International summers

For many high school juniors and seniors, the summer season is a time to continue studying and get involved in extracurricular activities; at the same time, many other students get the chance to relax and take a break from a year of studying.

Freshman Madison Brown’s summer will be both recreational and academic.

Brown will be going to upstate New York to visit family. In addition to visiting family, he will also be hanging out with friends.

For the other part of his summer, Brown will be focusing on the Medical Explorer Program of Stanford he plans on attending.

Brown wants to be a doctor, and is ambitiously taking early steps toward fulfilling his goal. He says, “Basically, you get to meet many people in different medical fields like surgeons. It’s a great program.”

Sophomore Anthony Privitera will also be having a busy summer. In the early summer, Privitera will be accompanying Peninsula Youth Orchestra to London for a performance. He says, “It will be my first time to Europe. I expect London to be a very different, but fun place.”

Later in Privitera’s summer, he will be attending his cousin’s wedding in Atlanta, GA.

While Christmas and Thanksgiving are the more typical occasions for family reunions, Privitera will be visiting family during the summer also. Privitera says, “My family and I are going to New York to visit my mom’s family and to have fun.”

Like Privitera, junior Justine Kubo will also attend a wedding, but in Hawaii. Kubo says, “I’ve been to Hawaii twice before and have cruised through all the islands. I think it could be a different and better experience this time, since I will be there for a beautiful wedding.”

In addition, Kubo will be getting a house in Lake Tahoe will four of her friends. “We will be going to the lake every day to swim,” says Kubo.

Although the latter part of Kubo’s summer is packed with exciting adventures, in June she will be taking the SAT, ACT, and her SAT Subject tests. There will be a lot of hard work for Kubo before she can have any real fun.

Senior Joe Kwon will be travelling all over the world during summer. Most of his summer consists of going on missions with his church. Kwon and his church will be going to Cambodia for the third time to help out the locals. He says, “We basically help the community. For example, last time, we helped make street signs. We also go door to door and ask people if we could pray for them.” In addition, they will also be going to South Korea.

Kwon says, “There is a possibility that we might fly around the states to give seminars about religious topics.” Besides church work, Kwon and his friends plan to take a road trip through the states and possibly visit UCLA.

Most people are going to be travelling and having fun throughout the summer. However, sophomore Candy Tong will be working hard towards her dream of getting better at ballet. She has won several competitions before and has been learning how to dance since she was little. Tong is currently the Teen Miss Dance of California and she plans to compete for the title of Teen Miss Dance of America during the summer.

“It’s really intense because there’s at least two girls from each state competing. I’m fairly confident about the competition,” says Tong. “I will be temporarily moving to Orlando, FL, for the dance competition.”

Also, during the summer, she will be attending the Patel Conservatory of Dance School with a full scholarship. Along with learning, she will be attending the Carreno Dance Festival.

Junior Eric Feng’s summer is full of dedication and community service. “I will be trying to work at any community service possible where I can give back to the society,” Feng says. In addition to helping other people, he will be helping himself by studying for the SAT after school ends. Feng says, “I have already taken classes for the SAT, I just need to study by myself.”

Junior Pedro Cardona will be enjoying the beach during the summer. “I will be boogie boarding and surfing all day long at Santa Cruz’s beach,” says Cardona. He has boogie boarded many times before. Cardona advises, “Just don’t fall off your board!”

“I don’t want any academic work over the summer, I just want to enjoy it,” says Cardona.

Students at Aragon have planned incredibly adventurous summers ranging from boogie-boarding to helping people halfway around the world. Although there are a wide variety of activities happening over the summer around the world, Aragon students have their own brand of fun throughout the summer.