Nordic News

Working through a pandemic: essential employees

May 11, 2020

As a result of the statewide stay-at-home order and other measures taken to reduce the movement of people, many workers have been forced out of their jobs or converted to working from home. One group of employees, however, are still working as usual. “Essential workers,” defined by the Esse...

Haley van Meurs makes All-State as a freshman

Freshman Haley van Meurs shows off her skills in the band
room on Dec. 16. Photo by Sonya Sheptunov

Sonya Sheptunov, Editor-in-Chief

December 20, 2019

When freshman Haley van Meurs went to an orchestra concert for the first time at the age of five, she fell in love with the violin and begged her mom to let her learn to play. “I just loved the sound and the person that was playing it. They were so passionate, and they looked like th...

Gabriela Mootz finds a family in choir

Gabriela Mootz's favorite songs to sing. Art by Rory Knettles

Rory Knettles, Reporter

December 20, 2019

Music has been a part of junior Gabriela Mootz’s life. Since she was young, her grandmother would take her to church to sing in their choir. Throughout elementary and middle school though, she wasn’t in choir—she was in band. Mootz said she loved it, but she realized that she would rather purs...

Feature: Face in the crowd

Sonya Sheptunov and Minita Layal

November 22, 2019

Cameron Schmitter Senior Cameron Schmitter got involved with ballet at the age of 4. According to Schmitter, the night before he was born, his parents went to see a performance of The Nutcracker, which they continued to do on Schmitter’s birthday as he got older. “When I was four, I think I w...

Face in the Crowd: Zoe Schenk and Elan Bustillos

Evelyn Yang and Madeline Nguyen

November 25, 2018

Senior holds the gavel at PACMUN conference by Evelyn Yang, opinion editor The Pacific Model United Nations (PACMUN) conference will take place from Nov. 10 to Nov. 11 with an expected 800 delegates, and senior Zoe Schenk is in charge of it all. Schenk is this year’s Secretary General of PACMUN,...

Face in the Crowd: Kimaya Wijeratna

April 8, 2018

Dangling sideways, using her heel to grip the wall and jumping between holds are all moves necessary for freshman Kimaya Wijeratna to complete a brightly-colored bouldering route at Vertical World, a climbing gym in Redmond — and Wijeratna makes it all look effortless. “I kind of just too...

Face in the Crowd: Olivia Oomen

Oomen focuses her camera during photography class. She said that she gets a lot of support for her photography on her Instagram account.

Evelyn Yang, Reporter

March 12, 2018

She already knew that she had a passion for art as she finger painted in her pre-K classroom. Eleven years later, sophomore Olivia Oomen won a national award for her artwork. Last year, Oomen received a national Gold Medal from the Scholastic Art and Writing Competition and was one out of 100 artists to...

Face in the crowd: Aaron Greison

Greisen shows off his drumstick twirling moves after a performance on Dec. 3.

Olivia Sasson, Reporter

December 14, 2017

Rather than eating candy canes or hanging out with friends during his free time, junior Aaron Greisen will spend his evenings this December performing at Bellevue’s annual Snowflake Lane Parade along with six other Inglemoor drummers. The parade runs along Bellevue Way, starting at 7 p.m. every ni...

Face in the crowd: Bianca Frintu

Aditi Jain, Reporter

November 21, 2017

Unlike many dancers who started dancing as soon as they could walk, sophomore Bianca Frintu’s passion for ballet came to her about four years ago. She considered the idea after a shoulder injury that forced her stop swimming competitively. Frintu has developed profoundly as a ballerina, finding a ...

Face in the crowd: Elijah Swain

Kiara Reed, Reporter

November 7, 2016

I’ve heard that you play the bass. What got you into that? I’ve been playing acoustic guitar and electric guitar for, at most, five years and my guitar instructor said that I have the potential to be a really good bass player. I invested money in that and bought a bass and I really like it. I...