By KELSEY McDONALD SANTA ROSA HIGH SCHOOL SENIOR, 17 Many say that the fight for women’s rights has given women many great opportunities: We can vote, hold many jobs that weren’t offered us even 30 years ago and, for the most part, choose to live our lives in [...]
By STEVE HART THE PRESS DEMOCRAT Jared Rippey, a 17-year-old senior at Windsor High School, comes across as a happy, well-adjusted, high-achieving teen. He has a 4.0 grade point average, volunteers with the Red Cross and performs as principal percussionist with the Santa Rosa Symphony’s Youth Orchestra. But [...]
By LAUREN FORSELL URSULINE HIGH SCHOOL, JUNIOR, 16 If you were to ask any ordinary high school student if he or she would be willing to give up having co-ed classes, most likely the student would say absolutely not. In fact, when I was in eighth grade and [...]
By CARLEE CARTER PETALUMA HIGH SCHOOL, FRESHAMN, 13 Many students do not feel they need to do things other than the basic classes to graduate, and although this is true in the short term, it will do little to help in the long run. Outside of classes, there [...]
By MARY CALLAHAN THE PRESS DEMOCRAT On Veterans Day, a school holiday, Montgomery High School senior Alicia Sheerin headed to the mall like millions of other American teens. At 17, Alicia loves dogs and art. She wears skinny jeans and dislikes school work, preferring to sketch or listen [...]
By MORGAN MACIEL SAN ANTONIO HIGH SCHOOL, FALL GRADUATE, 17 It seems strange to finally be graduating. My dad had said to me freshman year, “High school goes by in the blink of an eye.” I was convinced it would take a lifetime. Here I am, sitting in [...]
By RICHARD LIANG MARIA CARILLO HIGH SCHOOL, JUNIOR, 16 Because many people my age are just now being given the privilege and responsibility of driving, my high school, Maria Carrillo High School, hosted the Every 15 Minutes program last month. I clearly remember going to school that day [...]
Editor’s note: Hannah Croft graduated from Santa Rosa High School last June and is a freshman at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo. By HANNAH CROFT SPECIAL TO TEEN LIFE It’s hard to believe I’ve been here for nearly nine weeks. I was hoping to update Teen Life [...]
By RANDI ROSSMANN THE PRESS DEMOCRAT Analy High School senior Nick Johnson loves swimming but doesn’t always have a great time at pool parties. That’s probably because pools remind the longtime competitive swimmer more of training and concentration than of fun. The 17-year-old Sebastopol native trains 50 weeks [...]
By JORDAN BERND URSULINE HIGH SCHOOL, 16, JUNIOR The sounds of the propellers of the helicopter and the flight nurse telling me “everything is going to be OK” were the last few things that I remembered before being flown Oct. 7, 2009, to Oakland Children’s Hospital. During this [...]