MVLA Magazine

Dear MVLA Community,

As we cap off the 2021-2022 school year, we do so with great pride for our students who accomplished so much - in the classroom, on the stage, on the field, in the studio, and in virtual competitions of all kinds!

It has been a remarkable year, watching our students push themselves academically, and express themselves creatively - to much acclaim. Thank you to our teachers and our families for their support and encouragement as our students set out to learn, take risks, explore, create, achieve, and find their passions.

To help celebrate the many end-of-year awards and achievements, we are pleased to present this special Awards and Accolades issue of the traditional MVLA Magazine. Enjoy!

Sincerely,

Dr. Nellie Meyer

MVLAHSD Superintendent

NATIONAL MERIT SCHOLARS NAMED

Thirty-nine MVLA students are among the students who advanced to finalist standing in the National Merit Scholarship Corporation's (NMSC) National Merit Scholarship 2022 competition, allowing them to advance to a pool of approximately 7,500 students receiving roughly $28 million in National Merit Scholarship awards, including corporate- and college-sponsored scholarships. Seven MVLA students were among those finalists awarded either special corporate-sponsored scholarships, college-sponsored scholarships, or a National Merit $2500 scholarship. Read more here.

The California Department of Education has named Alta Vista High School one of 36 honorees from across the state to be designated a 2022 Model Continuation High School (MCHS). The program honors schools for the comprehensive services provided for at-risk youth through instructional strategies, flexible scheduling, guidance, and counseling. The selected schools retain their MCHS designation for three years. This is the eighth time Alta Vista has been designated a model school, spanning 24 years of continual recognition. Read more here!

This month, the Mountain View High School Ambassadors were honored by community organizations for their ongoing efforts to create awareness of issues affecting the well-being of local teenagers.

The Ambassadors and advisor Lauren Camarillo were recognized by the Santa Clara County School Boards Association (SCCSBA) on May 11, one of five winners of the 2022 Glenn Hoffmann Exemplary Programs Awards for having a significant impact on student success in our county.

Ambassadors president Sydney Fung was honored at this month's Challenge Team Youth Champions event for her extraordinary contributions to supporting youth on campus and within the community.

Read about additional recognitions here!

Los Altos High School junior Ashwin Mukherjee is on a research team that is among 15 finalists in the U.S. Department of Energy’s AlgaePrize competition, encouraging students to pursue innovative ideas for the development, design, and invention of technologies within the commercial algae value chain.

The team, Algaeorithm, includes Mukherjee’s cousin Rohan Chanani, a student at The Paideia School in Atlanta, and research scientist Jake Valenzuela at the Institute for Systems Biology (ISB) in Seattle. Read their research abstract here, and read more about the team in this article from the Los Altos Town Crier. Good luck Ashwin and team!

MVLA journalists made a strong showing in scholastic press associations’ and professional news organization awards this spring. For its annual contest, the Journalism Education Association Northern California (JEA/NorCal) read through and ranked nearly 900 entries from 29 schools for newspapers, yearbooks, websites, newsmagazine, and broadcast submissions. Congratulations to the following:

• Tomoki Chien, Los Altos High School - Third Place, Feature Photo, Aerie Yearbook
• Nina Crofts, Los Altos High School - Excellence in News Editing/Headline/Current Events
• Keerthi Manjunatha, Los Altos High School - Honorable Mention, Cover Design, Aerie Yearbook

MVLA students proved themselves to be formidable competitors at regional and national robotics competitions this year. For many, their experiences pave the way for them to pursue careers in robotics or various science, technology, engineering, and math fields. Learn more about the benefits of participating in robotics programs here.

Mountain View High School Spartan Robotics

Spartan Robotics FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) Team 971 traveled to Houston, Texas, to compete in the 2022 FIRST Robotics Championship Competition! More than 3,200 FRC teams competed throughout the 2022 season, with 454 teams from 43 countries advancing to Championship to compete for the world title.

Team 971 rose to the challenge of competing against some of the top teams in the world, finishing second place overall as a Division Championship Finalist and receiving the Industrial Design Award sponsored by General Motors! Read more about their journey here, and learn more about Spartan Robotics here.

Los Altos High School Robotics

LAHS Team 114 Eaglestrike entered its 26th season of the FIRST Robotics Competition in January with a group of passionate and highly motivated senior captains that have been with the team since their freshman year. Coming from a year off of competition due to the pandemic, this group had more drive than any captain group before, and it paid off.

The team also attended the Houston Championship in April. They made it to the semifinals of their Newton Division, ultimately ranking them in the top 100 teams in the world. FIRST has roughly 4,000 teams worldwide, making the 2022 season the most successful and decorated season in 114's history. Learn more about Eaglestrike Robotics here!

Congratulations are in order for LAHS Chorale students for taking home a 3rd place trophy from the Music in the Parks festival a few weeks ago. Choral Music Director Lauren Diez says the school's non-auditioned choir performed "the best they have all year" and completed against some other schools' top auditioned groups. Congratulations to all!

The 2022 National Chinese Language Speech Contest (NCSC) concluded its multi-level competitions on April 10th. The first of its kind, NCSC involved about 550 grades 6-12 Chinese language learners across 37 states to showcase their presentational language skills. This platform also gave opportunities for students to exhibit their cultural learning via talent show culture performances. Nearly 20 students were honored. Read more!

Congratulations to MVHS students who participated in the recent Le Grand Concours, sponsored by the American Association of Teachers of French (AATF). Nearly 43,000 students participate this year, with 9,305 students receiving a medal. At MVHS, 180 students participated, and 60 received medals! Read more!

Both Los Altos High School and Mountain View High School hold annual Latinx Academic Achievement Award ceremonies, honoring dozens of students in a variety of categories, such as school service, outstanding achievement in numerous academic areas, and including awards for scholar-athletes, school spirit and leadership, and top grade point averages at each grade level.

Mountain View held its 13th annual Latinx Awards Night on May 23, View the program here. Los Altos High School held its Latino Academic Achievement Award Ceremony earlier this spring. View the awards program here.

MVLA students continue to receive recognition in the visual arts! Seventeen MVLA students were honored in the 2022 Young Art Contest sponsored by the Los Altos Rotary Club. They include:

• Kayla Bistrain - Honorable Mention for "Cursive Watercolor"
• Alexander Cunningham - Honorable Mention for "The Spider"
• Kyle Jhong - Second Place for "Overthink"
  
• Darya Korepanova - First Place and Best in Show for "Silence" (shown upper right)
• Isaac Lui - Honorable Mention for "Forever East"
• Olivia Moon - Second Place for "Wanderland"
• Grant Mosleh - First Place for "Wolf"
• Aliah Pimentel - Second Place for "Hand Position Practice" and Honorable Mention for "Hand Holding Pencil"
• Daniel Pulido - Honorable Mention for "Fluff"
• Keira Reilly - Second Place for "Les Immeubles"
• Joyce Ren - First Place for "Escapade"
  
• Alice Rennie - Second Place for "不死鳥"
• Devi Shah - Second Place for "Under the Sea"
• Miranda Hernandez Teodoro - Honorable Mention for "My Personal Mandala"
• Katsiaryna Viarheichyk - First Place for "Sunset"
  
• Alexander Xu - Second Place for "The Man, The Muth, DeVito"
• Evelyn Yaskin - Second Place for "Metallic Soul"

A reception for students from all participating local high schools will be on Friday, August 13, at 6:00 p.m. at The Nature Gallery. Their art will be displayed at businesses in downtown Los Altos and the Rotary's Fine Art Show on August 14-15. Each piece will be available for sale, with 10% of the proceeds going to the Rotary and 90% to the student.

ArtNow Contest Winners

Congratulations to three LAHS art students for winning the highly competitive 2022 New Museum of Los Gatos ArtNow competition under the theme "Brave New Worlds."

• Joyce Ren: 2nd place in Drawing "Education"
• Quinn Carbery: 2nd place in Photography, "Just Human"
• Grace Kloeckl: Judge's Recognition in Drawing "Bridges Not Barriers"

This year, over 580 unique artwork entries were submitted by students. These works represent students from 26 high schools across Santa Clara County and a diverse range of topics, including the impact of technology on daily life, environmentalism, space exploration, freedom of gender expression, and political activism.

Email: communications@mvla.net
Website: https://www.mvla.net/
Location: 1299 Bryant Avenue, Mountain View, CA, USA
Phone: 650-940-4650
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Twitter: @MVLAHSD