In life, Michelle Zauner’s mother, Chongmi, would show love by remembering. 

At her dinner table, crowded with banchan side dishes, she would silently observe which ones you didn’t touch, which…

“One, two, three, four!”

Immediately after the count, Pop Performance drummer and sophomore Sky Jaan, the only drummer in Pop Performance, opens the musical piece with the hard beating of tom-toms,…

Food and drink lovers are expressing concerns for a rapidly-spreading boba shortage. Shipments of tapioca to the West Coast drastically decreased in number, going from 40 to just 19 in a matter of two…

A pile of misaligned papers sits cluttered on the edge of a desk.

From far away, it looks like nothing more than handwritten school notes. But at a closer glance, every blank space of the notebook…

How do you speak American? Despite the wide array of cultures found in this nation and the notion that the United States has no official language, according to the Golden Globes, the answer is simple:…

Distant. Unthinkable. The virus couldn’t possibly reach the United States. Not California. Not Orange County. Not Irvine.

And definitely not our school campus.

Friday, March 13, 2020.

On that…

Skilled, delicate fingers meticulously poke at the screen of an iPad mini as junior Jay Hernandez, with headphones tucked neatly in their ears and Dungeons & Dragons podcast “The Adventure Zone”…

Over the past month, the initial 1,000 positive cases of COVID-19 within jails dropped down to 13 positives with about 27 pending tests, according to the Orange County Sheriff’s Department. Despite the…

American Literature teachers launched their Black poetry unit, which focuses on the Harlem Renaissance, last week in a push to incorporate more Black voices into the Eurocentric curriculum. While the literary…

Founder and senior Kathryn Mann’s business began in her Advanced Technical Theater class when drama teacher Samantha Sanford gave students a month to work on a project that would build upon their artistic…

In 1997, my Korean-born parents set off for the United States with a luggage carrier between them. Now, they are American citizens. My mom watches Hollywood movies without Korean subtitles to decode for…

With the College Board discontinuing SAT Subject Tests on Jan. 19, students’ means of demonstrating their academic strengths have undergone a permanent shift towards other factors, among them the Advanced…

Irvine Unified School District experienced a mass internet outage due to issues with the district’s service provider, leaving Portola High students and faculty on campus without Wi-Fi access for the…

Over the years, students living in Irvine have felt minor effects of the wildfires that ravaged Northern California and surrounding areas: canceled sports practices and social media feeds full of fire…

After protests associated with the Black Lives Matter Movement increased the pressure on discussions about systemic racism, teachers and students initiated a series of proposals over the summer that initiated…

No, “kung-flu” is not a distasteful punchline from an outdated comedy or offensive historical cartoon. Believe it or not, it recently came from the mouth of a White House official and is among several…

This story was originally published on Portola Pilot on April 17, 2020.

From mom-and-pop restaurants to local bookstores, small businesses play a large role in establishing the character of a community. But with the onset of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and the resulting…

Since the World Health Organization declared the Coronavirus a pandemic on March 11, colleges including Chapman University and the University of California, Irvine have suspended in-person instruction,…

UPDATE (03/13/20): The neighboring Los Angeles Unified School District and San Diego Unified School District both announced the cancellation of all in-person classes until April 6. Private schools Crean…

In a small room in East West Studios, the sounds of strings plucking, horns blowing and sticks dropping fill the room as a conglomeration of students from Orange County look attentively toward director…

Junior Maria Pantoja sits across from us with a soft smile, self-assured yet reticent. As we begin to discuss her soon-to-be published poetry book “You Matter to Me,” her eyes begin to spark with enthusiasm.

“I’ve…

The novel coronavirus has affected over 17,000 people across 23 countries with a report of 369 fatalities, as of Feb. 3. The city of Wuhan, China claims most of the affected patients and casualties and…

Built upon a foundation of developing understanding and friendship, Unified Sports is a program that brings special education and general education students together through sports. The first unified game…

An immigrant family gathers for dinner and begins to reflect on their day, the familiar sounds of their native language ringing across the dining table. A child tugs on their mother’s arm and asks, “I…

If you’ve seen several students scrambling to film, assemble and edit, they are most likely on a mission to submit their entry for the Orange County Film Festival (OCFF) before the Dec.16 deadline.

OCFF,…

Slimy peas, salty beans and preservative-packed cranberry sauce are just some of the foods donated during the holiday food drive season. Portola students collected over 200 cans for the Second Harvest…

Assistant cross country coach Rodney Anzai made significant history as the first Japanese-American to attain the rank of colonel in the Air Force Medical Service Corps in 1981.

Inducted into the…

Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale” was published in 1985 when my mother was a teenager. It’s sequel “The Testaments” came out last month. A generation later, the story seamlessly reopens…

From the Clean-Up Crew to its mail delivery system and gardening program, the Special Education department is constantly finding ways for its students to get involved in the school community. As of this…

Special education expanded its program in the 2019-20 school year, ushering in a slew of community projects designed to foster its students’ social development skills and to build community relationships. 
…

Sophomore Andrew Harriger adjusts the camera. With a smile on her face, sophomore Elena Kim declares “PNN 10/1 take five.” Junior Skye Lee and sophomore Tiffany Park take a deep breath and began.

“What’s…

While the art studio on campus is filled with buckets of worn brushes and pungent paints, senior Katherine Hung needs only the elegant glide of her pen over her tablet screen to make her characters come…

Established by new drama teacher Samantha Sanford, Portola High’s first Cappies program invites all artists who possess a passion deeply rooted in theater to take their understanding of the performing…

As the Bulldogs fall into stride with the new school year and mature alongside their school, it is easy to forget that many staff members have been growing and reaching major milestones in their personal…

Freshman Erin Choi lifts her carbon coated arrow and loads it into her bow as she eyes the target in front of her. She strenuously pulls back the braided string and rests her hand underneath her chin….

There have been many enduring sports curses, from the Madden cover curse of the NFL to the curse of the Bambino that plagued the Boston Red Sox. Now, Portola’s baseball team has its own: the Anthony…

Hours of jury-rigging planes and practicing maneuvers culminate with shattered pieces, but junior Justin Tam is not deterred. With the patience and expertise developed over the past five years, he is eager…

After cultivating a philosophy club for a year, junior Stephanie Zhang and her devoted team of philosophy fanatics advanced from club founders to curriculum developers as they became the first students…

The steady pulse of the drum permeates the air, providing a solid background that accompanies the harmonic blend of the acoustic guitar, bass guitar and piano. A melodious voice layers onto these complex…

Eighteen performers shared moving stories on “Perspective” to students from all Irvine Unified School District high schools, who gathered in the Portola theater on Dec. 15 for “Chapter 2” of Irvine…

Within the horde of frantic juniors cramming for upcoming tests in office hours sits doe-eyed and fresh-faced freshman Sabreen Alam. She carries a passion for the field of Science, Technology, Engineering…

With melodious voices rising and falling in beautiful phrases, the soprano, alto, tenor and bass lines blend in harmony for the musical arrangement. The members of Rising Dynamics, Portola High’s first…