Phoebe Piserchio (12), Editor-In-Chief
Phoebe is a senior in her fourth and final year of Journalism, currently the Co-Editor-in-Chief. Being someone with a keen interest in writing and communication, she is excited to have the opportunity to express her opinions, thoughts, and other news with The Thunderbolt once again. In addition to the student newspaper, she is also involved with student council, the varsity mock trial team, Leadership & Arts, and the Interact club. In the future, she hopes to pursue a career in public relations. To relax and unwind, one of her favorite activities is watching movies (recently, she’s been loving Alfred Hitchcock films). She also enjoys reading and listening to music; some of her favorite books are Little Women, Death on the Nile, The Hobbit, Animal Farm, and Edgar Allan Poe short stories. As a senior, she feels bittersweet to be in her last year, but excited to see how it unfolds!
Elaine Chan (12), Editor-In-Chief
Elaine is a senior going into her third year in Journalism, as the current Co-Editor-in-Chief. She is hoping to make the most of her final year in this class! She is intent on gaining more knowledge on news, writing, and expanding her graphic design abilities. Journalism has always sparked curiosity for her, as she loves its joint aspects of reading and communicating. Writing holds a special place in her heart, allowing her to express her emotions and gain a new outlook on life through the power of words, and as Co-Editor-in-Chief she is excited to share her passion with The Thunderbolt team. Outside of school, she loves going to concerts, baking sweet treats, and experimenting with fashion. She also enjoys reading in her free time and some of her favorite books include The Sun and Her Flowers, Circe, and Half Truths. Journalism has been an utmost highlight of her high school career, and although she is sad to part with it, Elaine is excited to take part in crafting an outlet for students to express themselves through The Thunderbolt for her last year!
Amelia Naughten (11), News Editor
Amelia is looking forward to uncovering new stories as she returns for her third year in Journalism, continuing her role as the News Editor. Working alongside her fellow editors and staff writers, she is eager to improve her writing, graphic design, and leadership skills. Last year, she focused on redesigning the front cover layout of the paper, and over the summer, she further explored the media industry through producing her own podcast under Balay Kreative Studios. She is also bringing in her experience as Operations Captain of the Boba Bots to The Thunderbolt as the new Business Manager. In her free time, Amelia oil paints, dances ballet, and reads everything fiction. (She highly recommends Scythe by Neal Shusterman!) She believes the Thunderbolt has made great strides over the past couple years and is confident that this year’s staff will bring the newspaper even more readership.
Janelle Pantilon (11), Features Editor
Janelle is a junior going into her second year of journalism as the Features Editor. Exploring Journalism and writing allows her to find new perspectives on life and expand her involvement within the community. She has learned various skills from her first year as a part of The Thunderbolt staff including: conducting strong interviews, taking pictures with professional cameras, editing articles, and creating layouts. This past summer, she participated in a two week long journalism workshop at Cal Poly. Outside of journalism, Janelle has several interests such as reading, listening to music, baking, and running. Some of her top artists are Lana del Rey, Billie Eilish, and The Neighbourhood. She runs on both the varsity cross country and track team at Mills. Janelle is excited to experience being a first time editor and see how The Thunderbolt grows!
Abigail Chai (12), Center Spread Editor
Abigail is in her third year and final year of Journalism as the Center Spread Editor. Joining The Thunderbolt team in her sophomore year, her love for reporting and writing has since grown exponentially. From her time as staff writer and editor, she has expanded her writing skills and knowledge, gaining a better understanding of what it takes to be a journalist. Outside of school, Abigail enjoys binging shows, watching movies with her family, and spending time with her friends. She enjoys a variety of musical artists, but has a particular fondness for Taylor Swift and Paramore. Abigail is ecstatic for her final year on the team and can’t wait for what the year has to offer.
Julia Xia (12), Opinions Editor
Julia is now a senior at Mills High School; she has been in Journalism ever since she was a freshman and is now the Opinions Editor and Website Designer. Over the years, Julia has developed a love for writing and working with the other great writers in Journalism. Her favorite sections would have to be Center Spread and Features for the creative freedom it brings. Aside from writing for the newspaper, she enjoys listening to music, painting with either oils or gouache, and drawing. Julia is excited for her final year of journalism and watching how the class grows.
Isabelle Yang (12), Sports Editor
Isabelle is a senior at Mills High School in her second year of Journalism. She is excited to take on the role of Sports Editor and be able to create layouts. She is eager to use the knowledge she’s gained throughout the summer at a journalism program and learn more about cameras and photography. She loves playing volleyball and is currently on the Mills volleyball team. Outside of school, some of her passions include spending time with friends and family, volunteering, and reading. She is thrilled to start another year writing for The Thunderbolt and hopes to continue journalism in college and as a career.
Bianca Pando (11), Entertainment Editor
Bianca Pando (11) is a junior at Mills high school, entering her second year as the Entertainment Editor for The Thunderbolt. From discovering the joy of writing during freshman year, to joining journalism in her sophomore year, Bianca’s passion for reporting current events and topics continues to grow. Last year, she can truly say that journalism really helped her not only develop her writing skills, she also was able to discover a lot about what it means to cover events, and how it is important to the community. She found a lot of joy in interviewing people, and more joy when she was able to tell the stories of her peers. Though outside of journalism, Bianca enjoys hanging out with her friends, walking, baking and watching messy reality shows. Entering her junior year, she aims to again, live in the present, figure out her career goals, and to have fun with the Journalism class of 2025!
Eduardo Galindo Aguilar (12), Copy Editor
Eduardo is a senior and in his third year of Journalism, and as The Thunderbolt’s Copy Editor he can’t wait to see how this year will unfold. He is most excited about his new position being a copy editor and hopes to help new staff writers in journalism. Aside from journalism, Eduardo also participates in the robotics team at Mills, the Boba Bots, as the Technical Captain. He likes to spend his time walking around with his dog and spending time with his family. His hobbies include playing video games, and drawing when he can. Eduardo is excited to see what comes ahead!
Hayden Bunce (11), Staff Writer
Hayden is in her Junior year of high school and although it is her Junior year it’s her first year at Mills. She is excited to be a first-year staff writer on The Thunderbolt as although she loves to write, it will be her first year writing for a newspaper and she feels this will be an amazing learning opportunity. She values education and learning so she hopes that the articles in our school’s newspaper will inform people while she is learning how things run in a newspaper. In her free time, you can find her probably working on her Algebra 2 homework, spending time with her animals, reading a variety of books, listening to her 517-hour 46-minute playlist, and playing games such as Dress to Impress. She is overjoyed that her first year on The Thunderbolt happens to be the 2024-25 school year as she hopes to meet a variety of new people.
Elijah Cabatic (11), Staff Writer
Elijah is in his first year of Journalism. He is interested in journalism and news and his favorite subjects are history and English. In his free time he likes listening to music, watching TV, and collecting and running model trains. His favorite artist is John Mayer. He currently plays baseball for the school. He also enjoys playing golf and tennis. He is excited to be in Journalism and improve his writing skills as well as learn about journalistic practices.
Kalyssa Chu (12), Staff Writer
Kalyssa is a senior in her first year of journalism as a Staff Writer. She loves writing and is excited to grow her knowledge in media at The Thunderbolt. In her free time, she enjoys spending time with friends and family, playing guitar, and staying active. She also loves listening to music (all kinds of genres!) and is currently on the flag football and basketball team. Alongside building her own skills, she hopes to continue to learn more about the Mills community through journalism and can’t wait to see what this year has to offer!
Matthew is a freshman Staff Writer and this is his first year as a member of The Thunderbolt. He is excited to write articles for the Thunderbolt. He believes that being a staff writer and being a part of the Thunderbolt team will unlock his writing skills and his full potential. He has always dreamed of writing for his school’s newspaper and now he gets a chance to write stories and articles for the Thunderbolt. He has always had the passion to write and wanted to get into journalism when he was in 6th grade. When he met Warriors pre and post game host Bonta Hill in 2021, he was inspired by him to get into sports journalism. He was a part of Writer’s Workshop in his 3rd grade year. During his 8th grade year, he was a part of the Publications class where he wrote numerous stories, poems, and songs. Some of his stories and poems he wrote were even published into an anthology. He wants to take journalism even after he graduates Mills High School and takes journalism as a major in college. Since he had the passion of watching sports, Matthew wants to use his journalism skills to become a sports broadcaster or journalist for his future career and job.
Mikayla is a freshman as a Staff Writer for The Thunderbolt. She has always had a passion for literature and writing and can’t wait to see what she can bring to the table. As a student, Mikayla has quite a hectic schedule but she always makes sure to spend some time with her family and friends. In her spare time, she often scrolls endlessly on TikTok, crochets, and watches her ultimate favorite show, The Good Place. Mikayla is excited for her first year and can’t wait to explore the community and see what she can accomplish.
Tianyou Lee (11), Staff Writer
Tianyou is a junior and is new to The Thunderbolt this year, entering as a Staff Writer. She decided to join the team in order to improve her skills in writing, develop her own style in her articles, and gain a larger understanding of the field of journalism. Tianyou is also the Business Lead of the Boba Bots, the Mills robotics team, in the Operations department. In her free time, she likes to read manga, play piano, and spend time with her cat, Chicken Lee. Tianyou is looking forward to learning more about journalism throughout the year and is excited to be a part of the Thunderbolt team!
Luis Makilan (10), Staff Writer
Luis is a sophomore year student entering his first year as a member of The Thunderbolt. He has always liked reading and felt that he was decent enough at writing to join The Thunderbolt. This year, he is looking forward to learning all about journalism and is keen on improving his writing skills with every article he writes. His hobbies include photography, video games, listening to music and playing sports. He also participates in the Pole Vault event for Mills Track and Field.
Sara is a senior at Mills High School, currently in her first year on the journalism team as a staff writer. She has always been interested in creative writing, aspiring not only to uplift her own voice but also to amplify the voices of other students on campus. In addition to writing, she has a deep interest in psychology, history, and the arts. Outside school, she enjoys reading novels, listening to music, and experimenting with new hobbies. Sara is excited to be part of this community and is eager to learn and grow as a writer.
Jada is a junior at Mills High School and a new staff writer for The Thunderbolt. She has always loved reading all kinds of novels and looking further into characters and fictional worlds to gain understanding. Excited to interview different people, Jada hopes to build connections and become a more versatile writer by accurately reporting events concerning the community. In her free time, she likes listening to music, sewing, and starting random embroidery projects at one in the morning. She also brings her interest in crafts to school with the Arts and Crafts Club. Starting her first year of Journalism, she looks forward to everything that lies ahead.
Elizabeth Paniagua (9), Staff Writer
Elizabeth is a freshman Staff Writer on The Thunderbolt this year.
Warren Shiu (12), Staff Writer
Warren is a senior at Mills High School and is in his first year of Journalism as a Staff Writer. He is looking forward to improving his writing skills and gaining more knowledge about journalism. He also has a passion for volunteering, and has served for three years on the Millbrae Leos Club as a board member. Outside of that, he plays water polo and swims, and likes hanging out with his friends in his free time. Warren is excited to work alongside his peers on The Thunderbolt team and learn more about the world of journalism.
Meagan is a freshman at Mills High School and is excited to experience working as a staff writer on the journalism team this 2024-2025 school year. She looks forward to improving her writing and interviewing skills along with expanding her social network and meeting new people while working for The Thunderbolt. Some of her hobbies and interests include reading, listening to music, and spending quality time with friends and family. Additionally, Meagan enjoys playing tennis and is currently on the Mills Varsity Girls’ Tennis Team. One of her goals this year is to write articles that captivate, intrigue, and inform audiences while also making them want to read more. She hopes to learn a lot on this journey and can’t wait to see what journalism has in store for her.
Madyson Tang (9), Staff Writer
Madyson is a freshman this year at Mills High School making it her first year at The Thunderbolt as a Staff Writer. Ever since sixth grade, she’s had a passion for writing various things. Some of her hobbies include hanging out with family and friends, traveling, and playing volleyball and tennis. Madyson is excited to learn more about what happens behind the scenes when writing for the Thunderbolt and learning more ways to improve her writing skills.
Noah is a senior at Mills High School. He is a new addition to The Thunderbolt staff this year and will be a Staff Writer. He has had an interest in Journalism ever since sophomore year and it was pushed even further along in his Junior year language arts class. He was unable to take Journalism as a class up until this year, but now, as a senior, he is finally able to pursue this underlying passion of his. In his free time, Noah enjoys listening to music, hanging out with friends, and playing sports such as volleyball and soccer. He is excited to see what this school year with The Thunderbolt has in store.
Emily is a freshman and is excited to be a part of The Thunderbolt as a Staff Writer. She is looking forward to improving her writing skills. Some of her passions and interests include spending time with friends and family, baking, doing arts and crafts, and playing tennis. Her goal throughout this year is to engage more in the community, write entertaining articles for the school, and, overall, learn more about the diverse aspects of journalism. Emily is thrilled to be joining this class and is eager to see what this year has to offer.