Features

Chef Danielle Campion

It’s Teacher Appreciation Week and you know what that means, a week where we appreciate teachers! Hoover has its share of great teachers in San Diego. This week, The Cardinal spotlights Hoover’s teachers!

Kei Lopez, Staff Writer

May 5, 2026

Kei Lopez

Chef Danielle Campion is a teacher and a chef that goes above and beyond here at Hoover High School. She started teaching at Hoover on December 7th, 2023 but before coming to Hoover, she attended culinary school in Lemon Grove in 2009. As one of the culinary teachers here, she has definitely made her mark in students’ lives.

Students tend to gravitate towards the culinary arts because they have an interest in it. Chef Danielle helps cultivate that interest and prepares her students by teaching them the basics in Food Prep and Nutrition.

“The relationship with my students,” expressed Chef Danielle when asked what her favorite thing was from working at Hoover. “They’re like the bread and butter or the cherry on top.”

It’s never a dull moment in her class. While she may be no nonsense at times, it helps to keep her students in check and make sure they are safe whilst preparing their recipes. Speaking of recipes, she tends to change the recipes that she teaches seasonally. In doing this, it allows her students to work with fresh ingredients that are in season and easy to find.

Chef Danielle’s class isn’t for the sole purpose of making food. It teaches students food safety, the past on dishes or ingredients, and much more. With the knowledge that this class provides students, students can use these skills outside of school and in their daily lives day to day.

Chef Danielle Campion is appreciated for what she does here on campus not only for her students but for Hoover High School as a whole. She’s a crucial piece in this community and will continue to make an impact in students’ lives as she continues to teach. Without Chef Danielle, Hoover would be missing a “key ingredient.”

About the Contributor

Kei Lopez, Staff Writer

Kei Lopez is currently a senior at Hoover High School. She was born on April 13. She enjoys socializing and getting to know new people despite how reserved she may seem at first glance. Being in the VAPA academy has helped Kei have outlets to express herself creatively and more openly. After school, Kei likes to spend time with her friends and family. She enjoys playing video games whether it’s on her PC or her actual console. Some examples being Valorant, Elden Ring, Nightreign, Cyberpunk 2077, and etc. She also enjoys doing anything that involves the aspect of culinary arts. Kei would consider herself an entrepreneur due to having her own little side business selling her own baked goods. She loves to collect a multitude of things and loves to support small businesses. When it comes to collecting she has a small spending problem especially when she has her eyes on a specific thing. Kei loves animals but Dachshunds aka wiener dogs bring her a massive boost of serotonin and hold a very special place in her heart. She wishes to have her own one day. In the future, Kei hopes to own a bakery. She hopes to attend a four year college to make her mother proud especially after all the two of them have been through together from the day she was born to present time. However she’s between majors and is debating on whether she wants to go into psychology, business, or attend a culinary school and pursue her dream of having a bakery. Kei is also interested in being a teacher. If she were a teacher she would teach English or if possible, culinary arts. Kei acknowledges that the world has the odds against her rather than with her, especially since she is Mexican and Laotian. She wants to give back to her community and help minorities with the odds to give them a fair chance at life and a higher probability of succeeding in life. “However ruined this world has become, however mired in torment and despair, life endures. Births continue. There is beauty in that, is there not?”