Oxford Dictionary defines adulthood as “the length of time that a person has lived or a thing has existed.” Though the concept is easy enough to comprehend on these terms, the confusion seeps in when the sectioning begins. In the United States, the first major divide occurs at age 18, when you legally become an adult.

As the Sequoyah high school community knows, several Sequoyah staff members said their goodbyes last year; however, many new members joined the community this year. This means new teachers and faculty, and most importantly, new advisors!

For many, getting a driver’s license at sixteen is a rite of passage, providing freedom for teens to go wherever they want. However, fewer and fewer teenagers are getting their license. In California, teens can get their driver’s license at the age of sixteen after having a permit for six months. Although sixteen has long been the age of getting a driver’s license, many teens nowadays are choosing not to drive.

The Sequoyah High School is offering seniors a new option for the Social Innovation Program (SIP) called the Action Collective. The students who joined are in the same group for the whole year. This new addition is a third option for seniors’ SIP journey, along with internships and impact projects from their junior year.

The STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) Institute is back after a year-long break, and Sequoyah students are excited about all the opportunities it brings.

Towering canary island pines greet Sequoyah students every morning. Pale yellow light weaves through the trees and illuminates the sullen-seeming ravens as they hobble on classroom roofs. Their shrill voices force sleepy minds awake: “Behold,” the ravens say. These creatures appear by turns somber, majestic, and amusing, giving character to the school environment and plenty of fodder for student musings. 

Sequoyah’s biannual theater production is regarded as one of the school’s many entertainment highlights, along with the Science Ambassadors’ always-intriguing lunchtime events and High School Director Marc Alongi serving up waffles during Talking Leaves season. Sequoyah’s Theater teacher and Chair of the Performing Arts Department Arden Thomas tends to serve up a sumptuous dramatic spectacle twice a year, aided by eager student participation. This past autumn, eight Sequoyah students performed two separate one-act comedies: Jonathan Rand’s Breaking Badly and Peter Shaffer’s Black Comedy. 

A few days prior to the November 2024 election, Sequoyah School Assistant Head and High School Director Marc Alongi announced a mock election designed for students to get familiar with the democratic process.

The holiday season is one of the jolliest times of the year, marked by fun festivities, great food, and a cozy feeling in the air. However, the start of the holiday season can be a point of contention. Some think it should start the day after Halloween, while others think it should start a week before Christmas.

Every year, Sequoyah students have the opportunity to audition for the Theater Program’s musical. This year, students auditioned for Alice by Heart, a musical about the London blitz of World War II.

Owning a cat has many more benefits than most people think. Not only do these furry companions provide mental support, but they also benefit their owners’ physical health. Many studies have shown that cats improve heart health by lowering the chance of cardiovascular diseases and reducing allergies over time.

What’s the big deal with Taylor Swift? Since her biggest-grossing (in the world! in history!) Eras Tour, people can’t seem to stop talking about her. In this article we’ll dive into the reasons why there’s so much hype surrounding Swift–and alternatively the abundance of hate directed towards her.

Grayson Throckmorton, Sequoyah School’s Science Department Chair, math teacher, and Director of the STEM Institute, has 3,016 followers on TikTok. How can this be? Can teachers even have TikToks? How many other teachers have TikToks? And why are so many of Grayson Throckmorton’s videos about Taco Bell?

As the presidential election approached, many strong feelings bubbled to the surface– excitement, anxiety, rage, hopefulness, and hopelessness. As the public headed to the polls, these feelings loomed over thousands of cities and communities nationwide.

Every Halloween, one costume seems to rise above the rest in terms of popularity. In 2023, Barbie and Ken were the hot costumes with an estimated 1.8 million people dressing up as Barbie for Halloween. The popularity of this costume makes sense due to the release of Barbie in 2023, which took over the media and soon became the highest grossing film of the year. After the release of Stranger Things season four in 2022, the number of costume searches from the show spiked, at one point having over 135,000 searches in under a week. Clearly, Halloween costumes are heavily impacted by popular media. However, this raises the question, “What will the hot Halloween costume of 2024 be?” 

Four years ago, a pandemic that shocked the 21st century hit the world. I remember saying goodbye to my friends and going home blithely, unaware that it would be anything more than an extra two weeks of spring break. After an online graduation and an entire school year online, I found myself in the chaos of middle school.

Nutrition is crucial to a human’s life, especially a teenager’s. Teenagers are at a seminal point where they need vitamins and nutrients to grow. A majority of kids have been taught the best way to source those nutrients is from produce, grains, and animal products.

Leslie Margolis is a long-term substitute in the high school Humanities Department at Sequoyah School. She attended Clark University in Massachusetts and studied government and sociology, and received a master’s in social anthropology from the London School of Economics.

Over a five-day run beginning April 17, Sequoyah Theater put on an incredible production of Chicago, a 1920s musical about sex and murder in the Windy City. The musical was a showcase of the strongest features of Sequoyah’s Arts Department: hard work, talented performers, and an obsessive attention to detail that made the play run flawlessly.

TNR stands for “Trap, Neuter,  and Release/Return.” Pasadena Humane’s Trap-Neuter-Return-Monitor (TNRM) program traps feral cats who wander around neighborhoods, fixes them, and then releases them back outside. They release the cats because some aren’t socialized with humans and won’t thrive if they go to a shelter or a home.