Features

When colleges look over a student transcript, admissions officers focus mainly on a student's sophomore, junior and senior years. Although still taken into account by colleges, freshman year is more of a "freebie."

Junior Tim Lycurgus tried to beat the system freshman year by slacking and procrastinating more than he wishes he had; now he knows the error of his ways.

“During freshman year I was just happy to be done with Redwood [and] in high school,” said Lycurgus. “I didn’t really care that much because college was far off and the [freshman] classes were easy.”

"It's a choice," sophomore Natalie Berg said with conviction, referring to her vegan diet.

By conforming to a vegan diet, Berg originally intended to display her disapproval of the cruel treatment of animals in food production. However, over the past few years, she has also observed another benefit of her lifestyle choice: healthier eating.

In addition to eating more vegetables and regulating her protein and vitamin intake, Berg has also found herself scanning nutrition facts for ingredients and health contents.

Halloween came a month early for physics teacher Kirk Davis, who dressed up as Sir Isaac Newton on Monday, Sept. 28, to educate students about the life and importance of the historical figure.

The Friday before, Davis told his five physics periods they would have a substitute. So students were surprised when a man wearing a wig with an apple in it and a black gown appeared in front of the class and began teaching. The "sub" declined to be called "Mr. Davis" and instead insisted on being addressed as "Mr. Newton."

It's Monday tutorial, and sophomore A.J. Nguyen is in his Chinese class diligently finishing up the chemistry honors homework that he didn't get to the night before. Meanwhile, his friends are cheerfully swapping weekend stories, whining about upcoming tests and commenting about how much time they spend online. Nguyen would have loved to join in with the conversations, but the time he spends online is the exact reason why he can't join the fun.

"Oh, so it's like riverdance!" is often the reaction sophomore Stephanie Shimizu receives when she says she Irish dances. From a range of comments, many ask if she is part Irish. In truth, Shimizu, of Chinese-Japanese descent, has no Irish blood in her—uncommon among her dance peers.

“I started [Irish] dancing when I was in third grade because my best friend [who is also Asian] had been Irish dancing for a couple of years and told me I should try it,” said Shimizu.

Since the day the first website was officially put online, people all over the world have used the Internet to reach out into cyberspace. While that very first site taught readers about the World Wide Web and its different purposes, government and world history teacher Kirk Abe took the opportunity to showcase his hobby of drumming.

Although four seniors of the chess team graduated last year, the Falcons are still confident of their success this year with the emergence of rising underclassmen.