Features

At Art Hub Academy, student artists work on their paintings propped up on desks and on easels lining the walls. The well-lit room smells heavily of oil paints and carries the ambient mix of audio — folk rock artist Don McLean’s lyrics blending with teachers talking to students and rough brush strokes against canvas.  Most […]

While video games and education are commonly viewed as two non-overlapping fields, AP CS and Precalculus Honors teacher Jarvin Bayona regularly incorporates the lessons he learned from video games into his daily teaching. Bayona started his gaming journey at age 2. He remembers playing video games on his parents’ Nintendo Entertainment System. He especially liked […]

In early October, when Staff Sergeant Jay Black, a recruiter from RSS San Jose South, walked into the SHS band building and introduced himself and the San Diego-based Marine Division Band, junior Alison Okuno and senior Christopher Okuno eagerly anticipated watching their sister Caroline Okuno perform in the professional band.  Caroline, a class of 2019 […]

After getting close at band bake sales and fundraisers, sophomores Lexi Cleland and Minh Do began to date. They have been together for six months. They both said that their relationship has been beneficial for their mental health, but agreed that having a high school relationship is not necessary for happiness.  “You can’t really be […]

Walking into English teacher Amy Keys’s Room 006, students see bookshelves hugging almost every wall, organized by genre, author and topic. Books range from poetry and anthologies to science fiction and mystery, carrying titles like “The Great Gatsby” or “The Round House” and authors from Shirley Jackson to Louise Erdrich and John Steinbeck. With her […]

While most Santa Cruz-goers plan beach excursions with their friends to play in the waves or relax under the sun, senior Marina Kaypaghian, co-president of Cutback Cleanups, has different motives in mind: Her visits to the beach with her club are intended to reduce ocean pollution and educate students on climate change. To date, Cutback […]

After six years in the making “Arcane,” the highly anticipated TV show developed by Riot Games, premiered on Nov. 6, garnering mass positive reception and rave critic scores: 100% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 9.2/10 on IMDb.  Focusing on several characters from the video game “League of Legends,” “Arcane” centers on the conflicts between the […]

A face drowning in quicksand, a screaming figure bound in gauze — senior Shani Chiu’s art isn’t afraid to get scary. But a sense of complex beauty underlies many of their haunting works, like their graphite illustration of a man crammed within the parameters of the page. His gaunt, puppet-like face and terror-stricken eyes subtly […]

A large fenced gateway marks the entrance to Madronia Cemetery, a Saratoga historical site located about half a mile north of Saratoga Village. A blooming arboretum and walkway of beautiful flowers line the entrance. Placards engraved in stone cover the front wall of the cemetery.  Begun in 1863, the cemetery was named after the madrone […]

Three years after the end of “Game of Thrones” (GoT), the most-watched television show in history, its long-awaited prequel, “House of the Dragon,” will premiere on HBO in 2022 with 10 episodes.  “House of the Dragon” — which is set 200 years prior to GoT — was announced in October 2019, replacing a previous prequel […]