Principal Maria Jackson retires after 39 years in education pg. 4
Media literacy in and out of FUHSD classrooms pg. 5
Behind the screens with Lynbrook Information Tech team pg. 8
The environmental price of reaching for the stars pg. 13
Campus dance groups share the art of movement pg. 15
Follow our Instagram @lhs.epic for breaking news, sports and event coverage
BY CHARLOTTE BOLAY AND ETHAN WONG
After working in education for nearly four decades,
Principal Maria Jackson will retire at the end of the 2024-25 school year. Her dedication to the betterment of Lynbrook has ensured a bright future for the school, and her impact through education and leadership will be felt on campus for years to come.
Jackson started her career in teaching in 1986, where she frst taught at Aptos High School in Aptos HillsLarkin Valley, Calif. before transferring to other locations such as Los Angeles and later East San José. She became
an English teacher at Lynbrook in 1994, also serving as the adviser to the Valhalla yearbook team for a year.
After teaching at Lynbrook for four years, Jackson took a maternity leave for her youngest daughter. She then came back in 1999 to take on the roles of library media teacher and librarian for a decade, assisting students in searching for information and resources before the prevalence of Google and fast computers.
“As a librarian, I always loved helping students fnd the things they’re looking for,” Jackson said. “We would sit and talk, working together and fnding that perfect thing for them, which was really rewarding.”
In 2009, Jackson was promoted to assistant principal at Lynbrook and worked in this capacity until the end of the 2013-14 school year. Throughout this time, she was responsible for building the master schedule for teachers and students every year.
“I didn’t just see numbers and boxes when I built a schedule,” Jackson said. “I saw students and teachers. It was always about the people. I always felt really accomplished when I built a schedule so that as many kids as possible got all the classes they wanted.”
Story continued on page 4.
Hey Vikings!
Once again, Ashley and Alyssa here! To prepare yourselves for the upcoming doom of AP season, indulge yourselves in the Epic’s seventh issue! In News, travel with us through Principal Maria Jackson’s journey as graduation for both her and the Class of 2025 draws near; in Opinion, learn about the ever-rising importance of media literacy; in Features, learn about the Lynbrook IT team, who is behind our working technology; in In-Depth, explore the consequences of commercial space tourism and in Sports, shuffe through the different dance groups on campus. Be sure to check out our YouTube channel, the Epic, to take a look at how teachers are adapting and navigating the move to different classrooms after the recent construction.
We wish you all the best of luck on your AP tests! Remember to get plenty of rest before your exams, and don’t stay up all night studying. You got this. Stay Epic!
Cheers, Ashley Huang & Alyssa Wang Editors-In-Chief
BY BRIAN LEE
On Jan. 16, Lynbrook became one of 847 institutions across the United States to receive the AP Computer Science: Principles Female Diversity Award for the 2023-24 school year. The College Board, started giving this award to schools after the 2018-19 school year, using it to encourage and reward schools for expanding female access to computer science, a male-dominated feld. The award is given to schools with at least 50% female representation in at least one AP computer science exam or a higher percentage of female test-takers than the overall student population.
Unionized workers at the Valley Transportation Authority, the public transportation system that serves Santa Clara County, went on a strike on March 10, resulting in a temporary shutdown of the transit system. In response, the VTA board offered an 11% wage increase for workers over the next three years. The union involved, Amalgamated Transit Union Local 265, rejected this offer, claiming it failed to adequately address poor pay and work conditions. On March 26, a court ordered the strike to end; as of April 3, the VTA has fully restored its transit services.
Since his return to offce, President Donald Trump has signed over 100 executive orders, infuencing everything from how federal agencies hire to U.S. participation in the World Health Organization. On April 5, millions of protesters from civil rights organizations, labor unions and more gathered at parks, city halls and federal buildings, responding in a nationwide “Hands Off” march. They demanded ends to the Trump Administration’s perceived corporate takeover and “rampant corruption,” the slashing of federal funds for social welfare and public assistance programs like Medicaid and “attacks” on minority groups.
Trump has honed in on tariffs, claiming that they will help reinforce border security, reduce trade defcits, increase employment and prevent war. As of April 23, the Trump Administration’s tariffs apply to roughly 90 countries with which the U.S. has its largest trade defcits, each facing a 10% levy. These tariffs were put on a 90-day pause on April 9, with the exception of China, whose levy was set to 145%. In response, China raised its previous 34% retaliatory tariffs to 125%. In a recent meeting with Spain’s Prime Minister, the President of China invited the European Union to work with China in resisting Trump’s “bullying.”
BY JENNY SUH
Building on the success of past movie nights, ASB Social and ASB Recognition introduced a new event this year: the Spring Movie Theater. Held on the evening of April 4, the event offered students a chance to unwind with two flms playing simultaneously across two different locations, replicating a movie theater environment.
“Our goal for this event was to experiment with something more engaging than a typical movie night,” junior and ASB Recognition commissioner Chloe Chung said. “We wanted it to feel like an actual outing, not just another at-school event.”
Upon arrival in the quad, students were welcomed by volunteers handing out tickets, popcorn and ramen to kick off the evening. Inside the cafeteria, students watched the romantic comedy “Crazy Rich Asians” while the thriller “A Quiet Place” played in the choir room. Each location featured different snack options to offer variety for students attending either screening: in the cafeteria, students enjoyed Chex Mix, a candy salad bar and an ice cream bar complete with different favors, syrups and toppings. The choir room offered nachos, pizza squares, pretzel bites and soda. Admission and all food were free for students. In total, more than 75 students attended the event.
The movie theater event marked the frst collaboration between ASB Social and ASB Recognition. Initially, both commissions had planned to host spring events of their own, but upon realizing the overlap in timing, they decided to co-host a single event. ASB Social, which typically leads movie nights, took charge of logistics such as reserving rooms, planning layouts and handling decorations. ASB Recognition focused on selecting the movies, organizing food options and managing purchases.
“It felt a lot smoother than some of the new events we’ve planned this year since ASB Social already had experience with movie nights,” Chung said. “We knew what worked well and what to expect, which made the process a lot more manageable.”
Planning for the event began at the start of the school year, when both commissions agreed to collaborate but had not yet fnalized the event itself. Through joint brainstorming sessions, commissioners initially produced ideas like a spring-themed picnic or festival, which were ruled out over time due to limitations in budget and time. As the second semester began and the timeline became clearer, discussions picked up between early February and late March.
One key change from previous movie nights was limiting when food was available, with all snacks at this event being offered only at the start of the event and during a designated intermission to minimize disruptions.
“Working together made the event’s workload much more manageable,” junior and ASB Social lead commissioner Amy Tang said. “We were also able to reach a wider audience and create something bigger than we could have just on our own.”
Despite the event’s overall success, securing classrooms and spaces on campus to host the movie theater proved to be one of the biggest challenges. With much of the planning process occurring on a shortened timeline, many of the larger rooms, like the auditorium and gym, had already been booked. Previous movie nights had only ever featured a single flm in the cafeteria, so identifying a second location required additional efforts.
“Because we didn’t get our frst-choice spaces, we had to make a lot of last-minute adjustments to our setup,” Chung said. “However, in the end, the rooms worked and looked better than we expected.”
Despite challenges, the Spring Movie Theater drew a strong turnout and received overwhelmingly positive feedback from attendees. Students enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere and variety of movie and snack options, contributing to the event’s success.
“Overall, it was really fun to be able to watch movies with my friends and be able to switch between the two movies like a real theater,” junior Shelby Kim said. “It was also a great way for me to relax and enjoy some good
food after a long week at school.”
In the future, the commissions hope to estimate a more accurate amount of food to match attendance, as much of the food was gone by the beginning of the intermission.
“The return of the event would be up to next year’s ASB Social and Recognition team, but I’m very proud of how it turned out and wouldn’t be surprised if they wanted to try again,” Tang said.
BY KIERAN HAU
From March 27 to April 24, Go Club hosted a four-week tournament of Go, creating a fun competition that tested students’ focus, strategic thinking and problem-solving abilities.
“The whole year, we’ve been teaching our members different techniques, like how to play openings and how to capture stones,” junior and treasurer Chancie Chou said. “The tournament was a way for them to show what they’ve learned and also have some fun.”
Throughout these four weeks, a total of 12 students gathered every Thursday lunch to participate in the eliminationbased tournament. Players began with shorter, simpler games played on nineby-nine boards and slowly progressed to larger boards, with game complexity increasing with board size. Each game lasted around 30 minutes. Offcers also brought candy and snacks for members to enjoy during the tournament.
“I enjoy playing Go, and I wanted to participate in the tournament to see how well I would play against other people and practice to see what I can learn from it,” junior and contestant John Jou said.
Go is a two-player strategy board game played on a grid with black and white stones. Each player takes turns to move stones, aiming to surround the opponent’s pieces with their own. After
club adviser Norman Tsai said. “It takes a lot of critical thinking in order to play the best move.”
when to organize and how to set everything up,” senior and secretary Adarsh Vipat said.
This year marks Go Club’s second tournament overall and their frst as an established club; before the 2024-25 school year, they were an unoffcial group on campus. Last year, they hosted a tournament in collaboration with Cupertino High School’s Go Club, in which dedicated members of the group went to Cupertino to compete.
“In Go Club, there’s a sense of community on top of the intellectual stimulation,” senior and co-president Harold Wang said. “Everyone has fun regardless of their skill level. Once you really start to understand the game,
there’s a lot of freedom in choosing your strategy.”
For future iterations of the tournament, the offcers aim to start planning earlier to ensure effective organization. Their primary purpose for the event — to create a casual and fun atmosphere for Go — still remains the same.
“I heard a lot of people having fun and enjoying the food,” Chou said. ”I think that was pretty much our goal: to make sure people were having a good time.”
Spring Musical, April 26 - May 3
Be sure not to miss out on the chance to see this unforgettable production in the Lynbrook theater. Make sure to buy tickets to support your fellow Vikings on stage!
Red, White and Blue Awards, April 28
Lynbrook is honoring students who go above and beyond in collaboration, communication, creative and critical thinking and citizenship and character.
Last Day to Drop with a W, May 9
Heads up! May 9 is the last day to drop a class with a W on your transcript. Please talk to your counselor if you’re considering any changes in your schedule.
Lynbrook Film Festival, May 16
Lynbrook is hosting a schoolwide flm festival for the frst time in eight years. All submissions are due May 2, and the festival will be held in the Lynbrook theater on May 16.
Senior Prom, May 17
Held at the Ranch at Silver Creek, San José, celebrate the end of an era with your friends! Get ready for an unforgettable night of dancing, photos and memories.
Reporting by Erin Fitzpatrick and Jenny Suh
On March 14, French teacher, Engage teacher and department lead Elizabeth “Liz” Louie was honored with the prestigious Teacher Leader Award from the California Language Teachers’ Association for her work in language education. This award honors one educator each year for their outstanding commitment to leading and promoting foreign language education.
Louie was nominated for the award by colleague and Cupertino High School Chinese teacher Ying Jin after the Stanford World Language Project. There, the two worked closely together in a mentorship program where teachers visited students to inform them about social emotional-learning in
world language classrooms. Rather than an application process, the award requires letters of recommendation from colleagues and a review of contributions to world language education.
For the past four years, Louie has worked as Lynbrook’s world language department lead. Her consistent efforts foster a supportive classroom environment for her students to engage and grow in.
“My philosophy stems from staying open-minded,” Louie said. “I want students to understand that the world is so much bigger than they know, and if you’re open-minded and willing to learn from others, you’re making yourself a better person.”
Louie originally pursued a career in psychology, but over time, she began to feel disconnected from the feld. Having also minored in French during college, she decided to spend eight months in France teaching English. When she returned to the United States, she carried this newfound passion for education into her French classes.
“I hear positive things from my students,” Louie said. “They feel safe coming to my classroom if they’re in distress or need to talk — that in itself is an
In Louie’s classes, students are encouraged to express their thoughts, ideas and opinions on certain French topics. By focusing on student-led education, she aims to meet every student’s needs and create a deeper connection with the material.
“We do such a large variety of activities, whether it’s playing a review game or using an online tool to
learn about culture,” senior and AP French Language and Culture student Ashwin Belur said. “Every unit we do in class is memorable because we approach learning the cultural concepts so differently every time.”
Through the districtwide decline in world language enrollment, Louie remains steady in her belief that learning a language is transformative. She advocates for the importance of cultural understanding, global awareness and communication skills.
“A big challenge for me right now is maintaining my program and helping students understand the value of learning another language and why it’s crucial not just for their education, but in their development as kind, compassionate human beings,” Louie said. “Hard skills are great, but languages will teach individuals valuable perspectives that no other subject can.”
The Teacher Leader Award is proof of Louie’s commitment to fostering a positive culture for language education at Lynbrook. It recognizes her passion and excellence in supporting students through their French learning journeys.
I teach because I love learning from my students and seeing them grow. It’s important to stay positive, keep building connections and remember that you are making a difference within your community.
BY CHARLOTTE BOLAY AND ETHAN WONG
Story continued from front page.
Before becoming the principal of Lynbrook in the middle of the 2015-16 school year, Jackson transferred from Lynbrook to Fremont High School to act as the assistant principal for a year and a half. Her transition was unexpected as she found out that she would be transitioning back near the end of Presidents’ Week break in February of that year. During her move back to Lynbrook, the Western Association of Schools and Colleges was about to begin evaluating the school for accreditation, a process which happens every six years. Accreditation signifes that an institution meets certain educational standards of quality.
“
Moving into the role was a lot of pressure. But I knew that Lynbrook was such a strong community with such amazing staff and students, so I was committed to do my best.
Maria Jackson Principal
“
During her time at Lynbrook, Jackson has regularly participated in school events such as Homecoming, rallies and class activities. Amid these highlights, however, she also navigated signifcant obstacles. For example, the limitations of COVID-19 led her to face unique challenges, such as working to ensure that students had a meaningful high school experience even while online. This work then continued as Lynbrook transitioned back to in-person learning.
“One of the things about Mrs. Jackson is that she’s not afraid to pitch in and do anything to help out,” FUHSD Superintendent Graham Clark said. “She’s not a person
that would just tell other people to do something, rather she’s right there in the trenches with them.”
Jackson was always involved in student matters, so much so that she created Student Voice, a group where select students can share their opinions and suggestions on how to make the school a better place.
“The point of Student Voice is that students have an input on whatever they feel is being overlooked,” senior and Student Voice
member Sanaa Lokray said. “We have people from different grade levels since Mrs. Jackson values getting equal input from everyone.”
Besides her work on bettering student wellness, she was also highly involved in advocating for the current campus renovations. Since renovations began in 2016, Jackson worked closely with construction workers to oversee big changes to major spaces like the offce, quad and library. She also listened to students’ requests to advance plans for a formal robotics space, which Lynbrook previously lacked.
“Mrs. Jackson has worked so hard with the contractors,” Assistant Principal Eric Wong said. “The quad and new buildings are all being driven by her.”
As Lynbrook prepares for this transition, staff members have expressed their gratitude for her dedication; on March 21, she was recognized at the Fremont Union High School Foundation’s Spring for Education. Her commitment to upholding high educational standards allowed Lynbrook to be recognized on a state and national level, such as becoming a National Blue Ribbon School and a California Distinguished School again in 2024.
Though Jackson is stepping down from her role, her efforts of more than two decades will remain prominent, ensuring her lasting legacy in Lynbrook culture. Through her work in overseeing campus modernization and maintaining close ties with members of the community, Jackson has played a
pivotal role in supporting the school.
“She always puts staff, students and parents frst,” Erwin said. “Lynbrook has always been a huge love for her, though she’s had a life before Lynbrook and will have a life after Lynbrook. But I’ll miss her being there for everyone at all times.”
As she prepares for retirement, Jackson hopes to spend more time with her family, especially with her newborn granddaughter. She hopes to invest more in the people who have previously invested in her, diverting her focus from her role as principal to more personal commitments.
“
I’m just looking forward to putting all the energy I put into being principal into my family and community. I hope I’m remembered as a principal who believed in what people could accomplish and removed barriers for students and staff to try things that they never would have tried before.
Maria
Jackson
Principal
“
Every morning, students all over the world open their phones to the millions of headlines, updates and social media posts fowing through the internet. Whether it’s breaking news or fear of another global pandemic, information is everywhere — but it’s not always trustworthy and the consequences of misinformation can be enormous. On April 18, President Donald Trump posted a doctored image of a Maryland man’s tattoos on Truth Social, implying he was in a gang, following the man’s wrongful deportation. The image was reposted over 6,000 times. By further implementing media literacy into the school curriculum, students take a step toward ensuring that they are responsibly consuming and producing information, both in and out of the classroom.
In recent years, social media platforms have eliminated safeguards for misinformation and disinformation, including Meta, which recently ended their fact-checking feature on both Instagram and Facebook. While TikTok has continued to work with its fact-checking system partners, the overwhelming amount of content that needs to be fact-checked often renders the process ineffective. The gap in reliable fact-checking online has left the task up to viewers, a step students often avoid due to perceived inconvenience.
“Media literacy is the most
essential skill that students need to be getting in all of their classes, in high school and even as early as elementary school,” journalism teacher and FUHSD English curriculum lead Julia Satterthwaite said. “Based on the world that we live in, to prepare kids to be life-ready, they need to be able to know if what they’re consuming is fact or fction.”
Traditional media can also lead people down a rabbit hole of selective reporting and half-truths. In addition, over-reliance on AI tools such as ChatGPT to write essays or research projects can build poor research habits taken into adulthood. These erode critical thinking skills, lowering the quality of students’ work and ability to understand complex issues.
“Lots of students use information created by artifcial intelligence because it looks good,” teacher librarian Amy Ashworth said. “If you’re not doublechecking where the information is actually coming from, you’re going to fall into a trap.”
To combat the infuence of misinformation on students nationwide, some schools have adopted media literacy courses, where students learn to evaluate information thoughtfully and ask critical questions about the information they consume. A few states such as California, Illinois and New Jersey have made it mandatory for schools to instruct their students in media literacy.
At Lynbrook, each freshman, sophomore and junior English class receives teacher librarian Amy Ashworth’s lesson on the CRAAP test — evaluating
any use of information, teaching students how to approach each piece of information they encounter online.
information from their friends or social media,” freshman David Dai said. “A lot of times, people I know tell me things that are untrue. When I see news on social media, I often send it to my friends frst.”
on the CRAAP test through different exercises, such as analyzing articles with false information and emphasizing the importance of annotated bibliographies. Students can also contribute to this effort in their own time by exploring different bias-checking sites like Ground News and AllSides.
“Students need to understand how different publications have left-leaning or right-leaning agendas,” Satterthwaite said. “This is why it’s really important to evaluate and confrm before sharing something.”
While Lynbrook’s English courses have taken the initiative to prepare students for the increase in misinformation online, it’s important to ensure that these lessons are implemented across all classes. This includes STEM courses where reliable and accurate research can often be at the heart of the subject, such as biology and statistics.
Aside from learning media literacy, students also have the option of participating in the creation of responsible
is honest and accurate, so it’s something that contributes to misinformation because news outlets might have biases.”
Each press adheres to journalistic ethics, ensuring that participating students also perform responsible research and interviewing for their stories.
“Students hear a lot of rumors and spread things,” El Estoque Entertainment editor and junior Isabelle Kok said. “Especially since Monta Vista had many threats, it can be really easy for things to get out of control, which is why it’s so important for student journalism to portray these events sensitively and accurately.”
In a society struggling to fght misinformation overload, being wellinformed is vital, which is easiest when media literacy and responsible journalism work hand in hand. Students can contribute to this effort by submitting letters to the editor to local newspapers, where readers can share their experiences as well as opinions on past articles. Aside from journalism, students have many opportunities to build media literacy
opinion editors — crystal zhu, david zhu
in-depth editor
akash anand charlotte bolay
anushka deshmukh
angelina feng
rohan kakhandiki
brian lee
ethan wong
alexandra wu
editors-in-chief — ashley huang, alyssa wang
managing editor
— lilly wu
copy editors — qianzi loo, emily pedroza
design editors
— vidushi upadhyay, eileen zhu
sports editor
web editors
adviser
— josh miller
business/pr manager features editor — claire guo
— alex cotterel
— amanda jin
— meadow shen, yvonne wu
— taek kim
social media manager — inaaya yousuf
rebecca cai
anna cen
maddy chang
isabella chiu
erin fitzpatrick kieran hau
irene hwang
stuti jain
valued contributors: Guojing Liu
gary pan
saavan saraf
jenny suh olivia tu
cecilia wu
robert yu
BY ROHAN KAKHANDIKI // IN MY OPINION
That’s my name, but you can wear it out
In mock trial, each participant in a trial has a short introduction, where they get up from their seats and proudly announce their full names. I would watch my peers stand up, projecting surnames of “SEE-kree” or “WOO.” Simple names, short and
eloquent. When it was my turn, I would rise from my seat, apprehensively saying, “Good evening, your honor. My name is Rohan “KAHK-hun-DEEK-ee.”
Breaking down my last name, it’s easy to fgure out how it’s problematic. First, it’s ten letters. I’ve seen longer surnames, especially in other Indian kids, but they always roll off the tongue so smoothly. There’s nothing smooth about my last name, with its mismatched emphasis and sharp syllables.
Every time anybody said it, it sounded like a common swear word or two. The most common pronunciation has some inappropriate language, so I’d always try to soften its enunciation, but it was a feeble attempt. The more I tried to fx it, the more it sounded forced.
As you could expect, it made me stand out at school. I heard jokes about my last name constantly. I remember my frst day of second grade, my new teacher struggling to pronounce it during attendance, asking me to say it to the whole class so that nobody would mess it up. Fears of tests would be overtaken by the terror of a substitute teacher to mess up my name in front of everybody. Since I knew that it would be attached to me for life, I felt constantly embarrassed.
During public events, I began tweaking my last name slightly. I would place an awkward emphasis on the “HUN” in my last name, trying to split it apart so it wouldn’t sound so grotesque. It wasn’t perfect, but it
was enough to assuage my insecurities. As I changed my last name, I found a new sense of shame: I was hurting my family by changing it. That name doesn’t just represent me; it represents my past, my family’s history.
When I went to Los Angeles for a mock trial tournament, my cousin decided to come watch the team perform. When it was my turn for introductions, the only thing on my mind was my last name — how someone with the exact same name, expecting an exact pronunciation, was about to see all my shame for our family. I said my last name as naturally as I could, looking straight ahead and projecting each syllable with a smile. Saying it gave me a sense of release, as I was forced to face my insecurities and, in a way, get over them.
It’s weird to think about how ten simple letters can dictate my whole life. People’s frst impressions of me are the kid with the weird last name, teachers remember me as the hard-to-pronounce student on the attendance sheet, yet my family uses it as a way to connect us all, my cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents all sharing the same mark. Names like this aren’t just important, they’re who we are. My last name has a little more personality, but it doesn’t change who I am or how much I love my family.
BY ISABELLA CHIU
Seven million books. Eighty-one million research papers. Millions of unlicensed copyrighted works on the online shadow library Library Genesis. When The Atlantic released an article revealing an unprecedented level of piracy by artifcial intelligence companies, many of whom used LibGen as a source of training data, the controversy surrounding the pirating of creative works surged in the creative community. Large corporations such as Meta and OpenAI curated copyrighted materials through potentially illegal means, enraging many of the authors and artists behind them. By pirating original work, corporations discourage artists from pursuing creativity. In their training, AI models analyze a wide database of human-authored works, using algorithms to generate the most relevant response to a given prompt. While the training data is typically changed to formulate AI responses, authors have expressed concerns over the violation of their intellectual property — their work is used without their permission or compensation. Many have even taken their frustrations to court. In July 2023, writers Christopher Golden, Richard Kadrey and Sarah Silverman fled a lawsuit against Meta’s Large Language Model Meta AI for using their creative works as training data without permission.
“It’s a form of plagiarism to have a product actually be the result of someone else’s hard work,” senior and Coding Arts Club president Ahana Mangla said. “AI companies that train on massive amounts of data without asking for permission from the original creators are just synthesizing human work and depositing it as their own for proft.”
Senior executives of Meta approved of acquiring these copyrighted books through shadow libraries like LibGen due to their relative cost and time effciency as opposed to sourcing the materials through normal channels that avoid legal gray areas. Unrestricted access to shadow libraries undermines the effort that authors put into the creation of original works, negatively affecting the value of an author’s work for the large corporation’s commercial beneft.
“Large corporations feed their LLMs with whatever they fnd in front of paywalls, and that unfortunately includes pirated or copyright-infringed material
made available without permission,” teacher librarian Amy Ashworth said.
“They are taking something away from other people who may lack the power to fght against it, and that’s wrong.”
Many AI companies have pleaded “fair use” as a part of their defense, an exception to copyright laws that allows the use of copyrighted materials without explicit permission under specifc circumstances. A similar copyright lawsuit was fled against Google Books by the Authors Guild in 2015, in which snippets of up to 20% of a copyrighted book were available to the public on Google Books without the author’s permission. Google Books won the suit as the use of these materials was deemed transformative, educational and did not compete with the original work’s market. Given that an AI model modifes the original material more than Google Books, its use of unlicensed copyrighted materials for training could count as fair use under current guidelines.
“Copyright law may permit the indexing of third-party works into a generative AI model, at which point it doesn’t really matter how those works
were acquired,” said Eric Goldman, Santa Clara University School of Law professor, Associate Dean for Research and CoDirector of the High Tech Law Institute. However, even if these large AI corporations’ large-scale piracy were considered fair use, using shadow library websites as a source of AI training data is an unethical shortcut compared to purchasing the works from their owners. While tech companies argue that the competitive and ever-advancing feld of AI requires large, high-quality databases, it is important to respect and credit the work of others. United States copyright laws aim to protect a creator’s exclusive rights to their original work to ensure they are well recognized, creating an incentive for further innovation and creativity. Billion-dollar companies not putting in the effort to establish deals with authors or purchasing the copyrighted works sets a problematic precedent for piracy. Lawsuits like Kadrey v. Meta have resulted in public backlash from authors against piracy as a whole. Some students at Lynbrook use pirating websites to access books, movies and TV shows for
personal enjoyment, but even this harms the industry of creative humanities on a smaller scale.
“The little infractions here and there — it’s a slippery slope,” Ashworth said. “Something that feels okay to do now in high school could lead you to potentially work for a company where there’s a little bit more gray area around a larger scale of piracy.”
Meta isn’t the only offender; OpenAI and Microsoft are currently facing a lawsuit fled by the New York Times newspaper, arguing that these AI companies violated the Digital Millennium Copyright Act by circumventing technological measures that protect copyrighted materials, including paywalls and subscriptions. Making the high-quality journalistic information of the New York Times available to non-subscribers devalues and disrespects the time, effort and resources that are necessary to put together a cohesive publication. Without subscriptions, the resources and outreach of the publication would be severely limited, resulting in lower-quality reporting. This lower-quality reporting would then be fed into AI models, decreasing the quality of the AI-generated responses as well.
Future legal restrictions could also impede the development of AI. Authors could be unwilling to allow AI to access their works at any price, which would result in a smaller database of copyrighted works and thus a lower quality of AI. This trade-off illustrates the balance between the advancement of technology and protecting human-authored works. As much as the development of AI increases effciency, protecting creative rights and giving credit for sources is much more important, giving creators the recognition and compensation they deserve. As verdicts for copyright law court cases come out, they will settle the score between advancing technology and preserving the livelihood of authors and creators.
“It’s important to recognize how vulnerable generative AI models are to legal risk,” Goldman said. “Be thoughtful about the possibility that generative AI models could be scarce or potentially legally banned, and that would be a very different world than the world we’re contemplating for your future.”
BY CECILIA WU
In his 2025-26 March budget message, San José Mayor Matt Mahan proposed a new policy to address homelessness: require unhoused individuals to accept shelter or face arrest after refusing help three times within 18 months. The policy came as San José continues to grapple with its homelessness crisis. While this is framed as a balanced approach, the policy punishes people for their poverty rather than addressing the root causes of homelessness, suggesting a shift toward policing over prevention. Involving law enforcement could further traumatize vulnerable people and trap them in the homelessness cycle, instead of providing a path out.
Mahan, who campaigned on a platform of reducing homelessness, argued that enforcement is necessary to improve public safety and encourage individuals to accept shelter. However, his proposal also refects the mounting public pressure to clear encampments and restore public spaces, especially as San José continues to face an urgent homelessness crisis. Nearly 200 unhoused people died in Santa Clara County last year, and the city currently ranks fourth in the United States for homeless individuals per capita. In a political environment where visible action matters, it seems as if Mahan prioritizes his public image as a mayor over genuinely supporting his city’s homeless population.
His proposal, outlined in an interview with KRON4 news, states arrests would only occur when shelter is available, and that the city’s “low-barrier” options allow people to bring partners, pets and personal belongings. This seems to alleviate the common reasons individuals reject shelter, yet these shelters can still feel unsafe or traumatizing, particularly for those with mental illness or past trauma. In this light, enforcement becomes not a gateway to support but a threat — a way to coerce people into systems they may not trust or feel safe in. It does little to change the underlying dynamic. Unhoused people are still being punished for their circumstances. If the only choices are to accept shelter or face arrest, the approach remains punitive and risks alienating those it aims to help.
“It doesn’t seem like this policy is going to do anything or be positive in the long run,” freshman Politics Club member Anika Khanna said. “It feels like a way to get unhoused people out of sight and out of mind rather than tackling the actual issues.”
While San José has expanded its
shelter network, including adding more than 1,000 temporary units such as tiny homes, motels and safe parking lots, the city’s enforcement-frst approach still places the burden on individuals who are already navigating poverty, instability and trauma. A February city report found that only 541 people out of the estimated 5,477 unsheltered residents in San José have turned down services, suggesting that the majority want help. When people are punished for turning help down, it no longer becomes a question of choice but of control. Using law enforcement to pressure people into accepting services can also backfre. The concern is not just where people sleep, but whether they are given the autonomy, care and stability needed to exit homelessness permanently. Mahan frames enforcement as a compassionate way to help people off the streets, but the kind of temporary shelter being offered doesn’t actually resolve homelessness, but hides it. These shelters are designed to clear public spaces, not to create long-term pathways into housing, employment or stability. Without investing in permanent solutions like supportive housing, mental health care and job access, this policy does little more than displace the problem.
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I think there’s a justifable fear of going to shelters. People are more comfortable with the fear of known risk rather than the fear of the unknown. All of them have gone through very different experiences, and there are different reasons why they should end up without a house. There should be more nuance and a little bit more patience inolved.
Claire Guo Outreach leader of the Houseless Environmental Volunteer Initiative
“Mental illness and substance use are major drivers of homelessness, but San José’s strategy continues to prioritize enforcement over long-term mental
BY
Looking back at old photos, I don’t know how nobody noticed that something was wrong sooner. Before I knew the word, celiac weaved its way through every aspect of my life. I see a smiling little girl, several heads shorter than her peers, standing on her tiptoes to remain in frame. I had all
health care. Under Mahan’s proposal, individuals who repeatedly refuse shelter could be arrested for trespassing and diverted into behavioral health courts. However, this pathway has serious limitations due to California’s LantermanPetris-Short Act, which strictly limits when someone can be placed under involuntary psychiatric care. Under the law, a person must be deemed an immediate danger to themselves or others before they can receive treatment without consent, a nearly impossible bar to meet in many cases. As a result, even individuals experiencing obvious mental health crises are often turned away or left untreated because they do not meet the legal threshold. The system meant to protect people’s rights now prevents many from receiving the care they urgently need, leaving them to cycle between the streets, jails and emergency rooms without real intervention.
“We hosted lunches and dinners to connect more with them, and through relationship, were able to trust,” Guo said. also referred others to the program, which shows there are different measures that can be taken in order to address this problem.”
to provide direct support to residents experiencing homelessness, such as offering free medical care, clothing, housing referrals and other resources. Volunteer barbers gave free haircuts, while public defenders helped expunge criminal records — a key barrier to employment and housing. Expanding programs like these foster engagement and open the door to lasting support. These events create opportunities for trust and connection that typical government outreach often lacks.
In contrast, communitybased approaches have proven effective in building trust. Earlier this year, California State Senator Dave Cortese hosted the 14th annual Unhoused Health Fair at San José City Hall, bringing together over 50 local organizations
the telltale symptoms of malnutrition. Yet words like “celiac” and “gluten” remained foreign concepts until I turned seven. A blur of hospital visits accompanied the usual playdates until one trip, when my diagnosis journey was over. The verdict was out: I had “celiac.”
But celiac, which was supposed to be the golden answer, brought more questions than answers. Life became split into two parts: before and after celiac. Before, I didn’t have to explain an illness I didn’t understand. Before, I didn’t dread the waiter coming to take the order at a restaurant. Before, I didn’t sit at birthday parties with an empty plate.
I picked up another photo, a little girl in a party dress. She’s leaving early to eat lunch at home.
After the diagnosis, I started noticing my symptoms as I smiled awkwardly at birthday dinners. After those countless events, I felt like somewhat of a doctor myself. Shortly after that, the interrogation lamp turned on. I faced questions from skeptical teachers and relatives. Nobody they knew had celiac, so the questions fooded in: where did it come from? What does it do? Is it even real? Are you faking it?
Despite realizing how strange those questions are now, they planted seeds of doubt in my mind that didn’t just concern celiac, but my passions as well. The slew of insecurity that arose from my diagnosis eroded my
Ultimately, enforcement may appear to offer a quick fx, but it is not a sustainable or ethical solution. A truly effective response to homelessness must center on health care and compassion, not criminal charges. Students and residents alike can support these efforts by engaging directly with organizations making a difference on the ground. At Lynbrook, clubs like Interact host volunteer events such as donation drives, meal prep for local shelters and outreach support. Whether helping distribute hygiene kits or simply starting conversations that reduce stigma, every action can contribute to a more humane and effective approach to homelessness.
“A big part of this is psychological support,” Guo said. “Many people end up without a house because of untreated mental illnesses, so it’s something incredibly important in terms of long-term solutions.”
confdence. Did I actually know what I was talking about for my health? In math? In my favorite TV show? Though these questions seem trivial, small instances chipped away at my certainty.
These lingering inner voices held me back and prevented me from making the smallest decisions. But faced with all these questions — from others and myself — I’ve realized the best way to get over my uncertainty was through continuous self-advocacy. I gained experience in argument through clubs like debate and mock trial. While bombarded with rapidfre questions, I learned how to not just speak for impersonal topics, but for myself as well.
Thanks to my experience with celiac, I still have plenty of opportunities to exercise this advocacy. Whether that be through tirelessly explaining what gluten is or by giving graphic descriptions of celiac at the dinner table, much to the discomfort of the host, I quickly gain confdence.
While it’s easier to avoid the ordeal of an explanation, over time, I’ve learned that the easy way isn’t always the correct way. Celiac teaches me far more than how to read ingredient labels, it teaches me to always fght for the better, whether in myself or others. Whether it is a curse or a blessing, I cannot deny it has granted me the opportunity to speak up.
BY MADDY CHANG AND IRENE HWANG
Beneath the white glow of overhead lights, the quiet hum of computer servers permeates the air. A monitor fickers as another help ticket pops up, after somewhere on campus, a teacher’s projector fails to connect or a student’s Chromebook crashes. But before panic sets in, the information technology department is already on the case, fxing any technology issues that arise to keep the school’s systems running smoothly. The IT department serves as a pillar for students’ ability to use technology, saving the day, one bug at a time.
“They really go out of their way to ensure that everyone is able to access their technology,” librarian Susan Lucas said. “Whether it’s the internet or computer on campus or teachers’ Apple TVs, they’re very dedicated and put in a lot of time and effort.”
From taking a part-time IT job in college to helping out his family with technology issues, being the “IT guy” has always defned Allen Chan’s life. Although he originally ventured into the feld of computer science during college, he quickly learned it did not ft his interests.
“While I did enjoy using and learning about computer science, I was never that creative,” Chan said. “Instead, I decided to pursue my strength in learning about technology and how to best utilize it.”
The biggest challenge he encountered when trying to pursue IT as a career was deciding what feld he wanted to work in. He bounced between the idea of being a help desk worker, project manager or trying his hand in the cybersecurity feld.
“I had to fnd an avenue to break into, then fgure out where it could realistically take me in the long term,” Chan said.
Chan would later go on to fnd an opening in
in comparison,” Chan said. “It’s been interesting seeing students start as freshmen and grow into seniors and graduate. It’s rewarding to provide even the simplest of help — to help them do their best at school and ensure that they are ready for the next steps.”
Through his involvement with Lynbrook’s esports team, the Asgardians, Chan has furthered his ability to connect with students and understand their perspectives on technological platforms, providing a unique form of personalized guidance with his ability to resonate with students’ struggles. Commending his efforts, Chan was also awarded the “Employee of the Year” award just a record three years into the job.
Looking back on his journey with IT, Chan emphasizes the importance of having strong personal values and acquiring knowledge, both social and subjectbased, regardless of what path one decides to pursue beyond Lynbrook.
“At school, even if you have a diffcult time, it’s not the end of the world,” Chan said. “As long as you stick to your values and push yourself as needed, everything will be alright.”
For IT member Toan Phuong, the past 20 years at Lynbrook have been nothing short of spectacular.
Beginning his career in the late 1990s, Phuong originally worked in IBM for Microsoft, spending twoand-a-half years there before looking for another job. While searching on Yahoo he stumbled across a job posting for an IT opening at Lynbrook. Although it was a temporary position funded by the state on a year-toyear basis, Phuong has remained grateful for all the opportunities. Through his efforts, he was awarded the “Employee of the Year” award fve years into his time with the school.
“The staff, students and
The lockdown browser many students encounter when writing in-class essays is an example of a new initiative combating AI in classrooms, with Phuong doing much of the behind-the-scenes work to set up appointments.
“We try to help teachers and students use the best technology available for them,” Phuong said. “For teachers, we want to make it easy so they don’t have to waste their in-class time with technology that doesn’t work.”
During Lynbrook’s frequent testing seasons, the department has worked to support SAT, PSAT and AP testing, which have now transitioned to online models. When asked to give advice to his younger self, Phuong encourages building resilience and concentration, which is especially applicable for students who should remain focused on schoolwork despite online distractions.
“If you fail, don’t worry — it’s not too late to start again,” Phuong said. “Just explore whatever you think
your parents’ advice doesn’t ft you, but over time, you will know exactly what you want to do. Life is
BY ROBERT YU
As they drove across California, the Scott family carried an unconventional passenger: Max the Alpaca. This road trip was the culmination of many months of campaigning, based around a GoFundMe set up in order to treat Max’s infected joints. After reaching a specialized camelid veterinarian, junior Sylva Scott anxiously led Max over to his appointment, and the surgery procedure proceeded. Unfortunately, Max didn’t make it, but the memories Scott shared with Max empowered her to care for animals with all her heart.
Ever since she was 11 years old, Scott has routinely swept, fed and groomed her pet alpacas for the organization 4-H — a nonproft organization dedicated to leadership development in youth. With every bleat, cluck and moo heard at the pens, Scott’s love for animals gradually grew into a passion for nurturing and caring for animals.
Before her 4-H days, Scott loved to greet neighborhood dogs in her hometown in North Carolina. She discovered her affnity for taking care of animals after numerous walks and owning a pet fsh. After moving, Scott joined the Rolling Hills 4-H’s California branch at Walnut Creek in Contra Costa County, Calif., where she took her frst footsteps into animal caretaking.
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I grew up in an environment where animals were very common.
Sylva Scott Junior
A few years later, the Scott family moved to San José, and Scott was inspired by her mother, who had frequently visited McClellan Ranch after school, to join the McClellan Ranch branch of 4-H. Scott quickly fell in love with her very frst adopted alpaca, Max, who unfortunately suffered from ruptured stife joint ligaments in both of his back legs. For Max, the road to recovery was a long and hard-fought battle, flled with many ups and downs. Every Wednesday, Scott would go to McClellan ranch, routinely
reflling his water, sweeping his pen and feeding him.
“Halfway through our ownership of Max, we noticed that he had some medical issues,” Scott said. “He had a limp, and his joints were creaking as he walked. Max’s stife joint ligaments were misaligned.”
Acting swiftly, Scott coordinated a GoFundMe in order to fund Max’s veterinarian bills. After tirelessly campaigning, the Scott family was able to gather around $6,000 for Max’s leg surgery. The frst surgery was initially successful, until about a week later when the incisions started to tear open, leaving Max susceptible to severe infection within his unsterile pen. The follow-up surgery would have cost $23,000, with the only alternative being euthanasia. Thus, the Scott family had to make the diffcult decision to put Max down, considering the painful aftereffects of Max’s ailment.
“We had to make the tough decision to put Max down,” Scott said. “He lived a good life, and he was very special to my heart.”
Through a period of healing, Scott recovered from the loss of Max and took on the responsibility of caring for Zeus: her second and current alpaca. One of Zeus’s defning traits is his ever-present mud beard. When Scott was frst able to adopt Zeus, he constantly rubbed his face into the mud, forcing Scott to groom, shampoo and sanitize his beard
continuously.
“After Max, I begged my mom for a new one,” Scott said. “It was worth arguing with my mom. He’s kind of cuddly and really sweet.”
Aside from caring for alpacas, Scott has been heavily involved within the community at 4-H, serving as the president of the McClellan ranch committee. Along with alpacas, she is also in charge of care for a chicken and a goat. She undertook the role of Arts and Crafts leader at 4-H camp, along with organizing the Leadership Overnight event, where guest speakers were introduced to inspire 4-H youth and speak about leadership. Business teacher Andrea Badger was one of the guest speakers invited.
“Sylva was always taking the initiative to communicate and follow up,” Badger said. “I’m so happy that she was able to join an organization and promote her passions, along with her exceptional leadership skills.”
Looking to the future, Scott’s ultimate dream is to go into the feld of animal care; specifcally, she wants to be a veterinarian, helping animals and their owners.
“Sylva’s journey inspires me,” junior Lex Huang said. “It’s the small moments interacting with her, when she says things like ‘my own alpaca bit me the other day,’ where I feel that I can picture these moments in my head and feel the warm interactions.”
BY SAAVAN SARAF
For juniors Om Modi, Vikrant Vadathavoor and Bolang Zhu, it’s all about speed. During debate competitions, they fre off arguments as fast as they can. Judges watch as their opponents furiously take notes for their own rebuttals, all while the remaining few seconds tick away. In the fast-paced world of Lincoln-Douglas debate, all three have reached all-time high rankings of No. 1, No. 5 and No. 1 respectively, standing as some of the top debaters in the country.
Modi got his frst taste of speech and debate while in middle school, when he joined the Athens Debate academy, while Vadathavoor and Zhu started debate as freshmen at Lynbrook. They had two options: traditional LD, which focused on a slower speaking pace at mostly local tournaments, or circuit LD, which involved extremely fast speaking and highly technical arguments. They tried circuit LD and instantly enjoyed it due to its high intensity, tough competition and possibility for competing in national tournaments.
“The year we joined, Lynbrook’s only functioning event was Lincoln-Douglas,” Vadathavoor said. “The team captain created a community within LD, which is why we signed up.”
The circuit LD debate format is a one-person event that is charged with intensity. Each debater is given a few minutes to prove their argument, often speaking as fast as they can. The schedule is tight: 6-minute speech, 3-minute cross-examination by the opponent and a 4-minute preparation time.
This repeats, alternating competitors,
speeches using fowcharts. Every second counts as debaters fght against pressure to win over the judges by outpacing their opponents.
“One of the challenges is sounding incoherent because we are speaking so quickly most of the time,” Zhu said. “We often risk sacrifcing good delivery by speeding
Modi and Zhu their frst tournament as freshmen at the Nano
Nagle Round Robin, while Vadathavoor competed for the frst time at the Coast Forensic League, all in their sophomore year. The three, with no experience, found themselves mixed in with seasoned debaters. They struggled to adjust to judging styles, pressure and how to respond to arguments in a fast-paced environment. Many of the technical terms they had studied only gave way to more branches of philosophical theory and procedural rules, and they ultimately weren’t able to take home awards. Regardless, they were hooked.
“While we didn’t do well, it was a really good learning experience,” Modi said. “The community of LD debate and our experiences drove us to improve ourselves over time.”
As freshmen, the three familiarized themselves with LD rules and all its jargon. Now, they spend more than two hours a night on research for competitions, perfecting their speaking voices and rattling out arguments and rebuttals until they are foolproof.
BY DAVID ZHU
Learning a speech is not easy. Giving a full speech in a second language is even harder. In the annual FUHSD speech contest, English Language Development students challenge themselves to do just that, spending weeks preparing in advance. This year, the ELD Speech Contest will happen on April 30 at Fremont High School. Before then, each ELD student will craft their own speech to present at the contest in front of a panel of student and teacher judges. Ultimately, the contest is the culmination and application of everything the students have learned this past year in their ELD classes.
The ELD program assists students learning English as a second language. Within these classes, the key to developing English skills for many students is continual practice.
“Oftentimes, we’re just talking with each other during class,” said sophomore Sichang Liu, a former ELD speech contest fnalist. “I think ELD is mostly practicing speaking a lot, so that’s how I learned to improve my English.”
Every year, all ELD students in FUHSD participate in
competition is an opportunity for students to not only showcase the language growth they have achieved in the past year but also practice their oral language skills.
“It felt really straightforward when I was practicing my speech alone, but in front of classmates and the teacher, I just forgot everything,” Wang said. “It gets easier as you practice more and more.”
This contest is the peak and the high point of the year for the kids. They just get to see that they’re so capable.
Julie Morelos ELD teacher
“ “That confdence to speak well comes with lots of practice and preparation. As the only ELD teacher at Lynbrook this year, Morelos prepares her students for the contest six weeks in advance. The end goal is to have each student be able to present a roughly fve-minute, fully-memorized speech in English.
In the frst phase of preparation, students brainstorm and come up with an original topic. Genetically modifed foods, power structures and relationships are just some of the ideas explored during previous contests.
“What matters is that they choose something that they’re interested in and something that they genuinely care about,” Morelos said. “They truly have to dig deep and think, ‘What do I want to persuade someone to do? What am I passionate about teaching others?’”
Next comes the outline phase. Students conduct detailed research on their topic before writing the frst draft of their speech. For many students, research is not just about gaining a basic understanding of their topic — it is about becoming an expert, which can be challenging.
“The hardest part for me is researching online,” freshman and ELD 2 student Yiting Wang said. “In my previous school in my home country, we didn’t spend much time doing research or writing about our own topic. This was really new to me, so I redid my research many times.”
After two weeks of drafting speeches, each speech is polished as students exchange advice and encourage each other.
In the last two weeks leading up to competition day, students diligently practice their speeches and rinse and repeat until confdent in their delivery. Overcoming nerves is often the greatest challenge during this last
Despite the hurdles that they have to overcome, the students lift one another up every step of the way. To them, it’s about more than just perfecting their own speech; it’s about learning and growing together. Most importantly, it’s about building relationships with one another.
“Seeing the students help each other this year was beautiful,” Morelos said. “During these six weeks, they get to know each other so well, and they support each other tremendously. By the time they get to the contest at Fremont High School, they feel so confdent. They come together as a team, and it makes me so happy to witness this each year.”
Ultimately, everything that the students do prepares them for the contest. On speech day, ELD students from across the district compete in two primary rounds, with student and teacher judges scoring them each round. Scores from both rounds are tallied, and the highestscoring students move on to the third and fnal round.
“It’s the frst time we’ve ever had a speech contest using only our second language, so you’re bound to be nervous,” said senior Evan Gai, a former ELD speech contest fnalist. “The moment you get in the room and start to talk, you’ll fnd that you forgot something or maybe pronounced something wrong, but you realize that’s just normal. We will be nervous, but we know we are going to do our best.”
Despite the competitive aspect, students cheer each other on until the very end. At the end of the day, positivity and cheers erupt during the evening award ceremony as students celebrate each other’s achievements.
“During the contest, the energy in the room is really coming from a supportive place of championing each other,” Lynbrook ELD coordinator Tania Yang said. “It’s not like a cutthroat kind of competition, but really more like students are happy for each other, and the teachers are so supportive.”
In the last couple of days leading up to the contest, students give everything they have to the preparation process. This journey helps them build confdence, and they realize that they are more than capable.
“When preparing for your speech, the most important thing is having confdence,” Liu said. “Trust yourself. You got it because you’ve been preparing for more than three to four weeks.”
BY ANGELINA FENG AND CRYSTAL ZHU
On the streets of San José, the Eastern gray squirrel is an ordinary sight. Complete with its bushy tail and cinnamon-tinged fur, it is a common visitor to backyards and porches. Yet this common creature is invasive, dubbed “the most serious pests of homes and gardens,” and competes with its native counterpart, the Western Gray Squirrel, for resources. Invasive animals, often hiding in plain sight, are only one of the many threats to local wildlife, often leaving irreparable damage.
Characterized by warm, dry summers and cool, wet winters, San José boasts a temperate, Mediterranean climate. Since the land’s formation, native species have evolved to ft their environments through a history of adapted traits, forming symbiotic and competitive relationships with other species. These native species, like the valley oak trees, stand on hills covered with Idaho fescue grass. However, these native organisms share their home with species not indigenous to this habitat, a phenomenon started by explorers in the 1700s.
“Indirectly, all of this is more or less linked to human activity. Most of these species have been brought here by our travels and our activities, sometimes on purpose, like bringing in seeds for agriculture, or sometimes by accident, usually by transport, such as through cargo ships and air.
Peter Svensson West Valley College biology professor
“As invasive species became ingrained in the local landscape, native fora and fauna began to erode. The most direct impacts of this come from predator-prey relationships and competition for resources, but the side effects can reverberate across ecosystems. For example,
pathogens. A local infestation of the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which can carry yellow fever, started in 2013. Tiny insects called shothole borers latch onto tree bark, potentially affecting one of fve trees in San José with their tree-killing fungus. These beetles attack common native species like the valley oak and sycamore, both crucial nesting habitats for native birds.
Invasive species are just one of many threats to local wildlife. In modern times, increasing development of housing has led to habitat fragmentation, in which human constructions — houses, roads and bridges — transform a once uniform stretch of habitat into pockets of
California Buttercup (ranunculus californicus)
Checker Bloom (sidalcea malvifora)
Lupine (lupinus arboreus)
San José and the larger San Francisco Bay Area are home to a variety of native species such as the California poppy, owl’s clover and lupine. Many are threatened by invasive species, chemical poisoning and habitat loss, but conservation eforts by the local government and nonproft organizations are working to combat these issues.
BY ALEX COTTEREL AND BRIAN LEE
“Are we in a constitutional crisis?” NPR’s Nina Totenberg asked, mirroring the sentiment of many. Interview after interview, Democratic congresspersons answered similarly, mentioning that we are nearing a constitutional crisis. In headlines and on social media, the term “constitutional crisis” has been a constant within the early months of Trump’s presidency, as his administration continues to clash with immigration and state and federal courts. Despite these heated exchanges, constitutional crisis is a broad term, and there are no clear markers to defne when a country has truly entered one.
operations as several more fights took off to deport alleged illegal immigrants. As a result, concerns about the implications of a presidential administration ignoring a court order began to circulate rapidly, and debates sparked over whether or not the country could be falling into a potential constitutional crisis.
“The problem is that those checks mean nothing if they’re not able to be used,” Brent said. “You’ve got a Republican President, a Republican Congress and a Republican-controlled Supreme Court. If they’re all on board with violating the Constitution, then there really isn’t much that can be done. This means that, over the long term, the only checks are the elections, where voters have an opportunity to weigh in every couple of years.”
enforcement of legal procedures that respect and protect an individual’s rights, including one’s right to property and liberty during the legal process.
The constitution is, to an extent, a set of rules about how the government will operate. When you get to a point where either there’s a confict between two branches of government or some other situation comes up where the roadmap runs out and you’re in uncharted territory, that’s what we’d call a constitutional crisis.
James Brent Political science professor at San José State University
The foundational aspect laid out in the Constitution to avoid a crisis is the system of checks and balances that prevents one branch from overpowering another. The three branches within the Constitution — the judicial, executive and legislative — were crafted to adapt this process.
“Checks and balances are crucial because our country is founded on these principles,” junior and Politics Club president Chelsea Guo said. “They’re why we have three branches in our government, and they’re the basis on which the Constitution was written. It’s important that we make sure these systems are as strong as ever, whether it’s resisting corruption, or just making sure that the system is still running in the same fashion that it’s supposed to run 200 years after the Constitution was written.”
The executive branch, consisting of the president, has the power to be the tie-breaker in Congress and sign or veto laws put forth by Congress. The legislative branch, consisting of the Senate and House of Representatives, can approve or disapprove the President’s cabinet member picks and vote to impeach the President or judicial judges. Meanwhile, the judicial branch can review and strike down existing laws as well as the President’s executive orders by declaring them unconstitutional. A constitutional crisis can occur when one branch ignores the authority of another.
The prevalent use of the term in 2025 has been sparked by concerns about actions that the Trump Administration took in March. Many consider those actions violations of court orders, thereby triggering an imbalance of power between the two branches.
On March 15, Washington, D.C. District Court Chief Judge James Boasberg ordered the government to return the two fights carrying immigrants and alleged undocumented Venezuelan gang members being deported under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, a law previously used to deport non-citizens deemed dangerous during wartime. The Trump Administration ignored the order, continuing
Defying a federal order may constitute contempt of court, which is a legal offense that can lead to fnes or imprisonment. For a sitting president, such defance of the order could be interpreted as an abuse of power, which, if charged, could lead to impeachment. The Trump Administration continues to defend its actions and attempted to impeach Boasberg for “abuse” of power. Chief Justice of the Supreme Court John G. Roberts Jr. rebuked critics of Boasberg and their attempts to impeach him.
On April 10, the Trump Administration once again clashed with the courts: the Supreme Court ordered that the Administration must “facilitate and effectuate the return” of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, an alleged undocumented Venezuelan gang member who was wrongly accused and deported. Despite this, the Trump administration has argued that this does not mean it is necessary for them to take action to return him to the United States.
“Trump’s decision undermines the Court’s name because the court lives off their orders and people listening to them,” sophomore Prajwal Avadhani said. “The United States Supreme Court has the highest respect; even if you lose a case at the Supreme Court, you still respect their decision. But if someone openly disobeys the Supreme Court, then why have a Supreme Court?”
The Trump Administration’s deportation case brings up the importance of due process, a Constitutional agreement that requires the fair establishment and
An imbalance in power between the government’s three branches could lead to a constitutional crisis.
While the legislative branch creates laws and legislation, it also holds the power to keep the other two branches in check via impeachment.
Past conficts between the branches of government and a clear understanding of where the constitutional roadmap ends can help to decipher the implications of a potential constitutional crisis occurring today. One past example is former President Richard Nixon’s Watergate scandal. During his frst term, a group associated with Nixon’s re-election campaign broke into the Watergate Offce, the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the time, to bug the building. Later, Nixon tried to cover up evidence of his involvement and refused to release evidence to the investigators of his case, turning the case into a constitutional crisis. Closing in on impeachment, Nixon later resigned to “save face.”
“When Richard Nixon was going through the Watergate scandal, everybody agreed on the facts,” social studies teacher Dave Pugh said. “All the major news networks covered them in the same way; you switch channels and everyone still gets the same story. That’s not the situation now. Depending on what podcast you watch or which news outlet you read, you get a completely different interpretation of what the facts are.”
Media bias isn’t the only contributing factor, either. Partisanship in government could also play a role in pushing an administration closer to a constitutional crisis.
“Polarization in the government has made impeachment an almost completely ineffective check on the President, whereas in the 1970s, it was a check,” Brent said. “Nixon resigned his presidency because evidence came out of abuse of power, and the fact was that he was going to be impeached and there was signifcant Republican support for the impeachment. Today, that would not happen because there would probably be only three or four Republicans who would vote to impeach Donald Trump under any circumstances.”
Whether the constitutional checks and balances fail or that due process is not properly implemented, the past and the present have shown how a constitutional crisis details a time when there is no clear-cut way to resolve a confict under the Constitution.
The courts of the judicial branch interpret the legislation created by the legislative branch. However, it has no ofcial mechanisms to enforce its rulings, leaving it up to the other branches.
The executive branch holds the responsibility of enforcing Congress’ legislation and the courts’ rulings through executive orders and government agencies.
BY STUTI JAIN AND TAEK KIM
Since the mid-1900s, space travel has advanced rapidly, with space tourism evolving into an industry of its own. As space tourism breaks new barriers, it has become apparent that major limitations exist: one being the high cost that limits accessibility to most consumers and the other being the environmental impacts of traveling to space.
Space tourism refers to travel into space solely for leisure. Traveling to space was once a feat accessible only to trained astronauts and scientists, but with technological advancements on the rise, traveling to space is becoming a venture that anyone can experience as long as they can afford the hefty ticket price. There are currently three categories of space tourism: suborbital
However, aside from the hefty expense of a seat, space tourism also comes with another astronomical price tag: environmental sustainability. One of the most prominent ways rocket launches harm the environment is through carbon emissions. Rockets burning hydrogen and oxygen do not directly emit carbon dioxide, but other types release about 200 to 400 tons of carbon dioxide per launch. Although this is comparable to an intercontinental commercial fight, rockets only carry one percent of commercial fight passengers, making the carbon footprint larger for each passenger on a
“In our current capacity, touring space only lasts for a short period,” sophomore and Astrophysics Club Member Ian Chen said. “The recent Blue Origin fight had a total fight time of 11 to 12
not only to space fights but also to operational satellites and future spacecraft, as the likelihood of collision in space increases. Such collisions could cause injuries to passengers or disrupt essential services such as navigation issues if satellites go down. With 130 million tons of space junk currently in orbit, increased space tourism has the potential to exacerbate the existing problem by up to 50 times by 2100.
“The numbers took us by surprise,” said Hugh Lewis, a space debris expert from the University of Southampton in England in an interview with the New York Times. “There is genuine cause for alarm.”
Several private enterprises, each with distinct plans and ambitions for enabling human access to space, have championed the pursuit of space tourism while considering the environmental impact of such action. SpaceX, for instance, envisions the development of Starship, which will be a fully reusable rocket and burn liquid oxygen and methane, by the end of 2025. Blue Origin has emphasized its commitment to sustainability through the reusability of its New Shepard capsule — a system designed specifcally for space tourism. It will not only reduce the cost of space access but also create a more environmentally-friendly model for future space travel. NASA is also very environmentally conscious: they work with nature agencies to evaluate the complete environmental impact of the rocket launch before its takeoff.
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All rockets proposed to launch from Kennedy require signifcant environmental analysis prior to launch. Years of design, development and testing, including ground tests, simulations and fight tests, occur before a rocket is certifed for launch operations.
Don Dankert
NASA’s Kennedy Space Center’s Spaceport Integration Environmental Planning Lead “
As the idea of space tourism gains traction, the excitement of travel may cloud concerns regarding sustainability. Nevertheless, plans are being made by leading companies to make the industry more environmentally friendly.
“The feld is nearing a major shift, but unfortunately, it will likely come at the cost of our planet’s wellbeing,” senior and Aeronautics Club president Sia Gupta said. “Ultimately, I think space tourism is a toss-up. It’ll either be a revolutionary step to changing the world and building life in space, or it’ll leave the planet and most of its people behind.”
BY YVONNE WU
Rows of tents and tables stand orderly near the path, and beneath the shade, a plethora of snacks, sports drinks and refreshments wait for the athletes to round the corner. Vibrant melanges of pastels mark the concrete, indicating a path for the runners to follow as they make their way through the course. Each detail of the Lynbrook track meet is prudently organized, ensuring its smooth occurrence.
Track meets at Lynbrook are organized once a week. The process is primarily overseen by the team captains and Lynbrook cross country and track and feld coach Bernie Ramos.
“The process doesn’t really change,” junior and
varsity sprinter Bryan Zhao said. “It’s more about how effciently the team can get it done.”
Athletes begin with placing the three high jump pits, each consisting of rectangular cushions that act as a padded landing area, the uprights that hold the crossbar in place, as well as the crossbar itself. They then set up the tents across the feld for shade — one for the timer and another for the athletic trainer and a few tents for the athletes to rest under. Finally, the jumpers rake the pits, completing their setup for the meet.
For typical Lynbrook dual meets where the team faces off with another school, all the team members work together to set up all the equipment.
“My coach always emphasizes that everybody needs to help,” senior and team captain Chloe Chan said. “It takes a lot of people to move equipment around, especially when it is really early in the morning. Even if we are tired, we show up.”
However, for the large annual Lynbrook invitational meet, parents step up to volunteer and assist the athletes with the extensive setup.
The annual Lynbrook invitational meet began in 2023 and came to fruition as a result of Bernie Ramos and his efforts. Unique from dual meets, the invitational meets gather all the most qualifed athletes from multiple schools in the competition league. Having been a coach for over 15 years, Ramos has witnessed and attended various track meets. Oftentimes, the hosts would run into scheduling dilemmas that would result in delays that made race days span for as long as 12 hours. Ramos hoped to create a meet in which scheduled events could fow rapidly without any delay.
“I felt that if we all put in equal work and get the
entire team involved, we could run an effcient competition and a really good meet,” Ramos said.
The success of the Lynbrook invitational meet comes as a result of the athletes’ and Ramos’ patience and perseverance.
“A lot of it is just being responsible. I want to teach the kids, especially outside of track and feld, that you have to be responsible. Being able to be hospitable to the away schools makes a big difference; it helps everyone.
Bernie Ramos Cross country and track and feld coach
“The coaching team and the athletes have large ambitions and are always looking to improve wherever possible.
“Our future goal is to make the invitational one of the top Northern California events for track and feld,” Ramos said. “We hope to get sponsorships from big brands. It’s not going to happen overnight, but I can see it maybe happening within the next decade.”
BY OLIVIA TU
Fingers curled tightly around the foil handle and feet frmly planted on the strip, freshman Alber Wu braces himself for the split of a referee’s whistle. He draws a deep breath and flters out the clamor around him, determined to place in the 2023 USA Fencing National Championships. Advancing in a series of lunges and thrusts while assessing his opponent’s every move, Wu manages to land a touch, ultimately placing frst in the Youth 12 Men’s Foil.
Wu frst started fencing in second grade at a week-long summer program after being inspired by a family friend. Energized by the competitiveness of the camp where he won his frst fencing matches, Wu was eager to seek out more of the thrill. As a result, he joined the fencing club Academy of Fencing Masters, where he began training with the foil weapon under the guidance of Coach Natasha Maximovich.
My coach was extremely hard working, warmhearted and would always go overtime with me during my lessons. Her dedication helped me improve during my early stage, which planted the seed for me to keep going.
Alber Wu Freshman
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In 2021, when Wu’s old fencing program closed, he switched to the Silicon Valley Fencing Centre, where he currently receives instruction from Coach Oleksii Muruhin. While Wu found it diffcult to
part ways with his old coach and adjust to the rigorous new environment, Wu knew the shift would be benefcial for his future development.
“It took a bit of time to adapt because training was different and I barely knew anyone there,” Wu said. “I had to slowly become closer with the coaches and fencers.”
In elementary school, alongside fencing, he had also participated in basketball and swimming. However, as Wu’s fencing skills advanced, what began as a casual interest soon blossomed into an unwavering passion as Wu excelled beyond his expectations. Performing well in his early competitions was integral in bolstering his confdence, propelling him to work harder and prompting him to commit to fencing.
“Fencing is a mix of your athleticism and your ability to think quickly and adapt,” Wu said. “It gives me an adrenaline rush and satisfaction that I don’t get from other activities.”
Wu trains four times a week, frequently attending tournaments on the weekends. During his training with Coach Muruhin, who leans toward a technical approach, Wu focuses primarily on strategies rather than athleticism. Through consistent practice, Wu has been able to signifcantly improve his form, tactics and focus during matches. In particular, he has honed his precision in executing actions, speed and timing when competing.
“It’s incredibly rewarding to see the great effort Wu puts into growing his abilities,” Muruhin said. “He’s very adaptable to new ideas and learns quickly, implementing new actions in bouts right away.”
Beyond Wu’s intense concentration and work ethic, he is a dedicated teammate, passionate about helping others and
supporting them through their journeys.
“Fencing is a super individual sport, but at competitions, he’s always around after his event to cheer us on,” junior and Silicon Valley Fencing member Eunice Zhang said. “In practice, he’s always focused on improving himself and is enthusiastic to help others.”
Currently, Wu holds an “A” rating in fencing, the highest
best and aim to have some fun,” Wu said. “After all, the whole reason I’m there is to fence new people and test my skills.”
Throughout Wu’s fencing journey, he has been injured multiple times, resulting in missed opportunities to earn points, negatively impacting both Wu’s rating and performance. In spite of such setbacks, Wu constantly seeks ways to improve for upcoming contests. Additionally, over the years, Wu has learned to manage his emotions during matches, remaining unfazed by losses or challenging
“Alber has greatly improved his ability to deal with diffcult situations, like a tough loss or a referee’s bad call,” Muruhin said. “He’s now more resilient in stressful situations and is able to stay
Looking ahead, Wu consistently trains hard, hoping to accumulate points to qualify for the USA travel team next year, where he’ll have the opportunity to compete internationally. In addition, he hopes to train at Stanford University and is thinking about pursuing fencing in college.
“Fencing has taught me to never give up, and even if I’m losing, I keep fghting because there might be a chance,” Wu said. “Fencing also allows me to be more active, which helps train my brain to think fast and stay alert.”
BY OLIVIA YUAN
Jalwa puts a modern spin on Indian dance tradition
The co-ed dance group Jalwa preserves both modern and traditional elements of Indian cultural dance.
“Jalwa has opened my eyes to more versions of dance,” junior Lex Huang said. “In the beginning, I wasn’t very used to it since I usually just do hip-hop. But as I started learning it for some time, it became quite fun.”
Jalwa performs in Silsilay, which is hosted yearly by the American-Indo Student Association, as well as other local events like Cupertino High School’s Riyaaz. The team has spotlighted traditional dances from different parts of India, like Bhangra, from the state of Punjab.
“We do some Bollywood fusion elements,” senior and Jalwa co-captain Sanaa Gada said. “We try to mix in American dance styles that cater to both crowds so that we capture the Indian elements but also make our styles relatable to the Lynbrook audience.”
Jalwa’s variety is a highlight that Gada hopes will continue. This year, a perfect balance of genders has helped in arranging partner dances. While an Indian-style team, Jalwa also encourages cultural diversity.
“After one of our shows this year, we went to a team member’s house and made Maggi and Buldak noodles,” Gada said. “All the Indian people on the team were eating Buldak, and all the East Asians were eating Maggi. It was kind of like a cultural exchange, and it was pretty heartwarming to watch. I hope that Jalwa maintains its diversity aspect, which we’ve gotten a lot of compliments on, and its fun dynamic.”
After starting in 2021, the Ravens attained offcial club status in the 2023-24 school year. The team performs covers of K-pop songs, which they learn from dance videos online. Blending styles like hiphop, K-pop dances often focus on group formations over solo performances.
“Most members are familiar with and have an interest in K-pop, and I think Ravens is a great place for people to bond over that similar interest,” sophomore Jaclyn Chiu said. “But Ravens is also a great way to learn more about K-pop.”
At weekly club meetings, members explore the genre through activities like trivia. Along with school events, dancers perform in the quad during lunch and at Cupertino’s annual Kasanova showcase.
Since becoming offcial, the Ravens have remained committed to being an open space for K-pop enthusiasts, undergoing only a few logistical shifts.
“The core, fundamental value of just wanting to have fun is still there,” senior and Ravens co-founder and president Luthien Wang said. “But the structure has defnitely changed a little. We fnally established offcers, and we’re a bit more organized in terms of outside performances and showcases.”
Looking to the future, the Ravens hope to maintain their community-oriented approach to K-pop dance.
“I just hope the club will continue to last while I’m not here,” Wang said. “I would love to go online, check social media and still see how it’s doing once in a while. I want to help it stand and have that passion for dance like we do now.”
Though the wide range of Indian styles that Taara explores may seem dizzying, the Bollywood dance team aims to spark interest, rather than intimidation, toward these traditions.
“Some of our dances incorporate classical moves, but at the same time, we don’t make them diffcult,” senior Aadya Khazanchi said. “Taara is something you can have fun doing while also mastering the steps.”
Like Jalwa, Taara participates in AISA’s Silsilay, though Taara is exclusively female. Taara also performs in other local and school events, like Holi and Diwali festivals. While the captains helm the choreography for these performances, members also pitch in.
“We’re very open to having suggestions from our teammates,” senior and Taara cocaptain Nidhi Parthasarathy said. “This year, we have a dancer who dances Kuchipudi, a different Indian art form, so we worked with her to see if we could incorporate her style into our performances.”
Along with regular practices, the captains also arrange one-on-one sessions with beginner dancers as needed. They began emphasizing the accessibility of Taara after COVID-19, when membership dipped, and they hope that future captains keep Taara open to all skill levels.
“A lot of our members had never danced before in their lives,” Parthasarathy said. “In the beginning, they were all in the back. But as the year went on, the same people would come to the front and want to do more dances. Anyone can grow to love dance. I hope that the team continues to embrace that, get more people to join and just dance for the sake of dancing.”
At Breakdance Club, members learn the ins and outs of the street style. Originating in the Bronx, N.Y., in the late 1960s and early 1970s, breakdance is closely tied to hip-hop culture.
“We want to bring breakdance into this modern Lynbrook environment and teach people certain moves and the history of breakdance,” junior and Breakdance Club co-president Aarit Parekh said. “I also see it as an art style, so you can express yourself through breakdance as well.”
Members spend the frst semester learning and practicing moves before performing dynamic routines at rallies and other events in the second semester. Offcers teach new moves by breaking them down for everyone, then splitting dancers into smaller sections to practice.
Breakdance Club also hosts an annual “rookie of the year” tournament where new members compete over three weeks of dance battles. Their sequences, or “sets,” are judged by club offcers and interns, who score them in categories like execution, diffculty and musicality.
While preparations for upcoming performances have always included two to three weekly lunchtime practices, offcers this school year have also begun using the time during club meetings for additional practice. This new emphasis on performance may continue in the future.
“A lot of dance groups at school have their own designated performances,” Parekh said. “Breakdance Club doesn’t really have that because we do fller acts for a lot of events. I want to put Breakdance Club in that conversation by creating our own big, unique performance.”
BY CLAIRE GUO
Sophomore Dylan Liu is no stranger to pushing boundaries. At practices, she pushes her body to the limits to become stronger and faster. Recently, Liu has also pushed the boundaries of what has been accomplished at Lynbrook — more specifcally, breaking Lynbrook’s 100-yard breaststroke school swim record with a time of 1:04.88 minutes. This accomplishment has cemented her passion for swimming and pushed her to work even harder.
Liu started swimming competitively with De Anza Cupertino Aquatics in ffth grade. However, her journey to competitive swimming wasn’t a linear path.
W“My Saratoga Star Aquatics coach told me I should join the Peak swim team,” Liu said. “But the frst time I joined, I felt like I was going to throw up during practice, so I didn’t continue. I joined a year later because she asked me again.”
Liu was glad she went through with the decision to join the second time. However, with the decision came a new level of commitment and intensity.
“I’ve learned commitment and perseverance,” Liu said. “It’s defnitely really hard to get up at 5 a.m. and then go straight into a freezing pool, but after a while, I got used to it.”
Liu continued to train hard, dedicating countless hours to her passion. As her skills progressed, so did her goals.
To prepare for the meet, Liu trained in the same way she did before. Usually, before big meets, swimmers taper their practices, making them gradually easier as the date draws closer. However, Liu’s coach didn’t think this was necessary because Liu’s time was already faster than the record by a signifcant margin.
Even after breaking the record, Liu wanted to try again. After all, she knew
hen senior Karen Gao broke the Lynbrook pool record for the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 24.26 seconds, she was overjoyed. While she had been training hard for this accomplishment, she was still shocked by its reality. It was a dream come true.
Gao was inspired to start swimming by her dad and her sister, who all swam competitively themselves. Joining the Lynbrook swim team when she became a
freshman was a simple decision because it was something she was already passionate about.
“I really enjoy the sport,” Gao said. “I like being in the water, so why not do it at Lynbrook? I like that we have a huge team. We can have fun during practice and chat about random things.”
Gao didn’t train specifcally to break the school record. At frst, she only
cut. However, she accomplished this goal faster than she expected.
“A couple weeks ago, I got my CCS cut,” Gao said. “I was super happy. When my coach and I talked about the next goal, we looked at the record board and said, ‘hey, wouldn’t it be cool if I could get a record up there?’”
For the next three weeks, Gao trained specifcally to break the record. She focused on sprinting drills and resistance training.
she was able to swim faster. On the following Friday meet, she successfully swam an even faster time — 1:04.88 minutes.
“After you break the record, it feels really nice because everyone’s super supportive and excited for you,” Liu said. “I would say to work hard, because in the beginning, it’s a lot easier to get faster. But as you grow, it’s harder to make progress. Prioritize self care to make sure you don’t get burnt out.”
home meet at Lynbrook forever. Although she had a goal, she focused on having fun.
“The adrenaline led me through the race, and I was really shocked when I saw my time,” Gao said. “I felt extra lucky to be on this team when my teammates gave me high fves and said congrats. It made senior night extra memorable.”
Now, Gao hopes to continue getting faster and qualify for CCS fnals.
When asked about what she would tell her peers or the underclassmen on her swim team, Gao reminisces on the journey.
BY AKASH ANAND
In both high school and college sports, the incentive to have a reward for athletic skill has notably risen. The increase in sponsorships and partnerships has simultaneously impacted the culture and life of many athletes. This idea supports the discussion of the overall impact of an athlete’s name, image and likeness, or NIL, on sports culture and business. NIL has been shown to change the landscape of sports outreach and culture, impacting others for years to come.
On the day of their senior night meet, Gao was both excited and sad, because this would be her last
“Just keep working hard,” Gao said. “You never know what will happen. I defnitely was not expecting this, but it was an incredible experience.”
It really encourages the athletes to work harder and have higher goals. At least for me, having a deal boosts the morale, and it gave me confdence in my game.
Kiego
Kamata Junior and boys varsity tennis captain
“ “NIL is a concept that includes athletes’ rights to monetize their skills and popularity to companies for proft from endorsements and partnerships, frst becoming known in the high school sports scene in the early 2020s, following the concept’s controversial reputation in college sports. This allowed students to not only showcase their athletic skills and talent but also get rewarded for exactly that. Many believe the rise in NIL deals has contributed to increased ambition and confdence, allowing them to display their talents at higher levels.
Previously, to truly meet such ambitious and higher goals, athletes would pursue sports careers through college to improve their skills and play professionally. Rather than student-athletes focusing on developing skills, NIL has sparked interest in students marketing themselves.
“NIL helps high school athletes and brands get promoted and recognized at the national level,” sophomore and track and feld athlete Hisham Mohammed. “It can also help athletes with college recruitment since many college scouts are able to see performance.”
Education of Cupertino 1139 S. De Anza Boulevard San Jose, CA 95129 (408) 865-1140 cupertino@c2education.com
In 1953, the National Collegiate Athletic Association created the term of student-athlete to differentiate between athletes playing for a school team and working athletes. Defning the role of a student athlete has served as a challenge for schools at all levels and has remained one for decades. The term was made in an attempt to prevent amateur sports from becoming too similar to professional leagues, where players are paid salaries.
Despite being an initially undefned and confusing term, labeling someone as a student athlete also signifes their involvement and experience in the sport that they play. Although fame is a separate factor in determining the strength of one’s NIL, athletes are able to build connections with the brands and companies they partner with.
“I was stoked when I heard that I got chosen for a sponsorship,” Kamata said. “It’s a good opportunity, especially for junior sports players. Things like equipment cost a lot of money, and it’s also a pretty cool way of advertising yourself. It’s a really good opportunity for both the players and the company.”
Starting in the early 21st century, statespecifc legislation involving the monetization of high school and college athletes’ images became prevalent. California became the frst state to pass the Fair Pay to Play Act in September 2019, prohibiting organizations from punishing college athletes earning money from their NIL and allowing college students to advertise and immerse themselves in the already rising market of studentathletes. Moreover, on Aug. 31, 2021,
California passed a bill that allowed all high school students to make money off of their NIL, allowing them to receive fnancial compensation for their skill and popularity.
NIL has undoubtedly created an incentive for athletes to ultimately improve in their respective sports. The idea of NIL has brought about strong opinions on the morality of monetization in sports and whether athletes deserve to gain proft from their performance. The discussion surrounding the ethics and morals of NIL and monetization has created such controversy, making NIL a vital aspect in the advancement of sports culture. This increasingly controversial landscape of student athlete monetization leads young athletes to think about their NIL and how they market themselves to brands.
