Exploring the West Coast Student Experience: An Interview

The West Coast and the East Coast don’t interact much. This makes sense, with them being thousands of miles apart and hours apart by plane. With social media and various digital chatting platforms, interaction between the two coasts has greatly increased. However, the life experiences on the two coasts can be vastly different from each other nonetheless.

Beck Lynn is a senior at Palo Alto Senior High School (PALY) in Palo Alto, California. In his free time, he likes to create 3D art and play guitar, with a little bit of Rocket League and Forza on the side. His school has 2,010 students in total, contrasting with Hanover’s 688. Palo Alto is a suburban city at the center of Silicon Valley, a region known for its tech giants and bleeding-edge technological innovation. One thing in common that Palo Alto has with Hanover is being the home of a prestigious university — Stanford. But how do different environments, different social settings, different cultures, and a plethora of other differences contribute to a different learning and schooling experience?

How would you describe the overall culture at your high school?
“I don’t have anything to compare it to. It’s probably more relaxed, you get to go outside, our school being primarily outside you can go outside and it can lead to less stress and a good state of mind.”

What extracurricular activities are popular or unique to your region?
“Volleyball is more popular; having a boy’s team is more popular. My brother can find tournaments less than an hour away — maybe on the East Coast it’s like the whole coast has one tournament.”

How do community and parent support influence your high school experience?
“I would say that, definitely in the people that I surround myself with, everyone is very supportive and willing to help you if you’re struggling in school or whatever, or with drama. Sometimes subconsciously people are a bit toxic but that’s bound to happen. There’s not a ton of parent involvement … well, I guess parents can get a little psycho on getting their kids really productive. There are cases when parents will get frustrated or mad with the district and file complaints which end up making changes to the school for better or worse.”

How do you perceive academic expectations and pressures at your school, and the emphasis on extracurricular activities and sports in relation to the emphasis on academics?
“Well, I guess it’s probably very different based on the area that you’re in. Here in Palo Alto it’s maximum pressure and stress levels: you’re expected to take the hardest classes and get into all the good schools. … It also depends on who you might surround yourself with. Most of my friends are on the super insane academic side, there’s a bit of … not really peer-pressure, more of self-pressure. I’m more conscious of what I should do academically. Academically, it’s more of ‘if you don’t get As you won’t get into college’— it’s more in your face. In extracurriculars it’s more subtle — nobody is really telling you to go out. Unless you have tiger parents that are in your face about everything. (If) I’m sitting inside playing Rocket League all day, I see other people doing something with their lives, and there’s indirect pressure to do similar things or perform as well as them. I could stay inside playing Rocket League all day, but then I’m gonna go to community college and that guy is gonna go to Harvard.”

How does the diversity or lack thereof influence the student body and relationships?
“I mean, I think the school I go to is pretty diverse. Probably along the whole West Coast you’ll find a lot more Asians or Latinos. That definitely helps people have more of an open mind — people aren’t racist. It’s not something that you notice, but I guess you feel the impact of it and it helps you feel more empathetic and open-minded.

Do you think that’s what the East Coast is like?
“Based on the very few people I’ve talked to, I think the East Coast is less diverse than California, especially since it’s probably harder for Asians to immigrate to the East Coast especially since there aren’t really any communities that are set up in the East Coast … there’s not really a reason for them to go to the East Coast.”

How does the weather and climate impact your school experience?
“It makes us a lot less depressed … the nicer weather and sunny days year round impacts my mental health a lot. Whenever there’s a good weather day it makes my day or week. I do tell myself that if I ever go to the East Coast I’d enjoy it, but realistically I think it’d be very depressing to stay inside all the time. The snow would be fun once in a while, but it’s cold and it gets in your clothes.”

Is there any school or perhaps regional specific slang that is a product of the culture at school?
“Probably, but I don’t think I can think of any right now … do people use ‘hella’? ‘Legit’? ‘Slaps’? Nah, that’s definitely East Coast already. ‘On god’, maybe. ‘Dawg’ or ‘cuh’? Do East Coasters use ‘cuh’? ‘Fax’? Oh, ‘sheesh’ is another one.”

Are there specific career pathways or industries that are more emphasized or accessible in your high school region?
“I mean, a majority of my friends are becoming engineers, so probably that. Yeah. Everything here is kinda tech focused so everyone is doing computer science or engineering or something along those lines. It’s kinda surprising when I hear someone who’s like ‘I wanna be a doctor or do lawyer s***’.”

Do more people want to go to school on the East Coast or the West Coast from your school?
“Probably on the East Coast because that’s where the good schools are. I know a handful of people who want to stay in California because of the UCs. Most of the prestigious schools are on the East Coast besides Stanford or USC. A good amount of kids do go to Stanford from here so that’s definitely a thing. It’s all up to the person.”

What role does transportation play in your daily life and social activities related to school?
I think here it’s a lot easier to just bike everywhere. I don’t know about other places on the West Coast, but I know pretty much on the East Coast, unless you live in the city, I’m gonna assume that everything is spread out, based on people from the East Coast that I’ve met. It’s a lot easier to get out with friends after school [on the West Coast], maybe just hop on over to a shopping center or a downtown area. Now, being a senior and being able to drive definitely helps, like being able to drive to another city or going to play mini golf. Biking primarily, I was able to hang out with my friends without needing my parents to drive me everywhere because everyone lives within 10 minutes of each other.