The Student News Site of Foothill Technology High School

The Foothill Dragon Press
The Student News Site of Foothill Technology High School

The Foothill Dragon Press
The Student News Site of Foothill Technology High School

The Foothill Dragon Press
Aubrey Alderman

Aubrey Alderman, Reporter

“Am I being special again?” – Aubrey Alderman

All content by Aubrey Alderman
Emily Turner ‘26 was casted as the main character “Regina George” in Foothill Technology High School’s (Foothill Tech) spin off play, based on the popular 2004 drama hit “Mean Girls.” With this role she obtained many singing scenes where she captivated the audience with her voice and her ability to present her character. Throughout the play she embraced the original character of “Regina George,” with outfit changes, attitude remarks, and references from the original movie.

Foothill Tech´s Drama Club takes the stage with “Mean Girls The Musical”

Natalie St. Pierre and Aubrey Alderman
April 30, 2025
On March 11, 2025, the Board of Education had another meeting in regards to Resolution #25-05. The community of Ventura came together to support the people effected by the boards decision, making signs to show their support.

40 public commenters fight for Resolution #25-05 to be revised

Aubrey Alderman, Reporter
March 14, 2025
On Feb. 25, 2025, the Ventura Unified School District (VUSD) opened the floor to the public at the Board Meeting discussing Resolution #25-03. The resolution debates for reduction of certain certified services at the elementary, middle and high school level to help allocate money for budget cuts. The meeting garnered attendance of students, teachers and families, many of whom came with signs or wearing red to show support for those who were targeted by Resolution #25-03. Though the final decision of the budget cuts was to save elementary and secondary school counselors as well as teacher librarians, the Board and the district still have a long way to go before all the issues become resolved.

The Board of Education passes controversial Resolution #25-03 due to budget cuts, leaving students and faculty in uncertainty

Maggie Lay, Bailey Basurto, Viggo Bortolin, Ella Asher, Shea Stevenson, and Aubrey Alderman
February 27, 2025
On the night of Feb.13, 2023 Foothill Technology (Foothill Tech) Bioscience Academy hosted their annual Entree to Employment event where the juniors and seniors held conversations, mock interviews and ate dinner with science and medical professionals. This event is one of the many that the academy offers its students, giving them the experience and the ability to gain insight on professional careers they may want to pursue. This event is catered by the sophomores of the academy (Cohort 21) and the director Mika Anderson, along with instructor Daniel Baker.

Bioscience hosts a night of opportunities for students’ futures

Aubrey Alderman, Reporter
February 15, 2025
Once customers entered the sale room, they were greeted with one large table in the middle and another small table to the side. Both tables had much to offer including various types of goods such as rings and necklaces, pendants, etc.

Betty Belts Closet Clean Out Sale brings the community together while helping fire victims

Aubrey Alderman, Reporter
January 27, 2025
Specialized AI has become common in classrooms across the globe, much to the dismay of many teachers and school officials. It has become so common that teachers have started to integrate more in class assignments and essays into the course. To some, this seems like the right call to make, but it can end up being more of a punishment to the students who had not been using AI. It may also be hard for the students to catch up to the new workload, not having seen it in previous years. Teachers, trying to combat this, have started to move more to paper in hopes of limiting the amount of cheating and is one of the many factes of the battle between students and teachers over AI.

Opinion: Is the growing use of AI in schools a failure of students or teachers?

Aubrey Alderman, Reporter
January 14, 2025
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.

Foothill Tech students wrap up finals with a bang before holiday break

Aubrey Alderman and Bailey Basurto
December 22, 2024
Monkey Flower Outdoor included various things, such as bags and utensil kits. They are all made from repurposed materials and sewn by Mattea Pilar, the owner of Monkey Flower Outdoor, herself, as is displayed on her table the annual Holiday Findings Flea Market in Downtown Ventura, Calif.

Holiday Findings Flea Market brings creators and artists together to share and sell their work

Aubrey Alderman, Reporter
December 5, 2024
Right outside the cafe the sign was there for all to see. Welcoming people into the shop with a embracing sign for nice and friendly faces for all to come and to eat and enjoy the delicacies that Caje Coffee Roaster has to offer.

Cajé Coffee Roasters: A new addition to the collection of coffee shops in Ventura

Aubrey Alderman, Reporter
November 30, 2024
On the night of Oct. 17, 2024 Foothill Technology High School’s ( Foothill Tech) Bioscience Academy hosted their annual BioScience Olympics where each Cohort competes in science related competition to win. Despite an overwhelming lead by Cohort 19 throughout the games, for the second time in 21 years, the juniors of cohort 20 beat the seniors of cohort 19. Cohort 20 celebrated at the end of the night with their golden crutch.

Opening the doors for a new year with BioScience Olympics 2024

Aubrey Alderman, Reporter
October 19, 2024
Foothill Technology High School's (Foothill Tech) class of 2025 gathered for a group photo marking the beginning of their senior year on Aug. 16, 2024. They gathered as early at 5:30 a.m. to celebrate their accomplishment.

Class of 2025 dives into their senior year at Senior Sunrise

Bailey Basurto and Aubrey Alderman
August 17, 2024
Aug. 14, 2024 marked the first official day back to school for the 2024-2025 school year for all Foothill Technology High School (Foothill Tech) students as well as the whole Ventura Unified School District (VUSD). Students flooded the gates a few weeks earlier than anticipated due to the schedule change, which prompted a new school calendar. Nevertheless, students still arrived with all the first day jitters, new school supplies and fresh outfits to show off in this new school year. Along with this excitement, the Associated Student Body (ASB) took extra time out of their summer break to prepare the school and decorate the buildings to match the year's theme of “Year of the Records”. With posters and decorations, as well as staff members dressing up to match said theme, students were inspired for the new year even if they were not totally ready to end their summer break.

Kicking off the first day: Foothill Tech prepares for a record-breaking year

Maggie Lay, Ella Asher, Shea Stevenson, Bailey Basurto, Aubrey Alderman, Viggo Bortolin, and Natalie St. Pierre
August 15, 2024
In the afternoon of June 11, 2024, seniors of Foothill Technology High School (Foothill Tech) and their family and friends gathered together on the Ventura College football field to celebrate one of the most momentous occasions for each senior: graduation. Pictured above, Sarah O'Neil '24 waves at her family and friends in the audience after making the long anticipated trek across the stage to receive her diploma. Decorated with scads of chords to celebrate her high school achievements, O'Neil plans to continue achieving her dreams by attending California State University, Chico in the fall.

Saying a final goodbye to our seniors: Graduation 2024

Aubrey Alderman and Audrey Szijj
June 13, 2024
On May 30, 2024, the BioScience Academy held their annual FAD Night, honoring their seniors and allowing the new freshman parents to see all of the projects that their child will be doing. The night started off with a presentation for the freshman parents by Cohort 18’s presidents, Cameryn Henuber ‘24 and Taylor Liston ‘24. This was followed by mini presentations by all of the academy’s students where they got to talk about a specific topic that they have learned about this past year. After all of the presentations, the freshman parents left and the night continued for the senior parents. Tacos and many different desserts were served for dinner as the juniors in Cohort 19 performed a short skit, directed by Ian Clayton ‘25. Before the senior awards were passed out, Henuber and Liston gave speeches, reflecting on the past three years and all of the memories that they have all made together as a cohort. This was followed by cords being passed out, and Mika Anderson, the academy director, gave a brief speech for each senior talking about how much they grew during their time with the academy. After each senior received their cords, Anderson gave special specific awards to just a handful of seniors to highlight their accomplishments.

FAD Night: A final goodbye to Bioscience seniors and welcoming to new Bioscience students

Aubrey Alderman, Reporter
June 2, 2024
On the sunny day of May 24, 2024, students gathered in the Foothill Technology High School's (Foothill Tech) quad, from the early hours of sunrise, eager for the performances awaiting them during the annual Air Guitar. Hosted by the Associative Student Body (ASB), Air Guitar is an event that is looked forward to not just by students, but also teachers and staff alike. This year's performances consisted of singing, traditional dance and many tributes and references to MLF. Overall with student acts, the teacher act and the wide range of food to purchase during the food fair, Air Guitar was enjoyed by all this year. The picture above shows Jaylean Hernandez ‘24 who never fails to draw in a crowd and impress everyone with her traditional Folklorico dancing.

Air Guitar brings smiles to Foothill students before finals begin

Aubrey Alderman, Reporter
May 27, 2024
As advance placement (AP) exams come to a close after two weeks, students begin to feel a sense of relief and can now relax as all of their hard work has paid off. For Foothill Technology High School (Foothill Tech) all AP testing occurred at Ventura College's Wright Event Center and many students had to get there at an early time to take their exam, filling the sides of the streets with cars.

The experiences of students through AP tests

Aubrey Alderman, Reporter
May 22, 2024
On the evenings of April 17, 18 and 19, Foothill Technology High School (Foothill Tech) students, who are apart of the Drama Department, put on a show of "The Greek Mythology Olympiaganza" for parents, students and staff to enjoy. This is the Drama department’s second production of the school year starting with "Elf The Musical" in December. Parents and students filled the chairs in Spirito Hall bringing flowers, cards and gifts to support their students, as well as cash to buy snacks that were provided by Drama department as a fundraiser for the club. The night was filled with joy, fear, laughter and gloating all provided by the students of the Drama department.

The Drama program brings new knowledge to Foothill Tech through Greek mythology

Aubrey Alderman, Reporter
April 22, 2024
To keep up with the growing population of Ventura, Calif., the Ventura City Council voted in favor of expanding paid parking in the downtown area. As of May 1, 2024, many of the currently free parking places, including the parking structure on Santa Clara St., will cost $1.25 an hour.

The changes in parking coming to Downtown Ventura

Aubrey Alderman, Reporter
March 20, 2024
Entree to Employment is an annual event hosted by the BioScience Academy. This event is a formal dinner which allows the upperclassmen of the academy to meet professionals in the field of medicine, science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). The dinner is run by Health Occupations Students of America (HOSA) leaders and staffed by the sophomores who set up, served meals and cleaned up.

BioScience students enjoy a night of opportunities at annual Entrée to Employment

Aubrey Alderman and Maggie Lay
February 24, 2024
With an emphasis on connection, Foothill Technology High School (Foothill Tech) had its annual Kindness Week spanning from Feb. 12 to Feb. 15. The Associated Student Body (ASB) had daily activities for students including decorating the halls with hundreds of color-coordinated hearts with students’ names for Valentine’s Day.

Kindness Week brings Dragons together to share their spirit for the community

Aubrey Alderman, Reporter
February 18, 2024
Across the Ventura Unified School District, a widespread malfunctioning of printers has occurred, which has been deemed a "printer blackout". This has not only affected Foothill Technology High School, but numerous other schools within the district.

Foothill Tech faces technology shut down during the district wide printer black out

Bailey Basurto and Aubrey Alderman
February 4, 2024
On the sunny days of Jan. 9, 2024 and Jan. 10, 2024, students gathered into different classes during their F.I.R.E. period to listen and learn about their choices for next school year’s electives. One main attraction was the BioScience Academy program fair. Displayed here is an upperclassman instructing the younger students on how to properly perform CPR, which is a skill you can learn in the academy.

Foothill Tech’s annual Program Faire opens new interests for students to explore

Aubrey Alderman, Reporter
January 14, 2024
On Nov. 17, 2023, the three cohorts of Bioscience came together to compete for the gold crutch in the annual Bioscience Olympics. This year's first place went to Cohort 18, second place went to Cohort 19 and third place went to Cohort 20.

The annual BioScience Olympics creates fun competition between cohorts

Aubrey Alderman, Reporter
November 19, 2023
On Oct. 31 2023, students of Foothill Technology High School (Foothill Tech) were encouraged to dress up and enjoy some sweet Halloween treats provided by their peers and teachers at Trunk or Treat. Fun costumes were displayed such as Willy Wonka and his Oompa Loompas, shown by Kelsey Stolworthy '24, Ashlyn Mullin '24, Kaili Garrett '24 and Taylor Liston '24.

Trunk or Treat brings students together for the spirit of Halloween

Aubrey Alderman, Reporter
November 3, 2023
On Oct. 11, 2023, the BioScience Academy’s Health Occupations Students of America (HOSA) hosted a blood drive, teaming up with Vitalant, a non-profit organization serving those in need of blood. Alessia Saliby ‘24 sits with her legs propped up in one of Vitalant’s buses, squeezing a stress ball to help increase the flow of blood and making the withdrawal process quicker. Every single blood donation, like the one from Saliby, can save and improve the lives of up to three patients.

Foothill Tech’s biannual blood drive saves up to 122 lives

Aubrey Alderman, Reporter
October 15, 2023

Class of 2024 connects through In-N-Out Burger and festivities

Aubrey Alderman, Reporter
September 22, 2023

Dragons find their connection at Club Rush 2023

Bailey Basurto and Aubrey Alderman
September 17, 2023
In honor of the first day of school, going along with the theme of Lights, Camera, Action, Foothill Tech’s Associated Student Body (ASB) decorated the entire campus with various “Back to the Future” decor along with bright, festive streamers and balloons. They had name tags for each student written on gold stars arranged in the number corresponding to the grade of students. It was a fun way to kick off the start of the year and welcome students back to school.

“Lights, Camera, Action!” Dragons strut the red carpet into the 2023-2024 school year

Ella Asher, Maggie Lay, Bailey Basurto, and Aubrey Alderman
August 24, 2023
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Aubrey Alderman