Alta Vista High School Principal Bill Pierce always dreamed of hiring a former student. Last year that dream came to fruition when Pierce hired Alba Garza, who graduated from Alta Vista in 2003, to be a social worker at the school.
Los Altos High School student Alex Guh-Siesel recently discovered that awarding medals in the California Science and Engineering Fair is not an exact science. When he walked on stage last spring to accept his first-place medal in the biochemistry category, he was handed the medal for computer science instead.
Guh-Siesel found humor in the error, which he called “a technical difficulty.” The mistake was quickly corrected and the senior stood grinning ear to ear with his gold medal around his neck.
After reading her award-winning essay in front of 3,000 people early this summer in Washington, D.C., Ishana Wokhlu said she has “grown more confident.”
“I am still in shock. I feel very honored to have received such a prestigious award from this wonderful organization,” Ishana said. “I was a little nervous to read my essay in front of such a large group of people, but everyone there was so kind and supportive.”
Since he was young, St. Francis High School graduate Matt LoGrasso said he enjoyed math and science, and decided he wanted to pursue a career in engineering.
His friend Jonathan Keyes, another St. Francis alumnus, said he wasn’t always so sure of his career path and was initially interested in other fields of study. However, after attending an engineering fair, Keyes said he was convinced that pursuing engineering would give him the tools he needed “to help make a change in this world.”
Nisha Sharma works at both the Mountain View and Los Altos police departments doing parking enforcement and plans to apply to be a full-fledged police officer in the next few years. She credits much of her success today to the support she received from MVLA Scholars.
“If MVLA Scholars wouldn’t have been there, I wouldn’t be where I am today,” Sharma said.
Roshni Sudhakar has been fascinated with the past since she had a particularly passionate middle school history teacher, so when she heard about an opportunity to serve as a teenage docent at the Los Altos History Museum, she jumped at the chance.
“I thought, a history museum – that’s perfect for me,” Sudhakar said. “I want to learn history and I want to … share my knowledge and inspire others to learn more about history.”
