Last year, Madison Browne enlisted the help of her 8th grade teacher and entered one of her poems for inclusion in the 2025 Appelley Rising Stars Collection. Appelley Publishing annually selects a cross-section of poetry to showcase the work of talented young authors from across the United States. Maddie’s poem, "The Mask", was selected as a winner and will now be published in the Appelley Publishing 2025 Rising Stars Collection. Congratulations, Maddie, on this major achievement!
The Archbishop Mitty High School Philosophy Club competed for the first time in the Northern California Regional Ethics Bowl on January 11th at UC Santa Cruz and finished the competition as semifinalists. The event consisted of examining case studies covering various ethical dilemmas and presenting their findings to a panel of judges, who specialize in ethics and corporate ethics. The group, including sophomores Grace O'Leary and Constance Costa, junior Braden Clements, and seniors Anna McCarthy and Navya Tyagali, competed in three preliminary rounds, winning all three of their respective competitions. Following this, they qualified for the quarterfinals and then the semifinals. Congratulations to you all on a job well done!
After winning four games at the prestigious La Jolla Country Day Tournament in San Diego, the Women's Basketball team followed that up with four more wins at the Nike Tournament of Champions in Arizona. In the championship game of that tournament versus the then #1 ranked team in the country, the Monarchs beat Ontario Christian 59-34 to secure the championship for the second straight year. Congratulations to sophomore Tee McCarthy and junior Emma Cook who were named to the All-Tournament team, and junior McKenna Woliczko who was named the tournament MVP.
After a competitive audition process, the following musicians: freshmen Sofia Hotimsky, Ava Jeanette, Subin Kim, and Aavya Mishra; sophomores Jina Han, Bernice Ho, Hannah Lee, Vishnu Manikandan, and Andrew Wi; and juniors Brandon Kang and Olivia Park were chosen as members of the California All-State Orchestra, Symphonic Band, and Choirs. They will be performing at the All-State Conference later this month in Sacramento. Congratulations Monarchs!
Malia has been selected to participate in the Disney Dreamers Academy! This prestigious opportunity will allow Malia to join 99 other exceptional high school students from across the country for a four-day event at Walt Disney World. The program provides mentorship, career workshops, and the chance to develop vital skills for success, including networking and dressing for the workplace. Malia’s selection highlights her creativity, compassion, and determination—qualities that define the Dreamers Academy. Congratulations, Malia!
Senior James Tsaggaris started piano lessons when he was five years old. He has won numerous competitions and performed twice at Carnegie Hall. This year, James raised over $10,000 for Mental Health America by combining classical music recitals with strong mental health advocacy. Having seen the many challenges his peers were facing – long nights, academic pressure, and growing anxiety – James organized a series of piano recitals to raise awareness about mental health and share resources like Mental Health America’s resources for screening. We thank James for his efforts to inspire hope using carefully-designed performances.
Earlier this month, freshmen Brooks Liang and Logan Watson, sophomores Bernice Ho, Nikethana Karthikeyan, Vishnu Manikandan, Ethan Seto and Leaf Tan, and juniors Brandon Borlaza and Ayana Rasteh participated in the prestigious CCDA Regional Honor Choir Festival. Students spent three days rehearsing with collegiate conductors and ended the festival with an incredible performance at the historic Mission Santa Clara de Asís. Congratulations to these Monarchs!
Last month, 37 Archbishop Mitty Speech & Debate students competed at the Glenbrooks Invitational in Chicago. With over 200 schools in attendance from across the country, AMHS won 1st place in Overall Speech Sweepstakes with a record-breaking number of finalists. Congratulations to the following students who were either finalists in their events or earned a bid to the Tournament of Champions: sophomore Neil Huang, juniors Avi Gupta, Chaith Mittal, Tobe Ureh, and Chloe Lee; and seniors Katherine Wilcox, Keri Parker, Ansh Singhal, Niranjan Ashok, Atharv Mahajan, Sameet Das, and Navya Tyagali. A special congratulations to senior Jayden Brown for being named Tournament Champion in both Humorous Interp and Duo Interp. Great job, MSD!
This past October, eight students and two chaperones represented the Mitty Advocacy Project in Washington D.C. during the Ignatian Family Teach-in for Justice. Students got a chance to connect with other students and adults from around the country to discuss, collaborate, and learn about how to be agents of change from the standpoint of catholic social teaching. Senior Varshitha Lingala held a well-attended breakout session on legislative advocacy as part of the conference. Students also presented proposals to representative Ro Khanna’s office on Capitol Hill and met with Mitty Alumna Katie Peterson, who is the speechwriter for the Secretary of Labor. We commend this group for their great work in Washington D.C.!
Evie Marheineke came in first place in the first WCAL race of the season at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. Evie ran an impressive time of 18:01.8. and was named the AMHS athlete of the week for her effort in this competition. Yuvan Provine came in 6th place in the men’s WCAL race, setting a new AMHS course record with a time of 15:36.1. Great job to both runners!
In September, the Women’s Volleyball team won the Spikefest Tournament with wins over Oak Grove, Homestead, Aragon, Sacred Heart Cathedral, and St. Ignatius in the championship game. In the championship match versus St. Ignatius, the Monarchs were led by senior Leyna Nguyen who had 8 kills and 1 block, junior Elli Diehl Palmer with 7 kills, and junior Katelyn Sentous with 6 kills and 2 blocks. Congratulations to the Women’s Volleyball team!
Alana Arney and Jacob Park were selected to represent Archbishop Mitty as members of the San Jose Jazz High School All-Stars. This jazz band made up of advanced high school musicians performs throughout the Bay Area. Congratulations to both Alana and Jacob!
Senior Anisha Maharjan and juniors Brandon Kang and Manvik Johar were selected to serve as the High School representatives for the City of Campbell Youth Commission. This commission will act in an advisory capacity to Campbell City Council on matters relating to youth and teens. Chosen from among many applicants, Youth Commission members will be responsible for representing the youth voice in the Campbell community. Commissioners may recommend programs to city staff that would encourage positive youth experiences and even coordinate their own events and programs to allow youth and teens to have an increased involvement with local government. Congratulations Anisha, Brandon, and Manvik!
Jaehee has been named a finalist for the Politics Category of the John Locke Institute 2024 Global Essay Prize. The John Locke Institute 2024 Global Essay Competition is open to high school students worldwide, where participants submit essays on topics within various humanities subjects like philosophy, politics, economics, history, psychology, theology, and law, with the goal of developing critical thinking and writing skills. The winning essays in each category can earn the writer a scholarship towards attending a John Locke Institute program. As a finalist for the Global Essay Prize, Jaehee has been invited to Mayfair, London for the Awards Ceremony and Gala Dinner to acknowledge the candidates hard work, to celebrate their achievement as a finalist, and to announce the winners and runners-up in each subject category and the winner of this year's Grand Prize. Good luck to Jaehee throughout the remainder of this prestigious competition!
When Ayana was diagnosed and underwent therapy for Lymphoma, she developed a passion for research in the area of cancer. Ayana has since participated in multiple research projects with mentors from universities around the world. Today, we are very pleased to share that a research paper co-authored by Ayana entitled “Identification of the novel exhausted T cell CD8+ markers in breast cancer” was accepted in Scientific Reports journal. This prestigious research journal is the 5th most cited in the world. It is Web of Science indexed and is part of the publishing portfolio of the highly reputable Nature Publishing Group.
Samaira and Jordyn participated in the 37th Annual Tech Challenge hosted by The Tech, the world-renowned science, technology, and education center in the heart of Downtown San Jose. This year's challenge, "Cosmic Quest," sent teams on a fictional journey to aid scientists in unraveling the mysteries of a distant planet and its largest moon. Their mission was to engineer a launcher to successfully transport essential supplies to the lunar surface. Representing Team #288, Jordyn and Samaira achieved remarkable success. Out of more than 2,000 participants from 144 schools, Samaira and Jordyn's exceptional engineering design and prototype earned them the honor of winning "Outstanding Device Performance," presented by Thermo Fisher Scientific at this year's High School Awards. Their uniquely designed catapult to launch and land objects on three different Martian terrains accomplished the task in the shortest time at the entire event. Their scientific and engineering mindset was recognized by a rigorous judging panel. The AMHS community is proud to congratulate these women on this accomplishment!
If you’ve had the chance to go to the movies recently, you might have seen a familiar face on screen. Jayden starred as one of the supporting characters, Max, in a new release titled Dìdi. This heartwarming story is about the summer before high school begins in 2008. It’s still in theaters and it’s a must-see coming of age movie. Congratulations, Jayden!
Eva, who is serving as this year’s Excalibur Yearbook Creative Editor, attended the California Yearbook Academy in early July where she was honored with the “Seeker of Knowledge” award for her hard work and participation in this conference. Among the 150+ students, just 7 editors were recognized for their achievements, and Eva was the only Junior to take home two awards. Based on her execution of theme development, writing, design, photography plan, and ability to capture our school’s unique identity, Eva earned 3rd place. Thank you to Eva for all of her hard work, and we look forward to seeing these plans come to life in this year’s book.
Archbishop Mitty was recently named the #1 overall athletic program in the state of California and #11 program in the country by media outlet MaxPreps. The 2023-24 school year was an historic one for the Monarchs as our athletic program won 7 CCS Titles in Men’s and Women’s Water Polo, Women’s Volleyball, Women’s Basketball, Men’s Soccer, Women’s Track and Field and Baseball. The Monarchs also captured individual CCS championships in Cross Country, Swimming and Diving, and Track and Field. Finally, the Women’s Volleyball, Women’s Basketball, and Men’s and Women’s Soccer teams captured NorCal championships, plus we captured an individual state championship in swimming. Congratulations to all our athletes and coaches who make Archbishop Mitty the best place to compete in high school athletics!
This past June, a record 24 students qualified for and competed at the National Speech and Debate Tournament in Iowa. Out of 1,321 schools MSD earned the highest team award possible, placing top 10 in the Nation as a School of Outstanding Distinction. A special congratulations to Senior Jayden Brown for placing 2nd in Duo Interpretation, and to Senior Anik Chobe for placing 2nd in Lincoln Douglas Debate and becoming Archbishop Mitty’s first ever debate finalist.
Last May, the production of Great Comet was nominated for four Rita Moreno Awards, which is the Northern California equivalent of the high school Tony awards for excellence in theater. The production won Audience Favorite based on their performance during the awards ceremony! Congratulations to all of the students, faculty and staff for their excellent work on this production!
Ana Afilipoai who won 1st place, Ryan Tsai who took 2nd place, and JingJing Lei who received honorable mention. Congratulations to Mrs. Lee and her students on this amazing achievement!
Freshman Nikethana Karthikeyan presented her independent science project "E-see: A Tracking System Prototype that Forewarns Drivers About Multi-Vehicle Pile-ups" at this year's Synopsys Science Fair and was awarded both the Robby Beyers Innovative Solutions Award and the Inez M. Lechner Award. Both awards recognized her achievement with a cash prize. Congratulations, Nikethana!
Junior Anjani was selected to be one of Bank of America’s Student Leaders. This is one of Bank of America’s most distinguished programs, accepting 315 out of 7,000 applicants this year. As a student leader, Anjani will participate in an eight-week internship at a local non-profit over the summer and will travel to Washington D.C. for the Bank of America Student Leaders Summit. Congratulations, Anjani!
This past month MSD qualified 13 students to Nationals in Iowa this summer. A special congratulations to tournament champions juniors Katherine Wilcox, Keri Parker, Jayden Brown and seniors Katie Hughes, Arabella Damarillo and Tiger Javiya. Good luck to MSD as they compete in the State Tournament. While 49 members will be competing, the entire team has been hard at work all year preparing for this moment.
