Katy Wrap a rubber band around your fingers. Tighten it until you’re barely able to flex your hand. Then try to go about your everyday tasks with your hand like that: brushing your teeth, writing your name, dialing your phone. These actions, previously so simple and effortless, become difficult, [...]
Learning Through Since I was three years old, ballet has been a part of my life. Although I stopped and started numerous times, I have always loved to dance. Ballet was for fun and not competitive in any way; it was just a hobby. However, due to an unexpected injury [...]
Music Thief In the middle of a sweltering July afternoon, when the stifling air had wrapped into rippling waves of heat, I became a thief of sorts- a thief of music. For the first time, I had created an original piano arrangement of one of my favorite songs. Not once [...]
By JEREMY HAY THE PRESS DEMOCRAT It’s the back tumbling. “Certain skills I’m really afraid of,” said Alina Goodrum, 16, describing the gymnastics move that most wracks her nerves. “Ever since I can remember, that’s been her nemesis,” said Darcie Fellows, who has coached Goodrum, a junior at [...]
By ARTHUR MORGAN SONOMA VALLEY HIGH SCHOOL, SENIOR, 17 Whenever I call my cousin in France I’m always taken aback at her English rhetoric — not only is it grammatically and linguistically fluid but, rather, her confidence in her speech resonates through her steady pronunciation and ever so [...]
By JULIE JOHNSON THE PRESS DEMOCRAT Rose Hammock is a natural leader. The sway of the 16-year-old junior at Elsie Allen High School in Santa Rosa comes in the form of a slew of unabashed questions for teachers and speakers. And it shows in how Hammock is often [...]
By Sydney Weil Among the many new faces around campus, there is one in particular that stands out. And he’s not human. “Everybody loves me,” said Lil’ Champ himself. “And I’m happy wherever there is someone to pat my belly.” Champ has been coming to school with Head of School [...]
By Sydney Weil Retreat has always been a part of Sonoma Academy’s history, having started the year the school opened (2001). “Retreats are a special opportunity for students to hopefully see one another in new ways after a long summer,” Dean of Students Stacy Cohen said. While retreats have been [...]
By Ilana Shotkin Everyone celebrates holidays in different ways, and Sonoma County’s Jews are no different. September and October are filled with some of the most important holidays of the Jewish year. On September 17, Jews around the world congregated to celebrate the start of a new year with apples [...]
By Allison Ashley Obama or Romney? We need to be involved. Our future depends on it. Most teenagers are too young to vote, but that doesn’t mean our ideas can’t influence other eligible voters. Obtaining the right to vote when turning 18 is someone’s first chance to represent the younger [...]