“One of the great memories I had at Oakland Tech was the homecoming rallies. I miss attending our homecoming rallies because our school had such high spirits and fun. It was always great joy during that time of year dressing up and taking part in the rally. Another great memory I had was being in the Paideia program. It was a great experience because of the challenging classes we were offered. I am happy I took these classes because it prepared me for college, while making great friends and having awesome teachers on the way!”

Manjot Sandhu – Class of 2010

I was one of those uninspired students who waited until senior year to take physical education and was stuck in a class with rambunctious, uncomfortably energetic and suspiciously happy underclassmen. Coach Sherman is a larger than life character, tall and imposing with broad shoulders and a full head of hair. He has a firm but soft voice that was prone to acting like a candle in the wind; it would wane in and out of existence every other week. One spring day Coach Sherman decided to herd us into the classroom under the boy’s gym so we could watch a movie he was fond of. It was one of those lazy afternoons at the end of the marking period. Some students were doing late work. Others were in supplication for a passing grade. A few were dozing off and all the while The Temptations movie was filling the room with soul music. Towards the end of the period, as students started gathering their belongings and shuffling towards the door, Coach Sherman abruptly broke into a song with a student as the movie began its final scene, The Temptations performing “My Girl” in an empty theater. Suddenly the room erupted into a hoarse recital of “My Girl.” Here was Coach Sherman leading a group of 15 and 16-year-olds in a 60s soul song. People were twisting, clapping and snapping in unbridled joy, with guilt-free unrestrained singing and gay strutting. The mood gripped me and I joined the fray, singing and dancing merrily with the rest of the class. The scene, like high school, was brief, initially awkward and confusing, but once the strength to sing and dance was found, it became a sweet, memorable moment.

Being Associated Student Body President was not a glamorous job, but it was rewarding. One afternoon I knocked on Ms. Morrison’s office door in tears as I was sleep deprived and stressed out juggling presidential tasks, school work, and my social life. She gave me a piece of paper and told me to write down everything I was feeling and not worry about errors. “Just go at it,” she said. After I wrote it all down, she told me to take it home with me and read it the following day. She told me to come up with a plan of what to do next as sometimes in the moment of being flustered, I may make rash decisions. Today, I continue to use this method.

My freshman science teacher, Mr. Raeke, had a sense of humor that was as unstoppable as plate tectonics or mitosis. He considered himself to be the funniest teacher. April Fool’s Day that year was going to be an April Fool’s Day to remember. The best way to prank Mr. Raeke would be to play on his position as funniest teacher in the school. I used Microsoft Publisher to create a fake awards certificate for Tech’s “funniest teacher.” My plan was to pretend that the student council had decided to give awards. When April 1st rolled around, I didn’t want to embarrass Mr. Raeke. He had figured that the award was a fake all along. Towards the end of class, he made a great hullaballoo about how I was to present him the award. So I presented it. When I finally said “April Fools,” the main reaction from my fellow students was surprise and anger– at me. They thought it was mean of me to play the joke on Mr. Raeke. From what I understand, when he was explaining to next year’s students how he was the funniest teacher, he used the certificate as ‘official evidence!’

Throughout my two years as a participant in Oakland Tech’s Cross Country Team, I made many new friendships, increased my endurance and athletic abilities, and learned how to be part of a team. During my first year on the team in the fall of 2012, our team’s hard work and daily practices allowed both the girls’ and boys’ teams to win our league championship, which was the first time that both teams won in the same season in Oakland Tech history. Winning the championship qualified us to move on to the state championship as an entire team, which really helped us to bond and work together to meet our goals. Although both teams did not qualify for state the following season (though the boys’ team won), our team performed very well and I was still able to make the most out of my last season on the team. Overall, I really learned how to be a team player and gained valuable skills that I will carry with me in the future.

Phillip Fisher, the founder of Tech, strongly believed in having a journalism class at Tech. In an early edition of Scribe News, he explained that “a newspaper is the greatest medium available by which a person may keep in constant contact with the world.” Indeed, Scribe News has been a significant part of Tech’s history, and it’s one of the main tools we’ve used to look back for the Centennial.

Putting together The Scribe’s Centennial Edition, which was released this past June, was an insightful experience for all of our staff. We perused through piles and piles of old newspapers and yearbooks, and it became clear to us that Tech has changed a lot over the years. We don’t have the shop classes we used to have or the same social makeup of our predecessors, and the neighborhood around Tech has changed dramatically since our inception. But, since the beginning, Tech has always been an Oakland landmark, the centerpiece of K-12 public education in the city.

As the 2013-14 Editor-in-Chief of Scribe News, it was such a joy and honor to be a part of this Centennial celebration. I’m so proud of what we’ve accomplished this year with Scribe News, and I cannot wait to see what lies in the years ahead for Tech (perhaps the sesquicentennial in 2064?).
If you’d like to see The Scribe’s Centennial Edition for yourself, visit www.oaklandtechscribe.com.