Features

BAY Magazine, a local magazine started by Saratoga students and overseen by SHS alumnus and editor-in-chief, T.T. Tu, has completed a full year of publication and is on schedule to release its sixth issue this winter.

After the two years of hype and extensive planning for the new Media Arts Program (MAP) building, the highly anticipated project has finally broken ground and is expected to be completed by August 2010.

The 4,800-square-foot facility, located behind the weight room and woodshop, will include a TV studio, an audio recording studio and classroom space. It is not only for the students involved in MAP, but also for the rest of the school.

After the two years of hype and extensive planning for the new Media Arts Program (MAP) building, the highly anticipated project has finally broken ground and is expected to be completed by August 2010.

The 4,800-square-foot facility, located behind the weight room and woodshop, will include a TV studio, an audio recording studio and classroom space. It is not only for the students involved in MAP, but also for the rest of the school.

Followed by flashing light bulbs and an entourage of men in black, California State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell was treated as a celebrity as he visited Saratoga High School Aug. 27.

“Class of ’09, so fine.”

Their sophomore class shirts said it all. This year’s graduating class will send an amazing 16 seniors to 12 different colleges across the United States to excel in Division I, II and III for eight different sports.

Individual trophies were also won, with junior Charles Sun taking 4th place, freshman Brian Wai placing 7th, freshman Evan Ye in 10th, senior Jeff Young, last year’s co-champion, came in13th and Sankash Shankar finished in 17th.

Although Ye, Wai, and Shankar were newcomers to the championship, they contributed three of the top five individual scores for the team.

Teaching is often a selfless job. Teachers spend much of their time to ensure a better life for younger generations, but in return they are not paid the salaries they deserve and are often criticized more than they are appreciated. Still, according to French teacher Kim Bergkamp, the effort is worth the reward of knowing that she has helped her students understand a difficult subject.

“I love when a student finally gets it,” said Bergkamp. “It is really rewarding when you see a student who has been working really hard get a great test grade. Their hard work has paid off and that is fun to see.”

There is an overwhelming and ever-growing list of accomplishments that alumni of Saratoga High have achieved. Each success story seems to top the rest, yet all are unique in their own way. Alumnus Roza Pyghambarzadeh, who graduated from Saratoga High in 2007, is not only one of these graduates who have raised the bar in the past few years, but she has done it in style. Pyghambarzadeh, a sophomore at the Marshall School of Business at USC, started her own social networking website for females to “swap dresses by simply going online and browsing each other’s profiles.”