Students at Cypress High School show their skills and talents in the form of businesses. These student-run businesses offer a variety of products and services, including pastries, nails and haircuts.
Sophomore Olivia Kim is a baker who provides the school with sweet treats and pastries. Last year, Kim started her business after her family was tired of the overflow of baked goods: “My friends and family are sick of it, so why not just sell them?” Kim says. The reason she decided to open her business was due to her love of baking and being inspired by watching food networks.
Kim continues to sell pastries to fulfill her passion, and to also bring awareness to humanitarian causes; she sells Middle Eastern treats for the genocide in Gaza, and is trying to bake treats for the cultures that have been raided by ICE. Kim’s main goal isn’t to make money, but to sell her passion to people and inspire others to start a business. Her advice for upcoming entrepreneurs is “Really publicize, I think that it’s really important to put yourself out there.”
Junior Norah Vu is a nail tech whose services involve creating custom, press-on nails. Vu started her business with the help of one of her supervisors in order to make nails and profits. She was inspired by a Cypress Graduate, Ashley Yang, who worked on actual nails.
Vu enjoys making nails, and she puts her time, effort and money into her products to satisfy her customers, as well as her wallet. Vu’s advice for upcoming entrepreneurs is ”You can figure it out as you go along, don’t stress about getting everything in order before you start, because then you’re never going to start.”
Senior Jacob Cortez is a barber whose business provides the students of Cypress with haircuts. During his freshman year, Cortez started his business while he was at his soccer game—his friend needed a fresh cut, so he gave Cortez a pair of scissors, and he started cutting. After that, he started practicing at home with his friend, and over time, he invested in better equipment to give better haircuts. Inspired by how hard his mom worked, he wanted to help her out by playing his part in his home.
Cortez enjoys meeting the people who sit in his chair; he likes talking to all the different types of people he meets and learning about how they all live. Cortez’s advice for upcoming entrepreneurs is “Take pride in what you do, let everyone know what you’re doing, and don’t be embarrassed.”
