The Smoke Signal

By: Shirby Wang
After the Luminaria ceremony ended, the night tapered off as participants rested in their tents and took turns walking around the track. A movie night was held at 12:30 and people huddled together to watch The Lion King on a huge projected screen.
As night slowly faded into day, the sunrise lap began, and people walked around the track while the sun began to warm the chilly air. People began packing up their belongings together, taking down their tents, lawn chairs and tables.
At 9:00, the Closing Ceremony commenced. Freshman Soukhya Inamdar began the ceremony by singing “The Climb” by Miley Cyrus. Biology and Physics Teacher Nathania…

By: Arushi Atluri
After a much-deserved dinner break, relayers prepared for one of the most anticipated events of the day: the Luminaria Ceremony. As the sun set, committee members slowly candle-lit paper bags that they lined around the track. “The lighting was very pretty and symbolic. It really expresses the memories of all cancer patients and how their struggles have impacted all of us,” said Junior Jonathan Chen.

The ceremony began with Juniors Dana Gurion and Austin Lee singing Coldplay’s “Fix You.” After their medley ended, Event Chair Senior Mili Parikh introduced two caregivers and one cancer survivor as guest…

MSJTV’s Live Coverage

 
By: Leah Feuerman
At 4:15 PM, the relayers enjoyed a performance by Seniors Shivani Ariathurai and Ciara Lunger. They sang a mash-up of “Rocketeer”, “Paparazzi”, “Thinking About You”, “Somewhere Only We Know”, and “Suit and Tie” accompanied by Senior Victor Viramontes on the ukelele.
By 5:15 PM, Relay For Life’s first Mr. Relay male pageant began. The pageant kicked off with a rendition of “Safe and Sound” performed by Senior Lucy Shen. Afterwards, 11 members from various groups participated in the first round, a catwalk, from which the Relay for Life student judges chose six quarterfinalists:…

By: Catherine Wang

After lunch, the relayers continued to frequent the track by walking, jogging, skipping, and pulling each other in wagons. In between laps, team members relaxed by tossing footballs and frisbees. As loudspeakers played “Cha-Cha Slide”, a circle of students from various teams congregated in the center of the field to dance along.

After the Skipping Lap, participants  gathered in front of the stage to watch Senior Eamon Jahani perform an acoustic cover of “Sunday Morning” by Maroon 5 at 2:30 PM. Seniors Hilary Yen and Jessica Lee followed up with an energetic jazz dance performance.
The next…

By: Nina Krishnan

The first Relay for Life held at MSJ from May 18-19 began with an opening ceremony filled with speeches, music, and performances. The ceremony kicked off at 10:30 AM with an introductory speech from Senior Mili Parikh, the Event Chair, followed by a brief introduction of the event committees and speeches given by cancer survivors, including History and Economics Teacher Belinda Eugster.
The event commenced with a special Survivor lap, a lap walked by cancer survivors, followed by a Caregivers lap. Shortly after, clubs began their laps, and the track quickly filled with MSJ students, parents, and teachers.…

 
Multicultural Assembly Pictures…

This is for MSJ’s Senior Class of 2013 ONLY. Click here or the image above to access the online form.…

By: Arushi Atluri
On Monday, April 22, Hopkins Junior High School eighth-grader Jessika Baral presented her original vision-enhancing invention at the third annual White House Science Fair. She, along with 100 other middle-school and high-school students, was personally invited by the White House to showcase her project to President Barack Obama, his science advisors, members of Congress, and leading science dignitaries from across the country. With the event, the White House hopes to demonstrate Obama’s vision for an expansive future for science, technology, education, and math (STEM) education.
For her project, Baral used her engineering skills to create a contraption…

By: Arushi Atluri
During the week of April 8-12, MSJ’s Ethnic Race Relations Committee (ERRC) hosted Genocide Awareness Week.
Genocide Awareness Week is a week set aside to help inform people about current genocides that are occurring in the world today. Many believe that, after the Holocaust, there haven’t been any other serious mass-killings; in fact, there are more than 10 genocides occurring worldwide today for reasons such as religious persecution, oppressive governments, and the fight for natural resources. In order to educate people and spread awareness about these genocides, the committee created several posters stating facts and statistics about…

By: Lindy Zeng
Next year, MSJ will be visited by representatives from Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC), an organization that provides accreditation to public schools in California (CA), Hawaii, and several American territories.
Accreditation approves schools that are “worthy of the trust placed in them to provide high-quality learning opportunities” and “demonstrate continual self-improvement.” Accreditation benefits students, the public, and the school itself, and also increases a school’s chances for public and private funding. In addition, the UCs requires all CA to be WASC-accredited in order to maintain an “a-g” list and colleges check transcripts to see if…