Volume 63, Issue 2, October 31, 2022

Shakespeare in Love

Magdalene Ko Editor in-chief

After months of preparation and efort, our Mills drama team put on a beautiful reproduction of Shake speare in Love. Starring Jeremy Garcia and Aniyah Harris, the sto ry invites viewers on an emotional roller coaster as we follow along Shakespeare discovering the mean ing of life.

Our actors brought the story to life through their facial expressions and emotional enunciation. Shake speare in Love is the fctional story of inspiration for Romeo and Juliet, with comedy, tragedy, and love all woven together. On top of all the ro mance, the crowd enjoyed the jokes and Shakespearean references. The stage design, built by Mills students, was also amazing, as it was a replica of the Rose theater.

Yet the only reason the show was so entertaining was the ded ication and efort of the actors and actresses. For Sam Maina (12), his biggest struggle was remembering his cues and when to say his lines. Not only was this an intricate play to put on, most of the cast were rel atively new to theater, Juniors and Sophomores who stepped up. Sam explained “everyone has put in a lot of efort to memorize their lines, es pecially frst time underclassmen.”

Jeremy Garcia (11), who played Shakespeare, reiterated that state ment, elaborating that “memorizing a lot of lines was the hardest part of the play because [I] have a horrible memory.” It was hard for both the actors memorizing their lines and those who helped them study. For tunately, according to Mr. Hudelson, the drama teacher, the cast “might be younger, but they’re quick learn ers and very smart.” Despite the dif fculties of memorization and added stress, everyone worked hard to im prove, and ultimately, all lines were delivered fuidly and fawlessly.

These difculties didn’t stop the drama team from having fun. For both Jeremy and Ishaan Arora (11), who plays Kit Marlo, the favorite part was when Jeremy climbed on Ishaan, described as an infnite rizz scene. For Ishaan, “It was really fun being able to squat Jeremy.” For others, like Sam, there was no one favorite part, but the play was a very funny and good experience. The wittiness, Shakespearean touch, and most importantly, the romance, all kept the audience highly invested

throughout the entire play.

Of course, the cast also built lasting memories and gained life lessons. The hours of practice and rehearsals really drew everyone to gether. A member of the crew, Justin Garcia (11), gave the perfect sum mary: “The bonds we created are the most memorable.” He went on to explain how he learned to keep the show going and the rewarding feeling of working with others and putting efort into a production. Sam also said the entire team real ly pulled together, patiently helping each other out and communicating.

According to Ishaan, everyone

Boba Bots go to Calgames

Amelia Naughten Staff Writer

On October 9th, following three straight days of competition with their latest bot, Ghost-Tea, Mills’ Robotics team, the Boba Bots, ranked 16th out of 36 teams at the annual Calgames First Robotics competition, hosted at Pittsburg High School in Pittsburg, California.

Founded in 1998, the Boba Bots is Mills’ FRC (First Robotics Competition) team. The group is divided into four departments which include electronics (those who wire the bot), programming (those re sponsible for writing code for the ro bot), construction (those who build the bot), and operations (those who secure funding for the team). To gether, these four departments col laborate in the Makerspace, a class room geared to meet the engineering needs of the Boba Bots, with each member committing to several hours a week in order to create a robot that can perform and compete against other schools.

Lo explained, “I enjoyed seeing how diferent teams came together to compete against each other and how they all have diferent bots that have diferent functions.”

Over the competition weekend, the team continued to work tireless ly. From waking up at fve in the morning, to the one hour drive to Pittsburg, all the way to the release time at fve or later in the afternoon, the members dedicated their full at tention and energy to the event.

Throughout the tournament, the team’s diferent departments con trolled and participated in individ ualized activities. The construction department prepped and fxed the robot between matches whilst the drive team worked in the feld frst hand to control the robot’s move ments after the autonomous period (the frst 15 seconds of a round when a robot relies solely on code). Driver

bots that were better equipped to ft the quota that the top eight teams looked to fulfll. Despite this loss, the Boba Bots were proud of their work that day.

Katie Ip (12), captain of the operations department, shared her thoughts on the Boba Bot’s im provement: “The amount of defense we’ve been receiving [was unex pected]...which usually means that we’re doing really well. The amount of times that we carried our alliance or been the main contributor was also really cool because that didn’t happen as much at our competition last year.”

Not only did the team do well, but they continued to support and cheer on other SMUHSD teams that advanced. Moreover, at the end of the competition, the Boba Bots se cured the imagery award, honoring best branding and merchandise, at

improved greatly through their hard work. Even those who had been in drama for a while had obvi ous improvements as they continued practicing.

As one of the older members now, Jeremy really wanted to create a fun atmosphere for the underclass men. As a Sophomore in Footloose, last year’s graduating class of se niors made his experience enjoy able, and he hopes he was able to do the same this year. He stated “Over all, we defnitely progressed a lot and improved as a whole as a cast. Our friendships were stronger. Our bonds as a cast really blossomed. We grew closer as friends and actors.”

Ishaan reiterated this feeling as “In the beginning, we were like this just castmates, but now we truly are a family.”

Putting on a play is always ex tremely difcult, yet the drama team did another amazing job of it. It was beautiful to see the play, and even more impressive knowing all the hard work that went on behind the scenes. Ultimately, they hope every one enjoyed “Shakespeare in Love.”

Earlier this year in the 2021-22 competition season, the Boba Bots developed a robot that could meet the challenge of the season. The challenge required the team to create a robot that could shoot light-weight balls into low (cargo) and high (taxi) bins to score points. At the end of the challenge, bots would rush towards bars to hang and score points ac cording to which level they hung at (the higher the rung, the greater the points scored). In every match, six robots would be chosen and divided into either the red or blue alliances. The highest scoring alliance would win the match, which in turn boost ed rankings for the teams a part of that alliance.

Now, during the of-season of the new 2022-23 school year, GhostTea was brought out once again to compete one last time at Calgames under the same rules and require ments. A total of 31 other high school robotics teams from the Bay Area, including fellow SMUHSD teams Aragon and Burlingame, at tended the competition and partici pated in the activities that entailed. The opportunity served as practice for upcoming competitions this year and introduced new members to the competition environment.

Jennifer Lo (11), a new member working in the operations depart ment, commented on her positive experience at her frst competition.

Ryan Chan (10) commented, “It’s stressful, but there are people there to support you. I’m not the only one on the drive team and when I’m ac tively driving the bot, there are oth er people there to support me like a second pair of eyes.”

In addition to those tasks, the operations department and other members on the bleachers cheered on the team, as well as scouted other teams to strategize strong defense and ofense plans. Across the three days of Calgames, the Boba Bots competed in ten matches, won fve, tied one, and lost four matches, ul timately placing 16 out of 36 teams by the end of the qualifers.

After the qualifying matches came to a close, the top eight teams invited other teams of their choice to join them in an al liance to compete for a win in the quarter, semi, and full fnals. As they placed relatively high, the Boba Bots were hopeful that they would secure a place in an alliance.

Unfortunately, they were not chosen due to the other “defense”

the Calgames awards ceremony.

The Boba Bots fnished the day in high spirits and with a cup of boba milk tea. They are excited for the new theme of the upcoming build season and look forward to a fresh start. In addition to this, the Boba Bots would also like to focus on improving communication and engagement within the team.

Chakrabortry feels that an in crease in engagement would result in increased camaraderie, more collaboration, and ultimately more ideas shared and executed through out the new season, and his con structive criticism is representative of the team’s aspirations for the new seasons. The Boba Bots also look to improve communication so that they can better prepare for the events and ensure that activities run smoothly.

Through thick and thin, regard less of win or loss, the Boba Bots persevere and stay spirited in deliv ering their purpose to “build bots, build people, and build communi TEA” as well as to cultivate passion for STEAM in the Mills community.

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Magdalene Ko MILLS DRAMA: Shakespeare in Love

400 Murchison

editors@millsthunderbolt.org

www.millsthunderbolt.org

Staf

Faculty

Kelly

Editor-in-Chief

Katelyn Chang ‘23

Magdalene Ko ‘23

Katelyn Lam ‘23

Max Zaninovich ‘24

Joshua Choe ‘24

Groove-a-thon Performance Review

Erika Kita Staff Editor

prepared for any emer gency on campus is a priority for all schools. Students must know what to do and where to go in case of dangerous situations. To prepare for emergency situations, Mills con ducted two drills this year.

This school year Mills has conducted two drills including The Great California Shakeout and a se cure campus lockdown drill, which were drills implemented to help students and staf prepare for two diferent emergency situations. The Great California Shakeout is an earthquake drill that schools across California participate in. This drill has students and staf drop, cover, and hold to tables and desks. Even tually, students and staf are evac uated to an open area, such as our football feld. After the earthquake drill, Mills had a secure campus lockdown drill, which was a drill to protect students and staf from a po tential outside threat. This drill had classrooms to be locked and bar ricaded with heavy objects such as chairs and desks. Both of these drills can protect us from emergency situ ations, but there are also three more drills that schools use to protect us students. These fve drills are nick named “The Big Five.”

or exiting rooms until law en forcement says otherwise. This hap pens if there’s an active shooter on campus or extreme violence outside. Since this would normally happen without warning, any action to pro tect students and staf can be taken. Hiding or escaping should always happen rationally and carefully, watching out for potential threats.

Lastly, an evacuation drill is to have all students and staf evacuate campus, and retreat to a safer loca tion. This drill could be used if there was a fre, gas leak, or when any oth er emergency has happened. If there is falling debris, however, students should frst hide under desks to pro tect themselves. With these drills, some people question if they are ac tually safe and efective.

When emergency drills take place, teachers play a big part. Hav ing teachers participate in these drills raises diferent opinions. “I don’t like the drills because they take a lot of time, and half the time students don’t listen, but they are a necessary evil,” says Ms. Campbell. Drills often take a long time and become a waste of time if no one’s paying attention. All teachers see the pros and cons of having diferent drills. “Some of the drills are useful.

‘24

Michaela

‘24

Phoebe

Noor Abdullah ‘24

Riley Alcantara ‘23

Abigail Chai ‘25

Elaine Chan‘25

Kyle Chan ‘23

Rachel Cheng‘23

Eduardo Galindo ‘25

Daniel Gao ‘23

Michael Lin ‘23

Erika Kita‘23

Samuel Lam ‘23

Nicole Lee ‘23

Alysha Louis ‘23

Amelia Naughten‘26

Bruce Nie ‘23

Brendan Phimsoutham ‘23

Jessica Poon ‘25

Jamie Wong ‘23

Xia ‘25

The Big Five is a term used to describe the fve diferent drills schools use to protect their students and staf faculty. The shelter in place drill has students and staf stay in side of classrooms to protect from external threats like the past gas leak on Millbrae Ave. Teachers are sup posed to close windows and vents. Fires or unhealthy air quality could also cause a shelter in place proce dure. As explained above, the drop, cover, and hold on is used for if an earthquake or explosion were to happen, which has students to take cover under desks, and to hold on. This protects students from falling debris, and is the best protection against earthquakes. If this happens during an earthquake, everyone must be aware of possible aftershocks.

Secure campus is to keep all doors locked and protected. This drill is used to protect from potential external threats such as violence in the nearby community, but teaching continues. Classrooms are locked, but the outer doors are only closed.

Lockdown/barricade is to complete ly put all rooms on lockdown, pre venting any person from entering

During fre drills when we evacuate can be useful in a real fre emergen cy, but getting under desks in an earthquake drill does not seem as useful,” says Mr. Hensley. Another thing Mr. Hensley says that teach ers often adjust their own teaching schedule after the drills are sched uled.

Not only do teachers have mixed opinions, but so do students. “The students often don’t take the drills seriously, and they are not ef fective because of that,” says Zhiyu an Ma (9). Many students see drills as a way to get out of class or talk with friends. Even though some students don’t think these drills are efective, others would disagree.

“Emergency drills are efective in a way because if we didn’t have them, what would we do?” says Brendan Phimsoutham (11). Though people have diferent opinions on these drills, we still have to conduct them.

According to the California State Government, all of the Big Five drills are required to be con ducted in all California schools. Ele mentary schools and middle schools conduct more emergency drills than high schools. As for now, emergen cy drills will not be going away even if some people don’t think they help us much.

Messages from the

Katelyn Chang

In my senior year, I’ve truly re alized how special journalism and writing the newspaper is. Despite the hard work, I’m excited to contin ue working with students to produce something we can all be proud of.

This year, I want to push every one, including myself, to continue building our writing skills. Working together, I believe we can all im prove our writing. I hope that by the end of the year, everyone can look back on their frst articles and see their improvement.

Overall, I aspire to make an impact on the school by reporting relevant news and sharing student opinions. A newspaper is special be caue it is not only informational, but it shines a light on others, and I’m looking forward to embodying that ideal this year

Magdalene Ko Katelyn Lam

After a year of journalilsm, I’ve learned the difculties and beauties of writing an article.

It’s easy to simply pull together an article, but I want others to see the beauty of putting time and efort into their writing. Journalism isn’t just about fnding all the facts, but each section, article, and interview is difernt, coming together to form a cohesive piece. This might seem stressful or unworthwhile, but it is. My goal is to teach other writers the intricacies of journalism, that a good article is fun and exquisite.

I hope that this year, we can continue to inspire a new generation of writers to con tinue the legacy of the “The Thunderbolt”. I also hope that the community continues enjoying our news.

Journalism last year brought forth challenges I never expected. Re gardless of the surprises, the team was able to come together and main tain our writing.

Working together to produce the newspaper last year was an hon or. Struggling against deadlines and discovering the expenses were just some things our team bonded over. Despite our hardships, we still pub lished newspapers and enjoyed the collaboration.

In this new year, I’m looking forward to working with this new group to learn writing together. I have no idea if we’ll face the same challenges or if they’re going to be diferent. No matter what happens this year, I’m excited to meet it head on with the rest of our newspaper team.

Erika Kita

GROOVE-A-THON PEFORFMANCE: Band formed by a froup of Mills’ stu dents performs for audience members

Erika Kita

GROOVE-A-THON PEFORFMANCE: Choir of Mills’ students sing a song directed by Mr. Gregoric

Erika Kita

GROOVE-A-THON PEFORFMANCE: Japanese and Geometry Teacher Ms. Spencer-Mills (front) sings accompained by band of Mills students playing instruments

San Francisco Fleet Week Review

Brendan Phimsoutham Staff Writer

The United States Military is a constantly growing and moving power within the country and what it is best known for. Whether it is considered as military propaganda or appreciation, Fleet Week is a time when San Francisco comes togeth er to honor the contributions of the United States Armed Forces. Specif ically, it is a celebration of the sea services within the U.S. military, in cluding the United States Navy, the United States Marine Corps, and the United States Coast Guard.

The public events, including the dramatic fyovers and airshows, dis play fghter jets, helicopters, Boeing jets, and other aircraft for the gener al public, many of whom never get access or have never even seen this type of military technology.

From the 3rd to the 11th of October, Fleet Week San Fran cisco commenced and brought in their military innovations to vari ous locations throughout the Bay Area. The most notorious attraction by far for audiences aware and un aware of Fleet Week is typically the

roaring F-18 superhornets known as the Blue Angels. Unfortunately, this year’s Fleet Week did not include them due to unusually foggy and in clement weather.

With Fleet Week in town, it was inevitable that students from Mills would go out to enjoy the event or even be invited to it. One Mills stu dent, senior Hanson Han, had been invited to a Fleet Week showcase on the 9th of November, where he and a handful of anonymous (by request) Mills students were introduced to the ways of military life and innovation. He discussed what the experience was like, including the exhibitions he took part in.

“We got to tour a ship and see what ship life would be like,” Han said. “We got to look at com bat gear and guns, as well as mul tiple types of amphibious assault vehicles. And we also looked at two types of helicopters.”

When asked if he felt that the event was trying to indoctrinate him and other attendees regarding military recruitment, he stated mat ter-of-factly, “Most defnitely.”

However, he clarifed what he meant by explaining, “It’s not like this was part of the indoctrination

process; we’re already in it. This isn’t to convince you, it’s just gonna show you what it’s gonna be like.”

According to the ofcial event website for SF Fleet Week, this public event “began in 1981 when then-Mayor Dianne Feinstein led the nation in celebrating America’s sea services.” It takes place every Oc tober in San Francisco over Italian Heritage Weekend, and the air show, the parade of ships, and many other community events have become a signifcant and integral part of the city’s local culture and economy, ac cording to the website.

The event generates $10 mil lion each year, boosting the local economy while honoring the U.S. military and its contributions to our country. A number of Mills students were given the chance to celebrate the military at Fleet Week while also enjoying the festive atmosphere of the public events. Students are giv en the opportunity to view the Navy and the other sea-related military branches, providing them the chance to consider enlisting in the military or fnding other ways to support the defense of the United States. Many Mills Students enjoyed the show and we look forward to next year!

Discontinuation of Great America’s Halloween Haunt

Joshua Choe Features Editor

Every year, a multitude of Hal loween stores and attractions pop up in October, including Spirit Hallow een, pumpkin patches, and fall car nivals. Of course, Halloween isn’t Halloween without the horror of the paranormal. The biggest attractions for teens are always the haunted houses, a night out to scream and experience true fear.

Halloween Haunt is a yearly tra dition for Great America, bringing scary Halloween thrills to the park, attracting many teens and adults for this attraction. With staf members and hired actors dressing up in cos tumes with props, the actors would chase and attempt to scare park at tendees with the sole condition of not touching the attendees, Despite it being one of the most popular annual attractions for the park, Hal loween Haunt is set to close indef initely, to be replaced by “Tricks and Treats”, a family friendly trick or treat attraction with themes of a fall festival. No reason was given for this change.

Perhaps related to the Hallow een Haunt ride attraction that was introduced and canceled a mere week later, early this year in March, is likely connected to this change. The ride, portraying a possessed girl

in a mental hospital, received back lash from advocates for “how it por trayed mental illness”. Great Amer ica’s change from Halloween Haunt to instead having a family friendly attraction could be a ploy to divert attention from the ride as well as canceling Halloween Haunt in fear of receiving more backlash.

The most obvious answer to how Halloween Haunt is being treat ed is to simply not go if an attendee does not like being scared or doesn’t like scenarios with mental illness.

Of course, haunted houses should re main sensitive to certain issues, but there are also many ‘normal’ people

who are possessed in these attrac tions. Horror movies have settings almost anywhere: normal hospitals, schools, daily life, other amusement parks. Signaling out mental illness as a reason to shut down an entire park is unrealistic because it seems like they should get special privileg es. Being respectful of people’s ill nesses, struggles, and conditions is crucial to an establishment, yet these issues should be used to improve the park, not shut it down.

By being one of the most pop ular attractions this year, it’s simply sad to see one of the biggest themes of Halloween, being scared or hav

ing feelings of thrill, all disappear in favor of “family friendly fun”. Houses still provide the classic trick or treating experience, albeit it being safer for a public park such as Great America to be sanctioning candy for kids. Now, without Great America, there’s no big Halloween attraction for teens in the Bay Area.

If a compromise were to be sug gested, it would make more sense for the park to be partitioned into two sections for kids, with the rest being the classic Halloween Haunt experience. The park is amply large enough to accommodate both expe riences, and with the possibility of

attracting all ages, it would do even better for the park. Another option would be to simply remove the ride, instead of the entire haunted house. This would enable the the overall at traction to remain.

Personally, I have never gone to Halloween Haunt but it was some thing I was highly looking forward to going to for the frst time this year. My highschool career almost feels incomplete without it. Having heard retold stories from friends that have gone, it really did sound fun. I’m very disappointed to see it going away before I had a chance to go, and I really do hope it comes back.

Nico Lofranco

HALLOWEEN HAUNT: Mills’ Students Kazuki Hensley (right) and Nico Lofranco (left) enjoy the scariness of Great America’s Halloween Haunt in years prior

Paul Chinn / The San Francisco Chronicle

FlEET WEEK SAN FRANCISCO: A Seagull flies along with the squad of the Brietling Jet Team during a Fleet Week air show over the San Francisco Bay

Noah Berger / Associated Press

FlEET WEEK SAN FRANCISCO: Team Oracle aerobatics pilot Sean D. Tucker flies over Alcatraz Island

Noah Berger / Associated Press

FlEET WEEK SAN FRANCISCO: Fleet of United States Navy Blue Angels fly beside the Golden Gate Bridge during preparation for their airshow during Fleet Week

Skyline Courses at Mills

Hanson Han Sports Editor

This year, Mills is reintroducing in-person dual enrollment Skyline college courses. In the years leading up to the pandemic, Mills had just started a partnership with Skyline college. However, once the pan demic hit, these classes went online, robbing Mills students of an excel lent in-person learning opportunity. Since things are going back to nor mal now, with many Covid-19 re strictions being tapered down, Sky line courses have returned to Mills in-person.

The two courses that Mills is currently ofering are: HSCI 180 Gateway to Health Careers and BUS 100 Introduction to Business. For the Health class, Mills students get a chance to get hands-on learning, working with laboratory equipment and gaining insight as to what ca reers they can pursue in the health care feld. For the Business class, Mills students get a quick and brief overview of what getting into the business area would be like. Both of these classes are taught by reputable and successful professors from Sky line College itself. Jack Chen, the Health instructor, and Grace Beltran, the Business instructor, come once a week to give Mills students an ex clusive learning opportunity.

The best part about these class es is that they are completely free. Mills students can get the same college credit and the same college learning experience, all without having to sign up for AP classes and taking the expensive $101 exam at the end of the school year. For the Health class, these credits will di rectly transfer to any California State University (CSU) college. For the Business class, it’s an even sweeter deal. Those credits will di rectly transfer to any CSU as well as any University of California (UC) college.

A few Mills students can tes tify as to how benefcial and efec tive these in-person dual enrollment classes are. Two sophomores, Phoe be Piserchio (10) and Abigail Chai (10), have taken advantage of this opportunity.

Piserchio is currently taking the Gateway to Health Careers course, and is learning a lot from the experi ence. On top of researching subjects that will further her knowledge in the healthcare feld, she is also get ting hands-on experience by work ing with laboratory equipment and interacting with other students with

the same learning mindset as her. She describes this course as an ex perience that she cannot get in your regular Mills class.

Chai is currently taking the In troduction to Business course, and is enjoying the newfound informa tion that she is learning. As of right now, the class is doing research on the CEO of Kylie Cosmetics, Ky lie Jenner. They are researching her upbringing and business tactics, and studying how and why those factors have propelled her into the success and stardom she is currently receiv ing.

On top of these two courses that Ms. Duszynski has brought to Mills, she is looking for more course ideas that could be incorporated into the 2023-2024 school year. She current ly has her eye on a Coding course that could act as an extension of Mills’ current Computer Science courses, as well as a frst response EMT course that would act as an extension of the current Gateway to Health Careers course. However, she is still looking for student feedback, and would love to hear ideas from Mills students as to what courses could be added. Ms. Duszynski has worked really hard over the past cou ple of years, partnering with Skyline College to make her dream for Mills students come to life. Recently, her business partner at Skyline College has moved to the College of San Mateo (CSM), opening up doors for potential CSM courses to be brought into Mills as well.

All in all, the benefts of these dual enrollment programs far out weigh the time commitment that the courses ask for. Both classes meet once a week in Room 251 from 6 PM to 9 PM, with the Health class taking place on Wednesday and the Business class taking place on Thursday. According to Piserchio, the homework load for the Health class is easygoing, with a weekly as signment that would take anywhere from half an hour to an hour. Ac cording to Chai, the Business class has about the same amount of home work as your regular class, except the instructor is extremely lenient on due dates, making it a relatively stress-free environment.

While it is too late to sign up for these courses for the fall semester, the spring semester and next school year will be ofering similar cours es for the same benefts. Any Mills student can register themselves and get a headstart on their college and career goals.

Investment Club at Wharton Competition

Jamie Wong Staff Writer

The Mills Investment Club started as a Discord server. During quaran tine, Daniel Gao (12) and his friends used the space to discuss stocks and fnance. After returning from dis tance learning, Gao, the club’s pres ident, thought “maybe I should do this in person.” Better yet, he noticed that Mills did not have a fnance club at the time, so in September 2021, he decided to fll that need by founding the Investment Club.

Gao and Vice President Jeremy Pan (12) teach club members about topics like cryptocurrency, stocks, and how to invest during weekly meetings. Last year, the club’s cur riculum was largely determined by Gao’s and Pan’s own research, but this year, the Investment Club is us ing StreetFins to educate their mem bers. Pan says, “We’re hoping to get newer members more engaged. By partnering with StreetFins, a local student-run fnancial literacy pro gram, we get access to their lesson plans and important guest speakers to improve our curriculum for newer members.”

The Investment Club is also excited to participate in the Whar ton Global High School Investment Competition for the frst time. This competition, run by the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, invites teams from around the world to compete in creating the most proftable investment portfolio for a hypothetical client. For example, teams may be instructed that their

client is interested in environmen tally friendly companies and be required to fnd appropriate invest ments. In this challenge, groups must ultimately build their portfoli os based on the client’s wishes while maximizing their earnings.

The Wharton Investment Com petition takes place online for ten weeks from mid-September to ear ly December, but Gao says that the team started preparing long before by paying attention to the stock mar ket and current events that may im pact it. With their new knowledge, Investment Club members come together to decide which stocks to buy for their competition portfolio.

“Since I’m the team leader, I ask my team what stocks they want to buy and for what reason,” Gao mentions. When the team reaches a decision on which stocks to purchase, they do so through Wharton’s stock simulator.

At the end of the ten weeks, each group in the competition produces a fnal report on how the stocks in their portfolios performed and why they chose those specifc stocks for their client.

Rankings are based on a team’s earnings and the reasoning and strat egy outlined in their fnal report. The top 50 teams advance to the semif nals, which are held both online and in person in Pennsylvania. Gao and Pan are optimistic about the club’s success in the competition. Gao says, “I think we will perform very well because our team is stacked.”

Out of 5,000 teams, Gao would be pleased to be in the top 200 or 300, but he aspires to be a semifnalist. Likewise, Pan expressed confdence

in his team’s ability: “Other teams have advisors well versed in eco nomics, but we try to provide any information to our team. Through our own research, I believe we can reach their level of knowledge.“

After the Wharton competition concludes, Gao and Pan aim to keep new members interested, as the club is largely composed of freshmen. Pan hopes “new members will re main active and have fun,” and “take away something to use in the future”. One idea Gao is consider ing is holding competitions like the Wharton Competition amongst in dividuals. Rather than competing in teams, individual club members can challenge each other to see who can create the best portfolio.

Gao stresses that the fnancial literacy Investment Club members develop is an important skill to have for the future: “[In Investment Club,] you learn how to take care of your own investments after high school. In college, nobody is going to teach you so it’s better to learn now. The earlier you start, the more compound interest [you earn].” One way to think about it is that by join ing the Investment Club, you are re ally making an investment into your future.

The Investment Club welcomes anyone who is interested in invest ment to visit Room 211 (Ms. Al berta’s room) on Fridays during the second half of lunch. For more club information, follow their Instagram (@mills_investment_club) and join the Discord (link in Instagram bio)!

Senior Thoughts on 2022-23 College Application Cycle

Nicole Lee Staff Writer

The annual November madness is upon us and I’m not talking football. The season of students agonizing over GPA’s, personal statements, and whether or not they can stand out amongst other applicants is now in session. Students now only have a few more weeks until their UC, CSU and early decision applications are due and anxiety levels are run ning high through our Mills seniors.

It’s no secret that the rigor and competitiveness of our campus can cause heavy loads of stress during this time. On top of good grades, community service hours, and an overload of extracurric ular activities, college applica tions are just another challenge to overcome for students. In recent years, numerous articles and even schools themselves have reported

plummeting acceptance rates that have made it even more difficult for students to be admitted. Even the highest of overachieving stu dents end up being rejected from their dream schools, creating a concern in upcoming classes.

The class of 2023 has only experienced half a freshman year and a completely virtual soph omore year. It seems as though their high school years have slipped away from them and they’re already being prepared to transition to another school.

John Huang (12), ASB president and three time class president for this year’s graduating class shares his take on college appli cations, stating, “I am just taking it day by day. I have good days and bad days where sometimes the stress and overwhelming feel ing of essays gets to me.”

Huang had already begun his applica tions during the summer and has

created a system for himself that allows him to be as productive as possible. Although it can be extremely difficult for students to be able to balance college ap plications along with their other responsibilities, Huang shared that finding a good ratio between them helps prioritize what needs to be done. He suggests “finding one day a week where you can flush out all your ideas and cre ate a rough draft to at least get a start makes the writing process 10 times easier.” Huang personally sets aside a few hours on Satur days to revise his drafts and brain storm what he wants to say next.

Admittedly, it’s not always that easy to make time or even have the motivation to sit down and write. Student athlete, An Dang, has recently felt the burn out at extremely high levels. She shares, “Having to go to school, then practice, just to come home

around 8 to start homework is very grueling.” The back to back schedules are a challenge for so many athletes here at Mills. Dang is the captain for the varsity vol leyball team where practices run late and game days are twice a week. She explains how this vol leyball season has taken a toll on her sleep schedule, “I sleep right after practice and then wake up at like four to complete my home work.” Dang is currently enrolled in four AP classes on top of vol leyball which takes up the majori ty of her week. Finding the time to sit down and write essays doesn’t really sit high on her priority list.

It is vital that students take care of their own mental welfare, especially since it’s scientifically proven that the high expectations of getting into an elite school can cause an immense amount of stress and anxiety which can lead to higher rates of depression. The

misconception that the school you get into determines your success in the future is creating a nega tive impact on students all over the world. Students are breaking their backs trying to fit this ide al student that doesn’t even exist, causing rippling problems. Take care of yourself and if you need help don’t be afraid to reach out to the counselors at Mills. Ms. Murtagh in the career center is a great source for all seniors to utilize if they have any questions regarding college applications. Your school counselors will also be likely to have an answer to your questions and if you just need someone to talk to stop by at the wellness counselors’ of fices. They’re all great resources whether it be for school, college or just to keep your mental health in check. Schedule an appoint ment on the Mills website: https:// www.smuhsd.org/millshigh.

Investment Club, Mills Highschool

MILLS HIGHSCHOOL: The Investment Club poses for a group picture, after their dub at the Wharton Competition. Woo!

Student Success Coordinator

Lam

Writer

One of the amazing things about Mills is the strategically designed programs it provides to all students in order to be academically success ful. Some of these programs are spe cifcally designed to help students who face academic challenges and need extra levels of support. And who better to head of these pro grams than Mills’ one-and-only Stu dent Success Coordinator, Stefany Peng?

Ms. Peng has worked a total of three jobs at Mills ever since she started in 2007. Initially work ing as a Student Data Analyst, she focused on analyzing data such as grade trends, scheduling, tran scripts, and credits. However, after a couple of years, she came across a revelation: “I realized that there was an unmet need for servicing im migrant families arriving to Mills”. Thus, Ms.Peng began her transition to slotting into the job of English Learner Specialist, supporting im migrant families by translating and being an overall gateway into the Mills experience.

However, since the COVID-19 pandemic hit in March of 2020, the need for support and interventions has hit an all-time high for a large percentage of the Mills Vikings student body, leading to the intro duction and creation of the Student Success Coordinator position. “As someone who prided myself in al ways providing exceptional service, it felt like the job was a perfect match”, Peng stated.

Ms. Peng has now been at Mills for 15 years and is in the second year of her third job here as Mills’ Student Success Coordinator. She has done wonders for Mills High School, mentoring and tutoring those who are struggling. Whether or not this is due to certain circum stances or hardships, everyone is accommodated and given what they need. All of these philosophies align with Mills’ goal to strive for excel lence and help everyone succeed.

One outstanding program at Mills headed by Ms. Peng is our tutoring program. Within all San Mateo Union High School District schools are “Flex periods”: a sched uled time during the school day for students to catch up on home work with friends, see teachers for help, or just relax in the middle of a stressful day. Thanks to Peng, however, during Flex, Mills also

ofers tutoring to those who may be struggling in some of their classes or require additional help. Recruiting student volunteers to tutor during this fex time, she also coordinates with the student’s teachers in order to address their specifc needs in or der to help them get back on track in that particular class.

After school is another prime target for tutoring. At Mills, our ad ministration, staf, and even students always emphasize student-athlete, student before athlete, ensuring that students must maintain a certain GPA in order to participate. Howev er, with the need to juggle between both school and sports, it is very easy for one to fall behind. After-school tutoring exists to supervise and help athletes on academic probation in order to bring them back onto the path toward being eligible to partici pate in their respective sports.

Not only does Peng assist with tutoring around school, but she also supports several mentoring pro grams. Among these is a Peer Men toring program. As the unofcial ad visor of the Youth Supporting Youth Club, she coordinates between peer mentors for the club and freshmen in the Academic Language Develop ment class or the ALD class. Many people in this ALD class come from non-English speaking backgrounds, so this program helps their academic and social growth, pairing them with someone who can help them adapt and learn.

Last but not least, according to Peng, the most intensive support she manages is the Viking Mento ring Program. Although Mills is a vital place for students to make con nections with others, some may not feel comfortable making these con nections or just overall struggle to do so. The Viking Mentor Program serves to match the students with a trusted teacher they feel a connec tion to. Over an 8-week mentoring process in which they meet once a week, the program’s goal is to help the student establish goals and bet ter habits as they progress through their high school experience.

Ultimately, Peng contributes so much towards students’ wonderful experiences at Mills. Wearing dif ferent hats throughout her career at Mills High School, part counselor, part tutor, part mentor, part inter preter, and part family friend, to name a few, Peng has truly made a positive impact and diference in our community, always caring and putting in the extra mile so that stu dents feel supported and cared for.

Mills Dragonboat Team

Chloe Ho Staff Writer

Dragon Boat is a club at Mills High School that provides a dif ferent kind of club experience, deviating from what you’d usu ally expect. A popular club, it provides opportunities for people to improve their athletic skills, meet friends, and be in a unique environment that can provide an equally unique experience through its main focus as a team sport. Through the struggles of rowing, building their boat, and persevering through long com

petitions, members bond together and contribute to the friendly and warm atmosphere of the club.

Dragon boat racing goes back as far as 2,500 years ago, orig inating from China during the Warring States Period. Beginning with fishing communities near the Yangtze, dragon boat racing was introduced as a ritual to please the rain gods and celebrate summer rice planting. Today, it remains a popular competition, also as sociated with specialty dishes like zongzi (sticky rice wrapped in leaves), dagao (glutinous rice cakes), and tea eggs (eggs boiled in tea).

Travis Choi (11), though not in the club, is a member of the Dragon Boat team. “[A] friend introduced me to the sport saying it’d be fun, and they were right,” he remarked. about those on the team and in the club, which meets on Mondays in room 125. “Every body [on my team] is super sup portive, kind, and chill.”

His first competition was on the weekend of September 24 and 25, hosted at Lake Merced in San Francisco. Their boat placed 1st in a B recreational division in Sat urday’s race. In the youth champi onships that Sunday, they placed 2nd in the B division, beating Lowell High School by 0.08 sec onds. In somewhat of a contrast to the warm vibes that are usually emulated from the team members, they switch on their more compet itive spirit.

“During competitions, I think the vibe shifts to being more hyped,” Choi admitted. “Every one is still supportive but people also know that this is the reason why we attended weekly practice; so everyone is giving it their all, even the new people, like me.”

Besides competitions, Drag on Boat also hosts plenty of team-bonding events, like team picnics and holiday parties, such as a Halloween party coming up. Not only does it allow people to meet others, it also creates oppor tunities to unwind and celebrate what they’ve done as a team. It provides a nice change of pace from the fast-paced nature of rac es and gives the “classic school club experience” with a relaxed atmosphere and being surrounded by familiar faces and new ones, both equally friendly. Travis re called how his time on the team has grown on him, finding great fondness in those he’s met.

“Dragon Boat, to me, is like a secondary family. So if you have friends already doing Drag on Boat, you should definitely consider trying out the sport. You can just go to hang out with your friends, it doesn’t always need to be super serious practice.”

Though seemingly a daunting and time-consuming activity, tru ly it is the experience that makes membership of the team or club (or both) so worth it. The people are warm and supportive, eager to help, and (quite literally) in the same boat as you are. When asked if he’d recommend it, he very en thusiastically replied yes.

“[I’ve really grown] to love the sport as time went on. I think the competition really helped me appreciate the sport more,” Choi continued. He continued on to explain “I really got to see what the whole Dragon Boat communi ty looks like and it just felt very heartwarming to see all these peo ple who love the sport so much that they’d put so much effort into making the sport enjoyable for others.”

Dragon Boating Team, En Route

OPD: The Dragonboating team poses for a picture on the lawn next to the course of the competition.

Ms. Peng, Mills Highschool

MILLS HIGHSCHOOL: O ur hardworking Ms. Peng poses for a picture, smiling brightly at the camera

@Galileodragonboat

GCD: Gallileo Celstial Dragons celebrate the end of a season filled with wins as their seniors leave the team.

Cute Halloween Costume Ideas For 2022

Rachel Cheng Staff Writer

As the nationwide celebration of Halloween approaches, many are enthusiastic to partake in various Halloween traditions to express their spirit. Every year, Halloween serves as a chance for people to dress up in funny, scary, and cool Halloween costumes. Initially created as a way to dress up as supernatural creatures, costumes have evolved to include more options, such as characters from mass media. But, despite the wide selection of costumes avail able, there is still a variety of cre ative and simple costume ideas you and your friends can choose from. Wanda Maximoff, a fc tional character present within the Marvel Cinematic Universe has the powers of mind and energy manip ulation. In her most recent hit show, WandaVision, which hit Disney+ in 2021, notching an estimated 431 million minutes watched in the frst three days, Wanda makes her own reality and is shown to be progress ing through the decades with the theme of common sitcom tropes. When choosing this idea, you have a variety of options as you travel into the past, and bring a little back

with you this Halloween season. Continuing with the trend of well known people, Harry Styles, a famous English singer, songwriter, and actor, best known for his time in the boy band, One Direc tion, as well as his various accolades and awards throughout his career is also known for his creative choice of stagewear. Throughout his years of touring and concerts, he has certain ly racked up a reputation for wearing very famboyant outfts. Dressing in anything from polka-dotted shirts and vests to extravagant silk shirts

and dresses, this is arguably the eas iest yet most creative costume idea.

For those who desire themed cosumes for a group, there are also many iconic costume ideas to choose from. Inspired by the new Top Gun movie, groups can dress up in an olive green aviator jumpsuit and aviator sunglasses. Released on May 27. 2022, the movie Top Gun: Maverick has become the high est-grossing flm of 2022, as well as the seventh-highest grossing movie in US theaters. With the high pop ularity of this blockbuster, this cos tume is expected to be widely pop ular amongst fans this Halloween.

In addition, another clas sic group costume idea is Scooby Doo Mystery Incorporated, which includes the characters Scooby, Vel ma, Daphne, and Fred. Relatively simple to handcraft, these costumes are perfect for an easy, and afford

able last-minute costume. All one needs are colored or themed clothing and wigs! With how close-knit the characters are as they go on adven tures and solve mysteries, this set of costumes makes for a very easy yet memorable Halloween experience.

Another set of costumes to make your trick-or-treating expe rience sharp and prim would be the Men in Black. With the original flm coming out in 1997, there has been a rendition of it that hit the theaters in 2019, featuring renowned actors such as Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson. Consisting of simple yet fashionable uniforms, these Men in Black sported black suits and sun glasses as they took on the task of protecting the world from the un natural. If you’re looking to bring your group looking apt and poised to someone’s doorstep, try this out!

Spookiest Games and Films for Halloween

Jessica Poon Staff Writer

Although we , as students and adolescents alike, may have trick-

the storyline is really charming.”

The game surrounds a boy who is going to move in three days, and you, as the player, have the ability to choose whether he will reconcile

Most of the flms featured so far have been psychological or action horror flms, but slasher flms are also an important category around Halloween season. Another classic that has been recommend ed frequently is Nightmare on Elm Street (1984). Junior Max Ngan (11), , reveals, “Nightmare on Elm Street was one of the frst horror flms I watched. Considering how old it is, the stunts were really im pressive and I recommend it.” This flm is about a mysterious killer who can only murder people in their nightmares. The movie is pretty graphic and bloody considering it’s a slasher, so people who are sensitive to gore and blood shouldn’t watch.

These games and flms are something that I recommend watching with friends near Hallow een, it undeniably sets the mood for the holiday. Even so, I think it is best to spend Halloween how ever you want whether it’s with people or not. Happy Halloween.

that is cute, yet creepy. OMORI is a story game, but it is also an openworld role playing game and sin gle-player. Chloe Ho (11), a junior, states, “The visuals are cute and

normal movies about paranormal activity with monsters, such as de mons and possessed trinkets. Abby Chai (10), states, “I really like how the movie and the ones after in the

series have a happy ending but hint at sequels.” Although the movie is R, there are signifcantly less content warnings than movies more commonly found in the genre.. The movies also feature less gore, open ing them up to a wider audience.

Another movie I would personally recommend is Train to Busan (2016). This movie is a Ko rean zombie apocalypse thriller. I’ve rewatched it several times, ever since elementary school. Although it is unrated online, from my perspec

tive it is decently gory and violent. The standout point would defnitely be the makeup and effects as well as the unique storyline. Instead of star ring a group of random high school ers, the movie depicts a father bring ing his daughter to Busan to see her mother for her birthday. The char acters are really likable, and more than a few scenes are heartbreaking so I would consider it a tear-jerker as well. However, since it is pretty bloody and graphic, I would say that it is better to look at reviews frst.

when black cats prowl and pumpkins gleam

CAPTION: Harry Styles stylishly sported a dress inspired by Dorothy from “Wizard of Oz” for his “Love on Tour” Halloween concert last year. (Image source: Allure)

CAPTION: Scooby-Doo and the gang would make an excellent group Halloween costume for you and your mystery-loving friends!

CAPTION:

CAPTION: Wanda Maximoff, played by ac tress Elizabeth Olsen, was frst introduced in Captain America: The Winter Soldier in 2014.

Contamination of Candy: Is It A Genuine Concern?

Eduardo Aguilar Staff Writer

“Don’t go trick or treat ing! I read a news article about someone tainting candy with tox ins!” It is a common myth that during Halloween strangers will give out candy containing things that put kids in danger. Howev er, do these things actually hap pen and how did this myth begin?

The latest instance of some thing like this happening was last year when two people found nee dles in a Kit Kat bar, although thankfully nobody was injured. The Ohioans immediately turned in the candy to Fostoria police.

Now, the real question at hand is “How often does this happen?” It seems to happen mainly once a year or not at all. So the chances of your city having contaminated candy and you receiving it are close to zero. There was a hotline for this kind of

situation but the National Confec tioners Association shut it down.

The former NCA spokesperson put it as “tampering is extremely rare, and we don’t even track it anymore because police just aren’t seeing it.” How did this myth become wide

Scarily Good Halloween Recipes

Daniel Gao Staff Writer

Spooky foods of Halloween, ahyes, it’s that time of the year again. From exotic grapes that look like witch fngers to durians that look like a me dieval mace and smell like rotten fesh, nature brings wonders to the Hallow een landscape. Out of these naturally grown horrors, there are fun unearthly recipes to create during this spooky season.

Dirt pudding

Ever tasted edible dirt? Dirt pudding is one of the most realistic replicas of soggy dirt on the night of Halloween. The addition of wiggly gummy worms gives another hair-rais ing level of appeal. (FYI, dirt pudding is made with crushed Oreo cookies). To make this specialty Halloween dessert, you’ll need - 14 oz of Oreos - two small boxes of instant choco-late pudding - 3 1/2 cups of milk - 4 tbsp of melted butter - 8 oz of cream cheese at room tem perature - 1 cup of powdered sugar - 12 oz of whipped topping gummy worms

Instructions

1) Put the Oreos in a big zip lock bag and crush them with your bare hands (the recipe tastes best when there is a variation of small and large chunks).

2) Pour 4 tablespoons of melted butter into the bag of crushed Oreos and shake.

3) Whisk the pudding mix and milk together for 2 minutes until it thickens, then set it aside.

4) Place the cream cheese (preferably softened) with the sugar in a bowl and mix until the mixture is smooth with no lumps remaining.

5) Next, stir the pudding with the bowl of cream cheese and sugar.

6) Finally, spread a layer of whipped topping over the pudding and cover the pudding with Oreo crumbs and add gummy worms.

Boom shaka! You made your frst chocolate pudding! Surprise your

friends and family with this rec ipe for your Halloween parties.

If not, it proves to your parents and your culinary art class that you have mastered the art of preparing desserts.

Jell-O Earthworms

If you want to go above and beyond store-bought gummy worms, try making realistic repli cas of earthworms with Jell-O.

To make jello worms, you’ll need the following: - strawberry Jell-O mix - ¾ cups of Heavy whipping cream - 50 straws

Instructions

1) Follow the instructions on the Jell-O package. Boil only half the amount of water required on the Jell-O box instructions.

2) Dump the Jell-O powder into a bowl and pour hot water, and mix. Set it aside after mixing.

3) Meanwhile, waiting for the Jell-O mixture to cool down, stretch out the straws and make them stand upright, side by side in a tall glass.

4) Pour the heavy whipping cream into the lukewarm jello mixture.

5) Finally, pour the jello mixture into the straws and refrigerate for 2 hours.

6) After refrigerating, run hot water through the straws and push the jello worms onto the dirt pudding.

With the addition of custom jello worms, this dirt pudding

comes to life and will defnately cause your friends to second guess eating this dessert.

Floating-hand punch

If you want to make something easier, foating hand punch will be your best bet. Floating hand punch has a pair of frozen hands made of ice foating in the drink to give an eerie appearance. What you’ll need: - fruit punch - sparkling water - peeled lychees - a pair of disposable latex gloves - a large bowl.

Instructions

1) First rinse the latex gloves and fll them up with water. After, tie a knot on each glove like you would on a balloon and place the in the freezer overnight.

2) Pour the fruit punch into a clear bowl.

3) Add peeled lychees into the fruit punch to resemble foating eyeballs.

4) Finally, pour in sparkling water to carbonate your fruit punch.

Add some witch fnger grapes on the side for a complete looking dish. Whether you are looking for some fun or desperately trying to fnd recipes to make on Halloween, hopefully these recipes satisfy your cravings.

ly known? There had been rumors of this type of thing happening of strangers handing out tampered candy. It reached a new high in 1982 because of Tylenol poison ings. In 1982 somebody tampered with tylenol capsules in Chicago. This led to people dying from the capsules and with Halloween com ing close by, it made people think that candies could also be poisoned. Some communities completely shut down Halloween afraid that the can dies would contain harmful objects.

For the most part, you don’t have to worry about any blades or drugs in your Halloween candy. Although there have been reports of such things appearing in candies, these reports are quite rare. From the reports nobody seems to be

badly injured or dying from these candies. So it seems safe to say that there is nothing out of the or dinary with your Halloween candy. If you are worried about your candies having harmful ob jects then here are some things to look out for: If the candy wrapper appears to have been opened or looks off, then throw it away. If it has holes on the wrapper, throw it away, and if you fnd any candy that looks like this, call the po lice for there might be more can dy that has been tampered with.

Tier List: Best Halloween/ Horror Movies

Alysha Louis Staff Writer

may luck be with you on Halloween .

Store-bought Costumes VS. Homemade: Which is best?

Michael Lin Staff Writer

Celebrated on October 31, Hal loween is a holiday that offcially is meant to ward off ghosts ac cording to Celtic people of Europe. Pope Gregory III attempted to erase this Pagan tradition by mak ing November 1 “All Saints Day” and the night before “All Hallows Eve.” This failed, as ghostly prac tices persisted, and today children and adults from around the world continue to tell spooky stories and relish in the age-old celebration, stories such as “Sleepy Hollow”, “Dracula”, or “Frankenstein”.

Whether by dressing up, carv ing pumpkins, trick-or-treating, or simply enjoying candy, everyone can participate in the festivities. After two years of a celebration hi atus due to COVID-19, Mills High School students are once again looking forward to donning cos tumes and trick-or-treating around Millbrae.Arguably one of the most iconic aspects of Halloween are costumes. Due to the ever increas ing price for a costume, some would take matters into their own hands and craft their own costumes. I, for one, fnd pleasure strolling in a mall and hunting for my costume.In or der to save money and perhaps ini tiate some form of family bonding, many households prefer to hand make their own costume and poten tially create equal or better results.

However, in my opinion, time is a major factor in producing quality costumes; therefore, people would visit their local stores for goods and services.Mills student Brendan Phimsoutham(12)purchased a cos tume due to the limited time in his daily agenda. Senior Daniel Gao (12) also claimed he bought cos tumes due to their convenience and simplicity stating, “I decided I’ll just buy a costume, similar to my friends.” Based on their respons es, it can be concluded that many students prefer to buy their own costume simply because of con venience. I think this is a common factor amongst patrons and students alike. It would appear that students, especially seniors, lack time and motivation to formulate and make costumes, with only some outli

ers that have considered the idea. Nowadays there are social ob stacles that would certainly shrink the fexibility of ones’ schedule. Particularly for seniors, Halloween equates to the frightening prospect of college applications and loom ing deadlines. It is preposterous to spend money designing lavish and time-consuming concoctions while college applications await. Other than the inevitable burden of col lege applications, many can agree that there are many advantages to purchasing a costume. The frst rea son would be that you will defnite ly achieve the image you are aiming for because store-bought costumes are manufactured.Many a time I have been the victim of “identity theft.” Rather than believing that I am an evil clown, the Joker, or a

dead motorist, I was confused with myriads of fctional personages.

Buying a costume is also cheap er, depending on how intricate one intends for their costume’s accuracy. Getting cloth, buying thread, and piecing together the bits and pieces is actually much more expensive, certain materials may cost more, some fabric range from the price of $15 and $50, combining other deco rative items like plastic crystals ($8) this is a rather hefty price for as a result, it may not meet expectations .

For example, the costume Chucky at Spirit Halloween is $36Scooby Doo is only $49 dollars and Willy Wonky is $69 dollars. There is no way that anyone can beat those prices!

As fun as it may be, creating your own costume not only con sumes a signifcant amount of time, but also might prove to be a dis appointment. Could you imagine spending hours and days and weeks on creating a costume and at the end, it does not look like what you expected? What if it does not ft? It is possible that it falls apart since the threading is not professionally made. All in all, making a costume is a risk that is not worth taking. You will spend more time making it, spend more money, and end up hating it anyways.Go ahead and do yourself a favr and go to Party City or Spirit Halloween. There, you can and will be able to fnd thousands of affordable and fun costumes that will be a delightful surprise for both you and your friends and family.

Club Food Fair: Were the Prices too Atrociosly High?

Julia Xia Staff Writer

On October 5th, Mills High School hosted its annual food fair to assist student clubs in earning mon ey for their activities or needs. As Homecoming took place on Satur day 8th, Ms. Dove, Mills’ leadership teacher, thought it would be a good idea to host a food fair in order to raise the student spirit and promote student-led clubs. With the money earned from the fair, clubs would be able to buy supplies or go on trips that would make them more fun. However, one of the most noticeable aspects of the food fair this year were the surprisingly high price points. From milk tea to hamburgers to even some desserts, an array of food was spread out in Center Court. Tickets cost one dollar each and many of the dishes being sold cost around three to four. During and after the event, students began to complain about the prices because many of them believed that most of the food being sold wasn’t worth the amount of money they had to pay. The bev erages were only one part of the out rageous prices at the fair. One of the drinks, the Shirley Temples, were being sold for four tickets. Many students believed that spending that much on a drink was outrageous and that the drink itself did not need to be that expensive. “It’s just cherry sauce mixed with sprite. It shouldn’t

be that much”, stated a sophomore who wished to remain anonymous. Another Junior at the fair noticed that a shawarma dish was being sold for seven tickets. While she understands the need for money, she also believes that clubs need to start pricing their items more rea sonably. “I mean, I get why they do it but still it’s unreasonable to think seven tickets is a reasonable price for a little bit of food” , they stated.

Out of the students interviewed for this article, many reached a general consensus that in future food fairs, clubs should sell most items for a maximum of three tickets, instead of going overboard with the prices. While some of the students’ anger

is justifable, I believe that they should remember that the point of hosting our food fair is to raise money for student-run clubs, mak ing it understandable to see such high price points.. “I admit we may have priced it a bit too high, but we just wanted some money in case we ever wanted to do something fun.” a club president who’d like to re main anonymous, explained. When it comes to more hands-on clubs like the robotics club it makes sense why they would price the food a bit more expensively, but it doesn’t explain many of the unreasonable prices. Ms. Dove explained that each club was in charge of pricing their food. The clubs would be sent a google form and decide what food they’d like to sell and how much they will charge for it. “We had the food fair to help raise money for the clubs but also get more students to join them.” she added. After the fair, the clubs would count their tickets and receive all the money they earned, through a deposit into their club’s account with the school. Although the food fair lends to a good cause, I believe that in the future, clubs should be more conscious of whether or not students will actually buy their food if they price it so high. It would also be a good idea to have Ms. Dove

and other teachers watch over the clubs a bit more so they don’t end up overpricing their food. Knowing all of this and listening to the per spectives of other students, I will admit that I still believe that Lead ership could have come up with a better solution that would make the food more affordable while still giv ing the clubs money. In my opinion and from what I saw at the fair, not all clubs had food selling at outra geous prices. Some were actually priced fairly reasonably. When we do invenitably have another food fair in the future, I would advise that student-run clubs aiming to earn money through the fair try to keep the students and their customers in mind and consider if their high price points are absolutely necessary.

LMP: Latina Mentor Program

Salvadorean pupusas

Michael Lin,Mills Thunderbolt

Michael Lin, Mills Thunderbolt

REAL: Pennywise costume in movie

HOMEMADE:Pennywise Costume

Michael Lin, Mills Thunderbolt

COSTUMES: An array of diverse Halloween costume options

Julia Xia, Mills Thunderbolt

Julia Xia, Mills Thunderbolt

FOSTER CHILDREN CLUB: dumpling

FILIPINO CLUB:Students sells lumpia

Julia Xia,

Middle Eastern Club: Students sells shawrma and falafels

BLACK STUDENT UNION: root beer

Xia, Mills

ANIMAL AWARENESS: fresh fruit tea

Julia Xia, Mills

Was Homecoming Worth it?

Elaine Chan Staff Writer

Poster proposals, dress shopping, and awkward slow dances. Yes, these are all aspects of the famous American Homecoming Dance. This annual high school tradition supposedly celebrates a big win at a Homecoming Football game. While many deem this dance as the “highlight of October”, oppos ing opinions argue that it is simply a waste of time, effort, and money. For weeks leading up to Homecom ing, or “Hoco” for short, a variety of events occur. From the tough decision between a sparkly or sat in dress to the numerous proposals commencing throughout school, the hallways are buzzing with excite ment. However, a large mass of the students can argue that this mid-Oc

dripping with cliches, will inevi tably establish unrealistic expecta tions into the heads of young teens. Social media plays a vastly import ant role in painting the perfect pic ture of high school. Tainted with the label of a “classic high school experience”, dances seem to be an opportunity you absolutely cannot miss. Nonetheless, behind the bal loons, shiny streamers, and laminat ed photo booth strips, Homecoming can be anxiety-inducing for many. The pressure to look your best and the realization of: “Wait, do I need a date?!” Many students feel that all things considered, it’s not worth the hassle. Society has held on to this idea of eternal youth that infuenc es every incoming student. Instead, reality dictates that high expecta tions for the glitz and glam of high school can end up resulting in sheer

Uggs

Michaela Gonzalez opinion editor

NEWS FLASH: it’s fall. This means an array of contributing fac tors of the fall aesthetic will begin to appear everywhere and anywhere: sweaters, pumpkin spice lattes, jazz music, and the weather decreasing about 5 degrees. But whether cor relating to the weather or not, many have turned to the world-renowned boots that keep the dogs warm: UGGS. They are a pure staple to the middle-class American closet, along with white tees and dad hats. They are warm, practical, and comfy. But, if we knew how an UGG became an UGG, would we still wear them? Although the fall aesthetic has shift ed over time, UGGS exploded in popularity in the early 2000’s. Af ter they were featured on Oprah’s Favorite Things 2000 list, many celebrities were seen parading the boots in paparazzi shots. They were a key factor in celebrity cul ture, stars like Lindsey Lohan and Paris Hilton constantly wearing them with bright pink lip gloss and low rise slugg jeans. The pop ularity of UGGS transferred into the 2010’s, now deemed a classic shoe. ….along with the emergence of the PSL and black leggings. But before, Britney Spears wore her sparkly pink uggs on Hollywood Boulevard, World War I pilots laced sheepskin to their shoes to prevent frostbite while in high altitude, naming them “uggs”, for short for “fying shoes”. Additionally, surfers in Australia found comfort in these

tober event. To them, the idea of Homecoming seems to outweigh the dance. On the day of the dance, curling irons are plugged, hair gel in hand, and students are pouring into Center Court. Getting ready, feeling that pure anticipation to see all your friends all dolled up will always be the most exciting part of the night. By the end of it, with aching feet, the thrill of Hoco has seemed to have been distinguished. Your main priority is now racing to go to sleep. “I honestly liked getting ready more than the actual dance. The music wasn’t that good and I ended up leav ing early,” says a Mills sophomore.

The never-ending production of high school movies, practically

disappointment in the face of the falsities displayed on social media.

When asked if Homecoming was worth it, a multitude of stu dents inferred that they would much rather spend their night elsewhere with a group of close friends. To be quite frank, Hoco is $20 spent to merely come back to school on a Saturday night.

“I mean how can the DJ play some thing that everyone likes? It’s im possible.” a student confesses.

During my own freshman year, I showed up to school with the inten tion of leaving with aching muscles and memories to cherish forever.

The aching muscles? Defnitely. To say I did not enjoy myself would be a lie, but those few hours could have been more worthwhile spent somewhere else. Now, this poses the crucial question: is Homecom ing worth the hype? I believe that Homecoming itself is an event and activity that every high school stu dent should attend at least once. Unknown experiences will remain unknown unless discovered frsthand. Will it be the ultimate memory of your high school career? May be not. Whether it be the dazzling event of the decade or a sweaty mass of people jumping to objec tively unpleasant music, Homecom ing is truly what you make of it.

sheepskin shoes after coming back on shore. Brian Smith took this Aus tralian classic to Southern Califor nia, which quickly gained popularity. But something is missing here, how are UGGs made? The boots are made with sheepskin with an attached feece, among other animal-sourced coats and accessories, instead of just wool. This means that the sheep are killed and skinned, whereas the wool coats are just buzzed off for products that simply use the wool and attach it to a synthetic base. UGGs has created an animal welfare initiative to address these concerns among customers, stating that, “...it is essential that all animal-based ma terials we use are sourced from ani mals that have been raised humane ly using sound animal husbandry. “, among other promises on their website. With this, the brand states that their sheepskin has to be passed through the Five Freedoms regard ing the welfare of the sheep. This list includes “Free from discomfort, free from pain, free from distress, fear from fear, and free from hun ger”. I am quite surprised how the UGG company has added a branch that allows them to know the inner dialogue of sheep! But truly, there is no possible way that an UGGS representative can enter every sheep farm in the United Kingdom, Ire land, Spain, the U.S and Australia, and have a nice chit chat with the sheep over tea. Although the brand requires all of their sheepskin yield ers to pledge complacency to their Animal Welfare politically annually,

there is no way customers can ver ify their animal conservation acts. In response to this, celebrities and animal rights groups have encour aged the replacement of these an imal-sourced boots to synthetic vegan material. Groups such as the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and Princeton An imal Welfare Society (PAWS) have staged multiple protests in response to this mistreatment, greatly focus ing on UGG boots hence their popu larity with college students. In 2008, students laid on the fresh snow with blood spread all over them and wear ing fur coats with a sign attached saying, “What if you were killed for your coat?” To further the idea of the mindless and useless consumption of animal-products, PAWS president at the time claimed, “We want peo ple to realize, whether it is fake or real, is just ugly, there is no reason to wear it at all.” Celebrity Pamela Anderson, who starred in the popu lar 90’s show Baywatch and served as a great contributor to UGG’s ini tial popularity in Southern Califor nia, has come out against UGGs.

“I used to wear them with my red swimsuit to keep warm- never re alizing they were SKIN!”Ander son stated on her personal website. Anderson, like many others, have stopped wearing UGGs and in stead encouraged vegan-made boots similar to UGGs. All in all, all you cuties can still serve looks this fall, just be mindful of what is keeping your toesies warm while you sip your Pumpkin Spice Latte and watch Gilmore Girls.

Michaela Gonzalez, Mills Thunderbolt

OUTFIT: Essential pieces in fall outft accoring to the “aesthetic”

Michaela Gonzalez, Mills Thunderbolt

FALL: Basic and casual 2016 fall aesthetic featuring UGG bootes

Michaela Gonzalez, Mills Thunderbolt

UGGS: Britney Spears and pink UGGs

Elaine

Mills Vikings Football Turns the Tide with 3 Game Win Streak

Riley Alcantara Staff Writer

On September 23, Mills foot ball brought a different mindset and scheme to the feld during the away game against the Saratoga Falcons during their homecoming week. The idea of ruining another team’s homecoming game only motivated our players even more to give this game their all. Knowing that this team would be their best frst chance at a real win they locked in and set the feld. Mills started off the game by kicking the ball to Saratoga and starting their frst defensive drive. Both teams started the game strong and did a good job with their offen sive drives. Throughout the game, it was looking as if both teams were neck and neck in points and yards. With less than a minute on the board of the frst half Saratoga came through with a big play to put one more touchdown on the board before the end of the frst half. In shock, the Vikings thought about how they made such a detrimental mis take in such a short amount of time.

Coach Rick, head of the foot ball program, led the team into the opposing team’s practice feld to collect their thoughts. As our Vi kings took their seats and removed their helmets, the coaches preached of how football was a mental game.

At this time the Falcons had the momentum. Coach Rick and Nik ko emphasized that shutting them down mentally would be signif cant in turning the tide. With a new

mentality instilled in their helmets, the Vikings set out to take the feld again with the same game plan. The Falcons and Vikings were still going head to head with almost the same points on the board. With the time running short, Mills was push ing their last offensive drive to the endzone. Only a few seconds on the clock the Vikings were able to muster one last touchdown. With the score being 28-28 Coach Rick thought hard about the game winning play.

The last play of the game would be a QB sneak to the right with maximum blocking. There was no chance of Saratoga coming back considering there were 0 seconds on the clock for the extra point.

The Mills Vikings set in formation and fnally snapped the ball. Justin Kang (23) wrapped the ball in his arms and drove his body into the endzone. Unclear if the ball crossed the endzone the ref dug through the dog pile to look where our QB landed. It was good! As the ref’s whistle blew one fnal time, our var sity football team rushed the feld in enjoyment and relief. This game was the class of ‘23’s frst win of their high school career. The seniors who were in pads and helmets con gratulated each other on their frst win. After the last team huddle, the fans who came to support their fel low Vikings waited for our winners on the sideline. The bus ride home was when the team fnally realized that they are a competing team. Do not be mistaken, it was not only the defensive scheming and offensive plays that got our varsity their frst win. The Vikings have also taken

their time off the feld to spend qual ity time with each other and cheer.

Every Thursday, all participat ing members of football including coaching staff and cheer spend time enjoying each other’s company in the cafeteria. Thanks to their caring and supportive parents, they are able to share meals together every week before a game. These dinners are the fnal touch that brings the team together as a family, cheer includ ed. And although Varsity was able to bring home their frst win, they knew that more work was required

to be able to compete against high er skilled teams. From this point on, Mills has truly become united and in sync as a team and family.

Through this connection, Var sity was able to come home to face their next opponent. That being the Lynnbrook Vikings at our feld. Mills was ready to give their sup porters their frst home game win. The battle of the Vikings was a thrill ing game that had the stands shaking from the roaring of our crowd. For the next two games we were able to bring our home feld two more wins!

The battle of the Vikings against Lynnbrook ended in our favor 14-7. Onto the next week, preparing for Monte Vista’s powerful offense, our Varsity Vikings arranged their de fense for a run heavy offense. This exciting game ended with a score of 20-14. Offcially making our senior class of ‘23’s frst three game win streak. Our Vikings hope to contin ue to carry this energy and fnish the rest of the season with a similar fashion. Our Vikings have worked extremely hard all summer and sea son to get to where they are now.

Mills Girls Varsity Volleyball Program Season Overview

weeks ago. Despite her young age, Zhang was a clear stand-out among the team and played well above her age, averaging over 10 kills a game.

Yet another disappointing con tribution to Mills’ struggles seems to be the team’s lack of ability to sideout after the opposing team goes on a run. When watching and analyzing the girls’ volleyball team play, it is noticeable that the girls are able to stick with the other team for a good part of the frst half of the set. Then, they start to collapse and give oth er team’s large leads. As Sy pointed out in an interview, this seems to be the player’s own anxieties, lack of team chemistry, and low conf dence all coming together to play a signifcant part in their struggles.

team chemistry. Hopefully, the girls are able to sort out these issues in practice and improve their record in the second half of the season.

When asked about the player’s morale and their feelings on the season, co-captain Sy explained that they were “extremely disap pointed, [as] even though our re cord doesn’t refect it, we put up a good fght every game.” This was apparent in Thursday’s loss against Westmoor, where the Rams took an early 2 set lead, yet Mills stayed determined and fought back, dominating the third set and had a 7-point lead in the 4th, just to heart breakingly lose the 4th set 25-21.

Bruce Nie Staff Writer

One of the most exciting fall sports offered here at Mills is our girl’s volleyball program. Mills’ girl’s volleyball team has had a long-winded history of winning, having won the league on 11 sepa rate occasions. Yet, despite the pres tigious history of the team, the 202223 girl’s season is hardly going to plan with an abysmal record of 2-7 halfway through the season. A lack of teamplay and the loss of key seniors from the previous season are the main contributing factors to the lack of success, states co-captains Jessica Sy (12) and An Dang (12).

Coming into the season, expec tations were “not that high after los

ing some of our star seniors, but we were hoping to be able to fght and push through,” according to co-cap tain and libero of the varsity girl’s volleyball team, Dang. Of course, Dang is referring to recently grad uated Mills-alumni Ellie Lau and Hailey Lo, two of the most talented passers and outside hitters Mills had seen in recent years. Both played a crucial role in last year’s girls vol leyball season, as Lau’s reliable de fense and Lo’s powerful swings are now sorely missed. Along with last year’s starting middle Chloe Gao, Mills had lost half of their start ing lineup coming into this season. However, even with the loss of three starting seniors from last year, Mills still has a roster flled with current or ex-club volleyball players ex tremely skilled in their own right. So why is it that this talented volley

ball team is losing so many games?

“[Our biggest issues] are the lack of communication and conf dence as well as our own anxieties. We’re good as individual players but we’re in our heads and don’t play together,” co-captain and var sity’s right-back Sy stated when asked to elaborate on their issues. Her observation defnitely holds some merit, as the amount of talent on the roster is not being refect ed on the record sheet, with Mills on a 4-game loss streak at the mo ment –their most recent after their close loss to Westmoor on Thurs day (10/13). The team is currently 1-3 at home and 1-4 in away games.

One factor is that star-freshman outside player, Brianna Zhang (9) has been sidelined for the rest of the season after a partial tear in her rota tor cuff was discovered around two

Being able to recognize their own problems and what they need to work on is the frst step in order to improve. The next step is to actually take action and fnd ways to resolve these fundamental problems. When asked about their plans for the team, co-captains Dang and Sy empha sized the importance of “more reps” in order to get their fundamental skills down and team bonding activ ities, such as tie dying shirts in order to get the players more comfort able around each other to improve

Still, no matter the outcome of the season, Mills’ girls vol leyball program seems to have a bright future with stand-out fresh man Zhang and sophomores Lain ey Tsai (10) and Ria Khalasi (10) in the years to come. “I have high hopes for the future because Zhang is leading the team now,” Sy happi ly stated. Dang also agreed, saying that she also had “high hopes that the underclassmen will adjust and step up to take the lead” upon their graduation. With these changes, the girls’ volleyball team will hopefully see a promising rest of the season.

Vincent LeW: Thunderbolt

FOOTBALL: Mills varsity team joyously celebrates after working hard to achievive three consecutive wins.

Bruce nie Thunderbolt

VOLLEYBALL: Jessica Sy (12) and Nicole Lee (12) set up for a killer point return for their team.

Bruce nie: Thunderbolt

VOLLEYBALL: Team gears up to score more points during the match

Tennis Fields at Mills Still Under Construction

Noor Abdullah Staff Writer

Mills students have long been awaiting the completion of the new sports felds, none more than the girl’s tennis team. Starting on June 1, 2021, there has been non-stop construction going on just behind our school. The construction crew has been working hard to replace our old large grass felds, often fooded, with a brand new feld, as well as the old, cracked tennis courts with seven brand new courts.

Principal Pamela Duszynski shared her excitement for the new courts. “The new courts will be lev el, which is a big plus when playing tennis. No more cracks, complete ly resurfaced. I think that players will just have a better overall feel, you’re perched right there and have better views. I think the quality of the court will be the biggest plus.”

The construction of the new felds came as a result of a $385 million general obligation bond ap proved by local voters in March of 2020 to improve facilities across the San Mateo Union High School Dis trict. For Mills, this means new ten nis courts, a turf baseball feld, and a turf multi-use softball/soccer feld, all of them surrounded by foodlights.

There seems to be some differ ent reports for the original planned completions of the courts with The City of Millbrae posting that the felds were planned to be complet ed by June 2022. This would mean that these felds would have already passed their completion date, yet Principal Duszynski has reassured us that the construction is on track and the plan was always for the felds to be completed by the end of the 2022 fall semester. This year and a half long process has led to two fall sport seasons with no tennis courts at Mills, meaning the girls’ tennis team has had to manage with no home courts for this duration.

Tennis isn’t a sport that can be

played on any turf feld, nor can it be played on a single tennis court, considering there are 19 members of the team. An average week of play ing for the girl’s tennis team consists of practice on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and games on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Due to the fact that our tennis courts are not complete, the team has been sharing tennis courts with other school teams for the past two seasons. We hold most of our practices and “home” games at San Mateo High School, where their tennis team generously shares their eight courts with us. This sometimes feels like we are crowd ing their space as a single tennis court is meant to host games with two to four people so two whole teams sharing eight courts is more than the usual occupancy rates.

This causes daily inconve niences for the team, mainly with organizing rides to make sure ev ery player can make it to the after school practices and games, fve days a week. This is also irritat ing for the parents who drive the students to San Mateo and back.

According to one of the par ents of the athlete, “This process takes about 45 minutes of my day, which is a lot. I can’t wait until the new courts are opened, they can just walk over after school and I wouldn’t have to worry about it.”

On many occasions, San Ma teo High School’s courts were all in use, causing our team practices to be canceled. On game days, when San Mateo’s courts weren’t avail able, our team had to play “home” games at Burlingame High School and Capuchino High School. Mia Khan (10) has pointed out that “we have had three “home” games at Ca puchino, our rival school. It’s like we’re playing on cursed courts.”

It seems that this second sea son of not having home courts, real home games, home feld advan tage, or conveniently close felds for games and practices both during the season and after has had a nega tive effect on the girl’s tennis team’s

performance this season as last year we were second in our division, this year we are currently fourth.

Although this period of con struction has caused some trouble, the general feeling amongst the team has been excitement as we all look

Principal Duszynski has in vited all Mills athletes and stu dents to a ribbon cutting cer emony for the new felds on

December 1st, with the intention to open up the facilities right when we come back from winter break.

“This is something that’s here for our students. The wait’s been hard but it will be worth it.”

Fantasy Football Craze Taking Over Students at Mills

Kyle Chan Staff Writer

Fantasy football is a game where participants play a role as a general manager of the virtual professional American football teams. There are plenty of apps that provide that for mat, such as ESPN, Yahoo, Sleep er, etc. You can either play with a group of your friends or you can join a random league where you go against other people. The pur pose is to maintain the best team by scoring the most points. Before the season starts, the host has to schedule a draft day where all the competitors in the league select players from any team based on their draft pick. As the season pro gresses, each player will be facing off another player from the same league. Then, they will watch foot ball games to determine how each player on their team does. The bet ter performance each player has, the more points they will receive. Fan tasy football playoffs begin during Week 15-16 of the regular season. These matches will determine who will be the best of the best, based on your wins throughout the past weeks. There are also other brackets that match up based on seed rank ings, even including a loser bracket.

Many ecstatic sports fans that participate in fantasy football have “prizes” or “punishments”, but since it is the most spine-tingling time of the year, let’s talk about some of the

most petrifying punishments that losers in fantasy have to concede to.

With the craze that fantasy foot ball has been since the start of the season, the addition of the spookiest time of the year brings up the devi ous penalties fantasy players come up with during this year’s league. Ranging from many shameful dares, here are some of the scariest but most popular loser punishments that Mills students have come up with in their fantasy football league.

Starting off with the clas sic “wear an embarrassing outft to school”, this challenge stipu lates that the loser will wear a hu miliating halloween costume to school and will have to wear it the whole day without taking it off, causing questioning stares left and right from the entire school.

“Our punishment for fantasy is that the loser has to wear a maid dress with cat ears,” said Ernest Cheng (12). “It would be during a random day at school, where the loser has to wear the dress from the beginning of school to the end without taking it off.” He also states if his team keeps up the competitive spirit, that he will be avoiding the punishment.

With embarrassing punishments being on one side of the spectrum, there are also gross and disturbing punishments on the other side. “My league’s punishment is that the los er of the loser’s playoff bracket has to drink a small glass of a mystery beverage,” said Justin Kang (12). “Each player brings two ingredients

of their choosing and we blend it all up”. Kang, who is in an eight man league, says that the punishment is on the “gross side”, but it was fair since everyone voted and agreed before the league started. Although the season is only at Week 6, which is about one-third of the season, he states that, “I might dislike the pun ishment more than the other players in my league because my team is projected to fnish in last place.” He then adds on that he has a team of re liable players and has faith in them.

Some of the punishments may even threaten or test the manliness of some players. “Our league’s pun ishment is that whoever places last must ask out fve girls,” said Tyler Okada (11). Even though the season is still early, Okada mentions that the punishment “lowkey” scares him because of the injured players on his team. He states, “My team is absolute garbage right now.”

One fnal example can be letting the whole world know you garbage you are in fantasy no matter where you go. “‘The punishment for my league is having to wear a bright pink license that says “I suck”’, said Dean Christian. Mr. Christian is in a ten man league that consists of oth er Mills teachers and staff. He states that his “pride” is hurt as he is on the chopping block because of his winless team throughout the season.

If you and your friends are avid sports fans who enjoy watch ing football, you should create and participate in a fantasy league.

forward to the new felds that students of Mills and residents of Millbrae will enjoy for many years to come.

noor aBduLLah: Thunderbolt

TENNIS FIELD: A picture from the view of a passerby on Mills’ tennis feld which are still currently under construction.

Phoebe Piserchio EntErtainmEnt Editor

The movie “Don’t Worry Darling” has circled around the media for months now, and if you don’t recog nize it, you may also know it as that one Florence Pugh and Harry Styles movie. It’s been quite a long time since a flm has caused this big of a scandal, and from on-set romances to major casting issues, the rumors have far surpassed any talk of the flm itself.

Directed by Olivia Wilde and star ring Florence Pugh, the infamous movie has had its fair share of chal lenges and buzz; debuting with a mere 39% on Rotten Tomatoes, the flm’s behind-the-scenes contro versies have certainly been a more interesting topic of conversation than the actual movie. It’s been a real roller coaster– so buckle up. Starting from the beginning in April 2020, it was announced that Olivia Wilde would be directing Don’t Wor ry Darling, starring Florence Pugh, Shia LaBeouf, and Chris Pine. Pugh expressed her excitement for the flm in an Instagram post, as well as her love for Wilde as a director. However, a month before they start flming in October 2020, LaBeouf left the cast supposedly due to scheduling issues.

To many people’s (pleasant) surprise, world-renowned singer Harry Styles replaced Labeouf’s role. Shortly thereafter, LaBeouf was accused of abuse by multiple women; Wilde was later asked about this situation and instead of following the narrative of scheduling conficts, she stated that she ended up fring him, as her re sponsibility was to keep the work en vironment a safe space for everyone–especially Pugh. After this statement, LaBeouf called out Wilde implying she did not tell the truth, and the rea son was in fact due to a scheduling complexity. A video that Wilde sent to LaBeouf during the flm’s casting was leaked, and in the video, she is seen begging LaBeouf to come back and

saying, “... I feel like I’m not ready to give up on this yet…this might be a bit of a wakeup call for ‘Miss Flo’.”

This only led to more unanswered questions and even more angry fans. As production went on, the movie had a relatively clean reputation–from set pictures of a happy Pugh and Styles working together to photos of excited cast members teasing the flm. In fact, up until recent contro versy, Pugh and Wilde were seen to be very close on set. Nevertheless, it only went downhill as the mov ie’s premiere got closer, and another constant food of rumors broke out.

One of the biggest pieces of news to break was Wilde and Styles’ blos soming relationship on-set while she was still engaged to her long time boyfriend Jason Sudeikis. Some crew members even revealed stories about how Wilde’s job as a director was often neglected and put second after her immature relationship with Styles, forcing Pugh to direct instead.

By November 2020, Wilde called off her engagement, and by the fol lowing January, she and Styles were an offcial couple. This sent many Styles fans into a frenzy due to the nature of their overall relationship.

The flming of the movie wrapped in April of 2021, and the journey was certainly a long one as a huge shift in Pugh’s attitude towards the flm oc curred. While notoriously known for her bubbly and exuberant energy to wards all the flms she’s involved in, she shied away from promoting and talking about the flm when the trail ers came out. A few speculations sug gested this was because the immatu rity of Styles and Wilde’s relationship caused issues on set, making it un comfortable to work. Others believed Pugh and Wilde got into a “screaming match” on set, but these rumors were quickly debunked by crew members. It’s also clear through behind-thescenes photos and videos that the two were quite close on set, and seeming ly good friends; whatever happened between the two was post-production.

“Try Guys” Controversy

Max Zaninovich nEWS Editor

The ‘Try Guys’ are a YouTube group consisting of four friends (Ned Fulmer, Keith Habersberger, Zach Kornfeld, Eugene Lee Yang), known for, as the name suggests, trying new things. The ‘Try Guys’ originally got their start on the popu lar internet media company Buzzfeed in 2015. The group quickly became immensely popular, trying every thing from baking bread without a recipe to raising toddlers for a day.. The group saw so much success to the point where in 2018, they de parted from Buzzfeed to found their own production company, 2nd Try. Quickly growing, the ‘Try Guys’ branched out to other platforms out side of YouTube. The group got a TV show on the Food Network and Discovery+ titled, ”No-Recipe Road Trip with the Try Guys”, and they started their podcast, “The TryPod”. When all of a sudden Ned Fulmer, known as the wife guy, was absent

from many of the groups newest videos; fans became concerned that something had happened. On Sep tember 26th, a Reddit user posted pictures of Fulmer at a club being a little too friendly with another woman. Fans then speculated and later came to the conclusion that the woman with Fulmer was none other than a producer at 2nd Try, Alexandra Herring. Amidst the buzz on social media, both Fulmer and the group had released statements seemingly confrming the rumors. In an Instagram post, the group

Although a clear explanation for this drama has been avoided, a reasonable one for the tension between Pugh and Wilde could have to do with both their ex-partners. At the time of Don’t Worry Darling’s produc tion, Pugh was in a relationship with actor and director Zach Braff, who was working on Ted Lasso and very close with Wilde’s ex-partner Jason Sudeikis (who plays Ted Lasso); in fact, Pugh was supposed to have a cameo in Ted Lasso at one point. Many assume that the friendship with Sudeikis led Braff, and even tually Pugh, to side with Sudeikis–this would explain why Pugh and Wilde are no longer close friends. All of these events led to the PR nightmare that was the movie’s pre miere at the Venice Film festival. From Styles describing the movie as “a movie that feels like a movie you would see at the movies” to him ap parently spitting on Chris Pine, the premiere was a mess. Pugh was also notably absent from the press confer ence, but this was due to the fact that she was flming Dune 2 at the time, so she would not have come in time.

At the time of the red carpet, Pugh and Styles, the two leads of the movie, did not get a single picture together other than with the whole cast. Also, the strategic placement of where cast members were par ticularly stood out; Chris Pine and Gemma Chan often acted like buffers between Pugh, Styles, and Wilde. Fast forward to after the premiere (the movie got a 5-minute standing ovation before Pugh quickly left, might I add), Pugh’s stylists shared behind-the-scenes photos of her red carpet look captioning their Insta gram posts “Miss Flo”-- this alludes to the leaked video of Wilde call ing Pugh “Miss Flo”. Wilde’s styl ist later posted on Instagram saying “There’s always more to the story.” There was not, in fact, anymore to the story. Almost every question and ru mor– unless debunked– has remained unoffcially answered, and will like ly forever be. Since its release, Pugh has been constantly praised for her phenomenal performance as Alice–many critics have described it as her best yet; her sheer talent, will, and charisma alone are the highlight of the movie. Unfortunately, the flm will likely remain a rotten stain on her otherwise ever-impressing career, as its 39% on Rotten Tomatoes did not live up to the original expecta tions for the flm. As for Styles, be ing his second big acting debut since Dunkirk, his acting is quite compe tent, but it’s clear Pugh is the true star of the flm. Although the movie itself no longer has any Oscar buzz, the be hind-the-scenes drama may be a more intriguing source of entertainment.

stated, “Ned Fulmer is no longer working with The Try Guys. As a result of a thorough internal review, we do not see a path forward to gether. We thank you for your sup port as we navigate this change.” Fulmer, in a statement of his own said, “Family should have always been my priority, but I lost focus and had a consensual workplace relationship. I’m sorry for any pain that my actions may have caused to the guys and the fans but most of all [my wife] Ariel.” These statements only caused the controversy to gain more attention and on October 3rd, the three remain ing Try Guys released a video dramat ically titled “what happened.” The

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Dream’s

After several years of remain ing one of the most famous anon ymous internet personalities, popular Minecraft YouTuber and streamer Dream, offcially revealed his face to the internet on October 2nd.

The 23-year-old YouTuber, who gained traction for his Minecraft videos and streams initially kept his identity anonymous for seven years on the internet. But, he ultimately decided to reveal his face in October of 2022 as he would be in attendance at San Diego’s Twitchcon. On Sep tember 19, he announced in the form of a community post to his 30 mil lion YouTube subscribers: “My next upload will be me face revealing.

. I can’t wait to start meeting you guys in person.” Fans were thrilled by this news, as their longtime wait to see Dream’s face would seem ingly come to an end.

Around a week after Dream had con frmed his impending face reveal, he teased his followers relentless ly that the video would be coming extremely soon. On September 30, two days before his offcial face re veal, he Facetimed several of his in ternet friends for the frst time, who then posted their frst-time reactions to Dream’s face on Twitter. Some people who he Facetimed include TikTok stars Addison Rae and Bel la Poarch, along with many others. Just two hours before the video’s offcial premiere, Dream notifed his 5.7 million followers on Twitter that the face reveal video would be premiering on YouTube in

just a few hours. Many fans eagerly awaited the video, along with many nonfans who were curious to see the true identity of the star. Popular content creators were also in atten dance of the video’s premiere, ex pressing their excitement to fnally see Dream’s face, some even live streaming their reactions to his video.

It’s safe to say that Dream’s face reveal essentially broke the in ternet. Over 1.2 million people wit nessed the face reveal premiere live on YouTube, and in just 21 hours, the video accumulated 24 millions views. Dream’s frst ever tweet on Twit ter that included his face received over 138k retweets and 900k likes.

The number one trending topic on Twitter in the U.S. that day was “#dreamfacereveal”, but that wasn’t the only trending hashtag in relation to the Youtuber. While Dream was met with support from many of his fans and friends, there was also an overwhelming amount of animosity and hate directed at his physical appearance. The phrases “#PUT THE MASK BACK ON” and “#HES UGLY” trended on Twitter almost immediately after the reveal. Many began to equate Dream to sev eral cartoon characters, but the most popular comparison was to Rum pelstiltskin, a villain from the Shrek movie franchise. Additionally, Twit ter users found resemblances between Dream and many other YouTubers such as the infamous Shane Dawson.

Despite the negative feed back made by the whole internet, Dream maintained a positive attitude and even kept a humorous tone about the situation. In his frst face-to-face

interview with Buzzfeed News, he excitedly talked about everything he was eager to do now which he pre viously couldn’t while keeping his identity anonymous. “I’ve never been to a concert ever. I’d love to travel. I want to go to Europe. And I want to meet a lot of creators.” he said. When asked about the negativity he faced at the initial reveal, he stated that it didn’t bother him. “There’s gonna be bad people, people that are going to be mean,” he commented. “So I didn’t take it to heart.” He seemingly doesn’t regret his decision to face re veal and that he feels “way more free.”

Watching the internet’s explosive re action as a person who has never re ally paid attention to Dream, I feel a sense of sympathy for him, and other faceless stars who fear revealing their identities to the internet. There’s noth ing about Dream’s appearance that necessarily stands out and to be frank, he looks like any normal guy. While beauty is subjective, a majority of the

group explained that Fulmer would no longer be working with the Try Guys, and all three of them appeared visibly upset. Most notably Eugene, who seemed to be doing all he could to prevent himself from lashing out in rage. This led to popular satirical comedy TV Show, Saturday Night Live, to do a sketch satirizing their re cent video. This outraged many fans of the Try Guys including sophomore Abigail Chai, who said, “This is a very serious situation and no laugh ing matter. Clearly the guys are sim ply upset because the person whom they considered such a good friend did something completely opposite to their moral standards. SNL has no right to make fun of their trauma!” Chai added that she was very dis appointed with the whole situa tion stating, “I always admired the

hate was unwarranted. If anything, the occurring events reveal the toxic pressure content creators face to live up the impossible beauty standards of the internet. While we have majorly seen female streamers face scrutiny for their appearance, it’s clear that as a public fgure on the internet, your appearance will never be “good enough”. So it’s no surprise that oth er faceless creators will continue to live anonymously, comfortably away from the cruelness of the internet. As Dream now seems more than comfortable to freely share selfes and photos with friends to the inter net, it’s clear that he’s adamant in his feelings toward the hateful cir cumstances. While many of his own past personal videos and those he ap peared in only featured his voice, fans are most likely to now expect more on screen content from him. Dream’s face reveal to the internet signifes the end of an era, but also the start of a new one for him and his fans.

fact that Ned was so loyal to his family and his wife, and it’s very disheartening to know that it was simply a front the whole time.”

While the ‘Try Guys’ will never be quite the same without one of the guys instrumental to the groups suc cess, the ‘Try Guys’ will no doubt be “trying” their best to put the situation behind them and continue releasing content and growing their brand.

Avid fan of the Try Guys, Katelyn Lam (12) shared her thoughts on the future of the group, “I’ll miss Ned in their videos, but I obviously agree with the rest of the guys in regards to the controversy. Morality should always come frst, and I applaud the Try Guys for doing the right thing instead of blindly defending their friend in order to maximize revenue. I look forward to the content they will be releasing in the coming months!”

VIANNEY LE CAER Invision

CAST: The cast of “Don’t Worry Darling” at the Venice Film Festival.

channel’s

DREAM: Face reveal Youtube video.

YOUTUBE Dream