Before any school dance, pep rally, or extracurricular, students get to pay a visit to Angela Cirimelli in the finance office. For many students, this can be the best part of their day. Affectionately referred to as “Giggles” by some for her bright and cheery attitude, Angela is indisputably the most consistently happy member of Arroyo’s staff.

This is Angela’s third year working at Arroyo. Before coming here, she worked eighteen years at a bank. “The first ten years,” says Angela, “I liked it.” Then the bank was bought by a large conglomerate, and Angela knew it would be less personal and more cold, which she did not like the thought of.

Even though Angela faces it all with a smile, her life has not just been one big day at the beach. While putting herself through Cal State East Bay, Angela also had an ailing father, and her bank job to attend to. But with flying colors, Angela graduated in 2002.

Though Angela wishes Arroyo students would not wait till the last minute to buy things like dance tickets, when asked what her favorite part of her job is, she says, “All you guys [the students] are my favorites.” She is all the students’ favorites, as well. Senior Ryanne Hilario, who got to know Angela while working on the register for Winter Ball two years ago sums Angela up perfectly: “She’s always laughing and she always has a smile on her face.”

-Assistant Editor Vincent Martellacci

Ms. Donna Fuller gets more than forty voice-mails every day from parents to sift through. She has been working in the attendance office at Arroyo for two and a half years, and worked four years at Bohannon Middle School before that.

Ms. Fuller says she likes working at Arroyo better than Bohannon, and adds that, “I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for you guys.” Ms. Fuller loves kids, and none more than her own, one seven year old girl and a seventeen year old son.

Though she loves the kids, and is a parent herself, Ms. Fuller says the worst part of her job is “dealing with the parents, parents yelling at me.” With a laugh, Ms. Fuller defines her job as “yelling at kids.” She says it’s disheartening to see students not at school one day, but then see them at a football game the next day.

Regardless of angry parents and lazy kids, Ms. Fuller loves her job. As a parent and a staff member, she says she would like to see more functions that include “more students from all walks of life.” According to Senior Ashley Bulayo, who has worked with Ms. Fuller as senior class president, “It shows that she really cares about her students,” and indeed she does. 

-Assistant Editor Vincent Martellacci

Jill Stange has worked as Arroyo’s office manager for five years. As office manager, Ms. Stange works more with staff members, and she loves it. Ms. Stange’s favorite thing about her job is the “great people” she works with.            

Ms. Stange began at Washington Manor Middle School, and has always liked secretarial work. She saw what the office manager at Arroyo did, and soon stepped up into the role. Ms. Stange says she is “always busy,” and she likes that about her job. She makes sure classes are covered, does time sheets for substitutes, handles anything employee-related, and also acts as a secretary to the principal.

As a parent of one senior and an alumni, Ms. Stange would like to see more money for the schools, and “more money for the office staff.” She reports having good experiences as a parent, and loves her job as an employee. And the employees love her, as they would be lost without her.

-Assistant Editor Vincent Martellacci

                  “Can you open D-Hall?” Students in afterschool activities who leave their belongings in their locker constantly ask our night shift custodians for this favor.  They happily take time out of their busy schedule to assist students.  Carlos “Bucket” Alfaro is one of our school custodians who knows a great deal about helping others from his history of different occupations.
                  Before becoming a custodian, Carlos’ jobs varied from working in United Airlines as a mechanic (fixing whatever was needed) to a campus supervisor in various schools in the Bay Area (making sure students remained safe).  But with every career he took on, there was a downfall.  September 11 was the start of his difficult struggle of trying to support him and his family.  He was caught in the middle of the rough times with layoffs and cut wages which affected his life tremendously as he filed for unemployment and lost his property.  Luckily, his sibling introduced him into creating a custodian business of his own which he held onto for seven years.
                   In 2001, Carlos created Alfa Janitorial and Maintenance which progressed over the years it was running as it expanded all over the Bay Area to even Southern California cleaning homes to cleaning doctor clinics.  From here he assisted different communities keep business’ areas welcoming for customers.  “It brought good things for me.  It was good money and it helped pay the house,” Carlos remarked.  It lasted until 2007 when he realized he was “losing too much with paying his employees and the other necessities.”   After that career ended, he took it upon himself to become a full-time custodian and was placed to work here at Arroyo. 
                  Even though Carlos had rough patches in his history, he wouldn’t give it up.  He has no regrets in his life and if he had the chance, he’d “do all the same things all over again.”

-Staff Reporter Ashley Bulayo

                Walking through the halls after school you see the well-known custodian trailer traveling around the school’s quad or breezeways and a man with headphones strapped to his neck, blasting music ranging from country western to rock to the news.  Who’s that? Jack Worthy. Although students acknowledge him and his duties, they aren’t aware of Jack’s intriguing history of traveling around the whole country before he landed a career as a custodian in Arroyo High School.  Few students here only imagine imitating that lifestyle either before or after college to experience a thrill of a lifetime.
                  Jack was born and raised far away in Cleveland, Ohio and in 1981, he journeyed off to each state.  ”You gotta be adventurous and I wanted to explore the different places,” Jack stated as he explained his memories.  By himself, he drove and spent different time frames in each state.  During each stay, he would find several jobs to earn a few extra dollars or simply go site seeing in the area he was in.  There were many beautiful locations, but he chose Santa Barbara as his favorite because it was “the most beautiful place [he’s] seen.”  In fact, Santa Barbara was his first place to visit in California until he went upwards to Salinas.  So how did he end up living in the Bay Area?  “I didn’t choose it, it chose me.”  Ever since then, Jack has resided here in Oakland for the past twenty years, the longest he’s ever stayed in one place.
                   Having been almost everywhere you’d think he wouldn’t want to go anywhere else, “Maybe France, seems like an interesting place and it would be nice to see the views there.“  Until then, Jack stays here to devote his time to Arroyo students everyday, hoping to travel again.

-Staff Reporter Ashley Bulayo

            The clock hits 3:10, the bell rings, and schools out for the rest of the day. Students stay after school for sport practices or club activities while others go home. “Hi, Ron!” students tend to yell while they’re passing by the custodian room or walking through the halls getting ready to leave. Ron gives a little laugh and a warming hello back.  As a custodian, he defies all the expectations of one by creating unique bonds with fellow Arroyans.  In return, students trigger Ron’s thoughts from when he went to school here.
                  San Lorenzo raised, Ron Leal has been part of the Arroyo staff for about a year as a Custodian.  As an Arroyo graduate of 1965, you wonder why he decided to come back. “I was a custodial foreman and someone offered me to work here and I thought it was a great idea.” Coming back to Arroyo must have been a huge difference from when he attended. The biggest differences?  “The academics because the highest we went in math were algebra and geometry. You guys have way more and that’s good!” Currently, Arroyo’s highest levels of math are Advanced Placement classes, such as AP Calculus, taken possibly in your Junior or Senior year. “The group participation is different too. We never had the opportunity to do floats, skits, and all these school activities you guys get to do.  We had to be home by the time it gets dark and weren’t allowed to do anything else.”  Ron referred to the events such as Homecoming and Night Rally which weren’t as hyped up as they are now.  Students come together and work numerous hours to perfect their projects. For Ron, it’s interesting to see how much time has changed and how they continue to do so.
                  “You guys are my grandkids!” Ron exclaims as he explained of working with the students. He stays devoted towards his job at Arroyo that he finds himself “having an attitude change when […] not working” and sees him working here “until the day [he] dies.” After a moment to look back at his past, Ron left with this positive note, “The best feeling is breathing in the morning and knowing you’re alive.”

-Staff Reporter Ashley Bulayo

Every senior should be starting to feel the college application fever. Many have started looking for colleges and filling out applications. Here are some helpful hints to use.

First, figure out at least 4-5 colleges that you want to go to. Don’t be afraid to look at out of state colleges because of their tuition price, there is financial help available. One organization is the Western Undergraduate Exchange or known as WUE. Instead of paying the full out of state tuition you pay only a little bit more than in-state tuition. For example, if in-state tuition costs 2,000 dollars you would be paying only 4,000 dollars per year instead of the out of state tuition which could be 10,000 dollars or more.

Second, you should try to sell yourself in every application. They want to know why they should accept you into their school. Tell them every single good detail about you or what you have done in the past. They want you to boast and brag about yourself.

The third and final thing is not getting discouraged because you might be a little short of the college requirements. They only have three options to choose from. First they could reject you. Second, they could accept you anyways and have you make up classes there or they might put you into academic probation. Overall they will tell you what you need to get done to be able to go there because they really do want you to be part of their school. So seniors, the rest is up to you. Don’t sit there, go fill out some applications!

    In the United States teenagers look forward to driving and drinking when they turn twenty one. Yet Mr. Burnett, who lived in the Netherlands as a teen,  grew up a little differently; where trust, responsibility, and freedom were the norm.
    Mr. Burnett, a native of Washington D.C., moved to the Netherlands during his sophomore year in high school because his father was a professor and Mr. Burnett’s father was part of the Full Bright Exchange Program, which allowed Mr. Burnett’s father to exchange with a professor in the University of Amsterdam, so he did. Mr. Burnett recalls the moment when he and his family first arrived in Amsterdam, “Oh, I remember getting off the boat and we decided to go to the café and they were playing [the song] ‘If you’re going to San Francisco’, it reminded me a little bit of home and of course I was looking around because everything looked so different.”
    “European schools are much more strict and they have higher expectations than here in the United States” said Mr. Burnett “How do I know?, from experience”. Here in California high school sophomores are expected to pass the CAHSEE (an exam that tests your knowledge from middle school and only one year of high school) in order to graduate, “The CAHSEE is ridiculous, in Germany in order to graduate you have to pass a big exam, it’s longer than the finals at Stanford and a part of it is an oral essay in four different subjects” and of course Mr. Burnett passed that “big exam” because he went on to the University of Hamburg.
    In California teens can drive as long as they have a permit or a license, but in Germany you cannot drive until you are eighteen “It’s much more thorough and costs more too, to get your license” says Mr. Burnett. The legal drinking age in Germany is sixteen and drinking isn’t a big deal in Germany, “It’s more common for teens to just go out to clubs with friends” comments Mr. Burnett, “and in Europe teens just look forward to traveling around Europe than anything else”.
    “Teenagers are teenagers they like to talk on their cell phones, listen to music, they like the internet, they like to party, and they like to go to the movies” Mr. Burnett also went on to say that teenagers in Europe have more freedom, they have more places to go and hang out, and that it’s much safer. Mr. Burnett concluded by saying that the experience helped him learn to be circumspect and to look at the world, not only through eyes of an American, but also through other cultures eyes.

                                              -Staff Reporter Simon Mercado