Thankful Thursday: 2011-2012 Corps Members

This is to the City Year San Jose/Silicon Valley corps of 2011/2012.

Congratulations to all of you.  Thank you for your service.

As I was preparing to write this blog I came upon the realization that “Thank you” is such a trite way to express gratitude.

I can list the great accomplishments of your 2000 hours of service. The 100’s of students served, the difference you made in schools around attendance behavior and course performance. But that does not capture it all. There is “behind the scenes” work that no one sees that’s helps make this all happen.

Things like:

• Preparing lesson plans after 10 hour days
• In some cases, convincing your parents to let you do this
• Stepping up when a teammate was sick
• Minimum days (which were really maximum days)
• Living on a small stipend
• Piloting programs
• Data and all the entry, analysis, adjustment of same
• Serving on committees in addition to your regular responsibilities
• Staying late, with a great attitude, until the l a s t  s t u d e n t is  finally picked up
• Lunch with students, spending the time to get to know them and building relationships
• Walking students home
• Working with teachers, doing meetings, tracking student progress
• Talking with parents and siblings of students and building relationships with them

and

• End of year events

You took time from your life and devoted it to service. Pure service that entailed you giving your absolute best ALL the time to make sure students that were total strangers 11 months ago became the reason for your being.

You’ve been trained, observed and evaluated. You rose above daunting challenges and chose not be overwhelmed by your task of giving a year and changing the world.  You just did it. You put your shoulder into the grindstone and did it via your 50+ hour work week, minute by minute, line by line, math problem by math problem you did it. You changed the worlds of so many students. You worked with students who had no hope, no confidence and no investment in their own future. These same students now have goals, and aspirations. Once more, they can write about them and even figure out how to achieve them.

You chose this path perhaps for personal or professional reasons. Maybe both. All of you were challenged. Some left. But if you are a City Year San Jose / Silicon Valley graduate. You stayed.

And here you are, 53 friends who were strangers a year ago.  A corps of 53 change agents. You took a chance to join City Year and change the world. And you did it. Thank you and congratulations.

Beach Pace, Executive Director CYSJ/SV

Thankful Thursday: The CYSJ/SV Alumni Board

This past Monday we came together as a staff and corps for a Thanksgiving dinner right here at the City Year office.   The event was organized and hosted by the City Year San José/Silicon Valley Alumni Board and our current staff.  To summarize: it was amazing.

Corps members line up for dinner

The Cisco Chavez Elementary School team enjoying the meal

Tables were filled with all of the traditional Thanksgiving favorites: sweet potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce, turkey and pumpkin pie.  Having just completed another long day of service at schools, corps members stood crowded near the table, eagerly anticipating the feast that was to come.  The staff members and alums were playing it cool, but I know they were hungry too.  It was almost 7 o’clock.

 

 

“Dig in!” Romel said. And people took him at his word.

But this was not the pushy scene you might see at your typical buffet.  People were laughing, passing plates and sharing.

Overall it was a good opportunity to just hang out, chat and build community the old fashioned way…through eating.  There’s nothing quite like sharing a meal with all of the City Year people here in San Jose.  It really is like a second family.

 

Huge thanks to Program Manager Romel Antoine, the alumni and staff for the delicious meal!

-Amanda Liles, Literacy Project Leader and Social Media Manager CYSJ

Thankful Thursday: Alum Rock Union School District and Goss Elementary Staff

Each week, City Year San José/Silicon Valley will thank a person or organization for inspiring us in our service.  This week we thank Principal Brian Schmaedick, the teachers of Mildred Goss Elementary and the Alum Rock Union Elementary School District.

Last Tuesday marked the end of our third annual City Year Leadership Academy, a program we hosted at Goss Elementary in order to build student excitement for the upcoming school year and provide new corps members with hands-on experience and training.

Principal Brian Schmaedick gives a speech about City Year at Goss during Starry Starry Night 2011.

This program would not have been possible without the help and support of Principal Schmaedick, the Goss faculty and the Alum Rock Union Elementary School District.

These school partners opened their doors early and allowed us to use their classrooms and campus for all of our activities.

Leadership Academy was a major success as we enrolled 234 students from our five partner schools.  During the course of our nine day academy, students received standards based instruction in math and literacy and were taught how to make healthy nutrition choices and become respectful members of our community.

From a training perspective Leadership Academy was a huge accomplishment.

Corps members led all activities and were able to hone their classroom management, tutoring and relationship building skills.  This facilitation, coupled with training workshops from City Year and district staff, prepared corps members to step on campus for the first day of school this week.

All in all Leadership Academy got students, corps members and staff pumped up for this school year.  Thanks to Principal Schmaedick, the teachers of Mildred Goss Elementary and the Alum Rock Union Elementary School District for making it all possible.

Amanda Liles, Literacy Project Leader & Social Media Manager CYSJ

Thankful Thursday: Starry Starry Night Supporters

Corps Member Ali Bueno was joined on stage by her mother Lisa Arellano to share their story.

Last Thursday night, City Year San Jose/Silicon Valley celebrated our service at Starry Starry Night, our annual fundraising gala. We were joined by teachers, administrators, elected officials, sponsors and community members to share in our joy and learn about the impact we are having on the hundreds of students in San Jose we serve everyday.

This was our site’s chance to really share our story.

It was truly inspiring for me to see students performing a school launch on stage in front of a large group of people. I teared up when corps member Ali Bueno and her mother shared their heart wrenching story of overcoming the obstacles of raising a child as a teen mother. I swelled with pride when corps members Christina Johnson, Alyssa Chun and Alejandro Belden did a spoken word performance about their service.

But the celebration wasn’t only about our contributions to the community.

CEO of Applied Materials Mike Splinter with corps members Jeff Arnold and Celina Chun. Splinter was the recipient of the City Year San Jose/Silicon Valley Service Leadership Award.

We also had the pleasure of honoring Mike Splinter, CEO of Applied Materials, for his commitment to serving the Silicon Valley community. Applied Materials is a huge supporter of City Year; this year they are sponsoring a school-based team serving at Lee Mathson Middle School.

Thanks to the incredible support of the more than 360 attendees, we were able to raise more than $160,000 during the Fund-a-Need portion of the dinner which was co-led by City Year Vice President and Regional Director Stephen Spallos and City Year San Jose/Silicon Valley board chair Carl Guardino, President & CEO of Silicon Valley Leadership Group.

Overall, we were able to raise more than $230,000!

We couldn’t have done it without the support of our event sponsors.

If you’d like to see more of this inspiring event, please check out the City Year Flickr.

And if you’d like to donate, visit cityyear.org/donate and designate San Jose/Silicon Valley as the recipient of your gift.

Below is a video that includes interviews from some of our guests.

Thankful Thursday: San Jose Senior Corps

Each week, City Year San Jose/Silicon Valley will thank a person or organization for inspiring us in our service. This week, Recruitment Project Leader and Social Media Manager will thank the City Year San Jose/Silicon Valley senior corps for being an integral part of her journey as a City Year corps member. 

Almost two years ago now, I stepped off a plane from Rochester, NY to San Jose, CA, a place I had never been to in my entire life. It was a really exciting feeling, but it was also pretty scary. I was coming to a place to work with an organization that I still didn’t really know that much about and didn’t know a soul for thousands of miles.

That first night sitting alone in my hotel room, I couldn’t help but think of all of the amazing family and friends I had left behind. I hoped that through City Year, I would make new friends and the feeling of emptiness and loneliness I was experiencing would quickly dissipate.

I couldn’t have hoped for anything better.

Over these past two corps years, I have grown to know and love some pretty incredible people. But the people who have made the biggest impact on me are the folks I have proudly served with this year on the senior corps team.

Most of us served together last year, and came back because we not only knew that we weren’t done serving this community, but because we wanted to be there to help shape the corps experience of those who were filling our boots.

Together, we did our best to support the corps and to support each other. It wasn’t easy. We disagreed with each other, we challenged one another and we had to give each other some pretty difficult feedback.

But as I look back on my experience, the difficulties are what I will really appreciate about the team. We never let ourselves or each other get comfortable in our service. We pushed each other to our challenge zones, but provided as much support as we could.

And through it all, we became family.

Now as I think about going back to the east coast to attend graduate school, I’m sensing that feeling of emptiness creeping back in. My 1,700+ hours a year I spent serving, I didn’t serve alone. I have spent more of my waking hours with this group of people than anyone in my life thus far, and the thought of not being with them anymore is saddening. In fact, its not really something I’ve allowed myself to think much about.

So to the senior corps, thank you for everything. You’ve all taught me so much and have given me so many amazing memories. I’m proud to have served with you.

Megan Baker, Recruitment Project Leader & Social Media Manager CYSJ

Thankful Thursday: Chess House

Each week, City Year San Jose/Silicon Valley will thank a person or organization for inspiring us in our service. This week Team Leader Sam Waller thanks Chess House for a generous donation for his Chess Masters Club.

This is the infamous paper chess board that the Chess Masters Club used for about a year.

During my first corps year, I ran a chess club called Chess Masters for a dozen middle school students. The only problem was, we didn’t have quality boards to play with. Our chessboards were cobbled together from miscellaneous pieces from other chess sets. We did not have a single set that had all its own pieces, and one of them had a board made from a piece of yellow construction paper with squares drawn on in black marker.

Pieces would drop, get stepped on, or roll away never to be found again. By the end of the year, we only had the construction paper board and miscellaneous pieces to use.  It was difficult getting the students to take the game seriously with these haphazard sets. As a Team Leader, I wanted to really provide something that felt real for my students in my second year of service; not something cobbled together.

After some googling, I came upon www.ChessHouse.com, and found the prices to be just right.  The team budget could handle paying out of pocket for four sets of durable, regulation size pieces and vinyl mats.  When the students got a hold of these, they where surprised by the weight and size of the sets.

These weren’t the dollar store variety from last year, these sets where built to be indestructible, and to play for years to come.  The tone these pieces set for the class was distinct, and every student knew that this year, the Chess Masters Club was serious business.

The day after the first lesson, a Chess House representative named Krista contacted me asking if the order came in and if I was satisfied with the product. I told her that it was more than satisfactory, and that I would need to get four more sets to accommodate the 17 students who signed up for the enrichment.

One of the students in Chess Masters contemplates his next move on one of the new chess sets from Chess House.

I also asked her if Chess House would be interested in donating any sets.  Within six hours, she had replied not only saying yes to the donation, but also to tell me that there would be FIVE sets out in the next day’s post courtesy of Raphael Neff, the owner Chess House.

If you are impressed by Chess House’s contribution and commitment to inspiring both the young and the old to develop new interests, skills, and confidence and challenging youth to think and learn, you can visit www.chesshouse.com for more information.

Thank you Chess House for supporting City Year San Jose/Silicon Valley.  These sets will be invaluable for years to come.

Sam Waller, Team Leader CYSJ

Thankful Thursday: Chevron

Chevron has been a huge supporter of City Year San Jose/Silicon Valley’s service to the San Jose community over the years.

Not only have they sponsored three Starry Starry Night events and two graduation ceremonies, they have also sponsored teams of corps members who served the San Jose community on the Civic Engagement Team in 2007 and a team that served George LeyVa Middle School in 2008.

In 2010, Chevron brought the entire corps and staff to Pebble Beach to watch practice rounds of the US Open. Not only did they provide us with tickets to the event, but they provided transportation, breakfast and lunch for everyone.

Corps Member Nick Hedrick was selected to give the corps speech at the 2010 graduation ceremony that was sponsored by Chevron.

Chevron is a Platinum Sponsor of Starry Starry Night 2011. They are a generous sponsor of this year’s event; helping City Year engage the San Jose community in celebrating the diverse young leaders who have dedicated a year to providing 1:1 tutoring in math and literacy and free after school programming for more than 2,500 Alum Rock Students.

If you are impressed by Chevron’s commitment to City Year’s mission of keeping kids in school and on track to graduate, you should check out what else they have done for the community, nation and world at large. Visit www.chevron.com for more information.

Megan Baker, Recruitment Project Leader & Social Media Manager CYSJ

Thankful Thursday: PTA at Majestic Way Elementary School

Each week, City Year San Jose/Silicon Valley will thank a person or organization for inspiring us in our service. This week, we would like to thank the PTA at Majestic Way Elementary School for all of their hard work in helping us make Global Youth Service Day (GYSD) a success.

Global Youth Service Day (GYSD) is literally the largest service event in the world. Since 1988, GYSD has been a celebration of service that mobilizes millions of young people around the world in service.

PTA members stayed late into the night to help us trace monarchs (the school's mascot) at the entrance of the school.

This year, City Year San Jose/Silicon Valley will be serving at Majestic Way Elementary School with about 300 volunteers. Together we will paint murals, brighten up the blacktop, build an outdoor classroom and benches and more.

And it wouldn’t have been possible without the support of the PTA.

From day one, the PTA has been super energetic and excited about bringing City Year onto its campus for a day of service. (It didn’t hurt that their new principal was the former principal of the school where we celebrated GYSD last year).

Here is a rundown of just some of the amazing things the PTA did to support our service at their school:

• Held a cookie dough sale fundraiser that ended up covering the costs of the majority of our supplies
• Reached out to the local community to not only volunteer, but to donate to the project
• Helped us identify what projects the school could benefit from
• Organized sponsorship of picnic tables
• Helped us with the prep work (and stayed at the school until 10 o’clock at night so that we could get lots of work done)

The PTA has been so grateful to us as we gear up for this huge day of service. So before that day comes, we want to recognize all of their hard work and thank them for everything that they did to make this day bigger than we could have imagined.

Not only will Majestic Way get a makeover, but the spirit of volunteerism in the community will really have the opportunity to shine.

Thank you to the Majestic Way community for making this all happen. It’s truly going to be an awesome day of service.

* Be sure to follow @CityYearSanJose for updates on the service day as it happens on Saturday, April 16th.

Megan Baker, Recruitment Project Leader & Social Media Manager CYSJ

Thankful Thursday: Student Edition

Each week, City Year San Jose/Silicon Valley will thank a person or organization for inspiring us in our service. This week, some very special people wanted to thank us.

Throughout this year, many corps members, senior corps members and staff at City Year San José/Silicon Valley have offered many different insights about their service through this blog.

Their words are inspiring and heartfelt, often centering on various efforts to give the students we serve the best year possible. As we roll into spring and the last few months of the year, I gave students the opportunity to share back, giving their insights into what City Year has taught them and why they are thankful to have City Year at their school.

These are the words from students at A.J. Dorsa Elementary School:

“I like how we do Great Leaps [our guided tutoring model]. Great Leaps is the best because it helps my learning and I always get stickers when I do leaps.”
-       Daniel, 5th grade

“City Year helps me read and do Great Leaps to help me succeed in life.”
-       Adrian, 5th grade

“From this year in City Year, I like the new program [Building Responsible Individuals, Developing Great Education] because you get to do more fun stuff in the new program like PE and Buddy Reading.”
-       Alejandra, 2nd grade

“My favorite part in City Year is Jiji [computer-based math program] because we do math and we have fun. I like PE because we are learning about sports.”
-       Nancy, 4th grade

“My favorite thing about City Year is we always improve in our math and we read different stories and tell what it is about.”
-       Bryan, 3rd grade

“Something I learned from City Year is that Mr. J taught us how to do overhand passes and the other thing that he teaches us is chest passes and they make us play a game of knockout.”
-       America, 2nd grade

“Ms. K taught us things and only one thing a day because sometimes I didn’t get the homework and she explained it to the kids.”
- Arnold, 4th grade

Anya Bergman, Corps Member CYSJ

Thankful Thursday: STOMP

Each week, City Year San Jose/Silicon Valley will thank a person or organization for inspiring us in our service. This week, corps member Laura Peters thanks Broadway San Jose Music Village and other members of the community for supporting her STOMP enrichment at Lee Mathson Middle School.

When corps member Nancy Adjei and I began planning a stepping and drumming enrichment for our after school program, we were excited to bring movement and musical concepts to the students we serve at Mathson Middle School.  Little did we know how much further this idea would go!

A few days after the initial seed was planted, I remembered that I had seen the drum and dance performance STOMP advertised as coming to San Jose.  Minutes later, I was on the Broadway San Jose website realizing that the show would be coming to the San Jose Center for the Performing Arts during the final week of our STOMP-themed enrichment!

I immediately called group sales.  I was planning on applying for an Attendance, Behavior, and Course performance Grant and wanted to see if we could get a few tickets at a discounted price.  Joe Noonan, our liaison at Broadway San Jose, posed the question,

“In a perfect world, how many tickets would you receive?”

I thought for a moment.  I didn’t want to sound greedy, but I knew that my students deserved to go to this performance and it would be a great incentive to improve their behavior and attendance.  I told Joe that in a perfect world, we could bring all of the corps members from Mathson as well as approximately 30 students.

Well, it turns out that it is a perfect world!  Broadway San Jose has been able to secure 42 tickets for our corps members and students to attend STOMP this April. Students who are part of our STOMP enrichment and meet specific attendance and behavior criteria will be invited to join the Mathson City Year corps members for the traveling Broadway performance.

Once we had this ticket incentive, we began to focus on our actual enrichment.  On Tuesdays and Thursdays for one hour, approximately 15-20 students meet in the cafeteria to make instruments, learn step routines, and combine their talents in preparation for a final performance.

We couldn’t have put on this enrichment without the help of Music Village in south San Jose who donated 20 pairs of drumsticks worth almost $100 in total.  Our friends on the Civic Engagement Team right here at City Year San Jose allowed us to borrow paint buckets, which our kids will be using as makeshift drums.  Teachers and corps members came together to donate paper towel rolls, beans and cups to be turned into rain sticks and maracas.

The STOMP enrichment has truly been a collaborative effort between City Year and our community.  The students in STOMP are flourishing in their rhythmic abilities, as well as attempting to improve their own behavior and attendance.  The students and corps members at Mathson sincerely appreciate all of the individuals and organizations who have helped to make this experience possible.

Laura Peters, Corps Member CYSJ