About us

El Estoque (el ehs-toh-keh), which translates to the sword, is the national award-winning student publication of Monta Vista High School in Cupertino, California, since 1969.

Our magazine is published every six weeks and our website and social media platforms are updated daily. Our content — which is entirely produced by 70 Journalism and Multimedia Design students — ranges from traditional coverage such as investigative stories and breaking news to multimedia features such as videos and podcasts. The goal of our content is to inform and entertain the student body and local community, as well as effect positive change. 

Mission statement:
El Estoque will accurately inform our community through well-researched, unbiased and in-depth accounts of stories of the student body and staff, local news and developments and taboo topics prevalent in and near the MVHS realm. By investigating a variety of voices and credible perspectives, we hope to foster active discussion, effect positive change and spread awareness of timely and relevant content. As a trustworthy, consistent and reliable source of information, we strive to be accountable, adaptable, and ready to correct and address our mistakes. Constantly striving for improvement, we will uphold integrity and ethics to be respectful and empathetic to one another, our sources and our readers. We will exercise our press freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment and California Ed Code 48907 while maintaining a community of reporters with a strong passion for our work and journalism as a whole.

Our full editorial policy can be viewed HERE. 

El Estoque staff:
Editors-in-chief: Samika Bhatkar, Ananya Chaudhary, Kathryn Foo, Jami Lim, Alan Tai, Alyssa Yang
Design editor: Dylan Nguyen
Graphics editor: Amberly Sun
News editors: Giljoon Lee, Stella Petzova, Arshiya Sen, Eric Zhou
Feature editors: Jason Chu, Sophia D’Sa, Ethan Eisler, Liz Liu
Opinion editors: Joyce Li, Suhana Mahabal, Asha Wojciechowski
Arts & Entertainment editors: Sagnik Nag Chowdhury, Jillian Ju, Isabelle Kok, Benjamin Zhang
Sports editors: Leah Desai, Ananda Singh, Arushi Singh, Ethan Yang
Copy editors: Anika Bhandarkar, Corinna Kuo
Staff writers: Jonah Chang, Radhika Dharmapurikar, Arjun Dhruv, Meghna Dixit, Niveda Hari, Alethia Ju, Sana Karkhanis, Vaishnavi Katukam, Ethan Kellog, Subin Ko, Manas Kottakota, Melody Lin, Grace Lin, Katrina Lin, Erin Liu, Owen Liu, Megha Mummaneni, Sania Nadkarni, Zaid Naqvi, Angela Poon, Apru Rupanagunta, Trisha Sannappanavar, Varun Singh, Amberly Sun, Samuel Teo, Raj Thapliyal, Eshika Tiwari, Archana Venkatesan, Ellie Wang, Elizabeth Yang, Kate Yang, Kaia Yuan
Advisers: Vennessa Nava and Julia Satterthwaite, MJE

Awards:
SNO Distinguished Site: 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020

NSPA Pacemaker honors:
Newspaper Pacemaker winners: 2022, 2021, 2020, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2012, 2009, 2008, 2007
Newspaper Pacemaker finalists: 2023, 2019, 2014, 2011, 2006
Online Pacemaker winners: 2021, 2017, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2009
Online Pacemaker finalists: 2022, 2018, 2015

CSPA Crown honors:
Gold Crown winner for Hybrid news: 2022, 2021, 2019, 2018, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013
Silver Crown winner for Hybrid news: 2023
Gold Crown winner for Newsmagazine: 2012, 2010, 2009, 2008
Silver Crown winner for Newsmagazine: 2007
Gold Crown winner for elestoque.org: 2012
Silver Crown winner for elestoque.org: 2010

First Amendment Press Freedom Award: 2024, 2021, 2020, 2019