The Epitaph

High school can be difficult.  Although most students are fine with curriculum and class selection, for some the traditional system doesn’t work.  Fortunately, they have middle college.

    Middle college is a partnership between FUHSD and De Anza Community College that allows students to spend their junior and senior years at De Anza for high school credit.

Declan Reiser, a junior in middle college, said he signed up for the program because of the unique learning environment.

“I wanted to be in an environment with college students because college students pay to go to school, whereas high school students have to be there,”  Reiser said. “So, I think that makes a difference.”

He said one of the most striking difference is the grading system for the middle college classes.

“They grade your assignments in a different way,” Reiser said. “Instead of A’s and B’s, it’s either incomplete or what they call ‘not yet,’ which is you don’t get it yet or you don’t get what it’s about yet.  So you either basically get an A plus, a B or you don’t get it.”

One of the assignments was to interview a former middle college student.  Reiser said the interviews were very insightful.

“This one girl said that it’s good to make friends with non-high school people, the adults in your college courses, because some of them have connections,” Reiser said. “Like this girl I interviewed, she got an internship from NASA by talking to a retired NASA employee who was taking a science class for fun.”

Eric Albanese, another junior at middle college, said he hopes the learning environment the more focused atmosphere and smaller classes will be an improvement for him.

Albanese joined middle college this year because his ADHD was a constant academic challenge at HHS. He finished his sophomore year with mostly B’s and C’s.

At the new campus, he said the people are very friendly and the atmosphere is more laid back.

    High School          Middle College

However, he said his classes are at inconvenient times.  One starts early in the morning and another ends late at night, so he has to bike to and from school on some days because the classes occur too early or late for the public bus, he said.

Both Albanese and Reiser said they learned of middle college from the flyers posted around campus for an information day hosted at the library during tutorial last February.

“The things they said about it appealed to me, like more independent learning,”  Reiser said.

After that, they began the process of signing up.  First they each had to get at least two recommendations from their teachers.

“One of them has to be English or history. In my case, I had my English and history teacher, and then your third one can be your drama teacher, or if you do a sport, you want your coach to do it, so they can learn more about you,” Reiser said.

Next, they had to write a timed essay.  To prepare, Albanese and Reiser said they both wrote several practice essays.

“The prompt was ‘What was an academic challenge you’ve faced, and how did you get around it?’  And if you didn’t have a good example, you could just say a life challenge,” Reiser said.

Accepted applicants are then interviewed.  Reiser and Albanese said they interviewed each other to prepare for the real thing.

Middle college students started classes on Sept. 10.  Albanese said his experience so far has been enjoyable.

Reiser said he agrees, but it’s not immensely different.

“So far, we’ve just been doing normal, back-to-school stuff,” Reiser said.

Residing in the center of Silicon Valley, Vallco Mall can be expected to constantly be bustling with customers. However, to locals who frequent the complex, Vallco is commonly known as a “ghost mall.”

Due to its ever-worsening lack of business, Vallco can be seen over the years as a sinking ship slowly reaching the verge of tipping over.

It was not always like this, though. According to an article by San Jose Mercury News writer, Matt Wilson, back in the 1980s when Vallco first opened, people flocked to the mall with their wallets wide open. Teenagers and adults alike looked forward to the weekends where they could enjoy strolling around the mall.

In those days, Vallco was undisputably the biggest mall in Silicon Valley. Its notable ice rink and some 190 stores drew in visitors from across the region.

Vallco’s deterioration started in the 1990s and continues today. Real estate reporter,  Nathan Weinstein, said this decline was caused by the large selection of mid-range stores, which did not reflect the affluence of the surrounding residents.

Unlike its competitors, Westfield Valley Fair and Great Mall of the Bay Area, Vallco lacks large stores that attract customers.

“Vallco has a very limited selection of stores, they don’t carry any big-name brands such as Nike or Vans,” junior Bilal Qureshi said. “Vallco just simply does not have what people want.”

The lack of stores, however, is not the only issue, as people also complain of Vallco’s bleak atmosphere.

“Vallco gives off a depressing vibe. It’s just a very lonely place,” sophomore George Wen said. “It seems like a place where someone might go to sit on one of the many benches around the mall and ponder about life.”

All hope for the mall is not lost, however, as a new owner recently purchased the entirety of the mall. In November 2014, Sand Hill Property Co. purchased the mall for a total of $320 million, according to an article written by Bay Area Real Estate reporter Nancy Amdur.

With Vallco in the hands of a new owner, one can only hope that major renovations will rejuvenate the mall.

According to thehillsatvallco.com, in August 2015, Sand Hill announced a drastic plan to convert Vallco into a retail, office and residential development that would be covered with the world’s largest green roof.

“I’m looking forward to seeing what Vallco can become,” Qureshi said. “Vallco has potential, it’s just all up to the owners to mold that into success.”

With the huge responsibility of reviving Vallco Mall, it seems as if the people at Sand Hill will have their hands full for the next couple of years.

The English Language Development (ELD) department recently kicked off the Ambassador’s Program, a yearlong activity that connects EL students with student mentors. The program, which meets weekly during Tuesday tutorials, aims to help EL students with the social and communicational aspects of high school.

At the program’s first meeting on Sept. 22, mentors met their mentees for the year and participated in activities to familiarize themselves with each other.

The school’s EL Commissioners, senior Ronnie Li and juniors Tej Gokhale and Yvonne Yang, led the meeting with a PowerPoint presentation, assisted by program advisors Grace Henson and Wilma Wu.

Henson, who is beginning her 15th year in the ELD department, said ELD students previously had tutors and teachers to help them with academics, but no help assimilating to high school culture in America.

“We needed something where the students would be more involved with the rest of the student body,” Henson said.

The program, founded in 2008, started with around 20 students, but has now doubled in size.

[pullquote speaker=”Ronnie Li” photo=”” align=”left” background=”on” border=”all” shadow=”on”]When you’re not good at a language, you don’t want to talk to people[/pullquote]

Each meeting usually begins with a presentation from the EL Commissioners about upcoming events and holidays at school, as well as a topic about American culture. Mentors and mentees are prompted with questions about the topic to discuss with each other.

The program also puts on several events throughout the year, including a Halloween Movie Social, Thanksgiving Lunch, Christmas White Elephant and International Soccer Tournament. Some of these events, such as the soccer tournament in the spring, are open to participation for the entire school.

Currently, mentors and mentees are encouraged to spend time together at least once each month outside of the weekly meetings. This year, the EL Commissioners and advisors hope that partners will meet up more than once each month, suggesting that students take their mentees to see a movie, attend a club meeting or just hang out. This will allow mentees to further experience social events in the local area.

Li joined an ELD class the second semester of her sophomore year, after moving to the U.S. from China.

“When you’re not good at a language, you don’t want to talk to people,” Li said. She hopes the program will encourage more students to open up about themselves, their cultures and their interests.

“We meet all the new EL students. For me, it was really nice to meet them because I was one of them,” Li said about her aspirations for the program. “I really want us to be a family.”