Features

Last summer, senior Casey Gilligan worked as a teacher’s assistant for Saratoga Elementary kindergarten teacher Julie Kwok. One day, as she waited for the children to finish writing, she saw a boy struggling to write simple sentences on his paper.  Gilligan was able to recognize his frustration. Rather than having him dread the task of […]

Class of 2016 alumna Nina Ann Nelson gazed out at the packed arena in Amway Center, in Orlando, Fla., in June 2019 as she belted into a microphone, surrounded by the four fellow members of her a cappella girl group, Citizen Queen. As they finished the last harmony of their rendition of Ariana Grande’s “No […]

During a recent tutorial, English 11 Honors and Creative Writing teacher Amy Keys’ classroom was a hub of action. Throughout the 40-minute period, students on the editorial board of the school’s art and literary magazine, Soundings, were discussing upcoming deadlines, editing student submissions and finalizing artistic choices. Soundings has featured selected students’ submissions since 1986, […]

The first thing senior Amoli Vanavadiya did after immigrating to Saratoga from Bangalore, India, in the summer of 2018 was to join the school’s cross-country team. She had been interested in running since elementary school, and she found out about cross-country while researching possible extracurriculars here.  Cross-country caught her attention because it was not available […]

Last August, junior Willie Kuiper found herself in a difficult situation: Her family had just moved to Saratoga from the hometown of Eindhoven in the Netherlands, and Kuiper was about to undertake the grueling task of assimilating into an American public high school as a junior. During her first month here, Kuiper noticed glaring differences […]

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 […]