I always think the same thing when I look back on the past: “Wow. I was kind of dumb last year.”
Let’s start with sixth grade, when I was a plain dork.
Then in seventh grade, I looked back on sixth...
Pandas irritate me.
It’s not the animals themselves, or even the abundance of Internet GIFs they occupy. It’s the species’ close, tangled connection to Asian stereotypes that irritates me.
Pandas...
BEVERLY HILLS, CA - JANUARY 11: In this handout photo provided by NBCUniversal, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Winner of the Best Actress - Mini-Series or TV Movie for "The Honorable Woman", speaks onstage during...
The English department outlined its policy on tutors and secondary sources in a Wednesday email to upper school parents and students.
A statement titled "Writing English Essays at Home" was included in...
Zoe Bohn ’14 will speak at graduation June 6 as valedictorian, President Rick Commons announced at the annual Cum Laude Induction Ceremony last week.
The valedictorian is elected by a faculty vote every...
Four plays written by students and an alumnus were chosen to be performed at playwright festivals featuring young writers. The Blank Theatre’s Young Playwrights Festival will produce plays by Patric...
Singer-songwriter and musician Jillian Banks '06 will not speak as planned at Monday's La Femme club meeting.
"[Banks'] management contacted [alumni administrator Janiece] Richard over the weekend to...
Director of Financial Aid and French teacher Geoff Bird and Upper School Dean Mike Bird have spent 47 years working for schools. Now they’ve announced that this is their last.
"I love coming to school...
Upper school students can now email their names and grades to hwassassin@gmail.com to join the first school-wide game of Assassin of the year, organized by game masters William Lee '14 and Jonah Blume-Kemkes...
Science teacher Walt Werner returned to school at the beginning of the semester after finishing treatment for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a cancer of the lymph tissue. After being diagnosed in June, Werner...
Both improvisation groups had their first rehearsal Nov. 22, three days after performing arts teacher Michele Spears’ announcement that the program will expand to two groups this year.
Spears announced...
Community Council brought a Dippin' Dots truck to the quad today to reward students from dean Sharon Cuseo's group for bringing the most cans to a canned food drive held this past week.
Community Council...
The hotel manager who hid more than 1,200 refugees during the Rwandan Genocide spoke at an all-school assembly Thursday about his experiences and the importance of following one’s conscience instead...
A meeting in Ahmanson Lecture Hall Oct. 3 presented students and parents with information on a trip to Rwanda to investigate the Rwandan genocide and its effects.
Award-winning producer Jeff MacIntyre,...
The first-ever all-school opening convocation Tuesday morning included the investiture of a new president, the announcement of a new character theme for the year and the investiture of this year’s upper...
The Advanced Performance Studies class, made up of seven seniors, performed “Under Milk Wood,” a play for voices by Welsh poet Dylan Thomas and directed by Performing Arts teacher Ted Walch on Saturday,...
The Girls Learn International club made flyers and held a bake sale May 24, working to raise awareness about rape culture and finishing the day with $855.
The money from the bake sale will pay for tuition,...
Five girls from the school’s Girls Learn International club spoke at, helped lead and attended events at the 57th Commission on the Status of Women at the United Nations last week in New York.
This year’s...
Helping Hands club members volunteered at a holiday carnival for children from economically disadvantaged backgrounds, and volunteers organized by the Chinese Cultural Club helped at Alpine Recreation...
Senior Advancement Officer Jim Pattison received the Marion Hays Award and history teacher Nini Halkett received the Kogan Family Award at the faculty opening meeting last week.
School president Thomas...
Growing tired, the Dungeons and Dragons players flung spiked chains and a flaming sword at the golden throne. The vampire sitting on it wouldn’t budge, and he was a stronger villain than they had ever...
"What is important is that students select activities that are truly meaningful to them and that they really get involved with them," reads UCLA’s Admissions website. "We look for long-standing dedication...
Close to 100 alumni surprised performing arts and cinema studies teacher Ted Walch Monday night by singing and dancing for him at the announcement of the establishment of a Ted Walch Endowed Chair for...
Of 389 students polled in a Chronicle survey, 65 percent use online reading aids like SparkNotes and Schmoop, both of which provide chapter summaries for books commonly read in English classes as well...
Five seniors defeated five science teachers in a 12 minute-long Science Bowl match during STEMfest Wednesday.
Science Bowl team members Kevin Zhang '14, Anser Abbas '14, Donhem Brown '14, Zachary Birnholz...
Zoe Bohn '14 will speak at graduation June 6 as this year's valedictorian, President Rick Commons announced at the annual Cum Laude Induction Ceremony Monday.
Bohn was one of 59 seniors inducted in what...
Applications for positions on next year's Community Council were emailed to sophomores and juniors Friday.
"The Council works with faculty advisers to direct, research, coordinate, implement, and approve...
His father was gone most of the time on business trips, and his mother was busy working and finishing school, all the more so because she was still learning English. So for three years starting from when...
Students who went on the semester break trip to Rwanda met Rwandan president Paul Kagame Feb. 12 at a Los Angeles World Affairs Council event at which he spoke.
Because they were not able to meet him...
Upper school students can now access the Playwrights Festival audition information for auditions that will take place Feb. 18-19 in the Drama Lab.
Festival producer and performing arts teacher Christopher...
Community Council organized service-related activities for every day of the week from Dec. 9 to 13.
To start Community Service Week, the council held a non-profit fair Monday where clubs and organizations...
The improvisation program will expand to two groups this year, performing arts teacher Michele Spears announced in an email Nov. 19 to students who auditioned for Scene Monkeys.
One will remain the Scene...
Auditions for "The Matchmaker," this year's winter play, will begin Monday, Nov. 11, with sign-ups for audition time slots starting Monday, Oct. 28. Students will be allowed to select for themselves the...
Performing arts teacher Ted Walch spent a week in Paris during the summer researching French director Francois Truffaut’s "Les Quatre Cents Coups" at The Cinémathèque Française. He also walked the...
In the two weeks she spent at a yoga university in Bangalore, India, Divya Siddarth’s ’14 typical day started at 5 a.m. and consisted of hours of practicing yoga, chanting and meditating.
She took...
Instead of taking a final exam, the two students who took Gender Studies this year each wrote research papers, one of the effect of media on men and women, and one on a female artist.
Liza Wohlberg ’13...
The Ethics and Gender Studies courses will not be offered next year due to a lack of student sign-ups.
Only three students signed up for Ethics next year, and two for Gender Studies, English teacher Malina...
Five-time Olympic swimmer and Westlake alumna Dara Torres ’85 will speak at the school’s annual Women’s History Month Assembly on March 18.
Gender Studies teacher Malina Mamigonian, who is organizing...
Helping Hands club members volunteered at a holiday carnival for children from economically disadvantaged backgrounds, and volunteers organized by the Chinese Cultural Club helped at Alpine Recreation...
For months, she didn’t know anyone else who had gone through what she had.
Samantha* was sexually assaulted by an acquaintance at a friend’s house after a party last April, she said.
“No,” she...
In a drop back down from last year’s record high of 93.4 percent, the number of seniors submitting early college applications hit only 89 percent this fall, Upper School Dean Beth Slattery said.
"Last...
The Dude abides.
That’s probably the most important thing I learned during break, but the Dude probably doesn’t care how high he ranks on my list of summer lessons.
It all started when my cousin...
Five seniors defeated five science teachers in a 12 minute-long Science Bowl match during STEMfest May 21.
Science Bowl team members Anser Abbas ’14, Zachary Birnholz ’14, Donhem Brown ’14, Kevin...
"Company" will be the fall musical, and "As You Like It" will be the winter play next year, performing arts teacher Christopher Moore said in an email May 21.
"Company," with music and lyrics by composer...
"Company" will be the fall musical and "As You Like It" will be the winter play next year.
"Company," with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a book by George Furth, will be directed by performing...
A total of thirty-one alumni and two current parents hosted sessions for upper school students to attend during third, fourth and fifth periods as part of Career Day Tuesday.
During Career Day events...
Upper school students can still email their names and grades to hwassassin@gmail.com to join this year’s first game of Assassin, organized by game masters William Lee ’14 and Jonah Blume-Kemkes ’14...
Producer Debra Martin Chase will speak at the 11th annual Harvard-Westlake Film Festival Friday March 14 at the ArcLight Cinerama Dome in Hollywood.
Martin Chase's work has focused upon women, tweens,...
Students who went on the semester break trip to Rwanda attended a Los Angeles World Affairs Council event Wednesday at which Rwandan president Paul Kagame spoke.
Because they were not able to meet him...
Every day at work in the Didax House, a green building at the edge of campus near Upper St. Michael’s parking lot, Web Manager Lillian Contreras sits in front of two monitors writing code for the school’s...
Community Council organized service-related activities for every day of the week from Dec. 9 to 13, bringing back last year's character motto, former President Thomas C. Hudnut's saying, "Do Well and Do...
An Oscar-nominated film that chronicles the heroic actions of Thursday’s assembly speaker during the 1994 Rwandan Genocide will be screened Monday, Nov. 4 at 3:20 p.m. in Ahmanson Lecture Hall.
Upper...
Sally Ride ’68, the first American woman and youngest American to travel to space, will be posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest honor the U.S. bestows on civilians.
She...
They started out nervous. Eitan Sneider’s ’17 father had signed him, his cousin Daniel Sneider ’16 and another cousin up for three and a half weeks at a Shaolin school of Kung Fu in Yantai, Shandong,...
The Girls Learn International club posted flyers and held a bake sale May 24, promoting awareness about rape culture and raising $855.
The money from the bake sale will pay for tuition, uniforms, supplies...
This was my first time out of the country without my parents, and my first time in Southeast Asia. I had been to Mexico to do charity work, but then I could run to my mother whenever something different...
Five members of the Girls Learn International Club will take a trip the first week of March to the United Nations Council on the Status of Women held every Women’s History Month in New York.
This will...
The English Department will offer two new, non-Advanced Placement courses next year for seniors, Shakespeare as a year-long course and Senior Practicum.
Senior Practicum "will be a literature-centered...
by Marcella Park
Alex Fleischman ’13 recently signed with the record label Bombeatz Music after sending in several demos of his own electronic creations and getting positive reviews.
Fleischman has been...
