Chris Xue will be attending the Berklee College of Music next year after playing the violin for 13 years. Below is an interview with Chris about his passion for music and plans for the future.

Edward Phillips will be moving to Toronto to pursue professional acting instead of taking the traditional college path. In the following video, Webmaster Vishu Prathikanti interviews Edward Phillips on how he first got into acting, why he loves doing it, and what his plans are for the future.

Most people’s side hobbies are scrapbooking, knitting, photography, or the like. For business magnate Elon Musk, a side hobby is starting the multibillion dollar space exploration company SpaceX. SpaceX, founded in 2002, aims to reduce the cost of space transportation, and to eventually create a colony on Mars.

Beloved history teacher Dave Sullivan plans to retire from teaching high school after 43 years on the job. Sullivan started teaching in 1975 at Campolindo High School in Moraga, California and then came to Burlingame in 2001 to be the Assistant Principal for two years. In 2003, he left to teach at Capuchino High School, where he taught for seven years.

Biology teacher Sabbie Hopkins has been teaching at Burlingame for 15 years. Her next year teaching biology, however, will be at Capuchino High School. She will be missed, but her legacy at Burlingame will continue in the impact she has made on her students.

Precalculus teacher Nicole Martinez is leaving Burlingame High School after teaching for eight years. In addition to math, Martinez is the guided studies supervisor and serves as senior class cabinet co-advisor.

Exploring Tech teacher Robert Scialanga will retire after teaching at Burlingame for three years. In addition to teaching Exploring Tech, Scialanga serves as the Robotics Club supervisor after school once a week.

Next year, Dean of Students Fred Wolfgramm will be leaving Burlingame to become the Vice Principal of Peninsula High School. Once a Burlingame student himself, Wolfgramm returned to his old stomping grounds 10 years ago to take the position of dean of students.

Adam Patheal has been teaching physics at Burlingame for five years. Unfortunately, this will be his last. He and his wife, who teaches at San Mateo, are moving to San Diego to be closer to family.

The English Learning Development (ELD) Bridge Program—A San Mateo Union High School District’s English program for non-native speakers--is growing. The program is designed to serve ELD level I students entering the SMUHSD as juniors and seniors with few to no credits who would be better served in an alternative program. 

Fifty-two Italian students from Carpi, Italy arrived in Burlingame on March 19. They stayed for a week, during which time, they explored Sausalito, the Golden Gate Bridge and the Google campus. 

After the attack on Marjory Stoneman Douglas and two unexpected fire alarms on our own campus, BHS staff and students have been discussing safety on our campus. There are cameras on campus, a campus security guard, and a school safety officer; but compared to Aragon high school, which has a total of 60 cameras on campus, the BHS campus is lacking in terms of an up-to-date security system.

March 23 was declared “The Day of Student Registration to Vote” by the San Mateo Union High School District Board of Trustees. In accordance with the resolution, in all senior government and/or economics classes, students were given the option to register or pre register to vote.

Ever since its release just over five months ago, Fortnite Battle Royale has been dominating the video game world. The online third person shooter game has already attracted 45 million players.Epic Games, Fortnite’s developer describes the game simply as “one giant map. A battle bus. Fortnite building skills and destructible environments combined with intense PvP combat. The last one standing wins.” Most people can get the jist of the game with only a short explanation.

In the most recent “AP Report to the Nation,” data released by the College Board revealed that many Advanced Placement courses across the country are dominated by one particular gender. Although this report analyzed AP tests taken by the Class of 2013, data from Burlingame High School’s 2018 spring semester shows that some AP courses on campus are still overwhelmingly taken by one gender.

Jim Chin just might be the most interesting person ever to have set foot on Burlingame High School’s campus. The AP European and Modern World history teacher is the teacher-advisor for BHS’ Model United Nations (Model U.N.) club, the Teacher-Coach of BHS’ Mock Trial team, and an absurdly fast grader of student work. He has also fended off a gang of muggers with a foam sword.

Of the many cryptocurrencies, currencies that are based on computer generated encryption, Bitcoin is the quickest growing and most popular, leaving some wondering about the function and legitimacy of it.Bitcoin was introduced in 2009 by a mysterious computer programmer with the alias Satoshi Nakamoto. Since then, the currency has seen an explosive but volatile exponential growth, from one bitcoin valued at $0.06 in 2009 to one bitcoin costing $9,000 in 2018.

One hundred and one year-old Carroll Schmidt remembers a time in Burlingame when fire engines were horse-drawn, the town had dirt roads and William H. Crocker would ride down Floribunda Avenue on a horse and throw toffee candies down to the town’s children.“It was like a chicken feed,” Schmidt said. “It was really something to see.”

Athletic teams on campus have seen a decline in commitment, specifically from underclassmen. Not as many students are going out for sports and if they are, then they are not making practices. Athletic director John Philipopoulos has seen that students are not giving sports their full commitment or not participating in sports all together.  

Middle college is an alternative education program that is held at the College of San Mateo. There, students are able to take high school courses as well as ones offered by CSM  to earn both high school and college credit.“High school is not for everyone and people should be able to have the opportunity to transfer to other schools if they think that BHS is not the right fit for them,” said college and career advisor Jonathan Dhyne.

Athletic teams on campus have seen a decline in commitment, specifically from underclassmen. Not as many students are going out for sports and if they are, then they are not making practices. Athletic director John Philipopoulos has seen that students are not giving sports their full commitment or not participating in sports all together.  

In early October, a series of fires swept through the Wine Country; aided by strong winds and arid conditions. Thousands of acres of land were scorched by these fires that burned through everything in their paths. When such an event happens only an hour or so away from Burlingame, those who live near can only wonder whether or not such an event could ever happen here, and what they can do to help prevent it.

So far, 2017 has been a great year for the Iron Panthers, Burlingame’s robotics team. In this semester alone, the “student-built, student-run” team has beaten a world champion team sponsored by NASA, competed in semifinals and finals, and even won a tournament by a huge margin on Nov. 19.

The holidays are not the only time to give back to the community. In fact, many local food businesses donate their extra food at the end of the day to charities all year long. The Samaritan House is a popular charity of choice for businesses such as Safeway, The Cakery and Kara’s Cupcakes.

The following is an interview with Mr. Migdow, long-term substitute for Ms. Berglund.