Author: adviser

Senior Ben Neal was privileged to visit Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) under the Minority Introduction to Engineering and Science (MITES) pre-college summer program for six weeks and returned with two awards under his belt. Students and staff familiar with Neal know that he is a talented computer programmer, evident through his self-published app, Fall Freely, available on the App Store, Google Play Store, and Windows App Store. With a strong interest in the computer sciences, he applied to the MITES program with his eyes set on MIT as his dream school.App Store. With a strong interest in the computer sciences, he applied to the MITES program with his eyes set on MIT as his dream school. Similar to that of a real college application process, students interested in the MITES program apply online with qualifying GPA, SAT scores, and teacher recommendations, while MIT admissions officers review and accept the strongest of applications―accepting less than one hundred students with a devastating acceptance rate of roughly 4%. Aside from the flight cost, all expenses were cared for by the university. Under the pre-college summer program, Neal and other students attended five courses: Physics, Calculus, Life Science (Chemistry/Biology), Humanities, and a project-based elective, which Neal chose as Digital Design. Students took diagnostic tests as a prerequisite in order to be evaluated and placed in a class that is deemed worthy of a challenge for each student. To help the students get accustomed to the college life, each course has one professor and two teacher assistants from reputable backgrounds including students of Harvard and Stanford. Despite the rigor of the program, students still had time to interact with their peers in Cambridge and nearby Boston during the weekends. Most of the bonding stemmed from late-night homework sessions. “I did not sleep before 2AM and Sundays were the only days where I was allowed over 6 hours of sleep… I was faced with challenging material, extensive problem sets (homework), and competition that I had never seen before,” said Neal. All that hard work paid off when he was acknowledged as the Best Student of Digital Design and was awarded the Leon and Edna Trilling Award for the best overall academic performance. “After attending MITES, I feel I am prepared for any challenge that comes my way,” said Neal. “Whether it was ordering pizza at 1AM while finishing problem sets with my classmates, viewing the bright city of Boston from the roof of MIT or playing in and winning a football tournament on the 4th of July, MITES certainly had its share of fun times.”

The METS academy will be having an assembly for all ninth and tenth graders. It will be in the library on September 28th, over the course of the entire day. Charles Acosta, the METS counselor, will be there as well as Mrs. Erica Sands, the METS club teacher. METS teachers and students will be attending the assembly to hear what the academy is about. “The only thing worse than kids giving up on school is when we give up on them,” said Acosta. Acosta will be explaining the expectations of student behavior and of the tutoring that will be offered. It is important for the teachers and students to attend so that they understand their academy better, but most importantly so that they can be proud about the academy they are in by hearing all about METS’ great opportunities. For all the students and teachers in the METS club the first club meeting will be in the library on October 13.

This past summer, seniors Keyanna Daniels, Mia Grayson, and Salvador Leon participated in the LA-HIP program, an eight-week biomedical research internship at Children’s Hospital, Los Angeles. The program was created to expose students to the medical field by placing them in a laboratory setting. In order to gain admission, students had to turn in an application and participate in an interview. Fourteen students were then picked from a competitive field of applicants. “I think I was really positive in my interview. They saw how positive and upbeat I was, and in my résumé, they saw a confident and ambitious girl who won’t stop until she gets what she wants,” said Daniels. After gaining admission into the program, the three students were matched with medical professionals based upon their initial interests. They took a two-week introductory course designed to prepare them for laboratory work. Afterwards, participants conducted research with their mentors over a five-week period. Grayson chose to work with brain tumors, testing several inhibitor cells for their effect on the cancerous growth. She discovered that certain drugs changed the morphology, or physical composition, of the tumors, thereby indicating a slower rate of growth. “My grandmother died of a brain tumor, so I feel I have a personal connection to that. So, when they asked me what I wanted to research, brain tumors were a significant thing,” said Grayson. Leon had an interest in HIV and the micro biome, which is the collection of bacteria found in a human body. He sought to find the best way to extract DNA from these bacterial cells. “I wanted to see if the micro biome could be passed down from mother to child. When you have HIV, your micro biome is altered, which means that you may have more or less of certain bacteria species,” said Leon. An interest in neonatal research prompted Daniels to explore the invasive effects of E. coli K1 on neonatal meningitis. She used the protein OmpA in order to reveal the bacteria’s effects on babies. The three students concluded their internships by giving presentations on their chosen topics at a science symposium. Ultimately, they felt that the program helped solidify their future pursuits in the medical field. “It showed me that I don’t want to work in a lab. I do want to go into medicine, however, I want to go into the clinical side instead of the laboratory side,” said Grayson. Overall, the experience was quite positive for the trio, considering that most had hitherto little to no experience with laboratory and work and medicine. “It was really cool to see most of the things up close, since one thing they try to do is give students experience in the area. It wouldn’t be uncommon for me to see what my other friends were doing that were unrelated to mine. It was really interesting,” said Leon.

From September 19 to 20, seniors Megan Guttieri and Miriam Melendez participated in the Chezy Championships in Fresno, reaching the semifinals and winning the overall Programming Award. They competed as part of the Friarbots team, Servite High School’s robotics team. This is because Long Beach Poly’s FIRST robotics team could not compete due to last-minute complications. This did not deter Guttieri and Melendez, however; they still powered on through and found alternative ways to participate in robotics competitions. Chezy Champs has teams from all over the nation test their robots in a series of challenges. 35 different teams competed for the top prize, participating in events like Recycle Rush, where two alliances of three robots are pitted against each other. Other games involve shooting basketballs, climbing a seven-foot pyramid, and stacking totes. In order to win, teams must be strategic, have structurally sound robots, and communicate well. It is evident that the Friarbots possess all three qualities, for they emerged as semifinalists and winner of the Programming Award. “Chezy Champs is an inspiring experience because it provides students the opportunity to experience new things, fix old problems, and have a friendly environment,” said Thena Guttieri. For the past two years, the Friarbots have made it to the world championships in St. Louis. This year they were they were the Regional Winners at the Arizona West Regional and Quarterfinalists in the Curie division.

An online petition has emerged with the start of heat waves to get air-conditioning in every LBUSD classroom. The petition, started by concerned parents on change.org, has received over 9,000 votes in two weeks. The online petition reads: “It is imperative that LBUSD update our buildings and put air conditioning in all of our classrooms. Temperatures have been consistently been rising, and hot weather is lasting well into autumn, in Southern California. Our children can’t be expected to concentrated in conditions like this.” With the start of autumn heat waves, the Long Beach Unified School District has continued to implement the use of minimum days to combat the heat. The minimum days were a feature started last school year While the minimum days are a short-term solution to the excessive heat in classrooms, it does not address the root of the problem: the lack of air-conditioning in every classroom in the school. Newly built schools in LBUSD, such as McBride High School, McBride Academy, and Roosevelt Elementary school feature full air-conditioning in all classrooms. A bond measure is a possible long-term solution to getting air-conditioning in all classrooms. This was the path of action taken by Bellflower Unified School District in 2012. A $79 million bond was approved by BUSD voters that improved overall structural issues with the district, which included updates to air-conditioning. Long Beach Unified is a significantly larger school system, and the full air-conditioning update could cost $700 million, according to LBUSD spokesperson Chris Eftychiou. Until the air-conditioning solution is solved, minimum days will continue to be implemented on a case-by-case basis.