Author: adviser

  • The Art of Shoe Selling

    The Art of Shoe Selling

    Shoe selling has been a hustlers job ever since the 1970s when notorious brands such as Nike and Adidas took off. With the worlds fashion evolving and sports such as the NBA where shoe game mattered, several people caught onto the trend of dressing, “bottom up.” The amount of payout especially now could be endless and could make millions of dollars. With brands dropping shoes on a limited basis and amount, the large consumer community can only acquire them one other way, the local shoe entrepreneur. This begs the question, how do they do it?

    Although on paper shoe reselling is plainly buying shoes first hand for less and selling to a desired customer for more, this process take more energy than said. First, you have to understand the market, just like stocks there are shoes that are hot at the moment, but die down. It is best to start with something cheap to sell for more.

    Unfortunately, the start is always luck based. Sometimes traveling to your local retailer (Marshalls, TJ Maxx, or Ross) and finding a pair of shoes that could sell for more is a steal! For example, after Marshalls restocked their shoe section I found SF Air Force 1s (size 11.5). These go for around $45.00 dollars on shoe selling websites like StockX which take a cut of the money (transaction and payment processing fee), but when selling on your own account these go for $55.00 dollars any day of the week. But STOP! Even though these shoes are relatively recent drops, you are better off finding a more reliable pair of shoes that will stay in, “the loop.” The most reliable pairs of shoes for resell to start with are Air Max 97s or Jordan 1s due to the prevalence in the fashion community.

    Let’s say you find a reliable pair of shoes, take the Air Max 97 “South Beach,” which retail for $160.00, but resell for $200.00. How do we go about selling these beauts?

    Start a shoe selling social media account. These blow up with a few shout outs or little advertising as consumers want to find different people with different stock. Best media accounts are the obvious Instagram, but places like reddit or Facebook are great for putting your shoes out there.

    What now? Well it is an uphill battle from here. Now that you have profit here starts the endless process from buying recently dropped or cheap shoes and selling them. This process takes extreme patience as sometimes you will find a buyer the next day or next month. Some tips to stay in there is to set long term goals such as a shoe you want to work up to. From famous rapper Jay-Z, “Only two things can get you through this: that’s patience and persistence.”

  • Prom Dress Season

    On April 14, Rachel Suojanen, the 1-2 Japanese teacher, hosted a Prom dress giveaway called the Prom Dress Boutique at the Jewish Foundation in Long Beach.

    Students in Long Beach are given an opportunity to get a prom dress and other things that are in need of prom material.
    The Boutique is designed to be organized with dressing rooms, volunteers, etc. There will be a raffle for free makeovers and other prizes.
    Suojanen has partnered with the Women’s Philanthropy to make this event happen.
    She also let students know around campus where and how they could donate dresses, shoes, and jewelry for the event.

    Dresses from multiple sources have come in and have become resourceful for the students in need of them.
    The goal is to help young girls be themselves with the right sources, especially when shopping for Prom is expensive.
    The committee also explained that this event is for invited guests only, so it is up to the counselors to outreach to those in need.
    As well made it know to students through Schoolloop to reach out to their counselors too.
    She coordinated with counselors to make sure that they recommended students who could benefit from this event.
    The Boutique is to enlighten girls who are insecure about themselves, to make them feel better about themselves, their personalities, and embrace them individuality.

    This event will become a tradition for Long Beach to ensure that students get to have an opportunity to be themselves at prom.

  • Get Out the U.S.

    Jordan Peele’s movie Us came out March 22, 2019. Featuring stunning performances by the entire cast, Us is a great reflection on the idea of how society treats its less fortunate and the consequences of these actions.

    That is one interpretation of the film, as there are many more. There are also many theories surrounding the events in the film.

    Warning spoilers will be present from here on, so if you have not watched it then you should get to it. On with the theories: the most interesting being that Jason is a tethered, this theory claims that Jason was switched similar to the way Adelaide was. However there are holes in this theory, mainly the timing of these events, if you want more information you can search it up.

    There is another interesting theory that encompasses Peele’s other movie Get Out with Us. This theory begs the question whether or not the movies are part of a shared universe.

    There are already many movies that have a shared universe so would it be so far fetched as to think Peele could be trying to do the same? Anyway the theory suggests that there is a connection between the sciences that created the tethered in Us and the ability of putting two consciousnesses inside a single body in Get Out.

    All we know of how the tethered in Us were created is when Red tells the family that they were created by a shadowy government organization and abandoned. This fits in with the explanation that Dean gives in Get Out when he explains the origins of his “practice.” The most fascinating theory however is that the tethered are better than “Us”.

    Throughout the movie they are seen working together collectively to achieve the goal they worked for, however the “civilized” part of society is not able to defeat them.

    The tethered were even able to accomplish the goal of Hands Across America, which famously was a failure when first conceived in 1986. This asks the question of whether or not the more civilized society deserves what they got, if they are so focused on themselves and not on the greater good of society.

  • Swim time for the last time!

    At their final home meet on April 10th, the Poly swim team’s hard work throughout the course of the season has been showcased in their spectacular performance against Wilson. The girls won the varsity and frosh/soph levels, with varsity crushing their competition 112 to 58. The frosh/soph team made Poly history as the second frosh/soph team to ever claim victory over Wilson. The boys team put up a fight, but unfortunately suffered a loss on all levels. The pressure is on as the long awaited Moore League finals draw closer and these two rivals face off once again.
    Captain of the girls team, Allison DeYoung, expressed her triumph and hope about their victory. “Being part of such an amazing team and beating Wilson on such a large scale has us all pumped and ready to continue our winning streak at finals”, she said.
    There were many stunning swims by the girls including Josie Liebzeit’s 1:57.00 200 freetsyle and 5:13.79 freestyle, Victoria Quach’s 1:00.92 100 butterfly and 101.94 backstroke, and Georgia Buffington’s 54.97 100 freestyle- just to name a few highlights. Overall, the varsity girls placed first in 10 out of 11 events- a clean sweep. They hope to retain their title as Moore League champions by continuing last year’s “threepeat” into “4 Moore”.
    Captain of the boys team, Garrett Lundeen said “It’s sad that it was my last home meet, but I don’t think I would’ve wanted to spend it with any other team”, the loss clearly not diminishing the pride he has for his team. Garrett won the 100 freestyle sprint with a 50.11 and tied with Poly junior Chase McPherson in the 50 freestyle for second place with a 22.56. Chase had an impressive meet, beating his personal record in three events by swimming a 22.56 in the aforementioned 50 freestyle, 58.08 in the 100 butterfly, and 50.90 in the 100 freestyle. Another big contributor to Poly’s points was junior Casey Lait who placed first in the 100 butterfly and 100 backstroke with a 53.82 and 53.36 respectively.
    Coach Kalani Caldwell has primed her girls to their peak performance level and she is ready to dominate the competition. On April 16th , the girls will compete at Moore League prelims at Cabrillo High School and hopefully qualify for finals on the 18th. “So proud of the girls!” she exclaimed. They have worked extremely hard this season and have stayed focus on their number one goal- to win Moore League!”.
    The boys will have their prelims April 15th and their finals on the 17th.
    After Moore League, swimmers who qualified will compete in CIF, an invitational meet determined by meeting a certain time at any point in the season.

  • Ready, Set, Play!

     

    On Thursday April 4, Friday April 5, and Saturday April 6 at 6:30 PM, the Poly Playhouse put on a play that students wrote where it brought them to life on stage.

    On Thursday April 4 at 3:00PM, staged readings were read out loud.
    This showing had 4 additional plays not included in the showings to give students the opportunity to read their plays out.
    There was a total of 7 plays performed. Your Turn, was a lighthearted comedy. Where the setting is Candyland and one of the pawns, Red, is tired of following the rules. The director/play writer for this play was Gabby Kaiser consisting of characters Richard Reed as Red and Mara Stanford as Yellow on stage.
    Full Cup, had Mika Dyo as director.

    It starts off with a Barista, played by Angelina Taylor, as she observes the kind of people who come by her shop.
    She seems to know what exactly is going on in her customers lives, new and old. And gives insight on the thoughts she has towards each of them, and their lives.
    Cast members included in this play are Bella Morales as Everlee, Aasha Mclyn as Sabrina, Brian Aguilar as Vet Joe, Dane Camacho as Adam, and Kelvin Villegas as Tom.

    In the first half there was about 4 plays performed, after a 10 minute intermission, is where the plays started to get really serious. One of these plays being Happy, Kaelah Franklin was behind the script writing and directing it.
    The play stars two cast members, Aasha McLyn as Emily and Josiah Hon as Julian.

    Two teens at age 19, living together. Julian experiences hard months with Emily, as she unravels down the spiral that is drug use.
    Franklin has stated that her inspiration is actually based off of her mom and “her struggle that she went through addiction”.
    Although the situation wasn’t exactly how it went down, it still was a bit similar as the one presented in the play.
    Franklin also knew that she wanted a “simplistic kind of play” and at first was considering doing the play in silence. Instead she opted for it to have dialogue as it’s “more powerful with words”.

    An honorable mention of one the plays, with a lot of dark humor would be The Rope to Hell, directed by none other then our High Life Staff Writer, John Henry Dy.
    Not only did he direct and write the play, but also played a part in it as well.
    His play was based on a salesman making a business selling rope, who people later then brought from him to kill themselves.
    They were pushed to the edge, by none other than the salesman himself.
    The salesman, played by Vincent Lach, was convinced by the Devil on his shoulders to get rid of the jerks of the world “for the greater good”.

    The last play performed was The Interdimensionator, with Amanda Angeles being director and also being apart of the play as her character, Nora Webb. Recurring  actors were Andy Martinez as Dr. Ed Edison, Gabe Burns as Homeless Dave, La Queen Malone as Little Girl, Ben Rifkin as Paraplegic Man, Deven Salinas as Billy Hill, Tristen Cousins as Mama, Mica Ramos as Carol.

    The play consisted of Dr. Ed Edison and how he wants to make a big accomplishment for himself and the world. Dr. Ed Edison and Nora travel to different alternative universes through a portal, and each universe gets worse. In almost all the universes Dr. Ed Edison is a failure. Pretty soon he takes his normal life for granted and returns a changed man.

    Andy Martinez said he had an “amazing time” and has a fun time making “new characters”. His inspiration for playing his character came from Doofenshmirtz and Flint Lockwood from Cloudy with a Chance of Meatball. Martinez also stated that everyone should have a chance to “experience a show”, whether it’s during their years in high school or outside of it.

    Other plays that took place during the showing was You Too, directed by Hannah Gardiner, about a date gone horribly wrong. Wishing Possible, directed by Josalynn Bass, was about an organization in charge of wishes in the children’s department, and they have a mission involving both a child and a mom.

  • Beach Volleyball Update: They’re Killing It!

    This past week Long Beach Poly high school competed in its first Beach Volleyball Tournament and League Games. They first competed at Santa Monica Beach on Saturday March 16th against Santa Monica and Notre Dame. The three teams competed to win their match then the school that wins two out of the three matches takes the whole game. These three matches were close games with long rallies.
    Long Beach Poly lost to Santa Monica High School 2-1 and beat Notre Dame 2-1. “Playing these developed Beach volleyball programs was a cool experience for our first year” according to Senior Beach Volleyball player Sofia Skukan.
    On Tuesday March 26th, the Beach Volleyball team played their first league games against St. Joseph and Laguna Beach at the Huntington Beach courts. They played St. Joseph first and only four of our beach players could make it so whichever school won both game took the match. Long Beach Poly beat St. Joseph 2-0 and then played the strong Laguna Beach team.
    The Lady Jackrabbits lost 3-0 sets to the D1 college committed Laguna Beach players. “Competing with some of the top girls was so motivating because most of us haven’t played much beach volleyball in our lives,” said Junior Beach Volleyball player Ellie Requejo. The Poly girls are expected to play against Los Alamitos and St. Anthony’s teams in scrimmages next week.

  • Cross Country Gets a New Coach

    Coach Nate or Mr. Bershtel, was the previous girls cross country. Behind the scene is a father and husband who appreciates his family. He has recently given up his job as coach for the girls cross country and long distance track due to him choosing to be more family involved and increase his time investing in teaching.
    He is currently teaching a Pre-Calculus class and also taught other math subjects, such as, Algebra 2 and Intermediate Math. He has made an impact both in the classroom, and on the field.
    Many of his students and athletes appreciated him for his dedication and efforts he put into his job. One of his athletes, Ashley a senior who ran for him her 9th grade year to her 11th grade year said, “Coach Nate was a passionate and great coach and it is sad to see his leave the cross country family.” Her and many others felt this way because he was an amazing coach and teacher here at Long Beach Poly.
    In addition, he coached an alumni, Brenda, who acknowledged, “Coach Nate always pushed me and encouraged me to run…if it weren’t for him I would not be running today.”
    Coach Nate will now be replaced with Coach Gabrielle Bournes. She received her confirmation two weeks ago from the head of girls sports administration, Crystal Irving. Coach Gabby has been working with Long Beach Poly as an assistant coach for the mid-distance team for Track and Field.
    Coach Nate’s decision to resign as a coach was good because he wants to be a great father to his kids and invest more time in his family.
    He personally said, “ He does wish the program good luck and want the Poly cross country to continue the tradition and go far. This year the cross country team was able to compete in the season with an assistant coach from track and field and dominated in Moore League.

  • $ For Our Garden

    During these few weeks ago, there have been donations made to Poly in help of supporting the school garden.
    These donations were made by an organization called Healthy Active Long Beach, which is a project that was developed in 2003 to address obesity as well as other chronic disease rates in the city of Long Beach.
    They are mainly known for the activities they host such as ReTHINK Your Drink, Kids in the Kitchen, community events, health fairs, and so much more!

    With this donation, the Healthy Active Long Beach made a partnership with the H&H Nursery, a “family-fun garden center offering a wide variety of plants”, which helped make the delivery of all the new donations to the school’s garden.
    This donation consisted of four bags of organic soil, two milkweed plants, sprouting kale, and sprouting tomatoes.
    On top of that, during the final week of March, the WASC Committee (Western Association of Schools and Colleges) came and paid a visit to Poly HIgh School’s campus. While on their visit, they took a look around the school, but one thing that caught their attention was the school garden itself.

    “During the presentation of their final finding, they gave their reports of areas of improvement and areas of strength and on their 5th slideshow, they included a big picture of our garden!!!!” said Ms. Jimenez.
    Now the school garden is officially ready to bring in the spring season because of these new donations.

  • Why Saturday School?

    Saturday school has been more of a serious matter, this school year.
    In what the purpose of saturday school serves, is for students to make up “work and also days of absences”, stated by Robert Shock.

    The range between freshman to seniors, may be considered to go.
    They’re given the opportunity to catch up and ensure that their grades will be stable.
    This could be considered a new awakening, more specifically to seniors, as if you do NOT attend saturday school and/or miss them intentionally, there is the possibility of getting your privileges taken.
    Such as graduation and maybe even certain senior activities.
    Especially since Seniors are currently going towards a path that staff is “concerned about”. And for Juniors this is a very “important year for them”. Saturday school is made to be “academic based”.

    As for if saturday school is working for students, Shock says that “those taking advantage of it” are the ones benefiting.
    They can also be given the chance to have a space to do their work as they provided chromebooks, books and whatever they need, in order to catch up.

    Saturday school is assigned through the district based on multiple absences.
    At least twice a month Saturday school is in session, and it is said May will be the last month for Saturday school.
    Shock also stated at PAAL they have saturday school almost “every saturday”.

    Many students are unsure of the consequences. The district is looking for what to do and is unsure.
    It is said that for Seniors if they miss school, especially towards the end of the semester, there will be some sort of consequences set in place.
    The purpose behind saturday school isn’t to “penalize students” but instead “try to help them”.

  • It’s Fashion Time!

    On Wednesday, April 17, Poly will be holding its first fashion show, where clothing designed by students are then modeled by other students participating.

    Jailyn Lewis, 17, decided to have her own fashion show through Long Beach sponsored by Female Leadership Academy.
    With the help of many students and teachers, Lewis was able to recruit as many as 50 models and 8 designers.
    With only 5 days to practice and get the entire show together, models and designers worked together to have each of their visions come to life.
    As director of the show, it has been pretty intimidating getting an entire fashion show together with only five 5 days to practices.
    But the energy and drive of each of the models and designers encourages Lewis to move forward.
    There were many times where there were setbacks but with the help of Sarah Schol, Jewel Jackson, Patience Randall, and Chuck Taylor, and many others who helped motivate Lewis along the way, building up confident in how the show will turn out for her.
    Unfortunately, in publicize the show in how Lewis intended for it didn’t workout as well, but would be happy if even 10 people showed up!
    The show will feature a lot of talent with singers such as Glena Canete and Robert Chim.
    With dancers including Yael Moore, Emiliano Vasquez Mendez and others. Tickets went on sale Thursday, April 11 for $5 and at the door for $10.

    Support the aspiring models, designers, and brand owners at Poly’s first fashion show hosted by Jewel Jackson and Jailyn Lewis! Thanks to FLA and Schol for sponsoring this event!

  • I’ll Have a Grande

    Ariana Grande’s signature drink at Starbucks debuted and will remain on the menu permanently. Ariana is a light bubbly, sweet and strong person so I expected her drink to represent that.

    The Cloud Macchiato is everything but that. Taking into consideration her music, style, and past boyfriends, I assumed the girl had taste. This drink proved me wrong. Most of the media is complaining that her drink isn’t considered vegan, while Grande has claimed to be vegan herself. I couldn’t care less about it not being vegan. If it was vegan, that would at least be an excuse as to why it tastes so bad.

    I do not consider myself to be a coffee person, so I brought along an expert, who was in agreement with me. That drink was gross, bitter, and if you enjoy the bitter taste of actual crap, consider drinking black coffee, It’s cheaper and there are no expectations.

    3/10 will not drink again. 

  • YOU DON”T OWN ME!

    Everyone is their own person. This is what I have told myself my whole life. No one belongs to anyone. This is what my family has told me. However as I grow up, I am starting to be unsure of what I have been taught. The relationships I have seen throughout my life have been quite interesting, but what has always gotten my attention – not in a good way- are the people who find themselves feeling possessive over someone else.

    I have even found myself in situations where someone calls me their own and it had left me feeling extremely uncomfortable. I don’t like being controlled or told who to give my love and attention to. I also don’t like being guilt tripped into it. Whether it’s friend or partner, if someone makes me choose between two people, I won’t enjoy the pressure and as a result, end up answering insincerely. What I don’t like especially about people who are possessive is that they can sometimes take things too far and turn the relationship they’re in into a toxic one.

    I’m not saying this is indicated  for ALL relationships, but I feel if you want to be in a relationship, you and your partner should know limits. I don’t mean this to come out in any harmful way at all, it is just what I feel.