“With extreme poverty and malnutrition in every corner of the world, it is often hard to recognize the needs of your own community,” writes Elizabeth Knight in a profile of Hope-Net, a Los Angeles charity whose food and shelter services are described as the “saving grace each month” for many hungry and homeless people.
The brief sketch by Knight, a recent graduate of the Marlborough School, is one of 50 profiles of nonprofit organizations released this week in the L.A. Guide to Giving, a publication created by and for students to encourage philanthropy.
The guide is being distributed for free to schools, libraries, restaurants, banks and other merchants and will appear as an insert in local newspapers. It is a creation of YouthGive, a Bay Area-based organization of social entrepreneurs on a mission to enable young people and their families to engage and improve their community and the world.
“In these tough economic times, it’s especially important that young people and their families have a way to reach out and support nonprofits that may also be having a tough time financially,” said YouthGive co-founder Dan Siegel. “We’re trying to lower the threshold for giving so that young people can be philanthropists. This is a way to democratize giving.”
Part of YouthGive’s program includes a website where families can open a “giving account” for students to donate to nonprofits featured in the Guide to Giving as well as support other charitable groups around the world.
Read more Students distribute L.A. Guide to Giving »
Parents are protesting this morning outside  Condit Elementary School in Claremont, the site Tuesday of a decades-old tradition involving kindergartners dressing up as pilgrims and Native Americans and sharing a Thanksgiving feast.
After a handful of parents objected to the children's hand-made construction-paper head-dresses and bonnets, district officials decided to eliminate the costumes and go forward with the meal and the songs. Parents are not pleased. To read more, click here.
-- Seema Mehta
Photo provided by Kathleen Lucas
Does your school charge for road trips?
A national school administrators group says it's worried about what it sees as a growing trend of "pay for play" trips that effectively discriminate against the poor -- a trend, it believes, that will only be exacerbated by the country's economic problems.
In a position statement issued Monday, the National Association of Secondary School Principals wrote: "The pay-for-play trend has triggered a legal, philosophical, and educational equity debate. The question centers on whether co-curricular activities are part of the free public school system to which everyone is entitled by law." The activities it has in mind include athletics, music, drama, clubs and so on. The statement says that California is among four states that require that any "school sponsored curricular or co-curricular activity be offered free of charge."
Is anybody seeing otherwise?
-- Mitchell Landsberg
The tradition started 29 years ago, when Garden Grove teacher Ellen McLeod had her special-education students whip up a modest Thanksgiving meal. But the festivities at Bell Intermediate School  have grown every year, and on Friday, her 28 students outdid themselves.
Under McLeod's supervision, they roasted 15 turkeys and 80 pounds of yams, mashed 100 pounds of red potatoes, cooked 60 pounds of green beans and prepared all the other traditional sides. They decorated the multi-purpose room, sent out invitations and served as hosts and hostesses for the special meal.
The nearly 300 students, teachers and family members lucky enough to snag invites to the feast were very thankful.
-- Seema Mehta
Photo Credit: Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times
Rachael Warecki, an English teacher at Locke Launch to College Academy, writes:
There’s no denying that it’s that time of year: October and November are the toughest months for teachers, mostly because the honeymoon phase between students and teachers has officially ended. Even my most well-behaved classes are beginning to push back a little bit, whining whenever they’re asked to move to a new task.
Group work? "Miss, I don’t like working in groups."
Silent reading? "Miss, I hate reading."
Note-taking? "Oh, no, Miss! Not notes! Notes are so boring!"
I feel like I’ve aged about eight years over the last five weeks. Yet, over these same last five weeks, many of my students seem to have firmly bought into a school culture of achievement. More important, they seem to have bought into the idea that they can individually achieve. My 12th-graders were genuinely excited to sign tutoring contracts, which, in turn, genuinely surprised me — I’d never have guessed they wanted to stay after school to do work. My football players were the most eager of the bunch. They came at 3 p.m., insisting that they had to leave at 3:45 for practice, but stayed until well after 4 p.m. to finish their personal statements. (I even gave them a two-minute warning at 3:43; they just nodded their heads and kept writing.)
Students are also holding one another accountable for success. Every week, the football players bring me an academic eligibility sheet to sign — if they’re passing their classes, they’re allowed to play. A few weeks ago, one of my second-period 10th-graders stopped me in the hall so I could sign his sheet. One of my third-period 10th-graders chimed in to say that he needed his sheet signed, too, and asked what his grade was. I told him it was a D, since he hadn’t completed his classwork.
Before I could say another word, my second-period 10th-grader — an A student — stepped in. “What are you doing, getting a D in Ms. Warecki’s class?” he asked. “Work harder. Get your grade up.”
The other day, some of my second-period students gave their classmate a hard time for not participating in group work. “Next time, participate sooner, OK?” they told him. “Even gangsters need to know English!”
Peer pressure: it’s a wonderful thing.
In all seriousness, when I hear these conversations, I know the October exhaustion was worth it. Who cares if I have to occasionally send a student to the office for yelling sexually explicit remarks during an exam? I’m winning some of my daily battles, and, if my students want each other to achieve, I might just win the yearlong war.
Anum Khan, a student at Whitney High School in Cerritos, writes:
In less than two months, I will have applied to all my colleges.
Meaning no more writing essays. No more agonizing over short answers. No more wondering which activity to put and which to leave out. No more analyzing my chances of getting in.
In other words, no more stressing.
From now until the end of December is the high point of senior stress. UC applications are due Nov. 30, and USC's is due Dec. 1 (for scholarship consideration).
After lots of speculation and serious consideration, but mostly because our counselor required us to finalize our colleges two weeks ago, I’ve finally finalized my list, which includes UCLA, UC Berkeley, UC Irvine, UC San Diego, USC, as well as my out-of-state schools (more on that later).
Forms, forms, forms
First, I had to submit all my forms for recommendation letters to my teachers, as well as a secondary school transcript request to my counselor.
Our school also had a workshop on how to get these forms, when to submit them, how to prepare them, etc. We were even given a mock envelope that told us where to write our name and address, the school’s name and address, and most important, where to affix the stamps (because there are just too many seniors who don’t know that stamps go in the upper right-hand corner of anything that has to be mailed).
After staying up until 3 a.m. finishing my activity resume and autobiographical sketch for my counselor and teachers (to help with filling out the letters of recommendation) came the actual application.
The actual application
It seems kind of weird that it’s in the fourth part of my series on applying to college that I’m talking about the actual application.
That’s because the term "college application" ought to be synonymous with confusion. It seemed easy enough when I started on my UC and USC applications. I made an account, and slowly started filling out all the information needed.
I started with the things I couldn’t change (bio data, grades, test scores), then got into the short answers, and finally the essay (which unfortunately hasn’t been finalized yet).
Though looking through a drop-down list to find the classes that I took may seem easy enough, it’s not.
In the USC application, for example, there’s the option for Spanish 2 H and Spanish II H, which seem to be the same class. But this doesn’t even stay consistent, as the level three choices are Spanish III Honors and Spanish III H.
After chatting with some of my friends, we decided to just choose the class that looks the best. Spanish II H and Spanish III Honors it is.
Next came the problem of my classes not all fitting in the space provided. Because journalism and Model United Nations are once a week at our school, we get graded for them, but they don’t take up extra space in our schedule. The USC application, however, only has two spaces for electives (which are filled by ceramics and PE for me).
Side note: if you’re a USC admissions officer, please don’t hate me for bagging on your app. I’m sure the other private school ones are more confusing, but I haven’t started on them yet!
Read more College applications are really confusing »
Jacqueline Mendoza, an eighth-grader at Florence Nightingale Middle School in Los Angeles, is going to attend the inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama.
Jacqueline was one of several students selected by the Congressional Youth Leadership Conference as a result of her participation last year. Her four-day trip includes watching the Obamas walk to the White House next January.
Jacqueline will be honored by the Los Angeles City Council on Nov. 18 at her school.
-- Mary MacVean
Photo by Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times
Sarah Miller went from her home in Westlake Village to Nepal, where she made a video comparing her life with that of people she met there, finding different definitions of necessity, wealth and happiness.
Her work won her a Goldman Sachs Foundation Prize for Excellence in International Education. The award is given to high school students who demonstrate an in-depth understanding of key issues in international affairs and the global economy.
Miller’s video included footage she shot while with a media team documenting human rights issues and the recent elections. She filmed an interview with the rebel leader at the time, Prachanda, who has since become the prime minister. Watch her video.
A recent graduate of Westlake High School, she has also made a video of her local orchestra.
-- Mary MacVean
Photo courtesy of Asia Society
Six California teenagers have been awarded $40,000 Herb Alpert Scholarships for Emerging Young Artists, a program in partnership with the California State Summer School for the Arts, known as InnerSpark.
The scholarships were awarded in six categories: animation and film/video, creative writing, dance, music, theater, and the visual arts. In each category, a student received $40,000, to be awarded over the course of four years. In addition, two students received single-year awards of $2,500 in each category.
The recipients of $40,000 awards are Keary Champi, 17, of San Diego, in dance; Juan De La Cruz, 18, of Montclair, theater; Sage Po, 14, Camptonville, music; Esra Senvardarli, 17, Santa Rosa, visual arts; Kristian Talley, 16, Encinitas, animation; and Ashley Tapley, 18, Lakewood, creative writing.
Talley said he began taking his artwork seriously at age 12. As a student at La Costa Canyon High School in Encinitas, Kristian has re-started the art club and painted murals on campus.
“Receiving the scholarship is incredibly helpful to my family,” he said. “I am grateful, because it has lessened an economic stress for my family. I feel like a burden has been lifted. It has also made it much easier for my younger siblings’ college futures.”
Another recipient, Champi, began dancing in the fifth grade and is now a freshman dance major at Stanford. As one of five children, there was some concern that he was not choosing a practical profession, but the scholarship “was the push I needed,” he said.
Scholarship recipients were selected by InnerSpark department faculties; selection criteria included talent, character and motivation, likeliness of success in a collegiate or professional training program, and financial need.
-- Mary MacVean
San Fernando resident Anais Luisa Jaime was selected to attend the spring 2009 Congressional Junior Young Leaders Conference in Washington, D.C. She is a sixth-grader at Robert Frost Middle School.
The conference examines eight leadership traits and focuses on leaders in American history and social advocacy. Participants work together to develop plans to bring about change within their home and communities.
-- Mary MacVean
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