Nearly 100 students applied to be a part of the PSP Class of 2023. The students went through a rigorous selection process; they submitted applications, went through an interview stage and eight students were selected to be a part of the PSP Class of 2023 in Lennox.

On Thursday, January 18, 2018 we celebrated our new Lennox scholars with an induction ceremony at Lennox Middle School (LMS). We had PSP Board members, school administrators and community leaders in attendance. We were also joined by current PSP scholars and PSP alumni.

Read more about our celebration and see photos from the event below!

Our guests were welcomed to the LMS library by the school principal, Ms. Lisette Pichardo. She spoke about the unique program that is PSP and she congratulated the eight scholars for their accomplishments thus far. We are lucky that the LMS administration is supportive of PSP and that Ms. Pichardo took time from her schedule to celebrate with us!

Our PSP Board secretary, Ms. Gretchen Ondrozeck spoke about the PSP mission and vision. She described her time as a mentor and the goals or PSP as a board member. It was inspiring to hear her speak about a the program as its so dear to her heart.

We also heard from PSP Class of 2012 alumna, Melissa Rocha. Ms. Rocha is a graduate from the University of California, Santa Cruz and is currently enrolled at California State University, Los Angeles earning her Master’s degree in Communicative Disorders with an emphasis in Speech Language Pathology. She reflected on her time with PSP and gave our new and current scholars some advice including, suggesting new places to explore with their mentors and taking photos to be able to look back at their time with PSP in the future.

We were joined by sponsors and community partners like Ms. Chaitali Gala from the Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation. Ms. Gala spoke more about the LA Dodgers Foundation’s commitment to bettering the community and working with innovative organizations such as PSP! She even brought our scholars Dodgers hats as presents and they were so excited.

We had our guest participate in offering advice to the new scholars. Mentors, current and former scholars all gave scholars and their families advice for the exciting six years to come.

Overall, our induction ceremony was a celebration of these eight young scholars and their success so far. We are thrilled to have such a great community supporting PSP and the work that we do. We know that this is just the beginning for this class of students and in six year we’ll celebrate again at their graduation ceremony!

Next month we’ll be presenting our El Monte scholars that will join the PSP class of 2023.

The Lennox PSP Class of 2023 with scholars, alumni, mentors and PSP Board members.