Times Change

Mar 11

An extension of the cover story in the 2020 Senior Issue.

Michael Alton

Manasa Premanand, Staff Writer

November

Senior Michael Alton has accomplished several things during his time in high school so far and has especially garnered attention as the host of Northview’s morning announcements. Before taking up the role as host of the morning news, Alton was already an active member of the school and community, balancing work, difficult classes, and his time on the football team and lacrosse team. In his first semester of junior year, Alton began to host the morning show because there was no one else to take on the role. He took to the position quite naturally, as his sister, Cat Alton, who graduated a few years ago, was the first Alton to host the morning announcements.

“I ended up doing it because I realized that I really enjoyed the whole production of the film,” Alton said.

Nowadays, Alton has expanded his skill set in addition to hosting, as he helps create the scripts for the morning shows. Plus, he takes part in Northview’s audio-video technology class because he loves to produce things. Alton is proud of his accomplishments so far in his high school career. Most of all, he is impressed with the time management he learned and the relationships he has built, which are very beneficial.

“For high school, I feel like I’ve done a lot, and I’m proud of myself because I didn’t think I could do what I’ve [done],” Alton said. “Whether it’s the morning show or just school achievements, I have surprised myself and developed a decent work ethic.”

Even with all of these high school achievements in mind, Alton is not going to slack during college. He wants to go to GA Tech or UGA to pursue something in engineering or mathematics. He also wants to seize any opportunity to do something creative in college, similar to his experience with the morning news.  

Since Alton will be graduating this year, he wants the underclassmen to slowly transition into taking charge this year and carrying on the morning news next year. Alton believes his younger siblings can aid in carrying this on, and hopes for the continuation of the morning news in the future.

“My brother, actually, has a few friends that are interested in joining the morning show, so as the second semester draws near, we’re going to have his friends join the morning show. Since they’re already close, it’ll be easier to make something good in the future,” Alton said.

April

“I’m Michael Alton and this is Northview Morning.” One of the most iconic lines “Northview Morning” has; fans and non-fans alike have come to associate this phrase with the charismatic host of the show--Michael Alton. Alton, a senior, has left behind quite the impression on underclassmen by exhibiting a strong work ethic and tireless dedication towards the morning show and maintaining a perfect balance between his school life and work life. 

Alton started hosting “Northview Morning” when he was a junior in order to fulfill the legacy of the Alton siblings--which began with his older sister Cat--to take part in hosting the morning announcements. Alton enjoyed the process involved in producing the show and gained a keen appreciation of how the show was able to inform all students of the current events at Northview. 

Similar to any other individual in their field of work, as Alton grew and matured, he gained more experience in hosting “Northview Morning” and introduced new, innovative ideas for his crew to implement. One of these ideas was for the show to perform humorous skits during class to broadcast every morning. 

“[The skits] were really fun to make. We just did whatever we wanted without making much of a script,” Alton said. 

Alton also recruited his younger brother Kevin and his peers to lighten the heavy workload required to host “Northview Morning.” This way, the underclassmen would also be better prepared for hosting next year, leaving the show in capable hands when Alton is gone. Though he will be attending college, Alton and his brother have discussed methods the morning show could utilize next year.

“I don’t really think I’m going to be making any appearances [on the show next year], but...I was thinking that we could have a different anchor for each day of the week to give more of the people who want to be on [“Northview Morning”] a chance,” Alton said. “That’d also be easier for Kevin since he won’t have to be there every morning.”

Alton matured not only as the “Northview Morning” host but also as a person as he went through senior year at Northview. Recently, he decided to focus more on spending time with his family and deciding what he plans to pursue as a career. He realized the importance of setting aside time for self-care and maintaining a healthy social life while still being productive.  

“Senior year helped me realize the importance of taking time for myself and not always working. I stopped caring about my grades and tried to just appreciate what my teachers were teaching.” Alton said. 

Alton’s friends are another source of motivation for him, and the memories and experiences he shares with them have immensely impacted his experience at Northview. One of his most memorable moments with his friends in audio-video technology class was spending time filming long projects together.

“It amazed me how capable we all were to start from nothing and make such amazing films. Definitely the highlight of my senior year,” Alton said. “The year ended really fast, and it’s surreal how I won’t be seeing a lot of them anymore.”

Alas, all good things must come to an end, and Alton is set to finish this chapter of life as a high school student and start anew at college, where opportunities to exhibit his creativity await. He plans on pursuing a career related to engineering or mathematics and intends to go to GA Tech or UGA. 

Alton has left behind a powerful impression on the students of Northview through his participation in the morning announcements, which have provided every student at Northview, regardless of their class or grade, the means to easily access important information. 

“I’m not sure if I’m going to leave behind some legacy, but I’m hoping that students will keep working on ‘Northview Morning.’ I think that having a show where every student can easily know about the different things going on in the school is important,” Alton said, “It’s a bridge between the teachers and students, and brings the school together since anyone can be on it and feel noticed.”

Albert Zhang

Anshi Vajpayee, Staff Writer

November

Senior Albert Zhang is the epitome of an all-star student. From being an Eagle Scout to juggling hardcore extracurriculars and APs, Zhang’s got it all. 

Currently, the president of Programming Club, holder of three international awards and several national awards for math, physics, and programming, Zhang’s success revolves around his main passions: business and computer science. He hopes to carry forward that trait by double-majoring in them in college.

 He also started his own tutoring business, which he plans on expanding this school year as well. Computer science has always been a lasting passion; he started coding in the sixth grade out of curiosity and never stopped. Although he is still undecided on what college he wants to attend, he stays focused on his long-term goals as he is motivated by his likes, and not by college-oriented work. In fact, he goes as far as to describe college-oriented work as defective. 

“A lot of people think ‘oh, you need to do something for college,’ but I don't think that works because if you’re doing an activity you don't enjoy, it’s extremely hard to be good at it,” Zhang said. “If I didn't like programming, there is no chance that I would be as good of a programmer as I am now.”

While Zhang values his consistently high grades, perfect standardized test scores, and various extra-curricular achievements, he focuses more on his interests, rather than the awards themselves. He believes his grades and achievements are a measure of his knowledge and should correspond with how well he retains it. He describes one particular scenario, his Eagle Scout’s officiation ceremony, as a time when he reflected on his 12 years of scouting, all the friends he made, and the camp trips he went on, not the physical award itself. 

“Awards are not supposed to be your aim. Your aim should be experience, knowledge, and those awards you just get from what you do,” Zhang said. 

Zhang envisioned his four years at Northview to be a bit different, his inspiration originating from “iCarly” and “Drake and Josh”. While he admits Northview is nothing like Nickelodeon’s high school culture, to him, Northview is great in its own ways.  

“I think sometimes this school gets a bad reputation for being too intensive, but honestly I never thought it was that bad, I always had a lot of fun in school with my friends,” Zhang said. 

Zhang’s consistent drive to learn and incomparable work ethic will undoubtedly lead him far ahead in his career, but until then, he will just have to remain an amazing student here at Northview. 

April

Amidst the unfortunate crisis that abruptly struck Northview’s students, Albert Zhang has taken it upon himself to help make the world a better place, one Admeeted user at a time. 

“Trying to connect people together so they can have fun while fostering new friends with this platform has been the most intensive undertaking I’ve ever done,” Zhang said. 

After more than a month of consecutive work and various binge-sessions on lectures capturing the art of startup ventures, Zhang is proud of the project it has become. Admeeted, a quarantine-style social media website dedicated to helping people meet new friends virtually, features a new, innovative way to visually communicate where people are paired based on similar interests. 

“If I could go back, I would have wanted to have started working on Admeeted and similar endeavors to help the world earlier,” Zhang said. 

Aside from his current pursuit and one-man production as the founder of Admeeted, Zhang most likely plans on attending the prestigious Harvard University, majoring in something along the lines of economics and computer science. Due to COVID-19 and some financial problems Zhang encountered, he is currently re-evaluating his definite decision. 

“I’ll still most likely end up attending, though, even if I have to start working more often,” Zhang said. 

 He is an avid supporter of humanities and not so much STEM, contrary to his abundance of awards in math, physics, and programming. Zhang’s belief that it is better to follow a multidisciplinary approach to education stems from his realization that at the end of the day, humanities succeed in comprehending something STEM subjects often fail to do: the rationale behind how humans think. 

“I think I learned a lot about just how unpredictable life really is - that's one of the things that's pushing me more towards studying humanities rather than STEM,” Zhang said. “Science and math are fabulous for modeling the real world and creating products that revolutionize societies, but in the end, for many aspects of life, they usually only estimate at best and mislead at worst.” 

During his four years of high school, if there is one lesson Zhang learned, it is that things, despite hardships throughout the journey, will eventually turn out okay. In his sophomore year, Zhang was supposed to qualify for USA Junior Math Olympiad, but due to an unfortunate shipping error, USPS lost Northview’s test answer sheets. At the time, it consequently affected his mood as his hours of work seemingly went to waste. However, in retrospect, Zhang recalls this instance as a time where an event honestly did not matter as much as he believed at the time. 

“I still kept all the knowledge and skills I’d gained from training, and that was far more important,” Zhang said.

What really mattered, Zhang realized, were the events deemed unimportant by him at the time. In actuality, these events ended up having a bigger influence on Zhang than he ever could have imagined.

Apart from wishing he could have told his freshman self to chill, Zhang also wishes he had the chance to properly thank his teachers and the Northview staff for teaching him and his peers to succeed and for all the help he received from them.  

In the end, Zhang remains the enthusiast for altruism and hard-work he once was at the beginning of the year, despite enduring circumstances that withheld him from fully implementing his beliefs. 

“And to Northview, especially the Class of 2020, thanks for making these 4 years such a blast,” Zhang said, “ No matter what happens next, it’ll always be a great day to be a Titan!”