Graduation 2014

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Senior staff bios

Reema Kakaday has been honored to be a part of The Olympian since her junior year of high school.

She began her first year as a staff writer, and was the feature editor towards the end of her junior year.

She served as the editor-in-chief her senior year. She is a bubbly, enthusiastic, hardworking, dedicated, and persistent student, and loves to spend her time in the back computer room in 113 perfecting every newspaper issue. Through journalism, she has found a huge passion for public relations, design, and enabling her peers to express themselves. Outside journalism, you can find Reema following her passion in dance studios, nonprofit meetings, debating in JSA, or writing DECA reports. Reema will be attending The University of Texas at Austin this fall, studying in the McCombs School of Business.

In her third year writing for The Olympian, Lily Carrell has been fortunate enough to have discovered a place that has not only provided an outlet for expressing her passion for writing, but also a community that has sparked lasting friendships. As this year’s editor-in-chief, she will undoubtedly miss the late-night editing rewarded by fast food dinners, The Olympian‘s rarely watered pet cactus, and the hours spent in the back room bonding with the editors over warped Photo Booth pictures. Lily will be attending UC Berkeley in the fall with a major in Sustainable Environmental Design, and hopes to pursue her journalistic passion at The Daily Cal.

Amanat Riar has been a part of The Olympian staff for two years: first as a If there’s something Karla Paredes truly enjoys, is staff writer, and second as the sports working with The Olympian. Writing has always editor. When she first signed up for been a passion for Karla and The Olympian helped journalism, she did not know what to her out. “There is nothing like the feeling you get expect, but soon learned that a lot of when you see your very first story printed on paper dedication, creativity, and hard work with your name on it. When you see hundreds of went into each and every issue. The copies and each and every one of them has YOUR computer, interview, and writing skills story in it, that’s when you feel the most proud of are all things she couldn’t have obbeing a writer, ” shared Karla. So her advice to stutained without taking this class and dents everywhere is if you ever get the chance to will help her in the future. Although write in a newspaper as cool as The Olympian you waking up at 5:30 a.m. isn’t exactly fun, This is Felicianna Marquez’s second being a part of The Olympian makes up better take it and run! year with The Olympian and overall has for it and is definitely worth it! been a good learning experience. She started out as a staff writer and built For Eva Chen, journalism was an experience that her way up to photo editor. Being photaught her the necessary skills to work with her to editor has taught her a lot and given team of fellow editors, interview professionals, her a passion for photography. Though and interact with strangers. Eva began her jourshe has not loved waking up early at ney in journalism during her sophomore year. all, getting to spend every morning She was excited for a new adventure and the with her best friend Leia has made it opportunity to learn new skills. Her greatest deall worth it. Next year she will be atcision yet was coming back the next year and the tending Mills College, a small private year after that, first becoming online editor and all women’s college in Oakland. She is then co-feature editor. This has helped her furundecided about her major; however, ther develop her page design and video editing during college she plans on studying skills. In the years to come, Eva hopes to major in abroad in Switzerland, and after, plans Entrepreneurship at Babson College, spreading on joining the Peace Corps. She wishes The Olympian legacy to the East Coast. good luck to the next generation and Matt Talajkowski was first exposed safe traveling to the class of 2014. to journalism when he attempted to enroll his younger sister in the class. Socially inept and strangely outgoing, Leia Saelee’s favorite pastimes are Although his freshman sister could consuming copious amounts of coffee and sleeping off the after effects. not join, Matt soon became interest- She describes her high school career as a blur, too fast to know what to ed in the subject. Persuaded by his make of it. Later in life, people tend to forget the little things that make friend Reyna Garcia, he joined the them happy; sleep is one of them, money is not. Some advice to the future class and quickly became interested in graduates of CVHS: don’t procrastinate, make the most of an opportunithe world of writing and journalism. ty, and cherish down-time. Often, she believes, people make the mistake Matt’s most memorable moment in of thinking that they have more time. Life is not something to be done journalism was when he had the op- later, so do it in the now! portunity to interview Marty Schmidt, a world famous mountain climber.

His advice to any student who wants to improve their writing is to join journalism and begin writing on a deadline. Matt is looking forward to attending UC Santa Cruz and pursuing a career in medicine.

After three years of journalism, Joyce Liang is proud of her achievements and appreciates the experiences she’s gained from journalism.

From the time she went to the state capitol to interviewing and meeting politicians, students, and CVHS staff, Joyce learned more about the press and media and became more actively aware about current events and inside scoops on campus. Joyce got to explore her hobby in video editing and became a better writer through her time at The Olympian. Although Joyce will not continue journalism at UC San Diego, she will apply the skills and knowledge she’s gained from journalism to her future endeavors.

Cameron Beresini is a second year journalism staff writer. Next year he will be attending San Jose State University for European Studies with hopes of eventually becoming a European History teacher, or possibly travel to Europe and discover its many cultures in depth. This summer he is working as a student coordinator in the Jenny Lin Foundation. In his two years at The Olympian, he enjoyed meeting new people, and improving his writing skills.

Kelly Chan has been in the CVHS journalism program for the past two years. Kelly was a staff writer her junior year, and served as online editor her senior year. Other journalism experiences Kelly has taken part of includes being selected for a Multicultural Scholarship to participate in Indiana University’s High School Journalism Institute. She was also a Key Club District News Editor serving the states of California, Nevada, and Hawaii. Kelly looks forward to studying International Business and Asian Studies at The George Washington University. Kelly thanks her family, Mr. J, and all members of the CVHS journalism program for being so supportive!

“It’s too early for this.” Combining an early morning lazy disposition with a lack of caffeine, Grace Moon has had quite an experience writing different stories and drawing a variety of graphics for the paper during her first and only year at The Olympian. Her assignments ranged from ridiculing the US for the government shutdown to blatantly declaring that she and Evan Kwong are not going out (ahem), and everything in between. In the fall, she plans to attend Cal Poly SLO majoring in Architecture, combining her passion for art and urban life, along with soaking up the sun, and feasting on Woodstock pizza. And for future seniors, #maytheforcebewithyou.

In Evan Kwong’s two years working for The Olympian, he has served as a staff writer in the first and a copy and online editor in the second. Standing above the dreadfulness of waking up for zero period every day, Evan has learned to sharpen his writing skills, reading skills, and attention to detail.

After reading the stories of so many talented writers, one could say that he revised his outlook on journalism.

Evan will be attending UC San Diego in the fall, and needing to get up so early certainly won’t be an issue for him any longer.

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Daniel Witte has had many great experiences at The Olympian.

They include beat reports and writing. When he first started at The Olympian, Daniel had a slight amount of trouble with the practice stories. However, he got much better at this. The hardest practice story Daniel ever wrote was about an episode of The Simpsons. Once Daniel became a proficient writer, he began doing beat reports and writing stories. As a matter of fact, he liked every job he had at The Olympian. Daniel mainly liked writing because it was relaxing and he got to attend events.

Turning in her application for journalism at the last minute (literally on the last day of school) probably wasn’t the best idea in the world, but one Suzanna Chak never regretted. During her three years at The Olympian, she was a staff writer, A&E editor, and opinion editor, learning to be more assertive during interviews and mastering the nuances of InDesign, a useful yet rather annoying program. Her favorite experiences include meeting Rachel Maddow and chasing politicians in Sacramento. Suzanna will be attending UC Berkeley in the fall; although she will not be pursuing journalism as a career, she is forever grateful for the incredible opportunities she had been able to experience and for all that she has learned.

Brittany Roberts moved to CVHS in her senior year. She has been doing journalism for two years.

After she graduates, her plan is to attend Howard University in D.C. Outside of school, Brittany has been training 14 years to become a professional dancer and hopes to make that into a career. She believes that if you like to write and want to work on your people skills, then joining journalism is a great thing to do. “There are so many interesting and fun things you get to learn in the class and it really helps improve your writing. Have fun and good luck!”

Luke Busby is a new member of The Olympian staff, and upon joining this semester of this school year, has already made his mark as an excellent photographer, being awarded for one of his captivating images by the JEANC. Outside of journalism, Luke is a stellar student, working hard to achieve success in all of his classes. Off campus, Luke excels in martial arts and is a valuable member of his family unit, always striving to be the best son, brother, and uncle.

In the future, Luke plans on attending Las Positas College and one day becoming a teacher.

4 Academy of Art Anthony Amaral, Miguel Bargas, Sarah Fernandez Arizona State University Benjamin Nakaya, Miles Teague Art of Institute of San Francisco Nyeela Evans Art Institute of Santa Monica Malik Jackson Aviation Institute of Maintenance Francisco Avina Azusa Pacific Calvin Dong Babson College Eva Chen Chen Berkeley City College Sydney Canto, Kayla Cunningham, Dezirae Eatmon, Danielle Harris, Carmen Merriwether, Tealson Pedepeyrau, Mack Woodfox, Jacqueline Yokela Boise State University Rebecca Busch Bryn Mawr College Margot Wisel

Gabriela Ayala, John Bassilly, Brianna Belfield, Jacob Benjamin, Azia Brown, Kevin Burt, Asiah Carson, Lisa Chan, Alan Choi, Kam Meng Choi, Cynthia De La Torre, Ambur DeGreek, Kevin DelMundo, Christine Dmukhovskiy, Maya Domingo Alexander, David Doyle, Jagger Drury, Haley Dunnigan, Vicente Elenes-Rosas, Reeno Farney, Stacy Felton, Alex Flores, HiuTsun (Vincent) Foo, SueAnne Freire, Adora Garrik, Stacey Gerasimov, Mariah Gomes, Ivan Guillen, Casey Hanson, Jesse Hernandez, Li Huynh, Ivan Ivanov, Oscar Jasso, Lillian Johnson, Dmytro Korzinin, Joseph Lada, Brittany Lawson, Anthony Lewis, SiHan Liu, David Mai, Marissa Melendez, Kyrolose Metreus, Rojae Miller, Joanna Montoya, LianaLee Mortara, Shavonne Muth, Elizabeth Nakhmanovich, Benjamin Nash, Austin Niven, Nathan Owyang, Zachary Pagone, Mauricio Paredes, Jesse Pawid, James Pendley Snyder, Renato Pequeno, Skye Pestana, Marydang Phanixay, Amber Picchi, Rohitaash Prasad, Joseph Ramsey, Joseph Rivera, Shawna Rolle, Jeremiah Aaron Sacramento, Dominic Sandoval, Trinidad Sandoval, Daniel Sarap, Allison Silva, JingYi Situ, Victoria Skinner, Aaron Souhorukoff, Elliot Sung, Guohao Tan, Xulun Tan, Raymond Tang, Kwok Hei Tse, Miguel Vazquez Guzman, Angelina Vernetti, Andrew Vonderheid, Kisha Wieczorek, Alejae Yanez, Miguel Zapien, Nashwa Zokari

Corral, Erin Duffy, Ashlynn Fern, Nadia Finkelman, Thea Franco, Sean Girardeau, Ryan Huey, Jasjeet Kaur, Tatyana Khomyak, Haein Lee, Kevin Lucero, Michael McCarthy, Devon Moran, Jeffrey Morrow, Lucia Ornelas, Cody Raxon, Feroz Raz, YeJin Rhim, Daniel Robertson, Mary Troxell, Luke Valencia, Christopher Vincent, Mikias Woldesenbet, Ying Yin Zhang CSU Long Beach Sigourney Low, Andrew Choi CSU Monterey Bay Taylor Coburn, Christen Grima, Cristina Zaragoza, Russell Zen CSU Northridge Elisabeth Negrin, Andrea Oliveros, Caitlyn Seaton, Alyah Thomas CSU Sacramento Kyle Dana CSU Stanislaus Courtney Lewis DeAnza College Yu Hsiang Huang

City College of San Francisco Cristian Ramirez, Kyre Rosby

Diablo Valley College David Armstrong, Nathalie Coronado, Nima Edalatjavid, Katherine Embody, Jasmine Eshtehar, Casey Fiebig, Matthew Fithian, Taylor Gonzales, Arshpreet Kahlon, Bhavik Khatri, Jorge Larios-Quino, Jasper Lee, Evi Luna, Taylor Marlais, Jonathan Mateo, Breanna Nguyen, Briannon Pittman, Lorenzo Tom, Janessa Tsang, Marlon Vasquez, Brandon Wong, Ryan Wong, Jason Yee, Anthony Young, Steven Zaballos, TongLin Zeng

Clark Atlanta University Chancler Hill

Dominican University Rejie Padilla, Brian Periquet

College of the Redwoods Karla Paredes

Expression College Spencer Gorton

Colorado Christian University Baylee Johnson

FIDM Shania Shanks, Shirley Wong

Columbia Gen Studies SiLin Huang

George Washington University Kelly Chan

Carleton College Tia King

CSU Chico Nicole Anthony, Michaela Jordan, Amanda Klunis, Jalen McFerren, Alexandra Siegel

Glendale Community College Alyssa Jessica De Leon

Chabot College Jaclynn Abraham, Francisco Aguilera, Haneen Ammari, Alana Avery,

CSU East Bay Hannah Alter, Caylie Brekke, Olivia Chan, Maximino Cisneros, Christian

Cabrillo College Kayla Mitchell, Rio Ochoa, Angelina Parra, Amanda Saylor Cal Maritime Academy Jacob Boisse, Alex Wilson Cal Poly Pomona Matthew Falconer, Savanah Khan, Chon In Luk, Jessica Ng, Mikayla Payne, Sierra Smith, Sabrina Strach, Megan Warhurst Cal Poly San Luis Obispo Martynas Budvytis, Kyle Bybee, Tamiko Cavey, Tyler Clem, Kira Evers, Natasha Fazeli, Madeline Hahn, Ashlyn Harris, Alexa Ludke, Katherine Miller, Suryung (Grace) Moon, Jacqueline Ng, Elvira Sabanovic, Austin Soto, Hio Kuan Tang, Julian Trevizo California College Arts So Ra Lee

Chaffrey College Elijah Sanchez

Howard College Brittany Roberts

Humboldt State University Emma Groff, Juanita Mendoza, Tess Palmer Idaho State University Adrianna Tucker ITT Technical Institute Aaron Chancellor Lake Tahoe Community College Jacob Birmingham, Tyler Ferreira, Anthony Figueroa, Jacob Paiva Laney College Demareyeh Lane, Daniel Melgoza Las Positas College Rayna Abreu, Khari Akil, Joshua Alverenga, Isaak Azraei, Danielle Barrera, Mark Berndt, Joseph Berube, Austin Bowden, Melissa Brisco, Luke Busby, Kendrick Calkins, Sarina Castro, Prescila Ceja, Paige Chandler, Wei Chieh Chen, Michelle Chu, Queenie Chu, James Connors, Juan Contreras, Andrew Cuddy, Eric Dang, Justin Dang, Jordan Darbo, Luis DeHaro, Elisa DeLaCruz, Victor Deng, Valeria Dimova, Muhammad Dirbas, Johnathan Dunn, Carolyn Fong, Corrine Franks, Andrew Garcia, Jordan Gilham, Fransisco Gonzalez, Dana Grigsby, MaShawn Hall, Madeline Herborn, Sebastian Hood, Kevin Hoops, ChunHo Hui, Justin Iredale, Adam Israel, Kiya Jennings, Jorden Kirkland, Samantha Kline, Qiana Ko, Alexandra Lauzardo, Phillip Le, Brandon Lee, Emily Lerschen, Shiloh Lewis, Taylor Lim, Lenee Madera, Alexander Major, Erik Marino, Matthew Marsh, Cinthia Mata-Cervantes, Wynter Matulich, Luke McCallin, Myles McClain, Avalon Mendes, Natthew Merlini, Nicholas Munoz, Brandi Neil, Aleksey Nemchinov, David Nguyen, Wesley Nild, Jeffrey Owens, Marissa Padilla, John Pangelina, Stephanie Panko, Derek Phillips, Aries Randex, Leticia Robles, Eugene Rodriguez, Amanda Rogers, Michael Sayage, Joseph Semeng, Michael Simao, Justin Souza, Mitchell Tom, Michael Trevizo, Jose Miguel Valenzuela, Nicolas Villasenor, Daisy Villaverde, Megan Wallace, Jada West, Adam Woods, Julie Wultanski, Katya Yakovleva, Andy Yeung, Alexandra Young, Izabella Zamudio, Jenny Zheng, Liliya Zherebnenkova Lewis & Clark Madison Lambert, Garrett Lushington

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Loyola University Emma Woidtke

Northeastern University Thomas Micheletti

SAE Institute Andrew Barney

Lyon College Stephanie Hill

Northwestern University Amanda Leung

Marinello Beauty College Kalani Hausia

Notre Dame de Namur Maryann Nguyen, Marissa Torres

San Diego State Jennie Hankins, Morgan Javonillo, Melody Platt, Nikki Su

Maritime Academy Martin Hunter

Oberlin College Amelia Henderson

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Occidental College Eric Silverness, Jodie Kincaid

Menlo College Carlos Garcia

Ohlone Mallory Formoso, Antonia Miskic, Sherry Morgan, DeNia Nelson, Esias Ortiz Hernandez, Sara Thomas, Cassandra Tigue, Jennifer Brochu, Eva Cabrera

Diego Lazares

Merritt College Samantha Steward Military Angun Bista, Ezequiel Block, Keano Calderon, Chelsea Daubert, Matthew Harnish, Damien Jackson, Mathew Lim, Mathew Matheny, Elijah Ross Mills College Erika Pendleton, Felicianna Marquez, Sabrina Sexton

Oregon State University Emerald Coupe Other Tyler Tate Paul Mitchell Cosmetology Janene Odeh, Natalie Tonini

Minok State University Andrea Orta Diaz

Pepperdine Victoria Low

Mount San Antonio College Jia Hui Situ

Purdue University Dominick Lee

MUD Los Angeles Akemi Elita Gamboa

ROP Camila Contreras

Napa Valley Junior College Ryan Christy

Sacramento City College Bria Royal

New England College Jessica Gibson

Sacramento State University Anthony Coleman, Claire Morgan

No. Arizona University Alyssa Kunesh

Saddleback College Brahma Mae Muldez

San Jose State University Erin Michelle Ballar, Cameron Beresini, SueLan Bin, Kaitlyn Bliven, Andre Chick, Amanda Clemmons, Mary Doronkina, Caroline Douglas, Andrew Feng, Nathan Hong, Stephanie Inn, Terence Li, Felipe Martinez, Carl Mo, Dominic Palazzotto, Katherine Pham, MaAngela Rica Mae Rivera, Jose Carlo Sarmiento, Kristen Shak, Brianna Swisher, Erik Thai, Kelly Tran, Alexandra Vaz, Jonathan Wong San Mateo Community College Priti Darke, Michaela LaRosa Santa Barbara City College Jamie Logan, Caitlin Sipos Santa Clara University Darence Lim Santa Rosa Junior College Allison Decker School of Style – LA Rashad Russell Seattle Pacific University Ariana Harger San Francisco State University Amirah Burleigh, Arti Darke, Alexandra Esparza, Ankita Francis, Benjamin Irvin, Stella Liang, Rix Linayao, Santiago Mariscal, Christina Oliveros, Brijhe Pointer, Allen Rubel, Luis Tapia, Kristy Tsang, Jorge Varela, Daniel Witte, Christine Ye, Timothy Yu

Sonoma State University Eric Burnett, Katherine Field, Adriana Gascon, Maddalena Heisler, Bianca Higuera, Alejandra Torres, Samantha Tracq, Theresa Yonzon South Dakota State Amanda Howard Spelman College Hope Ashford, Quinn Wamsley, Asia Robinson

Forrester

St. Mary’s College Joelle Bassett, Imani Brown Stanford Dafeng (Stephen) Ou UC Berkeley Lillian Carrell, Suzanna Chak, Matthew Cheung, Jason Cheung, Valerie Huynh, Christina Kaser, Jason Liang, Belinda Liu, Mira Muhlfelder, Katherine Neff, Susan Wang, Jisu Yoo, Jessica Zhang, Gina Zhao UC Davis Otto Chen, Katherine Gaudinier, Emily Guo, Neha Gupta, Anthony Ho, Amanda Houston, Kaylin Hui, Justin Ku, Patrick Lavin, Felix Le, Kevin Le, Stephanie Lew, Jiexin Liang, Janice Liu, Zachary Lopez, Megan Madan, Amy Poon, Anushka Sign, Josephine Situ, Claudia Tang, Kara Tiet, Michelle Timm, Grant Tominaga, Michael Wong, Tammy Wu, Christina Yee, Beatrice Zhu UC Irvine Kevin Brum, Andy Cao, Julien Farbarik, Andrew Fox, Tamara How, Kayla Jue, Liana Lam, Samantha Lee, Tyler Lee, Andre Lew, Steven Lord, Christy Munson, Christina Truong, Raymond Xie UC Merced Khushboo Singh UC Riverside Michael Adams, Leia Saelee, Jessica Tang, Vivian To, Danielle Vargas, Amanda Hom, Amanat Riar

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Future Plans

UC San Diego William Chu, Claire Fusich-Falzone, Wendy Huang, Andrew Kiland, Evan Kwong, Sara Lee, Joyce Liang, Matthew Williams

Undecided Sarah Madan, Alexis Ruiz

UC Santa Barbara Xin (Stephanie) Chen, Nangha Cuadros, Juliet Fong, Dariya Ignatenko, Lauren Korbas, Sophia Lam, Cameron Richey, Stephan Sobolev, Kimberly Tang, Calvin Young, Sara Zollner

University of Arizona Nicholas Alfaro, Evleg Odbayar

UC Santa Cruz Marisa Corriea, Tara Dehdari, Ashna Deo, Ting Lin, HuiChia Lo, Michelle Ly, Astrid Moncada, Brenda Phuong, Jackson Pipkins, Bethlehem Sisay, Dragos Suciu, Matt Talajkowski, Veronica Wang, Lauren Wirdzek, Dylan Wright, Herman Yang, XiaoChen Zhang UC Los Angeles Christopher Cheng, Erin Cheung, Youngseo Hwang, Victoria Liang, Justin Liu, Jennifer Zoffada

University of Alaska Kelsey McCartney

University of British Columbia Hannah Litman University of Kansas Samuel Reed University of Massachusetts Chanita Khongkruephan University of Minnesota John Senna

University of Nevada Alexandra Pacis

University of Washington Arlene Dehilario, Monica Johal

University of Oregon Madison Hall, Nathaniel Moore, Lauren Pardo

UTI Alexandro Rivas Garcia

University of Portland Corinne Foley University of Rhode Island Keishae Vann University of San Francisco Munirah Awad, Rachel Crary University of Texas at Austin Reema Kakaday

University of Montana Rebecca Mathisen

University of the Pacific Adam Anderson, Jasper Gong, Kyle Jensen, Angela Low

University of Nebraska Jordan Deseck

University of the South Pacific Stephanna Barrett

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Washington State University Kendra Ward West Point Anant Tikku Woodland Community College Seblewongel Shenkute Work Daniel Aquino, Kayla Briscoe, Cheuk Chung, Ignacio Delgado Vega, Elisabet Herrera, KyLind Hussain, Jadalynn Kelly, Matilda Kidwell, Erika Lambert, Itzayana Ramon-Garcia, Kathryn Schmid, Andrew Thurman WyoTech Jose Alberto Perez Zuniga Xavier University Omi Richardson

Advice column Teacher & student

Dear graduating seniors...

“Don't ever compromise your dreams and goals.

Believe in yourself and accomplish what you want to be. Everything is attainable with a little work. You're the one in charge of your destiny."

- Shari Rodriguez

"Be flexible in your plans for yourself.

Changing your plans can be the best thing for you. Make an effort to leave Castro Valley and go elsewhere and see what other places have to offer. Always try to learn and be curious."

- Carmelina Frasca

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“The hard work starts now. If you don’t start making the right choices now, it’s going to be harder in the future. Make the right choices and work towards making a difference. Try to turn your passion into a paycheck.”

- Michelle Stephens

“Cultivate your curiosity.

Allow yourself to be curious and follow it. The most successful people I know are that way because they managed to stay curious. One of the most important things is to always read and to keep building knowledge."

- Michelle Trueblood

“Do. Not. Procrastinate. You will appreciate the delicacy that is free time and understand the true horror that is felt when one is finishing a 15-page long paper two hours before its due date on turnitin.com.”

- Wendy Huang

“Start on assignments earlier than the week before they’re due...or YOLO.”

“Keep on top of things and don’t be afraid to try new things; it’s not as difficult as people make it out to be.”

-Stephen Woodbury

“I like to sleep.

Sleep is good. Sleep as much as possible while still maintaining a healthy social life and good hygiene.”

-Jenny Zoffada

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Senior ball 2014