Brandon Yang

As summer approaches, so does the deadline to apply for internships and other programs, as well as college application season for the current juniors and scholarships due dates for the seniors, many students will find themselves scrambling to find teachers, guidance counselors and other staff members to write a recommendation letter for them. While upperclassmen may be more familiar with this process, some students may not be sure how to start. The first step, of course, is to figure out the best staff member to write the letter.

With commercials on TV and large billboards for the 2010 Census everywhere, almost everyone knows about the forms they are suppose to fill out and mail back. In addition to all the ads placed by the US Census, another group, especially in Silicon Valley, has started its own campaign for the census: Write in "Taiwanese."

Guidance counselors are familiar figures around school. In the fall, they visit the classrooms to discuss requirements and again at the end of the year to educate students about classes for the next year. Even so, some students are not sure what to talk about with their counselor or when to make appointments, resulting in rare visits—and the failure to make an important connection.

"These two men first meet in 1 Samuel 16 when one becomes aware of the musical talent of the other," said Alex Trebek, the host of Jeopardy. After two weeks of competing on College Jeopardy, '08 alumnus Ryan Stoffers reached Final Jeopardy in the topic of Biblical Kings during the second and final game of the two-part College Finals which aired on Feb. 12, coming in second place. The night before, he had placed second, $5,200 short of first, so he needed to make up the difference.

Teachers and administrators have been thinking of instituting finals before winter break for several years now, and some teachers have taken the matter into their own hands by scheduling their own early finals—sometimes to the dismay of their colleagues.

Less than 10 years ago, English teacher Erick Rector had a much different role here than he does today. He was one of the students participating in teachers' lessons and doing homework. As both a student and a teacher, Rector was recognized as an amusing, funny person, but he was not the popular person he is today among students. In fact, he was the opposite.

In 1989, 13-year-old Joe Harris Sullivan broke into a 72-year-old woman's home and robbed and raped her. Witnesses testified that Sullivan did commit those crimes. On Nov. 9, 20 years later, this case went before the Supreme Court, along with another case, in which Terrance Graham, then 17, was arrested for trying to rob a restaurant.

With the world transitioning to a more electronic one, many aspects of everyday life are going digital. Because technology plays such an important role, such advances should also be used in education, such as the Amazon Kindle.

With the world transitioning to a more electronic one, many aspects of everyday life are going digital. Because technology plays such an important role, such advances should also be used in education, such as the Amazon Kindle.

It's 8 a.m. on the first Saturday in June and the Prospect High School parking lot is nearly empty. A small crowd gathers in front of the office, waiting for a staff member to appear. This is not a scarcely-attended school-sponsored event but a futuristic depiction of the SAT Subject Test administration.

The headlines of newspapers around the world are all screaming one term: swine flu. Scientifically known as the H1N1 influenza virus, this disease is spreading around the world and is currently just one level below a full-blown pandemic according to the World Health Organization. More than 100 people have died from this new virus, yet many are not worried.

For decades, students have been given massive textbooks, some to be carried back and forth between school and home, others left alone and forgot until June. Many of these books are old and damaged, the newer ones already deteriorating. It is time to think about replacing these with something more advanced and less destructible: digital textbooks.

When English teacher Natasha Ritchie gave her English 11 Honors class a “practice write” assignment last November, junior Steven Hong thought it was just another 800-word essay assignment. So a few months later, in February, when Ritchie congratulated several of her students for making it to the state level in a contest, Hong was confused at first, like a few other students who had advanced. “I completely forgot because I wrote the letter sometime in first semester,” said Hong. “And it took a while before I even remembered what my essay was about.”

It began as a normal conversation between two students in the Au Bon Pain café at Virginia Tech University. One moment, witnesses only saw a casual meeting between two friends; the next, one student was holding onto the other’s decapitated, blood-dripping head in one hand, and gripping a kitchen knife if the other. Even the police who quickly arrived and arrested the murderer were horrified by the scene. Another murder incident struck Virginia Tech on Jan. 21, nearly two years after the mass shooting on campus that left 30 people dead and another 30 wounded. Although fewer people died in this latest incident, the horror is that another life was ended on the now infamous campus. This incident shows that despite the improvements in counseling and security for students attending the school, more efforts must be made to prevent violence from occurring here and at other campuses.

This year, colleges in the United States have been scouting and recruiting prospective students in China and other countries. At math contests and other competitions, high-performing teens have been offered scholarships to prestigious private colleges in the United States. Harvard, one of the schools most prominently recruiting, is hoping to boos¬t its reputation in the math and science departments.

Upperclassmen here and at other schools often complain about the stress associated with the SAT and ACT. The disappearance of such tests would bring immense joy to all students who have yet to take them. However, is this idea as great as it seems?

High school students are constantly faced with the challenge of balancing work, school, friends and family in their schedules. This is especially true for seniors at the start of the school year, when they become inundated with college applications. This fall, however, the seniors are not the only stressed group on campus. Many teachers at Saratoga High are also juggling a more difficult balancing act this year, due to a change in the California Teachers of English Learners (CTEL) requirements.

The lunch bell rings and the serenity of the campus is broken. Underclassmen rush to the cafeteria, hoping to grab a spot at the front of the lunch line to buy cookies before they run out. Most upperclassmen, who have the privilege to go off campus at lunch, drive themselves to local restaurants for their meals. Or at least this is the way it used to be. A rise in gas prices seems to have encouraged more juniors and seniors to stay on campus, which causes frustratingly long lines and fewer eating areas. These crowded conditions have made lunchtime less enjoyable for many students. As more upperclassmen remain on campus, many areas have become uncomfortably crowded. The lines leading to the cafeteria now extend farther into the quad, causing many students to waste their lunchtime waiting to buy food. These long lines tempt students to cut with their friends, thus making conditions even worse.

After having taught at Saratoga for 11 years, math teacher and department head Mike Navrides is leaving to fill an opening at Los Gatos High. Despite the change of location, Navrides will continue to teach the same subjects, AP Statistics and Algebra 2. “People were very shocked when I told them,” said Navrides. “But after they recovered from the initial shock, the department and school were very understanding and supportive, which I am very grateful for.”

Hundreds of years ago, the average person had no way to receive the latest news. Everything traveled by voice, as few people could read and write. Eventually, the printed newspaper was developed as a way to spread news and propaganda among the people. However, young adults and teenagers have begun to rely on the Internet for almost all their news. Rather than forgetting the newspaper, students should continue to read and learn from it.

A Saratoga driver sits in his car on his way to work in the morning in front of a stop sign, waiting for a line of cars to end. After a while, traffic has not lessened. The number of cars going down Saratoga Ave. is nearly endless. The driver finally attempts to rush through the traffic, barely avoiding another driver in a large SUV going 60 mph honking the horn angrily. Surviving the incident, the driver then makes his way towards his office.

A Saratoga driver sits in his car on his way to work in the morning in front of a stop sign, waiting for a line of cars to end. After a while, traffic has not lessened. The number of cars going down Saratoga Ave. is nearly endless. The driver finally attempts to rush through the traffic, barely avoiding another driver in a large SUV going 60 mph honking the horn angrily. Surviving the incident, the driver then makes his way towards his office.

“O hai, this r intrstng stuf! Luv teh dyagramm!” commented a user on icanhascheezburger.com. The post, made about an article that analyzed the evolution of language on the web, is an accurate representation of the language teens use.