DGG March 2023

DGG

Spring cleaning for mindfulness and mental decluttering.

Songs invoke a particular emotion for listeners. Students explain their favorite song that aligns with a certain mood.

a motivating song a sentimental song a nostalgic song

“Treat People With Kindness”

by Harry Styles

“It motivates me because it reminds me to treat people with kindness even if they don’t treat you with kindness. It reminds me to be kind to others even if they aren’t kind to you.”

“Summer”

by Calvin Harris

“It reminds me of a time where things felt a lot simpler. Going out to run on trails, parties, and going to the lake and spending the entire day there without much care in the world.”

“2009”

by Mac Miller

“The instrumentals are really good, it has piano and violin. It’s way different from his other songs, and he brings new elements into it with his lyrics, which I find nice.”

“Dreams and Nightmares”

by Meek Mill

“It’s just a really hype song and gets me lit to do stuff I need to do”

“Moment 4 Life”

by Nicki Minaj

“When I was a little kid I used to listen to it all the time and I would try to recreate how she looks like.”

“Let You Break My Heart Again”

by Laufey

“This song is so bittersweet since it reminds me of how much I’ve changed since the end of the last year, when I had it on repeat”

Sophomore Carina Cole

Freshman Justin DaRosa

Junior Yamilet Deniz

Senior Lilianna Agatupu

Junior Alexa Sandoval

Senior Sophia Dela Cruz

Cover illustrated by Eden Buell

Springing to Life Students establish new native plant garden

By Jacky Li

The smell of overturned dirt and grass and the sound of shovels clanging fills the air. A group of students are hard at work spreading wooden mulch for the new garden at AHS. One of those students, Junior Rainzel Kilat, has been participating in the garden’s construction since September. He is happy with the garden work, knowing that his efforts will literally bear fruit in only a few months.

“[I like] the fact that other generations of [AHS] students can enjoy the garden, even if we can’t enjoy it in our [time at AHS],” said Kilat.

The 50 square foot garden was started and is currently being maintained by Earth Team, an environmental stewardship internship that allows high school students to learn about and contribute to environmental conservation, through activities like nature restoration and community outreach. Students were given the opportunity to choose the plants and decide how to manage their allocated plots of land. The new garden is located adjacent to the currently existing vegetable garden, between S-Wing and D-Hall. Plans for the garden had already begun in September of last year, but it took until December for work to begin on the garden. The garden did not require a large budget: $200 worth of plants, $50 for the tools, and the mulch was given for free by a local tree company.

The garden project was planned for several reasons, including bringing more life to the area and being more visually appealing compared to the patches of grass that the garden replaced. It also serves to attract pollinators like butterflies and bees, which in turn will also help pollinate the nearby vegetable garden. The garden will also play an important role in the native ecosystem by bringing back native drought-resistant plants that were driven out by invasive species.

Junior Wendy Nguyen is another Earth Team intern contributing to the garden. She joined Earth Team in September, because it gave her an opportunity to learn more about the environment, and she was attracted by the outdoor activities the internship offered. Like Kilat, she also feels great about working for a cause that will outlast her time at AHS.

Meet the Plants

These plants were chosen by students for the garden. All of these plants are native to California.

“It’s nice leaving some sort of legacy at your school, and that the outcome will be really fruitful even though it takes a lot of work,” said Nguyen.

Healey Cayabyab is the coordinator for the Earth Team program at AHS. He is responsible for managing the internship curriculum and organizing events to help educate communities about the environment. Cayabyab is pleased with how the garden is working out. He enjoys the teamwork aspect of the project, as the students need to work together to dig soil and spread mulch over the garden, and also how students learn to keep the young saplings alive. Most importantly, he appreciates the fact that this activity gives students the opportunity to be outdoors more often.

“The most fun aspect of it, is all of us spending some time outdoors, especially in a world where high school students are spending eight hours in a classroom…and having a chance to feel the earth with their hands and

feet and having that connection [to the earth],” said Cayabyab.

In the future, the team is looking to fill in the rest of the garden with more varieties of plants, and planting more plants in general to utilize more of the space. The garden will need little maintenance, since the drought-resistant plants can get enough water naturally from rain and groundwater. Cayabyab hopes that everyone who worked on this project will be able to see and appreciate their efforts when the garden reaches full maturity and have the garden last for generations to come.

“We want to see the fruits of the labor of the interns, all this hard work that they’re doing shoveling mulch, spreading it, planting, being outside in the cold…having them actually see it first hand that this is what they did with their sweat, their hands, [and] looking at [the garden] in its full beauty,” said Cayabyab.

Earth Team Interns work the soil as part of their garden work for Earth Team, an internship focusing on environmental conservation.

Joseph Kim

Book Recommedation Slips are put onto a wall with the intent to showcase and share great books to others.

What’s Trending?

TYPES

Adventure

Dystopian

Suspense/Mystery

Romance

Horror

Modern Poetry

Graphic Novels

Specifics Mentions

It Ends with Us by Colleen Hoover

Legend by Marie Lu

Thrones of Glass by Sarah J. Mass

Ready player One by Ernest Cline

Three Body Problem by Liu Cixin

PercyJacksonandtheOlympiansby Rick Riordan

They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera

Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

By Kelly Hu

Teacher Librarian Megan da Silva has been working in the AHS library for oneand-a-half years, with the credentials of an English teacher. Her professionalism in communication and observation makes her qualified to resolve problems among our students and the community.

Da Silva describes the library as “the middle ground, between classroom and home, a space for students to relax and explore their interests.” Inside the library, she watches over the atmosphere and pushes to improve the area for everyone. Her decisions are driven by the flow of suggestions to better suit the visitors’ tastes.

“I spend a lot of time taking requests, ordering things that kids enjoy, but the process could be quite time-consuming and a bit challenging,” Da Silva said. Recently, local libraries have been exercising the policy of prohibiting certain books that are deemed inappropriate for school audiences. Luckily, she has decided to go a different route with book censoring.

“I’m trained as a certified librarian to respect and give kids intellectual freedom to explore what they want- to be an advocate for their choices,” Da Silva said. “Having books banned is just a tragedy, so I have a partial say to not ban books.”

There are many age restrictions in reading materials, and research is required on heavily requested books in order for them to be in the catalog. District Librarian Megan Casey and AHS Librarians will personally read the books just to make sure they’re appropriate for the school library. Donated books are also checked, as students and teachers will sometimes donate books that appeal to their personal likings.

But there’s more to do as a Teacher Librarian. Da Silva also reaches out to AHS staff for various opportunities. Although Da Silva is usually in the library, she also visits classrooms for small workshops. Her role often extends outside her work area in order to reach all possible audiences.

“I’m [also] trained to collaborate with teachers, but teachers don’t necessarily know that, or they’re comfortable in their own room… with their current curriculum and they don’t see the need to [interact], but when they do research projects, that’s when I can pop in and help kids with research from the great resources we have,” Da Silva said.

Da Silva has high hopes for the future of the library and strives for its progression. A few future goals for the library she has so far, are to “interact with language teachers to stock up on language books, host writing workshops, and perhaps even readathons.” With those accomplished, the AHS library will steadily be a main campus attraction under her management.

DGG

4.4 Environemtnal Rating

“Kids here are less interactive and shy, and ones that feel out of sync can find community here. I see ones that sit by themself on the floor, and little by little, they start finding other comfortable areas and mingle with each other.”

“I know Librarians are infamous for being mean and yelling “Quiet”, and I heard how teens avoid libraries because of the strict environment. So I want to change that because it’s such a tragedy if kids don’t use the sources we get especially for them... for a long time, that stereotype had a lot of truth to it.”

“I donated many books, mostly mangas to the school library. (This picture is me holding to the stack I’ve donated so far.)”

“I have major OCD, so if you don’t keep these books in good condition, I will make you work in the library.”

“Students hang out in here and play board games, it’s a really chill environment.”

“I come here often, almost daily to do my studies using the chromebooks or I get an interesting book.”

Librarian Media Technician Dawn Kaye has been with the school district for about 10 years. She is a Class of 2011 graduate, and previously an IWE at the AHS library. Now as a librarian media tech, Kaye helps with tasks such as organizing and processing books, as well as supplying and ordering them.

From Kaye’s perspective, the AHS library is a place to “relax and unwind from the school’s craziness. [It’s to] give access to books for students, [so they] won’t have to separately go to a public library.”

Her recent arrival made a significant contribution to the manga collection by inserting her interest of books into her work life.

“I get books from Barnes and Noble and Amazon, and I donate my own books as well because I’d rather have books used for the library instead of just having them sitting there,” Kaye said.

For the future of the library, Kaye plans “to have graphic novels and mangas all organized and relabeled so people can better [differentiate between] them. Along with her heavy interest in those formatted books, her primary goal is “to fill up the manga section as much as [she] can.”

“It feels like my safe place, surrounded by books and people I care about here. One thing I noticed is that Colleen Hoover books are recommended on social media platforms a lot, and so those books are almost always checked out.”

“I needed a place to go to in the morning, and my friends recommended me to the library, which was the coziest place I found.”

Teacher Librarian Megan da Silva keeps a thick journal to take notes of book recommendations.

Kelly Hu

Kelly Hu

Librarian Megan Da Silva

Librarian

Students explore option to mask Students debate on wearing masks at school

By Clarence Capunitan

The mask mandate at Arroyo has been lifted. Some of the school has decided to keep wearing masks. How do the people who wear masks decide when they wear a mask and with the new Omicron variant of COVID-19? , How do people stay safe from the new variant and what do they do to stay safe?

The school administration has decided to lift the mask mandate at school at the start of the 2022-2023 school year. Many of the students still wear masks even though the requirement to wear masks at this is not necessary or in effect.

Junior Victor San Yeap wears a mask even though there is no mask mandate.

San Yaep wears a mask everyday to school but when he goes out in public things are different.

“I frequently put on masks in public and also apply hand sanitizer for safety, but on occasion I don’t wear a mask when I go out in public sometimes.” San Yeap said

Senior Damon Li also explained when he decides to mask.

“It depends on where you are going and who you are going with. If you are going out with a bunch of strangers, you do it because you don’t know what illnesses they have. With friends, you have been with them for a while so you would know if they are sick”

“I mask and socially distance from people I don’t know as much as possible for the foreseeable future.” San Yeap said Being a part of the track team he wears a mask before he runs but doesn’t wear a mask when he is running

“I wear my mask all the time until I run because running with a mask is uncomfortable and it cannot be good for you.” Li said Li wears a mask very often when he goes out in public but said he doesn’t wear a mask at family gatherings.

“Wearing masks at family get togethers are different because I am around people I am comfortable being around, but going out in public is a completely different story because I don’t know the people around me in public and who already had COVID-19 and who hasn’t yet in public spaces.” said Li

San Yeap says that he uses gloves and hand sanitizer to stay safe from COVID-19 and the other COVID-19 variants.

“Yes I will continue to do what I am doing now because I have not caught COVID once. As long as COVID-19 is around I will wear a mask and socially distance from people I don’t know as much as possible for the foreseeable future.” San Yeap said.

When do you wear a mask at school?

“I wear a mask when I am around people I am not particularly familiar with at school and when I am not running at track meets.”

“ At school, I wear a mask the whole school day except when I have to eat but otherwise I would not take of my mask.”

Damon Li

Victor San Yeap

“I don’t want to get people sick. There are peole at school that are school and I don’t want to get sick.”

Heidi Hsu

Community rallies behind English teacher Mark Giller

Alina Gomez

By The Numbers

In November of 2022 English teacher

Mark Giller went on medical leave for the remainder of this school year after being diagnosed with cancer. On January 30 a GoFundMe fundraiser was launched to support Giller. According to the fundraiser page, the funds are intended to help Giller with the costs of the chemotherapy and immunotherapy treatments he is undergoing. As of March 3rd the fundraiser has raised $29,921.

Once the fundraiser launched, it immediately went out to the larger AHS community. English Teacher and Future Academy co-lead Kay Zimmerman said as soon as she saw it she showed it to her students and it took off.

“Really all I had to do was share it with my DPC (Developmental Psycholoy of Children) class students and they just spread it. They did a really good job. I mean once it got posted on social media a lot of former students became aware of it.” Zimmerman said.

The main way that the word got out was social media. And once it hit social media many students and former students started to donate to the cause. One of the students that donated was Senior Kammi Hallett. She had Giller for three years and once she heard about the GoFundMe she wanted to help.

“I had Giller for three years and he was one of my good teachers, probably my favorite teacher. And so I just wanted to help him because I knew that with the teachers’ pay that it’s not a lot. And it’s to help him. I wanted to help him. And with all the expenses of radiation and chemo I knew that anything could help.” Hallett said.

Hallett was surprised by how many students were able to contribute. This surprised her because most of the money that the students donate is coming from their pockets, not their parents. But even with all of the students that donates $10 or even $5 when it all came together it totaled to a big number that helped the GoFundMe get closer and closer to the goal.

“I donated about $100 and my mom said ‘here this is to donate’ and so I know that it comes out of a lot of students’ pockets not their parents. So knowing that some students donated at least $100 it was pretty shocking, but it also made me

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29,921

feel happy to know that students wanted to help Giller.” Hallett said.

For other students, it didn’t come as a surprise when large numbers of other students donated to Giller’s GoFundMe. Another student that donated was Senior Maya Ochoa; she was motivated to donate because of the good connection they formed during her junior year. Because of this she knew that Giller formed a good relationship with each of his students so when the number of students that donated increased she wasn’t surprised.

“Knowing Giller, I know he has a good relationship with each of his students so I wasn’t really surprised, but I was surprised by how quick the growth was and spread.” Ochoa said.

Like Hallett, Zimmerman was also surprised with how quickly the fundraiser took off. With all of the students sharing the link and promoting the fundraiser a lot of students came to donate. But even with the GoFundMe passing the halfway mark, people are still donating whatever they can.

“I was surprised I guess some people were saying you often get halfway and then people stop donating cause they already did it.” Zimmerman said. “But I was surprised by just how many people showed up and wanted to donate. There were a lot of anonymous donors there too that donated really generously, and that was really surprising too.”

Since the goal for the GoFundMe is already halfway reached the donations have slowed down a bit. To make sure that the goal is reached. The Future Academy Teachers are planning to relaunch the link to make sure that the students and other teachers remember the link. And will maybe donate again so that the goal can be reached quickly.

“We will be rereleasing the link. Not change the GoFundMe at all but just rerelease it until we hit the goal so we think for example, teachers get paid once a month at the end of the month. So one of the ideas that we had was to release it again when the teachers have pay day. So that people feel like they can afford to contribute again. So that’s kind of the plan right now.” Zimmerman said.

AP Lang’s Next Line

Junior Lizbeth Garibay discusses AP Language after Giller’s leave.

Q: How is it not having your teacher in class?

A: We really miss him, and I feel like a lot of us [the students] miss him because he is a good teacher. He is super engaging, really nice, and I remember one time he gave me cookies because I kept nagging him about it. It was really fun. It was really just an enjoyable class just overall because he was so open with us. I mean he’d be able to joke with us and we wouldn’t feel like uncomfortable.

Q: Is it difficult not having your teacher in class?

A: Yes, I’d say that because a lot of us don’t really pay attention to videos that we watch. We watch the videos but we don’t learn as we would with a teacher there who’s engaging us. We were more engaged with Mr. Giller because there was a person not through a video. Because of the switch, it’s more difficult to connect and learn.

Q: Do you feel prepared for the AP test?

A: From a scale one to ten, I’m at a fiveand-a-half because we just started today to learn to write a FRQ and I didn’t even know what the question was asking. I didn’t even know the prompt and that was a bit difficult to understand until I heard someone else say it and I was like ‘Oh this is what it’s about!’ you know. When you hear someone else tell you what to do or sort of like speak about it other than a video that’s when it clicks.

Q: Do you think there is anything the school can help you with prep for the AP?

A: By having someone engage us and asking us do we understand, do you guys need any help, maybe being able to write more because right now the class feels like a free

illustartion by: Alina Gomez

The figures behind the fundraising efforts for Englisht eacher Mark Giller

Facility Frustrations

Some voice their concerns about cleanliness on campus

By Anthony Nguyen

Sophomore

Rhylee Inducta is frustrated by the bathrooms at AHS. He feels like almost every time he has to use one, there is some issue.

“I feel like they could be better, because every now and then I would go to the bathroom, and there would be no paper towels, so I can’t dry my hands, so I would have to shake it off, making my phone wet and some papers wet” Inducta said

Sophomore Javier Nunez has observed the same. He pointed out that paper towels in particular seem to always be missing.

“It annoys me because then I have to use my sleeves or something else to dry my hands, but since there are no towels, my hands would get cold as well.” Nunez said

The complaints from Inducta and Nunez are not uncommon. Students, and staff, across campus have voiced frustration this year with the facilities on campus. Whether it be the bathrooms, the heaters, or general cleanliness, some feel like things have gotten worse in this past school year.

Principal Angela Webster first started working at AHS in 2017 as an assistant principal, She said that the problems students and staff are commenting on now have been around since her first stint at AHS.

“When I was back here in 2017 as assistant principal, I saw similar things. I wouldn’t say it’s worse, but I see it as an ongoing problem, but similar to the last couple of years when I was here before.” Webster said.

The causes of the facilities issues are also varied. Some, like heaters, are mechanical issues. But some, like the resources in the bathroom might be attributed to vandalism and other behavior largely by students. Nunez believes that the bathroom cleanliness issue in particular has to do with student behavior in the restrooms and staff enforcement of school rules.

“The school doesn’t really enforce that many rules to clean up, and plus they make it so easy to have people throw away trash on the floor and litter.” Nunez said

Webster noted that, regardless of the causes of these facilities issues there is a significant need for upgrades and repairs across our campus.

“There definitely needs to be repairs. I know the district is in a remodernization stage where they’re focused on different school sites right now. I know this is a very old building, very old school, and it can be very expensive to repair some of the things on campus. I would love to have a brand new bathroom, brand new building and a brand new school, but that’s my opinion.” Principal Angela Webster.

She added that she has reached out to the district office for repairs, but response times have varied.

“Yes, I have been emailed by teachers, and when they email me i put in the work order, and we have our secretaries put in the work orders, which goes to the district maintenance and operations department, and then they find someone to come fix it.” Webster said.

Ms. Webster would then credit our custodians with the work they are doing this year, in spite of all the challenges we are facing.

All of our messes here in Arroyo are cleaned up by our custodians, so it should not be their fault as sometimes the students would blame our custodians for the lack of maintenance, but really our custodians try our hardest to keep our school clean as they have to clean the entire school almost everyday, She went on to add that more can be done to ensure that our campus stays clean

“ I think our custodians get frustrated when students don’t clean up their mess, I think if we start now, making students aware about the cleanliness of our campus, beautification projects as well as just having that conversation and bringing it up. We don’t wanna blame our custodians, and we don’t wanna put the extra work on our custodians. We’re short on staff as well, so I think it’s up to the students to support, and educate with assisting to keep our campus clean. So in the springtime do I think it’s going to get dirtier? I think that if we start now with the conversation, no. I think that if we make students aware that sometimes they’re walking through the hallways and not aware, I think we will see a change.” said Webster.

Looking forward, Webster said she would be open to more efforts to encourage all of our campus community members to keep our campus more clean.

“Yea i think a cleanup campaign or doing a rally would definitely educate our students about keeping our school clean, I think it takes the entire campus to work together. I think the student voice makes a big difference if we all work together, and we can talk to our whole entire community about keeping our campus clean.”

What facility upgrades do you most want to see on our campus?

“I would like to see more surveillance on campus because there’s so much vandalism.”

Math Tacher Toby Jaw

Senior Jackie Chen

Senior Emily Onofre

“I want to see cleaner bathrooms with non-broken mirrors and more stalls.”

“I’d like to see the bathrooms improved because they’re not sanitary.”

CAP Projects Preview

Three students share their project ideas

By Robby Romero

Senior Marcus Bautista participated in the 2023 Civic Action Project (CAP) and he spoke and dedicated his project to the homeless and people in need. It started as an inspiration.

“I had a childhood friend when we were in first grade and I used to live in Tracy. He would come to school and he’d be all beat up and I remember he’d be gone upon weeks at a time and I would sometimes see him with his parents and the mom would be injured as well and it was kinda traumatizing for me. It really made me want to do something about it, I wouldn’t say it was fully for homelessness but one of the major reasons of being homeless is domestic violence and I didnt want that for him.”Bautista said.

Ever Since Bautista was a kid and had the experience he had with his friend he wanted to help change his life and many others who were struggling with the same problem he wanted to show people how homeless live and bring a visual to people and spread awareness

”I feel like giving people a visual representation.” Said Bautista

After being inspired and wanting to change the cause of living for his friend he started trying to change and help homeless

“I made a video by giving a visual representation of showing how bad it really is and by showing and drawing them more to news headlines.” Bautista said.

Bautista wants to use his CAP to help benefit others who face the problem of homelessness

”I think it will benefit others as long as others are willing to take at least a minute or two to watch because I went around the bay area and our cities filming.” Bautita said Bautista is and hopes to succeed with his project and at least spread the awareness of homeless and the problem revolving with homeless around the Bay Area

“If it does work I want to keep showing it off and make people know that there are hard times and that we can help by spreading awareness and actually doing something about it and just saying oh someone is going to take care of it.” Bautista said.

Bautista hopes to make the problem with homelessness more known and solved so that no one has to go through the struggles and problems of being homeless.

After the performing arts class at AHS went a bit down Senior Noreen Gomez decided to make her CAP on the class to try to fix the issue

“My project was specifically directed towards helping reemphasize the performing arts program at arroyo,I’ve been a part of the performing arts program for a while now,in freshman year and sophomore year I was part of orchestra and marching band and then in junior and senior year i’ve been part of drama and i’ve noticed less interest has been piling up and how its been dying down.” Gomez said While taking Drama for two years Gomez has noticed a significant less percentage of activity towards performing arts and it’s made her want to fix the problem and bring awareness to it

“It was more awareness towards staff and faculty and the students around us I made a psa video and shared it with people. I think the best way to remphasize the program is by spreading the word about it and since its died down during the pandemic.” Gomez said

Gomez wants to bring more fame and help rebuild what was dying down of the performing arts class she believes that her CAP project would benefit others

“I would say that having a good performing arts class at our school would benefit the people because it helps people discover other ways to express themselves.” Gomez said

Worst case it it didn’t go as planned Gomez would have to use her backup plan to help

“I would have to meet up with more teachers about it and also other students and their opinions and reach out to the middle schools because the middle schools performing arts programing is what helps here at Arroyo.” Gomez said

Hoping to bring up the Drama class Gomez will try her best to make it work and make sure the performing arts gets back on its feet

”I would say its still in progress there hasn’t been much improvement lately like as of now but were still hoping for the future.” Gomez said.

As time goes on Gomez will see how much improvement the performing arts class has gotten and hopes to have succeeded and gotten more people’s attention.

Like all students in AHS we would like to find ways to help the school and make it a better learning place and environment Senior Andy Nguyen and he wants to help the school by having better cooling systems

“My project was about addressing the climate in classrooms specifically adding air conditioning to classrooms because that is a problem we have here.”Nguyen said

Nguyen’s inspiration started because of the heat wave in the begging of the 2022 school year

“My inspiration for starting this cap project was when we had some sort of heat wave in the beginning of September and classrooms were getting up above 100 degrees inside and it made it really hard to learn or do anything in that temperature.” Nguyen said

Nguyen would like to fix and help with the issue of cooling systems inside classrooms

“My CAP project helps my issue because it addresses how the climate has affected these classrooms and what other states have done to address these problems and what policies there are to help with these issues.” Nguyen said

With the proper cooling systems and upgrade for classrooms Nguyen believes that this would definitely benefit others,

“It will definitely benefit others,Studies have shown that a hot climate can cause dehydration or headaches that would impact a students performance pretty negatively.”

Nguyen Said

Nguyen hopes to hear back and hopefully make his CAP project known and hopes to make it possibly for getting better cooling systems inside the classrooms as the years go by

“I’d hope it would help and benefit the future generations because of how climate change is becoming and rising as times go on and how this will definitely impact future generations.” Nguyen said Nguyen hopes to get heard and succeed for the future generation at AHS because the cooling system needs a desperate upgrade.

Senior Noreen Gomez

Senior Marcus Bautista

Senior Andy Nguyen

STEM-ing Into Opportunities Students discuss summer internship programs

By Lynnsy Ang

Internships in various subjects, locations, and competitiveness are limitless in the cuttingedge, innovative, and radical research hub of the East Bay. However, at AHS, the internship culture is unbeknownst to most.

Health and Medicine elective teacher Selina Mandel has affiliations with several organizations that host internships offered to high school students. Mandel helps to match students to these internships based on the unique criteria of each one.

“I look for specific things and certain characteristics that they’re asking for, and pass the information on to students that might fit with that one.” Mandel said.

The criteria include technicalities such as GPA, prior experience, and age. But when helping in the process to match students, Mandel takes into consideration which students and hosts will most benefit from the experience.

In the sea of internships, a large number have recently been targeted toward a set of students labeled “underrepresented groups”. First-generation and low-income students, as well as students from racial minority groups are classified as underrepresented.

A large majority of AHS students identify with at least one of these categories. According to US News & World Report, 91.3% of students enrolled are considered a racial minority and 47% classify as economically disadvantaged.

AHS is understaffed and underfunded compared to most schools, with limited available classes and electives. The school ranks #464 in California High Schools.

Like Mandel, college and career specialist Cece Adams helps students get internships through the district. Adams adds to the topic of underrepresented groups by saying, “[Internship organizers] know these students are marginalized and don’t have opportunities like someone who has resources. So giving that opportunity allows them to have equitable opportunities that maybe they wouldn’t have had otherwise.”

Students who come from low-income families are typically not as inclined to invest their time and resources in sending their children to these programs. In some cases, students from these families work to help their family’s financial situation or take care of their siblings while their parents are at work.

“But if there is a program that offers a stipend,” Mandel adds, “That’s more enticing for students who wouldn’t normally take that challenge.”

There are several benefits to participating in internships, not just through the content discussed and learned, but the soft and hard skills gained in the unique environment.

“If they take on this opportunity, they’ve just opened the door to more networking. Now

they know more people, now they know more resources. Plus they gain professional work experience, which will benefit them in any career path they choose,” Mandel said.

Adams speaks to the benefits too. “If you are going to apply to UCs or CSUs, you can use [these experiences] in your PIQs and common app personal statements. And it’s good for your career because you can add them to your resume, in terms of career skills.”

Internships are incredibly beneficial and advantageous to students who are striving for a college education after high school. However, they have a history of being reserved for privileged students from wealthier, more educated backgrounds. Here are two examples of AHS students who, as a member of a marginalized group, overcame those stereotypes and entered this world of internships.

Illustrated by Lynnsy Ang

Senior Jenny Tran

UCSF Stem Cell Research

Senior Jolly Jiang

FACES for the Future Coalition

Internship Opportunities

In the summer of her junior year, senior Jenny Tran participated in a stem cell research internship at UCSF. Her interactions with kids from other schools revealed a caliber of students unlike any she’s met before.

Tran is a first-generation American and college student.

“Growing up, my parents didn’t really speak English. I kind of grew up with my brothers raising me. I didn’t get tutoring, since it wasn’t provided at my school and I always needed to be home right away. So if I needed help with school, it was my brothers who would help me.” Tran said.

Tran sought out internships through Mandel and ended up applying and attending a stem cell organization at UCSF. This program is highly prestigious and competitive, pushing Tran to interact with students in both high school and undergraduate school who were used to such an environment.

“Honestly, I got a bit of a culture shock.” Tran said. “Some of [the other students] were doing two internships at once… And most other students came from schools that were in the top ten in the rankings for California… while Arroyo doesn’t even make the rankings.”

She also compared the endless amounts of APs those students would take to the AP cap at AHS. Being surrounded by these types of students intimidated Tran.

“For the majority of the summer, I felt kind

That same summer, senior Jolly Jiang participated in an internship at FACES for the future coalition. He faced the same issues as Tran, going from an underrepresented school with fewer resources to a highly academic environment with students from wealthier schools.

Jiang is a first-generation American, both his parents immigrating from China with less than a middle school education. He grew up in the public school system, him being the driver of his education.

“[My academic life] was really just me doing it myself, and my sister occasionally tutoring me in math. There weren’t many resources out there. It was just going to school and learning whatever they’re teaching there, then going home and doing the homework.” He said.

Nearing the end of his junior year, Jiang felt compelled to find an internship to add to his college transcript. Because he was in the Health and Medicine elective Human Body Systems, Mandel found an internship catered to him. Jiang attended FACES, an internship focused on advocating for public health. For six weeks, Jiang and his peers learned about detecting/ responding to infectious diseases by making posters and presentations, and going on the street to promote proper health measures.

Jiang worked with students coming from school districts including Alameda, Berkeley, and Oakland high schools. He expressed how it

of dumb and out of place. Like I couldn’t amount to what [other students] were doing at first, and they just had more experience than I did, especially with the classes they were taking.”

Working six hours a day in the lab alongside these kids left Tran lost and exasperated.

“And it was kind of exhausting at first since I kind of felt dumb the whole time. So I was just exhausted and dumb.” She said.

Nonetheless, this frustration of hers dwindled, and Tran began to use the intelligent workspace and the knowledge of her peers to her advantage.

“I gained talking skills. I had to present a lot, and manage my time well. And after I got used to the environment, I got more comfortable talking to more people.” She said.

Tran concluded her internship experience to be one that was both eye-opening and fulfilling. She gained invaluable skills that summer, discovering that although other students were considered more “privileged”, she was able to learn and gain just as much out of the internship.

“I realized that I wasn’t really competing against everyone else. At the end of the day, everyone’s just kind of helping each other.” Tran said.

was apparent these other students had more of an advantage in the topics they discussed.

“In a sense, it seemed like we were less educated than they were,” Jiang said. “Where Arroyo is a smaller school with less teachers, resources and electives to choose from, they have more classes and teachers, a bigger campus, and more resources in general.”

Although Jiang noticed this difference in privilege between AHS students and his internship peers, he didn’t let it get in the way of his experiences at FACES.

“After a little bit, everything clicked, but it was a matter of getting there. Getting to the same point where everyone else was at.” Jiang said.

Alternatively, he found his own strengths.

“With the activities we did, people would always be hesitant of telling others what to do and taking the lead on stuff. I learned how to take that leadership role.” Jiang said.

Jiang hopes for AHS to attain more resources for its students in the form of classes, electives, and teachers. He voiced his gratitude to Mandel for providing him with the internship opportunity and wishes to see more teachers who would do the same for their students.

“If more teachers were to do that, more students would be able to get real life and professional experience to benefit them,” Jiang said.

If you’re interested in internships like the ones described in this story, scan the QR code for a list of STEM related opportunities!

Photo Credit: Jenny Tran

Photo Credit: Jolly Jiang

How the AHS Government Works

See the current state of student leadership

By Luis Derla

With lunch in hand, and paperwork in the other, several students slowly trickle into the student government classroom. Each of them hold responsibilities for the betterment of the school. What is to be decided in this room by these people will come to fruition months into the future, so these decisions and tasks bear significant weight. Settling down into their seats, the agenda ranges from sports team purchases, field trip forms, and the next big event, Night Rally. Resources and logistics aside, it’s up to them to make all of this happen.

The student government is essentially the “Executive Council”, which is composed of Arroyo Student Body (ASB) leaders, who represent the entire school, and the various commissioners who specialize in things such as culture, staff appreciation, music, and rally events. Each class year, from freshmen to seniors, have their own class presidents, vice presidents, and secretaries that administer their particular areas, and are also included in this council.

The Executive Council is the brain of official school events, and they are in charge of setting calendars, shuffling bureaucratic paperwork, and regulating campus finances through approval. The Leadership program acts as the hands of this brain. ASB Vice President Ronald Nguyen provides us with insight on the matter.

“My role in school is to help plan Leadership activities, whether spirit weeks, rallies, or events such as Homecoming and Winter Ball. All that, I help plan. On top of all that, I also help with the budget program. So all the spending you guys do, whether it be sports spending or classroom spending, they go through the [Executive Council].” Nguyen said.

The class officers are in charge of their own separate initiatives from the school. They head their respective class committees; in those committees, planning and action is done for class year backdrops, decorations, and skits for events such as Homecoming and Night Rally. However, ASB President Janelle Pasqual says that all officers work towards the same goal.

“The [Executive Council] is just these roles that everyone needs to be into to run a [functional] government for planning events. So we have the secretary, president, vice president, and stuff like that.” Pasqual said.

The presidents, vice presidents, and secretaries are chosen by popular vote in an end-of-the-year election. The ASB Executive Officer, Treasurer, and commissioners are appointed by the activity director. The Activities Director, Jennifer Rodriguez (AKA JRod), is the official head of the Executive Council, and she convenes it together for maximum student outreach.

“At the end of the school year, after [the] Night Rally towards April [or] May, we send out election forms; if you’d like to run for any position, you have to go to the meeting which

JRod has in her classroom. She explains every position, and from there you can grab [three] sheets of paper. One of them [requests] a letter of recommendation, the other is an application form, and the other form, and the other is more information aout the program.” Nguyen said.

To ensure that word is spread out, the council utilizes several forms of communication. The ASB President or Vice President are usually the ones who speak out the announcements; The ASB Executive Officer is responsible for anything involving social media.

“A lot of it is through our social media and announcements. The majority of announcements for events come through our announcement [speaker] first. That’s where most people hear about it. Mostly they kind of talk over it, that’s [why] we also post a lot on social media. Our social media is our really close number-two for everything.” Ngyuen said.

Though the Executive Council encourages all kinds of feedback, ranging from praises to constructive criticisms, there is currently no formal method of measuring student satisfaction with the student government’s performance except word-of-mouth and personal anecdotes.

“I guess just by asking students, having feedback awnd everything [is] just a good thing, that we would have to know that they are getting what they want. I mean, it’s good to have feedback from students constantly after our events [and] during the year to see what they want, and not just us having to guess events

they actually want.” Pascual said.

Sophomore Rylan Alcantara is an active member of the school, and has previously volunteered for various school events such as Homecoming. He perceives the current bureaucratic system as satisfactory, and feels represented by it. However, he does wish for more innovation.

“I think that Leadership should continue trying to find innovative and new ways to help the community, such as… the decorations for Lunar New Year; there’s been repetition with the Chinese lanterns. ” Alcantara said.

Despite this, he perceives the current bureaucratic system as satisfactory, and feels represented by it. He deems that the leadership has led the school through tough times, and he respects its efforts.

“I think my interests are represented because I think the student body as a whole feels a need for connection; for the idea of looking at things positively, especially in dark days. We’ve had the pandemic and the news… It’s in the minds of the [council] and they’re trying their best.” Alcantara continued.

All-in-all, the student government looks towards the future. With the end of school approaching, new elections will begins soon,; new officers will replace the old, and its ideals and goals will continue on.

“My dream has always been to increase the school spirit we have, also to bring more fun and comfortability to our campus. [Our] goal is to hear more of your voices.” Nguyen said.

Illustrated by Luis Derla This is the current student bureaucracy of AHS. It contains the main AHS body and the class year bodies.

Pushing Through the Pressure

Students discuss what it takes to be a leader.

By Adrianna Armijo

From cheering and giving motivation to your teammates on the court, to setting examples of how to be a good role model or even creating posters for school spirit. These are many traits of what it is like to take on the task of being a team leader.

Senior Maya Gutierrez, team leader of the girls varsity soccer team has played soccer for around 11-13 years. When high school season came around she had joined the soccer team. She discusses her role on the team.

“[My task of being a leader is] mostly holding people account able and making sure everybody is on task but also knowing how to support my teammates,” Gutierrez said.

Being a team leader is more than just cheering for your team. Team leaders show commitment, good communication and demonstrate integrity and it can cause pressure. Gutierrez mentioned it can be pressuring at times, when everybody is looking up to you or not knowing where to go about during certain situations.

“There is pressure being a leader on any team, everybody looks up to you so you feel a lot pressure of being there for everybody and pulled in different directions,” Gutierrez said.

Senior Maya Ochoa, team leader of the girls varsity basketball team, has been playing basketball for around 11 years. She had just finished her last season of high school basketball, and shares her perspective of leading a team and how the importance of connecting with the underclassmen.

“My task of being a team leader is to really make sure everyone is feeling included. Freshman year I didn’t have a good experience with feeling like I was a part of the team since I wasn’t good friends with the upper-

classmen. But this year since I’m now considered an upperclassman I made sure to be as inclusive as I can and to connect with the underclassmen,” Ochoa said.

Ochoa believes that positivity and making sure everyone is included is key to making a good relationship with her teammates. She also mentioned that being a team leader

has been in leadership for two years and has mentioned that being in leadership can be stressful especially during times when it comes to spirit weeks.

“Yes, there is a lot of stress and pressure, when we have these spirit weeks and other events that we have here on campus because you may not know the unexpected. We feel stress a lot of things when they don’t go according to plan like everything may or may not be good or bad. It can result in a different outcome.” Vega said. Even though there can be some stress being in leadership, Vega had also mentioned how the class creates a lot of group bonding with one another and how it can help meeting new people or create new friendships. He had also mentioned how everyone in the class is very supportive of each other in the class and how everyone has each other’s back.

Ochoa also mentioned how it’s hard to lead the team sometimes when it’s hard for her to not get down on herself for mistakes or trying to hide emotions.

“Yes, there’s a good amount of times where I find it hard and stressful to be a leader. I have a bad habit of letting my emotions out when I play and I get frustrated quickly and I noticed when this happens the energy on the team will also shift and then that leaves me with a bunch of guilt and blame for a loss all because I got angry.” Ochoa said.

Being on a sports team leader isn’t always the only role that feels some type of stress. Senior Abraham Vega,

“There is one thing that we all have to do is that we always have to make everyone have fun and enjoy themselves with these spirit weeks and events. Fun, communication, team building, leadership bonding, being a leader, and getting to know one another is the key to everything and success.” Vega said.

At the end of the day leaders just want what’s best for their team for the next season. Leaders must stay positive and keep the good energy around and to step up for the next season. They must learn how to manage the team, put in the work and to just have fun.

“I hope for the next season that the underclassmen can step up and learn how to lead without us captains and us seniors, know how to manage the team and also know how to put in hardwork and to have fun.” Gutierrez

Illustrated by Adrianna Armijo

The Fast Pass Out of FAFSA

The requirement, pressures, and the opt-out form

By Makani Reith-Fifita

An issue that many face with the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is having the ability to ask parents and or guardians for private information. Cecelia Adams, who runs the College and Career center, helps those students who file for FAFSA and get stuck in between the process of the application.

“Some folks are opting out of [FAFSA] because there are a couple of things that are a challenge with [FAFSA]. One is deciding not to go to college, some are going to the military, and the other one is due to parental fear. Since completing the FAFSA would require [students] to put their tax income information, some people are afraid that the IRS is going to come after them. It doesn’t, it’s taking the information from the IRS and giving it to the Department of Education.” said Adams.

FAFSA, otherwise known as Free Application for Federal Student Aid, is a way for students to earn financial aid for colleges, whether that be in a community, out-of-state, or in the state. FAFSA allows students to pay off student loans without being in tremendous amounts of debt by the time they graduate from college. As of late June 2021, FAFSA was announced as a state requirement for the 2022 to 2023 academic year. But with the requirement comes a contrast of a form for those who decide not to apply. Instead, they must sign a waiver to opt out of filing for FAFSA. This opt-out form is a simple signature you can acquire from your counselor, and if you are over 18 you can sign off by yourself.

The FAFSA application is due for seniors on March 1st of this year. But by June 2021, FAFSA has become a requirement, and this will include other states as well near California. And so the introduction of the requirement is for a program known as The California Promise.

“It’s a program that is designed to allow students to have free tuition in the community college realm. It doesn’t matter whether you would qualify or not in terms of receiving the money, as long as you do [the FAFSA application] you’d still automatically qualify for the promise. And that the ‘California Promise’ allows you to waive those fees for those two years.” Adams said.

Senior Peter Vu has been waiting for the optout form for FAFSA since around November, and recently signed the form to opt out of FAFSA. Now that the forms have been released and handed out to the seniors, the original thought process behind FAFSA has been a strain on those who didn’t apply yet.

“FAFSA in general becomes a big stress on your life because of how you are always going to do the FAFSA, and with all these forms and tax returns and proof of how much you make, and it’s stressful on the students because you ask for this private information and it does become a big ordeal on you and the family itself,” Vu said.

Since the opt-out form has recently been released, it is now able to give the students who want to opt out too. Alexis Horn, the senior counselor, has been helping students with FAFSA with Adams. And so she shares some of the hardest points in the FAFSA process.

“ The hardest thing when it comes to FAFSA is that you need your parents’ cooperation, and so getting to work with your parents on FAFSA with everyone’s busy schedule, while we [Adams and the counselors] can help you at school as well. Another thing that is hard is figuring out the tax information.” Horn said.

Even if opting out of FAFSA was the plan, it’s important to know that if you do apply for FAFSA, it can come with some benefits as a result. There are several grants that students can apply for just to use for college, and by the time of graduation, they don’t have to pay back the grants as they are for their use.

“So if your income is less than $100,000 and you have a family of four, you can get the Pell Grant, which is what FAFSA offers from the Department of Education but also a Cal Grant. So it makes two grants for college that you don’t have to pay back for, which is very helpful for it to happen.” Adams said.

Applying to FAFSA now as an option which is a miracle for those who don’t want to file for it, that being current seniors and future seniors as well. But either way, when it comes to your career plans for FAFSA, this opt-out form can help those who are still deciding on plans and or those who are deciding on colleges and careers, as FAFSA can be a great way to have opportunities.

“I feel like it’s important to do the FAFSA because a lot of people are depending on scholarships to help them through college. But scholarships are just a very minute portion of what you would receive versus what FAFSA would offer.” Adams said

Senior Peter Vu signing the ‘Opt-Out’ form in the College and Career Center

Makani Reith Fifita

1. Taught at AHS for 1.5 years

2. Can speak Spanish and Portuguese, and lived abroad

3. Traveling Journalist

1. This year will mark their 21st year teaching

2. Was featured on a news channel once

We asked six teachers the same four questions:

1. How long have you taught at AHS?

2. Give us a “wild card” fact!

3. What would you be if you weren’t a teacher?

4.Where did you attend college? Here are their responses. Try your best to guess which teacher is which based off their answers!

1. This is his 21st year

2. Did a ouijia baord and is allegedly going to die on October 29th, but doesn’t know the year

3. Would be a judge or a lawyer

4. UC San Diego

1. Has taught for 22 years

2. Whenever they cook they never give it a taste test, but it always comes out right

3. Would be a flight attendant

4. UC Riverside

1. Since 1995 (28 years)

1. Since 1996 (27 years)

2. Is able to headbang

3. Would be a probation officer

4. SFSU and Chabot

4. Mills College, SFSU, SJSU

3. An accountant or a job similar to that

4. UC Berkeley

2. Designs and plays board games

3. A computer engineer

4. University of the Pacific

Gonzales

Jaw

5. Soares 6. Simonetti

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

Neglected Necessities

DGG

Dry Gulch Gazette

Dry Gulch Gazette is an open forum for students and does not necessarily represent the views of Arroyo High School or of the San Lorenzo Unified School District. We want to provide our readers with entertaining, informational, and relevant stories that will be worth their time. We intend to produce accurate and unbiased reporting, and we will therefore work to correct any significant mistakes. You should contact us at AHSGazette@ gmail.com if you can find such a mistake in this publication. You may also email us to submit a letter to the editor, but we reserve the right to edit letters for length or accuracy. Letters will be rejected or published at the discretion of journalism staff.

Editors-In-Chief:

Wynne Bendell

Claire Terzich

Deputy Editors:

Lynnsy Ang

There are 1,531 students at AHS and almost all of them will use the school bathrooms sometime in their high school career. This school year there have been a few incidents of students defacing the bathrooms. Despite this small minority of disprespect towards the facilities most students using the bathrooms are doing just that, using the bathroom. Students should be able to expect clean bathrooms and shouldn’t settle for less.

Over the past few months, students have had to deal with many issues revolving the school bathrooms. Issues such as: absence of toilet paper in stalls, paper towel dispensers empty or not there all together, soap dispensers rarely have soap, and have either been left without soap or have been filled with hand sanitizer. The sink faucets do not provide an option for warm or hot water and only dispense cold water.

OPINION OF THE DRY GULCH GAZETTE EDITORIAL BOARD

consequences for their actions to learn what is appropriate behavior. However, we also want the school to take in account that this constant surveillance on students actions can create a punitive environment which is not beneficial to students. We believe that a preventative approach to problems involving students and the bathrooms would be more effective. If bathrooms were up to a certain set of standards such as always providing adequate: toilet paper, soap, and paper towels, students would be less inclined to deface the bathrooms. Students have a right to clean and reliable restrooms.

Mia Chan

Makani Reith-Fifita

Copy Editors

Luis Derla

Logan Houghtelling

Jacky Li

Design Editors

Arianna Carandang

Shadhana Saud

Photography Editor

Joseph Kim

Illustration Editor

Jessica Reyes-Fajardo

Staff Writers

California Education Code 34292.5 states that: “Every restroom shall at all times be maintained and cleaned regularly, fully operational and stocked at all times with toilet paper, soap, and paper towels or functional hand dryers.”

The administration’s approach to situations revolving the bathrooms is to immediately figure out the culprit and punish them. It is important for students to have

On our campus we have new buildings in S and H halls that seem to be treated with much more respect than the classrooms in older halls such as A, B, C, and D halls. It fair to believe that this same respectful treatment would apply to our bathrooms. If students have bathrooms worth respecting, we believe they will be respected.

We are trapped in a vicious cycle of students disrespecting the bathrooms and the bathrooms being in a constant state of disrepair and neglect. We need to break this cycle. If the district provides students with updated facilities we will see the stududents do what it takes to maintain the facilities to the standard they want.

Adrianna Armijo

Eli Banuelos

Eden Buell

Clarence Capunitan

Trinity DeLa Cruz

MJ Feldman

Alina Gomez

Kelly Hu

Hailey Hutchinson

Anthony Nguyen

Ethan Nguyen

Jazmin Quintero

Gavino

Robby Romero

Haily Seguiran

Elmer Starkey

Staff Adviser

Samved Sangameswara

Our bathrooms are consistently vandalized, trashed, and unusable.

The solution is not just catching and punishing students. We need bathrooms worth respecting.

18-19: Clear your mind with Yoga

20: Rid yourself of Bad Habits

21: Cleaning up for Lent

Illustrated by Eden Buell

How else do students clear their minds?

Senior Tiffany Fang

Taking long runs

“Long runs help me clear my mind because there’s nothing else to think about, so I’m left with my thoughts and it’s usually really quiet when I’m by myself”

Junior Keira Tan

Reading and Drawing

“I get distracted away from unecessary worries from school work and other things. It benefits me becaue it’s a healthy way for destressing”

Developmental Psychology of Adolescence (DPA) students and teacher Kay Zimmeran doing their weekly yoga class in the matroom.

Shadhana Saud

Students experience the effects of yoga and gain a clear space of mind.

By Shadhana

&

On Fridays, Keith Ball walks into fourth period, ready to do an activity that differs from his regular class routine. Yoga is an extension of class curriculum that Ball enjoys, especially favoring the pigeon position which helps him mentally relax.

“It’s really nice pressure and it sort of feels like a weighted blanket and a hug in the best way,” said Ball.

Co-leader of the Future Academy, Kay Zimmerman, has practiced yoga for over 23 years, and has incorporated it into the Future Academy pathway classes, Developmental Psychology of Adolescents (DPA) and Developmental Psychology of Children (DPC). Zimmerman coordinates her yoga sessions based on what she feels will be most beneficial for her students at that moment. She emphasizes that giving her students a space to meditate and de-stress emotionally and physically is critical in helping them become more self aware.

Yoga is a practice that is suitable for all people of different identities. Junior Keith Ball, member of DPC, has experienced the benefits of yoga and meditation and claims that practicing it has helped establish an activity that is compatible with his body.

“Yoga has made me a little bit stronger and it’s kind of the only physical activity I can keep focused on mentally. It also doesn’t hurt me like a lot of other physical activities do, as a disabled person, it’s right there in my wheelhouse where I can work.” Ball said.

Although yoga is popularly seen as a physical activity, it can also balance your mental and emotional state. Zimmerman explains that practicing yoga can help an individual develop a sense of self.

“It allows you to just focus on your body and your breath. It calms the mind down because you don’t have to worry about figuring this thing out or figuring that thing out. You’re just there to be with yourself. You start to get a little more quiet in yourself.” Zimmerman said.

Senior Jake Dinn expresses a similar belief of yoga giving people time for themselves and focusing on current feelings.

“It creates a sense of being alone even if you’re in a room full of people, it’s about being by yourself, being self aware about how you are feeling, and the way she guides us really helps us feel where our tension is and how we need to relax in order to calm down”, Dinn said.

Junior Kayley Tofft shares a similar view with Dinn, about yoga providing self awareness, and explains the advantages that yoga provides for her.

“[ Yoga ] makes me feel connected with myself and it makes me feel like I am able to be aware of my body and use it in ways you typically don’t…It makes me feel relaxed and calm and it brings me a sense of peace.” Tofft said.

Ball emphasizes how yoga provides a break and helps him get focused, therefore being prepared for the rest of the day.

“It [yoga] helps me get focused and if I realize that I’m really not focused that day, moving my body with deliberate breathing is the thing I’ve noticed is the biggest help because it just focuses my mind and gets my body moving. And once I’m out of it, I know that I’m allowed to have breaks and now I can work on things. It makes things simpler.” Ball said.

Senior Maile Kim expresses the physical benefits of yoga that she believes helps those who are physically active.

“Especially for athletes if you’re sore, if you do a lot of workouts and physical activity then it really helps you stretch out. It’s not only mentally healing but physically healing too.” Kim said.

Despite the situations in life you may find yourself in, Kim encourages meditation and mindfulness as a way to tackle mental unrest.

“There are gonna be times where you get overwhelmed and stressed, with the clutter in your mind, and times when you’re not ready for a certain thing, but through meditating it’s a way to calm yourself down. By calming yourself down you decide, ‘what’s the next step I need to take?’” Kim said.

Senior Shane Lim Listening to music

Junior Janet Liu Using Tiktok

“This helps me collect my thoughts better and be calm which helps me better my problems and my mentality”

“It releases a lot of things out of my mind and blocks out the world. I really enjoy it.”

“It creates a sense of being alone even if you’re in a room full of people.”

- Senior Jake Dinn

Saud

Claire Terzich

Students discuss their bad habits

By Eden Buell

Q: What is your bad habit, as listed in the survey you took?

A: “My bad habit would be getting distracted when I’m supposed to be doing work. That usually means going on my phone.”

Q: How long have you had that bad habit?

A: “It’s always been a bad habit of mine. I kind of waste a lot of time I could be using productively.”

Q: How did this bad habit form?

A: “I would say it formed because having a phone and having people to text on your phone. That kind of motivates you to go on your phone.”

Q: How are you working to overcome this bad habit?

A: “I try to stay away from my own [phone] when I do hard work; like, if it gets necessary enough, I’ll leave my phone in a different room or I turn it off,where I just try to keep it over and not look at it.”

Q: What is your advice to others for overcoming bad habits?

A: “Be aware of it and try not to ignore it, because if you ignore it, you’re not gonna make any progress towards overcoming it. Try different ways of overcoming it. If one thing doesn’t work for you, you can try it differently.”

Q: Why did you decide to fix your bad habit?

A: “It prevented me from doing a lot of my work, and I realized if I did work faster I could have more time then to go on my phone. Then [I could] get distracted and do stuff that actually interests me, so I just try to get my work out of the way first.”

Q: “What is your bad habit, as listed in the survey you took?”

A: “I think my bad habit I left in the survey was just a lot of procrastination.”

Q: “How long have you had that bad habit?”

A: “Looking back, probably elementary school, middle school definitely; just pretty much since I was in school.”

Q: “How did this bad habit form?”

A: “I think the bad habit formed because I just realistically didn’t want to do homework. I prioritized having fun whether it be playing video games, watching TV, or hanging out with my friends. I prioritized that over completing any type of assignment.

Q: “How are you working to overcome this bad habit?”

A: “More recently in high school, the biggest cause of my distraction was my phone because it was just easily accessible, and I would grab it to either text some friends, use Tik Tok, Instagram, some type of social media to distract myself. Once I realized the problem, I moved my phone away from myself. For example, if I’m doing work at my desk I’ll leave my phone on my bed and let it charge on ‘do not disturb’ [mode] so that I’m not tempted to grab it. That really helped me avoid picking it up every five minutes.”

Q: “What is your advice to others for overcoming bad habits?”

A: “My biggest advice to others is definitely you have to realize what your bad habit is in order to fully understand how to get rid of it. A lot of times people have bad habits but they don’t really understand why it’s a bad habit or what exactly is the bad habit. So, once you recognize it, you are able to get over it and figure out a way of how you want to overcome it.”

Q: “Why did you decide to fix your bad habit?”

A: “Honestly, it was because I really hated it. Mostly during quarantine, I used to play video games all day and then I stayed up till 2 AM doing homework because I procrastinated till the last hour or two. Then, I would have five hours of sleep waking up to Zoom calls or I would accidentally fall asleep during chemistry my sophomore year.”

Q; What is your bad habit, as listed in the survey you took?

A: “My bad habit is ego lifting.”

Q: How long have you had this bad habit?

A: “I’ve had it for like a cool five months; half the school year basically”.

Q: How did this bad habit form?

A: “It started last year when I started going to the gym and I made reckless decisions”.

Q: How are you working to overcome this bad habit?

A: “I did a lot more studying on the body and our muscle groups, and how they need to be worked out”.

Q: What is your advice to others for overcoming bad habits?

A: “Me personally, I would say try to think about things before you do them, and think about the consequences that might come with the bad habit; that will affect your future basically”.

Q: Why did you decide to fix your bad habit?

A: “I noticed that it wasn’t helping me at all, and it was creating problems where I was disappointed with myself and the work I was putting in”.

Senior Ron Nguyen

Junior Carrie Anne Perez

Senior Carlos Maruffo

Students share what they’re giving up for Lent

By Hailey Hutchison

“I’m giving up meat because it’s also a tradition; it’s necessary to do, and it’s typically necessary to give it up on Fridays.”

“I’m giving up pretty much any drink that’s not water. I want to be healthier and it’s a beneficial thing for me to give up.”

“It makes me feel good, and Lent is about discipline; and since I like chocolate a lot, it helps with that; and chocolate is just not good for me.”

“Giving up ice cream for Lent makes me be able to get rid of bad habits. It nonetheless helps me get rid of addictions that otherwise hinder my development or is unhealthy for me.”

“With my nephew, I watch TV and YouTube a lot with him. It takes up most of my homework time, so I feel like I need to stop watching TV.”

“It helps me become closer to God, and it benefits me because those [unhealthy sweets] are things that are stopping me from getting closer to Him [God].”

“There’s a lot of processed sugars in my life and it’s something I really enjoy eating too, so it’s a way of sacrificing that to show my faith.”

“I thought playstation games were wasting a lot of time because I’m being unproductive.”

“I’m eating a lot of sweets and it would be difficult for me to give it up. But it’s good for my health to give it up and shows how imporant my religion is to me.”

Junior Miriam Curiel

Sophomore Esteban Ledasma

Sophomore Rylan Alcantara Junior Ciara Carrasco Sophomore Olivia Gonzales

Senior Emiliano Ventura Senior Andrew Le Senior Kristin Siasat

Junior Marin Clark

Illustrations by Jessica Reyes-Fajardo

Students discuss the impact societal expectations have on the youth and their personal stories growing up a certain weight.

By Jessica Reyes-Fajardo

Since she was a little girl Junior Esmeralda Moreno has felt a constant pressure to change herself to fit “the perfect body.”

“As someone who has been plus size for my entire life.. I’d be told to keep working out, keep dieting and just eat less: I’ve been doing this since third grade. My body has been the same, I shouldn’t be shamed for it,” said Moreno.

By definition, body image is how you perceive, think and feel about your body. It’s an issue among everyone, including the youth in AHS. Something that has always been in our history is now disguised as trends. In the past beauty standard would change over time, but now with the power of social media, it is constanly changing at a rapid pace.

Social media is known to be a way of communication but also has its downsides when it comes to beauty standards and it can cause insecurities upon everyone. Moreno talks about how no one is truly themselves and are always comparing themselves to another person.

“It’s almost like no one is ever satisfied where we are. They’ll see something new or someone attractive for the way that they are, and strive for that. As soon as another thing comes up, they go to that new thing, rather than being who they truly are, ‘’ Moreno said.

In September of 2022, the University of Michigan CS. Mott Children Hospital conducted a survey on a child’s body image. In the study, they notice that teens with a high consumption of social media tend to have an idealized version of their appearance and have a low body image with may social media influencers having cosmetic procedures like lip fillers and Botox, and use editing apps to alter the look of their skin, hair, teeth, and facial features. Creating an even more unrealistic standard for what people “should’’ look like but with out saying that they have ever used those apps or gotten the procedures.

Senior Ron Nguyen explains his experience with his body image and how negative comments have effected how he perceives himself . “I’ve always been picked on for being fat growing up, not only by school mates, but also family members, and when you are constantly told something, it becomes engraved into you, you see yourself in the mirror and the comments still linger on. I always compare myself, I’m always nitpicking and saying I wish I had this or that, and saying negative comments about myself and that’s how body dysmorphia is,” said Nguyen.

Nguyen discusses the power of social media, and how social media

isn’t the biggest factor that causes insecurity for boys.

“I feel like the biggest thing for guys is verbal opinions at school, but social media is a factor, because it allows us to view others. Apps like TikTok can allow new ideas to circulate, and seeing that constantly can change how you perceive yourself,” said Nguyen.

Similarly Nguyen and Moreno talk about the flaws of social media and agree that it has its perks like spreading body positivity but also has its negatives with Nguyen saying, “There are creators on social media who promote body positivity, and although there are negatives, there are a lot of positive aspects.”

AHS health teacher Glenna Wurm speaks about body image through her years as a middle school teacher to now highschool teacher. She brings up how in the 2000s there was a lot more body shaming.

“Girls who were on the heavy side when they wore something revealing people would say stuff, this time I see girls of all types of body shapes wearing revealing clothes comfortably. I hear less comments now there’s more acceptance.“ She also brings up social media and how she believes with the new influencers and their posts, Wurm says, “I believe it’s the influencers letting people know that they can be themselves more inclusively now… there is less judgment on how their body looks”. She also brings up pop influences like Lizzo, a plus size pop singer, expressing her influence on the youth. “Lizzo is a grand lady and she’s proud of it. It was like before it was just what diet plan they are on ‘’.

Nguyen and Wurm can both agree that perspectives on body image are growing more positive with the help of social media promoting inclusivity and acceptance. However, Moreno believes that while attitudes towards body image are trending to the positive end because of social media, there is still a long way to go until every body type is celebrated equally.

“I think it does help spread some sense of positivity with people attempting to shine light on things others may feel ashamed of. I think it’s just a bit harder to reach through to people since it is something that still isn’t fully normalized”, Moreno said.

Students discuss the rising growth and disparities in popularity of Asian entertainment in America.

By Ethan Nguyen

Illustration by Ethan Nguyen

Junior Suki Sun is frustrated with the audiences of today’s media and how they react towards that of her own origin. There are many different forms of music, shows, and movies from several different origins. Yet when Sun celebrates media from Chinese culture, she is turned down by others who enjoy modern entertainment.

“It’s especially hurtful when they do have an interest in [a similar] type of media, but when you specify what kind of ethnicity was behind making it, it’s the same reaction. They immediately lose all interest just having the knowledge that Chinese people made it. It sucks.” said Sun.

America is home to many world famous cultural phenomena, ranging from individual artists, songs, shows, movies, and more. Today, teenagers are navigating through a worldwide web of media, including entertainment stemming from Asian countries. The most notable of these originate from Japan and Korea, whose globalization efforts have delivered pop music, anime, K-dramas, games, and more. However, these two distinct ethnicities alone cannot represent all the art that these cultures have in store. Asia itself is a widely diverse continent with more than 40 countries, however, we find that their media is not nearly as popular.

Taking into consideration as to why others might prefer to enjoy content originating from Asia, it all comes down to preference. Whether it be preferences for the language or cultural elements in music someone would like to hear, or that they like the familiarity of the content they consume, Junior Daniel Partido’s enjoyment comes from his experiences as an Asian person and the parallels from his own life that he sees in shows and films.

“I feel like the American media I watch are movies … most I can’t relate to. But there’s this one movie, Everything Everywhere All At Once, which is an Asian film that I felt was very relatable. I feel like there aren’t lots of American types of media I watch that are relatable like that.” Partido said.

Even though Asian music and shows have been enjoyed by audiences spanning over several generations, it’s not always accepted and there are still many stigmas people have associated these kinds of entertainment with. Sophomore Nathan Li is able to dissect the reasoning behind why some may look down on foreign music and how it has affected sharing his interests with others, which in turn can be applicable for other Asian art forms.

“When people think of K-Pop, they’d think of one specific [moment] that they’ve seen on social media that shifts their perspective… they’d think it’s bad or embarrassing. So when you tell them that they like that [form of media], then they would immediately focus on what they saw before and… it would be an embarrassing situation.” Li said.

Sun empathizes with how past experiences surrounding overseas media have tainted others’ views on the matter, explaining how her interests have negatively affected the interactions she’s had with others due to the strong biases they hold against Asian content.

“A lot of people make judgments based off of what you say you’re interested in first. There are times where I say, ‘Oh, have you seen this one show?’ and they’re like, ‘No, what’s it about?’, you say it’s an anime and they’re immediately turned off by the conversation. You can tell they’ve stopped listening.” Sun said.

Sun has been able to identify a disparity between how different Asian countries are treated by the consumers of Asian entertainment industries. Within the community itself, there has reportedly been discourse between viewers regarding the different origins of Asian publications.

“[Bias is common] especially when it comes to Chinese cartoons or anything that’s not Japanese. If you enjoy any shows or dramas that aren’t Korean or Japanese, [or] if you like watching South Asian shows, it’s weird. Or if you like watching [Vietnamese] shows, they’re not as good as Korean shows. It’s honestly really weird, watch what you want if you like it.” Sun said.

Though some may not accept what these overseas cultures have to offer, without a doubt it still holds strong meaning with Asian Americans and with those living overseas in their respective countries. Li recognizes this difference in popularity here in America, but goes on to focus on what their art means to those in Asia.

“These kinds of music [we listen to] here in America are not really as popular as [American] pop or rap. But if you were to think of it from a different perspective, like if it was back in China or Vietnam, then it would be a totally different story.” Li said. “So I guess it has to do with the culture there, the people, and what you’re exposed to.”

American culture is slowly diversifying, and several different heritages are anticipating more of their culture’s artistic elements, music, and talents weaving its way into mainstream American media. There are students belonging to numerous Asian ethnicities at AHS, including those who are Filipino, Vietnamese, Chinese, Indian, and more. Lots of these ethnicities’ cultures are underrepresented and underappreciated within international mainstream media, but still hold significant meaning for those belonging to these groups. Sun believes they deserve their own acceptance and recognition within today’s media.

“I’ve learned a lot of valuable life lessons,” Sun said. “As childish as it sounds, at the end of the day these are grown-ups writing their experiences in the form of shows, and you can pick up a lot of life lessons from them. They’ve shaped me for who I am for sure.”

TOP 2 JUNIOR

SOPHOMORE

TREPRENUERSStudentsputtogether theirownsmall businesses

By

Joseph Kim and Elmer Starkey

Joseph Kim

Courtesy of Dalene Chen

Courtesy of Sophia DeLa Cruz

Most students on campus relate to being broke from time to time.

“I was really broke. I was like, dang, I’m tired of being broke. I should make some money and I was like, hey, I can bake. Why not just start selling cookies?” Senior Jaylin SmithVan said

Throughout the year, inspiration strikes some students. Inspiration to create their own businesses and make some money on the side. This small group of students have taken the initiative to grow their ideas into real, functioning businesses, and becoming the Dontrepreneurs. Students such as Jaylin Smith-Van, a Senior at Arroyo, who’s been running his business selling cookies since the start of the year has his take on running a self own business.

Smith runs a baking business from his Instagram account “@ jylnsmthvansbakedgoods”, mostly by selling his cookies. He had started this business to make some extra money on the side, but ended up doing this almost full time. For most students, the only way to make money is to get a job working at boring retail stores or fast food restaurants. However, for a small group of students like Smith-Van, they have decided to go a different route, taking their passions and skills and monetizing them, and creating their own small businesses. Over the past year or so, a variety of juniors and seniors around the campus have been selling and making profit off their passions.

Junior Dalene Chen started her clothing brand, Juiced Clothing Co. from her passion to create a new line of cool and trendy clothes that emits a more positive message to the world, rather than some of the other brands, which she has come to notice put out a more negative energy.

“I wanted to create a line of clothes that was cool and positive, rather than what some of the other clothing brands that I saw, which were cool, but had an aura of negativity around them which isn’t what I wanted in my brand. On Urban Dictionary, ‘Juiced’ means to be excited about something or to be hyped about something or pumped about something, which is the type of vibe that I want to bring into the clothing industry.” Chen said.

Starting a business can be a scary endeavor. Many students may not start their business because they are afraid to take their first step. Chen offers her advice from starting her first big business.

“I thought of this idea like two years ago but I didn’t do anything about it because like why would I do something about it and I feel like a lot of people have ideas that like you have this really big crazy idea but you never actually act on it because there could be a million different reasons why. I think one of the reasons is the fear of failure and what it looks like to other people.

So I would say just try things even though you don’t know how things are going to end up. Don’t be afraid to fail at things and don’t be afraid of how dumb you look doing it.” Chen said.

When starting a business for the first time you aren’t going to do anything at the start. Senior Sophia DeLa Cruz runs a popular jewelry business off her Instagram account @paperk1ss with over 6,000 followers. In the beginning she didn’t know how to run certain aspects of her business but later on has learned since.

“It was really confusing at first because I didn’t know how to price the jewelry. I didn’t know if

These lessons in running business are something that comes with time and experience. Learning how to build those skills is something that teacher Christian Charlton teaches in her marketing economics and entrepreneurship classes.

“The first word that comes to me is enterprising and that is a really valuable skill in life no matter what you do no matter if they’re business ends up being super successful and it ends up being their career or all of the stuff that they’re learning while running that enterprise and being innovative and taking it into their career and work space.” Charlton said.

As hardworking as these entrepreneurs are, the fact remains that they are still students that have to balance their school time with their business time as well, a challenge that these students have to constantly deal with. Even with this big of a following, she still has to play a balancing game between her business and school.

“Since I have open customs, a lot of times people would be like: ‘Hey, can you make this bracelet for me?’ I would be like: ‘Ya, sure.’ knowing that I still have two tests tomorrow and my assignments and college apps. So, I think me trying to do that just drains me mentally more. I’m trying to work on saying no. It’s gonna help my business in the long run to keep me in check mentally.” DeLa Cruz said.

Even with all this stress that students feel with their businesses it’s not all doom and gloom. Because these students created their businesses around their passions they still find enjoyment within their work.

“It is fun having my own business there’s ups and downs but honestly I’m just really glad I started it so I can keep myself busy and have a positive outlet cause sometimes I’m frustrated and I’m like baking is my outlet, baking makes me feel better it’s my comfort. And I’m good at it. I can look forward to it and I’m good at doing that so it’s easier for me.” Smith-Van said.

I should price it based on what other people price their jewelry as because I would be like oh this bracelet is 10 dollars, but I know that I spent 4 hours making it and if I count that, I’m not making that much so I asked other jewelry creators as well and the main thing that I learned from them is that you decide what your worth and what your creation is worth so it doesn’t matter if you price it like 15 dollars or whatever. Just make sure that it’s your worth. It’s up to the person and up to you especially because you made it, don’t let other people tell you how you should run your business.” DeLa Cruz said.

Students here at Arroyo, use their independence and manage to produce ingenious ideas and goals to have their own independent source of income. Though still in school, these creative minds manage to confront the challenges that are placed to balance their business life and school life. However not all students want to start a full time business. Some just want a small source of income on the side. Chen has more advice for running these small side gigs..

“I’d say, just think about what you’re good at and what makes you different from the rest. Then you gotta figure out a way to monetize it. Just think about what you’re good at and what makes you different from the rest. Then you gotta figure out a way to monetize it. Literally just by going outside and taking that first step, opportunities will come to you. Where most people fail is when they don’t even start to try.”

“I’d say, just think about what you’re good at and what makes you different from the rest. Then you gotta figure out a way to monetize it. Just think about what you’re good at and what makes you different from the rest. Then you gotta figure out a way to monetize it. Literally just by going outside and taking that first step, opportunities will come to you. Where most people fail is when they don’t even start to try.”

- Junior Dalene Chen said

Match the pictures and quotes to the teacher!

The Teachers

1 2 3

On their 1st year as a teacher A B C

“My very first year, I didn’t teach Social Studies. I was hired to substitute in a Spanish class, so I taught Spanish for a little bit more than one semester.”

“I had great groups of students that year and had a cool room (B-8) throughout the whole day and prep. The school really took care of me as a new teacher.”

“One of the AP’s quit and they [The Principal] asked me if I would be an AP.”

Make your guess!

Write the combination you think combines the quote and image for each teacher (ex 1C or 2B)

History Teacher Kevin Beal

Physics Teacher Jeff Jorgensen

(3A)

History

Teacher

Jodi Soares

The

Pages 30-31

Illustrated by Arianna Carandang

rise of toxic male influencers and how how misogyny affects AHS women.

By Wynne Bendell

On December 20, 2022, The Washington Post published, “Who is Andrew Tate, ‘king of masculinity,’ accused of trafficking?” On January 8, 2023 the Los Angleles Times published an Op-Ed titled, “Why misogynists like Andrew Tate are going mainstream.” Just two weeks ago on Febuary 19, 2023 the New York Times published, “ ‘Brainwashing a Generation’: British Schools Combat Andrew Tate’s Views.”Andrew Tate and the discourse around young men and masculinity on social media has quickly become a major topic of discussion nationally and here at AHS.

The age of social media has given many groups an outlet to express their political and social beliefs for an audience. One of these groups, primarily composed of cisgendered men, have been heavily criticized for spreading misogynistic, racist, and homophobic rhetoric for an impressionable audience of young boys.

One example being Andrew Tate, who, before being banned on many social media sites, had over 700,000 subscribers on YouTube and six million followers on Instagram. Despite Tate being recently arrested for charges of rape and human trafficing, his content continues to be spread online, along with his harmful beliefs. This subsect of social media is often referred to as the “Alt-Right pipeline” and has been able to gain support from millions of people online.

Junior Sam Alhandarish has come in contact with this content online and has seen how it influences other young men on social media.

“For instance, Andrew Tate’s [podcast], what he does in his interviews and people say he degrades women in ways. People on TikTok

Mirroring

Media

all the time try to portray his “masculine traits” Alhandarish said.

Many believe that Andrew Tate and similar online figures are at the forefront of a growing model of masculinity that many attribute to be toxic. One of them being Women and Gender Studies teacher Kaedan Peters who believes that this form of masculinity can be harmful to young men.

“Toxic Masculinity is to me a gross kind of exaggeration of things on the masculine side of the spectrum, but also a misunderstanding of what masculinity means. Everyone has some masculinity and some femininity inside them, but I think that toxic masculinity is when people feel, specifically cisgender men, like they can only show masculine qualities. And that then comes to a point where they can’t recognize anything feminine as valuable, or as something to be respected. So what that ends up doing is leaving cis men really disrespectful and harmful to everyone around them.” Peters said.

Peters believes that toxic masculinity does not just create an inward conflict for boys and men and how they view themselves, but it also affects their ability to create connections with the people around them, including their friends. Peters believes that toxic masculinity confines boys’ ability to make deep emotional connections with their peers, especially with other boys.

“When they are interacting with other cis men and not able to develop strong relationships with them because in order to develop a connection with someone you have to be vulnerable, and they only see vulnerability as a feminine quality. So if you

don’t have any vulnerability, or can’t express it, your ability to connect with other people is so limited. So then you are just really lonely, and really sad, and really scared, and really angry, and there is no place for those emotions to go. So then it creates a really toxic harmful environment for anyone to be around you.” Peters said.

Alhandarish has personal experiences with toxic masculinity and has had to deal with how peer pressure affects young men who are coming of age. He shares what his common interaction with his peers have looked like when trying to be vulnerable.

“I still see how if you try to do something sentimental it gets turned into a joke, literally within seconds. Those [peers that make jokes out of expressed emotions] are not people you want to be around. You want to be with people who you can be open with without it being funny or a joke.” said Alhandarish.

Peters has observed how toxic masculinity affects youngs men’s words and actions in the classroom and believes that there should be established communities where they can feel safe and express their feelings without fearing ridicule. They believe that school can be a place to facilitate that community.

“I think there are ways to create spaces for men to talk about how they have been raised, the models they are seeing for themselves, and to create strong mentorships with other men who are not afraid to be vulnerable and have skill of being vulnerable and who show that that can be a part of masculinity too. I think that is really key.” Peters said.

Social media accounts promoting toxic masculity are a national news story, now they are infiltrating

Worth

By Mia Chan and Arianna Carandang

Objectification - Mia Sanchez-Williams

In Sanchez-Williams’ freshman year at AHS, she was forced to endure misogyny every day in her math class. She felt incredibly uncomfortable in that class due to the comments the long term sub made towards her. Sanchez-Williams explains how she was treated:

“He was really creepy towards me. He would squat in front of my desk and tell me that all the guys were distracted by me because I was hot and really pretty and all this weird stuff.” Sanchez-Williams said. “He would tell me this stuff everyday.”

Sanchez-Williams didn’t feel comfortable in her math class and though she eventually switched out of the class, the situation that took place still affected her. People would disregard her feelings whenever she told her story because the long term sub was well liked by students. And though many have told her to, Sanchez-Williams didn’t want to “stick it through” the class and have to deal with the uncomfortable treatment just for a passing grade. This event affected how Sanchez-Williams views and feels about herself.

“It just made me feel taken advantage of and like creepy, I don’t want people to see me that way.” Sanchez-Williams said.

Underestimated - Sophomore Sofia Cruz

As an Automadon, Cruz designs, builds, and tests hydrogen cars. Her group is majority male and she is one of the few females. Cruz is the main engineer for the group and comes up with many of their ideas. She feels that every time she suggests something, the boys in her group disregard her idea and when she does something they don’t acknowledge her work. Cruz has also noticed that when one of the boys in her group suggests a similar idea as hers, he’d be praised by everyone.

“Just because I classify myself as a female , that shouldn’t dehumanize me or insert who I am as a person under random societal stereotypes.” Cruz said.

As a result of being constantly underestimated, Cruz works harder. She believes that because she is a woman, she has to try harder than men in order to stand out or gain recognition, especially in the STEM field. Cruz uses her negative experiences as motivation and pushes herself to try harder and do better.

Illustrated by Arianna Carandang

“I do feel the need to bring more to the plate to stand out within the crowd and there’s also that yearn for recognition and honor.” Cruz said. “The stem title is definitely without a doubt motivation. It’s a real slap in the face to society for underestimating women’s capabilities.”

Stereotyped - Sophomore Caeli Glymph

she talked about it in a class, she was hit with unexpected and unwarranted questions by a male classmate. The classmate was testing Glymph on the show as if she wouldn’t have watched it because she’s a girl. Questions along the lines of “How do you know about breaking bad?” and “Who’s the main character?” were asked to Glymph.

“He was quizzing me on the show and I don’t think he thought I would watch a show like that because it is kind of dark and is stereotypically a boys standard show.” Glymph said.

After this situation, Glymph felt like she couldn’t like things that are stereotypically considered “boys things” without judgment or questioning. This made Glymph feel irked because why is it so hard to believe a girl could enjoy something that a boy would typically enjoy? Women shouldn’t feel stuck in a box with a certain set of likes and dislikes.

“We aren’t allowed to do anything out of what a stereotypical girl does and if we do then it gets stereotyped as all these random things like ‘oh i think she wants to be a boy’ or ‘she’s such a pick me’ when really we are just expressing our interests.” Glymph said.

Wilting

Female students open up about their personal experiences and the influences of misogyny.

New Hair, New Era, New Me

Why do people dye their hair?

By Jazmin Quintero-Gaviño

Sophmore Evelyn Peña has been dyeing their hair since the summer of 2021. They have even had a hair fail.

“I’ve had a hair fail where my hair dye was uneven since I rushed the whole process but thankfully not to the point where I had big chunks fall out” said Peña.

During their freshman year, they bleached their hair almost every month doing multiple colors throughout the year.

“The first time I dyed my hair I felt more interested in dyed my whole head I felt grounded with my self. Since then I’ve dyed my hair about seven different colors such as pink, salmon, orange, dark blue, teal, purple” said Peña.

At first Peña gained inspiration to dye their hair from her sibling and cousin.

“I dyed the two front strands blue since my sibling and my cousin decided to do so and I just wanted to see how I felt with dyed hair while playing it safe my hair is” said Peña.

Peña realized their hair became unhealthy, due to the constant bleaching Freshman year

“My hair is currently unhealthy from bleaching my hair almost every month during my freshman year. Once when I bleached my hair and realized how damaged it was when I looked like one of those old troll dolls that’s when I knew my hair needed a break” said Peña.

Peña explains the types of hair products they use to maintain and nourish their hair.

“To maintain my damaged hair, I do hair mask to deep condition my dry hair. One product I really liked was the k18 repair hair mask which was for breakage and used shampoo and conditioner that is meant for dyed hair with repairing ingredients” said Peña.

For Peña, dyeing their hair is a form of self expression.

“ Dyeing my hair is big part of my identity because it’s a form of self expression to the kind of person I am and my style” said Peña.

Social Studies teacher Terra Caldwell has been dyeing her hair purple for about six or seven years now but she has also encountered some weird and concerning people and experiences.

“An elderly white woman walked up behind me and grabbed my hair and rolled it around in her fingers to feel the texture. She told me she liked ny hair color and I told her not to touch people’s hair without permission. It was the weirdest feeling, to have someone I didn’t know just grab my hair like that. It was a total violation of my space and my self and it gave me the creeps” said Caldwell.

When Caldwell was a kid, she would watch an anime called Robotech which had characters with colorful hair that inspired her to dye her hair in her adult life.

“The real reason why I dyed my hair is because of an anime called Robotech. Robotech is really old and when I was 10, I noticed that they all had different color hair and I thought, ‘WOW!’ You can have different color hair And so I always wanted to have different color hair” said Caldwell.

Although the character in Robotech that inspired Caldwell to dye her has green hair she decided to dye it purple because it looks better on her then green does because of her skin’s complexion.

“The specific character that inspired me had green hair, however green looks really bad on me. Green also washes off to be yellowish and I don’t look good as a blonde but when purple washes away it looks pink, and I look good in pink so I picked purple because it looks the best when it fades” said Caldwell.

Although Caldwell really likes her natural hair color, she does not see herself going back any time soon.

“I really like my original color and I really like purple, so it’s really going depend if my hairdresser moves, retires, or quits, but I don’t see myself going back to my original hair color anytime soon” said Caldwell.

Senior Taylor Neely has been dyeing her hair since the 6th grade. It has become a look she has been liking and exploring since middle school. Exploring so many colors has made her friends not notice when she dyes her hair and when she doesnt dye it.

“I went from dark brown to almost a golden blonde and a friend in my 6th period physics class last year, took over a week to notice it and I thought he was just playing dumb. I found he really was just oblivaious and the second time I dyed it back he really didn’t notice” said Neely.

Neelys dyed her hair around 11 times. She went to a private school in Nevada that was very strict on the dress codes and hair dyeing. When summer came around she thought it would be fun to do it since she could go against the rules without getting in trouble.

“My school was strict on dress codes and hair dyeing so I wanted to go against that during the summers” said Neely.

When neely started dyeing her hair she thought it would come out bad but was pleasantly surprised when it didn’t.

“The first time I dyed my hair I bleached the ends of it and my hair was all ombré but it came out pretty good and I really liked it. I did have help and I though it would come out horrible but it really didn’t” said Neely.

Through the years, Neely has found herself using the dyeing of her hair as a coping mechanism.

“This may sound cliche, but after the first several times I started realizing that I was dyeing my hair when I was very upset with my parents. It makes me feel accomplished that I can do it by myself” said Neely.

Hair dyeing can be something relatively inexpensive which is why she continues to dye it.

“It’s a really simple thing to do and it doesn’t cost a lot of money because I don’t go to the hair salons but it’s kind of like a way where I can do something I wanna do since my parents don’t really care what I do with my hair. Like they don’t want my hair to fall out obviously, but when it comes down to it they are fine with whatever choice I make” said Neely.

Sophmore Evelyn Peña

Senior Taylor Neely

History Teacher Terra Caldwell

A Look Into Their Closets

Students’ Styles and Inspiration at AHS

By MJ Feldman

Name...

“Finn Camacho.”

Where is my outfit from…

“My shirt and pants are thrifted, jacket my friend made, shoes Converse, belt from Hot Topic, and necklaces are from Claire’s.”

Where do I shop most…

“I like thrifting a lot, I would say most of my clothes are from thrifting, or from my mom or sister. I really like going to H&M or Hot Topic.” I find inspiration most from…

“There’s a few people I follow on instagram and usually I get inspiration from them[…]they’re emo/scene. I sometimes see outfits and try to do something like that or try to recreate it with my clothes.”

I’d describe my style as…

“Depends on the day really I’d say it’s alternative, I wouldn’t say it’s normal. Emo, alternative and maybe 2000s [would describe my style.]”

A closet staple…

“I really like straight jeans and band tees.”

How has my style evolved…

Sophomore Finn Camacho

Name...

“Shane Lim.”

Where is my outfit from…

“My style has definitely evolved a lot since freshman year. I feel like I have a way better sense of style this year and look way better if I’m being honest. I think [my style] is still evolving. I don’t think I’m done yet. I definitely don’t think it’s reached its peak.”

“My jacket and shirt are thrifted, pants are from H&M, shoes are Vans, hat from Yesstyle, belt from Orbits and gloves and chains from Amazon.”

Where do I shop most…

“Thrifting.”

I find inspiration most from…

“I find styles online which inspire me to try out new styles here and there. I mainly think [of styles and outfits] on my own.”

I’d describe my style as…

“I would say[my style] is kinda grunge[...]y2k.”

A closet staple…

“My makeup style is casual, maybe eyeliner and just call it a day. Jewelry and dark colors[are a staple in my outfits.]”

How has my style evolved…

“I have a lot of clothes I don’t see a lot of other people wear and I feel like the black sheep in every classroom.”

Senior Shane Lim

Stop Listening?

Students discuss whether or not it’s okay to listen to an artist who has done wrong

By Trinity DeLaCruz

In October of 2022 allegations surfaced against indie artist Rex Orange County, accusing him of sexual assault. Senior Briana Yulo was worried, not just because she was a fan but because she even named her dog after him.

“It’s kinda awkward because I named my new puppy at the time after him.” Yulo said. Luckily for her she just named her dog Rex. Cancel culture is prevalent in today’s society. No one is safe from their favorite artist coming out with crazy allegations against them or crazy news about why we as a society should or should not support them based on what they have said or done.

In October 2022 the indie artist known as Rex Orange County was charged with six counts of sexual assault. When the news dropped, fans made comments about how they felt with videos on tik tok and protested by not listening to his music.Yulo being one of those fans.

“ I never stopped being a fan of his music during the whole scandal. I actually found myself listening to it more.” Yulo explained.

Sophomore Istvan Paulovits shares a similar view to Yulo, he has been a fan of artist Kanye West for a few years and has also never let the controversy stop him from listening to the artist’s music.

“He makes good music, so why would I stop listening to him because of what he has said?” Paulovits said.

Kanye has been caught in the media saying comments that have been called out as antisemtic with his comments, such as “ I love Hitler”. Listeners must come to a conclusion

whether or not to continue listening to an artist’s music. To some maybe but to others it’s a total deal breaker, with some gray area.

“You can definitely disagree with ideologies that he has but his music is good either way.” Paulovits said

Sophomore Jordyn Jones’ opinion is different from Paulovitis

“I think it depends on what the artist did and how serious it is,” Jones said.

Jones has been a fan of Megan Thee Stallion since 2018 and when the scandal with Tory Lanez came out she didn’t miss a beat. In 2020, artist Tory Lanez shot artist Megan Thee Stallion in the foot after a party. This caused both of the fan bases to split on who they supported.

“I feel like it’s mainly men who still support Tory Lanez after what he did or people blaming Megan, and it’s not okay they try to defend him ‘’ Jones said. If someone shoots another person or is held accountable for a serious crime, people are less likely to support them and their music, but only if there is good evidence released to believe so.

“I wanted to wait to see more of the allegations unfold before not supporting him because I didn’t want to jump to conclusions.” Yulo said. “I like his music so I’m going to keep listening.”

I guess the saying “innocent until proven guilty” is true for some when it comes to their favorite artist and the things they have done in the public eye. Some may think you can’t separate the art from the artist because ultimately they affect each other and what the message is in their music. While others may argue that you can just listen to the music but not like the

person because it shouldn’t matter if they have different views than you.

“I think people should split the two because why should it matter what they think or what they have done if they make music you like, if it’s good that’s all that matters.” Paulovits said.

He still openly listens to Kanye and has had discussions with people explaining his side as to why he still listens to the music.

“If you don’t want to bring money to their pocket don’t listen to their music, cause you are still supporting someone who is canceled.” Jones said.

Jones strongly believes that people should be mindful of who they are still listening to because if you listen to them, you are still somewhat supporting someone. It all depends on who they are and what they have done.

In the end, it looks like it comes down to a state of moral value that students have with their favorite artist and what they are willing to budge on and what they aren’t. Everyone’s ideas of if we can split the two will be different for each person based on their moral compass. There is no right or wrong idea or belief in this situation of splitting the two.

Photo illustrated by Trinity DeLaCruz

New Year, New Sound Teachers

and

students

discuss the pros and cons of over-ear headphones.

By Haily Seguiran

Headphones have influenced our halls, our campus, and our self expression. While it has good intentions for students, it also has some concern for teachers such as POE and Geology teacher Corey Kramer.

“ The students don’t pay attention, they can’t hear instructions and they come back and ask for instructions afterwards. I’ve already said it three times, if you take those earbuds out of your ear or headphones out your head you could be able to hear me. My new favorite phrase is you were born with two ears. Why would you cover them up. ” Kramer said.

Kramer’s frustration over students hiding earbuds over hoods and hair may be going away. Just like the trend of airpods ending and over- ear headphones making a comeback to our lives. Over-ear headphones originated in the early 1980’s with the popularization of the Sony Walkman boom. The Walkman was the original portable music device that was allowed on the go. But as of 2023, the bigger headphones have become a trend in students around campus. Starting earlier in the year, students have been seen wearing JBL headphones, Airpods Max 2, Beats, or any other brands of headphones. These headphones have become a trend around our campus because they can not only be used for music appreciators, but in certain fashion styles, can be customized by the student.

Over-ear headphones have influenced students through videos on the internet to various social media platforms. Throughout the year, students like Freshmen Kristina Sargena have seen the influence that headphones make. She describes it as a way for students to self express themselves.

“I discovered them through videos and pinterest, and I saw a lot of people wearing headphones with their outfits. It gave me inspiration for outfits. And I wanted to be independent with my headphones.” Sargena said.

As much as it has influenced our students in a positive way, other people on campus such as Kramer have their own opinions on how it could influence the students negatively in certain situations.

“I think safety wise it can be a problem. If you have that much sound in ears that are well covered then you will have a hard time hearing instructions in emergency situations or even in class. I typically don’t let kids wear headphones or earbuds while we’re doing things. Between classes if something were to happen on campus we need kids to pay attention and get someplace safe.” Kramer said.

Early on, Sargena had different opinions, but now those opinions have changed. Sargena changes her opinions based on the appearance and selfexpression other headphones may not have.

“I switched from airpods to headphones because I don’t like how the airpods look and I think bigger headphones look better. Having airpods, you can easily lose them because you have two, but for headphones you can just put them on.” Sargena said.

Besides Sargena, there are other headphone users, such as Senior Rogelio Rojas. Rojas states that oversized headphones have better quality.

“I switched from airpods to bigger headphones just because they sound better and louder, and people won’t talk to me as much when I do have them on.” Rojas said.

Staff have seen many students with headphones in class and walking the halls. For concerned staff they worry it may cause safety issues. Teachers like Kramer express their concerns with full ear headphones more than airpods.

“If they have to wear them then the airpods because the full ear earphones seal in much more outside sound so if it’s a safety issue then we want a little bit of sound to get in there at least.” Kramer said.

While we have the pros and the cons about bigger headphones, people like Kramer thought the headphones trend ended and have hope that it’ll just be a trend for this year.

“I thought it had gotten away once everybody got over the Beats headphones, everybody started going away, everybody started using airpods so I thought the big headphones were going away but it seems like they are coming back so we’ll have to wait and see. But I think just for convenience and ability to hide them under your hood and under your hair so I think they’ll stick with airpods.” Kramer said.

As there are many music appreciators in our school, and those inspired by this trend Rojas stated that a lot of people in our campus have been seen with bigger headphones because of high quality and style.

“I feel like it’s gonna continue because a lot of people have been switching from airpods to bigger headphones and maybe because of how they look and how the music quality is compared to airpods”. Rojas said.

Illustrated by:Haily Seguiran

1980’s Sony Walkman

1990’s cassette tapes, CDS, minidisks

2001 created IPods for on the go

2004

Bluetooth support streaming music

2008 Beats by Dre first to be intergrated with fashion 2015

First wireless earbuds (Onkyo) with volume control

2017 Airpods beame popular and more used for fashion. 2023

Over-ear headphones became more popular and leaves room for self expression

U S E N T R E H A E T C

The top five songs of AHS teachers

By Logan Houghtelling

Top five songs:

1.“The Story” - Brandi Carlile

2.“Son-Of-A Preacher Man” - Dusty Springfield

3.“Call Me By Your Name” - Lil Nas X

4.Any song by the Beatles

5.Any song by Journey

Top five songs:

1.”Dunya” - Niyaz

2. “Moonlight Sonata”- Beethoven (If played at correct tempo)

3. “You Gotta Be”- Des’ree

4. “Time”- Pink Floyd

5. “Dreams” - Fleetwood Mac

Top five songs:

1. “Hey You”- Pink Floyd

2. “Rock Lobster”- The B-52’s

3. “Suffer”- Bad Religion

4. “2+2=5” - Radiohead

5. “When The Levee Breaks” - Led Zeppelin

Top five songs:

1. “Young at Heart” - Frank Sinatra

2. “Cat’s in the Cradle” - Harry Chaplin

3. Any song by The Beatles

4. Any song by The Rolling Stones

5. Anything that’s good and thought provoking

Top five songs:

1. “At Last” - Etta James

2. “Fields of Gold”- Sting

3. “Roxanne” - The Police

4. “Back to Black”- Amy Winehouse

5. “One Thing” - Kane Brown

Top five Songs:

1. “Gimme Shelter” - The Rolling Stones

2. “Let It Be” - The Beatles

3. “Ten Years Gone” - Led Zeppelin

4. “Open All Night” - Hall and Oates

5. “Can We Still Be Friends” - Todd Rundgren

Science Teacher Samantha Johnson

Social Studies Teacher Andrew Eckloff

English Teacher Kingsley Andersen

Science Teacher Selina Mandel

Science Teacher Brian Fredin

Chemistry Teacher Tom Grace

Bathroom Anxiety

Dozens of Genderqueer students, Only two bathrooms

By Eden Buell

In a school with 1,300 students, only having two bathrooms that align with who you are is a very isolating and invalidating experience. Everytime I try to use the bathroom, it’s like a slap in the face, where AHS is saying, “You don’t exist”. This is the experience I have to go through almost every single day when I have the decision to use the restroom.

Choosing between the Men’s and Women’s public bathrooms has been an issue for me. Mostly I end up resorting to Women’s because it feels like the safest option for me. Although, when I step into the women’s restroom, I feel anxious and out of place, since the bathroom that I am in doesn’t align with who I am. You may ask, “Eden, why don’t you just switch between the Men’s and Women’s?” Because I am not a Man or Woman, this may not be the case for all Nonbinary people but, it is for some. Besides, I definitely would not feel safe in a men’s restroom. I’m thankful that I am privileged enough to live in California where there are a fair amount of gender neutral bathrooms. However, I still run into this problem both inside and outside of school as a Nonbinary person. During my time at AHS, I

have come across this difficult situation quite often.

Out of the multiple bathrooms we have, only two of them are gender neutral bathrooms. One is in the cafeteria which is usually locked, and the other is in the Assistant principal’s office. Most of the time, I wait until my last period of the day to use the bathroom, since there aren’t many people in the Women’s bathroom at that time. Sometimes, I get caught up in work for my last period and I have to wait until I get home. There are also times where I even reduce my intake of water or any other liquid because I know I would have to use the bathroom later. During my Junior year, I used the Gender neutral bathroom in the AP office since I felt comfortable doing so, but now, I’m not so comfortable going there because I do not know the new APs very well. Plus, whenever I used the bathroom in the AP office I would have to ask someone to unlock the door to the restroom, which overall was somewhat tedious, and I’ll admit, a little uncomfortable. Many people who are like me struggle with not feeling comfortable or safe when just trying to use the bathroom almost

daily. We are even attacked or harassed for using the restroom. I hear a lot of speculation around gender neutral bathrooms, but nothing ever seems to be done. Everyone deserves the right to be able to use the bathroom that they are most comfortable with. Having multiple accessible gender neutral bathrooms at AHS is important because they lessen the fear of harassment, it provides a safe private place for transgender, nonbinary, genderqueer, and gender non-conforming students, and they are useful for disabled students who may need assistance. I would like for the San Lorenzo Unified School District to implement more gender neutral bathrooms on their campuses. A good example of a gender neutral bathroom would be a bathroom with multiple ceilingto-floor stalls that would give those using the restroom privacy and safety. I think the best place to put gender neutral bathrooms would be in the breeze-way and possibly some of the restrooms in the quad. If you can think of more reasonable places to put them, please do so. This may not be of use to me now since I will be graduating this year, but I hope for future generations of students, that they won’t have to deal with this issue anymore.

EM’ PIN

Freshmen Wren Tran wins her wrestling match against CVHS, adding another point to win WACC

Photo by Joseph Kim

KICKIN’ IT

Junior Yamilet Diaz dribbles accros the field in a match against Tennyson High School. The AHS Varsity Girls Soccer team won the WACC Shoreline Division and made the North Coast Section Playoffs

Photo by Joseph Kim

Love Town Hall

On March 3, 2023 Senior Jake Dinn performed “Lift Me Up” by Rihanna, while Senior Maile Kim assisted him.

Photo by Joseph Kim