San Dimas High School junior Jacqueline Chen first displayed her athletic prowess at nine years old, when she took a 15-foot dive off a cliff in Cancun, Mexico. Since then, her athleticism has taken her across the globe to international competitions, where she has won numerous medals. Soon she will make another big jump, to the Ivy League, after verbally committing to Harvard University. It has been a whirlwind year for Chen, who recently qualified, along with her sister, San Dimas freshman Barbara Chen, for the 2026 Asian Games, where they will represent Chinese Taipei. The Chen sisters earned a bronze medal in the Women’s Synchronized 3M Final competition at the Asian Aquatics Championships, held in India in September.
Fontana Unified School District (FUSD), in partnership with the Fontana School Police Department (FSPD), will host the 28th Annual Fontana Santas, a long-standing event continuing a cherished holiday tradition of service and care. Each year, Fontana Santas serves more than 300 familiesand students across the District, giving them an opportunity to experience the joy and magic of the holiday season.
For A.B. Miller High School junior Jeremy Millias, the Aviation Career Technical Education (CTE) pathway is not only a rigorous, educational program filled with hands-on training, but also a close-knit community that has shaped his high school experience. This year, A.B. Miller’s aviation pathway serves nearly 120 students across introductory and advanced courses. The two-year sequence mirrors private pilot ground school, covering weather, federal regulations, performance calculations, navigation charts, aircraft systems, and aviation communication. Students also gain hands-on experience in flight simulator labs, where they practice maneuvers, plan safe routes, calculate wind corrections, and learn real-world decision-making skills used by licensed pilots.
South El Monte High School’s football team, powered by a lockdown defense and a tightknit roster of longtime teammates, capped a stunning playoff run that drove them to capture their first-ever CIF-Southern Section Div. 14 title, defeating Pioneer High School with a score of 14-6 on Nov. 28. This marks South El Monte’s second CIF title in less than a month, following the Lady Eagles volleyball team, which won the CIF Div. 9 championship on Nov. 6. The key moment in the Eagles run was their decisive 45-7 first-round win against Channel Islands, ending a yearslong CIF playoff first-round losing streak, boosting the team’s confidence, and setting them on the championship path. South El Monte outscored their opponents 86-27 in the four CIF Div. 14 games.
Sleigh bells will be ringing on Christmas Eve for the Bonita High School Chamber Singers as they deck the halls for the 66th Annual L.A. County Holiday Celebration, to be held at The Music Center’s Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, a festive night that showcases the artistry, talent, and cultural traditions of nearly two dozen Southern California-based artists at the storied concert venue. Bonita’s 32-member Chamber Singers will share the stage with a diverse cross-section of L.A. County’s finest performance acts, including singers, dancers, puppeteers, and brass bands. Each act will perform for five minutes during a live in-person show that will be broadcast live on PBS SoCal on Wednesday, Dec. 24 from 3 to 6 p.m. The Chamber Singers will perform during between 5 to 6 p.m.
Upland High School celebrated student innovation during its annual Science Fair on Dec. 11, where nearly 100 students presented 67 imaginative, research-driven projects. Entries spanned seven scientific categories, giving students the opportunity to showcase their creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills to judges, staff, and peers. The Science Fair concluded with an evening Open House, where families viewed standout projects and joined the celebration of student achievement during an awards ceremony. In addition, UHS hosted a Districtwide Computer Science Family Night that offered hands-on activities, student demonstrations, and a Careers in Computer Science panel.
Fontana High School’s General Construction Career Technical Education (CTE) pathway students brought their craftsmanship, creativity, and teamwork to the community this season by designing and building a parade float that featured Board of Education members, student board representatives, and Fontana Unified’s Superintendent Miki R. Inbody during the 2025 Fontana Christmas Parade on Dec. 13. The team consisted of 14 students who used a full range of construction techniques they learned in the pathway, transforming raw materials into a polished centerpiece for one of the city’s signature annual events. The float, themed “Believe in the Magic of Learning,” features an eight-seat platform, blending Christmas elements with academic inspiration, including an oversized hand-built book displaying the float’s theme.
La Serna High School seniors posed for photos, danced to their favorite tunes, showed off Lancer swag, and proudly placed “I Applied” stickers on a bulletin board after completing a college application to a UC, Cal State, private, or community college - or a job application - during the school’s inaugural Future Ready Celebration Day on Dec. 4. The Celebration Day lunchtime festivities, which were attended by 225 seniors, are the second part of La Serna’s recently-launched Future Ready initiative, a schoolwide effort to educate and encourage seniors to take control of their post-secondary plans, joining Whittier High School, which launched its own Future Ready program in October.
Eight Bonita Unified educators will bring hands-on, play-based classroom projects to life after receiving more than $3,300 in mini-grants from the Rotary Club of La Verne, which continued its tradition of supporting innovation across the District during the Dec. 3 Board of Education meeting. The service organization awarded individual grants ranging from $150 to $500, providing teachers with resources that strengthen academic engagement, build developmental skills, and enrich the learning environment for students across grade levels.
Rene Romero, an International Baccalaureate (IB) Language and Literature teacher at South Hills High School, has been named one of only five 2026 California Teachers of the Year, earning the honor for more than two decades of work empowering students to feel confident, capable, and prepared to pursue their goals. As a California Teacher of the Year, Romero now serves as an ambassador for education, demonstrating exemplary teaching, engaging with leaders in Sacramento, and promoting innovative practices that motivate and inspire both current and future educators.
