“My parents would give me a cutting board and veggies to cut, and (I’d) just happily sit on the kitchen floor and cut veggies my entire childhood,” she said.

Ginn’s culinary interests grew in middle school, when she began teaching kids in summer cooking camps. At the same time, she gained professional training, learning with a family friend at culinary school and joining French pastry lessons on Zoom. 

It was around this time when Ginn thought of starting a cake business. She could earn money on something she already loved doing: making cakes for friends and family.  

“I can custom make cakes, which a lot of bakeries can’t do, but I can make it completely customizable to whatever anyone wants,” she said. “I can do custom designs, custom flavors, mix and match different things.” 

Ginn runs Caitlin’s Cakes (@caitlin.s.cakes on Instagram) by herself, from making and delivering cakes to managing expenses and advertising. Ginn has also started catering, providing desserts at Stanford events and other private parties.

Her most common cake order is a chocolate cake with raspberries, and her favorite cake that she’s made was a carrot cake with frosting flowers. 

“It took me an entire day to pipe the entire thing,” she said. “Everyone loved it so much, and I get so many compliments on it to this day.” 

Ginn prices her cakes from $30 to $100 based on size and ingredients used, but finds it difficult to earn high profits while keeping prices low to attract customers. 

“I’m definitely underpaying myself, but if it’s something I enjoy doing, and I just happen to get some money for doing it, then it goes well,” she said.

Though Ginn is unsure about continuing her business due to limited time and access to equipment at the University of Washington, where she’s matriculating, she knows that she will continue baking and cooking.  

“It’s a really useful skill to have and a fun one too — you get to explore and experiment,” she said.

On July 6, 1925, the historic town of Mayfield —  along with California Avenue — was incorporated into Palo Alto, and the region later became known as Palo Alto’s “second downtown.” Downtown Palo Alto encompasses iconic locations such as the retro Palo Alto Creamery Fountain & Grill — formerly known as the Peninsula Creamery — the Museum of American Heritage Williams House and the Hewlett-Packard House and Garage, where tech giant HP was founded in 1939. 

South Palo Alto

South Palo Alto is home to residential areas and community centers, ranging from Eichler homes built in the 1960s to libraries such as the College Terrace Library and the Mitchell Park Library. Other key locations include the Oshman Family Jewish Community Center and Cubberley Community Center — formerly Cubberley High School, until it was closed in 1979 and later became a shared facility for PAUSD and various organizations and schools. Over the recent years, the south Palo Alto area has been attracting new residents due to its family-friendly, accessible community spaces. 

Points East/Baylands Area

In 1921, the City of Palo Alto purchased the John Fletcher Byxbee Recreation area (also known as the Baylands Nature Preserve), named after Stanford alumnus and Palo Alto city engineer Fletcher Byxbee. After the purchase, the 40 acres of the marshland was set to become a recreational area until the 1960s, when citizens advocated for a park instead. Over the years, the City has added the Nature Interpretive Center, Mundy Marsh, Renzel Wetlands and Byxbee Park Hills. Today, the preserve is a space for recreation, providing activities such as interpretive programs, water sports and golf. An area of undisturbed marshland remains. 

Stanford Area

In memory of their deceased son, Leland Stanford Jr., Leland and Jane Stanford founded Stanford University in 1885. Their 8,180-acre vineyard and farmland was transformed into the Stanford area, which overlaps the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe territory, and now includes the campus, Sand Hill Road, a portion of El Camino Real, Town & Country Village, Stanford Shopping Center and El Palo Alto Park. After her son’s and husband’s deaths, Jane Stanford continued to support the growth and development of the university area. 

University Avenue

Named by Palo Alto co-founder Timothy Hopkins in 1889, University Avenue extends directly to Stanford University’s Palm Drive. Several landmark buildings remain, including the Squire House, the Forbes Residence and the Stanford Theater — an architectural treasure known for its iconic marquee and lavish vintage furnishings. Over the years, businesses have been continuously established on University Avenue, and it continues to be an emblem of Palo Alto and its culture.

Lucie Stern Community Center area

Levi Strauss’ widowed wife and heiress Lucie Stern, also known as Palo Alto’s fairy godmother, established and financed community-center building projects nestled in the area north of Old Palo Alto in the corner between the intersection of Embarcadero Road and Middlefield Road. These include the Lucie Stern Community Center, Children’s Theater, Children’s Library and Palo Alto Junior Museum & Zoo. Other locations in the area include the Palo Alto Art Center — originally the City Hall — Christmas Tree Lane on Fulton Street, Duveneck Elementary School and the Rinconada Pool. The community-center area offers a place for families and friends to enjoy both educational and extracurricular activities.

“When I started BJJ, I didn’t even know what it was, but after some time, I got kind of good at it,” he said. “I use my brain and strategy, and I try to see what people are going to do and to think what their next move is.”

BJJ involves repeating various moves, such as the heel hook or the Americana — Nadberezhnyi’s favorite — in which the player bends their opponent’s arm at a 90-degree angle and pushes the shoulder to the ground.

“I’m usually replicating the same thing, not to be perfect, but to get used to it,” he said.

Other than enforcing discipline, Nadberezhnyi’s instructor, along with his fellow peers, creates a supportive and encouraging environment.

“The people who I train with are super nice,” he said. “We support each other, and we correct each other if a person knows and sees (something) the other one doesn’t.”

Going forward, Nadberezhnyi plans to continue improving his skill level and start participating in competitions. With his frequent training and support he receives, Nadberezhnyi has immersed himself into his BJJ community.

“For me, BJJ is a great hobby, and it’s a way for me to spend lots of time with my friends,” he said. “The mat we train on feels like a second home.”

This program is the first of the wellness initiatives The Oracle will be investigating in a continuation of its 2019 “In the Pursuit of Wellness” series.  The objective is to better understand the efficacy of Gunn student-wellness approaches. Our question: Are these measures working, and how can we further promote student wellness?

The creation of SELF 

Intended as a space for students to build connections with trusted adults and peers, SELF classes meet biweekly — in rotation with Study Hall — during the school year. This model, adopted during the 2022-23 school year due to teacher compensation issues, marks a shift from the program’s original weekly structure. As before, however, cohorts remain together during all four years of high school.

SELF Coordinator Kathryn Catalano noted that the program’s goal is to promote students’ emotional regulation, communication and empathy.

“Creating that structure where students have opportunities to practice those things is really important in terms of long-term growth,” she said. “I think our school is very lucky to be able to offer a program like this.”

The SELF curriculum is based on California’s Social and Emotional Learning Competencies, or the T-SEL Competencies, which include self-awareness, social-awareness and relationship skills. Gunn’s SELF curriculum also draws on sources such as private-school curricula; Project Wayfinder, an organization that provides packaged grade-specific SEL curricula to schools; Stanford professor Linda Darling-Hammond, a social scientist who advised the curriculum’s development in 2016; student organizations such as the Gender Sexuality Alliance and Title IX Club; and proposals from individual students.

Currently, SELF is designed to suit different grades’ needs. For example, ninth graders begin with lessons on “Founding a Community,” which includes identity development and community-building, while second-semester seniors focus on “Life after Gunn.”

According to Assistant Principal and former SELF Coordinator Courtney Carlomagno, the SELF curriculum constantly evolves based on feedback from feedback forms, focus groups, administrators and SELF Advisory Board students (whose names students can see on the SELF feedback form in the Schoology SELF course). For instance, the Community Circles activity — in which students take turns sharing in a circle — was implemented in response to students’ suggestions in feedback forms to have more discussion, and freshmen were sorted into SELF cohorts with their World History class starting in the 2022-23 school year to enable more frequent connections.

Student sentiments

Data from the Panorama surveys, which are administered every spring and fall to all secondary-school students, shows improvement in students’ cultural awareness and emotional regulation from 2020 (the first year the survey was administered) to 2023.

Students’ satisfaction with SELF, however, has roughly remained the same. In the SELF feedback form, sent to students every fall from 2020-23, students were asked to rate on a scale of 1 (“not effective”) to 5 (“effective”) the SELF program’s effectiveness at reaching five goals: “spending time on team-building and relationship-building,” “broad-ranging conversations during check-ins,” “exploring topics that matter,” “hearing a variety of student perspectives” and “having fun as a community.”

For all of the goals, the most selected rating was a “3,” and the second-most selected was a“4.” “Having fun as a community” and “broad-ranging conversations during check-ins” were considered relatively more effective compared to goals such as “building relationships.”

Additionally, many students feel that they are not especially connected with their SELF cohort and mentor. According to the results of the SELF feedback form from fall 2020 to fall 2022, many students felt that their connectedness to their SELF cohort was the same as with their regular classes: An average of 49.3% of students felt about as connected to their SELF cohort in fall 2020, 53.0% in spring 2021, 49.6% in fall 2021, 58.4% in spring 2022 and 44.8% in fall 2022.

Similarly, over the years, many students felt that their connectedness to their mentor was the same as to their teachers in regular classes. Sophomore Elizabeth Pérez feels that SELF has not supported her social-emotional skills. While she understands the community-building purpose of the program, she has found that the lessons often feel forced.

“(SELF) feels like it forces interactions between students when most of them don’t really want to do it,” she said. “Some think it’s kind of useless, like, ‘What are we supposed to do here, when I could be doing other stuff?’”

Similarly, senior Benjamin Vakil believes that SELF’s content is not always practical or helpful for students. Seniors, for example, watched Yale University psychology professor Laurie Santos’ videos about the science of well-being.

“I don’t think students are interested in the theoretical things about happiness or Yale’s classes,” Vakil said. “I think that that’s not been beneficial to that vast, vast, vast majority of students, which is unfortunate because Gunn needs students to be well mentally.”

However, SELF has strengthened Vakil’s relationship with his mentor.

“SELF definitely doesn’t help me content-wise, (but) what is good for me is having a connection to a teacher throughout all four years, (and) I’m lucky enough to have had the same teacher,” he said.

Similarly, Freshman Class President Nathan Yoon has appreciated the peer relationships forged during SELF, although he finds the four-year format restrictive.

“I enjoy SELF and the time that I get to spend with the people in my SELF group,” he said. “Knowing you’re going to be with them for the next four years encourages you to befriend them. However, I think it is also kind of rigid to be stuck with the same group for all four years.”

When a self-selected survey conducted by The Oracle in December 2023 with 133 responses asked students what the most important thing they learned in SELF was, responses varied. Some students said SELF nurtures student-mentor relationships and positive thinking, but others described SELF as ineffective.

“We’ve been learning about happiness this year, but even though I think it’s interesting, I feel like most people don’t care and don’t think it’s useful,” one student wrote.

Another wrote, “While the objects and goals of SELF are good, the implementation of SELF is poor and the curriculum is like it was written for kindergarteners.”

Causes of disengagement

Freshman Class President Nathan Yoon believes that students’ negative responses stem from a failure to understand SELF’s purpose: to foster students’ social-emotional skills, such as empathy and resilience, and to provide a space to build trusting relationships. Contrary to some students’ beliefs, the program does not focus on providing counseling services.

“I say a lot of students don’t really recognize SELF for what it’s trying to be,” he said. “There’s a lot of antagonizing of it because people don’t see what the creators are trying to do with it.”

In the fall 2022 SELF feedback form, 51% of students selected “sort of communicated” when asked about how clearly the purpose of SELF has been communicated to them.

According to Catalano, another possible reason students don’t place importance on SELF is their tendency to focus on rigorous work, causing them to place less importance on soft skills, including many elements of self-care. Some may define success by the traditional path — acquiring a prestigious job and making a lot of money — which focuses on the importance of the individual rather than the community.

“SELF (is) about our larger community and supporting each other, which I think is not really how our community usually operates,” she said.

According to SELF Advisory Board member junior Julia Lee, students — hyper-focused on the present — may also fail to consider SELF’s long-term benefits. Lee believes that SELF will only be effective when students are willing to pay attention to the lessons and recognize educators’ intentions. “If we are not willing to engage in this topic, then there’s really no purpose because we are the ones who have control in whether we want to engage,” she said. “Think about the perspectives of those who are making these lessons, because if we think about why they are creating these lessons for us, the only intention is for our good.”

Looking forward: Improvements

Moving forward, SELF will continue to evolve, and administrators and teachers are open to student suggestions for improvements, especially in the wake of Feb. 20’s student death. Catalano says that adults on campus care deeply for students and are open to hearing any suggestions and concerns.

“We want to support everybody, and I hope that this experience leads students to feeling like there are more adults on campus who care about them instead of less,” she said. 

SELF teacher David Bisbee says his priority is to make his SELF class a comfortable environment and serve student needs. 

“I’m interested in what students want,” he said. “What I think the program has done well over the years is listen to students and have an opportunity for students to talk and share what’s working (and) what’s not.”

Students have also proposed SELF lessons. Lee has been active in proposing and implementing new lesson plans for SELF, such as one on non-violent communication and positive thinking, which is expected to show up in spring 2024. 

“I thought maybe implementing lessons on non-violent communication could be something that students relate to,” she said.

Focus groups have also been hosted periodically, in which one student from each ninth- and 10th-grade SELF class volunteers to gather and give feedback to questions such as “What types of activities have you enjoyed most in SELF?” and “What has worked well to build connections in your cohort?”  

Other students can give feedback to the SELF Advisory Board, which students can apply to join every May. The SELF Suggestion Box Google form is also available on each student’s SELF Schoology course.

SELF will continue to adapt to optimize student wellness, which is the top priority, through student feedback. 

“It is important to get negative feedback,” Catalano said. “Because we want it to be a program that works for everybody, not just the kids who are excited to be there.”

Asian American Literature, a semesterlong English elective offered for juniors and seniors after successful completion of English 9 or 9A and English 10 or 10A, will focus on Asian American experiences ranging from immigration to discrimination. English teacher Diane Ichikawa, who proposed and is leading the implementation of Asian American Literature, says that the English department lacks books about Asian Americans, although Gunn’s student population is 46.4% Asian, according to the Gunn 2023-24 school profile.

“We don’t really treat Asians as people of color on this campus, so I think it’s important that we see that Asians actually are people of color,” she said. “We need to find a space for those discussions, and this could be a class where you could have those conversations.”

The curriculum will draw from texts such as Thi Bui’s memoir “The Best We Could Do” and essays from Eric Liu’s “The Accidental Asian: Notes of a Native Speaker.” Students will practice writing memoirs and understanding the use of figurative language in non-English languages.

Sophomore Joyce Wong, who is interested in taking Asian American Literature, considers it an opportunity to gain insight into issues that Asian Americans face.

“Reading literature written by Asian Americans (can) offer a really refreshing perspective on controversial or historical events,” she said.

In addition to Asian American Literature, Gunn will also be offering AP Physics 2, a yearlong algebra-based physics course for juniors and seniors who have successfully completed AP Physics 1. The course provides a nonvisual approach to electricity and magnetism, in contrast to its mechanics-focused prerequisite, AP Physics 1.

According to physics teacher Christina Norberg, the science department decided to add the course for students who wish to continue learning physics after AP Physics 1, but may not want the rapid pace of calculus-based AP Physics C. The yearlong mechanics course will no longer be offered, but students can still take AP Physics C: Mechanics and AP Physics C: Electricity and Magnetism as semesterlong classes.

The curriculum, based on the College Board’s AP Physics 2 Unit Guides, features units on thermodynamics, electricity, geometric optics and atomic physics, which are not covered in AP Physics C: E & M. According to Norberg, students will use skills such as scientific argumentation, collection of evidence and experimental design to build a mathematically rigorous perspective.

“When you talk about electricity and magnetism, a lot of those different topics you need to be able to model effectively in a way that you can’t actually see,” Norberg said.

Junior Daniel Zhang, who is currently in AP Physics C: Electricity and Magnetism, is considering taking AP Physics 2 next year.

“I’m thinking of taking AP Physics 2 because it covers the sound unit, which seems really interesting,” he said.

With the addition of AP Physics 2, Gunn will now offer all of the College Board’s AP Physics courses. Students who are in or have taken regular, college-preparatory physics may take AP Physics 2 with approval from the science department.

Asian American Literature and AP Physics 2 will only run if there is enough enrollment. Students can learn more about these courses by reading the 2024-25 course catalog or contacting Ichikawa or Norberg.

Asian American Lit Books

• Thi Bui’s “The Best We Could Do”
• Min Jin Lee’s “Pachinko”
• Kathryn Ma’s “The Chinese Groove”
• Eric Liu’s “The Accidental Asian: Notes of a Native Speaker”

AP Physics 2 Topics

• Fluids
• Thermodynamics
• Electric forces
• Electric circuits
• Magnetism and electromagnetic induction
• Geometric and physical optics
• Quantum physics

Latin American and Hispanic culture has long shaped the U.S. In 1968, President Lyndon B. Johnson — spurred by Mexican American Rep. Edward Roybal — established Hispanic Heritage Week to recognize Hispanic history and contributions, and in 1988, the week was extended to a monthlong celebration from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15.

Although this recognition marked a step forward in acknowledging the diversity of the U.S., some, such as sophomore Megumi Estrada Nakamatsu, have pointed out that the blanket term “Hispanic” groups all Spanish-speaking people together, despite their cultural and geographical differences. Estrada Nakamatsu, who is Peruvian and Japanese American, feels that Mexican culture is more prevalent than South and Central American culture at Gunn. “I feel like while Mexican culture is represented, I can see that it’s not enough when it comes to South American and Central American countries’,” she said.

Countries of origin matter, especially when it comes to shared experiences, according to Spanish teacher Teresa Niño-Oliva. While she bonds with other Latin Americans through a shared language — Spanish — she feels closer to her Chilean friends because of their shared experiences. “I did not grow up here, so there are so many things that happened in my childhood that some here don’t understand,” she said. “(But) I can find that (connection) with my (Chilean) friends.”

Nevertheless, a significant characteristic of most Hispanic and Latin American cultures is the close-knit community among family and friends. A distinct part of Estrada Nakamatsu’s childhood was celebrating Señor de los Milagros with her loved ones. The Peruvian Christian celebration features a parade with a sacred image of the Purple Christ, in which purple represents devotion and royalty. “For the whole month of October, everyone wears purple,” she said. “Ever since I was born, I would dance for the celebration.”

Similarly, the stories Ceniceros’ parents told him about their childhoods in Mexico demonstrated the community’s closeness. On one occasion, his mother told him about a neighbor’s child who died in a car crash. “(Every family) started helping financially for the funeral,” he said. “Everybody who was their neighbor came in and helped them with what they could.”

Hispanic and Latino Americans only make up 12.3% of Gunn students, according to the 2022-23 Gunn School Profile. As a result, Hispanic or Latino American students can feel alienated. Both Mexican American senior Andrea Esparza
and Estrada Nakamatsu have sometimes felt isolated because of their cultural backgrounds. “When I was younger, I was very embarrassed in my own culture because I was the only Peruvian in (my) whole school,” Estrada Nakamatsu said.
“Sometimes, American culture can badly influence you because of how judgmental people can be, (and) it can make you feel very much like an outsider.”

Stereotyping only worsens this issue. Estrada Nakamatsu has heard people use offensive slang terms to describe Hispanic people. “We’re called ‘ratchet,’ or ‘ghetto,’ since in our culture, we’re super loud, (and) we’re super honest and blunt,” she said. “The term ‘ratchet’ for us is hurtful because we’re raised to be blunt and very loud — that’s how we show our care for each other.”

This stereotyping and discrimination have disheartened Esparza. “It saddens me that people are discriminating and (have) a bunch of stereotypes on Hispanics when they’re only here to make a better life, get a good education and try to move forward in life,” she said.

Despite these prejudices, Esparza is proud of her culture, where she is embraced with open arms. “What I love about the community is seeing how much we love our culture and that we’re not ashamed of expressing it,” she said.

In South Asian cultures, food is integrated into the celebration of many festivals, including Diwali. Sophomore Aarya Bhushan sees cooking during Diwali as a time to bond with her mother. “During Diwali, my mom and I always make Indian sweets together, and we always have a fun time in the kitchen,” she said.

Similarly, English teacher Terence Kitada, who is Japanese American, remembers how his family would relax and enjoy Japanese  cuisine together. “When I was a little kid, my dad would always grill chicken teriyaki (during) the summers,” he said. “Making food with my family is a nice break. Everybody’s so busy all the time, if you could just concentrate on making something together, it brings people together.” Kitada recounted how food also fostered more intimate connections with individual family members outside of larger gatherings. When he was younger, Kitada and his sister would regularly go to a Japanese restaurant together, which provided them with a time to build their relationship. “We’d always go after school and just eat comfort food (while) talking to each other,” he said.

Nostalgic moments around food also appear in Chinese teacher Yanan Vrudny’s childhood. She and her extended family would gather at her grandparents’ house to make “jiaozi,” or dumplings, together. “You have uncles and cousins who you may have never met for years,” Vrudny said. “You realize that making dumplings is not only making food, but it’s making connections to relatives and hearing their stories from all the generations. You can’t learn all these from the textbook.”

Children of immigrants may find it difficult to learn about their cultural customs. According to Vrudny, however, food provides an opportunity for them to connect with their heritage. “I once heard that food is history — the way it’s prepared, the ingredients that are used and other factors are all chosen by our ancestors,” she said. “By cherishing the food, it’s like eating a piece of history with some twists of our own.”

Similarly, when Kitada was teaching in Japan, he and his students learned about Japanese cultural values through the experience of harvesting rice. “You eat (rice) every day, but a lot of work goes into it,” he said. “In Japan, you’re not excused to go to recess until you’ve eaten every grain of rice in the bowl. (There is) the idea to not waste food because somebody made that for you.”

Sharing food among different groups in the AAPI community also kindles intercultural dialogue. Vrudny explained that although chopsticks are used in multiple countries — China, Japan and Korea, to name a few — they are designed differently based on the specific foods and customs each individual culture has. Having conversations among different AAPI cultures regarding food practices can create bonds between communities. “(This) can build connections when people may have nothing to talk about,” Vrudny said.

Food is also significant in religious practices. In Hinduism, food called “prasada” is offered to God and consumed by devotees as a way to give thanks. “There’s the aspect of sacrificing for God,” Bhushan said. “But it’s also bringing us closer to our culture and heritage.”

Despite the positive connotations of food in AAPI communities, many experience discrimination due to their cultural foods. AAPI foods have been considered “exotic” or “strange” in some school lunchrooms, which can cause AAPI individuals, such as sophomore Jessie Han, to feel uncomfortable with sharing their cuisines. “In the past, I was self-conscious about the food I brought to school, mostly because I was scared that others would act negatively towards it,” she said. “But if I could time travel, I would encourage them to be curious and try some. If they like it, that’s amazing — if not, then that’s totally fine as well.”

Kitada discussed this type of discrimination in his Visual Storytelling class while reading “American Born Chinese,” a graphic novel in which the Chinese American protagonist experiences bullying because of his lunch. “When students in my class reflect on the text, I consistently hear people mentioning that they went through the same thing when they were younger,” Kitada said. “It’s sad that students are discouraged from eating cuisine from their own culture due to harassment from classmates.

As an integral part of AAPI culture and community, food celebrates a sense of belonging and what it means to be AAPI. “Food not only is for eating,” Vrudny said. “It is more important how we use it as a tool to connect people to the knowledge, the ingredients and the world.”

Developed in the early 2000s, My Password Journal was designed by Girl Tech founder Janese Swanson. It is an interactive toy journal that uses voice recognition and requires a spoken phrase to unlock. The journal is inside a plastic case around the size of a regular notebook. The phrase spoken by the owner unlocks the cover and reveals a notebook, an invisible ink pen, a bendable glow light lamp that reveals the ink and a small compartment behind the notebook. In those sheets of papers, one could write their secrets, desires and more, knowing that they are the only one with access to this private information. The compartment behind the notebook allows one to store treasured personal possessions hidden away from outsiders. Intruders were not welcomed and were warned away by an intruder alert— pre-recorded by the owner—that played whenever the wrong keyword phrase was spoken.

Swanson’s mission was to encourage the implementation of technology (overwhelmingly found in boys’ toys) in girls’ toys and overcome gender stereotypes in the toy industry. After Girl Tech was bought by electronic game company Radica Games, a branch of toy company Mattel, My Password Journal became manufactured in more colors. My Password Journal was discontinued in 2014, but collected or used versions can still be found.