Bryant Phan, a student-blogger, is in 10th grade at Life Academy. -Katy

Hello. This is my first time blogging since the school year has started. Is it just me or is this school year passing by extremely fast? We’ll be getting our second report cards in about three weeks or so.

Recently, I transferred from MetWest to LIFE Academy. So far, I’ve been feeling pretty good about the school. However, I really miss the sense of community at MetWest.

It is also pretty ridiculous that we have to share a building with two middle schools. Because of this, we don’t have off campus lunch and the school lunches aren’t necessarily very delicious. I’ve tried to bring my own lunch but I get tired of eating sandwiches everyday. The school cafeteria has promised to serve better lunch but has not fulfilled their promise. I don’t know if it’s because LIFE Academy is on a middle school campus or because LIFE Academy is a public high school in Oakland, but the lunch that is being served isn’t very nutritious. What do you think is the best way to put pressure on the school so they will serve better food?

Alright, back to the positive side of school. Read the rest of this entry »

Hello! I hope everyone is enjoying their summer. There are three more weeks left before school starts again and I have nothing planned for the rest of summer.

Summer Update

Three weeks ago (July 14th-July 20th), I flew down to Washington D.C. for a poetry festival called Brave New Voices. Brave New Voices is the biggest youth poetry slam in the world. (A poetry slam is a competition at where poets read/recite/perform their original work). There were poets from all over the country and a couple from Leeds, England, Trinidad & Tobago, and Worcester, England. We were all in teams and each team consisted of 4-6 poets. There were about 400 poets at the festival in total.

Honestly, I did not think I was going to make any friends in Washington D.C. because I am not very social and I thought the whole week was going to be about the competition. After arriving and unpacking into the Potomac house, I walked down the hall and was immediately greeted by a couple of poets. I thought it was really, really weird for them to talk to me and invite me into their rooms to cypher. After my first night in BNV, everything I thought about the people there was wrong. Read the rest of this entry »

Bryant Phan, a new student blogger, is finishing his ninth-grade year at MetWest High School. - Katy

School is coming to an end next week for a lot of us. This leads to my problem - Should I take the time off to relax or take summer classes to get extra credit?

Take Classes
I am an overachiever, or at least I claim to be. I usually never do anything over the summer and I think summer classes/college courses will definitely keep me from being bored. Taking college courses will prepare me for the upcoming year and I will be ahead of a lot of people when I go to college. A lot of High Schools also give a year of credit for a semester of college courses and if I take the right classes, there is a possibility of skipping a grade. Read the rest of this entry »