June 17, 2005

Cardinal Quill

Mt. Pleasant honored with prestigious NSPA Pacemaker Award

By Ken Lotich
Times Intern

At Mt. Pleasant, some students don’t mind coming to school—even when it’s not in session.

(Top row, left to right): Adviser Joe Lovato, Matthew Bulotano, Prishil Patel, Adviser William Cavada, (Bottom row, left to right):Vanessa Farfan, Jamie Brandau, Rachelle Laroza and Viet-Ha Nguyen were some of the staff that worked together to produce the Mt. Pleasant 2005 Cardinal Quill.

While others may have been sleeping in and relaxing during spring break this year, some students gathered to put together the Cardinal Quill, a publication brimming with creative works from Mt. Pleasant students.

The 205-page Quill contains literature ranging from poetry to short stories to artwork. There’s also a compact disc bundled with the Quill, which features spoken-word poetry.

The publication features interviews with acclaimed authors such as Ishmael Reed, Karen Tei Yamashita, ZZ Packer and Orly Castel-Bloom, all who visited Mt. Pleasant this year through the school’s partnership with San Jose State University’s Center for Literary Arts.

Teacher Joe Lovato, along with the staff of the 2005 Quill, presented their finished product to the Mt. Pleasant student body on June 2.

“Mt. Pleasant is the place to be if you want to be a writer or artist in the United States!” Lovato exclaimed as he addressed the crowd at the unveiling.

After Lovato’s opening remarks, Superintendent Esperanza Zendejas congratulated the students of Mt. Pleasant on a job well done.

Lovato also announced the school had received a $12,000 grant from Adobe, which would help cover the costs for the publication. The per-copy cost of producing the Quill is approximately $18.

The Quill went on sale for $10 that day and is now available to purchase for $12.

The history of the Quill goes back to 1987, when retired Mt. Pleasant librarian Linda Rallis and her students rolled out the inaugural issue.

Composing the Quill was far from an easy task, Lovato said, who is in his 13th year teaching at Mt. Pleasant.

Lovato said the staff of the 2005 Quill gave up many weekends and holidays to put together the publication.

The students who compose the Quill do not receive any school credit or funding—everything is done on a volunteer basis. Rachelle Laroza, literary editor, said the process was long, but very rewarding in the end.

The students, she said, did a lot of their own fund raising to try and gather money to help pay for the Quill. “We did all sorts of things,” Laroza said. “We had a rose sale on Valentine’s Day, candy sales—we did what we could.”

Prishil Patel, Quill editor-in-chief, who will be attending UCLA in the fall, said he was very satisfied with the way this year’s Quill turned out.

The 2005 Mt. Pleasant Cardinal Quill was released on June 2.

He just finished his fourth year on the Quill staff, and although he will be majoring in biology in college, he said he is looking forward to possibly working on a student publication at the campus.

Jamie Brandau, a senior who will be attending San Diego State University, was the art editor for the Quill this year. Brandau said she was drawn to the Quill when she was a freshman.

“I had a crush on a guy on the staff,” Brandau said. “So I bought the Quill, and I really liked it.” Although the crush didn’t lead to anything, she was enticed to join the staff the next year.

Some staff members even got the chance to go to New York in March, as they presented a workshop at the Columbia Scholastic Press Association conference. In addition to the conference, The National Scholastic Press Association, The American Scholastic Press Association and The National Council of Teachers of English have also recognized the Quill.
Recently, Mt. Pleasant was awarded the NSPA Pacemaker Award, becoming one of only four schools in the United States to receive the honor.

“The quality of our literature may not be as high as some of the other schools we compete against,” Lovato said. “But our representation far outweighs it.”

This year’s edition of the Quill presented works in more than seven different languages.

“What’s important to us is that we represent our entire school,” Lovato said. “Diversity is our strength.”

Despite the vivid interest in literature at the school, Lovato said the area does not have a bookstore, which alarms him.

“We feel handicapped. There is no school in the East Side Union High School District that is further away from a bookstore,” Lovato said, who remains optimistic that this void will be fulfilled soon.

And it will. Barnes and Noble recently announced plans to open at the new and improved Eastridge Shopping Mall towards the end of 2005.

For more information on the Cardinal Quill, visit the Web site: www.cardinalquill.com.