Skip to Main Content
The Official Student News Site of Parkway West High

Pathfinder

The Official Student News Site of Parkway West High

Pathfinder

The Official Student News Site of Parkway West High

Pathfinder

Scrolling on eBay, sophomore Ryder Williams searches the app for different shoe styles. Williams credits the impact his completion of business and finance courses have had to gain his financial success, as well as his Personal Finance teacher, Andy Croley.  “Croley helped me a lot in getting to know more about profit and where to put the money. [He] also [taught me] how to store my money, ways to invest it [and] that I should always have emergency funds,” Williams said.

Managing finance and footwear

Payton Dean, Opinions Editor February 28, 2025

Math homework? Check. Vocabulary quiz? Done. Make $200? On it. Pulling out his laptop, sophomore Ryder Williams opens eBay and scrolls through the seemingly endless catalog of footwear.  Like many...

Junior Justin Lutz arranges his collection of basketball sports cards. Lutz started his first hand at entrepreneurship with an online store on eBay, dealing and trading in the sports card market. “I was already collecting sports cards [before], so I knew a lot of these players and I understood the market. I ventured into other sports, but I really stayed with the ones that I knew the most, [like] basketball. It’s really important to focus on what you know because it's so much easier than starting completely from scratch in a market that you don't understand. Find something that you're interested in," Lutz said.

Getting down to business

Risa Cidoni, Editor-in-Chief September 26, 2024

For most high school students, starting their own business remains a hope for the distant future. For junior Justin Lutz, however, entrepreneurship is a part of his immediate reality. From online start-up...

Senior Nick Menendez chose to honor Business Teacher Bill Mitchell during Teacher Appreciation night for varsity boys soccer. Players wrote letters to their teachers and gave them to them before the game. “I chose Mr. Mitchell because I enjoy his class. I believe what he's teaching will actually be useful to me later on in life. [I like] solving problems, working out how to best present an idea or a concept and then working through that and delivering on it,” Menendez said.

From Struggle to Success

Esta Kamau, Features/Humans of West Editor October 24, 2022

Business teacher Bill Mitchell and his identical twin brother became homeless at 17 years old after a turbulent home situation arose. Throughout high school, Mitchell and his brother found comfort in wrestling...

Posing for a picture, junior Lexi Lutz wears thrifted clothes to promote her brand, Divine Minds. Junior Thomas Anderson and Lutz ran similar businesses and collaborated to advertise each other's items. “[In Spark!] we get unstructured business time to work on our business, so Claire [LeDuc] and I went out and did a photoshoot in our clothing,” Lutz said.

A passion for fashion

Ava Prsha, CJ1 Writer February 9, 2022

When junior Lexi Lutz and senior Claire LeDuc went shopping, they felt like they couldn’t find what they wanted. So they decided to create it themselves. LeDuc and Lutz started a clothing business through...

Writing on a chalkboard, members of the Blue Brew staff and juniors Katie Evans and Julia Ligoure prepare for Blue Brew to reopen. Prior to reopening, the staff was trained in preparing coffee and taking payments. “My favorite thing about Blue Brew reopening is getting to work with friends and [being able to] see [and] help customers every morning,” Ligoure said. “I hope to gain some work and customer service skills [from working at Blue Brew].”

News Brief: Business is brewing

Sarah Boland, Staff Writer October 19, 2021

Dragging their feet into school in the early morning, students set their sights on one thing: a caffeinated beverage. After being closed for 18 months due to COVID-19, Blue Brew reopened Oct. 4 and plans...