The Plank - Opinions

When I found out that I got accepted to go to the Kino Border Initiative (KBI) Immersion in Nogales, Mexico, I knew it would be unlike any other experience I have ever had. My group, led by English Teacher Mr. Ted Hornback ’83 and Assistant Director for Office of Service and Justice Ms. Jessica Fuentes was ready to experience and to see firsthand what life was like on the border, and hear the many perspectives on migration. Initially, I felt a mix of nerves and excitement – while I had been to Mexico several times before, this was my first time experiencing the border with such an intimate, human perspective. I knew this journey would challenge my views and push me to see something new. 

Sunday, July 7th began with an early wake-up call. I was drowsy, yet I couldn’t help but feel a little bit excited for the week that was about to come. I’ve always loved community service, so committing a whole week to it was very exciting.

Our immersion journey started at Jesuit, and after a seven hour drive, the wait was over: we had arrived at our church in Del Norte County, California.

Public restrooms can be a disgusting place filled with unflushed toilets and other repulsive smells. The rise of hand-dryers is only contributing to this problem, posing a more serious risk to public health than most people think.

In 2018, researchers from the University of Connecticut suspected that hand dryers in public bathrooms may be sucking up bacteria from the surrounding air, and blowing it onto the freshly washed hands of unaware guests. To prove this hypothesis, scientists placed petri dishes in different locations around a bathroom, and then recorded any mycobacterial growth. With the hand dryers off, petri dishes exposed to the air in the bathroom grew one or zero colonies of bacteria within a span of two minutes. However, petri dishes exposed to the hot-air hand dryers for thirty seconds grew anywhere from 18 to 254 colonies.

The University of Southern California (USC) was founded in 1880, in beautiful and sunny Los Angeles, California. With rigorous academics and a strong student life scene, USC enables students to enjoy the experience of furthering their education. 

USC consists of 23 schools, each focusing on a different field of study. This ranges from the USC School of Cinematic Arts to the USC Gould School of Law. With a variety of these colleges to choose from, USC allows students to study their field in a more refined way.

Created in 1901, the Oakland Athletics (A’s) are no stranger to moving cities. Originally serving as the Major League Baseball (MLB) team for Philadelphia, the A’s moved to Kansas City in 1955, and then moved again to Oakland in 1968. This April, the organization announced perhaps their most unusual move of all.

With All-Star Weekend in the rear-view mirror, the Sacramento Kings sit at seventh place in the Western Conference with a record of 33-24. At the start of this NBA season, The Plank anonymously polled 47 random student fans from Jesuit High School Sacramento, asking them what their Playoff expectations are for the Kings this year. Their confidence was clear: 52.1% said that this season’s team can make it past the second round, something the franchise hasn’t accomplished since 2002. Let’s see how those expectations stack up after 57 games.

Super Bowl LVIII will be held on Sunday, Feb.11, at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada. Many Jesuit students will be tuning in as the game will feature a familiar matchup: Kyle Shanahan’s San Francisco 49ers will face off against Andy Reid’s Kansas City Chiefs. The two teams played each other in Super Bowl LIV four years ago, where the Chiefs won 31-20 thanks to a dominant final 8 minutes where they outscored the 49ers 21-0.

Filmmaker Gareth Edwards’s much-anticipated original sci-fi film “The Creator” was released in theaters on Sept. 30, 2023, and it failed to live up to the hype. This movie is disappointing because it feels as cookie-cutter and one-note as the typical blockbuster fare, despite it being one of the few sci-fi movies released in the past few years that is not attached to a series.

Students from Jesuit High School Sacramento joined students from Saint Francis High School and Rio Americano High School to produce the Fall Play event entitled “My Pandemic Love Story” (MPLS). Through song, dance, and monologue, the performers relived and revealed the realities they experienced  during the COVID-19 pandemic.