The student news site of Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology

tjTODAY
The student news site of Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology

tjTODAY
The student news site of Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology

tjTODAY
Laura Zhang

Laura Zhang, Online Editorial Team

Laura Zhang, a senior at TJ, is in her fourth year of being part of the tjTODAY staff. She’s excited to continue pursuing her love for writing and meeting new people. Laura especially enjoys diving deep into interesting perspectives through feature and opinion articles. In her free time, you can find Laura captaining TJ’s Varsity Math Team, curled up with a romance novel, or taking too many selfies with her friends. 

All content by Laura Zhang
Pumping his arms for momentum, junior Steve Tchana races at an indoor track meet against Falls Church High School. “I like getting good times and improving and the team vibe,” Tchana said. “It’s really fun at practice, so that keeps me going.”

Racing thoughts

Laura Zhang, Team Leader
July 31, 2023
Plucking the zither strings, senior Tiffany Lee plays classical Chinese music. “I’ve never learned how to play Chinese zither, but it looks really cool,” Freshman Olivia Wu said. “When one of my friends heard Tiffany play the first song, they said their mom always sings that, so I thought that was a nice connection.”

Hopping into Lunar New Year

Laura Zhang, Team Leader
May 2, 2023
During 8th period, Machine Learning Club captain and senior Sauman Das lectures on generative adversarial networks, a model used in machine learning. “We’re trying to teach more application based machine learning and how to get started with research,” Das said. “We’re also making sure were talking about current advances in machine learning, like AlphaFold.”

Machine Learning Club partners with universities for internship opportunities

Laura Zhang, Team Leader
March 6, 2023
Top 10 of 2022: Scientific Breakthroughs

Top 10 of 2022: Scientific Breakthroughs

Laura Zhang, Team Leader
January 13, 2023
Juniors Steven Lu, Dhruv Anurag, Sathvik Redrouthu, Pranav Velleleth and Pranav Vadde are part of Procyon’s team. Because Procyon involves developing applications of physics, members are able to use their knowledge in a real-world way. “I feel like Procyon is a place where I can really nerd out, because in AP Physics you’re limited to all these textbook problems,” junior Ryan Kim said. “But in Procyon, I can design things.”

As fast as light

Laura Zhang, Team Leader
December 6, 2022
The Strategic Plan Student Survey allows for greater student input in the development of FCPS’ Strategic Plan. “We’ll be setting our North Star for the next several years, so it’s important that we hear from all members of our community,” FCPS superintendent Dr. Reid said.

News Brief: Students take Strategic Plan Survey

Laura Zhang, Team Leader
November 12, 2022
Junior Angad Dhillon encourages students considering dropping from BC Calculus to AB to examine their long-term goals and what role BC would play in them. “I think a lot of students should let go of their ego and think about their future in a practical way, because they could benefit from dropping, especially if they aren’t doing [Multivariable Calculus] next year,” Dhillon said.

Deadline to drop from BC Calculus to AB approaches

Laura Zhang, Team Leader
October 25, 2022
The “Jefferson experience” is a self-destructive stereotype that promotes a suffocating and hypercompetitive environment. However, this isn’t an accurate reflection of what Jefferson actually is. We’re a lot more than just a bunch of stressed STEM nerds — we’re also a community of learners and creators.

The “Jefferson experience”: stereotype or reality?

Laura Zhang
September 30, 2022
Creating a personal website improves professional skills, such as programming and design. However, it can also be a reflective experience, since it requires considering what information is the most important to display. “It’s fun to make a personal website, and you get to learn more about yourself. I learned more about my resume and skills, because I wanted to put that information on my website,” junior Jesse Choe said.

Personal websites: a personal journey

Laura Zhang
September 17, 2022
Senior Nathan Cheng swings his golf club in the seventh hole of Jefferson’s senior night golf game. He took four strokes that hole, bringing his total score to 41 in the nine-hole game. “The best memories have been bantering and hyping each other up, since we have to make sure that we’re all in a good mood during games. Winning is also always fun, and we’ve been winning this year for sure,” Cheng said.

Jefferson golf celebrates senior night win against Justice

Laura Zhang
September 9, 2022
Junior Isabella Zhu (fourth from the left) poses for a team picture with the other members of the 2022 USA European Girls’ Math Olympiad team. “I loved spending time with my teammates, and I also got to meet a bunch of girls from different countries, which was really fun,” Zhu said.

The road to olympiad gold

Laura Zhang, Staff Writer
April 24, 2022
Sophomores Michelle Kang, Akshaya Chakravarthy, Laura Guo, Prisha Rachakonda, and Mihika Dusad piece together a cube to reveal a message. “I thought the puzzles were really creative and unique. I’ve done a lot of escape rooms, but I’ve never seen any puzzles like the ones Escape Room club came up with before,” sophomore Zani Xu said.

Escape Room club challenges students with creative puzzles

Laura Zhang, Staff Writer
February 8, 2022
Last year’s Global Leaders of Fairfax County fellows celebrate their completion of the program in May of this year. “I definitely recommend the program to other students. It’s a great community to join and you learn a lot, and it really gives you the skills that you need to be a leader later on,” Jefferson alumni and 2020-2021 fellow Harini Somanchi said.

Global leaders of Jefferson

Laura Zhang, Staff Writer
December 17, 2021
Students wear Indian clothing and dance together in circles at Namaste’s Garba celebration. “I really liked the dancing since it was pretty chaotic. Sometimes people would be scrambling to get to the next move, but it was fine because you could lose yourself in the music. You really got to enjoy yourself since the movements were energetic,” sophomore Neha Asuri said.

Namaste introduces annual Garba celebration

Laura Zhang, Staff Writer
October 26, 2021
College decision reaction videos capture the emotional responses of high school seniors as they open their college decisions, the majority of which are from highly selective schools. These videos are extremely popular and can garner over a million views, showing how the infatuation with prestige extends far beyond students.

Stop idolizing elite colleges

Laura Zhang, Staff Writer
April 30, 2021
Veda Murthy and Varsha Gunda, the winners of this year’s Invitational Science Fair, show their group project on urban carbon sinks.

Mythvestigations Club’s annual science fair takes place online

Laura Zhang, Staff Writer
March 31, 2021
For the final match of Jefferson Feud, the class council live streamed the round through Facebook. Many students cheered on their favorite team and discussed the players’ answers through the comments. “I’m glad that everyone could watch the game with us,” freshman Annika Holder said.

2023 Class Council hosts Family Feud game

Laura Zhang, Staff Writer
March 1, 2021
Blackpink members Jisoo, Jennie, Rosé, and Lisa pose in their opening outfits of “The Show,” the group’s virtual concert that took place on Jan. 31.

Blackpink in your virtual area

Laura Zhang, Staff Writer
February 12, 2021
Senior Natalie Martin dives into the pool during the 400-meter freestyle relay.

Jefferson Swim and Dive starts season undefeated

Laura Zhang, Staff Writer
January 11, 2021
Vellakkat hits a high note in Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas is You,” the first song of the concert.

Class of 2024 Discord server hosts virtual Christmas concert

Laura Zhang, Staff Writer
December 25, 2020
Guest speaker Dr. Erica Bizzell discusses her career journey at Jefferson’s Microbiology Club. “My path is only one of many possible paths to science policy,” Bizzell said. “It’s quite twisty and turny, but it’s gotten me to where I am today, which I’m happy about.”

Guest speaker Dr. Erica Bizzell discusses careers in microbiology

Laura Zhang, Staff Writer
December 13, 2020
Sophomores Arnav Kadam, Manav Bharath, Richa Misra, Amy Wang, Miina Anvelt, Grace Guan, Emma Cox and Richa Gupta pose after a successful regional Science Olympiad tournament held in February of this year.

Competing in confinement

Laura Zhang, Staff Writer
November 30, 2020
Jefferson club Mathworks discusses election projections, of which mail-in ballots contributed a significant amount.

New club explores how “Mathworks“ in real life

Laura Zhang, Staff Writer
November 14, 2020
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