Every year, 60 students from the Ravenswood School District in East Palo Alto travel to Palo Alto Unified School District to attend school. Verde staff writer Nathalia Arias is one of them, navigating a distance that is not only geographical but social, economic and cultural as well. 

Arias explores the connection between home and identity in her perspective story “Embracing both sides,” exploring her relationship to her home in East Palo Alto while going to school at Palo Alto High School. 

We wanted to highlight other stories in this issue that reveal the impact of home on local individuals. 

In “Stone speaks,” Business Manager Maya Rajbhandari and staff writer Ethan Zhang profile Palo Alto Mayor Greer Stone to learn how growing up in Palo Alto and attending Paly has influenced his views and policies. 

Many Paly students left their homes in Palo Alto as they entered adulthood, only to come back to teach. In “Returning to campus,” Art Director Jeslyn Chen and Social Media Manager Chloe Huang explore the experiences of two current Paly teachers who were once students.

But homes don’t exist for everyone. In “Questioning comfort,” Culture Editor Cate Graney and staff writer Lara Saslow examine what happens when communities make their streets inhospitable for unhoused people. 

We hope this issue captures the varied and expansive meaning of home and above all, why having a connection to a home is so important. The concept of home strikes a personal chord because in less than two months, we will be leaving the school — and the publication — that have come to mean so much to us.  

This is our final issue as editors-in-chief. We started off playing with time, first capturing memories with the “Snapshots” issue, then reliving the past in “Looking baaa-ck.” We’ve covered distance, too, revealing how a conflict 7,435 miles away has affected our community in “Hearts with Middle East.” Lastly, we examined students’ relationship to politics in a crucial election year in “Can you name them all?”

Through all of this, we appreciate how our staff has made Verde feel like home. Whether it’s squeezing around a table to eat dinner together, laughing during late-night production zooms or singing happy birthday to every new magazine issue, we are grateful that we were able to be a part of this community — even if we grumble about being the “Verde parents” as we clean up the Media Arts Center after production.

To our staff: We know that you’ll continue to traverse time and distance with your reporting, and that Verde will continue to feel like a home for its staff for years to come. We’ll miss you!

On the Cover

Palo Alto High School junior Nathalia Arias stands on her street in East Palo Alto in a photo taken by Crystal Arias. Arias is part of the Tinsley Voluntary Transfer Program, which allows students living in East Palo Alto and East Menlo Park to attend school in the Palo Alto Unified School District. 

Find the full PDF of our magazine on Issuu.