6
THE UNION
MAY 2013
FEATURES
Seniors partake in 5k Rave Run BY CINDY WU
Brenda Su | THE UNION
Senior Maecy Williams accepts the $20,000 Minnis Scholarship from Selection Chairperson Jenifer Lind. Each year, five seniors are chosen for the scholarship based on financial need and an essay written on career goals.
Minnis scholarship awarded to seniors BY KIMBERLY VO
College decisions have been finalized, and the realities of the price of college have set in. With these pricey tuitions, seniors have flocked towards opportunities to receive aid through scholarships—including the coveted Minnis scholarship, rewarded only to MHS students, taking financial need into strong consideration. Seniors were able to apply for the Minnis scholarship by turning in an application and an essay, Senior Cheverlyn Casta said. There was one $20,000 award, two $10,000 awards, and two $5,000, according to Casta, who received one of the $10,000 awards. Other winners were Senior Maecy Williams, who won the grand $20,000 award; Senior Crystal Han, who won the other $10,000 award;
and Seniors Solomon Wong and Jeff Nguyen, who won the $5,000 awards. “The Minnis scholarship is a scholarship from the Minnis family—they own this multi-million dollar company in Milpitas,” Casta said. “[Rita Minnis’] husband used to give back to our school, and when he died, she just wanted to continue his legacy, so that’s why she gives the scholarship.” Essays written by applicants were weighed heavily in the decision-making process, according to Casta. The applicants were to write an essay about their career goals and college plans, which was solely looked at before anything else, Casta noted. “I wrote about how I wanted to be a child psychologist because I like working with kids and I like the area of psychology, so I just put them together,” Casta said. “I talked about
how programs I’m involved in like Best Buddies and this tutoring program kind of lead to this decision.” The Minnis scholarship will help Casta’s family with paying for the expensive college tuitions. “I’m going to UCI, and I’m study psychology and social behavior,” according to Casta. This scholarship has relieved a lot of stress for Williams, who is grateful. She plans to go to San Jose State University and have a job while she is in school, Williams said. “I feel like I was selected because I have a plan and future goals,” according to Williams. “I know what I am going to do and how I am going to do it for the next four years.” Williams advises future applicants to work hard and have a goal. “Stay involved in school and try hard in everything you do,” Williams stated.
Cadorin travels abroad for exchange program BY MARTIN YAO
While most seniors are now college-bound and have gone through the March Sadness and April Acceptance periods, one senior has other plans. Senior Susanna Cadorin plans on studying abroad in Spain as part of an exchange program. Cadorin applied to the Rotary Youth Exchange program due to her lifelong interest in traveling and meeting new people. After traveling to England last summer, she decided to study abroad and came across the program through Milpitas Interact, Cadorin said. “[Rotary] is sponsoring me to go abroad for a year, but it is actually eight to nine months, like a school year,” Cadorin said. “I will go live with two to three different host families in a town called Bic, and I will go to high school there and just learn the language and the culture,” Cadorin said.
Cadorin’s parents definitely support this decision. Cadorin’s mother and father support traveling and experiencing different cultures due to their backgrounds, Cadorin said. “My mom did American Field Service, which is the same sort of thing, so she did a year abroad in Italy when she was my age,” Cadorin said. “And my dad is Italian so he of course approves of me going back to Europe and learning European stuff,” Cadorin added. Cadorin said she will definitely miss her friends and family while studying abroad. However, this factor will not affect her decision. “Of course I am going to be miss home; we have had orientation and preparation, lots of preparation, so I know that I am going to feel homesick and all that,” Cadorin said. “But they said it was going to be the best year of my life, so homesickness does not
really factor in when you have a best year of your life in store,” Cadorin added. Cadorin plans on applying to colleges here while in Spain. Though Cadorin is interested in traveling and learning about different cultures, she is still unsure about what career path to take. “I will go to where I am accepted,” Cadorin said. “I do not really know what I want to do, so I do not really have a plan other than that,” Cadorin added, “I never knew what I wanted to do, so college never really interested me.” Cadorin is one of five other teenagers participating in the Rotary Youth Exchange program. The five other teenagers will study abroad in Belgium, Germany, Italy, and France. A foreign student from one of these countries will also attend MHS as part of the program, Cadorin added.
Students, language teachers plan trip to Europe BY JONATHAN NGO
Students and teachers from MHS will be traveling to France, Spain, and Morocco in June 2014. The trip begins on June 12 and ends on June 24, lasting a total of thirteen days. France, Spain, and Morocco were the chosen destinations primarily because students would be given a chance to experience the language they learned in class, according to French Teacher Lisa Topping. The students also have a chance to experience the culture, she added. “The Spanish teacher and myself wanted students to have a chance to speak the language they’re learning and be in the culture,” Topping said. “They also speak French in Morocco.
They’re Muslim so they have beautiful mosques and medinas to go see.” Topping has taken eight groups on trips in the past. She has traveled to France, Spain, and Morocco, but has yet to visit all the destinations on their itinerary. “I’ve been to France, Spain, and Morocco, but not to some of these cities in the south of Spain,” Topping said. “We’re just excited about it. This is the longest trip we’ve taken.” The group will travel with EF Educational Tours, according to Topping. The cost per person is approximately $3800 and includes everything from transportation to museum entrances to meals, Topping explained. “EF is the biggest tour company in the world. They guarantee the
lowest price for students,” Topping said. “They’re in charge of us. They will provide a guide that will leads us from the day we get there to the day we leave.” The group will start their trip in Paris, France and visit all the monuments including the Eiffel Tower the Louvre, Topping said. They will then travel on an overnight train to Barcelona and Madrid in Spain, and finish the trip in the southern region of Spain and nearby Morocco, Topping continued. “We need more people to come on the trip. You can sign up to three months before we leave,” Topping said. The price goes up slowly every few months. The sooner you sign up the better.”
What better way to finish off senior year healthily than with a group of your closest friends? That’s exactly what Seniors Nathan Han, Keziah Lyu, Wing Ly, Ana Peccin, Eric Tao, and Maurissa Thomas did. These buddies, part of a group of friends who call themselves The Krew, participated in the Rave Run at the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds on May 11. This noncompetitive run takes place at night, and participants dress in glow-in-the-dark outfits and run on a five-kilometer course that winds through city streets. The event concludes with an after-party consisting of music provided by disc jockeys. Many MHS students participated in this run, but for this particular group of seniors, this event was another opportunity to bond with each other before they graduate. “It seemed like a really good bonding experience with my Krew and it did turn out very memorable,” Ly said. For most of them, this was a new experience, and the group trained individually as well as together. Lyu trained by running half an hour to an hour three or four times a week, but
there was no regular training schedule for the group. “It’s just whoever had spare time and wanted to go for a jog,” Ly said. Speaking about the course and the Rave Run event itself, the “set up was pretty shabby,” Tao said. “The [Santa Clara County] Fairgrounds terrain wasn’t exactly great for running, especially in the dark.” “The course was really rough and kind of unorganized,” Ly added. However, since the run was not timed, the seniors just “enjoyed ourselves by going at whichever pace we wanted,” Ly said. After the run, the group spent two hours at the after-party that “was pretty much a rave,” Tao said. “It was basically just like a concert with a DJ and a full-blown band playing house music.” Overall, this group of friends agrees that participating in this run together has strengthened their friendship. Lyu reflects that “this experience definitely brought our group together, because we ran through all the dust, people, lights, and music,” Lyu said. “I’m really proud of us, because we ran nonstop and we did it together.”
Courtesy of Keziah Lyu
Seniors Eric Tao, Wing Ly, Ana Peccin, Keziah Lyu, Nathan Han, and Maurissa Thomas (left to right) smile before running five kilometers in the Rave Run on May 11. The run was held at the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds.
Multitude of factors affect SIR; geographic location trumps all BY RACHEL ALVELAIS
May is a month packed with stress. For seniors, May 1 is a date that has been on their calendars since the beginning of the year: on that day, seniors make their final decision on where they will go to college. When a college accepts a student, it sends out a Statement of Intent to Register (SIR). A SIR generally consists of checking a box and paying a fee. The SIR indicates to the college that the student will attend next year. In the case of a student being unable or not wanting to attend college immediately, a student can cancel an SIR or in some cases can defer his admission until the following year. For the most part, a SIR is a final decision, and students must consider many factors before making it. 28 percent of 300 MHS seniors said in a survey that the geographic location of a college shaped their decision
of where to attend school. The second greatest factor they considered was whether a certain major was offered at the college, 13 percent reported. 10 percent cited that how much financial aid they received played an important part in their decisions; eight percent took the prestige of a college into consideration. Other seniors took into account whether they had friends attending their college. Six percent of the seniors surveyed cited enjoyment of the social environment on certain campuses and the ability to travel away from home as important factors in their decision making processes. Websites such as College Board offer services that help students find colleges based on factors similar to The Union’s survey. However, each and every such website tells students that the “perfect college” should be a place they are comfortable living in for four or more years.