August 22, 2017 in Articles
On August 4-6 rising 70 high school juniors and seniors and 13 mentors and staff joined us for three action packed days at UCLA! The PSP staff created workshops and lectures to help the scholars learn about the college application and financial aid process. Scholars even got to experience one of the UCLA housing facilities and dining halls for the weekend!
Read our full post for more details, pictures and videos from the retreat!
April 20, 2017 in Alumni, Board
We are excited to welcome three new board members to our Partnership Scholars Program community: Brian Ishida, Sara Potter, and Walter Garcia. Brian has a background in finance and joins the Board hoping to provide advice and guidance on the financial health of the organization. Sara and Walter are the first of PSP’s alumni to join the Board of Trustees and both look forward to being able to give back to the organization. PSP is excited about this addition to our leadership and vision as we continue to advance our mission of providing academic and cultural enrichment to help our scholars succeed!
Sara Potter
Sara Potter is one of two PSP alumni to join the Board of Trustees. Sara brings with her a passionate desire to give back to the organization that gave her so much when she was in middle and high school. Sara is a Partnership Scholars Program class of 2006 alumni with her BA in Art History & Sociology from UC Santa Barbara and her MA in Education with an emphasis in Student Affairs from UCLA. She now works as a Financial Wellness Coordinator at UCLA, guiding students in financing their education. Since graduating over 10 years ago, Sara has maintained a close relationship with her mentor and is excited to now be part of the organization’s leadership.
This is Sara’s first time serving on a nonprofit board, but she has had experience serving on several committees, including the UC-wide Food Security Committee, on which she worked to promote food security for students who struggle. She also served on the UCLA First Generation College Student Committee, which supports students at UCLA who are first in their family to attend college.
March 21, 2017 in Articles
Over 20 years ago, Lennox Middle School (LMS) was engaged in a partnership with UCLA and the Howard Hughes Corporation. Though this partnership, Dr. Glenn Langer, Head of Cardiology at the UCLA Medical School, started volunteering at Lennox School District. He was impressed by the bright, motivated students at LMS and almost equally astonished to find out that a number of those students had not been out of that 1.3 square mile community. Dr. Langer noted that “progression of a student through high school to graduation was problematic; entry to a four-year college, a rarity. Many of the students had never travelled outside the district in their lives!” After all, the ocean is only a couple of miles away, yet many students had never seen it. “This Depression kid immediately identified with these twelve- to thirteen-year-olds,” said Dr. Langer.
Using the LMS-UCLA-Howard Hughes partnership as a springboard, Dr. Langer came to the principal and vice principal of LMS and pitched an idea for a scholarship program to assist students who showed academic promise. The partnership had the following goal: That motivated but economically and culturally disadvantaged students are not limited by their environment but are assured of progressing to a level determined only by their own considerable talents to the end that they will be competitive for entry into four-year colleges with scholarship aid. “That first year, we interviewed about 75 kids and out of those, picked seven to be in the program,” says Meg Sanchez, then LMS assistant-principal and current PSP Board Chair. “Once those kids finished at LMS, those students were sent to a private high school in Playa del Ray in order to keep them on track, in lieu of keeping them with mentors through high school.” Proving far too costly, the private school component was done away with and replaced with mentorship through high school.
January 24, 2017 in Articles
One of Partnership Scholars Program’s newest mentors, Jesus Herrera, is not new to mentorship or to PSP. Jesus first became a part of PSP when he was inducted as a new 7th grade scholar at Lennox Middle School in 2004. Jesus remembers having a positive experience with the program as a student, saying he truly benefited from the many experiences PSP afforded him that he would not have had otherwise. Ten years later, while leading a tour for PSP scholars of his now alma mater USC, Jesus was urged by current Board Chair and mentor, Meg Sanchez, to come back to the program and mentor.
After a little over a year mentoring with PSP, Jesus finds he is reaping the benefits of being a mentor, bonding with his scholars. “I try to choose places that I haven’t been, that way both they and I get to learn and experience new things,” says Jesus. “For two of my scholars, they are older brothers. They haven’t said straight out, but it’s kind of like they see me more than just a mentor, but like an older brother or a father figure.”
All three are all in 10th grade, and he describes them as very energetic teenagers who pose the usual challenges. “For the most part they have the same school schedule, but they have different outside-of-school commitments,” says Jesus. “Communication issues are something a challenge; we’ve made some progress there. I’ve figured out times that work best and I’ve learned that it’s okay that at times only two of them can make it – or one.”
Jesus has set some goals for himself, as well as for his scholars.
