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LOS
ANGELES UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT
David L. Brewer, III
Hooper
Ave. Elem. School
Superintendent of
Schools
1225 E. 52nd
Street /L.A, Ca. 90011
Eufrosino Espinoza, Principal
TELEPHONE (323) 232-3571
FAX (323)
235-0847
January 22, 2008
To: WACAC
From: Luis South, School Counselor
Re: 2008 WACAC Grant Proposal
Dear WACAC Grant
Committee,
Thank you for the
opportunity to write a grant proposal in support and recognition of my
education counseling program being carried out at Hooper Avenue
Elementary School. For the past few years I have presented at annual
WACAC conferences to focus on the importance of inculcating a college
readiness vision in elementary level and secondary students
predominantly of African American and first language Spanish speaking
families in Los Angeles City. Typically the overwhelming majority of
the elementary and secondary students enrolling in the College and
Beyond after school program are of family backgrounds lacking
high school completion and college experience.
The main goals of the
program is to inculcate habits consistent with developing students’:
1)
study skills
2)
understanding of grade level concepts
3)
self-driven college and career focus
4)
inclusion of art and art appreciation as part of life
5)
communication skills with others focused on college and career
Please accept this
letter and the other attachments in order to consider them for WACAC
grant funding in the year 2008.
Respectfully,
Luis South
Luis South
Funding Proposal
In order to most
effectively reach students going through my school counseling program I
have created an extended day after school program called College
and Beyond that meets from 2:20 – 4 p.m. Various groups meet
with me 4 days each week: Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays.
On Tuesdays I collaborate with teachers of these students in order to
prioritize various aspects of our education process. Fridays are set
aside for secondary students’ volunteer training and discussions
centered on their college vision and developing career outlook. As an
example of how powerful this process is, 4 of the five secondary student
volunteers have developed a much better defined college outlook. Three
are females who attend Jefferson HS, and 1 attends L.A Academy MS. All
had no visions about college when they first came to me. They each have
written their life plans statement (also done by elementary level).
Three have gone to introduce themselves to the college counselor at
Jefferson HS (Ms. Wally) and joined the Jefferson HS Girls Soccer
Team. The three from Jefferson HS have shown me report cards indicating
better than B averages. The inclusion of secondary student volunteers is
important to the future of the College and Beyond program
because of an initial vision to track students through grade 12. There
is a fifth student attending East Los Angeles Community College. She is
19 years old with a one year old baby. She is presently preparing to go
to Mexico then return to Los Angeles in order to become a legal
resident. She is also earning her way to becoming an important asset in
the College and Beyond program. All 5 volunteers are of
first language Spanish families.
Typically the
overwhelming majority of my students come from economically
underprivileged backgrounds where college graduation is not part of the
family history. At Hooper our breakdown of student enrollment indicates
90% are Hispanic, 9% African American, and 1% Other. Over 90% of our
students qualify for the government funded school lunch program.
This program started
in my first year at Hooper Elementary School. This is the second year
running the College & Beyond after school program at this
location. The actual idea of including artistic expression and
appreciation through Nature Art Collage making started in the year 2005
when I volunteered to assist Celerity Nascent Charter School while
working as the full time elementary school counselor at 32nd
Street Elementary School in LAUSD. In developing how this art needed
to be included as a part of an educational counseling process I also
introduced it to some of my elementary students at 32nd
Street. So I arrived at Hooper already having a full year’s experience.
There was enough evidence that this unique approach to collage-making
coupled with the college and career focus was an essential combination
to reach young students who can, at times, become easily distracted or
bored. Simply stated, collaborating with students to create a new art
form helps to sustain student interest in attending a rigorous after
school program focused on developing a college and career focus.
Tracking Strategies
Student and Parents-Tracking
students enrolled in the after school College & Beyond
program will be relatively easy because, from inception, there was a
stated goal to have them return as volunteer tutors as they continue
through secondary school. As well, those that couldn’t return because of
their personal schedule would still be tracked by periodic
communications through visits to their middle school (only the ones
attending L.A Academy and Carver middle schools). I’ve conducted visits
to L.A Academy as a means to inquire how students were doing at the very
beginning of the school year. I also met with counselors to begin
meaningful collaborations. A much smaller amount of our 6th smaller amount of our 6th
grade students attend Carver Middle School, but a parent came to me
concerning issues with her daughter so I went with the parent to that
environment to identify developing problems and speak with child along
with mother. I then was able to leave a written communication for the
assigned counselor and principal suggesting solutions.
Performance Folders- Students
have folders where they place their academic assignments focused on
writing about future life, specifically centered on career and college.
As long as students remain in the Jefferson High School corridor and
keep me informed about changes of address and phone contacts it will be
possible to track them for the purposes of assessing program outcomes.
The immediate follow-through visits after students move to 6th
grade into middle school is important. I will continue to communicate
with counselors on the secondary school level as a means to someday
institute such contacts as crucial to envisioning positive student
outcomes. School counselors can form a team concept (k-12) for the
purposes of continuity so that we can play a better defined role in
public school education. The career and college vision must be
inculcated from the earliest student experience in elementary school.
Focused meetings between education counselor (k-12) could help in the
development of a more coordinated effort. There has been no funding set
aside for such meetings.
Student Conferences- In the year 2006
and 2007 I held the first two annual conferences at Loyola Marymount
University, stringent supporters of my vision. So far we are
collaborating with Los Angeles Trade Tech Community College for a date
in early March to arrange a campus tour as we search for another college
to hold our annual conference. Please see my web page to understand some
of the ideas that have been generated by these initial annual
conferences. My web site address is
http://www.educounselor.com/LMU%20youth.htm . The same information
has been copied immediately below.
" THE QUESTIONS BELOW WERE PRESENTED TO
SECONDARY LEVEL STUDENTS ATTENDING THE COLLEGE
& BEYOND YOUTH CONFERENCE AT LOYOLA MARYMOUNT
UNIVERSITY in 2006. WE WILL CONTINUE TO POST THE WORDS OF THOSE
PARTICIPATING WITHIN YOUTH CONFERENCES WE RECOGNIZE AND SUPPORT."
Luis South, Education Counselor
What does a
historically exclusive college need to consider doing to make it
possible for a higher percentage of historically excluded cultures to be
able to graduate? Is this important? Why or why not?
Have you
ever thought of how you may feel when you go to college and the
overwhelming majority of students don’t look like you or communicate in
a manner you’re accustomed to?
Outside of
your own cultural group, which group are you generally most comfortable
with for interpersonal communications? What are the positive attributes
that you see in your friends who come from this cultural background?
How do you
see college potentially affecting your cultural experience? How will
this potentially affect your self-development?
What are
the benefits of going to college?
How would a
college benefit from having you there?
How does
culture help one in college?
How does
culture potentially serve as a distraction from the college experience?
Do you have
to “act white” to be successful in college?
What does
it mean to “act white”?
What facts
have you learned about your culture’s offering to the development of
mankind?
What are
traits of successful college students? (General)
Beyond the
idea of success in an academic setting, what character traits should a
college graduate have to be seen by others as “successful”?
About half
of the students that start high school in South Central actually
graduate in 4yrs. What is it about you that makes you special, able to
compete and complete high school when many of your classmates have not?
And within
that small group of students that graduate from high school on time
about half of them go on to a four-year college. What are some of the
reasons that distract people from going to college?
Where do
you see yourself in 10yrs? Who will you be? What are some of the major
decisions or events that will bring you to the older you?
Where do
you see your race or cultural group in 50yrs? Is that “where” your
cultural group should be in 50yrs? What types of things could bring
about a positive change for a cultural group? What is our part in
affecting those changes?
The questions above were addressed in open
conversations between 4th and 5th grade students
working in collaboration with secondary students from a variety of
schools in Los Angeles. All of the 4th and 5th
graders were enrolled in Celerity Charter School at that time.
Dr. John Reilly served as host on the
Loyola Marymount University campus. Loyola Marymount University
graciously sponsored both of the College and Beyond annual
conferences in April 2006 and then again in April 2007. Thanks also to
Father Engh, Abbey Freeman, and LMU Food Services for helping us to
provide quality annual events.
Thanks also to the continued sponsorship
of Wendell Tyler (of UCLA and NFL history) and the Korean American
Grocers Association for their continued support.
Budget
College
Campus Book Store Mementos Purchases………………………………. $500
200 Art
Frames @ $1.00 ea. ………………………………….…………………. $200
Hardware
Supplies to Accommodate Art Craft (paper making, easels, etc.)………$350
Articulation Awards, Plaques & Trophies ……………………………………..... $450
Community Focus
Again,
the College & Beyond
after school program is an extended day program focused on academic
rigor to help students develop their focus concerning future career and
post secondary education. This application requesting funding is to
alleviate pressures to improve the program’s presentation of art and
awards for student performance. Possibly even more important is
progressively moving the art project to be sustained at the community
level, a micro business student-lead initiative. Already Bank of the
West, a major banking institution, has supported our vision by placing
our art work on display. Also, to help spread community awareness, there
will be a presentation of Nature Art Collage making at two separate
public events:
1)
The 2008 Annual School Counseling Conference (February 11, 2008)
2)
L.A Recreation and Parks Nature Art Collages Exhibit (TBA)
Final Note
The
focus of this grant proposal is on the College and Beyond
after school program. This program is directly connected to my education
counseling results-based program structured for Hooper Avenue Elementary
School students. The students are randomly selected as each student has
come forward to express interest to enroll in the program. There are
presently 20 students enrolled. Over the past two years more than fifty
students have participated in this after school program, a work still in
progress. By funding this program via a grant from WACAC it would be
more possible to develop best practices for inculcating elementary and
secondary students with habits and visions centered on career and post
secondary education. WACAC now has an opportunity to support the
extension of college preparedness to reach elementary level students.
We
propose that, with minimal funding and other strategic support for the
College & Beyond after
school program WACAC will be able to maintain its rightful place as
second to none in the realm of college admissions counseling. The next
level up necessitates moving downward to effectively structure how we
approach elementary level students concerning college and career.
Introductory Presentation
On Thursday, February 7th there was a
collaboration meeting I facilitated between credentialed staff
members (nurse, myself, and 5 teachers). The focus of that meeting
was to discuss a list of events designed to support the educational
process at Hooper Avenue Elementary. Here is the summary
outcome of events that will take place throughout the Spring
semester of 2008:
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