Jefferson High School - Jeffersonian Yearbook (Alexandria, VA)

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Separated from the Mainstream We're not normal. We know we’re not normal. Normal kids have a six period day, thirty minutes of homework, and a five minute bus ride. They get home before the sun has set. Do we care? Heck no! Normal kids don’t have Mr. Rumberger. They don’t get fond, (or not so fond), memories when they see, “turnleft; turnleft; turnleft;.... Normal kids never had Ronald Reagan visit their school when it snowed. They don’t know the meaning of pro- tein assay (many of us still don’t). But what makes us different? How is Thomas Jefferson for Science and Technology set apart from “normal” high schools? To find the answer to this question, many students may fumble through an answer filled with such statements as, “We have a longer day”, “We get more homework”, ‘We get to eat pizza in the bus”, or “We're smarter than normal students”. Is this the real reason we're in a school of our own? No! More important than any difference on the outside, is the difference on the inside. The aura that pervades our school is one of positive feel- ings, full of excitement, school spirit, and trust. We have less guidelines, and are treated more as mature people by the teachers and administration. Kids here aren’t afraid of being themselves, and those ‘‘selves’” aren’t necessaily always studious, scholarly, serious Einsteins. True enough they’re exceptional beings, but not only in the classification of intelligence. Students here can have as much fun, humor, and compassion as any other “normal” teenager. So next time you’re explaining to someone about boitech labs, impact, and blocking; amidst you're talk of a long bus ride and even longer day, fit in a word or two about our school spirit, our sense of oneness. Because, even though our school requires much more hard work and devo- tion by its students, we always seem to find time to devote to ourselves and each other. So we’re not normal, who cares? by Catherine Lombardi and Estella Li RUN DATE: 08 19 86 STUDENT SCHEDULE LOCATOR T JEFFERSON HS FORS STUDENT NAME NO. OT RaaGh: BIRTH ROOM SS 11 06 70 00 COURSE NAME TEACHER ID PD SUBJ NO SEC. RMNO. SEM OFF-CAMPUS 1 OFF-CAMPUS 001 01 030100 01 3000 A SPANISH 3 BISGYER 243 02 553000 01 0217 A ANALY CHEM LIEBERMAN 593 03 441002 17 0142 A PRIN OF MATH 2 SLIVOSKEY 760 04 316102 17 0241 A PHOTOJOURN SMYTH 762 05 121500 01 0113 A H PE 10 JULLIEN 516 06 740010 05 0168 A 10 ENG WC LAWSON 588 07 114000 aR 0227 A WORLD HIST WC VALLONE 865 08 234000 2 0227 A IMPACT FIELDS 341 09 003658 01 0120 A HOME PHONE BUSINESS PHONE

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Anticipating . From the shore, it is nearly impossible to anticipate what the splash or strength of the wave will be in the short interval between its rising out of the sea and its journey to the sand or rocks. We cannot tell exactly what it will become. At the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, we cannot tell exactly what the school will become because in its second year its just begin- ning to rise and just beginning to grow in its power. Its course is largely deter- mined not only by the outside forces of the local school districts from which the students come, or by the administration or staff of the school, but also by the students themselves as they help the school to grow and shape its form. It is virtually impossible to predict what individual students will become when they reach the shores of adulthood, but as they grow into their full height and gather the power that comes with knowledge, they become the wave of the future. The best part of the wave is the an- ticipation of waiting to see what it will become of being awed at its strength of its crests and curls and determines its own direction. That too, is the best part of high school. Some very powerful moments become the waves of the future that determine each students direction. Waves renew themselves; and after they reach the shore, they gather their components together and reshape themselves again and again. Dawn comes to the seaside. First the sky lightens to gray, then from the gray a pink streak spreads itself across the sky, then a red burning ball of sun ap- pears. From the flat water below, a .. Becoming wave rises seemingly from nowhere pulled upward by an invisible moon. The wave begins as a ripple traveling haphazardly across the water, growing as it travels. A school, a student, a moment can become the wave. Students traveling in noisy groups through the hallways are a celebration of the lives that they will create for themselves in still undeter- mined directions become the wave of the future. A student who, rising out of childhood, grows while traveling through the waters of high school becomes the wave of the future. A mo- ment seized when something becomes important and the swimmer who runs out to greet the wave of an idea and rides the crest onto a safe shore becomes the wave of the future. When evening comes at the seaside, it is just that. A time of making things even — the sky once bright blue in the sun, becomes chalky gray, the horizon fades, and the offers soft blue — gray waves to the shore. It is a moment of calm where we cannot see the power of the waves that will reveal themselves at dawn. For each of us, too, there is that moment of invisible growth when we seek an eveness in our lives — a space for growing. Then, when the morning comes again, spectators and onlookers touch their toes to the sand, make umbrellas spring up like a garden of multi — col- ored flowers — and a cheering section of children stand, toes and ankles wet with foam to become a part of the wave of the future while others with sure strokes swim out to ride the crest. SaaS TE aR SU TI ST

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Sophmore Raj Bhandari com- pletes a project on the jigsaw in the Materials Science Lab. photo by Rob Wyte Contemplating the mysteries of Karel, freshman Edward Chung works the bugs out of a program in the Computer Systems Lab. photo by Rob Wyte