ACE Spectrum
ACE Spectrum
Ace Spectrum is about you — the ACE Learning Centers.
It’s a quick sharing of ideas, inspiration, opinions and best practices among our continuing education organizations.
Please join the conversation.
Alpha Parent Center Students Study Hard To Be An Example To Their Kids
By Martha Sessums, President, ACE
You think your day is long and hard? Try working two jobs to support your family, then attending school to learn English for several hours, four days a week.
That scenario is pretty normal for many of the Alpha Parent Center students at Cindy Avitia High School in San Jose. This ACE Learning Center provides parents of Alpha middle and high school students the space and resources needed to build a community of families, a place to access stability services, and opportunities to grow and become leaders. Classes include English proficiency for Latino and Vietnamese parents, technology skills and leadership programs.
Success is hard work. According to Karen Martinez, Alpha Parent Center Manager, in the year and one-half of operation there are five parents who are ready to earn their high school diploma, and all families have completed their final project, which is a one-page essay describing the most important day in their life. Beginner students are learning English fast and understand spoken conversations. In addition, many of the parents can type and browse the web on the computer.
Maria Martinez shows off her Family Tree project.
“All our Alpha Parent student’s are star students,” said Karen Martinez. “One of them is Maria Martinez. Maria works two jobs, as many of our parents do to make ends meet. Maria comes to class from a long day at times hungry and tired. Nevertheless, Maria still arrives with an open mind, ready to learn English and how to use computers. Maria does all of this to better the future of her family, but most of all to be an example to her kids.”
Access to much of the services and information in Silicon Valley is through computers, so teaching computer skills will be a focus, according to Sergio Carreon, Parent Center Instructor.
“Our next project will be on done only on the computer,” Carreon said. “We are also going to learn skills such as Google Drive to understand cloud storage and file backup. But it’s not all about computers. We want to start peer-to-peer learning where advance students work with beginners, and instill the belief that all students can go to college – even our parents.”
Karen Martinez has big dreams for Parent Center support. “I want to offer extra Saturday computer classes and bus our families to colleges surrounding our area,” she said. “Also, I would love to offer classes in Zumba, path to citizenship and preparing for interviews, while offering services in taxes, legal assistance, resume preparation, counseling and a work clothing exchange program.”
There are challenges at Alpha Parent Center, including the need for more class space and meeting the costs of childcare during parent classes. Also, many students don’t have a computer or access to the Internet at home, which can slow down learning computer skills and delay completing homework or that special project.
But the parent students at Alpha Parent Center are dedicated to working hard because they want to be an example to their children.
“My experience at Alpha has been fantastic,” said Maria Martinez. “I enjoy going to school everyday. My teacher, Mr. Carreon, gives me the confidence and tools to learn English. I started to study English in August 2015, and I have seen how far my classmates and I have improved. My hope is my new skills will help me to get one good paying job, verses the two jobs I currently have to support my family. Without this opportunity, I would not be able to reach my goals as a mother.”
The next time I want to complain about doing my French homework, I’ll take inspiration from Maria. Allez! (Let’s go!)
ACE Learning Centers Grow With New Students, Classes and Support Services
By Martha Sessums, President, ACE
In this new year of 2016, the support systems for students in ACE Learning Centers is expanding and growing – for both high school students and their parents.
Two of the ACE Learning Centers are located at International High Schools. The ACE Learning Center’s goals are to not only to help immigrant and low-income students graduate from high school and enter college, but to help their parents in the journey to learn English and succeed in their lives in the Bay Area. New services have been added to increase support for students and families to meet today’s challenges, along with classes that have been identified as needed to assist student success.
San Francisco International High School
Finding the way through the complexities of financing college is hard. To improve understanding of the system, SFIHS will offer Financial Aid Nights at the end of the month for alumni. Experts on submitting a free application for Federal Student Aid and the Dream Act will be on campus to help recent graduates fill out their financial aid forms.
It’s about numbers and getting them right, so 5th Year Prevention is adding numeracy classes to its roster of literacy classes. In this course, students with interrupted formal education will gain the numeracy skills they need to be successful in pre-college level mathematics courses.
The Span Scholars attending City College of San Francisco are continuing their partnerships with Latino Services Network, Tulay and the Asian Pacific American Student Success programs. Through these partnerships, the Span Scholars will develop key relationships with upper classmen on campus to improve their success and retention in college.
Oakland International High School
The parent class continues to grow and thrive in its new location at the front of the school. The relocation makes it easier for parents to find and join the class, and has also created a hub for Refugee Transitions to hold more volunteer trainings for their home-based tutoring program, which is popular with OIHS students.
SB-725 takes effect in January, which grants diplomas to students in previous classes who did not pass the CAHSEE exam. The passage of this bill affects almost 100 Oakland International alumni scattered around the world who now have an opportunity to get their official high school diplomas.
Many of these students did not have the opportunity to participate in the 5th Year continuing education program because of pressures to work or because they finished high school prior to the establishment of the on-campus ACE Learning Center. OIHS hopes to host its newly minted graduates at an official graduation ceremony later this year.
The population of unaccompanied minors at OIHS and throughout the Oakland district continues to grow. November saw the largest increase in the number of Unaccompanied Alien Children crossing the border in the past two years. OIHS has been full since September, but continues to hold a few spaces open for newly arrived refugee students. They receive services and language support at the ACE Learning Center that are unavailable at other schools.
“Our Syrian population is growing and we are expecting more refugees to arrive soon from Afghanistan as well,” said Sailaja Suresh, Principal at OIHS.
ACE Learning Centers aside, if you’re a sports fan, OIHS just opened its new soccer field. It took nine years and many setbacks, but the school finally has its own turf field and outdoor basketball court for students to enjoy.
“Our five soccer teams are out there daily for practice after school, and students couldn’t be happier about finally having a field of their own,” said Suresh. “For years, we’ve shared space at a school down the street, or played on the asphalt at our school, resulting in cuts and bruises. We even tried the local park; often playing in mud and having to navigate official permit regulations that are not designed to support 100 students playing at the park at one time. We are so thrilled to finally have a space of our own for our teams to grow and thrive.”
The ACE Learning Centers were established at these schools two (SFIHS) or three (OIHS) years ago, and the educators who run them have discovered that success in preparing students and their families for living, learning and thriving in the Bay Area isn’t just about learning English and computer skills. The Centers have evolved to include support services that help navigate the system, find supportive counselors and build networks, and gain knowledge in topics beyond language. Plus, it’s nice to be able to hit a ball on your own field.
Stay tuned for more New Year updates from other ACE Learning Centers.
Audio Academy Up! Here’s the KALW Crosscurrents Best Stories List of 2015
By Guest Blogger Ben Trefny, News Director, KALW Public Radio and Tammy Drummond, Audio Academy ‘16
KALW is temporarily moving, so the station has looked a lot different over the last week.
The KALW news team is on vacation, now, excepting coverage of breaking news. We’ve closed the door on another year, literally leaving nothing but the bare walls. KALW is temporarily moving down the hill from our current offices as our building is renovated, and the last week was largely spent boxing up our gear and preparing for a clean start in 2016.
As one of our last acts of 2015, our staff compiled a list of our best stories of the year. Here’s a link, in case you have the chance to listen.
What’s remarkable, and noteworthy for this blog, is that more than half of the pieces were reported by people who took part in KALW’s Audio Academy, many of whom produced them during their time within the nine-month program. The stories provide a broad and deep look at life throughout the Bay Area, giving perspectives on economic disparities, underserved populations, cultural differences, and ways to improve our society. Here are the Audio Academy stories that made the list:
Competitive South Bay Real Estate Market Pits International Chinese Buyers Against Locals – Liz Mak (’14)
NUMMI, five years later: Inside Tesla – Angela Johnston (’14)
Band of volunteers keeps an eye on SF bond projects – Raja Shah (’15)
Audiograph: The East Bay’s own “fight club” – Liza Veale (’15)
How one Bay Area school district makes sure teachers aren’t priced out – Angela Johnston (’14)
The real history behind Mary Ellen Pleasant, San Francisco’s “voodoo queen” – Olivia Cueva (’15) and Liza Veale (’15)
Periods are a monthly crisis for homeless women – Liz Pfeffer (’14)
Life after the fire on 22nd and Mission – Hannah Kingsley-Ma (’15)
So what’s coming up in 2016?
At the beginning of January, KALW will launch its podcast page, creating a landing for our on-demand content and promoting it for new audiences. It will be a home for several products generated through our department, including three produced by Audio Academy graduates. Sights & Sounds of the Bay Area is made by Jen Chien, Ted Muldoon (’15), and Chris Hambrick (’15). The Bridge is a weekly package of thematic KALW news content that will be curated and hosted by Raja Shah (’15). And David Boyer (’14) is launching a limited series The Intersection looking in-depth at the corner of Golden Gate and Leavenworth.
The original work by the current Audio Academy will start rolling out in early 2016 with their first work on place and people profiles. It will be followed by a series the class reports about public safety in the Bay Area. And there is plenty more to come, now that their basic training is pretty much complete. Really looking forward to it.
On behalf of everybody here at KALW, I want to wish you all a very happy start to your winter and the new year! And I’ll leave final thoughts for this year to Academy member Tammy Drummond, who shared this about her experience so far:
By Tammy Drummond, Audio Academy ‘16
I had been experimenting with audio for a while and was really itching for
Tammy Drummond, Audio Academy ’16
an opportunity to take my very rough amateur skills to a professional level. The Audio Academy is a one-stop shop where I get to learn radio from story pitch/conception through the editing and sound mixing processes and on to production. I’ve already learned so much about the many elements that go into producing a radio show. On alternate weeks, I am responsible for fact-checking the show script. That has helped familiarize me with the writing style for radio, which is very different from what I know as a longtime print journalist.
I have really appreciated the seminars we’ve had so far. KALW’s editors have obviously put a lot of thought and care into the instruction. So far, we’ve had sessions on how to properly use a microphone to record good sound, interviewing techniques, how to write for the ear, and creating a story outline. I just had my first story pitch accepted and am very excited about working with my mentor, Audrey Dilling. She brings such creativity and enthusiasm to her reporting and has been teaching me how to incorporate music into my pieces. One of my main goals while I am at Audio Academy is to become reasonably proficient at Pro Tools. I am looking forward to working with the sound engineers who have so far been very supportive, to develop those editing skills. I know under the mentorship of such creative and caring folks, by the time I leave here, I will be one bad radio producer!