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Throughout the year, 2024 has gifted the musical world with any number of incredibly well done albums and impressive songs. Popular artists such as Billie Eilish, Taylor Swift and Kendrick Lamar’s albums gained a large amount of traction after release, earning a spot on the best of 2024 list. Other artists such as Charli XCX, Wallows, and beabadoobee’s albums are similarly featured as the highlights of 2024.

Full of excitement and anticipated releases, 2024’s film reel contains a wide variety of genres and plots, including several sequels such as “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” “Inside Out 2,” and “Twisters.” By contrast, “Heretic,” “Challengers,” and “It Ends with Us” were all standalone films ranging from psychological horror to sports and romantic drama. With many films still in development through 2025 and beyond, the best reel from 2024 will surely leave a lasting mark.

The IDEA Academy is a three year math and science pathway at DATA, described by many to be reliant on aspects like coring and block schedule. On Nov. 26, the student site council at DeAnza voted to keep block schedule, a win for IDEA and its supporters.

The IDEA Academy is a three year math and science pathway at DATA, described by many to be reliant on aspects like coring and block schedule. On Nov. 26, the student site council at DeAnza voted to keep block schedule, a win for IDEA and its supporters.

De Anza Academy of Technology and the Arts (DATA) has decided on un-coring classes at Deanza, while remaining to keep block schedule. These changes will have a lasting effect on DATA students and teachers.

Target is rolling out its annual Christmas holiday decorations with posters sitting on top of every aisle. Shoppers are surrounded by trees and snowman cutouts as well as a Christmas stripes hanging from the ceiling giving a cheerful shopping atmosphere.

The Foothill Technology High School (Foothill Tech) boys soccer team congregates together to discuss their plans and goals for the game. Co-captains, Connor Bursek ‘25 and Stefan Hubner ‘25, lead the team in their traditional game starting chant. After this chant the team gets ready to face their opponent. Rio Mesa.

Ammar Atiah ‘26 battles for the ball against a Rio Mesa player as the team goes head to head in their first league game. Rio Mesa’s defense was extremely strong, but Atiah was able to push through it. After a long and tiring match Rio Mesa prevailed with a final score of 2-5. The loss dropped Foothill Tech to fourth in league.

How much is to much? Even with rush into Christmas decor and holiday music it has become clear that, in some way or another, the holidays have began to fade. The infamous “Black Friday” has started to just be a memory, being traded in for online shopping or just fully being traded out. As “Cyber Monday” starts to take the forefront of post thanksgiving shopping, it can easily influence the top season products.

A Foothill Technology High School (Foothill Tech) student lays out all of the textbooks and notes she accumulated from the last semester. This scene is a familiar one for any high schooler tackling exams, as the week of finals becomes dedicated to flashcards, fact patterns and study groups.

The week of Dec. 16, through Dec. 20, 2024 marks the end of the first semester for Foothill Technology High School (Foothill Tech) students. With this week comes the pressure of finals, last-minute studying, completing projects and reviewing months of material. Despite the stress, students persevere, looking forward to a well-earned two-week winter break after their rigorous exams.

Santa Paula player posts up Bella Baum ’26 (number 33) in the paint. Baum, standing tall and unwilling to let her score, holds her hands up for a block.

On Dec. 18, 2024, the Foothill Technology High School (Foothill Tech) girls basketball took on Santa Paula High School (Santa Paula) in a lopsided competition. Foothill Tech walked away with a 50-33 loss. Pictured above, Kiara Zavala ’26 (number 5) makes her move towards the basket in hopes of scoring or making a play.

On Dec. 16, 2024, the Foothill Technology High School (Foothill Tech) girls basketball team competed in a league match against St. Bonaventure High School, (Bonnie) and lost 47-76. Kiara Zavala ‘26 (number 5) runs the ball up the court starting an offensive play with hopes of catching up to St. Bonnie.

One of the ways people could see and experience the show was on a cruise with Island Packers. The cruises were about two and a half hours long and allowed people to not only watch the boat parade, but also be part of it.

As one of the bigger boats in the parade, they did not disappoint. The creativity and enthusiasm is what brings people together to celebrate the Christmas cheer.

This lit up swan was another way that people you enjoy the boat parade. A variety of swans, flamingos, ducks and dragons were a fun way for families and friends to have front row seats to the parade.