Kira Polen
Senior Kira Polen has sung on stages around the Bay Area. This fall, she’ll expand that stage to across the country, attending New York University (NYU) for drama, with a focus on acting and musical theater.
“I applied to NYU because the arts department is just incredible,” Kira said. “They emphasize training not only artists but also scholars, which is really important to me since I like to push myself academically.”
Kira will participate in NYU’s studio system, where students are placed into specialized training programs within drama. While she auditioned for musical theater, she said she’s open to exploring different paths such as film and media.
But Kira didn’t always envision becoming a performer. Despite acting, singing and playing instruments from a young age, she only seriously considered pursuing drama when applying to colleges. Even so, NYU was the only school she applied for arts for.
“NYU was kind of a short in the dark,” Kira said. “My parents told me to apply Early Decision, and if I got in, it was meant to be.”
And she did.
At Los Altos High School, Kira has been involved all throughout the Performing Arts Department: Chamber Orchestra, Volare and Broken Box. In total, Kira said she took part in 11 drama productions at LAHS.
All this started from her freshman year Acting I class, which Kira said helped her re-realize her love for acting and shaped her theater trajectory.
“My teacher, Ms. Battle, encouraged me to join Broken Box, and the community there just fueled my passion even more,” Kira said.
Across her four years of theater, Kira said one of her favorite memories are pre-show traditions.
“We play this game where everyone tries to count to the highest number without speaking at the same time,” Kira said. “It is just a really nice moment of connection between all of us.”
Kira added that she particularly enjoys how forming connects people — within the cast and between the cast and audience — and tells meaningful stories.
“Being on stage and feeling that connection with the audience is really special,” Kira said. “Creating a story that brings people in matters most to me.”
With access coaching from industry professionals, hands-on training programs and close proximity to Broadway, Kira hopes to take full advantage of everything NYU has to offer and launch her future career.
“Broadway,” Kira said. “I’m putting it out there. It’s the biggest dream for me.”
Noah Weinberg
At 7 years old, an airline pilot invited senior Noah Weinberg into the cockpit of an A380 — the world’s largest passenger plane. The mass of controls and flashing lights scattered on the instrument panel didn’t intimidate Noah; instead, they sparked his curiosity. At that moment, he knew he wanted to be a pilot.
This fall, Noah heads off to Kent State University in Ohio to study piloting. With its own airport, modern-age flight simulators and top safety ratings, Noah said Kent State has one of the best aviation programs in the nation.
After realizing his piloting dream — specifically, being a commercial pilot for United Airlines — Noah took his first step towards it with his first flying lesson in April 2024.
“It really helped confirm just how much I like flying and being on a plane,” Noah said.
For Noah, becoming a pilot also means pursuing another lifetime goal: traveling far and wide. He said he hopes to visit every corner of the world and experience their unique cultures and sights, all while staying connected to his hometown.
“United Airlines flies to a bunch of countries, so it makes it really easy for me to travel and go to cool places,” Noah said. “I really like living in the Bay Area, and the airline network here is really good.”
Although Kent State will temporarily take Noah far from home, he said it offers the perfect opportunity for him to explore his skills within the aviation program. There, he hopes to learn about aerodynamics, navigation and aircraft systems.
While Noah’s plan for college and his career are mapped out, his travel bucket list is anything but planned.
“I really want to go to Switzerland, the southern tip of South America, Antarctica, Vietnam and South Africa,” Noah said. “I have no idea why but I also want to go to Greenland.”
Albert Kuo
After playing classical piano for nearly a decade, senior Albert Kuo will strike a new chord at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). There, he’ll major in piano performance while exploring animation outside of his main studies.
His journey as a pianist started in fourth grade at the Community School of Music and Arts in Mountain View. While he was initially reluctant to start taking lessons, Albert said his experiences with an inspiring teacher transformed his perspective. Now, playing piano is his way of physically manifesting his thoughts.
“I like piano because you can express your ideas and emotions easily,” Albert said.
In his playing, Albert draws inspiration from context and composers’ intent. Preparing for a recent performance of Alexander Scriabin’s Sonata No. 2, Albert said he was intrigued by both the piece’s structure and history.
“It’s interesting because it was written before his music became more atonal,” Albert said. “He uses techniques like 9th and 13th chords, which are similar to jazz.”
For a music performance major, Albert’s college application process was quite different from others. The primary component of his application was auditioning, which he submitted videos and performed live for.
Preparing for those, Albert said he practiced daily for up to three hours. In that rigorous schedule, he added that he’s found new ways to stay engaged with the process.
“If I get tired, it’s usually because I’m playing the same piece over and over,” Albert said. “But I try to make it more interesting by listening to different interpretations and seeing how other people approach the music.”
Outside of piano, Albert also enjoys animation, which he studied at Freestyle Academy. Inspired by creators like Satoshi Kon and studios like Studio Ghibli, he’s drawn to their visually rich, story-driven animations such as “Castle in the Sky,” which stands out for its memorable soundtrack. At UCLA, he hopes to merge the two.
“I want to do some type of collaboration between piano and animation,” Albert said. “Maybe I’ll play a classical piece and make an animation based off of it.”
After college, Albert hopes to teach music as he enjoys sharing his knowledge with others. Currently, he teaches a beginner eighth grade student.
“I want to become a piano teacher for little kids,” Albert said, “Teaching is something I really enjoy.”
Angel Rosado
Senior Angel Rosado plans to work his way into a kitchen in France, one shift and one lesson at a time. After graduation, Angel plans to save money and gain more restaurant experience locally before moving to Europe to stage in kitchens. Staging is a short unpaid internship, where a new cook learns while working in a kitchen.
“I find [France] to be a very influential place in the culinary world,” Angel said. “It has all these achievements, all these great chefs that come from France, and so I’d like to start there.”
For Angel, he was first drawn to cooking during the COVID-19 pandemic. Cooking a steak, he learned how technique could transform just a piece of meat into a meal.
“Doing it myself and having it come out similar or better than some kitchens — that was really interesting to me,” Angel said.
By eighth grade, Angel knew he wanted to take culinary classes at LAHS. But when freshman year came around, he learned that the class was only available to sophomores. For a year, Angel said he could only walk past the kitchen and wait for the chance to finally cook in there.
Sophomore year, that chance almost slipped away again when Angel was placed in Dance instead of Culinary I. But upon hearing there were openings in culinary, he immediately made the switch.
“I had gotten in, and we were making crepes that day,” Angel said. “I just fell in love. I had everything open to me now, and that’s where I really started.”
The next year, Angel took Culinary II, even repeating it senior year to continue the program. While Culinary I taught him basics and how to cook for smaller groups, Culinary II introduced him to serving larger groups.
Outside of school, Angel cooks for his family and friends. While cooking, he emphasizes being present and cooking with care, a lesson he learned from his mother.
“You need to cook with love,” Angel said. “You’re not going to make anything that’s tasty if you don’t actually want to try to make it.”
Although Angel considered culinary school, he hopes staging will help him learn through hands-on experience instead.
“Being able to cook and being a cook are separate things,” Angel said. “In a real kitchen, you have to think on your feet.”
While Angel is still exploring which cuisines he wants to focus on, he is especially interested in fine dining because of the experience it creates beyond the food itself.
“I’m really interested in fine dining and how it’s not just the food,” Angel said. “A big thing is the experience that you get as you’re going through that.”
No matter the stage in his stage, he hopes to keep learning from every chef and experience he has.
“Once I’ve absorbed as much as I can, I want to jump around to another kitchen or another person and see what I can pick up from their skill set,” Angel said. “I want to always be asking, ‘What can I learn from them?’”
Luca Ferrari
Since his childhood in London, senior Luca Ferrari has always been enthusiastic about politics. This fall, he’ll travel 5,000 miles across the world to the Netherlands, where he will study political science at the University of Amsterdam.
A global center of diplomacy and law, the Netherlands is home to the UN International Court of Justice, the International Criminal Court and the Peace Palace.
“Amsterdam is a very interesting city,” Luca said. “The architecture is beautiful and the education is affordable because there are a lot of social nets that protect citizens against extreme costs.”
Growing up in London, Luca said he was exposed to wide wealth inequality gaps. Witnessing this became the catalyst for the political passions he holds today.
“I’m hoping that there’s something I can do to bring more equality to the world,” Luca said.
American politics also motivated Luca’s decision to attend college in Europe, such as how University of California schools disclose the names of student protest participants. Luca said he hopes to study in an educational system that does not impose certain views onto him, where he will not become a “tool of the system.”
“It’s getting harder and harder to get a political science education here without it being skewed by government action,” Luca said. “In Amsterdam, education is more liberal and open; there’s a wider variety of views.”
Luca currently follows issues including global far-right extremism, conflict in Myanmar, Sudan and Gaza and climate change.
“I think there’s a very blatant rise in fascism across the world right now,” Luca said. “It’s obvious in places like the U.S.”
He sees activists like Greta Thunberg as particularly inspirational. According to Luca, Thunberg has become a “meme” and a “joke” amongst kids because she’s young and seen as “doing too much.” But despite the controversy, Luca admires her dedication to leading a global movement to stop climate change.
“Her actions are very powerful and the people trying to push her to the sidelines are alienating those trying to make a change,” Luca said. “It’s inspiring to see someone using her privilege to not just live a happy and luxurious life, but try and make a change for those without that privilege.”
Having observed the world’s pressing issues, Luca hopes to be part of the solution.
“There are conflicts that need not just political attention, but political action,” Luca said. “I hope to be able to fix some of the issues that I’ve been passionate about for years.”
Kai Perrino
Witnessing discrimination and injustice in the healthcare system, senior Kai Perrino hopes to address it. This fall, he will attend the University of Washington, majoring in psychology and minoring in American Sign Language (ASL) on the pre-medical school path.
Why ASL? Besides his school’s language requirement, Kai said he was drawn to its uniqueness and using it to make an impact. “All other languages use speech and words but ASL is the only one that uses hand motions — I thought that was really cool,” Kai said.
Having tried learning ASL on his own throughout high school, Kai realized that he struggled with self-studying a language. He hopes a college class can provide scheduled, structured learning that will make him proficient enough to apply it in his career.
“I’ve lost motivation or forgotten about it,” Kai said. “I know the ABCs and common phrases, but I’m nowhere close to fluent.”
According to Kai, ASL and understanding of Deaf culture are very rare among doctors. When speaking with Deaf patients, they often rely on a human interpreter or translation technology.
“ASL would be really important to knowing my patients better, as well as the prejudice they face in the medical field,” Kai said. “Doctors often ignore them or don’t understand their struggles.”
Kai added that he also wants to pursue research at UW, as it’s an RI research institution. He wants to focus either on social research of how children mature, or research combining biology and psychology. After medical school, Kai hopes to work in psychiatry or emergency psychiatry.
“I want to meet my patients halfway,” Kai said.
Graphics by Mar Selikhanovich
