Always Yours hopes to always be here

By Samantha Jew

backing of the board.”

This is in great contrast to what Rachel Maddow proclaimed in her valedictorian speech of 1990: “our parents and leaders cannot even say the word condom in front of one another.”

Today “student health and wellness is more easily discussed as a need” and “students also expect more of adults, know more of their rights, and are better advocates,” Meadows said.

These kits can be found in the and Redwood High School. Aside from safe sex kits, Dorado has worked with Meadows to implement a training regarding the social-emotional side of sex—something that is not normally covered in schools— which will be happening soon for Wellness Center staff, so they will be equipped to provide individual sexual health counseling for students. The platform to be utilized will be Sexual Health Education & HIV Prevention EducationSexual Health Educator (SHE) Training Program.

Meadows also said that Phase Two, after the initial roll-out of safe sex kits, will include dental dams and other types of STI prevention methods, because “also, [we need to] think about queer health, and how to support queer students … and what their sexual health needs are.”

Dorado said she wants to see something similar to Berkeley High’s peer-education program implemented here in order to further sex ed and consent education in school with medical career students and “wellness warriors” becoming peer-health educators, not just for freshman, and to initiate collaboration between the Wellness Center, administration, and students— “I want students to build stronger sexual citizenship, empathy, transparency between them and the administration, and ultimately, help create a culture where everyone feels safer, respected, and heard.”

Always Yours Bakery Cafe celebrated its one-year anniversary on Dec. 12, 2022. First opening in late 2021, young female entrepreneur Natalie Wong grew her home business into a fullythe help of family, friends, and a kickstarter.

Learning from YouTube, Wong began selling macarons to family and friends at school. Once her grew her team to include a few employees.

“I’ve always wanted to open a bakery. Since I was a kid, that’s always been my dream,” Wong remarked. In mid-2020, with a vision and a thriving home business, she decided it was time to make her childhood dream come true.

Originally from Oakland, Wong chose the Castro Valley Village for the location of her new bakery because she liked the shopping center, and it had a parking lot—