After school, senior Jason Li often heads over to the weight room to work out, where he hang outs with athletes. On Fridays during lunch, he goes to math club, where he spends time with math teacher P.J. Yim and the mathletes. And on other nights, he hangs out in teacher Erick Rector’s room, practicing with his hardworking speech and debate teammates.
Li said that he often goes to the academically talented students for help with his classes, but he also respects the athletically talented students such as quarterback JJ Walters, “an amazing athlete and a great guy.”
Undoubtedly the campus has its divisions. According to Li, there are, among other groups, jocks, drama kids, speech and debaters, the mathletes.
“There definitely are friend groups that are established,” Li said. “We tend to be attracted to people with similar interests or personalities, and more often than not, we are intimidated to seek others who are different than us.”
Students like Li are able to bridge the gap between different cliques on campus.
“Those who aren't afraid [of being friends with people who are different than them] end up being the kids who know everyone or who seem to be in multiple friend groups,” Li said.
In Li’s opinion, a student’s placement on the social hierarchy is based on his or her success in their respective interests on campus.
“As long as you exceed in your field, you can be respected,” Li said. “Everyone here respects others for excellence, whether it be in academics, the arts or in athletics.”
According to Li, this segregation based on talent and success is different from how he remembers the social culture at Fisher Middle School, which he attended for three years, and Los Gatos High, which he attended for the first week of his freshman year. Li believes that although not perfect, Saratoga is noticeably more accepting and less judgemental than schools in Los Gatos.
“[At Los Gatos] there were a ton of other people that I was always scared to talk to, but at [Saratoga], I don’t feel anxiety when meeting new people,” Li said. “At Los Gatos, it was clear that the ‘cool kids’ were the jocks.”
According to Li, the school’s culture allows students to assume any role of their choice without categorizing people.
“One of the greatest things about Saratoga is that you can be speech captain and be a varsity wrestler, and no one will label you one thing,” Li said. “Everyone is so open and friendly that I don’t feel any fear or anxiety when meeting new people.”
At times, however, “being friends with everyone” can come with complications. Li said that sometimes, though rarely, he ends up mediating conflicts between different groups.
“I'll admit there are times where some of my friends don't like my other friends, but it's never been too much of a problem,” Li said.
In the Homecoming quad day, Li played the role of Toad in the Super Mario themed skit. He wrote the skit, in which Toad interacted with many characters, such as Peach and Togepi, played by people of various social groups.
“My goal for Homecoming was for our senior class to truly come together as one,” he said. “I knew I had friends that weren't as active with usual activity like this, and I took it upon myself to bring them into our quad day. That's all I wanted to do with my diverse friends — bring them together and connect everyone.”