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Junior Principal Kyle Devine scrapes snow off the sidewalks to ensure student safety. "We were able to get rid of a decent amount of the snow, but then obviously the hard kind of compacted ice is a safety issue, so we're just breaking it up before the end of the day,” Devine said
Students Return to School After Snow Storm
January 10, 2025
A student walks towards Pace High School on Forsyth Street, weary of their surroundings after recent reports of sexual and physical assault.
Recent Incidents of Sexual and Physical Assault Near Pace High School Highlight Safety Concerns and Systemic Neglect
January 10, 2025
CONVENIENT COMMUTE • Sophomore Kathryn Barrett takes a selfie with members of the yearbook, newspaper, and literary magazine staffs as they prepare to board SEPTA from the Wallingford station for a trip to Temple University on December 6. The one-way cash fare was .
SEPTA fare changes, potential service cuts may leave impact on Wallingford-Swarthmore community 
January 10, 2025
Wildfires spread fear and worry across Southern California
Wildfires spread fear and worry across Southern California
January 9, 2025
Breaking News: Wildfire erupts in Pacific Palisades, campus temporarily closes for safety
Breaking News: Wildfire erupts in Pacific Palisades, campus temporarily closes for safety
January 9, 2025
MVHS teachers and students with their family and friends in their home country and the U.S. Photos courtesy of Jiwoon Hong and Shozo Shimazaki | Used with permission
The strength in diversity
January 10, 2025
Bus driver Shellie Maclachlan pulls into the front loading zone at Harker's Union campus. The buses arrived in two waves at around 7:30 a.m. and 7:55 a.m.
Round and round: bus drivers tirelessly transport community members
January 10, 2025
Delicately placing the string to form the shape of a cornucopia, seniors Haley Burton and Avery Nelson create the November arrangement for the Flower of the Month Club. This club is led by Advanced Floral Design Students and provides a monthly arrangement to community members who subscribe to receive them. “I think flower of the month club is a really impactful way to show your loved ones ‘hey I really care about you,’ or even if they’re just for yourself, they’re a little pick-me-up throughout the month that [say] ‘I’m doing ok, and these flowers make my day a little bit brighter,” Nelson said. “I like giving people flowers because people value the flowers more and they value themselves more.”
Leaf it to the Pack
January 9, 2025
Students and faculty reflect on the Share Your Story Instagram page, run by two anonymous students. The account linked a Google form in their bio which serves as a space for students to share their experiences with discrimination at ASL.
Students take to Instagram to share their story, expose discrimination
January 9, 2025
Many of Bonfig's bakes can be found on the Flour Power Instagram account, @flourpowerbakery08.
Flour Power by Finnley
January 9, 2025
Coppell senior guard Drew Wagner hustles back on defense after a successful bucket by Coppell on Tuesday against Richardson on Tuesday at CHS Arena. Wagner’s adaptability and leadership has aided him in overcoming adversity throughout his basketball career. Photo by Kayla Nguyen
Wagner energizing team with leadership
January 9, 2025
Leaping to new heights
Leaping to new heights
January 9, 2025
Training the Trainers
Training the Trainers
January 9, 2025
Boys varsity tennis team files complaints following last season
Boys varsity tennis team files complaints following last season
January 9, 2025
Kendall Daniel cheers her younger sister Courtney on in the shot put at the 2023 UIL State Track & Field Championships. Photo courtesy of Courtney Daniel.
Pushing through pain
December 20, 2024
After undergoing surgery because of a medical complication, Stefanie Giurcanu founded her company RoShe Ventures to fund efforts to help Romanian girls to forge their own career paths.
Inspiring Interests: Stefanie Giurcanu uses her experiences to help Romanian girls pursue science, arts
January 10, 2025
One formerly incarcerated individual and member of RTA, Hector "Bori" Rodriguez, explains the significance of his artwork to a group of people at the Windows and Doors exhibit open until Jan. 3, 2025.
Opening Windows and Doors:
January 9, 2025
Senior Kathryn Foo listens to her favorite international music tunes. | Photo illustration by Giljoon Lee
A musical connection
January 9, 2025
Seniors Henry Chen, Arush Singh, and Riley Gregory eat ramen together at Menya Rui after waiting in line for two hours.
STL Restaurant Gains National Recognition
January 9, 2025
Chocolate Therapy co-owner Pam Griffin smiles at the counter of her chocolate shop, located on 63 Andrew Ave. in the Wayland Town Center. The shop sells a variety of handmade chocolates, coffee, hot chocolate, ice cream and more. Recently, Chocolate Therapy's nut bark was named to "Oprah's Favorite Things 2024 List." The nut bark comes in a box with three flavors: milk chocolate cashew, dark chocolate almond and white chocolate pistachio.
Chocolate Therapy sweetens up the holiday season
January 7, 2025
A ballot box with question marks rising above it symbolizes the lack of outreach to nearly half of Latine voters during the 2024 election. It reflects our conflicted feelings, unanswered questions and disappointment with both political parties. Graphic Illustration by Catalina Lopez-Sanchez.
Column: The blame game — Why the 2024 Election was a wake-up call for Latine community
January 10, 2025
Legacy or luck: Rewarding the rich
Legacy or luck: Rewarding the rich
January 10, 2025
Within the U.S., the busiest shopping period of the year is Cyber Week, the time from Thanksgiving through Black Friday and Cyber Monday. This year, shoppers spent 3.3 billion on Cyber Monday, which is a 7.3% year-over-year increase from 2023. “When I was younger, I would always be out with my mom getting Christmas gifts or just shopping in general. Now, as she has gotten older, I've noticed [that almost] every day, I'll open the front door and there's three packages that my mom has ordered. Part of that is she just doesn't always have the time to go to a store for 30 minutes to an hour, but the other part is when she gets bored, she has easy access to [shopping],” junior Grace Garetson said.
Season of giving, season of getting
January 9, 2025
A photo illustration of Griffin Petti surrounded by parental consent forms.
The Wrongs of Parental Rights
January 9, 2025
Being a Part of the .8%
Being a Part of the .8%
January 9, 2025
Rays Rap Clip - Annabelle Frazer
Rays Rap Clip – Annabelle Frazer
January 10, 2025
French teacher Marieme Toure serves a plate of the Senegalese food she prepared for her AP French Language and Culture class, to senior Faiza Syed. “I never had Senegalese food before,” Syed said. “I thought it was so cool that she was able to bring a part of her culture [and] background to us.”
Marieme Toure Celebrates Culture Instead of Conjugation in the Classroom
January 9, 2025
Administrators visit the gym construction site to sign the last beam. (Photo courtesy of Joe Burke)
LAUSD staff and admin sign final beam for new gym
January 9, 2025
Classroom Conversations: The Struggles of a Teenage Immigrant
Classroom Conversations: The Struggles of a Teenage Immigrant
January 9, 2025
Driving towards the basket, sophomore Cade Walker draws contact to the face on his way up. Millard West defeated the Chieftains 57-49.
Boys & Girls Basketball vs. Bellevue East
December 20, 2024
Rays Rap Clip - Annabelle Frazer
Rays Rap Clip – Annabelle Frazer
January 10, 2025
Classroom Conversations: The Struggles of a Teenage Immigrant
Classroom Conversations: The Struggles of a Teenage Immigrant
January 9, 2025
Gator Tales: What it means to be a well-rounded student
Gator Tales: What it means to be a well-rounded student
December 13, 2024
Humans of KPARK: Kiersten St. Julien
Humans of KPARK: Kiersten St. Julien
December 13, 2024
Photo Illustration | Erin Liu
Um yeah, so like…
December 6, 2024
Driving towards the basket, sophomore Cade Walker draws contact to the face on his way up. Millard West defeated the Chieftains 57-49.
Boys & Girls Basketball vs. Bellevue East
December 20, 2024
NEW CHALLENGE, NEW TEAM MEMBERS: Every season, VEX creates a new game that robotics team members are faced with and have to build a robot to compete in. This year’s game forces students to create a robot that is able to stack rings onto mobile goals in order to score points. The change in games each season is something that robotics teacher Audrea Moyers appreciates. “One of the things that I like about VEX is that they have a new problem to solve every year,” she said. ¨Even though the equipment’s the same, they have to analyze the game, and they have to come up with solutions that are unique that year. They are using their knowledge from prior years, but they have to kind of redesign a problem.” As returning teams were faced a new game, some new teams and members had to adapt to a uncommon playing field and game. “Three of our four teams were competing for the first time this year, and they had very different experiences match to match, so I think they learned a lot,¨ she said. ¨It’s hard just watching a video online to know how it’s actually going to be in person, so they all learned a lot about what gameplay is like, how to work with an alliance partner [and] how to adapt during the day to changes.”
Robotics hosts VEX tournament
December 20, 2024
Dan Bovey announces his candidacy for West Chicago mayor during a rally held on Saturday, Nov. 23, at the Beron Design Group in downtown West Chicago.
[PHOTO ESSAY] Bovey announces mayoral run, promising change for West Chicago
December 3, 2024
AS EASY AS PB&J: At the blindfold sandwich-making station, senior Zane Wiggins and Kai Talebi attempt to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. The activity allowed students to experience the mundane task without sight. Wiggins found that the simple activity turned into a challenge in almost every aspect of the process. "It was pretty rough," he said. "My bread wasn’t put together properly, and I put my jelly right next to my plate and not on the plate, it was really difficult. I was expecting it to be easier than it was cause I'd made sandwiches all my life, and I thought 'I can do this from muscle memory,' but it was a lot harder than I thought, and it makes you not take your sight for granted. Access to your sight makes things so much easier." Since students participating are used to having full sight, it was difficult to adapt to the sudden loss of a sense. "I had to kind of guess where things were and the plate was moving a lot," he said. "Every time I would reach for the plate it would be in a different location, so I kind of had to feel around for everything." Along with that, Wiggins had to work together with Talebi to communicate to communicate which ingredient he needed next. "I had to share the peanut butter and the jelly with Kai, so we had to coordinate with each other on who gets what first," he said. "I knew Kai was right next to me, but it was hard to know where her hands were. We had to find each other's arm and make our way up to pass the ingredients." Caption by Lillian Gray.
Learning to see without sight
November 20, 2024
Coach Adam Chavez comforts senior Tommy Murphy after the team's loss to the Ironmen in round one of the playoffs.
[PHOTO ESSAY] Play by play, brick by brick
November 5, 2024
French teacher Marieme Toure serves a plate of the Senegalese food she prepared for her AP French Language and Culture class, to senior Faiza Syed. “I never had Senegalese food before,” Syed said. “I thought it was so cool that she was able to bring a part of her culture [and] background to us.”
Marieme Toure Celebrates Culture Instead of Conjugation in the Classroom
January 9, 2025
Administrators visit the gym construction site to sign the last beam. (Photo courtesy of Joe Burke)
LAUSD staff and admin sign final beam for new gym
January 9, 2025
Student, Nathan Mohr (12) drills and helps sturdy up the Perch.
Eagles Students Build Their Perch
December 20, 2024
Sophomores Ernesto Torres and Jason Krogen warm up during their band practice. They are a part of Reverb, one of five bands that plays after school most Tuesdays each week.
Rock On
December 20, 2024
Humans of FHN | Kimora Jordan
Humans of FHN | Kimora Jordan
December 20, 2024
The best stories being published on the SNO Sites network

Best of SNO
The best stories being published on the SNO Sites network

Best of SNO
All content by Olivia Xu
This is the third installment of Research Revelations: Conversations with Our Student Researchers, a podcast where Aquila staff members talk to student researchers about their projects and research goals. In this episode, Aquila reporters Selina Xu and Olivia Xu meet with Anika Mantripragada (11) to discuss her work in medical illustration.

Research Revelations Episode 3: The art of medical illustration with Anika Mantripragada

By Olivia Xu and Selina Xu
March 8, 2023
Afghanistan fell to the Taliban, an Islamic fundamentalist group based in Afghanistan, on Aug. 15, 2021 after the Afghan government collapsed as then-president Ashraf Ghani fled the country. To understand the complexity of the current situation means to trace the ridges of Afghanistan, means to be aware of the country where we stand and to see what America has done to the history of a nation across the world from ours.

‘It almost felt like a funeral for my country’

By Sarah Mohammed, Lucy Ge, Olivia Xu, and Isha Moorjani
March 10, 2022
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