elESTOQUE LETTER FROM THE EDITORS

Editors-in-Chief:

Taryn Lam, Kalyani Puthenpurayil, Lillian Wang

Managing Editors:

Meggie Chen, Lauren Chuu, Sarah Liu, Michelle Zheng

Design Editor: Sonia Verma

Graphics Editor: April Wang

News Editors:

Jason Chu, Brandon Xu, Alyssa Yang, Eric Zhou

Features Editors:

Kathryn Foo, Dahlia Schilling, Alan Tai, Mihir Vishwarupe

Opinion Editors:

Anika Bhandarkar, Crystal Cheng, Megha Mummaneni, Jisha Rajala

Entertainment Editors:

Samika Bhatkar, Ananya Chaudhary, Jami Lim, Aashi Venkat

Staff Writers:

Chiran Arumugam, Nameek Chowdhury, Sagnik Nag Chowdhury, Melody Cui, Abha Dash, Krish Dev, Arjun Dhruv, Mikaylah Du, Avni Gandhi, Tvisha Gupta, Anna Jerolimov, Lily Jiang, Minjae Kang, Pranati Kotamraju, Manas Kottakota, Sophia Ma, Sameer Maheshwari, Gauri Manoj, Kripa Mayureshwar, Riya Murthy, Aashna Patel, Aidan Ruan, Trisha Sannappanavar, Aditya Shukla, Darpan Singh, Jiya Singh, Irene Tang, Yash Thapliyal, Eshika Tiwari, Mira Wagner, Alex Zhang, Angela Zhang, Stephanie Zhang, Vincent Zhao Adviser: Julia Satterthwaite, MJE

Mission Statement:

El Estoque will accurately inform our community through well-researched, unbiased and in-depth accounts of the student body and staff, news and developments and taboo topics prevalent in and near MVHS. Investigating various voices and credible perspectives, we hope to foster active discussion, effect positive change and spread awareness of timely, relevant content. As a trustworthy and reliable source of information, we strive to be accountable, adaptable and ready to correct and address our mistakes. Constantly striving for improvement, we will uphold integrity and ethics to be respectful and empathetic to our sources and our readers. We will exercise our press freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment and California Ed Code 48907 while maintaining a community passionate about our work and journalism as a whole.

To the Class of 2023 —

As we step into your shoes, we find ourselves revisiting the values we’ve gained from your guidance. Throughout the years, we’ve watched in awe as you diligently juggled afterschool activities and managed to persevere despite MVHS’s rigorous environment. On top of that, you took steps to slowly bridge the initial distance between us. While it may seem surface level, driving us to grab Chipotle and paying for our $6 Starbucks frappuccinos meant more to us than you could ever imagine.

As the years progressed, our connection deepened – not only did you help us thrive in a learning environment, you also focused on building strong friendships with us. From helping us solve that one physics problem that simply didn’t make sense to accompanying us to spirit-infused rallies, your dedication has fostered a tight-knit community at our school, and soon, as our turn arrives, we will make sure the threads don’t come loose.

As you embark upon unique paths and experiences, you have shown us that there are endless opportunities past high school — that attending a four year college may not be the right fit for everyone and that a few Bs on our transcripts won’t make us failures. Our Features package focuses on your future paths, such as traveling the world as you continue your education while our Sports section focuses on how some of you will continue playing a sport in college. Whatever journey you choose, we can hardly contain our excitement for you.

Not only will we miss your presence in the classroom, we’ll also miss experiencing with you the memories that make high school special. From driving to In-N-Out after a Friday night football game to experiencing a prom night that dazzled in front of the mist-covered San Francisco skyline, we will always cherish the memories we’ve made together. We’ve followed in your footsteps for three years, and now, as you hand over the reins to us, it’s our turn to leave our mark. We promise to bring our programs to new heights and truthfully, it’s all thanks to the skills you’ve taught us.