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The Student News Site of Branham High School

The Student News Site of Branham High School

Bear Witness

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From musicians to artists to video game level desi

From musicians to artists to video game level designers, Branham’s creatives showed off their skills throughout Makers Week last week, an ASB event that attracted dozens of contributors.

Junior Isha Chander, ASB Spirit President, said the purpose of the week was to highlight creations from different makers.

“We really tried to capture the creators' stories and showcase their passion and intention with their work,” she said.

Chander said the idea for the week came from a previous initiative at the start of the school shutdown in April where students shared what they were doing during quarantine.

Examples of student contributions included videos of solo instrumental performances, such as those from sophomore Maggie Dong, whose fingers fly on the piano in a rendition of a piece by Bela Bartok.

Others included stunt cheer performances and video game levels from “Minecraft,” “The Sims” and “Animal Crossing.”

Chander said that the event can translate to a physical form if and when Branham restarts in-person learning. For now, you can visit the digital pieces by visiting the Makers link in our bio.

Reporting by Katelyn Lowpensky, Lily Middleton and Norah Khalid

#bhsbearwitness #makersweek

The event was virtual, but the smiles were real. B

The event was virtual, but the smiles were real. Branham’s Best Buddies matched up Thursday for its annual Pairing Day, an event where members are matched with friends from the special education program based on interests and personality. More than a dozen students were paired. The event has taken on increased importance during the school’s shutdown, as special education students and their families have reported struggles with distance learning and social isolation. Best Buddies president Charlie Pappalardo said that its members will make good allies and friends.
“Having someone that you can reach out to, someone that you're friends with and that you know cares about you,” he said, “helps everyone but especially people who are traditionally excluded from a lot of those friendships.”

#bhsbearwitness #bestbuddies

Seniors Tommy Song, Tarang Lunawat, Alex Goldberg

Seniors Tommy Song, Tarang Lunawat, Alex Goldberg and Tiffany La were named National Merit Scholarship semifinalists last week, after months of anticipation.

Goldberg woke to the announcement in the Mercury News and sent it out to the other qualifiers immediately. His PSAT score secured him a spot in the semifinals, which was the product of many skills he built up in anticipation for standardized testing.

“All my preparation for the SAT was basically the same as my preparation for the PSAT, just doing Khan Academy practice tests, and making sure I kept my skills, especially time management,” Goldberg said.

The PSAT qualifies students for the semifinals, but in order to be finalists, the students must fill out an application that will decide if they will win the scholarship money.

Lunawat said she is nervous about what’s to come, but she feels that her hard work has paid off.

“I’m really proud of myself for internalizing what I've learned, and it would be really awesome if I got to be a finalist,” she said.

Winners will be announced in 2021 between April and July.

Reporting by Katelyn Lowpensky

#bhsbearwitness #nationalmeritsemifinalist

San Jose residents and officials on Saturday paid

San Jose residents and officials on Saturday paid respects to Ruth Bader Ginsburg at a vigil outside the Billy de Frank LGBTQ+ Community Center near downtown San Jose.

The liberal Ginsburg wrote strong opinions supporting gender equality, civil rights, including those supporting women’s education, disability programs and voter discrimination.

At the vigil, Santa Clara County supervisor Susan Ellenberg praised Ginsburg and her goals to embrace “equity for all,” while others encouraged attendees to carry on her spirit of social justice.

“We need to continue the fight and make sure everything she did was not in vain,” said Nicole Altamirano, Silicon Valley Pride interim CEO.

Her death has already set off a contentious debate regarding how and when the president can pick a Supreme Court nominee. President Donald Trump has said he will act quickly to pick someone, most likely a woman, within the week.

However, Democrats, and some Senate Republicans, say that the next president should make the decision, as her vacancy is weeks away from the election. They cite Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s actions in 2016, when he prevented then-President Barack Obama from receiving a vote on Merrick Garland, his nominee for Supreme Court.

In an Ipsos/Reuters poll released Sunday, 62% of Americans want to have the presidential winner to pick the next Supreme Court justice.

Note: The graphic misspelled Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s last name and acronym, RBG. (Unfortunately we can’t replace photos in Instagram!)

Reporting by Andelina Miller, photos by Lily Middleton

#bhsbearwitness #ruthbaderginsburg #notoriousrbg

Assistant Principal Abra Evanoff and Principal Che

Assistant Principal Abra Evanoff and Principal Cheryl Lawton take a selfie Thursday before making house visits to students who have not been engaging in distance learning.

Lawton said that she and Branham’s administration team make between 10 and 15 weekly visits, with attendance secretary Sharon Overholser making dozens of calls daily to students marked absent.
The visits help Lawton understand why students aren’t engaging in school.

“It's easy to just 'not show up' when you are interacting with a computer screen,” she said.

Though she said that it’s often the case that they tell parents they are engaged in class when they’re actually watching YouTube videos, there are other reasons why students don’t participate, including babysitting younger siblings, working to support families, or that with families unable to go anywhere, there isn’t physical room to learn in their home.

“It’s important we find out what's going on so that we can provide support and help them re-engage,” she said.

Photo courtesy of Cheryl Lawton

#bhsbearwitness #distancelearning

Promising to bring a voice to underprivileged stud

Junior Lucas Joo-Perez is seeking the Branham comm

Junior Lucas Joo-Perez is seeking the Branham community’s help after the sudden passing of his father Henry in August. Lucas and his older brother, Eligh, who graduated in 2019, have set up a GoFundMe to pay for funeral expenses as well as providing financial help for the two siblings. They are close to their $25,000 goal (please view the link in our bio).

Though Lucas and his brother are now living with family in San Bruno, he is still attending distance learning classes. Their mother Priscilla passed away in 2013.

On Aug. 13, Henry was found unconscious in his work truck, and Lucas said paramedics were unable to revive him.

Henry was born in Redwood City and moved around the state, living in places such as San Bruno and San Jose. In his first year of college, he met his future wife, Priscilla Vassallo, who passed away in late 2013. Before his children were born, Henry overcame Stage 3 Non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a cancer that starts in white blood cells called lymphocytes, which are part of the body’s immune system.

Lucas remembers his dad working hard to tackle both parenting roles after his mom’s death.

“He was really good at being there personally because he tried his best to make me and my brother happy after my mom passed,” Lucas said. “I thought that was really important.”

Reporting by Nolan Zils
Correction: Eligh Joo-Perez graduated in 2019, not 2018
#bhsbearwitness

Teachers will forever remember what they were doin

Teachers will forever remember what they were doing and what they felt when they first Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on New York City and the Pentagon, the single greatest non-state terrorist act in human history that killed nearly 3,000 people. The Bear Witness has compiled interviews from the past few years of their accounts, along with the front pages of major newspapers sharing the terrible news the following day.

Note: This has been updated to add the word “non-state” to terror attacks, meaning that no government entity has admitted to being directly involved in the attacks.

Interviews by Ziv Galpaz, Renee Owens and Caitlyn Schlaman.

#bhsbearwitness #sept11 #neverforget #911

Freshman Jocelyn Shepherd gazes at the foothills a

Freshman Jocelyn Shepherd gazes at the foothills and the eerie dark orange sky that has developed over the Bay Area throughout Wednesday. Their color is a result of the dozens of fires burning throughout Northern California, including the August Complex Fire in Mendocino and the Bear Fire in the Sierra range. Air quality is expected to improve during tonights Back to School Night as winds shift, but the National Weather Service expects the smog to return the following day. “We’re having such a large scope of dense smoke across the Bay Area and the West Coast in general, that it’s actually impacting our weather conditions,” National Weather Service meteorologist Roger Gass told the Mercury News. “We’re kind of in uncharted territory right now.”

Photo submitted by Jocelyn Shepherd

#bhsbearwitness #orangesky

For three days last week, seniors got a chance to

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