The Student Union Powered by students, sponsored by Ojai Valley News
December 2, 2022 L etter F rom T he E ditor
Wh
W ho are we? W e are the youth who inhabit this town. W e are kids and we are young adults. W e are the budding voices of tomorrow. This paper’ s purpose is to give a platform for youth to ex press their opinions on larger world topics and share their talents in mediums like j ournalism, photography and art. This paper is also for O j ai townspeople to get a glimpse into the worlds going on within the schools scattered around the O j ai V alley. his fi st dition is a coll ction of i c s that o n a hol fo you as students and to read about the cool things they are doing and thinking about.
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My name is H annah L ittle, a senior at O j ai V alley School. O ver the summer, I had the pleasure of working with the O j ai V alley N ews as a writer. O nce my senior year started, I knew I needed to continue my work with the O V N , and what better way to do that than connect my peers and their readers? For the longtime O j ai V alley N ews reader, you might remember that there was a Student U nion once before and now, after almost 1 0 years, it is resurrected!
Ojai Valley News Contributors Laura Rearwin Ward Brought the full support of herself and the Ojai Valley News behind this paper.
Student Journalists and Writers
J osephine H artmann E lizabeth R amsay
Thomas Gapen
S urya P ulipati
Greatly helped throughout the paper layout process.
Catherine Galvez
Marianne Ratcliff Helped edit through the whole process and enthusiastically supported the ideas.
I hope this paper further unites the valley and connects the people of this wonderful town with the youth.
o M ade T his P ossible?
T ristan M ontecino A lula A lderson R ena Badami
Many of the student journalists had never written a formal journalism article before this paper. For those of you who do not know how the process goes, it is a difficult one, where some interviews are given begrudgingly and editors breathe down your neck. I was greatly impressed by my fellow students and how they rose to the task. I hope that we can bring on many more writers, both experienced and not, to this project!
Teaching The Trails By OVS Junior Elizabeth Ramsay
Logan and Ben topping an elevation of 13,200 feet
Ben’s Trail Birthday and Candy Bar Cake!
MILE 200
For many, roughing it in the outdoors is a few days of car camping with friends and family. But for Ojai Valley School students Logan Wallace and Ben Manning, who this summer spent three weeks thruhiking the tallest mountains of California, the outdoors is much more than that. In late June and early July, Logan and Ben led a 250mile hike in the high Sierra Nevadas. Together, they fished, swam, and sang their way through 21 days on the renowned John Muir Trail, with OVS Lower Campus Outdoor Education coordinator Matt Inman and his associate Duncan Wallace (Logan’s father), supporting them. This trip tested the students physically and mentally, but it was well worth it. “I felt like a different person, always smiling,” Ben said. “I was really in my element.” On June 26, the four of them left the Yosemite Happy Isles trailhead heading south. The John Muir Trail has a diverse range of scenery and terrain — from the lush and green Donohue Pass the group started in, to rocky and dry, windswept passes high in the mountains. Famous landmarks on the trail include Sequoia National Park, Mt. Whitney, and Devils Postpile. “It is the most beautiful 200 miles in California as far as I’m concerned,” Logan said. Months of planning went into this trip. The thruhike was Logan’s idea, inspired by his dad, who hiked the trail 20 years ago. Together, they made arrangements for food and what they needed to carry. The high-schoolers were nervous, but also eager. “I was really excited,” Logan said. “Excited to get out of the house, go somewhere new outside of Ojai.” Each day, the group hiked 13 miles, an impressive but intentional amount so they could enjoy the journey rather than endure excessive strain
Ben fly-fishing and his tiny loot every day. The students swam in every river they saw, sang every song they could think of (Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran, Drake, and more), read books, drew, napped, and fly-fished into the night. Ben celebrated his 17th birthday on the peak of Mt. Whitney. Above all, they connected with fellow hikers on the trail. “We met a surprising amount of people,” Ben said. “The people we saw would be the most memorable thing about the trail.” This trip tested Logan and Ben’s leadership and independence. Matt Inman and Duncan Wallace let the high-schoolers take charge and lead the thru-hike. In fact, they were so confident in the young men’s abilities that halfway through the trip, they left Logan and Ben on their own for six days. According to the students, those were the best times, both a challenging and freeing experience. “It was definitely a confidence booster,” Duncan Wallace said. “A confirmation that they’re (Logan and Ben) confident outdoorsmen.” On July 17 at Cottonwood Lakes, the party finished the John Muir Trail. Instead of anticipating the end of a long, long hike, Logan and Ben were looking ahead, discussing what the Logan and Duncan feelin’ on top of the world future holds in terms of more longdistance hikes. Logan has goals to tackle the daunting, 2,600-mile Pacific Crest Trail in the future. They had the time of their lives and became stronger and more independent because of it. “I liked how normal it felt,” Logan said. “How normal it was to wake up inside a tent, in the most beautiful places of California.”
‘It is the most beautiful 200 miles in California as far as I’m concerned.’ — Logan Wallace
Chilly Raman meal