School Features

Megan V. WInslow/Town Crier
High school senior Maya Ronen takes her courses at Foothill College through the College Now program.

For high school senior Maya Ronen, high school wasn’t really working. She was bouncing around from private school to private school, either not connecting with her peers or feeling like the social environments were actively “toxic.” Even though she liked her teachers at one school, it didn’t make up for the social scene. So she wanted to get out, but she still wanted to get her high school diploma.

Amrita Sangani, a 16-year-old from Los Altos, participated in “Since Parkland,” a teen-run journalism project that told the stories of victims of gun violence in the year since the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.

Sangani, who attends Crystal Springs Uplands School in Hillsborough, wrote three 100-word obituaries for children who died after being shot. The first story, of a 4-year-old killed by a stray bullet in a domestic violence dispute, hit her the hardest.

Megan V. WInslow/Town Crier
Mountain View High School students pour into school before the 8:10 a.m. bell rings for first period. Local pediatricians, dentists and psychologists wrote a letter to the school district asking them to move the high school start times later.

Yalda Khodadad’s days usually end at 1 a.m., which leaves her six hours to sleep before her phone alarm wakes her at 7 a.m. It’s typically hard to wake up, and she allows herself to hit snooze on her alarm clock once or twice until 7:30. Then she showers, gets dressed, eats breakfast, drives to school and tries to make it to class by the time the 8:10 a.m. bell rings.

Megan V. Winslow/Town Crier
A Mountain View High student snuggles with a dog during a Spartans PAUSE event in 2016.

One of Mountain View High’s wellness initiatives, Spartans PAUSE, went from twice-a-year activities to once a month this school year.

Courtesy of the Shah Family
Los Altos residents Dr. Neha Shah, left, and her daughter, Devi, helped change the way Hinduism and ancient India are portrayed in California textbooks.

When the Shah family of Los Altos spotted misrepresentations of their Hindu faith in their son Keshav’s sixth-grade textbook, they were appalled.

“It was really quite disturbing,” said Keshav’s mom, Dr. Neha Shah. “Considering the many contributions to humanity that Hinduism and India have made, it was disproportionate.”

Courtesy of Rebekah Bowman
Rebekah Bowman’s exhibition at Foothill College, “Portrait of the Cuban School of Ballet,” shows dancers practicing, above, performing and resting.

While Cuba is known for exporting sugar and tobacco, photographer Rebekah Bowman reveals in her new exibition that the country also produces plenty of world-class ballet dancers.

In “Portrait of the Cuban School of Ballet,” which opened last week at Foothill College and runs through March 21, Bowman captures the dancers and their teachers in a series of photos featured in a book of the same name published in 2014.