NEW VILLAGENews

SUMMER 2015

Letter from the Principal

When students enter New Village, almost the first thing we ask is, “What are you interested in?”

Basing student activities around identified areas of interest is one of the cornerstones of our program at New Village. We recognize that some of the most powerful learning occurs when a student, or any of us, is paired with an expert passionate about the same area of interest. This assump-tion – along with the idea that guided, hands-on support in a work setting will facilitate strong career readiness skills – has led us to implement an interest-based internship program.

The internship program at New Village Girls Academy partners students with professional mentors in a variety of fields twice a week. Whenever possible, our internships are tied to interest-based, semes-ter long student projects. In this way, students enhance their ability to respond to an essential ques-tion through experiential learning. Additionally, our internships provide a real world opportunity for students to practice the career readiness skills taught at school. Students work in animal shelters, elementary schools, offices, parks, artist studios, hospices, and even in motorcycle service bays. Some of the most meaningful stories and profound learning originate in internships and the conversations that occur around internships back at school.

Our internships program allows students to explore their interests and develop their personal and professional goals while developing resume-building experience and critical career skills.

A look at New Village Graduates:

• Twenty five graduates• Thirteen applied and

were accepted into 4 year colleges

• Over summer our graduates will make their final decisions about enrolling in 4-year and community colleges. Many will elect to attend 2-year colleges.

Graduating seniors will attend:• California State University Bakersfield• California State University Dominguez Hills• California State University Los Angeles• California State University Northridge• University of California Los Angeles• Howard University

Graduation 2015 SpotlightLike everything we do at New Village Girls Academy (NVGA), graduation was about the students. The evening began with a spot-light on Jada, a graduating senior heading for Howard University. Twenty-five students beamed as their former principal, Javier Guzman, delivered individual messages to each graduate in front of a packed auditori-um of families and friends.

Eight of our graduates spoke, two sang, and all celebrated their varied and impressive paths toward this moment – their high school graduation. Despite what statistics say about the likelihood that students like ours will successfully

complete their education, our students are demonstrating over and over that they are capable of

completing the requirements for high school graduation and admission to four-year colleges.

Walking the stage symbolizes our students turning away from their own and other’s doubts about what they can do. More than just a ceremony, the New Village graduation is an earned triumph. Our 2015 graduation was the embodiment of that spirit!

Partnerships and Internships, A Student Perspective

At New Village, students are asked, “What are you interested in?” Once that question is answered, the next step is finding an internship that helps facilitate the interest. Julia, a fifteen-year-old with a record, is at New Village because of a middle-school friend. “She told me about a school that was different, but she has trou-ble with truancy so she isn’t here right now.” Julia used to have trouble with rules also. She’s been to juvenile camp, lived and gone to school at a group home, hung out with “people going nowhere”. A lot has changed since last November when Julia arrived at

New Village, including her ideas about meditation. “I thought it was weird, watching all of my classmates meditate; I didn’t get it. But, the more I watched, the more I became interested in the TM program.” TM or Transcendental Meditation was introduced to New Village in 2010 in partnership with

The David Lynch Foundation. The program involves two 15-minute Quiet Time sessions per day during which students practice TM or simply rest and recharge. Benefits from such pro-grams include lower levels of stress, depression, insomnia and anxiety, and improved focus and energy. Julia cred-its TM for reduced stress, increased motivation for school and life, and better social skills. These positive changes helped Julia shadow the TM coordinator, Donielle, for a day, then gain an internship with the foundation.

Twice a week, Julia takes the bus to her internship, where she gains myr-iad of skills. “I can answer the phone professionally now. I was interviewed by BuzzFeed and felt confident, explaining how meditation has helped me.” Additionally, Julia is given time to meditate and think about the world as a whole. “My mentor, Jesse, used to be an English teacher, so he’s real-ly good at asking me critical thinking questions about my interests. He brought me this sheet with differ-ent topics and it made me realize I’m interested in how developing countries function.” Julia is motivated. Her probation recently ended and she attributes her positive attitude to meditation. “I don’t want to waste my time with old friends or just watching TV all day. I’m motivated to complete my school work, and go out and do things in the world.”

By Megan Freeman

I’m motivated to complete my

school work, and go out

and do things in the world.

When I first visited New Village a little over two years ago, I was struck by its sense of warmth and comfort – so unlike the drab, impersonal atmosphere found in many high schools. New Village felt like a place that actually wanted to be different. Implicit in its warmth and comfort were the sense of safety, care and security that are ever-present on campus. It is no wonder that New Village consis-tently works miracles, providing the critical support its non-tradi-tional student body needs.

Julia embodies the success of New Village and wears her trans-formation well. Seeing her glowing smile, thoughtful tone, and savvy sense of humor, you’d never guess that just last year she was struggling to stay in school, sober, and out of juvenile camp. As I wrote in a recent letter of recommendation for her:

Julia is facing the challenges of her past with integrity, re-sponsibility and honesty, and it is my opinion that the difficul-ties of the past have brought her wisdom for today. She has outstanding character, and we all cannot wait to see how she directs her talents in the future.

On Julia’s first day of her internship at the David Lynch Foundation, she told me she had never been outside of Los Angeles. Now, after learning about the Foundation’s global reach, she aspires to tackle big, global issues like clean water and global warming. It has been inspiring to see her passion for wanting to help communities that really need it. She is just beginning to chart her course in life, and I have no doubt that she will accomplish whatever she puts her mind to.

A Mentor PerspectiveBy Jesse Thompson

Young Professional Women’s Panel DayAt New Village, we constantly urge our students to “Reimagine What is Possible”. What better way to do that than to introduce exciting reality to the imagination!

On February 5, 2015, New Village welcomed 19 local professionals for our first “Connectors” career panel, designed to inspire and inform students as they consider internships and next steps after New Village. The panelists represented a myriad of careers, including television net-

work executives, the head of Human Resources for a prominent Los Angeles based spa, an LAPD police captain, a dance company owner, a geologist, a comic book writer, a landscaper, an astrophysicist, an actress. Many other professions were represented as well. The women discussed their journeys to success and offered honest, practical advice about work, life, school, and more.

Panel members fielded questions from students on topics ranging

from job-hunting logistics to gender issues and work-life balance. Students then rotated among small-group sessions to discuss their interests and aspirations with panelists in a more intimate setting. Our New Village girls discovered new passion and interests, and learned the steps needed to reach a goal, with in-ternship possibilities playing a major role. Imaginations and possibilities were ignited.

“Connectors” was a hit, and we hope to make it a regular program. We are grateful to all our wonderful panelists and encourage anyone interested in participating in a future event to contact Megan Freeman at meganfreeman84@gmail.com.

By Anna Gumport

Internships2014-2015

This year, New Village students interned at a wide variety of businesses, non-profits and specialized organizations. Listed below are the participating partnerships:

Hollywood Sunset Free ClinicEnrichLABet Tzedek Legal ServicesLA Public Library - Little Tokyo branchUntitled Animal Rights ProjectUntitled Counseling and Rehab ProjectHarley Davidson of GlendaleDavid Lynch FoundationRonald McDonald House CharityThe Audubon Center at Debs ParkAids Project Los AngelesGabriella Charter ElementaryLA Gay and Lesbian CenterHollywood PresbyterianSt. Anne’s KitchenAgent Icon ShowroomMy Dog is My RockIDEPSCA - Instituto de Educacion Popular del Sur de CaliforniaPeace Over ViolenceGrace HospiceReading PartnersLA DogworksNarrator ProductionsThe Bluegrass SituationUntitled Jesus Chaidez Art ProjectLo Mejor Del TrigoOrigami VinylVan Nuys Self-Help Center

The New Village family expanded and came together, once again, to create a network of support for our amazing graduates! We cast a net far and wide into our communities for dedicated, successful, and resourceful women who could motivate our seniors to fol-low their academic and career paths. We had a great turnout for our Mentor Meet Up at New Village. Although the gather-ing was held on Friday February the 13th, there was nothing scary about how much encourage-ment and compassion the mentors brought with them!

Our Principal, Andrea Purcell, gave the men-tors a wonderful history of our school and talked openly about the young women we serve and the many activities they participate in – including internships and service learning. Mentees and mentors both engaged in a rapid series of round robin interviews until many potential match-es occurred. You might call it mentor, mentee speed dating! After the in-terviews, students were encouraged to approach the mentors with whom they felt the most comfortable and ask about partnering. We know that first-time college attendees do better when there is someone to help them meet and master the many new challenges and demands of first-year on a big campus.

One of the mentors, Maria Castellon, is currently the Director of Product

Management at Del Records. Del Records manages some of the strongest regional Mexican bands and artists in Los Angeles, including Luis Coronel.

Maria was invited to participate by a New Village Board member, and she was very enthusiastic about her mentee. When asked why she wanted to be a mentor, she simply stated, “ I feel it

is an honor and a privi-lege to guide the future generation of powerful women.”

As a Latina who attended Jefferson High School in South Central Los Angeles, Maria knows first hand how dif-ficult it is to transition to college. Maria attended the University of Santa

Barbara and graduated with a degree in film. When she was a first generation college student, she learned many les-sons that she hopes to share with her new mentee Aylin, a New Village senior who will be attending CSUN in the fall and majoring in Media Production. We are planning to have all mentors and mentees meet at least twice before they begin college or their career path, and at least until December. Mentors will work with graduating seniors to help develop post secondary plans for college and career. It is our hope that these mentorships will continue to grow long after the summer is over. We are also very grateful to Laurie Owyang, who played a major role in pulling the mentor program together.

Moving Forward: Mentors at New Village

By Melva Alvarez New Village Students Attend College

Every month New Village holds a Wellness Day centered around a particular area of interest or topic. On April 22nd our Wellness Day was held on the campus of Claremont McKenna College, located in Claremont, California, about an hour away from New Village. A huge crowd of 80 students and staff members traveled by school bus to attend the event, which was hosted by the Claremont McKenna Women’s cham-pionship Volleyball Team and held on Claremont’s (baseball} athletic fields.

The morning began with “training” – a 2-hour rotation through various fitness stations that provided the girls with the opportunity to have fun and sweat at the same time. Girls learned how to hit volleyballs and the strategy of the game, played soccer, and shot arrows with the Bow & Arrow College Team. For most of our girls it was the first time ever shooting an arrow, and it was quite empowering. William Tell, watch out!

The day also involved a delicious lunch at the college cafeteria, where the girls helped themselves to an array of foods and experienced first-hand the social life on campus. After multiple servings of ice cream and goodies, the day was topped off with a college tour of all five Claremont Colleges led by CMC students. During the hour-long walking tours, the girls learned all about college life, academ-ics, and social experiences.

The trip back home was quite inspiring; many girls were chatting about the excitement of applying to Claremont McKenna, how fun college life seemed to be, and how much they loved to shoot arrows. Overall, our Fun and Fit Wellness Day at Claremont McKenna was a huge success!

By Judee Fernandez

We are lucky to have an outstanding Board of Directors. So that you might get to know them, we hope to feature

one member in each issue. This issue features something that Mike Babcock has written. Mike, an

outstanding and innovative educator, is the former head of the Polytechnic School in Pasadena and a former

president of the Pasadena School Board. Brenda Freiberg

When this question arises in classroom discussion...as it often does...two things happen. A direct answer...Yes or No...and then the deadening feeling on the part of the teacher that the subject matter, about which he or she is presumably passionate, is of no intrinsic interest to the students. We can all recall cramming for tests and then promptly forgetting the material.

Sadly, in today’s climate where standardized test results are the coin of the realm, this question be-comes important. For many high school juniors and seniors, college admissions is such a scramble that we have created a cottage industry of “prep cours-es” with no aim other than generating high test scores. Exacerbating the problem, state and federal governments current-ly require an endless battery of tests beginning in the second grade. [One is reminded of the adage, “You can’t fatten a calf by weighing it”.]

New Village has a better idea. We use the Big Picture (BP) model whereby, instead of starting with an already formulated

curriculum, we begin by asking students “what are your interests?” With this as a starting point, students immediately feel some connection to what they are learn-ing. The BP philosophy of education has three core components: (1) learning must be based on the interests and goals of each student; (2) the student’s curriculum must be relevant to people and places that exist in the real world; and (3) the student’s abilities and achievement be measured by quality of his or her work.

Instead of the customary Friday “sit at a desk and take a test”, New Village

students show what they have learned by giving exhibitions, which entail considerable preparation and are given before an audience of teachers, fellow students, and often relatives and an occasional trustee. Exhibitions promote ques-tions, comments, and an overall deeper understand-ing of the subject matter.

Another essential ingredient at New Village is our Advisory System. Each student has a faculty member who acts as a mentor, teacher, and in many cases confidant, helping the student deal with some of the most challeng-ing life circumstances imaginable. The adviser also guides students through their internships, which are an integral part of the Big Picture curriculum.

If you haven’t done so already, we hope you will drop by and see for yourself what this remarkable school is doing to create a positive future for some of society’s most neglected young women.

Will This Be On the Test?

Graduation 2015

New Village Girls Academy147 North Occidental Blvd.Los Angeles, CA 90026

Many thanks to our contributors: Andrea Purcell, Judee Fernandez,

Anna Gumport, Melva Alvarez, Chelsea Lucktenberg, Julia,

Nekeea Castro, Jesse Thompson, Megan Freeman, Mike Babcock,

Brenda Freiberg, and Mary Beth West

Your support makes New Village possible.A gift can be made on our our website http://newvillagegirlsacademy.org Thank you!