Interview with Sophomore Lisa Huynh

Q: Why did you want to come to ASTI in the first place?
A: I came to ASTI because I knew it was a rigorous school. I wanted to be challenge with the accelerated curriculum that ASTI offers. I also wanted to be mentally and academically prepared for college.

Q: What do you enjoy most about ASTI?

A: I like that ASTI is a tight knit community. It's nice to go to a school where everyone knows each other.

Q: What are some of your hobbies and activities?

A: In my spare time, I like to read, run, hang out with my friends. I recently applied to tutor elementary students at Ruby Bridges and volunteer at the Red Cross.

Q: Which clubs are you currently in and what you like about them. If no, what are some clubs you would like to see at ASTI and why.

A: I was in the Black Berets Club first semester. I enjoyed it because I like to help out whenever I can. I also enjoying writing so tutoring students on the subject was great.

Q: Who at ASTI has been a huge help to you in your academic career and why.

A: I cannot point out anyone in particular but all the teachers in general has helped me to grow as a student. Each teacher is an expert in their field so that makes it easier for me as a student to learn and understand what I am being taught.

Tutoring At Ruby Bridges

The help is here! Many students at Ruby Bridges are in danger of failing their grade. With ASTI's tutoring help that can be prevented. Our mission here is helping these young students in reading, writing, and arithmetic which they can increase their basic school foundation. By helping these students enjoy school more, so they will improve their study habits. Our volunteer tutors will hopefully prevent all students at risk of failing their grade level. With this prevention, we will also instill a love of learning within the students.

Remember that commitment is needed. We will be starting our tutoring schedules on March 16th, 2009.

Rain Rain Go Away

With the worsening weather in the Bay Area, people are getting sick left and right. This causes many people especially ASTIANS to miss out on important events and classes. Here at the ASTIANS blog, we urge you all to keep bundled up and reduce as much contact as you can with people suffering from the flu. By keeping an optimum level of health, you won't have to miss out on classes or events that is beneficial for your career as an ASTI and COA student.

----News Flash----

For those who signed up to be tutors at Ruby Bridge's Elementary School, the orientation meeting will be rescheduled for sometime next week.

More Info About Asti Wine!

Asti, a wine as well as a small town located in the rolling hills of Piedmont north of Italy, is made from Muscat grapes and has a high acidity to balance its unusual sweetness. This sparkling wine has been also described as light, slightly off-dry, and vaguely peachy. Asti, the town in Italy, produces many high quality sparkling wines. It has craggy, limestone soil that grapes grow most efficiently in. The wine-tasters from the website Life In Italy find it an excellent non-vintage wine (a wine that should not be consumed after 4+ years). Also, its pairing with Gorgonzola cheese, another Asti specialty, make it an ideal wine to be consumed before dinner. For those ASTI parents who are wine afficienadoes, you can buy Asti at Trader Joe's located in South Shore Alameda's Towne Center or at your local wine shop that turns its inventory frequently.

New Discovery at Towne Center! Part 1

Popular hang-out spot for many ASTIANS in Alameda is the Towne Center at South Shore. Like Columbus discovered America, especially on Valentine's day, it was love at first sign! An amazing discovery was home there. An obscure Italian wine with our namesake, ASTI, was found on the WOW Value list in front of Trade Joe. Hopefully, we can be as amazing and eye catching to the eyes of the greater public just as this wine is. Taste test is out of the question for our student, but for ASTI's parents and faculty, it may not be the case.

Junior Overload

Many ASTIANS are going to be headed off to the College of Alameda next year. A poem entitled Overload by Linda Lau, junior, from ASTI's latest Literary Magazine captures the essence of college life. Linda's poem illustrates the expectations to hopes and dreams of individuals, pinpointing these aspects of college life and how hectic it may get.

Overload
by Linda Lau

Let's take all the classes we can, as if they were free food this semester!

Isn't it great to have such a full schedule? Just so we can be ahead of ourselves?

Why don't we be like those geniuses, who have no other activities other than school subjects; who have no fun during school time at all; who have no smiles on their faces at all times?

Or those god-like people, who are able to get into Yale and Harvard, who sacrificed their youth and happiness just for the mere sake of pleasing their parents and the admission officers.

Why don't we sacrifice all our freetime and happiness for the mere sake of satisfying the requirements that colleges want?

Because it is all that they ask for?

Can you imagine life with just school, with no smiles?

Can you imagine life of nothing but stress and pain?

And an early end to it?

Teacher Website Exclusive!

Currently, only two of our teachers here at ASTI have their own websites up and running. Mr. Higashi, our physical education, media studies, and freshmen biology teacher, has his developing website with a chat and forum for his students to communicate. He is having an ongoing contest for all his students to create banners for different pages on his site. Mr. Fong, our physiology and bio-tech teacher, and co-principal, has a continuation of his previously famed Darwizzle site for his science students. Both Higashi's and Fong's websites allow for maximum productivity from their students, helping them with supplemental material and schedules of class activities for students to prepare for.