PegasusMonthly

The Rancho Solano Preparatory School Student Newspaper Volume II, Edition VI

February 2019

Editor-In-ChiefIsabella Rose

Assistant Editor-In-Chief Myra Kamal

Serenading Through February!By: Ryan Christianson

“Nothing brings me more hap-piness than watching the smiles on the student’s faces as I sing to them.” -Olivia Brydon.

The Valentine’s Day serenades are an annual Rancho tradition now, originally conjured up by the Upper School and Middle School Choir teacher, Mr. Zale. The goal of the project is to earn money for the school, while also creating a fun and creative way to show your love or friendship towards other stu-dents or teachers. The choir class first received names and a choice of song from students wishing to honor a special person. Next, the choir class practiced the song, and, when the time was right, they hunted down the lucky receiver and serenaded them! I had the opportunity to follow the choir on the last day of Valentine’s week, when the race was on to serenade the remainder of the many requests.

Sean Ryan was not expecting what was to come next. As they wrapped heart-shaped lights around him and sang “Stand By Me”. Afterwards he said, “I was very surprised, I was just

going to talk to Mrs. McCarty about my poem when they started singing.” Sean Ryan was one of the many

participants as the choir went around during clubs to deliver ser-enades, and, according to most re-ceivers, they not expecting it at all! During the last day of clubs, they gave them out to Mr. Garbari-no, Sean Ryan, Sophia Linkous, and of course, no list would be complete without Mrs. McCarty. One student even said, “It’s cool to see that someone cares about you.”

Mr. Garbarino was not expecting to receive a serenade! Photo by Ryan Christianson

The choir students were dedicated and even made a trip to the gym in the freezing rain, yet they persist-ed through the cold and delivered their song in a timely manner. Their target: Mr. Garbarino. He was on top of the bleachers, watching his team sports club play in the gym….when from nowhere, the choir came to surprise him. “It was a surprise, but a beautiful one!” Mrs. McCarty said. She was the grand finale of the serenades, as the choir concluded the race to deliver some heartfelt wishes on time.

Sean Ryan was excited to receive a serenade! Photo by Ryan Chris-tianson

Choir poses with Mrs. McCarty after bringing tears to her eyes with a serenade. Photo by Ryan Christianson

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Editor-in-Chief Isabella RoseAssistant Editor-in-Chief Myra Kamal Editorial Staff Diallah Athari Jena Vandenberg Amelie Clark Yuna Shprecher Kylie Smith Michael DeBarros Sejal Patel Gabe German Niels Hertel Ryan Christianson Brandon White Advisor Pamela McCarty

Rancho Solano Preparatory School 9180 East Vía de Ventura, Scottsdale, AZ 85258

Pegasus@ranchosolano.com

Pegasus Monthly Editorial Staff

Lifestyles: Energy Drinks—What’s the Deal?By: Kylie Smith

Rafaella Rocha Correia willingly admits to her caf-feine dependency. Photo by Kylie SmithAs students, we wake up at 6:30 am every day just to get to school on time. Pair that with hours of home-work and major procrastination, we don’t get that much sleep. Naturally, we turn to any source to get energy. The easiest option? Energy drinks. From black coffee to your fruitiest, most lavish Starbucks or Dutch Brothers drink, lots of us have de-veloped a caffeine dependency. “At times, I will have to stay up until 3 am to get things done. The day

after nights like that I’ll need 2 or 3 energy drinks to keep me awake” said junior Rafaella Rocha Correia. Energy drinks may seem like the holy grail of late nights, but the side effects greatly outweigh the benefits. Being a person who enjoys energy drinks as much as the next person, after

some research, it seems that lim-iting my consumption is the only healthy option.

An excessive amount of caffeine can cause many side effects. One is caffeine overdose, which causes nausea, vomiting, heart palpita-tions, and, in extreme cases, death. It can even increase your chances of developing type two diabetes, since

caffeine reduces insulin produc-tivity. Roland Griffiths, a caffeine specialist at Johns Hopkins Univer-sity, stated that “High caffeine use by young people can cause a cycle of rushes and crashes that can add a degree of variance to their moods and psychological well-being that they don’t really need,” alongside just the physical side effects. When asked how caffeine affects his mood, Josh Folz replied, “It makes me feel whole again, I feel awak-ened.”

Although the rush of caffeine is amazing, there are many unwanted side effects to take into consider-ation. Cutting energy drinks out completely is a difficult task that many may not wish to undertake, myself included. Instead of trying to completely change the way you keep your head up through the day, you can simply limit your caffeine consumption to 100 milligrams per day at most, the recommended amount for teens, by reading the labels and doing research on your favorite energy drink.

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That’s A Wrap on Basketball!By: Diallah Athari

Junior Varsity Boys Basketball Team photo. Varsity Boys Basketball Team photo. After a long and successful season, the varsity boys basketball team was given the opportunity to play in Prescott during this year’s state championship playoff games. After an extremely long first playoff game, resulting in triple over time, we were able to advance forward and play our second playoff game in Prescott. The team worked hard and tirelessly to get to the coveted position at the end.

Luci Roberts, team manager, said, “Seeing the boys practice and put such dedication into their playing has really shown me what it means to be a team. I am very happy that I chose to take on the position of manager; it really allowed me to get closer to each of the boys and learn about what it takes to succeed.” Our varsity team truly exceeded our ex-pectations this year. Brandon White said, “Being on this team is very important to me, I am so happy that I was able to participate in this sport and I am very happy that I get to continue playing for my school in the future.” Delano Gargiulo, the team’s only senior, said, “I am very proud of the team this year, I am really glad that I got to spend my senior year with these boys. Al-though I am sad to be leaving soon, I know the team will go on to do great things in upcoming years.”

Just as our varsity team pushed limits, our junior varsity team impressed us equally. Junior varsity

team member, Wyatt Hammond, says “Our team is honestly all I could have wanted it to be. Coming to practice and being around this team provides a much needed escape. I am really glad I got to play this season!” Although we are sad to be wrapping up the season so soon, we are ecstatic that we were able to witness an amaz-ing series of competitions. We are very proud of the

dedication put in by all of our players and extremely grateful for the work put in by Coach Trigg. We hope that we are able to witness many amazing seasons like this in the fu-ture. As a school we are very impressed by the dedication put in by everyone involved in

this sport and we are very proud that we can call ourselves Rancho Mustangs.

Creed Williamson (fresh-man) wins tip off for the Mustangs!

Tyson Legner (junior) makes his lay up.

Kiimani Holt (junior) dunks on Santa Cruz Valley.

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Inaugural Tri-M Music for Change GalaBy: Yuna Schprecher & Jena Vandenberg

On January 31st, Tri-M—Rancho Solano’s first ever National Music Honor Society—hosted the first annual Music for Change Gala. During this fundraising event, there were musical performances—rang-ing all the way from the ukulele to singing, poem recitation and a silent auction. All the proceeds from our silent auction were donat-ed to our charity of choice, Rosie’s House. Rosie’s House is an Arizona based non-profit that provides mu-sical opportunities for underprivi-leged children in the valley. Rosie’s House: A Music Academy for Children is “Committed to playing a pivotal role in a child’s future and strengthening our community. At Rosie’s House, a free music acade-my for children in inner-city Phoe-nix, we believe music education is a catalyst for changing the life of a child.” Tri-M’s main goals are to “perform, lead, and serve.” They are primarily focused on harnessing the unique power of music in order to give back to the community. Because of these goals, it is fitting that we hosted such an event. Janu-ary is also the month which Tri-M dedicates primarily to community service, as Martin Luther King Jr. Day is on the 21st of January.

Our silent auction items included a variety of valuable items: Coyote’s

tickets, Diamondbacks tickets, a signed hockey puck, a gift basket for the Arabian Horse Show, and an exclusive Spa resort package. In total, from the auction and indi-vidual donations, our organiza-tion raised over $2,000 for Rosie’s House. When asked about how it felt to give back so much to the com-munity, freshman Olivia Yusupov said, “It was a really great experi-ence. Although the planning was difficult work, it was all worth it when I saw the result.” She add-

ed, “The title ‘Music for Change’ really is true, by coming together and sharing our passion for music, we helped transform the lives of others.” Olivia Yusupov was one of the dancers who performed origi-nal choreography to a spoken word piece titled “Guidelines”, by Amelie Clark, with original cello compo-sition written by Jen Vandenberg. Amelie said, “The melding of dance, poetry, and music was a re-ally cool thing to witness, especially since it was my own piece.” Along with Olivia’s dance, sophomore Stella Dillard performed her own choreography to Yuna Shprecher’s spoken word and original piano composition entitled “Fifteen,” a performance which Amelie called “really beautiful.” Other amazing elements of the night’s program included a singing and ukulele duet by Tay-lor

Guerrero and Layla Alalawi, a pia-no and vocal performance by Olivia Brydon, and a Korean song per-formed by Wendy Zheng, Michelle Cai, and Christina Li.

The gala also included perfor-mances from our very own Rancho teachers. Mr. Costello, our physics teacher, performed a Bach piece along with the iconic “Bohemi-an Rhapsody” on electric guitar. Dylan, a fellow classmate said, “the performance was extraordinary. I had no idea that Mr. Costello had so much talent.” Mrs. McCarty re-cited a Shakespeare sonnet, and Mr. Blair, the Lower School band teach-er, performed two of his own piec-es. This event not only displayed the talent of Rancho’s teachers, but allowed for students and parents to see the faculty in a different light.

Our Music for Change Gala wouldn’t have been possible if not for our amazing sponsor, Arizona Brain and Spine Center. With their generous contributions, we were able to have a great evening. Along with them and the help of our ad-visor, Mr. Zale, and supporter Mr. Garbarino, the event was a hit!

Olivia Brydon sings a beautiful cov-er of a song! Photo by Mr. Zale

Stella Dillard dances to Yu-na’s original spoken word poem and music composi-tion. Photo by Mr. Zale

Olivia Yusupov dances to Amelie’s original spoken word poem. Photo by Mr. Zale

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Beeyond Amazing Results at the Spelling Bee!By: Myra Kamal

International Perspective on Valentine’s DayBy: Yuna Schprecher

To us, in America, Valentine’s Day is traditionally a day on which we exchange candy, chocolate-cov-ered strawberries, professions of love—maybe even give a teddy bear to that special someone in our life. Though it has primarily been a holiday for couples, for most of its existence, nowadays in the U.S., it has taken on a new mean-ing between those who are simply friends and want to celebrate such a sacred relationship. The practices of Valentine’s Day, however, vary depending on the country you may find yourself in.

For example, in China, Valentine’s Day isn’t even that big of a deal, other than for “younger couples,” as Wendy Zheng, a Rancho junior, puts it. Since China follows the lunar calendar, it makes sense that they may celebrate love on a dif-ferent day, too. On July 7th, people celebrate what Wendy describes as “a Chinese kind of Valentine’s.” However, she notes, though older

generations celebrate love on this summer day, more and more young adults are choosing to do so on February 14th, as people around the world grow more interconnected. Just as in China, Valentine’s Day is not very commonly celebrated in South Korea. Such a holiday, soph-omore Jihye Lee explains, is often reserved for couples. She notes, however, that “Some children give chocolate to their parents.” Across the globe in Spain, Guillermo De Fernando, a senior at Rancho, explains that in his country, “Val-entine’s Day is mostly celebrated between couples,” and that usually, “lovers gift each other red roses.” He adds, however, that “Occasion-ally, you give white roses to friends and family.” In Japan, Valentine’s Day takes on a new meaning. Instead of exchanging gifts be-tween one another, Japanese junior Manami Kaneko explains, “Wom-en present chocolate to men… most girls make these sweets by hand and give them to boyfriends,

friends, family, and teachers.” However, this holiday is not just for established couples, but for wom-en who have taken an interest in another person, and would like to express their interest with a gift. Ex-actly a month later on March 14th, known as “White Day,” the person the girl gave a gift to has the choice to either give one in return if they like them as well and want to be a couple, or to not give anything at all, and in so doing, tells the girl that they do not feel the same way. Manami also notes, “A lot of my friends say that boys should be the ones who give presents to women” in the first place!

Though Valentine’s Day may be celebrated differently around the world, the sentiment is the same: it is a day on which we can express our love and appreciation for the ones we care about, and feel loved as well, which is a great practice no matter the country in which you may live!

Jonaki Bose won the full MS Spelling Bee! Photo by Ms. GoetheThe Scripps National Spelling Bee is an annual spelling contest held in

the United States. Although most of the participants are from the U.S., students from countries such as The Bahamas, Canada, China, India, Ghana, Japan, Jamaica, Mexico, and New Zealand have also competed in recent years. There are multiple levels one must pass to reach the national level and Rancho held its own school spelling bee on January 30st.

MS Principal Goethe told me, “I love the spelling bee because you can see the amount of effort students put into it.” Many stu-dents from 6th through 8th grade participated in this event. The two finalists ended up being Nadia

Kazi and Jonaki Bose, going back and forth for many rounds. Jona-ki took first place by spelling the word garbanzo correctly. I inter-viewed Jonaki about how she felt during the competition and she told me, “I felt really nervous but very excited!” This is Janaki’s third time winning the spelling bee, and since the Bee is one of her passions, she spent weeks studying for the event! Furthermore, I asked her to share a few tips for students in the future to study for the Bee. Jonaki shared with me, “One thing that really helps is knowing the origins and roots of the words from around the world so you can recognize the word patterns.” Jonaki also partici-pated in the Maricopa County Bee! Congratulations Jonaki, and to all the participants of the Spelling Bee!

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MS Spotlight on Run for Rehema!By: Myra Kamal

US Spotlight on Dhruv Khosla!By: Jena Vandenberg

Dhruv has been been in the Ran-cho orchestra since elementary school!

As the school year of 2018-19 comes to an end, we will sadly have to say goodbye to Dhruv Khosla. Dhruv started his chapter at Ran-cho in 1st grade at the Rancho Gilbert campus. While being the senior class president, a member of NHS, Mu Alpha Theta, STU-GO, the tennis and chess team, he is also an avid classical musician. Many people might not know this, but prior to his IB commitments, Dhruv was a member of Rancho’s chamber orchestra. He played first violin (a difficult position to ob-tain) throughout his entire career. Outside of school, he is part of the Phoenix Youth Symphony.

Since most of us probably don’t know Dhruv that well, here are some fun facts about our presi-dent. To get a little more personal, I consulted his older brother Karan –another Rancho alumnus who is currently attending Georgia Tech—for a quote. “Dhruv has shown that his mind is tougher than any metaphorical walls he runs into at school. If he doesn’t get it the first time, he’ll keep trying until he does. While Dhruv may not have an Ein-stein-level IQ, he consistently dis-plays the brilliance that comes from hard work. And most importantly, if you want Dhruv to do something for you, bribe him with the Persian Room’s Chicken Filet Sultani.”

His fellow classmate and vice president, Kylie Head, stated that her favorite memory was. “in 8th grade we were in the same Spanish group for Spanish skits. The pur-pose of the skits was to be creative and improvise a five-minute-long skit. But every time, we would put about 20 vocab words into only 6

sentences and the skit would only be 30 seconds! Dhruv is one of my closest friends and his sassiness always puts me in a better mood. I will miss you Dhruv!” Overall, Dhruv is one of the smart-est, most thoughtful people I have met. I am so thankful for the 12 years I have been able to spend with him. Dhruv, you are more than a friend, over the years you have truly become a brother to me—and to lots of others here at Rancho. You will be greatly missed!

Rancho Solano has partnered with a sister school in Kenya, Africa, to help pay for the construction of the Rehema Dorms so that the students will have a place to live when they go to school! This is an ongoing mission for Rancho as the goal to raise this money is $35,000! Though Rancho and our sister school lie on opposite ends of the Earth, we will make it a priority to maintain our connection with them. One way to work toward our mission’s goal is by attending the National Junior Honor Society Walk-a-thon on March 15th from 4 - 6:30 p.m. The event, called Run for Rehema, is a wonderful way to spend your evening, with food, entertainment, music, and a chari-table cause! As a school committed to global outreach, leadership and being a citizen of the world, the Run for Rehema embodies our school’s philosophy on every front.

We asked Mr. Kotila, who is one of the NJHS Supervisors, about the event and he told me, “The partner-ship between Rancho Solano and the Lewa Wildlife Conservatory is a great opportunity for our school and our students to help people in need. Our mission statementis “ we cultivate in our students the inge-nuity to thrive in a global society and to be architects of their future”, and this is a perfect opportunity for our students to do both!”

Rancho families from the Green-way and Ventura campuses are in-vited to attend. So please mark your calendars to help us build a large turnout. There will be many activ-ities to partake in such as Student Government’s Mustang Market! Emily Pessin is a part of the team organizing the Run for Rehema and is the Middle School student government president. I asked her

about her thoughts on the event and she told me “I look forward to the collaboration of STUGO and NJHS! It will be really fun!” Over-all, the Rehema project is a focus for Rancho and contributing to it by going to the run will make a dif-ference! We hope to see you there!

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Editorial: Polar Vortex Hits the U.SBy: Amelie Clark

The Polar Vortex has encompassed the entirety of the United States as depicted in the map.

On Friday the 22nd of February, many people in Arizona woke up to see snow in their backyard or on neighboring mountains— a sight very uncommon for the local Scott-sdale area. This, however, is not the only unusual weather that many have seen in the recent months. Just a little bit earlier, in the late weeks of January and early weeks of Feb-ruary, those living in the northern east coast states suffered extreme weather conditions that were the result of the rare extreme expansion polar vortex. Certain places, such as Chicago, Illinois, saw temperatures drop all the way to -27 degrees Fahrenheit, making it as cold as the Arctic. This is the coldest tempera-ture Chicago has ever recorded. Chicago has only reached -27 degrees one other time, which was in 1985. In addition to below zero temperatures, with the wind gusts places like Chicago felt like they were as cold as -52 degrees. While places who often experience snow experienced severe cold, places that never see snow, surprisingly saw snow! In addition to the rare snow in Scottsdale the week of the 18th, it also snowed in Los Angeles and Las Vegas. These are all places that rarely see snow, but saw snow that week for the first time in some people’s lifetimes. This unusual weather seems like obvious examples of climate change, and proof that we should be acting to make changes, yet

there has not been a com-mon consensus concerning the changes humans should make. While news stations have reported of the frigid weather, there has been little mention of how abnormal it is. In recent years, we have started to see winters that are extremely cold, with many summers that break records for heat. With all of these strange changes in the climate, have we started

normalizing these irregular weather conditions?

When I asked some Rancho stu-dents about their stance on climate change and the recent unusual weather, freshman Josh Folz said, “I believe in global warming as it seems very obvious, and there are many pieces of evidence, like polar bears dying.” I also asked him what his thoughts were on the govern-ment ignoring these issues, and he said, “I just think that it’s stupid to ignore an issue that’s obviously happening, so I don’t understand why certain people are saying it’s not happening.”

When I asked junior Shalabh Kapoor whether or not he believes in global warming and why, he responded, “We have the evidence, and there are graphs showing relations between C02 emissions that have spiked and resulted in the climate warming, and I feel that is evidence. I also believe in global warming because I once went to Stanford where they did a presen-tation on ocean acidification. I also watched Blue Planet where they describe how coral is being affected by a 2-degree change in the water, which seems pretty evident as proof of climate change. On top of that, the polar icecaps are melting. All over the world, there are examples of global warming, yet people are still ignorant on the topic.”I also asked junior Brandon White

what his views were on global warming. He said, “I believe that there is a crisis with pollution and emissions in our world, but I also believe that global warming as a whole is more just something the government tells us, that is not actually happening.” I then asked him how he can be-lieve that climate change does not exist when there are such extreme weather conditions. He respond-ed, “I mean, I feel like it’s nature, you can’t really put a limit on what nature will do, one day it can be sunny and the next day there can be a downpour, but it’s just nature. So I feel that the snow we recently got in Arizona is just nature, there are certain things that caused it to hap-pen, like changes with atmospheric pressures.”

Lastly, I asked junior Grace Berry why she thinks the issue of climate change is being ignored; she replied stating, “I think that people in high positions of governmental power sometimes choose to shy away from imminent issues, regardless of the apparent evidence, because they don’t know an obvious or easy solu-tion.” I asked her why she thought that with such atypical weather recently, why no one seems to think there is anything unusual about it: “I feel like climate change has been occuring for so long that it’s setting trends of normalcy, although it might be evident to some that these temperatures are extreme, others may view it as just an unusually cold winter.”

Overall, the recent weather oc-currences have left some people concerned, while others seem to not have any reaction to the ab-normal weather. Is the extreme record-breaking cold not enough proof for climate change? Or will people continue to ignore the prob-lem that is becoming more alarm-ingly obvious, and for how long?

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Diallah Athari

In a rough situation? Not sure what to do? Send your requests for advice to “Dear Diallah” by email atPegasus@ranchosolano.comDiallah will answer one to two ques-tions per month.

DEAR DIALLAH

It’s Time to Move On...

Pegasus MonthlyComic Strip Adventures of the Rancho Duck~

Rancho Duck has Struck Luck!By: Michael DeBarros

Dear Diallah,

I had a friendship with this girl. But I was infatuated with every detail of her, I mean it was hard not to be! So… when Valentine’s Day came around I couldn’t help but ask her out. After many hours of putting together a thoughtful date... she showed up 30 minutes late. By the time she arrived, the food was al-ready cold, the candles were already melted and my heart was aching with the little appreciation she had for me.The next day she texted me a lengthy apology but claimed she didn’t feel the same way I did. All I was left with was my failed attempt to cook for the first time and my dog’s sloppy kisses. How can I move on? Should I still try to be friends with her?

Signed,Valentines’ Day Gone Wrong

Dear Valentine’s Day Gone Wrong,

You have to understand that not everyone is cut out for a relation-ship. If things don’t work out right away you should know that it’s not something to worry about. If this person doesn’t feel the same now, it may take time for feelings to de-velop. With this in mind, you need to accept that feelings may never develop and a romantic relationship between the two of you may never manifest itself. At the end of the day, you need to make a decision for yourself, are you going to give this relationship another shot, or are you going to stop wasting your time on this girl and find someone who wants you for you? I can’t stress this enough, you are perfect, just the way you are. So I leave you with these parting words, LOVE YA SELF… ACCEPT YA SELF!

XOXODiallah