Raven Report

Sequoia High School

Volume Viii, Issue 4

Classes invited to
Facebook for
global town hall

1201 Brewster Ave. Redwood City, CA 94062

DECEMBER 17, 2014

Alcatraz field trip wows with

Weiwei art activism exhibit

There was one piece where he made a lot of little porcelain flowers and filled the bathtub and the sinks with them
and it was meant to talk about the expression of freedom,
senior Sean Decker said. I thought that was one of the most
One hundred and sixty five seniors in IB English and IB
personal pieces of his work, [because it] was directly about
Art visited Alcatraz Island Dec. 2 for @Large, an art exhibit
his life.
by Chinese artist Ai Weiwei.
The first piece of the exhibit was a Chinese dragon made
Weiwei, a social activist and a prisoner of conscience,
out of kites with each panel representing a different country
spent 81 days in captivity in 2011 for speaking out against
that holds these prisonthe Chinese governments
ers; this was followed by
stance on democracy and
Trace, a collection of
human rights through his
176 Lego portraits of
art. He is currently forbidpeople from around the
den from leaving China
world who have been
and has only been able to
imprisoned or exiled
see what his exhibit looks
because of their beliefs
like through photographs
or affiliations.
and communication with
Weiwei was inthe FOR-SITE foundaspired by his son, seeing
tion.
him play with Legos
Alcatraz was kind of a
and [seeing how] they
creepy place to be so that
are so easily taken apart
added to this oppression
and built up again, kind
that is just being conveyed
of like the lives of these
everywhere you look...
prisoners, and thats
youre in a small space
something that sticks
looking at something that
with you when you see
is symbolizing [someone]
something in such a
being held down, senior
scary place, Addis said.
Julia Addis said. [What I
Additionally,
stufound most powerful was]
dents were able to write
the idea of taking a stand
letters to prisoners of
and being the voice to so
conscience all over the
many people that either
world at the end of the
havent had the courage to
Photo by Dalia Jude
or just havent been able to Ai Weiwei spent 81 days in captivity in 2011 for speaking out tour.
I wasnt expecting
stand up for themselves.
against the Chinese governments stance on democracy and
to be super wowed by
The field trip idea came human rights through his art.
[the pieces] because I
up a few months ago when
knew what they were going to be, but then when I got there
IB English teacher Justine Rutigliano realized that Weiweis
its Alcatraz and the setting totally contributes to how you
work paralleled a lot of the themes being discussed in class
feel about the pieces, senior Ella Groff said. Being there resuch as oppressive governments and different forms of text
ally made it a lot more interesting and a lot more fun.
that address those issues.
By DALIA JUDE and MADALENE SCHORR
Editor-in-Chief and Staff Reporter

By ABIGAIL WANG
Feature Editor
Three Sequoia classes, Java, IB
Spanish, and Human Biology, had
the opportunity to visit the Facebook campus to participate in a
Facebook Q&A with Mark Zuckerberg, last Thursday, Dec. 11. The
Q&A session, formally called a
townhall meeting, was the second
held with the public in an effort
to connect Facebook with its users
directly. Attendees included visitors from Hong Kong and Chicago,
most of whom were entrepreneurs
themselves.
The Q&A included a wide range
of topics from Zuckerbergs favorite
type of pizza topping (fried chicken, he answered) and New Years
resolutions to the importance of
technology, and how the company
addresses negative perspectives on
its growing usership, and ethical
issues. Zuckerberg also gave personal advice and maintained good
humor.
Sequoia students were the only
students invited.
My favorite part was seeing how
so many people came from around
the world and the U.S., and there
[we were] from Redwood City. It
was impressive how they came just
to talk to Mark Zuckerberg, it was a
great experience, junior Deisy Lara
said.
Zuckerberg recently spoke at
Sequoia to announce the development of a mobile app class.

Many schedules set to change starting second semester

By DALIA JUDE
Editor-in-Chief
At the semester break, at least 100
students will have new schedules with
a senior IB English class moving to a
different period, 50 juniors entering IB
TOK and 40 seniors completing it.
Current sophomore English and
Health Careers Academy teacher Nichole Vaughan will start teaching a senior IB
English class next semester, but due to
schedule complications, the sixth period
class will have to move.
Im pretty familiar with the texts

News:

History teacher takes on

Jeopardy!

Page 2

that theyre going to be working with

next semester but I feel like the hardest
part is going to be creating trust between
the classes and me, said Vaughan, who
has taught English II ICAP at Sequoia
for one and a half years. Theyve had a
pretty turbulent semester and coming
into that as a new teacher and wanting
to be able to support and prepare them
for the exam is going to be the biggest
challenge.
Parents received an email from Instructional Vice Principal Stephen Ready
Nov. 25 announcing that Vaughan will
take over two IB classes and that amidst

opinion:

Club David breakdown

Page 7

the upcoming changes, administration

and guidance will try their best to keep
students with their first semester teachers. The class is currently taught by a
long-term substitute Ryan Lindgreen
with help from the other senior IB English teacher Justine Rutigliano.
Its a little bit tougher now that we
have to be more independent and we
don't have as strict of a curriculum so we
have to put in what we want to get out of
it, senior Maddy McKee said.
The administration has full confidence in Vaughans experience and ability to teach the senior-level IB class,

Principal Sean Priest said.

Though next semester Vaughan will
take on the role of preparing the seniors
for Mays IB exams, seniors repeatedly
emphasized their thanks for Rutiglianos
invaluable support so far.
We definitely appreciate all the stuff
that Rutigliano has been doing, senior
Paul Kiraly said. She has her own English classes and shes doing two TOK
classes so the fact that shes taking time
out of her free periods to come in and
talk to us about the essays and even
grade our stuff its just something that all
of us are really grateful for.

By the numbers

11.9 lbs

Average weight of a
sophomores backpack