The man behind the intercom

“GOOD MORNING SAMOHI!” Every day we hear his voice ring off of the walls in classrooms around campus. Who is he really? What does he want? What else does he do? Those questions and more were answered when The Samohi sat down with the mysterious “man behind the mic” in a recent exclusive interview.He is the ASB president, ASB Speaker of the House, and the captain of two Acadeca teams. He willingly gives up his own time to make his school better. He once was asked to recite a passage of Fifty Shades of Gray and he willingly obliged for no profit. He is the most interesting man at Samo. He is Dean Chien (’16).Dean Chien is a man with a plan. He plans out his days and work so he can get the largest amount of work possible completed. He balances work and play with a just scale. And four days per week, during homeroom, he gets on the school-wide intercom to deliver the announcements posted on the Blue Bulletin for the day.“The goal every time that I go on is that all 3000 people are listening, but the reality is that is not the case,” Chien said. “So any way that I think I can make the announcements more interesting, more engaging, I try to do. So I throw in a new joke here and there, emphasize a couple points here and there; really the most important function of the announcements is to have that kind of engagement where people know what is going on.”According to Chien, one of his favorite things is to hear feedback on how his announcements helped people, which confirms that he is successfully getting news across.“Often times I have had several experiences where people have told me directly, ‘You know, for the first time, I witnessed the announcements and I tried out for this sports team.’ or ‘...I went to this club.’ or something like that,” Chien said. “That is really where I feel like it is good work. Hopefully, it is helping people out.”The gratuitous feeling of “helping people out” is reward enough to have driven Chien to hold not only the Speaker of the House position within ASB, but also President. He wants to reaffirm that the purpose of ASB is to help and give back to the students, as ASB does indeed stand for Associated Student Body.“In terms of ASB in general, right now we have got a lot of things going on,” Chien said. “My number one philosophy is: give free stuff. The thing is, as in ASB, that we are not here to make money on campus. We are here, if anything, to give; really to give back in any way we can whether or not that is actual, tangible stuff, [such as] food–that has been harder to come by–[or] just events and stuff like that, if we can make it happen.”Unfortunately, due to debt, this has not been the case for ASB in recent years and the horizon of not being in debt as only just been crested this year, according to Chien.“The thing is that right now what people have to understand is that for the past couple of years running, we have been operating at a perpetual deficit,” Chien said. “So really this year actually is the first year that we started out in the green. And we are barely in the green, that is to say: out of debt, just because of previous administration and spending habits.”Now that ASB is operating in the “green” zone, Chien can finally take off with his goals and plans for the organization.“What our goal overall is that we build up a buffer so that we can provide many more of these things [events],” Chien said. “Right now, this first semester, the plan is we are raising some money though a couple of events and activities. Through second semester, hopefully we can start again implementing some of that free stuff.”Chien has some ideas for how some of those events with free stuff can happen and what they may feature. He referenced the Oct. 9 flashmob that was held by Samo’s Chamber Singers between third and fourth period in the atrium on the second floor of the Innovation Building in front of a large crowd as the type of thing he wants to make more common, even though ASB did not collaborate directly with the planners of that event.“One of the things that I said to myself at the beginning was having free lunch events,” Chien said. “We have got all of these great music programs on campus. We are working with them to put on a couple lunch performances and small things throughout the day that could enliven. That could be really beneficial. It would be a great way to promote school spirit and a great way to promote some of our programs as well.”But Chien also intends to up ASB’s participation in community service.“More on the management side: we have got to work with administrators to address a couple things,” Chien said. “Bathrooms, primarily, is a big thing with a lot of people. We are going to have campus clean up events where we want to keep the school clean. So, we are doing community service stuff as well.”Aside from ASB responsibilities and announcements, Chien is involved with several other extracurricular activities that add to a rsum that contains a variety of prestigious participations.Chien is captain of the Acadeca–which is his longest tenured activity at four years–Science and Quiz Bowl teams, and was also a member of the marching band last year to provide narration for their show. On top of all that, Dean works with his friend Nick Gottlieb (’16) as Vice President of the Entrepreneurs and Investors Club, and helps run local hedge fund “Alpha Bay Capital Advisors”. “It has been really great,” Gottlieb said. “In the Investors Club, Dean makes it a point to help the younger students who aren’t as experienced in investing so that they can feel confident. With Alpha Bay, he stood out as one of my best analysts early on. He’s extremely driven. I’ve never met anyone with as much tenacity and passion for learning as he does. He really takes pride in being the best person he can be, inside school and out.”Chien believes his experience with the activities he has partaken in has been exceptional, yet he does harbor one regret.“My only regret in terms of activities is that I didn’t join one of the music programs,” Chien said. “A lot of my friends are in that but I have found that the activities that I have chosen to pursue have been fun and very rewarding. I have learned a lot from them.”To stay organized in high school, it is key to have a plan of attack. Chien tries to map out what tasks he has to complete in order to stay as calm and as organized as possible.“They say it is like a triangle,” Chien said. “You have got good grades on one corner and then you have got social life and then you have got sufficient sleep. Of the three, you can only pick two and you have to sacrifice the other one. Even though I work a lot; I work very hard, it is not overwork and I think it is very important for us to realize, especially during this college phase, as seniors are all applying for college, that we [should] not get overwhelmed too much and that we are still getting enough sleep, we are still having a bit of hangout with friends and some fun.”Everyone at Samo is familiar with the iconic voice that has launched Dean into some comedic situations and almost local celebrity status. Chien, laughing, stated that he has never thought of it that way and that he just hopes that the announcements are entertaining and get the points across.“Whenever someone says, ‘Oh, you’re Dean! You’re the guy!’, I’m like ‘Eh.’,” Chien said. “And still the funniest thing is always people just tell me to say specific things. I won’t go too much into it but I have had all sorts of requests.”One may wonder where such an intriguing individual finds his influence. Although Chien does not have a single hero, he adapts and absorbs traits as he reads and from certain aspects of large-scale people, such as the late Apple co-founder, Steve Jobs.“Heroes?” Chien said. “They fluctuate constantly because whenever I come across a good book or an autobiography or whatever [it changes]. As you learn people, people are not static. People have many dimensions to them. So from certain people I take certain things. Steve Jobs, for instance, is a great example. I love that he was a very driven, focused individual and he had a great innovative mind. He was always thinking big picture. But, at the same time, he was somewhat punitive towards some people and he put a lot of people off because he was disagreeable. I take from him some of that always thinking big picture, but maybe not his same leadership style”You would be hard-pressed to find someone who is more passionate about the Santa Monica High School Vikings than Chien. Chien is fond of making announcements and he wanted his message shared to everyone in the Samo community:                                                                                                                                      “I love this school and I hope that all of our students really love it and enjoy their experience here,” Chien said. “High school, as with many times in life, is a period of transition and lots of seniors are already off to college and freshmen are going to get there. Just live in the moment. Enjoy the moment. Enjoy the ride. I certainly did and I am looking forward to the future.”