There's No Such Thing

There's no such thing as a normal school year this fall- A conversation with my two siblings, a 4th and 7th grader, about how they feel about going back to school. As the global pandemic continues amidst California wildfires, the two students express their thoughts and concerns about how their school year looks different from before. 

There's no such thing as a local government without the citizens' voices- A conversation with Nishant Jain, a Pleasanton Youth Commission member, on why local politics matter and how people can get more involved in what happens in their cities. 

There's no such thing as getting away with things on the internet- A conversation with Justin Seo and John Venzon, hosts of the Simply Stupid Podcast, discuss the relevance of cancel culture and how it affects our everyday lives. Check out their podcast here: https://open.spotify.com/show/0JbtERKwuNK5zeuH5XdND2?si=0soKyPNtSLqHlChr6yGR_Q

There's no such thing as being too careful as a driver- A conversation with Kylie Maeda, Jackie Harris, Arjun Subramanian, and Ruairi Dwyer, participants in the crash scene of Every 15 Minutes- a drunk driving simulation in which high school students act out a car crash to educate students about the dangers of driving under the influence. The video of our high school's Every 15 Minutes can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFAIYdaBOlg&t=1s

There's no such thing as a world without film and art and the things that make us human- A conversation with Kira Minaise about her passion for film and what we can learn from film. Kira Minaise is the host of her own podcast, Qualified-ish, which discusses different movies and TV shows. Check her podcast out at: https://anchor.fm/kira-minaise

There's no such thing as a calculated solution for handling Coronavirus- A conversation with Logan Dickey, Tarun Prakash, and Jacob Bolano, the founders of Nize Systems, on different methods of tracking COVID-19 and what the trends say about the nation's progress in handling the virus. Nize Systems (http://nizesystems.com/) is an ed-tech startup founded by these high school graduates. They primarily focus on education management technology, but with the presence of Coronavirus, they worked on creating a Bay Area COVID tracker (https://bact.nizesystems.com/) and a volunteering network (https://choredash.org/home) to allow people to help vulnerable populations with running errands and getting supplies. 

There's no such thing as an identity without cultural confusion- A conversation with Allen Seo about navigating what it's like to be Asian American and what it means to be the "model minority."

There's no such thing as not using social media these days- A conversation with Kyra Thordsen on how we use social media for activism. She examines the positives and negatives of using posts, shares, and likes to spark social change. 

There's no such thing as seeing people without masks- A conversation with my AP Psychology teacher, Mr. Middleton, on how we can take care of ourselves while quarantining. He talks about his experience with shelter-in-place orders and how others can make the most out of their experiences.