a large scale what Spare Change tries to do for their peers. This confer-ence gave young people a voice and listened to them in return, making the work of Planned Parenthood even more meaningful. “The oppor-tunity to meet with people from across the nation was

irreplaceable. Each person offered a fantastic and unique perspective on the work we do,” Robin Lancaster said regarding the Young Leaders Youth Summit. Spare Change feels incredibly privileged to have repre-sented our community at a national conference, and has been inspired to take home ideas and activities learned at the National Youth Lead-ership Summit. “The work Spare Change does is not only recognized locally but nationally. We rocked D.C. and I am super proud of the work each member contributes to educating their peers and the com-munity,” said Gina Figueroa, direc-tor of Spare Change. Spare Change will be holding auditions at Arcata High on May 28th; don't miss your chance to be the change.

Photo Courtesy of Gina FigueroaMembers of Spare Change sightseeing in Washington, D.C. From left to right: Robin Lancaster, Sage Fanucchi, Ranjan Hatch, Claire Appelmans, Astaria Holland

Astaria HollandReporter

travelMay 17, 2013PePPerboxAHS

P a g e 24

Grace LovellArt Director

Orchestra shines at Carnegie

According to freshman Dhiren Suryadevara, known as “Electro” or “Chocolate Wonder”

by his friends, it was an experience that can only be described as “in-trinsic.” For the kids in orchestra, spring break meant more than just relief from homework and hang-ing out with friends, spring break meant that months of practice and two years of expectations were fi-nally put to the test: the orchestra was going to play in their bi-annual music festival taking place at none other than New York City’s Carn-egie Hall. Orchestra Maestra Carol Jacobson elaborated that playing at

Carnegie “was completely mind-blowing, a humbling experience... When you look up and consider what’s been in there before you, who’s been in there before you, it’s a thrill! It’s the best place in the Unit-ed States to play.” After two off-site rehearsals, the orchestra got to play alongside a dozen other high-school orchestras from across the country. Sophomore tubist Kierie Edwards stated, “I went there thinking that it was just a big old fancy hall, but it turned out to be spectacular - the stage was humongous, everything was just really shiny. The sound resonation was awesome and ev-erything sounded really nice. It was just a life-changing experi-ence.” Bassoonist Morgan Mahan agreed, “The best part was when we walked on the stage the first time.

I was just amazed, looking out into the audience, how stunning it was.” Mahan added, “I feel like our hard work has finally paid off.” As well as performing Carnegie Hall, the orchestra saw both the Los An-geles Philharmonic and the New York Philharmonic, and the musi-cals, Newsies and Matilda. “I really liked the musicals, like, they were amazing, and I loved them. They were fun, and [acting] is something I want to pursue, so, that was really cool,” exclaimed cellist and drama student Ryan Ghisetti. Senior first trumpet Michael Newman said,

“We got to experience all of the fun touristy New York things... The Statue of Liberty, the Natural Histo-ry Museum, the Empire State build-ing, Times Square... It was really fun.” Added oboist Matthew Zazu-eta, “The best part was the food.”

The Orchestra also performed the pieces they played in New York, “Romeo and Juliet” and “The Car-men Suite,” along with Frank Sina-tra’s “New York, New York” at the annual Orchestra Gala on April 27th. If you missed it, you can check out the orchestra at the Spring Con-cert on May 31st.

Photo courtesy of Darcy Robins

The ArMack Orchestra prepares for their Carnegie Hall performance over Spring Break.

P a g e 25

travelMay 17, 2013 PePPerboxAHS

After almost twenty hours of traveling, eleven Ar-cata High School stu-dents arrived in Paris,

one of the most beautiful cities on Earth. These students spent two weeks immersing themselves in the French language and culture. Their adventure took them to beau-tiful gardens, historical beaches, fabulous museums and French high schools. They saw everything from Monet’s Garden to the World War II

museum. They also got the oppor-tunity to taste local cuisine. “The bread was amazing,” freshman Lily Iverson stated.

All of these students were on the same trip, visiting the same places, and yet they all had very different experiences. Some loved the local culture. “My favorite part was go-ing around in the backstreets and al-leyways of Paris where all the local shops are,” senior Lorenzo Pageano stated.

Others loved the stay with host families, shadowing a French high school student, and getting the

The week before Spring Break: a time of making plans, STAR test review, vacation anticipation, and

a multitude of class and club trips. One such trip is the 10th grade AP European History class’s tour of Europe, which spanned 12 days (March 28th to April 9th), three countries, and five cities. Arcata High student Camille LaVoie stated, “I loved being able to connect what I have read about and studied with the actual place or thing, and just being immersed in other cultures was amazing.” With 24 students, six from Arcata High and 18 from McKinleyville High, five NHUSD chaperones, and six parent travel-ers, there were 35 travelers in total.

London, England was the first stop on this once-in-a-lifetime trip, where the students saw a Premier League soccer game, witnessed the changing of the guard, and attended Easter Mass at Westminster Abbey. Then, they were off to Paris, France. Here, the students visited the Lou-vre, the Eiffel Tower, and went on a guided tour through the Palace of Versailles. AHS Dean Tahnia Campbell said, “I would go back in a heartbeat! This is an amazing trip and I would jump at the opportunity to chaperone again.” After Paris, the students took an overnight train to Florence, Italy. In Florence, they saw the Gates of Paradise, went to the Palazzo Vecchio, and saw Dante’s House. “Florence was the most beautiful city, besides getting rained on,” Campbell said. “But Rome was also beautiful.”

On the way to Rome, the students

took a detour to spend the day in Assisi, Italy, where they visited the Church of St. Francis and had free time to explore the wonders of the small but beautiful city. In Rome, they saw the Trevi Fountain and went on a guided tour through the Colosseum. They also visited Vati-

Anna NordquistNews Editor

quintessential French experience. “It was really cool to stay with another family and learn their cul-ture,” freshman Caleb Burns stated. Freshman Patsi Fraga agreed: “Staying with the host family was re-ally fun because my host sister was really nice and her family was really ac-cepting.” The magnificent tourist attractions were another favorite. “I liked going to all the differ-ent monuments,” stated sophomore Sarah Fields.

History comes to life in Europe

“My favorite monument was the Eiffel Tower. I loved being able to overlook the entire city and see how beautiful it was.”

Julia SloanReporter

can City where they saw the amaz-ing Sistine Chapel. Arcata High Principal Dave Navarre stated, “We packed an amazing amount of adventure into 12 days. It was an absolute kick to travel around Eu-rope with such a fantastic group of young adults."

International trips a success French culture enlightens students

Photo courtesy of Indigo DavisArcata High students witness the changing of the guard at Bucking-ham Palace.

Photo courtesy of Davena Bagnall Students admire a wall with “I love you” written in every language.

oPiNioNMay 17, 2013PePPerboxAHS

P a g e 26

The original hipsters: SuprematistsCalvin Ryan

Opinion Editor

There are many con-cepts that stay constant throughout history, like power, wealth, and sta-

tus. However, I find that the most important constant is the presence of art. Art is one of those under-appreciated, overlooked factors in every significant era. The most fas-cinating aspect about art is how its styles and forms evolve as technol-ogy improves and society advanc-es. You could argue that countless more aspects improve with technol-ogy also, but the difference lies in how explicitly visual art is. I mean, just think about it. You can see the evolving ideas and intellect of art-ists throughout time, the changing perspectives, the stark contrasts and the intense depth that they reveal. It’s pretty amazing to think that a monotonous, blank canvas with no personality or expression can become something with so much emotion and feeling. That is one of the many things about art that truly

fascinates me. That metamorphosis from monotony to intricacy is a per-fect example of the amazing things that humanity can achieve through the power of artistic expression.

History repeats itself, often in ways that we don’t realize. Realism and abstraction seem to alternate throughout history. In one decade, artists might create paintings and drawings that could be mistaken

for photographs, where detail is so revered and important that any sub-ject will look fascinating, and even a painting of the most mundane bucket would be intriguing. In the next decade, you could find paint-ings with a five color palette, that has no depth and resembles slightly more sophisticated cave paintings. I can appreciate almost any form and genre of art, but I really do not understand the appeal of modern art movements like Suprematism, which focuses on simple shapes

and lines. I could probably show you an example in about three min-utes using MS Paint. Maybe I’m bi-ased from living with an artist as a mother in a house where the walls are basically paintings. I think, unconsciously, my taste in art has been shaped by that. I’ve come to appreciate subtle aesthetics, which most people think of as slight OCD. For example, when I walk into a room, I can immediately tell if a painting is crooked. It takes an im-mense amount of effort not to be rude and fix it. This is the curse of being raised by an artist. I recently saw a 5’ by 5’ painting with a Field Drab Brown background and small dabs of green, that could be bought and displayed in all its majesty with one third of the average Ameri-can’s annual sal-ary. I gazed at the expanse of brown that extended from the corners of my peripherals, and I realized what it lacked: the murky brown strokes held nothing but paint.

You cannot look at paintings as simple, cur-sory pictures. You have to understand the story and the meaning behind it; something your English teacher has probably told you a million times. You can’t look at art simply as two- dimensional. It’s deeper than that. You have to look

I could probably show you an ex-ample [of Suprematism] in about

three minutes using MS Paint.

past that initial shallow comprehen-sion and understand the history, the meaning, and the personality of the art and the artist. Artists like Van Gogh, Monet, and da Vinci are re-nowned not only because their skill was unsurpassed, but because their pieces act as windows into their lives, their culture and our history. When I think about people in one hundred years browsing the new Museum of Abstract Art on their iTables in their glass houses, I seri-ously wonder how they’re going to interpret Minimalism. “This single wavy orange line represents soci-ety,” says the curator, continued by “I don’t really know what the white background means; I’m sure it’s too complex for me to understand.”

Ben McCreath/PEPPERBOXMy smile is so mysterious.

When I walk into a room, I can immediately tell if a painting is crooked. It takes an immense amount of effort not to be rude and fix it.

P a g e 27

a&eMay 17, 2013 PePPerboxAHS

The Indiana Jones of GuitarDakota Goodman

A&E Editor

Named the “Best acoustic guitarist” by Acoustic Guitarist Magazine and “best guitar player” by

Rolling Stone, Tommy Emmanuel is a prodigy of music. Emmanuel has never learned how to properly read music, but at a very young age his mother taught him about the differ-ent verses in a song, a “simple way of understanding music.” Ironical-ly, even though he learns by listen-ing, he had yellow fever as a child and cannot hear very well. Unlike most guitarists who chose between bass and rhythm, Emmanuel plays both at the same time. He breaks down how he hears both the chorus and the beat, then combines the two together. His talent with music has given him the nickname, “The Indi-ana Jones of Guitar.”

Pepperbox: Were you interested in music from a young age?Tommy Emmanuel: I was always interested in music; it was how my mother got me to sleep as a baby. I wouldn’t sleep during the day un-less music was on. Music has al-ways been in my life. I started play-ing the guitar at age four. I was one of six children who all wanted to play music. We were immersed in music all the time. My mother sang and danced through everyday.

What was your education like?I never studied music, I don’t read music, and if you asked me to play a certain note, I bet I’d play it but I can’t name it. When I was young, my mother showed me how to figure out a song. She would say

“Here is this song, this is verse. One and this is verse two, verse one has the same construction as verse two and here is the chorus and that has a different construction as the first two verses.” We ended up making a simple way of understanding the music. As far as education goes, I did correspondence school and my mother was my teacher for a while, and then we were forced off the road and into school. I did two years of public high school and that was enough for me. I ran away and went to the big city. I wanted to be play-ing music. I got some good jobs, by the time I was fifteen I was already working a lot in Sydney and play-ing with a lot of different artists and sometimes way out of my depth. I was always a little bit fearless even though I didn’t have the experience of adults.

What is your main inspiration?When I was a kid it was country mu-sic, long before our time really. My first inspiration was a guy named Jimmy Rodgers, then Hank Wil-liams. It was all guys who played country music. Then I discovered swing music, rock n’ roll, and then the blues a little bit later. I didn’t re-ally get into jazz and the blues until the mid 70’s. During the late 70’s I was in a lot of different bands play-ing funk music and music to make people dance. I did a lot of different things in my life: I played bass in a band, I was a singer in a band, I played guitar in a band, and fixed equipment. What I am doing right now is I am traveling around the world as a concert musician. This is what I wanted to do since I was a little boy. My dream of where I belonged was in concert halls, I just had to find out how to get there. It

just took a long time and didn’t hap-pen by accident. How do you think touring has af-fected your music?I think it has made me a much better musician, because I have to interact with lots of people every day of my life. I want to have a family around me wherever I go and I want to be able to come back. If you are in the music business, your main goal is to create a good reputation so that you can come back. You have to have a situation where people want to see you again. I play about 330 dates a year - I play a lot - so I am always seeing people that I saw last year and I hope that I am building rela-tionships around the world. Music has a way of bringing us together, it is a powerful force. The guitar is a weapon of mass construction. What is your personal opinion of the younger generations taste in music?I think people still love a good song

with a good melody and with a good message. It doesn’t matter what clothes it’s dressed in. If some-one sings it well with a lot of heart then it’ll get through. There are some genres of music that I don’t listen to that much, like rap music or heavy metal. It’s just a matter of what works for you. What works for me may not work for you and vise versa, but that doesn’t mean I don’t respect what you like. But I think the bottom line in any genre of music, whether it is classical or heavy metal, as long as it’s got soul, it’s got heart - that’s what matters to me. What you’ve got to do in life is find your place. You have to find where you belong and where your strengths are and how you can be most effective while you have your time to shine. Remember that you are here to serve others; we are here to help each other. If you do a good job that should fulfill you, that should make you happy. That is the most important thing, be happy while you are here.

Tommy Emmanuel, deemed “best guitar player” by Rolling Stone Dakota Goodman/PEPPERBOX

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*The Pepperbox commends Mr. Monge for being a responsible admin-istrator and ensur-ing the safety of his students.