Life Through Screens

Q: How has freshmen year been going so far?

A: My freshmen year has been going pretty good. Of course, it’s a bummer that we won’t be able to be back at school but overall it’s been a good experience to have because I’ve been able to figure out a lot about myself and my interests cause of distanced learning and spending so much time by ourselves. I’ve figured out a lot of my own hobbies like ukelele and writing.

Q: Coming into MV what expectations have you had and have they been met?

A: Well what I heard about Monta Vista was that it’s a super tough school and there’s hours upon hours of hw. But it’s not always like that and everyone’s really nice. My expectations have been met so far. I expected it to be a really really good school filled with people who just want to gain knowledge of the world and do really well in life.

Q: What’s it been like starting high school in Zoom? How was the transition from Kennedy to MV?

A: It was pretty good, but I couldn’t really feel much of a transition since we’re not technically at school. There’s definitely been a lot more homework here but pretty good so far. [...] It’s definitely been an experience. I miss people and getting to see them very often, but I hope that this ends soon and we get to be around people again.

Q: What events and traditions are you looking forward to? What are you getting involved with?

A: I’d like to go to Junior and Senior Prom. They seem like a lot of fun especially from when I’ve seen them all like, in the Disney movies. I’d love to experience Homecoming and football games, and all the sports games, they seem like fun. [...] I’m currently in speech and debate, on the extemporaneous branch and also in FBLA. When school is back in person, I want to try out for water polo or field hockey. I’m also apart of an organization called Bookwork Global outside of school and I’m their first Northern California ambassador and our goal is to get books to children in underserved communities.

Q: Tell us about your new dog!

A: It’s definitely been an experience especially in quarantine. We thought you know what we need is a fur baby running around the house so we got a puppy and she’s a Malti Poo, Maltese and Poodle mix and she’s really cool.

Q: We interviewed you during first semester, so what’s changed since then?

A: Now that first semester is over, everything has been moving a lot faster since we all know how school works now. It’s been picking up the pace. But now that we’re all more familiar with how school is, it’s easier for more events and things to happen.

Q: We heard you recently went on the Kelly Clarkson Show to promote Bookworm Global. Tell us about that.

A: I went on an interview as one of the ambassadors/volunteers for Bookworm Global and being on the show was basically a way to help promote what we’re doing and literacy in underserved communities. Kelly Clarkson was really nice and she asked us a little bit about our participation in the organization and asked me what inspired me and why I wanted to join it, as well as the book drive that I did in September.

Q: What was the experience like, especially doing it remotely?

A: I logged on a computer and was on one of those big monitors sort of like a big iPad almost and it was set up in front of Kelly Clarkson while she asked me my questions. It was like a really sort of Zoom call.

Q: How did this opportunity come about?

A: One of the other helpers/founders reached out to the Kelly Clarkson show because she wanted to reach out to people on a national level. Turns out you can reach out the show if you have an inspiring story you’d like to share, so she reached out and they responded. Bookworm Global was actually on an episode titled “Girlpower Hour” so it was an hour of her segment where it was on girls who were doing good and helping their community during quarantine.

Q: How have you been expanding the efforts of the organization in quarantine?

A: I helped a friend get involved and we completed a joint book drive during December to help get books to kids for Christmas/New Years’. I’m also doing another with Monta Vista in February and the books we collect will be going to teens in group and foster homes. [...] I hope we keep growing and donate maybe at least a million books over the next two years. We’re already at 200,000.