Staff Writer

Take a look at the exciting summers Milken students have planned!

Hannah Zelcer ’14 is preparing herself for a summer of hard but rewarding work as a counselor at Camp Hess Kramer.

“It’s a great opportunity to see my friends and learn how to be a good role model. I will be gone for 8 weeks so I really have the chance to gain independence. It will be like pre-college but more fun.”

Hannah Zelcer '14 enjoys the sun at Camp Hess Kramer

Amanda Sussman ’16 will get her tan on as she spends her summer hanging by the lake at her house in Big Bear.

“We try to go there every year especially during summer where we can go on the lake in our boat. I like being up there because its so nice to live out right on the water.”

Representing the Milken Wildcats, Sorelle Cohen ’13 will spend her summer playing basketball for team USA in the Israeli Maccabiah Competition.

“I am looking forward to meeting fellow Jewish athletes from all over the world. We won the gold medal four years ago so I am hoping to win again.”

Sorelle Cohen '13 shows off her skill on the court.

Emily Shemian ’13 gets major shopping perks with a gig working as a floor model and salesperson at Hollister.

“It will be really valuable to get sales and retail experience.”

World traveler, Nahal Sarshar ’14, will be visiting Israel and Turkey.

“It will be great to see my family in Israel again because I haven’t seen them since Tiferet. This is my first time visiting Turkey and I heard its really beautiful and like a whole other world.”

Nahal Sarshar '14 poses with Shelby Moghavem '14 on her last trip to Israel.

After a draining high school career, Sepora Mak ’13 can finally kick back and get some well deserved rest. Sepora is looking forward to spending her days doing nothing.

“I am tired and I want to sleep. It will give me time to prepare for school. If I’m feeling adventurous I’ll take my sleeping to the beach.”

Enjoy your summers Milken!

Staff Writer

“At Vicki’s Lunchbox, we support and encourage our children to make smart food choices, empowering them to embrace a healthy lifestyle,” reads the Vicki’s Lunchbox website.

Smart food choices? Healthy lifestyle? Vicki’s Lunchbox? Those things definitely don’t belong in the same sentence. Every day when lunchtime rolls around, the campus is filled with clear plastic lunch containers. But the food in those containers is far from healthy. Fries, hamburgers, chicken strips, pastrami sandwiches — it all reads like the menu of a local fast food restaurant. There’s always a salad bar option, but each day the wilting lettuce sits lonely in the corner. It’s obvious that when given the choice between healthy and unhealthy, the majority of students are not able to make the smarter decision.

Maybe students don’t realize how unwise their decision really is. A three piece serving of chicken tenders can add up to 741 calories, 44.3g of fat, and 222 mg of cholesterol (that’s 74% of your daily value!). Add a serving of fries and you have a meal that’s the opposite of healthy.

We see a similar pattern in the Milken Mart. Students are free to buy ice cream, candy, sugary drinks and instant noodle soups on a daily basis. Bagels and Snapple have become staples in the diet of the Milken student. Chava’s fruit is a nutritious alternative during snack time, but it is not available year round. And Fern is not completely at fault either. Healthy options like apple chips and yogurt do hide among the Bissli and chocolate spread, but how often do you see students lounging around with a bag of freeze-dried apples?

It raises the question: as a school that genuinely cares about the well being of its students and faculty, why does Milken tempt its students with an endless array of unhealthy foods? Should the school be more forceful in guiding students toward a nutritious lifestyle?

Gary Shapiro, Jewish Studies teacher, also wonders if the school can do more. “One of the things that struck me the most about our school lunch is how often and how much there are fries. I’ve also seen hamburgers and hot dogs. Don’t get me wrong, I love those things. I’m not against eating them. It just makes me question why they get served so much to students and teachers,” he said.

Ariel Bina ’15 notes that the salad bar also fails to provide an exciting variety of healthy lunch options. “I think it would be better to have more salad options,” she said, “I personally like to keep healthy, and to be honest the school lunch makes that a little difficult.”

Stephanie Monteleone, Health teacher, has noticed a similar pattern in student’s snack choices at the Milken Mart . “From a nutrition standpoint, the snacks that I see coming out of the Milken Mart are discouraging,” she said. “I see a lot of refined sugar, a lot of salt, and a lot of high fat items.”

Monteleone agrees that this is something that should change. “I think there are a lot of students who would buy the healthy options if they were available, especially if the unhealthy options were not available.” she said.

Ariel Bina confirms Monteleone’s theory. “I don’t shop at the Milken Mart that much because there are not that many healthy options. If they did offer more healthy options, I would feel less guilty about buying food from there.”

Ladies and Gentlemen, it’s time Milken Community High School went on a diet. We need to stop the endless stream of fries, noodle soups, and Fruity Pebbles. Milken strives to prepare its students to make smart decisions in the future. Why shouldn’t that apply to the lunchroom as well as the classroom?

Life Editor

While preparing myself to go see the third installment of the Iron Man franchise by watching clips and trailers of previous movies, I was expecting to see a movie with cool visual effects, but no story. I can happily say that my expectations were not completely met. Don’t get me wrong, the previous two Iron Man films were extremely entertaining, but at this point in a massive movie franchise, the fans are due something different. To sum it up, this movie was completely different from any of the previous Iron Man film.

What frustrated me the most about previous Marvel films, specifically The Avengers, was the lack of originality in plot and character and the studio’s inability to surprise the audience. I enjoyed The Avengers, but not because I was constantly leaning forward in my seat, anxiously awaiting what would happen next. I enjoyed the films because they had some of the best visual effects I had ever seen. However, a movie needs more than just cool visual effects. Unfortunately, Marvel is a franchise than can afford to dismiss the importance of a script and compelling characters and still take in over a billion dollars worldwide in the box office. Finally Marvel realizes that they can do so much better with their movies by writing a good script and combining that with the usual awesome visual aid.

Iron Man 3 takes the franchise to a whole new level. The story contains twists, turns, intelligence (yes, intelligence) and a completely new and troubled Tony Stark. There is nothing I like more than a troubled character, because we as an audience can actually relate to what the character is feeling. I will not even try to hint at certain twists in the movie, because then they would not be genuine when you witness them for yourself.

Iron Man 3 Clip

Iron Man 3 had my jaw dropped at certain points, which I hardly say for any movie these days, especially multi-million dollar blockbusters that are supposed to be wildly predictable and spoiled through their overly-revealing trailers.

During the movie, I looked down a few rows to see a young child in his father’s arms, scared by the intensity of the movie. While I felt extremely bad for this young soul, I was glad that this moment finally came. For once, Marvel has made a movie that surprised me at certain moments with the unpredictably dark material that was added in.

For those of you reading this and thinking, “Oh no, where’s the action?”, I assure you, the action is more than present throughout the film. The action sequences were done tremendously well and looked stunning in 3D.

New director and writer Shane Black came into the franchise with a new idea for Iron Man, and it showed. Previous director John Favreau had done a sensational job creating the world of my favorite Marvel character in the previous two Iron Man films. But it was time to take a new approach.

Although this film has surpassed the first Iron Man film and The Incredible Hulk to take the sole position as my favorite Marvel film, I can’t help but feel the absence of the old Tony Stark, the cool Tony Stark that I loved. The Tony Stark diving through skies to AC/DC’s “Shoot to Thrill”. But I guess there is a price to pay for taking a new approach to the franchise. I sincerely hope that Marvel sticks with good storytelling for the remainder of their days.

And I would advise Marvel fans to, as usual, stay until the end of the credits.

Grade: A-

Staff Writer

The Brainy Bundles Book Collection, a book drive benefitting the organizations Haven Hills and Beyond Shelter, began April 24 and will continue until May 31.

The drive is accepting new or gently used books for children up to the age of 10, which will be donated to recovering victims of domestic violence at Haven Hills, and children at Beyond Shelter.

Leah Kuperman ’16 is the founder of the project, and plans on starting a club next year for interested students.

“I hope to start many drives, even ones where students can donate DVDs and school supplies,” Kuperman said.

Donated books can now be dropped off in the bins found outside the office and Dean’s Hall. For incentive, the Freshman advisory that donates the most books will be given a prize at the completion of the drive.

The books will be packaged and presented to the shelters by Kuperman and friends.

“I want to not only give these children books, but hope as well. Many of us have books we don’t need, so why not give them to kids that don’t?” Kuperman said.

Future members of the Brainy Bundles Club will have the opportunity to receive the full twenty hours of community service. The club will add emphasis to Tikkun Olam and community awareness on campus.

Life Editor

Members of The Roar staff celebrate the NSPA award.

Three years after launching the online publication, The Roar has achieved recognition from the National Scholastic Press Association (NSPA). The NSPA awarded The Roar as a 2013 Online Pacemaker Finalist, in recognition of “general excellence and outstanding achievement by a high school online publication.” The Roar staff is incredibly honored by the award, and as Co-Life Editor Zachary Brenner ‘14 said, “humbled by the fancy plaques.” The writers look forward to a future of many more well-composed articles and professionally conducted journalism.

Roger Kassebaum with members of The Milken Knights. Photo courtesy Andrea Smith.

Gabi Kamran

Staff Writer

From March 10-12, Milken’s Robotics team, The Milken Knights, competed in the FIRST Robotics Competition in Tel Aviv, Israel.

The Milken Knights placed number eight in the competition, making them regional finalists. Throughout the competition, Milken’s team was partnered with an Israeli robotics team from Mizgav High School. The competition took place in the Nokia Arena.

Each of the 49 teams entered in the competition was challenged to design a robot that could pick up and shoot frisbees. If a team made it to the final round, their robot would also have to climb a pyramid.

Despite some technical difficulties, the Milken Knights had a fun and rewarding experience at the competition.

“The boys work effort was very commendable, even after bumpers broke a couple times. I’m very proud of us,” Zoey Lieber ’14, Co-Captain of Outreach, said.

Michael Bick ’16, Drive Captain and Mechanical Captain, added that the FIRST competition in Israel was unlike any other robotics competition that the team has participated in.

“For one thing, it was louder,” he said, “And the Israeli robots were a lot different.”

The choice to enter a competition in Israel was natural for Roger Kassebaum, Director of the Mitchell Academy for Science and Technology.

“We’re a Jewish school. We love Israel and want to make connections with Israel,” Kassebaum said, adding that, “Israel leads the world in a lot of science and technology areas, and we want to expose our students to the Israelis’ scientific endeavors.”

Although The Milken Knights did not make it all the way to the top of this competition, Kassebaum and the team plan to return to Israel and gain further success in the future.

“One of our goals is to some day win the Israeli regional and go to the national championship,” Kassebaum said, “We’d love to see the Israeli team and ours win the world championship together.”

Conducted by Yasmine Novian

Editor-in-Chief 

Common misconception about me:

A lot of people think that I saved the Pentagon from a terrorist attack on December 3rd, 1997 at 9:27 a.m. but that simply is not true.

Most creative gift, given or received:

Some guy once gave me a half-empty jar of peanut butter, a heavy-duty voltage regulator, and a map of Steve Buscemi’s house. Not really sure what that was about.

Movie you’ve seen most:

I’ve never actually seen Shrek but I’ve heard good things about it.

Book you’ve read the most:

Contrary to popular belief, I actually can’t read.

One thing I cant live without:

A petri dish with a single Glial cell from Reagan’s brain, like the one that all Republicans have. I keep it with me at all times.

What you wanted to be at age 10:

I wanted to be a chemical engineer until I realized that I would actually need to know chemistry to do that.

Favorite gadget:

The Internet.

Teacher pet peeve:

I really hate it when teachers tell me what constitutes a “good grade” or a “bad grade.”

Procrastination technique:

“Procrastination” implies that I eventually actually do the work.

Hobby:

Sometimes lay my refrigerator horizontally, fill it with marmalade, and pretend I’m on a deep space voyage in hypersleep.

Favorite thing about being a senior:

If you walk up to a freshman in the library and say “can I have my seat back” he’ll give you his chair. Even if you just walked in to the library.

Movie star you wish you could take to prom:

Ronald Reagan

Topic you love but wouldn’t talk about in a college interview:

I’ve always loved knitting but wouldn’t talk about it because I can’t knit and actually I don’t like knitting.

Favorite classes you’ve taken at Milken:

Has anyone really been far even as decided to use even go want to do look more like?

Funniest Hebrew word:

Hebrew

Most memorable learning experience:

Jewish Thought with Mr. Shine has definitely been very eye opening, and has changed the way I will practice Judaism for the rest of my life.

Most purchased item in Student Store:

I have like 90 of those sweatshirts. I don’t know why I keep buying them but I do.

Favorite Milken Trend:

I really liked the trend where people started all saying words backwards and lighting their hair on fire.

Most beloved/interesting item in your school bag:

The Declaration of Independence

Where do you sit at lunch:

I used to sit at lunch, but then someone moved that table so now I stand during lunch in protest.