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.

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.”