The Pen Newspaper PALOS VERDES PENINSULA HIGH SCHOOL
ISSUE 5
THEPENNEWSPAPER.COM
SENIOR DESTINATIONS - 2025
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 11, 2025
SEE MORE ON: SENIOR MAP PG 2-3
University of Puget Sound Cal Poly - San Luis Obispo El Camino College UC Riverside Avery Willis UC - Davis Chiara DeGirolamo Mario Manuel Aguilar Vallardes John Attallah Charlotte Willis Curtis Gibson Malena Granatur Mia Constantino Aiden Bethel Christine Ng Madison Hironaka Jacob Cruz Sviatoslav Chalenko University of Washington Armaan Kohli Gabriel Downs Daniel Choi Ryan Park UC - Irvine Joey Lee Logan Gorsuch Kaylin Huang Amanda Hua Katie Chung Katherine Marley Helena Groskreutz Ananya Karthikeyan Nathan Diercks Sophia Meneshian Leo Jerden Emily Ku Washington State University Brady Dong Charles Molony Kimberly Langlois Melina Mokhtarian Lily Baroncini Justin Faal Alyssa Shavely Joshua Makpayo Eric Park Issei Fukuda Joshua Tonomura Charlie Martin Gonzaga University Nicole Huang Rylee Woodward Jack Martin UC - Merced Isabelle Funk Michael Kitto Savanna Messner Rodriguez Angelina Zhu Ryan Nagaishi Cal Poly - Pomona Huzaifah Muhammad Brian Son Isabelle Chun Ryan Maslouh UC - Santa Cruz Hana Tehrani Luke D’Elia Theseus Beeson Audrey Zheng ASU - Tempe Fiammetta McCabe University of Southern Melody Chiu Artin Abdemanafi California Robert Michael UC - San Diego Olivia Christen Cal Poly - Humboldt Cameron Liu Madeline Zhuo Xin Tsai Madeleine Chang Ryan Cruz Isobel Acres Bryce Tom Lincoln Webster Chloe Dimick Alexa Mihara Laine Acres Natalie Tom Maya Golovitser Sophia Ellis Isaiah Wiggins University of Redlands Alex Han University of Arizona Ella Yoo Mateo Carresi Angelina Jo William Stein CSU - Dominguez Hills Athena Fitzgerald Sora Lee Max Suiter Alexis Blankenship UC - Berkeley Juliette Lin Neekta Baghoolizadeh Pasadena City College Roman Munro Grand Canyon University CSU - Fullerton Noah Chen Camila Gutierrez Navraj Singh Audrey Edwards Jake Kim Eunsoo Cho Sophie Wang Zahra Habib Claremont McKenna College John Wu CSU - Long Beach Daniel Huang Nicolette Daniel Adam Hakim Parth Ingle Andrew Lu UC - Santa Barbara Isabella Assencoa Zain Mohammed Karu University of Oregon August Endy Vincent Lee Kohta Kinoshita Vincent Minutella Grossmont-Cuyamaca Hiro Huang Ari Ortiz Avissa Khoshar Sarah Porter College District Iva Ivanov Thomas Purcell Josephine Kwak Nalani Morris Justin Khan Megan Rucker Roderich Lee Oregon State University Kylie Paolucci Henley Westervelt Fung Qiu Violet Neils Westmont College Sai Portugal Deetya Srivatsavaya Tanaka Masango Landon Seidel CSU - Monterey Bay Zhian Xu Reed College Hannah Sheriff Savannah Maggio Abigail Imley Mt. San Antonio College Julianne Soo-Hoo UC - Los Angeles Connor Keith Emma Pusavat San Diego State University Emily Aye University of Portland Naomi Sumule Madeleine Boissavy Eva de la Cruz Kristine Sirichoke Workforce Sydney Torcasso Ashley Boushehri Amy Kim Wade Nuttman Lauren Webster Jacob Hall Zuhan Lee Lauren Wells Nisha Parekh Taylor Lin Gap Year Bethany Wong Roland Relatores Jacob Ma Zoe Burney Daniel Santos Jasmine Moon Texas Christian University Carrigan Mohoney California Institute of Samuel Strockis Sean Peppermuller Catherine Litchfield Technology Sebastian Richardson Grace Lozano Armed Forces Marines Eric Lu Chapman University Hana Tanisaka John McNamara Noah Parkins Chisombiri Oduoza Eddy Yao Jonathan Renick Universal Technical Eden Wild West Texas A&M University Institute - CA Stanford University Tommy Houng Mario Ruggiero Loyola Marymount Charlotte Fast University Brandon Lin University of Mary Santa Barbara Andrei Dudikoff Boise State University Rhys Ota Hardin-Baylor City College Aarna Veera Anya Nayebi Hyunbin So Amanda Doom Neil Bedarfas
*Names in bolded font denote members of The Pen staff
Boston University Abigail Lee
Berklee College of Music Walter Lee
Massachusetts Institute Northeastern University of Technology Kelly Hironaka Sakura Nakanishi Tobe Lin
Brown University Daniel Yang Sharon Lee University of Utah Charlotte Ackerman Montana Birkett Nadia Gomez Rocco Kuykendall Jake Pesusich Claira O’Connor
Northwestern University Nanrui Li Angelina Wang
Brigham Young University - Provo Sophie Hecker Emma Lam Abigail Whitaker
University of Colorado Boulder Katie MacDonald Zoe Hollingshead Trevor Witkowski Colorado State University Fort Collins Leylie Ammeraal Metropolitan State University of Denver Ellie Comess-Williams
University of Michigan - Ann Arbor Lucas Trivedi Haley Ward
DePaul University Dakota Fanter
University of Pennsylvania Charles Valencia Alena Rhoades Carnegie Mellon University Sean Pellicciarini Oliver Marcu
New York University Hamilton Evelyn Chang College ShingTin Fang Elaina Rose Men-Martin Ava Lee
John Hopkins University Aaron Monzon Mason Shu
IU - Bloomington Sophia Jackson Purdue University Juwon Ha Aileen Ko
Georgia Institute of Technology Lucy Chai Emory University Bozhong Deng
University of Wisconsin Madison Karina Ward Sophie Abe
UNC Chapel Hill Surina Massey
University of Maryland College Park Marc Epp
Grinnell College Emily Gonzalez Georgetown University Lena Wen Jayeon Yu Missouri Valley College Sienna Saggiani Washington University in St. Louis Marisa Tan
Loretta Lee University of St. Andrews Nala Hodjat
Falmouth University UK Katie Endelman McGill University Frederik Miller
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SENIOR WILLS
I, Neekta Baghoolizadeh, will the future staff of The Pen a year of creativity, amplifying student voices and a total lack of all Oxford commas. To Josie, thank you especially for helping me survive InDesign. To Alena, thank you for being so dependable, both as editor-in-chief and as my editor last year. To everyone, thank you for your continual kindness; I will always carry it with me. I, Veronica Chen, will the future staff of The Pen time to cherish every moment with this team and the willpower to discover their own passion. Thank you to this year’s staff for trusting me, collaborating and making our visual storytelling come alive. This team’s success belongs to all of us. Keep creating, boldly! I, Kat Espedido, will the future staff of The Pen a year full of creativity, growth and only minimal layout chaos. To Alena, Josie and Andrew—thank you for your constant leadership and patience. You kept everything moving with a calm yet confident energy that made this whole experience so rewarding. I’m especially grateful to have worked alongside such a kind, talented team. Thank you all for welcoming me into the newsroom and making me feel like I belonged. Being a graphics artist this year has meant more to me than I can put into words. I will forever be grateful for the memories and the creativity we shared.
I, Makayla Glaneman, will the future staff a fun and inspiring year where they can fully express their creativity. Thank you to everyone on the staff for their hard work and creative skills, I enjoyed meeting all of you. I wish future staff nothing but luck in the future and I hope the members continue to strive and put themselves out there! I, Zoe Hollingshead, will the editors-in-chief a year of wonderful issues, stress free meetings and amazing new staff members. Thank you to Josie Kwak, Alena Rhoades and Andrew Lu for making this such a meaningful and unforgettable experience. To Abby and Veronica, thank you both for being so easy to work with and for making the graphics team one of the best parts of my time here. I, Caide Jung, will future staff of The Pen to dedicate their time and energy to finding the activities they are passionate about and discovering another side of themselves during their time in high school. I want to thank everyone who contributed to the issues this year, from the editors-in-chief to my fellow business members. I thoroughly enjoyed making friends with everyone these past three years and I hope that The Pen continues to publish interesting and fun stories for students to read. I will most definitely continue to keep up with the new issues in the years to come. I, Kohta Kinoshita, will Wendy Hu to have an idea-filled year free of bugs and issues. It was a fun year and a half, stumbling through nights trying to figure out configurations of the newly built website. I hope the future webmasters, with the help of our editorsin-chief, uphold and even surpass the current website standards. I, Josie Kwak, will Sivan and Haylie a stress-free year brimming with new members, creative layouts and hassle-free InDesign exports. Sivan, your continued kindness and authenticity (amid adversity, no less) are an inspiration to everyone, and I know that the strong character you hold will open many doors. Since being your editor many moons ago, it was evident to me that you possessed both remarkable intelligence and creativity. It’s been such a joy to watch you grow — not only from a talented writer into a budding editor-in-chief — but also as an even more phenomenal person along the way. Haylie, your go-getter attitude helped keep the paper fresh, and I sincerely enjoyed our chats during sixth period. Your editing skills and InDesign prowess really shined this year, and I can’t wait to see you flex them in just three months’ time! To Anza, our lovely Head of Design next year, I will you a smooth year chock-full of photo-ops. Your patience as we navigated photojournalism this year truly shows your resilience and level-headed nature which will surely take you very far. To Elena, Elyssa, Mason, Selah, Simon, Adam and James, I thoroughly enjoyed all of your writing this year and I am certain that you will ROCK as editors. In just one year, you proved yourselves exceedingly worthy for the job, and I can’t wait to see what you guys conjure up! To Alena, my partner-in-crime, thank you. Your positive energy radiates to all those around you, and I will definitely miss your dance moves while in college. Your Coca-Cola and Sprite bottle cap earrings serve as a daily reminder of how sweet and creative you are. Simply put, The Pen wouldn’t be the same without you. As you continue your journey eastward, I am certain that you will make Penn a much brighter place just by being there (send me a freeze-dried Philly Cheesesteak when you get the chance!) Andrew, you were the backbone of the paper this year, tinkering with articles at every round and keeping us in check when we got too busy dancing to “Trap Queen” at 1:20 p.m. on a Thursday. You are incredibly driven, observant and thoughtful — I especially appreciate that you make an effort to include everyone in all that you do. JJ, you have indubitably shaped me into the person that I am today. I am exiting H52 as a stronger writer, communicator and individual overall, and for that, I am forever grateful. I will you an amazing year full of love, memories, and an endless supply of theft-proof staplers.
SENIOR WILLS
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I, Andrew Lu, will the incoming editors-in-chief, Sivan and Haylie, a successful, productive and non stressful year of timely newspaper publishing. You both have demonstrated your own journalistic prowess in your own work and have refined writers’ articles. Now it is time for you to reap the ripe fruits of your labor. May you lead with sincerity, empathy and strength. To the editors, Mason, Adam, Simon, James, Selah, Elyssa and Elena, may you edit well, detecting bias, giving good feedback, restructuring, rephrasing and rewriting as needed. May your writers be diligent to work on their articles with passion and skill. To the writers, Jarrett, Isabella, Gunnar, Soha, Sydney, Jewell, Kyra, Elise, Gianna and Soren, may you write with satisfaction in your work and with no content issues and grammatical errors. I understand if some of you have chosen not to continue Newspaper next year, but all the same, may you have success in your other endeavors. To the Ads team, Melina and Asher, may you conduct business with pecuniary wisdom, securing many promotional deals. To the Design team, Anza, Soha and Brian, may your ability to process graphics and photo requests abound continually, and may you be proud of your work. Anza, may you take stunning photos. To Adam, my fifth period buddy, may you be a good editor, good antkeeper and good person. Keep reading those long books! To the graduating seniors, Angelina, Neekta, Zahra, Shawn, Kohta, Caide, Alesha, Keana, Veronica, Angelina Jo, Abby, Marisa, Maryam, Grant, Sura, Makayla, Kat, Ari, Emma, Zoe and Sophia, thank you for carrying the newspaper. You all have been always fun to talk to. Josie and Alena, thank you for all being so kind and accommodating to me. Joining Newspaper in the second semester of junior year was a rough transition, but you both made the struggle easier. I never dreaded going to fifth period because it was always welcoming. This letter doesn’t nearly capture the true depth of our friendship, but in short, I’m going to miss you guys a lot. I’m always open to grabbing lunch or something if any of you are in town (this goes for all the seniors). To Mr. Takahashi, thank you for being a lenient and fun teacher for fifth period. I wish you luck in your career in education. Finally, to JJ, thank you for inviting me to be on staff during such a tumultuous time in my junior year, and always complimenting my articles. I am still so thankful for the opportunity to have been the Copy Editor this year; it has been a highlight of my high school experience. I am glad that I was able to uplift writers and editors alike in their work. May you continue to advise Newspaper with your wisdom. To the entire staff of the newspaper, thank you for such a fulfilling two years. I hope and pray that you all grow to be people of honor and integrity. God bless you. Your Copy Editor, Andrew. I, Sophia Meneshian, will you all a big farewell. I happily pass on the many phone calls and emails to the new business team. May you collect more money than you know what to do with. I want to thank Marisa Tan for being such a great leader of the ads team, and I would also like to thank Josie, Andrew and Alena for holding this group together. Serving as journalists and fundraisers for the school newspaper is such an important job. I, Keana Phookittikhun, will The Pen’s future staff a fun and successful year. I thank our leaders for their dedication to fostering a vibrant news community. I especially thank Marisa Tan for leading the Ads team and introducing me to this incredible publication. I wish for a memorable year ahead with rewarding fundraising! I, Emma Pusavat, will the future editors-in-chief and all future staff of The Pen an amazing year! I wish special good luck to next year’s seniors. I hope you all have the most minimal stress a senior can have and hope all your future aspirations come to fruition! I am very grateful to Marisa Tan for encouraging me to join this year’s business team. It was a great experience! I, Alena Rhoades, will the brilliant future editors-in-chief a year filled with joy and excitement, fun-filled senior memories and the space for you to continue to grow into the fearless and confident leaders I already see sprouting within you. I am so honored to have gotten to mentor you both and, even though you’ve already accomplished so much, I know you both will go so far with this publication and with your lives. To Haylie, my favorite MUN roommate, I will you smooth sailing in MUN and Newspaper leadership (you are literally the only person I would entrust with both), plentiful fundraising for the program and cheap plane tickets to Philadelphia (to visit me, obvi!). I will miss your wonderful sense of humor and all our sixth period chats. I will Sivan a stress-free Indesign experience (so glad to be leaving that behind; good luck!), chill senior year classes and many more Taylor Swift style cardigans (I am so envious of your style). Anza, I have full faith in your ability to effectively lead all of the design aspects of our paper and I cannot wait to see all that you’ll accomplish. You are so adaptable and kind, and I will you a supportive staff, perpetual good lighting for photography and a year filled with joy! Melina, I know you will do so well next year even without me needing to wish for it, but I will you plenty of business connections and so much happiness in your drama endeavours. Elena, Adam, Simon, James, Selah, Elyssa and Mason, I can’t wait to see all that you accomplish and remember that I’m always rooting for y’all. A HUGE thank you to Josie for always allowing me to be your passenger princess, taking the lead on our Indesign struggles and uplifting the spirits of everyone in H52 and imbuing the room with your cheerful whimsy. I can’t believe I might never get to hear you blasting Bladee and dancing around ever again. Andrew, we could not have run this paper without you. Your diligence and determination fueled us, so thank you so so much for always being someone we could rely on. I know you will do great things (and already have!). Thank you to Neekta, for being a great writer and then great editor that carried on the Opinion mantle with grace, and a huge thank you to all of our editors and graphics leads, who always stepped up when we needed you to. Angelina, thanks for being my support system! You have kept me from totally crashing out too many times to count and I love you for it. I’m issuing a major shoutout to Mr. Takahashi, who is by far the best substitute to have walked the hallowed halls of the second floor H-building. I will you a position at Peninsula so Andrew, Josie and I have somewhere to visit you. Finally, JJ, thank you so much for continuing to support us even when you had just had a baby (who is so adorable by the way!) and for being our guiding hand throughout the year.
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SENIOR WILLS
I am leaving The Pen a stronger, more confident and better leader than I ever could have imagined, and it’s largely thanks to your mentorship. To you, I will many beautiful hydrangea arrangements, smoothly running publications and plenty of happy times with your growing family. I, Marisa Tan, will next year’s advertising team a stress-free school year filled with exciting emails and lots of communication with local businesses! To Alena, Josie and Andrew, thank you endlessly for your support and leadership; our newspaper would not be as successful as it is now without your dedication. To my beloved advertising team, thank you for sticking with me and emailing businesses with diligence. I will remember you all with love and gratitude as I continue into the next chapter of my life! I, Angelina Wang, will the future leaders of the staff a memorable year filled with accomplishments and satisfaction. To Alena, Josie and Andrew, your confidence and unity kept us functioning and connected. The publication would not exist without your guidance. To my Focus writers, thank you for being so flexible and hardworking. It was exciting to witness your writing improve and become filled with personality this year. I can’t wait to see what you accomplish next year! Lastly, thank you to JJ for your unwavering support the past four years. Your guidance is priceless and has taught me a lot. Good luck to the staff next year, and I am excited to read future issues!
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