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 60 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.

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.

Staff list:
Editors-in-chief: Krish Dev, Anna Jerolimov
Managing editors: Melody Cui, Gauri Manoj, Kripa Mayureshwar, Mira Wagner
Staff: Chiran Arumugam, Samika Bhatkar, Anika Bhandarkar, Ananya Chaudhary, Meggie Chen, Crystal Cheng, Nameek Chowdhury, Jason Chu, Lauren Chuu, Abha Dash, Arjun Dhruv, Mikaylah Du, Kathryn Foo, Avni Gandhi, Tvisha Gupta, Lily Jiang, Minjae Kang, Pranati Kotamraju, Manas Kottakota, Taryn Lam, Jami Lim, Sarah Liu, Sophia Ma, Sameer Maheshwari, Megha Mummaneni, Riya Murthy, Sagnik Nag Choudhury, Aashna Patel, Kalyani Puthenpurayil, Jisha Rajala, Aidan Ruan, Trisha Sannappanavar, Dahlia Schilling, Aditya Shukla, Darpan Singh, Jiya Singh, Alan Tai, Irene Tang, Yash Thapliyal, Eshika Tiwari, Aashi Venkat, Sonia Verma, Mihir Vishwarupe, Anabelle Walker, Lillian Wang, April Wang, Brandon Xu, Alyssa Yang, Angela Zhang, Stephanie Zhang, Alex Zhang, Vincent Zhao, Michelle Zheng, Eric Zhou
Adviser: Julia Satterthwaite, MJE

Awards:
SNO Distinguished Site: 2022, 2021, 2020

NSPA Pacemaker honors:
Newspaper Pacemaker winners: 2022, 2021, 2020, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2012, 2009, 2008, 2007
Newspaper Pacemaker finalists: 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
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