Alamo • Danville • Blackhawk • Diablo • San Ramon
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THE
SENTINEL always for the community VOl 20, nO 6
June
East Bay Regional Park District Regional in Nature Activity Guide
2015
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SPOTLIGHT
Athletes of the Year
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Rotary Club of Danville has named San Ramon Valley High School senior water polo player and swimmer Katherine (Kat) Klass outstanding female athlete of the year 20142015. Klass was selected for the honor from a field of three other candidates representing San Ramon Valley high schools. Runner-up nominees were: Kaya Philapil, California High School; Carolyn Lee, Dougherty Valley High School; and Lindsay Rood, Monte Vista High School. See ATHLETES page 7
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On Monday May 25th, people gathered to pay their respects to those service members who died while serving their country. Oak Hill Park in Danville was the setting for this annual Remembrance Program sponsored by the Viet Nam Veterans of Diablo Valley (VNVDV) and coordinated with the Town of Danville near the site of the All wars Memorial. Present and active were the VNVDV Color Guard, the Danville Community Band, elected officials and more. New this year was the impressive gold star honor wall. Also helping with the event were The Joint Veterans Service organizations Rifle Team and the U.S. Marine Corps, Concord.
Hangzhou Meets San Ramon By Jared Wong, Monte Vista High School
With the recent growth of China as both an academic and economic world power, relations with the United States have been one of the main focuses of international diplomacy. To reflect this, schools in China are partnering up with sister schools here in the U.S. to allow Chinese students to explore the unique culture and to share some of their own with American students. Just this past month, from April 25th to 30th, the Hangzhou Yucai Foreign Language School, a top elementary school, paid a visit to Coyote Creek Elementary School in San Ramon, an event that is in its second year. Hangzhou is located in Eastern China in the Zhejiang Province, and these 26 students and 6 teachers travelled a whopping 6,200 miles from their home to attend classes with their American
counterparts. This experience has allowed them to open their eyes to a different world. Mr. Zhang, the principal of Hangzhou school, says that he hopes to give his students a real-world experience with American culture that they can keep for their entire lives. Also, he anticipates that there will be continued relations between China and the United States, making experiences like this imperative. To celebrate their arrival, Coyote Creek held a performance in which American students performed the beloved story of Peter Pan. But, there was a twist when some American students played a traditional Chinese instrument called guzheng. This instrument consists of 21 strings and has
a similar sound to that of a harp. Mr. Zhang explains that he was shocked at the guzheng performance and notes how it represents physical evidence of the cultural exploration on both sides. To end the show, American and Chinese students sang and danced together, a true testament to the
This month’s Special Sections:
Summer Beauty pg. 7
Home & Garden pp. 8-9
connections formed between these students. As the week went on, both American and Chinese teachers learned a lot from each other. Michael Biondi, the principal of Coyote Creek, said he was See STUDENTS page 5