Transfer students find new home at SHS

When sophomore Kimberly Zai entered her first-period Trigonometry/Precalculus Honors class on the first day of school, she found a room of unfamiliar faces. She silently wished she was back at Los Gatos High School, with familiar friends and a familiar campus.

But as her time here has passed, Zai has become involved in clubs, made new friends and began to enjoy the new atmosphere.

“The community here is really great, and the students are very friendly,” Zai said.

Zai said the transition was pretty smooth, though though the schools are rivals.

“Some people joke around saying stuff like, ‘Oh! You’re a Wildcat? Get out of here!’” Zai said. “But no one is serious, and the students here are really friendly.”

Though Zai enjoys the Saratoga students and community, she said she misses the Los Gatos campus.

“Los Gatos has a much more beautiful campus, but the Saratoga quad is pretty nice too,” Zai said. “The student-teacher environment at Saratoga is pretty good also.”

Zai said that contrary to what many students believe, the academics here are similar to those at Los Gatos.

“There isn’t any big jump in homework.” Zai said. “But while the classes at Los Gatos aren’t easier than [at] Saratoga, the people in them don’t do as well. People are more competitive and work harder to get good grades here.”

Junior Isabel Castellanos, who transferred from Notre Dame High School in San Jose this year, agreed that Saratoga students are more motivated to get good grades.

“At Notre Dame, it was a much more relaxed education-wise, but the school rules were a lot stricter—we had to wear uniforms,” Castellanos said.  “I just love going off campus for lunch.  It’s pretty awesome.”

Castellanos added that Notre Dame had more clubs, although the club sizes were much smaller.

“We had a Harry Potter club, a book club and a lot of weird clubs,” Castellanos said. “We had a club for everything.”

According to Zai, the sports program at Saratoga is not as emphasized as the sports program at Los Gatos.

“The sports day at Los Gatos is really huge, and the one at Saratoga wasn’t as big,” Zai said. “From my experience, I see that Los Gatos is more sporty and not academic, while Saratoga is competitive in academics, but not sports.”

Zai said that her favorite part about Saratoga so far is the openness of the environment and the people.

“Maybe it’s because I’m new, but people are really reaching out to meet me, [and] it’s really nice,” Zai said.