It was September 1st, 2005 in Mission Viejo when now-17-year-old Judd Karn came into this world. Being the current Editor-In-Chief for The Diablo Dispatch, as well as being involved in numerous other activities including golf, the SVUSD Student Advisory Committee, and multiple MVHS clubs, Judd has definitely made an impact on this campus.

     Outside of school, Judd’s hobbies include playing golf, playing Minecraft with his friends, and going to his friends’ places of work to try to get free food. “Not for the free food, I just think it’s a funny thing to do. It’s a goal to have while you’re just talking with your friends,” he explains. He also enjoys watching movie (singular movie), computers, graphic design, and writing.

    Some items on Judd’s bucket list include going to Cyprus or Bermuda, and traveling “as much as possible” in general. Aside from that, Judd is very lucky to have already experienced some bucket-list items like going to Catalina Island, New York, and visiting his family in Canada. He also has a passionate desire to watch Werewolf by Night, which is a fantastic one-hour-long movie about a werewolf at night (released a whopping 213 days ago, as of May 8th). Can you believe that?

     Speaking of movies, among Judd’s favorites are The Truman Show, La La Land, Django Unchained, The Grand Budapest Hotel, and Everything Everywhere All at Once. He enjoys film analysis and also writing entertainment articles.

     Judd’s love of writing stems from Mission Viejo High School. He specifically accredits The Diablo Dispatch and Mr. McCormack for helping him learn to enjoy writing, as well as plenty of help from Mr. Cost and AP Literature. Journalism has definitely had some influence on his future career possibilities, which could be journalism, screenwriting, or business administration for journalism.

     During his time at Mission, Judd has also really enjoyed humanities. He says that it is “a really great program where you kind of get that transition between college and high school, with the lectures. But it’s also just fun and it’s a great way for me to relax in my senior year because a lot of other schools have you take, like, the hardest classes your senior year.”

     When asked about the most important thing that he has learned in high school, Judd explains, “I feel like a lot of high school isn’t really about the content, it’s more about learning to learn. So, the most important thing, in my eyes, has been figuring out how to learn to learn.”

     Taking this knowledge with him, Judd is going to be graduating from Mission Viejo High School in just a matter of weeks. Thus, leaving him with a relaxing and fun summer break before he leaves for Brown University in Rhode Island. “I will be sleeping a lot… the first week, I think I’ll probably do nothing,” he says. After that, however, Judd hopes to spend the summer road-tripping across the West Coast, possibly visiting his family in Canada, and working at a golf course, Disneyland, or participating in an internship.

      A well-deserved break, especially once you hear how much he has already accomplished so far. In high school alone, he created the entire website for the school newspaper, got nominated for Youth of the Year, actively participated in the Saddleback Student Advisory Committee, and received a Diablo Excellence medallion—twice. Now that he is going to Brown University, Judd is sure to have many more accomplishments coming his way.

     Nestled in Rhode Island’s capital city, Providence, the Ivy League Brown University has an open curriculum, meaning there are no general education requirements. This aspect appealed to Judd. He explains, “Since I don’t really know what I want to do in the future, Brown helps me choose.”

     The ex-Miami blue enjoyer is looking forward to studying computer science, business, journalism, and, possibly, film at Brown. He is trying to “take up a bunch of different stuff to figure out, Do I like this? Do I want to do this forever?”

     Though Judd is currently undecided about what he wants to do in the future, he is currently leaning toward becoming a screenwriter. Yet, he knows that his aspirations could change. Judd suggests, “A lot of people in high school have certain goals of theirs. Last year, I had a certain goal. I was like, I’m going to be an engineer, and I’m like, Wait, business is also cool, and now I’m like, I shouldn’t be 17/18 and trying to figure out those darn goals of mine. That’s what college is for. College is for figuring out what you want to do. And so, my goal right now might be to become a screenwriter, but that’s probably going to change ten times over in college. And that’s a good thing.”

     Which is great advice, especially if you are also somebody who does not yet know what you want to do in the future. Speaking of really great advice, Judd would like any incoming freshmen to know that, “There are some freshmen that are already caring about what college they get into or where they want to go. It doesn’t really matter. The difference you have from getting into an ‘elite college’ and a Cal. State is negligible. You’ll probably just get a couple year head-start, but I’d argue that that couple year head-start is not worth as much as spending your time in high school developing as a person and having fun. So, I’d say focus on having fun in high school.”

     Just have fun. It is an idea that appears to be common among a few of Judd’s philosophies. An example of this is his philosophy of trying to make an impact wherever he can. “Just making sure that every single act I do has a positive impact on someone. If I can do that, and magnify it as much as possible, I will,” he says.

     It is evident that he follows this mindset in his day-to-day life. From smiling and “waving profusely” to his friends, just because he feels that “it’s funny and a lot of people smile” when he does it, to dedicating endless amounts of time to everything he gets involved with, it is obvious that Judd really is making a positive impact wherever he goes. “If I can do that, and make someone’s day just slightly better, then I’ll do that every single time,” he says.

     Judd has more than certainly left his impact on Mission Viejo High School, as well as on his friends, teachers, and classmates. His positive attitude, diligence, and kindness will continue to pay off well into the future.

Even though Judd is considered a traitor to our journalism program, along with the entirety of Mission Viejo High School for leaving us, we all wish him the very best—in college and beyond.

      “We got it!” Moloud Nadeali Jelokhani exclaimed to her 12 year old son, Henry Nadeali Jelokhani, from across the house after opening up the mail. After several years the Nadeali Jelokhanis, citizens of Frankfurt, Germany, finally won the US ‘Green Card’ lottery; they could finally move to the States, where Moloud’s brother-in-law had raved about the success and stories he found in California for years. So, six short months later, Moloud, Jafar, and Henry found themselves in a new house, Henry’s uncle’s house, with a new world in front of them.

      Henry was put into a 6th grade class a couple weeks into second semester. Although (naturally) slightly nervous entering a new school, Nadeali expressed that the teacher and all the students made him feel extremely welcomed. 

     Nadeali stated that his 6th grade teacher, Mr. Higgins, like many of his future American teachers, went “above and beyond” in making him feel comfortable. And this experience with Mr. Higgins (allowing him to use google translate, helping him individually with assignments, always trying to include him in the class, etc.) really expresses the difference Nadeali felt between the culture in Germany and America. Nadeali states, “I feel like the biggest difference between America and Germany is the vibe you get in the education system. Although it is a lower level there’s this sense of having fun and growing as a person rather than academics and only academics…the culture supports the growth of character.”

     The differences in the culture of education in the two countries is most aptly represented by the 6th grade promotion. In America schools usually hold a ceremony for 6th graders to celebrate them completing elementary school. In Germany when students complete their equivalent of elementary school they just go onto the higher level, which holds our equivalent of fifth graders to college freshman. Still in the academic only mentality of Germany, Nadeali’s thoughts were that “it was just mind boggling to me why this would be a celebration. In Germany after fourth grade you just go to fifth grade.”

     Nadeali compares this promotion to participation trophies, something never evident in Germany. This matches up with the hyper competitive culture in Germany where “there’s a pie and you want to get as big of a slice as you can,” whereas in America “it’s a buffet, everyone can win.”  And Nadeali believes that being a member of this American mindset is what helped him reach later academic success that would not have been possible with the negative, competitive mindset of Germany.

      Entering 7th grade Nadeali was put into the English Learners’ program where he got to meet other recently immigrated students, but a couple weeks into the school year he was transferred into regular English classes. Leaving it was bittersweet for him, it was sad for him to leave his Persian friends he had met (although born in Germany both his parents were Persian and spoke Farsi at home) but he was glad to be improving. 

      During this time, due to the fact that he had already learned many of the topics when he lived in Germany in tandem with the fact that he was put into non honors classes, many students placed a label of ‘the smart guy’ on Nadeali.

      This idea of wanting to become the smart guy was also reinforced by the new role model in his life, his uncle. Nadeali saw how respected his uncle was as a doctor and how grateful the patients were of him, bringing home dozens of cards and gifts thanking him for his work, and, from seeing this, Nadeali developed a dream for him of being a doctor.

      In the past Nadeali did not really have a reason for wanting to succeed but this label gave him purpose, to continue being the smart guy and trying to work as hard as he could. Whenever possible Nadeali would read, spending his snacks and lunches in La Paz Intermediate’s library. Naturally Nadeali’s vocabulary and understanding of English improved, accelerated by the large amount of reading he had done.

      At the point of middle school graduation his confusion of celebration for elementary or middle school graduation had faded and at this point he now felt acclimated to the culture of the American education system.

      However, going into high school, now being enrolled into all honors and AP, was a complete shock for him. Since Nadeali had already learnt much of the prior content in American schools already in Germany due to Europe’s more accelerated curriculum he did not have to study middle school but going into ninth grade a lot of these topics were brand new and this was the first time where he felt the need to study in America and, due to now being in honors classes, the label of ‘the smart guy’ had virtually dissolved.

      Nadeali had to learn basically every component of how to write an essay due to being in college prep classes during middle school but eventually developed an understanding for all of his classes, English especially, throughout the school year. 

      Tenth grade, his and the rest of the current seniors’ year of Covid, was a blessing and a curse for Nadeali education-wise. He had done it completely online and, because of this, was able to enroll in ten classes, three at Saddleback Community College and seven at Mission. “That was just brutal, I was not ready for that workload…in hindsight I regret nothing because it taught me a lot about studying and workload management, but I paid for it with my grades.” Nadeali now completely understood all of his classes, but the unreasonable workload of ten classes made him suffer academically.

      His eleventh grade he originally enrolled in seven classes but ended up dropping his Calculus AB class and a Chemistry course at Saddleback due to scheduling issues, which left him with five classes; a relatively easy year for him but the small amount of classes during his junior year had a chance of hurting him during admissions season the following year.

      Twelfth grade Nadeali felt confident entering the admissions season knowing the hard work he had done to go from a completely non honors student to an all honors student trying to learn as much as possible, but looking back Nadeali now thinks that he didn’t express the challenges he faced well enough and was very “impersonal”, and this was a contributing factor in his rejection/waitlist from every single school he applied to.

      This had been a major discouragement for Nadeali in many ways, like a lot of seniors he had this preconceived notion that colleges are a direct representation of your hard work in school (something that he later realized was not true and is overall a toxic mindset to have). But Nadeali wasn’t complacent with rejection; he felt he didn’t represent himself fully in his applications. 

      A couple days after his rejection, in a last ditch effort, he began writing an appeal to UCI, a school with a roughly 4% acceptance rate of applicants who appealed their rejection. In it he laid out all the challenges he had dealt with throughout the years; after countless revisions the appeal came in at 2000 words. He sent it and hoped for the best.

      On the sixth of May Henry Nadeali was informed that he was admitted into UCI. His advice for underclassmen (and advice for life in general) is, “you only really lose when you stop trying.”

    The sun shines bright on the student-run booths, showcasing nations from across the globe. Some 30 booths, spanning from Canada to Morocco, many doling out food samples or conducting activities and games, lined the borders of the gym quad.

     A crowd of MVHS students spent their tutorial walking around the booths and interacting with the thoughtfully created posters. Peers share facts and culturally significant information amongst each other as they wait for a performance to begin.

   Mission Viejo High School’s cultural fair began last year, with Irene Kim wanting to bring the enriching experience that she felt with her middle school’s, La Paz Intermediate, annual Multicultural Fair to Mission. “I thought it would be a really great way to bring together the diversity on our campus and [it’s] a great way to make sure everyone feels heard and included.”

     Irene and the rest of the ASB class created a procedure for the fair from the ground up last year, with Irene handling the advertising and organizing of the event. A large reason that this fair was so successful was due to the fact that many teachers and organizations like CSF and NHS collaborated with the fair to encourage their members/students to create booths. This year Eduardo Alva Calderon joined in as co-director of the fair and coordinated the featured dancer, Lupita Martinez, for this year, 

     Students were able to sign up to perform or host a booth, and many had cultural food or games on display. Many booths provided cultural insight rather than historical facts, and allowed a space for students to share their own culture, which Irene hopes can show a new view of many cultures to many of the students at Mission.

     Another great attribute about the cultural fair is the collaboration with the English Learners program; Irene commended EL program director Mrs. Dargavel, “Mrs. Dargavel had a huge hand in encouraging her students from the EL program to participate…that was especially exciting since a lot of those students aren’t fluent in English and so it was really great to see them step out of their comfort zone and interact with other students.”

     Mission’s Cultural Fair acts as a reminder to just how diverse America is. “Living in America it’s pretty easy to forget about your cultural roots and I think that is something really important; especially in high school when it’s so common to reject your culture, to learn to love it and to learn to love other cultures [is something that we really should value].”