Front Cover

ARROW
THE
VOLUME XXX, ISSUE 6
Westlake High School
100 N. LAKEVIEW CANYON ROAD, WESTLAKE VILLAGE, CA 91362
MARCH 20, 2008
Drama Students
Score with
Shakespeare
JULIANE SCHRAMM
NEWS EDITOR
Continued on PAGE 3
COURTSEY PHOTO
The WHS Drama Club won an award
for “Excellence in Scene” at the Shakespeare Festival at Chapman University in
Anaheim, Feb. 22-23.
Each of the approximately 20 participating schools performed one scene and
two monologues from a Shakespeare play.
The WHS team acted out the famous
balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet. Grant
Goldstein ‘08 played Romeo, and Rafael
Velasquez ‘08 played Juliet.
“Since both guys wanted to play Romeo, we had to improvise. And having a
male actor playing the role of Juliet added
an irony to the piece, which brought a
funny aspect to our performance,” said
Samantha Silver ’08.
The WHS Drama club did all they
could to stand out from the crowd.
“Our performance was special, because we didn’t use any stage equipment.
Instead, we expressed everything through
AWARD SEASON: The WHS Dance Tearm basks in the glory of taking home not only the first place trophy, but also the title of Grand National Champions.
Dance Team Makes History at Nationals
GUIN CHAN
STAFF WRITER
For the first time in WHS and CVUSD
history, the Dance Team earned the title
of National Grand Champions. With the
highest average of scores in a variety of
categories in the championship division
at the United Spirit Association’s Dance
and Drill Nationals, these 21 girls won the
competition over the span of two days at
the Anaheim Convention Center.
The team also won first place in the
Open Large Dance Division, as well as
New Fall Class Offerings Hope to Spark Interest
KELLEY BIGGS
STEPHANIE LERVOLD
STAFF WRITERS
Graphic Design/Art, Physics B AP,
Digital Photography, and Human Geography AP are a few of the classes that may be
included in the school curriculum at WHS
next fall.
Graphic Design/Art includes the
study of career skills needed for business.
The class would focus on teaching techniques related to careers in marketing,
such as creating campaign ads and posters for newspapers. The class is primarily
for students who want to work in business,
news, politics, and graphic design.
Graphic Design also requires creativity. This class would be a Vocational Education elective but the instructor has not yet
been determined. It will fulfill an A-G requirement for Cal States and UC schools.
Drawing skills are required.
Physics B AP is another course under consideration. Physics C CP is a pre-
IN THIS
requisite course for the class. The school
is expecting approximately 20 students to
enroll. Physics teacher Scott Holloway
would teach this class.
Another class under consideration is
Digital Photography. This class will teach
how to take quality photos using black
and white or color settings. Students will
learn how to edit photos, store and organize photos, choose format, and use color
depth.
For the digital photography class, the
school is getting new computers. The class
will be in the third building on the second
floor. The classes currently located there—
Mass Media and Video Production—will
still be open to incoming seniors.
Digital Photography will either be offered as a separate class or as first semester
Black and White Photography, second semester Digital Photography. The department wants to open this class to everyone.
No prerequisites are required.
“Mr. [Roger] Biersborn is our student
teacher and we want him to continue on
with us next year...he’s really good,” said
current Voc-Ed Department Chair, John
Farmer.
Social Science Department Chair
Mike Lynch is encouraging 11th and 12th
grade students to register for Human Geography AP, another new year-long elective. The proposed world studies class will
cover cultural, political, and topographic
geography, with a central basis on current
issues and global problems. It will include
aspects of current government, economics,
history, and psychology classes.
“It’s about the landscape of the
world,” Lynch said. “It’s going to be exciting.” The course instructor has not yet
been determined.
These classes all depend on whether
or not enough students register for them.
The WIT Academy will replace Computer Programming with Computer
Graphics, which also fulfills the A-G requirement. For those with extensive math
skills, Computer Science AP, is still available.
spots in the championship finals for three
of its dances.
It was 11 p.m. when the last dance
in the finals finished, and the awards
ceremony commenced. Before the end
of the night, the WHS Dance Team had
earned fourth place in the Officers category,
second in the Character category, and first
in the Small category.
Their Small dance, a lyrical piece
to Imogen Heap’s cover of “Hallelujah,”
also won the award for best choreography.
The last and largest trophy, for the title of
National Grand Champions, was given to
the WHS dancers.
“It was a complete surprise and
a really good feeling to know that we
worked so hard this year and the years
before to accomplish something so great,”
said Jenny Greynald ’08.
Numerous injuries throughout the
year forced several of the team’s dancers
to drop.
“We lost a lot of valuable people, but
we pulled through. We couldn’t have done
it without the trainees and understudies,”
said Kimberly Bielak ’09.
The team’s success can be attributed to
the fact that the girls “have grown together
over the past four years, and raised the bar
for themselves,” commented Coach Becky
Alderson.
An increase in practice hours also
helped to build a stronger team. Alderson
ultimately believes that it’s about “making
the dance a piece of art instead of a
competition.”
ISSUE
NEWS................................1-4
OPINION...........................5-7
FEATURE........................8-16
CENTER........................12-13
ENTERTAINMENT.........17-19
HEALTH/SPORTS.........20-23
FASHION............................24
Math teacher Eve-Marie Williams and
her pet beagle, Rupert, enjoy a hike.
See PAGE 11 for more teachers’ pets
Varsity baseball wins crucial game
against T.O.
See PAGE 23
Slip into spring with a fairy-tale fashion
fantasy.
See BACK