After-school work experiences allow students to pursue unique passions, learn valuable life skills

Think about the typical hiccups of Zoom learning: empty black squares, “broken” microphones and glitchy virtual backgrounds. As a public speaking tutor at Silicon Valley Youth, sophomore Angeline Hu deals with it all. Although some students can be tough to teach, Hu believes that tutoring builds a variety of skills. “It teaches me to be patient and to be the bigger person,” she said. According...

If you visit the Rinconada Pool on a Saturday afternoon, you can find junior Abigail Kuang supervising swimmers, negotiating with tough customers and occasionally saving someone’s life. As a member of Palo Alto Stanford Aquatics for almost ten years, Kuang wanted to become a lifeguard to gain valuable life skills. “I think it’s good to learn responsibility and money management early on,”...

At every event, there is always someone in sound booth cuing the music. At the Los Altos United Methodist Church, that person is senior Michael Walker. “I’m not really the guy in the studio,” Walker said. “I’m more the guy at a concert that works in the mixed booth.” As an audio engineer, Walker’s job is to create a mix of harmonious sounds with clips of instruments, voices and effects...

Senior Elina Saab-Sunden has been manning the front desk at Movement Gyms, formerly Planet Granite, since last August. Saab-Sunden revealed one of her favorite interview questions. “[My gym manager and event staff manager] asked me, ‘If a kid is up on the wall climbing and they get scared and pee their pants, what would you do?’” she said. “My answer was that I would try to distract other...