Brueser came to Gunn this semester through the Council on International Educational Exchange program. “The reason I decided to go on an exchange trip was to improve my English and go on an adventure,” she said. Brueser is staying with her host family, who have two students going to Gunn, until mid-June.

The main difference that Brueser finds between Palo Alto and Germany is the environment. “I like Palo Alto, but everything is far away,” she said. “You have to have somebody drive you everywhere, which is different from Berlin, where you can walk around to get to places.”

Another difference is how many Gunn students are involved in extracurricular activities after school. “Everyone is very interested in something,” she said.

During her time at Gunn, Brueser has played a variety of sports, as her school in Germany doesn’t have any sports teams. She tried basketball and track and field, but ultimately stuck with badminton. “I like to play team sports, but badminton is a nice experience where you play individually or as a pair,” she said.

In addition to trying new sports, Brueser has gone on many food adventures. She has compiled a long list of iconic American restaurants that she wants to try, such as Shake Shack, Taco Bell and Popeyes. “It’s nice that there are so many opportunities to try different foods, like Japanese or Italian,” Brueser said.

As someone who has lived in a major city in Germany for the majority of her life, Brueser’s favorite memory of her time studying abroad so far was going to San Francisco with her host family. “I really liked being in a city again,” she said. At the same time, she has enjoyed seeing the sunsets and views of the Bay Area. “In Berlin, there are tall houses everywhere, so it’s not that common to see a nice view,” Brueser said.

With her last day in Palo Alto, June 15, approaching, Brueser has created a “last-week list.” This list details all of the activities she wants to complete on her last week in the U.S. Activities on this list include going to Six Flags, swimming in the ocean and celebrating her birthday. “I want to do everything on that list and see people for the last time,” she said.

Morales’ grandfather has played a crucial role in introducing him to the indigenous community. “I’m glad that my grandfather introduced the culture to me because now I see life differently,” he said. “I feel that if I didn’t have those teachings from him, I wouldn’t be the person I am today because his words of wisdom took me to another level of accepting what death is. I learned to appreciate who I am, who I can become and whom I can offer that same energy to.”

In one word, Morales described the indigenous community as a family. “We’re not biologically related, but it’s the form of ‘tequio’ (‘trabajo communal’ in Nahuatl), which is communal work where we gather together to share our love, energy and culture,” he said. “We’re all united.”

Being a part of the indigenous community also comes with a lot of responsibility. “As an indigenous, you’re representing your legacy,” Morales said. “You’re representing your ancestors because at one point, they couldn’t historically.”

In addition to the responsibilities that come with being indigenous, Morales is faced with cultural appropriation. For example, Morales wears macaw feathers because they resonate with him, but he has seen nonindigenous people wear them unknowingly. “Macaw feathers are colorful,” he said. “I’m pretty colorful, but I’m also natural. I only use natural colored feathers, but a lot of people will dye chicken feathers to make it seem like they’re part of something that they’re not.”

Seeing people disrespect his culture leaves Morales feeling disheartened. “I feel that I have failed the dreams that my ancestors had intended for me,” he said. “They wanted me to preserve the culture, but that can’t happen if people are just trying to copy how it’s done.”

As an indigenous person, Morales also recognizes the stereotypes that come with his identity. “As someone who is darker-skinned, my skin color plays a huge component in being indigenous,” he said. “We’re considered ‘savages and animals,’ in terms of colonizers or Spaniards. In some terms, I’m representing those stereotypes. But instead of taking the negativity, I’m taking the positive out of it. I’m proud of it.”

Morales wears jewelry such as jade and jaguar necklaces, which contain medicine, as part of his indigenous culture. “At school, at work and in public, I always carry around my medicine,” he said. “The medicine is not something physical, but it’s my energy that I place within my jewelry.” Animals such as hawks, deer and jaguars are symbols of his ancestors and indigenous community. “Sometimes just walking to school, I see those animals, which takes me to another level of feeling more centered,” Morales said. “Deep down, either my ancestors, my creator or even just a certain energy is protecting me. I know who is going to be there even if I’m not 100% ready to start the day.”

Morales’ grandfather introduced him to traditional indigenous dancing at a time when he didn’t have a connection to the community. Aztec dancing became an important aspect of his life two years ago when he joined Calpulli Tonalehqueh, a dance group that performs at ceremonies throughout California. “Dancing centers me,” he said. “It reminds me how precious and sacred I am but also honors my body and limits.” His dance costume consists of a long fancy headdress (“copilli” in Nahuatl), instruments made from wood and rattles (“ayoyotes” in Nahuatl). “The ayoyotes are a key instrument that we wrap around our ankles,” Morales said. “Without saying a prayer with our mouth or our words, we use it with our dance and our steps.”

Aztec dancing, however, is more than just specific movements: Each step and move has significance. “Every step that we take is a word,” Morales said. “Every move that we do is essentially a phrase to tell a story.” For Morales, Aztec dancing is not only a hobby, but also a way to tell stories. “Our culture is something that should be appreciated and honored,” he said. “There’s so much beauty in the Mexica and Totonaca cultures, but so much hardship has led us here.”

Eventually, Morales would like to share his indigenous culture and energy with the Gunn community. Since his cultures and traditions are sacred to him, though, he has mixed feelings about showcasing them. “It’s scary because I’m going to be vulnerable,” Morales said. “I’d love to spread my medicine to people, but I hope they can accept it, too, rather than ignore it.”

This small yet simple incident is a shared experience among many. A name is much more than a word. It not only is a way to be addressed, but it also appears on legal documents for important milestones such as driver’s licenses and diplomas. A name carries identity, culture and meaning. For some, their name may hold significant value because of the loved ones they were named after or who chose it. Even for people who may not believe that their name is unique, a name acknowledges all identities: who you are as a person, what your background is and what your family values. A name can also cause cultures to clash, as some people are faced with trying to assimilate in America while maintaining their identity through their name.

Castillo’s parents named her Rossana (roh-sa-na), a combination of her grandmother’s and mother’s name. She began experiencing problems with her name in middle school where there weren’t many children who could pronounce her name correctly. Since Castillo’s name is uniquely spelled with two s’s and one n, many people had a hard time pronouncing it. “I remember thinking, ‘I just wish I had a white name,’” she said. “It didn’t sound pretty to me anymore, which is really sad. I ended up not liking it anymore.”

As a result of this mispronunciation, Castillo adopted a nickname. “I ended up telling people that I was going by Rosie,” she said. “Honestly, that was a lot easier for everybody to pronounce.” Since then, Castillo has always introduced herself as Rosie to others. Her family members are the only people who call her Rossana.

Castillo further explored the importance of her name when she traveled to Mexico in high school and connected with her culture. “Seeing where our ancestry was and seeing all the different, beautiful names there allowed me to grow more pride in my own name,” she said. During this trip, she also visited her grandmother’s grave and discovered more about the person she was named after. “Knowing the kind of woman that she was and finding out more about her through my dad and family, came with a lot of pride,” she said. “I remember thinking, ‘Why can’t I be less ashamed?’” After that trip, Rossana became a special name to her. “It feels more right for people to call me Rosie and to keep my name sacred,” she said. “I don’t want people to call me by my first name because that’s something that’s really personal to me now.”

Sophomore Yayoi (ya-yo-ee) Tomaszewski was named after Hinamatsuri, a Japanese tradition in which families name their daughters Yayoi during the month of March. “My name comes with a lot of history and tradition, and that’s really special to me,” she said. “When someone says it’s just a name, brushes it off or mispronounces it, it’s as if all the history of my name goes away and doesn’t matter.” In middle school, Tomaszewski started going by Yoyo since it was easier for people to pronounce. “When they kept calling me Yoyo, I didn’t feel as special,” she said. So, in high school, Tomaszewski introduced herself as Yayoi and even put the phonetics on her Instagram account to prevent mispronunciation. “I’m glad I put the phonetics in my bio, because in case someone felt awkward asking how to pronounce my name, they could always look at my bio,” she said.

Indian American junior Sahar (suh-haa-rr) Rao describes his name as one of a kind. Rao has learned to embrace the name “Sahar,” a Persian feminine name. He sees a parallel between his name and limited-edition objects. “I’m one amongst a few, not one amongst many,” he said. Rao also relates his unique name to the film “Toy Story.” “There’s a scene in ‘Toy Story’ where they zoom out from this one Buzz Lightyear, and you just find out there’s an entire store full of Buzz Lightyears,” he said. “Having been named Sahar, I feel that in one way, I’m not a mass-produced Buzz Lightyear.”

Senior Badal (b-ah-d-uh-l) Tamang isn’t bothered when people mispronounce his name. “I don’t mind if people don’t say it correctly because I know it’s a difficult word to say,” he said. People often made bottle or bottle-flipping jokes when he was younger, but he went along with them. “It never bothered me,” he said. “At the end of the day, it’s just friends joking around, so I understood that.” Despite mispronunciation and jokes, Tamang has never thought of changing his name. “My parents gave it to me, and I don’t want to change that,” he said.

Freshman Sevin (se-vin) Kwon encounters a different problem than people’s mispronouncing his name: people’s misspelling it. “A couple of times I’ve tried identifying myself as Steven or Stevie just to prevent people from misspelling my name,” he said. Kwon has thought about changing his name in the past, but ultimately became content with it, as a lot of funny moments have stemmed from it. “Most people already know me as Sevin: the kid with the number as his name,” he said. “I’m Sevin. I’ve always known myself as Sevin, and I’m probably always going to be known as Sevin.”

After junior Heeseo (HEE-suh) Jeong experienced teachers’ often mispronouncing her name, she decided to take initiative to spread awareness about name pronunciation. “Through my years as a student, I’ve had a wide range of teachers with a wide range of abilities in name pronunciation,” she said. “After seeing several teachers working hard to improve their skills in pronouncing people’s names correctly, I wanted to share the skills and insights that I’ve gained from just having a name that is considered hard to pronounce.” Jeong started by giving a presentation to some Gunn teachers and eventually created a video that was sent to the entire Palo Alto Unified School District. Now, she is looking to expand this project to Santa Clara County to suggest solutions for name pronunciation in the classroom.

Tomaszewski believes that everyone should search for the meaning of their name or find out why their parents chose it. “When you know the meaning of your name, you feel proud of it and it makes you feel special,” Tomaszewski said. “Everyone deserves to feel special in some sort of way.”

One common phrase that Ghasemzadeh tells herself when she is stressed is that “everything will work out in the long run.” “As long as you put in the effort, work hard and try to cope with the stress, everything will be fine,” she said.

Often, the stress that Ghasemzadeh feels at school is carried home and can affect the way she acts around her parents. When she finds herself becoming frustrated, she is able to de-stress by communicating with them instead. “With my parents, I try talking it out with them to see how we can all go through this stressful time together,” she said.

Experiencing the most stress her senior year, she believes that she has found more ways to handle stress as the years have progressed. “Over the years I have been getting more stressed, but I’ve been getting better at learning to cope with it at the same time,” Ghasemzadeh said.

One activity she found this year to help her feel relaxed is listening to music, specifically Rhythm and Blues (R&B) music. “I usually listen to pop and happy music when I’m not stressed out, but when I’m stressed out, I listen to more mellow and relaxing music,” she said.

To the people who are stressed right now, Ghasemzadeh wants them to know that stress is a universal thing. “If you’re stressed out right now, know that you’re not going through this alone,” she said. “There are a lot of people that are going through something similar, whether you are a freshman, sophomore, junior or senior. Stay safe and happy, and do the things you enjoy.”