Tag: Long Beach Polytechnic High School Newspaper

  • Polytechnic Events

    What you may have missed recently-

     

    Wednesday, March 1 – Zero Discrimination Day

    Friday, March 3 – World Wildlife Day

    Wednesday, March 8 – International Women’s Day

    The City of Long Beach hosted a tree planting at Hamilton Middle School on February 25. A grant from the Port of Long Beach was given to the city in order to help plant 6000 trees by the year 2020. The 3000th tree was planted during this event.
    People of all ages showed up to the event ready to get their hands dirty. Teens from all Long Beach high schools teamed up to help beautify the community. After they finished planting, everyone was offered fresh fruit, bottled water, and free reusable water bottles. The event was expected to last until noon, but with such a turnout all the trees were planted in under three hours.

    Ethan See (left) and Heinglee Va (right) planting trees outside Hamilton Middle School.

    A tree planting is planned every six weeks and has been for the past few years. English teacher Dr. Amy Stu

    ht, who has been attending for the last three years, encourages students to attend. “I first went three years ago, on Pearl Harbor Day. Ever since, I’ve taken students five times a year… Kids who I don’t even have anymore still go and talk about it.”
    She offers all her students extra credit for attending a tree planting event. Sophomore Leeann Avendano stated, “I feel like I make a difference when I’m planting trees.”
    While some go to better the environment, others go to benefit their grade, as Ivan Alvarez said, “I went for the extra credit,” and why not?
    Students are also advised to participate in the Alamitos Beach Clean Up held every fourth Saturday of the month from 10 A.M. 11 A.M. at Alamitos Beach.
    There is also another tree planting at 9 A.M. on Saturday, March 18, at the 7th Street church.

    What’s Happening In the Future

    Sunday, March 12 – Beginning of Daylight Saving

    Tuesday, March 14 – Pi Day

    Friday, March 17 – St. Patrick’s Day

    On February 23, Scott Gaynor’s Intro to Digital Circuits & Robotics class took a field trip to the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena. JPL is a research facility that does robotic space and Earth science missions, so the tour included many models of robots and spacecrafts that are currently in space.


    “It’s really cool knowing that this stuff went to space,” said freshman Daniel Castaneda. The visit also included a full tour of the laboratories and a multimedia presentation on JPL.

    Freshman Michael Dawson expressed his appreciation for the presentation, stating, “It was really helpful in trying to see what career path you want to go down,” as this trip was geared toward students considering a career in engineering.
    A highlight of the trip was the “clean room,” an ultra-clean laboratory where robots are built. This room is so clean that “even one ten-thousandth of a particle of sand is more than they allow,” said Gaynor.
    Students like Jannine Ek also enjoyed this room, saying it was interesting “to know how they made the robots.” Poly students enjoyed the visit and learned about JPL and it’s workings.

  • International News Tidbits

    Republican Health Care Bill Introduced

     This week, Republicans plan to release their bill to replace the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.

    AshLee Strong, a representative for Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, said, “We are now at the culmination of a years-long process to keep our promise to the American people.”

    The draft legislation plans to provide expanded tax credits and health savings accounts for individuals and reduce federal spending on Medicaid. It plans to eliminate the requirement that employers and individuals provide and hold health insurance. Republicans  have promised not to pull the rug out from the citizens covered by these programs.

    North Korea Fires Four Ballistic Missiles in the Ocean

           Last month there were claims coming from North Korea that they succeeded in test-firing missiles under the approval of North Korean ruler Kim Jong-Un. The United States, United Nations, Japan, and South Korea have all denounced these test firings.

    The missiles were fired from the Tongchang-ri region an area close to the border of North Korea and China.

    One South Korean official claimed that the launchwas at 7:36 A.M. local time, which translates to 2:36 P.M. Pacific Standard Time.

    North Korea is sticking to its claims that its entire space program is completely peaceful. On Sunday, March 5, South Korea raised its reward for defecting North Koreans that have any information about North Korea’s space program.

    Man Making Threats against JCC Arrested in St. Louis

           In St. Louis, Missouri, the FBI took into custody 31-year-old Juan Thompson, a man who is accused of making eight bomb threats against Jewish schools, Jewish Community Centers, and a Jewish museum.

    The FBI said in a statement that “the investigation into these threats is a top priority” and that “agents and analysts across the country are working to identify and stop those responsible.”
    “The FBI is committed to ensuring that people of all races and religions feel safe in their communities and places of worship,” the FBI said.

    According to the New York Police Department, hate threats are high this year and the majority holster harsh  anti-Semitic motives and attitudes all over the United States of America.

  • Spirit Leaders Perform Well at CSULB Competition

    Spirit Leaders Perform Well at CSULB Competition

    On February 26, 2017, Poly Spirit Leaders took part in a competition at CSULB. Song, Cheer Stunt Group, and Mascot competed in their divisions respectively. The small, but mighty Song team consisted of sophomore Kennedy Cofield and juniors Becca Gutierrez and Megan Villaverde. The Stunt Group was seniors Ashley Applewhite and Maggie Dines, sophomores Raelynn Rios and Joanna Rowden, and freshman Ayona Young. The mascots competing this competition were sophomores Coco Sanabria and Thaili Sweet.

    In order to prepare for their competition, Cofield said, “Song drilled the dance over and over again full out with strong arms and facials.”

    Cheer’s Dines said, “We were at practice every single day for at least two hours. We would run and then stunt for the rest of practice to build up our endurance and make sure that at competition, when we weren’t tired, we could hit the routine. Every time something got hard or the group started to get frustrated with each other, we reminded ourselves that we are capable of making this routine and that we just needed to keep a positive attitude and keep encouraging each other no matter what happened.”

    Song performed their competition routine again. The theme for the song portion was “Teamwork,” so the song mix for the routine had to reflect that. “High School Musical”, “Everything is Awesome,” and Lorde’s “Team” were included.  The routine was choreographed by Cynthia Negrete and her daughter Marissa Negrete. Their fast-paced dance and cheerful facials expressions kept the audience intrigued. Villaverde said, “I’m proud of song for pulling through and getting second even though we were all sick.”

    The Mascots also did their routine with Sweet as the second bunny. The Mascot routine has to have a storyline that is conveyed to the audience and gets the audience participating in supporting their team. The theme was “Create a Lover,” and Jonathan Rabbit was a mad scientist who decided to make his own perfect lover. It had songs including, “Somebody to Love” by Queen.

  • Badminton Defeats Major Competitors

    On March 2 Poly’s Badminton team defeated Cabrillo High School in close contest advancing to 2-0 on the season. The final score of the game was 12-9. The Jackrabbits are off to a incredible start this year winning against the two best teams in Moore league, Lakewood and Cabrillo. “Lakewood and Cabrillo are the schools to reckon with, the beginning of our season is a quick baptism by fire,” said Coach Steven Meckna.

    There was an intense nailbiter at Cabrillo for the Poly squad. In one of the first matches of the night,senior Eric Shu, the team captain, suffered a leg cramp. Even with this injury, he “managed to win three out of his four matches, even though being partly disabled, a very heroic effort that night from Eric,” said Coach Meckna.

    Shu described what helped him overcome the injury, “My teammates, they motivate me, so I really wanted to motive them back.” It was a group effort win against such a tough Cabrillo squad.

    Junior Fei Law said, “We’re more determined to fight and win and improve each other.”

    As senior Cassandra Mullen put it. “There isn’t one person who’s like picking everyone up, we all pick each other up.” The Jackrabbits next game is against Compton High School, then they have a bye week, and then are off to face Jordan at Jordan High School.

  • Girls Basketball Wins 120th CIF Championship

    Girls Basketball Wins 120th CIF Championship

    On Saturday March 4, Poly’s girl basketball team once again won the CIF Southern Section Open Division girls basketball championship.

    This marked the 120th CIF title for the School. The girls hadn’t won the CIF crown since

    2010. This was also the first Open Division title that the program has won.

    This was not a typical game for the Jackrabbits as they headed into halftime down 36-32. Most of the season the Jackrabbits steamrolled their opponents, but were ready to make adjustments when

    necessary. “When it’s money time, it’s money time, and that’s when you need your big three.”

    said coach Buggs.

    Ayanna Clark, Jasmine Jones, and Danae Miller lead the Jackrabbits in scoring on the

    night. Clark had 20 points, Jones had 14 and Miller had 12.

    For years, the girls basketball team has maintained a strong reputation. With countless CIF Championships, it seems that the program will only go on up from this point.

  • The Serialized Adventures of John P. Chandatlantic, Part 2

    Part 1 of the “John P. Chandatlantic” was published in the High Life on February 23

    I heard a senior call the area between the 200 Building and the 300 Building as “The Meadow.” I like that. It’s cute. A good place for flowers and bunnies and—crap, Dad has me making Jackrabbit puns.
    Everyday when he drops me off he always says, “All right, hop along now, have a good day.” Every. Single. Day. Hop along.

    Oh, who am I kidding, I love puns. Last Thursday in math, the girl who sits behind me was talking to her friend and her friend says, “Dude, my sister literally locked me out. I had to climb the tree up to my window!” The other girl goes, “Wow, you’re really branching out.” So I turned around and was like, “I cannot be-leaf you just said that.” She laughed and then I didn’t really know what to say so I just turned back around. Nobody said anything for a little while so I kinda half-turned around; then realized I didn’t know what to say, so I didn’t. Then I turned around and asked if she would be interested in Batman Club.

    She was kinda cute actually…

    I still haven’t really found a lunch group yet. Most days I just chill in Mr. A’s room during lunch. My friend Evan and I play Speed. Sometimes when the computers are open we’ll find some stupid browser game to play together, so that’s fun. And there’s Batman Club once a week. We just get together and Mr. Maddison plays episodes of the Batman Cartoon. Evan comes with me, when he remembers. There are usually one or two other kids, and sometimes we chat.
    I still haven’t really found my niche though.

    But the other day I was looking out of Mr. Maddison’s window— that one that can’t close because it’s broken— and down into the Meadow and I noticed that she was sitting there, laughing and chatting with some of my classmates. There were little white flowers in the grass and a couple of her friends were making dandelion-bracelets for each other. I knew everyone she was with; most of them I talk to in class.

    On screen, Batman punched the crook off a dock and the end of lunch bell rang. Evan threw his arm around my shoulder and dragged me off to my next class.

  • Mathletes Take the Pi(e)

    Mathletes Take the Pi(e)

    On Wednesday, March 1, Poly’s cafeteria hosted the Bay Math League’s first of four annual competitions.
    “It’s a big deal,” says calculus teacher and coach of the Poly Math Team, Pam Amici. “There are schools from all over California coming here.” There are twelve schools with teams in the Bay Math League. Poly is the only school from Long Beach Unified District. All others came from schools farther north.
    These schools crowded into the cafeteria, filling it with pink “I’m sec C and I know it” jackets and several variations of the Pi symbol made up of various other numbers or mathematical constructs. Poly’s team claimed the largest swath of the cafeteria and, though they had the home field advantage, they did seem to be lacking something the other schools were not: snacks. But, unlike most of the other teams, Poly’s team is not funded by the school.
    Most of the schools there had one or two teams of roughly a dozen people each. Poly on the other hand has sixty students on its team. “I believe that I let everyone who wants to participate participate,” says Amici. The only reason she caps the volunteers at sixty is that the bus to the other venues can only hold that many.
    According to a handful of the seniors on the team, the main motivator for joining is the extra credit, though there are a handful of underclassmen on math team for the pure love of math. One such mathlete is sophomore William Terlinden, who says math team has given him “perspective on [his] study methods.” He says, “It’s been a way to evaluate my actual skill in math instead of how much I can cram.”
    Senior Mani Vu has a different reason for joining Poly’s math team. “On math team,” says Vu, “I attracted so many girls it was ridiculous. I was like a chick magnet.” He then got serious and reflected on how math team has allowed him to embrace his “inner nerd.” He believes that the Math Team is one of those communities that makes Poly such a special place.

  • Student Art Show

    The JCC Art Show ended on Friday, March 3. The art show went on for four weeks and took place at the Jewish Community Center. The exhibit included 97 different works of art from 20 different schools. Ten middle schools and ten high schools participated in the event. The categories consisted of the following; high school art, high school digital art, and middle school art.
    Six Poly students submitted their work into the show, five of whom won an award or prize. Senior April Ray won third place in high school art. Ray stated, “My piece was a water piece called ‘Still Life’ and it took months to put together.”
    For the same category, Emma Hastie, Enrique Martinez, and Andreana Santos-How won honorable mentions. Elizabeth Sandoval won first place for high school digital art. This category was new as of this year, created for all the digital/photography submissions received.
    There is another upcoming art show for the students who didn’t get a chance to submit work into the JCC art show.  The theme will be the role of gender in today’s society.
    Artists are asked specific questions to consider in preparation: What is the relationship between gender and society? How does culture shape one’s gender identity? What does it mean in a given culture to be masculine or feminine? How is society’s view of gender changing? Thoughts can be represented through a drawing, painting, photograph, collage, or a three dimensional sculpture.
    Everyone’s artwork will be judged by the Long Beach Art Museum in conjunction with the Millikan High School Museum Studies Exhibitions Department. The art will be judged based on the its visual depiction of theme, artistic merit, and meeting all of the stated requirements. Students interested have the choice of digital media, drawing, watercolor, acrylic, photograph, oil painting, ceramic, print, or collage.
    Two dimensional work should be at least 8”×10” but no larger than 16”×20”. Three dimensional work should be no larger than 16”×16”×20”. Art works can’t depict obscenities or weapons. Any Poly student is allowed to enter their piece, the deadline is still to be announced.

  • Nasty Couples are Nasty

    Nasty Couples are Nasty

    Let’s get one thing straight. When I’m walking to class, the last thing I want to see is some nasty couple making out in the hallway. I’m not one to shy away from PDA, but when I can see your tongue in someone else’s mouth, you have taken it too far. Have some self-respect. You want to to be cute and disgusting with your dearest? Save it for a place that’s not around other people.
    If I can hear you kissing from the other end of the hallway, please re-evaluate your life choices.
    There was this especially gross couple two years ago on the third floor of the science building. Everyday during lunch they would be jumping all over each other, and grinding, and just generally being nasty. No offense, but I don’t need to see that when I’m trying to eat. I’m tempted to go full Dolores Umbridge and say “Boys and girls are not to be within eight inches of each other.” I’m not that cruel, but still. There is no need to be kissing each other in front of other people.
    This is not only uncomfortable for me, but also for the couple. Being seen by others while you’re kissing your partner must not be fun. If I were the girlfriend, I would be uncomfortable when everyone passed me with a disgusted look on their face. And not only do people have a habit of looking, they also have a habit of talking, and you might get a lot of unwanted “publicity”. If you’re into that sort of thing.

  • Swim Starts Off Strong

    Poly’s swimming season has started. There was a girls swim meet against Los Alamitos and Marina,  which in they lost by a small margin. The thing with those swim meets is that they were D1 teams which made it harder because they were faster. This made good turnouts to the girls swim team with the fact that they can get an idea of the future of the season.
    The biggest competition so far is with Wilson High School since the Bruins have been maintained a 44 year winning streak in the boys swim meets. Boys varsity swim team is hopefully going to kill it this season because the boys have the capability of beating Wilson from all their hard work and effort.

    Most of the good swimmers have gotten a head start on this sport, having played five years old, such as Isabella Magalong a senior student member in the girls swim team, and Leilani Davila, a former member of the swim team. Many think that swim should actually be considered an individual sport but our swim team has a different opinion about that. As Magalong states, ”Before high school swim I would participate in club swimming, which in the time I saw it as an individual sport, but now I see it as a group sport,and as a team everyone has an aspect and each get points and have it as an accumulative effort.”

  • Track Goes to New York

    Poly’s boys and girls track and field athletes are heading to New Balance Indoor Nationals at the Armory Track in New York this weekend, March 10-12. The athletes will compete in a variety of events against schools from other states. Junior Ariyonna Augustine will be competing in the 60 meter dash and 200 meter dash. Last year Augustine won CIF-SS Division 1 championship in the 100 and the 200 meter dash.

    Augustine said she is scared of the competition but “confident” and wanting to “out everything on the track.” Her goal is to get a personal record, faster than 6.4 seconds in the 60 meter dash.

    When asked about their upcoming meet in New York, sophomore Jaelyn Predium felt “very excited” and glad to go somewhere she has never been before. Jaelyn will be competing in the 60 meter dash emerging elite.     The other track and field athletes that will be attending this New Balance indoor meeting will be Zhane Smith in the girls long jump and triple jump, Zion Bowens and Aaron Shampklin in the 60 meter championship series, De’Varriea Oleas in the 60 meter hurdles, and Tariq Harness and DeAngelo Chester in the 60 meter emerging elite. Poly will be also represented by girls 4×800 and distance medley relay teams.

  • Baseball Takes Tough Loss

    Poly baseball played an away tournament March 3 hosted by Los Alamitos. They lost 8-7, but it was an overall good game.
    Junior Mike Mauai was selected Player of the Game. When asked about his thoughts on the game, junior outfielder Nolan Brown said, “It’s a good game to see where we are as a team.”
    Players were prepared for the game but did not come out with the win. Junior center fielder EJ Andrews said he prepared for the game by, “taking practice very seriously, working on my defense, and hitting.”
    The coach was preparing the team by working a lot on defense.
    Brown said coach was preparing them by “working on a lot of drills, and defense. Defense has been a big emphasis throughout the season.”
    Their defensive practice is showing in the games but their offense is not quite good enough.
    Andrews’ thoughts on the coach are that “he brings a lot of enthusiasm to the sport, he gets us pumped up for the game. His favorite saying is ‘practice makes perfect.’”
    All of the players practice every day. Senior catcher AJ Renteria said he prepares for games by “hitting every day, working out everyday, practicing hard everyday, [and] no days off.”
    The Poly Jackrabbits also played a home neutral tournament game against the Loara Saxons. Unfortunately, the Jackrabbits lost by a score of 2-1, but their good defense showed. Senior Jake Creamer was selected Player of the Game. The Jackrabbits have only played a few games, and now hold a 2-2 record. Poly is now third in the Moore League.