Marianne Chan, Features Editor
Marianne Chan is the Features Editor and a Business Manager for their third and final year on the Portola Pilot. Although she grumbles about wanting to graduate already, she’s ready to cover the goings on of campus and finally write Opinion stories again. If she isn’t catching up on her 4th missing assignment of the week, you can find her compiling 5 hour long Apple Music playlists, chugging black tea, or writing paragraphs upon paragraphs of analysis for anything but AP Lang.
![The Trump administration’s recent reduction-in-force layoffs follow the cancellation of millions of dollars in funding for special education teacher training, according to Education Week. “I don't really understand the logic of trying to withhold that kind of funding,” junior Cole Bitterlich said. “Because at the end of the day, it's helping people. It's helping students that need extra support, and withholding that funding feels not only immoral [but also] dumb.”](https://portolapilot.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Trump-hammer-time-draft-1-1200x834.jpg)
![Almquist Development’s rendering of a grasstop area in The Canopy shows simulated people exploring the area with their families. “One of the things that we like to cater to are kids and families in creating these really nice outdoor areas where people can hang out, get something to eat [or] get something to drink,” Vice President of Almquist Development Tom Carpenter said. “Kids can run and play and be outside, and everybody can enjoy themselves.”](https://portolapilot.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Bldg-9-View-1-1200x675.jpg)
![YAT leader, Youth Outreach Program member and junior Chloe Chen hands a registration form to senior Morgan Tien during the voter registration drive on Oct. 10. “It's important that all levels of our government and our community [are accessible] to more people because we see today [there are] some restrictions in different areas of the country and people being more dissatisfied with the government,” YAT leader, Youth Outreach member and senior Aaron Owens said. “We want people to have a chance to connect with their government, to actually make a change that they want to see.”](https://portolapilot.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/IMG_8009edited-1200x904.jpg)
![Senior Yunxin Tao and sophomore Aditya Nair manufacture t-shirts for Portola Printing, Portola High's first ever business. “Sometimes after school, we have a little party with about five to 10 students, heat pressing and folding and quality checking,” business teacher Katherine Dillon. “The next day, we count the orders and make sure we have all the right sizes, all the right numbers [to] make sure they're all good and then we just go deliver it to the classrooms.”](https://portolapilot.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/IMG_0384-1200x900.jpg)
![As an experienced jazz musician, Nia Chhen Stewart thoroughly displayed her enthusiasm for the genre while performing a solo for “Over the Rainbow.” “I've never done a [solo] where all the attention was on me,” Stewart said. “It was really nerve wracking but also empowering to be singled out for the piece.”](https://portolapilot.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/untitled-9579-1200x800.jpg)
![Art Fair participants from various clubs and art courses had the opportunity to sell handmade creations to students at stands near the ASB room during lunch from Jan. 30 to Feb. 1. “I feel like it's just a good way to connect with the rest of my peers, the artist community [and] the student body while also giving back to the school because it's given me so many opportunities where I can flourish in the creative arts,” artist and junior Alexander Torpus said.](https://portolapilot.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/IMG_6896-1-1200x800.jpg)
