During her involvement in martial arts, sophomore, Montze Mendoza, traveled throughout Southern California during 2006-2011 as a black belt in a karate demo team. She started her karate lessons at the age of two, and found herself in the demo team by the age of six years old.

“I was the youngest member in the group,” Mendoza said. “I got a special robe with patches and stars on it.”

Mendoza was required to audition to join the prestigious traveling demonstration team. She described the atmosphere as very welcoming due to her friendly instructors, but also very competitive. Eventually, Mendoza had to quit karate due to the amount of time she was spending in her demonstration team and being unable to attend practices consistently. Her mother would start to make small sacrifices to get her daughter to her classes and watch her perform.

“I would leave from work a bit early so I could get her ready and I would stay and watch the complete class,” Xiomara Varela, Mendoza’s mother, said.

After she stopped practicing martial arts, Mendoza soon turned to music to occupy her time. She began to constantly listen to music, and now she considers music a huge part of her life.

“She’s introduced me to a lot of artists and bands,” sophomore, Raquel Luna, said. “Almost all of our conversations are on songs or artists. I can’t remember a time we hung out without music.”

Mendoza attends live shows often, and has seen artists such as The Vaccines and Walk the Moon perform. She plans to go see more of her favorite artists perform live within the year.