What do the best schools in America have in common? In addition to very dedicated teachers; these schools have a culture that encourages academic excellence and high moral and ethical characters. School culture is the shared experiences both in school and out of school that create a feeling of community, family, and team membership. Successful schools, such as Mills, encourage both academic excellence and high ethical standards, which help to create positive school atmospheres.

High expectations for learning and achievement, a safe and caring environment, a strong curriculum, high student motivation, a professional faculty, and partnerships with families and the community are among the contributing factors to Mills’ positive school culture. Junior Jeremy Gibbs attended Serra for two years before transferring to Mills this year.

“Sierra is very sports oriented; Mills, however, is lower key, less focused on sports and has an attitude centered mostly on academics,” said Gibbs.

Although Mills is a very high college standardized school. Some schools that have discipline, drug, or violence problems tend to have a bad cultural environment so caring parents typically remove their students from schools with problems.

Lack of hope and encouragement are also factors contributing to negative cultures in schools. Students in these environments are not motivated to learn. Fortunately this is not a big problem at Mills.

Daniel Chen and Tammy Choy at the coach’s table during a swim meet.

Mills High School alumni have a passion for the sports they played when they attended Mills and show their affection for the sport by returning to coach current students.

Daniel Chen, a 2002 Mills graduate, played water polo all throughout high school, played golf for three, and wrestled for one. He was the water polo team captain and the most valuable player during his senior year, when his team made Second Team League Selection.

Chen returns to Mills during the fall to coach the Mills water polo team. He has coached for the past four years and will be the coach for the next few years. This year, he started co-coaching the Mills Swim Team. He coaches at Mills because “it’s fun and [he] can be at school again.”

Tammy Choy, a 2008 Mills graduate, swam on the swim team for all four years and played water polo for three. She set all of the records for girls in every event for swimming and holds a place in the Mills Hall of Fame, just to name a couple achievements.

Choy currently coaches the Mills swim team and is very passionate about coaching and swimming. The sport “opened uncountable doors of opportunities and benefits” for her so she decided to coach the swim team because she wants to “give back to [it] in any way [she] can.”

“[It] gives me that same feeling of adrenaline rush, hype, and instant reward that competing gave me,” added Choy after a Saturday practice during spring break.

These coaches know what it is like to be a Viking so they are equally enthusiastic as the athletes about their sport at Mills. Teams can bond closer together with their alumni coaches because they share more things in common from attending Mills.

When asked about advice for athletes, Choy replied, “There will be good and bad days no matter what. Just make sure you are continually having fun and enjoying what you are doing. Find inspiration anywhere that will keep your head up and indulge yourself with positivity!”

The badminton team finished first in the Bay Division, having a successful season winning against every school they played against.

The girls frosh/soph track team ranked first place at PALs with five individual championships. Both the boys and girls frosh/soph teams went undefeated during the season in the Ocean Division against eight schools. All the varsity throwers made it to CCS trials as well as senior Garrett Lew in long jump and triple jump. Senior Sabrina Mendoza and junior Jephta Zapata will advance to CCS finals and could potentially compete in the state championships!

The boys varsity swim team is tied for first place in the Bay Division with Burlingame High School and Carlmont High School. Sophomore Jake Lin was the only varsity swimmer who qualified for CCS finals in 500m freestyle event. Many athletes will continue to swim on club teams during the off-season to help train for the upcoming season.

The varsity baseball team defeated every school they played against twice, except Sequoia High School, finishing off their great season in first place in the Ocean Division with a record of 12-2.

Mills had a great boys golfing season this year. Freshman Alex Roxas won second place at PALs and placed in the top 30 at CCS.

The softball and boys tennis team also had a great season, further increasing the success of Mills spring sports this year.

Keep up the winning effort next year, Vikings!

Yearbook is not just a group of students cutting and pasting a big scrapbook. It is a class taught by Mrs. Reinhardt-Mullins with the help of student editors, and it runs like a business.

Production begins in March of the previous school year, and ends in April of the year the book is released. Editors begin planning the book and attend workshops over the summer. Yearbook staff fill the various roles of writer, photographer and graphic designer, as they cover different events throughout the school year.

In addition to the production of the book, Yearbook students are also responsible for fundraising. The price of the book usually covers the $80,000 cost of printing the book, while class fundraisers and ad sales supplement the remaining costs. In recent years, Yearbook has faced a challenge in the lack of senior parents purchasing “senior ads,” a fundraiser that was once a major source of income.

“It’s really a class of the twenty-first century”, says Mrs. Reinhardt-Mullins. Students aquire many career-oriented skills including computer-aided design and finance management. The yearbook is put together digitally and has been completely printed in color for the last seven years.

Another struggle for Yearbook has been recruiting students to the class and encouraging more student body representation in the yearbook by submitting quotes and pictures.

Mrs. Reinhardt-Mullins has big plans for the future of Yearbook, including increasing recruitment, designing the yearbook in Adobe InDesign, designating yearbook as a CTE class, and getting Yearbook approved as a “G” class in California’s A-G class requirement system.

Yearbook students consider themselves to be a big “yearbook family,” and outside of working on the yearbook, they do other activities together such as dinners and egg tie-dying. Many Yearbook students find that in addition to being able to apply the skills learned in class after high school, being part of Yearbook also looks good on college applications.

“I have not only been able learn how to work with different kinds of people, but have also learned several skills, regarding leadership, writing, and putting myself out there, that I hope to carry on with me as I go off to school next year.  It also feels amazing to be able to look back at the yearbook thirty years from now, and think to myself, Wow, I actually helped to make this!”, says yearbook editor-in-chief,  senior Alexis Dale-Huang.

Dale-Huang encourages driven, hardworking and outgoing students to consider joining yearbook to help continue Asgard’s tradition of excellence.

Janine Gong Kim del Rosario work diligently on their assignments. Photo: Mrs. Reinhardt-Mullins

 

 

Photo: Mrs. Reinhardt-Mullins

Camp: New experiences can be unlocked just by going to a local camp, which can help you become more independent by living away from home. There are many new activities to participate in, and you get to meet new people and make new friends.

Favorite childhood games: Walk down memory lane as you bring back the memories from the past! Play hopscotch or tag, and act like a kid again!

Learn something new: Whether it’s a new language or a new dance, you’ll have two full months to perfect it. It can sure as well be anything else, as long as you have the determination and motivation for learning it.

Stargazing: Lie in the grass at night with a few of your close friends, and enjoy the nice view of the stars. Make sure to bring a blanket to lay on!

Summer courses: Go to a local college and sign up for a summer class to keep your mind busy in the summer! It could be about art, math, music, english, or anything! What’s most important is that you have fun in these classes.

Sports: Keep in shape during the summer! You can go swimming at the beach or play badminton indoors with the air conditioning on if you’re tired of the heat. Run around the park and enjoy nature, or grab a group of friends and play if you don’t want to be alone.

Movies: Go to the movie theater or drive in and watch a summer blockbuster! The movie could be educational, or not, but the most important thing is that you’re having fun.

Theme parks: Visit the variety of amusement parks in the Bay Area and laugh your heart out on all the rides. Have your head tumble in circles from all the roller coasters while having the time of your life. Eat funnel cakes and cotton candy with a huge smile plastered on your face from all the sweets.

Watch the sunset: Make yourself comfortable at the beach, and slowly watch the rainbow colors of the sky when the sun sets. Don’t look directly into the sun and damage your eye!

Volunteer: Helping out in the community is beneficial for personal experience and the society. Get active, and do community service!

Make this summer fun and productive at the same time! The activities I mentioned were just a few of them. The possibilities of what you can do over the summer are endless. Have fun!

Her painting was based on a candid shot of her and her friends at the beach. She especially likes these kind of pictures because they truly capture the moment.

“I wanted to portray something happy and upbeat. I thought of a moment that was captured on camera and how every second counts,” Hannah said when asked about the title of her piece.

“A Second to Remember” is one of Park’s favorite pictures and she is glad she had the opportunity to enter the contest and to place so highly. She is going to continue art through high school and is interested in studying interior design in college. Her painting is c

Hannah Park and Congresswoman Jackie Speier pose with Park’s winning painting

urrently hanging in Congresswoman Speier’s San Mateo office.

Mendoza started her track and field career when she was in fifth grade and plans to continue shot-put and discus throughout college at the University of Hawaii, Manoa. She gives credit to her dad, who is the reason she started the sport at such a young age, and both her parents for being the biggest supporters of her track and field career.

On May 21, Mendoza was awarded Hall of Fame for both Athlete of the Year and Girls’ Track and Field. She has also been a two time recipient of the Mills Hall of Fame award during her sophomore and junior year. In addition, she is a three-time PAL Champion in shot-put and three-time CCS place winner, once for discus and twice for shot-put in both events. In 2012, she qualified for State Finals. Mendoza broke two shot-put records at a St. Francis meet in 2010 and at a Serra meet in 2013.

According to an article written in the Mercury News on April 3, 2013 about a Serra Invitational meet the week prior, “Mendoza unleashed a throw of 42 feet, 4 inches, the top mark in the Central Coast Section this season and among the top 10 in the state.”

This year, she surpassed the Mills High School record for shot-put, which was set in 1985 by Buffy Sexton. At a Serra meet on Saturday April 13th for the top 7, Mendoza broke the meet record for shot-put. At this years Central Coast Section (CCS) she ranked first place for shot-put at the track and field event.

In preparation for meets and invitationals, Mendoza adds that she exercises twice a day, as her homework load allows, and she does yoga to help maintain proper balance for throwing.

When asked about her biggest supporters, in addition to her parents, she responded that her coaches and teammates are like a second family to her and are crucial to her success. “In track you are one big team, but it’s also an individual sport. The only real competition is with yourself. You have to be the best you can be.”

In regard to advice to any aspiring athletes she responds, “Work hard, challenge yourself, push harder and don’t give up. Keep going because in the end it will be worth it.”

Mr. von Euw is taking part in a service project next year in Tanzania, Africa.

While the class of 2013 embarks on their journeys after high school, several Mills teachers are also taking their own journeys and leaving Mills High School next year.

Mr. von Euw is setting sail for Southeast Africa, where he will work on a community service project, travel, and teach chemistry. The tenth-grade chemistry teacher will be spending ten months next year in the village of Kisimir in Tanzania, Southeast Africa. With a friend, von Euw plans on participating in a project called “Project Kisimir.”

Furthermore, von Euw plans on initiating a healthcare system in Kisimir. His goal is to achieve a healthcare system that can act as a precedent for future participants in the program after his departure from Africa in ten months.

“If you have the opportunity to travel, there’s no reason not to take it,” says von Euw.

Furthermore, Ms. Conlin and Mrs. Meyer will be taking their journeys next year and leaving Mills High School. Ms. Conlin will be taking a temporary leave in order to care for her mother while Mrs. Meyer will be taking a leave to spend extra time with her two boys.

Even though they are moving on next year to accomplish their goals, Mr. von Euw, Ms. Conlin, and Mrs. Meyer will be missed and remembered for their contributions to the Mills community.

Mills’s MUN club attends the final conference of the year at UC Davis. (Photo: Joan Zhang)

Mills’s Model United Nations Club attended the Davis MUN conference (DMUNC) the weekend of May 18 and 19.

Model UN provides a unique opportunity to learn about topics that impact the United States and its Allies. This program also teaches students how to present facts and how to negotiate to reach a resolution. Finally, MUN teaches students research skills and helps them gain confidence in public speaking and presentation.

This year, Mills received the country positions of France, Jordan, Cambodia, Ethiopia, and Australia (in Historical Cabinets). Mills’s delegates were assigned to World Health Organization, Legal, UN Human Rights Committee, and Security Council. Debated topics included Pandemic Prevention (WHO), East China Sea Tension (SC), Axis and Allied Powers of World War II (Historical Cabinets), and Prevention of Arm Trafficking into Latin America (DISEC).

Sophomore Wendy Tang received a research award and the gavel in her committee, African Union. Although Mills’s participation was only half that of last year’s, the conference was better organized and prepared by Davis MUN, allowing both advisors and delegates alike to enjoy the conference more.

The MUN club’s main intent is not to receive awards; rather it is their goal that students learn about prominent issues in the world and learn the positions of countries. It is also important for delegates to simply enjoy the experience of committee and social events, and get to know delegates from other schools.

Mr. Phillips, the club advisor, hopes that next year more students will join the club and attend the conferences. The MUN club will invite the Berkeley Outreach program to visit Mills and provide more training, which will better prepare students to excel in committee.

Early in May, three students were caught cheating on a final test in an AP class.

According to the teacher involved, one student asked another student sitting next to her to drop his completed test to the floor to make it more visible to the first student. The student used her phone to take a picture of the completed test.  The student then used the photo to copy the answers and later texted the test picture to another student who had yet to take exam.  This person copied off of the picture.

The students were caught when other students in the AP class witnessed the action between the students and reported it to the AP teacher.

The students who reported the academic violation were worried their own scores would be rendered invalid because of the incident and result in them having to retake the test.  The AP teacher has assured the students however that their score will stand and they will not have to retake the exam.

The teacher involved says, “People get panicked at the end of the year.”

As a result of the academic violation all three students involved received zeroes on that portion of the test, and were suspended.

Cheating is not uncommon at Mills. Normally it takes the form of copying homework or talking about quizzes with people in a later period.

Senior Natalie Tarangoli, who has heard examples of these cheating incidents, said, “Some people ask their friends to take a picture of the test and text it to them, or send it to them on Facebook.”

Students need to be reminded that academic violations can negatively affect their academic reputation, personal integrity, and jeopardize their collegic aspirations, and that it is best to put the value  of  learning over the  pursuit of the unethical “A”.