As a senior at Fremont High School in South Los Angeles, it’s increasingly alarming how underfunded schools like mine are. Unfortunately, it has been a problem for decades. From the overcrowded class sizes to empty nurse and counselor offices, students are left feeling cheated and abandoned.
After a contending run with the Inglewood Sentinels football team, senior quarterback Jared Heywood will take his talents to the University of Rhode Island. He worked hard in order to graduate early while putting up a winning performance on the field.
Life presents challenges. Sometimes it may be difficult to “think outside the box.” However, we move forward and survey where we have been, how we evaluate life’s path…it takes meditation, thinking through what’s happened. Look at the highlights, the successes and things which may not have worked well as you would have preferred. Patience. Life isn’t a straight line. It’s more like a graft, ups and downs. In this retrospective, one may be tempted to compare one’s own life’s tracks with those of others. Be reminded, you have your personal gifts and talents which you should singularly compare with yourself, not others. Who are we admiring? It’s repeatedly proven that some, if not many of you may be admiring at a distance let you down morally, ethically and otherwise.
“As a mother and a former educator, I was extremely disappointed to learn that Kamilah Campbell’s SAT score is being challenged after she showed marked improvement in the second exam. It is my understanding that the first test that she took was a practice round for which she had not prepared. Before taking the second test, however, she spent a significant amount of time studying and took an SAT prep course. Her hard work and diligence paid off and she increased her score by about 300 points…
High school students can register now for the free SAT-prep workshop to be held Saturday, November 10, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., in the conference center at Kaiser Permanente Baldwin Hills-Crenshaw Medical Offices, 3782 W. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90008. The workshop provides instruction and tutoring for all sections. A 30-minute practice test will be held at 8:30 a.m.
There was no way to determine if a student passing one state’s standards was equivalent to a student’s level of accomplishment in another state.
The Children’s Defense Fund–California hosted its 25th Annual Beat the Odds™ Awards ceremony on December 3, at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills. The celebration honored five Los Angeles high school “stars” – David Cho, NiTasha Denson, Stephanie Gamino, David Sanchez, Vincent Zamarripa – in recognition of their excellence in academic achievement, despite the overwhelming obstacles that stand in their way.
A year ago, Matthew Durousseau was a quiet high school sophomore from South Central Los Angeles earning C’s and B’s on his report card. His protective single mother, Debbie Waggener, did most of the talking for him in conversations and never let him walk to the park or the movies by himself.