Category: News

On October 14, 2015, the Long Beach Unified School District had its first year of free testing for the PSAT/SAT.
Students were held different classrooms throughout campus to take their tests. Overall, there were 24,000 juniors and seniors test-taking.
These exams are for young adults to be tested on their abilities, knowledge and strength.
“The test was quite challenging and simple at the same time,” said senior Cherish Presley.
“Being able to have old material and questions being mixed with new ones are what make the tests a challenge,” said Junior Irene Davis.
“Taking the test is way easier than waiting for results,” said senior Maria Lopez.
These tests, along with Grade Point Average (GPA), are the factors that determine which college will accept and mold students into being the best that they can be. Students are encouraged and motivated to take the exams and to have the readiness for which universities suit their interests.
“The SAT is what help me to see my weakness and strengths, to know that I have the understanding to try harder in being good at something rather than fail,” said senior Ana Suarez.
However, applying to college isn’t an easy task, and is also a long process. Having amazing grades, outstanding test scores and wonderful results from the PSAT/SAT can without a doubt cause the schools to have interest into the mind sets of these students who try hard to achieve their goals and overcome the obstacles.
“Waiting for the results are nerve-racking because it’s scary to find out,” said senior Stephanie Garcia.
There are many opportunities to receive variety scholarships from different colleges and universities. The National Merit Scholarship is the biggest break point for juniors and seniors to see what they can conquer. This is a type of competition for recognition and scholarships. To participate for entry, students are required to meet certain requirements, including writing about your achievements and awards and having the results of the SAT exam.
“I thought it was an unfair advantage for students who are not in Pre-Calc to see a Pre-Calculus question on the PSAT. It made some kids’ self esteem lowered. I heard some kids say that they hated math,” said Paula Clemente.

Red Ribbon Week occurs over the course of October 19 to 23.
Red Ribbon Week is an alcohol, tobacco and other drug and violence prevention awareness campaign.
It is observed annually in October in the United States.
“I’ve never met anybody who had a problem with drugs but I’ve seen and heard what they do to people, especially in our generation so I know to stay away,” said sophomore Jason Hy.
Poly showed Red Ribbon spirit by dressing each day to show drug free awareness. Rallies were also held during lunch.
The week began Monday, October 19, which was “Be A Jean-ius Dress-Up Day,” so students wore their best jeans.
On Tuesday, students and teachers wore sunglasses all day to “Shade Out Drugs” during school.
Wednesday was “Sock It To Drugs Dress-Up Day.” Power 106 radio station participated and a basketball rally was held during lunch.
Thursday held the theme “Red Shirt Dress-Up Day.” During lunch, there was another rally.
Friday will be “Pink Shirt Dress-Up Day.” There will be a rally for the girls tennis and the girls golf teams that afternoon during lunch.

The speech and debate team participated in the Package Deal tournament on Saturday, October 10, at Arcadia High School, with many Jackrabbits placing highly amongst a field of 280 entrants.
Freshmen Iyanna Blackburn, Dan Dao, Darren Hall, Aiyanna Johns, Thomas Robinett, Coco
Sanabria, and William Terlinden competed in this event. Senior Destin Bigsby accompanied
them as an event judge.
Being the only one of its kind in the nation, the competition gives first-time speakers the chance to explore both the oratorical and argumentative sides of forensics. Only novices, or first year members, are allowed to take part in this tournament.
Participants competed in a variety of events that day, starting off with National Extemp. Students were given 30 minutes to draft a five to seven minute speech on a random topic.
After competing in that round, they moved onto Dramatic Interpretation, which involved students presenting a serious story, play, or published work. Impromptu was the next event, in which they were given two minutes to prepare a five minute speech on a random subject.
“My favorite event would have been the impromptu. It was a new and interesting thing that I hadn’t done before, and I got [the Internet], a topic that I felt I knew perfectly,” said Terlinden.
After a lunch break, students concluded the day with Congressional Debate, in which they were tasked with either defending or opposing proposed legislation.
Participants won ribbons based on their performances in either the morning or afternoon rounds. Terlinden was awarded two ribbons for placing first, second, third, and second in his events. Sanabria and Hall placed highly in Congressional Debate, while Blackburn and Johns placed second in their Dramatic Interpretation rounds.
“The competition was a great experience. It helped all of the new speakers on our team to really get to know how a tournament works and what would be expected of us,” said Johns.
Led by long-time coach Brett Alexander, the speech and debate team has been very successful on the regional and state levels in past years. He has coached several state champions and finalists, all of whom have gone on to attend prestigious universities like Harvard and Stanford.
Their next competition is Fall Novice, which will be held at Gabrielino High School on November 14. The team is preparing itself for State Qualifiers at California State University, Long Beach in late February and early March.
“We have good senior leadership and a lot of new faces. The state championships are in San Jose in April, and I think we are going to have two or three qualifiers,” said Alexander.

The Poly Marching Band came in second place in a field competition at Segerstrom High School on Saturday, September, 26th. The band played its field show, called To Catch a Thief. “For a first competition it went very well. We decided to get an earlier start on our show this year and the score definitely showed improvement on past years and we are definitely optimistic,” said Poly Drum Major Elizabeth Kriebal. In marching band competitions, marching bands play music and make a series of formations called drills on the field. These drills may be pictures, designs, geometric shapes, or blocks of musicians. During a field show, marching bands are evaluated based on criteria including musicality, uniformity, visual impact, artistic interpretation, and difficulty of the music or drill. Marching bands are popular throughout the country. They often serve as entertainment at football games, and sometimes work in tandem with cheerleaders. The Poly Marching Band plays at almost all Poly football games, providing encouragement to the team. “There’s still work to do, but we’re off to a very good start,” said Kriebal.

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.