Finding a path forward in the arts in a STEM-obsessed community

Senior Carine Chan’s room is an artist’s haven: Scattered around her are a myriad of pencils, paintbrushes and markers; the walls are lined with drying paintings, finished works and haphazard sketches drawn in fits of inspiration. As her paintbrush hits the canvas, she finds inner peace in focusing on her artwork while also keeping in mind the goal of finishing 15 pieces for her portfolio for her AP Drawing class. 

Chan’s focus on art is less typical in a school and community environment where academics revolve around or heavily encourage participation in STEM subjects and pursuits. 

With this reality, it can be hard for those more focused on the arts and humanities to thrive in an environment that bases success on accomplishments in the sciences in competitions, research papers and taking hard AP science classes such as AP Chemistry. According to a poll run on the Saratoga Falcon Instagram account, over 97% of the students surveyed — 156 of 160 — said they considered Saratoga High to be a STEM-centric school.Only four said they didn’t.

Class signups show this pressure to excel in STEM has increased in the past few years. For example, nearly 24% of seniors — around 70 out of 295 students — are taking AP Physics C this year, one of the most difficult AP classes. This high enrollment means there are three classes of AP Physics C this year compared to the one offered last year. 

Still, with a large variety of non-STEM electives offered at the school, including AP Drawing, AP 2D and 3D Design, AP Music Theory and thriving  programs like music and drama, vibrant communities exist for artists on campus. 

Some students say they have undergone a cathartic experience after learning to recognize what was best for them amid the pressure to pursue STEM. Others have found ways to integrate aspects they love most about the humanities — versatility and interpretation — and applied those lessons and skills to STEM subjects. 

These four artists described their journey balancing personal interests with peer and parental pressure.

Carine Chan: finding her own path 

Chan has been obsessed with painting and drawing since about age 8. She was introduced to visual art through her first set of crayons that she picked up when she was bored one afternoon.

Over time, her passion for art has developed into a daily part of her life. She works with all sorts of mediums ranging from charcoal and paint to printmaking and pastels. With her experience in different mediums, she said she has also grown to appreciate different forms of art, from realism to digital to abstract art. 

Chan estimates she spends four to five hours each week working on her art portfolio. Her most visible piece can be found at Saratoga High — the large “Beloved” mural that stands between the History and English Buildings. She created the mural this past summer as part of a group project with six other students.

Even with a strong passion for art, Chan said she still finds it difficult to focus on her pastimes without getting distracted by others.

“There are times where I don’t feel ‘enough’ compared to those taking multiple AP classes since it always felt like they were doing more than me,” she admitted. 

In sophomore year, she selected Chemistry Honors because her brother, Class of ‘22 alumnus Ethan Chan, had recommended it, and had always been encouraged by her parents and peers to take more rigorous classes. Chan believed she could handle the class well, but after struggling in the class, she said she realized that it was not worth taking a class she was not interested in. 

Even though she runs into roadblocks when it comes to art, Chan said that such issues are part of the creative process, whereas in Chemistry, not understanding concepts would often make her feel like she was running out of time. Chemistry Honors is often a hard class for most sophomore students. 

“Chemistry was hard for me because I struggled with memorizing terminology and understanding concepts,” she said. “Through Chemistry [Honors], I realized that I would be in a significantly worse situation if I kept taking classes I didn’t enjoy.” 

Chan said she enjoyed the class and the teacher, but the course just didn’t suit her learning style.

From her experience with Chemistry Honors, a class that can be extremely rigorous and fast-paced, Chan said she adapted to the mentality that everyone has different talents and different methods of achieving their goals. 

She recalls that her parents told her to prioritize her time wisely, and she used their advice to focus on what works best for her, rather than getting distracted by what other students were doing.

Since sophomore year, Chan said she has learned to pick classes based on what has worked for her in the past instead of trying to copy what everyone else is doing. For example, she prefers taking classes that grant more creative freedom compared to classes that depend more on understanding specific concepts. 

This year, she has chosen classes that she feels are suitable for her. 

“Even though I’m not planning to pursue art as a career, it’s a hobby I’d like to incorporate into my job one day,” Chan said.

Courtesy of Sofiya Malko

A digital drawing of a forest scene done by Malko

Sofiya Malko: a compromise between STEM and art

Not all students who want to pursue their dream in humanities have their parents’ support. Junior Sofiya Malko, who loves animation, said her parents have pushed her to become a software engineer to earn a more sustainable salary as an adult. 

After doing art commissions for a while, Sofiya realized how difficult the job was. After doing 30 commissions including art pieces, drawings and animations, she’d only earned $500-600, or about $16 a piece.  

Her love for animation kickstarted five years ago when she moved from Kazakhstan to the U.S. She had been watching many YouTube videos about her favorite game, “Undertale,” until she found an artist who introduced her to digital drawings and animation.

“I saw her work and thought, ‘Wow, this is so cool, I want to do that!’ so I started drawing digitally on my phone and then tried animating,” Malko said. “When I actually got into it, I found an artist and animator community [Hyuns Dojo] that hosted different challenges to animate and it seemed fun. So I joined and slowly sharpened my skills.”

Eventually, however, Malko’s and her parents’ interests collided as she wanted to go further in arts while they wanted her to think about what she really wanted to do for a sustainable future career.

During the time when her interests first collided with her parents’ regarding how she would balance art and programming in her future career, — five years prior to the compromise they settled on earlier this year — Malko recalls they had a difficult time finding a middle ground between the two paths. 

On two occasions during this period, Malko was encouraged by her parents to refrain from drawing and doodling, especially during school and in the middle of tests. She found this lifestyle difficult to maintain, as she had always enjoyed drawing, saying it had also helped her focus.

She initially found her parents’ words to be discouraging, and she didn’t know how she would continue to pursue art.

In an attempt to expose her to more options, her older brother tried showing her the basics of coding and her dad tried showing her how his software engineer job uses programming, which he believes to be “essential to learn.” 

She has since dabbled in various activities to combine both interests, such as physics or astronomy. After a long period of trying several fields of study, Sofiya has decided to pursue game development as a career, where she can express herself creatively while still having the potential to earn a high salary.

“It’s not ideal, but I think it’s a good arrangement since I can keep doing what I love while also supporting myself at the same time,” she said.

Courtesy of Audrey Wong

Audrey’s flute section members gathering together for a group huddle.

Audrey Wong: multifaceted benefits from band

Other students have found a dependable community through a creative outlet on campus. 

Junior Audrey Wong has played the flute and participated in band since sixth grade. She points to the band as a haven for artistically inclined students.

“When I played the flute in middle school, I did it because I wanted to be with my friends,” she said. “But then after, my interest increased during seventh and eighth grade, which is when you get to be in the marching band. And then my first year as a freshman was really fun: There were a lot of fun activities in band camp, which made me want to stay.” 

Wong said she especially enjoys the bond that “every one of the 200 musicians in band” share. Even if they aren’t close friends, she said she still feels comfortable waving to them in halls due to all the time spent together. Band members practice 9-15 hours each week and spend an additional 5 hours each week during competition season.  

“You get to see these people at school and you can wave ‘hi’ to them,” Wong said. “Any time I see an upperclassman or a drum major and wave to them, they always wave ‘hi’ back and it’s very nice to see.”

Wong said her experience in band has also helped her grow as a person, which can directly translate to skills needed in any field of work. For example, as band manager in her junior year, Wong helped with more technical and behind-the-scenes items like setting up canopies on hot days, loading uniforms and equipment onto the truck on competition days and checking uniform quality. She has also organized her time well for the extra time commitment required of officers in addition to the weekly 15-hour commitment required for regular band musicians during competition season. 

She said many points that are frequently stressed to the band musicians are especially emphasized to her as the manager.

“The band instructors and parents are always telling us to leave a place cleaner than you found it and be respectful and be presentable,” she said. “We’re always told that we represent our school and to be mindful of what we say.” 

Wong also receives a lot of support from her parents, who have encouraged her to go further in band and signed her up for flute classes. While they don’t want her to go to an art school, Wong said they “just want her to be happy” and are “fine” with anything else she wants to minor in. 

As she has continued playing in the school’s marching band program, Wong has become less concerned with finding a sustainable job in music. At most, she said she has thought about joining concert bands when she’s in college, but does not have a clear idea of what she wants to do yet.

“I don’t think it really correlates with what I want to go into. It’s just an extracurricular I find fun,” Wong said.

Courtesy of Dimock

Hannah Dimock on the APES trip to Costa Rica

Hannah Dimock: healing from pressure through humanities 

Senior Hannah Dimock, who also holds a passion in the humanities — albeit for writing and history — said she has felt a similar pressure to choose STEM classes during course selections. Last year, with a heavy but humanities-centered course load including English 11 Honors, AP U.S. History and AP Spanish, she still felt like she wasn’t doing enough compared to her classmates.

  “There are times when I felt a high pressure to take advanced science courses and fell victim to self-comparison,” Dimock said. “Even though I somewhat wanted to, it felt as if my course selections were automatically decided for me by what everybody else was doing.” 

As a result of the constant peer pressure — many of whom were taking multiple AP science courses — Dimock decided to take AP Environmental Science, a STEM-heavy class she had initially not planned on taking. However, she ended up loving the class and wants to pursue it in the future as a minor in addition to pursuing English and or Literature. 

“I really enjoyed AP Environmental Science because it’s very versatile,” she said. “There are so many routes you can take, such as environmental journalism or field research.” 

Her parents have been extremely supportive in her choice to pursue humanities, as both of them have studied in the field themselves. Her father is an English teacher at Branham High School, while her mother is a senior associate Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education at Stanford University. Both her parents studied English, with her dad additionally majoring in social studies. 

“Through humanities, I can experience the same passion for learning that I don’t find in the majority of STEM field offerings,” Dimock said. 

Dimock said she finds humanities more “versatile” compared to most sciences because it can be interpreted in different ways, which contributes to their healing power. She joined the Soundings literary and arts magazine in her junior year and took Creative Writing in freshman year as a way to take advantage of the writing programs and opportunities that the school offers. 

“Writing is such an intimate, introspective art through which I love connecting with people — especially through Soundings,” Dimock said. “It’s been cool to find a community of other students who have the same interests as me.”

Similarly, she loves history for its ability to provide knowledge and power that might be overlooked. In 2022, she took a Stanford Summer Humanities Institute course on Roman history, which analyzed Roman legacies through books. 

She loved the class immensely for its heavy discussion-based nature. Dimock noted that she likes history because it’s something that is permanent rather than temporary.  

“I definitely feel like humanities has helped me escape from the pressure because you can truly express yourself without any right or wrong answers,”  she said.  “You can express yourself really however you want with writing and it’s more subjective. It definitely gives you a little bit more space to explore your own mind.”