The end of the 2020-21 school year marks the start of retirement for six MVHS staff members — math teacher Martin Jennings, Guidance Senior Clerical Assistant Elaine Hamilton,…

Expect the unexpected

Sophia · Quarantine mottos to live by – Eric Otto
“Expect the unexpected. That’s really been something that I’ve been thinking about a lot since COVID began.”

COVID…

Senior Meha Gupta  – 114 grams of happiness

After much debate, senior Meha Gupta was able to convince her dad to buy her absolute favorite food: Chocolate fudge Pop Tarts (the official PopTart…

In March of 2020, a couple days before school shut down and a pandemic transformed the world into an indefinite state of desuetude, a www.change.org petition began circulating in my AP Physics I group…

Since he was young, senior Konosuke Kato had always been fascinated by rockets and airplanes — his dream was to be a fighter pilot. But as he grew up, Kato’s dedication to this dream slowly faded away,…

Starting in March, several students within the MVHS and FUHSD community began sharing their stories of sexual harassment and assault through social media. What began as a few posts soon gave rise to what…

https://soundcloud.com/mikaylah-du/the-other-side

“I don’t know exactly how much my students are getting out of remote learning. I don’t know if I’m doing the best job I can do, because I don’t have…

“I remember telling someone I wanted to pursue animation,” senior Pearl Raina said. “And they were like, ‘You should learn how to code because it goes together,’ and I was sitting there like…

“Who is your favorite Power Ranger?”

As a six year old at the time, this wasn’t something I had really thought about. A friend asked this question as we huddled together on a hot summer day, talking…

Well-behaved women seldom make history.

This quote by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich has materialized as stickers on laptops, posters on walls and on who knows how many Pinterest boards. Most interpret…

After hitting the one year mark of school closure, four students reflect on COVID-19, their experiences with it and their predictions for the future.

This story was originally published on El Estoque…

Atlanta shooting

A vigil held on March 20 in San Francisco’s Chinatown mourned the deaths of eight people, including six women of Asian descent, during the March 16 shootings at three spas in Atlanta,…

Gavin Hung · MVHS Influencers
Social media is a way to express yourself and put yourself out there to the internet. Alumni Brett Park, ’20, started his art Instagram account, @thumbpaint, in his…

Even after the insurrection at the Capitol Hill Building on Jan. 6, 2021, discourse about what happened has continued and political tension is at an all time high. 

However, there are also people who…

For the second time, the Persian New Year Nowruz occurred on March 20 during the COVID-19 pandemic, restricting the extent to which families could celebrate. Prior to the pandemic, typical Nowruz celebrations…

Initially a skeptic of Bitcoin, a well-known cryptocurrency, junior Anant Somani tried his chances last year, buying one bitcoin for the market value of around $12,000. After a year, the odds ruled in…

“I decided to share my story…”

The reasons and context behind the posts

“When you go to parties in the future, you’re going to have to make sure [you] never accept a drink from someone…

It is dark and cold and almost 11 p.m. when I walk out of my committee room after the first session of a three-day Model UN conference. I sign out with a club officer and begin making my way to where my…

Desks, once grouped together in friendly clusters, are now islands spaced six feet apart, dotting the classroom landscape. Hand sanitizer bottles and disinfecting wipes ornament the tables along the rooms’…

“What do you care? You go through men faster than Taylor Swift.” 

This line in the 2020 Netflix TV series “Ginny and Georgia” caused controversy on Twitter, accompanied by a response from the pop…

Michelle Chen · Immigration stories: moving schools across borders
“The fact that I came in 10th grade and I was so lost in the first semester, me and my family, we were just, in the back of our…

Late in January of 2021, news of the “GameStop incident” dominated headlines as people across the country witnessed a group of retail traders — individuals who buy and trade stocks for personal accounts…

TW: This article discusses sensitive issues such as eating disorders and body image. 

“I wasn’t going to eat anyways.”

This phrase is frequently seen as the top comment on TikTok videos featuring…

Sometimes it feels like the typical MVHS student’s love language is criticism (is it ironic that an editorial full of critiques begins with this? A little.)

This year’s Advisory lessons have offered…

Three-year-old Alan Kurdi laid facedown, unmoving, on a beach in Bodrum, Turkey. During the summer of 2015, Kurdi was one of 3,600 refugees fleeing the Middle East, but when his raft capsized, he drowned…

Recent events surrounding sexual assault allegations and solidarity for victims at Palo Alto HS

A Palo Alto High School (Paly) alumni’s ex-girlfriend posted a statement on her Snapchat story on Jan….

When you think of Monta Vista High School, what do you envision? Progressive students? Politically aware? A place where we delve into capitalist critiques and social justice issues?

How about the conservative…

It doesn’t have any meaning, she recalls her mom saying. Drawing these things isn’t going to help you or take you anywhere.

Senior Kelly Yong had just shown her mom her sketchbook where she had…

This Valentines’ Day, read the tiny love stories of eight members of the MVHS community below.
Home away from home

Avni Gandhi
The spicy aromas of her grandmother’s cooking, mixed with the sweet…

JJ · Special sports phrases
Splat. S-p-l-a-t. Bogey. B-o-g-e-y. Offside. O-f-f-s-i-d-e. Paint. P-a-i-n-t. Pancake. P-a-n-c-a-k-e.

As possibilities of the start of sports seasons arise, El Estoque…

During the COVID-19 pandemic, video games have seen a spike in popularity like never before, with three out of four Americans playing video games in the month of June alone, and half of them playing…

[dropcap]A[/dropcap]s schools and businesses shut down last March, the U.S. experienced a significant decrease in the number of cars on the road, as many individuals shifted to remote working and learning….

Junior Nathan Wang first started competitive programming out of curiosity in December of 2016. Since then, he has been interested in investigating different ways to solve the same problem. By the summer…

On Tuesday, Dec. 1, Spotify released its annual Spotify Wrapped, a personalized account of every user’s music history and trends on the app through the year. Presented in a slideshow with accompanying…

We called it Honey Glazed Donuts.

As ten-year-olds, the thought of saying “Human Growth and Development,” or even HG&D, seemed out of place.

We huddled in clumps and sat on the ground…

El Estoque · From the soul

Pop, rap, R&B, indie, rock, heavy metal, lofi … the list of music genres goes on and on, but of course, everyone has their preferences. For senior Conner Yin,…

[dropcap]E[/dropcap]very year on January 18, we celebrate Martin Luther King Jr.’s life and legacy, often regarded as a symbol for the Civil Rights Movement and racial justice. Colorful infographics…

When MVHS students left campus in March of 2020, the long duration of distance learning was unanticipated. Nearly a year has passed since then, and the campus they left behind looks drastically different…

My parents didn’t seem to care about the presidential election. 

It frustrated me — I was constantly refreshing the New York Times for live updates, texting and calling people about it, distractedly…

Seniors Jasmine Lu and Alice Zhou recall discussing writing a book in their sophomore year in seventh period Sushma Bana’s Pre-Calculus Honors class. Following this conversation, the two had the idea…

This article discusses sensitive topics, such as sexual assault.

In June of 2019, the introductory episode of comic artist Byeonduck’s new work was published. Immediately, this new manhwa (Korean…

This story was originally published on El Estoque on November 30, 2020.

[dropcap]G[/dropcap]rowing up, he was always the smallest kid in his classes. Not just physically smaller, but also by age — born on Sept. 22, 2005, Avaneesh Athuluri just made it into kindergarten before…

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he tragedies of 2020 — like ones pertaining to racially-motivated police brutality — have heightened longtime discussion on racial injustice. Carried by the tides of news media…

Six years ago, senior Jharna Suresh watched her all-time favorite Bollywood film “Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani” for the first time. The Hindi title translates to “This Youth is Crazy,” and after watching…

Student X is anonymous in order to protect their identity.
“Words are, in my not-so-humble opinion, the most inexhaustible form of magic we have, capable both of inflicting injury and remedying it.”…

Every year on Oct. 11, National Coming Out Day is celebrated to raise awareness for individuals within the LGBTQ+ community. On this day, many people who identify as queer choose to come out. According…

[dropcap]D[/dropcap]uring shelter-in-place, MVHS students have more free time to delve into creative passions like sewing and designing. Students are recognizing and addressing needs within communities,…

In October of 2019, senior Winter Bloom posted a video lip-syncing to the song “Last Christmas” by Wham! on TikTok. A few days later, she was shocked to see that her video had gained over 500,000 views…

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he color of his skin hadn’t been an issue for current De Anza College President Lloyd Holmes until one evening in 1990 while walking to his dorm. It was almost the weekend, and he…