Category Archives: Learning

Riverside’s Completion Counts Program Increases Student Success

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(Includes excerpts from the article written by Dayna Straehley and published by the Press-Enterprise on June 7, 2013)

With the so-called Two-Year Contract for Alvord and Riverside high school students going to Riverside City College, the Completion Counts initiative has “solved an age-old problem,” the chancellor said.

“This is the biggest problem we have in American education,” Riverside Community College District Chancellor Gregory Gray said. “Students coming to college ill-prepared don’t make it.”

Students at Norte Vista High School gathered in their gymnasium in 2012 to learn about the citywide initiative as high school graduation approaches.

Students at Norte Vista High School gathered in their gymnasium in 2012 to learn about the citywide initiative.

Students coming to RCC on the Two-Year Contract, which began for students who started last fall, are better prepared than their peers from the same school districts, said Ed Bush, RCC’s vice president for student services. He presented the data to the college district’s Board of Trustees on Tuesday, June 4.

Twice as many students on the Two-Year Contract are placed in college-level English their first semester. Almost three times as many are placed in college-level math compared to freshman who started in 2011.

The contract students are also more successful completing coursework overall, Bush’s data shows.

The contract, created through Completion Counts, requires students to attend full-time and guarantees them priority access to the classes they need to earn associate’s degrees within two years.

Most other students start part time and do not take English or math their first three years, Bush said.

To be eligible for the contract, students also must take placement tests and place no lower than one level below college-level English and math.

Funded by a Gates Foundation Grant, Completion Counts has been an initiative with Alvord and Riverside Unified School Districts, RCC, the Riverside County Office of Education, the City of Riverside and Greater Riverside Chambers of Commerce. The goal is to raise both high school and college graduation rates in the city.

With the grant funding now in its third and final year, the college and school districts used the grant to change what they are doing so the improvement can continue after the money runs out, RCC President Cynthia Azari said. Shelagh Camak, RCC vice president for workforce and resource development, said those changes are firmly embedded in the way high schools and the college work.

The Two-Year Contract was the defining accomplishment of the Completion Counts effort, Camak said.

English and mathematics faculty from the college and high schools have been meeting to discuss expectations and aligning curriculum to prepare students, sharing statistics and other information that the college had never shared before, she said. Now high school teachers understand what will be expected when their students start college, the curriculum is better aligned and students are better prepared.

Riverside has come together around the need to promote higher education in our community and ensure that our students are able to take full advantage of the opportunities available at any of the institutions of higher education within our city. The two-year guarantee reflects the commitment to lifelong learning and a college-going culture in Riverside by ensuring that students achieve their academic goals through accessible and efficient means. 

To read the full article as written by Straehley, click here.

To learn more about the Completion Counts initiative and the Two-Year Guarantee, visit College311.org, or read more posts on the Completion Counts efforts and successes.

 

Students Unearth a Piece of Riverside’s History

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(Source: Riverside Unified School District)

As a city that honors and builds on its eclectic past, one special project gave a group of Riverside students the opportunity to unveil a piece Riverside’s history, as well as create their own story to be shared in 30 years.

Students at Victoria Elementary School made an exciting find on Friday, June 7, when they dug for buried treasure reported to be hidden on the Victoria Elementary School playground. They didn’t strike gold, exactly, but did find some baseball cards, a baseball, a booklet with predictions about the future and an old penny.

RUSD Time Capsule Contents

(image source: RUSD Facebook page)

The students found the items, left for them by the Class of 1981, by using instructions on a hand-printed treasure map. The time capsule was to be opened in 30 years – 2011 – but it got lost over the years. Luckily, school staff decided to embark on some spring cleaning and found an envelope containing detailed instructions on where and how to find the treasure in adrawer in the principals’ office. That led to a mission to find the missing capsule.

Victoria teachers decided to celebrate the unearthing of the 1981 time capsule by replacing it with one from today to be opened in 30 years.  Louise Berkley’s sixth grade class won the honor in a democratic drawing.  Each student wrote a paragraph about what the year 2043 would be like and what they might be up to. Most students wrote they wanted to be married with two children, Mrs. Berkley noted. Along with the laminated paragraphs and student photos went pictures of science camp and other fun Victoria events…all on a cd. Mrs. Berkley questioned if technology might not be so advanced by then that the students who find the time capsule would not know what to do with it.

(source: RUSD Facebook page)
(image source: RUSD Facebook page)

Eleven-year-old Bryce Meyer, one of the first to get a turn with the shovel to dig for the treasure, agreed.

“They’ll think we had zero technology,” he said, adding that he thought the project was “really cool and interesting.”

“This was such anexciting event for our students!  With their elementary school career ending, and their middle school life beginning, a time capsule really sums up their feelings this time of year,” explained Berkley. “One other significant result has been the exposure to ‘real-life’ archaeological digging, a huge part of our social studies curriculum in sixth grade since we study ancient civilizations. It’s truly been a unique opportunity for them, and for the Victoria community.”

To view more pictures from the event, visit the RUSD Facebook page.

Students Connect Core Values of Cesar Chavez to the ‘Real World’

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(As reported by Carrie Meng, Press-Enterprise Correspondent; June 1, 2013)

In April, sixth-graders at Riverside’s Madison Elementary School got an assignment unlike any other.

They were told to incorporate the 10 core values of Cesar Chavez, an American farm worker and civil rights leader, into original poems and photographs.

The project was part of a history lesson for the sixth-grade curriculum.

A youth arts exhibit featuring poems and photography from sixth-graders at Madison Elementary School is set for the Cesar Chavez Community Center on Monday, June 3, from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Students incorporated Cesar Chavez’s 10 core values into their work. (Photo by Carrie Meng; source: PE.com)

“They were able to connect the 10 core values with real world things,” said James Luna, a writing teacher who spearheaded the project. All sixth graders students could submit photos and poetry on the theme.

This was the first time students participated such an event, Luna said.

“They really tuned into his values and I’m really impressed,” he said.

The students also got a lesson in photography fundamentals from Carlos Puma, a Riverside photographer. They learned about topics such as positioning, lighting and story-telling moments.

“They were great, real sharp,” Puma said. “They asked a lot of questions and you could see they were picking up on what I was saying.”

The students used iPod touches issued by the elementary school to take the photos.

One sixth-grader, Giovanni Mejia, wrote a poem connecting the value of knowledge to libraries.

“I learned that you can never stop learning,” Giovanni said.

Another student, Grace Jung, said,

“trying new things are challenging, but they aren’t as hard as you think.”

The finished projects were part of a Youth Arts Exhibit at the Cesar Chavez Community Center on Monday, June 3 as part of Cesar Chavez Memorial Week, which leads to the unveiling of a Chavez monument in downtown Riverside on Saturday, June 8.

“It was a long time ago for students in elementary school today, but they need to be connected to and understand that period,” said Ley Yeager, a committee member who coordinated the exhibit.

Connecting the history and values of Cesar Chavez not only teaches students the heritage and diversity within this Unified City, but also fosters an appreciation for the adversity, determination and hard work that created the world they live in today through artistic expression.

To read the full article as published on PE.com, click here. To read a summary of the 10 Core Values of Cesar Chavez, click here.

Riverside’s STEM Academy Set to Expand

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Dayna Straehley, Press-Enterprise, recently reported that the Riverside Unified School District (RUSD) plans to expand the magnet school to attract 60 to 70 ninth-graders from throughout the district. Riverside’s STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Math) program is an example of the community’s commitment to innovative approaches to improve the quality of life for its residents. The following includes excerpts from Straehley’s article:

Abram Escobedo, 13, lets go of his balloon-powered car, during a science experiment, at the Riverside STEM Academy on Tuesday, May 14. the academy, now serving fifth through eighth grades, will expand to start high school next year on the lower campus of the former Hyatt Elementary School. Photo by Kurt Miller, PE staff photographer; source: Press-Enterprise.

The academy focusing on science, technology, engineering and math will start its high school with the new school year in late August on the lower campus of the academy, the former Hyatt Elementary School.

Principal Dale Moore said all ninth-graders will take chemistry because it is the basis for much of the physics and biology the students will take later in high school and will need if they want to major in STEM fields in college. They can take Advanced Placement biology later in high school, he said.

The academy has about 400 students now and expects almost 500 next year. It maintains a waiting list for each grade level.

Parents say their sons and daughters are more interested in school now that they attend the academy, partly because it’s a small school of motivated students – and because they get to do hands-on science activities and experiments every day.

To read the full article as published in the Press-Enterprise, click here.

UC Riverside Named as a ‘Next Generation University’

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Proving once again that Riverside is a catalyst for innovation, fueling the intelligent growth of the region, it was announced earlier this month that the University of California, Riverside is among six institutions hailed in a national study by the New America Foundation as a “Next Generation University” for success in enhancing student outcomes and maintaining robust research profiles despite economic pressures.

Photo by Carlos Puma; source: UCR Today.

Chosen for inclusion based on a statistical analysis of student outcomes, research productivity, and enrollment trends from the foundation, were: Arizona State University, Georgia State University, The University at Buffalo [SUNY], University of Texas at Arlington, University of Central Florida, and UC Riverside.

The study findings were revealed at the New America Foundation headquarters on Tuesday, May 21, during a daylong session that included panel discussions with higher education leaders.

“The current environment creates extreme pressures in higher education, and we want to hold up as examples universities that are embracing business efficiencies and creating clear and accelerated pathways for students,” said Jamie Merisotis, President and CEO, Lumina Foundation, one of the funders of the project.

According to Jeff Selingo, editor-at-large for the Chronicle of Higher Education, the project is meant to provide “a new playbook” for other public universities to consider, and provides information that can be used by policy-makers at the state and federal levels in discussion about the re-authorization of the Higher Education Act.

UC Riverside’s Interim Chancellor, Jane Close Conoley, was scheduled to speak on two panels during the event, one on the future of higher education; another about strategies for student success.

“Our faculty and staff own this,” Conoley said. “They are inspired by our first generation students.”

Specific campus programs that are working for students at UC Riverside include first-year learning communities, specific monitoring and academic support for students who are in danger of failing, and partnerships with the K–12 system and community colleges that create a pipeline for student success – and demonstrate the innovation in learning that Riversiders are collaboratively working to achieve in this location of choice.

Click here to read the full press release as published on UCR Today.

La Sierra University Alumnus To Be Inducted Into Baseball Hall of Fame

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(As reported by Darla Tucker, La Sierra University Newsroom)

This July, sports medicine legend and La Sierra University alumnus Frank Jobe will receive one of the highest honors a civilian can get from the professional sports world – a special recognition from the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y. during Hall of Fame Weekend 2013.

Sports medicine great Dr. Frank Jobe receives the La Sierra University Alumnus of the Year award from university President Randal Wisbey on April 19 with Jobe’s sons Meredith Jobe (left) and Chris Jobe standing by. (photo source: http://www.lasierra.edu)

But his first stop was La Sierra University where on Friday, April 19 he received an award as Alumnus of the Year during an Alumni weekend banquet held at the university’s Glory of God’s Grace sculpture plaza.

“Tonight we have the privilege of honoring him first,” said La Sierra University President Randal Wisbey in remarks prior to presenting Jobe with the crystal award.

“Our alumnus of the year’s impact on the game of baseball simply cannot be measured. And he never played an inning in the major leagues,” Wisbey said. In fact, Jobe changed baseball forever on Sept. 25, 1974, when he performed the first ever ulnar collateral ligament reconstruction surgery on the left elbow of a Los Angeles Dodger pitcher Tommy John. The procedure, now known as the “Tommy John” surgery, involved grafting a tendon from John’s forearm into his elbow to replace the ligament. John recovered and took his baseball career to new heights. Before Jobe operated on John, the pitcher had won 124 games in the big leagues. After the surgery, he won 164 games, and was able to play until age 46.

Since that groundbreaking achievement, Jobe has performed more than 1,000 Tommy John surgeries on pitchers of varying level and ability, and the procedure has prolonged or saved the careers of 150 professional baseball players. He later developed another revolutionary procedure, a shoulder reconstruction surgery that was first used to save the career of Dodger great Orel Hershiser.

Jobe graduated from La Sierra in 1949 with a Bachelor of Arts degree. He then studied medicine at Loma Linda’s College of Medical Evangelists, now Loma Linda University School of Medicine. In 1965, along with sports medicine physician Robert Kerlan, he founded the Kerlan-Jobe Orthopaedic Clinic which currently operates out of locations in Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, Pasadena, Anaheim, and Santa Monica.

Jobe spoke briefly to the audience of La Sierra alumni, family members, faculty and staff after they gave him a standing ovation. His son Meredith Jobe, daughter-in-law, Melanie Jobe, wife of Chris Jobe, and Jobe’s grandson, Kevin also all graduated from La Sierra. Jobe attributed his success in life to others, and he cited the life lessons he learned from La Sierra’s faculty during his college tenure.

“Those life lessons are probably more important than any book learning,” said Jobe. “They showed me how to live, how to be nice to people, how to take care of people. La Sierra has such a treasure in its faculty. I hope it’s never lost.”

As a ‘Location of Choice’ known for developing world-class athletes, it is a celebration for Riverside and a testament to the quality of education at La Sierra University, to honor an alumnus that has had such an incredible impact on the game of baseball and the field of sports medicine.

To read the full article as published by La Sierra University, click here.

Students Explain “Why College Completion Counts” in Scholarship Contest

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Completion Counts video scholarships are being awarded to 13 creative high school seniors from Alvord and Riverside high schools for producing imaginative videos to promote “why college completion counts.”

Completion Counts is Riverside’s collaborative endeavor to increase Riverside’s ability to be a Center for ‘Lifelong Learning for All‘ and to raise college graduation rates in the community. The partners are the City of Riverside, Riverside City College, the Alvord and Riverside unified school districts, Riverside County Office of Education, the University of California, Riverside, and the Greater Riverside Chambers of Commerce. The work of Completion Counts began in 2010 with a $3 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Poly High School student Mary Duarte won the Individual Grand Prize Scholarship of $1,000 for her “Top Ten Reasons You Should Get A College Degree” (contributed photo)

Poly High School student Mary Duarte won the Individual Grand Prize Scholarship of $1,000 for her “Top Ten Reasons You Should Get A College Degree” (contributed photo)

Poly High School student Mary Duarte won the Individual Grand Prize Scholarship of $1,000 for her “Top Ten Reasons You Should Get A College Degree,” given against a background promoting the Completion Counts www.College311.org website.

Other individual videomakers who are receiving $500 scholarships for promoting messages including the economic benefits of completing college, some using sports, arts, and career analogies to make their points, are Jedon Carter of North High School, Tanya Reyes of La Sierra High School, Katy Gutierrez of Norte Vista High School and Daisy Garcia of Norte Vista High School.

In the Group Video category, in which a cast and crew of up to three students could also compete for scholarships, the Grand Prize of $1,500 will go to Sara Emami and Emilie Abraham of La Sierra High School (who will each receive $750), with their video, “We Got This!”

Runners up in the Group Video category were a Ramona High School team of Fernando Banales-Mejia, Maria Rivera and Karen Figueroa; and a Poly High School team of Luis Torres, Rodrigo Lucatero and Matthew Beasley. Each of the group runners-up will receive a $250 scholarship award.

“We had some terrific qualifying submissions,” said Al Cardoza, Completion Counts’ Video Scholarship project manager. “Congratulations to the creative winners for finding fun new ways to promote the ‘college completion counts’ message!”

Winning videos will be uploaded the Completion Counts website and made available to the City of Riverside GTV  Channel 3.

“This scholarship is designed to start getting students thinking and talking about college. There are no essays, or a ‘straight-A’ average required – we’re simply looking for the best and most creative video perspective,” said Completion Counts Director Cindy Taylor at the contest launch in March.

The contest also invited participation in the www.careercruising.com free career assessment resource, which students can access with their student ID number, to get a better idea of courses of study for careers.

Career Cruising is one of many free education resources and links available to students and families through the www.college311.org website.

Eleven Riverside Students Receive Dell Scholarship Awards

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Riverside’s commitment to being a center for lifelong learning seems to be paying off. Recently eleven local seniors were notified that they had received a highly sought-after scholarship award from the Dell Scholarship Foundation.

Seven of the eleven Riverside students to receive the award were from Riverside’s Ramona High School – the second highest number of students from any one school in the nation. Each student will receive a $20,000 scholarship for college as well as a new Dell laptop and printer.

Riverside’s Ramona High School had seven Dell Scholars for 2013, the second most for one school in the country. Recipients are (top, from left) Marissa Huston, Tiffany Truong, Fernando Banales-Mejia, (bottom, left) Maria Hernandez, Karen Figueroa, Kathy Chu and Karla Venegas, pictured in their AVID classroom. (Contributed photo published on PE.com)

“Our school should be proud of the fact that we had the most winners in California and had the second most in the nation,” said Ramona counselor Mark Lim, who wrote recommendations for many of the 20 Ramona seniors who applied for the scholarship. “We were close to being No. 1, which speaks volumes about the caliber of our school and students.”

According to Oscar Sweeten-Lopez, the Dell Scholarship Foundation program director, there were 7,561 applicants and only 303 (4 percent) were awarded the Dell Scholarship. Alief Early College High School in Houston — with its first graduating class — had the highest Dell Scholars with eight.

“We are very impressed with Ramona,” said Sweeten-Lopez, who noted that Ramona has had 17 Dell Scholars since the scholarship program started in 2004. “The majority of our Ramona High Dell Scholars are attending top tier in-state and out-of-state private colleges or top UCs. I would venture that over 95 percent of our California Dell Scholars stay in state to attend a UC or CSU.”

“I’ve always felt our AVID program is one of the top ones in the nation, and this is validation of what we know is true,” said Ramona AVID coordinator Scott Lockman. The seven Dell Scholars are all in Ramona’s AVID program, which recently celebrated its 25th year.

A total of eleven recipients are from high schools in the city of Riverside. The seven Ramona seniors to receive the award were Fernando Banales-Mejia, Kathy Chu, Karen Figueroa, Maria Hernandez, Marissa Huston, Tiffany Truong and Karla Venegas. Mercedes Cornelius (La Sierra), Kathy Gutierrez (Norte Vista), Alicia Hernandez (J.W. North), and Vanessa Meteors (Arlington) were also awarded a Dell Scholarship.

To read more on the Riverside award recipients, click here.

For more information on the Dell Scholarship program, visit the official website at www.dellscholars.org.

Riverside Named One of Nation’s Happiest Cities for Young Professionals

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On April 24, 2013 Forbes published ‘The 10 Happiest Cities for Young Professionals” based on research conducted by online career site, CareerBliss.com. Proving once again that Riverside is indeed a ‘Location of Choice‘, the city earned an impressive 6th* place ranking, putting it in the company of San Jose, San Diego, Chicago and Washington D.C.

“The new generation of young professionals not only finds happiness at work important–they demand it,” says CareerBliss chief executive Heidi Golledge. “If a company wants to find and retain the best talent, they need to work on building a culture of happiness within their organization.”

(photo credit: Forbes.com)

To Riversiders, the ranking is probably not much of a surprise. Organizations such as The Pick Group have been working diligently over the past several years to grow and engage young professionals as leaders in the community. Through Seizing Our Destiny, an Education Roundtable was formed that brings leaders of Riverside’s primary and secondary schools and its four colleges and universities together specifically to create new approaches to ensuring that Riverside has extensive opportunities for lifelong learning. Riverside area chambers of commerce, nonprofits, youth organizations, businesses, government, faith-based and neighborhood groups have all made nurturing and supporting our young talent, and making Riverside a place they want to live, a top priority.

Read more here.

(*Note: The Forbes’ article content states Riverside’s rank as No. 7; however, the pictoral slide show of the Top 10 has Riverside tied for No. 6 with Philadelphia at a score of 3.84.)

Arlanza Group Recognized for Contributions to Community Health

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At the March 26, 2013 City Council meeting, the Mujeres Activas en la Salud (M.A.S., in English: Women Active in Health) were honored as the neighborhood success story for March.

MASM.A.S. was started in 2004 through a grant from the California Endowment as a way to foster communication between the Arlanza community about what services should be provided at the Arlanza Family Health Center. Since then the group has been working to create and promote a self-sufficient and healthy community through education, information, and training the community to improve and maintain the health and well-being of its residents.

M.A.S. host monthly meetings that are conducted in both English and Spanish and cover a different health topic from an industry expert. In addition to its leadership in health awareness and advocacy, M.A.S. has also provided a platform for community engagement and empowerment, and in 2006 received the Ward 6 “Neighborhoods that Work” Award.

Ward 6 Councilmember Nancy Hart congratulated the group on its success as well as thanking the Riverside Community Health Foundation for “expanding their reach and increasing the impact by helping residents work together [on community health issues].”

To watch the March 26, 2013 City Council recognition, click here.

To read more about M.A.S., click here.

For more information on M.A.S. or the Riverside Community Health Foundation, contact:

Gilbert Espinoza
Public Relations & Outreach Coordinator
Riverside Community Health Foundation
gilbert@rchf.org or 951.7883471
www.rchf.org