What's New
- 2010
- Aprender y Crecer launches web site
This year marks the fourth anniversary of the Aprender y Crecer (Learning & Growing) program. A new web site (www.aprenderycrecer.org) was recently launched to offer more information about the program.
Presented in Spanish and English, site visitors can learn how the program began, where it operates, and stay updated on recent events through our News and Events page. The site also features a portal of activities for teachers at schools participating in the Aprender y Crecer program. The portal allows teachers to share ideas for using the materials donated by the program to create innovative learning activities.
At a cost of $50 per student per year, Aprender y Crecer donates a package of school supplies to each student at selected public schools in Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama. Each teacher also receives a package of materials for use in the classroom and each school receives an assortment of cleaning and paper products. In exchange for the donation participating schools commit to utilizing the supplies to improve five key areas: student engagement, parent participation, teacher collaboration and innovation, school leadership, and school cleanliness and safety.
Aprender y Crecer began in 2006 with 6 schools in Costa Rica, comprising around 2,200 students. In 2010 the program will operate in 6 countries at 55 schools, serving over 27,000 students and 1,100 teachers. For more information please visit our web site www.aprenderycrecer.org
- Fundraising campaign raises $435,984 for Aprender y Crecer
The "Juntos Por La Educación" (Together for Education) fundraising campaign brought in just under $250,000 in donations from members of PriceSmart shopping clubs for the Aprender y Crecer (Learning & Growing) program. With matching donation from Price Charities, the total amount contributed to the program is $435,984.
Similar to the annual fundraising campaign Costco operates to benefit Children's Hospital, PriceSmart members in Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama made donations at the cash registers during the 8-week campaign.
At a cost of $50 per student per year, Aprender y Crecer donates a package of school supplies to each student at selected public schools in Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama. Each teacher also receives a package of materials for use in the classroom and each school receives an assortment of cleaning and paper products. In exchange for the donation participating schools commit to utilizing the supplies to improve five key areas: student engagement, parent participation, teacher collaboration and innovation, school leadership, and school cleanliness and safety.
Aprender y Crecer began in 2006 with 6 schools in Costa Rica, comprising around 2,200 students. In 2010 the program will operate in 6 countries at 55 schools, serving over 27,000 students and 1,100 teachers. For more information please visit our web site www.aprenderycrecer.org or contact Jennifer Barron at jbarron@pricecharities.org.
- 2009
- Immigrants grow piece of home in garden plots
After three years, community effort takes root
By Leslie Berestein
Union-Tribune Staff Writer
2:00 a.m. September 10, 2009
Garrett Low, who recently graduated from high school in Carlsbad and will attend UC Davis this fall, is a volunteer at the New Roots Community Farm in City Heights. Immigrants and refugees from many countries tend plots there.
(Sean M. Haffey / Union-Tribune)
SAN DIEGO - On a city-owned lot in San Diego's Chollas Creek neighborhood, urban farmers from around the world are re-connecting with the agrarian roots they left behind.Yesterday afternoon, Lucia Lokoyen tended to her small plot of chard, spinach, kale, amaranth, tomatoes and onions on one of the 80 plots making up the recently opened New Roots Community Farm. It felt good to have her hands in the soil, said Lokoyen, a lifelong farmer who arrived from from Uganda 10 months ago.
"I'm so happy here," said Lokoyen, 33, who lives with her family in a City Heights apartment. "I come here and see all these greens, and I feel like I'm home."
It took about three years for the farm to take root in this community
where several modest neighborhoods converge at 54th Street. The farm
is a project of the International Rescue Committee, an international
organization that provides assistance, including relocation aid, to
refugees fleeing violent conflict. The process began when the committee was trying to address nutrition needs among recent refugees from Somalia, said Ellee Igoe, an official with the organization in San Diego. Former farmers who grew only enough for their families were navigating modern grocery stores, where they didn't recognize much of the produce. Payment methods only added to the mystery.
"Imagine coming to the United States for the first time, and you're a subsistence farmer," Igoe said. "You walk into a grocery store and you have to learn how to shop. It's a whole different foodscape."
The committee gathered comments from Somali Bantu refugees, members of a minority, largely agrarian ethnic group. Suggestions also were solicited from Asian and Latino members of City Heights' polyglot mix of residents.
The arduous permitting process took about two years and included biological studies mandated because the vacant 2.3-acre parcel sits next to a creek.
Igoe estimates the farm has cost about $120,000 to set up. It was paid for with a combination of private and public funding, she said. A grand opening ceremony is scheduled for this afternoon.
After ground was broken on the farm last fall, farmers from Somalia, Uganda, Kenya, Cambodia, Vietnam, Myanmar, Mexico and Guatemala began preparing the soil. Planting began in June. Starting mostly from seeds, they planted corn, tomatoes, basil, squash, chiles and other crops.
The bounty is a testament to the community farm's international nature. Lemongrass and basil, planted by farmers from Southeast Asia, grows next to amaranth and kunde , an edible green, planted by farmers from Somalia. Corn, popular around the world, grows throughout the farm.
The plot farmed by Bilali Muya, a Bantu refugee who also serves as the committee's farm educator, is surrounded by plots farmed by immigrants from Cambodia, Guatemala and Mexico. Muya has learned that in Spanish, the corn he grows is called maiz , the sunflowers girasoles .
"It brings people together," said Muya, who has been in the United States five years and, born without a birth certificate, estimates he is in his mid-20s. "We learn a lot from each other."
Union-Tribune
Leslie Berestein: (619) 542-4579 - Hoover High School Choir and Advanced Band go on Annual Spring Trip to Universal Studios in Hollywood
As reported by the music coach, Brian Cameron at Hoover High School, the Hoover Choir and Advanced Band went on its annual spring trip to Universal Studios in Hollywood. We performed at nearby Burbank High School in the morning before spending the day having fun at the park, and we are happy to announce the results.
This performance was a competitive festival just like our earlier one and the rating system was the same (lowest to highest: poor, fair, good, excellent and superior). The Choir received a rating of "Excellent" and the Advanced Band kept their rating the same as the previous competitive performance, which was a unanimous "Superior". In addition, the company that puts on the competition gives out an award at each festival called the "Espirit de Corps" award, which is given to a school (whether or not they had one group or multiple groups) that displayed the best teamwork, professionalism, character, and "intangibles" outside of the musical performance. The recipient of this award is decided on by the company's coordinator, the host school's director, student volunteers, parent volunteers, and the competition judges. We won that, too.
This festival concluded the Music Department's competitive season for 2009, and we could not be happier for the honors our students achieved. Hoover is on its way to becoming one of San Diego County's premier music programs.