Nikko's Burgers
The Student News Site of Sunny Hills High School

The Accolade
Nikko's Burgers
The Student News Site of Sunny Hills High School

The Accolade
Nikko's Burgers
The Student News Site of Sunny Hills High School

The Accolade
Learning loss — myth or fact?
Learning loss — myth or fact?
Katelyn Ahn, Business Manager & Spotlight Team Reporter • July 2, 2025

This is one of a series of five-year, COVID-19 pandemic anniversary articles The Accolade’s Spotlight team has expanded from its original print...

Then-seniors and Mr. Sunny Hills nominees Akashi Rai (left), Carlos Serrano and Jimmy Barajas stand up on Oct. 19, 2018 in their second period class with a balloon and paper crown as nominees for the Mr. Sunny Hills pageant show.
Lost traditions post-COVID-19 pandemic
Ellen Hwang, Spotlight Team Reporter • June 21, 2025

This is one of a series of five-year, COVID-19 pandemic anniversary articles The Accolade’s Spotlight team has expanded from its original print...

Senior Jai Patel holds open the 310-page book he had co-authored during his 2024 Boeing summer internship. Statistical Programming Essentials: R & Python is available for purchase on Amazon for $22.99.
Engineering a new book
Nathan Lee, Layout Editor • June 12, 2025

Look for more senior profiles in our May issue. Senior Jai Patel has been fascinated with engineering concepts since he was in sixth grade,...

The four National Merit semi-finalists for the 2024-2025 school year were announced in the Sunny Hills GOLD Standard Newsletter on Friday, Sept. 20.
7 decades of honoring the brightest
Philip Cho, Cub Reporter • June 5, 2025

The National Merit Scholarship Corp. [NMSC] has something in common with Disneyland in Anaheim, McDonald’s and Guinness World Records. 1955. That’s...

New campus supervisor Jason Hughes (right) demonstrates how he would listen to supervisor liaison Randall Avalos’s walkie-talkie message in the hallway near the 10s wing on Friday, April 11.
Latest addition to campus supervisor team a familiar face
Alice Chae, Social Media Team & Staff Reporter • June 4, 2025
Senior Lucas Saab (left) and junior Jake Sueki point at their flip flops in front of Room 138 on Wednesday, March 26, during lunch.
Flip Flop Fridays
Bradyn Chiang, Cub Reporter • May 29, 2025
The Big Brothers Big Sisters of Orange County offers high school students a chance to serve as mentors to local elementary school children. Because of confidentiality issues, the organization cannot share images of the youth whom Sunny Hills students worked with. Instead, it provided the following stock image of Tustin High School mentors standing outside of a campus in 2019.
Helping the next generation ‘achieve milestones’
Leona Ji, Cub Reporter • May 28, 2025
Senior Luke Lawrence walks around Angel Stadium in Anaheim during the March 29, 2024, Fullerton vs. Troy baseball game.
Ready, set, click
Alice Chae, Social Media Team & Staff Reporter • May 18, 2025
Senior Sophia Kiker crafts a spring- themed charcuterie board for a pre-prom party order on April 23, 2024, for her business.
Berkeley-bound senior operates charcuterie business amid balancing grades, extracurriculars
Mina Imai, Cub Reporter • May 18, 2025
Senior Liam Weinreich talks about his high school career with his father as principal.
Q&A WITH A LANCER: Liam Weinreich
Emily Lee, Social Media Team & Staff Reporter • May 14, 2025
Members of the Mock Trial club gather to celebrate after their inaugural tournament season on Tuesday, Nov. 19, inside the Superior Court of California, County of Orange.
CLUB CORNER: Mock Trial back in session
Tatiana Galvez, Cub Reporter • May 11, 2025
Senior Ethan Hsu (right) points at the laptop screen of junior Julia Kim (center) in his attempt to tutor her after school at the Algebra Center on Thursday, March 6, in Room 45. Also helping Kim is senior Sarah Patino.
Sine, cosine, tangent
Caleb Kang, Cub Reporter • May 9, 2025
Andrew Guevara (left), playing with Kellie Ma, swings his paddle to hit the pickleball on Tuesday, Feb. 25, on the tennis courts.
Picking up pickleball
Kaylee Won, Cub Reporter • May 5, 2025
Class of 1973 alumnus and former Spanish teacher Gene Bordy looks Wednesday, April 23, in Room 138 at the Pilgrim Tours website featuring his dream trip to the Holy Land of Israel. Bordy has been unable to go on his scheduled tour the past two years because of the Israeli-Hamas conflict as well as several airlines’ decision to no longer offer flights to that part of the Middle East.
ALUMNI ARTICULATION: Dream trip to Israel turned nightmare
Amy Lim, Cub Reporter • May 1, 2025
Seniors Amanda Laurie Pascual (right) and Mohamad Ibrahim walk with their crowns and sashes after they were announced as prom queen and king, respectively, at the Anaheim Regional Transportation Intermodal Center on Saturday, April 5.
PROM QUEEN Q&A: Amanda Laurie Pascual reflects on her unexpected win
Emily Kim, Staff Reporter • April 22, 2025
Seniors Mohamad Ibrahim (right) and Amanda Laurie Pascual showcase their sashes and crown for winning prom king and queen, respectively, on the staircase of the Anaheim Regional Transportation Intermodal Center on Saturday, April 5.
PROM KING Q&A: Mohamad Ibrahim relives his crowning and senior memories
Kyuwon Han, Spotlight Team Reporter • April 21, 2025
Sophomore Bright Jun picks up his McDonald’s online order from Room 7, the attendance office, on Wednesday, Oct. 9, during lunch.
DOOR DASHERS: More students opt for food delivery during lunch than settling for ‘gross,’ free school meals
Elise Pak, Staff Reporter • April 11, 2025
Since the March 2020 lockdown because of the COVID-19 pandemic, terms like “test-blind” or “test-optional” for SAT and ACT have begun appearing in the college admissions process to adapt to the circumstances of being unable to take the exams in person. Test-blind refers to colleges not accepting or considering standardized exam scores.
VIRAL IMPACT ON SAT, ACT: Pandemic spurs ‘test-optional,’ ‘test-blind’ trend in college admissions
Kyuwon Han, Spotlight Team Reporter • April 3, 2025
Author of Party School Jonathan Hart shares his experience writing and publishing the novel during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Q&A: Party School author reviews experience as a writer during COVID-19
Ashley Kang, Business Manager & Spotlight Team Reporter • April 1, 2025
After switching to colored magazines at the beginning of the 2023-2024 school year, The Accolade has produced three issues as of Tuesday, April 1. Students share their reactions to the costs and effort required to plan and publish each magazine.
DID YOU KNOW? Cost of one Accolade 32-page magazine same as a McDonald’s Mini McFlurry
Alice Chae, Social Media Team & Staff Reporter • April 1, 2025
Looking back on the past five years, teachers and students reflect on how the world has changed while going through both the stages of a global pandemic to a recovery, to where we are now.
5 YEARS LATER: A look back at what we have learned from the COVID-19 pandemic
Angelina Jeong, Spotlight Specialty Magazine Editor • March 25, 2025
Oxford University Press, which named "brain rot" its Word of the Year, created this design on its website with words in the background relating to the other runner-up terms that are included in the shortlist.
Brain rot’s the sigma – earns 2024 Word of the Year honor from Oxford English Dictionary
Irene Park, News Editor • March 11, 2025
Two students from December 2016 decorate parts of the quad before the start of first period on the Monday of final exam week. This rite of passage that disappeared before COVID-19 hit in March 2020 should return to campus.
STAFF EDITORIAL: 5 years after the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s time to bring back some forgotten traditions
The Accolade Editorial Board • March 11, 2025
New campus supervisor Jennifer Davila (right) guides sophomore Andrew Loyola through the 5-Star app on Tuesday, Jan. 7, outside the 30s wing. Loyola asked what would happen if the timer for the bathroom pass ran out.
What does new campus supervisor and Jiminy Cricket have in common?
Soojin Cho, Copy Editor • March 3, 2025
The Accolade staff of 1997 work in Room 15 for its upcoming issue. Before the staff had its home in Room 138 in 1999, the majority of the work would be done in the computer lab in the 10s wing.
DID YOU KNOW? The Accolade’s name stems from connection with school’s mascot
Alexxa Berumen, Editor-in-Chief • February 25, 2025
Then-sophomore Nate Barksdale (front row, second from left) holds the ACCOLADE ST sign in the newspaper staff photo that appears in the 1991-1992 yearbook. Unbeknownst to Barksdale, he would eventually ignite an Accolade staff yearbook photo tradition that would last nearly a decade.
DID YOU ALSO KNOW? The Accolade once had its own street sign — why and where is it now?
Alice Chae, Social Media Team & Staff Reporter • February 20, 2025
The Accolade staff shares mixed opinions regarding the publication’s survival over the next 10 years.
DID YOU KNOW? The Accolade marks 65 years, eyes a 75th anniversary without print
Elise Pak, Staff Reporter • February 20, 2025
Statistics show majority of high school sweethearts tend to go on their separate ways post-graduation.
BE MINE? Statistics suggest high school sweethearts won’t last following graduation; SH couples share their thoughts
Nicole Park, Feature Editor • February 17, 2025
After the 2024 presidential election ending with Donald Trump's victory, The Accolade's Spotlight team focuses on different aspects entering this new era and the aftermath.
SPOTLIGHT: Post-election wrap-up
Ellen Hwang, Angelina Jeong, Faith Jung, and Ashley Kang • February 7, 2025
Senior Lillian Foster poses with a tennis racket and balls at Northwestern’s tennis court on Monday, July 8, during the Northwestern pre-college program from Sunday, June 30-Saturday, July 13.
FROM SUMMER ACTION TO EARLY DECISION: Chance to study at Northwestern solidifies senior’s top college choice
Caroline Shin, Staff Reporter • January 27, 2025
An artist’s rendition of a student graduating with a three-year degree displays the differences between the traditional college route and the newer, less conventional one.
More join ‘College-in-3’ movement though most SH students, parents remain skeptical about non-traditional degree pathway
Katelyn Ahn, Business Manager & Spotlight Team Reporter • January 7, 2025
Andrew Ngo (right), who graduated from Sunny Hills in 2021, holds his bachelor’s degree in business administration during his commencement ceremony at USC on Friday, May 10. Ngo earned enough college credits from passing scores in his International Baccalaureate and Advanced Placement exams to help him graduate from USC in three instead of the traditional four years.
ALUMNI ARTICULATION: Some recent Lancer grads take non-traditional route of finishing college in three years
Soojin Cho, Copy Editor • January 7, 2025
College student and Target seasonal worker Alyssa Vasquez identifies items that need to be restocked in the produce section of Fullerton Amerige Heights Town Center’s location.
HOLLY JOLLY JOBS: Winter season brings opportunities for students
Irene Park, News Editor • December 26, 2024
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