The student news site of Portola High School

Portola Pilot
The student news site of Portola High School

Portola Pilot
The student news site of Portola High School

Portola Pilot
Ruhi Samudra

Ruhi Samudra, Sports Editor

Ruhi Samudra is the Sports Editor for her second year on the Portola Pilot. She’s looking forward to being her best social butterfly self this year and getting to know all sorts of people on campus. When she’s not counting the days until she can cover a game again (yay sports!), you can find her obsessing over her purple dinosaur, inhaling all of the cereal-scented candles at Target, or investing her entire life into memoirs just to avoid accepting her own bewilderment.

All content by Ruhi Samudra
Juniors Jimin Han, Ruhi Samudra, Hailey Van, Viola Xie and Shriya Ravipadi pose between Morgan Hall and Li Ka Shing at the University of California, Berkeley, after presenting their biomedical solution presentation to a group of judges.

[Photo] BMES Attends Annual BioEngineering Competition in Medical Research

Hannah Ko, Assistant Opinion Editor | April 17, 2024
Clarke smiles with some of her Math 1 students during their Pi Day festivities, which began after a quiz, allowing them to unwind and have fun at the end of the day, according to freshman Peter Cooke. Clarke said many students pitched in by bringing food and drinks for the party, and Cooke even made her the pi model.

Pi Day Insπres Math Teacher and Enthusiast Melanie Clarke

Ruhi Samudra and Maya Tedini | March 14, 2024
Math teacher Samantha Zimmerle celebrates with her family. “My dad is a teacher, so I always saw him just being so in love with his job,” Zimmerle said. “So just seeing him love that and me being good at math it was kind of just always where I was going to go.”

Math Teacher Samantha Zimmerle Stands Out in the ‘Equation’ as IUSD Teacher of Promise

Tyler Kim and Ruhi Samudra | January 31, 2024
U.S. House of Representatives member Mike Levin (CA-49) awards seniors Zonglin Zhang and Terry You (rightmost) for their app, Ember, which aims to help youth feel more open in conversing about mental health. Although Ember is still being refined and not available on the app store yet, it can be viewed on the U.S. House of Representatives’ website, in the U.S. Capitol Building or requested for a demonstration, according to Zhang.

Seniors Terry You and Zonglin Zhang Help Teen Mental Health with Congressional App Challenge Winner ‘Ember’

Catherine Li and Ruhi Samudra | January 19, 2024
Sophomore Suhrith Muvvala and junior Matthew Lin celebrate their first place win in the Ecology event at the awards ceremony of the Wolfpack Invitational. Team A and Team B took first and second place in the event, respectively.

Science Olympiad ‘Writes It and Does It’ at the Wolfpack Invitational

Catherine Li and Ruhi Samudra | December 22, 2023
Lisa Hu Chen, an Orange County photographer and mother to Portola High students, takes photos of the boys’ basketball game on Nov. 28. “I think the best pictures that Ive taken, especially with the boys basketball team, were pictures of kids on the sidelines,” Chen said. “They might be starters or they might not be, they might not be playing the whole game, but the way they show how much they love the team by being there just comes out of the pictures.”

Local Photographer Lisa Hu Chen Illuminates Campus Life

Maya Tedini and Ruhi Samudra | December 5, 2023
The Irvine Unified Board of Education heard public comments on whether to ban LGBTQ+ flags in its most recent meeting on Oct. 7. “This meeting being perhaps an eye opening moment for students and teachers alike to realize, ‘Wow, there are still a lot of prejudices and misunderstandings about the LGBTQ community,’ and we should talk about that to move forward,” English teacher Doris Schlothan said. “But in terms of coming back to this flag policy, I think [this conversation] is done.”

IUSD Board Meeting Calls Into Question LGBTQ+ Flag Presence in Classrooms

Kayleen Kim and Ruhi Samudra | November 17, 2023
Cinephile and science teacher Michael Tang spends time with his podcast group, Job Ang, Paul Hsu and Albert Liu. “I believe that I am the Nick Fury of this group,” Tang said. “I assembled this group, and these are people that Ive met over the years. I had all these individual chats, so I started this group chat. Not everyone was friends with each other, but now we’ll watch movies together; we’ll hang out with each other.”

An Update: Where is Cinephile and Science Teacher Michael Tang Now?

Catherine Li and Ruhi Samudra | November 1, 2023
Under the moon’s glow every Halloween, children fill the streets in their venture to pack their trick-or-treat baskets to the brim. Within every bag lies clear winners (and losers), each candy a sentimental link to our favorite memories or stark reminder that our taste buds will be left disappointed.

A Halloween Hierarchy: ‘Unwrapping’ the Best and Worst Spooky Season Treats

Ruhi Samudra and Parmin Zamani | October 31, 2023
Senior class council practices their halftime show dance on the evening of Sept. 20. The builds seen in the background are a new concept, according to ASB adviser Kate Avery. “I will say none of the work is easy, but what was helpful is we have people like our senior president and VP and our junior President and VP,” Avery said. “They were all in ASB last year, and so they kind of understood what the expectation was, what the builds should look like and what we need going into them.”

A Behind the Scenes Look at the ‘Epic Adventure’ of the Homecoming Halftime Show

Ruhi Samudra and Shaina Taebi | September 25, 2023
The front of the gallery displayed paintings and sketches from Portola High students. Teachers from each school in Irvine Unified selected a few students’ artwork for awards. “I think its just a huge honor to be able to now say that I have some students whose artwork has been shown in the museum,” visual arts teacher Kearci Thompson said.

Portola High Hosts Inaugural District Honors Art Show

Ruhi Samudra and Parmin Zamani | May 30, 2023
Students and staff alike can work to increase female representation in sports, and exposing the need for a cultural shift toward gender equity in athletics prioritizes an inclusive mindset of all student athletes, regardless of gender. “The stereotypes are still there, and we are combating them every day in order to minimize, but that starts with teaching what high school athletics is supposed to be about and making sure they have what other sports have in terms of opportunity to participate,” athletics director Peter Abe said.

The Unbalanced Playing Field: The Saga of Female Athletics Needs to be Addressed

Ruhi Samudra, Staff Writer | May 18, 2023
Seniors Elizabeth Bank, Sydney Badescu and Aryan Mittal showcase their passion projects based on their personal and academic interests. Over the course of the 2022-23 school year, they developed and refined their projects. “It was a lot of fun to have the opportunity to do something purely for fun in class and just have a project that I was really excited to work on,” Badescu said.

Senioritis? Not for These Seniors who are Pursuing Their Passion Projects

Mia Jong and Ruhi Samudra | May 4, 2023
Freshman Leila Ceranic does backstroke, the only swim stroke that is performed on the back and one of the four swimming styles in competitive swimming, during the varsity practice on Tuesday.

[Photo] Leila Ceranic Makes a Splash As the Only Freshman on the Varsity Team

Kayleen Kim and Hannah Ko | March 31, 2023
Sophomore Katie Le laughs as she talks to delegates from other local high schools in the U.S. Senate committee about the possible solutions their bloc could propose to combat domestic terrorism. “It’s all about fun, first of all, and some of them were able to practice their public speaking, practice their research skills and practice their ability to follow specific procedures and formats to reach goals,” MUN adviser and social studies teacher Daniel Hunter said.

[Photo] MUN Competes at University High’s Annual Spring Conference

Maya Tedini, Staff Writer | March 31, 2023

Night of the Arts and Cabaret Night Take the Stage to Kick Off Fine Arts Week

Ruhi Samudra, Staff Writer | February 14, 2023
Freshman striker Lorel Stringer dribbles the ball through a Patriot midfielder and prepares for a long pass into the penalty area.

Senior Night Tie Secures Girls’ Soccer as First in League

Hannah Ko and Ruhi Samudra | February 6, 2023
With a brand new and exciting journey for the math teacher, Alewine, Jennings, and Todd all express their appreciation for each other. “I would say it’s all fun, and we’re all close,” Alewine said. “We all can talk about different pregnancy things when we get together. Its like ‘What are you craving? How are you surviving? Are you tired? Have you had this doctor appointment?”

These Math Teachers are About to Have ‘Acute’ Children

Ruhi Samudra and Shaina Taebi | December 9, 2022
While artificially generated art can be produced at a faster rate, it is not comparable to the beauty of human-made art. “I think that [art] often ties into self expression and ties into processing how youre feeling or whats going on in the world and being able to communicate in that way, and those are pretty complex, big things to do,” visual arts teacher Kearci Thompson said. “So its not as interesting to most people that study art because were like, okay, [the AI] can do some of the things kind of well, but it doesnt have that human aspect that draws you in.”

AI Art Will Always Stay Artificial

Ruhi Samudra and Shaina Taebi | November 3, 2022
Juniors Kalynne Mendez and Emaleena Elson represent their Filipino heritage and the opportunity to play in an international basketball tournament through the team jerseys. Mendez played in the under-18 division while Elson played in the under-16 division.

Basketball Players Emaleena Elson and Kalynne Mendez Had Their ‘Swish’ Come True

Ruhi Samudra, Staff Writer | November 3, 2022
Freshman Dylan Erol and peer tutor and senior Adrian Chow work together to tackle a math assignment solving absolute value equations and analyzing graphs. Since peer tutoring is free and located on campus, it provides a much easier alternative for parents than off-campus tutoring, according to peer tutoring adviser and counselor Melissa Gibson.

[Photo] Turning the Tables: Students Become Teachers Through Peer Tutoring System

Arnav Chandan and Mia Jong | November 2, 2022
Junior Cindy Mei plays a guzheng with her performance group from the Lotus Bud Guzheng Academy. They use guitar picks to pluck the strings and incorporate various techniques seen in other string instruments such as the vibrato, according to Mei. “Its just kind of our tradition,” Mei said. “Its just a great time to perform and hang out at the Global Village Festival afterwards with the rest of my ensemble.”

[Photo] Volunteers at the 21st Annual Irvine Global Village Festival Facilitate Cultural Activities

Aditi Salunkhe, Staff Writer | October 20, 2022
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The student news site of Portola High School
Ruhi Samudra