The Paw Print

Digging for the Dirt on the New Amphitheater

by Stella Favaro and Sierra MaciorowskiStaff Writer and Editor-in-Chief

Volume III, Issue I Sonoma Academy December 2014

The dirt rows have been dug, the cranes have deployed, and the hill has been turned into a construction site, with the promise of a new stage and amphitheater. Although most students were used to the sloped grass of the amphitheater’s more natural design, the grass was never intended to be the only seating area. “When we first moved into the cam-pus, we had to stop and not put in the con-crete seat-walls, because of some other cost overruns,” said Derice Hogle, Director of Fi-nance and Operations, “so we’re excited to be able to complete the project now. Instead of a wood stage, which is what we used to have, this will be a concrete stage,” Derice said. “[The stage] will fill the curved side-walk down there.”

With a bigger stage area, it seems likely that the amphitheater will see much more use from theater classes and lunches alike. There are also multiple layers of con-crete benches under construction, running horizontally across the slope of the hill. With actual benches, there will be many more op-portunities for the school to use the amphi-theater as a gathering place. “I think it’d be nice to have commu-nity meetings there,” said Humanities teach-er Marco Morrone. “Sometime when the sun is shining.” Unfortunately, while the area was under construction, some students felt that they were missing out on the grassy lunch-site.

“I love the idea [of the new amphi-theater],” said freshman McKenna Sell, “but I just wish it would go faster.” Many students agreed with her, since losing access to the grassy hill has made finding places to eat lunch, do homework, and hang out signifi-cantly harder. However, once the yellow tape has been lifted, students will have even more spaces to eat. And, since the benches will be concrete, there may be many less grass stains on clothing around campus. Everyone is waiting for the con-struction to be complete, so that the cam-pus will be quiet, undisturbed, and clean once again-- this time, with a promising ad-dition.

Photo by Sierra Maciorowski

Inside this issue

Zoey Ekren, Sierra Maciorowski and Connor Devlin review the latest in music, books and movies. Page 7

Reviews

Get to know the new teachers on cam-pus, and the new babies of some older teachers, too! Pages 3 & 6.

New Additions Blast from the PastThe latest update in the series of features on teachers... high school memories from Bran-don Spars and Lisa Zavieh. Page 5.

2 December 2014The Paw Print New and Noteworthy

Each year at Sonoma Academy, new clubs emerge to accompany the old ones. This year, some of the recurring clubs were Tech Club, Schools for Kabul, SLC (Student Leadership Council), Girls Learn International, Diversity Club, QSA (Queer Straight Alliance), and more. Some new clubs this year are Book Club, Volleyball Club, Food Club, Mountain Biking Club, and Wilderness Explorer Club. The club fair was really buzzing as new and returning students swarmed each club’s table. Many of the students running each club gave out a variety of foods to lure people to their table to learn about their club, and it worked. Two clubs getting a lot of atten-tion were the Volleyball Club and The Food Club, both run by Steven Gu, a

“I’m just confused as to why all the new, interesting Intersession trips that had a big following got canceled? It just doesn’t make sense,” said Sonia Schendel, when asked for her thoughts about the Intersessions that were pro-posed last year and seemed to had been can-celed. Many Sonoma Academy students agree with Sonia. They were initially attracted to the new Intersession trips proposed last spring, to Bali, London and other places, and are confused about the change in plans. As Junior Holly Schultze said, “It con-tradicts what one would expect from the school. Why would they cancel trips that had gained such a following from us?” “The trips weren’t cancelled per say. What we were doing last spring was merely getting a sense of where the interest was,” said John Dur-gin, who is responsible for the complex organi-zation of Intersession. “It’s more a question of scheduling, rather than canceling.”

The club fair gives clubs a chance to recruit new members.

Caption yay

The Ace of Club Fairs

Sporting A New Look

freshman. The Volleyball Club lets stu-dents experiment with playing the sport without being on the actual school team. There were a couple of other sports clubs, including the Rock Climb-ing Club and the Basketball Club, that had the same idea. Perry Parsons, a sophomore, started the Book Club, which also had a growing following. In the Book Club, books are chosen, read by members, and discussed with the group. Another popular club was Fan Club, where fans of different television series get together and discuss them. With so many new clubs and the many recurring ones, there’s no reason for stu-dents not to get out there and join.

Thanks to senior and captain Eli Rosen-Duran, the cross country team is looking forward to a comfortable fall season. Eli was inspired to create the uniforms after Athletic Director Chris Ziemer had mentioned that it would be interesting if a student athlete designed new jerseys. Rosen-Duran used a Nike website to cre-ate the new look. He has also used this website to design jerseys for himself and other cross country teams. “The previous uniforms were old and un-comfortable, plus they were two different styles, making it hard to distinguish SA runners during a meet,” said Eli. As many cross-country runners can testify, the old jerseys were heavy and hot, and could severely hinder runners’ performance. Over the years, the old, previously com-fortable cross country jerseys had received a fair amount of wear and tear, and many of them had been torn or rendered unusable. As a result, they only came in large and medium sizes, of which Rosen-Duran is neither. “They could not have turned out better,” said Eli. The new uniforms are light, comfortable, and breathe well-- a big help during a late summer

Photo by Madison O'Brien

Photo Courtesy of Sinclaire Parer

Missing Intersessionsby Julia AdamsStaff Writer

by Madison O'BrienStaff Writer

by Caspian MorastStaff Writer

According to John, a program cancellation occurs when there is a lack of student interest in the program, and the school is thus unable to en-dorse it, as seen in the recent removal of the recur-ring France, Ecuador, and China trips. Some of trips proposed last spring do not fall under this category, and thus have not been canceled indefinitely. Due to the complex sched-uling that Intersession requires, however, these newly conceived programs will be postponed. But when exactly will specific trips occur and what is the reasoning behind this scheduling? The Bali trip was initially proposed for this coming winter. However, due to a lack of de-tailed information about the program which SA plans to engage in, they have chosen to postpone the trip for later years. “Over the winter break, Brandon will be going to Bali and meeting with those who will be hosting students, and overviewing the projects we will be working on [there],” said John Durgin.

This will offer a greater insight into how the pro-posed program will actually work. The theatre trips to New York and London that were also initially perceived as canceled are merely postponed. To satisfy the nature of the pro-grams, they are planned to take place every few years. One addition to Intersession this year is a lan-guage-based trip to Costa Rica. “We’ve never done an Intersession trip that was specifically for language learning,” said John. “We’ve gone to other countries such as the French program or China program, but those are not French language programs or Mandarin language programs. The Costa Rica program desig-nates time in a class specifically for language learn-ing and also includes home stay for the duration of the program.” Regardless of when certain trips will occur, the trips that were proposed for this coming winter and those postponed for later years definitely give us something to look forward to.

3December 2014 The Paw Print New and Noteworthy

From left to right: Cassidy Brown, David Murray, Nancy Morales and Pam Vincent.Caption yay

A 6.1 magnitude earthquake ripped through the Bay Area on Aug. 24, rocking residents of Napa and Solano Counties from their beds at three in the morning. “I thought I was dreaming,” said sophomore Connor Duncan, who lives in St. Helena, located about 20 miles from the epicenter of the quake. This is the largest earthquake to hit the Bay Area since the 6.9 magnitude Loma Prieta temblor in 1989, which was responsible for 63 deaths. Cassandra Leu, SA’s receptionist, was near the origin at the time of the quake, almost 25 years ago. “I panicked at that one,” she recalled. “I wasn’t brave enough to go down the stairs because I was afraid they would break.” There was just one fatality associated with the South Napa quake. As reported in the Press Demo-crat, Laurie Anne Thompson died after being hit on the head by a falling television. Much time was spent dealing with damages to property, rather than loss of life. The SA students most affected by the quake were those living in the Napa area, who spent Sunday cleaning and assessing prop-erty damages. “I didn’t sleep for 18 hours because I had to clean up my house,” said Stephen Fitzgerald, Class of 2015, “It was pretty awful.” The Napa area suffered an economic blow to its wineries as well, and this was also felt by SA stu-dents in the aftermath. “Yeah, I got up at 3:20 and stayed awake all day cleaning at the winery until about 8:30,” said Connor, “We lost a lot of wine at the winery, and while I can't disclose the value there were like four barrels down and we lost lots of our older wines. No struc-tural damage though.” Queen of the Valley Hospital in Napa report-ed treating almost 200 people for a variety of inju-ries, most of them minor. These were predominantly caused by falling objects and structures. The South Napa quake was a literal wake-up call to all area residents and all Californians, remind-ing them that this, or worse, can happen at any time, without warning.

Shaken, Not Stirred: Impact of the Napa Earthquake

Photo courtesy of Stephen Fitzgerald

Freshmen Faculty: Getting to Know the New Teachers At SA

by Jonas DucarrozStaff Writer

Four new teachers join the So-noma Academy faculty this year, from all around the country. David Murray and Cassidy Brown have joined the Science, Technology, En-gineering, and Mathematics (STEM) De-partment from Maryland and Georgia, respectively, and Pam Vincent and Nancy Morales have joined the Language De-partment from Ohio and the Bay Area, re-spectively. To account for changes in the de-partment this year, like the loss of former Chemistry teacher Judy Pordes, and math teacher Amber Greer’s addition of two AP statistics classes to her load, David teach-es Geometry and Precalculus, and Cas-sidy teaches Applied Mathematics and AP Chemistry. In the Language Department, Nancy Morales and Pam Vincent both teach classes whose former teachers also left the school: Spanish 3 and 4, previous-ly taught by Monica Roney, and Manda-rin, previously taught by Lisa Gardner. Chemistry and Applied Math teacher Cassidy Brown taught for four years at West Nottingham Academy in Maryland before she came to SA. She has made a seamless transition into SA, even with Webschool, since she used a similar system at her old school, so she was able to get accustomed to it very easily. Her teaching style works well at SA because she really enjoys making people think for themselves. So, her lectures are mostly questions so the students can arrive at their own conclusions. “[Sonoma Academy] is very differ-ent for me, because I came from the East Coast, and California is just a different cul-ture and different climate, but I really, re-ally like it,” said Cassidy. The thing that she misses most about her old school is having indoor buildings and hallways Since Sonoma Academy’s halls are all balconies and courtyards, she can feel isolated from other teachers and stu-dents. Outside of school she loves to knit and paint, and is the captain of her roller derby team. Her parents both live in North Carolina, and her brother and his wife live in Virginia, so she still has strong ties to the east coast.

by Jess O'ConnorEditor-In-Chief

Mandarin teacher Pam Vincent used to work at Ross High School in Southern Ohio, and loved working there. It was very different, because it was a public school, but she still misses it. And unlike Cassidy, she has not gotten completely accustomed to SA’s classroom technology. “Webschool is confusing to say the least,” said Pam. In her free time, she spends a lot of time with her two children, ages 15 months and 3 years. “I have very small children,” Pam said, “so mostly I’m playing with them.” However, she also loves hiking with her husband, knitting and reading. She was originally from Southern California, until her father moved her fam-ily to New York-- and then they moved to Ohio where she went to college. Her father was a professor and he worked with international students, so she grew up working with students from different countries. “So when I got to college, they were offering Mandarin Chinese,” said Pam. “I decided that was what I wanted to do.” After earning a degree, she stud-ied abroad with the Department of State in Changchun, China. New math teacher David Murray taught at an independent school before he came to SA. “Prior to SA I worked at a school called St. Andrew's School in Savannah, GA,” David said. He will be coaching bas-ketball this year and loves most American sports. He, like Cassidy Brown, likes letting the students reach their own conclusions, rather than just telling them the answers. He teaches with his underlying Murray motto, “Work smart, not hard.” When students do good things in his class, or compliment him, they get Mur-ray bucks, which can be turned in later. Spanish teacher Nancy Morales joins the Sonoma Academy language program after years teaching at the Col-lege of Marin and Sonoma State Universi-ty. This year, Nancy takes over three of the thirteen Spanish classes at SA, including two Spanish 3 and one Spanish 4 class.

The quake's aftermath at the house of Stephen Fitzgerald, '15

4 December 2014The Paw Print Features

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The New Kid on Campusby Stella Favaro and Madison O'BrienStaff Writers

Freshman Jane Coneybeer has caused quite a stir on campus. Mark, a one-week old baby goat, has accompanied her to Sonoma Acad-emy several times. Born a kid of parents Remarkable Precedent and Holiday Spice, he was named Remarkably Spicy; Mark for short. He was born a week premature, and had to be bottle fed because his mother didn’t have enough milk. To help, Jane de-cided to take on the task of caring for this newborn. Asked if there were health concerns for baby Mark while on campus, Jane said, “There are a few. There are a lot of foreign

germs here that he can pick up.” She has been working with goats for about five years, and is the proud owner of eighteen, some of them show-winners. Jane dreams of pursuing a veterinary career. “There isn’t really a reason,” said Jane about her pursuit of goat breeding and showing. "When I came to Glen Ellen, we moved onto a pygmy goat farm. I’ve been breeding, selling, and showing goats since then.” When asked how people are re-acting to a baby goat on campus, Jane laughed. “They’re very distracted,” she

New International Students Find Friendly Faces by Jess O'ConnorEditor-in-Chief

Incoming international students at Sonoma Academy have been welcomed with open arms by the International Stu-dent Mentorship program, which began last year. “It’s just a great opportunity to be able to help people who are coming into a very different situation,” said Izzy Nickel, class of ‘15, “and to help support them through the process.” Izzy Nickel and Justin Nichols are the two head mentors, who serve as a front between the kids and the directors of the program, Suzanna Luttrell and Margie

Pugh. Izzy and Justin replaced KT Buckler, who lead the program during its pilot year. "This program is a relatively new program,” Justin said, “So I figured right now is the time to try to improve it as much as possible.” According to Margie, the program is designed to “get them (the international students) to feel comfortable asking for help.” Each new international student is assigned a student mentor, whose job it is to help them feel comfortable in the SA en-vironment. This is done by engaging their

mentee in activities on- and off-campus. “We have lunch together,” says Reilly Dwight, a sophomore student mentor. Doris Tang, Reilly’s mentee from the Anhui Province in China, says that hav-ing Reilly as her student mentor has really helped. “If I ask her questions about a prob-lem, her answers are more specific,” Doris says. Foreign interest in attending SA has increased, with eight new students joining at the beginning of the year, and Catherine Li joining on Monday, September 29.

said, “but everyone seems delighted to have him.” One concern many students have is whether or not she is licensed and qualified to do what she’s doing. “Kind of,” she said, “I’ve gotten specific training from vets and people who have worked with goats for 30-plus years.” Sonoma Academy is probably the only high school where bringing a goat on campus is accepted. Not only is it accepted, but the faculty and stu-dents just adore little Mark.

Continued on pg. 7

Jane Coneybeer holds baby goat, Mark Mark walks around at Ziegler Point

Contact Journalism Advisor Michele Martin for rates and

information.

Email: michele.martin@sonomaacademy.org

December 2014 5December 2014 The Paw Print Features

The Paw PrintSonoma Academy2500 Farmers Lane

Santa Rosa, CA 95404(707) 545-1770

www.sonomaacademy.org

Editors-in-ChiefJake LawsonSierra MaciorowskiJess O'Connor

Staff WritersJulia AdamsLilia AdamsConnor DevlinJonas DucarrozZoey EkrenStella FavaroCaspian MorastMadison O'BrienIssa ShulmanCaleb Weil

Contributing WritersElizabeth KollingKarishma Bottari

AdvisorMichele Martinmichele.martin@sonomaacademy.org

New International Students Find Friendly Faces

Blast from the Past: Brandon Spars... by Julia Adams and Lilia AdamsStaff Writers

What were you like in high school? I was very nerdy for the first three years of high school… But my senior year I rebelled. I shaved my hair into a mohawk and I became a punk rocker. My parents were horrified, my teachers were horrified, but I suppose that’s exactly what I was look-ing for. What high school “clique” were you a part of? We were called the “Mead Theatre People” and our spot was the smoking sec-tion in school… There was this big white smoking line that divided the school and I hung out with people back there ‘cause that’s where all the other punk rockers were. What aspects of yourself have most changed since high school? I don’t have a mohawk, and I don’t hang out with smokers, and I don’t listen to music that is intentionally ugly, and I don’t feel as if I need to rebel anymore either. What was your favorite class? My favorite class was Chemistry be-cause we had this teacher that was a real character and he collected flies… He was the strangest man, but he was really funny and I cared a lot about him. Which SA student resembles your high school self most?

Keira Slimmer, because she dyed her hair purple and mine was dyed orange, but also maybe Spencer Metela because he ties his plaid shirts around his waist… and walks around with a kind of tough guy walk and all the punk rockers used to do that.

What was your worst subject? Art… We had 45 people in the art class and there was this group of guys who hated the art teacher and whenever she went near the closet they would push her in there and lock her up inside and our class kept getting into some real trouble for it… It was miserable. What was your senior superlative? There were things like “Nicest Butt” and “Most Likely to Succeed,” but I think be-cause of my grades I got “Brainiest,” even though it should’ve gone to someone else.

What did you get into trouble for in high school? My friend and I were going to a party and he had this boda bag full of white wine that he had stolen from his parents and he brought it out at lunchtime to show off to people and the dean saw him and somehow knew there was alcohol in that boda bag of his… So he came charging at us and we all ran… There was this whole chase. It was ri-diculous. What was one funny story from back then? We had these open mikes at lunch and there was this guy who would always grab the mike and just start taunting every-body. Just yelling at everyone, and swear-ing… and insulting everyone, and calling Tammie Kohen dumb, and eventually he’d just result to yelling “you’re mother” at ev-erybody over and over, until after a while the dean would come drive him off with a hockey stick. But anyway, at graduation the microphone was up there… and we were waiting for the ceremony to start and the same guy decided to start taunting people on the microphone at our graduation. And when the dean came over, he started run-ning away, but he still had the microphone in his hand ‘cause it was wireless. So you could still hear all the grunting and yelling over the sound system from the microphone that was still live in the bushes. And when he came sprinting out of the bushes, he paused long enough to yell into the microphone at the whole graduation audience, “You’re all a bunch of mothers!”

Picture courtesy of Brandon Spars

... and Lisa Zavieh What were you like in high school? Sigh… What was I like in high school? I was awesome in high school. What high school “clique” were you a part of? We didn’t really have a lot of cliques… I was kind of a nerd but I was also on the varsity tennis team, and I swam and was on the equestrian team so maybe I was seen as an athlete, but I was also into drama and I did a lot of theater stuff… but I wouldn’t say I really fell into a clique. What aspects of yourself have most changed since high school? I think I laugh a lot more. I don’t take myself as seriously because I have a much better perspective on the fact that things change… and things can always get better, so everything doesn’t seem quite as important and dramatic.

What was your favorite class? Physics. Duh. What was your worst subject? My worst subject was not actually in high school. It was in elementary school and it was handwriting. That was my low-est grade ever. I got a D in hand writing in

5th grade and 6th grade ‘cause I couldn’t… write. What was your senior superlative? I didn’t have one ‘cause we didn’t do superlatives for all the seniors at my school. [But if I were to have one] it would be “Most Likely to be an Awesome Teach-er,” of course.

What did you get into trouble for in high school? No comment. What was one funny story from back in your high school days? My friends and I, during our senior year, got kicked out of multiple restaurants for being way too rowdy. We were hang-ing spoons on our noses and the waitress, for some reason, didn’t appreciate the fact that we were doing that. We may- may- have been disruptive to the other costum-ers. Who can say though, honestly?

Zavieh, right, plays pool with a friend

Continued on pg. 7

Mark walks around at Ziegler Point

6 December 2014The Paw Print Campus Life

What's With All the Babies?

Several of the fresh faces around campus are younger than most. In the past few months, there have been a lot of addi-tions to the faculty family. It’s about time for the students of Sonoma Academy to meet the three newest members! On July 18th, Director of Technolo-gy Sean Freese and his wife welcomed son Rory Alexander into the world. “It’s very ear-ly to tell at this point but he’s already very different from my first son. He seems a little bit more chill and serious,” said Sean. Rory may be a serious baby, but that doesn’t mean he is quiet. “He’s very grunty,” Sean said. Because of his grunting, Sean and his wife have nicknamed him “The Grunty-Grunty-Grunt” after The Count’s Batty-Batty-Bat song on “Sesame Street.” At only two months old, Rory is the youngest addition to the Sonoma Academy clan. Separated by only two days, however, is Charlie McNamara, who was born on July 16th in the same hospital as Rory. He is the son of humanities teacher Colin McNamara and his girlfriend Ashley. Officially, his name is Charles, but

everyone calls him Charlie. “We wanted to give him the opportunity, if he doesn’t like Charlie because it’s diminutive, for him to change it,” said Colin. Charlie is already curious, happy, and giggly, but more than anything else, he loves attention. “He’s an attention hog! He always needs attention, even if he’s sleeping, he’ll have one eye open just to make sure you’re looking at him,” Colin said. In fact, Charlie might have started manipulating his attendants when he was first born. Charlie spent an extra few days in the hospi-tal after birth, but Colin thinks he sees right through his plan. “My theory is that he was totally fine, but he was playing it off because he had all these nurses doting on him,” he said. People tell Colin that Charlie looks just like him, but he doesn’t really see it yet, claiming he takes after his girlfriend more. “Everyone says he looks like me, I don’t see it,” said Colin. “He has my beard, Ashley’s eyes, my nose, her lips. My HUGE cranium. I think that’s what throws everyone.”

Spanish teacher Maitane Elorza also has a new baby: Aresti Elorza-Lee. “I knew I didn’t want an English name. I was thinking may-be a Basque name would be nice,” said Mai-tane, “My husband got access to a Basque name book website, and he said, ‘What about Aresti?’” At five months old, Aresti is not exactly the newest baby at SA, but his personality is re-ally starting to show. He is very cheerful and flirtatious, and still has the curiosity of all new babies. “He is very curious. He likes to look around and analyze things a lot,” Maitane said. Aresti explores with quiet interest, but Maitane highlights one occasion when this was not true. “Usually, when Aresti notices someone around, he looks at the person and simply remains there, looking,” said Maitane. “A couple of days ago, he saw Brandon Spars and he looked at him with real interest, and then, all of a sudden, he went crazy and started greeting him with a loud ‘Woooohh-hh!.’ He had never done that to anyone else. I think it was instant chemistry!”

by Caleb WeilStaff Writer

Aresti Elorza Lee Rory Alexander FreeseCharles McNamara

Image courtesy of Maitane Elorza Image courtesy of Colin McNamara Image courtesy of Sean Freese

Comic by Karishma Bottari

December 2014 7December 2014 The Paw Print Campus Life

Doing it All in the Fallby Elizabeth KollingContributing Writer

Photo courtesy of NPR.org

Sixty seconds in a minute, 60 min in an hour, 24 hours in a day, 7 days in a week, and 18 weeks in the Fall Semester, a meager 3024 hours to divide between aca-demics, athletics, theatre, debate, speech and the multitude of other student activi-ties offered at Sonoma Academy. So many interests and things to do and so little time! To some high school students, time is something greater than mere seconds on a clock or the annual passing of a sea-son; time and the way it is utilized, serves as a defining instrument. How one chooses to occupy and use one’s time will likely influence one’s future. How people spend their time will groom specific capabilities, while con-versely, the lack of time and practice spent in competing areas of interest may lead to the demise of those once sharp skills. For some students the threat of losing touch with a particular passion or being left on the sidelines while a produc-tion is birthed is a real struggle. In order to successfully delve deeper into the subject and create a more finished product, high school extracurriculars force students to choose where they will commit, dedicate, and ultimately spend their precious time; this is no more evident than in the Fall. Each season, several students/ath-letes/thespians need to weigh and weath-er the decision of either being left on the sidelines while a production is being birthed, or finding themselves backstage, missing spirited play on the field, court or course. What comes into play in making this very difficult and important decision for both faculty and students? “It was an extremely difficult deci-

sion for me to choose between theater and cross country,” said sophomore Joey Johnson. “I tried both freshman year, and I miserably failed. I eventually had to quit cross country, which was very disappoint-ing.” If time were something truly in-finite, people could maintain all of the hobbies that they were forced to let go of during the transitions from childhood to adolescence to adulthood. With the obsta-cle of time, however, individuals are pres-sured to make the “right” decision while resolving dilemmas pertaining to their in-terests. Although this can, to some, be an agonizing predicament, others find it to be a natural and helpful process that as-sists them in the discovery of themselves. “To me, these choices are important,” said sophomore Audrey von Raesfeld. “They are grueling and painful, but they force us to get our priorities in order by getting to know ourselves better. They also help me, at least, to understand big ideas like com-mitment, and being responsible for the things that I want to do in my life.” “In the early years, we tried hard to make it work but it didn't work for the produc-tion, teams or students who were trying to manage both at the same time,” Athletic Director Chris Ziemer said. “Now we en-courage students to look at the year and decide how they want the year to look, knowing there are some choices they have to make with what they can take on. We have a lot of great options but students have to make choices. That's good prepa-ration for life beyond school.”

Sometimes, having to choose between passions eliminates the ones that are impetuously misconstrued as those of importance. This forces some to find themselves in deeper context and allows teachers to acquire groups of individuals that truly share an extensive passion for the subjects. “I choose the ones I like best and really try to focus on them,” said sophomore Evan Lampson. “I really want to have a cast full of people who really want to be there, so I think when I know students make a sacrifice to be there, they truly want to be there,” says Director of Theater Jen Cote. “I find it impressive that there are so many stu-dents who are athletes and also love and are good at theater, because it shows the quality of the kids here.” Although the selection of certain passions over others can result in a loss of connec-tion with interests that at one point, may have been loved dearly, this process is per-haps one of the most important through-out adolescence. Students may, at times, feel pressured to weave their interests into a safe, confined, and straight rope that leads them to their future, but this does not constitute a reason for isolation within passions or suggest a dissuasion from ex-ploration. ‘What I do say to students is, “You should try to try everything once so you get the full experience,”’ said Cote. “Try everything, that's my greatest piece of advice; get the whole of the high school experience.”

The Wednesday-Friday exploratory for the program provides time for men-tors and mentees to bond, during activities such as ping-pong tournaments. The program has also organized several social events for the exchange stu-dents. These include bowling, seeing the sights in San Francisco, and a trip to In-N-Out Burger. “Our goal is to make sure the stu-dents have a good experience,” said Suzan-na Luttrell, one of the directors of the pro-gram. Many students who sign up to be-come student mentors show real engage-ment in international cultural exchange. Some students, such as Clay How-ard, are currently taking Mandarin. Others have been to China for their Intersession. “They have a real desire to reach out to an international student,” said Suzanna.

International Students

International students and mentors play ping-pong during exploratory

Continued from pg. 4

8 The Paw Print On Our Minds

Letter from the Editors by Jake Lawson, Sierra Maciorowski, and Jess O'ConnorEditors-in-Chief

Dear Sonoma Academy,

We’re delighted to release the first issue of the PawPrint for the 2014-2015 school year, and our first issue as editors! In the past few months, we’ve been busy writing, editing, and organizing the newspaper. And we’ve been glad to work with the largest group of writers ever in our first quarter: thirteen total, including four fresh-men and four sophomores. This year, we look forward to ex-panding our newspaper, and hope to see many new faces joining us in the quarters to come.

We hope to extend our focus on news items and campus controversy, and bring matters of true importance to your attention. Of course, we also hope to hear from you! In this letter from the editors, con-sider this an invitation to write letters to the editors-- if you have an opinion about cam-pus life that you want to share, send it in. Whether it’s positive or negative, we’ll be glad to extend your thoughts across our school. So, as the school year continues, let us know what we can do for you. And we'll continue to expand the PawPrint's cover-age of the stories that matter most to you.

Sincerely,

Your Editors: Jake, Jess, and Sierra

Friday Lunches: Confusion and Controversyby Issa ShulmanStaff Writer

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, only 9th and 10th graders attended a fledgling SA. With the inclusion of upperclass-men, the school decided to acknowledge their status with the responsibility of off-campus privileges. Lawyers were consulted. Papers were signed. Guidelines were made. And so, the ability to leave campus during lunch and free periods was born—and just last year, juniors were also made privy to this privilege. This fact, in itself, is well-known. However, perhaps more obscure, is the rule decreeing that juniors, and some-times seniors, must remain on-campus on Friday; a mild restriction most have more or less acclimated to, but one that some feel was a policy never properly enforced beyond the explanation of, “we’re all sup-posed to stay and do Community.”

Intrepid journalist that I am, I could not be satisfied until I had un-covered the story, the whole story, and nothing but the story! From one end of the admin building hallway, to the other end of the admin building hallway, I searched far and wide until I was gently detained and ushered into the assistant head-of-school’s office, where truth awaited in the form of Ellie Dwight. Ellie kindly offered to illuminate the particulars of this elusive rule. “Friday is the culminating day of the week, and it feels really good to have junior and senior energy on cam-pus. They’re gone a lot during the week, during the other days, and it just feels nice for the whole community to be together; music playing, and seniors dancing…” Ellie says. Having supposedly been estab-

lished five years ago or so, the admin-istration perhaps felt no need to make this rule a predominant matter, seeing it as something of a second nature to the campus of SA. However, it has also been nego-tiated that the seniors need only stay on campus one Friday per month. “Yeah—it’s not really a big deal, it’s just, ‘this is what we do’…it’s just what is and I don’t think people really paid attention to it,” Ellie adds. “Maybe some this year were caught by surprise, and maybe a little disappointed.” There you have it. The incredible true story behind the Friday rule—a rule de-signed to sow community and togeth-erness.

Seniors Savannah Stoughton, Tucker Crull, Jack Las-seter, and Ryan O'Hara gather around the music at Friday lunch

Image courtesy of arztsamui on FreeDigitalIm-ages.net

December 2014

9December 2014 The Paw Print Sports and Activities

Juniors Liam Kolling, left, and Jack Greenberg, right, prepare for the fi-nal round at the Jon Schamber Invitational debate tournament

The cast of the fall production, The Ballad of Barbara Allen, thanks the booth during bowsImage courtesy of Eric Chazankin

Senior Paige Spradlin takes the ball from Roseland Prep during the girls' soccer NCS semi-finals

Left to right: Cristian Isbrandtsen '16, Lucca McKay '16, Ryan McGraw '18, Grace Martin '15, Logan Noel '15, and Jack Lasseter '15

Debaters Caleb Kornfein '17 and Sierra Maciorowski '15 stand with their finals opponents and the UC Berkeley debate team

Image courtesy of Jon Thorpe

December 2014

10 The Paw Print Entertainment

Series Review: BoJack Horseman by Connor DevlinStaff Writer

Bojack Horseman: “Life is a series of closing doors, isn't it?"Genre: Drama, Comedy, AnimationLength: 13 Episodes (25 Minutes)Available On: Netflix

In recent times, adult animation has been frequent, and dull. Shows like “Family Guy” and “The Simpsons” have been slowly going downhill, better shows like “Bob’s Burgers” are beauti-fully progressing, but almost everything else has flopped. However, in this slew of unoriginal-ity and dull pilots spouts the Netflix original, “BoJack Horseman”. The show takes place in a quirky uni-verse where animals and humans walk and talk alike. The show centers around a horse man named BoJack Horseman (voiced by Will Arnett), a washed up ex-celebrity. BoJack is a arrogant, self-centered, depressed, alcoholic, narcissistic character, who has a bad attitude about everything, everywhere, all the time. However, this isn’t necessarily bad thing. The show gets off to an almost hor-rendous start. Using messy and formulaic jokes, -- the pilot being the biggest offender -- the series has a bland first couple epi-sodes.

This is a deal-breaker for some. But looking deeper, by the end of the first cou-ple episodes, there seems to be something else there. It seems that when the show start-ed, the writers wanted to make a raunchy comedy show with a continuous plotline. However, this show just doesn’t seem to work like this.

Later in the show, the writers find their voice, creating a drama with some ele-ments of comedy: a dramedy, if you will. With the constantly developing char-acters and clever plot, the genre of drama works extraordinarily well. The last few episodes of the first sea-son are what made “BoJack Horseman” a star. The show touches on some serious issues (depression, homophobia, substance abuse, unrequited love, manipulation, ma-turity, etc.) but doesn’t really attempt to fix any of them within the characters, which makes it interesting. As the series progresses, the charac-ters develop into real, fully fleshed out char-acters. For an animated show about a talk-ing horse, there’s something so real about the story that makes it astoundingly beauti-ful and unique. Overall, this series starts out slow, predictable, and drawling, but picks up as soon as the writers fully realize where the show has the most potential. The show boasts some extraordinari-ly powerful moments and interesting, entic-ing characters. The first season of “Bojack Horse-man” is available exclusively on Netflix to stream, and has been confirmed for a sec-ond season. I give this show a 8.5/10.

Image courtesy of crankcrankrevolution.com

Music Review: LP1by Zoey EkrenStaff Writer

FKA Twigs LP1: (released: 8/12/14)ALBUM NAME: LP1ARTIST/BAND: FKA twigsGENRE: PBR&B; trip hop; electronic

English singer-songwriter, Tahliah Debrett Barnett, better known by her stage name FKA Twigs, released her debut album LP1, August 2014. Each song molds together and cre-ates an album that can be best described as hypnotizing. This album would be close to just random noises without her encapsulating vocals.

Each song evokes a little more mys-tery on, who exactly is FKA Twigs? Even with her personal and reveal-ing lyrics, the eerie tones produced through synthesizers make you feel like there may be something missing. Her album reflects a bit of Grimes sound but still manages to set her aside from other trip pop artists.

Her melancholy lyrics and breathy voice produce a sort of nostalgic feeling from the listener. I highly recommend giving it a listen to this new artist, especially to the tracks ‘Hours’ and ‘Pendulum’.

Image courtesy of wikipedia.com

Image courtesy of pitchfork.com

December 2014

11December 2014 The Paw Print Entertainment

Series Review: BoJack Horseman Book Review: The Anatomy of Dreams

Music Review: This is All Yours

by Sierra MaciorowskiEditor-in-Chief

Your eyes dart open. In the shadows be-side your bed, you see a figure--- not of a table, nor a lamp, but of a man. He sits, crouched, as you nervously slide the covers off, and doesn’t move as you grab the knife that you always keep under your pillow and... While grossly oversimplified, this is the situation of many of Dr. Adrian Keller's patients. Not because they attract serial killers, but be-cause they have sleep disorders which alter their perception with hallucinations in their sleep. Dr. Keller's research, then, hinges on cur-ing these patients of their disorders, not through medication, but through lucid dreaming. In his highly secretive experiments, se-questered in windowless rooms sponsored by the University of Wisconsin-Madison, patients with REM disorders and other such problems ar-rive almost constantly, hoping to be cured with the power of awareness. Our protagonist, however, arrives every day, as a medical researcher and assistant to the doctor. When the story begins, Sylvie Patter-son is a student at a boarding school in Eureka, California, whose slightly strange relationship with her mysterious classmate Gabe seems over when he suddenly disappears. That is, until her senior year of college, when he reappears with the job offer which leads her to her elongated experience with lucid dreaming experimentation.

The Anatomy of Dreams is an ethical thriller, keeping its readers in the lurch as they attempt to determine right from wrong in the murky world of scientific research. Does discovery trump patient care? Does creating a murderer not matter in the grander scheme of science? The protagonist of Anatomy acts as a representative of our own questions, as she gradually undergoes the journey to realiza-tion of the dangers of ethicality. And, through her struggles, we gain a stronger grasp on the power of dreams-- both as a tool for good, and a tool for dangerous am-bition. The stunning discovery which Sylvie makes at the end of her time as a lucid dream re-searcher changes her world, and although that change is personal, the implications of such eth-ical ambiguity transform our world as well. As the sneaking suspicion creeps in that something is missing from our understanding of Sylvie’s experiences, we as readers are forced to question the author’s words themselves. Thus, at the heart of Chloe Benjamin’s complex literary creation is the concept of trust. As Sylvie gradually begins to recognize the dif-ferences between reality and dreaming, she gives us, as readers, a dreadful load of confusion about who we can trust. Doctors? Scientists? Family? Friends? The author? At the end, the answer seems to be al-most no one.

320 pages of ethical questioning and ro-mantic concerns make The Anatomy of Dreams a fascinating read. Thought-provoking to the extreme, Sylvie’s experiences in the forests of Eureka and the coast-line of New England subtly draw the reader’s atten-tion, until, by the third section, “Morning,” Sylvie’s awakening to the reality of her world is truly dev-astating. This is one new read that you won’t want to miss--- available at Copperfield’s, Barnes and Noble, and Amazon.

Image courtesy of Goodreads.com

alt-JALBUM NAME: This Is All Yours (released 9/22/14)ARTIST/BAND: alt-JGENRE: Indie rock; art rock; experimental rock; electronic

Who could forget when alt-J came into the music scene which two years ago after releasing their debut album, “An Awe-some Wave”, which won them the Mercury Prize? The English indie-rock band, formed back in 2007 by Gwil Sainsbury (guitar bass), Joe Newman (guitar/lead vocals), Gus Ung-er-Hamilton (keyboards/vocals), and Thom Green (drums) released their newest album, “This is All Yours” on Sept. 22. It’s been nearly two years since the band’s first striking album. In “This is All Yours”, every song sounds like it could be from a completely different album, but somehow, they each manage to come together. Their first single from the album, en-titled “Hunger Of The Pine”, manages to in-corporate a sample from Miley Cyrus’ song “4x4”.

There has been question about whether or not they could live up to the reputation from their first full album. However, this new album definite-ly exceeds expectations, producing even more ‘out there’ songs than “An Awesome Wave” did. Every song makes you question what the meaning behind it is and how someone could even make sense of what’s going on in each song. “This Is All Yours” makes you feel like somehow you’re in an entirely different di-

mension. Even with the founder of the band and bassist, Gwil Sainsbury announcement of departure from the band just days before new recordings were set to take place, you hardly miss him because of the remaining three talented band members. This highly anticipated album does not disappoint in the slightest. I highly recommend giving it a lis-ten, with emphasis on the songs ‘Bloodflood pt. II’ and ‘Hunger of the Pine’.

Image courtesy of stereogum.com

by Zoey EkrenStaff Writer

Image courtesy of impactnottingham.com

December 2014

12 The Paw Print

In Memoriam

MAY THE ROAD RISE UP TO MEET YOUMAY THE WIND BE ALWAYS AT YOUR

BACKMAY THE SUN SHINE BRIGHT UPON

YOUR FACEAND UNTIL WE MEET AGAIN

MAY GOD HOLD YOU IN THE HOLLOW OF HIS HAND.

"You can think without feeling, but you cannot truly feel without

thinking, and it is here, that we experienced Doug’s true power

and significance. Doug taught us to think through our hearts. He

sought to help us develop intelligent hearts."

At the memorial which was held for music

teacher and community pillar Doug Galla-

gher on September 20th, his brother Scott

Gallagher spoke about Doug's life and ex-

periences. Several selections from his words

are printed here, for those who were unable

to attend the memorial.

"My brother seemed to have this force field around him that repelled

anything kitsch and base, in music or literature or art. Everything he

grasped seemed to be significant and real."

"Doug had far greater aspirations. He wanted to take any student from

where they were, and with whatever aptitude they possessed, help

them excel to the best of their ability and beyond."

December 2014