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.
“She’s Feeding Her Cat” – Alpha Parent Center Students Practice Using Possessive Adjectives
By Adrian Parra, Alpha Parent Center Instructor
Learning correct grammer is difficult even in your native language. When learning a new language, it can be challenging, and practice improves learning.
Here is my ESL 1 class (English as a Second Language) practicing dialogue using possessive adjectives. IMG_0173[1]
Possessive adjectives are words used to show a form of possession/ownership, or are used to express a close relationship with someone or something. Commonly used English language possessive adjectives are: my, your, our, its, her, his, their, and whose.
Kyle Halle-Erby at San Francisco International High School Wins New America Fellowship for Span Program – Woot!
By Martha Sessums, President, ACE
The goal of ACE Learning Centers is to support the success of continuing education students in the Bay Area. That success is due to the teachers and administrators who implement each Learning Center’s program and do the work, so this announcement is special.
Kyle Halle-Kerby, Span Program Director at San Francisco International High School (SFIHS), won a New America California Fellowship that, as he says, will “amplify the work I’ve been doing at SFIHS.”
Kyle Halle-Erby, Span Program Manager (stending, right) works with students.
What is Span and how does it work? As part of SFIHS’s Continuing Education Program, Span supports high-risk graduates through their first year of college and/or an early college program while still at SFIHS. These programs provide advocacy, academic counseling, internship programs, and leadership development for SFIHS students and graduates enrolled full-time in college. Span students have unique academic, administrative and cultural challenges as newcomer immigrants, English learners and first-generation college students on a university campus. These students can face significant barriers to college achievement, and Span builds college and career pathways for them.
Span offers ongoing peer-to-peer support as well as group and individual advice with program staff. It promotes college retention, academic success and leadership development. Importantly, Span Fellows (chosen SFIHS graduates attending college) take on leadership roles as mentors to current SFIHS students in a paid program. (Check out previous ACE Spectrum blogs about some of these tutors and mentors.) The leadership training Span Fellows receive is from Halle-Erby and other SFIHS staff, and supports current Span Scholars on their campuses.
What is the New America California Fellowship? The organization, New America, is a non-profit that calls itself a “think tank and civic enterprise committed to renewing American politics, prosperity and purpose in the Digital Age.” Founded in 1999 and based in Washington, D.C., it identifies and nurtures thinkers, researchers, academics, and writers. Through fellowship financial and community support, Fellows can develop and implement their ideas and policies at local, state and international levels. One of the policy areas it supports is Education Policy.
Halle-Erby was chosen because of his work with Span. The stats are that 90 percent of SFIHS students graduate, and 90 percent of its graduates go on to college. Much of that success is because the Span program supports its students in college, and requires Span Fellows to return to SFIHS to mentor upcoming graduates to attend college.
Another innovative program is the Continuing Education program for English learners. This program offers flexible school hours and independent study for students who cannot attend regular school hours because of work requirements. Oakland Unified School Distruct’s support for this program resulted in a larger campus for SFIHS to accommodate its growing student population and education processes. The school will be moving shortly after school’s out May 26.
Halle-Erby will grow his Span program work coordinating internship experiences for students, early college opportunities and a college retention program.
“My goals in the short term are to pull together community partners and stakeholders to develop materials and technical writings to share with other places who are seeking to do similar work with English learners,” he said in an interview with Amaya Garcia, senior researcher in the Education Policy program as New America. “I would also like to do some reflective writing with students and their families to showcase the human story around this work.”
We at ACE congratulate Halle-Erby on his New America California Fellowship, and look forward to working with him and the rest of the team at SFIHS in their support of students in need of continuing education.
Span Biotech Tutor Gives Back to Alma Mater San Francisco International High School
At San Francisco International High School’s ACE Learning Center, it’s recognized that continuing education is linked to job readiness. The Span Tutor and Span Mentor Programs create jobs that build students’ professional skills and make them more employable beyond the SFIHS community. This is part of a series of SFIHS Mentors and Tutors who report on their experiences with the paid program.
By Guest Blogger Marian Frances Baquilar, San Francisco International High School Alumni and Span Tutor
Marian Frances Baquilar, Span Tutor in biotech.
My name is Marian Frances Baquilar and I am from the Philippines. I first immigrated in the United States at the age of 13, in the year 2012. I graduated from San Francisco International High School (SFIHS) last 2016. I am currently enrolled at San Francisco State University as a Pre-Nursing Major.
SFIHS became my bridge to assimilating in the United States– the alma mater that helped me get through the struggles of living in a foreign country. My experiences in SFIHS vary in different ways considering all the extracurricular activities I did in the span of four years, which makes picking the most valuable experience difficult. If I were to weigh every opportunity and experience this high school has given me, however, I would say the most valuable would be my senior year.
My last year in SFIHS was one of the toughest, stressful year I have ever had in my life. However, I consider this experience as the most valuable as it had helped shape me into the person I am today– wiser and stronger. My senior year was indeed stressful but I believe it was only because of all the knowledge I was trying to absorb while planning my future and gaining outside-of-school exposure through internships. My senior year is the most valuable experience to me because it was a collection of emotions, long lasting memories and events to me. I have gained stronger foundations of friendships, wider academic knowledge and a better view of the world ahead of me during my senior year. The challenges that my last year of high school, has also made me more resilient than I was before– it taught me what my limits, potential and capabilities are.
Currently, I am a Biotech Span Tutor at SFIHS, where I tutor/help seniors taking a Bio Technology class in City College of San Francisco. At times, however, I help with filing or minor office works. My interest in science has long started when I was young and hearing about the opportunity to tutor a science related subject in SFIHS made me highly interested.
Thinking through this, I also thought that the job was the perfect opportunity to give back to the alma mater that has helped me get to where I am today. However, of course, every job has its own challenges and I believe the challenge with being a tutor for Biotech students is not knowing some concepts they are learning. I believe that foreign concepts about their class is what challenges me the most because it limits my ability to help them. Which at times, makes me feel guilty. On the other hand, being able to help them with most of their work makes me fulfilled because I feel that I am using the opportunity the school has given me wisely and that I am doing what I was hired for.