Not Nuts About Nuts It was a normal summer afternoon about eight years ago. I was just a small fourth grader when my sister came home with a container full of cashews. Since I always enjoyed snacks containing peanut butter and tree nuts I was eager to taste them; not [...]
The Food Experience Food isn’t solely for sustenance: it’s a way of life. Although some people disregard meals and see them merely as necessary, I look forward to the parts of the day cut out to revel in the Earth’s bounty. I was raised to appreciate good food, to criticize [...]
Death By Pencil In third grade, I accidentally stabbed myself with a pencil, and decided I was going to die. Never mind the fact that pencils are actually filled with graphite. Death by lead poisoning was thrust to the forefront of my mind, all other thoughts fading to perpetual white [...]
By KEVIN McCALLUM THE PRESS DEMOCRAT A few years ago, Austin Hay thought it would be cool to build himself a tree house. But then he got to thinking: Why put all that work into something he couldn’t take with him when he went off to college? Then [...]
By MARY CALLAHAN THE PRESS DEMOCRAT It was barely more than five years ago that Zeltzin Campillo, then a shy middle-schooler, moved to the United States knowing no one beyond her immediate family and speaking little English. Now an outgoing Windsor High School junior whose debate-team experience and [...]
By LORI A. CARTER THE PRESS DEMOCRAT Calling Amy Jin "driven" is an understatement. The 17-year-old senior at Casa Grande High School in Petaluma moved the TV out of her room — "it was too much of a distraction." Other than keeping in touch with a few distant [...]
By KERRY BENEFIELD THE PRESS DEMOCRAT Piner High School track and cross country coach Luis Rosales said there may be more gifted runners out there, but there are not a whole lot of athletes who work harder than senior Matthew Mulligan. "People look at him. He has gotten [...]
By BRETT WILKISON THE PRESS DEMOCRAT Brooke Cichosz has core beliefs and interests that propel her through busy days in her senior year at Maria Carrillo High School. The Santa Rosa 17-year-old is keen on the craft of storytelling and has pursued that art through a full schedule [...]