Author: Mika Inouye

  • 24 Hour uncovers student creativity

    24 Hour uncovers student creativity

    After a long 24 hours of coordinating, writing scripts in Denny’s, casting actors and directing, the Newbury Park High School [NPHS] theater department lit up the stage in the Performing Arts Center on May 2, for the annual 24 Hour Theater event. Westlake and Thousand Oaks High Schools joined NPHS in performing a series…

  • Conflict in Iran impacts community members and their families

    Conflict in Iran impacts community members and their families

    *All information in the article is up to date as of May 28.  Context of the conflict in Iran The country of Iran, settled along the Persian Gulf and bordering Iraq and Turkey, has faced a history of inner turmoil and conflict with the United States since the 1950s. In the early 1900s, Iran–then…

  • Manzanar survivor recounts a life behind barbed wire

    Manzanar survivor recounts a life behind barbed wire

    Sharon Kodama’s earliest memories consist of soldiers wielding guns, the orphanage in which she lived for four years and barbed wire. Following Executive Order 9066 in 1942, issuing the relocation of over 120,000 people of Japanese descent, 3-year-old Sharon Kodama and her family were taken from their home and sent to Manzanar, a Japanese…

  • Faith creates strength during grief

    My great-grandmother’s passing came like a choir song. The chosen hymns were “How Great Thou Art” and “Great Is Thy Faithfulness.” The hum of her oxygen tank was the melody. The voices came from her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren alike. And as her life slowly slipped away, the faith I had in life after…

  • Alumni Foundation donates funds for NPHS weight room project

    Alumni Foundation donates funds for NPHS weight room project

    On April 27, alumni and faculty gathered in front of Newbury Park High School [NPHS] to present a $5,000 check gifted by the Alumni Foundation for the NPHS weight room project. The funds were raised directly by NPHS alumni, with the goal of creating sustainable change for athletics on campus. Spearheading the project was…

  • Rebecca Grossman’s conviction upheld after appeal

    Rebecca Grossman’s conviction upheld after appeal

    On Tuesday, the California 2nd District Court of Appeal upheld the Feb. 23, 2024 conviction of Rebecca Grossman, co-founder of the Grossman Burn Foundation, for the second-degree murder of 11-year-old Mark Iskander and his 8-year-old brother Jacob Iskander. Grossman was involved in a hit-and-run at a crosswalk in Westlake Village on Sept. 29, 2020,…

  • The community of Conejo Valley supports one another through times of crisis

    The community of Conejo Valley supports one another through times of crisis

    Introduction: The strength of a community is best revealed when faced with times of crisis, whether that be natural disasters, economic hardship or political uncertainty. In the past 10 years, the community of Ventura County has seen one another through the good and bad, through destruction and rebirth. In the midst of a time…

  • Growing up means rediscovering who I am

    Growing up means rediscovering who I am

    Growing up, I was a really good kid. Not just in the listening to my parents or getting good grades kind of way, but in the sense that I was good at being a kid. The spirit and magic of childhood were at the core of my identity, and I leaned into it completely,…

  • Examining the child influencer culture

    Examining the child influencer culture

    The security and financial regulations for children in the media have been a heavily debated and controversial topic. As social media is a new reality for the future of entertainment, the position minors have in the industry is growing rapidly with the newfound platforms. The safeguarding put into place for minor content has raised…

  • “People We Meet on Vacation” found a home in my heart

    Queuing up “People We Meet on Vacation,” my expectations were low and my patience for another un-needed book to movie adaptation even lower. When the credits started to roll, I was stunned with love and admiration for the dying art of rom-com movies, and filled with motivation to live my own life like it…