Raven Report

Sequoia High School

Volume Viii, Issue 7

New board
member
brings passion
and unique
background

1201 Brewster Ave. Redwood City, CA 94062

April 15, 2015

Not just a plane day: students work

together to revamp aircraft

By CLAIRE BUGOS
Managing Editor
At 30, Laura Martinez has already served on the East Palo Alto
city council, culminating in her two
terms as the first Latina mayor. With
experience in city government and
education, Martinez was sworn in
March 18 to her new position on the
SUHSD board of trustees.
Martinez is filling the term left by
former board member Olivia Martinez (to whom she has no relation),
who resigned earlier this year in order
to move with her family to Texas.
As a graduate of Palo Alto High
School and the daughter of graduates of Carlmont and Sequoia High
Schools, Martinez is familiar with
the district from which students are
coming. As the first in her family to
graduate from college, Martinez can
connect with many students who are
in a similar situation as she was.
I come from a community in East
Palo Alto not too different from Bell
Haven or North Fair Oaks where students just like me are the first in their
families to go to college, she said.
Members of the board looked for
experience in local governance as well
as a connection to the community
when interviewing candidates.
Forty percent of the district is Latino, so its great to have somebody
who shares that with a plurality of students, SUHSD board member Chris
Thomsen said. Its useful that her
background is different from other
membersits a huge asset.
Martinez currently works at Aspire East Palo Alto Phoenix Academy,
where she runs after-school programs
for students and parents.
Im really passionate about extracurricular activities, especially sports,
clubs and volunteer opportunities,
[and also] college readiness and making students are equipped to take on
a career after high school or go to a
college, Martinez said.
Martinezs term ends in November
and her seat will be up for election.
She plans to run for the position and
if elected, will serve another four years
on the board.

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Page 3

Photos courtesy of Tim Brand

Junior Albert Hsu and sophomore Adalberto Villalobos Grijalva work on restoring a Japanese Cessna 152
airplane through the SAFE program, the plane is scheduled to be ready for flight in May.

Freshman Alex Strehlow, sophomore Thomas Greenhill and junior

Evan Isenstein-Brand work once a week at the San Carlos Airport.
By CLAIRE BUGOS
and ABIGAIL WANG
Managing Editor and Feature Editor
On a typical Monday afternoon,
when most students are heading
home or gearing up for sports, a team
of five students and their adviser load
into a van and drive off to the San
Carlos Airport to spend their afternoon cleaning out handfuls of dead
Japanese bugs that flew across the
Pacific in the wheels of their broken
Cessna 152 airplanes.
The SAFE Aviation Maintenance
program, which began February 2,
lets these students practice fixing
airplanes. Students work with three
mechanics at the airport to complete
all the tasks necessary to restore the

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Page 8

airplane to flying condition.

Every time [our task] changes; one
day we might be working on the wheels,
another day we might be working on the
engine, or paint or corrosion, sophomore Thomas Greenhill said. We took
the wheels off twice and thats the only
thing Ive ever done twice.
The program was conceived by adviser Tim Brand, whose son works at the
airport. He asked the owner if he would
be willing to collaborate on the program,
and he willingly agreed.
It just occured to me theres a great
aviation center and mechanics, literally
right across the highway from us and I
just thought, I wonder if theres a way
to put this together? Brand said. And it
just started from there.
He approached AVP Sophia Olliver

about the idea, who then went through

the process of selecting the five most
committed of the 50 candidates to be a
part of the program.
A few have had past experience working in aviation, and many of them have
some interest in pursuing careers in aviation.
Both [freshman Alex Strehlow and
I] fly a lot of radio-controlled planes,
Greenhill said. I almost have my gliders license so I just want to get as much
experience as I can. Im trying to get my
pilot license by the end of high school.
Both Strehlow and Greenhill had met
before the program started; however,
many of the students had to learn how
to work together without knowing each
other previously.
All of the sudden they have to figure out how to remove an engine with
minimal instruction, so theyre forced to
be teammates, they are forced to do it
together and its really, really positive,
Brand said. Theyve quickly grown from
a group of strangers, to a dynamic group
of friends.
The group hopes to get the plane in
the air by May. As for the future of the
program, Brand hopes the program will
expand to include helicopters in the upcoming school year.
Its a really big opportunity to be able
to do this and its important that [we]
treat it that way, Strehlow said. I mean
how often can you get to say that youre
a freshman in high school and youre
working on an airplane?

By the numbers

4:20:90

Fastest mile record held by Mark

Daniels 72, during the South
PAL finals.