The Student Union, November 18, 2022

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December 2, 2022

Who Made This Possible? Letter From The Editor

Who are we? We are the youth who inhabit this town. We are kids and we are young adults. We are the budding voices of tomorrow.

This paper’s purpose is to give a platform for youth to express their opinions on larger world topics and share their talents in mediums like journalism, photography and art. This paper is also for Ojai townspeople to get a glimpse into the worlds going on within the schools scattered around the Ojai Valley. his fi st dition is a coll ction of i c s that o n a hol fo you as ad s to s into th li s of students and to read about the cool things they are doing and thinking about.

My name is Hannah Little, a senior at Ojai Valley School. Over the summer, had the pleasure of working with the Ojai Valley News as a writer. Once my senior year started, knew needed to continue my work with the OVN, and what better way to do that than connect my peers and their readers? For the longtime Ojai Valley News reader, you might remember that there was a Student Union once before and now, after almost 10 years, it is resurrected! hope this paper further unites the valley and connects the people of this wonderful town with the youth.

Ojai Valley News

Contributors

Laura Rearwin Ward

Brought the full support of herself and the Ojai Valley News behind this paper.

omas Gapen

Greatly helped throughout the paper layout process.

Marianne Ratcli

Helped edit through the whole process and enthusiastically supported the ideas.

Teaching The Trails

By OVS Junior Elizabeth Ramsay

For many, roughing it in the outdoors is a few days of car camping with friends and family. But for Ojai Valley School students Logan Wallace and Ben Manning, who this summer spent three weeks thruhiking the tallest mountains of California, the outdoors is much more than that.

In late June and early July, Logan and Ben led a 250mile hike in the high Sierra Nevadas.

Together, they shed, swam, and sang their way through 21 days on the renowned John Muir Trail, with OVS Lower Campus Outdoor Education coordinator Matt Inman and his associate Duncan Wallace (Logan’s father), supporting them. is trip tested the students physically and mentally, but it was well worth it.

every day.

“I felt like a di erent person, always smiling,” Ben said. “I was really in my element.”

On June 26, the four of them left the Yosemite Happy Isles trailhead heading south. e John Muir Trail has a diverse range of scenery and terrain — from the lush and green Donohue Pass the group started in, to rocky and dry, windswept passes high in the mountains. Famous landmarks on the trail include Sequoia National Park, Mt. Whitney, and Devils Postpile.

“It is the most beautiful 200 miles in California as far as I’m concerned,” Logan said. Months of planning went into this trip. e thruhike was Logan’s idea, inspired by his dad, who hiked the trail 20 years ago. Together, they made arrangements for food and what they needed to carry. e high-schoolers were nervous, but also eager.

“I was really excited,” Logan said. “Excited to get out of the house, go somewhere new outside of Ojai.”

Each day, the group hiked 13 miles, an impressive but intentional amount so they could enjoy the journey rather than endure excessive strain

Student Journalists and Writers

Josephine Hartmann

Elizabeth Ramsay

Surya Pulipati

Catherine Galvez

Tristan Montecino

Alula Alderson

Rena Badami

e students swam in every river they saw, sang every song they could think of (Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran, Drake, and more), read books, drew, napped, and y- shed into the night. Ben celebrated his 17th birthday on the peak of Mt. Whitney.

Above all, they connected with fellow hikers on the trail.

“We met a surprising amount of people,” Ben said. “ e people we saw would be the most memorable thing about the trail.”

is trip tested Logan and Ben’s leadership and independence.

Matt Inman and Duncan Wallace let the high-schoolers take charge and lead the thru-hike. In fact, they were so con dent in the young men’s abilities that halfway through the trip, they left Logan and Ben on their own for six days.

According to the students, those were the best times, both a challenging and freeing experience. “It was de nitely a con dence booster,” Duncan Wallace said. “A con rmation that they’re (Logan and Ben) con dent outdoorsmen.”

On July 17 at Cottonwood Lakes, the party nished the John Muir Trail.

Instead of anticipating the end of a long, long hike, Logan and Ben were looking ahead, discussing what the future holds in terms of more longdistance hikes. Logan has goals to tackle the daunting, 2,600-mile Paci c Crest Trail in the future.

ey had the time of their lives and became stronger and more independent because of it. “I liked how normal it felt,” Logan said. “How normal it was to wake up inside a tent, in the most beautiful places of California.”

‘It is the most beautiful 200 miles in California as far as I’m concerned.’

— Logan Wallace

Many of the student journalists had never written a formal journalism article before this paper. For those of you who do not know how the process goes, it is a di cult one, where some interviews are given begrudgingly and editors breathe down your neck.

I was greatly impressed by my fellow students and how they rose to the task.

I hope that we can bring on many more writers, both experienced and not, to this project!

Logan and Ben topping an elevation of 13,200 feet

Ben y- shing and his tiny loot

Ben’s Trail Birthday and Candy Bar Cake!

MILE 200

Logan and Duncan feelin’ on top of the world

Chilly Raman meal

Oak Grove School and cryptocurrency — one is a nature-focused high school with fewer than 70 students and the other is a technological mystery for many.

As an Oak Grove student, I was curious what my peers thought and understood about cryptocurrency, a topic barely understood by the majority of people. While I uncover their thoughts, hopefully, I’ll shed light on the cryptic subject.

e question I asked was: “When I say cryptocurrency, what is the rst word that comes to your mind?”

e word I heard the most was “Bitcoin.” It was said 12 times. It makes sense that Bitcoin is the rst word people thought of. Bitcoin took the world by storm, being the rst cryptocurrency that is now among more than 10,000 cryptocurrencies. Cryptocurrencies are meant to be the universal coin. e idea was that it would be controlled solely by those who own the coin.

e second most popular word I heard was “scam,” uttered by three students. ere have been coins in the past that have been scams. e online get-rich-quick scheme is an obvious investment, but people will take advantage of this and create fake currencies that look appealing but end in disaster. It is good to acknowledge that most major coins aren’t scams, but bad investments or the result of bad luck.

Another word I heard was “mining.” Each transfer of coin is validated by people called miners. Anyone can be a miner. ese miners use their high-speed internet and computers to validate the transactions and save the transactions on something called the blockchain.

e blockchain is a ledger that gives value to the coin. Everyone has access to and owns this ledger. Miners are rewarded for each megabyte of data, or block. ey are rewarded with the coin they are validating. Mining circulates the market, validates transactions, and adds more coins. Mining requires pro ciency in computers and coding and sometimes entire warehouses are dedicated to computers that just mine cryptocurrency. is reveals more layers of crypto rather than

Understanding the Digital Dough

By Surya Pulipati

what most people assume. e word that intrigued me the most was “gambling.” When I questioned the student further, I garnered the answer: “gambling hidden by a di erent name.” Crypto may have started as a peer-to-peer trading system, but over time, people realized that the value of the currency seemed to rise and fall with the world.

For example, the cryptocurrency Ethereum crashed when the RussoUkraine war started because money and funds were shifting in the world. Crypto has evolved from simple transactions into the act of investing money and hoping that it becomes more money. is can be considered gambling as you are risking money for hopefully more money. For this reason, it could be perceived as gambling, but it seems no di erent than investing in a company via stocks.

dent’s one word was “money.”

Another student I talked to had lost money after investing. He was not willing to disclose how much. His word was “the-graphs-I-lookedat-every-day-when-I-was-more-involved.” is isn’t one word, but still speaks volumes to how volatile crypto can be and to the experiences of these students.

Diving into this rabbit hole of getting rich quickly from crypto, I stumbled onto a story of an Oak Grove student who invested in Dogecoin. Dogecoin was an internet meme coin that was mentioned by Snoop Dogg and Elon Musk and, in turn, thousands of people bought in, forcing the value of Dogecoin to skyrocket. e student invested $150 in Dogecoin and it went up to $10,000 soon after. is stu-

I also heard words such as “tech web,” “I-don’t-know,” “fake,” and “money-that’snot-really-money,” which is what I expected as the majority of responses. But I was surprised to nd some were more knowledgeable about the topic. e students’ vast knowledge depicts how a technology-distant school does not equal technology-distant students. Exploring this topic also portrays how a student’s knowledge is, and should be, broader than what they learn at school.

ere are a lot of negative thoughts about cryptocurrency. It’s a hard line to draw on whether the negativity is justi ed or not.

Cryptocurrency is a wide-ranging topic, but the basics are simpler than one might expect. Hopefully, more knowledge about this ever-changing and unique idea spreads. Maybe someday someone will perfect it. For now, we can leave it at my favorite “one-word” response: “chronically online.”

e Prison System e Food Desert Topics To Chew On

By Surya Pulipati

e U.S Department of Agriculture refers to a food desert as an area with no ready access to a store with fresh and nutritious food options within one mile. In rural America, a food desert is de ned as being 10 or more miles from the nearest market. America is meant to be the land of opportunity but many Americans are facing a lack of opportunity when it comes to one of our most basic necessities — food. Many low-income communities su er from being in a food desert and/or being food insecure. According to the USDA, 34 million people, including 9 million children, in the United States are food insecure.

Food insecurity is very prominent in the structure of the United States, causing many Americans to go to sleep hungry. Parents are having to work multiple jobs to be able to keep their families alive. Many who do not have access to, or funds to obtain, healthier foods choose to go to unhealthy fast-food places.

e Guardian writes that in states where the median income was below $45,000, obesity levels were more than 35%. In states with a median income above $65,000, obe-

sity levels were less than 35%. States with the median income below $45,000 are the most likely to have food deserts. It may seem like the solution would be to have people with higher median incomes move to the food deserts, make the cities more appealing, improve houses, and attract new businesses, but that is just gentrication. Gentri cation causes supermarkets such as Whole Foods to be created, also referred to as “Whole Paycheck,” referring to the high amount of money needed for healthy options. Supermarkets such as Whole Foods do not help people who are food insecure. ey only cause harm as it is no help to have healthy alternatives if they are not a ordable. is is referred to as a “food mirage,” where there are technically places to buy food but they are too expensive for the community.

Local markets, community gardens, food-assistance programs, and food pantries are some of the solutions communities are utilizing to aid food-insecure people. If we keep focusing on xing the problems of America, then we can all thrive, together.

Most people are aware that in this country the people most likely to go to prison are black and brown. e system exploits the incarcerated population (approximately 2.1 million), creating a detrimental cycle within these black and brown communities, especially poor ones. To propose that the prison system’s purpose is for the betterment of society is audacious, to say the least. e prosperity of the prison system is fueled by the fruits of prison labor. Prisons are lled with marginalized individuals who are targeted by the police and are undeserving of the treatment they are given.

Angela Davis is a world-renowned Black activist and she has dedicated her life to speaking out against inequality of all kinds. One of her books, “ e Meaning of Freedom,” is a collection of transcriptions from her speeches around the country. In it, she speaks about the role of prisons in the United States and their obsolescence. She writes: “Prisons have become an integral part of the U.S. economy, which, in turn, creates a

pro t-based pressure for the ongoing expansion of the prison business. e process is one of expanding prisons, incarcerating more people, and drawing more corporations into the punishment industry, thus creating the momentum for further expansion and larger incarcerated populations’’ (Davis, 49).

e excessive incarceration of Black people began just after slavery was abolished and was intensi ed by the war on drugs during Richard Nixon’s presidency. To “ ght this war,” he was able to get hippies associated with marijuana and Black people associated with heroin. By framing the Black community for this, it became justi ed to raid Black people’s homes, disparage them on the news, and arrest them for drugs they didn’t possess. “Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did” (John Ehrlichman, assistant to the President for Domestic A airs under President Richard Nixon). Nixon’s campaign proved that Black people were and still are incarcerated at higher rates due to racial pro ling.

We discuss the racism embedded in the prison system and justice system as a thing that is in need of xing. e structure of prisons is so consecrated in this society that we don’t even ponder whether or not we even need it in the rst place. If we were to x the foundational racism and healthcare problems in the country, would we really need prisons to this degree? e majority of incarcerated people are in prison for drug charges. Would this still be the case if we were to have a competent, accessible national healthcare system, with mental-health and rehabilitation resources capable of truly supporting people who use and abuse substances? Prisons aren’t actually rehabilitating people if we are still afraid of previously incarcerated people long after they exit the prison system. For reference, unemployment stays around 62% to 65% from 6 months to 4 years after individuals are released from prison. is calls into question the functionality of the prison system and its e ects on its victims.

Fostering student voices

By Rena Badami Student Opinions

Photo pulled from the Bitcoin website

Neon Nordhoff

By Josephine Hartmann

Nordho High School bleachers have a student section at each football game, led by student leaders, that is themed, loud, color-coordinated and exciting to be a part of. e students have done it all, from making the most of their Western theme to tackling the color wheel.

“What I enjoy most about being a student-section leader is just watching everyone have fun and being able to be a person that is facilitating that fun,” said Nordho senior Cole Everett. After long years con ned behind screens, both faculty and students alike are thrilled to see the un ltered excitement happening on campus in the form of school spirit.

“With last year being COVID, it was very di erent, but it is definitely a lot better now,” Cole said. “I think one of the things high school is about is having school spirit when it comes to sports games, dress-up days or whatever it is. I think we are doing a great job this year.”

Nordho Homecoming Spirit Week started with a Western Day, followed by a daily procession through the decades, starting from the ’70s to the ’90s.

When Friday arrived, everyone wore gold to match the Great Gatsby theme of the Homecoming dance.

er, said: “My favorite dress-up day was Western Day. Some Spirit Days add to school spirit more than others, so we’re working to adjust some Spirit Days to better t Ranger Pride.

“Seeing everyone dress up can really brighten my day,” she added.

Nordho High School Principal Dave Monson said he is beyond happy to see an increase of school spirit, and recognizes there is still more work to be done with bringing back the full Ranger spirit after a time of isolation, due to the pandemic.

“I am pleasantly surprised by the increase in school spirit,” Monson said, “but like anything, there’s always room for improvement.

“I’d love to see the school spirit increase in other ways like attending our dance concerts or music performances, our plays and participating in other events Nordho puts on,” he added.

Beyond just the students supporting the various activities on campus, the students greatly appreciate the support from the larger Ojai community, said senior football player Ayden Van Rynsoever. “I feel great when the whole community comes out to support our home football games. It hypes up the guys, and no matter the outcome, it shows our town spirit because, at the end of the day, it’s all about having fun,” he said.

Journalism programs

gram began to grow over the next two years and started to incorporate interviews, poetry segments, more informative news, trivia, and other fun segments. e weekly episode is shown in each second-period class throughout Nordho High School on Tuesdays.

Like any news channel, there are directors, sportscasters, anchors, and cameramen. Every week we have a certain schedule we follow to get each episode done. We all work together to write scripts, lm anchor, interview teachers and students, and announce the sports for that week. is year we have yers, and QR codes popping up on the screen along with transition graphics. With the help of our wonderful editors Irelynn McCormick and Jack Williams, each cut, green-screen e ect, and audio are matched perfectly to t the episode. is is an amazing program that allows students to learn from others, and progress in the lmmaking world.

— By News Editor Josephine Hartmann

Go watch the episode that covers what they were up to the week before anksgiving break. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=XhMS3QGWdTY

On eHill is an Ojai Valley School student-led newspaper that runs both an online news website and prints about three yearly papers.

OTH produces stories about topics that happen on, around, and o our campus. We are dedicated to providing our readers with relevant stories that excite, inspire and educate our students. Alongside our newspaper, we have a broadcast journalism program called Hill Top Productions. HTP is student-led as well, dedicated to creating fun and entertaining content for students, parents, and faculty to enjoy.

— By OTH Editor in Chief Ella Schuette

Senior Tayten Neiderhiser, ASB secretary and school treasur-

Photos by Nordho junior Beck Rosales

Senior section leaders at the Neon Night game.

Students ll the eld with Ranger Pride.

Nordho News is a student-run program started by Mischa Brant back in 2020, right after COVID-19 peaked and restrictions began to loosen. It started o basic with the news like the weather, funny bloopers and sports. e pro-

Artists Chao Tang and Jimmy Cortez

Why did you choose Hattie to be part of one of your songs?

Chao: Well, we were down at the music studio mixing the songs when we got the idea of getting a feminine voice. We already had the verses and the chorus, and we really wanted to include someone else’s voice in the song.

Jimmy When we went to grab dinner, we saw Hattie in line and agreed that we should ask her. She agreed to come down later that night to help nish up the rest of the song.

Chao: We spent about seven hours in the room trying to get it as perfect as possible while also doing it as fast as possible.

Do you plan to continue to produce/write/sing as a career?

Chao: Yes, that is the dream.

Jimmy If the door’s open, I would de nitely take that opportunity.

Finding Their Beat

By Catherine Galvez

You would think they had an entire studio behind them But in fact it was just two acher seniors, Chao Tang and Jimmy Cortez, who wrote, recorded and edited their entire album. On Sept. 16, Chao and Jimmy released their debut album: “My Sweet, Temptations.” ey started working on this album in March and continued during summer break and even worked during the early part of this school year, nishing and perfecting their songs. e album has a few songs that feature other students, including fellow senior and classmate, Hattie Hatton, in the song “Aphrodite.” Although the time they put into the project is clear, an interview conducted by e acher Notes about what happened behind the scenes reveals the dedication and e ort it took to produce the album, along with their inspirations and future plans.

What was the process of producing your album?

Jimmy: We started one song in March and came up with this idea to create a whole album. At the end of our junior year, we already had about three songs, and through the summer, Chao had recorded the rap over the beats. We met up toward the end of the summer and did some mixing with the songs. Before the school year started, we had seven songs done.

Chao: When we got back to school, we made two more songs. We used those initial weeks to put the nal mastering on the audio and mix everything together.

How did you come up with the names of your songs?

Chao: For some of the songs, we just based them o of the lyrics that were repeated a lot.

Jimmy: We thought of a theme that was common and then we incorporated that into the name. We also made a few pop culture references, like with the third track, “Wolf of Heathervale Drive,” that’s connected to “ e Wolf of Wall Street,” talking about money.

What was your favorite song?

Chao: My favorite song would have to be “Aphrodite” or “Heartbreaker,” but the funnest song to write was the “Lighthouse.”

Jimmy: My favorite beat is de nitely “Cortez’s Gamble.” It is just the perfect song to introduce the album. e intro and the outro are just crazy. I also really like the “Lighthouse.”

What inspired you to write the album?

Chao: We both had a big interest in production, making music, doing vocals, and de nitely had a lot of inspiration from other artists, wanting to follow in their footsteps and having motivation from listening to their songs.

Do you think you are going to use social media platforms to bring more attention to your songs?

Chao Well, Vinnie Park and Eric Torii (fellow classmates), our marketing managers, wanted me to make a Tik Tok with the songs or set up an artist Instagram account to boost song popularity. I am de nitely going to be working more on that when I’m done with the college process.

Who is your muse?

Chao: J Cole.

Jimmy Kendrick Lamar

Are you planning on starting a new album soon?

Chao: I think we are going to take a break until our college apps are done, and then after that we are “going to go crazy.” We hope that we can spend a lot more time after college applications are done to get a new album ready.

Jimmy: students be part of our songs. We’ve already talked to some of the Jazz Band members who really want to be part of it.

Who were your biggest supporters?

Chao: We really relied on each other, but also had Vinnie who gave us a lot of feedback.

Jimmy: Eric also gave creative ideas for the songs. Our parents were big supporters, too.

Chao: Riley Slaughter (classmate) was there a lot. He gave some constructive criticism. ose were the people who we were closest to during the process.

Can you explain the title of your album?

Chao: We were thinking about album names; we had a lot that we threw away.

Jimmy: We had the track list in the order we wanted. We decided to go with “My Sweet, Temptations” because we split the album in two.

Chao: e rst four songs before the comma go with the theme “My Sweet.” It talks about money (and) the things that are close to you like love.

Jimmy: e song that is called “,” was used to separate and was an interlude where we could ask people to tell us what their temptations are. After that, it gets into the second half, which goes with the theme “Temptations.”

Producing an album may seem like a difficult task, but Chao and Jimmy’s commitment created a beautiful work of art.

Chao: For the title of that song, we used the words “Wolf of,” and then put my street address at the end, instead of Wall Street. VUSD

If you haven’t heard their album, go check it out on any streaming app

When you were producing/writing/recording this album, what was your biggest struggle/challenge?

Jimmy: e biggest challenge was de nitely making it sound as perfect as possible. I also struggled nding time when making the beats. Most of the beats were made at school so I had to stop working on them sometimes and then come back. I used my personal computer in my room.

Chao: For the vocals, I think it was hard because I kept on trying to switch the ow. I was also new at creating harmonies, especially with the last song, “Aphrodite.” I had to put a lot of layers with that, but in the end it was really fun. It was de nitely a learning process for the both of us.

What are your favorite music genres?

Jimmy De nitely Hip Hop or Rap

Chao: Yeah, I really like Hip Hop, Rap, R&B, and Alternative

“My Sweet, Temptations” album cover

VUSD Enrollment Information

VUSD Enrollment Information

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Homecoming Hustle

When asked about how he dealt with the game-time pressure, confid nt so homo football lay Cad n illy said, ‘I didn’t need to handle the pressure, because it didn’t affect me.’

e Villanova versus Avalon Homecoming game was especially heated because last year Avalon had beat Villanova on their own eld.

As the clock ticked down, the team knew they had the game in the bag and ended up beating Avalon 42-36.

“It felt super good because it was our Homecoming game,” said Senior Giovanni Dalto. “And last year Avalon beat us by a lot of points and it was kind of good to get some revenge and come up with the win.”

‘I knew we were going to take the win but Avalon did put up a good fight.’

‘We worked very well as a team, chemistry wise,’ said Giovanni Dalto

Game scores post Homecoming game

10/8 Rolling Hills Prep: W 52-28

10/15 Santa Clara: W 28-20

10/21 Malibu: W 42-14

10/29 Laguna Blanca: W 58-12

11/5 Cornerstone Christian: W 23-22

‘The game was popular, especially because this year we have a great team,’ said spectator and Villanova senior Luigi Travi.

A photo story by Villanova senior Tristan Montecino

Since the Homecoming game, Villanova has won every single game they have played. When playo s happened on November 5, that was no di erent. e Wildcats won by 1 point against Cornerstone Christian with a score of 22-23.

— Luigi Travi, spectator and Villanova senior

At the height of COVID-19, people all over the country used the lockdown as an opportunity to test new hobbies. Some took up crocheting or crossword puzzles; some hiked the great outdoors or started an at-home workout; and still others picked up an instrument, a book, or a journal.

While so many of us abandoned our crocheting projects, left novels un nished and resorted to Net ix, Ojai Valley School alum Evan A. Graham Arango stuck to his gardening, and in doing so, created a new life for himself.

“I accidentally became a farmer,” he says. “It never even crossed my mind.… I mean, who thinks that’s even a thing you can do nowadays?”

Prior to the pandemic, Graham Arango attended grad school at UCLA and would drive back to his hometown of Ojai for the weekends. Without any ambitious plan in mind, he built and tended a garden, beginning to share the fruits of his labor with family, friends and neighbors.

en, COVID hit and school was taught remotely, forcing Graham Arango into isolation. Before long, his passion for farming soared to new heights, as did his plants.

“I realized that I was actually growing so much… and doing it in such an organized way, that I was starting to have problems — like what do I do with this food?” he said. “I knew I either had to scale back the garden or nd a way of starting to sell this stu .”

Ojai Roots became o cial as a farm and brand, achieving unprecedented success in the valley.

“Our work is aimed at creating an innovative, regenerative food system that addresses many of the environmental, social, and public health problems present in traditional food production and distribution,” the company’s mission statement reads.

Speci cally, Graham Arango implements sustainable practices, avoiding using pesticides, reducing water usage, and minimizing space for planting.

Several local restaurants, inspired by the Ojai Roots approach to farming, now receive their produce from Graham Arango. ese include e Dutchess, Rory’s Place, Monte Grappa, e Nest and Nocciola, as well as a selection in Santa Barbara.

Ojai Roots also joined the Ojai Farmers’ Market, and started both a box delivery service and taking online orders. Furthermore, it very recently became involved with the cafeteria service at OVS.

Graham Arango’s family is deeply rooted in the school. His mother, Lucila Arango, was born and raised in Mexico until the age of 14, when she left to attend boarding school in the United States and ended up at the Ojai Valley School. Arango spent her full high school career here and later joined the school’s Board of Trustees, eventually sending her two sons,

e farm’s greenhouse

Putting Down Deep Roots

By OVS Senior Alula Alderson

including Graham Arango, to the school.

While Graham Arango’s farm became involved with OVS just this school year, organic and local produce is no new feat for the school’s cafeteria service.

“I always want to support the local economy as much as possible, whether it be produce or whatever,” says Gina Fontana, the school’s director of food service.

“ e nice thing with the way we run our Food Service Program here at Ojai Valley School is that it’s an independent… program,” Fontana added. “We’re not in conjunction with a big company so I have the ability to be really exible.”

So far, in the month or so that school has been in session, Ojai Roots has provided Fontana and her team with zucchinis, avocados, tomatoes, basil, kale, Swiss chard, lemons and more.

“It’s from our soil, it’s local, and it’s healthy,” she declares.

In addition to providing OVS with produce, Graham Arango may become involved on the academic side with the students themselves.

OVS Head of School Lars Kuelling shared over email: “We have discussed (and hope to move forward with) a program for Upper School students around regenerative agriculture, though that is in the brainstorming phase.”

As an alum, Graham Arango speaks to the in uence the Ojai Valley School has had on him.

While he jokes that, being a rigorous college-prep school, OVS did not drive him into agriculture, he does see a correlation between the school’s values and his own.

“Being outdoorsy and adventurous, and learning about nature — those are huge values of OVS,” he says.

Even before his high school career, Graham Arango recalls his interest in the outdoors, and his love for camping. If anything, the Ojai Valley School served to deepen this appreciation.

But most of all, Graham Arango said he believes he has been in uenced by the landscape of the valley itself.

“Growing up in Ojai — being around beautiful citrus orchards all the time — I think definitely had an impact on me,” he re ects.

Perhaps Graham Arango’s transition to farming was never as accidental as he considers it to be, but rather, a manifestation of his education, original interest in agriculture, and a childhood spent in a rural environment, surrounded by beauty.

A worldwide pandemic simply gave Graham Arango the space to explore a part of himself that had already existed. Given the right conditions, that seed inside of him was able to sprout and grow to its full potential.

“My love for nature… is the reason I do this every day,” he says.

Ojai Roots not only sells its freshly grown farm produce, it also dabbles in wine and olive oil.

(All photos pulled from the Ojai Roots website)

Evan A. Graham Arango at his farm

eir organic avocado box

Ojai Roots citrus trees with the beautiful mountainous backdrop.

Looking Forward

eatre

“Chicago,” for those who don’t know, is about the husband-killing murderesses (of Chicago) in the 1920s who ght for fame and the newspaper spotlight, bound within the walls of Crook County Jail. is will be OVS’s rst and last large production of the year, so see it while you can!

SHOW DATES: Dec. 8 and 9

“Mamma Mia!” the musical that tugs on our heartstrings and, at the same time, makes us want to dance on the nearest table, is being worked on at acher! Still a few months away, but don’t forget to mark down the dates.

SHOW DATES: Feb. 17 and 18

Looking Back

Histories and Philosophies

Founded in 1911, Ojai Valley School started with 12 students and a single classroom. Now, the school has grown to support a dual campus that serves around 300 students.

e school’s philosophy is based on three pillars: Wholeness of life, Symmetry of life and Soundness of life. e school also has a large focus on experimental learning.

Villanova Preparatory School was established in 1924 at the request of Archbishop John Cantwell, the rst head of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles. e school sits on an expanisive 130 acres.

e school’s philosophy focuses on the | qualities of truth, unity, and love.

Nordho High School rst opened in 1909. Classes were held upstairs in the old two-story grammar school, located where the OUSD o ces are today. In 1911, the new, and current Nordho High School campus, opened in the fall with 40 students.

Winter Sports in full swing

Water polo Soccer Basketball

Ojai Uni ed School District embraces the values of environmental stewardship, wellness, creativity and the arts, and a culture of inclusion. According to district o cials, community engagement is what makes the Ojai community, and therefore its schools, special.

Fall sports have come to a close and students have started fast into their winter teams. Keep an eye on school calendars so you can get out to watch and support.

The Next Edition

Senior year is quite the time in a young person’s life. College applications and the question of “what to do next?” are pressing. e next edition of the Student Union will highlight the accomplishments of seniors around the valley who have decided to follow a path of higher education by showcasing snippets from their college essays (supposedly the best writing in a young person’s life).

Also in the next edition will be a valleywide photography competition throughout the schools. e top photos will be showcased in the second edition of the Student Union, in hopes to promote other forms of student artwork. And, of course, there will be more articles about the pastimes, accomplishments and connections made by students.

Sherman acher traveled from Connecticut to Ojai with a school in mind. He arrived with his brother in 1887 and developed a deep appreciation for the stunning landscapes and attitudes of Western life. In 1889, the school was o cially started. acher students learn that education is best executed with a vigorous academic life accompaneid with rugged outdoor experiences and activities.

Jiddu Krishnamurti, regarded as one of the greatest philosophical and spiritual gures of the 20th century, founded Oak Grove School in 1975. Consistent with the views of its founder, the school does not subscribe to any creed or ideology. Rather, it assists students in the openminded investigation of enduring human issues.

For the schools whose students were unaware of or unable to participate in this edition of the Student

Nordho highschool in 1911