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Mr. Aberle doesn’t OMmit details

By Rose Lu

At school, physics teacher Lance Aberle may seem ordinary. However, to earn his teaching credentials, he has come a long way.

“As a physics major in college I was offered the opportunity to be a TA, and with it came the responsibility of teaching two lab sections,” shared Mr. Aberle. “I enjoyed it so much that I realized it was what I wanted to do.”

Before officially becoming a teacher, Mr. Aberle worked several odd jobs.

“The first job I ever had was during my first year in college–I worked at Toys R Us. In fact, I just drove by the old store I worked at, and it was very sad to see it all boarded up, now that they have gone out of business,” commented Mr. Aberle, “It was mostly manual labor as I worked in the back warehouse and helped to unload trucks, but it was a great experience and there was a lot of fun camaraderie with the other people who worked there. “

He also worked for a small assay which is a metal or ore testing site, office work, the campus bookstore at SJSU as well as several internships prior to starting his master’s degree.

“I was able to get hired on at Intel, [and] while it was yet another great learning experience in a technical setting, it was not for me,” stated Mr. Aberle,  “It was about this time I was doing my teaching work as a TA, and I switched from my master’s program to the teaching credential program for physics!”

Now, he has taught for many years and has adopted many hobbies during his free time, which includes indulging in outdoor activities, playing video games and spending time with family and friends.

I used to go camping every summer, but have done so less in recent years–somehow sleeping on an air mattress on the ground is not as comfortable as it used to be,” shared Mr. Aberle, “But I still enjoy the outdoors with walks and bicycle rides.”

Mr. Aberle also enjoys trips and traveling.

“I also have fun exploring places on road trips–last summer I went to Crater Lake National Park for the first time,” comments Mr. Aberle.“The drive around the lake was relaxing and the views were breathtaking.”

Mr. Aberle also enjoys playing Fallout 4 with Biology teacher Jason Dries and Physiology teacher David Vasques.

 

 

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Competing for the MNT cause

By Julian Rosete

Key Club hosts their first ever MNT (Maternal Neonatal Tetanus) Olympics on Sunday March 31st.

“This is the first time Key Club has done the MNT Olympics, but hopefully it will become an annual event for our members,” says Key Club Publicist and MNT coordinator Emily Vu.

“It was an event that our fabulous MNT coordinators had been planning for a really long time, and seeing everyone participate and have a lot of fun at the event was pretty rewarding”, says Key Club president Kathy Ton

This event is for contestants to come out to compete and for spectators to come and watch. The event was run by MNT coordinators and Key Club officers at Cataldi Park. There will be many games for contestants to compete in such as three legged race, water balloon race, water toss and more.

“Our division goal for MNT was three thousand dollars and with the registration, raffle tickets and concessions sold at the event, MNT olympics pushed us over the three thousand mark,” says Kathy

The admission costed five dollars for those who chose to compete in the Olympics and three dollars for those who came to watch the event. All the money raised went to the Eliminate project to help fight the MNT disease.

MNT is a disease that causes mothers and newborn babies to experience convulsions and severe pain that can lead to involuntary death. This disease kills a baby every 15 minutes even though this could be prevented with three doses of vaccines that cost $1.80, according to Key Club. These vaccines can protect mothers and children for their rest of their lives.

The Eliminate project is a cause which not only helps to solve the MNT crisis, but also to provide clean water, nutrition’s and other vaccines. The overall goal of the Eliminate project is to raise 110 million dollars to support these causes.

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Praise Night

By Alana Valdez

One Way Christian Club will be hosting a praise night next Friday in the L-building. The praise night will be going on ` from 6 to 8.

“I’m looking forward to spreading the love of God to PHHS with our guest speaker’s message and the worship that will take place performed by Piedmont Hills students!”  Mentions Alyssa Espinal.

“There will be people performing and singing Christian songs and as well as someone speaking,” says One Way Christian Club Historian Paola Rios

The guest speaker will be Pastor Gus from Mount Pleasant Christian Church. He will be sharing a message about how God changed his life.

“This is Pastor Gus’s first event with us and so we are looking forward to hearing what his message will be for the students,” shared Julian Rosete.

There are also the wide variety of performances by the club members.

“Joseph Chung, Jeremiah Porda, and Julian Rosete will be leading worship for the night. Joseph is singing and playing the guitar Jeremiah is singing and Julian is playing electric guitar,” says One Way Christian Club President Alyssa.

“I will be playing couple songs for praise night such as How Great is Our God and Good Good Father,” explains Julian.

Friends, Family, and students are welcomed to join the club for the praise night. Admission is free and snacks will be provided. You can also purchase new club t-shirts for 15 dollars.

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Correlation between mental health, social media

By Christine Do

Correlation between mental health, social media

 

Social media has unknowingly taken over our modern day society, manipulating our everyday lives. With phones one reach away and most information accessible with a Google search, it’s easier to fall into the world of the internet than to live in the present. Has social media been affecting our mental health? If so, how?

According to an official from Behavioral Health of the Palm Beaches Inc., a study in 2017 of over half a million eighth through twelfth graders found that their levels of depressive symptoms increased by 33 percent between 2010 and 2015. In this same period, the rate of suicide for girls in this age range increased by 65 percent. These increased percentages “correlate with smartphone adoption during that period, even when matched year by year,” according to the study’s lead author, San Diego State University psychologist Jean Twenge. Clearly, there is a relationship between smartphone usage and the declining mental health of teens.

Perhaps it all started as a way to stay connected to others through innocent acts like Snapchatting or liking a post on Instagram. However, in an attempt to communicate with those far away from us, we distance ourselves from those next to us. Most of us have experienced the common awkward situation of not knowing what to say in a conversation. Instead of trying to talk it out, we instinctively take out our phones as a safety net to avoid the awkwardness of it in general.

“Sometimes when I’m in a big group and I’m not comfortable or I don’t really know the people, I just go on my phone to pass the time,” says sophomore Vanessa Ng.

Because of this, people are not able to build their social skills, making them more susceptible to social anxiety. People have less experience with real social situations and are left with a feeling of isolation. The connections made through social media lack the deep empathy that is present in a face-to-face conversation. Digital emoticons can never fully express an emotion or feeling. Ironically, we are connected, yet alone.

As stated by that same study, “If we’re always playing catch-up to endless online updates, we’re prioritizing social interactions that aren’t as emotionally rewarding and can actually make us feel more isolated.”

With the constant scrolling through pictures and life updates from people you barely know, it’s easy to fall into the mindset of comparing yourself to someone else. Seeing someone out traveling or living their best life could spark a feeling of envy.

“I think it’s inevitable to compare ourselves to social media because we all have our insecurities,” says junior Sophia Pham.

Comparing ourselves to others lowers our self-esteem, and soon enough, some will depend on the number of likes and comments on a post to determine their self-worth.

Along with this, people tend to grab their phones when they’re bored. Such a small instinct can lead to long-term consequences, however. This makes it harder for the brain to focus on a task for a long amount of time, such as writing as essay or finishing our homework. Our attention-span becomes shorter, possibly affecting our academic performance as well.

We’ve all stayed up late to binge our favorite TV show, but sleep deprivation messes with our body clock. According to the Healthline Editorial Team and Rachel Nall, it is known that teenagers need around eight hours of sleep each night, but with homework, extracurricular activities and distractions from our phones, we seldom meet this requirement.

In the end, social media is not necessarily a direct cause of declining mental health, but there is a definite correlation. Despite its possible negative effects, it does vary for each person and impacts everyone in a different way.
“I don’t think social media itself is a bad thing. I think it’s the individual. It’s up to them what they use social media for because it’s just a platform,” says junior Stacy Truong.

In this technological age, it’s best to be mindful of the information we’re feeding our brains. So next time you find yourself scrolling mindlessly on your phone, take a minute to think of what else you could be doing and simply be present.

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how bad is boba?

By Vincent Hoang

 

Many students drink massive amounts of boba and milk tea on a weekly basis, but do they know the health risks hidden within these delicious drinks?

There are various milk tea stores that are scattered throughout San Jose. Like many, senior Vi Tran really enjoys her milk tea.

“If I had to give an estimation of how often I drink boba, I would say I drink like two times a week. Honestly, it’s dependent on whether I’m going out with friends.”

Vi does not like to get her milk tea extremely sweet.

“I typically get my drinks at 50/50. I don’t like drinking anything sickly sweet but I don’t want tasteless water so I go for 50/50,” says Vi.

However there are some who do not care as much as they should when it comes to milk tea.

“I drink milk tea at least two times a week at 100 percent sweetness for all my milk tea. I don’t care as much as I should, because I swim and work out a lot, therefore my sugar intake balances out with all the physical activities I partake in,” says senior Chloe Nguyen.

Lastly, there are the rare few who do care about what they drink.

“I drink milk tea once every 1 or 2 weeks, depends when my little brother wants it. When I do, I usually get it at 25 percent sweetness,” says senior Andrew Do.

In the end, most of us do enjoy a cool cup of milk tea anytime of the year, but the bigger question is how unhealthy the drink proves to be. On average, a 16-ounce cup of milk tea is 278 calories, 0.6 grams of fat, 68 grams of carbohydrates, and 1.2 grams of protein.

“I try to limit myself from getting drinks that have less calories and always get less sugar if it’s an option. If I get 100% I start to feel bad because it’s too sweet. Another way I deal with how unhealthy is by not getting pearls. I haven’t ordered pearls in about one year,” says senior Andrew Do.

This all doesn’t sound that awful, right? Wrong. The amount of sugar put into these drinks make it much worse. An average cup of milk tea, has an average of 22 grams of sugar; 12 of those grams comes from added sugar, such as the sweetener, syrup, and toppings.

Like Andrew, we should consider what we put into our boba drinks, such as the pearls and other toppings. The toppings add much more sugar and calories to your daily intake of food. Instead, opt for fruit toppings for natural sugar and great taste. Along with this, consider other types of milk to put into your drink such as almond or organic oak milk instead of condensed milk, which adds much more sugar.

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Red Cross Spring blood drive

By Nghi Nguyen

Red Cross held their biannual blood drive of the year in the library on Fri., March 8. Red Cross collaborated with Vitalant, a nonprofit transfusion medicine organization that provides blood donation opportunities.

“The purpose of this event is to collect as many units of blood as we can in our school, so we can send the blood to others who need blood transfusions,” says Vice President Shannon Liu.

The blood collected from the event goes to the Centers of the Pacific, a nonprofit community based blood center that collects the donations and provides them across the local community.

“Red Cross hopes to have 100 donors. Each pint of blood will be able to save three lives. If we have 100 donors, Red Cross will be able to save 300 lives,” explains Treasurer Isaac Wen.

In the past blood drive that was held in October, Red Cross was able to collect 57 units of blood. Not only would these units of blood be saving about lives, it shows the potential the youth has.

“I think the best part of the blood drive is just being part of the process. Seeing the number of people willing to give some of their time in order to save lives makes me smile. It’s amazing how we are all able to work together to save lives,” states Co-Secretary Lily Do.

The Red Cross Spring Blood Drive followed Red Cross’s main mission of alleviating human suffering in the face of human disaster. This event allowed the club to enact change and aid public health.

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Concert Choir workshops with Dr. Benson at SJSU(San Jose State University)

Concert Choir workshops with Dr. Benson at SJSU(San Jose State University)

By Justin Wang

Concert Choir attended a choral workshop at SJSU (San Jose State University) to join is Director of Choral Activities at SJSU, Dr. Jeffrey Benson, and his students on March 8 from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

“He just listened to us, then gave us tips on vocal quality and dynamics to prepare us for performances and make our pieces concert-ready,” said senior Lilly Liu.

Dr. Benson conducted the choral warm-ups and many of his students came in and directed the Concert Choir.

“His warm-ups are really cool, funny; he would have his own students come in, lead up and direct. We get to see different perspectives of people directing. And how they did it, they were all different,” said junior Jeremiah Porda.

Concert Choir practiced the pieces “Canti cum novum”, “Hela Rotane” and “Good Night, Dear Heart.”

“I think he’s very knowledgeable and he gives us a lot of great tips. He reinforces the things that Mr. Ellis says and he helps prepare us for concerts,” said Lily.

This workshop provided unique experiences and a look into the workings of college choir for some Concert Choir students.

“I’m looking forward to performing with college students. It’s going to be cool to see how college choirs work,” said Jeremiah.

Dr. Benson and usually holds workshops with PHHS Concert Choir semi-annually, but in recent years Concert Choir has not been able to meet with Dr. Benson at SJSU.

“Dr. Benson usually visits us like twice a year, but we never really go to SJSU,” said Lilly.

Dr. Benson is a member of the National Association for Music Education (NAfME), the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA), and the National Collegiate Choral Organization (NCCO) according to sjsu.edu, the official SJSU website.

The website also notes that choirs under Dr. Benson’s direction have been invited to perform with notable figures such as the Rolling Stones, Josh Groban and Andrea Bocelli.