While the festival was not a competition, each chorus was evaluated by two music professors: James H. Vail from the Thornton School of Music of USC and Iris S. Levine from Cal Poly.
    Northwood choral director Zach Halop found Vail and Levine’s critique helpful.

    “It’s good to hear constructive criticism from someone else’s point of view,” said Halop. “And they were right on the money.”
    According to Halop, the point of the festival wasn’t to compare the best or the worst choirs but instead to see which ones created real art and had literature that Northwood choruses could perform in the future.
    Both Halop and many Northwood singers, such as Chamber singer Adrienne Mikovari, found the festival both enjoyable and enlightening.
    “Singing with peers is fun,” said Mikovari. “[At the festival] we can share comments, see other choirs’ techniques and incorporate them into our own performances.”
    Most students agreed that the best part of the festival was, of course, the music.
    “It was a great experience,” said sophomore Daniel Chae, a Bass Clef singer. “There aren’t many people who cherish art, and when we all just come together with our unique mindsets, the outcome is amazing.”

The tasks for Campus Beautification were weeding planters in the front parking lot and near the upper and lower quads, filling buckets with mulch and spreading it over the planters, cleaning windows, planting flowers and landscaping by the 900 building. Many students brought their own garden gloves and shovels to help with the process. The main faculty organizers for this event were Assistant Principal Matt Pate, science teacher Matt Brown and Activities Director Sandy Banks.

“[Planning the event] was a joint effort,” said Pate. “ [Student Forum president] Rianne Campbell got Student Forum involved, and Mr. Banks, Mr. Brown and I determined what would be done.”

Campus Beautification Day provided students an opportunity to come together and improve the condition of their school. According to Pate, both this and last year’s Campus Beautification Days have helped make the school look significantly cleaner and better landscaped. Although students felt that the event offered a good opportunity to contribute to the school, many were tired by the heat as well as the hard gardening work the event entailed.

“These were some of the longest three hours of my life,” said junior Tina Kim, “but they were for a good cause.”

Northwood’s Key Club and CSF rewarded participating students with community service hours and points, respectively. AP Environmental Science classes earned field hours. Overall, students and faculty alike felt that Campus Beautification was both fun and productive.

“We got a lot done in merely three hours,” said Pate.

    The first home league meet is on March 23 against Woodbridge and will be an important meet for the girls, while the meet against El Toro on March 30 is anticipated to be a big one for the boys.

    This year, both teams have a combination of returning talent and strong new swimmers that will hopefully lead to league titles. On the girls team, senior Morgan Sprosty, with her strength in the butterfly, backstroke and sprint free-races, and junior Katie Polich, who excels in sprint free-races and butterfly, are expected to lead the team.

    On the Boys team, seniors Parker Simmons, a strong sprinter, and Kyle Kim-E, strong in both sprint free-races and butterfly, are returning for another exciting season.

    Freshmen Andrew Arakaki, Edlan Wang and Michael Chang are a few of the team’s new swimmers who are expected to be a huge asset to the team.

    The team has been practicing since mid-February and has had one time-trial meet so far.

Of the 15 events, Northwood placed 1^st in four – Dynamic Planet, Ecology, Ornithology and Physics Lab – and medaled in the top six in all but five events.

The top six teams at Regionals advance to the Southern California State Competition which will be held on April 10 at Cabrillo High School. Two other IUSD High Schools made the cut: Irvine High in 4^th place and University High in 6^th.

The overall ranking of a school was determined by the sum of its students’ rankings in each event – the lower the sum, the higher the rank.

With 27 fewer points than Northwood, Troy High School won the Regional Competition. As the winner of seven of the last 14 National Science Olympiad competitions, Troy has been Northwood’s long-time rival. Although both have excellent teams, Northwood has never been able to advance to the national competition because only the 1^st place winner at the State Competition qualifies, and Troy has won at State for the past 14 years.

This year, Northwood hopes to finally defeat Troy and advance to nationals. The team’s hopes are high as this is the first year that the students have had coaches for individual events.

With only a few weeks left before State, the team will be studying hard both individually and at their six-to-eight-hour weekend meetings.

So if you see a stressed-out Science Olympian buried in books in the coming weeks, be sure to wish him or her good luck against Troy at State!

The end of this show was more emotional than most, as this was drama teacher Blake Gould’s last musical at Northwood because he is retiring this year.

“We are all just so thankful to him for all he’s done for us and all he’s taught us. Those of us who aren’t [graduating] know that all the shows and drama classes next year will never be the same without him,” said stage manager Natasha Karamally.

On closing night the cast, crew and orchestra took their usual tradition of getting all the directors gifts to the next level for Mr. Gould by getting him an extra-large gift basket and, after the cast took their bows, joining him on stage in an emotional group hug.

“We were all on stage for 15 or 20 minutes crying and hugging each other. I think the audience must’ve been making fun of us by the end,” said Karamally.

The play premiered with a preview night on Feb. 23, and was performed Feb. 24 – 27, including two matinee showings for Canyon View and Brywood Elementary students on Friday, Feb. 26. The kids enjoyed the show.

“At the end [of the show] this little boy came up to me and said, ‘Can I meet the blue fairy? I’m in love with her,’” said Karamally. “It was the cutest thing.”

After so much time, effort and fun, the end of the play was bittersweet for everyone involved in the production.

“While it was a great run, we were all sad to see it end and to realize that we would never see or hear ‘Toys’ or ‘Satisfaction Guaranteed’ again,” said Karamally.

Northwood’s choruses will be performing their spring concerts on Tuesday, March 23. Among the songs performed by the six choruses will be the Chamber Singers’ “All That Hath Life and Breath,” featuring soloist junior Duke Kim, and “Good News”, an African spiritual featuring four soloists: seniors Andrew Kim and Anupama Tadanki and juniors Jojo Nakano and Dian Qi.

“What’s really great about the Spring Concerts is that [it's the time of year] when [all] the choirs, especially Treble Clef and Bass Clef, show off just how much they’ve been working,” said junior Sara Clayton, a member of Chamber Singers. “Their sound is totally different from their sound when they performed at the fall concert.”

Northwood’s bands and orchestras will also be busy with performances including, but not limited to, spring festivals. Each group will be performing during March, some groups multiple times. On March 10, guest clinician Dan St. Marseille visited Northwood’s Jazz I, II and III bands to listen to their set of pieces and give them advice and instruction to improve their technique.

“The clinician has been a professional jazz saxophonist for his entire career,” said Erik Emery, associate director of music at Northwood. “He has recorded five different albums.”

Guest clinicians at Northwood in the past have included musicians working for American Idol and professional musicians from Disneyland. Each visit is a great learning experience because clinicians have brought their own instruments along to model techniques for the bands and demonstrate what a piece should ultimately sound like. The jazz bands will be performing the same songs for the clinician that they will perform for the Irvine Jazz Festival next Saturday, March 20 at Irvine High.

“It’s really motivating and inspiring,” said Emery.

In addition, Ben Case, the director of all bands at Northwood and Philharmonic Orchestra, will be conducting Wind Symphony on Friday, March 19 for his Graduate Recital . This performance is one of the last parts of his Masters’ Degree in Instrumental Conducting and consists of three professional-level pieces.

“The scope and difficulty of this concert is unlike anything we have done before,” said Case.

Watch out for the IUSD Instrumental Band Festival at Northwood on March 17 and 18 and Orchestra Festival at University High on March 24 and 25 as well! Stay tuned for more updates on Northwood’s hardworking and talented musicians.

These students flew to Northern California early Friday morning and prepared themselves for a vigorous weekend full of debates and diplomacy.

Students participated in various committees such as the Social, Cultural and Humanitarian committee and the Disarmament and International Security committee. With over 100 schools competing and 1,500 students present, the results for Northwood were beyond expectations.

“This conference is very competitive,” said adviser Vadim Rubin. “It’s the most prestigious conference on the West Coast – and the oldest, too. We had very well-prepared students, but it’s not easy to stand out.”

After over 10 hours of committee, seniors Kristine Lee and president Kevin Kim were awarded with the honor of Best Delegation in the Social, Cultural and Humanitarian committee.

“The competition was incredibly intense,” and Kim. “I’m still surprised that we won. It’s important to keep things in perspective though. It’s nice to get recognition for your hard work, but the most important thing is not to sacrifice the quality of your research and resolutions just to try to win. There’s no point in getting an award if your resolution would make absolutely no sense in the real world.”

Lee adds, “One of my favorite things was being able to mingle and engage discussions with a lot of charismatic student-delegates in our committee. As nerdy as this sounds, it was really exciting for me to take part in this mock-diplomacy experience. Also, in retrospect, I think that the frustrations of having to strike a balance between being flexible and firm with my views, especially in negotiating with people who have completely different thought processes, really broadened the scope of my views.”

Though both Kim and Lee had great success in competition, both reveal that their favorite part of the weekend did not take place in committee.

“Hanging out with a lot of people and getting to know my fellow Northwood delegates was definitely the highlight of the trip. Clubs like M.U.N. don’t just help you learn more about the world, but they give you so many opportunities to meet great people,” Kim said.

Lee agrees.

“[I enjoyed] spending time with my favorite M.U.N.-ers, trying new foods and exploring the oh-so-beautiful ghettos of Berkeley,” said Lee.

From March 8 to March 12, Amnesty International will be hosting a campaign called Demand Dignity to bring awareness of and try and alleviate poverty and other major problems. As a club, Amnesty is focusing on how students can use their buying power to demand dignity by choosing to buy eco-friendly or fair-trade products.

“Fair-trade creates a relationship between buyer and producer such that people learn the skills necessary to live a sustainable life. Buying eco-friendly and fair-trade is about making a life choice and seeking alternative options. It’s easy once you make it your mindset,” said Amnesty club president Lemiece Zarka, a senior.

Amnesty is petitioning to change the policies of two companies in particular: Shell Oil and Fiji Water. Shell Oil mines oil from the Niger Delta, destroying the land and preventing people from living on it. Fiji Water holds a monopoly on the water it bottles, which means nearby towns are unable to have access to clean water.

Throughout the week, Amnesty will campaign around the Oak Tree, passing out purple bracelets and Demand Dignity stickers. The club has also written chalk messages on the ground around the Oak Tree to bring attention to their campaign.

Participants are eligible to enter in a raffle if they sign the petitions against Fiji Water and Shell Oil. Winners, who will receive eco-friendly prizes, will be announced on Friday on N.T.V.