![Social studies teacher Conner Katsev wears his medal, commemorating his achievement of winning the James Madison Fellowship Award. For Katsev, this medal represented everything he worked towards throughout his career. “Some advice would be, don’t get discouraged if you apply once and you don’t get [the fellowship],” Katsev said. “The [effort] to get [it] makes it that much more rewarding when you do get it.”](https://bestofsno.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Hsiao_20240422_Pano_KatsevJamesMadisonAward_006-1200x799.png)
![Freshman Tori Fox dances onstage at the 2023 Oireachtas. Many of her teammates watched her dance and praised her after she received her placement. The support of Foxs teammamtes empowered her. “When I got third [at Oireachtas], everybody just started crying for my friend and I because we were top three together,” Fox said. “When I came off stage, everybody was just running over and trying to hug me.](https://bestofsno.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/gu14b-335-0098-800x1200.jpg)
![IN THE SPOTLIGHT: Junior Zalie Mann performs “I Love to Cry at Weddings,” an ensemble piece from the fall musical Sweet Charity, to prospective students during the Fine Arts Showcase on Wednesday, Nov. 8. The showcase is a compilation of performances and demonstrations from each fine arts strand offered at McCallum. This show is put on so that prospective students can see if they are interested in joining an academy or major.
Sweet Charity originally ran the weekends of Sept. 28 and Oct. 8, but made a comeback for the Fine Arts Showcase.
“[Being at the front in the spotlight] is my favorite part of the whole dance, so I was super happy to be on stage performing and smiling at the audience,” Mann said.
Mann performed in both the musical theatre performance and dance excerpt “Ethereal,” a contemporary piece choreographed by the new dance director Terrance Carson, in the showcase. With also being a dance ambassador, Mann got to talk about what MAC dance is, her experience and answer any questions the aspiring arts majors and their parents may have.
Caption by Maya Tackett.](https://bestofsno.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/53321803427_47cd17fe70_o-1-1200x800.jpg)
![SPREADING THE JOY: Sophomore Chim Becker poses with sophomores Cozbi Sims and Lou Davidson while manning a table at the Hispanic Heritage treat day during lunch of Sept 28. Becker is a part of the students of color alliance, who put together the activity to raise money for their club.
“It [the stand] was really fun because McCallum has a lot of latino kids,” Becker said. “And I think it was nice that I could share the stuff that I usually just have at home with people who have never tried it before.”
Becker recognizes the importance of celebrating Hispanic heritage at Mac.
“I think its important to celebrate,” Becker said. “Because our culture is awesome and super cool, and everybody should be able to learn about other cultures of the world.”
Caption by JoJo Barnard.](https://bestofsno.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/53221601352_4127a81c41_o-1200x675.jpg)
On Dec. 18, the CFA Board of Directors unanimously voted for a system-wide strike in collaboration with Teamsters Local 2010 members between Jan. 22 and Jan. 26.
“We said when we went on the rolling strikes on the four campuses that this was a taste. This is basically what we expected,” said Brad Erickson, president of the SFSU-CFA chapter. “We didn’t think that management would really come with a serious offer based on the four-day rolling strike.”
A five-day strike will be taking place on all 23 CSU campuses. The strikes will depend on the upcoming bargaining days with the CSU management on Jan. 8, 9, 11 and 12.
The following images recap the San Francisco State University and Sacramento State University strikes.
This story was originally published on GoldenGateXpress on December 19, 2023.
