Now in her fifth year as an educator, Ms. Carvajal’s journey to teaching wasn’t linear;  She grew up in the Rio Grande Valley in deep South Texas, graduating from the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley with a bachelor’s degree in biology and a minor in chemistry. In high school, she was involved in a plethora of extracurriculars, from band and yearbook to student council, diving into activities reflecting her love of student life.

“I did a lot of different things as a student, and I think that’s why, as a teacher, I also get very involved,” Ms. Carvajal said. “I love being part of what students are doing outside the classroom. It’s such a huge part of their growth.”

She began her career teaching science before moving on to engineering and robotics. While she never competed in robotics herself, she quickly found her passion for FIRST through coaching. FIRST is a global nonprofit that uses robotics competitions, namely FRC and FTC, to inspire young people to explore science, technology, engineering, and math while emphasizing soft skills such as teamwork, leadership, and community impact. 

“It gives people that open space to bring a bunch of different skills into one club, which is why I love it, because there’s so many different parts of it,” Ms. Carvajal said.

“My last team came from a really small private school,” Ms. Carvajal said. “Here, we have more students in robotics than I had in the entire school where I came from. It’s a big difference, and it’s been exciting to see what a larger team can do.”

Through the large scale of Westwood Robotics, Ms. Carvajal has been able to witness aspects of robotics that were harder to achieve at her former school, such as extensive outreach projects and wider student participation. 

“At my last school, we weren’t able to engage in outreach as much as I wanted because our team was so small,” Ms. Carvajal said. “Seeing what Westwood students are doing now has been really exciting, and I’m thrilled to be a part of it.” 

Ms. Carvajal sponsors two types of FIRST programs at Westwood. FTC teams design and build smaller robots to complete specific tasks on a 12-by-12-foot playing field, often requiring creative problem-solving in both mechanics and coding. FRC, on the other hand, has bigger high school teams who build 120-pound robots to play large-scale games on fields the size of a basketball court. Both programs challenge students to think like engineers, collaborate under pressure, and present their work to judges and peers. Although there are many rewarding aspects of robotics, Ms. Carvajal is most drawn to the unique atmosphere that FIRST creates. 

“Honestly, I love the atmosphere, especially of FIRST,” Ms. Carvajal said. “It’s not really just about building robots and competing. It’s about building leaders and people who are giving back to their community, and creating well-rounded individuals who can carry those skills into whatever they choose to do.”

To Ms. Carvajal, part of what makes robotics so special is that there’s a place for everyone. In FIRST, there’s multiple ways for a team to succeed. From designing the robot to educating young minds about engineering, FIRST rewards both creativity and community.

“You don’t have to know how to code or build,” Ms. Carvajal said. “We have an outreach side, we have students who are business-oriented, and we welcome so many different skills into one team. That’s why I love it — because it brings together such a diverse group of students and talents.”

Looking ahead, Ms. Carvajal balances both competitive and personal goals for the year. On the competitive side, she hopes to see the FRC team qualify for Worlds and to have multiple FTC teams reach the international stage, building on last year’s success. Beyond trophies and rankings, however, Ms. Carvajal’s broader mission is centered around student growth.

“Overall, I want to build students who are well-rounded and have empathy for their community,” Ms Carvajal said. “I want them to learn how to collaborate and work with people they don’t always agree with. In the real world, that’s an essential skill, and robotics gives them that experience.”

“This organization is fun, and I want them to remember that,” Ms. Carvajal said. “As competition season gets closer, stress rises and tensions run high, but at the end of the day, it’s not just about a trophy. It’s about building experiences, building skills, and remembering why they’re here.”

She also hopes the broader school community sees the full picture of what robotics offers. 

“To the school, I want them to know that this program is so much more than just robots,” Ms. Carvajal said. “Yes, it’s big and can seem a little crazy at times, but behind that is teamwork, outreach, and learning. I really want people to see how multifaceted it is.”

With her mix of enthusiasm, experience, and vision, Ms. Carvajal has helped transform the widely successful robotics program into a space where students not only prepare for competition, but also for future challenges. To her, the program isn’t just a club: it’s a family, one where every student has a place and a purpose. 

“I want this school to also know that [this club], while it is big and you see its craziness, everything that we’re doing here [is] so much more than the robot,” Ms. Carvajal.

The album opens with “ding-dong” on the track, Clockwork, a foreshadowing of what’s about to unfold. Going over self awareness and fickle fantasies, Laufey’s jazzy vocals bring a familiar sense of lightness and puerility. Following and adding to this theme of love, Lover Girl uses subtle references to address the timeless ache of long-distance love. 

Snow White can perhaps only be described as the clock striking 12, as Laufey’s tone and mood completely changes, and she transitions from love to lamenting.  “But mirrors tell lies to me, my mind just plays along”, and “People want beauty, skinny always wins”, are powerful lyrics that she uses to bluntly address societal issues, and attempt to connect with her audience at a deeper level than usual for artists.

As time elapses over the album, Laufey goes back to a smoother, melodious, pace with Silver Lining. With beautiful high and low vocals, she describes the love and affection she receives from a lover. With personal and sweet lyrics like “When you go to hell, I’ll go there with you too”, She captures the freedom of being wholeheartedly in love. Its elegant orchestration establishes the mood  right away, indicating the intimacy and emotional growth balanced through the album.

However, like all good things, Laufey’s enchanting fairytale doesn’t last very long. Too Little, Too Late captures the ache of a relationship’s aftermath. Asserting, “I should be who you’re engaged to” draws a familiar trope of unfulfilled love, where the song’s tones are comforting yet ominous. Her vocals rise with intensity, the violin grows faster, and the ending has a subtle reprise of Bewitched’s instrumentals which invoke the dreamlike optimism of her previous album, highlighting the contrast between love’s initial magic and its inevitable end.

After the heartbreak and longing in Too Little, Too Late the album offers a moment to breathe. Cuckoo Ballet – Interlude arrives gently, carrying playful instrumentation that guides the listener through shifting moods to prepare for what comes next. On her Instagram story, Laufey said “If you’re not listening to the interlude, you’re listening to the album wrong.” With the familiar “ding-dong” in the background, and mellow tones with her signature instruments like the cello and the piano, the interlude’s almost like a rollercoaster with fluctuating themes and moods and octaves. 

Laufey shows that softness doesn’t always link to vulnerability with the track Sabotage, which explodes into orchestral chaos as she recognizes her own patterns of self destruction. In contrast, Tough Luck bursts with spirited independence, delivering a sharp yet elegant message. Together, these songs demonstrate her scope as a writer who isn’t afraid to explore all the aspects of human emotion.

Forget-Me-Not, captures a not-very-well-known side of Laufey, as she nods to her Icelandic heritage in the song with the lines, “Gleymdu mér aldrei þó ég héðan flýg, Gleymdu mér aldrei, elskan mín”, which translates to the chorus’ lyrics of the song- ”Never forget me even if I fly away Never forget me my love”, reaches out to her old lover. 

Castle in Hollywood showcases one of the album’s most cinematic moments. Beginning with recurrent guitar chords, the song evokes a sense of longing and nostalgia. The song’s lyrics reflect a broken friendship: “We’ll never go back to our castle in Hollywood.” This song strikes a balance between longing and an added tension as she describes the end of a shared dream, implying that even relationships based on fantasy can end in heartbreak. 

Laufey collaborates with singer-songwriter Clairo in one of the album’s brutal and lighthearted criticisms is found in “Mr. Eclectic.” Laufey mocks the performative admirer-“Bet you think you’re so poetic… Mr. Eclectic Allan Poe.” This line mocks the empty nature of his displays and ridicules his demonstrative intelligence. It’s a bold takedown that’s elegant without being pretentious. 

 With A Matter of Time, Laufey proves that jazz can be both timely and timeless by weaving together playful moments, heartbreaking honesty, and rich arrangements, she continues her mission of making a classic genre feel personal for a new generation. The album balances intimacy with ambition—whether she’s admitting relatable insecurities, reveling in love, or critiquing pretension, Laufey never loses her light touch. Laufey’s growth as a singer is as evident as her broadening as a songwriter. The classical style paired with relatable themes combine together to make a timeless record. Laufey’s dynamic, from an inamorata to a symbol of honesty, is apparent in this record that grows richer with every listen, reminding us that even in the fleetingness of time, music can preserve moments of truth and beauty. 

A hackathon is a timed event, often lasting 24 or 48 hours, in which individuals or teams develop innovative software or hardware to solve given problems. Unique from existing competitions, ReverieHacks is a student-led hackathon created with the mission of inspiring the future generation to think more creatively. It consists of six sections in which participants can compete in: ideathon, machine learning prompt engineering, software development, datathon, embedded systems, and application development.

“Something unique about our hackathons compared to [others] is [that] we have a track for people who can’t program,” Chief Operating Officer of ReverieHacks Ritvij Sharma ‘27 said. “What happens is we try and give everyone the opportunity to compete, even if they don’t know how to code.”

Striving to expand their participation, the ReverieHacks team decided to raise the stakes this year with new prizes. These new additions have led ReverieHacks to become one of the biggest student-led initiatives by Westwood students, attracting competitors from America all the way to Pakistan. The hackathon was not always this widespread, though. Last year, gaining participants was a challenge, since the prize was a Wolf Fern gift card.

This year, the ReverieHacks team decided to award cash prizes up to fifty thousand dollars to attract more participants. To secure the funds for the large monetary prizes, the team emailed over 40 sponsors globally and hosted a fund within their group. Although it was challenging to raise this money, the team made a cash pool for all six tracks of coding to incentivize people to compete.

“The other issue was getting sponsors because you can’t find a lot [of sponsors for hackathons],” Chief Executive Officer of ReverieHacks Aditya Rayapeddi ‘27 said. “It was really hard getting them, but in the end, we managed to get a substantial price pool.”

The last day of the hackathon started with the opening ceremony, which was followed by the judges being given the projects to grade. Seeing the hackathon posted in Devpost, judges from various backgrounds came to judge in the hackathon.

“The judges all came back after [giving] feedback,” Rayapeddi said. “They said that it was a great experience judging the hackathon. They said they thought the projects submitted were really innovative.”

Hosting ReverieHacks wasn’t just a learning experience for the participants, but also for the student organizers themselves. From reaching out to sponsors to coordinating hundreds of submissions, the team gained valuable lessons in leadership, communication, and problem-solving that they now hope to carry into future projects.

“I would say that [we] get a lot of leadership experience and experience in collaborating and sort of getting in touch with businesses and individuals that you’ll probably use in the real world to get jobs and such,” Sharma said.

With this year’s growth, ReverieHacks aspires to continue expanding in both size and impact, inspiring more students worldwide to embrace innovation and creativity. Planning for next year’s hackathon is already underway, with the team aiming to make the event bigger, more inclusive, and more rewarding than ever.

“I’m really excited that those who participated really got to have a taste of what ReverieHacks is like,” Rayapeddi said. “Our intention is to inspire other high schoolers to do more and to think out of the box, and [we] hope that they keep innovating in the future.”