Washington, D.C. Trip Presents Monuments, Cherry Blossoms, and One Daunting Challenge

For the eleven 7th- and 8th-graders who represented Urban Promise Academy in Washington, D.C. this spring, the application process was so rigorous that it resembled applying for college. Not only did students need to carry at least a 3.0 grade-point average and write an essay, they also had to secure recommendations from their teachers and go through an interview.

“It was their first experience formally interviewing for something,” says UPA Assistant Principal and trip organizer Dennis Guikema, “and they were awesome. They came very prepared and I found out things I would have never expected. 7th-grader Maria, for example, recited from memory the entire preamble to the Constitution.”

The trip itself was monumental for the kids – and their families. “All the families took a leap of faith,” says Guikema. “This was the first time they’d been separated from their kids for that long and that distance.”

They were also incredibly excited for them, and lived vicariously through the students. “In D.C.,” recalls 8th-grader Alejandra, “my mom called me every five minutes to say, ‘Send me some pictures, I want to see what you’re doing!’”

What they did, thanks to the well-organized Close Up program, was a what’s-what of Washington, D.C.: Visits to the Arlington Cemetery, Vietnam Memorial, Holocaust Museum, Lincoln Memorial, the seasonal cherry blossoms, and more.

“Maybe I wasn’t alive while they fought,” says Alejandra of the soldiers buried in Arlington Cemetery, “but it felt like you lived through their stories and you lived through what they lived through.”

While these experiences made the students feel at home in the nation’s capital, they soon encountered a situation the typical tourist would never face.

Taking part in a mock Congress session, UPA’s exercise involved reviewing the Dream Act and deciding whether or not to amend it. “After we said we believed all immigrants who want to go to college should have the right to gain residence or citizenship,” says Alejandra, “a student from another school stood up and said that all immigrants should go back to their country because they’re stealing our jobs.”

"We were so emotional about that," recalls 7th-grader Jennifer. "One of us was crying.” After briefly venting their frustrations back in the hotel room, the kids calmly planned a measured, mature response.

“We started talking amongst each other about how it was not really fair, how they don’t know us or where we come from,” says Alejandra. “We wondered what we should do, and how we should face it.”

What ensued, says Guikema, “was really powerful. That conversation was so intense,” he recalls. “It was one of the most memorable experiences of my UPA history so far.”

“We talked as a group and told each other how we felt,” says 7th-grader Maria. “We expressed our feelings to each other.”

“We decided we wanted to talk to the coordinator of the program and let them know our experiences,” says Alejandra. “We also wrote letters to Senator John Kerry and we went to his office where we met with his senior aide. We told him that inside and outside the community these things just happen, and we don’t want these things to repeatedly happen.”

“In an unsafe situation, they didn’t act inappropriately in the moment,” Guikema says. “They came together as a group, calling in support and figuring out what to do next.”

“In all my years of working in schools,” says Guikema, “I’ve never seen students have the opportunity to speak to power so directly.”

To drive this point home, Guikema shifts his attention from the Promise reporter to address the D.C. students directly. “You had a chance to present letters to a senior-ranking senator on a really timely policy issue. A group of kids from an Oakland school who historically are marginalized in the political process, you went into the belly of the beast and made your voices heard. I’m so proud of you guys.”

In the heat of the moment, says Guikema, “I was really questioning whether we could do this trip again. But then I realized that the way they handled it just made them that much stronger.”
“You should go again,” asserts Alejandra. “And next year when you select the students, you should tell them this might happen.”

“You can help me interview them if you want!” replies Guikema. “You can explain the right way to handle a challenge like that.”

“[This experience] helped me believe that what I want to do is possible,” reflects Claudia. “[It taught us] how to be leaders, how we can be responsible and represent our school and how other kids can look up to us.”

“I’m going to miss being an UPA Warrior,” says Alejandra, “but you kind of carry that around wherever you go. The experiences you have [at UPA and in places like D.C.], no one can take that away from you and you remember them forever. We learn things you don’t see on TV or in newspapers. When younger kids ask you about D.C., you have stories to share. You have the honor to say, ‘I went there and stood in that spot.’”

"College for All" Campus Tour Tradition Continues

Urban Promise Academy added another inspiring chapter to its College for All program this winter, with 80 8th-graders visiting Cal Poly, UC Santa Barbara, and UC Santa Cruz on a three-day, two-night trip.

The tours and panels offered UPA students a wide-ranging impression of the college experience. At Santa Cruz, they got an inside look at daily student life, seeing dorm rooms and eating in the dining hall. At Santa Barbara, they took an “activist tour,” which covered different movements on the campus throughout its history, and the efforts to build diversity at the university. The kids were surprised, says Johnson, to hear so little talk about coursework. Then at Cal Poly, where most of the panelists discussed academics, the 8th-graders told Johnson, “They don’t even care about race here!”

The kids also picked up on the schools’ quirks: “They thought all the bikes at Santa Barbara were hysterical,” recalls Johnson. “Bikers just have the right-of-way everywhere.”

The kids still laugh about the preponderance of bikes. “My favorite was Santa Barbara,” recalls 8th-grader Susanna. “They have a lot of [extracurricular] clubs and I like that. But the bikes were kind of creepy.”

“A lot of the kids just felt relaxed and free,” says Johnson, “ready to have fun and see everything, just breathing everything in. They were fabulous – no drama, no issues.”

“At first I didn’t think I wanted to go to college because I thought it was too much hard work,” says Susanna. “But during our visits the college students told us it is hard, but at the same time you have fun doing it.”

“I thought they really changed their outlook,” says Johnson, “to be more like ‘Yes, I’m going to college and this is what I’m going to do.’”

“My favorite part was Santa Cruz,” says 8th-grader Denise, “because I want to go there. I don’t want to be too far from home – or too close. They showed me they want to get more diversity on campus. The students there told us, ‘We thought we couldn’t do it but we’re here,’ so I think I can do it too.”

Meet One of Our Teachers: EnCompass Academy's Mario García

During Mario García’s second year as a teacher, he had “one of those moments.”

“I taught this 3rd-grader, Salvador, I remember him to this day,” reflects García. “He started the year with no literacy skills – didn’t even know the alphabet. By June, I had taught him how to read. He was reading entire books, and I’ll never forget how that made me feel.

“I just saw a whole new world open up to him. That’s when I realized: As public school teachers, this kind of moment is our greatest payment. I catch myself saying corny things, but I have to say it: It’s priceless. That breakthrough with Salvador set the tone for the rest of my career.”

Now in his 14th year of teaching in Oakland (and sixth at EnCompass Academy), García has a wealth of inspiring moments to draw on. But his commitment to Oakland students has roots that run deeper than his teaching career. His grandfather was a teacher and administrator in the Bay Area, and his father was a Chicano Studies professor at UC Berkeley (García’s alma mater). His mother recently retired after teaching for 40 years in the Oakland Unified School District, and his brother and sister also teach. “We’re a family of teachers,” says García. “That’s a powerful foundation for me.”

So too was his parents’ dedication to social justice and equity for all of Oakland’s students. “My parents were very driven to make sure I was aware of the issues around equity and civil rights.” Along with other parents, García’s mother and father advocated for one of the Bay Area’s first bilingual preschools, Centro Infantil de la Raza – and García became one of its first students. “It was rooted in celebrating language and culture and giving everyone equal access to curriculum,” he says.

García remained immersed in this equity-minded atmosphere during elementary school at La Escuelita, the only bilingual Oakland elementary school at the time. “Looking back on it, it was just a beautiful experience,” he recalls. “Every student’s identity was very valid and celebrated. As I got older, I realized that was a pretty unique experience, and it’s very much a part of who I am to this day.”

But García was becoming aware that what “seemed so right and normal” to him was not, in fact, the norm. García started teaching largely because he “felt a deep responsibility to make sure the identity of every child is honored, and to never underestimate the power of that. As adults we tend to forget how important it is to be validated in that way at that young age. That’s something I’m very passionate about, coming from the family I come from.”

It’s no surprise that García wound up teaching at EnCompass Academy, an elementary school that embraces the “whole-child” approach he benefited from throughout his own childhood. In fact, the school’s motto perfectly echoes his upbringing: Starts with self, guided by family, engaged in community, rooted in ancestors.

“There’s a real satisfaction I get when I see students’ eyes open up about learning their own history and gaining a deeper understanding of the impact they can have in their own community and in the world.

“When I teach about African-American inventors, the pride I see in my Black students is extremely powerful,” he says. “That knowledge becomes a badge of honor that connects them to something and motivates them. It’s also empowering for my other students to have that knowledge. The key to me is connecting it all. It's an all-encompassing thing of making it relevant.

"As proud as I am of the gains my students have made academically [García's classes routinely show growth on California Standards Tests], deep inside I always want to do more in terms of cultural and historical teaching."

EnCompass is in the heart of East Oakland, where García grew up and still lives. (His house is around the corner from his parents’ first home.) “I’m from Oakland, I’m Latino, I’m bilingual. I understand what they are going through,” he explains. “That’s the power of working in the community where you grew up, and I feel like I’m fulfilling a need here. You know the saying Get in where you fit in — that's exactly what I'm doing. I feel I am right where I should be at this moment in time.”

He also feels this is the time to tackle another critical issue facing East Oakland. “We need to have a powerful focus on bringing the African-American and Latino communities together,” says García. To this end, he and an African-American childhood friend, also a teacher, have developed a project unofficially named “The Black and Brown Connection.” Their hope is to build a curriculum around it and host workshops to bring communities together. “Once we can create those connections,” says García, “so many positive things will flow out of that.”

Always teaching, always reaching, García is clearly extending his family’s legacy of community-building and social-justice education. “I feel strongly that you should inject your passion in what you teach,” he says. “The kids know I care about what I'm teaching them and they know I care about them. My kids are excited when they know Mr. García met Jesse Jackson when he was young, or that I had dinner with Dolores Huerta, or that I attended Cesar Chavez’s funeral. That’s real-life stuff I bring to the students.”

And they don't forget it. Recently, while out buying a Raiders jersey for his son, García bumped into someone he'd taught 10 years ago. "'Mr. García? she said. You were like the greatest teacher in the world!' That felt really good," he says. He also has old students frequently drop by his classroom, and every year he is invited to former students' quinceanera (15th birthday) parties.

When you hear him speak about his commitment to Oakland kids, it’s not hard to picture him teaching here as long as his mother did. “Oakland has a lot of beauty, a rich and beautiful history that not enough people know about,” says García. “I’m going to do whatever I can for these kids. They have just as much potential as anyone. As a teacher, I know that every day, the words I say have such an impact. It’s a pretty powerful burden, but also a profound gift. It’s both, and you have to be careful with it.”

Futures Poet Spreads the Love

Futures Elementary School 5th-grader Charles Mack has a message of love, and he wants to share it far and wide. After his poem, the aptly-titled “Love,” won the America SCORES Bay Area poetry slam, he got that chance. First, Charles recited the poem on ABC7 News, and then took his message on a plane ride – his first – to New York City!

There, 11-year-old Charles brought a little poetic love to an unlikely place: Wall Street. One of just two poets representing Oakland on behalf of the SCORES after-school program, Charles delivered his poem on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, leaving his stanzas’ optimistic imprint on an institution used to numbers, not couplets.

An excerpt:
Love is the feeling that you can’t forget,
and when you find love, you can’t regret.
Love is sweet, love is kind, like sugar and honey, and everything fine…

“When I found out I was going to New York, I was like jumping all over the place,” recalls Charles. “When I told my mom and grandma, they were like, ‘Oh my gosh!’”

“It was really cool to be at [the New York Stock Exchange] reading my poem,” he continues. “People were clapping and making me feel happy. I want to go other places, too, and read my poems.”

“I love to write about love,” Charles tells us, “because when I think about love, it makes me feel good about my family and friends. And I like to rhyme; I think it sounds really good.”

He also felt proud to represent Futures and Oakland so far away from home. “It made me feel good because it felt like, out of everyone at my school, it was me. So I wanted to do well for my school.”

Charles credits his SCORES coaches Arturo and Lauren: “I like the SCORES program because it helped me to start writing poems, and because I like soccer,” says Charles. SCORES’ mission is to “empower students in urban communities using soccer, writing, creative expression, and service-learning.”

Charles enjoys the liberating feeling that comes with writing a poem. “When you express your feelings writing poems, it makes you want to say things that you really don’t say often.”

He’s also an appreciator of other poets: Among his favorites is Snowy White. “When I read his poems,” says Charles, “they rhyme and it makes me feel really good because he talks about nature, and I love to read about nature.”

Headed for middle school next year, Futures’ young poet laureate will be missed, but we hope to keep up with him as continues to hone his craft. In 6th grade he hopes to start writing more about nature himself.

For 1st-Graders, the Future Is Wide Open

As our Bay Area SCORES after-school program suggests, Futures Elementary School prides itself on offering students the widest-ranging education possible, all day and every day: from our regular academic classes to our eclectic after-school program. Another essential piece of this horizon-expanding vision is field trips, particularly in the great outdoors.

In what staff hopes will become an annual tradition, Futures 1st-graders and their families visited San Francisco’s new Crissy Field Center twice this year. Not only were the trips a chance to travel outside Oakland, they also helped kids and parents reflect on the environment and our role in protecting it.

The Center’s program weaves eco-friendly themes throughout its nature hike and other outdoor activities. Kids made a nature book out of recycled materials, and there was a tutorial on sorting recycling and compost. Along the way, 1st-grade teacher Anna Blake heard parents telling their kids, “We need to start recycling more!”

The experiences were also great bonding opportunities for students and their parents. “The trip allowed my daughter and I to spend time together,” reflects Luana Talton, 1st-grader Iyana’s mother. “It was a great learning experience for both of us. I also brought my sons on the trip and we got to enjoy all of the activities as a family.”
1st-graders Aimee, Bernice, Yenny, Jalil, and Nzinga all came back with plenty of memories. “I ate some marshmallows on a stick at our campfire, and we set up a tent,” says Aimee.

“We reported smoking vehicles,” says Jalil, “which is important because that’s bad for the environment. I’m excited to go back so I can see more animals and learn more about nature.”

Not to be underestimated: how the natural world opens up for students on these trips. “Even crossing the Bay Bridge is a huge thing for some kids,” says Blake. “On the bus ride over, I was trying to talk to Jalil, and he said, ‘Sorry, Ms. Blake, but I’m looking at the ocean.’”

Blake hopes the kids will also go back to Rob Hill and Crissy Field with their parents. “A lot of families said they would try to get back there,” notes Blake. The recently opened Rob Hill has the distinction of being San Francisco’s only public campground, and it offers a discounted program for new campers, which includes bus transportation, equipment, and cookware.

In the coming years, Blake hopes Futures can take advantage of this program, with the 3rd, 4th, and 5th grades doing an overnight at Rob Hill.

“If we don’t educate kids about recycling, conservation, and outdoor activities, it’s a missed opportunity,” says Blake. “I know it’s something we can connect to curriculum and establish as a school and educate our students that way. We want to create more of a connection between our students and the outdoors, and this national park is an amazing resource, a powerful educational place where they can learn in a hands-on way.”

“[At Crissy Field] we learned about composting and recycling,” recalls 1st-grader Nzinga. “It’s important because if you know where to put the trash, recycling, and composting, we can have a cleaner environment. I want to learn to save people’s lives.”

The Crissy Field Center is a partnership between the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy, the Presidio Trust, and the National Park Service. To learn more, visit www.crissyfield.org.

Greenleaf Scholars Glimpse the Future During Career Day

The strides made by students like Alexis and Alejandra (in the previous article), combined with Greenleaf Elementary’s rising Academic Performance Index (API) score (777 this year!), reflect the school’s focus on high achievement. Our 1st Annual Career Day gave them a chance to see where their continued hard work might lead, years down the road.

To host the most comprehensive Career Day, Greenleaf staff appealed to people they knew in several fields. Among the presenters were a doctor, a public speaker, a landscape designer, and a firefighter. These professionals rotated to different classrooms so that students were exposed to a range of careers. In Maureen Weiner’s class, 1st-grader Tyreke was brimming with questions for computer game designer and animator Mitchell Weiner, who shared a short animated video he’d created. “I want to make games when I grow up,” Tyreke said after the presentation.

Weiner also brought along a working model of one of the characters, which the class clamored to see up-close. In their follow-up questions, they were piecing together what it takes to wind up in a career like this. “Did you go to college for this?” one student asked.

A key part of Career Day was making connections drawn between the outside world and the classroom. Ms. Weiner helped the kids draw parallels between the model of the character and their work in class, comparing its creation to the clay sculptures they’d recently done in class.
All of the visiting professionals took pains to, as Greenleaf’s flyer urged, “make their job come alive for our students.” Laura Cusak, a chef, demonstrated cutting safe cutting techniques with her collection of cook’s knives. After answering students’ questions about her path to becoming a chef, she left them with a message that echoed across all of the Career Day participants’ presentations:

“If you ask people, and study, and be really open, you can discover your passion and pursue it. And then you’ll be inspired and fulfilled by what you do.”

It's in the Books: Community Groups Committed to Literacy at Greenleaf

From its first days as a school in 2007, Greenleaf Elementary set out to build a culture of literacy and strong English Language Arts (ELA) achievement, and when Outreach Coordinator Rodolfo Perez connected with Judy Zollman and Oakland’s Temple Sinai, he found the perfect community partner to support that effort.

Since Temple Sinai’s People of the Book volunteers began visiting Greenleaf, the school’s library has been transformed: They cleaned the library, retired old and damaged books, and most importantly, replaced them with scores of new books on a range of subjects and reading levels.

In its devotion to supporting not just reading aptitude but a love of books, the organization is careful to connect Greenleaf scholars with suitable texts. “We really want to find books that fit the interest and reading level of the kids,” explains Temple Sinai’s Judy Zollman. “Watching students get excited when they find something that fits them, to see kids so enthusiastic about books – that’s just a wonderful thing to see happen.” To continue the momentum that started in the library, Temple Sinai has staged two book giveaways a year, for three years running.

“Judy Zollman and Temple Sinai have been terrific in organizing [Greenleaf’s] school library and related activities,” says Judy Pam-Bycel, outreach manager for the Jewish Coalition for Literacy (JCL), another key community partner. Completing another piece of the literacy puzzle, JCL has teamed up with Greenleaf to match students with volunteer reading tutors.

In keeping with Greenleaf’s focus on individual student improvement, JCL tutors have been matched with kids needing “that extra boost,” says volunteer Joan Diengott. Along with fellow JCL volunteer Deborah Sosebee, Diengott has been working one-on-one with 3rd-graders in Amy Young’s class.

“They’re great kids,” says Sosebee. “It’s been really rewarding for us and feels very positive. It’s great to see them get excited about reading and improving.”

I was in orange and yellow and when Joan helped me, I went to green because I tried really hard.,” reflects 3rd-grader Alejandra. “I enjoyed it because it was fun.” 3rd-grader Alexis, who worked with Deborah, speaks excitedly of moving from yellow to blue.

Both partnerships have also turned into “wraparound” community efforts. Zollman says Temple Sinai has brought teachers to the temple to educate members on the needs at Greenleaf. As the result of a meeting about student nutrition, Sinai organized a produce drive for the campus. “Our temple is very generous and socially active,” says Zollman. “When we see the needs, we want to fill them.”

For its part, JCL has brought the experience full-circle by relaying the stories of Passover and other Jewish holidays. All of the different connections have established a real foundation, and Diengott and Deborah feel energized after every visit. “The kids are always happy to see us and work with us, and there’s a lot of civic pride and classroom pride here,” reflects Diengott. “I always leave feeling like this was the best part of my week!”