Middle College. Let's recap what just happened... Learn More

UPCOMING EVENTS AT MIDDLE COLLEGE Don't forget to mark your calendars! November 11 Veterans Day Holiday - No CSM or MC classes November 19 MC GSA representatives will be attending the SMCOE Youth Advocacy and Social Summit November 20 MC Effect Club will be hosting a movie screening at 6:30 pm in building 10 rm 195 November 27-29 Thanksgiving Break - No CSM or MC classes November 30 UC and CSU Apps due December 6 MC Effect Club will be attending the Burlingame Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony December 7 MC GSA representatives will be attending the Youth Empowerment Summit December 10-16 CSM Finals December 17-18 Middle College Finals January 9 & 10 MC Spring Semester begins with our Spring Orientation

STUDENT POLL

Middle College students took a poll at the beginning of the year. Check to see how you stack up with the rest of your classmates (the drink majority surprised us too!).

The Poll

MEET THE MC COOKIE BOX!

One of the best parts of our Middle College newsletter meetings is our famous Cookie Box! MC voted that chocolate chip cookies are the best cookies (Newsletter heavily disagrees....Snickerdoodles are obviously the best!). Check out @the_cookiebox on Instagram to stay updated on our weekly cookies.

FALL ORIENTATION

For the first few days of school, Middle College juniors and seniors got together for the very first time. By playing icebreakers and other fun games, the Middle College class of 2020 was established. Check out some of the post-its to see why we chose Middle College!

MIDDLE COLLEGE COMMUNITY DAY

On October 9th, Middle College students got together to shake off their stress with their fellow classmates. We can thank Sunshine Club for putting on such a successful event. Check out the cool pumpkins we made and Mr. Letke getting into the musical chairs action!

DIALOGUE THROUGH FILM

This year, the Middle College community got together to watch and discuss Cowspiracy, a documentary about the meat industry and sustainability. The event was lead by the Environmental Club, which you can read more about in our Club Highlight section below.

HALLOWEEN FAIR

Every year, Mi ddle College holds a Halloween fair for the day care on campus. This year, students painted pumpkins, read books, and played games with the preschoolers. A big thanks to Angelina McAllister and Alan Vongsavanh for organizing it!

ROLLING LOUD

We attend events together outside of school, too! One of our reporters was on the scene of 2019's largest rap festival, Rolling Loud.

Rolling Loud has become one of the most well-known music festivals. Although it started in Miami, Florida, it has expanded globally. Rolling Loud has been hosted in the Bay Area, Los Angeles, and New York. Due to the large success, Rolling Loud has plans to organize many more music festivals internationally, especially in places like China, Europe, and Japan. People travel everywhere to come see their favorite artists perform. Some of the most well-known headliners include Future, A$AP Rocky, Travis Scott, Lil Uzi Vert, 21 Savage, J.Cole, Migos, Kendrick Lamar, and many more. Reported by Katlyn Tran This year was my second time going to Rolling Loud and it was an experience I would never forget. Getting to watch my favorite artists perform and be with my friends at the same time made the festival memorable.

CLUB HIGHLIGHTS

Sunshine Club Sunshine Club is Middle College’s stress ball. Spending hours of advisory time to plan events for the rest of the students is our game, and we happen to be excellent at it. With Mr. Lien and Mr. Letke moderating the discussion (and sometimes Ms. Rohrbach making a cameo), our productivity is off the charts, creating comprehensive plans to completely expel stress and anxiety from the student body, using fun and games as our instruments.  Sunshine Club meets: Days: Tuesdays Time: 11am - 12n Bldg. 12 Rm. 221

If you have any interest in environmental activism, please join us: Days: Tuesdays Time: 11am - 12pm Bldg. 12 Rm. 220 Environmental Club Environmental Club unifies Middle College students interested in creating a healthier relationship with the environment in the intent to promote environmental preservation and rehabilitation. We engage in a number of activities, ranging from student strikes to environmental youth leadership summits to dialogue through environmental documentaries. As we speak and act up for our values, we also reinforce the importance of community bonding, motivating all members to be participative in conversations and events. We offer a number of opportunities for volunteering and leadership.

Middle College Effect The Middle College Effect seeks to learn about effective means of addressing poverty, particularly through the empowerment of women, while raising money to fund microloans and business education for women in Guatemala through Namaste Direct. A microloan is a small, low-interest loan that requires no traditional collateral. Throughout the year our club plans events to raise money for these microloans and an annual trip to Guatemala to learn more about the impact of Namaste Direct on families living in poverty. This year we are planning a movie screening and raffle in November, as well as a table at the Burlingame Christmas Tree Lighting in December. We are partnering with Rotary International through a Global Grant in which the funds we raise will be matched. We welcome newcomers! Days: Fridays Time: 11am - 12pm Bldg. 19 Rm. 105

Gender & Sexuality Alliance Gender & Sexuality Alliance is an organization on campus whose purpose is to make our school and our greater community a more comfortable environment for the LGBTQ+ community. We’ve been working to connect with the local pride center in order to offer our services, as well as trying connect with other clubs to help our community beyond GSA. All are welcome, and we encourage new members - even if you just want to drop in once.  GSA meets: Days: Wednesdays Time: 2pm - 3pm Bldg. 12 Rm. 221

STUDENT HIGHLIGHTS

Antonio Cruz Hi, my name is Antonio Cruz and I am a musician here at Middle College. For me, I find that my passion in life is listening to, playing, and creating music; metal for the most part. A song that me and my buddy Xavier wrote a long time ago, which I want to discuss is a song called Stargazer. This song to me entails a wild adventure where a boy breaks out of a cycle of depression that had been building in his head, he grabs his guitar and goes searching in the night under the stars for new meaning in his life. The cool thing about this piece is the way that it is structured, it has many moments where it will build and build just to the point where you think that is the climax of the song, but then suddenly the piece will quiet down again to a calm clean guitar riff. This sort of represents the highs and lows of this boy's adventure, he gets close to finding what he is looking for, but can't quite get there. Towards the end of this 15-minute song the climax finally takes place and what this represents in the story is the boy realizing that he knew what his purpose in life was all along. His purpose was to play that guitar on his back that he had been carrying all that way along the adventure had embarked on.  Here is a link to the song: www.dropbox.com/s/z54puco7tjuepcv/Stargazer%20Edit%202%20Export%202. mp3?dl=0

Jared Lipka “The title track on Ozric Tentacles' studio album, "Spirals in Hyperspace" is sure to captivate anyone who listens. The adventure of a song is perfectly embodied by the title of the piece; between the bass synthesizer laying down a groovy ostinato in alternating time signatures and the live drums accentuating the high pitched keyboard solo throughout the 10 minute epic, the composition cascades through a barrage of different moods and subgenera, making it appealing to any potential listeners.” P.S: Jared really liked the angle on this photo

Nautalie Hemmat "I play basketball because I find true joy and meaning in playing. With the flexibility of Middle College, I have been able to attend all of my practices, tournaments, and games outside of school. I love being able to still play sports, while I am here at Middle College because I carry an identity at my home school still. My team is very competitive, and we are all very close, which is why I enjoy playing as much as I do." Nautalie plays on the Aragon basketball team. Congratulations on such a successful past year!

TEACHER HIGHLIGHT

Mr. Jim Burke

This year, we welcomed multiple new teachers to the Middle College Community. Here is an interview, done by Rebecca Lee, with one of our new teachers! Who are you/what’s your name? Hi, my name is Jim Burke. How long have you been teaching? Many years, if I added up 34 years in total, I started as a special ed teacher, but I’ve been teaching English for 31 years. What is your homeschool? My homeschool was Burlingame High and I was there for 28 years. What is your favorite part of Middle College so far? Teaching in general? My favorite part is the kids I get to work with, or the way I get to work. I feel like I’m not just an English teacher. I get to play a lot of different roles with the kids, which is really satisfying. What do you like to do in your free time? Hobbies, other activities? In my free time, I mostly write books. I published 30 books so far. I like to be efficient.  Is there anything you want MC to know about you? Fun facts? I was not a successful student in high school. I went to a 2 year college in Sacramento and then in Santa Barbara. We just have to take responsibility for making it happen for ourselves and finding the right place to find that. The 2 year college is a place where people’s lives can change in great ways.

LET'S GET SERIOUS THOUGH

What’s up with the “Lungs of our Planet”? An opinion on the region’s “hot” topic By Jay Gupta Fire. Humankind has been its biggest beneficiary since the dawn of times: it provided us with heat, a place to cook, etc. But what happens when it burns down our own ecosystems, such as our rainforests? That is exactly what is going on in the Amazon, for the past few decades. However, it has recently been getting a lot of media attention, due to the report by the Brazilian National Institute for Space Research which found that since the beginning of 2019, “72,843 fires occurred in Brazil, with more than half of these being seen in the Amazon region” (Scutti). In essence, there has been a sharp increase in deforestation, compared to earlier years. The reason for this sharp increase can be attributed to none other than - you guessed it - human activity. Farmers and cattle ranchers commonly use an ancient technique known as “slash-and-burn” agriculture, and as the name suggests, trees are cut down and burned prior to the start of a rainy season. The motive behind this is it leaves a “nutrient-rich layer of ash on the ground that provides fertilizer for crops” (Moyler).  Although these practices have occurred for many years, the particular increase in recent months can be attributed to the current Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro. He ran on a far-right campaign, essentially advocating for the commercialization of the Amazon rainforest. As a result, groups that were once condemned by environmental agencies and organizations have been emboldened to commit mass deforestation, without the threat of push-back.  Before one dismisses Bolsonaro as another corrupt, radical right-winger, we must look at the issue from his perspective. Brazil is a 3rd world country, with a 13.6% unemployment rate, and a significant portion of the population living at or near the poverty line. Therefore, tapping into the many natural resources offered by the Amazon rainforest doesn’t seem like such a corrupt idea, especially when you consider that 1st world countries such as France, Germany, and the US who have each profited off of their own environments for public gain criticize him for wanting to do the same.  What should be done then? On one hand, we have a rainforest which produces 20% of Earth’s oxygen, 1 in 10 of all animal species are exclusive to it, and not to mention 30 million indigenous people call it home. On the other hand, we have a country which is desperately in need of jobs, and a foothold in order to fill the role of being a South American leader - which sets an example for other countries in the region.  If a solution can show that “the conservation of land can be both economically profitable and environmentally valuable” (Harris), it has a good chance of being the solution that fixes this world crises. Technology, specifically data manipulation, does just this. For example, Mr. Castilla-Rubio, a biochemist who assembled a team ranging from AI researchers to biodiversity scientists, had the idea of using satellites to identify weeds, and use drones to eliminate them systematically. This in turn would only require “one 30th the input of herbicides” meaning only 1/30th of the crop would be polluted.  We mustn’t throw money at the issue; this leads to corruption and almost nothing gets resolved. Instead, we should use the money to invest in technologies to help preserve the rainforest, and to learn from it - 0.28% of complex life has been studied on Earth, and that has led to the creation of industries such as pharmaceuticals and fuels - multi-billion dollar industries (Harris). If 100% of the Amazon rainforest and other global environments could be studied, we would have a wide array of opportunities for every single person. S ources:  Harris, Bryan. “Brazil: Can Technology Help Save the Amazon?” Financial Times , Financial Times, 11 Sept. 2019, www.ft.com/content/16d3dd1a-cf36-11e9-99a4-b5ded7a7fe3f Moyler, Hunter. “Is the Amazon Rainforest Still on Fire?” Newsweek , Newsweek, 3 Oct. 2019, www.newsweek.com/amazon-rainforest-still-fire-number-blazes-dropped-september-2019-total-still-record-high-1462939 Scutti, Susan. “Here's What We Know about the Fires in the Amazon Rainforest.” CNN , Cable News Network, 24 Aug. 2019, www.cnn.com/2019/08/23/americas/amazon-wildfires-411/index.html.

WORLD SERIES PREDICTIONS

DISCLAIMER: I wrote this a week before this publication, the Nationals won in a historic game 7. Houston did not win a single home game. I'm a clown. Well, it’s officially the greatest time of the year in Major League Baseball: the World Series. This year, history has been made. The Washington Nationals have won their first pennant in franchise history, the Houston Astros have took down the behemoth that is the New York Yankees in walkoff fashion, and Bryce Harper is sitting on his couch regretting all his life decisions that led to signing with the Philadelphia Phillies. On a more serious note, this year is filled with great lineups and strong rotations on both sides. The Nationals seek to ride off the power arms of Max Scherzer and Stephen Strasburg in the starting rotation along with Patrick Corbin (Harper’s pitching replacement essentially…) and a strong bullpen with Fernando Rodney, Anibal Sanchez, and Sean Doolittle, all of which have ample postseason experience. Despite having a strong rotation and a wall for a third baseman (Anthony Rendon), the series will come down to who can outmatch the other with the bats. Right now, the ‘Stros have, in my mind, three potential American League MVPs at the top of their order who play clean, powerful baseball. Jose Altuve and his godly power (the guy’s a freak, he’s 5’6 and can hit balls 450 ft+ consistently. Don’t ask me how) coupled with strong arms/bats in Carlos Correa, George Springer, and Alex Bregman make their starting nine an absolute dream. On the bump, Justin Verlander and Gerrit Cole provide the firepower needed to suppress the Nats. Prediction: ‘Stros in 6.  Credit: Patrick Norton

'Til Next Time :)

Questions, comments, or concerns? Contact us at smuhsd.mc.newsletter@gmail.com