Stories

Beyond her leadership roles, Lexi has been an active participant in clubs such as Model UN, Debate Club, and the Drama and Performance Arts Circle. Her diverse interests include Theatre, Psychology, and Data Science, showing a passion for exploration. Sharing her club experiences, Lexi says "My experiences with each club would be the same: great! I am happy to have received the opportunities and support to further my interest in each club!”

In the future, Valentina envisions her academic pursuits at Stanford as an opportunity to explore diverse fields and deepen her understanding of subjects that spark an interest in her. Valentina states, “I hope to in some way combine my interests in math and design to help people.” In terms of skating, she looks to continue training and competing, as well as growing the skating club and expanding outreach opportunities for other students on campus. Valentina appreciatively adds that “The sport has introduced me to many of my closest friends and guided me to many of my happiest memories. Through competition, volunteer outreach, and judging, I hope to leave a lasting impact on the sport, community, and broader skating landscape.”

The next question was on college life: “what skills or lessons from OHS have been the most valuable in college life”? OHS imparted a range of skills, from being self-motivated to how to learn and study efficiently which prepares you for the college workload. For example, one of the alumni, Maddy, mentioned that she hadn’t struggled as much in college as OHS because of the skills that OHS imparted. Additionally, one lesson was to not stress over a grade that is not an A as many OHSers have gotten into amazing colleges without having all A’s. 

After OHS, my grandmother suggested that I participate in a beauty pageant. Growing up I was very devoted to ballet and drawing and I didn’t even understand what pageants were. However, I was determined to make her happy and proud, so I decided to sign up for the Miss Taiwanese American pageant. As the pageant training progressed, I came to really enjoy the process. After going through a personal interview before the competition day, a self-introduction, a talent show where I performed ballet, and a Q&A portion, I took home the crown! So I’m proud to say that I am the 2023 Miss Taiwanese American Queen.

The team initially met through the Girls Can Code club, which helps facilitate teams for the Technovation competition. The Girls Can Code club first sent out a Google Form in January, and matched students into teams based on age division and time zone.

While a business competition is not solely focused on how well the competitors manage the funds to reach the client’s goal, it also deals with the creativity of the teams and their ability to look from different angles when investing. Likewise, the competition is judged by the strength and articulation of their team strategies, not the growth of the client's portfolio. 

Replacing AP Biology, OHS added a new course to the curriculum in 2023-2024: “Unity and Diversity of Biological Systems” (UDBS). This change is part of a new OHS policy to phase out all AP classes from the curriculum by the Fall of 2026 and replace them with equally advanced non-AP courses. To learn more about this change, Pixel Journal spoke with Dr. Kristina Vetter, a biology instructor at OHS, who is teaching the new course this year.