Issue 1: 2010-2011

The Commonwealth November 6, 20101

The CommonwealthVolume 2 • Issue 1

It’s one thing for such a small school as Pilgrim to promote an in-ternational flavor among its student body, but it’s quite another to main-tain its reputation as the most di-verse school in the Western Unit-ed States at a time when private schools are suffering declines in en-rollment due to the stagnant economy. What’s the secret to Pilgrim’s success? There are many different ways that prospective internation-al students in other countries may find Pilgrim School. Several estab-lished agencies around the world help Pilgrim find the ideal students who will not only make the most of their experience for themselves, they will also enhance the Pilgrim experi-ence for their American classmates. “We don’t say to agencies who help us find kids that we need four kids of a specific kind,” said Dr. Kidder. We say, ‘Give us your best.’” The rig-orous process ensures that students who end up attending succeed. Head of School Dr. Brooks has met students while traveling around the world to, among other places, Vietnam, Korea, China, Iran, and India. Dr. Walker, Pil-grim’s Chinese teacher, has traveled to her home country of China to meet students and tour schools there. An-other way students may find Pilgrim School is through old-fashioned word of mouth. The network created by Pil-grim alumni and current interna-tional students attracts new students and families from around the world. The international students ben-efit from their Pilgrim education when they blend their classroom lessons with knowledge about the American culture. As a result, many graduates remain in the United States to attend college. But the American students also win when they are exposed to class-mates from so many varied cultures, preparing them for a real world that is becoming more global all the time. While visiting so many oth-er countries, Dr. Brooks realized that students beyond our borders were “zooming ahead of our kids in edu-cation.” To stay competitive inter-nationally, Pilgrim exposes its stu-dents to aspects of schools that they would find around the world in terms of language and diversity.

Why is this so important? “Be-cause our real competition,” Dr. Brooks said, “is in Seoul, Beijing, Ho Chi Min City.” Which is also why it matters how Pilgrim’s program is ideal for as-similating international students into American culture, and vice versa. The melting-pot atmosphere created by the amount of different cul-tures at Pilgrim eliminates interna-tional language and cultural barriers between students of different nation-

Pilgrim School: We are the World

alities. Although it is challenging for students to handle the language bar-rier on top of the academics, 90 per-cent of international students at Pil-grim School attend American colleges, with the remaining 10 percent go-ing to universities around the world. Vivian Lee, Class of 2010, is a perfect example of someone who has overcome the language barrier and succeeded not only at Pilgrim, but also after high school. Dr. Kidder likes to say, “her (Vivian’s) success story… is our success story.” She came to Pil-grim from her home country of China and graduated the English for Speak-ers of Other Languages (ESOL) pro-gram at Pilgrim before she mastered the difficult Advanced Placement (AP) courses, eventually receiving awards and scholarships to attend UC Irvine. While so many efforts are made throughout the country and around the world to bolster Pilgrim’s international program, it’s easy to for-get that part of the reason for its diver-sity is its own neighborhood location. Consider how Los Angeles is one of the most diverse cities in the world. Now consider how the school sits in Kore-atown, just west of downtown L.A. Pil-grim resides at a hub of different cul-tures, from Asian to Latin American. So it’s safe to say that Pil-grim reflects its neighborhood, just as students reflect their communi-ty – one that is as wide as the world.

By Xavier Sallas-Brookwell

“OUR REAL COMPE-TITION IS IN Seoul,

BeiJING AND HO CHI MIN CITY.”

Dr. Mark Brooks

A Peek Inside The Commonwealth

Ready for Some Football?

Page: 2

Obama and Me

Page: 3

Teacher Aids a Cause

Page: 9

To LounGeor Not to

lounge

Pages: 4-5

Argentina Albania

China Kenya

S. KoreaPhilippines

Japan Colombia

Empty Field, Empty Feeling

Brothers but no Longer Teammates

When it was announced that there would be no football team, it seemed like it would be a disas-trous year for Pilgrim School athlet-ics. Many students naturally asked who is to blame. The answer, ac-cording to administrators, is no one. “Football is not a blame is-sue,” said Secondary School Head Dr. Kidder. “The athletic depart-ment and the football team tried re-ally hard to recruit students for football.” While admitting his own disappointment, Dr. Kidder also sug-gested that the lack of a team could be “an opportunity” for the chance it gave the girls’ volleyball team to be showcased during homecoming. “A change,” he said, “can be refreshing.” Head of School Dr. Brooks was sim-ilarly distraught yet optimistic while considering both the positive and neg-ative effects of not having a football team. He, too, believed it was good for the girls to have some attention focused on them. But he also saw the develop-ment as a reflection on the strengths of this particular Pilgrim senior class.“It’s hard,” Dr. Brooks said, “to find the time to be involved in football if you are also involved in other activ-ities, music, the arts, getting ready for SATs and college applications. Ev-ery class is different. We just have to make sure that we do whatev-er we can to see that we have a team

again next year and in coming years.” Yet for Pilgrim athletes, it’s difficult to look to the future when there is so much disappointment over the present situation. There is always the possibility that not having a foot-ball team might affect other sports if the trend of not participating car-ries over to sports in other seasons. The football captain, Dustin Park (’12) agreed with both administra-tors when he said, “We can still have a team next year.” As Dr. Kidder point-ed out, “The good news is we have some boys from 8th, 9th, 10th and 11th grade that are interested in play-ing football next year so we have a good chance of having a football team next year and the years after that.” Still, you have to ask your-self why is it that not a single senior signed up for football? “I would like to call out the seniors,” Park said. “Thanks, guys. What happened?” Not having a football team doesn’t just affect Park and the others who wanted to play. It affects school as a whole. Pilgrim has had a football team nonstop since 1978. Not hav-ing one this year might imply that we have gotten weaker in the sports area, which could also mean that Pil-grim School developed a broader view of things beyond athletics. Yet tradi-tion must count for something. Isn’t homecoming all about tradition? But the tradition was broken this year.

What is it like to have your passion taken away from you? Dustin Park (’12), a starting fullback and team captain of Pilgrim School’s current-ly nonexistent Varsity 8-man football team, knows what that is like. Due to the lack of players, Pilgrim was unable to field a team in the CIF Omega League for the first time in over 30 years. Dustin Park and his younger brother Allen (’13), also a varsity foot-ball player, were devastated when they realized that despite their recruiting efforts, not enough players were com-ing out to play. “No matter what we did, Dustin Park said, “we just had to face the fact that there was not enough interest in football.” Helpless is a good representation of what many play-ers felt. Everyone from Dr. Kidder to Coach Wurmlinger, plus team cap-tains and co-captains personally pur-sued prospective players to no avail. Once it became apparent that a team would not be fielded, the shock set in. Initially Dustin Park refused to believe that there would not be a team; he continued to beg seniors, ju-niors, sophomores, freshmen, athletes and artists alike to volunteer. Person-al house calls, constant pestering, and peer pressure were all desperately em-ployed in the scramble to find players. Disappointed and upset, Dustin Park quickly had to move on. “I have to keep going,” he said. “I can’t think about it

or else I get angry sometimes.” Allen Park at first wanted to find a scape-goat. “Eventually I just had to face the fact that it wasn’t anyone’s fault,” he said. “It just didn’t work out.” Just not working out though doesn’t do justice to the player’s loss. The Park brothers, among others, lost part of their lifestyle. To them, football is more than just a game. It is an inspiration, a motivation, a rea-son to wake up every morning. “Dur-ing football season, football is what I live for. I eat, drink, sleep, and think football 24/7,” Allen Park explained. Love of football, or any sport for that matter, is unexplainable to some-one who has never experienced it. Not only did football players lose their passion, many relied on football as part of their ongoing process in choos-ing a college or university. “Four years of football would have looked good for me in my college application, but now the best I can do is 3, if that.” Said Dustin Park. “Now you have to explain what happened to that fourth year.” While the majority of Pilgrim students may not even play football, the varsity football team represented more than that. Even in its recent los-ing streak, the team’s hard work and dedication despite the school’s small enrollment reflected how Pilgrim is proud, diverse, hardworking commu-nity. Now the Park brothers and oth-ers have lost their chance to have their school benefit from their dedication.

The Commonwealth Staff of 2010-’11

Reed Lovitt (’11)Sean Dew (’11)Yihan Chen (’11)Kaiwen Liu (’11)Justin Choi (‘12)Xavier Sallas-Brookwell (’12)Annabella Arakaki (’12)Eric Hwang (’12)Sam Kim (’12)Marina Pena (’14)Gabriella Carmona (’14)Gavin Somes (’14)Chris Yoon (’14)Dominic Endelman (’14)Advisor: Mr. Smith

By Christopher Yoon

By Xavier Sallas-Brookwell

A Message to ReadersThe Commonwealth staff wishes to extend its grati-tude to all Pilgrim admin-istrators, staff, faculty and students whose contribu-tions helped make possible this first edition of the school year. Special thanks goes out to Dr. Brooks and Dr. Kidder, whose “press conferences” provided both the information and in-spiration for many of the articles within these pages.

Dustin Park (left) and brother Allen (right) are cast in the shadows after the Pilgrim School football season was canceled for 2010.

If anyone is qualified to comment on Pilgrim’s diversity, it’s someone who lived in New York City for 10 years and attended school in Greenwich Vil-lage, which has one of the great culturally mixed populations anywhere. While I spent time in New York, I’m originally from Canada, which adds to the cultur-al mix here. Unlike our truly international students, though, I didn’t have to over-come a language barrier. It’s hard to imagine what that would be like, and all of the challenges that it presents. But I can identify with the international stu-dents who must also overcome stereotypes. I’m from Canada, right? Contrary to popular belief, we don’t all live in igloos. We don’t all speak French, and not all of us LOVE hockey (which I hap-pen to do.) I ‘m sure that with a lot of international students, there must be ste-reotypes placed on them before they even come to our school,. Once they get here, though, they are welcomed like they are part of the family. That’s the way I felt when I came here. I guess that’s Pilgrim for you, ‘eh? - Dominic Endelman (‘14) From the cradle to The Commonwealth ... Guess which current staff

member is all smiles about his future with the Pilgrim newspaper?

Sam kim

Courtesy of the C

omm

onwealth Staff


Presidents Day There are all kinds of reasons for skipping school, from a bad case of the sniffles to a severe case of test anx-iety. It isn’t often that you can miss classes in order to see the President. But that’s where I was on a recent Fri-day when Barack Obama came to town. My mom and I arrived on the packed streets of the Universi-ty of Southern California two hours before the gates opened at 11:00. Even so, I worried that we wouldn’t make it into the 22,000-person square. A line formed, winding up one side of the street and down the other. On every corner, volunteers stood to direct the people to the end, which is where our journey began. The wait was long but the peo-ple watching was great. Some individ-uals paraded in the street, canvassing different propositions for the upcoming election. In an attempt to satirize Meg Whitman, a group of nurses accompa-nied by a woman calling herself “Queen Meg” marched through the center of the crowd. Assorted college students encouraged people to vote “yes” on Proposition 19 that would legalize mar-ijuana, by advertizing the boost that it would give to the California economy. As the gates opened, the line began to move and we were pushed forward by the flow of the crowd. Fi-nally, we were able to see the met-al detectors surrounded by Secret

Service. On the lawn outside, people had abandoned their umbrellas, wa-ter bottles and anything else the Se-cret Service had forbidden. We hur-ried inside and pushed as close to the raised podium as we could get. The speeches from obscure pol-iticians and USC students began, fol-lowed by the invocation from Rabbi Denise Eger of Congregation Kol Ami. Filled with pride for a woman I have known all my life, I cheered her on. To my mom’s dismay (she’s a Bruin), the USC marching band began to play their school song, accompanied by shouts of “UCLA S---s!” Wasn’t this rally meant to bring us together not to separate us? Jamie Foxx took the stage to introduce Jerry Brown (once the Governor from 1975 to 1983), who asked democrats to make him the future head of state in the upcoming election against Whit-man. Senator Barbara Boxer spoke, yet she was often drowned by the chant of: “Who do we want?” “Obama!” “When do we want him?” “Now!” Finally, Mr. Obama began to speak, and we were held in attentive silence. He spoke about our economy, com-paring it to a car. “When you want to go forward,” he said, “you put the car in ‘D’. When you want to go back-ward, you put the car in ‘R’.” Get it? Outlining his loyalty to America, he said, “Although we are proud Demo-crats, we are prouder Americans!” I was just proud to be there.

Casting a Vote

The Commonwealth asked ASB president Valentine Adell (’11) for his thoughts, suggestions, advice and admonitions for all those Pilgrim students who were recently voted by their peers to positions in leader-ship from middle school through high school. Val‘s comments were punc-tuated by his insistence that there was ‘’no excuse” for officers not put-ting themselves on the line in order to get things done for their particu-lar classes and the school. “You have to know what you’re getting into,” Val said. “You have to be ready to con-vince people that you’re right, espe-cially when they think you’re wrong.”

By Abby Bergmann

Sean wrote this article prior to Election Day, so he obviously could not have known the outcome.

The 2010 California Governor election on November 2 signaled the end of the Arnold Schwarzennegger double-term era while ushering in a new one. The primary in June revealed the leading candidates. Leading the Re-publican Party with 65 percent of reg-istered republicans is was former ebay CEO,Meg Whitman. Heading up the Democratic party with 84.4 percent of the vote was former governor and cur-rent attorney general, Jerry Brown. Brown is seen as a tradition-al democrat mirroring the politics of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. He is cred-ited with the gentrification of his home city of Oakland in the ‘80s, a city no-torious for drugs, gangs, and violence. Brown favors raising taxes, improv-ing Medicare and Medicade and start-ing a multi-billion dollar program to re-structure the California public school system along with a plan to low-er the overhead wasted in the system. Brown is in favor of such proposals as the legalization of marijuana and making sex education and abortion more accessible to young people with-out getting parental guardian consent. Although she is not a tradi-tional Republican, Meg Whitman is in favor of hands-off government and lower spending for California. She has had no experience as a politician, un-

like her running mate, who has spent his entire life in the public eye. Whit-man favors lower taxes, is against the legalization of marijuana, and says the school system is not under fund-ed but is just inefficiently run. She would make every school a charter one while transforming the adminis-tration of the school system and oth-er government institutions. She plans to reform them to be administrated as private corporations to cut out in-efficient red tape and unnecessary spending, earning support from mod-erates and republicans in contrast to her idealistic and liberal opponent. As I just turned 18 this sum-mer and this will be the first elec-tion I will be voting in, I took time to carefully calculate my choice and not just follow my family’s liberal ideals and selections. I am morally a liber-al and usually also politically liber-al as well; but I can’t help begging the question of whether high taxes and big spending is good for the already jar-ring debt and failure of private busi-nesses that have overtaken us dur-ing the recession. Although I don’t agree with some of her conservative ideals, I believe that Meg Whitman, a successful CEO, is what our tattered economy needs at this time. Look-ing around at the boarded up build-ings and economic state of my friends and their families, I feel Whitman is the safer choice. We simply can’t han-dle larger taxes and more spending.

By Sean Dew

Officer Training

ASB

Co-President: Valentine AdellCo-President: Clare Reyes-GilpinCo-Vice President: Haydn MuirCo-Vice President: Nkechi AmpahCo-Vice President: Dustin Park

Grade 9

President: Dom EndelmanVice president: Abby BergmannService rep: Sofia WaltonGrade 10

President: Henry KlapperVice President: Gabe GarzaService Rep: Joseph Casabar

Grade 11

President: Justin ChoiVice president: James SonService rep: Chloe Chais

Grade 12

President: Henry DownsVice president: Hadassah Heard Service Rep: Grej Pesjaka

“Make sure each class feels like it’s a part of our community.”“Be prepared to raise money for each class fund.”“Try to accomplish something each day.”“Be in a good mood.” “Convince kids that they have no option but to help you.”“Understand that the relation-ship between administrators and class officers is like par-ent-child. They establish all the guidelines that we’re supposed to follow. It’s up to us to take it from there. They say we’ll have a Spirit Week. But then it’s up to us to make the Spirit Week work.”“Keep pushing – like the dance. Kids didn’t want to go. But after they did go, they said they had a great time.”“It’s up to us. We have this chance. Go out and make the most of it.”

Valentine Adell’s Guide for Class Officers:

ASB Co-President Val Adell has big plans for the 2010 school year.

Claire Reyes-Gilpin, is also eager to work with her fellow officers.

Sam kim

Sam kim

President Obama addresses a crowd of supporters in Los Angeles as his party approaches a mid-term election in a contentious political climate.

http://peopleareamazing.net

Pilgrim’s Student Government


Pilgrim’s Presidents

By Marina Pena

“Did you eat anything?” my guardian asked me. “No,” I said. “So, you did not eat yet?” “Yes.” Now she was confused, so she asked again: “Did you eat?” I said, “No.” She said, “So, you didn’t eat?” “Yes.” Art this point, she felt like col-lapsing. I still felt hungry. This embarrassing yet true story could’ve happened to any in-ternational student at the Pilgrim School. If you think it’s frustrating that the language barrier could lead to such confusion over a meal, imag-ine what it’s like to be in a classroom where you have to find a way to fol-low a teacher’s lecture while also try-ing to follow the words so carefully. With such a large number of international students among Pil-grim’s small enrollment, we can all benefit from each other by learning as much as we can about each oth-er’s cultures. From our point of view, we feel like we are blending in bet-ter with our American students, the more both groups will benefit. One way we blend was dur-ing Golden Week last year, which is a whole week after the Christ-mas break where we shared our cul-tures with the other students. Last year, it was focused on Japan, and this year it will be focused on Chi-na, it will be called White Tiger Week. Every week, though, is a challenge in the classroom for in-ternational students. Some oth-er students may doubt if the inter-national students have the ability to study and live well in United States, but the answer is absolutely, yes. According to Angela Xu, (‘12), I had difficulties in history for a while;

it’s hard for international students to understand. I spent a lot of time on it and was able to do it in the end.” Vivian Lin, an internation-al student who graduated last year from Pilgrim, came here as an ESOL student. She studied really hard and graduated from the class in the first trimester, and was then able to take A.P. English as a senior. From ESOL to A.P. is quite a jump, isn’t it? Vivi-an Lin earned some academic awards from Pilgrim and a college scholar-ship. Her successful experience can be a reference for international students. When we first came to Pilgrim, we found it was really hard for us to show ourselves in the classes. Fortu-nately, we still earned decent grade

point averages, but it took much more work than the typical student faces because we had to overcome the diffi-culties with the languages. Now that this is the second year that we are at Pilgrim, we all thought that this year would be smoother, because we are familiar with the teachers, stu-dents, and our English is more fluent. But we found the courses we take in the senior year are much more difficult than last year because of the high difficulty of A.P. class-es. There are also a lot more tests and quizzes, and the college applica-tion process takes up so much time. The date to apply to col-lege is closer and closer. Then there is the college essay, the SAT and

No Senior Lounge ... No Problem? Many schools give thier se-nior classes privileges that the rest of the students do not have. One of them is a lounge that only they can use. The senior lounge is a place where the seniors feel free from the grasp of teachers. It is a special room that has all the necessities for an av-erage senior: television set, video game system, computers, a large sofa with pillows, a large desk to do work. Pilgrim School no lon-ger gives its seniors the privilege of a lounge. Once the Class of 2010 grad-uated, Dr. Brooks, Head of School, announced that there would be no

such privilege for this year’s senior class. This naturally upset seniors, but it also disappointed members of the junior class who wondered if this year’s class doesn’t have a lounge, will we have one when it’s time? Maddie Kanazawa (’11) said, “I want to have my own rest-ing place instead of sleeping in the noisy library.” Kaiwen Liu (’11) add-ed, “We want to have our own space where we can joke around.” Sam Kim (’12) explained how, “we need a place where teachers can’t bother us like telling us to be quiet in class.” Seniors also feel since it

is their last year at Pilgrim that they should be able to enjoy privileges that their underclassmen don’t enjoy. If there are senior privileges, young-er students can always look forward to the year when they are rewarded for their hard work throughout their high school experience. There is also a strong feeling among the seniors that they should have the right to be set apart from all the other students from all the other grades. Having a lounge would make them feel special. And don’t they deserve something special for putting in all their years at Pilgrim?

Bridging cultural Gaps

By Justin Choi

By Yi Han Chen and Keiwen Liu

the TOEFL exam that all make us nervous. It seems that there is no time for us to have a rest, but we all try our best to succeed at Pilgrim. Most of the Chinese students live with host families, which is a good way to practice English. It’s bet-ter for us to live with adults who can take care of us than living outside by ourselves. We can discuss something about our hometown while we are having dinner; we can let some Amer-icans know more about our culture, and also we can also learn much cul-ture of America from our guardians. The more we exchange our cultures with our guardians, the more we’ll be like one big fam-ily. And we won’t go hungry.

Sam kim

Pilgrim Connection to the World

The Pilgrim Connection: Rescue work-ers faced a seemingly impossible task of lifting dozens of miners trapped far below the surface after a cave-in ac-cident. Despite all odds, the rescu-ers and miners kept their hopes alive and their spirits up, just as Pilgrim students must do the same when all seems lost academically or socially.The lesson: No matter how low you can go, you can rise above your problems a positive attitude and help from others.

The Pilgrim Connection: The British Petroleum officials who knew about the dangers of deep-oil drilling yet chose to ignore them in pursuit of more discoveries that would lead to greater profit is like the Pilgrim stu-dent who understands the conse-quences of plagiarism yet breaks the rule in order to earn a higher grade.The lesson: If you consider hon-or and integrity, you don’t have to deal with consequences of actions.

The Pilgrim Connection: The fact that President Obama and fellow Democrats are under siege from Republicans plus newly formed Tea party members re-sembles the Pilgrim student whose par-ents come down on him or her for a re-port card full of unsatisfactory grades.The Lesson: You can avoid criticism and possible punishment if you do what it takes to keep the promise of fulfilling your academic expectations.

The Pilgrim Connection: James, once the most popular player in the NBA, has become a target for fans in Cleve-land and elsewhere after he left his birthplace to seek even more fame and fortune in Miami. The Pilgrim equiva-lent is the student who abandons his or her longtime friend to join a clique.The Lesson: Loyalty is a two-way street. If you want your friends to be loyal to you, you must be loyal at all times to them.

The Event: Chilean miners rescue

The Event: BP Oil Spill The Event: Midterm Elections The Event: Lebron James spurns his hometown team

International students from around the world fill Pilgrim’s playground to add variety to the school.

By The Commonwealth Staff


POINT/ COUNTERPOINT

THE ISSUE -NO SENIOR LOUNGE

THE ARGUMENTS – WHY ISN’T THERE ONE THIS SCHOOL YEAR?

HAVE STUDENTS BEEN SLIGHTED?

IS THERE SIMPLY NO ROOM?

Every Monday morning at 10 o’clock, Pilgrim high school students are required to dress in their formal uniforms and attend chapel. Being no different than any group of teenagers, they can sometimes be a tough audi-ence. The job of keeping the students focused while learning some valu-able lessons now belongs to first-year chaplain Ms. Graffius. She not only loves the challenge, she’s also up for it. “It’s great to come together in a community,” she said. “I think we are a particularly interesting community because it’s so diverse. It’s good practice to come togeth-er and be different but still united.” For our very first chapel les-son, Ms. Graffius decided to empha-size the importance of second chanc-es. “The church kicked off a whole season where we are going to fo-cus on love, compassion, and the art of forgiveness,” she said. “I thought what better place to start on top of the fact that it was Rosh Hashanah and our Jewish students were al-ready kind of in that period of atone-ment. It all came together. But kind of a funny topic to start with, I know.” Second chances are given to everyone, and often times we don’t even realize when they appear. “I feel like over and over again, es-pecially in friendships,” Ms. Graf-fius said. “I’m just really aware of giving second chances and the mis-takes I have made and I’m just grate-ful for another chance to get better.” A sample of Pilgrim students

Making the Most Out of Second

ChancesBy Anabella Arakaki

Lounge: More Harm Than Good? The Pilgrim School’s se-nior class started the year in a rage. Not only did the students be-gin without their off campus privileg-es, but there was also no more senior lounge. While many students are fu-rious about the new policies, the loss of several of the “senior privileges” will change the school for the better. The lounge was a small room that the seniors would furnish them-selves. Last year, they brought a couch, a few chairs, and a television. All other

students were excluded from the area.Four years ago, there was a senior class that did exceptionally well. The students fulfilled their community ser-vice requirements, worked hard on their college applications, and main-tained their attendance through-out the year, unlike most other se-nior classes, in which the students typically stop attending regularly upon being admitted into college. Dr. Brooks, the Head of School, present-ed the class with a senior lounge. The tradition has continued ever since.

Current seniors wonder why they do not have the privileges this year. Certain students believe the new policy was established in re-sponse to the Class of 2010’s abuse of their lounge privileges. Students were loud and rambunctious, and then they would go to their next classes late. Many students also believe that this year’s senior class is being punished for their behavior. The Class of 2011 has a reputation for not partic-ipating as much as they should and for being highly disruptive. Pilgrim has so much to offer by sanctioning many school dances and holding monthly spirit days, but the class of ’11 bare-ly participates in any of the events. “I think that [the class of 2011] is miss-ing a great opportunity to have fun and leave a legacy by not participating in the events we hold for them,” accord-ing to biology teacher, Ms. Hatfield. However Dr. Kidder, head of the secondary school, asserts that, “[Taking away the lounge] was not a matter of punishment for students. We simply do not have room.” Both the school and the church have ex-panded. The school has grown by about 7 percent, and the Church con-gregation has grown from 40 mem-bers to now over 400 members. The room that used to be the senior lounge is now office space.

By Reed Lovitt

At every school there are al-ways a some students who will eventu-ally get into trouble. Usually, such issues are resolved between teacher and stu-dent but sometimes the student needs to be referred to a higher authority. Pilgrim has assigned this re-sponsibility to the newly-formed romed Honor Council that is basically a court made up of students that decides the consequences of a student’s actions. Twelve high school and middle school students make up the council, whose job it is to listen to the teacher’s side of the story and then listen the student’s side. The student-to-student conversa-tion allows whoever appears before the council to have a more open discussion about what the problem actually is. The Honor Council then refers its deci-sion to Head of School, Dr. Brooks, who determines possible consequences. Last year, there was a simi-lar program called the Judiciary Com-mittee. The Honor Council is differ-ent for the way it wishes to have more of a focus on honor rather than pun-ishment. The Honor Council is run by Ms. Hatfield and Ms. Salter, who oversee the students while helping them with procedures and actions. “Although a major part of the Honor Council is dealing with the neg-ative actions of students,” Ms. Hat-field said, “the Honor Council also is dedicated to making programs and presentations to keep students out of

Honors ActionBy Gavin Somes

This year the Church needs more of-fices and the school needs more offic-es, so it is a challenge finding room to fill everyone’s needs. Not to men-tion, can we really complain that there is no senior lounge. The se-nior lounge was just a privilege. Having the senior lounge also caused a divide in the second-ary school. When I was in sopho-more, I was close to many juniors, but as I became a junior, and the ju-niors became seniors, we no lon-ger spent any time together. The se-niors were in the senior lounge all the time. I rarely ever saw my old friends. One of the great things about Pilgrim is that it is small enough so that everyone feels like a family. The senior lounge, though, creates a bar-rier between the seniors and the rest of the secondary school. While seniors deserve some extra privileges, they should not be the type that excludes them from the Pilgrim community. While Dr. Brooks says that he plans to find some space in the school to add a senior lounge, it’s not worth the extra effort. Without it, the school is more of a community. Why should there be a room that ex-cludes anyone? Isn’t that unfair? If the seniors need a space to “lounge,” they can join the rest of the stu-dents elsewhere around the campus.

“When something good happens, it is rewarded.”

trouble. ” The Honor Council is consid-ering the idea of translating the Hon-or Code to help it become more acces-sible to the international students.“This would help international stu-

shows that we all have our own ver-sions of experiencing second chanc-es and appreciating their value. Valentine Adell (’11), our stu-dent body president, had the chance to turn himself around in school when he was a sophomore here at Pilgrim. “In 10th grade, my grades were pretty bad and I was told that I needed a wakeup call, so I wasn’t allowed to go on the re-treat. After that, I realized how impor-tant school was, and I started doing better and then junior year I got a 4.0” Kayla Creighton (’14) , a new freshman, recently had the scary experience of having her appen-dix removed. “All the people in my class made me a get well card and it was the most amazing feeling ever,” she said. Kayla Creighton was ab-sent for a week, but now that she’s back at school, “I have the chance to show them how I feel about them.” While some students are able to learn from their mistakes, others not so much. Haddassah Heard (’11) ad-mitted, “I get second chances every day at Pilgrim. Every time I make a mis-take. Every day. Every school year.”

“Second chanc-es are given to ev-eryone, and often times we don’t even realize when

they appear.”

Dr. Jon Kidder

Sam kim

Khari Rines (left) finds out the hard way that the room used last year as the senior lounge is being used this year as an office.


A student recently turned in a lost $50 bill to its rightful owner. Pilgrim awarded the student’s ac-tions by allowing him to have a week of free dress to show how Pilgrim val-ues honesty and honor

Ms. Graffius

dents better understand the values and ideals that Pilgrim stands for,” according to Ms. Hatfield.” The Hon-or Council now is able to provide more then just consequences for Pil-grim students. That way, all students can learn how sometimes difficult sit-uations can turn into new oppor-tunities for the entire community.

The Commonwealth November 6, 20106Centerfold

Whoever thought you could possibly compare Lady Gaga to Pil-grim? How about Eminem? The Bea-tles or Elvis, too? Had enough of mu-sic? What about Bill Gates compared to Pilgrim? Or Oprah? Or the Face-book guys? What do all these people have in common with Pilgrim? Give up? Think about how all those peo-ple prove that different is better. Now think Pilgrim arts. How is different better? Lady Gaga and the rest are fa-mous because they are so unique. Now consider, given the state of the econo-my, how most schools cutting back on their budgets by eliminating art class-es. Now consider what Pilgrim has done just in time for this school year. You have it, right? Pilgrim School is proving, among other things, how being different is some-times better by promoting arts as nev-er before in the form of a new arts center designed to showcase the cre-ativity and talent of the student body. When asked to put the new art center into the perfect perspec-tive, Mr. Kopp said quite simply, “It’s a blessing.” Many schools are cut-ting back on art classes because they believe that art is not as impor-

Antelope in Paradise

Study #2 From the Abstract Equipment

Pilgrim’s Fine Art Center:

By Nkechi Ampah (‘11)

By Muj Rahman (‘16)

Hope

By Gabriel Garza (‘13)

Student ArtBy Marina Pena

tant as math, science, or English. Pil-grim, on the other hand, believes that art should be a priority since it not only helps you with your other class-es but also in daily hardships when you have to be creative to solve prob-lems. When asked how art helps out students, Mr. Kopp said, “I think that creative thinking is something that’s quite missing. I think that it’s real-ly beneficial. For example, creativi-ty can help the sciences. I think that a lot of the thinking that happens in this class definitely transfers over to oth-er classes, even sports. Understand-

“Pilgrim believes that art should be a priority.”

Mr. Kopp

They said it couldn’t be done, but thanks to Dr. Brooks’s effort and vision, the Pilgrim Art...

The Commonwealth November 6, 20107Centerfold

The Postman

Wheel

“It’s A Blessing”

Shaded Blind Contour

By Yilin Chen (‘11)

By Olana Himmel (‘14)

By Eric Seo (‘13)

Gallery

“Art is a lot aboutcommunication.”

ing art can always transfer over to un-derstanding sports in different ways.” The art center not only helps show the community that art should never be cut back from curriculum, but it helps those Pilgrim students who want to pursue art do so in a studio-type place. According to Mr. Kopp, “It’s a much nicer space to be making art in, the light is wonderful, and all these huge

windows that allow the light to come in, having better sinks. I don’t know if you remember the sinks from last year, but these are much better. It feels more like a studio then a classroom. It gets kids into the mind set of an art studio.” Mr. Kopp also believes that conversations that take place dur-ing art classes help students express their thoughts. He will post quotes to help generate discussions in the class. “Sometimes the quotes do [help them], a lot of the discussions that I have that involve pop culture, politics, religion,” he said. “Even if it’s a quote that has nothing to do with art, it spurs conver-sation, it gets people to think, it gets you to work. Art is a lot about commu-nication. Many of the things we dis-cuss can be incorporated into art. It’s a mean of communication, so that’s why I have the quotes on the board. I like to get to know my students on a deep-er level. And if that happens, students get to know themselves even better.” Of all the quotes Mr. Kopp has used in class, his favorite is: “If you’re going through hell, keep going.” The Winston Churchill words, mean how students must stay focused on the fact that nothing stays the same forever. “Just be persist,” Mr. Kopp added, “and go through the hard times with you head held high. Don’t give up. You’ll have even more strength to face other hellish situations.”

Mr. Kopp

...Center has became a reality to showcase students’s crestivity and talent for all to see.


Spotlight on Girls’ Volleyball Pilgrim students have natu-rally been upset that there is no foot-ball team this year, but everyone has to look at the bright side. Girls’ sports are being recognized as nev-er before with the spotlight on the volleyball team for homecoming. Ac-cording to Coach Hatfield, the tim-ing is perfect. “I think that we have been working really hard to change the view on girls’ athletics for a cou-ple of years and it’s finally starting to pay off,” she said. “Everybody is start-ing to pay more attention to our sport.” All this attention was a bit nerve racking for some girls who were not used to the spotlight and there-fore had mixed feelings about it. Some players looked at this chance as a ben-efit to grow at Pilgrim. “I think it’s great for women athletics,” said Mad-die Kanazawa (’11). “We can take the advantage of our chance to have more people watching us.” Yet being the only high school sport for the fall sea-son, the girls also had to represent all of Pilgrim athletics, which added

to the pressure on them to perform. “With all the added atten-tion, it makes it hard to know how it is going to turn out for us,” said Deli-na Yemane (’12) before the homecom-ing game against West Valley Chris-tian, but even if we don’t win we are still going to be the Lady Pats and the Patriots.” Sure enough, the match turned out to be a defeat for Pilgrim, although it became intense in the third game when the Lady Pats started to pick up their play and won 25-17. The girls were inspired by the enthusiastic support from the boys’ middle school flag football team, who cheered while holding up their homemade signs. Though the match was some-thing that the girls believed they could have won, they also believe that the experience helped them in follow-ing matches. Thier first win came against Westmark in a five-set match that went down to the wire. Maddie led the team with winners in each set won by Pilgrim. Thanks to Maddie and teammates, female athletes are earning some well-deserved attention.

By Gabriella Carmona

Fit for a Queen When you think of a homecom-ing dance, many think of a kickoff to the school year. For Pilgrim, though, the event was more of a showcase. The dance wasn’t just a party to celebrate a game; it promoted Pilgrim to stu-dents from neighborhood schools who attended as guests. Everyone in the high school was encouraged to bring his or her friends, who even were able to enter at a discount price. Wheth-er they realized it or not, Pilgrim stu-dents were promoting their school. Pilgrim is such a small school that many are not familiar with, so the more publicity it gets, the better. Stu-dents from other schools may not like the idea of a small school, or the fact that it has every age group from tod-dlers to seniors on its campus. But af-ter meeting Pilgrim students at the dance, the kids from the other schools may have changed their opinion. About one-third of the crowd was made up of non-Pilgrim students who helped make the party more lively and interest. “When you invite more peo-ple to the dances it’s more fun,“ said Delina Yemane (’12), “because you get to branch out and meet new people, inviting them to be-come part of the community. “Ev-eryone gets to make new friends and learn about different schools as well.“

Like any other home-coming dance, Pilgrim’s includ-ed the traditional crowning royalty: How do you become roy-

Poetry Class If you ask students about poet-ry, they’ll probably say that it is hard to appreciate because it also hard to understand. Many students consid-er poetry to be one of the most diffi-cult ways of expression, but Pilgrim School recently played host to a trio of published authors who believe they have found a way to make verse more captivating by connecting the process of writing poetry to a student’s life. “I’ve found that the best part of writing for me is not getting a piece pub-lished, but the actual work of writing,” said Bhargavi Mandava, who shared her thoughts with Pilgrim students. “It’s the struggle that is the most re-warding.” In other words, writing poet-ry is like a Pilgrim student whose four years in high school are more impor-tant than where they actually end up in college. It’s not the destination that matters as much as the journey does. Let’s face it, though. Any-body who has ever tried to compose a poem by writing one line and then going through the alphabet to find a rhyming word to end the next line knows it’s easier said than done (es-pecially if you end the first line with “orange,” then drive yourself cra-zy thinking of a companion word. Ms. Mandava, along with fel-low poet Vandana Khanna, answered a series of questions about writing in general and poetry in particular posed to them by The Commonwealth:

Commonwealth: How young were you when you realized you could be a writ-er? How did you discover your talent?

Ms. Mandava: I was in the 6th grade. I remember it was after I had handed in a history report on ancient Rome. I had also slipped in a poem about Ro-man times. My teacher, Mrs. Mueller, was absolutely thrilled, and she told me so. It was not that it was a fantas-tic poem, but I had connected to some-thing beyond research and report.

Ms. Khana: I was 9 years old the first time I attempted to write. I used my mother’s old electric typewriter that hummed when I turned it on. I guess I discovered my “talent” through

years of writing and taking work-shop classes where I honed my art.

Commonwealth: Do you recall the first poem you ever tried to write?

Ms. Mandava: I believe it was a rhyming poem about a first snow-fall in New York. As my mother and I walked from elementary school, she would ask me to recite a poem. I would make them up on the spot, about the sky, the trees; whatever caught my fancy on the walk home.

Ms. Khana: I don’t remember the first poem I tried to write but I have kept my old writing journals from when I was a pre-teen and teenag-er and I do have some poems in there.

Commonwealth: What is the most difficult part of writing poetry?

Ms. Mandava: Having been born in India and growing up speaking both Telugu and English, I sometimes strug-gle with appropriately translating and conveying Indian sentiments. So, the searching for the best words is the most difficult. It is also the most thrilling.

Ms. Khana: One of the most difficult parts of writing poetry is that really, there are no rules. There is no man-ual to follow, no right way to do it. A poem can be one word or 50 pag-es. It can contemplate the modern and the ancient all at the same time.

Commonwealth: What advice do you have for aspiring writers?

Ms. Khana: My advice to aspiring writ-ers is to write all the time, every day if you can and not to be too critical of yourself. Just get your ideas down on the page and see what develops.

Commonwealth: What is the single most important thing you would like Pilgrim students to remember from your visit?

Ms. Mandava: I’ve found that the best part of writing for me is not get-ting a piece published, but the ac-tual work of writing. It’s the strug-gle that is the most rewarding.

By Marina Pena

alty? Delina ought to know, since this was her third straight year of being voted Princess. “Its nice to know,” she said, “that you have people who would vote for you.” Does she have any advice for would-be Princes and Princesses? “Make sure that you start off the year the right way,” Delina said. “Treat people right or they won’t be your friends so they won’t vote for you. And don’t go around saying ‘Vote for Me.”

SeniorsKing – Valentine AdellQueen – Nkechi AmpahPrince – Hadyn MuirPrincess – Clair Reyes-GilpinJuniorsPrince – Cosmo KellyPrincess – Delina YemaneSophomoresPrince – Allen ParkPrincess – Grace ChoFreshmen Prince – Christopher YoonPrincess – Olana Himmel

From left to right: Mariah Davis, Nkechi Ampah (‘11), Delina Yemane (‘12), and Chloe Chais (‘12) bust out moves at the recent Pilgrim Homecoming Dance.

Evelyn Gopal

Sophia Walton (‘14) jumps to set the the ball at a game in Pilgrim School’s home volleyball court as the girls take center stage.

Les Klein



First Comes the Hope, Then

Comes the Giving A recent guest speaker at a Pil-grim School morning meeting asked for donations to help his Hope Net organi-zation feed low-income families in near-by communities. But in delivering his message, Executive Director Douglas Ferraro also gave students something

aiding the cause Pilgrim is no different from other schools that have community service organizers among its faculty or staff. But it is different when it comes to its leader of the recent AIDS Walk. Senora Arribas not only cares enough about the cause to encourage stu-dents to join her on the walk, she also has family ties to the subject of AIDS. More than two dozen Pilgrim high school students joined Senora Ar-ribas and Mrs. Elizabeth Turro for the 26th Annual AIDS Walk that started and ended in West Hollywood. Those who walked were to collect pledges from others who wished to contrib-ute to the Aids Project of Los Angeles and other AIDS service organizations. If you know anything about AIDS, you understand why the walk helps such a worthy cause. If you know about Senora Arribas’s fami-ly, you would also understand why she is so committed to the cause. “I’ve lived through the whole era of AIDS,” Ms. Arribas said. “I re-member the stigma attached to the dis-ease when it first became well-known. I can recall how people who were diag-nosed with AIDS were treated by some people in this country like lepers from the Bible. I believe that part of the AIDS Walk is to show everybody how this disease not only affects those who have it. It also affects us all.” It certain-ly has affected Ms. Arribas’s family. Her oldest son, Noah, is a chemist in Fremont who works in the production of a t-cell counter that would function like how diabet-ics are able to read their sugar levels.

“The idea,” Ms. Arribas ex-plained, “is that patients from third world countries who cannot afford to travel great distances to hospitals for the treatment that they so desperate-ly need will be able to monitor them-selves and know when there are warn-ing signs. What Noah and so many others are trying to do is figure out a way to lower the cost of helping peo-ple to be able to help themselves.” Ms. Arribas also has a son, Lucas, who is a medical re-searcher. According to her, he has had first-hand experience of how truly terrible the disease can be. “Lucas has been in the Peace Corps in Mozambique,” Ms. Arribas said. “While he was there, he had to witness his own landlord die from AIDS. It’s a brutal thing because in so many parts of the world, AIDS is treat-ed like something that can’t be ac-knowledged. You’re not supposed to talk about it. But how can you turn your back on it when you’ve seen the effects that it has on people?” In addition to her two sons, Ms. Arribas also has two daughers-in-law who work for the AIDS Project Los Angeles. She believes it is important for Pilgrim students to also give their time and energy to lend a hand for others. “AIDS is still associated with young people who commit suicide,” Ms. Arribas explained. “As a Pil-grim community, we don’t want to attach any more stigma to the dis-ease than it already has. We want to show others, especially young peo-ple, that we aren’t afraid to stand up for anyone who needs our help.”

Senora Arribas (far left) leads Pilgrim students from all high school classes in the annual AIDS Walk,a cause near and dear to her heart.

By Chris Yoon

Have you ever wanted to jump out of you skin and become some-one new? Meet Hairy Carrie the ta-rantula who can do exactly what ev-ery Pilgrim School student wants to do when that major exam comes roll-ing along, and his companion, Pinchet-ta Stingbottom the Emperor Scorpion. Everyone has heard of class hamsters or fish, but how about a scorpion or a tarantula? It’s a new hit in Ms. Koller’s 5th grade class and a great learning experience for the kids as well. When life becomes too hard, or you have an embarrassing moment, you feel drained and tired. Imagine having to rip yourself out of your body so you can retreat to a hid-ing place. Tarantulas molt, but not like other animals, they leave the

old one behind for whole new bodies. Think of it as the creepy crawling ver-sion of getting an Extreme Makeover.Hairy Carrie and neighbor Pinchet-ta require class “zoologists” who feed the animals crickets while taking care of their well-being. The students watch them eat while describing even the smallest, yuckiest details about them. “Hairy Carrie spits on the food and it’s like the color of the desk,” says Lily (’18). “It’s like she’s making her own yummy acid and cricket smoothie,” which is no doubt everyone’s favorite delicacy. Tarantulas and scorpions don’t always come out in the open, so you have to keep your eye out to see things like this. But it’s worth it if you get to see them in ac-tion. And just think of the biggest bene-fit to having such a class pet: When you don’t do your homework, you can al-ways say, “Hairy and Pinchetta ate it!”


Teacher’s Pet

Why are Pilgrim 5th graders Daisy Kim (left) and Lily Kachilis (right) frozen in fright? ... Blame it on class pet, Hairy Carrie (below).

By Marina Pena

Sam kim

Sam kim

Sam kim

to think about when it comes to dealing with their peers on an everyday basis. “Who is your neighbor?” Mr. Ferraro asked the group of second-ary students. “We view all people in our surrounding communities as our neighbors.” And because three out of every 10 such neighbors “are con-cerned about being hungry,” Ferraro challenged Pilgrim students to contrib-ute to the piggy banks he left behind with hopes they would soon become full of nickels, dimes and quarters. “Pilgrim has a great reputa-tion for giving,” Ferraro said, “based on all the things that you stand for at your school. Our motto at Hope Net is that none of our neighbors should go hun-gry. And you are examples of young peo-ple who use their skills to help others.”

Mr. Ferraro used examples of old proverbs to relate the moment in life when one can distinguish between light and darkness in terms of understand-ing one’s responsibilities for others. “The moment happens,” he said, “when you are able to look into someone else’s eyes and see not a stranger but a brother or a sis-ter. It’s only then that you real-ize how much you can help them.” Though his point was made to motivate students to give, Mr. Ferraro may also have been talk-ing directly to Pilgrim students about the way they have learned to treat each other as brothers or sis-ters rather than strangers, especial-ly in such an international setting. “It’s true that what he said about his group is also true about us,” said Pilgrim senior Sophia Park. “When I came here three and a half years ago, I didn’t think I would be able to make so many friends from America because of the language dif-ference and the cultural difference. But now I have friends like Reed (Lo-vitt) because he would come over to us and just wanted to hang out together.” “The more you share classes with others who may not be from your culture, the more you find out how much you have common with them. You find out that you’re not strangers any more.” Instead, like Mr. Ferraro said, Pilgrim students have discovered that they are more like brothers and sisters.

“All people in our surrounding community are our neighbors”

Mr. Ferraro

A Bite from the Big Apple Some schools today are of-fer trips for a limited amount of junior students to travel to a far-away re-gion of the U.S to give the students the chance to look at colleges they might never have the chance to visit. Luck-ily for Pilgrim, because of its tiny size, Pilgrim gives not just some students, but every junior student, the opportu-nity to go to the East Coast to visit col-leges from Boston to Washington D.C. The tour took Pilgrim stu-dents to major East Coast cities such as New York, Boston and Philadelphia (where they, of course, sampled some famous Philly Cheesesteaks). But as Eric Hwang (’12) put it, “The biggest thing we noticed was the difference between New York and Los Angeles.” Most members of the group agreed that the most memorable cam-pus was New York University (NYU), the school known for its arts located in the heart of Greenwich Village. Several students said they would follow up af-ter the trip and consider the possibility of attending NYU. But that would mean

undergoing a big change in lifestyle. “There is such a big change when you go from L.A. to New York,” Eric Hwang said. “In L.A., everything is so relaxed. You can tell from the people you see on the streets. And people in L.A. dress in an urban style. Baggy clothes, you know. In New York, it’s the opposite. Everything moves so fast. And the peo-ple are dressed up all the time. We felt out of place if we were going around the city in our T-shirts. We noticed that people in New York smoke a lot, too. It must be all the stress.” The stu-dents had their own hectic schedule. Juniors were appointed to meet at LAX before 5:45 in the morn-ing and had to prepare to be checked at the security area. Some people quick-ly trashed their items that were not allowed on the plane. Andrew Chung (’12) had a huge opportunity to trash all his lotions and gels. Especial-ly for him, gel is so important that he shouldn’t lose it. He said, “I am so sad that I can’t take gel with me, but I guess I’ll have to buy new gel in New York.“ The students arrived in Bos-ton after sitting in the plane for five long hours. They had dinner near the

By Justin Choi

The 9th grade class spent a week beginning on Monday, October 5, on a journey to Big Bear, where for five days and four nights they formed bonds while learning to trust and have faith in each other as classmates and close friends. The highlights of this trip were the challenge courses and council, which also related to the trip’s themes. During the trip, the 9th grad-ers were introduced to the concept of council, where many people would get to know each other as they opened up by sharing and more about themselves with the class. These councils were, as Dr. Kopp summed up in a single word: “intense ” When asked why he held the councils, Dr. Kopp explained how,

Eric Hwang (‘12), Delina Yemane (‘12), Justin Choi (‘12), and Evelyn Kim (‘12), clockwise from top, take a moment to pose for the camera in between their many stops along the East Coast college tour.

Pilgrim high school classes headed in different directions during the first week in October for their annu-al trips. The freshmen went on a back-packing adventure to Cedar Lake, while the juniors visited colleges on the East Coast. Where were the sophomores? The class of 2013 left for the Channel Islands in a small ferry along with a few other local schools. They were expected to exist on an island for a week with a limited supply of food and water. Can you say Survivor? Talk about roughing it. There were no beds with plush pillows or bathrooms with sinks and a bathtub. Instead, there was dirt and water, the natural elements of the earth. The soph-omores were challenged to become one with nature itself, but what they found was how they really had no choice. “It was really a workout,” said Grace Cho (’13). “I got sunburns everywhere.” At the same time, in Los Angeles, the weather was dread-ful. Extreme heat filled one day while rain poured the next on the soph-omores. Imagine what the weath-

From Fantasy Back to RealityBy Sam Kim

In every school, it is good to be in a class that gets along. Being with people you like makes it easier to be yourself while you are learning. One of the ways for a class to learn to work together is on a trip, which allows students to get to know each other outside of school. It is not uncommon that when stu-dents are at school their personalities change based on the amount of stress they are under. When students are on trips, they are able to avoid focus-ing on work and actually start to get to know their classmates as friends. Our eighth grade recently took

er was like at Channel Islands! “The weather was killing us, said Allen Park (’13). “It was hot while we hiked and freezing during the nights. I felt like Bear Grylls from Man vs. Wild.” Once they figured out how to survive the elements, the sopho-mores learned basic skills like kay-aking and hiking for long hours. It was the ultimate test of stamina. Drew Robinson (’13) said, “What was fun was all the types of things we

Big Bear Alert

By Gavin Somes

famous Fenway Park that included KG Burgers made especially after the Bos-ton Celtics star Kevin Garnett. Among the colleges they visited in Boston was

By Gavin Somes

did from playing games like camou-flage and kayaking through beauti-ful caves. When we hiked at night, we saw a beautiful sky filled with stars.” Grace Cho complained, among other things, about the “low-key nasty” food on the trip, until she and the others were able to feast at In –N-Out burgers after the trip. Welcome back to reality.

such a hiking trip together, with every-one being optimistic at the start. Un-fortunately, things do not always go as planned. When the students arrived, they were told that the area where they were going to hike had been flooded. As you can imagine overall the moral of everyone dropped. Then the question arose, what to do next? The teachers decided that it was still important for the eighth grad-ers to hang out together, so over the following several days the students stayed in hotels while joining in ac-tivities. Although the experience was not the same as a hike, it still allowed the students to learn about each other. “I had a great time and I was able to spend a lot of time with my class,” said Alysha Johnson (’15). Over time, the class was able to make up for not going on the hike and returned to Pil-grim having learned about each other from their time spent together. They only were able to do that once they adapted to change, took what they had to work with and made the most of it.

Grade 8 Takes a

Hike

Eric Hwang (‘12) reflecting the lights of Times Square in N.Y.C.

James Son

James Son

“I had a great time and was able to bond with my class”

“I felt like Bear Grylls from Man vs. Wild”

Allen Park (‘13)

Alysha Johnson (‘15)


“Ninth graders need to have a safe place to talk. Adults do not understand teenagers. So we tried to create bonds by opening up with each other.” He added how impressed he was with the students for the way they acted like mature, young adults. Because of such behavior, the experience felt authentic. The ninth graders also went on the challenge courses having the same theme of trust and faith in one another. Many students origi-nally had doubts about their abili-ty, but they succeeded because they learned to depend on one another. Dr. Gregory was among those chaperones who, “was very proud of you guys (the 9th graders) as you dominated the high ropes course.” Dr. Kopp went even further when he said, “It has been a long time since there was a great 9th grade trip like this.” If the lessons of trust and faith worked so well on the cours-es and in the council during the trip, they can also work every-where around Pilgrim’s campus.

“[They] need a safe place to talk”

Mr. Kopp

Harvard, which is one of the most fa-mous colleges in the country. You might not know that Hampshire College is also famous – because that’s where Dr. Kidder went to college. So, how did the trip help the students learn about themselves? “If you’re from L.A. and you go to New York,” said, “you have to be able to blend in, to mix it up. That way you’ll be able to get along with every-body that’s different than you. So the more you have experience with differ-ent people, the better it will be for you.” It’s one of the big-gest challenges that every high school student has when he or she leaves home to go to any college.

“You have to be able to blend in”

Eric Hwang (‘12)

Ever wonder what happened to some of your favorite graduating se-niors the last few years? This year The Commonwealth will take time to catch up with recent alumni every issue and see not only how they are doing in their new college lives, but also how they can pass on the benefit of their expe-riences to current Pilgrim students … Lili Arakaki (Class of 2010) cheer captain and dance stand-out her four years at Pilgrim School, now attends Mary Bald-win University in Staunton, Virgi-na (Ms. Hatfield’s alma mater). Her younger sister, Anabella Araka-ki, now attends Pilgrim as a junior:

Commonwealth: What are you up to?

Lili: Well, a lot has gone on. I’m living across the country in a small college town while taking biology, chemistry, modern dance, English composition, and a few labs. I recently tried out and made the colleges cheerlead-ing team and have also been accept-ed into STARS, which is a student alumni relation society that works with students and alumni. Besides

Alumni CheckupBy Xavier Sallas-Brookwell

that, I am absolutely loving college.

Commonwealth: Any advice for the se-niors this year?

Lili: Really research colleges. The worst thing you can do is pick schools based on their names. You may think it looks good, but it only hurts you. Put aside all labels and make a list of qual-ities you want in a school and start researching. Pick a school to fit you, don’t pick a school you have to fit to. And a note to the girls, I am attend-ing an all women’s college. I am prob-ably the last person in this world who would have ever thought of going to an all girls school, but I absolutely love it.

Commonwealth: How well do you think Pilgrim prepared you for college? Lili: I honestly can say my first year here at college is about the same if not less intense than Pilgrim was. It has prepared me for a lecture set-ting, a seminar setting, and to effec-tively study and manage my time.

Patricia Lee, Lili Arakaki, and Erin Choi, left to right, celebrate thier Pilgrim graduation last June before they ventured off to different colleges.

Think of your first day of school. You probably felt excited, scared, nervous, self-conscious, all at once. You probably also felt odd or out of place. But at least so did every-body else. Not me. Not my first day at Pilgrim. Not as a transfer student a month into the school year. And es-pecially not as the younger sister of a recent graduate (Lili) who every-one seemed to love. On top of every-thing else, I was wearing her uniform. Welcome to Pilgrim and welcome to my world. I could feel people watching me as I passed down the hallway, which only made me more nervous. With a school as small as Pilgrim, it’s hard not to be noticed. “You’ll blend in fine, don’t be so self conscious,” I tried to convince myself. No such luck. I went into my small newspaper class and saw Dr. Brooks, the Head of School, in the front of the classroom. “Every-one will be staring at him, not me, ” I thought. Just when I thought I was safe, Dr. Brooks turned the attention of everyone in the room directly on me. “I tried to get Anabella to come here for her freshman year,” he an-nounced, “but after seeing the er-rors of her ways, she decided to fi-nally come to us and join our school.” It was too late to squirm but time to tell my story. I went from an all girls’ catho-lic school, with the rolled-up skirts and the weekly liturgies, to a huge perfor-mance arts public school with dancers roaming hallways and artists looking for their next inspiration during lunch. I tried to find the most opposite schools possible, and yet it still never felt like home. I didn’t know where to go. I didn’t belong with the swarm of girls who were obsessed with the local boys school and who would spend more time at lunch in the bathrooms than the caf-eteria, nor was I ever quite in with the “drama table” at #9 that I used to watch after school as the girls sang show tunes at the top of their lungs when they weren’t too busy spending time during class writing lyrics instead of actually paying attention for a change. There I was, Junior year, com-pletely and utterly lost. My sister just

graduated from Pilgrim and I’ll ad-mit, I had always been curious about what a day at Pilgrim would be like since Lily arrived here four years ago. In the morning of my second day of my junior year at #9, I told my mom I was unhappy and that I was consid-ering looking into Pilgrim. That night when she picked me up from school, my mom told me I would be spending the next day at Pilgrim while shadow-ing a student and looking into school. I went to Pilgrim the next day and never went back to my former school. Now that I’ve been here only a month or so, I really wish I looked into Pilgrim my freshmen year. I could’ve saved myself a lot of time and trouble. I already feel like I’ve been here forev-er. I know all the students. I share in-side jokes with the teachers. I don’t even need to ask where the main of-fice is. Best of all, I feel like home.

By Anabella Arakaki

The PSAT is a four-letter word to most students who don’t look for-ward to spending several hours try-ing to figure out answers to impos-sibly difficult questions, especially when the old stand-by system of eenie, meenie, miney mo doesn’t work. But to Pilgrim School junior Eve-lyn Kim, the test could represent only the beginning of a process that could end with a college scholarship. Evelyn was recently informed that she had passed the first step of qualifying for a special achieve-ment scholarship based on the re-sults of her PSAT that she took last October while attending Stuyves-ant High School in New York City. “I found out on my way to din-ner when my aunt told me that I had to pick up a letter from Dr. Kidder” Ev-elyn said. “She told me it had some-thing to do with being a PSAT finalist.” Based on her score of over 200, Ev-elyn now finds herself among 1,600 na-

tionwide finalists that will be be judged on an application that includes an essay. “It feels good,” Evelyn said, “to know that I’m in the mix for this

A-OK ON PSATBy Gabriella Carmona

Trading Places: A Tale of Two Pilgrim Sisters

Anabella Arakaki smiles just inside the main entrance as she begins another new day at Pilgrim School.

Les Klien

Sam kim

Evelyn Kim (‘12) takes the first step toward a college scholarship.

Sam K

imThe Commonwealth November 6, 201011

award, but I realize that there is still a long way to go. I can’t look at it at this point and say that it’s over. All this has done for me so far is open the doorway to a scholarship.” Having conquered the test that confounds so many other stu-dents, one would think Evelyn would have a tried-and-true system for ac-ing standardized tests. Think again. “How did I do it?” Evelyn said. “I didn’t do anything. I just went in there and took the test. The more you can relax and the less you can stress, the better you’ll probably do.”

“There is still a long way to go”

Evelyn Kim


Pilgrim on the Move

By Sam KimWish Come True? Our House is

Your HouSe Open House is coming soon to Pilgrim School, and you know what that means: Parents and students who are shopping around for a place to attend next year come to the cam-pus to check out anything and ev-erything about our school, from ac-ademics to athletics, curriculum to community, plus administrators,

teachers and stuff, and current stu-dents. In the spirit of the Sunday, No-vember 7 Open House, the Common-wealth staff got together and came up with the following Top 10 reasons be-yond the obvious ones that a fami-ly should consider sending a son or daughter to Pilgrim (see bottom left):

By The Commonwealth Staff

10. Watching student president Valentine Adell “A Freeze” dance at morning meetings.

9. Enough free dress opportunities to show off your wardrobe.

8. Toddlers marching down the hallway to dis-tract you during long block classes.

7. Free refills in the lunch line.

6. No annoying bells to signal beginning and end of periods.

5. Trips, Trips, Trips! 4. The world’s biggest pipe organ right next door.

3. Who needs a GPS when going from Nancy White Way to Amanda Scott?

2. No-cut policy for sports teams means you don’t have to be a superstar.

1. FODORLAND!

Pilgrim School students, fac-ulty and parents supplied the missing sunshine when a good time was had by all those who attended the recent fund-raiser at the Santa Monica Pier. From the parking lot to the hospitality tent, on the roller coaster to the Ferris wheel, whether gather-ing, strolling, playing, eating, drinking or riding, there were plenty of familiar Pilgrim faces seen all around the pier. The conditions may have been gloomy but the atmosphere was fes-tive, no thanks to the weatherman but thanks instead to all the hard work from friends and family of volunteers who made possible the following mem-

orable moments from Pilgrim students:

Thrills and Chills in Santa Monica

By Marina Pena

Top 10 Reasons to Enroll at Pilgrim

So, what if you were granted one wish for this Pilgrim School year? What would you want to come true?When The Commonwealth asked the Head of School, Dr. Mark Brooks’s answer was surprising, especial-ly considering how this year’s se-nior class does not have a lounge. According to Dr. Brokks’s wish, though, Pilgrim students could have something even bigger and better. “I’d like to have a Student Center,” Dr. Brooks said. “Not just a lounge. I’m talking about a place where students would have computers, mailboxes, and copy machines, a nice big spacious place that would be theirs. Students could bring their lunches and lounge on the couches. Call it a no-faculty zone.” Imagine if you had an entire area for yourselves compared to the small yard or the library. During lunch-time, students are allowed to eat their lunches and socialize, but only until a certain time. Once the clock strikes 1:15, the kindergartners come out to play in the big yard. The hardworking “older kids” are forced out, their foods half eaten. The library is the only oth-er place for kids to hang out without distracting classes. What’s the point of getting sent to the library for being too loud in the hallways, if students get kicked out of the library for the same reason? Where else could they go? Dr. Brooks believes that the school needs a designated area sole-ly for students. He said, “Students are always working around the campus. I want them to have their own place.” Will his wish come true? No one ex-pected him to build the art center, but in the end, he proved everybody wrong

by getting what he wanted. Perhaps a Student Center is not just a whimsical dream. Maybe it will soon be a reality. Meanwhile, we asked Pilgrim students for their wish for the school year.

Frankie Liles, Olana Himmel and Nadia Skelil enjoy a day at the pier.

Gabe Garza, Tyler Wade and Danylo Lopatonok pose for the camera.

Les Klein

Les Klein

Nkechi Ampah (‘11)- “To have a remote control to control time, like the movie, ‘Click,’ so that I can fast forward homework.”

Michelle Koh (‘11)-“Keep the school the way it is.”

Gabe Garza (‘13)- “Have free dress everyday.”

Grace Cho (‘13)- “To go to Harvard through Pilgrim.” Grej Pesjaka (‘11)- “A swimming pool.”

Delina Yemane (‘12)- “More danc-es that bring students together.”

Hillary Harrod (‘14) - “To kill all the pigeons at school.”

Valentine Adell(‘11)- “For every-body to do exactly as I say.”

Maddie Kanazawa (‘11)- “To win a basketball championship.”

Dustin Park (‘12)- “To have senior privileges like getting food from outside of school.”

Frankie Chantel-Liles (‘14)- “ I really liked that people came from Pilgrim. It was nice to see every-one having a good time and bonding outside of school.”

Nadia Skelil (‘14)- “I won a dog, but I ended up giving it away to a little girl at the coffee bean. I didnt need something to remember the day.”

Olana Himmel(‘14)- “We went on lots of rides and it was nice to have a break and relax all together after a hard week of school.”

Documents

Issue 1: 2010-2011