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

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

NSPA Pacemaker honors:
Newspaper Pacemaker winners: 2025, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2012, 2009, 2008, 2007
Newspaper Pacemaker finalists: 2023, 2019, 2014, 2011, 2006
Online Pacemaker winners: 2025, 2021, 2017, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2009
Online Pacemaker finalists: 2022, 2018, 2015

Newsmagazine Best of Show winners: 2025

CSPA Crown honors:
Gold Crown winner for Hybrid news: 2024, 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: 2025, 2024, 2021, 2020, 2019