1 year, 12 students

High school: a place where wary faces turn into confident ones, quiet kids end up roaring and everyone inches one year closer towards their inevitable future. All around MVHS, every student — from the kid under the staircase to the beloved class officer — has unique dreams for the year to come.

This year, we asked 12 students to share some of their biggest hopes for the upcoming year — both academically and personally — and their current state of happiness. In May, we’ll check back with them and see how far they’ve come and how they’ve changed.

Seniors

Joshua Huang

Senior Joshua Huang is one of many MVHS students who centers his goals around his work ethic.

“I planned my schedule out so it would be easier compared to junior year, so I kind of expect [this year] to be easy,” Huang said. “I want to be more diligent in my workouts for baseball [and]study more for classes.”

“[I’m fine with being] either introverted or extroverted, given the circumstances, I guess,” he said of his personality. “If I feel comfortable I’m extroverted. With my friends, like playing baseball.”

Gokul Pillai

Trying new things is a mindset senior Gokul Pillai hopes to adopt for a more positive senior experience.

“[I want to be] able to relax and not take too many tough classes to the point where I can enjoy my classes rather than just stress all the time,” Pillai said. “Non academically I want to like definitely go and explore things more. I’m playing basketball again this year because I have more time for that.”

“I think my favorite thing is being okay with not knowing everything that’s going to happen,” he said when asked about what he’s optimistic about. “I’ll probably change because I’ll learn a lot more, but I think it’ll become more of a challenge. I’m just looking forward to a really eventful senior year, and I hope I can really make the most of it.”

Tejasri Sunchu

This year, senior Tejasri Sunchu hopes to make her senior year a memorable and fun-filled one.

“I was expecting [senior year]to be the best year [of high school,]and so far it’s been true,” Sunchu said.

“I just want to keep a positive attitude going in since I am kind of nervous with everything. [I’m worried about] college apps and all the stress that comes with first semester senior year, but I just want to see myself at the end of senior year and know that everything turned out okay,” she said. “I just keep a positive attitude and push away the negative thoughts.”

Juniors

Etsuka Tomonaga

Halfway through her sophomore year, junior Etsuka Tomonaga moved from Japan to the United States. Now a junior, one of her biggest goals for the upcoming year is to try and improve both her English as well as her understanding of the social norms at MVHS. She is also excited about the recent influx of Japanese immigrants to the MVHS community.

“My goal is to be [a]more fluent English speaker and make more friends and have fun,” Tomonaga said. “[I plan to make more friends] by speaking for myself to someone and get to know each other.” “It’s very beginning so I don’t know what’s going the next day or the future, but I think this year is going to be very awesome,” she said. “I’m excited…to improve my English.”

Satoshi Ueda

Motivation is the driving force of improvement for junior Satoshi Ueda. Anticipating the difficulties of junior year has compelled him to practice better academic and athletic ethics.

“I’m studying more and trying to be on top of things,” Ueda said. “I was pretty lazy [the last two years.]”

“I do judo and wrestling competitively; I have been doing [judo] for about eight years,” he said. “I think [what’s important this year is] competing, because for the past two years, I’ve been going to tournaments. I want to train so that I can go [to]new national tournaments and qualify, so I can maybe go to the Olympics one day. [I want] to tell my future self when you interview me again — I want to say that I won the nationals.”

Angelica Lopez

Junior Angelica Lopez has heard lots of rumours about junior year — about the difficult courses, strict teachers and the stress of the SATs — but she continues to maintain high hopes for her future.

“People say that junior year is going to be the worst, hardest year out there, but so far it’s okay because it’s the beginning of the school year,” Lopez said. “Hopefully I’m doing okay in the future — not struggling and making it through. I want to be more social and be out there. I have always been kind and helpful and I hope to be positive throughout the school year.”

Sophomores

Saumya Kumaran

For sophomore Saumya Kumaran, growing into the person she aspires to be is key in her second year as a high schooler. She hopes to be more involved in school activities become more outgoing as the year goes on.

“I expect to do much better this year, because freshman year was like the trial year almost.” Kumaran said. “I feel like outsiders would describe me as introverted cause I don’t talk a lot and I’m not [as] outgoing [as I’d like]. I guess I just need to get to know someone before I open up,” Kumaran said. “I do wish I was more extroverted — it’s easier to meet people that way. So, I could get to know more people. But other than that, I’m pretty okay with how I am.”

“Right now I’m just no one, I’m just in the background,” she said. “I don’t do much. I have not become part of any big organizations, so that’s more of what I wanna do. I want to become part of something.”

Zach Rezakhany

As far as self-improvement goes, sophomore Zach Rezakhany is set on improving both socially and academically. Although he had his fair share of mishaps and and awkward freshman experiences, he feels sophomore year will be better because of the experience he’s gained.

“[In] sophomore year, you are kind of more used to [the basics of high school.]I think it should be easier,” Rezakhany said. “[I just need to] put a lot of work into it. I’m going to try out for basketball this year,” he said. “Hopefully I can make that. I didn’t make it last year; I was working out everyday trying to get better, [and]over the summer. “

Sophia Powell

Sophomore Sophia Powell has been looking forward to her sophomore year. Between working a job, dancing competitively outside of school and being a teacher assistant, achieving both her academic and personal goals is the main focus for the year.

“I’m pretty occupied, but I really want to maintain a good GPA and some good grades,” Powell said.  “I loved being a part of the homecoming committee, so I really wanted to do that, so I’m still doing that, and also volunteering, like Key Club,” Powell said. “As a person, definitely I’d say I’m happy,” she said. “I like the group I’m with right now, my friends, family’s good, after school activities are good, so I’m pretty happy.”

Freshmen

Maia Collazo

From dancing to hanging out with friends, freshman Maia Collazo is more than excited to be a part of the MVHS community. Despite being nervous about the transition from middle school to high school, she looks forward to the upcoming year.

“I’ve met a ton of new people that I love so much, and I think I’ve changed in a really good way, Collazo said. “I was a lot more immature back then and I just wanted to have fun, but I feel now I kind of know what I want to do. I have an idea of what I want my future to be like.”

“I’m definitely sure that I’m going to change so I can have more time management. I want to mature even more, because right now I’m still pretty young,” she said. “I hope I discover more of who I am as a person and just I want to assure myself that I’ll have fun even though I’ll be stressed sometimes.”

Kahaan Parikh

Freshman Kahaan Parikh is sports an enthusiastic face coming into high school. He knows to expect a higher workload and has all his extracurriculars sorted out.

“I was expecting it to be pretty much the exact same thing as middle school, but you have to move around the entire school rather than just a few classes,” Parikh said. “The workload so far has been pretty easy. [I expect there to be] more tests, more homework [and]I have heard that you have to do projects in a matter of three days.”

“I have been interested in cooking since about last year,” he said. “My mom broke her ankle recently, so I’ve been making dinner, and I make it a lot better than her.”

Sanik Malepati

Freshman Sanik Malepati is a self-proclaimed introvert, but hopes to change that in his first year of high school. Passionate about soccer, chess and speech & debate, he is excited to join their respective clubs.

“My goals for this year are mainly to get good grades and just have fun,” Malepati said. “I would like to improve on my social skills because I am an introvert. [I] like sitting by myself or with my close friends, so I would like to be more social and talk more.”

“Coming into ninth grade was pretty fun and it was kind of interesting, as it is a new experience,” he said. “[There’s] a lot of diversity [in this]high school.”