Hatchet Staff 2021-2022
Aniket Panda
Aniket Panda is a senior at Washington High School. He has lived in Fremont for most of his life, after moving at age 9 from Hoffman Estates, Illinois. This is his second year at The Hatchet and his first year as Editor-in-Chief. He is interested in politics, world affairs, and food reviews. Aniket is also president of Washington Speech & Debate and a SURFBoardE representative. His hobbies include playing with his golden retriever and watching Netflix. In the future, Aniket hopes to study political science or international relations.
Srihitha Pallapothula
Srihitha Pallapothula is a senior at Washington High School. She has lived in Fremont, California for most of her life. This is her second year with The Hatchet. She is co-Editor-in-Chief as well as the lead website manager. As a journalist, she is currently interested in exploring technology’s impact on human behavior, whether healing in today’s political climate is possible, and the factors that lead people to choose their political party. In Srihitha’s free time, she enjoys reading, writing, and baking. In the future, she hopes to become an author or a journalist.
Amal Afsal
It is currently Amal Afsal’s senior year at Washington High School. He was born and raised in Fremont, California. For his third and final year at The Hatchet, he will be the news editor. Amal enjoys writing about a variety of topics at The Hatchet, but prefers News and Opinions articles. In his free time, Amal enjoys playing video games while also occasionally watching television and browsing Reddit. He enjoys playing Badminton at WHS’s open gym and is employed by the restaurant, iniBurger. Amal wants to go to community college and transfer to a university within a couple of years.
Rio Collett
Rio Collett is a Senior at Washington High School. He has lived in Fremont his entire life. This is Rio’s third year at the paper. Rio loves exploring conspiracy theories as well as letting people know what’s going on near them. Rio loves to game on his pc and plans to go to college and get a job that pays well.
Raven Arroyo
Raven Arroyo is a senior that grew up in Fremont. This is their second year at the Hatchet and they are interested in writing about books, movies, tv shows, and video games. They enjoy reading, riding their bike, taking care of their plants, painting, and writing short stories. Raven can often be found carrying around a notebook to write down ideas for possible stories. They hope that someday they will be able to publish a book of their own.
Prisha Mishra
Prisha is a junior at Washington and she grew up in Fremont, California. This is her second year at the paper and she is the editor for Arts and Entertainment. She is excited to read and edit articles. Prisha is interested in tech and journalism. She enjoys writing about current events happening at school. Her hobbies include reading novels, acting, and fashion. In the future, Prisha is considering a career in journalism.
Trinidad Hellman
Trinidad Hellman is a junior at Washington High School who was born in Fremont, California. This is his first year as a reporter for the Hatchet. He is interested in both domestic and international political issues as well as the economy. Trinidad is a varsity runner for Washington’s cross country and track team, president of Washington’s Martial Arts Club, head of outreach for the robotics non-profit “We Love Pi”, and the outreach officer for Washington’s Student’s for Change club. His hobbies include flying drones and building computers. Trinidad hopes to major in international relations and subsequently go to law school.
Nishika Datla
Nishika Datla is a freshman at Washington High School. She was born in Hayward, but has lived in Fremont her entire life. This is her first year with the Hatchet, and she looks forward to having a great time. She is interested in covering stories about the arts, activism, and important events in both the Washington community and the world. Nishika enjoys drawing, baking, and hanging out with her friends. In the future she hopes to go to college and become a scientist.
Venya Karpelevitch
Venya Karpelevitch is a junior at Washington High School. He has lived and grown up in Fremont, California. This is his first year at the Hatchet. His journalistic interests are politics and Jewish issues. His hobbies include video games, biking, and debate. He plans on pursuing chemistry in college, as well as learning at a yeshiva.
Jayla Farrington
Jayla Farringtonis a junior at Washington High School. She was born and raised in Charlotte, North Carolina, but moved to California in early 2016. This will be her first year with the Hatchet. Jayla plans on covering controversial topics such as mental health, entertainment, and racial discrimination. She enjoys anything to do with art, traveling, and music. Her future plans involve becoming a psychiatrist and therapist because mental health is a really important topic to her.
Heba Kibboua
Heba Kibboua is a senior at Washington. She grew up in Fremont, California but her roots are from Algeria and Afghanistan. This is her first year at the Hatchet. Her journalistic interests are mainly world issues, such as the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan. She also has a passion for activism and equal rights. Her hobbies consist of baking and skating. An extracurricular activity she is a part of at school is being the president for ASU (Afghan Student Union). Her future plans are going to medical school to become a physician's assistant.
Armaan Grewal
Armaan is a senior at Washington High School and has lived in Fremont his entire life. This is Armaan’s first year at the paper and he is very excited to be here. Some interests that Armaan has in journalism are writing about sports and talking about what people like to do in their free time. Some hobbies I do in my free time are play basketball and watch football. My future plans are to go to college, get a degree, and find a job that pays well.
Advik Kunta
Advik Kunta is a senior at Washington High School and has lived in Fremont his entire life. This is his first year at the paper and he's excited to write opinion pieces. His hobbies include watching movies and TV shows, reading books, and playing video games. Some of his favorite movies include The Perks of Being a Wallflower, The Lord of the Rings trilogy, and Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse. His future plans include going to college and majoring in Computer Science.
Ryan Adams
Ryan Adams is a junior at Washington High School. He grew up across the Bay Area spending time in San Pablo, Castro Valley, and Fremont, but he’s spent most of his childhood in Fremont. This will be his first year at the Hatchet newspaper. Journalistically he’s interested in covering sports, and he spends his free time playing football for the Washington High School football team, playing video games, and watching television just to name a few. His future plans are to maybe go to Ohlone College after high school, and figure out a plan from there.
Dylan Mabunga
Dylan Mabunga is a sophomore at Washington High School. He was born in San Jose, California, and moved to Fremont when he was two. This is his first year with the Hatchet. Topics he is interested in include world events, sports, and movies and video games. Dylan enjoys playing basketball, video games, and hanging out with friends. Dylan is unsure of what he wants to do in the future, but currently is planning on going to college and is unsure what to major in.
Xavier Walker
Xavier Walker is a current junior at Washington High School. He was born and partially raised in Oakland, CA. This is Xavier’s first year on the paper. Xavier likes to write about sports as well as health. Xavier loves playing sports and is on the Washington football and basketball team. He also loves to draw. Xavier’s future plans are to continue playing sports in college.
Olga Vysotsky
Olga Vysotsky is a senior at Washington High School. This is her first year at the paper. She was born and raised in Fremont, California. As a journalist, she is interested in covering politics, world affairs, technology, and particularly how they intersect. She is the treasurer of WHS Robotics Club, where she often teaches coding. Outside of tech, she loves to paint, collect coins, and sometimes dabble in calligraphy. Her future plans are to study aerospace engineering at university.
Dana Mirghani
Dana Mirghani is a senior at Washington High School. She was born in Sudan, grew up in Michigan, and is now living in Fremont. This is her first year at the Hatchet and she mainly enjoys writing about art, history, politics, and her opinions. Some of her hobbies include public speaking, acting, writing, and exploring new places. She plans to major in sociology and integrate that into an artistic career, perhaps filmmaking.
Arthur Maung
Arthur Maung is a junior at Washington High School and has lived in the city of Fremont his entire life. This is his first year at the Hatchet, fully new to the paper. Arthur joined the paper to express his interests in anime and issues in Fremont. His hobbies include, but are not limited to, watching anime & Youtube, reading manga/manhwa, playing video games, and listening to music. After high-school Arthur plans to continue his education at Ohlone College, then transfer to any university to continue his education & adult life.
Vanessa Shimizu
Vanessa Shimizu is a senior at Washington High School. She was born and raised in Fremont, California. This is her first year with the Hatchet. In her articles for the paper, she is most excited to improve her own writing and discuss current global issues. In her free time she loves to eat, sleep, do any arts and crafts, play Genshin Impact, and listen to Kpop and lo-fi. Her future plans include getting a dog, getting into one of the UC’s, and pursuing a major in the STEM field.
Conley Shen
Conley Shen is 15 years old, and a junior at Washington High School. He was born and raised in Fremont, where he has lived all his life. This is his first year being a part of the school newspaper, and has interest in covering a variety of subjects. He is a current member of the Washington debate club, and some of his hobbies include looking for, and finding new novel series to enjoy. After high school, he hopes to enter college before graduating and entering the workforce.
Montana Makarova
Montana is a sophomore at Washington High School in Fremont, California, where she grew up. This is her first year at the Hatchet, and she is excited to cover arts and entertainment as well as local news. She likes baking, reading, and watching Netflix in her free time. Her favorite time of the year is always Christmas and Halloween. In the future Montana aspires to work in judicial or business law, where she can help people and think analytically.
Aleesha Sachanandani
Aleesha Sachanandani is a sophomore at Washington High School. He was born and raised in Fremont, California. This is his first year with the Hatchet and he is interested in discussing current events that have big impacts on people and viewing different opinions on different topics. He enjoys doing sports or building random things in his free time. He doesn’t know what he would like to do in the future yet but knows he will not pursue a major or job that includes math.
Divya Rajesh
Divya Rajesh was born and raised in the Bay Area. Along with being a sophomore, this is their first year at the paper. Divya enjoys writing about topics that include current events, arts, and personal opinions. Some of their favorite things to do are dance, painting, and cooking. Divya plans on continuing to study in the Bay Area as well as continuing to write about their favorite topics!
Mayah Biswas
Mayah Biswas was born on September 8th 2004 in Fremont, California. She has not left Fremont since and is enamored by writing and literature. This is her first year at the paper, but she has worked with Ms. Campisano in her yearbook class. Some of her journalistic interests are covering the latest medical news, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, and also covering the news of what’s trending at Washington High School. As a child, Mayah used writing as her emotional outlet; she would keep many journals that contained her darkest secrets or sometimes her daily schedules. Some extracurricular activities she had during her first two years at WHS were playing basketball and cross country with Coach Vose. Additionally, she devoted time to tutor her younger peers during online school on different topics such as: Biology, Geometry, Algebra 1 and World History. Mayah has always struggled with forming her own plans for the future. She is more than capable of planning out her present day plans and taking charge, but when she’s asked the question: “what do you want to do?” she’s stumped. This is why she is taking journalism: she wants to explore more ground to see what makes her heart sing and live for.
Doris Gonzales
Doris Gonzalez is in twelfth grade. She grew up in Niles, Fremont. She has been writing tiny animal books that have information about them since she was six years old. She started to write a book about a show that she wants to make in 2019, and she just finished the introduction of the book this year. She’s really interested in topics like climate change, endangered animals, and what’s going on with the LGBTQ+ community and the Black Lives Matter movement. Her hobbies are drawing, painting, writing, playing video games, and collecting stuff like anime figures, monster high dolls, shopkins, manga, and Disney movies. Her future plans are writing a book and starting a tv show (but not directing it, because she’s really bad at directing others). She also wants to work at an animal rehabilitation center, make YouTube videos, and go to UC Davis.
Shaunak Roy
Shaunak Roy is a senior at Washington High School. Having spent the first ten years of his life amidst the tightly-knit neighborhoods of India, Shaunak continues his passion for communal activities by playing gully cricket with his friends and participating in dance teams in the States. As a first-year member of The Hatchet, he strives to interview students at his school and report their unique stories, while occasionally reviewing horrible Bollywood movies for the mere fun of it. Besides being randomly interested in watching chess videos and singing in video calls with his sister, Shaunak has developed a strong passion for physics and engineering over the past few years of high school, which he plans to further explore in college.
Harini Sivakumar
Harini Sivakumar is a senior at Washington High School. She was born in Chennai, India and moved to the Bay Area when she was four. This is her first year at the Hatchet, and she is interested in biomedicine, forensics, and issues regarding HIPAA compliance. Her hobbies include playing with her dogs and watching anime. She hopes to study optics in college, and lead a career in ophthalmology and visionary science research in the future.